Hello, happy Friday.

So today we this

conversation.

I talked to the covers book club.

It was live on YouTube.

So if you want to watch a video, you can go to the YouTube channel link.

We'll be in the show notes.

But just enjoy this conversation.

So I hope you have a great day.

Bye.

Hi, everybody.

This is Francesca from Under the Covers Book Blog.

And this is Laura from What to Read Next.

So Laura and I decided that we were going to come today and talk about the

Goodreads Top 100 Romance List of the last three years because we have some thoughts

that we wanted to share with you guys.

And also we want to see what you guys think, if you agree with us or not.

You don't have to.

So we're going to give you guys a little bit of time to come and join us.

We're just going to talk a little bit in general about what

the Goodreads top 100 list is.

So I don't know about you, Laura, but did you know that Goodreads

has been doing that for a while?

Like there's been one of these lists every year.

I have done every year.

I know they do listicles about Top like best books for the year and best books

like your readers wanted to bust out and everything, but it's still like the top

100 romance and like every three years.

And I'm like, oh, that's great.

Except that.

Things have shifted, in the market.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

It was, I think that you can actually see some of those trends with the

list that they've put together.

And, I mean, I guess we have to be honest also about it's Goodreads.

Same as with the Goodreads Choice Awards.

It is kind of a popularity contest, but they do mention at the top of the

post that they are picking the books and base of what people added to their

shelves, like the ratings and all of that.

I did do a little bit of digging in the sense of like books that I know have sold.

Like hit New York Times bestsellers list and I know they have a huge

following and a huge readership.

And yes, the ratings and like the reviews and all of that on Goodreads on

the platform are much, much lower than all of the books that are on this list.

So I guess I wonder if that has to do with people also moving away from Goodreads.

Yeah.

Like, is it a fact of some of the older, let's not older by age,

but like more seasoned readers have moved away from the platform.

So those reviews are not on there.

Like I haven't been on Goodreads, I haven't rated anything on

Goodreads for at least three years.

Yeah.

I would rate it for just as long.

I think the other thing we have to think about is the advertisement industry.

Who's paying for advertising for us in good reads.

And so is that cost?

Is that you know that they're making money from those books?

Would it push them to actually show up in these list?

'cause it does give them win-win.

'cause it's more visibility.

And so that's the other part that I'm thinking that may not be so upfront,

but at the end of the day, go read Zoma Amazon and they're looking for a way to.

make as much money doing the bare minimum product.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's for sure.

That's for sure.

So yeah, I mean, I would love to know for you guys that are tuning in and watching,

or if you're watching the replay, let us know if you're still writing your

reviews or ratings on Goodreads, or if you've moved away from the platform,

maybe you're just like tracking on offline, like a lot of my tracking is

offline, but I am using also Storygraph.

So I kind of keep that as my base.

I moved to Storygraph fully last year and the year before I

wasn't even tracking anywhere.

So I don't know.

But what about you?

How are you tracking?

I am not tracking.

I'm only tracking Airtable but I'm not tracking publicly.

I made the decision, any feedback, any reviews are going to go on sub stuff.

And mostly that DNFs, things that I try are going to be paid subscriber because

of the way I had literature for publishers and authors and specific things, I wanted

to keep that like private in some ways.

So I stopped tracking star rating in specific places

of like, this is what works.

Because reading is subjective and what I hate may be what you like, and so I

try to be more conscious about like, I'm here to promote different books,

recommend books, and curate those based on the different way of reading.

And so my actual tracking of like, star rating happens privately, and then the

other part is I track other measures that are important to me, like what kind

of books I use, which dialogues I use.

So I track the data points that are interesting for me.

the hope and make a better decision moving forward.

Yeah.

The same for me.

I do have my notion tracker, which does.

I also do like to track that because, for example, if I'm not reading

enough, Kindle Unlimited isn't worth it to keep the subscription.

Or if I have some other kind of service that I pay for, whether it's like audio

book service, Or when you're paying for like nonresident cards from a

library, are you reading enough books from that service to justify the cost?

