"Throne of Glass" - Death Camp to King's Champ - 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 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 Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromancy stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly (00:36):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.

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

Jonathan (00:41):
Woo, it's JP back in the back of the bus again.
I love it.
We always save you for last.
We also have Jonathan Woo, it'sJP back in the back of the bus
again.

Ashley (00:46):
I love it.

Mari (00:46):
We always save you for last.
Yeah, all right.
So today we're going to bediscussing Throne of Glass by
Sarah J Moss, which I'm very,very excited to finally do.
But first we have, as always,the news segment.
First thing, this is top of thenews, which you already know,

(01:06):
if you follow us on our socialmedia.

Kelly (01:07):
But we've been going for a year, guys, yay.

Jonathan (01:09):
Happy birthday, guys.

Mari (01:11):
I need a smash cake right now.

Jonathan (01:15):
Ooh, cake sounds good, I agree.

Mari (01:17):
Yeah, so we've been going for a year.
So if you want to go back andlisten to any of our older,
earlier episodes, any books thatyou maybe have read that you
hadn't read when we talked aboutthem, you can always go back
and listen to any of our older,earlier episodes.
Uh, any books that you maybehave read that you hadn't read
when we talked about them, youcan always go back and listen to
it.
If you want to give us a littlegift for our when your
anniversary slash birthday,wherever you, listen to us, give
us a review.
I'm not even telling you togive us a good review, just give

(01:40):
us a review.
Tell people what you think,just say some words yeah, yeah,
just a few words a little bit offeedback.

Ashley (01:47):
We want to hear from you .

Mari (01:48):
yes, exactly.
But on to the rest of the news,the standard news first thing I
have is t kingfisher announcedthat she is doing a sequel to
sword heart.
I'm very excited about this.
It's going called Daggerboundand it will be out next year, in
2026.
She announced it on threads, sothat's literally all I know.

(02:10):
It's not available forpre-order, there's no links,
there's nothing.
Just that Swordheart will havea sequel and it will be called
Daggerbound and it'll be outnext year.
So I'm very excited about that.

Jonathan (02:21):
Interesting.
You know I'm going to be honesthere.
When you were like T KingFisher, I was like, oh, that
dead author guy.
And then you were like she andalive.
I was caught off guard.

Mari (02:35):
So well done.
That's a good surprise.

Jonathan (02:38):
I'm super stoked that she's among the living.

Mari (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how we get new books.
Yeah, me too.
We need to read some of herbooks on here, um, but she wrote
the saints of steel series,sword heart.
I think her most recent one wasnot nettle and bone.
What's the?

Ashley (02:57):
other one.
There's something else is itthem?
No, I'm trying to look it up.
Sorceress comes to call is.

Mari (03:02):
I was like looking at my bookcase behind me and I could
not read yes, that's it.
Sorceress comes to call is hernewest one.
It's interesting because swordheart is one that I often see
recommended as a good standalonefantasy, romance, romancy story
, especially because it has ayou know, older than teenage
main character.
Um, so it'll be interesting tosee it as how much of a

(03:23):
standalone it is, or if it endsup being like an actual
continuation of the story.
You know what I mean.
Like I don't know if it's goingto be just another story in the
world or if it's actually goingto continue the characters from
the first one.
So we shall see Nice.

Jonathan (03:36):
Yeah.

Mari (03:37):
T Kingfisher used to write when she first started running.
She used to write under thename which I think is her real
name, ursula Vernon.
To write under name which Ithink is her real name, ursula
vernon.
And then that was like uh, kids, well, graphic novel, kind of
thing, and then some kids booksand then all her adult books
were under the t kingfisher name, gotcha, yeah well, and I think
it's really common to at leastI've been seeing a lot of it for

(04:01):
romance or romanticist slashfantasy authors to initial their
names so that there's not thatkind of bias of being a female
author, almost yep interesting.

Jonathan (04:14):
I was wondering about that too, like it's very, very,
very popular.
I've seen yeah, I've seen a lottoo.
I don't know if I, if I verymuch enjoy that, but I, when I
was mario, when we did themicrofic, like I, I, my
preference was to be like in agender neutral name, like jesse
or aaron yeah, I mean there'snothing wrong with that like a

(04:36):
pen name.

Mari (04:36):
Having a pen name is a very old, you know, author
tradition.
So yeah, also in tink fisher tking, fisher t king fisher uh

(04:59):
news.
So yeah, yeah.

Ashley (05:00):
Can we read that that one looks feisty.

Mari (05:02):
Yeah, I'm down for it.
It comes out in November, sothat'd be a good like
post-Halloween situation.
Yeah.
The little synopsis I foundsays in an isolated desert town,
a young woman seeking a freshstart is confronted by ancient
gods, malevolent supernaturalforces and eccentric neighbors.
Snake Eater is perfect for fansof Silviavia moreno garcia,

(05:24):
chuck tingle and rachel harrison.
That is a heck of a mix ofauthors right there.
Have you guys read any of thoseauthors?

Ashley (05:33):
or do you know them?
No, I don't think I could takeanybody seriously with a name
like chuck tingle but that's thepoint.

Kelly (05:39):
That's exactly the point.
Yes, yeah I'm, I'm the coreaudience the title of all his
books are way out there yeah, oh, I like it yeah.

Mari (05:50):
so his stuff is very out there, very like irreverent
absurdist.
Sylvia moreno garcia wrotemexican gothic, so it's like
horror, but not like yourstandard, like slasher kind of
horror where there's a specificmonster kind of horror.
It's just kind of creepy gothickind of horror like vibes, all
right, and Rachel Harrison kindof writes spooky comedies is how

(06:14):
I would describe her.

Ashley (06:15):
Spooky comedies.

Mari (06:16):
Yeah, so it'll be an interesting with those
comparisons.
Poor.

Ashley (06:20):
Jonathan doesn't know what to do with any of those
explanations.
How do you feel about the coveron this book?

Jonathan (06:27):
I don't like the cover .
It's a snake.

Ashley (06:28):
It's a snake, you're a snake, you're literally a
Slytherin.

Jonathan (06:33):
It scares me, it is the year of the snake.

Ashley (06:35):
It is the year of the snake, that's good timing for
them.

Mari (06:39):
Kelly, have you read any Chuck Tingle?
I have.

Ashley (06:42):
Would you say he said that, like he knew secrets that
we didn't know, kelly has allthe secrets.

Kelly (06:46):
All the secrets.
I read one of his books becauseeveryone was talking about it
and it was right after he justcame to Blue Sky, so he was
pretty prolific and popping upeverywhere and so everyone was
like you should at least readone of his books.
And so I read one and it's outthere.
Recommend.

