Paranormal

Witches & Shifters  & Krakens, oh my! Paranormal romance can involve otherworldly beings, magical powers, or mythical creatures in the narrative and we have recommendations for them all. 

Transcript

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Welcome to Romance Recs, where three book besties explore the world of romance novels and encourage you to expand your TBR. Join us as we dive into the hottest releases and hidden gems of the genre. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok at Romance Recs Pods. I am Jordan, and I am currently re reading Sinner's Playground by Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti. Hey guys, I'm Dev and I am currently listening to and reading Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey. Hey everybody, it's Christina, and I'm currently reading Chained by Laci Lehotsky. So buckle up for some bookish banter. Sorry everybody. Dev is calling Christina out because, well, she just talked about the book she's reading earlier and there's just been a lot of questions. but then we'll just leave it at that. We'll just leave it at that. We'll just, yeah. Now I would like to just Remind listeners that we just are mentioning books that we read. We're currently reading in the beginning. It doesn't necessarily mean we have an opinion yet. Yes. That's just part of our journey. We haven't finished them yet. Some of us won't finish them and you know what? Okay. So we're gonna, no, how are we doing other than that? How are we doing? Right, how are we doing guys? It's been a little minute. We haven't been on for a little while, but we're back on our time. Yeah, right It's been a week for us. It's been a few Right, right. Wait, christina. What is your name right now? Whatever it is I can't see the rest I need to know. Wait. Probably in? Into it. Oh. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. I love that. I do too. Whatever it is, I'm probably into it. Slap that on a sticker. Do you know what I'm, I was really into this week? Like, can I not put it down? Well, I've been into a few things. But Three Ways to Mend a Broken Heart by Tralina Pucci. And can I just read you a quote? Please do, yes. Take us right into the quotes. I highlighted 23 highlights. It just came out a few days ago from when we're recording this. I read it so fast. Three Ways to Mend a Broken Heart by Tralina Pucci. All this time, I've been dating and dating, trying to find my place next to someone. I thought that's maybe why I've been so unlucky in love for so long. Because I wasn't supposed to be next to someone. I was meant to be between them. Wait. Babes, that's not where I thought that quote was going. I thought we were getting something uplifting. It was! She meant to say that. I mean, yes, it's, yes, it can be taken dirty, but it can also be like, she didn't mean to be so, she meant to be between, like, she meant, so this is a throuple, this is about a throuple everybody, this is a, love that, two men, one woman, There are no swords crossing, though, in this one. I was just about to ask that. Oh, no. No, they're just besties. It's so good. All the other quotes that I have are just funny and make you giggle, but I like that one. It was one of the few serious kind of ones. That's pretty serious. So if you want to, if you want to laugh and you want to squirm from the hot scenes, Okay. Bye. This is the book for you. 10 out of 10 recommend. Yeah. Five, five. Love that. It is on my, want to read. Oh I was just about to say yes, I would like to read a quote from a book that i've Previously read I can't remember when I finished this but this is actually from dark city omega Which I feel like goes into our paranormal theme for tonight. Yeah, if people out Yep, so guys if you didn't know this is our paranormal episode We're going to give you some great paranormal Recs and I feel like dark city omega is definitely Paranormal, but it's also an omega verse and it's by elizabeth stevens. And this is the quote that I highlighted This is the mailman character talking about the fmc, by the way, she's nothing I expected and everything I want I'd expected an Omega who was meek and beautiful, grateful and obedient. Instead, I got rage dipped in honey, dragged through shards of glass, an Omega who'd rather kill herself than be mine. And right now she's begging me. Oh, I feel like that, that very much so describes the relationship between these two characters as well. So that was a good one. Yes. Very messy, very back and forth. Love it. All right, I have a quote. Okay, give it to us. All right, thanks. It is about a book. I will be re Is it from Chanting? No. I hope the hell not. Stop it. You stop it. We do try to keep it positive here on Romance Recs. But sometimes it's really difficult. Yeah. Sometimes it gets really hard. It's always so hard. So hard. Mm hmm. Take it away, Christina. Let me soften that right up for you. Don't like that. Eww. Yucking that. Yep. Yucking that. Someone's yum. Tomato, tomato. Yeah. Boo! Tomato, tomato. Oh, my face. Okay. Boo. Yeah. Give me a second. She's really red, guys. If you guys could see her right now, let me, let me set the scene. She's got on these white headphones and like a cream shirt, and her face is the color of a beefsteak tomato. Hot house like. No, it matches, it matches Crescent City behind her in the background. Yes, Crescent City is in her background. It matches Crescent City. I'm sorry, I would love to hear your quote. I really would. Yeah, me too, me