278. Another Round of Your Recommendation Requests with Sarah and Amanda

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Sarah Wendell: Hello there, and welcome to episode number 278 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I am Sarah Wendell. With me is Amanda, and we are doing another round of recommendation requests. They are so popular, they are so fun, and we have so many books to talk about! We are going to talk about historical romances, historical fantasy with knitting, Jewish protagonists, heroines who save the hero, terminology to find the books you want, romances about single mothers, and historical erotica with ménage. Amanda asks me about my romance writing, and as expected, we talk about a lot of books – a lot, a lot of books. And there’s also a very likely, likely high chance of cat and dog during the podcast, so you might hear from more than half of my mammals.

If you have ideas or questions or you would like to make a recommendation request, I would dearly love to hear from you. You can email me at sbjpodcast@gmail.com. You can record a voice memo, you can email it to me, you can just open the window and yell, but I might not hear you that way. Either way, if you’ve got ideas or questions or you’d like to ask for a request – if you’d like to ask for a request: no; actually what you want to do is you want to request a recommendation – please get in touch.

We have a sponsor for this episode, and I am very excited to tell you about it. This episode is being brought to you by Heart of a Cowboy by Kristin Vayden. A stubborn cowboy has sworn never to forgive or forget, but one special woman may find a way to change his mind. This exciting new series from bestselling author Kristin Vayden is centered on the Elk Heights Ranch in Washington State. It combines complex characters, a gorgeous setting, and crackling sexual chemistry. When the prodigal son returns to the ranch to dismantle his late father’s legacy as a last act of revenge against the hateful old man, he never expects the gentle ways of a hospice nurse to tame the roaring fire within him. The Heart of a Cowboy by Kristin Vayden is available everywhere books are sold and at kensingtonbooks.com.

Now I don’t have a sponsor for the transcript, but there will be one because there’s always a transcript, because I know how many of you guys like them and enjoy them. I would also like to say that if you’re thinking ahead to 2018 and you’re thinking, I would like to promote this thing that I’m doing and I like podcasts, you can always get in touch with me. I have sponsorships for the podcast and for the transcript available beginning in January, so please get in touch if you are interested. You can email me at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or Sarah with an H at smartbitchestrashybooks.com [Sarah@smartbitchestrashybooks.com] if this is of interest, and I would love to hear from you.

Now if you’re traveling this month, and you probably are – you might even be traveling right now – you might want some audiobooks to take with you. I think that is a very smart idea. If you go to our affiliate link, audibletrial.com/SmartPodcast, you will receive a free audiobook and a thirty-day free trial, which is pretty cool, and I have recommendation suggestions for you as well. For example, I recommend very, very much Pretty Face by Lucy Parker, narrated by Morag Sims, or Act Like It, one of my very favorite contemporary romances and probably my favorite Lucy Parker, narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown. I’ve listened to that one several times while cross-stitching. You don’t even have to be traveling. You could just put your earbuds in and be like, I’ve had enough of family; I’m going to listen to a book. So if you got to audibletrial.com/SmartPodcast to sign up, you get a free audiobooks and a thirty-day free trial, and you’re helping us grow, so thank you very much!

Speaking of growth, I have exciting news! Well, it’s not exciting, ‘cause I told you last week, but I’m still really happy about this. We have a podcast Patreon at patreon.com/SmartBitches, and the first place I go for recommendation requests is our patrons, so when you make a monthly pledge you’re helping the show, you help me commission transcripts, you help the podcast grow into the next year, and you get a direct line to ask me for books to read. But you also may have heard recently that Patreon was changing the fee structure and that instead of my paying the fees, which is how it should be done, they were going to add the fee to individual pledges, but based on feedback, of which there was a lot, most of it furiously negative, they’ve changed their plans. They are not altering the fee structure, thank goodness. So you can absolutely make pledges to support the show for one dollar or three dollars a month. I am working on alternate methods to support the show by request, so stay tuned for that, but Patreon is still an option that I’m happy to have.

Other ways you can support the show? Well, very easy: leave a review wherever you listen or however you listen; you can tell a friend; you can subscribe – whatever works. Most of all, thank you so much for hanging out with me each week.

The music you’re listening to is provided by – you guessed correctly – Sassy Outwater. I will have information at the end of the show, plus I have a really bad joke. Actually, I have two bad jokes; one of them is really bad, but it’s still making me laugh, so I have two jokes for this episode. It’s like an extra bonus bad joke at the end.

And of course I will have links to all of the books that we talk about, and there are, of course, a lot of them. I will also have links to some of the features on the site that we mention, including two Rec Leagues and some archetypes in our media database, and I will have a link to a pair of socks that you will probably want to buy because, well, I bought them, ‘cause they had a really good thing to say on the bottom that involved wine. Like, what could possibly be wrong with that?

And now, without any additional delays and further words from yours truly, let’s do a podcast!

[music]

Sarah: So it seems that your recommendation request answers are very popular, which is really cool, because you like doing them!

Amanda: Yes, I do.

Sarah: Yay! So we have more. Are you ready?

Amanda: I’m very ready!

Sarah: Okay. Our first letter is from Jane Ann, and she writes:

“I am new to romance literature.  I found you as a result of the 2017 Valentine’s Day broadcast on [CBS Sunday Morning], so I am new to the genre.”

Sarah: Hi, Jane Ann! Welcome!

“Of course, I love anything Beverly Jenkins writes. I find I like historical romance that goes into detail about everyday life, the food of the times and its preparation.  I read Alyssa Cole’s Extraordinary Union, which I really enjoyed. If you could get a romance with knitting in there too, I would love that!  I enjoy Jenkins’ stories that are set in the West during the late 1880s, and have read three of them, with all the others on-deck. So surprise me with a recommendation that I may be overlooking. Thank you!”

Sarah: Okay, so for Jane Ann, she wants American historicals, it seems, mostly, and I have a few recommendations, but you go first.

Amanda: So, I recommended Rose Lerner, but I don’t think she does any American historical. She might have in Hamilton’s Battalion, the new anthology that came out?

Sarah: Mm-hmm, yes, definitely.

Amanda: And I think she does some really great stuff with characters. I think she has some neurodivergent characters in her books, some great beta heroes.

Sarah: She also explores class in a way that’s very interesting.

Amanda: She does some really intelligent stuff.

Sarah: Oh, she’s very, very smart with, with creating tension in unexpected places, and yes, her story in Hamilton’s Battalion is extraordinarily good.

