Trigger Warning: Child Rape Janine: I’ve been thinking lately about age gaps in romance. When I started reading romances in the 1980s, May/December pairings were quite common, with the MCs often being a decade apart in age. Queer romances were almost unheard of in mainstream publishing, self-publishing was expensive, and ... more >
Janine: In our December conversation, 2022 in Review, Jennie mentioned that she’d experienced a bad reading slump last year. I don’t feel great about the number of books I’ve finished in 2022 and after hearing other peoples’ numbers, I feel even worse! I know it’s not a competition, but in ... more >
Hi everyone, I’ve got a new conversation topic for you. Last month we talked about how our reading went in 2022. Now let’s talk about 2023. Do you have any New Year’s resolutions when it comes to your reading (i.e. read X number of books, read more of a genre ... more >
Janine: Every reading year is different. There are years when we read more books and years when we read fewer. Some years we make a great discovery–an author we’ve never read before and whose books we love. Other years are a drought. Some years a genre trends in a direction ... more >
Janine: Sometimes the first meeting between two protagonists is cute (they are walking their dogs toward each other and the leashes get tangled–I think I’ve seen that somewhere) and sometimes it’s horrible (she thinks she’s catching he’s breaking in and greets him with a baseball bat). Which do you enjoy ... more >
Janine: ‘Tis the season for books set during the winter holidays, and I’d love to know your thoughts on the holiday settings in romances and in other books. Generally speaking, do books set during the holidays draw you? What do you like least and/or best about them? Which holidays do ... more >