Bookmarked by Reese's book Club is presented by Apple Books.

Hi, I'm Danielle Robe and welcome to Bookmarked by Reese's book Club.

Okay, before we get into today's show, I just want to say thank you, truly the love for our premiere episode last week has been I think the word is overwhelming.

Thank you all for your comments and your shares, and your likes and your dms.

Your dms are my favorite part.

I see you and I'm so grateful you're here.

The best part of this show is the club part.

Like the book Club part right, It's so fun to talk with all of you, and also so many of you have great suggestions.

You're not just readers, you're great producers too, So keep it all coming.

I really meant it when I said this space is for you today.

The excitement continues with not one, but two interviews.

A little later on.

I'm talking to be and Leah Koch, the powerhouse sisters behind the Rip Bodice, which is the country's first romance focused bookstore.

We're diving into the billion dollar romance industry.

It's still so underestimated.

We're also spilling tea from behind the scenes at watch what happens live where they were bartenders, and of course they're dishing out their top romance novel res, So prepare your tbr lists.

But first it's time to kick off a new tradition.

So at the beginning of every month, I'll be announcing the brand new Reese's Book Club Pick right here and giving you a little treat, a release date, interview with the author herself, and then at the end of the month, we'll bring the author back for the full deep dive, so you have all month to read along, mark your favorite passages, and come ready to discuss all of the juicy details.

Okay, drum roll, please our July twenty twenty five, Reese's Book Club Pick is Spectacular Things by Beck Dory Stein.

Beck is a former White House stenographer turned best author, And if you don't know what a stenographer is, I googled for the both of us, babe.

They're responsible for accurately transcribing everything the President and senior White House officials say in public remarks and briefings, press conferences, and sometimes private meetings.

Can you imagine the conversations she listened in on Beck's debut novel Rocked the Boat Captivated readers, and her latest Spectacular Things, is just as moving.

It follows two sisters, each faced with the question of what they're willing to sacrifice to care for one another and for themselves, all the while navigating ambition, big dreams, and the complicated journey of who we become in pursuit of them.

It's her first interview as a Reese's Book Club pick, and what a treat that we get to chat with her.

Beck.

Welcome to the club.

Your book is officially out in the world today.

Happy pub Day.

I'm so excited for you.

First and foremost, how are you celebrates?

Do you have a pub day tradition?

Oh?

Thank you, Danielle.

Yeah, quite a day.

Do I have a pub day tradition?

I try not to lose my mind and go for a run, like wake up, go for a run, try to clear my head and be a sane person and just see how the day goes.

And now it's fun because this is this will be the first book I've published since becoming a mom, so that'll also definitely keep me humble, because that's what a toddler does.

How does being a mom change pub day?

What do you mean by that?

No day is ever my own anymore.

And I mean that in the best way possible.

But I've got a three year old son.

His name is Hank, and so if Hank wakes up and isn't a great mood, that is even more exciting for me.

And if he wakes up and doesn't want to get dressed, well, then pub Day waits until I can get that into a pair of shorts.

I really like that Hank in shorts gets precedent over over pub Day or text messages celebrating you, you know, without giving too much away because we don't want any spoilers yet.

How would you describe the book to someone picking it up for the first time.

Ooh, okay, so Spectacular Things.

It's about sisters.

It's about soccer.

It's about ambition and success and failure and sacrifice.

It's about everything we do for people and things we love and the complexity that comes along with that.

For the girlies who are grabbing Spectacular Things off the shelf today, or even who pre ordered it and get to pick it up at their local bookstore, what do you think they should be looking for.

While they're reading The Family Dynamics.

I really I had a great time grappling with and hopefully I give each character enough sympathy, but those those sibling dynamics get tricky real fast.

Your first book was a memoir, and then Rock the Boat was your second book, and it was a novel.

And when I finished the last page of it, I thought, you are really asking us questions in all of your books, regardless of if their memoir or fiction.

What questions are you asking us to think about in spectacular things?

I think the big question in spectacular things is what are we willing to give up for the people we love?

And when, if ever, does that sacrifice on behalf of family edge into self sabotage, because like, love requires sacrifice, and so it's just sort of like where do you find that balance?