Amanda: So I would recommend especially that anthology, but I also recommend checking out some of Rose Lerner’s other books. I know whenever I feature them on sale, a lot of people comment because they’re huge Rose Lerner fans, so I definitely recommend books by her.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: So another one is The Native Star by M. K. Hobson. I read this a long time ago, and it’s more historical fantasy, less romance, but there are some romantic elements, and it’s –

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: – set in the late 19th century, and I remember, like, something is happening on a train! [Laughs] But there is, like, magic and the Old West, and I remember I bought it on a whim, and I really liked it. I think it’s part of a series, though I never continued with the series, I don’t think.

Sarah: Hmm.

Amanda: And then I’m not sure if Jane Ann, how she feels about erotic content, but Sarah McCarty has this –

Sarah: Oh, that’s spicy romance right there!

Amanda: – yeah – this bonkers Wild West series called the Hell’s Eight series, and it’s, it’s insane. Like –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – I’ve, I’ve read a few of them, and super high on erotic content, super high on angst and melodrama, but lots of Old West stuff, if that is your catnip. So maybe poke around; you don’t really have to read the series in order. You might be missing out on, like, a little bit of character development for secondary characters, but there are several books in the series, so you can always hunt around and find one that appeals to you story-wise, but, yeah, I remember reading them when I was early in my romance days, so I was probably, like, seventeen, eighteen years old, and I picked one up. I was like, what the fresh hell is this? But in the best way, ‘cause it just, it’s funny.

Sarah: That’s one of the interesting things about the, the two of us, is that your tastes are so very different from mine. You really like books that I am just like, yeah, that’s not for me.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So we cover a lot, and also, the minute I find a book that’s, that’s pretty over-the-top in erotic content I’m like, Amanda needs to know about this immediately. Like, right away. Okay, so one of the things that Jane Ann mentioned was that she also is looking for romances with knitting in them. Now there are a ton of romances with knitting in the contemporary genre.

Amanda: Contemporary, yeah.

Sarah: Contemporary knitting romances is, like, totally a thing, but I did manage to find a really interesting historical fantasy that sounds kind of amazing. It’s a –

Amanda: What?

Sarah: – historical fantasy romance. It was published in 2009, so it might be a little hard to find. It’s called Princess of the Midnight Ball by Dessica, Jessica Day George, excuse me, and it’s book one of a trilogy, so it’s one of three. One of the people in the story is a soldier named Galen, and one of the things that needs to happen is someone has to knit an invisibility cloak with enchanted silver needles, and according to the reviews, Galen is the one who is knitting things all the time.

Amanda: Have you told Elyse about this book?

Sarah: I will be telling Elyse about this book. Oh, yes, there will be much, much-much-much discussion. Elyse, there’s a soldier who’s knitting in a historical fantasy. I mean, somewhere right now, she just sat up really excited and doesn’t know why!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And there are patterns in the back of this book, according to a reviewer named Cait – thank you Cait from page, A Page with a View. There’re patterns in the back of the book for everything he makes in the story.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh.

Sarah: So it’s historical, romantic, YA fantasy with knitting. I’m, like, really excited that I found this – [laughs] – and I feel like this, in this episode, this is the train anthology.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Like, I’m just so proud of myself right now. Also, I have cat sprawling across my desk; the UPS man is here; Zeb’s going to bark; it’s great! Okay. In terms of historicals with detail about, you know, what everyday life is like, finding Beverly Jenkins is probably the best thing that could happen, because she’s wonderful at that.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: I also want to recommend Alyssa Cole’s novellas, Let It Shine, Let Us Dream, and Be Not Afraid, and also her novella in the Hamilton’s Battalion anthology, because there’s a lot of competence porn and also sort of slice-of-life portrayals of what it’s like day to day for different people in different periods of time. Let It Shine is set in the ‘60s; Let Us Dream is set in the 1920s in Harlem, I think? So there’s a, there’s a ton of different options.

The last thing I want to make sure to mention is Lorraine Heath’s Texas Trilogy. This is one of the most beloved trilogies in American historical, and American historical used to be a lot more popular than it is now. Lorraine Heath’s Texas – I don’t remember the order of them. It’s Texas Dream, Texas Chase, and Texas Something. Somewhere someone is listening to this episode, and they’re really mad because they know exactly the name – [laughs] – and they know, they know that I’m getting them wrong.

Amanda: Sarah, is that the one that, like, Jessica Edwards recommended on, like, a podcast or a post?

Sarah: Yes, that is exactly the one that Jessie Edwards recommended. Jessie Edwards is going to listen to that podcast, and she is just going to scream that I don’t know the names in order, and I don’t know them in the correct, I don’t know the correct titles, and –

Amanda: She’s like, I talked about this, Sarah! You don’t know that?

Sarah: [Laughs] We have talked about this several times, Sarah, and I am very disappointed that you cannot remember my all-time favorite books. What’s wrong with you? Somewhere Jessie’s very mad. Okay.

So Lil is next, and Lil writes:

“Favourite romances?  Only a Kiss & Only Beloved by Mary Balogh, An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole and basically the entirety of the Brothers Sinister Series. I’m always looking for biracial heroines/Jewish heroines (or biracial Jewish heroines) and also heroines who don’t look down on traditionally thought of as feminine things or are traditionally thought of as feminine themselves. My trope catnips are competence, found family & heroes being saved from peril by heroines. (I’m not an erotica/BDSM person but I will take any genre otherwise)”

Sarah: There are a lot of things, and it’s like, I can do two out of three, or one out of four. There’re so many good books that could fit some of these, so we’ll give some options. We’re, you know, you have links to our archetype database of Jewish pro-, of Jewish protagonists and diverse protagonists.

Amanda: Yes, so I recommend poking through there. I mean, I will admit the Jewish archetype category is a little slimmer than the diverse protagonists, but, I mean, poke around, see if there’re any that stick out. I know Sarah and I recently enjoyed a book, was it Highland Dragon Warrior, with a Jewish alchemist heroine?

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: It’s historical; it has a dragon; she’s super smart. We also have done a Rec League for competence porn, and I know we’ve recommended Tracey Lives-, Livesay? Is that how you – ?

Together: Livesay.

Sarah: Yeah, Tracey Livesay, yes.

Amanda: So she has been recommended for competence porn, and she has a lot of diverse characters in her books. I think the first one – I can never remember the name, ‘cause I always confuse it with the second one. Is it Along Came Love? Is that, is that the first one?

Sarah: Yeah, I think it’s Love on My Mind –

Amanda: Love on My Mind, that’s it.

Sarah: – and then Along Came Love.

Amanda: Love on My Mind has –

Sarah: And right now, right now Jessie Edwards is like, oh, you remember those, but you don’t remember the Lorraine Heath books?!

