The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Welcome to Season 6 Episode 8 of That Pretentious Book Club! 

In this episode, the hosts dive into The Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine—a beloved young adult fantasy filled with courage, sisterhood, and the kind of quiet bravery that lingers long after the final page.

We’re also breaking in our brand-new microphones (so yes, we sound a little different), while Wheezy shares more about her first pregnancy and current pregnancy than anyone wants to know and we all learn some interesting new fun facts about Dr. Spoons Palermo.

Expect sincere moments, ample chaos, and plenty of laughter-riddled discussion about what makes this story such a classic—from its gentle worldbuilding to its deeply human characters.

☕ Pour yourself a cup of tea
📚 Grab your copy
🗡️ Join the club for our discussion of The Princesses of Bamarre!

That Pretentious Book Club is a Story Sirens Studio production, made in collaboration with The Story Emporium & Bookshop in Hutto, TX. 

Come see us in person to browse our shelves, yap about books, explore irresistible literary merch, and more: https://www.thestoryemporiumandbookshop.com

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More of an audiobook listener? Switch to Libro.fm and support indie bookstores like ours: https://libro.fm/thestoryemporiumandbookshop

Visit Story Sirens Studio online for more about our podcasts, hosts, writing retreats, and more: https://storysirensstudio.com/

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:00

Yeah. I kind of love like sociopathic, like immortal being mm-hmm. It's really fun to me.

Speaker 2 0:21

Welcome back guys to that pretentious book club. This is really, really weird. Really weird. You guys like just

Speaker 3 0:28

sitting here.

Speaker 2 0:29

We're all

Speaker 0:29

just, I know. It's like casual. It feels very casual.

Speaker 2 0:32

It feels too casual. It feels like there's like a, like we need like a third person get a fourth person to like talk to instead now, instead of like looking at my microphone and having somewhere else to look, I have to like look directly at you like we're having a conversation and I don't like it at all.

Speaker 0:49

Yeah. What this dragon,

Speaker 2 0:51

I don't actually know how to talk to you guys if there's not a mic

Speaker 0:53

vault.

Speaker 2 0:54

Honestly,

Speaker 0:55

I don't make eye contact

Speaker 2 0:56

with, I'm like, we've been talking all night and it felt, it didn't feel weird until we put the, the, oh, it felt weird to

Speaker 1:00

me. You liar.

Speaker 2 1:03

Uh, so we're using you microphones in case anyone was wondering what's going on over here

Speaker 1:08

as miring. Drinking and eating in year,

Speaker 2 1:12

we're gonna be figuring it out. Welcome to

Speaker 1:13

that pretentious book Club. Book club. Book club club. Book club.

Speaker 2 1:16

Cannot make any promises about the quality of this audio, but, um, we're trying. I'm gonna pour water on the mic. You know, our one listener's like, oh God, come on. It's gotta get better. Um, they're also like, you had six years to master the last set of microphones and you didn't, so

Speaker 3 1:35

I don't know that I've ever mastered anything. You know,

Speaker 2 1:38

I like to move on with just a vague grasp. Yeah, yeah. Started, yeah. Like I sort of

Speaker 3 1:42

did it, you know?

Speaker 2 1:43

Yeah. And then we have these new little fancy pin on mics, which is why, um. It, it's very, it's, I can't believe how different it feels.

Speaker 1:52

It does. It's so weird.

Speaker 2 1:53

You're exactly, completely away from us. The other thing, I think that's a big part of it. She's like in a rocky care, like not looking at us. So I just talking to an entertainment center right now, we're not in a circle. We're in like an L shape right now. Like this is

Speaker 3 2:10

not

Speaker 2 2:10

Yeah, I know this is stupid too.'cause the whole point I was like, we can be more comfortable, like having normal conversation.

Speaker 2:17

It feels so casual.

Speaker 2 2:20

Oh, okay guys, hang on. I'm gonna turn around my chair. I have an idea. Let's all figure this up. Ooh, I'm gonna turn around my chair because you brought up

Speaker 2:27

a good

Speaker 2 2:27

point.

Speaker 2:28

We talk about, um, girl, girl shopping Uhhuh. We were like, what if instead of meaning like. Like the girls go shopping for girly things. We were actually shopping for

Speaker 2 2:39

girls,

Speaker 2:39

for Girls. We came back

Speaker 3 2:40

with all

Speaker 2:40

these other women here.

Speaker 2 2:42

I must be like, what the heck? I wouldn't be, like I said, we were going girl shopping. We were buying girl shopping

Speaker 3 2:46

for girls. What did you smoke? We were doing, it's like we um, in the Amanda show they had the people store for a bit.

Speaker 2:54

Oh,

Speaker 3 2:54

that was crazy

Speaker 2:56

show.

Speaker 3 2:57

Yeah. I would get up really early on Saturdays to watch reruns of it because they would play it like at 6:00 AM on Saturday.

Speaker 2 3:03

Yeah.

Speaker 3:04

I got up really early on Saturdays to watch winning the Pooh.

Speaker 3 3:08

I and I love that.

Speaker 2 3:09

I got up really early on Saturdays'cause my father made us go on mandatory two mile runs.

Speaker 3 3:13

Oh, that's different.

Speaker 3:16

Well this is awkward.

Speaker 2 3:17

Anyways, that over there is Drmo.

Speaker 3 3:20

Hi. Howdy. Um, and beside me is. Wait, how does Gino's intro go? I usually introduce you.

Speaker 2 3:28

I don't know.

Speaker 3:28

Introduce her then.

Speaker 2 3:30

No, I want, I wanna hear how you introduce Gino

Speaker 3 3:32

right here beside me from beautiful S Connect. Well, how do you say that? Place S Connect.

Speaker 2 3:39

I have no idea what place you're trying to say.

Speaker 3 3:42

Okay. I'll pick a different place from Beautiful. That's

Speaker 2 3:46

a real place.

Speaker 3 3:48

Dublin, Ireland.

Speaker 2 3:49

Ooh,

Speaker 3 3:50

from Dublin. We've got our wonderful. Gino and the, well, that's not great. She, she's a transplant, you know?

Speaker 2 4:01

Yeah.

Speaker 4:02

Oh, we forgot to do the whole, the whole podcast in accents. Oh, yeah. I forget, forget the accent was talking me, right? It was, we were

Speaker 3 4:11

doing a bit of a, yeah, a bit of a British thing.

Speaker 4:14

So

Speaker 2 4:15

they were doing a bit

Speaker 4:16

of a British thing. Right.

Speaker 2 4:17

Well, I listened.

Speaker 4:18

We also have a wheezy.

Speaker 3 4:22

Oh, we've got over it.

Speaker 2 4:23

It ain't easy being wheezy. You know what ain't easy is being eight months pregnant is also not so easy. It's big. Y'all. The kids in my life have been roasting me constantly. Melissa, if you guys are new here. Um, I'm incredibly pregnant and, um, which has been really fun. She's

Speaker 4:41

also incredibly pregnant if you're old here.

Speaker 2 4:43

Yeah, I mean, regardless of how long you've been here, I'm still incredibly pregnant. Uh, this may or may not be news to you, but yeah, my 2-year-old son, um, he is. I, he's just in such an interesting phase right now where he says the craziest things. Um, and so, uh, yesterday I think it was, somebody asked how I was doing and Ri looked over and answered for me big, and that is how he said it. And it was an answer very clearly meant on my behalf.

Speaker 3 5:12

Quite literally the funniest thing ever.

Speaker 2 5:14

I was like, wow, to do. And then at Easter, my, uh, four and a half year old niece said, uh, why do you waddle like a grandma? And I didn't wanna explain to her the permanent damage that a fourth degree tear can do, um, from her cousin's birth two years ago. And the pressure of the baby currently in my uterus pushing down all the damaged muscle. So I was like, isn't it funny? And then she said, Titi, you look weird in the mirror.

Speaker 3 5:43

Absolutely brutal.

Speaker 2 5:46

Absolutely brutal. It's brutal

Speaker 3 5:47

out

Speaker 2 5:47

here. And then she was here for a total of five minutes today and walked in and goes, it is very messy here. I was like, Kristin, you're killing me right now.

Speaker 3 5:58

It is very messy.

Speaker 2 6:00

It is very messy. Wow. Anyways, so yeah, the kids have been destroying me. Oh my

Speaker 3 6:06

God.

Speaker 2 6:07

And the baby in my uterus is trying to also murder me, I think possibly. And also Gino.'cause it tried to knock us off the road other day and then today tried to give our waiter a heart attack.

Speaker 3 6:19

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 6:19

Because like twice I was like, like fully probably shouting in this sushi restaurant. It wasn't that bad

Speaker 6:27

in the sushi

Speaker 2 6:28

restaurant. The baby attacked me so violently from within. And did you guys know that? Fun fact, your baby can bruise your.

Speaker 3 6:37

See that seems unfair.

Speaker 2 6:38

You know, like

Speaker 3 6:38

what are you supposed to do about that?

Speaker 2 6:40

I know. It's not like I can fight back.

Speaker 3 6:41

No. Hey, hey,

Speaker 2 6:44

hey. Cool. It cool it.

Speaker 3 6:46

Hey, calm it down in there, right?

Speaker 2 6:48

Yeah. So if you guys just hear a random, I've not been punched in. Well, I have an ow. Internally

Speaker 3 6:54

punched. Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:55

I've been internally punched in the gut. So that's what that sound is and that's my life lately. Just big much going great. Pretty much. This looks going great.

Speaker 7:04

How's your life at big?

Speaker 2 7:05

Uh, big, big. How are you? Big, thank you. Ri Thank you buddy. It's really helpful. Spoons. How's your life? Any

Speaker 3 7:15

toddlers

Speaker 2 7:15

been

Speaker 3 7:15

roasting the hell outta you? I'm going. Um, no, Leigh's pretty nice to me. Usually almost pretty nice. Like Leigh's, like un um, unfairly nice to me compared

Speaker 2 7:27

to other people. She's been such a sour patch

Speaker 7:30

kid

7:30

lately.

Speaker 2 7:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:31

And then I'm like, Hey ri, you wanna do this? And he is like, okay. She has Kendall privilege.

Speaker 2 7:35

I really do have Kendall privilege. I have Auntie Spoons privilege with him. A hundred percent. He is like, I would never be bad for her. I'm

Speaker 3 7:41

not ashamed to admit that. You know,

Speaker 2 7:42

it's amazing. He's like, auntie Spoons,

Speaker 3 7:45

hug. Hug. He just let me carry him around. We just hang out. It's

Speaker 2 7:49

great. And then with everyone else, he's like, owie. I owie. And

Speaker 3 7:53

like, and

Speaker 2 7:54

I'm like, when? And he's like, FW owie. And I'm like, two weeks ago at school. And he's like, yeah, owie,

Speaker 3 8:02

fw, owie.

Speaker 2 8:03

I'm like, okay, well that was a long

Speaker 3 8:05

time ago. Like, I think you're fine now. Rep some dirt in it, you know, get over it. Oh gosh. No, he's, we have a good time. Um, what else?

Speaker 2 8:13

We have fun.

Speaker 3 8:14

We have fun. Uh, what else is new with me? I don't know. Um, not much to report. Um, I don't know you guys.

8:25

Sorry.

Speaker 8:26

It's because she's keeping secrets from the

Speaker 2 8:27

I

Speaker 8:28

know.

Speaker 3 8:28

Oh, I don't

Speaker 8:28

tell

Speaker 3 8:29

podcast people anything.

Speaker 2 8:30

No. She has like a whole other life that she doesn't wanna tell you guys about Secret. Don't worry, do that. I'm, I do that on the Reddit boards.

Speaker 3 8:38

She's like, I've been writing fan fiction again. I'll tell you guys that thing.

Speaker 2 8:41

Ooh,

Speaker 3 8:41

that's embarrassing, right?

Speaker 2 8:42

You're gonna tell us where it is? Where can we read

Speaker 3 8:43

it? No, of course. It's Are you

Speaker 8:44

gonna tell us who the fan who you're fanning?

Speaker 3 8:46

No, because that's really embarrassing. Is it about

Speaker 2 8:50

K-pop?

Speaker 3 8:50

Of course. It's about K-pop.

Speaker 2 8:53

Well, of course it is.

Speaker 3 8:54

It's so embarrassing. Me writing. No, actually I can't even get into it anymore. I can't believe I admitted this to people. I promise I would take this to my grave. I added so bad. You a little

Speaker 2 9:04

bit.

Speaker 3 9:04

It's really bad. I, I

Speaker 2 9:05

like to try and out

Speaker 3 9:06

you

Speaker 2 9:06

guys

Speaker 3 9:06

to, I used be vocally against this and now look at me. Whatever.

Speaker 2 9:10

Just a fan fiction, girly.

Speaker 3 9:12

I always have been, you know,

Speaker 2 9:13

I know,

Speaker 3 9:15

I know. The urge to make everything about the Wild West is, you know, you can do anything you want in fan. This is so true. I used to write like six of Crows fan fiction where I was like, what if they're all in the wild West? You know? I kind of love that actually. Amazing.

Speaker 9:33

That's kind of funny'cause like the Montana thing, you were like, that's so up. Spoon alley.

Speaker 3 9:37

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 9:38

Yeah. I have a

Speaker 3 9:39

great time. I love the Wild West. I'm like, so I, I'm literally creating, I have documents on my computer right now that are like fictionalized historical land disputes that I'm going to. That I'm like, this would be great for

Speaker 2 9:52

actually, my God.

Speaker 3 9:53

Yeah. This is what I took my free time.

Speaker 2 9:57

That's awesome.

