Jennifer Loves Romance

[00:00:00] I'll have a take Egyptian Welcome to Check Your Shelf, the official book podcast of

[00:00:16] the album Take Network. My name is Jaimee and I'm here with my co-host Jennifer. Hello Jennifer!

[00:00:23] We're getting ready to talk books as usual on this podcast and like we don't like we don't

[00:00:30] talk about books all the time in real life every day. Every single day it seems like there's

[00:00:37] text, text and lots of book communication so it just makes sense that we have a podcast.

[00:00:46] So speaking of box of screenshots, what are you reading? Have you read anything this past

[00:00:50] month since we recorded last time that kind of stood out or that you want to recommend to listeners?

[00:00:56] I do. Okay so this is our romance episode. So what I'm about to suggest is also a romance

[00:01:08] but a very popular author is Ali Hazelwood and she's known for writing stem romances like the women

[00:01:21] are always in stem. They're always super smart, you know there also there's like a lot of witty

[00:01:27] banter and so that's pretty much her vibe. Okay so she went a totally new route and she wrote a

[00:01:37] paranormal romance. It's like a vampire and a werewolf like they're they're I don't know the word

[00:01:48] for a group of their pack their pack has to they're trying to form an alliance within their packs

[00:01:55] and so they're basically like in in an arranged marriage. Okay but it still had all of her

[00:02:04] her typical smart like the female is a smart girl and she's not a damsel in distress you know it has

[00:02:12] all of that but it's just a whole new take on her typical writing because it's dives a little bit into

[00:02:19] fantasy and I loved it. I loved it. I've decided that is what she needs to write from here on out

[00:02:26] what did it so well? It's called bride. I've seen that all over my good reads there's several people

[00:02:32] I know who are reading that right now. It's on it's in Tom Square up on the Amazon whatever

[00:02:40] are the big where the best sellers from Amazon get their little book on Tom Square that's

[00:02:45] that's the book that's there right now. What else is she write? Did she's not the lessons in

[00:02:50] chemistry lady is she? No no no no no um she has read love theoretically um call why do you ask

[00:03:01] me that I'm forgetting let me I'm forgetting the name of the books. Well now that you say

[00:03:07] love theoretically I think she has shown up in the book of the month picks now that I'm thinking

[00:03:12] her books are always in book of the mind yeah okay I'm love on the brain the love hypothesis

[00:03:18] love theoretically yeah and they're always stym focused books and actually oddly enough her

[00:03:28] her little paranormal one also has some stym in it she likes to do that also what I don't know if

[00:03:35] everyone else if every reader does this but I get kind of I take deep dives into learning about the

[00:03:41] author sometimes sometimes and um she's actually from Germany and she's a neuroscientist working

[00:03:49] in America and writes romance novels on the side wow I was pretty impressed it is very impressive

[00:04:00] so I guess that is why she always focuses on having women instill in her books okay

[00:04:06] well that's coming made me it kind of made me reminded me of with the girl what's her name from

[00:04:12] Big Bang Theory and Blossom and all that that's who I was thinking of my amyolic yeah she's like a

[00:04:18] nervous or none is she a neuro physicist or neuroscientist or something she's a something

[00:04:27] your own smart yeah it made me think of people like like her it's like oh you must have more hours

[00:04:34] in your day yeah that is my that's my standout standout a unique book for this month just because

[00:04:47] it was a whole different vibe than her normal books okay and she did it she did it so well

[00:04:54] that's a good one yeah so what yours um mine is actually a cookbook I was really excited

[00:05:03] um that was coming out it's called company the radically casual art of cooking for others by Amy

[00:05:09] Thielin I listened to the splendid table podcast um and they have a lot of chefs on there who have

[00:05:20] published books so a lot of times like when I'm listening to the episode I'll look up and see what

[00:05:25] and see what they published and she was she was on there and this book is basically

[00:05:32] it's like cooking for large groups so they she has like a section 4 6 to 8 8 to 10 you know um

[00:05:38] she's got one where it's like cooking up for like to like for 40 people um and it's sample menus

[00:05:45] and the recipes that go along with it um I would recommend that you check this out from the library

[00:05:52] maybe and not purchase it because it's one of those cookbooks where I had to google some of the

[00:05:58] ingredients and not like the ingredients deep in the recipe like in the title of the recipe like

[00:06:04] I did not know what some things were um so she she cooks with really fancy and rare ingredients

[00:06:12] so but it was a great book it's fun the pictures are amazing it's fun to go through and think about

[00:06:19] you know if you if you ever have dinner parties or anything like but just maybe theoretically not

[00:06:26] not anything you're asking do you cook for large groups often well we're actually my husband and I

[00:06:35] had just decided we're gonna start having um family over we're gonna try to do that like once a

[00:06:41] month and you know I just I struggle with it so unlike I need to I need to get better at it

[00:06:49] and then also when I start thinking about like I can pull it off for three people but now if we're

[00:06:54] gonna have eight or 10 I was like I need to double the rest of my game yeah um there was a recipe

[00:07:01] in this book though for deviled egg that I was really intrigued by and it was not it was not

[00:07:07] difficult it didn't seem difficult at all but yeah it was fun I love bringing home cookbooks from

[00:07:14] the library like the brand new ones and going through and just looking through them and and seeing

[00:07:18] what they have because there's there's so many that's and it's one of the um at least at our

[00:07:24] library it's one of the highest circulating nonfiction genres that we have because you know

[00:07:32] it's like they're they're expensive and people don't want to you know it's like what if I buy this

[00:07:37] $40 50 cookbook and then I never really use it so so we try to keep the new stuff available

[00:07:44] for people so but it's called company the radically casual art of cooking for others by Amy Thelen

[00:07:50] so that's kind of my standout for the month I love that I don't ever buy cookbooks I am such a

[00:07:57] Google recipe kind of girl so I love that cool cool I go go yeah I'm a Googler

