This conversation started with Sarah MacLean in late November, and then continued online, after which I asked Jane about it, too. Sarah MacLean, in the latter part of our interview earlier this December, started talking about our favorite books and what makes a great romance.
Then, Jane and I discuss one reader's email about her impressions of misogyny in the popular contemporary and new adult romances that were finalists in the GoodReads awards, and whether this reader is out of step with the romance community as a whole. (Hint: we don't think so.)
But wait, there's more!
InterMix, our podcast sponsor, would like you to know about Samantha Young’s new novella, Castle Hill, a follow-up to the New York Times bestselling On Dublin Street.
What happens after two lovers find their happily ever after? Jocelyn and Braden first fell for each other in Samantha Young’s New York Times bestseller On Dublin Street. Now, can they learn how to overcome their demons and truly be together? Download Castle Hill now for the finale to their epic love story.
And don’t miss Before Jamaica Lane, Samantha Young’s all-new romance novel, on sale in January!
Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater, who is awesome. This track is called “Percolator” and it's by The Hanuman Collective from their album Pedal Horse. You can find their album at iTunes as well.
If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed, or find us at iTunes. You can also find us at PodcastPickle.
Want to suggest a topic or ask a question? You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com (WE LOVE EMAIL! Send us some!!) or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-DBSA. Please don't forget to give us a name and where you're calling from so we can work your message into an upcoming podcast.
Thanks for listening!
↓ Press Play
This podcast player may not work on Chrome and a different browser is suggested. More ways to listen →
Remember to subscribe to our podcast feed, find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Great podcast.
I totally understand “you get to read this for the first time envy” but one of my first book buys was based on an amazon review where the reviewer said exactly that – I envy everyone who is going to read this for the first time – and with such a glowing review how could I not. To this day I rue the time and money spent on that bloody book, and have yet to try anything by that prolific author.
This was at the beginning of my return to reading, and now I have much better resources to select new books to read however first time book envy still works with me depending on who is saying it.
Regarding series: I love them, but I also can’t hang for more than about ten books. Janet Evanovich, JD Robb, Suzanne Brockmann, Diana Gabaldon (four of her gigantic books equal ten normal ones!) – I’ve given up on all of them. I can go back and read the earlier books in each series, but I’m just not interested in the later books, even though I love the characters.
Does anyone else have this problem?
@Taylor: NO. You are not alone – I am the same way, though I rarely make it to 10 like you do! It takes enormous trust for me to continue to follow an open-ended series because I have to continually believe in and trust where the story is going (and that it has an end!). With Evanovich, I gave up, mentally picked a person for Stephanie to be with, and ended it in the privacy of my own brain.
So you are totally not alone in that one.
@Lizzie: I know how you feel. When my reaction varies so much from someone else’s, I wonder (a) if I misread the wrong book because we clearly didn’t read the same one, and (b) what’s wrong with me?! It’s worth SO MUCH to have readers whose opinions you trust and whose tastes align with yours. One of the best parts of discovering reader communities online, I think.
Ranger. Yum.
I have to agree with you about the value of Goodreads being in the finding of readers whose tastes align with your own and getting recs that way, Sarah. As for its ratings and reviews being indicative of the quality of the reads, it’s worse than useless in many ways. Many GR users rate books but don’t bother writing reviews. And rave reviews mean nothing, because there’s a community of fellow writers at GR who solicit reviews from, and provide five-star reviews to, each other.
I am an active reviewer there, and have had authors ask me for reviews. One romance book I read (and found immeasurably execrable) got a five-star review from a 60+ male GR author and member. I found this curious, so checked his profile, and it actually included the words “I will never give less than a five star review”. (He’s changed that, since. Can’t imagine why.) The author of this same book gave her book a five-star rating.
When I rate a book, I rate it based on my own tastes and preferences (secret baby = bad; friends-to-lovers = good), and for my own reference, mostly. I assume that’s what other users do, too. I am interested to read reviews of books that catch my interest, but I don’t put a lot of faith in ratings with no review, brief reviews, or badly-written reviews.
I am a total GR snob. I admit it.
I’m a recent goodreads user, and I have been very disappointed at the crummy quality of it in terms of finding new books to read. I am apparently an incredibly slow learner, because I tried a half dozen books with hundreds of ratings averaging 4.2+ before realizing that I was wildly misreading the reviewing culture.
I’ve found it slow going to work out how to find people with taste like mine – plus, Internet social awkwardness! I’m not totally sure what the site etiquette is in terms of following other reviewers, especially when their data is set to private. Okay to send a “Hey, I saw your comment on this book and we seem to have similar tastes” email, or weird?
(Internet social awkwardness=the worst.)
Sebastian from Devil in Winter is definitely one of my favorite heroes.