Ep 49 Let’s Travel into the QUICKSILVER! | Book Review & Summary

A few episodes back we brought you an exclusive interview with the extraordinarily talented Callie Hart, author of the New York Times bestselling romantasy novel Quicksilver (linked below). It should come as no surprise that Liz and Ashley both loved this book, rating it a solid five stars! So today, we’re breaking it down for you. 

What did we love about this book? Were there any things we disliked? We go over our favorite tropes, characters and plot points. And also chat all about the spice, the twisty turny plot, the audiobook that we were both impressed by, and whether or not we think Quicksilver was worth the hype. 

We also make sure to talk about unanswered questions and if we’re looking forward to book 2. And of course we’ve got a faves and fails featuring a shout out to indie author Willow Prescott and and a smash or pass involving a big scary animated whale.

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Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! | https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of Split or Swallow! Now a Barnes & Noble & Amazon best seller titled: Kiss of the Basilisk!  https://youtu.be/fknhocSNIKM

Watch our Author Interview with Indie Dark Romance Author Ember Nicole here | https://youtu.be/tHV9rXSTBpY?si=OwxdMVfPmtFkcYu6

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Ashley

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Chapters

• 0:00 Spoiler Free Intro
• 4:35 Fav and Fail of the Week
• 15:00 Star Rating and Quicksilver Review
• 20:17 Quicksilver Summary in 5 Sentences or Less
• 23:40 Favorite and Least Favorite Things About Quicksilver
• 42:50 Quicksilver Quotes
• 46:35 The People's Quicksilver Reviews
• 52:54 Unhinged Smash or Pass

Transcript

0:00

[Music] welcome to the besties in the books podcast guys I'm Liz and I'm Ashley and this video and podcast and talking session we will be doing our little Deep dive into the book Quicksilver by Callie Hart which is a little bit of a followup episode to our interview with Callie har so if you haven't checked that interview video out yet podcast whatever you want to call it definitely go check that out we'll have it all Linked In the description boxes wherever you are listening or watching YouTube wherever that's why it feels weird to say it cuz you can watch it or you can listen to it so like whatever you want to do it's there but then my words get jumbled because it's jumbling it's a jumble situation if if you want to hang out with us and talk about Quicksilver with Cali Hart come check it out if you want if you want to hang out with us and talk about Quicksilver not with Cali Hart hang out with us right now yeah there you go you have so many options you know we just like to lay it all out for you so that was a super fun episode though really cool to interview and get like some of the behind the scenes and that one is a spoiler-free episode with Cali Hart so if you want to like know a lot about Quicksilver without it being a spoil spoiler way like the how she came up with ideas and everything and then some little teasers for book two that still aren't spoilery yeah you can kind of get some of that it's a good balance like if you just if you're curious about like the author process in general or if you're like thinking oh you know quicksilver's been getting a lot of buzz like do I want to listen or you know read it like what do I want to do then it's good to just kind of like it gives you it's not surface level like interview wise but it's surface level plot-wise that way you can find out a little bit more about it yeah yeah yeah cuz we still dive into the characters without going into like what they mean to each other like too deeply you know yeah mhm yeah so yeah so this is our you know if you guys have been around for a little while or if you're new here I'll just kind of explain so when we do an author interview you know we like you guys to be able to ruminate on that and then we like to also do our Deep dive episode about that book so you guys can get our more in-depth take on it um and so that's what we'll be doing today and so you know we've been kind of giving you guys a little bit more of like a reaction style deep dive video where like at the beginning so before we get into spoilers we'll tell you don't worry about it we'll give you our basic star um and spice rating and who we would recommend it for that way you guys can kind of find that out and then you can either you know save this episode to listen to later if you don't want any spoilers for the rest of the book or if you are ready for all the spoilers then we'll get into it we'll talk about our favorite tropes maybe some tropes we didn't like characters we loved ones we didn't love so much Etc um yeah and if that interests you then go ahead and stick around but before we get to that we just want to say say thank you for being here yeah thank you guys for being here and for checking out this little deep dive video make sure to like follow And subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast like I was mentioning at the beginning you can watch the podcast and listen at the same time on YouTube or you can just pop us in your ear and listen anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast and that's at B's in the books podcast you can also get some extended content on Instagram and Tik Tok at B inth books podcast and what while while you're at it go over to Fable that's a little book club app and we have a lot of reads going on there cuz we are reading Hunger Games because you know the new one's coming out so follow us if you just search besties in the book club it'll pop up right there for you so if you want a buddy to read with all the books we're there we're there or if you want to just lur comments you know you could do that that's fine too yeah just find out what we thought about your favorite books uh yeah cuz we also have all all of your guys' favorites are on there so bitar the Crescent cities the Throne of Glass like if you guys want to go see thought about those those are all on there too so enjoy yeah enjoy I was going to say imperion those are on there we didn't do onx storm though I'm just now realizing no we didn't but we did the first two that was uh but there's an episode out if you need to know our feelings last week I think is when it would have gone up for you guys listening so check out that if you want to hear some unpopular opinions if you want to be mad at us if you want to be mad at us if you loved it or if you want some validation if you didn't it how about that so should we get into a quick fave and fail of this week yeah yeah a little fave and fail let's L out there this is like I hope this is like a therapy session for other people in a way cuz it is for me and I think it is for you too yeah I meantime well it's funny because I feel like anytime anything actually stressful happens in my life I voice memo you about it okay so Ashley and I now have a thing where we just voice memo it's like um what what was I calling it morning talks what was I calling it yeah I need you to sing it so I'm trying not to it was like I know cuz I'm trying to remember what I called it because it had a more catchy name than morning talks morning now it's like morning chats it was like morning chats with Liz and Ashley and then I just like we voice memo each other when we're on our way to work you know whatever so that's what we've been doing so I feel like I always just let you know if there's something crazy happening in my life so that usually doesn't make it onto the faves and fails because that's like a way too deep dive into the personal stuff yeah um but yeah I mean I feel like it's still a way for me to be able to like tell you guys what I'm excited about or you know yeah a decompression time I guess depression time yeah morning that is not what I was calling I wasn't calling it morning talks guys it's going to come to me and then I'm just going to yell it out some somewhere in the middle you have to sing it that's the only way we'll allow it well yeah cuz it's like it's our little jingle goal yeah yeah it's great it's great feel free to voice ask your guys's DMS yeah yeah no totally always I mean I just had a crow run into my windshield like tell us about it um yeah oh my God that would actually be a really funny episode if you guys like sent in like a kind of Dear Abby like advice thing like maybe like book rated tangentially book related and then we had to like answer them that's morning talks with Liz and Ashley that's it's called but if you guys have a good a good suggestion for the title let us know yeah so do you want to go first or do you want me to go first um I don't know you what what feels good to you what feels right I'll just go first okay okay so my faves of this week so I kind of hit a couple fun Milestones over at the real life vegan wife mhm so technically it's in two days but I have my 2year books adversary happening on the 12th of February mhm which is crazy that like the last two years has basically led us here yeah that's wild yeah like yeah basically like you know when my business coach was like start the bookstagram and I was like no I don't want to she was like do it and I did and now here we are and so I um yeah my two-year books adversary which is super exciting thank you for being here with us that's super fun um and then this is I mean it's it's a fave but like I'm it's not my personal fave I just feel like I want to announce it so I did find out for sure that Eureka books is going to be doing a midnight release party for sunrise on the reaping ooh very cool yeah so any of the locals who might be listening right now Mark it off on your calendars I want to say it starts at