Speaker 3 9:57

No, it's not. But you don't have, I really wish you wouldn't say that. You know, you just, honestly,

Speaker 2 10:03

I'm a little jealous. I miss, I don't remember what I used to do with free time,

Speaker 3 10:07

honestly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:09

I'm not really sure what free time is anymore.

Speaker 3 10:11

No,

Speaker 10:12

I

Speaker 2 10:12

just

Speaker 10:13

stare at you in my free time

Speaker 2 10:14

now. I know. I can feel it

Speaker 3 10:17

also. You can feel it. I've been like trying to plan this other event that I'm involved with this other organization and it's like stressing me out. This is my, this is my, is this

Speaker 2 10:26

the nerd one? Is this the history nerd

Speaker 3 10:28

one? Uh, this is archives. Yes, ma'am. Um, this is my reprieve from that, you know. Oh. So I do this whenever I'm. Anyway, my reprieve from archives is to create fictionalized historical land disputes. I can place characters.

Speaker 2 10:43

You're so consistent. I really love that. Oh, oh my God. Oh my god. Where was I the other day and somebody called me out on my blacksmith thing.

Speaker 3 10:50

Oh my. I was at the fair and, and somebody was. Should we take? She, it was raining really hard. They're like, should we take shelter under the blacksmith

Speaker 2 10:57

thing? And they're like, Kendall would love that.

Speaker 3 10:59

And I was like, oh

Speaker 2 10:59

my God, I didn't know. This was so far reaching. Everybody knows. And it

Speaker 3 11:03

was like, well, you know,

Speaker 2 11:04

it's the stability.

Speaker 3 11:05

Stability, like blacksmiths. Exactly.

Speaker 2 11:08

Yeah. In Montana, I think you're gonna get to see some, um, a re like some reenactment of some like blacksmithing up there. Ooh,

Speaker 3 11:15

take me a blacksmith home with me.

Speaker 2 11:17

He take me a blacksmith home with me. What'd you get in Montana?

Speaker 3 11:22

A blacksmith.

Speaker 2 11:24

This is

Speaker 3 11:24

Jonah. Jonah. Honestly. Yeah. Literally the idea of blacksmith is a little bit more enticing than the reality that,

Speaker 11:33

oh, now I have to take care of this.

Speaker 3 11:35

Maybe I'll be the blacksmith. You know, I'll be the blacksmith I wanna see in the world. Yeah. Honestly, shouldn't we all be the blacksmith. Oh my goodness. Oh, anyway, that's all I'm gonna share. I love sharing the most embarrassing things about my life rather than the normal stuff.

Speaker 2 11:51

I like to think that I lay out breadcrumbs for you guys to try and lead you into the traps and see what I can get y'all to divulge.

Speaker 11:59

I like to think I see the breadcrumbs and I walk in the opposite.

Speaker 2 12:02

You do. It's very frustrating. I have to get very crassy to try to get information out of you. It's not as hard to get information spoons.

Speaker 3 12:09

I'm like, I honestly an open book. As long as it's about things that are inconsequential. Yeah. If it has anything to do with my real life,

Speaker 2 12:15

I know

Speaker 3 12:16

I won't share it, but if it's for fun, I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 2 12:19

Yeah. For the most part, I don't, I don't try to breadcrumb trap you about real life things'cause I know it won't go anywhere.

Speaker 12:24

I feel like the more inconsequential it is to me, the more I resist it being known.

Speaker 2 12:28

I know. It drives me crazy. I'm like, you could literally share this information and no consequences. And you're like, I won't because you're trying to guide me there. Oh my God. What leads me to Gino? Where's your life been?

Speaker 3 12:40

Gino?

Speaker 12:41

Um. I have three cats and I drove across the country with them. It's, I'm looking at the sound bites now, and mine's really quiet, but I don't know.

Speaker 2 12:51

It might be, I think yours is farther from your bars are, yeah. Is

Speaker 12:56

that better, y'all? Mm-hmm. Y'all.

Speaker 2 12:58

I, is that better y'all? Yeah. So that's another fun life update. She's, she's moving here to Texas.

Speaker 13:04

Yeah, I'm moving to Texas. Mm-hmm. Um, according to any male who's ever spoken to me.

Speaker 2 13:10

They don't, they don't do a ton of listening. They're like, she's in Texas, uh, she's moving to Texas. She's moving,

13:17

you're

Speaker 13:17

moving here.

Speaker 2 13:18

Oh, great. So what inspired you to move to Texas? And you're like, what?

Speaker 13:22

Literally nothing ever.

Speaker 2 13:25

Well, literally, I'm, I'm not, today.

Speaker 3 13:26

We were shopping and I was like, oh, wouldn't that be so cute to go to Stepping In and Ash's like, oh my God. Yeah. And Gina was like, oh my God.

Speaker 13:34

I said, sometimes you guys are so dex.

Speaker 2 13:36

It would be so cute though. Dang,

Speaker 3 13:38

y'all.

Speaker 13:39

Nowhere else would I hear those words.

Speaker 3 13:41

Oh my God, y'all wouldn't that be so cute to go to Stepping

Speaker 2 13:44

in? Hell yeah,

Speaker 3 13:47

girl. You'd look so cute in that

Speaker 2 13:49

you guys, I just, being pregnant is really rough. When denim is back in style, it's not fabric. Okay. I just, I just wanna wear my all de with no two stepping. Funny.

Speaker 13:59

I know denim went out of style.

Speaker 3 14:00

I think denim's a forever kind of fabric. It

Speaker 2 14:02

is. Forever. Im is forever. But now like you can wear everything. You could be wearing a lot outfit and be denim.

Speaker 3 14:09

Yeah. Vis,

Speaker 2 14:10

I've been doing that forever, but it was out and I, anyways, I can A Canadian tuxedo, that was me

Speaker 14:16

with overalls. I hung on the overalls for so long, they were way past in and I was like, I'm wearing these. And then I finally was like, okay. Fine, I'll retire them. And the next year everyone was like overalls again. Yeah. And I was like, you,

Speaker 2 14:29

this is me with cargo pants. I have gone through so many of the up and downs of cargo pants and

Speaker 3 14:35

I just

Speaker 2 14:35

consistently loved them.

Speaker 3 14:37

Yeah, you've been very loyal to the cargo pants.

Speaker 2 14:39

Incredibly loyal to cargo pants and they've showed me no loyalty.

Speaker 3 14:43

I've been very, I think my thing I've been loyal to is like a jean skirt, which is like not really a thing that should ever

Speaker 14:50

really probably be. Jean Miniskirt, and I don't know what happened to it. I have a lot of clothes that just disappeared off the edge. Oh my. Do you

Speaker 2 14:57

guys see what she's, she's trying to intentionally lead us away from the breadcrumb trail.

Speaker 15:01

Oh. I don't know what the trail is, but I, um, I think the reason behind that is. I like moved around so much and I would just leave clothes at different friends' houses and be like, I'll be back for this eventually. Mm-hmm. And then I stopped being friends with people and I never got my jeans skirt

Speaker 3 15:17

back. All your jean skirts are scattered around are,

Speaker 15:20

I'm like a jean skirt in Georgia. Jean skirt in Spain, a jean skirt in Australia. That sounds

Speaker 2 15:25

like a

Speaker 15:26

country

Speaker 2 15:26

song baby. It really does. It's like a, I got

Speaker 15:29

the jeans girl,

Speaker 2 15:29

like twisted version of the sisterhood of the traveling pants. It's just a bunch of different denim skirts and there's no sisterhood. You're actually like, this is a story about not keeping friends. There's a story about losing your denim skirts to all your friends. Oh my God.

Speaker 15:45

It's not even like I left them with people who would wear them. Like it's not like they're wearing them now. They were in their closet goodwill now. Yeah. Oh yeah. These their Gs.

Speaker 2 15:53

I feel so honored that you were like, these are my Texas clothes and my Texas flip flops and I'm gonna leave them here. Perfect.

Speaker 16:00

Last time I was like, Ugh, I'm officially, this is a new step in our relationship.

Speaker 2 16:05

Know. I was like, I feel like she has like

16:07

a

Speaker 3 16:07

toothbrush here too. You Exactly.

Speaker 16:09

She did

Speaker 2 16:10

leave fresh here, which is great.'cause RI does refer to that as dino room. Uh, so he always does. That's cute. Is very cute. I did go in there a couple times and be like, there are her clothes right there lovingly gazed upon your clothes. I wasn't you fondly touching them as you walked by stroking them? I might've slept with them a few times. You're like, they

Speaker 3 16:29

smell like her.

Speaker 2 16:31

Wait, that's

Speaker 16:31

the, when I left last time, I was like, can you wash these before I get back? And you're like, sure, sure. I'll just keep'em in my bed for a couple months first.

Speaker 2 16:38

And you didn't say when you wanted to wash them. You didn't say what to do with them for your post washing, for your post. So g you know your life.

Speaker 16:48

That was it. I have cats. And

Speaker 2 16:50

that's all you said was that you had cats. We all knew that already.

Speaker 16:53

That's pretty, uh, descriptive.

Speaker 2 16:56

That felt intimate. Did that feel intimate to you guys? You feel like you know her better now? Like

Speaker 3 17:01

Yeah.

Speaker 17:03

Um,

Speaker 3 17:04

we will. We know that she left clothes with you. Texas clothes.

Speaker 2 17:08

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 17:08

That's

Speaker 2 17:08

true.

Speaker 17:09

I did leave Texas clothes, um, and I'm back in Texas. Mm-hmm. Um, for a time and, uh,

Speaker 2 17:16

what if that's the big conspiracy is that you're like, I'm from somewhere else entirely. And you actually have been from Texas. I know. I was about was gonna say

Speaker 3 17:22

that.

Speaker 2 17:24

That would be kind was make that joke the ultimate, uh, conspiracy. That'd be crazy. You're actually local. Yeah, actually local. I was actually

Speaker 3 17:31

born and raised in Austin,

Speaker 17:33

actually. Even crazier. You guys don't know it either.

Speaker 3 17:36

That would be so insane. The gaslighting your home that we went to in an undisclosed location is truly you. Like it was an Airbnb. It was so elaborate. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 17:48

I don't want anyone to ever know where I'm from.

Speaker 2 17:51

Oh my God.

Speaker 17:52

Um, no, I'm upset that nobody messaged us if they would be okay. Um, sleeping with mice.

Speaker 2 17:59

Yeah. What the heck guys?

Speaker 18:01

So

Speaker 2 18:01

you just, you didn't think that was a real question. We were not

Speaker 3 18:05

joking.

Speaker 2 18:06

We really wanted to know. And would you feel better or worse if we brought a really good mouthing cat and you just found dead mice? That'd be preferable to live mice. That one's not an entirely false question. Sounds worse. That sounds very, doesn't it sound worse? Very

Speaker 3 18:21

upsetting.

Speaker 2 18:21

It does sound more upsetting. I feel like that really depends on someone's like. Personality and background.

Speaker 18:27

Oh, brother.

Speaker 2 18:29

Oh, also I have 10 baby catfish unrelated to anything.

Speaker 18:32

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You can even look at

Speaker 2 18:32

that, but I just, there's some of them.

Speaker 18:35

Oh, they're cute. We're currently living in an actual zoo. Yeah. Um, there's two dogs, four cats. 12 catfish.

Speaker 2 18:43

Yep. 12 catfish

Speaker 18:45

fish, a toddler, a and a seven eighths grown baby.

Speaker 2 18:50

Four snails. Don't forget the six tattoos. There was a

Speaker 18:52

baby bunny.

Speaker 2 18:53

There was a baby bunny. Briefly.

Speaker 3 18:55

Oh, no, don't tell me off of the pod. I can't handle it.

Speaker 2 18:59

Nothing, nothing violent happened. It just Oh, okay. It didn't make it,

Speaker 3 19:03

oh

19:03

no,

Speaker 2 19:03

there was a, which I suspected it in the wild. I was like, you have no survival skills. He was named Peta Lar.

Speaker 3 19:09

Yeah, I know

Speaker 2 19:10

you told me that. Right. For the lack of, but Peter Rabbit, yeah. For his lack of survival skills and, um,

Speaker 3 19:16

oh, poor baby.

Speaker 2 19:16

Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:17

Okay.

Speaker 2 19:17

So it's quite sad. Ri thankfully has not asked.

Speaker 3 19:20

Oh,

Speaker 2 19:20

he forgot

Speaker 3 19:21

about PETA

Speaker 2 19:21

immediately.

Speaker 19:22

These look like the glasses off of, um, great Gatsby. Like I totally feel like Leonardo DiCaprio right now. Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:30

Where the fireworks, you know,

Speaker 2 19:32

Gino, here's another new fun thing you guys can know about Gino, is that she walked into the kitchen and, well, I'm seeing up our new microphones was going to try and make, um, a drink for them. And I just, I was like, she can handle this. I'm gonna trust her to handle this. And then she kept us throwing out random ingredients and I was getting more and more anxious. And then she was like, I have lemonade. And I was like, get out of the kitchen.

Speaker 3 19:57

This is like that thing where like, in some ways the energy with us sometimes is like, mom,

Speaker 20:04

I dunno if we mentioned this before, but when Spoons and I were at the writing retreat in South Dakota, she got there and I picked her. I was like, yay. And then we, I was like, do you wanna like. Go to the winery and do you wanna just like walk around and look at shops and do this? And she was like, yes, I'll do whatever. And I was like, mom's not here. We can do what we want.

Speaker 3 20:22

We kept being like, Woohoo. We didn't even do anything crazy. We were like, let's go watch the Bob's Burger, the hotel

Speaker 20:28

room. I know. Not did we not do anything crazy, but it's also not like crazy ever. Yeah. Stops us from doing it.

Speaker 3 20:35

Fun.

