The Wicked Wallflowers Club

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**The Wicked Wallflowers Club**

Welcome to The Wicked Wallflowers Club! We are two authors who read, write, and love everything about the romance genre. We celebrate female empowerment and sex positivity. Entertainment Weekly featured us on their “Must List” as “a compelling reminder of why the oft-dismissed genre is a real force in cultural conversations”.

Latest Episodes:

49 - What We're Reading #4 Oct 10, 2018

Show notes

In this fourth edition of What We're Reading, we're joined by special guest Eva Moore! Eva is an author and admin of OSRBC (Old School Romance Book Club) on Facebook and one of the founders of a new book club on Instagram called Romanced by the Book.

How has everyone been? We've been rage baking and fantasizing about punching all the dicks. Seriously, guys. Group hug.

Recs we're looking for:

Anything that smashes the patriarchy

F/F romance

Life updates:

Sarah has been cat sitting and has started writing a new book (a science fiction Gothic romance!). Jenny took a whirlwind trip to Scotland to see family. Z got her first two teeth!

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Beyond Series by Kit Rocha
Gideon's Riders by Kit Rocha
- Sarah's rage read/therapy
- Sexy post apocalyptic series
- All the characters are trauma survivors finding happiness, but the writing doesn't linger on the trauma
Earth Bound by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner
Disorderly Conduct by Tessa Bailey
- Contemp cop romance
- cute, funny, outside of Sarah's normal reads, but she's enjoying
Vicious by V.E. Schwaub
- Not a romance--fantasy exploring villainy
- X-Men-esque plot with two super genius characters who begin as friends and become arch enemies
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- Rumplestiltskin retelling
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- Jenny will discuss in next WWR episode
Skullsworn by Brian Staveley
The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne
- Book one features a deeply tortured hero who escapes prison and assumes a dead boy's name. The boy was not really dead. He's found with amnesia and is the hero of this book
- He wakes up in a mass grave with no memory of who he is
- Feels like he doesn't deserve the heroine who saves him and he fixates on her
Magic Harvest by Mary Karlik
Scoring the Player's Baby by Naima Simone
- 3rd book in the WAGs series
- Heroine who wants nothing to do with football players after her asshole football player exhusband. Has a one night stand with the hero without knowing he's a football player and ends up pregnant.
- EVERYONE loves this book.
Cherish Me by Farrah Rochon
- Set in Rome
- Marriage redemption plot
- "Loving, kind book"
Hold Me Down by Sarah Taylor Woods
- BDSM romance
- Other people have called it one of their best books of 2018
- Sexy, hot hero,
- Angsty
Truth or Beard by Penny Reid
A Crown of Bitter Orange by Laura Florand
- Set in the south of France in perfume territory
- Cousins trying to hold on to the family land, family grows flowers and produces perfume
- Follows youngest cousin, Tristan, who does adventure sports and is dismissed by everyone but has a phenomenal nose
- Falls for woman who comes for a line of traitors to his family
- Only one who really sees him for who he is
A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole (check out our interview with Alyssa!)
- Silver fox Scottish swordsmith hero
- Heroine with ADHD who underestimates herself
- Super sexy consent
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan
- Dark, heavy, but super powerful story that revolves around domestic violence
- Empowering
- Set in the world of the NBA
Block Shot by Kennedy Ryan
- Enemies to lovers sports romance
- Kennedy Ryan is a fucking goddess
- There are writers who push me to be better. And then there are writers like Kennedy Ryan who make me want to stop writing because I will never be that good!"
- Curvy heroine grappling with insecurity
Single Malt by Layla Rayne
- Three book series that follows the same couple
- Eva trusts her implicitly to pick her back up after she's been dropped off the cliff
For Real by Alexis Hall
- Seasoned sub who has just gotten out of a relationship with younger, brand new Dom
- May/December M/M
A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe (check out our interview with Joanna!)
- Gilded Age romance with a deaf hero
- Jenny's favorite of Shupe's books!
For the Duke's Eyes Only by Lenora Bell (check out our interview with Lenora!)
- Lady Indy's story
- super strong feminist heroine who does not give a fuck
- Enemies to lovers feel
- James Bond meets Indiana Jones with a badass heroine
The Governess Game by Tessa Dare (check out our interview with Tessa!)
- Jenny's favorite Tessa Dare
- funny, heartwarming, sexy, emotional, exsquisite
All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan (check out our interview with Sophie!)
- Heroine is nurse volunteering at a prison where there's a riot and they plan on harming the her. Hero gets himself beaten to get back into the infirmary to save her.
- Sophie Jordan brand: batshit plot point (woman being auctioned as a wife in the town square, family curse, prison riot) as a meet cute that then forms into an authentic narrative.
- Bonkers Alpha hero who fulfills the classic damsel in distress trope
Thirsty by Mia Hopkins
- Ex con who gets out and is trying to live by the rules
- Ends up living in garage of single mom heroine
Ransom by Julie Garwood

som by Julie Garwood

You can find Eva on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

48 - Andie J. Christopher: Not the Girl You Marry Oct 03, 2018

Show notes

We're joined by USA Today bestselling author And J. Christopher and special guest cohost Jenny Holiday. We chat about her upcoming release with Berkley, Not the Girl You Marry. We also discuss Andie's dating history, that time she flashed a priest, and what it was like for her growing up in Minnesota.

