My name is Calliope and “I bone for a living.” Kidding. I am studying to be a paleontologist though. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be, and I have finally landed the perfect museum internship to make all of my dino-loving dreams come true. Trouble is, everyone wants me to be a gentle, loving sort of creature, but I’m more of the T-Rex type by nature – the kind who is determined to stomp … determined to stomp and tear her way through any obstacle in order to get what she wants.
But when a sexy, rumbly-voiced astronomer plummets into my orbit and threatens to break open my hard little heart, my career and my whole way of looking at the world is suddenly on the line.
The dinosaurs didn’t see their asteroid coming.
And I sure as hell wasn’t prepared for mine.
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Abundance of giggles
If ever running out of books to listen to, I´ll just get to the stack narrated by Erin Mallon. She is so fabulous. Another fabulous thing here. The name of the book. Bought it for the name, And what a joy. Listened to this book in July and still remember it due to the laughs. That said, don´t remember what it was about, just that I enjoyed it. So … have started listening to it again. And bought the second in series.
Reviewing books you LOVED is hard; you don’t want to be too gushy that people think you’re over doing it. But you want to be gushy enough to show just how much you loved the book.
I loved this book no joke I was laughing to the point of tears and I can honestly say that has only happened a handful of times.
What it did have was awesome and relatable characters. Romance genre is my jam and this book had all the things I love –memorable meet cute, awkward get to know you, unforgettable characters, great supporting characters, funny one liners, passion, relatability, and the HEA.
It is a make your heart happy kind of book which I feel like we need right now.
Erin’s narration is perfect as always. I especially liked that each character has their own quirks and voices it just really added to the audio. Give it that extra dimension, I can’t wait for Mabel’s story!
**4.5 stars** When I found out Erin Mallon (a fantastic narrator) had written her debut novel, I was so excited to read it. And what a treat it was!
Flirtasaurus was such a fun read! This laugh out loud romantic comedy was just what I needed. I loved the storyline and characters and the dialogue between the characters was hilarious!
Erin Mallon has written a great debut novel and I can’t wait to read her next book!
Great start for Erin Mallon’s debut novel! Lot’s of LOL moments intermixed with dino learning.
I have always loved going to the museum and the dinosaur exhibits have especially one of my favorite stops when I visit. Growing up near Chicago I had my fair share of museum’s to pick from so I was easily able to imagine the world Calliope was immersed in.
Told completely from her POV, we get to see Calliope stick her foot in her mouth quite a bit, but she doesn’t often see her own transgressions. As a scientist in a male populated field, she often has a lack of filter, which makes for lots of quirky moments, but it also gets her into sticky situations like her meet-cute with Ralph the astronomer.
Calliope is stuck in an elevator when she first meets Ralph and he is on the other side of the doors, so they only hear each other’s voices. She only has his sultry voice to go on to find him later, but lo and behold, he’s the planetarium guide leading the show and talking about how the dinosaurs died. She’s appalled that he killed her dinos. Ralph adores her quirky views and so begins their flirty relationship.
I know this author for narrating for one in my favorite romcom authors, Jana Aston. This is her debut book and I really enjoyed it. It took me a bit to get use to Cali. She’s very outspoken and I’m not. I wish I was more like her actually. I loved how the relationship between Ralph and her progressed, it wasn’t too fast, but not too slow either. This book made me LOL multiple times! Chapter 16 is almost non stop laughter! So hilarious! I cant wait for book 2.
Erin Mallon is one of my favourite narrators. Her debut rom-com book is hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud so many times during this. Calliope is awkward and relatable to me. The story is witty and the one liners are amazing. I can’t wait Lovebug to come out in January. It will be an instant preorder for me.
Erin is already a favourite narrator of mine and I had Flirtasaurus on my TBL list for a while now, and I can add one more favourite to my authors’ list as well. This book was highly recommended by other book friends and they were right.
I absolutely loved Calliope and Ralph´s story. An elevator meet-cute that turns into something lovable nerdy. I loved Calliope´s passion for “her” dinosaurs although she literally has no filter and needs to work on her human interaction skills. Then there is Ralph, an astronomer, who just started working at the museum. He is this sweet, perfect, supportive guy that accepts her with all her flaws and quirks. There is a certain attraction, which soon starts to evolve into something more, although Calliope´s dedication for her job as an Intern Palaeontologist gets in the way. Will she make the right decision in the end?
