The transcript for Podcast 611. Romantic Times Rewind: April 2005 Ads & Features has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → I know it’s two windows, but don’t miss the visual aids! The ads are truly incredible ..read more

Y’all, the April 2005 issue of Romantic Times is a treasure of truly amazing fun. So many of you told me that episode 609, where we looked at the reviews, made you laugh so hard you cried. Well, let me share some highlights of what is about to happen to your eardrums. The Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant was a Six-episode reality tv show on the Oxygen network, and we missed it when it ran. It’s not all on YouTube but we have a few links! We have the arrival of what I called the “venti sized” paperback Romance writers with “dedicated rooms for Star Wars collectibles!” We’ve got some disturbing ..read more

In this week’s podcast episode, we’re looking at the ads and features in the April 2005 issue of Romantic Times, aka RT Book Reviews. Special and massive thanks to Kay Layton Sisk for sending me this issue! You can also find all the RTRW content at our category page for Romantic Times Rewind.  And, most importantly, if you want to listen and follow along with this entry, we have more detail in the audio, but you can click play and listen and read and absorb all the visual goodness: Cover time! This is the cover of this month’s issue, featuring the original cover of Brenda Jackson’s novel ..read more

A Perilous Undertaking RECOMMENDED: A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn is $2.99 as a KDD today! This is book two in the Veronica Speedwell series and I LOVE THIS SERIES. I’ve listened to it one after the other. I reviewed this one and gave it a B, and wrote, “the series is a sizable amount of fun if you like historical mysteries, fearless and intelligent heroines who take negative-zero crap from anyone, characters who embrace sarcasm, adventure and nefarious plotting, and taciturn but brilliant heroes with simmering sexual tension.” Veronica Speedwell returns in a brand new advent ..read more

This Rec League is from Elizabeth. Thanks so much! After reading this one and The Worst Guy (also reviewed on the site, also hilarious!), I discovered I have a thing for romance novels about villains, or at least jerks who find happiness with other jerks. I wonder if there is a whole genre of those. Amanda: We have a Villains Redeemed Rec League, but I definitely want to focus on the jerks 4 jerks part of the request because that’s super interesting! We haven’t done that one before. A | BN | K Sarah: This one really stumped me. The villainous or mildly jerky characters I can think of usuall ..read more

Welcome back, everyone! I am still in South Korea and tomorrow I will celebrate my thirty-fifth birthday! Wowza! I never thought I’d be experiencing such a trip in my lifetime, let alone for a bit of a milestone occasion. I am sure Sarah is steadily steering the S.S. Smart Bitch in my absence. Oh captain, my captain! Also, we’re in mid-April now! How did that happen? The spring always feels like it flies by. Maybe because New England still have whispers of winter every so often. I’ve had it snow on my birthday before and just before I left for my trip, we had some flurries. Stay in your lane ..read more

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi RECOMMENDED: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is $4.99! We mentioned this book in a recent discussion about stories that are tremendously fun to read, and Carrie gave this book a SQUEE! grade, saying, In a plot filled with external sources of tension (such as the aforementioned scorpion-tentacle monster) it’s the internal conflict Amina feels about her past as well as her relationships with her biological and found family that both ground and drive the story.   “A thrilling, transportative adventure that is everything promise ..read more

B+ Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman April 16, 2024 · Berkley Contemporary Romance CW/TW CW: sexual assault (in the past, brief description) Christa Liddle has led an interesting life. When the book opens, she is studying sea snails on a fictional island in the Indian Ocean. Her mom calls her frantically because her father who ‘died’ in a plane crash 25 years prior has come back to life. A complicating factor is that Christa’s dad is a Steve Irwin-type character – a famous TV conservationist. He also started a toy company called Liddle’s Liddles – a Beanie Baby-type affair. Hi ..read more

There are so many great deals today, from retcon romantasy to romance to memoir to dishy nonfiction. The Winter King The Winter King by C.L. Wilson is $1.49! This is book one in the Weathermages of Mystral series. This is a fantasy romance originally published 10 years ago in 2014, and it has some interesting magical systems and societies, but readers on StoryGraph have warned that there is dubious consent and assault. This is part of what I think of as “Retcon Romantasy:” an older book that fits what is right now the very hottest reading trend. Have you read this one? (And isn’t that cover s ..read more

This HaBO is from Raina, who wants to find this older historical romance: Looking for a really old romance novel. Probably 20-30 years or so. It was a historical with the hero taking over the heroine’s castle by force. I believe the hero’s name was Royce and the heroine was Bethany, but don’t quote me on that. One was a Saxon and the other a Norman? The heroine tried to save all of her people by having them leave through a secret tunnel while she tried to fight the hero in armor. He found them and then basically made her his servant/slave. They have a slow burn enemies to lovers type thing thr ..read more