sexy sexy universal basic income
Big Fan, by Alexandra Romanoff, is 4.8 x 8 x 0.6 inches & 176 pages.
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Let’s imagine a scenario. You’re on the prowl for a babe. LO AND BEHOLD, you see them across the room. They’re wearing a fantastic outfit, all pink-cherry-red and gold. While you see nothing but sparkle behind those eyes, that doesn’t matter. You’re prowling for a body not a brain. Then, in the very first minute of meeting, they’re gushing forth with an organized, informed, and impassioned pitch for the poverty-eradicating possibility of universal basic income.* Can you imagine your delight, nay, your shock? Well, you should be ashamed!! The cutest covers can conceal smart snappy politics and who are you to assume that a general hottie doesn’t know a thing or two about bold policy plans?!
Alexandra Romanoff’s Big Fan, out today as the first release from the new romantic fiction press 831 Stories, is this babe across the room. All rom-com novels promise verve; this one actualllyyyy delivers and neatly folds in some fun political storylines.
[ Here’s how we get there: Maya, a hotshot campaign strategist in D.C. and Charlie, a former member of a mega-famous boyband whose got a nice stomach and reads Eula Biss (a specific fantasy), meet up after they’re in the same issue of Vogue. Maya attempts to transfer the tension between them into a request for Charlie to endorse her boss’ campaign pitch: universal basic income. ]
Big Fan emits sleek heat. There are some great hot sex scenes and, as a project on the whole, Big Fan frames a really precise articulation of the power/weaknesses of celebrity political endorsements.
There’s no time like the now to linger in the world of a passionate, progressive political campaign, filtered through a steamy crush dynamic. It’s somehow very calming, to read something that feels relevant but is actually escapist (or vice versa, I couldn’t decide). And it’s funny! I fully laughed at this “gross”:
*The longest paragraph on the first page of Big Fan manages to seamlessly incorporate a nice little primer on universal basic income.
& fun news! The author, Alexandra Romanoff, recommends a favorite Purse Book:
My favorite purse book was written by my best friend, Miranda Popkey. It's called Topics of Conversation, and it's prickly and sexy and spare. Ideal for dipping into when you find yourself alone at a bar for a little while.
Prickly! Sexy! Spare! It’s a Purse Book triple threat.