Episode 606 Winter Romances

reading with libraries episode 606 Winter romance logo

Hi everyone! Welcome back to your book group podcast, Reading With Libraries! We are here to talk about books, to enjoy some beverages, and to have this time together. Thanks for joining us!

It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar area for you!

This week we are celebrating cold weather and the new year coming up with some winter romance!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to support all of our 300 member libraries. They all like books, we like to share books with our patrons, and we know you like books too. So let’s jump in here and discuss some books in today’s genre!

And our returning Guest Host is Stephanie Todd! Steph works at the St Cloud Technical and Community College library. Welcome back to the book group!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. You are an important part of this book group, so if you don’t have a beverage go ahead and get one now. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!

This week’s beverages are here to warm us up, to look pretty, and to make everyone feel a little festive. Be sure you try one of these, or something else equally warm and festive as you listen today!

White Christmas Mojito

Ingredients

  • juice of 1 lime
  • 8 leaves mint
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons white rum
  • 1 tablespoon coconut rum
  • 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
  • sparkling water for topping
  • pomegranate arils for serving

Instructions

  1. In a glass, muddle the lime juice, sugar and mint leaves until the leaves have broken down. Fill the glass half way with ice.
  2. In a blender, combine the white rum, coconut rum, and coconut milk and pulse until smooth. Pour over the ice and stir to combine. Top with sparkling water, mint and pomegranate. Drink!

Mulled Wine

To begin, gather your ingredients.  For this mulled wine recipe, you will need:

  • Wine: No need to splurge on a pricey bottle — any basic bottle of dry red or white wine will do.  (Or if you’re making a big batch, this is a great recipe to break out the boxed wine too!)
  • Fresh oranges: One of which we will slice and mull with the wine, one of which you can slice and use as a garnish if you’d like.  (To minimize bitterness, feel free to peel the orange before simmering it in the wine.)
  • Cinnamon: I love the making mulled wine with cinnamon sticks, but you could whisk in some ground cinnamon if that’s what you have on hand.
  • Mulling spices: These vary in mulled wine from country to country, but whole cloves and star anise are my favorites, plus perhaps a few cardamom pods.
  • Sweetener: Feel free to add your favorite sweetener to taste.  Sugar is classic, but I prefer a few tablespoons of maple syrup or honey.
  • Extra liqueur (optional): Similar to sangria, it’s also traditional to spike your mulled wine with an extra bit of liqueur, if you’d like.  I like to add a bit of brandy, bourbon or cognac, but any favorite liqueur will do here.  (Or you can skip the extra liqueur if you prefer.)
Hot Buttered Rum

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Pinch salt
  • 3/4 cup spiced rum
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 4 sticks cinnamon, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Using an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar, butter, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a 4-cup (or larger) measuring cup. Add the rum and then 2 cups of boiling water. Stir until the butter mixture dissolves. Divide the buttered rum among 4 mugs. Garnish with the cinnamon sticks and serve.

Genre Discussion:

This week we are enjoying the genre of winter romances!

Winter is a great time to enjoy romances – all the cold is a great excuse to snuggle up with a special sweetie, and there are a lot of fun outdoor activities you can do together! Plus, there are so many holidays at this time of year, it can be a good opportunity to enjoy being with your sweetie – or a good opportunity to look for a new sweetie! And when your own winter holiday time gets too overwhelming, you can always curl up with a good romance to relax and enjoy yourself.

We have talked about the romance genre a few other times in this podcast, and it’s always fun. The range of possibilities in romance books is pretty impressive – it can be set at any time in the past, present, or future; involve mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, or history plots; and feature attraction between any combination of people.

The main things every romance needs are defined by the Romance Writers of America:

  • “A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.
  • An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love. 

Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction.”

And romance, including winter romance books, is a huge genre, attracting younger readers all the time. The RWA says:

These younger readers are:

  • diverse in sexual orientation and in ethnicity
  • more male
  • frequent readers
  • listening to audiobooks
  • reading e-books on smartphones
  • consuming YA, erotic, and paranormal romance
  • shopping at a greater number of online retailers
  • extremely engaged on social media and willing to experiment with new authors

Here are a few additional resources for you, to help you find the best winter romance books for yourself or for your patrons:

Book Discussion

Now we are a little more familiar with this week’s genre, and we have enjoyed some of our special beverages, let’s get to the book discussion!

We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it!

Bring Me Home for Christmas, by Robyn Carr

Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances, by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson

Royal Holiday, Jasmine Guillory 

Frozen, L.A. Casey

Frozen: Heart of Dread, Book One, by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

Winter Fairy, by Lola Karns

Winter at the Beach, Shelia Roberts

Blankets, by Craig Thompson

Sock it to Me, Santa!, by Madison Parker

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode!

 And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!