Hello, welcome back to the Penguin podcast. I'm Rihanna Dillon and this is another episode of Ask Penguin, the podcast, the podcast that brings you inside Penguin HQ and promises to leave your bookshelves

full to bursting with must-read book recommendations.

Today we've packed our studio full of books that contain some of the world's most iconic couples,

the cutest of meetcutes, and of course a tale or two of heartbreak and the covers are gleaming pink

and reds all around us because this episode is about one of my very favourite genres love and romance

i probably started as so many of you probably did, with Austin, the greatest writer of love

of all time. But it was young adult writers, like Kate Cannes with her single swim series,

Anne Louise Renison, with her brilliant protagonist, Georgia, who shaped my teenage years

and whose stories of First Love still stay with me today.

But what kind of romantic novel makes your heart beat faster?

Perhaps a bodice-ripping historical romp, or maybe a comedy of errors and misunderstandings

with the classic enemies-to-lovers tropepe or the simple yet effective forbidden love.

We'll be putting your Ask Penguin requests to some of our penguin colleagues later in the show.

Before that, hold on to your hats and your heartstrings as I'm joined by the best-selling romance author and book talk favourite,

Emily Henry. Emily is the New York Times best-selling author of the brilliant romantic comedies,

Beach Read, You and Me on Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place and Funny Story. Her latest novel,

Great Big Beautiful Life, is set on the Barmy Little Crescent Island,

home to a reclusive heiress, where sparks fly between two rival writers who are in competition

for the scoop of a lifetime. Emily, thank you so much for speaking to us. I have loved living

in your books.

I really, really love the premise of great big, beautiful life and the setting.

It's such a rich story.

...