Mari (07:03):
What little I know about Chuck Tingle.
I actually was throughlistening to the Hissing and
Kissing podcasts because theytalk about him on one of theirs.
I don't remember.
I think it might have been likea oh, I'm going to get it wrong
Maybe like a dinosaur episodeor something, I don't know.
I don't remember, but like,okay, here's a random title of a

(07:26):
Chuck Tingle novel, Pounded inthe butt by handsome sentient
library card, who seemsotherworldly but in reality is
just a natural part of thepriceless resources our library
system provides.

Ashley (07:38):
That's a title, that's a title.

Mari (07:40):
From two-time Hugo Award finalist, chuck Tingle.
From two-time Hugo Awardfinalist, chuck Tingle.

Ashley (07:58):
One of the books the book that I read that he did was
a book he published basicallyjust as a middle finger to JK
Rowling, which was HarrietPorber, which was basically a
trans wizard, harriet Porber,who's a master spell smith,
trans wizard Harriet Porber andthe bad boy Parasaurolophus an
adult romance novel yeah.
So his books are like that Hisbooks are like.

Kelly (08:10):
he'll write a book just as a F you to somebody Jonathan,
just went, ooh Sorry.

Ashley (08:17):
I love this so much, so in looking up Shark, Tingle.

Mari (08:21):
The website I'm looking at says hey customers also.
When you look up Shark Tingle,customers also bought items by T
Kingfisher.

Ashley (08:31):
Oh, what is it Buttageddon the final days of
pounding ass.

Jonathan (08:37):
Oh, okay.

Ashley (08:39):
Interesting.
Chuck's Dinosaur Tinglers.
I'm going to learn something.
I can feel it.
Dinosaur tinglers, I'm going tolearn something.

Mari (08:46):
I can feel it.
I'm going to have to figure outwhich episode of the Hissing
Kissing they were talking about,Because they did the whole
story.
Like he's very private, Like Ithink he doesn't do interviews
Right.

Kelly (08:54):
Nobody knows who he is or what he looks like.

Mari (08:57):
There's a whole like aura of personality around him.

Kelly (09:00):
And there's people who think he may not even be like
actually like a male.
Nothing is for certain abouthim.

Mari (09:06):
Next bit of news, moving it along, there's a new website
we found.
It is romconscom and it listsfantasy, romance, romancy book
conventions.
So it's a really cool tool ifyou're like, hey, what's coming
up in the summer, I want to gosomewhere and look at book stuff

(09:28):
and you can like, submit booksto it.

Ashley (09:30):
This literally happened to me two days ago.
I was like why didn't we knowabout this book convention that
was happening in the city ofOrlando, where we just so
happened to be?

Jonathan (09:40):
And I said did you look at this website?

Ashley (09:43):
Because it's right there on this website and I said did
you look at this website becauseit's right there on this
website.

Jonathan (09:46):
We were in where were we in universal?
And she was like what do you?
There's a book convention.
I was like, yeah, I was like Isaw it the other day and she was
like, why didn't you tell?
I was like, well, you shouldprobably go to this website.
I was at work and somebody wassomebody mentioned like a book
convention near them and she,she and I started looking.
I was like, also, we had fun atthe book conventions that we've

(10:10):
gone to as a, as a group, right.

Ashley (10:12):
I didn't seem to be like a collective space.
I agree.

Jonathan (10:15):
It's a very so.
Yeah, this is a.
This was a.
This is a pleasant discovery.

Ashley (10:20):
Yeah, Cause I like no-transcript email list and

(10:52):
also like share events, like ifyou don't see it on there
already if a poly, I think if apolycon was a little bit closer,
we could do some real damagethere Right if?

Mari (11:02):
it was more drivable, although I will say I have
bought a rolly cart thingy, alittle rolly cart to tote books
around in, and I am activelyadding book and bookstore
stickers to it.

Ashley (11:17):
You guys, I scored one at a yard sale from a teacher
that had retired, I paid $5.
Nice, I was so excited I had tolike.
Donathan was like stuff it down.

Jonathan (11:29):
don't show them how excited you were, they'll triple
the price, literally oozingglee the teacher saw it and saw
her with it and she said youknow, you can get like 100
pounds of books in that that'sexactly what we're gonna do with
it.

Ashley (11:43):
Sold is precisely what I plan to do with it.
It's a little beat up and loved, but dang for five dollars,
yeah, exactly take my money, Iwould have paid her double nice
that's why you can't trust me atyard sales so next romancy con
in october.

Mari (11:59):
We'll be rolling around with those we are set speaking
of the romancy con, we went tocharissa weeks, who we met and
heard speak at the romancy conlast year, is releasing a
special edition of her, the wild, the wolf and the witch.
I typoed myself, so sorry, thewolf and the witch book she's
doing it with in conjunctionwith arcane society.

(12:20):
It's really pretty, it pretty.
It's got a reversible cover.
It's a mauvey, millennial pinkkind of version on one side and
then the other side is a darkgrays and burgundy.
It's got stenciled edges on thepages.
It's $35, and it ships inAugust of this year.

Jonathan (12:41):
Very nice.
It's got very good-looking edgepaper too.

Mari (12:44):
It looks really pretty, I bought it.

Jonathan (12:48):
Confessions.

Mari (12:49):
It's actually, I think, book two or three in the series
which I've read her series and Iwould recommend it, but it's a
good series up to where it's at.
I thought it was really welldone.
I hadn't ever heard of her orread it before we went to
Romanticy Con, so that's reallywhat got me interested in
reading it.

Ashley (13:07):
I love how Romantic Con just like opened up all of our
worlds, jonathan's in particular, but all of us, yes.

Mari (13:16):
I agree.

Ashley (13:18):
He's making friends everywhere.

Jonathan (13:20):
I'm talking to Juliet Cross right now.
How dare you?
I'm going to sidebar with her.

Mari (13:26):
Well, next year at RemediesyCon, Allie Hazelwood's
going to be there.
I saw.

Jonathan (13:31):
I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself.

Mari (13:35):
I'm going to text her.
Next, we need to read the Brideon this podcast as a group and
talk about it sometime beforethen as a group and talk about
it sometime before then.
Allie Hazelwood is going to bereleasing a new book which I
don't remember hearing anythingabout until very, very recently,
and it comes out May 27th.
There's no cover for it that Isaw anywhere, but the title of

(13:58):
the book is Problematic SummerRomance.
It's a contemporary romance.
There's no fantasy element toit, so it's not like a romance
story.
It's a contemporary romancewith an age gap, and it's set in
Sicily, so I'm very excitedabout.
I like her books, I like herwriting style.

Jonathan (14:13):
I like her books.

Mari (14:14):
You give me anything in like Italy.
I'm there, I'm done, I'll readit, sign you up.

Ashley (14:20):
Do we have time for one more bit of news?
I I sent you something that Idon't think made it on your list
and I'm I may not, I may havelost it yeah, no, well, I think
I.
I think I sent it just lastnight, so you'll see it on your
tiktok.
Uh, our bestie sarah beth dursthas announced a third book.
Oh, in the spell shop cozy yeah, the spells, the?

