March 6, 2025 • 86 mins
On this episode we are getting into all juicy details of the second installment of the Crescent City trilogy: House of Sky & Breath! This is a part 1 of part 2, so be sure to come back next week for more! Fair warning this episode is especially feral when it comes to smut talk.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to A Novel Affair, the bookish podcast where we kiss and tell about our torrid
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affairs with fictional characters.
So grab a drink and get ready for some pure unadulterated fun.
Today we are covering Book 2 of the Crescent City series, House of Sky and Breath by Sarah
J. Moss.
And if you're watching us on YouTube, be sure to head over to the podcast for a completely
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uncensored review, including all of the dirty details.
Just look for the link below.
So I'm excited again, we're in Book 2 of me forcing you to read this series that I love
so much.
And this is a very in depth book in terms of it's got a very intricate plot and so many
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characters.
And because of all the characters and how like robust they are, I want us to do cast
the book again, because we have more characters, we're getting to know them more.
And let's trade off.
I'll start.
Okay.
And do you have my folder open so you can look at them?
(01:30):
I do not hold please.
I'll get that open.
Like the wrong thing.
Okay.
So we're going with Fury first.
(01:56):
Yes.
I'm open now.
You go ahead.
So my Fury Axe Tar, first of all, I did take a moment I was struggling with this one.
And so I looked up her fan art.
And in the fan art, she is an Asian female with like the severe short black hair, which
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totally fits.
But by the time I looked it up, it was way too late for me to kind of re-envision her.
So my cast for her is purely what I was envisioning in my head the first few times I've read it.
And for me, it's pink.
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And specifically the bright blonde short cropped hair.
I know that's not like what it describes in the book at all.
But like she's like that.
We don't always picture them the way that they're written.
Sometimes we rewrite.
I totally do.
I totally do.
So pink is my cast for and also like, I don't know, she just looks like she could like totally
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beat you up if she wanted to.
Yeah.
Yeah, she gives that vibe that what's the song by her?
Or she's talking about fighting.
Oh, I'm gonna have to listen.
I'm gonna have to look it up and listen to it.
Yeah, it's gonna bother me.
But I feel like that's a good choice.
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The vibe.
Yeah, I can see it.
It's more the vibe.
And I don't know why I pictured her having like short spiky blonde hair, but I did from
the first time I read it.
So I don't know.
My brain is weird.
I had always pictured her like very dark with the jet black hair and maybe like dark as
night eyes, kind of like my eyes and like maybe dark, dark makeup, black eyeshadow,
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black lipstick.
For some reason, I just envisioned her like blending into the night.
Which makes sense.
But I chose to cast her as a young Lucy Lu.
I love it.
I yeah, it's funny that you pick that because when I did the fan and I was like, Oh, I wonder
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if I should like redirect my casting.
And I thought of Lucy Lu, but I was like, No, I'm gonna go with my gut on this one.
But I 100% cosine this.
With her, I definitely got like a like the Charlie's Angels vibe, but less cheesy.
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Yeah, more, more badass, like more of a serious like thriller vibe versus the action comedy.
Yeah.
Okay, so next obviously would be Juniper Andromeda.
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And I didn't look up fan art on this one because my vision is of Juniper has been so strong
from the beginning.
And I didn't really know this person before I started looking this up.
Her name is Michelle Westbrooks, and she is a like, social media influencer that turned
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into a reality TV star.
And there's like a TV show called the Westbrooks.
But for me, it's her natural curly hair and like the chocolatey skin.
And she just seems like a I don't know, that is exactly the vibe that I
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had always pictured with Juniper.
Yeah.
I mean, I can I can see it.
I chose something very similar or someone very similar.
I actually had two people in mind, but I leaned more towards Anna Schaeffer on a Schaeffer.
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Oh, my gosh, we were really close on that one.
It's very close.
The other person that I had in mind was Madison Pettis, which I don't know if you know who
she is.
She played in the game plan with the Rock.
She was the little girl.
She's I mean, she's grown up and all beautiful now.
Yeah, yeah.
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It's vaguely ringing a bell.
But yeah, that's crazy that we were like.
Yeah, close on that one.
The reason I leaned more towards Schaeffer was because Madison Pettis just seemed a little
too young to cast for that part, even though she's like the right age for it.
It's just she.
Like her look is a little too like me looks just a little too young for.
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So I totally very close cheated on.
The next one, which is Therian Kettos, who did to love.
I love Therian.
He's one of my favorite side characters in the book.
I love his attitude.
I love his voice on the audiobook.
It's like spot on what I imagined.
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It's kind of like gravelly, but not not overly deep, but kind of raspy gravelly anyway.
So you had made a comment in our previous episode that you had imagined him as like
Aquaman, Brian Reynolds, mashup and that like dug into my brain.
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I can't see it any other way now.
Yeah, but so I picture this like Viking esque kind of facial features with the red beard
and the long hair, but like a Jason Momoa vibe.
So I just went ahead and cast Jason Momoa from Aquaman, but like not the bright green
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and gold suit, but the like the tattoos like coming out of the water like as pictured.
I think it's funny because we once again are so similar in what we chose because I chose
Kevin Creekman and I specifically chose an image of him coming out of the water.
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I am not mad about that photo at all.
He again, we're so similar in this thought, but that's that's what he is.
He's like, you know, this big burly Viking dude, but again, he's got like the personality
of like Ryan Reynolds.
Yeah, just smart ass and party.
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And I don't know why that's hot, but it is.
Like I picture like.
I don't know.
I get it.
I think we all get it.
Yeah.
Okay.
So but love loving me some there in.
So then I chose Ethan Holstrom.
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We just start to kind of get to know him better in this book.
He continues to show up more and more.
We get to know him better, but I thought now would be a good time to cast him.
And if you had said this name to me without a photo reference, I wouldn't have been able
to visualize it.
But I chose Luke Hemsworth, which is the one of the Hemsworth brothers, the like the not
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Thor and the not Liam Hemsworth, because he's got this like it's so confusing.
It does.
He's got this like kind of baby face, like the blue eyes.
He's like compared to his brothers, he's like.
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The average one.
Yeah.
And there's actually in the good place, he shows up where he acts as himself and he's
got like this thing about him where he's constantly like.
What am I not good enough?
Is it because I'm not one of my other brothers?
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What are you thinking about?
Is it about my other brothers?
I can only imagine.
It's like a whole thing.
It's hilarious.
But I just I meant I imagined him just I don't know the like blonde, clean cut, you know,
kind of he could totally pass for a baseball player probably maybe.
So yeah, that's my Ethan.
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I can I can see it.
I kind of went a different way with it.
I chose Dan Spieslunsen, the baseball player, because he's got like the somewhat longish
curly hair and he just has this kind of like boyish charm to him.
There was one specific photo where he was like laughing and I was like.
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That's him.
So you just the wrong eye color.
Your choice definitely is giving more wolfy vibes.
So I think that's why it was that.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Well chosen.
I think you did a better cast the book than me on that one.
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So then we have Jess of a rogue.
I thought this was fun because I love Jess of a and she's just like.
I don't know.
She's cool.
I want to be Jess of a when I grow up and I chose.
Angelica Huston, who is most well known, well, was most well known to me.
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She played Morticia Adams and Adams family, but not that Angelica Huston.
I imagine like a young, glamorous Angelica Huston, not like with the whole Adams family
thing, because I feel like Jess of a is more like subtle than that.
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Yeah, I can see that.
I I liked her in the Adams family, but I also liked her in.
Was it called witches?
Yes.
He was called witches.
I loved her in that, too.
I mean, I feel like it's accurate.
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Like it's accurate.
I chose I don't even know if I'm pronouncing her name right, but Charlize Theron.
Yes.
OK.
She played in the atomic blonde, but the image I chose specifically is how I picture Jess
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of a yes.
Yes.
Just like very nonchalant with like a death glare, like a.
I'll fuck you up.
I love this picture because I also imagine Jess of a even though I don't think it ever
says this in the book, I imagine her always having a cigarette in her hand.
Yeah, same like just even maybe one of those long Cruella DeVille like French.
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Exactly what ran through my head situations.
Yes.
So with that same page.
And you know, I didn't even look to see if we get a description of what she looks like.
So, I don't know, we could both be way off.
I mean, that's possible.
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I'm not entirely sure what the description was on her.
There was just always this like description of her vibe.
Yes.
And that's purely what drove me.
Agreed.
So then per your request, we have Aedas, Prince of the Chasm, who appears as a cat sometimes.
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Mine is probably going to be pretty predictable, but I chose Tom Hiddleston, who is known for
playing Loki in the Avenger movies.
Maybe not quite as like in the full Loki get up, but the like long hair, kind of pale,
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kind of broody.
That kind of thing.
I can see that.
I can see it.
I chose Christopher Mason because I got like a bad boy vibe from him.
Someone has a crush on Aedas, obviously.
I do.
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Okay.
There is something about a Prince of Hell.
Okay.
Blasphemy.
God's going to strike me.
I love it.
Then I can be with Aedas.
So you're I mean, this is just I know you.
I know your book boyfriend type, so I'm not surprised by this at all.
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But I can say that this guy is really hot and he's not my normal type, because I don't
normally do the like blonde, like pretty boy, pretty face type thing.
But he was in the motorcycle movie with Tom Hardy, who the name of this movie is Escaping
(15:45):
Me, but just came out like within the past year.
And he is like smoking hot.
And there's like this scene where like him and the like his love interest or whatever
have just met.
And he's like doing that thing from across the room while he's playing pool.
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And I was just like, oh my gosh.
So this wasn't what I imagined, but I'm willing to go with it.
I'm totally willing to take this journey with you.
This is almost, almost a Jax Teller Sons of Anarchy vibe, which for some reason it just
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it is what it is.
All the book girlies understand what it is.
That's all I have to say is long live Jax.
Say what you will about Sons of Anarchy.
To me, Sons of Anarchy is basically like a smut TV show.
They thought they were making it for the men.
They weren't.
It's literally just a dark romance come to life.
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They totally were making it for us.
Agreed.
So this is our cast the book.
I love it.
Let us know what you think.
I want to do it one more time.
I think we have enough characters in this series to do it one more time when we get
to.
There's flame and shadow.
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Her.
Her character Bible has got to be as big as the fucking book itself because.
The number of characters, the number of creatures, this little side characters that just show
up once or twice.
I mean, you've got to remember all that when you're writing.
So only imagine.
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That character Bible has got to be like this can think well that not only that, but there's
like 15,000 years of history woven into this book.
It's insane.
Like the mind that created something like this is almost like Lord of the Rings mind.
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I just need like.
One percent of that and I would just be so much better at life.
Yeah, for sure.
She creates her own language, like a full language like Lord of the Rings or Game of
Thrones.
I'll be fully sold on her on Moss, like in love with her because that's going to be if
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she manages to do that.
She's going to be a legend.
I agree.
OK, so you have not read this before and.
I have some things because again, I know you that I feel like I.
I feel like I am expecting you to say about this book.
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But I'm going to just tee it up for you.
We start this book in the prologue.
In the middle of an action scene in a different continent from.
The book we were just on.
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And we have.
Two new characters.
We have Sophie Renas and Agent Silverbow and this gaggle of children.
We have this organization called Ophion.
And Peppas Peppas Spetzos.
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All happening right there and just hits you right full frontal in the prologue.
I am just really angry that.
She once again, like she did in the first book, made you fall in love with the character
just to immediately fucking got them.
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Why?
I don't know why.
Like I would have really loved to have seen more.
Of Sophie.
OK, this and then what she does later on in regards to Sophie throughout the first part
of this book.
This me off to because why?
Why was that necessary?
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Are you talking about the issue alive?
Is she not alive thing?
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's rough.
It's totally rough.
So I kind of knew I digress.
You were getting dropped into a whole new layer of world building just when you thought
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that you had the world like fully your head wrapped around it.
We have all these new we have.
What did I say?
I said Sophie Renas, we have her brother, Emil.
We have Agent Silverbow, Pippa Spetsos.
We also have.
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The Hind and the Dreadwolves.
And I was thinking as I reread, I was like, that's what he's going to be so mad.
I just I need.
