This week’s episode features hybrid historical romance author, Harper St. George! Harper just released the final book in her Doves of New York series (which I LOVED!), The Dove and the Rogue, and we talk all things Gilded Age, Western romances, and the state of publishing in historical romance (what’s next?)

You can find information on Harper and all of her books on her website

And the Kickstarter for Besotted Books is now Live! Please consider backing this project so the genre we love can continue to thrive!

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

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I had an amazing time talking Sherry Thomas with my guest, Seth, this week as we broke down what makes Private Arrangements such a standout in the Historical Romance genre. Listen in as we discuss his own first encounter with HistRom (and how Sherry set him up to love the genre!), emotional stakes, insights gained through a dual timeline, and how Sherry Thomas is like Taylor Swift!

You can find more from Seth, including his thoughts on romance books and encounters with authors we love, on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads where he is @dramakingbooks

And check out when Seth met Sherry Thomas at the Libby Awards and she signed his copy of Private Arrangements! https://www.instagram.com/p/DVuHtpYjhvt/?img_index=5

Read Private Arrangements yourself, and check out what we’re trying to do with Besotted Books !

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

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Follow First Encounter:

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Guess what? I'm trying to start a publishing company for historical romance—Besotted Books!

I’m so grateful to my friend and fellow historical romance author, Misty Urban, for agreeing to chat with me about Besotted Books today! You can learn more about Misty and her series, The Ladies Least Likely, here

To read more about Besotted Books, please visit the website

And follow us on Instagram @besotted.books

We’ll have a link to the Kickstarter and the media kit SOON!

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First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

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Follow Andie James:

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I had such an amazing time this week discussing what historical romance can be and the fun of learning about history, queer joy, and gender fuckery!

Jane’s latest release is Mr. Milner Gets Divorced, and you can find out more about it, as well as Jane’s other books and where to find/purchase them on her website

AND if you sign up for her newsletter, you can get the companion story to Mr. Milner, Mrs. Milner Gets a Kitchen, for FREE! (and Marion Milner is a delight, y’all!)

Much of Jane’s inspiration for Mr. Milner and Stephen and his crew came from reading this Memoir: The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s

And you can catch Jane’s lecture with Romancelandia University for their Spring 2026 session here. They discuss JOY in HR and revolutionary happy endings!

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Today is a fun bonus episode where I chat with Olivia (@nottheolivia on Instagram) about some of her thoughts on Historical Romance. I follow her on Instagram and think she is able to articulate what makes Historical Romance a unique genre within Romance beautifully, so I was excited to get some of her takes on where historical romance is headed (and if it should be).

You can follow Olivia on Instagram, and the post I referenced frequently, The Historical Romance Starter Kit, can be found here

To learn more about my new publishing venture, Besotted Books, please visit the website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/besotted-books, or follow us on Instagram

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

Instagram: @first_encounter_hr_pod

TikTok: @first_encounter_hr_pod

Follow Andie James:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/

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I really enjoyed this month’s book—An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. It’s American Civil War setting makes it stand out, and it unfortunately felt sadly too relevant to current attitudes today as we see our heroine, Elle, a Union spy who is posing as a slave in the home of a Southern Senator, confronting all the ugliest sides of discrimination and being othered and disregarded. BUT, while it was a difficult read (Alyssa Cole does not shy away from the harsh realities she’s writing), it was a also a gorgeous romance and had STAKES!

I had a great time with fellow histrom writer, Angelique Prince, discussing the book as well as the need to write more diversely and celebrate Black women authors in Historical Romance.

You can find out more about Angelique and her own writing projects on her website, angeliqueprince.com and sign up for her newsletter there to get more information on the project she just did, Bev’s Baddies, reading chronologically through all the works of Beverly Jenkins.

Angelique is also active on TikTok and Instagram

Other Authors of color mentioned in the podcast that you should absolutely be reading:

Beverly Jenkins

Addy DuLac

Erica Ridley

Vanessa Riley

Adriana Herrera

Liana De la Rosa

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I had such a wonderful time discussing Jenna Bigelow’s Ancient Rome set historical romances with her this week and looking at ways we can expand the genre while still keeping the core elements of what makes HR unique (which Jenna does exceptionally well in her novels) and the genre we know and love!

You can find Jenna and information about her books in both the Roman Heirs and Imperial Games series on her website: jennabigelow.com

Go there to sign up for Jenna’s newsletter and receive a FREE novella, The Merchant Match, a prequel to the Roman Heirs series!

You can also find Jenna on Instagram @jennabigelowwrites

Be sure and check out her new release (featuring a female gladiator!), dropping on April 10th, 2026— Gladiator’s Beloved

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First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

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Follow Andie James:

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I had so much fun this week finally figuring out what Derek Craven lore is all about! For our third deep dive into a historical romance classic, we are reading and discussing Dreaming of You, the 1994 release from HR queen Lisa Kleypas that changed the rules of who could be a romance hero!

This book absolutely had to be discussed with none other than Devan (@diagnosed romantic on Instagram) as she is the author of the Mathildaverse which maps out all the connections in Lisa Kleypas’ books, all linking back to Dreaming of You, and the heroine, Sara Fielding’s blockbuster book, Mathilda!

We discuss why Derek Craven is such an important hero archetype and why we love Lisa Kleypas Heros, why Sara also needs to be celebrated as an amazing woman, cringy book villains and how Lisa makes them relatable, 1994 as context, and of course, Derek Craven Day and our love for the ladies of the Fated Mates Podcast

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas

The Mathildaverse

Fated Mates Trailblazers episode with Lisa Kleypas

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

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Today is a special episode to celebrate the Spring session of Romancelandia University (RU), which opened this week!

I’m joined by the headmistresses of RU, Emily (@veryromance) and Kelsey (@yourbookishbff) to talk about why they started RU, what they love about historical romance, why this community is so special, and how this session of RU is going to be different.

I absolutely love this project (and anything that celebrates and uplifts Historical romance, especially now), so please listen and join this great community of HR readers!

Check out all the information on what RU is all about and how to join the session on their Instagram (@romancelandiauni) and their website https://www.romancelandiauni.com/  

Support and participate in the Trans Rights read-a-thon—March 17-31, 2026 (@transrightsreadathon)

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

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Follow Andie James:

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I had an amazing conversation this week with Indie Historical Romance author Katherine Grant. Katherine recently finished her long running series, The Prestons, about the Preston family and their unconventional (an inspirational!) estate, Northfield Hall. We discuss writing about social issues and working for change in Historical Romance, her use of the Peterloo Massacre for her novella, In The Wide Open Light (part of the Suffragette Uprising multi-author series), how authors can write modern (or are they really all that modern?) sensibilities into their novels, and why intersectional representation is so important in the worlds we create.

You can find out more about Katherine and all her books on Katherine’s website

Learn more about, and listen to, Katherine’s podcast, The Historical Romance Sampler, here

You can find all the books in the Suffragette Uprising series here

Katherine uses a model for writing diverse characters from the Writing the Other website

First Encounter is a podcast exploring both the foundations, and the future, of Historical Romance. Hosted by Andie James, Historical Romance enthusiast and author.

Support First Encounter:

Patreon

Follow First Encounter:

Website: https://www.andiejamesauthor.com/firstencounterpod

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Follow Andie James:

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