Episode 32: Unlikable Heroines with (Likable) Guest Author Pippa Grant

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode #32 

Episode Title: Unlikable Heroines with (Likable) Guest Author Pippa Grant

Release Date: September 16, 2022

Episode Summary

USA Today and #1 Amazon Bestselling author Pippa Grant is joining us today to talk about unlikable heroines and why they need love too. Plus, we get to hear a little about her romantic comedies! (Fair warning: this talk is more PG-13 than some of our others so don’t listen with kiddos in the car.)

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

Highlights: 

• Unlikable heroines need love too

• Not all things marketed as romantic comedy are true comedy

• Pippa’s got a new release coming called Irresistible Trouble

• Dawn and Roni have their RAD Reading After Dark voices going because when we recorded, we were both recovering from COVID

• Unlikable heroine does not mean a badly written heroine

• The double standard for heroines

• Types of unlikable heroines - the b**ch, the achiever, the sexually liberated heroine, the messy heroine, true female villains

• Why authors try not to read their own reviews

• Roni has feelings about Fatal Attraction

• “Cool motive. Still murder.” – Dawn

• Roni’s meanest heroine

• Our reading recs for books with unlikable heroines

• Our RAD recs of the week

**episode spoilers below**

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*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Books recommended by Roni:

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry

• The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

• The One You Can’t Forget by Roni Loren

• Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Books recommended by Dawn:

• By the Hour by Roni Loren

• In Death series by J.D. Robb

• Make Me Shiver by Marie Johnston

Books recommended by Pippa:

• Always Only You by Chloe Liese

• After Hours by Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

• The One Who Loves You by Pippa Grant

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• Paper Ghosts by Julie Heaberlin (Dawn’s rec)

• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Roni’s Rec)

Other books mentioned:

• Stud in the Stacks by Pippa Grant

• Flirting with the Frenemy by Pippa Grant

• Irresistible Trouble by Pippa Grant

• Mr. McHottie by Pippa Grant

• Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Other things mentioned:

• The Proposal (movie)

• Vampire Academy TV show (Peacock)

Visit Pippa on her website

Find us online:

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Another note: Because we are both in the publishing industry, sometimes the books we recommend might be by an author we know personally, an author who shares a publisher, editor, or agent with Roni, or an author whom Dawn has edited. Publishing is a small world, so that will happen from time to time. However, we guarantee that we only recommend books we love. We have not been asked to promote any of these books and none are paid ads. However, some books we review may be ARCs (advanced reading copies provided by publishers to reviewers for honest reviews.)

Episode 13: Let's Get Nerdy - Setting Reading Challenges & Goals for 2022

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode #13 

Episode Title: Let’s Get Nerdy - Setting 2022 Reading Challenges & Goals

Release Date: Dec. 31, 2021

Episode Summary: 

It’s one of our favorite times of the year—time to set new reading goals and challenges for 2022! Roni is sharing the many nerdy reading challenges that she’s tackling this coming year, and Dawn is firmly anti-challenge but has chosen some goals to enhance her reading year. Also, as always, we have our RAD reading recs of the week!

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading
  
  
  

Highlights:

• One of us declares New Year’s their favorite holiday

• The difference between a reading challenge and a reading goal

• Can you count a DNF in a reading challenge?

• Dawn’s audiobook goal

• Roni’s book subscription addiction & Dawn tries to stage an intervention

• Reading goal suggestions

• The pros and cons of reading challenges

• The personality type that fits best with reading challenges

• The book Dawn flat out refused to read in school

• The Pizza Hut Book-It Challenge was our 80s jam

• Roni’s experience with her Read Wide challenge

• One of us has strong feelings about the randomness of some reading challenges

• Roni talks about the personal growth of not finishing one of her reading challenges this year (Update: since recording, she finished it because…personal growth is hard. :) )

• How to choose the right reading challenge for you

• Creating or customizing your own challenge

• Read Your Way to 10k (words not kilometers)

• Dawn’s reading goals

• The Bookish Subscription challenge

• The Indie Author challenge

• The Romance Roots/Fated Mates challenge

• Roni’s reading goals

• RAD Reading recs of the week

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*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Reading Challenges mentioned:

• Dawn’s Read Your Way to 10k goal (download)

• RAD Romance Reading Challenge (download)

