Exploring Vengeance and Redemption: For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga - Book Dragon Banter Book Club - Book Dragon Banter

Episode Transcript
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Zinzi Brookbree (00:00):
I think on Goodreads, one of the comments
was, I wish it was two books,because there was so much packed
into the ending.
It could have been a secondbook, it could have been a
duology,

Katherine Suzette (00:14):
Welcome back everybody to the Book Dragon
Banter podcast.
This is our book club episode onFor She is Wrath by Emily Varga.
And we are so excited to getinto all the details.
I'm Katherine Suzette.

Sage (00:26):
I'm Sage Moreaux

I'm Zinzi Bree.

Sage (00:31):
And that'll be nice and short.

We're so glad you're here.
Book club is, uh, we are goingaround the globe picking
different cultures andmythologies to focus on that
inspire the fantasy of thesebooks.
and this particular one For SheIs Wrath by Emily Varga, is
Pakistani Inspired Fantasy.

Sage (00:50):
it's a young adult.
Kind of dark fantasy, with aromance

oh, You would consider it dark.
It's definitely YA and I wannatalk about that.

Sage (01:00):
I guess

Okay.

Sage (01:02):
it's young adult, It's a little bit dark

I,

Sage (01:04):
of the revenge.
Like there's a

Plot.
Okay.

Sage (01:06):
in the

Yeah.

Sage (01:07):
plot, so it's not dark in terms of like super gruesome.
But for a YA fantasy, I think ittrends a little on the darker
side.

I would agree with that.
Emily Varga, the author, is aninternationally bestselling YA
fantasy author for She Is Wrath.
An instant indie bestseller,Goodreads Choice nominee and
shortlisted for the Waterstone'sChildren's Book Prize.
And also of The River She BecameDuology.
Now that book is not out yet.
But I'm really excited about it.
Having read this one and TheRiver She Became, her comps are,

(01:38):
she's like, if the Mummy meetsthe Cruel Prince, so you've got
like Marian, from the Mummy, butshe goes into the Fae realm
searching for a relic andinteracts with Fae that are, I'm
assuming, morally gray andambiguous like The Cruel Prince,
if that's what she's writing.
And I was like, sold.
I'm in, I where our pre-ordersAnyway, Emily Varga.
She lived in England, Scotland,in Australia, and now calls

(02:00):
Western Canada her home, whereshe lives with her family and
her menagerie of pets when she'snot writing, she works as a
lawyer where she learned moreabout storytelling than she ever
expected.
this was something that I foundreally interesting that her day
job, she's a family law lawyer,and has also done work with the
Innocence Project, which ispeople who have been like, just

(02:22):
like our main character, in, ForShe is Wrath, who have been
falsely accused of a crime are,and are working for their
freedom.
This is an author who'sentrenched in this storyline, in
both reality and in fantasy.
So that was really cool to learnabout.

Sage (02:38):
Yeah.
That's really cool that she tookthat from her, actual work life
and turned it into this toexplore that in a lighter way.
I wonder if it was

cathartic.

Sage (02:46):
For her after dealing with people that like have gone
through this, to then have acharacter who gets to, you know,
come out the other side.

Yeah, I'm normally a cozy reader.
Revenge plots are not my thing.
But I did enjoy this.
I especially loved, Emily Vargaswriting voice.
I thought that she had somereally beautiful metaphors and I
felt really entrenched in thesetting, being Pakistani, the
mentions of chai.
I was looking up like thedifferent kinds of swords so I

(03:18):
could, you know, in my mind, youknow, is this scimitar?
Is it a curved blade?
Is the straight blade thedifferent, pieces of dress
because, I'd say a shawl, butit's not a shawl, it's, they
have, I'm gonna screw up howthey're pronounced.
Like the dupda.
Nope.
I listen to it as an audio book,so I should know these, but now
I don't.
I watch a lot of Bollywoodmovies and most of my memories

(03:39):
of those have the top parts andthen your bottom skirt.
And it's a big wrap.
But in the Pakistani, much moreof them have the long shirt and
then pants at the bottom.
And that felt surprising to meand refreshing.
'cause I feel like in a lot offantasy books, like your lead
girls are walking around likethey never wear pants.
They're always in dresses unlessthey're in fighting leathers to

(03:59):
go ride a dragon.
And then it's like they're infighting leathers and sounds
awful and gross as soon as youget sweaty versus like being in
these more airy cotton.
I totally just went off therails already guys, so spoiler
free recommendations.

In regards to For She Is Wrath highly
recommend I am a revenge fantasylover.
I was not sure in the beginninghow I would feel about it since
the premise is that the maincharacter, Dania.
And her romantic intereststarted out as lovers and then
became enemies, and that's wherethe book opens.

(04:33):
And then they're supposed tobecome lovers again.
I was not sure how I would feelabout that.
And in the end, I thought it wasreally well done.
There were some great twists andturns in the plot.
It was very, climax and likelater in the book, heavy for all
of those revelations, but it wasstill a beautiful setting.

(04:55):
Beautiful voice from EmilyVarga.
Definitely recommend reading ifyou like a good revenge fantasy,
and you're attracted to theenemies to lovers trope.

If you

Oh.

enjoy a revenge plot, if you enjoy enemies to
Lovers, if you enjoy, a groundedfantasy that like really feels
like it's culturally focused,like you're getting that
influence, you're getting thattaste, which all of this has.
Yes, I enjoyed it.
She has really setting basedvoice, as a writer and that is

(05:24):
the thing I think I enjoyed themost about the story.
All right.
So from here on out, there willbe spoilers.
We are getting into all thedeets.
we will be whinging andcomplaining and complimenting,
all of the favorite things thatwe.
liked or the things that wedisliked.
So if you haven't read the bookyet, now is the time to pause us
and go read the book and thencome back to get all the

(05:44):
details.
'Cause you know, spoilers, it'snow, now just all spoilers.

Sage (05:49):
So many

Yes, all the spoilers, and content warning in
general, our podcast isexplicit.
So just here's that caveat therewas not spice in this book, it
was very low spice.
it was basically faded to black.
It felt like pretty close, butthere was definitely murder.
Our main character Dania is, isa badass sword wielding I don't
wanna say killing machine'causeshe's not a killing machine, but

(06:11):
she kills people and doesn'tfeel eh, there's one more,
innocence that didn't have todie over this revenge thing, but
they were here and they workedfor the wrong person, so too
bad.

