“Leave me alone, Beau," I said, frowning at him. “No," he growled. “What do you mean by ‘no’?” I asked sharply. Beau put a possessive hand on my waist. “I mean no, I am not going to leave you alone, Elowyn."
When Elowyn Carew is hired by the Heavenly Lights drag club to keep their troubled business open, she butts heads with the club's hot, reckless star Beau de la Fontaine, who performs under the stage name Je Sweet. The drag club’s problems prove to be even harder to solve than Elowyn suspected, while Beau's desire to control her rapidly spirals into an obsession to take and possess her in every way he can.
This is a fast-paced standalone MF dark romance novella with a bisexual awakening, obsessive stalker & breeder behavior, and a HEA.
So I saw this tiktok of a girl trying to describe a scene from this book, but she was laughing so hysterically that I could not understand a single word. 😅
I only know that this is an enemies to lovers STALKER ROMANCE between a WOMAN and A DRAG QUEEN😭😭 should I read this for the lols? research? I NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S SO FUNNY😭
2 stars. 3 for the second half, 1 star for the first half
I’m not sure where the stalking comes from, because if it’s in the title, I’m gonna have some expectations 😒. Just like The Catcher claiming to be a grovel romance (🙄), this didn’t have stalking in it 🙄; it DID have obsession in it, but not until almost halfway into the book. It had other similarities to The Catcher (like the things I hated), but it had other things I liked as well.
Elowyn (27) gets hired as a conflict management specialist for the Heavenly Lights Drag Club because of an extreme diva drag queen, Je Sweets AKA Beau (29) who keeps making mistakes and causing problems for the club. On top of that, there’s a mystery surrounding some random occurrences that are happening at the club.
Je Sweets/Beau is a huuuuuge man hoooooar 😐. He has the BDE of a typical man hooooar, so when Elowyn comes, starts questioning him and making demands, he doesn’t like it 😅. At times, he gets a bit… physical (and not the smeeexy kind), until one day, he looks at Elowyn and decides that he wants to see her full of milk and her belly rounded with his baby 😅.
Once the breeeeeding k clicks in, there’s no turning back. He wants her and he wants her now.
What I liked: SPOILERS —the LGBTQ+ aspect 🫶. This was VERY unique in this. Not only is Elowyn bi and even tries dating both men and women in the book, but she works with mostly gay men, and then some. I love that there was no discrimination between the characters in how they perceive each other. I especially loved that Elowyn refers to Beau as a female when Beau is in drag (Je Sweets). It was confusing at first 😅, but then I understood.
—the breeeding 😅. Once Beau becomes obsessed with this, he’s locked in. He’s OTT 👏🏻O B S E S S E D👏🏻 with her, her body, and the kids they’re going to have 😅
—the 🔥. The second half of the book is full of it, including some non and dub con
—obsessed with making her 💦 (unlike The Catcher). At least he cares
—MINEMINEMINE 😈. He sabotages all her dates 💅
—the OMD related to Beau being jealous 😈. No one can have Elowyn
—he reads a Wiki article on how to make her O 🤣🤣. I love it when a man does his research 🤷🏻♀️
—he can’t help but 💦 fast when he’s with her 😅. He’s never been with a woman before, so his body can’t hold back 🤣
—he sets off the fire alarm to her hotel when she’s running from him 😅😈. He’s gonna do what he’s gonna do 🤷🏻♀️
—he sees a future with her
—Elowyn’s first time meeting the diva Je Sweets is when she has her face meeting the table 🤣
What I HAAAATED/didn’t like: SPOILERS —the AMOUNT of OM smeeeexx 🤬. I got this rec from an fb group, and I asked about owd or ow smex, and I was told none 😐. I didn’t realize I had to specify since he’s supposed to be obsessed and a stalker (based on the title). I guess next time I’ll ask about any other people anything
—just like The Catcher, the H (Beau) orchestrates it so that the h (Elowyn) walks in while he’s being serviced 🥴. Why am I STILL seeing this in books?!? It’s NOT smeexy, it’s not even necessary 🥴. Is it to show how much of a douche he is? We get that with SOOOO many other things 🙄. At least she doesn’t stick around 😒 (unlike in The Catcher 🤬). And then, we get a video of Je Sweets servicing a rando in the middle of the club, which is before s/he takes two men to be with 😐 after Elowyn tries to hook the other men up (and Beau decides he also wants in on the fun 😐). Sigh. I don’t know about Elowyn, but I don’t wanna know what the man I’m gonna marry/have kids with looks like while he’s with other people 🥴. Luckily, we don’t see the last scene 😐
—the first half of the book 😵💫. What. In. The. Actual. F?!?! It’s such a different book! I prefer the second half when we actually see Beau and Elowyn together, acting out the breeeding part and him being obsessed (like the title claims). The first half is basically Beau/Je Sweets with other men 😐 not my idea of fun seeing the H with others 😒
—just like The Catcher, Beau is aggressive and not very likable 😐. I don’t know what Elowyn sees in him 🤦🏻♀️. He DOES get better in the second half, but come on 🙄
—inconsistencies and grammar mistakes. There are times when we’re in a middle of a scene and suddenly something’s happened, but we don’t get the transition for it. On top of this, there are grammar mistakes/missing words: ••I panted, trying to vain to free myself•• ••come or cum••
—the mystery going on needed to be more consistent/realistic, especially when the ending happens
—a better epilogue 😒. Maybe a few years in the future?