So I think a lot of that you're not able to track with these kinds of platforms.

So it makes sense that maybe some readers have moved away because you

don't want to do double the work, so, yeah, that definitely makes sense.

So let me know in the comments, what are your thoughts on that?

Like, do you think that the numbers are, accurate for like the whole community

or are we really just looking at a Very small segment of the community, which

is actually how i'm looking at this top 100 I see it as the book talk top 100.

I feel like that's like just browsing through it.

That's what you're seeing is what are the books that really hit it off the park

on book talk in the last three years.

That's what you're seeing there.

So we'll get into that a little bit later.

We're talking about trends and stuff.

Let's talk on a positive note.

What are some books that you saw on the list?

Like, give me a couple of books that you saw and actually let me share

with you guys the list so that You can see what we're talking about here,

if it goes, it's going.

Okay, alright, so the list is here.

So, let's share with people a little bit what that looks like.

It's the usual suspects, right?

Suspects.

So, briefly, these are the books that you're going to find on the Top 100.

So, stop me when you see something that's like, that's the one.

That's the one.

That's why.

We're still going.

Oh, I like Nora on those subscribers.

It's a little more women's fiction then.

It's a paint a black close to our beautiful very older.

I think it's a more like I'm surprised it is because it's a more older generation.

It is not as spicy or as a younger kind of like snap.

It has 167, 000 ratings.

So that means people are reading it.

So, which goes back to what I was saying, like those ratings on the

books on this list are super high.

So there's a lot of people that are reading these books

that are using Goodreads.

So maybe it's a user based.

I was reading Praise when it just came out before the big wave that happened.

And it was interesting to see that wave of, like, Sarah Kay coming from, like,

the unexplored, like, like, it's a book that was told among friends at the time.

Like, I usually read Praise.

I usually read Praise.

And then the explosion of Sarah Kate, because she was for a while, she was at

every single signing, she was everywhere.

And I'm like, this is amazing!

But it was like, interesting to see that, like, seeing that

explosion for the first time.

And that's a three year old buff.

Yeah.

So, hopefully next year, it won't be there.

Yeah, well actually, there's a few Sarah Kates.

I don't, like, it's just, I think the same goes for Elsie Silver.

It just basically, you're like, yeah, the whole series, just

the whole series comes in.

I, yeah, there is.

There's a usual suspect.

Yes, it is all the usual suspects.

And like you said, I actually find it a little bit unfair to put multiple books

from the same series at the very least.

You can probably put the same author, but if it's all in the same

series, I feel like it's taking up space where because obviously if a

series is super, super popular, the next book will still be popular.

You know what I mean?

So I would open that up a little bit.

But here's another Sarah Cage.

And here's another one of them, so.

I read that one.

I actually enjoyed that one a lot.

Yeah.

But Julie Whelan, she was narrating it.

That's probably why I made it too.

It's a, Julie Whelan was well known for her narration and this is a.

A book that she wrote about, I don't know, narration.

So it's very meta.

And I assume that's why it was like so popular in some ways.

It's a good book.

It's definitely, it's more women's fiction again.

I was gonna say that also, it's more women's fiction.

Not as strong women's, but, another source of hate.

I do appreciate Lauren Natcher to be with us.

I really like her new series, but she also came in the scene in the 2020.

She was like, she rode the book talk wave.

Right, right.

But I appreciate Lauren, even though she writes plenty of books, she's

only given us two books a year, so she's not feeding us like constantly.

Yeah.

So we don't see that many books, but she's only giving us like a couple

books a year, and I appreciate that.

Yes.

I am all for authors that like control how much they put out.

Cause we can't keep up.

Like I want to read all the things.

I don't want to just read you.

So yeah, I actually read the Give Me More by Sarah Kate.

Lost in Lasso was good.

Doing the confidence, the coincidence of Wildflowers is not a romance.

It's a duet.

It has Turtle Warns the Lord, It's just hard.

I do like Nicola's other books, but this one's the one that got her, noticed, but

we have this one that I told you when we first looked at it I can't see the one

with the Charlie, the one with the house.

