Dark romance and romantasy meets Telestrations on this week's Spicy Librarian - we're drawing tropes, guessing characters, and somehow attempting to pitch the next New York Times bestselling romance novel. We cover romantasy and dark romance rounds, weekly reading recaps, and watch the whole thing descend into glorious bookish chaos.

This week on Spicy Librarian, we played Telestrations, that random game from primary school where you draw a section of a thing, fold the page and pass it on. But we made it bookish and spicy. We took the most iconic tropes, characters, and moments from dark romance and romantasy and decided to see if we could plot the next New York Times bestseller, but probably not. We do tropes, settings, plot twists and pairings, triggers and memorable quotes- and watched the whole thing descend into absolute bookish chaos. Let us know if you think our pitch has legs, better yet, write it yourself.

00:00 — Welcome to the Spicy Librarian Podcast 00:22 — Katie's Reading Recap: What's Been on Her TBR This Week 13:19 — Dee's Reading Recap: What Dee Has Been Reading 25:27 — Telestrations: The Bookish Spicy Edition Begins 26:37 — Romantasy Round: Tropes, Characters & Chaos 36:40 — Dark Romance Round: Plot Twists, Triggers & Memorable Quotes 49:50 — See You Next Week

Books mentioned-

YesterYear- Caro Claire Burke

The Voice- Maggie Ray Jones

Heavy- ML Burns

The Dorians- Nick Cutter

Black Phone- Joe Hill

Remarkably Bright Creatures- Shelby Van Pelt

Direbound/ Furybound- Sable Sorenson

Regretting you- Colleen Hoover

A Stage Set for Villains- Shannon J. Spann

Pieces of the Night- Jennifer Hartman

Branded- Saffron A Kent

Ravenous- Thea Lawrence

Crown Me Dead- Liv Zander

Harvest Season- Brynn Weaver

Butcher and Blackbird- Bryne Weaver

Thursday Murder Club- Richard Osman

Metal Slinger /Light Wielder- Rachel Schneider

If you loved this episode follow the podcast so you never miss a drop, leave us a review, it genuinely means the world, and head to our website or Instagram for more details on everything we have coming up. We'll see you next Thursday.

The May book club is here and besties, this month's picks were a whole lot.

But first, we're pulling back the curtain on what is coming up for The Spicy Librarian. It's our birthday month in July, we have events in the pipeline, and things are getting very exciting around here. We are not ready to spill everything just yet but we wanted to bring you into it because you lot are the whole reason any of this exists.

Consider this your official heads up. Stay close. 👀

But book club! We're talking The Auction by Sadie Kincaid - Beauty and the Beast meets dark mafia romance, a scarred billionaire, a secret brotherhood, and a slow burn so tense we needed a moment, and a lively debate about condiments. Then Starside by Alex Aster - the enemies-to-lovers romantasy that has absolutely taken over our bookshelves and for very good reason. And finally The Stopover by T.L. Swan - the book that has converted more people to contemporary romance than almost anything else on BookTok, and yes, we have feelings about it. If you haven't listened to our episode with TL Swan- get to know.

Three completely different vibes. Three books that divided the room. Three books we could not shut up about. This is exactly what book club is for.

Books mentioned-

The Auction- Sade Kincaid

Starside- Alex Aster

The Stop Over- TL Swan

Made Man Series- Danielle Lori

Crescent City- S J Maas

June Book Club-

A Stage Set for Villains- Shannon J. Spann

Pieces of the Night- Jennifer Hartman

Branded- Saffron A Kent

Perfect for fans of: book club, dark romance, romantasy, contemporary romance, The Auction, Sadie Kincaid, Starside, Alex Aster, The Stopover, TL Swan, Miles High Club, mafia romance, enemies to lovers, slow burn, BookTok, spicy books, spicy podcast

Slaglines: We Wrapped Books, We Gave Clues & Absolutely Nobody Was Helpful

We invented a game. We wrapped books in brown paper, gave each other the most unhinged clues imaginable, and made each other guess the title. We're calling it Slaglines - a love letter to the tagline and an absolute disaster of an episode in the best possible way.

This week's lineup was a lot. We had a tattooed bad boy demon with witchy enemies-to-lovers energy, little women but make it vampire, a bored gay werewolf, a shy trans banshee, a deeply unsettling crawl space, and a boyfriend who is giving very strong fish. You know the kind.

If you think you could have guessed these faster than us - get in the comments and tell us. We are competitive and we will take that personally.

Books mentioned-

Starside- Alex Aster

Here One Moment - Liane Moriarty

What have you done- Shari Lapena

Miles High Series- TL Swan

Direbound/ Furybound- Sable Sorensen

Crown me Dead/ Crown me Yours- Liv Zanders

Crawl Space- Herbert Lieberman

There’s Something Fishy About My Boyfriend- Gloria Duke

Zodiac Academy- Twisted Sisters

Fourth Wing- Rebecca Yarros

Magnolia Parks- Jessa Hastings

Demon with Benefits- Aurora Asher

Little Vampire Women- Lynn Messina

Bored Gay Werewolf- Tony Santorella

Shy Trans Banshee- Tony Santorella