If you like Heated Rivalry – if you don’t, you’re the only one, but anyway – if you like Heated Rivalry and want more queer romance but wish it had more wine, we’ve got the books for you. This week’s conversation is features queer romance at the 2025 Portland Book Festival, with authors Jasmine Guillory, Adib Khorram, and moderator Anita Kelly.
Jasmine Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of Drunk on Love, The Wedding Date, and The Proposal. A frequent contributor to The Today Show, she was at the festival for her first queer romance, Flirting Lessons. Adib Khorram is the author of I’ll Have What He’s Having and YA novel Darius The Great Is Not Okay. He serves on the board of directors for Authors Against Book Bans. He was at the festival for his adult romance book is It Had To Be Him. The event is moderated by Portland author Anita Kelly, author of How You Get The Girl and Donut Summer.
Both books, Flirting Lessons and It Had To Be Him, involve escape – to Napa and to Milan, respectively – and the authors talk about the arduous research process of drinking a lot of wine. Jasmine speaks about writing a book as a way to learn about something she’s curious about – in her case the wine business and living in what is thought of as a tourist town, like Napa. And Adib describes a rosé-fueled semi-spontaneous trip to Italy for eight weeks, and how the pursuit of joy inspired his process.
Romance is hot right now, and the conversation is very fun, but a heads up that it is a spicy conversation! There are a few bleeps, and portions might not for all ages or all ears.
The episode includes content that might not be suitable for all audiences – and it’s unbleeped! Listener discretion is advised.
Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author. Her novels include Drunk on Love, The Wedding Date, the Reese’s Book Club selection The Proposal. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time. Jasmine is a frequent book contributor on the Today show. She lives in Oakland, California.
Adib Khorram is the queer Iranian author of I’ll Have What He’s Having, which was an instant USA Today bestseller. He is also the author of the young adult novel Darius the Great Is Not Okay, which earned the William C. Morris Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Best YA Novels of All Time; his other young adult novels Darius the Great Deserves Better, Kiss & Tell, and The Breakup Lists as well as the picture books Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story and Bijan Always Wins, have garnered critical acclaim, starred reviews, and bestsellers. He grew up in Kansas City—the Milan of the Midwest—but he’d rather be in the real thing, sitting on a patio, enjoying an aperitivo.
Originally from a small town in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Anita Kelly now lives in the Pacific Northwest with their family. An educator by day, they write romance that celebrates queer love in all its infinite possibilities. They hope you get to pet a dog today
