Alisha Rai is an American author of contemporary, erotic, and paranormal romance novels. She advocates for greater diversity in the romance genre.[1]

Alisha Rai
BornAlisha Rai
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
Genreerotic
paranormal
Website
www.alisharai.com

Career

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Prior to becoming a romance author, Rai worked as a lawyer.[1][2] She began publishing her work in 2009, focusing on e-publishing. She shopped her books to traditional publishers, but she was repeatedly told that romances with non-white characters would not sell.[3][4] Over her career, she expanded into different publishing methods.[5][6] Her Forbidden Hearts series and her novel The Right Swipe are published through Avon Romance.[7] Rai's book Serving Pleasure, was the first self-published book to appear on The Washington Post's annual list of best books of the year.[6]

Rai includes protagonists from a variety of ethnicities.[5][8][2] Her writing also explores the spectrum of sexual identity.[1]

Rai is a vocal participant in the discussion of misrepresentation and under representation of minorities in traditionally published romance.[1] During a racially charged dispute involving Romance Writers of America (RWA), Rai's comments on Twitter were widely quoted as a demonstration of the romance community's dissatisfaction with the organization. She was among a group of best-selling romance authors that demanded the resignation of Damon Suede, the RWA president-elect during the controversy.[9]

Rai has been on the receiving end of online harassment.[10]

Themes

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Rai's book The Right Swipe explores aspects of modern dating, specifically online dating and dating apps, along with the contentious research into the effect of concussions on athletes.[11] The book includes feminist and intersectional elements, with the heroine being a woman of color who is a CEO of a Silicon Valley company that employs a work force made up largely of women.[12][11]

Personal life

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Rai is Asian of Indian origin.[1][13][14]

Rai began creating stories at the age of 13.[2]

Bibliography

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Title Series Publication Year ISBN/ASIN
Glutton for Pleasure Pleasure Series #1 2009 B002GEDF2I
Cabin Fever 2009 9781605047539
Veiled Desire Veiled #1 2010 9781605048918
Veiled Seduction Veiled #2 2010 9781609280475
Never Have I Ever Reynolds Pack #1 2010 9781609283056
Hot as Hades 2011 9781609286286
Night Whispers ShadowLands #1 2012 9781609285449
Play With Me Bedroom Games #1 2013 9781301991358
Risk & Reward Bedroom Games #2 2013 9781301449187
Bet on Me Bedroom Games #3 2014 9781311537669
A Gentleman in the Street The Campbell Siblings #1 2014 9781514616956
Serving Pleasure Pleasure Series #2 2015 9781518710100
Falling for Him The Karimi Siblings #1 2015 B00WTWI44G
Falling for Her The Karimi Siblings #2 2015 B012X78XSS
Be My Fantasy The Fantasy Series #1 2016 9781548839314
Stay My Fantasy The Fantasy Series #2 2016 B01H2PFGYK
Hate to Want You Forbidden Hearts #1 2017 9780062566737
Wrong to Need You Forbidden Hearts #2 2017 9780062566751
Hurts to Love You Forbidden Hearts #3 2018 9780062566775
The Right Swipe Modern Love #1 2019 9780062878090
Girl Gone Viral Modern Love #2 2020 9780062877888
First Comes Like Modern Love #3 2021 9780063059436
Partners in Crime 2022 9780063119468
While You Were Dreaming 2023 9780063083967

Awards

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  • 2015 - Serving Pleasure - Washington Post Best Romance Novels of 2015[15]
  • 2017 - Hate to Want You - Entertainment Weekly's 10 best romance novels of 2017[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Beckett, Lois (April 4, 2019). "Fifty Shades of White: the long fight against racism in romance novels". The Guardian. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Luther, Jessica (Nov 6, 2017). "Getting Steamy with Author Alisha Rai". Shondaland. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  3. ^ Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (April 8, 2018). "The Billion-Dollar Romance Fiction Industry has a Diversity Problem". NPR. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  4. ^ Ho, Solarina (January 16, 2020). "Romance book industry in turmoil over racism controversy". CTV News. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Faircloth, Kelly (November 22, 2017). "Author Alisha Rai Discusses Writing Romance Novels in a Very Rough Year". Jezebel. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Charles, Ron (November 26, 2015). "Romance finally breaks The Post's 'No Self-Published Books' rule". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  7. ^ "Alisha Rai". Avon Romance. 2019. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  8. ^ Alter, Alexandra (July 7, 2018). "The Changing Face of Romance". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  9. ^ Lenker, Maureen Lee (January 6, 2020). "Romance Writers of America cancels annual RITA awards contest amid racism controversy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  10. ^ Carpenter, Julia (June 25, 2019). "Romance Novelists Write About Sex and Pleasure. On the Internet That Makes Them Targets for Abuse". Glamour. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  11. ^ a b Diehl, Amanda (August 5, 2019). "Burned Out By Dating Apps? 'The Right Swipe' Will Relight Your Fire". NPR. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  12. ^ Green, Jaime (May 28, 2019). "Four Delicious New Romance Novels". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  13. ^ Bhalerao, Anandita (November 7, 2019). "Verve Weekend Guide". Verve. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  14. ^ Washington, Roxanne (December 20, 2019). "Belonging Books seeks to diversify the romance novel genre, as do other publishers and authors". Cleveland.com. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  15. ^ MacLean, Sarah (November 18, 2015). "Best romance novels of 2015". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  16. ^ Lenker, Maureen Lee (December 18, 2017). "The 10 best romance novels of 2017". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
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