Romance Recs

The Best of 2025 with Special Guests Paperback Pleasures

• Jordan&Devonnie and Romy&Annabel • Season 3 • Episode 9

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Jordan and Devonnie are joined by the always witty stars of Paperback Pleasures Podcast, Romy and Annabel. With a combined total of 481 new books read this year there was a lot to unpack and recommend. This episode covers not only their favorite book of the year (yes peer pressure did ensure choices were made), but also favorite scenes, new authors, hottest reads, biggest plot twists, and more! It's a lengthy episode so buckle in because it's well worth the ride. And don't forget those chapter markers if you're looking for something specific. 

"Paperback Pleasures is an award-winning podcast dedicated to de-stigmatizing romance literature and female sexuality. In each episode, lifelong best friends Romy and Annabel take turns highlighting romance novels, unpacking a genre historically underestimated due mainly to its link with female pleasure."

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Jordan:

Welcome to Romance Recs. We're romance obsessed besties sharing book recs broken down by genres and tropes so you can be sure you're getting exactly what you want out of your next read. Hello, I'm Jordan, and I am currently reading Tender Cruelty by Katee Robert. I'm also reading an Arc of Sin Bin by Chelsea Curdo, and I am shocker here everybody. I am re-listening to The Awakening Zodiac Academy by Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti for the 98th time

Devonnie:

Yay. Love that for you. Hey guys. Dev here. I am currently crazy. I'm not listening to anything and I'm only reading one book. Who am I? I don't understand, but I know I am reading The Ascended by Greenwich Greenwich and Lennox. Yeah, I'm very excited about that. But we are also excited because we have some stars in the studio today. Welcome our besties from Paperback Pleasures, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves.

Annabel:

Oh my God, we're so excited to be here. And yes, there are stars here. I look at you guys.

Devonnie:

Oh,

Annabel:

it's so good to have our Romance podcast finally come together in this most beautiful moment. Everyone, I, my name's Annabel. I am one half of paperback pleasures. Definitely not the better half. Roi. ROI is my best friend. We also are best friends of 26 years now, I guess. Holy cow. And isn't that crazy? 1999 was a big

Romy:

It's a really big deal.

Jordan:

to car. Your brains have developed as a friendship like you are

Devonnie:

Your frontal lobe. Yeah, for

Romy:

Oh. Oh. Honestly, like when, I feel like when your brains develop this way to the point where you get to be an adult, and now all you do is talk about smut together professionally. I mean, there's just no going back. Right.

Jordan:

No.

Devonnie:

Absolutely.

Romy:

Oh my God. Anabel, I'm sorry I interrupted you. What are you

Devonnie:

right. Yeah.

Annabel:

Oh I am an insane person. I realized that I hadn't really read any nonfiction, so you're gonna get a lot of nonfiction that I'm currently reading, but I literally just finished better than the movies which was great. And we're covering it on our podcasts very shortly. So that was my physapphical book. I'm also reading Culture Creep notes on the pop Apocalypse by Alice Bolen the Body, A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson. And I am, I just started our infinite fates as well.

Devonnie:

Did I read that? Is that Laura? Steven?

Romy:

Yep.

Devonnie:

Yes. That's on my list for today. I read that. Okay. Okay.

Annabel:

Oh my.

Romy:

That's been one of the most requested that we cover. So she's reading it to cover it? Yes.

Devonnie:

great. Yeah, because I do have people I need to talk

Jordan:

All right, let's finish this intro people. Let's finish

Devonnie:

Oh,

Jordan:

then we'll talk to the books. And then we'll talk the books. All right. We got one more intro. One more.

Romy:

I'm so sorry. We're just so excited. Hi guys. I'm roi. I'm doing the exact opposite of what Annabel's doing, which is making her mind a better place. I have just, I just am going full on smut for the rest of the year. I'm dissociating hard right now. I am rereading Nightmare Before Christmas by Sarah Roosh to talk about on our podcast coming up one of my all time favorite holiday reads. It's so good. Criminally underrated author. And then I am also listening to Mate by Ally Hazelwood, Which I can talk about later because

Jordan:

Yeah, let's talk that later. I too, listen to that. So you and I can talk about that later. And I think we have similar thoughts,

Romy:

I have thoughts.

Jordan:

I'm so excited. Okay. So everybody, if you couldn't tell today is a little bit different. We are here, as we said, with Leos a Paperback Pleasures podcast. And we're gonna give you all of our best recs. From this past year of 2025, and I'll be honest, it was a good year for reading. It wasn't a good year for a lot else in the world, but for reading romance and smut, let me tell you,

Devonnie:

Heavy

Jordan:

it's amazing. It's amazing. It's a whole ass vibe and we're here for it. It's, and you can be too. So

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

us.

Devonnie:

then let's kick this off by doing some quotes. I'm gonna go first. Thanks. Okay. I actually struggled picking a quote because I had so many, but I tried to settle on being morally gray, kind of. So this is from obsessively Yours by Jamie Applegate. Hunter. The Fak Kings of Eden series is like one of my favorite series. There is no plot babes. You're here for smut in a good time like that. Is it? The men are unhinged and that's it. You wanna read unhinged, morally gray, morally Black Pitch, black, midnight Men. That's that.

Jordan:

are just trying to hold on for dear life. Quite

Devonnie:

are literally Yes. They're just there to like, try to get through it.

Romy:

that is so

Devonnie:

Anyway, this, yes, and I love it. This is our MMC. Roman says this to his FMC Violet, you're not only my queen Violet, you're my obsession. You have always been mine and I have always been yours. Not even the Gods succeeded at keeping you from me. What makes you think something as trivial as morals would.

Romy:

God,

Devonnie:

my man. my man. I love him.

Romy:

can we share?

Devonnie:

I mean, yeah, we, yeah, we could share. Okay. I have to think about, but we can share. We share.

Romy:

Oh

Devonnie:

love him.

Jordan:

Would one of you like to go next? We'll go back and forth between the pods.

Romy:

Oh my God. Hell yeah. I just picked one from what I'm reading right now. Nightmare Before Christmas because I just love this book. It's very sweet. I thought about doing like a real sexy one, and then this one just kind of melted my heart. So we're talking about this instead, it says, and he talks like a poet, a cadence in his words. It's half song, it cracks my chest apart, decides something for me that I hadn't even known was an option. It's the moment they've ah,

Devonnie:

yeah. When you realize oh, that's so sweet.

Romy:

he loves him.

Jordan:

Her books are so, they're so fun, but they're deeply thoughtful and meaningful. I just it's such a good balance.

Romy:

I tell you I thought this was gonna be just like the silliest, dumbest little book, and then it just destroyed me in all of the best ways. I was like, what? What? The Prince of Christmas and the Prince of Halloween. I'm obsessed.

Annabel:

Did you cry?

Jordan:

that.

Romy:

Mm-hmm. Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure.

Jordan:

Anabel, do you wanna go next?

Annabel:

Sure I can go next. So I, mine is from the book that I just finished better than the movies. Similarly, I thought it was going to be a very silly book. And I did actually cry like a lot. It's

Romy:

No way.

Annabel:

good. But the quote I chose is a little bit more about like the tone generally, and I loved it. It's when I'm around you, I kind of feel like I'm on drugs, not that I do drugs unless you do drugs, in which case I do them all the time. All of them.

Jordan:

I

Devonnie:

I love that. That is actually, I love that kind of narrative, like with it just like quirky and cute and like also a little word vomiting, you know, because like why would you

Jordan:

being too far.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

line, but

Romy:

There's cringey, anxious bean, and there's like really heart throb, anxious bean,

Jordan:

Who's the author of that? Annabel.

Devonnie:

Is it Lynn Painter?

Annabel:

Painter. Yes.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:

awesome. And I will round us out with, sorry, I can't even, I'm already giggling. This is from Psycho Academy by Jasmine Mas. And this is unhinged. I never really thought about what I wanted in a male partner, but now I realized I wanted them to be completely unhinged, like super messed up in the head. I wanted to look at them and think I'm normal. They would bring me flowers and tell me I was being cute when I killed someone. And when they raised the world to the ground for me, I'd compliment them on their technique. Was that too much to ask for?

Romy:

No, absolutely not.

Devonnie:

I do love a morally gray FMC as well. I fear, I do, I support women's rights and wrongs, you know what I'm saying?

Jordan:

This whole book. It was so hard to choose a quote because another one I had were was, and this is from like the beginning of the book, they were the worst type of people in all the realms. Men who knew they were hot. And I just there's so much man hate in this fictional world that I was with a

Romy:

Honestly, like there's a lot of man hate in my nonfictional world, so I feel like I need to read this. You've already recommended me

Jordan:

Oh, I'm gonna, I will get way into it. I will

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

that hall. Yeah. Before we get into any more can you tell us a little bit about your podcast? What are you doing over there at Paperback Pleasures?

Romy:

Oh my God, we're having way too much fun. I'm just gonna give you kind of our little spiel, paperback pleasures through books Review, excuse me, through book reviews and interviews. We really dedicate all of our time on air to destigmatizing romance literature. And that goes along with sexuality of all kinds, kinks of all kinds, the way people are writing out any kind of romantic and sexual relationship. And we started this because a man made me angry on the internet, which is just you know, it's my villain origin story. It's fine. We land in and I, we decided to start a small business and here we are. And it ba it,

Jordan:

Amen.

Romy:

it basapphically all goes back to romance has historically always been a place created by women for women. And it has basapphically single-handedly funded the entire publishing industry, yet it's consistently being called silly thought of as less than being, you know, it's just one of those silly women things. Bullshit.

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

Romy:

we like to really challenge that. We believe that things women like aren't silly. And that is why we put, stayed in front of microphones, talking about all of our quote unquote silly little romances because we learn a.

Jordan:

I love it.

Devonnie:

Do we, I learn a.

Jordan:

learned, let me tell you.

Annabel:

it turns out it's a really safe place to have big feelings. It's great.

Jordan:

Well, and I think that's a really good point because twice already we've mentioned books, even just through our quotes, that I thought this was gonna be just like a silly little read and it had me crying. But I think that's really important. And I love that you talk about that. Just because there's humor in something or just because it's a fun to read doesn't mean that there's not more to it. And yes, sometimes there's just straight erotica, but that doesn't mean it's bad either.

Romy:

No

Devonnie:

it's not, and you can learn. I learn things,

Romy:

yeah, usually some of the most ethical romance writing that we see out there is erotica, like the ethical kink writing and all of that. It's so important. It's so, so, so important.

Jordan:

Yeah. And we say all the time on here is like, there's a book for every reader and there's a reader for every book. And we don't yuck yums. And that's the thing, that's why we come on here and tell you why we liked books, so that if you feel like you're looking for that too, you can find what you're looking for. Not like a list of tropes. I mean, tropes are fun if you're looking for a baseline.

Romy:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

but there's always so much more to a book. So I love that you're doing that.

Romy:

Oh, well we love what you're doing. Well look at us all out here. Changing the world.

Devonnie:

I know

Jordan:

women.

Romy:

Yay.

Devonnie:

women. Oh,

Jordan:

with that out of all the episodes you've recorded this year in 2025, what has been the most fun or memorable for you this year? We can go back and forth between the pods, but

Annabel:

I am so curious what Romy's gonna say for this.'cause we did not discuss it, but I, and I wonder if it's gonna be the same one. So we were really lucky to be able to record in person together a couple of times this year. And one of those times was when we were interviewing Megan Carver who is like

Devonnie:

God.

Annabel:

Jill of all trades, truly like she is an intimacy coordinator. She is. So, and that's sexual intimacy as well as like violence, intimacy on the stage. And on the screen. She and her partner are both Shakespearean met, doing Shakespeare and acting. And she also is an audiobook narrator and a romance editor. And she like blew my brain open in the best way possible. And if you've ever met someone and you are like, oh my God, you are me, if I were cooler and More interesting. And then you get to do that with your best friend and then

Jordan:

what I met thought when I met Dev. That's awesome.

Annabel:

oh my God, I'm

Romy:

We all wanna be Meghan when we grow up. She's incredible.

Devonnie:

I love that. I would love to be an in intimacy coordinator. That just sounds so good. Let me let you feel safe, babe.

Romy:

well, and especially with so many things coming out like heated rivalry and pillion and baby girl, like all of these, like really you know, kink forward hot and heavy things. These intimate intimacy coordinators are more important than ever. I mean, we are saying things on the screen that we've never seen in the best fucking way, pun intended, because of these people.

Devonnie:

yes. Exactly. Exactly. I love that. Oh, so that was your favorite episode, Anabel, that's what you love.

Annabel:

That was my favorite, our interview with Meghan Carver. It was a very special time.

Jordan:

I'm curious, Deb, what was your favorite of ours?

Devonnie:

Oh,

Jordan:

we didn't talk about this either, and I just,

Devonnie:

I know. So I have two favorites. Oh, honestly, just because of like how I felt during these episodes. We were recording and the thing, the context of the conversations, but it's either Shadow Daddy Or

Jordan:

excuse me.

Devonnie:

think it actually might, I think it actually might just be Shadow Daddy. Or my other option was billionaire, but actually I think it's Shadow Daddy, because there is something I say in this damn episode.

Jordan:

Oh my God. Sorry.

Romy:

Now you need to share with the.

