267. Recommendation Requests with Sarah and Amanda, Part the First!

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 267 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. With me today is Amanda, also of Smart Bitches! Today we are answering, in the first of a multipart series, reader recommendation requests, or as I’ve called it, it’s Rec Req time. I have asked the podcast Patreon community what types of books they are looking for more of and what they’d like to read next. Amanda and I answer many of these recommendation requests, and Amanda’s really good at this, so prepare to be kind of amazed. We start with reader requests for romances with beta heroes, friends to lovers, intelligent heroines, virginal characters, mystery romances, and heroines in disguise. Along the way, we talk about post-therapy-appointment food indulgence and both of our very large cats who have assisted in the construction of this episode.

We had a lot of fun during this conversation, and if you’re listening or you have listened and you have a recommendation for one of the readers in this episode or you want to request a recommendation, you have a lot of ways to do that, so let’s start there. First, you can email us at [email protected] or Sarah, with an H, at smartbitchestrashybooks.com [[email protected]]. You can email anytime. You can also call us at 1-201-371-3272 or record a voice memo and then just email it to me. We had someone do that in this episode and it’s super cool! Don’t be scared; you’re going to sound great. If you want recommendations or you’re listening to this episode and you think, ah, I know a book to suggest, definitely please get in touch.

This episode is being brought to you by Organization Academy. What’s that? Well, I will tell you! It is the home of my online courses on using Google Calendar to declutter your schedule and organize your life. You might remember the series I did on Smart Bitches about how I use Google Calendar to automate and manage pretty much every aspect of my day, including my home, my family, my business, my other business, my freelance writing, my podcasting, my meal planning, everything. I use Google Calendar for a ton of things, and I am about to launch my first online course, called “Menu Planning Mastery.” It is all about saving time and energy and money by harnessing the power of Google Calendar to manage your meal schedule. I am so excited that this is almost ready to launch and I’m ready to share it, and I’m, seriously, I’ve been working on this for a year. I’ve also taught this method to a number of people, and they have been delighted by how much time they’ve saved and how much stress they have eliminated from their day. If the question of “What’s for dinner?” at four o’clock in the afternoon when you don’t know the answer really bugs you, this course may help. What do you do with all the time you’re going to save? Well, you can read more books while you eat good food. It’s a good plan, right? If you would like more information, please sign up for the newsletter at organizationacademy.com. You will be the first to know when the course opens, and you’ll also receive weekly tips on organizing yourself and your life and other people around you using Google Calendar. I send that newsletter every Friday. For more information about the course, please visit organizationacademy.com.

And I have some compliments to give out! I love this part.

To Ruth L.: You have more innate sparkle and joy than a fleet full of cruise ships full of unicorns and glitter.

To Artemis C.: You may not have thought that thing you did was noticed or appreciated, but at least six different individuals are now convinced that you make the world better.

And to Lisa: Your opinions and ideas are respected by so many people. Please don’t stop speaking up, okay?

And if you’re thinking, oh, that was kind of lovely; I would like a compliment, please have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Every time, every time I receive an alert about a new pledge I am so overjoyed and thankful and, and utterly humbled by the support. This episode was, in fact, compiled with the help of the Patreon community, and I hope that you enjoy it. If you’re thinking of being a patron or you’ve had a look at the page – had a look at the pledge or made a play, made a page – no, that’s not what I want to say here – [laughs] – if, if you like it when I mess up and you’d like to support this podcast, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches!

The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and I’ll have information as well as a list of all of the books – and there are so many; get ready, brace yourself, hide your wallet, put it in the freezer – of all of the books we talk about in this episode.

And now, it’s recommendation time.

[music]

Amanda: It’s too early and I feel like hot garbage. [Laughs]

Sarah: Why do you feel like hot garbage?

Amanda: So, we’re recording this on a Thursday morning.

Sarah: Yeah?

Amanda: Therapy days are Wednesday afternoons.

Sarah: Oh, the aftermath of therapy.

Amanda: I went for some margaritas and nachos.

Sarah: Which sounds like a good decision, but maybe it wasn’t?

Amanda: Yeah, ‘cause then my tipsy self was like, I’ll just go to the convenience store across the street, buy some Double Stuf Oreos and milk, and I –

Sarah: Oh, dear.

Amanda: – can’t handle whole milk very well? [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, no!

Amanda: Proceeded to eat an entire sleeve of Oreos with milk and then went to bed right after.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: So I’m drinking tea right now, and I hate tea. Please don’t @ me, tea drinkers, ‘cause it’s just –

Sarah: That’s okay; I struggle with tea as well.

Amanda: Weakly flavored hot water is all it’s been to me, but this is the only thing I have in my arsenal that might help settle my garbage stomach right now.

Sarah: [Laughs] Isn’t it terrible to age and be like, well, I used to be able to eat this; what the hell?

Amanda: I know, it’s awful. [Laughs]

Sarah: All right. So, we have – let’s get started here –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: We have many requests for recommendations, and we put them all in a document. We have a lot of books to recommend. Some of these are pretty similar; there are a lot of people who are into historical romances with exceptionally smart heroines with good dialogue –

Amanda: Lots of friends to lovers.

Sarah: Yes, that is a, that is a very popular trope right now. So what I’m thinking is, as we make recommendations and respond to different people, some of the recommendations we make earlier will also apply to people later.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: So if someone has written in with a recommendation request or sent me a sound file – thank you – what you hear us answering for other people whose request is similar to yours will probably make you happy. This podcast’s going to make you broke. Oops!

