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A Passion for Passion: A Delirious Love Letter to Romance
A Passion for Passion is a love letter to genre romance fiction. It celebrates the joyful silliness of books that are written to follow the rules.
Alice Fraser has a special place in her heart for the sweeping silliness of romance novels. The journey to reach a believable Happily Ever After can go via an unbelievable rollercoaster of intensity, through wildly entertaining twists and unlikely turns. To celebrate the unparalleled joy this genre can bring to readers and defy its oft maligned status, Alice has created the author, D'Ancey LaGuarde, the ineffably mysterious, outrageously prolific, undisputed regent of the art of romance.
Collecting together excerpts, book cover designs, character sketches and synopses of ‘D'Ancey’s’ most absurdly frivolous and outlandishly whimsical from A Knight of Passion to The Dragon Lord's Lady and Luring the Laird to A Cowboy Called Home, this is an exclusive glimpse into the tropes and dreams that rise like perfumed bubbles through the fecund swamp of the romantic mind, and a fulsome challenge to anyone denying the importance of joy purely for its own sake.
This book will be a constant source of solace and encouragement for romance fans worldwide, and the perfect companion to smuggle into your next ball . . .
Alice Fraser has a special place in her heart for the sweeping silliness of romance novels. The journey to reach a believable Happily Ever After can go via an unbelievable rollercoaster of intensity, through wildly entertaining twists and unlikely turns. To celebrate the unparalleled joy this genre can bring to readers and defy its oft maligned status, Alice has created the author, D'Ancey LaGuarde, the ineffably mysterious, outrageously prolific, undisputed regent of the art of romance.
Collecting together excerpts, book cover designs, character sketches and synopses of ‘D'Ancey’s’ most absurdly frivolous and outlandishly whimsical from A Knight of Passion to The Dragon Lord's Lady and Luring the Laird to A Cowboy Called Home, this is an exclusive glimpse into the tropes and dreams that rise like perfumed bubbles through the fecund swamp of the romantic mind, and a fulsome challenge to anyone denying the importance of joy purely for its own sake.
This book will be a constant source of solace and encouragement for romance fans worldwide, and the perfect companion to smuggle into your next ball . . .
- GenresNonfictionComedyHumor
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 6, 2025
25 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 11, 2025
I don't read a lot of out-and-out humour books, perhaps a little burnt by too many TV tie-ins as a kid (though things like The Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopedia perhaps have outlived their source material). I am no stranger however to both taking a minor in-joke and extending it way beyond its seemingly natural lifespan, and Alice Fraser's work on the Bugle, Gargle and Last Post podcasts. And so from The Last Post - an ambitiously daft daily satirical news podcast from a parallel universe that Fraser ran in the news-free year of 2020 came the running joke of D'Ancey LaGuarde, and bite-sized blurbs of their ridiculous micro-genre romance novels. It is a bit that loving pastiched Regency and romantasy genres amongst others and relied heavily on Fraser's rat-a-tat delivery and generous if absurd writing.
A Passion For Passion is therefore both a collection of about fifty of those blurbs, with occasional excerpts from these fictional fictional books, combined with the occasional discussion of the pleasures of the romance genre (and feminist readings of such). There are also a few mock-up covers, a comprehension quiz and a postscript from the fictional author. It is very much a grab bag which probably works best as something to dip into: there are only so many fake blurbs for romance novels about half-vampire, half-merman Lord's romancing a governess than you can read in a row. Fraser does have a very gifted way with words and comic rhythm though, and it was interesting reading this after Space Opera to see how to finely load a paragraph with gags* and have each of them land, rather than just try to overwhelm the reader with jokes hoping some will work. There's both a huge amount of imaginative work in this, and it is in itself just frippery, but I have to say it made me laugh an awful lot
*And indeed a well-timed footnote.
A Passion For Passion is therefore both a collection of about fifty of those blurbs, with occasional excerpts from these fictional fictional books, combined with the occasional discussion of the pleasures of the romance genre (and feminist readings of such). There are also a few mock-up covers, a comprehension quiz and a postscript from the fictional author. It is very much a grab bag which probably works best as something to dip into: there are only so many fake blurbs for romance novels about half-vampire, half-merman Lord's romancing a governess than you can read in a row. Fraser does have a very gifted way with words and comic rhythm though, and it was interesting reading this after Space Opera to see how to finely load a paragraph with gags* and have each of them land, rather than just try to overwhelm the reader with jokes hoping some will work. There's both a huge amount of imaginative work in this, and it is in itself just frippery, but I have to say it made me laugh an awful lot
*And indeed a well-timed footnote.
