July 31, 2025 • 52 mins
What happens when a legendary monster gets burned out from terrorizing teenagers? Monster Slayer Matchmaking takes us into the world of Darla Drake, the infamous Duchess of Death, who's taking a much-needed break from her monster duties at Camp Clear Creek.
When we first meet Darla, she's in the depths of an existential crisis, spending her days reading stolen romance novels and conversing with her mother's decapitated (yet still very opinionated) head. Her comfortable sabbatical is rudely interrupted by Jarko Murkvale, an arrogant new monster who moves in on her territory while she's been off-duty. Rather than surrendering her stomping grounds, Darla challenges him to a series of monster competitions to prove who truly deserves the claim to Clear Creek.
What follows is a delightful enemies-to-potential-partners journey as these two monsters discover there might be more to life than terrorizing campers. The book creates a fascinating world where monsters coexist with modern society, complete with monster territory assignments, tracking apps, and even social gatherings. Brody Rossiter expertly balances humor with heart, crafting characters that, despite their monstrous nature, experience very human struggles with purpose, loneliness, and finding connection.
This cozy monster rom-com offers a refreshing take on paranormal romance with its closed-door approach and focus on emotional growth rather than explicit content. It's perfect for readers who enjoy their paranormal stories with a generous dose of humor, witty banter, and the comforting message that even monsters deserve their happily ever after.
Ready to discover if monsters who slay together truly stay together? Dive into this charming tale that proves love can bloom in even the most unlikely—and terrifying—circumstances.
Links to News Stories
- Hemingway Books has a special edition of the Hunger Games books
- Owlcrate is doing a special edition of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy
- Rebecca F Kenney, an attending author at Romantasycon will be releasing a Phantom of the Opera retelling called Cruel Angel
- Barnes and Nobles is doing a signed special edition of The Book of Azrael
- The Bookish Box in collaboration with CM Nascosta is doing a special edition of Cambric Creek
- Julie de Soto, author of Rose in Chain, and others, has mutually agreed to not be at Romance Con
- Story / Announcement Link
- Issue may stem from HP and Rowling boycotts
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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 (00:31):
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 (00:35):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.
Ashley (00:38):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan, what'sgood everybody, hey, hey, all
right.
Mari (00:44):
So, starting on the news, we've got Hemingway Books.
Hemingway Books has a specialedition of the Hunger Games
books out which are very pretty.
I don't have any books by thembut I've heard and seen several
of their special editions thatthey started to come out with.
This set is $219 and it shipsin november.
(01:05):
But, going through theirwebsite, they also have like
special edition, fourth,multiple fourth wings, akatar,
thrown a glass quick, silvercrimson moth when the moon
hatched, assistant to thevillain shield of sparrows, and
the irresistible urge to fallfor your enemy.
Like, basically, if it's a book, you're more or less hearing
people talk about newish.
Like, basically, if it's a book, you're more or less here and
(01:25):
people talk about newish, likethey seem to have a, you know, a
special edition version of it.
Um, I said I haven't seen thequality firsthand.
I don't have any of their stuff.
I don't think I've seen any oftheir stuff in person, but it
looks really nice on the website.
Ashley (01:39):
Yeah, these are pretty stunning.
I was, um, I would I.
When I came across it, I waslike, is this a scam?
And I mean 200 bucks for fivebooks.
I think my only hesitancy forthe hunger games is it seems
like she's on a role and I don'tknow that she's done right.
Um, somebody posted and Iforget if it was on tiktok or
what, but they were allegingthat you know the.
(02:02):
It was the hunger games trilogy.
So it was, you know, katniss'strilogy, and now this is like
the cubby trilogy, um, which shehas not admitted to out loud
that I'm aware of, but it wasjust like, oh, it was like bam
bro, you're probably right, yeah, I mean they've got to break it
up somehow.
Mari (02:19):
So yeah, yeah, so if you're interested in some really
pretty special editions, theyseem to be pretty available too.
Like it's not like they're soldout or anything.
I don't know if they print them, you know, based on how many
people buy them, but from theones I look through, they all
seem to be available forpurchase.
So I would definitely lookthrough that no-transcript
(03:15):
reading it, but listening to it,the humor hit really well.
So I, yeah, if you'reinterested in that one, I would
recommend listening to it.
I have not read the fan fictionthat it's based off of, so I
don't have anything like that tocompare it to, but I thought it
was a good read.
I'm planning on reading thesequel whenever it comes out.
This particular version thatAlcrate is doing has dust jacket
(03:36):
artwork by Ivy Maruva anddesigned by Leichen and
Limestone, and then thereversible dust jacket artwork
is by off the hook studio andthe hardcover case is designed
by um dracadormances.
If you go to all cratesinstagram, they're all linked
that sounds legit.
yeah, it's all one word.
(03:57):
I sorry if I'm not saying itright, but it's 34.99 and it
ships in oct.
They're doing the whole thingwhere Allcrate normally does,
where the people who aresubscribers get first options to
buy and then, if they have anyleftover, they put it out to the
general public.
So the general public salebegins assuming that they have
(04:19):
some to sell on Thursday, augustthe 28th, at 11 am Pacific time
.
But, like I said, that justdepends on if they have any
stock to sell.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, I would follow
them on their Instagram.
They usually do a good job oftelling when things are sold out
$35 sounds like a bargain,bargain.
Ashley (04:38):
If I hadn't already bought it probably.
Mari (04:40):
Do you have?
Ashley (04:41):
this one, ash.
Yeah, it's somewhere.
I'm happy with what.
I haven't read it, but I haveread the fan fiction and it was
by far one of the best booksthat I've ever read in my entire
life, wow, okay I thought thisbook was really good.
Mari (04:55):
Here I like feet kicking, giggling I don't think you
needed to know anything about,like the, the fandom it's based
on, like I could easily seesomeone fully enjoying this book
without knowing anything otherthan what's in this book, and I
think it would still be a reallygood and I think I heard that
that was intentional, and myunderstanding is that this, this
(05:16):
book, is dramatically differentthan the fan fiction, so we're
not talking about just, you know, the swapping of names yeah um,
so I'm definitely interested toread it.
Ashley (05:27):
I've heard both ends of the spectrum about whether
people have liked the book ornot.
I know that there's a lot ofhostility out there right now,
based, you know, because of thefan fiction that things are
based off of.
But, honestly, if, if, herwriting is anywhere near as good
as the fan fiction itself, it'sgot to be superb.
Mari (05:48):
I I enjoyed every second of it I'd love to know what you
think when you read this, sinceyou've read the fan, the
original, your fan fiction, soyou'll know.
Yeah, something to compare itto.
But, like me going in justhaving read this book, I enjoyed
it.
It it was fun and I plan tolisten to the sequel, for sure.
Ashley (06:06):
That's good to know.
Mari (06:07):
All right.
Next little bit of news I haveis Rebecca F Kenney, who's an
attending author at Romanescon.
She's going to be releasing aPhantom of the Opera retelling.
It's going to be called CruelAngel.
It's going to release April14th 2026 for $17.99.
It's just in paperback.
Often she does paperback onBarnes, Noble, Amazon that kind
(06:32):
of thing, but then on herwebsite or her Etsy page she
might do special editions thatare signed.
I've got a few of her booksthat are hardcover special
edition signed.
She does really good,interesting retellings so I'm
curious to see what she's goingto do with this story.
She does a retelling of Krampusthat I like and she does a
(06:54):
retelling of the Nutcrackerballet that I really enjoyed and
thought was really really welldone.
Yeah, I like her writing style.
Ashley (07:03):
Have we read Rebecca kenney on here before?
Mari (07:06):
I feel like I've read her I would like to before the con,
if we get a chance to her.
Her books are.
They're high spice and she doesreally interesting character
development.
Ashley (07:18):
Oh, this is the of the, a court of sugar and spice, the
nutcracker ret.
We've been talking about that.
Jonathan (07:23):
Yeah, that's definitely on my list.
I have it in the cart.
Yeah, I like that one.
Mari (07:28):
I read it, I think, on Kindle Unlimited, and then
bought it because I liked it somuch, so it's on the shelf.
Ashley (07:36):
Oh, there's a Jack Frost one.
Yeah, look at all this I'mdefinitely gonna.
Jonathan (07:39):
That's definitely on my.
I think I have it.
I have the audio saved and Ihave the physical in the cart in
the Amazon cart.
That's one I want signed, sodefinitely yeah.
Ashley (07:49):
Maybe we can read that a little bit closer to your
favorite time of year inSeptember.
Bring you some joy.
Jonathan (07:55):
Post.
It could be a recovery bookafter.
Mari (07:58):
Halloween Horror Nights.
Yeah, she's got those series.
She's got series of someretellings of like classic books
, like portrait of dorian grayweathering heights, and then
she's got a dragon series.
It's the merciless dragonseries, which is the first thing
I ever read by her was themerciless dragon series.
Um, and I I enjoyed it.
She does.
(08:18):
She writes really interestingstories, um.
Next tidbit of news I have isthat barnes and noble is doing a
signed special edition of thebook of it, asriel.
I've not read this book.
Has anyone else read it?
Ashley (08:36):
I have not read it, but I feel like I've heard very good
things about it on the socialswas this is she gonna be at the
romancy convention?
Mari (08:44):
I don't think so amber v nicole I'm not sure you know.
I didn't double check that, Idon't think so, but look into
that.
I will say that I've heard goodthings about this series for a
while and it's a series, I thinkit's maybe three, three books,
but it's basically described asa slow burn, high stakes, epic
romancy featuring a villainousshapeshifter heroine and a
(09:08):
tortured god king in a steamy,monstrous world.
So it's been on my list for aminute, because all that sounds
right up my alley.
Ashley (09:16):
Right, right, right in there too yeah.
Mari (09:19):
Yeah.
So this version is very pretty.
It's got like the design allover it and it's signed, if you
get it through Barnes and noblefor 32.95, which is not at all
bad no, not at all I justchecked the list.
Jonathan (09:31):
She's not on the list to to do that to be there, I
know right but yeah, I've heardgood things.
Mari (09:36):
I've not read it, but I've heard good things, so maybe we
can read that sometime yeah, forsure I like it.
I like the way it sounds, a lotyeah the next thing I have oh, I
cannot type on these newsmisspelling people's names
bookish box is doing acollaboration with cm nascosta,
who wrote, amongst other things,the morning glory milking farm
(09:58):
that we read.
She just got the whole cambrickcreek series.
So they're doing a specialedition of the cambrick creek
series and they are so prettythey feel like look at that
spring, summer flower vibes.
It's like a little bouquet ofbooks it really is.
Ashley (10:17):
Oh, look at, like the pinterest board.
Mari (10:19):
Yeah yeah, it's really beautiful.
It's 190 um, but they'rethey're very pretty editions.
It's really beautiful, it's 190dollars um, but they're they're
very pretty additions.