Amanda: [Laughs] Sorry! This is pretty much what I do on the site daily with, like, the books on sale newsletter, the Hide Your Wallet post.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: Everyone’s going to hate me. ‘Cause –

Sarah: Oh, I’m not even joking, even a little bit, when I say that the mission of the site is to connect romance readers with one another and the books that they want to read and also to enable everyone else’s poor impulse control? This is –

Amanda:  Yeah, I wasn’t going to buy any books last month, and I bought four paper books and then –

Sarah: Pa-, paper? Wow.

Amanda: Yeah! I think two hardcovers and two paperbacks, and then let’s not forget  –

Sarah: Whoa!

Amanda: – the stuff that appeared on my e-reader. [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, yeah. You know –

Amanda: Impulse control is not the strongest here.

Sarah: – there’s a, there’s a lot of arguments as to why Amazon should not have the patent for one-click buy. Like, there, even Jeff himself has been like, has said, I don’t know why we got that patent. I say they shouldn’t have got that patent ‘cause it’s mean.

Amanda: It is mean.

Sarah: It’s super mean. It is like the most unkind thing. Okay. You ready for recommendations? Let’s get started.

Kristin: Hi, Sarah. My name is Kristin, and I would love to get a recommendation. So, I have no idea what my favorite romances are ‘cause I like about nine thousand of them, but the best ones I’ve read this year are The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare, Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai, and then the whole Bellator saga by Cecilia London. They’re the ones that are sticking out – oh, and The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean – so I guess I like really, really sassy heroines and men who love them. I’m also super into beta heroes, and my trope ‘nip is friends to lovers. Open to everything but paranormal and steampunk. Would love to hear what you’ve got for me. Thanks for the work! Bye.

Sarah: So Kristin is looking for sassy heroines, the men who love them, some beta heroes, and her trope ‘nip is friends to lovers.

Amanda: That’s a lot.

Sarah: Do you want to go first?

Amanda: Sure!

Sarah: All right.

Amanda: I will preface this by saying that some of the books I recommend I haven’t read personally. I just have a crazy-good memory, and I can recall things that we’ve reviewed on the site that other people enjoyed.

Sarah: And you guys don’t understand how much this freaks me out. Like, we’re just going to pretend Amanda’s not on this call for a minute and I’m going to talk to you directly. This freaks the shit out of me. Like, I, didn’t we record, we reviewed this book, and I think it had – and she’s like, oh, yes, it’s this one and this one on this date, and here’s the link, and here’s the picture, and I’m like, damn!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: This, this is why Amanda’s on this podcast.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Because she will read these requests and be like, okay, get, stand back; here come twenty-five books.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: All right, go! Go, Amanda, go!

Amanda: So for this one, there’re two – is it two? Maybe. Yeah – two, no, three, no, four.

[Laughter]

Amanda: I’m looking at the, I can tell where your request begins and mine ends. We overlapped, I think, in Daring in a Blue Dress by Katie MacAlister. It’s contemporary. Elyse gave it a B. It sounds really cute. I haven’t read it, but the heroine is stranded in England. I think she’s kind of like a, a celebutante or some kind of heiress.

Sarah: [Laughs] Celebutante.

Amanda: Yeah. There’s a shy beta hero who’s kind of like grumpy, and he’s trying to renovate this old mansion, and, like, a troupe of Renaissance re-enactors have descended upon his, his manor, and he’s –

Sarah: As they do.

Amanda: – not having it. So it does have a beta hero; it does have a sassy heroine. Not as really friends to lovers. I loved Ripped by Edie Harris; that’s romantic suspense.

Sarah: Yes, she’s one of your catnip authors, isn’t she?

Amanda: Yes. I’ve read every book in this series so far that she’s done. It’s called the Blood Money series, and the hero is kind of a beta hero. He’s an uptight lawyer, and the heroine is a, a mouthy British assassin. There’s a fake relationship; kind of the, the lawyer is monitoring the assassin to get information, and she’s like, I’ll tell you whatever you want if you let me go to my only sister’s wedding. So they go, and there’s a fake relationship, and it’s really good. Also, the hero is a bit sexually inexperienced, if that’s your thing.

Sarah: Ooh, that’s, that’s part of another request later, too.

Amanda: Yes, virginal characters, so I –

Sarah: We’ve got one of those, so stay tuned for that too.

Amanda: Yeah. And then the last one from me that I haven’t read, but my antennas went up for this request, was Fortune Favors the Wicked, which Sarah has read, so she could probably tell you more about that than I can.

Sarah: Yes. Actually, all of, pretty much, Theresa Romain’s books are going to fit what Kristin wants: the intelligent heroines, the somewhat beta heroes sometimes. There’s a lot of dialogue and interaction in her stories. She’s very good at smart, intelligent heroines who don’t take any crap, and she’s also really good at figuring out forced proximity situations that seem feasible, and because she has the new series that deals with horse racing and horses, which Redheadedgirl just really liked, there’re original settings inside her books, so I pretty much recommend everything that Theresa Romain writes. My favorites are the Season For series; they’re all holiday books. They are my, they are my favorites of hers.

I would also recommend, if you haven’t already read An Extraordinary Union, the heroine is undercover as a – she’s a freewoman – she’s undercover as a slave during the Civil War. There are few women who take less shit than this heroine. Like, she takes exactly zero shit, especially from the hero, who, who, like, does all of these – he, he tries to apologize for, you know, what white people have done, and she’s just like, oh, my God, shut up! It’s great!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Another book that you might like is called The Infamous Miss Rodriguez by Lydia San Andres. This book is set in, historical, set in the Caribbean, and the, the heroine is being forced into a marriage that she does not want, and she ends up speaking to a guy who turns out, of course, to be the person that she is, you know, being arranged to marry, but he, she doesn’t know that; he does. She has a whole lot of, she, she has a lot of – how do I say this? I don’t like the word spunk, ‘cause it makes me think of jizz – she has a lot of –

Amanda: Yeah, I don’t like it either.