May 6, 2025
I enjoyed the first few pages so much, some of the blurbs were laugh-out-loud funny; by the end, however, the variations on the theme are not so endless, and I was slightly bored. The fact remains that as a tireless reader of romance novels, I found more than a kernel of truth in the author's words.
Le prime pagine mi hanno divertito tantissimo, alcune quarte di copertina erano da morire dalle risate; alla fine peró le variazioni sul tema non sono poi cosí infinite e verso la fine ero leggermente annoiata. Resta il fatto che da instancabile lettrice di romanzi d'amore, ho trovato piú di un fondo di veritá nelle parole dell'autrice.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Le prime pagine mi hanno divertito tantissimo, alcune quarte di copertina erano da morire dalle risate; alla fine peró le variazioni sul tema non sono poi cosí infinite e verso la fine ero leggermente annoiata. Resta il fatto che da instancabile lettrice di romanzi d'amore, ho trovato piú di un fondo di veritá nelle parole dell'autrice.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
February 17, 2025
As it would be quite impossible to judge the work of legendarily productive Romance writer D'Ancey Laguarde based solely on the back cover texts and blurbs that have made it to this dimension, this review will only concern itself with the parts written by Alice Fraser. Which are excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the short essays interrogating romance tropes and would read an entire book of those! Very good footnotes as well as a satisfactory number of cameos of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Any fan of Alice's comedy, podcast, or patron writings will love this book.
October 9, 2025
The Critic’s Member’s Pussycat is the 27th in the experimental genre-bending series of Romantacy-reviews with a supernatural twist.
Darileah Quetzalcoatl is half literary critic, half woman, one quarter Navajo, another quarter mystery. And she’s 150%* badass. Left behind in a dreamtime accident as a baby, she grew up in the Liminal Fiction Library**, where she was exposed to dangerous words across the dimensions, and now seeks the same thrills in the Non-fiction realms. Sanguine both of nature and of hair colour, she always has to remind herself whether sanguine means happy or sad. Turns out it’s happy. So, she’s sanguine of hair colour but not by nature. Darileah rides her sentient motorbike to literary festivals across the country eviscerating worthy novels and searching for the book that will make her whole.
Until one night, racing down a country road after liberating the only remnants of her favourite author's favourite sentences and paragraphs from this world’s (evil) Hay Literary Festival, a large, lightning quick, feral cat leaps at her. It drags the half conscious through the undergrowth, snatching her cool leather jacket and sardonic T-shirt straight from her lithe, smooth back muscles.
In the cheetah’s cave she is at his mercy. Her exposed waist, the exact width and colour of a large chocolate coin, calls out to the feline. It soon finds out it has the same taste as the chocolate coin too. Darileah had forgotten about a chocolate coin she let melt on her midriff. But chocolate is poisonous to large cats!
As Darileah regains her senses, she is enthralled by the sickly cheetah’s silky muscular thighs and whiskered, noble, eye-liner-y face, and spends the night caring for the creature.
Only to wake up alongside a man!? A hulking brute?! A naked hulking brute with sexy scars and naturally eye-lined eyes!? Twice the size of a very small man, but only half the size of the tall giant who haunts her dreams, but does not exist in this particular sub-genre of fantasy. As she runs away, a blizzardalanche covers the mouth of the cave and the pair are trapped, barely clad, and cold enough to have an effect on nipples.
Flint Saxondale is a daring half-cheater, half-were-cheetah, lost prince of the Illiteratti, leaving hearts broken by day and eviscerated by night. He cares only for speed, freedom, and bangfests, bedamned any luscious stomach that tries to hold him captive. Or captivate him. Despite his aptitude for smouldering looks, rippling pecs***, abs so hard they are rivaled only by his erections, and multiple offers to endorse a range of guy-liners, he holds a shameful secret: he can’t read.
