Whoa!mance

Happy Belated Birthday Jane Austen--nobody does it better. We're still at Rosings waiting on what Mr. Darcy's gonna do when he finally appears. Join us as we discuss the deification of characters and what happens when we flatten the narrative.

We aren't going to leave these takes flappin' in the wind - join us as we land the conversation with part 2 of our discussion on A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Maas. What makes a "good" war text? How can we talk about gender and race in a fantasy-world divorced from our social reality? Or can popular fiction even effectively imagine such a world? Can you still get horny in a "Li-berry"? Spoiler alert: This one split the judges on Whoa v. No. Tune in and decide where you land

War! UH! Good gosh y'all! What is it good for? 699 pages! SAY IT AGAIN! That's right, we're back in Prythy-town to discuss the third (and obviously originally meant to be final) book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series - A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN by Sarah J. Maas. Feyre and Rhysand and their found family (plus Feyre's two kidney donors a.k.a. sisters) do a lot of stuff. They spy, they murder, they go through the arduous process of setting an executive-level meeting, they smooch, they knock boots, and they WAR, goodness how they war! All in the name of saving Prythian and the humans who happen to be there. Are these books more reliably a fantasy or a romance series? Are these books even reliable to each other? What is laid bare by how you consume the text (Graphic Audio, anyone???) ? And what order do you think the Inner Circle sits in for a massage train? Send a vulgar gesture down the bond and settle in, we're cruisin' for a Hybern bruisin'.

Almost half way there y'all and in this chapter we meet the infamous Mrs. De Bourg. She's got opinions, she was once handsome, and remains really rich. Lizzie thinks of jokes that will tickle Wickam and tries real hard not to think about a certain other you-know-who

Chapter 28 opens with a physical journey and closes with an emotional one for yr grls. Once Lizzy's quips were uncomplicated in their high humor, now tho, they hit different. Is it us? Is it Lizzy? Is it the 200ish years between us? Listen and you decide

This episode we return to space! Or rather the Arizona mock-up of space - with THE ASTRONAUT AND THE STAR by JEN COMFORT. Reggie is a mean astronaut who wants to go the moon and Jon is a nice star who wants to win an Oscar. Maybe they can help each other become successful even moreso than their parents did? Or maybe they can fall in love? Or maybe those things aren't mutually exclusive? What makes a contempo-romcom a bestseller? When is off-branding a conspiracy theory in romance problematic? Are you turned on by "having a loud cum"? Tune in and blast-off!

Yr grls are taking time this weekend to cough up the worst air in the history of Chicago to make room for cool, clear PBR. So we have enough time for "1776" AND "Independence Day", we are re-releasing this Star-Spangled oldie, but Yankee-Doodle Dandy goodie. We dish on American Revolution meets Ye Olde Show Biz romance MISTRESS FIREBRAND by DONNA THORLAND. Along the way we talk about French Letters and French Kisses...excuse us. FREEDOM Letters and FREEDOM Kisses. Stuck in traffic due to the NASCAR racetrack in downtown Chicago? Why not make it a double-feature and check out Isabeau's interview with the author as well - in this very feed!

Have you heard April is the cruelest month? Wrong--it's February and boy does Lizzie Bennet know it! Without her best bud, without her best sis, without the sun what is Lizzie but a collection of misanthropic observations? Too harsh--you be the judge in this zippy little chapter

Can we get vulnerable for a bit? Hope so, because we did. Along with Jodie Slaughter and Andrea of Shelf Love Podcast, we come together - not unlike a certain Derek and Sarah - to reflect of what DREAMING OF YOU by LISA KLEYPAS. has to say about feminine identity, romance readers, and, as ever, ourselves. Why Derek Craven and why not Joyce? Why does Romance seek the approval of systems that do not serve it and indeed don’t even get it? Are we not all always already overidentifying with main characters? Does DoY have problems or is it all cunning craftwork? Be sure to listen to the separate Whoa!mance and Shelf Love discussions before diving into the meta-ness and meta-mess of this text.

Welp Mr. Collins done married Mz Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Wickham has discovered a new first object and she comes with 10000 pounds. Lizzie feels one way about her bud Charlotte's choices and another about Mr. Wickham's. We begs the question--what does the text think about Lizzie? What do we think of her in this well rounded epistle driven storm of a chapter?

This week, yr grls at long last encounter Derek Craven in "DREAMING OF YOU" by Miss Massachu herself LISA KLEYPAS. It is time for Morgan and Isabeau to wade into this collaboration with Shelf Love. You probably already know this - but Sarah is a regency country mouse who is secretly a best-selling novelist. Facing the dreaded sophomore slump, she seeks out a real Gambling Hell to research her next novel and instead finds Derek Craven. Derek's a gutter baby cum Cockney made good by establishing the most luxurious gambling den in London. But, it turns out, his personal tastes skew a bit more bucolic if you catch our drift (they fall in love!). What makes a character captivating and why doesn't Derek Craven have any of it? Is the sentimental version of the Culture Wars any more forgivable? It's 10 p.m. - is your child a Perry? Take our "lump of ice" and tune in as we give this "weep and wail" it's "early hours".

