I asked this question on Bluesky a bit ago, and was enchanted with all the answers (and all the covers).

What romance novel could you do a 10 minute presentation on with no warning? 

Vintage old skool romances welcome!

When I first posted this back in September 2024, I thought it would be Midsummer Magic by Catherine Coulter, ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) the first romance I read, and one that “lives in the inside foyer of my brain, ready to be called upon.”

The arranged marriage, the absolute mismatch of the cover copy and the story itself, THE CREAM. Seriously, the use of a form of lube – one of the first instances I’d seen in romance, ever, and this was in the early 90s – really imprinted on my tender, naive brain. It indicated both a sense of regard if not caring from Phillip, the hero, who didn’t want to be in the marriage any more than Frances did. (This is the one where she disguises herself as a dowdy bluestocking to avoid said marriage. It didn’t work, obviously.)

The hero is rapey, but also aware of female signs of arousal, and doesn’t want to hurt her. Blew my mind when I read it.

But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, and now that I’ve come up with Nefarious Plans, I think I’d probably do 10 minutes on the value placed on home management skills in Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens, and Born in Ice by Nora Roberts.

(Sidenote: the first in the Born In trilogy, Born in Fire, features a hero I think of as proto-Roarke.)

Devil’s Bride is the one where Devil, as is the case with all the Cynsters, is obsessed with marriage and family, and tries to convince Honoria, whom he inadvertently compromised, that they’re getting married. (Honoria: Nope.) (Devil: Yes, we are, have you not noticed I’m a duke and I get my way a lot?) (Honoria: Still no.)

But when he brings her to his family seat after they’ve been discovered, the household has to go into high gear to prepare to receive everyone for a funeral. There are, to put it mildly, A LOT of Cynsters. Honoria pitches in – there’s a line about “lists, and derived lists for cross-checking,” and let me tell you how much I identified with Honoria in that moment. I wrote a whole essay about it: “Organized Caretaking: A Brief Love Letter to Honoria Anstruther-Weatherby.”

That same level of organized caretaking is present in Brianna, who runs a bed and breakfast in Ireland. She grew up in a cold and loveless home with a volatile mother, and even in the cover copy, it says, “Brianna Concannon is a woman with a rare gift for creating a home.”

I could most definitely do a 10 minute presentation on either or both as examples of valuing the emotional and physical labor of maintaining a home for people.

I asked the SBTB reviewers, and got some really interesting responses.

Claudia: I think I am the resident expert on later Meredith Duran books! Especially Luck Be a Lady and Sins of Lord Lockwood!

Luck Be a Lady is tricky because it’s bad boy/crime lord hero and my opinions have shifted yet I still kinda like him, LOL. So I guess the presentation would be about learning your gaps in understanding and reconciling loving a problematic book or main characters.

Also a study on the role the Antipodes have played in romance, with a homage to The Count of Monte Cristo. That’s for Sins of Lord Lockwood.

Carrie: Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise because it is peak banter, has equal focus on male and female arcs, speaks to my personal struggles with body image, and features people who are total equals and who stand up for one another in the best ways.

Best of all at the end we find out not only the fates of the main characters but also their found family friends – and in that section multiple different kinds of happy endings are explored including staying single, which is given as much validation as all the romantic pairings. Also the main character starts the book not wanting kids and ends the book not wanting kids, and not having kids, and this is presented as a completely valid option.

Shana: Better Off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon. I will talk to anyone who shows the slightest curiosity about my favorite lesbian vampire sorority book. It’s just so entertaining and camp and fun. And every time I’ve seen Weatherspoon at book events, I ask if I’m getting another book in the series.

So, what about you? What romance could you give a spontaneous 10 minute presentation about, and why? 

Special note: If you’re a member of After Dark, I’m going to arrange presentation nights for us on Zoom, where we will actually give these presentations live, most likely with beverages hot and possibly strong. I’m definitely going to do one, and Amanda is on board, so if you think you’d like to tell us 10 minutes of your deep thoughts on a particular romance novel, stay tuned for that! And if you’re not in After Dark, you can join!