Speaker 20:35

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:36

But we were like, oh my God, we're being so crazy right now.

Speaker 2 20:39

All I do is fly you with drinks. I don't watch adult cartoons, so I'm not as much, although I've been watching a little bit of Bob's burger lately because Ri I put it on. Yes. Well, I realize that it's for the most part, appropriate enough that RI can watch it now. Certain episodes,

Speaker 20:54

it's really

Speaker 2 20:55

show. Mostly. Yeah. Especially like later seasons.

Speaker 20:57

Well, I was gonna say, I think maybe the first two seasons, they're a little slightly questionable, but

Speaker 2 21:00

after that we're in like season three. Mm-hmm. And so I just skipped there. And so sometimes. It's better than Blippy again, it's better than like Paw Patrol every single night. So I, anyways, yeah, but beyond that, I, I get it. I'm not,

Speaker 3 21:13

I don't know why we have this though, but sometimes we're like, he,

Speaker 2 21:16

she's not here.

Speaker 21:18

We,

Speaker 2 21:19

we were going crazy. So funny.

Speaker 21:22

Even just like even when she is there, but she's not privy to like what's happening with us. I feel that way too. Just Mom, what's going on with this? I was like, Hey, do you have like friendship results with me in your, we were

Speaker 3 21:36

like, oh my God,

Speaker 2 21:37

you guys are just more whimsical than me. You're just more willing to have fun. I would be like,

Speaker 3 21:41

that's what it,

Speaker 2 21:41

why Friendship Raise?

Speaker 3 21:43

We're like, oh my God, and we can have costumes with,

Speaker 2 21:46

okay, I've just not as much fun.

Speaker 21:47

I literally was like, I was like, I could consult, but I know that she wouldn't care, so I was like, I'm gonna go straight to Spoons, friendship,

Speaker 2 21:54

hundred percent.

Speaker 3 21:55

I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 21:56

I literally thought in my head I was like, should I ask Wheezy if, like, if she has an opinion on this? And I was like, nah,

Speaker 2 22:02

no. You were literally talking about like bracelets for the race that we're all gonna do, and you were like, I need to talk to Kendall about it. And I was like. Yeah, I have. I don't care. Definitely Dr.

Speaker 3 22:11

My favorite. Can I say the question That was so funny. Keynote was like, okay, so like, is it okay if there are different size beads? And I was like, yes.

Speaker 2 22:22

That was the most insane question I've ever heard.

Speaker 3 22:24

It was so funny. Funny

Speaker 22:25

100%. My mother's listening to this, but I was like, my family is all very crafty, but I am not, and I chose that life.

Speaker 3 22:34

She was like, how many beads do we need for the bracelet? I was like,

Speaker 2 22:38

I was like, I can't believe I'm hearing this conversation. I was like, she was right not to ask me.

Speaker 3 22:43

No.

Speaker 2 22:44

I would be like, are you kidding? Me

Speaker 3 22:45

personally loved it. I was just like, you know, I've never been asked about my craft before. You know?

Speaker 2 22:49

I think it's the part of me that is like, I'm an 89-year-old woman. That is not as much. I don't know that you guys have, see such a strong older woman,

Speaker 22:59

89-year-old child, and that's all I refuse to go past there.

Speaker 2 23:02

Yeah. Even when I am acting like a child, I'm acting like an 89-year-old woman acting like a child. So.

Speaker 3 23:08

Gotcha.

Speaker 2 23:08

That might be it. And I make a really good drink. I make a very good bartender. You, you

Speaker 3 23:12

do. I'm drinking it right now. Delicious.

Speaker 2 23:14

I know. I'm really good at it. There's some things I'm good.

Speaker 3 23:16

She again,

Speaker 2 23:16

she know. Just did her little, like you order to craft real

Speaker 3 23:20

Jake Sby. Okay. Oh

Speaker 2 23:22

God. Should

Speaker 3 23:22

we do the book note? It's been 25 minutes.

Speaker 2 23:24

Yeah. Oh, that feels like a sufficient amount of time.

Speaker 23:26

It does not feel like we've talked that long.

Speaker 2 23:28

Oh, I was like 45 minutes. No, only 25. Good for us. Oh, that's pretty good.

Speaker 23:32

So the drink that we have that we did definitely make, um, is

Speaker 2 23:36

mm-hmm.

Speaker 23:37

It's a gr goose vodka. Oh, smart. And um, liquid death, whatever flavoring you choose water. The sparkling water. There's like orange, there's mango mine's, mango, um, and cherry and everything. And that's it. That's the whole drink.

Speaker 2 23:54

Like the gray death.

Speaker 23:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2 23:56

That's perfect. Very smart. So that's the drink that y'all are definitely having and not the one that I concocted for you. Yes.

Speaker 3 24:02

I'm drinking it right now. Yum. Ooh, I love it.

Speaker 2 24:05

But you guys want a really good drink. Unrelated to the book. Of course. Um, some Prosecco, some herb herbal gin, a little bit of black current liqueur, grenadine, lemon juice, and some sparkling and lemon water.

Speaker 3 24:21

Woo.

Speaker 2 24:21

Pretty good.

Speaker 3 24:22

Yeah, that's okay.

Speaker 24:23

Sounds like it would be good if I had it,

Speaker 3 24:24

but

Speaker 2 24:24

if you had it

Speaker 3 24:25

sounds like it'd be Yeah.

Speaker 2 24:26

Good. If only someone had made it for you. Crazy. Oh, I forgot.

Speaker 3 24:30

I have an update.

Speaker 2 24:31

Oh. What's your update?

Speaker 3 24:32

This is more for you.

Speaker 2 24:33

Oh, okay. I am ready. You know, close your ears.

Speaker 3 24:35

We can this, we can cut this from the pod. I started watching ano, you know what, let's cut this. I'll tell you later. What? No, everyone's gonna wanna

Speaker 2 24:42

know. What did you start watching?

Speaker 3 24:43

Remember the Piman Coco Show?

Speaker 2 24:45

No.

Speaker 3 24:46

Oh. Remember Snake Show?

Speaker 2 24:48

Yes.

Speaker 3 24:48

Okay. I started watching another show similar to Snake Show.

Speaker 2 24:52

Oh my God.

Speaker 3 24:52

But nothing will ever come, you know, beat snake show.

Speaker 2 24:57

Yeah.

Speaker 3 24:57

This one is crazy though. One of the main characters name is Porsche.

Speaker 2 25:01

Porsche?

Speaker 3 25:01

Yeah. Like the car

Speaker 2 25:02

What?

Speaker 3 25:03

Porsche. But Porsche.

Speaker 2 25:04

But just Porsche,

Speaker 3 25:05

but just Porsche.

Speaker 2 25:06

Ooh.

Speaker 3 25:06

And um, he's training to be a bodyguard in this mafia situation. Oh my God. But you kind of got forced into doing it, but basically

Speaker 2 25:14

wait is what it, wait, is there like mafia love triangle situation at

Speaker 3 25:16

all? Um, not really a love triangle.

Speaker 2 25:19

Mm. But mafia romance.

Speaker 3 25:20

Mafia romance. Mm-hmm. They just kissed. That's compelling. The third episode. But um, it's basically been like Barbie Princess Charm school, but mafia bodyguards.

Speaker 2 25:29

Wow. Is this, if you could imagine that, is this two boys or, yeah. Okay. I was like, pretty much when you watch these shows, it's exclusively gay.

Speaker 3 25:36

Well, if it's like snake show, then it's, yeah. Yeah. But, um,

Speaker 2 25:39

solid.

Speaker 3 25:40

I can't, I can't get over it. Wow. Like imagine half has, everyone has their little uniforms. Oh, my. And I'm like, I just don't think this is how the mafia works.

Speaker 2 25:50

I just don't think it's realistic.

Speaker 3 25:52

I just don't think it's

Speaker 2 25:52

realistic. You're in the mafia. Let us know.

Speaker 3 25:55

Yeah. So that's kinda why I wanted to say anything. Like if there's any mafia listeners out there, can you please let me know if this is something y'all do, like what's the training process for being a bodyguard in the mafia?

Speaker 2 26:07

Excellent questions.

Speaker 3 26:08

Or I just

Speaker 2 26:08

have

Speaker 3 26:09

thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 26:10

And also be safe out there

Speaker 3 26:11

and Yeah, please watch out. You know?

Speaker 2 26:12

Yeah. Watch your back.

Speaker 3 26:13

You got, you gotta watch out out there in the mafia. Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:15

We're not, don't watch your back from us. This is not a threat. No, we're concerned for your safety as a listener.

Speaker 3 26:21

Yeah. Let me make that very clear. I have no mafia ties.

Speaker 2 26:24

No, we're like,

Speaker 3 26:25

and I cannot do you any harm. Good mafia, sir. So please everyone

Speaker 2 26:31

sir.

Speaker 3 26:32

Be normal

Speaker 2 26:33

ladies. Um,

Speaker 3 26:34

you know whoever's in the mafia.

Speaker 2 26:35

Yeah. So today we're gonna do the princesses over there. We're a sharp left turn away from the Mafia

Speaker 3 26:42

Cut that I just wanted to tell you really quick.

Speaker 2 26:45

No, I love it. Anytime you wanna cut something. It's almost a guarantee. I'm not gonna cut it. I do cut things. Anyway,

Speaker 3 26:52

that's the book we're reading. Oh, now it's for 28 minutes.

Speaker 2 26:55

Oh, only three minutes on the mafia thing. That's really not that bad. That's not bad at all.

Speaker 3 26:59

Well anyway, the two princess, we're reading the two princesses of Baar

Speaker 2 27:02

Baar, right? Sorry, I keep saying

Speaker 3 27:03

Dale Carson Levion. Levi. Levi Levine. Levine.

Speaker 27:08

I say Levine, but I'm probably

Speaker 3 27:09

wrong. I'm

Speaker 2 27:09

probably wrong. I know the name. I vaguely recognize it. I did not read this. You guys both read this.

Speaker 3 27:15

As children. As children.

Speaker 2 27:15

As children.

Speaker 3 27:16

I read it like six times.

Speaker 2 27:18

Same.

Speaker 3 27:19

Yeah. I was upset. I had never

Speaker 2 27:21

even heard of this.

Speaker 3 27:22

So she's, she wrote, um, Ella Enchanted. Yes.

Speaker 2 27:25

See, that's why I know the name. But I also did not read Ella Enchanted

Speaker 3 27:28

ever. And Ferris, anyone read Ferris?

Speaker 27:33

Not Ferris. Bueller.

Speaker 3 27:34

Not Ferris Bueller. Ferris Ferris actually exists in the same universe as Ellen Canon.

Speaker 2 27:43

Oh.

Speaker 3 27:43

They have like

Speaker 2 27:44

I

Speaker 3 27:45

side characters that are the

Speaker 2 27:45

same. Did not read princess books.

Speaker 3 27:47

Mm. See I love, that's not really my vibe. Princess books. Thank you.

Speaker 2 27:51

I let us, I read a lot of scifi. I still only read princess books,

Speaker 3 27:54

honestly. Yeah. Like I just always wanna be reading a princess book.

Speaker 2 27:58

I honestly, if it doesn't

Speaker 3 27:59

have a princess night. Did you write a election on this podcast or We did.

Speaker 2 28:02

Yes, we did. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 28:06

Let's read it again.

Speaker 2 28:07

Yeah. Why not read

Speaker 3 28:08

again?

Speaker 2 28:09

I did just add it to, if you guys are in the, in the Texas area, I do now have like the whole series, the whole selection series in the bookshop. Yay. As well as, uh, a Thousand Broken Hearts. Oh my gosh. A thousand

Speaker 3 28:19

Heartbeats.

Speaker 2 28:20

A thousand heartbeats. Yeah. Not a thousand Broken Hearts. A thousand Heartbeats by Cure Cast.

Speaker 3 28:24

Oh my God. Oh my God. Sorry. Big Cure Cast News. We'll never get to the book. Big Care Cast news. Oh, I spilled it. I'll clean it up. She. Um, uh, has been on Instagram lately. Mm-hmm. Teasing me because she was typing, typing previously. She has said she might be done writing, by the way. And I was like, well, that's not gonna work for me.

Speaker 2 28:45

Yeah,

Speaker 3 28:46

no, can't, that's not gonna work for me. Kendall Shaw. So I need you to revise that statement. And it seems like she has revised it and now she might be actually writing another selection book, not just another standalone. And so like

Speaker 2 28:59

from a thousand Heartbeats,

Speaker 3 29:00

I wanted her to write another, like standalone.

Speaker 2 29:02

I want another a thousand heartbeats.

Speaker 3 29:04

See, I was like that. I

Speaker 2 29:06

don't

Speaker 29:06

know

Speaker 2 29:07

to do so what do you do? That's, that's, there you go. I was like, you could have literally just handed me the picture and I would've

Speaker 3 29:12

Okay. For our dear listeners, they're like mixing a drink in real time in my glass as if I'm not making a big and a fool of myself talking about the Thai BBL I'm watching. Yeah.

Speaker 29:25

Really? You were like, what are you doing? I was like, I thought that was clear. Alright.

Speaker 3 29:30

Anyway, here Cass, um, is probably writing another selection book. You heard it here? Probably Last was a wire. Very exciting. Oh, the credit dean's coming in. Okay. My grandma, listen this and Gino don't touch her

Speaker 2 29:43

cup. Okay.

Speaker 29:45

Hit

Speaker 2 29:45

me hard. You've already been touching your cup.

Speaker 29:46

Hit. I can see

Speaker 2 29:47

it hit.

Speaker 29:48

I had, um, it

Speaker 2 29:48

hit me hard.

