Smut is having a moment. These romance lovers suggest their top 5 reads for 2025
CBC
Saskatchewan musician Farideh had a revelatory moment in 2023 when she picked up a fantasy romance novel called Fourth Wing. At that time, she was searching for books that were light and breezy.
"I want a book I read Tuesday that I forget by Thursday. I don't want to be changed, I don't want to be moved," she laughingly told CBC host Sam Maciag for an edition of This is Saskatchewan, exploring the popularity of the smut and romance genre.
Reading Fourth Wing led Farideh to recommendations for other books in the romance genre that gave her the thrill she was seeking — books that light up the brain and rev the reader's pulse.
Farideh ended up devouring 380 romance books last year, more than a book a day. She's the kind of voracious romance reader driving the sales at brick and mortar boutiques dedicated to racy books. That includes Slow Burn Books in Calgary, The Book Boudoir in Edmonton and Saskatoon's own Pages of Passion.
Victoria Koops released her debut novel Who We Are in Real Life last year after a lifetime of consuming romance fiction.
As a high school counsellor in Weyburn, Sask., she knows how heavy life can be, and said romance can provide people a much-needed emotional lift.
"Our brains are constantly working, constantly processing, taking in new information, and our bodies feel bad and the impacts of it," she said. "And so we need places to play, places to escape to so that our brains can actually rest."
In this week's episode, Maciag, Koop, Farideh and best-selling romance writer Jennifer L Armentrout break down the joys of romance fiction and share some of their favourite reads.
This story is from the This is Saskatchewan podcast — your connection to the stories Saskatchewan is talking about. Every week, we cover local issues that matter. Hear the voices that are creating change, shaping policy and fuelling creativity in Saskatchewan.
Tune into This is Saskatchewan every Wednesday on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Hundreds of members of Sandy Lake First Nation have left the remote Oji-Cree community as a major wildfire burns nearby.
A new collaboration that allows local artists to temporarily take over empty buildings in Waterloo region aims to "cut the red tape" normally associated with renting space.
The Charlottetown Library Learning Centre has added another language section to its multilingual collection.
An ambitious new plan aims to redefine the relationship between caribou and people in Yukon's Southern Lakes region, including by allowing Indigenous youth an opportunity to hunt the animals for the first time in decades.
Helicopter pilots, heavy machinery operators and railway workers are some of the people on the front lines of the Manitoba wildfire fight.
Ontario appears to be months behind launching a mandatory review of the Greenbelt, and opposition politicians and environmentalists are asking for a wide-ranging and transparent study of the protected lands to preserve their future.
WARNING: This article references sexual assault, and may affect those who have experienced them or know someone affected by them.
Former military language and cultural advisers — who at times carried out some of the most difficult and dangerous assignments of Canada's war in Afghanistan — are now suing the federal government for discrimination over the alleged failure to properly train and take care of them following their service alongside combat troops, CBC News has learned.
The 336-kilometre trail, which stretches along the coast of much of the Avalon Peninsula, has 25 different paths that people can take.
An organization that represents commercial fishermen says it's steaming ahead with a lawsuit aiming to define the terms of a moderate livelihood fishery now that a Nova Scotia-based First Nation has dropped its own lawsuit against the federal government.
Daniel DeLong was a Grade 12 student at Riverview High School in 2011 when his environmental science teacher encouraged him to get involved in his community.
A construction worker who huddled with his crew inside a smoky shipping container as a northern Ontario wildfire encircled them said he's happy to be alive and back home with his family in Brandon, about 215 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
One week after residents of Air Ronge left the northern Saskatchewan community, fleeing wildfires and adhering to mandatory evacuation orders, the mayor says many of them still don't have a place to sleep.