This is just such a witty, light, flirty, feel-good, sexy nerdy story which makes you feel giddy and laugh a lot. Adding Erin´s voice to the audio makes for a really fun listen! Erin has the comedic timing down to a T and love her male voice. I also enjoyed the interaction of all these side characters. One of those is Mable and can not wait for her story in Lovebug.
I thought this was a REALLY funny and entertaining book. It’s a debut novel by Erin Mallon who is well-known as a much-beloved and fantastically talented narrator. She narrates her own book and I, of course, listened to the audio because I pretty much always read with my ears.
It’s always great to hear an author narrate her own book if she has the chops to do it, and as a professional narrator, obviously Erin Mallon does. We’re able to know exactly how this book plays in her head and not just have our own totally different interpretation of it.
It is RARE to find a romcom that is truly laugh-out-loud funny. I looked at a lot of the reviews on this one and it seems the humor didn’t land with some but it definitely landed with me. I was cracking up from the very beginning.
I really enjoyed this story. There are times to laugh and others make me say “What…wait did that just happen?” The story is engaging to the reader and Erin is fun to listen to as she adds her enthusiasm and vibrancy to the characters. This is a definite repeat listen as it’s filled with memorable characters and light hearted fun!
BTW. Erin did a great job narrating her own story.
Having listened to Erin Narrate other novels for a variety of Authors, I was really intrigued about her debut novel Flirtasaurus. I love a nerdy hero but this gave me a nerdy hero and heroine and I was in my element! Calliope is a palaeontologist who right at the start gets stuck in an elevator and meets the voice of our hero Ralph. In amongst the panic of her rescue a miscommunication means their meet cute comes a couple of chapters after but I thought it was hilarious.
The novel as an Audiobook was such a fun listen, I laughed so many times. There was countless innuendo and so may inappropriate moments when Calliope was a hot mess. Erin narrating her own novel brought a level of enthusiasms to Calliope I loved. Ralph was so sweet and he comes across as a soft touch especially compared to the overbearing Calliope, however they just seemed to work. Ralph accepted her quirks and her out there mannerisms when she doesn’t think before she acts all with a pinch of salt.
There are a host of secondary characters that add to story, making for a great cast at the museum setting. The little heartbreak moment in the novel gave me the other side of Ralph and Calliope I wanted to see, which was a welcome plot point. Overall I really enjoyed Erin’s debut novel. I can image if this was read in e-book format that the conversational elements to some chapters would seem a little lengthy but for the Audiobook I don’t think it was a noticeable critique. I am looking forward to reading more from Erin and her Natural History series.
Erin Mallon is one of my favorite narrators so I was excited to see she wrote a book. Sadly the style of writing wasn’t quite what I was expecting and I had a very hard time getting in to the book. Unfortunately I found this book to be not the right fit for me right now but maybe I will try a re-read in the future.
Madcap Fun!
If over the top humor is your thing, you’ll love this book! Calliope and Ralph have an inauspicious start, and unconventional middle, but their HEA is very sweet!
Erin Mallon’s debut novel is an absolute delight for romcom fans. Anyone that can make a Ralph a romcom hero that you simply love is a writer of magical proportions.
Given Erin Mallon’s background as an audiobook narrator, I’m not surprised that she’s written a great debut novel. She clearly has a lot of experience in the genre, and she recognizes good character traits, plot points, and humorous opportunities. Flirtasaurus has a hilarious meet-cute, and from there it just continues with highly entertaining witty banter, humor, romance, science jokes and characters that you just want to grab a drink or a coffee with.
Calliope has wanted to be a paleontologist since she was a little girl. She’s career-oriented and determined to succeed. She’s also thoroughly human. She is not written as a perfect person; she’s written as a real person. She makes mistakes, sometimes goes off on the wrong tangent, but she’s so thoroughly likeable and human in all of her reactions.
Ralph banters with Calliope from the start, and he pushes herself to see more beyond the science and career. He’s so supportive of her, and it’s a joy to read how their relationship develops.
