Episode 5 - Love is on the Air

In Checked Out’s 5th episode, “Love is On the Air” co-hosts Tessa, Klaudia, and Sara get swoony with their top Romance reads. From enemies to loves to regency classics, the hosts discuss their favorite and least favorite tropes, inclusivity in the Romance genre, and the infamous 3rd act breakup. 

Check out the media we talked about in this episode here: https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/71060

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:06

Hi everyone, welcome back. This is episode five of our podcast. I'm Claudia. I'm Sarah. And I'm Tessa, and this is Checked Out with Green Hill Public Library. In this episode, we are talking about my favorite genre, which is romance. Yeah, but before we dive into that, let's uh check back with what we were reading last time we met. Claude, you want to start us off? Sure. So I said last time that I would be reading Mistborn. I didn't promise that I would finish it. Um, but I have started reading it. I really enjoy it. Not to be totally Claudio right now, but I do think that the main character, or one of the main characters in the story, really just reminds me of Flynn Ryder, and that's exactly what I imagine him as. So this just only incentivizes me even more to read it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02

That is such a funny comparison for you to make. He's a sassy rogue.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06

I've yeah, I'm dead. I any sassy rogue in a fantasy setting is just Flynn Ryder to me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13

Okay, fair enough, fair enough. I said that I was gonna read Darkly by Marisha Pessel, and I did finish it. I would say it was pretty middle of the road. I gave it a three-star rating on Goodreads. The board game aspect, it's like a mystery internship with like a reclusive board game maker. The board game aspect, amazing. I want a book just about that. Because like they're murder mystery games, but like board games at the same time. I don't know how to try to explain them. They're just really interesting, and they only really like scratch the surface of two of them, but there's 29. She's definitely not writing more books in this series. Like, we're done, we closed the chapter. There was a big missed opportunity with bringing those board games like into the story a little bit more. And it's a young adult, so the characters were a little flat, and I didn't really care about them.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05

But the story was fun, it was fast. I read it in one sitting. Speaking of finishing things fairly quickly, I read Wild and Wrangled by Lila Sage um pretty fast. I absolutely devoured it. I gave it four stars. It is the final book in her Rebel Blue Ranch series, and it follows um these two characters that have had like a past relationship and are both kind of like finding themselves, and one is a single parent. She is like, you know, dealing with being left at the altar and has her daughter and like her relationship with her like daughter's father that is actually very, very good, and like they both handle it very well and co-parent very well. And then this guy that she had this like very and then this guy that she had this whirlwind like high school romance with, and now they're back in the same town together and living on the same property together and trying to just kind of figure out if they can be friends, and it just evolves from there. And it was really sweet to see the back and forth between their like a high school romance and them like initially falling in love and then them re-falling in love with each other. So I felt like it was a nice close to the series, and that will be out I think in April of 2025. So keep a look out. But the other three are already out from this series, so gives you a good place to start. Those are the ones with the with the really cool like Western style covers, right? Yes. I've always wanted to pick one up. Oh, they're like quick reads, they're about like I don't think more than 300 pages. The covers are really, really beautiful, as he said. They're really easy to follow too, and very cute. Okay. Yeah. Speaking of romance and what we were reading, I did take a slight detour in Mistborn. I really wanted a Christmas romance, so I picked up like a random Christmas romance that I found on Amazon Kindle. It is called Holiday Romance by Katherine Walsh. It's supposed to be a rom-com, it's funny. Um, it's about a about two friends. Um, you kind of honestly, as I was reading it, I think the reason why I like it so much is because it takes on the same format as people we meet on vacation, where one chapter is like the beginning of their friendship, and then the next chapter is like them in the present. Every single Christmas, they end up taking the same flight home together to Ireland, and you basically watch them fall in love throughout the entire book. Quick read. I found it enjoyable, and I really like the writing style of it. However, I will say that it might be a light ripoff of people meeting we meet on vacation, just make it Christmas Christmas and Irish. Okay, there are no original thoughts left. There really aren't. They're also like they met at Northwestern, and then people we meet on vacation, they met at U Chicago. Oh wow, that's like a really big coincidence. So I mean, I won't complain. I love a Chicago reference. I love a meet that takes place in Chicago. I love that we went to school in Chicago, even if it's like a little shout out, like, hey, my favorite team is like the Blackhawks. Like that, I need that in a book somewhere. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

But the coincidence, I don't know. I don't know if I can call it just a coincidence.

SPEAKER_01: 5:38

I was like, Book lover? Or no, Beach Reed. Yeah. It was Beach Reed, and then you were like, No.

