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 Laine and Meg, the brains behind the Plot Trysts podcast talk about the smut that hooked them on romance, and the smut that solidified their friendship.
Meg:
My first romance novel was Honor’s Splendour, by Julie Garwood. I was in 7th or 8th grade and co-babysitting with my cousin. The kids were in bed so she and I were hanging out in the basement, watching TV. We opened up the TV console to see what movies were in there only to find that it was full of romance novels! We each chose a novel and then spent the rest of our night reading. When the kids’ parents got home, their mother let us each take the book we were reading home, TO KEEP! (This was really amazing to our middle/high school selves. A free book??) Oh – I may have forgotten to mention that we were babysitting for my cousin’s confirmation sponsor. After that, I read romance off and on through high school, but cut way back in college. Fast forward a few years, I started reading them again. Why? During my final semester of grad school I was so stressed out I needed an outlet. For me, it was romance novels.
Laine:
I don’t think I remember my first “romance,” especially because the library I went to growing up mixed everything that wasn’t a Harlequin in with general fiction. I loved Jude Devereaux’s Remembrance and a Knight in Shining Armor (which Meg hates and I can admit didn’t hold up well), but the first time I bought and read what Meg and I review every week now is when my friend’s and I would buy romance novel and highlight the sexy parts to read aloud on long bus trips (we were theater kids). We have since reviewed some of these gems on our podcast, but Hot Summer Nights was a definite stand out.
Meg & Laine:
We started working together in 2017 and stared trading book recommendations. After Meg read Laine’s first rec – Crocodile on the Sandbank – she was immediately reminded of some fantastic smut. It’s always a little tough to give “real life” smut recommendations, but Meg decided to bring her copy of Mister Impossible, by Loretta Chase, to work and put it in Laine’s hands. After bonding over Mister Impossible, we started some informal buddy reads. It was so much fun we started our podcast, Plot Trysts, so we could immortalize our thoughts. Since then we have released at least 2 episodes a week.
Our shared interest has now invaded many parts of our lives – we have a calendar TBR list that dictates a lot of our leisure time and we make sure to put time on our schedules to meet and record. Our friendship relationship is much deeper, and all thanks to smut!
Want to hear Laine and Meg talk more romance? Check out their podcast at your podcatcher of choice or follow Plot Trysts on Instagram.
Thanks Laine and Meg! We can definitely commiserate about smut bringing friendships to a whole new level.
Have an early smut experience you’d like to share with us? If you’d like to see your story featured, send us an email or fill out our questionnaire and we’ll post it in an upcoming week.
The Smut Report 