Annie Jones (0:01)

Your message amplified. Ready to share your message with the world? Start your podcast journey with podbean. Podbean Podbean Podbean Podbean the AI powered all in one podcast platform. Thousands of businesses and enterprises trust Podbean to launch their podcasts. Launch your podcast on podbean today. My school uses Podbean. My church too. I love it. I really do. Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. As Julie always said, Apple podcasts is figuratively littered with the bodies of people whose last words were how hard can it be? Linda Holmes Back after this. I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm recommending some rom coms for your February reading. Do you love listening to from the Front Porch every week? I hope so. Otherwise, why are you here? You can spread the word by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone. Look for from the Front Porch, scroll down until you see. Write us a review and then tell us what you think. Here's a recent review. A Book Club in My Pocket As a busy teacher who loves books, sometimes it's hard for me to find a local book club that works with my schedule. But thanks to from the Front Porch, I now have a weekly book club that goes with me everywhere. Annie and friends are thoughtful, funny, and knowledgeable, and I love getting to adopt the Bookshelf as my own faraway indie bookstore. There's something for everyone in these episodes. Reviews, recaps Recommendations for the rom com Fantasy, horror and general lit lover. Sit down, press play, and stay a while. You won't regret it. I quite literally couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you so much to this kind reviewer for totally understanding why we do what we do and why what we do. Thank you so much. And thank you to all of the reviewers who've left kind words and thoughtful reviews for our show. We're so grateful anytime you share from the Front Porch with your friends. Thank you for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore. Now back to the show. Sometimes you just want a good book list. We know this because customers come in the store or email Aaron all the time asking for recommendations based on a specific genre or criteria. A bookseller's favorite task, at least in my experience, is to go around the shop and put together a stack of books for a customer who's on the hunt, even if they don't buy every book we pick. The fun is in the discovery. So every so often on these episodes of from the Front Porch, that's what we're trying to mimic. These Annie recommends episodes are like me walking around putting together a book stack for you. Every so often I put together a book stack around a certain theme. So last month we talked about book club favorites or book club suggestions. This month, in honor of February, I've made a short list of some of my favorite romantic comedies, and I'm going to do my best to stay true to that term, making sure there's plenty of calm with my rom. And just like I would never overwhelm customers with a towering stack of titles, I'm not going to overwhelm you either. I want to give you five books I think you'd love, whether you're a regular romance reader or attempting the genre for the first time. And if you're looking for me, even more recommendations including backlist titles. This episode is going to talk about quite a few Front List if you want some backlist titles, I would encourage you to listen to episode 463. It's from this time last year where I covered the same territory but with totally different selections. I still stand by that episode. I went and looked at the notes before I made my list for this episode, and because of the fantastic books I picked in episode 463, I tried to go a different direction and focus mostly on front list titles for this this year's episode. So if you want more romance or romance romantic comedy book recommendations, you can listen to episode 463. Let's kick things off with a beloved author, Rainbow Roll. So you might recognize Rainbow Roll from Eleanor and park from back in the day attachments, perhaps from even further back in the day. I'm not sure what she wrote first. Actually, I love Rainbow Roll and when I saw in my catalog last year 2024 that she was releasing a book in the summer, I got super excited. And I have just the fondest memories of reading Slow Dance. That is her latest book, Slow Dance by Rainbow Roll came out last summer. I have the fondest memories of reading that book. I went through a season and who knows, maybe, maybe I'm still in this season, but a lot. Last year I took myself to lunch at Longhorn and yeah, read a book while I sat at the Longhorn and that's a little insight into me. And so. And so I took Slow Dance to Longhorn and read it there and it was delightful. It's about Carrie and Shiloh this is, I suppose, what would qualify as a second chance romance. Which, if you were to tell me, if you were to give me a list of romance tropes, romantic comedy tropes, I'm not sure second chance romance would be a favorite of mine. I'm not sure that's one I would list. That being said, I loved this book. So Carrie and Shiloh were high school sweethearts, friends. They