Tara Sivec

Andi Arndt

Cowritten by USA Today best-selling author Tara Sivec and award-winning narrator Andi Arndt, a hysterically funny, heartfelt romance about starting over and taking chances.Nothing good ever comes from drinking a box of wine alone. So when I decided to entertain my drunken self by setting up some hand-me-down podcasting equipment and reading the steamy parts from romance novels, I never thought anyone would actually listen. The fact that I admitted my huge crush on my sexy next door neighbor made the whole thing even more mortifying. But sometimes life surprises you, and that's how my podcast, Heidi's Discount Erotica, was born.Now I, Heidi Larsen, a sweet former kindergarten teacher in Waconia, Minnesota, lead a scandalous double life reading erotic novels to the listening world. And with each episode, I find myself embracing my new alter ego more and more. Now I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my own skin and do things I never would have dreamed of - like kissing my neighbor.Look out, Waconia, because Heidi's on the loose! She's in your ears, in your hearts, and down your pants...wait, that didn't sound as good as it did in my head. Well, you get the picture, don'tcha know!

Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words

Heidi Larson thought her life was over when her career as a kindergarten teacher ended after she was forced to quit due to budget cuts.  When she finally finds a new job, it is as an office manager for a company called EdenMedia where romance audiobooks are recorded.  At first Heidi is appalled by the language she hears used by the narrators, but one night after getting drunk on boxed wine, she begins a podcast in which she faces some of her biggest fears including her crush on her new neighbor, Brent.

Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words is an outrageously funny story about a woman attempting to find who she really is with the help of her friends and family and through the use of a podcast.  The character of Heidi is well developed and very lovable.  She embodies the fears and desires that many women face, making her easily identifiable.  The only real problem with the character is that she is just too naive and innocent to be believable, but the humor and warmth in the story overshadows this problem.  We don't learn much about Brent until the end of the book, but that skillfully plays into the plot.  Overall, Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words is a gem of a story, highly recommended.

Lynn Braden

Heidi Larson thought her life was over when her career as a kindergarten teacher ended after she was forced to quit due to budget cuts.  When she finally finds a new job, it is as an office manager for a company called EdenMedia where romance audiobooks are recorded.  At first Heidi is appalled by the language she hears used by the narrators, but one night after getting drunk on boxed wine, she begins a podcast in which she faces some of her biggest fears including her crush on her new neighbor, Brent.

Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words is an outrageously funny story about a woman attempting to find who she really is with the help of her friends and family and through the use of a podcast.  The character of Heidi is well developed and very lovable.  She embodies the fears and desires that many women face, making her easily identifiable.  The only real problem with the character is that she is just too naive and innocent to be believable, but the humor and warmth in the story overshadows this problem.  We don't learn much about Brent until the end of the book, but that skillfully plays into the plot.  Overall, Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words is a gem of a story, highly recommended.

Cowritten by USA Today best-selling author Tara Sivec and award-winning narrator Andi Arndt, a hysterically funny, heartfelt romance about starting over and taking chances. Nothing good ever comes from drinking a box of wine alone. So when I decided to entertain my drunken self by setting up some hand-me-down podcasting equipment and reading the steamy parts from romance novels, I never thought anyone would actually listen. The fact that I admitted my huge crush on my sexy next door neighbor made the whole thing even more mortifying. But sometimes life surprises you, and that’s how my podcast, Heidi’s Discount Erotica, was born. Now I, Heidi Larsen, a sweet former kindergarten teacher in Waconia, Minnesota, lead a scandalous double life reading erotic novels to the listening world. And with each episode, I find myself embracing my new alter ego more and more. Now I’m starting to feel more comfortable in my own skin and do things I never would have dreamed of - like kissing my neighbor. Look out, Waconia, because Heidi’s on the loose! She’s in your ears, in your hearts, and down your pants...wait, that didn’t sound as good as it did in my head. Well, you get the picture, don’tcha know!

Jasmine

2.5 Stars
This rating kills me because of just how much I loved the first Tara Sivec book I read Fisher's Light! It was beautifully written, emotional, and super angsty. I might even reread it some day because I love it that much, but I have a hard time believing this could be even written by the same author. I was really interested to see if I would find the same enjoyment in this rom com but sadly this is going in my least enjoyable reads of the year.

While I liked Heidi more as she started gaining her self confidence and stopped being this 25 year old woman who still acts like a teenager just entering high school. Her slight character development and overcoming a lot of her naive, immature, and reserved ways were not nearly enough to redeem her character. She is probably the most annoying character I've encountered in a while and continuing to read her narrative in hopes she would get better was a major test of my patience.

For a romcom I have to say most of this book was not even very funny, but instead a constant string of secondhand embarrassment and eye rolls. I genuinely tried to sympathize with her character but she was so over the top I could barely imagine her as a real person. Not to mention this whole narrative of trying to make her desperately come across as quirky and relatable.

Brent could've been a decent love interest if we ever knew much about him. I did like how he treated Heidi and was genuinely a nice guy who like her for who she was, but give me some depth! I felt some chemistry between him and Heidi but it made no sense why it took them so long to get together. Also, the conflict could be spotted a mile away and was just plain dumb. I could care less about what it was and how it took so long to resolve will remain a mystery. The message about not needing to change who you are, only finding the confidence within yourself to be that person is a good message, but not executed properly imo. Overall, one of the more frustrating books I've read all year and I have very few positive things to say it was kinda a cringefest for me

Preye

I didn't enjoy this one. The female protagonist was absurd and judgemental as hell. Towards the end, there's something like an "awakening" but that wasnt enough to get her into my good books. She takes quirky to another level (a higher one!) and the comedic scenes were trying at best. 

