February 27, 2025 • 59 mins
Step into the whimsical world of “That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon” by Kimberly Lemming, where humor and heart collide in a captivating romantic adventure. Join us for a delightful deep dive into this enchanting tale, as we unravel the journey of Cinnamon, a spirited Spice Trader, who finds herself swept off her feet by a charming demon named Fallon. This episode promises to tickle your funny bone and spark thought-provoking conversations about the societal norms presented in fantasy literature.
Through lively discussions, we navigate the themes of love, friendship, and self-discovery, all while acknowledging the serious backdrop of discrimination and moral complexities woven throughout the narrative. Our hosts reflect on how this book masterfully blends lighthearted moments with critical societal commentary, offering sharp insight without being overly heavy-handed.
With witty character interactions, well-crafted world-building, and a playful romance that breaks typical Genre conventions, it’s a journey you won’t want to miss. We encourage you to tune in and explore the layers of this story—whether you're a fantasy devotee or just curious about the genre, there’s something here for everyone.
As we wrap up our insights, we invite you to connect with us. Share your thoughts, subscribe, and join in the discussion surrounding the groundbreaking narratives we cherish. Don't miss our next episode where we'll continue this whimsical exploration of literature!
- Links from the News Segment and Show:
- Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein movie finally coming to Netflix this November
- Minalima design team is doing Frankenstein as their next classics book
- Website and Store
- Releases Oct 2025
- The House of Night YA vampire series will be adapted for film
- HULU will not be proceeding with ACOTaR tv show
- The Pettiness of Warren Beatty over Dick Tracy
- Ali Hazelwood announced sequel to Bride coming Oct 7th
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ashley (00:00):
Views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the
participants.
The hosts make no claim to beliterary experts and their
opinions are exactly thatopinions.
All creative works discussed orreviewed are the intellectual
property of the creators of saidstories and is being used under
the Fair Use Doctrine.
Mari (00:32):
Hello and welcome to Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.
Kelly (00:36):
Hey, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.
Ashley (00:39):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Jonathan (00:41):
Hey y'all, it's JP, what's good.
Mari (00:45):
All the books.
All the books are good.
That is the answer.
All the good book readingchoices.
Today we're going to bediscussing that Time.
I Got Drunk and Saved a Demonby Kimberly Lemming.
But first, as always, some news, and we actually have a good
chunk of news this time, so wewill get to it.
Have a good, good chunk of uhnews this time, so we will get
(01:08):
to it.
The first thing is thatguillermo del toro is doing a
frankenstein movie.
It's been like 20 years in themaking because he's been saying
forever that he wants to do that.
It's going to be, as far as Iunderstand, pretty closely based
off of the mary shelleyoriginal.
Oscar isaac is going to be DrFrankenstein, jacob Elordi is
going to be the creature.
It's going to be on Netflix inNovember and I'm really excited
(01:31):
to see what he's going to dowith this story, because I have
watched almost everything thathe's directed and I really like
his style.
So I'm very excited about this.
Does anybody else look atGuillermo, the total fan here?
Ashley (01:47):
I appreciate the artwork .
I think he is definitely amaster of his craft.
Not all of the monster storiesare for me.
I think the last one I watchedwas the and I'm forgetting the
title, the, the, not swamp.
Mari (02:07):
It wasn't like swamp thing like the one, the one the shape
of water.
Ashley (02:09):
That, yeah, yeah, shape of water, shape of water, which
was amazing, yeah, um, actually,I was really moved.
It won like that.
Mari (02:19):
That year it won like best picture, best director and best
like soundtrack.
Like it really swept everything.
It was like 2018 yeah, I love.
I like that movie.
I like um his hellboy.
One and two, I thought werereally well done.
He did pacific rim.
He did pacific rim.
Yeah, that's interesting he.
(02:41):
He did the second Blade movie.
He did Crimson Peak, which, tome, crimson Peak and the 1999
Dracula movie are like the twopinnacle examples of like what I
think a good gothic horrorstory is visually told.
Ashley (03:01):
Yeah, I mean I'm excited for Oscar Isaac.
Yes, sign me up Also.
Yes, mean I'm excited for OscarIsaac.
Mari (03:08):
Yes, Sign me up Also.
Yes, Absolutely Also.
Ashley (03:11):
Yes, yeah he was Well done sir.
Mari (03:13):
Did you see Moon Knight?
Did you guys watch Moon Knight?
Ashley (03:16):
Yeah, yeah, we liked it actually.
He was very good in that.
Yeah, I agree.
Was that canceled?
Who's Oscar canceled?
Kelly (03:23):
I believe so Moon Knight it wasn't canceled, they just
did one season.
Ashley (03:27):
Oh, just one season.
Kelly (03:27):
Yeah, it was the whole thing where Marvel was doing one
season of a show and that wasit.
They did one season ofWandaVision, one season of Moon
Knight.
Ashley (03:36):
Also Daddy Duke in the first Dune yes, oh, I forget his
name now.
Mari (03:43):
Duke Leto.
Jonathan (03:44):
Leto.
Mari (03:45):
Thank you.
Jonathan (03:47):
So is this going to be a series or a?
Mari (03:49):
movie?
No, it's a movie.
Jonathan (03:52):
And where did it air in?
Mari (03:54):
Netflix in November.
Jonathan (03:56):
Oh, I can't wait so long.
Ashley (03:58):
Well, I mean fall Frankenstein.
Mari (04:01):
It'd be something good to look forward to after Halloween
and HHN.
And you have Frankenstein.
Yeah, we something good to lookforward to, you know, after
Halloween and HHN you haveFrankenstein.
Jonathan (04:08):
Yeah, we still have our Christmas tree up.
Mari (04:12):
You can put some little electric bolts on it for
Frankenstein, it's all good.
Jonathan (04:18):
Our desanification process needs to begin this
weekend.
Mari (04:24):
I'm just saying you could slap some shamrocks on it and
then keep it through next month.
Jonathan (04:29):
Keep all year.
Yeah, that's an idea, ash.
Mari (04:32):
You could do some eggs and bunny rabbits on it for Easter,
little mini beach balls forsummer, I'm just saying, and
then at that point you're intoHHN season.
Jonathan (04:42):
Think about it, ash, you could do that Switch the
beach balls, which would just belike.
Mari (04:46):
Some beads on it for Mardi Gras.
Jonathan (04:47):
Ornaments.
Ashley (04:48):
It sounds like you're volunteering.
Jonathan (04:50):
Yeah, I'll volunteer to take it down.
Ashley (04:52):
That's a lot of effort.
That is To decorate it everyseason.
This thing's not small.
Jonathan (05:02):
This looks cool though .
Mari (05:06):
Are these?
Jonathan (05:07):
shots.
Are these like stills from themovie?
Yeah, I like the use of light,I like that.
There's like that one.
It's not as dark or dank as youmight think, um, the the images
are, but it reminds me ofwhat's that.
What was that movie?
Uh, sherlock holmes, except helooks like he's up in a tower
overlooking things.
This like, um, yeah it, itlooks wild, like he's just
(05:30):
almost able to survey, um andjust oversee what's going on
around him in this tower.
And I mean, well, I guess thetower makes sense, right,
because he is powered bylightning.
Mari (05:42):
Yeah, yeah it's wild.
Jonathan (05:46):
I would like to be on this set just to see it, just to
explore this set.
Mari (05:50):
This looks cool so here's my thinking um in the past.
Well, let me let me put it twothings, and this is my crazy
predictions.
Um, frankenstein is a universalmonster and in the past,
universal has teamed up up withNetflix stuff for HHN.
I'm just saying what better wayto promote this thing that's
happening in November than doinga Frankenstein house at HHN
(06:12):
leading up to it?
Ashley (06:13):
I feel like this tees us up for the next item of news.
Yes, it does Very bigFrankenstein-y, and in more
Frankenstein news.
Mari (06:34):
The MinaLima design team is doing the Frankenstein, the
classic that was serendipitous,and gold foiling on like a cloth
cover and then on the insideyou have these like pop-up
things and pull out things andjust beautiful detailed imagery.
Um, I think I've got almost allof them.
(06:55):
I may be missing, like alice inwonderland and wizard of oz,
because I already had anotherversion so I wasn't gonna get it
, but I think I'm gonna'm goingto get it.
If I'm going to order this one,then I'm going to probably
order those two as well.
Kelly (07:07):
If you order it from their website.
Mari (07:10):
You can get them signed, but they're in the UK so of
course shipping is expensive.
But it releases in October, sowe could read it in October and
then watch it in November.
That's all I'm saying.
Jonathan (07:21):
Oh, interesting.
Ashley (07:23):
Very well-timed Mimi Yuma.
Yeah, I'm saying, ohinteresting, very well timed.
Mari (07:26):
Yeah, yeah, it works out.
And if you happen to be in theuk, in london or in edinburgh,
they have mina lima, like minimuseums I don't know what to
call them.
I guess they're stores butthey're mini museums but you can
go and like, look at all thesethings they've done and they
have these really cool displays.
That, yeah, the london one isthe one, the original one, and
(07:47):
then they just last year openedone up in scotland, in edinburgh
.
So I would absolutely recommend, if you're going to the area or
you live in the area or you'rein the easy travel of the area,
it's a it's a fun, fun thing todo.
All right, the next thing wehave, continuing on the horror
monster theme, is House of Night, the YA vampire series.
(08:09):
It's going to be adapted tofilm.
The books were written by PCand Kristen Kast.
I have not read them, butthey've just gotten picked up
for film.
So yay for more, hopefully,good vampire stories.
Have either of you either ofyou guys read it or, kelly, I
have?
Ashley (08:25):
not so I have.
I don't think any only you andI are going to like this, mari.
If they do it halfway good, Ithink it's probably a little bit
more.
It's definitely YA, if mymemory serves, and I I remember
reading this in my very, veryyoung adulthood and being a big
(08:46):
fan, and I think vampirism.
Vampirism was something thatyou inherited, um, almost like
puberty.
So it wasn't something,although I think there were
instances where it was, you knowknow, like a like, you know
traditional, like you wereturned into it, but this very
(09:07):
much was, you know, like anacademy.
So when you turned, when youturned of age and you turned,
you had to go to school and alot of people had, you know,
their own individual gifts andthings and there was a hierarchy
and or a monarchy.
So I do remember it being awhole big thing and there's a
lot of books, like a lot ofbooks.
(09:28):
I think I have eight of them.
I think there's like 12 or 13 ofthem yeah there's at least 12,
I think, from the maincharacter's point of view, and
then there were several novellaslike four or five of them.
So this is a pretty big worldand the fandom has been wanting
this for a very, very long time,so this is big news for them.
Mari (09:50):
I added it to my Libby, so I'm now waiting on it to become
available, because it's not onKindle limited.
But I'll probably read at leastthe first one and get a vibe
for it for sure, cause it'svampires, so I'm going to at
least give it a try.
Ashley (10:04):
Yeah, PC and Kristen our mother and it's vampires so I'm
gonna at least give it a try.
Yeah, pc, let's be honest, pcand kristin are mother and
daughter.
Um, and I've read pc castrecently and I remember thinking
this felt very, still veryyoung like, but also like very
quick and fast paced, almostquippy.
So I'm excited for this.
I think this is gonna be agreat time for me.
(10:25):
I can't vouch for anybody elsethough, sorry in advance I mean
I'll give it a shot.
Mari (10:30):
yeah, so I'm down to give it a try.
Um, speaking of giving it a try, we talked, I think last week
or the week before, about theblack dagger brotherhood.
That was, uh, an older vampirebook series that was getting a
TV show.
It's a series is by JR Ward, soI recently read the first one
of those and as I was reading itI was like this feels very
(10:54):
dated.
And then I look at thepublishing date and it's like,
oh, this is literally a 20 yearold book.
Okay, let me give it thebenefit of the doubt.
Ashley (11:04):
Yeah, you got to give it a few.
Mari (11:06):
that's funny yeah, yeah, so it was.
It was actually prettyinteresting though.
Um, if anyone is interested inthat, I would say give it a shot
.
Just realize it's literally 20years old.
Remember the world 20 years agoright it was not the world we
live in now, um, but it had somereally interesting concepts in
the story and that one vampirismis also inherited, and also
(11:33):
something that you either cameinto or not when you came of age
.
In that case of age is like 25years old.
But yeah, it was fun.
I mean I'm going to read thenext one of those.
So it's always fun thinking youhave read a lot of the vampire
stuff out there and then all ofa sudden it's like all this
stuff is coming out that I hadnever heard of, never followed,
and now I'm getting excitedabout more vampire stuff.
Good times.
(11:56):
Let me jump to the last news wehad, because it's also
semi-vampire related.
