"The Games Gods Play" - Hades Changes the Game - Of Swords and Soulmates

Episode Transcript
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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 or reviewed are theintellectual property of the
creators of said stories and isbeing used under the fair use
doctrine.

Mari (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanicy stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly (00:37):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
Of course we have Ashley.

Ashley (00:41):
Hi everyone.
It's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
What's good, it's JP we alsohave Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:45):
What's good, JP.
Oh, I'm living the dream.

Mari (00:47):
But today JP is not doing the caboose.

Jonathan (00:51):
We have two Not the caboose, not at the back of the
bus today, folks.
Nope, they've given me apromotion.

Mari (00:57):
Yes, you're now in the middle.
We have two guests with us.
We have Summer and Becky.
Hello, all right, so I'm goingto talk a little bit about
everybody first, becauseobviously it's Summer and
Becky's first time here and youguys might be wondering why we
have two strangers on thepodcast.

(01:19):
So Summer and Becky have abusiness called Summer Reading
Club, summer Reading CreationsSummer Reading Creations so
sorry, summer Reading Creationsand I ran into them at a
non-book event thing at a fallfestival.
I was with some other friends.
We went to coffees, we went andgot coffees, we did thrift

(01:43):
shopping, and then we're like,oh, there's a fall festival,
let's go there too.
And then I saw books andeverything was lost.
So Summer and Becky are goingto tell us a little bit more
about their business and whatall they do on the Rapid Buyer
segment.
We're going to talk a littlebit more about that, but for now
they're going to hang out withus and talk through some of the

(02:05):
new stuff and some of the bookreview stuff, and we'll go from
there.
So the book that we're going tobe discussing today is the
Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen.
But first, as always, some news.
So something I did not have onmy bingo card for 2024 is that
Bram Stoker would drop a newshort story.

(02:26):
Don't know about you guys.
How's he doing?

Jonathan (02:30):
How's he doing?
He's still dead.

Mari (02:31):
He's real dead.
So, if you don't know, bramStoker wrote Dracula like I
don't know 1890s or somethingLong time ago.
So apparently there was a guynamed brian cleary he's an
amateur historian and a bromstoker fan who basically had

(02:52):
some hearing loss and had tolike take some time off, work
and everything and decided hewas gonna hang out in the stoker
like I don't know museum orwherever they keep like his
works and everything.
And he found this short storythat he'd never heard of before,
that he'd never heard anybodyreference before.
It's called Gibbet Hill, it waswritten in 1890.
And he like checked it out withthe official historian for Bram

(03:15):
Stoker, like the person whowrote the biography or whatever.
And all this happened Octoberof last year and so it all got
verified.
And so then the big Bram StokerFestival they do.
They released it this year, solike the new Bram Stoker short
story dropped in 2024.

Ashley (03:32):
What a time to be alive.

Jonathan (03:33):
He's dead.
We just covered that.
He's not even alive.

Ashley (03:38):
Look at us.

Mari (03:39):
How very undead Dracula vampire is that Like even from
beyond the grave.
He's dropping new stories.
That's full circle.

Jonathan (03:45):
He is the undead Dracula, vampires that like even
from beyond the grave he'sdropping new stories.

Mari (03:48):
That's full circle.

Jonathan (03:48):
He is the undead Full circle.
What it's like, tupac.

Mari (03:50):
Bram Stoker's undead, undead.

Summer (03:53):
But imagine being an amateur historian and finding
that that's career breaking.

Mari (03:59):
Yeah, and like.
That's a person who you like,like and admire and everything,
and now you will forever be apart of his history because
you're the person that foundthat short story yeah.

Jonathan (04:09):
It was really cool story.
Yeah, it's like going to yardsales and and with your sole
purpose of getting like a reallyterrible painting, but
hopefully the declaration ofindependence is in the back,
those people who find Da Vinci'sright in the back of other
paintings or whatever that's meright in the back of other
paintings or whatever.
That's me.

Mari (04:26):
That's why I keep buying all these crazy dogs playing
poker stuff.
You never know.
You never know what was paintedover.
Making fun of warhol yeah theother thing I saw that was like
the big big thing, um.
But there's some other stuff Isaw, um illumicrate, which is
another like um.
You know one of those servicesthat, like you can subscribe to
and you get a book a month andor you they do like special

(04:46):
edition.
So lumicrate is doing a specialedition of house of flame and
shadow, which is book three ofthe crescent city series by
sarah j mass.
It is.
It's a popular series.
I can't say much.
I I took me nine months to readthe first book and I'm on the
second book now and we're likeon month two.
So they're they're chunky andthey're very different.

Jonathan (05:07):
But the rest of her works are they entertaining or
are they just thick, thick withlike two c's?

Mari (05:13):
I.
I feel like there are a lotlike the sarah j mass mo, which
is basically they kind of drag alittle in the middle and then
at the end like all the shockingstuff happens at the end.
And that's fine for like a 300page book, but when you get into
like these 700 page like tomes-remember when you read akatar

(05:34):
and we were like you could skipa whole bunch of stuff.

Jonathan (05:36):
You need to be a good you got to be a good word
skipper together.
Maybe that's the key.
Maybe it's like read the first100 pages, people elective then,
then, like you know, spot readfor the next I don't know 400.
And then dig in for the longhaul.

Ashley (05:49):
Yeah, it's.
It's not always easy to do thefirst go around, though.

Jonathan (05:52):
Right.

Ashley (05:52):
Sometimes those chunky books, those world builders
right.

Jonathan (05:56):
Do we own this book?

Ashley (06:03):
No, I don't have it, crescent City, but I haven't
gotten a second or a third.

Jonathan (06:08):
I mean.
So this?
I'm not going to lie, thisspeaks to me.
Here's why it speaks to me.
It's a bargain.
Your words per dollar count.
It goes up.

Ashley (06:17):
No, now we just buy things because they're pretty.
It's adult money.

Mari (06:21):
Yeah, we're good at making those mistakes, like the
regular versions of these booksare pretty like.
Their covers are really pretty.
So basically the settings areit's more of like a modern
setting.
It's like a modern feel modernworld, like there's cell phones,
there's clubs, there's you knowthat kind of a vibe, um, but
really yeah, but there's alsolike paranormal things, so it
feels like a paranormal story.

(06:41):
So yeah, there's like temporarystuff there's witches, there's
werewolves there, vampires,there's angels, there's demons,
there's like archangels thereand sprites and enchanted fairy
things.
Yeah, so it's.
It's a lot to absorb all atonce.
Because you like, I've I'veread that guitar series and I've

(07:04):
read throne of glass, and soI'm trying to figure out how
this figures in to everything,because that's the that's.
I wanted to read it, becauseit's sarah j maas and I want to
read everything she's written,to be a completionist, to have
an opinion about it, and I likethat guitar and I like throwing
a glass, but I also like kepthearing that, oh, they're
interconnected.
You know the stories areinterconnected eventually or
something.
Have have you guys read them?

Summer (07:24):
So I haven't, just because I've been so intimidated
by Sarah J Maas.
But you kind of suddenly get tobe honest.
Yes, because isn't there likeeight Stick around?

Ashley (07:33):
long enough.
That's called a sucker pack.
It is.
My husband is king of themSucker packs.
We'll talk you into it if youneed an excuse.

Jonathan (07:41):
Get just the first one .
The first one, just a littletaste.
Do we have the first?

Mari (07:48):
one on audible and then you're, then you're hooked.
Yeah, it'd be a long listen forsure.

Summer (07:50):
The first one is on audible oh, oh, okay.

Mari (07:53):
So, yes, so you know, there's the three series akatar,
crescent city and throne ofglass.
So I read akatar first.
Have you guys read any any?
Sarah jimmy, okay, I readakatar first.
We just read akatarOTAR as apod.
I really like the ACOTAR series.
However, this is saying assomeone who likes the ACOTAR
series.
The first book in the ACOTARseries is the weakest of the

(08:14):
bunch.
So please don't judge the wholeseries by it.
At least read the second onebefore you decide.
But I really like the series.
I think she does a really goodjob of misdirecting you and
pulling you in and making you.
I really can't say a lotbecause Ash and I have read
beyond the first one, but Kellyand Jonathan have not.

Kelly (08:36):
Do not let them peer pressure you into reading these
books.

Ashley (08:41):
Absolutely peer pressure you if you stick around long
enough.

Mari (08:44):
Sorry in advance the other thing, too, is the throne of
glass, series which, ash, youhaven't read any of, right, I
have not no, so I'm scared.

Summer (08:56):
That's like the less chunky series so far.

Mari (08:58):
Right no um, the books are less chunky, but there are more
books.
Oh, that's true's true, but theThrone of Glass is a complete
series.
She started writing Throne ofGlass when she was like 16 years
old, it is to me.

Jonathan (09:10):
You can tell, because it takes about that long to read
it.

Mari (09:13):
No, it does not you haven't read them.

Kelly (09:16):
How long have you been reading it, Mari?

Mari (09:18):
Which one?

Kelly (09:19):
That one.

Mari (09:19):
The Throne of Glass.
I read all of Throne of Glassin one month.

Kelly (09:22):
Really.

Mari (09:23):
Yeah.

Kelly (09:23):
That's a record.

Jonathan (09:25):
It's lightning fast, that's a record.

Mari (09:27):
Aren't there like five of them?
There's like seven of them.
I read it in one month.
I was like I'm going to readThrone of Glass this month, not
realizing how many books notAkatar, I'm sorry Throne of
Glass this month, not realizinghow many books there were and
that there's some weird five andsix that you have to like, skip
chapters back and forth andeverything else.
I really enjoyed Throne ofGlass.
Crescent City is the one that'sbeen taking me forever.
It's like Crescent City tooknine months for the first book.

(09:50):
That tells you a difference.
Like I've read I don't know 180, 190 books this year, so I'm
not a slow reader and it stilltook me that long.

Kelly (09:59):
That was a nice humble brag.

Summer (10:01):
Just drop that in there, real quick it was.

Kelly (10:03):
Oh, I've only read 180 something books this year so far
, but I'll get to 200 easily,don't worry yeah.

Jonathan (10:11):
I've read the titles of at least 200 books.

Mari (10:14):
What I'm saying is that it took me nine months, not
because I'm a slow reader.
It just had a hard time gettinginto the characters and getting
into the world.
With Crescent City, however,throne of Glass Okay.
So to me, agatar is likestereotypical romancy series.
It is like bread and butterromancy.
If you want a romancy series,that's it.

