Individual Books and Series

Please note some books are steamy romances for adults and some are young adult for all ages.

Butterflies & Characters

Contemporary, sweet Young Adult own voices romance

Fifteen-year-old Rayanne Ericson has been having strange health problems: swollen hands, aching knees, and a rash across her face that looks like a butterfly. When she visits her dad in Ann Arbor at the end of summer, she’s admitted to the University of Michigan with a diagnosis of lupus, a brand-new word to her. Although she lives with her mom in Coastal Georgia, she agrees to stay with her dad for a semester. She’ll have access to better healthcare, and she doesn’t want to give up an opportunity to live with the dad she barely knows.

Geeky, rising senior Charles Wong is a competitive pianist and robotics club champion who’s never had a girlfriend. He’s known Ray her whole life—his mom and her dad are best friends, and seeing her so sick is frightening. The new sadness to her penetrating blue eyes pulls Charles to Ray in the weeks before school in attempts to draw out her disarming smile.

There is a growing appeal to Charles, who can generate laughter on even Ray’s worst days—days she can no longer run or draw, her two favorite things, because her joints are too inflamed. Yet Charles is pegged to be this year’s valedictorian and is striving to get into Caltech, one of the most competitive schools in the country. Ray starts to wonder, even if her feelings are reciprocated, if she’ll ever be anything but a distraction. As she pushes back her plans to return home, she must learn to manage her unpredictable illness as their growing attraction becomes impossible to ignore.

Reviews:

"An affecting, if slow-paced, tale that sheds light on a difficult condition." -- Kirkus Reviews

"TENDER ROMANCE & CHRONIC ILLNESS --Liz Hsu writes compelling romantic fiction about young women with lupus and their journey to health and love. She herself has the autoimmune illness and draws from her own challenging yet inspiring experiences." Literary Redhead Book Blog

"As you read this engrossing novel, you will appreciate that the author has lupus, just as Ray does. This gives an overall feel of authenticity and weight to the emotion of the story. I really like Ray's spunky personality, and the dynamics of the relationships she has with the other characters, from her mother to her father, but especially with Charles, who is a breath of fresh air. His intelligence and talents, combined with Ray's strengths and personality traits, make for a dynamic couple. You find yourself rooting for them, and you want the best for Ray. The drama is well-constructed, with perfect pacing and a plot that pulls you so far in that you have to know how it turns out for everyone. I especially like how Liz covered lupus in the story, educating readers along the way. As for the dialogue, it's natural, and the multiple POVs work very well. Butterflies & Characters by Liz Hsu is a must-read for YA romance fans looking for depth and heart." Tammy Ruggles, Readers' Favorite Five Star Review

"As This is an #OwnVoices for chronic illness representation YA novel. It's the kind of book that teenagers with chronic illness need in their lives. It shows that yes life changes when you get diagnosed with a chronic illness but that it doesn't have to mean that you are no longer you. Doesn't mean that you no longer have the same needs and wants. And importantly shows that chronic illness doesn't mean you shouldn't get a cute love story with a hopeful ending.
The illness representation was fantastic. The feelings that Rayanne and her family experienced re such felt authentic and sincere. " A Little Haze Book Blog

The Vampire Inside Me

Contemporary, steamy own voices romance

At twenty-one, Lucia Farris is graduating college and looking ahead to graduate school, believing her future to be bright and secure. But life comes to a painful halt when she is admitted to the hospital and rushed to several emergency surgeries. The doctors diagnose her with two new autoimmune diseases: pulmonary arterial hypertension and lupus.

Lucia doesn’t know what to expect, but she knows her life is forever changed—nothing she’s diagnosed with is curable, not that her life expectancy is more than six months, anyway. Her dreams, including working at the International Monetary Fund, seem grounded for good.

In the present, told in an alternating timeline three years later, Lucia is lucky to be alive, but life will never be what it was. Yet, when she meets Oskar, an Austrian graduate student, her body is painfully aware of her reaction to him (and how long it’s been since she hit her last O). From date one, sparks fly. When lips meeting becomes hips meeting, both find their bodies as dangerously compatible as their minds.

As feelings shift toward more, Lucia’s all too aware that her disease was “too much” for boyfriends in the past. And Oskar doesn’t plan to stay in Atlanta forever. Still, there’s a pull they just can’t resist.

Reviews:

"In this book the main character Lucia has to navigate a life changing diagnosis at 21 that forces her to give up on her dream job, that prevents her from being the person she once was... and it's incredibly well written. I don't think anyone who hasn't gone through illness could write this effectively. There are moments in the novel that completely floored me because I knew exactly what Lucia was going through because I've been through similar. I think for any reader who wants to understand what it means to be chronically ill this book is hugely eye opening. And if you, like Lucia and myself, are chronically ill then you will see aspects of your life on the page and it will make you feel seen. Feel authentically represented in literature." Emer, A Little Haze's Book Blog

"If you love intelligent romances, if you love medical fiction, you must read THE VAMPIRE INSIDE ME. Or miss out on an author I predict will be as beloved as Jojo Moyes. Available now." Literary Redhead

"The Vampire Inside Me by Liz Hsu is a fantastic and highly cerebral book. I had a humbling experience reading this novel and connected even deeper after reading Liz's blurb [...] Liz is a skilled storyteller who wrote from the heart. She took an otherwise heartbreaking story and showed the positives." Jennifer Ibiam, Readers' Favorite Five-Star Review

In progress…

New Adult Fantasy-Romance

Life has gotten in the way, and editing has halted for too many months, but I hope to get back to editing in the Fall of 2023, with publishing details to follow. One of my mom’s final requests was to read this book series one more time, so it WILL eventually get done.

At almost eighteen Adrianna’s life should be straightforward. But in a world where magic is mostly revered, as a half-elf, whose Father and Fatherland loathe her and magic, nothing ever has been.

For nearly a decade she has had the privilege, through a betrothal-contact, of being a ward of the Baashir’s in neighboring mage-friendly Novak. While Krishna, their only son, is her best friend, he’s never given her flutters. And if she’s honest with herself, someone impossible does. Still, their marriage is essential. It will maintain her father’s military presence at the Baashir estate on the country’s increasingly hostile northern border, and she’ll be able to stay a student at the Novkian Academy of Magical Studies. Visions, shapeshifting, and healing aren’t something she does—they’re her whole life, as is Novak. Sure, overextending one’s magic can have harsh consequences—like the nosebleeds, headaches, blackouts, and harsher consequences she gets all too frequently. But life without magic? Unthinkable. Her decision should be easy…

When Hinsakas—necromancers, who kill mages to steal their powers—began hunting in Novak, further endangering the kingdom, marriage is suddenly not Adrianna’s only concern, even as time slips through her fingers. People in her city are dying, and there’s nothing she won’t do to protect the people she loves. As this threat takes an ever-greater toll, Adrianna begins to realize her best could be fatal…and will it be enough?