were in this great kind of group of three. Didn't we all have a group of three in high school or middle school that we hung out with? And then after high school they kind of parted ways, in some cases married or were in relationship with other people and now they're back living in their hometown. I think part of the reason I loved this book so much is because, as I think most of you know, I have written a book being published this year about staying put. And one thing I think Rainbow Roll does really well is she writes books about her place. And her place is Nebraska. And you don't get a lot of. You don't get a lot of romance novels set in Nebraska. And I really like that. Rainbow Roll is true to her home and to her place. And these characters in turn are also true to their place. And they're trying to figure out how navigate adult life in the place where we grew up. And how do we navigate an adult relationship when we only were ever maybe a couple of teenagers in like or in love with each other. I thought this was fantastic because it's a sneaky rom com. I'm not even sure I would shelve it. And I don't think it is actually shelved in the romance section of our bookstore. I think I would shelve it in general fiction because to me there's so much here like an Amy Pypel or Kathryn Heine book. There's so much here about family and adult friendships and relationships that I think there's more to this story than the romance. But the romance is really sweet and lovely and it made me think maybe I do like second chance romance books after all. I thought it was fantastic. If you are new to the genre, this could be a place where I might start you. Because it's not. It's not entirely a traditional romance novel. And there's. There's another one of these on the list that we're going to talk about. But I think this would appeal to a wide range of readers. And one of the things I loved is maybe it's because I'm getting older. I will turn actually, I was going to say, I will return. I will turn 39. I am already 39. When you listen to this, I will be 39 years old. And so maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I do like when I encounter a romance book that features adult characters. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a YA rom com. I love books about people who are trying to figure their stuff out in their angsty 20s. Like I, I do like those. But there's something about adults who already know who they are. Carrie and Shiloh know who they are, and now they've got to figure out, can we be together? We know who we are as individuals. Can we be together as a team? And I think that's a really fun thing to play with. So that is Slow D by Rainbow Roll. Another author who I might put in this rainbow role, Amy Papel category, where they're like, toeing that line. They're right on the line of romance writers or women's fiction writers. And one day I don't have the capacity for it, but one day maybe I'll write an essay or do a deep dive into why. Even still, we insist, me included, I, I, Annie B. Jones, insist on using the phrase women's fiction. And I don't know why, except sometimes it's the only thing that's appropriate. I don't know why I do that. One day I'll investigate it. For now, just know that I think there's this whole group of authors who they're because they're writing about women, because they're writing about maybe in some cases motherhood, maybe in some cases women who are in careers, but specifically women, main characters, they find themselves maybe toeing the line, whether it's going to fall into romance or women's fiction. Linda Holmes is in this category. To me, you've heard me talk about her a lot the last couple of weeks, and that is because her new book, back after this, releases February 25th. I love Linda Holmes. You've heard me talk about following her career for a long time. I actually think even in high school I was reading I don't know what this says about me, but I was reading the Internet forum Television Without Pity. Does anybody remember that? I was reading that in high school. I was reading, I believe, Gilmore Girls recaps. And so Linda Holmes was a writer for Television Without Pity. And then she moved over to npr, works on their podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour. And she's a writer of some great romance novels, women's fiction novels. Evie Drake starts over and Flying solo, her new book and the reason I've mentioned her a lot over the last couple weeks is because it's been a minute since she's had a book out. And for me, back after this, her latest was one of my most highly anticipated novels. I've read it now and I loved it. I thought it was great. And listen, for me, not all romances are created equal. I started another romance novel that I did not enjoy. I'm kind of picky. I think I'm kind of picky about what I like in this genre and what I am drawn to are rich characters believable, relatively believable. I can suspend some of my belief. But like relatively believable points of conflict, communication troubles. I just want it to feel real and I want it to be witty. I want it to be funny. I need calm in my rom. I need comedy in my romance. And I think Linda