• Roni’s Read Wide challenge

• Roni’s TBR Backlog challenge

• Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge

• Roni’s Bookish Subscription challenge - read 12 books from bookish subscriptions

• Roni’s Indie Author challenge - read at least 10 indie-published books

• Roni’s Romance Roots challenge - read 12 foundational romances

• Big list of other reading challenges from A Little Read blog

Romance Roots challenge

Bookish subscription challenge

Indie Author Challenge

TBR Backlog challenge

Read Wide Challenge

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• “Two Tamales, One Tokarev, and a Lifetime of Broken Promises by Stacey B. Woodsen in the Guns and Tacos anthology (Dawn’s pic)

• One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Roni’s pic)

Other things mentioned:

• The Book Drop subscription (Roni’s getting the “Bubbly” box)

• The Bookworm Box subscription

• Book of the Month club

• Fated Mates podcast

• Roni’s Happy for Now newsletter

• The Romantic Movie Marathon 

• Strictly Ballroom

Find us online:

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

Roni’s Happy for Now newsletter

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Another note: Because we are both in the publishing industry, sometimes the books we recommend might be by an author we know personally, an author who shares a publisher, editor, or agent with Roni, or an author whom Dawn has edited. Publishing is a small world, so that will happen from time to time. However, we guarantee that we only recommend books we love. We have not been asked to promote any of these books and none are paid ads. However, some books we review may be ARCs (advanced reading copies provided by publishers to reviewers for honest reviews.)

Episode 7: Fuzzy Sock Books - Reading for Comfort

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode # 7 Reading Why

Episode Title: Fuzzy Sock Books - Reading for Comfort

Release Date: November 12, 2021

Grab your fuzzy socks, cozy blanket, and a cup of something warm. Today is all about fuzzy sock books, AKA comfort reading. We’re talking about the types of books that lend themselves best to comfort reading, sharing cozy bookish activities, and then giving you a pile of recommendations to snuggle up with, including our RAD recs of the week! 

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

Highlights: 

• Our favorite comfort reading categories

• The odd things we see posted on the neighborhood pages in our small towns

• Black moments vs. gray moments in a story

• What’s comforting can vary widely from person to person

• To reread or not to reread

• Watching the movie/TV show of a book (gasp!) first

• Dawn’s daughter’s shocking reading habit

• Roni’s deep secret she keeps from her husband ;)

• Comforting bookish activities

• Dawn gives us an update on her book journaling

• Dawn hunting down hero-inspired body wash

• Roni’s book-inspired food emergency

• Bookish girls’ night out 

• Our cozy book recommendations

• Roni is shocked--no, like literally with electricity--and blows out her microphone

• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

*episode spoilers ahead*

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Books recommended by Roni:

• Hope for the Holidays by Alison Kent

• Lady Bridget’s Diary by Maya Rodale

• Sex Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson

• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

• My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl

• Off the Clock by Roni Loren (yes, my book)

Books recommended by Dawn:

• Vangie Vale series by R.L. Syme

• Accidentally In Love with a Biker by Teri Anne Stanley

• The Outsiders or anything by S.E. Hinton

• Judy Blume: Forever, Tiger Eyes

• A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle (Dawn’s review)

• Stealing the Bride by Nadia Lee

• Sexy Sinner by Eva Charles

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• Secondhand Sinners by Genevieve Lynne (Dawn rec)

• My Life In France by Julia Child (Roni rec)

Other books mentioned:

• Cackle by Rachel Harrison

• The Suite Spot by Trish Doller 

• Merlin Raj and the Santa Algorithm by D. G. Priya

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

• The BFG by Roald Dahl

• YOU by Caroline Kepnes

• Normal People by Sally Rooney

• The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

• Cooking at Home by David Chang and Priya Krishna

• The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren

Other non-book recommendations:

• YOU the TV show (Netflix)

• Normal People the TV show (Hulu)

• Dragon Noodles recipe

• Julie and Julia movie

*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Find us online:

RAD Reading Facebook Page

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Another note: Because we are both in the publishing industry, sometimes the books we recommend might be by an author we know personally, an author who shares a publisher, editor, or agent with Roni, or an author whom Dawn has edited. Publishing is a small world, so that will happen from time to time. However, we guarantee that we only recommend books we love. We have not been asked to promote any of these books and none are paid ads. However, some books we review may be ARCs (advanced reading copies provided by publishers to reviewers for honest reviews.)