A template.
Of the terms.
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In each book.
Granted, though, OK, after the first one, this information dump was not as bad.
Not by long shot, because we knew like the actual terms of the world, like the drop first
light.
You know, we understood the one thing I'm still not clear on now.
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And call me stupid if you would like.
I would never care.
You might not, but they might.
But I don't care.
So they are in Lunathion, AKA Crescent City.
On the planet.
Of Midgard.
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Yes.
Is Valbaran the continent they're on?
So Lunathion is.
That's not made clear.
Lunathion is on the continent of Valbara.
OK, and Pangera is another continent.
Where?
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The Aseri live.
Here's where it confused me.
Here's why it confused me is because, for instance, Prince Roondan is.
Crown Prince of the Valbaran fey.
The prime is the prime of the Valbaran.
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Correct.
But they're only presiding over the ones in Crescent City.
Correct.
Not the ones on the rest of Valbara.
So it didn't make sense to me why they were ruling over all of that when they're not actually
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ruling over all that.
Why their title says they are, but they're not.
So it doesn't.
We don't really talk about any of the fey and other parts of Valbara.
But the way that I imagine it is that Crescent City is like the metropolis of.
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The Valbaran continent.
And so there might be other like regions, but I think these leaders are still leaders
of those races or clans or whatever across this continent.
So would it be more like in our world since they're more like governors and in other parts
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in other cities, they would be the mayor's, the Alphas or the.
Yeah, whatever.
I think so.
But that's a fair point of contention.
It kind of confused me there for a minute because the title didn't match with the behavior.
See what's more clear is the structure of the Asteri, right?
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Are the the.
Top ones, right?
And then they have an archangel that governs over each.
They have it like split into regions, into territories.
And then the archangel has their triarii, which are angels.
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And they make that much more clear, like which archangel governs over which territory and
all that.
I mean, all in all, they're all controlled by the Asteri.
So yes.
Nobody's decisions really matter in the end.
So then as I'm.
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As I'm reading this, I get past the prologue and then we get to where in chapter right
there in chapter one.
We find out that Bryce and Hunt have made an agreement that they're going to wait until
winter solstice.
And I'm laughing as I'm reading it because I'm like, I know destiny is going to have
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some shit to say about this.
Listen.
I would say that I am not a book whore.
OK, but that would be a complete fabrication of the truth.
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I need the smut to happen.
In a romance book.
If I am reading a thriller or, you know, like Sherlock Holmes or Stephen King, I'm not expecting
smut.
OK.
But if you are going to put this much emphasis on a relationship romantically and then throughout
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that, put sexual tension in the mix, you need to give the smut.
And you, Missy, promised me pickles.
I did.
We're going to get into this more in just a minute.
So whenever I read that in the opening scenes, I was I literally looked in my book, saw that,
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closed it.
It was this bitch.
She lied.
I thought for sure we were going to get like some wild out there, something in the first
few chapters.
No, this is the slowest burn of all burns.
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I feel like she did this to us intentionally.
I definitely went through all of these emotions whenever I read it the first time.
But I want to circle back to this conversation because I have I have questions for you when
it comes to expectations.
OK.
Oh, but before we get there, one of my favorite things about this series and Bryce's character
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is her irreverence when it comes to pretty much everything.
And something that she says and brings up a ton in this book and in the next one, maybe
even more so in the next one, is when she says she's a super powerful and special magic
star born princess.
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It's like I live for it every time she says it because she's like making fun of herself,
which I love.
But then her and hunt have that same sense of humor, which works so well for me.
The when they're at Runes house and runes like you should take the star sword like you're
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the star born.
And she's like, I'll take it on weekends and holidays.
Don't worry.
And it goes and it'll get to winter solstices.
So double the presence.
I like died laughing.
I don't know why, but that was just hilarious to me.
And I love their little like witty banter back and forth all the time.
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I loved that part, but I loved runes response to it even more when he looked at him and
was like, what the fuck is wrong with you all?
He was being so serious.
And they're just like.
And that is like a common theme throughout the book.
Those two will joke back and forth, making very light of a very horrible, serious situation.
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And everyone just constantly looks at him and is like.
What is wrong with the all what is wrong with you?
Yeah, what is wrong with you?
It's my favorite.
So speaking of rune.
One of my favorite scenes with rune is the scene that opens up with rune and the fawn.
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And she's basically writing his face.
Specifically, he talks about his tongue ring.
And I was very into this scene and I was disappointed that it got interrupted.
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Like I totally would have loved to like continue it.
But I will go ahead and point out that this is smut here in this scene.
This is smut.
There is smut.
We're just not getting hunt.
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Still no pickles.
And I'm going to reserve comment about the people because.
We'll just come back to it.
I have too much to say.
This part in the book.
Is a tick tock sound.
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How it opens and he's like rune Danon knew three things.
And it was like he smoked too much mirth root.
He couldn't fill a space, which was a shame because there was a girl writing it.
It's a sound on tick tock.
That doesn't.
It's like I knew about this scene before I ever really even knew anything about Crescent
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City.
This and then the sound of rune Danon crown prince of the barbell bar and fae.
And I only knew that one because that was a sound when everybody was getting it tattooed
on themselves.
OK, that's a bit.
Much your girl.
Hawk hates you did it.
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Well, she's not the thing, but it's the first letter of each of those words.
She can do whatever she wants.
To be or herself, whatever she can do, whatever she wants.
Moving on.
I'm just here for runes tongue ring and then anytime in the book when it talks about him
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playing with his lip ring, I see.
I totally swoon.
I don't know why it's just really hot.
I would like to know.
Even while I am reading and I imagine all of this happening, like I picture it like
a movie.
And I fixate when it mentions his lip ring.
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My mind just stops on that still image.
I can't help it.
It's.
And I can't help but wonder what other piercings does rune have that we don't know about?
I can't help it.
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This is why we're friends.
Or needs his own like director's cut side story of just I just want runes.
Can we just get some more runes?
Just like a pornographic book of rune.
Basically.
Yeah.
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Is that so much to ask?
I see the appeal to rune and I see why all the girls swoon over him.
I still prefer hunt, though.
There's a hundred percent.
There's no one like hunt.
Yeah.
In my opinion.
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I mean quite literally, he's got a one of a kind power.
So.
It's true.
And since we're talking about, you know, therein, we find out and it's like he's that toxic
guy that you like saw on the side that you just keep going back to in between boyfriends.
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And his little backstory that we learned during this beginning part about how the reason that
he's like pretty much enslaved to the river queen is that he took her, her daughter's
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virginity and now is like betrothed to her.
And that was like 10 years ago.
And he's like, I made a mistake.
Yeah.
I'm like, of course you did there.
And you just couldn't help yourself.
I mean, it took two to tango.
Yeah.
Well, don't.
Yeah.
But I just felt like you speak on anything about the princess down there.
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This is this is something that endured, endeared, Therian to me, actually.
Like he's a brute and I kind of love him for it.
I can't help it.
He's I love his personality.
Yeah.
It reminds me a lot of Bryce.
I feel like he's more of her brother than room based on like personality.
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They're just both goofy, flirty, can't take a serious conversation.
Yes.
They're counterparts.
I love it.
Yeah.
So something that makes me really angry.
And this is a theme throughout the book.
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But we get a scene here at the beginning where it's the autumn king rune and Cormac, the
Avalon Fae Prince, and they are like an island.
Avalon is like an island separate from Panjera or Valbara.
And it's like this like misty isle that in my head remind wouldn't remind me of like
(35:47):
Ireland, except they're like, yeah, in the Stone Ages there, like they haven't advanced
with the rest of the world.
They chose not to progress in any shape or form, including women's rights.
And this is a recurring theme throughout this book.
But this scene made me so angry steam was coming out of my ears because the autumn king
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is such a tool.
And her his one statement in this chapter, he says, Your sister has one value to me,
her breeding potential.
And I just.
Yeah.
I hate it.
He.
Yeah.
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The worst.
Absolutely awful mill.
But I could be completely off base with this, but my mind constantly tries to theorize and
figure things out before they happen.
There's there's something up with him.
(36:58):
I don't know whether it's going to be good or bad, but there's something up with him
beyond his egotistical, you know, his kindness.
There's there's something up with him in regards to especially I thought about this later in
the book when they went to see the mystic.
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They were talking about the astronomy, but all of his interest in the astronomy, how
he doesn't really converse with anybody.
And he's always in that study fiddling away with all that shit.
I could be way off.
I could be theorizing over something that doesn't even exist.
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But there's more than meets the eye with him.
I just don't know if it's good or bad yet.
I think that's a fair.
I'm hoping I'm hoping it's something good.
I'm hoping there's going to be something redeemable because there have been.
Like little breadcrumbs of some type of humanity within him.
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I will say just the characters overall.
I think something that's really compelling about them is that even when somebody is.
An evil, awful person throughout this book, we still get to see everything about them.
Like no real person is all one thing.
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And I like that we get the human sides of everybody, even if they're not redeemable.
Some of them are.
Some of them aren't.
But there's still like little things there that it just adds to like the how robust the
characters are.
(38:47):
Yeah, for sure.
So you get your AIDAS crush, but I have a confession to make and I need you to just
hear me out.
(39:10):
But I have a crush on Baxi and Argos, the hell hound.
And we're definitely inundated with his reputation and how him and Pollux and the Hines and the
(39:30):
Harpy have all been these like big bad evil characters, but like Baxi and like he's an
angel, but he can shift into a hell hound and he's like.
Scary intimidating and I totally have a side crush on Baxi.
(39:51):
I will not judge you for this because I can definitely see it.
Yeah, I can.
And I feel like when it comes to him.
There's.
A part of me doesn't want to trust him because I understand the way that, you know, Moss
writes.
(40:12):
I also take what he says.
About not just because he didn't wear the band, the slave markings and stuff did not
mean that Sandriel didn't own him.
Yeah.
And I found truth in that just be just purely because.
(40:39):
Even if he didn't want to do those things, what he could never have said no.
He makes that's not an option.
Valid points and there's a lot of people throughout this first half that you're not sure if you
can trust them or and I don't know if we're just when you get to this point, you're just
(41:01):
because of the first book, you're like, I don't know.
I don't know who's going to be the bad guy yet.
So everybody's a suspect.
I was burned by Micah for sure, for sure, because I almost fell into a rabbit hole with him
right before all of it came out.
So I am very distrustful right now.
I cannot trust myself.
(41:22):
I just will say that I was really wanting to believe him from the get go.
Like there was just something about him and it was probably just because of the crush.
I mean, I felt the same way.
There was just truth to what he said.
Even if he didn't want to do all those things, he couldn't have said no.
(41:44):
There were a lot of people under her ploy that like hunt.
They didn't want to do it.
But what was the alternative?
They couldn't say no.
And had they have tried to rise and kill her, the Astor would have wiped him off the planet.
So and then imprisonment.
(42:04):
Your crush, Aedas, comes back and another sneaky little bastard, hilarious, even says
your cat's a sweetheart, by the way.
And like it's like a record scratch because everybody knows Bryce doesn't have a cat.
Yeah, I loved when she was like, that's not a cat.
(42:27):
And he spoke and Ethan's like, what the fuck?
And then he's.
Yeah.
I was petting the Prince of Hell.
The Prince of Hell was sitting in my lap.
Yeah.
He laughed so hard.
That would have been my reaction to it.
I would have been like, wait.
(42:48):
I touched it.
I touched it.
Yeah, this was and and then.
This scene to like we find we find out and I feel like this is pretty early for a reveal.
(43:08):
Because.
Because but we find out right at the scene that Agent Silverbow.
Is Cormac the Val and Faye.
And I don't know about you, but when I read this, I did not see that coming.
When I read that, my jaw physically hit the floor like my jaw actually dropped and I just
(43:34):
stared at the page.
It was like.
Ethan, there's so many moments of this book that make me laugh out loud when I'm reading
them.
Yes.
But Ethan playing with the Danica sword.
He breaks the coffee table.
(43:55):
And then.
I pictured this scene.
I pictured this scene of him, a grown man with a sword standing on a coffee table.
The door opens and he's just.
Frozen, sword out, frozen in place.