too. Dev. Please tell us the book. Oh, Jordan. This is Christina. Right. We'll get to the episode eventually, I promise. Right, right, right. Let us get the giggles out. This quote is from the book Stalked by the Kraken by Lillian Lark. I want to devour you, little witch. Hunt you down and trap you forever. Fuck you and fill you with my seed until your very scent is too mixed with mine for anyone to recognize. Oh, I gotta do everything myself. Mute! Yeah, me too! Dev and I just skin ourselves in our shirts. Okay. I just, I thought, thought you said it wasn't gonna be about love. Yeah, it was sweet, but not, it was romantic. I had, but not, I had another quote. It makes me wanna I That does it. That does it. I will read the book fine. It's very hot. Yeah, it's very hot, very spicy. I'll be giving that recommendation later in this episode, so I'll tell you about it. Oh, great. Can't wait to hear it. Ooh, love that. Yeah. Tell us more. speaking of, today we are talking about paranormal romance, paranormal romance introduces otherworldly beings, magical powers, or mythical creatures into the narrative. So basically what we're talking about here today, we're talking, ghosties. We're talking if there's magic, like witches or any kind of magic. Werewolves, Yes. Otherworldly, different realms. Kraken. Vampires. Mm hmm. Ooh, I love me a vampire. I got some vampire Recs for you. Twilight? Abso fucking tutelutely not, Christina. It's right here if you need it. It's uncracked, spied, and everything. You know, right. These are a lot of references to past episodes. If you don't know them, go back and listen. Right. And then you'll be all caught up. I actually have, the Twilight Collection, but that's not, those aren't the vampire stories I'm going to talk about today. So anyways, so Yeah, I think, I would say, do you, has Christina probably read The Most Paranormal? I read a lot of witchy stuff, but I feel like if we're getting into really otherworldly and different, I think Christina's probably holds the, title for that. You're welcome. A lot of AO3. Probably. Yes. So many. Yeah. Do you want to start us off today? Sure. With your, oh god. Give, teach us your ways. Okay. My first recommendation is A Discovery of Witches, which is the all soul series by Deborah Harkness. This series follows a witch named Diana Bishop who believes her use of magic as a child caused her parents death. So she chooses to never really use her magic, um, even though it pisses off her aunt and her coven. And so Diana is studying at Oxford and needs a book and can't get it, so she calls upon her magic to call up the book. But she doesn't know this book's been missing for over a hundred years. So all the magical beings around here are suddenly attracted to this magic. Including A vampire. Gasp! I know. Surprise. Named Matthew Claremont. who's been looking for this book for over a hundred years. he starts following Diana around to try to get him to give her the book, but vampires and witches are like mortal enemies. he though is strangely attracted to her and they start to work together for his, um, he's doing research. Plot twist. I know. And then we find out that there's secret histories of the people that have been kept for centuries by their leaders, and they're working to unravel all this. There's three books in the series. She is writing another book, actually, right now. It comes out later this year, I think October. It is like contemporary historical paranormal vibes, so they go back in time, it's in modern time, it's In America, it's in Boston, it's over in England, when she's at Oxford, and then they go back in time and visit, William Shakespeare, and all sorts of things. So it's got all sorts of different vibes, but it's not super spicy, so it's definitely more of a lovey dovey, they fall for each other, sweet romance. Romance. Little words, yeah. So it's good for those people that really don't want to necessarily read the things I read. A good I recommend this book. It's super sweet. The series is great. There's also if, you want to watch it too, you can watch. There was a adaptation, I think HBO did it? I don't remember who did it. The Discovery of Witches series. It was really good. I felt like it was really accurate to the books, which you don't always get with adaptations, so it's a good one. Mm hmm. Nice. Yeah, it's sweet. You get a little bit of mystery, intrigue, romance. My next book definitely in the opposite side of the spectrum is called Morning Glory Milking Farms. I see. Oh gosh. I forgot you were gonna recommend this. I so forgot to Oh, I did. You did. I know you were gonna recommend this. Did you talk about this? Yeah, because we, we talked about it. Oh my. It's such a hard book to talk about, honestly. It's so hard. It's just, like, the cream of the crop, though, honestly. Oh, there it is. Thank you. Wow. What is this book? It is a monster bait romance book. It is a standalone book, but there are others in this setting, but this is the first one, and in my opinion, it is definitely the most hands on book you'll see. It's Wow, your puns are just Yeah, you are you are hittin the puns, babe. I love it. Keep it up. Whatever you're drinkin keep that up. Alright, why don't you tell the listener what it's about? Yes, I will. Thank you, Jordan. I appreciate your help. Morning Glory Milking Farms is a book about Violet, who is a millennial, who is close to moving back home with her parents due to debt, as we all know in this economy. Violet is determined to