Sarah: It’s not my favorite word, but that’s – there’s, there’re heroines who refuse to put up with social expectations up to a very specific extent, and they kind of know how much they can get away with, and then sometimes they push over the line, and you’re like, ooh, crap, girl! That was a bad idea!

Amanda: Isn’t there a Yiddish word like chutzpah?

Sarah: Chutzpah is a good word, yes!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Chutzpah’s great. Also, I cleared my throat. Now, obviously I’m going to recommend Beverly Jenkins, because her heroines are incredibly brave. My favorite is the opening scenes of Destiny’s Surrender, where the heroine leaves an abusive relationship with her mother and takes a train all the way across the country into pre-statehood California, and it’s, she’s answering a Housekeeper Wanted ad, so it’s like almost an arranged marriage but not quite, and the hero has no idea she’s there. It’s, it was his mother who placed the ad, ‘cause his house was gross.

Amanda: I feel like Queen Bev packs so much catnip into her books that whatever –

Sarah: Oh, my gosh!

Amanda: – trope you were looking for –

Sarah: It’s in there.

Amanda: – she has written it, and it’s amazing.

Sarah: Her and Lorraine Heath.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh.

Sarah: They’re like, you know those suitcases where they’re, you know, they’re, like, two feet by three feet, and yet you can put nine pairs of boots and six, like, large sweaters in them and it’s – that’s how they are –

Amanda: They’re like those vacuum space bags where you just –

Sarah: [Laughs] Yes!

Amanda: – put more and more and more –

Sarah: You, you can just pack all the catnip in there, and, and Beverly Jenkins and Lorraine Heath’ll be like, nonono, no, I’ve got, like, five more. Just sit down and get ready.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: One other book I definitely want to mention – I have others, but I’ll mention them later for other questions – is The Devil’s Delilah by Loretta Chase. If you have not read this, Kristin, you need to read this book. It is one of her older Regencies. It, it has very passionate handholding. I think there might be a kiss, but there’s no sexytimes. This is one of those books I talk about with the very steamy handholding. The heroine is the daughter of an infamous person who’s part of society but is outrageous; she’s sort of barely accepted. She is the, the Delilah who belong, who is the daughter of the devil in the title. And the hero is one of those beta heroes who arranges shit in the background and makes it look like he had nothing to do with it, and yet everything is going according to his plan.

Amanda: [Laughs] Okay, when you said, “arranges shit in the background” –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – I just pictured him doing, like, feng shui in the background. Like, people are having a conversation; he’s just, like, moving a vase and adjusting the couch.

Sarah: [Still laughing] While you’re having tea, he redecorates.

Amanda: The rug really brings the room together.

Sarah: [Laughs some more] Oh, wait, so we need a beta, historical, beta, interior designer hero.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: That’d be pretty rad! I’d read that book.

Amanda: Anyone have that?

Sarah: Yeah, I’d totally be – [laughs] – I need, I need to move this mirror; it is in the wrong place. Just sit there and have your tea; I’m going to be busy.

Amanda: [Laughs] Just continue your conversation.

Sarah: Yes. Okay. [Laughs] So he’s not an interior decorator, but the hero in this book is trying to correct situational problems for the heroine and does a wonderful job being sneaky and beta, and I love, I love that kind of hero. It’s not even just unassuming; it’s very quietly brilliant. I think His at Night by Sherry Thomas has the same kind of hero. There’s, there’s the public perception of the hero, and then behind the scenes you realize, this hero is extremely smart and just doesn’t want you to know it.

All right, shall we move on to Sherrylynn?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: Okay, so Sherrylynn writes:

I love recommendations!

Good, ‘cause Amanda’s here, and I’m –

Amanda: Here!

Sarah: – sort of good at it too! [Laughs]

My favorite authors are Loretta Chase, Anne Stuart, and I love the Regency era. Favorite tropes: friends to lovers with angst, plus witty banter.

All right, I will go first on this one, ‘cause I have three suggestions, and then a fourth just popped into my head. First, if you have read the Pennyroyal Green series you are a lucky person, but if you haven’t, there’re lots of them, so, yay! Julie Anne Long’s whole series for Pennyroyal Green, there’s a larger plot that follows along in the background of all of the books, so you should read them in order. And I can’t speak to whether or not the ending is satisfying, as I never read the last book, ‘cause I’m terrible at series and I’m bad at things like that, but the ones that I have read, especially the early ones, I have so many fond memories of being in one place reading those books nonstop. Like, they’re books where I look back and go, oh, I read that whole book in one afternoon; it was wonderful. They combine the small town and the historical, and they have a larger storyline working through each one. There’s a family feud; there’s a lot going on.

I also think you should look up some of Carla Kelly’s older Regencies. They are set in the Napoleonic Wars, and they’re, they’re a weird, they’re – okay, this is very weird, but I always think of them as comfort reads because the characters are in the middle of horrible situations, and yet they’re learning to care for other people and starting relationships in the midst of really horrific circumstances. I find that very comforting in a strange way, and I reach for them when things are really bleak.

And also, speaking of older Regencies that have been re-released, Mary Balogh has re-released several of hers digitally, and A Certain Magic I really liked, because that was friends to lovers with angst and banter, and it’s just delicious, so definitely look up that one first.

Amanda: I feel like all of those older ones, too, are perpetually on sale. Like, they’re always marked down.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: So if you want a, a nice break on your wallet –

Sarah: Oh, yeah.

Amanda: – those out first.

Sarah: The, the Regencies that I’ve seen re-released from, from Loretta Chase and from Mary Balogh and from Carla Kelly, they’re often very reasonably priced. Oh, and – [snaps fingers] – Edith Layton. Edith Layton’s –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – digital re-releases are terrific. She is good at both friends to lovers and dialogue. All right, Amanda, you have 65,412, right?