(10:35):
It has all the things, all thehits you think of for a romancy
series.
Stereotypical Throne of Glass isoften said to be a romancy
series because it's written bySarah J Maas, but in my opinion,
I think it's way more fantasy,like it's got some romance in
there, but I think it's way moreof a fantasy book, fantasy
series.
I think it's just because shewas known for Akatar.

(10:56):
They're like oh, this isromantic too, and I think that
if, like I don't know, george RR Martin or Patrick Rothbos or
brandon sanderson had writtenthrone of glass, it would be a
fantasy book.
But the thing with the throneof glass is like it's like
you're reading the first.
I think three books are muchmore small world, like it's very
much what's in her immediatearea?

(11:18):
It's there's not a lot in therest of the world, but then by
the end of the series you've gotthrone of glass style multiple
countries, countries, multiplearmies, multiple battles and
multiple things happening all atthe same time and it pulls
together into like a big youknow thing.
That happens in the last book.
I hear a lot of people describeit as like it's one series, but

(11:39):
it's almost like two series inone Because the first few are
very much like a coming of agekind of thing and then the rest
it's like more of a fantasyworld that you think of.
As far as like fantasy stories,if she started yeah she's
really selling it.

Ashley (11:54):
I know it's a commitment , though, guys that's what I'm
intimidated, you just gotta

Becky (11:58):
commit so much.
How long did it take us tostart fourth wing?
After you bought them?
Books a minute.
We only read them as quick aswe did, because I was in a
terrible reading slump anddidn't read for a week and a
half and then we just kind oflike within days, though it was
done.

Summer (12:14):
Yeah, yeah, those are fast, but it took us like
mentally so long to get into italso because we have to wait
until january.

Mari (12:21):
I know I'm struggling, I'm struggling um, okay, so a
lumicrate doing the house offlame and shadows, book three of
crescent city.
It is 40 pounds that's what itsaid on the website because even
though the price of the weightthe price, even though I put us
and it said us at the top it wasgiving me the price in pounds.
So, whatever, 40 pounds is indollars plus shipping.

(12:44):
It will be shipping in februaryor march of 2025 and the sales
begin um the 21st of novemberfor all of us who don't have
lumicrate subscriptions and the19th of november for people who
have a lumicate.
Lumicrate subscriptions and orwho bought the first two books
from them.
They're giving those peoplepriority, which is cool.

(13:05):
I guess.
If you want the set to all match, I'm fine with the regular,
just FYI for people out there.
The other, also SJM-ish news isthat there is a Valeris Advent
calendar out there that I didn'tknow existed and it is done by
this company that does likeofficially licensed Sarah J Mass

(13:25):
and a few other authors likejewelry, so like really pretty,
and so the calendar has gotjewelry in it.
By the time, between the timethat I found this news and me, I
was talking about it today,it's now sold out.
It was $198 and it sold out.

Ashley (13:40):
But it was also UK based , wasn't?

Jonathan (13:42):
it, it looks, it looks very.

Mari (13:43):
Italian, so definitely European-based.

Jonathan (13:47):
A little wintry village.

Mari (13:48):
Yeah, a little village.
It looks really cute, and thenthere's jewelry.
Inside there is a mailing list.
I don't know if they're goingto do more or if that just gets
you on the list for next year.
So I think you probably getyour money's worth.
Looking at the price of thestuff that they sell and some of
their stuff is really oh yeah,no, this looks.

Jonathan (14:05):
This looks really cute .
A good second place to this, ifyou're looking for like an
alternative, would be thatgilmore girls calendar, badman
calendar that I see on thetiktoks I haven't seen that one.

Mari (14:14):
I'm a big.
More girls fan.

Summer (14:22):
I know that.
Know, this is really cutethough.
Yeah, even if I weren't a sjmfan, I honestly would consider
purchasing it I think they'vegot a few.

Mari (14:33):
I think is it caraval.
I think they've got somejewelry they have a few other
series that I've not read, but Iknow like they have throne of
glass and akatar and, I think,some crescent stuff.

Jonathan (14:44):
What it is is you read one chapter a month and then
you're able to open up one ofthese boxes, and that's how you
effectively get through one ofher books.

Mari (14:53):
I mean maybe, but you still wouldn't be done through
the book.
12 chapters is not going to getyou.

Jonathan (14:59):
You've got to go next year too.

Mari (15:00):
That's what.

Jonathan (15:01):
I'm saying Every year All right.

Mari (15:03):
The other thing I had we've talked about some is that
the third Assistant to theVillain book title has been
released and the date so it'sgoing to be coming out September
25th of 2025, and it's going tobe called Accomplice to the
Villain.

Jonathan (15:17):
Clever, clever.
Yes, so you can see theprogression.

Mari (15:20):
Yeah, very exciting Summer and Becky, have you guys read
any of her books?
I was looking.

Becky (15:26):
I don't know.
I think so.
They're both in my KU libraryright now.
I want to read them so bad.

Mari (15:31):
They're fun reads.
They're like they are.
It feels like a rom-com, like amagical rom-com.

Jonathan (15:37):
Yeah, it's like Groot meets Fourth Wing, like you know
, like the Minions meets FourthWing.

Mari (15:42):
Also Ruby Dixon, who we've talked about before.
She did the Ice PlanetBarbarians series.
She released these like freeover the past few days, has been
releasing every day a littleshort story snippet in the Ice
Planet Barbarians world and it'slike Halloween stories and it's
now released as a KU likeKindle Unlimited or you can buy
the book Novell.

(16:02):
It's called Barians treat andit's like all the all the ice
planet barbarians and the kidsand the whole tribe or whatever,
doing like halloween on the nothoth planet.
I think it looks cute.
It looks very cute.
Um, have you guys, uh, summerbecky.
Have you guys read any of theice planet barbarian books?
no, I actually don't even thinkI've heard of ruby dixon so she

(16:23):
I think Planet Barbarians islike the main thing she's known
for.
She's written like a billionbooks.
They are, they're high spice,so which I like the Ice.
Planet Barbarians books arevery much like easy palette,
cleanser, repetitive, but theyalso tell like this overarching

(16:44):
story of the whole tribe.
So you still get like, if youget each story, it's very like
very much a romance book.
You know there's gonna behappily ever after.
You know there's gonna besomething in the middle and then
they'll get together orwhatever, and but all the while
you're also like finding outwhat happens with some of the
other characters from the books,because they're in a tribe,
like they all basically stillinteract with each other.

(17:06):
Um, it's sci-fi, but it's likesci-fi only in that only in the
way star wars is sci-fi, likebecause they're aliens.
Um, the ice planet barbariansare aliens.
But yeah, it's a very, verylight fun.

Summer (17:19):
It's a good winter read because it's on an ice planet I
should think I have seen some ofher works on Kindle, now that
I'm looking through them.

Mari (17:27):
They're all on Kindle limited.
Yeah, is there anything else?
News wise.

Jonathan (17:32):
We have just a little bit.
It's a feel good story.
There is an author out of Utahwho decided like, decided, as a
way to pay off her family'smedical debt, she would write a
book.
Way to pay off her family'smedical debt, she would write a
book Easy, easy peasy, lemonsqueezy, right.
So 39 days is what it took herto get this book kind of churned
out.
And she used her localcommunity to kind of help get

(17:56):
things rolling.
But it's paid off.
I believe there was some sortof like preemptive order that
ends up like essentially it endsup like helping her out
financially in the long run,which was pretty to me.
I think that's just prettyremarkable If anybody's sitting
around thinking, hey, what can I?

(18:17):
You know, I want to write a book, but I'm just a little.
I'm not sure I can do it.
I'm here to tell you you can.
40 days, less than 40 days, andI fully expect you all to write
books for me in the next monthand a half.
It's interesting.
I was reading a little bitabout her background.
It doesn't necessarily alignwith Roman fantasy, but the book

(18:39):
seems to be, and I don't quitehave a feel for it.
What's her name?
Oh, her, don't quite have afeel for it.

Mari (18:43):
If it's what's her name?

Jonathan (18:45):
Oh, her name is Sarah Wilson, soraya Wilson, so Sarah
Sierra, uh S A R I A H.

Ashley (18:53):
Oh Soraya.

Jonathan (18:54):
Soraya, soraya, yeah.
Yeah, if I'm mispronouncingyour name, you can call me and
correct me.
Uh, my name is kelly.
I point all your all youremails to him.
The book is a tribute of fireand it's basically, it's
basically about a princess in adiet in a dying desert nation

(19:16):
that's been cursed, uh, by anearth goddess and they there's
this like event, uh some sort ofrace, where you have you're
forced to compete in a life anddeath event to reach this
goddess's temple, and over thecourse of a millennium, no
maiden has made it out alive.

Mari (19:34):
But this year the Leah, the princess, is one of the
hunted, so it's it looks likeJennifer Armantrout is like one
of the people who has given itaccolades, so that's a pretty
big name.
Anything else, news wise, allright.
So moving on to the book theGames Gods Play by Abigail Owen,

(19:55):
I believe this is a Jonathanpick, right?
Didn't you choose this,jonathan?

Jonathan (19:59):
Yeah, I think partly because I fell in love with
Abigail at that event and it wasa pretty book.
It's a very pretty book,although the dust jacket is
prettier than the actual cover,but it's better.
The cover on this one is betterthan a lot of other covers, so
very, very stoked.

Ashley (20:14):
We were influenced.

Jonathan (20:15):
Very heavily influenced.

Mari (20:16):
Yeah, abigail Owen was at the Fabled Fantasy event.
Super nice, really fun to talkto, and that was one of the.
The things I think we liked somuch about that event is you
could just walk up and talk topeople, to these authors, and
they can pitch their books andwe can give them all our money.

Jonathan (20:32):
She was sparkly, there she was very sparkly, um, okay,
so uh.

Mari (20:40):
This book was published this year, september 17th 2024.
It is brand new, brand spankingnew.
I'm going to read the synopsis,even I'm going to read the
synopsis, and then we can getinto it.
The gods love to play gameswith us, mere mortals, and every
hundred years we let them.
I have never been favored by thegods, far from it, thanks to
Zeus, living as a cursed officeclerk for the order of thieves.

