Heaving Bosoms

Happy New Year HBs!!!!!!!!!! Mel and Sabrina are ushering in 2024 by recapping Grand Theft NYE by Katrina Jackson! It's horny in here! AND THERE'S A HEIST! Y'all know how much Mel loves a caper. Cleo is here to make an entrance and then a hasty exit... with Mr. Shimizu's heart. Bonus Content: 2nd grade humor, Jessica Hare, getting jokes live on the podcast, Ana Huang's Twisted series, a high speed...

Hey HBs! Your fave Nic is here with Mel and Sabrina for our annual Christmas movie episode! We signed up for a lighthearted romance and instead we got a lighthearted THRILLER! In this airport Marriott, Christmas Magic has turned malignant. Wishes will be distorted, bodies will be snatched, and cookies will be decorated to be PURPOSEFULLY UGLY gah! No, but seriously, WTF is this movie. Currently, y...

Hey HBs! This week we're here to recap the YA darling, THE CHRISTMAS CLASH by Suzanne Park! This book is so swoony, funny, moving, adorable, and a big inspire! Chloe and Peter are mired in a years-long family rivalry, but might need to work together to save their family's restaurants from being demolished, along with the mall they call home. Along the way we get romantic, illicit alley dinners, gr...

Hey HBs! Happy Hanukkah to every who celebrates! On this 5th day of Hannukah 2023 we're recapping one of the most adorable (and hot!) books ever, Mistletoe and Mishigas by M.A. Wardell. It's an MM contemporary about a sunshine, pocket-sized 1st grade teacher and the Queen-loving, grumpy bear custodian who wants to resist his charm and just can't. Fake dating, size difference, grumpy/sunshine, prot...

HBs! We're kicking off our special Patreon series the 12 Weeks of Maas-mas! That's right, for the next 3 (or probably more) months, Sabrina and Mel will be recapping Crescent City books 1 and 2 on Patreon, in preparation for book 3's release in January!! In this episode, we cover chapters 1-12 of HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD and we don't hold back! What is haaaaappening?! How did she wreck Mel in the...

Hey HBs! We're here with our first historical in a while and Sabrina has decided she lives there now. That's right, When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James has stolen our plucky co-host and may never return her! We've got an erroneously-ruined heroine, a supposedly-impotent and very grumpy doctor hero, and an arranged marriage that "doesn't suit." But swimming lessons might just be t...

Hey HBs! Happy Thanksgiving to all our American Listener! This week we're recapping Before Thanksgiving Comes by Marisa Carroll. It was a little heavier than our former Inspirational romance books, but we manage to find the funny! TW: substance use disorder (character currently in recovery), death of a spouse and grandmother (historical), mention of suicide (historical), parentification of a child...

Happy Veteran's Day, American HBs! We're bringing you book 2 of Suzanne Brockmann's Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series, FOREVER BLUE . A big ol' Navy Seal goes home for his brother's wedding (to his High School sweetheart) and reconnects with the little tomboy he paid no attention to back in the day. Also, there's a murder mystery! And some astonishing police work. Bonus Content: "Is it my meds...

Hey y'all! HB Nic is here to recap the sci-fi romance of our dreams! Saving Verakko by the one and only Victoria Aveline! It's road-trip, it's wilderness survival, it's cultural misunderstandings, it's suggested penetration and then ACTUAL penetration. It's delicious. Bonus Content: nervous first date energy, OMG the Victoria Aveline rabbit hole of it all, she was raised by Bear Grylls, he's desce...

Happy Halloween, HBs!!!!!! It's our SPOoooooOOOOKyyyyy eeeeeepissooooode! And this is LEGIT spooky! Mel and Sabrina recap Haunted Hookup by Eliza McLane! We've got a heroine in a rut, a hero getting his second chance, and a ghost who wants to wingman hard! She will happily traumatize you in service to her wingmanitude. Wingmanity? You get it. Bonus Content: Sneaky dance parties and operatic belche...

HBsssssssss!!!! We came to this paranormal series for spooky season. Little did we know, it's actually horny toad season! Meg Anne and K. Loraine throw down in this Why Choose romance full of vampires and shifters and demons and a whole bunch of other things we don't find out about until book 3 or 4! Because, yes, this is another multi-book HEA and, yes, it knocked our socks off. Deal with the Dem...

Hey y'all! It's a bonus episode! To celebrate the release of The Gargoyle from General Management, Mel narrates a scene from the book for you. Enjoy! If you loved this snippet, make sure to get The Gargoyle from General Management ! And the first two books in the series are great as well! Don't miss out on Love, Laugh, Lich and The Orc from the Office ! The above are affiliate links, which means t...