Is it something that you were struggling or thinking about or dealing with as you were writing this.

Well, I'm a middle child.

I've been dealing with in my whole life.

We're called the peacemakers, So yes, especially since becoming a new mom, it's really you know, there were definitely in their early days of motherhood.

I was like, I don't think this book is ever going to get finished, because I wasn't sleeping, you know, sleep deprivation is a method of torture for reason.

It really makes you lose your mind.

So excited to be a mom?

Also, just like what who am I?

And where do the rest of the people in my life fall into this?

Because I've always prided myself on being like a really good friend, and all of a sudden, I couldn't.

I couldn't be the same kind of supportive friend that I had been because I was up from four to seven every morning.

I know that you liked to blend your real life and fiction together, and I was wondering why you chose soccer as the backdrop for this story.

Where did soccer fit into your life?

I love soccer so much, it was very much my first love.

I have to give my brother doesn't get like any props in this book because there's no older brother.

But my older brother, Zac is the one who introduced me to soccer.

We grew up playing it in the backyard.

I wanted to do whatever he was doing, and so I grew up playing soccer.

I grew up playing sports.

Some of my best friends today are teammates I had from my soccer team when I was five years old, and then in twenty nineteen, the US women's national team won the World Cup in Paris, and that victory came at a time when I was feeling pretty unmoored.

I had left DC, I was living in Philadelphia, and I just glombed onto that team.

I was reading all their biographies.

I was filling my parents in, I was feeling my siblings in.

I was like, you don't understand.

I went to the parade in New York, the ticker Tape Parade when they won the whole thing, and that day especially, I was like, I just want to live in this world forever.

And particularly the dynamic between teammates I think is really similar to the dynamic between sisters in that they drive you crazy, but they also drive you to be the best version of yourself.

I really like the title of the book, and it comes from a poem, Ada Lamone's Dead Stars.

Could you read me a part of the poem that really struck you, the part that made you want to name the book after it.

Sure, I don't know if it's a spoiler, but it's also the epigraph of the novel.

Look, we are not unspectacular things.

We've come this far, survived this much.

What would happen if we decided to survive more to love harder.

And that's aba Lamone's Dead Stars.

So fun.

Full circle thing is I have a good friend, Nick Heebert, who is a high school English teacher, and my first job out of college was teaching high school English and coaching soccer, and Nick Hebert was also an assistant coach for that soccer team, and that was over ten years ago.

We have remained in touch.

He writes me letters all the time.

He sent me that poem in one of his letters, and I kept it in my kitchen on display because I loved it so much.

And then when we were wrestling with what to title this book, I just looked at it and I was like, Oh, it's literally been right in front of me this whole time.

I have this armchair theory that people sort of live into their names, and so if we think about that in books, I think titles are so important.

And I was reading the poem thinking, Okay, I have two theories, and I want to know if either of them are correcter if both of them are incorrect.

Okay.

My first theory was that the poem talks about the dualities of life, which you really cover in this book.

My second theory is that it asks, I think, this philosophical question of what if we are not just meant to ask the big questions, but to notice these small, spectacular things in our everyday lives.

I don't think you're wrong in any way, but I think the second theory is what I really have been trying to focus on.

And that's also my job as a writer, right, is to notice these small things that we could easily pass by, and you know, the beauty and the mundane.

Yeah, it's true, and I think this book focuses our attention onto things that we all sort of experience but don't quite know how to put into words.

So yeah, and that's why soccer and sports in general are makes such great metaphors, right, because everything's just heightened.

But it's the same idea.

You know, you walk into these situations and you feel like the pressure of the world is on your shoulders, and what's going to happen if you don't perform the way you want to?

Yeah?

Well, Beck, thank you so much, and huge congratulations to both you and Hank.

Today, everyone go grab your copy of Spectacular Things Amazing.

Thank you, Beck, thank you.

Okay, we'll be right back with b and Leah Katch of The Ripped Bodice Bookstores.

Don't go anywhere, Okay, dear listener, I want you to close your eyes for a moment.

Imagine you're on the streets of New York, in the brownstone dotted neighborhood of Park Slope.

It's one of those perfect summer days.

The sky is clear and blue, and the possibilities feel endless.

