Whoa!mance: Romance and Ourselves

Is he hot or is he just from the wrong side of the tracks? This week on Whoa!mance we answer "YES" to both while discussing HURTS TO LOVE YOU by ALISHA RAI. Fancy pants Evangeline has been secretly crushing cum app-enabled stalking flannel pants Gabe for years. And now at her family's wedding weekend *cough*regency house party*cough* she is ready to make a move. Is slow burn > sudden burn? How hav...

Wowie kazowie there is a whole other part of Evening Star by Catherine Coulter where they go to New York and actually fall in love and have lots of pregnancy sex and lots of fights and Thanksgiving but way too early and bust a union and all cause like Women in Business! And man, that stuff really burrows into your grl's brains. Is erasure preferable to hero/ines who acknowledge the problems of the...

This week your girls disembark on a two parter on Catherine Coulter’s EVENING STAR aka SWEET SURRENDER. We delve into the kinky, sweaty bordellos and just sweaty dinner parties of 19th Century Rome where young Giana is getting a pretty shallow lesson in womanhood from her uncle and meets an American, i.e. tall, businessman who is equal parts well-meaning and ruthlessly horny. I & M answer the ques...

Is that a bottle of Pom Wonderful in your pocket or are you just excited for another modern retelling of Hades and Persephone? Either way you came to the right podcast! This week yr kores spring into “Neon Gods” by Katee Robert. Modern It Girl Persephone runs away to the mysterious Under City (see what they did there?) to wait out her trust fund to move to Berkeley (pardon???). In order to stave o...

This week, I & M tackle the multi-decade family saga slash love story “The Ties That Bind” by Brenda Jackson. When Rand meets Jenna at a college party in 1965, they kick off a romance (or twelve) that overcomes the ravages of time, distance, the Vietnam War, the fight for Civil Rights, classism, colorism, and a woman named Angela. Is there such a thing as bad girl, or are they all just drawn that...

Mama, we made it! This week we are so excited to share our conversation with Sarah - she of ICONIC Smart Bitches Trashy Books fame. We discussed a brand spankin' new category romance. She got us an ARC and everything. Notes below! And if you don't know about SBTB yet, check out the pod and go to https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ to consume all of the delicious romance content they just let you...

Baby batter up! This week on Whoa!mance Isabeau and Morgan chew gum in the dugout of "Fix Her Up" by Tessa Bailey. Former baseball superstar Travis returns to his charming home village sore from more than a career-ending shoulder injury. When a new opportunity comes knocking, he teams up with his friend's kid sister for a mutually beneficial (aren't they always?) fake relationship. Thankfully, her...

Risky Business eat your heart out. This week on Whoa!mance, Morgan and Isabeau visit NEW YAWK but better in “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston. August is still putting the “new” New York City when she meets timeless punk hottie Jane on the Q. When she discovers just HOW timeless, our gal Auggie puts her hereditary gumshoe skills, and chosen family slash roomies, to use is breaking Jane free from t...

Romancelandia’s own Gathering of the Juggalos - Jane Austen Fetival - wrapped up this last week in Louisville! PlusJASNA’s Annual General Meeting will be hosted in our home of Chicago this year. Not to mention TWO imminent film adaptations of Persuasion? To celebrate all this and more we’re re-releasing our episode on Persuasion by Jane Austen. --- We did it y’all; we’ve been through the now, the...

The Bachelor but with a Phoenix and a Thunderbird catching feels in the South China Sea? This could actually be the most dramatic season yet. Mythical creature shifter and Regional-alpha Xi Sing is so immediately smitten with The Shifter Bachelor lovetestant Monday, he threatens to make bad TV. Little does the viewing audience know she's running from a witch-hunter right onto their screens. This w...

Category Is: Kissing Cousins Pygmalion Cotillion Answer: “The Prodigal Spinster” by Joan Overfieled Question: What is relations wanting to make relations after a “makeover” (actually just proper nutrition) thanks to a Puppet Master/Aunt who makes them think it was the work of their Cool Jock Friend and their Bumbling Too-Masc-To-Live Pal? This week, Morgan and Isabeau don their most fabulous orang...

Category Is: Regency in shades of avocado, mulberry and ochre Answer: “The Golden Songbird” by Sheila Walsh Question: What is the wager calling everyone’s bluff until she ends up a Marchioness after some gun play, a cock fight, and a really bad trip? This week, Morgan and Isabeau are joined by a Dark Passenger for their “Category Is” series, discussing a not-plagiarizing-Georgette-Heyer Regency fr...

