Ellie from the Butt Out Baby Podcast had the best idea. For all of us to watch Carol (2015) directed by Todd Haynes and then talk about it. Therese gets a funny feeling when she first sees the glamorous Carol, and it isn't just because its Christmastime. But it is the 1950s, and Carol is going through a divorce, and is a devoted mother, and is at least a decade older and a gajillion dollars richer, and it's Christmas! What is it they about the course of true love? Do age gaps matter? Does Christmas matter? And what even happened with that ending! Be sure to tune into this romance-centered discussion of Carol. And, by the way, I like your hat...

If Whoa!mance had a nickel for every time we discussed a novel featuring a werewolf who flies personal aircraft, we would have TWO nickels. Thanks for the hypothetical pay raise, COLD HEARTED by HEATHER GUERRE. Grace has to Teach for America her way away from her terrible ex and terribler Chicago. So she makes her way to the small, insular, warm yet secretive community of Longtooth, Alaska. Even thought Grace really sets local boy Caleb's maybe-metaphorical-maybe-literal tail to wagging, he's been burned by City Folk before and he isn't going to be heartbroken again, dang it! When it turns out Grace's ex was worse and more supernatural than just a boring stalker, he's going to have to put his feelings aside...or actually, for some reason, centering them works better? What makes a comfort read comfortable? Is a villain more captivating than the main character a failure in a romance, or just the The Nature of the Beast? Its 10 p.m., do you know how many copies of "Watership Down" are within driving distance of you right now? Turn "Deadliest Catch", we've got something much sexier and equally Alaskan to discuss.

Here it is, the last chapter. The bow tie. The final thoughts. The Darcy. The Rochester. The end.

Ready for some dark romance this holiday season? Sure you are! The days are short anyway. We've got a labrador retriever male main character who makes masked man thirst traps and does some stalking. And we've got a snarky female main character who loves those thirst traps and is looking for a little IRL action. Listen while Morgan and Isabeau untruss this popular bird, get at the juicy bits and carve out what makes this a mega romance audiobook hit.

Pride and Prejudice gets PENULTIMATE! In this, the second to last chapter of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, there are lots of sweet nothings and victory laps to be had. And the conversation begins circling the drain that leads to...romance novels?

Darcy and Lizzy need to tell the Bennets what's what

What webs we weave, indeed! This episode we attempt to unknot that cross-over of the century - the NINETEENTH century that is - PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS by JOHN KESSEL. Mary Bennet decides to take one last crack at life before resigning herself to spinsterhood and two people wind up dead. That's what happens when you pin your hopes to the saddest Swiss nerd at the ball. Especially when they have the kind of baggage that is super tall, speaks at least three languages, has committed murder in the name of loneliness, and is technically their child. Do the major differences of "Frankenstein" and "Pride and Prejudice" boil down to imagination vs. domesticity? Where is the fascination of sex to be found without love and affection? What can be made of men talking about women talking about men? Trigger warnings - we talk about anatomy, sterilization, murder, and miscarriages in this episode.

We're back, and we're going totally medieval on THE FALCON AND THE SWORD by PATRICIA WERNER for the final act of this Ice Wine season. Judith, the most normally named character in this whole book, abandons a convent to find herself in the kingdom of Neustria amongst a bunch of Franks who will never get her as a Visigoth. Along comes handsome-in-a-different-kind-of-white-way, advisor to the King of Austrasia to spark her interest, and then away he goes for the vast majority of the book until he returns in the fourth (eighth?) act to profess his love in the murder mystery cum Medieval slice of life this Romance Novel is. Why did romance in the 90s spend so much effort towards everything but character? What does the centering of small folk tell us about a place and time? What is the difference between Visigoths and Goths? Hope you've got a knee brace, because these Middle Ages are hard on your joints.

A Re!mance for an extremely special ocassion. Plus an update on Ice Wine Deux. <3 We did it y'all. Yr girls have arrived at the final stop on this Entrop[e]y tour with one last trope: the secret baby. This week on Whoa!mance, Morgan and Isabeau tackle the culture wars relic, Nobody’s Baby But Mine, Book 3 in the Chicago Stars series by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Jane Darlington, a 34 year old physics professor, wants a baby. But she doesn’t want that baby to be a smarty pants weirdo like their mom. The solution: fuck a dumb guy. Who better than star quarterback and potential neanderthal Cal Bonner? But when Cal proves to have brains to match his brawn, Jane learns how poor calculations can still yield positive if strange results. What are the hallmarks of a good girl? Who should get a second chance? What even is a clip on headband? We’re closing this thing out with a bang y’all so call a sitter.

Naturopathic Practicioner Raven is thrown back into the measured embrace of regular, degular Dr. Jeff when she is accused of poisoning her clients. Because he loves her so darn much, and because it is obviously not her fault, and because it is 1997 and these things just happen, the McSteamy and Holistic Hottie team up to uncover the cause of this mystery illness and get infected with love along the way. Also with the mystery illness. What can a post-AIDS romance novel about disease teach us about Pandemic patterns? Are characters their jobs or is it just the Capitalism talking again? Can a person in 1996 be good, even if they are allergic to salad? Look out - there's gateway drugs in the echinacea!

Wherein Darcy and Elizabeth have one conversation and Darcy makes all men, and romance heroes look like fools for the next two hundred odd years. #ThanksJaneAusten