—although I appreciate a bi awakening, I wish I knew for a fact that Beau is all about Elowyn and knows how to be faithful to ONE person 😐. A better epilogue might’ve helped this
Overall, I liked this better than The Catcher, but still found myself extremely irritated with a lot.
⚠️Safety Squad⚠️ -no cheating*/sharing/owd -noncon/dubcon -prejudice and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community -OMD and OM SEX: although there’s no owd, we see the H with four, yes FOUR different men. The first time, she walks in on his getting a blow job 😐 which he does on purpose because she irritated him. The second time we see the H giving a random OM a blow job while working (the h sees it from a video that the mayor shows her). The third and fourth men is a threesome when the h tries to set up one of her male friends with another respectable male friend and the H takes both of the men into the sauna and f’s them 😐. This is all before either of them show interest in each other -OMD: once the H is interested, he fights OM who’s on a date with h -breeding/biting/marking/spanking/slight edging/lactation kink -no condoms/they’re both clean/she’s on birth control but he gets rid of it -HEA/epilogue/9 months ish later
What a book. I have read a LOT of romances, and this one has got to be up there for one of the most unusual ones I've encountered.
I really wish it were longer, but alas, it's just a novella, so I can compress the summary into a few lines. 26-year-old Elowyn Carew, a poor archaeology student, is brought in by her dad to manage the internal conflicts and safety issues that beset Heavenly Lights drag club. All the problems can be traced back to one person: 29-year-old drag superstar Beau de la Fontaine, who performs under the stage name Je Sweet and whose determination to see Elowyn gone is quite rapidly replaced by a determination to get her pregnant.
This is very much a novella you just have to roll with. I have definitely never read a book before with a gay hero who's only attracted to women in the form of the heroine. The heroine is also bi, and we see scenes of her chatting a woman up, provoking some very funny jealousy scenes. In fact, the humour suffusing the whole book is what makes it work - neither of the MCs, nor the author, clearly takes things too seriously, and the result is a highly entertaining romp.
3.5 stars rounded up. I got this for review on booksirens. I will write what I liked and didn't really like. What I liked: * I liked that the Hero/Heroine was written both as a he and a she, when in and out of drag. *havnt read a romance with a drag queen so was different. * The love hate relationship that was included and that the heroine was a badass.
What I didn't like: *the plot and tension about the drag club was at most part an interesting aspect but I don't know. It felt a bit strange how it all played out and the way it was solved. *bi awakening is something I would like to read about more in my romance but it went from gay to "she is mine and I must get her pregnant".
It wad short and had a lot packed in that I haven't really read before in a romance (or a dark romance) but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it as it was a few topics I don't know a lot about or have read much before. But if you like Breeding kink, obsessive stalker, bi awakening and a drag queen hero this one might be for you.
I walked up to Je Sweet, grabbing her by her long, dark wig, and drove her head into the dressing table.
