Ep 96 "WE DID IT!!" 100+ Books RAPID REVIEWS! Year End Wrap Up and Book Goals for 2026

Our 2025 Reading Wrap Up 2.0 is here in all of its spoiler free glory! We’re giving you our one sentence star and spice rating for every book we read from July to December of last year, so get your pad and pencil out to add to your TBR… or to cross some things off… depending on how you look at it. We’re bringing you over 100 book reviews and then going over our yearly bookish goal recap from 2025 and reset for 2026.

First and foremost, we want to thank each and every one of you for coming along with us on this amazing podcast journey. As we go over our bookish goals of 2025, we realize that we were able to cross SO MANY off the list because of you, like interviewing dream authors, reaching 1k on YouTube, and doing four bonus series! We’ve already accomplished one big one of 2026: moderating author panels at RomantasyCon! We hope to meet even more of our reading and podcast goals this year so we can continue bringing you fun content, and we know we will because of our book besties. 🖤

We’ve got all that coming atcha before we finish strong with our bottom three and top three reads of the year, and end with a nostalgic smash or pass and some hot superhero action. 

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Check out these narrator interviews? ⬇️

Anthony Palmini gives us the lowdown on what it’s like to voice act Rhysand, Kingfisher, AND Slade Ravinger!  https://youtu.be/zcCyrlZ5Jcc?si=2k7ULbRPgZl_5pUJ

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Penn Cole talks with us about Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

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

Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE

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Transcript

My flabers were gasted. This is the only book that I can ever recall rating one star ever. This is why we say nice things, men. I know. I don't know [laughter] if I want to do that, but thank you. Write the review after you read it. [music]

Hey you guys, I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz and this is the Besties in the Books podcast. How's it going guys? Guys, hey, we are doing a spoiler-free episode today where we're going to be talking to you guys all about, hey, did we achieve our 2025 goals? Yep. Did we? Did we? Uh, book bookish goals. Um, what do we have going on for 2026 goals? Pod related, personal related, all bookish themed. So, we're going to get into that for our faves and fails section. And then this is the moment you've all been waiting for. Not really, but hey, [laughter] hopefully someone out there has been waiting for this. But twice a year, we do our rapidfire reviews, our one-s sentence star ratings of everything that we read. So, we already did January through June. We'll go ahead and link that video. But, we're going to be doing July through December 2025. So, here we are. We're actually doing it really early in the year this time. We're on top of it, believe it or not. And we would have posted this like literally second week of January, but we were trying to get the house made out sooner since it was, you know, the talk of the town. But so fe February, whatever, fe first week of February. That's good cuz when we were trying to find last year's see what the goal was. What was it like [laughter] April, March, end of March, something like that? I think it was March. Yeah, it was a little bit farther in. Mhm. Too long, Bill. Uh, and we do this this way because you know what would be too long and hard and deep. U doing the entire episode because that would be almost 200 books between the two of us. Yeah. Which is it but also crazy. Yeah, exactly. Too much too much brain space. Like one of Here, spoiler alert. Here's one of the goals I have for 2026. Write the one sentence star review when you read the book. How about that? Here's a thought. I don't know [laughter] if I want to do that, but thank you. Write the review after you read it. Oh, no idea. [laughter] I know. You forget to write reviews. My husband's like, "Hey, instead of