What ho! A new challenge faces yr grls as they attempt a new format. An intentional two-parter! This episode covers the prologue through chapter 14 of THROUGH A DARK MIST by MARSHA CANHAM, book 1 of the Black Wolf Trilogy.

Lucien Wardieu is Lord of Bloodmoor Keep. Or he is a highwayman. Or he is dead in the crusades. Or he is basically Robin Hood. Or he is basically Satan. In any case, young widow Servanne is headed right toward him - to become his bride and Lady of Bloodmore Keep and/or become his captive in semi-magical woods. Confused? Don't be. One Lucien Wardieu has brown hair and the other one is blond.

What does this novel set ca.1194 tell us about life under late-capital in 1991? How can a novel show without telling? Do you think this villainess will shake out to be an interest, fully realized character by the end of the book?

Stand, deliver, and don't forget to read chapters 15 - Epilogue for the next eppy.

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Over one frenzied month Morgan read all five of Emily Henry's original adult romance novels. Along the way, she lost herself. She turns to Isabeau to help her trace her way back, though the work and the public and personal reception.

What differentiates a romance novel from everything else? And what can we learn from a breakthrough star?

Assumptions are challenged. Late capital is contoured. The word "prophylactic" is uttered.

Featuring special guest appearance by a piece of loose leaf notebook paper with a completely normal matrix of EH novels!

This one is quite different from our usual stuff, but maybe you will still like it (almost unlike Emily Henry novels in every way).

Isabeau references Love the One You're With and Baby Proof by Emily Giffin.

The Substack post Morgan references is, in fact, a poorly remembered comments thread on this piece.

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Hold your nose and close your eyes - we're jumping feet first into DEEP END by ALI HAZELWOOD.

Scarlett Vandermeer attends real-life American University Stanford on a diving scholarship. Tall, blond, Swedish, heavily-siblinged (ring any bells?) Lukas Blomqvist (...sure) attends the same very real school and is swim team captain. Other common interests include attending medical school someday, working in the lab of a previous Hazelwood main character, BDSM, and Scarlett's only friend/Lukas's secret ex Penelope. Will these two ever be able to don the goggles of love and truly see one another through the stinging chlorine of circumstance?

Is real person fic as toxic as it is pervasive? Who are trigger warnings for and what do they actually do and are they as toxic as they are pervasive? For such a clean dive, how did this book manage such a big splash?

You can fear the tree all you want, but remember that it is Whoa!mance who will judge you.

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It's an Easter Miracle! Christos Anesti--or in this case handsome dead stranger is risen, in more ways than one!

Sacrilegious dick jokes aside--this one has it all! Earnestly weird heroine with a mean brother and rambling estate. Hot stranger who doesn't get why the smart and pretty rich lady is in to him, and you know a monster roaming the woods. This Frankenstein retool by Sally Thorne of The Hating Game fame cooks up a hot mystery on a resurrection slab, and revives Isabeau and Morgan from their reading slump. But the religious undertones don't stop with this come back, nor the problems facing romance and ultimately all of us. Join yr girls for a deep dive as they revisit this author on her new and imaginative swing. No friends of Lazarus required

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Isabeau found a romance from a free library--the cover was gorgeous, the title bananas.

The premise: a revolutionary American privateer kidnaps a british artisto named Season and then proceeds to gaslight her and the reader about his varied identities against the backdrop of the American War for Independence. Season, a classically plucky coddled only child with ginormous boobs changes her politics, when love opens her eyes to "freedom" but does the book understand it's own 80s hottakes? What does incrementalism get us in the end?

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This week, we tackle Charolette Stein's When Grumpy Met Sunshine, a listener request that's keeping us honest! We've reviewed this author previously and concluded then that we would like to read her again later. Listeners we did.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a romance that pits supposed opposites against each other with mixed results. Mabel is a ghost writer with a predictable penchant for bright clothes, and Alfie is an ex-footballer from the wrong side of the tracks with a wardrobe like Johnny Cash. How couldn't these goofs fall in love or dry hump at a Beyonce concert? From shared bad dads, to some pretty funny social media mishaps we explore how this particular story’s struggle with its own self-consciousness (a trend in current romance) seems to illuminate something brittle. The weight of modern romance expectations? The translation of fanfic into fic fic?

If every trope shines this brightly are we not all blind?

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A listener held us accountable. A listener reminded us that at the end of this very episode from 2018 we said we'd be curious what this author wrote in the future. And now, ahead of that discussion of a very new book by this very same author coming out next week, we want to give all of you the context you so richly deserve. Original notes below.

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At some point we’ve all felt bullied. But did you ever think, as you stared out through the slits of a locker, your new home, that perhaps your tormenter just needed to work through some misplaced sexual desire? That in fact, your personal Roger Klotz was just biding their time to tell you how they really felt? What’s the statute of limitations on attempted murder? Can a novel be both problematic and titillating? Morgan and Isabeau grapple with Letty and Tate’s relationship, barn weddings, and what to do when your mind’s telling you no, but your body, your body, has been reshaped by toxic masculinity.

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Please, no need to swoon - it's just us, talking about MEET ME AT THE ANVIL by KATE PRIOR.

Prior isn't just the author's surname, it also describes when we talked about this author re: LOVE, LAUGH, LICH - look it up in the feed where you found this one!

Diane is fine marrying Martin - as long as she has her special drawings and her special horn. That is until it isn't fine after one of her frequent faints (courtesy of staring too long at Martin's ruggedly handsome best man and cousin, Liam) interrupts the ceremony and leads to a perspective-shifting goat encounter. She and Liam hit the road to nowhere, or is it...to forever?

Does centering the body, even the marginalized body, equal objectification? What has romance writing lost in the fronting of author personalities? Why is it so hard to think of weird parts with novellas?

Keep your eye on that goat and your ear on this podcast - they're both wily son-of-a-guns.

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