Allie Hazelwood announced thesequel to Bride is coming out on
October 7th of this year, whichseems very fast to me.
The thing is, I've alreadypre-ordered books that are
coming out in like October andNovember.
But yeah, so Bride is herpublishing debut.
(12:20):
That was not just acontemporary romance, it was,
you know, was vampire andwerewolf, and it was
well-received, it was popular.
She's going to be at theRomanticyCon in Orlando that
we're going to be going to thisyear In October actually, and
this book, the sequel to Bride,comes out at the beginning of
that month, so interesting.
Jonathan (12:42):
Yeah.
Mari (12:43):
That should be fun.
Jonathan (12:49):
If the story continues , for the parts that I've gotten
through um, I look forward toit, so I'm I'll hold back until
I finish.
Uh, bride, but once um so far.
I'd be interested in more yeahhigh praise coming.
Mari (13:03):
I like her um.
I like her writing style.
She originally started writingfan fiction and got very popular
and then published her firstbook, which I believe was love
hypothesis, like a um kylo ren,um ray type um fan.
Ashley (13:24):
That's what I heard.
Mari (13:25):
In modern STEM, and so that's what several I think
that's I believe I'm going offmemory here that's what all her
other published books are is is,you know, contemporary romance
in the STEM world, which some ofthem are really good.
I've enjoyed some of them.
I think I've read all but two,but yeah, I thought the bride
was them.
I think I've read all but two,but yeah, I thought the Bride
(13:47):
was fun.
I think anyone who likes thewriting style of her other books
would enjoy it and anyone wholikes vampire and or werewolf
you know monster romance typestuff, would enjoy the Bride, or
Bride I keep saying the Bride,it's just Bride.
Jonathan (14:03):
Yeah, even Bride feels STEM-ish or STEM adjacent bride
or bride.
I keep saying that bride, it'sjust bride.
Yeah, even bride feels um stemish like it's or stem.
Mari (14:09):
I agree.
I agree, yeah, because Ibelieve and this is going off
memory her background.
Like her, her day job is instem.
She's a scientist of some kind,I want to say chemist.
But I love that, that's goingoff off memory, but she's,
that's her main gig and so sheis pretty well versed in that
world.
I was gonna say write what youknow, right?
(14:29):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Um, and then the last bit ofnews I have is that hulu will
not be proceeding with theakatar tv show.
Surprise, surprise, they yeah,they've had it since 2021.
It was going to be their firstfantasy series and they are now
letting it go, which it's kindof sad, but also, I think, maybe
(14:50):
kind of good, because maybesomebody else will pick it up
and actually run with it yeah, Imean I was surprised at the
hulu pic from the gecko,especially with when the whole
you know disney thing went down.
Ashley (15:01):
That did not seem to be well.
I mean, they do the handmaid'stale very well.
I will say that, yeah, um, so Ithink that was really my only
big hope for akatar.
I don't think this is the endof akatar, though I think this
will get produced where wouldyou put it?
I think you have to do it withlike max or amazon.
Amazon might be a problembecause of fourth wing, the
(15:25):
fourth wing adaptation.
So they there are probablyother studios that will bid
higher amazon and the michael bjordan productions will want to
invest into fourth wing and notcompete with that is my guess.
So maybe max, just becausethey're both big budget
productions and big fantasyromanticy right yeah, it's very,
(15:46):
it's in the very similar veinand everything right.
Jonathan (15:49):
It'd be hard for one to do both could you buy rights
without having to produce it?
Could you just buy the rightsto eliminate your competition?
So if you're amazon, amazon'sgod, I mean, I guess you could,
but I think there's money to bemade in it, like there's a cult
following.
Ashley (16:03):
Yeah, but you can throttle the release.
Jonathan (16:07):
It's already been done .
Ashley (16:09):
I think if she inks another deal, because Hulu and
Disney sat on it for four years.
So I think if she's going toink another deal, she's going to
want it made is my guess.
Kelly (16:18):
Yeah, a lot of times.
These deals usually have atimer on it.
You have to release a moviewithin so long or you lose the
rights, and that's why you getthese shadow film effects.
So, like Sony wanted to hold onto the rights to the Fantastic
Four, so they made a FantasticFour movie and never released it
.
And that other studio did thatwith that Batgirl movie.
Mari (16:43):
That's what I was going to ask Brendan Fraser and Batgirl
right they?
Kelly (16:46):
made a Batgirl movie but never released it.
They basically moved it andmade it so they could say they
made it so that they would thenkeep the rights to make any
future sequels and stuff.
So that kind of thing happensin Hollywood a lot, where they
make the movie or do it.
Well, it depends, I guess.
Ashley (17:03):
Sarah, don't do it.
Kelly (17:03):
Sarah, right, I guess it depends on what you think about
it from, you know, from theshitty standpoint of the bean
counter executive.
You know, if we make a reallycrappy movie and never actually
send it to special effects, youknow, don't spend all of the
money on special effects like itshould just spend.
You know enough to make it looklike a crappy 1970s effect
(17:24):
level movie.
And then you know we don't haveto market it, we don't have to
deal with distribution cost etc.
Etc.
You know, is it worth thetrade-off of being able to keep
the rights to it?
Ashley (17:35):
that's dumb as shit.
Mari (17:37):
Don't do it, sarah yeah, man, if they, if they've made a
agatar and made Throne of Glass,like whoever does those, if
they do it, and they do it well,they just have to do it halfway
.
Ashley (17:50):
It doesn't even have to be that good, I think at this
point, we're all so damn thirstyfor something else from her.
Kelly (17:56):
Yeah, the perfect example of this and rights distribution
and all this stuff is youremember the Dick Tracy movie
with Warren Beatty, right?
So Warren Beatty was alwayslike a huge Dick Tracy fan.
That was like his thing.
He wanted to make a Dick Tracymovie his entire life, et cetera
, all of that stuff.
So one of the funny things thathappened with that is that Dick
(18:19):
Tracy actually got the rightsto make the movies, or Warren
Beatty got the right to make theDick Tracy movies and any Dick
Tracy films in the future.
As long as a Dick Tracy movie ismade every so often, a sequel
is made every so often.
So back in 2002, the originalDick Tracy right holders tribune
(18:42):
media tried to sue Beatty forthe rights back and Disney said
they were never going to make asequel.
So Dick Tracy said, well, sinceI have the rights, I'm going to
make a sequel.
So he was making shitty littlehome movie sequels Literally.
You can look this up.
The story is crazy.
He was making basically littleyou know shitty home movies
(19:03):
dressed as Dick Tracy, and hewould, you know shitty home
movies dressed as dick tracy,and he would, you know, release
them and that would fulfill thecontracts that he would retain
the rights.
I love a petty queen, yeah, soI mean even.
Yeah, I think it was in 2022 or2023.
He released another one whereall it was was him and dick
tracy costume on a Zoom callwith four other people talking
(19:26):
like he was in Dick Tracy, likehe was in a Dick Tracy character
, and that gave him renewed therights for him for another seven
years Magical.
So he was so bitter aboutDisney not making a sequel that
that's what he has been doing toretain the rights so that
nobody else can make a DickTracy movie.
Ashley (19:45):
Fuck yeah.
Jonathan (19:46):
I can make a Dick Tracy movie, fuck yeah.
Kelly (19:49):
I thought, well, that first Dick Tracy movie was kind
of shitty.
Jonathan (19:51):
Well, yeah, I mean, it wasn't a great movie, but I
mean, yeah, if you look at itthrough the lens of like a
fluffy film, then it makes sense, campy yeah.
It's like Get Smart meets.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit to me?
Kelly (20:05):
Yeah, so now Warren Beatty.
Because of Tribune Media goingbankrupt.
Warren Beatty essentially holdsthe rights for everything
related to Dick Tracy, as longas he continues to make those
movies every so often.
Ashley (20:18):
Amazing, interesting.
You know who messed up you knowwho messed up.
Kelly (20:22):
Anybody who wants to read about this, just Google Warren
Beatty, dick Tracy, copyrightbattle and read this story.
That in itself could be aHollywood drama movie about this
and the petty feud between DickTracy and Disney and everything
it's hilarious.
Jonathan (20:40):
The people who messed up like a sweetheart deal like
that were um, was it?
Uh, the, the toy company thathad the star Wars rights in the
from the beginning, all they hadto do was produce, give them
$10,000 a year in royalties andthey would retain the, the
rights, in perpetuity.
And somebody forgot to cut acheck one year and then they
(21:02):
went back to renegotiating.
It was like and he's like, thatwas a mistake and then we paid
for it.
But, like those deals, likeevery once in a while I mean,
these are humans striking thesedeals.
But I'd be pretty I don't knowthat you'd get me to sign a deal
, uh, of that nature.
Um, if I was, if I was sarah andI was writing a deal, it'd be
(21:25):
like hey, this is going to bepay or play.
If you're going to time me upfor four years, five years, six
years, I want money in order tokeep me on the, on the, in the
benches, on the bench thenthat's cool.
You can produce it at your ownthing, but you're going to get
this storyline and you're notgoing to get any of my other
work you might have.
Uh, I'm not even going to giveyou right A first refusal and if
(21:47):
you go two years and youhaven't produced it, the money's
going to go up.
I want another payment.
They're like I want you to.
Are you going to pay me upfront for the rights and then
they're going to pay me everytwo years until you produce the
film, and every two years thefilm and every two years the
money's going to go up.
And if they don't want to signit at the school, I'll just go
somewhere to have it made.
If you believe in your work atthat level.
(22:08):
After reading ACOTAR and thenreading TOG, can I call it TOG?
Why can't I call it TOG?
You sure cannot I want to callit TOG.
After reading TOG, why does theother one get to be a word, but
(22:28):
this one can't be?
Ashley (22:29):
T-O-G.
Jonathan (22:31):
I like Tog better.
Ashley (22:34):
The G is capitalized, it's T-O-G.
Jonathan (22:37):
Yeah, I don't capitalize the O.
Mari (22:39):
Nobody asked you.
You can make a T of G.
Jonathan (22:52):
Yeah, I like the throwing a glass um.
Ashley (22:53):
The first one I like more, so is my tv on.
Sorry, sometimes our tvrandomly starts making music.
Jonathan (22:57):
Sorry the night after the night after the super bowl,
the morning after, my phone likeerupted into an automatic like
youtube play, uh of, like atouchdown, and at like 4 30 am
it was like what is that?
I don't know how to shut it off.
Um, anyway, uh, yeah.
(23:18):
So the the throne of glass bookseems more entertaining to me.
It's not, as I guess.
I don't know, if I was her,that's the series I would want
to have made.
Ashley (23:31):
I have a limited, that's because you haven't read any of
the other books.
Jonathan (23:34):
Yeah, I've been trying to tell you.
Mari (23:39):
But I think somebody needs to make them.
You're going to make so muchmoney by making them.
Come on, people.
Jonathan (23:50):
Who are the two giants right now?
Sarah and uh, and mother,what's her name?
Rebecca?
Giants in the in this space arethose the two those the two big
dogs?
Yeah, they're definitely yeah,those are the two like most,
most like best selling.
Mari (24:04):
I would say jla is up there, we're going by sales so
are we.
Jonathan (24:07):
Are we like just looking for if one gets a series
, the other one gets a series,or are these companies trying to
lock down one of these twoauthors into into a commitment?
Ashley (24:18):
well, I mean rebecca's already committed and so was
sarah up until recently.
So I mean, I don't know that.
Jonathan (24:26):
I don't think I understand your question well,
the the question is if so, sarahand rebecca, they got to get
locked down into a contract tohave these, these, uh, their
work produced on screen, someone one type of screen.
If you're a competitor, ifyou're a market rival, and
(24:47):
Rebecca's got a deal with yourmarket rival, are you then
trying to go out and findsomething in the same vein?
And if that's the case andSarah is open now to receiving
offers, do you just jump on it?
Is that the thing like WWF andWCW?
(25:14):
You gotta get these two rivalsand see what happens.
Ashley (25:20):
I don't know, you're getting too businessy now, sir
Ford versus Chevy.
Jonathan (25:25):
You get these two top dogs, and one is if you're Hulu
and fighting for market share, Iguess why would Hulu back out?
There has to be something.
Maybe she's like me and she puttoo many demands on it.
Mari (25:40):
Yeah, I don't know if Hulu could Maybe Hulu.
I don't know, I don't knowulu.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe they didn't think it wasgoing to be worth their while.
Maybe they thought it was goingto be too much of a budget
investment.
I don't know I would love to seeit as disney plus last bit of
news is aka kajiano, who we readrecently Thrown in the Dark.
(26:02):
Her stuff was independentlypublished and it's now being
picked up by SourcebooksCasablanca to be traditionally
published.
