Wanderland Reads | Something to Talk About

Something to Talk About

Meryl Wilsner

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A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance.

Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn't come at a worse time—threatening Emma's promotion and Jo's new movie.

As the gossip spreads, it starts to affect all areas of their lives. Paparazzi are following them outside the office, coworkers are treating them differently, and a “source” is feeding information to the media. But their only comment is “no comment.”

With the launch of Jo’s film project fast approaching, the two women begin to spend even more time together, getting along famously. Emma seems to have a sixth sense for knowing what Jo needs. And Jo, known for being aloof and outwardly cold, opens up to Emma in a way neither of them expects.

They begin to realize the rumor might not be so off base after all…but is acting on the spark between them worth fanning the gossip flames?

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Posts about this title from Wanderland Reads

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Nov 3 2025

If you grew up in a conservative religion, you probably learned early that desire was dangerous. You were told to guard your heart, protect your purity, and stay “undefiled.” Lust was a sin. Curiosity was a trap. Wanting was something to fear, not to understand.\ \ By the time you reached adulthood, you might have developed a complicated relationship with your body and desire. You might freeze when someone touches you, or feel a quiet hum of shame even when you’re safe and loved. You might crave intimacy but pull back at the first sign of arousal because it feels “wrong.” - HIS THIS WAS MEEEEEE!\ \ That’s not brokenness. That’s conditioning.\ \ Purity culture teaches you to separate from your own body. It makes desire feel like a test of morality rather than a natural signal from a living, breathing body. When your worth is tied to your ability to suppress, it becomes almost impossible to experience desire without guilt.\ \ Even when you leave the belief system behind, the reflex stays. You might intellectually know sex is normal, but your body flinches like you’re about to be caught. You might say “I’m free,” yet still whisper “sorry” after pleasure.\ \ This is where romance novels come in—not as escapism, but as education.\ \ Romance as a way of reclamation.\ \ Reading romance allows you to witness desire handled with tenderness, care, and consent. It models what safety looks like when two people explore attraction without punishment. The genre gives space for curiosity, communication, and mutual pleasure—concepts that purity culture erased.\ \ When a character asks, “Do you like this?” and the answer is a confident yes, it’s more than a sexy line. It’s a demonstration of autonomy. It’s a reminder that desire is not sin. It’s sensation. It’s communication. It’s trust.\ \ For those unlearning purity culture, this kind of modeling matters. You don’t have to perform confidence to start healing. Sometimes you begin by reading it, seeing it lived on the page, and letting your nervous system notice what safety feels like secondhand.\ \ From a trauma-informed lens, this is exposure therapy in the gentlest form. Reading about touch, pleasure, or intimacy lets you explore what your body avoided—without real-world risk. Your brain learns new associations: desire can be safe, pleasure can coexist with calm, love can mean choice rather than control.\ \ Each story becomes a small rehearsal for trust. You’re building tolerance for your own future.\ \ When you read romance after purity culture, you’re not learning how to have sex. You’re learning how to want again.\ \ You’re learning that attraction doesn’t require apology.\ \ You’re learning that connection doesn’t erase selfhood.\ \ You’re learning that pleasure isn’t proof of sin.\ \ Desire is not a moral failure. It’s a sign that your body is waking up to its own wholeness.\ \ If you want to use romance as part of your healing, begin with stories where emotional safety and consent are central. Look for slow burns, open communication, and partners who prioritize comfort over performance.\ \ Try reading with curiosity instead of critique. Notice where your body tenses, when you blush, when you soften. Those are clues about where shame still lives and where freedom is waiting.\ \ You were taught to fear desire, but desire itself was never the enemy.\ \ You were taught to silence your body, but your body has been speaking truth all along.\ \ You were taught that wanting makes you unholy, yet every tender pulse of longing is proof that you’re still here, still capable of connection, still alive.\ \ Romance stories aren’t the complete solution, but they’re a doorway—a way to practice wanting without punishment.\ \ Ask yourself:\ \ What would it feel like to want something without guilt?\ \ And what if that feeling wasn’t dangerous at all, but sacred?\ \ Relearning Desire Through Romance \ \ 1. Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner (sapphic)\ \ A quiet, queer slow burn between a Hollywood showrunner and her assistant. There’s mutual respect, consent, and emotional care on every page. It models how attraction grows through safety and trust.\ \ 2. The Roommate by Rosie Danan (hetero)\ \ Smart, funny, and sex-positive. It dismantles shame around pleasure and features a heroine learning that desire can be generous and collaborative, not transactional.\ \ 3. Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (queer)\ \ Brilliant academic heroine meets emotionally fluent partner who celebrates her ambition and sexuality. It normalizes communication about wants and boundaries. Actually this whole series.\ \ 4. The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite (sapphic)\ \ A sapphic historical where two women find safety and sensuality after loss. It reclaims intimacy from duty and reframes it as shared curiosity.\ \ 5. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (sapphic/queer)\ \ A story about reclaiming desire and pleasure after grief. It explores how trauma and sensuality can coexist without one canceling the other.\ \ Some of these are repeats from the free tier post the other day, and go check that post out for more recs along this line.

