Ready for a round up of all the podcasts that focus on romance fiction, so you can fill your ears with discussion and goodness?
Since my last podcast episode roundup in January when I mentioned the Wicked Wallflowers and Heaving Bosoms podcasts, I’ve found a few more. It seemed like a good idea to put all the romance podcasts that I can find in once place.
And – special fun bonus! – if you want to find this resource again, just go to RomancePodcasts.com, and you’ll find this entry. I’ll keep it as up-to-date as I can, and all you need to do is remember RomancePodcasts.com.
Let’s do this!
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books
First: I have a podcast. I know you know this, but I would feel quite dumb if I didn’t mention it.
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books has been going for a long, long time (Almost Ten Years WHAT THE EFF). We are almost at episode 300 (WAT?!) and I’m deeply proud of it. If you’ve never listened and aren’t sure where to start, I’ve updated our Podcast Page with some of our most popular episodes.
You can subscribe via our feed, via iTunes, and via Stitcher, or however else you get your podcasts.
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All the Kissing Podcast
The All the Kissing podcast is hosted by Alexa Martin and Shannon Caldwell and focuses on the writing of romance fiction. If you’re a reader who loves to learn about the craft and process of writing, or if you’re an aspiring writer of romance, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in this one.
Past episodes have covered querying, research, and setting writing goals.
You can find them on their website, via iTunes, and via Stitcher.
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Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast
Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast is both video and audio, and covers gay romance, YA, New Adult, and other books of interest. Spouses and hosts Jeff & Will talk about books every week in new episodes.
As their description states, their podcast “is for avid readers and passionate fans of gay romance fiction. Each week we bring you exclusive author interviews, book recommendations and explore the latest in gay pop culture.”
Plus! They had me as a guest in Episode 155 – thanks, y’all!
You can find the Big Gay Fiction Podcast on their website, via iTunes, and via Stitcher.
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Bodice Tipplers Podcast
Bodice Tipplers is a podcast connected to the Collingswood Historical Society podcasts (both may come up when you search for this one). Hosts Sara and Courtney are taking a deep-dive into some very old-skool novels from authors such as Janelle Taylor and Victoria Holt.
On their site, they post which book they’re currently reading, and are very generous with content warnings with regards to consent and rape – something that, as we know, is all too common in some old-skool romances. You can find Bodice Tipplers on Stitcher, via iTunes, and on their website.
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Book Thingo Podcast
Book Thingo is a romance blog from Australia run by Kat Mayo – it’s delightful. The Book Thingo Podcast features book discussion and interviews (I’m in an early episode duo with editor Kate Cuthbert) with Kat and Rudi Bremer, who also does audio production.
The description pretty much sums up everything you need to know: “lively discussions between readers, academics, and bestselling authors about romance books, culture, and Tim Tams.” Come for the romance, stay for the Tim Tam coverage, right?
You can find the Book Thingo Podcast on their website, via iTunes, and via Stitcher.
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Fated Mates
The Fated Mates Podcast is a read-along of the entirety of Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series hosted by Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop. In addition, there are interstitials with interviews and conversations with authors, and more.
You can find Fated Mates on their website, on Stitcher, and on Apple Podcasts.
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Heaving Bosoms
You know I love the name of this podcast, and I also adore their logo. It makes me smile every time I see it. Heaving Bosoms is hosted by Erin and Melody.
In each episode, they do a deep breakdown of a particular romance novel. As they say in their description, they take themselves VERY seriously. (Not.)
They’ve taken a look at When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare, Christmastime Cowboy by Maisey Yates, Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean, and more.
You can find Heaving Bosoms on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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Not Now, I’m Reading
Not Now, I’m Reading is (a) a fantastic name for a podcast and (b) exactly what it says: a podcast about reading and fandom hosted by friends Kay and Chelsea.
Each episode reaches beyond romance fiction, but each and every one does include some discussion of romance fiction.
You can find Not Now I’m Reading on their website and on iTunes.
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Not Your Mom’s Romance Bookclub
Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club is a new podcast from “Ellen and Mom:” Imagine reading your favorite steamy romance novel… with your mom reading over your shoulder. Ellen and her mom set out to do just that with this book club and they want you to join in. It’s fun, it’s swoony, and it’s awkward.
You can find Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club on their website, on Twitter, on Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.