pay off her student loans and buy orange juice. Which is expensive. Right. Uh, when she stumbles upon a job offer that's full time with benefits and amazing pay, she's like, well, this is too good to be true, right? Cause all the indie ones just could be not true. Anywho, she takes the job at Morning Glory Milking Farms. And she learns that the clientele is Grade A Certified Prime Peeve. I'm pretty sure that's a line from the book, right? That's what they're describing. That is accurate to the book. Her job is to collect clients, which are minotaurs, uh, semen. Because it makes little blue pills that we humans sometimes need. Not me, but others. For erectile dysfunction. Christina doesn't have that problem. Yeah, absolutely not. There are those that do so it's a serious issue in this world and they need it. So we got to take the medical industry seriously. But in the book, she gets in there and does she know what she's signing up for? She does not. She watched some of the training videos and was still confused until they sent her home on the last day of training with the last training video when she found out what she was in for. It was basically Minotaur porn. It's just a bunch of hand jobs. You stroke them off. Sometimes you use like a machine and you get the semen. It's just, it's a milking farm. And the milk is semen. So, anywho. The trigger warnings on this episode. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Violet is very good at her job, in fact. She is just chugging along every day. She does not chug. She does not chug. Do not use Violet chugging, please. I beg you. She's going about her day, just knocking them out every day. Just filling those bottles up with semen. And, one day, uh, Big. A very large minotaur walks in, the biggest, in fact, and she's just a little dainty old human. He was one of her first customers, I think, right? Yes, her first on her own when she was on her two week shadowing. She finally got to do it on her own. Indeed. And he enjoyed her touch and started coming back and tipping her really well. The tip was perfect. Y'all, y'all is driving me crazy. Sorry. She's worried about maintaining her professionalism as she starts to fantasize. Something we're not worried about. Clearly. What professionalism? It is a 5 out of 5 spicy book. It is a very extremely descriptive book. Wait, you gave it 5 out of 5 for spice? I mean, if you're talking only handjobs, sure, it's the most descriptive handjob I think I've ever read. Oh, definitely. That's crazy, because I didn't I gave it like a 3 out of 5 for Spice, so what the hell, now I'm reconsidering my rating for Spice. I guess Okay, so I guess it depends on, is it like, for actual intercourse? Maybe It's not the s best. But if you're talking about like, visuals of a sexual act, it is definitely A very descriptive, it's graphic. You're graphic. Yeah. It's for sure. Graphic. Yeah, for sure. It's basically, but it just, okay. Tica. Yeah, you're right. Okay. I guess the scale there is a lot that I use is just not a lot. Most is even Mm-Hmm. you know, it's just, it's a good part. That is my second recommendation. Okay, do you have anything else for us? Wait, I want to know why did you like it? Why did you like that? Why are you recommending that book? Don't just tell me, like, why did you like it? I liked this book because I thought it was really funny. There was a lot of great banter between characters. I liked that she had debt to pay off and didn't want to move in with her parents where they were trying to set her in with a dork down the road. It's so she. Yeah, so realistic, so realistic. Exactly. Relatable. Well, I mean, in today's day and age in this economy, it's expensive, it's expensive, so. Absolutely. Getting a good paying job. Also, I liked her job. I think it'd be a great job. There it is. That's what I was waiting for. Right. Uh huh. You should read it if you are also into those things. Or if you're looking to expand your horizons and you just want to try something new. Yeah, I will say it, it's definitely different and I actually came across a TikTok today where someone who I follow mentioned that she had just picked up her first monster romance and she was totally against it and she read this and now she's addicted. And I think that this book could be that. I think that Morning Glory Milking Farm is a book like that. Like it could definitely be something where you're like, that's not for me. I'm not reading it. And then you read it and you're like, Oh, right. No, right. Jordan's like, no, that's not for me. I'm not reading it, but that's why we're here. That's why we have the podcast to help you discover books that one, you may not have known even existed or two tropes and themes that you were probably not thinking about, but now you're thinking about it. Now you're thinking about mentors. Now you're thinking about. Viagra. You see what I'm saying? Now you're thinking about a little dairy cow. Ew, we're not a dairy cow. That's actually what I wanted to ask. Yeah, yeah. Okay, what's your last, what's your third wreck? Yeah. Okay, this is a new one for you ladies. Stalked by the Kraken by Lillian Lark. Yes, yes, yes. I want to know. Yeah, we want to know more. Give us more. This book is about a witch named Rose who runs a magical bathhouse, which is basically a place to sell your sex for magic. Love it. We are sex positive here. We are sex positive on this podcast. Rooms where you can just bring someone to have sex with you. There's a community