Off Book with Georgia Clark: Play It Again, Romance Tropes, and Books That Make You Kick Your Little Feet
- genredpodcast
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
This week on Off Book, we are joined by author Georgia Clark, an Aussie living in New York City, contemporary romance writer, book coach, developmental editor, and founder of the intergenerational storytelling series Generation Women.
Her new book, Play It Again, is out June 16 and sounds extremely up our alley: community theater, second chance romance, queer kissing, messy friend history, and grown adults being forced to revisit the emotional wreckage of their teenage years.
This episode is part author interview, part romance genre defense, part book recommendation spiral, and part reminder that if a fictional first kiss makes you kick your little feet, that is literature doing its job.
About Georgia Clark
Georgia Clark is the author of eight novels, including Play It Again, It Had to Be You, Island Time, The Regulars, and The Bucket List.
She is also the founder and host of Generation Women, a live storytelling series that features women and non-binary performers across generations, from their 20s through their 70s and beyond. The result is part performance, part emotional gut punch, part “why are older women not centered in literally everything?”
Georgia also works as a book coach and developmental editor through My Novel Year, her year-long mentorship program for writers working on either a first draft or revision.
Basically, she writes books, helps other people write books, creates rooms full of women telling stories, and has somehow made community theater sound sexy.
We love it.
About Play It Again by Georgia Clark
Play It Again is an ensemble rom-com set in the fictional upstate New York town of Rhodes, centered around a community theater revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.
The story follows four people who were once teenagers in an iconic community theater production together. Back then, the experience cemented their friendship and sparked two romances. Then one disastrous closing night party blew everything apart.
Years later, they are called back to revive the play, save the theater, and possibly confront the fact that the person you were at seventeen is still somewhere in the room, being deeply inconvenient.
It is giving:
Community theater as emotional battlefield
Queer love
Found family with baggage
Small town theater kids, now with adult problems
Shakespeare adjacent existential dread, but make it romantic
Georgia also talks about why she chose Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as the play within the book, including its absurdist humor, limited cast, wordplay, existential themes, and the chance to gender-swap a traditionally male-heavy production.
We Have Things to Say
This conversation gets into one of our favorite subjects: romance as a genre that people love to dismiss while also quietly borrowing from constantly.
Georgia talks about how contemporary romance became her lane after an honest conversation with her agent about a book that was originally leaning more dark comedy. That conversation led her to read Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, which became a turning point for how she saw romance and what the genre could do.
And honestly? We love a career pivot triggered by one very good book.
Georgia describes Red, White & Royal Blue as the kind of romance that felt bigger, more ambitious, funnier, quippier, and more emotionally expansive than what she expected from the genre. It helped inspire the book that became It Had to Be You, her multi-POV rom-com about a wedding planning business and five couples.
So yes, this is also an episode about listening when someone smart tells you the book is not working, even when that means doing a terrifying amount of rewriting.
The Romance Genre Defense Episode We Deserved
One of the best threads in this episode is the way Georgia talks about romance conventions.
Romance readers know what they are showing up for: emotional payoff, chemistry, longing, the relationship beats, and usually a happily ever after. But the best romance makes those beats feel both familiar and surprising.
Or as Georgia puts it, romance has to feel surprising but inevitable.
That is such a good way to describe why the genre works when it works. You know where the train is going, but the pleasure is in how it gets there, who gets wounded along the way, who gets flustered, who says the thing at the wrong time, and who finally crosses the line everyone has been staring at for 200 pages.
We also talk about the misconception that romance is silly, shallow, or only about certain types of women living certain types of glossy lives. Georgia pushes back on that hard, pointing out that romance can hold chronic illness, addiction, Black literary culture, land rights, motherhood, trauma, queerness, class, grief, and still deliver the emotional satisfaction readers came for.
Books Georgia Recommends for Romance Readers
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
This is the book Georgia credits with shifting her relationship to romance as a writer.
It is queer, funny, romantic, political, and emotionally sweeping. It follows Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of America’s first female president, and Prince Henry of Wales after a fake feud becomes a fake friendship becomes something much more complicated.
Georgia talks about it as a book that helped her see what romance could be: voicey, ambitious, culturally aware, and deeply romantic.
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
Georgia calls The Idea of You her gateway romance recommendation, which is hilarious because this book is also emotionally dangerous.
It follows Solène Marchand, a divorced gallery owner, and Hayes Campbell, a much younger boy band star. The premise sounds glossy and juicy, and it is, but Georgia points out that the execution is much more mature than people might expect.
We also discuss the infamous ending, the film adaptation, and the fact that while the book famously breaks a major romance genre rule, it is still completely addictive.
Also, yes, we do talk about Harry Styles. We are only human.
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
For readers who are already deep in contemporary romance, Georgia recommends Tessa Bailey, especially It Happened One Summer.
