October 24, 2024 • 60 mins
Have you ever wondered what would happen if Dracula's brides plotted his downfall? Join us as we discuss A Dowry of Blood. We first ponder what makes a special edition book truly special. We dive into the vibrant world of special edition book releases and explore what fuels our excitement for these modern retellings and captivating collections, promising listeners a feast for their eyes and imagination.
Get ready for a deep dive into the world of fantasy and fandoms as we chat about the new Hunger Games prequel focusing on Haymitch's untold stories. Plus, we're gearing up for the Dance of the Dragons event in Orlando, where market-style setups and intimate author interactions await. Ruby Dixon's enchanting reads take center stage as we share our admiration for her storytelling prowess and stunning book editions that have captured our hearts.
We shift gears to a spirited discussion on S.T. Gibson's A Dowry of Blood, where the dusty velvet ambiance leaves us craving more depth and innovation. The conversation doesn't shy away from exploring the complex interplay of romance and spice, touching on themes of manipulation and connection. We wrap it up with a quick discussion on what our favorite book or show was for the previous month. Engage with us as we explore these varied and rich topics, inviting listeners to share thoughts and feedback on our picks and insights.
- Links from the News Segment and Show:
- Special Edition of Dark Olympus by Katee Robert
- Link to Backerkit
- Books will be hardcover with reversible dust jackets, linen covers, and special edges. The set will come in a foiled slipcase.
- It will release on 03/03/2025
- LitJoy Crate special edition of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
- Link to LitJoy Crate
- October 23, 10am MT - Lunacorn EARLY ACCESS sales open for preorder
- October 24, 10am MT - Public sales open for preorder
- Estimated Ship Date - Spring 2025
- 4 new Kindle models recently released
- New Hunger Games Book - Sunrise on the Reaping
- https://amzn.to/3YaqYIu
- Releases 03/18/25
- Dance of the Dragons event in Orlando
- https://www.alluxiaevents.com/dragons
- Nov 22 and 23rd
Follow us:
Instagram - @ofswordsandsoulmates
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ofswordsandsoulmates
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ashley (00:00):
Views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the
participants.
The hosts make no claim to beliterary experts and their
opinions are exactly thatopinions.
All creative works discussed orreviewed are the intellectual
property of the creators of saidstories and is being used under
the Fair Use Doctrine.
Mari (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.
Kelly (00:37):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly and of course, we have Ashley.
Ashley (00:41):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Jonathan (00:44):
What's good everybody.
It's JP, hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Mari (00:47):
What's good everybody.
It's JP, all the energy, jpwith all the energy, everyone's
energy.
Yeah, today we're going to bediscussing A Dowry of Blood by
ST Gibson, but first we're goingto go over some news.
As always, I've got a good.
Yeah, there's a good bit ofnews today.
There's a lot going on.
(01:09):
First thing is it's a littleways out, but Katie Roberts has
released that she's going to bedoing a special edition of the
Dark Olympus series, which isthe Neon Gods books, which I
think John and Ash, I think youguys got me for like birthday
Was it birthday one year orChristmas or something?
(01:29):
You guys got me hooked onto it.
I remember that.
Yeah, whatever it was, Iremember it was you guys.
So they're they're spicy, likea Greek God retelling and it's
kind of in a modern day settingand it's a little bit of almost
kind of like mobster kind ofvibes to it instead of it being
(01:53):
like Greek family.
Anyway, it's good for anyonewho that sounds interesting for
I would recommend they're funbooks.
But there's this really prettyspecial edition coming.
She released some images of it.
It's going to be the first fivebooks that will be released in
this campaign.
It's done through backerkitcom.
They're going to be hardcoverswith reversible dust jackets,
(02:15):
linen covers and special edgesin a foiled slipcase.
The artist like.
The cover design is by EastOaks Creative, the step back art
is by Isabel Bartnicki and thereversible dust jackets are by
Vedder.
It's really pretty.
It's really like got a lot ofbling to it.
A lot of gold foil.
It's got like a 1920s lookingvibe to it.
Jonathan (02:37):
It looks pretty cool.
Mari (02:39):
Right, like a little Great Gatsby kind of thing.
It will be released on March3rd of 2025.
And you can go on the link thatwe'll include in our show notes
and like sign up for emailstuff from them.
So it'll be a little bit beforeall that's ready to buy.
They don't have even prices oranything on there yet, but I was
(03:01):
just.
I thought the artwork wasreally pretty.
I thought it was really abouttime that that series got some
kind of special version orsomething, because there aren't
any that I know of for thatseries, I think.
Am I the only one who's readthat series, or have you read
any?
Ashley (03:14):
I read the first one and it was good.
It was spicy, it wasinteresting.
Mari (03:17):
I definitely liked the version right of the
quote-unquote greek gods yeah,that was that was a fun little
twist yeah, I think the thepsyche, is it psyche and arrows
story?
Ashley (03:33):
uh-huh I think that's my favorite one I think that's
book two right so far yeah, yeah, that's probably right.
Mari (03:39):
So I think book two is probably my favorite, but I'm
not.
I think there's seven or eight.
I I'm two books behind, so I'veread like the first six, I
believe.
But they're fun, they're goodbooks.
I'd recommend them.
The other thing I saw, which Imessaged Ash immediately upon
seeing it is that Lit Joy Crateis doing their special edition
(03:59):
of the Stolen Air by Holly Black.
So this is the Stolen Airduology.
It's the two books that cameafter the Folk of the Air series
, the Cruel Prince series thatwe've talked about before.
They're doing the specialedition version of this and this
is going to be their specialedition version.
That's just it's going to matchtheir, the Lit Joy Crate Folk
(04:19):
of the Air edition, which is areally pretty edition of the
Cruel Prince books.
So it's going to be in thatstyle.
The second one in the duologywill be available in 2026.
It's going to be $45.
It's going to be available forpre-order with, like, the Lit
Joy Crate people on the 23rd,then everybody else on the 24th
(04:42):
of October Sorry, october andthen there'll be shipping in
spring of 2025.
It's not going to be anoriginal.
It's not going to be signedlike original signature.
It's going to be a digitalsignature but it's going to have
annotations in it and reallycool like artwork and tip in
artwork and end papers and allthat good stuff.
It looks like a really prettyedition.
Jonathan (05:02):
It does, it does.
Are those the images that I'mseeing on that page for the
joycratecom?
Is that the tip-in pages?
Is that what we're?
Mari (05:12):
I believe so.
Yeah, because there's threedifferent tip-in pages.
And there's the endpapers too.
So, like, the first few imagesare going to be the endpapers on
, like the inside covers, andthen the last three images are
going to be the tip-in pages andthey're done by different
artists.
So cover art is done by TimBaran, the endpapers are by
(05:32):
Annalise Jensen, the tip-inartwork are by Bohemian Weasel,
Janifia and two others.
Jonathan (05:40):
I like the cover art the most.
Mari (05:42):
Yeah, I don't know I'm torn.
I like the cover art and I likethe cover art the most.
Yeah, I don't know I'm torn.
I like the cover art and I likethe end paper art.
I think the end paper art iswhat I saw for somebody reposted
or something and it really likecaught my attention.
Jonathan (05:53):
It reminds me of Prince Charming.
Mari (05:57):
Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah, I can definitely see that.
Yeah, I was very excited when Isaw that, because those are
really pretty editions.
The other thing I think youbrought to the game, jonathan,
was the news of the fourdifferent new Kindle models that
have been released recently,including the first color Kindle
(06:19):
, like the ColorSoft.
The Scribe, the Paperwhite,like the faster version of the
Paperwhite, and then the compactKindlele and matcha, which I
know lots of people were talkingabout the little one and I and
I heard some people talking Iwas thinking about a kindle.
Jonathan (06:30):
Do you know?
Like, so if you were, if youwere telling a stranger, hey,
you have four kindle choices andthey're like hey, here's what I
want to use my kindle for.
I'm going to have it just tomaybe try to read it, but I'm
not sure how often I'll use it.
I also have big meat hooks forhands.
Which one would you tell themto do?
Ashley (06:52):
I have the answer oh shit, Go for it the stranger,
for the stranger to ask his wifeif he can have her used kindle
and tell the stranger to buy afancy new one for his wife.
That will use it.
That is the correct answer sothen the real answer to this
(07:16):
question is ash, which one doyou want?
When this, when these droppedthe other day, I was like I do
not need a kindle.
I do not need a kindle.
I do not need a 300 color softkindle it's like 280 bucks.
Yeah, I'm rounding up, thereare taxes, there are taxes.
(07:37):
Yeah, so you should buy me thepretty one and you can have my
old one just so you know.
Jonathan (07:44):
The pretty one that I, the one that I think is pretty,
is this like sage looking, oneon the hand, the macho one it'll
this one.
Mari (07:50):
What's the difference?
I don't know.
Little is a little, I guess Idon't have.
Jonathan (07:53):
I don't have a good idea of size.
Mari (07:55):
Okay, so measured it with yeah, how do you feel about like
, like, if you take like more orless like a standard paperback,
you know, like a paperback book, how do you feel about that
size?
Ashley (08:04):
I don't know that you have standards.
Jonathan (08:07):
Yeah, you're right, I have no standards.
You don't have standards,ashley.
That's why you're with me.
Ashley (08:10):
That's why we got married.
I know.
Jonathan (08:12):
Is this a standard paperback?
Ashley (08:13):
Yeah, that's probably decent.
Jonathan (08:14):
Okay, yeah.
Mari (08:30):
I like the size white, so maybe I'm partial to that, but
to me that paper book size,paperback size, is a good size.
It's easy to read from, it'seasy to turn pages, it's easy to
hold in one hand, even with mynot that large hands, but it's
also not so small that yourfingers are getting on top of
each other.
The thing about the Matcha, theCompaq one it's really not much
bigger than most people's phone.
(08:51):
In which case, why don't youjust use the Kindle app?
Jonathan (08:53):
on your phone.
Mari (08:53):
That's a good point.
So I would say at least thePaperwhite Now for you.
I know you like doing digitalnotes, so the Sbe has the
ability to do digital noteswhere you can write stuff on
there and keep it as digitalnotes, which I know is a thing
you can't do that on thepaperweight.
Ashley (09:11):
That's interesting, you can type notes on the
paperweight.
You can get all in it.
Jonathan (09:14):
Yeah, and highlight I wonder if I so.
I have a remarkable tablet.
Mari (09:20):
I wonder if I can use that to do it, because you can yeah,
to me the scribe is the mostlike the Remarkable tablet which
I know you have and like.
Ashley (09:28):
But can he read on the Remarkable?
Mari (09:30):
Probably I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
You need to find out, I think,if it has a way for you to
receive email.
Like to receive email to it,because I know that with Kindle,
my understanding, this is how Iget like, not the books off
Amazon, but like when you buy abook, like.
I just kickstarted the SaplingCage and part of that was
(09:50):
getting a like ebook or whatever.
And so anytime for me, likemost of my ebook stuff I get
from Amazon.
I mean hate to name drop, but Ijust do because that's, that's
it's Kindle limited, et cetera.
But I kickstarted the SaplingCage by Margaret Killjoy and you
(10:12):
get the physical book in themail and then you get the e-book
.
So I got the e-book and thenyou have to email the e-book
file to a specific email address, and that email address is
associated with my paperweight.
So my thinking would be, if youcould do that with the
Remarkable I assume it'd be thesame way that you would have to
like, is there an email addressassociated with the Remarkable
tablet?
That?
Jonathan (10:31):
you can use.
There is.
It says it doesn't supportKindle books but it supports,
like EPUB and PDF.
Mari (10:38):
Okay, yeah, so you wouldn't necessarily be able to
use Kindle books, but if youcould get an EPUB version of it,
that might be a way to do it.
I don't know.
I don't know how cumbersomethat is.
I'll tell you, I like my paperwhite.
I would check into the scribecapability because you like that
.
Or, to be honest, I would buyAsh the color soft and I would
use whatever she has.
That's my marriage advice toyou.
Jonathan (10:59):
I will pencil that in.
Ashley (11:06):
Kelly agrees Kelly, what would you?
Kelly (11:07):
do.
Happy wife, happy life.
I believe in the slightlyannoyed wife amusing life.
Ashley (11:12):
Amusing but not happy, Not guaranteed.
Jonathan (11:16):
I like to live on the edge, dangerously close to the
edge.
Kelly (11:20):
What are you going to read on the Kindle?
Are you just going to readtextbooks and that's it, or are
you going to read anything elsethat has pictures?
Mari (11:26):
diagrams.
You can accept pictures.
Kelly (11:28):
Yeah.
Mari (11:29):
Graphic novels, manga, comic books.
Kelly (11:32):
I picked up an Amazon Fire tablet used like
refurbished, used clearance offof Woot for like $70.
And it has a color screen.
It's like the size of an iPad,so it's heavier than like a
Kindle, but I can read regularbooks on it and I can look at
(11:53):
medical textbooks that havepictures and drawings and
elaborate diagrams and stufflike that.
Ashley (11:59):
You've got like five Amazon.
Kelly (12:00):
Fires, I do have five Amazon.
Ashley (12:02):
Fires.
