"My Minotaur Husband" - Horns, Heart, and Other Huge Assets - Of Swords and Soulmates

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mari (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.
Hey everyone.
It's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.

Ashley (00:10):
Hi guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan Happybirthday.

Jonathan (00:14):
If it's your birthday, it's me, though, regardless.
Somebody's birthday, somebody'sbirthday somewhere?

Mari (00:19):
I guarantee it's either somebody's birthday or
somebody's unbirthday today.

Jonathan (00:25):
Oh yes.

Mari (00:26):
Good call and if it's not.

Jonathan (00:27):
you can always come back and listen to this on your
birthday.
There you go and just know thatwe care.

Ashley (00:33):
Or on your unbirthday.

Jonathan (00:34):
Yeah or yeah on your unbirthday too.

Mari (00:36):
So today we're going to be discussing my Minotaur Husband
by Leon Reilly, but first, asalways, we're going to go
through some news.
First off I've had this for abit but I wanted to go ahead and
sneak it in here Naomi Novik,who wrote Uprooted and Spinning
Silver and the Temerari seriesand the Scholomance series, I
think is the newest thing in thepast few years that she's kind

(00:57):
of known for she's releasing anew book.
It's a standalone, it's like anovella.
It's called the summer war.
It's coming out september 16thof this year, 24 bucks.
I feel like it's going to besimilar to uprooted and spinning
silver, which are also likecozy-ish fantasy or maybe folk
fantasy standalones.

(01:18):
They're all really good reads.
I've read them multiple times.
So I'm excited about the SummerWar.

Jonathan (01:23):
It looks interesting, is it?
I'm looking at the cover.
It looks like a sword, but thesword is like the neck of.
Is that like a lute?
I don't know what to call thatA guitar, a ukulele?

Mari (01:38):
I don't think it's a ukulele.

Jonathan (01:41):
Well, I think it depends if that's a sword or a
dagger.
If it's a dagger, it depends ifthat's a sword or a dagger.
If it's a dagger, there's gotto be a ukulele.
If it's a sword, it's a guitarof some sort maybe it's a pretty
cool.

Kelly (01:51):
Yeah, it's a violin wait, no, that's not all, I think
it's a mandolin that too I don't

Ashley (01:56):
know enough about musical instruments.

Mari (01:57):
I would say music people tell us, help us out it's
transformative.

Jonathan (02:01):
Like I'm looking at the, at the, like I don't know
what to call.
I don't know what the anatomyof this acoustic instrument is,
but like if you go from thebottom up and it goes past the
hole and then into, like thefretboard, maybe like the, the
strings turn into vines.

Mari (02:19):
Yeah.

Jonathan (02:20):
The neck turns into a.
This is a creative artisticpiece.
You know what?
It reminds me of Kelly.
It reminds me of the sword thatthey had for Thundercats.

Mari (02:31):
Oh God, I haven't thought about Thundercats in so long.
Do you know what he's talkingabout, kelly?
Yeah, I mean, it was the swordLion-O had.
It's been too long for me.
But it looks interesting.
I like her writing style, so I'mlooking forward to this.
I it looks interesting.
I like her writing style, soI'm looking forward to this.
I think it'll be a fun read,nice.
The next little tidbit I haveis IMG, which is the new

(02:52):
licensing agency behind Sarah JMaas' merchandise, is running up
against some conflicts withsome small businesses, which was
one of the things that peoplefeared.
There were several smallbusinesses on Instagram that
were expressing what was goingon with them and their
frustration, but there's onepost from a company called
Lehigh Glass or Lehigh Glass, Idon't know L-E-H-I-G-H Glass.

Jonathan (03:17):
Lehigh Lehigh, that's probably outside of like Eastern
Lehigh Valley.
Lehigh River, lehigh Countythat's all out of like Eastern
Pennsylvania.

Mari (03:25):
Oh, okay, lehigh Valley, lehigh River, lehigh County,
that's all out of like EasternPennsylvania.
Okay, there you go.
So what they posted, theirquote was it looks like IMG, the
new licensing agency behindSarah J Matz's merch, is letting
all small business licensesquietly expire at the end of
their contracts right before thenext book release.
Renewal rejections are alreadygoing out.
No renewals, no explanationsjust gone.

(03:45):
We've poured hard time andcreativity into these officially
licensed pieces, we've followedevery rule and now we're being
shut out while big corporationsmove in.
Small creators built thisfandom.
We deserve a seat at the tableIf you care about supporting
independent artists and seeingauthentic, fan-rooted creations.
Continue, continue.
Let img and bluesberry knowyour voice matters.

Jonathan (04:06):
End of quote it's very interesting, it's so part of me
is like it's, it's a licensingagreement, right, so it's it's
subject to expiration yeah.
But at the same time it's likeif you, if you are part of a
licensing agreement, if you'rethe licensee, if you're on a

(04:28):
Lehigh glass side of theequation, you're paying money
for something and you havecertain rules that you have to
abide by, and if you're doingall that, but then they elect
just to not renew, I get whereit kind of feels.
We kind of feel slighted.

(04:49):
Who was it?
Kelly that had the Star Warslicensing agreement and all they
had to do was pay $10,000 ayear and they'd keep it for
eternity.
Until that one year they missedit.
It wasn't like it wasn't Hasbro, was it?

Kelly (05:04):
I have no idea yeah, like until that one year they missed
it.

Jonathan (05:07):
It wasn't like it wasn't Hasbro, was it?
I have no idea.
Yeah, like George Lucas signedthis before it was a thing and
it was like just keep payingthem $10,000 a year, whether you
make money or not, and you'llkeep the licensing.
And they one time they forgotand they had to renegotiate and
then George was like I'm gettingeven who else?
What was?
I saw an interesting one aboutlicensing recently?

Ashley (05:31):
Oh, I'm not sure.

Jonathan (05:31):
Who's the glitter and greed, the notebook lady?

Ashley (05:35):
Oh, Lisa Frank.

Jonathan (05:36):
Yeah, where she took advantage of some licensing
agreements or allegedly tookadvantage of licensing
agreements allegedly tookadvantage of licensing
agreements.
So I can see both sides of theequation, like where Sarah and
her people want to make moneyand so do the people who enter

(05:58):
into these licensing agreements,and I mean, yeah, it stinks.
I don't have enough details tomake the decision, but it does
sound like.

Mari (06:05):
If there's a time for you to position yourself in order to
make more money off oflicensing agreements, this is
probably the time for her Strike, while the iron's hot several,
because I know I've looked atthe web pages and things of
several and Etsy pages, smallbusinesses who have license

(06:28):
agreements through her, so Iknow that there's a lot of them.
I do feel bad for them if theyactually are not getting renewed
, because that means they'regoing to have to either go out
of business or pivot tosomething else.