(21:03):
I just keep my head down andhope the capricious beings who
rule from olympus won't noticeme.
Not an easy to sit on thethrone of Olympus, but instead
of fighting their own battles,the gods name mortals to compete

(21:29):
in their stead.
So why in the underworld didHades choose me, a sarcastic
nobody with a curse on hershoulders, as his champion?
And why does my heart tripevery time he says I'm his I
don't know if I'm a pawn bait orsomething else entirely to this
dangerously tempting god.
How can I, I, when he has moresecrets than stars in the sky?
Because hades is playing by hisown rules and death will win at

(21:50):
any cost oh, I just got thechicken skin right.
So what we think?
Overall overall rating.
Overall vibes non-spoilery.
Who wants to go first?

Jonathan (22:04):
I nominate Becky I haven't read it.

Mari (22:11):
Becky, what do you think of the description?

Becky (22:13):
Wonderful.
I'm going to listen on the wayhome.
Actually, Turn it on on the wayhome.
I think I'll listen to it.

Mari (22:20):
Summer.
You got some of the way through.
I got yeah.

Summer (22:22):
I got all the way up to I think it was like chapter 45,
I so I'm in love with hades, allhades, all across.

Mari (22:30):
This is my first non-spoilers yeah, we'll get to
spoilers in a sec.

Summer (22:35):
It was good what I've read.
It was really good.

Mari (22:37):
I will say, if you like hades, if you haven't read neon
gods by katie roberts, thatseries I would would recommend.
It's spice, high spice, butit's good.
But also if you do graphicnovels, lore Olympus by Rachel
Smythe is like a modern.
It's what got me into Greekgods, because I didn't really
get into them as like a kid oranything Like that graphic novel

(22:58):
got me into stuff.
And then Jonathan and Ash gotme Neon Gods.
It's been downhill on gods.
It's been downhill and so Iguess I'll go next.
I non-spoilery this is greekgods.
This is a modern kind ofretelling of greek god, so it's
not set in like ancient greeceor anything.
I thought the main character,chickie, was very sassy and I

(23:19):
liked her from the get-go.
Her brand of like sassinessjust hit for me.
I feel like it was kind of aneon god zora olympus meets
hunger games.
People were saying like a lotof people have been comparing it
to the percy percy jacksonseries, but I didn't read that
so I don't.
I can't compare it to that.
I really, really enjoyed thisbook and I gave it a five stars

(23:44):
high praise.

Ashley (23:45):
Praise come from you, we don't give out five stars
likely.

Jonathan (23:48):
Uh, lightly girls, just so that you're aware if
you've ever seen the greatbritish baking show, those,
those five stars, are like ahandshake yeah, yes, a handshake
from old blue eyes.

Ashley (23:57):
Absolutely no soggy bottoms here he's doing shoulder
pads now.
It's a whole new game out there.
Guys, I'll go next.
I think it was a solid four, ifnot a five.
I maybe had a couple ofcomplaints, like I thought, you
know, some things were sped upLike that we lost some context

(24:20):
in that part.
But I appreciated the worldbuilding.
I can see the Percy Jacksonvibes, just because I think
Percy Jackson, in a non-adultway kind of brought a lot of
those Greek mythology stories tothe modern world, right?
So Neon Gods is not foreveryone, right, but Percy
Jackson can be for everyone.

(24:41):
So I can see whichevercommenter made that I can see
where they're coming from,having read and watched all the
Percy Jackson stuff.
I think the only reason Ididn't give it a five is because
we are now going throughwithdrawals, so we're not going
to be able to read book two,probably for some time, and I'm

(25:02):
assuming this is a series Ibelieve she's called it.
Yeah, book too, probably forsome time, and I'm assuming this
is a series I believe she'scalled it yeah and so that's it
has more to do with me than itdoes with the story.
I I enjoyed this a lot.
I devoured it pretty quicklyover the course of a few days
and you're, you're, you're,you're words.

Jonathan (25:19):
There were some late nights.

Ashley (25:20):
I'm not a word person how fast you said your
audiobooks to jonathan what'syeah?

Becky (25:27):
uh yeah you wanna wait.
No, no, it's not his turn.
Yeah, no no get your turn.

Jonathan (25:32):
I'm gonna sit back here for a little bit.

Ashley (25:33):
Go ahead you just do that, and so, um, it was a four
and a half for me because I Ifelt there were some parts of
the story that were expedited.
I can see the necessity of it.
It doesn't mean that I likedthat part, but I will probably
reread it, especially when itcomes time for more stories, and
so at that point I willprobably bump it up to a five,

(25:54):
when I have more to read andmore perspective.

Jonathan (25:58):
Is it on me?
Is that what we're hanging outfor?

Ashley (26:00):
Yeah, that's been the pattern we've been doing my bad,
my bad, my bad, we'll diveright in here.

Jonathan (26:05):
I found this to be a delightful treat.
Delightful treat, a delightfultreat.
It was fun.
It kept me entertained.
I like short chapters.
This was definitely like itticked all those boxes, ashley's
right, the pace of the book.
It left me wanting a littlemore in it, but at the end of

(26:26):
the day I was excited.

Ashley (26:29):
I felt all the way through Excited to read.

Jonathan (26:33):
I felt, yeah, I felt excited to read.
Welcome to the cult, sir.
And so, mari, yes, I do read at, I do read with my ear holes.
But, but for this, for thisbook, since we own so many
copies of it already.
We got his hers and thenanother one.

Ashley (26:50):
And then the author's signature.

Jonathan (26:52):
Yeah.
So for this one I did immersivereading.
So basically, becky and Summer,what I did was I locked myself
into the sauna, myself into thesauna, and no um I, I just I did
a read along uh with it, and Ithought it was um it it.

(27:14):
It forced me to pay a little bitmore closer attention to it, so
it slowed him down.
Hey, I don't know if it slowedme.
I mean maybe, maybe a tick,maybe it slowed me down a tick,
maybe 10 slower on thursday hewas like I don't know if I'm
gonna finish this.

Ashley (27:21):
We might need to delay and I was like what are you
about?
You've been reading this everynight before bed.
I thought and I think it wasonly because we had a long road
trip this weekend that youknocked it out.

Jonathan (27:32):
You were just reading it slower than you normally
would I like to do annotationswhen I do immersive reading and
I couldn't do annotations in thecar.

Ashley (27:40):
So what's your score?

Jonathan (27:42):
I'm giving it five.
I don't think I've given.
Have I given it?
I don't know, this one rightnow.
This one tops tops my list oftwenty twenty four reads.

Summer (27:53):
OK, Honestly, it climbed pretty close to me too.

Mari (27:57):
Yeah.

Summer (27:57):
Just from what I've already and again.
I didn't read, I listened, butyeah, kelly.

Kelly (28:06):
So if I had a nickel for every hades and persephone
retelling we've read so far, I'dhave two nickels, which isn't a
lot, but it's strange thatwe've had two in 18 books or 17
books in one movie have we readmore hades and persephone
retellings or have we read morebeauty and the beast retellings?

Jonathan (28:21):
I wonder wonder Beauty and the Beast, I think.
How many Hades and Persephoneretellings did we read?
Just one Besides this.

Mari (28:27):
No, yes.

Jonathan (28:28):
Avian Bone it's just.

Kelly (28:29):
Katnick.

Mari (28:29):
Is there?
Yeah, you're right.
You're right, avian Bone inthis one.
Okay, you're right.
You're right.
I'm sorry, go ahead.

Summer (28:45):
So I don, or Beauty and the Beast, it seems like.

Mari (28:46):
that's all.
There is Two love stories ofthe times For the ages.
What did you think, Kel?

Kelly (28:51):
I thought the book was an interesting take on the Greek
and Roman gods interfering inmortal lives or continuing to
interfere in mortal lives.
It was a strange way of havingjuxtaposition with modern times
in there and the gods beingall-powerful even though we had
sufficiently advanced technology.
And I thought it wasinteresting that they hinted

(29:14):
that there were other pantheonsof gods that were involved other
than the Greek and Roman gods.
They sort of hinted that therewere Asian gods that were also
hanging around and interferingand stuff.
Like the Norse gods werementioned there were Asian gods
that were also hanging aroundand interfering and stuff Like
the Norse gods were mentioned,and the Norse gods were
mentioned.
What I find interesting that Iwould have loved to see explore

(29:34):
in this world is what happenedto Christianity, Because
Christianity was probably thebig driving force that
eliminated the Greek and Romangods worship, eliminated Norse
mythology and stuff like that.
So it would have beeninteresting had the author
explored what happened toChristianity and what the role

(29:56):
of Christianity was.

Mari (29:56):
I wonder if Abigail Owen is going to be at Fayetteville
family next year.
Maybe that can be the question.
She's going to be back?

Jonathan (30:02):
That's a dangerous question.
It's a dangerous question.
I mean.
The gods are immortal, right,Jesus clearly bit the dust.
That's probably what happened.
He was like one.
Jesus was a one and done-er.
That's all I'm saying.

Kelly (30:16):
He checked out.
I don't know.
I thought it was a good book,but it wasn't something that was
, oh my God, good it wasn't't.
It's definitely not my favoritebook that we've read as a
podcast, so I gave it a threeand a half.
I really wanted to give it afour but, like has already been
said, I felt there were partsthat were extremely rushed, like

(30:36):
.
I almost feel like in someparts of it, maybe the author
was trying to hurry things along.

Mari (30:43):
I wonder, wonder too, if I may have said Jet for Failure,
because I finished it before.
Kelly did A lot of twists andturns at the end.
I was gasping, I was like itwas very telenovela for me, I
was like what?
And so I think I may have builtup some of that for Kelly, but
I couldn't help it.

(31:03):
It was twisty, turny for me,all right.
So spoiler parts Spoiler.

Kelly (31:10):
So, from this point forward, we will be discussing
spoilers.
If you do not wish to bespoiled about this book, then
you should skip to the end.

Mari (31:17):
All right, spoilery things , any spoilery overall things
anybody wants to talk about.

Kelly (31:23):
Okay.
So I felt like when we got tothe point where she was
unconscious for two weeks andmissed three of the events, it
felt like that was the authormoving the story along, almost
like the author realized, holycrap, I am spending way too much
time going into these events.
Or the author saying I reallycan't come up with something

(31:44):
good for these other threeevents, so we're just going to
do a whole skip them and talkabout them.
You know, have Hades tell herlater what happened in those
events.
So it felt very rushed and youknew that in the final event
that something was going tochange in the rules because it

(32:07):
had to still be there sometension for the possibility of
her to win.
So of course Zeus was going tomake his event worth three times
as many points or somethingsimilar was going to happen.
Because if you don't have thatcoming in the story, you have no
reason and no reason to rootfor the character to win because
there's no way she can win theevent.