Forced to huddle to maintain warmth, the pair turn to the only entertainment they have: D’Ancey LaGuarde. Darileah reads aloud to the frustrated cad/cat, slowly thawing his illiteracy, the ice outside, and their scantily clad relationship. Swipes and bites turn to purrs and sexy bites.
By Spring the pair giggle under the covers, appreciating the exquisitely lusty prose. Truly only a 5-star book could sooth a savage beast and form such a bond between two such as they — and if she ever got out of here that would be reflected in Darileah's critique. But as his creamy penis**** is increasingly drawn to her more spice-based vagina and creamy**** breasts, the ice is melted before their hearts defrost (Darileah always forgets to put them in the fridge the night before). All that sultry smouldering probably helped it along. Flint can't wait around to learn the latest lesson on alliteration. But as fast freedom flourishes, Flint feels thoughts, feline and phallic, flitting towards familiar fanny*****.
But can a leopard change his spots? Would that matter to a cheetah? And what of Darileah’s visions of an octopus writing at the speed of thought******? What happened to her motorcycle? How far from the land of non-fiction are they, and is it something a friendly passing engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel can help with?
Find out in The Critic’s Member’s Pussycat available in the depths of your two true loves eyes reading right to left, or your nearest InPost locker.
*The extra half person/badass is attributed to the ghost of her half-formed foetal twin, who was also a badass.
**A Library that is Liminal and Fictional, not one that contains only Liminal Fiction
*** He forgot that he let two ripples melt upon them
**** Creamy, as in surprisingly pale, not covered in jizz (yet)
***** Either US or UK meaning
****** While never having found confirmation, Darileah’s studies have led her to the conclusion the D’Ancey LaGuarde is some form of Octopus, as the speed and variety of their work can only be ascribed by 8 separate brain centres working in tandem.
Darileah Quetzalcoatl is half literary critic, half woman, one quarter Navajo, another quarter mystery. And she’s 150%* badass. Left behind in a dreamtime accident as a baby, she grew up in the Liminal Fiction Library**, where she was exposed to dangerous words across the dimensions, and now seeks the same thrills in the Non-fiction realms. Sanguine both of nature and of hair colour, she always has to remind herself whether sanguine means happy or sad. Turns out it’s happy. So, she’s sanguine of hair colour but not by nature. Darileah rides her sentient motorbike to literary festivals across the country eviscerating worthy novels and searching for the book that will make her whole.
Until one night, racing down a country road after liberating the only remnants of her favourite author's favourite sentences and paragraphs from this world’s (evil) Hay Literary Festival, a large, lightning quick, feral cat leaps at her. It drags the half conscious through the undergrowth, snatching her cool leather jacket and sardonic T-shirt straight from her lithe, smooth back muscles.
In the cheetah’s cave she is at his mercy. Her exposed waist, the exact width and colour of a large chocolate coin, calls out to the feline. It soon finds out it has the same taste as the chocolate coin too. Darileah had forgotten about a chocolate coin she let melt on her midriff. But chocolate is poisonous to large cats!
As Darileah regains her senses, she is enthralled by the sickly cheetah’s silky muscular thighs and whiskered, noble, eye-liner-y face, and spends the night caring for the creature.
Only to wake up alongside a man!? A hulking brute?! A naked hulking brute with sexy scars and naturally eye-lined eyes!? Twice the size of a very small man, but only half the size of the tall giant who haunts her dreams, but does not exist in this particular sub-genre of fantasy. As she runs away, a blizzardalanche covers the mouth of the cave and the pair are trapped, barely clad, and cold enough to have an effect on nipples.
Flint Saxondale is a daring half-cheater, half-were-cheetah, lost prince of the Illiteratti, leaving hearts broken by day and eviscerated by night. He cares only for speed, freedom, and bangfests, bedamned any luscious stomach that tries to hold him captive. Or captivate him. Despite his aptitude for smouldering looks, rippling pecs***, abs so hard they are rivaled only by his erections, and multiple offers to endorse a range of guy-liners, he holds a shameful secret: he can’t read.
Forced to huddle to maintain warmth, the pair turn to the only entertainment they have: D’Ancey LaGuarde. Darileah reads aloud to the frustrated cad/cat, slowly thawing his illiteracy, the ice outside, and their scantily clad relationship. Swipes and bites turn to purrs and sexy bites.