Annabel:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

So I literally, I cannot remember what the context was, but I was talking about how I needed,'cause Shadow Daddy's a stipulation for Shadow Daddy for me, is that you have to use your shadows indiscriminately. Like I, the shadows need to be a part of you, right? You can't just have shadow magic. I need you to be using it. And so, so I had likened through, you know, research and just you know, just understanding personal. Mm-hmm. That shadows shadows, what did I say? Shadows and a toy

Jordan:

Listen. I had to listen. I listened to this

Devonnie:

Yes.

Jordan:

like probably a hundred times. She said, I just imagine obviously I've never been bitten by a vampire, but I just imagine that it'd be like. Taking a CBD and playing with your toy add some shadows in the mix. And, you know,

Romy:

Okay.

Jordan:

And I didn't realize my mic was on mute, but I was literally crying, screaming, and I, and so I couldn't make noise and so she just kept going with the analogy and talking about it. But anyways,

Romy:

Okay. So

Devonnie:

let's really

Jordan:

yours is really meaningful. And yours, Anabel was so sweet and Dev, that was a highlighted moment. I absolutely agree. Both. Very important to the experience.

Devonnie:

What's your question, Romi? Did you need clarification

Romy:

No. I, well, actually, yes, I do

Devonnie:

You? Agree.

Romy:

No, I do a hundred percent agree, but okay. So like we all grew up on Twilight, right? And so every single woman our age, and honestly probably every single person our age has thought about what it's like to get that vampire bite, right? I mean, no matter what you read, you were exposed, you're thinking about it. This is a safe space. We can all admit this.

Devonnie:

You know what I'm saying?

Jordan:

we don't yuck here as I

Romy:

but never once have I experienced it. What? How I've never experienced it. Never once have I thought about experiencing and such a fucking chill way. You're like, no, I

Devonnie:

I'm, yes, that's how I imagine.

Romy:

I have that is amazing. For me it's always, it's just very, like emotionally heightened. Maybe I read too much gothic romance, but like it's way more dramatic in my mind. I love

Jordan:

I mean, it can be dramatic I mean, if you took a certain kind of garden gummy, and it just really depends on what strain you're taking. I mean, not

Devonnie:

you know?

Jordan:

this a different kind of podcast, but

Devonnie:

And what kind of vampire bite you're getting here, because imagine you know there's pain, right? Okay. And then

Romy:

Only at first.

Devonnie:

you're only at first.'cause then you get a relaxant. So there's our C, b, D, you know what I'm saying?

Jordan:

a drug in their venom.

Devonnie:

And their venom, right? Then you add a little toy and now we're feeling what's coming after. You know what I'm saying?

Romy:

It's perfect. Oh my God.

Annabel:

do you think that like Jasper bites different from Edward?

Devonnie:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jordan:

one here, because she could,

Devonnie:

Jasper is tearing that thing up, Jasper, that, that restraint. He is tearing

Jordan:

you know, Alice is all about that. I mean, you know, Alice Bites back

Annabel:

alice is feral.

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

Oh, cute. Oh, she already knows what's coming. Right. And literally it's gonna be her because the way Jasper is, you know what I'm saying? So she knows. She knows.

Romy:

I love this. Honestly, I think that Edward was the most vanilla of the bunch, and I'm really upset that

Jordan:

I mean, he was a virgin.

Romy:

God.

Jordan:

No, nothing against if you're saving yourself. Okay.

Devonnie:

Virginity is so nice.

Romy:

I mean, it depends. It depends on wired

Jordan:

it depends where you are in your

Romy:

depends on why you're doing it

Devonnie:

Right, right.

Romy:

if you're holding onto your

Jordan:

I'm gonna move my manifestation candle over here just'cause I think it needs to be a little closer to me right now for that. me.

Romy:

Okay,

Devonnie:

All right. Jordan, what's your favorite episode? Yeah.

Jordan:

okay. So mine, I totally forgot about that moment. And that was just so hard to choose. I wanted to choose an interview. I like, I wanted to choose an interview in a non-interview just'cause they're so different, but the interviews were so hard to choose from. So I'm just gonna mention the interviews. I mean, I really couldn't mention all of them, but the one I did with Laura Wood was so much fun. And it kind of came outta nowhere. It was last minute and I just had a blast with her. She was so amazing. Doing it with Chelsey Ann Tompkins was just like two besties going off about romantic and it was so fun. Another highlight was like talking to Penn Cole about Spark of the Ever flame and about hearing about burn. And her giving us an exclusive quote from Burn was like

Annabel:

Damn.

Jordan:

a whole

Devonnie:

pen. I love pen.

Jordan:

Making Hannah Nicole Mayer tear up. When we interviewed her, that was a big moment for me'cause she's made me cry with her books. So it was really nice to

Romy:

and you're like, see how it feels.

Annabel:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Yeah. Being the first person that she got to talk to about Accomplice, who's finished it was so much fun. But for our regular honestly, the Friends to Lovers episode was my all time favorite because no one wanted to do friends to Lovers. No one. Dev didn't want

Devonnie:

hate it. Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

Christina didn't want to, this was back when she was still recording with us, but it was chosen by fans, so it was chosen by people who came to one of our events. And so we were forced to do it and I realized, holy shit, I have a lot of friends to lovers in my backlog. But talking about it, it ended up being one of our longest episodes ever because we thought we didn't like it. And then like there, I mean it's just like any other trope you find your niche within that and things you like about it. And I just, it was a lot of fun. So I, that was my,

Devonnie:

Friends to lovers definitely gets a bad rap, and I'm the one rapping bad about it. But there's so many gems, and I've read so many friends to lovers. It's just, yeah. Jordan said, you have to find your niche. You have to find like the type of friends to lovers story you like.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Romy:

is a good way to do every single trope. There really is. I have tropes that I hate, and I love, love, love fighting an author that proves me wrong, even if it's just for that book. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, Anabel, my favorite episodes are different. Megan definitely got like a honorary mention in my notes. But my top ones for us were our two-parter on Pride and Prejudice, where we dressed up and surprised ourselves with our costumes.'cause I dressed up as Mr. Collins and she was not expecting that, and I got her live reaction, and it was really a beautiful thing. Pride and Prejudice basapphically made us into the readers that we are. And so just being able to like, literally for four straight hours, just fucking gush was so much fun. And then another like historical one that we did was the Flame and the Flower, which is the original Bodice ripper. It is the book that was published in the seventies that literally created and started the Bodice Ripper genre and impacted every single thing we read today. So unpacking that and like doing a little history deep dive was one of the coolest privileges of the year for me.

Devonnie:

Yeah. I love that.

Romy:

And then finally I had the opportunity to interview Kaya Freight, who is the voice of Violet Sorn Gale in the graphic audio productions of the Imperion series. And she was just a delight. It was so much fun to get an inside look at that process. But yeah, I just, I went back and I was like, who are the coolest people we've talked to and what have we laughed the most? And it's those, yeah.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

I just remember when we were recording Pride and Prejudice, I dressed up as Lady Catherine de Berg and I was home alone. And I live in Brooklyn. And so like you can see at night, you can see in all the windows. And I just kept thinking about how people were probably just seeing me in a giant wig and 17 hundreds garb.'cause I went, did not go period accurate. I went for the 2005 movie version and

Jordan:

Important distinction.

Annabel:

I have strong feelings about this, which is why we recorded,

Jordan:

can tell I support you.

Annabel:

but I just I did get a glass of wine and just gaze out the window and think about what people might think of seeing that in

Romy:

You know, you were a convers, you were a conversation starter for at least a few people that

Devonnie:

Absolutely. Absolutely. They were looking, they was like, damn, you never know what people are doing in their house. What? You know what I'm saying? Just looking at you like, yeah, go ahead.

Jordan:

Let's come back tomorrow night and see if she's still dressed like

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

is a regular thing.

Annabel:

or if that's a real person might be a

Devonnie:

Right. Yeah. I wonder how many people thought you were a ghost? Actually, this ha I'm gonna say that there's at least one person who thought there were seeing a ghost. I

Annabel:

I hope so.

Devonnie:

haunted. Yeah.

Jordan:

Maybe the same person who took a CBD and just played with the toy, maybe

Devonnie:

know what I'm saying? It's that and this is how we're connected. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love

Annabel:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

Got you. This is

Annabel:

Good for them.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

I know, right? Okay. So I like to think about reading goals as like a suggestion in life. But I always try to meet my goal this year, I set the lowest goal for myself for 2025. I think. I said I'm gonna read 75 books. I just knew, like with my workload, I'm getting my master's full-time mom. There was just too much. So I said, thank you. Thank you. You know, I'm working on that. But I said at 75, right? We're at 98, so,

Jordan:

shot up there

Devonnie:

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So I wanna know, how many books have you guys read in 2025?

Annabel:

I have not read that many books not even close. I am currently at 27 books.

Romy:

Good

Devonnie:

And we love that. We celebrate, you read

Jordan:

That's more than two a month.

Annabel:

Yeah, that's true.

Devonnie:

you,

Jordan:

that's living life and reading two books a month,

Devonnie:

Yeah. Love

Jordan:

and it's not even done yet, so.

Annabel:

Last year I read a hundred'cause my boyfriend told me that if he read, I read a hundred, I would get a pizza party.

Devonnie:

Oh, and we love to meet goals.

Annabel:

Yes.

Devonnie:

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love that. And also what a man written by a woman because, huh. Look at you like, you know what I'm saying? Hey, if you read a hundred books, I get your pizza party.

Annabel:

I was like, win-win. Yes.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

That's awesome.

Romy:

So I historically don't believe in reading goals for myself'cause I'm really toxic. So the second I'm like, I'm gonna do this, I just do the exact opposite. So I don't set goals for myself. This year. I dissociated so hard. I am getting close to 200 books.

Annabel:

200.

Devonnie:

I love that. It's not that, it's not bad though.

Romy:

No, I mean, so like, when I'm not doing this slash like, actively dissociating with a book, I'm a journalist and you know, like no matter what kind of life you lead, 2020 five's just been tough. And a lot of that is because of the headlines. So when I spend 10 to 12 hours every single day thinking about the headlines and working with the headlines yeah. All of my free time has my nose in some kind of erotica.

Devonnie:

Right. And I love that. I

Jordan:

I am. I'm the same way. So my goal was to read less than I read last year. Last year I read 190 approximately, which was still, I think my goal for last two years. How'd progressively been like, read less? It's about quality, not quantity, but again, like you, omi, I just need to disassociate and I put headphones in and I mostly listen.

Romy:

mm-hmm.

Jordan:

And this year was also the year of a reading for me because apparently I could not get enough of stressing myself out and making it like homework. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. So I am at so far, 156 new books, but if you count all of my rereads, it's 200. And that's like Relists I'm not sorry. Like

Romy:

I'm the

Jordan:

I'm just, I'm literally just a mom trying to survive. Okay.

Annabel:

you guys are amazing.

Jordan:

I'm just trying to do everything. My three-year-old also knows the term romantasy, so that's how much I am reading.

Romy:

doing it right?

Jordan:

Romantic I think, and specifically enemies to lovers without meaning to, was probably my most red genre and trope.

Romy:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

Yeah. What did everyone else read? Deb, did you do contemporary? Is that your

Devonnie:

You know,

Jordan:

Or what

Devonnie:

I was looking through my reads for this year and I normally, I lean more towards contemporary, but this year had a lot of romantic, I had a lot of romantic books and I'm, I don't know, I feel like when I was counting romantic was like a couple books ahead of contemporary, which is so interesting to me because I am the contemporary girly of the group. So for me to have read so much romantic, it's wow, look at you branching out. Not by far, but you know, a little bit. And I did enjoy all, most of the romantic he reads. And yeah, I think I enjoyed those more than my contemporary. But there's some heavy hitters in there too.

Annabel:

we had the opposite experience.'cause normally I am, I do not enjoy spending my time in this reality, which is why I read. But this year, because we were covering lc silver and because I just, it just happened, I ended up reading a lot of contemporary romance and I don't even recognize myself, especially this year. I for sure didn't wanna live in this world. But here we're.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Here we are. Yep. And then those contemporary romances are so good too, when you're like looking at real life and then you got like a sub-genre of real life where it's this, is this happening? No, but I love it. Like I really wanna be in this world,

Annabel:

it could be happening.

Devonnie:

any day it could be happening,

Jordan:

give me a liberal cowboy. That is definitely fantasy. That is definitely fantasy.

Annabel:

I'm sure there's one,

Jordan:

Nothing hotter

Devonnie:

there's I, there has, I have to hold out hope that there is a liberal cowboy out there. Just,

Annabel:

there is, I can think of one.

Devonnie:

Who?

Annabel:

Orville Peck.

Romy:

His name is fucking Orville. He had to be hot and I have a lot not hot name.

Annabel:

He's a hot gay cowboy and he was on Broadway

Devonnie:

Gay?

Annabel:

year.

Jordan:

be gay. Yeah.

Annabel:

I'm so sorry. Actually he might be by he was in the Great Gatsby on Broadway this year and he has like great musapphic persona where he always wears a mask under his cowboy hat. Very hot.

Jordan:

New kink. I,

Annabel:

Yeah,

Jordan:

oh, that is a,

Annabel:

he's great.

Devonnie:

It is a shame that the one cowboy we could think of who would fit our type is actually just gay and never gonna be mine.

Romy:

what did men do to deserve people like Orville Peck and Jonathan

Devonnie:

Right.

Romy:

Why are they being rewarded for their behavior?

