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Fiction Fanatics
We Love Fantasy Books and Nora!
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Chanel, Ashley, and Stacy do not discuss a book this episode but we do get in to fantasy books with our special guest Nora! Join us, where each page turn in our discussion unveils the celebration of love in its myriad forms and the connection we find within the fictional worlds we adore.
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***Produced by Jen Hardin***
Book of the Month
Speaker 1We love them . I'm just kidding , I just love love . Ok , do we Do ? You see your face when I said that , though you guys are whole , even Nora she was staring at me .
Speaker 2Do we ?
Speaker 1Do we love me ? We love some of them . We love fictional men . Yes , yeah , I was trying to think of something to add to that , but no , we just love fiction . Oh .
Speaker 2Hi , I'm Chanel .
Speaker 1Hi , I'm Stacey .
Speaker 2Hey nerds , this is Ashley and this is Fiction Fanatics .
Speaker 1Nora , how was your guys' dinner last night , your girl's dinner ? Who all went ? It was me , nora , skylar and Sam . Oh , so not a girl's dinner . It was a double date , double date .
Speaker 2Where'd you guys go ?
Speaker 1We went to Leverry . Oh nice .
Speaker 2I haven't been there in a minute .
Speaker 1It was Nora's first time . What did you think ?
Speaker 2I loved it .
Speaker 3It was so good , them pinatas yeah it's a great place .
Speaker 2It's a great place , nice , nice . Well , it's nice to see you , nora , nora , yeah , laura , that's how long it's been , I forget .
Speaker 1Right , it's been years Agey full of yeas . Lacey , you and Chanel look like you're wearing the same outfit right now . Well , I'm wearing headbands on and these same colored crew necks . Well , they say , when they say you're best friends with someone , you solely mock their combine , their styles .
Speaker 2So we can't help it .
Speaker 1Ashley , we read the same books and sorry if I sound congested , I am congested . Everybody's sick , not me , not me .
Speaker 3Why don't you see baby ?
Speaker 2Oh yeah , you got that , what's it called that you put in . It's like sit and like .
Speaker 1Oh , alka Seltzer . That's my favorite thing to when I'm sick , that's the kind of medicine I take , because I like Alka Seltzer .
Speaker 3I just pack it and just shove it in .
Speaker 2Clear , clear the sizes right up , pack it long .
Speaker 1Also where . So Pump Nora is on today with us to talk about all things fantasy Roundup , bam . I didn't even tell Nora what this episode was about . I was just like just come over , I feel the doggy .
Speaker 2Oh , I'm bousky . Yeah , because I was like your book of the month , ashley , that you chose . I was talking to Stacy about it because I'm into it now .
Speaker 1Yes , I told Nora last night , the book of the month is a Court of Thorns and Roses , and I have to say it like that because for some reason I want to say roses first and I'm just so used to saying acotar and then biting ways by Sarah J Mass . I've actually listened to the first two , yeah , so Nora's already done the first two .
Discussion on Audiobooks and Book Spoilers
Speaker 2How was the audiobooks ? I like them , I think they're really good .
Speaker 1Yeah , I kind of wish I'm reading the second book right now , and I kind of wish I would have done the audiobook , because just so some of the names would be more clear . That is very helpful actually . I guess I could just look it up though .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah , I know , because I didn't know how to say the main girl's name Like she .
Speaker 1It's Pharah right .
Speaker 2Yeah , she did have to pronounce it , like I think she says it in the book or whatever . But at first I was like Like Harry Potter .
Speaker 3I said Ginny for the first . Ginny Ginny , so Ginny Ginny Pig . Yep , that's me , ginny .
Speaker 2But yeah , yeah , it's good . Actually , I was at work the other day and I was reading it and there's a few of my co-workers at work that were like , oh , you're reading it , like they were super into it , and I was like I'm like really like 10 , 15 pages . I had no spoilers and stuff . But then the Beast came and got her and stuff and I kind of said out loud and I was like I think this is because I haven't had any spoilers , I don't know what's going on with this book , and I was like I think this is Beastiality . I said this out loud and they started like laughing Because I was like catching on . I was like I think this is kind of a beast . I think this is Beauty and the Beast , but he doesn't turn into the Prince , and they started laughing at me .
Speaker 1I didn't have any spoilers either when I read it and I had no idea that it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I'm like this is Beauty and the Beast .
Speaker 2But it's good . It's good , yeah , beauty and the Beast . Yeah , yeah . I like going into books without knowing what's happened , which is hard with the series because it's so popular to me .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's hard with any of her books . Well , even the own company has spoiled stuff Like their own publishing company has spoiled stuff .
Speaker 2I heard that . I heard that , so I don't even . They did yes With this latest series . They did With Crescent City .
Speaker 1I haven't read Crescent City yet because I'm trying to finish the glass first . I'm on the fifth book and , yeah , when they announced the third Crescent City book , they announced all kinds of spoilers with it , and it's just like OK , like some people aren't caught up . Well , they also announced there's going to be a new Aqatar book . Right , yeah .
Speaker 2Oh , I didn't even know that Cool Good , because it's not finished and I'm upset about that .
Speaker 1Well , spoiler alert , it won't be finished after this next book comes out either , chanel . So because they didn't say it was the last book in the series , they just said a new book in the series . So which don't get me wrong . Aqatar is amazing . We'll obviously get into it on our book episodes . But I'm reading the second one right now and as good as the first one is yeah , that's still good the second one is like up here . It's just like instantly amazing .
Speaker 3I agree . Yeah , the second one's a lot better . I feel like it has a good storyline .
Speaker 1Yeah , but the first one is still good . Like I love the first one , it's just it's a different story . Yeah .
Speaker 3About her .
Speaker 1I was telling Chanel , it's like because Chanel's read the first few , third of last books , it's like the throne of last series , like the first book's OK , but it doesn't even compare to the later books in like my opinion , but there's good world . I think it's because there's so much world building in her first book , which is understandable , but yeah , that second book though , the second book in Apatara , though Nora knows Ew , sweetie .
Speaker 2So yeah , we kind of just want to do the theme of fantasy . You guys were saying we can kind of go around and we can start with Books that you've probably read , right , Is that we want ?
