Native Love Jams

by Tashia Hart

Two cooks go foraging and find love in a berry patch.

Native Love Jams is a debut work of contemporary romance by Tashia Hart, author of The Good Berry Cookbook: Harvesting and Cooking Wild Rice and Other Wild Foods.

As the village of Rainy Bay works out the kinks in their first Indigenous Food Days, Winnow works out the kinks in her love life. Hired to forage and cook for the festival, Winnow arrives in the rural Minnesota community to find her host Niigaanii, is as annoyingly attractive as he is unwelcoming. Can Winnow and Niigaanii pull thorns from the past and harvest the love they find in a berry patch?

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Indigenous, Contemporary

156 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2023

About the author

Boozhoo, hello!

I’m an author, illustrator, and artist from the Red Lake Nation. My literary works include the contemporary romance Native Love Jams (2023), The Good Berry Cookbook: Harvesting and Cooking Wild Rice and Other Wild Foods (2021), the middle-grade illustrated book Gidjie and the Wolves (2020) and Girl Unreserved (2015), a fictionalized retelling of my own coming of age tale. My illustration work includes 3 books in the Minnesota Native American Lives series (2021); as an assistant illustrator of Gaa-pi-izhiwebak (2021); and Gidjie and the Wolves (2020). My short works include recipes, essays, poetry, and short stories. I have worked in Indigenous kitchen, and gardens, and have led foraging walks and have a biology degree from Bemidji State University. I'm a jewelry maker working in beads and birch bark and some metal work in the past. I live in Duluth, MN with my husband, son, and a turtle.

Author website: www.tashiahart.com
Instagram: @tashiamariehart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tashia.hart.5
Twitter: @tashiahartbooks

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute! Makes me want manoomin.

[Kestrel B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objectively, I am so not a romance genre reader, so this is sitting around a 3.5 for me.

This was such a wholesome and earnest love story, I genuinely enjoyed the main characters connection! Growing up near Grand Portage, MN and having many schoolmates, friends, and family from the band, all the characters felt so recognizable. The small town gossip and nosey-ness is a lived experience, lemme tell ya. There's some language used in passing during character convos or internal dialogue that definitely made me feel like there was gonna be expliciiiiiit happenings. HOWEVER, there were only super respectful and earnest actions. There were hilarious parts that had me smirk/laughing, food and scenery descriptions that caught me daydreaming they were so delicious.

I do wish the story was longer. There are many complex twists or relations and I would be happy to read another 200 pages or so to really dive in and get to know the characters.

Overall, I'm excited to see what Tashia Hart does next!

[Sam Pranger · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a graphic, bodice-ripper this isn't the book for you. It's a sweet story with relatable characters (even if you're not Native) and it will definitely get your juices flowing in more way than one.

[ColleenIsBooked · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a couple of chapters for me to get used to the writing but I really had fun reading this cute little romance!

[Ashley Laing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a cute and short read.
I enjoyed scenery, the humor, and that both main characters had a love for the natural world.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy, short novella.

[Margaret Churchill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute love story! It was refreshing to read an Anishinaabe story without all the grief and sadness 💕. My favorite topics, Foraging, traditional foods, Native Humor!

[✨Hannie✨ Reed Gowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ! A cute, cozy romance. I wish we had some spice in here and it even could have been a little longer to get to know the characters a bit better. but overall i enjoyed it on this rainy day in my friend sam’s reading nook. ❤️

[RH Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle good natured love story without stress and tension, and lots of good nature information. I enjoyed the Minnesotan references and Anishinabe vocab.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! I only wish it was a longer book to get more time with the characters and to explore some steamier scenes.
I was intrigued by this book as an avid romance reader who lives in Minnesota. I also realize that most of my experience with fiction written by Native authors (Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, and a few memoirs) has been on the heavier side. While those stories are also so important, I really liked that there was some levity to this story, though each character had been through some tough times.
Love of self and community were a big part of this book which was so fun to see with a romantic arc. I look forward to more works by Hart!

[Beth Cue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet, short love story that takes place on the Red Lake reservation in northern Minnesota. Bonus: author is from Red Lake (but now living in Duluth.). Knowledge of Ojibwe is helpful in the flow of the story, as is knowledge of reservation vernacular.

[Lynne L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so cute. A very quick read about different kinds of love.

The best part, for me, is the way Tashia Hart writes about nature.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet, with a ton of personality and some very big coincidences.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The nature-writing bits were effective, interesting, and well-written. The story could have used a couple rounds with the editor though.

[Cary Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romance isn't my jam, pun intended. I also consider self-published books with a jaundiced eye. Don't get me wrong. I have read plenty of self-published books I thought were quite good. Native Love Jams is probably one of them. That said, I believe novels published by reputable publishers at least go through some kind of filtering process to become books. Those two caveats notwithstanding, I still gave this book four stars because I suspect if the author wanted to find a romance publisher, she could have. It was well-written. The characters were clearly drawn. I appreciated the diverse angle - i.e., it took place on a rez and featured lots of interesting people and indigenous foods, etc. But it was soooooo predictable. I had the same complaint about the 2022 winner of the MN Book Award for Genre Fiction, Life's Too Short. Another predictable romance. And can we say UNREALISTIC? This one, too, strains credulity.

This book is a Finalist for a MN Book Award, Genre Fiction. Every year a buddy and I read the finalists, and this one is my first. I have to say, I suspect this year's MN Book Award judges were romance/fantasy people. I think of this category as primarily mystery/thriller, but there were some extremely reputable mystery/thriller authors who didn't become finalists for this year; Eskens, Mejia, Krueger, et. al. I've only read Krueger's from that bunch, but it was a much better novel than this one. As I suspect were Eskens's and Mejia's. Unless, as I say, you're a lover of predictable romances.

