When In Romance

Jess and Trisha share some When In Romance news, reflect on the last eight years in romance, and talk about what they’ve read - and want to read - this year.

News

Check out all the great work Jane is doing at Romancing the Data

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Books Discussed

Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown

Check, Please! Book 2 by Ngozi Ukazu

A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez

Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai

Cleat Chaser by Aimee Rivkin

Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian

The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

How to Fake it In Society by KJ Charles

Pot Shot by Laura Piper Lee

By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin

I Punched an Alien and Now We’re in Couples Therapy by Kimberly Lemming

Sunflower Season by Danica Nava

Fire Power by Mir Benitz
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Jess and Trisha talk about continuing the story with long series, interlocking series, and series that feature the same couple in multiple books.

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Books Discussed

Cleat Chaser by Aimee Rivkin

Speak Now by Ash Perez (

Father Material by Alexis Hall

The Psy-Changling series by Nalini Singh (starting with Slave to Sensation)

The Play by Play series by Jaci Burton (starting with The Perfect Play)

The Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole (starting with A Hunger like No Other)

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

The Dark Olympus series by Katee Robert (starting with Neon Gods)

The Wallflowers and Ravenels series by Lisa Kleypas (starting with Secrets of a Summer Night)

The Irons and Works series by EM Lindsey (starting with Free Hand)

The Reluctant Royals and Runaway Royals series by Alyssa Cole (starting with A Princess in Theory)

The Decades romance series

The Baes of Juneteenth romance series

The Clover Hill Romance series

The Blessings series by Beverly Jenkins (starting with Bring on the Blessings)

The Rebekah Weatherspoon and Christina C Jones extended universes

The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger (starting with Soulless)

And for those wondering, Jess’s Tiffany Reisz (aka Meg Shaffer) recs are The Rose and The Night Mark

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Jess and Trisha talk about Harlequin and AI and then do a dive deep into fan fiction, discussing the who/what/where/why and some of the current discourse in the romance fanfic world.

News

Here’s the “Why is Harlequin making weird AI movies?” piece by Maris Kreizman we talked about [Literary Hub]

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Books Discussed

The Catch by Leonor Soliz

Mayhem and the Mortal by Shanora Williams

Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

Enemies to Lovers by Aster Glenn Gray

The Winston Brothers series (starting with Truth or Beard) by Penny Reid

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Plus! Some bonus HR fic recs from Jess and Trisha:

Jess: 

"Please Leave a Message" by Ravenesta

"It’s Too Close for Comfort" by theoneiam2277

"Influential" by 409_conflict

"The heart is hard to translate" by catknives

Trisha:

The Secret Society of Stick Handlers collection by gurlsrool

"Hoya" by GingerBaggins

"Mistakes Have Been Made" by Ugly Green Jacket
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Jess and Trisha talk about what they’ve been reading and then get into Book Club with Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa and sports romance broadly.

News

No news this week because it’s a Book Club week!

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Books Discussed

The Starter Ex by Mia Sosa

Back and Forth From New York by alphalupi

Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa

Please Don’t Go by E. Salvador

Out On the Ice series by Kelly Farmer

His Convenient Husband by Robin Covington

Summer Official by Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Playbook series (starting with Intercepted) by Alexa Martin

Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown

Flagrant by Alexandria House

The Long Game by Elena Armas

Rookie Mistake by Anna Zabo and LA Witt
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Jess and Trisha discuss the end of Harlequin’s category romance line and offer some category romance recs (some of which are delightfully bananas).

Hooray for Book Club in 2026! Read Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa with us - send us your thoughts before we record on March 25 (episode goes live March 30)!

Get a bit of category romance background from Love In Panels and author Therese Beharrie.

Books Discussed:

Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik

The Brightest Blaze by Kelly Farmer

Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa

The Lights on Knockbridge Lane by Roan Parrish 

Compromised into a Scandalous Marriage by Lydia San Andres

Bane (and others!) by Brenda Jackson

Daring to Fall For the Prince by Heba Helmy

Backcountry Cover-Up by Denise N. Wheatley

Pregnesia by Carla Cassidy

Road Trip Rivalry by Mona Shroff

Her Fake Wedding Date in Sicily by Jenny Lane

The Duke’s Sister and I by Emma-Claire Sunday

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