It's got um morning glory milkand farm sweet berries.
Is it full-blooded?
Ashley (10:36):
moon-blooded, moon-blooded breeding clinic.
Yeah, two for tea.
Welcome to as a zaythi, and heloves me not.
I've read all of these three,four or five they're all very
good.
Mari (10:48):
My favorite is probably sweet berries.
It's like a mothman but he'slike a scientist in this camber
kick town, so it's a little bitof like on the spectrum, kind of
short little.
It's a short little bookromance.
I like that one and I like theforget me not.
It's a retelling of you've GotMail.
Jonathan (11:05):
Oh, I like You've Got Mail.
Mari (11:07):
His ears perked up.
They're all well done.
I mean, they're very much likeMorning Glory, and Milking Farm
was where it's like yes, it's amonster, it's a spicy monster
romance and it also has allthese really interesting things
to say about modern society andpeople's relationships and, you
know, standing up for yourselfand found family and the
(11:28):
importance of like beingaccepted and, yeah, they're all
very much along the lines ofmorning glory milking farm in
quality.
I, if you like morning glorymilking farm, I highly recommend
everything else I've read byeverything else she's written,
so yeah, f-o-x.
Jonathan (11:45):
Fox, fox, that's a.
Uh wait, was that you've gotmail?
Yeah, what would I may haveseen you've got mail maybe once
when it first came out and I'venever seen it
Mari (11:58):
so I know that it's a retelling of it, but I honestly
haven't seen it in so long I I Ionly know there's a retelling.
I don't, I don't rememberhardly anything from that movie
it's tom hanks doing regular tomhanks stuff.
Jonathan (12:09):
Yeah, and you know it, tom hanks is like.
You know who the new tom hanksis is who's that fella, who was
in the who's the mandalorian,and he's got like eight movies
out right now pedro pascal yeah,that's our new daddy, that's
our new Tom Hanks, that's themillennial Tom Hanks.
Ashley (12:27):
Yeah, no, I don't think so.
Jonathan (12:32):
I think Pedro's in a class all his own.
Ashley (12:33):
Don't take that from me, ashley, I mean.
Mari (12:35):
I gotta say I'm with Ash on this.
Ashley (12:37):
Yeah, yeah yeah, though oddly I don't think they're
terribly far apart in age, arethey?
You know, I don't know I don'tknow anyway, all right.
Mari (12:46):
The last little bit of news I have is that julie de
soto, who wrote rose and chainsrose and chain, just another fan
fiction turned into a book isis one of the authors that
mutually agreed to not be atRomanceCon.
So apparently RomanceCon is runby Mischief Management, which
(13:09):
originally started as a HarryPotter fan business company and
they run amongst other public,from the fans that having Julia
(13:29):
DeSoto, there was an endorsementof Rawling and so people were
like pulling out and trying tocall him out on this and I guess
, through mutual agreement,julia DeSoto just kind of pulled
out of it.
It's interesting because I amnow in the middle, I'm about 35%
(13:50):
through Rose and Chain and muchlike the Irresistible Urge to
Fall for your Enemy.
If I didn't know that it wasbased off of fan fiction, it
really is its own world.
I don't need to have any priorknowledge of anything so far to
understand what's going on, toknow the vibes of the characters
(14:11):
, to get a feel for theirpersonalities.
Ashley (14:14):
Um so, I think some of the beef with that, and I very
well could be wrong.
I didn't deep dive into thisbecause I think we're all
entitled, you know, to our ownfeelings, um, and about how we
consume art, right, and thethings that we're willing to
invest in and the things that weare not willing to.
(14:35):
But that part aside, I thinksome of the push, the the
initial pushback with JulieDeSoto was that her marketing
team was like heavilyadvertising the fanfic and this
being a retelling of that, and Ithink that's what put a bad
taste in some mouths.
I think the people too that runthe convention kind of doubled
(15:05):
down on why they were makingsome of the choices that they
were about the other side of thebusiness, and then that just
kind of fueled the fire, right,um, I think we all know that fan
fictions don't benefit originalauthors, right, right, but I
can see the view of you know,bringing attention and light,
right, invest in, you know aparticular author anymore.
(15:27):
So I really think it'sunfortunate overall.
You know how everything wentdown Because, if I'm not
(15:49):
mistaken, jkr despises all thefan fictions.
Jonathan (15:51):
That's a money thing.
You know, I think the hard partfor me and this is where I kind
of couldn't the two sort ofthings was I have here's this
person who I think is beingpunished by by bookish folk for
just being inspired by, and Ithink that we need to.
(16:15):
I think at some point we have,we just have to allow for people
to be, we just have tounderstand, like, hey, when,
when everything was on the upand up, this person inspired a
bunch of people to get involvedin this genre and it was a big
part of a lot of people'schildhood.
And, yeah, although it kind ofwent, although it really took a
(16:35):
turn in a negative way for thefor for the author we we can't
expel or use some, we can't holdsomebody else's actions against
somebody who doesn't feel thatway.
So I got confused on like socialmedia, Like I just started
asking questions about thisbecause I was like hey, so is
Julie, like anti, and they werelike oh no.
Mari (16:59):
And I was like I don't understand why we're not doing
this.
Jonathan (17:03):
I say to me, like I'm like I'm a toddler, patronize me
, because I still don'tunderstand why we're kicking
julie out or why this is even athing like.
I understand why we don'tlisten.
I understand why.
I think we all know that.
I understand why we don't likeJoRo Cool, I support not liking
that.
I don't understand why we don'tlike Julie.
Ashley (17:25):
Yeah, I think it was a series of unfortunate events
that really just snowballed.
I think Julie was kind of Idon't know.
Jonathan (17:32):
It sounded interesting , though it was an English
accent and everythingno-transcript.
Ashley (18:04):
It's unfortunate because I can argue both sides.
I don't have anybody in thegame so maybe I would feel more
passionately about it.
There seems to be a part of thecommunity that wants a safe
space to enjoy.
The fandom still is part of theargument, but I think a much
larger, louder part of theargument is saying don't breathe
(18:26):
life into her anymore.
It's hurting us.
Mari (18:33):
Yeah, I my.
My viewpoint on fan fiction isI believe that a lot of authors
have used the fan fiction spacelike um, archive of their own
and whatnot to as a spot to likeas a way to develop their
writing skills.
You know where they couldn'tnecessarily write a book and get
(18:58):
someone to pick it up and givethem feedback on it.
In a setting like AO3 and likea fan fiction setting, you do
get feedback on it and you getto develop your craft.
I'm not a writer, but I believewriting, like every art form,
you start off real rough, nomatter how much talent you may
(19:20):
have.
You start off rough and thenyou get better the more you fine
tune your skills, and I thinkfan fiction is been a way to get
some people to do that and thenthey later make the jump to
self publishing or totraditional publishing.
I don't think that there'sanything wrong with the idea of
(19:41):
your works being derived fromsomeone else if you do
afterwards make the world yourown.
So, for example, dungeons andDragons, heavily derivative of
Tolkien, you can't tell me it'snot the dwarves, the elves, it's
all Tolkien, but now it's itsown thing because they've
(20:01):
created their own world off ofit.
Like you don't necessarily haveto have read token to
understand something in Dungeonsand Dragons, much like these
books.
You don't have to have read theoriginal material to be able to
enjoy and understand thesebooks that are now basically
their own books.
You know I'm no longer a fan ofRowling.
(20:24):
I don't support Rowling.
Trans life matters, transrights, are human rights, but I
think that they worked it outmutually.
The way it was worded on boththe author page and the con page
was that it was a mutualagreement for them to step out.
So I don't know that there'sany necessarily bad blood
between them two.
(20:44):
But yeah, in my ideal world Ithink Julie DeSoto should be
able to get in there and sellthat, because it's not like
that's the only thing she's everdone, like she has other books
that have nothing to do with youknow, and again, I think that
was part of the argument wasbecause somebody in the
marketing team was advertisinglike heavily the fan, the
(21:06):
germani fanfic being, you knowthat, this being a spinoff or
retelling of that.
Ashley (21:12):
And I mean, we're seeing that this year, right, julie de
soto is not the only fanficartist dropping a retelling.
I mean, sin lin, you is allover the socials right now.
This is a big deal, you know,come september, and to be able
to say why it's a big deal meansthat we're going to have to
talk about the fanfic, right,yeah, um, and.
(21:33):
But again, these aren't theonly two.
The hurricane wars is based offof a fanfic.
Ali hazelwood has done a bookoff of a fanfic, allie Hazelwood
has done a book off of a fanfic, like it's a tough space and I
think these are importantconversations, but I disagree
with punishing or attacking theartist for doing a retelling or
making it, or somebody in themarketing team, you know.
(21:54):
I think this is a lesson thatcan be learned and we should be
able to move on.
Mari (21:59):
Yeah, I agree, both people are feral.
Ashley (22:02):
Yes, we are.
We are passionate, we have bigfeelings.
Mari (22:07):
I think a lot of fans do More passion, more energy.
I think a lot of fans do, youknow, whether it's books,
whether it's video games,whether it's movies, like people
are devoted to their fandomsand usually have things to say.
Jonathan (22:20):
Yeah, I agree, I have not washed my game day apparel
since last season.
It remains right where I leftit on Super Bowl Sunday.
It has been there and I willdon it again in September,
unwashed.
We keep the stench of victory.
Ashley (22:36):
We respect certain cults in this household.
Mari (22:40):
Any other news from anybody else.
Jonathan (22:42):
Just that little trinket of a treat that Rebecca
dropped on.
Ashley (22:47):
On a random Sunday.
Jonathan (22:48):
Yeah, so not even that it's like plot worthy or like
crazy news, but just that hermind is in that space for the
next.
Ashley (22:58):
Already.
Mari (22:58):
Yeah.
Jonathan (22:59):
Which is cool yeah in that space.
Mari (23:01):
For that, for the next already.
Yeah, which is cool.
Yeah, I'm glad for her becauseI know for a while she was like
not happy in that space.
You know she was having troublegetting back into the empyrean
yeah, she was burnt out so I'mglad she's able to get back to
it, hopefully in a healthy wayand enjoy it.
Ashley (23:15):
Yeah, right anything else.
Mari (23:17):
No, I think we covered it all right.
So on to the book review.
Why we chose this book isbecause the author is going to
be one of the attending authorsat fabled fantasies romancy con
event in october in orlando.
So I'm going to read thesynopsis.
This book was published october8th 2024 as part of the mating
and monsters series, and here isthe synopsis.
(23:42):
Darla drake, duchess of death,is a legendary monster who has
haunted the woods around campclear creek for years, until an
existential crisis forces her totake a sabbatical from wreaking
havoc on pimply teens while shefigures out what she really
wants from the rest of herpossibly infinite life.
But what does a monster do whenher malevolent days are over?
(24:02):
For Darla, it's spending timewith the decapitated yet still
overbearing head of her mother,reading romance novels she
steals from campers andstruggling with one monstrous
case of melancholy, until JarkoMurkvale arrives in Clear Creek
and turns Darla's life upsidedown.
Jarko is a conceited, arrogant,infuriating and unfortunately
(24:24):
for Darla kind of hot.
And with the Duchess of Deathon the shelf, jarko has staked
his claim on Camp Clear Creek,but Darla refuses to go down
without a fight, and so, inorder to reclaim her territory.
She challenges Jarko to aseries of hunts to see who the
most fearsome monster really is.
But the more mayhem they cause,the more Darla begins to realize
(24:45):
there's more to this brashmonster than she believed and
that Jarko may just be theantidote to her ennui.
But there's a reason.
Jarko came to Clear Creek andin order to fill her
nine-chambered heart.
Darla will have to unravel themystery of who this closed-off
monster really is.
And if they can manage to notliterally tear each other limb
from limb, darla and Jarko mightjust find that couples who slay
(25:07):
together stay together.
Can I just say that for my justeven the teeniest bit of
Hispanic accent, I have the nameJarko, jarko like oh my God, it
plays with me so bad, hardesttime saying it.
Jonathan (25:22):
Well, you did a good job.
Mari (25:23):
Thank you.
What did we think of this bookguys?
Ashley (25:27):
I loved this book.
I didn't inhale it.
I did take my time with it butI really, really enjoyed it.
And I was disappointed to findout that book two doesn't come
out until whopping like mid-2026.
I know, I was very, I was verydistraught at that, especially
(25:48):
because it was published inearly 24.
But I really enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed the banter, thesarcasm, the relationship
between Darla and her mother,darla and her best friend, darla
and Jarko.
Like we really saw a lot of her.
I think I would have liked itmore if we had fleshed out Jarko
(26:09):
a little bit.
But like, maybe that's book two.
Who am I to tell the authorwhat to do?
Right, I was also this ismildly sexist of me, but I was
surprised it was written by aboy because I really enjoyed
this book.
So it's a five because I wouldprobably reread it and I think
this would make a fantasticlittle miniseries.
Mari (26:27):
Okay, kelly, what did you think?
Kelly (26:29):
I thought the book wasn't terrible.
It was definitely a differenttype of read than we've done
recently, so the humor in it wasnice to get a break from some
stuff that's always constantlyserious romance stuff.
Yeah, I think jarco was alittle one-dimensional, but you
know he wasn't the focuscharacter of the story, so you
(26:49):
know that is what it is.
I think the, the head of theoverbearing mother was pretty
funny, so that was definitely anamusing twist to the Mother
Guilt trip type stuff.
I don't know.
I think my overall rating forthis was a three.
Mari (27:05):
Okay, this is not my first time reading it, so I first
read it in January of this yearand I swear I thought the sequel
was supposed to come out thisyear, so I think it maybe
originally was supposed to comeout this year and then got
pushed back.
But I reread it for this and,um, I.
For me, overall it was a threeand a half.
(27:27):
I enjoyed it, but I think I waswanting more out of it.
So when I see that something'sa monster romance and when I see
that something's kind of like arom-com, I have certain
expectations.
I really like my rom-coms to bedual point of view.
I think it gives you a betterinsight into the heads of the
(27:51):
people in the relationships andwe mainly, for the most part,
only get Darla's point of view.
So for me it was okay.
I think I was just expecting alittle bit more to get into both
of their heads and I wasexpecting a little bit more.
There were things in the worldthat didn't quite make sense to
(28:12):
me and I actually gave it alittle bit higher on the reread.
The first time I read it it wasthree stars.
This time it's three and a half.
I find Darla to be unlikable forme and that made it hard to
enjoy it because it was likefrom her viewpoint.
But I think she's supposed tobe unlikable.
I think she's miserable andthat made it hard to enjoy it
because it was like from herviewpoint.
But I think she's supposed tobe unlikable.
I think she's miserable and soshe's like, she's not happy,
(28:34):
she's having her nervousbreakdown.
You know, take time away fromher job, kind of thing.
But I know, I don't know that Ireally like the way that it got
resolved, like.
I feel like, basically becausethey had a meet, cute, and they
liked each other.
Then, you know, she got overher midlife crisis or whatever
she was having and then he gotover his grief just because they
(28:59):
got together, and I think Iwanted more out of it.
So three and a half stars forme.
There were things I liked aboutit, things I wanted more of.
I'll still probably read thesequel because I'm kind of
interested in where it's goingto go from here and who the
sequel is about.
But overall, three and a halfstars, jonathan.
Jonathan (29:17):
I like this one.
I like this one a lot.
I gave it five stars.
It was, although I'll say thisI don't think that the synopsis
aligns with the story.
I think the synopsis goes alittle bit deeper and can be
misleading and like I didn't getthat sense of.
What I got was like a cozy acozy rom-com out of this and it
(29:41):
just that the subjects justhappen to be monsters.
But I feel like this storycould apply to almost any
rom-com aside from killing.
But maybe you take your foot offthe gas in a corporate world
and somebody comes in to seasonopening, right that kind of
(30:02):
thing.
And then you end up falling inlove with your competitor and I
feel like it was almost this,this show and tell vibe for
their their like dual hunt, likeanything you can do, I can do
better.
Like I can run faster than youI can.
I hear you want to get in thereand just rip people apart,
let's know.
Let it marinate bud, you know.
Let let's see what happens, letit let it develop, you know,
(30:24):
shake it like a Polaroid picture, you know.
And and so it kind of it tickedthose boxes of like a fun, a
fun read.
And when I picked.
When I picked this book off upoff the shelf, I did the same
thing.
I read it.
Back in January too.
We were at a.
We were at a, a local bookshop,reopening Like they had moved
(30:47):
locations to a bigger location.
They were like, hey, let'sreopen and do a thing.
And so they were doing that.
And my sisters and I, we all wewent up to this reopening and I
was like kind of looking around,I was the only dude there.
I was like way out of place andI was like hmm, and then I saw
this book on like a shelf and itwas just alone.
It's the only one on.
It was just there.
(31:08):
And I was like you know what?
The cover of this book justlooks delightful.
And then I said I'll take thisone.
And then when I started readingit I was like, oh, this is,
this is fun.
There were lots of.
It was very predictable.
It was very I don't know ifit's hokey the right word.
Is hokey the right word?
(31:34):
Campy, campy?
Yeah, it just it wasn't.
It wasn't deep, it was.
It was very much 120 minutes ofof tom hanks and like very
basic rom-com stuff, like whoelse would have been matthew
mcconaughey and what movie washe in with another lady?
That kind of stuff.
Yeah, kate Hudson.
Yeah, is that 10 Things I HateAbout you?
Or how to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Yeah, this was like how to Losea Guy in 10 Days.
I'm not getting deep stuff, I'mgoing to find the mistakes, but
(32:01):
on Soup and Sandwich Night,that's what you put on and
that's how I felt about this one.
Five stars nice, nice.
Mari (32:10):
What do we think about the like, the world building, the
fantasy and world building of it?
Ashley (32:13):
so I think, for me, I was super intrigued about how
they coexist in the modern world.
So, like, this monster world ispart of modern day, right, and
I didn't write anything down andI probably should have, but
like all of like the plethora ofnames, right.
So, different monsters,different names.
Every monster seems to bedramatically different from the
(32:36):
other, like even from parent tochild.
Um, I think her bff waspregnant for what, like like
four years or something.
It was something outrageous,yeah and so, yeah, there just
seemed to be this immersion ofmonster world in modern day.
They were aware of technology.
Some of them were more into itthan others.
(32:58):
Darla had you know bare minimumconcept of technology, mostly
to keep her mother's headentertained, like it was just,
it was like a whole thing, butshe existed on Pop-Tarts and
camp dehydrated food.
It was absolutely wild to me.
I had such a fun time just kindof listening to how they
navigate the human world.
(33:19):
If a camp has been the scene ofmultiple murders and mayhem for
80 years, you'd think they'dshut down the camp, but no it,
it kept on going.
I was entertained and so forthat it was like a, like a three
and a half for me.
Um I, I was super, I was superentertained the whole time, like
(33:39):
I wasn't questioning anything,it just it kept me laughing
enough to where I wasn'tconcerned about it being
unrealistic.
Mari (33:46):
What'd you think, kelly?
Kelly (33:47):
So, like Ashley, I was like how is this camp still open
when there are continualmultiple murders, Some of them
videotaped?
Stop Right, Like they said thatsome of the kids had recorded
some of the sightings and stuffon their camera, on their phone.
So yeah, whatever you take itfor what?
(34:11):
it is, it's a piece of fantasyliterature.
Um, I did find it, you know,kind of amusing that they were
calling out some of thedifferent like mythological
monsters in American history andstuff like that, trying to, you
know, do the whole cryptidangle.
So that was amusing.
(34:32):
So it was a different approach,you know.
So amusing.
I like the whole idea of, likethe monsters had this, you know,
basically system of assigningterritory that was updated
online and you know, darla hadno idea about any of that
because she doesn't use anytechnology and, you know, just
(34:54):
threw away any mail she got.
So that was kind of amusing.
So I like the idea that it wassome kind of like whole system
of monsters and monstergovernance that was going on
somewhere.
So all of that was interestingand different.
It added some to the story.
Mari (35:12):
So I said, for fantasy it was a three and a half so for me
, fan the fantasy world buildingis probably the was the most
interesting aspect of it.
I gave it a four because it wasinteresting to me that there's
this human world that thesemonsters live in and yet either
there are monsters developingtechnology and creating these
(35:35):
smartphone-like devices andgetting them out to every
monster out there, or there'slike humans that are creating.
There's like a human monstergovernment entity that's like
tracking all this.
I was really curious about thewhole monster finder utility
thing.
Like who made that?
Who's the day was that?
How are they getting it?
(35:56):
How is that being updated?
And then like this read through,I'm like how, how did greta,
how did?
How?
Did darla's friend greta seethat Darla was like losing her
spot on this thing because Gretahad that the monster finder
utility thing and not sayanything to her best friend
(36:17):
about it at all?
It'd be like sitting there likeyour neighbor and friend having
a foreclosure sign going up ontheir front yard and not saying
anything about it.
Yeah, I'm curious.
I'm curious about that.
I'm curious about the differentmonsters and how they live and
where they're from.
So I'm curious about the world.
It was a really interestingworld, led me to have questions,
(36:39):
which I mean means good worldbuilding, because I want to know
more about it.
So for me the world buildingaspect of it was a four.
Jonathan (36:48):
Very good, very good.
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think a four is good.
I liked that the two worldscoexisted.
They kind of banged into eachother.
I liked that they understoodwhat each person's role is and,
I think, what each creature orbeing's position is.
Like the kid who took outDarla's mom was like.
(37:13):
It was like, hey, you know, helived in fear the rest of his
life, you know.
So it was like they knew, butit was accepted that you know.
The same way, we know that abear exists and it just seems
like if you're not, if you'renot a jerk, they're not showing
up at camp, although not modernday, but like back in the day.
(37:34):
Apparently, if you fooled aroundwith your girlfriend, that was
good enough to get you deadthey're very conservative, very
conservative the punishmentdidn't fit the crime for sure,
but yeah, extremely conservative.
And just the idea thateverybody had different powers
or how like I, I liked that theyhad mixers or that they had.
(37:55):
I wasn't scared by thesemonsters, I was entertained by
these monsters and understoodthat it was.
I understood their purpose andso I could.
There's a lot I could look past, like the idea that they have
indestructible iPads.
Or you could tell it wasfantasy because she had pockets.
Ashley (38:17):
Shut up.
Jonathan (38:19):
They made mention of that, didn't they?
It was a very.
The author is definitely afeminist, as am I, but he
definitely touched on thosepoints in an almost like comedic
way.
Does that make sense?
Mari (38:35):
okay, yeah, so a four okay , what do we feel about the
romance in this?
Ashley (38:40):
this was very kindergarten for me.
But I guess in in darla'sdefense she didn't know right,
she never.
I mean, she had a boyfriend.
The boyfriend was mid, she hadnever been in love before, right
.
And so we all stumble throughthat in our first major
(39:03):
discovering of big feelings.
It was very cute, it was alittle, you know, little boy
likes her so he pulls her hairfor me.
But in the end, you know, Iappreciated how Jarko was like
oh man, I fucked up.
I have to go do this big thing.
Actions, not just words.
(39:25):
Right, it was a little fast inthat evolution of thoughts and
feelings for me.
But it was a shorter book.
So you know the I feel likethey packed in a lot of
information in a in a shortamount of time.
It was a three for me.
It was okay.
It could have been better, itcould have been worse what'd you
(39:46):
think, kelly?
Kelly (39:48):
I thought it very not I don't want to use the word
kindergarten, but it was very PGwhen it comes to the romance
very safe, cutesy, but notterribly exciting.
I guess it's appropriate in thesense of like a rom-com PG Tom
Hanks movie.
Mari (40:15):
So I also said a three.
Okay for me I went, with theromance being a two.
The reason for for me giving itthis.
I felt like for me this goesback to the the viewpoint
situation.
I felt like I could see, um,why darla falls in love with
Jarko, like everything he did towoo her, everything he did to
pull her out of her shell, likeI see why she fell for him.
(40:38):
I don't see the other side ofit, like I don't know what
caused Jarko to fall for Darla.
It didn't come across for me.
So it felt very one-sided.
I felt like jarco with jarcowas putting in all the work and
(40:58):
darla was getting all thebenefits and I wasn't buying the
romance.
It just didn't work for me.
So it was a two.
Jonathan (41:05):
I'm going to go slightly higher.
I'm going to give it a four.
I, I, I do.
I feel like they needed eachother and they and they
intersected at the right time ineach other's lives and while
one while they were bothescaping something one the the
(41:26):
monotony of theirresponsibilities and just
longing for more, longing forcompanionship and personal
growth and the other wasescaping their past I think that
they both sort of indirectlyrescued each other and found
(41:46):
love, and for that I'll give ita four for romance.
Mari (41:53):
What do we think about the spice?
Ashley (41:57):
Oh, there was no spice.
There was like some salt but nopepper in the spice.
For me I'd say a one and a half, because there was some
illusion to spice.
I would have liked way morelike some paprika or chili
(42:19):
powder.
I think I enjoy chili powdermore than paprika, so I'm going
to change that to just the chilipowder.
It was like a one and a half.
There was barely any spice.
There was barely any kissing,but for a lot of the book they
were trying not to kill eachother, but also try to kill each
other.
So there's that.
Kelly (42:36):
I think it was a one.
It was just hints, but I didn'texpect much of the way of spice
once the book started going andkind of got the feel for that.
It was definitely more of a pgtype story.
So I don't know that I reallyexpected a lot after you got a
little bit into the book.
Mari (42:57):
But overall a one yeah, I, um, I gave it a one.
I like sriracha, I like tajin,I like all the spice jalapenos,
all of it.
I like spice in my rom-coms, Ilike spice in my monster romance
, I like spice in my romancy.
So, yeah, this is a closed doorromance and really all you get
(43:19):
is like there's a little bit ofinnuendo talk and I think, if
you know that going in, ifyou're fine with that going in,
that's fine.
But yeah, it was.
It was a little bland for me,so I'm gonna give it a one,
because there was innuendo, thatwas it okay, okay, I'll give it
a two.
Jonathan (43:37):
There wasn't the spice that was.
There was was just implied, andI think initially when I got,
when I read this book back inJanuary, it forced me to
reconfigure my calculator inorder to incorporate the monster
(43:59):
rom-com, so it just didn't havethe.
You know, it was implied it waswhat other pieces of you grow.
That kind of thing was one ofthe lines and yeah.
So I thought, yeah, that's howI ended up with it too, okay.
Mari (44:14):
Do we think?
Is it a kissing book?
Ashley (44:17):
I'm always surprised by this question I'm not sure why.
I think it's a kissing book forhow the ending came about right
.
So, like we got closure withher mom and her mom's body right
, jarko went literally to whatis the worst place for a monster
to be to go get answers totrack down mom's missing body
(44:38):
because monsters can rapidlyheal right, and so if her head
could exist without her body,then her body can exist without
the head, but they can't findeach other to to.
You know, it's not echolocation.
So I mean in the, in the sensethat darla got her mojo back
right, she was able to go be amonster again and be happy with
(45:01):
that, um, and also in theevolution of Darla, as you know,
growing up and evolving as abeing, as an entity.
She maybe could have done thatwithout Jarko, but I don't know
that she ever would have foundher mom's body without Jarko,
and I don't know that she wouldhave gotten back in the game as
(45:21):
quick without jarco.
I think because the, theproblem of this book was more
emotional than it was somethingliteral or physical.
This is a little bit harder togauge, but I would say, yeah,
it's a kissing book like I don'tknow.
I don't know that we would havegotten to where we did in in
the, in the time frame that wedid, if it weren't kelly, what
do you?
Kelly (45:39):
think I mean I think along the same lines.
I think that it is a kissingbook because the plot plot
advancement and the resolutionand everything required the
romance angle.
So it's definitely a kissingbook in that context yeah, I, I
agree.
Mari (45:56):
I also say it's a kissing book for the same reason, like I
, nothing would have happened ifit wasn't for the romance, like
they probably just would havebeen stuck kind of in where they
were at the beginning of thestory, to be honest.
So I would say yes, it's akissing book so, and I hear
every one of you shut up rightnow.
Ashley (46:12):
You just gotta be contrary, don't you no?
Jonathan (46:14):
I'm just I'm messing with you.
I think it's a kissing book, uh, but I'll say like I I feel
like I feel like this book forus was destined to be a kissing
book, because I'm pretty surethat the author shouts us out in
the very beginning of thispodcast of the book yeah,
there's a of Swords andSoulmates is like the book that
(46:35):
she likes to read.
Mari (46:36):
I think it is that Darla likes to read.
Jonathan (46:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Mari (46:40):
I'm like, oh, that name sounds familiar.
Jonathan (46:42):
He's probably a fan.
That would be pretty cool whenI if you're listening, Mr Brody.
Yeah, if you're listening whenI show up at the convention.
Ashley (46:51):
We have questions.
Jonathan (46:52):
And I don't know that I have questions, but when I
hand you my copy of the book toread, it's been.
I think it's one of the onesthat I've read harder than the
others, so it's not in its exactshape.
You should still sign it, thankyou.
Mari (47:08):
It's a 10% to the book Darla.
She picked up a book calledSwords and Soulmates.
I highlighted it.
I'm like interesting.
Jonathan (47:16):
We see, you See you.
Mari (47:18):
Yeah, I will also say that after I finished reading this
book, I thought about it and thewhole like the couple who slays
together stays together thingand I will give some
recommendations to readers.
If you enjoyed this book andyou like the whole idea of the
whole like those who slaytogether stay together I would
also recommend the Butcher andBlackbird by Bryn Weaver.
(47:40):
It's a really good audio book.
It's they're humans.
There's no monsters in it.
They're humans but they'reserial killers who hunt bad guys
and it's a romance story.
It's funny, it's spicy and it'sgot more gore.
Ashley (47:54):
It definitely has more gore.
I was going to say I thought itwas like a darker spice too,
but if it's just normal spice,that's fun.
I don't think think the actualspice is dark.
Mari (48:04):
I mean I don't think it ruins anything.
It's like the very firstchapter, how they meet is like
killing just happened andkidnapping situation, so like
it's a little dark from thebeginning.
But then you're like I guessthis is just a serial killer
life.
I don't know, it's just howthey roll.
I guess I mean it's a good audiobook and it's a couple slaves
(48:27):
together, stays together, kindof vibes.
The second one would be a soulto touch by opal rain.
This is part of her dust walkerbride series.
It's book three in that seriesand this was one with where a
monster and a human have arelationship and they hunt
demons together Also spicy.
(48:47):
The third book that came to mindwas you Suck, a love story by
Christopher Moore, and it'sbasically a newish young vampire
and her boyfriend that didn'tknow she was a vampire and she
just accidentally turned himinto a vampire and the hijinks
that ensue.
It's a little bit of an olderbook but it's comedic.
(49:08):
It's closed door but it's veryfunny.
And then for a movierecommendation, if you like the
whole couple who slays togetherstays together thing, I would
recommend the gem that is the2015 movie Mr Right.
It's an action comedy, rom-comwith Anna Kendrick and Samantha
Rockwell.
Ashley (49:28):
Oh, we love Anna Kendrick.
Mari (49:30):
She's good.
That's why I watched it.
She was in it and they are.
They're so good.
The story is unhinged but it'sfunny and it's very like almost
wacky I would say, but like alot of humor.
You know, humor hits differentfor different people, so it may
not hit a lot of people don'tlike it, but I think it's good.
(49:50):
So anything else we want to sayabout this before I do the
outro.
Jonathan (49:54):
I'd like to see the next one.
So, although it may not havebeen as spicy as some of the
others that we read, I thoughtit was a fun.
It was a fun book and I thinkif you're a listener who's
looking for maybe even a funstandalone YA solution, this
(50:16):
could be a good answer to that.
Mari (50:18):
It's like a summer rom-com kind of vibe.
All right, anything else beforeI finish this up?
Ashley (50:24):
No, I like this book.
I was a big fan.
I was of vibe.
Yeah, all right, anything elsebefore I finish this up.
No, I like this book.
I was a big fan.
Yeah, I was very sad.
Mari (50:32):
June 2026, june.
Yeah, sir.
Well, he does write under adifferent name and he writes
thrillers and he's got a lotmore books under his thriller
name, so I'm assuming he's justhad to move, like publishing
dates around.
I don't know how many otherbooks he has, but I know there's
more under the thriller name.
So, yeah, if that's his mainbread and butter, he might have
(50:53):
had to like prioritize somethingelse over this.
All right, well, thanks forlistening to of swords and
soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate,
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Follow us on Instagram, tiktok,youtube, facebook, pinterest or
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(51:13):
If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode
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messaging options or email us.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode
and get chapter by chapterinteractions, join our Fable app
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And, last but not least, wehope you'll join us in two weeks
(51:36):
for our next episode where wewill be discussing my Minotaur
Husband by Léon Riley.
She's another author who's setto be at the Romanacy event Bye.
Jonathan (51:47):
Awesome Yay.
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 (00:31):
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 (00:35):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.
Ashley (00:38):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan, what'sgood everybody, hey, hey, all
right.
Mari (00:44):
So, starting on the news, we've got Hemingway Books.
Hemingway Books has a specialedition of the Hunger Games
books out which are very pretty.
I don't have any books by thembut I've heard and seen several
of their special editions thatthey started to come out with.
This set is $219 and it shipsin november.
(01:05):
But, going through theirwebsite, they also have like
special edition, fourth,multiple fourth wings, akatar,
thrown a glass quick, silvercrimson moth when the moon
hatched, assistant to thevillain shield of sparrows, and
the irresistible urge to fallfor your enemy.
Like, basically, if it's a book, you're more or less hearing
people talk about newish.
Like, basically, if it's a book, you're more or less here and
(01:25):
people talk about newish, likethey seem to have a, you know, a
special edition version of it.
Um, I said I haven't seen thequality firsthand.
I don't have any of their stuff.
I don't think I've seen any oftheir stuff in person, but it
looks really nice on the website.
Ashley (01:39):
Yeah, these are pretty stunning.
I was, um, I would I.
When I came across it, I waslike, is this a scam?
And I mean 200 bucks for fivebooks.
I think my only hesitancy forthe hunger games is it seems
like she's on a role and I don'tknow that she's done right.
Um, somebody posted and Iforget if it was on tiktok or
what, but they were allegingthat you know the.
(02:02):
It was the hunger games trilogy.
So it was, you know, katniss'strilogy, and now this is like
the cubby trilogy, um, which shehas not admitted to out loud
that I'm aware of, but it wasjust like, oh, it was like bam
bro, you're probably right, yeah, I mean they've got to break it
up somehow.
Mari (02:19):
So yeah, yeah, so if you're interested in some really
pretty special editions, theyseem to be pretty available too.
Like it's not like they're soldout or anything.
I don't know if they print them, you know, based on how many
people buy them, but from theones I look through, they all
seem to be available forpurchase.
So I would definitely lookthrough that no-transcript
(03:15):
reading it, but listening to it,the humor hit really well.
So I, yeah, if you'reinterested in that one, I would
recommend listening to it.
I have not read the fan fictionthat it's based off of, so I
don't have anything like that tocompare it to, but I thought it
was a good read.
I'm planning on reading thesequel whenever it comes out.
This particular version thatAlcrate is doing has dust jacket
(03:36):
artwork by Ivy Maruva anddesigned by Leichen and
Limestone, and then thereversible dust jacket artwork
is by off the hook studio andthe hardcover case is designed
by um dracadormances.
If you go to all cratesinstagram, they're all linked
that sounds legit.
yeah, it's all one word.
(03:57):
I sorry if I'm not saying itright, but it's 34.99 and it
ships in oct.
They're doing the whole thingwhere Allcrate normally does,
where the people who aresubscribers get first options to
buy and then, if they have anyleftover, they put it out to the
general public.
So the general public salebegins assuming that they have
(04:19):
some to sell on Thursday, augustthe 28th, at 11 am Pacific time
.
But, like I said, that justdepends on if they have any
stock to sell.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, I would follow
them on their Instagram.
They usually do a good job oftelling when things are sold out
$35 sounds like a bargain,bargain.
Ashley (04:38):
If I hadn't already bought it probably.
Mari (04:40):
Do you have?
Ashley (04:41):
this one, ash.
Yeah, it's somewhere.
I'm happy with what.
I haven't read it, but I haveread the fan fiction and it was
by far one of the best booksthat I've ever read in my entire
life, wow, okay I thought thisbook was really good.
Mari (04:55):
Here I like feet kicking, giggling I don't think you
needed to know anything about,like the, the fandom it's based
on, like I could easily seesomeone fully enjoying this book
without knowing anything otherthan what's in this book, and I
think it would still be a reallygood and I think I heard that
that was intentional, and myunderstanding is that this, this
(05:16):
book, is dramatically differentthan the fan fiction, so we're
not talking about just, you know, the swapping of names yeah um,
so I'm definitely interested toread it.
Ashley (05:27):
I've heard both ends of the spectrum about whether
people have liked the book ornot.
I know that there's a lot ofhostility out there right now,
based, you know, because of thefan fiction that things are
based off of.
But, honestly, if, if, herwriting is anywhere near as good
as the fan fiction itself, it'sgot to be superb.
Mari (05:48):
I I enjoyed every second of it I'd love to know what you
think when you read this, sinceyou've read the fan, the
original, your fan fiction, soyou'll know.
Yeah, something to compare itto.
But, like me going in justhaving read this book, I enjoyed
it.
It it was fun and I plan tolisten to the sequel, for sure.
Ashley (06:06):
That's good to know.
Mari (06:07):
All right.
Next little bit of news I haveis Rebecca F Kenney, who's an
attending author at Romanescon.
She's going to be releasing aPhantom of the Opera retelling.
It's going to be called CruelAngel.
It's going to release April14th 2026 for $17.99.
It's just in paperback.
Often she does paperback onBarnes, Noble, Amazon that kind
(06:32):
of thing, but then on herwebsite or her Etsy page she
might do special editions thatare signed.
I've got a few of her booksthat are hardcover special
edition signed.
She does really good,interesting retellings so I'm
curious to see what she's goingto do with this story.
She does a retelling of Krampusthat I like and she does a
(06:54):
retelling of the Nutcrackerballet that I really enjoyed and
thought was really really welldone.
Yeah, I like her writing style.
Ashley (07:03):
Have we read Rebecca kenney on here before?
Mari (07:06):
I feel like I've read her I would like to before the con,
if we get a chance to her.
Her books are.
They're high spice and she doesreally interesting character
development.
Ashley (07:18):
Oh, this is the of the, a court of sugar and spice, the
nutcracker ret.
We've been talking about that.
Jonathan (07:23):
Yeah, that's definitely on my list.
I have it in the cart.
Yeah, I like that one.
Mari (07:28):
I read it, I think, on Kindle Unlimited, and then
bought it because I liked it somuch, so it's on the shelf.
Ashley (07:36):
Oh, there's a Jack Frost one.
Yeah, look at all this I'mdefinitely gonna.
Jonathan (07:39):
That's definitely on my.
I think I have it.
I have the audio saved and Ihave the physical in the cart in
the Amazon cart.
That's one I want signed, sodefinitely yeah.
Ashley (07:49):
Maybe we can read that a little bit closer to your
favorite time of year inSeptember.
Bring you some joy.
Jonathan (07:55):
Post.
It could be a recovery bookafter.
Mari (07:58):
Halloween Horror Nights.
Yeah, she's got those series.
She's got series of someretellings of like classic books
, like portrait of dorian grayweathering heights, and then
she's got a dragon series.
It's the merciless dragonseries, which is the first thing
I ever read by her was themerciless dragon series.
Um, and I I enjoyed it.
She does.
(08:18):
She writes really interestingstories, um.
Next tidbit of news I have isthat barnes and noble is doing a
signed special edition of thebook of it, asriel.
I've not read this book.
Has anyone else read it?
Ashley (08:36):
I have not read it, but I feel like I've heard very good
things about it on the socialswas this is she gonna be at the
romancy convention?
Mari (08:44):
I don't think so amber v nicole I'm not sure you know.
I didn't double check that, Idon't think so, but look into
that.
I will say that I've heard goodthings about this series for a
while and it's a series, I thinkit's maybe three, three books,
but it's basically described asa slow burn, high stakes, epic
romancy featuring a villainousshapeshifter heroine and a
(09:08):
tortured god king in a steamy,monstrous world.
So it's been on my list for aminute, because all that sounds
right up my alley.
Ashley (09:16):
Right, right, right in there too yeah.
Mari (09:19):
Yeah.
So this version is very pretty.
It's got like the design allover it and it's signed, if you
get it through Barnes and noblefor 32.95, which is not at all
bad no, not at all I justchecked the list.
Jonathan (09:31):
She's not on the list to to do that to be there, I
know right but yeah, I've heardgood things.
Mari (09:36):
I've not read it, but I've heard good things, so maybe we
can read that sometime yeah, forsure I like it.
I like the way it sounds, a lotyeah the next thing I have oh, I
cannot type on these newsmisspelling people's names
bookish box is doing acollaboration with cm nascosta,
who wrote, amongst other things,the morning glory milking farm
(09:58):
that we read.
She just got the whole cambrickcreek series.
So they're doing a specialedition of the cambrick creek
series and they are so prettythey feel like look at that
spring, summer flower vibes.
It's like a little bouquet ofbooks it really is.
Ashley (10:17):
Oh, look at, like the pinterest board.
Mari (10:19):
Yeah yeah, it's really beautiful.
It's 190 um, but they'rethey're very pretty editions.
It's really beautiful, it's 190dollars um, but they're they're
very pretty additions.
It's got um morning glory milkand farm sweet berries.
Is it full-blooded?
Ashley (10:36):
moon-blooded, moon-blooded breeding clinic.
Yeah, two for tea.
Welcome to as a zaythi, and heloves me not.
I've read all of these three,four or five they're all very
good.
Mari (10:48):
My favorite is probably sweet berries.
It's like a mothman but he'slike a scientist in this camber
kick town, so it's a little bitof like on the spectrum, kind of
short little.
It's a short little bookromance.
I like that one and I like theforget me not.
It's a retelling of you've GotMail.
Jonathan (11:05):
Oh, I like You've Got Mail.
Mari (11:07):
His ears perked up.
They're all well done.
I mean, they're very much likeMorning Glory, and Milking Farm
was where it's like yes, it's amonster, it's a spicy monster
romance and it also has allthese really interesting things
to say about modern society andpeople's relationships and, you
know, standing up for yourselfand found family and the
(11:28):
importance of like beingaccepted and, yeah, they're all
very much along the lines ofmorning glory milking farm in
quality.
I, if you like morning glorymilking farm, I highly recommend
everything else I've read byeverything else she's written,
so yeah, f-o-x.
Jonathan (11:45):
Fox, fox, that's a.
Uh wait, was that you've gotmail?
Yeah, what would I may haveseen you've got mail maybe once
when it first came out and I'venever seen it
Mari (11:58):
so I know that it's a retelling of it, but I honestly
haven't seen it in so long I I Ionly know there's a retelling.
I don't, I don't rememberhardly anything from that movie
it's tom hanks doing regular tomhanks stuff.
Jonathan (12:09):
Yeah, and you know it, tom hanks is like.
You know who the new tom hanksis is who's that fella, who was
in the who's the mandalorian,and he's got like eight movies
out right now pedro pascal yeah,that's our new daddy, that's
our new Tom Hanks, that's themillennial Tom Hanks.
Ashley (12:27):
Yeah, no, I don't think so.
Jonathan (12:32):
I think Pedro's in a class all his own.
Ashley (12:33):
Don't take that from me, ashley, I mean.
Mari (12:35):
I gotta say I'm with Ash on this.
Ashley (12:37):
Yeah, yeah yeah, though oddly I don't think they're
terribly far apart in age, arethey?
You know, I don't know I don'tknow anyway, all right.
Mari (12:46):
The last little bit of news I have is that julie de
soto, who wrote rose and chainsrose and chain, just another fan
fiction turned into a book isis one of the authors that
mutually agreed to not be atRomanceCon.
So apparently RomanceCon is runby Mischief Management, which
(13:09):
originally started as a HarryPotter fan business company and
they run amongst other public,from the fans that having Julia
(13:29):
DeSoto, there was an endorsementof Rawling and so people were
like pulling out and trying tocall him out on this and I guess
, through mutual agreement,julia DeSoto just kind of pulled
out of it.
It's interesting because I amnow in the middle, I'm about 35%
(13:50):
through Rose and Chain and muchlike the Irresistible Urge to
Fall for your Enemy.
If I didn't know that it wasbased off of fan fiction, it
really is its own world.
I don't need to have any priorknowledge of anything so far to
understand what's going on, toknow the vibes of the characters
(14:11):
, to get a feel for theirpersonalities.
Ashley (14:14):
Um so, I think some of the beef with that, and I very
well could be wrong.
I didn't deep dive into thisbecause I think we're all
entitled, you know, to our ownfeelings, um, and about how we
consume art, right, and thethings that we're willing to
invest in and the things that weare not willing to.
(14:35):
But that part aside, I thinksome of the push, the the
initial pushback with JulieDeSoto was that her marketing
team was like heavilyadvertising the fanfic and this
being a retelling of that, and Ithink that's what put a bad
taste in some mouths.
I think the people too that runthe convention kind of doubled
(15:05):
down on why they were makingsome of the choices that they
were about the other side of thebusiness, and then that just
kind of fueled the fire, right,um, I think we all know that fan
fictions don't benefit originalauthors, right, right, but I
can see the view of you know,bringing attention and light,
right, invest in, you know aparticular author anymore.
(15:27):
So I really think it'sunfortunate overall.
You know how everything wentdown Because, if I'm not
(15:49):
mistaken, jkr despises all thefan fictions.
Jonathan (15:51):
That's a money thing.
You know, I think the hard partfor me and this is where I kind
of couldn't the two sort ofthings was I have here's this
person who I think is beingpunished by by bookish folk for
just being inspired by, and Ithink that we need to.
(16:15):
I think at some point we have,we just have to allow for people
to be, we just have tounderstand, like, hey, when,
when everything was on the upand up, this person inspired a
bunch of people to get involvedin this genre and it was a big
part of a lot of people'schildhood.
And, yeah, although it kind ofwent, although it really took a
(16:35):
turn in a negative way for thefor for the author we we can't
expel or use some, we can't holdsomebody else's actions against
somebody who doesn't feel thatway.
So I got confused on like socialmedia, Like I just started
asking questions about thisbecause I was like hey, so is
Julie, like anti, and they werelike oh no.
Mari (16:59):
And I was like I don't understand why we're not doing
this.
Jonathan (17:03):
I say to me, like I'm like I'm a toddler, patronize me
, because I still don'tunderstand why we're kicking
julie out or why this is even athing like.
I understand why we don'tlisten.
I understand why.
I think we all know that.
I understand why we don't likeJoRo Cool, I support not liking
that.
I don't understand why we don'tlike Julie.
Ashley (17:25):
Yeah, I think it was a series of unfortunate events
that really just snowballed.
I think Julie was kind of Idon't know.
Jonathan (17:32):
It sounded interesting , though it was an English
accent and everythingno-transcript.
Ashley (18:04):
It's unfortunate because I can argue both sides.
I don't have anybody in thegame so maybe I would feel more
passionately about it.
There seems to be a part of thecommunity that wants a safe
space to enjoy.
The fandom still is part of theargument, but I think a much
larger, louder part of theargument is saying don't breathe
(18:26):
life into her anymore.
It's hurting us.
Mari (18:33):
Yeah, I my.
My viewpoint on fan fiction isI believe that a lot of authors
have used the fan fiction spacelike um, archive of their own
and whatnot to as a spot to likeas a way to develop their
writing skills.
You know where they couldn'tnecessarily write a book and get
(18:58):
someone to pick it up and givethem feedback on it.
In a setting like AO3 and likea fan fiction setting, you do
get feedback on it and you getto develop your craft.
I'm not a writer, but I believewriting, like every art form,
you start off real rough, nomatter how much talent you may
(19:20):
have.
You start off rough and thenyou get better the more you fine
tune your skills, and I thinkfan fiction is been a way to get
some people to do that and thenthey later make the jump to
self publishing or totraditional publishing.
I don't think that there'sanything wrong with the idea of
(19:41):
your works being derived fromsomeone else if you do
afterwards make the world yourown.
So, for example, dungeons andDragons, heavily derivative of
Tolkien, you can't tell me it'snot the dwarves, the elves, it's
all Tolkien, but now it's itsown thing because they've
(20:01):
created their own world off ofit.
Like you don't necessarily haveto have read token to
understand something in Dungeonsand Dragons, much like these
books.
You don't have to have read theoriginal material to be able to
enjoy and understand thesebooks that are now basically
their own books.
You know I'm no longer a fan ofRowling.
(20:24):
I don't support Rowling.
Trans life matters, transrights, are human rights, but I
think that they worked it outmutually.
The way it was worded on boththe author page and the con page
was that it was a mutualagreement for them to step out.
So I don't know that there'sany necessarily bad blood
between them two.
(20:44):
But yeah, in my ideal world Ithink Julie DeSoto should be
able to get in there and sellthat, because it's not like
that's the only thing she's everdone, like she has other books
that have nothing to do with youknow, and again, I think that
was part of the argument wasbecause somebody in the
marketing team was advertisinglike heavily the fan, the
(21:06):
germani fanfic being, you knowthat, this being a spinoff or
retelling of that.
Ashley (21:12):
And I mean, we're seeing that this year, right, julie de
soto is not the only fanficartist dropping a retelling.
I mean, sin lin, you is allover the socials right now.
This is a big deal, you know,come september, and to be able
to say why it's a big deal meansthat we're going to have to
talk about the fanfic, right,yeah, um, and.
(21:33):
But again, these aren't theonly two.
The hurricane wars is based offof a fanfic.
Ali hazelwood has done a bookoff of a fanfic, allie Hazelwood
has done a book off of a fanfic, like it's a tough space and I
think these are importantconversations, but I disagree
with punishing or attacking theartist for doing a retelling or
making it, or somebody in themarketing team, you know.
(21:54):
I think this is a lesson thatcan be learned and we should be
able to move on.
Mari (21:59):
Yeah, I agree, both people are feral.
Ashley (22:02):
Yes, we are.
We are passionate, we have bigfeelings.
Mari (22:07):
I think a lot of fans do More passion, more energy.
I think a lot of fans do, youknow, whether it's books,
whether it's video games,whether it's movies, like people
are devoted to their fandomsand usually have things to say.
Jonathan (22:20):
Yeah, I agree, I have not washed my game day apparel
since last season.
It remains right where I leftit on Super Bowl Sunday.
It has been there and I willdon it again in September,
unwashed.
We keep the stench of victory.
Ashley (22:36):
We respect certain cults in this household.
Mari (22:40):
Any other news from anybody else.
Jonathan (22:42):
Just that little trinket of a treat that Rebecca
dropped on.
Ashley (22:47):
On a random Sunday.
Jonathan (22:48):
Yeah, so not even that it's like plot worthy or like
crazy news, but just that hermind is in that space for the
next.
Ashley (22:58):
Already.
Mari (22:58):
Yeah.
Jonathan (22:59):
Which is cool yeah in that space.
Mari (23:01):
For that, for the next already.
Yeah, which is cool.
Yeah, I'm glad for her becauseI know for a while she was like
not happy in that space.
You know she was having troublegetting back into the empyrean
yeah, she was burnt out so I'mglad she's able to get back to
it, hopefully in a healthy wayand enjoy it.
Ashley (23:15):
Yeah, right anything else.
Mari (23:17):
No, I think we covered it all right.
So on to the book review.
Why we chose this book isbecause the author is going to
be one of the attending authorsat fabled fantasies romancy con
event in october in orlando.
So I'm going to read thesynopsis.
This book was published october8th 2024 as part of the mating
and monsters series, and here isthe synopsis.
(23:42):
Darla drake, duchess of death,is a legendary monster who has
haunted the woods around campclear creek for years, until an
existential crisis forces her totake a sabbatical from wreaking
havoc on pimply teens while shefigures out what she really
wants from the rest of herpossibly infinite life.
But what does a monster do whenher malevolent days are over?
(24:02):
For Darla, it's spending timewith the decapitated yet still
overbearing head of her mother,reading romance novels she
steals from campers andstruggling with one monstrous
case of melancholy, until JarkoMurkvale arrives in Clear Creek
and turns Darla's life upsidedown.
Jarko is a conceited, arrogant,infuriating and unfortunately
(24:24):
for Darla kind of hot.
And with the Duchess of Deathon the shelf, jarko has staked
his claim on Camp Clear Creek,but Darla refuses to go down
without a fight, and so, inorder to reclaim her territory.
She challenges Jarko to aseries of hunts to see who the
most fearsome monster really is.
But the more mayhem they cause,the more Darla begins to realize
(24:45):
there's more to this brashmonster than she believed and
that Jarko may just be theantidote to her ennui.
But there's a reason.
Jarko came to Clear Creek andin order to fill her
nine-chambered heart.
Darla will have to unravel themystery of who this closed-off
monster really is.
And if they can manage to notliterally tear each other limb
from limb, darla and Jarko mightjust find that couples who slay
(25:07):
together stay together.
Can I just say that for my justeven the teeniest bit of
Hispanic accent, I have the nameJarko, jarko like oh my God, it
plays with me so bad, hardesttime saying it.
Jonathan (25:22):
Well, you did a good job.
Mari (25:23):
Thank you.
What did we think of this bookguys?
Ashley (25:27):
I loved this book.
I didn't inhale it.
I did take my time with it butI really, really enjoyed it.
And I was disappointed to findout that book two doesn't come
out until whopping like mid-2026.
I know, I was very, I was verydistraught at that, especially
(25:48):
because it was published inearly 24.
But I really enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed the banter, thesarcasm, the relationship
between Darla and her mother,darla and her best friend, darla
and Jarko.
Like we really saw a lot of her.
I think I would have liked itmore if we had fleshed out Jarko
(26:09):
a little bit.
But like, maybe that's book two.
Who am I to tell the authorwhat to do?
Right, I was also this ismildly sexist of me, but I was
surprised it was written by aboy because I really enjoyed
this book.
So it's a five because I wouldprobably reread it and I think
this would make a fantasticlittle miniseries.
Mari (26:27):
Okay, kelly, what did you think?
Kelly (26:29):
I thought the book wasn't terrible.
It was definitely a differenttype of read than we've done
recently, so the humor in it wasnice to get a break from some
stuff that's always constantlyserious romance stuff.
Yeah, I think jarco was alittle one-dimensional, but you
know he wasn't the focuscharacter of the story, so you
(26:49):
know that is what it is.
I think the, the head of theoverbearing mother was pretty
funny, so that was definitely anamusing twist to the Mother
Guilt trip type stuff.
I don't know.
I think my overall rating forthis was a three.
Mari (27:05):
Okay, this is not my first time reading it, so I first
read it in January of this yearand I swear I thought the sequel
was supposed to come out thisyear, so I think it maybe
originally was supposed to comeout this year and then got
pushed back.
But I reread it for this and,um, I.
For me, overall it was a threeand a half.
(27:27):
I enjoyed it, but I think I waswanting more out of it.
So when I see that something'sa monster romance and when I see
that something's kind of like arom-com, I have certain
expectations.
I really like my rom-coms to bedual point of view.
I think it gives you a betterinsight into the heads of the
(27:51):
people in the relationships andwe mainly, for the most part,
only get Darla's point of view.
So for me it was okay.
I think I was just expecting alittle bit more to get into both
of their heads and I wasexpecting a little bit more.
There were things in the worldthat didn't quite make sense to
(28:12):
me and I actually gave it alittle bit higher on the reread.
The first time I read it it wasthree stars.
This time it's three and a half.
I find Darla to be unlikable forme and that made it hard to
enjoy it because it was likefrom her viewpoint.
But I think she's supposed tobe unlikable.
I think she's miserable andthat made it hard to enjoy it
because it was like from herviewpoint.
But I think she's supposed tobe unlikable.
I think she's miserable and soshe's like, she's not happy,
(28:34):
she's having her nervousbreakdown.
You know, take time away fromher job, kind of thing.
But I know, I don't know that Ireally like the way that it got
resolved, like.
I feel like, basically becausethey had a meet, cute, and they
liked each other.
Then, you know, she got overher midlife crisis or whatever
she was having and then he gotover his grief just because they
(28:59):
got together, and I think Iwanted more out of it.
So three and a half stars forme.
There were things I liked aboutit, things I wanted more of.
I'll still probably read thesequel because I'm kind of
interested in where it's goingto go from here and who the
sequel is about.
But overall, three and a halfstars, jonathan.
Jonathan (29:17):
I like this one.
I like this one a lot.
I gave it five stars.
It was, although I'll say thisI don't think that the synopsis
aligns with the story.
I think the synopsis goes alittle bit deeper and can be
misleading and like I didn't getthat sense of.
What I got was like a cozy acozy rom-com out of this and it
(29:41):
just that the subjects justhappen to be monsters.
But I feel like this storycould apply to almost any
rom-com aside from killing.
But maybe you take your foot offthe gas in a corporate world
and somebody comes in to seasonopening, right that kind of
(30:02):
thing.
And then you end up falling inlove with your competitor and I
feel like it was almost this,this show and tell vibe for
their their like dual hunt, likeanything you can do, I can do
better.
Like I can run faster than youI can.
I hear you want to get in thereand just rip people apart,
let's know.
Let it marinate bud, you know.
Let let's see what happens, letit let it develop, you know,
(30:24):
shake it like a Polaroid picture, you know.
And and so it kind of it tickedthose boxes of like a fun, a
fun read.
And when I picked.
When I picked this book off upoff the shelf, I did the same
thing.
I read it.
Back in January too.
We were at a.
We were at a, a local bookshop,reopening Like they had moved
(30:47):
locations to a bigger location.
They were like, hey, let'sreopen and do a thing.
And so they were doing that.
And my sisters and I, we all wewent up to this reopening and I
was like kind of looking around,I was the only dude there.
I was like way out of place andI was like hmm, and then I saw
this book on like a shelf and itwas just alone.
It's the only one on.
It was just there.
(31:08):
And I was like you know what?
The cover of this book justlooks delightful.
And then I said I'll take thisone.
And then when I started readingit I was like, oh, this is,
this is fun.
There were lots of.
It was very predictable.
It was very I don't know ifit's hokey the right word.
Is hokey the right word?
(31:34):
Campy, campy?
Yeah, it just it wasn't.
It wasn't deep, it was.
It was very much 120 minutes ofof tom hanks and like very
basic rom-com stuff, like whoelse would have been matthew
mcconaughey and what movie washe in with another lady?
That kind of stuff.
Yeah, kate Hudson.
Yeah, is that 10 Things I HateAbout you?
Or how to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Yeah, this was like how to Losea Guy in 10 Days.
I'm not getting deep stuff, I'mgoing to find the mistakes, but
(32:01):
on Soup and Sandwich Night,that's what you put on and
that's how I felt about this one.
Five stars nice, nice.
Mari (32:10):
What do we think about the like, the world building, the
fantasy and world building of it?
Ashley (32:13):
so I think, for me, I was super intrigued about how
they coexist in the modern world.
So, like, this monster world ispart of modern day, right, and
I didn't write anything down andI probably should have, but
like all of like the plethora ofnames, right.
So, different monsters,different names.
Every monster seems to bedramatically different from the
(32:36):
other, like even from parent tochild.
Um, I think her bff waspregnant for what, like like
four years or something.
It was something outrageous,yeah and so, yeah, there just
seemed to be this immersion ofmonster world in modern day.
They were aware of technology.
Some of them were more into itthan others.
(32:58):
Darla had you know bare minimumconcept of technology, mostly
to keep her mother's headentertained, like it was just,
it was like a whole thing, butshe existed on Pop-Tarts and
camp dehydrated food.
It was absolutely wild to me.
I had such a fun time just kindof listening to how they
navigate the human world.
(33:19):
If a camp has been the scene ofmultiple murders and mayhem for
80 years, you'd think they'dshut down the camp, but no it,
it kept on going.
I was entertained and so forthat it was like a, like a three
and a half for me.
Um I, I was super, I was superentertained the whole time, like
(33:39):
I wasn't questioning anything,it just it kept me laughing
enough to where I wasn'tconcerned about it being
unrealistic.
Mari (33:46):
What'd you think, kelly?
Kelly (33:47):
So, like Ashley, I was like how is this camp still open
when there are continualmultiple murders, Some of them
videotaped?
Stop Right, Like they said thatsome of the kids had recorded
some of the sightings and stuffon their camera, on their phone.
So yeah, whatever you take itfor what?
(34:11):
it is, it's a piece of fantasyliterature.
Um, I did find it, you know,kind of amusing that they were
calling out some of thedifferent like mythological
monsters in American history andstuff like that, trying to, you
know, do the whole cryptidangle.
So that was amusing.
(34:32):
So it was a different approach,you know.
So amusing.
I like the whole idea of, likethe monsters had this, you know,
basically system of assigningterritory that was updated
online and you know, darla hadno idea about any of that
because she doesn't use anytechnology and, you know, just
(34:54):
threw away any mail she got.
So that was kind of amusing.
So I like the idea that it wassome kind of like whole system
of monsters and monstergovernance that was going on
somewhere.
So all of that was interestingand different.
It added some to the story.
Mari (35:12):
So I said, for fantasy it was a three and a half so for me
, fan the fantasy world buildingis probably the was the most
interesting aspect of it.
I gave it a four because it wasinteresting to me that there's
this human world that thesemonsters live in and yet either
there are monsters developingtechnology and creating these
(35:35):
smartphone-like devices andgetting them out to every
monster out there, or there'slike humans that are creating.
There's like a human monstergovernment entity that's like
tracking all this.
I was really curious about thewhole monster finder utility
thing.
Like who made that?
Who's the day was that?
How are they getting it?
(35:56):
How is that being updated?
And then like this read through,I'm like how, how did greta,
how did?
How?
Did darla's friend greta seethat Darla was like losing her
spot on this thing because Gretahad that the monster finder
utility thing and not sayanything to her best friend
(36:17):
about it at all?
It'd be like sitting there likeyour neighbor and friend having
a foreclosure sign going up ontheir front yard and not saying
anything about it.
Yeah, I'm curious.
I'm curious about that.
I'm curious about the differentmonsters and how they live and
where they're from.
So I'm curious about the world.
It was a really interestingworld, led me to have questions,
(36:39):
which I mean means good worldbuilding, because I want to know
more about it.
So for me the world buildingaspect of it was a four.
Jonathan (36:48):
Very good, very good.
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think a four is good.
I liked that the two worldscoexisted.
They kind of banged into eachother.
I liked that they understoodwhat each person's role is and,
I think, what each creature orbeing's position is.
Like the kid who took outDarla's mom was like.
(37:13):
It was like, hey, you know, helived in fear the rest of his
life, you know.
So it was like they knew, butit was accepted that you know.
The same way, we know that abear exists and it just seems
like if you're not, if you'renot a jerk, they're not showing
up at camp, although not modernday, but like back in the day.
(37:34):
Apparently, if you fooled aroundwith your girlfriend, that was
good enough to get you deadthey're very conservative, very
conservative the punishmentdidn't fit the crime for sure,
but yeah, extremely conservative.
And just the idea thateverybody had different powers
or how like I, I liked that theyhad mixers or that they had.
(37:55):
I wasn't scared by thesemonsters, I was entertained by
these monsters and understoodthat it was.
I understood their purpose andso I could.
There's a lot I could look past, like the idea that they have
indestructible iPads.
Or you could tell it wasfantasy because she had pockets.
Ashley (38:17):
Shut up.
Jonathan (38:19):
They made mention of that, didn't they?
It was a very.
The author is definitely afeminist, as am I, but he
definitely touched on thosepoints in an almost like comedic
way.
Does that make sense?
Mari (38:35):
okay, yeah, so a four okay , what do we feel about the
romance in this?
Ashley (38:40):
this was very kindergarten for me.
But I guess in in darla'sdefense she didn't know right,
she never.
I mean, she had a boyfriend.
The boyfriend was mid, she hadnever been in love before, right
.
And so we all stumble throughthat in our first major
(39:03):
discovering of big feelings.
It was very cute, it was alittle, you know, little boy
likes her so he pulls her hairfor me.
But in the end, you know, Iappreciated how Jarko was like
oh man, I fucked up.
I have to go do this big thing.
Actions, not just words.
(39:25):
Right, it was a little fast inthat evolution of thoughts and
feelings for me.
But it was a shorter book.
So you know the I feel likethey packed in a lot of
information in a in a shortamount of time.
It was a three for me.
It was okay.
It could have been better, itcould have been worse what'd you
(39:46):
think, kelly?
Kelly (39:48):
I thought it very not I don't want to use the word
kindergarten, but it was very PGwhen it comes to the romance
very safe, cutesy, but notterribly exciting.
I guess it's appropriate in thesense of like a rom-com PG Tom
Hanks movie.
Mari (40:15):
So I also said a three.
Okay for me I went, with theromance being a two.
The reason for for me giving itthis.
I felt like for me this goesback to the the viewpoint
situation.
I felt like I could see, um,why darla falls in love with
Jarko, like everything he did towoo her, everything he did to
pull her out of her shell, likeI see why she fell for him.
(40:38):
I don't see the other side ofit, like I don't know what
caused Jarko to fall for Darla.
It didn't come across for me.
So it felt very one-sided.
I felt like jarco with jarcowas putting in all the work and
(40:58):
darla was getting all thebenefits and I wasn't buying the
romance.
It just didn't work for me.
So it was a two.
Jonathan (41:05):
I'm going to go slightly higher.
I'm going to give it a four.
I, I, I do.
I feel like they needed eachother and they and they
intersected at the right time ineach other's lives and while
one while they were bothescaping something one the the
(41:26):
monotony of theirresponsibilities and just
longing for more, longing forcompanionship and personal
growth and the other wasescaping their past I think that
they both sort of indirectlyrescued each other and found
(41:46):
love, and for that I'll give ita four for romance.
Mari (41:53):
What do we think about the spice?
Ashley (41:57):
Oh, there was no spice.
There was like some salt but nopepper in the spice.
For me I'd say a one and a half, because there was some
illusion to spice.
I would have liked way morelike some paprika or chili
(42:19):
powder.
I think I enjoy chili powdermore than paprika, so I'm going
to change that to just the chilipowder.
It was like a one and a half.
There was barely any spice.
There was barely any kissing,but for a lot of the book they
were trying not to kill eachother, but also try to kill each
other.
So there's that.
Kelly (42:36):
I think it was a one.
It was just hints, but I didn'texpect much of the way of spice
once the book started going andkind of got the feel for that.
It was definitely more of a pgtype story.
So I don't know that I reallyexpected a lot after you got a
little bit into the book.
Mari (42:57):
But overall a one yeah, I, um, I gave it a one.
I like sriracha, I like tajin,I like all the spice jalapenos,
all of it.
I like spice in my rom-coms, Ilike spice in my monster romance
, I like spice in my romancy.
So, yeah, this is a closed doorromance and really all you get
(43:19):
is like there's a little bit ofinnuendo talk and I think, if
you know that going in, ifyou're fine with that going in,
that's fine.
But yeah, it was.
It was a little bland for me,so I'm gonna give it a one,
because there was innuendo, thatwas it okay, okay, I'll give it
a two.
Jonathan (43:37):
There wasn't the spice that was.
There was was just implied, andI think initially when I got,
when I read this book back inJanuary, it forced me to
reconfigure my calculator inorder to incorporate the monster
(43:59):
rom-com, so it just didn't havethe.
You know, it was implied it waswhat other pieces of you grow.
That kind of thing was one ofthe lines and yeah.
So I thought, yeah, that's howI ended up with it too, okay.
Mari (44:14):
Do we think?
Is it a kissing book?
Ashley (44:17):
I'm always surprised by this question I'm not sure why.
I think it's a kissing book forhow the ending came about right
.
So, like we got closure withher mom and her mom's body right
, jarko went literally to whatis the worst place for a monster
to be to go get answers totrack down mom's missing body
(44:38):
because monsters can rapidlyheal right, and so if her head
could exist without her body,then her body can exist without
the head, but they can't findeach other to to.
You know, it's not echolocation.
So I mean in the, in the sensethat darla got her mojo back
right, she was able to go be amonster again and be happy with
(45:01):
that, um, and also in theevolution of Darla, as you know,
growing up and evolving as abeing, as an entity.
She maybe could have done thatwithout Jarko, but I don't know
that she ever would have foundher mom's body without Jarko,
and I don't know that she wouldhave gotten back in the game as
(45:21):
quick without jarco.
I think because the, theproblem of this book was more
emotional than it was somethingliteral or physical.
This is a little bit harder togauge, but I would say, yeah,
it's a kissing book like I don'tknow.
I don't know that we would havegotten to where we did in in
the, in the time frame that wedid, if it weren't kelly, what
do you?
Kelly (45:39):
think I mean I think along the same lines.
I think that it is a kissingbook because the plot plot
advancement and the resolutionand everything required the
romance angle.
So it's definitely a kissingbook in that context yeah, I, I
agree.
Mari (45:56):
I also say it's a kissing book for the same reason, like I
, nothing would have happened ifit wasn't for the romance, like
they probably just would havebeen stuck kind of in where they
were at the beginning of thestory, to be honest.
So I would say yes, it's akissing book so, and I hear
every one of you shut up rightnow.
Ashley (46:12):
You just gotta be contrary, don't you no?
Jonathan (46:14):
I'm just I'm messing with you.
I think it's a kissing book, uh, but I'll say like I I feel
like I feel like this book forus was destined to be a kissing
book, because I'm pretty surethat the author shouts us out in
the very beginning of thispodcast of the book yeah,
there's a of Swords andSoulmates is like the book that
(46:35):
she likes to read.
Mari (46:36):
I think it is that Darla likes to read.
Jonathan (46:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Mari (46:40):
I'm like, oh, that name sounds familiar.
Jonathan (46:42):
He's probably a fan.
That would be pretty cool whenI if you're listening, Mr Brody.
Yeah, if you're listening whenI show up at the convention.
Ashley (46:51):
We have questions.
Jonathan (46:52):
And I don't know that I have questions, but when I
hand you my copy of the book toread, it's been.
I think it's one of the onesthat I've read harder than the
others, so it's not in its exactshape.
You should still sign it, thankyou.
Mari (47:08):
It's a 10% to the book Darla.
She picked up a book calledSwords and Soulmates.
I highlighted it.
I'm like interesting.
Jonathan (47:16):
We see, you See you.
Mari (47:18):
Yeah, I will also say that after I finished reading this
book, I thought about it and thewhole like the couple who slays
together stays together thingand I will give some
recommendations to readers.
If you enjoyed this book andyou like the whole idea of the
whole like those who slaytogether stay together I would
also recommend the Butcher andBlackbird by Bryn Weaver.
(47:40):
It's a really good audio book.
It's they're humans.
There's no monsters in it.
They're humans but they'reserial killers who hunt bad guys
and it's a romance story.
It's funny, it's spicy and it'sgot more gore.
Ashley (47:54):
It definitely has more gore.
I was going to say I thought itwas like a darker spice too,
but if it's just normal spice,that's fun.
I don't think think the actualspice is dark.
Mari (48:04):
I mean I don't think it ruins anything.
It's like the very firstchapter, how they meet is like
killing just happened andkidnapping situation, so like
it's a little dark from thebeginning.
But then you're like I guessthis is just a serial killer
life.
I don't know, it's just howthey roll.
I guess I mean it's a good audiobook and it's a couple slaves
(48:27):
together, stays together, kindof vibes.
The second one would be a soulto touch by opal rain.
This is part of her dust walkerbride series.
It's book three in that seriesand this was one with where a
monster and a human have arelationship and they hunt
demons together Also spicy.
(48:47):
The third book that came to mindwas you Suck, a love story by
Christopher Moore, and it'sbasically a newish young vampire
and her boyfriend that didn'tknow she was a vampire and she
just accidentally turned himinto a vampire and the hijinks
that ensue.
It's a little bit of an olderbook but it's comedic.
(49:08):
It's closed door but it's veryfunny.
And then for a movierecommendation, if you like the
whole couple who slays togetherstays together thing, I would
recommend the gem that is the2015 movie Mr Right.
It's an action comedy, rom-comwith Anna Kendrick and Samantha
Rockwell.
Ashley (49:28):
Oh, we love Anna Kendrick.
Mari (49:30):
She's good.
That's why I watched it.
She was in it and they are.
They're so good.
The story is unhinged but it'sfunny and it's very like almost
wacky I would say, but like alot of humor.
You know, humor hits differentfor different people, so it may
not hit a lot of people don'tlike it, but I think it's good.
(49:50):
So anything else we want to sayabout this before I do the
outro.
Jonathan (49:54):
I'd like to see the next one.
So, although it may not havebeen as spicy as some of the
others that we read, I thoughtit was a fun.
It was a fun book and I thinkif you're a listener who's
looking for maybe even a funstandalone YA solution, this
(50:16):
could be a good answer to that.
Mari (50:18):
It's like a summer rom-com kind of vibe.
All right, anything else beforeI finish this up?
Ashley (50:24):
No, I like this book.
I was a big fan.
I was of vibe.
Yeah, all right, anything elsebefore I finish this up.
No, I like this book.
I was a big fan.
Yeah, I was very sad.
Mari (50:32):
June 2026, june.
Yeah, sir.
Well, he does write under adifferent name and he writes
thrillers and he's got a lotmore books under his thriller
name, so I'm assuming he's justhad to move, like publishing
dates around.
I don't know how many otherbooks he has, but I know there's
more under the thriller name.
So, yeah, if that's his mainbread and butter, he might have
(50:53):
had to like prioritize somethingelse over this.
All right, well, thanks forlistening to of swords 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, tiktok,youtube, facebook, pinterest or
Goodreads atofswordsandsoulmates.
Check us out on our websiteofswordsandsoulmatescom.
(51:13):
If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode
or reach out to us in any way,feel free to do so on any of the
messaging options or email us.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode
and get chapter by chapterinteractions, join our Fable app
book club by searching for theOf Swords and Soulmates book
club on there.
And, last but not least, wehope you'll join us in two weeks
(51:36):
for our next episode where wewill be discussing my Minotaur
Husband by Léon Riley.
She's another author who's setto be at the Romanacy event Bye.
Jonathan (51:47):
Awesome Yay.
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