[Madison Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a cozy romance. I really enjoyed it. Winnow and Niigaanii are Native American cooks who meet during a food sovereignty festival on a reservation in northern Minnesota. They end up falling for each other despite each facing their own personal hardships.

My only “complaint” about this is how short it was because I would’ve loved to see more development of the characters before and after meeting each other, but I still loved the story over all. I finished it in a day. Niigaanii was my favorite character – he reminds me a bit of my boyfriend.

Also, as a woman from Bemidji, I got super excited at the Bemidji mentions (as well as the mentions of other towns and cities that I grew up near). I’m glad I finally got around to reading this! It’s been on my Kindle for quite some time. I definitely recommend if you’re looking for a cute and cozy romance.

Notes: There isn’t spice, but there are mentions of more “adult” topics and things (like a dildo named Pete). Also, there is quite a bit of Ojibwe words and phrases that may require some Google searches for non-Natives like myself.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, I am definitely not the intended audience for this book. The young characters and vivid romance didn't really connect with me. But what I did enjoy every much was the glimpse into the culture of a Native American reservation - especially the food and language.

Now and then, Hart write a metaphor that sort of confused me. For example: "Her cheeks pinched into a wheel of cheese." I am not sure what that means exactly.

Younger female readers will probably get a kick out of this story and we can all use a little more familiarity with our native neighbors.

This is one of the nominees for the MN Book Awards in genre fiction. I'm sure I'd not have picked it up had it not been for my challenge to read all four. But I am glad I did.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sweet, and sultry, this rom-com deserves to be read and enjoyed. Many of us have either experienced this, know someone who has, or wish it could happen to us. Native Love Jams is more than just two cooks who go foraging and find love in a berry patch. It's a book about modern Native culture in Minnesota, about friends, family, and food and how all these ingredients are simply a part of love and life all jammed up together.

[Teacup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute, hilarious, and had a really distinctive voice! All the "destiny brought us together stuff" isn't my favorite trope, but I appreciated how direct the main characters were with each other when they were finally face to face. It was refreshing to see their assumptions about each other not get drawn out forever. And as a bonus, you know the foraging and recipe descriptions are accurate because the author's background is actually in nonfiction on native cooking and foraging!

[Jenna Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two Native cooks go foraging in a berry patch and find love. A joyful and fitting first finish of February. Short, sweet, and humorous in all the right places. But if you are looking for bodice ripping romance, this is not it. This is a gentle love story with a sprinkle of spice.

[Lauren Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the premise and sequence of events. There were a couple of times that the alternating POVs were out of sync. I wish it was longer so it could have been further developed to increase the tension naturally but you still got it in a bite size nugget. 4.25/5, rounding down.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

A super sweet love story! I just wish there was a glossary at the beginning to explain some of the native language used and what some of the fruit/food is!

[Jenessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its very cute and sweet while being fresh for a romance novel. Maybe more of a novella. I loved all the details about wild harvesting. Would recommend!

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute!

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grabbed it for the cover, read it for the romance, ate it for the jam.

[Charlee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, wish it was longer. Felt rushed and I wanted more detail and more story.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story. Loved that it was set in Minnesota. Made me want to forage for fruit and eat jam. The cover art is absolutely gorgeous. Perfect little summer read.

[R Seykora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tashia Hart is a wonderful storyteller. I loved the way she incorporated native language and values into her novel. I look forward to the movie!

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the unique premise, setting, and characters in this sweet little romance novella. And look at that adorable cover! It's indie-published, so I'm glad my local library both bought it and happened to spotlight it on their website.

The various berries and other foods for which they go foraging, as well as what they made from them, sounded scrumptious. Now I both want to go foraging myself -- very possible, given that this takes place in MN, although the copious references to mosquitoes, spiders, ticks, and leeches dampen that enthusiasm a bit -- as well as treat myself to buying some gift-type foods from local indigenous sellers. I also wouldn't say no strolling around the grounds of a festival like the one in this book.

While the early miscommunication between the leads grated on my nerves, once on the same page, I really liked their chemistry. It's nice to get a romance where both people are their 30s. I also REALLY loved the gratuitous spooning-for-warmth-in-a-tent scene, during which time they fall asleep.

I also loved every glimpse of Mr. Puppers. 🐕

On the downside, it does feel a little bit unpolished, like the final draft in a creative writing class that's had only peer and not professional revising. I noticed a lot of really cool turns of phrase, but also places where it didn't flow as naturally (for example: "The oldest mark, from when the jar was new ... [is] an ink stamping that reads "Wild at Hart," Hart being a nod to her last name." The last bit of that phrase is over-explained. Introduce her as Winnow Hart in the first sentence instead and let the reader draw that conclusion on their own. On the other hand, here's a beautiful line from that very same page: "July morning sunshine scatters through the jar, creating a kaleidoscope effect on the walls and counter.")

I can't even get into the persistent refusal to use commas before dialogue correctly. You have to preface it with a verb if you're going to use a comma instead of a period before the opening quote mark; you can't write things like [Her eyes squint to slits, enlarging her smoky shadowed lids, "Yuck, I hate Emily."]. If it's on purpose, I need to know who said that was okay.

Plus, girlfriend is weirdly horny. She seems unable to simply notice a man is attractive without immediately getting physically aroused and wondering what he would look and/or feel like naked. Nothing explicit happens on the page, but come on. This is the kind of writing that makes teens think they must be demisexual.

But overall, recommended if you're looking for a more unique kind of diversity in your romance, especially if you want (or don't mind) a shorter read.