Romance ME Podcast

In this episode, we discuss The Highlander’s Pirate Lass by Heather McCollum. It’s a pirate's life for Eliza. She’s grown up with salty sea air in her hair, an unblemished horizon as a future heading, and hatred in her heart for the scoundrel who murdered her family. Eliza has no plans to ever be a wife or even to fall in love. Meanwhile, highlander Beck needs a wife so that his family island can...

In this episode, we discuss The Lady and the Orc by Finley Fenn. Once upon a time, there was a Lady who was doomed to a loveless, childless, and comfortless marriage. As luck would have it, Lady Jule’s situation gets worse, when her husband Lord Norr abandons her to be captured by orcs.  Orc Captain Grimarr makes Jule the centerpiece of his plan to win his war against her husband, and Jule, in spi...

In this episode, we discuss Ask, Tell by E.J. Noyes. Amid the oppression of the U.S. government's Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Army Surgeon Capt. Sabine Fleischer is busy in Afghanistan, patching up injured bodies while keeping her crush on her commanding officer under surgical wrap. Forced to internalize her struggles so she doesn’t face career ending consequences for revealing her sexuality, Sa...

In this episode, we discuss The Break-Up Artist by Erin Clark and Laura Lovely. Narrated by Regan Linton When life gets her down, Zelda applies her creative writing gifts to the composition of break-up e-mails for others using facts provided to her by the dumper. It's a stress reduction outlet she doesn’t question until one day she realizes that the recipient of one of her creations is someone she...

In this episode, we discuss An Easter Demon for Eloise by Chloe Alice Balkin. Bouquet of basil, yellow carnation, and butterfly weed anyone? Florist Eloise would love to give her demonic captors the arrangement of hatred, disdain, and let me go, but unfortunately she’ll have to settle for breaking out of her confinement and rescuing herself. Almost immediately, she is found by Killian, a loathsome...

In this episode, we discuss Crushing on You by Jen Trinh. When Anna sits next to Ian on the plane, she immediately decides she wants nothing to do with him, even after learning they are traveling to the same event. But, by the end of the weekend, Anna realizes that there may be more to him than she’d first suspected. He’s not the well-mannered stereotype she had thought him to be. Perhaps it’s eve...

In this episode, we discuss My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh. In order to prove to her childhood bully that she isn’t a romantic late bloomer, Poppy claims a random man as her boyfriend without at first realizing that he was so hunky, or such a well-known hockey player. As luck would have it, said hockey player Dallas feels magnanimous towards a pretty stranger and plays along.  Once they get...

In this episode, we discuss Neon Gods by Katee Robert. Persephone is on the run from a forced marriage when she crosses the River Styx and falls into the arms of Hades, King of the Underworld. At first, she’s confused, because Hades isn’t supposed to exist, and yet, here he be… and he be hot.  Wanting shelter from the coming storm of her alleged fiance’s wrath, Persephone makes a mutually benefici...

In this episode, we discuss Ambrosia by C.N. Crawford. After almost becoming a ice sculpture, Ava falls through a portal and finds herself in an unfamiliar, hostile world with few allies and fewer options. She wants to reconnect with Torin. She wants to go home. She might not want to face the truth about herself and her nature. But when she meets the land’s sadistic queen, Ava is forced to make a...

In this episode, we discuss Homecoming King by Penny Reid. Pro-football player Rex is always a boyfriend but never a husband, sending many of his exes into the arms of his teammates. Meanwhile, bartender and crafter Abby had a fairytale love story gone bad, convincing her to give up on love. When Abby’s lifelong crush Rex walks into her bar, Abby is suddenly forced to reexamine her views on love....

In this episode, we discuss Frost by C.N. Crawford. There is rock bottom, and then there is the layer of crap Ava finds herself in the morning after her worst birthday ever. Involuntarily single and not ready to mingle, she finds herself jobless as well. Cue the handsome Seelie King Torin to rush in, saying words that amount to, “I hate you, so, marry me and I’ll give you a bunch of money." Nothin...

In this episode, we discuss Role Playing by Cathy Yardley. At age 48, Maggie has learned to embrace her inner bog witch, possibly to the point of being detrimental to her mental and emotional well being. Various people in her life are encouraging her to be more social and less of a hermit, but the one with the power to reach her is her son, Kit. Based on Kit’s quid pro quo logic, she finds herself...