Jonathan (06:39):
But also, on the other hand, ultimately it's Sarah J
Maas' works and it's her world,and if she's can make more money
or get something more durableor steady from somebody else
like she's also entitled to dothat yeah and like, honestly, I
think when they, when they startto do these, when, as the ip
grows, they start to build indifferent protections and

(07:01):
different standardizations, andlike when I looked at somebody,
even like her, a counterpart, acolleague of hers, rebecca Yaros
, and to see all the small likeauthorized retailers where you
can get like different thingsmade like book page inserts and
stuff like that that she waslicensing, I just thought
there's no way this gains anymomentum and these businesses

(07:27):
any momentum and thesebusinesses maintain their
licenses.
It's just think of how difficultit would be to get
authorization or license as asmall business from a massive IP
.
When I was doing custom apparel, we had to get the IP stuff.
We had to get from universities.
It wasn't enormously expensive,but the most unique one for us

(07:47):
would have been Florida StateUniversity.
They had like it wasn't up tothe license, like an
organization you had to go infront of like a council that
represented the like theSeminole tribe of Florida, and
then they had they had a bunchof questions before they awarded
the license.
It was like that was probablythe most unique situation we

(08:09):
ever had to be in.
Otherwise it was like 250 bucksand, yeah, you can have Florida
gators on your, you know cool.

Mari (08:15):
I think you know, I think on this undivided, you know, I
don't know, I don't know that, Iknow enough to know whether
it's a good or bad thing.
I mean, it's definitelyaffecting people.
I think what I the other partof what people were talking
about would happen that I hopedoesn't is that a lot of times,
when you do have these other bigcompanies and corporations that

(08:36):
come in, what'll happen is thatthey'll steal the design ideas
of these smaller businesses andcompanies and not give them any
credit for it, and so you'llhave like, let's say, for
example and this is completelyout of my head, you know, I have
no idea but let's say, lahaiglass does like a you know
akatar themed stained glassseries or whatever, if you know,

(08:58):
target then gets the the rightto do this and does this like el
cheapo plastic version of it,even though lahai may have been
the one to come up with it, likethey're not going to get
anything out of it.

Jonathan (09:10):
you see what I mean yeah, yeah, I mean it has
happened in the past with othersituations like this yeah, they,
so they would have to.
I guess the it would.
It's hard, how do you?
How do you?
You can't copyright it?
A design?
Yeah, it's hard.
How do you?
You can't copyright it.

Mari (09:25):
A design like that, you can't.

Jonathan (09:28):
Yeah, it's just stained glass.

Mari (09:30):
Same thing with, like, t-shirt designs, other like
drawings, posters, images andstickers and candles like things
like that.

Jonathan (09:39):
It's this very weird, nebulous thing where, like, I
don't think there's any way toprotect yourself as a small
artist that I know of and she's,and she's very small, it's like
it's she's got like just on herwebsite, if you just go to shop
all the products there's,there's no product found right

(09:59):
and it's.
I just I don't think't it is.
Is stained glass unique?
So I guess?
So what's what's the sellingpoint of the stained glass?
Is it the, the subject matter?
And if the subject matters,what's carrying the piece?
Is that like I make t-shirts?

(10:20):
I don't, I don't make t-shirts,but you know, for the sake of
argument, I make t-shirts.
And is my t-shirt so uniquethat the quality of the t-shirts
?
I don't, I don't make t-shirts,but for the sake of argument, I
make t-shirts.
And they're going to be able tolook at this and say, all right,

(10:55):
let's look at sales and who'spaid us the most in licensing
fees.
And if Lehigh Glass is at thetop of that heap, they're
probably going to explore how tohow to make a similar or
like-minded product.
And for Lehigh Glass, LehighGlass should think of it as
they're surfing the wave met theshore and now they have to
paddle back out and find a newwave and license that.

(11:17):
And I feel shitty saying it,but that's kind of like.
The product you make isbeautiful and artistic and
skillfully made, and it's great.
But the subject matter iswhat's selling it, and once that
subject matter agreementexpires you'll have to grab
another one, and that's probablythe nature of the game I think

(11:38):
that's what it is.

Mari (11:38):
A small artist like you can use licensing like this to
lure people into your field,like, okay, then maybe people
fall in love with yourcraftsmanship or your art style
and then they'll start buyingother things.
But yeah, if your wholebusiness model is is just on
that one subject matter and it'slicensed, then you're yeah,
it's a tough situation.
So I hope, I hope it turns outas as good as it can for

(12:00):
everybody.

Jonathan (12:01):
So yeah, but shout out to lehigh Glass, because that
is like that is a fantastic.
There's some fantastic products.
There's even some products thatand like.
Just to be honest, you mighthave some inspired products
there too.
Like I'm looking at some dragonstuff Like these would be
fantastic.
Follow me on this one, lehighGlass, if you're listening

(12:22):
Brooches.
I think brooches are a missedopportunity for so many bookish
people out there and I just wantsometimes I wish I was a girl,
sometimes Like you could justhave you could get these.
Like I want a gaudy piece of astatement piece pinned to my
chest and I want to be able tojust walk around with that stuff

(12:42):
on you know you can right Likenobody's stopping you.
I know I'm not secure enough.

Ashley (12:51):
I don't feel secure.
His wife is stopping him, see.

Jonathan (12:57):
You see what I'm up against, Mari you support me,
that's on you guys, that'sbetween you.

Ashley (13:01):
No, I'm more worried about the hobby that it's going
to turn into.

Jonathan (13:04):
He can wear whatever he wants.

Ashley (13:06):
I got these butterfly I've been trying to get him to
feel comfortable wearing pursesfor a while, because he gets so
jealous about some things andI'm like you can wear whatever
you want, my dear, but no, thethe thing I heard in his voice
right now was new hobby.
Yeah, let me, I'm gonna.

Jonathan (13:22):
I should lehigh glass I'm gonna take.
I don't you don't know me.
I'm gonna take a picture ofthis thing that I got off the
temu and it's it's an.
It's an ear cuff, but it's likea butterfly ear cuff.
That I think would be anamazing piece that you could
make and it doesn't have to tendto tie into a book or could tie
into bookish themes like thiscould be a dragon ear cuff, but

(13:45):
it could be a stained glassdragon ear cuff.

Mari (13:48):
Oof, that would be so cool that would be cool right, uh,
or and even like I think there'sso much necklace, little hair
brooch yes hair sticks.
Yeah, yeah, there's definitelythings you can do yeah, things
that aren't well.