Yeah.

If you sign up to be a guard of a corrupt
emperor, and you die, you signedup for it.

Sage (06:31):
She did get over the deaths awfully quick.
I thought she was, oh, that wastoo bad.
I had to kill that person.
And now let's move on.

Yeah, but they did have the scene where
she first killed somebody.
And it was in defense of the boyat the time that she loved.
So I think she got over itpretty quickly.
But her reason felt strongerthan the, I don't know, guilt
maybe.

I feel like I've been reading so many third
person things lately that Iactually was a little startled
to start out with first person.
But I did wanna comment on, the,and I'm gonna give me a second
to bring it up here, becausethis is, again, I love a full
circle use here, the openinglines.
The very first line in the bookis, today is a good day for

(07:19):
Escape or something like that.
I'm, oh,"the light was good forescape today." Okay.
Page one.
The light was good for escapetoday.
And then the first time we goback into the before, she has,
it's a similar line.
There's like one word changewhere it's, it's a good day to
something today.
And then in the epilogue is, Ithink it's a good day to train

(07:44):
today.
So like the author chose, here'smy starting line and here's
these three points in historythat I'm gonna anchor them to
with the same line.
Just shifted a little bit and Ijust, I noticed it and I loved
it and I just wanted to commenton it.
What did you ladies think of?
So instead of doing a fullychronological, where we started

(08:05):
with her meeting Mazen, theromantic love interest, at the
very beginning of the book andstarting with that, them falling
in love and then gettingbetrayed and then going to
prison and, and having timejumps.
Did you like that we weregetting fed the love story and
the backstory intermittentlythroughout or would you have

(08:25):
rather, would you have thoughtit being linear would've been
better?

Sage (08:31):
I liked the format because it was different.
I feel like, I've read RevengeFantasy, but I don't think that
I've read a lot of it.
But I liked that we didn't gochronologically and that would
feel too predictable, but it didtake me away from, Dania right
away.
I felt like it took me a littlebit of time to really get into,

(08:52):
and I marked it.
There was a point, and it wasmaybe like chapter six, it was
when she went back for Nor, Whenthey were breaking out and she
was recaptured and Dania decidedto go back for her.
And that's when I was like,okay, now I can relate to this
character.
'cause before, I've never beenin jail.
I don't have a ton of personal,like, revenge stuff that I'm
going for.

(09:12):
So I didn't have like somethingto anchor me to her.
And I was enjoying it and I wasliking the kind of anger that
she was feeling and everything.
But until she had that moment ofhumanity, that's when I really
started to feel an attachment tothe main character.
So maybe if it had started withher, like in her happy times, I
would've attached a littlequicker.
But I didn't feel like we neededa lot of that.

(09:35):
I thought the amount that wasput in was pretty good.

Yeah, I did like the structure.
I don't think it have been aswell done in a different
structure.
I liked that the two timelineskind of met up with each other,
and then that's where climacticmoment revelations, decisions.
Changed minds and all of thatoccurred, so that was really

(09:59):
good.
I agree with Sage though, thatthere was not a lot of
connection in the beginning, butalso I don't think it started
out as revenge necessarily.
Like I knew it was going to berevenge that she was reciting
these names of the people thatshe really wanted to go after.
So then it did start as herrevenge fantasy, but it was more
of an escape in the beginning.

(10:19):
Like she just needed out.
And she felt massively wronged.
I do think that a lot of,especially like YA humans will
relate to, simply because of thegrowing into an adult.
Time of life there.
We do feel wronged at that timeof life by humans, siblings,
parents, whatever the case maybe.

(10:41):
Dania

Little betrayals.

Yeah.
So maybe it's not revengenecessarily, but that she's so
wronged that she was even put inprison and she is, being
punished for something that shedidn't even do.
Yes, it's extreme in Dania'sexample, like she's in prison
and being tortured.
But in essence I can also seehow a person could connect with

(11:05):
Dania a lot quicker, maybeperhaps, than we did.

Sage (11:08):
I also feel like, attachment to blaming, how do
you pronounce the name Mazen.

Mazen.

Sage (11:15):
attachment to blaming Mazen.
Early on I was like, Hmm, Iwonder if this is an unreliable
narrator.
Not on purpose, but because sheis seeing things through her own
of anger and betrayal.
But her attachment to blaminghim helped get her through being
in jail.
And that I could relate to,like, I'm going through this

(11:35):
struggle and I am gonna attachon this other thing to help get
me through it.
at the beginning it was unclearif she was going to go for that
full revenge or if she would gofind her father and maybe be
able to, leave that behind herand be happy to be free and back
with her dad.
So I don't think she fully knew,like she kind of felt both ways.

(11:58):
She wanted revenge and she alsojust wanted to see her dad again
and be home and free.
Got home and her dad was dead,all that was left was the
revenge.
And I thought that that alsoworked really well for me.
Like with that, that hurtingpoint, and the

Yeah.

Sage (12:13):
and that turning point was like, okay, now I'm fully on
board with her.
the whole revenge plot makesperfect sense that she would go
for this.
Whereas if she had found her dadand still wanted revenge, I
would've not liked her characteras much.

Hmm mm-hmm.
So we needed Baba's, death tojust be that, final stick on the
pyre to

Yeah.

Flame up the revenge.
I wanted to ask you guys, atwhat ages were these characters
in your mind's eye?

Sage (12:44):
I would say like early twenties or late teens maybe.
I kind of feel like in a fantasysetting, a lot of times young
people up a little faster.
There's often, you know, like inthe days, even probably
currently sometimes in places,but people get married a lot
younger than the way I think ofit.

(13:05):
Or we're expected to go to warat a earlier age, get, start
working at an earlier age thanmaybe in American society.
So, they could have been like19, 18, 19, but I kind of
thought of them as earlytwenties.

Yeah, I think

Okay.

yeah, in my head it was almost the same.
I guess I could be convincedthat they were as young as 17,
but.
Upwards, I'd say up to about 22.
I don't think that they wereportrayed as any older than
that, especially since thecharacters mazen and, Dania had
not chosen marriage or anythinglike that at that point.

(13:44):
So they were still at thattransitional time where they
were still under in thehouseholds of their.
or adopted whatever, And stillunder their rule and not doing
things, outside of theirparents' acceptance.