So Thrown in the Dark is goingto be republished, re-released
or whatever, traditionallyNovember 4th of this year, and
then the rest of the trilogy andthe standalone novels and all
this stuff will be coming afterthat and they're going to have
(26:23):
all new covers and all that funstuff.
Good job, good for her.
I still haven't started in onreading any of the others, but I
do plan to read the sequels andgo from there.
It was, I enjoyed it.
It was a fun world.
Anybody else have any news?
Ashley (26:41):
Ma'am, I sent you all my news.
I kept you busy this week.
Yes, you did.
Mari (26:47):
You guys all sent me news.
It was very good, I think.
Everybody sent me news.
So, yeah, absolutely appreciateit.
Okay, so on to why we're hereis to talk about that time.
I got drunk, saved a Demon,which is a heck of a title.
(27:08):
We chose this book because it'sBlack History Month and we
actually have been.
I know at least Ash and I havebeen kind of talking about this
book for a little bit, likeyou'll send me things about it,
I'll send you things about it.
And I had read the first one, Ihad read this one a while back
and I had been wanting to getback into it because there are
(27:30):
three of them, so we went withit for this month.
This book was originallypublished January 2nd of 2024.
And let me read the synopsis,then we'll get into it.
Spice Trader Cinnamon's quietlife is turned upside down when
she ends up on a quest with afiery demon.
In this irreverently quirkyrom-com fantasy that is sweet,
(27:53):
steamy and funny as hell, allshe wanted to do was live her
life in peace, maybe get a cat,expand the family spice farm,
really anything that didn'tinvolve going on an adventure
where an orc might rip her faceoff.
But they say the goddess hasfavorites, and if so, sin is
clearly not one of them.
After sin saves the demon,fallon in a wine drunk stupor
(28:14):
fallon reveals that all hereally wants to do is kill an
evil witch, enslaving his people.
And who can blame him?
But now he's dragging cinnamonalong for the ride, whether she
likes it or not.
On the bright side at least hekeeps burning off his shirt.
Heck, yeah, that right there.
That synopsis is like the toneof the book I would say.
So what did we think?
Ashley (28:35):
I loved this book.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Very unserious, very campy, itwas fast-paced.
I was here for it.
Very unserious, very campy, itwas fast-paced, I was here for
it.
It was a good read.
It was a good palate cleanser.
Mari (28:51):
Mm-hmm.
Ashley (28:53):
Because we've read some thick books lately.
Mari (28:56):
Yeah, I agree.
What would you give it as faras your overall?
Ashley (29:01):
rating, it was a three for me, like a three and a half
actually.
Yeah, let me refrain Three anda half.
I enjoyed it.
I got through it fast enough.
It didn't feel like a chore.
I was entertained.
I laughed.
It could have maybe had alittle bit more depth.
Maybe that was what I felt wasmissing, but for 250 pages I
(29:23):
felt like we we got through alot.
I was entertained.
It was a good time.
Why are you glaring at me?
Jonathan (29:29):
oh, campy, I had to like figure out what campy meant
okay what we do in the shadowsis campy yeah, I had to sit down
and think like what made heruse the word campy?
So I'm just trying to word likewe've been together for how
long.
Never has that word came comeout of your mouth.
(29:50):
I'm like well, did she use itcorrectly?
Yeah, you always question mewell, come on, so I think, to
bring out campy you're just mad.
Mari (30:02):
You didn't know that.
So what did you think, Jonathan?
Yeah, what did you?
Jonathan (30:04):
think, oh, interesting , so it was.
So did anyone else listen to itas well as read it?
No, okay.
So the voices were, it was likeSouthern charm voices and it
was like, except for like thedragon dude.
He was pretty like he, exceptfor like um, the uh, uh dragon
dude he was.
(30:25):
He was pretty like.
He had a normal-ish kind oflike.
It was interesting Cause it waslike he was almost like uh, she
was spirited and lightheartedand he was more like very matter
of fact, very, um driven, likethis happens now, kind of like
tone in his voice.
So for me, I felt it was.
(30:46):
I agree it was like it was anice palate cleanser, it was
light-hearted, it was fun um toread, it was it.
It was interesting to see kindof how the story developed and
the and how the you know likethe story developed and the and
(31:07):
how the you know like things.
Just high, high, we're hidingin like plain sight for them.
I don't know I I don't know ifI laughed as much um at all, but
I thought it was, uh, I thoughtit was a good read, uh, I hmm,
stars, I felt it was more spicethan I had read in a little bit
um, which?
So what was it?
(31:28):
It was interesting, I don'tknow.
Uh, let's see.
I would say I think I'm goodreason.
I gave it a five star.
It was a very polite fun readum, it was dirty and clean at
the same time.
Does that make sense?
Ashley (31:42):
Dirty and clean at the same time it does make sense
actually.
Jonathan (31:47):
But yeah, if I had laughed I would have given it a
monster spice, rom-com kind ofdesignation, but I didn't laugh.
Maybe I just need to work on mysense of humor.
Ashley (32:02):
Lower your expectations, I mean humor is difficult.
Mari (32:04):
Humor doesn't always hit the same for every person.
Ashley (32:08):
This is true.
Jonathan (32:10):
I probably need to work on my sense of humor.
I'm the one who's over herelaughing at chaos when that baby
bit the dust, but the books I'msupposed to laugh at I'm not
laughing at.
I don't understand.
I should probably check mymedication.
Yeah, so I would say I enjoyedit.
I would, I would read it againand I would probably continue on
(32:34):
in the series, althoughprobably not going to continue
on in the series this year formyself but I had a lot to do.
Yeah, I would, I would, um, Iwould put the.
I will put the other books inthe series on my um tbr.
Yeah, oh, you know what it isno I think it's a bangening,
(32:55):
that's, I have not had abangening in a while a whole
year I this, I think, uh,although it's very slow,
bangening, it's like.
Remember when I gave you thekilling curse, ashley, and you
looked at me and I, uh, althoughit's very slow, banging, it's
like.
Remember when I gave you thekilling curse, actually, and you
looked at me and I was likeit's gonna, it's slow, it's
gonna take a long time, butit'll happen eventually.
That's a slow setup for me.
So, like on her deathbed whenshe passes away, I'm gonna be
like I got it mom, hogwartsletters coming any day.
(33:17):
Now.
The, the like when he like whatis he?
What is he?
They have to like he bitter andthe and then they like the
mating bond yes, and then he shegets some of her his magic.
Uh, slowly, okay, so it's a slowacting banging, but I think I
(33:40):
think this is a banging.
So yeah, five stars, kelly.
What did you think?
I enjoyed the book.
Mari (33:43):
I thought it was funny banging.
So yeah, five stars, kelly.
What did you think?
Kelly (33:45):
I enjoyed the book.
I thought it was funny.
It reminded me a lot of thatsame style of humor as assistant
to the villain kind of Justkind of funny, the female
character being very headstrongand saying whatever crossed her
mind.
So I thought that was fun.
I thought the book was funny.
It was definitely a light read.
It was enjoyable, so I gave ita three and a half.
(34:05):
I think it was definitely a funread and something you should
read if you're looking forsomething amusing to read in
between.
More serious, books.
Mari (34:15):
I liked that it felt like a cozy fantasy book smashed up
with a monster romance book,which monster romance tends to
have some spice in it.
So it ended up being this cozy,spicy, monster romance
(34:37):
situation, and I liked that alot of the background of the
town was like, felt very likeLouisiana Bayou culture.
So you had like.
Sometimes I like to think aboutthings in terms of food this
should be a shocker to no onewho knows me.
It felt like a bowl of likeCajun spicy pasta, like cheesy,
(34:59):
comfortable, you know, cozy butspicy.
Yeah, I liked it.
I read it last year and thenjust hadn't read the others, and
so this year I reread it forthis and went ahead and read the
other two books, which I wouldalso recommend.
If you like this one.
(35:19):
I'm not going to spoil anythingon any of the other books, but
I would absolutely recommend theother ones as well.
And the same author is comingout with another book, I think
next month, that's.
It's a different series, but itseems like a similar tone.
It's like that time I gotabducted by aliens and I'm in a
rom com I think it's the actualname of the book um which seems
(35:41):
like I love that a fun.
A fun read, if you like this.
So yeah, it was four stars forme.
I enjoyed it.
Would absolutely recommend itmoved fast, way, way faster
right yeah, yeah, and it hadmore in it than I was originally
expecting.
I remember the first time Iread it I was like, oh, this is
(36:01):
going to be like your typicalfantasy, tolkien-esque fantasy,
but with, like, maybe some spiceand maybe some you know humor.
But it ended up being different, had different vibe to it,
because I thought the humor hitmore like Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy or Assistant to theVillain Hitchhiker's Guide to
(36:49):
the Galaxy or Assistant to theVillain and I thought that the
magical be such a deep backstoryin terms of, like, saving these
enslaved peoples.
And it ended up being a um,both a lighter book than I
expected but also touching onsome really good plot points
that I didn't serious topics,yeah, so I I definitely enjoyed
it.
It's definitely a four.
(37:09):
I think that my favorite book inthe series might be the third
one, but either way, it was afun series and I would
absolutely recommend it toanyone.
So what do we think about?
Like the world building.
What do you guys feel aboutthat?
Ashley (37:23):
I thought so.
I think maybe that's whatexceeded my expectations.
Um, and you, you kind ofalready touched on it like we
went to different areas, right,we went from very, very um,
desolate, you know, farming,louisiana, bayou, we, we, we
(37:44):
crossed over some hills, we sawsome vagabonds, like we went to
swamps, we went to cities, wewent to desert, deserted islands
.
Yeah, we, we did a lot oftraveling in less than 300 pages
.
So I again, it was very fastpaced, we covered a lot, we went
(38:09):
to a lot of places, but Ithought it was very well done,
you know, while also addressingsome pretty heavy topics in a
lighthearted way Discrimination,slavery, you know, these were
big, big topics and I think theworld building was probably my
favorite part, for as fast-pacedas it was and as light-hearted
(38:29):
as they made it to be, that wasa five for me, which got husband
I was like I thought it moved.
Jonathan (38:38):
I thought I thought it moved because it moved so fast
and maybe, oh maybe that wouldhave been a good point of humor
where he was like it was like,all right, job done.
She was like yeah, yeah, goodluck on the other three places.
You know kind of thing, peaceout, I'm done here, good, wash
my hands.
And then she's like kind oflike I can see you're like thing
(39:04):
.
And then all of a sudden pow,he's uh, you know, it's like
wait, what do you mean?
Uh, and then they were off onthis adventure.
I didn't think the it felt feltvery much like normal earth,
but like like it.
I think there I would like toknow more about the demons and
the witches and the differentmagics, and I don't think we
(39:24):
went deep enough there.
Like the actual physical worldjust felt like normal to me,
normal, un, undeveloped, kind oflike yeah, there's an island,
similar, nowhere cool, orthere's a city, but it didn't
feel like it was like a moderncity.
It wasn't uh, you know, it justfelt.
Ashley (39:45):
What you're saying is you want more.
Jonathan (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think for what it had in the
short amount of time, I thinkshe did a very good job keeping
in the story what was necessaryto keep the story moving forward
.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah, well, good job.
Ashley (40:07):
What's your rating?
Jonathan (40:08):
Four.
Ashley (40:09):
Oh sorry.
Jonathan (40:11):
How about you, Kelly I ?
Kelly (40:12):
mean, I agree, I think the world building was very well
done for such a short durationof a book.
I mean, right off the bat yougot established into this world
where there was thisdefinitively established
religion that was well thoughtout.
The economy was pretty wellestablished, with the different,
you know, traders specializingin different things.
The establishment that thefamily is this spice trading
(40:34):
family, all this stuff was, youknow, pretty well thought out
and quickly established, withouta whole lot of need for a big
exposition dumping.
So it was pretty well done andI think overall, the the pace of
the world building reallyhelped the story move along
quickly and not bog it down.
Mari (40:52):
So I think it was very well done and I would say it's
definitely a four yeah, for me Iwould say the the fantasy world
building was like a four and ahalf.
I just I really enjoyed theworld of it.
I enjoyed that, that thesetting like her hometown.
(41:13):
I enjoyed the idea that there'sthis like cozy kind of town but
it's also like open in a lot ofways to outsiders and they're
still influenced from otherplaces, like her mom was not
from there.
You know, like the way shedescribed that her mom has this
whole backstory that we, like Iwant to know about.
You know, where's her mom from?
Like what's her mom's story?
(41:34):
Um, and then when the demonswere introduced and it's like,
oh, they're not all like thisone demon that we know, they're
like all sorts of differentkinds of demons from all sorts
of different places, and thenthey're not the bad guys.