Jonathan (12:02):
Behold it.
Kelly (12:03):
Then just use your Amazon Fire tablet with the Kindle app
on the Fire tablet.
Ashley (12:07):
Problem solved.
I'm going to try that I'm goingto test drive that.
Good job Kelly.
Kelly (12:11):
I mean, you really don't have to buy anything.
The only reason to buy thecolor Kindle is if you just want
the form factor of the Kindleitself, it being very small,
very light and being able to seecolor on it.
But my thing is the diagrams.
I would need to look at, thepictures I would need to look at
(12:32):
, or if I was reading a graphicnovel or a comic book or a manga
, it would only show one panelat a time or I would have to
constantly be zooming in and out.
So I don't know that I wouldget much use out of the color
Kindle.
Mari (12:46):
So there's some advice, depending on what you're wanting
to use it for sounds good thenext little bit of news is for
ash.
The new hunger games book hadits little cover and date
release.
It's going to be haymitch'sgames, so we're going to find
out his story.
So many things I know.
Sunry sunrise on the reapingwill release march 18th of 2025.
(13:10):
It'll be interesting because hewas traumatized yeah, I want,
yeah.
Ashley (13:18):
There I have so many thoughts.
I just you kind of wonder if hewas, you know as surly before
his games right was he?
Was he more honorable?
Was he more charming?
Because you kind of see itright underneath the layers of
trauma and alcoholism yeah it'sdefense walls, right, right I'm.
(13:42):
I think this is the story thatfans have wanted for a very long
time, because I could care lessabout President Snow's
upbringing, right, that meantzero to me.
I read the whole book and Iforgot it immediately.
It meant absolutely nothing tome.
I appreciate the parallels,right, and I think Suzanne
Collins is actually a very goodwriter, even if it's slightly
(14:03):
world building, but it's notmind boggling and it's not it's
weight and it's emotional butnot weight in that you know,
it's 700 pages per book.
Yeah, I remember being like,like chemically changed after
reading the Hunger Games as anadolescent.
So I'm, as an adult who has anappreciation for current age,
(14:25):
hamish attitude and, you know,response.
I'd really like to see himbefore his games and during his
games.
You know what changed him somuch.
Jonathan (14:39):
Death, having to kill people.
Mari (14:41):
Lots and lots of death.
Ashley (14:43):
Well, and it was a quarter quell right.
So more than just average death, so much death.
Mari (14:51):
Yeah, I think it'll be interesting book for sure.
And then the last thing I haveis the Dance of the Dragons
event in Orlando that we kind ofjust found out about.
It's happening on the 22nd and23rd and it's being done by a
Luxia events and it's basicallylike a market kind of thing.
During the day I don't thinkthere's any panels, but it's
(15:13):
really like a market.
There's some book relatedvendors there and there's some
authors there, but it's not abook event per se, it's kind of
a fantasy event and then theyhave like a ball.
I don't know if it's both daysor one days, we're just going to
be going to the market.
I basically found out about thisbecause an author that I follow
(15:33):
happened to like post about itthat she was going to be there
and be in Orlando, and I'm like,wait, what is this?
So Paige Lavoie, if anyonereads her stuff, she's going to
be there.
She wrote I'm engaged toMothman.
I'm sorry, I'm in love with theMothman, and then I'm engaged
to Mothman, and then third oneis I'm getting married to
Mothman.
So she wrote that littletrilogy of books which are cute,
(15:58):
little fun books.
But yeah, I think we're allgoing to be there, right, except
for Kelly?
Are you guys are going Ticketspot?
Yeah, so we'll be there.
So if you're there or if you'regoing to be going, say hey.
Jonathan (16:11):
I'm looking at some of these vendors here at this
Dance of the Dragons.
Mari (16:16):
Dance of the Dragons.
Jonathan (16:17):
Yeah, there is, this is a nice twist, a good mix of
authors.
Stuff what is this wild shapedpottery?
I think we're gonna have tokeep Ashley away from that.
We're gonna have someinterestingly shaped plates.
Mari (16:32):
Acrylic picks is gonna acrylic picks.
I think it is the ones thatthey did the Crowns of Niaxia
special edition books.
They're gonna be there.
Kelly (16:42):
I can never say their name acrylic picks yeah, they'll
be there.
Ashley (16:46):
I can never say their name Acrylipix yeah, they'll be
there, this definitely gave meExpo vibes right and I feel like
that's kind of what we weremissing at the BookCon.
Not that we didn't love theBookCon, because I think we
raved about it, but this onedefinitely seems like a
marketplace Like we were goingto the swap shop down in Fort
Lauderdale.
You know what I mean, likewe're going to be busy, we're
(17:06):
going to need both days, I think.
Mari (17:09):
Yeah, well, and that's the thing with like that we talked
about already.
But like about the romancything is like you, I felt like
you had to split your timebetween do you want to interact
in the market and with theauthors and the vendors, or do
you want to take do panels,because it's all happening at
the same time and you've got topick and choose.
So something to be said aboutit.
All we can do there is themarket stuff, so you can
(17:30):
concentrate on it.
Oh, Mari, you know what I gotthe other day in the mail Made
me think of you.
Jonathan (17:36):
Where did I put it, Ashley?
Ashley (17:37):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Jonathan (17:39):
I got the bull sex book.
You did.
Mari (17:42):
The bull sex book you did.
You didn't show it to me.
Bull Moon Rising.
Jonathan (17:46):
Yes.
Mari (17:47):
I don't know why that made you think of me other than it's
Ruby Dixon.
I do love her.
Jonathan (17:54):
It's a very lovely book.
Ashley (17:54):
You didn't show it to me .
Jonathan (17:56):
I'll show it to you, Ashley.
It is a beautiful book.
Ashley (17:57):
You look busy with your headset.
How the heck did I put it?
Now, Ashley?
I don't know.
I'm telling you I didn't see it.
Mari (18:03):
It's so sparkly you should be able to find it with your
eyes closed.
Ashley (18:07):
It is definitely not on that bookshelf.
Jonathan (18:09):
I'm going to stand up.
You guys talk amongstyourselves for a moment.
Ashley (18:12):
This is the ADHD kicking in.
Must problem solve.
Mari (18:16):
Oh hey, how about I read another Ruby Dixon book?
Last time we talked I had onlyread her Ice Planet Barbarian
books, but I read my first RubyDixon book.
Sorry, my phone was talking tome.
Ashley (18:28):
I read your first Ruby.
Mari (18:29):
Dixon book.
Yeah, that was one of herfantasy stuff.
It's called the Worst Guy.
It's like a fantasy kind ofvibes, completely blanked out on
the name.
Kelly (18:41):
Yeah.
Mari (18:41):
Worst Guy.
It's called Worst Guy.
It's a little bit of likegladiator slave kind of person
and somebody who's trying torehab him and then their little
interaction in basically afantasy type setting like a
village kind of thing.
It was a good little story.
Her writing style is similar towhat it is on the Ice Planet
(19:01):
Barbarians.
So if you liked Ice PlanetBarbarians I would recommend her
other stuff, her fantasy stuff.
I think you'd enjoy that too.
Ashley (19:08):
Is Ruby Dixon like a little old lady with curlers in
her hair?
That's how I envision her.
If she's young or middle-aged,I would be disappointed.
Mari (19:16):
I really think she's on the younger end of middle-age.
I think she's youngermiddle-age.
I think she's younger than me,I don't know.
I mean like younger middle-aged, I think she's younger than me,
I don't know.
I mean, I could also tell frompictures.
Ashley (19:25):
I I want to live her life, but in my head I hear ruby
dix.
You know the, the image thatyou get with the ice planet,
barbarians, and I just hope thatshe's a little old lady writing
these love monster alienstories for funsies on the
weekend and it just happened toblow up.
Jonathan (19:40):
She's written so I don't have it on the screen if
you can see it there.
But what really got me goingwas when I opened it up.
Ashley (19:48):
Oh, there's a picture.
Jonathan (19:49):
Yeah, there's pictures .
Oh, it's pink.
It's a very lovely pink, eventhe spine Like Barbie pink it is
.
I'm going to bedazzle it thisweekend.
Ashley (19:59):
You're going to bedazzle the book, yeah.
Jonathan (20:06):
You're not going to keep the book.
You're not going to keep thebook.
Cover on the book.
Yeah, I think it's just.
Uh, I don't even know what's inthe book in terms of like if
it's a good read or not, butwe've officially corrupted him.
Ashley (20:11):
He bought it because it was pretty.
I definitely yeah one of us.
Can I touch it as we reachacross?
Jonathan (20:18):
sorry guys all good there.
Yeah, that's um it's.
I think it's a love.
That's quite a lovely book II'm excited to I think you will
like her writing style.
Mari (20:27):
Yeah, I think you'll like her writing style because she's
spicy.
It's not like her languageisn't super verbose or super
hoity-toity.
There's a place for all that insome stories.
I'm not criticizing anybody whouses that kind of language, but
Ruby Dixon's feels more like aconversation amongst friends,
almost like somebody's tellingyou a story, somebody you know.
(20:50):
You know it's kind of tellingyou a story, but she does a
really good job at making hercharacters very I don't know if
I would say human, because notall of them are human, but very
like relatable yeah, yeah, thatcame in yesterday, so I'm very,
I'm very it's on the TBR Islated for sometime in the
future, I'm sure.
Cool, you have to tell me whatto think.
(21:11):
I know it's on my TBR, butthat's the ever-growing TBR.
Jonathan (21:16):
You might get to it before I do too.
I got gems for the bedazzling.
Don't get here till tomorrow,so it'll be a long Are you not
going to?
Mari (21:25):
read it till you Are you going to bedazzle it first and
then read it?
Jonathan (21:27):
Yeah, I can't read and bedazzle at the same time,
unless I'm listening to the book, which I could do.
I think I have an audio too.
Mari (21:34):
It's a thought.
It's a thought, all right.
Any other new stuff?
I don't think so.
I, I don't think so.
I think you covered it, okay,kelly?
No, okay, all right.
So let's get into the book thatwe're reviewing and talking
about today.
It's A Dowry of Blood and Iswear in my head I kept saying a
(21:57):
diary D-I-A-R-Y, but it isdowry D-O-W-R-Y, two completely
different words.
Important distinction dowryd-o-w-r-y two completely
different words importantdistinction, very important
distinction.
Yeah, so a dowry of blood.
We chose this becausehalloween's coming up and it's
vampires, and vampires andhalloween go together well and
(22:18):
it it was pretty well reviewed.
Um, I remember hearing peopletalk about it last year and the
year before and it's been on mylist for a little bit.
I know Let me read the synopsisand a little bit about it and
then we can get into talkingabout it.
Sound good.
Jonathan (22:35):
Sounds great.
Mari (22:36):
All right.
So here's the synopsis.
This is my last love letter toyou, though some would call it a
confession.
Love letter to you, though somewould call it a confession.
Saved from the brink of deathby a mysterious stranger,
constanta is transformed from amedieval peasant into a bride
fit for an undying king.
But when Dracula draws acunning aristocrat and a
starving artist into his web ofpassion and deceit, constanta
(22:59):
realizes that her beloved iscapable of terrible things.
Finding comfort in the arms ofher rival consorts, she begins
to unravel their husband's darksecrets, with the lives of
everyone she loves on the line.
Constanta will have to choosebetween her own freedom and her
love for her husband.
But bonds forged by blood canonly be broken by death.
Jonathan (23:20):
That sounds about right yeah.
Mari (23:24):
So what do we think?
Non-spoilery overview.
What do we think?
I'll go first.
I don't mind going first Okaygood.
So I may have suffered fromoverinflated expectations.
I kept hearing how great thiswas from multiple YouTube people
and Instagram and everythingthat I follow and usually can
(23:47):
rely on pretty well for bookrecommendations and you guys, as
I've said before multiple times, I love me a vampire story and
this is like a Dracula story andthis felt like it was going to
be this like feminine rage,feminist rage kind of story.
So, with all that in mind, Ifeel like it was very little of
that and I thought that thecharacters were underdeveloped,
(24:14):
that the world wasunderdeveloped, and I think that
this would have been a reallygood like short story maybe, or
novella.
That's the level of how much itpulled me in for me.
So for me, I gave it two starsoverall.
Ashley (24:28):
Ash, I would agree.
I think two is about where Ilanded and it wasn't any one
thing.
I think, like you said, it wasjust slightly underwhelming for
a vampire story.
I appreciated the littledetails we got right from her
perspective.
To your credit, in theidentification of the title it
(24:50):
did read like a diary, not adowry.
I think it would have made amuch better miniseries.
This felt almost like a TVscript even.
Mari (25:01):
It would have been a really interesting TV script,
but like keeping the mysteryelement of it, yeah, yeah, so
yeah, I would agree with it too,jonathan.
Jonathan (25:10):
Oh, so yeah, I, I just it's.
Hmm, there's a lot of nonthought there, but thoughts at
the same time in the backgroundof my brains.
It was not, it was, it was notmy favorite style and I think
that kept.
That drove a wedge betweenmyself and the story.
(25:31):
Like I, I felt like I was I.
I couldn't connect with it.
