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!

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

Buy the Book

• Available at The Ripped Bodice

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.

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

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.

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

Buy the Book

• Available at The Ripped Bodice

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?

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

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 of Bisexual Villainesses Dame Jodie Slaughter joins Shelf Love in this special cross-over project with Whoa!mance - watch for the next episode, in which Morgan and Isabeau share their conversation about Dreaming of You.

Shelf Love

• NEW! Substack: https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/

• Website https://shelflovepodcast.com/

• Twitter @shelflovepod

• Instagram @shelflovepodcast

• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpr5TNh-BTvsp93ECCvpoFQ

• Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com

Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Expert on Bisexual Villainesses

• Website https://www.jodieslaughter.com/

• Twitter @JodieSlaughter

• Instagram @jodie_slaughter

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud

Buy the Book

• Available at The Ripped Bodice

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?

---

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• SoundCloud