July was rough. Dealing with health issues took so much out of me. I was barely functioning. It affected my reading more than I expected.

Here are all the books I grabbed quotes from. I haven’t added them to the podcast BookShop page because there are too many. Each title uses my Affiliate link.

• God of Malice by Rina Kent

• Den of Vipers by K. A. Knight

• The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

• Promises and Promises by Sav R. Miller

• Merged with Him by Kylie Kent

• The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

• Love Redesigned by Lauren Asher

• Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend by Penny Reid

• Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot

• Fake and Don’t Tell by Rebel Bloom *This is an amazon link because it’s not on BookShop

• Witch Please by Ann Aguirre

• The Dark King by Gina Maxwell

• Liars Like Us by J. T. Geissinger

• Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

• The Perfect Fit by Sadie Kincaid

This is our most vulnerable episode yet. We touch upon:

• Purity Culture

• Sexual Education. In the media. In our upbringings.

• How I learned that clits could be stimulated during sex. And how that affected me.

• Anatomy of the clitoris. My main reference material is: Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

This topic might be sensitive to some listeners. It was sensitive to us when we recorded it. We hope this this episode gives you some insight and some hope.

Interview with Devyn Sinclair & Terreece M. Clarke

I was so lucky to meet these two at the Smut Lovers conference in September. While the conference was an amazing personal experience, I’m so glad I get to bring these two authors to you! They themselves met at a conference back in April.

There was honestly NO WAY that Sephie could’ve kept this to one episode. The conversation was flowing and I didn’t want to cut out ANY of it.

Here’s where to find these two:

• Terreece M. Clarke

  • Website

  • Instagram

  • TikTok

  • Book of theirs I started with: The Christmas War Paws

• Devyn Sinclair

  • Website

  • Instagram

  • TikTok

  • Book of theirs I started with: Knot Your Damn Omega

In this episode Sephie and I talk about the dangers of parasocial relationships. I explain why I feel alone in treating everyone I interact with on the internet as a human in front of me. And why I believe with my whole heart that it's a feature and not a bug.

I read 20 books in the month of May. Even though it's a smaller reading month for me, I hit both of my diversity goals.

Sephie and I discuss how women are now able to fantasize about whatever they want in life. Our recent independence, remember that women couldn't have a bank account less than 100 years ago, has freed our imaginations. Romance novels celebrate all of that.

Sephie and I chat about MM romance written for straight women vs MM romance written for men vs FF romance.

We talk about using romance novels to fight the expectations that have been put upon women by the patriarchy, but men suffer under it too. Should men be reading romance to help themselves?

It's a kick in the face when an author we've trusted with our time, energy, and love shows themselves to be...not who we thought they were.

How do we handle our emotions? How do we handle their art? What do we do with the books?

It's not as simple as handing your book to a partner and getting exactly what you expected. There are a ton of pitfalls and missteps that can occur. We talk through a strategy to help you communicate with the person you plan to explore with.

Time to share the books I read in October. It was a really good reading month for me.

This is also the first episode we have a video for on YouTube. Link is in the show notes.

This episode contains so many tangents and side stories. I also included 3 quotes about other body parts that I read that month

Conferences aren't just a great place to get books signed by your favorite authors. They are also where book people can come together and talk about the growth (or lack thereof) of the industry. Where we need to evolve. Who is leading the charge. And so much more.

Until this year, I had never been to a book convention. I dived into the deep end and attended 4 between May and October. Here's what I've learned along the way.

We debunk the story that reading romance is the same as watching porn, and that they have the same intention. AND we look at using romance novels to help set the scene for self love. We also talk nuts and bolts about what it means to "spend time with yourself" because you don't know what you don't know.