I like a contemporary settingand this, right off the bat,
wasn't there and then it just itfelt it felt like more about
tone for you, though not settingit felt like dusty velvet.
That makes it like dusty redvelvet furniture is what I felt.
Ashley (25:52):
The entire you were synesthesia is that what it is
well, synesthesia is like whenyou hear something but you
associate it with like a coloror a feeling or something like
that oh, okay so yeah, likesynesthesia, this book felt like
dusty, velvet, like an antiqueshop yeah, yeah, it felt like a
dark, maybe almost like mustardwall wallpaper like dracula yeah
(26:15):
, but then like dusty, like realdusty, red velvet like cushion
with like wooden clawfootfurniture kind of thing, just a
real like, almost like must mustbe bedding the vibe.
Jonathan (26:29):
I was getting there.
So I was like, and when I gotonce that image was in my head
and then the words, the audiostuff that was coming through,
it was just like, hmm.
So if I had to give it anoverall, it's a challenge to me,
cause once I have that mentaldisconnect, it is really hard to
get it to come back.
And as the story progressed Ithought maybe we would lean
(26:50):
towards a more contemporarystyle and it just didn't happen.
I was just, I was hanging onfor in that hope and it didn't
hit for me.
So I think, no, I don't want tohurt anyone's feelings, but
this was for me as well.
Mari (27:08):
Yeah, and all of this is just our opinions and that
doesn't like none of us havewritten a book and not every
book is for every person.
Like none of this is a diss onthe author at all.
It's more just like a.
This is what this book was like.
If anyone's interested in it,this is what you will or won't
be getting into.
You were talking about thestyle it was written in.
It's basically an epistolarystyle, which is kind of like
(27:30):
what the dracula like theoriginal dracula was written in
it's.
It's the idea of like someonewriting letters.
The story is told throughletters or diary entries or
things like that, like newspaperarticles.
It's that kind of storytellingand this whole thing was written
like a letter.
Basically, kelly, what did youthink?
I?
Kelly (27:45):
mean I agree with her, with all of you guys.
I think it was a two at best.
I think the story was very.
There was a lot ofincohesiveness to the story, to
the way it flowed.
I think there was a lot ofissues with how the characters
were not very well developed,especially anyone other than the
(28:05):
main character.
The idea of this being arevenge on Dracula kind of story
, told from the perspective ofthe brides, is interesting, but
I think in the end it justdidn't work.
Mari (28:21):
Yeah, okay, anything else we want to say before we get to
the spoiler part, we can talk alittle more.
Ashley (28:28):
No, we're here for the spoilers.
Mari (28:31):
All the spoilers.
All right, kelly hit it.
Kelly (28:33):
All right, dear listener, from this point forward, we're
going to be discussing spoilers,so if you do not want to be
spoiled on this book, it's timeto skip to the end or come back
after you've read the book.
Mari (28:47):
All right, anything you guys want to add you got some
spoil you want to.
Ashley (28:49):
You want to spoil some stuff for people I don't know
about spoil like she wants toruin a good moment no, I just I
really think this would havemade a really great mini.
You know tv series likebridgerton, you know what I mean
.
Like I get the vibes.
The intent was there.
This, the storyline didn't suckit.
I just don't think it wasenough.
Mari (29:09):
World building, like I think, to see it from one
person's perspective solely in adiary entry is is a tough read
yeah, I mean, since youmentioned like the world
building, like the, the fantasyworld building element, what
would you give it for?
Ashley (29:27):
like fantasy or world building.
The fantasy was so minimal too,like a two, like there.
Just there wasn't enough ofanything to push anything over
the edge.
For me it was all very, verytraditional, very classic.
You know vampirism.
He turned her, she was extra,but there weren't even like any
(29:53):
extra vampire powers.
Right, she didn't have superstrength, she wasn't super fast.
He didn't turn into a bat likeas far as we know.
Right, he had, he had whatreally good night vision and he
was pretty strong, but like wedon't even see a ton of that,
right, he wasn't breaking downdoors or cutting people in half
(30:14):
with his eyes turning into mistor whatever.
Mari (30:16):
Yeah, it was not them it was not true blood um, we did
that out of order.
I apologize, but yeah, I, Ithink I had.
I was first last time.
Yeah, my fantasy was elementrange, whatever.
It was about the same thing,like I felt like there were no
real details, it was verynebulous, it was very cobbled
together and it was like it feltlike a fan fiction of dracula,
(30:42):
in that you were expected toknow and that you were expected
to.
Ashley (30:44):
Yeah, and that you were expected to.
Yeah, that's a really good yeah.
Mari (30:47):
What Dracula is like.
If you for some reason did notknow who Dracula was like, if
you had never heard of Dracula,I think this would be a really
confusing story to you.
I feel like it was assumed thatwe all knew who Dracula was and
we all knew, like, theDracula's powers as described in
the original, like Rammst novel.
Yeah, so it was a one onfantasy world building for me,
(31:09):
jonathan I really didn't getlike the whole.
Jonathan (31:12):
I didn't get any fantasy out of it.
I just thought like I figuredthey were old and that they kept
having to move and survive,almost like recluse, like hiding
, like you can't they?
They couldn't.
They really didn't get to leaninto their powers.
Maybe it was so, maybe theopposite of fantasy world
building like they were, justlike we're, we're now playing a
(31:33):
game of survival.
We need to.
We need to find the most politeway to exist and get what we
want without really causing astir and drawing attention to
ourselves, and I think thatserves to the idea that Dracula
spent a lot of time being angryearly on and was just like
that's not the way to survive inthis world.
(31:55):
We have to come to terms withthe idea that we have to blend
into society.
The idea that we have to blendinto society, um, I I think,
with that said, the, the idea ofa lack of fantasy building.
For me it didn't go into abunch of the origin stories, it
didn't go into, um, like a lotof the magical powers.
(32:19):
Is just this, a reduced version, almost like a retired Dracula,
and I was like, hmm, so maybeI'll, and I, and I'll tell you
what I did I did feel the velvetfurniture, uh, so maybe I'll
give it a two, two and a half orI felt, I felt the furniture.
(32:39):
I could smell, but I could smellthe bedding.
I could almost get the oil lamp.
Ashley (32:44):
Did he smell like parchment?
No, you didn't get any smells,no, he just feels.
Jonathan (32:50):
I got the smells of the musty bedding.
Also, the artist, the model.
I got vibes of like what was it?
Wasn't there a kooky artist outof New York?
He was alive, I'm sure duringour generation, but he was, did
he man?
He did a bunch of paintingsWarhol.
Ashley (33:14):
I was like you're giving me minimal information.
Jonathan (33:17):
You're not playing charades with me.
Ashley (33:19):
I didn't have Warhol out of that at all I got.
Mari (33:23):
When you say kooky paintings, paintings describe
some of the paintings that mighthelp us know who you're talking
about is andy warhol yeah, yeah, oh, warhol, okay warhol okay,
I was like melted clocks, it'sdali, you know like that kind of
thing.
Jonathan (33:36):
Okay, warhol and I know it's like two, two, very
like there was there's a half acentury of time between those
two, the like, the plot of thestory and the um and that artist
.
But that's the vibe I got andthat's why I kept hoping like,
okay, they're getting over,they're getting, they're getting
moving through time.
Maybe this will advance into acontemporary setting which I
(33:58):
would have liked to see, haveseen I I thought that could be a
cool twist to that.
Like another scene I I thoughtthat could be a cool twist to
that.
Like another, if you wereanother three chapters and it
took it even into like the 50sand 60s and they were just like
maybe some shit was just gettinga little loose and cray cray, I
thought that would have been acool, cool direction to move
that story.
And it it came on slow, builtslowly, got my hopes up, smelled
(34:21):
like musty flannel bed sheetsand then just fizzled out two
and two, two and a half yeah, I.
Mari (34:31):
I want to say like I know it started in like the 1400s and
it goes at least until the1900s.
I'm not sure how modern thestory goes, because it seems
like travel to new york wasfairly easy by the end of the
story.
Yeah, but it's not specific.
But to that point.
Ashley (34:49):
Like you know, the the concept of time even is very
vague in the explanation and youknow the the progression of the
book.
You, you understand that timehas passed, but not necessarily
how much, literally, until shesays you, you know 1600s or
1920s and there's just not a lotof that detail that we were at
(35:23):
the beginning of the RussianRevolution and communism coming
into Russia and all that.
Kelly (35:26):
So we're definitely at the very latest in the 1900s.
And I would suspect it's morelike many years after that,
because you have to figure allthe years that they were
together with Alexei before theyassassinated Dracula.
So it could easily be that thebook ends in the modern times.
Mari (35:48):
Yeah, what did you think of the fantasy?
What was your rating?
Kelly (35:52):
Kelly, I would agree with most of what you said.
It was a two.
There was nothing new, nothingoriginal.
Even the very concept of thestory is not new.
This has been done before.
Where you have the brides ofDracula, you know, decide
they've had enough and kill them.
Most notably, it was donetrying to remember what year it
(36:14):
was.
Mari (36:14):
That this came out, or that.
Kelly (36:16):
No, there was a comic book series published by DC,
vertigo, which was, you know,back in the 80s and 90s, and
even still today, I think, theline of comics that DC published
.
That had more adult themes,most notably where books like
the Sandman was published.
I can't remember when itactually came out, I think it
(36:37):
was the late 1990s.
There was a series called Vampsand it was essentially this
story.
A bunch of brides of a verypowerful vampire decide they've
had enough and they conspire tokill him and then, of course,
after they kill him, theybasically tear off and, you know
, do their own thing.
Mari (36:56):
So it's not a new concept by any stretch of the
imagination yeah, I mean, partof that is what happens in
Interview with a Vampire andRice series too, which is
written beginning in the lateseventies, early eighties.
You get the whole killer of themaker and the brood siblings
you know run off and try andhave their own life together.
Kelly (37:17):
Well, I mean killing your maker has been around since
literature and stories have beeninvented.
I mean patricide or somethingsimilar to patricide has been
around a very long time.
But I'm just saying that theconcept of a bunch of female, or
mostly female, vampiresdeciding to off their maker and
off Dracula has definitely beenaround for a long time, because
(37:41):
in the context of I thinkInterview, think interview with
the vampire I don't know that itwas as much the idea that he
was abusive.
I mean he certainly wasn'tlistat, certainly wasn't a great
guy or anything yeah, I agree,listat wasn't necessarily
abusive, he was.
Mari (37:56):
He was a whiny drama queen and louie and and uh, oh my god
, what was the girl's name?
Claudia, claudia, thank you.
Oh, I need to rewatch that.
Kelly (38:07):
Louis and Claudia wanted to go their own way, right, he
wouldn't let him.
And so I think in vamps it'smore like this book, where the
vampire is manipulative, abusive, controlling, won't let them do
anything, you know, basicallycontrols their entire life, kind
of thing.
So it's more of a parallel to atypical domestic violence type
(38:28):
situation.
Mari (38:30):
Yeah, I will say this is the one thing I told Kelly about
, and anyone who's asked meabout this book, like I think
this is.
This book does a really, really, really, really good job of
showing how hard it can be toget away or get out of a
domestic abuse situation or likehow, how easy it is to be
blinded by one yes, yeah, itdoes a really good job of that,
(38:53):
like that's the story.
I feel that it tells very wellagreed wholeheartedly agreed on
a completely different point ofthat.
The next thing we would talkabout would be romance, which my
my notes.
I put one question mark.
Uh, I feel like the only realromance in this story is the
(39:16):
like brood sibling rope, the,the, the protective kind of
brood sibling love of each otherthat the brood siblings had
that Constanta and Alexei andMagdalena had for each other, in
the sense of it being likealways take care of each other
type situation.
(39:37):
So it was a one for me.
Ashley (39:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think in his very dense caveman,
manipulative way he loved themRight.
But it was just, it was only onhis terms which power person in
the relationship.
So I mean, I think he thinks heloved them.
(40:06):
I think he thinks he gave themwhat they needed and wanted, but
it was very lacking on theirside and I would agree that I
think the family love was, youknow, the point of the story
here, and for them it translatedinto a physical kind which was
also emotional for them.
I enjoyed the balance of theirrelationship and even their
(40:31):
trauma bond building together.
But, yeah, romance and what wetalk about here and what we look
for, yeah, it was a one for me.
Jonathan (40:42):
I thought there was a care for me.
I thought there was a I thoughthere was a a care for them.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna give theromance a little bit more than
than than the basics here.
It's not necessarily theromance between the, the mmc,
and his, his lady friends.
(41:02):
It's more so the romancebetween the supporting
characters, especially towardsthe end, when they brought on
the new guy.
Mari (41:14):
Alexi.
Jonathan (41:15):
Yeah.
So I would say, because therewas enough, there was passion
enough to force a decision to bemade Quickly To make a change.
Yeah, exactly, and they had tohave care and compassion for one
(41:39):
another.
Was it romance?
I mean, you don't kill foranything less.
This is, you know, it's romancewith us, ashley.
It's blood in, blood out Justsaying so.
Yeah, I would say two and ahalf for this, for me two and a
(42:04):
half.
Kelly (42:06):
I didn't think there was much romance at all to speak of.