Holmes delivers. So as you've heard me mention, this book is about Cecily. She's a podcaster. Linda Holmes certainly brings her own expertise to that and I found that fascinating. There's this great character named Eliza who maybe could have even played more of a role, but she kind of is this side character role. She's a wellness Instagram influencer. She's trying to navigate constantly changing algorithms and the two of them wind up becoming paired together for a podcast about blind dates and about almost maybe reminds me of something like Aziz Ansari's Modern romance where maybe adjusting expectations in order to open yourself up to the right person. And so Cecily and Eliza embark on this reluctantly, perhaps especially on Cecily's part, embark on this podcast project. All the while Cecily finds herself attracted to a neighbor she ran into named Will. Will is also a really fun, well drawn character. That's again, what makes a rom com work for me. There's a reason When Harry Met Sally is a classic. There's a reason you've Got Mail is a classic. You might hate Joe Fox, but he's interesting. Like, at least he's interesting. I'd rather have an interesting male protagonist male lead any day than somebody who just is a bump on a log. And so Will is a fun male lead in this book and the podcasting of it all, the social media of it all, I actually found really timely and interesting. So there's a lot going on here and a lot more than the romance, which was the great thing about Slow dance as well. So that is back after this by Linda Holmes. Now hear me out. This next book I think romance readers are going to balk. I think romance readers are going to cringe in their cars. I'm gonna have people metaphorically yelling. Maybe you will yell in your car. I don't know. Not everybody's gonna agree with this pic. But here's what you need to know about. When I'm doing an episode like this, I'm literally imagining myself going around the store and picking a stack. And the thing is, I don't always fully know who the customer is. If I know the customer is a romance reader, this stack is gonna look different. But I'm assuming this is a customer I've never seen before because I've not seen most of you before. And a customer comes in and it's Valentine's Day. Ish. It's February. It's gross outside. But we're hanging hearts in our windows. And she comes in. It's probably a she. Let's be real. She comes in and she says, I don't really know what I'm looking for, but maybe something a little. Something with a little bit of romance. I'm not a huge romance reader. I don't read a ton of that. But, you know, tis the season. That's what I'm kind of looking for. And so that's why I would do something like slow dance or back after this. Because, you know, Emily Henry is the obvious go to. But what for a reader who maybe doesn't typically read this genre, maybe the last book they read is the Women by Kristin Hannah. What can I hand them? And so the third book I would put in this stack, get ready to yell if you want, is the Ministry of Time by Kayleigh Ann Bradley. The reason I would put this here, this is a book that I talked about last year, I think a lot. I feel like I talked about it a lot specifically with Olivia. This is a book that we talked about because basically it was this weird. It is so weird, this weird mashup kind of novel that appealed to Olivia me. Aaron Keela might have even read, like scratched the metaphorical itch for a variety of staffers. And that is why it would make a book in a book stack because it's bound to appeal to some part of your readerly interests. If you forgot about this one, let me tell you about it. So the Ministry of Time came out last May and essentially it's Bradley's pandemic fever dream come to life. Basically during the pandemic, she became obsessed with this real life and kind of sort of handsome. You can judge for yourself. Arctic explorer named Graham Gore. So he's an Arctic explorer. He's a real, real person. And she became obsessed. And as an enneagram5, I know what it's like to become obsessed with something and to have a hyper fixation. Graham Gore became her hyper fixation. And through the pandemic, she started writing him as the main character, the main protagonist in a time travel adventure romance spy novel. And her friends read it and she sent it to a publisher and then it got published, and here we are. The book is narrated by an unnamed British Cambodian civil servant whose serves as Gore's bridge to the modern era. So this is like a traditional time travel book. The thing that it reminded me most of and that I frequently referenced, I think, when talking about it last year was the American romantic comedy Kate and Leopold, which, if you haven't seen that, go give it a go. I rewatched it, I believe, last year and. Not bad. I have some questions about Hugh Jackman right now. Don't we all? But I did really like that movie growing up. I loved that movie. So Kate and Leopold, starring Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman. It's kind of the same type of premise where Graham Gore finds himself, this Arctic explorer finds himself living in the present. And so this civil servant has been assigned