"Captured by the Fae Beast" - Who Saves Who? - Of Swords and Soulmates

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ashley (00:00):
Dear listeners, we apologize for audio issues.
This week we were plagued byinternet outages and
thunderstorms.
Our editor did the best theycould to clean it up and fix it.
We appreciate yourunderstanding.
The views expressed in thispodcast 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

(00:21):
the Fair Use Doctrine.

Mari (00:40):
Hello and welcome to Of 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 (00:45):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.

Ashley (00:47):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:50):
What's good, everybody .
It's JP bringing up the rear.

Mari (00:55):
So today we're going to be discussing Captured by the Fae
Beast by Mallory Dunlan, butfirst, as always, some news.
We have a lot of news and Iseriously still held back a lot.
I was just like this can't bean all news episode, but man has
a lot happened, yeah, so we'resplitting it.

(01:16):
The next episode is going tohave a lot of news too, and it
just is what it is.
First thing I have is AllieHazelwood.
Is Ali Hazelwood, author ofseveral STEM contemporary
romance books and author of theBride, and who's scheduled to be
at Fabled Fantasy, has beenbullied off of social media.
So basically, my understandingof what happened is there was

(01:38):
some event that happened inApril and it wasn't even related
to Hunger Games.
This is such a weird snippet ofour time.
It wasn't even related toHunger Games, but someone asked
or somehow the conversation cameup about if they were Team PETA
or Team Gale Hunger Games andshe, allie Hazelwood, said that

(02:02):
she's Team Gayle and whatever.
Months after that happened.
Then that video got.
I don't know.
I don't know if it got repostedor people just started talking
about it, and then peoplestarted like bullying her and
sending her all these not greatthings about her opinion and so
she has like, gotten off allsocial media and have you guys

(02:24):
seen the, the original footage,or seen, read any of this, about
this or anything?

Jonathan (02:31):
I got I I understood that something was like going on
, but I had, like I, the twocharacters that, like I, almost
actively avoid the hunger Games.
It's not my jam.

Mari (02:46):
I thought the Hunger Games were fine.
I liked reading them.
I don't have anything againstthe Hunger Games.
I did not feel like the lovestory aspect.
It may have just been the timein my life I was when I was
reading it, but I didn't feellike the love story aspect of it
was the point.
I thought it was very much likeKatniss' story and story of
revolution and having toestablish a better way of doing

(03:11):
things and having to survive warand having PTSD.
By the end I was just TeamKatniss and I just wanted
everyone to be okay.
But regardless.

Ashley (03:31):
You don't bully a real life person over their opinion
of a made-up character.
I was gonna say I mean I thinkthe the love part of that story
was super important to the boys.
You know what I mean, like forgail and for pita, um, or at
least for Peta.
You know a lot of what he didwasn't necessary for what was
right, but it was for what wasfor cats.

(03:52):
You know what I mean and Ithink it started out that way
for Gail.
And I think you know that storydefinitely evolved Because it's
not just a, it's not a simplestory.
Right, you're talking aboutforever and you're talking about
, you know, big, big, big change, um, but I would agree
someone's opinion on whether ornot you know, whether to dis, to

(04:15):
dislike or to like a boy inthat story is definitely not the
point of the story, right, andnobody should be bullied for
what they think or what theybelieve yeah, and so I don't
know if it's related to that,but um fabled fantasy, on their
discord, said that they werequote sad to announce this

(04:38):
happened on june 20th.

Mari (04:39):
They were sad to announce that ali hazelwood will no
longer be attending romanacybook con.
While we understand this isdisappointing, we support her
decision and ask that ourwonderful attendees do the same.
Thank you, end of quote.
But she's still listed on theirwebsite as an author, she's
still listed on their Instagrampage as an author and their
official app still has her as aticketed author.

(05:00):
So I don't know.

Ashley (05:04):
Just pulling back a little bit and reserving the
right to not come.
I mean, it would be unfortunateif we let this ruin the score
for herself, if that makes sense.
I mean I don't mean that in acondescending way, it's more
like like, don't let thebastards grind you down, right.

Mari (05:24):
I think it was.
If I had to guess, I think itwas a combination of this plus
earlier this year when she hadto cancel her uk author.
She was doing a book tour inthe uk and she had to cancel it
because she's I believe she's alike here on a visa or lapr
permanent resident, somethinglike, and so she wasn't sure I

(05:46):
don't remember her exact wording.
She posted on her Instagram,but something like that.
She wasn't sure she was goingto be able to get back into the
country if she left for this UKtour and, to be honest, it's on
the back of all her books.
She's here for her PhD inneuroscience.
That's her main gig.
That's what she's here to do.

Ashley (06:06):
And so I mean gig.

Mari (06:07):
That's what she's here to do, and so I mean she's not
going to put her her livelihoodand her career or whatever on
the line for this?

Ashley (06:10):
no, and I think you know reminding people of the
sensitivities of what'shappening politically will
probably ruffle some feathers.
There has been a really bigmovement on some of the socials.
Um, there's a, there's a fairlybig contemporary romance on
there, although she's downwithin romanticity.
That has, like, put her footdown as far as if you align a

(06:32):
certain way politically, thendon't read her books.
Like she straight out said ityeah, and so that has very
certainly pissed some people off.
Like who are you to tell mewhat to do or don't do?
Or why couldn't I read yourbooks?

Jonathan (06:46):
like yeah, but it was more like in her defense.

Ashley (06:49):
It was like why would you even want to right?
You know she writes about lgbtqplus, you know ideas and you
know it's all very, it's allvery much maligned with certain
political parties.

Mari (07:05):
Anti-fascist et cetera.
Yeah.

Ashley (07:07):
Right, and so Ali's post , if I'm not mistaken, might've
been around that very a similartimeframe as that other author's
post, so it might've ruffledsome feathers and I thought Ali
handled that question very well.
I thought it was more highlevel the way she responded.