Speaker 1to start with the Cynlyn Yu announcement that Ashley and Nora don't know . Yeah , you should tell them . You should tell them .
Speaker 2I was freaking out . So I saw this on Bookstagram . I'm sure that's where you saw it too . Yeah , because one of my friends , sarah , posted it and I was freaking out . So there is an article . I can't remember the publisher , but Cynlyn Yu , I believe her name is Savannah Bell , I think is her real name and she signed a two book deal with a publisher to essentially it's manacled . She's right , she's doing a two book deal of manacled , officially as like , and writing manacled and I mean , you know , reworking .
Speaker 1I think it's god .
Speaker 2Alchemized is the name of the book , and it's going to be released in 2025 .
Speaker 1So yeah , it's a big deal . I I'm super happy . I'm super happy for her . I can't even close my mouth .
Speaker 3I'm just like yeah .
Speaker 1Well , it's got to be two books , because she's going to have to like . Obviously like rework some things , so you would rework some things .
Speaker 2We work two worlds . She's got to work two worlds .
Speaker 1I mean I'm surprised she can do it in two books , because manacled is so long as it is and the back story is kind of already there , so that you have to redo all of that .
Speaker 2Well , that's what I was saying . I was again talking to my friend Sarah and I'm just like we were both like there's a lot of emotions because also it's like it's not Germany anymore , it's not Harry Potter , you like , you have to make it kind of like we were talking with Kate . You know , she took this Ralo story and made it A Josh and Ari story , like an AU story , right , and so that's basically what Senling Yu is going to have to do and and I was kind of at , you know , talking to Sarah , is it still going to be fantasy , is it going to be kind of world ? We don't really know , but it's out .
Speaker 2They kind of said the premise in this article where it's , it's called Alchemized , is the name of the , at least the first book , and so it's this prisoner of war heroine and she's like a medical healer kind of , and she gets , has memory loss , like amnesia and stuff . So that's like the premise , right , which we already know , and and so again she's going to have to like rework this kind of romance of whoever this this girl falls in love with . And you know who is this guy that she falls in love with ? Is he , you know , like the main , the main captain or you know . I don't know who that guy is going to be , who this girl is going to be and how they kind of fit .
Speaker 1This is amazing . New storyline but yeah , I'm pumped , but like think about what
Discussion on Books and TV Shows
Speaker 1Kate said . When Kate says she wrote you again , it was like writing a whole other book .
Speaker 2It was like twice as hard .
Speaker 1So not only is she going to have to rework this story , but she's going to have to rework the Harry Potter aspect if she leaves any magic in and the Handmaid's Tale . She'll have to rework that to an extent too , Because also like their- backgrounds .
Speaker 2Right , yeah , that's what I was saying . Is it still going to be fantasy or is it going to be like ? Is it going to be like they're in , maybe set in World War One , or is it going to be they're set in the Civil War or are they going to be set in , you know , I don't even know , like maybe it's a fantasy war , it's a made up war , or you know it's so . It's just going to be really interesting of how much Manicold is even left in the story , you know . But it's exciting and it'll be really interesting to read .
Speaker 1It is .
Speaker 2Oh , sorry , I was just going to say also that's probably like you said , ashley , of why it's going to have to be two books .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah For sure . Do you think she's going to pull Manicold then from the Internet , like everybody else kind of does with their books ?
Speaker 2I don't know , but I'm glad I have a copy .
Speaker 1I think it would be . I think that her , I think not saying that the not saying that the other fan fictions are amazing and a top tier level , but I think Manicold sets at a whole another level by by itself . I would find it so hard for her to be able to scrub Manicold from the Internet , because even I can find I know because , ok , like you said , manicold is on a whole another level , but , like Ali , hazelwood was very popular . Yeah it was very popular .
Speaker 2Uh-huh , julie Soto , the auction was very well , I guess the auction .
Speaker 1Julie never pulled . Yeah , her still sucks up . You're right . You're right , but they are . Julie Soto's a queen . Sorry , she's a fucking queen .
Speaker 2I know , I know , but they both pulled theirs , julie and or Ali , and they both pulled theirs . So , yeah , yeah , and I mean even Julie pulled her her one that's going to be the book she pulled , that one that's about to be a book .
Speaker 1So I'm . I mean they might I don't know , but I mean the silver lining is everyone in this group chat has a book made as a gift by me to them , so they don't need a friend . I think honestly , though . Nor is the OG , Nor got all my OG original ones , so I need to make her a fresh one . I was going to say that are falling apart and yeah , nor are they falling apart .
Speaker 2That's what she was still learning . They're like cut .
Speaker 3I mean they're . I mean they're intact .
Speaker 1I mean I don't read it , they're intact . Nor I'm making you a fresh present , don't you worry .
Speaker 2I'm totally joking . It was just when he was still learning how to book by .
Speaker 1Somebody posted on who was it , no , I can't remember , but on Instagram was posting like their original fan fiction that they had printed . And it just printed pages in a binder but it was really pretty and they like had written things on the pages and stuff . I was like , oh yeah , the OG way to to print .
Speaker 2OG way .
Speaker 1Print it off and put in a binder .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's like I think that's what , like they had did Never . She was talking with us and she was like I would like print off , like come on computer paper , you know fan fix and like bring it to class in high school class and stuff . And so , yeah , it's like , like you said , put it in a folder and read it .
Speaker 1These kids these days don't know how good they have it . Read it on their phones in class .
Speaker 3They have written a binder Like we did .
Speaker 1Did you imagine if you read something like that in school and like a teacher took your binder and was like what are you reading ? Yeah , it's .
Speaker 2it's like Harry and Draco's butt Right .
Speaker 1Well , if it was the , if it was teachers with me and Nora , they would have been surprised , because they've been like you too . Getting shenanigans and shenanigans Stacey and Nora took German together for years and I swear to God , senior year Stacey can only say one sentence in German .
Speaker 3A plus like what were you doing for four years A plus .
Speaker 1Nora taught me how to say that . I can still say it Ops . That's how I got an . A Senior , that means fruit in German . That's all you can say . Well , Nora taught me , Nora taught me how to say suck an airplane .
Speaker 3I could say that the second time including in the echo .
Speaker 1In the echo that's in the corner .
Speaker 2Wait , why is that a sentence ?