Suddenly you're knocked off your feet literally, You've bumped into someone as they reach down to pick up the book they've dropped on the sidewalk.

You notice it's the latest romance novel you've been dying to read, and wow, is this person cute?

Could this be fate?

But then you look up at the storefront in front of you, and oh my god, that storefront is pink, unapologetically, unequivocally pink, and scrawled elegantly across the front is a name, The Ripped Bodice, a romantic bookstore.

No, dear listener, this isn't a dream.

The Ripped Bodice is a real bookstore, one of two, in fact, owned by sisters b and Leah Koch.

The other, the original, is in Culver City, California, and when it opened in twenty sixteen, it was the only all romance bookstore in North America.

Some people thought they were crazy to go all in on just romance, but B and Leah had their fingers on the pulse.

And here's why.

Despite sometimes being treated like a punchline, romance is the highest grossing genre in the book industry.

It brings in over a billion dollars in sales each year and it's only growing.

Print sales of romance books have doubled over the last few years when they've fallen across all other genres, and today there are over fifty romance bookstores in the US.

But B and Leah are the ogs.

Okay, they built a business on love being out loud literally and figuratively.

Here's the vibe Taylor Swift plays in their stories.

The shelves are organized by romance subgenre rather than alphabetically, and B and Leah were so successful that they were able to open a second location in New York in twenty twenty three.

Sisters are rock stars in the book world.

They're here to reclaim romance and give us the hottest Rex of the summer.

Duh.

So whether you're a romance lover or you're just romance curious.

You're in the right place.

Let's turn the page with B and Leah Koch.

B and Leah, welcome to the club.

Thank you so much for having me.

You were so excited to be here.

We're really excited to have you because you two have gone from being sisters, which is already iconic.

Sisters are great to Kickstarter queens, you crowdfunded nearly one hundred thousand dollars for your bookstore, then you became bartenders on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Highlight and I just need to know Bea, how did this happen and does he shop at the store.

We've never seen him in person in the store, but we have seen some producers, some other Bravo behind the scenes type people, and that is how it happened.

I believe I texted you are you sitting down?

Yeah?

No, she's aving.

Are you driving?

Because I thought you were going to get in a car accident?

Parentheses it's a good thing.

Yeah, we Bea.

You told me that you're a Bravo head.

I love Bravo-lebrities.

Which shows do you watch?

I'm embarrassed to say, but almost all of them.

I'm a big Wow Housewives gal the classic Atlanta, New Jersey.

But I love SLC because we have some family in Utah, so I love their capturing of the Utah culture the valley.

Now you're deep, I'm deep.

What was the name of the woman that we met who was on before us with her son is the model for the cover?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dolores Catana from New Jersey was on the Watch What Happens Live episode before us.

She was still in the green room.

Could not have been sweeter, like I was so nervous, I was shaking.

I was like, I have no idea what this is.

Yeah, Leah couldn't kill it.

She was like, You're going to be great.

And she was so excited when she found out we owned a romance novel bookstore.

She was like, my son, Frankie Junior is on the cover of some romance novels.

I was like, girl, I know, you don't have to tell.

Me, Okay.

So here's the thing about Watch What Happens Live that I always noticed this set is so cute, and Andy has books all over his set.

Right now, I noticed the Barbara streisand book behind him.

All the time.

What do you think Andy's romance book kink is.

I mean, she's ready to go.

No no, I just like when I was thinking about Andy and like, what book romance novel he should read.

Literally, the perfect book recently came out.

It's called The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrane.

It is a gay romance about a reality TV producer.

So Andy, we'll get you.

Everybody's making faces behind the scenes, by the way, Yeah, we're silent because.

It's too I mean when I read it, I was like, it's too perfect.

Oh, this is like everything.

And I have always wanted more like crossover reality TV romance because I just feel like there's a lot like reality TV is in the world of genre.

I think in the same way that romances, at least in my mind.

There's a lesbian romance about two women who are on the Bachelor and then fall in love with each other.

It's called Here for the Wrong Reasons and it's two authors, Annabel Paulson and Lydia way Bea.

I want to go back to something you said, reality TV is very genre the way romance is and when you two opened The Rip Bodice in Culver City, California, in 2016, you were the first only romance bookstore in North America.