[Laughter]

Amanda: But the first book has some really great competence porn, if that’s your thing. And then if you want heroines saving heroes, I really liked Zoe Archer’s Blades of the Rose series.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: There are four books, and they have all different kinds of heroines and heroes. There’s, like, a, an adventurer heroine, and there’s, like, a scientist hero and, like, an inventor and a treasure hunter, so there’s a lot of adventure that’s a great backdrop to the romances, and then the, Meljean Brook’s Iron Seas series is fantastic.

Sarah: That’s a really, really good recommendation.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Not only is there competence porn, but there’s competence porn in the worldbuilding too.

Amanda: Yeah, it’s a, it’s, like, steampunk-y –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – and I just remember the first book; it was The Iron Duke. The heroine is so tough; she has a bit of a, a traumatic backstory, but she’s so tough, and I really enjoyed reading about her. So I would recommend those two series as well. Though I don’t think any of the characters in those are Jewish, I know they do have some diverse protagonists in both of those series.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that when you search for biracial characters, you get a lot of results for interracial romance.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: It’s like, uh, that’s not what I was looking for.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Biracial heroines and biracial characters, if you look at Beverly Jenkins’ newest series, one of the, the first one is, the first one is really interesting because the hero is passing as white. Now I know you wanted heroines, but that one is, immediately jumped to the front of my mind. Alisha Rai’s characters are Japanese and Hawaiian, and there’re characters that are of Indian-American hero-, heritage, so. The other thing that I noticed, in terms of Jewish heroines: so, aside from my own book, which has a Jewish heroine and also a Jewish hero, called Lighting the Flames – it’s for Hanukkah, and I love it a lot, and it makes me really happy when I reread it, because I forget everything, including my own writing, so I totally wrote a book for myself, and if I wait between readings I forget what it was.

Amanda: Sarah, are you going to write another, another book? Just total aside, are you going to write, like, another Hanukkah romance set at a camp?

Sarah: I’m thinking about it. I’m, I’m thinking about it.

Amanda: I think you should.

Sarah: Why? You think I should?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah, you know, writing, piece of cake.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Here’s the, here is the thing: I started a sequel, and in the sequel – so in the first book, the heroine, Genevieve, had been away in Iceland, studying the Jewish community of Iceland, which I believe is, like, all of forty-seven people.

Amanda: That sounds really cool, though. [Laughs]

Sarah: I know; I was like, this is really – I did so many really, so many really interesting deep dives into nerdy parts of the internet, like the Jewish community of Iceland, and one of the interesting things about, especially the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, like Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and, and Norway, is that outward displays of religion are not culturally –

Amanda: Hmm!

Sarah: – acceptable? And there’s also a, a rather staggering resurgence of white supremacy in those countries in the last few years, similar to our country, so I’m, I read a lot about how Jewish communities that feel like, like openly culturally proclaiming who they are is not necessarily a good thing for them to do as much as you can here in the United States, but one of the things I wanted to do with the sequel – so the heroine had studied in Iceland, and my idea was that the son of one of the families that she met in Iceland would come to camp, because that was the camp that his mother had gone to. Now, traditionally, Ju-, Judaism is, Judaism follows matrilineal descent, so if your mother’s Jewish, you’re Jewish. Even if you weren’t raised Jewish, your mother being Jewish makes you Jewish, so here’s this guy who has very little Jewish knowledge but who’s being told, hey, dude, you’re, like, totes Jewish, ‘cause your mom was Jewish, and he’s like, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and it’s really weird, but okay, fine. So he’s at this Jewish summer camp to find out what it was that his mother experienced, and he’s there as a staff member, and the heroine that I initially created was biracial because my husband’s cousin is biracial, and one of the things that she’s talked to me a lot about is how when you are Black and Jewish, you are constantly being presumed to not know anything or constantly being presumed to not be Jewish, even though there’s a number of Jews of color in the world! So the idea that, that, part of the tension of the idea for the sequel was everyone just tells this guy, oh, you’re fine, you’re Jewish, and he knows nothing, and she constantly has to prove that she knows things and that she is Jewish because she doesn’t look what people ex-, like what people expect a Jewish person to look like. And I wasn’t sure if I was equipped to write the story, to be completely honest, so I sort of look at it and go, let me think about it some more, but that was where I started, and I haven’t finished it yet. But I’m thinking about it.

Amanda: Thanks!

Sarah: So there’s your answer.

[Laughter]

Sarah: What do you think? Does that sound absolutely terrible? You can be completely honest, because I have very little ego.

Amanda: No, I think it sounds, like, really neat, to be honest? But I know, like, saying, hey, you should finish writing this book is easier said than done with, you know, all of the free time in your life that you have, not, not that you have, like, animals and children and a house to worry about.

Sarah: Oh, yeah, you know.

Amanda: [Laughs] And a website to worry about.

Sarah: Right, piece of cake. [laughs] So –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – in, to answer your question, I think about a sequel, and I would love to write a sequel again, and it was really, really fun, because I created that whole sort of camp world based on a camp that I used to work at, and so it’s really fun to go visit and hang out. It was my own, like, imagination playground, and I would like to do that again.

Amanda: You do know you’re going to get a million comments on this podcast of, like, write the sequel! [Laughs]

Sarah: I totally will. So, another Jewish set of stories – Jewish protagonists I can totally help you out with – so Alyssa Cole’s Let It Shine has a super-hot, amazing, Jewish boxer hero. He’s delicious; you should read it. Hamilton’s Battalion with Rose Lerner, which we already mentioned, both of her characters are Jewish and are reconciling their marriage, which is fascinating.

I know that you said you don’t dig erotica, which is cool, totally fine. I do want to mention Craving Flight by Tamsen Parker. It is very, very much a BDSM romance, but the way in which the heroine, who is also a convert to Orthodox Judaism, negotiates her desire for kink and her desire for a very religiously observant life is part of the tension of the story, and I don’t think that the BDSM really shows up until you’re much further into the story, so you’re much more invested in the characters. I know that it’s a BDSM story, but I al-, I don’t always think of that story as an erotic romance. You know what I mean? ‘Cause I was more into the Jewish parts, but that could just be my reading of it.

And then there’s the anthology Burning Bright, which I wrote the foreword for, and that has Megan Hart, Stacey Agdern, Jennifer Gracen, and K. K. Hendin stories. That should still be available. The other one that I want to make sure to mention – should I mention Knit One, Girl Two?

Amanda: Yeah, why not?

Sarah: I’m trying to think if – see, what always trips me up is that when someone – this is, this is a problem with my brain: when someone names categor-, wait, when someone names books that they’ve liked, I’m like, okay, historical, historical, historical, so I’m looking at historicals, even though the rest of the request isn’t, has anything to do with historicals.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So I get stuck in one very specific mindset, and I should open it up a little bit, ‘cause it’s not just historical. I read across all subgenres. Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman is a book that Elyse just adored. It is –

Amanda: And it’s a quick read, too.

