Welcome to Feb episode of Raag on Romance where Shani and Bridget chat about all things romance and podcast each month!

This week Shani reminisced about her older sister reading to her as a kid, how Bridget's kids get a huge haul of books from the library every week, and how Bridget is raising a little reader!

Shani and Bridget talk about the feeling of reading physical books vs Kindle vs audiobooks. And how Shani wants to find the first romance novel she ever read.

Bridget shares all the books she read in January of 2025, some alternative books to Onyx Storm, as well as shares upcoming books on her TBR, and upcoming author interviews!

Book on Bridget's TBR

• It's a Love Skate Relationship by Carli J. Corson - Sapphic Enemies-to-Lovers hockey romance
• Flirting with Disaster by Naina Kumar - Second-chance romance a la Reese Witherspoon classic Sweet Home Alabama
• Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young - Rekindling love!

Books Bridget read in Jan 2025:

• Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher - DNF - Bridget reveals her goal to actually DNF books that aren't working for her. She thinks that this book could work really for some people but the Arthur character didn't work for her.
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros - Book 3 of the Fourth Wing series. Bridget went into this book thinking it would be the end of a trilogy. Turns out, it is going to be 5 books! YIKES. The main character is waffling about you don't love me too much, there is way too much additional world-building and cultures added to book 3 that definitely could have been cut out, and generally, I was very disappointed.
• Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao - Bridget re-read book 1, Iron Widow, and is currently reading book 2 Heavenly Tyrant!

Upcoming episodes on Romance at a Glance

• Amanda the founder of the Last Chapter Bookstore in Chicago is coming on to chat about starting a brick-and-mortar bookstore, her journey into romance reading, and more.
• Tre from IG is coming on to talk about Kimberly Lemming's latest book I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com
• Lucy Lennox is returning for an interview in March to talk about her Billionaire Brotherhood series. Be sure to listen to Lucy's first interview with May Archer from 2020.
• Julie Johnson is coming on to chat about The Wind Weaver in April!
• Bridget is super hyped for the release of Oathbound by Tracy Deonn on March 4th! If you haven't read books 1 & 2 the series is excellent YA Fantasy with a big romance element.

Affiliates, Links, and Info :)

• If you want to join the January Magic Mind Mental Wealth Challenge you can go to https://www.magicmind.com/romanceataglance for 45% off your bundle!

Thank you to Dell, Ace, Penguin, Berkley and Harper Collins for our gifted copies :)

Well, hello everyone.

And welcome to romance at a glance.

Rag on romance.

I'm your host Bridget and with me is my co host, Shani.

Hi, Shani.

Hi, Bridget.

How you doing today?

Am doing very well, Shani.

I got so much book mail this week and I'm very excited about it.

Um, Shani, I got many things.

I got many, many things.

I got out of the woods by Hannah Bonham Young, which is

coming out or just came out.

Rather, by the time this episode comes out.

Uh, so I want to thank you, Del, for sending that to me.

Also from Del, I got Flirting with Disaster by Nayani Kumar.

I'm super excited about reading both of those.

They're on my TBR for this week.

Also coming out this, at the beginning of this week, which just happened, is

called It's a Love Skate Relationship.

Um, look how cute this cover is.

Is that not the cutest little cover in the entire world?

It's super cute.

Um, it's a. It's about a figure skater and a hockey player, and they

are both, you know, kind of enemies to lovers, sizzling chemistry.

It's also a sapphic romance, which I enjoy the fact that it's enemies

to lovers, but they're both,

so she's,

she's a hockey player and she's a figure skater.

So I'm excited about that one.

Okay.

So yeah.

And then also I got more books, but I'll tell you about them in a little bit,

but those three, I'm very excited about and congrats everyone on your pub week.

Cause they all came out this week or last week.

Fantastic.

All right.

Well, you want to get this shit popping?

Shani, I would love nothing more than to get the shit popping with you.

Romance at a

Shani (3): glance.

Uh huh.

Romance at a glance.

What'd you say there?

Romance at

a glance.

Go You know, Bridget, it is colder than a witch's teat in my house right now.

