Reading For Pleasure

It's Trans Rights Readathon week! We encourage you to read books by and about trans folks frequently, but we decided to bump this episode up the release list to celebrate. Depictions of alcohol use are frequent in romance, but drug use is rare, particularly in books that feature white characters exclusively. Is cannabis use black-coded? How can reading about characters with neo-pronouns help u...

Find us on threads? What's an "Alpha Male," and is Zaf one? Doesn't everyone who goes viral get called fat? Why aren't there more stories with mixed race couples where neither is white? Content warnings: Car crash, death, mentioned/discussed death of close family members, grief, general anxiety disorder, panic attack, over developed gag reflex, and, as always, explicit sex Tr...

*this is an official Comcast HATE account* Are vampires always white, and are shifters/werewolves usually people of color? Are vampires the ultimate colonizers? What is the omegaverse and is this book in it? Content warnings: death of several people within the context of a war between different species (vampires, werewolves, and humans), several mentions of blood, kidnapping, mild violence, poison...

"Haters to lovers" Our first episode with a guest: Welcome, Emily! Why can't she be fat AND the most beautiful woman anyone has ever laid eyes on? How much do character descriptions matter? Is his only kink wanting to f%$# a fattie?1? Content warnings: Abuse (emotional, financial), body shaming, murder (off-page), guns, explicit sex Tropes: Marriage of Convenience, Fake Relationship,...

"So it's like a shake weight?!?" Why are orcs hot? How does romance/smut give us room to explore new kinks in a safe manner? And finally, a statement: sex work is WORK! Content warnings: Dominant/submissive role-play, sex work, primal play, light consensual/non consensual, chasing, wrestling, oral sex, anal sex, spanking, sleep deprivation, forced orgasm, use of toys for DP, restrain...

Is it ok for a white woman to write a story almost exclusively about Black people? How do authors show fatness besides just telling us the character is fat? There are straight men in therapy?!?!! Content Warnings: Anxiety, Fatphobia, Strained Parental Relationships Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Forbidden Romance, Reformed Playboy Articles referenced: Godin, M., Kishan, J., David, M....

We're so excited to finally be launching the pod! In this episode, we give a brief explainer on who we are and what we'll be discussing this season.