Today, we have Becca’s chat with author Liana De la Rosa, whose next novel, Isabel and the Rogue, is a Victorian-set historical romp about a Mexican wallflower unofficially spying on the British aristocracy and an actual British spy unofficially spying on her. It’s out June 4th.

Liana talks about: Her personal history of romance reading; What is so compelling about historical romance; Writing complex family dynamics; How she approaches historical research so that rabbit holes don’t derail her writing; How she keeps the plot pacey while making sure readers are up to speed on the important background information; All the ideas she has up her sleeve, including a historical romance about mountain climbers in the Himalayas that she’s already written but that hasn’t yet been published; And, of course, she shares some books she’s loved recently.

Today, we have Becca’s chat with author Alexandra Vasti, whose debut novel, Ne’er Duke Well, is a delightfully steamy regency romp in which a rakish Duke with radical politics in need of a respectable wife hires a seemingly proper matchmaker who secretly runs an erotic circulating library. Hijinks ensue. It’s out July 23rd.

Alexandra talks about: Her long family history of romance reading and her long personal history as a writer; what is so delightful about historical romance; the genesis of her viral newsletter novella series, The Halifax Hellions; her 0-60 journey on social media; feeling like her voice didn’t fit in with what was expected of her at her creative writing MFA program; the fun of nerding out about historical English; what’s next from her; and, of course, she shares some books she’s loved recently.

Today, we have Becca's chat with author Kaliane Bradley, whose debut novel, The Ministry of Time, which she somewhat jokingly describes as “a time-travel romance about empire, bureaucracy, and cigarettes,” just came out May 7th.

Kaliane talks about the theatrical production that made her start writing again after university, the experience of being a debut author, how she thinks about this book in relation to genre, how her lockdown obsession with the TV show The Terror became a complicated novel centering on a footnote of a historical figure, the ways in which writing this book influenced her thinking about mixed race identity, a bit about her other job – being an editor with Penguin Classics UK – and how it’s influenced her writing, her writing process itself, the ways in which this book uses time travel a metaphor for migration, a sneak peek at what she’s working on now…and, of course, she shares some books she’s loved recently.