(44:17):
And then the coffee table cracks and falls.
And I love how she doesn't even check on him.
She's just like, what is all this on the floor?
Like.
Yeah.
Agreed.
So, OK, I think I'm ready to bring up the point that I've been wanting to talk to you
(44:37):
about since this discussion came up.
OK.
Now, we get another smut scene with Bryce and Hunt.
OK.
And they are sharing a bed because they've let Ethan have the guest room because he has
(44:59):
nowhere else to go so far.
And we get what I think is a fantastic blowjob scene.
Just my opinion.
One, I don't think we get enough of those.
(45:20):
I don't want to say this because I know you're going to clip it, but I'm going to go ahead
and say it.
But I'm a big fan of blowjobs.
OK.
I think they are really underrated and I think we should have more blowjob scenes in smut.
OK.
But what I want to know is, do blowjobs count as a pickle?
(45:46):
And if not, why?
No.
Short answer, no.
But it is close second.
For me in particular, there is nothing like the actual sexcapade smut scene, whether it's
(46:12):
making love or whether it's just fucking it.
It's different.
But what you're talking about, you're saying that it doesn't count unless there's penetration.
Yes.
I'm not going to say it doesn't count, but I'm saying it gets like half a point versus
(46:35):
a whole point.
OK.
Think of it like a needle.
It's moved to the yellow, but we're not in the red.
So here's my issue with that, is that there is so much pleasure to be had outside of penetration
(47:03):
that...
I'm not saying there's not.
Plus, his pickle was in the scene described on the page.
And I just think it should count.
That's all.
I'm trying to give an honest answer without it needing to be clipped from here and put
(47:29):
in the after dark discussion.
I knew this was going to go down this road.
I'm reading it and I'm like, OK, she's been saying you got to have a pickle or she's going
to riot in the streets.
And we get to this scene and I kind of figured that you were going to not count this, but
(47:52):
I really wanted to press this issue of like...
The pickle can be on the page, but if it's not penetrating, then it doesn't count.
OK.
Here's why it gets half a point and not a whole point in my book.
OK.
Yeah.
(48:12):
Well, yeah.
This may get cut from the original, like from what's getting posted.
But for instance, if I am listening to the pink app with the Q on it.
(48:37):
OK, sure.
It's not going to be this scene that completes my task.
OK, that's fair.
That's fair.
And it's not wrong.
That's not wrong.
Not to say that it wouldn't rile me up, but it would not be what completes the task.
(49:02):
It would just enhance for when that happens.
So that's very interesting because I am not that way.
I could complete my task with any of the above.
Anything on the menu.
It just has to be well done.
(49:22):
So here's what I will say.
I think despite the fact that we have not gotten to a technical pickle per Destiny's
definition, that these are pretty good sex scenes.
They are good.
They're well written.
I'm a fan of how they're written.
(49:43):
But we get immediately after this fantastic blowjob by Bryce.
Good job.
Apolion, the Prince of the Pit visits Hunt in his dream.
And it's terrifying.
(50:04):
I love how these characters that are supposed to be scary really do come across as like
super scary.
But we got another Prince of Hell and so I knew you'd want to talk about it.
Is there something wrong with me that I did not find him scary?
Probably.
I'm just kidding.
(50:27):
So far there's only one that freaked me out.
And I was at the Mystic and we didn't even see him.
But these two didn't frighten me.
I've got issues.
I think it was that Hunt was scared and Hunt's like not scared of anything.
(50:49):
That just made me switch from Hunt to him.
I have issues apparently with whoever is the strongest male in the room apparently.
I would totally watch them fight shirtless.
Hold on, I'm picturing it.
(51:15):
We get to meet shortly after this.
We meet Agent Daybright in Rune's mind.
So many theories.
Before we get to your theories, I just really like this whole setup, this whole way to get
(51:35):
to know this mystery character and the way that they can't see each other.
They can only talk.
They only have like each other's voice and their personality.
They're literally getting to know each other in their minds.
And it's just a cool dynamic and it's a cool mystery.
And I love their whole vibe, every interaction with them I look forward to.
(52:03):
I like how she calls him out on his shit.
And not in like a Bryce way, but in just a very serious like you're stupid if you're
going to share information like that.
Or they should put a bullet in your head for knowing that kind of information.
(52:23):
Like very blunt, very honest, but she's trying to like mold the novice with tough love.
Yes.
And I love it.
So let's hear some of your theories.
I want to hear a theory.
At this point where they meet, I had already started formulating who it could be.
(52:48):
And at this point I had thought, okay, it could be Hypoxia because he recognizes the
voice whenever he gets taken by the Reapers.
He recognizes it.
True.
Back up a little bit because I did in this first initial thing thought maybe it could
(53:09):
be the Hind.
Somebody we are not expecting at all.
Somebody who is very in tune with the story and very in tune with all of the tactics.
But I questioned that because of.
Sophie.
But then I had also thought about how Sophie was unchained.
(53:33):
So I was like, maybe she did it for show, allowing Sophie to run.
Yeah, to get away.
Maybe she like immediately went back and unlocked him.
But then when he's taken by the Reapers and he hears voice and recognizes it, I was like,
OK, not the high, maybe Hypoxia.
(53:54):
Then I also thought.
How do you pronounce my name?
Celestina Celestina Celestina.
I thought could be her.
So I was dividing between these two and then later.
And she's like pulled out of their mind bridge for some very rough.
(54:18):
Barely consensual.
We were spot on with one of those theories.
That was who I thought it was in the beginning.
I think this is a.
I don't know.
I love this stuff that she does where.
It's a very intentional mystery.
It's very like it's.
I don't know.
(54:38):
There's subtle mysteries.
There's surprises, but there's also these where you're like actively trying to figure
it out, which I think for the author puts even more pressure to like give hints, but
not give it away.
So then we have a scene that.
It's really well done.
(54:59):
It's very well written.
I did enjoy this.
The gym, the gym smut.
No pickle, not on the page.
There's no blowjob here.
This is all about Bryce's pleasure.
The actual sex description here.
(55:22):
The is really good.
It seems to me like hunt is really good at.
His job here.
Big fan.
However, I have a little bit of a problem with this scene.
I have a mixed feeling about the scene because they had been working out.
(55:50):
For a while.
Yeah, she even has the exact same thought.
She even makes a comment about.
She doesn't even want to think about what she smells like because she's been sweating.
And.
He totally goes down on her.
(56:10):
More than that, he sniffs it.
Yeah, which usually I'm fine with that, but like I wouldn't have been working out for
hours and we're at this concern and they have in height sense of smell.
I was stressed a little bit.
It stressed me out a little bit.
It was a little.
(56:31):
And he like at one point, I think he licks a drop of sweat off of her neck and like,
yes, like there's there's a hotness to that, but I can't help.
Maybe it's because I identify so much with Bryce.
I don't know, but I was just having a moment here where I was like, I would be so uncomfortable
(56:53):
if I were her.
I could deal with the licking of the sweat.
I could deal with sex after this, but him going down on her.
And the mentioning of the smell to point it out and knowing that they have a heightened
sense of smell and he literally sniffs it.
(57:15):
Yeah.
I something about that was maybe a little too grimy.
I feel like if the smell hadn't been mentioned, I might could have like put it out of my head
and not that was the fact that the character brought the attention to it.
That was my thought.
Exactly.
I was like, I realize this is probably like somebody's total cup of tea.
(57:39):
Like they're like here for this, but I don't know.
And maybe maybe I'm hung up on I don't know what, but.
Aside from that, the scene was great.
I liked call me a freak, whatever.
And I liked that the glass windows were there and all that was like hiding them or his wings.
(58:03):
Yes.
So there was still the fear that somebody could walk by and see it, but.
They wouldn't see anything.
So it was like that adrenaline of getting caught, but they couldn't really get caught.
Oh, and then the lightning's app.
I love when our fictional book boyfriends use their magic during the any kind of magic
(58:29):
shadow magic, you know, whatever.
But it just kind of I was like, oh.
I'd like to try that.
That my first thought was I wonder when he learned that first time a failed attempt.
Yeah.
Did he fry deep fry, you know, a coochie at some point when he first started trying to
(58:54):
do this back when the first time like when the the blowjob scene, I cracked up because
I was fully expecting.
Hunt because he when he was like, I'm just warning you, it's been a really long time
for me.
Oh, my.
I was really expecting him to have not been in with anybody since.
(59:20):
Shahar and then when he was like six months, I was like, oh, my God, hunt.
I thought.
I figured he had been with people after her because he was in St.
Charles command and Micah's command for like hundreds of years after that.
(59:42):
So I figured at some point he probably did somebody.
He seemed a little too experienced not to have.
But I didn't expect six months like.
It's six months really like even to us humans.
Going six months without it is not a full hiatus.
(01:00:07):
It's not like it's a long time, but at the same time, it's not a long time.
I can't respond further to this because it's going to go off the rails so fast.
I don't know for somebody who is immortal, essentially immortal.
Six months is a drop in the bucket.
(01:00:29):
That's true.
That's I mean, it's valid.
It just that our boy has a healthy appetite.
I thought it was funny when she came when he was telling her about the last time he
did, she gets jealous.
So she's telling him about the last time she did intentionally to make him jealous.
(01:00:49):
And then you hear and then the other room yell.
Yeah.
OK, that part was hilarious, too.
I loved it.
But I have to admit that there is a moment after the gym, they go back and they're talking
about she's like, it seems kind of weird to call you my boyfriend.
And they're having that whole conversation.
(01:01:11):
And she this moment that they had where they're discussing, like, are they mates?
I actually got choked up a little bit at this.
And I don't I get choked up.
I will even cry at a book.
But it's not usually the romantic parts that make me choked up.
(01:01:35):
It's usually like, you know, devastating, L'Habba, that kind of thing.
But I got choked up when she's like, I just want to make sure that the title of mate is
something that you're comfortable with.
And he says, of everything I've ever been called Quinlan, your mate will be the one
I truly cherish.
(01:01:57):
Stop.
Woon.
It was so, so sweet.
And he's like the big tough male, like he's not reciting poetry over here.
He's not that kind of book boyfriend.
Yeah.
I I loved this.
(01:02:17):
I really did.
I liked that she was finally open to that as well, because she's like never wanted that
ever at all.
OK, so then they decide that they're going to go get a hotel room.
Right.
And Hunt has these this romantic plans with rose petals and champagne and all this.
(01:02:46):
And immediately, I feel like you have to know if you've ever read, especially of Romanticie,
that they have these plans following a life or death adventure into the bone quarter.
And I'm like, that's so that's not likely.
(01:03:10):
Yeah, I know you're setting me up for failure.
I have absolutely no hopes of this sexy romantic evening happening because we all know some
shit's going to go down in the bone quarter.
This was I saw right through this one, even the first time.
I didn't expect the revelation that happens in the bone quarter.
(01:03:31):
Yeah.
Talk to me about that.
That.
That was disturbing.
Like.
Him eating them and sending their lights back into the gate.
Like, and then.
To want to eat Bryce and Hunt.
(01:03:56):
Also through me, like I assumed it was going to be dangerous, but I assumed like Reapers
like before we're going to try to snatch them.
I didn't think that the Underking himself was actually going to try to eat them.
Because.
Where does he get the authority to eat a princess like the Astor?
(01:04:17):
He would surely come down on him for doing something of that magnitude.
It's not like they're dead or they're just some random citizen.
Yeah, they're the third.
They're leaders of the 33rd and a fae princess.
It threw me.
I didn't expect that.
Yeah, the Underking really does not participate in the politics, though, of the rest of he's
(01:04:44):
like this mythical creature.
People could kill him.
I had a similar.
So the whole revelation with the Underking was kind of terrifying.
It was like, oh, and then you realize like Jezeba Roga has some sort of deal with the
(01:05:05):
Underking and it's like, how?
How could she have it like this guy is definitely not.
This secretly benevolent character.
Because I kind of thought, well, maybe the Underking is not as bad as it sounds like
he is because obviously Jezeba joined Flame and Shadow, but like.
(01:05:31):
He's not.
I thought I thought it most.
He was at the least neutral.
Sure.