By Spring the pair giggle under the covers, appreciating the exquisitely lusty prose. Truly only a 5-star book could sooth a savage beast and form such a bond between two such as they — and if she ever got out of here that would be reflected in Darileah's critique. But as his creamy penis**** is increasingly drawn to her more spice-based vagina and creamy**** breasts, the ice is melted before their hearts defrost (Darileah always forgets to put them in the fridge the night before). All that sultry smouldering probably helped it along. Flint can't wait around to learn the latest lesson on alliteration. But as fast freedom flourishes, Flint feels thoughts, feline and phallic, flitting towards familiar fanny*****.
But can a leopard change his spots? Would that matter to a cheetah? And what of Darileah’s visions of an octopus writing at the speed of thought******? What happened to her motorcycle? How far from the land of non-fiction are they, and is it something a friendly passing engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel can help with?
Find out in The Critic’s Member’s Pussycat available in the depths of your two true loves eyes reading right to left, or your nearest InPost locker.
*The extra half person/badass is attributed to the ghost of her half-formed foetal twin, who was also a badass.
**A Library that is Liminal and Fictional, not one that contains only Liminal Fiction
*** He forgot that he let two ripples melt upon them
**** Creamy, as in surprisingly pale, not covered in jizz (yet)
***** Either US or UK meaning
****** While never having found confirmation, Darileah’s studies have led her to the conclusion the D’Ancey LaGuarde is some form of Octopus, as the speed and variety of their work can only be ascribed by 8 separate brain centres working in tandem.
February 11, 2025
I loved this book. I’ve historically dismissed romance fiction in an appallingly snobby way, but I always enjoyed the snippets of D’Ancey Lagarde that made their way onto other Bugleverse shows and adoring Alice’s lovely brand of hyper intelligent nerd comedy I had to read this book. It’s tremendous fun. I laughed a lot. And I’ve been sold, I wanted to read all of these wonderfully peculiar books. Fabulous work.
September 30, 2025
A very silly book, written by one of the funniest humans on earth.
June 17, 2025
Fun, funny, and insightful!
The back-of-the-book summaries for fanciful romance novels are all bangers, and the essays are as thought-provoking as anything.
I have never before read aloud so many passages from a book to coworkers, friends, and strangers.
This book has led to me putting a dozen Romance novels on my reading list.
Here's my favorite serious quote from the book:
And here's my favorite back-of-the-book summary:
The back-of-the-book summaries for fanciful romance novels are all bangers, and the essays are as thought-provoking as anything.
I have never before read aloud so many passages from a book to coworkers, friends, and strangers.
This book has led to me putting a dozen Romance novels on my reading list.
Here's my favorite serious quote from the book:
The magic trick of a Romance novel is that we know how it ends. We know who is going to end up together, usually from the first chapter. And yet, the author has to make it gripping. While we know they’ll live happily ever after, we must feel at some point that the author can’t possibly pull off the trick. That’s art, telling people the punchline and still have it be surprising and delightful.
And here's my favorite back-of-the-book summary:
BALLS IN THE AIR
[American, Sport]
Balls in the Air is a modern Contemporary Romance with a sports team drama.
Joe’s a Big Leagues player in the Chicago Animals. He’s got the best arm in the business and the best butt too. But his public persona as a care-for-nothing playboy is a well-manicured illusion, hiding beneath it a man who just wants to be the best he can be. They’ve just won the finals, so why does he feel so empty inside?
Sienna is a local Chicago nursing student, working as a bar girl to make ends meet. She’s just found out her fiancé is cheating on her and is out for a rebound fling.
When Joe rescues Sienna from a sexually aggressive umpire on his team’s night out, they fall into each other’s arms for what each of them thinks is a no-strings-attached fling. But somehow the meaningless sex is the most meaningful sex either of them has ever had, and they are both shaken to discover that the next day they want to spend the day together going to art galleries and having breakfast in each other’s t-shirts. Strings very much attached!
Soon, Joe must find a date to the awards ceremony and Sienna needs a revenge boyfriend for her cousin’s upcoming wedding, and they agree to pretend to be going out in a way that would be totally acceptable to everyone including themselves if it were real. But it isn’t. But is it?! Could it be?
Find out in Balls in the Air. Available now in all catcher’s mitts.