Speaker 1You didn't have to send it to Nora . That's what we did .
Speaker 2You guys are crazy .
Speaker 1Oh , should we do some rags ? We haven't done rags in a while . Does anybody have anything new , or now ?
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah . I say I have two rags that I would like to go ahead Go ahead . Lead , it Lead it , so I got to my first one . I was talking to Stacey and Chanel before we started recording . Chanel suggested this book , or didn't even suggest it . Posted it forever ago on her Instagram , and I don't know why I wait to read the books that Chanel posts about , but I don't know either .
Speaker 2I don't know .
Speaker 1It's called the Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson . I'm listening to it on audiobook . When I tell you , this book is amazing . It's like a retelling of Carrie In present time and in , like , the small southern town . The writing is incredible . I don't typically like I mean it's not been super scary yet , it's probably just like towards the end . I didn't read Carrie by Stephen King , but I'm not typically into like scary books or anything like this , but the writing in this book is just so great and the way that it's written . I'm obsessed with it . It's so good and I'm almost done with it . Like the prom is getting ready to happen . That's a good one , and I'm just like I don't think you can do that . I'm just like I can't stop listening , so that I'm listening to an audiobook .
Speaker 1And then the other thing I wanted to wreck was the new season of True Detective came out . Oh , and I don't know if you're watching it , stacey , but it's set in Alaska and it's got this really supernatural feel to it and Jodi Foster's in it . It's so good . We watched the new episode last night and I just think it is excellent so far . Did you ever , I think Nora knows , does she listen to a lot of true crime like I do , it does have a good supernatural feel . But did you ever hear about the Dollhoff Pass incident in Russia , about the hiker ?
Speaker 2It's very reminiscent of that . I watched the documentary on it .
Speaker 1It's terrifying Chanel , it's very reminiscent .
Speaker 3Trail . It was like up in Chicago . They're doing like a series with that , like all these people died on this trail in Chicago , and they're doing like a docuseries on it . I don't know what it's called though .
Speaker 1I'll have to check that out . All right , nora , this thing in Russia took place , I think in the 60s , and it was a bunch of campers , hikers and stuff like this up in the mountains and I don't know Russia or something . Anyways , it was like six people were murdered , but by Yeti . Well , nobody knows what happened , but like the crime scene , like whatever happened , exploded out like from inside the tent out .
Speaker 1Yeah , they don't , I mean , they can't even naked , Like they can't even say it was a murder . They don't know Like they were naked . They ran out of the tent naked , the tent exploded from the inside , but then the injuries like someone had like a jaw was broken , like blood and forced trauma and they're like but where , where did it come from the company ? Was like hiding in a tree right and like froze to death , like they all froze , but it Drugs , but it's very .
Speaker 1It gives that very like uneasy feeling when you , because this season of true detective , the crime scene is very reminiscent of that . So you're watching it and you're like it feels supernatural , but is it or is there like an explanation ? You just don't know yet . So , anyways , it's really great . Everybody should watch it .
Speaker 2Love , love Jodi Foster . So yes , a babe .
Speaker 1Even she's like 62 . A babe , she looks amazing . She's amazing , must be nice . Look at me right now . Like what is this ? Like Beautiful , yeah , beautiful , beautiful . What about you , nora , yeah , nora . What have you been listening to ? What have you been listening , watching , reading ? What have you been up to ?
Speaker 3We started a new series called from . Have you ever heard of that one ? Hmm , it's the guy from Lost , the Michael . Remember Michael and Walt ? So the dad Michael , he's like the main character , he's like a share Walt . People get stuck in this town and cannot get out and then at night these like creepy people come out and like kill people . But they have these like little . I forget what they're called , but they put them in their house to and so they can't come in , but they like , like , they're kind of like , it's very , it's very . The creators of Lost are making this series and I we are obsessed . I'm like I'm an episode five and I think I started like two days ago , so that's a really good one . It's called it's just called from .
Speaker 1I'm gonna have to watch it . Me and Nora were obsessed with Lost , like it was an addiction . We watched it together all the time . Yes , yeah .
Speaker 2Actually my brother was watching that show , nora . He said it was really good . From yeah Cause I was like this sounds familiar .
Speaker 3It's a look it's creepy , but it's like really . It's like really it's a good creepy , you know , it's like there's just , it's just a real and there's a mystery to it and I just can't figure it out yet .
Speaker 2Yeah , sounds good .
Speaker 3Yeah , sounds real good .
Speaker 2I've been reading on audiobook Jeanette McCurdy's . I'm glad my mom died .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2What do you think ?
Speaker 1I want to read it so bad , but I'm afraid to .
Speaker 2It's no , it's good , it's so good , it's hilarious and it's so sad , like I don't know how that's like possible , but it is , and you should do the audiobook because she reads it and it's so good to hear like her voice like telling it the infliction of it . Um , and , yeah , I gave it to my mom as a gift , that book . Yeah , she loves , um , she loves like autobiographies , like memoirs and stuff , and she was like this is really good , like you need to read it so , um , so I just started reading , I'm almost done and then , um , so everyone should read that book , it's really good and it's like it's just heartbreaking . But , um , the other thing is I I'm watching something and I can't remember what . Oh , I watched Origin , that movie . Origin , ava Duvernay's movie , and it has John Bernthal from the Bear , the brother Mikey . He's also was in Daredevil , he was a punisher .
Speaker 2He was the punisher from Daredevil . He's so hot and , oh my God , such a good movie , but it's heartbreaking I was just crying and but it's not getting enough promotion . It's just . It was so good about just the connection between slavery and racism in America and the Holocaust and the caste system and India and stuff and just how like even though you don't think they're connected , because obviously the Holocaust killed people and like slavery is about like inferiority and just like punishing people there is a thread of connectedness as far as how subjugating people , like they go about it different ways , but it's all about making people feel inferior and stuff . So it's really good . It was based on a book and so it's really good .
Speaker 1Isn't there a term for that ?
Caste Systems and Book Recommendations
Speaker 1I remember hearing about that in the term they used it during the Holocaust , like when that was going on . It's not so loud and like violent in your face the way that they do it , to make you feel inferior . It's like almost Cacy . Do you know what I'm talking about ? Remember , I thought there's a whole term for this . They try to make people feel like they're just so completely different than somebody else , like they don't even remember something , because I remember reading something , displacement or something like that kind of .