They have their own culture andthey were removed from their
(41:55):
homeland to this frozenwasteland.
And yet in all that, even asthe author kept exploring this
world and bringing more and moreelements in, there were pirates
.
I didn't expect them to becomepirates.
Ashley (42:11):
A dancing hyena.
Mari (42:12):
Yeah, a dancing hyena.
But even in the midst of allthat, cinnamon the main
character, I think still feltlike she kept her own
personality.
She's like this reluctantbookworm who likes snacks, and
I'm like same.
Yes, I kind of identify withyou, ma'am.
She pulled that french breadout of her pocket.
Ashley (42:35):
I'm like yes, well, she kept pulling snacks out of her
pocket.
It was like the wizard of oz.
Black bag of never-ending gifts.
Jonathan (42:42):
You guys don't have pocket burgers where you go.
It's a trendy thing.
Mari (42:47):
Yeah, Cinnamon is the one to travel with.
She was funny about it.
Ashley (42:49):
She's like eventually the pocket ends, there's only so
much room.
It wasn't just loaf.
Kelly (42:56):
I mean, she pulled out apples, she pulled out dried
beef.
Mari (43:00):
Yeah, and all the spices she brought with her.
She even said you know, Ialways keep extra snacks in
these pockets I mean, come on,she weaponized, I'm not gonna
say that kelly and I have a baglabeled snacks that it hangs
outside the door, that comeswith us filled with snacks
anytime there's any sort of roadtrip.
(43:20):
But I I'm not going to say thatdoesn't happen either.
Ashley (43:25):
I mean it's a necessary requirement, I would agree.
Jonathan (43:28):
So you guys have a snackle box.
Mari (43:30):
It's a big bag labeled snacks.
Yeah, nice Romance.
What do you think of theromance Romance?
Ashley (43:43):
the romance was also fast paced.
I was here for it, I.
There was nothing wrong withthis road.
There was.
We're not on spice, we're onromance.
I thought the romance wasdelightful.
You saw, you saw somedevelopment right.
You saw some growth forcinnamon.
You know she she had kind ofhad her heart sort of broken and
(44:06):
so she was content with who shewas in the life she was living.
She didn't need adventure.
She had some trauma, right,some family trauma, and she was
like I'm good, I'm good here,like this.
And then in comes this demonwho is flirty and not mean at
(44:26):
all.
Actually, well, to her anyway,in hindsight, you mean other
people and I, I liked it, Iliked everything about the
romance.
It was a four for me.
I mean for again, for such asmall book, um, for as many
pages that there were.
I, I did see a lot of growthfor cinnamon.
(44:47):
I think fallon was prettylevel-loaded and you know I was
impressed with his admissionthat he knew that they were
mates, you know from basicallythe get-go, and he didn't force
that idea upon her, herimmediately.
Like some other books we'veread A plus for consent and I
(45:12):
really liked it.
I think it was a four.
It was fun and it was flirtyand you know there was that
touch her and you'll die trope,which I'm a fan of, and he
listened to her.
Yeah, that was a four for meand he listened to her.
Yeah, that was a four for meand he was a dragon Interesting.
Jonathan (45:34):
I liked it, it was fun , it was flirty to me.
I thought he was more directthan she was, but she was not in
denial and she was.
She was very much empoweredthroughout the, throughout the
story, um, and then even whenshe had like her, when she had
(45:58):
her pick of the litter, um, itwas uh, it was still very much
like, almost like yeah, yeah,that's my mate, we haven't done
the whole thing yet, but that'sthat's my mate.
Like to kind of get out of itlike it was very interesting how
, um, and like how he was gonna.
(46:19):
He would even be willing to belike oh, yeah, I guess, like, if
you guys want, if your familydoes the ceremony, we could do a
ceremony like it's veryaccommodating he was, he was, he
was and she was, I think,initially when he was, when he
was like hey, um, this is, thisis what I think is the right
thing.
And she and she was like didn'tyou just like come in my house
(46:40):
and like try to take out myfamily?
semantics yeah, he was like well, sort of, but like you guys are
trying to kill me, like howelse was I gonna do this?
So, like I didn't kill anyone,I was just maybe I like shoved
somebody around, but yeah, youguys were you guys want to kill
me?
So you started yeah, prettymuch like that's yeah, move the
goal line a little bit there, um, but yeah, I thought it was.
(47:02):
That was like um, what's theword?
That like ignorant, flirting onhis end and like on her end she
was like let me just teach youhow to do this the cooking
through love language, or cooklike that, or like the love
language through cooking, orlike just him saying, him making
(47:22):
comments.
uh, like you know, like I Idon't eat your stuff, but I saw,
I saw it and I thought likeI'll try to make this and I hope
it didn't really mess it up,like that was.
That was.
That was interesting to me, itwas sweet yeah.
Ashley (47:36):
And I like how you were going to say it was interesting,
like you didn't have adifferent adjective or it was
sweet husband, what he did wassweet, it was kind, it was, it
was thoughtful, not interesting.
Jonathan (47:48):
It does not compute I know I'm trying to help you here
uh, yeah, so I I thought inthat in that space it was
because it was light in florida.
I'll give it a.
I'll give it a five.
Was it sweet, kelly?
How'd you feel, kelly?
Kelly (48:05):
I mean I thought the romance was fine.
It had a lot of the sametypical tropes we see in a lot
of fantasy romance books.
You know the toucher and you'lldie, all that kind of thing,
the fated mates etc, etc.
But what I enjoyed most aboutthe romance was the romance that
happened between two of theside characters the what's her
(48:30):
name, the lady that owned thebar that then basically became
the pirate queen, and the snakedemon.
That was kind of an amusingromance that brewed in the
background.
I like that.
Jonathan (48:43):
I like how she controlled.
I like how they shared thepower too.
Kelly (48:50):
Yeah, so I thought the romance was fine.
I think it had a lot of tropes,a lot of typical stuff, so I
feel like it was good, but justkind of average.
So I said it was a three.
Mari (49:04):
Yeah, for me, I liked tetra and you'll die thing.
I liked the.
Um, uh, he fell.
It felt like he fell first kindof thing.
I I did not.
I guess the, the flirting, the,the romance, the build-up did
not hit for me so much onromance, I felt like the, the
faded mates was used as ashortcut to romance.
(49:27):
They're Fated Mates, thereforethey like each other.
So for me the romance buildupdidn't hit.
So I have romance as a threeInteresting.
Jonathan (49:40):
Yeah.
Mari (49:47):
Sweet is what you mean, Ashley Spicy.
Ashley (49:52):
On to spicy.
What do we think of the spice?
There was a lot of spice.
This is more spice we've had ina minute.
I thought it was polite spice.
I thought, um, it was wellthought out spice.
I thought it was sweet spiceand I thought it was spicy spice
and I thought it was a four,though there was not.
I mean there there was one partwhere it was like four pages of
like spice.
I was like swipe, swipe, swipe,dang like this goes on and on
(50:14):
and on and on um.
So kudos to the author forreally punching it in there.
Our tv's talking again.
I think, sorry, maybe youshould just turn it off.
Um, it was a lot of spice and II thought it was good spice.
I was not mad at the spice itwas a bangening.
Jonathan (50:34):
You can't be mad at the spice.
There's a bangening.
Oh, um yeah, I, I.
It's been a while.
It's been a while, so we had abanging.
I was, I was excited for thebanging.
What is happening?
Just turn it off, sorry.
Mari (50:54):
Our electronics cannot be controlled.
Jonathan (50:55):
The TV wants to give its rating.
It's insane.
Remind me to tell you the TVstory later.
Anyway, the banging.
Ashley (51:06):
Focus.
Jonathan (51:10):
Yeah, how could you not focus when a banging is
occurring?
I thought the the spice I.
I wanted it to happen earlier.
I think it's the only negativeI have for it is that like, let
it, let it happen in the in theriver you like your ladies to be
a hoe.
That's why I chose you.
I'll give it a four.
Mari (51:31):
Kelly, what'd you think?
Kelly (51:32):
It was definitely more spice than what we've normally
seen in the last few books.
I guess I thought it was prettydecent.
I don't know that it wassomething that was absolutely
amazing or super well written oranything like that.
I feel like it was fine, so Igave it a three for me.
Mari (51:51):
I put the spice at a four.
Um, because a lot of this waswhen I would read stuff about it
.
It was described as like a cozyfantasy more than a monster
romance.
Um, so for cozy fantasy, I feltlike I had more spice than I
would expect of a cozy fantasy.
It's about as much spice as Iwould expect of a monster
romance, but I thought the spicewas well done.
(52:11):
I like that.
The world seemed to be sexpositive.
You know, there was no shamearound sex.
I think that consent was welldone.
I thought that, like themequally, being aware of each
other's needs and wants, waswell done.
Yeah, I think it was good.
I liked it.
So, before we get to the lastquestion, um, I was as I was
(52:35):
reading it, I was like okay, sothat town where they freed all
the demons, right?
Did everybody else in that townjust like burn up?
Ashley (52:45):
they all just died when they set the town ablaze and
they're like see ya, we're onthe pirate ship.
I think they were just kind ofleft to their own.
Mari (52:55):
Ferdinating the villagers To figure it out.
Ashley (52:57):
Yeah, you've been liberated.
Now you get to deal with thecleanup by yourself.
Yeah, okay, bye.
Mari (53:04):
I was like, okay, so one person got the opportunity to
get on the ship the tavernkeeper, chickie.
She's like oh, demons areactually people and slavery is
bad.
Everybody else had noopportunity, no no they were not
part of the band, not at all.
(53:25):
But, yeah, I enjoyed this worlda lot.
The world gets wider and deeperand, uh, there's some really
interesting stuff that happensin the second and third mainly
the third book.
Um, but second and third book,so I I would, if you guys
enjoyed this, I would recommendthe second and third book.
Um, do we think that this is akissing book?
Is this a kissing book?
Jonathan (53:44):
yeah, yeah, I'll give it.
Kelly (53:46):
I'll make a kissing book yeah, I think it has to be a
kissing book same same.
Mari (53:51):
Oh, look at us guys, look at us all right.
Is there anything else anybodywants to say?
Ashley (54:00):
about the book.
I mean, again, just kudos tothe author.
I feel like we touched on a lotof, you know, very heavy topics
, um, modern and historic ones.
Uh, like you were saying, bodypositivity, sex positivity,
discrimination, slavery, youknow, there there were
(54:22):
characters where they admitted,right, like, like holy the
tavern lady, was it Usha?
Where she, you know, therealization dawned on her that
the demons were being kept in,basically slavery, and how they
(54:42):
were sentient, you know, theyhad thoughts, they had feelings
and, oh shit, I've been fuckingup this whole time and just
allowing this to happen.
Um, and so it was.
It was a very brief scene, but Ithought that that was very
touching and, um, appropriatebecause it was common sense to
cinnamon, right, but Usha hadn'treally known any different.
(55:08):
And then, when she did, sheapologized to the first demon
that she saw, right, like,hugged him, sobbing right on to
fallon, um, so, you know, kudosto the author for really taking
some very heavy topics andmaking them, I want to say, easy
to digest, but I feel likethat's really simplifying it,
(55:30):
but I I really did enjoy to talkabout.
Mari (55:32):
I would say right.
Ashley (55:34):
Yeah, she just like she, just she built this whole world
basically and, like Kelly wassaying, you know the whole
religion.
I kind of glanced over thatmyself.
But yeah, I mean it was really.
She did a lot in a very shorttime frame and I really enjoyed
that about her writing.
Kelly (55:58):
I think it was interesting because you know she
established this religioncontext in her story and then
the whole gist of part of thestory is all of these villagers
and all these people had justalways been following this
religion without questioning it.
And so you know, kind of, isthis a comment on modern day
religion and just following whatyour religion tells you,
without ever questioning yourreligion, or does your religious
(56:20):
beliefs make any actual sense?
So that was an interestingangle to the story as well.
Mari (56:27):
Yeah, or at the very least , questioning the actions that
your religious leaders ask youto do.
Yeah, I really enjoyed thisauthor.
Like I said, I read all threeof the books and the two
novellas.
I've also read her.
She wrote a little shortnovella for Christmas.
(56:47):
That was very funny.
It's what's a Girl Gotta Do toGet on the Naughty List, which I
would recommend as a holidayread.
It's a Krampus holiday, modernday like fun little story.
The book that she has comingout is actually going to be out
by the time that this episodereleases.
So the book releases onFebruary 18th.
(57:12):
We're recording on February15th.
The book is called I GotAbducted by Aliens and Now I'm
Trapped in a Rom-Com and thecover has a female character
being held in the arms of likean alien looking character and
there's dinosaurs in thebackground.
