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Monster romance thrives where campy fun meets moral ambiguity. And this conversation proves why. We start with a clink of mismatched glasses: a pre-bottled neon-blue Zombie cocktail and a seasonal Oktoberfest, chosen to mirror our final October creature features.
Meghan’s Book: Zombie Moon by Lori Devoti
That tonal contrast sets the mood for the episode — sweet, punchy and a little unruly — before we step into “Brain Alley”, Wisconsin, where Zombie Moon by Lori Devoti kicks off with tossed brain bait and an alleyway melee. The hook is immediate. Caleb (a werewolf who hunts the undead) and Samantha (a stranger with a thrifted coat) collide under streetlight fire and snarling corpses. The romance crackles in morally gray sparks but the real magnet is the mystery behind Samantha’s missing friend and a lab that hints at bigger secrets.
As we unpack Zombie Moon, we balance enjoyment with critique. The world asserts that zombies have lurked for two decades … yet somehow remain fringe rumor. That paradox fuels debate for us. How could rotting walkers evade public awareness while leaving alleys stacked with corpses? We weigh that disbelief against the book’s page-turning structure and the puzzle of who’s manufacturing death.
The emotional core — Caleb’s loss and Samantha’s half-truths — feels sketched rather than shaded but the plot stays propulsive. The verdict lands like a sensible midlist pick. Meghan gives it a C for romance heat and depth, and a B for undead intrigue, with an imaginary A if a sequel tied up dangling threads left at the end of the book. A few quotes pop: cold, dreary Wisconsin; scent metaphors; and an absurdly appealing werewolf “recruiting season” that promises instant hotness for us ladies.
Nicole’s Book: That Time I Got Drunk and Save a Demon
Then the tone pivots to joy with That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon by Kimberly Lemming. It’s a romcom romp full of mishaps, cursed demons, and a heroine named Cinnamon who packs bread, beef jerky and booze in her secret-pocket skirt (which we are totally here for).The premise charms because it blends quest fantasy with modern humor and spicy banter.
Cinnamon and Fallon hunt chalices that function like horcrux-adjacent anchors for a big bad witch. Lemming offers incredible worldbuilding with maps, villages, goddess gates, and a taxonomy where demons include fae, shifters and orcs. We flag the “mate” and explicit language ticks as personal taste hazards but the comedic set pieces — cheese-queen antics, bayou showdowns, snack-stuffed skirt — win goodwill. Spice sits around jalapeño for explicit scenes, nudged to habanero by language and a brush of BDSM, but warmth and wit keep the heat accessible.
Food becomes a running thread that turns worldbuilding into sensory experience. From imagined nacho buckets to crawfish boils and mead, culinary moments give the couples new ways to connect. We spotlight food as intimacy: cooking together, trading flavors, turning travel into tasting. Those scenes create low-stakes vulnerability that grounds magic and monsters.
Romantic Remainders & Takeaways
We also pull a relationship takeaway from the grimmer book: play to your strengths. When one partner can do the job faster or safer, let them, not as surrender but as strategy. It’s teamwork as romance, pragmatic and kind.
The episode closes by previewing a pivot to hockey romance next month. Meghan is reading Stay by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen and Nicole has One Shot by A.C. Wonderland and we’re teasing anonymous texting, second chances, rookie captains and campus PR stakes. From zombies to cheese queens to slap shots, the connective tissue is the same: character chemistry, smart world rules, and the small, human rituals that make love stories feel real.
Have you read either of these monster romances? What did you think of them? Comment below! We’d love to hear from you. Interested in reading these novels yourself? You can get That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon from The Ripped Bodice or Amazon. Zombie Moon isn’t currently available at Amazon or the bookstore. Want to learn more about author Kimberly Lemming? Click here. And for Lori Devoti, click here.Want to listen to the podcast episode? We’re available on pretty much all your favorite podcast streaming services. Or you can visit our podcast player page here.
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