It's so funny because you live in L. A.

and people would think that your house would get cold, but it does.

I

try to tell people L. A. gets like super duper cold

and I live in a warehouse.

So there is absolutely no climate control.

So in the summer it's like a million degrees and in the

winter it's like zero degrees.

Me and the dog are cuddled up together here trying to get some warmth.

Okay.

And if it wasn't for my beautiful new bundle of magic money

and my nighttime sleep shot.

I don't think I would be able to fall asleep because it is so fricking cold.

I am shivering.

And last night I passed out so hard.

It was beautiful.

I mean, you got to get that sleep to get that mental

clarity is what I'm saying.

I have been, as you know, sleeping by myself for the

first time in over a decade.

Every night for the last three weeks, um, I told my husband, I

was like, got to fix the cracks.

And I have been sleeping alone.

I told my kids, if you have a problem in the night, go find your dad.

And it has been great, Shani.

I feel so rested.

Take my sleep shot at night.

Take my morning shot in the morning.

And right now, I am just working on that whole mental health

kick, regular health kick.

To this podcast, I brought my kombucha, my coffee.

Uh, and an entire giant green smoothie.

So I am just hitting it all now, friends.

It feels great.

Shani (4): Living the dream.

That's a wealth.

I love this.

Yes.

Also, I really love that you said the kids to go wake up

their daddy, because, like, hmm.

What the heck?

I've been waking up for years.

It's not my You're like, I'm not the default parent.

Yeah.

Not at night.

Mama needs sleep.

Okay.

Not at night.

Shani (4): 23 chromosomes.

Yeah, exactly.

If you guys want to get your mental wealth in check and do the mental

wealth challenge with magic mind, you can use our code magic mind.

com forward slash romance, jam, J A N romance, Jan. And of course we

will drop the link in the description and it will give you a. 45 percent

off of a bundle of the morning, daytime and the evening, nighttime.

Sure.

So if you want to get that, you can go to magicmind.

com forward slash romance.

Shani, let me tell you, uh, before I tell you about all the rest of the

books that I got sent in the mail by publishers, uh, let me tell you a little

bit about, uh, a few books that I read.

Shani (2): Tell me.

I'm so excited because you read so much more than me and my January has

been a little bit of a hellscape.

So I want to look through you,

um, well, you guys, last time I told you that I was going to read Gwen

and Art are not in love, uh, which is like descendants of King Arthur and Guinevere.

Are supposed to get married, but then he falls in love with her brother and

she falls in love with this lady night.

And I thought the cover was so cute and I thought that I was going to

love it so much and I DNF'd it.

And my goal this year, dear listeners, cause you know, I struggle to DNF cause

I always want to know what happens.

My goal this year is to just get out.

Just dnf that shit and move right the fuck along.

So I dnf this book.

I'm very sad.

I think for other people, this book might, well, might work really well.

Um, I did not really like the Arthur character.

I thought I, I thought she was okay.

She wasn't my favorite kind of mc, but I thought she was okay.

But the Arthur character did not really work for me.

Um, and so I was like, you know.

Let's DNF.

Ah, a book that I should have DNF'd Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yaros.

Guys, I was really excited about this book.

Okay.

I was very excited.

I loved book one, Fourth Wing.

Shani has not read it.

So I'm just going to tell you guys about it like you've read it.

Um, it is fantasy.

It's very violent.

Uh, very sexual.

She's uh, she is a romance author and this was like her first big fantasy.

It's good.

It's fast.

It moves like the stakes are high in a way that I feel like a lot of things

aren't high where they're like, it's a dangerous world and everyone survives.

Like in that book, everyone does not survive.

People are dropping like flies.

Um, and it was great.

The second book slogged a bit for me.

Um, There were parts of it where I was like, do we care about this?

Is this information?

Like who gives a fuck?

Like this was not introduced in the first book.

So why do we care now?

This third book I thought was the finale of the trilogy.

I thought we were going to close out the main MC's arc and her journey.

She was supposed to be a scribe and then they made her into a dragon rider.

