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Hey so remember I talked about Lyssa Fairbanks' first book, Love Medley, about med school romance hijinks? Her second book is now out: Love Dramedy. Signed hard copy available here (immediately) and ebook available here (pre-orders will be delivered March 5).

Love Dramedy is about the same group of med school friends as Love Medley and is F/F and I love it a lot.

Isabelle Sutton has always been "the pretty one" and always feels like she needs to prove that she's good enough for med school, which is getting harder as she has not been doing well on her med school exams -- and she needs a project to help her show that she's a good residency candidate. Trix Winstead is a neurodiverse software CEO who is just coming off of a friends-with-benefits relationship that imploded spectacularly, leaving behind a scandal for her company -- and needs a project to help her rehabilitate her company's reputation. You'll never guess what happens next! (You have guessed. Yes. Well, you might not have guessed about the hot lesbian bar encounter/one-night stand that happens first, but there's that too, it's great!)

I love Trix's spectrum-ish self, and Isabelle is a sweetheart. And I really like about Lyssa's writing how it's not just about the romance, but also about the friends and the story.

As for Love Medley, I was one of the major betas for this book. And also as for that one, please don't talk publicly about Lyssa's real name or how I know her :)

thistleingrey mentioned that it was a solid depiction of academia and characters in academia, which immediately piqued my interest. I have read Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis and enjoyed it, and I know Hazelwood is in academia, but I sometimes thought... well, let's just say that it's a romance between a grad student and the young hotshot professor in her department, and... okay... that part... is totally realistic actually... but I feel like I kind of got stuck a lot in all my feelings about the potential deep pitfalls. Hypothesis was also, I think, much more concerned with primarily being a romance novel and secondarily a novel about academia.

Anyway, this is unabashedly a romance novel, complete with marriage-of-convenience and sometimes even the one-bed trope, but without any particular kinks like professor/student :P But the thing that makes it interesting (to me) is that it's at least as interested in both the experiences of the precariat (*) and also familial relationships as it is in the romance itself. In fact, it does not have a conventional romantic Act 3; here the Act 3, as well as the understandable but frustrating misunderstandings that prolong it, is passed squarely on to the familial relationships rather than the romantic ones. Which I personally really like!

The two main characters, Jonah and Sadie, are adorably academics. (**) I laughed out loud when Jonah said, "I'm all for radically revised gender roles in the heteronormative institution of marriage, but I should still pay for my wife's engagement ring," if only because I've never heard anyone else talk that way in a romance novel -- though if you have, please rec it to me. (Their engagement is the aforementioned engagement-of-convenience and the ring is $27.99, I hasten to append, and she pays for his ring.) (lol, I think I actually paid for my engagement ring, because it was an important transaction involving me and an important piece of jewelry -- what?)

Anyway, I rarely like romance novels, but I liked this one!

(*) I did not know the term precariat: the precarious proletariat, that insecure class of unstable work and low wages -- but I was familiar at least by reputation with the academic pre-tenure-track life that the term describes, in the sense that it is one of the many reasons why I did not pursue academia

(**) Jonah likes using footnotes; I guess your mileage may vary but I found it adorable, perhaps inevitably

I have been sitting on this for months but I can finally tell you that the book I have been doing a ton of beta-reading for is out! Love Medley, by Lyssa Fairbanks, is a romance novel. One of the two protagonists is Lucy, a third-gen Chinese-American fourth-year medical student. She's quite bright and often goes full speed ahead at a moment's notice, which can be both a good and a bad thing; as the book opens, she is just finding her way out of an abusive relationship. The other protagonist is Jake, a Midwestern ER nurse who moonlights as a dueling pianist. Jake is a musical people-person; as the book opens, he is finding his way free of his emotionally controlling family. Lucy enlists Jake's help as a fake boyfriend to get her toxic ex to leave her alone, but will this lead to more? (...I mean, it's a romance novel, that was a rhetorical question.)

It's part of a projected 4-book series involving a close friend-group of four, of whom Lucy is one, who are making their way through medical school. (And the second book will be F/F, I've read the rough draft and am excited about that one too!) Jake, not to be outdone, has his own friends as well! As usual, I adore the ensemble scenes more than the actual romance. ;) (A me thing, of course! The romance is also very nice!)

The book includes a content notes page that cites explicit sex scenes, emotional abuse (on-page), physical abuse (off-page), explicit language, emotionally abusive parents. It is also very clearly a romance book, and I know this is not everyone's favorite cup of tea, but if you like romances then I think it's a great contender in the genre!

I would like to give the kindle e-book to the first five people who tell me they'd like one (I'll update this post if/when that number is reached) -- please DM me with your email address :) I'm sure the author would very much appreciate it if you left an honest review on amazon, but don't feel compelled to -- this isn't an "exchange" for a review, this is just me doing this for fun :)

If you would like to support the author, the book is available on amazon here or signed copies are available from Left Bank Books here. It's also available on Kindle Unlimited.

(BTW, Lyssa Fairbanks is a pen name. If you know the author (which a couple of you do, or may be able to to figure out that you do), please do not talk publicly about their real name or how I know them, thank you!)

Hey heeeey Hugo books are out and although I am feeling kind of unmotivated for most of the categories, I might actually end up reading some of the novels. In the meantime I am researching romance novels for Reasons (beta reasons) and have read some romance or romance-adjacent books, one of which doubles as Hugo reading.

( Romancing the Beat (nonfic), Yours Truly, The Friend-Zone Experiment, A Sorceress Comes to Call )

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Entries tagged with books:romance

Love Dramedy (Fairbanks)

An Academic Affair (McAlister)

Love Medley (Fairbanks)

Romance books (one with gore)

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