Hey HBs! Come enjoy part 1 of REBEL by Beverly Jenkins! We've got a teacher who's calling in life is to help as newly-free people learn to read and write as possible and the dashing Captain who just wants to support her dreams and love her forever and maybe do sex in a tree house that he built with is own two hands! This America Times book is as densely-packed with wisdom as it is with sizzling banter and inspiring content. To hear Part 2, check out episode 129! Bonus Content: 50 points to Slyth...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 249
Hello from hiatus! We're here with Melody's obsession STRANGE LOVE by Ann Aguirre. An alien romance with a talking dog! Effortless inclusivity! A pairing competition that's as if Gladiator and Love Island had a baby! Consent boners abound! And once you're done with this, check out Ep. 146 for Part 2. Bonus content: Melody gives Erin bad compliments and herself a haircut, a listener story about accidentally sharing Heaving Bosoms with a pink-haired goddess in a fast food drive through!, Chitin? i...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 248
Hey HBs! YOU CAME THROUGH AGAIN! AND YOU'RE GETTING SNUZZLED FOR IT! In today's episode Erin and Mel explain the embrace and then get down to the business of shouting out the hundreds of participants in this year's HB Reading Embrace! And good news: The 2022 Reading Embrace Categories are waiting for you! Make sure to check out Mel's new podcast Bonkers Romance ! Subscribe! Rate! Review! Tell all your friends :) Get more content on PATREON!! Sign up for our Newsletter ! MERCH! Teepublic , Chical...
Jan 10, 2022•49 min•Ep. 247
Hey y'all! It's time for an encore episode: Roller Girl by Vanessa North! We will be back next week with our annual Reading Embrace episode, but we think the best way to start 2022 is with this feel-good lesbian romance between a trans athlete and a plumber/roller derby coach. It's exactly what we need! Roller derby, tons of enthusiastic consent, low-stakes conflict, a whole gaggle of awesome side characters, the importance of lady friendship! This novella was a big yum, a big swoon, and a big h...
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 246
Hey HBs! This week we're throwing out the script and subbing in The Hating Game movie! Life made reading hard recently, so we decided to treat ourselves to a visual delight! We loved this adaptation of Sally Thorne's debut masterpiece! If you want to hear what we thought of the book way back when, check out episodes 30 and 31. Bonus Content: Erin's childhood bedroom, the euphemisms one must come up with when podcasting within earshot of one's parents, Melody falling over herself about paintball ...
Dec 27, 2021•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 245
Oh it's Princess Switch 3, Switched into Infinity! That's right, Vanessa Hudgens is back as Stacey, Margaret, and the real star of the show: FIONA. Bonus Content: Blonde Hairs the Lame Prince... same guy?, Beard Hairs the BFF is also there!, and our newest hero: Peter of the alive eyes and functional penis! Plus, A YODELER. Also, allow your friends their healthy boundaries, the 1999 movie Entrapment, Erin's eagle eyed decor commentary, and so much more! Lady Loves: Erin: Get your friends shit th...
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 244
Hey HBs! It's our first Netflix Christmas movie of the year! Single All the Way is SO FUN! We bow down to Jennifer Coolidge and this lighthearted lovefest. Bonus Content: Task Rabbiting, white Christmas trees, snuggling for Jesus, Rooster's quinceañera, Mel's (ice cold) hot takes on threesomes, and so much more! Lady Loves: Mel: Swiffer Dusters??! What is this new techmologie?! Erin: Christmas Inheritance! Has snow made out of shaving cream! Episode Sponsors: Risky Resoration by EF Dodd! The Boo...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 243
Happy Hanukkah, HBs! We've got a wonderful, zero-conflict novella that actually features Hanukkah. Like, on the page! It's truly wonderful, plus super super sexy! Lady Loves: Erin: A new ice scraper! Just buy one and your life will be better. Melody: Therapy. That's it. That's the lady love. Episode sponsors: Risky Restoration by EF Dodd Radish! Mentioned in this episode: Check out our Etsy Store! Hey y'all! We've got some high quality St. Vincent themed items just waiting for you! Love the show...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 242
It's inspirational Thanksgiving romance time!!! This year we've got a virginal nurse and an amnesiac maybe criminal. And a mystery. And a PROWLER. Need we say more? Bonus Content: Amazing book cover photoshop, is it following your intuition or is it stalking?, how to make a hotel room more "homey," *Bing Boong Bong* Crime Times and Undercover Ops with Erin, answering the question "where should I take you?" with "What's a good first hole to try?!" Lady Loves: Melody: .... Erin: Craft night with f...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 241
Hey HBs! It's Thanksgiving week for us Americans! That means a special encore episode of a favorite Thanksgiving book! This one features an heiress determined to prove her worth in the Alaskan wilderness and a lawyer with *deep* *dark* *issues* who accidentally-on-purpose got lost in the wilderness. They're objectively terrible people! CW: faith, specifically Christianity, is a huge topic in this book. We tried to be respectful of religion in general, while still comment on these characters and ...
