FYI! This episode discusses infertility. If that's a sensitive topic for you, you may want to skip, even though the discussion is mostly lighthearted.

On our latest safari, we encounter yet another Cool Girl, Lena is actually moved to read a straight romance in her free time (!), and our upstairs neighbor's A/C unit will not stop dripping onto ours and making a goddamn ruckus. If you like explicit talk about menstruation and lots of digressions, then have we got an episode for you!

Here is the viral TikTok starring Abby Jimenez's real-life dog, Stuntman Mike.

Thanks, as always, to ⁠Deoxys Beats⁠ for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

⁠Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Thanks for joining us for this (slightly late — sorry!) episode about Pucked, a hockey romance that is light on both hockey and romance but heavy on creative nicknames for genitalia. We laugh out of joy instead of nervousness in this one, so definitely an upgrade!

Here is the Jia Tolentino essay Lena talks about in the beginning, and here is the article Nadine cites when talking about the BookTok vs. Kraken beef. This is the video Lena is pulling her spooky summer reading recs from.

Thanks, as always, to ⁠Deoxys Beats⁠ for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

⁠Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

If you want to skip some serious talk about dating violence, including stalking and sexual abuse, that discussion takes place from 32:22-1:03:22.

Twisted Love is absolutely a book, we absolutely read it, and now, we are absolutely terrified for the female population! Join us for a deeply researched, at times harrowing discussion of our most bonkers book yet, which features a "romance" between a delusional 22-year-old woman and the man hell-bent on abusing — sorry, wooing — her. The book also features weird toddler flashbacks, a lot of Krav Maga, and dubcon sex in an apple orchard, but we genuinely don't have time to get into all that. Hope you enjoy some little-known facts about human sexuality and domestic violence instead.

The books cited in this episode were Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski and Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft. Here is the Guardian article Lena mentioned about sexual strangulation.

Thanks, as always, to ⁠Deoxys Beats⁠ for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

⁠Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

If the publishing industry was a dinosaur,
Colleen Hoover was a meteor shower.
If the girlies who love basic-ass fiction were a house in Kansas,
she was an u n s t o p p a b l e tornado.
We had,
believe it or not,
a borderline-pleasant time
reading one of her books.

On this glorious day, we're talking about Ugly Love by the internet sensation Colleen Hoover. Come for the anticipated cringe, stay for the nuanced discussion about poetry and finding the clitoris.

The YouTube video we reference throughout is this one. (For what it's worth, we were not fans and didn't watch the whole thing.)

Here's the Ugly Love teaser trailer and that feverish bonus chapter.

Thanks, as always, to Deoxys Beats for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

In this episode, follow Lena and Nadine down several rabbit holes, including relationship insecurity, the fascination with Kylo Ren, and big ol' schlongs. Thanks, Ali Hazelwood!

Many thanks to Deoxys Beats for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Lena Wilson and Nadine Santoro are gay, in love, and fascinated by contemporary romance novel culture. On their pilot episode, they do their best to unpack the GRUFF STOIC MASCULINE MALE ENERGY at play in Tessa Bailey's It Happened One Summer. Discussion topics include Luke from Gilmore Girls, the potential unexpected drawbacks of feminism, and the word "panties."

Many thanks to Deoxys Beats for our intro and outro music, "RedLips."

Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)