Category Is: English Rose seeks personified Daddy Issue Answer: “Tangled Threads” by Susanne McCarthy Question: What is pretending to be the wife of the brother who raised you and ending up deflowered by the father of your brother’s child bride and everyone looks the same and all the villains are immigrants? This week, Morgan and Isabeau follow their “Category Is” series down the recently expanded...

Back at it again with the Shelf Love co-release! Isabeau and Morgan had a great time chatting with Andrea Martucci about what it means to problematize and what it means to fetishize. Especially when it comes to (what else?) Romance! Psyched to share this eppy of Shelf Love in our feed. Don’t forget your copy of Das Kapital—or the whips and giant cartoon fox head for that matter. This conversation...

Category Is: Posthumously Published Triangular Caper Answer: “How Can The Heart Forgot” by: Emilie Loring Question: What if Nancy Drew never left the suburbs and was also in love with sister’s fiancee? This week, Morgan and Isabeau kick off our “Category Is” series with plenty of zip and dash all the way from 1961. How does it feel to find out you’re on a political treadmill next to Donna Reed? Do...

Answer: Announcing an exploration into the oft overlooked but undeniably pervasive works known as Category Romance. Answer, but in the form of a question: What is the topic of this week's Whoa!nus? Yr girls Isabeau & Morgan are excited to share their big summer plans: CATEGORY IS. Each week a new Category Romance (from Isabeau’s own random box of romance) published in a different post-war-pre-low-...

As the wedding day draws closer, Jane is taking stock of her new identity: that of the amorphous Mrs. Rochester. This week, Jane revisits the now lightning scared chestnut tree, reveals to have been befallen by a series of disquieting dreams, and confronts an incredulous Mr. Rochester directly when her nightmares trip-trap into her waking life. Is it cold feet, Grace Pool, or something far more si...

After a night of tumultuous emotions, Jane is now set to marry Mr. Rochester. This week, Mrs. Fairax gives our heroine some unsolicited relationship advice, Jane’s happiness wanes at the idea of a lavish future, and everyone is on edge as Jane navigates retaining her sexual purity. Red flags abound. Whoa!mance is a part of the Frolic Podcast Network.

Sometimes being a “family man” is less playing catch and more swinging. This week on Whoa!mance, Morgan and Isabeau dish on Briana Cole’s melodramatic romantic suspense The Marriage Pass. Dr. Dorian Graham just wants to be a good husband—or at least a better husband than he was a boyfriend. When his prim and proper wife, Shantae, offers to make his life easier with a one-night-only freebie, Dorian...

Our girl is barely back at Thornfield Hall, and already the weather is looking stormy. This week, Jane catches a whiff of her super hot boss while walking alone in the garden, Mr. Rochester offers Jane a pity job for when he marries that old try hard Blanche Ingram, and briefly, Jane ponders life alone. But we all know what can happen when it rains. Whoa!mance is a part of the Frolic Podcast Netwo...

Dusting off a classic discussion of a classic this week! Taking it all the way back when we shared a microphone with the author of "Getting Hot With The Scot" and the upcoming "Too Good To Be Real" Melonie Johnson *** It’s a Whoa!mance double whammy this week y’all! Not only are Morgan and Isabeau joined by the brilliant and talented Melonie Johnson, but we’re getting a guided tour of Melonie’s al...

With Mrs. Reed safely in the ground, Jane prepares to leave Gateshead hall. This week, Eliza and Georgiana make plans for their futures, Jane receives a letter from Mrs. Fairfax that reeks of Mr. Rochester’s pending marriage, and, once again, Jane collides with an unexpected traveller on her way to Thornfield Hall. Whoa!mance is a part of the Frolic Podcast Network.

The real deal. The genuine article. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to bonafide authenticity. But oftentimes a good knockoff does just fine. This week on Whoa!mance, Morgan and Isabeau investigate a scandal rocking the Parisian artworld in Susan Sackett’s 1993 adventure romance, Reckless. Delia Hampton just wants to be a good daughter, and when her father is blackmailed for his prodigious abilit...

With the early morning exodus of Mr. Mason still lingering over Thornfield Hall, it’s Jane’s turn to receive an untimely visitor. This week, troubling revelations surface about John Reed, Jane returns to Gateshead Hall under dour circumstances, and Mrs. Reed is awful until the bitter end. Whoa!mance is a part of the Frolic Podcast Network.

We all lie. We soften hard truths and blur certain edges. Even those goody goodys who avoid harsh words and cracks in the sidewalk still let an ol’ fibber loose now and again. But what about a masquerade? Or a false portrayal - deployed perhaps to keep a low profile? This week on Whoa!mance, Morgan and Isabeau explore the pitfalls of well-meaning subterfuge in Amanda Quick’s 1993 historical, Decep...