Romance isn’t for everyone

Is shame productive? This question guides part 2 of a Whoa!mance/Shelf Love convo about A Lady of the West by Linda Howard as we discuss the paradox of enjoying highly problematic books.We interrogate our feelings of shame, enjoyment, and the importance of critically dissecting the pleasures derived from reading, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel.Look at your society, look at your life! Along with me and Whoa!mance, in this crossover episode.Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!Listen to part 1 of this episode: episode 150 Shelf LoveMorgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann AguirreandEpisode 089 to Problematize Romanceand108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)

I humbly asked Morgan and Isabeau to help me understand why A Lady of the West by Linda Howard had a chokehold on my young romance-reading imagination, and they delivered. We discuss how this book has rules for good (white) women, and explores Manifest Destiny, settler colonialism, sexuality, violence, violent sexuality, and being a desirable (white) woman.Button up your white high-necked blouse and gallop on a virile stallion into the wild west with Whoa!mance, in this crossover episode.Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann AguirreandEpisode 089 to Problematize Romanceand108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)

The difference between erotic romance and romance is all about feelings, in particular, where you feel them. Shelf Love’s Kink Correspondent, Dame Jodie Slaughter, joins the podcast to discuss A Gentleman in the Streets by Alisha Rai. Only enter if you consensually dare.Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Kink CorrespondentWebsite | Twitter | Instagram

Bisexuality in romance with writer and reviewer Ellie Mae MacGregor (@bisexual_booknerd). When it comes to romance, a genre that explores romantic and sexual desires, what does “good” bisexual representation look like? How can books with or without bisexual representation create worlds that feel safe for bisexual readers?Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Ellie Mae MacGregorInstagram @bisexual_booknerd

I own 91 Candlelight Ecstasy Romances, so it was high time I read one... then I read another 13 for good measure. In December, 1980, Vivian Stephens launched a new line of contemporary category romance at Dell called Candlelight Ecstasy. The line pushed the envelope when it came to sex and sensuality on the page. But how sexy are they and how do these books hold up in 2023? Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]

Mistress of Mellyn by Virginia Holt is often hailed as responsible for kicking off a boom of modern gothics in the mid-20th century. In this crossover with Reformed Rakes, we ask: is this a gothic first and a romance second? Is our plucky main character in love with the man of the house, or just the house? How does Mistress explore transgression of boundaries, gender, eight-year-olds, and heroines “ahead of their time”?Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: The Mistress of Mellyn (1960) by Virginia HoltGuest: Reformed RakesWebsite | Emma | Beth | Chels

What makes a heroine in romance, a genre invested in exploring how can women be happy in culture? Is the genre a place where heroines create integrated identities that reject binaries of what society tells them to be? Dr. Jayashree Kamble discusses her latest book on romance scholarship, Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation. Shelf Love listeners can use “UShelfLove” to get 35% off the book at Indiana University Press, from now until November 2, 2023. Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Dr. Jayashree KambleCreating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentationhttps://iupress.org/9780253065704/creating-identity/Shelf Love Discount code: use “UShelflove” for 35% between September 15, 2023 and November 2, 2023.Jayashree on Humanities Commons: https://hcommons.org/members/kamble/Jayashree’s upcoming New York City book launch events:9/24/23 - https://www.therippedbodicela.com/brooklyn-events9/22/23 - https://aaari.info/23-09-22kamble/Learn more about the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance at IASPR.org and the open access journal where you can find tons of romance scholarship: JPRStudies.org

Four romance reading friends embark on a romance history reading project, based on a BookRiot list, and in this episode, two of them — Leigh Kramer and Hannah Hearts romance — have Flames on the Sides of their Face when talking about the Flame and The Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. To keep things interesting, we talk less about the book itself and more about questions of reader reception and the relationship between the 1972 text and the romance texts that followed. Have we come a long way, baby, or are we still wallowing in the same whirlpool of sludgey emotions?--Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. WoodiwissThe BookRiot list that inspired the project: https://bookriot.com/most-influential-romance-novels/Guests:Leigh KramerWebsite | InstagramHannah Hearts RomanceInstagram | Goodreads

What happens when 35 romance scholars walk into a bar, after hours at the IASPR 2023 Romance Revitalised conference? They share their favorite romance scholarship, and why!Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected] to all of the contributors to this episode!Full list of romance scholarship mentioned on Substack: https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/Romance Reader Stereotype research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQzi8fBB0R8

The fabulous foursome (Morgan & Isabeau from Whoa!mance, Dame Jodie Slaughter, Andrea Martucci from Shelf Love) get meta textual as we reflect on our meta podcasting project on Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. What’s this episode about? Take a guess from this collection of possible episode titles:Panopticon Alert: Meta Reflections on Dreaming of YouThe Internet Killed RomanceWhoa! That’s Some Weird RomanceOur Current Romance PanopticonAlienating Persons in RomanceLove Us or Hate UsHere We Are Now, Offend UsDid you enjoy this podcast?Be sure to listen to episode 140 and 141 before diving into the meta-ness and meta-mess of this text.Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]: Dame Jodie SlaughterWebsite | Twitter | InstagramGuests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann AguirreandEpisode 089 to Problematize Romanceand108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)