to him because it's this time travel government program. This civil servant has been assigned to him as a bridge to connect him to the modern era and the modern community. And we don't really know. And that's where this book takes some interesting turns that perhaps some readers like and some people, some readers don't, but we don't really know. Is this time travel experiment or project by the British government, is it nefarious? Is it scientific? Is it governmental? Like, what. What's going on here? So there's a little bit of, like, Alias, like, there's a little bit of what's going on here? Why are we doing this? Which takes a turn probably three quarters of the way through the book. I thought the first 75% of this was just a romp, just a blast, just absolutely fun. And who knows what Kayleigh and Bradley's initial drafts looks like, looked like, but this was a fun time. And then the back quarter delves more into maybe the spy adventure part of the book, which again, is why I would put this book in this category. It's not shelved in our romance section. I wouldn't necessarily. The first thing I said about this book wouldn't necessarily be that it's a romantic comedy, but there are romantic comedy elements. There are Definitely comedic elements, which I love. And it is time travel. It's adventure, like, oh, Romancing the Stone or something like that. Like, where you've got this great chemistry with a main couple, but there's also lots of other adventures and shenanigans going on. And so you might be in your car yelling, that's not a romance novel. That's not a romantic comedy. But I do think there is part of it that is romantic comedy. And if I have a customer coming in asking for recommendations, I think I'd throw this one in there just to see if it's the one that might strike them best. So this is a spy novel, an adventure story, time travel, Maybe Outlander fans would really like it. I had a good time with this, and as I recall, most other staffers did too, and everybody kind of liked something different. So I liked the romantic time travel elements. Just watching Graham Gore kind of try to wrap his brain around the modern era was pretty fun. I think Olivia liked maybe the Spy and the Time Travel. So I think every reader is going to find something different to like about this one. And it's been a minute since I've read something that almost defies genre, so kudos to Kayleigh Ann Bradley. I felt like this was pretty original. This is the Ministry of Time by Kayleigh Ann Bradley. Okay, those would be my first three. Now we're gonna go more traditional rom com. So we know I love Annabelle Monaghan. I do. And she's been to the bookshelf, and so now we all do feel a deep connection with her, but that's not why I'm including her on the list. I just feel like I read summer romance so long ago. So that's the fourth book, Summer Romance. I read it so long ago that when I was making my list for this, I thought, gosh, I really needed to talk more about that book than I did because it was one of the first books I read in 2024. So time to talk about it again. Summer Romance by Annabelle Monaghan. Last year, I broke my seasonal reading rule or my seasonal reading pattern, and I read this in the dead of winter, despite it having summer literally in the title. I'm a big fan of Annabelle Monaghan's previous books, particularly Nora Goes Off Script, but also Same Time Next Summer. Both are fantastic. Great for the beach, but they also have some heft and depth to them. I famously, famously, to me, read Nora Goes Off Script, I believe, five times, which is unheard of for me, but that's how much I loved that book. So this is a book with a thoughtful, slightly older protagonist. Again, maybe a romance between adults rather than angsty 20 somethings, though I do have one of those on the list as well. So Ally's 38. She is reeling and recuperating from a magnificent loss, really. And the love story brings the light and fun. So Allie's got some serious grief she's dealing with, but the romantic storyline is light and fun. There's no over the top miscommunication, there's no made up hardship, you know, three quarters of the way through. As is often true in a romance novel, everything feels very realistically portrayed. The book's poignant death especially comes from Allie's personal growth. She has a really great friendship with her elderly neighbor that I absolutely loved. And in fact I so I underlined multiple sentences in this book and then I actually cried. I have a distinct memory of crying at my dining room table while reading this book. Which again, that is not what I do when I read a romantic comedy. Or when I watch a romantic comedy for that matter. I'm not a huge crier about stuff like that, but this one struck a chord with me. I think if you read it, you'll see why I would never want to spoil that for you. But my one of my favorite lines I looked I looked up my review from last year when I read it and one of my favorite lines from my review is this is just a really great book that happens to be a rom com. And isn't that really what I'm looking for? Yes, it is always what I'm looking for. When Harry Met Sally is just a good movie that's just a great movie. Like banger top 10. It's my favorite movie all time. It's a great movie. It happens to be a rom com and that is what I'm looking for out of my lit as well. And Summer Romance by Annabelle Monahan and actually I think all of Annabelle Monaghan books, they just are really great books and they happen to be romances. They happen to be rom coms. Yeah, I had a blast with this book. Great memories. I'm going to reread it this summer. Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan. Her settings are really fun too. Kind of like Emily Henry in that way. I love the settings of Emily Henry books. I love the settings of Annabelle Monaghan books. Okay, now I know I've maybe thrown a little bit of accidental shade onto angsty 20 somethings, but I actually do really like reading about angsty 20 somethings, because weren't we all, we all were there at one point or another. So. Passion Project by London Sperry. Now, this book is not out yet. It releases on April 8th. I read it last year. I don't know why I. I cannot remember if this just came across my Kindle or what, but it does not release until April 8th, so you need to pre order it. But why I wanted to mention it is because last year one of my favorite romances I read was a book called Summer Fridays. I still would highly, highly recommend that you should read that one in the summer. It was so fun. But there was kind of sort of an infidelity adjacent plot line that I know made it tough for some readers. I know that because I think some readers told me that. And also Goodreads told me that. Goodreads always tells me. Goodreads always tells me what people don't like. And so I do remember people had some qualms with that. But I thought that was a really great, like traditional New York romantic comedy. It reminded me of Kate Spencer's in a New York Minute. Okay, so Summer Fridays was like about a couple or, you know, these two people who they were engaged or dating other people, kind of like you've got mail. And they wound up spending their summer Fridays in New York when you get either a day off or a half day of work. They wound up spending their summer Fridays doing fun things around the city together. It was delightful. But again, because these were people were dating other people, it wasn't for everyone. I think Passion Project then is a great solution. It employs a similar concept. You've got a New Yorker who's trying to embark on a journey to help another find her passion. So instead of spending summer Fridays together, this guy is spending time trying to help this girl figure out what she's passionate about. And so there's a series of dates and occasional mishaps, but there's no infidelity here. Nobody's dating other people. The chemistry is fantastic in this book. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for witty repartee. I'm looking for a meet cute. I'm looking for a butterfly moment, which is hard to do in the written word and in the current rom com climate. So this book, I thought had great butterfly moments where you could feel the chemistry between the two very set it up kind of vibes, if you liked that movie. The novel also has some extra depth to it because the main character is dealing with grief and anxiety. And so I actually really did like those parts of the book because I felt like, oh, there will be a lot of people who can really relate to how this woman is feeling and to why she makes the choices that she makes. So fantastic. Springtime Romance and I wanted to mention it here because I read it so long ago. I knew I was going to forget about it and so now was the time to talk about it. It is called Passion Project. It's by London Sperry and it releases in April and you should read it in April or May. I think it really would make a lovely spring read. So Passion Project by London Sperry especially for you if you like, set it up in a New York minute or Summer Fridays or you wished you liked Summer Fridays, but maybe this will suit you better. Okay, that is my stack, so I'm going to say them again, although they are all in the show notes Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell back after this by Linda Holmes, the Ministry of Time by Kayleigh Ann Bradley, Summer Romance by Annabelle Monaghan and Passion Project by London Sperry. Again, these are all front list titles, though I believe at least two of them are paperback originals. But if you are looking for more backlist recommendations, you can listen to episode 463 from last year where you can get a different bookstore stack with a lot of backlist selections. I hope you'll find something that you can read seasonally during February. Now's a fun time to try to pick up a rom com if you never have before. This week I'm reading How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris from the Front Pocket Porch is a weekly podcast production of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow the Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, ookshelftville and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website bookshelf thomasville.com a full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at. 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