Yes.

Keeper of enchanted rooms, which is actually a historical fiction.

Yes.

Have no idea how this is here.

I don't know what happened.

Oh.

I've never seen this book either.

So it's like, I don't know how it could have been so popular that it's in here,

but you know, and the TM Williams, I will say I would not go for this one.

I would go for it.

So in days in June, I was romanced.

I was actually angsty and fun and like, it's just like a joy to And so I wouldn't

consider this one it I would consider 30s.

Right, right And we were recently just talking about the love of my afterlife

by christie lee wood Which again, it's kind of like the lone paranormal romance

in my opinion because there are other paranormal things on here But are more

fantasy romance And this one was more like women's fictiony And also not that

good, so I don't know why it's here.

I think it's magical realism.

It's just like, like, it imagines that you're just in the afterlife, but

like, it's more, it's not paranormal when we think of a paranormal of like,

werewolves, vampires, otherworldly, it's just like, they're just coexisting

and then you come back from death and you come back to a new life.

Yes, it's paranormal, but it's so light.

Yes, it's so light you can barely feel it.

You can barely think about it.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

So for me, I actually have to say I'm happy to see that

Carrie Lake is on the list.

And I definitely can say that is because of the success that she

had with BookTok, because her books were everywhere on BookTok, which

I listen, I'm very happy about.

So this anathema, I have not read this one, but it was her

new release for this year.

But there was Nocticadia, which was I think was 2023.

Yeah, 2023 that I came out.

I read it actually this year.

And I really enjoyed it.

It still has my one to read rating because again, I haven't used

Goodreads for a couple of years.

It was still on my to be read.

So yeah, I, I actually do enjoy seeing her on the list and I do recommend Nocticadia.

And as far as other things, like for example, the Dixon rule, and

there was also the Graham effect by I'm surprised to see them here.

I read both of them, but I'm kind of surprised to see them here because I don't

think they're her strongest books either.

So, and I also did not see them as talked about, online and

in book circles and whatever.

And let's see what else really stands out to me.

Like, this is a lot of my do not read list.

Actually, a lot of the, like the tropes and the authors and the, yeah.

Things are usually the things I don't gravitate towards and I don't know about

you, but for me, when something is like really popular, whether it's an author.

Or like a type of book, I tend to completely disconnect and not want

to read it like I dig my heels in and I'm like, I'm not reading that only

because it's like super, super popular.

So, yeah, so Phantasma is another one that I would highly recommend.

So I'm happy to see that there.

It is a paranormal romance.

So that is an actual paranormal romance.

Which I think is really like, like I said, like one of the very few.

And I did like A Lights Out by Nevesa Allen.

I did read that book.

It's on my list too to add the audio for it.

Yeah, the audio is so good.

The audio is good.

He did do a really good job with it.

We got Meghan Quinn, we got Meghan Brandy, we got Elsie Silver, we got those ones

who are like, who have been around.

Rachel Gillick, I feel like, is not really fantasy romance.

It's more.

fantasy with some romantic elements in it.

So that does not need to be there.

But yeah.

Usual suspects here.

You do have another Lauren Asher.

Yeah, we have one.

We have And I don't know if these are in any kind of order, but I was actually

surprised if they are, which I kind of,

more things we never got over, like on the number four spot, I

was kind of surprised about that.

It's the most sold book in Kindle limited.

Like it's actually has sold so many units that it's like, I wrote, cause

there was a, this is for a human, for a I, like, you can't know when

they released the new Kindles.

They brought their multi influencers to Amazon to start with the Kindles.

And they had her there.

And it was like, the things were never brought over.

It's the most, like, most popular, most sold book, most famous book sold.

Wow.

It's not like, it's 500 pages long.

So, it's making her very, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, listen I actually enjoy

Lucy's score, so I have not read that one, but I do enjoy her writing and

her books, so I am happy to see that.

I feel like this makes sense, because book lovers is, IGNF book lovers but

these four are probably the, like, the ones that had lots of units.