Speaker 29:50

I had a Shirley Temple at a bar the other day at a bartender. I was like, well, you can leave the bottle

Speaker 2 29:56

Grine of Grenadine. Yeah, that's sounds about right.

Speaker 29:59

That is

Speaker 2 29:59

so you, my God. Oh, thank you. You people are killing me. This is, it didn't, y'all are just doing this to me. I just, well, Jean, she's doing it wrong.

Speaker 3 30:10

This, this is really good for listening.

Speaker 2 30:12

You know

Speaker 3 30:14

what's still here? Like,

Speaker 2 30:16

you can tell which of us is pregnant and which of us gets to drink.

Speaker 3 30:20

We're spill yogurt. I'm, so, here's the thing, I'm so ready to talk about the two princess. Okay. Thank you. You guys. They poured like six things into this cup.

Speaker 2 30:28

That is why, that's why I mixed it and a picture. And then Gino just grabbed two random ingredients and walked over here with them. But I was like, this is not. Not at worst guys are killing me. Okay. I have rectified the situation. We've all got to hear

Speaker 30:45

it. Everyone quiet. Oh my God.

Speaker 2 30:48

She's on the ground with that dude. Drink out of her cup like a dog. If he case anyone is looking for,

Speaker 30:54

she's gonna work it. Okay.

Speaker 3 30:57

Did she do it?

Speaker 2 30:58

She did it. I dunno if you guys did anything but, uh, there you go.

Speaker 3 31:02

Anything That's probably a horrible listing. Your

Speaker 31:05

was way better

Speaker 3 31:06

than mine.

Speaker 2 31:06

Your was louder.

Speaker 3 31:08

Oh geez.

Speaker 2 31:10

Good lord. Okay,

Speaker 31:11

anyways, Gail Carson living, she wrote the two princesses of Baar and, um, and L Enchanted. Mm-hmm. She grew up in New York. What's her star sign?

Speaker 3 31:22

Libra,

Speaker 2 31:23

that feels right. I don't know. I'm gonna say Libra too.

Speaker 31:26

It's September 17th. I dunno if that's

Speaker 2 31:29

Whoa. So is that, oh, so

Speaker 3 31:30

she's either a Virgo. Is she a Virgo?

31:34

I

Speaker 2 31:34

feel like we've had a lot of Virgos lately. Am I just imagining that

Speaker 31:37

Virgo?

Speaker 3 31:37

Oh my God. Oh

Speaker 31:39

my god.

Speaker 3 31:40

Sorry. One thing about me, I love Virgos. I'm always falling in love with Virgos.

Speaker 2 31:45

I feel like this is definitely, we've definitely had a lot of Virgos lately.'cause I feel like I've heard you say that recently.

Speaker 31:50

I was gonna say, I think whoever wrote the Moth and the flame is she a

Speaker 3 31:53

Virgo?

Speaker 31:54

Was a Virgo.

Speaker 2 31:54

Rachel, go.

Speaker 3 31:55

This is like my earth sign. Like longs for another earth sign. Who's crazier than my earth sign? You know, Virgos are horrible and I love them. You know, they make look good.

Speaker 2 32:07

So that's Tell what it's, I can't say anything as an Aries. Um, we don't look good very often.

Speaker 32:13

Grew up in Manhattan. Completely

Speaker 3 32:14

different.

Speaker 2 32:15

Yeah. Do you? Where? Manhattan

Speaker 32:16

Mountain

Speaker 2 32:18

Manhattan.

Speaker 32:18

She wrote a musical.

Speaker 2 32:20

What?

Speaker 32:21

Yeah. And, um,

Speaker 3 32:23

white coffee.

Speaker 32:23

And then she queried this for, or no, Ellie Enchanted for nine years and then Is that

Speaker 3 32:30

her first?

Speaker 32:30

Yeah. For nine years. And then they were like, Hey, we want to publish this. And then she, oh my God. Publish it. And then amazing. You know?

Speaker 2 32:38

Yeah.

Speaker 32:39

So that's just you to tell y'all, like,

Speaker 3 32:41

that's

Speaker 32:41

amazing. If you haven't been querying for nine years, what have you been doing?

Speaker 2 32:44

Yeah,

Speaker 3 32:44

GA and you know, what, what would I

Speaker 32:46

do without Gail? She's like 75 now.

Speaker 3 32:48

Oh my God.

Speaker 2 32:49

Aw, sweet, sweet woman.

Speaker 3 32:50

Like truly, she carried me through late elementary

Speaker 32:54

school. This was one of my favorite book. I never read Ellen Enchanted. I watched the movie.

Speaker 3 32:59

I've seen the movie as well. I honestly like the movie better. And I'm sorry, te Gale, I like some of her other books so much. I've read this book six times. You know,

Speaker 33:07

I, yeah, I feel like same like this one, um, Ellen Enchanted, which we did.

Speaker 3 33:12

Yes.

Speaker 33:13

No, not Enchanted. Uh, just Ella.

Speaker 3 33:16

Just Ella. Yeah,

Speaker 33:17

Ella.

Speaker 3 33:18

That was a great princess book.

Speaker 33:18

Ella. Um, this one just Ella and there was this other book, I can't think of what it's called, but it was about a girl that like essentially got sucked into a video game, but the video game was very fantasy based.

Speaker 3 33:31

Oh, fun.

Speaker 33:32

Those three, those three books were like, like on rotation. God, my childhood. Oh my God. Yeah. And I think that was Margaret Peterson Haddock Who

Speaker 2 33:41

wrote that

Speaker 33:42

one.

Speaker 2 33:42

Oh, incredible. Yeah.

Speaker 33:44

I think she, I think, but I might be lying,

Speaker 2 33:46

like

Speaker 3 33:47

middle grade like authors.

Speaker 2 33:50

I didn't either. I was reading the Day Star Voyages. The what the Day? Star Voyages. It's like a 30 book sci-fi series. Oh, cool. Oh cool. Wait, why

Speaker 3 33:59

is, I've never heard of this before.

Speaker 2 34:02

Are you

Speaker 3 34:02

keeping

Speaker 2 34:02

secrets from me? No, I just, I don't remember who wrote the day. Star Voyages. Oh, okay. Cool.

Speaker 34:08

So, um, first impressions, uh, let's start with wheezy because she Yeah. You've

Speaker 3 34:12

never,

Speaker 34:12

this is her real first impression.

Speaker 2 34:14

Yeah. My first impression was they're asking me to read a middle grade book that they love. Mm-hmm. It's probably gonna be very cringey. That's just what I expected because like, you guys are always like, let's read this middle grade book. And I'm like, I didn't like middle grade fiction when I was middle grade. That is the part of me that's not fun. Mm-hmm. I get it. I hear it.

Speaker 3 34:31

I hear it. Okay. You know what? I hear it.

Speaker 2 34:34

Oh my God. Um, so I was like,

Speaker 34:36

we like gigle Google. Oh my

Speaker 2 34:38

God.'cause you're like, princesses. And I was like, eh. So I did not have high hopes. I wasn't upset. I was like, at least it'll be an easy read.

Speaker 3 34:46

Yeah. It's pretty

Speaker 2 34:47

short. Um, yeah, very short. Read it in like two days of, of partial focus. Um, but I will, I will say it was much, much better than anticipated.

Speaker 3 34:56

I love that. Oh my God, I'm so excited. I do not remember my first impression. It was over 20 years ago. Mine was over. No, I guess it was over 20, but not quite over 30. It was probably about 25 years ago. No, mine was probably not 20. Maybe it was, honestly, I was probably late. I was like late elementary school when I read this. Yeah, mine

Speaker 2 35:17

was two weeks ago.

Speaker 3 35:18

Um,

Speaker 2 35:19

yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 35:20

Kit Cats.

Speaker 35:21

Yeah. Levi.

Speaker 3 35:21

I remember being like obsessed. I would just reread things all the time, like stay up late. I remember rereading it a million times in

Speaker 35:30

my room. See, I wouldn't reread things. So the fact that this was one of three that got reread says something that says a

Speaker 3 35:35

lot.

Speaker 35:35

Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:36

I don't know even where I first got it. I literally do not remember the first time I re I read it. I just, I think I was like into the idea of I love princesses. Mm-hmm. I love that there's two of them. Sister relationships always fascinated me in books and movies and stuff because I don't have a sister, I only have brothers.

Speaker 35:56

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 35:56

So I was always like, so what's going on there? You know, I was interested in that. Um. That's about all I remember. But I did read several Gale books. Mm-hmm. Um, this was like my favorite one though. Hmm. I also reread Ferris many times and ever.

Speaker 2 36:11

Interesting.

Speaker 3 36:12

I never really reread Ella Enchanted, but, Hmm. I love the movie. We could read ever for the podcast. Can we?

Speaker 2 36:20

Sure.

Speaker 3 36:20

Let's add it to this. Let's add it next.

Speaker 2 36:22

We can do more. It's quick. We'll do more middle grade next season.

Speaker 3 36:26

Okay, great.

Speaker 2 36:26

Okay. Cool.

Speaker 3 36:28

It's so good. Ash. It's about a, there's like a, he's like a God. He's literally a God, and she's like not a God. And he's like,

Speaker 2 36:38

so like a person or what?

Speaker 3 36:39

And she's like a person and,

Speaker 2 36:41

Ooh, I'm fascinated.

Speaker 3 36:44

He's like a wind spirit, basically.

Speaker 2 36:46

Interesting.

Speaker 3 36:47

But it's like a, it's like a Star Cross lovers thing.

Speaker 2 36:49

Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that. You lost me.

Speaker 3 36:53

I reread it recently for some reason. I don't know why. For fun like a couple years ago. Yeah, for fun. Just for fun.

Speaker 2 36:59

I'll make you reread Tigers curses.

Speaker 3 37:02

I would love to reread Tiger Skirts. Honestly, we should do, uh, all Stars on the podcast. I guess all it's been four years. We should do Tiger. We should do pride Prejudice again. Honestly,

Speaker 37:14

I saying I wanna dot'cause I didn't get to get my opinion on Let do it.

Speaker 3 37:18

We

Speaker 37:18

should do, we came up with the fact, since I don't know if you've read any more than guitar. No. Any. Okay. I was like, I have, so we had the theory that I could just tell y'all about the rest of the book. Okay.

Speaker 3 37:31

I started reading the second one and then I stopped. But

Speaker 2 37:34

we Po Volcano. Listo

Speaker 3 37:36

POTOs.

Speaker 2 37:36

You can, you can, we can talk, we can cover AAR and then you can tell us about the rest of the series, which will probably make me hate AAR more. We could

Speaker 3 37:44

read, we could do Crooked Kingdom finally.

Speaker 2 37:46

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 37:47

We never did that.

Speaker 2 37:47

We did not.

Speaker 3 37:48

We could do the second selection

Speaker 2 37:50

book, the second book of, uh, six of Crows. There's

Speaker 3 37:53

quite a few sequels that we never did.

Speaker 2 37:55

That's true. There are a lot. Tigers Curse has like seven. We could

Speaker 3 37:57

honestly do that thing where just like one of us reads it and tells everyone.

Speaker 2 38:00

Yeah. That sounds great.

Speaker 3 38:01

Hey, um, any other person? Russian, our one podcast listener. What do you think?

Speaker 38:06

Hey,

Speaker 3 38:06

mom, mom, mom,

Speaker 38:08

grandma, please

Speaker 3 38:09

let

Speaker 38:09

us know what

Speaker 3 38:10

you think. My mom is not listening anymore. I don't think my mom listens either. I don't think my mom's listening in a long time. Who listens anymore? Podcast Astrologists. Kaylee. Anyone. Gina's

Speaker 38:20

mom, I listen when I'm lonely and you guys aren't around.

Speaker 3 38:23

I also do that. I listen a lot. I'm a very dedicated listener's. The only

Speaker 38:27

feeling she'll ever hear from me,

Speaker 3 38:28

my own project, go back and listen to old ones for fun. Just I think what I was like in 2021,

Speaker 2 38:35

I'm always like, I stand by it. I always, whatever crazy shit. I said I

Speaker 3 38:39

think

Speaker 2 38:40

I been normal. Maybe. I know. Oh my God. Alright, so those are first impressions. So I get into, I didn't

Speaker 3 38:46

Oh yeah, you didn't give yours. Okay, well

Speaker 2 38:49

it's getting crazy. You said it was a long time ago. Do you remember?

Speaker 3 38:53

I it

Speaker 2 38:54

how we spend 10 minutes? I dunno. Everyone's gonna leave the podcast. I've already left.

Speaker 3 39:01

Honestly, I

Speaker 39:02

don't even give a shit anymore. It's normal for us to not get into the book until 47 minutes. I know.

Speaker 3 39:06

You know what? I

Speaker 39:07

don't

Speaker 3 39:07

really care.

Speaker 39:09

My cats are making a fuss. Levi, you got opinions on this. Um,

Speaker 3 39:14

never wants to listen to two princesses of aara sticking around anyway, so.

Speaker 39:17

Mm-hmm. I don't remember my first impression of the first time, but I remember my first impression of this time Okay. Is'cause I haven't read it in 20 years or something like mm-hmm. A decent amount of time. And I was like, I remember I loved it and I remembered the seven league boots.

Speaker 3 39:34

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 39:36

Um, was like, I love that. I did love that. I was, I was like, I remember the seven League League boots and, um, that was it. I was like, I remember I liked it a lot and there were seven league boots and it was. Uh, and you were saying how princesses, I was like, princesses and a quest. I'll always take princesses and a quest. Yes. Yes. So I was like, okay, it's a quest. I remember that much. But no, honestly, it's a buddy

Speaker 2 40:00

daddy. I'm like, what makes these princesses qualified to go on a quest? Like that's my, her sister was dying. Okay. What were her qualifications?

