Digital Hearts

Late Night Ambitions

By: Eden Redd

Narrated by: Anneliese Rennie

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Morgan is an excellent commander and soldier in a time of digital war games. When it comes to dating, not so much.

When he and his friends are invited to a secret life and romance simulation game, the players join hoping they can earn some much needed virtual vacation time.

Little do they know how deep the rabbit hole goes. A digital sleepy seaside town turns into a journey of dating, lewd perversions, monsters, cults, and a shot glass of dark humor. Morgan must navigate his new digital lifestyle, earn his way to a better life, find love and control his darker impulses crawling under his skin before it's too late.

Warning: Digital Hearts: Late Night Ambitions is a story for mature adults, 18 and over. It contains monsters, bizarre dating rituals, murder, lewd acts, secret societies, twisted romance, and funny simulated lives. If you ever wanted to dive into the dark underbelly of life simulation games, this is a story for you.

©2019 Eden Redd (P)2019 Eden Redd

interesting idea

I'm not a prude but it felt like some of the sex was unnecessary and Erotic asphyxiation is not my thing. If you want a tally of attributes you have to keep it yourself. And *spoiler*
why doesn't the detective come back?
*end spoiler*
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Interesting concept

This book was as but if a challenging listen for me. I enjoyed the plot. The main character was well developed and complex. But the narrator was disconcerting. First I'm not find of narrator of a different gender than the main character. Then, I found it annoying that the tone and pace never changed... not even during the violence or the sex scenes. It's very much someone reading the book out loud. And coming back to the adult ckntent, I found it rather gratuitously sprinkled through the book at random points. Little build up of tension and a tendency towards stumbling upon orgies... I found it didn't really add to the plot, and it didn't work as erotica either since the scenes rapidly move back to plot details. Overall, I liked the concept and the plot.

good read

Excellent story, the audible voices were fantastic. I enjoyed this story very much. I would recommend this story.

Everyone has their kinks...

This is a very hard review for me to write... I feel like I really enjoyed a solid 70% of this book, felt neutral about 20%, and really didn't like 10%. The story is well written, as everything Eden Redd does is, but something about this book just didn't quite click all the way with me. I love the concept of taking a little bit of litrpg, a little bit of dystopia, and a lot of erotica and smashing them all together. The mix just wasn't quite right for me.

Here are 5 things that I liked about the book:
1. The overall concept of a game that exists as a respite from the daily grind of life and responsibilities sounds nice. Basically, the game setting in my head felt like a coastal Stardew Valley with orgies.
2. Eden Redd REALLY knows how to write the steamy bits!
3. Can I sign up for a job system like the one in the book?
4. I liked the journey of self-acceptance the MC went through. I'd imagine a game like this could do wonders for those in crisis to resolve their most pressing issues in a "safe" space (or at least the appearance of one).
5. The way Eden Redd describes the characters she puts in the book makes them all feel very authentic. It's easy to picture what they look like in your mind's-eye.

Here are 5 things I didn't care for as much:
1. This book is DARK. I wasn't really expecting how dark this book was going to get at times. It sort of smacks you in the face early and you think "oh, okay, I can deal with that", then it keeps hitting you when you're not expecting it.
2. There are MANY kinks that are addressed in this book. Some I like, some I don't. The times where you're listening to things you're not into so much really pull you out of the story.
3. I felt like the quality of the audio was a bit questionable, which surprised me because I usually really like Anneliese Rennie. Her performance just felt off to me. That and there were several technical issues with the audio production that I noticed as well.
4. I feel like the game's "factions" could have been fleshed out a bit more.
5. I found the MC a little hard to connect with. This may be a me issue, but I just find it hard to get into a story when the MC is somebody who I just don't jive with.

So, where does that leave me on this one... Did I enjoy the book? For the vast majority of it, yes. Would I recommend it to friends? Not all of them, but there definitely are a few who would 5-star this in a heartbeat. Would I listen to more Eden Redd books? Absolutely. Would I listen to more narration from Anneliese Rennie? Absolutely. I've heard how good she can be. This just wasn't it.

So there you have it, Solid book, but definitely not for everyone.

**Note: I was given a complimentary copy of this book at my request in exchange for the unbiased review above.**

Dark Sims Epicness

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

If the Sims,American Psycho,HP Lovecraft and Ready Player One all got together and had a love child, this would be it! The narrator did a good job with this book.

Came for the gameplay, stayed for the clown porn

So this story clearly draws inspiration from The Sims, which was an interesting choice. Personally, I enjoyed it. Fair warning, the entire story centers around dating and sex. If you like that sort of thing, you can't go wrong with Digital Hearts.

Anneliese Rennie did a superb job, as always.

Lots of dark and lewd, not so much funny

This audiobook wasn't quite what I was expecting. Based on the cover, I expected more fun, and not so much murder, darkness, and confusing mayhem. I really would have liked more backstory of the world and it's characters before they enter Digital Hearts. I had a hard time relating to the characters. I seem to be in the minority, so take a look at the other reviews and make sure this futuristic, weird, dystopian story is for you before you before you purchase. BTW, there is plenty of sex, and the players say I love you, but love seems to mean killing someone on your behalf. No romance or sweetness. I don't think I am the target audience, and I definitely won't be listening to this one again.

The narration was pretty good, easy to distinguish different voices, and well paced.

I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

Hours of fun

Wonderfully weird and strangely erotic
Three reasons why you should read this
1 clown porn
2 sex with multiple creatures
3 hilarious birth of a baby
If you like bizarro fiction and are old enough to enjoy this I highly recommend it
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

quite the hilarious romp!

I really liked this audio book. It is fast paced and non-linear. I loved the characters. A bunch of loons. I highly recommend this book. Now for the obligatory: "I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review." "I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.”

Very nice.

This little erotic adventure sure hit the spot. I have always enjoyed Eden's stories and this was no exception. I only wish there was more.