They were quite a bunch, going forward.

Every summer after was another one that sold a lot of units

because they were big enough.

We got Clarissa Brogdon, who is actually, I do appreciate Clarissa's writing.

So I know we got to be out of human heads and yeah, I actually, I mean,

I don't know how many books Ali Hazelwood has put out in the last

three years, like looking at dates.

But I think there was only two on this list.

This one is more.

She did checkmate.

She got the deep end, she got bride, and then she has not in love.

Okay.

I pinched on them while the hurricane happened, that's what I was using it with.

So they were like, I caught up with all of them.

I haven't read Love Theoretically because I feel like that's too STEM.

She starts to read outside of the STEM, books.

Yeah.

And I'm kind of glad because they're much better, they reading

the same thing over and over.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So that one is interesting.

I'm actually one of the few people that probably doesn't

read Ali Hazelwood as much.

I read her first book.

I liked it, but it was just okay.

And I don't like to keep reading things where it's like, well, it was okay.

So, and then I read one last year that she did for Spotify.

It was on audio only, I can't remember what it's called.

Something about play.

Yeah, I would suggest reading The Deep End and the cute caveat with that, it's

college age, so they act like they're college age, their full frontal lobe is

not fully formed, so they act like that.

You are completely turning me off from reading it.

It's a really good one, it's just, it's, yeah, it's fun, it's in depth, it talks

about like that's the mental health.

Of a diver who has the itis and so it's like trying to see, I

think it was just something that doesn't cannot dive anymore.

Right.

If I keep overcoming that process, it is not being his hand.

It is not forbidden.

None of the way it was marked is wrong.

It is actually like a fun, fun romp at the same time with someone who actually

has to work out with the lead athlete.

some major blockage.

So for sure, deep end probably be the book that is going to come up next year

when they do this list again, and like they do the past years, because they're

getting complaints about it for too much sex, they're getting complaints about it.

Well for sure they're going to get complaints for marketing, because

they're marketing something.

They're not fully like, I don't get how they're connected, because they're friends

of benefit, and there's too much sex.

And I was like, but they're in college, like what do you expect them to do?

Like, they're not going to get married.

It's like, think about YA, you're not expecting these people

to get married, like, at 18.

Yeah, no, I would be concerned.

Yeah, so.

Let them have their fun, it's okay.

So, if you guys are watching, drop in the comments what book from this list

do you love the most, or if you're watching the replay, let us know.

So, which one do you really agree with?

Yeah, and now we're going to go into our negatives.

I mean, we kind of talked a little bit about the things that we don't

know why with why they're there.

But what are the ones that you absolutely would switch out from here?

I think this is not supposed to be there.

It's not romantic.

It's just, it's fantasy with romantic elements, but it's just not.

Fourth wing, I guess, but it's, I think they need to take away the

romanticy and how it's separate, or fantasy, and how it's separate,

than just calling it romance.

Yeah, and I think that's also because of the booktalk effect, right?

So booktalk is heavily romanticy popular, so it's going to

dominate a lot of this section.

But you were saying that book lovers, you DNF?

Yeah.

I did.

So I guess you would switch that out.

I would switch that out.

The Abbi Jimenez switched those out.

I like your, I could not tell us about the other ones.

Okay.

And I need some historicals.

Yes.

We don't, we genre and just.

These two genre presented?

Yes.

I feel like what they're really missing here, and there are books that are

really good and really popular, also really big authors, historical romance.

There's like nothing here.

There's also no like true paranormal romance.

Like I don't see an A thing in here.

I don't see a. J. R. Ward.

And I mean, I haven't really enjoyed your awards books in the

past couple of years, but you know, they're still selling, they're still

popular, people are still buying it.

So I don't see that stuff here.

So I feel like there should be some guardrails and some guidelines.

But I was looking back again on like how many ratings these books have.

And all of these books on here have like, 60, 000, 130, 000,

like they have a lot of ratings.

So, I mean, obviously the readers are there on Goodreads.