(14:42):
is it the spell shop?
The bookshop, yeah, yeah, yeah,you're right um.
So, yeah, she announcedliterally just like yesterday, I
think it hit the socials umthat they are doing a third book
in the in the cozy fantasyseries and it's called the
fairway inn anything else likethat's it.
That's all I got.

Mari (15:01):
Okay, no, that's all I got yeah, it looks like it's not
even available for pre-orderanywhere anything I mean
honestly, the second book hasn'tcome out, so yeah, I need to
slow my roll.

Kelly (15:10):
The marketing strategy for you book nerds is we give
you a tease and then we give youa title for you to speculate
over for three months.
Then we give you a tidbit aboutthe plot, uh-huh, then we give
you a character name yeah, don'tforget, like then.

Mari (15:24):
Then you have the cover art that's gonna come out.

Ashley (15:26):
They gotta talk about that too yeah, it's how they're
keeping it, that's how theystring us along.
Um, I thought it was superearly for that because, you're,
I didn't realize that the theenchanted greenhouse hadn't
hadn't released yet.
I mean, at least I, I believethat it's in the same you know
storyline, because she seemed to.
I thought in the video that Iwatched, she, she had said third

(15:47):
book.
But I'm looking at this postnow and it doesn't say that.
So, um, I hope that I'm notwrong, but maybe I am.
But it is, at the very least,then, another cozy fantasy,
although it does say ya, somaybe it is a different, maybe
it's not book three.

Kelly (16:03):
Um, that's true, young.

Ashley (16:04):
Young adult fiction.
Yeah, this is Vermont.
I feel like we were not inmodern day anything.

Mari (16:10):
Yeah, unless there's going to be some sort of a weird time
jump or something.
Who knows?

Ashley (16:13):
Sure, I think it's interesting that authors are
doing these kind of back andforths in and out of fantasy,
and I'm here for it, especiallyif it gives them them, you know,
the the will to go back andcomplete other things, um, you
know, like Rebecca, and nowSarah, sarah Beth Durst, so, um,

(16:34):
and as we're seeing too, withlike Allie Hazelwood and some of
the others, yeah, lots of bookson deck this year all right.
Any other new time?
no, just rumors yeah, lots ofrumors, lots of rumors akatar
six was big rumored this week,but it did nothing.

Mari (16:53):
Nothing came out we got nothing and we will like it
nothing we will just sit herecontently yep yep, can I please
have some more?

Ashley (17:04):
no, no, denied, hurry up and wait yeah, yeah, all right.

Mari (17:11):
So we um read throne of glass for this episode.
We picked it.
I wasn't.
I wasn't sure I remembered ifwe picked it, because I just I
wanted to read it so bad Iwhined about it so much.
I feel that I, you guys, mayhave been along for the this'll
shut her up situation.

Ashley (17:32):
Some of us more than others, but no, I was stoked to
have the homework assignment ofthis book.

Mari (17:38):
Okay, yeah, so we read it.
Let me read the synopsis andthen we'll get into it a little
bit.
This book was published August2nd of 2012.
And the synopsis is In a landwithout magic, an assassin is
summoned to the castle.
She has no love for the viciousking who rules from his throne

(18:00):
of glass, but she has not cometo kill him.
She has come to win her freedom.
If she defeats 23 murderers,thieves and warriors in a
competition, she will bereleased from prison to serve as
the king's champion.
Her name is Selene Sardothien.
The crown prince will provokeher, the captain of the guard
will protect her and a princessfrom a faraway country will

(18:23):
befriend her.
But something rotten dwells inthe castle and it's there to
kill.
When her competitors startdying mysteriously one by one,
selena's fight for freedombecomes a fight for survival and
a desperate quest to root outthe evil before it destroys her
world.
So, reminder, we're doing ourreviews where we talk about
everything's.

(18:43):
Yeah, I don't?

Ashley (18:44):
there's this we what 15 years after the release of this
book.
So if you guys have not read itand don't want to be spoiled,
you should come back later.

Mari (18:54):
But we are going to be talking about Just Throwing a
Glass.

Jonathan (18:57):
Yeah, Just Throwing a Glass, not any of the others.
Yeah, it was released in 2012,.

Mari (19:02):
But she actually started writing it.
Um, I looked it up, she waslike 16 16 when she started
writing this book in 2002 thatwas a long time ago, but I've
gotten to the point where noweverything is pre-covid, or
after covid yeah, yes, 100, 100one.
Yeah, yes, 100%, 100%.

(19:24):
One thing that I found outbefore we get into the rest of
it is I was like looking up somea little bit about her writing
it, because I had heard that shewas 16 when she wrote this, but
I wanted to see it somewhererather than just, you know,
someone randomly saying it.
So, yeah, that's apparentlytrue.
And also the.
What gave her the idea to writethis like the?

(19:46):
The germinating story that madeher write this.
Was she wanted to do or shewrote like a Cinderella
retelling is what it started offas Didn't end up that way even
in this first book, but she waslike what if Cinderella runs out
of the ball?
That moment where she runs outof the ball, that was like the
germinating event in her brain.

Kelly (20:05):
The whole problem with Cinderella is the prince has to
find her by shoe size, whichjust tells you he didn't look at
her face the entire time.

Ashley (20:13):
I was going to say that's the problem.

Jonathan (20:16):
So he was looking for her feet on an OnlyFans page.

Mari (20:19):
Maybe, Right, Okay.
So it says she cited Cinderellaas like the inciting event that
made her write it.
She said the scene where theheroine flees the ball, she
wanted to reimagine some of it.
And she said what if Cinderellawas a thief?
No wait, an assassin fleeingthe palace?
And then, but who is she?
Was she sent to kill the prince?

(20:41):
Is she the enemy of the prince?
Is there?
Nope, it's going to be apowerful, corrupt empire, et
cetera, et cetera.
So like that's how theCinderella fleeing the ball is
was the germinating event for,for this story, For this novel.
Yeah, yeah, I thought that wasneat.
What did we think of it overall?
Like overall rating guys, am I?

Ashley (21:00):
going first.
Jonathan just immediatelylooked at me, so I I feel like
I'm going first.
So I think, I think it'simportant to recognize that this
is book one in a very longseries.
Like we're not even justtalking trilogy right, we're not
talking about a quad, or youknow.
This is, it's what?

Mari (21:19):
seven total books seven books and a series of short
stories, so really eight and aseries of short story.

Ashley (21:25):
That's wild.

Jonathan (21:26):
Um, that's like an average series size now I think
now but fantasy I guess, maybesure, but like what else is that
big?

Ashley (21:35):
that isn't brandon sanderson or jk rowling juliet
cross now ma'am, but not 2012.