Jordan:

they're not cis

Devonnie:

my God,

Jordan:

men. Anyways

Devonnie:

I love that.

Jordan:

down a wild ride. What

Romy:

Well, I'm gonna use this to go into mine because to, this was the year that I left basapphically all straight romance behind

Jordan:

Good for you.

Devonnie:

I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

Romy:

learned something very important about myself that unless it's a dark romance, I cannot read straight contemporary romance. Me off. I don't know why I'm, this is something I'm unpacking about myself.

Jordan:

I feel like you and I at a happy hour would have a great time just eviscerating men. Mm-hmm.

Romy:

I'm so fucking done, man.

Devonnie:

really. I love that

Romy:

And I live with a man. He's my whole heart. It's just that one

Devonnie:

we, you don't have to, you don't have to read about them though you know, this is free choice, free will, you know. I am unfortunately not done with the straight romances because I have to hold out hope that one of these men will come find me.

Romy:

I admire that so much. No, I just,

Devonnie:

I would put a mi

Romy:

yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

nothing like reading about what you can't have. Like I just,

Romy:

Well, honestly, like what I learned about myself is that there is nothing more attractive than men being vulnerable with each other.

Jordan:

Yes.

Romy:

And don't get me wrong, I like a queer dark romance too, but like these, sweet as honey men just like giving each other pleasure and sweet nothings and praise. It is the hottest thing I have ever fucking experienced, and I'm not even experiencing it.

Devonnie:

right.

Jordan:

I will say I did discover like a love for sapphic because it in a similar vein, I'm like, the first time I read a contemporary that wasn't Bully Sik.'cause I'm also Bully Romance is my favorite,

Romy:

Good for you.

Jordan:

I will say that proud. I'm not gonna shame it in the corner like everyone does. It was Bully Romance, but it was okay. And I'm like, no, listen, this was brutal and it was amazing. Anyways the first time I read like a sweet contemporary sapphic I felt so awkward I'm like,

Romy:

You're like, wait,

Jordan:

because

Romy:

other.

Jordan:

but because I'm like, what is this communication?

Annabel:

Why are they being nice to each other?

Jordan:

What I was like, why does this make me uncomfortable? And I really had to sit with that for a while. I'm like, it's because of how honest and upfront they're being the miscommunication is honest miscommunication, but not in the moment They realize that it gets resolved. And I'm like,

Romy:

Yeah. I don't know if this is just a

Jordan:

does this happen? I was like, is this what it's like why this is why we all know that sexuality isn't a choice because women would.

Romy:

Would not,

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Romy:

Yeah. Well, okay.

Jordan:

anyways, that's my, that was my big revelation this year.

Romy:

Well, no, I love that. And tell me if this is just a me thing, but like reading more and more sapphic romance and trans romance especially has like really done a beautiful yet brutal job of reminding me of my own internalized misogyny to like levels that I was like, wow, I'm confronting a lot about myself and I'm really happy I am. But also, fuck everybody who says romance novels. Don't do something

Jordan:

yeah. There it's again

Romy:

I'm growing as a

Devonnie:

Right back to our main point about why romance is important. Okay. The genre as a whole is important to the economy, to our mental stability. You know, there's so much to take away from it, but I agree. Yeah. There's certain things I read and I'll like what book was I reading? Triple Sec.

Annabel:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

I can't remember. I think it was Triple Set, but polyamory is not my thing. Ethical non-monogamy, not my thing. And it had those things in it, and so I'm reading it and I'm like, grossed out. No, I don't like this. Why are there so many people in here? Like a reverse, like why choose reverse hair type of situation is very different, but like specifically when it's like these people are all trying to be together as one, I'm like, huh. Whatever. But that book really opened my eyes, like

Jordan:

out of your comfort zone, like what

Devonnie:

Yeah. What I'm used to reading or seeing. Yeah. But reading, I was like look how much love and then look how many people can do chores. You know, look how many people can take care of things. I was just like if there's three of us, you know how much we can get done in a day. Like I'm in the bathroom, you're in the living room, you are doing the bedroom, someone's got laundry, and then we just come together and sit and have dinner. How wonderful. When we go out on dates, that's all three of us. I love that. I love that. Yeah. What a dream.

Romy:

that your take from this is so like practical domesticity and it's so no, it's that's so great and so valid. That is

Devonnie:

that's literally what I was like, no, this is a, this is something here. Like this is something they're winning.

Romy:

Yeah. No, I definitely did beyond just like basapphically only reading queer smut all year. I like, I really dove into parts. Things that like originally made me uncomfortable too, because when I find like a kink or something or something pops up and I'm like, I need to learn every single thing about this. I need to know why people I know how they're liking it also. So I have just been in like every single corner of erotica that I've found to date

Jordan:

Annabel's shaking her head. She's just

Romy:

abel's I'm

Jordan:

Romy's doing the romy's, doing

Devonnie:

the work.

Jordan:

on that. I'm just over here and I'll discuss it.

Annabel:

Romy's deep in the corners of erotica, and I love her so much for it.

Romy:

It is such a cool, weird space. I am obsessed with people just like being completely shameless about what they love.

Devonnie:

They like,

Romy:

And then authors are like, I'm gonna write about this. That is it is. So, there's shit that is so niche and there's 12 indie authors who are like, this is all I do. And I'm like, what?

Devonnie:

Yes.

Romy:

amazing.

Jordan:

did you find any new ones this year? Indie or tra, but especially Indie. Did you find any new,

Romy:

like authors.

Jordan:

Yeah. New authors, new to you? Authors. Not necessarily new to the scene, but like you discovered them for yourself.

Romy:

Oh my God. So many. Literally so many. The ones that I'll just talk about, the ones I read, like the entire catalog of this isn't kink, but it's queer smut Willow Dix, Willow Dixon. I have read every single thing she's now written. She, my favorite of her is the Crimson Club series, which is about a group of dancers and the love that they find along the way, if you will, but it's really hot. And then she also has a Dark romance series that she's writing right now, but it's all it's all really hot. And I love, love, love the way she writes about sex because it is not like over romanticized. It like gets like down and dirty is like what it takes to have gay sex and it like, but it keeps it super, super hot.

Devonnie:

Willow Dixon is what you

Romy:

Willow Dixon No, seriously. So start with Crimson Club, but if you're wanting something darker her Silver U Crest prep series that she's writing right now very hot.

Jordan:

prep. I'm like,

Devonnie:

Okay.

Romy:

know. No, yes. It's very yeah. Yeah. It's, if you've ever read I know Jordan, you've read prep School, bully Romances a little bit. This is, I wouldn't categorize this as a bully, I would say this is more just dark. But yeah. Then I'm also working through all of Ben Elon's work right now. He is a queer author in the UK who writes a ton of different kinds of romantics. He's written horror, he's written all of this like fairytale reimaginings to be like queer and kind of in his own fantasy world. And so really great too. But yeah. What about you guys?

Jordan:

Oh my

Devonnie:

Any new yeah, I met, I got a couple new ones.

Jordan:

I got some new ones. Not necessarily all indie, but like Jasmine Moss was a big one for me. I just loved her style of writing. Jamon Eve I'm getting into. It was really fun. I arc our a i, I got an a LC of Spellcaster and I just loved it. So I'm going back and trying to find her other stuff. Danielle Allen for me, with plus size player, blew my mind and I haven't had a chance because of all my quote unquote homework reading to go back and read more of hers. But I'm so excited to read more of hers. And then, excuse me, for indie authors, I discovered relatively recently Hazel Rockwood through an arc that I signed up for on Threads, and she's a new indie author and. I am obsessed. I became obsessed and I now message her all the time and became such a big fan from reading her latest title Storm Bringer that I am now on her street team that

Romy:

Oh my God. Fun.

Jordan:

So I love her so much.

Devonnie:

I love that.

Romy:

I love the name of the

Devonnie:

Annabel, do you wanna go? Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

Annabel:

ugh, so amazing. I feel like I, this so much happened this year for me because Roy and I had our first in-person event together, and like I met Chelsea n Tompkins, I met Kale Parsons. I met so many wonderful people. And like

Romy:

them. You literally met our hosts.

Annabel:

I know I met you guys that was like, I came over and I was like, we have a crush on you. Can we hang out?

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. We have a Christian, you actually not tion. Is this polyamory or what? I love it.

Annabel:

I

Romy:

I'm super open to it now.

Annabel:

the,

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. Super open.

Romy:

Yeah. Imagine how clean the kitchen is going to be.

Jordan:

Oh,

Devonnie:

my God.

Jordan:

put away in organized ways. Like

Romy:

Oh

Annabel:

fear, I am not your gal. If that's what you're hoping for.

Romy:

no,

Jordan:

sure you have your own strengths, but that's what I'm saying is we all have strengths.

Devonnie:

Right. Exactly. We all bring something to the table.

Jordan:

we interrupted Anabel. New to you authors. I'm so sorry.

Devonnie:

Unhinged.

Annabel:

no, it's okay.

Jordan:

for hours.

Annabel:

Honestly there's just so much to choose from. So I'm just gonna go with a couple. This was the year that I discovered Chelsea Ann Tompkins. was the year that, which was amazing. We just interviewed her. It was so much fun. Ugh, so, so good. This was the year that I read my first Emily Henry, which is crazy. It took me this long. Here we are,

Jordan:

I'm sorry, Deb Face, I'm so sorry. I'm so happy for you. Which one did you read?

Annabel:

I don't even know how I feel about it to be honest.

Devonnie:

Okay. Which one did you

Jordan:

Okay. Yeah. Let's be honest. No, we're we, this is an open space. No judgment.

Annabel:

We read Great, big, beautiful Life

Romy:

It was our first and only Emily Henry book that either of us have ever read.'cause people were just like, you need to do Emily Henry on the podcast we're like, oh, well she has a new one coming out. We'll just read that one. I mean, it was fine. She just kind of tried to redo Evelyn Hugo

Annabel:

and we were like, why?

Romy:

yeah. We're like, okay. Like you didn't need to make it straight, but you did. So here we are.

Jordan:

you are here with us today. Yeah, I've tried Em Hen a couple times. I really liked book lovers.

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

fun.

Romy:

Okay.

Jordan:

than that, I'm like, listen, if you're looking for an intro into romance to see if you're interested in the subject, I think that is a great beginner book for you. I, and you know what? And she is great. She is great as a person, as an author, she can write well, her stories just aren't where we're at in our reading journey, I think is what

Annabel:

Yeah, that's completely

Devonnie:

That's it. I did read Funny Story that was, so, I've read Book Lovers. I read Funny story. I'm, I did love funny story. However, even with me loving, funny story, it still wasn't the best book I'd ever read. I will, I do agree. Emily Henry has a beautiful way of writing just words together, prose, the descriptions, stuff like that. But the stories just always lack a depth that I'm looking for. Chemistry is a big thing. These the, her main characters never seem to actually like each other. For real. And you're not fooling me.

Jordan:

it's more situational. I feel like their relationships are more like we're in this

Devonnie:

Forced together. Yeah.

Romy:

a lot of plot. It's a lot of plot and not as much character development, at least in my very limited experience. And like the reason I love reading romance is for the characters for that character development. If any, it can be a book, the plot can meet literally nothing. If the characters are well developed and go on a journey, I will drool like it's all it takes.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Annabel:

Well, so

Jordan:

need to go get a drink here. I'm like, yeah.

Devonnie:

Yes. Yeah. For sure. I agree.

Romy:

Okay. Okay.

Annabel:

I mean, I will say like the thing that I really loved about being able to read that was not so much the book itself, but like being a part of a community because now I can actually have this conversation with you guys in a meaningful Whereas before I couldn't. And so I'm very grateful for that,

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Romy:

Annabel, I wanna give you a shout out too. She read her, she hasn't read a ton of Dark Romance or anything, or like a erotica. She, for the podcast read her very first dark erotica. She dove right in. We just reviewed Desperate Measures by Katee. Robert, which deals

Jordan:

oh, yeah. That is dark too. That is,

Romy:

I mean, we dove right into consensual non-consent and like really unpacking a lot of really like dark, kinky themes. And she watching her have fun with this. Sorry, I'm just talking for you because

Annabel:

Yeah, no problem

Romy:

like watching you have fun with it was so,'cause I was a little nervous you'd get there and be like, no, I can't do it.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Romy:

And you were like, that was really fucking hot. And I was like

Jordan:

Yeah.

Romy:

yes. This is the girl who honored

Jordan:

are feeling, yeah, if you're ever feeling like you want a dark romance, but you don't want anything too or dark for the sake of being dark. I think there is a very, there's very big difference too. You just let me know. I'm

Annabel:

my god, I,

Jordan:

dark romance.

Devonnie:

yeah. Jordan's the

Annabel:

A thousand times. Yes. I will say Romy I do read dark shit. It just doesn't happen to be romance

Romy:

It is not Dark Romance.

Jordan:

Yeah. Yeah.

Romy:

Very different. I mean, like romance to us, this is such a sacred thing, and I can still find that in Dark Romance. I know not everybody can, and so just because you are expose yourself to really fucked up things that even I won't read, doesn't mean that you can put it into a loving, quote unquote space and be

Devonnie:

And have it translate.

Romy:

Also kudos to Anabel because on our very first episode, she couldn't even get herself to say sex. She said they consummated their relationship

Devonnie:

Anna

Romy:

and I said, so they fucked, and she's

Devonnie:

yeah. Her.

Annabel:

Hey, I don't even know that girl. Okay. It's fine.