SPEAKER_02: 5:44

If you know the book is, I don't even know if it's out yet or what it is, but it's these two rival writers, and it is a romance, and they one writes romance and one writes mystery, and they have to like swap their stories or they have to swap their writing styles. So if y'all are listening to this and you know the book that I'm talking about, please let me know because I have searched my Goodreads high and low and I cannot find it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:07

And it's not Beatreed, and Beatreed. That is Bee Treat.

SPEAKER_02: 6:11

It is Beatreed, but it's not Beatre. But that's that's where I'm at right now. But speaking of Beatreed and Emily Henry, while we are on the topic of romance here, that's my girly. I will read anything she puts out. I have read all of the things that she's put out. My favorite is Hot Take, um, Happy Place. I love Happy Place. Is that a hot take? I think it is. The girlies really love Beach Reed, and it was a good one. I just don't think it's my favorite. I do love Gus Everett. I think that he's a very well-written character, and I think that the romantic dialogue between the two of them is very, very like spot on and sentimental, and that means a lot to me, like having that type of uh dialogue. And but I just think that that's something that Emily Henry just does very well, is having these sentimental conversations that like just these little one-liners that just blow me out of the water. And they never sound too corny because I feel like for me, what really turns me off from a romance sometimes is when it's way too over the top, way too corny, and there's absolutely zero establishment of a relationship in these characters. They just suddenly decide that they're in love and they're the best person in the world. So I like that she writes really realistic characters and dialogue. Yeah. I do want her to transition from romance into like a litfic field. I feel like I agree. She writes such beautiful prose that I would want to see her take on like just a grimy girl fiction. Like I'm in the dumps, like life sucks. Here is this.

SPEAKER_01: 7:51

I feel like she's like 60% there.

SPEAKER_02: 7:54

She is she just needs to take the man out. Yeah. She's so close. Which is why I think that like that kind of sets her apart from mainstream romance a little bit. And that's like where she gets such a large appeal, is that it's not just straight up romance. You do have that these two other characters are so fully developed outside of their relationship and dealing with their own things. And I think that that makes it such a more special read and a more interesting and engaging read.

SPEAKER_01: 8:26

Yeah, I feel like she walks a really good line of hitting the beats of a romance without it feeling as formulaic as it does in other romances. There are formulaic ones for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 8:39

Not to say that they're not good, they're great.

SPEAKER_01: 8:41

Right, yeah. But I feel like that's what makes because like I've read several Emily Henry's, and I'll I'll dabble in a romance. Mostly I just like to know the drama. So if Sarah reads one, I just want her to tell me what happened. And I probably won't actually read it. But I have read Emily Henry, and I think she because she takes so much time developing them, and there are like other plot points within their relationship besides just the relationship developing, that it it is. It's more engaging, it's more interesting. It feels less like okay, we meet, we have this weird will they won't they? They do suddenly nothing will ever work, and they've never spoken to each other a day in their lives in a healthy manner, and then we're just back together. That's like the script I feel. Which we'll we'll talk about the third act breakup later. But I think that hers feel real when they are there. I don't know. Also, I don't know if it's a hot take. I loved Happy Place, I do too.

SPEAKER_02: 9:38

It like I said, it is my favorite. Um, I do have a special place in my heart for some of her other no scratch that. I do it, it is my favorite, and I say that with my my whole chest.

SPEAKER_01: 9:49

It's a it's okay. It's a good take on a second chance romance. It is because it can really work or it can really not work, depending on the way that they left it. Because I feel like second chance romance. Feel free to weigh in on if you like that trope or not. It can either work or really not work, and I think Happy Place does it well because their relationship ended because of like internal emotions within the characters and not because one character made like a horrible mistake or maybe not a mistake and intentionally did something. They were both hurt by the end of the relationship, but not because anyone did anything that would make it hard for me to be like, oh yeah, no, you guys should get back together.

SPEAKER_02: 10:34

Yeah, that's fair. And there are other books that I feel characters don't break up or like they're on and off again, and one character does something that is like questionable, and like, why would you want to get back together with this person if they're like hurting you repeatedly? And Magnolia Parks. Yeah, I'm thinking of Magnolia Parks that make me feel like okay, like just move on from this. Like you guys are repeatedly hurting each other. What good does it do to be together? But then you I'm rooting for them all the time. This is Magnolia Parks and and BJ, yeah. From the Magnolia Parks series. Sometimes it's like that in in romance stories where they're not even on and off again, they're just quite honestly horrible to each other, and I don't know why they stick together in the first place.