So I really like the.
I did not look up and see whodid these these her artwork on
(57:37):
the covers but I really like thestyle of of the artwork on
these covers.
Where it's it's very likecartoony, but also lush and
detailed.
Yeah, it was very well done,alrighty.
So thanks for listening to OfSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck out notes, rate and review
(57:59):
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If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode,
(58:19):
give us your opinion, any ofthat stuff.
Please feel free to contact uson any of those options or email
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If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode,
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(58:42):
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And, last but not least, wehope that you'll join us in two
weeks for our next episode, whenwe'll be discussing onyx storm
by rebecca yaros, the latestinstallment in the imperion
series bye, buckle up guys, yesyou.
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 (00:32):
Hello and welcome to Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.
Kelly (00:36):
Hey, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.
Ashley (00:39):
Hey guys, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
Jonathan (00:41):
Hey y'all, it's JP, what's good.
Mari (00:45):
All the books.
All the books are good.
That is the answer.
All the good book readingchoices.
Today we're going to bediscussing that Time.
I Got Drunk and Saved a Demonby Kimberly Lemming.
But first, as always, some news, and we actually have a good
chunk of news this time, so wewill get to it.
Have a good, good chunk of uhnews this time, so we will get
(01:08):
to it.
The first thing is thatguillermo del toro is doing a
frankenstein movie.
It's been like 20 years in themaking because he's been saying
forever that he wants to do that.
It's going to be, as far as Iunderstand, pretty closely based
off of the mary shelleyoriginal.
Oscar isaac is going to be DrFrankenstein, jacob Elordi is
going to be the creature.
It's going to be on Netflix inNovember and I'm really excited
(01:31):
to see what he's going to dowith this story, because I have
watched almost everything thathe's directed and I really like
his style.
So I'm very excited about this.
Does anybody else look atGuillermo, the total fan here?
Ashley (01:47):
I appreciate the artwork .
I think he is definitely amaster of his craft.
Not all of the monster storiesare for me.
I think the last one I watchedwas the and I'm forgetting the
title, the, the, not swamp.
Mari (02:07):
It wasn't like swamp thing like the one, the one the shape
of water.
Ashley (02:09):
That, yeah, yeah, shape of water, shape of water, which
was amazing, yeah, um, actually,I was really moved.
It won like that.
Mari (02:19):
That year it won like best picture, best director and best
like soundtrack.
Like it really swept everything.
It was like 2018 yeah, I love.
I like that movie.
I like um his hellboy.
One and two, I thought werereally well done.
He did pacific rim.
He did pacific rim.
Yeah, that's interesting he.
(02:41):
He did the second Blade movie.
He did Crimson Peak, which, tome, crimson Peak and the 1999
Dracula movie are like the twopinnacle examples of like what I
think a good gothic horrorstory is visually told.
Ashley (03:01):
Yeah, I mean I'm excited for Oscar Isaac.
Yes, sign me up Also.
Yes, mean I'm excited for OscarIsaac.
Mari (03:08):
Yes, Sign me up Also.
Yes, Absolutely Also.
Ashley (03:11):
Yes, yeah he was Well done sir.
Mari (03:13):
Did you see Moon Knight?
Did you guys watch Moon Knight?
Ashley (03:16):
Yeah, yeah, we liked it actually.
He was very good in that.
Yeah, I agree.
Was that canceled?
Who's Oscar canceled?
Kelly (03:23):
I believe so Moon Knight it wasn't canceled, they just
did one season.
Ashley (03:27):
Oh, just one season.
Kelly (03:27):
Yeah, it was the whole thing where Marvel was doing one
season of a show and that wasit.
They did one season ofWandaVision, one season of Moon
Knight.
Ashley (03:36):
Also Daddy Duke in the first Dune yes, oh, I forget his
name now.
Mari (03:43):
Duke Leto.
Jonathan (03:44):
Leto.
Mari (03:45):
Thank you.
Jonathan (03:47):
So is this going to be a series or a?
Mari (03:49):
movie?
No, it's a movie.
Jonathan (03:52):
And where did it air in?
Mari (03:54):
Netflix in November.
Jonathan (03:56):
Oh, I can't wait so long.
Ashley (03:58):
Well, I mean fall Frankenstein.
Mari (04:01):
It'd be something good to look forward to after Halloween
and HHN.
And you have Frankenstein.
Yeah, we something good to lookforward to, you know, after
Halloween and HHN you haveFrankenstein.
Jonathan (04:08):
Yeah, we still have our Christmas tree up.
Mari (04:12):
You can put some little electric bolts on it for
Frankenstein, it's all good.
Jonathan (04:18):
Our desanification process needs to begin this
weekend.
Mari (04:24):
I'm just saying you could slap some shamrocks on it and
then keep it through next month.
Jonathan (04:29):
Keep all year.
Yeah, that's an idea, ash.
Mari (04:32):
You could do some eggs and bunny rabbits on it for Easter,
little mini beach balls forsummer, I'm just saying, and
then at that point you're intoHHN season.
Jonathan (04:42):
Think about it, ash, you could do that Switch the
beach balls, which would just belike.
Mari (04:46):
Some beads on it for Mardi Gras.
Jonathan (04:47):
Ornaments.
Ashley (04:48):
It sounds like you're volunteering.
Jonathan (04:50):
Yeah, I'll volunteer to take it down.
Ashley (04:52):
That's a lot of effort.
That is To decorate it everyseason.
This thing's not small.
Jonathan (05:02):
This looks cool though .
Mari (05:06):
Are these?
Jonathan (05:07):
shots.
Are these like stills from themovie?
Yeah, I like the use of light,I like that.
There's like that one.
It's not as dark or dank as youmight think, um, the the images
are, but it reminds me ofwhat's that.
What was that movie?
Uh, sherlock holmes, except helooks like he's up in a tower
overlooking things.
This like, um, yeah it, itlooks wild, like he's just
(05:30):
almost able to survey, um andjust oversee what's going on
around him in this tower.
And I mean, well, I guess thetower makes sense, right,
because he is powered bylightning.
Mari (05:42):
Yeah, yeah it's wild.
Jonathan (05:46):
I would like to be on this set just to see it, just to
explore this set.
Mari (05:50):
This looks cool so here's my thinking um in the past.
Well, let me let me put it twothings, and this is my crazy
predictions.
Um, frankenstein is a universalmonster and in the past,
universal has teamed up up withNetflix stuff for HHN.
I'm just saying what better wayto promote this thing that's
happening in November than doinga Frankenstein house at HHN
(06:12):
leading up to it?
Ashley (06:13):
I feel like this tees us up for the next item of news.
Yes, it does Very bigFrankenstein-y, and in more
Frankenstein news.
Mari (06:34):
The MinaLima design team is doing the Frankenstein, the
classic that was serendipitous,and gold foiling on like a cloth
cover and then on the insideyou have these like pop-up
things and pull out things andjust beautiful detailed imagery.
Um, I think I've got almost allof them.
(06:55):
I may be missing, like alice inwonderland and wizard of oz,
because I already had anotherversion so I wasn't gonna get it
, but I think I'm gonna'm goingto get it.
If I'm going to order this one,then I'm going to probably
order those two as well.
Kelly (07:07):
If you order it from their website.
Mari (07:10):
You can get them signed, but they're in the UK so of
course shipping is expensive.
But it releases in October, sowe could read it in October and
then watch it in November.
That's all I'm saying.
Jonathan (07:21):
Oh, interesting.
Ashley (07:23):
Very well-timed Mimi Yuma.
Yeah, I'm saying, ohinteresting, very well timed.
Mari (07:26):
Yeah, yeah, it works out.
And if you happen to be in theuk, in london or in edinburgh,
they have mina lima, like minimuseums I don't know what to
call them.
I guess they're stores butthey're mini museums but you can
go and like, look at all thesethings they've done and they
have these really cool displays.
That, yeah, the london one isthe one, the original one, and
(07:47):
then they just last year openedone up in scotland, in edinburgh
.
So I would absolutely recommend, if you're going to the area or
you live in the area or you'rein the easy travel of the area,
it's a it's a fun, fun thing todo.
All right, the next thing wehave, continuing on the horror
monster theme, is House of Night, the YA vampire series.
(08:09):
It's going to be adapted tofilm.
The books were written by PCand Kristen Kast.
I have not read them, butthey've just gotten picked up
for film.
So yay for more, hopefully,good vampire stories.
Have either of you either ofyou guys read it or, kelly, I
have?
Ashley (08:25):
not so I have.
I don't think any only you andI are going to like this, mari.
If they do it halfway good, Ithink it's probably a little bit
more.
It's definitely YA, if mymemory serves, and I I remember
reading this in my very, veryyoung adulthood and being a big
(08:46):
fan, and I think vampirism.
Vampirism was something thatyou inherited, um, almost like
puberty.
So it wasn't something,although I think there were
instances where it was, you knowknow, like a like, you know
traditional, like you wereturned into it, but this very
(09:07):
much was, you know, like anacademy.
So when you turned, when youturned of age and you turned,
you had to go to school and alot of people had, you know,
their own individual gifts andthings and there was a hierarchy
and or a monarchy.
So I do remember it being awhole big thing and there's a
lot of books, like a lot ofbooks.
(09:28):
I think I have eight of them.
I think there's like 12 or 13 ofthem yeah there's at least 12,
I think, from the maincharacter's point of view, and
then there were several novellaslike four or five of them.
So this is a pretty big worldand the fandom has been wanting
this for a very, very long time,so this is big news for them.
Mari (09:50):
I added it to my Libby, so I'm now waiting on it to become
available, because it's not onKindle limited.
But I'll probably read at leastthe first one and get a vibe
for it for sure, cause it'svampires, so I'm going to at
least give it a try.
Ashley (10:04):
Yeah, PC and Kristen our mother and it's vampires so I'm
gonna at least give it a try.
Yeah, pc, let's be honest, pcand kristin are mother and
daughter.
Um, and I've read pc castrecently and I remember thinking
this felt very, still veryyoung like, but also like very
quick and fast paced, almostquippy.
So I'm excited for this.
I think this is gonna be agreat time for me.
(10:25):
I can't vouch for anybody elsethough, sorry in advance I mean
I'll give it a shot.
Mari (10:30):
yeah, so I'm down to give it a try.
Um, speaking of giving it a try, we talked, I think last week
or the week before, about theblack dagger brotherhood.
That was, uh, an older vampirebook series that was getting a
TV show.
It's a series is by JR Ward, soI recently read the first one
of those and as I was reading itI was like this feels very
(10:54):
dated.
And then I look at thepublishing date and it's like,
oh, this is literally a 20 yearold book.
Okay, let me give it thebenefit of the doubt.
Ashley (11:04):
Yeah, you got to give it a few.
Mari (11:06):
that's funny yeah, yeah, so it was.
It was actually prettyinteresting though.
Um, if anyone is interested inthat, I would say give it a shot
.
Just realize it's literally 20years old.
Remember the world 20 years agoright it was not the world we
live in now, um, but it had somereally interesting concepts in
the story and that one vampirismis also inherited, and also
(11:33):
something that you either cameinto or not when you came of age
.
In that case of age is like 25years old.
But yeah, it was fun.
I mean I'm going to read thenext one of those.
So it's always fun thinking youhave read a lot of the vampire
stuff out there and then all ofa sudden it's like all this
stuff is coming out that I hadnever heard of, never followed,
and now I'm getting excitedabout more vampire stuff.
Good times.
(11:56):
Let me jump to the last news wehad, because it's also
semi-vampire related.
Allie Hazelwood announced thesequel to Bride is coming out on
October 7th of this year, whichseems very fast to me.
The thing is, I've alreadypre-ordered books that are
coming out in like October andNovember.
But yeah, so Bride is herpublishing debut.
(12:20):
That was not just acontemporary romance, it was,
you know, was vampire andwerewolf, and it was
well-received, it was popular.
She's going to be at theRomanticyCon in Orlando that
we're going to be going to thisyear In October actually, and
this book, the sequel to Bride,comes out at the beginning of
that month, so interesting.
Jonathan (12:42):
Yeah.
Mari (12:43):
That should be fun.
Jonathan (12:49):
If the story continues , for the parts that I've gotten
through um, I look forward toit, so I'm I'll hold back until
I finish.
Uh, bride, but once um so far.
I'd be interested in more yeahhigh praise coming.
Mari (13:03):
I like her um.
I like her writing style.
She originally started writingfan fiction and got very popular
and then published her firstbook, which I believe was love
hypothesis, like a um kylo ren,um ray type um fan.
Ashley (13:24):
That's what I heard.