Romy:

grown so much. She's

Devonnie:

we love that.

Romy:

we're like talking to dominatirx like now I mean, like she, she's doing so good.

Jordan:

Look at your character development in

Devonnie:

Your character

Jordan:

now an, this is now an Annabelle appreciation episode. Thank

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

Yeah, you, I mean, I'll make some art so you can put it on the fridge and it'll be great.

Jordan:

Yeah. I have gold star stickers. I have sparkly stickers.

Annabel:

Oh my God. Amazing. I think I have some

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

and it's gonna be great.

Jordan:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

I love that.

Jordan:

Whatever you're feeling creatively, like just

Devonnie:

Yeah. Let's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever are there any more new to you authors that you read?

Annabel:

Okay. I was a little bit floored by Cat Sebastian specifically. You should be so lucky.

Romy:

my God. Yes.

Annabel:

I was unprepared for how deeply beautiful that book was. And that and also first Time Caller by BK Boris, like absolutely devastatingly gorgeous books. And,

Jordan:

Sorry. I'm not gonna interrupt you again. We keep interrupting you. I'm so sorry. You keep mentioning such good things.

Annabel:

well, I was just gonna say, I will say I was not, when I first started first time caller, I was like, fuck this entire thing. I was not enjoying the setup. I did not like, it felt like all of the characters were caricatures, but by the end I was like, oh my God, love is real. It's all gonna be okay. Everyone.

Devonnie:

I love that. I love that when you have that moment.

Jordan:

Okay. I know we need to keep moving but I would love to talk to you about why you enjoyed that book later when we have more time,

Annabel:

Oh my God. Which one?

Jordan:

on board and everyone loves it. First time caller.

Annabel:

Oh,

Jordan:

I would love to do like another time. But

Romy:

We both adored it, so that would be super fun. I-W-I-W-I wanna know all about why you didn't, I wanna know all about why you didn't like it. That's so cool.

Devonnie:

well. I tried reading the mixed signal mixed. Do you know the first series BK Borson wrote? It's like mixed feelings? Well, there are four books in that, and I dnf that book too because I was over it. And so I have been having a hard time getting back to BK because that left such a sour taste in my mouth. But I know everyone loves first time car and I was actually really excited for that book because it's my vibe. Jordan swiftly told me no. So I know I will have to read it for myself to figure it out, but maybe, yeah, maybe that can be another episode where we deep dive that specific book and say Why, you know, and I don't know where I'll land. Will I like it? Will I hate it? We'll see.

Annabel:

Only one way to find out.

Devonnie:

yeah, exactly. I have to read it.

Jordan:

That's so interesting'cause I love how certain, like that book has stuck with you so much. And I know there's always like those moments where you can like, you might not remember even like the whole book after you've read so many books, but like you get to a point where you just remember moments or certain scenes and things like that. Because I know one book that a lot of, there's like opposite, right? A lot of people love that one. And I was not the biggest fan. It wasn't for me, it wasn't written for me. And that's okay. But one book that I absolutely loved that a lot of people, it got a lot of heat for that people didn't like, was caught up by Navea Allen. And I loved it because let me tell you, there are more than one scene voyeurism scenes because the sex club is involved. Like she own part owns a sex club and takes the MMC to the sex club for the first time. And there are specific scenes that are like burned into my memory now. And it was like the hottest thing I've ever read. It was like, it just, I can see it now.

Romy:

I

Annabel:

Oh.

Jordan:

see it now and it's not an appropriate time, but let me tell you it's all there and so like just certain scenes this year, you know, like pop into my head, I'm just like doing the dishes and I'm like, oh, remember that scene? Remember that scene in Storm Bringer when she said Crawl to me pet?

Devonnie:

Oh my God.

Jordan:

and she calls him a I mean, there's just certain things. So like those are like big scenes that stick with me. So many from never the oh, who wrote Never The Roses. Now I can't remember, but never The Roses stuck with me. For me, it was like the whole, I don't even know how to, like the atmospheric feel of that book stuck with me and it's oh, it was chilling and

Romy:

a good review.

Jordan:

I love it.

Devonnie:

I love that. Wait, there are hold on. I have first of all, no one asked me what new to meet authors

Jordan:

sorry. I thought we did you I'm so sorry.

Devonnie:

first of all, and I've got plenty.

Annabel:

Let's hear.

Jordan:

sorry. I'm

Devonnie:

Anyway, rapid fire.

Romy:

We're groveling.

Jordan:

really good transition, but let's

Devonnie:

Yeah. It, it literally was a really great transition. I don't know. I'm gonna go just rapid fire. Claire Khan, who wrote the, well, recently I just read the marriage Narrative. I had so much fun. I was giggling, kicking my feet. Victoria Wilder, who wrote the Bourbon Boy Series?

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

talking more about that. Km Anova, who has like a series that's supposed to be like Call of Duty inspired and like Hunger Games. But I read once Upon A Demon's Heart, and

Romy:

Ooh.

Devonnie:

loved it. Then Brie and Greenwich have been getting like lots of ear time right now for their esprit and Trilogy Rift, born Dusk Bound, and then the other spinoff the ascended These books. At first I thought they were romantic. They're definitely high, a little higher fantasy than just romance being the entire plot, and I'm really enjoying that. So they're new to me and Meki who did Son of the Morning, I have a lot of feelings about that book, but there are some really good, there's really good writing in it. Jody McAllister, who did the An Academic Affair, loved that. Contemporary romance. Laura Steven, our Infinite fates. I just, and then Josh, Richard Kay l and Meg Ann, who were actually Rex from Lizzie B. Brown, who we've had on the podcast. Friend of the pod mentioned this series and I'm really loving it. There's so many books. I'm probably gonna just pace myself and not binge them all, but so far I am loving the vibes of their, like the Mate game series.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

Those are my new to me authors.

Romy:

Thanks Deb.

Jordan:

Thank you. I had been so excited to hear your list. Thank you.

Devonnie:

Thanks.

Annabel:

Wait, I have a good transition from the previous one if you're editing it that way.

Devonnie:

Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Jordan:

this point we're all here. We're here for the vibes. It's fine.

Annabel:

We're here for the vibes.

Devonnie:

Chaos.

Jordan:

Yep.

Annabel:

I'll say the scene that I keep coming back to is also a Navea Allen scene. And it's from the, it's like an epilogue in lights out.

Romy:

I knew it. I fucking knew you were gonna do

Annabel:

fucking think about it all the time.'cause I, so I am like a big outdoors girl. Like I used to backpack a bunch. I was a trail guide for a time and it's a she runs into the woods and is if you can catch me,

Jordan:

welcome to Dev's. Favorite kink.

Annabel:

Oh my God, it's so hot. I think about it all the time while I'm washing the dishes as well.

Jordan:

Something about, nevermind.

Devonnie:

this I'm not afraid to say it.

Romy:

I was gonna say, please, this is a

Devonnie:

Primals my thing.

Romy:

Yes.

Devonnie:

Primals my thing. Give me a countdown. Have me barefoot running through the woods. Have I experienced this in my life? No. Will it probably be difficult navigating broken branches and shrubbery? I don't care. I'm not worried about that. I hear you huffing and puffing behind me. Oh,

Annabel:

It's so great.

Romy:

Okay. Then

Devonnie:

yeah.

Romy:

do need to read Willow Dixon's Silver Crest U Series because she works a lot of primal play into, it's not all like in the woods. A lot of it is just like roughhousing or marking and other kinds of primal play. But yeah, you'll enjoy it. You'll really enjoy it.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Primal was my thing, man. Primals my thing. So I, when you said lights out, I already knew where we were going. I was like, I'm there with you, Bestie. I'm right there.

Annabel:

See, I'm not totally vanilla. I may do macaroni

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Hey, vanilla is a flavor and that's okay.

Devonnie:

love all flavors. Okay.

Annabel:

it's true.

Jordan:

Just some more

Romy:

All of these are like, so fun and spicy and for like, all of the spice that I read, like I came back to this like really just like nons spicy thing that keeps coming back to me, which is, and Anabel, I'm so glad you brought this up. It's in, you should be so lucky by Cat Sebastian, which is a necessary read for every human on the planet. I swear to God, it is so fucking good. So fucking good. But there's, so it takes place in the fifties. It's that this journalist, a grumpy journalist who is assigned to cover sports and he, especially a profile in one of a baseball player in the city, and he's just I write about art, not sports. I don't wanna fucking do this, whatever. Of course, they end up falling in love Eddie and Mark. But at one point Mark, the journalist has to go up into the press box and be watching the game. And, you know, all the other, like sports journalists are there with all of their, you know, gear and whatever, and Mark just walks in looking like bespoke. And he has opera glasses and he just uses his opera glasses to watch the game. And I think about that,

Devonnie:

work on me.

Romy:

oh, Uhhuh.

Devonnie:

Yeah,

Jordan:

Look at the theater major over there. Just

Devonnie:

you know, that that's my vibe. I'm like, yeah, that'll work on me. That'll do it.

Romy:

staring at him and he is just you're be, you're beneath me. Continues.

Jordan:

just gonna say he is above everyone. Yep.

Devonnie:

Yes. Yeah. I love that

Romy:

the, like most like toxic little dude. And I am obsessed.

Annabel:

you also know that he's getting a really good view of Eddie.

Romy:

Exactly. Oh my God. And I'm sorry, but like in those baseball pants, you know, the ass is popping you know. Yes. And so very, like nons spicy, but I think about Mark and his opera glasses in the press box all the fucking time,

Devonnie:

I love that. I love that stuck with you.

Romy:

like that. That's the, that's confidence I wanna bring into the world.

Devonnie:

Right? Yeah. You see learning things. I love that. Okay. I do have two scenes that I think about all the time. One from Viciously Yours, which is the first book in the Faye Kings of Eden series by Jamie Applegate Hunter. Again, please read that series. Listen to it. I really love it. But. There's a point where our main character, Rennick gets touched by some woman. Like she, she literally just puts her arm or her hand on his arm, like to stop him, or, I can't remember what it, but it was like very brief where she was just trying to stop him and his mate sees it and then kind of throws it back at him. You let her touch you. What do you think Renick does? Renick gets a knife and cuts off the piece of skin from his arm that was touched by a woman that wasn't his mate. So now he has to walk around and wait for that to heal over with new skin because his mate was not happy that some woman touched him.

Romy:

He needed to learn a lesson.

Devonnie:

He, yeah, I

Jordan:

And prove his devotion and loyalty.

Devonnie:

you imagine? He just, yeah. What? And takes it and throws it on the floor. What?

Romy:

Ugh, gross.

Annabel:

Insane.

Romy:

No, just the flap of skin hitting the floor. That's,

Devonnie:

Yeah. And I'm pretty sure Jamie writes it, that you just see this and I'm just like, ah, yeah, but worked on me. Second is very sweet actually. And it's from Tarah DeWitt's left of forever. That book is just so beautiful. And it's a simple line. It's two exes. They're divorced or in the middle of a divorce or already divorced, and they're kind of finding their way back to each other. But their lives are very intertwined. They've known each other since they were kids. Like they're end game, you know, but they're separate. But anyway, we're in a meeting and Ellis is like super grumpy or whatever, and something's being said. And he says about his ex-wife, he go,'cause his last name is Bird. And he says about his ex-wife, she's still a bird. Like you just say, she's still a part of the family. Like she still has that name. And it's just so simple when he says it. And it's so very nonchalant. He just bursts out saying it like you, the, and she's still a bird. She still has rights. You know, her last name is still a bird. And that is just so romantic to me.'cause

Jordan:

Talk about an amazing author like,

Devonnie:

Dewitt is like one of my favorite authors. I love her. And also I love her personality online. Like her online personality, I'm always cracking up. She's very unhinged, but it's very subtle so you don't realize it. And then you're like, wait a minute, girl.

Jordan:

throwing it in your face. She's not

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

face. She's just being, it, it feels genuine

Devonnie:

Genuine like that might be her personality offline. But yeah, those two scenes specifically, I think about all the, when I'm, you know, feeling like unhinged renick when I'm feeling sweet and sappy Ellis.

Romy:

I love that. Do you guys have, do you guys associate music with the books you're reading? Like a lot of times, like my Spotify library by the end of the year is like full of musapphic that reminds me of books and so puts me back in the space of the books that I was reading. Does that make sense or do I sound nuts?

Devonnie:

Yes.

Jordan:

Like favorite ones. If the authors have put together a playlist, I don't usually, I, unless I'm listening to one and I'm like, oh, this is very so and so coded. I think usually it's the playlists,

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. That

Romy:

given me so much new musapphic this year. Like my Spotify rap came out and I was like, I can name all five authors that gave me all five of

Devonnie:

That yes. Yeah. Lauren Asher is like really big about playlists, I'm pretty sure. And I think even ESA Allen has some playlists in her books. But right now because I have been on an Olivia Dean kick every book, I, every book I've read for the last couple books since that album has come out has an Olivia Dean song I'm reading. I'm like, oh, this is definitely so easy. Oh, this is definitely, you know, like Olivia is like running rampant in my mind. So there are scenes where recently I've been placing specifically her recent album. But I get what you mean about a song makes you think of a scene. For me I'm reading it and then I hear the song, but I don't always listen to musapphic with. My reading so it doesn't happen as frequently.

Romy:

Ah.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

And we're always thinking about it. Oh, sit

Devonnie:

I know We all just had a moment of oh, books.

