Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This is the time when we celebrate Asians and Pacific Islanders (Polynesian) and their many achievements, their history, and their many contributions to the world. You may look at this list and think to yourself, “Gigi, a lot of these books are not by AMERICAN authors!”
I did that on purpose because there is no other time around the world in which Asians or Polynesians across the vast diaspora are celebrated as loudly. I always use this time to uplift all Asians and Pacific Islanders, not just American ones.
With that in mind, here are ten excellent books by both Asian and Pacific Island authors. I hope you enjoy them!
1. Chomp Chomp by Azalea Crowley
Lily Warren is an old-fashioned gal, so imagine her surprise when a video dating service introduces her to the man of her dreams. Ricky Andrews is young, handsome, and most importantly, available! However, mysterious sightings of cryptids threaten to ruin Lily’s picture-perfect date.
2. Wishing You Well This Christmas by L.M. Juniper
Some goodbyes are acts of love.
Nai has built a life that looks a home, children, and a carefully curated public persona followed by millions.
But what she hasn’t felt in years is love the way she remembers it.
On Christmas Eve, surrounded by warmth and noise, Nai is drawn back into memories of the woman she once loved and the future they never lived. As the night unfolds, she’s forced to confront the truth of what was lost and what may still be waiting beneath the surface.
An emotionally rich holiday short about chosen family, yearning, and the versions of ourselves that never entirely let go.
Perfect for readers who love light magic elements, second chances, and stories that stay with them long after the last page.
3. Farzana’s Spite by Felix Graves
Life is about as good as it gets for an anxious and depressed bastard stripped of any social benefits of her caste. Farzana has a cushy job, a wonderful best friend, and a mother and younger brother who love her to bits. Then the faerie who abandoned her mother before she was born—the father she always hoped to meet—returns, brutally murders the royal family, and seizes the crown for himself. That comfortable life? Shattered.
Slowly but inevitably, both the country and Farzana’s life are dragged into a terrifying and lethal storm of chaos. If someone doesn’t step up soon to set things right, there won’t be much left worth saving.
Farzana’s Spite is a queer dark fantasy featuring a diverse cast doing their best to stay alive during a traumatic and tumultuous period. A blend of tragedy, romance, and mystery, this story was written for anyone ever made to believe they were broken beyond repair, and needs a story to kill that thought once and for all.
4. Midnight Fights by Diwata Woods
5. Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau
A baker provides the sweetest escape for an actor in this charming romantic comedy.
\Actor Ryan Kwok is back in Toronto after the promotional tour for his latest film, a rom-com that is getting less-than-stellar reviews. After the sudden death of his mother and years of constant work, Ryan is taking some much-needed time off. But as he tries to be supportive to his family, he struggles with his loss and doesn’t know how to talk to his dad—who now trolls him on Twitter instead of meeting him for dim sum.
Innovative baker Lindsay McLeod meets Ryan when he knocks over two dozen specialty donuts at her bakery. Their relationship is off to a messy start, but there’s no denying their immediate attraction. When Ryan signs up for a celebrity episode of Baking Fail, he asks Lindsay to teach him how to bake and she agrees.
As Lindsay and Ryan spend time together, bonding over grief and bubble tea, it starts to feel like they’re cooking up something sweeter than cupcakes in the kitchen.
6. Loud by Drew Afualo
Drew Afualo is best known as the internet’s “Crusader for Women” and is at the head of a new generation of entertainment’s rising stars. Loud is part manual, part manifesto, and part memoir. It makes it clear that behind her fearsome laugh is a mission and a life philosophy, a strategy for self-confidence from the inside out, and a pathway to once and for all remove men from the center of how women and femmes think about themselves.
