and i dreamt of the night and you.

trivia | purveyor of romance novel content | bridgerton fanfiction author | my links

[triviareads]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by trivia || romance bookstagram (@triviareads)

Follow me here for more romance novel content!

[jdeowrites]

An update: My adult romance debut!

I lowkey forgot to post this here LOL (subscribe to my Substack if you want immediate news!)

After years of publishing YA, I’m finally dipping my toes into adult. With a marriage of convenience romance novel! It features two people who are fed up with heartbreak, and with their families on their backs telling them to get married—so, naturally, they decide to marry each other to shut everyone up.

With no feelings involved. Obviously.

The book actually begins five years later, when they decide to secretly divorce. Which is a lot harder when your house becomes a revolving door for your extended family… and also when you start realizing maybe you’re not so indifferent towards each other as you thought.

The inspiration for this book was two-fold:

As a teen, I read countless romance novels. In particular, I loved marriage of convenience/arranged marriage romances. Especially modern ones. But all the ones I read centered white characters in often convoluted situations that required a marriage. Like, so-and-so won’t get his inheritance unless he finds a bride by his 30th birthday. Or, these two celebrities have to get fake-married for career branding. Stuff like that. And don’t get me wrong, I was still having a good time—but, I was also constantly thinking, “where are the regular brown people at?” People tend to associate arranged marriage with South Asian cultures the most, so why wasn’t anyone writing it? (The real question I should have been asking was: why wasn’t anyone publishing South Asian people? 💀). Regardless, the idea sparked. Which makes this book one of my oldest story ideas ever!

Many years ago I read a romance novel with an HEA that, deliberately or not, had an implication I strongly disagreed with (I will not name the book, as that is IMPOLITE. But it was controversial to be sure.). So, like many writers, I decided I would obliquely write The Thing I Personally Wanted to See. I was interested in what it would take to keep a marriage together when confronted with “irreconcilable” personal differences (IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES was actually the title of this book before it sold). Would that even be possible? If so, in what situation? How far can love really take us in the face of such dilemmas? And, should we be willing to lose a part of ourselves to be with someone? To me, these questions form the soul of the story.

The romance world has changed since I first had these ideas. Much of what I was thinking about, has now been explored by other writers. But I still wanted to add my own spin. And most importantly, I still felt like I had something to say.

So I hope you’ll check it out—next year! Not only do I have a US publisher but i also have a CANADIAN publisher this time! Very exciting for me, personally.

I’ll have more to share as we draw closer to publication (we're currently starting the cover creation process!!). In the meantime, you can add it on Goodreads:

Add to Goodreads

P.S. Writing this book made me truly appreciate that romance writing is VERY hard. A whole book centered around a love story—the plot supporting the romance?? It has to be a VERY compelling interpersonal dynamic. The ending is already known, so the execution has to be strong enough to keep readers invested?? Man, that tension better be UNHINGED levels of good.

I am not sure I managed these things. But, I tried my very best, and I had fun, so I hope some other people will have fun reading it!

P.P.S. To the regular romance readers who want to know, yes, it’s open door. :)

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kumar

Rating: 4.5/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: July 21st

My review:

The most sexually-tense, yearning-fueled road trip romance I have EVER read— road trips romances often tend towards wacky shenanigans and hijinks, and while Just A Highland Fling does have its share of sheep roadblocks and car troubles, it's more quiet, gentle... and achingly tender than you'd imagine.

Neelu is back in Scotland to attend her estranged dad's wedding. There was never any blowup or definitive moment of severed ties between them— they just quietly drifted apart, and vaguely came back into each other's lives a few months earlier. That hurt is very much unresolved, and Neelu accidentally lets slip a not-so-flattering character assessment about her father to his wife-to-be.... who runs out on him at church the next day.

Enter Jacob, the hot stranger she hooked up with the night before, except he isn't a stranger, sees Neelu's dad as a father figure, and is QUITE resentful of Neelu for not being involved in her father's life. Here's the thing: Neelu and Jacob didn't just have a quick, fumbling hook-up; you really got the sense these were two touch-starved, emotionally closed-off people connecting (sad but hot, if that makes sense??) on a deeper level, so there is a sense of *betrayal* on Jacob's side, while Neelu struggles to convey the kind of complicated relationship she and her father had. BUT that doesn't mean the sexual tension disappears! It ratchets up even as they go on a road trip with her dad to find his runaway bride. Like, I genuinely love that these two don't fight the attraction, only refrain from acting on it during the more inappropriate times (see: dad in the next room lol) and Neelu finally gets a chance to slowly connect with her father.

And I do think the execution comes down to the author writing two believably Grown Adult characters in their thirties who aren't paragons—Neelu is impulsive, Jacob is judgemental, and neither of them really let people in, so for the two of them to find this connection.... well, it was bound to be something special from the start, even if they're convinced it's only temporary, or they're afraid to commit to long-distance. Also, I think it's telling I didn't scream earlier about how Jacob is a HOT SCOTTISH-INDIAN KILTED BAGPIPER AND POETRY PROFESSOR WHO WEARS GLASSES AND SWEATERS WITH ELBOW PATCHES.

The sex:

Yeah this shit is hot. Naina Kumar imbues every sex scene with this erotic longing and DRAWS IT OUT, even though Neelu and Jacob don't take very long to get down to business. He's gruff but gentle, a little take-charge, and Neelu discovers just how much she likes being told what to do, and how much she enjoys pushing his boundaries (shoutout to an excellent clothing store changing room scene).

Overall:

Come for the kilt fetishization, stay for a tender love story that will probably end up being my favorite tradpub contemporary romance of 2026!

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Die for Me by Shirlene Obuobi

Rating: 4.5/5 Heat Level: 3.25/5 Pub Date: July 14th

My review:

This is the sexy paranormal romance-slash-thriller I'm HERE for— I'm actually a huge scaredy cat, but the way Julian slowly but surely seduces you as he seduces Sean, was nothing short of MASTERFUL, even as you're scared of what's to come, but like, in a hot way.

Julian seems almost too good to be true when Sean first meets him at her friend's ex-husband's wedding— he's a younger, uber-hot art gallery owner with Money. And look, Sean is a catch-and-a-half herself; this book doesn't suffer from the lack of a strong heroine POV as some single-POV romances are wont to do for self-insert purposes. Sean is in her thirties and is an established surgeon who sees herself as the rational, pragmatic type. Sean's hang-ups about Julian are less based in insecurity (for age reasons or otherwise), and more in the fact that she's had a shitty experience in the past, and she kind of thought herself above going for a younger man in a time when her colleagues are marrying twenty-somethings... until she does.

Julian coaxes Sean out of her shell with an openness and emotional maturity, not to mention the kind of frank sexuality that has her (and you) REELING. It truly is a fantasy that slowly evolves into something dreamier... and hazier, as Sean starts to forget certain interactions. The eroticism of this unknown, the niggling sense of doubt... and eventually fear, this invokes is stunningly-written by Shirlene Obuobi.

I won't spoil too much, but you can probably guess the flavor of paranormal this romance is— still, despite only getting Sean's POV, Julian isn't consigned to just being a beautiful, tormented monster she has to be Fine with; He's evolving through the book, even though you can barely catch a whiff of a flaw at first, and he ultimately grapples with both morality and mortality where Sean is at risk.

The sex:

I would say the sex is more (not to overuse the word but) erotic than explicit, though it is VERY MUCH open door. It's just very dreamy and almost like... there's a filter? Which adds to the erotic horror of it all.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Ember by Naima Simone

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 4/5 Pub Date: July 14th

Premise:

After Ember's father, the CEO of a fashion empire and a more covert drug empire dies, her wicked stepbrother Asad takes over with one caveat: he has sixty days to marry, and he wants to marry Ember, not only because she's the genius behind the drugs they manufacture, and also because he's always wanted her.

My review:

The most batshit, horniest, and darkest Cinderella-inspired romance I've ever read and I mean all those words in a complimentary sense. In a time when even mafia romances are starting to feel sanitized, Naima Simone goes all-in on BOTH a hero and heroine who are morally-grey, fucked up, and twisted... which makes them perfect for each other.

