The Smut Report

My mom ALSO handed me Clan of the Cave Bear! I was probably in high school though

My First Smut: Connecting with Mom My First Smut is a recurring feature where we talk about our formative smut experiences. These short confessionals may include such details as: What book did you read? How old were you? Were there other people involved? What made the experience special? What role does smut play in your life? This week, author E.M. Caro talks about bonding with their mom…

This week in My First Smut, E.M. Caro talks about Clan of the Cave Bear and connecting with their mom.

Fun fact, I got married in Pi Day (in 2015! when there were more digits! for extra fun!) so I always love to see a pi(e)-themed romance

Let's Talk Tropes Where we discuss common tropes, archetypes, and trends in Romance literature Long Lost Heir by The Smut Report (text on a dark bookshelf background)

#romancelandia ICYMI, our discussion post from yesterday

smutreport.com/2026/03/10/l...

Review: Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge (2026) Heat Factor: “It’s perfect and Oliver wouldn’t change a single second of it, not even the fact that it ends after five minutes.” 😂 Character Chemistry: Black cat x golden retriever → MFEO perfect pairing (so much sweet!) Plot: Oliver’s nose gets out of joint when he thinks his coach is trying to get him to train his replacement after an injury, but an unrequited crush and perfect chemistry on the field help him realize he could just maybe have everything he never thought he could…

Review: Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge

Erin says: "It’s not a particularly new story in any way, but the deep focus on (British) Premier League soccer is better than usual for a soccer romance, and I did get such swooping feels while Ollie and Leo unlocked a new part of their HEA."

If only there wasn't so much AI slop constantly flooding the zone and making it harder for readers to find great books

Platform Decay Check out Platform Decay - <p><b>A most-anticipated title from <i>USA Today</i>,<i> Goodreads</i>, <i>BookPage</i>, <i>BookRiot</i>,<i> Seattle Times</i>, and <i>The Nerd Daily</i>!</b><br><b><br>Ever...

What, new Murderbot book coming out???

*smashes preorder button*

bookshop.org/a/9436/97812...

Always with the eye color, because families that lose heirs never have brown eyes.

Let’s Talk Tropes: Long Lost Heir Bottom line: Do you like the long lost heir trope? Erin: You know, I tend to get really hung up on the fact that there’s no genetic testing, and am highly skeptical of, “You can tell he’s the heir because he’s the spitting image of the old man!” Can you tell most of my reading in this area is historical romance?

Today, the smut report team is talking about the long lost heir trope, and how it looks different in The Princess Diaries vs in Every Single Romantasy Book.

Review: Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (2025) Assistant and the Villain, Book #3 Brief discussion of Book #1 in this series here. Heat Factor: There’s hanky panky but it isn’t detailed or explicit—just a gloss over. Character Chemistry: It’s a lot of push/pull for these two Plot: Evie and Trystan are desperately trying to assemble all of the items in the prophecy needed to avert disaster…in the meantime, Trystan is trying to put some distance between him and Evie because of ANOTHER prophecy, and it’s failing spectacularly.

Review: Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

This is firmly a bridge book setting up the final installment of the series. Ingrid is excited to get to the conclusion, but doesn't recommend picking this up unless you liked the earlier ones.

Cool, thanks!

Tumblereads: How to Ruin a Kiss in 10 Ways Ingrid challenges Holly and Erin to come up with 10 ways that authors can ruin a kiss. We definitely rose to the occasion. The List: Tongue in cheek “The delve of his tongue into the moist aperture of her mouth”  Dental hygienist method Tongue shoving Ziploc approach Underwhelming first Bloody teeth Tongue too independent You smell and we know it&hellip;

It's Sunday night, which means it's time for ridiculous podcast nonsense from the Smut Report team. This time, we're talking about the things that authors do to ruin kisses.

I am super intrigued, can you point me somewhere I can find said story?