[00:08:09] I have I have owned a cookbook before and then still googled

[00:08:19] it's like if we decide to make it and it's not just it's not right where I could put my hands on

[00:08:25] it and I will Google yeah and I want to miss up my books right you don't want to get finger

[00:08:32] prance or our food or anything on them yeah and my son is sort of collecting cookbooks so we

[00:08:39] just have we are overrun with awesome brand new cookbooks right now also is it does it have a

[00:08:46] pretty cover is it one you would want to put my company's all on your counter yes

[00:08:50] yeah you're reading my mind yes exactly I do like I do like um using cookbooks for that

[00:08:58] for art yeah I mean I may never cook you anything out of it but look how lovely this is and

[00:09:06] it really well you already have me wanting to Google the devil egg devil

[00:09:11] yeah yeah yeah yeah I may have to we may have to try that one yeah so I'm gonna talk about book of the

[00:09:20] month yes I had a so actually skipped one uh do you see January I don't know it was January

[00:09:32] because it was the first month this was a regular segment oh yes yes okay I skipped

[00:09:41] January so I was actually very excited for um my February box I did ready or not by Cara best

[00:09:52] stone I think I'm saying her last name correctly and then I did an add-on of butcher and blackbird

[00:09:59] butcher and blackbird was actually so popular that it was sold out for a little while and then

[00:10:03] all of a sudden it was there again and I squealed I was so excited I could add it on um I think I

[00:10:10] did it on last month yeah and I have actually read both of those um my favorite book of February is

[00:10:20] probably going to be ready or not by Cara best stone it it was fantastic um it is a romance

[00:10:31] and a lot of people hate an accidental pregnancy trope I think they hate it because usually in

[00:10:39] a romance it's it's all it all ties up neatly and that's not like real life you know right right

[00:10:47] right so I think a lot of people hate that but um actually she wrote it really well and it wasn't

[00:10:53] all neat and tidy and it was just it was good it was very realistic and it made me I was washing

[00:11:00] dishes I was actually ended up getting it on audible and I was washing dishes listening to it and I

[00:11:04] had like tears streaming down my face it was so good it was beautiful and that was your actual

[00:11:10] fabute or January pic right it was one of those my actual pic yeah yeah ready or not by Cara best

[00:11:17] stone what were yours um all of them but that I over did it I just I went bananas I got the resort

[00:11:28] by Sarah Oaches which is the one I'll come back and talk about I know you know I love nonfiction

[00:11:34] and they only will throw a nonfiction in there once or twice a year so I got yet and it's called

[00:11:39] more a memoir of open marriage by Holly Rodin winter Kristen Hannah's The Women Heartless Hunter

[00:11:46] by Kristen Chikarelli and the mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham so I loaded up I hit

[00:11:55] the max I hit the max um but I read the resort oh it was a thriller right mm-hmm was did you like it

[00:12:08] no no it's it's the only time I've ever like just not liked a book from book at the month and I kept

[00:12:16] thinking well it'll get you know it's gonna get better there's gonna be a twist and then I was

[00:12:21] like halfway through the book and and I was still there and then I guess about two-thirds of the way

[00:12:28] through you get a twist and there's a lot of potential but I don't know it was just problematic so

[00:12:34] and I'm so ashamed I only gave it two stars on Goodreads but I wrote a full review like I never

[00:12:41] write a review but I'm like if I give this book two stars I have to tell I have to say well

[00:12:49] find yourself because this you know was yeah yeah and it was just there were continuity issues

[00:12:58] with the Tom like things didn't things didn't add up and that kept bothering me and it hasn't

[00:13:06] been really bad for stuff like that to stick out to me um and there were some red herrings

[00:13:14] that weren't really effective and also I figured out the villain way too quickly and

[00:13:21] that is also not something that I usually do like a lot of times with these thrillers

[00:13:26] when I finished it I feel like they wrote this for me like I was who was in their head because

[00:13:31] I had no clue like the twist just you know I put the book down and I'm like oh my god like

[00:13:36] that's usually how I read these things and this one I was like oh oh great okay I know who this is

[00:13:42] um but also this was I read through some other reviews that thought the book was problematic and

[00:13:49] one of the things that people kept pointing out and it was exactly how I felt when I was rating it

[00:13:54] but I didn't include it in my review there's a character who was on anxiety medication

[00:14:00] and she gets it legally she has like severe panic disorder or something obviously

[00:14:10] and the whole book is like basically shaming her for being on this medicine yeah it's

[00:14:16] like she hides it and then it's like if anybody finds out I have to take this medicine they're going to

[00:14:22] you know my fiance won't love me anymore or my you know and it's like it's a dirty secret to her

[00:14:28] and I just feel like this day and time we that's that's not cool at all because there's a lot of

[00:14:34] people on it there's a lot of people who are on it and don't want to be on it and have these

[00:14:38] feelings already and that's so that's not what I feel like we need to reflect back at people

[00:14:44] you know and although although I think there are people who feel that way I you don't I don't

[00:14:50] remember I don't ever say that in books it's usually a positive like mental health positive like

[00:14:56] you know yeah positive for your mental health yeah and and totally like normalizing it and

[00:15:03] you know this this just something that people do yeah they just they really laid into that and

[00:15:09] I wasn't crazy about it so but I did read and I read an add-on this month also um and I think

[00:15:17] I had actually just started it when we recorded last time so I may have mentioned it it was called

[00:15:21] Northwoods by Amy Peace it was also a thriller and it was excellent like I kept going back to it

[00:15:30] and thinking about it and it was like yes it was a thriller and there was a mystery you know this

[00:15:34] but it's set in a place a small town like a rural town where the opioid epidemic has kind of

[00:15:45] overtaken that like a lot of the the locals have it a lot of the visitors who come you know we're

[00:15:52] struggling with it and but then there's also like the big business aspect of it like they're