Speaker 1Yeah , because I was reading something . During the Holocaust with Nazis and stuff and the concentration camps , they weren't like yelling or screaming or so violent , quote unquote . Violent , I mean they were in a different way with them . Up front it was all like very kind of quiet and sedude to make it seem like they were just so different than them when they're not really . Anyway , sorry , I can't think of the term yeah .
Speaker 2I can't think of it , either because she quotes from the in the movie , she quotes from the book and there's these pillars of how the Nazis , specifically , like you said , tore down the Jews . Because when she was talking , this author , she's black and she was talking with , like her own family and stuff and they're like it's all about racism and racism and she's like it's not about racism , it's about cast that's the big word , because in America it's about race Like . It's about like white people owning slaves and they make it seem like black , brown , asian people are less than but if you think about in Nazi Germany ?
Speaker 2if you think about in India ? India , there's a caste system of people in hierarchy and there's the Dalits , which are lower . All of those people are brown . How can you say that's race ? That's not racism at all . It's about a caste system of making people feel inferior and isolating these people and making them feel less than . It's the same with Nazi Germany . Those , the Germans , are white Jews . Majority of Jews are white .
Speaker 2White , yeah , so but Germans had to find a way to isolate and subjugate Jewish people in the Nazi German reign . And so what they did , like you said I can't remember the specific word , but they had to make the Jewish people feel inferior and less than , but they couldn't do it based off of race , because no one would believe that they were .
Speaker 2Like they look exactly the same as me , and so they spoke like she was saying there's all these pillars of how they said , they said they couldn't have relationships , sexually mating , everything , and so they slowly separated them out and they did it based off of the US's system of slavery and segregation . And she's like this is all based on a caste system . It's not based off of a racism system , which I thought was so interesting , because why there is connections between all three of these caste systems essentially . So , yeah , I really wanna read her book because , yeah , it's not just racism on how these giant events have taken place . So , yeah , the movie's really good and- .
Speaker 1Sounds good , sounds really good .
Speaker 2I'll read the book and tell you which I'm sure . It's really good . It was like on the bestseller's list for like a whole year . Let me say so . Yeah , anyway , those are my ricks . Go ahead , stace .
Speaker 1So , as we know , I'm reading the Throne of Glass series , so I just started Empire of Storms and it's the fifth book , so it's really good . I'm really getting into it . There's only three books left , so I have this one , tower of Dawn , and then Kingdom of Ash .
Speaker 2Are you doing the tandem read ?
Speaker 1No , I thought about doing it and I'm reading it on my phone Like I got a Libby version of it , so I'll be reading them separately . But I am excited because people swear by like the last this book and like Kingdom of Ash . They say it's so great that it's some people even like it better than the Akatar , like the last book in that one . So I'm pretty pumped . I literally have only read like four pages . I just got it last night on Libby but oh thanks , I'm really like into the world and into the characters and then watching . I just finished from Ashley's recommendation . I just finished season five of Fargo .
Speaker 1It was so good , excellent , the character it has Winston from New Girl in it . He's a true Bernora . You would love it . He's amazing , winnie . And then it has the girl from Ted Lasso .
Speaker 3Juno , oh Juno . Yeah , she's great .
Speaker 1Yeah , and then it has John Hamm in it . I mean , there's other famous people in it too . It's Great cast , but it's a great story . It's hilarious . I cried at the last episode .
Speaker 2Actually , that's why , I cried at the last episode .
Speaker 1But I like it because you don't have to watch the seasons in order on Fargo .
Speaker 2That's what I heard so .
Speaker 1Ashley was just like oh , I watched the fifth season . It's great , and then I watched it like week , so it's really good . 10 out of 10 . Would recommend Very cool , very cool , very cool .
Speaker 2All right , now we can get into our real discussion . See you , to see I was like if you forwarded through all of that , now we're actually talking about parts , but listen to our recs because they're great .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , exactly .
Speaker 2Good recs , yeah . Okay .
Favorite Fantasy Reads and Book Recommendations
Speaker 2Okay , stacy , you can start us off with what's been like your favorite or most memorable . Fantasy reads , yeah . Fantasy books , fantasy books yeah .
Speaker 1Well , obviously I was big with Akatar , which I'm glad you guys are starting , I felt like I had in red fantasy books in like a hot minute and then we at work all started reading that story . So that kind of like really jumped , started me into it again . So I really like that , which I like the whole like fairy idea and all that . But I will say like reading Throne of Glass that's probably been more of the fantasy world is just like jumped into a lot deeper with these books .
Speaker 2I feel like they're more fantasy than Akatar's , probably more romance , right .
Speaker 1More romance and relationships , which I like . Sometimes I miss that aspect in Throne of Glass , but the world building in the Throne of Glass world is very interesting in how it all like ends up interconnecting and intertwining from past and present , so I've like really enjoyed that aspect of it . So Ashley Clements , she's read all of Sarah J Mass's books and she said that Throne of Glass is her favorite . So I've heard it's good .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think I told you guys . I just read the first book in it like daughter of the moon . Goddess , that's the celestial kingdom one . Have you read that Stacy ?
Speaker 1No , but it's on my list because after you read it you said you liked it . I like the idea of the story .
Speaker 2It's really good . It's based off of Chinese mythology and it's the main character . She is the daughter of the moon goddess , but it's really good and it has a love triangle between the two guys . I don't know , I really like it . Again , I don't think it gets a lot of hype that it should , versus fourth wing , which gets all the hype . I feel like it's very similar to fourth wing just because there's dragons in it . It obviously is fantasy and it's just like a strong female character . I thought it was really well written and done . It's a duology , so it's not like crazy long , like a whole bunch of books you have to read . You know what I mean . So , yeah , that was a really good one . My other one that I really love was Legend Born .
Speaker 1Yes , I loved Legend Born . I haven't read the second book , but the first one is .
Speaker 2Yes , I haven't read the second one either . I'm planning to , but that's a retail , like I don't know about retailing , but it's like a King Arthur kind of King Arthur's Knights round table thing and based like it's a black author and black main character and also , again , kind of a love triangle-ish . Did you like Selwyn ? Are you more of a Nick girl ?
