Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast

A few months ago, Kayleigh Donaldson joined me to discuss Oscar predictions and other pop culture stories, and we decided to connect quarterly to discuss popular culture. We discuss the misogyny attached to Timothy Chalamet hate, a deep dive into the public post history of Club Chalamet as indicative of larger issues in fandom behavior, Madonna’s new album, Lizzo’s new album, and the Tartan Army....

My guest this week is Kirsty Greenwood, whose new book Romantic Hero is out now everywhere, all over the world. Kirsty writes what she calls “speculative romantic comedy,” and I really loved her first book, Love of my Afterlife. We discuss SHOCKING topics like deleting the first book she tried to write, the character journeys in Romantic Hero, dealing with writer’s block, and punching people in th...

The time machine is all charged up, and we’re headed back to May 1996 to take a look at the ads & features from Romantic Times magazine. It’s the late 90s, so you know that means Incredible Cover Art. We also discover just how much creepy stuff Amanda owns currently, debates about babies in romance, cheap conference hotel rooms, woman flamingos, and incredible women heroines. I don’t know if y...

My guest today is bestselling author Ashley Poston, whose new book, The Someday Garden , is out this week. The Someday Garden was inspired by The Secret Garden , so we’re going to talk about inspiration, gardening, fandoms, changing genres and having your readers grow up with you as a writer. TW/CW – discussion of grief, and of suicide at almost exactly 1 hour into our conversation. You can find A...

We love the 90s, and that’s where we’re headed this month, gazing at the impossible mullets from Romantic Times magazine. We’re talking about the newest books from May 1996, including the second book in what is now a 15-book much-loved series, and some truly memorable character names. We’ll investigate, “What’s wrong with this man?” We’ll have “lashings of good fun.” Plus we learn a SHOCKING TRUTH...

Martha Wells is back, and we are taking a deep spoilery dive into Platform Decay. I want to be clear here: if you haven’t read Platform Decay , we are about to spoil the dickens out of it. Yes, Charles Dickens is in Platform Decay , you heard it here first. We’re going to discuss infrastructure fury, trains in Japan, Honor Princess Detective, and more – and when I say we are spoiling, we are spoil...

We’re back in the time machine, heading to December 2012 to look at the ads and features from Romantic Times magazine.  This episode features a high amount of extreme zany. We’ve got so many treats for you this week, including the Steeple Hill Drinking Game, the reverse Colonel Sanders, Jude Deveraux’s thoughts on modern romance heroes of the time, shifters and more.  Watch the episode a...

We’re sampling Tropetails cocktail mixes, discussing what we’re reading and playing, and what books we’re looking forward to in the coming months. We were not paid to promote them, but we did receive free samples and they are delicious. We also mentioned: Manta:  Flower of Allure  aka  Flowers are Bait  Game:  Winter Burrow Game:  Librarian – Tidy Up the Arcane Librar...

We’re back in the time machine, heading back to December 2012 to see what new books were reviewed in Romantic Times magazine. We’ve got “multicultural” books, beefy paragraphs, big thorns, Schroedinger’s baby, and “charming vulgar nonsense.” Plus, we ask a very important question: if you were suddenly the heroine of an Inspirational romance, how would you know? TW/CW for the erotica section at the...

Nalini Singh is back to talk about  Archangel’s Eternity , which I have been calling “Archangel’s Finale.” We’ve got questions from readers and listeners, and some behind the scenes details about how Nalini organizes the massive worlds she’s built in her series. Plus she teases some major surprises for the next Psy-Changeling book, and what she’s working on right now. You can find the video o...

Programming note: this week's episode is dropping on 30 April 2026. Smart Bitches Trashy Books, LLC, is withdrawing our labor on May 1, 2026, alongside other companies, school districts, and activists as part of the May Day Nationwide Day of Collective Action. For more information, visit MayDayStrong.org . ... Ilana Masad and Stevie K. Seibert Desjarlais are the editors of a new and excellent anth...

Thanks for Geoffroy in the  podcast Patreon  (merci, Geoffrey!) my guest this week is Claire Trottier, owner of  Joie de Livres , a romance and speculative fiction bookshop in Montreal, Canada. Hi Neighbors! We’re going to talk about: Opening a romance and speculative fiction book store Wealth disparity! Seeing the world premiere of episode 1 of  Heated Rivalry  at the Ima...

