39: The Beginning of a New Destiny

Jess and Trisha are delighted about a new award for excellence in romance fiction, discouraged by some publishing news, and thinking about how tragedy in a romance can impact the “happily” in an HEA.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm audiobooks, The Rogue to Ruin by Vivienne Lorret, and Mom’s Perfect Boyfriend by Crystal Hemmingway.

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NEWS

Get excited for The Great Big Romance Read from The Ripped Bodice! We’ll discuss The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite on Sept 23, so feel free to send us your thoughts about it between now and then!

And then get excited about the Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction!

This Harlequin/Carina Press news is less exciting, and here’s Angela James’ farewell to Carina.

And some people are pretty frustrated about this Entangled Publishing news as well. (If you need a reminder about book stuffing, we talked about it last year in Episode 17, “Look How We Accidentally Recommended All the Strippers.”)

Less Than Three Press is also closing because this week is full of publishing bummers.

And here’s the list of 50 Must Read Romances from the 2010s that we talked about.

BOOKS

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Desire and the Deep Blue Sea by Olivia Dade

The Perfect Date by Evelyn Lozada with Holly Lorincz

Her Other Secret by HelenKay Dimon

Let us know what you think of the new Ripped Bodice Awards and tragedy in romance, and what your favorite romances of the last decade are! As always, you can find Jess and Trisha at the WIR email address ([email protected]) or you can still catch us at [email protected]and [email protected]. You can also find us on Twitter (@jessisreading and @trishahaleybrwn), or Instagram (@jess_is_reading and @trishahaleybrown).