Amy & the podcast team don their oodies and pyjamas to sit down After Dark and have a conversation about the topics that don't make it into our four-week schedule. This week, as part of smut month, we discuss the rise in dark & taboo romance novels. What is dark romance? Why are these narratives more popular now more than ever? Should we be concerned about the easy access to these novels as they are sold and distributed by department stores? Where do these novels belong on the shelves? No question, no matter how taboo, is off the table.

This episode deals with adult content. Please take note of the content warning at the beginning of the video and take care of yourselves.

LINKS

• Watch the Live Bookclub on YouTube: @AmyAndPodcast
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• Join the Amy & Bookclub: Amy & Bookclub
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• Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single "Same Old" here.

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Hi Booklovers! This week, Amy & the podcast team sat down to chat about Christina Lauren's Beautiful Bastard and all things smut-tastic! Where are the lines between romance, erotica and porn? What makes sex in a rom-com novel 'good'? We explore the length, width and depth of this very slippery topic!

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The #1 international bestselling co-author duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction and has produced twenty New York Times bestselling novels together. They are published in over 30 languages, have received multiple starred reviews, been inducted into the Library Reads Hall of Fame, named Amazon and Audible Romance of the Year, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. They have been featured in publications such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, People, Today, O Magazine and more.

• Follow Christina Lauren on IG: @christinalauren
• Follow Christina Lauren on Facebook: ChristinaLaurenBooks
• Check out more from Christina Lauren here: ChristinaLaurenBooks
• Follow the Amy & Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast
• Check out our YouTube for video content: AmyAndPodcast
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Amy & Harry talk with special guests, the legendary duo Christina Lauren! Through the laughs, we discuss the upcoming re-release of their 'Beautiful Series', we talk all things smut, its place in our day and age (hint, it's still incredible and we all love it), and where the unsexiest place is in an office for...

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The #1 international bestselling coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction and has produced twenty New York Times bestselling novels together. They are published in over 30 languages, have received multiple starred reviews, been inducted into the Library Reads Hall of Fame, named Amazon and Audible Romance of the Year, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. They have been featured in publications such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, People, Today, O Magazine and more.

• Follow Christina Lauren on IG: @christinalauren
• Follow Christina Lauren on Facebook: ChristinaLaurenBooks
• Check out more from Christina Lauren here: ChristinaLaurenBooks
• Follow the Amy& Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast
• Join the Amy& BookClub: Amy & BookClub
• Follow Amy Matthews on IG: @amymatthewsauthor
• Follow Amy Barry on IG: @amybarryauthor

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy & series regulars, Payton Hogan and Justina Ashman, are joined by (soon-to-be) Dr. Georgia Nicholls to discuss sex in the rom com novel, where we ask questions like: What is smut? Does smut offer positive sex education? Are male modes of sexual pleasure being privileged in the rom com novel? And why are romance heroes so Big and heroines so smol?!

LINKS

• Find Aya de Léon here: ayadeleon.com
• Watch the Live Bookclub on YouTube: @AmyAndPodcast
• Follow the Amy & Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast
• Join the Amy & Bookclub: Amy & Bookclub
• Follow Amy Matthews on IG: @amymatthewsauthor
• Follow Amy Barry on IG: @amybarryauthor
• Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single "Same Old" here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s officially smut month! Amy and series regulars Millie Heffernan and Abby Guy are joined by our special guestie Izzie Duffield (who also writes as Elizabeth Stevens as well as many other names). Come with us as we dive into fantasy smut! What is smut in romance and what happens when you add guys with huge wingspans into the mix?

Find Izzie’s work here.

Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single “Same Old” here.

Follow the Amy & Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast

Join the Amy & Bookclub: Amy & Bookclub

Follow Amy Matthews on IG: @amymatthewsauthor

Follow Amy Barry on IG: @amybarryauthor

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy & the podcast team sit down to discuss Aya de Léon's romantic suspense novel, Side Chick Nation, as part of our Climate Fiction month!

Aya de León is an acclaimed writer of poetry, prose, stage, and screen. She teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley and is the 'acquiring editor for a new climate justice fiction imprint Fighting Chance Books, which will publish stories of people taking collective action in the here and now to solve the climate crisis' (ayadeleon.com).

LINKS

• Find Aya de Léon here: ayadeleon.com
• Watch the Live Bookclub on YouTube: @AmyAndPodcast
• Follow the Amy & Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast
• Join the Amy & Bookclub: Amy & Bookclub
• Follow Amy Matthews on IG: @amymatthewsauthor
• Follow Amy Barry on IG: @amybarryauthor
• Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single "Same Old" here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy & Justina chat with Jennifer Mills, a celebrated writer of climate fiction and dystopian novels and author of The Airways (2021), Dyschronia (2018) and Gone (2011). Her latest book, Salvage, is out on May 27. Join us as we chat about ambiguous utopias, the ethics (or lack thereof) of space billionaires, and the responsibility we have to each other and the world in the face of climate emergency.

Pre-order Salvage here.

Find more of Jennifer's work here.

For a chance to win Side Chick Nation by Aya de León (our book of the month!) or Overstory by Richard Powers click here!

Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single "Same Old" here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy & Payton talk with special guesties Dr Alex Cothren and Dr Rachel Hennessy about climate-fiction writing and scholarship – but we’re fun nerds, I promise. You can find Alex’s satirical short stories in basically any literary mag you could possibly think of, and by August 2025, his debut anthology Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere will be published by Pink Shorts Press. Rachel Hennessy is an award-winning author of five novels and her most recent, City Knife, concluded her "cli-fi-ish" dystopian YA/Teen trilogy, The Burning Days. Take a deep breath and relax that heart-rate because we’re here to discuss how we might find hope and eschew defeatism in these trying times.

Pre-order Alex's anthology here.

Find Rachel's latest novel here.

Ready to read some cli-fi? For a chance to win Side Chick Nation by Aya de León or Overstory by Richard Powers click here!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.