Everyone thought she would die.

And she's kept on surviving.

I thought this was going to be the finale.

I got halfway through this book and I was like, God damn it.

There is no way they're going to be able to wrap this shit up.

They're dragging it out.

It turns out now it's going to be five books.

It should have been a trilogy.

I think if they had made it a trilogy, I think I would have really liked this book.

However, you would have literally killed yourself because it

was, let me tell you why.

It was a book where the author or the author, the main

character kept being like.

But you don't trust me with all your secrets, but you don't trust me with

all your shi for like hundreds of pages And he's like well, I can't

because I'm a general and a king of this army And so you're gonna have to

just deal with that In the same way that I trust you are doing things that

aren't going to hurt me behind my back.

Uh, and she keeps so many secrets from him.

It's so hypocritical and I hate it so much.

And then they're just like, Oh, we can't be together.

Oh, I just want to like bang your hot body, but like not exploring the

vulnerability of the relationship enough.

And then also they take like a 200 journey, 200 page

journey that does not matter.

And makes no sense.

The cultures that they introduce, A. They don't spend enough time for you to

really, like, be immersed in it and care.

But also, I'm like,

this would have been, like, future books.

Had you tied up the trilogy, these cultures could have been, you could, like,

sprinkle them in a little, I guess, but, like, this would have been future books.

Oh, we're going to the islands.

Future characters.

Future books.

Future problems.

Okay?

The central problem is not on the islands.

The central problem is over here.

We need to go back over here, where our friends are dropping, like, flies.

I was so mad.

the end of the second, the end of the second book had such a good cliffhanger.

Um, and I was very disappointed.

I don't even think I'm gonna read books four and five,

um, which I'm very sad about.

Well, that book is so thick, so like it's a long it's

also, yeah, it's not a short book.

It's 515 pages.

Small margins.

Yeah.

How small those margins are.

Yeah.

The, it's a long book.

That book, that book is too big to be.

That book is too big to be bad.

Like, you can't keep reading if they didn't get you

already with that many pages.

Correct.

Well, and I'm very sad.

And I will continue to recommend that people read the first book and

then just not read anything else.

I mean, just read the first book.

Enjoy it.

And just, even though it doesn't end on like a conclusion, just let your mind

take you where you want to go and just.

Or maybe read the second book and then just be done.

Just be done with it.

Shani (2): Well, the funny thing is you could probably these books sometimes do

the, you know, the and then and then and then and then, and I bet you, if you read

the first book and then read the last book, book five, you'll probably be fine.

Like if you just skip the whole middle section,

especially all the wishy washy of their relationship,

like move the fuck on for sure.

Yeah.

It makes no sense.

Like he was willing to literally do anything.

I'm not going to spoil it for everyone who hasn't read it yet, but he was like

literally willing to do anything for her.

including

some things.

And I don't want to spoil it, but I will say it was silly.

One book I do want to hype up because I am very excited about it is Tracy Dion.

And I feel that everyone should be as excited for Tracy's upcoming book

Oathbound, which is book three in the legend born cycle as they were for this

book, because it is also about a Like, sort of coming of age in, they're both in

their like early twenties in the books.

Um, there's a lot of magic and or magical elements, uh,

books one and two were awesome.

If you have not read them yet and you like fantasy, fantasy

romance, um, she is younger.

I mean, she's like 20 years, 18, 19, 18, 19, 20, something like

that, um, cause she's in college.

Uh, but they have such a cool lore in this book.

She has root magic.

Um, she's African American.

The root magic comes from her ancestrally African and African American side.

And they do root magic, which is different than like the other type of

magic, which is from the fact that she's biracial, comes from the other side.

And most people can like do one or the other.

And one side of course has been like trying to drown out root magic

forever, but root magic is in the roots of, you know, the whole.

Genealogy and can't be crushed.

It is awesome.

So I highly recommend that book three comes out in March.

I am doing my best to get Tracy on the show, uh, TBD, but regardless,

I will tell you all about the book because it is great and you should

read it and you should like it more than onyx storm because it's better

Shani (2): because it's better.