Sarah: It’s a, it is very quick. It is low conflict. It is about two women, and it is adorable, and everyone who has reviewed this and talked about it just said this is such a happy place book, and – [laughs] – you know what’s good? Happy place books.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Those are very good things. All right, shall we move on to the next one?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: This email is from Abby. Abby writes:

“I’ve been listening to the podcast since the beginning and absolutely love it. [Thank you! – Sarah] I love how it’s grown and changed to encompass so much more beyond (the very wonderful) core of romance book recommendations. The recent episode with Alisha Rai on dating (omg! the horror! the humor!) had me laughing and crying and cheering out loud in my car.”

Sarah: I’m so glad you liked that one! It’s one of my favorites too. Two of my favorites!

“I read my first romance (the Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce) at age 10 and have been hooked ever since. (I think my first ‘traditional’ romance was The Sherbrooke Bride by Catherine Coulter … talk about Old Skool rape-y crazy sauce!) Despite the detour into crazy early-Coulter land, romance is the place I go to learn, explore, escape, and heal.  It’s my safety net, my cozy corner and my security blanket. 🙂

“And now that’s I’ve buried the lede a mile deep …. I’m wondering if you’ve ever done a Reader Recommendation on romances that feature single mothers — who aren’t widows? I’m recently separated from my daughter’s father and I often wonder how I’m going to make all this work as a single mum. There have got to be some kickass single mum heroines out there! With kids who aren’t awful, saccharine plot moppets? (And please, no one who gets back together with their ex.) I haven’t read a lot of contemporary romance, so I’m not even sure where to start looking.

“Anyways, thank you for creating Smart Bitches. It’s really incredible, and I so appreciate all the hard work you and the Bitches put into it all.

“Warmest wishes,

“Abby T

“P.S. In case this turns out to be something you want to share either via the podcast or the website, please feel free. Maybe there are other single mums out there looking to see themselves in a romance!”

Sarah: Okay, so Abby’s request: first of all, so thank you so much for the compliments to the podcast. That is the best! And I love the recommendation episodes too, mostly because Amanda, like, will say a book, and I’m like, oh, yeah, that’s right! Those words are together in that book! Dur. Single mother romances, oh, my goodness. There are so many, and so many featuring kickass single mothers as well. Amanda, do you want to go first?

Amanda: Yeah, sure. So I didn’t pick out any specific books because this is, like, my anti-catnip? I don’t like –

Sarah: You don’t like –

Amanda: I don’t like single parent stories. I don’t. I don’t know why I don’t like it, but they just don’t appeal to me? I mean, I’m not presuming anything about someone’s background, but, like, I don’t have children, so I don’t really have that connection to, like, being a parent and what’s the, what that’s like?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And also, my own relationship with my own, my parents or, like, my mom is, mm, strained? Unhealthy?

[Laughter]

Amanda: Not pleasant? So it’s just not for me. But we did have –

Sarah: It’s, it’s totally understandable that that gets in the way of your, of your reading a book. I don’t think you need to worry that people are like, oh, there’s something wrong with you that you don’t like single mother romances. No! If it’s, it that is in your way, it totally makes sense.

Amanda: So, but we did get a Rec League a while ago at the beginning of this year, and I thought it was very sweet, and it was a reader trying to find books for her friend –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – who was looking to –

Sarah: Yes, that was a really –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – good one, a really good one.

Amanda: She was looking, her friend was looking to go into sperm donation to have a child, and she’s a, I believe she’s a single woman, so her friend was looking for happy romances where the heroine is a single mom, maybe even through sperm donation, IVF, or adoption, and bonus points if she doesn’t have to give up her career to do it. So I think that definitely qualifies for, like, kickass heroines, and we have, like, over thirty comments –

Sarah: Oh, yes.

Amanda: – on the thread. There are historicals; there are contemporaries; there’s romantic suspense, I believe.

Sarah: Yes, this thread has everything, but this is because the Bitchery knows everything.

Amanda: Yes, so I’m hoping that something in there will strike your interest. I can’t really speak to what’s good and what’s not. I know Claudia Connor’s Worth the Fall comes highly recommended. We’ve had this featured on the site several times. The woman’s a young widow, which I, I think you didn’t want.

Sarah: And she’s pregnant.

Amanda: Yeah, but she’s got, like, five kids.

Sarah: And she’s pregnant.

Amanda: And she’s pregnant when the hero meets her, but a lot of people loved that book. A lot of –

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: I’ve seen Nora Roberts mentioned a few times.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: But I, we will obviously link below. Someone suggested Sustained by Emma Chase. I read that one, and I really liked it, but the heroine I wouldn’t say is a single mom. Her brother and sister-in-law get into an accident and die, and so she kind of becomes the guardian of her nieces and nephews, of which there are six of them.

Sarah: Wait! That’s a lot. Can you hear, by the way, all the helicopters and planes going over my house?

Amanda: Yeah. What the heck is going on? [Laughs]

Sarah: I live outside of DC, and someone’s moving around. There’s a lot of helicopters and military stuff that goes over my house, so sorry about that! Please continue.

Amanda: No, it’s fine.

Sarah: The military is scrambling ‘cause they don’t like your recommendations –

Amanda: I’m sorry! I’m sorry! [Laughs]

Sarah: – and they’re mad you don’t like single mom romance. [Laughs]

Amanda: But that one was cute. I wouldn’t say, like, the, the kids are kind of, like, incompetent or anything. They’re, they’re definitely there for comedic relief. But –

Sarah: Are they plot moppets who exist only to further the plot, or are they actual characters?

Amanda: I would say they’re actual characters. They each have their own personality; there are scenes with them where they –

Sarah: Handy

Amanda: – where they fight. There’s a, a really good moment where all six of them are, or five of them are sick at once.

Sarah: Oh, that’s always fun.

Amanda: And the heroine, so the hero has to take care of all of these children and the heroine with the help of, like, one of the younger kids, and he’s like, oh, I’m so thankful that, like, at least someone isn’t sick and can help me, and then, like, the little girl pukes on him, and he realizes that he is the only non-sick one in the house.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: So, yes, please check out that reader recommendation; I think you’ll be able to find something –

Sarah: Fabulous!

Amanda: – in there, because our commenters are awesome!

Sarah: Yeah. They know everything, literally everything. There are two books I want to specifically mention. Harlequin is closing the Superromance line, but if you look in the archives at the Superromance line, there are – first of all, those books are close to ninety thousand words; they’re very close to single title – and there are a lot of single parents in there. One author who writes really good single parent stories is Ellen Hartman. I don’t think she’s writing currently, but she wrote several, several books that I really enjoyed, and I like that her characters are adults. They’re grownups, and they act like grownups, and they tend to have children, they tend to have established lives, and they are all really thoughtful. They also, a lot of them take place in upstate New York or central New York.