Amanda: Yes, yes, I do. I appreciate you counting.

[Laughter]

Sarah: Good, ‘cause I don’t remember numbers; I’ll forget.

Amanda: So, this one I did read for BookPage, and I really liked it. It’s Three Weeks with a Princess with Vanessa Kelly, and the cover is sunshiny and yellow.

Sarah: Now I have to look it up!

Amanda: Yeah! The heroine comes from a long line of scandalous women. The, like, her mother and grandmother were, like, mistresses and, and stuff like that, so she kind of feels like that’s her lot in life –

Sarah: Ooh.

Amanda: – is to be a mistress or a kept woman, and she has a, a best friend from childhood – his name is Jack – so it is definitely friends to lovers, and he’s very, not stuffy, but he’s duty-bound and wants to do right by his family, so –

Sarah: He has a lot of expectations of himself?

Amanda: Yes. So the book does deal a lot with kind of, these people feel like they’re stuck in these roles, but they want to veer from it, but usually, I mean, they, like, fear wins out, and, you know, they just stay where they’re going. But what I liked is that it’s a bit of a slow burn, and the hero is really torn between, you know, falling in love with his best friend, despite, you know, her not meeting the standings of, you know, his family’s obligations and the kind of woman he, they want him to marry. And she’s very sassy, so, I liked that one.

I haven’t read the new Mary Jo Putney, Once a Rebel, but hero and heroine, based on the description, they were childhood friends that had been separated earlier on in life, and they kind of reunite, and I’m assuming the heroine is a badass, because she’s on the cover, you know, brandishing an old pistol, so.

Sarah: Like you do.

Amanda: I’m just, you know, using some context clues.

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh, got to love those.

Amanda: So maybe, if Elyse is reading it, maybe wait if, look for the review to go up and see what you think, but, yeah, that one looks promising.

Sarah: It’s Someone to Wed, right?

Amanda: No! It’s Once a Rebel.

Sarah: Once a Rebel? Wait, am I thinking of, wait, oh, my God, my –

Amanda: Mary Jo Putney?

Sarah: Oh, okay, so Mary Jo Putney and – this is going to be great for them – Mary Jo Putney and Mary Balogh are often the same person in my brain?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Isn’t that awesomely useful? Yes, Once a Rebel; I’m pretty sure that is one of the ones that Elyse is reading or will be reading.

Amanda: And I like the cover; the cover’s really cool.

Sarah: Well, I mean, she’s got a – that pistol has a very long, um, part where the bullets come out.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I’m not a gun person! I know that that is a gun; I don’t know the –

Amanda: The barrel?

Sarah: Yes, thank you! It’s very suggestive, this barrel. I think she is, she’s the one with the, the sword or pistol in this picture, so she’s like, yes, I have all I need. Don’t need you. I also like that her, her dress, okay, her dress has, like, a piece of lace between the bodice and the cap sleeve –

Amanda: It’s, it’s, like, pit lace for your –

Sarah: Right?

Amanda: Yeah, pit lace.

Sarah: It hides your pit stains! We, this needs to be a trend!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Can you make that happen? Like, I don’t need any more shirts with the shoulders cut out? I need some shirts that, like, have the little lace that, so when you get sweaty you’re not, like, pinning your elbows to your waist.

Amanda: And it probably, like, doubles as, like, a sweat handkerchief. You know what I mean? You, like use it –

Sarah: Oh, yeah, and it’s, it’s lace, so it’s not going to show much. Lace is very forgiving.

Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, I like this. How come that’s not a fashion trend? Zara needs to get on that, or H & M. H & M, we need pit lace!

Amanda: Pit lace, please.

[Laughter]

Sarah: Okay. So let’s move on to Christine.

Dear Sarah,

I’ve been looking for m/f books, or hetero books, with a similar vibe to Josh Lanyon’s writing and am curious what authors other readers think would fit the bill. I love the vintage-y, mystery aesthetic of a lot of Lanyon’s book, books. I guess I’m in the mood for the hardboiled detective trope in a romance novel. I love Jennifer Crusie. Jayne Ann Krentz’s Amanda Quick novels hit a similar note, but I’m greedy and I want more.

Well, I am sorry; there are just not enough books in the romance genre to satisfy you. We only have, like, nine total.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: No, we, we have many. Go ahead; you go first on this one.

Amanda: So something that I’m sure we will link in the show notes is we did a Rec League on romances with some noir elements and some murder mystery elements –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – so you might want to check that out. There are tons of comments; a lot of them skew historical, I believe, so it’s not like your standard romantic suspense.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Elyse did recommend A Dangerous Invitation by Erica Monroe. She’s read a few of Monroe’s books on the site and seems to really like them because they have some Gothic elements to them, and Elyse is a huge fan of Gothic romances and Gothic historicals.

I read Anne Stuart’s Black Ice a long time ago. It is romantic suspense, and the hero, I would say, falls into the hardboiled category. His name’s Bastien, so that’s kind of a hardboiled name, in my opinion. You can just tell someone named Bastien is broody and moody.

Sarah: Or if you play Overwatch, he’s a robot that’s kind of hard to kill.

Amanda: [Laughs] Well, he’s not a robot in this book, so –

Sarah: Okay, that, and that, that’s – does he build little turrets that shoot you from behind pillars?

Amanda: I thought you said, does he build little turds, and –

[Laughter]

Sarah: I  said turrets, not turds! Man!

Amanda: No to –

Sarah: My day, listen to me, my day started with dog poop, and I do not need more poop. I have, I have reached my poop quota.

