11.5: Sports Romance with Jenny Nordbak
Are you a sports ball fan?! Do we have romances for you! We’ve got the brilliant Jenny Nordbak from The Wicked Wallflowers podcast back for a sports romance interstitial! Listen to us chat about why we love sports books, the alpha, competence porn and books by Kennedy Ryan, Tamsen Parker, and Naima Simone!
Next week, it’s (FOR REAL THIS TIME) MacRieve week with Sierra Simone! We’re so excited, and Sierra is the perfect guest for this sex-driven book! Get MacRieve at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.
Show Notes
Welcome back to our guest Jenny Nordbak from the Wicked Wallflowers podcast!
Everyone loves a trip to the hairdresser.
Here's a list of the RITA finalists, and a link to Jen's new twitter account which tracks her reviews of the finalists.
Author Bronwen Fleetwood crunched a bunch of RITA data from the past 20 years, which is how we know there are more winners named Susan (and Elizabeth, Barbara, Karen, Jennifer, Ann, Jill, Linda...) than WoC finalists.
Famously, the Hugo Awards also struggled with recognizing the best books in their field.
Here's what we are talking about when we talk about how PoC are underrepresented in publishing.
Um, actully Sarah, Ulysses is a twitter thread.
This week, Sarah told a pretty solid competence porn story about her neurosurgeon on Twitter.
Kennedy Ryan has been on the Wicked Wallflowers podcast. Twice.
Content warnings for Long Shot.
Adriana Herrera, author and friend of the Pod, recently wrote a very important piece for the Smart Bitches about how to portray sexual assualt in romance.
Why the Ray Rice elevator video is important.
Jen's written about the whiteness of hockey romances for The Book Queen. Don't believe Jen? Back in 2012, commenter #11 left a plea for more hockey romances on this Smart Bitches post. I bet they are happy now.
Susan Elizabeth Phillip's Chicago Stars series is a romance classic.
There's no crying in baseball.
Jen reviewed all of Tamsen Parker's Snow and Ice Games series.
Olympics atheletes are busy, y'all.
6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon was an amusing 90s pop culture game.
Tennyson is a romance heroine and a famous poet.
Listen to Naima's interview on the Wicked Wallflowers.
Fumbled is a new football romance by Alexa Martin, and it deals with CTE.
Get ready for MacRieve.
Periods, Pizza, and Point of View: Another AMA with Jen & Sarah
Jen and Sarah were together in the same city in the same room and just couldn’t pass up the chance to do a real-deal AMA while looking at each other’s faces! You asked, we answered…but get ready. There are some weird things in here (mainly said by Jen).
Next week, it’s MacRieve week with Sierra Simone! If you think things got weird this week, just you wait! Get MacRieve at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.
Show Notes
- At KissCon, Sarah and Sophie Jordan hosted a session called "Bananas Books" and friend of the pod Beth took notes and listed all the titles.
- Jen's Best Friend Kelly runs The Resistance Button Club, makes avatar buttons, and also designs stickers and swag for Romancelandia.
- You can see the signed copy of Wicked Abyss on our insta.
- Jen wrote about making new TBR collections for her Kindle on Twitter.
- Soren is one of the characters in Tiffany Reisz's Original Sinners series.
- Check out the IAD fan Facebook group.
- Check below in the photo array for the Kleypas books with talismans.
- Fridging is a comics term, and this explainer uses Deadpool 2 to explain the history of this problematic trope.
- Close 3rd person point of view is very common in romance.
- Unreliable narrators are very uncommon in romance.
- Here's how to make a Chicago-style hot dog.
- A quick primer on archetypes.
- Next week, we're talking about MacRieve with the magnificent Sierra Simone.
- Sarah's newest book, Brazen and the Beast, comes out in July and you should pre-order it now!
11: Woof. Hope Your Headphones Didn't Fall Out! - Lothaire
Lothaire is here! We’re so excited, we don’t know what to do with ourselves, but FYI, this is a longer episode than usual -- so get ready! We're talking morality chain romance, how Lothaire is a pure ass but incredibly funny, and how Ellie is pretty much the only mate he could ever have. Also, we love Nix & Lothaire a lot.
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, one of our favorite people, Sierra Simone, is joining us to talk about The Full Kresley, and MacRieve! It's going to be a great time, we promise. Get MacRieve at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.
Show Notes
Learn about tone-policing so you won't make Jen mad.
Maybe we haven't recommended audiobook narrator Robert Petkoff to you enough.
Justine Eyre is the audiobook narrator who was nominated for an Audie for Sarah's book Never Judge a Lady by her Cover.
