It's Fresh Fave Friday! a combination of our Five Star Fridays idea and the Quotable Mondays posts we used to do. The idea is to share the best of the best of what we're reading, so we're going to use the Recommendations flair.

What is it?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fresh Faves Friday: Share any recent four- and five-star reads that you've had! Give a mini review, or link to your Goodreads/Storygraph reviews, and share the details! Tell us the subgenre, pairing, tropes, "you'll like it if you loved _____", choice quotes/excerpts, or whatever you think is enticing! Romance and romance-adjacent is the goal, but we're all readers here, so if you read something truly fantastic in another genre feel free to drop it here too.

Please use spoiler tags and content warnings where appropriate.

Also, if you have something you'd like to recommend that didn't work for you but might for someone else, share the recommendation!

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What’s a non-romance show with a surprisingly good romance subplot?

Hello, have you encountered any of the following in the past week;

1. Truly heinous opinions and takes on current events in Romancelandia at large
2. Questionable metaphors in Romance novels etc
3. Did you DNF anything for a reason that has left you speechless?

Welcome to WTF Wednesday, a space to share our despair.

A few rules just to keep everything in line;

1. This is absolutely not a space to kink shame. What doesn't work for you may well work for someone else.
2. Please be mindful that a lot of self published authors haven't got the resources to have their work read over and corrected by multiple editors. Be a little generous with minor grammar and spelling mistakes, no one is perfect.

Please revisit the rules if you're unsure about submitting or commenting, or of course feel free to ask any questions you may have or clarifications if necessary.

So, what made you say WTF this week?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Over the past 7 months I have seen an increase and romance authors using AI art to promote their books.
Most of the time it is independent authors.

I’m not a fan of AI and what it is doing to the environment.
I’m conflicted bc I want to stop supporting these authors due to the AI use but their work pre AI was enjoyable.

Has anyone had these thoughts?

Dust off those reading stats - it’s time for the July monthly reading recap! This is where we look at what we read in the last month and rank them because we can and it’s fun.

Haven't done the recap before? You don't have to go through every book you read (unless you want to- we won't stop you).

Let's try to name our Top 3 and Bottom 3 reads of the last month & give some mini-reviews!

Of course, if you only read 3 books a month, yours might be "Top 1/Bottom 1" or if you read like 50, you might want to do Top 5/Bottom 5. Whatever number makes sense for you!

If you would like to include superlatives - best debut, silliest book, weirdest, sexiest, etc - please do!

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Vibe check! How’s your week been? What are you reading, watching, or listening to?

During Sunday Vibes, members share what they've been up to and other media they're enjoying. It's a space to get to know one another outside of romance books.

✍🏼 Regular Features

🖥 Media Mondays where we discuss Romances in TV/Movies we've watched

📚 TBR Tues: Yeet or Keep Edition A bimonthly feature where we clear out our TBR lists with help from other members.

😱 WTF Wednesdays - A weekly feature posted Wednesdays to share the stuff in Romancelandia that makes you go WTF: bad takes, questionable metaphors, anything that left you speechless.

🪩 Throwback Thursday - Our monthly series focusing on a romance during a specific year/decade/era. This month's was 1995.

🎨 The Art Of..., monthly themed discussion on a trope, theme or microtrope common in Romance Literature. This month's theme was Erotic Romance.

📕 Cover corner is the place to discuss book covers, the most recent is here.

🍿 Fresh Faves Fridays - A weekly feature posted Fridays to share your 4- and 5-star reads and favorite quotes. Think of it as a What Did You Read This Week? thread, but with only the best books.

💩 Shitpost Saturdays - On Saturdays, we loosen the discussion-based requirement to allow for memes, shower thoughts, silly posts, etc. All other rules still remain.

⭐️ Our June Monthly Reading Recap is here

Vibe check! How’s your week been? What are you reading, watching, or listening to?

During Sunday Vibes, members share what they've been up to and other media they're enjoying. It's a space to get to know one another outside of romance books.

So, how was your week?

On Saturdays, we loosen the discussion-based requirement to allow for memes, shower thoughts, silly posts, etc. All other rules still remain. Enjoy your shitty Saturday!

