"Jingle All the Slay" - A Hallmark Romantasy Mystery - 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 (00:26):
Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromancy stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly (00:34):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly and we also have Ashley.

Ashley (00:38):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan, what'sgood everybody.

Jonathan (00:42):
It's JP.
How's everybody doing tonight?
Generous?

Mari (00:45):
Yeah, You're just happy to be at the caboose again.
The last of the four, aren'tyou?

Jonathan (00:52):
Oh yeah, it's my comfort zone.

Mari (00:56):
He likes cabooses.

Jonathan (00:58):
I'm a caboose man.
I bring up the rear, I bring upthe back, alright.

Mari (01:06):
So today we're going to be discussing Jingle, All the Slay
by I bring up the rear, I bringup the back, Alright, alright
Makes me excited.
So today we're going to bediscussing Jingle, All the Slay
by Dakota Cassidy.
But first, as always, some news.
So we have Good Choice Awards.
The winners actually came out.
They were announced a few daysback.
Did you guys see?
The Romanesie winner was nosurprise.
Sarah J Maas.

Kelly (01:25):
Are you talking about the Goodreads Awards?

Mari (01:28):
Is that not what I said?

Kelly (01:29):
You said Good Choice.

Mari (01:31):
Oh, I'm so sorry.
It's been a day.
It's been a day for the pastseveral weeks and months.

Kelly (01:35):
Goodreads.

Mari (01:36):
Choice Awards winners for 2024 are in Sorry, yeah.
The Romanesie winner was Houseof flame and shadow.
Romancy winner was a house offlame and shadow by sarah j mass
.
I know she's like a good readsfavorite, I think she generally,
I think, has won just aboutevery time that she has a book

(01:56):
in a category yeah, have you.

Jonathan (01:59):
Is this is a book you read?

Mari (02:01):
no, this is the crescent city series and I'm on book two.
Book one took me nine months.

Jonathan (02:07):
Oh wow, this is that series.

Mari (02:09):
She's a thick girl.
It's a thick girl and it's gota lot of stuff in it.
Like you keep getting all thesenew characters and new
situations and I had a hard timejust getting into it, Like the
last little bit.
Like most Sarah J Maas books,the last little bit got really
good and interesting but youjust had to read, like I don't

(02:29):
know, 800 pages to get there orsomething, and so I'm on the
second book now.
This book that won is the thirdbook in that series.

Jonathan (02:39):
Oh, wow.

Ashley (02:39):
And a recent release right In the last year or two.
Yeah, I want to say it wasjanuary of this year.
I believe okay, yeah, it's beensuch a long year yeah, it has
there was quite a differencebetween the amount of votes.

Jonathan (02:54):
so like almost half a million uh votes in total for
for the romancy category and, uh, sarah's book took it with over
20% of the vote, like maybelike 20, 21%, 20, sorry, right,
maybe even more than that.
So 122,000, I'm not mappingright now, but 122,000 were the

(03:17):
next closest rival.
Apprentice to the villain wascame in at just under 57,000.
So more than twice the amountof votes for this, and then the
Wall and Podium portion of this.
They were within strikingdistance of each other.
It could have gone either wayfor the next four.

Ashley (03:37):
So the Massverse is like a cult, Like that shelf that
you yelled at me about the onetime.
That's all her.

Jonathan (03:46):
Is it like the Swifties you yelled at me about
the one time?
That's all her.
Is it like the swifties?

Ashley (03:48):
is it the mathies?
It's actually.
Well, they call it the mossfirst right m-a-a-s first like
universe or masochists.

Mari (03:54):
The masochists.

Ashley (03:55):
I love that so much.
Um so I mean just arguably, shehas a encyclopedia's worth of
world building between thesethree worlds yeah theory.
They're different series, but I, if I'm not mistaken, there's
there's a theory that they areinterconnected, right um I

(04:16):
believe, so I'm not that deepyet.
So but like all of that, to saywhat's her name nicole, our
friend nico Nicole, that wehaven't met yet.

Kelly (04:25):
She doesn't know we're friends.

Ashley (04:27):
Our friend, nicole, is on book two compared to the
Webster's Dictionary, thicknessof Sarah J Maas' encyclopedias
Right, Three different series.
So I mean it's hard to stack upagainst that if she's got
something in the category yeah,especially you're talking about

(04:48):
somebody who arguably I mean,when people talk about romancy,
sarah j mass's works are almostalways mentioned well, I think
she was one of the first, if notwell I I don't have enough data
to say she was one of the firstto do it, but I think she's one
of the most impactful to do it.

Mari (05:07):
The popular, I said at least, yeah, popular, I agree.

Jonathan (05:10):
So, looking at some of these other categories along
the way, it's interesting to seehow many total votes there were
per category.
I know I only jumped into theRomanesie category.
I didn't go out and vote inother categories, but the idea
that half a million people werelike let's vote on romantic

(05:31):
versus like the audio bookresults, which you think would
be a much broader category, hadjust over 400,000.
So it's like you know, it's abroader category, as in
audiobook.

Mari (05:46):
Yeah, so it spreads out you drill down, it goes nuts
Right.

Jonathan (05:50):
So it's just it's interesting to see that how that
that breakdown is even goinginto the categories like romance
was almost a million 752,000people reading books these days.

Mari (06:02):
The romance winner was Funny Story by Emily Henry.
We talked about the romancecategory when Hissin' and
Kissin' podcast crew was on thepodcast, because Bride was in
that category.

Jonathan (06:14):
Which is interesting to me because I thought Bride
was like monster fuckery.

Mari (06:21):
It's vampires and werewolves.

Jonathan (06:22):
Okay, all right.

Mari (06:23):
And there's fuckery.
I didn't expect it to be in theromance category.

Jonathan (06:26):
Yes, I'll just say this with just under a hundred
thousand votes, it still wouldnot have won in the romantic
category if it, even if it likejust around, right.

Mari (06:40):
right, just to round it out, in the fantasy category,
the winner was somewhere beyondthe sea by TJ Klune, and in the
YA fantasy category, ruthlessVows by Rebecca Ross was the
winner.

Jonathan (06:52):
How many you said that was in the YA?

Mari (06:56):
Yeah, ya fantasy.
There's two YA categories, Ibelieve yeah okay.
There's YA fantasy and I thinkthere's another YA category.

Jonathan (07:01):
I see that.
I see that.

Ashley (07:03):
I guess.
Why do you sound confused?

Jonathan (07:06):
Because I would have thought like YA fantasy would
have been Apprentice to theVillain you know, or Assistant.

Mari (07:13):
I don't think it's built as a YA book.
I think it's an adult book.

Jonathan (07:17):
Didn't feel adult to me.

Ashley (07:19):
No, but I don't think they were young persons in the
story either.
They weren't like 20 year olds.

Jonathan (07:24):
That's what it felt like to me, that she was like 20
.

Ashley (07:27):
Maybe mid-20s, but he certainly wasn't.

Jonathan (07:31):
He wasn't the 22 that David and Ryerson is.

Ashley (07:36):
I think YA is a wide range.

Mari (07:37):
I think YA starts with like 9th grade or 8th grade.
Isn't, like the YA categorysupposed to be fairly young?
Well, I mean mean as far as thereader goes?

Ashley (07:46):
yeah, but I thought you know, because the characters
that we're discussing inapprentice to the villain were
generally not young adult orchildren age like.
I'm pretty sure tristan isprobably late 20s, early 30s and
the rest of the characters arein that adult phase of their
lives.
They have jobs and I'm takingcare of 10 year old sisters

(08:10):
ruthless vows is about thehorrors of war so ruthless love,
yeah, but they're like 18 inthe story oh, that makes sense.

Mari (08:21):
I've heard great things about it, but I've not read it I
.

Ashley (08:23):
I read it.
I didn't not like it.
It wasn't cozy but it was quiet.
Does that make sense?
Like you, definitely had somepops of interest.
I'd like to see where it goes.
I don't want to spoil anything,but I wasn't clamoring for that
second book, if that makessense.

Jonathan (08:39):
You weren't lining up for it.

Ashley (08:41):
I was interested you lining up for it.
I was interested, chomping atthe bit I was not chomping at
the bit.

Jonathan (08:48):
You like that one.
It's going to go right next tohankering.

Ashley (08:51):
Yeah, it's in the same vein, good job.

Jonathan (08:54):
Okay, I gotcha.

Mari (08:56):
Alright, on to other news.
Back to Hannah Nicole Mayer.
I mentioned her.
She did a cover reveal for thethird book, the Accomplice to
the Villain, which will releaseJuly 8th of 2025.
The cover came out and it'spretty.
It's in line with the otherones, I think, and our little
buddy Kingsley's on it.

Jonathan (09:17):
Kingsley.
Kingsley must have a largerrole because he's got a lot of
dang signs on here.

Mari (09:23):
I know when he says yes.

Jonathan (09:28):
You know what?
It looks slightly different, somaybe there's a different pace
or a different direction in thisbook.

Mari (09:37):
We'll see.
We'll have to find out nextyear.

Jonathan (09:40):
It'll be exciting.
It's a good series so far.
Do we know if there's going tobe a three book?
Is this it Just three books?

Ashley (09:48):
Oh no, she's already slipped it up that there's a
fourth.

Jonathan (09:51):
Did we get the name of that one yet?
No, it can only be A Apprentice, assistant, accomplice A.
Kelly, did you pick up on that?
A double consonant.
Addicted oh there it isAddicted to the villain.

Mari (10:11):
Talk about a slow burn.
It was a four book slow burn.
I try.

Ashley (10:14):
I try.

Jonathan (10:15):
I've been practicing in the shower.

Ashley (10:17):
It's an interesting place to practice.

Jonathan (10:18):
Nobody can see me.
It's also where I go to cry.

Mari (10:22):
You're so pitiful, eye, so pitiful.
The new romantics bookstorethat we've talked about before
is the first romance bookstorein orlando, opened up this past
weekend, had their officialgrand opening.
We went by on saturday it wassaturday and sunday uh, they had
a line way out the building,way out the building around the

(10:42):
corner and across, I think, twostreets.
So it was pretty popular, yeah,yeah was it a?

Jonathan (10:50):
was it a big?

Mari (10:50):
was a big store no, no, it's not very big at all.
It was basically rectangularshaped.
So it had bookcases on one longwall and then like a half
bookcase on the middle and thenmostly bookcases and other
materials on the other long balland the little um cash register
in the corner.
But hopefully they did, theydid well and and can continue to

(11:12):
do well.
I know they had author signingson sunday, but we didn't go on
sunday, but they had authorsignings, so hopefully they'll
continue to do well geez.

Jonathan (11:20):
They have events like every weekend coming up like
merry.
Merry Little Book Ornaments.
Holiday Book Exchange,collective Corner Market Pop-Up.
Ashley, you're not allowed togo.

Ashley (11:34):
Rude.

Jonathan (11:35):
Well, you're going to go to this next one with Nikki
Pucks and Pages.
Something about hockey getstheir temperature rising.
It's a vibe.
Dale must dali tamale hot tail,not dale.
Uh, very merry market as well.

Mari (11:52):
So it looks, it looks interesting yeah, yeah, look
like they're going full swingwith it.
Did you enjoy going kelly?

Kelly (12:00):
yeah, I mean it was interesting, it's an experience.
Yeah, it was an experience.
I hope they're successful.

Mari (12:05):
Yeah, yeah, me too.
They were real nice, though.
And then the last little bit ofnews I had was that LitJoy
Crate is re-releasing theirspecial edition box set of the
Folk of the Air series, which isbetter known as the Cool Prince
series.
So it's that really prettyseries.
It's a box set hardcover.
They've done one re-release, sothis is their third re-release

(12:27):
of it.
It's $180.
It ships in summer of 2025.
And if you're interested intrying to get it, if you're a
Lit Crate member, it's January8th for early access and then
January 9th for whatever's leftover for anybody who's not a Lit
Joy C person that seemssuspicious.

Ashley (12:44):
Do you think they just had so much left over that they
keep doing releases?

Mari (12:48):
in 2025 no, they keep they .
It's so popular.

Jonathan (12:52):
They keep um, like re-upping it, like ordering
another, another round I don'tknow the terminology, but like
doing another print, anotherround of them interesting yeah,
I mean I'm sure they have tosell through whatever their
stock is in it and then figureout how much what the customer

(13:12):
base is like for the next seriesor the next round.
Did you say this is the thirdprint?

Mari (13:19):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I got in on the secondprint.
So the first print sold out.
Everyone was clamoring for it.
And then the second print.
They did like another print ofit.
I got in on that one and thatone sold out.
That was maybe early last year.
No, I bought it year beforelast.
It came last year and so thenthis one is the third time go

(13:41):
around.
So I think it's what we weretalking about last episode,
where you have new fans andpeople who become enamored of
the series and then want thespecial edition series and you
know it's too late, but if theycan get in on this and they can
have their little specialedition series if they want
Interesting, yeah, I wonder iftheir prints are getting more

(14:03):
and more limited with each round, because it would be scary to
be like if I did a thousand andit sold out, well, I don't want
a thousand back again, but maybewe can do.

Jonathan (14:12):
But also, at the same time, if you're talking about a
category where you've got fourhalf a million people voting on
goodreads for a specificcategory and you're like well,
maybe we can move a few extrahundred here, and these are
pre-orders.

Mari (14:27):
So I mean I don't think they're printing more than they
have.
People pre-order, Right, youknow what I mean?
I don't think they're losingany money on that.

Jonathan (14:36):
We need to take that approach.
I call that the Tesla approachOrder today, get it two years
later, mm-hmm.