Speaker 1I am more of a Nick girl , which is really strange for me , because I love Selwyn like the Morley .
Speaker 2Grey , dark .
Speaker 1Yeah , but I don't know what it is . I don't know if it's because Nick's character is tortured in his own way by his family legacy and you can tell he wants to be better . I don't know .
Speaker 2Because he has kind of dark vibes too , even though he's like a boy .
Speaker 1I think it's just the author is so good at writing them . It's not like yeah , it's like your typical , like love triangle , like the bad guy and the good guy , but like there's so much more . I'm just not saying like so much . There's so much more depth to the good guy character , which I appreciate a lot .
Speaker 2Yes , he's very . He's not two dimensional , You're right .
Speaker 1Exactly , there's like he's like an onion , there's like lots of layers to him . You see them immediately . Why are you always quoting Shrek Stacey ?
Speaker 3Look at that boulder .
Speaker 2That's a nice boulder , nice boulder In the morning I'm making waffles . This is the best movie ever .
Speaker 1That's also my rep . Put that on my rep list Shrek from 20 years ago . Okay , don't age us please .
Speaker 2So yeah , that is a nice thought to read the same , but I mean she . So she has a second book that's out and then she just announced she's it was supposed to be a trilogy and she just announced it's now a . What's it called when there's four books ?
Speaker 1Quad trilogy I have no idea . But there's four books I didn't know that , like duology was a term until recently . Yeah , I mean , it makes sense , I just didn't know . So I just call it a series , a series .
Speaker 2Yeah , but there's four books in that After . Yeah , so she's , but only two are out right now . And then one more is Babel , which is my favorite book of all time .
Speaker 1I have to read this . I've seen so much about Babel . Since you've wrecked it , it's on my list .
Speaker 2It's , but it's a really long book but but it's worth it and it's just . It's just amazing . It's so good Anyway , but it's about four students one , the main , he's Asian , and then there's a black girl , and then there's a English white girl and then there is he's like an Indian guy there's I mean , he's like East Asian , and and they all go to school at Oxford and they learn about like language and how to take like their language and like put it into these silver bars and it creates like magic to like power , the British Empire , and they think they're doing this like noble thing of like helping their school and everything . But it's like actually like evil , essentially because it's in the 1800s and it's used for like slavery , like the countries that they come from . It's the British Empire is like taking advantage of them , essentially in the 1800s , right , like colonizing them . And yeah , it's just so good . So that's my third wreck , like fantasy wreck or whatever . So , yeah , okay , you guys can go Good fantasy books or series .
Speaker 1So do you care if I go ? I have nothing .
Speaker 3I'm jumping in .
Speaker 1So I have a couple . They're kind of like older series that I've read , but they're just books . I love my first one . This is like a young adult series but I feel like it's . I think I've talked about this book series in the past . It's the book series that got me into reading . It's called . The first book is called Blue , is for nightmares and actually let me make sure I say her name right . I haven't . I've been meaning to go back and reread it because it's been
Young Adult Fantasy Books Discussion
Speaker 1so long . But our friend , ashley read , read that book series . I told her I liked it so much and it is a little young . It's a young adult series but the main characters name is Stacy , which is why I also loved it . Is it spelled ?
Speaker 2like Stacy's .
Speaker 1No , it's spelled . Oh it's why . Yeah , why Hold on , let me find the author's name real fast by Laurie Stollard Stollard's .
Speaker 3Is it Stollard's ? There's a Z at the end , so ours .
Speaker 1There's four . Well , there's four books and technically five . The fifth one is a graphic novel but the main character is a witch , but it's definitely . It's more of like spells type things , not on action , not like powers , like moving things or anything like that . It was really good , but yeah , so if you want a young adult , not a whole series , that's good .
Speaker 3I mean , it's a vampire Academy .
Speaker 1And that was my second one . I'm still , to this day , obsessed with Vampire Academy and there's a spin-off series . So you see , what was it called with the Alchemist , what was that series called ? It was so .
Speaker 2You liked it better Cause you liked that character , I think I almost liked it better than Vampire Academy .
Speaker 1Did you read it ? It was with Sydney was the character's name . She's in Vampire Academy . She's an Alchemist and then she has her own separate series with some of the characters from Vampire Academy . Excellent Town to Town , would recommend . I personally like the characters that are in the Alchemist series from that a little better . Stacey actually just sent me this thing Stacey , what's the woman's name who ? I'm so bad with authors names who wrote Vampire Academy ? Rachel Mead .
Speaker 2Rachel Mead .
Speaker 1yeah , there's a new special edition that's coming out soon for Vampire Academy . It's really expensive but I think I might buy it , Like all the books are signed by her and it's like special art and some extras like little- .
Speaker 3Deleted scenes .
Speaker 1Yeah , that are in it . I think the pre-sell is this month for it , but they've made a movie and they tried to do the series . I thought the series was great . It got canceled , which is ridiculous , obviously , because it anyway it's . I was gonna be mean . I feel like it got canceled because it's a very diverse cast and it was female lead .
Speaker 1And for some reason I just don't think it gets as much as a priority as everything else . It was a great show , so those two series I love and then the last one I was gonna talk about I think it's still fantasy the Black Dagger Brotherhood series . Stacey Nora knows about that too , nora knows , you made Nora read it all .
Speaker 3It didn't make me do nothing . I was best series . I loved it .
Speaker 1When I tell you it is excellent .
Speaker 3Excellent .
Speaker 1To this day . I think it's some of the best smut that I've ever read in my life , like and she and sorry not to cut you all fast , but Ashley's right because she was writing smut scenes how they should've been wrote years before , years before , like when we were talking with Kate about how she had to cut a smut scene and now it's very popular . I mean , like she was keeping it all 100% , like 10 years ago , let me see . I gotta figure out when Dark Lover that's the name of the first book in the series came out . I'm just curious when it was published . Now , 2005 was when that happened .
Speaker 1She's still writing for the series too .
Speaker 1I don't think it's over yet . We actually went to book signing for her in Cincinnati and we have we got some signed books from her . That series is amazing . It's super long and there's some other like side series that have come from it . But the Black Dagger Brotherhood is like a group of vampires in New York . It's a suburb of New York called Well New York or something . I don't even know if that's a real place , but I don't remember now . They're like hundreds of years old and it's just really , really excellent smutty writing , if anybody's into that .