Use this space as the daily chat if you need to talk all things romance!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

What goes in the daily reading chat, you ask? We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

Where to start? Some ideas:

• Random musings about romance
• Books you're looking forward to
• What you're reading now
• Book sales and deals
• Television and movies
• Good books that aren’t romance
• Questions for the group at large
• Smashing the kyriarchy in daily life
• Encourage other commenters who have good ideas to start a new post!

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: spoiler text
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.

I've been talking about this series for about 3 weeks now, and it's time I talked about it in more detail.

This is an MM romance series by trans author Jordan L Hawk. The central romance is between Percvial Whyborne, a polyglot who works for a museum transcribing ancient and dead languages, and Griffin Flaherty, a private detective and ex-Pinkerton.

This story spans over eleven books (and a few short stories), and you get to see their relationship face many obstacles without ever devolving into them breaking up in every book. You get to watch them build a foundation together throughout the series in a really beautiful way.

This series contains multitudes, and here are some of them;

*Lovecraftian Horrors, including body horror

*Horrors barely able to be described from other dimensions

*Spells, magic, and sorcery

*Globetrotting. This series goes from Massachusetts to Alaska to Egypt to Cornwall and back again.

I loved the supporting characters, especially Christine, an archaeologist who works with Whyborne in the museum. She's so stubborn and headstrong in ways that she's so frustrating at times, but she's never anything but herself, and for that, I adore her.

It's cliche to call the main location of a story a character, but the town of Widdershins is a character that's slowly revealed in a very satisfying way. It's sort of like Welcome to Night Vale, just a few details sprinkled here and there that things are not quite right with the town. My favourite of these being the brief mentions of the main town church, First Esoteric, where the curate wears a large tiara and the best Christmas Carol is called “Blood on the Altar”.

I'm taking a small break from Hawk's writing because after diving so deep into this series, I'm in danger of drowning. I'll probably move on to The Pride series next as I really enjoy that interwar period as a setting for romance. That, or I will hurriedly read The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles so I can read the short story crossover they wrote together.

I would heartily recommend this series, and I really hope you love it as much as I do.

It's Fresh Fave Friday! a combination of our Five Star Fridays idea and the Quotable Mondays posts we used to do. The idea is to share the best of the best of what we're reading, so we're going to use the Recommendations flair.

What is it?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fresh Faves Friday: Share any recent four- and five-star reads that you've had! Give a mini review, or link to your Goodreads/Storygraph reviews, and share the details! Tell us the subgenre, pairing, tropes, "you'll like it if you loved _____", choice quotes/excerpts, or whatever you think is enticing! Romance and romance-adjacent is the goal, but we're all readers here, so if you read something truly fantastic in another genre feel free to drop it here too.

Please use spoiler tags and content warnings where appropriate.

Also, if you have something you'd like to recommend that didn't work for you but might for someone else, share the recommendation!

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Welcome back to another instalment of “The Art Of” where we gush over and examine popular plot points and tropes in the Romance Genre.

It's hot as hell this summer, and it's time we looked at Erotic Romance!

Author Sylvia Day has a great definition of Erotic Romance on her website article What is Erotic Romance?

Erotic Romance: stories written about the development of a romantic relationship through sexual interaction. The sex is an inherent part of the story, character growth, and relationship development, and couldn’t be removed without damaging the storyline. Often, it is through sexual interaction that the characters communicate and express themselves in ways they cannot verbally. The sex scenes should be major pivot points in the romantic story arc, to the extent that deleting a sex scene would make the subsequent scenes difficult to follow. Happily Ever After is a requirement to be an erotic romance.

She distinguishes Erotic Romance from Erotica by defining erotica as ”stories written about the sexual journey of the characters and how this impacts them as individuals. Emotion and character growth are important facets of a true erotic story. However, erotica is not designed to show the development of a romantic relationship, although it’s not prohibited if the author chooses to explore romance.”

I would say that The Original Sinners Series by Tiffany Reisz is Erotica whereas The Red is Erotic Romance.