Speaker 40:11

I feel like that's the whole point of this is you don't need qualification. Like that's the whole point of the book. It's like,

40:14

it

Speaker 2 40:14

certainly was

Speaker 40:15

you don't have to be, be

Speaker 2 40:16

qualified

Speaker 40:16

to go on a quest.

Speaker 2 40:17

I was very impressed with her, but I don't think your average princess could do that.

Speaker 40:21

Book drop.

Speaker 3 40:23

Okay. Princess add had to go through a lot. Okay. She

Speaker 2 40:26

did go through a lot. I think this

Speaker 40:27

is also my book from

40:29

ever

Speaker 2 40:30

ago from

Speaker 3 40:30

It's really upsetting me that I don't have mine

Speaker 2 40:33

anymore. You can have mine if you'd like. I got it off of thrift books. Really? Yes, please.

Speaker 3 40:37

Really?

Speaker 2 40:38

Yes. Thank, I liked it, but I'm not gonna read it again.

Speaker 3 40:40

I would love to have it. I You've made very well so upset that I couldn't find mine.

Speaker 2 40:44

It's all yours.

Speaker 3 40:44

Oh my God.

Speaker 40:46

So, um, so the book, let's get into it,

Speaker 3 40:49

right? Okay. Okay. Okay, let's do it. So our main characters are mostly Princess Addie Adeline.

Speaker 40:57

Mm-hmm. And her sister Meryl.

Speaker 3 40:58

Sister Meryl Streep.

Speaker 2 41:00

Exactly.

Speaker 3 41:01

And, um, so Addie is very like, kind of timid and afraid of literally her status. She afraid of everything. Scared of spiders. She hates spiders. She loves to probably would

Speaker 2 41:13

be scared of Junebugs much like my son was until today. Now they're favorite would hate June Bugs. She would really hate June. I mean, if

Speaker 3 41:19

they had June Bugs Inmar, I'd be over.

Speaker 2 41:21

It'd be so much worse than spiders.

Speaker 3 41:23

Oh yeah. Okay.

Speaker 2 41:23

Oh

Speaker 3 41:24

my. There's no way. Like,

Speaker 2 41:26

anyone not from Texas is like June though. Like what the hell?

Speaker 3 41:29

She would hate them. Um, Meryl is very cool, very like Merrill's. She's slightly older. Older. She's like a year older I think. Um, they're like Irish

Speaker 2 41:38

winters.

Speaker 3 41:39

Meryl is like cool. She loves adventure. She like. Once

Speaker 2 41:43

studies battle.

Speaker 3 41:45

Yeah. She's fights like she's fun.

Speaker 41:47

She's like, I'm going to be a knight. Without saying she's gonna be a knight.

Speaker 3 41:51

Yeah. Yeah. They're very often go

Speaker 2 41:54

play dragons and monsters

Speaker 41:55

and, and they have the worst father does

Speaker 2 41:57

suck. Oh, he, yeah, he does suck real bad.

Speaker 3 41:59

He's like a huge coward and he kinda like, doesn't really care. He's not

Speaker 42:03

actually the worst. I'm sure there's much worse. Oh my God. But he's bothersome.

Speaker 3 42:06

Can we, can we read Bothersome? Oh my God. Have we ever read Grace Link for the po? We didn't. Oh

Speaker 42:11

my gosh. I like Grace. Can we read Grace Link

Speaker 3 42:12

and then can we read Bitter Blue, the spinoff? I haven't read either of

Speaker 2 42:16

those.

Speaker 3 42:17

You guys Okay. Bitter Blue has the worst king.

Speaker 42:21

I don't think I read Bitter blue

Speaker 3 42:22

ever. Hmm. Bitter Blue is the worst king ever. I mean, not her. She's the main character but her dad. Anyway. Anyway, anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Evil dads on the ranking. He's really bad. Gotcha, gotcha. Their dad is not that bad, but he's kind of like, he's

Speaker 2 42:36

useless. And it's infuriating. Yes. Because

Speaker 3 42:38

that's, he's so useless. Yeah, he's useless. Um, and then who else is here? Uh, Reese. Mm-hmm. The, uh, he's a sorcerer. He's like the pal soer. Can we talk about research?

Speaker 42:48

That's another thing. There's so many things about race.

Speaker 2 42:50

Remember? Can we talk about how racist they are in describing sorcerers? Oh. Like every sorcerer looks the same as between this many feet tall and this many feet tall.

Speaker 42:59

It's not racist.

Speaker 2 43:00

They all have, but was

Speaker 43:01

really

Speaker 2 43:01

wavy hair and white eye lashes.

Speaker 43:03

They're born out of a piece of marble struck by lightning, and they're really described as creatures. Yeah. Like, they're like, they're this tall, they're the, they're like, they measure this long. I was like, this

Speaker 2 43:14

feels like handbook.

Speaker 43:16

Yeah. That's very weird.

Speaker 3 43:17

Well, I was, I kind of forgot how like diverse baar is, I guess. Mm-hmm. Because we also have. Um,

Speaker 43:24

ogres and

Speaker 3 43:24

Griffins. Ogers and Griffins. And then who else? Uh, are they like wizards or something? What is

Speaker 43:28

dragons and fairies? He's an elf. Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:30

An elf. Yeah.

Speaker 43:31

They're have Elfs

Speaker 2 43:32

and fairies. Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:33

Yeah.

Speaker 43:33

Fairies. Literally like all the creatures

Speaker 3 43:35

we got everything.

Speaker 43:36

All the creatures. They have dwarves.

Speaker 3 43:37

Those dwarves. I was sort of expecting a bit of a like, oh, maybe the o you know how it's. Oh, we've really demonized this race of creatures. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. I wasn't, wasn't of that though. No. It was kind of like, no, Griffins and ogre are bad.

Speaker 2 43:50

You know, they are pretty much

Speaker 3 43:51

monsters. We didn't really stray from that,

Speaker 43:52

but, um Exactly.

Speaker 3 43:53

That's okay.

Speaker 43:54

They're like, monsters are bad.

Speaker 2 43:55

Monsters

Speaker 3 43:56

are just

Speaker 2 43:56

bad. They're like sorcerers. Okay.'cause they're humanoid, they're not humans. To be clear,

Speaker 44:00

I also love the fact that I so much about Reese and sourcers. I love the fact that like, the only thing they're good for is like manipulating clouds. They're like, sorcerers can do cloud things. They don't, and they, they spend two years working for the king and changing the weather and then they spend the rest of their lives like locked up in a tower playing with clouds more.

Speaker 3 44:22

They can only do cloud stuff, but they're not powerful enough to do the prophecy where they make the whole kingdom.

Speaker 44:28

Right, right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 44:29

So I'm like, so what's the point here?

Speaker 44:31

He's like, very limited affiliates. Oh my God.

Speaker 2 44:33

It was very, very strange.

Speaker 3 44:35

And so, like Reese, I kind, he's, he's a little, um. I am gonna say it. Reese is bisexual and you're probably correct. I totally like forgot about

Speaker 44:45

that. I remember being in love with him as a like this. I was like, that was one of the reasons I love this book. I was like, this romance is so romantic. Whole time. Honestly. The kind of cute,

Speaker 3 44:54

like at first I was like, I don't know about this. And then by the end I was like, okay, Addie can have this one. Yeah. Big. Okay. You know who's hot? People

Speaker 2 45:02

are killing

Speaker 3 45:03

me. The Prince from Ferris. Can we please read Ferris as well? Oh my God.'cause Prince

Speaker 2 45:08

is hot. I'm not a big fan of Prince's.

Speaker 3 45:10

You, I think you'd like this one. Well, no you wouldn't. You don't like Princess and Knight?

Speaker 2 45:15

Um, me too. I like Rogue Nights. Ah, get out mom. We like Princess and we like knight and we wanna be princesses on adventure.

Speaker 3 45:24

Exactly. Is he not fun enough for

Speaker 45:26

you? He's a sorcerer.

Speaker 2 45:28

He's too soft. He was soft. Yeah, he's very soft,

Speaker 45:32

sweet soul for me today now. No, but I remember as a child I was like,

Speaker 2 45:37

this is, no, he's an excellent, well he's

Speaker 3 45:38

caring,

Speaker 45:39

he's

Speaker 2 45:40

fun. He's an excellent love interest. A middle grade. He's sweet.

Speaker 3 45:42

Especially for add, who is,

Speaker 2 45:45

you

Speaker 45:45

know, softer

Speaker 3 45:46

herself. Excellent. Yeah, excellent character. It was great for them. Like me and Reese, I don't know if that would work. Abby and Reese. That's great.

Speaker 2 45:53

The end. Meryl's and Meryl's and Romance. I was like, that makes more

Speaker 3 45:57

sense. That's great for her.

Speaker 2 45:58

That was pretty great. I was like, felt

Speaker 3 45:59

fast. I forgot. Forgot about that. Forgot I was very impressed. I forgot about all that. Yeah, it was funny. I remember so specifically like Dragon, I remember, um, she had her like. Uh, ball of fabric.

Speaker 46:13

Oh yeah, I remember that. I remember the table in the seventies. The table.

Speaker 3 46:16

Yes. Her little, um, when Reese gives her like, basically like the, like spy gadget rundown, like, you know, but it was all fantasy shit. Mm-hmm. I was like, this is so sick, dude. I

Speaker 2 46:28

remember

Speaker 3 46:29

this rock.

Speaker 2 46:29

All of the plot devices were excellent. Like the, there's, she gets, she's given a qui or her quest. She's given like a quilt that you could lay out and if you say the right thing, it'll make food. She's got the seven league boots, which allow you to, you put them on, they like fit to you immediately. And then like you can move seven leaks and a single step. There's this like spy glass that where she can like see like crazy far. Um, the, she gets these. Flowers from Milton, the elf and the elves are all like into healing and stuff that like, sort of revives you.

Speaker 47:00

The spy glass is also crazy.'cause not only can she see far, but she can just see through things.

Speaker 2 47:04

Yeah, yeah. Like X-ray vision.

Speaker 47:06

Yeah. She's like, I'm just watching anything and everything everywhere.

Speaker 2 47:09

That's crazy.

Speaker 3 47:10

Honestly. Like a fourth of this book was in the cave.

Speaker 47:14

Yeah.

Speaker 3 47:14

Or the,

Speaker 2 47:15

it was for sure

Speaker 3 47:16

the dragon layer. Yeah. Um, well

Speaker 2 47:19

basic. So their kingdom, the great, their

Speaker 3 47:21

kingdom,

Speaker 2 47:22

there's a plague in their kingdom. It's called the gray death. Not everybody gets it, but some people do and there's no known cure for it. But there's a prophecy that says that the cure will basically arise when what? When rain falls again. When

47:34

rain

Speaker 3 47:34

falls over all of baar, the coward and cowardly find courage.

Speaker 2 47:37

Courage. Yeah. The cowardly find courage. Uh, so it has not rained over all baar. Um,

Speaker 3 47:43

very time. And where time coward, you know, they're not finding courage. So

Speaker 2 47:46

apparently not. Um,

Speaker 3 47:48

apparently not. And also we have so. So this is happening. And then also kind of in the background, there's like this sort of through line of like, there's this old story basically we have mm-hmm. Of this guy Drew Draw, who like, it's sort of a Hercules kind of guy. Like he like did all these quests and like defeated all this stuff and he's kind of like, he's a heroic legend. Yeah.

Speaker 2 48:11

He's the ideal of legend.

Speaker 48:12

Yeah. I knew, I kind of knew the thread it was in this story, but also taking it out of that a little bit, that was annoying to me throughout how they were so everyone was like. Oh, let's, we're bored. Let's recite drought. Oh, we're scared. Recite drought to me. Oh. We're like, happy recite drought. I was like, do we have like, yeah, I'll find something else to do. They're

Speaker 2 48:36

like, this is our big story.

Speaker 48:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3 48:38

I kind of thought it was interesting from a world building perspective. Like I thought Gail was so fun for doing this. Like, I don't know, BAAR is an interesting world to me.

Speaker 2 48:45

Lamar felt like a very well fleshed out

Speaker 3 48:47

world. Yeah. It's almost like this is like their religion sort of. Yes, it was. It was

Speaker 2 48:51

definitely part religion for

Speaker 3 48:52

sure. And, uh, I don't know. I just, I think she had fun with it, you know, she's like, and you know what? Why not? It's to hell with it. There's Griffin's too, you know, everyone's here.

Speaker 2 49:02

So, um, Addie makes her sister Meryl promise that she's not gonna go on adventures without her until Addie is at least married. Because Addie and Meryl are like best friends. And Addie is very. Afraid of, um, life without Meryl. Yeah. So, um, was that a spider? Yeah. Oh my God. It just came down. The spider just came down from the ceiling. And because Gino is not Addie, she killed it.

Speaker 3 49:26

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 49:26

Um, Addie does eventually learn how to kill spiders though, in this book, which is a really big step for her.

Speaker 3 49:31

Addie, at the beginning I was a little bit like, girl, you gotta toughen up a bit.

Speaker 2 49:34

Just

Speaker 3 49:34

a little bit. Like, I'm sorry. I know I love you, but you really gotta work on this. Like, this is a

Speaker 2 49:40

lot. Yeah. And she already kind of has a crush on Reese when we meet her. And he's very sweet. And basically very quickly, um, in the book, um, Meryl, her sister gets the, the gray death. Mm-hmm. Right? That's what it's called. The gray death. Gray death, yeah. Catches the gray death. And Addie is like, well, this can't happen. This. She's like, my sister's like my everything. I'm gonna have to like. But first her father goes on like this, really like crap. He

Speaker 50:05

keeps me like, I have to consult my counsel. And he is like really slow about,

Speaker 2 50:09

he has this book of like proverbs of like, really lame proverbs.