I think it was more of amanipulative situation, and so I
don't feel that there was anyromance, I don't even.
And there was some creepyaspects to the romance too.
I mean, there was certainlysome incestuous vibes coming
from constanda and alexi, whereshe describes it having like a
(42:29):
motherly relationship with himand then they're having sex.
So that was a little uh, youknow, yeah, but yeah, I just
don't think there was anyromance.
Mari (42:40):
I'm moving on to Spice, which is, yeah, it's exactly,
I'm right there with you.
I wrote cringy For me, thewhole like sister, wife and then
like where Constanta saw Lexias her child, but then they're
like having sexy times.
It did not do it for me.
It for me so like there wasspice in this but it didn't hit
(43:08):
for me, um, and I felt it wascringy and I think for me a lot
of that is like spice.
You know, all the weirdancestral stuff aside, spice
tends to feel cringy for me if Idon't, if I don't feel like I
have a, a hand hold on who thepeople are, and I feel that's
part of my problem with thisseries is like all the
characters feel super flat, solike I don't know who Constanta
(43:32):
is, okay, so she was a peasantin like Budapest or whatever in
the 1400s.
We get no flavor at all aboutanybody.
There's no Romanian flavor toher.
There's no folklore, there's nonothing.
You know Magdalena is, you know, a Spaniard.
She could have been anythingelse anywhere, anything else.
(43:54):
There was like nothing to herabout her entire like background
.
Alexei has a teeny bit of theRussian vibe in him or whatever,
but even then then, like youdon't get a lot of vibe for who
they are.
Yeah, um, I wrote a two with aquestion mark, but I don't even
really know why I wrote a two,because I feel like it's a one.
I'll say one and a half.
Ashley (44:16):
It exists, it's there, it's just not my jam so I've
learned this year, um, thatreading will make me question
myself and the things that Ibelieve in and the things that I
will tolerate.
And so I say that because weall got a little iffy about
incestuous relationships on Gameof Thrones.
But then House of the Dragoncame out and we were like, yeah,
(44:39):
girl, get that uncle.
So, with that said, I thoughtthe spice that was in this book
was very polite.
It was a lot of fade to black,right, so it wasn't overly
cringy for me.
I think it was their only realway of connecting.
(45:00):
Once you've turned and for thefirst, however long it takes to
acclimate into that, I thinkthere's something to be said for
vampires and them beingcreatures of immense feeling,
whether they be positive ornegative.
So I thought the spice waspolite.
I thought it was the onlycontext we got in this book.
(45:25):
So I thought it was a three.
I thought what was there wasnice.
It helped build their internalrelationship.
The fact that she looked at himfrom the perspective of a
mother, I didn't think thatreally held up.
I think she just felt motherlyabout it.
She felt protective of him.
I feel protective of Jonathan.
(45:49):
No one can say anything badabout my husband.
I will rip you apart and I'mvery average sized.
Jonathan (45:55):
I appreciate that.
Ashley (45:57):
Yeah, and anyone else of my family.
So I think, after George RRMartin, I'm a little numb to
those things.
Flowers in the attic.
I'm of that generation.
Mari (46:10):
Oh God, I remember that yes.
Ashley (46:13):
So it was a three I.
I didn't hate the spice.
It didn't do anything extra forme.
I thought it was very.
I thought it was decent.
Mari (46:22):
You know, you bring up an interesting point that I hadn't
really thought about and that'sthe whole, like that's the way
they showed their love, kind ofthing.
And when you're a hostage in asituation which they basically
were, they didn't have anythingof their own, like their bodies
is all they had to share witheach other you know, and that
was theirs to give.
Yeah, that's all that wastheirs to give their time, their
(46:43):
attention, their bodies, andthat was theirs to give yeah,
their time, their attention,their bodies Interesting.
Jonathan (46:48):
Interesting point, jonathan.
I didn't get a whole bunch ofspice out of it.
I thought maybe there was acouple of elements.
I think things got a little bithotter once the new boy came to
town Alexi Alexi.
Ashley (47:08):
Alexi, I'm going to have to like little cards, cards for
me, cards to hold up for him.
Jonathan (47:12):
Yeah, um, and I think part I think a lot of that was
the idea that um, he was, uh,that introduced some bisexual
play into it and that added morespice to it like a the a
two-on-one dominant kind of vibe.
Mari (47:29):
They didn't get me you mean bisexual play for dracula
uh?
Yeah, yeah because I mean themag mag that's really magdalena
and constanta were.
They already had the wholebisexual thing going on before
alexi was in the picture?
Jonathan (47:43):
correct.
Yes, yeah, but for, uh, fordracula, I was like that's a
really interesting vibe and itadded to the story at that point
.
So on the spice scale, itreally didn't.
Yeah, and and my mind ispolluted at this point- uh from
there's some competing readsgoing on that have uh, that are
(48:05):
like off the charts we'veadditionally corrupt him.
Mari (48:07):
He's multitasking and that's what I said.
Jonathan (48:10):
You're fully corrupted so I'll give it.
I'll give it a two, um because,mostly because, uh, you guys
have corrupted me and, yeah,I've gone down.
I have to go wash my.
I have to wash my mind's eyeout with soap after some of
these books.
Mari (48:26):
And yet you keep coming back for more.
Oh yeah.
Ashley (48:29):
Yeah, I like multis Kelly.
Kelly (48:35):
Yeah, I think the spice was fairly polite.
Like I actually said, it reallywasn't overly graphic and
whatnot.
I think it's definitely lessthan some of the books we've
read.
It definitely wasn't what Iexpected.
I think I was expecting itbased on how much there was
reviews of people saying howmuch they loved it, et cetera.
(48:55):
I was expecting it to maybe bemore spicy, I think.
Overall, I felt like it wasmaybe like a two, two and a half
.
What do we think?
Mari (49:02):
about the cover.
So the cover is done by DuncanSpilling.
I actually probably like thecover most of anything.
I gave the cover a three and ahalf.
I thought it was.
You know, made me pick up thebook and look at it.
It's got a little bit of likethat old timey portrait.
Look, it's got the red and theblack and the white.
It's very like vampire colorsas I think of.
(49:24):
I think it works.
I think it with her face kindof read it out.
It's the idea of like thenameless brides of of dracula or
the nameless abused people inin domestic abuse situations.
Yeah, I, I thought it waspretty, it was well done.
It's a three and a half for me.
Ashley (49:44):
Ash, yeah, I think it's a three.
I think this is it's mid-rangefor me.
I don't know if I would havestopped in the bookstore and
bought it, but I do feel it isvery, very, you know,
representative of the book inwhat we read.
I think for the intent of the,for the story, the cover is
(50:05):
pretty, is pretty, is pretty,spot on actually.
Jonathan (50:09):
I, um, I had, I think.
So I was looking at the coverthat you had, and then I had a
different cover, um, um, neitherof which I was impressed by.
I wasn't going to pick upeither of them.
Um, if I walked by this, walkby this book in the bookstore,
it just didn't jump out to me.
It probably further anchored mysweaty, velvet, musty ideas or
(50:36):
visions of this book, imagery ofthis book.
I'm going to give it a one.
The cover was interesting.
Kelly (50:43):
It was very suggestive.
I think it was a different wayto try and do a cover.
I don't know that it'ssomething that would have
grabbed my attention in thebookstore because to me it felt
like this book was the cover wasleaning very heavily being
influenced on something likeFifty Shades of Grey.
So I don't know that the coverwas especially that great, nor
was it especially that terrible.
(51:04):
I feel like it's maybe a twoand a half, just kind of average
.
Ashley (51:09):
I think the slash two looks like an eyebrow A little
bit.
That doesn't do it for me.
Mari (51:16):
Yeah, it should be more like fingerprint smudgy.
Ashley (51:21):
Again, I see the intent, it just didn't pull it off.
Mari (51:27):
Yeah.
So then the million dollardollar question is this a
kissing book?
What do we think?
Ashley (51:31):
no yeah, I wrote no, that was my thinking.
There's a no for me oh um Ilike how you're considering it,
like your mind was not made upin the first three pages.
Jonathan (51:41):
I immediately want to say but I didn't even run this
one through the calculator and Iwanted to.
I was hoping that you guyscould turn me a little bit.
Ashley (51:52):
We agree with you this time.
Jonathan (51:53):
I don't know if it's a win.
I'm not in it to win it.
Ashley (51:58):
You're in it to be contradictory.
Mari (52:00):
Yes a contrarian.
Ashley (52:02):
We agree with you this time and in fact, your numbers
are better than most of ours.
Jonathan (52:07):
That's interesting isn't it isn't it it is t-i-s.
Um, yeah, okay, I'll go with itand say indeed, it is not a
kissing book yeah, definitelynot a kissing book there you
have it, guys.
Mari (52:22):
All right.
So anything else we want to sayabout a Dowry of Blood, all
right.
So rapid fire question fortoday is going to be what's the
best book you read last month,in September?
Ashley (52:34):
You first.
Mari (52:36):
Me.
Yes month is called MostArgently.
It's a Pride and Prejudiceremix.
It's written by Gabe Cole-Navoaand it'd been on my radar for a
little bit.
I love Pride and Prejudice.
It's one of my favorite booksof all time.
Pride and Prejudice retellingscan be iffy, but the author is a
(53:00):
Latinx trans author and I waslooking for some Latin authors
for Hispanic Heritage Month,trying to read some, and so I
decided to move it up on the TBRand read it.
I very much loved it.
It's basically a retelling ofPride and Prejudice where Darcy
is basically the Darcy we know,but Elizabeth is trans and it's
(53:24):
their relationship.
My only downside of this bookthat I don't understand why it
was done is that the author ageddown the character.
So you know, in the originalprime prejudice they're all like
in their 20s, grown,independent, adult people, and
in this they're like I don'tknow 17.
So they're're like I don't know17.
(53:45):
So they're much younger and Idon't know why, because it's
still written in like a Regencyera.
It's not like the expectationis for people to.
I don't know.
I don't know why they did that.
I'd be interested in findingout why they made that choice.
Ashley (53:58):
But regardless of that really good book, if you're
looking for a good Prenn Pregisremix, if you're looking for a
good Pride and Prejudice remix,if you're looking for a good
LGBTQ plus story, if you're justlooking for a really good love
story, most ardently, a Prideand Prejudice remix by Gabe
(54:20):
Cole-Navoa.
Very busy month for us.
So the last book that I readthat I can remember being like
super excited about, technically, the end of August, which I'm
going to say counts, and it wasApprentice to the Villain.
And I enjoyed every second ofApprentice to the Villain from,
(54:40):
and I happened to score it onaudio book, which is even better
because I think that narrator,whose name I don't know, I'm a
big fan of and I think that bookwas just so fun.
Yeah, so 10 out of 10 for me,apprentice to the Villain.
Jonathan (54:56):
She's such a cheat.
Ashley (54:57):
Was that your book?
Jonathan (54:59):
So yeah.
I can change my answer no, no,you can keep your answer.
Keep your answer.
I picked it up actually inSeptember, coming home from
Nebraska, and I picked it up inthe airport, so I had both the
audio and the analog tangiblebook.
I'm not fully through it yet,so it's a book that I have a
(55:23):
number of books on my activelybeing read list.
Mari (55:27):
I do the same thing, all good okay cool, it's just a fun.
Jonathan (55:31):
It was a fun read um and that's kind of lighthearted
and and joyful, so that's kindof where I'm at and well written
yeah.
Kelly (55:53):
I don't know that I really have one.
I have watched the new Batmananimated series that's on Prime
Video and enjoyed it.
It's Batman the Caped Crusader.
They've taken those of us thatknew Batman the Animated Series
with Kevin Conroy and MarkHamill who voiced the Joker from
(56:14):
back in the 90s.
So they've taken the BatmanAnimated Series kind of reset it
, basically put it hard in a1930s noir setting.
So it's very much a low-tech.
Batman doesn't have super robot, amazingly high-tech
(56:37):
microcomputer, tony Stark typestuff, so it's much more gritty.
Batman is not even a majorcharacter.
He very rarely, he has very fewlines, he doesn't show up very
often.
So it's actually more about theGotham City Police Department
and one of the things I'menjoying about it is that take
of more of it being a moregritty noir police-type setting.
(57:01):
And what's amusing to me isthere's an enormous amount of
super fanboy neckbeards that areup in arms over this series.
One because obviously nothing'sgonna replace the beloved kevin
conway batman animated series,because that was great and most
a lot of us grew up on it or alot of people grew up on it.
(57:23):
So it's never going to replacethat.
But what this series did is itdid a lot of gender bending, so
a lot of the characters aregender bent.
The penguin is a female.
That makes sense Instead ofbeing a male character.
Yeah, so there's some of thatwhere the characters are gender
(57:44):
bent.
Harley Quinn is a much morebelievable villain, like a
terrifying villain who isactually an incredibly smart
psychologist who is easily ableto manipulate people.
So much more realistic andterrifying.
Um villain and a lot ofcharacters have their
(58:07):
ethnicities flipped.
Detective Gordon is not white,Barbara Gordon is not white and
that has a lot of theseneckbeards pissed off.
But it's a great series.
