Plot Trysts

Katherine Grant always impresses us with the diversity of experiences she puts in her romances. Both of us enjoyed reading this! Meg had a lot of thoughts on Persuasion and was into it, Laine thought the reality was a little TOO real to be sexy.

We are officially Sarah MacLean completionists with this book. We are NOT fans of this couple, but it was very fun to see how far MacLean has come.

This is a very promising debut, especially on the hot tamale scale. We just couldn't get over the hero's lack of conviction and making out with her cousin.

Meg and Alex are joined by Katherine Addison, author of the Goblin Emperor, to discuss Cetaganda. For a romp, there's quite a bit of social and political commentary.

Is this the biggest disagreement ever on plot trysts?

The title is meant to be Not! Jeopardy reference, but even though we loved this book all I can think is "baby don't hurt me."

We (reasonably IMO) expected a sex book. This was NOT a sex book.

We interrupt your usual Naismith/Vorkosigan family hijinks to explore some speculative, old-school SciFi. What if a planet inhabited only by men ran out of ova? One intrepid scientist must even *gasp* speak to a woman to find a solution!

This is a bite-sized good time, even if neither of us can articulate more than "it was fun and we figured out the mystery too soon so there should have been more sex."

This book really takes some chances and explored new-to-us things in Romance. We liked it overall, but if we're being honest Thorne's way of... taking control... is what really sold us here.

I think this is the closest we've ever come to grading on a curve. Is this good? No? Did it have potential that Sarah MacLean later realized. YES.

Max Gladstone joins Meg and Alex for a deep dive into three novellas. Buckle up! Start - Mountains of Mourning; 25 Minutes - Labyrinth; 65 Minutes - Borders of Infinity.

This book is neither hinged nor unhinged. It was fun, but we like the extremes.

This novella is a perfect standalone, and you should read it. However, it is the last book in a series, which made us sad, even though we wouldn't change anything about this book.

If you haven't yet, go sign up for Alexandra Vasti's newsletter. You get free gems like this seriously perfect novella. A plot AND sex scenes? Sign us up.

Meg and Alex are joined by R.E. Stearns to discuss the next book in Miles' coming of age journey. Given the social status of the main characters in this series, the social and political dynamics of being powerful and isolated are a focus of conversation.

If we didn't know better, we'd say Olivia Dade plumbed the recesses of our minds to produce Meg's platonic ideal of a sexy book and Laine's nightmares in book form. But with monster porn!

If you criticize Sunny, Meg will fight you. Just an FYI.

Ali Hazelwood breaks away from science contemporary into paranormal romance. A lot of her go-to tropes really worked for us here! Laine got a crash course in werewolf sub tropes that broke her.

Meg and Alex are joined by Lynn Buchanan to introduce the Miles-focused part of the series. So many characters get new framing from Miles's perspective that the discussion focuses a lot on character study.

This was a really tough one for us. On the one hand, West and Sophie have great banter and a series worth of feelings to work through. On the other hand, West is perfect and Sophie is very unforgivably mean to him.

Verify finally figured out who her phantom is! And he's hot! But he's also busy saving England. Is this book great? No. Is it the best in the series? Yes.

College sweethearts go on tour when one of them gets super famous writing about the breakup. Excellent concept, we were iffy on some of the execution but had fun!

Meg and Alex are joined by Aliette de Bodard for an in-depth discussion of Barrayar. Long live Cordelia.

This modern take on Dangerous liaisons charmed both of us. Who knew hide and seek could be so sexy?