One is Calling the Shots, and if I’m remembering this one correctly – and yes, I am! Good job, brain – the hero has a daughter, and they’re completely in, mad for hockey, and she plays on a team, but the daughter has a problem with a player on the team, and it turns out that the other player’s mother is the, is sort of the, part of the tension, because the, the way I remember Ellen Hartman explaining this to me, I think it was at RT or RWA or a smaller local conference, is that the other player is kind of bullying this guy’s daughter, and it turns out that he’s super into the other player’s mom. Like, oops! Your, your child is annoying, but you are great! So there’s – [laughs] – there’s hockey, and there’s parents trying to be good at being parents, which is really frigging hard, and there’s a lot of really good tension. It’s also very, very highly reviewed.

The other book by Ellen Hartman that I want to mention is The Boyfriend’s Back. Now this one is absolutely not your catnip – [laughs] – but this book is amazing when you describe it. I’m trying to decide, I, I, God, I don’t know how much, how much of this I can, I can describe. There’s, it’s sort of a secret baby story, and it’s sort of a single mom story. I think what, okay, so, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to explain what I know about this book, but if you want spoilers, just skip ahead for, like, the next thirty seconds. So the mom told everybody in their small town that this guy was the dad, even though he wasn’t, and he got kicked out of the house and left town, was like, screw all you people, and she was supposed to tell her daughter that that guy was not her dad, but she never got around to telling her daughter that that guy was her dad, and so he comes back for his mother’s funeral and finds out that there’s this person who thinks that she is his daughter, but she is not. Okay? Okay, so –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Right?! I mean, so you were already resting on a lot of deception, but wow. And you have to sort of get, you have to sort of get ready for the fact that the heroine has com-, compounded a massive lie into a major problem, but you have to, if you’re, if you’re able to be like, okay, I want to see how she figures this out, then this book should really work for you. But it is, like, the mother of all secret baby, single mom stories that I could think of. Like, I, I describe that to people, and they’re like, whoa! What?! No way!

The Ellen Hartman story that I really, really like is one called The Long Shot. That has a former professional basketball player who is convinced to coach a high school girls’ team, and the assistant coach is a woman, but I do not remember, my memory is not good enough to tell me if the high school coach, assistant coach has a child. I cannot remember, and I apologize. So that was my favorite of her books, but she definitely writes a lot of good single parents.

I remember – this is killing me – I remember one of her books where there is a scene where the heroine is a single mom, and she ends up with, like, stupid PTA bake sale drama and is just, like, opting out, like, fuck it, I’m not participating in this bullshit power play anymore?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And then there’s another point where she just gets a, she gets in a water balloon fight with her kids and the neighborhood kids, and everyone’s looking down at her for playing with her kids and having a water balloon fight? Like, I remember these scenes so vividly; do I know which book this is? Of course not! I could do my own HaBOs every day of the week. Do you know why HaBO exists, by the way? Because that’s what my brain is like. HaBO exists because that is the cold, dark recesses of my memory. So anyway, there is one where there’s a single mom who’s like, screw all this PTA bake sale, and by the way, Amanda, if you don’t think that there are PTA bake sale politics, you’re wrong! ‘Cause there totally are!

Amanda: Oh, I believe it.

Sarah: Oh, as, I think it was Redheadedgirl’s mom who said, when the stakes are low, the likelihood for ridiculous behavior is very high. Nothing makes people more backbite-y and evil than really low stakes of power, and PTA bake sale? One of those examples. And at our old school in New Jersey, they not only did a bake sale on election day, but they would do, like, frozen dinner. So, like, you could buy a whole tray of baked ziti for ten bucks as a fundraiser.

Amanda: Cool!

Sarah: That was a major power play, and the person who took over is, it was a restaurant owner, is a restaurant owner, and I was like, you tell me what you want, and I will do anything for you, because you are not political, you don’t do power plays, and you make decisions quickly, and that is just the greatest thing! Tell me what you want; I’m there. She’s like, can you come run the cash register? And I’m like, I’m bad at math; I’ll be there anyway. I don’t care.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So the fact that there’s this book by, I’m really pretty sure it’s by Ellen Hartman – I should totally be like, Dear Ellen Hartman: You probably don’t remember meeting me several years ago, but you wrote this book, and now I can’t remember which one it is. Help me out. Love, Sarah. [Laughs] Does that make me embarrassing? So anyway, that, I know that that book exists, and I will remember it tonight when I’m brushing my teeth, and I’ll add it to the show notes.

The other person who writes a lot of single parents is Kristen Ashley, but Kristen Ashley’s books don’t work for everybody, because she is very detail-oriented, and she’s going to tell you every single thing about the room the character’s in. She’s going to provide a lot of detail, and it’s very immersive, and that either works for you and they’re going to be, like, your favorite books to read one after another, or it’s not going to work for you because there’s a lot of detail. But she writes a lot of single parents, and most of the time her kids are not plot moppets; it’s pretty great.

Are there any other books you want to make sure to mention?

Amanda: Not from my end! [Laughs]

Sarah: Okay. All right, so the last one is Laura:

“Hello! I’ve greatly enjoyed reading y’all’s reviews, and I’m starting to read romance.”

Sarah: Well, welcome, Laura!

“From my obnoxiously long time reading fanfiction, I’ve discovered that I like ménages, recovery, BDSM, alphas, and historical romances, but I haven’t been able to find books that hit all (though really I’d settle for one or two) of those things without turning the hero into an enormous asshole (or alphole, a term my new copy of Heaving Bosoms has taught me). I tried Maya Banks, but the first book I read by her had the ‘heroine’ wandering into a BDSM club and the owner immediately falling for her and performing unasked for cunnilingus like a pit bull confronted with a raw steak. Then he declared she was moving in with him without her input (and her friends, who were understandably VERY CONCERNED, were then portrayed as controlling and bad friends who should apologize). This scared me off romance for a good while, but I’ve decided to try again. Are there any romances I should spring for that incorporate a few of my catnips without making the hero someone women should flee screaming from? Any recommendations are much appreciated!”

Sarah: All right, so Laura is looking for sexytimes –

Amanda: Without the hero being a jerk!

Sarah: – without com-, without the hero being a complete alphole and overbearing dickwad.

Amanda: I think we’ve talked about this, Sarah, and that, like, in a lot of BDSM romances, the hero is usually always the Dominant in the relationship –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – and he has, like, these submissive spidey senses where, like, he can just look at a woman and know –

Sarah: I hate that.