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One True Pairing Podcast
The One True Pairing podcast is from Macmillan publishers, and features two longtime romance professionals as hosts. Erica Martirano and Marissa Sangiacomo discuss “their favorite couples from across TV, movies, books, and pop culture. From Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Ross and Rachel, this roller coaster of bad boys, break-ups, and HEAs (Happily Ever Afters) combines love, feminism, sex, and relationships with the gossip you love.
You can find One True Pairing on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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#Romanceclass Podcast
RomanceClass is the brainchild of Mina V. Esguerra, and is all about Filipino romance authors. The podcast is recorded performances of scenes and chapters from different romance novels by Filipino authors. No, that won’t be addictive at all, no way.
Each recording is in English, and there is also a YouTube channel. I interviewed Mina V. Esguerra for my show, if you’d like to learn more about the amazing coolness of #romanceclass.
You can find #romanceclass on their website, and on iTunes.
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Romance Podden
Romance Podden is mostly in Swedish, but there are a few episodes in English, including one wherein I’m interviewed (and speak Swedish terribly, ouch). Hosts Amanda, Julia, Elin, and Melody discuss all sorts of romance-related topics, and also interview folks like Courtney Milan, RedHeadedGirl, Julia Quinn, Alyssa Cole, and more – in English. So grab those if your Swedish, like mine, is terrible (again, I’m sorry Julia and Melody).
You can find Romance Podden on their website and on iTunes.
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Romance Romp
Romance Romp is a podcast from the Frederick (Maryland) News-Post (hi, neighbors!) hosted by Kini Allen from SmexyBooks. It features interviews with authors, bloggers, and offers “fun peek in to Romancelandia, ie all things romance- books, readers, authors and bloggers.” Recent episodes include conversations with Michelle Mills and Dani Collins.
You can find Romance Romp on their website, and on iTunes. Thanks to Kat Mayo from Book Thingo for the recommendation!
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Scandalicious: Scandal & the Nerd Herd
Scandal and the Nerd Herd is a Scandalicious Podcast, and is one of the shows that prompted this entry. I hadn’t realized Scandalicious had a podcast, but do they ever! Listed as a “weekly discussion of current events in the romance book world,” they’ve discussed specific books they’ve loved, and done a series of Fuck, Marry, Kill challenges for both heroes and heroines.
You can find the Scandal and the Nerd Herd podcast on their website and on iTunes.
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This is Love Podcast
This is Love is a new podcast from the creators of the Criminal podcast, and it’s all about, well, love. While not every episode is about romance fiction, many of them are, as they say, relevant to our interests.
Of particular note: Episode 3 – There’s Always Tomorrow, which features Brenda Jackson. Get tissues ready.
You can find This Is Love on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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The Top to BOTM Podcast
The Top to BOTM Podcast is a m/m romance bookclub show. It “celebrates the M/M romance genre across books, yaoi, comics, video games, and more! At the Top of the month, we will discuss the various goings on of the genre and announce our Book Of The Month. At the BOTM, we will discuss our book pick at length.” I love podcasts that host regular book club discussions. They’re SO much fun.
You can find the TOP TO BOTM Podcast on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
Too Stupid To Live
Too Stupid to Live is a podcast that focuses on audio reviews of cheap romance novels that cost $5 or less. (BRILLIANT CONCEPT AHOY.) Host Becky Feldman and her guests have covered contemporary, erotic, historical, and fantasy romances so far. Thanks again to Kat Mayo for the tip on this one!
You can find Too Stupid to Live on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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When In Romance Podcast
When in Romance is a new biweekly podcast from BookRiot hosted by Trisha Brown and Jessica Pryde that focuses on major issues in the genre, including consent and sexuality, while also looking at current events like the RT awards.
You can find When in Romance on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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Whoa!Mance Podcast
Whoa!Mance is a podcast about “bodice busters, feminism, satin sheets, beefy Scotsman, tender feelings and–most of all–romance novels.” They’ve got episodes that examine classics from Judith Ivory and books from Tessa Dare and Nora Roberts, too.
You can find Whoa!Mance on their website, on Stitcher, and on iTunes.
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The Wicked Wallflowers Club
The Wicked Wallflowers Club, with Jenny Nordback and Sarah Hawley, which was recently featured in EW’s Must List — way to go!
They’ve got some terrific interviews, including this one with Alisha Rai, which happened because she was sitting behind them in The Ripped Bodice. Surprise!
You can find them on their website, on iTunes, and on Stitcher.