Mari (58:21):
All right, anything else before we wrap it up?
Nope, oh, okay.
So thanks for listening toSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate,
review and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
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(58:42):
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We're also on YouTube andTikTok and Pinterest and Threads
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(59:04):
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(59:27):
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So if you search for it orcontact us, if you want like a
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And the thing about the bookclubs there is you can like say
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(59:47):
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It's an interesting little app,so we're on there as well.
We hope you'll join us in twoweeks for our next episode when
we read and talk about the GamesGod's Play by Abigail Owen, an
(01:00:10):
author's name which should soundfamiliar.
Bye, bye, thank you.
Views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the
participants.
The hosts make no claim to beliterary experts and their
opinions are exactly thatopinions.
All creative works discussed orreviewed are the intellectual
property of the creators of saidstories and is being used under
the Fair Use Doctrine.
Mari (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.
Kelly (00:37):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly and of course, we have Ashley.
Ashley (00:41):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Jonathan (00:44):
What's good everybody.
It's JP, hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Mari (00:47):
What's good everybody.
It's JP, all the energy, jpwith all the energy, everyone's
energy.
Yeah, today we're going to bediscussing A Dowry of Blood by
ST Gibson, but first we're goingto go over some news.
As always, I've got a good.
Yeah, there's a good bit ofnews today.
There's a lot going on.
(01:09):
First thing is it's a littleways out, but Katie Roberts has
released that she's going to bedoing a special edition of the
Dark Olympus series, which isthe Neon Gods books, which I
think John and Ash, I think youguys got me for like birthday
Was it birthday one year orChristmas or something?
(01:29):
You guys got me hooked onto it.
I remember that.
Yeah, whatever it was, Iremember it was you guys.
So they're they're spicy, likea Greek God retelling and it's
kind of in a modern day settingand it's a little bit of almost
kind of like mobster kind ofvibes to it instead of it being
(01:53):
like Greek family.
Anyway, it's good for anyonewho that sounds interesting for
I would recommend they're funbooks.
But there's this really prettyspecial edition coming.
She released some images of it.
It's going to be the first fivebooks that will be released in
this campaign.
It's done through backerkitcom.
They're going to be hardcoverswith reversible dust jackets,
(02:15):
linen covers and special edgesin a foiled slipcase.
The artist like.
The cover design is by EastOaks Creative, the step back art
is by Isabel Bartnicki and thereversible dust jackets are by
Vedder.
It's really pretty.
It's really like got a lot ofbling to it.
A lot of gold foil.
It's got like a 1920s lookingvibe to it.
Jonathan (02:37):
It looks pretty cool.
Mari (02:39):
Right, like a little Great Gatsby kind of thing.
It will be released on March3rd of 2025.
And you can go on the link thatwe'll include in our show notes
and like sign up for emailstuff from them.
So it'll be a little bit beforeall that's ready to buy.
They don't have even prices oranything on there yet, but I was
(03:01):
just.
I thought the artwork wasreally pretty.
I thought it was really abouttime that that series got some
kind of special version orsomething, because there aren't
any that I know of for thatseries, I think.
Am I the only one who's readthat series, or have you read
any?
Ashley (03:14):
I read the first one and it was good.
It was spicy, it wasinteresting.
Mari (03:17):
I definitely liked the version right of the
quote-unquote greek gods yeah,that was that was a fun little
twist yeah, I think the thepsyche, is it psyche and arrows
story?
Ashley (03:33):
uh-huh I think that's my favorite one I think that's
book two right so far yeah, yeah, that's probably right.
Mari (03:39):
So I think book two is probably my favorite, but I'm
not.
I think there's seven or eight.
I I'm two books behind, so I'veread like the first six, I
believe.
But they're fun, they're goodbooks.
I'd recommend them.
The other thing I saw, which Imessaged Ash immediately upon
seeing it is that Lit Joy Crateis doing their special edition
(03:59):
of the Stolen Air by Holly Black.
So this is the Stolen Airduology.
It's the two books that cameafter the Folk of the Air series
, the Cruel Prince series thatwe've talked about before.
They're doing the specialedition version of this and this
is going to be their specialedition version.
That's just it's going to matchtheir, the Lit Joy Crate Folk
(04:19):
of the Air edition, which is areally pretty edition of the
Cruel Prince books.
So it's going to be in thatstyle.
The second one in the duologywill be available in 2026.
It's going to be $45.
It's going to be available forpre-order with, like, the Lit
Joy Crate people on the 23rd,then everybody else on the 24th
(04:42):
of October Sorry, october andthen there'll be shipping in
spring of 2025.
It's not going to be anoriginal.
It's not going to be signedlike original signature.
It's going to be a digitalsignature but it's going to have
annotations in it and reallycool like artwork and tip in
artwork and end papers and allthat good stuff.
It looks like a really prettyedition.
Jonathan (05:02):
It does, it does.
Are those the images that I'mseeing on that page for the
joycratecom?
Is that the tip-in pages?
Is that what we're?
Mari (05:12):
I believe so.
Yeah, because there's threedifferent tip-in pages.
And there's the endpapers too.
So, like, the first few imagesare going to be the endpapers on
, like the inside covers, andthen the last three images are
going to be the tip-in pages andthey're done by different
artists.
So cover art is done by TimBaran, the endpapers are by
(05:32):
Annalise Jensen, the tip-inartwork are by Bohemian Weasel,
Janifia and two others.
Jonathan (05:40):
I like the cover art the most.
Mari (05:42):
Yeah, I don't know I'm torn.
I like the cover art and I likethe cover art the most.
Yeah, I don't know I'm torn.
I like the cover art and I likethe end paper art.
I think the end paper art iswhat I saw for somebody reposted
or something and it really likecaught my attention.
Jonathan (05:53):
It reminds me of Prince Charming.
Mari (05:57):
Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah, I can definitely see that.
Yeah, I was very excited when Isaw that, because those are
really pretty editions.
The other thing I think youbrought to the game, jonathan,
was the news of the fourdifferent new Kindle models that
have been released recently,including the first color Kindle
(06:19):
, like the ColorSoft.
The Scribe, the Paperwhite,like the faster version of the
Paperwhite, and then the compactKindlele and matcha, which I
know lots of people were talkingabout the little one and I and
I heard some people talking Iwas thinking about a kindle.
Jonathan (06:30):
Do you know?
Like, so if you were, if youwere telling a stranger, hey,
you have four kindle choices andthey're like hey, here's what I
want to use my kindle for.
I'm going to have it just tomaybe try to read it, but I'm
not sure how often I'll use it.
I also have big meat hooks forhands.
Which one would you tell themto do?
Ashley (06:52):
I have the answer oh shit, Go for it the stranger,
for the stranger to ask his wifeif he can have her used kindle
and tell the stranger to buy afancy new one for his wife.
That will use it.
That is the correct answer sothen the real answer to this
(07:16):
question is ash, which one doyou want?
When this, when these droppedthe other day, I was like I do
not need a kindle.
I do not need a kindle.
I do not need a 300 color softkindle it's like 280 bucks.
Yeah, I'm rounding up, thereare taxes, there are taxes.
(07:37):
Yeah, so you should buy me thepretty one and you can have my
old one just so you know.
Jonathan (07:44):
The pretty one that I, the one that I think is pretty,
is this like sage looking, oneon the hand, the macho one it'll
this one.
Mari (07:50):
What's the difference?
I don't know.
Little is a little, I guess Idon't have.
Jonathan (07:53):
I don't have a good idea of size.
Mari (07:55):
Okay, so measured it with yeah, how do you feel about like
, like, if you take like more orless like a standard paperback,
you know, like a paperback book, how do you feel about that
size?
Ashley (08:04):
I don't know that you have standards.
Jonathan (08:07):
Yeah, you're right, I have no standards.
You don't have standards,ashley.
That's why you're with me.
Ashley (08:10):
That's why we got married.
I know.
Jonathan (08:12):
Is this a standard paperback?
Ashley (08:13):
Yeah, that's probably decent.
Jonathan (08:14):
Okay, yeah.
Mari (08:30):
I like the size white, so maybe I'm partial to that, but
to me that paper book size,paperback size, is a good size.
It's easy to read from, it'seasy to turn pages, it's easy to
hold in one hand, even with mynot that large hands, but it's
also not so small that yourfingers are getting on top of
each other.
The thing about the Matcha, theCompaq one it's really not much
bigger than most people's phone.
(08:51):
In which case, why don't youjust use the Kindle app?
Jonathan (08:53):
on your phone.
Mari (08:53):
That's a good point.
So I would say at least thePaperwhite Now for you.
I know you like doing digitalnotes, so the Sbe has the
ability to do digital noteswhere you can write stuff on
there and keep it as digitalnotes, which I know is a thing
you can't do that on thepaperweight.
Ashley (09:11):
That's interesting, you can type notes on the
paperweight.
You can get all in it.
Jonathan (09:14):
Yeah, and highlight I wonder if I so.
I have a remarkable tablet.
Mari (09:20):
I wonder if I can use that to do it, because you can yeah,
to me the scribe is the mostlike the Remarkable tablet which
I know you have and like.
Ashley (09:28):
But can he read on the Remarkable?
Mari (09:30):
Probably I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
You need to find out, I think,if it has a way for you to
receive email.
Like to receive email to it,because I know that with Kindle,
my understanding, this is how Iget like, not the books off
Amazon, but like when you buy abook, like.
I just kickstarted the SaplingCage and part of that was
(09:50):
getting a like ebook or whatever.
And so anytime for me, likemost of my ebook stuff I get
from Amazon.
I mean hate to name drop, but Ijust do because that's, that's
it's Kindle limited, et cetera.
But I kickstarted the SaplingCage by Margaret Killjoy and you
(10:12):
get the physical book in themail and then you get the e-book
.
So I got the e-book and thenyou have to email the e-book
file to a specific email address, and that email address is
associated with my paperweight.
So my thinking would be, if youcould do that with the
Remarkable I assume it'd be thesame way that you would have to
like, is there an email addressassociated with the Remarkable
tablet?
That?
Jonathan (10:31):
you can use.
There is.
It says it doesn't supportKindle books but it supports,
like EPUB and PDF.
Mari (10:38):
Okay, yeah, so you wouldn't necessarily be able to
use Kindle books, but if youcould get an EPUB version of it,
that might be a way to do it.
I don't know.
I don't know how cumbersomethat is.
I'll tell you, I like my paperwhite.
I would check into the scribecapability because you like that
.
Or, to be honest, I would buyAsh the color soft and I would
use whatever she has.
That's my marriage advice toyou.
Jonathan (10:59):
I will pencil that in.
Ashley (11:06):
Kelly agrees Kelly, what would you?
Kelly (11:07):
do.
Happy wife, happy life.
I believe in the slightlyannoyed wife amusing life.
Ashley (11:12):
Amusing but not happy, Not guaranteed.
Jonathan (11:16):
I like to live on the edge, dangerously close to the
edge.
Kelly (11:20):
What are you going to read on the Kindle?
Are you just going to readtextbooks and that's it, or are
you going to read anything elsethat has pictures?
Mari (11:26):
diagrams.
You can accept pictures.
Kelly (11:28):
Yeah.
Mari (11:29):
Graphic novels, manga, comic books.
Kelly (11:32):
I picked up an Amazon Fire tablet used like
refurbished, used clearance offof Woot for like $70.
And it has a color screen.
It's like the size of an iPad,so it's heavier than like a
Kindle, but I can read regularbooks on it and I can look at
(11:53):
medical textbooks that havepictures and drawings and
elaborate diagrams and stufflike that.
Ashley (11:59):
You've got like five Amazon.
Kelly (12:00):
Fires, I do have five Amazon.
Ashley (12:02):
Fires.
Jonathan (12:02):
Behold it.
Kelly (12:03):
Then just use your Amazon Fire tablet with the Kindle app
on the Fire tablet.
Ashley (12:07):
Problem solved.
I'm going to try that I'm goingto test drive that.
Good job Kelly.
Kelly (12:11):
I mean, you really don't have to buy anything.
The only reason to buy thecolor Kindle is if you just want
the form factor of the Kindleitself, it being very small,
very light and being able to seecolor on it.
But my thing is the diagrams.
I would need to look at, thepictures I would need to look at
(12:32):
, or if I was reading a graphicnovel or a comic book or a manga
, it would only show one panelat a time or I would have to
constantly be zooming in and out.
So I don't know that I wouldget much use out of the color
Kindle.
Mari (12:46):
So there's some advice, depending on what you're wanting
to use it for sounds good thenext little bit of news is for
ash.
The new hunger games book hadits little cover and date
release.
It's going to be haymitch'sgames, so we're going to find
out his story.
So many things I know.
Sunry sunrise on the reapingwill release march 18th of 2025.
(13:10):
It'll be interesting because hewas traumatized yeah, I want,
yeah.
Ashley (13:18):
There I have so many thoughts.
I just you kind of wonder if hewas, you know as surly before
his games right was he?
Was he more honorable?
Was he more charming?
Because you kind of see itright underneath the layers of
trauma and alcoholism yeah it'sdefense walls, right, right I'm.