Mari (13:25):
In modern STEM, and so that's what several I think
that's I believe I'm going offmemory here that's what all her
other published books are is is,you know, contemporary romance
in the STEM world, which some ofthem are really good.
I've enjoyed some of them.
I think I've read all but two,but yeah, I thought the bride
was them.
I think I've read all but two,but yeah, I thought the Bride
(13:47):
was fun.
I think anyone who likes thewriting style of her other books
would enjoy it and anyone wholikes vampire and or werewolf
you know monster romance typestuff, would enjoy the Bride, or
Bride I keep saying the Bride,it's just Bride.
Jonathan (14:03):
Yeah, even Bride feels STEM-ish or STEM adjacent bride
or bride.
I keep saying that bride, it'sjust bride.
Yeah, even bride feels um stemish like it's or stem.
Mari (14:09):
I agree.
I agree, yeah, because Ibelieve and this is going off
memory her background.
Like her, her day job is instem.
She's a scientist of some kind,I want to say chemist.
But I love that, that's goingoff off memory, but she's,
that's her main gig and so sheis pretty well versed in that
world.
I was gonna say write what youknow, right?
(14:29):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Um, and then the last bit ofnews I have is that hulu will
not be proceeding with theakatar tv show.
Surprise, surprise, they yeah,they've had it since 2021.
It was going to be their firstfantasy series and they are now
letting it go, which it's kindof sad, but also, I think, maybe
(14:50):
kind of good, because maybesomebody else will pick it up
and actually run with it yeah, Imean I was surprised at the
hulu pic from the gecko,especially with when the whole
you know disney thing went down.
Ashley (15:01):
That did not seem to be well.
I mean, they do the handmaid'stale very well.
I will say that, yeah, um, so Ithink that was really my only
big hope for akatar.
I don't think this is the endof akatar, though I think this
will get produced where wouldyou put it?
I think you have to do it withlike max or amazon.
Amazon might be a problembecause of fourth wing, the
(15:25):
fourth wing adaptation.
So they there are probablyother studios that will bid
higher amazon and the michael bjordan productions will want to
invest into fourth wing and notcompete with that is my guess.
So maybe max, just becausethey're both big budget
productions and big fantasyromanticy right yeah, it's very,
(15:46):
it's in the very similar veinand everything right.
Jonathan (15:49):
It'd be hard for one to do both could you buy rights
without having to produce it?
Could you just buy the rightsto eliminate your competition?
So if you're amazon, amazon'sgod, I mean, I guess you could,
but I think there's money to bemade in it, like there's a cult
following.
Ashley (16:03):
Yeah, but you can throttle the release.
Jonathan (16:07):
It's already been done .
Ashley (16:09):
I think if she inks another deal, because Hulu and
Disney sat on it for four years.
So I think if she's going toink another deal, she's going to
want it made is my guess.
Kelly (16:18):
Yeah, a lot of times.
These deals usually have atimer on it.
You have to release a moviewithin so long or you lose the
rights, and that's why you getthese shadow film effects.
So, like Sony wanted to hold onto the rights to the Fantastic
Four, so they made a FantasticFour movie and never released it
.
And that other studio did thatwith that Batgirl movie.
Mari (16:43):
That's what I was going to ask Brendan Fraser and Batgirl
right they?
Kelly (16:46):
made a Batgirl movie but never released it.
They basically moved it andmade it so they could say they
made it so that they would thenkeep the rights to make any
future sequels and stuff.
So that kind of thing happensin Hollywood a lot, where they
make the movie or do it.
Well, it depends, I guess.
Ashley (17:03):
Sarah, don't do it.
Kelly (17:03):
Sarah, right, I guess it depends on what you think about
it from, you know, from theshitty standpoint of the bean
counter executive.
You know, if we make a reallycrappy movie and never actually
send it to special effects, youknow, don't spend all of the
money on special effects like itshould just spend.
You know enough to make it looklike a crappy 1970s effect
(17:24):
level movie.
And then you know we don't haveto market it, we don't have to
deal with distribution cost etc.
Etc.
You know, is it worth thetrade-off of being able to keep
the rights to it?
Ashley (17:35):
that's dumb as shit.
Mari (17:37):
Don't do it, sarah yeah, man, if they, if they've made a
agatar and made Throne of Glass,like whoever does those, if
they do it, and they do it well,they just have to do it halfway
.
Ashley (17:50):
It doesn't even have to be that good, I think at this
point, we're all so damn thirstyfor something else from her.
Kelly (17:56):
Yeah, the perfect example of this and rights distribution
and all this stuff is youremember the Dick Tracy movie
with Warren Beatty, right?
So Warren Beatty was alwayslike a huge Dick Tracy fan.
That was like his thing.
He wanted to make a Dick Tracymovie his entire life, et cetera
, all of that stuff.
So one of the funny things thathappened with that is that Dick
(18:19):
Tracy actually got the rightsto make the movies, or Warren
Beatty got the right to make theDick Tracy movies and any Dick
Tracy films in the future.
As long as a Dick Tracy movie ismade every so often, a sequel
is made every so often.
So back in 2002, the originalDick Tracy right holders tribune
(18:42):
media tried to sue Beatty forthe rights back and Disney said
they were never going to make asequel.
So Dick Tracy said, well, sinceI have the rights, I'm going to
make a sequel.
So he was making shitty littlehome movie sequels Literally.
You can look this up.
The story is crazy.
He was making basically littleyou know shitty home movies
(19:03):
dressed as Dick Tracy, and hewould, you know shitty home
movies dressed as dick tracy,and he would, you know, release
them and that would fulfill thecontracts that he would retain
the rights.
I love a petty queen, yeah, soI mean even.
Yeah, I think it was in 2022 or2023.
He released another one whereall it was was him and dick
tracy costume on a Zoom callwith four other people talking
(19:26):
like he was in Dick Tracy, likehe was in a Dick Tracy character
, and that gave him renewed therights for him for another seven
years Magical.
So he was so bitter aboutDisney not making a sequel that
that's what he has been doing toretain the rights so that
nobody else can make a DickTracy movie.
Ashley (19:45):
Fuck yeah.
Jonathan (19:46):
I can make a Dick Tracy movie, fuck yeah.
Kelly (19:49):
I thought, well, that first Dick Tracy movie was kind
of shitty.
Jonathan (19:51):
Well, yeah, I mean, it wasn't a great movie, but I
mean, yeah, if you look at itthrough the lens of like a
fluffy film, then it makes sense, campy yeah.
It's like Get Smart meets.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit to me?
Kelly (20:05):
Yeah, so now Warren Beatty.
Because of Tribune Media goingbankrupt.
Warren Beatty essentially holdsthe rights for everything
related to Dick Tracy, as longas he continues to make those
movies every so often.
Ashley (20:18):
Amazing, interesting.
You know who messed up you knowwho messed up.
Kelly (20:22):
Anybody who wants to read about this, just Google Warren
Beatty, dick Tracy, copyrightbattle and read this story.
That in itself could be aHollywood drama movie about this
and the petty feud between DickTracy and Disney and everything
it's hilarious.
Jonathan (20:40):
The people who messed up like a sweetheart deal like
that were um, was it?
Uh, the, the toy company thathad the star Wars rights in the
from the beginning, all they hadto do was produce, give them
$10,000 a year in royalties andthey would retain the, the
rights, in perpetuity.
And somebody forgot to cut acheck one year and then they
(21:02):
went back to renegotiating.
It was like and he's like, thatwas a mistake and then we paid
for it.
But, like those deals, likeevery once in a while I mean,
these are humans striking thesedeals.
But I'd be pretty I don't knowthat you'd get me to sign a deal
, uh, of that nature.
Um, if I was, if I was sarah andI was writing a deal, it'd be
(21:25):
like hey, this is going to bepay or play.
If you're going to time me upfor four years, five years, six
years, I want money in order tokeep me on the, on the, in the
benches, on the bench thenthat's cool.
You can produce it at your ownthing, but you're going to get
this storyline and you're notgoing to get any of my other
work you might have.
Uh, I'm not even going to giveyou right A first refusal and if
(21:47):
you go two years and youhaven't produced it, the money's
going to go up.
I want another payment.
They're like I want you to.
Are you going to pay me upfront for the rights and then
they're going to pay me everytwo years until you produce the
film, and every two years thefilm and every two years the
money's going to go up.
And if they don't want to signit at the school, I'll just go
somewhere to have it made.
If you believe in your work atthat level.
(22:08):
After reading ACOTAR and thenreading TOG, can I call it TOG?
Why can't I call it TOG?
You sure cannot I want to callit TOG.
After reading TOG, why does theother one get to be a word, but
(22:28):
this one can't be?
Ashley (22:29):
T-O-G.
Jonathan (22:31):
I like Tog better.
Ashley (22:34):
The G is capitalized, it's T-O-G.
Jonathan (22:37):
Yeah, I don't capitalize the O.
Mari (22:39):
Nobody asked you.
You can make a T of G.
Jonathan (22:52):
Yeah, I like the throwing a glass um.
Ashley (22:53):
The first one I like more, so is my tv on.
Sorry, sometimes our tvrandomly starts making music.
Jonathan (22:57):
Sorry the night after the night after the super bowl,
the morning after, my phone likeerupted into an automatic like
youtube play, uh of, like atouchdown, and at like 4 30 am
it was like what is that?
I don't know how to shut it off.
Um, anyway, uh, yeah.
(23:18):
So the the throne of glass bookseems more entertaining to me.
It's not, as I guess.
I don't know, if I was her,that's the series I would want
to have made.
Ashley (23:31):
I have a limited, that's because you haven't read any of
the other books.
Jonathan (23:34):
Yeah, I've been trying to tell you.
Mari (23:39):
But I think somebody needs to make them.
You're going to make so muchmoney by making them.
Come on, people.
Jonathan (23:50):
Who are the two giants right now?
Sarah and uh, and mother,what's her name?
Rebecca?
Giants in the in this space arethose the two those the two big
dogs?
Yeah, they're definitely yeah,those are the two like most,
most like best selling.
Mari (24:04):
I would say jla is up there, we're going by sales so
are we.
Jonathan (24:07):
Are we like just looking for if one gets a series
, the other one gets a series,or are these companies trying to
lock down one of these twoauthors into into a commitment?
Ashley (24:18):
well, I mean rebecca's already committed and so was
sarah up until recently.
So I mean, I don't know that.
Jonathan (24:26):
I don't think I understand your question well,
the the question is if so, sarahand rebecca, they got to get
locked down into a contract tohave these, these, uh, their
work produced on screen, someone one type of screen.
If you're a competitor, ifyou're a market rival, and
(24:47):
Rebecca's got a deal with yourmarket rival, are you then
trying to go out and findsomething in the same vein?
And if that's the case andSarah is open now to receiving
offers, do you just jump on it?
Is that the thing like WWF andWCW?
(25:14):
You gotta get these two rivalsand see what happens.
Ashley (25:20):
I don't know, you're getting too businessy now, sir
Ford versus Chevy.
Jonathan (25:25):
You get these two top dogs, and one is if you're Hulu
and fighting for market share, Iguess why would Hulu back out?
There has to be something.
Maybe she's like me and she puttoo many demands on it.
Mari (25:40):
Yeah, I don't know if Hulu could Maybe Hulu.
I don't know, I don't knowulu.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe they didn't think it wasgoing to be worth their while.
Maybe they thought it was goingto be too much of a budget
investment.
I don't know I would love to seeit as disney plus last bit of
news is aka kajiano, who we readrecently Thrown in the Dark.
(26:02):
Her stuff was independentlypublished and it's now being
picked up by SourcebooksCasablanca to be traditionally
published.
So Thrown in the Dark is goingto be republished, re-released
or whatever, traditionallyNovember 4th of this year, and
then the rest of the trilogy andthe standalone novels and all
this stuff will be coming afterthat and they're going to have
(26:23):
all new covers and all that funstuff.
Good job, good for her.
I still haven't started in onreading any of the others, but I
do plan to read the sequels andgo from there.
It was, I enjoyed it.
It was a fun world.
Anybody else have any news?
Ashley (26:41):
Ma'am, I sent you all my news.
I kept you busy this week.
Yes, you did.
Mari (26:47):
You guys all sent me news.
It was very good, I think.
Everybody sent me news.
So, yeah, absolutely appreciateit.
Okay, so on to why we're hereis to talk about that time.
I got drunk, saved a Demon,which is a heck of a title.
(27:08):
We chose this book because it'sBlack History Month and we
actually have been.
I know at least Ash and I havebeen kind of talking about this
book for a little bit, likeyou'll send me things about it,
I'll send you things about it.