Not good, not bad, just neutral, not even in a gray area, just straight up neutral.
Well, because like death is the great equalizer, right?
And he's the Underking, so I could see that.
(01:05:53):
Turns out no.
He's a creep.
So then we get the scene where Rune and Ethan are kind of trying to lay low because they
almost just got caught by Murdock with Cormac doing super secret rebel shit and the Hind
(01:06:22):
and the Harpy come in and they sit down to play poker with.
Ethan and Rune and the Hind clearly by some magic or power or knowing that she has.
(01:06:47):
Starts eviscerating Rune and Ethan with their like deepest darkest thoughts.
This was so savage.
This was such a savage moment.
Rune, I knew.
Could handle himself and.
(01:07:13):
When the Harpy tried to touch Ethan, I think we got another a new glimpse of him because
up to this point he was like this, you know, boyish charm, still kind of naive type guy.
But then the Harpy tries to touch him and he snatches her wrist and it's like.
(01:07:37):
You can look, but you can't touch.
Yeah.
And she says you break it, you buy it.
And he just throws her wrist and is like pass.
Pass.
He does.
I was like, oh, Ethan.
We get to see that there's an alpha in there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of shown through just a little bit.
(01:07:58):
Same with when Sabine had showed up at the apartment.
Yeah.
Yeah, we get to see it a little bit there, too.
Which it's like with Ethan, it feels like getting to see like your little brother grow
up.
You know what I mean?
Like it's exactly the vibe.
(01:08:18):
But it did break my heart a little bit when the high and just exposed him the way she
did with the revelation of Bryce.
I mean, it seemed kind of obvious, but it seemed more like a puppy love high school
crush kind of thing up to that point.
And then it's like, oh, it was so much deeper.
(01:08:40):
Mm hmm.
Just.
Oh, that's awful.
Crazy.
Yeah.
And then the guilt of it over his brother and it just.
Oh, that was heavy.
So things coming full circle here in this chapter, too, like I feel like a lot of our
emotions from Book One get brought in because this is all happening.
(01:09:04):
Meanwhile, Hunt and Bryce are like fighting for their lives in the bone quarter to get
out of there and not get eaten.
Yeah.
And the moment that Hunt realizes that he can use the gate to like channel power into
her, like he can pull from the gate and channel power into her.
(01:09:28):
And he says, light it up, Bryce.
I was like, oh my God.
No, you didn't.
He did, though he so did.
Yeah.
I think what I loved most about this moment, aside from the light it up, Bryce, was the
fact that when she had first gotten to the gate, it crossed her mind to do that, to siphon
(01:09:52):
more magic from it.
But she didn't have the balls to, but Hunt did.
And I loved that because throughout all of this, it's usually Bryce who has more balls
than anyone else.
For sure.
For sure.
And this is one of two times where Hunt had the balls to do something nobody else would
do, especially Bryce.
(01:10:12):
The first was him in the first book when he jumped in front of an actual fucking bomb.
Yeah.
And this, I laughed at this because I was like, damn, Hunt had more balls than Bryce
for once.
Yeah.
This was a cool scene.
It's kind of the first time we get to see them battling together.
(01:10:35):
And like, we're starting to experiment with this whole charge up thing that makes Bryce's
power work.
It was badass.
It really was.
The way that she just became a conduit.
(01:10:55):
I loved it.
It was creative.
Something that I think is a really cool juxtaposition as like a theme in this book, which ties into
like, my next point anyway, is that, you know, Bryce and Hunt, we talk about this slow burn,
(01:11:19):
but it's been a very respect, mutual agreement.
Like they, she said she wanted to wait and it was no question, no manipulating, no pushing.
He was like, okay, we'll wait.
Their whole like journey romantically or sexually has been like this symbiotic relationship.
(01:11:47):
But there's this other theme of like agent day bright and her mysterious counterpart
that is like, she's consenting.
She's saying yes to the sex, but she doesn't really want it.
(01:12:12):
And that's something that I don't think it's talked about enough because I've had this
experience where I've committed to sleeping with someone that I really didn't want to
sleep with.
And it's an icky feeling.
And I, we also see this, so we don't know who agent day bright is, but there's this
(01:12:33):
and that mystery person.
But then we get told it directly with Celestina too, which is basically her being bred with
Ephraim and it's just interesting to me how that theme has continued to like kind of be
(01:13:01):
woven throughout all of this.
I liked how it was a real representation of how sometimes it goes.
It's not rape.
It's not CNC.
It's an agreed upon thing, but your heart's not really fully in it.
(01:13:27):
You're just doing it for the sake of doing it.
And I feel like that happens to a lot more women.
And though it's not the actual act of rape or anything like that, it still sticks with
you.
You still just feel kind of gross afterwards.
And I have never heard somebody talk about it or greed, a way that it wasn't this book
(01:13:51):
agreed because there's this feeling that kind of goes with it where you blame yourself.
You're like, I just did that to myself.
Yeah.
And they are both in a position to not really refuse though.
I guess technically they could, but there's just so many more layers to that, that I think,
(01:14:20):
I don't know.
It was good to see it was, it was real, which I always appreciate.
I liked it.
It was subtly done, but it was very, very real.
Well, and then we have the whole mystic situation.
Yeah.
(01:14:40):
Which anytime, anytime there's a mystic, you know, like I always think about in the movie
300, the Oracle and how they're like these beautiful virgin creatures, but the actual
old men are like basically taking advantage.
(01:15:04):
And it's like this whole like icky situation.
This part like was all the ick, which it was supposed to, but then on top of that we meet
Thanatos, Prince of the Ravine.
And that one did give me the creeps.
He's scary as fuck.
The one Prince I would say no to.
(01:15:27):
Hard pass.
Hard pass on the, on the soul eating.
So obviously Bryce can't do anything right there with the mystic there and free them,
but I loved how Ethan later on went back and he tried to free the, what are they called?
(01:15:53):
The mystic in the tank.
Are they called the mystics?
I think so.
The wolf that's imprisoned in the tank.
Yeah.
And when she will voluntarily leave with him, he out of spite and because he's not going
to waste the trip to not free somebody snatches them.
(01:16:15):
When him and Declan and Flynn bust them open and there's these little fire sprites, so
cute and adorable.
And then one of them is a fucking dragon.
Yeah.
And they like almost, they lose their shit about it.
(01:16:37):
I loved everything about it and her response is just, he's going to kill you.
Yeah.
Like.
Well, and I just love this like Ethan Flynn and Declan.
They're like these three stooges, like y'all should not be short.
Y'all need supervision.
(01:17:02):
I loved it.
And was it Declan or Flynn?
I want to say it was Flynn that was flirting with the dragon.
Yes.
Fucking killed me.
Yes.
Because I think it read something like, I know she could change this form and kill me,
but.
I was like, dude.
(01:17:23):
Speaking of Flynn and Declan, I low key love Declan and Mark's little love story.
We don't get a ton on Mark in general, but he's around often enough to know that they're
in like a serious relationship and he's an attorney.
And I don't know.
I just love like Declan is like the computer nerd and Mark is like the lawyer-y type.
(01:17:49):
I don't know.
I love their little couple.
It's yeah.
It's the relationship you didn't know that you needed in a book.
It's just a little side quest situation.
Yes.
It adds to it.
So speaking of side quests, we then get Hunt's punishment from Celestina for bailing on her
(01:18:17):
the night of her engagement party or whatever.
So he's going to be stuck not being able to see Bryce for two weeks.
But which is like a whole nother like issue, but the phone sex scene.
That was hot.
(01:18:39):
It was.
And I am not a phone sex person in real life.
I don't know.
There's something awkward about it.
I'm going to plead the fifth on this one, but I will say that, I mean, I'm not saying
I haven't done it.
I'm just saying if I was going to rate like scenes I want to see, I don't know that that
would have made the list.
But this worked here because of the tension and the ongoing like.
(01:19:03):
Yeah.
It gave us just a little bit more, just a little bit.
So I'm going to just rush directly from the phone sex into sex in the biodome in an underground
city on a boat.
(01:19:27):
Hopefully you guys get a pickle just so everyone listening understands if you have not reached
this part, if you have not read the book or if you have read the book and you're just
as outraged as I am.
Over 1300 pages, you guys.
(01:19:47):
I fucking calculated it.
She did the math, y'all.
Over 1300 fucking pages.
And you finally get the scene.
Now I have to say that this is kind of like they're in this like garden biodome thing,
(01:20:19):
right?
And there's this almost like this like garden of Eden, Adam and Eve as kind of like scenario.
I don't know.
Something about this scene seemed like it should have been like a fresco on like a ceiling
somewhere.
Like it's very.
Yeah.
Not what I was expecting for their first time.
(01:20:42):
I thought it was good.
It's just bizarre of all the places to end up and all the finally we're finally doing
it.
That's just not what I had envisioned.
I Yeah, I agree.
(01:21:02):
I expected it to be like.
Like them.
Like a little like less fantastical and like ethereal and more grungy and raunchy.
Yes, it was definitely that.
Now I had also expected it to like.
(01:21:24):
I didn't expect the portaling.
I expected like the whole ship to fucking rock or some shit like tremble because of
the power culminating together.
That's what I was expecting when the scene started.
I didn't expect it to end where it did.
So I would like to have I would like to have an orgasm so fantastic that it causes me to
(01:21:50):
teleport to another location.
Yeah.
Because not gonna lie.
It's pretty impressive.
Sounds enticing.
And men sounds very enticing.
Wonder why they can't satisfy us.
All I want to do is be made to teleport.
(01:22:16):
In no way, shape or form do I expect any of the sex scenes in these books to be a reality.
I mean, that's why I read the books so that I can be a part of it within the book.
Yeah.
But it doesn't make you not hope that you randomly find out that your partner is like
(01:22:38):
a 500 old, you know, fae lord.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So true to my promise, I did not end you on a cliffhanger.
And I did not end us until we got the full.
(01:22:59):
Pickle.
I appreciated that.
I did like Rune and Daybright's because where we end is the ending of Chapter 47.
And right there is where Rune and Daybright.
They're just kind of being together on this mind bridge.
(01:23:23):
And I liked it.
It was like they.
I don't know, it was such a comfortable place at this point for them.
I love everything about this dynamic and the fact that they're meeting like on a soul to
soul level and all the pure, all the other stuff doesn't exist there.
(01:23:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love their whole thing.
I also liked that she told him a bedtime story while he laid in her lap.
Fucking adorable.
But I also thought it was hilarious that when she woke up, when he woke up, he went to go
(01:24:05):
try to look at her and she snaps awake and tells him the end of the story.
And it was like she turned into a monster and she killed them all and then walks away.
And I was like, I.
Love this bitch.
I do.
I do.
My spirit animal right here.
Yes.
(01:24:26):
I loved everything about that.
It was so good.
And it's like, you know, you can't too much sweet.
You know, is is is never as good as that little bit of spice right there at the end where
it's like the attitude, the whole, you know.
Yeah.
She was back to the cold woman she was in the beginning.
(01:24:50):
Because he overstepped a boundary.
He tried to get a glimpse at her.
And that is a no, no.
Yeah, that's against the rules.
So he kind of deserves that.
Yeah.
Plus, it was a really good end to that story.
Yeah.
I mean, I was down for it.
(01:25:11):
He.
But that is a wrap for this episode.
As always, thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed our take on this steamy book and we will see you all next week on
a novel affair where we will be discussing part two of Crescent City's House of Sky and
Breath.
(01:25:33):
Don't forget to head over to our podcast to listen to a full breakdown of this book and
many others with spoilers and discussions.
You can find that link in our comments.
Be sure to like and follow us on social media and hit that subscribe button before you go.
We'll see you all soon.
Hey guys, welcome to A Novel Affair, the bookish podcast where we kiss and tell about our torrid
(00:15):
affairs with fictional characters.
So grab a drink and get ready for some pure unadulterated fun.
Today we are covering Book 2 of the Crescent City series, House of Sky and Breath by Sarah
J. Moss.
And if you're watching us on YouTube, be sure to head over to the podcast for a completely
(00:36):
uncensored review, including all of the dirty details.
Just look for the link below.