(13:42):
I think this is the story thatfans have wanted for a very long
time, because I could care lessabout President Snow's
upbringing, right, that meantzero to me.
I read the whole book and Iforgot it immediately.
It meant absolutely nothing tome.
I appreciate the parallels,right, and I think Suzanne
Collins is actually a very goodwriter, even if it's slightly
(14:03):
world building, but it's notmind boggling and it's not it's
weight and it's emotional butnot weight in that you know,
it's 700 pages per book.
Yeah, I remember being like,like chemically changed after
reading the Hunger Games as anadolescent.
So I'm, as an adult who has anappreciation for current age,
(14:25):
hamish attitude and, you know,response.
I'd really like to see himbefore his games and during his
games.
You know what changed him somuch.
Jonathan (14:39):
Death, having to kill people.
Mari (14:41):
Lots and lots of death.
Ashley (14:43):
Well, and it was a quarter quell right.
So more than just average death, so much death.
Mari (14:51):
Yeah, I think it'll be interesting book for sure.
And then the last thing I haveis the Dance of the Dragons
event in Orlando that we kind ofjust found out about.
It's happening on the 22nd and23rd and it's being done by a
Luxia events and it's basicallylike a market kind of thing.
During the day I don't thinkthere's any panels, but it's
(15:13):
really like a market.
There's some book relatedvendors there and there's some
authors there, but it's not abook event per se, it's kind of
a fantasy event and then theyhave like a ball.
I don't know if it's both daysor one days, we're just going to
be going to the market.
I basically found out about thisbecause an author that I follow
(15:33):
happened to like post about itthat she was going to be there
and be in Orlando, and I'm like,wait, what is this?
So Paige Lavoie, if anyonereads her stuff, she's going to
be there.
She wrote I'm engaged toMothman.
I'm sorry, I'm in love with theMothman, and then I'm engaged
to Mothman, and then third oneis I'm getting married to
Mothman.
So she wrote that littletrilogy of books which are cute,
(15:58):
little fun books.
But yeah, I think we're allgoing to be there, right, except
for Kelly?
Are you guys are going Ticketspot?
Yeah, so we'll be there.
So if you're there or if you'regoing to be going, say hey.
Jonathan (16:11):
I'm looking at some of these vendors here at this
Dance of the Dragons.
Mari (16:16):
Dance of the Dragons.
Jonathan (16:17):
Yeah, there is, this is a nice twist, a good mix of
authors.
Stuff what is this wild shapedpottery?
I think we're gonna have tokeep Ashley away from that.
We're gonna have someinterestingly shaped plates.
Mari (16:32):
Acrylic picks is gonna acrylic picks.
I think it is the ones thatthey did the Crowns of Niaxia
special edition books.
They're gonna be there.
Kelly (16:42):
I can never say their name acrylic picks yeah, they'll
be there.
Ashley (16:46):
I can never say their name Acrylipix yeah, they'll be
there, this definitely gave meExpo vibes right and I feel like
that's kind of what we weremissing at the BookCon.
Not that we didn't love theBookCon, because I think we
raved about it, but this onedefinitely seems like a
marketplace Like we were goingto the swap shop down in Fort
Lauderdale.
You know what I mean, likewe're going to be busy, we're
(17:06):
going to need both days, I think.
Mari (17:09):
Yeah, well, and that's the thing with like that we talked
about already.
But like about the romancything is like you, I felt like
you had to split your timebetween do you want to interact
in the market and with theauthors and the vendors, or do
you want to take do panels,because it's all happening at
the same time and you've got topick and choose.
So something to be said aboutit.
All we can do there is themarket stuff, so you can
(17:30):
concentrate on it.
Oh, Mari, you know what I gotthe other day in the mail Made
me think of you.
Jonathan (17:36):
Where did I put it, Ashley?
Ashley (17:37):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Jonathan (17:39):
I got the bull sex book.
You did.
Mari (17:42):
The bull sex book you did.
You didn't show it to me.
Bull Moon Rising.
Jonathan (17:46):
Yes.
Mari (17:47):
I don't know why that made you think of me other than it's
Ruby Dixon.
I do love her.
Jonathan (17:54):
It's a very lovely book.
Ashley (17:54):
You didn't show it to me .
Jonathan (17:56):
I'll show it to you, Ashley.
It is a beautiful book.
Ashley (17:57):
You look busy with your headset.
How the heck did I put it?
Now, Ashley?
I don't know.
I'm telling you I didn't see it.
Mari (18:03):
It's so sparkly you should be able to find it with your
eyes closed.
Ashley (18:07):
It is definitely not on that bookshelf.
Jonathan (18:09):
I'm going to stand up.
You guys talk amongstyourselves for a moment.
Ashley (18:12):
This is the ADHD kicking in.
Must problem solve.
Mari (18:16):
Oh hey, how about I read another Ruby Dixon book?
Last time we talked I had onlyread her Ice Planet Barbarian
books, but I read my first RubyDixon book.
Sorry, my phone was talking tome.
Ashley (18:28):
I read your first Ruby.
Mari (18:29):
Dixon book.
Yeah, that was one of herfantasy stuff.
It's called the Worst Guy.
It's like a fantasy kind ofvibes, completely blanked out on
the name.
Kelly (18:41):
Yeah.
Mari (18:41):
Worst Guy.
It's called Worst Guy.
It's a little bit of likegladiator slave kind of person
and somebody who's trying torehab him and then their little
interaction in basically afantasy type setting like a
village kind of thing.
It was a good little story.
Her writing style is similar towhat it is on the Ice Planet
(19:01):
Barbarians.
So if you liked Ice PlanetBarbarians I would recommend her
other stuff, her fantasy stuff.
I think you'd enjoy that too.
Ashley (19:08):
Is Ruby Dixon like a little old lady with curlers in
her hair?
That's how I envision her.
If she's young or middle-aged,I would be disappointed.
Mari (19:16):
I really think she's on the younger end of middle-age.
I think she's youngermiddle-age.
I think she's younger than me,I don't know.
I mean like younger middle-aged, I think she's younger than me,
I don't know.
I mean, I could also tell frompictures.
Ashley (19:25):
I I want to live her life, but in my head I hear ruby
dix.
You know the, the image thatyou get with the ice planet,
barbarians, and I just hope thatshe's a little old lady writing
these love monster alienstories for funsies on the
weekend and it just happened toblow up.
Jonathan (19:40):
She's written so I don't have it on the screen if
you can see it there.
But what really got me goingwas when I opened it up.
Ashley (19:48):
Oh, there's a picture.
Jonathan (19:49):
Yeah, there's pictures .
Oh, it's pink.
It's a very lovely pink, eventhe spine Like Barbie pink it is
.
I'm going to bedazzle it thisweekend.
Ashley (19:59):
You're going to bedazzle the book, yeah.
Jonathan (20:06):
You're not going to keep the book.
You're not going to keep thebook.
Cover on the book.
Yeah, I think it's just.
Uh, I don't even know what's inthe book in terms of like if
it's a good read or not, butwe've officially corrupted him.
Ashley (20:11):
He bought it because it was pretty.
I definitely yeah one of us.
Can I touch it as we reachacross?
Jonathan (20:18):
sorry guys all good there.
Yeah, that's um it's.
I think it's a love.
That's quite a lovely book II'm excited to I think you will
like her writing style.
Mari (20:27):
Yeah, I think you'll like her writing style because she's
spicy.
It's not like her languageisn't super verbose or super
hoity-toity.
There's a place for all that insome stories.
I'm not criticizing anybody whouses that kind of language, but
Ruby Dixon's feels more like aconversation amongst friends,
almost like somebody's tellingyou a story, somebody you know.
(20:50):
You know it's kind of tellingyou a story, but she does a
really good job at making hercharacters very I don't know if
I would say human, because notall of them are human, but very
like relatable yeah, yeah, thatcame in yesterday, so I'm very,
I'm very it's on the TBR Islated for sometime in the
future, I'm sure.
Cool, you have to tell me whatto think.
(21:11):
I know it's on my TBR, butthat's the ever-growing TBR.
Jonathan (21:16):
You might get to it before I do too.
I got gems for the bedazzling.
Don't get here till tomorrow,so it'll be a long Are you not
going to?
Mari (21:25):
read it till you Are you going to bedazzle it first and
then read it?
Jonathan (21:27):
Yeah, I can't read and bedazzle at the same time,
unless I'm listening to the book, which I could do.
I think I have an audio too.
Mari (21:34):
It's a thought.
It's a thought, all right.
Any other new stuff?
I don't think so.
I, I don't think so.
I think you covered it, okay,kelly?
No, okay, all right.
So let's get into the book thatwe're reviewing and talking
about today.
It's A Dowry of Blood and Iswear in my head I kept saying a
(21:57):
diary D-I-A-R-Y, but it isdowry D-O-W-R-Y, two completely
different words.
Important distinction dowryd-o-w-r-y two completely
different words importantdistinction, very important
distinction.
Yeah, so a dowry of blood.
We chose this becausehalloween's coming up and it's
vampires, and vampires andhalloween go together well and
(22:18):
it it was pretty well reviewed.
Um, I remember hearing peopletalk about it last year and the
year before and it's been on mylist for a little bit.
I know Let me read the synopsisand a little bit about it and
then we can get into talkingabout it.
Sound good.
Jonathan (22:35):
Sounds great.
Mari (22:36):
All right.
So here's the synopsis.
This is my last love letter toyou, though some would call it a
confession.
Love letter to you, though somewould call it a confession.
Saved from the brink of deathby a mysterious stranger,
constanta is transformed from amedieval peasant into a bride
fit for an undying king.
But when Dracula draws acunning aristocrat and a
starving artist into his web ofpassion and deceit, constanta
(22:59):
realizes that her beloved iscapable of terrible things.
Finding comfort in the arms ofher rival consorts, she begins
to unravel their husband's darksecrets, with the lives of
everyone she loves on the line.
Constanta will have to choosebetween her own freedom and her
love for her husband.
But bonds forged by blood canonly be broken by death.
Jonathan (23:20):
That sounds about right yeah.
Mari (23:24):
So what do we think?
Non-spoilery overview.
What do we think?
I'll go first.
I don't mind going first Okaygood.
So I may have suffered fromoverinflated expectations.
I kept hearing how great thiswas from multiple YouTube people
and Instagram and everythingthat I follow and usually can
(23:47):
rely on pretty well for bookrecommendations and you guys, as
I've said before multiple times, I love me a vampire story and
this is like a Dracula story andthis felt like it was going to
be this like feminine rage,feminist rage kind of story.
So, with all that in mind, Ifeel like it was very little of
that and I thought that thecharacters were underdeveloped,
(24:14):
that the world wasunderdeveloped, and I think that
this would have been a reallygood like short story maybe, or
novella.
That's the level of how much itpulled me in for me.
So for me, I gave it two starsoverall.
Ashley (24:28):
Ash, I would agree.
I think two is about where Ilanded and it wasn't any one
thing.
I think, like you said, it wasjust slightly underwhelming for
a vampire story.
I appreciated the littledetails we got right from her
perspective.
To your credit, in theidentification of the title it
(24:50):
did read like a diary, not adowry.
I think it would have made amuch better miniseries.
This felt almost like a TVscript even.
Mari (25:01):
It would have been a really interesting TV script,
but like keeping the mysteryelement of it, yeah, yeah, so
yeah, I would agree with it too,jonathan.
Jonathan (25:10):
Oh, so yeah, I, I just it's.
Hmm, there's a lot of nonthought there, but thoughts at
the same time in the backgroundof my brains.
It was not, it was, it was notmy favorite style and I think
that kept.
That drove a wedge betweenmyself and the story.
(25:31):
Like I, I felt like I was I.
I couldn't connect with it.
I like a contemporary settingand this, right off the bat,
wasn't there and then it just itfelt it felt like more about
tone for you, though not settingit felt like dusty velvet.
That makes it like dusty redvelvet furniture is what I felt.
Ashley (25:52):
The entire you were synesthesia is that what it is
well, synesthesia is like whenyou hear something but you
associate it with like a coloror a feeling or something like
that oh, okay so yeah, likesynesthesia, this book felt like
dusty, velvet, like an antiqueshop yeah, yeah, it felt like a
dark, maybe almost like mustardwall wallpaper like dracula yeah
(26:15):
, but then like dusty, like realdusty, red velvet like cushion
with like wooden clawfootfurniture kind of thing, just a
real like, almost like must mustbe bedding the vibe.
Jonathan (26:29):
I was getting there.
So I was like, and when I gotonce that image was in my head
and then the words, the audiostuff that was coming through,
it was just like, hmm.
So if I had to give it anoverall, it's a challenge to me,
cause once I have that mentaldisconnect, it is really hard to
get it to come back.
And as the story progressed Ithought maybe we would lean
(26:50):
towards a more contemporarystyle and it just didn't happen.
I was just, I was hanging onfor in that hope and it didn't
hit for me.
So I think, no, I don't want tohurt anyone's feelings, but
this was for me as well.
Mari (27:08):
Yeah, and all of this is just our opinions and that
doesn't like none of us havewritten a book and not every
book is for every person.
Like none of this is a diss onthe author at all.
