S02 - TBTBU, read along, full-length episode Jennifer Prokop S02 - TBTBU, read along, full-length episode Jennifer Prokop

S02.23: Waking Up with the Duke: Lorraine Heath Breaks A Lot of Romance Rules

This week, it’s one of Sarah’s favorites, and by an author Jen has never read! Lorraine Heath is a master of the historical, and this one is near-perfect. It’s complex and nuanced and it has an infidelity plot and THERE IS SO MUCH ANGST!

We love having you with us! — subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and like/review the podcast if you’re so inclined!

In two weeks, we’re reading the Queen of Dirty Talk! Sarah and Jen both love Tessa Bailey — so we’ll be talking about our two favorites of her books, Asking for Trouble (Sarah’s) and Protecting What’s His (Jen’s). Find them at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or Kobo.


Show Notes

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S02.22: Sarah's on Deadline AMA

We promised we’d get to the rest of our Holiday AMA questions eventually, and Sarah’s on deadline, so this seemed like the perfect week to do it! Join us for a freewheeling hour during which Sarah cannot remember Tessa Thompson’s name, we talk about how much we’d like to meet Sandra Brown, and how romance really does have something for everyone, including an entire series about romance during power outages.

Also, we forgot to mention that Tuesday was Derek Craven Day! Lots of fun was had by all goofballs who joined us on the Internet to celebrate, and Lisa Kleypas herself even got involved! If you haven’t read Dreaming of You, you can get it for $2.99 right now in ebook! Also, do not miss this incredible Craven Day thread on Twitter from Steve Ammindown and the Browne Pop Culture Library. And if you want Derek Craven t-shirts? Those exist now!

Next week, the book is in and we’re back in business! Lorraine Heath’s Waking Up With the Duke is our next read—a book that blooded Sarah. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or Kobo.


Show Notes

Question 1: Weird but true: the more specific the request, the more likely we are to come up with a recommendation. So if you just need "enemies to lovers" and you've already read Her Best Worst Mistake, or "friends to lovers" and you've already read Scoring Off the Field, then you just need to google it.

Question 2: Who are we fancasting? These beautiful people: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Henry Cavill, Tessa Thompson, and Tom Hardy. Also, listening to Henry Cavill and Tom Hardy grunt is one of our favorite things.

Question 3: Who do we want to have lunch or tea with? Kresley Cole, obviously! Sarah said Joanna Lindsey. Jen says Julie Garwood. We'd both love to meet Sandra Brown. Jen still can't believe the people she's met, and hopes she was cool like Yolanda.

Question 4: Do we have recommendation for lesbian and f/f romance? Is it more difficult to find? Check out Bold Strokes Books. strands of f/f, and others have different roots. We will keep looking for some history of f/f romance and link to them if we find one. But in the meantime, YA author, critic, and expert Malinda Lo wrote about "The Invisible Lesbian" in YA, and it's right on point and worth your time. But we do have lots of great f/f romances that we love in the photo array below.

Question 5: What about steampunk? Is that ever coming back? We don't know! But all we can do is recommend these ones we do know. Sorry!

Question 6: What is like Harry Potter for grown-ups? Burn For Me by Illona Andrews (Jen also liked the Kate Daniels series). That's it. That's the answer.

Question 7: Books with power outages? Read this Naima Simone series called Blackout Billionares.

Question 8: How to get started with reviewing and NetGalley? You should look at lists that big reviewing clearinghouses make--Kirkus (Jen writes that one!), Booklist, and PW. Just trying to look at some of these lists will give you a sense of what books will be coming out. The Book Queen is keeping a list of 2020 new releaes. But Estelle from Forever Romance wrote a great piece about how to get started with NetGalley.

Question 9: Looking for hardcore enemies to lovers with kids in the mix. Jen recommends Wait For It by Molly O'Keefe. Lord of Scoundrels is great for this, too!

Quesiton 10: Books that made us literally laugh out loud. Jen recommends I Think I Might Love You by Christina C Jones. Sarah recommends It Takes Two by Jenny Holiday. Christina has a huge backlist, and Jenny's newest book, Mermaid Inn, came out last week.

Question 11: Looking for books with a heist plot and polyamory. Jen thinks Katrina Jackson has cornered the market on this request and we have all been blessed by it.

Quesiton 12: A question if there are any romances with a Muslim hero and heroine with on-page sex. Jen couldn't think of any, but asked author Farah Heron. Farah also couldn't think of one, but we do recommend her book The Chai Factor.

Quesiton 13: Jackie from Elyria Ohio (where Jen went to high school!) is looking for historical with a murder and a twist. We recommend Kelly Bowen and Sarah's book No Good Duke Goes Unpunished.

Quesiton 14: Sarah is looking for books with virgin heroes--but hot!

Question 15: A book with a grovel so unconvincing that the character has to do it again. Oh, we have suggestions but also you should check out Jen's treatise on groveling.