(32:28):
So what tension is there ifthere's no way she can win the
event?
And because Zeus is an asshole,zeus is always an asshole, which
is a convenient excuse for himto award three points to it, but
it still felt very much like a.
This was an expected plot twist.

Mari (32:43):
This wasn't a surprise see , for me, what I thought was
going to happen was that she wasgoing to because she was so
depressed and everything.
At that point I thought she wasgoing to like give up or get
hurt and and either die or theythink she's died or something.
I thought that's when hades wasgoing to go all like I'll burn
the world, like, like what thevision was.
That's what I was expecting tohave happened.

(33:03):
Then she was going to have topush through it to like make
himself.
That's where I thought thetension was going to come.

Kelly (33:08):
And we have, yet again, the fulfillment of the female
main character, being turnedinto a Faye, or turned into a
goddess, or turned into aprincess, or turned into
whatever like every fairy tale.

Mari (33:20):
It is there's.
No, there was no banging.
There was a banging.
No, there was no banging, shebanged she.

Jonathan (33:28):
They banged, she became a goddess.
That, no, that's not how thatworked.
She died and then he gave herhis crown.
To her that the banging isfucking the magic on there was.
No, he didn't.
He did not use his dick to flipthat switch.
Becky summer, I apologize.
Have you, um?
Have you listened to our showin the past?

Summer (33:47):
a few episodes, all right, cool, cool they knew what
they were getting into.

Jonathan (33:50):
Yeah, yeah you guys gave her the, the good old jp
warning.

Mari (33:55):
Yes, yes okay, cool, yeah, um, yeah the I gotta say and I
don't know where to put this inother than the overall world
building I fucking loved the dogSebrus, like how they had it
personified with the threepersonalities and like the just

(34:16):
everything.
Everything about Sebrus wasenough to give it like an extra
star in my book.
I want.

Ashley (34:21):
We love a side character .

Mari (34:23):
Love, love, love, love, love love love, have you?

Jonathan (34:26):
have you um?
Did you listen to the book atall, mari?
Uh, no, no, I read it oh, ifyou get the chance to list, just
to like, like, listen to, uh toto russ, because russ is like
hey he's dopey he's like ed from, uh, you know, like the hyenas
from the lion king.
He's like ed yeah, he's justrunning around that's the voice

(34:46):
I kind of pictured in my head.

Mari (34:47):
It was very derpy.

Jonathan (34:48):
Uh, anything else overall before we get into the
world building no, I think mythoughts with with a line with
kelly where it was like it waslittle, it felt a little rushed
in that, like later.
Third, at the beginning of thelast excuse me, third of the
book, it felt a little likehurried and it left me wanting,
wanting more there's somethingabout the pacing.

Mari (35:08):
I think that in some ways reminded me, and I know um I
don't think you've read it,jonathan, I know kelly hasn't um
, but I know ash, and I've readthat the serpent and the wings
of night.
There's something about thepacing that kind of reminded me
of some of the challenges andthat.
Did you get that, ash?

Ashley (35:23):
I mean, I didn't get that, I don't even know.
Oh, I, I think jonathan labeledit well for me that it left me
wanting.
I don't think it ruinedanything for me, but it did feel
a little rushed and but likenot for nothing.
You know, again, we, we just umsaw her at the panel and you
know, she, she specifically, wastelling us, you know like how

(35:45):
rapidly these authors areputting out books, you know, to
appease the masses, basically,and so I'm sure that there was
life and deadlines in thingsthat impacted that.
I think you know whether or notwe all felt it, that part was
also necessary too, to seehaiti's commitment to her and in

(36:07):
her surviving for more reasonsthan one.
So I, I didn't lose anythingfrom, you know, not completing
some of the trials.
Um, yeah, it was a good tone.
I appreciated the tone of thebook.
There was a lot happening, butit wasn't super dense and hard
to read.
I did take it, like you know,kind of like what's her name?

(36:30):
From assistant to the villain,like it was just, it was an easy
, happy read and I was happy toread it and like stay up until 2
a couple of nights.
So I, for those reasons, Ireally, I really enjoyed the
book there.
She has no notes for me.

Mari (36:44):
I was super stoked as far as world building, actually, you
know what let me let summer andbecky.
If you want to weigh in, I knowyou haven't finished it, but if
you want to weigh in on, likethe world building fantasy, it's
any of that stuff um, thefantasy element.

Summer (36:58):
I think it did really well from what I read so far.
The only thing I reallystruggled with overall was I'm
so loyal to Persephone thatthough I know she's gone, she's
not around.
It was still so hard because Ireally liked the female
character and I liked her sassas we put it.
So it was hard because in theback of my brain I was like

(37:19):
you're not Persephone, so thatwas difficult to wrap my head
around for a bit that was, butother than that, no complaints.
So far it was a really likein-depth world building.
I think in the beginning.

Mari (37:31):
At one point I thought that maybe the main character
was going to be Persephone,because there was so sketchy on
like building her backstory andthere's so little that she
remembered.
I was like maybe this is anamnesia like story or something.
Maybe they spelled her or likea reincarnation.
Yeah, reincarnation, somethinglike that.
And then she was wiped likethey.

Summer (37:51):
When she was picked, they couldn't find any
information on her.

Mari (37:55):
Yeah, yeah and like it's a world where cell phones and
internet and stuff exists, butbecause she's in this thieves
guild thing, she doesn't have anonline presence.

Summer (38:03):
I'm like and his immediate draw to her as well.
I was like that's only reservedfor Persephone.

Jonathan (38:08):
What's uh.
So I think what uh?
I and I started to head downthat road about halfway through
the book where it was like Ithought to myself okay, this is
how he's going to bringPersephone back.
Is he's using her?
She's unlovable, it's uh, sonobody's gonna miss her.
So she will be the vessel inwhich persephone returns.
Right, maybe he's just like Igotta bring her back.

(38:30):
Okay, this is cool.
I need a vessel to do funsies.
Keep reading, becausepersephone's not dead yeah we
don't, we don't get a return,but she's not, she's, she's,
she's still a factor right.
It's probably the best way toput it yeah, but this is a twist
that diverts from the hades andpersephone's retelling is that

(38:52):
persephone is a is is like asibling a platonic?
Yeah, it's not it's not alover's love, but it's not a
romantic love correct yeah whichI thought was really
interesting yeahyeah, that's yeah, it's, it's
interesting, so she's not.
It's not like lira.
Is the other woman right?
She's, she's still like theonly one.

(39:15):
I didn't know how to feel aboutum hades.
Like was he?
Is he using her to get what heneeds?

Ashley (39:21):
done.
Oh, you were fully convinced hewas using her.

Jonathan (39:24):
I'm still not unconvinced either yeah like.
Like legit, still not.

Ashley (39:28):
Still like it's In the car it was really hard to shut
up, guys, because he hadfeelings and I was just like
you're in for it sir.

Jonathan (39:39):
Because, even like at the end right, it felt like a
setup still, Even down to thatvery last page it felt like a
real bucket.

Mari (39:50):
Yeah, because I'm just like why didn't he tell her
everything?
Then, If you're really together, if you're really in it, why
are you still keeping secrets?
Kelly, you were going to saysomething.

Kelly (39:58):
I found it interesting that Hades is doing this whole
secret that Persephone is nothis lover, it's more like a
little sister to him.
But apparently all the othergods think that Hades and
Persephone were lovers and hehasn't bothered to correct any
of them, including Persephone'smom yeah, and it kind of makes

(40:19):
you wonder which like Greek mythis this going with?

Mari (40:21):
is this going with the whole?
Like Persephone and and Hadeswere supposedly lovers myth is
this going with?
Is this going with the whole?
Persephone and Hades weresupposedly lovers, or is this
going with the whole?
Hades raped Persephone and drugher to the underworld version
of the story.
What is the story in that world?

Summer (40:33):
Well, it did have mention about her being trapped
in the underworld, in this oneversus all the others where
she's choosing to stay, so itmay be leaning towards the
latter.

Mari (40:44):
Which it kind of goes into the whole like persona hades
puts on as being this big, bad,bad guy, but once again, like to
what end?

Summer (40:50):
that's always a hades mo is to be secretive and
reclusive.

Ashley (40:54):
Yeah, no matter, I was just gonna say like it's no one
else's business, like in my head, if, if persephone's pissed off
at her mom, which is arguably atheme in a lot of retellings
and or if Persephone was wrongedin the God or human world,
which again is a common themethat we've seen throughout the

(41:18):
years, and if she ended up inthe underworld under his
protection, I mean, that's notDemeter's business, that's not
Zeus's business, and their beingin love or having a
relationship would probablyfurther protect her.
Is my thought process,especially going down the mental

(41:38):
thought process that is RachelSmythe right like yeah what.
Persephone went through, so Icould see him sucking it up to
an extent, right, and say, well,well, fuck it if they think
we're in a relationship thatjust makes you more less
vulnerable, right, moreprotected.
That's my, that was my thoughtprocess, like I don't doubt that

(42:00):
he's holding secrets, and again, not for nothing.
You're talking about millenniaof hades just doing it himself,
or at best, doing it withpersephone.
Just because you're in love,you don't drop all those secrets
in a month yeah, it's true sowhere you put in the world
building ash, what do you mean?

Jonathan (42:15):
what?
What score are you giving itfor world building?

Ashley (42:17):
or fantasy.
Well, marie goes for somethingI'm sorry, marie.

Jonathan (42:21):
What do you wait back to marie?

Mari (42:23):
I gave it a four.
I thought it did a prettydecent job between the whole
modern greek world pretty well.
I thought it did a reallyinteresting job of interweaving
things from our world.
Like there was a quote fromshakespeare, there was a little
line about beauty and thebeast's library.
There was like it did um thisis a new word for me, so I'm
going to use it theintertextuality of bringing in?

Jonathan (42:47):
don't you use multi-syllabic words on your?

Mari (42:49):
brain.
There's a scrabble word for youof bringing in, like other
texts into into the one text, soit's pulling in um and
referencing.
So I thought I did a good jobof that, which kind of gave you
a more comfortable vibe.
It felt like our world in a lotof ways, in enough ways that
you know I made it easier tounderstand.
The rest, yeah, I thought itwas a four.

(43:10):
I thought it was good.
It was slightly better than Iexpected it to be.
That's why I'm giving it a four.