Amanda: – oh, she’s submissive. [Laughs]

Sarah: I hate it so – my shoulders are right now, like, right next to my ears. I hate that so much! Like, yeah, I, I’m writing a review of a book that I DNFed last night that made me so angry, and one of the things that made me angry – it wasn’t BDSM; it was historical – that he, the hero looks at the heroine and can tell that she looked pure and sweet and completely untouched by masculine hands.

Amanda: Ugh.

Sarah: And I had to put the book down because I was like, is there, like, a heat map? Is it, is it a scent thing? Did somebody pee on this poor girl? Like, how do you know?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And it’s the same thing as being able to innately sense that she’s a submissive and he’s going to unlock this in her? Like, no. No, no. I’m so –

Amanda: Well, I will just say –

Sarah: – hate it so much! Hate it!

Amanda: – is, is that for, you know, a man to look at a woman and be like, I know what she wants, even though she doesn’t –

Sarah: Oh, I hate that.

Amanda: – is complete bullshit, because –

Sarah: Thank you!

Amanda: – in the amount of sexual experience I’ve had, the number of times where a man has known what I wanted in the bedroom has been, like, zero percent.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: I’m sorry, but, like, men need direction.

Sarah: But they don’t like to ask for directions –

Amanda: No.

Sarah: – don’t you know that? [Laughs]

Amanda: They’re – [laughs] – they think they, what they’re doing is good, and I’m like, what are you doing down there? This is uncomfortable.

Sarah: [Still laughing] Oh, God!

Amanda: There are nerve endings down there; do you not know that?

Sarah: Oh, God! The number of guys that have known what I wanted were zero! [Laughs] Yes, but there are these romance heroes that can, like, you know, spot you from two blocks down and be like, she’s innately submissive, and she’s going to really enjoy this way-out-there kinky shit; I can just tell. Like, really?

Amanda: I just, like, for once, I would love a scene where, you know, guy’s like, oh, I bet you like blah-blah-blah, and she’s like, no, what I really would love to do is, like, peg you. That’s what I’m super into, and be like –

Sarah: Oh, my God!

Amanda: – you know what? Yeah, you’re right! I’m sorry; I was wrong. Let’s try it! And then, like, everyone has a good time.

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh, God! I’m sorry; that was just so funny.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Okay.

[Laughter]

Sarah: Oh, the distance between romance and the rest of the world. One thing that I think is a trend that may be on the way out, although this may also be my own wish-, wishful thinking, is the dominant hero who doesn’t learn anything and knows everything about the heroine.

Amanda: Ugh.

Sarah: Like, I understand why that is attractive, the idea that – like, for example, years and years and years ago for my first book, I interviewed Lisa Kleypas, and she and I were talking about how there is something incredibly seductive and wonderful about a guy in a romance who’s like, whatever it is, I got this. I’m on it. Whether it’s doing the laundry or your orgasm, do not worry; I have totally got this under control.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But that’s very different from a hero who’s like, I know what you want, even if you don’t. I know your body better than you.

Amanda: No, you don’t. [Laughs]

Sarah: And I can see why that trope exists, but I am very tired of it, and I’m not interested in, I’m not interested in emotionally non-fluent characters who have to be taught that feelings are okay, and I’m not – or, especially after they blame the heroine for having those pesky feelings in the first place. Like, I have feels and I’m mad, so I’m going to hate-fuck you? Over it! No! No. Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: But I also am very tired of the hero, like you said, who looks at a woman and is like, I know best what you need. I promise you, the likelihood of you guessing correctly is probably, like, two percent, maybe.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Unless I’m actually wearing socks that say, If you can read this, bring me wine –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I love those socks! But that might be one of the instances where someone’s like, oh, maybe she wants wine.

All right, so – [laughs] – poor Laura. Now that you like –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – non-alpha-hole asshole heroes who are into some cunnilingus like a pit bull – [laughs] – confronted by a steak – [sniffs] – okay – I, I don’t know if you follow My Dad Wrote a Porno, the podcast? It is wheeze-laughingly funny. Do you know about this podcast?

Amanda: Oh, yes. I have listened to it while, like, grocery shopping, and it’s made me very uncomfortable.

Sarah: [Laughs] I listen to it in the car with Adam when the kids are not in the car, so pretty much while they’re at camp, and, like, there are moments where I’m pretty sure Adam needs to pull over so he can remember how to breathe. It is so funny. Ripe pomegranates! But for, on their Instagram for December, they are doing My Dad Wrote a Porno advent, so there’re little audio clips, of the –

Amanda: Oh, my God.

Sarah: – Best Of for each day of December, and today’s – [laughs] – is one where, I think it was for vaginal meat or something?

Amanda: Ugh.

Sarah: The picture is a can of spam.

Amanda: The descriptions in that book are the most, like, unsexy descriptions ever written for erotic content.

Sarah: And it’s, and it’s only better by the fact that he’s reading this to his friends and they’re like, no, make it stop! [Laughs]

Amanda: And I love it when his friends occasionally remind him, hey, your dad wrote this. [Laughs]

Sarah: Your dad wrote this, and they, and the fact that they’ve started this podcast, they’re now going on world tours. Like, they performed at the Sydney Opera House reading Rocky Flintstone porno in the, in the, in the Sydney Opera House, and you know, sometimes there are terribly dark days, and I’m like, yes, but that happened.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: The world is not complete shit, ‘cause Rocky Flintstone wrote bad erotica about a woman who works at pots and pans, and now there’s a road show involving the Sydney Opera House! It’s kind of amazing! Okay, so recommendations:

I want to make sure to recommend a nonfiction first of all, because I thought it was so interesting. It’s called The Scarlett Letters: My Secret Year of Men in an L.A. Dungeon by Jenny Nordbak. It came out this year, and it is basically the story of how a woman got involved being a professional Domme, and one of the things I’m going to be doing in the upcoming season is that Thien-Kim Lam gave me the name of a friend of hers who is also a professional Dominatrix.

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: I’m going to interview her for the podcast – would you like to interview her with me, my friend?

Amanda: Yes. I feel like I’m secretly, be like, hey, Sarah, can we, can we do this? Can we get someone who, like, works in this industry? ‘Cause I’m very curious.

Sarah: Oh, totes! Oh, absolutely.

Amanda: Where is the fantasy and where is the reality in terms of, like, the portrayal of people who work –

Zeb and Buzz: Woof, woof! Bark!

Sarah: Zeb and Buzz would like you to know that they are not here for professional Dommes, but they are also very upset that the UPS man is here. This is not okay.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So anyway – I’m just going to let the dogs bark – so, yes, I’m going to be doing that interview next year, because I – well, I hope so. I hope she says yes; I hope that she will – but The Scarlett Letters diary was very, very interesting because the writer takes you through how she got started working in a, in a dungeon and how she created Dominant scenarios and scenes for very different men and different experiences, and how the other women, one of the first things she learned was that you don’t put down other people’s desires, even though they are different from yours. Like, if some guy likes dirty feet, you take your shoes off, you go outside, you walk in the mud, and that’s going to make him very happy. Like, you, the, people have desires, and your job is to accommodate them exactly the way that they are paying for them. And it was really, really interesting, and also the different men, there’s one story about a movie star in there who’s very, very famous. Of course she doesn’t name him, but I am dying to know who it is.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh.