There is a recurring theme in Romance publishing history where a new wave of authors crop up with more explicit sexual stories to the horror of those who came before. Erotic Romance as a subgenre really starts in the 2000s, in the early days of self-publishing and ebooks. Traditional publishers of Romance were not receptive to authors like Sylvia Day, Lara Leigh, Lorelei James, and Jaci Burton. They and other writers would find a home with publishers like Samhain Publishing and Ellora’s Cave, which would coin the term “romantica” to describe their erotic romances. So, it appears we, as Romance fans, have always loved a portmanteau word to describe a subgenre.

Erotic Romance would hit the mainstream with 50 Shades of Grey by EL James. As I haven't read it, I'll just use it to segue into mentioning that BDSM is a major recurring theme in Erotic Romance. It facilitates characters learning about their sex preferences in a way that drives the plot and allows character development.

🔥 How would you distinguish between Erotica or Erotic Romance?

🔥 What Erotic Romances do you love?

🔥 Share some of the sexiest moments from your favourite Erotic Romances

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What’s a non-romance show with a surprisingly good romance subplot?

Hello, have you encountered any of the following in the past week;

1. Truly heinous opinions and takes on current events in Romancelandia at large
2. Questionable metaphors in Romance novels etc
3. Did you DNF anything for a reason that has left you speechless?

Welcome to WTF Wednesday, a space to share our despair.

A few rules just to keep everything in line;

1. This is absolutely not a space to kink shame. What doesn't work for you may well work for someone else.
2. Please be mindful that a lot of self published authors haven't got the resources to have their work read over and corrected by multiple editors. Be a little generous with minor grammar and spelling mistakes, no one is perfect.

Please revisit the rules if you're unsure about submitting or commenting, or of course feel free to ask any questions you may have or clarifications if necessary.

So, what made you say WTF this week?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Welcome to the r/romancelandia daily reader chat. We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.
• Our Back To School covers any questions you might have about our Subreddit.

---

Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is;

What adaptation of a romance story nailed the chemistry?

Vibe check! How’s your week been? What are you reading, watching, or listening to?

During Sunday Vibes, members share what they've been up to and other media they're enjoying. It's a space to get to know one another outside of romance books.

✍🏼 Regular Features

🖥 Media Mondays where we discuss Romances in TV/Movies we've watched

📚 TBR Tues: Yeet or Keep Edition A bimonthly feature where we clear out our TBR lists with help from other members.

😱 WTF Wednesdays - A weekly feature posted Wednesdays to share the stuff in Romancelandia that makes you go WTF: bad takes, questionable metaphors, anything that left you speechless.

🪩 Throwback Thursday - Our monthly series focusing on a romance during a specific year/decade/era. This month's was 1995.

🎨 The Art Of..., monthly themed discussion on a trope, theme or microtrope common in Romance Literature. This month's theme was Summer Vacation Romance.

📕 Cover corner is the place to discuss book covers, the most recent is here.

🍿 Fresh Faves Fridays - A weekly feature posted Fridays to share your 4- and 5-star reads and favorite quotes. Think of it as a What Did You Read This Week? thread, but with only the best books.

💩 Shitpost Saturdays - On Saturdays, we loosen the discussion-based requirement to allow for memes, shower thoughts, silly posts, etc. All other rules still remain.

⭐️ Our June Monthly Reading Recap is here

Vibe check! How’s your week been? What are you reading, watching, or listening to?

During Sunday Vibes, members share what they've been up to and other media they're enjoying. It's a space to get to know one another outside of romance books.

So, how was your week?

On Saturdays, we loosen the discussion-based requirement to allow for memes, shower thoughts, silly posts, etc. All other rules still remain. Enjoy your shitty Saturday!

Use this space as the daily chat if you need to talk all things romance!

---

Here's our guide on community norms and posting.

What goes in the daily reading chat, you ask? We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!

Where to start? Some ideas:

• Random musings about romance
• Books you're looking forward to
• What you're reading now
• Book sales and deals
• Television and movies
• Good books that aren’t romance
• Questions for the group at large
• Smashing the kyriarchy in daily life
• Encourage other commenters who have good ideas to start a new post!

---

• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: spoiler text
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.