writing 55 reviews at one time, why don't you just do it as you go?" And I'm like, you know, that is what you should do, but I I'm already behind now for 2026. And so then it just flies away in the wind. You know what I mean? Yep. There it went. There it went. Um, but we are going to be giving you guys everything that we read for the second half of 2025. Rapid pingpong back and f back and I'm like, what am I trying to say? Back and for back and back. You're just just me all on me. [laughter] It's just actually I read nothing. No, just kidding. Um, and we're going to be ending though with our top three and bottom three. So, what a plot twist in our podcast is if like you never read anything and it was all just me and you're just like, "Yeah, yeah." And you're like really good at guessing. Oh my god. Imagine people find out I'm a fraud. I've actually not read any of this. [laughter] Be horrible. Trust me, I have. No. Put in the work. Put in Liz reads the most. She reads more than me. [laughter] That's the funniest part of this. [gasps] So, spoiler-free, just so you guys know. So, this is a great way. Get out your pad and pin. Yep. Old school. This is a old school. This is a great way to find out if you want to add things to your TBR based on like very vague, simple, viby reviews. Truly, you know, because I feel like, at least for me, when I'm writing these, I try to include like maybe some, you know, like the highlight, the popular trope, something that like really roped me in, whatever, without giving any spoilers away. So, yeah, that is what this episode is good for. But before we get into all that, nothing else. Nothing else. We're not going to bring you humor, nothing. [laughter] It's going to be as boring as possible. Just kidding. Uh but yeah, before we get into that, we just want to say thank you so much for being here. Being here, guys, with us, a big thank you. Whether you've been subscribed from the beginning or you just stumbled upon us for this first video, welcome to the Crow Fam. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen your favorite podcast. We are also on YouTube. If I have it in me, I will be putting up every book picture in the YouTube episode so you can get a visual. I usually do, but sometimes I falter [laughter] and I don't remember. I don't cuz it's a lot of work. I will tell you. So, you know what? I'm putting it to my 2026 goal list. Make sure I do this for this episode. Great. This is my reminder to future editing me. But yeah, no, seriously. That way you get the visual. It's a good vibe. It's hanging out and having fun. We're Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. Also on Instagram and Tik Tok. And if you ever listen to one of our videos that you love and you think you have a friend in mind that would love it too, we would love it if you share it with them. Sharing is caring. It helps the helps the world, helps us grow the more [singing] you know. But we're almost we're going to be celebrating our hundth episode soon. We're going to be celebrating our official 2 years anniversary soon. Wow. That's crazy. So, that's only because you guys are listening and watching. And also because we like to hear ourselves talk. [laughter] We just need to get it out. We need to get it out. We love the Crow community that we've created here and it's so much fun. Crow community. We'll be sending out our Crowman pamphlets shortly. That's a tongue twister if I ever did have one. Um, so yeah. Yeah. No, we just it's so much fun talking to you guys about that, having you guys vote for all the book club picks and everything. It's been such a fun time. We are so so grateful for you guys that are listening cuz we know it takes a lot to like what who am I going to commit my time to right now? That's a big ask an hour or so, you know? So, thank you. We see you. We appreciate you. We really do. Yeah, we really do. So, that being said, let's get into first of all, what was your reading goal for 2025? And did you get to that goal? All right. I had upped my goal to 75 books for 2025. Mhm. I'm happy to report that I read exactly 75 books. Wow. [screaming]