Quesiton 16: What are some museums we love? Sarah talked about these in England: The Museum of London, The Foundling Museum, The Soane's Museum, and The British Library. She also loves the Museum of Sex in New York, and the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. Jen doesn't research, but in Chicago, she recommends The Art Institute and the National Museum of Mexican Art. If you're ever in Cleveland, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is so cool, and in Houston, check out the most meditative place Jen has ever been, The Rothko Chapel. (when this aired in Feb 2020, the chapel was temporarily closed for renovations! Please check the website).

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S02.12: Lord of Scoundrels: Reel or be Reeled

It may be Thanksgiving week in the US, but that didn’t stop us from recording a monster episode about one of our (and all of Romance’s) favorite books of all time! It’s Lord of Scoundrels week! We’re talking gloves and fans and prologues and why Jessica is one of the best heroines of all time! All that, and Sarah is on a rant about Byron…so don’t miss it!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review!

In two weeks, we’re moving across the pond to Beverly Jenkins’s Indigo, with one of Sarah’s favorite heroines ever—Hester Wyatt, Underground Railroad conductor! Read Indigo at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

Show Notes

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9: Torture Island!!! - Demon from the Dark

Torture Island is here and we could not be more excited! Demon from the Dark is Jen’s favorite book in the series, because she loves poor, broken Malkom, the vemon with a heart of gold, and his fated mate, Carrow, our second witch, whose powers come from other people’s joy.

This episode, we’re digging into the worldbuilding of the second movement of IAD — Torture Island. We’re talking about innocence and how it is a great motivator, what saves a heroine from being unlikeable, why bathing is sexy, and how we really would like it if more men offered up the heads of our enemies as tribute. As always, there’s a lost-limb count and Lothaire-Watch!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.

In two weeks, get ready for the most (we think?) controversial of the IAD books — Dreams of a Dark Warrior, when Declan Chase, unknowing berserker and magister of Torture Island, gets paired with Regin the Radiant. Get DoaDW at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.

Show Notes

In the 1976 movie Rocky, one of the things he consumes during training in a glassful of raw eggs.

Jen loves books about nuclear weapons and nuclear disasters, and the mindset of the Order is very much that of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War.

In Buffy, it was called the Initiative. Angel, Riley, and Spike were her boyfriends on the show, but in the comic there are other lovers.

Your brain isn't fully cooked until you're 25!

Duolingo helps you learn languages, but if you're in a hurry just drink down somebody's blood.

Sarah's friend Natalie Parker's book is called Seafire and it has the most gorgeous cover.

Book Riot makes the case for a Romantic Horror subgenre, and Victoria Helen Stone wrote about the relationship between romance and suspense.

Some information from Pew about rural vs urban living in America.

Adventures in Babysitting is an 80s movie all about the horrors of some kids and their babysitter getting into trouble in the big, bad city of Chicago (or, as Jenny Holiday & Jen call it: Dirty Toronto).

You can tell a lot about a culture by its parenting.

Pygmalion and Encino Man.

Some directions for any tailsman-making endeavors.

Lore parenting tips aside, Jen wrote once about how human parents can talk to their kids about sex.

Maybe 28 Days Later isn't the best metaphor for IAD, but it's a scary movie.

Jen loves it when heroes grovel.

A vemon is a vampire/demon hybrid; Venom is a Tom Hardy movie.

If Jen knew photoshop, she'd be putting Malkolm inside a Sweet Valley High circle... Demon Love!

Yao Ming is very tall compared to Kevin Hart, but Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet are much better fancasting for Malkolm and Carrow.

Friend of the Pod Adriana Herrera was on our sister podcast Wicked Wallflowers last week.


Lost Limb Count

Arms and Hands (6)

  1. Conrad cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)
  2. Cadeon has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)
  3. Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)
  4. Lucia peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
  5. In order to retrieve the ring from La Dorada , Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
  6. Lanthe and Carrow cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)

Chest and Torso (2)

  1. Omort severs Rydstrom's spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)
  2. Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)

Face and Eyes (3)

  1. Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)
  2. Cadeon loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)
  3. During a rugby match, Garreth has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)

Horns (2)

  1. Cadeon cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)

  2. Malkolm is captured by his enemies in Oblivion and taken to the city of Ash. The publicly cut off his horns and then intend to kill him, but Carrow saves him. (Demon from the Dark) ** Legs and Feet (3)**

  3. Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other)

  4. Mariketa's skull is fractured and her leg is torn from her body. She heals herself after Bowen lays on the ground. Ivy grows over her and heals her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)

  5. Thronos is chasing Melananthe and loses a foot when a portal closes on it. (Kiss of a Demon King)

Beheading as a Romantic Gesture (3)

  1. The first time Garreth spies Lucia, it's when she shoots an arrow and beheads a kobold. He notices that it's "a fantastical shot" and he's super into it. Later, he helps her pick up the head because he's a real gentleman like that. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
  2. Later in the book, they are under attack from vampires and Lucia asks him to help. He promises to "give her their throats" and beheads two vampires. But she's upset about it because of a previous bad experience with cannibalism. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (Pleasure of a Dark Prince).
  3. Malkolm beheads men that attacked Carrow in Oblvion, and he throws them to prove he's a worthy mate. (Demon from the Dark)

Maybe?

  1. Does Garreth's losing his connection with his mortal soul count? (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
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