And just the way that reality TV creates a community of fans around an obsession, and that is what has happened with romance novels.

What do you think it is about romance that makes it such a great community builder.

I think because it's like the genre of feelings and like truly getting to the heart of what people care about when it comes to relationships, not just romantic relationships.

But one of the reasons I love romance is a lot of it is about like family relationships, friends, the community that the people exist in.

And that's the exact same thing that happens on reality TV.

And for reality TV fans, it's like you connect over this person you love on this show and you know all about like the dogs they have and their mom and all this like background information.

Yeah, but I think fandom is such a beautiful thing.

I think when you really love something, you really like seek out other people who love it.

And for romance novel fans, for so long that was just online or in person book clubs, but there really weren't bookstores dedicated to.

The genre and what we really wanted.

One of the things we really want to do, especially was give people a place to celebrate new releases, because we were seeing all these other bookstores have these amazing events for all these books, but we didn't see a lot of events for romance novels, and we knew that the fans wanted to come to that event and.

Celebrate the new release of their favorite author.

We've even started doing midnight release parties for some authors, which is something we grew up on, and like, it's such a fun, amazing moment where like the book comes out and everyone's there together.

It just feels like kind of magical.

I love that you've eventized all of this because we do that for film.

We do that, and you're both nodding your heads, like we do this for sports, we do it for so many things, and you guys have really done it for books.

I saw the statistic that just made me smile.

Romance readers are more likely to say they're hopeful about love than readers of other genres.

If you had to guess, Leah, why do you think that is?

It's the genre of hope.

That's kind of the whole point of this.

I mean, I do think maybe something people misunderstand about romance is like the connection people are drawing to their own lives.

Like you know that everyone who reads romance is like, you know, starved for romance in real life, which isn't always the case, but ultimately, so many romance novels, you could probably make an argument that every single romance novel is about hope.

And I think that's what draws so many people to the genre, so that it doesn't surprise me at all.

I think when you're reading these stories about people finding their partner or multiple partners or the life that they want, it just gives you that hope that you can find it too.

I mean I was reading these romance novels forever and people were always saying, Oh, it's going to give you unrealistic expectations.

I don't think it gave me unrealistic expectations.

I think it made me think, what do I want and need in a partner and deserve in a partner, and how do I give that back to my partner?

And you know, I got married a few years after we opened, and I feel like sometimes I'm just like no, I waited for the right person, and romance novels like helped me do that in some ways.

I love that you said that because sometimes I feel like I actually learn more from fictional characters and then even like a nonfiction book one hundred percent.

I think when especially when writers are writing these like beautiful love scenes where people are saying to each other, I feel this way about you, or you make me feel this way, it gives us language to speak with our own partners.

And it's not always like a sexual that's I think another big misconception about the books.

Oh, they're just like smutty sexy, like it's all about the sex, and we like smut.

Great with them.

Were a fan.

Yeah, we have no problem with that.

But there's also conversations about broader relationships and how you communicate with not just romantic partners, but family, friends, like the world around you.

Yeah, and fiction is like a way for people to.

Visualize themselves in different situations.

And yeah, I love that you said that because I think fiction sometimes people don't feel like they're quote learning something or whatever from Yeah.

It's not like we're like a fairy princess with like a vampire, like you know, it's not like it has to be a really realistic setting.

They're still having these conversations.

About romance and love and you can learn so much from it.

Yeah, I really do feel that way.

I got so excited to learn that you both are from Chicago.

I am too, really and yeah, we had this bookstore, Books on Vernon that was and you're both no in your heads.

It was my sanctuary.

They always had brownies and cookies and I would go in after school and they would feed me and I would just sit there for hours.

My mom would have to come get me and be like, they're closing, we gotta go.

But I know that there must be some great bookstores that you grew up around that live in your heart and maybe even inspired.

Women and Children First was our bookstore growing up in Chicago.

And they have these fabulous hats.

I recommend you buy one.

That was our home bookstore.

Yeah, I'm so glad you are.

They still open.

They are still open.

I'm so glad you mentioned that because I feel like that literally formed who we are, like going to that bookstore because it's called Women and Children First, and as children, we went to a bookstore where everyone working there was so excited to recommend books to us and cared so much about what we cared about and to develop our development as readers, And I just think that is such a beautiful thing.

