Bring Your Own: A Bookish Podcast

This week we learn all about Steamy Lit, the adult bookish subscription company that empowers readers to incorporate self love into their reading habits. We’re joined by the company’s founder Melissa (@bookrecsbymel) as she walks us through Steamy Lit’s origins, the Steam Box , and what readers can expect from the upcoming inaugural Steamy Lit Con happening August 18-19, 2023 in Anaheim, California.
For more on Steamy Lit follow @steamylit , @steamylitcon , & @thesteamboxco on Instagram

@bringyourownpod on Instagram

In the season one finale we’re taking it back to our bookish roots and talking about our #BookTok Favs!

Before diving in we discuss how we discovered #BookTok, what we love about the community, the things we wish were different, and mention some of our favorite creators on the platform. Personal picks for this episode include:

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman -  44:11
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - 59:10
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn - 1:14:44

Stay up to date with the podcast during hiatus by following us on instagram @bringyourownpod

In celebration of Father’s Day 2023, we’re sharing some of our favorite fictional Dad’s found in romance books (aka the hot fictional DILFs of our dreams). We gush and moan on why we love these fictional daddies, the relationships they have with their kids, and why they’re all worthy of #1 Dad status.
Major Spoilers for:
All Rhodes Lead Here: 16:40
In A Jam: 33:14
Funny Feelings: 48:41

Summer is upon us! This Week's mini-episode is dedicated to Summer Reading! We share what makes a good summer read, recommendations, and the books we’re hoping to read as the days grow hotter and longer.

Share your summer reading plans with us on Instagram @bringyourownpod

This week we’re throwing it back to the late 2000s and early 2010s by talking about our favorite books from our youth! Kendra tries to explain the ludicrous plot of the Pretty Little Liars franchise, Brandi reveals that she may have been bullied over her Hunger Games obsession in middle school, and Kayla comes out of retirement as the number one Divergent fan on Tumblr. We also discuss some of the books that got us into reading, the golden era of book to screen adaptations, and which other books we’d love to see hit the big screen!

Major Spoilers for:
- Pretty Little Liars (books and tv show)
- The Hunger Games trilogy
- The Divergent Series

For more BYO, follow us on instagram: @bringyourownpod

This week we dissect our personal rating systems, gush our favorite online reading trackers (spoiler alert: it's storygraph), and discuss what makes us give a book five stars! We also chat about our recent five star reads and why they made the cut!

No spoilers this episode! Just vibes! Happy listening and tell us your recent five star read on instagram @Bringyourownpod

This week we welcome our very first special guest on the pod, Logan of @lcsbookstagram on instagram! Queen of Small Town Romances and audiobooks, Logan walks us through her personal reading journey, how she discovered bookish communities, her favorite parts of content creation, and more!

This week we talk all things audiobooks! We reveal our audiobook origin stories,  dissect our individual listening habits, and foam at the mouth over our favorite narrators. We also each brought our latest audiobook obsessions and provide evidence as to why it should be your next listen!

Audiobook picks (no spoilers just vibes):
Belladonna: 42:11
Juniper Hill: 52:02
Life's Too Short: 1:01:14

First in our Author Spotlight Series: #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry! While gushing over our favorite novels written by Henry, we also discuss her recent rise in popularity, and how we each came to discover her work. And yes, we're talking all about her latest release Happy Place too!

Spoiler-filled discussion timestamps:
Beach Read: 28:48
People We Meet On Vacation: 48:37
Book Lovers: 1:07:41
Happy Place: 1:21:20

This week we discuss our favorite smutty romance books! Brandi gushes over Give Me More by Sara Cate, Kendra is on her knees for Play With Me by Becka Mack, and Kayla turns bright red reading a scene from Heartless by Elsie Silver. We also go in-depth about our personal smut preferences, how we started reading spicy romances, and more!

Things get very NSFW very fast so we recommend listening with your earphones for this one!

Spoiler-filled discussion time-stamps:
Give Me More - 18:18
Play With Me - 42:04
Heartless - 58:00

This week we're sharing our unpopular bookish opinions. We're giving our thoughts on the pregnancy trope, love triangles, discreet covers and more! For more on our unpopular bookish opinions or to tell us your own, follow the pod on instagram @Bringyourownpod

Episode contains spoilers for Heartless by Elsie Silver.

Part two of our deep-dive into the #Booktok favorite Addicted/Calloway Sisters Series series by Krista and Becca Ritchie. We’ll be covering the remaining five books in the series: Thrive, Addicted After All, Fuel the Fire, Long Way Down, & Some Kind of Perfect. Follow us on instagram @BringYourOwnPod to keep up on all things happening with the pod!

Time Stamps:

Thrive:07:39

Addicted After All: 33:38

Fuel the Fire 50:09

Long Way Down: 1:11:33

Some Kind Of Perfect:1:31:35

Part one of our deep-dive on the #Booktok favorite Addicted/Calloway Sisters Series series by Krista and Becca Ritchie. We cover our favorite books, characters and couples from the series, followed by and in-depth spoiler-filled discussion of the first five books: Addicted to You, Ricochet, Addiction For Now, Kiss The Sky, and Hothouse flower. Follow the pod on Instagram @BringYourOwnPod

Time stamps:

Addicted to You: 25:58

Ricochet: 49:00

Addicted for Now: 1:00:05

Kiss the Sky:  1:14:25

Hothouse Flower: 1:35:00

In celebration of Women's History Month we've each brought our favorite Book Girlfriend. These are the fictional women who inspire us, teach us, and make us fall to our knees. No kidding, we would do anything to spend a single night with many of these women. Have a favorite Book Girlfriend? Tell us on Instagram and give a follow to stay up to date with the pod and see list of spoilers for this episode! @Bringyourownpod

This week we’ve each brought our favorite trope! From Fake Dating to Single Parent- find out what makes these tropes stand out to us and the books that deliver on them! Have a favorite trope we forgot to mention? Tell us on Instagram and give us a follow to stay up to date with the pod and more! @BringYourOwnPod

Potential minor spoilers for: It Happened One Summer, Juniper Hill, The Soulmate Equation, Fallen Men, Happy Place, Terms & Conditions, Yours Truly, In a Jam, Wall of Winnipeg & Me, The Cruel Prince, The Simple Wild, Magnolia Parks, The Addicted/Calloway Sisters series, The Like Us series. 

To start things off we’ve each brought our favorite comfort books! What makes you treat a book like your personal safety blanket? When do you find yourself reaching for it the most? We discuss this and tell the story of how we all became bookish besties via the internet! Tell us your favorite comfort book and keep up with the podcast by following us on Instagram! @BringYourOwnPod