Vanessa Riley

Vanessa Riley is an American novelist of Caribbean Descent of historical fiction, romance fiction, and mystery fiction.

Early life and education

Riley's mother encouraged her to read the works of Jane Austen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.^[1] Riley earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She started reading romance fiction when she was at Stanford.^[2][3] She lives in Atlanta.^[4]

Career

Novels

Riley writes multicultural romance,^[5][6][2] including some of the Regency romance genre.^[1]

Her early works were published digitally. Her print debut novel, A Duke, The Lady, and a Baby (2020), was inspired by the film The First Wives Club (1996).^[1]

Island Queen, published in 2021, is a novel of historical fiction about enslaved-turned-landowner Dorothy "Doll" Kirwan Thomas, set in the Caribbean in the early 1800s. It was optioned for film by Julie Anne Robinson through her company Longboat Pictures at the manuscript stage, and will be executive produced by British actress Adjoa Andoh.^[7]

Other writing

Riley has also written for The Washington Post.^[8]

Critical reception

Riley's books Sister Mother Warrior (2022); The Duke, The Lady, and a Baby (2020); An Earl, the Girl, and a Toddler (2021); and A Duke, the Spy, an Artist, and a Lie (2022) have received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} Publishers Weekly called A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby a "bewitching Regency series opener".^[11] It criticized An Earl, the Girl, and a Toddler for its "choppy writing" that "slightly undermines the otherwise riveting romance".^[5] Publishers Weekly wrote of the final book in the Rogues and Remarkable Women series, "Riley masterfully plays up the will-they-won’t-they between husband and wife as the emotionally charged romance twists to its conclusion. This sends out the series on a high note."^[12]

Library Journal called Sister Mother Warrior a "sweeping, powerful historical novel based on two remarkable real women".^[13] Her mystery debut, Murder in Westminster (2022), was reviewed positively by Publishers Weekly, which wrote, "Riley offers a vibrant picture of the roles Black and mixed-race people played in Regency life," though Publishers also noted, "the backstory introducing series characters sometimes feels clumsy and the modern language can be distracting".^[6] Carole V. Bell of The New York Times wrote positively of Island Queen: "Though Dorothy’s life is extraordinary, the reason her triumphs and stumbles hit so hard is that Riley does a brilliant job of connecting those events to something bigger... Evocative and immersive, Riley’s narrative bears that weight with grace."^[14]

Selected works

• Unmasked Heart: A Regency Romance. Gallium Optronics, 2016.^[15]
• Island Queen. William Morrow, 2021.^{[16][17][18][14]}
• Sister Mother Warrior. William Morrow, 2022.^[9][13]

Lady Worthington mysteries

• Murder in Westminster. Kensington, 2022.^[6][19][20]

Rogues and Remarkable Women series

• The Duke, the Lady, and a Baby. Zebra, 2020.^[11][21][1]
• An Earl, the Girl, and a Toddler. Zebra, 2021.^[5][10][22]
• A Duke, the Spy, an Artist, and a Lie. Zebra, 2022.^{[12][23][24][25]}