3.5: Holiday Romance
It’s the Holiday Season™️, which means it’s time to talk about Holiday romances! Get ready because there are A WHOLE LOT of books in this show. Also, get ready, because next week, on December 26th, instead of releasing our Dark Needs at Night’s Edge episode, we’re releasing a bonus Ask-us-Anything episode as a special holiday present to you!
Show Notes
Our official IAD reread will resume January 2nd, with Néomi (ghost) & Conrad (vampire) and we have so. many. feelings. SO MANY.
- In case you're curious, here's where Jen learned to properly pronounce Therese Beharrie's name. Therese wrote 2 Christmas books this year: A Wedding One Christmas and Her Festive Flirtation, and Jen liked them both.
- Before Sunrise came out in 1995, a sequel Before Sunset in 2004, and a third Before Midnight in 2013. This New Yorker review is a perfect example of everything Jen hates when people review anything romantic, so hate-read it if you're in the mood.
- Jen completely got the name of that chapter book wrong, it's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
- Novellas are really common in romance, maybe more than other genres, and Jen anxioulsy awaits the think-piece explaining why.
- Speaking of novellas: The anthology of Chanukah stories that Sarah mentioned is called Burning Bright; Reindeer Games is an anthology of stories with the snowed-in trope; and in Silver Belles, all the characters are over 40.
- Sarah described the cover of A Holiday of Love as an example of a certain type of old-school book package. But just last year, A Christmas to Remember with Lisa Kleypas, Lorraine Heath, Megan Frampton, and Vivienne Lorret followed the same exact cover protocol.
- Epistolary novels are super fun to read (Jen's favorite is Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Sarah is--unsurprisingly--very pro epistolary romance; her favorite is Kleypas's Love in the Afternoon), but Jen's pretty interested in how they are changing in the age of the internet.
- All three of the books in the Men at Work series by Tiffany Reisz are delightful, but the Thanksgiving one is an absolute classic.
- Last year, Jen ranked Thanksgiving romances for The Book Queen.
- How the Dukes Stole Christmas is pretty great, and here's where Jen talked about Joanna Shupe's novella on twitter.
1.5: Escort Romances
We know you’re getting excited for No Rest for the Wicked, but before we talk about vampires and Valkyries, let’s talk about escort romances!
The Books
Notes
Sarah and Jen have both loved The Kiss Quotient. Sarah reviewed at for The Washington Post. Jen's been turning her friend Ernie into an occasional romance reader, and live-tweeted his read of TQK.
Escorted by Claire Kent, which is a pen name of Noelle Adams
Romancing the Stone is an 80s movie classic. Kathleen Turner plays a romance writer on an adventure to retreive a missing emerald.
The Smart Bitches made a list of competence porn romances, where all the characters are just really good at their jobs.
Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas. Here's the Twitter thread where Jenny Nordbak alerts everyone to the sexiness factor.
Burn Down the Night by Molly O'Keefe
The Duke by Gaelen Foley
Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell
Journalist Melissa Gira Grant writes about sex workers and the politics of sex work. You should follow her on Twitter.
The Master by Kresley Cole
Get ready for No Rest for the Wicked