Jordan:

so that's so calm. Let's shake it up.

Devonnie:

Oh, yeah. We, oh, buckle besties.

Jordan:

Check it.

Devonnie:

y'all might have to control me for the spoilers.

Jordan:

Yeah. Okay, so that was our vibes. But what about the shock and awe, the plot twists because you read enough and you're gonna get the plot twists, but also you read enough and it kind of, take more to surprise you when you read, at least for a lot of us, some people are able to totally disassociate prior knowledge when they're reading. I totally understand that. Some if you're reading enough romantic for example, you're gonna probably see a lot coming. Still enjoy it. But so for example, for me, that was forbidden Alchemy by Stacey McGuin. There was a plot twist in there, and I know, like Christina said, she saw a lot of it coming, but I did not, there was one where I screamed, and I. I can't, I don't even wanna allude to what it was. All I

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:

all I can say is God bless the unreliable narrator, because I actually love that. I love unreliable narrators because I, it's so good.

Devonnie:

They're literally doing it for the plot

Jordan:

good.

Romy:

gives me anxiety. I can't do it when,

Jordan:

at, Annabel is so uncomfortable. She like shifted away from her mic. She's eh, no.

Annabel:

This is what it like. Whenever I ro me gets anxious, I'm like, oh no, give her space,

Devonnie:

because she

Jordan:

Like, when you see your own parent cry and you automatically cry no.

Annabel:

no.

Devonnie:

what is that? What's,

Jordan:

Whatcha doing?

Romy:

I, like I can't do unreliable female narrators like women. No. Literally. And this is I'm sorry to make this so serious out of nowhere, but women not being believed is I can't, I cannot

Devonnie:

Yeah. I get that.

Romy:

it. I can't do it. I cannot even dissociate enough for me to be like, this is clever. It is. It's always clever being able to write like that. Holy shit. Next level talent

Devonnie:

It takes a

Romy:

that, that, that is for people like you who can like, you know, not be sensitive little assholes like me.

Jordan:

See and I totally get that. And I totally get that. And I think a lot of times if it were contemporary or like the Sweet Romance, I think I would have different feelings about it. But there was something about a forbidden alchemy about the world building, about the character development that it just felt right. When I read it, I was like, I did not see this coming, but the world felt like it made sense and then now it feels like it makes even more sense. It makes me feel like, oh, this shouldn't have made sense before I should have been questioning things. I just had to sit with myself and I was like, oh my God, okay, but to me, it made complete sense once it opened up. And I, and it felt so unique.

Devonnie:

It's very unique.

Jordan:

it,

Romy:

Well, what did we say earlier? There's a way to do every trope, right? And so I'll totally read that and hey, maybe that'll be my one unreliable

Devonnie:

gets you there. Yeah. Could you imagine?

Romy:

did it.

Jordan:

yeah. And I was even reluctant to say unreliable narrator.'cause then I feel like then you go and you read it and you're just like waiting and you're questioning everything and

Devonnie:

To see why she unreliable. Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:

And so it's like even, I mean, I was even reluctant, like reluctant to say that. But in a similar vein, like the Halfling saga, I ate that. That series up two by Melissa, I think it's Melissa Blair was so good. And there was a big reveal in that too that just had me questioning my intelligence in the best way. So

Romy:

I love that.

Annabel:

that's awesome.

Jordan:

yeah. Anyone else? Big twist. Big twist. We like big twists.

Romy:

You know, like I feel like they're a little hard to come by in romance in a traditional way. Because you know, like I don't wanna just call every third act breakup a big twist'cause it's like it's fucking hot,

Devonnie:

No.

Romy:

But there was one that shook me to my core this year and I even, so I was reading the Spires series by Alexis Hall and the first one is Glitter Land. And if you haven't read this series, Alexis Hall is not only an incredible writer, it is like such like a visceral, beautiful romance with these characters who are so flawed, but you love them so much, you just wanna give them a, and they were published more than 10 years ago. So Alexis Hall went back and put their footnotes across, so you're kind of getting to reread with them. It's really cool. And even they wrote in the footnotes, this is like maybe the worst thing I've ever done to a character.

Annabel:

Oh, no.

Romy:

where I was just like, I don't know if this is going to have a happy ending. I genuinely like I there, I can excuse anything as a romance reader for the characters if I love them. This was, it was, there was this just like horrifying betrayal scene where I was like, there might not be a good way to come back for this. They do it. Alexis Hu can do anything, but I will say glitter land. Read it, revel in it. Enjoy the prose, but brace yourself because you will get shot through the heart at some point in the book.

Jordan:

that's interesting because I've read some Alexis Hall and they put their characters through it so. I haven't read that one though. So

Romy:

Oh, do it and see what you think. Do it seriously. So,

Jordan:

getting my heart ripped out. I really

Romy:

Well, and they can do it with just a few words and it's just

Devonnie:

and almost no.

Romy:

oh

Jordan:

Mm-hmm.

Annabel:

Oh my God.

Devonnie:

I

Romy:

yeah. It's like I go back to them when it's like a few times a year. I feel like I'm getting like too apathetic and so I need to like restart my heart, you know? And so I have I, yeah I like have my like go-to, this is going to emotionally destroy me, but it's gonna be bringing me back into the land of the

Devonnie:

Yes,

Romy:

TJ Klun does that. Alexis Hall is now on my list of that as well, when I need my heart to be like no. Start up again.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Restart. Restart. I love

Romy:

You need to.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. I

Annabel:

So funny.'cause I feel like when I'm reading a book, I often like really, I audibly gasp, like probably more than is comfortable. Like I'm a very dramatic actual reader. But then looking back, I have this like emotional distance where I'm like, oh yes, that book. I don't even remember if there was a twist. I don't know. Which is terrible for this scenario. And also terrible for being, being a romance podcaster.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Yes, I read that book. No, I do not know the characters

Devonnie:

Meanwhile, flash to the reading of that book.

Jordan:

I can tell you it was a five star read, but I do not know anything else.

Annabel:

read this was not a romance. I actually, there was a romantic element to it, but I read something early in the year that was super fucking niche. No one is gonna care about this book but me, but I love it. And it was about Christopher Marlowe. It was called Light Born. Christopher Marlowe is one of the people that people think, or that might have been Shakespeare but he was a poet playwright, like right before Shakespeare became big interesting guy. Seems like he was a spy at one point and was killed in a bar fight at 28.

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Annabel:

This is like all we know about him. And

Jordan:

the most

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

the

Annabel:

this whole story arc around this really ambiguous historical figure that we dunno much about. And lots of love. Triangles, squares, all kinds of things.

Jordan:

When you say lots of love triangles around one person, I'm like, but he died at 28. Wow. Oh,

Romy:

He was

Annabel:

was busy.

Devonnie:

back then. They had nothing else to do.

Annabel:

yeah, I mean. Fuck, and you go

Devonnie:

trying to stay alive. Yeah.

Romy:

right place and

Devonnie:

that was a, yeah, that's literally it. They had not much else going,

Jordan:

Also proud of you, Annabel, for saying that he just fucked and look at, see you again. How far we came? Yes.

Annabel:

I've been here for a while but I.

Jordan:

We're celebrating the end of the year. We're celebrating milestones. We're celebrating personal

Devonnie:

Yeah. We love that. We love that. Okay. I, I tried to think like super far back about all the books I've read this year, but I couldn't remember any huge plot twist besides forbidding an Alchemy, which I feel like I knew you might've mentioned that you were gonna mention that, so I didn't pick that one. But my last few books, including this Esprit and Trilogy rift Born Dust Bound. Dust Bound is the second book by Greenwich and Lennox. And that one, the Betrayal, the, so the first book Rift Born, I found myself like what's going on? But in hindsight, we were world building. They were trying to show the world. They were trying to help you understand the stakes and whatever. So I was a little bored in book one, but I was like, push through, get to book two, read book two. And I was like, okay, we're still building a lot, but there's more information. Okay. Some things are coming up. The very end of that book, I'm talking about the last pages, the last page of that book, I flung my Kindle, flung it, I flung it. I was just

Romy:

Yes.

Annabel:

Was it okay?

Devonnie:

you know,

Jordan:

Was it Okay. NL is really

Devonnie:

was fine. Yeah. Kindle's good. The problem was I was also listening to it, so that's the problem.'cause I didn't fling the headphones. But I, the Kindle and

Romy:

happening to you in your

Devonnie:

Yeah, it's, it literally stepped happening. Yeah. I was no longer reading it, but it was still going.'cause I like, I was just, I was like no. But then it kept going. I was like, no, but that, and honestly it's probably not even the biggest plot twist you could ever see, but the betrayal in the heartbreak is enough for you to be like, for you to, basapphically that scene makes you question the entire book. It makes you question the entire first book. And so that is what I'm like left with what do you mean? And I gotta wait till next year for the next book, babe. Whatcha doing?

Annabel:

Oh no.

Devonnie:

I wanna tell you gotta end it so bad. But no, y'all gotta read. I gotta read. I'm trying so hard not to do spoilers. All I'll is that the very last pages of dust Bound prepare yourself to question everything you've read for the last two books.

Romy:

my God, I love that.

Jordan:

that. That re

Romy:

more thing about twists? I'm so sorry. I just realized I was thinking, I was like we Anabel and I actually put our listeners through a twist this year because we decided to cover Weathering Heights. And what I realized was that like nobody actually, not nobody, very few people actually know the whole complex plot of Weathering Heights. So it was a two-parter episode. So the first part of the whole two-parter episode, the first episode was like an hour of me just sitting there going like a millennials version of like point by point, here's the fuck, like what happens in weathering heights'cause it's insane. And we had people writing into us being like, he did what with her grave. I'm so sorry. Like I'm crying. I am screaming, I am laughing.

Devonnie:

Yes, exactly.

Romy:

so I just wanna say that like the classics still have some pretty gnarly twists that caught a lot of people by surprise apparently.

Jordan:

Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

absolutely.

Annabel:

I did not think when you said we put our listeners through a twist.

Romy:

did you think I was gonna say?

Annabel:

I so completely thought that you were gonna talk about how For April Fool's Day, we told everyone that we were covering a court of thorns and roses, and instead we had our boyfriends pretend to be us and cover unhinged by Vera Valentine, which is an erotic door romance.

Jordan:

Know that We did a whole unhinged episode of not just that book, but all unhinged kind types of

Devonnie:

There were spoons, there were pillows.

Romy:

Huh Uhhuh,

Annabel:

good.

Romy:

one of our

Devonnie:

That's actually so good. That's a really good twist, honestly.

Romy:

just played the intro and then it was two male voices and they were talking to each other like they were us. And it was so funny. If you look at our analytics, it like goes from like audio streaming drops off in YouTube, just skyrockets because everybody's like, who the fuck is this? And

Devonnie:

What's

Romy:

oh my God, we were expecting like 15 minutes of knob jokes, right? And no, it was like an hour and a half long recording going back to the mythos of Greco-Roman ancestry of certain woods to like the sat, like the ethics of like satire, erotica writing. And we were just like, we were literally just like sitting here like texting each other what is happening?

Devonnie:

Yeah. What are they doing?

Romy:

What is,

Jordan:

That's

Romy:

loved

Devonnie:

Why am I learning so much?

Romy:

Okay. So yeah, Anna, about, you're right, that was the biggest twist of our personal lives this

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Romy:

Anyway, I'm so sorry. I just got, I got us so off track. You can cut all of that out. I'm

Devonnie:

No,

Jordan:

Bonus content.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yep. Okay. Where are we? Where are we? Did everyone do their Shocking?

Romy:

I think we're into funniest book, right? Is that we're off to.

Jordan:

Now we can't cut it because that was hilarious.

Devonnie:

No. I know. That was actually pretty hilarious. Okay. Funniest book. Damn. I had a hard time with this, y'all. Who wants to go first? I think I need a minute.

Jordan:

I, so I'll go really quick'cause I don't think mine's gonna be too long. So for me it's like what I remember being funny. Is it necessarily the one I laughed at the most? No, but I I was looking through all my reads and I was like. I laughed a lot and I really enjoyed it, and I had a really good time with it. So that's how I went. For me, it's let's make a scene by Laura Wood because it's so millennial coded too, because there are two actors, but it follows them the beginning of their career when they're like late teens, early twenties. And then I think it was like eight years later, eight, 10 years later when they come back together for a re like

Devonnie:

Remake of

Jordan:

a reunion. A reunion movie to like for their previous movie. That was a huge, the starter of their careers. Right. And they did used to date anyways, all this stuff and it's so funny, but there's so many references to pop culture from like our generation and things like that, that were so well done. They didn't feel obvious or hitting you over the head with, it was just so funny. Like the mail main character is on a show called Bloodlust, which is a direct like parody of Vampire diaries and just like the, just all the different references just had me laughing so hard and it was so fun. So that one definitely, and also I will say accomplished to the villain because Hannah Nicole Mayer's comedic timing is unparalleled.

Devonnie:

Yeah,

Jordan:

it was just so fun.

Romy:

I love that. I love it. Anabel, I feel like you've been reading a lot of important books this year. Was there one that like made you laugh out loud?

Annabel:

okay.

Romy:

Oh God, now I'm about to get my ass handed to

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

honestly,

Jordan:

funny.

Devonnie:

Right.