Speaker 3Is this like the old-time it's a fresh take .
Speaker 1Twilight , no , well , no , these are like . It's kind of like Acutar , where it's like , you know , they're huge , these huge fairy guys , it's like these huge vampires that are like very masculine , but , that being said , they all carry daggers .
Speaker 3They all carry daggers and they hide them in different places .
Speaker 1There's like it's a whole world building thing . There's a whole world building thing Like vampires have their , there's their this own , like God character and devil character and like they're all . It's like fighting against good and evil and then- there's a hierarchy to it too .
Speaker 3Yeah , vampires .
Speaker 1Yeah , like the , it's like almost like a court system with like all of the different vampires and each book is about a different vampire and- .
Speaker 3Have they done one with the girls ? Yeah , I was about to say .
Speaker 1They did one like and some of the warriors are female . That's in it that the books center around . So it's just , it's really great series . It's a definitely a different take than Twilight . It's more like when you say like original type vampire stuff , like they can't go out during the day , they like they drink blood , but they don't necessarily like they don't need humans to survive , they drink each other's blood .
Speaker 1Yeah , right , it's more than like killing people to survive . Yeah , but I will say also the author , like I know there's always been queer romance has been out there , if you can find it , but it was especially when we were like going stuff . I still think it's really popular . But she also had . One of my favorite books is a queer book she wrote with between two males and at the time like Excellent you were thinking .
Speaker 1I mean , it wasn't just like you know , this young adult queer romance . No , it was very graphic , just like her other books like in-depth beautiful .
Speaker 2Too hot men .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's great yeah .
Speaker 3Is it ?
Speaker 1Sandra Point and play .
Speaker 3Play , point and play .
Speaker 1There's also Chanel . Like some ABO in there too , with one of the characters .
Speaker 2Wow , yeah , she was very advanced .
Speaker 1She was sprinkling it all in there , man . The author's name is JR Ward I don't want to make us seem how old we are , nora and Ashley but one of her latest books she came out was actually which I don't want to spoil on things , so cover your ears if you're going to read it , chanel but the latest book is about Zadis and Bella's child as an adult in her romance . Like that's how far the book series has come From like her being a baby all the way to her being like An adult An adult in a romance . Yeah , crazy , yeah , I'm not old . Yeah , we're not old , stacey , we're so young and hip . Right .
Speaker 2I got braces .
Speaker 1I'm so young right now . I went to bed at 9.30 last night . Fell asleep reading on my phone .
Speaker 2Nora , do you have any fantasy ? Recs .
Speaker 3Oh , I guess it was fine . I have started the Lord of the Rings . Is that dirty ? I don't know .
Speaker 1Yes , it's very , very fantasy . I've heard those books are excellent . It's free on .
Speaker 3The first book's free on Audible right now . I've been listening to that .
Speaker 2I only read the Hobbit .
Speaker 1I haven't actually read the Lord of the Rings books , but the Hobbit it's a life goal of mine to read all of the books , Like I don't know when I'll get to it , maybe in a few years but it legitimately is a goal to like read them Right . One ring to rule them all . Even the trees walk in those movies .
Speaker 2There's only one return . It's not in the key , you don't even know it is over the Jedi . You guys can't even say like you haven't read the books and you haven't seen the movies , so just shut up .
Speaker 1Listen so much . Skyler was watching all of the movies this weekend . For some reason . I had drill and I came home and he was just like watching Return of the King or something like this three hour movie or some extended thing . I was like what do you do ? And he's like I just decided to watch all the movies this weekend . It's just so random , why not ?
Speaker 2Why not ? I mean , it isn't . Sometimes I'll just like randomly have a Star Wars marathon . I mean sometimes you just get in the mood .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm always in the mood for Star Wars , star Wars and Harry Potter .
Speaker 3Put it on , put it on , just get in the mood , put it on .
Speaker 1Where's the table ? First one this is kind of I mean , I guess it's more sci-fi than fantasy . But , Nora , do you remember when we read the Uglies series in high school ? Yes , I love that book . Yeah , I just listened to the first one again and I forgot how good it is for a young adult book . It's very good . I read the first one , Stacey , not too long ago for some reason , because you had recommended it , but I guess it would be considered more sci-fi than fantasy .
Speaker 2I think it is more like dystopian kind of yeah .
Speaker 1But still , it's good , I want to talk about it , so it's really good .
Discussion on Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books
Speaker 1I always get a little confused on the sci-fi versus fantasy because they seem so similar to me . Like I was going to talk about Dune , but that's probably more sci-fi too than fantasy , right ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so like fantasy I know because I had to like look this up a little while ago Fantasy is more like yeah , it's more like magical creatures and stuff like that , and sci-fi or dystopian is set in the real world , but it's like where it has advanced technology or things have kind of like crumbled or gone to waste , kind of .
Speaker 1Oh , what I've read . Why didn't I blink on this ? I just finished the second book in Holly's Black , the Folk of Air series . I just finished the Wicked King and it is excellent . My sister , katie , read the whole series . I'm on the last book . I'm just waiting to get it from Libby , but it's great . She does a really good job of writing characters that you hate but you still love reading about them . Does that make sense ? Yeah , these characters are some of our assholes . It's like enemies to lovers , but like enemies to lovers , not like oh you know like they'll punch you in the face and try to kill you . Like enemies to lovers . Like it's legit , but it's really good . It's like fairies . The main character is immortal , but the world is just very beautiful how she describes it . I got Chanel , which is just sitting over here because we haven't seen each other in person forever , the paperback set . Ooh , but they're great . I can't wait . Katie says the last one's great .
Speaker 3Why are you trying to tell ?
Speaker 1all of these series . It was her Christmas present . What about me ?
Speaker 2Stacey , what about , like TBR ? What fantasy books are you wanting to read this year ?
Speaker 1So the first one I have , I just like I'm like every basic girl out there right now I'm going to read Crescent City . I have the first book . I got it from a friend online for Christmas . It's huge . It's like the first book is like 800 pages . I know , it's like it's big .
Speaker 3Is that the ?