Yeah, they're still open.

I went last time I was home.

Makes us emotional.

Still have a fabulous selection.

Check them out if you're in Chicago.

First of all, thanks for giving them a shout out, because I feel like we need to shout out as many independent bookstores as possible.

But when I was thinking about the two of you opening this bookstore and taking a bet on something that is so niche new right, no one had ever done it in North America.

Whose idea was this?

I don't know.

That's a.

I feel like it came about so organically.

We were having a conversation.

I had just finished grad school.

Leah was about to finish college and I came to visit her in Los Angeles.

We're in the car I had.

Yeah, we were driving to the airport.

Literally.

I had just finished grad school for historical fashion.

So you has the history of fashion?

Yeah?

Really niche and I was.

I was a year and a half away from graduating on my fourth major, Visual and Performing arts studies.

Terrifically, Leah had to.

Trouble figuring out what she wanted to do.

But I had always thought I wanted to be in academia, and I'd written my thesis on romance novels and the clothing in historical romance novels because I was fascinated by the idea that we call these novels bodice rippers, and I was like, hmm, I wonder how many bodices actually get ripped in romance novels.

No bodices are written that would be almost basically impossible.

They're really hard, there's a lot of boning in there, and it would be really difficult to actually rip it off.

But also because what people are referencing is is kind of an older part of the history of the genre, from the seventies and eighties, which you know, is a much more problematic, honestly, part of the romance history.

There's a lot more a lot less consent than we see now, and a lot more relationships based in weird power dynamics, yeah, unfortunate power dynamics that we would not see today.

My thesis was titled Mending the Ripped Bodice.

And when Lee and I were talking about what we wanted to do next in our lives, and we were driving to the airport she was about to drop me off.

We're like, oh, we both read so many romance novels, Like why have we never?

And we travel all the time searching for bookstores.

We're like, why have we never been to a romance novel bookstore?

We were like googling it on the way.

To they We're sure that there were dozens.

Where there's a romance that we just didn't know about.

Yeah, where are they?

Can we go on a road trip and find one?

And what we found was there was one in Australia a little far.

Can I ask you about the name no more?

And yes, because it it was bodice rippers was kind of a derogatory or at least problematic term.

It seems to me like you're sort of reclaiming the.

Word in 2025 and you're nodding yes, absolutely.

I think what we were doing is saying we know what you say about us, and we're gonna kind of rise from the ashes of this term that's been used as a pejorative and instead our.

Now, yeah, it's not yours anymore.

We took it back from you and it's better now.

Yeah, there were people who really didn't like it, I mean, like quite aggressively, because I think they felt like, again, this had been a word, this had been a term that had been used to denigrate something that they loved.

But I think and I think there's well, there's lots of conversations even today about how romance readers and writers define themselves, like the word smut.

Some people really don't like.

Other people find it really fun, And we try and let people talk about the genre the way they want to and identify the way they want to.

We try really hard not.

To police other people's language around the genre because we all come come at it from different places.

You open the second store in twenty twenty three, that's so wild to time.

I can imagine that, especially post COVID, A lot of people were saying, do not open brick and mortar stores.

Did you have naysayers?

Did you have people as you were build for the second one for.

The first one?

Uh?

Mount Legions, Mountains Armies.

Who was saying no, almost everybody, many let's speak frankly men said like, essentially you're leaving money on the table by not selling other things, when in fact we would be.

So much less successful if we had done as they said.

The point was to.

Bring a level of expertise and focus and celebration of romance that does not exist even in a fantastic general bookstore with an amazing romance section.

It's just not possible.

They got to do everything.

Did you know at the time that it brings that the romance genre brings over a billion dollars in sales?

Was that a stat that you were slinging?

Yes, We kept telling people that, like, this is the best selling genre, this is the genre that keeps the lights on for the rest of publishing.

Like the fact that there isn't a bookstore for it.

There's all these comic bookstores, there's mystery bookstores, there's there were bookstores, like there are other genre specific bookstores.

There is a true underlying.

Misogyny here that no one has thought to open a bookstore for the genre that is mostly read by women.

