r/RomanceBooks • u/A_Seductive_Cactus Praise Kink Princess 👸🏻 • Oct 25 '22

Megathread MEGATHREAD: MENTAL HEALTH REP

This megathread is going to be about: MENTAL HEALTH REPRESENTATION ROMANCES.

What is a MENTAL HEALTH REPRESENTATION ROMANCE? These romances feature characters with various mental health disorders (neurodivergent, anxiety, depression, PTSD, eating disorders, hoarding, panic attacks, etc.)

Here is a link to all MEGATHREADS. Megathreads are evergreen posts. Did you recently read and love a book? Find a megathread with the relevant tropes and add your recommendation! Don't see a trope you love on the megathread list? Drop a comment on any megathread and I'll add it to the list. Is there a megathread for a trope you love? Follow that post to be notified when people comment with their recommendations.

Here’s how this works.

  • Drop a comment down below with your recommended book(s). They should ONLY be books that you liked, not books that you haven't read or finished.
  • What’s the subgenre? What’re the pairing? Is it Paranormal Romance or Sci Fi Romance or...? MF, MM, FF...?
  • Explain how it fits the trope. Which character has mental health representation? How is it presented? Is it a point of conflict or embraced?
  • Tell is why you love the book. “Well written” doesn’t count: let’s just assume they all are. Things like “smoking hot” and “character growth” and “amazing world building” are all acceptable.
  • What other tropes does the book have? Enemies to lovers? Slow burn?
  • Character archetypes! Is one MC a single parent? Or a billionaire?

So tell us, what's your favorite MENTAL HEALTH REPRESENTATION ROMANCE?

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u/tiniestspoon punching fascists in corset school 💅🏾 Jul 10 '25

{Untouchable by Talia Hibbert} Ravenswood #2

M/F, Black British FMC with depression, white British MMC

Contemporary, set in England

Since the Brown sisters took off, I feel like Hibbert's earlier work gets a bit overshadowed, but this is an underrated gem. Hannah Kabbah, sister of Ruth from book 1 in the series, is a child development expert who can't get a job since she kinda sorta took a baseball bat to the douchebag who hurt her little sister (in book 1). Enter Nate Davies, her now grown up crush from school, who's a widower with two kids, and a sick mother to look after.

Hannah has depression, she takes medication and sees a therapist when needed. She's brisk and organised, and struggles with slipping into the black hole of insecurities and feeling worthless. It is very well written, casually but not trivially.

Very very few authors could make me like single dad/nanny romance because I don't like the power differential and gender roles baked in, but Talia Hibbert did it. KJ Charles' review nails why it's so good. Plus the kids seem like actual human children not precocious plot moppets from hell. It's trademark Hibbert humour and tenderness and sweetness and sharpness.

CW: death of a spouse in the past (car accident), terminal illness of a parent (lung cancer), misdiagnosis, chronic illness of a parent (sarcoidosis), parental abandonment in the past, employer taking advantage of employee in the past, childhood bullying