Mari (07:24):
It was just not a safe travel time.
Yeah, and honestly, she's animmigrant in this country,
talking about the immigrantexperience in this country.
Like you can't tell her she'swrong about how, what she feels
you know what I mean.
Like, yeah, you can have yourown opinion, but you can't you
can't tell her she's wrong for,like, being afraid she's not

(07:45):
gonna be able to get back in orwhatever.
She's just stating what shefeels.
People are entitled to theirfeelings.
I know that Tiffany Roberts,who wrote the Spider-Mate, the
Spider-Shuff.
Yeah, they did a similar thing.
They're like hey, if you likeour books, you know this is what

(08:06):
we stand for politically, like.
I don't remember their exactwording either, but it was kind
of the same thing.
I think several authorsprobably did it around the same
time.
They were like hey, you knowthese authors or these
characters of mine in theseworlds of mine that you like and
these stories of mine that youlike?
Like, if you like a certainpolitical ideal, you would not
be on the good side in thesestories that you say you like.

(08:26):
You know so.
But, yeah, so I right now, Ithink, and I assume that Allie
Hazelwood's not going to be atRomantic Con in Orlando in
October, and I assume thatthey'll probably announce it
officially, like in August, whenthey do the official update on
their, on their app, when they,when you have to like, do the

(08:48):
whole ticket thing for theauthors, like I assume by then
is when it will have to besomehow officially decided or
officially announced.
So, because I I looked on theirother like, I looked on the
Romantic Fabled Fantasieswebsite and their Instagram and
everything, and it wasn'tanywhere else.
I'm like if, like, if you'renot on Discord, how would you
know.
So, yeah, I thought that waskind of sad and it's very sad,

(09:16):
yeah, like I already, like AliHazelwood, have read almost
everything she's written, but Iam two books behind, so I've
bumped those up on my TBRBecause I like.
I mean, I like her contemporaryromance.
There's not that muchcontemporary romance I like, but
I like what she does withcontemporary romance.
I think she writes reallyinteresting introspective

(09:36):
characters that feel very realand fully formed.
Like I'm not a person who worksin STEM, but I feel like I'm
along for the ride when I readher books.

Ashley (09:46):
So yeah, her books are are easy to read and that you
know this and I've only read thecontemporary STEM stuff right,
so I would agree that her booksare are easy to absorb without
feeling like overwhelmed or, youknow, unintelligent if that
makes sense yeah, all right.

Mari (10:07):
Next bit of news is that there is a book coming out
called tusk love, t-u-s-k.
Love, by thea guanzon.
She and I'm not even sure I'msaying her name right, so I
apologize, but she's known forwriting the hurricane war, which
I have and haven't read yet.
It's in my physical tbr pile.

(10:28):
It's it's.
She's supposed to be a reallygood author.
Has anyone read anything by her?

Ashley (10:33):
I have not, but I do remember when hurricane wars
dropped and it was like one ofthose really beautiful covers
and straight edges too, if I'mnot mistaken kind of situations.

Mari (10:45):
But I have not read I've heard great things about it,
like it comes up on a lot oflists, supposed to be very good.
I can't speak to that.
However, tusk love was um.
There's a story behind how itcame about.
So there is a, a youtube webseries of people who play d&D,
dungeons and Dragons, and it'sthese professional voice actors

(11:07):
with a professional DM who runsit and it's called Critical Role
.
You may or may not have heardof Critical Role.
If you play D&D, you've heardof Critical Role.
There's a lot of people who arevery heavy into the Critical
Role world.
So in this world there's thislike running gag or running joke
that they go to, like theselittle bookstores, or they go

(11:29):
into a store.
There's like a in the back,there's like a shelf with
naughty books or whatever.
And Tusk Love is this series.
It's a fictional in-game bookknown as Tusk Love, which is a
racy novel that follows thesaucy romance between a half-orc
and the daughter of a travelingmerchant, and so from this
made-up game, following therules of a made-up game, this

(11:52):
author basically made the book areality.
So it's like this real bookbased off of this fake book,
created in this critical role,which is like a big nerd thing
basically a lot of people areinto, so I'm excited about this.
I am going to be reading it.
Kelly, you don't know muchabout Critical Role, do you?

Kelly (12:13):
No.

Mari (12:14):
Okay, I only know about it because my best friend is way
into it and she runs one of thegames that we play online and
it's set in like a Critical Roleworld and so there's much more
to the world that I play in thanI know because I don't really
follow a critical role.
But I know a lot of people arevery excited about you know,
people who don't necessarilyread romance or romancy or

(12:35):
whatever.
We're excited about this bookcoming out because of the tie in
to this like game, so I'mexcited about it.
I pre-ordered it.

Ashley (12:45):
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Mari (12:47):
Next thing that I have on the news is another new book
coming out.
This one is called Zomromcom.
All one word.
I love this already.
Yeah, this is by Olivia Dade,who, as far as I know, has only
ever written contemporaryromance.
That's all I know her for.
Has anybody read any of herstuff?

(13:09):
Not off the top of my head.
So she wrote there's two bigseries that she's known for.
Spoiler Alert is one of them,and the other one is there's
Something About Marysburg.
The Spoiler Alert series I readit's a contemporary romance
series.
The Spoiler Alert series I readit's a contemporary romance

(13:39):
series.
Almost all of her stories haveone or both main characters
being plus-sized, but in theSpoiler Alert series it's
basically, I think it's likegame of thrones, but it's
basically there's a show beingfilmed which is very like game
of thrones, being filmed, youknow, on location and there's
actors which are very like thegame of thrones actor, and then
it's like um, it's like a lovestory around, what it's like to

(14:00):
be in a show.
That that's, that's thatpopular.
Everyone has an opinion aboutthat can be toxic and everything
else.
It's a good series, especiallyif you've watched Game of
Thrones because you're like,yeah, you get some little Easter
eggs and tie-ins that make forgood little love stories.
There's something aboutMarysburg series I've not read

(14:21):
yet.
I have one on my Libby holdthat should be coming in.
I believe they're all likeeducation teacher, like they're
all teachers, all the ones inthat series.
But this book is basically herfirst like foray into fantasy,
or paranormal or horror orfantasy, whatever you want to
call it zombie apocalypse, andso I think the female main

(14:47):
character has to try and survivethe zombie apocalypse and she
gets the help of her neighbornext door who happens to be a
vampire.
So it's like a vampire humanromance story in a zombie
apocalypse All the tropes Rightright, yes, I will take them all
.
Thank you very much.
All in one big zombie tropescene?
Right right, yes, I will takethem all.
Thank you very much.