Amanda: No to both accounts.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: I feel as though Black Ice may be a little dated, because romantic suspense, bad things happen, and I feel as though if it were set present day, technology is always a quick fix for a lot of things. So, go into that with a bit of an open mind. [Laughs]

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: And then the last would be The Taken by Vicki Pettersson. It’s the first in kind of an urban fantasy series, so it’s not a full-on romance, but it definitely has a vintage-y vibe. The heroine on the cover has kind of this, what would you call it? Like, rockabilly style on the cover, I believe, if I’m thinking of the right book. And that was also recommended in the murder mystery Rec League, and I’ve read some of Vicki Pettersson’s stuff in the past, and I’ve really enjoyed it, though I haven’t read this particular one.

Sarah: Yes, that is a really good-looking dress.

Amanda: I know!

Sarah: And it’s got this sort of drapey cowl neckline, which I have forbidden myself to buy more shirts with cowl necklines because I own too many.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Like, you can’t just wear cowls all the time. And then if you wear a cowl neckline shirt with a blazer and then you shut the blazer, you’ve just given yourself a fabric chest vagina, and that’s just not good.

Amanda: I was about to say that. That’s my issue with cowls, is that you have to get them to drape correctly, or it just –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – looks like a vagina. So.

Sarah: I have one that’s pink and did not realize –

Amanda: Ooh.

Sarah: – that I was wearing it with a shortened sort of jacket, and I shut the jacket and looked down, and I was like, that’s a giant vulva!

Amanda: Well, I mean –

Sarah: I mean, on one hand I was really excited that I’d made one so easily, but on the other, I didn’t want to walk around with it on my chest. [Laughs]

Amanda: I feel like it’s on brand, though, you know what I mean?

[Laughter]

Sarah: I am a wayward vulva; you can’t catch me!

[More laughter]

Sarah: Okay, so let me give a few recommendations here. The, the Josh Lanyon mention made me think of all of the K. J. Charles books, which are historical set, they’re male/male, and they have some mystery or crime or magic elements in all of them, so if you haven’t tried those – although if you’re a Josh Lanyon fan, I bet you’ve discovered them already – those might also sort of meet the interest in vintage mystery aesthetic, because there’s also that in the Charles books, along with magic and – I am thinking of the right series, right?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: Magic – yeah, there’s magic, right?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: I’m going to get all this angry email: there is no magic in those! Okay.

Amanda: Isn’t The Mag-, The Magpie Lord, is that what I’m thinking of?

Sarah: Yeah, and then the one where the one guy lives in a paper shop?

Amanda: Yes, I think so. I think –

Sarah: Yeah, you know, that one. [Grumbles] Sarah. Brain. It’s the one with the dude who lives in the paper shop, yeah. That’s, that’s right. Oh, God, my brai-, it – this is why I should never do these podcasts with recommendations. I’m like, you know, it’s the one with the guy who lives in the paper shop, ‘cause that’s really going to help you out when you roll up in Amazon. Amazon: male/male in a paper shop. No, that’s not helping. I do have actual recommendations where I’m certain I’m right, though. I mean, well, like, as certain as I ever am that I’m right? Like ninety-six percent, maybe?

So in terms of mystery, the hardboiled detective trope doesn’t quite fit this recommendation, but if you are looking for a somewhat vintage-esque mystery aesthetic that’s not historical, you might really like the Julia Spencer-Fleming series? It’s not a finished series; it has two lead characters who have to work out all their issues over the course of several books because they’re outrageously attracted to each other and there’re a lot of reasons why that’s not a good idea. It takes place in a small town in upstate New York that’s right near Glens Falls and Schenectady, and it’s called Millers Kill, and the, one of the main protagonists, Rust, Rust van Alstyne, is the chief of police, and they regularly have to call Glen, Glens Falls and Schenectady for backup, which I love, because I know where those towns are and I know what they look like, so it makes the idea of creating this town so much easier. And then the other protagonist is Clare Fergusson, who’s the new Episcopal priest at the local church, so she’s the rector of the church, and in the first book in, in the series, someone abandons a baby on the doorstep of the church with a note that says, okay, this baby should go to this family of this church who’ve been looking to adopt a baby, and then it goes from there. There’s a lot of violence – I have to read them one in a very long while – but there is some incredible emotional development, and there’s a lot of history, too. There’s one, Out of the Dep-, Out of the Deep I Cry, Out of the Depths I Cry – they’re all hymns –

Amanda: Hmm.

Sarah: – which you’d think, being a former Episcopalian who was in the choir, I would remember. Out of the Deep I Cry? Out of the Deep I – yes!

Amanda: You are right!

Sarah: I got it right! Oh, it’s, I am the shit! So Out of the Deep I Cry, that’ll stay with you for a while, and the, and the, how that mystery is solved is really kind of incredible.

The Charlotte Holmes series, which I just reviewed the second book, that’s by Sherry Thomas, and that is so good. It is such an enjoyable series, and it’s so smart, and I could squee about it, but I already wrote a review, so you could totally read the review. That might also meet what you’re looking for.

And the third one I want to recommend is the Lotus Palace mysteries by Jeannie Lin. There’s a short story – no, it’s a novella; it’s not a short story – there’s a novella called The Liar’s Dice, which would give you an introduction to the world and to the story and to the, the mystery aspects of that world. That might really make you very happy.

Okay, so Amanda, what are you reading right now?

Amanda: Ooh, so, I’m reading Crash into – I can’t remember if it’s you or me, ‘cause I always get it mixed up with the Dave Matthews song. [Laughs]

Sarah: Well, there are several books by that title.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: There’s Roni Loren’s Crash into You –

Amanda: It’s the Roni Loren, yeah, it’s the Roni Loren one.

Sarah: There’s Katie McGarry, she crashes into you.