Relearning Desire After Purity Culture (How Romance Stories Help You Reclaim Wanting Without Shame)

5 books

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Nov 2 2025

[Romance novels have always been about hope. They promise emotional connection, communication, and repair. When you read inclusive love stories—especially sapphic ones—you’re not only witnessing romance, you’re watching healing in motion. These stories dismantle shame and rewrite what safety and intimacy can look like when everyone is allowed to belong.\ \ As a trauma therapist, I often use romance in bibliotherapy with clients who struggle with attachment wounds, shame, or fear of being seen. Inclusive romances provide more than escapism. They model what emotional safety looks like in relationships. They remind readers that love can be gentle, patient, and affirming.\ \ Love After Trauma: Stories That Make Space for Healing\ \ Healing isn’t linear, and neither are these stories. Sapphic romances that include therapy, self-reflection, and recovery arcs let readers see that healing and love can coexist.\ \ Books like Battle Scars by Meghan O’Brien or Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner show characters working through trauma without being defined by it. They fall in love while learning to regulate emotion, set boundaries, and communicate—skills that mirror therapeutic goals.\ \ When I recommend stories like these in session, it’s often to clients who believe they have to be “fully healed” before they can be loved. Reading characters who love and are loved through imperfection helps dismantle that belief.\ \ Bibliotherapy here isn’t about identifying with every plot point. It’s about seeing your nervous system reflected in another person’s healing arc. Clients often say, “If she can learn to trust again, maybe I can too.”\ \ Love looks different when it carries the weight of culture, race, or community expectation. Intersectional sapphic romances—like Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers or You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi—show the intersections of queerness, race, and belonging.\ \ These stories normalize complexity. They explore what it means to exist at multiple margins and still claim joy. For clients of color, especially queer women, reading these stories becomes an act of witnessing. They see themselves not as side characters but as the main story.\ \ In therapy, I might ask:\ \

How does this character balance identity and love?\ \
What cultural or familial expectations shape how she expresses desire?\ \
Where does she give herself permission to want more?\ \ \ These reflections often open conversations about cultural trauma, code-switching, or the fear of losing belonging when stepping into authenticity.\ \ Pleasure and Power: Reclaiming your Body\ \ For trauma survivors, especially those who’ve experienced body-based harm, pleasure can feel inaccessible or unsafe. Reading stories where diverse bodies and sexualities are celebrated—like Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner or The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite—helps reconnect the idea of pleasure with safety and agency.\ \ When clients read scenes where consent is explicit and communication is mutual, they’re not just reading erotica. They’re watching a healthy model of attunement. The body learns through observation too.\ \ In bibliotherapy sessions, I ask clients to note:\ \
How do these characters talk about consent?\ \
What language makes desire feel safe?\ \
How do power and vulnerability coexist in this story?\ \ \ The answers often become springboards for conversations about reclaiming autonomy and rebuilding trust in one’s body.\ \ Inclusive romance teaches something therapy alone can’t always provide: an emotional blueprint for connection. Readers internalize what safety feels like through story. They learn pacing, repair, and communication by seeing it modeled repeatedly and gently.\ \ When clients see love that looks like theirs—two women, a trans character, a fat protagonist, a disabled heroine—they see proof that their body and identity are worthy of tenderness. That experience, even in fiction, begins to rewire shame into self-compassion.\ \ In my work, I often frame reading as “emotional rehearsal.” When a client reads a story about vulnerability, their nervous system gets to practice what it might feel like to open up—without real-world risk. That safety-through-story is where processing begins.\ \ I don’t assign books like homework. I offer them as companions. We use them to reflect, name patterns, and imagine what healthy connection can look like. Sometimes a novel says what the client can’t yet articulate. That’s the quiet magic of bibliotherapy.\ \ Here is a non-comprehensive list of books I recommend\ \

Why Inclusive Love Stories Belong in the Therapy Room

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Nov 3 2025

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Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Nov 2 2025

Why Inclusive Love Stories Belong in the Therapy Room

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Fat Forward Books\ \ Samantha Puc\ \ • Jun 19 2025

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\ \ Join for free or login](https://fatfwdbooks.binderybooks.com/item/zhO8Re6YX9KTaGkKvZFo/)

Interview: Meryl Wilsner Wrote 'My Best Friend's Honeymoon' to Write Dirty Talk

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Sapphic and Proud \ \ Amivi\ \ • Feb 14 2024

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Happy Valentine’s Day from your fav black lesbian 🧡🤍💖 \ \ Here are some sapphic books you should re

Happy Valentine’s Day from your fav black lesbian 🧡🤍💖

Here are some sapphic books you should read. Still reading outdrawn with my sapphic book club and loving it, and sadly she gets the girl isn’t on here cause I don’t have a physical copy of it 😭

Also obviously D’vaughn and Kris plan a wedding had to be on here 🤭

#sapphicbooks #sapphicromance #wlw #wlwbooks #dvaughnandkrissplanawedding #outdrawndeannagrey #delilahgreendoesntcare #somethingtotalkaboutbook #bookishromance #kissheronceforme #romancebooks #valentinesbooks #lesbianbooks

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Sapphic and Proud \ \ Amivi\ \ • May 22 2023

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here with all the recs #sapphicbooks #sapphicbookrecs #thebalanceoffates #sapphicbooktoker

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Sapphic and Proud \ \ Amivi\ \ • May 13 2023

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#fakedatesandmooncakes #honeyandspicebook #romancebooksrec #romancebookish

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Sapphic and Proud \ \ Amivi\ \ • Jan 25 2023

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#sapphicbookrecs #dvaughnandkrisplanawedding #delilahgreendoesntcare #bookishrecs

7 books