026. Teach Me by Olivia Dade with Denise Williams

Feb 25, 2020

Featuring: Andrea Martucci, Sionna Fox, Denise Williams

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Short Description

Is power a pie that once eaten, disappears? What’s the opposite of toxic masculinity? And, most importantly, what is a cinnamon roll hero and why are they all the rage right now in romantic fiction?

Denise Williams (How to Fail at Flirting) is back to discuss Teach Me by Olivia Dade, which is about two very passionate, mature, and respectful high school history teachers. It's a super hot romance between an emotionally-distant ice queen heroine and a cinnamon roll hero.

Also: Preview of the April 2020 NECRWA Conference with Sionna Fox, and what options local RWA chapters are considering in the wake of the national chapter's massive failure to address racism and lack of diversity.

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Tags

contemporary romance, romance novel discussion

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Show Notes

Today’s podcast is sponsored by Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, published by Cleis Press. Find out more at bweoftheyear.com/

Shelf Love:

• Sign up for the email newsletter list
• Website
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com

Guest: Denise Williams

• Website
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Sign up for updates on Denise’s Class and follow along with “Moving Past Bodice Ripping Toward Shredding the Patriarchy: Romance Novels as Tools for Justice” on Denise’s Website

Listen to Denise’s first Shelf Love appearance on Episode 20 where we discuss teaching romance novels to college students, and answer the question: Is romance a feminist genre? 

Mentions:

• Here’s Aarya Marsden’s elevator pitch recap of Teach Me from her Smart Bitches review:
  • “...divorced high school history teachers in their forties, fat Ice Queen heroine who has very good reasons to guard her emotions, single dad hero who is the poster child for the opposite of toxic masculinity, meddling ex-parents-in-law and high school-aged daughter who ship the couple, and Evil School Administrator who gets defeated in the end.”
  • Smart Bitches link
• RWA Newsletter Lisa Leoni Writing Fat heroines - I don’t think the article is available online, but here’s a Twitter Thread.
• Angelina M. Lopez’s Lush Money - “A bonkers idea that’s essentially a telenovela” - folks, when two guests in a row describe the same book in a very similar and tantalizing way, you should just go read it. (See also: Tamara Lush in Episode 25)
  • Lush Money on Goodreads
• Kennedy Ryan’s Block Shot - powerful heroine with alphahole hero.
  • Block Shot on Goodreads
  • Also discussed in Episode 24 with Kennedy Ryan
• Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women edited by Jayne Ann Krentz - alpha males as a foil to show a powerful woman who is his equal.
• Is Tyler from Priest by Sierra Simone a cinnamon roll?
• Whoa!mance episode: RWA Reflections - reflections on happily ever after

For more information about the NECRWA Conference in Woburn, MA on April 24 + 25, 2020, check out NECRWA.org

NECRWA’s full statement about the disaffiliation vote.

 

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Transcript

Intro

Hello and thanks for joining me on episode 26 of Shelf Love, the podcast where we silence our inner critic and use romance novels as the text to explore real life issues. For example: Is power a pie that once eaten, disappears? What’s the opposite of toxic masculinity? And, most importantly, what is a cinnamon roll hero and why are they all the rage right now in romantic fiction?

I’m Andrea Martucci, and today I’m joined by Denise Williams, author of How to Fail at Flirting, a debut novel that will be published by Berkley in 2020. She’s also the co-teacher of “Moving Past Bodice Ripping Toward Shredding the Patriarchy: Romance Novels as Tools for Justice.” It’s a class she’s teaching college students this semester and you can learn more about how she’s teaching romance in the classroom in episode 20 of Shelf Love.

On this episode, we discuss Teach Me by Olivia Dade, which is about two very passionate, mature, and respectful high school history teachers and features the super hot romance between an emotionally-distant ice queen heroine and a cinnamon roll hero. 

Stick around until the end of this episode for a brief interview with Sionna Fox, conference chair of the New England Chapter of RWA’s 2020 conference. In addition to letting us know about all of the awesome speakers and panelists, including Zoraida Cordova (aka, Zoey Castile), Joanna Schupe, LaQuette, and Farrah Rochon, she also pulls back the curtain on the decisions that local chapters are making right now in the midst of the failures of the national organization.

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Hey, if you want to read more romance novel cinnamon roll heroes, all of the books that Denise recommended, plus crowd-sourced recommendations from Shelf Lovelies, will go out in the Shelf Love email newsletter. Take a moment and sign up via the link in the show notes for bonus content like book recommendations, giveaways, and all the Shelf Love news that’s fit for polite society. Thanks for listening, and I hope you join the Shelf Lovely community!

Outro

Thanks for listening to Episode 26 of Shelf Love: A Romance Novel Book Club. 

Thank you so much to Denise Williams for speaking with me. All the links to find Denise online and to sign up to follow along with her class are in the show notes. Also, Denise and I had a long conversation about cinnamon roll romance recommendations that got cut for time, but if you sign up for the Shelf Love email newsletter list, you can get her full list with reasons why she loves them, plus crowd-sourced listener favorites. You can find the link to sign up in the show notes or at ShelfLovePodcast.com.

Coming up next, Talia Hibbert joins me and we discuss Mulan and Island Fling with the Tycoon by Therese Beharrie. Make sure you’re subscribed to Shelf Love on your podcast app of choice so you don’t miss an episode. 

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And now, here’s my conversation with Sionna Fox, recorded on January 24th, 2020 (which I note because at one point we date the conversation but the wrong month was mentioned):

The NECRWA conference is April 24th and 25th in Woburn, Massachusetts, which is just north of Boston. Head over to NECRWA.org to learn more and register. I very much hope to see you there.

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Did you know that Shelf Love is part of the Frolic Podcast Network? You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts - May I suggest Learning the Tropes, where Erin, a romance novel veteran, helps Clayton, a romance novel virgin, learn all about romance novels one trope at a time.