Steamy romance books can be empowering, too
Good morning booklovers! USA TODAY books reporter Clare Mulroy here to give you another look at this week's news in books.
Have you ever heard someone mention they love spicy romance books? Ever seen a social media post rate a book using a scale of chili pepper emojis? These steamy novels are hot right now (literally) and continue to dominate bestseller lists. But they're often dismissed as guilty pleasure books or fluff. This Valentine's Day, I wanted to find out why.
So I headed over to an event hosted by Spotify to celebrate spicy audiobook listening and asked Kennedy Ryan, the bestselling romance author of 'Before I Let Go.' I called 'Twisted Love' author Ana Huang and paranormal romance author Kimberly Lemming. I chatted with readers and romance publishers and found that attitudes toward steamy novels are shifting away from guilty reading to empowering as they demystify conversations about sex and center female pleasure.
'What is so guilty about reading stories about love and connection and happy endings?' Huang asked me. 'Why is it only that the 'substantive' books are the ones that are sad and challenging?'
In other book news, 'The Let Them Theory' by Mel Robbins has overtaken Ali Hazelwood's new 'Deep End' for the No. 1 spot on the USA TODAY Best-selling Booklist. Robbins' self-help guide promises to help readers relinquish 'the power you give to other people' to find happiness and success.
Plus, there's still time to enter our Winter Book Challenge. If you fill out our bingo card and write into us by March 21, you'll be entered in a sweepstakes to win a $100 Bookshop.org gift card!
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