Isabelle Popp

3 weeks ago | bookriot.com | Isabelle Popp

Hyperion AvenueBestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto reimagines Disney's Mulan as a contemporary romance about family expectations, mistaken identity, and high stakes mergers—of both business and the heart. Romance and retellings go together, and it’s easy to see why. Romance is essentially telling the same story over and over: people fall in love, there are some obstacles, but ultimately love wins the day. Predictability is the point.

1 month ago | bookriot.com | Isabelle Popp

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This book lives up to its title: it’s violent. Really, really violent! In fact, this book examines violence from a variety of angles. There’s generational trauma, intimate partner violence, systemic violence, violence as entertainment, and indiscriminate murder. That last kind sets the book in motion.

1 month ago | bookriot.com | Isabelle Popp

A gymnast like Simone Biles can make an error in her routine and still win gold, because the moves she’s attempting are so much more difficult than those of her competitors. My favorite romances are written by the Simone Bileses of authors, because they set themselves a challenge so immense and succeed.

1 month ago | bookriot.com | Isabelle Popp

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Cozy has certainly become a buzzword attached to genre fiction. It all started with cozy mysteries, which have been around for decades. Now we’re seeing cozy science fiction and fantasy, and even cozy horror. So what exactly does “cozy” mean? There are some common traits of so-called cozy books.

2 months ago | bookriot.com | Isabelle Popp

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Across social media, I am seeing the trend “bring back yearning.” I’ve seen it referencing both books and visual media, but let’s specifically talk about romance books. Frankly, I don’t like this trend, and not because I don’t like yearning.