Ashley (15:06):
All in one big zombie trope.
I love it.

Mari (15:09):
Yeah, sign me.
This will be Olivia Dade'sfirst book tour, which I find
surprising because I thought shewas fairly well known in
contemporary romance stuff.
But I mean, I guess thatdoesn't mean you have to do a
book tour, but I would haveassumed she would have done one
before now.
But this will be her first booktour, so I hope it does well.
I hope it's a good book.

(15:30):
I mean, like I said, I've likedall the books I've read by her,
but I've not read all of herbooks.
So that one's coming out August5th, so in time for spooky
season.
So in time for spooky season,all right.

(15:51):
Next bit of news is that BookConis back.
So BookCon the last BookConthat existed was in 2019.
And so this next BookCon isgoing to be April 18th and 19th,
2026 at the Javits Center inNew York City.
And it's not the same PeopleI've heard talking about it.
It's not the same as like BookExpo, which is apparently a

(16:11):
publisher kind of event.
This is very much like a fanevent.
So it's going to be likeauthors and panels and signings
and, you know, buying, likespecial editions.
It's going to be like a bigbook convention.
I was going to say it's like abig book con, yeah, so I signed

(16:31):
up for the mailing list to seewhat it's like.
I know a lot of people arereally excited about it.
People who had been to previousones are very excited about it.

Jonathan (16:42):
The details are still very up in the air, right, right
like.

Mari (16:47):
I don't even know what kind of books, because you know
book, book, con could beanything.
It could be children's books,you know it could be ya, it
could be adult.
It could be all the genres itcould be, you know, non-fiction,
if I must.
It could be all sorts of things.
So yeah, it's interestinglooking to see what it's going

(17:08):
to be.

Ashley (17:09):
Yeah, they're definitely hyping it up and they're hyping
it up super early.

Mari (17:16):
So I signed up for the list.
I will be interested in thedetails.
I wonder if it's going to becrazy expensive or crazy
exclusive, or how they're goingto limit it in order to be able
to go.
It might be interesting to go.
April's a good time.
New York it's not, you know,crazy cold, it's not crazy hot.

Jonathan (17:37):
So I think actually you'd have a maybe an easier
time talking me into theCalifornia Romantic Con.

Kelly (17:45):
I'm not going to lie.

Jonathan (17:47):
I started seeing the author list pop out for that one
.
I was like, ooh, that might bea fun time.
If you're thinking abouttraveling, I feel like I could
be a West Coast guy.
Why are you ignoring me?

Mari (18:01):
actually, sometimes, when is the LA Romantic Con?

Ashley (18:08):
February Okay.

Jonathan (18:09):
I have no idea.

Ashley (18:10):
I think it's February.

Mari (18:13):
Coming off all the holiday end-of-year stuff.
Okay, the other thing I have isSarah J Maas signed a
multi-year licensing deal isthat with image licensing?
Image licensing that's what itis.
Img licensing it's going to bean exclusive, worldwide,

(18:33):
multi-year deal and it's goingto include apparel, beauty,
lifestyle I mean games, food andquote immersive fan experiences
.
End quote.

Ashley (18:48):
That's interesting.
Wait, that was Rebecca.

Jonathan (18:51):
No, no, no, that was Sarah.
That was Sarah, yeah.

Ashley (18:53):
For some reason my brain heard what you said, but
translated it into Rebecca.
That doesn't sound right withwhat I know in the literary
world right now.

Mari (19:02):
I'm sorry, continue.
Yeah, so interesting.
Could be cool, could be someinteresting merch and stuff
coming out.
But instantly as soon as thatcame out, I saw people posting
who you know.
There's a lot of smallbusinesses that have licenses
and everything with her already.
You know people who do likelittle bookmarks or t-shirts

(19:23):
officially licensed t-shirts,officially licensed T-shirts,
officially licensed products andthings that are SJM officially
licensed.
So it'll be interesting to seewhat happens with those,
especially if you build a bigpart of your business on that.
And also a lot of times whathappens in cases like this is
you run into ideas that alreadyexist that maybe these small

(19:48):
businesses have done, gettingtaken by bigger manufacturers
and then the small but smartestnot getting any credit or
payback for it, any money for it.

Ashley (20:03):
Yeah, I mean, that's not going to happen.
I mean, sarah j mass is belowright now.
Um, it's an interesting move, Iwonder.
I wonder why now right?
Because, like she's not new,there's nothing particularly big

(20:24):
happening or coming that we'reaware of, and I know that the
movie stuff or the show got notcanceled because it was never
actually in production.
It's an interesting move, I'mnot opposed, but I would
probably continue.

Mari (20:39):
Yeah, it makes me wonder if there's another announcement
coming you know what I mean inconjunction with this If there
is going to be some sort of a TVor ooh, our lights just
flickered.

Kelly (20:51):
The internet went down.

Mari (20:52):
Can you guys hear us?

Kelly (20:55):
No, the computer went out , so we lost them.

Mari (20:59):
All right, we're good.
Okay, sorry, all right.
So the next bit of news I haveis an article that came out from
EVIE EVIE online websitemagazine thing, talking about
the porn-brained women ofMonster Smut and how Monster
Romance Monster Smut is rottingwomen's brains and leading to

(21:21):
depression because apparentlyonly women read monster smut
when you say like leading todepression.

Jonathan (21:32):
So, besides the obvious omission of the rest of
the people, you read monstersmut?
Yes, yeah, and I think I thinkin my journey of monster fuckery
, it's a realization that we'veall kind of been brought up on

(21:55):
monster smut.
There's softcore, monster porn,right.
So there's Beauty and the Beast.
What's that movie about thefish lady Ashley?

Ashley (22:04):
Oh, the Fish man.
Shape of Water, Shape of Water,yeah, that's close Beast.
What's that movie about thefish lady Ashley?
Oh, the.

Jonathan (22:07):
Fish, man, shape of Water that's close.
Though that's close, I wasthinking more like kids, right?
So, like you're all kind oflike, these stories exist in our
childhood, right?
It's natural that as we grow up, we source out like more mature
versions of them.