Amanda: It’s the Roni Loren one. It’s –

Sarah: Cara Ellison, also crashing into you, along with Diana Morland.

Amanda: So many crashing into people.

Sarah: Kels, Kels Barnholdt, Sterling Rivers.

Amanda: Yeah, it’s a very popular title.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: But I’m reading that one; I got it out from the library. We featured it on sale a while ago. But I’ve enjoyed Roni Loren’s books in the past. This is BDSM romance, and –

Sarah: Hence the crashing?

Amanda: Maybe? I haven’t gotten that far to the actual good, good, the sex parts, the touching parts.

Sarah: [Laughs] What do you like about her writing?

Amanda: I don’t – I really like her characters. I loved all her characters in Off the Clock, which I reviewed and I enjoyed, and I think it was nominated for a RITA. It might have won; I’m not sure. She was nominated in two categories, and I believe she won in one of them this year. But it opens with, the heroine is a psychiatrist or a therapist, and she invited this doctor to, as her date, to this fundraiser gala, and he starts crying on their date because she’s a therapist, so she has one of those faces where people just want to tell her everything.

Sarah: Yeah, my husband calls that bartender pheromone, where you just sit down with somebody and they’re like, listen, let me just tell you all of my intimate business here.

Amanda: Yeah, so on their, on their date, he just starts breaking down and crying and, like, talking about how his recent breakup was really hard, and she’s like, well, this is not going good. [Laughs] So I’ve been enjoying it so far. Her characters are really well crafted is what I like about her books.

Sarah: And she did win the RITA! She won the RITA for best erotic romance for Off the Clock.

Amanda: Yep, see, memory!

Sarah: She was double-nom- – I’m, I’m really impressed! I was in the room when she won; like, I was there, and I still had to look it up. I mean, I, I’m going to give myself a pass because by the second day of RWA I don’t remember where, where I am exactly in the country, so –

Amanda: Well, this –

Sarah: It’s a lot of, it’s a lot of people.

Amanda: The second book in the Off the Clock series – I think it’s called, like, the Pleasure Principle – I can’t remember the second book’s name, but the hero is a sexual surrogate, which I thought was fascinating in her first book – ‘cause he’s introduced in the first book – and the heroine is kind of like an, an ice queen sexual therapist. So I’m excited to get my hands on that one too.

Sarah: Nice! Shall we go do another recommendation?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: All right. Anne writes – and I should say that a lot of these recommendation requests came from people who are part of the podcast Patreon. One of the nice things about Patreon is that I can put up posts and extras and outtakes of my dog barking and chasing the cat while I’m trying to record inside Patreon for people who have backed the podcast, so a lot of the requests are coming from podcast Patreon supporters because I was like, hey! I’ve made Amanda get on a recording with me; we’re going to tell you all the books you should read. What do you want to read?

Amanda: Hi, patrons! Thank you! [Laughs]

Sarah: Yay! Thank you for being awesome! So Anne writes:

A few of my favorite books are Let Us Dream, In for a Penny, An Extraordinary Union, and The Heiress Effect. I love cross-dressing handled well: woman disguised as a man for whatever reason with no gay panic. It’s kind of hard to find. Female/female ideal, would be ideal, or, you know, male/fe-, male/male or male/female is fine too. I really like super-competent heroes; does that count as a trope? I’m really looking forward to this episode.

I hope you like this episode! We’re enjoying recording – at least, I am –

Amanda: Yes, we are.

Sarah: – and Orville has just sprawled his ass across my desk, so I’m now, I am now getting the appropriate level of large cat assistance with this question. He’s –

Amanda: Linus is doing a snooze on my bed, so.

Sarah: How is Linus? We now pause for cat update. How is the giant Linus?

Amanda: He is good! I mean, he bit me in the face the other day. That was – [laughs]

Sarah: Ouch!

Amanda: Well – [laughs]

Sarah: Did you do something to make that happen?

Amanda: He was cranky because he was kept in the room all day because it was moving day, and so my roommate came back –

Sarah: Oh, that’s right!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: You have a new roommate!

Amanda: Yeah, my roommate came back, and I had to squire him away back into my room once more, and he went kicking and screaming.

[Laughter]

Sarah: My house, my house!

Amanda: He bit me on the, in the cheek. So – [laughs]

Sarah: My house!

Amanda: So it wasn’t, like, totally unprovoked. But he has this thing where he likes to lie on my phone at night?

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: So I set my, I set my alarm to get up, and I hear it going off on my phone but can’t find it, because it’s trapped under his nineteen-pound, fluffy body. He won’t move. He, the sound and the vibration from my phone are not bothering him one bit.

Sarah: Nope, no get up; stay bed. Pet cat.

Amanda: Yeah, and I try to move him, and he just, like, nibbles on my hand. I was like, no, I just need to turn this off, please. [Laughs]

Sarah: No. No, go back to bed. I, I keep your phone for you.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Go back to bed.

Amanda: But he’s doing good!

[Laughter]

Sarah: Orville has taken to – ‘cause, you know, cats know the schedule. They will learn your schedule –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – and they’ll know when it’s time for things, so Orville gets medication three times a day, because I can’t have pets that are low maintenance; that’s ridiculous! All my pets have weirdness. So Orville gets medication three times a day which I typically give to him between 11:30 and 12:30, and at 11:30 on the dot he will be like, ‘kay, I get rehydrated meat nuggets when you give me my meds, so where’s my meat?

Amanda: It’s about that time.

Sarah: Where’s my meat nugget? Yeah, he’ll start yelling at me.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But then he also has decided that if I am still reading at ten o’clock, he’s going to flop his just-as-probably-nineteen-pound body across my Kindle. Like, he doesn’t care. He’s just going to flop.