I mean, we have tons of fabulous milk and all gender clients, but it really is written a lot and read a lot by women.

My college girlfriend, who is like, I think, kind of like my most critical feminist thought friends we all have one.

She yes, and she was watching the Super Bowl and she texted me last year and she goes, Oh my god, next year, during this time in February, I want every man in America to have to watch a YouTube makeup tutorial for an hour and change and eat snacks and see how this goes, because like the reverse idea that we're all supposed to watch football just feels crazy.

And I bring that up to say that I do think in culture in the past there's been this like people trivialize women's hobbies, things that women find interesting, and so romance seems like it's a part of that to me.

But I'm wondering if you think romance is a feminist genre.

Yes, no, why do you say no?

Romance novels can be written by feminists.

A huge portion of them are, but it's not inherently feminist.

You have frickin people who absolutely don't believe in their own.

Equal rights writing romance novels.

Sure, I think that's true.

I think in general, one of the big misconceptions of romance is it's really heterosexual.

It's really about like a man a woman finding a man to marry, and that has really been turned on its head by so many authors.

Over the years.

And it feels like now so many popular romance novels that are published have nothing to do with like I must get married.

I'm also a really literal person.

Feminism is a social and political movement.

It is an actual thing, and so there's almost nothing that's like inherently Feminists.

Even like like nothing.

You have to make an active choice to believe in equality based on gender, sex, whatever.

So a vast, vast, vast probably almost all of the romance authors that we carry I think would absolutely consider them and their work feminist.

There are large.

Swaths of the romance genre that I don't believe that women should have equal rights, that gay people should have equal rights.

You'll mostly find that that is an important point.

Like we talk about romances, if it's a mode, right, it's not is not true.

There are so many different parts of it and so many different people reading it and getting different things out of it.

We are a feminist bookstore.

We try and carry romance novels that have feminist.

Messages, and it's because we make active choices and do active things.

It's not just because we're women.

If we were doing an MTV Cribs tour of the bookstore, what would we say when we walk through the doors what's the vibe, what's the aesthetic, what's the wow moment?

Well, first you would see me opening the door saying Hi, welcome to my crib.

But I love designing the spaces.

It's been the most fun part of this for me, especially Brooklyn, just because I had learned so much from La.

I like that you ask what's the wow moment?

I mean, I hope the wow moment is kind of when you open the door.

Like I like to use books as objects as art.

They are misprints or somebody's dog chewed on it or something like that.

But like sometimes they'll send us fifty books that are missing like page thirty one, and they just tell us to throw them out, but instead I screw them.

To the wall.

I think we really we love to celebrate the feminine.

I think we like to celebrate the aesthetic.

In general, like sort of speaking of things that you know, sometimes people don't necessarily take seriously.

I think one of the things we were really focused on is like making them light and bright and inviting, rather than kind of like a dark attic where things are hidden away.

I have a controversial question Rainbow bookshelves.

Yeah, your name, yay Leah has Leah likes that makes you happy Go nuts.

Yes, I think display your books however you want.

To me, it doesn't make sense to my brain because I'm like, the books don't have anything to do with each other.

You organized by subgenre in the store, yes.

Which is another reason we were like, we just want to be romance because there's so many specific subgenres, and when we opened, we really tried to make the areas where the subgenres were fit esthetically.

So we used to have like this paranormal forest in the back of our store with like literal trees.

Yeah, and just I mean.

It all comes back to fun, Like romance is supposed to be fun.

I'm thrilled when people find meaning in it or you know, somebody tackles difficult subject matter that resonates with someone.

At the end of the.

Day, it is primarily, at least for me, about fun, And so I want the space to reflect that want it.

I want it to feel you know.

I think we're always striking the balance.

Like we take romance seriously, we don't take ourselves too seriously.

You know, it's it's meant to be fun.

Okay, I want a cosplay.

I walk into the story okay, and I get really lucky both of you happen to be there.

Okay, it's a good day.

And I let you know that my genre what I like, even though I haven't started in on the romance genre yet, but what I think I like from reading other books is sort of like a nuanced take, meaning like another narrator.

So like I like Sleeping Beauty but from maleficence point of view, or a Little Mermaid but from ursula.