June 27, 2025
This hilarious, smart, happily silly debut book from comedian Alice Fraser is a love letter to romantic fiction: With the kind of "know you well" that grants permission to celebrate what you adore along with kindly making fun of the silliness. Listing the back cover summaries of the works by the universe's most prolific author of (spoiler) romance novels, one D’Ancey LaGuarde (originally an "ad break" invention by Fraser for her brill pody 'The Last Post'), mixed with Fraser's trademark-edly delightful "unpack-examine" clever comedy. Inventive. Knowing. And funny, funny, funny. ‘A Passion For Passion’ is joyfully, lovingly recommended to everyone from Jane Austin live-alikes, to fantasy romance mash-ups with dragons adore-rs, to those who remain convinced romance tales peaked with ‘The (original) Terminator’ and ‘Fast/Furious’ film series.
May 14, 2025
A phenomenal stand-up and popular satirist on the podcast The Bugle, Alice Fraser has adapted her first book from comic vignettes she developed for radio, and it reads more like a collection of sketches than a comic novel. But it's hilarious, even for a reader like me who has hardly ever dipped a toe into romance or romantasy. She also makes a compelling case to free romance from its gendered ghetto, regarding it as a puzzlebox genre (like a murder mystery) where the nature of the ending is predictable but the author must challenge themselves to get there in unlikely and unpredictable ways.
Very funny.
Very funny.
October 29, 2025
A satirical exploration of the romance genre and all that it entails, viewed through the lens of a fake bestselling author from another dimension and her many works. What could have easily been an extended pun run is in fact a stealthy dissertation on the cultural impact of the genre itself and how it both drives and responds to the reader (immediately comparing her to one of her male counterparts is worth examining on my part). Fraser shines best with her semi-essayist writing on the form of the genre and I wish she would develop that further.
February 17, 2025
This was hilarious. I giggled through the book and can't recommend following the footnotes strongly enough.
Even if you weren't a follower of the "The Bugle" or "The Last Post" podcasts where you were able to follow more of Alice Fraser's work, you'll love this book.
Even if you weren't a follower of the "The Bugle" or "The Last Post" podcasts where you were able to follow more of Alice Fraser's work, you'll love this book.
August 19, 2025
Funny, insightful, loving of the genre.
This book is a true treasure! You can feel Alice's love for the genre on every page. I had lost interest in fantasy and romantasy for a long while, thinking it was repetitive (it often is) and shallow. This book made me rediscover an old passion and start reading for fun again!
This book is a true treasure! You can feel Alice's love for the genre on every page. I had lost interest in fantasy and romantasy for a long while, thinking it was repetitive (it often is) and shallow. This book made me rediscover an old passion and start reading for fun again!
March 17, 2025
A love letter to love. As someone who doesn't read any romance novels, I think I got more out of Alice's mini-essays than I did from Dancey's plot synopses. But it definitely raised a few laughs.
I was worried the joke would wear thin, but no, hilarious throughout.
I was worried the joke would wear thin, but no, hilarious throughout.
October 21, 2025
What is there to say— Alice Fraser brings the wonderful world of joy, laughter, and wit in a way so compelling that I laughed, cried, and giggled simultaneously. This piece of art is a gift for which I am eternally grateful!
February 9, 2025
There's some great insightful stuff here but I'm not sure if the conceit works so well in the long form written medium as it did in bite sized pieces on the podcast.
February 19, 2025
Loved it! A riotous romp through the wild world of romance novels, brought forth by Alice Fraser in her inimitable richly descriptive style. Glorious!
July 27, 2025
A delightful taking of a a silly joke to the exponential next level of serious, if tongue in cheek (sometimes literally), discussion of Romance as a genre.
August 24, 2025
I’ve always enjoyed Alice’s work, and this is no exception. A very funny book!
December 7, 2025
D'Ancey LaGuarde has done it again!
October 13, 2025
An ideal book to have around and pick up to read for a random chuckle. Very amusing. I kept reading it to my husband because some of the names just have to be heard out loud. Get the audiobook!
March 30, 2025
An investigation of romance fiction's popularity, history, and sub-genres, featuring excerpts and back-cover copy from dozens of books by the (fictitious [probably]) romance novelist D'Ancey LaGuarde. Very, very silly, from the host of the Realms Unknown podcast and frequent co-host of The Bugle.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews