"Five Broken Blades" - Five Killers, One Crown, and a Web of Deception - Of Swords and Soulmates

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 (00:29):
Hello and welcome to Love 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 (00:33):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly and we have Ashley.

Ashley (00:36):
Hi, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:39):
What's good everybody, it's JP.

Mari (00:42):
So today we're going to be discussing Five Broken Blades
by Maya Corlin, but first, asalways, some news.
And man, do we have some news?
The book news has been newsinglately.
So first is, of course, thediscussion.
I think everybody here hasheard of it, and if not about
the Million Lives Book Festivalfiasco thing, that happened in

(01:04):
Baltimore.
That was wild.
The feedback on that I've seenit come from authors and yeah.
So basically, there was a bookfestival in baltimore scheduled
for may 2nd and 3rd.
It was called the million livesbook festival.
It uh, mainly focused onindependent authors, uh, and it

(01:24):
it basically imploded, exploded,um, it did not happen.
It was real bad.
They're like comparing it tothe fire festival of of book
festivals, which you know isnever, never a good comparison.
There is an author who has donea four-part, I guess, in-depth
synopsis of her experience at it.

(01:44):
That's, I think that's basicallyhow I first heard of it yeah,
you didn't see that.

Jonathan (01:48):
I saw the the same, like the.
The link that's in this chatwas like.

Ashley (01:52):
I thought it was just like in a, like an attendee that
posted about it.
I didn't dive too deep into itbecause I felt bad.
Man, could you imagine droppingthat kind of money and then
showing up to like a middleschool dance?

Jonathan (02:04):
it wasn't.
Even a middle school dancewould have been better yeah,
exactly it was like concretefloors and like a, like a rose
of table, a couple like maybe itwas a shape like a u, so
basically they had it was aconvention center.

Mari (02:18):
So, like you know, yeah, concrete floors, convention
center.
I I was at a con in baltimoreuh, monsterotica Con last
weekend, and where I was at fromwhen I was going from the
airport to the hotel, I walkedpast this convention center, so
it's a whole convention center.
The author if you guys arelooking at anyone who's
listening, we'll put the linkson our notes, but the author is

(02:39):
Percy P-E-R-C-I J, j-a-y, percyJ.
If you look her up on TikTokshe's got like a four-part
synopsis.
She was an attending authorthere and I believe also like a
top-tier sponsor of the eventand basically, like there were
no tablecloths, there were nochairs for the panelists in the

(03:01):
room, yeah, there was nodecorations $250 you paid to go
to this ball.
There was no ball, there was nomusic, there was no food, and
I'm sure I mean people arelaughing about now because you
can laugh about this stuff afterthe fact.
But you know people paid to bethere and they the attendance,
and then the authors like flewin from other places, you know,

(03:21):
probably took time off theirjobs, paid to be there, you know
, brought on all this, eithershipped their books in or paid
all this money to bring books in, you know and who knows what
else they were selling, andthere was like there was
supposed to be four to 500people there and I think the
highest estimate I've heard ofpeople who actually showed up
was like 100 people.

Jonathan (03:39):
Oh, wow.

Ashley (03:39):
Yeah, so but wait was attendance less Because people
just't so like they paid anddidn't show no, they didn't pay,
they didn't sell out, so yeah,apparently this is a first time
event by a first time person.

Mari (03:52):
The person is an author herself who did it.
She's not like an event runner,and it's interesting because I
put some links that we'll put inthe notes.
Like, there's a YouTuber that Ifollowed.
She's an event's an eventplanner, and I followed her take
on events because I thought itwas interesting and I kind of

(04:12):
related to it.
Basically, she was talkingabout as an event planner.
This is what went wrong andthis is at what point this
should have been.
You should have seen what wasgoing to happen and canceled it,
kind of thing.
The YouTuber's biblio lifestyleand she basically talks about
when you put on an event, youhave a set amount of money you

(04:33):
have to like, have, and if youdon't have this many people
committed to it by a certaindate, you need to cancel it.
Like you, your event's notgoing to go.
You don't wait till the lastminute and hope that you make
enough people to make your event, which is basically, I guess,
what this person did.
Like, the authors that werethere provided stuff for swag
bags.
The swag bags disappeared.
They were never given out.

(04:53):
Wow, like, yes, it's levelsupon levels of things and I
don't know, like, yes, yes, likethe people who are hurt.
Obviously were the authors whowere trying to there, the, the
people who attended and likeanybody who's a brand new, like
event person trying to put ontheir first event because now
everyone's going to be more, youknow, skeptical about new
events yeah, yeah, but it'sinteresting because this the

(05:15):
youtube video person who haddone events basically.
So in a in a previous life, inmy belly dance days, I put on
with with some friends, I put onevents and they weren't as big
as like a book festival typesituation, but you would have
multiple you know artists ordancers, instructors, coming
from different states.
You'd bring them together,you'd have workshops which would

(05:37):
be comparable to panels.
You'd have you know people,you'd have vendors selling
things and then at the end ofthe event you'd have a belly
dance party, a half-loss.
You'd have a performance, you'dhave to do sound, you'd have to
have a stage seating.
So these are some things that Iunderstand, and one of the
things that we always did is wehad a formula you have to be
able to have this many peoplecommitted to sold by this date,

(05:59):
otherwise you're canceling theevent.
And if it came close to it andwe were a few tickets short, we
would like.
If it came close to it, we werelike a few tickets short, we
would like post on social mediaand if we got the people, then
the event would go on.
But if there weren't enoughpeople we would cancel the event
, which is the responsible thingto do.

Jonathan (06:14):
Yeah, no, absolutely A hundred percent.
A hundred percent of the timeit's.
You know, sometimes there'sembarrassment too.

Mari (06:20):
I think this person got in over their head and just did
not know what they were doing.
I don't think it was like.
I don't think she was likeembezzling.
You know what I mean.
Like I don't think it was awillful situation, but I think
she just got way over her head.
That's so sad yeah.

Ashley (06:33):
Like for everybody.

Jonathan (06:34):
It is.
I think she did offer.
She was like hey, refunds forthose who request Right

(07:27):
no-transcript the podcast.
Yeah, I'm down for that youknow class criteria.

Mari (07:37):
Interestingly, without realizing it, because I didn't
really get this deep into thisnew story last weekend because
was at the the monster book con,two of the authors from this
list were actually at themonster erotica book con oh yeah
, so you meet them I did meetthem.
They were very, very sweet andvery nice and I of course bought
books.
Surprise, mario bought books,um they're yeah.

(08:00):
Yeah, they're um spicy monster,um type books.
So one of them is it had akrampus on the cover, so of
course I bought it.
The book is called.
Be Terrible, and the author'spen name is Molly Likovich oh,
interesting.
I believe also available onaudio They'll make it easier for

(08:22):
everyone to read is MalloryDunlan.
She wrote one captured by theFae Beast which looked really
interesting, so I was thinkingmaybe we could pick that and
read it later this year.