Nov 22, 2021•2 hr 1 min•Ep. 240
Hey HBs, Vanessa Zoltan joins us to chat all about Jane Eyre, the absence of Michael Fassbender's penis, and so much more! Make sure to check out Vanessa's new book Praying with Jane Eyre and her Hot and Bothered podcast! Bonus Content: deeply cock-in Fassbender, an exploration of how freeing the confines of a "cupboard" might be - just change your perspective, teens with a lot of emotions, that flipper man from the Hunger Games, THEN JUDY DENCH ARRIVED!, why fire training is important, why it's...
Nov 15, 2021•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 239
Hey HBs!!!!!! It's our annual Veteran's Day event! I hope you're ready for an action-packed ride complete with roof dives and murder yetis! Mission: Her Protection was a super fun romp with a scientist heroine and an extra secret special ops man who were friends as children and are reunited when an arctic mission goes very wrong. It's non-stop and served up some good sex scenes! Bonus Content: Erin's new Classifications of Military Romance (#scientistsin2022), the rules of doing science in the a...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 238
Hey HBs, it's our first sexy ghost!!!! Come join us for Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade. It's a lovely tale of a ghost who falls in love with the woman who lives in the apartment he's haunting and gets the 24 hours of Halloween to become corporeal! He not only *gets* a boner, but he GETS TO USE IT! And Spade does a ton of fabulous references to Halloween classic Hocus Pocus. Bonus Content: The "Murder Smolder" TM, the naughty lobster who must be punished, Erin tells us about her ghost, how we (as o...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 237
Happy Spoooooky Season, HBs! We're recapping The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling! We've got a couple of witches, an accidental curse, and chemistry that hasn't diminished in the 9 years they've been apart. Second chance romance! Ghosts! Viagra potions gone wrong! Plus, witchy sisterhood wins the day! It's an HEA all around. Bonus Content: Rooster's dreams are coming true, the decline of Erin's favorite fall show Halloween Wars, and so much more! Check out the charity anthology to support Planned Parenth...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 236
Hey y'all! Clyve Rose joins Melody to recap the movie Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies! Come to England Times Zombie Apocalypse and do some deadly arts with us! Plus, the best version of the proposal/refusal scene that's ever been made. Lady Loves: Clyve: vintage lingerie and a hot bath. Episode Sponsor: Radish ! Unlimited romance stories in a serialized form, and it's free! Go to radish.social/hb to sign up today! Make sure to check out Mel's new podcast Bonkers Romance ! Subscribe! Rate! Review! ...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 235
Happy 4th Podiversary, Listener! We're 4 years old! Also, American HBs, Happy Indigenous People's Day! In this episode, Erin does her State of the Podcast address, we take a few listener questions, and Mel agonizes over combinations of F*ck/Marry/Kill that Erin has created. She's just as diabolical as always. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! We so appreciate each and every one of you. Please fill out our survey so we can make the show even better! Mentioned in this episode: Check out our Etsy Store! Hey...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 234
Hey everyone! This week we've got a super sweet novella called Love's Serenade by Sheryl Lister. It wasn't a home run for us, but we loved being thoroughly steeped in 1920's Harlem as we watched Leigh and Miles find each other again. Plus, there were a ton of super impactful historical easter eggs throughout! And hot sex! It's part of the "Decades: A Journey of African American Romance" series. Bonus Content: bedside chocolate, squirrels carrying another squirrel in it's mouth, we're famous, alc...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 233
Hey HBs! Another friend is here! Jenny Nordbak joins Erin and Melody to discuss her new podcast Bonkers Romance and her romance debut HIS LEADING LADY . She's releasing a scorchingly hot contemporary romance about a Hollywood A-List actor who's trying to roughen up his squeaky clean image and an elite dominatrix who doesn't want the limelight, but can't help but be drawn to his mysterious charisma. There's fake dating and BDSM training and it's a book you absolutely have to read! Then, we recap ...
Sep 27, 2021•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 232
BONKERS ROMANCE IS BORN TODAY! Heaving Bosoms has a sister podcast! Mel's new team-up with Jenny Nordbak is barrels of fun, so check it out! You can listen on all platforms! Check out their website here And make sure to tune in to episode 2: "Spider Shibari with Sierra Simone." Enjoy! Mentioned in this episode: Love the show? Leave a review! Give HB a 5 Star rating and review wherever you listen! It helps us grow and makes us feel like 1 million dollars. And we're still doing the bribe! If you l...