Jonathan (14:02):
She does some butterfly stuff here, I see, but
there's there's things that canbe inspired by without
infringing on copyrights oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Mari (14:13):
And I mean the ultimate thing is, people will be
long-term consumers of artistsbecause of the style of that
artist and the quality of theirwork, not necessarily because of
the one subject matter.
You know what I mean.

Jonathan (14:29):
Correct.
It may be the catalyst thatmakes me click on your website.

Mari (14:33):
Yes, it's the lure, but it'll get me there.
It'll get me maybe.
Maybe I wouldn't havediscovered you otherwise, but
once I've discovered you, yougot to have something to keep me
, you know so.

Jonathan (14:44):
Exactly New head glass .
Get out there and get another.
Get another one.
We support you absolutely allright.

Mari (14:50):
Next little bit is hasbro is releasing releasing a fourth
wing game.
It's a fourth wing version oftheir game called priorities.
Has anyone played this gamebefore I?

Jonathan (15:03):
have, have not.

Mari (15:04):
Me either.
I was looking through thegameplay.
It's basically three people ormore, age 17 or up, and they're
like 20-ish minute games, sothey're not terribly long, and
it's kind of a how well do youknow the people or get to know
the people kind of game.
It looks interesting.
The fourth wing version comesout in October $24.99.
So I I don't know.

(15:26):
I think it'd be a fun thing toto play with a group of people
yeah, you know, and talk fourthwing if you have a book club or
whatever, is it limited?

Jonathan (15:34):
is it limited like, can you, could you have like a
group of 10 people playing this?
It just says three and up, somaybe yeah oh, even I'm sure you
could play in teams too, ofsome sort right, you could get
creative, make up your own rules.

Mari (15:46):
I'm just thinking, if it's only 20 minute gameplay, bear
with me guys.

Jonathan (15:50):
Maybe we could get it sometime and play on the podcast
yeah there's four of us, that'dbe fun right all we need is
three plus, and I'll be yourplus, I think it would be fun.

Mari (16:00):
I think it'd be fun, all right next tidbit Danielle
Jensen, who wrote the BridgeKingdom I think that's her most
popular book.
That's what I knew her namefrom, even though I haven't read
that series and the Saga of theUnfaded, which I have read and
very much enjoy has announced anew duology.
It's set to release in 2026.
The first one is going to becalled Defy the Dusk and it's

(16:25):
described as a post-apocalypticfantasy romance pitched as
Snowpiercer meets Mad Max, setin a world where the survivors
of an apocalypse have bandedtogether in high-speed convoys
that must outrun the dusk orface what rises in the dark.

Ashley (16:44):
That sounds terrifying.
Yes, it does.
It's interesting.
I'm here for it.
I like Mad.

Mari (16:48):
Max, I like Snowpiercer, like I'm here.

Jonathan (16:52):
You read the Saga of the Unfaded, did you like it?

Mari (16:55):
I did.
Yeah, a lot of people have not,though.
So I've not read the BridgeKingdom.
I've only read the Saga of theUnfated and I very much liked it
, and a lot of the people I knowwho like the Bridge Kingdom
didn't like Saga.
So I'm curious what I'm goingto think about the Bridge
Kingdom when I actually read it,because it's apparently a
different vibe between the books.
But I did like Saga of theUnfated.

(17:15):
I liked the first one a lot.

Jonathan (17:17):
I've got A Fate Inked in Blood on my nightstand right
now.
It's been there for months andI think I started it but then
got distracted by some otherthings and then I picked up the.
I picked up book two.
We were at like Sam's club orsomething like that and I picked
it up and I was just so.
A couple of things.
One they're, they're, they'reminimalistically lovely books in

(17:38):
the hardcover.
Um, it's like when you take thedust jackets off, it's white
and black and it's like that.
One book one and two and it'sjust like.
It's almost like embossed.
It's just lovely to have so.
And I and I believe there arethere's some work on the edges,
not not like are super artistic,but I think they just might be

(17:59):
colored in some way or shiny umit's like I got almost like a,
an art nouveau.

Mari (18:05):
Look to it, the way that they're designed yeah, I think
it's a good read to book to readin the winter.
It's got because it's vikingand it's cold.
It's got that kind of a feelingto it so it's a good like
winter read okay, all right,maybe I'll start that, then I'll
hold off on that through.

Jonathan (18:21):
I mean, I don't really get winter both days of it,
maybe, yeah, but but yeah, I'llprobably I'll hold off on that
through I mean, I don't reallyget winter, both days of it
maybe, yeah, but but yeah, I'llprobably I'll hold off on that
until after thanksgiving, butthat'll give me some time.
Thanks for buying me some timeyeah, I appreciate that.

Mari (18:33):
Margaret kelly, I don't think you've read any of her
stuff, have you?

Ashley (18:36):
no ash have you I don't think so no yeah.

Mari (18:40):
So, like I said, I I don't know about the bridge kingdom.
I know it's what she's mostpopular for and I know a lot of
people like it.
I personally can't speak to it,but I did like Saga of the
Unfated and I'm curious about apost-apocalyptic romance-y
setting.
Have you guys seen Snowpiercer?

Jonathan (19:00):
Not the television show, but I think I've seen the
movie.
Right, there was a standalonefilm.

Mari (19:04):
Yeah.

Jonathan (19:04):
Okay yeah, okay yeah.
And was it about like they werelike taking kids from like
steerage to work in like as likereplacement parts in the engine
room and you had to like fightyour way through the from the
front to the back, from the backto the front of the train?
Is that my thing?

Mari (19:20):
Yeah, basically it was really, really long train that
had to keep moving and, like allof humanity that was left
because the world had frozenover, um was on this train and
so it.
It was like an allegory for forclass systems.
You had the front of the trainwhere the rich people lived and
where everything was in control,and as you got further and

(19:40):
further towards the back of thetrain, everything was more
crowded and there was, you know,less good food and there was
more illness, and it was thebumping up of the, of all the
classes, against each other inthis confined space.

Jonathan (19:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was very.
I think it was.
I guess, was it a book?
At all, or is it?
Was it just a movie?

Mari (20:04):
I think there's some graphic novels.
Do you remember Kelly?

Kelly (20:07):
I believe there's graphic novels.
It was originally based ongraphic novels.

Mari (20:12):
Yeah, which I've not read.

Jonathan (20:14):
Yeah, I think the one line in the movie that kind of
stood out to me is that he knewthat the babies tasted the best.

Mari (20:22):
Yeah, it's dark.
I mean it's post-apocalyptic,it's.
You know it's going to be darkthe movie was not that great.

Kelly (20:29):
The tv series was much better and closer to the
original yeah, we really likethe tv show I'll have to take a
look at that it has I canremember her name.

Jonathan (20:38):
Yeah, it's because it's got davi digs, but it's
also got the chicky sarah fromlabyrinth yeah, I think, judging
by the reactions from peoplelike you said, like there were
some, the people who recommendedme the heard that duology were
like get, you'll love it, getinto it, you'll love it.
And then like actually I can'tremember if it was you who was

(21:00):
like trigger warning, but Ithink a reader, I've grown as a
reader to be less impacted bysome triggering things and just
open up to allowing it to happenwith the idea that I think Maru
helped me jump across that gap,with the idea that good writing

(21:25):
will make you feel somethingand even if you, even if it's
not something you enjoyed,you're feeling it and like
there's something to be said forthat.
So I I've started to openmyself up more and more to to
that.

Mari (21:40):
So kudos, kudos to you thank Kudos to the good authors.
Next little bit of news I hadis that the Hunger Games is
coming to the stage.
Stage performance of the HungerGames.
It's starting October of 2025at the Torpedor Canary Wharf

(22:02):
Theater in London.
Ticket sales are open now.
Of course, we can all fly toLondon and watch that, so it
looks intriguing.
I mean, I'm really curious whatthey're going to do with it.
I mean, it's a very popularstory, so it'll be interesting
to see how they adapt it forstage, because, of course,
things have to change for stage.

Jonathan (22:19):
Yeah, I was going to say, is it just, is it almost
like you think it's going to belike a retelling, or is it going
to be a musical?

Mari (22:27):
I don't think it's a musical and it's supposed to be
a just a book, one movie, onelike a adaptation of that.
So it's supposed to be aretelling.
I don't think it's supposed tohave anything new in it.

Jonathan (22:38):
Okay, okay, it's interesting.
Correct me if I'm wrongoveracting that's needed.

Mari (22:52):
I wouldn't say it's overacting.
I would say I think that theinformation has to be delivered
differently, like you're notgoing to have these up-close
shots to get like a minor facefacial expression change.
You know what I mean?
Everything.
You're going to see everythingfrom further away.
So they have to tell some ofthe same stories and same ideas

(23:14):
in different ways and you couldget a very like.

Jonathan (23:16):
When you watch a movie or you read a book, you can get
this, you can get a repeatedsense throughout it.
But when, like because you canwatch it again, have the same,
you get the same process over.

Mari (23:28):
But I think with theater you can have a very unique
performance one show to the nextyeah, especially if it does
well and they, you know, keepthis on for a while and they
change out who does certainparts.
That always adds a little bitof a different spin to it too,
when you have different actors.
Because, like I know, it's amusical but kelly and I watched
wicked several times and it wasdifferent people every time we

(23:52):
watched it.
And it was, it was the samestory, but it did have a little
bit of a different nuance to itwhen you have different actors
in it yeah, we just, we just.

Jonathan (24:01):
I think I told you we just watched wicked last week.
That story makes me wait.
Nothing I don't haven'tinteracted with a story or watch
or absorb the story in a waythat made me wish I was magical,
like like that one.
But like there was anger rightbrewing bubbling, like oh yes,

(24:22):
but also like that whole story.
That's kind of why I like thevillainesses, because I always
feel like that backstory or thelike what's actually happening,
the truth behind stuff, thecover-ups, things like that
backstory or the like what'sactually happening, the truth
behind stuff, the coverups,things like that, that stuff.
I think maybe that exists in mymind at least more often than
than it does for a lot of peoplewho just maybe accept the

(24:47):
status quo for what it is and noharm, no foul, like you really
have to stretch to look at.
If you looked at my parents andyou said, hey, who's the good
guy and the bad guy in thisbaseline story?
They'd be like, well, clearlythe good guy is this and the bad
person is this.
And then you say, well, why?
Why are you associating withthe commonly perceived villain?

(25:08):
And you're just like, well, whyis this person upset?
You know, that's what.
That's why I keep asking myself, which is why the decepticons
are really the good guys here wego I love a retelling like this
or telling that does.

Mari (25:23):
It does build up a story, especially so wicked is based
off of gregory well, ultimatelyit's based off of wizard of oz,
but really it's based off ofGregory Maguire's book, which is
good.
If you enjoyed the movie, Iwould recommend the book.
There's three of them.
The first one is the movie.
Gregory Maguire also wroteseveral other retellings like

(25:45):
this, where he tells you a storyand it adds nuance and richness
to what you think is a bad guy.
So he did one calledConfessions of an Ugly
Stepsister, which isCinderella's stepsisters.
Like their story, yeah, but Iwould recommend the book.
Gregory Maguire Absolutely feellike the best stories have very

(26:15):
full-fledged characters.
No one is 100% good guy, noone's 100% bad guy, and I feel
like the most interestingvillains are the ones who a lot
of times don't realize they'revillains, because no one wakes
up and expects or wants to bethe bad guy.
People always think thatthey're the hero or the good guy
, or at least the normal personor whatever in their story.
They don't think that they'relike the hero or the good guy or
, you know, at least the normalperson or whatever in their

(26:36):
story.
They don't think that they'rethe big bad, so interesting.
Yeah, kelly, you read wickedtoo, didn't you?
Yeah, what do you think?
I mean, I like the novel yeah, Ihope you like the musical too,
because you watched it a fewtimes yeah, I mean, the musical
is very different than the book,though yeah, it is.
The movie is more like the bookthan it is like the musical.

(26:56):
Oh yeah interesting.

Jonathan (26:59):
Hey, real quick, not to derail, but to derail.
I was looking at my amazon cart.
This is can I actually do you?
Maybe and maybe this is fromour last, the last time we
recorded.
Why do we have forged by magicand by jenna wolfhart in the
cart I?
Don't know and then follow-upquestion does anyone own this
book?
Do we own this book actuallyforged by magic?

(27:20):
Yeah, no, mara, do you own thisbook?

Mari (27:22):
I know, but I have read it .
It's on kindle unlimited, so Idid read it it was, it was it
good it was?

Ashley (27:28):
was it maybe something we were discussing?

Jonathan (27:30):
reading next I like the cover, I like the yeah the
cover's cool, it was okay.

Mari (27:35):
I thought that I didn't do it.
For me, I didn't feel like theyhad a very great chemistry and
I didn't feel like the world wasvery well fleshed out, so there
wasn't anything that wasmemorable about the world to me.
I didn't read the sequel.
I read the first one.
It's not bad.

Jonathan (27:59):
It just wasn't anything like oh, let me go read
like the next one.
So, gotcha, I would just bebuying it for the, for the way
it looks then.
That's all.
It's probably why I put it inthe car.

Mari (28:03):
It's like oh, I like that art I would say it's on kindle
limited, read it and if you likeit then you can buy it ma'am.

Jonathan (28:08):
Is that how book reading works?
I buy first I'm going to let itsit on top of my desk these are
financial tips from Mari.

Mari (28:16):
If you can get it from the library or Kindle Unlimited, do
that first.

Ashley (28:22):
We should have a segment .

Jonathan (28:23):
Financial tips by Mari , number one it's not bad.

Mari (28:31):
It was mid, it was fine.
There wasn't anything grosslywrong with it, but there wasn't
anything super compelling aboutit for me either.
It is a very pretty cover.
I do remember that Nice I'llgive it some thought is that
fabled fantasy events announcedfor their romancy book con event

(28:55):
that's happening in orlando inoctober that we're going to.
That they're official.
They announced this on on email, which I did not get I'm
assuming you got it, kelly andon discord that their guidebook,
their app notifications, aregoing to be their official
communications channels channelnow.

Jonathan (29:11):
So that's going to be the main place to go for updates
for them yeah, I, I, we got itthrough the push notification
from from the guidebook actually, that's where, at least so I
think, I got it.
Was it friday morning orthursday morning actually?
I don't remember and like youwere I think you were in the in
the little reader's room and youwould like screenshotted me the

(29:33):
message over and I was likelate pass.
But I yeah, I was like do wewant to give background on that,
like without getting too deepin the weeds with it.

Mari (29:41):
Yeah, we can.
What do you guys think?
Do we want to talk about it?

Ashley (29:44):
I'm not opposed.

Mari (29:46):
Kelly, what do you think?

Ashley (29:47):
I don't care.

Mari (29:47):
Okay, yeah, so this is not their first event.
They've done, I know, la eventsand they've done at least one
Orlando event that we went tolast year, but it was definitely
less popular authors there thanthere are this year.
This year it's grownexponentially since Rebecca
Yarls was announced andoriginally Allie Hazelwood and

(30:09):
you know now it's Sarah Beck,thirst and Hannah Nicol-Mayer
and several other popularauthors, and so with great
popularity comes greatresponsibility.
People tend to have higherexpectations.
I don't know if I'm going tocall it miscommunication, but

(30:30):
there's definitely somecommunication issues, because I
think they were announcingthings on Discord and their
Instagram and email and theapplication and their website,
and that information didn'talways go out at the same time
and it didn't always match.

(30:51):
So, for example, like mepersonally, you know, trying to
come up with what we were goingto read you know we were talking
about reading.
I wanted to do like I did lastyear, where I have there the
list of the authors who aregoing to be there, which things
happen.
You know, even last year,things happened where, like,
authors that were planning to bethere had to pull out last
minute.
That's just life.

(31:11):
But the author list on theirwebsite didn't match the author
list on their Instagram page,didn't match the author list on
their guidebook page, so it'smade it a little difficult to
figure out which pool of authorswe were going to pick from to
read.
Go ahead and do the rest of it.

Jonathan (31:29):
Oh yeah, do we know which?
Yeah, I think in the end Ithink you said it really really
well it was just a we know which.
Yeah, I think in the end it wasjust I think you said it really
really well it was just achallenging communications
strategy and they needed tonarrow it down and that's what
they've done.
So I think what's nice about it, even though some people had a
more challenging time with it inthe end.
what's nice about it is they'regonna change their process on

(31:52):
the go forward.
I think something for me tokeep in mind is that this this
isn't a massive organizationwith with teams of people, I and
I don't know this.
This next bit is notnecessarily factual, but it's
what I imagine this to be.
When they're like, oh, we gotto get to our marketing team and

(32:14):
our social media team and makesure the message goes out like
this, but the marketing andsocial media team, it's just Pam
Pam's in the corner with aniPhone.

Mari (32:23):
She's like, you know, yeah , it's all like I don't.
It's in your head like justdoing the best she can, kind of
thing.
Yeah, yeah, she's like oh, Imessed that up, dang.

Jonathan (32:30):
Yeah, she's like oh, I messed that up, dang OK.
Well, you know, and I thinkthat pre-pandemic I like outdoor
sports and if you would haveasked me how many people rode
bikes, I would say, likeeverybody has a bike.
But the true, the nature ofthis information was being
shared on a platform that wasthe.
The scope was just narrow, toonarrow, not everybody was

(33:01):
involved in that, and then itled to some miscommunication.
So it's, I think, by themsaying hey, you all have this
app and now we're going to shareany information.
Any piece of information isgoing to flow through these push
notifications on this app onthe go forward.
So, pam, as fictional as youare in my mind, take a nap, yeah

(33:22):
, I know.

Mari (33:24):
Have some coffee, read a book, chill.
Yeah, I think it was a goodlearning tool and you know, we
all are trying to do thingsbetter, whether it's our own
personal workflows or, you know,our jobs or whatever.
So I'm sure they're they'redoing the best they can.
I think this will be better foreverybody in the long run,
honestly, because it's one placeto get the actual official word

(33:47):
, you know?
Yeah, absolutely all right.
Any other news?

Jonathan (33:50):
I don't have any news.
How about you?
You, kelly, you got any news?

Mari (33:53):
No, All righty.
So we're going to get into thebook.
Why we chose this book isbecause we wanted to read some
of the authors that are set tobe at the Fabled Fantasy
Romantic Con event in October inOrlando.
Also, I met her at MonsteroticaBook Con earlier this year and
I read some of her books so Iwas like, yeah, let's read

(34:20):
another one from her.
I like her stuff.
This book was published January12th 2024 as part of the
Stories from New Eden series.
I'm going to read the synopsisand then we can get into it.
Celeste is one of only a hundredremaining humans on earth,
living on a secured preserveaway from the many dangerous
monsters out in the world.
But some monsters desperatelywant human companions and
they'll abide by all the strictrules and requirements to get
one.
Celeste has applications pilingup from those who want to court

(34:42):
her, but she's afraid of takingthe leap until Theo.
Theo the Minotaur is shy,gentle and kind and wants
nothing more than a human wifeto spoil.
When celeste agrees to move inand start a trial marriage,
he'll do anything in his powerto keep her happy and safe in a
world where a human might make agreat meal for another monster.
The only problem.

(35:02):
Theo is huge in more than oneway and he knows celeste isn't
ready for him yet.
It will take trust and time toprepare her as they start to
build their new life together,and it might just lead to
falling in love.

Jonathan (35:14):
Very interesting.

Mari (35:15):
So what do we think overall?

Ashley (35:17):
I love this book.

Mari (35:18):
Yeah.

Jonathan (35:19):
You can't, you can't hide from that, ashley, you
can't let.
Let me just interject on Ashleyreal quick.
Ashley read this book quiterapidly and then the nature of
the book impacted parts of ourday once that book was closed,

(35:41):
immediately after that book wasclosed.

Ashley (35:43):
So she liked it so no complaints.

Jonathan (35:46):
I'm not complaining.
Read book two.

Ashley (35:49):
Read the whole series.
Yeah, it was a good book.
You know it was short and sweet.
I can appreciate that aboutsome books.
Right, I think we got a lot ofcontext in a short amount of
time and it was nicely written,which we can't always say, I
think.
You know about the shorterbooks sometimes the writing can
be a little choppy or a littleyou you know lackluster, but I

(36:12):
feel like I got some pretty good.
You know world building in whatwas I don't know what, like 120
or 130 pages yeah, it was veryshort yeah, I thought it was
also interesting that the humanswere like the pets.
at one point she was like, youknow, the continuation of the
human species and how she didn'treally care to aid in that.

(36:35):
And I was like girl, I get you,this makes sense.

Mari (36:39):
Absolutely.
I'm with you.
I agree Like I enjoyed thisbook.
It was exactly what I expectedfrom her.
I had not read this book before.
I had not read any of the booksin this particular series
before, but I've read some ofher other books and it was spicy
, it was sweet, it was wrappedup in a happy little ending.

(37:00):
I think I prefer her longerbooks just a little bit more
because I think she can get alittle bit more into the
character.
But still, for as short a bookas this is and the fact that we
only got celeste's viewpoint, Ithought it was a pretty.
It did a pretty good job oftelling a complete story and I
enjoyed it.
But you guys, I liked it.

Jonathan (37:20):
I thought it was a.
I thought it was a.
A delightfully fun read.
I wish we had more, more likewhat's the imagery for new eden,
like just the space which likethe zone.
But it was interesting.
I like how it it, I don't knowI I liked the concept yeah,

(37:42):
kelly.

Mari (37:43):
What were your overall thoughts?
it was short okay, okay, Iprobably the part I liked the
least of it was the, the fantasyworld building kind of for what
you mentioned, jonathan, like I, I think I wanted to know more
about new eden, which I mean,granted, this is a novella, it's
not going to be in there, but,like if this were a full-fledged

(38:03):
book, if this were a longerbook, I wanted to know more
about new eden, how it was setup and everything, and I also
want to know more about what theheck happened, like why are
there only 100 humans yeah, whyare there only 100 humans left
alive?
like what is going on, um, anddid the humans just like take
over the world?
Or has everything been likerevamped for monsters and the

(38:24):
humans are what's left?
I have questions.
So yeah, the fantasy worldbuilding was the weakest link in
my opinion, and this is still avery enjoyable book, but I was
just like wait, I don't fullyunderstand the premise.
I have questions, I wantanswers, and this I believe,
even though they're standalones,I think this is actually the

(38:45):
second book in that New Edenseries.
I believe the my Og ogrehusband comes first.
So maybe there those there'squestions are answered there.
I'm not sure.
What did you guys think aboutthe world building in general?

Ashley (39:01):
I really thought again.
You know, there are those corequestions, right, like how you
were saying, like how did we gethere?
But I thought otherwise, it waspretty interesting, right.
So the humans are, you know,know, the endangered species
there's less than a hundred ofthem left, but there's a
sanctuary built by the monstersfor them, which was an

(39:21):
interesting concept, right.
And then there's a worldoutside that is just flourishing
with weird ass monsters too,not even just like well-known
monsters, you know, like theymentioned a cyclops and I was
like, okay, like I can see howwe got there.
Right, there's lore, there'sthere's mythology, but then they

(39:42):
were like reanimated corpsesyep, I was like, excuse me, yep,
mummy.

Mari (39:48):
so I was like I did not have mummy on my bingo card
while reading this book, are we?

Ashley (39:52):
talking about dead humans that are mummies or just
like, yeah, the world may neverknow, the world may never know.
So it was interesting enoughthat I was very entertained and
it wasn't you know.
It left you kind of wantingmore, like hoping that you know
she would dive deeper into theworld building.
But what you got was alsoenough for the story that was

(40:14):
being told.
So I really liked it for thosereasons.

Jonathan (40:17):
Yeah, I thought it was like you said.
I would like to know how weended up in this position, but
there are.
It feels like it was originallya world that came along, that
was built, that was humancentric, and then somehow it
moved into this.
The term that was used wasmonsters.
I don't think minotaurs aremonsters, I don't.

(40:39):
Well, maybe they are, I don'tknow, I don't see them as
monsters.
But then I thought it was likebecause he, it felt like he,
what he just drove, like aregulation truck, which then
made me like when the name of itlike so that, right, so there's
like a real, like modern,what's a connection, right?
So these things exist, you know, going to restaurants and just

(41:03):
doing the normal thing, going tomovies, which so, like, at some
point this was a regulationhuman world that transitioned
into this and, yeah, it's likewhat was his, what was his
neighbor?
Was his neighbor like a?
yeti come on, that was good, um,and then he just had dogs yeah,
some pet dogs.

(41:23):
So it was like the humans werein danger because they could
just get like they were seen asless powerful entities and they
needed protection.
So did somebody have to fightfor our rights?

Mari (41:41):
I don't know.
These are the things I want toknow, Much like our last book,
the Deadly Indismemberment.
I want to know the nitty grittydetails.
What is happening here andthese movies?
Are these monsters in themovies or are they like older
movies, it's hollywood now?

Jonathan (41:56):
monsters it's all monsters.
Everything's an hhn episode.

Mari (41:59):
I'm out yeah, I don't know I don't know, no thanks that's
unique, that's unique.

Jonathan (42:04):
I, yeah, I I almost wish we had like a, a map of the
, of the, of the environment.
Yeah, I think it's.
It's a.
That was a very cute setup forit too, like the application
process and test marriages andetc.
Like how do you even backgroundcheck a minotaur?

Ashley (42:24):
who is how far back do?
The records go right.

Mari (42:26):
Yeah, these are the details.
We have questions.
The part of the book where theywere I think it was maybe Theo
and the friends, I think, whenthey were having their double
date and they were talking aboutlike, oh well, you know, humans
are highly, highly coveted forsex, or whatever I was like.

(42:47):
On the one hand it'sinteresting because it a a flip
of the whole, like monsterromance trope, where you know
monster romance is is popularand people you know want to read
all these different monsterromances, spicy romance books.
But on the flip side it was,yeah, basically fetishizing a
group, fetishizing humans.