In many ways, this feels like such a classic mafia romance because daddy's dead, there's a criminal empire succession crisis AND marriage contract to be fulfilled... which is how Ember is coerced into an engagement with her hot evil stepbrother and childhood tormentor Asad. Where Ember differs from your standard mafia romance heroine is that she's willingly taking part in the organized crime element— she puts her multiple degrees to good use by creating the designer drugs that fund her family's empire. Her test subjects are... deserving, and she isn't afraid to put more lethal compounds to good use. In that sense, she's Asad's perfect counterpart, even though she hates his guts FOR GOOD REASON. He was her bully growing up, and his mother, the wicked stepmother of this story, abused her. I think the dark romance of it all allows you to buy into Ember falling in love with Asad despite this, though it does take a minute— AS IT SHOULD.

Naima Simone writes moments of violence with genuine shock factor where Asad is concerned, and in a way, it feels refreshing (see: what I said earlier about sanitized mafia romances). On the other hand, he's actually pretty damn down-bad for Ember from the start, even though he kind of(?) tries to push her away... with death threats. And despite their initial enmity, his devotion to Ember almost never wavers. Almost.

The sex:

If there's one thing mafia romances love, it's a virgin and, I guess, a surprise virgin, so the sex is actually more tender than you think... dare I say, ROMANTIC, as far as sex between two stone-cold killers go, and the dirty talk is off the charts insane— I'm telling y'all, Naima is a romance author who is So Good at writing dirty talk in a way I'm seeing less and less these days.

Overall:

You want something fun (and funny!) and dark and hot, this is your book, and I would highly highly recommend you try Huntsman as well as Ember.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Die for Me by Shirlene Obuobi

Rating: 4.5/5 Heat Level: 3.25/5 Pub Date: July 14th

My review:

This is the sexy paranormal romance-slash-thriller I'm HERE for— I'm actually a huge scaredy cat, but the way Julian slowly but surely seduces you as he seduces Sean, was nothing short of MASTERFUL, even as you're scared of what's to come, but like, in a hot way.

Julian seems almost too good to be true when Sean first meets him at her friend's ex-husband's wedding— he's a younger, uber-hot art gallery owner with Money. And look, Sean is a catch-and-a-half herself; this book doesn't suffer from the lack of a strong heroine POV as some single-POV romances are wont to do for self-insert purposes. Sean is in her thirties and is an established surgeon who sees herself as the rational, pragmatic type. Sean's hang-ups about Julian are less based in insecurity (for age reasons or otherwise), and more in the fact that she's had a shitty experience in the past, and she kind of thought herself above going for a younger man in a time when her colleagues are marrying twenty-somethings... until she does.

Julian coaxes Sean out of her shell with an openness and emotional maturity, not to mention the kind of frank sexuality that has her (and you) REELING. It truly is a fantasy that slowly evolves into something dreamier... and hazier, as Sean starts to forget certain interactions. The eroticism of this unknown, the niggling sense of doubt... and eventually fear, this invokes is stunningly-written by Shirlene Obuobi.

I won't spoil too much, but you can probably guess the flavor of paranormal this romance is— still, despite only getting Sean's POV, Julian isn't consigned to just being a beautiful, tormented monster she has to be Fine with; He's evolving through the book, even though you can barely catch a whiff of a flaw at first, and he ultimately grapples with both morality and mortality where Sean is at risk.

The sex:

I would say the sex is more (not to overuse the word but) erotic than explicit, though it is VERY MUCH open door. It's just very dreamy and almost like... there's a filter? Which adds to the erotic horror of it all.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[triviareads]

Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kumar has many things I love in a romance, namely

a) sad hot man in kilt

b) the sad —> horny pipeline goes HARD

c) insta bang

[triviareads]

—from Kiss An Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

[triviareads]

you know, if they bothered to adapt a queer romance or a BIPOC romance (or... a queer BIPOC romance), I guarantee Colleen Hoover wouldn't be producing it.

[triviareads]

Any thoughts on the new Sense and Sensibility trailer?

Full disclosure, I haven't read the book and I've watched the 1995 version like... once.

I mean this isn't really reinventing the wheel on Austen adaptations— for better and for worse. I did laugh when Col. Brandon is GRIMLY like "your sister seems happy" to Elinor because that tracks for the guy. Speaking of which, I thiiiink they've succeeded in casting a Marianne/Brandon who look their age gap.

I also think it's great someone has finally given us a hot Austen mom. If she married in her late teens/early twenties and her eldest daughter is barely 20 in the beginning of SaS, there is no reason Mrs. Dashwood can't be a 40-something milf portrayed by Caitriona Balfe lolol.