[00:15:57] opening rehab centers in this area to make money and doctors are tied in and it was it was really

[00:16:04] good and it really makes you think about about the opioid epidemic like in a big way and I've read

[00:16:11] non-fiction books that make you do that but like this was like just built into the life of the

[00:16:17] small town um but the characters were amazing you know series fiction is a lot of times not

[00:16:27] my favorite thing but when I finished this book I immediately thought if she turns this into like

[00:16:34] into a series I'm gonna read these because I love these characters enough and I want to see what happens

[00:16:40] what happens next with them so but that's called um Northwoods by Amy Peace P E A S E and it

[00:16:47] was not an actual book of the month pick but it was one you could add on I love that on's out of

[00:16:54] two they do such a good job with those I'm really surprised that broad that alley Hazelwood book hasn't

[00:17:00] been an add-on because all of her books have been add-ons well so I want him to to be make it an

[00:17:08] add-on for February because I think you kind of got me sellable in that it's good now yeah it's good

[00:17:19] are you ready to talk about your favorite genre books I am I am I was waiting on you to

[00:17:26] I'm ready girl so the way we decided to do this is I'm basically going to

[00:17:33] interview Jennifer because she is very prolific in this in the subject matter I am not and I

[00:17:40] want her to convince me why I should read I should read more romance okay Jennifer my first question

[00:17:49] for you is what made you start reading romance and I want to know about how old you are like if

[00:17:54] this was something you've read it you know as a teenager or if it's fairly new that's funny to

[00:18:01] me when you sent me the question and asked how old I was because it's actually very new pretty much

[00:18:11] okay so my reading life several years ago you know we homeschooled and it kind of centered around

[00:18:18] whatever we were going to read in our homeschool so 10 years ago I was mostly reading like middle grade

[00:18:26] novels but I loved them I mean like Gary Schmidt and like that book wonder you know that they ended

[00:18:36] up making the movie out of I mean I loved them but it that was just the phase of life I was in so

[00:18:44] then I got in really deep into historical fiction I probably read every World War II book there was

[00:18:53] during that that time like you know the Nightingale or all the cake Quinn books out um then

[00:19:04] then around 2020 I started reading a lot of non-fiction I think a lot of us did

[00:19:11] because it was a lot going on in the world you know I started a lot of life how to be an anti-racist

[00:19:16] and and also a lot of I guess you would call them self help how to just how to be a better person kind of books

[00:19:24] mm-hmm but I began by the I started feeling just bored with my reading life like I would go through

[00:19:37] you know every list and nothing sounded good and um I felt I was in a real rut and I know

[00:19:46] most of the time when people get in a rut they change genres is what I have found to be with a lot

[00:19:51] of people so I was getting my hair done and the girl doing my hair I was telling her I was in a rut

[00:19:58] nothing sounded good I was could not find anything to read and she said okay I'm gonna tell you about

[00:20:04] this series don't judge me she said hear me out it's a fantasy but it's romance and they're also

[00:20:13] fairies okay I was judge I was like judging her I don't know how this series has had not been on my

[00:20:23] radar because it is you when I say it erasing me like of course it was the Akatar series a court

[00:20:29] of thorns and roses okay I had no I had probably seen it in books a million but because I wasn't

[00:20:37] reading romance it wasn't or or fantasy at the time it wasn't wasn't something I looked at when

[00:20:42] I would go in bookstores mm-hmm so I went home and they were they were free on their own hoopla so

[00:20:50] I so I downloaded them and I was still giving her a little bit of sada I was like some fairies

[00:20:58] and um they're fair now that I'm in now that I know about the fantasy world they're fair they're not

[00:21:07] fairies no tell them what they are they're fair okay so I was so hooked and when I finished the series

[00:21:20] I immediately started over because there are moments in the series where you're like oh now that

[00:21:26] I know what I know I want to see it beforehand you know I mean there's you know how that is in

[00:21:33] books now that you know yeah you want to see it with that knowledge um so then what happened this

[00:21:40] is still a long-winded version of how I got into romance uh but um in a quaintance of mine I noticed

[00:21:50] on good reads she had also read them and I didn't really know anybody besides the girl who did my

[00:21:57] hair that I could talk to about them and she's not she's not a real texture and so I would try to

[00:22:02] text her and she would never respond and I needed someone to talk about talk about them with

[00:22:09] so I noticed in a quaintance of mine um had read them so I messaged her on Facebook

[00:22:16] and I was like what else has this vibe she and I have become like the best of friends we have talked

[00:22:25] every single day since that message and we go to dinner once a month now we I mean so not only did

[00:22:35] I love that series but it also brought one of like my dearest friends into my life which I think is

[00:22:40] maybe that's why Akatar is very special to me but um she is a very prolific romance reader and

[00:22:47] her list for me I will probably never delete our texts or messages no matter how much storage space

[00:22:57] I need in my phone because it's like it is the greatest resource for romance recommendations from her

[00:23:06] so that was my gateway the that's my long way of saying the Accord of Thorns and Roses series

[00:23:12] was my gateway into romance okay yes it is fantasy but it's a romanticy I guess that's what they

[00:23:21] they they label it as romanticy um okay but I also when you dive into that to romance you do

[00:23:30] typically get into contemporary romance as well and so I kind of go back and forth now

[00:23:35] I read contemporary romance and fantasy romance mostly that's the majority of my reading life

[00:23:42] so that is my long-winded explanation of how I got into romance it all started with a

[00:23:48] chord of thorns and roses and my hairdresser telling me not to judge it till I try it

[00:23:56] I've heard so many good things about those is it Sarah Sarah Maas is that Sarah J.