This episode we embark on a Duologoy, a duet of sorts with Shelf Love. In an attempt to highlight the manifold approaches one can have to a single text, we are each, discretely, discussing DREAMING OF YOU by Lisa Kleypas. We have not listened to one another's discussions prior to recording/editing our own episodes, so there might be cross-over, but that will be as interesting as the unique points we each explore. Because, as our Vice President so aptly observed, who doesn't love Venn Diagrams? Shelf Love is kicking things off, and the next round is on us. __________________________________________________________ Let’s talk about Joyce Ashby from Lisa Kleypas's novel Dreaming of You. We delve into the dichotomous portrayal of Joyce as an irredeemable villainess alongside her foil, the redeemable “hero” Derek Craven. We explore the parallel themes of violence, possessiveness, and animalistic sexuality resulting in problematically differing fates and treatment by the text. Belched from the underworld, Defender

Can you ever experience a thing for the first time when it's so permeated the culture? What would that analog be? Could it be Hugh Grant from the early aughts?? As per usual Ms Austen remains an astute observer of the human condition. Critical question: When is Hugh Grant at his hottest?

Blast-off baby! This eppy yr grls are moon walking across some big topics in YA romance with THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE US by ELIOT SCHREFER. Ambrose is fulfilling his lifelong training of space travel, and he is fulfilling it to rescue his beloved sister. And so is soviet-adjacent Kodiak (without the sister part). Will the two be able to put aside their ideological differences, and the creeping feeling the mommy-voiced Operating System is not on their team, to fall in LOVE?! What are the ethics of consuming YA romance when you have a full-developed frontal lobe? Did the Cold War break our ability to think expansively? Do you HAVE to fall in love with the one other cadet on your space ship? Houston, we have another romance-reader existential crisis!

We're 'doing the business' here in chapter 24. Jane and Lizzy almost fight, Mr. Bennet has some ideas about how to establish home harmony and we are dissecting world views and, as ever, interrogating the self.

We interrupt our regular programming to share a discussion on the BUTT OUT, BABY podcast with yr grls of Whoa!mance--on the introductory scene of no less a Prince of the City than JOHNNY CASTLE from Dirty Dancing. We had SO MUCH FUN. Just in time for summer. Per Ellie of BOB: Baby gets her first glimpse into the class structure at Kellerman's ft. Morgan & Isabeau of Whoa!mance + Johnny being attractive and gracefully insolent + The female gaze + The strange all-inclusive guest experience of Kellerman's + How bad boy romance leads are introduced and whether Dirty Dancing qualifies as a romance at all! Whoa!mance: a weekly podcast about Romance Novels and Ourselves Butt Out, Baby! is a scene-by-scene study of Dirty Dancing: A film that gets a lot of love — but not enough respect. Follow on the podcaster of your choice and at IG @buttoutbabypod

The Fall out of Mr. Collins' second proposal continues. Mrs Bennet cannot even and we don't blame her. It sucks having your best friend excitedly contemplating your husband's death and impeding poverty. SoMeONe should think of poor Mrs. Bennet's nerves...LIZZY

This ep yr grls visit the cultural rupture known as 1995 to (finally) discuss LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase. Scoundrel, rake, blight of his family name, Lord Dain has a lot of baggage, the least of which is some dumb guy named Bertie. But gorgeous, brilliant Jessica has accepted her lot as a spinster and developed an actual personality, so her dumb brother, Bertie, happens to be her biggest baggage. Little do Dain and Jessica know they are about the become each other's sexy, sexy baggage. Nothin' slaps like the hits, y'all! What are the limits of "because it is a romance" as justification? How can novels show instead of tell the work of men deconstructing toxic masculinity? Who even is the main Main Character here? For fans of romance deconstruction and materiality, this one's for YOU! Whoa!mance is a part of Frolic Media.

In which Collins has a “surprise” for Charlotte, and Charlotte has a surprise for Lizzie. Yr grls reflect on the historic and constant privilege of youth and beauty, and the historic and constant problem of being alone.

Don ye flower crowns - yr grls are going full ren fest with "The Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon" by Kimberly Lemming. Cinnamon does the title with Fallon during a very auspicious time - a festivus when The Goddess's protection spells weaken and chosen heroes must pick up the slack. Cinnmaon is grateful she missed that particular calling, but Fallon is insistent she join him on an opposite quest - because The Goddess isn't really a goddess... Why does the context of fictional violence change the experience of it so drastically? Will fantasy, and its progeny, ever really be cool?