Sarah: I have theories. But, yeah, you would like that book too; it was really interesting.

Another series I want to recommend is The Science of Temptation series by Delphine Dryden. There’re three: there’s The Theory of Attraction, The Seduction Hypothesis, and The Principle of Desire. Now you have to sort of suspend disbelief just a little bit, because you have to buy the idea that there are all these science nerds living in, living close to each other in an apartment building who are also all members of the same BDSM dungeon club.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Which is fine!

Amanda: Did it put, is there, like, a –

Sarah: Like, I believe that it could happen.

Amanda: – like, a bulletin board at the dungeon club that’s like, looking for roommates, or like, looking for – [laughs]

Sarah: We have apartments, and you’re all science nerds. The first one, I think, would be really interesting for Laura because the hero is a man named Ivan who is very clinical and scientific and also a Dominant, but very clear about what he’s looking for in a sub and what he expects in terms of BDSM behavior, because in a BDSM scene there are rules, but in social situations those rules confuse him, and so he gets involved with this other, with this woman, Camilla, because she’s going to help him deal with social situations as he’s trying to get a grant for his scientific work. So there’s this very interesting intersection of dominance and submission and social rules and personal rules and so, and BDSM rules. The Seduction Hypothesis and The Principle of Desire are also really, really enjoyable, so you, you would probably really enjoy those, because while there are Dominant men, they are also very considerate. And there’s also one woman who’s a switch, and she ends up with a male sub who has never subbed before, and that one involves a, an abusive, a formerly abusive relationship, which I do want to warn people about. That, that one I really liked just because I really liked reading nerdy submissives. That was apparently a thing I did not realize I would like. If you’re curious about it, the poor, the semi-abusive – yeah, it was abusive – the abusive relationship one is The Principle of Desire, but she’s out of that abusive relationship. Her former boyfriend just comes back on the scene – no pun intended.

What recommendations do you have?

Amanda: I have several, because I like reading BDSM romances, but my –

Sarah: Yes, this, this question –

Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: – was made for you.

Amanda: But my tolerance for, like, the bullshit – [laughs] – that Laura described is –

Sarah: You know –

Amanda: – is also pretty low. So one book that I’ve started – I’m probably, like, a quarter to halfway through – I’m a frequent, like, starter and stopper of books, so I will start a book maybe, like, a month prior, put it aside to read something else, and then come back to it. It’s a horrible habit. But I started reading Master Professor by Tara Sue Me, and I was very surprised because the setup will make you a little squicky, and so I was like, I don’t know about this. So this man and woman, I believe, like, reconnect, and the man is an actor, and the woman finds out that he’s into BDSM, and she, he makes it clear, like, this is something that’s part of me, that I kind of not necessarily require in my relationships, but it’s something that I really want in my partner, and so she’s like, okay, well, I will try it!

Sarah: Okay.

Amanda: So at first I was like, I don’t know about this. So she kind of, like, enrolls at this, like, BDSM academy, because those are things, and –

Sarah: Wait. I hope that is a thing.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But –

Amanda: But who knows?

Sarah: Now I’m going to find one. You go ahead; I’m going to find one.

Amanda: There’s so many, like, BDSM, like, sex dungeons in romance. I was like, are there really that many?

Sarah: bdsmtrainingacademy.com.

Amanda: Oh, my goodness. Do they have, like, a physical –

Sarah: Dominant Training.

Amanda: – location, or is it, like, all, is it –

Sarah: Online Submissive Training.

Amanda: No, I wouldn’t trust a Dom –

Sarah: Dominant Training.

Amanda: I would not trust, like, if I went to, like, a BDSM sex club and, like, a guy had his Dom certificate hanging up on the wall and it’s kind of, like –

Sarah: You wouldn’t, you wouldn’t buy it?

Amanda: – an online academy – [laughs] – I don’t think I would buy it! But, so she goes there, and the head of the academy has picked someone to, like, help train her, and the guy was like, he immediately questions it. He’s like, I don’t know how I feel about training a woman who seems to be doing this to keep her relationship; you know what I mean. So I really appreciated that little pause moment from the hero. There’s lots of communication, which I enjoyed. I mean, I haven’t finished it, so I can’t tell you, like, if the heroine winds up with her teacher or with her actor boyfriend or if there’s, like, a ménage sort of triad situation, so I’m not sure, but it was a very, so far it’s been a very intelligent, very open with communication, and very smart, so I, I was enjoying that one.

Another one is Finding Master Right by Sparrow Beckett, which I reviewed on the site. I gave it a B+. The hero doesn’t do anything, like, as described by Laura where he just knows what she wants and sets upon her like a rabid dog. The heroine is kind of learning about her sexuality, and she isn’t sure if BDSM is right for her, but she wants to experiment. So I liked that sort of internal trying to figure things out. I will warn you that I felt at times the heroine had some internalized misogyny in enjoying sex –

Sarah: Hmm.

Amanda: – and, you know, wanting to do these things, but I did feel like there was a lot of growth from that at the beginning of the book, so that’s my one little caveat.

Tiffany Reisz’s series are always highly recommended. I’ve read The Siren. I really liked it; Elyse really liked it. The –

Sarah: I also feel like Reisz’s books also need to come with a similar, like, okay, some of the initial setup is a bit, you need to be able, be aware of what you’re getting into?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: With the initial setup. Like, the, The Siren and that series involves a, a priest who’s in a Dominant relationship with someone, and I think it starts when they’re under-, when she’s underage.

Amanda: It doesn’t go super into detail in The Siren. That’s more, she, so the heroine, Nora, is a writer –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – and she has an editor –

Sarah: The more, yes, the more you go into the series, the more you learn about the relationship.

Amanda: Yeah, Søren was, like, her previous Dominant, and he was a Catholic priest, and you get a little bit of the backstory, but I think it’s, like –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – fully explored the further she goes into the series. And I was also surprised that it’s really light on sexual content.

Sarah: Yes, the, a lot of the dominance play in the book is psychological.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: It’s also as if – it’s so interesting to me – Tiffany Reisz’s writing is really incredible, but her genre is not my genre, so I don’t read a lot of it, but that, that I, that which I have read, I get the sense that the book itself will challenge you to reframe your own experiences the way that the Dominant characters are reframing the worldview for the submissive characters in sexual experience. Does that make sense?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Like, the, Tiffany Reisz books will always challenge you; whether or not that’s a challenge that you enjoy is entirely up to you.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: And then the last one that I’ll recommend is Rebekah Weatherspoon.

