Romance Book Review Podcast

Hot Alpha dragon male who has something from his horde stolen by the mysterious heroine, Pia. What is her secret? How long does it take him to track her down and find her? Why does the dark fae want them dead? Find all this out and Heidi's reaction to the book!

New format includes:
~Author biography
~Overview of the book -no spoilers
~Heidi's Loves
~Heidi's Gripes
~What Heidi would have said if she were the Editor
~Heidi's ten point scale
~Spoiler Section 

After reading Grace Goodwin's first book in her Interstellar Brides series Assigned a Mate for her last book review podcast, Heidi decided to give Grace Goodwin another chance with this book The First Starfighter. Heidi is a lifelong gamer, and the idea that a sexy videogame character was real and would come to your front door to take you away-uh hello Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher you can take Heidi away anytime-really appealed to her.

(The Witcher was a book series made into a video game series before it became the Netflix show and Henry Cavill is a gamer and he played it...drool).

The first ten minutes of this podcast, Heidi talks about story narrative using two popular streaming shows out right now as examples - The Squid Game and Only Murders in the Building. This podcast dives a bit deeper into story developmental editing than other podcasts for you writers out there. 

Come find out if this book got a higher score than Assigned a Mate!

Heidi discusses the report she received about an author bullying other authors, and the offensive social media post she saw a few days ago. This is a quick, extra podcast this week. Be prepared for some fireworks.

Heidi talks about Grace Goodwin's Assigned a Mate. It's described as an erotic romance with a lot of spanking and it delivers. But does Heidi like it? This is a hugely popular series with 21(!) books in it but this first book is about heroine, Eva, needing to go undercover into space for protection from the mob while she waits to provide testimony in court. She needs to seem like an actual "bride" in the brides in space program and she's paired with the Hero Tark. Our story goes from there!

Heidi does the 10 point rating system and then the spoiler section.

Support the show (https://paypal.me/romancebookreviewpod)

If you're interested in reading Omegaverse, Heidi guides you down the knotty path with 5 selections to wet your appetite and help you figure out what you might like. These key five cover the sweeter side, and toe into the darker side so you can see what appeals to you. Heidi thinks these are a great introduction to anyone wanting to start, or wanting to continue, their journey.

1. Choosing her Alpha -Isoellen
2. The Knotted Book Series - Laxmi Hariharan
3. Hired for Heat by Leann Ryan
4. The Golden Line by Addison Cain
5. Feral Trilogy by Nora Ash

Then Heidi discusses more books in sweetverse, the gray side of dark, and DARK!

Sweetverse:
Without dark themes, or an Alpha that gets too Alpha-holeish, these Omegaverse fill that romance need!

1. Leann Ryan - The entire Hired series
2. Hannah Haze - Author
3. Laxmi Hariharan - Fae's Claim Series
4.  Milana Jacks - Alpha Breeds Series
5. Callie Rhodes - Boundarylands Series
Reverse Harem - Baby and the Late Night Howlers by Kathryn Moon
M/M = Feral a M-PREG gay erotic by Lily Harem

Gray:
Getting into the darker side of things with dubious consent, but still finding redemption in the Alpha.
1. Isoellen - Her Broken Alpha and Finding her Luck
2. Zoey Ellis - A Tainted Claim - the Beholden Duet

DARK:
Tougher Alphas to like, possibly an Alpha you may never like or who may not get redeemed or change through the course of the book. Trigger material like rape. Possible non consensual sex.  Alphas that aren't as easy to like. Societies that treat omegas in ways that can be tough to handle.

1. Alison Aimes - Ruthless King - A Dark Mafia Omegaverse Fated Mate Romance 
2. Merel Pierce - The Sacred Omegas - December Book 1
3. L.V. Lane
4. Addison Cain - Born to be Bound Trilogy

Support the show (https://paypal.me/romancebookreviewpod)

Last year Heidi recorded a podcast to guide you through omegaverse, a subgenre of paranormal romance she'd just discovered. A year later - she's just as excited about it, but realized that she missed discussing a whole heck of a lot, and she knows a lot more about the evolution of this exciting new world.

First she's going to discuss what to expect in any omegaverse book you pick up. There's unique sex here so be prepared! (Or intrigued!) No pearl clutching in this podcast. You've been warned! 

Then, she'll talk about four branches she's broken down and how they differ.