Summary: Working at her father's conflict management firm, archaeological grad student Elowyn Carew is tasked with rescuing the Heavenly Lights drag club. A string of anonymous threats and unfortunate accidents have put the club at shutdown risk. Elowyn immediately determines that Je Sweet, the club's top performing drag queen, is undoubtedly behind a significant number of the club's problems. Je Sweet, aka Beauchamp de la Fontaine, is entitled, conceited, callous and reckless. Not one to be cowed, Elowyn is determined to whip Beau into shape.
As Elowyn works her magic with Heavenly Lights, Beau becomes increasingly obsessed with the one person he can't intimidate or control.
Review: I am a huge drag fan (Trixie Mattel is Queen of Wisconsin, after all) and was initially wary about this book's premise. However, after seeing other friends' positive reviews, I decided to give it a try. I immediately loved it. Trademark Kate Raven humor and unhinged behavior + unusual plot + great queer representation.
Despite my initial concerns, I thought this book handled sensitive topics tactfully. It wasn't a "suddenly straight" plot, like I feared, but an attraction to another person for who they are regardless of gender. Even though their relationship got off the rails quickly, I thought Beau's bi-awakening and attraction to Elowyn developed in a way that felt believable, something that is hard to achieve (especially in a book <200 pages).
Both main characters are bi. Narration uses she/her pronouns for Je Sweet and he/him pronouns for Beau. Je Sweet/Beau is described as attractive both female and male presenting, and Elowyn is attracted to them in both presentations.
Despite its often campy tone, the book acknowledges serious issues drag performers and the queer community face, such as discrimination and ostracism. Most importantly, the novel didn't feel exploitative. It was outrageous, but in the standard Kate Raven way; drag was not punch line.
I love when an Alpha personality is also confidently feminine; we don't see that representation often enough in any genre. I also really liked Elowyn as a takes no shit/gives no fucks, comfortable in who she is heroine.
Beau's sudden obsession with getting Elowyn pregnant didn't bother me; it's kink. This is obviously just my opinion, others may feel differently.
My Drag Barbarian was a unique, creative, sexy, deranged romcom that I probably would never have picked up if Kate Raven hadn't written it. This is probably one of Kate's best books.
Too bad this book has a critical and unforgivable flaw: the French LI never says anything sexy in French?!Criminal.
Rating: 5/5⭐️ ✅Entertaining/Engaging ✅Creative ✅I liked it. ✅Lots of queer rep. Handled difficult topics tactfully. ✅Definitely original and norm-transgressing.
↬ The first one was a dark historical that offended all my HR girlie sensitivities
↬ The second one was interesting but some things just didn't make sense
↬ And finally this one. The craziest one so far, yet the most enjoyable~ ・ ・ ・ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I had so much trouble finishing this book. The first half is funny and interesting and a little weird, so right up my street! At about the 51% mark it turns on it's heels and feels like a completely different book. The personalities of most of the characters do a 180 and the whole ploy flips a lot too. It feels like the second half was written by a totally different person and as a result I found myself setting it aside again and again after only a few pages. Thanks to BookSirens for my DRC.
In the mood for a wild ride? This is a super fun, ‘straight only for you babe’ palette cleanse of a drag show novella. Thanks to the lovely Izzah for her review bc I had a really good time with it. ⚡️💛
“i didn’t learn english for this” not me. never me. this is exactly the kind of insanity i learned english for. a buff french drag queen develops a breeding kink obsession for the girl who whacks his head into a table the first time they meet and threatens to shred all his wigs.
some of my favorites:
- their meet cute - him reading wikihows on how to make her 💦 (men what is stopping you) - he only 💦 after her (not the first few times tho since she had him meeting god) - him ripping off her birth control patch (irl? i would be running for my life) - the lovey dovey text messages (tell me where you live so i can come over. you have to be completely filled up i have to see you!!) - their first time was him in full drag 💅🏼 - they’re both bi but he’s bi only for her (and them birthing hips 💋)
i had the time of my life with this!!! 10/10 read simply because i don’t think i’ll ever find plot like this again 🤠
Received from Booksirens. Nope, I didn’t get paid for this. Yep, full honesty.
I picked this one out of curiosity. I liked it. It started off a fun enemy battle. Beau/Je sweet being the diva of the show, dangerous and reckless and Elowyn there to take care of the problems.
