Whoa!mance: Romance and Ourselves

Happy Belated Birthday Jane Austen--nobody does it better. We're still at Rosings waiting on what Mr. Darcy's gonna do when he finally appears. Join us as we discuss the deification of characters and what happens when we flatten the narrative.

We aren't going to leave these takes flappin' in the wind - join us as we land the conversation with part 2 of our discussion on A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Maas. What makes a "good" war text? How can we talk about gender and race in a fantasy-world divorced from our social reality? Or can popular fiction even effectively imagine such a world? Can you still get horny in a "Li-berry"? Spoiler aler...

War! UH! Good gosh y'all! What is it good for? 699 pages! SAY IT AGAIN! That's right, we're back in Prythy-town to discuss the third (and obviously originally meant to be final) book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series - A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Sarah J. Maas. Feyre and Rhysand and their found family (plus Feyre's two kidney donors a.k.a. sisters) do a lot of stuff. They spy, they murder...

Almost half way there y'all and in this chapter we meet the infamous Mrs. De Bourg. She's got opinions, she was once handsome, and remains really rich. Lizzie thinks of jokes that will tickle Wickam and tries real hard not to think about a certain other you-know-who

Chapter 28 opens with a physical journey and closes with an emotional one for yr grls. Once Lizzy's quips were uncomplicated in their high humor, now tho, they hit different. Is it us? Is it Lizzy? Is it the 200ish years between us? Listen and you decide

This episode we return to space! Or rather the Arizona mock-up of space - with THE ASTRONAUT AND THE STAR by JEN COMFORT. Reggie is a mean astronaut who wants to go the moon and Jon is a nice star who wants to win an Oscar. Maybe they can help each other become successful even moreso than their parents did? Or maybe they can fall in love? Or maybe those things aren't mutually exclusive? What makes...

Yr grls are taking time this weekend to cough up the worst air in the history of Chicago to make room for cool, clear PBR. So we have enough time for "1776" AND "Independence Day", we are re-releasing this Star-Spangled oldie, but Yankee-Doodle Dandy goodie. We dish on American Revolution meets Ye Olde Show Biz romance MISTRESS FIREBRAND by DONNA THORLAND. Along the way we talk about French Letter...

Have you heard April is the cruelest month? Wrong--it's February and boy does Lizzie Bennet know it! Without her best bud, without her best sis, without the sun what is Lizzie but a collection of misanthropic observations? Too harsh--you be the judge in this zippy little chapter

Can we get vulnerable for a bit? Hope so, because we did. Along with Jodie Slaughter and Andrea of Shelf Love Podcast, we come together - not unlike a certain Derek and Sarah - to reflect of what DREAMING OF YOU by LISA KLEYPAS. has to say about feminine identity, romance readers, and, as ever, ourselves. Why Derek Craven and why not Joyce? Why does Romance seek the approval of systems that do not...

Welp Mr. Collins done married Mz Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Wickham has discovered a new first object and she comes with 10000 pounds. Lizzie feels one way about her bud Charlotte's choices and another about Mr. Wickham's. We begs the question--what does the text think about Lizzie? What do we think of her in this well rounded epistle driven storm of a chapter?

This week, yr grls at long last encounter Derek Craven in "DREAMING OF YOU" by Miss Massachu herself LISA KLEYPAS. It is time for Morgan and Isabeau to wade into this collaboration with Shelf Love. You probably already know this - but Sarah is a regency country mouse who is secretly a best-selling novelist. Facing the dreaded sophomore slump, she seeks out a real Gambling Hell to research her next...

This episode we embark on a Duologoy, a duet of sorts with Shelf Love. In an attempt to highlight the manifold approaches one can have to a single text, we are each, discretely, discussing DREAMING OF YOU by Lisa Kleypas. We have not listened to one another's discussions prior to recording/editing our own episodes, so there might be cross-over, but that will be as interesting as the unique points...

P&p25 by Whoa!mance: Romance, Feminism, and Ourselves

Blast-off baby! This eppy yr grls are moon walking across some big topics in YA romance with THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE US by ELIOT SCHREFER. Ambrose is fulfilling his lifelong training of space travel, and he is fulfilling it to rescue his beloved sister. And so is soviet-adjacent Kodiak (without the sister part). Will the two be able to put aside their ideological differences, and the creeping feeling...

We're 'doing the business' here in chapter 24. Jane and Lizzy almost fight, Mr. Bennet has some ideas about how to establish home harmony and we are dissecting world views and, as ever, interrogating the self.

We interrupt our regular programming to share a discussion on the BUTT OUT, BABY podcast with yr grls of Whoa!mance--on the introductory scene of no less a Prince of the City than JOHNNY CASTLE from Dirty Dancing. We had SO MUCH FUN. Just in time for summer. Per Ellie of BOB: Baby gets her first glimpse into the class structure at Kellerman's ft. Morgan & Isabeau of Whoa!mance + Johnny being a...

The Fall out of Mr. Collins' second proposal continues. Mrs Bennet cannot even and we don't blame her. It sucks having your best friend excitedly contemplating your husband's death and impeding poverty. SoMeONe should think of poor Mrs. Bennet's nerves...LIZZY

This ep yr grls visit the cultural rupture known as 1995 to (finally) discuss LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase. Scoundrel, rake, blight of his family name, Lord Dain has a lot of baggage, the least of which is some dumb guy named Bertie. But gorgeous, brilliant Jessica has accepted her lot as a spinster and developed an actual personality, so her dumb brother, Bertie, happens to be her biggest...

In which Collins has a “surprise” for Charlotte, and Charlotte has a surprise for Lizzie. Yr grls reflect on the historic and constant privilege of youth and beauty, and the historic and constant problem of being alone.

Don ye flower crowns - yr grls are going full ren fest with "The Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon" by Kimberly Lemming. Cinnamon does the title with Fallon during a very auspicious time - a festivus when The Goddess's protection spells weaken and chosen heroes must pick up the slack. Cinnmaon is grateful she missed that particular calling, but Fallon is insistent she join him on an opposite ques...

In this chapter Jane receives a letter, Lizzy talks shit, and Mrs. Bennet continues to fret about the future.

This week we're leaving the gun, taking the cannoli (per usual) with "TWISTED PRIDE" by CORA REILLY. Seraphina is about to fulfill the promise of her midwest-Mob upbringing by marrying an underboss (like her dad, her uncle, her twin brother...) but she feels weird about it, Thankfully, certifiable Very Bad Person and capo of a rival mafia family, Remo, kidnaps her moments before her vows and takes...

Still recovering from the horrific proposal by Mr. Collins? Us too but that doesn't prevent us from wondering if Mr. Bennet is the real villain of this fair novel, and whether or not Mrs. Bennet's nervous condition stems from her being a sex idiot earlier in her life

As we wrap up FanFicuary Morgan and Isabeau we couldn't leave Harry Potter behind. While JKRowling and her world view continue to be a dangerous dumpster fire, we ask where does the author end and the fanfic author begin? We also tackle the Everest of our times: The most fraught subject in all the world--PDA. Where's the pleasure in wrapping yourself in the coat of another adult human while they a...

We're back and we're ready to get down to the business of weirdest, sexiest, and whoa/no of THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS by ALI HAZELWOOD. This fic turned barn burner of a romance novel (you can buy it Target!) uses characters from the Star Wars universe to tell the story of a third year PhD candidate catching real feelings in a fake relationship with a tenured faculty in her department. What is the line b...