Yeah. I'm so proud of myself. As a reminder, a few years ago before Liz lit my fire up my butt or whatever [laughter] the saying is

I don't know if [laughter] I want to do that but thank you. Lit a fire under my butt maybe. Perhaps. Okay, that sounds better. Um [laughter] I was reading like what you know one book a two years you know not not good not good. Um, I used to be a reader, had kids, fell off, wasn't prioritizing it, and uh, she reignited my fire, baby. Come on, baby. Light my fire. So, here I am. You can do it, too. If you think you can't, you can, too. Doesn't mean you have to. You can, too. Can you can too. To Can Sam. It all circles back to Can Sam. So, I'm proud of myself. That's a huge accomplishment that I would have I would have laughed at. 75 books for me. That's a lot. I know some people do a lot more. Liz did more. Some people are happy with five. Whatever you can fit in to the year, be proud of yourself. I do want to say that. Well, my goal, as you guys know, my goal was always 52 books for a year. Um, I finally hit that two years ago. So, this last year, 2025, I increased it to 100 because that's logical. I was like, 52, let's go to 100. Sounds great. Um, but however, I read 105 books. Yeah. Oh my gosh. How cool. Yeah. You were trying to hit that 52 goal for years and you would say I remember this time last year you were saying that you're always so close to it. And then last year I think you did 70 something. No, 90. You're like, "Oh, so close to just hitting 100 and having that be done." So then there you go. Yeah. You did it. I did it. [applause] We did it, guys. [cheering] Yeah. Let us know in the comments your 2025 goals. Did you hit it? Did you not? If you didn't, no biggie. This is the first year I think I might have hit mine. I don't remember. But hey, you know, obviously we put a lot of stake in it cuz we're like, we don't remember. [laughter] Yeah, maybe not. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I don't know. Well, here's my question to you then, because I was struggling with this. Do you have a reading goal for 2026? Mhm. Did you make one? Yes. Yeah. All right. What is it? 80. [laughter] Okay. All right. I'm not Yeah. I'm trying to be real real realistic. I didn't even know that I was hitting 75. I remember I was like really close to it at the beginning of December cuz I don't like check on it anymore. I really did the first year that we were doing good readads. And this year I was just kind of like I'm just too in the thick of it. Like just boom boom boom boom. And then when I went I was like oh crap I forgot to update some books at the end of 30. So that was a whole thing with good readads having to like add the books in and make sure the dates and then I had to wait for it to count and I was like look oh my gosh it was exactly 75. It's because I reread guild which we'll talk about and I had already re I already read it at the beginning of the year is when I finished it so I had to put that in twice and that was tricky to figure out. So anyways um I'm going to have to do that with Finch. So no I don't think so actually I think cuz I read it. No, it'll be enough time in between. But I'm kind of curious how you do that because yeah, now it's 2026. Um, this is gonna be hard to with all the dates. Uh, so yeah, I decided on the goal of 80 cuz I am trying to be real really realistic. I feel like we did cram a lot in and struggled sometimes with our goals and we are going to be doing one less bonus series this year with our podcast. So, we're going from four to three and trying to not do such long series this year just because we have a lot going on in our personal lives. And I think 80 maybe be realistic, but honestly, I don't know if I'll hit 80. We'll see. We'll see. I'm optimistic, but I'm trying not to be crazy by going up to 100 from 52 like this. See, [laughter] but this is a good example of how you might think you want something, but be careful what you wish for, [laughter] okay? because well because one of our goals for last year was to do four bonus series and so we achieved that goal. We in fact did that and then we were like maybe not. So this year our goal is to do three. So sometimes it's okay to actually decrease your goal to make it more um compatible with your life. Yeah. Attainable. So that's attainable. Yeah. That's your lesson. You know, sometimes balance is more important. Yeah. So, hey. Um Okay. So, here is my here's my thoughts. All right. So, tried to hit 52 books a year. Finally did. Okay. Then bumped it up to 100. Last year, didn't make it. Finally made it this year. Got 105. So, I was like, I don't really know that I need to set a reading goal. I feel like I'm fine just having like nothing and seeing what happens, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay. My I can't do it. Yeah. Fair. I've lasted I'm like what day is it today? I don't even know. I've lasted six days and it's driving me crazy. Okay. [laughter] Yeah. Like I just I have to have something even if I don't hit that goal just to have like an arbitrary something floating around in space that I can think about. You know what I mean? Like it it doesn't necessarily put pressure on me because for us with the podcast, it's more about reading what we need to read in the moment for the episodes that we have coming up. I'm not really looking at the year as a whole, but I have to have something there. So, I think I decided I'm just going to set a goal of 125 and then just let it be out there and just see what happens. I think for you that makes a lot of sense cuz number one, you're not going to be discouraged if you don't hit it cuz you already didn't hit it