Despite what you may think, romance blogging is not dead. And now that Twitter is slowly dying the true death, you may be looking for some more sources of great romance content.
Previous posts in this series can be found here and here.
Romantic Parvenu
I’ve been reading Romantic Parvenu for a while, but didn’t include in on either of my previous posts about blogs I read because it seemed like Renae had stopped updating it. (I was wrong, but new posts are infrequent, and sometimes about not-romances.) However, her reviews are always worth reading—they’re smart, pointed, and political.
Check out: Her review of A Heart of Blood and Ashes convinced me to finally get over myself and read this book and I have no regrets.
WOC Read
The tagline for this blog is “a place for women of color to discover diverse reads,” and that’s a more accurate summary than I could come up with. While posts are primarily romance book reviews, there are also author interviews and longform articles.
Check out: I have two recommendations here (both recent, both of which got me to finally finish up this list). The first is a short how-to on discovering new books; if you’re one of the few people who reads romance blogs and somehow still never has anything to read, this is a great starting point, especially if you’re interested in finding books that aren’t heavily marketed. The second is this great list of Black romances taking place in every state in the US. This one’s for the nerds (like us!) who do things like track the location of where every book they read is set.
Sweet Savage Flame
Sweet Savage Flame is all about Old School Bodice Rippers, so you KNOW I’m there for it. Jacqueline focuses on books published between 1972 and 2000, and there’s all kinds of great content here for people who like it Old School: book reviews, features of gorgeous old book covers, and spotlights on authors. It truly is a great resource for those interested in romance from the late 20th century.
Check out: THIS REVIEW OMG. This book sounds exceptionally bonkers, and I am HERE FOR IT.
Vintage Romance Reader
Another entry for those who are interested in the development of the romance novel! This blog is focused more on older titles—early 20th-century thru mid-century.
Check out: This review of a book from 1911 called Aunt Crete’s Emancipation. This book is about someone who finds her happily ever after not in romantic love, but in filial love—and it really made me think about the limits of what counts as a happy ending.
KJ Charles’ Words for Sale
KJ Charles is a romance author, so her blog does include promos for her books—but Charles also worked as an editor for years before she started writing, and her essays on craft are absolutely top-notch.
Check out: This recent piece on tying up loose ends. And then from there, navigate over to the whole writing tips tag, and get better at writing (or, in my case, analyzing how writing works—or fails to).
Her Hands, My Hands
Romance reviews, complete with footnotes! Be still my heart! Look, I’m just saying that AztecLady might be a kindred spirit.
Check out: This recent review of The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick. In turn, this review led me down a whole rabbit hole of posts about Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz aka Jayne Castle, who is a big name in romance writing.
Have a favorite romance blog? Let me know in the comments! I’m always on the lookout for more folks to follow.
The Smut Report 
Thank you for the shout out!
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I’m always looking for more places to get inspiration.
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