It is spicy contemporary romance with a Schitt’s Creek-style setup, a glamorous heroine, and a commercial fisherman love interest. This is the “you know what you’re here for” side of the genre, and we respect it.
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Georgia also recommends Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, which she describes as the book she would point to when someone dismisses romance.
The novel follows Eva Mercy, a single Black mother and bestselling erotic vampire novelist, and Shane Hall, a literary novelist, as they reconnect in Brooklyn years after a formative week together as teenagers.
It is romance, yes. It is also about chronic illness, addiction, Black literary culture, motherhood, trauma, and creative ambition. Basically, if someone says romance has no depth, hand them this and let them be humbled.
Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff
Georgia also mentions Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff, the first 831 Stories book. It follows a political strategist and her former boy band crush, folding pop culture, politics, and romance into one very readable package.
Memoirs, Marriage, and Financial Cautionary Tales
When asked if she would read contemporary romance forever, Georgia admits she would cheat.
Recently, she has been reading memoirs, including:
Fame Sick by Lena Dunham
Georgia describes this as a 2010s nostalgia bomb, a feminist critique, a medical story, and a juicy celebrity tell-all all at once. Lena Dunham’s memoir was released in 2026 and covers fame, public scrutiny, health, addiction, and recovery.
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden
This one gets discussed as a divorce and financial cautionary tale. Georgia and the hosts talk about how the book makes you want to immediately check every financial account, prenup, deed, and detail you might otherwise assume is “probably fine.” Penguin Random House describes the memoir as Burden revisiting her marriage and reckoning with betrayal, family history, and the expectations placed on women.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Georgia also mentions reading Yesteryear, which she describes as ambitious, clever, and a real mind twister.
Childhood Reading and the Books That Made Us Want to Leave Home
Toward the end of the episode, we ask Georgia what book made her feel like a reader as a child.
Her answer: The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.
She describes being swept away by the fantasy, the world building, and the feeling that books could make the world bigger than what was directly in front of her.
We also get into The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, childhood fantasy, magical schools, wardrobes to Narnia, and Maximum Ride by James Patterson. This turns into a very reasonable discussion of why childhood books so often made us want to leave home, find the magical door, grow wings, or get selected for something extremely dramatic.
Honestly, if your childhood reading did not make you briefly try to research boarding schools, were you even reading fantasy correctly?
Favorite Moment
One of the best running ideas in the episode is the phrase “kick your little feet.”
Georgia talks about loving first kisses, banter, enemies to lovers when it is done well, and the moment when characters finally give in to the thing the reader has been waiting for.
That is the feeling.
The foot-kicking. The grinning. The “oh, they’re done for” moment. The scene where a competent person becomes completely undone by another person and suddenly forgets how to behave in public.
That, friends, is why we read romance.
Books and Authors Discussed in This Episode
Georgia Clark
Play It Again
It Had to Be You
Island Time
The Regulars
The Bucket List
Casey McQuiston
Red, White & Royal Blue
Robinne Lee
The Idea of You
Tessa Bailey
It Happened One Summer
Tia Williams
Seven Days in June
Alexandra Romanoff
Big Fan
Lena Dunham
Fame Sick
Belle Burden
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
Caro Claire Burke
Yesteryear
Susan Cooper
The Dark Is Rising
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit
James Patterson
Maximum Ride
Tom Stoppard
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Final Thoughts
This episode is for romance readers, romance skeptics, theater kids, former theater kids, aspiring writers, memoir people, and anyone who has ever said, “I do not read romance,” while actively consuming romance tropes in every other genre.
Georgia Clark makes the case that contemporary romance is not just comfort. It is craft. It is structure. It is emotional intelligence. It is social commentary. It is longing, banter, trauma, healing, and, when we are lucky, a first kiss that makes us act like absolute fools.
And truly, what more do we want from literature?
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Mini FAQ
Who is Georgia Clark?
Georgia Clark is an Australian author living in New York City. She writes contemporary romance and romantic comedies, including Play It Again, It Had to Be You, Island Time, The Regulars, and The Bucket List.
What is Play It Again by Georgia Clark about?
Play It Again is an ensemble rom-com about four former community theater friends who reunite as adults to revive a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and confront old romances, old heartbreaks, and the people they have become.
What books are recommended in this Off Book episode?
Books discussed include Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff, Fame Sick by Lena Dunham, Strangers by Belle Burden, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and Maximum Ride by James Patterson.
Is this episode spoiler-free?
Yes. The episode discusses Play It Again and several other books in a conversational way, but it is primarily an author interview and genre conversation rather than a full spoiler breakdown.
What genre does Georgia Clark write?
Georgia Clark primarily writes contemporary romance and rom-coms. In this episode, she talks about romance conventions, reader expectations, second chance romance, banter, first kisses, and why the genre deserves more credit.
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