[tjalexandernyc]

Out Feb. 9, 2027

Illustration by Liam Eisenberg. Art direction by James Iacobelli.

Synopsis:

From the nationally bestselling author of Chef's Kiss and A Lady for All Seasons, a COVID-conscious trans romance in which a cryptid hunter searching for a mythical lake monster finds love with a grumpy skeptic. Twenty-something Nathan Camber is fresh out of both grad school and ideas on what to do next. Dealing with a dire job market is hard enough as a gay neurodivergent man—so he doesn’t. Instead, he decides to pursue his lifelong hyperfixation: cryptids. Leaving the city behind for the rugged, pine-scented landscape of upstate New York, Nathan sets his sights on the Salamander Man, a Nessie-like local legend with none of the Loch Ness clout. (Start small, his therapist always tells him!) But Nathan’s new fifty-something landlord, Mack, is a grumpy, grizzled, handsome skeptic who wants to protect his peaceful isolation and hard-earned safety deep in the woods. Nathan refuses to settle for a lackluster, normie life, though, and convinces the stoic recluse to help him find the creature. As the hunt (and their growing attraction) heats up, Nathan and Mack realize there’s more than one mystery to uncover in the lake. But if the secrets they’re keeping from each other come to light, they might both get dragged under. Kinky hijinks and monstrous mayhem abound in this queer, trans love story for our bizarre modern age.

Preorder at your local shop or retailer of choice.

This Bookshop link gives me a tiny bit of $.

You can also order a signed, personalized copy from my local nonprofit bookstore Word Up Community Bookshop.

Content notes here. (Contains spoilers.)

[tjalexandernyc]

I don’t know of any tradpub romances that include the pandemic except as a fleeting reference, something that happened in the past, but there weren’t any tradpub T4T romances when Chef’s Choice was published, same with Triple Sec and poly romances. But I got to tell you, there are times when I really wish I wasn’t alone in the pool. I don’t have any data proving that readers want a story like this, or even that readers won’t absolutely hate it. I only have a belief based on anecdotal evidence that there are people out there who need this kind of book. By the time Love and Lake Monsters hits shelves, it will be nearly 7 years since the pandemic started, and for a non-zero number of people, it never ended. That’s a harsh reality to make sense of in a light, entertaining romance, so obviously I put in a cryptid.

wrote a little bit about the experience of this book finally coming out next year in my newsletter

[triviareads]

maybe I say this as a fan of the historical romance genre but I feel like the conversation surrounding the *yearning* brought on by the inability to touch one another freely in public (or in general!) in historical romance has been played out?

I'm more curious about how that yearning and the inherent taboo of certain body parts being seen, or making contact, might have contributed to to eroticization of those body parts, and possibly some kind of fetish— leg and feet (covered, and in women's case, you probably couldn't even make out their shape under their skirts), hair (women only put their hair down in private and among a select few people), and hands (gloves were very common).

[triviareads]

from @asterionides

[triviareads]

maybe I say this as a fan of the historical romance genre but I feel like the conversation surrounding the *yearning* brought on by the inability to touch one another freely in public (or in general!) in historical romance has been played out?

I'm more curious about how that yearning and the inherent taboo of certain body parts being seen, or making contact, might have contributed to to eroticization of those body parts, and possibly some kind of fetish— leg and feet (covered, and in women's case, you probably couldn't even make out their shape under their skirts), hair (women only put their hair down in private and among a select few people), and hands (gloves were very common).

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: June 23rd

My review:

A charming, lighthearted debut historical romance! It's been really interesting to see the various paths historicals have taken in the last couple years, and Sophia Benoit offers an updated take on some 2000s-2010s classics: a wallflower heroine with a niche hobby and potential career, a rake hero but like, RESPECTFULLY, and sex positivity all around.

Harriet is a gal with a plan and that plan involves publishing her dictionary of slang (and yes, that includes dirty words) with the help of a man she's been corresponding with, but has never met. She plans to meet the man at a ball, except she accidentally ends up in a compromising position with *notorious rake* Alexander... who was supposed to meet her (hot) sister to discuss business. Allegedly. Harriest decides to take matters into her own hands and KIDNAPS Alexander, and they abscond to Gretna Green for a fraught elopement that is also... KINDA horny lolol.

Alexander is a rake in the sense that he is VERY charming and flits from lover to lover, but genuinely likes women just the way they tend to like him (see: his treatment and the text's treatment of his mistress Giuliana, a woman who has her own thoughts, feelings, and is not... isolated from Harriet or boxed into her own category in the grand scheme of the madonna-whore thing this genre loves to perpetuate). Alexander is a nice guy! But still a rake, so he's lowkey horrified he fell for this rando This Fast. It's not insta-love, to be clear, and Alexander and Harriet slowly but surely get to really know each other as they navigate sex lessons, double-daddy issues, and the general awkwardness of being married to someone you barely know but still... wanna bang.

My one thing about this book is that I felt like it dragged at some parts— it clocked in at 400+ pages, which is a lot for a romance novel, and at times, it felt like certain subplots were only half-introduced, and therefore half-resolved.

The sex:

I really liked how they went about their sex lessons— Harriet has the dirty vocabulary but no hands-on experience, while Alexander is too horny and down-bad to refuse her *innocent queries*. This predictably leads to more than one pine-jaculation situation on his part lolol. I also liked the de-emphasis on PiV sex because Harriet is like... naturally curious about all aspects of sex, vs. the one act.

Overall:

If you're looking for the historical romance equivalent of a beach read, look no further! This book is light, fun, but REALLY gets across all the pining, yearning vibes we've come to expect from this genre.

Thank you to Sophia Benoit and Zando for the advanced copies.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: June 23rd

My review:

A charming, lighthearted debut historical romance! It's been really interesting to see the various paths historicals have taken in the last couple years, and Sophia Benoit offers an updated take on some 2000s-2010s classics: a wallflower heroine with a niche hobby and potential career, a rake hero but like, RESPECTFULLY, and sex positivity all around.

Harriet is a gal with a plan and that plan involves publishing her dictionary of slang (and yes, that includes dirty words) with the help of a man she's been corresponding with, but has never met. She plans to meet the man at a ball, except she accidentally ends up in a compromising position with *notorious rake* Alexander... who was supposed to meet her (hot) sister to discuss business. Allegedly. Harriest decides to take matters into her own hands and KIDNAPS Alexander, and they abscond to Gretna Green for a fraught elopement that is also... KINDA horny lolol.

Alexander is a rake in the sense that he is VERY charming and flits from lover to lover, but genuinely likes women just the way they tend to like him (see: his treatment and the text's treatment of his mistress Giuliana, a woman who has her own thoughts, feelings, and is not... isolated from Harriet or boxed into her own category in the grand scheme of the madonna-whore thing this genre loves to perpetuate). Alexander is a nice guy! But still a rake, so he's lowkey horrified he fell for this rando This Fast. It's not insta-love, to be clear, and Alexander and Harriet slowly but surely get to really know each other as they navigate sex lessons, double-daddy issues, and the general awkwardness of being married to someone you barely know but still... wanna bang.

My one thing about this book is that I felt like it dragged at some parts— it clocked in at 400+ pages, which is a lot for a romance novel, and at times, it felt like certain subplots were only half-introduced, and therefore half-resolved.

The sex:

I really liked how they went about their sex lessons— Harriet has the dirty vocabulary but no hands-on experience, while Alexander is too horny and down-bad to refuse her *innocent queries*. This predictably leads to more than one pine-jaculation situation on his part lolol. I also liked the de-emphasis on PiV sex because Harriet is like... naturally curious about all aspects of sex, vs. the one act.

Overall:

If you're looking for the historical romance equivalent of a beach read, look no further! This book is light, fun, but REALLY gets across all the pining, yearning vibes we've come to expect from this genre.

Thank you to Sophia Benoit and Zando for the advanced copies.

[lilyflxwers]

ok i absolutely need to know what accents u all have pls reblog and tell me or comment or whatever I must know

[triviareads]

What's the difference between a romance and a love story? Bc I have seen it being promoved as different things

Romance is a clearly-defined genre. Romance Writers of America has a pretty clear-cut definition that consists of two basic elements that I'm copying from here:

A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as they want as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.

An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

The latter is what we'd regard as the HEA (happily ever after) or HFN sometimes (happy for now).

A love story can occur within any genre— like even a thriller or literary fiction or women's fiction can have a love story within it, as in, people are falling in love or there is a romantic element while the plot goes down, and the love story would (likely) be a secondary plot.