I was reading the book the entire time going,
are the ages ever gonna bestated?
And they weren't.
I was watching for it, for allthree of our lead characters,
Mazen, Dania and Nor.
And I found that reallyinteresting because reading it
for myself, I also felt likethis is new adult more than it
was YA.
Like I did not feel like I wasreading, a 15, 16-year-old.

(14:25):
The only time it might have beena 17-year-old would've been the
falling in love with Mazen andthe year before being in prison.
And then prison would've beenanother year.
And then escaping would've been,

Yeah.

Danny's journey might've been like 19 in my head
to then give, Mazen being thesecond in command to the
emperor, right?
Like he starts having control ofthe city and that, to do that so
young, I had to, I was like,Nope, I gotta mentally age him
up a bit For that role.

(14:58):
I also wanna just comment onthere was no talk about
marriage.

Mr.

That was not part of this.
we're not officially told thatthe main characters are married
in the end.
There isn't a, subplot where theemperor is going, she's unworthy
of you.
You can't get married.
Like, there's none of that.
And I found that reallyrefreshing, thinking about it.
Now we're like, we justcompletely moved away from that
being needed for this story atall.

(15:27):
'cause it wasn't about that.

Sage (15:30):
I also noticed, similarly that she was allowed to be, when
she was in disguise, she wasallowed to be a woman living in
a house with her servant.
Without, and just going aroundand having meetings with men and
dining at the palace and all ofthese things without like, I
mean, yeah, her servant wasthere, but it never really
seemed like she needed herservant as a chaperone.

(15:53):
She was rich, she had a servantand obviously they were using it
as a way to spy.
and that's very different alsobecause I think of more
traditional society as womenbeing needed to have an eye kept
on them needing to protect theirvirtue all the

Mm-hmm.

Sage (16:08):
Empowered to make business decisions and all of these
things.
I really liked that as well.
That was kind of like adifferent

Totally.

Sage (16:17):
in that society.

Yeah.
And moreover,

Well,

they didn't seem to make any big deal out of
Mazen sleeping in her room, eventhough the father was out in the
same house and mazen hadliterally just snuck in.
Or the fact that they decided tobe sexually active together.
And there was a little bit ofconversation about birth
control, but there wasn't a lotof processing of any other

(16:40):
repercussions about their heartsbecoming entwined and things
like that.
They just generally acceptedthat.
that's fine with me in thecontext, but they didn't seem to
have any societal rules around,sexual activity either, which is
extremely abnormal.

Sage (16:55):
Yeah, I think this is why, one of the reasons I hadn't
thought about Mazen as the,palace Guard or Head of the
Guards, but, a lot of YA newadult books, when the characters
are sexually active, they'reoften aged up over 18 or older.
And I think that, that's like.
I don't know if it's on purposefrom the authors, but it just

(17:16):
seems to be a trend that I'venoticed.
So I think that was one of thereasons I just kind of assumed
she was a bit older too,'causeshe had more of these like life
experiences that I always readin slightly older characters.

Yeah.
And they do talk about Mazen andDania having known each other
for multiple years.
Dania trained him in Sword Craftand talked about in the,
flashback arc about.
When she met him as a boy, shesaw him in a

Mm-hmm.

As he grew into a man, then she started to
notice things differently.
So yeah, I guess in my head if Ihad to choose a final age, I was
picturing a roundabout 19 forher and maybe 20 to 22 for him.
But you're right, that's aninteresting point that they
never actually called out theages or even their, Like
timelines society wise, like,oh, they're of the age to do

(18:06):
this, and they're of the age todo No comment on any of that.

something else, when Dania first meets Mazen,
because he is a representativeof the Emperor that had
suppressed her mother's peoplethat had performed massacres, it
was already an enemies tolover's story in their,

Oh yeah.

the past version.
Therefore, you know, I'm notgonna work with you.
And her father assigns her,training him in Swordsmanship.
oh, speaking of theSwordsmanship, I so appreciate,
oh my goodness.
I was just like, I am so happythat this is a female badass
character who from a young agehas been training in

(18:47):
swordsmanship, like logicalreason that now this young woman
can best full-grown men evencoming out of prison where she
is malnourished

Sage (18:58):
Agree.

in fight scenes because the training is there
and it's not some ooh, you'rethe chosen one, you can train
for six months, and now you'remagically the equivalent of all
these other trained their entirelives for this, I take such
issue with that.
Thing of just you're magicallythe equivalent of someone who
spent a lifetime honing a craft.

Yeah,

For her to have been raised by a master
swordsmith, to have theknowledge that she does with the
different swords, I just,muwah!.
Thank you.

Sage (19:32):
Yeah, I agree.
And I think at the end of thebook, she did get more magical.
First she used magic just tochange her appearance, right?
But later she This magicalbadass, but I was really
appreciating that her power wasthrough swordsmanship, And
physical prowess as opposed toI'm super powerful because of
magic, which I love that.
And that's totally a fine thing,but it was a refreshing element

(19:55):
to have it be, and it's not likeI haven't read other books where
the female character is.
Just good at swords and that'swhat makes her, powerful.
But it was nice to Like a, anactual real life thing that
could happen versus like aspecial magic thing.
And like you were saying, not achosen one at it.
Just very good at it all along.
Really liked

Yeah.

Sage (20:16):
she loved swords too.
I really love swords and I lovelike the artistry that goes into
them.
So having like Handles

Yes.

Sage (20:22):
and the carvings, that was all like a really lovely extra
bit of world building.

Agreed.
I also

Yeah.

matched her outfits to her weapons, and it
was totally subconscious.
It had to be pointed out to herthat she did that, and I was
like, absolutely, yes.
I wanna be you when I grow up.

Can we talk about, so something else I
really loved with this is thefriendship with Nor that, that
relationship felt more importantto me than the romantic
relationship.

Yeah.

Because granted, you know, a lot of
what's popular right now is aromantasy where it's, you know,
the main characters are, I'llkill anybody, I'll kill
everybody except for you.
You and only you are the onlything that matters and
everything else could bescorched earth.
and I appreciated that this wasnot that, that this was, yes, at
the time, mazen was her enemy.

(21:17):
and Dania would probably scorchthe earth for Mazen now at the
end of the story.
But, she goes to save, Nor atleast twice, if not three times
throughout the course of thestory.
The friendship that hasdeveloped between the two and
Nor, saves her back also.
It's not a one-sided friendship.
they're both actively choosingat multiple points throughout

(21:40):
the story to keep protecting andsaving and sacrificing for each
other.
I don't feel like I see that asmuch that's usually only saved
for the romantic interest orthe, hero is doing the saving
and it's not reciprocal wherethe person who's being saved is
always the victim, but doesn'talso save back.
And that frustrates me.