It's more just like a.
This is what this book was like.
If anyone's interested in it,this is what you will or won't
be getting into.
You were talking about thestyle it was written in.
It's basically an epistolarystyle, which is kind of like
(27:30):
what the dracula like theoriginal dracula was written in
it's.
It's the idea of like someonewriting letters.
The story is told throughletters or diary entries or
things like that, like newspaperarticles.
It's that kind of storytellingand this whole thing was written
like a letter.
Basically, kelly, what did youthink?
I?
Kelly (27:45):
mean I agree with her, with all of you guys.
I think it was a two at best.
I think the story was very.
There was a lot ofincohesiveness to the story, to
the way it flowed.
I think there was a lot ofissues with how the characters
were not very well developed,especially anyone other than the
(28:05):
main character.
The idea of this being arevenge on Dracula kind of story
, told from the perspective ofthe brides, is interesting, but
I think in the end it justdidn't work.
Mari (28:21):
Yeah, okay, anything else we want to say before we get to
the spoiler part, we can talk alittle more.
Ashley (28:28):
No, we're here for the spoilers.
Mari (28:31):
All the spoilers.
All right, kelly hit it.
Kelly (28:33):
All right, dear listener, from this point forward, we're
going to be discussing spoilers,so if you do not want to be
spoiled on this book, it's timeto skip to the end or come back
after you've read the book.
Mari (28:47):
All right, anything you guys want to add you got some
spoil you want to.
Ashley (28:49):
You want to spoil some stuff for people I don't know
about spoil like she wants toruin a good moment no, I just I
really think this would havemade a really great mini.
You know tv series likebridgerton, you know what I mean
.
Like I get the vibes.
The intent was there.
This, the storyline didn't suckit.
I just don't think it wasenough.
Mari (29:09):
World building, like I think, to see it from one
person's perspective solely in adiary entry is is a tough read
yeah, I mean, since youmentioned like the world
building, like the, the fantasyworld building element, what
would you give it for?
Ashley (29:27):
like fantasy or world building.
The fantasy was so minimal too,like a two, like there.
Just there wasn't enough ofanything to push anything over
the edge.
For me it was all very, verytraditional, very classic.
You know vampirism.
He turned her, she was extra,but there weren't even like any
(29:53):
extra vampire powers.
Right, she didn't have superstrength, she wasn't super fast.
He didn't turn into a bat likeas far as we know.
Right, he had, he had whatreally good night vision and he
was pretty strong, but like wedon't even see a ton of that,
right, he wasn't breaking downdoors or cutting people in half
(30:14):
with his eyes turning into mistor whatever.
Mari (30:16):
Yeah, it was not them it was not true blood um, we did
that out of order.
I apologize, but yeah, I, Ithink I had.
I was first last time.
Yeah, my fantasy was elementrange, whatever.
It was about the same thing,like I felt like there were no
real details, it was verynebulous, it was very cobbled
together and it was like it feltlike a fan fiction of dracula,
(30:42):
in that you were expected toknow and that you were expected
to.
Ashley (30:44):
Yeah, and that you were expected to.
Yeah, that's a really good yeah.
Mari (30:47):
What Dracula is like.
If you for some reason did notknow who Dracula was like, if
you had never heard of Dracula,I think this would be a really
confusing story to you.
I feel like it was assumed thatwe all knew who Dracula was and
we all knew, like, theDracula's powers as described in
the original, like Rammst novel.
Yeah, so it was a one onfantasy world building for me,
(31:09):
jonathan I really didn't getlike the whole.
Jonathan (31:12):
I didn't get any fantasy out of it.
I just thought like I figuredthey were old and that they kept
having to move and survive,almost like recluse, like hiding
, like you can't they?
They couldn't.
They really didn't get to leaninto their powers.
Maybe it was so, maybe theopposite of fantasy world
building like they were, justlike we're, we're now playing a
(31:33):
game of survival.
We need to.
We need to find the most politeway to exist and get what we
want without really causing astir and drawing attention to
ourselves, and I think thatserves to the idea that Dracula
spent a lot of time being angryearly on and was just like
that's not the way to survive inthis world.
(31:55):
We have to come to terms withthe idea that we have to blend
into society.
The idea that we have to blendinto society, um, I I think,
with that said, the, the idea ofa lack of fantasy building.
For me it didn't go into abunch of the origin stories, it
didn't go into, um, like a lotof the magical powers.
(32:19):
Is just this, a reduced version, almost like a retired Dracula,
and I was like, hmm, so maybeI'll, and I, and I'll tell you
what I did I did feel the velvetfurniture, uh, so maybe I'll
give it a two, two and a half orI felt, I felt the furniture.
(32:39):
I could smell, but I could smellthe bedding.
I could almost get the oil lamp.
Ashley (32:44):
Did he smell like parchment?
No, you didn't get any smells,no, he just feels.
Jonathan (32:50):
I got the smells of the musty bedding.
Also, the artist, the model.
I got vibes of like what was it?
Wasn't there a kooky artist outof New York?
He was alive, I'm sure duringour generation, but he was, did
he man?
He did a bunch of paintingsWarhol.
Ashley (33:14):
I was like you're giving me minimal information.
Jonathan (33:17):
You're not playing charades with me.
Ashley (33:19):
I didn't have Warhol out of that at all I got.
Mari (33:23):
When you say kooky paintings, paintings describe
some of the paintings that mighthelp us know who you're talking
about is andy warhol yeah, yeah, oh, warhol, okay warhol okay,
I was like melted clocks, it'sdali, you know like that kind of
thing.
Jonathan (33:36):
Okay, warhol and I know it's like two, two, very
like there was there's a half acentury of time between those
two, the like, the plot of thestory and the um and that artist
.
But that's the vibe I got andthat's why I kept hoping like,
okay, they're getting over,they're getting, they're getting
moving through time.
Maybe this will advance into acontemporary setting which I
(33:58):
would have liked to see, haveseen I I thought that could be a
cool twist to that.
Like another scene I I thoughtthat could be a cool twist to
that.
Like another, if you wereanother three chapters and it
took it even into like the 50sand 60s and they were just like
maybe some shit was just gettinga little loose and cray cray, I
thought that would have been acool, cool direction to move
that story.
And it it came on slow, builtslowly, got my hopes up, smelled
(34:21):
like musty flannel bed sheetsand then just fizzled out two
and two, two and a half yeah, I.
Mari (34:31):
I want to say like I know it started in like the 1400s and
it goes at least until the1900s.
I'm not sure how modern thestory goes, because it seems
like travel to new york wasfairly easy by the end of the
story.
Yeah, but it's not specific.
But to that point.
Ashley (34:49):
Like you know, the the concept of time even is very
vague in the explanation and youknow the the progression of the
book.
You, you understand that timehas passed, but not necessarily
how much, literally, until shesays you, you know 1600s or
1920s and there's just not a lotof that detail that we were at
(35:23):
the beginning of the RussianRevolution and communism coming
into Russia and all that.
Kelly (35:26):
So we're definitely at the very latest in the 1900s.
And I would suspect it's morelike many years after that,
because you have to figure allthe years that they were
together with Alexei before theyassassinated Dracula.
So it could easily be that thebook ends in the modern times.
Mari (35:48):
Yeah, what did you think of the fantasy?
What was your rating?
Kelly (35:52):
Kelly, I would agree with most of what you said.
It was a two.
There was nothing new, nothingoriginal.
Even the very concept of thestory is not new.
This has been done before.
Where you have the brides ofDracula, you know, decide
they've had enough and kill them.
Most notably, it was donetrying to remember what year it
(36:14):
was.
Mari (36:14):
That this came out, or that.
Kelly (36:16):
No, there was a comic book series published by DC,
vertigo, which was, you know,back in the 80s and 90s, and
even still today, I think, theline of comics that DC published
.
That had more adult themes,most notably where books like
the Sandman was published.
I can't remember when itactually came out, I think it
(36:37):
was the late 1990s.
There was a series called Vampsand it was essentially this
story.
A bunch of brides of a verypowerful vampire decide they've
had enough and they conspire tokill him and then, of course,
after they kill him, theybasically tear off and, you know
, do their own thing.
Mari (36:56):
So it's not a new concept by any stretch of the
imagination yeah, I mean, partof that is what happens in
Interview with a Vampire andRice series too, which is
written beginning in the lateseventies, early eighties.
You get the whole killer of themaker and the brood siblings
you know run off and try andhave their own life together.
Kelly (37:17):
Well, I mean killing your maker has been around since
literature and stories have beeninvented.
I mean patricide or somethingsimilar to patricide has been
around a very long time.
But I'm just saying that theconcept of a bunch of female, or
mostly female, vampiresdeciding to off their maker and
off Dracula has definitely beenaround for a long time, because
(37:41):
in the context of I thinkInterview, think interview with
the vampire I don't know that itwas as much the idea that he
was abusive.
I mean he certainly wasn'tlistat, certainly wasn't a great
guy or anything yeah, I agree,listat wasn't necessarily
abusive, he was.
Mari (37:56):
He was a whiny drama queen and louie and and uh, oh my god
, what was the girl's name?
Claudia, claudia, thank you.
Oh, I need to rewatch that.
Kelly (38:07):
Louis and Claudia wanted to go their own way, right, he
wouldn't let him.
And so I think in vamps it'smore like this book, where the
vampire is manipulative, abusive, controlling, won't let them do
anything, you know, basicallycontrols their entire life, kind
of thing.
So it's more of a parallel to atypical domestic violence type
(38:28):
situation.
Mari (38:30):
Yeah, I will say this is the one thing I told Kelly about
, and anyone who's asked meabout this book, like I think
this is.
This book does a really, really, really, really good job of
showing how hard it can be toget away or get out of a
domestic abuse situation or likehow, how easy it is to be
blinded by one yes, yeah, itdoes a really good job of that,
(38:53):
like that's the story.
I feel that it tells very wellagreed wholeheartedly agreed on
a completely different point ofthat.
The next thing we would talkabout would be romance, which my
my notes.
I put one question mark.
Uh, I feel like the only realromance in this story is the
(39:16):
like brood sibling rope, the,the, the protective kind of
brood sibling love of each otherthat the brood siblings had
that Constanta and Alexei andMagdalena had for each other, in
the sense of it being likealways take care of each other
type situation.
(39:37):
So it was a one for me.
Ashley (39:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think in his very dense caveman,
manipulative way he loved themRight.
But it was just, it was only onhis terms which power person in
the relationship.
So I mean, I think he thinks heloved them.
(40:06):
I think he thinks he gave themwhat they needed and wanted, but
it was very lacking on theirside and I would agree that I
think the family love was, youknow, the point of the story
here, and for them it translatedinto a physical kind which was
also emotional for them.
I enjoyed the balance of theirrelationship and even their
(40:31):
trauma bond building together.
But, yeah, romance and what wetalk about here and what we look
for, yeah, it was a one for me.
Jonathan (40:42):
I thought there was a care for me.
I thought there was a I thoughthere was a a care for them.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna give theromance a little bit more than
than than the basics here.
It's not necessarily theromance between the, the mmc,
and his, his lady friends.
(41:02):
It's more so the romancebetween the supporting
characters, especially towardsthe end, when they brought on
the new guy.
Mari (41:14):
Alexi.
Jonathan (41:15):
Yeah.
So I would say, because therewas enough, there was passion
enough to force a decision to bemade Quickly To make a change.
Yeah, exactly, and they had tohave care and compassion for one
(41:39):
another.
Was it romance?
I mean, you don't kill foranything less.
This is, you know, it's romancewith us, ashley.
It's blood in, blood out Justsaying so.
Yeah, I would say two and ahalf for this, for me two and a
(42:04):
half.
Kelly (42:06):
I didn't think there was much romance at all to speak of.
I think it was more of amanipulative situation, and so I
don't feel that there was anyromance, I don't even.
And there was some creepyaspects to the romance too.
I mean, there was certainlysome incestuous vibes coming
from constanda and alexi, whereshe describes it having like a
(42:29):
motherly relationship with himand then they're having sex.
So that was a little uh, youknow, yeah, but yeah, I just
don't think there was anyromance.
Mari (42:40):
I'm moving on to Spice, which is, yeah, it's exactly,
I'm right there with you.
I wrote cringy For me, thewhole like sister, wife and then
like where Constanta saw Lexias her child, but then they're
like having sexy times.
It did not do it for me.
It for me so like there wasspice in this but it didn't hit
(43:08):
for me, um, and I felt it wascringy and I think for me a lot
of that is like spice.
You know, all the weirdancestral stuff aside, spice
tends to feel cringy for me if Idon't, if I don't feel like I
have a, a hand hold on who thepeople are, and I feel that's
part of my problem with thisseries is like all the
characters feel super flat, solike I don't know who Constanta
(43:32):
is, okay, so she was a peasantin like Budapest or whatever in
the 1400s.
We get no flavor at all aboutanybody.
There's no Romanian flavor toher.
There's no folklore, there's nonothing.
You know Magdalena is, you know, a Spaniard.
She could have been anythingelse anywhere, anything else.
(43:54):
There was like nothing to herabout her entire like background
.