Speaker 3 50:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2 50:13

And he consults all the time. He's,

Speaker 3 50:14

how do I hate this

Speaker 2 50:15

guy? Then he is like, I'm gonna go out and look for the cure for my daughter. But then he like doesn't leave until noon and Addie's frustration with like, get out the door already, dude. I was like, oh God, I so get it. Then he picked like the easiest direction to go. He only took like 15 nights with him. Like he's clearly just like not making much of a real effort at all.

Speaker 3 50:33

No, no.

Speaker 2 50:34

To try and like seek the cure. And so then he comes back and he's, you know, not succeeded'cause he didn't really try'cause he's a massive coward and Addie's like, I'm gonna have to take this into my own hands. Um, even though I'm absolutely terrified. And I was like, you got this Addie, you can do it. Um, she can do it. And so then she takes these, uh, these little knickknacks. She only tells her governess Bella. And um. Well, she doesn't, but she tells Meryl and Meryl tells the governess Bella and the Elf Milton, who are caring for her, uh, for Meryl, that um, she's gonna be going on this quest to try to find the cure for the great death. Mm-hmm. And, um, Reese gives her some stuff. She's gets this, uh, Meryl gives her her sword, blood biter. She named after Al soared from the legend.

Speaker 51:19

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 51:20

And, um,

Speaker 51:22

Meryl's

Speaker 2 51:22

like a

Speaker 51:22

fan girl.

Speaker 2 51:23

Meryl's Absolutely a hundred percent

Speaker 51:26

Bella, her governor gives her the suddenly boots that came from her mom. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 51:31

Yeah.

Speaker 51:32

She was like, these are supposed to be for y'all, but you're princesses and princesses shouldn't be wearing seven lean boots. And I

Speaker 2 51:37

knew that if I gave them to Meryl, she'd use them immediately. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 51:41

So, um. Addie puts on the boots, she gets out, she takes all her stuff, puts on the boots, and then immediately like a horse spooks her and she runs in the wrong direction. And every step you take with the boots is seven. Seven legs.

Speaker 2 51:54

Yeah.

Speaker 51:54

So she's likes, I'm off track now. And then there's ogre immediately.

Speaker 2 51:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 51:58

Coming down upon her. So she just tries to run away and an ogre like grabs her. And so she drags the ogre along with her for like 14 weeks or so, something. She's like, basically

Speaker 2 52:08

like scrapes him off on a tower or something that she passes.

Speaker 52:12

And then she's like, wow, that was terrifying, exhausting. But I killed an ogre. And then

Speaker 2 52:17

Amazing

Speaker 52:18

Reese Reese shows up and she's like, oh my gosh, Reese, I killed an over. And he is like, wow, I found the cure for the gray death. We just have to steal this ring from the dwarves.

Speaker 3 52:28

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 52:29

And she's like, well, that sounds fine, I guess. And she's like, but shouldn't we maybe just ask them for it? And he's like, no, we have to steal it. No, no. She's like, I mean, I guess we could just apologize later. And she's walking with him for a long time. And then, um, she realized, she hears another Reese and she's like, oh wait, this Reese

Speaker 2 52:49

right here is a specter.

Speaker 52:51

He's fake.

Speaker 3 52:51

Yeah. I like the specter thing.

Speaker 2 52:53

Yeah. And she, Meryl had previously on one of their like little adventures before Meryl caught the great death. Meryl had saved Addie from a specter. Yeah. Who was pretending to be like a small child and was sending her away.

Speaker 3 53:04

It reminded me of like an Emily wild type Faye thing.

Speaker 2 53:07

Mm-hmm. Very mischievous Faye. Yeah. Very. We definitely wish you ill. Who's going to harm you

Speaker 3 53:12

Evil little Faye.

Speaker 2 53:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3 53:14

Creatures. Yeah.

Speaker 2 53:14

Yeah. So she, and immediately I was like, when, when this Reese or whatever showed up and was like, I found the cure. I'm like, it's a specter. Addie. It's a specter. It's a specter. Addie, Addie, you've been through this before. It's a specter. This was like not even a month ago. Like it's obviously

Speaker 3 53:28

a

Speaker 2 53:28

specter.

Speaker 3 53:29

This fake Reese is like, so I've been thinking a lot about marriage and she's like, oh my God,

Speaker 2 53:33

really? Like, she's like, well, tell me more while we go look for the cure for my sister. She,

Speaker 53:38

oh my

Speaker 3 53:39

God, what was I.

Speaker 2 53:41

Yeah. And then the real Reese shows up and, uh, all is well or whatever. And, um, then he has to leave again. She ends up confronting a bunch of Griffins. Um, and so the quilt that she has, it's like if you say a certain thing, it'll like, basically like lay out a table and like food will appear on it, which I really liked. I was like, this is really fun and really cute. All the little magic items. I was like, this is like perfect for like middle grade.

Speaker 3 54:04

It's so good.

Speaker 2 54:04

It's so good. But it was still very believable in the world. It was very cute. Um, and so Reese had warned her, I think when he gave it to her, like, you know, some people have like basically eaten themselves to death because it'll, the quilt will keep supplying you with, you know, things that you want. So you have to like, you know, show self-control. And of course these are Griffin and that's, that's not happening. They're, they, so basically, I think it was like seven Griffin or something. Like literally

Speaker 3 54:28

go,

Speaker 2 54:29

go themselves to death. And then, um, the next place that she's like, I'm gonna go try and get answers is the dragon. Because if you catch a specter, a spectral answer a question. So when they caught the re specter, she was like, tell me where to find the cure. And he was basically like, you'll have, you know, you could go ask the dragons. And so she had found a, like a dragon, she was gonna go ask. And then, um,

Speaker 54:52

the dragon found her,

Speaker 2 54:53

and then the dragon found her. The dragon was like, wow, that's a lot of dead Griffin. How'd you do that little princess? And uh, then she, the dragon is like, basically I'm lonely, so I'm going to kidnap you and we're gonna spend basically the rest of the book in my cave. Um, and I'm gonna be really codependently attached to you. Uh, also while I threaten your life the whole time,

Speaker 55:14

the dragon is psycho.

Speaker 2 55:16

She's very psycho.

Speaker 55:17

A lot. She was like, you can have treasures. And she's like, I don't really want treasures. She's like, take the treasures, because when I take them away, I'll eat you.

Speaker 2 55:23

Exactly. And so then, like if she does something that the dragon likes the dragon's, like you may take an item from my hoard and add it to your hoard. Mm-hmm. And so she's got like these shelves with her stuff on it. And then when the dragon starts to get mad, she's like, you must give back 20 items. And she's like, when you run out of items, I'm going to eat you or whatever, I'm gonna kill you. Like, she's been doing this with people.

Speaker 55:43

It's a little bit crazy that she's like, you did something weird. And then she knows where she hid the seven league boots.

Speaker 2 55:50

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 55:51

Because she just put them in the wardrobe. Like it makes sense that she would just put her bag in the wardrobe, you know? But she's like, no, you did something.

Speaker 2 55:59

Well, she put her shoes behind the wardrobe between the wardrobe and the wall. In her clothes. She put in the wardrobe, like in the sack or whatever. So

Speaker 3 56:08

it's very rare. This dragon was very like. She was on her. Yeah,

Speaker 2 56:11

she was. Yeah. Well the dragon was quite old and so anyway, so she stuck.

Speaker 3 56:16

I'm telling all these stories about like, oh, well my last guess, like about all these people she's eaten before.

Speaker 2 56:21

Yeah, exactly. And

Speaker 3 56:22

he was like, great.

Speaker 2 56:24

She's like, I just wanna be entertained. And so Addie's like, well, just tell me the cure for the gray death and the dragon's. Like, why? It's not like you're gonna get out of here. Um, and, but she does eventually convince her to tell her what the cure is, which is, um, that there are, so the one like race or whatever in this world that like, you don't really see or interact with other fairies.

Speaker 3 56:45

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 56:46

Um, they live on this like mountain that's invisible to all creatures. And um, but apparently there's, in this other part of the kingdom, there is a waterfall that comes straight down from like this ferry mountain. And if you go specifically to the waterfall and drink from it directly. Then you'll be healed of the great death. You can't take the water from there.'cause then it won't work. And so she's like, great, now I have the cure, or I know what the cure is, but I'm stuck in

Speaker 3 57:14

Right. And, and my sister's gonna die like any day because she's already progressed to that point.

Speaker 2 57:20

Yeah. So she's been using the spy glass to like look and like check on her sister who's Yeah. Like progressing quickly with the, the play.'cause there's like, what is it? They get really weak and then there's like nine days of sleep or something, and three days of fever and then they die always. And so, um, the dragon ends up leaving to go hunt. And then, um, the, so Addie has prepared that when the dragon comes back, she's gonna be wearing her boots and she's going to like make a break for it because the dragon has been blocking the, the cave with her body basically this whole time. And so when the dragon gets back and rolls away like the rock or whatever that she put there, um. She, the dragon like tries to warn her like, Hey, don't do it. And um, so Addie picks up the blood bite or the sword and takes a step in the seven league boots and basically, if I understood correctly, charged through the dragon with the sword.

Speaker 58:18

Uh, right. No, she, like, she stabs the dragon. She, but then like she says, the boots like swerve around the dragon.

Speaker 2 58:26

Gotcha. So she injures the dragon. It happened very

Speaker 3 58:29

fast. Yeah.

Speaker 2 58:29

Yeah, it was very fast. And then, um, she meets up with Reese and tells Reese what the cure is and then they go get Meryl. And

Speaker 58:39

this bothers me so much because they meet up with, or she meets up with Reese, they go get Meryl. First of all, everyone I know it, it was to show that Addie had grown and she was brave and in charge now, but everyone being like. Oh, I wanna come with you. No, you shouldn't go. Let's slow this down the process. And she's like, minutes are ticking by and Meryl is gonna die by the minute. Yeah. And everyone delays so long. And then Addie's like, everyone be quiet. Here's what's happening. So then they leave and they take the seven leave boots there. Mm-hmm. And I understand if you go another seven weeks, you're gonna overshoot it. But Reese can fly and he's like, I can fly fairly quickly. And they're like, okay, we're like three miles from where we need to be.

Speaker 2 59:25

Yeah.

Speaker 59:25

And instead of Reese just flying or the three miles, they're like, we have to go talk to the villagers and figure what out, what's going on? Yeah. Which this is trying to tie into the drought. Um, legacy because had apparently fought the dragon near these villagers and none of them had come out. They'd been cowards Griffin and his like love different. Yeah. And then his love dies because of it. So it's like, kind of like this village is a little bit cursed.'cause they're all cowards. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, so I get where they come from there, but even then when the villagers are like, we volunteer, we'll show you. We have courage now.

Speaker 2 59:58

Yeah.

Speaker 59:59

Um, it's like Reese could have flown her. Yeah. Reese could have. Were so close. Reese could have flown. Literally has

Speaker 3 1:00:05

light magic. Yeah.

Speaker 1:00:07

And then I get even more annoyed because they get closer and there's like all these ogre and griffins just like from every angle. Mm-hmm. Like griffins and ogre and meryl's. Like, I'll fight them all. And I'm like, no, Meryl, get to the waterfall. Like Meryl to the waterfall.

Speaker 2 1:00:22

Girl, you don't have time.

Speaker 1:00:24

She does everything but get to the waterfall. She's does, I'm gonna fight this one one.

Speaker 2 1:00:28

But that did not surprise me for personality. I was like, she's not gonna be able to resist. I know. She wanted her little adventure moment so

Speaker 1:00:35

bad. I so badly. I was like, take it later. Take a sip. And then

Speaker 2 1:00:38

Yeah. Yeah. Like let's do it later.

Speaker 1:00:40

Yeah. But I,

Speaker 2 1:00:41

oh no.

Speaker 1:00:42

Come on Meryl.

Speaker 2 1:00:43

I was mad too. I was. Okay. We literally have the cutes, not just do it. And then at the, so the dragon shows up and they have sort of like a final showdown with the dragon. Um, the

Speaker 1:00:55

dragon's, like, I brought this here. I brought the Griffins and the Ogers. You're welcome.

Speaker 2 1:00:58

Yeah, you're welcome. And so then, um, Addie gets caught by an ogre. She kills the dragon, the an ogre catches Addie. Um, Meryl turns around to try and save her. And then like, Addie basically like blacks out, and then she wakes up and there's like a very dramatic line about like, I'll always regret it, like having shouted and cat caught meryl's attention. Mm-hmm. Which is why Meryll turned around to try and save her. Uh, and then she wakes up and everything seems to be fine. And Meryl was there, which surprised me. Oh, hello Cat Kat. I was like, what? What is

Speaker 3 1:01:32

it? Oh no, I'm just trying to get the cat's attention.

Speaker 2 1:01:34

Come here. Hello. Come here. You guys hear the silence. It's the silence of the cat looking at us, judging us. Um, and so Addie wakes up. Meryl is there, but she looks a little bit different. Reese is injured, but recovering, and there's this very tall man there. And I was like, I feel like I should know who this is. Sure enough, it's it's draw,

Speaker 1:01:56

draw. I, I knew that the whole time without like remembering it from the first time I read it. Mm-hmm. Because throughout the story she's like, this presence like made me feel happy and warm. This presence like pushed me to the side and oh yes, there's been like an invisible sort

Speaker 2 1:02:09

of helper every,

Speaker 1:02:10

now it's, I was like, it's, I

Speaker 3 1:02:11

know. And see, I totally forgot about that, but I was like, oh my God, she's here. I got so excited. Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:02:16

Did not occur to me at all. Um,

Speaker 3 1:02:19

it might've been residual memory, you know?