Okay.

So speaking of root magic, I, I giggle about this constantly, as you

know, my former partner moved out.

Right.

But it had been over a year in which I broke up with him and like, because like

a finances, we couldn't really move out.

Right.

Um, but there was a certain point where like two different times where

he was like, I'm going to move out.

I think it's better.

We live apart and whatever.

And I was like, yes.

You know, like that, I love that for us, like, let's do that, you know, cause

then you, then you have the chance of being friends or you have the chance of

whatever, you know, things don't get that.

And then like, so like, he like didn't move out the first time.

And then the second time he was like, you know, I'm going to move out.

And I was like, yes, you know, and then we're like, we cried, we held

hands, we're like, you know, thanks so much for this experience of life.

But yes, go, whatever.

And then he didn't move out.

It was like, he didn't even say that he was moving out.

Didn't make no plans, nothing.

And so at the start of the new year, I really wanted him out.

So there is this, there is this like root magic spell that

if you take three bay leaves.

Okay.

And three Baileys represents three days.

And I took these three Baileys.

They're still on my door right now.

And I put a magnet and I stuck them to my door and he moved out three days

later and he moved out in three days.

And I was like,

magic is real.

You can't tell me different.

Magic is real.

Intentions are real.

I do think putting things in the universe is real.

I do think that that is real for sure.

Um, speaking of feminine rage and wanting to get rid of.

Uh, dudes, another book that I highly recommend that you

read, uh, is called Iron Widow.

Um, it is technically in, like, a YA fantasy space, I guess you would say.

Um, this is another book where, uh, people are dying.

Like, this isn't a, oh, it's a dangerous world and everyone's fine.

This is a, oh, it's a dangerous world and people are getting crushed.

So it's kind of like if you took, like, A whole bunch of ancient

Chinese lore and put it into a sci fi world and then also added in.

Um, kind of a sort of similar thing to the, I don't know if you've

watched the movie by Guillermo del Toro, where they have like the

giant kind of robot things where the people mind blink into the robots.

Um, but it has some elements of that in it and a lot of just

like feminine fury about being.

Held down being treated as less than being abused just because

you're a woman and a girl.

Um, and I'm reading the second book right now.

I just reread the first book.

So it's been a while since the first book was published and

I'm now reading the second book, which is called Heavenly Tyrant.

Uh, the first book is incredible.

Five stars.

And the second book, uh, I'm only like maybe a quarter of the way

through or a third of the way through.

Um, and I'm loving it so far.

So I highly recommend that.

Wait, is this, uh, the author is

like Chinese.

Yeah.

Her last name is Zao.

Z H A O. Is it

Shani (2): polyamorous?

Yeah.

It's polyamorous.

Why choose?

They have a really good TikTok and Instagram, um, and it's

definitely worth checking out.

And also the book is awesome.

Shani (2): Cause you said Iron Widow and You would like it.

They probably have an audiobook.

You should listen to it.

I've been meaning.

I honestly been meaning to.

I just feel like my body has been in like fight or flight for so long that like I

didn't, I've just been just surviving.

But like, I'm feeling like I'm starting to hit my thrive, my

thrive era, which is great.

Come back.

Come back

Shani (2): to us.

But yeah, actually, I think I might buy that one right now while we're talking.

Uh, well, I also have some very exciting updates for our

podcast and things that are upcoming.

Um, we are going to be chatting with Amanda, who's the founder of

the last chapter bookstore, which is a romance bookstore in Chicago.

Uh, chatting about like how to start your own brick and mortar, why she

started her own brick and mortar.

Romance bookstore, how it's going, you know, favorite things, uh, any

like cool events she has coming up.

Um, so I'm excited about that.

And Trey from Instagram, her Instagram is xo.

treylee is coming and we are going to review.

I got abducted by aliens, and now I'm trapped in a rom com, which

is Kimberly Lemmings latest book.

Uh, so I'm super excited about that, and thanks for Berkeley for sending me a copy.

Um, that's all gonna be in February, and then in March, I'm

gonna tease out a little further.