What I really love here, and in other novels that are on my favorite list, is the care given not only to the main relationship, but to the other characters and side relationships as well. Calliope’s parents, for example, have a great relationship with her, and we really get to experience their personalities as well.
Flirtasaurus is truly a fun, entertaining and thoroughly delightful rom-com. I’m looking forward to more from Erin Mallon in the future.
2 likes
What happens when a successful audiobook narrator becomes an author? You get a hilarious rom-com narrated by said author brimming with loud out loud moments.
Calliope meets Ralph on the first day of her new internship job, when she gets stuck in an elevator. His smooth, sexy voice keeps her calm until she is set free. If only she knew what he looked like?
Calliope and Ralph do eventually meet. He works in the planetarium and she is studying to be a paleontologist, both working in the same museum. Calliope is unlike any girl that Ralph has met before, she has no verbal filter and spending time with her often leads to unexpected things
The connection that Callie felt that first day is even stronger when they spend more time together. There is a simmering attraction building and when she has a close encounter with ‘shrooms’ she decides to take matters (Ralph’s man bits) into her own bare hands.
Honestly, I loved Callie’s out there personality, it was refreshing because I never knew what she was going to do or say next. I loved her parents, seriously funny! This was a fantastic beginning to The Natural History series and I can’t wait for more from Erin.
3 stars
You’ve heard the saying “you’ve got a face for radio”, right? Well, this is a book written for audio.
I love Erin Mallon’s narration of many of my favorite audio books so I was excited to read her debut novel. It definitely had it’s moments and the author has potential, but I also have to say if I hadn’t been familiar with the author’s work in narration, it would’ve been much harder to finish for me.
First, what I liked…
it had really smart, funny moments. It was set in a museum and focused on dinosaurs and space. I’m a big enough nerd to love all those things. It was funny, at times (when not drowned in detail) and some of the dialog reminded of Gilmore Girls; smart and snappy.
Ralph was awesome. Flat out awesome. He’s funny, smart, oh so sweet and incredibly long-suffering! Rather than just dealing with Callie’s idiosyncrasies (of which there are MANY), he actually finds them endearing and helps her to grow throughout the book. (I literally cheered when he called out Callie’s personal bias and selfishness later in the book.)
On to what made this difficult for me…
again, this book seemed to be written for audio. This makes sense as Mallon makes the leap from narrating audio books into writing books of her own, but I wish someone had helped the author to make that shift a little more seamless. The dialog was incredibly difficult to follow and often times it was hard to discern who was talking. There were entire sections (several pages long sometimes) where the character (mainly Calliope) would go off on what could only be called a rambling soliloquy or stream of consciousness. As I’m accustomed to (and love) Mallon’s snappy style of narration, thank goodness, I could hear her in my head narrating these sections but I also skipped entire sections when they become tiresome because of this style.
it was so preachy! Remember when I compared it to Gilmore Girls? Sadly, Calliope doesn’t have the quirky charm of Lorelie Gilmore to pull off some of the rambling preaching that our dear Lorelie got away with. I’m all for smart women, gender equality, etc but by chapter three, I was rolling my eyes at the constant preaching of Calliope. Especially when she was often pre-judging so many of the other characters (rather unkindly) for supposedly pre-judging her. (Not to mention the incredibly biased approach taken with regard to certain people crossing professional boundaries later in the book!)
For a freshmen effort, there is a lot to grow from in this first novel. Parts of it were super fresh and cute and the storytelling has serious potential. I hope Ms. Mallon will continue to hone her craft for her upcoming stories!
Erin Mallon has done it again with this fresh new take on rom-com, setting new records for snark. I giggled a lot while listening to this book and enjoyed it very much! I was a bit irritated with the characters at times – but in a way that means I was invested in them and in their story. Calliope is driven, snarky, and not afraid to stand up for herself – sometimes to a degree that is self sabotaging. Her love for paleontology, and dinosaurs in particular, is deep and adorable. Ralph is a fabulously sexy nerd, and I loved it! The originality of this story was refreshing & even educational. Erin’s love for these characters bleeds through in her stellar performance!! Mabel is quirky and very high energy, so I’m really looking forward to her adventures in the next book!
