Angela: Melinda was a bright, lovely voice in Romancelandia. I was fortunate to have met and befriended her through Smexy and enjoyed her keen insights and commentary. Sending love and light to all who knew and loved her, she will be greatly missed.
Melanie: Melinda, one of the romance community’s most beloved members, passed away in the early hours of January 10, 2024. She was a reviewer, podcaster, and editor. And she was a dear friend to many. My friendship with her began several years ago when we were both in a Facebook book group dedicated to, of all things, sports romances. If you know either of us at all well, you will understand how hilarious this is as neither one of us is a sports fan. And yet, there we were, in a book group all about sports romances. Our friendship blossomed due to our shared love of reading, specifically romance novels, and also our shared love of musical theater. What began as an online friendship grew to be a deeply heartfelt real life friendship. We met multiple times over the course of our friendship and rarely ever let a day go by without chatting. It will surprise no one to learn that so many of our conversations began with one of us asking the other “Have you read [this book]?” She was an avid reader of multiple genres and a great recommender of books. In fact, I have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to many of the books she recommended to me. It is by no means a comprehensive list of all the books she recommended to me over the course of our friendship but whenever I was struggling to find a good book to read, my first stop was always looking at that shelf. Her recommendations never steered me wrong. She believed in the importance of reading diversely, inspired me to start reading paranormal romances and also was the reason I picked up my first Ms. Bev title, Vivid. She could sell a book with just one sentence. Of Vivid, she told me that the heroine shoots the hat off the hero’s head and that’s all I needed to hear. Her favorite all time author was Nalini Singh. She urged me to start reading her PsyChangeling series despite me claiming that I didn’t think paranormal romances would work for me. But that was the thing about Melinda, she was so sure I’d love it and she was absolutely right. Sometimes, she knew what I’d love even more than I did. In 2021, during the pandemic, in an effort to keep ourselves distracted, we decided to start rereading the PsyChangeling series and doing a deep dive on each of the books. She and I had so much fun gushing over these books we both loved so much, and it remains one of my favorite book related memories of her. She also was an amazing advocate and ally, especially for disability rights and mental health and loved books that had great representations of both. She had a lot of favorite books but one of her all-time favorite books was Invitation to the Blues by Roan Parrish, a book that made her feel seen. We are all extremely saddened by the news of her passing and send our love and deepest condolences to all who knew and loved her.
In choosing to remember her, we want to celebrate her life and her joyful presence in our book community. Books were a huge part of her life, and these are a few of her favorites:
The Psy/Changeling Channel (smexybooks.com)
A lovely post and tribute to Melinda. I got to know her from Twitter (before it was a cesspool). She was so smart and really knew how to pick up on the good things and bad things in romance novels.
The Gaslighter post was one of my absolute favorite posts to help put together when I was still with Smexy. When Melinda was like “I want to do Gaslighter but books” I was thrilled to be able to put that on the Smexy platform.
She will be deeply missed by this community. Sending love and gentle hugs to everyone who knew and loved her.
She will be so missed. Sending love and support to her family and friends.
Melinda was such a bright light in Romancelandia. The Nalini Singh fangirling, the intricate puzzles, the endless book recs. The joy and the hope and the belief in a more inclusive, more vibrant genre.
Two years ago, when we were preparing the Romancing the Vote auction, she pulled out some of her most cherished rare signed copies and first editions, including a copy of Vivid by Beverly Jenkins that had originally belonged to Ms. Bev’s mother. She was determined to donate these to the auction because she wanted to find them a good home with a reader who would treasure them as much as she had, and to raise some money for a good cause besides. Setting up those auctions was a special kind of heartbreaking. I both didn’t want her to feel the loss of such beloved books–and at the same time I wanted her to live for so long she regretted giving them away. But she was sure of what she was doing, and she raised a ton of money and made some very lucky people happy. I hope they treasure those books like she did.
I will value every book rec, every time she made me laugh, every long night spent on the Romancing the Vote volunteer discord as she helped us make magic happen. And I will think of her every time I put together a puzzle. I’m not very good at them and I’m convinced she could have assembled one of a clear blue sky.
Fuck cancer.
Melinda always had the best book recommendations!! I discovered so many new-to-me authors/titles because of her, and any book rec she made went straight to the top of my tbr every single time. She knew her books and you could see they gave her joy. I loved watching her spread that love for them out so that others could find that joy too.
I’ve read so many books because of Melinda, marveled at so many of the puzzles she completed, and laughed at so many jokes she made on social media. I’ll miss her very much.
Lovely tribute.
Great lost for the romance comunity and for her loved ones. I never met her but read her on the internet.
I associate so many books with Melinda and Psy-Changeling is at the top of the list. I’m going to miss her so much.
I got to know her from Twitter. I loved her insights into romance books and enthusiasm for puzzles.
So sorry to hear of Melinda’s passing. Condolences to her family & friends.
This is such a lovely tribute and reminds me of just a few of the books that I came to through her. My heart hurts.
How very sad for all who cared for Melinda. My sympathies to her family and friends.
Such a great tribute. I was so sad to hear of her passing. Melinda was a great friend and I really enjoyed knowing her.