Jonathan (21:44):
Aurora Asher.

Mari (21:46):
How long is that Zelazny series that you like, Kelly?

Kelly (21:49):
It was 10 books.
But I mean those books alsoweren't that big.
I mean you're talking aboutthey were 200, 250 page
paperbacks.

Ashley (21:58):
Right.

Kelly (21:59):
So I would say probably at the time, like the big book
series you're thinking of, youknow in the early 2000s would be
stuff like the Wheel of Timeand Shannara, and so there were
some big fantasy series, butthey were like strictly fantasy
series.

Ashley (22:14):
Right, and not necessarily young adult either.
Right, because hers is, youknow, age wise.
We're talking young adult here,we're talking young adult here.
So, anyway, you know, thinkingof all of these things, this was
not a life altering, you know,wild life changing read for me,
and I actually probably didn'tdevour it in the way that I've

(22:36):
really kind of just osmosis like, absorbed some other books
recently, but I thought it wasreally good.
This was a solid three and ahalf and I will, you know,
asterisk caveat that to say thatI was like a crackhead on book
two, that Libby took it backsooner than I was ready for and

(22:58):
Jonathan had to give me accessto his so that I could finish it
.
And I'm already several hoursinto book three, um, so I think
the first one is very, you know,chamber of secrets, and that
it's very base level worldbuilding.
I wasn't too invested in it, um, but I was.

(23:20):
I was ready to go into it.
He's staring at me so hard, youguys.
Three and a half for me.
Why are you glaring at me?

Jonathan (23:29):
Because you equated it to Chamber of Secrets.
Honestly, I was like this was agood way for me to anchor into
the series Book one Mara, shouldwe?
And when we talk about book one, two, three, I think we're not
talking about book one.
No, no, no, no, no.
But I mean like when, if you'reout there listening and you

(23:51):
have read the series, there'sdifferent journey.
I didn't know there weredifferent journeys.
Somebody had to like, clue meinto, like the coding.

Mari (23:58):
Oh, yeah, there's different ways to read the
series.

Ashley (24:01):
That's why there's different ways to read the
series.

Mari (24:02):
But I think they all start with Throne of Glass, don't
they?

Ashley (24:05):
Oh, do they?

Jonathan (24:06):
I don't know so when Ashley references book two, that
means she's going on to theromantic journey.
Oh, yes.
The pathway that she's taking.
Anyway, just to give context.

Mari (24:20):
So let me flesh out your context.
It is a seven or eight bookseries, depending if you count
the short stories as a book, Ido.
I'd say it's an eight bookseries.
You can read it in publishingorder, the order they were
released, or there is whatJonathan referenced like the
romantic reading order, and youcan look this up.
It's on all the social mediasyou can find it and basically it

(24:47):
gives you, I think, the firstthree or four books is basically
the standard publishing order,and then the difference is going
to be where you're going toread the short story collection
which I think is Assassin'sBlade.
I have my bookcase behind me.
I don't remember.
Is that right?

Kelly (24:59):
Yes.

Jonathan (25:00):
Okay.

Mari (25:00):
Where you're going to read .
That is one thing you have todecide, because they're
basically prequel stories, andso it fleshes it out.
But I've only read the entireseries once, and so this is my
first time rereading Throne ofGlass, and in doing so I see how
much of the prequel stories areactually referenced in this
first book.
So I don't know that it matters, but you have choices as to

(25:23):
when you read it.
And then the second thing thatthe reading order you have to
decide on is the last two books,whether you're reading them
individually or whether you'rereading them where you flip
between the chapters of thedifferent books to intersperse
the story, because there'sthings happening at the same
time in different aspects of theworld, and so there's, like,

(25:44):
this whole published order oflike okay, read chapter three
through chapter eight in thisbook, and then, flip and read
chapter 23 in this book and thengo back.
That's how I read it and Ienjoyed it.
I thought it was a good way toread it.
I may reread it in publishingorder this time We'll see.

Jonathan (26:02):
Nice, nice.

Mari (26:03):
So how many stars did you give it Ash?

Ashley (26:06):
It was a three and a half for me.
I thought and so this is not myreread, right in the way that
it is for you, I wouldn't saythat I would never reread it
again, but I thought, you know,adventure wise, I thought I
wasn't staying up until 2 amevery night reading it.
You know what I mean, likethat's.
That's where my mind goes whenwe do this rating is how
obsessed was I, how committedwas I?

(26:29):
And I thought this was justvery baseline for me.
This book was baseline for meBecause I knew she spoiler.
I knew she was going to make itright.
We had seven more books.

Mari (26:40):
Right.

Ashley (26:41):
So there wasn't a lot of tension for me.

Mari (26:45):
Kelly.
What did you think?

Kelly (26:46):
I'm kind of in the same camp with Ash.
I gave it a three and a half.
I think this book had a lot ofinteresting stuff in it.
I think overall it wasinteresting.
There was some unique stuff tothe setting and the world and
all that.
I didn't really care for thealmost feeling like forced love
triangle type situation betweenthe three main characters.

Mari (27:09):
Yeah.

Kelly (27:10):
And again we fell into a lot of the same man.
If somebody would just talk tothe other person, we wouldn't
have nearly as many problems.
People who knew what was goingon would just tell the other
person this is what's going on.
It would definitely solve a lotof problems, Right?
So overall, I think it was athree and a half would
definitely solve a lot ofproblems, right?
So overall I think it was athree and a half.
It was overall, even though Ikind of gave I think I gave

(27:31):
akatar a three.
This was definitely better thanakatar by leaps and bounds yeah
, agreed, yes, agreed as well.

Mari (27:40):
Uh, as a first book.
Yeah, jonathan, what do youthink?

Jonathan (27:42):
oh, I love this book um loved it.
Yeah, I really did enjoy it.
It anchored me.
I feel like it, like it rootedme in in the series, like it's
what.
I will read the entire seriesbecause of um, because of this
book, I like.
I like that selena is the.
She's like the stale,uncrossable, you know like it's.

(28:04):
It's there, it's hanging aroundpretty banged up, but it's
still.
You get in.
You sit in the sunlight alittle bit.
I think it's a little warm andand comforting, gooey, um, yeah,
exactly exactly like it's.
Just, there's just this.
For me, it's just likecharacter battle, like she's.
She's a stunningly beautifulwoman but she's fierce as fuck

(28:29):
and yeah, like it's and she'slethal.
I like.
I like a good countdown in astory too, and I feel like this
gave me a good countdown, likewhen we read um the games gods
play.
I love that book and I lovethat story, but I feel like at
one point that story was justlike yeah, here's the countdown,
let's skip ahead, right?

Ashley (28:49):
yeah, I think oh, you were so mad about that.