Y'allllll! The Overdue Podcast boys are here to celebrate our 300th episode with us! Mel and Sabrina are joined by Andrew and Craig to recap the new adult romantasy sensation FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros! Come hear us chat about writing to trend, a refreshing heroine, Canadian dragons, and so much more! Did you hear our brand new music by Brittany Pfantz ? It's AMAZING! And our brand new logo was...

Hey HBs! Happy 6th Podiversary! Kimberly Lemming, Alexis the Sword, Naima Simone, and Sabrina Bradley are here to celebrate in style! We've got Hard Limits Watch, Kinks Watch, Obsessions Watch, and so so so many Would You Rather scenarios! Stay tuned to the end for some announcements and surprises! I'll post a full list of books mentioned on our Patreon ! Enjoy!!!!! Subscribe! Rate! Review! Tell a...

Hey HBs! Sabrina and Mel recap The Professional by Kresley Cole! It's book 1 in The Gamemaker series and poor Sabrina got duped into thinking that's it's chiefly a mafia romance. FALSE! The Russian mafia is certainly there, but this is a BDSM erotic romance of our dreams! We've got stalking for reasons, we've got kidnapping, we've got dry h mping in corn fields, we've got wet h mping in maid's clo...

Hey y'all! Sabrina is back to recap Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens ! It's Cynster book 1 and we LOVED it! There's a super decisive hero (tyrant? lol), a strong-minded heroine, and a murder mystery! Bonus Content: Sabrina hyper-focus on fixing her tags in Storygraph, a whole passel of Stephanie Laurens, how do you say "Honoria" and are we French now?, we are Sherlock Holmses now, a mi...

Ooooh, it's our first cowboy book in a minute! Mel and Sabrina recap A Cowboy to Remember by Rebekah Weatherspoon, which a second-chance AMNESIA romance! That's a tough trope convo to pull off and this book is FANTASTIC! It's the last day of our Patreon fundraiser benefitting the people of Maui! Sign up before midnight ET on September 18th and we will double the first month's pledge and we'll spli...

Hey HBs! Kim Loraine (AKA Stella Hunter) is here to recap A French Fling by Emily Silver ! We've got an enthusiastic alt girl tour operator and an aloof French driver. If they can get past their first impressions, sparks will fly! And the narration performed by Samantha Brentmoor is brilliant! Bonus Content: Mel's new obsession with Floriography, Kim loves that violets are a sapphic symbol, our la...

Hey HBssssssssssss! Surprise! This episode is tardy because we decided to thoroughly enjoy our Labor Day weekend over at HBHQ and wow did school start right after! Very exciting changes. This week, Sabrina joins Mel to recap Dark Lover by JR Ward, the first book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series! If you love a hate episode, this just might be for you because... let's just say this was a rough...

Hey y'all! Alexis the Sword and Kimberly Lemming are back to finish our recap King of Flesh and Bone by Liv Zander! If you haven't yet, go listen to Part 1 before finishing this episode. We're about to go topside with our plucky heroine and our psychotic god (ie sad, sad boy) and that might just include a little more twisting! We're not going to get the HEA for these two in this book, but we'll be...

Woo! Alexis and Kimberly Lemming are here to recap King of Flesh and Bone by Liv Zander! It's a dark romance featuring a scrappy, oath-keeping midwife and a selfish, dramatic god of the dead. Did we mention it's pretty dark? WE LOVED IT SO HARD. But! Trigger Warnings: in this episode, we discuss death, suicide, murder, glib mentions of domestic abuse, very very dubious consent (at best), violence,...

Hey HBs! Meredith is here to recap A Lady Awakened by Cecelia Grant ! Wow we loved this book, and part of that was because of all the mixed feelings we had about it during the reading experience. This is a brand new premise to us and we've never seen a historical like this before. Ahhhh! It's so good! Bonus Content: #justiceforthatpig, a very principled, prickly heroine, and so much more! Need som...

HBs, Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is here! We're recapping Dragon Called by Cassie Alexander and Kara Lockharte! It's Paranormal Dragon Times, there's a magic cat, and a badass nurse heroine! Buuuuut, it's a cliffhanger. I know! I'm sorry! Part 2 of this book will be on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Podcast feed on Friday! And then books 2-4 will be recapped on our Patreon this week!...

Hey HBs! Kiran and Lynn Camden are here! They started as listeners and now, years later, we're great friends! They're also long-time besties. We recap Trashed by Mia Hopkins and WE LOVED IT. It's told compeltely from the hero's POV which, Lynn points out, puts him on a "heroine's journey" a la Gail Carriger in a way we've never seen. The characters are vivid, the prose is complex, and th...

Hey HBs! Naima Simone is back to recap Smut by Karina Halle! Two twenty-somethings who hate each other are forced to write their final project together and... it goes really well! Then they start writing erotic romance together under a very secret pen name. There's a lot of (very realistic) romance shame that we didn't love, but the book was soooo good! Bonus content: Naima's daughter got her firs...