Speaker 1series that the new book just came out . Yeah , I've heard not great reviews about the new book .
Speaker 2I have it .
Speaker 1I've been trying to pull a Chanel and be less like , even though I know the spoiler for the main series . I've been trying to kind of avoid it because I know it's on the horizon for me . I'll probably start it once I finish Throw in Glass , but that's my main one that I want to finish this year , just so I can get caught up in her world all the way . I'm trying to think I feel like there was another . Maybe I have it on my phone .
Speaker 3Here's a serpent , one I think you told me about .
Speaker 2You want us to come back to you , yeah , come back to me , um , but let me see I oh , here , actually I have it right here . I want to read have you seen this ? These violent delights . I got this , the special edition , woo .
Speaker 1What else did she write ? That author ? She's wrote something else , right .
Speaker 2She's written a lot . She's , uh , this is a duology , but the foul lady fortune is the other , her other popular series , which , um , that's her second series . But , um , this is a duology that is based off of Romeo and Juliet and it's um set in Shanghai and , like , the girl is the heir to one gang and then the guy is the heir to the other gang and they , like , obviously , are enemies to lovers and , um , so that's what I want to read . And then , um , my other one , which I don't have it yet but it's supposed to come , is , uh , a day of fall and night , which I know you've , I know you know what I'm talking about , Stacy . Um , it's , oh , speaking of 800 pages . It's um a thick one and I don't know , I don't know what it's about , but I just know it has dragons and it's sapphic and I'm super excited to read it .
Speaker 1Sign me up . Sign me up for that .
Speaker 2So those two are on . Oh , and fey bound , um , it's like . Again , I think it's like fantasy dragons . It's like the beautiful um cover that everyone's been talking about . It's like red and black and um , I think so . So , raffi , I don't know what her name is um , let me get her , let me find her . Sarah L Arafi is her , um is her name , the author's name . But the main girl says asa , warrior in the Elven army . She's known nothing but violence her whole life . It's about her and her sister , and there there's fey and elves and I don't even know . Anyway , but that's what I want to read . Fey bound , it's like on the . It was like number one on the best sellers list . I know , you know what I'm talking about , right .
Speaker 2It sounds it sounds familiar .
Speaker 1She now just like disappeared from her background .
Speaker 2first I think that's a my cue to listen to . They did all those special editions with it .
Speaker 1Oh , I remember what my other one was , which is probably taking from Ashley's . But Katie , our youngest sister , really wants to see the red queen series . So I have the . I have the first book in the red queen series . I promise . I swore to Katie as soon as I finished my Sarah J Math tour that would be the next series I do . Yeah , yeah , yeah . She pretty much wanted a blood oath at this point that we read this book .
Speaker 1She said this , my favorite book of all time , my book , the next books I want to read . I get them all , from Chanel's books to Graham . Yeah , I just like save my , but my big one that I want to . There's two one of them . One of them isn't a fantasy , but I really want to read blood like fate that you just did a book review on .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , that's fantasy yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , that one's fantasy , so I have that one saved that I want to read . This next one isn't fantasy , but it sounds so good they're vicious games that you just did a review on .
Speaker 2Oh , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1That book sounds amazing yeah .
Speaker 2That's not fantasy , but it is really good .
Speaker 1It's like a because I think you talked about it last episode it's like it's a boarding school right , and it's kind of like a thriller type book , but I know it's not fantasy , but it is not . It's high up on my list , but this blood like fate is fantasy and it sounds amazing .
Speaker 2Yeah , so blood like magic is the first one , because it's a duology also .
Speaker 1Okay , so that series is on . That's probably my number one fantasy series to read . Don't tell Katie . And then Red Quinn .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah . Yeah , that's a good one . It's good magic and it's actually kind of sci-fi and magic because it has like kind of technology , like futuristic , but then there's magic in it .
Speaker 1So yeah , it's a good one .
Speaker 2Oh , Nora , do you have anything ?
Speaker 3I think the only thing that's I've wanted this Serpent Wing Knight . Have you guys heard of that one by Carissa Brodebint , I think oh yeah , I've heard of it yeah . That's one that I'm going to probably listening here to , oh what's the one you're listening to ?
Speaker 1A hooked one right now , right Like a Peter .
Speaker 3Pan thing . The hooked was . Well , I just finished that one . And then there's , I just finished that one too , nora . I was listening with Sam , my husband , in the car , and I'm not kidding you , every time we open the door and we go , knock , knock , it's me clock because it's got a little bit of a sexy scenes in those , but it's like I love you and Sam so much . You look good too .
Speaker 2That's funny .
Speaker 3Her next book was Scarred , so I'm listening to that one right now , too Nice .
Speaker 2Nice .
Speaker 3Good .
Speaker 1I swear to God my TBR is never ending . I have so many books here that I need to read , yeah .
Speaker 2I don't know , I'm just I know , I know , man , because people are always putting out new ones . Yeah , You're like stop .
Speaker 1Too much content . I know yeah , I finally , I signed up for a book of the month , and when we had the guest star Jayon , the manacle reactions , he said his favorite book of all time was that Tomorrow , tomorrow , tomorrow . So that's the book that I picked for my book of the month , and so I really want to read that book too , because I've heard great things , but it just keeps going down on the list every time . I know . I don't know , it's just it's too many books .
Speaker 3There's not enough time in the day to read all these books .
Speaker 2Do you only get one book for book of the month ?
Speaker 1I don't know because . So I signed up when they had a deal where it was like $5 for your first book and it was for January , so I have I need to look and see like I haven't picked anything for February yet .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1What's nice is that if you skip a month you don't have to pay , or you can't pay and you just get to keep the credit they give you , like an extra book for your birthday . You get deals . I add on a lot to mine . I ended up always having extra credits floating around . I have like two whole shelves in my bookcase . It is literally just like book of the month books . I have a problem , I know . Have you read that ? No , they're my little trophies .
Speaker 2I mean I can't complain because I have a whole shelf that I haven't read and they're not a book of the month , they're just books . But at least I can be like I can stop . You're just going to keep getting more .
Speaker 1Literally . I was at Target yesterday with Theo and his mom and I was like Theo , should we look at the books ? And he was like it's a trap . No , it's a trap . He gets so annoyed because he , he looks at the bookshelf . He's like there is no possible way you could read all these books in your lifetime . And I said , just give me time , just give me time .
