Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon | Holiday Mashup

We were so excited to welcome Sarah, from Smart Podcast, Trashy Books (
SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com), to our podcast to review Xeni!

Romance at a Glance is a podcast where hosts Bridget and Shani review romance novels and interview some of romance’s biggest authors diving into candid conversations about life, relationships, and sexual desires. Expect 100% honest reviews, spontaneous singing, life lessons, indecent anecdotes, and bawdy humor. Leave us a rating and review on iTunes.

Full transcript available below.

Book Review at a Glance

Heroine Rating: Xeni

Sarah: 🍑🍑🍑🍑

Shani: 🍑🍑🍑🍑

Bridget: 🍑🍑🍑🍑

Hero Rating: Mason

Sarah: 🍆🍆🍆🍆

Shani: 🍆🍆🍆🍆

Bridget: 🍆🍆🍆🍆

McDreamy to Mc Steamy:

Sarah: McScottish McSteamy

Shani: McDreamy in the streets, McSteamy in the sheets

Bridget: McSwervy - McDreamy - McBrogue

Classy to Nasty:

Vanilla & Kinky

Romance at a Glance Reviews Xeni by Rebekah Weathersoon

We were so excited to welcome Sarah, from Smart Podcast, Trashy Books (SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com), to our podcast today. Sarah has run her awesome website for the last 15 years and recorded over 400 podcast episodes!! What a thrill to have her on to discuss Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon!  

And guys, not only was Sarah super interesting, insightful, and hilarious during the review section, she was generous with her time and gave us all kinds of great advice on running our podcast, longevity in the space, ideas for earning money to sustain the podcast, and more! 

Thank you SARAH!

Get your copy of Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon (Book  1 - but they both standalone)

CW: explicit sex scenes, death of a loved one, grief, talk of past abortion and past miscarriage, parental abuse, parental rejection of queerness, serious parental illness

Some major points [spoilers ahead] we discussed: 

Xeni goes to the funeral of her aunt (she thinks, turns out to be her mom) and meets the Scotsman Mason who plays bagpipes

At the will reading, Xeni finds out her aunt had left her 20+ million in houses and assets. But she had to marry mason for 30 days to get it

Marriage of convenience for money trope in contemporary romance

Attracted to him - Mason is described as thicc

Xeni had been pregnant twice before, each time for a whole hot second, but she’d never reached the point where the woes of the third trimester were even close to a thing.

One miscarriage - one abortion

HEA w/o kids

Bisexual male and female

“I’m bisexual,” Mason said. “In theory and in practice. I want to be more open with people about that so they know the real me. All of me.” “Thank you for sharing that with me. And you should know that’s something we have in common.” “Really?” “Yeah. Bisexual witch at your service.”

Pegging - planned it out and did prep ahead and bought toys

He rides her - not what she thought would be from behind

Big dick

But then they never ease her into it, he’s just up in it

“You don’t like it when I talk dirty to you? You’re lucky I can’t remember a lick of Gaelic. You might not survive ’til morning.”

We probably wouldn’t survive the Gaelic either.

Whole ass husband!!

“Uh huh, sure. So, when do I get to meet him?” “Never?” “Nah. No way. You’re not hiding a whole ass husband from me.” “No, I’m hiding a whole ass husband from everyone. You’re the first person I’ve told,” Xeni confessed.

This made Bridget think of Shani because refers to Bridget’s husband as a “whole ass husband” and tells her she has a “whole ass family” all the time!

He helps her go through her deceased Aunt’s house and all the stuff

They go on a date - too cute

Xeni likes Mason’s friends

Glad she doesn’t stay in the small town. 

Didn’t love they separated - not our favorite trope

Liked they both kept on their rings

Both figured out what they wanted out of life

Quick Guide Review of the Book and Notes

Book Title: Xeni

Author: Rebekah Weatherspoon

Audio Narrator: Antony Ferguson

Part of a Series: Loose Ends Series Book #2

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Black Romance

Cover Art: I loved this cover! The colors, the attitude of the black woman on the front. After having read the book, she isn’t really what I imagined in my mind, but I still love it. 

Synopsis: She just wanted to claim her inheritance. What she got was a husband…

Xeni has ten days to clean out her recently departed aunt’s massive colonial in Upstate New York. With the feud between her mom and her sisters still raging even in death, she knows this will be no easy task, but when the will is read Xeni quickly discovers the decades-old drama between the former R&B singers is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Secrets, lies, and a crap ton of cash spilled on her lawyer’s conference room table all come with terms and conditions. Xeni must marry before she can claim the estate that will set her up for life and her aunt has just the groom in mind. The ruggedly handsome and deliciously thicc Scotsman who showed up at her aunt’s memorial, bagpipes at the ready.

When his dear friend and mentor Sable Everly passed away, Mason McInroy knew she would leave a sizable hole in his heart. He never imagined she’d leave him more than enough money to settle the debt that’s keeping him from returning home to Scotland. He also never imagined that Sable would use her dying breaths to play match-maker, trapping Mason and her beautiful niece in a marriage scheme that comes with more complications than either of them need.

With no choice but to say I do, the unlikely pair try to make the best of a messy situation. They had no plans to actually fall in love.