In this episode, we discuss Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. After a brush with death, Chloe rearranges her priorities and writes a list that will ensure she’ll be remembered well once she dies. Chloe is now determined to live her life to the fullest, despite living with the chronic pain of fibromyalgia. To complete the items on her list, she enlists the help of a man who doesn’t like her...

In this episode, we discuss Depraved by A.J. Merlin. Having lived through a formative, terrifying experience when she was young, Sloane works and lives at a camp nestled into a residential area. Virgil is a serial killer just trying to get away from it all and take a little mini-vacay. Sloane finds him intriguing with his snake tattoo, charming looks, and easy way with her guard dog. But, once she...

In this episode, we discuss A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare. Susanna’s idyllic seaside home is under invasion of a most brutish sort. These bombers of sheep, these red fever spreading cads, these teashop renaming bulls led by none other than the chief bull Bramwell, the recently elevated Earl of Rycliff.  Susanna and Bram fight for the betterment of the locals – her by maintaining tranquility a...

In this episode, we discuss Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks Evelyn and Graeme are forced into an arranged marriage devised by their king to bring an end to the long-standing feud between their families. Both families think this is the worst thing that could ever happen, especially to poor, gentle Evelyn who is thought of as “daft.” How can she ever be a “true wife” to Graeme? Once Graeme learns...

In this episode, we discuss Enemy Lines by Alex Lidell. Kyan is determined to rescue everyone he can to make up for the one person he didn’t save. This includes his doctor Ivy, who moved to Denton Valley to escape the danger threatening her life. For mutual benefit, they make an arrangement: He will help her learn to function under constant pressure and she will help him get his medical clearance...

In this episode, we discuss Beard in Mind by Penny Reid. Beau has a vision of his future, and that vision does not include Shelly, the infuriating, rude mechanic his brothers hired to ensure their family business doesn’t turn into a parking lot. As he grapples with the complexity of Shelly’s prickly exterior, he realizes that there is more to the woman than he first assumed. When a family secret c...

In this episode, we discuss Bound to the Battle God by Ruby Dixon. When Faith goes to check on a sound in an empty apartment, she inadvertently finds herself a plaything of the gods as she is sent to another world where she is now the low woman on the totem pole. All she wants to do is go home, where she's a slave to the dollar and not a sex slave or sacrificial lamb.  The arrogant battle god Aron...

In this episode, we discuss Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell. Dumpster-fire walking, Tennal is self-medicating and self-indulging in an effort to cope with the enhanced mental capabilities of his “reader” brain. He’s living the charmed life of a socioeconomically advantaged civilian as if there are no consequences… until there are, you know, consequences. The next thing he knows, he’s forcibly enli...

In this episode, we discuss Happy Place by Emily Henry. Although Harriet and Wyn know they have been broken up for five months, no one else does. When they are summoned to Maine for their annual Summer meetup with their besties, they don’t want to let said besties know that there is trouble in paradise. In fact, paradise is lost, possibly for good.  So, to keep the peace for one final summer hang,...

In this episode, we discuss By the Book by Jasmine Guillory. Isabelle works in publishing, helping to encourage authors to bring their stories to life. While she enjoys her work, she is feeling underappreciated by her boss. She wishes she could grow her career and she doesn’t really want to be a babysitter for a beastly writer who isn’t writing. Beau, the grumpy pants author, has writer’s block an...

In this episode, we discuss Husband Material by Alexis Hall. Four weddings, one funeral, but no Andi Macdowell in this romantic comedy. Instead, we are reacquainted with Luc and Oliver! They fell in love with each other in Boyfriend Material and now, two years later, they are still in love, watching those around them do the next socially expected thing: aka get married. As Luc and Oliver work out...

In this episode, we discuss The Duchess and the Cowboy by Debra Erfert. Lady Jane has everything: a nice estate, pretty dresses, dutiful staff, and a husband she gets along with. But one day, her brother-in-law stages a duel with her husband, robbing her of her safe lifestyle. Jane decides to escape her nefarious brother-in-law by moving to Nevada where she meets cowboy Heath, who has his own issu...

In this episode, we discuss Seven Years by Dannika Dark. Seven years after disappearing, Austin Cole returns along with his grumpiness and sexiness. Lexi Knight is trying to not appreciate either as she attempts to learn why he left after Wes, his best friend and her brother, died under mysterious circumstances. However, things escalate when her mother is abducted, and Lexi learns a secret about h...