room. There's private rooms. There's, Bathrooms. There's lots of rooms. I love a magic bathhouse. Okay. Yeah. Give me more. I love a bath. She's also, oh yeah. She's also a matchmaker. She can see people's soul colors around them. And so she makes Oh, not a horror reader! Yeah, it's great. Not a matchmaker? I love her. Oh, okay. Add to TBR. She's so sweet. Mhm. A treasure hunter. A man named Gideon comes to town, and he just happens to be a kraken. Mythical beast, brings down ships, all sorts of things. In fact, on their first date Yes, Jordan? So, is he like, have multiple forms? Or does he walk in all like, Blub blub blub blub blub. have multiple forms. He can be in his human form. And he can be in his partial Kraken form, or he can be in his full Kraken form. I love it. I love it all. I love it so much. Yes. In fact, on their first date, they go to a art museum or something, and there's like gold doubloons, and it was like sunk in the 1600s, and she's like, was this you? And he's like, I don't remember. Okay. Okay. It's so funny. Okay, I'm sorry I interjected. I just, I needed to visualize. Go on. Because I love your descriptions of books. Keep going. You're good. Sorry. Okay, so this treasure hunter, Kraken, named Gideon, comes to town looking for a lost magical artifact, but he stumbles upon Rose instead. And is instantly attracted to her, like, just following her around, gotta have her, his beast inside is like, it wants her. Right? And so he approaches her. I know. He approaches her at work and says he wants to make up, like, wants a match and she's a matchmaker. But his condition is that she has to agree to be his match. They have to do three sexes in her bath shop for magic. And so he's, I don't know, it's a crazy thing, but it's five out of five spicy tentacles. That's all you gotta know. Five out of five tentacles? Yes. Love that. I haven't read a tentacle yet, so I'll need to. It was great. It was so great because, he could be in his human form, where he gives her human anatomy, or his partial form, where he can give her not human anatomy, and she gets to pick and choose which one she wants when. Oh, that's crazy. I love that. That's empowerment right there. That's women's empowerment. Who did you say wrote this? Lillian Lark, and she has other books too, that are spin offs of this Magical Bathhouse series with other characters. I love that. I love it. I love that. I'm bumping that up. This character is so sex positive. She's a witch and she like runs basically like a sex shop. So she talks about how she's been with like hundreds of partners and she's not ashamed and she's worried he might be upset about her because an ex was like for her having this and he's like no of course not he's like you run a magical bath house like I wouldn't expect anything less he's like I'm just gonna be your best and oh you know it is very much it's similar to morning glory it's just different Like different things, I feel like. Yeah, there's voyeurism, and there's tentacle play. There's all sorts of things. I love how you started with a clean, just romance focused. Right. And then you ended on tentacle play. Tentacles. Yeah. You really gave a spectrum. You really give a really well rounded options for our listener. So Truly a little bit of everything for everybody. Who's next? I will there go. Okay. Um, I'll, I see your tentacles and I will raise you five demons. Okay. Mm-Hmm, So this is one of my all time favorites demons in my bed. It's book one of the Demons of Port Black series by Brit Andrews. I discovered this last year. I discovered Brit Andrews last year as well. And I. I cannot stop thinking about this book because the second book, we don't know when it's coming out. It keeps getting pushed back and I need it. So this is my room in Empire. Palmer is a spirit witch and is a trained agent of Montague Industries, a private company of spies and mercenaries who keep the world safe. Her marks are Our five demons known as the Exiled, a gang of unhinged and psychotic demons who have claimed the city of Port Black as theirs. She's prepared to do anything to complete her mission of fact finding and eventually, potentially, ending them. She starts her undercover work at their infamous nightclub, where she gains their attention dressed as a sexy bunny. And this isn't just a nightclub. This is also a sex club in the VIP area. And it's wild. Rumors about the boys liking prey animals becomes all too literal when they ask her to join them in their sex maze beneath the club. Things get wild and they end up keeping her. Ooh. So an accident happened. So people don't know that they are demons. Just, I want to put this out there, that is a secret. Okay. Does she know? She knows because she's going undercover to Got it, but she's not supposed to know. To expose them. Okay. And she doesn't even, she's not really even told what she's looking for. That she needs to find out more information. And then eventually we'll probably have to end them. Is her understanding. Well, all I know is sex maze has me intrigued. I have never heard anything like that. What? It was so good, you guys. And it was way too I don't want to say it was too brief because it was really good. But something happens in the maze that causes them to shift. So she discovers That they are demons, you know, officially, they know that she knows. Right. And so that's why they keep her, because usually they would kill anyone. Mm-Hmm. But they, they, but they wanna play. Yeah. You don't feel