[00:24:01] Sarah J Maas yeah okay she also really good things with this that's the only series of hers

[00:24:07] that I've read but I really want to read her others um um crescent city just came out with with

[00:24:14] the most recent one um I've heard that her uh best work is the Throne of Glass series

[00:24:23] and I've there why I guess it would be upper YA but um I really want to read them but there's like

[00:24:33] a lot of them in their thick books oh really yeah like I think like maybe eight or nine books

[00:24:40] and they're big I know they might be great though uh everybody I have taught to honestly I

[00:24:47] know this is this is a bold statement but they always say the word they use is it changed my life

[00:24:53] and I'm like really like huh now I'm wanting to read them I know they say it changed my life

[00:25:00] I don't think what's that series again Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas and you said it's upper YA

[00:25:07] is that romance to see also I think it does have romance but I think it is mostly fantasy

[00:25:17] okay there there there seems to be a distinction between fantasy with romance and romance with fantasy

[00:25:29] does that make sense yeah yeah I think it's a fantasy first and foremost

[00:25:36] okay yeah my next question is when I when I just saw it written down I was like this sounds like

[00:25:45] it will be very easy to oversimplify but I wanted you to dig deep on this one

[00:25:51] who do you think the target audience is for romance novels now and because I you can't just say

[00:25:58] like middle aged women like I want to know like the psychological makeup of who you think is reading

[00:26:05] these books you know I was actually I am shocked I'm in in the bookstore and world you know

[00:26:13] and let me start let me back up first of all I have a ninth grade daughter

[00:26:21] when her friends come spend the night and they bring a book to read they're bringing the same

[00:26:26] books I'm reading really yes and these are ninth graders okay um my 20 year old she just finished

[00:26:36] cosmology school whenever I would go to her school whenever there was a lot of downtime girls would

[00:26:41] just kind of be like laying around reading and stuff in between clients they were reading what I was

[00:26:45] reading um so now let's jump into my my books to grand world I've made a lot of friends and we have

[00:26:56] like little private chats and stuff and I'm not the oldest in the chat but I'm close to the oldest

[00:27:05] on price second oldest so it's anywhere from 25 year olds to my friend that my real life friend

[00:27:12] that I talked about act or with you know she's 53 so I don't know that it's and it's definitely not

[00:27:21] an age right thing um it's more about what you're wanting from your reading I think than an age

[00:27:31] genre I'm I'm the worst about boxing people into like I'll say well that's a um that's a

[00:27:40] male book that's what boys read or you know it's so I'm really bad about boxing people in but I have

[00:27:44] not been able to figure out how to box romance and um and also what I've noticed uh uh

[00:27:55] work well I say I work at a bookstore we're not open yet but I do work at it and we've had some

[00:28:00] pop-up events and I am shocked at like Tessa Bailey is is a pretty spicy romance romance author

[00:28:11] and her characters are typically in their early thirties or late twenties

[00:28:16] and I'm shocked at the old ladies who will come to our pop-up thing when I say oh what I'm saying

[00:28:22] they're probably close to 80 years old and they are buying Tessa Bailey books.

[00:28:26] Mm-hmm and I was just I just was shocked like I thought that when you when you turn into an old lady

[00:28:34] you have to really like Karen Kingsbury and the Christian romance you know

[00:28:43] and I would try to direct them to those books and they were like what about this one I've seen

[00:28:48] this one a lot and I'm like okay so I have not figured out a way to box in romance and I wonder

[00:28:58] romance is the most popular genre at the moment. Mm-hmm um they're putting out the most titles

[00:29:06] publishers are in romance and I wonder can you hear my cat? I can. This is my ginger cat that's

[00:29:17] gonna annoy us I'm sorry it's not very vocal cat. Um but people love cats so they do

[00:29:24] so what I've decided I think it goes along with kind of why I started reading romance I think

[00:29:34] people and I've heard this from a lot of people the world feels

[00:29:40] hard to live in sometimes um it's getting you know we're bombarded by negativity constantly

[00:29:50] and I think most people that I talk to started reading romance around the same time that I did

[00:29:58] and I think it's because it's an escape from the negativity. That's what I've decided.

[00:30:07] That makes sense that makes my sense. Um so there was like a little authors note

[00:30:14] in one of my favorite authors books and she was talking about how she used to like turn her nose up

[00:30:19] at romance because so it's just fluff and and she preferred to look like she was really smart and

[00:30:26] read high quality literature you know so then she finally read her first romance and she goes on

[00:30:36] in this author's note to talk about how you feel when you read different genres and the anticipation

[00:30:44] that you have while you're reading it and she here she says but guess what kind of anticipation

[00:30:51] romance novels use positively balanced and I thought that's exactly why I read romance because

[00:30:59] you know the whole time no matter what the people are dealing with it's gonna end good you have

[00:31:05] something to look forward to. Yeah so and I really do think that's why romance is the most popular genre

[00:31:15] at the moment. I've never thought about it that way because everyone right now is bombarded by

[00:31:23] negativity and it has become a positive escape for people. That makes a lot of sense I was thinking

[00:31:33] about like because I'm it's not like I hate romance like in general but I just generally like with

[00:31:41] my books I want like romance can be a part of it but it can't be like the whole point. But then also

[00:31:49] and you and I have talked about this before the stuff I read is the kind of stuff I have to take a

[00:31:55] break from because it is a murder mystery set in you know a place for the it's very heavy or it's

[00:32:05] Stephen King or it's like you just it's like it doesn't end well so you kind of take it with you

[00:32:13] so this is really I think this is really interesting because I never I've never thought about

[00:32:18] I've never thought about just not having to have that anticipation of who's gonna

[00:32:24] who's gonna survive like it's just you know you know when you read historical fiction

[00:32:32] it's usually like I was about to ask you if you had read the women yet because historical

[00:32:37] fiction is usually sad and I have not read the women yet because I have heard from several people

[00:32:43] that it is gonna be tough like that it's tough a friend of mine she just finished it and

[00:32:50] um she cracked me up she texted me after she finished she said I have finished a tale of woes

[00:33:01] is sad is sad um but that's uh that I that's an aside but yeah so I think