Jonathan (28:52):
I remember here they did that here, but they didn't.
They did it and she did um, shedid in such a subtle way that
it was acceptable.
She didn't skip four levels.
She's like, she's well, sheskipped, like like there were,
there were people like yourcompetitors were getting bumped
off right and like it it wasalmost.

(29:12):
And then, like, at the sametime we had this like murder.
She wrote kind of thing going onwhere it was like you want to
just be like, oh, let's go withthe who's the obvious one.
And then you're like that'snever the obvious one, it's got
to be.
But you know, fuck, maybe,maybe it is the obvious one.
So this whole like journey andthen like the idea of like the,

(29:35):
the love interest where you know, it's kind of like, it's like
dang, she's.
This lady can go wherever, dowhatever she wants, whomever she
wants, ever do whatever shewants, whom ever she wants, and
her body count can be as high asshe wants, whether she's
murking people or making love,it doesn't you know, she can

(29:57):
just whatever she chooses.
She's in total God's damnedcontrol, right, and it's of
everything and in control ofnothing.
At the same time, she hadcontrol of her freedom.
She could waltz out the door ifshe wanted to, but she was like
, meh, maybe not right now,let's go, let's go do some other
stuff.
Right, she was like a, aprisoner fighting for her

(30:19):
freedom.
But you know, it's up to herwhen she pulls the trigger, you
know, and and that's what I,that's what I enjoyed about this
I I like a good, I like there'svulnerability and strength all
rolled into one.
I like the idea of like the.
I kept I would read the bookand would listen to, like this

(30:40):
description of her, and then Iwould flip to the cover and look
at the silhouette and be like,okay, cool, cool, I can see that
.
And then go back into the storyand be like, okay, yeah, let's
keep going.
It was just a very overall.
I enjoyed the shit out of thisone.
Five stars, mari.
What'd you think?

Mari (30:58):
I'm more leaning towards similar to you.
So when I first read it let meset the scene here Sicily, 1912.
When I first read it I hadalready read Akatar and I was
like I'm gonna read CrescentCity, book one.
And then I read something.
I got one, two chapters intoCrescent City book one.

(31:19):
And then I saw something wherepeople are like, oh, you have to
read Throne of Glass first.
So I stopped reading CrescentCity and I was like, let me pick
up this Throne of Glass first.
So I stopped reading CrescentCity and I was like, let me pick
up this Throne of Glass.
Didn't know how many books itwas, had no idea.
Yeah, total sucker.
So I read it and I ended up.
Honestly, the first time I readThrone of Glass book one, it was

(31:40):
a four star.
It was good, but it wasn't likeoh, my God, I want to read that
over and over.
I didn't leave an actual reviewon Goodreads, I just left a
star review.
So I don't know what I thoughtabout it the first time.
I read it more than that.
Now, having read the entireseries, I basically inhaled the
whole like eight books in, ifnot a month.
It was like a month and a fewdays.
It was a very short span.

Ashley (32:00):
It was a very short span .

Mari (32:01):
I very much enjoyed it.
So now going back and readingit, I will.
I have I've talked about thisbefore.
I have a hard timedifferentiating books in a
series.
Once I've read the whole series, it's like the series as a
whole is now a five-star seriesfor me.
So this book is going to be afive-star for me and I, you know
, updated my Goodreads and I putactual and all the other, all

(32:22):
the other social stuff that I dobook reports, book reports on
book reviews on.
I updated it to a five and Ibasically said that First time I
read it it was four stars.
On a reread it's a five.
The main character goes fromthis barely surviving teenager
in a death camp to interactingwith royalty and potentially

(32:45):
making long lasting changes inher world.
And in the span of one booklike even if it ends, you know,
with this book she's gotten to aposition where she's now in a
position she can go and talk tothe prince of the land or the
king of the land, you know,princesses of other lands, etc.
And the book dealt with likesurviving and endurance and

(33:06):
friendship and camaraderie.
It dealt with colonialism andslavery and revolutions and
overthrowing horrible systems ofgovernment.
Right, it had all that and ifthat wasn't enough, if you want,
like you had said, the murdershe wrote.
If you want, like a whodunit,there's a whodunit mystery in
there to try and figure out.
Right, I feel like this is avery good book to appeal to a

(33:28):
lot of different readers' tastes.
Five stars for me.

Jonathan (33:30):
Well said, I like it.

Mari (33:33):
Yeah, like I said, after you read the whole thing, you go
back and read it.
You pick up on so much of it.
I will say it was interestingbecause I read it so fast.
I think I didn't remember whatall happened in each book and I
thought that more of the storyhappened in the first book.
I was like, wait, this book isempty, so now I can't wait to
reread the second one.

(33:54):
Yeah, what did we think aboutthe fantasy?
Fantasy world building, etc.

Ashley (33:57):
I loved the fantasy.
I really.
I thought we accomplished a lotof world building in this book
because it was not somewheretraditional and, as someone who
has read most of the ACOTARseries, it was a little
disorienting because in the backof my mind I know they're all
kind of somehow connected, butwe've definitely not reached the

(34:19):
connection yet anywhere thatI've read.
So I thought you know, thefantasy itself and the lack of
magic in this way was so uniquebecause obviously there's an
underlying story there and thenthere's very obviously weird
shit happening, right that it'snot completely gone.

(34:41):
And then you get little dabblesof like who?
Maybe she is under it, allright, because they talk about
her walking past the forest andhow she doesn't want to look too
deeply in case they leavepresence or like.
I caught on to that reallyquickly and I thought that that
was just really so.
So, uh, what's the word I want?

(35:02):
Like it was just, it wasartfully done.
The Pretty subtle, yeah, the waythat she would hint at these
connections that come to lightlater on.
And books later on.
I agree with Kelly about thelove triangle.
Like that part wasn'tnecessarily for me, but I did
think that the fantasy wasinteresting.
I thought her very humanpresentation and her very human

(35:27):
reactions.
But her vulnerability was alsovery obviously built into this
and her trauma and how shedidn't necessarily shy away from
either of those things.
She was content with beinglethal.
She was proud to be otterland'sassassin.
Um, I really, I really didenjoy the fantasy in the world

(35:50):
building and the magic and lackthereof in this first book.
It was a five.

Kelly (35:55):
It was a four for me, nice kelly, I'm pretty much
thinking the same thing thatashley's thinking.
I think the world building wasinterspaced throughout the plot,
without trying to hit you overthe head with an exposition dump
.
I get why sometimes authors dothe big exposition dump, because
it gets the reader knowingwhat's going on and gets the
background.