Jonathan (43:08):
So I can, I can see, I can see that I yeah, I picked
up on that like a little bitwhere it was, you could totally
see that, like they, there wassome sort of like sense of
objectification where they were.
Just you know, there weremonsters that were had this like

(43:29):
fetish for this and like Icould see that and that's.
And, like I said, that was oneof the things where I was like
all right, let me look past thatand into, like what's happening
in this story.
I'm gonna be honest, I was intothis story for the spice, more
than the world building, and itbecame very apparent that it was

(43:50):
like written for that, for thatpurpose.
But looking back on it throughlike a rearview mirror, I I was
like I wish I had more worldbuilding yeah, like there's a.

Mari (44:02):
There's a series that is sci-fi romance.
I mean, I guess it'stechnically monster romance
because they're aliens, butthey're they're-like.
It's by Victoria Aveline, it'scalled the Clecanion series and
there's some similarities inthat it's this other planet.
The Clecanions are the mainpeople on the planet and in this

(44:23):
case the humans are basicallythe aliens and they have to be
in this protected reserve.
I guess they have to be in thisprotected reserve because they
have certain properties that I'mtrying not to spoil the series
of the books, that that that theclicanians want, but there's a
lot that fleshes out the worldlike the world is better fleshed

(44:44):
out and the, the reasonings andthe politics and the
machination that's going on.
So where it doesn't feel likefetishization, but those they're
also, like you know, full-onbooks.
They're not novellas.
There's like eight of them andthey're each, you know, 350, 400
page books.
So it's a whole differentexpectation of world building

(45:08):
when you're reading a book bookthan when you're reading a
novella.
I, as far as like the romance,spy stuff, I felt like the whole
size difference thing and themale main character being so big
and the female main characterbeing described as tiny and
almost childlike, and severalthings.

(45:28):
It reminded me a lot of ofseveral contemporary romance
stuff I've read between humanand human characters Like Ellie
Hazelwood's books do a lot ofthat and even though I really
like her character developmentand I like a lot of what she
does, that is one aspect of herromance books that I'm not

(45:49):
that's not my favorite aspect ofthem, that I'm not that's not
my favorite aspect of them.
But what I did like about theromance and the spice in this is
the cinnamon roll aspect of themailman character that he was
very sweet and very much like,concerned for her and wanted to
make sure she was happy and youknow, to make sure she was happy

(46:16):
and you know, was willing tobend everything around.
That at all times was a sweet.
It's a sweet like trope orstereotype or whatever.
That I it's probably one of myfavorites in in romance is like
the cinnamon roll, one of thecharacters being a cinnamon roll
character.
Um, I I enjoyed that aspect ofthe, the romance and the spice.

Jonathan (46:32):
Yeah, I thought it was .
I thought that it was very warmin that regard Ash, what do you
think?

Ashley (46:39):
No, I agree, you know.
I think those that go intothese types of stories aren't
are looking for escapism, right,we're not necessarily looking
for rationale or politicallycorrect, or we're looking for
the warm and fuzzies, we'relooking for something else to

(47:02):
occupy our time away from thoseheavier subjects.
And so I definitely felt itwith this book.
I mean, it probably took me twohours maybe less than that, you
know to get through it, and itwas just a light, romance filled
book.
It wasn't fated mates, itwasn't forced proximity.

(47:23):
They each made their choicesand they each, you know,
discovered things about theother so that they could grow
together into whatever futuremight look like.
And I just thought it was allreally sweet.
The cinnamon roll trope isn'tnecessarily my favorite, though
I'm not opposed to it.

(47:43):
I thought it was all just verytastefully done for the story
that was being told and I, youknow, was entertained.
I was absorbed, I was locked in, I wasn't easily distracted.

Jonathan (47:56):
I really enjoyed this very sweet romance of two
individuals choosing each otherI think what's interesting here
is that this whole this is likea blue collar, a blue collar
worker who wasn't.
He wasn't the richest person inthe world, but he he wanted to.
Like is it is the.
Is the term dote after or doteon a woman?

(48:20):
Yeah, and like.
I think some of it was like the.
The tism in me was like hey,what, like?
How is he going to give hereverything that her heart
desires?
And he's a he.
He works as labor for aconstruction company.
He doesn't even have like a.

(48:45):
It's not like he's rollingaround like a Ford Lightning or
like a really cool, like aRaptor pickup.
In my mind he's got like adated pickup with the with the
yellow hood Right.
So it's like my.
Maybe things are just cheaper.

Mari (48:55):
Well, no, or maybe it's not really about as much.
Anyways, not as much about thematerialistic things, because I
think that, you know, if theyhad dated and she had been the
type of person who wantedjewelry and high-end fashion and
these super expensive typeexperiences, I don't think they

(49:17):
would have meshed.
I'm like the things that thatspoiled her were them working
together on the garden, you know, um sofa right, yeah, doing the
sofa like just just simplethings, yeah, so I I think
that's where the dating aspectcame into play, like Shadash

(49:38):
where it wasn't.
It's not like a faded matesthing, it's they.
They meshed, like you knowpeople do, on dating profiles or
not, you know, or just datingin general, not even dating
profiles, just dating, you knowyeah, that's a very good point.

Jonathan (49:51):
Like it was just like they had, because then did she
look at his at?
She looked at a pool ofapplicants, it wasn't but and
then and then she decided thatshe wanted to.
It's very like dating app ask,and they just had like-minded

(50:12):
things.
And then how'd you feel aboutthe trial, the trial living
situation?

Mari (50:19):
I thought it was awfully fast.
But you know, people do that inreal life.
Like everyone's experiencesvary.
It was once again.
I feel like maybe there was areason for it in that world.
I think there are things thatmaybe would make sense if if
author could have done more.
You know world building, butit's a novella.
These are like the things we'retold exist in this world.

(50:42):
We're not necessarily told why,but we're told this is how
things are done was this bookone or book two?
two, yeah, but I don't thinkthey're sequential, like they're
supposed to be standalones.
But the other one that the my,is it my ogre, ogre, husband?
Is that the?

Jonathan (50:57):
other something like that, or like my orc or my ogre
or something like that that'sthe first one.

Mari (51:02):
It's her friend and, like when they did the double date,
it's her friend and theboyfriend is it about the same
length I?
Believe so, based off of what Iremember the book looked like
when I saw it in person.

Jonathan (51:14):
Ashley, maybe you should read that one Ashley.

Ashley (51:16):
Oh, okay, my ogre husband, my ulterior motives
involved.

Mari (51:20):
Yeah, I too sense ulterior motives there.
178 pages my Ogre Husband.

Jonathan (51:27):
So maybe there's a very similar or, sorry, maybe
what we're looking for is inthat first book yeah, that's
what I said too earlier.