[00:33:08] I think it has less to do with any type of demographic and more to do with

[00:33:14] what's going on in the world and what people are wanting in life right now

[00:33:19] that's what I've done that makes sense that makes sense I tell people all the time who used to read

[00:33:25] basically how I read and now they read romance well and you know I think about it too

[00:33:32] that legends in lattes book that I talked about for several months

[00:33:38] like that's not I think one of the reasons it was so charming was because it

[00:33:44] it ended well and that was the first like cozy anything ever I had read so

[00:33:51] I don't know it gave you a happy feeling when you finished it yeah yeah wow okay you're really

[00:34:00] making me think about some things so what's your favorite trope you really are I promised he really

[00:34:05] are he really are so what's your favorite trope in all right in romance so I have I have three

[00:34:13] that I tend to gravitate towards but I will read god now I'm now I have to back up wait a second

[00:34:19] do I have three or do I have more um I love and this is I would not I don't know if this is a

[00:34:25] trope or a subgenre but I love when there's some time travel or um slips of time I love that

[00:34:33] that's not I don't think that's necessarily a trope but maybe a little magical realism

[00:34:38] okay I really gravitate towards that in in books um but if a book is set in a small town

[00:34:47] and gives me that Gilmore Girls vibe you can just about bet I'm gonna read it like there's always

[00:34:54] going to be a meddling old lady there's always going to be some quirky neighbor that's a weirdo you

[00:35:02] know um there's gonna be a grumpy person there's you know I love I think I'm always chasing the

[00:35:11] Gilmore Girls vibe in my small town books so any any way that you can recreate Gilmore Girls

[00:35:19] Luke and Lorela any of that in a book I'm there um another one I love

[00:35:27] and I think it's because it reflects my marriage is a grumpy sunshine trope

[00:35:33] I hope he's got his air pods in right now and didn't hear me say that

[00:35:38] explain what a grumpy sunshine is okay so he's just real stoic and

[00:35:44] like you know not no nonsense kind of person um and she she comes into his life and she's just

[00:35:53] all happy and forces him to to lighten up and she usually kind of like poking the bear you know

[00:36:01] constantly and um but also what's typically the case in a grumpy sunshine trope is that underneath

[00:36:09] his grumpiness he's kind of like a sweet cinnamon rollie that's that's a romance phrase a sweet cinnamon

[00:36:15] roll um I know like you know he may he may look grumpy and he may growl and be like oh that's

[00:36:23] dumb but right and he does really sweet things so uh that's I love a grumpy sunshine

[00:36:33] okay those are mine so some grumpy sunshine some small town and some magical realism even better

[00:36:43] is if you can get all three of those in one book and I have found a few I found a few like

[00:36:49] in the cozy cozy fantasy so Laura I found a few that felt that way so yeah okay that's my

[00:36:58] trope I like that I know so how do you how do you choose books because of these tropes or the do

[00:37:06] you look at the covers and they stand out or is it specific authors recommendations what you see on

[00:37:13] books to gram like what how do you choose how do you choose your books all the above oh I will say

[00:37:20] I have like my books to gram is really taken off and I see more books than I will ever be able to

[00:37:30] read in a lifetime on books to gram um one thing that has happened with I get a lot of advanced

[00:37:39] readers copies and so that tends to be how I choose my books lately I need to quit getting so many

[00:37:47] advanced readers copies because they're not always they usually actually they are good but sometimes

[00:37:53] they're not and then I feel like I've wasted time on a book that I shouldn't have I should I could have

[00:37:58] read something better you know so that tends to be how I've been choosing my books lately because I

[00:38:03] have to read them and I don't I don't love that feeling like having to read it's you know it's

[00:38:09] it's a sign yeah it's a sign reading um so I've been trying to sign up and it's not they're not

[00:38:16] like seeking me out I I'm a glutton for punishment I go sign up for these books and then and then

[00:38:23] I'm like man I could have I could have read something else you know um also there are some books to

[00:38:31] gram accounts that have never led me wrong and if they love a book at this point I can pretty much

[00:38:39] guarantee I'm gonna love it one is a rape the romance she and I must have the same reading taste because

[00:38:48] if she says a book is five star I'm probably it's going to be five star for me too and also in

[00:38:55] you know I've made all these friends on Instagram and they're constantly sending me books or I'm

[00:39:03] not sending it like you know DMing me a suggestion and or here's what I just read I absolutely loved it

[00:39:09] and I felt I felt like that's probably the main way because someone a friend recommended it and

[00:39:17] it's a trusted friend who reads kind of how I read and then of course there are my tried and true

[00:39:25] try try I'm saying that wrong this right my my authors that I'm gonna read no matter if they wrote

[00:39:33] the ingredients on a shampoo bottle you know I would all right they write and there's there's a

[00:39:39] handful of those that if they're putting something out I'm reading it okay yeah okay it's it's pretty

[00:39:46] much suggested from other romance readers how I get my my TBR okay oh that's interesting okay

[00:39:56] um and then kind of to like finish out this conversation I want two different sets of

[00:40:05] recommendations from you so for the first set I want you to recommend three books for reluctant

[00:40:15] romance readers like if you've got somebody you're trying to convince that they will love this genre

[00:40:21] they just don't know it yet what three books which you recommend um okay I think I was thinking about

[00:40:32] this I have a friend who is a reluctant romance reader because she it makes her think of the

[00:40:38] Fabio bodice ripper books you know and that right just gonna all be one thing um but I do actually

[00:40:47] think romance authors these days right really good plot and depth and the romance just happens to be

[00:40:54] part of the plot you know what I mean like I would say it almost feels like a women's

[00:40:58] lit crossover a lot of times yeah yeah okay so um okay can I give you more than three

[00:41:12] mm-hmm how many more than three Jennifer I have to like like five okay yes five is good five

[00:41:21] all right a lot of people don't realize that Taylor Jenkins read used to write romance they re-released I