like 11:30 and goes to like 1: 7:52

30 or whatever on release day so super exciting I will be there it will get me out of the house after like 700 p.m. so that's cool I will be very tired maybe I'll drink a cold brew on my way over or something like that to keep me up um but I'm stoked it's going to be a fun time yeah yeah wish I could be there that's a little bit of a commute for me me too me too but yeah someday someday yeah um yes definitely so those were my faves of the week oh you know what I have one more that I just want to give a shout out to so um I want to give a shout out to Willow Prescott she is a dark romance author um who has sent me some books in PR in the past so she um wrote break away and hide away but what I really wanted to shout her out for because I haven't been able to read those yet but I did read her Nolla called shades of red and it was so good guys it was like 200 Pages dark romance like a little sprinkle sprinkle of like horror in there so there's one scene that's particularly story if that's not your thing like I get it but um read the trigger warnings whatever but amazingly good five stars easily five stars easily and I'd say I think I rated it like a four like a four Spice and a five star so guys it's great go check it out you could read it in one sitting shades of red by Willow Prescott and then I immediately as soon as I have time I want to read the her other duy the Breakaway and Hideway books because now I'm pumped on it nice awesome so I want to make sure to give her a a little shout out um and then my fail of the week okay this is it this is all I have I cannot concentrate on anything or remember anything or have any attention span for anything because I all I want to do is read The Hunger Games yeah truly yep is it a fail not really because I'm reading The Hunger Games but hey yeah yeah I feel you on that one yep and I'm all other books like right now I just they don't stack up yeah I'm listening luckily I'm listening to good audio um I am listening to the Darkly madly duet by Trisha wolf and it's amazing so yeah I love her but uh yeah as far as like reading just or everyday activities like I just cannot focus I'm like I'm halfway through um mocking jay and so that's where I'm at guys if you've read The Hunger Games you know like we're in the we're in the final stretch now things are getting crazy yeah so yeah that's that's my fail is that life has ceased to exist so that the Hunger Games can be my only uh thing that I'm doing yeah seriously so what about you so my fave is that last weekend my husband and I did like a station if anybody remembers the like uh what is it protest that we were woken to at a hotel