And I had read the first one, Ihad read this one a while back
and I had been wanting to getback into it because there are
(27:30):
three of them, so we went withit for this month.
This book was originallypublished January 2nd of 2024.
And let me read the synopsis,then we'll get into it.
Spice Trader Cinnamon's quietlife is turned upside down when
she ends up on a quest with afiery demon.
In this irreverently quirkyrom-com fantasy that is sweet,
(27:53):
steamy and funny as hell, allshe wanted to do was live her
life in peace, maybe get a cat,expand the family spice farm,
really anything that didn'tinvolve going on an adventure
where an orc might rip her faceoff.
But they say the goddess hasfavorites, and if so, sin is
clearly not one of them.
After sin saves the demon,fallon in a wine drunk stupor
(28:14):
fallon reveals that all hereally wants to do is kill an
evil witch, enslaving his people.
And who can blame him?
But now he's dragging cinnamonalong for the ride, whether she
likes it or not.
On the bright side at least hekeeps burning off his shirt.
Heck, yeah, that right there.
That synopsis is like the toneof the book I would say.
So what did we think?
Ashley (28:35):
I loved this book.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Very unserious, very campy, itwas fast-paced.
I was here for it.
Very unserious, very campy, itwas fast-paced, I was here for
it.
It was a good read.
It was a good palate cleanser.
Mari (28:51):
Mm-hmm.
Ashley (28:53):
Because we've read some thick books lately.
Mari (28:56):
Yeah, I agree.
What would you give it as faras your overall?
Ashley (29:01):
rating, it was a three for me, like a three and a half
actually.
Yeah, let me refrain Three anda half.
I enjoyed it.
I got through it fast enough.
It didn't feel like a chore.
I was entertained.
I laughed.
It could have maybe had alittle bit more depth.
Maybe that was what I felt wasmissing, but for 250 pages I
(29:23):
felt like we we got through alot.
I was entertained.
It was a good time.
Why are you glaring at me?
Jonathan (29:29):
oh, campy, I had to like figure out what campy meant
okay what we do in the shadowsis campy yeah, I had to sit down
and think like what made heruse the word campy?
So I'm just trying to word likewe've been together for how
long.
Never has that word came comeout of your mouth.
(29:50):
I'm like well, did she use itcorrectly?
Yeah, you always question mewell, come on, so I think, to
bring out campy you're just mad.
Mari (30:02):
You didn't know that.
So what did you think, Jonathan?
Yeah, what did you?
Jonathan (30:04):
think, oh, interesting , so it was.
So did anyone else listen to itas well as read it?
No, okay.
So the voices were, it was likeSouthern charm voices and it
was like, except for like thedragon dude.
He was pretty like he, exceptfor like um, the uh, uh dragon
dude he was.
(30:25):
He was pretty like.
He had a normal-ish kind oflike.
It was interesting Cause it waslike he was almost like uh, she
was spirited and lightheartedand he was more like very matter
of fact, very, um driven, likethis happens now, kind of like
tone in his voice.
So for me, I felt it was.
(30:46):
I agree it was like it was anice palate cleanser, it was
light-hearted, it was fun um toread, it was it.
It was interesting to see kindof how the story developed and
the and how the you know likethe story developed and the and
(31:07):
how the you know like things.
Just high, high, we're hidingin like plain sight for them.
I don't know I I don't know ifI laughed as much um at all, but
I thought it was, uh, I thoughtit was a good read, uh, I hmm,
stars, I felt it was more spicethan I had read in a little bit
um, which?
So what was it?
(31:28):
It was interesting, I don'tknow.
Uh, let's see.
I would say I think I'm goodreason.
I gave it a five star.
It was a very polite fun readum, it was dirty and clean at
the same time.
Does that make sense?
Ashley (31:42):
Dirty and clean at the same time it does make sense
actually.
Jonathan (31:47):
But yeah, if I had laughed I would have given it a
monster spice, rom-com kind ofdesignation, but I didn't laugh.
Maybe I just need to work on mysense of humor.
Ashley (32:02):
Lower your expectations, I mean humor is difficult.
Mari (32:04):
Humor doesn't always hit the same for every person.
Ashley (32:08):
This is true.
Jonathan (32:10):
I probably need to work on my sense of humor.
I'm the one who's over herelaughing at chaos when that baby
bit the dust, but the books I'msupposed to laugh at I'm not
laughing at.
I don't understand.
I should probably check mymedication.
Yeah, so I would say I enjoyedit.
I would, I would read it againand I would probably continue on
(32:34):
in the series, althoughprobably not going to continue
on in the series this year formyself but I had a lot to do.
Yeah, I would, I would, um, Iwould put the.
I will put the other books inthe series on my um tbr.
Yeah, oh, you know what it isno I think it's a bangening,
(32:55):
that's, I have not had abangening in a while a whole
year I this, I think, uh,although it's very slow,
bangening, it's like.
Remember when I gave you thekilling curse, ashley, and you
looked at me and I, uh, althoughit's very slow, banging, it's
like.
Remember when I gave you thekilling curse, actually, and you
looked at me and I was likeit's gonna, it's slow, it's
gonna take a long time, butit'll happen eventually.
That's a slow setup for me.
So, like on her deathbed whenshe passes away, I'm gonna be
like I got it mom, hogwartsletters coming any day.
(33:17):
Now.
The, the like when he like whatis he?
What is he?
They have to like he bitter andthe and then they like the
mating bond yes, and then he shegets some of her his magic.
Uh, slowly, okay, so it's a slowacting banging, but I think I
(33:40):
think this is a banging.
So yeah, five stars, kelly.
What did you think?
I enjoyed the book.
Mari (33:43):
I thought it was funny banging.
So yeah, five stars, kelly.
What did you think?
Kelly (33:45):
I enjoyed the book.
I thought it was funny.
It reminded me a lot of thatsame style of humor as assistant
to the villain kind of Justkind of funny, the female
character being very headstrongand saying whatever crossed her
mind.
So I thought that was fun.
I thought the book was funny.
It was definitely a light read.
It was enjoyable, so I gave ita three and a half.
(34:05):
I think it was definitely a funread and something you should
read if you're looking forsomething amusing to read in
between.
More serious, books.
Mari (34:15):
I liked that it felt like a cozy fantasy book smashed up
with a monster romance book,which monster romance tends to
have some spice in it.
So it ended up being this cozy,spicy, monster romance
(34:37):
situation, and I liked that alot of the background of the
town was like, felt very likeLouisiana Bayou culture.
So you had like.
Sometimes I like to think aboutthings in terms of food this
should be a shocker to no onewho knows me.
It felt like a bowl of likeCajun spicy pasta, like cheesy,
(34:59):
comfortable, you know, cozy butspicy.
Yeah, I liked it.
I read it last year and thenjust hadn't read the others, and
so this year I reread it forthis and went ahead and read the
other two books, which I wouldalso recommend.
If you like this one.
(35:19):
I'm not going to spoil anythingon any of the other books, but
I would absolutely recommend theother ones as well.
And the same author is comingout with another book, I think
next month, that's.
It's a different series, but itseems like a similar tone.
It's like that time I gotabducted by aliens and I'm in a
rom com I think it's the actualname of the book um which seems
(35:41):
like I love that a fun.
A fun read, if you like this.
So yeah, it was four stars forme.
I enjoyed it.
Would absolutely recommend itmoved fast, way, way faster
right yeah, yeah, and it hadmore in it than I was originally
expecting.
I remember the first time Iread it I was like, oh, this is
(36:01):
going to be like your typicalfantasy, tolkien-esque fantasy,
but with, like, maybe some spiceand maybe some you know humor.
But it ended up being different, had different vibe to it,
because I thought the humor hitmore like Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy or Assistant to theVillain Hitchhiker's Guide to
(36:49):
the Galaxy or Assistant to theVillain and I thought that the
magical be such a deep backstoryin terms of, like, saving these
enslaved peoples.
And it ended up being a um,both a lighter book than I
expected but also touching onsome really good plot points
that I didn't serious topics,yeah, so I I definitely enjoyed
it.
It's definitely a four.
(37:09):
I think that my favorite book inthe series might be the third
one, but either way, it was afun series and I would
absolutely recommend it toanyone.
So what do we think about?
Like the world building.
What do you guys feel aboutthat?
Ashley (37:23):
I thought so.
I think maybe that's whatexceeded my expectations.
Um, and you, you kind ofalready touched on it like we
went to different areas, right,we went from very, very um,
desolate, you know, farming,louisiana, bayou, we, we, we
(37:44):
crossed over some hills, we sawsome vagabonds, like we went to
swamps, we went to cities, wewent to desert, deserted islands
.
Yeah, we, we did a lot oftraveling in less than 300 pages
.
So I again, it was very fastpaced, we covered a lot, we went
(38:09):
to a lot of places, but Ithought it was very well done,
you know, while also addressingsome pretty heavy topics in a
lighthearted way Discrimination,slavery, you know, these were
big, big topics and I think theworld building was probably my
favorite part, for as fast-pacedas it was and as light-hearted
(38:29):
as they made it to be, that wasa five for me, which got husband
I was like I thought it moved.
Jonathan (38:38):
I thought I thought it moved because it moved so fast
and maybe, oh maybe that wouldhave been a good point of humor
where he was like it was like,all right, job done.
She was like yeah, yeah, goodluck on the other three places.
You know kind of thing, peaceout, I'm done here, good, wash
my hands.
And then she's like kind oflike I can see you're like thing
(39:04):
.
And then all of a sudden pow,he's uh, you know, it's like
wait, what do you mean?
Uh, and then they were off onthis adventure.
I didn't think the it felt feltvery much like normal earth,
but like like it.
I think there I would like toknow more about the demons and
the witches and the differentmagics, and I don't think we
(39:24):
went deep enough there.
Like the actual physical worldjust felt like normal to me,
normal, un, undeveloped, kind oflike yeah, there's an island,
similar, nowhere cool, orthere's a city, but it didn't
feel like it was like a moderncity.
It wasn't uh, you know, it justfelt.
Ashley (39:45):
What you're saying is you want more.
Jonathan (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think for what it had in the
short amount of time, I thinkshe did a very good job keeping
in the story what was necessaryto keep the story moving forward
.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah, well, good job.
Ashley (40:07):
What's your rating?
Jonathan (40:08):
Four.
Ashley (40:09):
Oh sorry.
Jonathan (40:11):
How about you, Kelly I ?
Kelly (40:12):
mean, I agree, I think the world building was very well
done for such a short durationof a book.
I mean, right off the bat yougot established into this world
where there was thisdefinitively established
religion that was well thoughtout.
The economy was pretty wellestablished, with the different,
you know, traders specializingin different things.
The establishment that thefamily is this spice trading
(40:34):
family, all this stuff was, youknow, pretty well thought out
and quickly established, withouta whole lot of need for a big
exposition dumping.
So it was pretty well done andI think overall, the the pace of
the world building reallyhelped the story move along
quickly and not bog it down.
Mari (40:52):
So I think it was very well done and I would say it's
definitely a four yeah, for me Iwould say the the fantasy world
building was like a four and ahalf.
I just I really enjoyed theworld of it.
I enjoyed that, that thesetting like her hometown.
(41:13):
I enjoyed the idea that there'sthis like cozy kind of town but
it's also like open in a lot ofways to outsiders and they're
still influenced from otherplaces, like her mom was not
from there.
You know, like the way shedescribed that her mom has this
whole backstory that we, like Iwant to know about.
You know, where's her mom from?
Like what's her mom's story?
(41:34):
Um, and then when the demonswere introduced and it's like,
oh, they're not all like thisone demon that we know, they're
like all sorts of differentkinds of demons from all sorts
of different places, and thenthey're not the bad guys.
They have their own culture andthey were removed from their
(41:55):
homeland to this frozenwasteland.
And yet in all that, even asthe author kept exploring this
world and bringing more and moreelements in, there were pirates
.
I didn't expect them to becomepirates.
Ashley (42:11):
A dancing hyena.
Mari (42:12):
Yeah, a dancing hyena.
But even in the midst of allthat, cinnamon the main
character, I think still feltlike she kept her own
personality.
She's like this reluctantbookworm who likes snacks, and
I'm like same.
Yes, I kind of identify withyou, ma'am.
She pulled that french breadout of her pocket.
Ashley (42:35):
I'm like yes, well, she kept pulling snacks out of her
pocket.
It was like the wizard of oz.
Black bag of never-ending gifts.
Jonathan (42:42):
You guys don't have pocket burgers where you go.
It's a trendy thing.
Mari (42:47):
Yeah, Cinnamon is the one to travel with.
She was funny about it.
Ashley (42:49):
She's like eventually the pocket ends, there's only so
much room.
It wasn't just loaf.