[00:41:30] think it was like three or four books a few years ago they re-released them like with new covers new

[00:41:36] audio narrators um so two of them that I I really loved one was called after I do and it's like a

[00:41:48] marriage and crisis romance mm-hmm but it definitely has the women's lit crossover and there was so

[00:41:56] many it's a it's a lot of things happening in her family at the time and and it's kind of like

[00:42:04] when you've been married so long and this this spouse is also part of your family

[00:42:10] how do you navigate that when he's your family's family too you know and there was that was a big

[00:42:19] part of the plot um okay that's a thing and I love her uh after I do is one of probably one of my

[00:42:27] very favorite romances um another one and I it's been a long time since I read it by her called

[00:42:34] One True Loves but I see it constantly so people love it I remember the the gist of it but it's probably

[00:42:40] been it's probably been ten years since I read it so I guess I did read romance at one time too

[00:42:48] you just didn't know it I just yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um one very popular Emily Henry her books are

[00:42:58] well-written there's gonna be really good depth in them there's gonna be a good plot it's

[00:43:05] gonna have a little bit of everything um my probably my favorite Emily Henry book is book lovers

[00:43:14] I think it good for lovers ago but yeah okay it's good um another is Catherine Center I've read

[00:43:22] everything she's ever written um she writes clean romances I saw an interview with her and um

[00:43:32] her husband's a middle school teacher so she always makes sure her books are clean because she knows

[00:43:37] how nosy middle schoolers are and she never wants to know that one of his students has picked up

[00:43:45] one of her books and it wasn't a clean romance you know right I thought that was cute um

[00:43:52] my favorite of hers is Hello Stranger uh she's the one who I who I read the little excerpt from

[00:43:58] her authors note a few minutes ago where she talked about the positive anticipation um okay how

[00:44:06] am I is out I've done three let me give you let me give you one more um okay this is another clean

[00:44:12] romance series Sarah Adams the win in Rome series uh these these aren't the small town setting I was

[00:44:22] talking about they give you the Gilmore girl vibes and so the first one is like this famous girl

[00:44:29] comes into town and has car trouble like she's just passing through and her car can't get fixed

[00:44:35] and um she ends up having to stay with the grumpy the grumpy guy in town because there's no room

[00:44:41] in any of their bed and breakfast and and he's you know it's a grumpy sunshine and he's a

[00:44:47] cinnamon roll it turns out mm-hmm and then the next one in the series is called Practice Makes Perfect

[00:44:55] and the female from the first book her bodyguard falls in love with the sister of the guy in the first

[00:45:06] book okay so these are all gonna be what you would call interconnected series yes and they've

[00:45:15] got the same characters or at least connections to characters but new stories it's either like a

[00:45:21] best friend group or a family or something in those yeah okay and I kind of you said earlier you

[00:45:28] don't love a series but I kind of do love a series because I feel like I really grow attached to

[00:45:33] the characters over over the series yeah I'll be honest like I say I don't like series my best case

[00:45:42] scenario is that I fall so in love with the book and the characters that I want more like

[00:45:49] like even the north woods I was talking about or north without some out earlier like I would

[00:45:57] I would continue to read that but it's like I've got like Harry Potter on such a pedestal and

[00:46:04] then that's not the only there have been several series throughout my life that I've loved but it's

[00:46:08] like I want a series like I feel like I sound like just a grumpy old lady on here sometimes because

[00:46:14] I'm like you know it has to be good the book can't waste my time I don't want a series but it's

[00:46:19] like I'm just like everybody else I really do so you're just a very discerning reader you you're you're

[00:46:26] not gonna just read any old thing and I think that's good yeah well and I'm bombarded with books like

[00:46:34] you know they're all because I'm a library and yeah yeah and then working specifically with

[00:46:39] nonfiction like that's what that's what I see the most of and you know and that's what I order

[00:46:45] and that's what I research and it's like I'm always wanting to read it so when I read fiction like

[00:46:50] I want it to be solid so you're saying that that series you love like that right with those

[00:46:58] characters and it also has a lot of it made me laugh out loud I mean they're funny and also she's

[00:47:08] she's not too far from here she lives in Nashville so okay so I always whenever I'm in Nashville

[00:47:16] I'm like oh maybe I'll run into Sarah Adams but she I mean she does she does um

[00:47:23] events like porn-assist books and stuff but it's never when I can go so I would say

[00:47:32] she's probably we you know like Emily Henry everybody's read every romance person is read

[00:47:40] Emily Henry I would say Sarah Adams is probably not quite to that level but her books are very good

[00:47:46] okay that that leads us to this next set of recommendations I want three recommendations that

[00:47:55] prolific romance readers might not have read yet so somebody who were this is their number one

[00:48:01] genre and they come to you and they're like give me something good that I haven't already read

[00:48:07] what three books would you recommend I've got it all right actually this is a friend of mine's

[00:48:14] book like she is my I read her book and then made her my friend we'll say that she's a she's like

[00:48:22] she's a debut like this is our first book she's a schoolteacher so it's not like she's trying to

[00:48:27] well she may she may want to become a famous author I would say anyone who writes a book hopes

[00:48:31] that's that's the goal but um right the author's name is Amy Hyde and it's a sports romance called

[00:48:39] the closer now I follow no sports so I actually had to ask my husband if that's an actual

[00:48:46] baseball position oh and he was like yeah are you kidding I don't I don't follow sports so I wasn't

[00:48:56] in it for the sport um so he's a he's a the closer for the Yankees in the book she's a Broadway star

[00:49:06] um and it's really just a book about how two famous people figure out how to navigate being famous

[00:49:16] while also falling in love keeping that private and it's just all the intricacies of fame

[00:49:26] um long distance I mean you know there's a lot of times I have to be long distance all of that this

[00:49:32] book one thing I keep seeing reviews and I agree with this it doesn't really have tropes most