Ashley (08:33):
Yeah, what a wild story that was.
Yeah.

Mari (08:36):
Not all the authors are romantic authors, Like there's
romance authors.
There's a bit of a variety ofgenres there on that list of the
on the Indie Author Connectpage.
But I would highly encourageanyone to look over it and see
if there's anything thatinterests you.
Yeah, we won't hold it againstthem.
I guess it's okay if there's nomonsters or fae or magic, I

(08:58):
suppose.

Ashley (08:59):
Gotta have a palate cleanser.
Yeah, every once in a while,neurotypical stuff, I guess.
No, that was mildly insulting,sorry yeah, that was the big
news.

Mari (09:10):
Um, I would say.
But we have a few other things.
Kandari blake, who we have readand reviewed and met at last
year's romanacy con, is writinga new book.
It's coming out like way in thefuture.
I don't think she even has arelease date yet, but she was
really excited about it.
She posted on her Instagramit's going to be called the
stolen queen.
Yeah, so she described it asone part rush hour with a

(09:34):
healthy shake of the emperor'snew grove, the groove.
So sorry, brain is mush today.
The emperor's new groove.
This romantic rom-com iscurrently keeping me sane.
The heroine is a bookishsoon-to-be queen who believes
that the solution to any problemcan be found in a library.
The hero is a god stowing awayin her head.
He's a complete pain in the ass.

(09:56):
Doesn't come out for a longtime, but I'm so excited.
That's her little quote I lovethis.

Ashley (10:03):
Yeah, it sounds interesting.
I really enjoyed that series.
The ending felt rushed.
It was like game of thrones,like it's like they ran out of
money or they rushed it kind ofthing.
I wasn't disappointed like inthe ending.
It was kind of what I like itwasn't displeasing, I just felt
rushed like, like pushed, likethey threw it off the edge.

Mari (10:22):
We're out of money for pages yeah, like I wonder if she
was like maybe had she beenable to do it in her own time,
if she would have gone on towriting something else and then
come back to it and maybe feltmore like I feel like she was
maybe doing it to meet adeadline rather than she really
wanted to get a certain storyout.

Ashley (10:37):
But I definitely like I I distinctly remember her books
and I really enjoyed that series, which I can't always say right
, Like you can enjoy somethingand then I typically lose it in
my brain.
I was like what exactly did Iread a year ago?
But I really did enjoy Kendari.
But I remember being excited tomeet her too at Romanticicon.

Mari (10:57):
Yeah.

Jonathan (10:58):
Tell me again which book was that?

Ashley (11:00):
Three Dark.

Jonathan (11:00):
Crowns, what series.

Ashley (11:02):
Three Dark Crowns.

Jonathan (11:06):
Good job three dark crowns, series three dark crowns
good job, okay.
Yeah, yeah, I like gold star tomari.

Mari (11:08):
It's a gold star day for mari.
Okay, next bit of news a feastof thorns and roses, which is an
akatar cookbook, has just comeout, on april 1st of this year
merchandising yes we put thepictures, we put the picture's
name on everything so, um, Ihave been reading through the
ACOTAR series with the Summerand Rebecca who've been on the

(11:31):
podcast, so I've been readingthrough it with them and we had
gone together and did somewhatthemed food, had furry wine and
whatnot, but it's kind of hardto come up with stuff on the fly
, but this book had someinteresting looking recipes in
it from what I flipped throughonline, so I think I might get
it.
I've heard it has a lot ofvegetarian-friendly meals and it

(11:52):
looks like it's got a varietylike food but also drinks and
desserts and snacks and things.
So I'm intrigued.

Jonathan (12:02):
Are you going to get the hardcover to cook with with
or are you going to cook withyour Kindle?

Mari (12:06):
No, not the Kindle.
It would be the iPad or myphone, unless I get the
hardcover.
If I get the hardcover, I don'tknow if I'm going to get the
paper hardcover or the spiralbound one, which is nice when
you're cooking because it laysflat.

Ashley (12:18):
Oh yeah.

Mari (12:19):
But the spiral bound one is like twice the price.
It's like $40.
So I don't know iPads lay flattoo.
Yeah, exactly, and I don't cooka lot.
Kelly's the main cook.
I have these cookbooks ofthings like I'm going to do a
Ghibli meal, studio Ghibli meal,or like a Firefly meal.
I've got all these really coolthemed cookbooks.
Have I done a single damnrecipe from any of them?

(12:43):
No Aspirational, so anywaysit's out.
It's interesting if anyone islooking to throw like an ACOTAR
party or is just looking to trysome different recipes or things
from the book, that might besomething worth checking out.

Ashley (13:00):
It's a neat little thing .
It's just not what we need fromSarah right now.

Mari (13:04):
Correct, a hundred percent .
What do we need from sarahright now, correct?

Jonathan (13:06):
100.
What do we need from sarah?

Ashley (13:08):
uh, book six, yes, seven , whatever the next book is,
whatever the next book, it'sbeen too long.
Sarah, what 10 years for anakatar.
But I was gonna say, crescentcity came out just a couple
years ago, didn't it?

Mari (13:20):
yeah, crescent city came out last year was it?

Ashley (13:23):
I can't remember if it was last year or 23?
Yeah, but akatar, it's been aminute.
Yeah, she needs to know.
I feel like a court of silverflames, isn't that what it is?
That was definitely like justaround or just after the
pandemic, I feel, but it's stilltoo long we need to uh, have
some closure to this storyline.

Mari (13:43):
You need to know what, oh 2021.

Ashley (13:45):
Published february 20th.
Yeah, so pandemic?
Yeah, yeah, you're right go megood, good memory four years,
that's all I got.
Nice talking to everybody done.

Mari (13:59):
Other bit of news I have is uh, devny perry, who wrote
the what is it shield ofsparrows book that just came out
it's been picked up for a moviethat's so wild.

Ashley (14:13):
Yeah, I don't think.

Mari (14:14):
I think when I had seen that headline it hadn't even
delivered yet no, I mean it justthe book just released on the
6th of may, um so like it justcame out.

Ashley (14:25):
Uh, so that publisher is pushing stuff hard yeah, I I've
heard good things about thebook.
I haven't read it yet, but itis sitting in our um entryway
because it did deliver and itwas so pretty yeah, it is really
pretty sitting on on ourkitchen counter and I will get
to it.

Mari (14:41):
I was hardcore reading Monster Romance books for that
con and then I was hardcorecrimping to read the book for
today Literally finished ittoday.
Yeah, it was a thick one.

Kelly (14:55):
Yeah.

