Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book about a forbidden romance.



Ahhhh I love a forbidden romance!!! The last one I read was A Pho Love Story, which was the sweetest (and also made me hungry). Maybe next year I'll pick up These Violent Delights, which is billed as a Romeo & Juliet retelling. (Hopefully it's more romantic than Romeo & Juliet, which was not a romance at all.)


Listopia list is Here: A book about a fordidden romance

These Violent Delights is a great idea for this prompt!!


Nadine in NY wrote: "A book about a forbidden romance.



Ahhhh I love a forbidden romance!!! The last one I read was A Pho Love Story, which was the sweetest (and also made me hungry). Maybe next year ..."

I was also thinking of Ramón and Julieta

West Side Love Story by Priscilla Oliveras is a retelling of West Side Story and/or Romeo and Juliet but with dueling Mariachi Bands set in San Antonio, Texas. It's fun and different, if you're a fan of romance.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Works for this and is awesome - he is the product of a forbidden romance in his place of birth.

I loved The Winner's Curse so that has my vote :)

The Midnight Lie also works and is wlw!

Elsa wrote: "I loved The Winner's Curse so that has my vote :)

The Midnight Lie also works and is wlw!"


I forgot about those two series!! And I still need to read The Hollow Heart (book 2 of the Midnight Lie series). Thanks for the reminder.

Trying to think of some nonfiction.

The one that I do have in my collection is To Selena, With Love . This one certainly can work, I would think, because Selena's father did not support her relationship to Chris.

I think a lot of LGBT historical fiction would work for this too.

Ellie wrote: "I think a lot of LGBT historical fiction would work for this too."
Definitely!

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro for some fantasy! I don't know why both the movie and book appealed to me so much, but they do!

For me, it's going to be An Arrow to the Moon which is a Romeo and Juliet retelling.

What about Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese?

Denise wrote: "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Works for this and is awesome - he is the product of a forbidden romance in his place of birth."


Love this interpretation for the prompt, especially for those of us who aren't huge into reading romance novels. I loved this book!

Ron wrote: "Trying to think of some nonfiction.

The one that I do have in my collection is To Selena, With Love . This one certainly can work, I would think, because Selena's father did not s..."

Yay I was trying to fit this one in for 2022 but couldn't so I'm excited you suggested this - I don't think I would have thought about her father's lack of support as "forbidding." Thank you!

I can't recommend enough Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis - historical LGBT fiction and is one of my top reads from this year!!!!

Kelly wrote: Yay I was trying to fit this one in for 2022 but couldn't so I'm excited you suggested this - I don't think I would have thought about her father's lack of support as "forbidding." Thank you!

Absolutely welcome.

Kelly wrote: "I can't recommend enough Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis - historical LGBT fiction and is one of my top reads from this year!!!!"

Thank you! I was looking for a spot for this book!

Angie wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I can't recommend enough Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis - historical LGBT fiction and is one of my top reads from this year!!!!"

Thank you! I was looking for a spot for this book!"

It actually fits a bunch of the prompts so you can be flexible with it, but I definitely hope you read it no matter what! Such an amazing book!

Does Atonement fit this category? Otherwise I will read Jane Eyre.

Amy S. Griffith wrote: "What about Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese?"

I think it would because at that time, it probably wouldn't have been acceptable. But it's hard to say without actually knowing what happens in the book.

JoJo wrote: "Does Atonement fit this category? Otherwise I will read Jane Eyre."

I don't remember it being a forbidden romance, but if you find another category to fit in, it's a very good book.

Fannie wrote: "JoJo wrote: "Does Atonement fit this category? Otherwise I will read Jane Eyre."

I don't remember it being a forbidden romance, but if you find another category to fit in,..."

Ok. Thank you. I saw Holes in the listopia. I'm going to read that instead. I can put Atonement under the bought from an independent bookstore category instead.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak includes a forbidden romance but isn't a traditional romance novel if anyone is looking for such a thing.

Denise wrote: "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Works for this and is awesome - he is the product of a forbidden romance in his place of birth."

Perfect! I'm missing Trevor since finished his stint at The Daily Show.

I will give this one a try. So, I chose the book that Nadine read the last one A Pho Love Story:)

Having Lolita and Flowers in the Attic on the list is giving me the heebies.

I found one! Also a murder mystery + fantasy: Paladin's Grace

Figure of Speech

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

Shift by Ginger Scott is about a girl falling for her older brother's best friend, would that fit?