[00:49:39] romance books have tropes this one that doesn't have that it's just a realistic representation of

[00:49:46] what it's like figuring out how to be in a relationship it's called the closer by Amy Hyde

[00:49:55] so that might be attractive even though this is the different a difference for it to like the

[00:50:00] Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift washers where it's like which granted she's on the road as much as he is

[00:50:07] but that's that's interesting oh yeah a lot of it sounds really good I loved it um I mean she's

[00:50:17] she's getting out there she's gotten picked up by PR company that's helping get her book out

[00:50:23] there and uh I hope that it I hope it gets out there more because I really liked it where is she from

[00:50:31] California okay so my friend my real life friend that I'll never that I said I would never

[00:50:39] delete our texts because she recommends the best books she won this book in a giveaway

[00:50:44] and she didn't know anything about the book or the author or anything and she liked it so much

[00:50:50] she texted me she was like I need you to read this book because I can't get over how much I liked it

[00:50:57] and it's her debut novel and no one on earth seems to have heard of it and it's so good so we kind

[00:51:05] of befriended this author and started trying to get her name out there to other romance readers

[00:51:11] we should put her this one up on our Instagram too um in case people are interested in reading yet

[00:51:20] yes okay that sounds really that actually that sounds really really good what's this what's your

[00:51:24] next one I've decided I'm the only person who's read this book and the author doesn't even have like an

[00:51:32] author social media I don't know how I found this book it's called The Memories of Us by Vanessa

[00:51:38] Carnival um so I loved it I mean so the girl gets amnesia she's in a car wreck and gets amnesia

[00:51:51] and she's trying to figure out who she is so she moves back to her like hometown where

[00:52:01] her family house is still there but it's like for sale and she takes it off the market and moves

[00:52:07] back into it because she's just trying to figure out who is she because she has amnesia so

[00:52:14] she falls she starts falling for her neighbor and I can't give too much because there's a pretty

[00:52:24] surprise twist but um she falls for her neighbor and she does start figuring out who she is and what makes

[00:52:35] her happy um and that's really all I can say without giving away too much I don't know how much is

[00:52:41] too much with spoilers I never know so um it's hard to know sometimes with these it is I've actually

[00:52:54] read this one multiple times and I have it on audio because I just I don't know I just love it

[00:53:00] so and this is actually one I read before I read romance so which is also odd to me because I don't

[00:53:08] know what made me how I found it where how it crossed my radar I first read it probably five or

[00:53:18] more years ago and it has remained as one of my favorite obscure lesser known romance novels

[00:53:30] and I think this also made me have only written this the memories of us by Vanessa Carnival

[00:53:37] okay and I had the best look a few weeks ago so um one of the local public libraries is

[00:53:49] kind of calling their shelves and they have just a huge band of free books um that just weren't

[00:53:59] doing a lot in circulation there were two copies of this book in it well free so I got I got both copies

[00:54:10] I thought you know I could keep one and maybe like have one to let people borrow or

[00:54:16] yeah yeah you put it in your little free library no I don't know if I can part with it that

[00:54:23] I think I need both I think I need both okay so my last one um she's actually an author who lives here

[00:54:32] in Alabama Julianna Smith and her most recent book just released this week and I read it is called

[00:54:41] a rock in a hard place and it is a um it's a second chance romance I feel like it very accurately

[00:54:52] depicts how hard marriage is when you have babies or toddlers um and they end up divorcing but this

[00:55:02] now the kids are bigger and this is them given it a second chance and uh figuring out where they

[00:55:10] went wrong and how to start fresh and it was really it was just beautiful that sounds good all

[00:55:18] these sounds so good Jennifer you picked good books I read good books

[00:55:24] you're making me want to read a romance novel that's not about two serial killers

[00:55:30] okay okay so I have to tell you though the owner of the bookstore that uh we'll be working at she

[00:55:37] reads a lot like you read um she needs a little more in a lot of her in her reading usually but

[00:55:45] the serial the butcher in black bar the serial killer this uh book was um she's in a book club and

[00:55:55] that's what they picked which was funny to me that that's what they're reading in a book club

[00:56:00] and she loved it like really loved it yes she kept texting me throughout she was like I'm dying

[00:56:10] laughing right now or like yeah loved yet well I have it on deck are you is it the physical book

[00:56:19] for the audio that you have on deck both actually uh uh balled on audible first and then when it

[00:56:26] showed up as an add-on for book of the month last month I went ahead and got to okay because the

[00:56:30] audio is one of the best audio's I think I've heard in a long time oh great so great so good um the

[00:56:38] bookstore owner friend of mine actually she she texted me that too she said I think I could listen

[00:56:43] to these narrators forever anything they read I could listen to it it was good oh okay good good

[00:56:52] so a good narrator makes a huge difference um can I can I go rogue for a second and you sure can

[00:57:02] all right so my my very favorite genre but I don't read enough of it is the fantasy romance

[00:57:11] romanticy and the reason I don't read enough of it is because they're usually long series

[00:57:16] and they're thick and they require a lot of brain because the world building and things like that

[00:57:24] you know right i'm going i want to recommend a few

[00:57:29] if you want some fantasy romance um my very favorite fantasy romance series is the from blood and

[00:57:39] ash series by Jennifer arm and trout um i'm actually behind on that series because she keeps writing

[00:57:46] them and they're not short and I don't I'm not caught up on it but I that is unless unless the one

[00:57:56] I haven't read yet sucks it's still my favorite fantasy series um the king and coven series by

[00:58:05] Madeline Elliott is one of my very favorite fantasy romance series and i'm actually like on her

[00:58:11] little street team and she picked me to be a beta reader but I don't know that i'm going to be a

[00:58:17] good beta reader you would be a great beta reader how's it so well like when you were talking about

[00:58:25] that thriller earlier and how um there were continuity issues and things like that

[00:58:31] like one of the things to be a beta reader she wants to look for like a grammatical errors or

