first dates
& soulmates

Two avid romance readers podcast about their love of the genre, the writing process, and share their favorite book recommendations.

Apple

Meet Your Podcast Co-Hosts

Each week we’ll be sharing stories, discussing the tropes that make us cringe and laugh, interviews with folks who bring these stories to life, and more about the stories that give us hope, joy, and more ❤️❤️

Nikki McKnight

she/her

As a young teen, Nikki would print out reams and reams of slashy fanfiction and put it into binders, reading hours under the covers. (Sorry, trees, but I needed my yaoi.)

By day, Nikki is an operations and systems strategist for businesses poised on the edge of their next big thing, and likes to figure out how to make things happen.

By night, she is a gamer, a speed reader of queer romance novels (reading over 800 books per year), a devotee of feminist movie podcasts, and an enthusiastic consumer of all things caffeinated.

Top 10 tropes:

grumpy x sunshine
2. bi-awakening with best friends
3. oblivious-on-both-sides-yearning
4. pen pals/secret identity
5. vacation flings that become more
6. sworn off relationships but oops…
7. secret royal/billionaire
8. psychopaths falling in love
9. age gap
10. enemies to lovers

Meg Casebolt

she/her

Meg Casebolt writes under the pen name Bailey Seaborn – named after the two copywriters in The West Wing. (Yes, she is that big of a nerd.)

She’s also the founder of Love At First Search, an SEO marketing agency singularly devoted to helping entrepreneurs & small businesses to show up on Google, Podcasts & Amazon.

When she’s not escaping into her Kindle paperwhite, she’s probably hanging out with her husband, 2 boys and 80lb pit bull. She has an insatiable appetite for s’mores and Broadway musicals.

Top 10 tropes:

waking up married
second (or third, or fourth) chance
best friends brother
black cat-golden retriever
secret identity / You’ve Got Mail
celebrity-normie
time travel
werewolf shifters
he falls first
enemies to lovers/workplace rivals

What’s your romance trope soulmate?

Featured Romance Author Interviews

Episode 67

It’s All Connected: Inside Eden Finley’s Shared Universe

Nikki and Meg sit down with bestselling author Eden Finley to talk all things generational romance, character crossovers, and the chaos of collaborative writing. From her Fake Boyfriend series to Puckboy, Eden shares how she builds interconnected worlds where the HEAs don’t stop with one couple but they span generations.

Get the full episode on Substack