Love Between the Covers is an amazing documentary about romance, and you might be able to find it on Netflix.
Everyone knows the difference between hardback and paperback books, but learn the difference between mass-market and trade paperbacks.
During the Lothaire bus tour, Kresley wrote her fans this Facebook letter about the experience.
Paul Marron is a very handsome man.
The morality chain trope. 0 Other famous series with villains-turned-heroes include Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers (Devil in Winter), Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane (Duke of Sin), and Sarah's Scandal & Scoundrel (Day of the Duchess).
Italy discovers what happens when everyone is raising a mammone.
Lothaire breaks his life up into tasks, sort of like Hugh Grant in About a Boy.
When Robert Downey Jr. starred as Sherlock Holmes, he can forecast the moves his opponents will make in a fight.
On Twitter, Melanie did a very thorough count of all the times Lothaire punched a wall.
Lothaire is very funny. Andie Christopher, friend of the pod, is very pro his cock slapping gnomes joke.
Old Friends is a very sweet song by Simon & Garfunkle, even if you aren't learning to play the ukulele.
Check out the Romance Sparks Joy read-along on Twitter and Facebook. Get M. Malone's Bad Blood for the April 15th Read!
MacRieve will be next, and Sierra Simone will be joining us!
Lost Limb Count
Arms and Hands (7)
- 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)
- 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)
- Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)
- Lucia peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- In order to retrieve the ring from La Dorada , Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- 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)
- After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box, Ellie cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)
Chest and Torso (7)
- 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)
- Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- On Torture Island, Regin,
- MacRieve,
- and Brandr are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)
- Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)
- Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)
Head, Face, and Eyes (5)
- 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)
- Cadeon loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)
- During a rugby match, Garreth has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- Lothaire kicks out La Dorada's remaining eye and throws her over a cliff. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)
- In the Bloodroot Forest, the tree grows over Lothaire's lips and tongue. (Lothaire)
Horns (2)
- 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)
- 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)
- Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other)
- 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)
- Thronos is chasing Melananthe and loses a foot when a portal closes on it. (Kiss of a Demon King)
Beheading as a Romantic Gesture (4)
- 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)
- Later in the book, they are under attack from vampires and Lucia asks him to help. Garreth promises to "give her their throats" and beheads two vampires. But she's upset about it because of a previous bad experience with cannibalism. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- Malkolm beheads men that attacked Carrow in Oblvion, and he throws them to prove he's a worthy mate. (Demon from the Dark)
- Declan fights and beheads several creatures as they escape Torture Island, including squeezing one dude so hard his eyes pop out and then he twists his head off. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)
Beheading as a Non-Romantic Gesture (2)
- Ellie cuts off Lothaire's head, leaving a slender 1/8 of an inch left. It was kind of an accident, but he deserved it. (Lothaire)
- In the fight with Ruelle, MacRieve and Munro's mother is beheaded by a envenomed vampire boy. Their father then beheads the vampire. Ruelle is also killed. (MacRieve)
Maybe?
- Does Garreth's losing his connection with his mortal soul count? (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)
- When Soroya inhabited Ellie's body, she subjected her to a full Brazilian wax. Ellie doesn't realize it's happened until she takes control of her body again. (Lothaire)
10.5: Fake Engagement Romance
This one has to be a top-ten universal trope…were talking fake engagements! Listen to us chat about why ladies love a fantasy, the royal wedding, marriages of convenience, and books by Elle Kennedy, Talia Hibbert, Chelsea M. Cameron and Kate Clayborn!
GIRD THY LOINS, LOTHAIRE IS NEXT!
A jumbo episode with this jumbo jerk face dreamboat! Get Lothaire at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie…and if you’re an audio lover, you are not going to want to miss Robert Petkoff on this one — Jen hearts it baaad.
Show Notes
Ana Coqui is the force behind #RomBkLove.
The twitter thread where Mary Lynn Nielsen perfectly described the fake engagement trope.
In historicals, the trope is usually called marriage of convenience.
Garrets are empirically great romance heroes.
Kate Clayborn joined us for our Best Friend's Sibling episode.
The royal wedding of Harry & Meghan was so delightful. We wish them many years of happiness.
New adult is a genre descriptor that not everyone loves, but there are lots of wonderful NA romances.
She's All That is a 90s teen romance starring Freddie Prinz Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook.
"That Six Pence None the Richer" song is called Kiss Me.
2 historicals that Sarah mentioned this week are His at Night by Sherry Thomas and Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James.
Lothaire is next. We can't even.