like they can kill her. There's accidental, almost nodding. I love that. Love that. Okay. There's doing it in their human, and then there's also a scene where they get one of them, the big one, Misha, Mishy bear, he shifts, and she's just rolls with it. Oh, and everything shifts. Ooh. Oh, I just wanna say it's so hot. It's so good. I love the characters. The characters are hilarious And there's, so there's five men. One of them he goes, she's super suss. I don't know why the guys are falling all over themselves. Out over her right away. This is not okay. So there's one that's really suspicious of her, right, of like Mm-Hmm, But the others you have to have one. But the others are all about it. So it's, it causes some tension. It depends on the cliffhanger. It does end on a cliffhanger, and the second one is not out yet. Oh, but it's so worth it. Do we know? And it has this system. When was it expected? It was expected a year ago this month. Oh, that's tough. Yeah, so Brit Andrews just did a Kickstarter for special editions of the new one and the old one. So I think there was just a delay in some things. So I mean, to me, that's a promise of it coming. Kickstarter. Kickstarter usually takes a while to print and everything, But she did really good. It blew up and I was so mad I missed it, by the last day. So I'm really mad. And I really hope I can find it somewhere. But anyways, that's my little personal problems. You should read it. And if you've never read Demon Stuff, this is a really good one to start. If you like Reverse Harem, this one is Perfect. I will please beg you to read the trigger warnings because the female main character has a traumatic past, that involves, kidnapping, coercion, rape, and things, and it does, there are flashbacks. So nothing, nothing too graphic in that sense, but it does spell out what happened very clearly. I will say read the trigger warnings, to everybody. Your mental health is important to us. My second one, we're going to shift away from demons, unfortunately, but we're going to go right to the wolves, some action. So this is also a series, I still being worked on, but I, and I haven't read all the way through I'm on three or four it's called the Zodiac wolves. The first one is called moon touched by Elizabeth Briggs. Ayla is a half human in the Cancer wolf pack. Alpha's daughter, but an outcast and never fit in. Every six months there is a meeting of all Zodiac packs to unlock their wolves and find mates. Aayla is rejected by her mate and finds herself at the mercy of a thought to be extinct pack, a thirteenth Zodiac pack. Truths will be revealed and decisions will need to be made. So basically in this world there are the twelve tribes of the Zodiac, um, wolf packs, sorry not tribes, wolf packs. Some get along, some don't, just like there's signs and chaos ensues. Most of her, uh, nevermind. I don't want to give that away. But there's a lot of drama. There's a lot of drama between packs. There's finding a place. It's really interesting. The powers are interesting because they also have powers gifted to them by the zodiac that they're in. And if two people become mates from separate packs, then the alphas will decide which one they go to. And then the person who goes to a new pack will actually basically like their power will change when you are marked by the pack, their power will shift to match their sign. Interesting. I love that. I love anything to do with the Zodiac. And I love worlds. Yeah. I thought it was really interesting the way they did it. And my final recommendation is a little bit different. It's audio only and it's free on Audible. I don't know if it's anywhere else because I usually just listen there, but. It is free, so if you have Audible, try it out. This one is much more, um, fun and whimsical. It's lighter. It's kind of, rom com esque. it's called Starfall Po It's the Starfall Point Series. Which is Get Stuff Done. Is the first one and Big Witch Energy is the second one by Molly Harper. From the moment Riley Everett set foot in Starfall Point, magic bubbled inside her. But with only her late aunt's journals and a cantankerous live in ghost butler to instruct her on all things witchy, including her newly inherited Victorian haunted house, Riley seeks out a coven, you. For sisterhood and support, the last person she expects to be drawn to is the town's frustrating and ridiculously attractive head librarian. Oooooh, librarian. I know. So she didn't really believe the family's curses and which she passed, because her mom kind of went crazy. But her mom went crazy because she left the island for too long and saw ghosts and stuff. So basically their family was in charge of this house on the island where they'd never let anyone in because they take care of magical items. But the magical items are all, possessed by a ghost, by a spirit. Jeez. So they are in charge of these things. They are in charge of these spirits that are stuck on our plane until they find themselves ready to go on. And, but they have to, hide certain ones, and some are, really horrible, malicious. Some are fun, and some are just quiet and resigned, and have been hanging around for hundreds of years. It's all this stuff, and the librarian has always wanted to get in there to see if there's anything good to find. Of course. It's just kind of funny. But then there's also like a bigger plot happening where someone's trying to get the items and get the ghosts because they want to use the magic or abuse it. That's