Annabel:

so we read the, I Reread The Princess Bride. And it is so fucking funny. It is so funny. But I also read like a little parody romance. It was like a parody of romance. It was absurd. And so funny. There's a char, there's a character named Mortimer who's a fish, and all that he says is Blob the entire time. It's called Romance is like that.

Jordan:

That sounds amazing. Actually,

Romy:

is so niche. I love it. I'm so

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah,

Annabel:

funny. It's by an author named Lee Veris. There's also this great, like one thing that I really appreciated about it is that it's like, meant to be written really sloppily, but, the writer is essentially a character and he's talking about how he's yeah, and like this girl's so hot and she would never sleep with me because I'm a divorced man in his forties who's balding and fuck me. I'm in love with my character and he is like slowly starts to try and romance his own character. And he's she would choose me if it like over this stupid male character that I made. It's great.

Devonnie:

I love that.

Jordan:

that does

Devonnie:

love the inner work. Yeah, that actually sounds like a good okay. Yeah. This will get my vibes going all high and like funny and cute.

Jordan:

I love it.

Devonnie:

love

Romy:

I'm going in a completely different direction for my answer.'cause I just read the, like I say, like the stupidest book. And I don't mean it as in like it's a bad book'cause it's like weirdly well written. Like I just, I mean that in I was like, how is this so good? It's called Not All MBOs Wear capes

Devonnie:

I've seen that one. Did you read that?

Jordan:

I read

Devonnie:

You read one of those

Jordan:

and the Jimbos. I read how Ellie Hayes and the Himbos. That one was funny too, but

Devonnie:

Was it the same author?

Jordan:

I don't know.

Romy:

so.

Devonnie:

Oh, okay.

Jordan:

the fact that

Devonnie:

not all

Jordan:

hims

Devonnie:

Yeah

Romy:

I love a mbo Protect the MBOs, honestly.

Jordan:

Need protection. They're

Romy:

no. And it's literally it's like they, it started out Sea Rochelle started out as like a writing exercise, like a comedic writing exercise. And then people got so obsessed with it, and then they basapphically like strong-armed her into writing an entire massive series. And she's okay, now I need like an arc and like more characters. So it's an entire series. It starts off with not all MBOs wear capes, and it is like so divided between being hot as hell and just so fucking stupid and hysterical. It makes fun of itself constantly, but it's

Jordan:

favorite.

Romy:

yeah, but like all the characters are like, so like unashamedly kinky too. And it's literally about the first one is literally about a super villain falling in love with a superhero. It's and

Devonnie:

actually so cute.

Romy:

like literally the superhero's name is Captain Masculine. Like this book laughs at itself so hard. There's, you can't take it seriously. And it was, and so if you want just like a very steamy, hysterical satire by the end of the series, you are head over heels for every single character, which is to me what like, makes it worth talking about.'cause it wasn't just like a fun read, it was like by the end, like she took the reins on this once she realized people wanted it and turned it into something where I was like, I genuinely missed the characters once the series Despite them all being in like caricatures

Devonnie:

yeah. Oh, I love that

Romy:

read a lot of funny shit this year, but that was my most recent one that I was just like, this is just fun.

Devonnie:

top tier. Yeah. A good time.

Romy:

fun. Yeah.

Jordan:

Love

Devonnie:

Yeah. I do. I have I have one, and I'm actually gonna read a quote that I, when I read this, I like immediately screenshot it, sent it to like

Jordan:

Oh yeah. Okay. I'm gonna go

Devonnie:

What? Okay, but buck, yeah. Buckle in here. So funniest book is obsessively yours, but Jamie Applegate Hunter. I know I'm talking about this series a lot. Please bear with me. Here is the quote, one of the quotes that I found hysterical. Okay. To her mortification, she coughed, spewing cu everywhere, including on his chest. Roman rubbed soothing circles on her back, holding her hair out of her face. She didn't look up. She couldn't How fucking embarrassing Roman kneeled beside the bed and moved into her line of sight. Are you okay? The concern in his voice made her want to die the first time. She sucked his cock, she spit his own calm all over him. God's just take me now.

Romy:

Oh my God. Oh my God. I have secondhand cringe so hard.

Annabel:

Oh God.

Romy:

I'm like,

Devonnie:

could you, when I was reading it, when I was reading it, and that was the built up, and he's just a sweet baby angel because he's obsessed with it. He don't care. He thought that was the hottest thing he's ever

Romy:

he's let the aftercare commence. Like

Devonnie:

Yes. Yes. And he's rubbing, he's are you okay? Meanwhile, she's just I can't even make eye contact. Like he's just covered Because she choked, because she coughed

Annabel:

Oh

Devonnie:

the book is just full. It's

Jordan:

say that, you know, romance isn't realistic. I mean, romance books aren't

Devonnie:

That is, that's so real though. That is so real.

Jordan:

messaged me this quote immediately and I just said, you know what? It's really the hottest thing when something, because inevitably things happen, embarrassing things happen, and it's the hottest when a man can or person can just play it off

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

and

Devonnie:

Or not make you

Jordan:

feel good and keep, I mean, and I was like, you know what? That is hilarious.

Devonnie:

Right. Because I could easily see that happening. Can you imagine you, this is the first time you are going to work. Things are getting messy. All of a sudden you have a coughing fit and you just all over the man's chest because you couldn't take it. You just, and then nothing in you told you to turn to the right. Turn to the left. You

Jordan:

it was, you were trying to

Devonnie:

hold it. You're like,

Jordan:

it and you're like, I could, Nope.

Romy:

no.

Annabel:

In fairness, a man is easier to clean than a carpet.

Devonnie:

true. And that's where we think and see Annabell and look at you bringing us back to the realness of it, because who's scrubbing that carpet now? It's gonna be all stiff and like crunchy. You know, you hop in the shower. We'll never know what happened. But yeah, that was like one of my funniest Yeah, exactly. That was one, one of my funniest reads because,

Romy:

like Elise shouldn't have puke on his dick. Like it could have been so

Devonnie:

know what I'm saying? It

Romy:

you know? Yeah. You know. Yeah.

Devonnie:

No big deal. could have been so much worse her though. I completely empathize because Yeah, babe, that was embarrassing. What are you gonna do? Like the earth needs to open up and swallow. You actually can you look at him?

Romy:

I love that though, because like sex, is messy and embarrassing and hysterical. Like a lot of the times, like whenever we talk to people, like in the BBSM community, and especially we love to bring up 50 shades of gray and how horrifying that is, and they're just like, you know, like one of the biggest complaints I see beyond just like how unethically it depicts the community. They're just like, it's too clean. Especially when you get into kink they're like, there are fluids everywhere. It doesn't always smell the best. Everyone's having a fun time.

Devonnie:

Yes.

Romy:

like we're all here for the same reason. Everyone's having fun, but you don't need to romanticize this shit.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

but that's where it's important, where people don't take, honestly, take certain elements too seriously. That's why the reading of these books, for the most part is a fantasy. That's why this is not right. Like where, I think that's where a lot of people go, too far in like the way they talk about books, like in social media, the critiques they have for authors. And I'm like, babe, they're not giving you a how to manual.

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. But when you do find like accurate descriptions of like real life things

Jordan:

That are still hot, that

Romy:

I was gonna say there's ways to do it that are still

Devonnie:

There's ways to do it. Right. Number one, it'll never be hot to go to war. And then have you gone down on me while I'm in my fighting leathers? It will absolutely. That's a UTI waiting to happen. I've been fighting for three days and three nights, and all of a sudden you got the urge. You stripped me out. My leathers and your mouth just clamped on my front. No,

Jordan:

While people are dying in the next

Devonnie:

While people are dying, no,

Romy:

it's like we've been on horseback for five days. Let me just like peel like

Jordan:

my hand down here res on a horseback, like

Romy:

I don't even wanna be down there. I don't want you down there.

Devonnie:

No. I have not found one person. Write that. Well, I'm sorry. You no one's writing that three day, five day horse hike, whatever. No,

Romy:

Honestly, like even people are like, well, it's romantic, it's fantasy. It's like there's probably a pond nearby. You can go jump in. There's,

Devonnie:

Then tell me,

Romy:

there's gonna be river like Yes. Then go find the, you stopped to camp here for a reason. It's'cause there's natural water around you somewhere. So

Devonnie:

You gotta

Romy:

go find

Jordan:

that's where

Romy:

wash.

Jordan:

yeah, that's where we suspend,

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

where we suspend reality though. So No, this is Devin. Sinclair has just recently, I think it was like yesterday, even went off about this on threads and it's like I don't, the things I write are not a how-to manual. This is meant to take you out of reality. This the things I write for sex. Yes. I like, there are people that now have said that they will DNF her books be like, not read any of her books anymore because she wrote an A to V scene and.

Romy:

that, but that also just happens

Devonnie:

happens in real

Romy:

I was gonna say some, sometimes it just happens and

Jordan:

to V scene is a, that's a no, that's a goes straight from ask to that

Devonnie:

it happens.

Jordan:

no, but people are like all up in arms about it and they're like, this is not sanitary. This is this and that. And I'm like, she goes.

Devonnie:

They're doing too

Jordan:

So that's what I'm saying. We're like, we need to suspend reality. Yes. We can laugh at it and we can have fun with it, but like for the love of God, people

Romy:

Well, I think like knowing like who your target audience. Yeah, exactly. But I think knowing who your target audience is too. Like I have higher expectations for people who are like writing like a kink erotica, where it's like you are writing this for representing a specific community for very specific readers. You do have a bit of

Devonnie:

You have to do the

Romy:

where we need to be talking about consent. You need to talk about aftercare, you need to acknowledge subspace. You need to like do some of this. Because like books that like try to just be like, I'm gonna be kinky now, and then not name the thing, if you will. That was where I'm just like, okay. Would've been so easy to just be like, this is what now, what's happening? And it's still really fucking hot.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Write a toilet into your book. I'm not gonna be mad that you're you just told me she went to the bathroom. I'm sorry. I don't, I, that I just can't get, I can't get behind'em saying, oh, I'm not gonna do that. No.'cause I'm gonna think about the fact that I'm a woman who has to pee right after sex. You, you too should let your FMC pee after sex. I'm sorry. Like I just, you let her pee. It's okay. Have her run to the

Jordan:

period, sex. That's one of the hottest things that people can write if they write about.

Romy:

If it's written well, yeah.

Devonnie:

Yeah. If it's written well. Mm-hmm. I agree.

Romy:

Yeah. Well, I'm like

Annabel:

like

Devonnie:

in agreement.

Annabel:

things. Let's just,

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

I, I like the ones where they're not including every little bit because maybe it's not relevant to the characters. And what we care about here is the characters.

Romy:

Yeah.

Annabel:

The parts where we're really caring about the parts and like the way that people are interacting and maybe like the sex is part of the character development and the way that they interact. Like maybe let's include more detail there. It's just so driven by the story itself that it's hard to make a blanket statement of

Romy:

oh,

Annabel:

so all books should have love

Romy:

No. And they shouldn't all have X, Y, and Z'cause that'd be fucking boring to read. I

Devonnie:

we don't wanna read the same book all the time.

Jordan:

That's where the author's note, I think at the beginning can be important when they make a a note to what kind of this is gonna

Devonnie:

getting into. Jamie Applegate, hunter, just if you don't read the book, please read her author's note for every single book because they are so hilarious. She literally starts off the book by saying, Hey, if you're thinking there's gonna be a lot of plot here, please let that go. I, there's the if, and then there's another book that says if you're someone who hates the word cunt, I have some bad news for you. Seriously, their authors know they can be funny like that and witty and ha. But they also can set your reader up. So kind of get the vibe of what they're going to. I like to dive in and not know what's happening a lot of the time. So

Romy:

can I ask you guys a really random question? What is your what is the euphemism you hate? What's the worst re euphemism you've read this year? Say if you don't like cunt or something, or are there just are there I do too. Like honestly,

Devonnie:

love a cunt.

Jordan:

I

Devonnie:

I love a cunt. I love a cock, I love a dick.

Annabel:

Single

Devonnie:

don't know if I,

Romy:

what'd you

Devonnie:

yeah, you know, totally fine.

Jordan:

Kind of, okay, and this is controversial. I think folds can even be used correctly sometimes. Sometimes it gives me the it and takes me out. But I have now officially read it to where I was like, oh, that did not affect me. And now I don't know if I'm just like, desensitized now all of a sudden. Or if that author really used it in a way that was fine. I don't know. I'm, I think it's when they, I think it's when they, I think for me it's when they use slang that's too, like immature. That's when I have a hard time with it. I,

Romy:

yeah.

Devonnie:

No. Slick folds is my worst enemy. Slick folds. Hate to see me coming'cause I'm skipping right over it. Slick folds and hot channel

Romy:

Hot channel. Hot

Devonnie:

A hot channel. A hot channel.

Romy:

Look at Annabel.

Devonnie:

A hot, yes. I'm sorry. I was thinking and then as soon as you said folds I was like, actually yeah, I do have some thoughts tho those two get me

Jordan:

okay, so that was, that's like the worst. What are the, what's like the hottest book you read this year? Because for me, one of them was Storm Bringer. I know where Dev is going with this, and I intentionally, but like Storm Bringer by Hazel Rockwood for me because it is a y choose. So you literally have her dumbing down this shifter calling him pet, and, but you also have her getting domed by a couple others. And like you,

Romy:

The dynamics.

Jordan:

And it's just so hot. And you see her use her water magic in creative ways on her pet, which you never see. Like it reminded me of shadow play like that men do, but like she's using it to come as balls and do stuff. And I'm like, this is amazing.