So I'm excited again, we're in Book 2 of me forcing you to read this series that I love
so much.
And this is a very in depth book in terms of it's got a very intricate plot and so many
(01:03):
characters.
And because of all the characters and how like robust they are, I want us to do cast
the book again, because we have more characters, we're getting to know them more.
And let's trade off.
I'll start.
Okay.
And do you have my folder open so you can look at them?
(01:30):
I do not hold please.
I'll get that open.
Like the wrong thing.
Okay.
So we're going with Fury first.
(01:56):
Yes.
I'm open now.
You go ahead.
So my Fury Axe Tar, first of all, I did take a moment I was struggling with this one.
And so I looked up her fan art.
And in the fan art, she is an Asian female with like the severe short black hair, which
(02:25):
totally fits.
But by the time I looked it up, it was way too late for me to kind of re-envision her.
So my cast for her is purely what I was envisioning in my head the first few times I've read it.
And for me, it's pink.
(02:46):
And specifically the bright blonde short cropped hair.
I know that's not like what it describes in the book at all.
But like she's like that.
We don't always picture them the way that they're written.
Sometimes we rewrite.
I totally do.
I totally do.
So pink is my cast for and also like, I don't know, she just looks like she could like totally
(03:08):
beat you up if she wanted to.
Yeah.
Yeah, she gives that vibe that what's the song by her?
Or she's talking about fighting.
Oh, I'm gonna have to listen.
I'm gonna have to look it up and listen to it.
Yeah, it's gonna bother me.
But I feel like that's a good choice.
(03:30):
The vibe.
Yeah, I can see it.
It's more the vibe.
And I don't know why I pictured her having like short spiky blonde hair, but I did from
the first time I read it.
So I don't know.
My brain is weird.
I had always pictured her like very dark with the jet black hair and maybe like dark as
night eyes, kind of like my eyes and like maybe dark, dark makeup, black eyeshadow,
(03:57):
black lipstick.
For some reason, I just envisioned her like blending into the night.
Which makes sense.
But I chose to cast her as a young Lucy Lu.
I love it.
I yeah, it's funny that you pick that because when I did the fan and I was like, Oh, I wonder
(04:19):
if I should like redirect my casting.
And I thought of Lucy Lu, but I was like, No, I'm gonna go with my gut on this one.
But I 100% cosine this.
With her, I definitely got like a like the Charlie's Angels vibe, but less cheesy.
(04:42):
Yeah, more, more badass, like more of a serious like thriller vibe versus the action comedy.
Yeah.
Okay, so next obviously would be Juniper Andromeda.
(05:04):
And I didn't look up fan art on this one because my vision is of Juniper has been so strong
from the beginning.
And I didn't really know this person before I started looking this up.
Her name is Michelle Westbrooks, and she is a like, social media influencer that turned
(05:28):
into a reality TV star.
And there's like a TV show called the Westbrooks.
But for me, it's her natural curly hair and like the chocolatey skin.
And she just seems like a I don't know, that is exactly the vibe that I
(05:48):
had always pictured with Juniper.
Yeah.
I mean, I can I can see it.
I chose something very similar or someone very similar.
I actually had two people in mind, but I leaned more towards Anna Schaeffer on a Schaeffer.
(06:09):
Oh, my gosh, we were really close on that one.
It's very close.
The other person that I had in mind was Madison Pettis, which I don't know if you know who
she is.
She played in the game plan with the Rock.
She was the little girl.
She's I mean, she's grown up and all beautiful now.
Yeah, yeah.
(06:30):
It's vaguely ringing a bell.
But yeah, that's crazy that we were like.
Yeah, close on that one.
The reason I leaned more towards Schaeffer was because Madison Pettis just seemed a little
too young to cast for that part, even though she's like the right age for it.
It's just she.
Like her look is a little too like me looks just a little too young for.
(06:59):
So I totally very close cheated on.
The next one, which is Therian Kettos, who did to love.
I love Therian.
He's one of my favorite side characters in the book.
I love his attitude.
I love his voice on the audiobook.
It's like spot on what I imagined.
(07:20):
It's kind of like gravelly, but not not overly deep, but kind of raspy gravelly anyway.
So you had made a comment in our previous episode that you had imagined him as like
Aquaman, Brian Reynolds, mashup and that like dug into my brain.
(07:45):
I can't see it any other way now.
Yeah, but so I picture this like Viking esque kind of facial features with the red beard
and the long hair, but like a Jason Momoa vibe.
So I just went ahead and cast Jason Momoa from Aquaman, but like not the bright green
(08:08):
and gold suit, but the like the tattoos like coming out of the water like as pictured.
I think it's funny because we once again are so similar in what we chose because I chose
Kevin Creekman and I specifically chose an image of him coming out of the water.
(08:28):
I am not mad about that photo at all.
He again, we're so similar in this thought, but that's that's what he is.
He's like, you know, this big burly Viking dude, but again, he's got like the personality
of like Ryan Reynolds.
Yeah, just smart ass and party.
(08:51):
And I don't know why that's hot, but it is.
Like I picture like.
I don't know.
I get it.
I think we all get it.
Yeah.
Okay.
So but love loving me some there in.
So then I chose Ethan Holstrom.
(09:12):
We just start to kind of get to know him better in this book.
He continues to show up more and more.
We get to know him better, but I thought now would be a good time to cast him.
And if you had said this name to me without a photo reference, I wouldn't have been able
to visualize it.
But I chose Luke Hemsworth, which is the one of the Hemsworth brothers, the like the not
(09:35):
Thor and the not Liam Hemsworth, because he's got this like it's so confusing.
It does.
He's got this like kind of baby face, like the blue eyes.
He's like compared to his brothers, he's like.
(09:55):
The average one.
Yeah.
And there's actually in the good place, he shows up where he acts as himself and he's
got like this thing about him where he's constantly like.
What am I not good enough?
Is it because I'm not one of my other brothers?
(10:17):
What are you thinking about?
Is it about my other brothers?
I can only imagine.
It's like a whole thing.
It's hilarious.
But I just I meant I imagined him just I don't know the like blonde, clean cut, you know,
kind of he could totally pass for a baseball player probably maybe.
So yeah, that's my Ethan.
(10:42):
I can I can see it.
I kind of went a different way with it.
I chose Dan Spieslunsen, the baseball player, because he's got like the somewhat longish
curly hair and he just has this kind of like boyish charm to him.
There was one specific photo where he was like laughing and I was like.
(11:04):
That's him.
So you just the wrong eye color.
Your choice definitely is giving more wolfy vibes.
So I think that's why it was that.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Well chosen.
I think you did a better cast the book than me on that one.
(11:28):
So then we have Jess of a rogue.
I thought this was fun because I love Jess of a and she's just like.
I don't know.
She's cool.
I want to be Jess of a when I grow up and I chose.
Angelica Huston, who is most well known, well, was most well known to me.
(11:52):
She played Morticia Adams and Adams family, but not that Angelica Huston.
I imagine like a young, glamorous Angelica Huston, not like with the whole Adams family
thing, because I feel like Jess of a is more like subtle than that.
(12:15):
Yeah, I can see that.
I I liked her in the Adams family, but I also liked her in.
Was it called witches?
Yes.
He was called witches.
I loved her in that, too.
I mean, I feel like it's accurate.
(12:39):
Like it's accurate.
I chose I don't even know if I'm pronouncing her name right, but Charlize Theron.
Yes.
OK.
She played in the atomic blonde, but the image I chose specifically is how I picture Jess
(13:01):
of a yes.
Yes.
Just like very nonchalant with like a death glare, like a.
I'll fuck you up.
I love this picture because I also imagine Jess of a even though I don't think it ever
says this in the book, I imagine her always having a cigarette in her hand.
Yeah, same like just even maybe one of those long Cruella DeVille like French.
(13:26):
Exactly what ran through my head situations.
Yes.
So with that same page.
And you know, I didn't even look to see if we get a description of what she looks like.
So, I don't know, we could both be way off.
I mean, that's possible.
(13:46):
I'm not entirely sure what the description was on her.
There was just always this like description of her vibe.
Yes.
And that's purely what drove me.
Agreed.
So then per your request, we have Aedas, Prince of the Chasm, who appears as a cat sometimes.
(14:12):
Mine is probably going to be pretty predictable, but I chose Tom Hiddleston, who is known for
playing Loki in the Avenger movies.
Maybe not quite as like in the full Loki get up, but the like long hair, kind of pale,
(14:37):
kind of broody.
That kind of thing.
I can see that.
I can see it.
I chose Christopher Mason because I got like a bad boy vibe from him.
Someone has a crush on Aedas, obviously.
I do.
(14:58):
Okay.
There is something about a Prince of Hell.
Okay.
Blasphemy.
God's going to strike me.
I love it.
Then I can be with Aedas.
So you're I mean, this is just I know you.
I know your book boyfriend type, so I'm not surprised by this at all.
(15:20):
But I can say that this guy is really hot and he's not my normal type, because I don't
normally do the like blonde, like pretty boy, pretty face type thing.
But he was in the motorcycle movie with Tom Hardy, who the name of this movie is Escaping
(15:45):
Me, but just came out like within the past year.
And he is like smoking hot.
And there's like this scene where like him and the like his love interest or whatever
have just met.
And he's like doing that thing from across the room while he's playing pool.
(16:09):
And I was just like, oh my gosh.
So this wasn't what I imagined, but I'm willing to go with it.
I'm totally willing to take this journey with you.
This is almost, almost a Jax Teller Sons of Anarchy vibe, which for some reason it just
(16:32):
it is what it is.
All the book girlies understand what it is.
That's all I have to say is long live Jax.
Say what you will about Sons of Anarchy.
To me, Sons of Anarchy is basically like a smut TV show.
They thought they were making it for the men.
They weren't.
It's literally just a dark romance come to life.
(16:53):
They totally were making it for us.
Agreed.
So this is our cast the book.
I love it.
Let us know what you think.
I want to do it one more time.
I think we have enough characters in this series to do it one more time when we get
to.
There's flame and shadow.
(17:14):
Her.
Her character Bible has got to be as big as the fucking book itself because.
The number of characters, the number of creatures, this little side characters that just show
up once or twice.
I mean, you've got to remember all that when you're writing.
So only imagine.
(17:35):
That character Bible has got to be like this can think well that not only that, but there's
like 15,000 years of history woven into this book.
It's insane.
Like the mind that created something like this is almost like Lord of the Rings mind.
(17:56):
I just need like.
One percent of that and I would just be so much better at life.
Yeah, for sure.
She creates her own language, like a full language like Lord of the Rings or Game of
Thrones.
I'll be fully sold on her on Moss, like in love with her because that's going to be if
(18:24):
she manages to do that.
She's going to be a legend.
I agree.
OK, so you have not read this before and.
I have some things because again, I know you that I feel like I.
I feel like I am expecting you to say about this book.
(18:47):
But I'm going to just tee it up for you.
We start this book in the prologue.
In the middle of an action scene in a different continent from.
The book we were just on.
(19:09):
And we have.
Two new characters.
We have Sophie Renas and Agent Silverbow and this gaggle of children.
We have this organization called Ophion.
And Peppas Peppas Spetzos.
(19:32):
All happening right there and just hits you right full frontal in the prologue.
I am just really angry that.
She once again, like she did in the first book, made you fall in love with the character
just to immediately fucking got them.
(19:57):
Why?
I don't know why.
Like I would have really loved to have seen more.
Of Sophie.
OK, this and then what she does later on in regards to Sophie throughout the first part
of this book.
This me off to because why?
Why was that necessary?
(20:17):
Are you talking about the issue alive?
Is she not alive thing?
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's rough.
It's totally rough.
So I kind of knew I digress.
You were getting dropped into a whole new layer of world building just when you thought
(20:41):
that you had the world like fully your head wrapped around it.
We have all these new we have.
What did I say?
I said Sophie Renas, we have her brother, Emil.
We have Agent Silverbow, Pippa Spetsos.
We also have.
(21:02):
The Hind and the Dreadwolves.
And I was thinking as I reread, I was like, that's what he's going to be so mad.
I just I need.
A template.
Of the terms.
(21:24):
In each book.