In March, remember last episode, I was talking about how I love Lucy Lennox.

Of course, you know that, Shani.

Shani (2): Yes.

And she's gonna return for interview number two in March

to talk about the billionaire brotherhood series and just catch

up with all things Lucy Lennox.

Also, Shani, she missed my email.

And do you want to know why?

Because it's the cutest reason ever.

She was hanging out with May Archer.

And then also another book that I got sent from Ace.

Thank you very much.

The Wind Weaver is like the most beautiful cover.

And I'm very excited, uh, and we are going to interview Julie Johnson.

in April.

So that is upcoming.

And, uh, yeah, I'm just like super stoked, super stoked about upcoming things, Shani.

And also my kids keep telling me that I get too much book mail and

I'm like, is there such a thing as too many books in the mail?

Cause I don't think that that's true.

I

Shani (2): can, I can really picture Kira saying that.

Molly like rolls her

eyes every time she checks the mail.

She's like, it's another book, mom.

And then of course, like the books are all so pretty and the covers are so cool.

They're like, Ooh, this one has dragons.

Ooh, this one has this.

Ooh, what are those people doing?

So

Shani (2): funniest part of that is like, I remember going to the

library with your kids at one point, they had like this stack of books

that they were trying to take out.

That was like the size of them.

Yeah.

Well, when we go to the library, we get like, they get like

20 books and then I get like, like, I don't know, three to five depending on

how many books I'm reading that way.

Um, Yeah, we have an insane, I have to bring two tote bags to

carry all of our books home.

And last, and Kira is like my child because every time she finds a book she

likes, she will go on the little computer and she searched, she knows how to search

the catalog and she'll search the catalog.

And then she writes down the little like, you know, call sign so that she can go

and find it in, you know, by herself.

And then she'll get every single book by that author.

And I'm like, you are my child because I, that's what I do.

I'm like, Oh, I love this author.

I will back read their entire catalog and then move on with my day.

So, it's so cute.

And now in the morning, she reads to Molly.

They wake up early and then she reads her books.

It's, it's my crowning achievement.

It's my crowning achievement as a parent.

Shani (2): First of all, it really is though.

It's so cute.

You like unlocked my memory because like, I mean it wasn't locked that

deep but I don't think about it.

Like when I was, when I was a kid my older sister always read to us

like whatever book it was and we had this like Dr. Seuss anthology.

It was like Horton Hears a Who anthology and she would read that whole thing like

cover to cover to us every single day.

Anytime he ran with the book to her and was like, Can you read this?

She would read this to us.

And so like, uh, when we were banned from reading Harry

Potter, um, she was in college.

So she read it.

So I actually knew the story of Harry Potter from her regurgitating

the story to us at night and not actually reading the books.

I didn't read the books until probably like seven years later.

So I love that.

Like older sister just like love.

Good job.

Thank you.

I'm raising little readers.

Very proud about it.

Feel good.

They love the books.

And, uh, and also just, we're in like a routine now where we go every single week

and get like a massive hall of books.

And it's been so fun to sort of reconnect with the library.

Cause I feel like during COVID the LA libraries, especially near me

were shut down for like two years.

And so I just got out of the habit of getting.

I mean, I'm still getting books from the library, but on my

Kindle, not physical books.

And I've been getting all of my books from the library, as many

as they have in physical format, as opposed to digital copies.

And I just like reading physical books.

I mean, I read both and I listen to audio books occasionally, but I

really do prefer like holding it.

And then I can see like how far I am in the book.

And you get to look at the pretty cover every time you see it.

For me, it like scratches a different itch than like flying

through a series on Kindle.

Shani (2): Yeah, I, I agree.

I remember when audiobooks first came out, I was so, not anti audiobooks, but I

love the feeling of when your like middle finger is splitting the pages, you know,

and you're like laying on your side.

Yeah.

And like, I just.

Or you get tired and like drop it on your face and you're like, whoa.

And just even just falling asleep to reading, you know,

like I used to love that.

And when I switched audio books, I remember it being just like you said,

like, Oh, I don't really like this at all.