Mari (14:46):
I know I have this series and the series itself is good.
I would recommend the series,but this particular version of
it is really pretty.
If you are a fan or knowsomeone in your life who's a fan
and want to gift them somethingspecial, I would.
I would definitely look intothat if it's in your, in your
budget.

Ashley (15:03):
So that's not a hint, husband.
We already have a basic version.

Jonathan (15:07):
Oh, I tuned.
I'm sorry I tuned out husband.
We already have a basic version.
Oh, I tuned.

Ashley (15:10):
I'm sorry I tuned out, I wasn't gonna buy it.
Good, yeah, sorry my bad.
I was just making sure thatwe're on the same page you lost
me 180 dollars too steep yeah,too rich for my blood I mean
it's a bunch of books.

Mari (15:21):
I'm trying to remember how many books there are, is it?
Oh is it eight?

Jonathan (15:25):
I'm sorry, the s looks like an eight and that's I've
been.
I've been misled, I don't know.
I really don't know how much itis, uh, or how many books are
in it.
Um, this is the.
I'm assuming it.
It's the one that was linked.
There is the did you say thecruel prince collection so I
thought that it's a folk of theair.

Mari (15:43):
I was gonna say cruel prince is only three books oh,
okay, let me yeah, it is threebooks, so cruel prince is the
first one and that's why I thinkeveryone I know right the cruel
prince series, because that'swhat we all ever think of.
Okay, so it says, um, it's allthree books in the folk of the
air series the cool prince, thewicked king and the queen of
nothing, plus the novella howthe king of elfheim learned to

(16:06):
hate stories.
It's got a digital signature, asignature page annotations
handwritten by Holly Black.
The author covers artwork, pageedges, gilded page edges,
custom slipcover, tip-in art,original illustrations in the
novella and paper art printed onacid-free paper.
Bonus content at the end ofKing of Elfheim process sketches

(16:30):
for our books, illustrationsand we'll have editations by
Holic.
That's from their little post,interesting, alrighty.
Any other news anybody has?

Jonathan (16:41):
Not news specifically, but I got a question, question,
yeah, I got a question.
I need direction.
Oh gosh, yeah, where's like, ifBookTok is going away, where
are people going?
Bookstagram Is it going toBookstagram?

Ashley (16:55):
I mean Bookstagram exists.

Jonathan (16:56):
I think either.

Mari (16:56):
Bookstagram or BookTube.

Ashley (16:58):
I don't know about BookTube.

Mari (17:01):
I got into BookTube first in terms of finding out about
books.
I think BookTube is the firstbook thing like this that I got
into as far as a book communityand then I got into Bookstagram.
After that, tiktok was thenewest one for me.
I'm newer to it.
I mainly got into it becauseI'm doing stuff for the podcast,

(17:22):
to be honest.

Jonathan (17:23):
So you think it's going to be like it's going to
lean towards reels or shorts onYouTube, then On YouTube.

Mari (17:31):
I would think it would have to be.

Ashley (17:34):
I really feel like that's just going to be, I don't
know, dependent on the viewerthemselves, like I think that
was the beauty of tiktok.

Mari (17:43):
Right is that it was short clips, pictures or video and
text here's what think, havinghad some experience trying to
post videos on all three ofthese, I think that for when
it's people talking about like abook review, like giving an
in-depth review, I think thatbook, uh, booktube, youtube will

(18:03):
be fine with that.
But I think that all this stuffthat you see on TikTok, where
it's people making memes anddoing like funny mashups and
music and thing to aspects ofthe books, it's going to have to
be Instagram.
Because even with the fewlittle things videos and things
I've posted for us on TikTok andthen tried to cross post on

(18:27):
YouTube, like we've gottendinged for like music snippets
that are fine on TikTok andInstagram and not fine on
YouTube.
So, YouTube is much more pickyabout that.
Yeah, so if you're doing likefull on just your content you're
not, you know, putting anyanything from anybody else.
Literally, you creating themusic, you're creating the sound

(18:48):
, you creating the music, you'recreating the sound, you're
creating the video, you'recreating the artwork then you're
fine on YouTube.
But if you're doing mashups anda lot of the funny stuff we see
on TikTok that I think we allenjoy, you're not going to get
that on YouTube unless YouTubechanges.

Jonathan (19:04):
Interesting.
Okay, so I think he's got to goboth places.
He's got to go both places.
He's got to scour two apps now.
Well, we'll have the time Achunk of my day is going to give
it back to me.
Good stuff, that's all.

Ashley (19:20):
I had, I got nothing.

Mari (19:22):
Anybody else.
So we're going to go into thebook review now.
We picked this book Actually,let Jonathan pick this book
because jonathan is thechristmas fiend amongst us and
needed a.
Jonathan needed a christmas raid, yeah festivities around and so
this book was published in uh,october.

(19:44):
On october 12th of 2020.
I'm gonna read the synopsis andthen we can get into a little
bit.
Welcome to Marshmallow Hollow,maine, a holiday mystery where
it's all Christmas all the timeand murder is hung by the
chimney with care.
I'm Halliday Valentine Yepfunny name is funny A psychic
witch who's recently moved fromNew York City New York City back

(20:07):
to my very human hometown ofMarshmallow Hollow, where I run
the family factory that catersto all things Christmas.
I inherited the factory frommom, who inherited from Nana
Karen, but now it's just me Kindof long story.
My curmudgeonly British familiarHummingbird Atticus, one
ungrateful rescue cat, mytalking reindeer, karen, and my

(20:30):
B, my bff styles, the only humanaware of my witchy side.
Oh, and digby dainty known ashobs, the tall drink of water,
who rents my guest cottage andwho I wouldn't mind getting to
know better.
We have a lot in common common,including a love of true crime.
So, as macabre as it sounds,when a shady real estate tycoon
shows up dead in the middle ofthe annual ice festival, I'm

(20:52):
thrilled to spend time withHobbes flexing our amateur
sleuthing skills.
Well, not thrilled I mean aguy's dead after all, but he did
try to con some businessesright out from under the
hardworking locals.
In fact, the only thing moresurprising than a murder in our
charming Christmas town is howmany of my friendly beloved
neighbors seem to want the mandead Dun dun, dun.

(21:15):
Mm-hmm, what do we think?

Kelly (21:17):
So, first of all, this book couldn't have come at a
more timely moment.
So, essentially, we have a bookabout a dead, evil, greedy,
rich, presumably white guy whois trying to swindle people,
swindle everyday folk, and gotmurdered and as a result, most

(21:38):
of the people in this town werevery apathetic about the guy
dying and may have even beensort of happy that he died
Couldn't have happened to anicer guy type mentality.
I mean, what are the odds thatwe read this book with what's
currently going on in the newswith the recent deal with the
United healthcare CEO?

Mari (21:57):
What are the odds?

Ashley (21:59):
You sure picked a winner , husband.

Jonathan (22:04):
No comment.

Ashley (22:09):
Your honor.
I didn't know anything.
I picked, picked this month agowe did pick it months ago.

Jonathan (22:15):
Uh, it was months ago so you're saying insider
knowledge?
Not at all, not at allcompletely unrelated, uh, to
anything and everything.
I don't even eat at mcdonald'sthing.
I don't even eat at McDonald's.
No, you don't.
It's at home.
That's right.
I wait until I get it home.
Good husband, don't touch myfries.
Don't even try to test them forpoison.

(22:36):
Don't even look at them.
Don't look at them.
Keep that bag sealed until weget home and I'll let you sneak
them.

Ashley (22:41):
You gotta test for poison no.

Jonathan (22:43):
They're well-maintained fries.
All the poisons were burned offin the oil.
Keep going, Kelly.
Keep going.

Kelly (22:53):
I just think it's interesting some of the themes
in this book and I think itreflects some of the sentiment
that's been going on for quite awhile in America that there's a
lot of resentment towardsgreedy rich developers, greedy
rich billionaires and stuff likethat.

Mari (23:12):
People becoming bankrupt because of health situations.

Kelly (23:17):
I just think in general, I think that people have become
less enamored, certain groups ofpeople have become less
enamored of rich people, but ofcourse, obviously it seems like
there's plenty of Americans whostill are enamored with rich
people.
But of course, obviously, itseems like there's plenty of
Americans who still are enamoredwith rich people.

Jonathan (23:34):
Yeah, so is this the.
Are we taking the side of theorcas in this book?

Ashley (23:44):
Man, you took it back to the orcas.

Jonathan (23:46):
I can't take it back to the orcas.
What a time.

Mari (23:49):
that was Sorry, gloria, wasn't Gloria her name.

Kelly (23:55):
Or no, was it?
It was something with a G, butI don't think it was Gloria.

Jonathan (24:00):
Or even mini sub days.
Anytime the Titanic can claiman additional billionaire.
Is that where we're at?
Yeah, I mean, I think that'slike the never-ending
billionaire.
Is that where we're at?
Uh, yeah, I mean, I thinkthat's that's like the
never-ending story.
Is that you know that?
Let them eat cake class warfarelike they're, unless they're
versus robin hood.
Right like the orcas were therobin hood.

(24:21):
Come on, this is our stuff.
Right?
The mini sub yeah implosion,that's, that's people.

Ashley (24:27):
The memes, the meme game was I mean, that was a fuck
around and find out situation,if there ever was one yeah, I
think anytime a billionaire puts, puts himself out there with
ill intent, that's fuck aroundand find out so it was gladys,
gladys the orca gladys who ofcourse, if you didn't know, also

(24:49):
had a song written about her.
Stop Wow.

Kelly (24:55):
A rock song talking.
You know so much plastic toomuch for me.
Blah, blah, blah.
What an indifferent fleet.

Jonathan (25:04):
Until the cycle ends, yeah it's a little homage to
Gladys the Orca Aw oh you canget your stuffies, gladys,
gladys, the orca stuffies atwwwabsorbedandsoulmatescom.
Feed the starving billionaires.
That's what I always say.
Yeah, I, I think that's athat's tale as old as time.

(25:25):
That is the uh, the mentalityof the mentality of when you
have people or enterprises thatrise to the top of the economic
food chain, so to speak.
You know it's people justwanting the downfall, especially
because the thing of the stackof bodies you got to climb to to

(25:46):
get there, I mean it is.

Mari (25:47):
It's an old tale because the thing of the stack of bodies
you got to climb to to getthere, I mean it is.
It's an ill tale, it's.
It's.
So many of the stories we loveis, um, you know, people
overthrowing people at a higherpower the top who have too much
power.
Yeah, you have.
You know hunger games.
You know hunger games.
You had the rise up against.
Um, it's been too long since Iread it.

(26:08):
The capital was that thedistrict with all capital.
Thank you, yeah, the capitalrising and the other other
districts against the capital.
Um, it's, it's a common storyof you know, when you have a a
disparate power and resourceallocation situation, of making
it more equal yeah, robin hooduh, but what did we think of the

(26:32):
book?
Yeah, robin hood 100.
What do we think of the book?
Star rating who wants to?
Who wants to start?

Jonathan (26:38):
jonathan does, it was his no, I like where kelly was
going, kelly go ahead.

Ashley (26:41):
Yeah, oh yeah, kelly did kind of go off the first reel,
yeah yeah, give us the starrating that doesn't mean I have
to go now.

Mari (26:52):
Gladys wants you to go would you prefer not to go first
, kel?

Kelly (26:56):
I don't go first okay, jonathan.

Jonathan (26:58):
I'm gonna give it a four and three quarters four and
three quarters yes yeah, Ithought it was.
I thought it was delightfullyfun read, not just because it
was your pick.

Ashley (27:09):
Yeah, I thought it was a delightfully fun read, not just
because it was your pick.

Jonathan (27:11):
Yeah, I thought it was .
So I had the audio book and Iliked how the voice sounded.
That goes a long way for me.
That makes sense.
The tone of the story, thepitch, the direction of the
story felt fun.
I also liked each chapter name.
That made me feel veryholiday-errific.

(27:32):
Yeah, that was funholiday-errific.

Ashley (27:37):
Yeah, uh, I'll go second .
I thought it was a three, itwas a.
It was an easy read, it wasinteresting.
I feel like I've said it acouple of times this year we've
read a few books that feel likethey could be their own, like
mini series, like they wouldtranslate very well you know, to
television and I felt that inthis right, like marshmallow

(28:00):
cove, what was it called?
Hollow?
Marshmallow hollow are youkidding.

Jonathan (28:04):
Those marshmallows are not hollow.
Have you ever bitten into amarshmallow?

Kelly (28:07):
if you bite into a marshmallow and it's hollow.

Jonathan (28:10):
You bought the wrong food.
That's all I'm saying.

Ashley (28:13):
It's not a marshmallow at that point it just seemed
very them, you know themed likeit very well could be on tv and
it would translate very great.
Um, so it was a three for me.
I was pleased by it.
Um, I think I think what'sinteresting too is that this is
a book that's part of, like, abigger series, like there's more

(28:33):
before it, there's very likelymore after it, and it wasn't a
requirement to read the beforeand you certainly don't have to
read what comes next.
Like it wrapped it up nicely.
There's no cliffhangers.
Um, it was a three for me.
I was delighted.
Kelly, you want to go next?

Mari (28:48):
cliffhangers.
It was a three for me.
I was delighted.

Kelly (28:52):
Kelly, you want to go next?
Sure, I pretty much agree withAshley.
I thought it was a three.
It was a delightful book, notvery heavy, somewhat predictable
, you know it was.
I think I described it withTamari, as this was basically a
Hallmark movie book.

Ashley (29:08):
It is Nailed it, it was 100, basically a Hallmark movie
book.
It is.

Kelly (29:10):
Nailed it.
It was 100% a Hallmark movieyou have.
Essentially, the girl leavesthe big city to come back to the
small town to take over thefamily business, has a guy in
town that she has a crush on.
She's got some weird, unusual,quirky thing about her.
In this case it happens to bethat she's a witch and has

(29:30):
talking familiars, and then wethrow in a little bit of some
murder.
She wrote and that's it.

Ashley (29:38):
Good stuff.

Kelly (29:40):
Yeah, this was a mashup of a Hallmark movie and murder,
she wrote.

Mari (29:45):
Yeah yeah.
I also gave it a three Similarvibes we listened to to this in
audiobook as well.
It was really well doneaudiobook.
I think it was christmasy vibes.
It was basically exactly what Iwas expecting out of it.
It was cozy, it was closed door, it was christmas, it was kind
of a hallmark movie it was.
I described it as a murder.

(30:07):
She wrote, made bed knobs andbroomsticks and then make it all
Christmas.
Anything else we want to talkabout non-spoiler before we get
into full details.

Ashley (30:18):
No, I want to talk spoilers.

Mari (30:21):
Yeah, kelly, would you do the honors Hit?

Kelly (30:24):
it Sure.
So from this point forward,dear listeners, we will be
discussing spoilers.
So if you have not read thebook and you do not want to be
spoiled, now is the place tostop or skip to the end so
what'd you guys think?

Jonathan (30:42):
spoiler edition spoiler edition I feel like,
feel like the uh, was it uh uh,reindeer karen grandma, grammy,
grammy reindeer I thought thaty'all were gonna be like that's
my faves.
I know how you like a talkinganimal.

Ashley (31:04):
Critter person no, it was Atticus you like Atticus.

Jonathan (31:07):
Atticus, the equivalent of like the toucan
from, or the hornbill from, lionKing yeah are you talking about
Zazu yeah a little curmudgeonlyBritish accent, like it was fun
.

Mari (31:22):
I liked Atticus.
The only thing I didn't likeabout Atticus or question I had
about the situation was like whywere they, why was he so
hardcore about her not using hermagic?

Jonathan (31:32):
So she doesn't get busted and burn at the stake.

Kelly (31:35):
Not just that, but why did it seem like you know, he
was able to talk to her likethat and be all bossy?
He was her familiar, like yeah,I mean, I think it's because
he's the oldest person in theroom at that point.

Jonathan (31:49):
He's a guardian, he's got a guardian role.
They can rewrite that, thatrole of what a what a familiar
is.

Kelly (31:56):
Yeah, but I mean, it's just like the way he talked to
her and, like you know, oh toher.
And like you know, oh, don'tyou dare use magic to make up
your bed, like who the fuckcares.
Well, he's keeping her.

Mari (32:07):
It would have been interesting to know what the
what, the like result of thatwas like.
If it was like oh, if you do acertain amount of magic, then
like you get like a bad windfallagainst you or something.
You know what I mean like itwould have been, and maybe we do
.
There's multiple more books.

Jonathan (32:22):
Maybe we find out in the rest of the series magic
does require balance in a lot ofthese fantasy realms I'll just
straight up say it atticus was alittle bitch he was a bossy
bitch, yeah he was like littlein terms of size and stature.
Yeah, he was a hummingbird,wasn't he?

Mari (32:39):
he was hummingbird you think so?

Jonathan (32:41):
he didn't have a squeaky voice.
I always imagined hummingbirdsare like oh, I couldn't hear his
voice.

Ashley (32:46):
What was the?

Jonathan (32:46):
name Uptight British, uptight British.

Mari (32:49):
Yeah, deep, deep British, like a Butler voice you would
think of, maybe.
Oh, I like it.

Jonathan (32:55):
He was a, he was, he was pater.
She didn't have parents.
Her grandmother was a reindeerwith a sweet tooth Always going
out after trying to get her fixfrom the men in town.

Mari (33:09):
Getting her candy cane fix ?

Jonathan (33:12):
Yes, Mari, keep your mind out of the gutter.
Yikes, yikes.
Grandma's always trying to getout there and suck on a candy
cane.

Kelly (33:23):
Jeez Mari I mean it was a euphemism Church in the morning
.

Jonathan (33:26):
What the heck?
Now our chins are sticky.

Ashley (33:31):
Oh.

Jonathan (33:33):
See what I did there.
Yeah, well, it's what Mari did,not me.
I'm the innocent one, I'm thevictim.
Yeah, I feel innocent, I'm thevictim.

Mari (33:41):
He thinks he doth protest too much.

Jonathan (33:43):
Yeah, I thought Grandma was spicy.
I like Grandma, grandma wasedgy.
Grandma probably had a shortcrop cut when she was alive.
Yeah, grandma goes grr, that'sall I'm saying.
Grandma goes grr.
If you were an elderly ladywith a crop cut and you catch me
in public, just go grr, that'sall.

(34:05):
Go grr.
We'll take a, we'll snap aselfie.
You don't know who I am, soyou're gonna have to grr every
jonathan you see all, thejonathan all the jonathan.
So you get to me, I'll let youknow.
If you got the right one, I'llgo grr back.
Don't look at me like thatashley grandma's go-ger.

Ashley (34:24):
I really liked it.
It was.
I just think I think it wouldhave been better on a TV.
The visuals, like you know, thewhole Christmas town, the, the
factory.
We didn't get to see the, thesnow and the festivals, and
there was a lot of imagery,which I think the author did,
you know quite well, for thespace that she had.
I don't how long was the book,it was like 250 pages 230 pages

(34:49):
or something.

Mari (34:49):
Yeah, it was tiny, real short.

Ashley (34:51):
I think she accomplished a lot, you know, in a small
package, and it was a delightfulpackage, I felt.

Mari (35:00):
Yeah, I tend to like.
I tend to like fantasy or ornot fantasy, I'm sorry mysteries
in in visual format?

Jonathan (35:06):
yeah, what do we think of love interest?
Uh well, let's start withskipping stuff well, yeah, let's
do fantasy.

Mari (35:15):
What do we think of fantasy?
What do you rate in the?

Jonathan (35:17):
fantasy.
Great question, fantasy fantasy.
Uh, I'm gonna give it a, a, uh,2.5, because fantasy existed.
There were different charactersand different uh with different
abilities, but it wasn't likethe make or break part of the
story it was still at its corewas just a murder mystery.

(35:39):
So I'm gonna give it 2.5.
Sprinkle of fantasy.
A little spattering, smattering, a smattering, a dabble
smattering.
I like smattering.
If we're going to clamor, thenwe have to smatter.

Ashley (35:53):
I agree it wasn't a lot of fantasy.
I feel like there was a lot ofbackstory that we didn't have
and some stuff was just kind ofcrammed in there.
So yeah, I'd say a two and ahalf for fantasy um, was that
next?

Mari (36:10):
or was kelly next, kelly kelly go next.

Kelly (36:12):
It's fine.
I I mean, I agree, I think itwas a two and a half the.
There were just some very basicfantasy things.
There were a lot of things thatweren't explained.
Just, you had to take it forwhat it is Grandma reincarnated
by a reindeer.
I feel like that was only doneas a play on the.
Grandma got run over by areindeer thing Like a pun.

(36:35):
I agree.
It was fun.
The biggest issue I had withsome of the fantasy, aside from
the whole weird thing withAtticus being a bitch about
magic was she said in there thatthe witches in her family, the
female witches, were likeimmortal right.

Mari (36:57):
Yes.

Kelly (36:58):
Okay, how the fuck are they living in this town for all
this time as immortals, withoutanybody knowing, something
that's?

Mari (37:05):
a good question Glamour.

Ashley (37:07):
Memory.
Like are they doing a?

Kelly (37:09):
Highlander.
Are they, like you know, actinglike they're older and they
disappear and come back as theirown kid or, you know, long lost
niece?
You know, just like, oh, thewomen in our family are immortal
.
You know they can still die ifthere's an accident.
But I don't know just.
It was that just didn't seem tomake any sense and it just kind

(37:29):
of really kind of like huh, buta lot of this was, I think, the
idea of don't think too hardabout it yeah, I agree.

Mari (37:40):
Um, for me it was a, for me it was a three.
It was what I expected it to be, much like the Hallmark movie
frame of reference we talkedabout earlier.
There's a lot of hand-wavystuff you do in the Hallmark
movies.
How is this specialized bakerystaying open in this little town
in the middle of nowhere, ofnowhere, you know?

(38:04):
Um, it's kind of the same thing.
It's like how does this magicwork?
It just does.
It's just whatever.
It's a witchy mystery christmasstory.
So it was a three for me yeah,not for nothing.

Ashley (38:10):
I'm not reading romantic fantasy, romance books to think
some of them I am, you are well, like one of them you are.
Yeah, I want to figure outwhat's going on.

Kelly (38:22):
Yeah, it's not necessarily to think as much as
it is just you know you'refollowing along the story and
not really thinking.
But then it's like some partpulls out, like that.
That doesn't make any sense.
It's not like you'redeliberately looking for holes
in the magic system or whatever.

Mari (38:38):
Yeah, I think there's a difference between when
something feels like a hole,like in this.
Stuff felt like a hole.
I agree, kelly, it was a shortstory and maybe it's fleshed out
in the further books, I don'tknow.
But there's a differencebetween when something feels
like a hole and when somethingfeels like a mystery to be
explored, like I am thinkingabout when the moon hatched,

(38:59):
where there's a lot of weirdthings that happen with the
dragons and a lot of weird worldbuilding, fantasy stuff, and
you're like I want to know more.
How does that happen?
Why does that happen?
Why is it that way?
But it doesn't feel like awhole, it feels like a mystery
to be explored.
So I think just depends on howit's done.

Ashley (39:15):
I really want to read that one I liked it.

Mari (39:18):
I recommend it.
I think it's a good fun read.
It's a long right read.
Think it's a good fun read.
It's a long read, but it's agood fun read.
Romance.

Jonathan (39:26):
I'm going to give that a 1.5.
Maybe it was there, but notreally.

Ashley (39:36):
That's fair, I'll give it another two and a half.
There was definitely someinterest and there was some
light flirting and she took achance at the end, right, it was
like, hey, do you want to goout to dinner, dinner with me?
And um, you could tell again.
For 250 pages I think we got,you know, just just a hint of it

(39:59):
.
Could there have been more?
Yes, it probably would havefelt forced and we wouldn't have
liked it.
Um, so I'd say like a two and ahalf romance yeah, I feel the
same.

Kelly (40:12):
It was like a two and a half.
It was a standard hallmarkromance.
Here's this guy.
He's a great guy.
Oh, he happens to also be richand he's doing great things with
his money helping the poor out,helping.
Do this.
He has no flaws.
So okay, of course, but I justfeel like there wasn't a whole
lot of other than her gushingabout the quality she liked in

(40:33):
him.
There wasn't a whole lot ofseeing him actually be a
romantic or good person yeahand'm sorry.
I can't imagine anyone who grewup in Texas deciding that
they're okay with living inMaine.
Never, ever.

Mari (40:54):
Yeah, for romance, I think it was a one.
I didn't know if myexpectations were just too high.
I think I read too manyChristmas romances, christmas
rom-coms, and I was expectingthe romance element to be a
little bit higher.
But to me the romance aspectfell very flat.
I thought Hobbes was very flat.

(41:15):
There was very little we knewabout him.
There was very little stood outabout him.
I still feel like we don't knowanything about him.
Um, and so it was hard to feellike they had any romance
between them, cause he felt likea cardboard cutout to me.
So, with a Texas accent, spicethere was no spice.

Ashley (41:41):
Yeah, what are you rating it?

Jonathan (41:44):
oh uh, there was no spice there's zero, I don't have
a spice right, do you get?

Ashley (41:50):
it like a 0.5 no, there's no there's some daydream
going on there yeah, there's nospice just so, just know.
There's no numbers, I don'thave a number for spice there's.
Yeah, I'd say it's like a one.
There was hope for spice, butthere there was no space.

Kelly (42:07):
This is not the one well, I'm gonna have to say it's a
one and a half just for reindeergrandma sucking on candy canes
you know what kelly and carrots?

Ashley (42:22):
Only from Hobbs, yes.

Jonathan (42:26):
She likes to slob on Hobbs carrot.

Ashley (42:29):
Slob on Hobbs knobs.

Jonathan (42:31):
No, I wouldn't say anything like that.
Why do you got to take it thereright away?

Ashley (42:34):
Right to the gutter.
Right to the gutter.
Have you met me?

Jonathan (42:39):
I live with you.

Mari (42:40):
That's terrible Four Hail Marys and an hour father to get
past that one I, I was gonna sayzero spice, but you're right,
kelly, I agree, there wasgrandma.
Uh, so that was a one.
All the spice that existed wasbecause of grandma grandma was a
spicy reincarnate yep in a.

Ashley (43:01):
That was an interesting choice.

Jonathan (43:05):
Snow deer.

Mari (43:07):
I mean I agree with what Kelly was saying and Jonathan, I
think it was the whole.
Grandma got reincarnated asreindeer.
Pun on, grandma got run over bya reindeer.

Jonathan (43:17):
That's the beauty of this book.
The whole beauty of this bookis not that she's some
remarkable author, but that shemanaged to tie it to all sorts
of different Christmas moviesand songs and puns and things.

Mari (43:29):
I love a good pun.
I love a good pun.
Puns are fun.
Puns are fun, so do we thinkit's a kissing book?

Jonathan (43:37):
Not at all.

Ashley (43:41):
No, it's not a kissing book.
Kelly, is this a kissing book?

Jonathan (43:46):
I know you think it's a kissing book nope, it's not a
kissing book are you sure, kelly, you want to re-evaluate?

Mari (43:51):
your point system, I'm sure yeah, it's absolutely not a
kissing book.
It's a fun book.
It's a fun like cozy mysteryholiday read and I would
recommend it if you're in themood for that.
But it's not a romance, it'snot a romanacy.
It's not a kissing book.
Look at us agreeing, I know howoften does that happen not?

Kelly (44:14):
very good.

Jonathan (44:17):
Do we have a cover for this book?

Mari (44:18):
yeah, uh, yeah, we do um.
What do you guys think of thecover?

Jonathan (44:24):
I gotta go look at the cover.
I know I've been reading it onaudiobook.

Mari (44:33):
Atticus is on the cover with the little witch's hat.

Jonathan (44:37):
Yeah, you know what?
I've been looking at aminiature version of this, so
let me get a big version here.
Take a peek at it.

Ashley (44:44):
I didn't realize that you guys the audio was available
on my Kindle Unlimited you missout.

Jonathan (44:49):
Oh it on my Kindle, unlimited.
You miss out on us.

Ashley (44:50):
Oh, it wasn't Kindle Unlimited.

Jonathan (44:54):
Good time.
Let's see here Jingle All theSlave.
Oh yeah, that's a clever I likethis cover.
Because it's got a big roundthing in the middle right.
If you're a new listener.
I like my books to have a bigcircle on them somewhere.
I don't care where the circleis.
It's every book should have acircle on it somewhere.

(45:14):
This one just happens to be asnow globe.
But you know, if you're, ifyou're, if you're gonna make a
book and you put like a littlecircle on it, usually that's
where they put the award, uh,notification, like you, this
book has a newberry medal, orthis book has like limited
edition or it's autographed.
Just put a circle on it.
It doesn't have to serve apurpose.
Just put like a gold circle onit and it can say book.

(45:36):
It doesn't even matter, peoplewill buy it more.
Books with circles sell.
If you're a marketer trying tosell some books, circles are
your best friend.
You heard it here first people.
Yeah, I think it's a.
Delightfully.
This is book one of how many, Idon't know, but this is the
first one.
There's probably a second oneand a third one.

Ashley (45:54):
Do you want to guess what book three is called?

Jonathan (45:58):
Is it?
Is it?
Is it Christmasy?
Yeah, oh, okay, Hold on.
Oh, what fun it is to diecalled one corpse open sleigh
what's book two called?
I don't know, it's better gofind.

Mari (46:11):
Book two is called have yourself a merry little witness
series.

Jonathan (46:15):
This, this whole book series, needs, it needs a
t-shirt I love a pun haveyourself a merry.

Mari (46:21):
The second one is have yourself a merry little
christmas and it takes placelike days after the first one,
so you cannot tell me that thisis not Cabot Cove Murder.
She Wrote Capital of, likeCarnage in a pear tree.
Yeah, the world here Murdercapital.

Jonathan (46:34):
Is that your?
Are you at four, four of themCarnage in a pear tree?
That's wild, oh my goodness.

Ashley (46:40):
We're all distracted now , yeah.

Jonathan (46:42):
I like that.
I like that.
It's a delightfully enticingbook and I like the art, I like
the colors with it.
It's very, gives you a brisksort of jingly vibe.
I dig it.
I'm in for that book cover.
I'm giving that book cover a 5okay.

(47:03):
Ash, what are you giving thebook cover?

Ashley (47:05):
there are so many punny books.
She's out here.

Jonathan (47:07):
I'm super the book cover.
There are so many punny books.
She's out here.
She's just over here looking atbooks.

Ashley (47:09):
I'm super distracted.
Book cover was a four for me.
It was very interesting, Ithink the color differential
from Jingle and then Slay beingbright red right, because death
and blood.
It was interesting.
I probably would have put.
I probably would have picked itup.

(47:30):
So that's, that's probably whyI'm going with the four.
The candle is a littleoff-putting, like forced in
there oh, I think it's verywitchy I think they could have
picked something else, but I seewhy they did it.
Um, but I do appreciate atticusin a witch's hat.
So solid four for me.

Kelly (47:50):
I think it was a three.
I'm not very impressed with it.
I think it's okay.
I think it's a weird choice tohave horny grandma reindeer
Karen in the center.
And then, of course, yeah, thatcandle looks really weird.
That was definitely a thing, Ithink, where they were like, ooh
, better throw a candle with apentagram on there, so people

(48:10):
know there's witchy stuff goingon.

Mari (48:12):
Yeah, I think for me it was a two.
I it was a little it's it'sover busy for me.
There's too much, too manyelements.
I think it needs some editingdown.
Um, I think this would havebeen cute with a little cartoony
cover and less elements thrownin there.
So it's a bit too busy for me.
I like the title, though thetitle would have made me pick it

(48:35):
up and look at it Okay.

Ashley (48:36):
so it's Jingle, all the Slay, have Yourself a Merry
Little Witness and then OneCorpse, open Slay and then
Carnage in a Pear Tree.
Those are the four.
That's hilarious.

Jonathan (48:49):
I'm so sorry that's great is on all of them all of
them, because he's the star itgives like a retro vibe um in
concert like 90s, like bewitched.
I like that.
I always like the opening scenewell, but I do like I'm into
retro this year for for crimisshe has an accidentally

(49:10):
paranormal novel series and it'slike the accidental werewolf
accidentally dead.
It's punny too the accidentalhuman.

Ashley (49:21):
I love a pun she did.

Jonathan (49:22):
Yeah, she seems to be doing like, like witch slapped
the accidental genie oh Ihaven't read a genie book I
haven'tie.

Ashley (49:28):
I haven't read a genie book in a minute I haven't read
a genie book ever.
Ever, Ever, ever, ever, everever ever the Accidental Mermaid
I need to know.
Oh, the gargoyle one.
Stitches Accidental gargoyle.
How fun.

Jonathan (49:45):
Sweet, do we have a rapid fire?

Mari (49:54):
We do not.
So basically, uh, we are goingto put it out there to people
and think about maybe changesfor next year, any changes in
the formatting, what you want tohear more of, what less of, if
there's parts that you skip over, stuff you would want to hear
us talk more about.
I'd love to hear what peoplehave to say absolutely.

Jonathan (50:12):
Um, yeah, I.
I hope they don't want to hearless of me yeah, no, we're all
staying all the emails flooding.
No more of him.

Mari (50:24):
He's weird yeah, the hosts are, uh, permanent fixtures.
We, we are.
We are saying, uh, just like,if we want to change anything
with the format or anythingdifferent, you want to do.
If you like, hate certainsections, whatever we want to
hear, um, be nice, but we wantto hear what you have to say
about it.
Also, before I get into theoutro stuff, this is our last

(50:49):
episode that's coming out forthis year.
That's wild, because the nextone will be coming out at the
beginning of the year.
So this is our last 2024episode.
So, whatever you may do for thewinter holidays, winter time,
stay warm, stay cozy, you know,have a great festive time.
Anything you guys want to saybefore I wrap it up, I've
enjoyed this immensely.