at 6: 10:57

00 in the morning with drums and like whatever that the hotel had known about that was happening for 2 months prior and they didn't tell us about it terrifying moment um anyways that hotel had given us you know gift cards or whatever you want to call it to come back so we used that as a station for my birthday SL aniversary and my favorite part of that weekend was that they also cuz they're trying to like shmoo us cuz they feel bad now that that happened they gave us champag and chocolate covered strawberries and so what did we do we ate that in bed and we watched sers and that is like my favorite I don't even I could watch like freaking the paid programming you know infomercials for all I care as long as I'm eating in bed at a hotel it's just like that's top tier for me and I was just like I told Jeff I'm so happy right now like I love this my favorite thing so good yeah so that was my fave of the week love it and then uh which we get to do soon too we're going to go to hotel going to order all the things and eat it at bed because it's not something that we usually do at home so you know and it also was very nostalgic too I just love it and my fa fail of the week I'm going to probably go with yesterday when I was voice memoing Liz uhu that was so funny that so funny and I accidentally drove off into the sunset and then I was like wait wait I was just supposed to be dropping the dog off at daycare cuz we were hosting Super Bowl this year and she Lov Doggy Daycare and I'm just like oh I'm 2 miles in a odd Direction not like I was on my way and then I just went on the freeway and was just going and I'm vo mailing her and I'm like handsfree don't worry I don't believe in texting and driving all that so I just do voicemail memo and then I just let it ride you know Jeff gets annoyed cuz he's like why don't you just talk on the phone it's like you don't get it no it's not the same it's not the same it's like first of all most of the time my kids are with me they weren't with me but like I got kids interrupting me and you have like going on we just have to be able to respond when we can respond when we have a minute to ourselves so I'm just vo memoing and talking on and on and on and I'm like oh [ __ ] where am I going well the way the way she said it she's like Liz like I like that always cracks me up when she stops and just says Liz cuz I'm like what does that mean Liz where am I going I'm like what she's like I'm just I don't know where I am I just kept on driving I was cracking up oh my God muscle memory took over over and I have made that drive like recently like a few times cuz it's like the way to my sister's house and it's was where I went the night before when I met up with some friends and so muscle memory just took the wheel that was funny that was super funny so that would be a fail I didn't get too far but I wonder where like if I didn't notice in that moment I honestly wonder where would I have not where else would I have notic I don't know where where would I I had to have noticed at one point but like how far could I have gotten 50 miles later you're wait what am I doing where am I like in my muscle memory like where was cuz there's multiple destinations I could get to you know like would I have ended up at my sisters would I have ended up at some random restaurant that I went like where where was this leading me I love it but I figured it out I was only like two miles away from my destination that's not that bad on a freeway so it didn't it was like it added like five more minutes to my journey but alas that was a funny and fails we do like to keep funny so you know I yeah so I just got we're here to just talk about all the depressing things in the world obviously we have fails in our life that are depressing but we try not to go there yeah we'll leave those for the Dear Abby episode we just submit our um quote unquote Anonymous things and then just talk about them on the yeah that's great okay so all right let's give our spoiler free uh just like one sentence review star and spice rating for Quicksilver by Cali Hart okay you go first so my one sentence review would be I loved this book from the very first page it's action-packed the magic system is super interesting the characters are amazing and the audio book was like one of the best ones of all time mhm five stars and uh I gave it I want to say a Three Spice yeah yeah yeah mhm yeah it could go two or three in my opinion as far as spice goes hard to say I think I gave it I think I gave it a three because it was like not necessarily frequency but more like intensity slash like buildup to it yeah was good you know yeah I would say if you're looking for something to compare it to spice wise feels like maybe cord toist and fury wings and ruin amount of spice so not Silver's flame spice you don't think so uh I see I personally would have said it's closer to Silver Flames for me really I guess I don't remember that well great trust my sources I just read silverflame so yeah I would say that it was like more close to that for me oh okay all right huh not in frequency necessarily but in intensity and if you were to compare king fisher this is not spoiler this is not spoilery in I think a bad way if you were to compare king fisher to um Cassian king fisher is a much more uh explicit talker so I feel like that also kind of like amped it up a little bit too yeah okay so I'll leave you know this is my Spice Girl so she knows best so let's go with three spice uh my rating five stars and I had such a great time I loved it it's a book that I still think about and I loved the world building and how things were interwoven and it the characters are great at 10 out of 10 well five out of five some nice some nice twists too you know yes I love that which we'll talk a little bit more about here in the spoiler section yeah so there you go so all right so spoiler time I don't know a butterfly a butterfly I was like are you a bird I don't know what's happening right now I mean butterflies are they make no sound so I had to give you guys a little sound for those who don't know that means spoilers are coming I make a I usually make a jarring sound but I think the fact that it wasn't a jarring sound for the more frequent listeners is what's jarring about it cuz you had to just really like stop what you're doing and listen like what is that weird sound that Ashley's doing and then and then I did the visuals for YouTube is the Napoleon Dynamite although I do think it's a bird but butf yeah this is really relaxing to do this is a yoga move I can't really do it in my area without knocking something down uh I'll try it try it later someone out there's trying it and they're like oh yeah it is kind of you know it is nice yeah takes us back to that moment with Napoleon in the classroom doing interpretive dances I love it[Music] all roads lead back to Napoleon Dynamite it's true it's really true yeah uh did anyone else's history teacher AP History teacher make them watch Napoleon Dynamite repeatedly or was that just us loved every minute loved every watch y so good so yeah because just for anyone who doesn't know uh king fisher does call sarus uh OSHA which is like short for a type of butterfly that they have yeah which if you were confused like I was on the cover with butterflies there you go there you go mhm that's why there's butterflies everywhere um anytime you see Quicksilver stuff merch or whatever so okay let's just get right into it then so I wrote