Ashley (43:16):
Ash, i's not because I think anything was wrong or
missing.
I thought it was adequatelyblended for this modern
retelling that includestechnology but also ancient gods
.
There was a lot ofvisualization that I captured
with how she described andexplained things.

(43:38):
I felt immersed and again, thiswasn't a dense read.
It was a thick read but itwasn't hard to process.
Could there have been more man?
Maybe, but it probably wouldhave taken away from the rest of
the story.
We've read other Abigail Owensbooks that left us lacking, like

(44:06):
lacking, you know, lessimpressed, and so I thought this
was a major, major, um uh,progression, you know, in her
storytelling abilities and I wasthrilled with this world.

Jonathan (44:14):
so definitely a four for me uh, I'm gonna give it a
five.
I am a sucker for contemporarygreek god stuff okay I liked it.
I liked that he had a penthouse.
I liked that.
I liked that we were overworld,underworld, regulation world.

Ashley (44:30):
I liked it Also, cerberus.

Mari (44:32):
Cerberus yes, who's a good boy?
Top five, who's a good boy?
I like him too.
Boys, yeah yeah.

Jonathan (44:37):
Boys, oh yeah definitely, oh yeah, definitely.
Also, I like the relationshipbetween Cameron and and and
Hades and and Lyra and I likethat.
It was there like you know,like, yeah, I'm as old as Bud
and so I'm going to get I get tocall him Fi and that's my.
That's what happens when, whenBud's or Bud's, I get to call
him Fi, and so I like that kindof also the idea that he's the

(45:06):
odd man out, right, other 12gods are like oh fuck here he
comes damn all right, nobodylook him in the eye, maybe he'll
go away.
And then he's like, yeah, I'mplaying, I'm playing this year,
and the danger mode just likelocks into place, so like the
threat level is high yeah like Imean, I don't like nobody's
worried about poseidon and thefish people come in like they're
just like everyone's, like ohgod, he's the one we have to

(45:29):
worry about.
He's a little dicey and spicyand I like it yes, so I I was
super into that.
I also uh, I liked, uh I likedthe relationship that kind of
would have with Aphrodite, howthat would kind of come out and
come to play.
And I know we have a little bitof extra information on

(45:50):
Aphrodite, courtesy of AbigailOwen.

Mari (45:54):
Oh yeah.

Jonathan (45:56):
Yeah, At one of the panels she said that when they
were like who's your greatest,who's your scariest villain,
Aphrodite.
And she was like you're goingto think it's Hades, but it's
Aphrodite.

Mari (46:06):
Yeah, Well, because she told Zeus about Persephone.
Did you get that?
At the end that was one of mygasps, that was one of my
telenovela gasps.
At the end I was like no, shedidn't.
She told him, zeus knew becauseof her.
Yeah, she's a player.
She told him, zeus knew becauseof her.

Jonathan (46:22):
Yeah, she's a player.
It's good.
Yeah, it's good stuff, it'sreally good stuff, and so I
would like to find out who hisconfidential informant is, and
so we know, that we know oneexists.
Yeah, there's an Oracle of somesort that exists.
Or maybe he traded a favor tothe fates.
I mean we all watch a Disneymovie where he's buddy-buddy
with them gals.

(46:43):
Maybe he traded a favor to thefates.
I mean we all watch that Disneymovie where he's buddy-buddy
with them gals, you know.
So I like to picture himwearing like skinny jeans and
like a black light, alightweight black hoodie, but
with like it's got, maybe it'sgot a little fringe around the
maybe it's got thumb holes in it.
You know what I mean.
Maybe it's got like a gray.

Mari (46:58):
Slightly worn, slightly tattered.

Jonathan (47:04):
Yeah, but still like high end, like it's.
He bought it like that.
He bought it worn, like hedidn't have to make it and and
then he's got just really good.
He's got like some high endsneakers shoes like they're
shoes, but they're sneakers.
You know what I mean.
So I like that.
They were like the other godswere like wow, he's got style,
he's got class.
That's how he became hades.
And then, and then he's got uh,but then they were like let's
give these people uniforms andthey will give her like some

(47:26):
prison issue, shit.
And he was like not gonnahappen, you're gonna be badass
and baller, yeah because heknows.

Mari (47:33):
He knows the power of appearance, the power of that
first impression, the power ofthe persona like that is, that's
his thing.
You know, kelly, what did youthink?

Kelly (47:44):
so it's always interesting when an author tries
to blend old gods into modernday, because you have the
juxtaposition of high technologyas well as the gods.
So at what point, at what pointwould humanity no longer need
the gods?
That's always a good questionin these types of scenarios.
The whole idea of this thievesguild existing, but like

(48:06):
existing, but apparently more orless that the thieves guild is
known to the public becausenobody questioned and there was
no big like when they talkedabout lira being from the the
thieves guild.
There was no big outcry in thenewspaper what thieves guild?
What's all this about?
Right?
So apparently it's a knownthing that there's a thieves
guild.
I mean, okay, like that theauthor did, like I said earlier,

(48:27):
bring in you know hint, thatthere were other god pantheons
that were involved in the world,which I always thought is an
interesting concept.
Because if the greek gods, ifzeus, has so much power, if the
greek gods, whoever's the kingof the gods has so much power,
if the Greek gods, whoever's theking of the gods has so much
power that they could destroythe world, essentially, then you

(48:49):
would think that the otherpantheon gods would be just as
powerful to stop them.
I mean.
So if Hades goes on a benderand decides he's going to burn
down the world, why aren't theNorse gods stopping him?

Mari (49:01):
Is it like a Cold War situation where they'll make it
all burn down the world?

Kelly (49:04):
You know, I mean certainly Odin could come down
and put a stop to Zeus.
I mean it's like the classicquestion who would kick whose
ass, odin or Zeus?
You know so.
And then that's not evengetting into the.

Jonathan (49:15):
I mean clearly, it was Thor that was answered in Love
and Fire.

Kelly (49:17):
Well then, that's not even getting into the numerous
Asian deities who are just aspowerful, you know, as the Greek
gods or the Roman gods or theNorse gods are.
So and then you get into, like,well, what about Native
American gods?
Why is it that only the Greekgods are the ones that can
possibly destroy the world?
You know, it seems to me likeif Zeus's champion, or whatever,

(49:40):
is going to do somethinghorrible, or Zeus is going to do
something horrible, he wouldeasily have the other pantheons
aligned against him, and exactly, it's like a Cold War situation
.

Mari (49:50):
Maybe that's what the other books would be about.
More about the other pantheonscoming in.
That would be amazing.

Jonathan (49:55):
That would be a cool twist, I think.
For now, though, it just kindof sits around the Greek gods as
far as being in control.

Mari (50:03):
I do want to add in real quick one more thing into the
world building.
That I thought was that AbigailOwen did really, really good
job, that a dowry of blood thatwe just read did not do, and
that the invisible life of EddieLaRue, which is very popular,
also did not do.
I think that this book did agood job of having people from
different cultures and you feltlike the people were from these

(50:23):
different cultures.
I can't remember everyone'sname, but the German girl had
some German references.
The Korean kid had some Koreanreferences, the Mexican guy had
some Mexican you know Spanishreferences.
It felt like, even if it's justa teeny bit of taste, it felt
like not everyone was justAmericana because the author is

(50:43):
American, you know Like.
It felt like she really broughtin some flavor building of
these different cultures.

Jonathan (50:49):
She brought in accents in the audiobook too.

Kelly (50:52):
But it makes no sense.
Why are Koreans worshipingGreek gods?
Why are, you know, SouthAmericans and Mexicans
worshiping Greek gods?

Mari (51:02):
Well, if you have a modern world with internet and
everything, then it's not so,it's more global.
You know what I mean?
It's not like it has to be justin the Greek area.
It could be that whateverthere's been spread of that
religion to other cultures, Idon't know.

Kelly (51:16):
Yeah, sure, that's possible.
I mean, religion can be spread.
But the problem I have is thatif all of the gods are real and
you have asian pantheons, as theauthor mentioned, then why
would koreans, japanese, chinese, why would they decide to
worship gods outside of the onesthat their ancestors worship?

(51:37):
Because that is a very strongthing in asian culture is
adherence to ancestor practices.

Jonathan (51:43):
I just do not see it happening.
The Greek gods won the war.

Ashley (51:48):
I was just going to say, like Zeus probably rolled up
and shut it all down.
This is my place.

Jonathan (51:53):
Yeah, the real question here is why don't the
Greek gods speak with Greekaccents?

Kelly (51:58):
Well it's.
I agree that maybe Zeus shut itall down, but that should have
been a very important part ofthe world building.
Is that there was a war in theheavens between all the
pantheons of gods, and the Greekgods won, but that was never
mentioned or even hinted at.

Ashley (52:10):
So I have to presume that all the pantheons are
powerful.
I was going to say it soundslike you wanted another 200
pages in this book.

Jonathan (52:17):
Kelly needs a prequel.
Abigail write Kelly a prequelabout how Zeus and Specifically
for Kelly.
This has to be pre, they didspeak about the war.

Mari (52:26):
But it was a war between the Titans and the gods.

Kelly (52:28):
Yeah, it was the war within the Greek gods, not a war
with other pantheons.
Collateral damage so, the games.

Summer (52:35):
They may have covered it more further on in the book,
but the games that they'reholding to figure out the king
of the gods is that across all,or is it just for the greek?

Mari (52:44):
the greek gods okay okay, interesting, all right, all
right.
Romance summer.
Did you want to say anythingabout the romance aspect?

Summer (52:52):
a little bit of an opinion, I don't.
I wouldn't say romance, I wouldsay right out the gate there is
an overwhelming feel of lovejust across the board, like she
can't be loved and he's got thissupposed ache of like losing
Persephone again.
I wouldn't say that romancetechnically, but it's definitely

(53:13):
heavily integrated.

Mari (53:16):
I would say for me the romance was a four, and I say
that because it was very to me.
It was a very specifically JaneAusten Pride and Prejudice a
little pining, that pining thehand barely touching that hand
moment from the new Pride andPrejudice movie.
It was that kind of a feelbetween them.

(53:37):
For me, for the majority of itwas a lot of pining and I
thought the pining was reallywell done.
And then there was also somepretty major sacrifice that they
did for each other.
Yeah, I thought the romance waswas a four for me.
I thought it.
There were parts where I wasquestioning it.
There was some miscommunicationstuff.
There's some stuff that happensthat I'm just like why do you
do that?