I love to see the strong female relationships
that don't have to be anythingmore than that.
The anything more than a strongrelationship, a support
structure in which theygenuinely want the best for each
other and they wanna help eachother succeed in whatever their
goals are.
So I also really appreciatedthat.
Nor was the character goingthrough everything with Dania as

(22:25):
opposed to, it's a pretty commontrope to stick the romantic
interests together, An unwantedway.
Like they start out enemies thatway, like they're thrust back
together after she's been inprison and things like that.
And the author could have donethat and it would have been a
good book, but to have removed alot of that romantic tension,
the author was able to focus inand hone in on that inner world

(22:50):
of Dania and the relationship ofDania and nor

Sage (22:53):
also really liked how they were complimentary to each
other.
They both wanted revenge on thesame person of the emperor for
the deaths of their fathers,among other things.
but where Dania was reallybrutal with the, like, she was
such a master swords person thatNor didn't even know how to hold

(23:14):
a sword.

Yeah.

Sage (23:15):
A lot of times, nor was the one through, in the middle
of the story, reminding her thatthere had to be more to life
than just revenge.
Like what happens after?
And I really

Yeah.

Sage (23:25):
she brought that up.
She was like the softer of thetwo of them.
I felt like personality wise,Dania was very Like a sword,
whereas nor was a softer personthinking more about like, okay,
yes, I want revenge, but whathappens next?
I also want a life.
I don't wanna burn myself up.
I don't wanna become anemotional shell of myself.
I want more than that.
I love this friendship that Ihave, and I want that to

(23:47):
blossom.
And I really liked that she wasthe voice of reason that kept
pulling Dania back from theedge.
And that felt very real to me.
I kind of felt like at towardsthe end, the friendship fell off
a little bit and the storybecame much more about her
relationship with Mazen andtheir like

Yeah.
Yeah.

Sage (24:05):
I was like, oh, I felt like all of a sudden Nor kind of
disappeared off the page and Iwanted her to have a little bit
more involvement she had some,but I wanted more of

Yeah.

Sage (24:16):
this relationship had been built up so strongly.

Yeah,

I wish it was two books, because there was so
much packed into the ending.
It could have been a secondbook, it could have been a
duology,

Yeah.

I think they would've been shorter books to
do that.
But there was so much packedinto the ending and into the
twists and climax stuff I mighthave liked that better and felt
like there was I don't wanna saya better conclusion'cause the
conclusion is, is good, but likeI would've felt the whole thing

(24:47):
because the revenge is so builtup to the degree that it is.
And then Dania does end uppivoting and choosing
forgiveness over revenge andchoosing herself mostly instead
of revenge.
Which I think is great.
That's absolutely do that.
That's a good thing.
But, with the way the epiloguewrapped up, what happens at the

(25:08):
end?
I didn't, with how much Daniacares about the people and
what's happened to them becauseof what the emperor does.
I would've liked to have seen,more of the politics delved into
and resolved.
So that the empire as a wholeends in a better place.

(25:28):
Not just Dania and Mazens, arcsas people, like they get a good
resolution.
That's, that's for them.
The sister, Mazen's sister thatis a, that is a plot point.

Sage (25:40):
Mm-hmm.

the fact that at the end of the book, it's oh
she's going into the warcouncils and talking politics.
But earlier in the book, she'sdescribed as someone who gets
taken advantage of at the marketall the time.

Sage (25:55):
Yeah.

That was like one little slight disconnect of
characterization that I waslike, you either needed her to
be a good negotiator in bothinstances so that ending is good
and believable for her, or sheneeded a different resolution at
the end of the story that is notcontradictory.
To something that we learnedabout her earlier on.
Amman, I think is the sister'sname.

(26:17):
So

Sage (26:18):
Yeah, it was trying to tie the bow too tight at the end and
it just,

yeah.

Sage (26:22):
agree.

Yep.

Sage (26:23):
I really wanted when she made the bargain with the djinn,
I really wanted like more ofthat.
I wanted that to become, more ofan emotionally difficult
journey.
I felt like she easily kind ofgot herself outta that
situation.
And if it had been a duology ora longer book, it could have
delved way more into thestruggle.

(26:45):
Like I felt like she made thatbargain, I wanted another half
of the book just about withthat, Because there was so much
potential there

Yeah.

Sage (26:55):
her own losing herself and like losing herself to the
vengeance over trying toovercome it, there was a lot of
great stuff in the middle whenshe was taking the seeds and the
power was going through her andshe felt like she was losing
herself.
And then it didn't come to asmuch fruition at the end as I
wanted it to.
'cause I really felt like therewas so much like cool stuff that

(27:15):
could have happened could havebeen her losing herself.
And that affecting herrelationship with Mazen and that
affecting her relationship withNor, I was happy with how it all
came together and the twists andeverything, but I just, I kind
of wanted, like, I was enjoyingit so much in the middle that I
really wanted the end to likeeven go on for longer, and get
more into that kind of stuff.

I didn't feel very connected to it because it
was so rushed.
In the end, Dania's finaldecision that, rectified all the
wrongdoings in the end got herthe revenge, but also saved
herself felt, not difficult inthat moment.
And everything leading up tothat, I do think it would've

(27:56):
felt a little bit moresatisfying to me as a reader had
there been just a little bit.
More of a struggle.

Did we need a, so I'm thinking of, looking at
the fields of the seeds, likebefore they get burned, just
having a paragraph of thetemptation of what I could do
with this, what good things canoh, but also these terrible
things have been done with it.
And just like seeing thatwritten out, that struggle.

(28:25):
and then ultimately choosing,okay, let's burn, the magic
seeds from the djinn.
And the emperor's power by himno longer having access to that.
Also dumb of the emperor to haveall of that in one place.
PS

Yes.

just

thing that they, like Dania burnt up the
fields and not just of Magicproducing flower, whatever that
was called, but the actual foodproducing fields for that town,
that village that.
And she did impact a lot ofinnocence.
But she.
negatively affected a lot ofpeople, and I think that the

(29:03):
author, leveraging that a littlebit more to show the
consequences of this revengepath for Dania And how far she
went with it, would've felt moresatisfying to me as well.