That's so interesting.

I love that.

Okay, And do you have any preferences contemporary, historical, paranormal?

Are you open?

I don't know if paranormals for me.

I think will X that out fair enough, but I love historical and contemporary.

I feel like a historical series you would like is the Tessa Dare Spinster Spindlecove.

They call it spinster Cove because a lot of what it does is like take a heroine who it's like from a different perspective, often of like the regular heroine you would expect, and each book kind of like turns a trope on its head.

Of that, they're very fun.

Okay, the view was exhausting.

I keep picking books that have two authors Mikayla Clemens and n Julie Datta.

Okay, it's a contemporary and it's very much I don't know if this is exactly what you're talking about, but because it's what's called dual pov, you hear from, in this case, the woman, you hear from the man.

It yeah, whatever.

You know, you think you know what's going on from one character's perspective, then you switch to the other and you're.

Like, oh that they don't actually don't understand at all.

It's not enemies to lovers, but it's sort of like we don't really understand each other to lovers And it's great.

Wait, I have another one too, bring them all, give them to me.

So Katie Robert, who's one of the best erotica writers out there, has a whole series about Disney villains.

Wait, I love this copyright whatever, don't do her Disney, you know she she's changed them.

But the first one is Jasmine and Jafar.

Yeah there, and there's like an Ursula one there, and they are very smutty, just fair warning, they're erotica.

They're very very smutty.

But they're so good.

She's such a great writer, she's so creative and they're so fun.

The first one is called Desperate Measures Katie Robert.

Okay, I like everything that you have offered me today, but I'm so glad we landed there because I love a Disney villain.

Also, there's this author, Peggy Ornstein who does a lot of writing on women and gender and feminism, and she said that if you look at any T shirt with Disney princesses on them, they're never looking at each other.

And it's very interesting and she always like makes this joke like if you met a if a Disney princess, if snow White met Cinderella in the bathroom, don't you think that she would give her a tampon?

Why would they not be looking at each other on the T shirt?

Yes, And like.

Female friendship, I feel like because they're in like separate worlds, they like keep them separate.

Okay, I have one more recommendation because I feel like you would like Kirthana Ramasetti's book The Other Letta, which is it's a really fascinating romance because honestly, the heroine is not she steals someone someone's identity.

Ooh, I love a stolen She's getting these Yeah, she's getting these emails that are like inviting her to all these amazing things in New York, and it's for another person who has her name, and she decides like, fuck it, I'm gonna go to these things I'm being invited.

But then the woman who she's impersonating like finds out and it's just this fascinating, like kind of morally gray like heroin and it's a fantastic written.

So now I'm getting stressed out because this thing happens sometimes when I go into a bookstore or a library and I look around at the shelves and I'm like, there's so much to read and I know nothing, Like I have so much knowledge to take in.

I'm going to walk into the rip Bodies and feel.

Like I have so much to approximately.

Once a week I.

Am so where and I just go, I'm not going to have time to read all the books I want to read before I die, all the books.

You people have like emotional reactions to books.

If you see a cover that you like, pick it up, like it's worth going with your gut.

I think a little bit in Rome.

Are you saying to judge a book by its cover?

Yeah?

Oh?

Absolutely, And I think also, don't you know, look at the back cover, look inside like there's there's plenty else beyond the cover.

But if the cover.

Speaks to you, that's totally legit.

Absolutely Okay, we're gonna do a little speed read.

I'm gonna put sixty seconds on the clock and ask you both.

Actually, maybe we're gonna double it.

We're gonna put one hundred and twenty seconds on the clock because there's two of you.

So I'm gonna ask a question and each of you answer, and then we'll move to the next one.

Does that make sense?

Who goes first?

You guys can who was born first?

Okay?

Yeah, the older sister goes first, and I'm the older sister.

So let's just have a gun with me.

I love it, ready set Bea.

What's one romance trope you would ban forever?

Oh my god, that's that's so hard.

I feel like they all have a place and people like different ones.

I mean, I'm Leah and I both.

I'm not We're not like the biggest secret baby fans.

Okay, Leah, what's one you'll defend with your life friends?

Still lovers?

Bea what's a romance book you wish you had written?

Oh?

My god, there's so many.