[00:58:37] timeline issues but if I like the book it's like my brain just goes into a fog and i don't notice those

[00:58:44] things mm-hmm so i might not be a good beta reader but i'm trying i'm gonna try um

[00:58:52] okay and the last recommendation for fantasy romance is the crowns of niaxia series by

[00:59:01] carissa broadbite it was actually an indie series and it got picked up by a traditional publisher

[00:59:07] so it can be found in stores so i mean i think it's a tarot yeah okay it's great i mean from blood

[00:59:17] and ash series is also it's it's a very well-known series but i love that the crowns of niaxia was

[00:59:25] indie and got so much hype it it got picked up so excellent these are okay you just

[00:59:34] you've knocked it out of the park Jennifer oh well thank you i have one more book do you want to

[00:59:41] hear about one more book are we out of time one more book we'll say yeah we've got time for one more

[00:59:46] all right uh this was strictly based on the cover um and i'm doing this like bingo card

[00:59:56] this month and it said i needed a mystery or a thriller and a genre that i have realized

[01:00:03] i love is cozy mystery like Molly the maid you know that the maid book um the mystery guest that

[01:00:11] that series those who i think would be considered cozy mystery yes so this one is a cozy mystery

[01:00:18] but it also has a very precious romance story um june per bean resorts to murder

[01:00:27] and it is by gracie ruth michael um and it's on hoopla on audio and it i loved it it was fantastic

[01:00:38] i was it has quirky characters a lot of wit and banter but then a surprising amount of depth

[01:00:47] like i was listened to it and i actually wished that i had the book so that i could highlight things

[01:00:52] like really uh lines in the book that just made me go wow what really think you know what i mean

[01:01:00] um so june per beans and you said you picked that you picked that because of the cover

[01:01:08] okay i was in barns and no wool not just like last week and when you said the name

[01:01:15] though but i was like that sounds familiar and it stood out to me too it has a very whimsical

[01:01:21] cover doesn't it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and i love like um i mean if you've got a

[01:01:26] title with a weird like an odd name you know like like it stands out to me so june per beans so

[01:01:32] it's good to hear that that's good it was so officially moved that to the two read and it got my

[01:01:38] check mark for the mystery thriller on my bingo card okay i actually do like mysteries and thrillers

[01:01:45] that aren't happy endings but i just haven't picked any up in a while and this one yeah check

[01:01:51] that box and pleasantly surprised me in how much i loved it okay well that's a good note to end on

[01:02:02] so everybody should go read a bunch of romance books and you've got everybody situated to start or

[01:02:13] jump in wherever they're comfortable all kinds of recommendations those will be in our

[01:02:18] show notes um on the podcast when the podcast posts and i'll try to get some social some social media

[01:02:28] stuff go and i've been really a slacker with that social media but i'll try to get us some pictures

[01:02:34] on social media for people to see like some pretty covers and things yeah well we've had a

[01:02:40] i'd be at the feel like we say this every month you don't you don't realize how long it takes to

[01:02:45] do the stuff like that until you try to make the tom to do the stuff so and i just we're just too busy

[01:02:54] people that we're trying to figure out our schedules so yeah yeah i'm hoping though we're at least

[01:03:01] on my end we're on the the home stretch of all of the the stuff that's keeping you going on

[01:03:09] that we're we're getting we're in the in the middle i was telling yeah i was telling Jennifer

[01:03:15] earlier we're in the middle we're about to move and um we had a we planned a vacation for January

[01:03:24] we went on a cruise because um we're we love the holidays a lot so January is always kind of like

[01:03:30] blah so i was like well let's plan a pretty major vacation then right after the holidays that

[01:03:34] makes sense and then you just you just forget like well also we were not expected the ice storm

[01:03:41] or snowstorm that the like entire United States of America yeah so but everything's normalizing

[01:03:51] spring is coming lots of good books are releasing there's a lot coming up there's a lot coming up

[01:03:59] so much yeah do you want to go ahead and tell our listeners what our topic will be next month

[01:04:07] before we start okay so Jamie asked me you know she gave me a few topics to think about and i

[01:04:14] have so many memoirs and biographies that i keep putting off and i don't know why i keep putting

[01:04:20] them off so i told her we're going to talk about biographies and memoirs and it's going to force me

[01:04:26] to check those off my TBR and get them read because i know they're fantastic

[01:04:32] i just have been lazy or not let you know not lazy i guess i just haven't selected them so we're

[01:04:38] doing biographies in memoirs and the best part will be um you'll get to hear two southern ladies

[01:04:44] have to say the word memoir like 72 times to your podcast did you get tickled at how i just said it

[01:04:51] is that what i mean no i was thinking that you did a really good job and i'm horrified at what

[01:04:56] i sound like when i say it so but that's what they are so okay well thank you jinnifer you have

[01:05:04] been absolutely amazing as usual you really carried carried the ball on this one because i didn't

[01:05:09] have a lot to contribute well you gave me great questions great questions i knew you would

[01:05:16] so okay i'm going out you thanks everybody for listening and we will be back

[01:05:25] we'll be back next month check out more podcast and pop culture news on that alabama take.com

[01:05:32] we'll see you next month you were frozen you were frozen am i frozen you say bah

[01:05:48] because you were frozen there okay i couldn't hear you oh what what could you not hear which part

[01:05:55] was the last thing you heard the alabama take me okay i'll make right do that okay

[01:06:05] okay so check your shelf we'll be back next month in the meantime if you want to listen to

[01:06:10] more podcast get your pop culture news um check out the alabama take.com

[01:06:17] jinnifer you want to throw out our instagram yes it's check your shelf podcast on instagram and

[01:06:24] hopefully i will have us some good content soon yeah hang in there hey it's yes you're doing a

[01:06:31] great job with that do not worry okay well thank you for listening everybody and we will be back in

[01:06:38] march yes bye oh bye