Ashley (22:21):
Right.
But also, like what depressionAre they talking about?
The depression that we fallinto when we realize the
monsters aren't real?

Jonathan (22:30):
Like or Fairy tales.
Yeah, let's call it what it is.
These are just adult fairytales and maybe not even like
adult fairy tales, but fairytales.
We had watered-down fairy talesas kids, right?
Was it the Brothers Grimm?
They weren't like they.
We had watered down fairy talesas kids, right?
Was it the Brothers Grimm?
They weren't like.
They weren't telling the samestories that you.
They were warm and fuzzy.

Mari (22:50):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Jonathan (22:52):
This is like we're just getting a dose of reality.

Mari (22:57):
I think fairy tales have a role to play in society and I
think the role that they have toplay differs depending on
society and what age group butalso society that you're talking
about.
I think at one point fairytales were about a way of
warning people of things in theworld Be careful.
The Blackbeard stories wereabout warning women about

(23:26):
getting married to bad men, youknow, abusive men or whatever.
Like, each one had a warning inand of its way.
I think that monster romancenow is a counterculture.
You know it's for if you don'tsee yourself or your preferences

(23:46):
or your aesthetic, or you don'tsee yourself in whatever way,
in what's out there with Disneylove stories or contemporary
love stories or billionaireromance love stories or mafia
love stories, whatever.
It's just another version ofwhat's out there, another option
.
I did not read the wholearticle because it asked you for

(24:08):
all this information aboutyourself to be able to read it,
so I just did like a fewscreenshots in between that box
popping up, because I refuse togive them any information about
myself.
I refuse.

Ashley (24:18):
Yeah, that's a trap.

Mari (24:18):
Yeah, yeah, but it was basically saying that
traditional porn, aka storieswhere hot women fall for generic
men in a you know whatever, atthe dentist, you know, or in the
pizza shop or whatever, areacceptable because they're
mainstream and because theyfocus on this idea that the

(24:40):
average guy is sexuallyattractive, idea that the
average guy is sexuallyattractive.
Um, but that monster romance isbad because it's interesting,
because it conflates monsterromance with dark romance
stories, which are two differentstories.
Like not all monster romancestories have like the monster
choking you out.
I'd argue that's a lot of likemafia romance and dark romance.

Jonathan (25:05):
But I just got a dark romance book this weekend.
Actually, what's it called?
I don't know, it's um enigmaenigma.
Yeah, yeah, that is that what Ihave to look forward to.

Mari (25:20):
It feels like spooky ish I haven't read that one, I don't
know yeah, dark.

Ashley (25:25):
I think when you say dark romance, that can fall into
several different categoriesthe mafia romances.
Sometimes you're dealing withlike some light, you know bdsm
things or you know kind of maybeeven lighter abuse for lack of
better language, scurryingconsent issues and whatnot, yeah
.
Well, I mean, some of it isconsent, like the BDSM is very,

(25:47):
very clearly consensual stuff,right, like they have very firm
lines about what is consensualversus not, because that's how
they balance their desires.
It's not meant to be punishing,right, it is meant to be at the
pleasure of both individuals.
But I think when you get to thedark stuff, it's not that it
lacks consent, although somestories can.

(26:09):
Um, I think it's just not theaverage romance yeah it is your.
Your characters are maybe alittle bit more gray.
They're probably, you know, notwarm and fuzzy.
It could be some foul language.

Mari (26:24):
Yeah, I picked this book based on the cover and the
texture of the pages.
I mean got to pick it forever.
Whatever draws you to it.
I don't think there's anythingwrong with, I mean, dark romance
.
I generally don't, generally Idon't like dark romance, but I
also don't think there'sanything wrong with it.
I think dark romance, monsterromance, even honestly, some

(26:46):
mainstream romance stuff I thinka lot of it is a way for people
to safely explore ideas like totry things on, to see what it
would be like to be, in, youknow, someone else's head in a
different situation.
You know, and I think, so longas you know what you're getting
into, if you have triggers likeread the trigger warnings, I
don't think there's anythingwrong with that.

Ashley (27:10):
I also don't know what's leading to depression.
I think that article isgaslighting.

Mari (27:15):
The whole thing is real cray cray.
Yeah, real difficult.
However, what I thought wasyeah, real difficult.
However, um, what I thought waswonderfully, chef's kiss done
um, was the.
The picture that they used topromote this article was the
cover of morning glory milkingfarm, which we've all read.

Ashley (27:35):
What there was I've recommended that.
Yeah, I was gonna say I'verecommended that book more than
any other book.

Mari (27:41):
Right, there's nothing wrong with that book Like that
could be any contemporary lovestory.
It just other the fact thatit's a minotaur and the
situation where they met, youknow.
But there could be yeah, therecould be so much darker things.
Like at one point it even madethis comparison that, like
Twilight was wholesome andMorning Glory Milking Farm was

(28:02):
not.
And I'm like shut the frontdoor.
He stalks her in her room whileshe's asleep, like I'm not
saying Twilight is horrible.
I enjoyed the Twilight booksbut nothing is a shining example
.
Like everything's got issues,you know, and that's okay as
long as you read it, you talkabout it, you understand, you
figure out what you like, whatyou don't like, what you're

(28:22):
comfortable with, what you'renot comfortable with, but it
doesn't, it's not bad justbecause one, one or more of the
main characters are monsters.

Ashley (28:31):
That's what jonathan calls moving the goalpost right.
So, like 10 years ago, 15 yearsago they probably were mocking
twilight for the stalking right,but now, based on what has been
normalized right, that is amore acceptable or palatable
story compared to what's comingout now, right actually I don't

(28:54):
think 10 years ago they weremocking for.

Jonathan (28:57):
For that I think there was like it's like media.
You just got away with a littlebit more 10 years ago, like you
could say and do dumber stuff.

Ashley (29:06):
Well, they sure as hell made fun of us for loving it.
I'll tell you that, yeah, yes,you were one of them, sir.

Jonathan (29:11):
Yeah, but you were a tweener.
I mean, you weren't a tweener,but I saw that story as being
for more of the adolescent.