(36:15):
But it's always better when theauthor works it into the
background so you're learningabout it and it's not seeming
like the characters areexplicitly giving the background
information, are explicitlygiving the background
information, and I always thinkabout the movie the Great Muppet
Caper, where Piggy is talkingto one of the human actors and

(36:37):
the human actor is telling herall about her brother and the
problems she's had with herbrother and this and that and
then how she has this hugediamond and blah, blah and
basically all of this backstory,and Piggy just looks at her and
says why are you telling methis?
And the woman says it's plotexposition, dear, it has to go
somewhere, 100%.
So it's always annoying whenauthors resort to that, and so

(37:02):
in this book they definitelydidn't have that happen.
There was a lot of tidbits hereand there that were hinted at
into the world building, themagical forest, which you had
little glimpses of what's goingon there.
Why is magic going away fromthe world?
So there's a lot of good coolexposition into the main part of

(37:27):
she became the super assassin,because that that's like
directly like the Black Widoworigin story, you know, orphan
girl taken in and trained tobecome an assassin and is the,
you know, mostly the assassin inthe world kind of been done
several times.
I mean that was.

Mari (37:45):
Isn't it like Femme Nikita's, like that too, isn't
it?

Kelly (37:47):
Yeah, it's the Femme Nikita.
It's the Black Widow, it'sdepending on which era of DC
you're talking about.
That's Batgirl.
That's the Christopher NolanBatman reboot where Batman went
and was trained by the League ofShadows.
That's a classic trope, butoverall I enjoyed a lot of this

(38:09):
world building.

Ashley (38:09):
I found the world interesting so definitely I had
to give it a four high praise.
Hot damn, you guys can't see myeyes right now, but I am.
I did not see kelly liking thisso much, I'm so excited.
We're just so close guys yeah,you can't.

Jonathan (38:19):
You can't guess what you can't guess.
No, I'll tell you that rightoff the bat.
Anyone outside looking in yousee Kelly Kelly never lets you
know his next move.

Ashley (38:27):
No, Never, never, never I love it.
Yeah, mari, I think you're up,jonathan, oh, jonathan.

Jonathan (38:35):
Sorry, Fantasy, right, Fantasy Fantasy.
Yeah, you know, I liked.
You know you got to love a damewho escapes the clink, you know
.

Ashley (38:45):
That's what does it for you.

Jonathan (38:52):
Oh, gotta love you.
Gotta love a dame who escapesthe clink.
You know, that's what does itfor you.
Oh yeah, uh yeah, that's why Iwrite all those prison letters.
Actually, you never know whoyou find, um, so, so, yeah, I, I
thought it was a very um,clearly, somebody saw something
in, uh, selena and and, um, Idon't even I don't I not knowing
how the entire series unfoldsuh, in my mind, I think to

(39:12):
myself they, or?
When I was reading the firstpart of this book, I thought you
know, here you have this, um,this very strong and powerful
person, somebody whodemonstrated their, their, uh
strength and resolve by justtouching the boundary of where
people get like murked in thisprison system, right, and so I

(39:37):
thought to myself.
I started to ask myself how didshe get there?
Why would?
How did she allow her?
She's so powerful and this heirto the throne decides to select
you as their champion Becausethey know he's going all in.
He's like you know what this is.
Who's going to win this?
For me, this person, thisperson is also going to be the

(39:59):
biggest middle finger I'm goingto chuck to my dad.
Is the concept right that he'sbuilt up in his mind?
So he grabs his bestie, he sayslet's go down and get this lady
and let's make it happen,captain.
But in my mind I'm thinking shehad to have been placed there.
It has to be set up.

(40:21):
She just feels too strong, toopowerful, too untouchable.
Um, and so when you talk aboutsetting up that, that fantasy
world for me, um, like I want,I've got this image in my mind
of of what this prison systemlooks like, and then, and then
the, the, the change in thechange in a living situation,

(40:47):
and how that kind of shakes out,and then how almost rich and
fanciful her life can be.
But it's still kind of lacking.
It's still like you're in acastle, you're surrounded by
stone, you don't have like, theluxuries of, like, the cell
phone kind of thing.
It's then, and then the, theidea of like the hierarchy, the

(41:10):
classism, and then the, theability to have these battles,
and the awareness of, of magicand how you, a space can be
drained of magic or it can beprohibited, um, like it, to me
it's, there's so many sidequests that I want to go on as a

(41:32):
result, um, and yeah.
So anyway, um, yeah, I, I, Iloved it.
I thought it was great no noteswhat's that?
no notes, I those that felt likea lot of notes.

Ashley (41:44):
No, like nothing to improve upon.

Jonathan (41:46):
To improve upon.
No, I mean I got yeah.
I like it was just it was a lotof everything.
It was like 80% of everything.
It's like 80% you're an asskicker, 80% you're a lover.
80% it's a lot, it's a wholelot 80%.

Ashley (42:02):
You're an ass kicker 100% of the time.

Jonathan (42:08):
Yeah, 80% of the time, yeah, 80 of the time, I'm gonna
ask it yeah, whatever, uh, butyeah, and then I thought about
like this you know, in this, inthis climactic battle scene
where, where, um, you have thislike almost like this out of
body experience, I almostthought like going back to like
the dc thing.
I thought I thought of the um,my mind went to this realm of
like um Dr Strange, when he'slike outside of his, outside of

(42:32):
his body and having this momentwhere everything, time is slowed
, your body hasn't even hit thefloor yet, kind of kind of
moment and it's just likeeverything's you're opening your
world to, or your mind to, thisnew world.
So, yeah, what's?
your, your rating I didn't likethe boys.

Ashley (42:50):
I'll say that no, we're not there yet what's your?

Mari (42:51):
rating on fantasy I'm rating on fantasy five stars
okay so much to say uh, for me,fantasy, like world building
fantasy, I'm gonna give it afour stars.
Um, because I did like therewere a lot of things I liked
about it.
It wasn't like groundbreaking,like I'd never seen this before,

(43:15):
you know, but it was.
There were a lot of littlebreadcrumbs that were laid out
that are expanded upon in otherbooks, so it makes the world
feel very flushed and it existsoutside of the main character
and her experience.
Like you know that there'sstuff going on outside of the

(43:35):
world and you get that in littletidbits as other people talk or
as things are.
You know, are mentioned.
I thought the whole weird signsand weird gates and weird magic
thing was was interesting and Ialways love a story about, like
human ingenuity Wheneversomething is outlawed, we're

(43:55):
going to work around it, we'regoing to find ways to like do it
.

Ashley (44:00):
Oh and ghosts.
I didn't even talk about theghosts.
We had ghosts, yeah.

Mari (44:04):
Yeah, I, I liken the whole like magic thing to like when
people put up walls, because Ilived in Germany when I was, I
lived in Berlin when I was inhigh school and so we went to
the Checkpoint Charlie Museumand it always was impressive to
me.
You go through and you see allthe different ways and the
ingenuity and the thoughtprocess and the brilliance that

(44:26):
people put into getting aroundthis Berlin Wall, getting over
it, getting under it, flyingover it, going in a submarine
under it, hiding in a carcushion just the amount of
things.
And so in this world you havethis colonial authority that is
taking over all the land andsaying you can't have magic.
So of course magic's going towiggle its way in in different

(44:48):
ways.
Four stars for me on thefantasy world building.