Amanda: Yep.

Sarah: And, like, yeah, you’re done now. Pet cat; go sleep. It’s nice being owned by a cat, isn’t it?

Amanda: I like it! I like it. I don’t mind it so far. He’s snoring right now.

Sarah: He’s a very –

Amanda: [Laughs]

[thunk]

Sarah: Oh, cat snores are weird. I was recording audio the other day, and Orville –

[thunk]

Sarah: I don’t know if you can hear this. He is slamming his tail down on my keyboard, so it’s like, thunk, thunk, thunk. Or-, when Orville snores, I think that I have some sort of internet connection problem, ‘cause I hear zz, zz, zz –

Amanda: This one sounds like a –

Sarah: – and I’m like, oh, sh-

Amanda: – kind of like a creaky shutter …

[Laughter]

Sarah: Yeah

[creak]

Amanda: – blowing in the window; that’s all I can think of.

Sarah: [Laughs] All right, poor Anne . She’s probably listening and was like, I didn’t ask about your cats. [Laughs]

Amanda: Sorry, Anne. We have recommendations, I promise.

Sarah: Okay, so disguising heroine books. You found a bunch.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: This is, this is the question that I am like, this, this is the number two question on the requests that I am most impressed by your book recommendation skills; this is number two.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I am very impressed by this list, so go!

Amanda: So I could only find one lesbian romance with a cross-dressing heroine in it, and it was RITA recommended. It was on sale, I found the post, but someone sent us an email about it. It’s called Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon. It has a bodyguard trope. One of the heroines is a princess, I believe, and after an assassination her father hires her a bodyguard, thinking the bodyguard is a man, but the bodyguard is actually a woman in disguise.

Sarah: I think I can hear, into the future, people listening to this episode and going, oh, my God, I want it now!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Oh, gimme, gimme, gimme!

Amanda: Unfortunately, I don’t think it goes on sale very often?

Sarah: That’s the biggest problem with the lesbian and some gay fiction as well: it’s so costly!

Amanda: Yeah. And then the rest are all heterosexual pairings; sorry! So Midnight Raider by Shelly Thacker – what I like about this setup is the heroine dresses as a highwayman, and the –

Sarah: As you do.

Amanda: – and the hero is a rival highwayman.

[Laughter]

Sarah: Look, this is my stretch of dark road –

Amanda: You are not allowed.

Sarah: – get out!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Get. Out! Piss. Off!

Amanda: Two site recommendations: there’s Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean. I feel like that’s one super –

Sarah: That’s probably the most prominent.

Amanda: Elyse and Redheadedgirl did a joint review on this one, and it, judging by the review, it does spoil the previous books in the series, so I’m not sure if they can, this can be read as a standalone or not, so I’m unhelpful in that regard. [Laughs]

And then Redheadedgirl also read Bedchamber Games by Tracy Anne Warren; she gave it a B. And the heroine’s father is a barrister, and he dies unexpectedly, and she’s been helping him with his cases, so she figures that she’ll just continue on with her father’s work, but she has to disguise herself as a barrister as well to –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – continue father’s work. And then The Duke of Daring by Darcy Burke. This one just sounds fun, because the heroine’s reason for disguising herself is just because she wants to go into some gambling halls and spend some money. There doesn’t seem to be any huge, deeper reason behind it, based on the description. I could be wrong in the context of the book, but based on the jacket copy, and I think we’ve also featured this book on the site, yeah, she just wants, she dresses up as a guy so she can get into gambling halls, and I think the hero is –

Sarah: I support that!

Amanda: – the hero is bitter ‘cause she’s, like, winning a lot, I think, and –

Sarah: Oh, I also support that!

Amanda: [Laughs] So, those are, those are the ones I’ve got. Hopefully, you haven’t read some of them.

Sarah: Good job! I’m very impressed here. M’kay, so we have one more historical recommendation, and then we’ll move onto the next episode. So this, this question comes from What The Foucault, which is one of my favorite screen names ever. Ever, ever, ever. What The Foucault writes:

I love bluestocking, spinster, wallflower romances.

Come sit with me! Me too!

The Suffragette Scandal, Four Nights with the Duke, and How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days are among my favorites. I’ve read the whole Wallflower series and all of the series in the above-mentioned books.

Okay, so I have couple of just general suggestions: a lot of the books that we already recommended will also fit this particular set of tropes, because when you have, I think, very smart heroines with a lot of very smart dialogue who don’t take any shit, they are often also bluestockings or wallflowers or spinsters. They, they sort of go together.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: So obviously you’re going to want to read Tessa Dare, all of them, and Theresa Romain also. I also want to make sure you know about Sherry Thomas’s historicals. Not Quite a Husband features a heroine who is a doctor, and the marriage is being repaired or reinstated maybe? I don’t remember; I don’t want to spoil it.

Amanda: Not Quite a Husband? That one?

Sarah: Yeah, Not Quite a Husband.

[thunk]

Sarah: Would you quit flicking your tail at my microphone? ‘Kay, so apparently Orville thinks this is a great recommendation. You should go read Not Quite a Husband. Now, I know you said that you like bluestocking, spinster, and wallflower romances, and I wanted to recommend a contemporary: Thaw by Elyse Springer is a lesbian romance, it’s contemporary, and it takes place between a very famous model and a librarian in a small branch of the New York Library. There are, the tension sort of varies in level; there are some moments that are really emotionally tense and some moments that are very, very minimal, but the, the discomfort that the librarian feels, the librarian character feels, entering the other heroine’s world made me think a lot of the sort of bluestocking, wallflower romances, because one of the underpinnings, especially of wallflower romances, is not being comfortable in the social situations that you have to be in, and that was sort of transplanted into a contemporary setting in a lot of scenes, so that might appeal to you quite a bit.