And I think it's just because we're not doing our job, I

guess, filling in the data to Goodreads, so it's a little skewed.

I'm assuming the Booktube Girls are actually going to Goodreads.

Sure.

Sure.

Let's just begin with friends.

And weirdness is that Erin is still limited to 5, 000 friends.

So you really need to update this slide to have 5, 000 friends, because I don't

want to be nosy and I want to be your friend and know what you're doing.

That's what I use for reading.

I go for like the social feed to figure out what you're reading.

Yeah.

And go to my friends feed and they took away my app, or took away the

option for you to see what, how they're doing in the challenge.

And when I read the chapter, it took away that.

Oh wow.

Which I was like, that's my favorite aspect of it.

One is comparing the stairs, so then I can see like, oh

shitty, I'm not reading enough.

And the other one is like, oh, these are what my friends are reading,

so I can actually talk about them.

Or I can just like, pull them in and bump it up in the TBR.

Yeah, for sure.

I think that would be helpful.

But yeah, I don't think that they're as social anymore.

I remember when I used to be on Goodreads all the time, and it was really social.

And actually, that's one aspect of StoryGraph that I am not 100 percent

sold on is the fact that there's very little social interaction.

Yes, there is a feed.

But it's very isolated.

Like you have to literally go into that section as opposed to just

when you log in, your feet is there when you log into story graph.

It's like, here's your books that you're reading.

And here's some books that you might enjoy.

But that social feed is not there.

And I feel like having to go and look for that social feed.

It's like a little bit of friction.

Like, I don't, I never go on there to see what you read.

On story graph, because I was like, I need the social aspect of it.

I can track my data, the way I Yeah, I'm really good with data.

I can do pivot tables.

I can do graphs.

I can do specific things.

I know the data point.

I don't need someone else to create those tableau dashes for me.

I just need to actually talk and see what people are reading because I'm nosy and

also that's how I get recommendations.

Yeah, for sure.

Like, oh, this could be a bump it up because I see most

of my friends reading this.

Maybe this is something I did not know this came out, or

I did not know this existed.

This is a hidden gem with a backlist title.

And that's where I get, that's the whole point of like, what I

look for in my reading community.

Because I started working with Next because I found a problem myself.

I was always a reader, but I never had enough recommendations.

So I was always thinking, like, find an author, reach your bucket list, and then

just go to lunch notes and get some ideas.

And I was like, I need to have a community aspect to it and not Once I

found out there was such a thing as a community, I was like, oh, I want to be

part of it and then create a community and create a place for recommendations.

No judgment.

We do not yell at other people's young.

Just because I didn't like it, doesn't mean that you may like it.

So we provide recommendations based on the different needs, different

ideas, and different books to read.

Yeah, I completely agree with that.

Completely agree with that.

Oops, sorry, my internet is going, so hopefully it's working.

But yeah, I actually really enjoyed that aspect of Goodreads when I was

on it, and this was way, way back.

Probably because I feel like also a lot of the people that I was friends

with also have left Goodreads.

So, I don't really Actively people to follow.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So it, I just closed the whole chapter.

I don't wanna add new friends.

I just wanna like, look people at my book trends, I just wanna

know what they're reading.

Yeah.

Read that.

Yeah.

It helps, like you really, it's really helpful to see what people are

reading and get new recommendations.

Yeah.

Okay.

So as far as for me . Ones that I would probably remove from here, like I said,

the Rachel Gillig, I don't think this is.

A romance, I don't, even a romanticy, so even if we go by that, it's not, it's

a fantasy book with romance elements.

So I would definitely switch those out.

And like you said, the Annabelle Monaghan, those are fantastic.

Those are women's fiction.

So, I would take that.

Catherine Center, I always see her also as women's fiction.

It's not as, this was a rom com.

I did read this.

This is a rom com.

Okay.

It's not, it's, there's romance here.

It's there, but it's a rom com.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, at least there's that.

The Spell Shop, I don't think is as romance either.

Like, I know they market it a lot as a romanticy, but, I don't think so.