The debut book by one of my favorite audio narrators, Erin Mallon, is funny, witty, and sweetly romantic. It started a little slow for me, but quickly built up to rip-roaring laughter and snark. Calliope and Ralph were the perfect couple, total geeks, and science nerds. Calliope’s vocabulary was so out there, I honestly don’t know how Erin was able to read this and make it sound easy. Calliope came off rather unlikeable in the early part of the book, a woman with absolutely no filter, but Ralph brought out her good side.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick, humorous romance to take your mind off all the heavy stuff! I listened to this on Audible and the narration was wonderful. I gave it four fun stars!
The blurb sold me on this book. I liked the quirky feel of it. It lived up to the quirky and laughs. I laughed from beginning to end. It took me a bit to get into because I wasn’t so sure about Calliope. I had to warm up to her a bit. The one thing I wished was it was it had dual points of view. It’s a personal reader preference. For me I think I would have really gotten into this one more with it. This book did leave me one happy reader at the end. This is a light, fun book that will help you escape reality for awhile.
I very much look forward to seeing more from the author. It was such a fun, sweet read. This author has alot of potential! I’m a huge fan of the nerd heroes, but to have a heroine also be a nerd, made this book that much more. I love a good rom com and this one definitely hit the spot for me! Please bring on the next in this series.
First off I have to say that this is probably going to be my favorite book of the year. For several reasons. First, it’s about a female who loves dinosaurs as much as I do, and it was so freaking funny! And on a total side note, in a way it reminds me of the very first novel I ever tried to write, one that I debate about going back and finishing, but now I really want to! Of course my story was nowhere NEAR this funny.
First there was the hilarious “meet-cute” bit at the beginning where neither heard the other’s name correctly at first. She thought his name was Alf, which, ha ha, but hey, it’s hard not to agree that Ralph seems like it wouldn’t be a great name to shout out in the throes of ecstasy, “Oh Ralph, yes, right there, harder!” LOL!! And then when people try to get her name and it’s like “What-a-pee?” for Calliope. But what made that even better was when she told someone her name, and they said they’d been pronouncing it totally different because they’d only ever read it before. I laughed so hard at that part, because I did the exact same thing with the name Hermione between reading the books before the movies came out.
Now it was easy to fall in love with Ralph right away, his snark just was exactly what I go for. However then he let slip that he was vegan and I was afraid I’d have trouble with him at that, since I’m such a “meatasaurus” as the line in Jurassic Park somewhat goes. But oh my gosh, blaming Ralph’s asteroid for killing Calliope’s dinosaurs. So freaking funny.
This isn’t your usual sexy scenes all over the place book like you might expect after the types of books the author often reads as an audiobook narrator, but I have to say that first scene in chapter 16 of this book is probably going to go down as one of my all-time favorite steamy scenes in any book by any author. And, it’s not even for the steam-factor, it’s for how hard I was laughing as I read. How I had to put my e-reader down and just roll onto my side in my bed and laugh until I couldn’t laugh anymore. Then I had to go get a drink of water for my poor throat after all that laughing. I picked my e-reader back up to try to dive back into the story, but when I reread a line from where I had ended up, the giggles overtook me again for a few more minutes. I’m giggling to myself right now as I type this thinking of that scene.
This book was so good I had to go back and buy the author’s first audiobook, These Walls Can Talk. And even though I keep entering contests to try to win a physical copy of the book, I know I’m going to end up not being able to wait and just order a physical copy for myself soon. Not to mention I’ll probably end up buying the audiobook with an Audible Credit because I want to listen to it. That’s opposite of how a lot of things go. I usually listen to a book, then end up buying the physical copy to put on my shelf to go back to. But this is one I need to own every available format possible. I’m also soooooooo excited that this is a series, and I can’t wait for Mabel’s book, because I feel like I’m going to definitely connect with Mabel and her “forgetableness” too!
One negative thing, and it comes from my dino-loving, Earth Science major, paleontology background, they weren’t flying dinosaurs, they were flying reptiles. Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Oh yeah, and how do we get Erin Mallon to attend Book Bonanza 2021? Because I really need to meet her and fangirl!