for so long when you weren't able to, you know, and now you already failed a thousand times. So, like [laughter] what's another time? And you took it like a champ, you know? You're you're not you're you're not a sore loser. So, that's great. No, I really don't care. That's part of the problem. No, but it's great because if you do get it, you'll be really really proud of yourself, you know? It's like one of those you're either neutral or super proud of yourself. So, that's a good win-win. It's I'll give myself a gold star if I fail as a participation trophy and I will give myself a gold star if I don't fail and it will have the same meaning to me at the end of the [laughter] day. So, cuz goals are all made up, guys. That's our point. None of this matters. They're just fine. It doesn't. I just need something to look at because it's satisfying to my brain. I need the dopamine hit every time I read one and I mark it red on Goodreads and it contributes to that number. Even if at the end of the year I don't hit that number. I don't know what that says about my brain, but hey, yeah, it is what it is. It works. Don't question it. It works. [laughter] So, okay, just really quickly here. Did you have any personal goals of 2025 that you achieved in your own life that you actually like 2025 goals that you remember that you actually hit for this year? Like Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, this is kind of our fail fave and fail portion. So, our fave would be hitting our reading goals, right? Yeah. So, it's our So, that is what we're doing this week for that. And then our fails we'll talk about as we once we're done talking about all these goals that we hit will be our fails. So one of my personal reading goals outside of counting was read a Stephen King book as small as that might be. I did it and I did it. I read Pet Cemetery based off of Liz's recommendation and I'll have a review. Thank you. Catch it. Um, [laughter] I will talk about my review on that when we are in the book review portion because that was the last half of the year that I finally got it in. Nice. Mhm. Do you have any other ones or do you want to go back and forth? Yeah, I think Yeah, I think that's it. I have three more goals that I didn't hit that we'll talk about in fails. One's a gray area. So, but hey, we'll put it in fail. Well, hey, this one is a win for both of us. Okay, so I had on my list read a fantasy book by a man. Oh, we specifically called out Brandon Sanderson and we read Misborn. Yeah, that was like January, literally. Yeah. So, there's another goal, gold star for both of us. Okay. I think I ended up having that on my list, too. So, there we go. Um, we had a goal to read the Kindred's Curse Saga, and we did. And we had Pen Cole on. Yeah. So that's like a million gold stars right there. [laughter] Hey, and then we also had a goal to read more of our friends of the podcast indie author's books and we not only read TJ London's books, but we also had her on. Yeah. So had her on. Lindsay came back for Between Two Kings. Yep. Yeah. We got Oh, Haven Ever After with Hazel Mack. That's a friend of the pod, dude. We killed some goals for sure. Yeah. So, I feel like, you know, those were all the goals that I had that we actually did achieve, which was great. I mean, I have some fails on here, which were goals I did not achieve, but that's pretty good. Like, that's pretty good. Oh, those are wins for sure. Yeah, those are all wins. So, do you have any goals from 2025 that you want to share that you didn't achieve that maybe are still on the list or what? Dude, I'm so mad at myself. I'm not because like I still hit 75 books and I wouldn't have any other time. Couldn't fit more in. Um, read Daughter of No Worlds by Chris Broad by Yeah, I [laughter] have it on here. I think it's on it every year for us. I know. I know. [sighs] It's hard. It's hard. It is. But hey, you know what? If you guys like the Plated Prisoner series that we're deep diving into right now currently, you know, and you feel like we need to do Daughter of No Worlds for that, let us know. Y I also have finished at least three of the comp uh completed open series that I have started mainly through book club. Yeah, I couldn't think of one that I continued on. Yeah, I mean I have I have on here the witch collector which I have also not continued even though I want to from Blood and Ash which I have still not started and the shepherd king duology which I still have not started. So, Mhm. Hey, those are all still, as we would say in the retail world, areas of opportunity. Yes. A Touch of Golden Madness was one from 2024 that I was going to try to get to the prequel of and now I think at this point she has the second book. So, that's two I'm getting behind. Um, golly, I'm like I couldn't think. I was looking through my books before and I mean I even didn't read um Songbird in the Heart of Stone. No, wait. We did that one. Sorry. We did that one. We didn't read Fallen in the Kiss of Dusk, the new one. Those aren't completed obviously because they're still coming out, but still like, come on, give me a break. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there are completed duogies within the series. So, yeah, that's definitely on my immediate list as well. You know what else is on my immediate list that was on our goals for last year that we didn't read and we still need to freaking read is Leanne Bell. So, the author who wrote one of our favorite um Christmas nollas, why am I blanking on the name of it? Hunted and Holly. Haunted and Holly. Yeah, she wrote a dark romance retelling of Labyrinth. Oh, yeah. That gets such good reviews. That might be a good spring one. Mazes and stuff. Yeah. So, I feel like we need mazes. Yeah. Mazes and spring. Mazes in the spring. Hedges and stuff. So, I feel gardening. Gardening. White rabbit. Little caterpillar. Hope of the morning to you. [laughter] Hopefully making that needs to get put back on the list. It needs to get bumped up because if there's something that Ashley and I both love, it is in fact Labyrinth. And if we can read a I mean, we know we like this author. It gets great reviews. We know we love Labyrinth. It's a full- length book. It's around 500 pages or so. I feel like it needs to get um bumped up on the list of priorities. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. So, did you have any other fail uh goals from last year that you wanted to mention before I get into my long list of failures? You know, tell me if I'm wrong. Um, I wanted to read to me the new genre to me, a horror romcom. I went through my list and I didn't see any, but I thought I did one, but Well, you read Lights Out. We talked about that, but that was last year, so then it was like, I don't know. So, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I never read like Butcher and Blackbird. That was like my example. So, I never got around to that. So, none are ringing a bell like immediately. But if I think of one when you're going through your reading list right now, I'll yell it out to you. There's stuff. [laughter] Unless it's holiday. That's it. That's the one. No, I don't think so. Yeah. Uh and I don't think at the beginning of I went through the whole year, you know, so hey, whatever. Whatever. Let it go. Move on. Move forward. That's all we can do. Yep. Okay. There we go, guys. Well, my fails. Okay. Okay. Other than all those books that I just mentioned that we didn't get [laughter] to. Um because we have a lot of other indie authors that we still want to read their books, too. A Clash of Tides, Priestess, The Deer and the Dragon, like those are all still on my list for sure. Um, but okay. So, some of my goals from 2025 that I did not complete were uh the 12 book challenge fail. So, the 12 books, 12 friends challenge. Yeah. So, I read a couple of those and they were really good and I'm glad that I did, but I like literally didn't even try to do it this year because I'm like I just want to catch up from recommendations from pre previous years and just let it be for now. I love that challenge and I think it's so fun, but I can't get more behind, guys. I just can't do it. I think yeah between personal reading list, podcast reading list, book club, bonus series, it gets hard. It does. Yeah, just organizing everything. But I will say that the books that I have read off of those lists are usually always so freaking good because they're people who know what I like to read and make recommendations accordingly. And it's how I found some of my favorite books. So, I need to get back to it. But yeah, right now it's just not realistic. Um, I never read Brutal Obsessions because I did want to read a dark hockey romance. I still haven't gotten there, but I'm thinking this is going to be the year out of sheer curiosity and I think that we've put enough time between us and hockey romance that I'm ready to go back, you know? Yeah, I'm ready to go back. I think the only other thing I just put a a check mark next to I wanted to make continue making funny content that I actually enjoy, which I have I'm still doing. That's pretty much like always been my philosophy is that I just make content if it actually like amuses me. Yeah. And so I've stayed true to that, which is great. I think that uh my biggest fail was I just haven't been writing. Yeah. Like and so that is definitely going to be on my upcoming goals or whatever, but I just haven't been writing reviews or otherwise blog posts, writing any like short story, anything as much as I had wanted to. So that's definitely going to be on my goals moving forward, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. But that is my wrapup from last year. So all in all, I feel like pretty good. Pretty good. It went pretty well. Definitely. So let's see. Do you want to kind of ping down the list of our 2025 podcast goals? Yeah, let's do it. Because here's the thing, guys. you helped us achieve a lot of our goals and it's really freaking cool when you I this is I think I've talked about this in the past but it's really easy to like not give it's easy to blow on past it and not give yourself the pat on the back and I think it's really cool that we do these episodes so that we can like remember wow that was a goal we set and we actually hit it that's really freaking cool um just to take that moment to like acknowledge it so let's do it so you want to start us off all right let's go to our first book con Check. Check. And it was so fun and awesome. That's where we met Pen Cole. We got to finally meet some people out in I'm one of our friends now. Jennifer Books by Rog. Dude, so cool, dude. That's I want to go get Daniel Jensen. We got Yeah, so fun. We got to meet Cali Hart. Like, come on. Yeah. Yeah, that was so cool. So, that was awesome. So, thanks for helping us check that off. Um, once per quarter, author interviews, guys. We have author interviews like coming out of our ears to be honest. Like that's so amazing. Like we get so many inquiries and emails for from publishers, indie authors, you know, larger authors to the point where like it's so exciting. We have to like cut ourselves off because we can only do so many. So, thank you for helping us achieve our once per quarter author interviews. We wish we could do more than what we're doing, but like we're doing the most that