Alexei has a teeny bit of theRussian vibe in him or whatever,
but even then then, like youdon't get a lot of vibe for who
they are.
Yeah, um, I wrote a two with aquestion mark, but I don't even
really know why I wrote a two,because I feel like it's a one.
I'll say one and a half.
Ashley (44:16):
It exists, it's there, it's just not my jam so I've
learned this year, um, thatreading will make me question
myself and the things that Ibelieve in and the things that I
will tolerate.
And so I say that because weall got a little iffy about
incestuous relationships on Gameof Thrones.
But then House of the Dragoncame out and we were like, yeah,
(44:39):
girl, get that uncle.
So, with that said, I thoughtthe spice that was in this book
was very polite.
It was a lot of fade to black,right, so it wasn't overly
cringy for me.
I think it was their only realway of connecting.
(45:00):
Once you've turned and for thefirst, however long it takes to
acclimate into that, I thinkthere's something to be said for
vampires and them beingcreatures of immense feeling,
whether they be positive ornegative.
So I thought the spice waspolite.
I thought it was the onlycontext we got in this book.
(45:25):
So I thought it was a three.
I thought what was there wasnice.
It helped build their internalrelationship.
The fact that she looked at himfrom the perspective of a
mother, I didn't think thatreally held up.
I think she just felt motherlyabout it.
She felt protective of him.
I feel protective of Jonathan.
(45:49):
No one can say anything badabout my husband.
I will rip you apart and I'mvery average sized.
Jonathan (45:55):
I appreciate that.
Ashley (45:57):
Yeah, and anyone else of my family.
So I think, after George RRMartin, I'm a little numb to
those things.
Flowers in the attic.
I'm of that generation.
Mari (46:10):
Oh God, I remember that yes.
Ashley (46:13):
So it was a three I.
I didn't hate the spice.
It didn't do anything extra forme.
I thought it was very.
I thought it was decent.
Mari (46:22):
You know, you bring up an interesting point that I hadn't
really thought about and that'sthe whole, like that's the way
they showed their love, kind ofthing.
And when you're a hostage in asituation which they basically
were, they didn't have anythingof their own, like their bodies
is all they had to share witheach other you know, and that
was theirs to give.
Yeah, that's all that wastheirs to give their time, their
(46:43):
attention, their bodies, andthat was theirs to give yeah,
their time, their attention,their bodies Interesting.
Jonathan (46:48):
Interesting point, jonathan.
I didn't get a whole bunch ofspice out of it.
I thought maybe there was acouple of elements.
I think things got a little bithotter once the new boy came to
town Alexi Alexi.
Ashley (47:08):
Alexi, I'm going to have to like little cards, cards for
me, cards to hold up for him.
Jonathan (47:12):
Yeah, um, and I think part I think a lot of that was
the idea that um, he was, uh,that introduced some bisexual
play into it and that added morespice to it like a the a
two-on-one dominant kind of vibe.
Mari (47:29):
They didn't get me you mean bisexual play for dracula
uh?
Yeah, yeah because I mean themag mag that's really magdalena
and constanta were.
They already had the wholebisexual thing going on before
alexi was in the picture?
Jonathan (47:43):
correct.
Yes, yeah, but for, uh, fordracula, I was like that's a
really interesting vibe and itadded to the story at that point
.
So on the spice scale, itreally didn't.
Yeah, and and my mind ispolluted at this point- uh from
there's some competing readsgoing on that have uh, that are
(48:05):
like off the charts we'veadditionally corrupt him.
Mari (48:07):
He's multitasking and that's what I said.
Jonathan (48:10):
You're fully corrupted so I'll give it.
I'll give it a two, um because,mostly because, uh, you guys
have corrupted me and, yeah,I've gone down.
I have to go wash my.
I have to wash my mind's eyeout with soap after some of
these books.
Mari (48:26):
And yet you keep coming back for more.
Oh yeah.
Ashley (48:29):
Yeah, I like multis Kelly.
Kelly (48:35):
Yeah, I think the spice was fairly polite.
Like I actually said, it reallywasn't overly graphic and
whatnot.
I think it's definitely lessthan some of the books we've
read.
It definitely wasn't what Iexpected.
I think I was expecting itbased on how much there was
reviews of people saying howmuch they loved it, et cetera.
(48:55):
I was expecting it to maybe bemore spicy, I think.
Overall, I felt like it wasmaybe like a two, two and a half
.
What do we think?
Mari (49:02):
about the cover.
So the cover is done by DuncanSpilling.
I actually probably like thecover most of anything.
I gave the cover a three and ahalf.
I thought it was.
You know, made me pick up thebook and look at it.
It's got a little bit of likethat old timey portrait.
Look, it's got the red and theblack and the white.
It's very like vampire colorsas I think of.
(49:24):
I think it works.
I think it with her face kindof read it out.
It's the idea of like thenameless brides of of dracula or
the nameless abused people inin domestic abuse situations.
Yeah, I, I thought it waspretty, it was well done.
It's a three and a half for me.
Ashley (49:44):
Ash, yeah, I think it's a three.
I think this is it's mid-rangefor me.
I don't know if I would havestopped in the bookstore and
bought it, but I do feel it isvery, very, you know,
representative of the book inwhat we read.
I think for the intent of the,for the story, the cover is
(50:05):
pretty, is pretty, is pretty,spot on actually.
Jonathan (50:09):
I, um, I had, I think.
So I was looking at the coverthat you had, and then I had a
different cover, um, um, neitherof which I was impressed by.
I wasn't going to pick upeither of them.
Um, if I walked by this, walkby this book in the bookstore,
it just didn't jump out to me.
It probably further anchored mysweaty, velvet, musty ideas or
(50:36):
visions of this book, imagery ofthis book.
I'm going to give it a one.
The cover was interesting.
Kelly (50:43):
It was very suggestive.
I think it was a different wayto try and do a cover.
I don't know that it'ssomething that would have
grabbed my attention in thebookstore because to me it felt
like this book was the cover wasleaning very heavily being
influenced on something likeFifty Shades of Grey.
So I don't know that the coverwas especially that great, nor
was it especially that terrible.
(51:04):
I feel like it's maybe a twoand a half, just kind of average
.
Ashley (51:09):
I think the slash two looks like an eyebrow A little
bit.
That doesn't do it for me.
Mari (51:16):
Yeah, it should be more like fingerprint smudgy.
Ashley (51:21):
Again, I see the intent, it just didn't pull it off.
Mari (51:27):
Yeah.
So then the million dollardollar question is this a
kissing book?
What do we think?
Ashley (51:31):
no yeah, I wrote no, that was my thinking.
There's a no for me oh um Ilike how you're considering it,
like your mind was not made upin the first three pages.
Jonathan (51:41):
I immediately want to say but I didn't even run this
one through the calculator and Iwanted to.
I was hoping that you guyscould turn me a little bit.
Ashley (51:52):
We agree with you this time.
Jonathan (51:53):
I don't know if it's a win.
I'm not in it to win it.
Ashley (51:58):
You're in it to be contradictory.
Mari (52:00):
Yes a contrarian.
Ashley (52:02):
We agree with you this time and in fact, your numbers
are better than most of ours.
Jonathan (52:07):
That's interesting isn't it isn't it it is t-i-s.
Um, yeah, okay, I'll go with itand say indeed, it is not a
kissing book yeah, definitelynot a kissing book there you
have it, guys.
Mari (52:22):
All right.
So anything else we want to sayabout a Dowry of Blood, all
right.
So rapid fire question fortoday is going to be what's the
best book you read last month,in September?
Ashley (52:34):
You first.
Mari (52:36):
Me.
Yes month is called MostArgently.
It's a Pride and Prejudiceremix.
It's written by Gabe Cole-Navoaand it'd been on my radar for a
little bit.
I love Pride and Prejudice.
It's one of my favorite booksof all time.
Pride and Prejudice retellingscan be iffy, but the author is a
(53:00):
Latinx trans author and I waslooking for some Latin authors
for Hispanic Heritage Month,trying to read some, and so I
decided to move it up on the TBRand read it.
I very much loved it.
It's basically a retelling ofPride and Prejudice where Darcy
is basically the Darcy we know,but Elizabeth is trans and it's
(53:24):
their relationship.
My only downside of this bookthat I don't understand why it
was done is that the author ageddown the character.
So you know, in the originalprime prejudice they're all like
in their 20s, grown,independent, adult people, and
in this they're like I don'tknow 17.
So they're're like I don't know17.
(53:45):
So they're much younger and Idon't know why, because it's
still written in like a Regencyera.
It's not like the expectationis for people to.
I don't know.
I don't know why they did that.
I'd be interested in findingout why they made that choice.
Ashley (53:58):
But regardless of that really good book, if you're
looking for a good Prenn Pregisremix, if you're looking for a
good Pride and Prejudice remix,if you're looking for a good
LGBTQ plus story, if you're justlooking for a really good love
story, most ardently, a Prideand Prejudice remix by Gabe
(54:20):
Cole-Navoa.
Very busy month for us.
So the last book that I readthat I can remember being like
super excited about, technically, the end of August, which I'm
going to say counts, and it wasApprentice to the Villain.
And I enjoyed every second ofApprentice to the Villain from,
(54:40):
and I happened to score it onaudio book, which is even better
because I think that narrator,whose name I don't know, I'm a
big fan of and I think that bookwas just so fun.
Yeah, so 10 out of 10 for me,apprentice to the Villain.
Jonathan (54:56):
She's such a cheat.
Ashley (54:57):
Was that your book?
Jonathan (54:59):
So yeah.
I can change my answer no, no,you can keep your answer.
Keep your answer.
I picked it up actually inSeptember, coming home from
Nebraska, and I picked it up inthe airport, so I had both the
audio and the analog tangiblebook.
I'm not fully through it yet,so it's a book that I have a
(55:23):
number of books on my activelybeing read list.
Mari (55:27):
I do the same thing, all good okay cool, it's just a fun.
Jonathan (55:31):
It was a fun read um and that's kind of lighthearted
and and joyful, so that's kindof where I'm at and well written
yeah.
Kelly (55:53):
I don't know that I really have one.
I have watched the new Batmananimated series that's on Prime
Video and enjoyed it.
It's Batman the Caped Crusader.
They've taken those of us thatknew Batman the Animated Series
with Kevin Conroy and MarkHamill who voiced the Joker from
(56:14):
back in the 90s.
So they've taken the BatmanAnimated Series kind of reset it
, basically put it hard in a1930s noir setting.
So it's very much a low-tech.
Batman doesn't have super robot, amazingly high-tech
(56:37):
microcomputer, tony Stark typestuff, so it's much more gritty.
Batman is not even a majorcharacter.
He very rarely, he has very fewlines, he doesn't show up very
often.
So it's actually more about theGotham City Police Department
and one of the things I'menjoying about it is that take
of more of it being a moregritty noir police-type setting.
(57:01):
And what's amusing to me isthere's an enormous amount of
super fanboy neckbeards that areup in arms over this series.
One because obviously nothing'sgonna replace the beloved kevin
conway batman animated series,because that was great and most
a lot of us grew up on it or alot of people grew up on it.
(57:23):
So it's never going to replacethat.
But what this series did is itdid a lot of gender bending, so
a lot of the characters aregender bent.
The penguin is a female.
That makes sense Instead ofbeing a male character.
Yeah, so there's some of thatwhere the characters are gender
(57:44):
bent.
Harley Quinn is a much morebelievable villain, like a
terrifying villain who isactually an incredibly smart
psychologist who is easily ableto manipulate people.
So much more realistic andterrifying.
Um villain and a lot ofcharacters have their
(58:07):
ethnicities flipped.
Detective Gordon is not white,Barbara Gordon is not white and
that has a lot of theseneckbeards pissed off.
But it's a great series.
Mari (58:21):
All right, anything else before we wrap it up?
Nope, oh, okay.
So thanks for listening toSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate,
review and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us.
Follow us on Instagram at ofSwords and Soulmates, or join
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(58:42):
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Of Swords and Soulmates, orcheck out our website of
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We're also on YouTube andTikTok and Pinterest and Threads
all same username.
Find us there If you'd like tooffer suggestions for a future
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option suggestion for reading,or if you want to tell us your
opinions on something, why youagree with us or why you think
(59:04):
we're wrong, or just anotherpoint that you'd like to make,
please reach out to us If you'dlike to read along with us as we
prepare for a new episode, forright now, you can follow us on
Goodreads of Swords andSoulmates and also if you are on
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(59:27):
We've created a book club onthere for Of Swords and
Soulmates.
So if you search for it orcontact us, if you want like a
direct link or whatever it'scalled, of Swords and Soulmates,
you can read along with us.
And the thing about the bookclubs there is you can like say
something about, let's say,you're up to chapter five and
(59:47):
you just want to say somethingabout chapter five without
spoiling anything or seeinganybody else's comments.
You can just comment up tochapter five and not see
anything about, like, any of thechapters beyond what you've
read.
It's an interesting little app,so we're on there as well.
We hope you'll join us in twoweeks for our next episode when
we read and talk about the GamesGod's Play by Abigail Owen, an
(01:00:10):
author's name which should soundfamiliar.
Bye, bye, thank you.
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