Mari (14:56):
But it looks interesting.
I've heard good things about itand it's being picked up by
Amazon MGM Studios, and theperson writing the screenplay is
the one who wrote John Wick.

Ashley (15:06):
So oh yeah, that'll be interesting.

Mari (15:10):
I did too.
I'm trying to think if I likedit for the way it was written or
if I liked it for all the coolaction scenes and the fact that
I love Keanu Reeves.
So I don't know.

Ashley (15:20):
I think it was all of the above.
Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan (15:22):
We definitely put Ashley through a Keanu Reeves
marathon this weekend.

Ashley (15:26):
Yes, delightfully so, most egregious.

Mari (15:31):
Keanu Reeves is fun.
Yeah, so I'll be.
I'll be looking forward toreading that book, probably
soon-ish, and having an actualopinion.
Right now I can just tell youit's pretty and the synopsis
sounds intriguing.

Ashley (15:42):
I think I sent that to you.
You did Look at that yeah.

Mari (15:45):
I was like damn you Ash.

Ashley (15:47):
Now I've got to preorder another one.

Mari (15:51):
But it was so pretty.

Jonathan (15:53):
Did you preorder books for me, Ashley Is that books
for you.
Yeah, did I see things in ourAmazon cart or did I
accidentally those?

Mari (16:00):
were, you, were you ordering books in your sleep.

Ashley (16:05):
Well, sometimes he drops stuff in the cart to look at
them later Because he's thinkingabout it.

Jonathan (16:12):
And then he forgets about it.
I have to look at it, but itlooks like we're getting books.

Ashley (16:19):
I mean, I have pre-orders coming in.
It's pre-order season, myfriend.

Jonathan (16:24):
Apparently, because I definitely have some.

Ashley (16:27):
You have books Like they've already been ordered.

Jonathan (16:29):
Yeah, I was surprised.

Ashley (16:32):
No, that was you.
That's you, that's me, that'sme, that's you.

Mari (16:36):
Surprise yourself.
That's me.

Jonathan (16:38):
That's me, that's me, that's you there were some that
I don't remember doing but thatone.
Uh, yeah, I didn't rememberthat I did that one okay not I
okay.

Mari (16:49):
So other bit of news we have exciting.
I feel like we may haveslightly manifested this,
especially as much as you talkedabout wanting to see her.
Jonathan hannah nicole is goingto be at romantic con in
orlando this year.
Oh yeah, I was yeah.

Ashley (17:02):
I was so excited, I'm so relieved.

Jonathan (17:04):
I was so excited.

Ashley (17:06):
I thought we were not going to get to see her this
year, like we had a shot andthen we blew it and we didn't
blow it, we just did somethingelse.
Yeah, that's blowing it, sir.

Jonathan (17:15):
Nah, we, I mean, it was a fun time, don't get me
wrong, but like I want to meetHannah Nicole.
It was Mara, to give context.
It was up against Josh Gad andwe went to see Josh Gad instead.

Ashley (17:26):
And got books out of that, which was a surprising
turn of events.
But I really did want to seeHannah, Nicole Mayer and Mai
Corland.
I hope Mai comes.
Maybe she'll come.
Didn't we see Mai last year?
Mai no she wasn't there.

Jonathan (17:42):
What did she write?
Five Broken Plates.

Mari (17:45):
The book we just read.
The book we just read.

Jonathan (17:49):
I'm going to be very candid here.
This book lost me.

Ashley (17:53):
That's for later.

Mari (17:54):
Yes, we're going to get to that.
I think Kelly and I have somethings to say as well.
Last bit of news oh, actuallyreal quick, before I move on to
the other news, I did want tosay that the Hannah Nicole
mirror is going to be one ofseveral ticketed authors this
year at Romantic Con, which isdifferent from last year.
So I've been on the on discord,on their discord, paying
attention, and that doesn't meanthat you have to pay more, so

(18:16):
you don't have to buy a buy aticket or anything.
It's still the same cost you.
You paid for the con, but theauthors that they expect are
going to have long lines.
You have to.
When the app goes live, um andand like loads up or whatever,
you have to get a ticket tobasically be able to stand in
line.
I think that's terrible news.
So I don't know who else isgoing to be ticketed, but I know

(18:38):
obviously yaros henrico mayor.
I would assume ali hazelwood,if she's still coming, will
probably be ticketed.

Jonathan (18:44):
Dang it.

Mari (18:45):
I was hoping that she wouldn't get ticketed, I mean
maybe not, but I mean beforeYaro, she was the biggest name
that I knew that was going to becoming.

Ashley (18:52):
So if memory serves, which is not always reliable.
Let's be honest, Last year theyonly had two or maybe four
authors, but they weren't thereevery single day.
Maybe four authors, but theyweren't there every single day,
and I think that's what wasconfusing about this process
last year was that there was ahandful of authors that you had
to sign up for, like the panels,right?
I?

(19:12):
believe so and those that didsell out.
And I say sell out but I knowthat we're not paying more for
it, but it did sell out very,very quickly.
We just weren't particularlyyou know overwhelmingly
interested in those authors,yeah which happened to be penn
cole, who now jonathan, is.
Like fuck, we missed out onthat.
But yeah, so I'm familiar withwhat is going to be required.

Jonathan (19:35):
I'm sad that we're gonna have to do it for and yeah
, well, maybe um penn cole willjust be a late ad yeah, I mean,
I mean maybe, yeah, I don't know, I mean Hannah Nicole just
signed up, so we have time.

Ashley (19:48):
Yeah, shit can happen, yeah.

Jonathan (19:50):
Penn, if you're listening.

Ashley (19:51):
We love you.

Jonathan (19:52):
Come and see us.

Mari (19:54):
So I will say, for anyone who's going to be going, the app
that you have to download thesame one that they used last
year.
It's Guidebook.
They just haven't updated withthe new information.
But if you, if you still havethe guidebook app from last year
, that's where it's going to beat.
If you don't have it, you maywant to re-download it.

Ashley (20:10):
You guys should refresh your passwords if you don't
remember what it is, becauseit's going to be go time.

Jonathan (20:15):
Yes, that too do we have an idea when it's gonna go
live?

Mari (20:19):
august, I believe, is what it was on the discord.

Ashley (20:22):
So last year we got the email on like august 1st and it
came directly, come fromdirectly from fabled fantasy
events, um, although I don'tthink it was quite as clear,
right, like what to do, like Idon't think we understood.
You know that there were goingto be authors outside of the
ticketed ones.
You know at the time, yeah sothat was confusing for sure, but

(20:45):
it's good to know that you knowthere.

Mari (20:47):
Some of these bigger names are almost definitely going to
be ticketed in that way so thatwe can prepare honest yeah, like
if you, if it's that, if that'syour, you know someone you
really, really want to make apriority, then you know how to
do it, you know.
So I think it'll, hopefullyit'll make it smoother for
everybody I'm so glad we'regoing both days this year did we

(21:08):
only go to one last year?
Yeah, you guys did, I thinkkelly and I went both days,
didn't we, kelly?

Kelly (21:12):
I think so yeah, we went both days yeah, okay.

Mari (21:15):
A last bit of news is that bridgerton season four will be
coming in 2026, which is notnews.
I think we've known this.
However, they did announce thatthey've officially picked up
for sure are going to be doingseason five and season six as
well.
I mean, that makes sense.
Yeah, well, not for netflix, tobe honest.

Ashley (21:33):
Netflix is great at canceling things midway they've
had so much success, though,with bridgerton, I would have
been shocked had they notfollowed through um, because you
know it's just been so popularand I think it's brought, you
know, a lot of people back in.
You know it's I mean shonda.
They have to keep shonda.

Jonathan (21:53):
If they lose her, they're fucked, right right well
, I don't know that it was amatter of them not following
through on some of the stuff.
I think that some of the stuffthey did it was just people who
were participants in it didn'tdo such a great job of being
human beings oh, I don't know.

Mari (22:12):
I mean some things, yeah, but like my biggest gripe with
them was when they uh had shadowand bone and it was amazing.
And just as the story wasgetting amazing, they're like
nah, we're just gonna stop it,we're just gonna end it right
here yeah, that makes sense, Ijust.
But I think arguably bridgertonhas been such an overwhelming
bigger success yeah, for themmore broad, for sure, like more

(22:34):
people are like a wider varietyof people I think are into
bridgerton than shadow and bone.
So so, yeah, yeah, good news foranyone looking forward to
bridgerton, which is fun times.
Moving on, any news bitsanybody else has I don't know if
anybody else saw.

Ashley (22:51):
I don't remember where it was announced or how I found
out in hindsight, but thealchemized by sin lin, you is
now arriving a week earlier Isaw that yes, I'm not sure why
I'll take it.

Mari (23:09):
But I thought that was important news.

Ashley (23:11):
Yeah, like that's.
That's the kind of movement wewant to see.
Yeah, in release date.

Mari (23:17):
Yes absolutely.

Ashley (23:18):
So yeah, I'm excited.
I thought that was cool.
I thought it was cool that theyannounced it.
Like that's something I wouldprobably keep a little bit
closer to the in case it didn'twork out.
Yeah, but no, they were likehey, earlier than we thought,
yeah, so that'll be nice,that'll be good.

Mari (23:34):
I honestly couldn't remember when it was supposed to
come out, because I just Ipre-ordered it, so it just was
showing me the new date.

Ashley (23:40):
Yeah, it was supposed to be like September 30th and now
it's the 23rd.
Okay.

Mari (23:52):
So not like huge gains, but it's still impressive.

Ashley (23:53):
Yeah, might be able to get it and get it read before
halloween.

Mari (23:54):
That'll be nice.
All right, anything else fromanybody else.
So we're moving on to talkabout the book that we've read.
We read five broken blades, myby, by maya corland.
We chose it because we werelooking for an aAPI author
founder.
So it's AAPI month, which isAsian, pacific, american

(24:15):
Heritage Month, and also Ash hadalready read it.
I believe, like you had read itand recommended it, right,
mm-hmm, yeah, I think you werethe only one.

Jonathan (24:23):
To recommend it.
Yeah, I agree.

Mari (24:25):
Okay, so let me go on with the synopsis.

Ashley (24:30):
My bad, my bad.
Then you guys can yell at me.

Mari (24:33):
So it was published, may 7th 2024.
And here is the synopsis.
It's the season for treason.
The king of Yuusan must die.
The five most dangerous liarsin the land have been
mysteriously summoned to worktogether for a single objective
To kill the god king Jun.
He has it coming Under hismerciless, immortal hand.
The nobles flourish while thepoor and innocent are imprisoned

(24:56):
, ruined or sold, and now eachof the five blades will come for
him.
Each has tasted bitterness,from the hired hitman seeking
atonement, a lovely assassin whoseeks freedom, or even the
prince banished for his cruelcrimes.
None can resist the sweet, icylure of vengeance.
They can agree on murder, theycan agree on treachery, but for

(25:16):
these five killers, each versedin deception, lies and betrayal,
it's not enough to forge analliance to survive.
They'll have to find a way totrust each other.
But only one can take the crownlet the best liar win come on
that's amazing, I just gotchills.
It is pretty cool.
Synopsis it is a very coolsynopsis, as usual, as our new

(25:39):
usual.
We are going to be talkingabout the book in full, so if
you care about spoilers, I guessread it first before listening,
because we're just going to goon and talk about everything
whoever wants to talk first.
Overall rating what did youguys think?

Ashley (25:55):
should I go first?
I feel like I'm the only onethat's happy with.
I loved this book.
I think this was probably oneof the first books I devoured
this year, and I found out afterthe fact that I enjoyed the
audio book more but, mostlybecause my brain never says
names in certain words, right,because I've never heard them

(26:16):
before, right.
So I actually did enjoy theaudio book because I was kind of
like going back and forth forsome reason, I don't remember
why now.
So the audio book made it alittle bit easier because there
were differences in the voice.
They had an actor for eachvoice.
And I thought that that wasreally impressive and I thought
it just kind of helped, you know, assign the character a little

(26:38):
bit better and you know theirfeelings and story a little bit
better.
So I was a huge fan of thisbook.
I couldn't put it down.

Jonathan (26:48):
I, on the other hand could put it down.

Ashley (26:51):
You put it down.
I, on the other hand, could putit down.
You put it down a few times.

Jonathan (26:54):
So a lot of it.
I'm joking here, so I'm notgoing to like I'm going to
remove myself from the ratingsystem for this one because I
don't have Mama said if I don'thave anything kind to say, I
shouldn't say anything at all.
Have anything kind to say, Ishouldn't say anything at all.

(27:14):
I was distracted throughout thebook because it just felt I
didn't.
At no point was I sure aboutwhat was happening ever and from
whose perspective.
That's what made it great, andit was just like it was as if
somebody had mixed a bag ofskittles with m&ms and I was
just oh, let's just stand backand see what happens what the

(27:34):
fuck nobody tell, nobody tellthem anything.
It was, that's what, that's whatI felt like.
So I'm not, I'm gonna, I'm notgonna give a rating, but that's
those are my feelings kelly,what did you think?

Kelly (27:47):
I wanted to like this book.
I really did.
It started off with the premisethat it was a heist book, so it
had that vibe to it.
You know I've got to assemble acrew, so it had that.
I like the setting because Ilike things that aren't in the
typical European style setting,so that was nice, but there was

(28:08):
just it was all over the place.
I feel like everything movedaround.
There was so many misdirectionsby the author to try and keep
you guessing.
I feel like this is a book thatthe author wanted to write and
then she watched Knives Out orthe Glass Onion and decided that
was the direction she needed tothrow in there and decided that
was the direction she needed tothrow in there.

(28:30):
I think some of the problem camefrom not just that there were
too many characters, because itwasn't that there were too many
characters.
It was that the characters wereso complex in how she was
trying to establish them.
That you never, I think got agood sense for them Like.
This is one of those books thatif she had written five

(28:51):
different books each about eachof the five people to establish
them really well, and then hadthem all come together, it may
have done better.

Mari (29:00):
Yeah.

Jonathan (29:02):
Yeah, I agree with that, kelly, like if she had
written from their each book,from their perspective, in the
same timeframe.

Kelly (29:09):
Right, and I have a lot of problems, and that's just me.
I have a lot of problems withbooks that change characters'
perspectives several times, justbecause it feels jarring
sometimes, and I think that Ihad that problem even with Game
of Thrones to a degree, I think.
Overall, the book just didn'tdo it for me.

(29:29):
Like I said, I wanted to likeit, but I feel like it just
didn't tie up all together andthat the ending felt very rushed
and confusing and you had theconstant hint of somebody is
going to betray us, somebody'sgoing to betray us.
And we go back to that classictrope of the only way the good
guys fail is because somebodybetrays them, and that's just a

(29:53):
such a tired and overused thingin fiction is that you like the
good guys and you think that thegood guy characters are
infallible.
So the only way the authors orwriters can make the good guys
fail is to have them be betrayed.
Not because they just somehowthey're not competent enough at

(30:14):
this.
One thing or something happensthat doesn't go their way.
It's got to be because they'rebetrayed like a self-defeat kind
of thing right, it's, it's.
It's a constant trope that yousee in so many movies.
You know, like I was justthinking about this the other
day, the matrix the only waymorpheus and and Neo and Trinity
failed was because they gotbetrayed.
I mean, this goes all the wayback to talking early, early

(30:39):
literature and you just see iteverywhere, like the good guys
get betrayed and that's how theyend up failing or losing.

Mari (30:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, I basically agree withyou.
So if I had not been readingthis book for the podcast, I
would have DNF it.
To be quite honest, I'm glad Ifinished reading it, but I did
have a lot of problems with it.
I really got real tired realfast of all the sexism in it and

(31:07):
this is not just this author, Iknow this is something that
I've kind of been getting tiredof the more and more fantasy and
romancy I read where we canimagine a world with like
unicorns and dragons and magicand fairies and whatever.
But we can't imagine equality.
You have to be thought of asbeing weaker or dumber or

(31:30):
whatever because you're a girl.
Apparently.
Nobody's a woman in this world.
You're just a girl or a whore.
I guess those are the only twoways that females were
referenced in this world and itwas real off-putting.
I was just like woof Gettingbeyond that.
I didn't like.
The choppiness of the chapterswere real short for it to be
jumping around so much.

(31:50):
It's a testament to theauthor's writing that I wanted
to know more about thesecharacters.
Like I was intrigued.
I wanted to know the stories,but as soon as I felt like I was
starting to get a vibe for acharacter, it was like, well,
two pages in time for anotherone, and so that was a little
whiplashy.
I ended up having feelingsabout some of the characters,

(32:13):
which once again means betterwriting than I would have
originally thought, because Ihate some of these characters,
which is not indicative of badwriting.
If anything, it's good writingif you feel that strongly about
some of the characters.
So for me, overall it averagedout to a three because there
were some strong feelings inboth directions, like I think
this would be a reallyinteresting.

(32:34):
Basically, like you said, kelly, like a like a tv series or tv
show, because a lot of thethings that I found problematic
were some of the internalmonologue stuff where I'm like I
think that if it were more,show me you know that these
characters feel this way, ratherthan sitting there having them
stare at each other in a roomwhile they each have internal
monologue, a lot of which wasreal difficult to read.

(32:56):
I guess you're strong for agirl, I guess you're smart for a
girl.
My whore mother, blah, blah,blah, blah blah.

Jonathan (33:02):
I'm like, okay, yeah, so overall three for me high
marks, high marks by this, bythis crowd, except for actually
actually actually wasn Highmarks by this crowd, except for
Ashley.
Ashley was in love with thiswhole series.
What is it about the series,ashley, that made you fall in
love with it?

Ashley (33:18):
I mean, I guess it's probably been a long time since
I've read a book with so manyperspectives and I think it was
a little bit more whodunit thanwe've read in the past.
I thought the concept wasintriguing.
I mean, given the climate ofthings recently, I can
understand why it probablydoesn't hit as hard.

(33:41):
I think I take reading a littlebit more superficially and so
those I don't think that italluded to a period of time
where that's just what thethought process was for women.
So I guess I didn't hold it.
I didn't hold that against itkind of thing, because we
weren't talking about a modernbook.

(34:02):
Yeah, I enjoyed that.
The betrayal was on on twodifferent sides, like they were.
They were set up for failure.
Yeah, from the get-go, like andthat was a different
perspective for me in this typeof book and then to understand,
you know that this story wasgoing to evolve and that they
had to continue.

(34:22):
I don't know I it it wasn't, itwasn't a perfect ending and it
kind of left me itching like,well, fuck, what happens next?

Mari (34:32):
yeah, it definitely felt like a um on the next season.
Right, you gotta figure outwhat happens next.

Ashley (34:38):
So like it was super suspenseful.
Right like I don't typicallytry to figure out books before
they end.
Right like oh, if this is awhodunit, well, we're going to
find out along the way, becauseashley's not guessing.
Um, I'm here for theentertainment, not for the
thinking yeah, yeah, I um, so itwas super interesting to me for

(34:59):
that.

Mari (34:59):
I don't know that there's much of anybody that
participates on the um fabled uh, the fable app book club that
we have, where we do chapter bychapter things.
I think it's just eloquent museand I back and forth talking to
each other, but, um, mycomments on each chapter as I
read got progressively more andmore unhinged, so if you want

(35:22):
some good times, feel free tocheck those out.
I like unhinged yeah, yeah, allright.
Fantasy world building.
What do we think of the worldbuilding?

Ashley (35:33):
I thought the magic that they were talking about and
maybe magic's not the right word.
You know the pieces of thedragon god that made the king or
the wearer Wearer what's theword I want?

Mari (35:49):
Immortal Special power.

Ashley (35:53):
Yeah, yeah, or the wearer, wearer, what's the word
I want?
Immortal, sorry, yeah, yeah,like, yeah, well, and yeah.
Sometimes it came with aspecial power to understand that
each realm kind of hadsomething of that nature and you
know, at the end of the book wefind out what the king was
ultimately trying to gain fromthis.
You know, little charade of hisman.
I think I'm slightly corruptbecause I did read book two as

(36:13):
well.
So, um, I'm trying to to keepmy thoughts in line with book
one.
I thought I thought an assassinand maybe there are other
stories like this that I've justnot read but I thought an
assassin who used her body tokill was super interesting.
I thought what she had to gothrough to get that level of

(36:35):
killer was extremely sad.
I don't know.
They all had such interestingstories that didn't necessarily
rely on magic, but it did relyon their history, current and
further back.
I was was entertained.
I thought it was like a threeand a half.
I mean it wasn't anythingoverwhelming or enlightening.
There wasn't a ton of magic, wedidn't have dragons, right yeah

(36:58):
and we we have what feels likejust like a sampling of magic in
book one.
I was entertained enough to towant book two pretty quickly.
So I say like a three and ahalf for the world building how
about you, jonathan I?

Jonathan (37:14):
was confused most of the time.

Ashley (37:18):
I don't know that that was all her fault no, I'm not
blaming her, that's why I'm justsaying, like you read at five,
that you listen at five x andyou weren't reading with the
book.

Jonathan (37:27):
No, I had the physical copy in front of me and I I was
reading.

Ashley (37:30):
The whole time.

Jonathan (37:31):
Not the whole time, Eventually.
I how much of the time, a thirdof the time, about the time
when I, like Mari, said I wouldhave DNF'd if it wasn't for this
.
So I would say I knew there wasa world.
Say I knew there was a world,um, I was most of my attention

(37:56):
was focused on trying to figureout who was talking to me.

Mari (37:58):
I had so many notes on the characters.
I was like wait, who is thisperson?

Jonathan (38:00):
okay, okay, let me go back yeah, I lost, so I lost, so
I lost massive track of like,like, okay, so were you sold?
You were you were sold in thislate.
Were your parents?
Where did your parents like howyour parents had a debt?
They gambled you away.
What happened?
You got your sister involved.
Are you the main character?
I was, I was.
It was, I was struggling,struggling.

(38:20):
Nobody was the main character.
It wasn't the girl.
No, are you serious?

Ashley (38:27):
if anything, they were all main characters.
Yeah, they were all maincharacters.

Jonathan (38:33):
This whole time and a significant?
Well, because they're all maincharacters, but a significant
one dies in book two this wholetime I was like, well, I was
like dang, main character girl,um, but no, apparently it's very
game of thrones that yes, whichhe's not indulged.

Ashley (38:50):
He doesn't have the trauma.
Oh, that's right.

Jonathan (38:54):
Nothing about that.
I know nothing about what yousay.

Mari (38:58):
You know nothing.

Jonathan (39:00):
I know nothing.

Ashley (39:02):
He doesn't know how important that is, I know.

Jonathan (39:05):
Oh wait, that means something.

Mari (39:06):
Yes, you know nothing.
Jon Snow, jon Snow, you knownothing.

Ashley (39:14):
Yeah, you got me.
Is that pineapple, dog?
Yes, yes, okay, you got that Igot that much.

Jonathan (39:16):
That's that much I got away with.
Yeah, sorry, I.
I like I said I know there wasa, some sort of a.
There was stuff going on.
There was a, there was a world.
I just I don't know what wasgoing on in it.
Right, the whole time I guesslike I've never read a book that
I was more confused about andthat I didn't like.

(39:36):
In other books I wanted to goback and be like, oh, I didn't
catch this, let me go figurethis out once I got past it in
this one I was like nah, we'regood oh well, hope that wasn't
important.
Yes, 100%, like, 100%, Mari.
I was like man.
They'll tell me more about thatlater, if I need to know.

(39:57):
I was like, oh, this is, andthen yeah, and was it?
It felt like I was in Asia.
Is that an accurate sense?

Mari (40:07):
I believe.
So yeah, Okay, If nothing else,like some of the food that was
described.
They were describing some foodand I was looking up recipes.
I'm like man, that sounds good.

Jonathan (40:17):
So in that regard I feel like maybe world, but I
don't know.
I really don't know.
I don't have a good answer here.
Four, three, three, right downthe middle of the road.

Kelly (40:31):
Three and a half sure kelly what you think there were
some interesting things that theauthor toyed with.
I think that I would have likedto have more time exploring
these relics and more time aboutthe ethereum and the magic and
whatnot, because that obviouslyended up playing a bigger role
near the end of the book.

(40:51):
So I thought that was aninteresting thing, but I think
we could have spent more timeexploring that didn't feel very
well fleshed out.
I think the concept of the, thepoison maidens, is.
It's an old concept in asianliterature, the vishkanya.
We're like young women used asassassin, trained, raised from

(41:13):
an early age on a diet of poison.
It's like been around sincesanskrit.
I don't remember what, aboutwhat time.
That was time frame, I don'tremember that well, but I'm sure
it was like.
I think it's like it goes backto like the early stuff, like
sanskrit, you know bc era stuff,interesting.
But it's become a popular themein a lot of indian literature

(41:34):
and folklore.
There was a book about thevishkanya in 2007 that was sort
of taking a new direction, wherethe poison maidens were women
who were deliberately infectedwith like hiv in order to seduce
men and kill powerful men andstuff like this.
There's been several films aboutit.
There's several other TV showsthat have had characters about

(41:56):
it, several novels that have it,so it's not an entirely new
concept.
I mean, we essentially see thatsame type of character with,
like Poison Ivy from the Batmangenre, batman area, so it's not
an entirely new concept.
So it was interesting to bringit in because it struck me a lot
like Kendari Blake's bookswhere we had the three, the

(42:22):
sisters, and one of the sisterswas, you know, powerful with
poison supposedly, and stuff.
So interesting that that we hadthat character and I thought it
was interesting to have thatjuxtaposition of the poison
maiden as an assassin.
I found Royo's character to beinteresting just because the

(42:44):
whole his whole backstory seemedvery interesting tortured by
this, you know thing that he mayor may not have been
responsible for.
So he's doing everything he canto get this person out of
prison as payback, knowing thateven if he does, the person
still won't, you know, notforgive him and stuff like that.
But he's doing it just becausehe feels like he needs to right
that wrong Very tragic.

(43:04):
So, yeah, it has a very tragicelement to it and I found that
interesting.
I didn't particularly care forPrince Ewan and Mikhail's story.
I mean it was fine, but Ididn't find it especially
compelling.
So I found the idea, I mean, ofthe immortal emperor that only
can be killed when his crown isoff and like, despite all of the

(43:28):
ridiculous steps that they mustgo through, you know, so that
he never has to take his crownoff, he apparently has they
apparently take it off enoughthat they can be assassinated
fairly frequently, it seems.

Mari (43:40):
Um, so I don't know, I don't know that that really
worked for me, the idea that thecrown made him immortal yeah, I
think it was interesting thatlike, yeah, you had the crown
that made him immortal and thenyou had, like, the cost that
each of the artifacts had.
So, like the ring that madethings gold caused you physical

(44:03):
pain, the crown, I guess, wasthe only one that didn't really
have a cost.

Kelly (44:08):
That we know of.

Mari (44:08):
Right, yeah, that we know, Other than I.
Guess the curse would have beenit has to be of the bloodline,
Because that was Prince Ewan'swhole thing.
It was like, well, even if Iget it on my head, am I just
going to die Because I'm not,you know, of the bloodline
potentially.

Kelly (44:21):
Right, but there was doubt about cast on that, that.
That was even accurate.

Mari (44:25):
Right, right, right turner thing, you know had the cost of
like aging you, which was kindof interesting when you use it,
yeah, I.
I also thought of kandariblake's poison queen situation
when I read this.
I liked is it sora?
So yeah, sora right so yeah, Ilike sora's backstory.

(44:47):
I thought she was really tragic,really interesting character.
Royo, I thought, was supertragic, super compelling.
Chai grew on me, to be quitehonest, also very tragic.
I didn't like the prince somuch.

(45:08):
I think maybe he could havebeen a redeemable person but
then, like I said, a lot of thesexism really got to me.
And then also there was a pointone of the many unhinged things
I went into on the book clubwhere the prince talks about
what he's going to do as soon ashe gets the crown If he doesn't
die instantly.

(45:29):
What's he going to do?
It's going to be his first actand he was talking about
basically like appearances andlike how to spin it.
I'm like, oh, so he's talkingabout erasing history and
gaslighting and and spinning agood story.
That's gonna be his first actas a ruler.
Like, yeah, great, great jobthere.
You real, real good character,like.
But I was already very anti him.
But once again I had feelingsand this doesn't mean that the,

(45:51):
the, that the writer was a badwriter like, if you make me hate
a character, you've still donea really good job at creating a
character that I hate.
Um, like joffrey in game ofthrones, like I hate joffrey,
everybody hates joffrey but thatmeans he's a well-written bad
guy, um mikhail's kind of samething.
Mikhail was like a master, Idon't know.
Maybe if we knew more of hisstory we would care, but he's

(46:12):
just a master, user of peopleand manipulator and cold um you,
you do get more yeah, I figured.
I figured eventually because I'mjust like oof, you could just
die right now I think that waskind of the point, though, too,
was you know?

Ashley (46:27):
I think kelly had mentioned that things hadn't
really been fleshed out, and Ithink maybe that was some of the
appeal, because it was likeagain, you're just getting that
taste right and it's well, but Ineed more like where's the rest
of it?

Mari (46:42):
I need a second helping of this, for me anyway yeah, so
for me, fantasy world been itgave it a three.
I mean there were elements thatwere cool, like so the
artifacts with the potentialcurses.
That was kind of interesting.
I felt like there was some ofthe colonialists take over and
the lower underclasses trying torise up and overthrow the

(47:06):
tyrant king was compelling andinteresting.
I did not pay attention at allto the towns they were in.
To be honest, I was like I'mgood to keep track of these
names.
I'm not writing these.
I know nothing about thesetowns, I don't know what they
are definitely went on anadventure yeah they were
everywhere.
Yeah, you're building more worldthan I could possibly take in.

(47:27):
It's sorry, it was a lot ofworld, yeah.
How do we feel?

Ashley (47:32):
about the romance.
So arguably, the romance forthis romance scene was mostly
minimal.
I think you know.
You see the romance blossombetween you.
Know Royo, and is it Aria?
I've got her name written down,I forget how she says her name

(47:52):
yeah, aria, yeah, and then Aria,aria, something like that, and
um, that was, that was cute,right, like you know it was.
It was very like high school-y.
It was like oh, but does helike me or do I like him?
Like what's happening here, the, in the infatuation that what's
his name's son, the, the, thecount's son, has with taeyang

(48:13):
yeah, that he has with um sora,is confusing, right, like it
makes it makes you feel veryconflicted because you don't
want to like this individual.
And then mario, like you said,you, you kind of start to and
you're, you're like man.
Does that make me a bad person?
Right, like what's going onwith me?
But you get more of his storyand I don't remember if that

(48:35):
happens in book one or book two,so I won't say anything and you
see that he's trying not to behis dad and that's very
impactful.
But then also, you know Mikhailand he's man.
He's got such a good story.
Sorry, I think they all hadtheir own romances and they were
at different levels, right, onehad more history than the other

(48:57):
, the other had no history atall and then one was a brand new
, like hey, what the fuck'sgoing on here?
And I really liked, you know,having those different it was,
it was like a sampler.
It was like I went to Chili'sand there was a sampler platter
and I had a little bit ofeverything.
So, while the romance was notoverwhelming, it was not perfect

(49:18):
and we got it in micro dosesfrom three different couples.
I thought it was.
I thought what was there wassolid for each individual's
perspective, perspective, and so, again, it was like a three and
a half for me, because thiswasn't you know, this wasn't a
life-changing book, but Ithought it was.
I just felt it was very, verygood.
Jonathan, he missed all of thatpass, nothing registered yeah,

(49:45):
yeah it was.

Jonathan (49:46):
I'm telling you.
It was like a race and I wasdying to keep up.
I couldn't.
I just couldn't make it happen.
There was, I think I and maybethis is why I like latched on to
the lady, the poison lady, likethe whole, like I really wasn't
looking for love because Ididn't think it was going to

(50:07):
happen.
So I was just so.
Then I just shifted all myattention over to who's talking
now.

Mari (50:13):
Yeah.

Jonathan (50:13):
Yeah, I don't have anything here.

Kelly (50:14):
Okay.

Mari (50:15):
Kelly.

Kelly (50:16):
I think Ashley summed it up best.
I think there were a lot oflittle blossoming romances that
we got to see.
I mean, obviously you hadMikhail and Yun's previous
romance.
That kind of gets reignited orwhatever.
Then you have the littleromances tend to building up and
stuff, but overall there reallywasn't a whole lot of romance

(50:36):
going on.
There was just subtle and slowlittle bits.
So I think it was it wasn'tterrible.
It's not like it was terrible,it was fairly well done, but
there just wasn't.
It didn't seem like romance wasmuch of a plot point of any
part of this book really.
So I ended up saying maybe thiswould be like a two and a half

(50:59):
on the romance.