What else?

I would definitely take out this thing because it's a historical thing.

Like, I don't even know how that's there.

I feel like this book probably must have paid some money.

Because that makes absolutely no sense.

I haven't even seen it.

Yeah.

So, okay.

So now if you had to make some comments or add some books for

things that you don't see on this list, what would you actually say?

So historical, patriotic, historical rom coms, even the mystery rom coms that

are coming up, that's an up and coming, where it mixes true crime or like stuff.

I didn't see Romantic Suspense, actually.

Yeah, no.

Same, so obviously that area where we're, Think about the

audience that we're looking.

Women listen to true crime, also like smutty Romans.

Yeah.

Mixing them together is like the perfect baby.

And actually, if you think about that specific niche, you cannot tell

me that there's no Nora Roberts on this list in the past three years.

Like she writes amazing as JD Rob for romantic thrillers.

And then she has her regular romantic suspense and she's been releasing books.

So, so think about those, like that area, that genre that needs to be addressed.

There's plenty of, limited, there's plenty of like, books and there's, and

they're emerging new trends with that.

So I Carter is bringing back the spies and stuff.

We have captain policy.

Similar to Nora Roberts, Small Town, Romanticist Friends Novels.

We have Davey Robb and that series that's been ongoing for 30 something years.

We did have a Daphne Perry, which is a little bit of that, like, No,

that's not a Romanticist Friends.

That's actually, I read that book.

It's not Romanticist Friends.

It's not Romanticist Friends.

That's just a romance.

Yeah, I know.

There's no mystery in that one.

So, no.

So yeah, they're really missing that.

They're missing also Paranormal.

Yeah, I think.

And in general, something else I noticed, and I did see that also in the comments.

There's only like a couple of books by Black authors.

There's no diversity.

There's one queer romance.

And I know that there's a lot of really popular titles that have

come out in the last three years.

So it's kind of surprising not to see those.

They're only showing the worst authors that are selling millions of units.

Yeah, Anna Huang, Lauren Ash, or Kennedy Ryan.

Okay, but there are other authors that are doing, that could be like

selling units and still like, up and coming and stuff like that.

Yeah, I completely agree.

Where it's like, whenever there's like a diverse list of them, like

they send the same, I'm like, you're sending the same three authors, like,

look for something else, yeah, and they, there are those authors where

like maybe there's like a runaway hit where one book really sold well.

So I would love to see more of that in lists like this.

I think that's probably There's no clue who we're in this list.

So Lord, we're actually, we're on a good place.

We have passed.

We have passed the air.

Now we just have to do the same with Sarah J. Mass.

So you know what?

There's only two.

So did she only release two books?

I don't know.

Maybe.

Okay.

So then there was only two to add to the list.

We are still not over that , we're still not over.

She's supposed to, we're supposed to get a new avatar book next and then, okay.

So, the year that she sent us, she, she released a couple of books a year.

Those years are over.

She's no longer, she's no longer doing, so funny.

A bunch of books.

Yeah.

So other than that let's add a couple of books that you think could have made the

list that, or should have made the list.

What are some of your recommendations?

I think, like, honestly, I would just look at romantic suspense, like, and

I, top of my head, I cannot name those books, but I'm looking at bad genre,

genre where there's, like, serial killers or, like, or things on the run.

Looking at that specific genre from small town to the security.

So the ones who are on the force, like there's up and coming authors, like

real short material while there, that's doing some really good stuff that I

would like to see more and then the mystery rom coms they're coming in.

So if we're looking for the rom coms, those things are published books.

I think Molly Harper has one.

There's quite a few that are coming up and I think those are

my view of hiding in that genre.

Yeah.

And I think like to wrap up a little bit of what my thoughts were on this.

I think it depends also on the fact that there's a lot of romance readers

that are not using Goodreads anymore.

And just the list skews a certain way.

And also because of publisher input or like just marketing in general,

because it is an Amazon company.

So it's going to push the things that are selling also on Amazon.

as much.

So I don't know, I feel like there's a push between the book

talk and Amazon sales and that's why we're getting this level.