Sarah: Good choice!

Amanda: Yeah, ‘cause –

Sarah: That was on my list too.

Amanda: I don’t remember the name of the series, but there are two books so far: Haven and Sanctuary, and both –

Sarah: Beards & Bondage is the name of the series!

Amanda: Oh, of course! Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. [Laughs]

Sarah: I remembered a thing you – I’m just going to dine out on that for the rest of the day.

Amanda: I’ve read Haven, and I know both books have heroines dealing with some trauma. In the first book –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – the heroine was camping with her brother, and while camping, her brother is murdered and she survives, and the hero is the one who rescues her. He’s, like, a mountain man who, like, lives out in the woods.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And then in Sanctuary, I believe the heroine has a stalker? But I could be wrong, but I think that’s what it is. But both feature, like, really nice heroes, very patient heroes. They all have really adorable dogs. I believe the hero in Sanctuary has many dogs.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: But I, I really liked it because there’s not, like, like, a rush into, like, we’ve got to do all this BDSM stuff. There’s a lot of patience; there’s a lot of, like, seeing what works. I feel like a majority of Rebekah’s books have some kind of erotic content in them, so if Haven and Sanctuary aren’t your bag, I would recommend looking at her backlist and reading what else she has.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely, I agree.

Now before I wrap up, I have one last email. This was a response to our episode for Thanksgiving, where lots and lots of people talked about lots of books and people and authors that they were thankful for.

Dear Sarah,

“I’ve just finished the latest podcast. It was so fun to hear about the books that the guests are thankful for.

“I know you asked listeners for their books that they are thankful for, but I’m sure I won’t be the only person emailing to say thank you to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

“None of my friends read romance — unless I give them books — and it’s so great to feel part of a community of readers and get awesome book recs. Every time I listen I buy at least one book — despite promises to myself I’ll read all my TBR pile before buying more ; )

“Through the website and podcast, I have been introduced to so many amazing authors that I might not have found otherwise, including Pamela Clare, Alisha Rai, Alyssa Cole, Santino Hassell, Kit Rocha and Beverly Jenkins. So thank you!

“And since I’m here, I’d like to thank Jennifer Crusie for Welcome to Temptation. It wasn’t the first romance I read (that was a terrible amnesia book that I call Creepy Overboard) but it was the book that turned me into a committed romance reader and showed me how fun and life-affirming the genre can be.

“And thanks also to Rainbow Rowell for Eleanor & Park. I saw myself in that book in a way I never had before and wish it had been published when I was a teenager.

“But really this was an email to say thank you to everyone at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for enabling me to spend too much money on books, introducing me to awesome writers and making me laugh out loud at Cover Snark!

“Best wishes

“Norette”

Sarah: Thank you, Norette! And thank you to everyone who wrote to me. You are all very, very welcome. I am honored that you hang out on the website and that you hang out on the podcast with us each week.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings me to the end of this episode. Thank you to Amanda, and thank you to everyone who wrote in, and thank you to garlicknitter, who does an amazing job each week transcribing each episode. [You’re welcome! – gk]

This podcast was brought to you by Heart of a Cowboy by Kristin Vayden. A stubborn cowboy has sworn never to forgive or forget, but one special woman may find a way to change his mind. This exciting new series from bestselling author Kristin Vayden, centered on the Elk Heights Ranch in Washington State, combines complex characters, a gorgeous setting, and crackling sexual chemistry. When the prodigal son returns to the ranch to dismantle his late father’s legacy as a last act of revenge against a hateful old man, he never expects the gentle ways of a hospice nurse to tame the roaring fire within. The Heart of a Cowboy by Kristin Vayden is available everywhere books are sold and at kensingtonbooks.com.

And if you would like to sponsor an episode or sponsor a transcript, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you. I have availability in 2018, though it does book up soon. You can email me at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or Sarah@smartbitchestrashybooks.com. Either way, I would be delighted to hear from you and can share all the information. And it doesn’t have to be a book, either. If you want to talk about your Etsy store, things you make, things you like, editorial service, random things? Somebody emailed me recently about buying advertisement as a gift for another person who’s releasing a book. I mean, that’s also a lovely and generous option. Get in touch! I would love to hear from you.

We have a podcast Patreon. Patreon is not changing their fee structures. Thank you, Patreon, for doing that! [Sighs] I am so relieved. You can make a pledge without worrying that you’ll have to pay the fee. Have I mentioned how relieved I am about the fact that they’ve changed this decision? You can make a pledge for a dollar or three dollars or five dollars a month, and all of your support makes a massive difference in the future of the show, especially in helping me transcribe older episodes and plan the 2018 season.

I also want to thank you if you have a left review wherever or however you listen to podcasts, if you’ve told a friend, if you’ve subscribed, if you’ve mentioned us on social media, and for listening each week. I am deeply, deeply grateful that you hang out with me each Friday to talk about romances. And I love, love meeting more and more of you as I do events. It is so cool to hear how much you enjoy the show, so thank you for that.

The music you are listening to, I am sure you have identified, and I am sure you know what album this is. This is Adeste Fiddles by Deviations Project. This is “Silent Night.” It’s the longest track on this album, but it is very, very nice to listen to. You can find the album on Amazon, and I will, of course, have links to it in the podcast entry at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

I will also have links to all of the books that we mentioned, as well as links to some of the features on the site that we talked about during this episode.

But now it is time for bad jokes. Now I have two bad jokes, and I’m not sure which one to lo-, to use. Lose one, used one? Maybe I should just use them both? Okay, so here’s the first one:

How do you make headlines?

How do you make headlines?

Well, you start with corduroy pillows.

[Laughs] That’s from kiffren on Reddit.

Now this one is terrible. I, it is so bad, and yet I am so delighted by it. Are you ready? [Laughs] It’s a little off-color, so if your, I don’t know if your children listen to this show to begin with, but this one’s a little bit off-color. Okay.

How do you titillate an ocelot?

I have to say this without laughing.

How do you titillate an ocelot?

You oscillate its tit a lot.

[Laughs] So sorry! Clearly, I’m a little bit punchy and very easily amused.

So that brings me to the very end of the talking part, also known as the outro, which, by the way, is totes a word!

On behalf of Amanda and myself and everyone here, including all of my furry friends, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend. Merry Christmas if you are celebrating, and I hope to see you here next week when we talk about romances and all of the other stuff we love. We’ll be doing our end-of-the-year episode with all of the Bitches together. I hope you will join us. Have a great weekend. Happy Holidays.

[peaceful music]