Speaker 2 1:02:20

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, and so. Um, basically Addie's like Meryl hooray. You survived. And Meryl's like, not exactly but the cure, but the, it's, it's cured everything. Great. Exactly. That is cured. And um, she's like, for you and she's like, no, for everyone rain fell on Baer and the fairies came down and um,

Speaker 1:02:43

that was the cure is the rain

Speaker 2 1:02:45

and Yeah. And the rain was the cure. Woo. So hooray. Everyone who had great death is cured.

Speaker 1:02:50

She's like everyone, except for everyone who was like on the very last brink of death, which is me.

Speaker 2 1:02:56

And she's like, so's

Speaker 1:02:58

are here.

Speaker 2 1:02:59

So those people mostly died. They told me basically I could die or the fairies could turn me into a fairy too. Um, so I said yes to that and I are together now. Um, but fairies don't have sisters, so we're not, so that

Speaker 1:03:16

is also so weird to me. They said, it's so many times in the book, fairies don't have sisters. We're not sisters. Fairs don't have sisters.

Speaker 2 1:03:22

And I was like, that's

Speaker 1:03:23

kind of messed

Speaker 3 1:03:24

up.

Speaker 2 1:03:24

It's very messed up. I was also like, um, says who?

Speaker 3 1:03:28

It's still your sister?

Speaker 2 1:03:29

Like yeah. What? And so I know she's a

Speaker 3 1:03:30

fairy now, but Oh my god.

Speaker 2 1:03:32

So now Meryl is like an eternal like fairy and she's gonna go fight even bigger baddies, um, and will still probably with her

Speaker 3 1:03:39

hot bf

Speaker 2 1:03:40

with her super hot bf. Yeah. And Reese and Addie do actually end up getting married. And so Meryl's like, see, I did keep my promise. Now I'm gonna go off and have these adventures. Now that you're married. And, um, they will still somewhat adventure together. And the cat just tried to get onto a box and knocked it over on herself a little. Oh. She's like jokes on you. This is just what I wanted. I'm gonna get in the box. That was a horrible sound, Lily.

Speaker 3 1:04:04

Wow. That was crazy. I didn't know a box could make that sound.

Speaker 2 1:04:07

That's awful. The cat is making the worst sounds on that cardboard box anyways. Um, so

Speaker 3 1:04:13

Levi came to check it out? Yeah. He's like, what's going on over here?

Speaker 2 1:04:17

Did we mention that there are four cats in this house? Oh my God. Anyways, that is, I mean, that's the end, right? That's

Speaker 3 1:04:25

basically it. Yeah. Yay. Uh, yeah,

Speaker 2 1:04:30

I did a really good job remembering all of that. You guys

Speaker 3 1:04:32

with that? Yeah. That was really good.

Speaker 2 1:04:34

I'm so impressed with myself. Thank you. Aw,

Speaker 3 1:04:37

I can't, I was, it was really fun to read it for a seventh time, you know?

Speaker 1:04:41

Well, like I li, like I said, all I remembered was Quest Princesses and Suddenly Boots. Yeah. And I did remember like, vaguely Dragon and Griffin's. Um, but yeah, I didn't remember the draw thing, but as I was reading, sorry, did you guys hear the dog barking? I was like, that's draw. I can just, I just know that that presence is draw. Yes. I did not remember Meryl died in the end or like turned into a ferry. I didn't

Speaker 3 1:05:04

remember that. I forgot about the fairy thing too.

Speaker 2 1:05:06

At first I was disappointed and I was like, she's a ghost. She's gonna fade away.

Speaker 3 1:05:09

Mm.

Speaker 2 1:05:10

Like, that's why that there's this like, ominous tone. And they were like, no, she's just a fairy and she's eternal. And I was like, well then what are we complaining about? Like, it's

Speaker 3 1:05:17

fine then. Yeah.

Speaker 1:05:18

Well, we're complaining about because fairies don't have sisters.

Speaker 2 1:05:20

And

Speaker 3 1:05:20

I was like, you're still sisters, but yeah.

Speaker 2 1:05:24

What,

Speaker 3 1:05:24

whatever.

Speaker 2 1:05:25

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:05:25

Um, so bizarre. Addie's just kind of, you know, Addie really had like a good, she, she made a turn for the better I think, in terms of standing up for herself. Yes. Like finding her voice, learning how to kill spiders. It's gonna be fine. Yeah. It's gonna be fine. And like Reese I think is a good influence with her. Like, oh

1:05:45

yeah,

Speaker 3 1:05:45

they, they really work well together. He's

Speaker 2 1:05:47

very sweet and caring and he doesn't talk down to her. No,

Speaker 3 1:05:50

he encourages her

Speaker 2 1:05:51

Good team. Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:05:52

So I think it's gonna be fine. And she can always ask Addie for advice and stuff.

Speaker 2 1:05:55

You guys hear the sound of what feels like there's just a

Speaker 3 1:05:57

lot going

Speaker 2 1:05:58

on right now. If one construction site, it is literally just three cats plate on a box. There's have three cats for you and a dog who wants to be inside helping so bad. It's

Speaker 3 1:06:07

a lot of it

Speaker 1:06:08

or not. This is the quietest.

Speaker 2 1:06:10

This is the quietest. Hey, come here. He's so cute. I love Levi, Levi and his perpetually startled eyes. So Lila, I love you. I'm gonna throw something because that's a horrible sound you're making in case is like Me too. Me too, me too.

Speaker 1:06:26

Literally.

Speaker 2 1:06:27

How many cats is too many cats? I don't You guys tell, y'all tell us. What do you think?

Speaker 3 1:06:31

I haven't found the

Speaker 1:06:32

limit yet. Someone please respond to all of our questions.

Speaker 2 1:06:35

They're like, I don't know, but I can tell you the

Speaker 3 1:06:36

else question.

Speaker 1:06:37

These aren't rhetorical,

Speaker 2 1:06:39

the like

Speaker 1:06:39

stone.

Speaker 3 1:06:40

I question, you know, we have a lot

Speaker 2 1:06:42

of questions. How many podcasts? Host is too many podcast host? Um, any, all three? It's too much probably. Good lord. How many episodes is too many episodes

Speaker 3 1:06:53

of bc? You know, we probably passed it already.

Speaker 1:06:56

We

Speaker 2 1:06:57

actually, we passed our prime. The

Speaker 3 1:06:58

fact that I

Speaker 2 1:06:58

can't

Speaker 3 1:06:58

remember what books we've read. Keep hoping to ask,

Speaker 1:07:02

but we have some really, um, fun and interesting things coming up for you. That's true.

Speaker 2 1:07:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1:07:08

There's, there's some change in dynamic occurring.

Speaker 2 1:07:11

We are gonna have some new fun stuff, for sure. Me and Marissa reading a book and then explaining it to me, I'm psyched for that. Yeah. Uh,

Speaker 1:07:20

I'm a third of the way through.

Speaker 2 1:07:22

Oh, are you really? It's a very, very long,

Speaker 1:07:25

yeah. I only have 27 hours left. I

Speaker 2 1:07:27

said no, I will not. 27 hours. Oh my God.

Speaker 1:07:29

I'm a third of the way through. Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:07:30

I said, I am not reading that. And they said, that's okay, you're pregnant. And I was like, thank you.

Speaker 3 1:07:36

Thank, thank you

Speaker 1:07:37

very much. Yeah. But you won't be pregnant in two years when we finish it, but

Speaker 3 1:07:40

still,

Speaker 1:07:40

right. That's true.

Speaker 3 1:07:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:07:41

That's

Speaker 3 1:07:41

what y'all have no excuse.

Speaker 2 1:07:42

That's true. In two years.

Speaker 3 1:07:45

Good

Speaker 1:07:45

word. So what, what are lessons learned

Speaker 3 1:07:47

Okay.

Speaker 1:07:47

About the princess

Speaker 3 1:07:48

lessons, lessons learned about Princess of Amar?

Speaker 1:07:51

Um,

Speaker 3 1:07:52

um, I would say never give up on dating your celebrity crush. Because for Mell it really worked out against all odds. It really did. That is true. Knew that he was a fairy.

Speaker 2 1:08:04

To be honest, Addie was kind of into Reese in a similar like celebrity crush

Speaker 3 1:08:08

kind of way. It wasn't, it was a little bit celebrity crush.

Speaker 2 1:08:11

Yeah. You

Speaker 3 1:08:11

know what? You good for not to give

Speaker 2 1:08:13

up.

Speaker 3 1:08:14

I'm never gonna give up. Even

Speaker 1:08:15

if he's like a several hundred year old legend. Don't give up.

Speaker 3 1:08:19

Yeah. Like

Speaker 2 1:08:20

we thought

Speaker 3 1:08:20

that guy was dead.

Speaker 2 1:08:21

Even if you're two different species. Because I mean, they made it very clear he was a different species. These

Speaker 3 1:08:26

princesses were pulling guys that they never had business pulling. True. And I'm happy for them. True.

Speaker 2 1:08:31

Um, honestly, this is sort of a real lesson, um, doing the thing. What do you mean mines

Speaker 3 1:08:37

not very

Speaker 1:08:38

confused?

Speaker 2 1:08:39

Doing the thing that you're scared of. Even once can some, not always, but sometimes really can be like a magic sort of like you feel your fear evaporate. Like at one point she kills a spider and she's like, and in that moment I felt my fear evaporate. Yeah. And I was like, why? I, why was I ever scared of this?

Speaker 1:08:54

I did like when she killed it and she was like, I just realized that I'm like stuck in a layer with a dragon, but I'm afraid of the spider. What's wrong with me?

Speaker 3 1:09:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:09:03

And then she balls up a piece of fabric and kills the spider. And she's like, and in that moment I was like, why was I ever afraid of spiders for real? Mm-hmm. Which is how I felt the first time I killed a spider. And also the first time that I went to the post office by myself.'cause for some reason I had anxiety about that.

Speaker 3 1:09:17

Some things you just have to do it.

Speaker 2 1:09:18

You just do it once and you're like, oh,

1:09:20

I

Speaker 3 1:09:20

like going to the bus office.

Speaker 2 1:09:21

Well that's sociopathic if you really are.

Speaker 3 1:09:24

Post office is crazy.

Speaker 2 1:09:25

No, we don't like the post office.

Speaker 3 1:09:27

You just, sometimes we just have to do it. Yeah. Like, I'm sorry to Addie, but she just had to do it. She just had to And now look at her. She's doing great.

Speaker 2 1:09:33

She's doing, she got her celebrity crush,

Speaker 3 1:09:35

she got her celebrity crush and she's gonna lead the country and all this. Yeah. You know, good for her. Um, least and most favorite characters. Hmm.

Speaker 2 1:09:47

I actually wanna say Addie might be my favorite character.

Speaker 3 1:09:50

I

1:09:50

like

Speaker 2 1:09:50

Addie a lot. I really enjoyed the Arc, her little character arc.

Speaker 3 1:09:52

Yeah. She had a great arc. And she's fun and sweet. I like her a lot.

Speaker 2 1:09:57

I'll say the dad's my least favorite. Not even'cause he is the worst, but because he was useless. Like, if you're gonna be the worst at, at least be effective. Like,

Speaker 3 1:10:05

he's annoying, like shut up. You know?

Speaker 2 1:10:08

Yeah. At least if like, if he was a like competent villain, there'd be like a level of respect.

Speaker 3 1:10:12

Yeah. But he just wasn't even interesting.

Speaker 2 1:10:15

No,

Speaker 3 1:10:15

no.

Speaker 2 1:10:15

Completely useless man.

Speaker 3 1:10:17

Yeah. Horrible guy. Um. Probably same.

Speaker 1:10:21

Did you say? I might. I mean, I definitely liked Addie, but I think Reese might be my favorite character. Yeah. I

Speaker 3 1:10:28

did like

Speaker 1:10:28

Reese a lot. He's centric. I love, he's described in many things as like a peacock, like he very like peacock.

Speaker 3 1:10:34

He's very flamboyant.

Speaker 1:10:35

Yeah, he is

Speaker 2 1:10:36

flamboyant.

Speaker 3 1:10:36

I loved that

Speaker 1:10:37

for

Speaker 3 1:10:37

him.

Speaker 1:10:37

Which I did not recall from my original reading. She's

Speaker 2 1:10:42

like, I was using the spyglass to look into the, the sorcerer citadel and they all looked the same except that then I could see that I could see Reese.'cause he had like a red flower in his lapel. I was like, wow.

Speaker 3 1:10:53

He like, he's like, Woohoo, I'm having fun. You know?

Speaker 2 1:10:56

I love, that's for

Speaker 3 1:10:57

re you know,

Speaker 2 1:10:58

he really is. That's

Speaker 3 1:10:59

having fun. He's a fun guy. He really does have fun. And it was sweet of him to give everyone presents and stuff.

Speaker 2 1:11:03

He's very sweet. Yes.

Speaker 3 1:11:04

Like he's very considerate.

Speaker 2 1:11:06

Oh, he's a very sweet guy.

Speaker 3 1:11:07

I thought

Speaker 2 1:11:07

it, he was very much in love with adding,

Speaker 3 1:11:09

he was so in love with her. I thought it was so cute how he kept, he was like. So the thing is, I know this is horrible timing, but we might like actually literally die. So I just want you to know she's, I love you, in love with you. He's like, oh my God, thank God. Yes, thank God. Yeah. He's like,

Speaker 1:11:25

I love you, but you don't have to say anything back right now, because

Speaker 2 1:11:28

she's got the

Speaker 1:11:29

hiccups. I've had the hiccups all day because

Speaker 2 1:11:32

hiccups were like three days

Speaker 1:11:33

because, uh, if you don't love me right now, I really don't wanna know. So

Speaker 3 1:11:37

she was like, no, no, no, I love you. And he's like, oh my

Speaker 2 1:11:39

God. Oh, thanks God.