a five sentence summary for this this feels very gongy so I'm going to use the gong today although I should do the triangle cuz it is silver but alas I feel like for some reason you know I'm Forgetting Sarah Marshall where he does like the sounds for like all the like show like crime shows you know and he does the like Seinfeld like little jingle or whatever I feel like I want you to have like a mini keyboard and like do that for me somay might need to get one of those cool mini ones yeah mhm okay so anyway this was really hard for me it was so hard I feel like a lot happens in this book this was one of those like five sentence summaries where I was like I have to only pick like what's completely vital to the plot because everything even though there's so many things that are vital to the plot because of the fact that it's like all the twist and turns and like everything would just make it impossible to like write a five sentence summary so here we are I did the best I could here we go quick silver and five sentences or less Sarah Spain and her younger brother live as peasants and pickpockets in the Third Ward in the city of Zan under the tyrannical rule of an undy evil human Queen but Sarah has many skills as a fighter she honed when training with the Rebellion that killed her parents so she manages to keep them alive by stealing and working in a blacksmith shop one okay good job Sarah steals a gauntlet from one of the Queen's guards and ends up being taken to the castle to be executed for her transgression but in an attempt to defend herself melts metal and releases an ancient sword from its resting place which opens up a portal through the Quicksilver that king fisher a super powerful Fay who we find out later is her mate comes through to save her two sarus is taking to Evalia the magical Fay world of Legends where she meets King bellicon everlan renis and lawen among others and discovers she is an alchemist someone who can manipulate medals and imbue them with magic like the Quicksilver who can help the Fay win their war against their IAL government by learning how to control the quicks and use it to their advantage three king fisher binds sarus in an agreement to ensure she helps them win the war in exchange for him retrieving her brother from Zan he returns with her old hookup buddy and con man Carion instead who happens to be quite helpful because it turns out he's actually been a thousand-year-old fay trapped in the human realm the entire time that was awesome okay here we go this is the crazy one the okay so I just called him the Inner Circle because I didn't know for lack of a better term of what to call the main people okay yeah so the Inner Circle trains sarus and helps her work with the Quicksilver which she is learning to communicate with but she truly holds her own battling the vampires who take everlane during the final battle when they rescue everlane we find out that madra bellicon and the vampire King Malcolm are all working together they trap them in the Labyrinth that king fisher was in for 55 years but sarus is able to find the Quicksilver coin to release the curse and get them out and kills malcol in the process but not before being mortally injured requiring her to be turned into a vampire to survive technically turning her into the new vampire queen five I did not know how you were going to wrap that up good job on that especially on that last sentence there way to do it there was a lot of like dashes and like semicolon so yeah yep there you go but that's what I'm saying it was so crazy there were so many things I couldn't even really explain like you know the whole issue with like the deal that he made with Malcolm and the Magical coin and all that cuz it's like that would have taken up the whole five sentences within it and and their whole love story too yeah yeah yeah well we know that's why I included the maid thing cuz I was like okay then it's imply that they've got something going on during the whole time you know yeah good job good job dude everybody give a Round of Applause good job thank you every time you think you can't do it you go ahead and you do it you totally redeem yourself so what were your favorite three tropes of quicksilver badass empowered FMC okay not a little whiny girl that needs help you know she's great she was awesome faded mates but with a Twist I liked Kart's twist Twist on faded mates and what uh the inter like intervening that was happening with the fates loved that mhm and of course unexpected twists cuz there was a lot of them at the end yeah from like the middle to the end I felt like we started getting twists so that was great love that what about you um okay so I can't be stopped like this is the thing I can't I cannot be stopped enemies to lovers is always going to be on my list I can't like it's not that I don't want to like it as much as I do because obviously I love that I love it but it's like how does it hit that good every time I don't know I don't know but it does I can't be stopped okay so enemies to lovers uh I put twists and hidden identity so that's kind of like in one thing or whatever um because I did not see the twist with carryon coming at all at all like really not at all love that that was amazing it was great um and then I included found family because I truly love that we have so many good characters that was something that I noticed really early on that I was like oh I really like this character oh I really find that character interesting to the point where like we're only one book in and I already want to know their stories too mhm and that is special I feel like cuz that doesn't happen with very many books yeah yeah so what about a Trope you didn't like this was hard for me to figure out but I think I finally found one that bothers me in any book that does this and it's like the FMC having to or any character having to protect a adult idiot family member so in this case brother it happened with a fade in in blood like many many ones so that kind of Trope whatever that is like protecting [ __ ] family or just like idiot family members he's not even an [ __ ] yet but like just an idiot you know um at all costs like even to her own detriment I think he was an adult I'm pretty sure he was like old enough and and in life and death situations I think that's the other thing it's not like he's just you know duper doop no big deal it's like no like literally we're living under this tyrannical government that'll literally come and just kill you in the Town Square like at any given point in time and you're just like messing around you know come on obviously that was vital to a lot of plot points in this book so it was a tool you know to carry the story on um and it made for a great setup with carryon being brought over so I'll allow it this time true true usually it doesn't get a pass though so what was your least favorite Trope I literally put laugh out loud next to mine cuz the only one I could think of was Fay being sneaky and trapping people in agreements oh you don't like that not really I love it for some reason cuz it feels old school I think I feel like it's like a I don't want to say it's a full copout but sometimes it feels like a cop out to me yeah that like the author uses to like keep the story moving because otherwise the main character might not agree with where they want the plot to go right and so it's like kind of almost like an easy way to get them to comply and um that bothers me cuz I feel like there