My guest this week is Leanne Schwartz! She is the author of several YA fantasy novels and the adult contemporary rom-com My Kind of Trouble, a brilliant homage to The Music Man. We talked about bringing a mid-century musical into the modern day with a stern librarian battling book bans in his community and a smoke show con artist who targets corrupt wealthy white men.

We also talked at length about autistic and neurodivergent representation in romance. Leanne shared how she writes autistic characters beyond the stereotypes we typically see in pop culture. Plus: fat heroines who love their bodies and the case for books that buck conventional tropes (sorry, we're bored of tiny ladies who can climb their hunky heroes like trees).

Follow Leanne on Instagram, Threads and BlueSky as @schwartzwords and on TikTok at @lifebreakingin, or go to leanneschwartz.com.

You can find My Kind of Trouble and other romance novels featured on Rebel Ever After in my affiliate Bookshop at https://bookshop.org/lists/rebel-ever-after

This podcast is brought to you by the support of my patrons. For $3/month you can join my Patreon and help make Rebel Ever After sustainable, as well as get access to bonus episodes. You can subscribe at patreon.com/brosandprose. [Do not sign up within the iOS Patreon app on your iPhone because Apple tacks on a 30% fee — that money goes to Apple directly, not to me. I recommend joining the Patreon on your computer. Tech monopolies are bad.]

Listen to the first Rebel Ever After PREMIUM episode about STI stigma in romance at bit.ly/REABonusEp1

My second-chance romance But How Are You, Really with its BEAUTIFUL new cover is available wherever books are sold and at bit.ly/buthowareyoureallynovel