SPEAKER_01: 11:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, before we dive too deep into like what romances we would recommend, what we like and don't like, to recap, in case you guys have forgotten, Sarah is our resident romance reader. Claudia is our classic girly of the romance genre, and I will read a romance every once in a while, but most of my opinions that I'm gonna bring up today will be about romances that exist in the genres that I do read, but not necessarily the main focus.

SPEAKER_02: 11:57

So, as our resident romance girly, I don't think that there is anyone more excited for this conversation today than I am. I think that I can speak solely for the entirety of this podcast alone. You speak for the trees about romance. I do. I do speak for the romance genre. I hold it extremely dear to my heart. I've been a primary romance reader for a long time. It started the classic fanfics and then from there, you know, moved on to just general romance, and I have a love for it. I know that a lot of people think it's very cheesy or think it's like not legitimate literature, but as someone that studied legitimate literature, I can reassure you that it is in fact literature. It there's a lot that goes into writing anything at all, and romances included. There are such beautiful parts of it and such meaningful parts of it, and I think that it's always important to it's important to not overlook that.

SPEAKER_01: 12:56

I agree. And also, like, sure, perhaps the the writing in a romance novel is not gonna change your life, but I feel like you do so much work in a romance, and that's what makes you either like or not like it. You do character work and you somehow have to build a believable relationship in general life relationships and explaining them and like the emotions that go with it. Like, that's a hard topic for a lot of people to talk about. So to build that in a fictional setting and have readers be able to connect and see themselves in it or learn something from it, like, yeah, sure, maybe it's not gonna win a Pulitzer, but I think you're absolutely right. Like, there is something to be said about creating a world where you believe that these people really truly care about each other.

SPEAKER_02: 13:48

I I agree. I would even argue that writing romance is probably one of the hardest genres to write just because of how easy it is to mess it up and to make it sound terrible. Um, writing good romance is incredibly difficult, especially with the amount of tropes that are involved, and just like you said, making it believable that these two people are real people and that they do really love each other and have some sort of foundation to stand on for creating this relationship.

SPEAKER_01: 14:16

Shall we discuss the tropes that we enjoy to read in romance? I feel like those are like the buzzwords of general book media right now, is specifically romance tropes. I also think I must say there are because I've seen discourse that romance is like so trope heavy and like that's how they market it. Yes, that's how they market it, but also every genre has formulaic or trope tropes within their writing. Like fantasy, I'm not gonna lie to you, they might have more trope that every single fantasy book is hitting than romance does. Yeah. Like we've got our chosen ones, we've got our I that's all I can be part of. I mean like elves or dragons. Right, like we're all pulling from the same the same hat. Yeah, so to speak. Some of the romance tropes exist in not primarily romance books as well. So, but with that being said, what's a trope we love, we hate? I love a good friends to lovers.

SPEAKER_02: 15:18

That is my absolute favorite trope. I love the will they won't they, I love the budding relationship, what suddenly changes the relationship from being good friends, close friends, and truly understanding each other to it developing to maybe wanting to spend the rest of your life with that person. I love it. I'll read it 10 million times, 10 out of 10. Sarah. This one is hard. There are so many tropes that I love for so many different reasons. I love an enemies to lovers trope because I feel like you are falling in love with me at my worst, type of thing. And that is not an original thought. That is a thought that I've gotten from the girlies that really like encapsulates like how meaningful that type of relationship is. I also like a little sports romance. I'm not a sporty girl, but I love when one or both of the characters are in some kind of an athletic field. I feel like it's just fun, it adds a little extra tension, it gives them more like dynamic because it makes them more of a dynamic character because they have this other thing that they love so much and that is such a big part of their lives.

SPEAKER_01: 16:27

I like an enemies to lovers, but I need it like dagger at the throat. I really do. Real stakes. That's fair. Yeah. I'm mostly drawing upon for this episode is the genre of fantasy romance, and so I do feel like I'm a little um I'm a little conditioned to need an enemy's to lovers to literally be like, my life's mission is to kill you. I've been brought up my entire life to believe you are my enemy. I hate you so much, and then like suddenly we don't. And I I feel like a lot goes into that in that genre specifically, because a lot of the times it's also like unlearning what you've been taught in your life to be true from outside forces. I enjoyed that. Um a one-bed trope. Oh. A one bed trope. Oh, yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 17:24