Jonathan (51:10):
I've gotten the opportunity to read a whole
bunch of books in 2024 that Iwould not have read.
Otherwise, I promise you, Iwould have not read any of them.

Ashley (51:20):
And we're going to talk a little more about that in the
new year, right.

Mari (51:23):
There's like a special edition we're going to do.

Ashley (51:26):
Yeah, we're going to do a wrap up episode, next episode
Cool, so that's exciting.

Kelly (51:30):
If you're interested in non-traditional Christmas songs,
check out the HP LovecraftHistorical Societies.
They have two differentChristmas albums A Very Scary
Solstice and a second one Ithink it's A Second Scary
Solstice which is basicallyold-timey Christmas songs

(51:51):
reimagined with lyrics fromLovecraftian horror.

Mari (51:56):
It's a wonderful creepy Christmas.

Ashley (51:58):
Love it.
Jonathan was excited until heheard creepy.

Jonathan (52:02):
Yeah, I love that you guys are trying to scare the
Christmas out of me.
It's not going to work.
Sneak it right in there.
Remember Kelly, there's.
Remember Kelly, there's alwaysplenty of time to hug.

Kelly (52:12):
Sure.

Mari (52:14):
If not Lovecraft, we could do Krampus, we could do, mario
Lude, we could do, fabercta?

Jonathan (52:19):
You're breaking up Lots of creepy Christmas.
I can hear you breaking up.
Could you repeat that?

Mari (52:23):
One more event.
Actually, did we ever talkabout Dance of the Dragons on
here On the podcast?
Stop it, did we not?

Jonathan (52:31):
Did we talk about Dance of the Dragons Like the,
or lack thereof?

Ashley (52:38):
I don't know that we did .

Jonathan (52:39):
Both booths.

Ashley (52:41):
I'm fully blanking.
I don't understand how it's twoweeks before Christmas.
When did we even go?
We timed it, so let's talkabout dance of the dragons.

Mari (52:51):
It was like the end of november, it was like november
22nd 23rd jeez.

Ashley (52:56):
Has it been that long since we've talked like?
No, no, we talked, but on hereeach other no, no, but like yeah
, when did we record last that?

Jonathan (53:05):
we may have skipped over.
We had guests, we had specialguests we may have just not
talked about it because we hadguests last two episodes uh, so
dance of the dragons was anevent.

Mari (53:14):
It was a event by aluxia events.
It was in the orlando area andit was like a dragon themed
little craft fair kind of thing,and they had photos and, um,
people were selling books andwhatnot and then they had, like,
had a ball at the end or at theend of the day.
We didn't go to.
What did you guys think?

Jonathan (53:34):
I thought it was a waste of money.

Ashley (53:36):
I didn't think it was a waste of money that was a
massive waste of money.

Jonathan (53:40):
It was a $10 event.
It was a massive waste of moneyNot to be a Debbie Downer Sorry
, guys A Dragon dragony downer.
Um, it was just, it was.
You felt we fell for some stockphotography for sure.
Oh yeah, we were bamboozled.
Uh, there weren't quite as manyvendors, um, as you may have

(54:03):
been led to believe the thespace was.
I thought the space was tightand maybe, maybe even mildly
misused.
Um, just to lay out the wholesituation, it didn't.
It didn't give off likefantastic vibes, although there
were some interesting peoplethere and some interesting, uh,

(54:27):
elements there yeah, we boughtsome stuff yeah, uh, I just I
didn't think it was.
It wasn't a home run, it was a.
It was like a close bump thatedged out.
Maybe I got it, maybe maybe yougot a toe on the bag.

Ashley (54:41):
It's under review, I don't know I mean, I think too
our expectations were higherbecause we had such an amazing
time at the Fabled Fantasy eventfor Romantic Con yeah.
And then like, followed up bythe stock photos that were on
the website.
For this one, I definitelyexpected a far more wild time.

(55:04):
Agreed, but what was there wasinteresting?
It just I thought there wouldbe more.

Kelly (55:13):
Yeah, I thought it was going to be a little bit bigger
deal than it was it was.
It was a nice small little bookconvention.
I think that Jonathan's right.
It was probably overpriced forwhat it was.
I think it was one of thosethings where this was a
convention that happened to bein a very popular place to
vacation already.
So for some people that werealready planning to visit the

(55:37):
Orlando area it may have justbeen icing on the cake that this
is the weekend we should godown there to do other things
like Disney or Universal, andthere happens to be a Romanesque
book convention going on like.
Disney or Universal and therehappens to be a Romanesty book
convention going on.

Mari (55:55):
But I think a lot of the people that were there were
locals, like driving distancelocals.
Yeah, I agree, like I think ifyou were already there for
something else or if you liveclose by, it's worth going to.
I don't know that I wouldsuggest anyone make a special
trip for it.
Mind you, we're all justtalking about the day event,
didn't do the night event.
I have.
We have nothing to say aboutthe night event.
We weren't a part of that.
I enjoyed the the photographything with the dragon.

(56:16):
I thought it was a really cooldragon outfit.
The person who made that andwho wore that.
They did a.
They did really, really, reallygood job on that costume.

Ashley (56:24):
Wait, are you telling me there was a person in the
dragon?
Yeah, I did not.

Mari (56:30):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah it was.
It was really cool.
Like I thought that was reallywell done.
Um, I think their layout couldhave been better and I think
that, um, yeah, I don't knowthat it was quite worth the cost
for just the shopping that wasavailable.
That being said, like the wholereason I wanted to go was

(56:53):
because Paige LaVoy was going tobe there and I got to meet her.
I got some of her books signed,so I was happy.
And then there was a few otherpeople who I'd never heard of
that I bought books that seemedinteresting, that may become
authors, I like when I finallyget around to reading them.
It was fine If I had gone downthere for just that event and
nothing else.
Like you know no other plans, Ithink I would have been more

(57:14):
disappointed.
But I would say, if you'relocal, it might be worth it, but
it's not going to be likeFabled Fantasy.

Ashley (57:20):
Fabled Fantasy was a different level of event, for
sure, for sure, but I did getsome interesting stuff.
I like my dragon skull.

Mari (57:31):
for $10 it was cute anything else you want to say
before I wrap it up no, crushedit alright.
So thanks for listening to ofswords 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 atreview and subscribe to us on
your podcast app of choice.

(57:51):
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 website ofswords and soulmatescom or on
YouTube, tiktok and Pinterestwith the same username.
If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode.
Reach out to us on any of theoptions or email us.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode,

(58:12):
follow us on Goodreads at OfSwords and Soulmates, or for
chapter by chapter interactionon the Fable app at the Of
Swords and Soulmates book club.
We hope you'll join us in twoweeks, in the new year, for our
next episode, when we will havean end of year 2024 wrap up
episode.
If you have questions you'dlike to ask us, send them in.

(58:34):
Bye.

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"Jingle All the Slay" - A Hallmark Romantasy Mystery

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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;}"Jingle All the Slay" - A Hallmark Romantasy Mystery