We were in the books in 2024 and now 2024 is in the books. Hardest and softest no!s and whoa!s, the places we visited the most in literature, what we did great at and where we came up short. All that and more as we look back on the year that was...2024.

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One last round of eggnog, we're talking "MEET ME IN LOS FELIZ" by KELLY REYNOLDS.Nora accidentally barges in on Bowie peeing and catches feels for the (sort of) Short King. Is king a slur if you're a Brit in LA who inherited a house and tea shop(pe)? Amid the hustle of trying to make it as an actress, Nora makes room for a new love.What makes a novella work? Does normalizing rough sex minimize it? How much are CBD lattes going for in your local area?Pick your exit off the 210 carefully, we're parked in this holiday traffic.

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Ellie from the Butt Out Baby Podcast had the best idea. For all of us to watch Carol (2015) directed by Todd Haynes and then talk about it. Therese gets a funny feeling when she first sees the glamorous Carol, and it isn't just because its Christmastime. But it is the 1950s, and Carol is going through a divorce, and is a devoted mother, and is at least a decade older and a gajillion dollars richer, and it's Christmas! What is it they about the course of true love? Do age gaps matter? Does Christmas matter? And what even happened with that ending!Be sure to tune into this romance-centered discussion of Carol. And, by the way, I like your hat...

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If Whoa!mance had a nickel for every time we discussed a novel featuring a werewolf who flies personal aircraft, we would have TWO nickels. Thanks for the hypothetical pay raise, COLD HEARTED by HEATHER GUERRE.Grace has to Teach for America her way away from her terrible ex and terribler Chicago. So she makes her way to the small, insular, warm yet secretive community of Longtooth, Alaska. Even thought Grace really sets local boy Caleb's maybe-metaphorical-maybe-literal tail to wagging, he's been burned by City Folk before and he isn't going to be heartbroken again, dang it! When it turns out Grace's ex was worse and more supernatural than just a boring stalker, he's going to have to put his feelings aside...or actually, for some reason, centering them works better?What makes a comfort read comfortable? Is a villain more captivating than the main character a failure in a romance, or just the The Nature of the Beast? Its 10 p.m., do you know how many copies of "Watership Down" are within driving distance of you right now?Turn "Deadliest Catch", we've got something much sexier and equally Alaskan to discuss.

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Here it is, the last chapter. The bow tie. The final thoughts. The Darcy. The Rochester. The end.

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Ready for some dark romance this holiday season? Sure you are! The days are short anyway. We've got a labrador retriever male main character who makes masked man thirst traps and does some stalking. And we've got a snarky female main character who loves those thirst traps and is looking for a little IRL action.Listen while Morgan and Isabeau untruss this popular bird, get at the juicy bits and carve out what makes this a mega romance audiobook hit.

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Pride and Prejudice gets PENULTIMATE! In this, the second to last chapter of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, there are lots of sweet nothings and victory laps to be had. And the conversation begins circling the drain that leads to...romance novels?

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Darcy and Lizzy need to tell the Bennets what's what

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What webs we weave, indeed! This episode we attempt to unknot that cross-over of the century - the NINETEENTH century that is - PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS by JOHN KESSEL.Mary Bennet decides to take one last crack at life before resigning herself to spinsterhood and two people wind up dead. That's what happens when you pin your hopes to the saddest Swiss nerd at the ball. Especially when they have the kind of baggage that is super tall, speaks at least three languages, has committed murder in the name of loneliness, and is technically their child.Do the major differences of "Frankenstein" and "Pride and Prejudice" boil down to imagination vs. domesticity? Where is the fascination of sex to be found without love and affection? What can be made of men talking about women talking about men? Trigger warnings - we talk about anatomy, sterilization, murder, and miscarriages in this episode.

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We're back, and we're going totally medieval on THE FALCON AND THE SWORD by PATRICIA WERNER for the final act of this Ice Wine season.Judith, the most normally named character in this whole book, abandons a convent to find herself in the kingdom of Neustria amongst a bunch of Franks who will never get her as a Visigoth. Along comes handsome-in-a-different-kind-of-white-way, advisor to the King of Austrasia to spark her interest, and then away he goes for the vast majority of the book until he returns in the fourth (eighth?) act to profess his love in the murder mystery cum Medieval slice of life this Romance Novel is. Why did romance in the 90s spend so much effort towards everything but character? What does the centering of small folk tell us about a place and time? What is the difference between Visigoths and Goths?Hope you've got a knee brace, because these Middle Ages are hard on your joints.

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