Like there's yeah, there are so many inns and hotels, they only got one bed, all of them. And good for that. I'll eat it up every time. I'll accept it. The tension is too good. I love a secret pining so much. Like he's in love with her since he's seen her, or like had an interaction with her, or you know, she's been in love with him since she's seen him and has had an interaction with him, and they just go on, and like they maybe like won't connect again for like years. Uh one of my recs that I have is that I most recently read that I am obsessed with at the current moment is Unloved by Peyton Korian, and February 4th is the release date. And love it. She's been pining for him all their four years of college, and I don't know who's to say if they'll get together or not. Or that they do. The pining is my favorite part of a friends to lovers trope. Yeah, are you kidding me? Just get together already. You guys are in love. Exactly. You're in love, exactly. Grumpy and sunshine, that's another one of my favorite tropes. I have some qualms with it. Simply over the fact, and I know that people are gonna come after me for this, they always make the grumpy guy Adam Driver. Yeah, always Adam Driver, like old and I just romance is inundated with Raylo fans. Yeah, they truly are. And like I am not an Adam Driver girly. Like me neither. There's just I just I don't know. The girlies really, really love him, and in so many of these grumpy sun sunshine books, he is, or like these workplace rivalries. Yeah, it's like literally Adam Driver is on the cover of these books. I'm thinking of that one Allie Hazelwood book. Yes. Hypothesis. Yeah, hypothesis. Yeah, that's like the OG one. Yeah, that is Raylo. That is, it truly is, and I think that she's come out and said it, or like other people have come out and said, like, yeah, it's no, she has.

SPEAKER_01: 19:29

Like it was okay. I want to say it was like on AO3.

SPEAKER_02: 19:33

Was it?

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

Yeah, like I want to say she I think you're right. She starred it, like it is Relo fanfic.

SPEAKER_02: 19:41

Wow. Yeah. I don't I'm not I don't watch Star Wars. I've never watched Star Wars, so like maybe I need to watch it and then like I'll be like, oh my god, Adam Driver. Like now it all clicks and makes sense while he is the man. I can't imagine him being the hero in my little romance book. No, I'm I'm kinda over it too. I've I've seen too much of that man.

SPEAKER_01: 20:01

Oh, in regards to Grumpy Sunshine, I know they exist and I need to find them, but I need the girl to be grumpy.

SPEAKER_02: 20:09

I got you. Amazing. You again, um, by Kate Goldbeck. You love that book. I certainly do. It is a reverse when Harry met Sally, and she is grumpy above that. He's also kind of grumpy.

SPEAKER_01: 20:24

Good.

SPEAKER_02: 20:24

But she, I feel like is I'm also kind of grumpy. Yeah, she's more, I think, like just in. She hates love. She's Harry, essentially. Okay. Ten Things I Hate About You. Oh yeah. She's grumpy. She is. Love that movie. Yeah. So good. Although when she's reading her poem in front of her class, I was like, wow, that's brave. Brave? But also, like, why do I cry every time? Yeah, but also, like, girl, this is an English class. Please stop. Like, you couldn't catch me dead. No. Let me confess my love in front of my entire class of peers. I'm sure that's not embarrassing at all. I mean, she was graduating, so like it was over. She's never gonna see them again. That's true. That's real. I still couldn't do it. But like that one week after you're done with the class must have been real awkward. Real raw. But speaking of romance films, love them. Love a good rom com. Glad they're making a resurgence, as I mentioned in our last episode. I want more. I need more. I need more. There's just there's something really campy about like the early 2000s rom-coms. I'm thinking like um, I recently watched The Holiday. Yeah. The holiday is great. I want more like Canadias, right?

SPEAKER_01: 21:34

For a second I thought she was talking about holiday. That also I kind of love. I watch that movie every year. And I'm not gonna say it's good, but I do love her.

SPEAKER_02: 21:42

It is that is, I feel like it that is camp totally for me. Yeah, and I I but I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

Yeah, like they they knew what they were doing.

SPEAKER_02: 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 21:50

It's have you seen it? Mm-mm.