I mean, Beverly Jenkins, like to me is the queen of historical romance and research.

She just gets supposed to be was supposed to archives and finds.

The Sorry sorry, sorry, Beverly Jenkins.

Anything by Leah Bez romance book for a breakup.

When I think of you.

Uh wait, no, that's a different one.

Evie Drake starts Over by Linda Holmes.

Great call, okay, favorite romance book to recommend.

Sierra Simo anything by her, but probably Sinner because it scandalizes people.

Yeah, okay, the best romance audiobook experience.

I did ask my booksellers Lex and Fernanda and they recommended Kara bes Stone's audiobooks.

They said she has really great casts.

They're all set in New York, which is really fun.

So also anything by Anything narrated by Julia Wheelan.

She also writes, but she does write her own books.

But that's so good.

Yeah, that's a great.

One, okay, Leah.

Favorite queer love story.

There are one million, but right now I would choose Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by May Marvel.

That's so good.

Okay.

The best reimagining of a classic.

Oh my God, what would you say?

Pride, Prejudice and other Flavors by Sonali dev Oh my god, that is literally there's a whole series.

Oh also, oh my god, cheers a price.

Yeah, those are they're so guide and premeditations.

Okay, honestly, Bea you redeemed yourself at the end?

An ending that you hate it?

Anna Karenina, I know it could have been if there was not a train involved.

This is hilarious.

Well, sisters, if you're ever looking for a third sister, I'd like to be considered you are too loftie.

We actually have an a lot and two stepsisters, so we just keep adding to our sister crew.

I'll be added to the friend's sister category.

Okay.

So here at Bookmarked, we like to close each episode by sharing something, something literary that we bookmarked.

It can be a favorite line in a poem, a new initiative.

What have you bookmarked this week?

A new adaptation of a book by Alphar Burke called The Better Sister is now available on Amazon Prime, and it happened to have been written and created by our sister in law.

Olivia Milt, Jessica Biel, and Elizabeth Banks are sisters it's so great.

It's eight episodes.

Watch it in a weekend.

And it's based on the book, and the book is great.

Is that what you were going to say?

No, you are a better sister in law than I.

I was gonna say the better sister.

Katie Storino wrote a romance novel called Sunny Side Up and it's about a heroine who designs plus size swimwear.

And then she and Kitty and Vibe, which is a swimwear brand, like collaborated and they made like the swimwear that that's like in the I ordered it.

I was like, I need it.

It's so cute.

It's like I got like a biki that has like tomatoes on it.

I'm so excited.

And I just think that's I just love when people are like creative in their marketing of romance.

And like, I just I loved everything about it.

That's so cool.

I love that great answers.

One of you wins better sister, but the other one had a really great recommendation.

Yours is a little more organic than mine.

I was like, oh my god, that's the perfect thing.

Yeah, I had no idea.

That's so I love that.

I love that it's so cute.

I yeah, everything about it.

It's amazing.

I love your passion and fervor for books.

Thank you both so much for what you're putting into the world.

Oh, thank you, thank you for having people are great.

And that's a wrap.

If you want a little bit more from us, come hang with us on socials.

We're at Reese's book Club on Instagram, serving up books, vibes and behind the scenes magic.

And I'm at Danielle Robe rob a y come say hi and DM me and if you want to go nineties on us, call us.

Okay, our phone line is open, so call now at one five ero one two nine one three three seven nine.

That's one one two nine, one three three seven nine.

Share your literary hot takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick, or let us know what you think about the episode you just heard.

And who knows, you might just hear yourself in our next episode, so don't be shy.

Give us a ring, and of course, make sure to follow Bookmarked by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your shows until then via in the next chapter.

Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine, and iHeart podcast It's executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me Danielle Robe.

Production is by ACAST Creative Studios.

Our producers are Matty Foley, Alyia Yates, Brittan y Martinez and Darby Masters.

Our production assistant is Avery Loftis.

Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder are the executive producers for a Cast Creative Studios.

Maureene Polo and Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine.

Olga Kaminwha, Kristin Perla, Kelly Turner and Ashley Rappaport are associate producers for Reese's book Club.

Ali Perry and Christina Everett are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and Tim Palazola is our showrunner