happening in the background and it follows through. And it's not done. but there's no like big cliffhangers. So it can end and you're like, Oh, that was fun, but okay, I'll pick up the next one when it comes out. Got it. If you want something more lighthearted. It's. It's a little spicy, no, I don't think there's really anything too explicit on scene. More like steamy? Yeah, it might be steamy. Okay. More than spicy. So if you're looking for something lighter, that's the one. My other two recs, demon, demons in my bed, very hot, very spicy. Zodiac wolves, it gets there and it's Spicy. Enjoy what you will. Yay. Okay. My turn, my turn. So I also have three recs. Um, I'm actually really happy about one of the recs, but we'll get there. I'm going to start with my first recommendation, which is Ice Planet Barbarians. And I know what you're thinking. Listener, I know what you're thinking. You're like, absolutely not. And let me tell you that you, yes, it's an absolutely yes. Seven foot tall, seven feet, seven foot. Anyway, there's seven feet and foots of them and they're blue. Are you kidding me? That's all you need to know. Like, is that all? And they have long hair and they are very excited about finding their mates. Okay. So here's the story. Unfortunately, human, we human women are being abducted from earth, boo, tomato, tomato, and we're being absconded to the far reaches of the galaxy. By little aliens who wish to either sell us use us as slaves or Some sexual things we it's all bad. The mean aliens want us for bad things Okay, so a couple of girls get kidnapped. They're like in their 20s 22 23 years old For some reason, the mean aliens end up crash landing on or dropping the girls off on an ice planet. They end up crashing. The girls get ahold of the plane. They ixnay the aliene I think some of them got away too, right? Like some of them. Yeah. Yeah. Some of them got escaped. Exactly. But either way now the girls are stranded on a freezing planet. Are you joking? A couple of them. One of them, the brave one goes hunting, looking for help, and she stumbles across. Oh! My man, my man, my man, Vector. Um, he brings his squad through. Vector? Is it Vectol? Ain't that his name? Vectol? Vectol. None of you not know my man's name. None of you not know my name. It don't. No, I read this one. I didn't listen. No, no. I also read it's vector, but I just wanted to make his name sound more normal, so I said vector. Yeah. The guy from, it's given Victor, we're going to the 12th vector, right? Yeah. It's vector. Anyway, he brings his squad through because they are, they're. Race of people do not have enough women. They don't have enough mates. Everybody wants a mate That's like the highest standard. So of course when he brings his people some people start hitting it off. They're mating the women It's a whole big thing. But what I love about this series number one, I think it's really easy reading. It's spicy Um, there there is plot To it. So it's not just smart, smart, smart. There is a little bit of plot and you get to see character growth. He gets to see mine, um, mind shifts and like character changes. But what I love about it is that there are so many books and you get to follow like each couple. And I think that is so cute. We get to see how certain couples get together, who picks who, and then. It spans a couple of years, uh, people have kids and it's just so cute to see them build a little community. But also again, there are so many books in this series. There's gotta be like 20 something books. And then Ruby Dixon, who is the author of this also has spinoff series for this series. series. Like she has, they're all in the same multiverse and um, they're interconnected in very subtle ways. But this series itself, the Ice Planet series, Ice Planet Barbarians series has like 20 something books, which is good, easy reading. If you're someone who is like dying to stuff your TBR into like back end a lot of books, then I think this might be good for you. Also aliens and they're blue and they got little things on their things. Anyway, what do they call it? What do they call it? Spurs? No, they call it. Yeah, but I guess there is a spur, but there's, it's a spur. No, spur is different than the bumps they have. They have ridges or whatever. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. All over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's cute. I think it's very funny. And also there are like two very different races of people. There's human and alien trying to meet in the middle. Yeah. So that was really good. And I just want to say I know I made a lot of commentary on like the name pronunciation and stuff I dnf'd the first one because I just had a hard time before they had the language barrier and it felt like I don't know if I can do this But I went and I read one. I listened to one actually I did. So I did listen. I forgot I got it. Um on libby I think it was like the fourth one or something And so I just I gave it another shot and so I liked that one better because they were already established on the world. And I think that's good for me. The first two books is like, yeah, they do legume the legume. Yeah, unfortunately, no beans are harmed on this planet because it's a frickin ice planet. But they put uh, kind of like a parasite in them. They put the parasite to, yeah, world. But it does not help with their language barrier. They actually get the language downloaded directly into their brain from a spaceship laser. Yeah, from