Jonathan (44:52):
I like that what you brought up there, mari, because
it's like my doppelganger.
Who's that guy from JurassicPark, jeff Goldblum?
Yeah, and he's like is he likelife will find a way?
Or something like that?
Yeah, yeah, you can't stiflewhat's meant to be free.

Mari (45:06):
Right, 100%.
What do we think about theromance in this story?

Ashley (45:12):
Boo, you know.
So I will say before I give myrating.
Jonathan said to me I don'teven think I'd finish the book
yet, but he was like are youteam, you know, dorian, or team
Kaol?
And I said I don't feel likeeither one of them have done
anything to warrant heraffection over the other.
It felt a little forced to me,but I could understand the

(45:34):
appeal, you know, of a younggirl who had been let down,
betrayed and devastated for themajority of her lifetime.
So to have what feels likeauthentic friends, you know, for
the first time in a long time,especially after being liberated
from what is essentially aslave camp, right, a death camp.

(45:56):
I can see the appeal in that.
I praise her admiration forherself.
She was all very like I'm a bigdeal, and I know it, and I
loved that for her.
I loved that perspectivebecause she was also very aware
of her own flaws, you know.
So it wasn't just boast, it washumility as well.

(46:16):
So I thought I I felt theromance was a little forced in
the first book, but I understood, you know, the need for that
kind of you know quote tension,right, who's she gonna choose?
And it probably sets up formore later it was, it was a
three.
For me, I could have donewithout it, and I think I
thought it was more importantthat their affection for her was

(46:40):
powerful.
Um, even though they never likeduked it out themselves, you
know, they were all very much.
Whatever she chooses, whichagain I love that for them.
I didn't feel like she neededto make a choice, though I
praise her for thinking betweenoh, this guy, or that guy, this
guy, that guy, this guy.

Kelly (47:13):
But I think Ashley's right, they both were kind of
crappy.
They were both kind of crappyto her.
The prince was using her,obviously, and then, yeah sure,
maybe he fell in love with heror whatever.
But I think the reality is isthat both of them were treating
her pretty poorly.
The only one who actuallyseemed to genuinely care about
her welfare above all else wasthe other princess.

Mari (47:38):
Nehemiah.

Kelly (47:38):
Nehemiah.
Yeah, she should have just leftwith Nehemiah and told those
dudes to fuck off.
So I don't think the romancewas all that great.
I think it was part of it'sjust because I'm just not a fan
of the love triangle trope.

Ashley (47:54):
Yeah.

Kelly (47:54):
Because it's not even really a love triangle, right?
No, a love triangle would meanthat all three of them are all
vying for love of each othertype deal.
So it's more like just twodudes competing for one girl One
person's attention, yeah.
So I gave it a two and a halfJonathan.

Jonathan (48:12):
I saw this as pentagonal passion.

Ashley (48:15):
I'm so sorry.
I was not prepared formulti-syllabic titles.

Jonathan (48:23):
So let me explain the points here.

Mari (48:25):
Did you just snort Ash, yeah?

Jonathan (48:28):
she did.
That's what you know.
I don't understand, because Ithought I told you this.
I thought it was like you werelike well, what do you think
about this line?
I thought it's more of a lovepentagon is like for me.

Ashley (48:40):
But you can say the other word.

Jonathan (48:42):
The pentagonal passion ?
Who's?

Mari (48:44):
the fifth person.

Jonathan (48:46):
So we got KL.

Ashley (48:48):
You can't see this, but he's going off of his fingers.

Jonathan (48:50):
So that's one one.
Okay, all I got, uh, dorianuh-huh uh, nahemia, nahemia.
And then, uh, we got uh,fleetfoot.
Oh, because they're still,they're still loving passionate
in there, you know.
And and of course the fifth isof uh, you know, you gotta come
take it all the way back to.
What's her name?
Selina yeah, I forget her, butyou know.

(49:10):
And there's also thepretentious broad who's just in
it to win it for funds.

Mari (49:16):
I keep calling her Caitlin and it's not Caitlin.
It's not Caitlin.

Jonathan (49:19):
What is her?
I forget her name.

Mari (49:21):
I wrote it down because I knew I wouldn't remember it.

Jonathan (49:24):
She's liketane yes, that's it, that's not gonna
exactly.
Yeah, that it's she's.
She's got a forgettable.
She's a forgettable character,but I'm sure I almost imagine
that she's gonna come backeventually, but uh, she's, it
feels, yeah.
So there's this like I feellike in this world, selena's
love, selena's passion is uhversatile and it can go anywhere

(49:46):
, in any direction at any time.
That's part of the power thatshe holds, you know, and that's
she is the center point thateverybody is drawn to.
But it is Kayol coming to her,it's Dorian coming to her, it's
the Hemia coming to her, it'sFleetfoot coming to her.
You know, there's she.

(50:07):
She must be so absurdlybeautiful and oblivious at all
in one fell swoop.
So I just think there's so muchopportunity for romance
throughout the entire series forher, like you know.
You know it's just it's openseason for her open season.

(50:29):
So yeah, five stars.

Mari (50:31):
So I'm going to see your Pentagon and I'm going to raise
you to and I'm going to say it'sa heptagon.
I'm going to add in we're goingto make this a ghost love story
.
We're going to add in queenElena and we're going to add in
Knox, who she basicallyconfessed her identity to, and

(50:52):
let him go off to his freedom.

Ashley (50:54):
Amen, says her you know what.

Mari (50:55):
Seek his life.
Yes, solid point.
No, seriously, romance.
I actually am going to give ita two because I don't think
there was any romance in theamorous way.
I think there's plenty of reallygood friendships and I think
that Selena is, she providessomething to these people and

(51:15):
she is something for them, but Idon't know that any of them
provide any particular actuallove interest for her, like the
affection on her end.
So I think that for Dorian,she's a person who's not a
courtesan, who's just lustingafter him for his position to
become, you know, the queen orwhatever, become the princess

(51:35):
and a queen, like she's not evenreally interested in him and
he's like, oh my God, I can havea conversation with someone and
like, talk about books andenjoy them on the level of a
person.
And I think he became enamoredof the idea of having a genuine
friendship, a genuinerelationship.
But I don't think that henecessarily did that for her.
I don't think there's anythinghe necessarily did for her.

(51:56):
And then with Kale Kale, I thinkthat he was this protector role
, but he was this very likeethical black and white, you
know type personality.
And then Selena comes along asthis morally gray character and

(52:18):
she rocks his world because hedoesn't know what to do, how to
fit her into his world, you know.
So I think he did something forher, but I don't know that.
I mean, I think she didsomething for him, but I don't
know that either of them do awhole lot for her.
And I felt that the first timereading it I was like man, if
any of the people in this bookare love interests, this just
may not be a connection for me.