Devonnie:

I love that. I love that.

Jordan:

Sorry. That's, that was like,

Romy:

Oh. That sounds great. I wanna read this now.

Jordan:

You definitely should. You definitely should. It's so good.

Devonnie:

I have a controversial hottest book I've ever read. And it's only controversial. Controversial'cause the author's a bit controversial, but this author writes the hottest. Books I've ever read, and I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the proximity to religion. I'm not religious. I'm not a part of religion. But the most recent one, salt Kiss by Sierra Simone.

Romy:

you were gonna say Sierra Simone. I knew it.

Devonnie:

Sierra, okay. The fir, the priest sinner Saint Books for the brothers. And then now she's announced that the last brother is getting his own book, devil. And on the cover it has pomegranates. So I'm

Romy:

Hades per

Devonnie:

Hades. You see what I'm saying? Okay. Okay. So anyway, I read Salt Kiss, which is like a separate series. It's the lioness series. It's eventually I think it'll lead us to MFM, but it starts off, the first half of the book is then he has to go pick up his person's fiance. So then we get mf. But the way Sierra Simone writes spice and yearning during sex is I just, I my brain cannot compute. It is the hottest sex scenes I've ever read. And I read a lot of books. There are other trilogies, like the Bourbon Boys was really

Jordan:

Okay. I intentionally did not say bourbon and

Devonnie:

board, because you, no. Sierra Simone.

Jordan:

because that, to me, those, and listening to it,

Devonnie:

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

lies like, oh, sent me I

Devonnie:

yeah, the Bourbon Boys trilogy there's just something so hot. And those audio books specifically, the narrators are hot in my ear, so it's like listening to them get it on, you know? But yeah that's my hottest books.

Romy:

I love that Anabel. I really wanna know

Devonnie:

Yeah. I'm so curious what your pick.

Romy:

well, no,'cause we read some spicy stuff for the podcast this year and so I wanna know what actually comes out on top for you.

Annabel:

I put down desperate measures.

Romy:

Hell yeah. Katie, Robert,

Devonnie:

Okay.

Jordan:

knows what they're doing. They've,

Annabel:

love a Katie, Robert book. We did cover Electric Idol early this year as well which I love, especially'cause we've got a plus sized female main character and

Devonnie:

Absolutely. And we love her.

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Annabel:

but there was something about desperate measures that felt, I don't know, just more intense. It's possibly all of the, actually there was like death and tough stuff in both, but

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

but yeah I found that so hot and honorable. Runner up is lights out.

Romy:

nice. I loved lights

Devonnie:

Yes.

Romy:

Yeah. I will say for desperate measures, like a sex club setting is like one of my all time favorites for erotica

Devonnie:

Same. Same.

Romy:

I love it. Love it. Love is Licious Players Club top of

Devonnie:

Oh my God. Give me more, gimme more in the salacious way. Oh my God.

Romy:

Uhhuh.

Devonnie:

Okay. Hold on. Yep.

Romy:

Thank you. Thank you. I needed that because I tried to review praise earlier this year. Anabel hadn't read it and she was having a fucking meltdown. And not in a good way. She was not appreciating my descriptions of this

Devonnie:

No, it's good. I love that entire

Jordan:

the right place.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. That's, I love it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Romy:

I'll say my more vanilla wreck for the hottest book I read all year was definitely Rachel Reed's Game Changer series. It was a reread for me. That is heated rivalry long game. If you guys have been seeing the show come out gay hockey romance. Really important to be story to be talking about actually. But that was, oh my God, the steam, and they translated it beautifully to the screen. Highly recommend watching heated rivalry the show. But yeah, that's the Oh, holy shit girl.

Devonnie:

I'm only one episode in, and I'm on my knees barking

Romy:

Woo. Oh yeah. Oh, just oh. Just too Wait.

Jordan:

I haven't started yet. I have not mentally prepared like enough

Romy:

Oh, it is.

Devonnie:

It's actually too hot. Yeah.

Romy:

it's one of the best book to screen adaptations I've ever seen, ever. And I'm very picky.

Devonnie:

That's what everyone's saying right now.

Romy:

I literally write for television professionally, and this passes almost every single box for me. Yeah it's fantastic. So that was really good. Otherwise, this is the year that I like kind of accidentally discovered the Omega first. And you may remember earlier when I was like, when I find something new, I need to learn everything about it.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Bring

Jordan:

it in. Bring it in. I love Omega

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm.

Romy:

So we went some pretty wild places. It was so much fun. Like literally it's just so crazy. Omega verse is like this beautiful meeting of just so dirty and so pure that I just I loved it. I thought it was fantastic for what it was. The hottest one for me, I think out of all that was begged for it by Alicia Williams and Gentle Yard. It's one of those where they're not shifters, it's just like a human hierarchy of the alpha omega beta stuff. But it's MMMM,

Jordan:

Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Romy:

And it's the start of a series that they're writing. It is, I mean, it is in, it is so smu it is so kinky. I loved it. But yeah, no, that was Annabel reviewed Bride earlier this year and was like, so we're gonna talk about the Omega verse. And I was like, I don't really know much about that. And then

Jordan:

That's like baby Omega verse.

Romy:

I know, well, it was like intro. Yeah, it was, it's a great intro to Omega verse'cause like it still talks about nodding, it still talks about like hierarchy and stuff. So it is a good intro. Very

Annabel:

I was looking for an excuse to talk about the Omega verse, and we had bride right there.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Romy:

And so I was like, I should know more about this. And then fuss began. Roy disappearing into omega verse for a long time. But yeah. If you wanna go deep into Dynamics Omega verse very hot gay sex. Beg for it. Highly recommend.

Jordan:

Yeah, we, I've seen that one. I need to add that one. Have you read Pac Darling by Lola Rock?

Romy:

no, I haven't read much straight

Jordan:

That has in it. So that has definitely in it. I just re-listened to it. I'm obsessed with it. Also if you're looking for more Omega verse Devin Sinclair

Romy:

Yes.

Jordan:

great Omega verse. I love her. I love her stuff. She's a great I don't know what to read. I'm gonna go down a Devyn rabbit hole. But yeah. Pac

Devonnie:

a good heat, honestly. An Omega verse. I love a good surprised heat. I love a good, oh my God, something's happening. You know, like that. Really,

Romy:

Well, and they're so cozy in that. You always know it's like second page is like my mate, I'm in heat. We need to be nodding. And it's every single time I'm like, what a surprise.

Jordan:

You need to read Pack Darling and report back to me. You need to,

Devonnie:

yeah,

Jordan:

there's a part one and two. So technically there's two books, but it's a duology, but it's just called Pac Darling One

Romy:

Sure. Okay, cool. Good. Download

Jordan:

it's like a a rejected mates situation.

Devonnie:

I also love that I

Jordan:

so she, so they have a school for Omegas, right. And they call it, she's a darling because the school pays her away. She doesn't have parents. Anyways. So she gets put into this pack that already has an omega, but he's not a scent match. So the Omega is a male, so it's all men. And she's coming into this situation trying to stay outta their way. She can tell that she knows,'cause she's an omega in this universe. Omegas can tell they're scent matches anytime, but Alphas only canned during a heat. And so like she is trying to put off her heat so they don't know'cause she just wants to go live by herself. There's so many different dynamics and it's, some of it's toxic because of different characters. Ignorances they just don't it, there's so much and it's so good.

Romy:

If you like that, if you like that, you'll beg for it. It's a lot of the same themes where it's like trying to use scent blockers. Everybody's a little bit toxic, but everybody else also, you know, and then yeah. Day you'll enjoy it. You'll enjoy it.

Jordan:

Great.

Devonnie:

Well we gotta wrap it up. We gotta get, we gotta get to the end of this.

Jordan:

let's get to our top. Okay. Now that we're almost at two hours let's go top romances.

Romy:

I'll just name mine really quick. I don't really even need to talk about them. Heated rivalry by Richard Reed, Rachel Reed, glitter Land by Alexis Hall, and they were roommates by Paige Powers. Fantastic. Those are the ones that passed the ROY test. Go read them.

Devonnie:

Love that. Love that. Okay. My top contemporary romance. Are we doing the whole top list or just did you

Jordan:

Top contemporary.

Devonnie:

Just contemporary. Okay. Top Contemporary Romance is gonna be left of Forever by Tara Dewitt. That's my top.

Jordan:

I proof.

Devonnie:

That's it. Yeah.

Annabel:

My top is, you should be so lucky by Cat Sebastian,

Romy:

That takes place in the fifties. That takes place at

Annabel:

more contemporary than, okay

Devonnie:

it's ultimate contemp. Contemporary.

Romy:

Not as a historical romance,

Annabel:

fine. And then, and they were roommates is the other one.

Devonnie:

Okay.

Annabel:

or I can't choose, or,

Jordan:

Just throw that out too.

Annabel:

yeah. Or Learning Curves by Rachel

Jordan:

The rules here. Learning

Romy:

learning curses. So it's a very fun like academic sapphic romance.

Jordan:

Ooh, cool.

Devonnie:

I've seen that one around. Okay. Cool. Cool, cool.

Jordan:

Mine is, and this is wild. Neither of these are dark romance. Which, who the fuck am I?

Devonnie:

That's crazy.

Jordan:

I know I kind of feel weird saying it, but let's make a scene by Laura Wood and plus size player by Danielle Allen

Annabel:

Hell yeah.

Jordan:

top two.

Devonnie:

We love that. We love that. Okay. Top romantic.

Jordan:

man, this was hard. This was hard.

Devonnie:

Yeah, this was difficult and I'm only gonna throw this out there because literally I just read them. And so when I thought about romantic, I really wanted to pick books that had equal romance, or at least a decent fantasy, like more, you know, fancies. So I did pick the Esprit and Trilogy, well, it's gonna be a trilogy, only two books out by Greenwich and Lennox. So that's riff Born and dus Born, dusk Bound. I picked those two just because they're the last ones I read, honestly, that I really felt like, no these did something to me. But yeah, that's gonna be my top for the year.

Jordan:

Okay,

Annabel:

I'm going for something super short'cause I was just feeling it. I just was feeling it and I don't really have an explanation other than it's a great, it's a great one. Straw Gold by Chelsea and Tompkins. It was so

Devonnie:

Yes.

Jordan:

Yay,

Annabel:

and like she fit so much world into a tiny book and it was so hot. It was great.

Devonnie:

I do need to read that actually. I have that and I need to read

Romy:

Oh, it's

Devonnie:

and I keep telling Chelsea that I'm going to, yeah. I

Jordan:

The whole series. Get Ready for Beast and Thorn.

Romy:

I know. I'm so

Devonnie:

And I need to read it before Be Thorn comes out.

Romy:

She just did she just did some teasers today that no one has seen before out on her social media. Also, check that out. My adult romantic that I love this year was Ben Anderson's realm of Faye series. And then my Way, ya Choice for Romantic would definitely be Allison S's a Wilder Shade of Magic.

Jordan:

Oh, I love that you included ya.

Devonnie:

Yeah. We don't talking about ya enough.

Jordan:

Yeah.

Annabel:

I made her read that book, so I'm very happy.

Romy:

It was what she chose

Devonnie:

Oh.

Romy:

we had an episode coming out on her birthday and I was like, what do you want me to read and review for you? And she picked that one. And yeah. And I don't read a whole lot of ya, but Anabel really has a great beat on really fucking good ya books. And so when she tells me to read one, I always read it. And it was beautiful. Oh my God, it was so sweet and so beautiful. So Wilder. What

Annabel:

A far wilder shade of magic.

Romy:

far

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Romy:

one. Go read it. Go read it.

Devonnie:

That nice?

Jordan:

This is really hard for me to pick and choose between my favorite overall and my top romantic, honestly, because there's so much good stuff. So Storm Bringer by Hazel Rockwood has to be in top romantic. It just took me by surprise and was amazing accomplished to the villain just because of how I just, it was so good. Blood and betrayals.

Devonnie:

Oh, yeah.

Jordan:

I did not mention this in the clip, in the like big reveal or shocking moments, but the last chapter of this book ripped my heart out in a way no other book has, except for Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti books. Like it

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. I still have to read that.

Jordan:

The ultimate, and it's just so good. It, I can't sing the praises of this book enough. Blood and betrayals. And I'm gonna keep my favorite overall to a series, so I'm gonna add Echo Fort by it's book Two of Sins of the Zodiac by Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti. I have to add into opera romantic. It almost made favorite overall, but I am gonna save that spot.

Romy:

guys, it was really hard. So listeners, these two were just like, you need to pick an overall read for 2025. And then Jordan started the episode by being like, it was a great year for books. And I was like, I know. And I resent you for trying to make me pick just one.

Devonnie:

Yeah,

Annabel:

Absolutely

Romy:

Oh, this was hard. This was really fucking hard.

Devonnie:

I I unfortunately did not pick just one.

Romy:

I have two. I have two.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

I picked one guys. There was an

Devonnie:

Oh, okay. Anna was like I did

Jordan:

looking for more gold stars people. She's

Devonnie:

Yeah. We gotta yeah. Okay. Annabell, you go, since you only picked one. What was yours?