Granted, though, OK, after the first one, this information dump was not as bad.
Not by long shot, because we knew like the actual terms of the world, like the drop first
light.
You know, we understood the one thing I'm still not clear on now.
(21:46):
And call me stupid if you would like.
I would never care.
You might not, but they might.
But I don't care.
So they are in Lunathion, AKA Crescent City.
On the planet.
Of Midgard.
(22:08):
Yes.
Is Valbaran the continent they're on?
So Lunathion is.
That's not made clear.
Lunathion is on the continent of Valbara.
OK, and Pangera is another continent.
Where?
(22:29):
The Aseri live.
Here's where it confused me.
Here's why it confused me is because, for instance, Prince Roondan is.
Crown Prince of the Valbaran fey.
The prime is the prime of the Valbaran.
(22:50):
Correct.
But they're only presiding over the ones in Crescent City.
Correct.
Not the ones on the rest of Valbara.
So it didn't make sense to me why they were ruling over all of that when they're not actually
(23:13):
ruling over all that.
Why their title says they are, but they're not.
So it doesn't.
We don't really talk about any of the fey and other parts of Valbara.
But the way that I imagine it is that Crescent City is like the metropolis of.
(23:35):
The Valbaran continent.
And so there might be other like regions, but I think these leaders are still leaders
of those races or clans or whatever across this continent.
So would it be more like in our world since they're more like governors and in other parts
(24:00):
in other cities, they would be the mayor's, the Alphas or the.
Yeah, whatever.
I think so.
But that's a fair point of contention.
It kind of confused me there for a minute because the title didn't match with the behavior.
See what's more clear is the structure of the Asteri, right?
(24:27):
Are the the.
Top ones, right?
And then they have an archangel that governs over each.
They have it like split into regions, into territories.
And then the archangel has their triarii, which are angels.
(24:51):
And they make that much more clear, like which archangel governs over which territory and
all that.
I mean, all in all, they're all controlled by the Asteri.
So yes.
Nobody's decisions really matter in the end.
So then as I'm.
(25:14):
As I'm reading this, I get past the prologue and then we get to where in chapter right
there in chapter one.
We find out that Bryce and Hunt have made an agreement that they're going to wait until
winter solstice.
And I'm laughing as I'm reading it because I'm like, I know destiny is going to have
(25:35):
some shit to say about this.
Listen.
I would say that I am not a book whore.
OK, but that would be a complete fabrication of the truth.
(25:57):
I need the smut to happen.
In a romance book.
If I am reading a thriller or, you know, like Sherlock Holmes or Stephen King, I'm not expecting
smut.
OK.
But if you are going to put this much emphasis on a relationship romantically and then throughout
(26:19):
that, put sexual tension in the mix, you need to give the smut.
And you, Missy, promised me pickles.
I did.
We're going to get into this more in just a minute.
So whenever I read that in the opening scenes, I was I literally looked in my book, saw that,
(26:47):
closed it.
It was this bitch.
She lied.
I thought for sure we were going to get like some wild out there, something in the first
few chapters.
No, this is the slowest burn of all burns.
(27:12):
I feel like she did this to us intentionally.
I definitely went through all of these emotions whenever I read it the first time.
But I want to circle back to this conversation because I have I have questions for you when
it comes to expectations.
OK.
Oh, but before we get there, one of my favorite things about this series and Bryce's character
(27:43):
is her irreverence when it comes to pretty much everything.
And something that she says and brings up a ton in this book and in the next one, maybe
even more so in the next one, is when she says she's a super powerful and special magic
star born princess.
(28:05):
It's like I live for it every time she says it because she's like making fun of herself,
which I love.
But then her and hunt have that same sense of humor, which works so well for me.
The when they're at Runes house and runes like you should take the star sword like you're
(28:28):
the star born.
And she's like, I'll take it on weekends and holidays.
Don't worry.
And it goes and it'll get to winter solstices.
So double the presence.
I like died laughing.
I don't know why, but that was just hilarious to me.
And I love their little like witty banter back and forth all the time.
(28:50):
I loved that part, but I loved runes response to it even more when he looked at him and
was like, what the fuck is wrong with you all?
He was being so serious.
And they're just like.
And that is like a common theme throughout the book.
Those two will joke back and forth, making very light of a very horrible, serious situation.
(29:17):
And everyone just constantly looks at him and is like.
What is wrong with the all what is wrong with you?
Yeah, what is wrong with you?
It's my favorite.
So speaking of rune.
One of my favorite scenes with rune is the scene that opens up with rune and the fawn.
(29:41):
And she's basically writing his face.
Specifically, he talks about his tongue ring.
And I was very into this scene and I was disappointed that it got interrupted.
(30:02):
Like I totally would have loved to like continue it.
But I will go ahead and point out that this is smut here in this scene.
This is smut.
There is smut.
We're just not getting hunt.
(30:23):
Still no pickles.
And I'm going to reserve comment about the people because.
We'll just come back to it.
I have too much to say.
This part in the book.
Is a tick tock sound.
(30:44):
How it opens and he's like rune Danon knew three things.
And it was like he smoked too much mirth root.
He couldn't fill a space, which was a shame because there was a girl writing it.
It's a sound on tick tock.
That doesn't.
It's like I knew about this scene before I ever really even knew anything about Crescent
(31:07):
City.
This and then the sound of rune Danon crown prince of the barbell bar and fae.
And I only knew that one because that was a sound when everybody was getting it tattooed
on themselves.
OK, that's a bit.
Much your girl.
Hawk hates you did it.
(31:29):
Well, she's not the thing, but it's the first letter of each of those words.
She can do whatever she wants.
To be or herself, whatever she can do, whatever she wants.
Moving on.
I'm just here for runes tongue ring and then anytime in the book when it talks about him
(31:53):
playing with his lip ring, I see.
I totally swoon.
I don't know why it's just really hot.
I would like to know.
Even while I am reading and I imagine all of this happening, like I picture it like
a movie.
And I fixate when it mentions his lip ring.
(32:18):
My mind just stops on that still image.
I can't help it.
It's.
And I can't help but wonder what other piercings does rune have that we don't know about?
I can't help it.
(32:38):
This is why we're friends.
Or needs his own like director's cut side story of just I just want runes.
Can we just get some more runes?
Just like a pornographic book of rune.
Basically.
Yeah.
(32:59):
Is that so much to ask?
I see the appeal to rune and I see why all the girls swoon over him.
I still prefer hunt, though.
There's a hundred percent.
There's no one like hunt.
Yeah.
In my opinion.
(33:19):
I mean quite literally, he's got a one of a kind power.
So.
It's true.
And since we're talking about, you know, therein, we find out and it's like he's that toxic
guy that you like saw on the side that you just keep going back to in between boyfriends.
(33:45):
And his little backstory that we learned during this beginning part about how the reason that
he's like pretty much enslaved to the river queen is that he took her, her daughter's
(34:06):
virginity and now is like betrothed to her.
And that was like 10 years ago.
And he's like, I made a mistake.
Yeah.
I'm like, of course you did there.
And you just couldn't help yourself.
I mean, it took two to tango.
Yeah.
Well, don't.
Yeah.
But I just felt like you speak on anything about the princess down there.
(34:29):
This is this is something that endured, endeared, Therian to me, actually.
Like he's a brute and I kind of love him for it.
I can't help it.
He's I love his personality.
Yeah.
It reminds me a lot of Bryce.
I feel like he's more of her brother than room based on like personality.
(34:55):
They're just both goofy, flirty, can't take a serious conversation.
Yes.
They're counterparts.
I love it.
Yeah.
So something that makes me really angry.
And this is a theme throughout the book.
(35:19):
But we get a scene here at the beginning where it's the autumn king rune and Cormac, the
Avalon Fae Prince, and they are like an island.
Avalon is like an island separate from Panjera or Valbara.
And it's like this like misty isle that in my head remind wouldn't remind me of like
(35:47):
Ireland, except they're like, yeah, in the Stone Ages there, like they haven't advanced
with the rest of the world.
They chose not to progress in any shape or form, including women's rights.
And this is a recurring theme throughout this book.
But this scene made me so angry steam was coming out of my ears because the autumn king
(36:14):
is such a tool.
And her his one statement in this chapter, he says, Your sister has one value to me,
her breeding potential.
And I just.
Yeah.
I hate it.
He.
Yeah.
(36:35):
The worst.
Absolutely awful mill.
But I could be completely off base with this, but my mind constantly tries to theorize and
figure things out before they happen.
There's there's something up with him.
(36:58):
I don't know whether it's going to be good or bad, but there's something up with him
beyond his egotistical, you know, his kindness.
There's there's something up with him in regards to especially I thought about this later in
the book when they went to see the mystic.
(37:19):
They were talking about the astronomy, but all of his interest in the astronomy, how
he doesn't really converse with anybody.
And he's always in that study fiddling away with all that shit.
I could be way off.
I could be theorizing over something that doesn't even exist.
(37:39):
But there's more than meets the eye with him.
I just don't know if it's good or bad yet.
I think that's a fair.
I'm hoping I'm hoping it's something good.
I'm hoping there's going to be something redeemable because there have been.
Like little breadcrumbs of some type of humanity within him.
(38:03):
I will say just the characters overall.
I think something that's really compelling about them is that even when somebody is.
An evil, awful person throughout this book, we still get to see everything about them.
Like no real person is all one thing.
(38:26):
And I like that we get the human sides of everybody, even if they're not redeemable.
Some of them are.
Some of them aren't.
But there's still like little things there that it just adds to like the how robust the
characters are.
(38:47):
Yeah, for sure.
So you get your AIDAS crush, but I have a confession to make and I need you to just
hear me out.
(39:10):
But I have a crush on Baxi and Argos, the hell hound.
And we're definitely inundated with his reputation and how him and Pollux and the Hines and the
(39:30):
Harpy have all been these like big bad evil characters, but like Baxi and like he's an
angel, but he can shift into a hell hound and he's like.
Scary intimidating and I totally have a side crush on Baxi.
(39:51):
I will not judge you for this because I can definitely see it.
Yeah, I can.
And I feel like when it comes to him.
There's.
A part of me doesn't want to trust him because I understand the way that, you know, Moss
writes.
(40:12):
I also take what he says.
About not just because he didn't wear the band, the slave markings and stuff did not
mean that Sandriel didn't own him.
Yeah.
And I found truth in that just be just purely because.
(40:39):
Even if he didn't want to do those things, what he could never have said no.
He makes that's not an option.
Valid points and there's a lot of people throughout this first half that you're not sure if you
can trust them or and I don't know if we're just when you get to this point, you're just
(41:01):
because of the first book, you're like, I don't know.
I don't know who's going to be the bad guy yet.
So everybody's a suspect.
I was burned by Micah for sure, for sure, because I almost fell into a rabbit hole with him
right before all of it came out.
So I am very distrustful right now.
I cannot trust myself.
(41:22):
I just will say that I was really wanting to believe him from the get go.
Like there was just something about him and it was probably just because of the crush.
I mean, I felt the same way.
There was just truth to what he said.
Even if he didn't want to do all those things, he couldn't have said no.
(41:44):
There were a lot of people under her ploy that like hunt.
They didn't want to do it.
But what was the alternative?
They couldn't say no.
And had they have tried to rise and kill her, the Astor would have wiped him off the planet.
So and then imprisonment.
(42:04):
Your crush, Aedas, comes back and another sneaky little bastard, hilarious, even says
your cat's a sweetheart, by the way.
And like it's like a record scratch because everybody knows Bryce doesn't have a cat.
Yeah, I loved when she was like, that's not a cat.
(42:27):
And he spoke and Ethan's like, what the fuck?
And then he's.
Yeah.
I was petting the Prince of Hell.
The Prince of Hell was sitting in my lap.
Yeah.
He laughed so hard.
That would have been my reaction to it.
I would have been like, wait.
(42:48):
I touched it.
I touched it.
Yeah, this was and and then.
This scene to like we find we find out and I feel like this is pretty early for a reveal.
(43:08):
Because.
Because but we find out right at the scene that Agent Silverbow.
Is Cormac the Val and Faye.
And I don't know about you, but when I read this, I did not see that coming.