**This is a stand-alone romance that can be read along with RAFE: A Buff Male Nanny. It features a woman sick to death of her family's sh*t and a plus-size Scotsman who just wants to make sweet, sweet music. And love.** [Synopsis from Goodreads]

Heroine Rating: Xeni

Sarah: 🍑🍑🍑🍑 Liked her confidence and self-assurance. Liked how authentically and honestly they are themselves, and they’re working on being themselves all the time. And when she was overwhelmed by her emotions she owned it.

Shani: 🍑🍑🍑🍑 I like the logical nature of Xeni. The way she deduced them getting married made complete sense to me.

Bridget: 🍑🍑🍑🍑 I liked that she used sex to help her release some of the tension in her life. And was willing to spell out her sexual needs.

Hero Rating: Mason

Sarah: 🍆🍆🍆🍆 He was emotionally fluent for himself and other people. He wanted to feed Xeni and feed her.

Shani: 🍆🍆🍆🍆

Bridget: 🍆🍆🍆🍆 I like that all his actions matched his words.

McDreamy to Mc Steamy:

Sarah: McScottish McSteamy

Shani: McDreamy in the streets, McSteamy in the sheets

Bridget: McSwervy - McDreamy - McBrogue

Classy to Nasty:

Vanilla & Kinky

Favorite Lines in the Book:

Shani:

Something about his accent made her want to do things, his general thickness didn’t help either… this was a man who did not skip leg day or a meal. - Xeni thinking about Mason

“You see you didn’t ask me what kind of husband I really am.” He leaned in closer.

“What kind of husband are you?”

“Cruel impatient very demanding. If I want you to come darling your going to come.”

- Mason to Xeni  

Bridget:

“It’s okay to admire the view,” he called out. “It’ll be all yours tomorrow after four.” “Okay, okay. Relax,” Xeni shouted back. She was still miserable and numb. Super numb and full of rage, but that didn’t change the smile that lingered on her face as he drove away. Her future husband was kind of funny.

“You were ashamed of this.”

“I never said I was ashamed. I was hard as a rock and trying not to scare the shit out of you.” “Clearly you’ve underestimated your wife.” - Xeni & Mason

“Spread your legs a little more for me, love. That’s perfect.” He pushed his fingers inside her underwear. She knew he could feel how wet he’d made her with just a kiss. “Is this how you do it?” he asked. “You watch yourself like this?” - Mason to Xeni

Favorite Review:

Shani’s from Goodreads:

perfectlyamberb rated it liked it 3 stars

This story is super steamy but also very cute. Xeni and Mason were so open and honest with each other and it was honestly so refreshing to read. While, I loved the relationship between our two leads and can appreciate the themes of grief and loss, I didn’t like that both characters had such messy and complicated back stories that were either omitted or flat out glossed over. Xeni’s history with her family and the lies the told her, I wanted more of that. Mason and his history with his father, I wanted more of that. Overall, I was left wanting more from the story, which is common for me with Weatherspoon’s books.

Bridget’s from Goodreads:

Ebony Rose - 3.5 stars.

I wanted to enjoy this a bit more than I did, but I definitely see why it’s a favourite for so many on goodreads. Overall a fairly solid reading experience. Marriage of convenience is such an absurd romance trope that you can’t help but have a lot of fun with it.

I liked the writing style of the book, and the main characters Xeni and Mason were really great and quite complex characters, but something about their relationship didn’t quite click for me. I guess I just didn’t quite buy their chemistry. However, I did absolutely love how progressive this book was in its discussions of sex, consent and sexuality. I also appreciated the way grief plays a central role in the story for both main characters, it was really well done.

Besides the chemistry not quite working for me, I found some of the language/dialogue to be repetitive and a bit forced in trying to sound super millennial (if I had to read “a whole ass [blank]” ONE MORE TIME I’d have lost it lol.) I also think the story had way too many secondary characters (who were all introduced at once), which made it a tad confusing to recall who was who throughout the story.

Would definitely read more from this author, though!

Worth the Read?

Sarah: ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 - Loved the characters and who they were in the bubble. Didn’t think there was enough integration of their “real” lives into the bubble and each other. Lots of plot lines that were not resolved.

Shani: ⭐⭐⭐

Bridget: ⭐⭐⭐ - Oddly, even though I gave both characters 4 stars, the book overall was 3 stars for me. There were too many storylines that were introduced and then dropped, I didn’t feel like her mom/family really were given their due or earned any sort of forgiveness and I really like Mason and Xeni in the bubble but didn’t really believe them out of it.

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Full Podcast Transcript

Recommendations:

Welcome to Romance at a Glance, a podcast that uses romance novels to dive into candid conversations about life, relationship dynamics, and sexual desires. 

As hosts Bridget and Shani review books and interview some of romance’s biggest authors, they explore the breadth of the genre, openly embracing the sex, diverse couplings, and taboo in order to create a safe space for listeners to be exposed to different lifestyles, fantasies, and to pique their naughty curiosity.

Expect 100% honest reviews, spontaneous singing, life lessons, indecent anecdotes, and bawdy humor.

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