The HEA Book Club: Reading Romance with Friends

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Join indie romance author Summer O’Toole and Best Friend Kelsey as they chat, laugh, and swoon over fictional men with often questionable morals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Feb 27

    200. The Time War is Foreplay--"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

    We dive into the exquisite love-letter architecture of This Is How You Lose the Time War and ask what happens when desire is literally written into existence. We linger on what it means to love with (or without) a body—across a multiverse full of potential and very real war crimes. Red and Blue, our sapphic leads, slip across timelines and into each other’s hearts in achingly human ways. But let’s say the quiet part out loud: romance does not need literary fiction to legitimize it. Distinct genres have distinct pleasures and emotional beats—that’s not a bug; it’s a feature. Excellent books exist within the genre, and outside it--maybe we just stop trying to collapse the publishing multiverse and let genre conventions function as intended? Come for the yearning and love letters, stay for the unapologetic defense of the kissing books.#RomancePodcast #SapphicRomance #ThisIsHowYouLoseTheTimeWar #EnemiesToLovers #EpistolaryFiction #QueerRomance #BookDiscussion #ScienceFantasyRomance Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    200. The Time War is Foreplay--"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

  2. Feb 7

    199: Forty Shades of Green - "The Ground She Walks Upon" by Meagan McKinney

    And now we arrive in Ireland. Finally. To discuss THE GROUND SHE WALKS UPON by MEAGAN MCKINNEY (1994).Ravenna is a social outcast who is also magically bound via geish to the Lord of her home, County Lir. Either Niall, at 20 years her senior, woos her, a lowly peasant, or his family looses the land they occupy in Ireland. What is the point of magic if it is just friendship or whatever? Does good romance determine a good romance, or is it all the other stuff? Is there ever such a thing as a good aristocrat?Trigger warnings: We talk about death and political violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    199: Forty Shades of Green - "The Ground She Walks Upon" by Meagan McKinney

  3. Jan 1

    Whoa!nus 2025 Year In Review

    What was 2025, really? What did we say we were going to do—and did we do it? In this Year-in-Review episode, we take stock of the year with clear eyes. We revisit the wins, the misses, and the pacing problems from our shelf this year—from Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End to the dark-romance chaos of Nocticadia. We did a shadow-daddy bracket (a rigorous, peer-reviewed process; dissenting opinions noted for the record) that functioned as a useful tool for Isabeau, and found time to accidentally fall head first into the zeitgeist. Who earned the hardest Whoa!? Who took home the most definitive No? And which couples earned space on our mental shelves forever?We close by looking ahead to 2026: what we’re pursuing, what we’re done negotiating, and what we’re leaving behind—because not every arc deserves a redemption. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Whoa!nus 2025 Year In Review

  4. 12/14/2025

    198: The Reason for the Peenin' - The Earl's Christmas Pearl by Megan Frampton

    Man the canons, yr Colonels in the War on Christmas are attacking THE EARL'S CHRISTMAS PEARL by MEGAN FRAMPTON.The titular Earl meets the titular Pearl after her family abandons her in London over Christmas a la (kind of, vaguely) Kevin McAllister. He uses his skills as a Welshman to care for the young miss, even though his ankle like, really hurts and he doesn't even LIKE Christmas that much. Along the way, he doesn't just fall in love with the holiday...Are wealthy twenty somethings in historical romance essentially just teens? What story elements are crucial to a Christmas tale? Are purple prose penises better than just "Penis"?Tune in - we're stokin' fires AND frying' eggs this Yule.______additional sounds in this eppy:sleigh bells_.wav by Stagno sexy funk + strings & piano by kbrecordzz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    198: The Reason for the Peenin' - The Earl's Christmas Pearl by Megan Frampton

  5. 10/29/2025

    197.2: Return to SpookyU: Nocticadia by Keri Lake

    In part two of our discussion of NOCTICADIA by KERI LAKE yr grls dive into chapters 39 - epilogue. Does the ambiguity of an HEA in horror make it impossible (if already strange) bedfelllows with romance? What is the appeal of "dark" romance and what is the bright side for those of us who don't lean into taboo? TWINS??? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    197.2: Return to SpookyU: Nocticadia by Keri Lake

  6. 10/16/2025

    197: Gothy McGotherson: Nocticadia by Keri Lake

    Stop twitching, that isn't the fluttering of dusty moth wings in your ear - its yr grls discussing NOCTICADIA by KERI LAKE.Lilia Vespertine is a destitute but extraordinarily hot smart orphan in evil Baltimore who happens to get a mysterious full ride to spooky Dracadia University - a private institution on an isolated island with a 30-year-old tenured professor of...biology? I guess? Let's see if you can guess what he looks like. If you screamed "ADAM DRIVER!!!!!". Yeah. You're right. You got it. They both, unbeknownst to one of them (no points for guessing this one), share a research interest in these specific moths and their gooey babies. But it turns out...sing along it if you know it...that is not the only interest they share. Nor, the only mystery...How does horror work, or not work, with romance? What is the itch that dark romance or taboo romance scratches? Can all this be solved by the appointment or a new Provost? Okay, sure, but what about a more robust student council?Don your velvets. We're putting the slimthicc (ah, those were the days) in Gothic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    197: Gothy McGotherson: Nocticadia by Keri Lake

  7. 09/20/2025

    196: NOThic: The Ruin of Evangeline Jones by Julia Bennet

    Don't be scared! That is just the loud cracking of our ankles over a totally normally recording of Whoa!mance's discussion of THE RUIN OF EVANGELINE JONES by JULIA BENNET.The titular Evie is a psychic medium scammer under the control/support of a Svengali type. Harcastle is a Due under the oppression of his dead father. Plus his hobby is busting fake spiritualists in Victorian London. But, Evie is tempting in that mysterious buttoned-up-but-secret-nudie-photo-past that maybe...just maybe...he'll be doing bustin' of a different kind. Please don't tell anyone that I wrote that.What isn't a gothic romance (shoutout to Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights trailer)? Why would you include a plucky child and/or dog in your novel? What IS good pacing anyway?Touch pinkies and tuck winkies - this seance we're summoning a big ol' Whoa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    196: NOThic: The Ruin of Evangeline Jones by Julia Bennet

  8. 09/12/2025

    The Final Four: Who's Your Shadow Daddy?

    Welcome to the Shadow Daddy Bracket: Final Four, where our pleasures are interrogated and pitted against one another. Our contenders? Rochester brooding in his attic-bound domestic gothic, Rhysand a fae High Lord wielding sovereignty and seduction, a couple of aristocrats flexing thier authority, and Buffy’s Angel/Spike—vampiric embodiments of tortured desire and ethical ambiguity. But the bracket isn’t just about who wins a romance face-off. We’re also asking: why now? At a moment of resurgent authoritarianism, and renewed assaults on feminist gains, the cultural magnetism of shadow daddies feels especially charged. Join us as we illuminate the shadows and the allure, tackling the familiar pleasures and the deeply unsettling things it may reveal about us. #shadowdaddy #bracket #romance #romantasy #acotar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Final Four: Who's Your Shadow Daddy?
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Join indie romance author Summer O’Toole and Best Friend Kelsey as they chat, laugh, and swoon over fictional men with often questionable morals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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