Speaker 2And I will no you definitely could yeah . You definitely could .
Speaker 1Yeah , I could . They're my little trophies . I look at them and they make me so happy . They don't even have to open them . I just see them and I'm like my little babies .
Kudos and Taylor Swift's New Album
Speaker 2The key word is could you , could you , could I , could I could you could we don't know which ?
Speaker 1will I start deciding that I want all the StereoJ math books and I start buying all of them ? He'll lose his mind , Wait you don't even have them .
Speaker 2I'm like I'm not going to give up . I'm like I'm not going to give up . I'm like I'm not going to give up .
Speaker 3Oh well , that's the next girl's trip . Everybody just bring the books that they haven't read . Yeah , and then we'll just go for a weekend and just read in different places and nooks and crannies of an Airbnb . Yeah , I like it .
Speaker 1Just saying Good idea Of course Stacy . She's so sick right now . Look at her .
Speaker 2I know , baby , all right , let's see some kudos Wrap it up .
Speaker 1Okay , I'll go first . Obviously , my kudos is for Nora , because we had dinner last night and I was just like come record with us randomly she could . It's amazing because I feel like I haven't seen you in years . I know , I mean , I think it's just been like a month or something , but it feels like forever . We were talking about last night just gets harder and harder . Everybody's so busy with like their full time adult jobs and lives . It's hard to get together with friends and stuff a lot . But so , yeah , just thanks for coming over today and having coffee with me , and she's been having to deal with the dogs being crazy . So , and then my second kudos , as always , is for you guys , because you're amazing and we haven't recorded in person the last couple episodes . So I freaking miss you guys . I miss you , I miss you guys . I'm sorry . I'm so like , so sneezey today . No , it's okay , I was sick , was it last week or two weeks ago ? I was like couldn't , I like didn't leave my house for a week . I was so sick .
Speaker 1Yeah , work for a week was terrible . Indiana is not a vibe this time of year , guys . I don't know where everyone's listening from , but if you're from Indiana , you know how bad it sucks to be here , right now ?
Speaker 3Hey , it kills all the bugs in the wintertime , it's fine . Yeah , all the big ones .
Speaker 2That's true , my kudos is first . Nora , thank you for coming and hanging out . Thank you .
Speaker 3You're welcome .
Speaker 2And second , well , I have a couple birthday shout outs . One , obviously , our friend Jen . It was her birthday . I know you got to hang out with her , ashley , I'm so jealous , but so happy birthday , jen . And then my yeah , my best friend , molly . It was her birthday a few days ago as well , and so happy they , molly .
Speaker 1Happy birthday , Molly .
Speaker 2Yeah , so happy birthday . Of course , ashley and Stacy , you guys are great checking in on me when I was struggling this week , so yeah , I texted now .
Speaker 1I'm like , are you alive ? Like I was talking to Stacy , I'm like , wait , Chanel hasn't responded in the group message in like two days , Are we okay ?
Speaker 2Do I need to call her ?
Speaker 1What's going on ? It was rough .
Speaker 2So yeah , thank you .
Speaker 1I would have noticed sooner , but I was like on my long stretch of work . Of course , I did like this huge stretch of work . Now I'm off for like two weeks and now I'm sick . So it's just like yeah , it was rough for you to it was rough yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , yes , go ahead Stacy .
Speaker 1My kudos is for my beautiful Nora . Obviously I'm so glad I get to see you on the computer . I haven't seen you in person . It's literally been months for us . My life is chaos , so I'm sorry . But basically to you guys , you're my favorite and best support system If I'm ever . I'm sad . I just didn't like these unhinged things in our group chat and then I feel better these , these TikToks and all this other stuff , so thanks for keeping me alive . We didn't even talk about it . It's been an unhinged . Unhinged TikToks Say something's pretty good and announce the Taylor Swift news . That's all the TikToks .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , taylor's offline , she does , I don't know why oh okay . Taylor , she announced her new album last night .
Speaker 3Yeah , is it the breakup one the breakup ? No , it's not reputation .
Speaker 1It's well the society of something . Poets .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's the . What is it ? Traumatic poets .
Speaker 3No , I don't know . Oh God , let me look it up . I don't know .
Speaker 1I just wanted reputation .
Speaker 2I'm mad , yeah , I know .
Speaker 1It's called the tortured poets department . I'm sure it's gonna be a great album and I'm excited for it , but I was just like wait , where is reputation ? I know Chanel .
Speaker 2Reputation Besides red reputations might like . Those are my two albums , so I'm a little mad , so sorry .
Speaker 1She's just messing with us at this point . I know she almost randomly dropped like reputation like on some random Wednesday or something , with like no notice and just be like surprise . Here it is .
Speaker 2I know , but honestly I'm like I'm mad , but at the same time , this is what I said right before I went to bed . I said you just can't mess with perfection , so maybe that's why yeah .
Speaker 1And reputation is perfection .
Speaker 2That's what I said to myself to comfort myself , literally before I turned off my phone and I went to bed .
Love and Fandom
Speaker 1Chanel , I love you . I just want to hear getaway car to getaway car again . I just like , want to like .
Speaker 2I'm gorgeous .
Speaker 1What a great song . I haven't listened to that song in forever . I know .
Speaker 2So whatever I was like what I mean honestly , like when she said that I was like wait , what ? Yeah , where's reputation ? I ? Was like anyway , I'm mad , okay , we digress , we digress , we digress .
Speaker 1Thank you everyone for listening .
Speaker 1Yeah , thanks for listening , guys . Yeah , lead us out , stace . We want everyone to have a great and safe week . We can't wait to hear our next episode , which will be love themed for Valentine's Day or anti love , whatever you're into , like . No , it's going to be love , because we love men . We love them . I'm just kidding , I just love love . Okay , do we see your face when I said that , though you guys are even nor as you stare at me , do we ? Do we love me ? We love some of them . We love fictional men . Yes , yeah , I was trying to think of something to add to that , but no , we just love fictional men .
Speaker 3We're ladies . We're ladies when we read our porn . Yeah .
Speaker 1We're ladies , we're classy ladies when we read our porn and that everyone . Make sure you read what you like and have a good week .