Mari (29:21):
Yeah, I believe they are YA books, aren't they?
They adolescent?

Ashley (29:24):
um, which is, I believe they are books, aren't they?
They're labeled as ya books,aren't they?

Jonathan (29:26):
they are, and I was my young 20s when we went to go
see it together yeah, we went togo see that and uh, it was like
the premiere night of one likewas like twilight three, the
awakening, I don't know what itwas called, anything like that.
We go into this theater, we'resitting down and uh, this horse
like um, who's the ninja boy?
Jacob, jacob, yeah.

Ashley (29:45):
Taylor Lautner Taylor.

Jonathan (29:46):
Lautner.
Taylor Lautner comes on thescreen he ain't got a shirt on
and then, like all the girls arelike ooh.
And then he turns into like ahorse-sized dog and puts his
head next to the lady and I,like audibly said, oh, that's a
good boy, bro, I feared for mylife, Death said oh, that's a
good boy Bro.
I feared for my life.
Death daggers From all theseyoung Teenie boppers.

(30:08):
Yeah, these adolescent youngwomen who were there to see.
This was their event.
And here's this dude.

Ashley (30:17):
It was our Super Bowl, sir.

Jonathan (30:19):
Here's this dude.

Ashley (30:20):
Team Jacob versus Team Edward was probably the first
split decision major lovetriangle of that generation,
right, and so, yeah, there was acult following of sorts, but
while if they weren't mockingthe the movies or the books
themselves, they were certainlymaking fun of the people who
enjoyed them.
Right, and so this article thatyou're talking about is very

(30:43):
similar to that, and exceptthey're not mocking, they're
shaming.

Mari (30:46):
Yeah, I agree.
And so CM Nascosta, who wroteMorning Glory Milking Farm,
whose cover was used to promotethis article, said oh yeah, f
you.
And on her Etsy page, her Etsystore, which is called Monster
Bait Shop, monster B-A-I-T Shop,she created this merchandise
with the cover from MorningGlory Milking Farm and it says

(31:10):
Porn Brained Monster Reader.
Stop it.
Yeah, she's got t-shirts andshe's got mugs.
She's like oh yeah.

Ashley (31:19):
I will be checking that out later.

Mari (31:20):
I'm seriously thinking about it.
It's purple.
It's like a fairly brightpurple that I normally don't
wear.
But you know what?

Ashley (31:29):
I may still get it, because Sometimes you just need
to do it.

Jonathan (31:32):
She offers it in black as well.
It's in black, berry and violet.

Ashley (31:38):
Mari sold yeah.

Jonathan (31:41):
The violet is a little bit more subdued, the berry is
a little more wild and I imagine, and the black I think it's one
of the last images in hercarousel.
There the black actually lookspretty freaking sharp.

Mari (31:58):
I'm seriously thinking about getting it, and maybe the
mug too, because you know Atleast one more.
I wonder what shirt is printedon that?
That's gonna?
Yeah, the shirt type, the shirtbrand matters to us.
I'm not sure.
Yeah, but I was like that.
I mean, well done, nascosta,well done, it's a way to turn it

(32:21):
around the whole.
Uh, no, there's no such thingas bad, bad publicity amen to
that any other news bits anybodywant to talk about?
no, I think we covered it allright.
So, moving on to the book, webasically chose this book
because we were wanting tosupport and talk about an author
who had been affected by themillion lives book fiasco thing

(32:42):
that we've talked about.
That happened in Maryland, andMallory Dunham was one of them,
and I met her at MonsteroticaConand I saw not the cover of this
book but the inside image ofthe main male character and I'm
like that's weird.
Tell me more.
So I was wanting to read itanyways.

(33:05):
Yeah, all right, so let me dothe synopsis and then we'll go
from there.
Um, this was published october18th 2022 and it's part of the
monsters of fairy series, andthe synopsis says I never
intended to become a princess ormake a deal with a monster Lost
in the wilderness.
I thought the handsome strangerwas my salvation until I looked

(33:26):
into the eyes of a beast.
They say not to bargain withthe fae, but there was no other
choice.
The deadly prince of Stag Courtclaims I belong to him.
I only have a year and a day toconvince him to let me go
before I'm his forever.
He's without mercy, known as aruthless killer, yet he protects
me, defends me, tells me hissecrets.
In front of the court, he's thebeast, but behind closed doors

(33:50):
he gives me the chance to choosehim or not.
The Fey Court is a dangerousplace, and the prince isn't the
only terror lurking in theshadows.
But I'm stronger than hisenemies.
Give me credit, for Together heand I might be each other's
salvation or ruin.
All right.
So what did we think?
Overall rating.

Ashley (34:08):
I like this book.
I gave it Stupid Goodreadsdoesn't do half marks, but I did
it like a three and a half.
I didn't mind it.
It maybe felt a little bit longA year and a day is a long time
to write about personally but Ithought it definitely had its
you know kind of twists andturns, like how I didn't expect
it to start the way that it didlike, with her having a whole

(34:30):
other boyfriend, love, you knowperson, and then when that went
sideways, that really wentsideways.
Um, so I thought it was aunique entrance into the fantasy
world and so so I wasn't notentertained.
It maybe wasn't my, you know,most favorite read of the year,
so I said like a solid three anda half.

Mari (34:53):
Kelly, what'd you think?

Kelly (34:54):
Overall, I thought it was a three.
I didn't think the book wasthat great, but not that
terrible either.
I think that the plot wasreally reaching for a lot of
things.
I think that it suffered agreat deal from.
Let's take this girl who isabout to die, who most certainly
has post-traumatic stress, whojust watched her lover die in

(35:16):
front of her and now, within thespan of a year, she's going to
fall madly in love and want tolive in this other world and not
at all address or resolve herpost-traumatic stress from
seeing somebody die right infront of her.
She was completely StockholmSyndrome.