sometimes it would be nice to have a different not just like a magic you're under a spell so you have to do what I say yeah you know what I mean yeah um but that being said I loved this book so oh well you know I mean like like I'm willing to overlook it as well yeah um and then what about a microt Trope that you noticed whether you liked it or disliked it or whatever microt tropes are always kind of tricky sometimes um always sometimes so I'm going to go with tattoos and the way that she did that with the tattoos moving like and forming while things were happening with the faded mates so she took that faded mate tattoo idea that's in lots of books and she put her own twist on it and I liked that cool yeah it was great I liked it too cool um my microt Trope that I love is swords imbued with magic oh yeah that's a good one we all love a good sword you know yeah of course of course obviously but it's like it's like these specifically are like imbued with magic I don't know they have special po swords with powers it's like that's cool yeah it's freaking cool that's extra cool we're fantasy readers we love swords in viewed with power yeah exactly it's like can they transport you to another realm through a portal even freaking better you know like a DeLorean of Swords it's awesome so yeah that was definitely like my microt Trope and normally I have a hard time with those to where like I don't know I don't know but that one came to me immediately I was like oh that's perfect great love it so okay quicksilver's been getting like a lot of hype yeah a lot lot lot lot of hype like when I was reading reviews cuz we'll share some reviews um just from the masses later um a lot of the reviews that I was reading that were negative were talking about how this book is so hyped and like basically it's the same old same old at this point right like I'm I'm done trusting book talk recks yeah mhm you know it's like okay so obviously you know as we found out in the interview with cie she said that when the book originally came out it wasn't that popular it took a while to gain traction specifically on book talk and then kind of explode so now it's popular do you understand why do you feel like it deserves to be yes I mean yeah it's hard cuz we have a bias now why we understand it's po totally understand why it's popular I mean she went she she was an indie author for this book she wasn't she had some traditional publishing before for this fantasy she went Indie and it wasn't going and she handpicked like who she was sending it to and that's a risk for any you know mhm anybody self-publishing or even PR agencies to send it cuz people read it or they don't and they read it and they loved it and it blew up so you know I get was popular too because I love it so it had all the things we love so of course it's gonna be good yeah so that was kind of I feel like it's one of those classic cases of the reason why some people love it is the same reason why some people hate it totally so like I think for us it's like it Shacks all the boxes right it's like we've got the you know enemies to lovers thing we've got the found family we have essentially I mean you could say chosen one or whatever you feel like saying you know badass FMC Broody and kind of rude mean grumpy MMC who's a thousand plus years old and probably like 6' s or something crazy like that I don't remember exactly how T he is it has all the things that like we want in a Romany book so I feel like for some people that can seem too contrived like I'm going to include every single Trope that people love and like cram it into this book you know but I don't know for me it's a win I'm like it's a win and I feel like in romantic see there's only so many different things there's always going to be like different books to compare it to you know I feel and I felt like this story was so different than anything I've read yet even though it had the same themes and tropes in it you know it was fun it's a fun time I don't takes some things that you can't take too seriously it's a good time you know yeah it was super entertaining I agree y so yes popular it is I would say that we both understand and agree with why it's popular because it just if you're a Romany reader and you consistently enjoy those kind of stories You' probably like this I think truly yeah truly so what what was your favorite part I loved when we found out that the fates were manipulating their faded mates fate uh you know to try to avoid them being together I forget which God it was like the god of chaos right he intervened right or he did he was he he was the one that was like something bad's going to happen she went like into meet him somehow I don't remember now like it was crazy it was a crazy scene you know and so basically found out that they the mate the fates tried to stop them from meeting made her become a human born human cuz they couldn't stop her from being born or becoming and so then hopefully that would separate them enough but they still found a way life finds a way all finds a way all goes back to Jeff Goldblum so that was super cool to read about um and then also the Labyrinth stuff I hate that [ __ ] the Labyrinth thing was cool yeah he was in there for 55 years I relooked that up cuz I was like how long was he in there literally that's so long I know in like Fay years it's not as long but like dog years yeah still a long time yeah um well now I feel so shallow with my favorite part of this book no it's okay we all like different stuff what's your favorite part Liz tell us King Fisher's dirty mouth the good for you good for you good for me yeah I mean it was a treat for all we've talked we talked about it on the on the other episode but just listen to the audio book yeah there you go y um but no really I feel like sometimes like you know yeah we read a lot of Romany I read a lot of dark romance and that can really make or break a character yeah like 100% if the if the things flying out of his mouth during the like bedroom scenes are corny yeah yeah no absolutely not it kills it and it can make me get the ick like for him in general you know for sure so I would say like expertly written and just a prime example of like do we like men or just men written by women I know yeah for sure yep um but yeah that was definitely my favorite part what was your least favorite part um kind of like that part in the beginning when she first enters like the Royal world and they're kind of trying to refine her a little bit into royalty I was like yeah okay whatever yeah just like that part was to whatever to me yeah like I could see the point in it it's like you know we always have that like that time in any Romany book right where it's like they have to acclimate into whatever this new reality they have is but yeah I mean and it's a way to World build too but I was like eh that's if I have to pick something in a festar read that I don't like technically I didn't love that part but doesn't last that long what about you so okay uh this is something that I wanted to talk about on here with you specifically because I'm like did I not understand this right I think maybe I was confused and that is why I didn't like this part but maybe not okay so at the end obviously she's like on death's door and uh king fisher is going to take like a part of his like soul out and like give it to her to save her like he did with um what's the guy's name Ren was it Ren fist he did that with or a different person was a different guy I