When I read that, my jaw physically hit the floor like my jaw actually dropped and I just
(43:34):
stared at the page.
It was like.
Ethan, there's so many moments of this book that make me laugh out loud when I'm reading
them.
Yes.
But Ethan playing with the Danica sword.
He breaks the coffee table.
(43:55):
And then.
I pictured this scene.
I pictured this scene of him, a grown man with a sword standing on a coffee table.
The door opens and he's just.
Frozen, sword out, frozen in place.
(44:17):
And then the coffee table cracks and falls.
And I love how she doesn't even check on him.
She's just like, what is all this on the floor?
Like.
Yeah.
Agreed.
So, OK, I think I'm ready to bring up the point that I've been wanting to talk to you
(44:37):
about since this discussion came up.
OK.
Now, we get another smut scene with Bryce and Hunt.
OK.
And they are sharing a bed because they've let Ethan have the guest room because he has
(44:59):
nowhere else to go so far.
And we get what I think is a fantastic blowjob scene.
Just my opinion.
One, I don't think we get enough of those.
(45:20):
I don't want to say this because I know you're going to clip it, but I'm going to go ahead
and say it.
But I'm a big fan of blowjobs.
OK.
I think they are really underrated and I think we should have more blowjob scenes in smut.
OK.
But what I want to know is, do blowjobs count as a pickle?
(45:46):
And if not, why?
No.
Short answer, no.
But it is close second.
For me in particular, there is nothing like the actual sexcapade smut scene, whether it's
(46:12):
making love or whether it's just fucking it.
It's different.
But what you're talking about, you're saying that it doesn't count unless there's penetration.
Yes.
I'm not going to say it doesn't count, but I'm saying it gets like half a point versus
(46:35):
a whole point.
OK.
Think of it like a needle.
It's moved to the yellow, but we're not in the red.
So here's my issue with that, is that there is so much pleasure to be had outside of penetration
(47:03):
that...
I'm not saying there's not.
Plus, his pickle was in the scene described on the page.
And I just think it should count.
That's all.
I'm trying to give an honest answer without it needing to be clipped from here and put
(47:29):
in the after dark discussion.
I knew this was going to go down this road.
I'm reading it and I'm like, OK, she's been saying you got to have a pickle or she's going
to riot in the streets.
And we get to this scene and I kind of figured that you were going to not count this, but
(47:52):
I really wanted to press this issue of like...
The pickle can be on the page, but if it's not penetrating, then it doesn't count.
OK.
Here's why it gets half a point and not a whole point in my book.
OK.
Yeah.
(48:12):
Well, yeah.
This may get cut from the original, like from what's getting posted.
But for instance, if I am listening to the pink app with the Q on it.
(48:37):
OK, sure.
It's not going to be this scene that completes my task.
OK, that's fair.
That's fair.
And it's not wrong.
That's not wrong.
Not to say that it wouldn't rile me up, but it would not be what completes the task.
(49:02):
It would just enhance for when that happens.
So that's very interesting because I am not that way.
I could complete my task with any of the above.
Anything on the menu.
It just has to be well done.
(49:22):
So here's what I will say.
I think despite the fact that we have not gotten to a technical pickle per Destiny's
definition, that these are pretty good sex scenes.
They are good.
They're well written.
I'm a fan of how they're written.
(49:43):
But we get immediately after this fantastic blowjob by Bryce.
Good job.
Apolion, the Prince of the Pit visits Hunt in his dream.
And it's terrifying.
(50:04):
I love how these characters that are supposed to be scary really do come across as like
super scary.
But we got another Prince of Hell and so I knew you'd want to talk about it.
Is there something wrong with me that I did not find him scary?
Probably.
I'm just kidding.
(50:27):
So far there's only one that freaked me out.
And I was at the Mystic and we didn't even see him.
But these two didn't frighten me.
I've got issues.
I think it was that Hunt was scared and Hunt's like not scared of anything.
(50:49):
That just made me switch from Hunt to him.
I have issues apparently with whoever is the strongest male in the room apparently.
I would totally watch them fight shirtless.
Hold on, I'm picturing it.
(51:15):
We get to meet shortly after this.
We meet Agent Daybright in Rune's mind.
So many theories.
Before we get to your theories, I just really like this whole setup, this whole way to get
(51:35):
to know this mystery character and the way that they can't see each other.
They can only talk.
They only have like each other's voice and their personality.
They're literally getting to know each other in their minds.
And it's just a cool dynamic and it's a cool mystery.
And I love their whole vibe, every interaction with them I look forward to.
(52:03):
I like how she calls him out on his shit.
And not in like a Bryce way, but in just a very serious like you're stupid if you're
going to share information like that.
Or they should put a bullet in your head for knowing that kind of information.
(52:23):
Like very blunt, very honest, but she's trying to like mold the novice with tough love.
Yes.
And I love it.
So let's hear some of your theories.
I want to hear a theory.
At this point where they meet, I had already started formulating who it could be.
(52:48):
And at this point I had thought, okay, it could be Hypoxia because he recognizes the
voice whenever he gets taken by the Reapers.
He recognizes it.
True.
Back up a little bit because I did in this first initial thing thought maybe it could
(53:09):
be the Hind.
Somebody we are not expecting at all.
Somebody who is very in tune with the story and very in tune with all of the tactics.
But I questioned that because of.
Sophie.
But then I had also thought about how Sophie was unchained.
(53:33):
So I was like, maybe she did it for show, allowing Sophie to run.
Yeah, to get away.
Maybe she like immediately went back and unlocked him.
But then when he's taken by the Reapers and he hears voice and recognizes it, I was like,
OK, not the high, maybe Hypoxia.
(53:54):
Then I also thought.
How do you pronounce my name?
Celestina Celestina Celestina.
I thought could be her.
So I was dividing between these two and then later.
And she's like pulled out of their mind bridge for some very rough.
(54:18):
Barely consensual.
We were spot on with one of those theories.
That was who I thought it was in the beginning.
I think this is a.
I don't know.
I love this stuff that she does where.
It's a very intentional mystery.
It's very like it's.
I don't know.
(54:38):
There's subtle mysteries.
There's surprises, but there's also these where you're like actively trying to figure
it out, which I think for the author puts even more pressure to like give hints, but
not give it away.
So then we have a scene that.
It's really well done.
(54:59):
It's very well written.
I did enjoy this.
The gym, the gym smut.
No pickle, not on the page.
There's no blowjob here.
This is all about Bryce's pleasure.
The actual sex description here.
(55:22):
The is really good.
It seems to me like hunt is really good at.
His job here.
Big fan.
However, I have a little bit of a problem with this scene.
I have a mixed feeling about the scene because they had been working out.
(55:50):
For a while.
Yeah, she even has the exact same thought.
She even makes a comment about.
She doesn't even want to think about what she smells like because she's been sweating.
And.
He totally goes down on her.
(56:10):
More than that, he sniffs it.
Yeah, which usually I'm fine with that, but like I wouldn't have been working out for
hours and we're at this concern and they have in height sense of smell.
I was stressed a little bit.
It stressed me out a little bit.
It was a little.
(56:31):
And he like at one point, I think he licks a drop of sweat off of her neck and like,
yes, like there's there's a hotness to that, but I can't help.
Maybe it's because I identify so much with Bryce.
I don't know, but I was just having a moment here where I was like, I would be so uncomfortable
(56:53):
if I were her.
I could deal with the licking of the sweat.
I could deal with sex after this, but him going down on her.
And the mentioning of the smell to point it out and knowing that they have a heightened
sense of smell and he literally sniffs it.
(57:15):
Yeah.
I something about that was maybe a little too grimy.
I feel like if the smell hadn't been mentioned, I might could have like put it out of my head
and not that was the fact that the character brought the attention to it.
That was my thought.
Exactly.
I was like, I realize this is probably like somebody's total cup of tea.
(57:39):
Like they're like here for this, but I don't know.
And maybe maybe I'm hung up on I don't know what, but.
Aside from that, the scene was great.
I liked call me a freak, whatever.
And I liked that the glass windows were there and all that was like hiding them or his wings.
(58:03):
Yes.
So there was still the fear that somebody could walk by and see it, but.
They wouldn't see anything.
So it was like that adrenaline of getting caught, but they couldn't really get caught.
Oh, and then the lightning's app.
I love when our fictional book boyfriends use their magic during the any kind of magic
(58:29):
shadow magic, you know, whatever.
But it just kind of I was like, oh.
I'd like to try that.
That my first thought was I wonder when he learned that first time a failed attempt.
Yeah.
Did he fry deep fry, you know, a coochie at some point when he first started trying to
(58:54):
do this back when the first time like when the the blowjob scene, I cracked up because
I was fully expecting.
Hunt because he when he was like, I'm just warning you, it's been a really long time
for me.
Oh, my.
I was really expecting him to have not been in with anybody since.
(59:20):
Shahar and then when he was like six months, I was like, oh, my God, hunt.
I thought.
I figured he had been with people after her because he was in St.
Charles command and Micah's command for like hundreds of years after that.
(59:42):
So I figured at some point he probably did somebody.
He seemed a little too experienced not to have.
But I didn't expect six months like.
It's six months really like even to us humans.
Going six months without it is not a full hiatus.
(01:00:07):
It's not like it's a long time, but at the same time, it's not a long time.
I can't respond further to this because it's going to go off the rails so fast.
I don't know for somebody who is immortal, essentially immortal.
Six months is a drop in the bucket.
(01:00:29):
That's true.
That's I mean, it's valid.
It just that our boy has a healthy appetite.
I thought it was funny when she came when he was telling her about the last time he
did, she gets jealous.
So she's telling him about the last time she did intentionally to make him jealous.
(01:00:49):
And then you hear and then the other room yell.
Yeah.
OK, that part was hilarious, too.
I loved it.
But I have to admit that there is a moment after the gym, they go back and they're talking
about she's like, it seems kind of weird to call you my boyfriend.
And they're having that whole conversation.
(01:01:11):
And she this moment that they had where they're discussing, like, are they mates?
I actually got choked up a little bit at this.
And I don't I get choked up.
I will even cry at a book.
But it's not usually the romantic parts that make me choked up.
(01:01:35):
It's usually like, you know, devastating, L'Habba, that kind of thing.
But I got choked up when she's like, I just want to make sure that the title of mate is
something that you're comfortable with.
And he says, of everything I've ever been called Quinlan, your mate will be the one
I truly cherish.
(01:01:57):
Stop.
Woon.
It was so, so sweet.
And he's like the big tough male, like he's not reciting poetry over here.
He's not that kind of book boyfriend.
Yeah.
I I loved this.
(01:02:17):
I really did.
I liked that she was finally open to that as well, because she's like never wanted that
ever at all.
OK, so then they decide that they're going to go get a hotel room.
Right.
And Hunt has these this romantic plans with rose petals and champagne and all this.
(01:02:46):
And immediately, I feel like you have to know if you've ever read, especially of Romanticie,
that they have these plans following a life or death adventure into the bone quarter.
And I'm like, that's so that's not likely.
(01:03:10):
Yeah, I know you're setting me up for failure.
I have absolutely no hopes of this sexy romantic evening happening because we all know some
shit's going to go down in the bone quarter.
This was I saw right through this one, even the first time.
I didn't expect the revelation that happens in the bone quarter.
(01:03:31):
Yeah.
Talk to me about that.
That.
That was disturbing.
Like.
Him eating them and sending their lights back into the gate.
Like, and then.
To want to eat Bryce and Hunt.
(01:03:56):
Also through me, like I assumed it was going to be dangerous, but I assumed like Reapers
like before we're going to try to snatch them.
I didn't think that the Underking himself was actually going to try to eat them.
Because.
Where does he get the authority to eat a princess like the Astor?
(01:04:17):
He would surely come down on him for doing something of that magnitude.
It's not like they're dead or they're just some random citizen.
Yeah, they're the third.
They're leaders of the 33rd and a fae princess.
It threw me.
I didn't expect that.
Yeah, the Underking really does not participate in the politics, though, of the rest of he's
(01:04:44):
like this mythical creature.
People could kill him.
I had a similar.