Mari (35:31):
I loved this book.
I was expecting to like itbecause, to be honest, I have
read something by every authorthat was at MonsteroticaCon and
have at least liked, you know,something by all of them, so I
figured I would like it.
I felt it was a pretty wellcurated event, but I really

(35:54):
ended up really enjoying it.
The beginning, with thetraumatic death, I was like
where are we going from here?
Because normally the setup inthese stories is in a lot of
ways very Disney oh, theboyfriend was a shitty person,
or, you know, she doesn't haveany sort of relationship because

(36:16):
, whatever, all people are trashand she hates her family or she
hates her job.
So it's a very easy decision toto like disappear into the
world of the monster.
But I think Mallory Dunlin and Ithink the point at which I
realized how ballsy she was inher writing and I thought she
did a good job at pulling it offwas that she took this

(36:38):
character that was in a greatpoint in her life, you know,
like taking time off from work,mountaineering with the love of
her life in this beautiful view,and then tragedy strikes, and
so from that low, low point thenhad to build this love story
and I think, the year.

(36:59):
Even though I made the booklong, I think it had to happen
that long for it to, in myopinion, turn into this, I guess
, enemies to friends to lovers,so I almost feel like this is
more of a friends to loversstory.
Yeah, I enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed the main characters'sass, I enjoyed the almost

(37:19):
fourth wall breaking and thehumor hit for me and it was a
five star for me.

Jonathan (37:26):
I did not like it at that same level.
What I did like is the purchasethat I just made.
I got myself a porn mug.
You may not drink out of it.
Ashley, there's a bowl on it.

Ashley (37:38):
Why did you buy before getting me a shirt?
Because I wanted the mug for mycoffee Was the shipping free.

Jonathan (37:43):
No, but you know what is free?
The look on my co-workers'faces For this book.
I think it started offinteresting for me Right off the
bat.
I'm going to give it a 3.5 forsure.
It wasn't the 5 for me, but Idon't know whose fault that is.
It might I've been influenced bydylan, so that's what I saw in

(38:05):
my face.
I saw dead dylan fall off theparapet and then this to me was
the journey that his uh, hisfiance went on afterwards, right
, um, and then it was like it'sa, you know, like a good
contemporary um tone, likethat's, like that's if, if you
have a, if you, you have amonster, or a romantic story

(38:26):
that has a contemporary setting.
I'm usually in it and I waslike, oh okay, this could be a
thing.
Oh wait, here's Dylan, oh wait,we're not with Dylan anymore.
She had to me.
I thought she had a coupletimes the story went sideways
for me.
One.
She had to me I thought she hada couple times the story went
sideways for me.

(38:46):
One.
She had this like she came withbuilt-in knowledge of the fae
world.
She was like, yeah, I knowabout this stuff, I read some
books.

Ashley (38:58):
And then I don't like she reads fairy porn too.
Right, she knows she readsfairy porn too.

Jonathan (39:01):
She knows.
And then the next, like I don'tlike when they do, like here's
this time, this time frame,you're going to have this in
this.
And then they drag their feetto the first six months.
And then you realize like, oh,they better make this ship work
a little bit faster, a littlebit harder.
And then they do the oldskipperoo and all of a sudden

(39:26):
they insert an element in thestory where someone goes into a
coma or someone goes to warprison for some reason for three
months and then comes backlater and I'm like, oh, did you
miss me?
I'm back.
I smelled your pajamas, okay,cool, like those flashes back to
that modern world tone that Iwas like.
Those flashes back to, like thatlike modern, like world tone

(39:46):
that didn't do it for me, likepick, put you had your foot in
too many worlds at the same timeand that it pulled away.
I could deal with like thewhole.
I'm a modern person in a modernworld with modern influences
and feel this way about thisbeing and it would, it would

(40:07):
survive for me.
And also, it doesn't have to bea year and a day, it could just
be like a year, it could be ayear and a day.
But it could also be like Idon't know how time works in
your world.
You can change the story thatway, but you don't have have to
throw somebody, remove acharacter for a period of time
to fast forward.
You lose me on that.

Mari (40:29):
Okay.

Jonathan (40:30):
Sorry.

Mari (40:31):
Okay, everyone's entitled to their opinions.
No need to apologize.
What do we think about thefantasy world building?

Ashley (40:41):
So I enjoyed the fantasy world building in the way that
jonathan did.
I thought having the toe in inboth the fantasy and the human
world was an interestingperspective.
You know, like the back andforth I've, I also thought it
was interesting to have, like a,a modern day human be like.
Oh, I've read some these booksand so it's funny to me right

(41:05):
now to hear Jonathan with hislist of complaints, right,
because they were the reasonswhy I liked it more.
I don't think the magic systemitself was super complex.
I thought it was.
I thought it was.
I think the one part that Ithought was most interesting was
how quickly she adapted to the,to the no more pleases and
thank yous, because you didn'twant to owe a debt to a fairy

(41:26):
kind of thing.
I feel like I would havestruggled with that for a long
time.
I wasn't disappointed in thefantasy world.
I thought it was easy tounderstand, it wasn't super
complex, we weren't doinganything super crazy.
I also thought it was aninteresting perspective to see a
member of royalty who was notrespected and, for the wrong

(41:50):
reasons, that he was the onebeing abused and so he kind of
accepted this mask of the beast,of the monster right, because
that's just what was expected ofhim, that's how he was treated
for so long, so it helps buildyour sympathy for him very
quickly.
So I would say the same it'sabout a three and a half for me.

Mari (42:09):
Kelly how about you.

Kelly (42:10):
I think that the fourth wall breaking type stuff where
there was self-referential humor, was probably one of the saving
graces of this book.
I think that was a way to keepit lighthearted to a degree, but
there were just so many otheregregious problems.
I I don't know like a three.

Mari (42:29):
Okay For me.
I liked the fantasy worldbuilding aspect of it.
I really like the idea ofyou're destined to be soulmates.
But this means somethingdifferent in this world.
This doesn't mean like destinedsoulmates in love, like maybe
you're destined to be, you know,comrades in arms.

(42:52):
Maybe you're destined to be,you, comrades in arms.

Ashley (42:53):
Maybe you're destined to be, you know, enemies, arch
nemesis the destined to beenemies thing wasn't, was a
brand new, you know construct.
I had never thought about thatbefore either.

