This week, we’re talking with author (and puzzle entrepreneur) Rachel Hochhauser about the March Reese’s Book Club Pick, Lady Tremaine. It’s not just a re-telling of Cinderella — it’s an un-telling that dares to ask: what if the wicked stepmother wasn’t wicked … but a mom trying her best to provide for her children? And what if a marriage isn’t a happily ever after … but the beginning of a whole new story? Danielle and Rachel talk puzzle-solving strategies, falconry, and decentering men and romance in women’s stories. You may think you know the story of Cinderella, but you’ve never read it like this.

BOOKS MENTIONED:

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Cinderella by Charles Perrault

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault

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This week, we’re time traveling with Philippa Gregory, prolific author and feminist historian (and maybe Danielle’s new bestie???). Philippa is the woman behind over 50 historical fiction novels that trace narratives across Medieval and Tudor England, including The Other Boleyn Girl, which was adapted into a film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Her latest novel, The Boleyn Traitor, follows the infamous Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn, through her life as a spy in the English court. And this story, as so many of Philippa Gregory's do, brings a complicated, sometimes unlikeable, largely forgotten woman to the forefront. Because Philippa doesn’t really trust pure, pious women. She’s drawn instead to the truth – that women in from history are just as layered and diverse as we are today.

BOOKS MENTIONED:

The Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory

Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory

Wild Acre by Philippa Gregory

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Richard III by William Shakespeare

This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England by Nandini Das

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Little Grey Rabbit by Alison Uttley

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer

Ulysses by James Joyce

Mine Own Executioner by Nigel Balchin

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This week is a big one. For the first time ever, three romance royals sit down together: Beverly Jenkins, Tia Williams, and Kennedy Ryan. They talk about pioneering Black love stories when the industry didn’t make space for them, reshaping modern romance with depth and desire, and why a happily ever after is anything but predictable — it’s powerful. From writing Black female desire without apology to protecting your creative vision, this conversation is funny, honest, and deeply moving.

BOOKS MENTIONED:

Night Song by Beverly Jenkins

Iola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Frances Harper: Poems, Prose, and Sketches – This collection features “Bury Me in a Free Land”. by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The Perfect Find by Tia Williams

Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Through the Storm by Beverly Jenkins

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Hazard and Somerset by Gregory Ashe

Ghalen by Walter Mosely

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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