Kelly (42:56):
I mean, she pulled out apples, she pulled out dried
beef.
Mari (43:00):
Yeah, and all the spices she brought with her.
She even said you know, Ialways keep extra snacks in
these pockets I mean, come on,she weaponized, I'm not gonna
say that kelly and I have a baglabeled snacks that it hangs
outside the door, that comeswith us filled with snacks
anytime there's any sort of roadtrip.
(43:20):
But I I'm not going to say thatdoesn't happen either.
Ashley (43:25):
I mean it's a necessary requirement, I would agree.
Jonathan (43:28):
So you guys have a snackle box.
Mari (43:30):
It's a big bag labeled snacks.
Yeah, nice Romance.
What do you think of theromance Romance?
Ashley (43:43):
the romance was also fast paced.
I was here for it, I.
There was nothing wrong withthis road.
There was.
We're not on spice, we're onromance.
I thought the romance wasdelightful.
You saw, you saw somedevelopment right.
You saw some growth forcinnamon.
You know she she had kind ofhad her heart sort of broken and
(44:06):
so she was content with who shewas in the life she was living.
She didn't need adventure.
She had some trauma, right,some family trauma, and she was
like I'm good, I'm good here,like this.
And then in comes this demonwho is flirty and not mean at
(44:26):
all.
Actually, well, to her anyway,in hindsight, you mean other
people and I, I liked it, Iliked everything about the
romance.
It was a four for me.
I mean for again, for such asmall book, um, for as many
pages that there were.
I, I did see a lot of growthfor cinnamon.
(44:47):
I think fallon was prettylevel-loaded and you know I was
impressed with his admissionthat he knew that they were
mates, you know from basicallythe get-go, and he didn't force
that idea upon her, herimmediately.
Like some other books we'veread A plus for consent and I
(45:12):
really liked it.
I think it was a four.
It was fun and it was flirtyand you know there was that
touch her and you'll die trope,which I'm a fan of, and he
listened to her.
Yeah, that was a four for meand he listened to her.
Yeah, that was a four for meand he was a dragon Interesting.
Jonathan (45:34):
I liked it, it was fun , it was flirty to me.
I thought he was more directthan she was, but she was not in
denial and she was.
She was very much empoweredthroughout the, throughout the
story, um, and then even whenshe had like her, when she had
(45:58):
her pick of the litter, um, itwas uh, it was still very much
like, almost like yeah, yeah,that's my mate, we haven't done
the whole thing yet, but that'sthat's my mate.
Like to kind of get out of itlike it was very interesting how
, um, and like how he was gonna.
(46:19):
He would even be willing to belike oh, yeah, I guess, like, if
you guys want, if your familydoes the ceremony, we could do a
ceremony like it's veryaccommodating he was, he was, he
was and she was, I think,initially when he was, when he
was like hey, um, this is, thisis what I think is the right
thing.
And she and she was like didn'tyou just like come in my house
(46:40):
and like try to take out myfamily?
semantics yeah, he was like well, sort of, but like you guys are
trying to kill me, like howelse was I gonna do this?
So, like I didn't kill anyone,I was just maybe I like shoved
somebody around, but yeah, youguys were you guys want to kill
me?
So you started yeah, prettymuch like that's yeah, move the
goal line a little bit there, um, but yeah, I thought it was.
(47:02):
That was like um, what's theword?
That like ignorant, flirting onhis end and like on her end she
was like let me just teach youhow to do this the cooking
through love language, or cooklike that, or like the love
language through cooking, orlike just him saying, him making
(47:22):
comments.
uh, like you know, like I Idon't eat your stuff, but I saw,
I saw it and I thought likeI'll try to make this and I hope
it didn't really mess it up,like that was.
That was.
That was interesting to me, itwas sweet yeah.
Ashley (47:36):
And I like how you were going to say it was interesting,
like you didn't have adifferent adjective or it was
sweet husband, what he did wassweet, it was kind, it was, it
was thoughtful, not interesting.
Jonathan (47:48):
It does not compute I know I'm trying to help you here
uh, yeah, so I I thought inthat in that space it was
because it was light in florida.
I'll give it a.
I'll give it a five.
Was it sweet, kelly?
How'd you feel, kelly?
Kelly (48:05):
I mean I thought the romance was fine.
It had a lot of the sametypical tropes we see in a lot
of fantasy romance books.
You know the toucher and you'lldie, all that kind of thing,
the fated mates etc, etc.
But what I enjoyed most aboutthe romance was the romance that
happened between two of theside characters the what's her
(48:30):
name, the lady that owned thebar that then basically became
the pirate queen, and the snakedemon.
That was kind of an amusingromance that brewed in the
background.
I like that.
Jonathan (48:43):
I like how she controlled.
I like how they shared thepower too.
Kelly (48:50):
Yeah, so I thought the romance was fine.
I think it had a lot of tropes,a lot of typical stuff, so I
feel like it was good, but justkind of average.
So I said it was a three.
Mari (49:04):
Yeah, for me, I liked tetra and you'll die thing.
I liked the.
Um, uh, he fell.
It felt like he fell first kindof thing.
I I did not.
I guess the, the flirting, the,the romance, the build-up did
not hit for me so much onromance, I felt like the, the
faded mates was used as ashortcut to romance.
(49:27):
They're Fated Mates, thereforethey like each other.
So for me the romance buildupdidn't hit.
So I have romance as a threeInteresting.
Jonathan (49:40):
Yeah.
Mari (49:47):
Sweet is what you mean, Ashley Spicy.
Ashley (49:52):
On to spicy.
What do we think of the spice?
There was a lot of spice.
This is more spice we've had ina minute.
I thought it was polite spice.
I thought, um, it was wellthought out spice.
I thought it was sweet spiceand I thought it was spicy spice
and I thought it was a four,though there was not.
I mean there there was one partwhere it was like four pages of
like spice.
I was like swipe, swipe, swipe,dang like this goes on and on
(50:14):
and on and on um.
So kudos to the author forreally punching it in there.
Our tv's talking again.
I think, sorry, maybe youshould just turn it off.
Um, it was a lot of spice and II thought it was good spice.
I was not mad at the spice itwas a bangening.
Jonathan (50:34):
You can't be mad at the spice.
There's a bangening.
Oh, um yeah, I, I.
It's been a while.
It's been a while, so we had abanging.
I was, I was excited for thebanging.
What is happening?
Just turn it off, sorry.
Mari (50:54):
Our electronics cannot be controlled.
Jonathan (50:55):
The TV wants to give its rating.
It's insane.
Remind me to tell you the TVstory later.
Anyway, the banging.
Ashley (51:06):
Focus.
Jonathan (51:10):
Yeah, how could you not focus when a banging is
occurring?
I thought the the spice I.
I wanted it to happen earlier.
I think it's the only negativeI have for it is that like, let
it, let it happen in the in theriver you like your ladies to be
a hoe.
That's why I chose you.
I'll give it a four.
Mari (51:31):
Kelly, what'd you think?
Kelly (51:32):
It was definitely more spice than what we've normally
seen in the last few books.
I guess I thought it was prettydecent.
I don't know that it wassomething that was absolutely
amazing or super well written oranything like that.
I feel like it was fine, so Igave it a three for me.
Mari (51:51):
I put the spice at a four.
Um, because a lot of this waswhen I would read stuff about it
.
It was described as like a cozyfantasy more than a monster
romance.
Um, so for cozy fantasy, I feltlike I had more spice than I
would expect of a cozy fantasy.
It's about as much spice as Iwould expect of a monster
romance, but I thought the spicewas well done.
(52:11):
I like that.
The world seemed to be sexpositive.
You know, there was no shamearound sex.
I think that consent was welldone.
I thought that, like themequally, being aware of each
other's needs and wants, waswell done.
Yeah, I think it was good.
I liked it.
So, before we get to the lastquestion, um, I was as I was
(52:35):
reading it, I was like okay, sothat town where they freed all
the demons, right?
Did everybody else in that townjust like burn up?
Ashley (52:45):
they all just died when they set the town ablaze and
they're like see ya, we're onthe pirate ship.
I think they were just kind ofleft to their own.
Mari (52:55):
Ferdinating the villagers To figure it out.
Ashley (52:57):
Yeah, you've been liberated.
Now you get to deal with thecleanup by yourself.
Yeah, okay, bye.
Mari (53:04):
I was like, okay, so one person got the opportunity to
get on the ship the tavernkeeper, chickie.
She's like oh, demons areactually people and slavery is
bad.
Everybody else had noopportunity, no no they were not
part of the band, not at all.
(53:25):
But, yeah, I enjoyed this worlda lot.
The world gets wider and deeperand, uh, there's some really
interesting stuff that happensin the second and third mainly
the third book.
Um, but second and third book,so I I would, if you guys
enjoyed this, I would recommendthe second and third book.
Um, do we think that this is akissing book?
Is this a kissing book?
Jonathan (53:44):
yeah, yeah, I'll give it.
Kelly (53:46):
I'll make a kissing book yeah, I think it has to be a
kissing book same same.
Mari (53:51):
Oh, look at us guys, look at us all right.
Is there anything else anybodywants to say?
Ashley (54:00):
about the book.
I mean, again, just kudos tothe author.
I feel like we touched on a lotof, you know, very heavy topics
, um, modern and historic ones.
Uh, like you were saying, bodypositivity, sex positivity,
discrimination, slavery, youknow, there there were
(54:22):
characters where they admitted,right, like, like holy the
tavern lady, was it Usha?
Where she, you know, therealization dawned on her that
the demons were being kept in,basically slavery, and how they
(54:42):
were sentient, you know, theyhad thoughts, they had feelings
and, oh shit, I've been fuckingup this whole time and just
allowing this to happen.
Um, and so it was.
It was a very brief scene, but Ithought that that was very
touching and, um, appropriatebecause it was common sense to
cinnamon, right, but Usha hadn'treally known any different.
(55:08):
And then, when she did, sheapologized to the first demon
that she saw, right, like,hugged him, sobbing right on to
fallon, um, so, you know, kudosto the author for really taking
some very heavy topics andmaking them, I want to say, easy
to digest, but I feel likethat's really simplifying it,
(55:30):
but I I really did enjoy to talkabout.
Mari (55:32):
I would say right.
Ashley (55:34):
Yeah, she just like she, just she built this whole world
basically and, like Kelly wassaying, you know the whole
religion.
I kind of glanced over thatmyself.
But yeah, I mean it was really.
She did a lot in a very shorttime frame and I really enjoyed
that about her writing.
Kelly (55:58):
I think it was interesting because you know she
established this religioncontext in her story and then
the whole gist of part of thestory is all of these villagers
and all these people had justalways been following this
religion without questioning it.
And so you know, kind of, isthis a comment on modern day
religion and just following whatyour religion tells you,
without ever questioning yourreligion, or does your religious
(56:20):
beliefs make any actual sense?
So that was an interestingangle to the story as well.
Mari (56:27):
Yeah, or at the very least , questioning the actions that
your religious leaders ask youto do.
Yeah, I really enjoyed thisauthor.
Like I said, I read all threeof the books and the two
novellas.
I've also read her.
She wrote a little shortnovella for Christmas.
(56:47):
That was very funny.
It's what's a Girl Gotta Do toGet on the Naughty List, which I
would recommend as a holidayread.
It's a Krampus holiday, modernday like fun little story.
The book that she has comingout is actually going to be out
by the time that this episodereleases.
So the book releases onFebruary 18th.
(57:12):
We're recording on February15th.
The book is called I GotAbducted by Aliens and Now I'm
Trapped in a Rom-Com and thecover has a female character
being held in the arms of likean alien looking character and
there's dinosaurs in thebackground.
So I really like the.
I did not look up and see whodid these these her artwork on
(57:37):
the covers but I really like thestyle of of the artwork on
these covers.
Where it's it's very likecartoony, but also lush and
detailed.
Yeah, it was very well done,alrighty.
So thanks for listening to OfSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck out notes, rate and review
(57:59):
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an option.
It helps others to find us.
Follow us on Instagram at OfSwords andoulmates, or join our
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Check us out on our websiteofswordsandsoulmatescom or on
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If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode,
(58:19):
give us your opinion, any ofthat stuff.
Please feel free to contact uson any of those options or email
us.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode,
follow us on Goodreads at OfSwords and Soulmates, or for
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Swords and Soulmates book club.
We also have a Tome account,which is also under the Of
(58:42):
Swords and Soulmates name, soyou can follow us there as well.
And, last but not least, wehope that you'll join us in two
weeks for our next episode, whenwe'll be discussing onyx storm
by rebecca yaros, the latestinstallment in the imperion
series bye, buckle up guys, yesyou.
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