Mari (51:35):
I do believe.
So it's possible, it's verypossible.
It is I don't know, I haven'tread it.
So I don't necessarily want tosay that this whole series needs
more world building, because, Idon't know, I haven't read the
first one, but I think that, forfor it being a standalone, if
there is world building in thefirst, it needs to be somehow
mentioned, even if it's like ina little prequel or something.
In the second world A rifthappened, monsters came in and

(52:15):
now monsters basically coexistwith humans and it just gives
you a little synopsis of it.
So you know why things aredifferent than what you would
expect in, say, our world.
And it's a series of a bunch ofbooks, but you don't have to
necessarily read themsequentially and the author
doesn't necessarily have to dofull world development in every
single book.
Um, it's just like hey, this isa setup.

(52:36):
Okay, this is a story in thatsetup.
So it's kind of like did youguys ever anybody read or watch
dust?
Now, kelly, you and I watcheddust.
Byy Howey, I think, is theauthor.
It's sci-fi.
It's basically the concept thatpeople live in these giant

(53:01):
silos until whatever happens inthe outside world becomes
habitable again for people tolive outside the silo.
The author, years ago, when hecame up with this, was like this
is a setting, this is the world.
If anybody wants to write booksor make games or whatever in
this world, do it.
Just just credit me with comingup with the world.
And so there's like a bunch ofdifferent authors and worlds and
and stories that exist in inthat guy's world.

(53:23):
Um, because he's like this isthe world, this is set up, have
at it, go play in the playground.
So some authors do that forthemselves where they're like
this is a setup, and so thisparticular story is happening in
this setup, which I think ishow you can get away with
writing novellas and still havesome world building.
But it assumes you're writingmultiple novellas in the same
world, you know.

(53:44):
So any other thoughts, kelly?
Anything?

Jonathan (53:47):
yeah right, ash joffin , I thought it was I just at the
end of the day, there was onlyso much you can put into the,
the, the, the, this thin of abook, so I feel like you had to,
like, put it on steroids.
Things had to go fast yeah inorder for it to make sense I
agree, yeah, I was a fan I.

Ashley (54:08):
I mean, I think we've read much longer books with much
more plot and words andexplanation and feeling less
about it than I did for this one, if that makes sense.
Yeah, I thought it was justlike a nice little treat,
delightful treat.

Mari (54:25):
I agree.
Final question Surprise Ash.

Ashley (54:30):
Every time.

Mari (54:32):
Is it a kissing book?

Ashley (54:33):
I don't think this is so mean.
I don't think this is so mean.
I don't think there was enoughplot to warn.
I think it was absolutely akissing book for what occurred?
I don't I don't think the bookwas life or death without it, so
I'm gonna say yes, it waskissing book it was.
It was definitely a kissing.

Jonathan (54:50):
There was kissing during and after that whole book
.

Ashley (54:57):
At least in our house.

Jonathan (54:58):
Yeah, I don't know if, by the way, we typically or
normally would define a kissingbook, so I would say this is a
kisses book.
Yeah, I'll go with yeah.

Mari (55:09):
Kelly.
I said no.
Yeah.
I say yes because I mean Ithink that's the whole plot of
the story, is it, is it's aromance story.
Yeah, ultimately it's a romancestory.
That is the plot.
So, yeah, I would say yes, lookat us.

Jonathan (55:27):
But I see where Kelly stands with that, because the
way we would traditionallydefine it, it doesn't quite a
lot.
That's why I'm like but yeah, Ithink.
Listen, I loved the impact.
I think that my life doesn'tstay the same if, if the
character arc isn't the way itis, what would you say, ashley?

(55:47):
Do you think that's a?
That's a true statement?

Ashley (55:50):
yeah, no, I think you were the biggest fan of this
book and its reactions.

Jonathan (55:56):
The aftermath, the aftermath.
Yeah, what two it is.

Mari (56:00):
So I'm currently reading Program for Love, which is a
sci-fi romance written by her,and it's really cute.
It's another fairly short one.
It's also really cute.
She has several very shortbooks.
Some are longer, but a lot ofher books are on the shorter
side and kind of standalone-ish.
There's a whole world out thereto choose from.

(56:23):
All right, anything else beforewe wrap it up.

Jonathan (56:26):
No, I don't have anything.

Mari (56:28):
I have one more thing.
I would say that if you readthis and you're looking for some
other Minotaur or Minotauradjacent books, I would
recommend Morning Glory, milkingFarm, which we've read on here
before, and Blue Ribbon Romance,both of which are by CS
Nascosta.
Basically two sides of likeit's the same.

(56:55):
It's the same love story fromfrom two different viewpoints.
I'm sorry, cm nascosta.
I'm forever messing up her name.
I'm so sorry by cm nascosta.
Also by her, the minoan bride,which is a novella, um that I
would recommend.
And then there's bull moonrising by ruby dixon and it's
sequel that's already come outand I haven't read yet.
Jonathan.

Jonathan (57:13):
I think you have it right.
Did the sequel come out?

Mari (57:14):
No, the sequel hasn't come out yet it hasn't come out.
Okay, good, I was like I thinkI'm behind on that one.

Jonathan (57:18):
I was just scrolling over to Amazon to see, because
it's soon, I think it's likeSeptember.
Hold on one second.

Mari (57:27):
That series is called the Royal Artifactual Guild.
The second one is called by theHorns.
Oh, it's going to be releasedin September.
Yep, september 2nd.

Jonathan (57:37):
Yeah, okay, I'm not behind.
No, you're right on it, don'tworry.
Yeah, I've got it set todeliver.
Honestly, I think those arepretty books.
I like the way those read.

Mari (57:48):
Yeah, I thought those were interesting books read.
Yeah, I thought those wereinteresting books.
There's like minotaurs but it's, and other other creatures and
all.
But it's almost like a mummyindiana jones kind of vibes in
the setting yeah, academicadventure kind of setting yes,
yes, I, I think I definitely got.

Jonathan (58:04):
Now that you say it, I definitely got, mummy vibes
yeah, all right.

Mari (58:09):
Anything else before we wrap it up?
No, I think we covered it Allright.
Thanks for listening to OfSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck out the show notes, rate
review and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us andlet us know what you're enjoying
.
Follow us on Instagram, tiktok,youtube, facebook or Goodreads

(58:30):
at Of Swords and Soulmates.
Check us out on our website,swords and soulmatescom.
If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode,
book or topic, feel free toreach out to us and DM us on any
of those options, or email usIf you want to read along with
us as we prep for a new episodeand get chapter by chapter
interaction.
Join our fable app book club bysearching for the Of Swords and

(58:54):
Soulmates book club on there.
And, last but not least, wehope you'll join us in two weeks
for our next episode, where wewill be discussing the enemies
to lovers trope.

Jonathan (59:07):
I already have a budding list.
I love it.

Mari (59:09):
All right, see you guys.

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