“You might think the world is complicated and full of lost souls, that people who’ve touched your life and disappeared will never be found, but in the end all of that can change.”
We all know love knows no boundaries, but what happens when two people from entirely different cultures fall for one another? Cross-cultural romance stories dive deep into this question, exploring the beauty and challenges of relationships that bridge worlds. These tales aren’t just about love; they celebrate diversity, cultural exchange and the triumph of understanding over differences. So, from overcoming cultural clashes to discovering shared values, join us today at What We Reading as we delve into one of the hottest-growing trends in the reading world with some of our favourite cross-cultural romance novels! Whether it’s family traditions or language barriers, these stories are swoon-worthy and come with a truly global perspective.
The Stationary Shop – Marjan Kamali
Marjan Kamali’s The Stationary Shop is first up on our list of dreamy cross-cultural romance novels. Roya is an idealistic teenager living amidst the political turmoil in Tehran in 1953. She finds solace in the kindly Mr Fakhri’s stationary shop, stocked with books, pens and bottles of jewel-coloured ink. It is also there where she is introduced to the charming Bahman. A relationship soon blossoms between the pair, with Mr Fakhri’s stationary shop being their favourite spot.
Months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square where the sudden coup de’etat shatters their lives in an instant. With a heart full of sorrow, Roya forges a new life for herself with a new life and a new man in the US. That is until six decades later when a chance moment leads Bahman back into her life, allowing Roya to ask the questions that have haunted her for so many years.
The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane – Lisa See
In their isolated mountain village, Li-yan and her family centre their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, life goes on as it has done for generations – until a stranger arrives in their town in a jeep, the first automobile any of the residents have ever seen. Gradually, Li-yan rejects the customs that have defined her life, eventually having a child out of wedlock. Instead of allowing her daughter to be killed, she leaves her near an orphanage in a nearby city, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds.
As Li-yan grows into herself, leaving her village for an education, a business and life in the city, her daughter, Haley, is brought up in the US by loving adoptive parents. However, both women soon find themselves compelled by their origins and fate. Spanning years, Lisa See’s historical cross-cultural romance novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, follows both Li-yan and Haley as they search for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has warped their family’s destiny for generations.
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Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they set out from military-ruled Nigeria for the Western world. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time, despite her academic brilliance. Quiet, meditative Obinze had hoped to join her; however, with the post-9/11 US denied to him, he is forced to plunge into a hazardous, undocumented life in London.
Fifteen years later, the couple reunite in a democratic Nigeria and quickly reignite their passion, both for each other and for their homeland. One of the all-time best romantic books with cross-cultural themes, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah is a poignant exploration of identity and belonging.
Roomies – Christina Lauren
For months, Holland Bakker has conjured up all manner of excuses to descend into the subway near her apartment, enticed in by the music of her street musician crush. Fate intervenes in her favour one night when Calvin Mcloughlin saves her from a drunken attacker. To pay the brilliant musician back, Holland lands Calvin an audition with her uncle, the most revered director on Broadway. But, despite the audition going incredibly well, Holland then discovers that Calvin is in the US illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.
In a moment of sheer impulse, Holland decides to marry the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship develops and Calvin finds himself the hottest rising star on Broadway, will the pair realise that their marriage of pretending and convenience really has much more to it?
Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei #1) – Abigail Hing Wen
Another one of the most timeless romance novels with multicultural representation, Abigail Hing Wen’s Loveboat, Taipei centres around Ever Wong, an eighteen-year-old sent from Ohio to Taiwan by her parents to study Mandarin. There, she finds herself surrounded by the sorts of over-achieving children her parents always expected her to be.
Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market dubbed ‘Loveboat’. At Loveboat, the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines. Finally free from expectations for the first time, Ever embarks on a journey of smashing all of her parents’ strict rules – but how far is she prepared to go before she breaks her own heart?
Clap When You Land – Elizabeth Acevedo
Camino Rios lives for the summer days when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. Only this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to discover crowds of crying people.
In New York City, Yahaira Rio is called into the principal’s office. Joined by her mother, she is told that her father, the biggest idol in her life, has died in a plane crash. In Elizabeth Acevedo’s tear-jerking cross-cultural romance novel, Clap When You Land, the two girls are forced to face a new reality where their father is dead and their lives are forever changed. But, just as it appears they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
Intermission – Elyssa Friedland
After six years of marriage, the unflinching assurance Cass felt on the day of her wedding has evaporated. Her husband, Jonathan, on the other hand, is still well and truly smitten. Naturally, it comes as a big shock to him when his wife suddenly requests a marital ‘intermission’: six months during which they’ll figure out if the comfortable life they’ve constructed together is truly what they want.
Cass and Jonathan devise a jet lag-inducing plan to share custody of their beloved dog every month and agree that their marriage intermission will be a time for self-reflection, not a time for talking. However, as the months pass, both discover that the root of their problems lies in these sorts of calculated silences and the delicate web of secrets they may never be willing to share. Elyssa Friedland’s Intermission is a poignant cross-cultural romance novel that explores the cultural differences in a couple’s journey toward self-discovery.
The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient #1) – Helen Hoang
Stella Lane is adamant maths is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases in a job that has given her more money than she knows how to spend and with far too little experience in the dating department. Her solution? Hiring escort Michael Phan.
The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer and begrudgingly agrees to help her tick off all the pointers on her lesson plan. Before long, Stella learns how to appreciate all things to do with intimacy and crave the other things he’s making her feel. Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient is a cross-cultural romance novel that follows the pair as their no-nonsense partnership gradually begins to make a strange and unexpected sense.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