Speaker 3 1:11:41

This

Speaker 2 1:11:41

rocks excellent, excellent news.

Speaker 3 1:11:44

He's like, woo-hoo. Can't wait to get married if we lift, you know,

Speaker 2 1:11:47

if we don't die tonight, that would be awesome. Yeah. Is that,

Speaker 3 1:11:52

I thought it was

Speaker 2 1:11:53

fun. Favorite part I feel like

Speaker 3 1:11:55

is that all

Speaker 2 1:11:56

of these not many

Speaker 3 1:11:57

characters parts we just

Speaker 2 1:11:58

favorite. Oh, favorite and least favorite parts. Favorite least.

Speaker 3 1:12:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:12:01

I kind of liked how crazy the dragon was. I, I found her entertaining.

Speaker 3 1:12:05

She was fun.

Speaker 2 1:12:06

She was fun. She was so unhinged.

Speaker 1:12:09

Mm-hmm. I paid really close attention for some reason this time to how the dragon was described and like the way she was sitting and moving and

Speaker 2 1:12:17

mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:12:17

And stuff, and that was really interesting because it wasn't how you would normally see a dragon like I do. Mm-hmm. Do remember, I'm so sorry for these seconds. I do remember at one point, I don't remember the exact, uh, de description, but it was like some animal where essentially they're like

Speaker 2 1:12:34

the wiener dog where

Speaker 1:12:36

stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Like there aren't like, they're sp splitting essentially. Uh, like, like where, just like different times. Or like the dragon was walking like on a time, legs and like, uh,

Speaker 2 1:12:48

gopher like little

Speaker 1:12:49

cat

Speaker 2 1:12:49

does.

Speaker 1:12:49

Yeah. Different things. Yeah. I was like, this is really creative. I liked how the dragon not just how you typically picture. Mm-hmm. Like a big lumbering dragon. So,

Speaker 3 1:12:58

and I, and I do love a dragon that can talk. I liked that she was like, I thought that part was kind of cute. Whenever she was like, let me see your embroidery or whatever. Mm-hmm. And i's like, okay. Like really nervous. And she's like, oh, you portrayed me like a friend. She was like, I like this. Yeah. And Addie was like, oh, thank God. Like, I

Speaker 2 1:13:15

love, like as sentient dragon that's just like very out of touch with reality. Oh

Speaker 3 1:13:20

yeah. She was such a bitch. Like completely like, yeah, like that thing like that. Like vampires get where they're so old that they don't really know.

Speaker 2 1:13:29

They have no idea. Yeah. No context or

Speaker 3 1:13:31

reality. They're like, oh, whatever. You're like, nothing to me. You know? Yeah. That's kind of how she was.

Speaker 1:13:35

She

Speaker 2 1:13:35

was

Speaker 1:13:35

like, I love my friends when you're around and I get sad when you're dead, but I'm still gonna have to kill

Speaker 3 1:13:39

you. She's like, I'm, I will be killing you soon. But you know,

Speaker 2 1:13:42

she had like less like long-term care than I had for the baby rabbit that we found.

Speaker 3 1:13:47

Yeah. She's very like, she was like, you know, I'm having fun with you right now, but. It will be sad when you die, but I'll get over it. But you be again?

Speaker 1:13:56

No, I'm the one that has, that'll be killing you.

Speaker 3 1:13:59

It'll

Speaker 1:13:59

be sad. He kind of No, you'll, you're misunderstanding. I will mourn you.

Speaker 3 1:14:03

Yes. It was so freaky. Every time she would talk about, like, somebody who died before, she'd be like, um, you know, and he was so fun until he died as if he didn't do it. You know? I was like, girl, you did it.

Speaker 2 1:14:16

He's like, I still mourn some of them. And you're like, then stop killing them.

Speaker 3 1:14:20

Seriously. What? Yeah. I kind of love like sociopathic, like immortal being mm-hmm. It's really fun to me. They just don't get it, you know? They're just like totally out of touch. Yeah. It's so fun.

Speaker 2 1:14:31

I think my least favorite part might have been like the very beginning, which I know is like important for setting context between the sisters, but I felt like maybe it could have been a little bit shorter. I was just like, this is boring.

Speaker 3 1:14:43

Mm.

Speaker 2 1:14:44

I was also like, Addie, you're being so two dimensional.

Speaker 3 1:14:47

Addie was kind of frustrating me at the beginning and I. I didn't remember feeling that ever before. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's just that I'm older now, probably. I was like, girl, toughen up. You know, like,

Speaker 2 1:14:57

yeah,

Speaker 3 1:14:57

come on

Speaker 2 1:14:58

life. Listen, life is never,

Speaker 3 1:14:59

but like, I knew she was going to, so I was like, okay. You know? Yeah. I was willing because I've read it before, so I was willing to hear her out, but I was like, girl, I did not remember you being this pitiful at the beginning. Beautiful.

Speaker 1:15:09

It has been interesting reading these books again 15 years later. Yeah. That like, that I loved as a kid and then being like, oh, really? Interesting.

Speaker 3 1:15:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1:15:19

Um, I really liked the, actually the writing of the, um, ending scene where she's not ending, ending scene, but where they're trying to get Meryl to the waterfall

Speaker 3 1:15:32

Uhhuh,

Speaker 1:15:32

which at first I was kind of annoyed with it, but then I was like, no, it's really clever, because the way it was written was very like, it was like rock and ogre throws a tree rock. Meryl walks three steps rock. Like, I was like, wait, what? Like it. It is middle grade, so it was written very simplistically. Mm-hmm. But it almost the, I don't know, the way it was written, the

Speaker 2 1:15:55

action felt very realistic. Yeah. Because like the, the way that she paced That's

Speaker 1:15:59

exactly that. The pacing was like,

Speaker 3 1:16:01

I did think the action was good.

Speaker 2 1:16:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1:16:03

Oh yeah. I don't know.

Speaker 2 1:16:04

That usually falls very flat for me in fantasy. So I end up skipping a lot of the action, like, just like skimming it because I'm like, eh. But yeah, no, I agree. I felt like all of the pacing and like this happened and then like it just, yeah. It felt very, like I could totally picture it, which is very fun.

Speaker 1:16:21

Yeah. Instead of like, and the sword ran through the this and the, it was like sword rock, this tree. Yeah. Quit rock.

Speaker 2 1:16:29

Yeah. Like flashes of action, which is how I, I feel like that's much, that's

Speaker 3 1:16:32

how you would perceive it.

Speaker 2 1:16:33

That's how you probably would perceive it. Yeah. So that's much more. Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 3 1:16:37

Yeah. It was good.

Speaker 2 1:16:38

That was your favorite part. Did you have least favorite part? Um,

Speaker 1:16:41

I mean, it was my favorite of the writing of writing, I'm gonna say with the writing. So Sure. I'll go with. Um, my least favorite part would be, Hmm. I don't know. I have to think on that. I mean, like the king drove me and the, the thing that he was reading from all the time. Oh yeah. Little. The book of whatever book, because he, he wouldn't act unless he consulted it first. Yeah. And then usually, and also consulting it, it's just a book of like you said, like a book of proverbs. So how do you consult a book of Proverbs? Like you just open it and it's like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and you're like, ah, yes. Okay.

Speaker 2 1:17:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1:17:20

That tells me what about how to solve my daughter and the gray death. Like I

Speaker 2 1:17:24

love how the dragon thought that those were so funny when Addie was

Speaker 1:17:28

telling her. I know. She's like, I can make them up. And some of them are even almost true.

Speaker 2 1:17:32

Yeah. She's like, my favorite ones are the ones that almost mean something. And I'm like, wow, that feels so real.

Speaker 3 1:17:37

You got her ask you

Speaker 2 1:17:39

a hundred percent.

Speaker 3 1:17:40

Yes.

Speaker 2 1:17:40

So funny.

Speaker 3 1:17:41

Really good.

Speaker 2 1:17:42

Yeah. I was so frustrated when she was like, first it was like nine in the morning and then it was like 11, and then it was like past noon and my dad still hadn't left. And I was like, I'd be so mad.

Speaker 1:17:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:17:54

I'll be like, get out the door. I just like,

Speaker 1:17:57

I mean, it was so worse at the end when he was like, what are you all doing?'cause they had swords and they were like, we're going to, we found the cure to the Great Death. We're gonna save Meryl.

Speaker 2 1:18:07

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 1:18:07

And he was like, I don't know about this. Let me consult the book and then consult my counselors. And then

Speaker 2 1:18:15

I know,

Speaker 1:18:15

and they were like, and Meryl had long, is that

Speaker 2 1:18:18

like, like, at least a

Speaker 1:18:19

week. Well, why, why don't you bring an army later? And he's like, yes, that sounds like a good idea. Yep. Mm-hmm. It'll take at least a week to get an army together. I'll do that. Like knowing his daughter is literally

Speaker 2 1:18:31

hours from death, hours from death, hours from death. He's, he's, I mean, he's just so stupid. What? What an idiot man. Yeah. So Princess one there.

Speaker 3 1:18:40

We did it. Yeah. Good.

Speaker 2 1:18:41

I'm So, have Pinkies

Speaker 3 1:18:43

a childhood favorite of mine?

Speaker 2 1:18:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:18:45

Honestly, because of the nostalgia, like I'll never, I have always had love for this book. I've told everyone about it. This is a five star book for me.

Speaker 2 1:18:54

So five A five

Speaker 3 1:18:55

Pinky, five Pinky book. Gotcha.

Speaker 2 1:18:56

My pinky book. Do you know how many,

Speaker 3 1:18:59

how many pinkies? This is radioactive.

Speaker 2 1:19:01

This book is straight up radioactive.

Speaker 3 1:19:03

It's radioactive.

Speaker 1:19:05

Um, again, nostalgia probably plays a high part, but I still think it held up really well. Um, and we go with 4.2.

Speaker 3 1:19:13

Nice.

Speaker 2 1:19:14

Wow.

Speaker 1:19:14

Yeah,

Speaker 2 1:19:16

I feel like the pressure's really on right now.

Speaker 1:19:17

No, it's fine. It's fine

Speaker 3 1:19:19

as if we have it all disappointed one

Speaker 1:19:21

another.

Speaker 2 1:19:22

I'm trying to give it like a,

Speaker 1:19:24

I'm constantly disappointing Spanish.

Speaker 3 1:19:26

I'm like, as if everyone

Speaker 1:19:27

didn't give

Speaker 3 1:19:28

Ash two pinkies up.

1:19:29

You know,

Speaker 1:19:29

she's like five stars and I'm like, uh, half a star.

Speaker 2 1:19:32

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I'm trying to, she does not like the sound

Speaker 1:19:37

noisy here.

Speaker 2 1:19:37

Um, yeah. Sorry for all of the background noise. Um, um, the dog whining at the back door. Now she doesn't like the, when I press the sound button,

Speaker 1:19:46

I thought it

Speaker 3 1:19:47

was a baby.

Speaker 2 1:19:47

Um, I'm trying to read it objectively and not just because middle grade fiction is not, like my super jam really wasn't my jam when I was middle grade reader,

Speaker 3 1:19:56

and it's still my jam as a 29-year-old. See, that's my thing. Like, I love middle fiction.

Speaker 2 1:20:00

I love that. I just, I think that's probably better. It means you have a really good imagination. I,

Speaker 3 1:20:06

or I'm stupid.

Speaker 2 1:20:07

I think it means that you have a whimsical heart and you have an excellent imagination. Oh, yeah. And I, I'm, I have less whimsy in me.

Speaker 3 1:20:15

Mm.

Speaker 2 1:20:16

I have a lot of, of bitterness and cynicism. Oh,

Speaker 3 1:20:18

okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:20:19

Um, okay. Yeah. I'm trying to think of what are some other middle grades that we've read? Um, I would, I think I would give it four Pinkies up.

Speaker 3 1:20:28

Oh, nice.

Speaker 2 1:20:29

I was like debating give it, that's very just below four, but like I might read this again at some point in my life. That's

Speaker 3 1:20:34

very good.

Speaker 2 1:20:35

Yeah, I definitely would recommend

Speaker 3 1:20:36

it. So it's extremely fair. I mean,

Speaker 2 1:20:38

so,

Speaker 3 1:20:39

because I know I'm biased because of nostalgia, so like probably objectively I'm

Speaker 2 1:20:42

nostalgia

Speaker 3 1:20:43

closer to four, you know,

Speaker 2 1:20:45

solid four Pinkies up.

Speaker 3 1:20:46

Wow. Okay. Well there you go.

Speaker 2 1:20:48

Excellent.

Speaker 3 1:20:48

Um, thank you guys for listening to our episode. To come to our writing retreat. Oh

Speaker 2 1:20:54

yeah. Come to our writing recovery

Speaker 3 1:20:55

to the bookstore. Um,

Speaker 2 1:20:57

come to the store in Primary Workshop and Hull, you might run into any or all of us

Speaker 3 1:21:02

Uhhuh.

Speaker 2 1:21:02

If you come to our retreats, you'll most definitely run into. I just hang most of us there. I don't work there. I just, I do tell people what to do though.

Speaker 3 1:21:10

But yeah, this is fun. I'm so glad we read this. This is like. So exciting for me. All right. Well,

Speaker 2 1:21:17

all right, well, um, until next time, time,

Speaker 3 1:21:23

keep your

Speaker 2 1:21:23

teac cups fall,

Speaker 3 1:21:25

your pinkies high and their book Club

Speaker 2 1:21:27

Pretentious.