Ramona Riley is one of the two point-of-view characters in the romantic comedy novel Dream On, Ramona Riley by bi author Ashley Herring Blake.
The novel Dream On, Ramona Riley is dedicated to the relationship between Ramona Riley and the notorious Hollywood actress Dylan Monroe, who comes to town to film a rom-com.
Ramona is a young woman from Clover Lake, a small town in New Hampshire, who gave up her dream of becoming a costume designer after her father’s accident forced her to stay home and help raise her younger sister, Olive. She is portrayed as caring, emotionally guarded, ambitious, and deeply connected to her local queer community.
Ramona’s bisexuality is explicitly confirmed in the first chapter of the novel, when the narration states:
Ramona and April — bisexual and pansexual, respectively — shared a look…
The novel also explores how Ramona understands and accepts her identity over time. As a teenager, she struggled to make sense of her attraction to both girls and boys. She felt isolated because of it. At one point, thirteen-year-old Ramona reflects:
Queer … ? She’d heard the word before, of course, had heard gay and lesbian and even bisexual, though she’d had to go hunting for that one on the internet.
One of the defining moments of Ramona’s adolescence happens when she meets another girl by the lake in Clover Lake and shares her first kiss with her. Years later, she reconnects with that same girl — Dylan Monroe, now a famous Hollywood actress — and the two begin a romantic relationship. Their shared experiences as bi women become an important source of emotional understanding between them.
Ramona’s bisexuality is presented as an established part of her identity. She came out long before the beginning of the main events of the novel. She is openly bi around her friends and family, discusses queer relationships comfortably, and is part of a close-knit queer social circle that includes other bi and pan characters. At the same time, the novel shows how heteronormativity and isolation can still affect someone even in relatively accepting environments. Ramona grows up without clear bi role models and spends years struggling to communicate her feelings openly, just like her sister. In the epilogue, when Ramona’s sister Olive comes out, Ramona supports her:
Olive had had a great first year at Vanderbilt, had fallen in love, come out as bisexual. Ramona couldn’t be happier for her.
Unlike many romance novels centered on queer trauma, Ramona’s main emotional conflicts are not caused by being bi. Her deepest struggles come from abandonment, family responsibility, and the pressure of sacrificing her own ambitions to care for others. The novel therefore treats bisexuality as an important part of Ramona’s identity without making it the source of conflict in her life or portraying her as “problematic”.
Ramona Riley is a strong example of bi representation because her bisexuality is explicit and fully integrated into the story. The novel portrays her as a bi woman whose identity influences her relationships and self-understanding while still allowing her to exist as a complex person with ambitions, fears, and emotional depth that go beyond her sexuality.