Sage (29:15):
I also felt, and it was addressed a few times, very
minorly, but as she was seekingrevenge, I kept being like,
okay, so you.
Let's say you kill the emperor,right?
Then what?
Who takes over?
All along the whole thing hasbeen that you hate the emperor
because he is this despot, andhow do you make sure that
society becomes in a betterplace because of that?

(29:36):
And I think Nor, again, was alittle bit of the voice of
reason, mentioning those kindsof things, but there was no
plan.
I didn't feel like ever they hada plan of like, we'll, overtake
the emperor.
What?
And then just cut out like, seeYA!

Yeah.

Basically.

Sage (29:51):
luck.

Yeah.

Sage (29:53):
that bothered me because I felt like that was
irresponsible, but also like Icould have used more of the
politics and more of the like,intrigue around that.

I think that's the, that's the YA aness showing
itself of just I got what Iwanted.
I'm outta here.

Sage (30:08):
yeah.

And not thinking ahead to those, like
those next far reachingconsequences.
So like for a magic system, wereally just had the djinn.
And these magic seeds.
And there was a statue of adragon that was referenced in
one of the homes of one of thepeople she's getting revenge on.
And that's the only other timethere's another magic or magical

(30:30):
creature mentioned.
It's very, very much focusedjust on, this one djinn and the
bargain that he makes.
But what did you guys think ofthe of how the magic was used in
here?
And, there was a message of, andI find this very unusual in
fantasy of turning away frommagic.

(30:52):
That magic, there was a messagethat the magic corrupts that
yes, it's power, but even if youtry to do good with it, it'll go
bad.

I think the overall message is that, the
easy way out corrupts, and

Hmm.

Case, the easy way out was the djinn
magic.
As opposed to her using hersword skills or political
intrigue like Mazen was doing.
so.

Unsuccessfully.

yeah, I feel like there could have been more
there too.
Like he just floated through thestory and he said he was doing
things, but I didn't see any ofthat.
And then also the king, he wasjust overall bad guy.
And that's okay.

He was previously a farmer had somehow
made the deal with the djinn andthen took that power and ran
with it.

But the part about like him wanting to avenge
his village and the deaths andfeed people and things like
that,

Oh.

the djinn magic corrupted him because that
was clearly not the case whenDania, went to prison or when
she initiated her revenge butthe djinn, The deal with Dania.
Told her about how, whatever hisname is, vain, er, whatever, had
basically wanted the same stuffas Dania, but for like his
village and his family that hadbeen killed and things like

(32:08):
that.
I felt like that was a bit liketossed in at the end.
In order to hopefully help Daniaconnect with the king and show
again, like the potential ofwhere she could go if she
continued down this path.

Sage (32:20):
That bit of backstory also made me feel like it was the
reason of being able to.
give her, the excuse not to killhim by humanizing him a little
bit at that point.
And then she decided to, youknow, she sucked the djinn magic
from him, but then left him likeshe didn't do the killing blow.
I think he did die, right?
He burned up in the fields.

partway through this episode, Katherine had
technical issues with hercomputer.
Katherine has left the building.
Hopefully she can come back in.
The things we have left to talkabout, I have a couple of quotes
that I would like to talk aboutand I would like to talk about
the, plot twists.

Sage (32:55):
I was, maybe this is part of plot twist, but I wanted to
talk a little bit about theromance.
Just touch on it briefly abouthim realizing when, like,
knowing who she was, that's oneof the plot twists early on.

Oh, that's not early on.
That's shoved into like the last20 minutes of the book, it feels
like.
But he realizes very early onwho she is because she doesn't
change her hands.

Sage (33:20):
right.
So I went back and like refoundthat section where you hit,
kissed her hand and stuff.
So we could talk about that alittle bit.

So I very much wanted to say as soon as she
chose to not change her hands,of course, whatever thing you
don't change is gonna be thegiveaway.
That's just obvious on onelevel, but on a secondary level.
Any scars, and she talks abouthaving the scars from the sword,
which I was like, that is a deadgiveaway.
Like if you are not wearinggloves, and you have been

(33:48):
intimately loved by this otherperson who's noticing those
details about you.
And there's awareness of thedjinn magic and like that
transformation is an option.
Like it'd be one thing if thatwas like a secret thing that Nor
invented, right?
Where transformation was notknown then that would've been

(34:09):
easier to me to believe that,there would be a trick that
could be sustained for longerversus oh, but this is a known
ability that this magicalelement has.

Sage (34:20):
Was it mentioned?
I don't remember it beingmentioned that transformation
was like a, anybody else hadundergone it, like the, it did
say that the emperor had healingmagic and some other stuff.
I can't remember what

"so nor says, transfiguration one of the more
difficult powers of the Zoratbut possible with the right
blending, think through how youwanna change the way you look,
focus on a feature.
The magic will manipulate yourbody as if a djinn fire could
melt the skin, like watersoftening clay." And I saved a
different part, this istemporary.
Once the Zora leaves yoursystem, you'll start turning
back to yourself.
You must keep consuming Zorat inorder to maintain the facade,

(34:57):
and you shouldn't consume toomuch of this blend for long.
Even if we had an unlimitedsupply of seeds.
I've seen some assassins turndark from having too much." So,
like Nora has already, like,that's part of her experience as
she's helped assassins changetheir appearance.

Sage (35:13):
right.

so it's not an unknown thing of the world.
It's something that's for thosewho are, and I would assume
Mazen being the emperor's secondin command would be aware of
that level of Zorat's ability.

Sage (35:26):
Yes.

so

Sage (35:28):
on, she notices when they reunite, she notices his hands
and remembers the of his handsor the scars on his hands.
And I was like, okay, but you,you're, you think you're cool.
You don't need to wear glovesall the time.
Like you expect that because youlook differently.
He's just not gonna recognizeyou, none of your mannerisms the

(35:48):
way that you are speaking, eventhough your voice is different.
That was

Well, and

Sage (35:54):
by her vengeance,

yeah,

Sage (35:56):
through.

Also her, at one point, she thinks about his
laugh and I was like, if shelaughs at any point, like that's
a laugh as a person's deadgiveaway, in my opinion.
even if he hadn't recognized herat the point of seeing her hands
and interacting with her hands,there is no way in heck where I
would've found it believablethat they would kiss and it not

(36:18):
be recognized because I, I.

