Review: "Make Room for Love" by Darcy Liao
A Delightful Roommates to Lovers with Good Transfemme and Butch Representation
I’m on the record here, on my socials, and in person with my desire for more contemporary sapphic romance with transfemme leads. As much as I enjoy romances with cis female leads (i.e. the majority of them), I need to see more people like myself in the genre. Lucky for me, then, that Darcy Liao just published Make Room for Love, a roommates to lovers romance featuring a transfemme lead falling in love with her butch roommate. I was even more lucky that I was sent an ARC of the novel from Darcy.
Mira is a Classics graduate student in New York City who’s struggling to get by and currently sleeping on her best friend’s couch after a rough breakup. When she’s harassed by her ex-boyfriend on a night out, she meets Isabel, a big strong union electrician who springs to her defense. Beneath that tough exterior, though, Isabel is struggling with the death of her older sister, taking care of her parents, the guilt from hurting her younger sister’s feelings, and a recent break-up. When Isabel finds out that Mira needs a place to stay, she doesn’t hesitate in offering Mira the extra room in her apartment. Little does she know, though, that being roommates with Mira will soon mean the collapse of all her carefully constructed walls. For Mira, rooming with Isabel will also mean big changes, like the realization that she is not as straight as she thought she was.
I really liked both Mira and Isabel. As a transgender woman who has lived the graduate student life, I obviously related more to Mira at the outset. I found her struggle to take up space and fight for what she wants very relatable and, for the most part, well done. I really connected with the pain she felt at how her ex-boyfriend treated her and the scars of insecurity she carries into the story from that. It made her journey towards finding her inner strength an absolute delight to read. I also very much appreciated how her transness intersected with her sexuality. I feel like every trans lesbian, including myself, has struggled with the, “do I want to be her or do I want to be with her? Am I attracted to her, or is it just gender envy?” dilemma.
When it comes to Isabel, there is just something about a big strong butch who just wants to take care of you that is absolutely swoon-worthy. I can’t tell you how many times she said something to Mira or thought something about Mira that made my heart flutter. At the same time, I appreciated how the story problematized Isabel’s instinctual need to take care of people. Just as Isabel did things that made my heart flutter, she also did things to Mira that felt overbearing. I liked seeing this because it gave her character some real depth beyond “strong butch protector” and created a powerful story of learning to not hide behind being everything to everyone and to allow yourself to be vulnerable.
Not only did I like Isabel and Mira as individuals, I also loved them as a couple. They had some fantastic chemistry that made some really well-written sex scenes all the steamier. There are also some really tender and sweet moments between them that warmed my heart. Additionally, I’m a total sucker for stories that involve romantic partners cooking meals for each other (especially when the one not doing the cooking is surprised by the gesture) and this book had plenty of that.
Another thing I really enjoyed about Make Room for Love is how the subplot of Mira’s graduate student union drive very much paralleled both Mira and Isabel’s arcs. For Mira, taking on a larger role in the union drive happened alongside and in many ways fed into her ability to stand up to Isabel when necessary. For Isabel, the themes of unions being there to support each member paired nicely with her journey from solitary loner who puts others' needs first as a defense mechanism to someone who can be herself with others and accept help.
Overall, Make Room for Love is a wonderful roommates to lovers romance with some really good transgender and butch representation as well as a fantastic union subplot. The characters are relatable, their struggles felt real, and their journey to a better life together was a joy to read. While there were some moments in which the transgender representation fell short, this is still a book that I’d recommend to fans of roommates to lovers stories and/or romances with transfemme leads.
This book sounds wonderful! Thanks, Jamie!