Smart Podcast, Trashy Books Podcast

729. RT Rewind: March 2009 Ads & Features

by SB Sarah · Jul 31, 2026 at 2:00 am · Leave a comment

Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times RewindHey, where are you going? Get in the time machine – we want to bring you back to March 2009 to check out the ads & features from Romantic Times Magazine.

We’ve got:

  • Snippy letters to the editor!
  • Covers that look like shaving cream ads for women
  • Reading in a recession
  • Folks explaining steampunk!
  • Pop vs. Soda
  • And you’ll find out what words are used in an acrostic of “pandemic.”

TW: In the middle you’ll hear from Editing Sarah – which is when I interject additional info into the episode while I’m editing it – for about a minute and a half. There is some gross fatphobia and mean terminology in that section. Skip ahead when I start reading the paragraph about 30 seconds.

And you can watch this episode on YouTube to see all the images as we discuss them.  You are most welcome to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you would like!

❤ Read the transcript ❤

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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

The Windflower Flat-Out Sexy Nicholas The Widow and the Eunuch Cry for Passion Scandalous Lovers Everlasting Once Bitten, Twice Shy Tempted All Night

Make sure to disable your ad blocker to see all the books.

We also mentioned:

Visual Aids!

These ads for Nicole Jordan and Liz Carlyle reflect the period of time when romance covers looked like shaving ads. 

An ad featuring four Nicole Jordan titles: To Romance a Charming Rogue, To Seduce a Bride, To bed a Beauty, and To Pleasure a lady. Each cover is a close up on a woman’s body showing either her side, her back, her knee or her right arm as someone reaches out to untie her corset.

An ad for Tempted all Night by Liz Carlyle. A woman is sitting in an off the shoulder pink empire waist gown and is running her hand up the outside of her right calf. Like she’s in a shaving cream ad.

The Elizabeth Amber Lords of the Satyr series: they’re all naked. 

The four covers for the series, Dominic, Lyon, Raine, and Nocholas, all feature nude muscular men with either a strategic sheet of fabric of a hand covering their bits.

Dara Joy covers bring us Joy: 

That Familiar Touch: A man is resting his head on his fist. His hair is cascading around him and it is made of hay? Snakes? No idea. It’s a massive pattern around his head that is absolutely not hair.
Version 1.0.0

Death by Ploot Ploot is disappointingly boring. A faded translucent image of a male torso is against a sunset. The type reads Death by Ploot Ploot. Taste of the Devil: a pirate is standing in front of a large map holding a cutlass. The man is seen from the back and has dark black thick dreads and a red stocking cap? And I need you to understand that every single element of this cover is bad cut and paste. Not a single one was part of the same image as any of the others. The hair is bad, the hat is absurd, the cutlass is definitely not in his hand, and I don’t think those boots were original because his knees are facing away while his boots are pointed to the side.

Instant Romantic Gratification! 20% off the print price at the Harper Collins Ebook Store!

An ad for Harpercollinsebooks, where the ad states that ebooks are 20% off the print book price. The ad features Tempted by his Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren - a blonde with a lot of hair is about to be kissed by some guy - And Some Like it Wild by Teresa Medeiros, and Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle, which feature two women in off the shoulder gowns. One is green and one is black.

This ad for Siren Publishing is a time capsule.

THere are six black and white covers, all featuring various muscular men in poses that flex, and every woman is topless with her hands over her nipples.

And this title in particular, which is just bananas:

Sex Party Cowboy Sex 1 by Natalie Acrews features three cowboys in the background in various stages of undress but they were all pasted in there. They are all visibly from other photo shoots. And there’s a woman taking off her top getting tangled in it, and she’s wearing a thong, but standing in such a way that her booty is straight backwards toward the viewer because you can see the front and back of it. It’s bizarre, almost as bizarre as the title.

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What did you think of today's episode? Got ideas? Suggestions? You can talk to us on the blog entries for the podcast or talk to us on Facebook if that's where you hang out online. You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-3272. 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!

Transcript

❤ Click to view the transcript ❤

This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.

Remember to subscribe to our podcast feed, find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find many more outstanding podcasts at Frolic.media/podcasts!
Categorized:

Romantic Times Rewind

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