Sage (36:24):
Yep.

kiss somebody that you're familiar with,
there's a rhythm that you getinto.
There's muscle memory that goesinto it, and there's no way
that, that's not recognizable,

Sage (36:33):
Yes.
She kept mentioning his scentand I don't, maybe they
mentioned that she had changedher scent also, but I don't
remember that being called out.
Her voice was called out the wayshe looked her But she was like
smelling him and talking aboutthe way that he smelled so
frequently and how familiar thatwas to her.
And I was like, yeah, pheromones

Yeah.

Sage (36:53):
thing.
I would think that he would likekind of instinctually.
Realize it, and then

Yeah.

Sage (36:59):
her hands and there you go.
I did really like though that,talking about her
transformation, there was nevera direct comment on which of her
two faces was more beautiful.
were compared as being likesofter and maybe like, I don't
know if they used the wordharder for her original
appearance, but kind of moreintense.

Yeah.

Sage (37:21):
but it was never like, I made myself so much more
beautiful or, you know, Morerichly dressed and talked about
the color of her hair beingdifferent.
But it didn't feel, and I soappreciated that.
I felt, I appreciated that itwasn't like a makeover kind of
thing.

Agreed.
Yeah.
and I even, something that Iappreciated is, we have Mazen
Falls in love with her.
Her original form, what shelooks like, and that's still the
thing that he's seeking later,is just who she is.
And when she talks aboutherself, she's so, because of

(38:00):
her swordsmanship, because ofher training, like she's so
grounded and centered in thatand confident in that, there
isn't a need to discuss beautyon the level like that.
It was just never part of theconversation.
Even because it wasn'tnecessary, because she was
confident in who she is andthat's what is attractive.

Sage (38:20):
Which I love that.
Love with each other as people,not with, I mean, there was a
little bit of like him being ascrawny boy and then later
noticing his muscles.
But you know, that was more oflike an aging up and a becoming
mature is how I read into it.
and they were like, it wasenemies to lovers, but it was
like enemies to friends, tolovers.
Into this like, I hate you, butyou're so hot.

Yes.

Sage (38:43):
The books that I don't

See that a lot?

Sage (38:46):
Yeah.
But when they become friends inthe point and then the that
friendship grows into love, Ilike, that's really lovely.
I did feel like his, excuse, orit was basically felt like an
excuse of why he let her go tojail.
I was a little thin.
I was like,

Mm-hmm.

Sage (39:05):
and I forgive you.
I recognize that you were prettypowerless in that situation and
you were trying to do your bestto keep her from being killed in
that moment.
But, mm, I wanted a little bitmore of him like apologizing or
that he could have done a betterjob about it or tried to get her
out to, like, did he notrecognize that she was gonna be

(39:25):
beaten jail and starved andgross?

Yeah.

Sage (39:30):
Like, he didn't try and get her out, you know?
I guess he said he was tryingEh.

He said he had tried to, that he had had
multiple attempts to try andrescue her, that the warden
wouldn't give him anyinformation about her.
And something that, like whydidn't Mazen go to her father
and have them try and worktogether to get her out?
That would've been a choice hecould have made.

(39:53):
And something also that isn'treally well gone into is like,
what is the depths of hispolitical power?
Did he have that's reallyglossed over both in the past
and in the present.
So what his ability to dothings, how much money he had
that he could have used forbribes.

Sage (40:13):
Mm-hmm.

could he have outright lied and said, oh, the
emperor wants her in a differentprison, blah, blah, blah, blah.
because he is not, he's notshown as like a favored adopted
son enough to just show upsomewhere and be like, the
emperor says this.
I'm the voice of the emperor".

Sage (40:32):
Yeah.
And his excuse, I felt like thesister was a little bit of a
plot More than a fully realizedcharacter.
Like his excuse that he neededto protect her, but she was able
to go off to the market byherself, and

With guards.

Sage (40:45):
Okay.
With guards.
I just felt like it, likeprobably in the year he could
have secreted his sister away insome way.
I Forgave him, but with areservation, and I think she

Yeah.

Sage (40:57):
Like it did feel like in the epilogue there was.
Like they were working toward,they had been working towards
it.
Like, yeah, they, you know, theydid Staying in the bedroom
together, in that last bit.
And, you know, like you said,fade to black, but, that's not
like forgiveness, that's morelike that physical reconnection.
I did feel like the forgivenesswasn't gonna happen overnight,
but that they would slowly kindof process their trauma

(41:20):
together.
I was a little mad at, I'm stillmad at him.

So going into the death of this warlord, to
me, what felt like the biggestplot twist?
'cause like, you know, Mazenisn't actually gonna be at fault
for her ultimately.
'Cause it's a, the count ofMonte Cristo.
For them to get back together.
He has to, his crime has to beforgivable.

Sage (41:39):
Right.

What did you think of it Turning out that the
grandma had learned of Dania'splans with Mazen and had made a
bargain with a djinn.
And she is the cause of thewarlord's death.
The instigator of Dania gettingframed and then.
Also instigates Dania's father,going out to try and rescue her

(42:05):
and getting killed in theprocess.

Sage (42:07):
Brutal.
Okay, so first of all, brutalfor your grandma to

yeah.

Sage (42:11):
The grandma was set up to be a very.
Unlikeable character and notwarm.
Clearly didn't care very muchabout Dania early on.
I did not at all see it coming.
I really like plot twist to feelinevitable.
And it didn't feel inevitable tome.
It was unexpected for sure.
And it was planted enough thatthe grandma was this cold woman

(42:33):
who Clearly didn't like the dadwas surprised to see Dania,
didn't treat her that nicely,but I thought it was like, it
felt a little thin that thegrandma could all of that.
I mean, yeah.
It was the warlord who wasresponsible for killing her
daughter, like her.
The grandma's reasoning wassound.
Mean, cold, kind Unhinged, butit logical, like it

unhinged Grandma Yep.

Sage (43:00):
shows logic, but I just felt like it was a little thin,
ticked the boxes.
I can't remember actually if thegrandma knew that Dania was
gonna be there and would end upgetting

There's a line about she discovers, Dania's
plans with Mazen, and so setsthat up because she knew that
the father would then try torescue her

Sage (43:19):
right?

He was trying, she was trying to cause pain to
her son-in-law as much as shewas trying to get revenge for,
the death of her daughter.

Sage (43:28):
I felt like it could have been explained in a more
political sense with the, Withthe emperor.

happens.