Mari (43:05):
I was like that's a really interesting take because you
know you're somehow tied to this.
You know you're somehowmagically tied to this person in
this world where magic exists.
You just don't know how.
You know you're somehowmagically tied to this person in
this world where Ragek exists.
You just don't know how.
You don't know how it's goingto develop.
I thought that was really cool,really well done.
I liked the machinations andpolitics that had to happen in

(43:28):
this world.
I know there's other books inthe series and the other ones
are from different courts, soI'm sure you're going to get
different perspectives ofeverything, but I thought that
it was interesting that he hadthis one role that he played.
You know he was this horriblebeast and so he had to keep
playing up and being thishorrible beast.
That's all he knew.
And she worked him through,therapized him through becoming

(43:54):
a better person, which I meanshe either was incredibly
empathetic or like she had tohave a side hustle in like
mental health something, becauseshe was real, real good at
seeing the things that weregoing on, the emotions that were
going on, and talking himthrough them, and I thought that

(44:19):
it was interesting that therewas, I think, multiple times.
There's the idea of I had to dothis because it was the best of
all bad options, like, I think,the whole him being the beast of
Faisal Khan or whatever thatcity.
He had to do it, you know, andeveryone you know made him out
to be this beast for it and inhis mind, he did it because it

(44:40):
prevented this war.
So it's the old like trolleyproblem If you kill this one
person but it saves these otherpeople, is that okay?
No-transcript.

(45:17):
The idea that the humans thatwere there were there because
they were plucked from a momentbefore they were about to die.
The idea that they were likeall from different kinds of
cultures and worlds.
I thought that was really richand well done and for me it was
a five in the fantasy worldbuilding.

Jonathan (45:32):
And not a five for me.
Sorry, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I'm going to give it.
Like you know, it wasinteresting.
I couldn't.
I saw this book in like anoutdoor setting and then I saw
it in like a really, just areally dark room.
I just didn't, I didn't getanything outside of that, like I

(45:55):
couldn't get imagery and I, Icouldn't decide what his um,
what his house looked like.
Was it a condo, was it anapartment?
I couldn't figure stuff out, um, and so I couldn't even figure
out, like the green room, likewhat did I?
What kind of space were they?
Were they in for their greenroom, kind of thing, like before
you're allowed to walk in, kindof thing.

(46:17):
So, and I didn't quiteunderstand, like the
transportation systems.
So it was just, it didn't slapfor me.
I'll be gentle, I'll give it a,I'll give it three, but it just
, you know, that's just me.

Ashley (46:36):
He was on the struggle bus with this one, okay.

Jonathan (46:40):
I could have liked, I wanted to like it so much.

Ashley (46:44):
Ash romance.
I think the romance was also.
I think this one was probablycloser to a four for me.
You know, you had this, thisarguably unpopular, unliked
royal right, and then you hadthis human that was being
brought in that couldpotentially disrupt, you know,

(47:08):
court here, even further right,the other fairy.
Court here, even further right,the other fairy, um the other
fay, didn't respect her or likeher or want her to make him
better to them.
You know this, this was just abad situation where, so you had
these two unlikable maincharacters, but I thought the
author did a really good job ofyou know, like you said it, it

(47:31):
was very potentially startingout as enemies to lovers, but it
was enemies to friends and thenfriends to lovers, um, and it
it was a lot of story to getthere, but I don't think it was
poorly done, um, especially whenyou have this strong anti-hero
as the main male character.

(47:52):
But I also really respected thefriendships that he had and how
they brought her into theircircle in hopes that it would
make him better and to seehimself in a better light and so
that the rest of the worldcould see him.
So I think, you know, romancefrom the friendship perspective

(48:13):
was also really, really, reallyimportant to the story, and so I
rate it a little bit higher.
For that.
I'll give it a four, kelly.

Kelly (48:22):
The romance did nothing for me because I couldn't get
past the fact that it wasessentially Stockholm Syndrome,
the way she would like oh don'tyou dare kill for me, and got so
offended and upset that hekilled some people for her.
But then she's perfectly finewith him, having slaughtered
thousands of innocent people.
So I just I can't reconcile howa person can be like that.

(48:48):
I appreciate that the idea andthe romantic notion of finding
the flawed person and fixing himthat's a common trope in
romanacy apparently is that youhave the big bad main character
who has a flaw and the femalemain character is the only one
who can fix him, and that'spretty common.
But how do you fix somebodywho's committed genocide?

(49:10):
Essentially?

Mari (49:11):
For me, romance surprise was a five.
I thought it was a reallyinteresting story.
I felt like it was two thingsgoing on yeah, they were
becoming friends, and thenfriends to lovers.
But I felt like it was a storyof someone getting over grief on
her side and learning to liveagain and knowing that if

(49:35):
someone loves you, they want youto move on, they don't want you
to stop living because they'vedied.
And then on his end I don't knowthat I felt that she was making
him better.
I think she was just giving himthe space to make himself
better, Like there's one pointwhere there's a quote that I

(49:59):
highlighted where he says to heryou have my scent on you, which
, combined with the fact that Iwould know your scent even if I
lost my entire memory, makes mefeel like there's a place in the
world for me where I don't haveto fight to keep my footing.
Like she held space for him tobecome a better version of him

(50:21):
and in some ways, I think heheld space for her to be able to
make her own choices and comeinto the choice naturally and
not be forced.
It wasn't like a magical kiss.
Happily ever after.
Blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, I was all over theromance for this Five stars.

Jonathan (50:41):
Jonathan, I think the romance was pretty okay here.
I mean, I initially walked intoit with the whole idea like
where Kelly was.
I was like, um, you know, it'swhat chance this lady have of
getting out of there withoutbeing like like forever mated,

(51:02):
like there was just there waslike zero chance going like you
know, I think that's a givengoing into the book and I think
part of this book, um, part ofreading this book made me for as
much as I didn't enjoy the book.
It wasn't like there wasprobably a bit of a
transformative experience whilereading it for me, where it was

(51:22):
like I just came to terms withthe idea that she was going to
fall in love and it doesn'tmatter how I feel about the
situation or the circumstancesthat it's going to happen
regardless and I can either beon board with it and just go
with the flow of the story or Ican step away.