So the whole revelation with the Underking was kind of terrifying.
It was like, oh, and then you realize like Jezeba Roga has some sort of deal with the
(01:05:05):
Underking and it's like, how?
How could she have it like this guy is definitely not.
This secretly benevolent character.
Because I kind of thought, well, maybe the Underking is not as bad as it sounds like
he is because obviously Jezeba joined Flame and Shadow, but like.
(01:05:31):
He's not.
I thought I thought it most.
He was at the least neutral.
Sure.
Not good, not bad, just neutral, not even in a gray area, just straight up neutral.
Well, because like death is the great equalizer, right?
And he's the Underking, so I could see that.
(01:05:53):
Turns out no.
He's a creep.
So then we get the scene where Rune and Ethan are kind of trying to lay low because they
almost just got caught by Murdock with Cormac doing super secret rebel shit and the Hind
(01:06:22):
and the Harpy come in and they sit down to play poker with.
Ethan and Rune and the Hind clearly by some magic or power or knowing that she has.
(01:06:47):
Starts eviscerating Rune and Ethan with their like deepest darkest thoughts.
This was so savage.
This was such a savage moment.
Rune, I knew.
Could handle himself and.
(01:07:13):
When the Harpy tried to touch Ethan, I think we got another a new glimpse of him because
up to this point he was like this, you know, boyish charm, still kind of naive type guy.
But then the Harpy tries to touch him and he snatches her wrist and it's like.
(01:07:37):
You can look, but you can't touch.
Yeah.
And she says you break it, you buy it.
And he just throws her wrist and is like pass.
Pass.
He does.
I was like, oh, Ethan.
We get to see that there's an alpha in there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of shown through just a little bit.
(01:07:58):
Same with when Sabine had showed up at the apartment.
Yeah.
Yeah, we get to see it a little bit there, too.
Which it's like with Ethan, it feels like getting to see like your little brother grow
up.
You know what I mean?
Like it's exactly the vibe.
(01:08:18):
But it did break my heart a little bit when the high and just exposed him the way she
did with the revelation of Bryce.
I mean, it seemed kind of obvious, but it seemed more like a puppy love high school
crush kind of thing up to that point.
And then it's like, oh, it was so much deeper.
(01:08:40):
Mm hmm.
Just.
Oh, that's awful.
Crazy.
Yeah.
And then the guilt of it over his brother and it just.
Oh, that was heavy.
So things coming full circle here in this chapter, too, like I feel like a lot of our
emotions from Book One get brought in because this is all happening.
(01:09:04):
Meanwhile, Hunt and Bryce are like fighting for their lives in the bone quarter to get
out of there and not get eaten.
Yeah.
And the moment that Hunt realizes that he can use the gate to like channel power into
her, like he can pull from the gate and channel power into her.
(01:09:28):
And he says, light it up, Bryce.
I was like, oh my God.
No, you didn't.
He did, though he so did.
Yeah.
I think what I loved most about this moment, aside from the light it up, Bryce, was the
fact that when she had first gotten to the gate, it crossed her mind to do that, to siphon
(01:09:52):
more magic from it.
But she didn't have the balls to, but Hunt did.
And I loved that because throughout all of this, it's usually Bryce who has more balls
than anyone else.
For sure.
For sure.
And this is one of two times where Hunt had the balls to do something nobody else would
do, especially Bryce.
(01:10:12):
The first was him in the first book when he jumped in front of an actual fucking bomb.
Yeah.
And this, I laughed at this because I was like, damn, Hunt had more balls than Bryce
for once.
Yeah.
This was a cool scene.
It's kind of the first time we get to see them battling together.
(01:10:35):
And like, we're starting to experiment with this whole charge up thing that makes Bryce's
power work.
It was badass.
It really was.
The way that she just became a conduit.
(01:10:55):
I loved it.
It was creative.
Something that I think is a really cool juxtaposition as like a theme in this book, which ties into
like, my next point anyway, is that, you know, Bryce and Hunt, we talk about this slow burn,
(01:11:19):
but it's been a very respect, mutual agreement.
Like they, she said she wanted to wait and it was no question, no manipulating, no pushing.
He was like, okay, we'll wait.
Their whole like journey romantically or sexually has been like this symbiotic relationship.
(01:11:47):
But there's this other theme of like agent day bright and her mysterious counterpart
that is like, she's consenting.
She's saying yes to the sex, but she doesn't really want it.
(01:12:12):
And that's something that I don't think it's talked about enough because I've had this
experience where I've committed to sleeping with someone that I really didn't want to
sleep with.
And it's an icky feeling.
And I, we also see this, so we don't know who agent day bright is, but there's this
(01:12:33):
and that mystery person.
But then we get told it directly with Celestina too, which is basically her being bred with
Ephraim and it's just interesting to me how that theme has continued to like kind of be
(01:13:01):
woven throughout all of this.
I liked how it was a real representation of how sometimes it goes.
It's not rape.
It's not CNC.
It's an agreed upon thing, but your heart's not really fully in it.
(01:13:27):
You're just doing it for the sake of doing it.
And I feel like that happens to a lot more women.
And though it's not the actual act of rape or anything like that, it still sticks with
you.
You still just feel kind of gross afterwards.
And I have never heard somebody talk about it or greed, a way that it wasn't this book
(01:13:51):
agreed because there's this feeling that kind of goes with it where you blame yourself.
You're like, I just did that to myself.
Yeah.
And they are both in a position to not really refuse though.
I guess technically they could, but there's just so many more layers to that, that I think,
(01:14:20):
I don't know.
It was good to see it was, it was real, which I always appreciate.
I liked it.
It was subtly done, but it was very, very real.
Well, and then we have the whole mystic situation.
Yeah.
(01:14:40):
Which anytime, anytime there's a mystic, you know, like I always think about in the movie
300, the Oracle and how they're like these beautiful virgin creatures, but the actual
old men are like basically taking advantage.
(01:15:04):
And it's like this whole like icky situation.
This part like was all the ick, which it was supposed to, but then on top of that we meet
Thanatos, Prince of the Ravine.
And that one did give me the creeps.
He's scary as fuck.
The one Prince I would say no to.
(01:15:27):
Hard pass.
Hard pass on the, on the soul eating.
So obviously Bryce can't do anything right there with the mystic there and free them,
but I loved how Ethan later on went back and he tried to free the, what are they called?
(01:15:53):
The mystic in the tank.
Are they called the mystics?
I think so.
The wolf that's imprisoned in the tank.
Yeah.
And when she will voluntarily leave with him, he out of spite and because he's not going
to waste the trip to not free somebody snatches them.
(01:16:15):
When him and Declan and Flynn bust them open and there's these little fire sprites, so
cute and adorable.
And then one of them is a fucking dragon.
Yeah.
And they like almost, they lose their shit about it.
(01:16:37):
I loved everything about it and her response is just, he's going to kill you.
Yeah.
Like.
Well, and I just love this like Ethan Flynn and Declan.
They're like these three stooges, like y'all should not be short.
Y'all need supervision.
(01:17:02):
I loved it.
And was it Declan or Flynn?
I want to say it was Flynn that was flirting with the dragon.
Yes.
Fucking killed me.
Yes.
Because I think it read something like, I know she could change this form and kill me,
but.
I was like, dude.
(01:17:23):
Speaking of Flynn and Declan, I low key love Declan and Mark's little love story.
We don't get a ton on Mark in general, but he's around often enough to know that they're
in like a serious relationship and he's an attorney.
And I don't know.
I just love like Declan is like the computer nerd and Mark is like the lawyer-y type.
(01:17:49):
I don't know.
I love their little couple.
It's yeah.
It's the relationship you didn't know that you needed in a book.
It's just a little side quest situation.
Yes.
It adds to it.
So speaking of side quests, we then get Hunt's punishment from Celestina for bailing on her
(01:18:17):
the night of her engagement party or whatever.
So he's going to be stuck not being able to see Bryce for two weeks.
But which is like a whole nother like issue, but the phone sex scene.
That was hot.
(01:18:39):
It was.
And I am not a phone sex person in real life.
I don't know.
There's something awkward about it.
I'm going to plead the fifth on this one, but I will say that, I mean, I'm not saying
I haven't done it.
I'm just saying if I was going to rate like scenes I want to see, I don't know that that
would have made the list.
But this worked here because of the tension and the ongoing like.
(01:19:03):
Yeah.
It gave us just a little bit more, just a little bit.
So I'm going to just rush directly from the phone sex into sex in the biodome in an underground
city on a boat.
(01:19:27):
Hopefully you guys get a pickle just so everyone listening understands if you have not reached
this part, if you have not read the book or if you have read the book and you're just
as outraged as I am.
Over 1300 pages, you guys.
(01:19:47):
I fucking calculated it.
She did the math, y'all.
Over 1300 fucking pages.
And you finally get the scene.
Now I have to say that this is kind of like they're in this like garden biodome thing,
(01:20:19):
right?
And there's this almost like this like garden of Eden, Adam and Eve as kind of like scenario.
I don't know.
Something about this scene seemed like it should have been like a fresco on like a ceiling
somewhere.
Like it's very.
Yeah.
Not what I was expecting for their first time.
(01:20:42):
I thought it was good.
It's just bizarre of all the places to end up and all the finally we're finally doing
it.
That's just not what I had envisioned.
I Yeah, I agree.
(01:21:02):
I expected it to be like.
Like them.
Like a little like less fantastical and like ethereal and more grungy and raunchy.
Yes, it was definitely that.
Now I had also expected it to like.
(01:21:24):
I didn't expect the portaling.
I expected like the whole ship to fucking rock or some shit like tremble because of
the power culminating together.
That's what I was expecting when the scene started.
I didn't expect it to end where it did.
So I would like to have I would like to have an orgasm so fantastic that it causes me to
(01:21:50):
teleport to another location.
Yeah.
Because not gonna lie.
It's pretty impressive.
Sounds enticing.
And men sounds very enticing.
Wonder why they can't satisfy us.
All I want to do is be made to teleport.
(01:22:16):
In no way, shape or form do I expect any of the sex scenes in these books to be a reality.
I mean, that's why I read the books so that I can be a part of it within the book.
Yeah.
But it doesn't make you not hope that you randomly find out that your partner is like
(01:22:38):
a 500 old, you know, fae lord.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So true to my promise, I did not end you on a cliffhanger.
And I did not end us until we got the full.
(01:22:59):
Pickle.
I appreciated that.
I did like Rune and Daybright's because where we end is the ending of Chapter 47.
And right there is where Rune and Daybright.
They're just kind of being together on this mind bridge.
(01:23:23):
And I liked it.
It was like they.
I don't know, it was such a comfortable place at this point for them.
I love everything about this dynamic and the fact that they're meeting like on a soul to
soul level and all the pure, all the other stuff doesn't exist there.
(01:23:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love their whole thing.
I also liked that she told him a bedtime story while he laid in her lap.
Fucking adorable.
But I also thought it was hilarious that when she woke up, when he woke up, he went to go
(01:24:05):
try to look at her and she snaps awake and tells him the end of the story.
And it was like she turned into a monster and she killed them all and then walks away.
And I was like, I.
Love this bitch.
I do.
I do.
My spirit animal right here.
Yes.
(01:24:26):
I loved everything about that.
It was so good.
And it's like, you know, you can't too much sweet.
You know, is is is never as good as that little bit of spice right there at the end where
it's like the attitude, the whole, you know.
Yeah.
She was back to the cold woman she was in the beginning.
(01:24:50):
Because he overstepped a boundary.
He tried to get a glimpse at her.
And that is a no, no.
Yeah, that's against the rules.
So he kind of deserves that.
Yeah.
Plus, it was a really good end to that story.
Yeah.
I mean, I was down for it.
(01:25:11):
He.
But that is a wrap for this episode.
As always, thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed our take on this steamy book and we will see you all next week on
a novel affair where we will be discussing part two of Crescent City's House of Sky and
Breath.
(01:25:33):
Don't forget to head over to our podcast to listen to a full breakdown of this book and
many others with spoilers and discussions.
You can find that link in our comments.
Be sure to like and follow us on social media and hit that subscribe button before you go.
We'll see you all soon.
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