And it took me a while to get used to it.

And then when I discovered that I couldn't read because my eyes were not would not

track properly, like that was a rough one.

Cause I was like so used to reading all these historical snuggling up in my bed.

It's so much harder to snuggle up with the audio book.

It's not the same.

It's not the same.

So like, I'm actually excited because I just started my paralegal

classes and I have to read so much like paperwork for it.

So I finally decided to like break down and go get my like prism

lenses because that's what's wrong.

Like my eyes are basically slightly, what do you call that?

Well, I have a stigmatism, but it's like having a, well, no, I have

a slight, like slightly lazy eye.

Um, I have something called the BVD, binocular vision disorder.

I didn't know that was a thing.

Um, and so if they, if you get your glasses and they put a prism in it, then

I should be able to track and read again.

So part of me is like, part of me is like, Ooh, what, what's my first book back?

You

know

Shani (2): what I mean?

I feel like you got to go

old school historical.

I feel like you gotta like, I, I feel like, um, I always like reread a book if

I need like a real good palate cleanser.

I'm like, let me just reach for an old favorite.

Because even if I don't read the whole book, even if I only make it

through like a quarter of the book, I'm like, oh yeah, I love reading.

And then I can move back.

And then I can move on.

Try to wash the taste of this book out of my

Shani (2): mouth.

Part of me wishes I could remember the titles of some of my favorite historicals.

Like.

I always remember this one book and it was like pure betrayal, but at

the very end of it, she's like giving birth and he's like runs back and

he's in the room and they're fighting and she's like, don't take my baby.

And he's trying to tell her, I'm not going to take your baby.

And they have this whole thing.

And I, I remember reading that like five times, like that book over and over.

I couldn't tell you what the title.

of that book is and I want to go back and be able to find some of these like books.

I want to find my first ever romance novel that I ever read with the the girl who

has all the locks and bells on her door.

Like, I wish there was like a database that you could put like the

plot in and some random keywords.

Put it in Google.

I tried, but I mean, I feel like, I feel like, okay, like for instance,

all of the romance novels in the seventies had a lot of the same things.

Oh yeah.

That's true.

The eighties had a lot of the same things.

So that's what I'm encountering.

But one day I'm like, one day I'll find these books again.

Yeah.

Well, until then we have lots of exciting new books to read.

And what, what do you think, uh, What do you think we should read this

month, Shani, this upcoming month?

Shani (2): I want to read Dark Fantasy.

Ooh, Dark

Fantasy.

Shani (2): That's one of my favorites because it's like top two.

Okay.

You're talking about like dark vampires, dark werewolves, that kind of thing?

Yeah, yeah.

All right, you guys, you heard it from Shani.

If you have any recommendations of dark fantasy, Dark werewolves, dark

vampires, maybe a little blood play.

I don't know.

Get crazy with it.

Uh, hit us up at podcast at romance at a glance.

com.

You can also drop it to us on our website, hit us up on Instagram, tick tock,

wherever you feel the urge to message us.

We will message you back patreon.

com forward slash romance at a glance.

You can join as a free member, uh, if you don't want to commit to a tier.

Um, and I believe we will still see the notifications if you.

Right to us.

That feels like something that will happen.

You won't be in the exclusive chat, but you will see it.

Uh, Shani, I'm just excited.

Happy, uh, February, everyone.

Happy my birthday month.

Happy, uh, Galentine's Day month.

Happy Valentine's Day month, if you choose to celebrate that.

And, uh, happy shortest month of the year.

We are cresting the winter hurdle.

And, uh, barreling towards spring.

Well, Bridget, until next time.

Shani (2): May your books be your lover.

And your hand your best

Shani (3): friend.

Bye

Shani (3): for now, kids.

Thanks for hanging in with us, romance readers.

Head over to Instagram to continue chatting with us.

We're super friendly.

We want to cackle with you.

We want to know what your favorite sex scene was.

And we need more book recommendations.

If you want to read along with us, go to our website, romanceataglance.

com, to see what we're reading next, and we'll see you next podcast.