Posts in Traditional Episode
161: Get Your Turkey Leg Over - "Well Met" By Jen DeLuca

Hoist up your bosoms, fill your tankards, and line up for facepaint - this week yr grls are travelling back in time to a general idea of "old" for WELL MET by Jen DeLuca.

Simon is an uptight, high school English Teacher by day, and a sexy, flirty pirate by a different time of day. Emily is just trying to be a cool aunt (and make more, if not The Most, of her time in this small town) when she signs up to be a wench in his school's booster club/Renn Fest. Are sparks flying or is it just so many exploding splinters from the joust.

Are romance novels influenced by Hallmark movies, or vise versa? What is the utility of an inoffensive book? What does it mean to be a grieving younger sib? Who, indeed, is Sub(aru)ing who?

We've got plenty of digressions - our trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, "Pirates of the Carribean", etc. But don't worry, it all leads back to the book in the end. HUZZAH!


160: 2 HAVE 2 HOLD - To Have And To Hold By Patricia Gaffney

Nobody move! There's blood on the floor. And yr grls can't find their hearts. Thanks to whispered romance classic- "To Have and To Hold" by Patricia Gaffney.

Sebastian has everyone's fave romance hero first name and a brand new estate in an idyllic country town. Total snoozefest, but then most things are to Sebby. That is, until a captivating former-con with (gasp) SHORT hair named Rachel captures his fancy AND his rather horrid whimsy. Will these two be one another's reckoning in a good way or a bad way?

Are historical romances actually written about three times - the setting, the publication year, and the time it is read in? How can a text deconstruct while bolstering conservative sexual politic? CAN "the help" consent???


159: Why Hockey? - "The Deal" By Elle Kennedy

Is that a hockey stick in your pocket or is your weiner just like super big and bent at the very end? Let's find out while discussing TikTok sensation "THE DEAL" by ELLE KENNEDY!

Garrett needs help figuring out how different philosophers would justify genocide so he can pass his midterm and remain the beloved captain of his small liberal arts/Ivy-adjacent/D-1 unverisity's hockey team. Enter singer/songwriter/skinny-big-boobs Hannah. She's got an "A" in the class and a deal to strike. Tutoring for mutual orgasms so she can be ready for primetime with her quarterbackin' crush. What's a little sexual healing between friends, right?? Don't let the weird jokes about popular culture fool you, this book packs some high stakes trauma.

Why is the US University a Utopia in romance fiction? Was 2015 in general politically unaware? Why hockey?

We get timely and historical in this one, suit up and tune in.


158: Come for the Wings, Stay for the Ruin - "A Court Of Wings And Ruin" By Sarah J. Maas Part 2

We aren't going to leave these takes flappin' in the wind - join us as we land the conversation with part 2 of our discussion on A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Maas.

What makes a "good" war text? How can we talk about gender and race in a fantasy-world divorced from our social reality? Or can popular fiction even effectively imagine such a world? Can you still get horny in a "Li-berry"?

Spoiler alert: This one split the judges on Whoa v. No. Tune in and decide where you land.


157: DADDY WAR BOOKS - "A Court Of Wings And Ruin" By Sarah J. Maas Part 1

War! UH! Good gosh y'all! What is it good for? 699 pages! SAY IT AGAIN!

That's right, we're back in Prythy-town to discuss the third (and obviously originally meant to be final) book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series - A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Sarah J. Maas.

Feyre and Rhysand and their found family (plus Feyre's two kidney donors a.k.a. sisters) do a lot of stuff. They spy, they murder, they go through the arduous process of setting an executive-level meeting, they smooch, they knock boots, and they WAR, goodness how they war! All in the name of saving Prythian and the humans who happen to be there.

Are these books more reliably a fantasy or a romance series? Are these books even reliable to each other? What is laid bare by how you consume the text (Graphic Audio, anyone???) ? And what order do you think the Inner Circle sits in for a massage train?

Send a vulgar gesture down the bond and settle in, we're cruisin' for a Hybern bruisin'.


156: Crypto Nepo Baby - The Astronaut and the Star by Jen Comfort

This episode we return to space! Or rather the Arizona mock-up of space - with THE ASTRONAUT AND THE STAR by JEN COMFORT.

Reggie is a mean astronaut who wants to go the moon and Jon is a nice star who wants to win an Oscar. Maybe they can help each other become successful even moreso than their parents did? Or maybe they can fall in love? Or maybe those things aren't mutually exclusive?

What makes a contempo-romcom a bestseller? When is off-branding a conspiracy theory in romance problematic? Are you turned on by "having a loud cum"?

Tune in and blast-off!