Mari (51:00):
Okay, so I thought the romance is what I rated the
highest.
To be honest, I gave romance afour.
Reason is I thought that tyuneslike unrequited for the large
part of it love um for sora andeven though she was like this,

(51:22):
basically poison incarnate, thathe, like he wanted to kiss her
so bad he was willing to riskdeath just to maybe kiss her.
Um, that's just super.
I don't know, maybe it'sunhealthy, but it's super
romantic to me.
I would die for you um typeromance um, and that he was just
wanted her to be happy and hewas just he, he was willing to

(51:44):
accept whatever she was willingto give his way.
I thought that hit very well forme also, I love a grumpy
sunshine situation and to meroyo was just super grumpy
bodyguard yeah, loved him like Ijust yeah him trying to work
through what he was feeling inthis dream of consciousness

(52:07):
situation was was veryinteresting to me.
I really liked him.
I don't like ari, but I likedhim ari.
I kept saying aria, but yeah,ari I don't know, because I I
didn't listen to it, but it's ae?
R.
I is how it's spelled yeah, noaries, right now that you said
it um so I I really didn't likeher, probably because I like him
so much and I'm like you hurthim.

Ashley (52:29):
How dare you hurt him he is traumatized enough.

Mari (52:33):
How dare you?
Um, yeah, um, sora was aninteresting character in that
she was so closed off becauseshe's had to be she's.
She is a weapon, you know, sheis death incarnate.
Um, just yeah, I.
To me there was a lot ofromantic elements in it, maybe

(52:54):
not traditional, but there werea lot of moments that really
like hit pretty well for me.
So I would say a four forromance for me I'm not mad spice
oh, there was no spice.

Ashley (53:05):
There was.
Of all the things that thisbook had.
Spice was not one of them, andI don't feel like we get a whole
lot of it in the second bookeither.
So if you're in it for thespice, this is not the one for
anybody.
So I I think there areallusions to spice.
I think there are far more umdetails of passion than spice.

(53:26):
I'd say it's like a for spice.

Jonathan (53:30):
That's being generous ditto ditto enough said no yeah
enough, said I didn't get, Ididn't get, I didn't get love
out of it I'm.
I didn't get spicy yeah actually, you know, I thought maybe it
would be a little.
It started off like hints oflike some darker stuff and then

(53:51):
I thought, okay, good, they'resteering this, this book, away
from that.
And then there were a couplemore hints throughout that, um,
like there was like this focuson, like objectification, and
and then I was just like maybethis just won't happen, kind of
thing.
So I don't know, yeah ditto Ipretty much agree.

Kelly (54:11):
I think there was minimal spice, I think it was a one I
went for a two.

Mari (54:15):
Um, I thought there were a few little moments that had
some spiciness to it, just insome some of the things that
were mentioned, not a whole lot.
It was very, very, very minimal.
Last question as always, isthis a kissing book?

Ashley (54:28):
so here's the thing hear me out, guys is this a kissing
book?
I think this is a kissing bookfor some of the characters, but
not all of the characters.
I think ty young, this was verymuch a kissing book, I think,
for man I was gonna say mikhail,but I know too much and so, no,

(54:49):
no, this is not a kissing book.
Decision made it's not, but itwas still a very good book.
How about you guys?

Jonathan (54:55):
it was not a kissing book for me either.
It was a.
It was a happy.
It was a happy ending, Ithought, because I was happy to
put it down damn dang.

Kelly (55:07):
I mean it wasn't.
It wasn't romantic there.
We would have gotten to thesame spot without any of the
romance that was barely bloomingso I disagree.

Mari (55:17):
I think it was a kissing book and the reason I say that
is I think that enough of thecharacters motivations were, um,
motivated, they were led bytheir heart that I don't know
that we would have gotten to thesame place without it.
I think that if royale didn'tlove or be obsessed with ari the
way he was there's, he wouldn'thave trusted people, because

(55:39):
there's people that he kind oflet in and trusted because they
helped save her life, um, and Ithink if she'd just been like
another job for him, I don'tthink he would have done that.
So I think trust would havebeen different.
I think taeyang's, all hisactions are all about sora, like
the fact that he tore up her,her indentured slave servitude

(56:00):
thing, yeah, it's all about hislove for her.
And maybe even like I don't I'mnot, I didn't really like the
characters of ewan and mikhail,but I think that if mikhhail
hadn't had the relationship withyou and you know, have this
drive to find him, he couldn'thave been manipulated into being

(56:20):
a part of the plot.
Like I don't think the plotwould have gotten where it was
without, like all the different,you know, love things that were
going on.
So for me.
I'm going to say, yes, it's akissing book, I think the plot
would have been different.

Ashley (56:31):
Anybody wondering?
Book two is out and availableand book three comes out this
summer, I think july, and I havepre-ordered it.
I'm very excited.
They are also very pretty.
These are very, very, verypretty books, um, with their
sprayed edges and lovely bookcovers.

Mari (56:47):
They're like chunkers too.
It's like in the second one,like 700 and something it was.

Ashley (56:50):
They were thick girls.

Mari (56:53):
Thanks for listening to Of Swords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate and
review us, and subscribe to uson your podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us.
Follow us on Instagram at OfSwords and Soulmates, or join
our Facebook page Of Swords andSoulmates.
Check us out on our websiteofswordsandsoulmatescom or on
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If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode

(57:15):
or reach out to us to give usyour opinion on anything, please
feel free to do so on any ofthose platforms.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode,
follow us on goodreads at ofswords and soulmates, or for
chapter by chapter interactionand my unfiltered takes, go to
the Fable app and join theSwords and Soulmates book club

(57:35):
at your own risk, and we alsohave a Tome account, which is of
Swords and Soulmates.
Before we announce what we'regoing to be reading for our next
episode, I'd like to read areview that someone left us on.
We have a review we do.
It's an older one.
I've been so bad about doingthis.
It's an older review.
This is on Spotify and someonesaid it's usernames.
It's an anonymous message.

(57:55):
This is another great episode.
I was laughing at the spoilerdrum solos.
This also helps me figure outif I want to read a book or not.
Based on your buried views,love it, hot dog.
Yeah, okay, so I will say in asecond what we're going to be
doing for the next episode, butbefore we do that I will tease
that we're going to be doing alittle bonus episode at some

(58:17):
point with some people who areat Monster Erotica Con, which
may or may not be your jam, butif Monster Romance is your jam,
or you think it might be yourjam, or you want to taste and
see if it's your jam, I wouldpay attention when we release it
.
It'll be a little bonus episode.
I'm going to try and gettogether with a few people who
were there and just give alittle review about that con and
that experience.
Overall very positive, it was agood one.

(58:38):
Would highly recommend is thetoo long, didn't read, didn't
listen version.

Ashley (58:42):
I love that it was so good it.

Mari (58:45):
Yeah, the vibes felt like a family reunion, with all the
weird family that you love.
That's like the best way todescribe it all.
Right, last but not least, wehope you'll join us in two weeks
for our next episode, when wewill be discussing the 1999
movie dogma bye, bye, thank you.

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"Five Broken Blades" - Five Killers, One Crown, and a Web of Deception

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"Five Broken Blades" - Five Killers, One Crown, and a Web of Deception