a computer. So it's like, that thing zaps them and they pass out for a couple of hours while their brain literally processes the language. Which I think is so easy. Like, yes. Like, shoot the language into my brain. I don't want to spend time trying to figure out plain charades. It's perfect for sci fi. For sure definitely sci fi and with the aliens being a little paranormal. So yeah, that's my first suggestion 20 books. Have fun My next suggestion is by January rain, and it's also a series I love doing series because I feel like it's so easy for me to get swallowed up into like a little universe this series by January Rain is called the, Shallow Cove Dimensions. Let me tell you out there. I think there are four books. I take that back. There are now about five books out cause one just recently released. And I think there are two more, one or two more slated to happen. The first book is kind of a prequel to the rest of the series, but you get a lot of world building in the first one and it's eternally damned. We've got vampires. The first two books follow vampires, which I absolutely love. Then we get some werewolves added to the scene. There are, there's a Kraken, there are angels. There's a leprechaun. There are so many different races of there's mermaids. I think there's so many different races of people or like of beings I absolutely love this. I think it's so heartwarming as well because at the beginning you have this Vampire who's literally just trying to get his own coven and build his own network of people. And he can't because all the freaking vampires are gone from a werewolf war, which is so devastating. But then he does start to build his coven with all these different races of beings. Like, you know, he got, he ends up taking in werewolves and all this stuff. And everybody finds their mate, which is like the biggest thing in their world, but it's also connected to other worlds. It's very confusing, but I do love it. I like the way January, writes, I. I don't know. I have so many good things to say about this series. Some of my favorite spicy quotes come from this series The one i'm actually currently reading one of the books as well Or i'm about to start reading it once I finish what i'm reading now, but Eternally rare follows the sister of the vampire family, the original vampire family. So it follows her and she ends up getting two mates, which has not happened yet in the series. So I'm really excited to read that one is like, A fire dragon, and the other one's an ice elf. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Right. So it's gonna get hot. Some temperature play. Yeah, right? It's gonna get hot or cold. Something's gonna happen. But, yeah, it's gonna be so good. I can't wait to read more about her. Can I, can I tell you a secret? I don't think I told you. I started reading the first one. Yeah, yeah, let me tell you nothing gets me going Because no listen it was in the middle of my reading slump last month where everything I read even if I thought it was good I could I just like kept being like no, this is not what I'm feeling broken her heart. I'm crying It wasn't a DNF because I didn't want to finish it. It was just like It's not the mood. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't the book. It was me. It was yeah So I will pick it up again at some point when i'm ready So I bet I did I did start it. I love that at least you started it I love when I make the recommendations and then my friends read them So that makes me happy even if it is a soft dnf for now, I forgive you But yeah, so that's Right, until she never reads it again tells me, nope, absolutely not, I hated it. I hope not. I don't know what you're talking about. But we'll see. When I'm ready for some more vamp, yeah, vamp action, I'll go back to it. Go back to it, no problem. I'll take that. Alright, so my last recommendation is actually something I am really excited about. this book recently came back to the world. I would say maybe a month or two ago. I'm, not sure but it's by n casaris and it is called obsidian Feathers and when I tell you this was one of my favorite Reads of I think I read it in 2023 Yeah, I think it was one of my one of my favorite reads and it is like nothing i've ever read Ever read before I will say with this book, please check your trigger warnings your content warnings It there is some seriously heavy stuff in here The spice is spicy the main character sal he has a mouth on him But let me just read a little bit of what the description says about the book It is described as like a latin dark romance, which that that's for me, babe latin Fantasy dark romance. All right Some desires refuse to be denied. It's like latin like latina latino. Yeah Yeah, yeah Some desires refuse to be denied. Angie. This is her perspective. My life has become anything but my own. The shiny rock, the sensible fiance, and a forced vacation to El Salvador, courtesy of my insufferable boss. But I play the game for the sake of my mother's aristocratic aspirations, and for some peace. Little did I know that El Salvador would lead me straight back to a wolfish grin. Because. It's like werewolf, but not. It's like beast. It's a play on a werewolf. Anyway. The one that has me dripping with desire, ready to leave it all and get lost in the jungle. My instincts are telling me to run, and a single night's bad decisions leads me to a group of cadejo. Yeah, a group of cadejo filled with glittering magic, broad smiles, and a twisted secret that