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Women With Books
Women With Books is a podcast hosted by Lindsay Emory and features a different author interview with each episode. She’s chatted with Alyssa Cole, Jasmine Guillory, Alexis Daria and more. The show is all about “genre fiction for, by, and about women.”
You can find Women With Books on their website, on iTunes, and on Stitcher.
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XOXO After Dark
XOXO After Dark is a podcast from Simon & Schuster which focuses on their romance line, and on all things romance. It’s a companion podcast to the XOXO After Dark website. Recent episodes have included an interview with Meredith Duran about faking your own death (!!). I was a guest on episode #6, too. Thanks to Kat Mayo from Book Thingo for the reminder about this one!
You can find XOXO After Dark on their website, on iTunes, and on Stitcher.
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Special Episodes Which Focus on Romance
Sometimes cool podcasts talk about romance, which is even more cool! Here are some episodes that focused on our favorite genre:
NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, All About Romance Novels
I was a guest on this episode (Yes, my inner 13 year old still can’t believe it) with Linda Holmes, Petra Mayer, and Barrie Hardymon talking all about romance fiction. This episode was so much fun to record.
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Library Matters, Episode 24: Romance Books, How Do We Love Thee?
This is the podcast from my local library, the Montgomery County Public Library, and their February 2018 episode was all about romance recommendations. YAY! Find it on their site, on iTunes, or on Stitcher. (And thanks, y’all, for being truly excellent libraries!)
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It’s Unladylike!, Episode 4: On Romance with Tessa Dare
It’s Unladylike is a podcast from Australia about women and writing, hosted by librarian and educator Adele Walsh (whom I have met and who is most awesome) and writer and educator Kelly Gardiner. This episode features Tessa Dare, and was recorded at the RomanticTimes BookLovers Convention in Las Vegas.
It’s Unladylike!, Episode 20: On Kissing with Kylie Scott and Anna Campbell
Thanks to Kat Mayo for the heads up on this one – in Episode 20, Anna Campbell and Kylie Scott talk kissing, “spirited heroines, suspense, banter, intellectual equality, drama, subtext, laughter, sexual tension, feminism, tropes, and happy endings.”
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From the Lighthouse, The Power of Love, Or Why We Read Romance
From Kat Mayo: “From the Lighthouse, a podcast by the Department of English at Macquarie University, has done a few romance-related episodes (mainly related to Austen and Heyer).” AWESOME! In this episode, Dr Hsu-Ming Teo joins hosts Dr Stephanie Russo and Dr Michelle Hamadache to talk all things romance fiction.
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Kobo Writing Life podcast, Episode 107 with yours truly
In this episode, Stephanie and Cristina sit down with Sarah Wendell. Sarah is a writer, blogger and podcaster and chats to us about running her successful romance book blog and podcast. She delves into the workshops she runs on topics such as “Digital Promotion” and “How to Put a Review in Your Rearview Mirror” and, of course, we ask for her romance recommendations.
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HuffPost Humans Australia, Romance is Not Dead (CAUTION: AUTOPLAY)
Writer and blogger Kat Mayo and author and academic Jodi McAlister talk all about romance fiction, and the roles it can play in readers’ lives.
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Overdrive’s Professional Book Nerds podcast has a romance category
“We’re not just book nerds, we’re Professional Book Nerds® (PBN) who work at OverDrive, the industry-leading app for eBooks and audiobooks through your local library and school.” Awesome! They have a number of archived episodes in their “romance” category, including interviews with authors, including Penny Reid and Deborah Harkness.
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The Newbery Report, a podcast examining every Newbery Award winning book
There’s often an overlap in YA reading and romance reading, and this podcast might be very much a romance reader’s catnip: “The podcast where grown women read children’s books and then argue about them! Every winner of the Newbery Medal, year by year and decade by decade. We promise that it’s your new favorite book club.”
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Ok, what podcasts am I missing? Please drop any recommendations in the comments if you’ve listened to an excellent romance-focused podcast, or podcast episode!
What a fabulous resource! (And thank you for the lovely description. :D)
Romance Romp and XOXO After Dark Cast are part of my book podcast playlist and I would absolutely recommend them. I also recently discovered TSTL Podcast, which I have just started listening to.
Here are a few more from my neck of the woods:
Unladylike recently did another romance-related podcast, On Kissing: Anna Campbell and Kylie Scott.
From the Lighthouse, a podcast by the Department of English at Macquarie University, has done a few romance-related episodes (mainly related to Austen and Heyer), including The Power of Love, or Why We Read Romance Novels (with Hsu Ming-Teo).
