2025 Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace

Have you ever done a year-long romance reading challenge?

Have you ever noticed that reading challenges seem like a fun social thing at first, but are actually hard and scary and stressful to think about in light of your already-terrifying TBR pile?

We understand your situation. So, we decided to make our own Heaving Bosoms reading challenge that is less like a reading challenge and more like the opposite.

What is the opposite of a challenge, you ask? Well, the Thesaurus says it’s an EMBRACE!

Pals, we give you the Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace! Doesn’t that sound like a warm hug?

It is low-key, low pressure, and low reward. Below you will see twenty categories made up of Heaving Bosoms phrases and jokes. To complete the embrace, you must put a book you read into each of the categories. (What do the categories mean? It doesn’t matter! You decide! Be creative!) When you’re done, email your book titles and explanations at heavingbosomspodcast@gmail.com and we’ll read your name on the podcast for our 2022 Reading Embrace Episode!

Sound hard? It’s not. Here are some possible scenarios.

You read twenty books this year with the categories in mind and your explanations have airtight logic: You’re embraced!

You read twenty random books this year and the way you’ve jammed them into the categories is tenuous at best: You’re embraced!

You only read one book this year and your explanations about how it fits each category are truly insane: You’re embraced!

You read no books this year and shove a movie, or a podcast, or a video game into every category in ways that defy reason: You’re embraced!

You consumed no media this year and you just lie to us about completing the embrace: You’re embraced!