Yeah.

I definitely would love to see a little bit more thought on at least not including

everything from a series so that it gives the space to add other things.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's one author, one book per author.

The most book in the author and then you just know you can

like go backwards from that.

Yeah.

Yeah, because it gives opportunity to other people.

Otherwise, it always turns into here's like the 20 authors that are popular

right now and just regurgitate the same thing, which like whenever I see

that, that's actually an indication for me, and I know I'm weird,

but that's my indication to like.

Not read that.

I'm disappointed.

Like, oh, this was not good.

Sometimes I'm like, oh, this question was good.

Yeah.

I want to make it better.

I've been trying to make it better up there.

I'm looking for hidden gems that people are up and coming or they use or like

gems that I find like scrolling through Amazon or Libby and trying them out

because You get so screwed with overhyped books, and there's like something that

was said about like, pay a look for other books that are similar to that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I definitely tend to skew more that way because, I don't know, I feel like

one, everybody's already talking about those, so like, they're gonna be popular

and they're gonna sell anyway, so why are we always reading the same things?

And a lot of times I actually enjoy the newer or hidden gems more than those other

authors, so we gotta give them a chance.

So yeah that's my takeaway from this whole thing.

It's like, please read other things than the same authors.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I hope that you guys leave your comments with what you actually

thought of the Goodreads top 100.

Let us know if you agree with us or if you disagree.

We're not going to judge a little bit.

We don't yuck your numb.

We're not yucking all these people's numb, so we're good.

I think that's the most important, right?

Also, actually, there was a lot of dark romance on this list.

But it's booktalk.

Booktalk has a lot of dark romance.

Booktalk is like everything.

Like, give me the most taboo shit, and I'm here for it.

And I'm like, and things are like, Okay, I'm not yelping, but okay!

Yeah it's the fact that it was dark, or the really fluffy contemporary rom

coms, or romance y. Like, that's it.

That's all you got.

Yeah, but there was no mafia!

And I love me some mafia.

If you guys want mafia recommendations, there's a mafia niche list for everything.

I'm working on more.

So we got super baby.

We got forced marriage.

We got arranged marriage.

We got age gap.

We got enemies to lovers.

We, I have a couple in advance, like mafia mom call.

Like, there's a little bit of everything for you.

There's Mafia Ballerina.

Mafia Ballerina's is coming.

I actually have some of it on the vlog, but I'm going to do a bigger list for you.

I love it.

I love it.

So see, these are the things that should be on the list.

And the funny thing is that I know that some of these authors are selling a lot.

So like, what is happening?

Yeah.

Yes.

So anyway, guys, thank you for joining us today.

Leave us your comments about your thoughts on the Goodreads Top 100.

Have you read any of them?

What are your favorites?

Because yes, there were some great books that made the list.

But what are your misses?

Which ones you would replace?

And be sure to follow both of us.

Laura is here on YouTube, and she's also on Substack.

And her podcast.

So make sure you find all the things in her blog and also follow under

the covers here on YouTube, subset, the blog and all the things and

catch us next week live on Thursday.

We're going back for novel hour.

We're going to talk about Galentine's day and friendship recommendations.

So it's going to be fun episode.

It's going to be a fun one.

I'm going to talk about toxic friends, which is, I'm very excited.

I love it.

Oh, like, sometimes you need, like, those frenemies, and I do have frenemies, and

Francesca knows what my frenemies are.

I haven't decided what I'm going to focus on, but I don't want to

do like just regular friendships.

I may do like romances.

I don't know.

Yes, that would be fun.

Like it's like, let's just share the friendship.

Yeah, let's share all the friendships.

So if you guys have recommendations, come to the live

and share them with us as well.

Yeah, all right.

We'll see you guys.

Bye.

Thanks for joining me on this episode of The Watcherinex Podcast.

If you enjoy our bookish conversations and want more recommendations, don't forget

to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Also, head on over to The Watcherinex blog for a list of

books mentioned in today's show.

Happy reading!