HuffPost Humans did an episode on romance, Romance Is Not Dead. (Disclosure: I was one of the guests.)
There is also http://stupidsexyromance.blubrry.net , a hilarious podcast where a wife summarizes and discusses romance books she recently read with her husband.
Not exactly a podcast, but I loved Faith Salie’s season of Unauthorized on Audible channels. It focused on romance novels, broke down many of the stereotypes of romance readers and had really great interviews! Shout out to the interview you did with Faith on SPTB too, it’s one of my favorite podcast eps of all time. Along with the PCHH romance novel ep … best ever!
Kat- thanks for the shout out! And thanks to SBTB for putting this list together. I will check out all the ones I have not listened to yet.
Kini, host of Romance Romp.
One true Pairing by Macmillan Publishing.
Thanks so much for the shoutout and for this handy dandy list of podcast goodness for my ears!
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast includes lesbian historical romance within the scope of its coverage. (The book coverage isn’t specifically limited to romance, but due to market forces, the majority of lesbian historical fiction falls in that category.) The weekly show includes author interviews, new releases, thematic books lists, and essays on historical topics. (Disclaimer: It’s my podcast.)
I love Heaving Bosoms, so freaking much.
Yer killin’ me, Smalls! How am I supposed to ‘read’ my audio books if I’m listening to podcasts and vise-versa. Decisions….decisions…decisions.
These are great! I also highly recommend Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast. Lots of author interviews and insights! http://www.jeffandwill.com/biggayfictionpodcast/
I’ve been working on a list too, here’s what I’ve found that’s not on this list — and thanks for the round up because you’ve got some I hadn’t found yet.
Girl, Have You Read http://girlhaveyouread.com focuses on African American romance
Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bernadettewalsh is author Bernadette Walsh doing interviews with various people from the industry
Romance Between the Pages http://victoriadanann.com/romance-between-the-pages-podcast/ also interviews with authors by co-hosts Victoria Dannonn and Riley J Ford. They include clips of every guest’s three favorite songs.
Trashy Book Nook https://trashybooknook.com is friends Mallory and Tamu reading the most diverse, outlandish, absurd, and freaky romances they can find. I think they’re done now, but I enjoyed their discussions.
I have a couple more that haven’t been mentioned yet. All available at least through Apple podcasts, and perhaps other podcast providers.
There’s Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club where Ellen and her Mom discuss the book they read for the podcast. It’s enjoyable.
There’s also Romance Between the Pages which is author interviews. It’s mainly self-published or smaller publisher authors.
There’s SPA Girls podcast which is about getting started in self-publishing from authors.
Kind of romance adjacent there’s Chick Lit Murder Mysteries. There first several episodes are all breakdowns on the Stephanie Plum books and they’re starting to do different books.
OMG I can NOT be more grateful for this! Thank you Sarah. Romance Book podcasts keep me sane when I’m working late. Fantastic resource.
Thanks for the “Big Gay Fiction Podcast” shoutout, Emma!
And thanks, Sarah, for putting this together. We were looking for romance podcasts last year and could only from SPTB and XOXO. It’s great to see some others out there as well.
Some other podcasts that cover LGBTQ+ romance include:
Top to BOTM: https://www.toptobotmpodcast.com
The Hopeless Romantic: https://thehopelessromantic.simplecast.fm
WROTE (Written on the Edge): http://www.wrotepodcast.com
Misty Dietz and Kym Roberts just launched RomanceBookChat.com on iTunes, GooglePlay and Stitcher! Come join the fun as we interview some of your favorite authors! Up this week Tijan, Addison Fox, Avery Flynn and Sherrilyn Kenyon! Next week–Laura Kaye!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/romance-book-chat/id1361556348
One of my best friends and I have a romance podcast. It’s called Magi Romance. We are available on Most podcast services or on our site: <a href="http://www.magiromance.com"
Ugh apparently I can’t do html well on my iPad.
XOXO After Dark isn’t making new episodes anymore! So sad; I really liked that one.
I would love to find more podcasts about romance writing because I love hearing how authors approach their stories.
Lady Books started recently (ep 10 landed on my phone today.) They talk about the romance industry, but from the WRITER’S side.
The Put a Blurb On It podcast also did an ep on romance called “Put Some Romance On It” last November.
The SYFY Fangrrls Strong Female Characters podcast had an episode with special guest Sarah Kuhn discussing romance in SFF!