Happy New Year, classmates! In 2025, #RomanceClass worked really hard to be present at our usual spaces, but we explored new ones too. It was a great year of maintaining and building new relationships with local and overseas reading communities, and we enjoyed every bit of it.
Shall we look back at everything we did in 2025?
In February, Mina V. Esguerra facilitated a mini workshop on Writing New Adult Fiction for CCP’s Pasinaya 2025. We also had a launch of all the Blush Books titles published in 2023 and 2024 at Fully Booked BGC. Gio Gahol, Rachel Coates, Gab Pangilinan, Migs Almendras, MNor Madamesila, and Clifton Esteban were also there to sprinkle kilig dust on everyone by way of the live readings. Blush Books authors Brigitte Bautista, Danice Mae P. Sison, Dawn Lanuza, Mina V. Esguerra, Six de los Reyes, and Tara Frejas were also present to talk about their books and sign copies for attendees who bought copies at the event.
Philippine Book Festival 2025 was held in March, and it also marked the release date of H. Bentham’s Kiss Away the Goodbye, published under the Blush Books imprint. During the four-day event held at the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall, #RomanceClass authors and live readers also participated in a few stage events. Chi Yu Rodriguez and H. Bentham were part of a panel called Baklaan at Bahaginan: Gender Inclusive Voices in Philippine Literature with authors Chuckberry Pascual and Bernadette Neri.
Meanwhile, we had Feel the Kilig: Books That Make You Blush Live Reading Experience on the last day of the festival, where Gio Gahol, Migs Almendras, Jade Albert, Jef Flores, and MNor Madamesila read excerpts from our books and served loads of kilig to a room full of readers.
We flew to Dumaguete in April for the 2025 Dumaguete Literary Festival and we celebrated #AprilFeelsDay2025 there as well, with a How To Write a Contemporary Romance Novel workshop by Mina V. Esguerra and Feel Mo ‘To: An Erotic Reading with #RomanceClass. For the live reading event, our live readers Avy Ticzon, Jade Albert, and Jef Flores were joined by young Dumaguete actors Annie Calunod, Jon Quizo, and Kelvin Lim. This particular live reading event was made even special thanks to Beryl Delicana and Jera Sanchez, who helped translate some of the passages and dialogue to Binisaya. The audience loved it!
Later in the month, Mina facilitated the Amor: Writing New Adult Romance workshop at Dia del Libro 2025 held at the Ayala Triangle Gardens. Vibal Publishing also unveiled their new titles and launched Carla de Guzman’s romance-fantasy book, Blooming Love.
In May, #RomanceClass2025 officially opened with a face-to-face orientation with Mina at Fully Booked BGC. Following this, we had a #RomanceClass table at Komiket BGC held at Market! Market!
At the end of the month, Mina traveled to Davao to deliver two writing and publishing workshops with the local writing community there. We thank our friend and reading advocate KB Meniado for inviting us!
We had a signing table for H. Bentham and Brigitte Bautista for Komiket Pride (Week 1), where they were joined by Kiss Away the Goodbye cover artist Rye Quizon. Ben and Brij also had the opportunity to talk about queer romance at Komiket Pride (Week 2). Together with the team at Komiket, we organized a Sunday Writing Sprint held at The Mess Studio of Common Room in The Atrium, Makati. It was a great opportunity for #RomanceClass2025 participants and other #Romanceclass authors to get their words in and meet their classmates/batchmates.
Vibal Publishing organized a fancy event in August to launch the Vida New Adult Book Collection, which includes Mina V. Esguerra’s Interim Goddess of Love trilogy, Carla de Guzman’s Blooming Love, Katrina Ramos Atienza’s Well Played, and Celestine Trinidad’s Ghost of a Feeling. Migs Almendras, Jef Flores, and Jade Albert were also in attendance and did live readings of the books. This event was held at the Ramada by Wyndham in Binondo, Manila.
September was a big month with Manila International Book Fair 2025, where Chi Yu Rodriguez’s Blush Books edition of No Two Ways was officially released. Several #RomanceClass authors also had signing sessions at the Komiket and Vibal booths, as well as the Penguin SEA and Ateneo Press booths.
We got to try a new thing this month too, when we put out a call for new live readers and had them “audition” at our Merienda and Meet Cutes event, which we initially put together to celebrate Gio Gahol and Rachel Coates’ tenth year with the community as OG live readers. Also included in the live reader lineup are Jef Flores, Jade Albert, and Avy Ticzon, together with Ciary Manhit, Matt Gador, Pam Zaragoza, Spens Soria, Cloie Hilomen, Hessa Palma, Marga Reyes, Carla de Guzman, and Tara Frejas.
#FeelsFest2025 was celebrated in Baguio City, with a Writing and Publishing Talk at Bookends Bookshop and an On-the-Spot Romance Writing lecture at Hygge Library Cafe, both facilitated by Mina V. Esguerra. It was great to connect with the local writers of Baguio, and we are excited to explore what we can do together in the coming months.
A week later, Mina V. Esguerra and Tara Frejas flew to Frankfurt, Germany to attend the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair. Mina acted as moderator for a few panels, including The Transnationality of Romance, Poetry for Freedom, Justice, and Peace, Philippine Art in the World, Speculative Fiction and AI, and Baybayin: Ancient Philippine Syllabary. She was also part of the Women in Arts and Media Panel with Tanya Yuson, Angel Velasco Shaw, and Patricia Evangelista, and hosted the Feel the Kilig: a Conversation on Filipino Romance live reading experience, which would not have been possible without the help of fellow delegate Camille Abaya from the Ateneo de Manila University, Filipino-German content creator Jan Reinecke, and NBDB’s Noesis Marquez, who connected us with our live readers Simona Allegra, Asma Welde, Vince Canto. On the last day of the fair, Tara participated in the Readings in Romance and poetry panel, where she read an excerpt from her book, Waiting in the Wings.
We closed out our year of events with an appearance at the 2025 Paskomiket, held at Megatrade Hall 2 of SM Megamall. During this event, we promoted our Kilig for Free promo, where people can simply scan a QR code and download a bunch of books and short stories by #RomanceClass authors.
Whew, what a busy year! And we are gearing for an even more exciting 2026, so we hope you stick around!