thought it was the other guy it was the other guy I don't remember his name right now lorth lorth oh yeah yeah okay so whatever so she was like no don't do that because then also it ties your life to his life so they like both like it's something like if he dies first he has to like Linger on on Earth for hundreds of years I don't know until they die ex until they die or whatever yeah okay so anyway she's like yeah don't do that it's not worth it and he was like going to do it but then um what's his name sne like sneaks over I can't remember his name tus so like the vampire guy and he's like okay well I'll just turn her into a vampire and save her and then that's how she ends up getting saved and she ends up getting turned so she's like half Fay and half vampire okay what I didn't like about that is like I didn't really understand andus his character like I thought he was a bad guy so like I thought he was like Malcolm's henchmen or like Malcolm's friend why is he like offering to save her life that was clear to me he was on the inside the whole time that's what was going on okay that's kind of what I thought was really quickly blurbed in there like within a paragraph you know yeah yeah he'd been working for him he would been working you know both sides but not wanting no he's been feeding him information like helping King fer so he was ready to step in that's why it was kind of like a gr area like you want to trust this guy and he's like yes it's fine and I think technically he would be next in line after Malcolm so that's why or something I don't remember why why why is she going to be a queen now I forgot because in Vampire culture and I could be making this up no I don't think I am though um in Vampire culture I think it's like who kills you like if someone kills you like then they can take your place okay yeah and she killed him and then became vampire so yeah yeah yeah I think that's that's the train of thought I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's it okay that I needed to clear that up because that bothered me because it wasn't very super clear and I was confused I was like wait did he turn her for some other like ulterior motive with like nefarious you know like undertones or did he turn her just because he was actually a good guy but that was just a little unclear I mean double agent so it could be ambiguous you know it could be still like not 100% trust but as far as I read it as double agent where like he could win on either side wins he still wins you know yeah almost kind of reminded me of that one character well that guy's definitely bad but in um the ashes and the sarur king with the cigarette he reminded me of that I forget his name I don't remember this is important it's okay moving on okay so Liz tell the audience who your favorite character was I mean I loved so many characters in this like I feel like it would be totally like I mean obviously I love king fisher so I'm going to pick a different character because I feel like that's too predictable so like the way that I have the biggest freaking crush on rist like oh my gosh he has the best accent in the audio book and I totally like yeah I mean I don't want to say like Kingfish or who when like RF comes on but like Kingfish or who you know and then I like remember I so like I love both of them they're great I obviously love Sarah sarus as well I don't know it's hard to pick a favorite character in this book cuz there's so many really really good ones but yeah I would say if I have to pick one that's not a main character it would be Ren fist yeah cool yeah what about you I'm going to say because it's not predictable for me because I rarely pick the MMC I loved King fer I thought he was a great character super interesting and fun yeah I think we're going to get to know a lot more about all the characters in the next one so I'm excited for that yeah get to know them pretty in depth too yeah mhm not you're not like a book boyfriend level for me I only think I have two at this point so you know sorry are we still are we still at reand and and uh why am I blinking on his name veale from six hor roses that's it that's it that's it very loyal very loyal I I collect them just like I'm just going through life collecting them you know what I mean it's fine yeah I like how you're like no I've got my tried and Tre it's like I have my top two you know what I mean it's like Rowan hunt like they have special place in my heart but you know we could add King Fisher and Ry fist into the mix thr them in yeah throw them in throw throw gangs all here let's go there's room for everybody love it that's good so who did you dislike the most I thought it was going to be car on obviously you know cuz he was just annoying and but then he grew on me and I was like oh this is great this guy's hilarious and then he ends up being the like Long Live Fay or whatever who was super vital to something shows you how much I remember but I loved him so he he'd be up there in a favorite too for sure um and then so I would say because obviously we know villains are supposed to be unlikable but really nobody else was unlikable to me well that one girl I don't know there was like one girl in the mix maybe it's going to be yours so I'll leave that for you so I was trying to think okay out of the three villains cuz there was three right which one was the worst so I'm going to go with the stupid man king like give me the ick give me King Vibes there you go Bellon very King Henry the fth Vibes um and he is the epitome of what is wrong with our world our actual world he is like the embodiment of that so I'm going to go with him cuz I loved Malcolm so too bad yeah Malcolm was I mean I feel like they all had their place which I like because I feel like we're going to see where that goes because Bellon and madra just kind of like ran off ran away into the sunset at the end of the book and so we don't really know what happened with them yet so we'll find out um yeah my least favorite character was Da or Dan that's the girl in the Inner Circle Group yeah yeah I just really disliked her how freaking mean she was I was like come on and then when she gets her arm chopped off I was like well you kind of had to come in you know what I mean jealous jealous much like uh stop I get it like your sword but like this was out of everyone's hands you have to let it go do what good like good for everyone you know it's like too stubborn too crazy yeah exactly like give Sarah a chance like she's not doing anything bad to you you know almost she gave like yeah like that jealous girl energy like she wants king fisher but she doesn't though it's like but that's how she acts like she's like I wish king fisher was my boyfriend but like she doesn't actually want that it's just really annoying yeah yeah super annoying so that's why I chose her as my least favorite character cuz yeah we're obviously not supposed to like any of the villains so that's why I chose her yeah so did you write down any notable quot I did look at me look at you go wow okay a quote that stood out to me king fisher says don't call her Sunshine he commanded Caron says why not and then I'm going to blah blah blah blah blah cuz it's about descriptions of his head um and face because she is Moonlight the Mist that shrouds the mountains the bite of electricity in the air before the storm the smoke that rolls across a battlefield killing sorry Battlefield before the killing starts you have no idea what she is what she