Welcome to Recipe for a Bookish Life: the podcast! I’m excited to experiment with this facet of Substack this summer to share behind the scenes morsels and scrumptious pairings for my curated list of summer romance novels: Recipe for a Summer Romance.
I’ve been podcasting in the literary space for about five years now, formerly on He Read She Read (listen to our backlog before we permanently shelve our episodes) and now on Novel Pairings, a podcast dedicated to making classic literature readable, relevant, and fun. No matter what I’m creating, be it a romance list, an Instagram post, or notes on Jane Austen’s life, I am always thinking in podcasts. I love the podcasting medium as an opportunity to share stories, conversations, and detailed thoughts—especially on books and reading.
In today’s short podcast episode, I’m sharing how I created my spice scale for Recipe for a Summer Romance, what I find so tricky about rating romance novels, and where to find the nuance between a number three and four spice rating.
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on spice ratings and summer romance reading in the comments. If you have specific, or sensitive, questions, feel free to send me a DM @chelseyreads on Instagram. This episode does include a discussion of sex and sexy books. Nothing detailed! But I don’t think I’ve ever said the word “sex” so many times within a 10 minute span, so pop your air pods in while listening to this episode, folks.
You can listen to this podcast episode in your internet browser, on the Substack app, or in your favorite podcast player (I recommend this method!). Here are some instructions to help you set it up.
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