we can't right now. Mhm. But it's so exciting. Then doing a bookish retreat for book club members. Well, hey, we couldn't get that in. I'm predicting we probably can't add that to our list this year either. Maybe 2027, just cuz I know what's going on in our world outside of podcasting. And I think it's a little lot. It's a little It is still on the It's still on. It's still in there in the brain. It's going to happen someday. We're thinking maybe the Twilight House and Forbes amazing. That'd be so cool. So, it's there. It's there. So, the next one though, 1,000 subscribers on YouTube, which we hit. Thank you guys so much. Yep. So crazy. Apparently, [laughter] our goal was 3,000 on Instagram last year. We actually hit 5,000 on Instagram. So, we're so excited for that, too. Oh my gosh. So, the next one would be one bonus book series per quarter. So, I briefly mentioned this before. We flew too close to the sun, and we did achieve that. [laughter] Yes. Yes. So, we had to we had to come bring it back a little bit. We had to bring it back a little bit. So, [laughter] we'll be doing three this year um in what we're calling trimesters. Yeah. Um instead, but thank you for being along on the journey for all four of our bonus series in 2020. We did that. And then we're also doing Bladed Prisoner though, but as our normal Tuesday episodes, but every other week. So, hey, we make up the rules. It all works out in the end. It does. True. Well, especially because last this last year, our bonus series were all such heavy hitter. We started with Hunger Games. Okay. That's heavy emotionally. Okay. Yeah. And then we did Fifty Shades, which was easy, but it was annoying because it's 50 Shades of Gray. And then we did Anna Green Gables, which was eight books. [laughter] But amazing amazing but it's a lot you know and then and then Wicked kind of you know took a lot out of us also. Yeah that was that was mentally mentally. So we had very tough we had emotional silly and then very political. Yeah political and Oh god. Yeah. So we covered it all. We covered it all. So there you go. Beautiful. And then bookish photo shoot. Well, maybe we didn't do a bookish photo shoot yet. We do have one in talks this year, so that's good. But we definitely took a lot of pictures when we were, you know, visiting each other. So, we always try to do that, but not an official one, you know. Yep. Yeah. Um, we had a goal of 25 ratings and reviews on the podcast, which I don't think we have hit. So, that's still um an I still I'm like, what am I trying to say? So, that's still an area of growth that we can get to, but yeah, if you guys feel inclined to give us a rating or review, please do because we would still love to hit that goal this year. Yeah, they say it helps podcasts out a lot, so that sounds good. And we also love it reading reviews from you guys. So, I actually have one here. We hit 16. So, that's good. So, I don't think we've read this one on the podcast yet. So, shout out to Miss Cat N. Five star podcast. If you're looking for a show that's funny and genuine, look no further. A Liz and Ashley entertain listeners with their wit while providing spicy recommendations for your TBR list. They are two besties who make you feel like you're a part of their bestie trio. These ladies are blessed with the gift of Gab. If you haven't listened yet, you're missing out. A that's amazing. Thank you. Warms my heart. It's so funny because like I don't know if anybody would ever describe me as the gift of Gab outside of hanging out with you podcasting. Like I'm not like a talker in general unless like I'm really comfortable with you. So that's I think that you know hey that's so well cuz we just get to sit here and talk to each other and then share it with you guys. It's different. If you were to put us in a big crowded room of people it probably wouldn't be the same unless it was a planned out event. Guess it was romanty book club. It's different. I need like I give you a topic like tell me like I can talk about something that I love then yeah I'll have the I'll have the gift of gab. I won't stop talking. But if I have to like come up I'm not good at small talk. That's what it comes down to. Same. So I don't have that gift, you know, but it's very natural obviously doing it with your bestie and having a blast and it's so fun. Yeah. So thank you guys. Yes. It helps our podcast out so much. So, if you ever get time to throw a review out there, please do. Yes. Appreciate it so much. And the last one. Yeah. Podcast collabs. So, we were able to collab with Book Club After Dark. We did one on their channel. They did one on ours. It was super fun. It was really cool. like industry friends like kind of talking about that kind of stuff and what what people do behind the scenes and how they started and everything makes it feel like you know you have a sounding board out there too. Yeah, absolutely. It was a really cool experience. It's a great way to make colleague friends which is nice. Yep. Mhm. Okay. So, do you have any goals for you personally, your reading goals and whatnot other than just numbers for 2026? Read at least two of my Fairy Loot special edition books that I've gotten. They're beautiful. What? They're trophies, but I should probably getting get around to reading some of those one day. Some of them we just like coincidentally read because of book club and stuff. That's nice. Sure. Yeah. True. Not none of them that I've gotten this [laughter] year. But yeah, there's been like h you got I think it was fairy loot um this monster of mine right after we interviewed her, but it wasn't the one that I had. So I was like ah cuz I have I think