Annabel:

Alright. It's also like really rough because the one I picked is not a romance. I know that we are two romance podcasts, so I'm glad we're not ending on mine. But there is like a quote from it that just kind of speaks to what we're all doing here that I wanted to start with to justify this answer. But one of the things it says in there is you are not made out of needs. You are made out of your dreams and desires and it is so beautifully done and it is such a haunting and creepy and amazing book. It's called SLU Foot by Bram.

Jordan:

Oh, I've heard amazing things about this.

Annabel:

read it while I was visiting Roy and I was, I had COVID and I felt like I was turning into a monster. And so it was lovely to read someone actually turning into a monster. It was so good. It was just so powerful and visceral and amazing. And if you are someone who enjoys a bit of darkness and enjoys seeing someone, you know, choose the wrong thing and go all fucking, you know, balls to the wall.

Devonnie:

Yeah. I've heard great things about that book. So good. We, I think we can all agree you pass you, even though Yeah. That's accepted. That's valid. We

Jordan:

I'll allow

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Romy:

I'm still gonna make fun of you for being a suck up.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Only one book. Right? Show us all

Jordan:

I kind of did the assignment. I have a series because I found one and then for a whole week I was up until at least 1:00 AM reading because only the first one out of the six had an audio book because it just got a trad deal. So it's being turned like it's being produced. So the Cruel Shifter Reverse series by Jasmine Moss. A fucking obsessed, it's what my quote was from. And I'm gonna read one more quote. I'm gonna read one more quote, you guys.

Devonnie:

I love that. We love a ending quote.

Jordan:

Well, I knew what my first act of queen would be. Mandatory anger management therapy for all men, no exception. Oh, my son, God, a brilliant idea struck me. I can banish all men from the pH realm. So

Devonnie:

Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

That was

Romy:

Do it.

Jordan:

four. So the first three, follow one, FMC and her group of men. And the second one follows her bestie. A different FMC who poses as a male and goes to this academy is forced to go to this academy. And this the, so the last three are definitely Bully Romance. And so books four and five are by far my favorite psycho Academy.

Romy:

That the Psycho Academy sounds really good. I'm very sorry. I like have my phone out'cause I'm taking recommendations.

Jordan:

Yeah. No and I have so many highlights and it's all just disparaging men and because she's posing as a man, right? She's she's posing as a man. And so there is even a quote where she is oh my God, I started, why am I worrying about what someone else is doing with their body? I must be turning into an actual man. And it's like all this commentary and three books were like two or three books worth of me highlighting this. I laughed so hard. So this was also a really funny read and just amazing. So,

Romy:

That sounds amazing.

Jordan:

yeah, if you wanna go down a whole rabbit hole of a series,

Romy:

Yeah.

Jordan:

and it's

Devonnie:

good place to

Jordan:

It's just, it's fun, it's hot,

Romy:

Mm-hmm.

Jordan:

engaging. So

Romy:

Oh, it's all boxes. We love a well-rounded

Devonnie:

Yeah, we love that.

Romy:

I don't always need it, but when it happens, it's so special. It's so, so, so special. Oh my gosh. My, I was able to narrow it down to two, but I'm like already mad at myself for leaving out like 20 others. It's fine.

Jordan:

Yep. I totally get it.

Romy:

I'm gonna, you should be so lucky by Cat Sebastian, which Anabel and I have mentioned several times. Again, that's just a story. It's gonna stay with me for a long time. I think about Mark and Eddie all the time. I fell in love with both of them. I also am Mark because he's just. Has like demon twink energy and I relate

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Annabel:

Eddie.

Devonnie:

Love

Annabel:

I'm Eddie. I'm like, ABO

Romy:

Yes.

Devonnie:

Yeah, love that. I love that.

Jordan:

Tell me I did good. Tell me I did good.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Romy:

and Mark's like maybe we'll see.

Devonnie:

Yeah. I'll think about it.

Romy:

And then the first one of my only five star reads of the entire year was,'cause I'm just very harsh was when the tides held the moon by Vanessa Vita Kelly. It is Shape of Water meets Greatest Showman. It is postwar Coney Island. It is one of the most breathtaking stories I've read this year. It is the mailman character and the narrator is an immigrant and it's an specific immigrant perspective that we just really don't see enough. We've been talking a lot about how great romance is. There's also like massive room for improvement as far as representation goes, but it is just so beautiful. And I wanted to read a few lines just to show you how beautiful the prose was around the romance. And so do. There's so much to choose from. One of them is our lips met and in one bright moonlit moment, the whole cruel, confusing world dissolved into brine. And then another one is he tastes of sky. This tenor man who sings of the sea and named me River before he had ever heard of the currents. Yes.

Jordan:

Oh,

Romy:

just, it's one of. Yeah.

Annabel:

that book is beautiful, like it has. I'm a library gal, so I got it from the library. It has so much art in it and detail in it, and it's stunning. So that's one I would say, if you're gonna read it, get the physapphical copy because so worth it.

Romy:

Yeah, the illustrations are beautiful and they the author weaves Spanish in really special ways, and it is just beautiful. It's about a boy who falls in love with a mermaid who's part of a freak show act, and it's lovely. I mean, that sounds really

Annabel:

Mer man.

Devonnie:

yeah. I love that.

Romy:

Yeah. And so

Devonnie:

that's actually,

Romy:

I would say if I'm like telling you to go to, into 2026 reading any romance story, that's really my top one, that's one of those I think every human should experience that book.

Devonnie:

Yeah I love that. I feel like I divided my favorites kind of similarly to you. So, okay. First of all, we've already talked about the Bourbon Boys. I love them. If you're looking for just, I mean, look at our covers. They aren't they just beautiful If you are looking for, just so it's labeled as romantic suspense. So you do get a little bit of suspense. I wanted more, but these men are just something else. Cute little contemporary read with like dirty Talking men who love their badass women. This is the series for you set in Whiskey, whiskey, town Kentucky. Love that. This is my Atmospheric Grave Matter by Oh and that, sorry, that was The Bourbon Boys by Victoria Wilder series. This is Grave Matter by Karina Halley. Karina Halley's, like one of my favorite writers. I've read so much of her work. I've got this at Book Counts and Crowns. This is super atmospheric. It is not for everything. There's a lot of sex in here, but also a lot of like why is the hero on my body standing up? Why am I creeped out? Why do I have to turn on the lights or watch some cartoons while I'm reading this? That's the vibe this book brings to the function, and you are on your toe and Karina Howe's that like when she starts diving in, she focuses, so there's a lot of mycelia content and fungi and mu like this, read this for that. And then, yeah I'm obsessed then my like, beautiful prose. I love the story Immigrant family. Just New York is a backdrop. I'm from New York, so any books that like write New York Write, I'm like, yes, do my Baby. Right? Aftertaste by Arielle. Lavelle, the publishing house sent me this and I had already had it on my to read. I had, I think I had requested the net galley arc and got it and then they sent me the physapphical copy. First of all, I'm also a chef and so anything that combines cooking and storytelling and immigrants. And I cried reading this book and it is about Constantine and he's a chef. He basapphically loses his father at a young age, but around that same time, he realizes that. If there's a ghost in the area or if someone's haunting him, basapphically he can taste their favorite meals and then make that for their loved ones so that they can have a meal to bring back the person they've lost. I'm getting chills right now'cause this is probably, I would put this above everything else. This book like Change My Brain Chemistry. Could you imagine be like never tasting a meal before and then having it burst onto your tongue, cooking it, handing it the plate to someone, and then they get an hour long conversation with the person that died.

Romy:

Oh my God. How beautiful. What a

Devonnie:

It is. It is gorgeous. It is heartbreaking. It is gut wrenching. And it, I dunno if this is a happy ever after y'all. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know if you look at it through one, one lens Absolutely. If you look at it through another No, this is devastating. This is heartbreaking. I want my money back

Romy:

Honestly, like an ambiguous ending in a romance can be really well done.

Devonnie:

Yeah. And I really love it. And at the plot it is very much. Who was it that went down looking for his wife in the underworld? Was that Orpheus? And

Romy:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

Yeah. That's the vibes for

Annabel:

Oh no.

Devonnie:

So Yes. So heartbreak. Right. That's the vibe. Okay. But yeah, those are my faves.

Romy:

def I have a really specific recommendation for you, just because sex and food.

Devonnie:

Oh, okay.

Romy:

do you like mon, do you like Monster Romance at all?

Devonnie:

Yes.

Romy:

Have you read Culinary Creatures by L Eland? It's literally they're like so tiny and so cute and they're really real. Yeah. They're really short. I think it's just like a really quick series of novellas and they're all about different monsters and they're all romances and they're all like chefs and bakers and they're like

Devonnie:

this is so

Romy:

They're really cute. And s steamy.

Jordan:

oh

Romy:

Yeah. They're really cute. And Stevie. So if you

Devonnie:

Little pizza.

Romy:

the appreciation of food coming into a romantic relationship, you'll just have fun. Just have fun with those.

Devonnie:

Yep.

Annabel:

I have another if have you read the peculiar sadness of lemon cake? So

Romy:

a great title.

Annabel:

yeah, it's an interesting one. So it's about this girl who she can taste the emotion of whatever person made her food. And so she like is able to like, understand people in a way that's really intense and also has a really hard time eating because of it. It's really like beautiful what

Devonnie:

It literally sounds like it's good. That's what I'm bracing myself for. If it sounds painful.

Annabel:

by Amy Bender. It's incredibly well written. It's beautiful. It's also quite devastating.

Devonnie:

Great. Yep. Sign me up. Already

Jordan:

For those of you that don't know, dev was on next level Chef season two one Season one. Right? Season

Romy:

I'm sorry. We have been sitting here talking to a celebrity for two hours.

Devonnie:

Stop.

Jordan:

Dev got recognized at the mall the other day.

Annabel:

Oh my God.

Jordan:

is

Romy:

Of course she did. She's

Jordan:

when I say dev is a jack of all trades, it's like Dev is like who I wanna be when I grow up,

Romy:

Oh my God. She can recommend you books and feed you. I mean, honest to God, you are like a dream girl.

Jordan:

Yeah. She is,

Devonnie:

You. What? This is what I bring to the relationship. You know what I'm saying? Like

Romy:

everything. Yeah.

Devonnie:

about

Annabel:

Honestly, I'm

Devonnie:

That's what

Annabel:

I don't think I have anything to offer.

Romy:

No,

Annabel:

to be here.

Jordan:

I'm just here to shine a spotlight on Dev is what we're

Romy:

I'm just here to bask in her spotlight.

Jordan:

also is a published author. I don't know if anyone knows this, but

Romy:

Fuck off.

Jordan:

She has a book of poetry that she has published that

Annabel:

know that

Jordan:

about. We

Annabel:

because I creep on you guys,

Jordan:

Yeah. So she does have a book of poetry.

Romy:

Oh my God.

Devonnie:

you are making my skin itch. You are making my skin

Jordan:

It is beautiful too.

Romy:

Oh my God. Where can, okay, where can we buy it? How

Jordan:

it on

Devonnie:

It's on the Z. It's on the Z.

Romy:

Oh my God.

Devonnie:

Thanks, Jordan.

Romy:

fraught.

Jordan:

You're welcome.

Devonnie:

I'm so uncomfortable. I get so I'm literally sweating. I feel like I'm sweating right now. Like my pits are so sweat.

Jordan:

mom working full time, doing the most, getting her master's. I'm just here to

Romy:

Literally. Incredible. Incredible. And here I was just like, Anabel knows how to say sex now.

Jordan:

Hey, I don't know. I don't know who had a bigger year. I

Devonnie:

We love that. Yeah. Yeah. I think Annabel's,

Jordan:

Yeah.

Annabel:

I'd like to thank the academy.

Devonnie:

here's, yeah. Yeah.

Jordan:

You're

Devonnie:

that. Oh my gosh.

Jordan:

We are the

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

You're welcome.

Devonnie:

Here's your trophy. Here's your award. You did it, babe.

Jordan:

Gold

Annabel:

stop. It

Devonnie:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Guys, this was so fun.

Jordan:

is so much fun. Before we go, tell us where can people find you? What are we looking up? Socials, everything. Tell us that before Dev takes us out and then we talk more off air.

Romy:

Yeah roi. And I'm roi. Hi, Annabel and I of course have our own personal social media, but you can find everything, paperback, pleasures related, literally just look up paperback pleasures. We are the only one out there. You can find our podcast on every single streaming platform and YouTube, wherever you find your podcasts, we're there waiting to be found. So please,'cause come give us a listen, interact with us, follow us on social media. We're like that, like really fine line between like cutesy, but also unhinged. So we hope you, you know, like our branding.

Jordan:

Best line.

Romy:

No, but we really just have so much fun. And all we do is just sit here and talk about why romance matters and why talking about sex is so important. And so please come join the conversation.

Devonnie:

Yes.

Jordan:

And

Devonnie:

Oh my goodness. All right guys. Thank you so much for listening to us rant and rave with our besties over at Paperback Pleasures. You've already got the details for social, so please, right now stop what you do. Stop. Pause us. Okay, now that you're back I hope what you did was go follow all those socials. Thank you so much. We love you. Thanks for listening to us and of course, you know where to find us. Please remember to sign up for our substack. If you want more behind the scenes content, you can follow us on Instagram on threads. Y'all know we don't really ticky talky that much, so don't look for us over there, but we are also on every streaming platform and we're so grateful to have you listening to us. We hope you enjoyed today's long ass episode'cause we had a great time.

Jordan:

See you in 2026.

Devonnie:

Yeah,

Annabel:

Hi.

Devonnie:

bye.