Sep 24, 2021•41 min•Ep. 231
Hey HBs! Alexis Daria is here to tell us all about her new release, A Lot Like Adios! It's the second in her Primas of Power series and IT'S DELICIOUS! Second chance romance, family redemption, fan fiction, and super steamy!!! It's everything we wanted and more. We get to cackle about Miss Congeniality and, even though it was *obviously* made 20 years ago, it holds up! Basically, ~we think it's goooorgeous, we want to kiiiiiss it, we want to smooooch it, we want to marrrryyyyyy it!~ Bonus Conten...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 230
Hey HBs! We're here with a delicious own voices category romance: Taking On The Billionaire by Robin Covington! Tess is a private investigator with a vendetta and penchant for giving everyone competence boners, especially her new client. Adam is a self-made billionaire and Native American man who was separated from his parents and siblings at the age of 6 by a racist child protection system, against the Indian Child Welfare Act. First, she found his siblings, now he needs her to find the mole wh...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 229
Hey HB's! In honor of our second virtual book club on patreon, we're rereleasing Part 1 of Alyssa Cole's A Princess In Theory. It's Book 1 of her Reluctant Royals series and SUCH A GREAT READ. We've got Naledi Smith, a public health grad student with 3 jobs and a good head on her shoulders because she was a life-long foster kid and knows she can only rely on herself. Then there's Thabiso Moshoeshoe, her long-lost betrothed, an African Prince, and a person she's never even heard of. He's determin...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 228
Hey HBs! This week Melody is joined by Kim Loraine, author of the Ryker Ranch series and audiobook producer! She brought us a delicious audiobook, HEART OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah Piper! There's Vampires, there's witches, there's demons, there's coma patients. The sex is hot and the consent is highly enthusiastic and sexily gotten. What more could you want?? There's *technically* not an HEA because this is the first in a trilogy, but we know these hotheads get there eventually. Bonus Content: ...
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 227
Hey beautiful Listener! We're back with Part 2 of The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Gah! It's so beautiful! In the second half we get to see these two crazy kids get together, break up, and come back to each other. And a ton of this occurs on a whimsical forest bed! Bonus Content: doodles, more HS band hot takes, the logistics of a forest bed, cathartically slashing up a battered copy of Wuthering Heights, Tennessee Williams, and Jandy's follow up to this novel: a standalone thriller about ...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 226
Hey HBs! We're here with one of the most beautifully crafted books we've ever read. YA romance The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson is a gorgeous story of grief and young love. It's also time machine that had us reliving all the ridiculousness that is being a teenager. So, set those vague AIM away messages and strap in for a squee session! CW: death of a sibling, navigating grief, and loss of a pregnancy. Also CW for Erin's SCALDING hot takes on different instrument players. Sorry, French Horns...
Aug 16, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 225
Hey HBs! We've got a special crossover episode this week! It's Overdue Bosoms! The guys from the Overdue podcast joined us to recap Moonglow by Kristen Callihan. We had a blast with Craig and Andrew, talking about Sherlock Holmes Times and werewerves. Bonus Content: shepherding newbies into romance, Rent jokes, The Happening, Chekov's werewolf bite, Scottish Independence for Lycans, Erin getting sweaty explaining myriad supernatural lore, throne lounging, hand licking, and so much more! Check ou...
Aug 09, 2021•2 hr•Ep. 224
Hey HBs! This week we’ve got a fabulously bonkers historical romance, Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt. There’s a fancy blackmail-loving duke who’s been living in the walls of his house, a housekeeper who’s moonlighting in personal espionage, dick-out murders, wrist licking, kidnapping, exhibitionist baths, and SO MUCH MORE. Big Content Warnings: child abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional), rape, pedophilia, animal abuse, and murder. Bonus Content: dusty velvet bows, our adoration for a fancy man...
Aug 02, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 223
Hey y'all! Andie J. Christopher is here to talk about her new release Hot Under His Collar and recap the 2001 romcom Keeping the Faith! Are there problematic elements in the movie? Yes. Is the priest as hot as Andie's Father Patrick? Not quite. But this movie still f*cks! And should have ended with a throuple. We will both happily die on this hill. Bonus Content: WHERE IS OUR THROUPLE?!, racist Asian representation, emotional wall stands, bring back the f*ckiness of 2000's mid-budget romcoms, ma...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 222
Hey y'all! It's Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen part 2! Plus, Bat Cave musings, requests for super hero romances, pool floaty fart sounds, and so much more! Lady Loves: Erin: boy this low-sulfite hard cider is yummy! Melody: Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. It's a comfort listen and all the long vowel sounds are great for toddler singers. Subscribe! Rate! Review! Tell all your friends :) Get more content on PATREON!! Sign up for our Newsletter ! MERCH! Teepublic , Chicaloo Kate , Redbubb...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 221
Hey HBs! It's time for part 1 of Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen! We've got a hockey-loving office manager with a serious TBI and the billionaire boss who wants to take care of her. But will the increased proximity be too much for his years-long crush on her? PROBABLY! Listener, hot hot sex will ensue. That's our promise to you. Bonus Content: how does Erin feel about THIS bathroom scenario??, Mel's toddler's new haircut, Raya and the Last Dragon, requiring receipts for self-proclaimed badassery, t...
Jul 12, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 220