could be you should call her majesty yeah I literally have that ready to go right here there you go there you go a good one it's a good one that's a good one was that going to be yours um well I had three okay so so that was a good one so the other one um let's see here so he's talking about when his mom had prophesized that sarus was going to come into his life she said when I needed you most you'd come blazing into my life like a meteorite riding on a wave of chaos that would turn my whole world upside down that you'd shine so brilliantly that you'd light up hell itself and guide me out of the darkness oo yeah that was awesome yeah super cool and then the other one that I like this was just more of like a fun not really fun but like I don't know kind of like if I was getting ready to go into battle with like my inner circle like this is is what I want someone to say to me you know and um this was quote that Remis said he said and if you should find soul sundered from flesh order a drink for us at the first Tavern you come across in the afterlife we'll settle the tab when we get there a that's cool yeah I was like I like renfus he's a cool dude you know yeah for sure for sure so those were my faves I mean there was a lot there was a lot of good ones but I feel like you know if I had to narrow them down those were the ones that stuck out in my head obviously the ones that you just read too that was excellent yeah all right Liz you're my you're our Spice Girl okay how was the spice how was it great great good s 10 Infinity Stars Infinity star um you guys know if you listen to the interview you know like uh yeah just everything about it the Audi book was amazing the spice was amazing not corny at all dual narration um and then yeah obviously cuz I switched back and forth between the audio and um the ebook and the ebook yeah that was great too I feel like the spice was just the perfect amount for a book one yeah totally I'd say for a book one it was almost a little bit on the heavier side than a lot of other Romany Series where it kind of takes longer to build up so I liked that um yeah I felt like it was good yeah it's good yeah agreed no no notes y same no notes to your notes so will you read sequels of course obviously which comes out in November sock guys it's on pre it's on pre-order I think I think it's in my list of pre-orders I'm so excited I'm so freaking excited I need to know more about their story that's one of those ones that like you know there's so many sequels that are coming out all the time that it's like almost hard for me to keep up but like that would be one that I'll make sure to set aside and like plan to read it specifically yeah so that won't be one of those ones where I'm like I'll get to it when I get to it no it'll be like it's sitting there on my little TBR Shelf that I have until I get around to it yeah you know yeah yeah so do you have any reviews for us no you lead the way okay so I P I pulled I pulled a couple High and a couple low just to kind of give you guys an idea of what you know people liked about it and disliked about it so just to I got mine from Goodreads um just to give you guys kind of an idea right now there's about 279 H almost 280,000 ratings it gets an average of a 4.43 on good reads so that's pretty good yeah mhm um and so I just I like to pull from the extreme sides CU I find them to be a bit more amusing oh for sure so we'll start with the low and we'll end on the high note okay so meline on Goodreads uh one star carry on made me laugh that's why this gets a star which is true I feel like you know if nothing else Caron would be entertaining yeah for sure he's the comic relief you know um Darien gives uh Quicksilver two stars I feel like the author Googled fantasy romance and tried to just smash everything she came across into this book truly a jumbled mess crying face when I was looking at Reddit um that is the overall theme that it was kind of like you talked about at the beginning the Trope you either love it or you hate it yeah yeah yeah I thought you know cuz I've definitely read books where I feel like all the Romantic tropes do seem to be like crammed into it and it does not feel organic to me it seems very contrived and I don't like it this was not that to me yeah like I feel like everything just like flowed yeah how it was supposed to agreed you know yeah so then we'll end on a high note so Olivia gave Quicksilver five stars this book was stunning a work of written art with intricate twists and hidden depths I slipped into it like Sarah slipped into the Quicksilver pool there you go cie where is the next book I need more carryon and King Fisher and Lauren and I was like that is very accurate we need more of them all thank you good night yeah totally yeah um and then bookish by Tammy she gave it five stars this is exactly what I want from fantasy Romance the fantasy elements were intriguing and ever growing a combination of Fay and vampires a combo I didn't know I needed in my life the audio book was Sensational I am definitely invested and not once was I bored so excited for book two I pulled that one specifically because I also thought that that was interesting because it was like wasn't the con except that like vampires were like a lesser evolved version of Fay from like back in the day olden days he was like he made them right like Malcolm like made the vampire people something weird something crazy yeah but it was like I just I liked the combination of like the vampires and the Fay but I'm pretty sure that it was like and I could be totally making this up or mixing it with a different cook or something but I'm pretty sure that it was like the vampires were described as being kind of like the ancient version of f like that's kind of cool yeah like that's why they have like the elongated canines and all that yeah I was like that makes sense it's crazy yeah so those were the reviews so yeah like I said before it's either you loved all the tropes all the Romany tropes cuz they're all of our favorites or you were like why are they all in this one book and you didn't like that yeah yeah so do you have anything else that you want to say about this fantastic book we all love so much there is one thing I wanted to say you know what I really liked about the book at the beginning and I don't know if anybody else got that Vibes please let me know if you did um the before she gets transported to the Fay realm it felt very like star warsy um like a Dusty thank you we haven't talked about this like a like the dusty one the is it t I don't remember what the names of but like where Ray is it Ray yeah where she's from and she gave me those vibes a lot yes yeah yeah cuz she's badass I completely agree it's like that whole like she's a thief like Ray is not a thief but she's a scavenger she goes around you know collecting scrap metal all day long like you know it's yeah it was very very similar I feel like too and just like the dusty Wasteland where water is like impossible to find and and they go to the bar I mean there's not like creatures there but like that was cool so I just felt like you get a little bit of that Star Wars Planet element and then transported into like fantasy Fay land so you got like the best of everything yeah I agree I totally got those vibes curious if she explores that realm at all more in the next one we'll see yeah I mean something's got to happen with the human realm like while they're out there fighting their Fay War you know I