(51:43):
And there are a lot of booksthat we read where I'm just like
God, this is no way to liveyour life and I still don't
think this is like if it was mychoice, I'm not doing that, but
if that's the way the story iswritten and that's the way it's
going to develop.
Um, I think I just kind of I'mnot accepting it socially, but

(52:03):
I'm accepting it for the meritof, for the context of the story
.
Does that, does that make sense?
Or?

Ashley (52:08):
did I just confuse myself?
Suspended display of you, sir.
Yeah, yeah, kind of thing.

Jonathan (52:11):
It's very deep of you, sir, yeah, yeah, I mean we
could talk about some otherbooks later on.
That maybe made me feel sometype of way where I was like, oh
no, but I really enjoyed thestory.
So I don't understand, am Isupposed to like this?
Am I not supposed to like it?
And that's kind of.

(52:34):
This was the book that made mesay like, hey, you don't have to
like the concept of it, but ifyou're reading the story, that's
.
I think maybe that's whattriggered me to like, pick up
that book and say, oh, darkromance I'll give this a shot
yeah, and the texture of thepages.
Um.
So romance.
I'll give this a four forromance because I feel like,
even though going into it I knewthere was this magical draw or

(52:56):
connection, this sense ofinevitability, there was still a
whisper of choice involved.
But I mean shit.
I mean, ashley spends enoughtime around me.
It's how I landed her.
Wearing you down, baby, I'mwearing you down.
She promises like within thenext 10 years, she's going to

(53:19):
let me sleep in the same bedroom.

Mari (53:22):
What do we think about the spice?

Ashley (53:24):
Ash, I think we definitely got a little bit of
spice in this.
It's probably a little bit morespicy than we've had in a while
.
You know, the spice definitelycame later, but it was
respectable spice and I enjoyedit.
It was a three and a half forme.

Mari (53:43):
I know this comes as a shocker to everyone, but the
spice for me was a five.
The combination of the yearningand the slow like, long, long,
slow burn, and the longing andthe like, the fact that she
helped him see himself assomething other than a monster,

(54:05):
when everyone around him,including his own mother, like
thought of him as disgusting,was just very well done.
Yeah, like the scene where theycome back together after he's
been away doing that mission orwhatever and they come back no
notes, perfectly done.
So, yeah, spice for me was fivestars.

Jonathan (54:29):
Yeah, there's lots of Spice, A little bit more Spice
than we just did.

Mari (54:34):
Oh my god, I hate to interrupt you, but I wrote down
this note specifically for you,jonathan.
I was like, oh my god, twopercent, two percent.
Into the book the word cock wasin there.

Jonathan (54:43):
Yes, yeah, I was like, and it was just like casual
cock, right, it was just like.
It was just like I'm feelingkind of cocky today.
And then it was like, all of ofa sudden it was out.
I was like, dang, I wish therewas a little more tail action,
not going to lie Tail action.

Ashley (54:58):
With his two tails.

Jonathan (54:59):
Yeah, like spanking, you could do a whole bunch of
stuff.
What can you do with otherthings?
You can go into bondage, youcan have support mechanism, you
can build a basket, you can doall sorts of stuff.

Ashley (55:12):
He didn't need to use the tails.

Jonathan (55:13):
He had four hands Actually think of the yeah, but
you had the wing hands.
The wing hands are different.

Ashley (55:19):
I don't know dude.
They were more claw-like,weren't they?
Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan (55:23):
But you could like, yeah, you could do all sorts of
stuff with the tails, especiallybecause they split off like at
the as booty bone and there werespikes and stuff.
There were so many differentappendages that you could
explore.
She hasn't really, she didn'treally dig into it as deeply as
she could.

Ashley (55:40):
Jonathan's got notes for her apparently.

Jonathan (55:43):
Yeah, you gotta do.
Yeah, I think you're right.
There's the door.
The surface is barely scratchedhere.
For as cocky as this book wasand for as and this guy was
known for his cock, he was known.
People didn't like him, butthey were like.
The ladies were like.

Mari (56:01):
Intrigued to the experience.

Jonathan (56:03):
Yeah, I kind of like to sleep with you, Just because
you know what I mean.
It's like, Ashley, if you had athird boob.
You know what I mean.

Ashley (56:13):
That sounds so unappealing.

Jonathan (56:15):
Yeah, well to you, but if I had tails, how would you
be?
You'd be like you know what,what can you do with those
things?
You got any tail tricks?
I'd be like let me tell you,yeah, you don't know, it could
be things you don, you know,like, maybe, maybe it is a
little spanky, spanks, maybeit's a little, maybe it's a
little you know some bondage.
Yeah, you know like, but therecould be other things.

(56:36):
Uh, I'm not going there, butthese are things that you could
go.
What are you?

Mari (56:40):
rating it jonathan five.
I'm gonna give it five wow, butthe real question is it a
kissing book?
No, no.
Kelly, what do you think?
No, no.
I think it is.
I think it would have been acompletely different book if

(57:02):
they hadn't have done the loveroute and made better choices,
jonathan.

Jonathan (57:14):
So I'm going to go with my gut.
I'm going to say it is.
If I dig deeper you'll probablytalk me out of it, but I'm
going to say it is and I'm goingto lock that in Final answer.

Ashley (57:26):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think it would have led towar regardless and I think both
of them would have done anythingin their power to stop it or to
end it as soon as possible.
I don't think she needed tolove him to want to save those
people.

Jonathan (57:44):
Remove her from the story entirely.

Ashley (57:46):
I mean, then they just go to war.

Jonathan (57:48):
Do they?
Do they go to war regardless?
Yeah, or was she a pawn?
I think she escalated it sheescalated it I think her
presence escalated it for themom yeah yeah, do you think it
would have been just anotherlady?
She would have looked foranother love no or do you think
she, her presence, was a crimeof opportunity?

Ashley (58:03):
I think it was a crime of opportunity.

Mari (58:05):
I think the mom was planning to do it anyways, but
when, when the human didn't likego under her sway or whatever,
she had to move up her timescale.
Yeah, yeah anything else aboutthe book, all right.
Thanks for listening to ofswords and soulmates.
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(58:27):
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(58:51):
episode and a new read and getchapter by chapter interaction.
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"Captured by the Fae Beast" - Who Saves Who?