Genre’d: A Book Podcast

What happens when you stop reading the same genre over and over? You might just discover your next favorite book. This week on Genre'd Off Book, we're joined by Adi of @adiinthelife, whose motto is “No genre left behind.” We're talking about reading outside your comfort zone, grumpy book boyfriends, gateway horror, and why romance deserves a little more respect. Plus, we debate whether...

Five years of waiting, one day of reading, and approximately a thousand opinions. A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas is finally here , and we couldn't possibly wait to talk about it. We're back in Prythian for an emergency episode covering the divided Inner Circle, complicated relationships, questionable decisions, and the very real possibility that ACOTAR 6 is just the world&#...

A hockey romance where she’s the fan, answering machines making the slow burn even slower, and a surprisingly passionate Grease 2 discussion. This week on Genre’d Off Book, Katy and Elyse are joined by author Jacquelyn Middleton to talk about Love Wants Us to Win , her romance set in early ’90s Toronto, and why she writes for hopeful romantics. We’re talking women in sports fandom, her path to ind...

What happens when you take the dystopian romances of the 2010s and add Tessa Bailey-level spice? You get Broken Rival , a time-travel romance featuring a morally gray military man, a very inconvenient love triangle, and our least favorite trope: brother lovers. This week, Elyse and Katy are talking about Tessa Bailey's first dystopian romance, why it feels like The Hunger Games meets The Vampi...

What does it actually take to sell a book? And more importantly, can men in billowy shirts be considered their own literary genre? This week on Genre'd Off Book , Elyse and Katy are joined by Meredith and Erin, founders of The Book Launch Club, to talk about the business of book marketing, why BookTok followers don't always translate into book sales, and why romance deserves a little more...

What if Groundhog Day took place at a wedding, except every reset dropped you into a completely different horror movie? This week, Elyse and Katy are talking Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison, a time-loop horror comedy with masked killers, supernatural creatures, wedding drama, one very questionable rebound, and a surprisingly emotional story about starting over in your thirties. We’re also disc...

This week on Off Book, Elyse and Katy are joined by author Elizabeth Richardson, creator of Trad , a serialized novel about a woman who pretends to be a tradwife online, goes viral, and takes things way too far. Elizabeth gets into why Trad found a second life on Substack after dying on submission, the very blurry line between lifestyle and performance online, and the question we can’t stop thinki...

What if another version of you became exactly the person you always thought you’d be? This week, Elyse and Katy are talking Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel, a literary speculative novel about a collapsed America, parallel universes, mysterious disappearances, and one very morally gray woman who is exceptionally good at surviving. We’re talking nature vs. nurture, freedom vs. safety, whether we...

We’re going Off Book with debut romance author Katie Jung , author of You’re the One That I Haunt , a paranormal romance she describes as Gossip Girl meets My Best Friend’s Wedding with a hot ghost love interest. Katie joins Elyse and Katy to talk about her road to publishing, bringing her Polish heritage into the book, why romance deserves more credit, and the art of writing yearning, slow burns,...

This week on Genre’d, Elyse and Katy are talking about Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan, a fake dating romance set against a very dreamy New England summer. Dolly is thirty-nine, a single mom, and the kind of woman who can solve basically any problem herself. Stuart Whitfield is a wealthy New England heir who needs to prove he has a life outside of work. She needs $50,000 for a new roof. He...

This week on Off Book, we’re joined by debut author Michelle Eileen to talk about A Real Paige Turner , her cowboy romance with a mystery, bookstore vibes, strong female friendship, and one very qualified book boyfriend. We also get into Michelle’s unusual publishing journey, the fantasy books that shaped us, romance as a comfort genre, books we definitely read too young, adaptation anxiety, and h...

This week, we’re talking about  Last Night Was Killer  by Mary Pauline Lowry, a funny mystery about a struggling comedian, a dead man in her trunk, and a beginner pole dancing class that somehow turns into an amateur detective squad. We get into Tilly’s very questionable decision not to call the police, the found family that completely won us over, the romantic subplot with one very helpful ATF ag...

We’re going Off Book with romance author Kate Robb , author of This Spells Love , Prime Time Romance , Kitty St. Clair's Last Dance and the upcoming Solar Eclipse of the Heart . We talk magical realism, the comfort of 90s rom-coms, why romance deserves way more respect, the books Kate would recommend to new romance readers, and the very specific joy of knowing everyone will be out of the basem...