Website: https://litdarlings.com/

Rebecca Shaffer 

** spoiler alert **
           Did I enjoy this as good entertainment and background noise while I worked for the past 2 days? Sure. Would I recommend it to someone looking for a romantic comedy, romance, or easy read? Probably not. The Minnesota stereotypes were obnoxious and the whole “sheltered religious girl discovering literary smut and actual sex” for the first time was just a lackluster plot line. You also learn basically nothing about the main love interest, so it’s hard to get behind that relationship. Very meh book.

Sofie

My boobs are making him nervous. Oh, maybe this is why he hasn’t made a move on me yet. He’s got boob nerves! Nope. He’s got tit nerves. Yeah, that’s the good stuff. Tits.

I-

I've been writing this review in my head since about 40 pages in, and let me just say.... I HATED THIS BOOK.

Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words follows Heidi, a 25 WOMAN who can't even say words like cock and sex and orgasm because she's a good chUrcH GoINg chRisTIAN who's a huge prude and acts like a 13 year old. She gets drunk one night and records a podcast that's like, 4 minutes long, TOPS, and at the advice of some new friends, starts reading erotica every week to her somehow vastly growing audience in order to ~get out of her shell~ and become more confident. Oh, and also to ask out her HOT, STUDLY, ADONIS-esque neighbour, Brent.

I couldn't suspend my disbelief for this one, folks. I could tell the authors were trying REALLY hard to be funny, and it did. not. work. Every single character was 1-dimensional. Heidi's doting mother was a literal caricature; invasive, doesn't know boundaries, gossipy, can't manage technology cause she's ~old-fashioned~, and her father was the basic, silent, gotta-fix-this-creaky-step, glare-at-the-boyfriend type. I never saw the appeal of Brent cause all Heidi ever said about him was that he was HOT. And nice. And a huge DORK. And he was so pERfeCT because he loved her childish outfits and her rambling and the way she says fern instead of penis. Like, Brent, just say you want to date a 15 year old.

And Heidi. My god. Look, I know there are real people out there who get nervous talking to others. I know there are people who don't like to swear or talk about explicit things. I know there are people who like to dress in fun outfits! But my friends.... well, I'll just share some quotes so you can see for yourselves.

“But you’re more better and good-lookinger!” I quickly reassure him.
Oh my God, I was a teacher! That sentence is a travesty to the entire English language!

here's the authors trying to make Heidi ~quirky~

“Do you think wine gets sad if you don’t drink it? I mean, I know it doesn’t have feelings. That’s just ridiculous... What if that box of wine is in my fridge, crying? It’s so cold and dark in there, and it doesn’t understand why I’ve abandoned it.”


Here she is acting like a freshman giving her first handy behind the bleachers, not knowing how to take off Brent's pants even though, surely, she doesn't ONLY wear dresses and knows how to take off a pair of jeans?

Okay, let’s get this party started. First step, blow gently on his penis. Wait. That can’t be right. That can’t be the first step. I haven’t even taken his penis out yet! Where are the directions on how to take it out? ... Eeeeew, I have to spit on my hand to do this? That seems very unsanitary. Also, I still don’t see the directions for taking it out! Why are we skipping steps here, people?

That's just the tip of the iceberg, but I'm lazy and I  really  don't want to have to read through this book again to find more quotes.

Don't even get me started on the conflict! I'll put this under spoilers in case some poor soul actually still wants to read this, but (view spoiler)[ Heidi had SOME AUDACITY to be mad at Brent for listening to her podcast and not telling her, when she was the one talking ALL ABOUT HIM in her podcast and DIDN'T TELL HIM. Her mother, to her credit, points this out to Heidi and Heidi finally stops being a big fat hypocrite, but my god.  (hide spoiler)]

TL;DR This book is v bad, has barely any plot, a shit ton of "woke" feminism in that Heidi is trying to tAKe CHArGE of her own sexuality and get out of her comfort zone, and the most boring characters I've read in a long time. 

Also, for being a book about an EROTIC PODCAST, the smut isn't even that good.

Yerim Oh

I loved how awkward the main character is and I found the love story to be very funny and charming.

Find this review and more at 
  kimberlyfaye reads.


I have a lot of mixed feelings about Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words. But first, a quick flashback to ApollyCon a couple of years ago when Andi mentioned her idea for Heidi's Discount Erotica during a panel. It sounded freaking amazing. I was over the moon when I learned she'd paired up with Tara Sivec to bring it fully to life. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. 

Here's the deal, I have issues with anyone shaming someone else for reading romance. I know it's all part of the storyline of Heidi finding her voice, but I had problems with the romance-shaming early in the book. There's a slight chance I'm overreacting, but the use of the word "dirty" to describe romance is seriously off-putting to me. I had to work to get past that.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can say the book was hilarious. Awkward as hell, but hilarious. I lost track of how many times I literally laughed out loud while reading. I also lost track of how many times I cringed. I'm not kidding when I say I listened to some of it with my hands over my eyes because I was embarrassed for her. Heidi was super naive, painfully awkward, but also charming. Every character — save for Brent — was totally over-the-top, but none more than Heidi's parents.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend 6 hours of my life. Andi Arndt is a goddess. Even with a Minnesota accent. If I gave half stars, this one would get 3.5 but I just couldn't go to 4 stars given my feelings about the romance-shaming. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Jobananareads

3.5 .... really cute , but , been there done that ... moving on

Jo H

I am SO disappointed. The humour was ruined by the ridiculously naive and bordering on prudish FMC. At the start it was hilarious, but the more it went on, the more cringey it became.

Also in the 21st century, the 'woman who wears heels, fitted clothes and makeup being shamed for it' (a version of slut-shaming) narrative has no place in contemporary stories of any kind let alone romance. 🙄🙄🙄

Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words

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