Rebel Ever After

My guest this week is Tara Tai, whose debut novel SINGLE PLAYER came out this January. It's a queer rom-com about two video game developers who clash over whether or not to include romantic storylines in their blockbuster new game Compass Hollow. Tara and I talked about what it was like for them to write a romance novel about gaming culture, and the similar social stigma of romance and gaming as a...

My guest this week is Chip Pons, the author of You And I, Rewritten and the forthcoming reality TV romance Winging It With You . He walked me through his publishing journey, from querying agents to self-publishing to making his trad pub debut during Pride 2025. Then we talked about the radically beautiful cover of his rom-com. Finally, how can we bring more gay men into the romance community as re...

Welcome to PRIDE, y'all!! This week's guest is Joanna Lowell, the author of historical romances including A Shore Thing , The Duke Undone , and A Rare Find , which comes out on June 10th. She is also a Professor in the English Department at Wake Forest University.  We talked about her experience teaching modern romance novels alongside classics like Jane Austen in the classroom, and the threat the...

Buckle up for the first ever Rebel Ever After quarterly romance discourse round-up. This month I analyzed the bad vibes of 2025: Why is the Chicago Sun Times recommending books that don't exist? Has publishing abandoned diverse voices? Why are popular books by black authors so hard to find in bookstores lately? Is Silver Elite a worthy successor to The Hunger Games ? And what the hell is up with s...

This week's guest is Harper St. George, the author of many historical romances including The Heiress Gets A Duke, The Stranger I Wed, and Eliza and The Duke (out on June 24th). We talked about writing relationships between equals across different time periods, from Vikings to the Victorian Era to the Wild West. Plus: Is indie publishing the future for historical romance? Are progressive heroes "hi...

This week's guest is Betty Cayouette, author of TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL and ONE LAST SHOT. We talked about writing a romance that starts with a third act breakup, if the miscommunication trope deserves the hate it gets, and why a second-chance needs an excellent apology. Then Betty and I talked about sneaking the wage gap into a rom-com, and romance heroines who have experienced sexual violenc...

This week's guest is Myah Ariel, the author of two contemporary romance novels that take place in the entertainment industry. First we discussed how her mother's real life experience integrating an all-white school in the 1960s inspired her debut novel WHEN I THINK OF YOU . Then we dove into her new book NO ORDINARY LOVE , a deliciously sexy romance about a singer who falls in love with a baseball...

My guest this week is Leanne Schwartz! She is the author of several YA fantasy novels and the adult contemporary rom-com My Kind of Trouble, a brilliant homage to The Music Man . We talked about bringing a mid-century musical into the modern day with a stern librarian battling book bans in his community and a smoke show con artist who targets corrupt wealthy white men.  We also talked at length ab...

My guest this week is New York Times best-selling author Allison Raskin, whose first rom-com Save The Date was published this April by Canary Street Press. You may know Allison from her podcast  Just Between Us with Gabe Dunn, her mental health newsletter Emotional Support Lady , or her previous life as a BuzzFeed star. In this episode Allison shares the true story that inspired Save The Date , an...

As traditional publishers adapt to Trump Era Part II, there is concern in Romancelandia that books are about to get a lot whiter, straighter, and more conventional. Luckily, indie authors don't have to deal with gatekeepers. Is self-publishing the future for diverse, queer, progressive romance novels? What should you know before you decide to go indie? My guest this week is Georgina Kiersten, who...

My guest this week is Joanna Shupe, best-selling historical romance author whose books take place during the Gilded Age. Her latest book  The Gilded Heiress publishes this August with Avon.  Joanna's books have always been political, but apparently some of her readers didn't exactly pick up on the undertones of her work. When she wrote a newsletter reacting to Donald Trump's re-election, quite a f...

My guest this week is Amy Spalding, author of many YA novels and the adult sapphic Out In Hollywood series. The latest installment, ON HER TERMS , was published in February by Kensington Books.  Topics tackled include: How much queer representation in the YA genre has improved in the last decade, and coming out as bisexual "later in life." Is "adulthood" a scam, and what does it look like outside...

