Up the Smut Podcast

In this episode Kate and Mikayla gives their 2023 reads awards like: best covers, best fight/grovel, most awww, and most sxx scenes.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss their favorite reads of the 2023 bookish year.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss holiday novellas (both the cute and the wtf) and debate whether the term krampussy should be in our lexicon.

In which Kate and Mikayla discuss the book Unhinged by Vera Valentine where the heroine has intimate relations with her front door. Please note this episode was recorded in September before Kate's new baby arrived so some topics of conversation may be out of date.

In which Kate and Mikayla catch up after their two month break, go off on a bunch of wild tangents, and drop their favorite reads from their time apart.

In this episode, Kate and Mikayla discuss the existence of aliens, give some great alien recommendations, and talk about how Mikayla accidentally read an alien novella with zero sex and ruined her day. List of titles and authors discussed available on IG @upthesmutpod

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss the taboo (is it really?) of step-sibling romances & then drop some hot recommendations on the subject.

In this episode, Kate and Mikayla discuss Mikayla being knocked the fuck out by COVID & her ACOTAR fever dream, Kate's string of bad pregnancy luck, and some of their latest 5 star reviews.

In which Kate has a discussion with the Queen of monster romance recommendations, @carmenreadsromance (on Instagram). They discuss how monstrous is too monstrous, the spectrum of monster romances, how to make out with a skull head, and also remembered to give a few monster recommendations spanning beginner to expert.

In which Kate drops a massive portion of her "work place romance" Goodreads shelf on you without breathing. Recommendations span subgenres: MM, paranormal, monsters, contemporary, fantasy, and more.

In which Kate interviews her own mother about her reading habits, book recommendations, and what it's like being the mother of a proud, shameless smut-fluencer.

In which Kate and Mikayla talk about their favorite and most absurd dark romance recommendations. Kate also provides a very personal and very elaborate scale with which to rank dark romance and Mikayla talks about her COVID experience and the 5 dinner rolls her father brought her to survive (it was 6 but he ate one on the way).

In this episode Kate lets you in on all the secrets of the life of a book reviewer including: how to start and grow your bookstagram account, how to stand out from the crowd, getting those advanced readers copies, and keeping track of what you're reading.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla reconnect after a week of mundane messaging and illness, talking about cat's middle names, how many times is too many times to say "brother" during sex, and why 30 year olds make terrible romance heroes.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla rattle off their top recommendations for hockey romances (MM and MF), discuss the popularity of the subgenre, and make general conversation about random shit.

In this episode Kate (AND MIKAYLA) interview Why Choose Hockey Romance author Emily Rath about her book Pucking Around in which three NHL hockey players get absolutely filthy with a sex-positive heroine who never tires. Mad respect.

In which Mikayla goes on an expected and welcome anti-billionaire tirade and then we bring you our favorite and most tolerable billionaire romance recommendations. From contemporary to sci-fi to fantasy and more. We've got the recommendations you need.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss heroines who get a lot of hate but who we absolutely adore. And go off on like 15 different tangents per usual. Fuck you, Gwyneth Paltrow.

In which Kate interviews her obsession Cate C Wells, an author who writes whatever the fuck she wants including psychopathic mafia books, rejected mate shifter books, motorcycle club books, small town romance books, and more. We're all over the place and we're loving every minute of it.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss their love of Praise Kink and shove one million recommendations down your throat. Have a pen ready. Or check our Instagram @UpTheSmutPod for a list of everything we talk about this episode.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla talk about their regretful bookish choices (centaurs, really?), their reads from this week, and then have a heated discussion about the pros and cons of having to give birth to a hooved baby. Trigger warnings: during the Hoofbeats discussion we talk about SA. List of books discussed at @upthesmutpod in Instagram.

In which Kate and Mikayla talk about hyped books (the good and the bad) and then make judgement calls about the books our followers voted as the books they think have been over-hyped in the book world.

In which Kate interviews the amazingly talented and spectacularly kind and brilliantly accented Talia Hibbert about her books. If you're interested in diverse Own Voices characters, Talia should be the next author you pick up. I have adored each and every book I've read over the years. They're very spicy (The Roommate Risk has squirting, oh my) and absolutely delightful. She also has a new, and completely adorable, YA book recently pubbed called Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. Give it a look!

In this episode, Kate mostly talks AT Mikayla about her favorite MM romance recommendations and occasionally Mikayla gets a word or fire rec in. Don't worry, there are plenty of random tangents but mostly there are fabulous MM recommendations covering a plethora of subgenres and tropes.

In this episode Kate interviews audiobook narrator, Connor Crais, who has worked with authors such as AL Jackson, Mariana Zapata, Meghan Quinn, Serena Akeroyd, and so many others (over 200 books!). He is also a co-author with Kayley Loring on a sports romance series & an holiday series. We talk about behind-the-scenes of audiobook narrating, his journey to romance narration, his work as an author, and so much more. Kate also, maybe, possibly, wrote down some sexy phrases and made him whisper them to her, but it's totally not weird. You can check out his work at ConnorCrais.com.

In this episode Mikayla breaks down her reading trends from 2016-2022 and identifies common slump trends while Kate battles her own on-going, unending book slump and tries to give advice she isn't taking herself. And also Kate embarrasses herself with her lack of Ice Planet Barbarians knowledge which Mikayla is quick to point out and capitalize on.

We read ogre smut and regretted every second of it. Listen to us recount these bizarre and not-so-good stories in this rant masquerading as a podcast episode. Negative vibes inside.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla discuss the romantic suspense genres (their likes, their dislikes, the tropes that drive them crazy) and then dish about their all-time favorite romantic suspense romances (that they've read so far...). There's also, of course, some weird discussions about surviving the apocalypse and the appropriate time to bone when you're being chased by bad guys.

In this episode Kate and Mikayla talk about their most anticipated reads of 2023, their bookish goals, and their trend predictions for the romance genre as we enter the new year.

In the first episode of Up the Smut, Kate and Mikayla talk favorite and least favorite tropes, their Zodiac signs, and whether they can keep a plant alive.