(53:57):
And then two chapters, twochapters later, oh, that's why
he did that.
Yeah, so I'd say four forromance for me.

Ashley (54:06):
I agree, I agree.
I agree with a four.
I agree with the pride andprejudice.
I agree that if anyone tells meright now that Mr Darcy wasn't
autistic, that I would call youcrazy to your face even though
there's no faces right now but Iwould do it.
And so not that I believe Hadesis autistic, presenting in the

(54:28):
way that Mr Darcy was, but I dothink there is that.
I've been in my ways for so long.
I don't know how to bend Right,I don't, but I know that I have
to.
I have to fix this, I have tofind a way.
I have to save her, I have tobe with her, but also I have to
follow my own plan.

(54:48):
He's got to have all the thingsand he's got to have it now and
he's got to have it his way.
And so I do think that there wasa heavy romance feel throughout
the whole book.
I think it says so much about ahuman, an actual human, that
was cursed to be unloved and forher to have amassed the loyalty
that she did in its place andhow she actually, like, vibrated

(55:15):
or exuded loyalty as wellbecause of the thing that she
lacked and always wanted thereit was.
You could smell it throughoutthe whole book and for that I
loved every second of it.
You, just you, wanted it to bebetter for her and even at some
point jonathan was like well,she was lied to right like the.

(55:37):
She wasn't cursed, butobviously she was, and for
reasons in the final trial thatit comes to.
You know attention.
But you know, in the same waythat they had, they had trouble
throughout most of the seriesidentifying what hades team
theme was.
I'm forgetting the word virtuewhat.

(55:57):
What hades virtue was?
And it was survival.
Right, it ends up beingsurvival and and she personifies
that as well right like.
Could any of us fully imaginegoing through life knowing that
you couldn't be loved and notnecessarily acknowledging the
other emotions that you couldreceive as well?
Man, how devastating yeah, verylonely and kudos to her for

(56:20):
being a decent fucking human inspite of it, so much empathy.

Mari (56:25):
She had so much all of it.

Ashley (56:26):
She had all the empathy yeah all of it the so, while
there was romance between herand hades, and a lot of it was
tension, the relationshipbuilding that happens with the
rest of the characters in spiteof her right, right, like they
didn't want to be her friend andshe just got up under their

(56:47):
skin.
The way that Jane does with MrDarcy, right, yeah, ugh, I loved
it all.

Mari (56:54):
Um Jonathan.

Jonathan (56:55):
I'm going to give it a four.
I thought it was a polite slowburn and it felt from the very
beginning, at Zeus's temple,like, and that's so.
When I it made me question ifthe curse was real, like the
whole, the entire book, theentire middle of the book, I was

(57:17):
like there's no way this curseis real, because I can sort of
feel this, this love burningbetween these two, and so I was
like, hmm, okay, so, yeah, I'mgoing to give it a four, maybe a
4.5.
I'm going to be bold 4.5.

Ashley (57:31):
Good job.

Kelly (57:35):
I feel like the romance in this book was pretty decent.
It was a nice slow build up andburn to the end.
I think the author did a goodjob of balancing the emotions
back and forth, where you cansee the conflict in Hades about
getting involved and that sortof thing.
So it was a pretty goodromantic scenario.
So, yeah, I would say I'd giveit a four.
I felt like it was definitelybetter than a lot of the romance

(57:57):
elements in books we've read.

Mari (57:59):
And about spice.
I think, Summer, you probablydidn't really get too much of
the spice where you're at no, Ithink we're like still barely
touching there's a lot of a lotof pining and yeah hoarding and
whatnot.
I think um spice.
I think happened like I don'tknow 70 into the book.

Kelly (58:15):
It's a ways in there.

Mari (58:17):
So for me, the spice was actually, I would say, a four
and because, uh, it exceeded myexpectations in terms of how
well it was done.
There's not a lot of spice, butthe spice was well done, I
think is appropriately placedfor the plot of the story and I
think it worked with powerdynamics.
It worked with that.

(58:38):
She was the one who was likehey, I'm just going to go into
here naked and like you come ifyou want to come and if not,
that's fine.
Yeah, I mean, it was all macho,uh bravado on her end because
she would have fallen two pieceshad he had he rejected her.
But I thought it was well done,spice.
So, yeah, I'd say it was a fourfor me I think it.

Ashley (59:00):
I think it was polite spice, I I don't think there was
a lot of detail and that justmight not be her jam, right,
abigail's jam.
I think we get more spice outof someone like Rebecca Yaros
More detailed spice, forgive me.
So I agree that it wassufficiently placed in the story

(59:21):
.
It wasn't rushed, it wasn'tunthought of, it wasn't in a
hurry.
I thought it was sufficientlyplaced in the story.
It wasn't rushed, it wasn'tunthought of, it wasn't in a
hurry.
I just thought I thought it was.
I thought it was adequate.
I wasn't unhappy about it.
I wasn't thrilled about it.
I thought she could have done alittle bit more.
That might not be her jam, andto each their own.
So it's a three for me.

Jonathan (59:39):
For spice.
Yeah, spice Spice for spice,spice spice.
It was minimal, I'm going togive it a two and a half.
Two and a half killing youraverages here.
I figured two and a half.
The spice wasn't there.
It took a long way.
It took like 75% of the book toget to the word cock.

Ashley (01:00:01):
There's a lot of burning she got them quality discount
extra long wicks way.

Jonathan (01:00:03):
for her it took like 75% of the book to get to the
word cock, there's a lot ofburning.
Yeah, there's a lot of burning.
She got them quality, discountextra long wicks.
I'm looking for a firecracker,yeah, so I'm going to give it a.
What did I say?
I gave it.

Ashley (01:00:13):
Two and a half.

Two and a half.
Yeah, I'm going to stick withthat.
I'm going to stick with a twoand a half.

Mari (01:00:18):
Can we?

Kelly (01:00:20):
So we had a long buildup to the spice and I felt like the
long buildup didn't really payoff as big as the buildup to it
was.
So it felt like a little bit ofa letdown to some degree, and
that may just be the authorstyle.
I'm trying to remember in theDominion series how spicy it was
.

Ashley (01:00:39):
It was not.

Kelly (01:00:40):
I'm looking back at our review of the Liar's Crown right
, the Liar's Crown and theLiar's Crown and we didn't score
the spice very highly on thatbook either.
But what was there?
I mean, I felt it was a goodand polite description of events
, but definitely not.
I guess it wasn't what I wasexpecting as far as all of the
buildup and hype to it.

Mari (01:01:01):
See that, all right.
The cover was done by thepublishing team, the Red Tower
design team.
That's all I could find on it.
When she released the coverpicture, that's all she said on
it.
Generally we talk about thecover and whether it would have
caught our attention and whetherwe think it's reflective of
what was in the book.
Do you have anything?

Summer (01:01:18):
to say about that.
I think what was on the audiobook.
I wouldn't say it gave anything.
I can see it being an integralpart.
It played a part to like keyelements of what we're in it,
but based on like the whole ofthe book, I wouldn't say it
represented it very well.

Mari (01:01:37):
I don't know what I think too.
Like I, it's fine.
The special edition book ispretty because it's got the
covered you know the sides ofthe pages painted, so it's
pretty.
But honestly, if I were walkingpast it I would think it was
like a fantasy battle book, likea war book.
So for me it's just maybe likea three or 2.5.
2.5, I would say honestlyJonathan, no, ash, I'm sorry.

Ashley (01:01:59):
Ash, I love the cover and I love the sprayed edges.
I think maybe the sprayed edgeshave more to do with it than
the cover and it probably tookme at least halfway through to
recognize the rel, the relevancyof the cover versus the book.
But 100 that cover is what mademe buy the book, so I will rate

(01:02:21):
this pretty high.
I think it was before four.
I was very happy with it and Ithought the print inside the
pages was also just lovely.
I loved it a lot.
I think it's far more relevantthan a lot of the books that
we've read covered to storymeaning and I think we're going
to find out more about therelics in future stories, so I'm

(01:02:42):
excited for that.

I agree, I'm going gonna give the cover a five, a
five, a five.

Ashley (01:02:47):
I bought this book purely for the cover yeah, he
didn't know that I alreadybought it.

I think, yeah it is is a pretty book, the so.
So a couple things on here.
One when you get the dustjacket off, the beautiful dust
jacket as it is, and you unveiljust this, like Navy blue with a
little bit of um, shininess, uhon it.
So that was cute.
So what I will probably do is Iwill airbrush the, the Fox, the

(01:03:13):
Panther, the tarantula and theowl on on the front, but on the
back I want to reserve somethinga little bit special for the
butterflies, cause I think thebutterfly is um is a little bit
more significant, even because Ithink the butterfly is um is a
little bit more significant,even though we don't have a
hugely, it's not a massivepresent presence, it's just
anchored we didn't even talkabout the tattoos fuck yeah, it

(01:03:34):
was a good.

Mari (01:03:35):
It was a good gift it's a cool little world building thing
.

Yeah, I love magical tattoos one thing that the cover
does for me that I'd beinterested.
I'd be keen, keen to hearKelly's thoughts on this.
The relics, the axes on thefront it just screams Fated
Mates to me because she had thisrelic for years, right?

Ashley (01:03:55):
Out of the blue.

Out of the blue, it was just.
No matter how she tried to getrid of it, it came back to her
Without having actually achievedsomething, too?

Ashley (01:04:02):
is what she said Correct ?
It was sent to her by someoneactually achieved something, too
Correct.
Is what she said Correct.

It was sent to her by someone, something, somehow it
was divine.
Yeah, it was divine.
Yeah, and it's a Hades relic.
So for me, it's just giving offa whole bunch of these Fated
Mates vibes.
So I'd be keen to hear Kelly'sopinion on that.

Mari (01:04:21):
What do you think, Kelly?

Kelly (01:04:22):
So I only read the Kindle version.
So of course I can't commentabout the sprayed edges and
other aspects of the cover, Onlythe image that was provided for
the Kindle version and Ithought it was pretty basic.
Like just looking at it, okay,you've got the two crossed axes
and like some Greek ruins orsomething around, Okay, but
that's it.

(01:04:43):
So nothing, I don't know,nothing that really tells you
anything about what's going tohappen in this book or what's
even inside of it.
I mean, for all we know,looking at the cover, if you
were to just look at that coverand said the games gods play, I
would not have picked Greek godsas the ones involved in this.
I would have immediately thoughtof the Norse gods, because you
don't think of the Greek godswhen you see axes with intricate

(01:05:05):
carvings on them.
That seems to be very much aNorse, Icelandic type thing,
Viking thing.
So I don't know that.
I would have immediately jumpedto Greek gods because while
there is some famous axesinvolved in Greek mythology,
like Labrys, which was thedouble-headed axe that Zeus had,
I would not have picked that.