Ashley (52:38):
I mean, there's something to be said for Kaol at
the end of this first book,because he ends up killing Cain
because her back is turned andCain goes after her after she's
already been declared the winner, you know, declared the
champion, and so Cain goes, youknow, basically to kill her off

(52:58):
because he's pissed off and asuper bad guy and then Cael
crosses a line.
So I think there's something tobe said for Hit.
I think everybody develops atthe end of this book to
something that they weren't atthe beginning, and I think it
says something for theiraffection for her or for how

(53:20):
she's helped them develop as thehumans that they're going to
come later on in the series.
I just don't think from aromance perspective it's healthy
as a couple situation.
But I do think the characterdevelopment because of the
romantic feelings that they'reall feeling for each other,
because even the friendshipperspective right between Dorian

(53:40):
and Kaol is it's very strong,it's borderline intense, right
like there's not a I have tobeat this other guy out for her
affections, um right.
So I think individually it'sinteresting because when we get
to the is this a kissing bookquestion I'm gonna hesitate but
I do.

(54:00):
I do agree that from a romanceperspective it just wasn't much
of anything in this book.

Mari (54:06):
What did we think about the spice?

Ashley (54:08):
Zero.
There was no spice, therewasn't even salt and pepper in
this one.

Jonathan (54:17):
That means it's got to be a little bit of salt.

Ashley (54:19):
It was like a one for me .

Kelly (54:20):
Pretty much the same.
There really wasn't any spice.
There was some longing, somekissing, some lustful thoughts,
but that's about it.

Jonathan (54:27):
Jonathan, yeah, there was no spice.
Some kissing, some lustfulthoughts, but that's about it,
jonathan.
Uh, yeah, there was no spice.
I had this.
Uh had a 17 on the calculator.

Mari (54:32):
Yeah, yeah, no spice, sorry no, I mean, yeah, I'm the
same way.
I put spice zero question mark.
Um, this is the unseasonedwhite rice of spice.
The final question, theall-important question ah, is it
a kissing book?
Is it a kissing book?

Ashley (54:52):
I want to say no and my my pause very distinctly is the
scene that I discussed with kaolcoming to her defense at the
end of the book.
He he crossed a lot of his ownmorals.
Um, not that he's opposed tokilling people, right like he's

(55:13):
the captain of the guard, butthis is his first time killing
someone.

Mari (55:16):
Is it his first time?
Killing someone or not killingsomeone on the battlefield I
think it's his first timekilling someone, which I found a
little surprising I'm like, howdid you get to?
Be the king of the guards orwhatever the high guard, but I
think it's like his first timekilling someone.
He's very traumatized by it.

Ashley (55:35):
I thought it was his first time killing someone not
on the battlefield like formaybe not pure reasons.

Kelly (55:42):
I think it was his first time killing someone.
Period, yeah.
And honestly, he's the captainof the guards.
If you look at traditionalmilitary history, most officers
come from, like you know,royalty or wealthy, so they're
usually not necessarily thepeople that have been out in the
trenches so then that kind ofmakes sense, then, right right

(56:04):
fascinating.

Ashley (56:05):
So I feel like that gives more to my pause.
Then you know what I mean.
Because why else, if we weren'ttalking about and maybe not
necessarily mates, but possiblyvery true and deep love?
If you're going to cross a linelike that, whether it be moral
or ethical, do you do it justbecause it's right or do you do

(56:29):
it because it's love?
So I have, I have, I don't.

Mari (56:34):
I don't know my answer on this one especially because I've
already finished book two soyou want to be, and I have a
little bit more context you cando maybe I feel like it's.

Ashley (56:43):
I feel like it's almost a kissing book, okay.

Mari (56:46):
Kelly, what'd you think?

Kelly (56:47):
This book.
No, it's not a kiss, jonathan.

Jonathan (56:53):
I don't believe this is a kissing book.

Mari (56:56):
I will concur.
Oh sorry, good I I.
I generally agree.
I put no that it's not akissing book.
I don't think that there wasany particular romance that
affected the storyline in thisparticular one.

Ashley (57:11):
Romance, no but feelings .
Lots of feelings, yes, lots offeelings, lots of feelings, but
like if they didn't have thosevery strong, very intense, very
deep feelings, then the bookwould not have progressed in the
way that it did and it wouldhave ended a lot sooner.

Mari (57:26):
I don't know, because, like, maybe I don't know, maybe,
but maybe also, like, I thinkselena ended up being a, like
they were hoping that she'd be agood champion.
I mean, obviously that's whenthey went to get her, but I
think she ended up being realgood at her job and they were
like, oh wait, we, this is, thiscould really happen.
So I don't't know.

(57:47):
For me, I put no, not a kissingbook, and I will say that,
technically, wikipedia lists itas high fantasy novel.
It's not a romance fantasy,it's a high fantasy novel and
oftentimes that's how I describethis series to people.
Anything else we want to talkabout the book.

Ashley (58:04):
I'm glad Fleetfoot lived .

Mari (58:06):
Oh yes, we love a fleetfoot, I told jonathan.

Ashley (58:10):
He has to warn me if something happens to her long
term I think a warning can bearranged.

Mari (58:16):
All right.
So wrapping it up, thanks forlistening to of swords and
soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate and
review, and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us.
Follow us on Instagram at ofswords and soulmates, or join
our Facebook page of swords andsoulmate.
Check us out on our website ofswords and soulmatescom or on
YouTube, tiktok, pinterest, withthe same username.

(58:37):
If you'd like to offer asuggestion for a future episode,
reach out to us on any of thoseoptions or email us.
If you want to read along withus as we prep for a new episode,
you can do so on Goodreads atOf Swords and Soulmates, or
chapter by chapter interactionon the Fable app.
We have a book club Of Swordsand Soulmates on there and we
also have a Tome account.
T-o-m-e account.
Find us at Of Swords andSoulmates.

(58:58):
Before we announce what we'regoing to be reading next for the
next episode, I'd like to reada review that someone left us on
Apple Podcasts.

Ashley (59:07):
We have fan mail, we do.

Mari (59:10):
It is from Playing Disney and the title is so Many POVs.
They said the best part is howthey all see things a bit
differently than each other, andI agree.
Last but not least, we hopethat you will join us in two
weeks for our next episode, whenwe will be discussing and
reading One Dark Window byRachel Gillig.

Jonathan (59:33):
So excited, so excited .
I have no idea what it's about.
We'll find out.
I hope it's about a window.
Thank you,

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"Throne of Glass" - Death Camp to King's Champ

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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;}"Throne of Glass" - Death Camp to King's Champ