1. Male/male omegaverse
2. The dark side of omegaverse
3. The sweetverse - the sweet side
4. Reverse harem

This is Part I of a 2 Part Podcast. In Part 2 she will be the Virgil to your Dante as she gives you a map to help you dive into books to figure out what themes and types of omegaverse you may like.  She'll give you quick snapshots of many different books to wet your appetite and help you choose. If you're already a fan, maybe you'll find some new authors!

Two omegaverse facebook groups mentioned:

Omegaverse Readers Unite
Monsters, Demons, & Knotting, Oh my!

Books Mentioned:
Born to Be Bound by Addison Cain

 

Support the show (https://paypal.me/romancebookreviewpod)

Morning Glory Milking Farm: A Monster Bait Romance (Cambric Creek Sweet and Steam Romance #1) by C.M. Nascosta is a Minotaur hero and human female. Yes, you read that right, it is a ROMANCE with a minotaur hero. And before you stop reading - this book is a delight and it's all over the FB groups because it is surprising everyone with both the sweetness of its romance and the hilarity of "milking" of minotaurs. Come find out more in the podcast.

Also mentioned in this podcast - Heidi discusses some other books she has been reading this summer:

1. The Lantern Men by Ellie Griffiths and Night Hawks by Ellie Griffiths. This a mystery series with a central romance and Heidi discusses her thoughts.

2. Heidi tried to read Book 3 in the Kristen Callihan VIP series Fall (the book after Managed, a book she loved and which has an entire podcast about) and couldn't get past chapter 3. Come find out why. 

Heidi returns to the Omegaverse to discuss two titles:

1. The Sacred Omegas Book 1 - December by Merel Pierce
2. The Ruthless King A Dark Mafia Omegaverse Romance by Alison Aimes

She provides an overview of both books including the dark themes so that readers can decide if these books are for them or not. 

Both books are popular in the Omegaverse genre. Heidi thinks that the first 25% of the Merel Pierce book has some of the best Alpha/Omega dynamics for new to the genre readers to help explain how they relate to each other and she is excited to share why she feels that way. 

For those dipping their toe into this genre, or just interested in hearing more about it, come over to the knotty side! (If you read Omegaverse, you'll get this joke. If you don't, listen to the first Omegaverse podcast Heidi did last fall - she explains knotting in this genre). 

The beginning of the podcast she also briefly discusses why she hasn't started Sally Thorne's new romance, and she also goes over a few key terms of Omegaverse M/F romances (heat and slick) and her personal viewpoints on them. 

Support the show (https://paypal.me/romancebookreviewpod)

Heidi discovered Angela Knight when she read about writing that Angela wrote (referenced below). In her book about writing, Angela used her own work to provide examples about things she was discussing. Heidi loved her paranormal/science fiction romances so much that she purchased them immediately.

In Jane's Warlord - Baran Arvid travels backwards in time to save Jane's life and defeat a time jumping serial killer. He has to be with Jane 24/7 as the serial killer is able to jump to her at any moment. Despite how hot he is, he likes her to obey his orders and that's a bit of a tough pill to swallow. Except... in the bedroom.

The sex scenes jump off the page, the action is part investigation/part action and is fast moving and intense. One of the best plots Heidi has read in a while. There is a reason this book won a ton of awards in 2004. The science fiction in this book will blow you away with its creativity.

At minute 45 Heidi discusses the sexy thesaurus - why it is so difficult to find good words to use for the female anatomy, yet not so hard for male parts. Minute 50, she ends with talking about the Mageverse Book 1 Vampire book which had the first chapter in the back of Jane's Warlord and most likely will be reviewed soon!

Also - if you like this book, Angela has werewolf and vampire books! Reviews coming soon!

Books mentioned in the podcast:

Master of the Moon by Angela Knight - Werewolf/Elf King book
Master of the Knight by Angela Knight - Vampire/Witch book and Book 1 of the Mageverse series
Passionate Ink by Angela Knight

Heidi wants to talk about two books this week she didn't finish - but for two very different reasons.

1. The first book - The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley a fantasy romance was due to two problems. Her frustration that the authors made up fantasy language was never translated, so you never knew what the hero was saying. EVER! (A translator shows up but she isn't there very much!) And the heroine was about as interesting as a dish rag. (Also the author made some interesting choices about the Hero at the start of the book... more on that in the pod.)

If you don't want the snark, starting at minute 19 -

2. A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon is a Reverse Harem. Heidi tried this genre, knowing it isn't her thing. This book is really great, but Heidi just can't do RH. She wanted to talk about it anyway because those of you that like RH, might really like this book! This is a positive review, just not Heidi's thing. She fell in love with one of the guys and that was it, it was too hard to read about the heroine with the others.