SPEAKER_02: 21:52

Oh, recommend 10 out of 10. It's so good. It's good with Emma Roberts. Yeah, it's on Netflix. Okay, okay. She's the man. She's the man is a classic classic. I used to watch it like every summer. I still quote it to this day. Oh, yeah. It's in my vernacular. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really glad that rom-coms are making a resurgence. And I do love the ones that we have. I don't think that they need to be remade. I think that we just need new ones. I agree. And just like with She's the Man, you know, that's based off of a Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night, I think. I think we need to go back to doing that. Let's just make rom-coms that are very loosely based off of classics. Yeah. They work for a reason, they're funny, they're campy, and they're fun. I want people to have fun with movies again. I'm here for that. I stand with you 100%. Over our little winter break, I watched Hot Frosty on Netflix. It was ridiculous. But I loved it. Yeah. I want more of that. Okay. I don't want more of that. I'll be honest. I don't even want that. I want more Nora Afron. I want when Harry met Sally, You've Got Mail. I want Sleepless in Seattle. That is the vibe that I want. Bring that back. Rewind the clock and put Julia Roberts in one of these movies. She was the real girly. Yeah. That's that's what I want. See, I want more things like the proposal, she's the man. Like more, I want more campy rom-com films. Okay. The proposal is like hands down on my all-time favorite. Yes. So I'm okay, I'm there with you. So I mean they are bringing out, they have recently taken a lot of these romance books and are turning them into TV shows and movies. So again, bringing it back to Emily Henry and just bringing it back to the realm of books, her, all of her books have been picked up for either TV or movie. And I'm excited for that. I also like there are a ton of other books that I would love to see on TV or film. I think another thing that I would really like that I would really love to see, which I've know that I've mentioned Pride and Prejudice like a million times. However, I'd love to see more artistic um representations and adaptations of classic romances. I would love it if someone went through Jane Austen's catalog and created. She has beautiful love stories. Um I know that Pride and Prejudice and Emma are like the two big girlies that everyone loves, but I think a remake of Sense and Sensibility is due. I would I would really just love to see someone go through her entire catalog that is not PBS or BBC. Sorry guys, I love you, but we need more we need more artistic representation, I think, in our adaptations of romance. Because why do people love Emma? Why do people love Pride and Prejudice? They love the directing style and cinematography of it.

SPEAKER_01: 25:06

McMillan has done a bunch of remixes of classics for young adult recently, and a lot of them are like remixed to be like racially diverse, um, like LGBTQ representation, things like that. Uh like there's a Pride and Prejudice one, there's a Little Women one, there's a Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights. So I I have read I've read the Gatsby one.

SPEAKER_02: 25:41

But not the other one. I'll have to take a look into that. Speaking of representation, I feel like that is something that I'm really glad is being pushed to the forefront in romance is that representation of like BIPOC um characters and authors and LGBTQ characters and authors. I think that it's like it's it's necessary, and I'm glad that it's happening. And there are a lot of books that have that type of representation. One series that I think that does this pretty well is Joe Segura, and she wrote Raiders of the Lost Heart and Temple of Swoon, where I think that she does um representation pretty well with she has like Brazilian characters, she has Hispanic characters, and she like shares the culture very well because they are archaeologists, so she takes time and I feel like does that really well in her stories.

SPEAKER_01: 26:45

Yeah. Um Ashley Herring Blake writes sapphic romance. Delilah Green Doesn't Care is the first one in that series, and I think there's a lot of good representation in that as well because it is a sapphic relationship, but the characters also identify in different ways than like you would traditionally think. One that I really want to read that I just found out about is on the same page by Haley Cass. And it is uh a sapphic romance that is friends, well, it's enemies to friends to lovers because they're uh like random roommates in college and they like hate each other at first and then they become best friends, and then like into their adulthood, they like fall in love, and that's really close to like my life experience. Not the enemies part, we were never enemies, but um I'm really interested to read that and see like it's such a representation of what ex like what my life was like, and I don't I've never read anything like that close, so I'm interested to see if I'm like so true, girl, or if I'm like, okay, I don't know, but it's also 468 pages, and I don't know if I have that in me. Romance that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 28:13

Um, speaking of representation, but then also taking classics and remaking them, Aisha at Last is supposed to be a retelling of Pride and Prejudice in a Muslim lens, and the author also has done this for a few other books too, or other like classic work works of literature, and I think that that's like a nice way to tie in these stories that everyone knows and bring in other cultures and religions and you know sexualities into the story. Just going back to the topic of classics, I think one of the things that I also and what I know that a lot of other people really enjoy about the classics and um why they are still being read to this day is the way that intimacy is portrayed in them, the characters, you know, there were a lot of societal rules around unmarried men and women being in the same area, and how do they fall in love and still find ways to live within those rules but still express intimacy and love with each other? There is a comforting aspect to that that I think is why so much of romance today still pulls from those classic elements and the classic plot lines of those stories. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, there is also like a huge conversation surrounding these like closed door versus open door romances where it's like the intimacy is implied versus like the intimacy is like on page. And there are readers that are in both of those categories, and I I do think that it is an important part in a story to have because that is part of a relationship, like that is like having that intimacy however it portrays on the page is an important part of these two characters coming together and like being in this relationship and being in love. I agree, and I think that's where a lot of romance can go really wrong in the way that intimacy is portrayed. You need to have a certain level of trust and respect established, I think, between two characters in order to have realistic intimacy. And I think again, why romance is so difficult to write, just because it can be really Really difficult to realistically write intimacy between two people when you just want to get to the part of we're in love and you're the best person in the world. But building that up can present a lot of problems in writing.