will unweave everything I think I know about nightmares. This, I mean. The kink in this, the mouth on the male main character. Also the culture. Let me not forget about the culture, but I learned so, there were so many words that were in this book that were super difficult for me to pronounce and I loved it because there was a glossary in the back, but it has a lot of like indigenous, names and you just learn a lot as well. I think I learned a lot about The specific indigenous culture that is, spoken about in this book, I learned so much and it was so good, but the, it's just such a good book and also our female main characters like plus size. So I love reading about a thick girl who was being loved down was being obsessed over. He, the male main character is morally black. Nope, not even morally black. I'm gonna say he's morally bankrupt. There is nothing he will not do. No, yeah, he's dark, babe. Like, there is nothing he will not do for this girl. Absolutely nothing. It's touch her and die times ten, times thirty, immediately. No hesitation. The jungle is, is this where your love of, uh, primal came from? Is that in this? Just a little heads up. Unfortunately, it's not. You did. So I thought I, okay, I was like, no, this, I think this showed me a different side of it, but it's crazy that my love of primal actually comes from us. No, I'm not going to call it stupid. It comes from a, contemporary book. Okay. They're in Boston. And he chases Oh. No. They're in Boston and he chases her through the forest. And I was like, that's interesting. So I didn't mean to get off top. I just, I was like, oh, is this Oh yeah, yeah. No, but this made it even better because he's actually a beast and he will transform and chase you. You're not getting anywhere. Which I love. No, I'm running as fast as I can. Yeah, I think there's, there's many scenes where she's running from him and like twigs are snapping and I'm like, girl, he can hear you. Oh, but it does have it. It does have it. It's where it first came from. Oh, I thought you were have it. Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, they have it. It just didn't start here, but this made me realize that it was a thing. Yeah. So those are my suggestions and Casaris, disappeared from the world for a little bit. For whatever reasons, but I am so happy that the book is back online. As soon as I saw that it was back on Amazon, I immediately ordered it because I wanted to make sure I had it. It's seriously so good. It is, so good. The writing is good. It's dark. Love it. On Kindle. It is on Kindle Unlimited. So you can read it on Kindle Unlimited, which I highly suggest. And tell me what you think, because I'm so curious. It's not a book that's well known, or not as many people talk about it, and I really need people to start talking about this book. It's one of those, like, hidden gems, for sure. Thanks for sharing, Dev. I love Thanks for listening. You were so excited about it. I know. Oh, could you tell? Good, because I am. We had a really good array. Today? Yeah, think so. Different representations. I mean, we have pretty relatively clean romance. Yeah. We have audible only We have a variety of, monster representation. Mm-Hmm. We have traditional paranormal. I, yeah, I love it. Yeah, I think this was a good folks. Yeah, we have different. Yeah, we have in contemporary setting versus other worlds. We really thought we hit all the bases. guys, you don't already have your Goodreads account, your StoryGraph account, up your notebook with your pen to write down some of these recs. Have no fear because I will be putting up a post on our Instagram where you can get all of these names right in front of you. Maybe we can add a few of the others that we didn't have time to mention, like honorable mentions. Absolutely. I know as a group, we all loved Jay Bree's Bonds That Tie. We've already mentioned it on our socials, so we won't get too much into that because we will just talk Jay Bree all night, all day, whenever you're listening. Maybe we'll feature some other favorites. Yeah, I love that have them all in one place for you guys Yeah, others that you think we'd like based on the things that we said, let us know please send them here. Yeah Yeah, we never say no to expanding our TBR We're always adding to the at this point the TBR is in hell and we're just gonna keep adding to it Yeah, I will say if you're an author if you're self published or not and you heard us talking and you think we would enjoy your book, send it over, let us know. Or let me know where we can find it. Yeah. We'd love to check it out. We are down to read all the things. And as you can see, we're very different, similar, but yes, DTR. Put that on a stick. Yeah. As long as I can't be confused with anything else, I don't think so. We'll look it up. We'll look it up. Love it. All right, guys. Thanks for sticking with us. Thanks for listening to us ramble about our favorite paranormal Romance books if you're looking for more romance rex be sure to follow us on instagram again And tiktok we're on there at romance rex Pod all one word you can find our favorite book recs things. We've talked about from today's episode We'll have you know Some honorable mentions put up there As well as behind the scenes content and some other bookish content that we think you'll probably enjoy Again, that's at romance recs pods. So make sure to give us a follow. Thank you Bye guys. Thanks for listening guys until next time Farewell That's all I got