(01:05:30):
Just because of the lowerassociation of axes as weapons
in Greek mythology.
I don't think it was a verygood cover in that aspect.
As far as the quality of theartwork, it looked fine.
So just based on would it havedrawn me in or would it
represent what's actually in thebook, I would say no and I
would just give it a three.
Or would it represent what'sactually?

Mari (01:05:44):
in the book, I would say no and I would just give it a
three.
Okay, now the final, final,final question Is it a kissing
book?
Would you say it's romantic?
Do you want to answer?

Summer (01:05:53):
first Summer.
So, without knowing the rest ofit, I think it is personally.

Mari (01:05:59):
I have been thinking about this back and forth since
yesterday.
I finished it yesterday, Ithink it's not.
I think there is romance in it,but I think that even without
that romance, I think the storywould still kind of happen the
way it did, because I think hepicked her because of the Oracle

(01:06:19):
or whatever.
Maybe the Oracle said it washer because of love, I don't
know, but he picked her becauseof the Oracle, whatever.
Maybe the Oracle said it washer because of love, I don't
know, but he picked her becauseof the Oracle.
She did what she was doingbecause she wanted to get the
curse taken off.
I don't know.
I'm going to say no, I'm goingto say not Romantici.

Ashley (01:06:35):
I'm going to say yes.
I'm going to say yes, romantici.
I think this goes back to eventhe axes, the relics and her
having one and her coming acrossHades in Zeus's temple.
Like none of these things makesense.
I think he picked her becauseof the curse and I think it

(01:06:56):
evolved from there.
I think if she had not fallenfor him, she would not have
pushed as hard or as long as shedid to get him king of the gods
, and I think if he had notfallen for her, she would have
just died and he not.
He would not have progressed inthe trials.

(01:07:16):
He needed her for the finaltrial, unequivocally, come hell
or high water, that was the onlyway to to win that trial, and
I'm trying not to spoil it forthe girl.
And so I think, while theintentions were very specific in
him choosing her, I think hestill fell along the way because
otherwise he just would havelet her die and he would have

(01:07:37):
been out this crucible andneeded a different path.
So for me it's romanacy.
The story could not havecontinued without the both of
them having been in theirfeelings and fighting for each
other, even in their shittysecret way.

Husband to the calculator.
So I just I plopped this onethrough the calculator plopped
it through plopped it rightthrough.
I just let it.
Let's like plunked it downhow's it coming for?
You it's coming.
So it came out with a 50 scoreat the bottom of the calculator.
So now you have to go on vibesI had to go on vibes, and so the
vibe that I'm electing to go onis, uh, I'm going to say TBD.

Ashley (01:08:16):
No, you gotta pick a side of the fence.

That's what we do I know right, this book has me in
TBD zone, Like I genuinely do itthrough the calculator,
figuring that I would go, but itlike hit a solid 50%.
Here's why I'm going to sayit's TBD and this is where I
think.
This is where I think that thatMari is maybe on the fence a

(01:08:39):
little bit.
We don't have enoughinformation.
I think we're at this pointwhere the entire, the entire
story could, could be impactedby their romance in the second
book and cause, that's what thatthis, that's where the pain
point is is genuinely going tooccur and that's a transitional
journey in the series.
And I think that alone cause,if you say, if you, if I say, no

(01:09:03):
, it's not, it's not romantictoday.
And we, and with the based onpurely on the idea that, yeah,
sure, if you take her out of itand it you know, because what
happens?
He doesn't, if you take her outof the story, that he doesn't
win, he's not going to win thecrucible at that point, the

(01:09:24):
crucible at that point, and yeah, maybe he picked her because
some Oracle told her to pick her, told him to pick her.
That that was the best way,that was the best pathway, the
most logical pathway to win thecrucible when you get to the
next level.
What he does next willdetermine if this book is
romantic for me or not.
So if how he reacts reacts tothe to that last page of the
book is what's going todetermine for me if this is

(01:09:47):
romancy.
So I either you take the tbd,yeah, I take the tbd.

Kelly (01:09:52):
That's all I'm gonna offer at this point I don't
think you can really give it atbd.
Jonathan, what's that?
I don't think you can give it atbd that's too bad.

That's what you got.
You got a TBD out of me.
I mean, I guess you just takepenicillin to get over it.

Ashley (01:10:08):
We're at least in a better position in that if the
calculator doesn't rate it theway that he wants, then it's not
at all.
So we're making some progresshere guys.
One thing I'm going to throwback in your face not 10 minutes
.

I'm going to rub it on my chest.
I'm going to lather it in yourface.
Come on, let's go.

Ashley (01:10:22):
It's not.
10 minutes ago we said relicsequals faded mates and now
you're going to be like.
I don't know if this isromanticcy.

I don't know if it's romanticcy.

Ashley (01:10:33):
I don't know.

I need to see his reaction.

Ashley (01:10:34):
I don't understand.

The proof is in the pudding.
I need to see the reaction.

Ashley (01:10:41):
You just need to see him blow the gasket to change your
mind, if he blows the gasket.

If he's like you know what, fuck it, I'm all in If he
rolls up his fancy pants,aeropostale, sweater sleeves
with the fake thumb holes inthere.
They're really just buttonholes, but he can slide his
thumb through it.
If that's what he does, you arewild.
Wild, I am wild.

Becky (01:11:02):
I am unruly, you are wild , wild, I am wild I am unruly,
you are unhinged.

No, I'm not unhinged, I didn't shave my head.
So, in the sake of fairness, ifwe took away that last jaw drop
, then what would you rate it?
You mean like the last, thelast?
Yeah, if we took that away,then, no, it's not romantic, but
it's there, it exists.
So I don't know now.
It's confused.
Me it's blurred.

(01:11:25):
The line is easily confused.
Jonathan's answer is like thelittle spooling symbol.

Mari (01:11:29):
Your answer is the little spooling symbol.
You're just thinking.

That's right.
I'm like, yeah, exactly, it'slike a GeoCities.
The page is loading.

Ashley (01:11:37):
Did this book break you?
It's like the blue screen ofdeath.
Yeah, yeah, the book is blue.

Mari (01:11:42):
It screen of death.
Yeah, yeah, it broke.

It broke the calculator I don't know if this,
if this, no, then that theirnext read is probably going to
break the cock.
There's not enough.
I mean holy, holy shit.
I'm gonna have to, I'm gonnahave to take up religion after
that just wait oh my god, um.
So yeah, like I don't know ifthis book broke me, but but it
made me.
This is probably the first oneI don't know, this isn't the

(01:12:06):
first one that makes me want toread more.

Mari (01:12:10):
Kelly.

Kelly (01:12:11):
So I had to say this is not Romanesie.
And the reason I say it's notRomanesie is because the whole
Hades did not have any intentionof falling in love with her and
although that happened, theromance was not essential to the
plot, which was her winning thegame and in fact I would say

(01:12:31):
that the romance could even bewas a detriment to her win,
because he didn't need her to bein love with him.
He needed her to win.
He needed her to remainunlovable in order to win.
So had she not fallen in lovewith him, he still would have
continued to use her to win thegame.

Mari (01:12:50):
Yeah, plus, I think she was all about trying to save
everybody.
She was very loyal to herfriends, wanting everyone to
stay alive, and yeah.
So I don't know, I don't know.
I still say no.
That's my answer, but I can seehow it goes either way, all
right.
Anything else about that bookbefore we go to our special
guests?
All right?

(01:13:10):
So, summer and Becky, tell meonce again the name of your
company.

Summer (01:13:16):
It's Summer Reading Creations and what is it?
It is I don't know how to sayit without because there is a
bigger company that actuallydoes something specific.
So it's like adjacent to that,but it's basically a mystery
book.
It's like blindly wrapped.
Essentially, I'm just going tosay it's a blind date with a

(01:13:36):
book.

Mari (01:13:37):
Yeah, that's the only thing that's dropping into
people, right?
Hey, I saw this company.
They do blind dates with books.

Summer (01:13:45):
I don't like to advertise it because there is a
company called blind date with abook.
They don't do what we do, it'sjust a blank book, um, but it is
the concept and that's theoriginal creator of the idea, so
I don't want to advertise it asthat.
But it's so difficult toexplain it without saying that
it's a gift to yourself.

Mari (01:14:02):
It is because you don't know what's in it, right?
So I'm going to describe what Isaw as a customer of theirs.
Like I walked up and there's atable and there's all these
books with really pretty likealmost origami, japanese style
like wrapping on it with littlelike pockets in the front, and
in the pockets there were little.
Well, there were, I'm trying toremember now.
There were like two differentkinds.

(01:14:23):
There was like a black base,because it was halloween, and
then there was like brownwrapping and then they had like
different things stuck in thelittle pockets, so like tea or
coffee things or like bookmarksor little stickers and little
things like that sticking out ofthem.
And then there was a tag oneach package and it would be

(01:14:45):
like romanacy, I don't know Iremember what else.
Romanacy, blah, blah, blah.
3.5 or 4.0 rating on, uh,goodreads.
And so you're picking a book andI will say the whole blind date
with a book thing I first sawin a meet cute bookstore in san
diego.
It's a romance bookstore andthat was the first time I'd ever

(01:15:05):
seen or heard of that.
I went in.
I saw some cool stuff they hadin the very back.
They had blind date with a bookand it was plain, just brown
package, just plainly wrapped,and they just had like a little
label on it that said a datewith a skirted kilt man or
something you know, kilted skirt, whatever, uh, kilted irishman,
scottishman, something I don'tremember.

(01:15:29):
But that's the one I got and Imean it wasn't even that great
of a book but the concept wascool, like it was fun.
So I've always called it thatbecause the first time I ever
saw it that's how it wasdescribed.
But it is, it's like a giftyou're buying yourself and you
don't know what it is.
Just like when you give someonea gift they don't know what it
is.
Obviously it's a book, but youdon't know what you're getting.
So, other than randomly walkingup to you in like a fall
festival, how would people findyou?
Like, where would they get this?