47 - Carolyn Brown and Leah Hultenschmidt: Cowboy Honor Sep 26, 2018

Show notes

We managed to get an author and her editor in front of the mic at the same time! We’re joined by New York Times Bestselling author Carolyn Brown and her editor at Forever Romance, Leah Hultenschmidt. We chat about Carolyn’s latest releases, why people love cowboy romances, how they both came to romance, Carolyn’s personal romance with her husband, and much more!

46 - Alexa Martin: Intercepted Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

We're joined by debut author, Alexa Martin and special guest cohost, Maureen Lee Lenker! Alexa chats with us about her book, Intercepted, what it was like being a real life NFL wife, her love of reality TV, and much more!

Highlights from our conversation:

How her husband felt about her writing in his football world

How becoming an author is her reclaiming her identity outside of being a wife and mother

How #pitchwars ultimately led to her becoming a published author

What her revision process looked like and how it led to her getting an agent and a book deal

How she hasn't fully embraced her identity as an author yet and is still battling self doubt

Her gateway drug into romance--Fifty Shades!

Her relationship with football and how she struggles with the dangers of CTE, the risks to players, and the issues of domestic violence and culture around the sport

Some of the downsides of being a professional football player, especially being a football family

Her own adorable romance story with her husband

Her love of reality TV and how that trickles into her writing

What she's working on next

How there can be a target on your back when your husband plays football

Books mentioned in this episode:
Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

**45 - Kennedy Ryan: Block Shot** Sep 12, 2018
Show notes

We're joined by Kennedy Ryan, a Top 100 Amazon bestseller, to chat about her newest release, *Block Shot*. We also fan girl over our love of *Long Shot* and talk about her deeply involved research process for that book and what it taught her about survivors of domestic violence.
**Ways to listen:**

**iTunes**: Click the button in the banner or here to download (and subscribe!) iTunes: 45 - Kennedy Ryan: Block Shot

**Stream on Simplecast**: Ep. 45 Kennedy Ryan: Block Shot

Click here for GooglePlay!

It's also available on **Stitcher, Spotify,** or most other podcast apps!

To find out more about Kennedy, you can check out her website or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
**Highlights from our conversation include:**

What inspired her to write something as dark and powerful as *Long Shot*

How she spoke to numerous survivors of domestic violence in an attempt to make the story as authentic as possible

All about her newest release, *Block Shot*, which is a standalone in the same world as *Long Shot*--it's enemies to lovers between two competing sports agents!

Her other series that includes *Flow*, *Grip*, and *Still*

How sometimes the story or ideas just come to her and flow out of her

Her efforts to raise autism awareness and her foundation to support families living with autism

**Books mentioned in this episode:**
*Block Shot* by Kennedy Ryan

*Long Shot* by Kennedy Ryan

*Grip* by Kennedy Ryan

*Flow* by Kennedy Ryan

*Still* by Kennedy Ryan

*Their Eyes Were Watching God* by Zora Neale Hurston

43 - Tessa Dare: The Governess Game Aug 29, 2018

Show notes

Our guest this week is New York Times bestselling author, Tessa Dare, who writes fabulously witty and charming historical romances. We talk about her latest book, The Governess Game, historical lady scientists, and the mating practices of both lobsters and ducks!

Highlights from our conversation include:

How we accidentally had Tessa play photographer for us without knowing it was her.
What it's like to be readers' "break in case of emergency author"
How authors who claim not to read reviews are lying.
Her marvelous new book, The Governess Game!
Awesome historical lady scientists.
Historical accuracy in historical romance and the concept of "historical rom coms"
How history is written by the Victors not the Victorias!
Her next book, The Wallflower Wager.
The backstory on her Girl Meets Duke series covers.
Her worst typo ever.
The specifics of lobster sex and why she felt it was the perfect fit for a romance.
Duck sex. More about duck sex and genitalia than you ever wanted to know.
"I don't know how to write a face eater!"

"Historical lube--how did we get here?"

"I want to tell a duck story that's not about rape."
Books mentioned in this episode:

Books by Brenna Aubry (Tessa Dare's office mate)

When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare

Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ward