The culprit was obvious off the bat, but the mystery itself was background to the obsessive romance. Strong on the M/M with Beau having screwed every male he comes across.
It feels a bit blurred lines when Beau does get what he wants. From there it’s zero to one hundred. The awakening felt overshadowed by his need to breed. It kinda brings up the question if this was an mpreg would Elowyn even be on his radar. He’s just that focused on a baby. Saying that there was a lot of sex and cum stuffing.
I liked the supporting characters. The drag club was sweet. My favourite part was Elowyn getting one over on Beau with Schwab. It was unique and I enjoyed the length of their battle and that it wasn’t over after a few chapters. 4 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
4.5 ⭐️ I had some issues with the writing but everything else was so OTT and ridiculous that I just full out loved it. This has definitely opened a new trope up for me that I didn't know I needed in my life.
- Drag queen - Bi-awakening (never been with a woman) - Obsessive and possessive, little bit deranged. - Stalker
I received a free copy as an ARC and my review is voluntary.
I don’t even know where to begin! I absolutely loved the dynamic between Beau and Elowyn! I’ve never read a book with these tropes but was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. Definitely think I could reread it!
I received an advanced ready copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The premise of this book was very interesting. A drag queen, bisexual awakening, breeding kink, stalking, etc.
Elowyn (h) is hired as a conflict management specialist at the Heavenly Lights drag club. This is due to many dangerous situations and issues that have arisen at said club. (2 fires, 3 pieces of equipment falling on stage, and 4 death threats). The book starts with a queen named Je Sweet on stage, doing a dangerous set involving fire, and almost catching the other queens on fire. (Je Sweet is the fan favorite, and apparently not a nice person.)
Elowyn is a *conflict* *management* *specialist*. But then bashes Je Sweet's head into a vanity in chapter 2.. girl what? The next day.. Je Sweet (now out of drag, and we find out his name is Beau) - grabs miss Elowyn by her hair aggressively. I'm not understanding 1)all the hostility or 2) why nobody can keep their hands to themselves lol. Elowyn then goes on to explain she will be conducting interviews to get to the bottom of all the conflicts at the club. Someone asks if this will be done in front of everyone. Elowyn responds with "Certainly not, that would be highly inappropriate." AS IF ANYTHING SHE HAS DONE HAS BEEN APPROPRIATE SO FAR!? girl please..🙄
The interviews are.. interesting. We find out Beau is fucking pretty much everyone that works at the club, and while they love the sex- they all hate Beau's personality.
After some more lewd situations, and the mayor threatening to shut the club down, we get a peak into Beau's POV. He's gay, but is drawn to Elowyn. He can't stand anyone calling her names or being mean to her. He begins making slight moves on her, and eventually tells her he is bisexual.
About 58% into the book, Beau rapes Elowyn while he's dressed in drag. While she is aroused, she repeatedly tells him no and to get off of her. This may be triggering to some readers. (There's not a list of trigger warnings, just a general content warning stating that there may be distressing scenes in the book.)
Wikipedia is referenced ALOT in this book. It got repetitive. The word "big" is used alot as well. There could have been some better adjectives. Italics were used in random places that made no sense.
By 66% in.. I am so tired of reading about how EVERYONE wants to fuck Beau, or how big his dick is. It's so repetitive 🫠.
While this possessive breeder storyline is going, there's a little bit of a mystery subplot. I was underwhelmed with the conclusion of that.
I think this story has potential. I think the characters need to be fleshed out more, same with the plot. I can appreciate the idea, but the execution was poor in my opinion.
“Her Drag Barbarian” tried to sneak by me, but I wouldn’t let it. Drag queens and br33d¡ng sch/m¡nk—color me curious. I get curious a lot.
I have never read anything like this before, and I loved it! Some readers may have joked about it or thought the plot was far-fetched, but I dig that.
Elowyn, a recent archaeologist grad, took an HR-type job to do some conflict management—something she is not qualified for but took. The place is a drag club. There had been claims of a hostile environment, and some other challenges she speculates are caused by one of the drag queens, the head queen herself, Je Sweet or Beau.