Sage (43:34):
I didn't think the grandma needed to be brought into it,
then I didn't feel like therewas enough time to process what
that meant.
The stuff with her having thedjinn magic through her and what
that was doing to her, hervengeance and how, what that was
doing to her, her reconciliationwith Mazen and then the grandma
thing on top of it made it likealmost like, like you could have

(43:57):
used that space to go into thoseother elements a little bit
more.
We were just

There we go.

Sage (44:02):
the grandma twist.

That was a good one actually.

So Sage said she didn't see it coming, but
looking back, like saw that thepersonality type was in place.
I feel like one part of it wasDania needed to see, oh, this is
what I could become if I keepfollowing down this path.
This is a direct, this is mygrandmother.
I will be exactly like her if Ionly choose, revenge,

yeah.

also there was a lot of, this was just a
revenge exploration.
The, emperor was gettingrevenge.
Dania was getting revenge, Norwas getting revenge.
Mazen was getting revenge.
Grandma was getting revenge.
Like there was just, and theyall were going about it in

(44:53):
different ways, right?
So there's part of, it's just,here's an exploration of all
these different kinds ofrevenge.
But they all ultimately wereleading to the same place that
Grandma ends up in.
The emperor ends up right whereit hollows you out and you
become an empty shell.
And it may eventually cost youyour life, but it certainly

(45:15):
costs you any, any happinessthat you could have had.

Sage (45:19):
Yeah,'cause I was saying that I like the grandma was sort
of unnecessary, but it is truethat that is such a direct
parallel for Dania about who shecould become.

So I think this is my favorite quote from the
book.
I think Dania is actually theone that says this to Mazen
about the emperor.
And it is,"you may have givenhim forgiveness, but that
doesn't mean you owe himkindness."

Sage (45:47):
Yeah.

And I feel like that's a really powerful thing
to internalize.

Sage (45:53):
Yeah.

As a mom with kids, like there's a level of, I
teach my kids okay, they didsomething wrong.
You need to forgive them.
But that doesn't mean you go andplay with them more.
If they hurt you, you can justbe like, no, you hurt me.
I accept your apology, but I'mdone.
We're not gonna play this gameanymore.
I'm moving on

Sage (46:12):
and the forgiveness is like for yourself.
I mean, yes, you're forgivingthat person, but You're
forgiving it so that you don'tcarry that weight any longer.
Right?
You're

Yes.

Sage (46:21):
you're letting go of, of.
That baggage and then you canjust be done.
there might be times in lifewhere you do have to reengage
with somebody because maybe it'slike a coworker or a family
member that you do end upseeing, you get to decide how
much you wanna engage.
Hopefully you get some say overthat.
But definitely

Yeah.

Sage (46:42):
is like the part for yourself and the amount that you
choose to engage is more onthem, right.
And on their further actions.
I agree.
That was a really powerfulquote.

Some of the other lines that I pulled out is
"I came for revenge, but I'mleaving with something much more
worthwhile, friendship." Ithought that one was really
beautiful.
And this one I liked.
You are building an empire.
Just because it isn't made ofkingdoms and djinn doesn't mean
it isn't powerful."

Sage (47:12):
It's nice.

I like that.
That speaks to a really solidtheme or a couple of themes that
the author really approached, inan unexpected way.

Sage (47:23):
I also

found very

Sage (47:24):
curious Dania versus Nor, how Dania had the capacity for
this vengeance.
She was angry.
And Nor didn't.
She still wanted revenge or shehad that feeling of revenge, but
it didn't burn through her inthe same way.
And I Was it her lover beingpart of the, situation that put

(47:46):
her in jail doing that to her?
Or was it part of her humannature?
Just like her inborn personalitythat made her more quick to
anger and she did have that shelike would get angry real
easily.
So I liked that that was likethe difference of how each
person kind of dealt with thatwas really nicely handled also.

Yeah, she did a really good job with the
relationships and everything.

we talked a bit about the world building and the
culture and that was really welldone.
And, we talked about the magic.
Then character.
We did touch on characterdevelopment with Dania's revenge
arc at her choosing forgivenessat the end.
did the book deliver on itspremise being a retelling of the
Count Monte Cristo being arevenge story?

(48:30):
Do you guys feel like itdelivered?

Sage (48:33):
I do feel like it delivered.
I have to admit that I kind ofwanted it not to be, to lovers.
There was a part of me thatwanted it to be.
Less of a happy ending or lessof a romantically happy ending.
But halfway through I saw thatit was clearly going in the
direction.

Yeah,

Sage (48:50):
Wouldn't it be fun if it was this love that turned bad
and that was what the story wasand it wasn't?
And that was fine.
And I do love a good enemies tolovers, but it would've been
interesting to have it besomething different,

would've absolutely read the story where
Dania and Nor were just like,we're friends that we're awesome
and we're gonna ride off in thesunset together and we don't
need you Mazen that would'vebeen great too.

he still messed up.
he messed up big time, he couldhave been a better character for
me, a more worthwhile, let'stake him back.
I'm absolutely all for him, kindof character.
I hear you guys.

Yeah, besides him recognizing her in her new
transformed body, he did nothave a redeeming action in the
story, right?

Sage (49:34):
no.

he does have a, I screwed you over.
I fully admitted I feel guilty,and it was awful.
And I tried and I failed, andI'm sorry, and you don't have to
take me back moment.
But there wasn't a, he didn'tget stabbed for her.
Unlike, Nor put herself on theline for Dania more than Mazen

(49:55):
did.
So maybe that's, maybe that'swhy I'm such a,

Sage (49:59):
he knew who she was, but he didn't say, Hey, I know who
you are and let's work this Make

Let's work together and take down the
emperor.

Yeah,

Sage (50:07):
Right.

Like he, he just wanted to watch and see
what she would do.

Sage (50:09):
Yeah.

I can see a lot of That, but that doesn't
make him very redeeming to me.

I will say him being flat as a character does
allow Dania to have more agencybecause he's not coming in and
trying to swoop in and be thehero, right?
Like, she still gets to be thehero of her story.
She still gets to make, thechoices it's not being taken out
of her hands.
So

Sage (50:30):
Yeah.

understand that.
And there is also a, As a personwho has lost a loved one, that
emotional connection you have topeople who knew them too because
mazen knew her dad and that's,you can't replace that.
So like I can understand thatbeing an additional grounding
element that ties them togetheras a couple.

Sage (50:53):
That's

a nice point.
There are definitely things thatMazen could have done better,
but there are also things that Iunderstand on a.
In an emotional level, why thatconnection was still so strong,
and had such a hold on.
Dania.