This week's guest is Adriana Herrera, author of many contemporary and historical romances including a A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke . Adriana leads the pack when it comes to writing love stories that are bold, sexy and unwavering in their values. We talked about what it means to write brave romance novels, where the happily-ever-after includes a better world for everyone, not just the main charac...

This week's guest is TJ Alexander, author of several queer contemporary romances including Chef's Choice and Second Chances In New Port Steven . TJ shared what readers can expect from their first historical romance, A Gentleman's Gentleman , publishing on March 11th. We talked about writing queer and trans identity back into history, and the many forms that masculinity can take.  Then I pestered t...

My guest is Andie J. Christopher, the author of many contemporary romances including Unrealistic Expectations , Thank You Next, and Hot Under His Collar . She is also the creator of Stern Brunch Daddy, both the concept and the Substack. Together we dissected the never-ending "smut" discourse. Why do we keep having the same circular conversations about romance novels getting too explicit, and is th...

My guest this week is Elizabeth Everett, the author of The Secret Scientists of London series and The Damsels of Discovery series. We discussed her book The Love Remedy, about a female apothecary in Victorian England who provides reproductive healthcare to women, and The Lady Sparks a Flame , which comes out in March. As a content warning, this episode includes a lot of discussion of abortion thro...

Put on your cryptid-hunting gear! My guest this week is Mallory Marlowe, author of the contemporary romance Love and Other Conspiracies . Her 2024 debut was one of my favorite books of last year and features a heroine healing from an emotional abusive relationship. We talked about leaving behind toxic partners and workplaces, and how Mallory wrote a healthy romantic partnership worth swooning over...

[As a head's up I apologize for the low volume in this episode. I edited myself into a corner and cannot fix it. Normal volume episodes will return next week!] My guest this episode is Liana De la Rosa, the author of fantastic historical romances — most recently the Luna Sisters series, which takes place in England during the second Franco-Mexican War. Gabriela and His Grace , the last book in the...

In this week's episode I interview my friends Lydia Wang and Annabel Paulsen, the writing duo behind the sapphic Bachelor-inspired rom-com HERE FOR THE WRONG REASONS. We talked about reality television romance novels, the toxic polyamory of dating competition shows, and how compulsory heterosexuality hurts us all. Then we had a gossip about GoodReads review culture and the unfair burden readers pl...

My guest this week is Laura Piper Lee, the author of Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair and Zoe Brennan First Crush, which comes out Tuesday January 21. We talked about putting the comedy back in romantic comedy, the intense power of your first crush, why we need more casually queer characters, and the subversiveness of the single mom as a romantic hero.  Follow Laura on Instagram @laurapiperlee , and ord...

My guest this week on Rebel Ever After is Jessica P. Pryde! She is a contributing editor at Book Riot and the co-host of their biweekly romance podcast, When In Romance . In 2022, Jessica edited the essay anthology Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters . Most recently, her short story "Why Won't you Die?" was published in Someplace Generous: An Inclusive Rom...

My guest this week is Nellie Wilson, a teacher and historian who is the author of romance novels including Curated, Corporate Mandated Holiday Romance, and Steel My Heart: An Appalachian Romance . Her fiction is proudly anti-capitalist, and we talked about the need for romance novels about folks who don't live in Stars Hollow or Hollywood. If you hate JD Vance, you'll love this episode. Other topi...

It turns out I owe Blake Lively, and all of you, an apology. In this quick episode, I go over the allegations against Justin Baldoni and the smear campaign he orchestrated of his It Ends With Us co-star. You can read my essay about how I fell for the smear campaign and the specific allegations against Baldoni and his co-producer Jamey Heath here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-fell-for-act-118745...

My guest this week is the effervescently funny Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember , and the forthcoming Love Is a War Song , hitting bookstores in July 2025. Ember and Danuwoa's story is the first traditionally published romance novel by a Native author!  We talked about the woeful history of Native representation in pop culture and how little has changed (I'm looking at you, Tayl...

This week my guest is Jenny L. Howe, the author of The Makeup Test, On The Plus Side , and How to Get a Life In Ten Dates , which comes out this Tuesday December 10th. She's also the author of the forthcoming YA romance, Love at Full Tilt .  Topics discussed in this episode include: why every man in romance has the body of Chris Hemsworth, how romance often celebrates toxic masculinity, the fatpho...