Beau and Elowyn clash immediately. But their interaction together was seamlessly written. Elowyn held her own and never batted an eye at any of Beau’s antics. But what Beau did not expect was his sudden sch/m3xual feelings for Elowyn, considering he had only been with men all his life. And his feelings of p0/ss3ss¡ves increased ten-fold and the br33¡ing sch/m¡nk! Wow!
I’m so glad I picked up “Her Drag Barbarian.” I still have a smile on my face and can’t stop talking about the story.
I didn’t realize I read this author once before and said “never again”. I guess “never say never”, because here we are again. And I still feel the same, I really need to pass on this author. However this wasn’t as terrible as the other one I read (moonshine). ONLY BECAUSE it was a super unique plot.
This didn’t feel so much a bi-awakening as it did “straight-for-you”, which I admittedly did NOT know was a thing (maybe it’s not and the author made it up but it’s an interesting and unique concept either way).
Beau is 110% gay, and has NEVER even been with a female. Because of that (and the fact that he’s almost 30, not a teenager😂) I found it totally unbelievable that he would switch virtually overnight (and not have an identity crisis?). He is also a commitophobe and rarely has sex with the same person more than once. Which again, I feel like he would be having a full on freak-out about jumping into an intense lifetime commitment.
I had some of the same complaints as the other book I read by this author (moonshine), which included:
- why the heck does he even like/ want to be with El?? He changes virtually overnight from hating her guts to “Mine, Mine, mine” with absolutely no reason.
- the additional plotlines were crap and not fleshed out enough. I kept forgetting why El was there and about the cut-and-paste threat letters. That whole thing made no sense because she came to mediate with employees and basically began running the entire club, even more than any manager.
- This book included ALOT of detailed sex with OP. During the first 50% the MMC has sex with at least 3 OP and we find out he sleeps with a different person most every night, including almost every other male in the book. The FMC attempts dating 2 OP in the first 50% also (before she is humiliated by the MMC).
- Definite DUB/ NON-con sex between the MC’s BUT I AM 100% OK with that (just an FYI). What made me cringe was just the no protection after spending half the book enforcing what a complete manwhore Beau is….theres a statement about him being clean but in the meantime has sex with several individuals including oral with a complete stranger. Sorry but just ick, all I could think was he had to be a walking poster for STD’s and there isn’t even a conversation about it🤮
❤️LIKED:❤️
The spice was pretty spicy, especially the first scene but poor guy never lasted more than a few thrusts😂. I love possessive / obsessed MMC like Beau….but I couldn’t understand what he even liked about El specifically, other than he was basically ready to have children and thought she was a prime candidate? That meant the breed kink is plentiful in this book- and was mostly super🔥🔥🔥 Lastly, the plot was unlike any other book I’ve read (although I felt like it was somewhat far-fetched). The drag aspect was also a somewhat new plot line for me and was fun and interesting.
Picked this up because I saw a TT from GrapieDeltaco who could not stop laughing as she was describing how the two main characters met...and I knew I needed to pick it up.
This was a hilarious and fast read. Was there a lot that I rolled my eyes at in disbelief? Oh yeah but it made for a fun, lighthearted, silly read. I wouldn't call this a stalker romance...I'd definitely say a possessive romance.
“Her Drag Barbarian” is the story of Elowyn and Beau.
This was interesting- hero was a drag queen, heroine her manager. Hero was ?pansexual, heroine was bisexual. He/ she goes from being into guys to being into the heroine and wanting to breed her. Very smutty.
First time reading a M/F in this genre but jt was fascinating.
I found this one in a book group and was somehow intrigued even though I didn’t think it would be my thing. Very surprising. The banter and the unhinged “logic” of the MMC had me cracking up a few times. I also enjoyed how accepting everyone was of everyone’s quirks. Nice kinky quick read.
Read this bc of that one girl on tiktok who was hysterically laughing about it for several minutes trying to explain it. It's not Good Literature by any means but I was entertained and and mildly horrified all at once.
IVE READ THIS BOOK AS A JOKE BUT WHY WAS IT ACTUALLY GOOD?😭😭😭
The Book Cover is jail but I laughed my ass off WHY ARE THEY SO FUNNY together😭😭 I seriously had to ignore his sudden obsession but they were pretty cute