Counting Courtney Milan

Last fall/winter there was a hullabaloo that ripped Romance Writers of America (RWA) asunder. I will flub things if I try to explain it here, so I won’t, but feel free to check out this article on Jezebel or this post from Smart Bitches. Basically, Courtney Milan, herself a woman of color, pointed out racism in a novel and the author of that novel filed a complaint for being called out. In response, RWA suspended Milan for a year and banned her from future RWA leadership positions. 

I read Courtney Milan’s response to the Ethics Committee regarding the complaint and was duly impressed. That woman can turn the shit out of a phrase, I tell you. 

I realized at some point that I’d bought one of her novels at some point and hadn’t read it yet, so I found it and started reading it. I went on a long car trip when I wasn’t finished and couldn’t bear to wait until I got home, so I downloaded the audiobook for the ride. That was The Duchess War and I quickly listened to Courtney Milan’s entire backlist. Except one because the narrator was terrible, but I’ll get to that when I do reviews on the individual series. 

I’m counting the ways I love Courtney Milan. I love her prose. I love the depth of her characters. I love the community you can feel in her books. But I think it’s her choice of theme and subject matter is what has made her my favorite author. 

Here is an in-exhaustive list of things about Milan’s books that go right to the squishy part of my soul:

• Transgender protagonist (Hold Me) 
• Fertility
• Imposter syndrome
• Illiteracy
• Domestic violence
• Voting rights
• Abandonment
• Depression
• Justice system
• Healing properties of dogs
• Child abuse/childhood trauma
• Same sex relationships
• Societal shaming
• Imperialism
• Perspective of the ones who don’t get to write the history books