SAY LESS

Sorry, is this a WIP or already out because if it's available I need it yesterday

I also now live in an ABC area but can get Little Brownie from my niece. My family taste tests had similar results, because Little Brownie is just better in all ways.

*especially* for romcoms! Like, if you wanna write a cozy vibes book, that's cool, you can make the leads very nice nonassholes, but it sure is not going to be funny

Review: Vowed to the Vulture God by Ruby Dixon (2026) Aspect and Anchor, Book #5 Review of Aspect and Anchor, Book #1 Heat Factor: It’s a bit of a slow burn, but not too terrible Character Chemistry: He’s Apathy, so it isn’t until he absorbs some more qualities that there’s much of a possibility of chemistry Plot: Elise trades her own life on earth (to save her brother’s) for life on Aos, where she agrees to be the “anchor” for the god Kalos–only the version she’s with is Apathy, and somehow she has to use her busy, self-sacrificial caregiving habits to get a God with no will to live through the a life-threatening Anticipation.

Review: Vowed to the Vulture God by Ruby Dixon

This one is not Ingrid's favorite in the series, but she's is very invested in the larger story

The Smut Report February Recommended Reads a pink background with hearts and three book covers Mr Warren's Profession by Sebastian Nothwell Amid Clouds and Bones by Ella Fields Sweet Agony by Charlotte Stein

Tumblereads: The Fanfic to Romance Pipeline AKA when inspiration shifts to personal creation Notes: The History of England podcast, which Erin used to listen to before smut completely took over her life. Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophos is not fanfic, but rather parody. We didn’t say but should also note that parody usually falls under the fair use umbrella because parody is specifically used to humorously examine the work or author being parodied. 

It's time for Tumblereads! This week, we're talking about fanfic

Hearts & Flowers: Unusual Historicals for February 2026 A public librarian-written blog about romance novels, baseball, and other random natterings.

Last #RomBkBlog share for the evening - ICYMI, my Unusual Historicals post for February 2026. wendythesuperlibrarian.blogspot.com/2026/02/hear... #Romancelandia

Here's what we got up to on the blog in February.

Especially since one of the rewards is ebooks of Nothwell's entire backlist for $10 (!!!)

Smut Reporter Erin has really enjoyed Nothwell's writing, definitely checking this one out

#romancelandia, ICYMI, our weekend listicle

Just FYI that Karen Robards has some old school dynamics and also a suspense plot that includes a horse being attacked. I loved it but it's definitely not gonna be for everyone.

Saturday Smutty Six: Maria Von Trap Fantasies Are you the kind of person who watches The Sound of Music on a regular basis? Are you like, “Yes, give me some of that Captain von THIRST TRAP?” Do you dance around in convents wearing curtains? Then this list of romances is for you!!! It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian Here, we have a sad, lonely, widowed naval officer with unruly children in desperate need of a governess (sound familiar???), except instead of a nun, he hires the local vicar.

Happy Saturday! Looking for something to read to take your mind off things? How about some pure escapist fantasy inspired by The Sound of Music? We have a list for that!

The best part about this is I looked at the list and just found out that there's a romance only bookstore about a mile from my house that I didn't even know about!

Review: Exit, Pursued by a Baron by Aydra Richards (2023) The Beaumonts, Book #1 Heat Factor: There’s some sex, and how hot it is likely hinges on how angry you’re feeling about the relationship Character Chemistry: Not sure why she likes him, to be quite frank Plot: Marcus is a bad ex-boyfriend with stalker tendencies who grovels for the entire second half of the book but I’m still not sure that it’s enough&hellip;

Review: Exit, Pursued by a Baron by Aydra Richards

By the time I got to the end, I could see what Richards was doing with this book, but I was too angry about how terrible the hero was to enjoy it.

He really really is. And the way it's written the reader is definitely supposed to take his coercion of Sophie as charming instead of gross.

I hadn't read An Offer From a Gentleman (aka Benedict Bridgerton's book) in ages, so am re-reading it now.

And yikes did it not age well.