I have to be honest — when I put out the casting call for people with interesting jobs, I wasn't expecting anything quite like this. Alexandra Sunshine is a senior editor at Kensington Books and, as she describes herself, is the number one romantic editor in the U.S. right now — meaning she has acquired more projects in the romantic genre than anyone else in the country. And yes, "romantasy" means exactly what you think it means: fantasy worlds, magical creatures, swords and crowns... and a lot of very explicit sex.

In this conversation, Alex takes me on a full tour of the spicy book world — from the BookTok explosion that completely disrupted publishing, to the sub-genres you didn't know existed (shifter romance, omegaverse, dark romance, "why choose"... we get into all of it). We talk about why women are devouring these books right now, what it says about female sexuality and modern relationships, and why the "touch her and die" trope is basically the ultimate female fantasy. We also get into the surprisingly funny realities of her job: copy editors fact-checking whether a sex position is physically possible, boardroom conversations about explicit content, and the "chili pepper scale" that her sales team ultimately rejected.

We also ended up having a really honest conversation about my own book (the psychological thriller I'm currently working on), and Alex gave some genuinely great advice for anyone who's been sitting on a story idea and hasn't started yet.

Follow Alex: https://www.instagram.com/Alexhsunshine/

Follow Kensington Books: https://www.instagram.com/kensingtonbooks/

Alex's Book Recommendations

Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich: https://amzn.to/4cZJg6A

Chasing the Wild by Elliott Rose: https://amzn.to/4d5ZcEe

Chasing the Ring by Lauren Rowe: https://amzn.to/4cQZIY7

Chasing the Rush by Lauren Rowe: https://amzn.to/4tMkwWB

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Watch this episode in video form on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjmevEcbh5h5FEX0pazPEtN86t7eb2OgX

To apply to be a guest on the show, visit luciefink.com/apply and send us your story.

I also want to extend a special thank you to East Love for the show's theme song, Rolling Stone.

Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealstuffpod

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luciebfink/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@luciebfink

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/luciebfink

Website: https://luciefink.com/

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Executive Producer: Cloud10

Produced by Dear Media.

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