We’re wrapping up Kalie Cassidy’s Siren Mage duology with In the Wake of the Ruined , and while we still love the gothic siren world, this one left us a little more mixed. We’re talking Theo’s aggressively devoted POV, Imogen stepping fully into her power, a political marriage nobody seems especially concerned about, and enough lore to make us lose the family tree several names ago. Then we get in...

Our little sister Amanda finally gets her own Off Book episode, and she has a lot to say about MM romance. We talk about how Heated Rivalry turned someone who claimed books put her to sleep into a full-fledged reader, plus forced proximity, stepbrothers, hockey romance, gentleman witches, Omegaverse, and the books she recommends for beginners. Also discussed: why men take so long to talk about the...

This week, we’re talking about Thornbird by E. Kennedy, a dark YA thriller about a serial killer’s daughter returning to the small town her family destroyed. We get into the love triangle, the true crime obsession, the deeply suspicious bird imagery, and the return of the bad boy with a heart of gold. We also debate where BBWHG ends and morally gray begins, because apparently murder is an importan...

This week on Genre’d Off Book, we’re joined by author Brooklyn Rose to talk about her debut romance, Sex Positive , out August 4th. We get into the book’s college romance setup, Charlie’s mission to take on abstinence-only sex ed, and why stories about pleasure, purity culture, and agency feel especially relevant right now. Brooklyn also walks us through her publishing journey, from querying and r...

A missing dog. A creepy London mansion. One very chic amateur PI. This week, we’re talking about It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell, a psychological thriller about Jane Trevally, a missing girl, a deeply suspicious family, and the secrets buried inside Thornwood. Katy loved Jane, the audiobook, and the slow unraveling of the mystery. Elyse had more questions, especially about the many POVs and...

It’s our 2026 mid-year reading check-in, which means we are taking a very official look at the books we loved, the books we regretted, the genres that surprised us, and the reading habits we are pretending to have under control. Katy and Elyse talk Goodreads goals, audiobook math, romantasy fatigue, dystopian awakenings, cozy fantasy surprises, horror rom-coms, memoirs, and why some sequels simply...

Bryanna is back for our one-year anniversary episode, and obviously we had to make it emotional, suspicious, and deeply unserious. This week, we’re talking Broken Dove by Dani Francis, the sequel to Silver Elite , aka the very first book we ever covered on Genre’d. This episode is not fully spoiler-free. Because Broken Dove is book two, we do spoil Silver Elite , and once the spoiler alarm goes of...

This week on Genre’d Off Book , Katy and Elyse are joined by Elyse’s college friend Lanoi for a conversation about mood reading, historical fiction, literary fiction, comfort books, and the book recommendations that tell you everything you need to know about a person. We get into Lanoi’s love of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower , why Colonel Brandon might be the original book boyfriend, smutty Jane Aus...

This week on Genre’d, Katy and Elyse are talking about Rumors and Whiskey by Victoria Wilder , a romantic suspense full of small-town rumors, whiskey, family secrets, a dead body, and women who absolutely know how to handle a problem. We get into why this book gave us Practical Magic without the magic , how it connects to Victoria Wilder’s Bourbon Boys world, and why Katy may have found her ideal...

This week on Off Book, we’re joined by author Jourdana Webber to talk about her debut romance, Unconventionally, Elle , her upcoming book Could’ve, Should’ve, Would’ve , and the world she calls the Elleverse. We get into romance as comfort, found family, indie publishing, friends-to-lovers, magical realism, and why stories about women choosing themselves first deserve more credit. Plus, we somehow...

This week on Genre’d, we’re back in the world of Nocturna with Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen, where Meryn’s queen era begins with civil war, stolen magic, a siphon sister, emotionally intelligent wolves, and one very intense magical jewelry scavenger hunt. We talk shadow daddies, siphons who are absolutely vampiring, Lucien stealing the show, why quests are personally testing us, the spice level, t...

This week on Off Book, we’re joined by author Georgia Clark, whose new novel Play It Again is an ensemble rom-com about community theater, second chance romance, queer kissing, and the emotional hazard of revisiting your teenage self in your thirties. Georgia talks with us about writing contemporary romance, how Red, White & Royal Blue helped shift the direction of her career, and why romance...