Sage (51:05):
Yeah, definitely not going in my list of book boyfriends
though.

Dania will absolutely go on my list of
badass lead girls though,'causeshe's,

Wanna be

she did that.

Sage (51:17):
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

don't want her story, but I'd love to have
Her skills

sword skills, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sage (51:23):
Yeah.

Her fire.
okay, so book delivered on itspremise.
Do you guys feel like you got totalk about what you loved about
the book?
Because we were, we werecritical, so let's.

Sage (51:34):
I loved a lot about it.
I just wish the ending had beenless rushed.
And I think that was because Iwas enjoying it so much that I
wanted to go more deep into it.
I just also loved the, youmentioned it earlier, like the
chai, the way the chai wasdescribed, the way the
Described, the swords, like allof that world building was
really lovely.
And it was in the sense that itwas like touched on, but not

(51:56):
paragraphs and paragraphs on endabout the world.
But it was enough to really makeme feel like I was there.
So I did really enjoy that.

It was subtle and very atmospheric.
I liked that style.

Sage (52:08):
I feel like you could do a whole nother book series,
trilogy or whatever set in thesame world with different
characters, Like I would totallyread that also with just having
already experienced a bit of theworld and the magic system, or
like you said, it's not asystem, but that magical
element.

Yeah, absolutely.
And I just, wanna give thecaveat or put this thought in
your guys' minds.
We would've loved this to be twobooks like a Duology, because we
felt like that end was sorushed.
But this is her debut novel.
Publishers might not have beenwilling to give a chance on, oh,
we'll start you off with aduology.
They might have just been, we'llmake this one deal with you.
You'll sign one book and see howyou do with it.

(52:49):
And now she has, she's got aduology coming out, so I'm
excited now reading this andgoing like, she obviously has
the material and the ideas toput into a duology or more, so
Awesome that, that's, what shehas next is a duology and we're
gonna get that, the opportunityfor a more fleshed out, two book
story the next time.

(53:09):
Because it did really feel likeall of the early stuff in the
book that was so well paced andplotted to build and build the
revenge and the desires and theother things she was trying to
achieve.
And just that, that rushing inthe end might just have been a,
Hey, you only get so many wordsand you gotta fit it here and
you only get this debut book.

(53:29):
Do the best that you can.

Yeah, unfortunately, in the publishing
world, it really is.
You get a debut novel instead ofa debut series, generally
speaking.
And also she would've been,blocked into writing for genre
and writing for what the markettrends were for the publishing
house.
So I kind of wonder if maybeMazen was never supposed to get

(53:53):
back with her in the end, inEmily's original plans, but in
order to write to market, shehad to create a resolution and
send them off together at thevery end too.

Sage (54:04):
Interesting.

things we'll probably never know unless we
get to interview Emily Varga,which would be awesome.
Writing to market and writing togenre for a publisher can be
really limiting,

she was trying to keep to the count of Monte
Cristo because in the Count ofMonte Cristo, right?
Like, he gets back together withthe woman that he loves and gets
his son back that he didn't knowexisted.
Some of those correlatingdecisions in plot line might
have just been trying to keepthat because that, that is a
marketing point for the book,right?
To say that it's, if you hadjust been like, oh, here's a

(54:39):
fantasy revenge story, or here'sa fantasy gender swapped, Count
of Monte Cristo, what that givesyou in terms of what the story's
gonna be about, if you're gonnalike it.
this is revenge that sort of hassome heist elements to it.
It has a prison escape, andthere's a love story.
It tells you so much about whatyou're getting into.

Sage (55:02):
Mm.

That it might have just been a choice that I
have to stick to the guardrailsof that story somewhat, to
deliver on the promise of whatis being marketed.

that's a very good point.
True, true.
to be fair, she did do a goodjob.

Sage (55:19):
yeah.

Just because satisfaction complaints about
the ending doesn't, or some ofthe arcs doesn't mean that she
didn't do an excellent job

And we're not unsatisfied in that we didn't
like it, we're unsatisfied inthat we did like it and we
wanted more.

Yeah.

if you're gonna be unsatisfied is because you
want more, like that's the goodkind of unsatisfied

Sage (55:36):
Definitely.

Onto our, next month's book club, next month's
book club is the Sword ofKaigen.
I think it's Kaigen, it could beKaigen.
the sort of Kaigen by M.L.
Wang.
It is an epic fantasystandalone, and Japanese is the
influence for that one.
I'm very excited i've had itsitting in my TBR like very high

(55:58):
in my TBR for a really long timeand my husband just listened to
the audio book of it last weekand he was like, I wanna talk to
you about it, but I can't yet'cause I haven't read it and
he's gotta hold off.

Sage (56:09):
I'm really excited for it.
Yeah,

mm-hmm.

Sage (56:11):
you can find us on our various social media platforms,
which are linked below, rate andreview us and tell your friends.
We would love to have youcontinue to listen and share the
word.

Thank you for listening to this deep dive
into, For She Is Wrath by EmilyVarga.
thank you for listening.
Thank you for tuning in.
Thank you for being here withus.
And hopefully we'll see you inthe next episode.

Sage (56:32):
Bye.

guys.

do we still be like, need to be like, Hey, I'm
Zzi, that's Sage, that'sKatherine.
I'm pointing at random places.
Um.
We interrupt this podcast tobring you tech issues.

my camera, but I don't think I can plug in
my mic

Sage (56:55):
I believe Mercury is retrograde.
I've had about six things breakin the last week, so...

bloop bloop.
Yeah.
Um, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop.
I had something that I was gonnaadd and it just like,

Sage (57:11):
And then did I have anything else?
you brought up the chai becausethat was really getting me, I
love chai and I just thought theSpices and stuff was so lovely.
and the clothing too.
'Cause I thought it was anIndian thing.
And they weren't wearing sari'sand I was like, oh, this must be
Pakistani.
I kind of realized it in the waythat the cha is made is
different.
'cause I traveled to India, butI ever went to Pakistan.

(57:31):
But it was like, this is not howI remember chai being made.
And now I really wanna try it.
I don't know if there's

Yep.

Sage (57:39):
There probably is some, I have to see if I could find
somewhere with Pakistani chai

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Exploring Vengeance and Redemption: For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga - Book Dragon Banter Book Club

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Exploring Vengeance and Redemption: For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga - Book Dragon Banter Book Club