would assume at some point we're going to find that out cuz her brother's still over there right at the end of the book isn't he still there I don't remember now there's a lot there's and there was that metal wielder that people have a l of conspiracies about some theories not conspiracies some guesses the one that was helping her the metal guy that maybe he's like uh carry on is like a hidden agent or whatever so curious to see if he gets brought over yeah yeah I'm sure that I mean we'll have to go back over there just to find out what's going on like also they're being obviously oppressed by madra who is in on it with the other people so like she that's why she's undying you know it's like yeah literally she has special power so it's all going to come back around yeah for sure it has to yeah anything else you wanted to go over are you good you feel good yeah I feel good I feel like between the interview and this like we really like hashed out just you know if you love Romany yeah just read this book man like you'll enjoy it it's a good old time yeah you know I flew right through it oh I do want to mention this though because I feel like we did not mention on the interview podcast um there are king fisher bonus chapters On's weite yeah so go read those if you want some extra um stuff treat you a little treat yep and they're just free to read on her website like literally you just click on the tab and they'll come up so pretty cool okay so should we sign off with a smash or pass let's do it all right I just thought of one for you okay so you know the movie Pinocchio uhhuh monstro the whale smash her pass if you were a whale if I was a whale I don't even remember what he looks like doesn't matter it's been so long well kind of like what Vibes ises he in hold on he just looks like a whale whale whale whale I mean does he even really have that big of a part in that movie doesn't he just like eat him temporarily yeah he's pretty angry he's pretty aggressive he's grumpy he is grumpy he's a grumpy whale if was a whale then sure cuz like I'd want a grumpy boyfriend there you go he could be my grumpy boyfriend whale yeah I think you're overthinking it there for a second just go with your gut all well it's like all I remember from Pinocchio was that really really disturbing one that came out in like the early 2000s where like Jonathan Taylor's Thomas played Pinocchio I haven't seen that one guys the way that movie hauns me like I'm sure there's other people out there who are like what the heck but yeah that's all I think think of now when I think of Pinocchio I don't even think I've seen the animated one in like I don't know so long yeah so I also had an animated Smasher pass oh what were you going to say pass if you're a whale pass too far he's gone too far okay yeah he's eating eating things blindly just going yeah yeah yeah um okay so I feel like we may have done this one before but not the same okay okay but I had to know for the people and also for you okay so you have to pick one okay so if you had to smash one would it be Lumiere or cogsworth I think we've done this one really I thought it was just I thought it was just only a smash of Lum you're right you're right oh dang uh Lumiere you have to pick one cuz I definitely said pass for Lumiere but so if I had to pick between him and cogsworth yeah okay fine Lumiere smash why give us a one- sentence explanation I don't know if it might be I might be like um no they're both bad when they turn into humans because everybody looks bad when they turn into humans um yeah what's that about I don't know just something about the shape of the clock I don't know he's a little too neurotic you know he's all fun loosen up a little bit and the Cabra is very loose so he's very loose going go with him about you it's true um I would say the same thing and the reason why I had you like verbalize it cuz I think I was just trying to work through my own reasoning cuz I also don't understand it um you know typically like the French accent does not do it for me however in the liveaction vers version isn't that you and McGregor's voice oh yes that helps yeah that helps yeah cuz we know that you and McGregor's back there you know um yeah I don't know I can't really figure it out either but just given the two options that's also who like I might I would pick the clock maybe it's has a tiny mustache like a really skinny mustache that really grosses me out part of it it's too hipstery yeah maybe that's part of it you know it might also just be because I think that we know that Lumiere would be good in bed because he satisfies the feather duster yeah exactly she's happy and she seems happy so yeah maybe that's maybe we not only is she happy she keeps coming back for more she does so that must say something you know no one's coming around for cogsworth yeah nope sorry guy poor guy so we'll find out I think that I I have an inkling that Lumiere will win but um yeah maybe I'll demand an explanation from everyone who votes also put in the Box why we need like if we really want to like get deep on this here like closworth rule follower you only know there's going to be only one position ever for the rest of your life so missionary yep ever so you know if you have to and not that we have to make a full commitment with the Smasher pass but I'm just like really thinking about all the logistics here just covering all the do you want an awkward weird situation or do you want just like a good time casual whatever yeah Candlestick okay Candlestick not the clock you know cumbersome too is it going to ding ding in the middle you know yeah Captain Hook you don't like her tick tocking too many annoying things going I don't know I feel like I've been pavloved with that because of like all of the hot hook references from all the dark romances so I'm like he doesn't like clock so you shouldn't be but no but he flies into a rage because he doesn't like the clock sound so then he gets hotter because when you are attracted to angry men with with emotional problems then obviously that does it for you well then I would still say lumire because even though he's casual about it he would be enraged eventually by clogs forworth ticking so his little like Flames light up too you know yeah and sometimes he has to like blow him out so maybe that's like you know I do love when he does that I do for some reason there's something about that also we're talking about personality wise too I would who would you rather hang out with luminer and he would get a little annoying for sure cuz he is little peppy the Pew adjacent but clogs worth would be like next level annoying like give it a rest we're going to the West Wing give it up yeah yeah I love how you're like actually now that I think about it when his little hands light on fire he blows those bad boys out it does it for me it does I don't know why you're sing me you're sing me yeah I love it maybe it's you know it's like it's smoking adjacent that's the best I can come up with sure all right you with that how about that thank you so much for being here guys thank you so much before you go make sure to like follow And subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast including YouTube and wander on Down Yonder to Instagram and Tik Tok at bess's in the books podcast and give us a follow there and we will see you guys uh yes next Tuesday and then next Tuesday get ready for Fridays too cuz I think that's when the mini episodes go out y see you then bye[Music]