When you subscribed to this podcast, I bet you thought, “When is Sarah going to interview an expert on theoretical physics ?” Today is your day! My guest is Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein author of the book The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie. And if you’re thinking, I was really bad at physics – don’t worry, so was I. I found this book to be both incredibly engagi...

My guest this week is podcast community favorite Alisha Rai! We start off catching up on our history of podcasting together, our life changes, and the challenges of making children wear coats. Then it’s enemies to lovers time! Her new book,  Enemies to Lovers  is out now, and we both brought the good trowels. We dig into the trope to examine how it works, what the essential elements are,...

You’ve been hearing me talk about this book for awhile, and I am so excited to share with you my conversation with Fortesa Latifi, author of  Like, Follow, Subscribe: The Cost of a Childhood Online . Her research into family vloggers and influencers is superb and I’m still thinking about some of the revelations in this book. We discuss the origins of influencing and family vlogging, the benef...

We are back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 to check out the Ads & Features from Romantic Times Magazine! We’re going to talk about Geocities websites, author research, and Hands. Lots of Hands. This one is a little spicy, y’all! At about 45 minutes in there’s an extended discussion of anal in romance fiction (as you do) and at about 50 minutes in, we discuss death, mortuary science,...

Riss M. Neilson joins me today to talk about her new romance, The Bridge Back to You. This is a second chance love story between two exes who unexpectedly inherit shares of the same restaurant – the restaurant that he runs, and that she kind of ran away from. There is so much to discuss in this book: we talk about characters with chronic illnesses like endometriosis, or mental illnesses like OCD....

We're back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 - for real this time - to check out the reviews in this issue of Romantic Times magazine! We’ve got anthologies, Carpathians, and several books where we’re pretty sure the happy ending is to throw the entire man away. We also debate who is possessed by demons because it’s a valid question for several of the books we talk about.  A mild warn...

Thank you for joining me for a “from the vault” episode! This is episode 147, originally aired June 26, 2015, so almost 11 years ago. Drs. Jen Lois and Joanna Gregson did a multi-year study on the community of romance authors and I have never stopped thinking about it. In this conversation, we’re talking about that study, what they learned about romance as a community, especially about gender dyna...

Amanda and I are traveling back to June 1997 to discuss: Touring inside author’s homes and whether we think it’s kinda intrusive and uncomfortable Neverending reader hate for “the F word” The fans used to blow back cover models’ hair And speaking of, what’s on the Cover Model Pageant contestant’s heads? And more! We DO have a video episode for this one with images –  you can find it on your Y...

Kate Quinn’s new book,  The Astral Library , is out this week and I was so excited to not only get an advanced copy but an opportunity to interview Kate Quinn. We talk about the inspiration for this very magical book, and about books that are sanctuaries. We also talk about library advocacy, book banning, and the deadly threat of bureaucracy. My favorite thing that Kate says: “When you love a...

Amanda and I are back, deep diving into romance and pop culture history with issue 1997 of Romantic Times Magazine. The cover reads Love, Lust, Laugh, and we’ve got some vintage books to talk about. Then we talk about what books we’re most looking forward to right now, and what we’re currently reading. In two weeks we will be back with the ads & features, and you know a magazine from the 90s h...

My guest this week is Julia Quinn and we are talking about, of course,  JQ Editions,  a new subscription service creating special limited editions of historical romances. I’ve been writing about this since it was announced, and so I got to ask all my questions – and some of yours. Along the way we talk about the historical romance genre, administrative mayhem, and the practicalities of c...

Kayleigh Donaldson  is back! She is the guest on some of the most popular episodes, and I know what that is: she’s brilliant. We recorded this just before the Oscar nominations were announced, so Kayleigh is making (some pretty accurate!) predictions about Oscar nominations, and explaining what makes this year’s group of films so interesting. Along the way we also talk about vintage Hollywood...

Candy recapped  Heated Rivalry , and is that enough? No, of course not. We had MANY things we wanted to exclaim at each other about, so why not podcast about it? We’re going to talk about the show, the acting, the adaptation, and the fact that this show could never have been made in the US. Jacob Tierney is a genius, and we have many a rabbit hole of research to explore. If you’ve been thinki...