{"podcast":{"title":"What to Read Next — Book Recommendations for Romance, Thrillers & Escape Reads","slug":"what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873","podcast_index_feed_id":9873,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/whattoreadnext/","website_url":"http://www.whattoreadnextblog.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/f7acd6df-7bd5-4b9f-bdcd-cc1c6c790629/4osSDj37v6rAcBIBBysi07ET.png","author":"Laura R Yamin","episode_count":928,"summary":"You know you want to read. You just don't know what. What to Read Next is the podcast for readers who love romance, thrillers, and women's fiction — and spend more time staring at their TBR than actually reading it. I'm Laura, and twice a week I bring you book recommendations built around one thing: how you actually feel right now. Not what's new. Not what's trending. The right book for this exact mood, this exact moment, this exact week of your life. Some weeks that means asking an author what they read for joy — not what they wrote, but what they reach for when they need to escape. Their answer is always your next discovery. Some weeks it means me telling you exactly what I read, what stayed with me, what I DNF'd at 40% and why, and which one I'd press into your hands right now if we were having coffee. Romance across every subgenre. Psychological thrillers. Beach reads with actual substance. Women's fiction that makes you feel seen. The books that give you the escape you came for — and a few that'll quietly change how you see things too. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. The Reading Receipt — my weekly reading log — drops every Thursday on Substack. Start anywhere. The r…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T20:17:08.396085+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873"},"episode":{"title":"The Slow Burn Celebrity Romance You Need | Star Shipped Cat Sebastian","slug":"the-slow-burn-celebrity-romance-you-need-star-shipped-cat-sebastian","published_at":"2026-03-06T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/the-slow-burn-celebrity-romance-you-need-star-shipped-cat-sebastian","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873","url":"http://www.whattoreadnextblog.com","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/349ed8df-2494-43de-be60-4356fa63f4ad.mp3","summary":"This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you’ve ever masked your anxiety while looking wildly “high-functioning,” this episode is going to hit. Today I’m chatting with returning guest Cat Sebastian about her new contemporary romance Star Shipped — a slow-burn, forced-proximity love story between two actors on a long-running sci-fi show who “hate” each other in the most domestic way possible. We talk about why Cat took a risk moving from historical to contemporary romance, how fandom and sci-fi shaped this book, and why she wanted to write a character with anxiety, OCD, and migraines who doesn’t magically “heal” by the final chapter. This is a conversation about radical acceptance, surviving in a noisy world, and finding love without fixing yourself first. If you loved the emotional intensity of hockey romances but want celebrity PR chaos instead, this one’s for you. ⏱️ Timestamps [00:00] Welcoming Cat back + what she’s been up to [00:01] Inside Star Shipped — enemies-to-lovers on a sci-fi set [00:02] The Gene Roddenberry letter that inspired the book [00:04] Taking the risk from historical to contemporary [00:06] Researching fandom vs. TV industry details [00:08] Writing invisible disability & high-functioning anxiety [00:12] No “pink cloud” healing — why incremental growth matters [00:16] Radical acceptance in romance [00:18] Romance recommendations with buttoned-up/chaos pairings [00:23] Where to find Cat + newsletter over social media 📚 Books Mentioned Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian — Contemporary Romance | Celebrity | Enemies-to-Lovers | Anxiety Rep | Audio ✅ Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly — LGBTQ+ Romance | Outdoors Setting | Neurodivergent Rep | Audio ✅ With Love, from Cold World b…","meta_description":"This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you’ve ever masked your anxiety while looking wi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1437,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/episodes/the-slow-burn-celebrity-romance-you-need-star-shipped-cat-sebastian/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/the-slow-burn-celebrity-romance-you-need-star-shipped-cat-sebastian.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}