SPEAKER_01: 30:56

There's a lot of categories that go along with intimacy in romance, and I think that your enjoyment of the romance genre as a whole kind of really depends on like where your personal gauge is. Like someone might need to really build like to really feel like it the romance itself is worth it. You need a lot of buildup, but that might not be everyone's perspective on relationships as well. So I think that it's really important that like there is such a spectrum of like how those scenes are portrayed, and that the conversation around romance books is so oriented in like making it clear how a certain book is. So someone isn't reading something they're uncomfortable with, or someone is finding the level of depiction of intimacy that they like feel comfortable with, and that makes it believable for them.

SPEAKER_02: 32:01

Yeah, I think that that is such a wonderful part of the like romance book community is that they are very upfront with the level of intimacy that's portrayed in the book, the possible triggers that are in a book, the you know, the tropes that we mentioned. Like, I know a big thing is like people are not into like a pregnancy trope where the character is like surprisingly pregnant. So, like those the those elements of the story are always talked about. It's always a part of the romance recommendation conversations that people are having in that community, and it makes it a very like easy genre to get into because everything is very laid out for you of what the story will entail. And for you to find like what you want, right? Exactly. Going off, Claudia, what you said that like writing intimacy or writing love can be very difficult. I feel like there are a lot of authors that do it very well and make me truly feel like wow, these characters are absolutely in love. And that's like based off of their level of intimacy and their like conversations. And one book that kind of took me a little bit by surprise this last year was Allie Hazelwood's Not in Love, where their relationship stems from intimacy and then grows into this thing of trust and loyalty and respect and becomes something that you're like, oh wow, I didn't think that this could this type of relationship could come out from something. And being able to put that on a page and make me feel like, oh wow, like this, they actually truly have a connection is such an art form.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

I wanna jump back into the Magnolia Parks universe and that series has such an array of relationships, intimacy, problematic relationships. There's just there's a little bit of everything going on in that series, and I think every single way that the characters interact and the relationships that they build, whether it's platonic, romantic, some of both at different times, is so well done question mark in the way that you like Magnolia and BJ, horrible couple, horrible, they're horrible to each other.

SPEAKER_02: 34:48

I'm horrible for them.

SPEAKER_01: 34:50

I l and you won't catch me doing that with anyone else, but like I am here, I love them, I in she's terrible, he's terrible, I'll make excuses for both of them. I will. If it was my real life, no, they're blocked and out of my life. I can't handle their their drama and their crazed take on love. But I also think it's a really good depiction of like those relationships do exist and those people do end up together, and somehow they make it work or they don't, and that's that I that's neither here nor there. I just I think it's an honest depiction of a relationship where so many romance books are idealized, and like sure, characters have flaws, but like their communication sometimes is good or whatever, like that's not always the case. Relationships in real life aren't always easy, and whether it is a romantic relationship or a platonic or a familial relationship, they're not easy. And I think that Jessa Hastings writes the hard parts of those relationships very honestly and very well, to the point that, like, correct, they are both terrible people, but like I will defend them. Like I will sit here and tell you that they're actually good, and they're not, but I will tell you. And so you have them, but then you also have flawed. They're flawed, they're so flawed. Yeah, and I think that maybe some romance authors like to shy away from putting those flaws on the page because in a romance you want to feel like they're doing everything right, you want to support their relationship, and sometimes you get confronted with something that you're like, oh, maybe it's not that great. On the other hand, with like Daisy, Hates, and Christian, their relationship is so their relationship is just one giant miscommunication. Literally, they are the miscommunication trope. But when they are together, like it's peace and love and flowers and butterflies. Exactly. Thank you. Yeah, it is like nothing. But then like one thing goes wrong and everything's thrown out the window. No.

