Everyone experiences the agonies and ecstasies of expanding a circle of friends, but what about the trials and tribulations of expanding a circle of lovers? This week, Morgan and Isabeau mix with the hoipolloi of Edwardian elite in Jude Lucens’ polyamorous historical Behind These Doors, Radical Proposals Book 1. When a gossip columnist stumbles on the harmonious throuple of a Lord and Lady, and an Earl’s second son, a delicate balance of lust and heart strings is shifted. But buttoned up cultural norms be damned as passion mounts, and all involved grapple with the implications of propriety and class. Is love a scarce commodity? How do we navigate an array of uncontrollable feelings? May we share in this wash basin? Live free and love wide y’all.
It’s no secret that Whoa!mance is a product of the university — a meeting of minds that began with the pursuit of knowledge and ended in a holocaust of emotions. But we digress. This week, Morgan and Isabeau audit a few classes with Katrina Jackson’s ivory tower romp, Office Hours. High-achieving and beleaguered Assistant Professor of Sociology Dr. Deja Evans is in a rut. With her 3-year track to tenure review looming, her separation between work and life has blurred into non-existence. But her desire for the tenured history professor and dressed-to-the-nines hunk of all things past, Dr. Alejandro Mendoza, is keeping her pilot light aflame. What’s a proper work/life balance? Can a romance novel test the depth of our allyship? Why does higher education make us feel so low? This one’s for all y’all left jilted by the educational-industrial-complex.