Afualo has amassed more than nine million followers across her social platforms. When she first started creating content in 2020, she realized that men on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and other apps were creating sexist content aimed at disparaging women, and also containing rampant fatphobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, with very real-life consequences. It didn’t take long for her to step into the role of unofficial watchdog for misogyny, and her signature laugh is now recognized as a feminist call to arms, a summoning cry to rid the internet (and our hearts, minds, and lives) of “terrible men” and create a space to fight outdated patriarchal ideals.
7. Tame Your Heart by Tracey Alvarez
Loving your enemy is harder than you’d think…
Tui Ngata loathes the Griffin family after a wildfire tore through her family farm seventeen years ago and her father was accused of starting it. While on vacation in a tropical paradise she’s able to forget the bone-deep feud with her neighbors and find one night of pleasure in the arms of a handsome stranger. Until she finds out this stranger isn’t who she thought he was…
After his uncle died in the tragic fire that destroyed hundreds of acres of his family farm, Architect Kyle Griffin has made a life for himself far away from Bounty Bay. But he’s drawn back, forced into sorting out the mess and drama his Grandfather’s death has left behind. The distraction is hopefully one way to forget the beautiful woman who’s haunted his every waking moment since the end of his vacation. Except he can’t forget her, especially when he discovers the lasting consequences which will forever unwillingly bind them together.
But someone doesn’t want Kyle and Tui falling in love. And that someone is willing to raze their lives to ashes to prevent them fraternizing with the enemy.
8. Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
He’s the bad-boy biker. She’s the good girl working in her family’s Indian restaurant. On the surface, nothing about Trucker Carrigan and Pinky Grover’s instant, incendiary, attraction makes sense. But when they peel away the layers and the assumptions—and their clothes—everything falls into place. The need. The want. The light. The laughter. They have more in common than they ever could’ve guessed. Is it enough? They won’t know until they take a chance on each other—and on love.
9. Scarlet Lies by Lani Wendt Young
Lies are beautiful – when the truth hurts.
Sixteen years ago, Scarlet’s family sent her away in disgrace. She’s been back once – with disastrous consequences. Now, her little sister is getting married and Scarlet’s headed home once more. Will this be the reunion she’s always longed for? Or will the lies of her childhood entangle her once more in their beautiful embrace?
She has a nightmarish fear of flying and she’s escorting her sister’s wedding dress through three different time zones. He’s the tall, dark and handsome stranger that gets in her way… What happens when Scarlet has to go home to be bridesmaid to her least favorite little sister, (who loves to remind everyone she’s a former beauty Queen EVERY OTHER MINUTE?) Can she survive three weeks of tropical heat and mosquitos, droves of busybody relatives all wanting to tell her WHY she’s still single as she endures the wedding from hell? Six hundred guests, three wedding dresses, twenty-four cake tiers, fifteen bridesmaids, a mother on a mission to makeover her daughter who ‘lacks ambition,’ and ONE deliciously divine man who alternately renders her speechless then drives her to outrage – all add up to a recipe for disaster. Or does it?
More than ‘just a romance’, this poignant story about the tangled connections between mothers, daughters and sisters – speaks with compelling insight and humor, of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.
10. The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen
The war between Aixauh and Inabri ended. The heroes have won, what now?
A decade after the war that resulted in the death of someone important to them both, the Aixauhan Alchemist Cai-Li Ying seeks out to rekindle their relationship with her estranged lover, the Inabrian Oracle, Anne Barberry.
However, a lot has changed in the past decade. Anne barricades herself in the Castle on a hill where her family‘s dark secrets lie. Chely has gained the reputation of being the Blood Hawk, who dabbles in dark magic, much to Anne’s disgust. Rumors has it that Anne herself is responsible for the disappearance of visitors who went to the Castle.
Other things are happening as the two witches reunite. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. People they know from the war come and go. Scars left by the war does not easily fade. Are they truly each other‘s salvation, or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?
This is a story about grief, loss, generational trauma and cycle of war.
Sometimes, true love is not the answer.
I hope that you loved the list! I hope you found some new books to add to your TBR! Did I miss an author? Do you have any suggestions? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
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