SPEAKER_02: 37:19

I I do agree with you. She does do a very, very good job at um portraying realistic um or like she takes a realistic situation and dramatizes it a lot. Absolutely. There's still a lot of truth to those characters, their stories, their relationships with each other and with their, you know, friends and family. Going based off of what you guys said, this is why I believe that the romance genre is so universal and why it's so popular, just because everyone can find something out of romance. Whether you are looking to maybe fulfill loneliness or whether you're trying to understand your relationships through the lens of another story, relationships are so deeply personal to people and the way that they experience them. And there's just something for everyone in the romance genre. I think let's be so honest, most of the time the people reading genre tend to be women, and I think that's another reason of why it's so looked down upon most of the time. However, there is something very therapeutic and psychological to reading romance. And there's also something about if you are feeling these types of things or going through these types of things, seeing a relatable character on page is really also uh something that keeps me reading. So, speaking of the miscommunication between Daisy Haites and Kristen Hems, how do we feel about a third act breakup? This is something that happens a lot in romance. Part of the formula. It is. Broken sometimes, though. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 39:12

It's not always necessary. And I at the same time, there is a way to do it that doesn't feel formulaic or doesn't feel like creating a problem out of nothing. I think that I personally see a lot of third act breakups that way. Where like you just spent 200 pages telling me about how great these two people are together, and you made me root for them, and then in five pages you've somehow destroyed all of the communication that they've built up over something small, over something that might not necessarily be as life or death as the author might make you think.

SPEAKER_02: 39:58

I agree, and what makes it Even worse is when it is miscommunication that causes the third act breakup. Because if you guys were truly that in love, why don't you talk to each other? Yeah. I am not, if I have to choose hot or not, I am not into third act breakups. They are not hot for me personally. Um there are very, very few moments where I can accept a third act breakup. Again, like if that miske if that communication is there, if they there's like a large-scale thing that happens, I'm I can like give it to them sometimes if it it makes sense for the story. But a lot of the times I cannot accept it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:48

The one that I can think of right now is Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. And it's because it's a fake dating trope, and then they they have both made this convoluted experience in their heads where they have fallen for each other, but neither one of them is communicating in a proper way because they assume that the other person is still faking this. And I think for a fake dating trope to have that miscommunication and essentially a third act breakup, but they didn't even know they were actually dating, but they knew they were dating in their head. That that works for me because of the circumstances they were in, not because they had built this like actual relationship which they had, they just both didn't want to acknowledge it. So I I in recent memory, that's the one that I was like, okay, I'm not mad that that has happened.

SPEAKER_02: 41:51

One that I can accept the third act breakup in is Next to You by Hannah Bone Young. And that third act breakup makes so much sense to me because the main character is going through, you know, grief and dealing with her grief with her family. And so she's like, this is a moment where being in a relationship is adding more to like how I'm handling my anxiety, my grief, and rekindling this relationship with my family. And it's hard to have a relationship with you while I'm trying to do all of those things. So they do take a moment apart to, you know, she takes her space to recollect herself and then is like, okay, now I feel like I am a healthier version of myself that can be in a relationship with you and be in a healthier relationship with you. So that is one that I can accept a third act breakup in, but normally I I really can't. They're really hard for me to get behind.

SPEAKER_01: 42:57

Like that's like an actual event. Yeah. But like, regardless of if it's a new relationship or a tried and true relationship, something like that can really trigger you to have to reorient yourself and your relationships with others. Yeah. So, like, that's that's a real life. Like, okay, yeah, that that might happen.

SPEAKER_02: 43:22

Yes, I think we all agree that that's a big not for us. Yeah. Should we go into our recommendations for this month? Let's do it. I am going to recommend that if you really enjoy romance, please try to read classic romances, especially Jane Austen. If if the language is like a big barrier for you, I would totally recommend reading a modernized version of them. There's like a million, the story still stands and it's still mostly the same. I think if you are a literary reader or you just enjoy the fun of romance, you get to see where most of the tropes come from, where they stem from, and why they work so well. So definitely give my girl Jane Austen a chance.

SPEAKER_01: 44:20

I second it. I'm gonna switch up the vibe. While I wouldn't necessarily say these are fantasy romance books, they are a YA fantasy series. I think there's a lot to be said between fantasy romance and like YA romance or YA fantasy most often would be like a teen fantasy romance. That's what they're focusing on, besides like not necessarily the world building. But Lightlark by Alex Astor. And I'm we didn't even talk about it. I'm not always here for a love triangle. More often than not, I'm not here for a love triangle. I am so sat in my seat for this love triangle, it's insane. I like don't even care about the fantasy aspects of this. I should because I care about fantasy, but I'm really just sat down for their little love triangle. I also think that switching from talking about young adult, this is an adult recommendation. Nocticadia by Carrie Lake is at its core of romance, but there's so much plot going on around it too. That I think that if you would like to branch out from a super formulaic romance experience, it's not fantasy, but it almost feels like it is. So if you think that you might want to also try fantasy romance and you haven't done it before, I think Carrie Lake in general, but Nocticadia is a really good choice.