Summer (01:15:50):
So Etsy is a good one.
We just started out on Etsy.
Our website is the main place.
It's summerreadingcreationsshopFacebook.
We do a lot of.
We are tentatively on TikTokshop, but for for the most part
I would say etsy or the websiteare the best two places um, I
would say stuff like this Ithink about for the holidays,

(01:16:11):
for like people you know wholike books.

Mari (01:16:14):
Um, or you would want to get into books you know how
people will do, like forchristmas.
Look at like lottery ticketsfor for stocking stuffers or for
their family or whatever.
I think this is a cool way todo, kind of like a random
surprise gift for someone,without necessarily picking a
specific book we actually have aChristmas collection coming out
.

Summer (01:16:33):
They're going to be really cute wrapped in Christmas
wrapping papers.

Real quick.
Is itsummerreadingcreationsshop or
summerreadingshop?

Summer (01:16:42):
It is summerreadingshop.
You're right, summerreadingshop.
I get thatshop.
It is SummerReadingshop.
You're right, summerreadingshop.
I get that confused a lot.
Everything else is Creations.

I'm on the website.
I'm like, oh man, am I on thewrong website?
It's like starting Googlingstuff.

Summer (01:16:54):
We started with SummerReadings and then quickly
found out that that leads youinto a whole line of like
after-school programs.
Oh yeah, so we added creationslater on.

Mari (01:17:05):
How long have you guys been around?

Summer (01:17:07):
I opened in July and, honestly, it was just kind of a
craft we talked about.
Really, I, my whole house, isneurodivergent, so there's just
a slew of dead projectseverywhere, and so this was one
of those that I picked up andassumed that would be put down
and just hasn't surprised, rightcould you imagine if, like my

(01:17:31):
mess and your mess met.

It would just like an anomaly, would open up face it's
.
It looks very cute, like, uh,yeah, what?
What hits me here is I'mpersonally, I'm not a mystery.
I want to know what I'm gettingAll my belongings.
I need to see all my belongings.

(01:17:53):
At the same time, I wrestledthis morning over throwing out
the equivalent of a broken watch.
I was like, well, maybe I canjust save this half and like I
know I'm not going to use it,right, so like, but I have to
see it at all times.
Like I put this in a clear bagand it has to be like one of
those toy bins that you get forlike kids so they can see their
toys at all times Like that'show I have to see my stuff.

(01:18:13):
My, I don't even have a dresser.
I have like a no fold systemidea of something mysterious to
me.
I don't do scratch offs cause Idon't know Right.
Um, but my wife is the opposite.
She'll be like she'll gosomewhere.
She'll be like I'm looking forthis specific item and they'll

(01:18:35):
be like we have that.
We also have this thing that isvery much not likely going to
be the item that you came herefor, but it's a mystery, it
could.
And then she's like I'll takethe mystery.
You know what, give me four,you know like it's.
That's who she is delightfultreat so what this, what this
says to me is like if you're, ifyou're out there looking for a

(01:18:57):
gift to give somebody like thisis a super duper, easy reading
book lover funsy gift that ifI'm just going to order it
online, it's already listen,it's already coming fucking
wrapped.
It comes with all these littletrinkets and little things with
it.
There's.
Is that food?
Is there like food in there?
Is that?
I'm looking at one.
I can't tell what's in thispocket here.

(01:19:19):
It looks like a back scratcherand some food.

Summer (01:19:27):
That's back scratcher and some food.

That's actually a pin it's tea, um, you could do ice
coffee, hot coffee teas and hotchocolate.
See, I'm liking that and solike it's, like you're giving
this, you're giving this it's.
I'm telling you, like, if wedon't find somebody to gift a
book to this this holiday season, we don't have them, we don't
have no, no friends.
Um, like everywhere else you go, you have to pay for this extra
wrapping.
So to me, when I'm looking atthis, I'm seeing a gift giving

(01:19:50):
bargain.

Ashley (01:19:52):
You know what you call that.
What we're coming full circle.
Guys, wait for it.
A sucker pack.

Oh, it's a sucker pack .

Ashley (01:19:59):
I like it.

We're good with sucker packs.

Ashley (01:20:01):
Yeah, no, we are full pro sucker pack in this house.

Summer (01:20:07):
We love a deal we're going to have a kids collection
too soon.

What's that that?

Summer (01:20:10):
could be good A kids collection.
Oh, I like it, it'll be comingsoon.

I'm a big fan of Dr Seuss.

Summer (01:20:18):
What I think I like about it.
As far as for a gift idea, I'ma gift giver.
But as far as for a gift idea,I'm a gift giver and so it takes
kind of the work out of it foryou.
But it doesn't take theimpersonalization out of it
Because you can still customizethe genre that you think they
would like or the beverage thatyou think they would like or the
color combinations.
So it's still a personal giftbut also it took a lot of the

(01:20:39):
work out of it for you.

Mari (01:20:43):
And you get a little bit of surprise with the person.
So then you can be like hey,what was it?
You have something to talkabout.
I'm all about an experience.
Like I love giving experiencesand getting experiences.
So, like you know, um ticketsto things you know, to movies or
to events or to shows orwhatever.
So this, in a way, is anexperience.
It's a thing too, but it's anexperience, because then you can
be like hey, what was it?
And then like hey.
Then like hey, maybe we shouldread it together.

(01:21:03):
Yeah, yeah, the books.
Where do you guys get the books?
Like, is it used books?
Is it new books?

Summer (01:21:10):
So I would say 80% of them are used or re-owned.
A lot of them actually come.
Becky will source the locallibraries and what are the boxes
that you search?

Becky (01:21:27):
I mean like when we go to the neighborhoods.
Oh, the free library.

Summer (01:21:31):
We were working with a local business in Lake Park.
With the hurricane they lost alot of their inventory, but they
do that.
They buy books from closedlibraries and stuff and they'll
repurpose them.
So a lot of them 80% of themroughly are reused from like
local or we found a vendoronline that does that as well.
However, you know, to keep opendemand, there are a small

(01:21:54):
percentage of the books that docome from bigger stores we
really try to stay away from,like the big market stores.
It's almost not possible tojust completely steer clear of
it.
When we do, it's never going tobe a brand new like 2024, yeah,
book, talk, book.
It's never going to be one ofthose.

(01:22:15):
So we really research them tomake sure that you're getting
like a dated, like an adventure,If you want something that
you're not just going to go tothe bookstore and pick up and
then not everybody's talkingabout right?

Mari (01:22:27):
um, it's always nice because, like, I've read some
really good books this year thatwere not new this year.
They're not.
Some of them are like a decadeold and they've, like I read the
goblin emperor this year, whichI don't know if I've heard any
I've talked to you guys about,but I've talked to everybody
else in the world.
It feels like about it.
It's like I think it was 2015or something.
I I don't know.
It was published a little bitago, not a romancy book, it's

(01:22:48):
like pure fantasy.
So good, so good, but I you'renot gonna see that on tiktok and
see that's the point we wereactually.

Summer (01:22:55):
I think the start of this was searching those
bookstores and just finding allthese that were just ridiculous
prices and discarded and they'regood books.
We read Dark Things.
I Adore.

Becky (01:23:08):
That's one of my top five reasons Such a good book.

Summer (01:23:10):
But it was.
I think we paid a dollar for itbecause it was just discarded
and both of us were like whythis is so good?

Mari (01:23:18):
I love the whole like environmental aspect of reusing,
because there's nothing wrongwith the book, like if you've
read it it doesn't mean somebodyelse can't read it, it's not
like it's been used up, you know.
I mean like if it's not onethat you want to keep and reread
or treasure or whatever, passit on.
And this is a cool way to passit on to somebody, to to
recirculate these used booksthat are out there to someone

(01:23:39):
who might not have otherwiseknown about them or pick them up
.

Summer (01:23:42):
When we get like some of the books, they're not
aesthetically pleasing.
You don't have like the crispwhite pages, but that's kind of
the fun of it too.
I like it an older book.
It's not going to be tatteredand ripped on the seams or
anything, but you're going tohave a feel to it.

Mari (01:23:57):
It's got personality, it's seen some stuff, all right.

Anything else you guys want to say or anything else
you guys want to ask them.
I'm a fan of maybe not to theextent of book restoration, but
I do like to breathe a littlebit more life into them.
It's 100% possible to crisp upthose edges and to give it some

(01:24:37):
new personality.

Summer (01:24:39):
It's one of my favorites .

There's hobbies, Hobbies now again is playing
with some recovering and someairbrushing lately but.
Yeah.
I'll harass you a little bit,don't worry.
But yeah, I oftentimes and I doI buy, I'll go on and buy like

(01:25:03):
a bunch of used books.
It's just you're right.
It's just you're right, it's it.
It gives it new life and it'sjust it's a very creative.
It's a creative way to gift.
I think books are like records.
You know it's.
If they're not, you know youcan use them and gift and just
passing them along is is just akind, a kind way to say I was

(01:25:27):
thinking about you.

Mari (01:25:31):
And having you guys, Jonathan and Ash, living in
Florida and us living here inGeorgia and having just been
through some hurricanes, it'snice to have some entertainment
that you don't have to plug in.
I read a book about naturefighting back during the
hurricane.

Kelly (01:25:48):
Did not plan to do it.

Mari (01:25:49):
I'm like oh, this is getting a little real here.
It was good, but it was alittle real.
It was a Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.
I'll tell you in a second whatit was.
Give me one second List here.

Is Sarah with an H.
I can see the cover, but Ican't think of the name it was.

Mari (01:26:13):
Sarah Beth Durst who wrote the Spellshop?
It was the Queen of Blood, herQueens of Renthea series.
Yeah, it was like an enchantedforest kind of thing that fights
back, fights back like, killspeople, and like the hurricanes
going on, I'm like, oh man, badtiming.
Yeah, all right, anything elsebefore I do the little outro,

(01:26:35):
would you guys like to come backand do that sometime, like
actually give you time to readthe book and do something with
us.
I think that'd be fun, yeah,okay.

Summer (01:26:50):
So I'm going gonna read the outro, unless anybody has
anything to say.

Mari (01:26:59):
I just want to say podcast in general, the episode where
you guys just the mummy maybeall right.
So thanks for listening to ofswords and soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck out the show notes, rate,
review and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us.
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(01:27:20):
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You know?
Follow us on there.
If you'd like to offersuggestions for future
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(01:27:42):
and breakdown, as I do mytelenovela guests, you can join
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We hope you'll join us in twoweeks for our next episode, when
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(01:28:03):
Glory, and I see him in thiscustom.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"The Games Gods Play" - Hades Changes the Game