Now, Amanda.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: You recommend all the historical, basically. Most historicals fit this.

Amanda: [Laughs] Which is weird, because I don’t really read them much anymore? These two are wallflower romances, and they’re a little older, and I love them, and it always surprises me that I don’t see more people recommending them or talking about them.

The first is Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke [grr-key] – I hope I’m pronouncing her last name right; I’m sorry if I’m not. The heroine is –

Sarah: It’s Guhrke [gerk], I think?

Amanda: Guhrke? Okay. Laure Lee Guhrke – sorry! The heroine is very shy, and she has a total crush on her employer, who is doing this archaeology dig on his estate? [Laughs] So there’s archaeology, there’s a shy heroine, you know, the hero’s getting dirty and sweaty. You know, the usual.

Sarah: All good things!

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: We’re all in favor of these things.

Amanda: And I loved it. It’s probably one of my favorite historical romances, and it’s a standalone. I don’t think it’s part of a series; I might be wrong, though.

I know the next recommendation is a standalone, not part of a series. It’s Love is Blind by Lynsay Sands?

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: Lynsay Sands now writes lots of vampire romances? I think she has the Arg-, Argeneau series, maybe? I’m thinking?

Sarah: Yes. Argeneaus, all of them.

Amanda: Yeah, there’s, like, twenty of ‘em. So the hero is a grumpy veteran, and the heroine is near-blind, so her family doesn’t really think she’s marriageable, and the grumpy veteran hero and the near-blind, klutzy heroine get together, and it’s an opposites-attract romance, and I really liked it. I thought it was really sweet, so I would highly recommend that one as well.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s edition of Rec Req: Recommends and Requests. We have more coming next week, including a whole bunch of fantasy, and more of me probably messing up on the intro or outro, or my cat trying to crawl in the sound box. Any or all of the above might happen.

If you enjoyed this episode or you want to make a suggestion or you want to ask for a recommendation, please get in touch. We love hearing from you! You can email me at [email protected] or Sarah with an H at smartbitchestrashybooks.com [[email protected]]. You can call us at 1-201-371-3272, or you can record a voice memo and email it to me – I promise you’ll sound awesome; do not worry. I know hearing yourself sounds very strange, and I edit my own voice for hours every week. I completely understand, but I promise you will sound terrific. I love hearing from you, and if you would like to make a suggestion or request recommendations based on a book that you love or a type of book that you might want to read more of, we have lots of brains! Well, actually, I have some brains. Amanda has a much better memory than me, which is why I’m like, Amanda! And she’s like, well, here’s sixty books that fit that bill! And I’m like, wow, that was really impressive. I’m now very intimidated. So thank you very much to Amanda for all of your time and wisdom and the incredible memory. Whoa! It’s really amazing!

This episode was brought to you by Organization Academy. This is the home of my online courses about using Google Calendar to declutter your schedule and organize your life, and I’m so excited! I have been developing my first course for about a year. It is called “Menu Planning Mastery.” It is all about saving time, energy, and money by using Google Calendar to help you manage your meals. I am so excited to share this course, and I have taught this method to a whole bunch of people, and they have been delighted by how much time they’ve saved and how much less stress they’re under each day when it comes time to feed people who come in and ask, what’s for dinner? I’m hungry. What are we eating? These are hard questions at the end of the day when your brain is tired. If you would like more information about “Menu Planning Mastery” or you would like weekly tips on organizing yourself using Google Calendar, I send that newsletter every Friday, and I will tell the newsletter first when the course opens up, so if you would like to find out more, head over to organizationacademy.com.

Our music in this episode is provided by Sassy Outwater. This is a song called “Mackerel & Tatties.” It is by Michael McGoldrick from his album Aurora. You can find that album on Amazon or on iTunes, and I have information in the podcast entry – also known as the show notes – at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast. You can also find us on iTunes.com/DBSA.

And speaking of things in the podcast entry, aka the show notes, all of the books we mentioned, every single one, will be listed. It’s going to be a really long, beautiful blanket of covers. So have a look, and special thanks to Amanda, who is the one who arranges all of those books inside our massive database.

If you have had a look at our podcast Patreon, I want to say thank you. If you would like to support the show, there are a number of ways that you can do that, and I am humbly, deeply grateful for each and every one. (1) You can subscribe using whatever podcast app you have; that’s pretty awesome. You can leave a review, especially on larger apps like Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, all the places that are most often mentioned. They have all these powerful algorithms, and as you know, it’s all about the algorithms. It is now, anyway. If you leave reviews, you help other people discover the show. Or you just tell people that you listen to the show, and that’s immensely flattering. I love seeing on Twitter all the people talking about the episode that launched that morning, or dropped, whatever it did. Did it go up? Did it go down? I think it goes, I put it up, and then it goes down, but what – if you’re talking about it, that’s so great, thank you.

And if you would like to look at patreon.com/SmartBitches, starting with as little as one dollar a month, you make a sizeable, deeply appreciated difference in the podcast. Every time I receive an alert that there has been a new pledge, I am overjoyed and utterly in awe, so thank you for that!

And finally, I have a bad joke, because if you listen all the way to the end you’re awesome and you should get a joke, right? Okay, here we go:

What’s green and pouty?

The Incredible Sulk. [Laughs]

You don’t know how much I love coming up with these jokes. [Laughs]

On behalf of Amanda and myself, many thanks to all the people who asked for recommendation requests. We have more coming next week, plus you get to listen to me try to remember something for, like, fifteen minutes. It’s great. I’m really please, I’m really pleased and proud of myself. On behalf of everyone here, including all of our cats, we wish you the very best of reading. Have an outstanding, wonderful weekend. We’ll see you next week.

[merry music]