SPEAKER_02: 45:57

Okay, so I'm gonna get us started with probably the world's least favorite trope, which is the pregnancy trope, and this is Ready or Not by Kara Bestone, and it follows a woman that has a surprise pregnancy, and it is a friends to lovers romance where her best friend's older brother like just kind of steps in and helps her prepare for this baby, and it's so sweet, it is just something that I was kicking my feet while reading. I thought it was really cute, and the author has a new book coming out soon, so I'm very pumped and excited for that new book. If you want something that is a little sports romance-y, my favorite series for the longest time was the Briar U series. Just kidding. My favorite series for the longest time was the off-campus series by L. Kennedy, which is currently being produced into, I think, a prime TV show. And you can read them in order. You can start with the deal and then continue on. But my favorite is the third book, and that is The Score, and it follows Dean DeLorantes, who is kind of a ladies' man who ends up falling in love with his best friend's girlfriend's best friend, and he's like kind of chasing her on campus and declaring his love for her, and she like doesn't want anything to do with it. So those are my two.

SPEAKER_01: 47:44

Kind of keeping with the sports romance side of things, this series is technically shelved in YA at a bookstore. I would warn you to check that out. The list of content warnings and things, because it can get pretty dark as a series, but at its core, it is a romance series. It's the Boys of Tom and series by Chloe Walsh. The first one is Binding 13. They're really long, but it does not feel like that. I read the first three of them within like 72 hours, and they're like 600 page books. It it's really heavy, it's really dark, it delves a lot into family trauma, but at its core, there is a really sweet romance in getting to watch these characters who have felt so unloved in their family life be able to find like romantic love as well as platonic love with because it follows a rugby team, so all of the guys are around all the time. And like their interpersonal relationships are great too.

SPEAKER_02: 48:59

My final recommendation is Forget Me Not by Julie Soto. And this follows a wedding planner who ends up getting into a relationship with one of the florists that she works with, and it's a dual timeline, and so when we begin the story, they're no longer together, and then as the book goes on, those two timelines merge, and we get into the like present for both of their POVs, where we see like what had happened in the past and like now where they're at, and how they may or may not get back together, and I love it. I will read anything that Julie Soto puts out. So 10 out of 10 would recommend. She does have a YA thriller coming out.

SPEAKER_01: 49:52

I saw that soon. Yep.

unknown: 49:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 50:02

Is it single POV or dual POV in a romance? To take that out of like book talk speak just one person's point of view in a romance, or getting both main characters' points of view.

SPEAKER_02: 50:21

I kind of like getting both main characters' points of views because you're able to see like what's happening again in both of the characters' heads, how they're feeling at any given time. That's not to say that I won't read a book that isn't in a single person's POV. I just I do like knowing, like, oh, he does feel this way about her, and she feels this way about her too.

SPEAKER_01: 50:46

I agree. I think it goes a long way for building up the believability of their relationship to have both points of view like represented.

SPEAKER_02: 50:56

Yeah. I have a hard time choosing because I think both have their merits depending on the kind of story that you're reading, and so I'll read both. However, if I really had to choose, I think I'd choose single point of view just because I enjoy the drama and the buildup of does the other person like them or not? We don't know. I guess we'll have to see. And spoiler, they always do because it's a romance book.

SPEAKER_01: 51:26

Do we want to share what we are going to hope to consume before our next recording session?

SPEAKER_02: 51:33

Oh yeah. Whoever wants to. I can get us started. I will not be reading anything new, but I do hope that I will be finished with Missborn by the time that we record our next episode.

SPEAKER_01: 51:48

Okay. I am going to read the early copy of Blood on Her Tongue by Joanna Van Veen. If you remember in the horror episode, I talked about my darling dreadful thing being one of my top horrors of the year, and this is her new release that's coming out in March. So by the next time we record, the book will be almost out. So I'll be able to give you an update on that just in time for its release.

SPEAKER_02: 52:17

I'm gonna be reading Peach Pit, which is a collection of short stories. I'm a little bit on a short stories kick right now, and it just is an anthology of stories about dangerous women. And some of the like little passages. Some of the stories and the anthology are written by authors that you might recognize. So Lauren Groff, Sarah Edder Rose, those are a few. Um, and I'm excited. Like I said, I'm on a short stories kick, so I'll let you guys know how it goes. If you all have any recks for us to take a look at and consume, please let us know. You can always reach out to us at ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_01: 53:05

Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode five. Love is on the air. I'm Tessa. I'm Sarah. I'm Claudia, and we're checked out.