Also, Regretting You by Colleen Hoover has several

I will never recommend The Charm Offensive enough, and it works perfectly here!

I might go with Twisted Games for a princess/bodyguard romance, but - unpopular opinion - i was not a fan of the first book so I dont know.

I might stretch this as a "brother's best friend" type thing.

It just occurred to me that Tokyo Ever After and the sequel Tokyo Dreaming would fit. The main character's romance is a princess/bodyguard romance, but also her parents' love story has that forbidden element, too.

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig includes forbidden relationships. It's a YA fantasy retelling of "Twelve Dancing Princesses."

Another good one is Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. The main characters are high school classmates in San Francisco—a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl, in the early days of World War II. Japanese citizens were being persecuted and rounded up at that time. (I read this one a couple of years ago when the challenge was bitter, sweet, salty, or sour in the title.)

Kayla (booksandlala) had me interested in Forbidden ever since I started watching her on youtube - now might finally be its time!!

Liza wrote: "Having Lolita and Flowers in the Attic on the list is giving me the heebies."

Yes, I originally had My Dark Vanessa on my list of possibilities but after reading it I am not comfortable characterizing that relationship as a romance. But I guess if people are focusing more on the forbidden aspect then those three books would fit.

Here are some queer classics:


And one that mimics a queer classic:


There are definitely more, but those are the ones that come to mind

Christina wrote: "Kayla (booksandlala) had me interested in Forbidden ever since I started watching her on youtube - now might finally be its time!!"


Could this be considered a retelling of Flowers in the Attic?

Kelly wrote: "Ron wrote: "Trying to think of some nonfiction.

The one that I do have in my collection is To Selena, With Love . This one certainly can work, I would think, because Selena's fath..."

It's more than that. Under South African law different "castes" were not allowed to have relations, so his birth is literally illegal. A big part of what shaped his childhood was that he had to be ignored by his parents in public sometimes.

In a similar vein, I just read The God of Small Things. It's historical literary fiction (I would never classify it as a romance), but one of the main inciting incidents is a relationship between an untouchable and a touchable in 1960s India.

I am reading Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. From the blurb, I gathered that the protagonist, Esther's forbidden love with her best friend is discussed and, instead of participating in a marriage arranged by her father, she runs. I think this book qualifies for this prompt.

I dislike romance novels but I do like horror and thrillers so I chose Tampa. It was a lot better than I thought it would be and ended up delivering a powerful message about society.

My Dark Vanessa was my choice for this and boy, was it deeply disturbing. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll get the "ick" out for a while.

I wasn't at all sure what I was going to read for this prompt. I'm not a romance book girlie, so I was crossing my fingers for a mystery book to have a forbidden romance as somebody's motive. In a twist, the book I just finished is neither a romance nor a murder mystery: Squad is a graphic novel about a Mean Girls-esque clique and one of their rules is No Boyfriends. And yet the leader of the pack has one anyway. Check, and done.

I'm going with A Pho Love Story for this prompt!

I read The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton.

I read this originally for ATY, but have swapped over. I seem to be changing my mind a lot on plans this year.

The book is set in Amsterdam in the early C18th, and is a sequel to a book I loved, The Miniaturist.

Her family are trying to arrange a suitable match for the MC, but she has fallen in love with someone they would certainly deem unsuitable. The family want to make a match with social status for the MC, for reasons connected with two forbidden love stories that occur in The Miniaturist. The MC is the result of one of those love affairs.

I enjoyed this book; the atmosphere of the times is done well, but I felt that it wasn't until near the end that the book captured the magic of its predecessor.

I read Simple Passion, it's about the romance between a married man and a young woman.

MERCY by Sara Cate

reverse age gap, female D& male S

Thank me later!

Kelly wrote: "Denise wrote: "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Works for this and is awesome - he is the product of a forbidden romance in his place of birth."


Love this inte..."

I love this too. I'm reading it for the second time and I knew I would when I finish the 1st time. There's just so much into this it almost seems like it should be fiction and unfortunately it's not.

In the Country of Others is a historical fiction by Leïla Slimani set in Morocco in the 1940s and 1950s. It is the story of French Catholic woman Mathilda who falls in love with the handsome Muslim Moroccan soldier Amine during the war and returns to Morocco with him seeking romance and adventure. Here is my review

Choosing Star Wars: Attack of the Clones for this.