I have romantic so I was like no. Yeah, that weight list man. It was crazy. I [laughter] know. Um Yep. Okay. Do you have any other ones or do you Yep. I also have write my one-s sentence reviews at the bare minimum after I read a book for my future self. That would be nice, right? Could save me a couple hours today. [laughter] I know. I know. Yeah. It's hard. It's so hard because when you finish a book for me, I need it to marinate at least overnight. But that's the kiss of death right there. Yeah. Cuz then you move on. Yeah. Cuz I'm [laughter] reading something else and I didn't even marinate. I just moved on. I know. I just started grilling. Yep. I just put here like setting 125 book goal. [ __ ] it. That's what I put. That's what I put. Okay. So, we already talked about that. All right. So, for me, I want to start making book reviews as reals because I think that that might actually help me to put them out because I love reviewing books. I just don't ever do it because they're all on the podcast now, right? So, it's like doing it on my own personal account or for things that we don't read on the podcast. kind of gone by the wayside. But if I feel like I just record a quick reel, then it's like doesn't require me to sit down and like write it all out and all that kind of stuff. So, that's a goal for this year for sure. Yeah. And then, um, for any of you guys who have been around for a while, you know that I've been working a really crazy overtime schedule, but that ends in September of this year. So, my goal is to get into a consistent writing practice again once I am done with that work schedule. Um a because I am have definitely behind the scenes been working on a horror book of my own and I was like getting a lot done like at least 1500 words a day for a while there and then I fell off the wagon because life and so I want to get back into doing that. So those are my main goals for 2026 personal. Yes. What do we want to do over here on the podcast for our goals for 2026 other than what we've already talked about. What else do we got going on? I put on here, interview a dream author or two. So, we've already had the privilege of doing that. Um, which is great, but I just want to keep the ball rolling. I have a couple in I have a couple in mind that I hope that we're able to get this year. So, we won't we won't spoil that secret, but that's definitely on the list. Yeah, we would also love to be a moderator at a BookCon. So, kind of putting our feelers out there and seeing timing wise does make things tricky, but it's definitely a goal of ours for sure. That'd be so fun. Yeah, that would be super fun. Um, that's definitely something me and Ashley want to do next time we get together next month, which is so exciting. We get to be together next month. Um, is kind of miss make a list of the books we'd be interested in going to and kind of like start narrowing that down so that hopefully we can go to some more in the future. Okay, so the next one we got to mention numbers because we are a podcast here. We want to continue doing this for you guys, which means we need some steady growth, which we've been lucky enough to have so far. So, this year, we'd love to hit 5K on YouTube and we'd love to hit 10K on Instagram, which we think is very doable. Tell your mom, tell your friends, tell everyone. Yeah, cuz we [laughter] hit that goal. Come hang out. Yeah. Yeah. And then again, we're trying to do a bookish photo shoot. We have some stuff in mind later this year. So hopefully we can get that in and that hopefully, you know, we've got our wheels turning on some trips and whatnot for later on down the line this year. But we're hoping to maybe do our first live podcast. Yeah, if we can figure that out. So that's definitely on the list of goals. Make sure you're following us on Instagram for announcements. That's always the first place to hear it cuz podcasts take longer to come out and then Instagram's instant Instagram. Oh, I get it. [laughter] After all this time, Ashley discovering instant. Well, I always post later. No, instant. Instant Graham. [laughter] Anyways, glad for that moment for you. I'm a deep thinker. Yeah. [laughter] Um, yeah. Again, bookish retreat, but like I said, I don't know if that's realistic for this year. might get pushed back another year, but I feel like those are all really realistic goals and, you know, we're just going to keep putting out the content that we enjoy and we think you guys will enjoy and, you know, spread the word. Yeah, we'll see where this year takes us. Let's go. 2026. Yeah, let's go. Big changes, I think, in 2026. That's what I I foresee in my crystal ball. [laughter] So, that's exciting. [gasps] Oh, okay. So, now that we've made it through the goals portion, should we just get into our crazy rapid fire of all the books that we read from [clears throat] July to December of 2025? Should we do it? Do my stretches. Stretch the net. We're going to try to like not ramble too much, guys, cuz I have 41 in total to talk about. Do you happen to have a count? Uh, roughly somewhere on here 56. Yeah. So obviously Liz will finish it off, you know, for a while. But hey, yeah. So we'll try not to ramble too much. Good luck with that. Good luck. Good luck to you guys. Well, are you ready? Drum roll, please. Yes. You're going to start us off since you have more and at the end. So you guys, you might be like, "Hey, why aren't you talking about whatever?" We have our top three and our bottom three will be after all of these. So we had to pick those through and then we'll talk. Okay. All right. So that's what we are doing. Go. Oh go. Okay. All right. Shades of Ruin by Willow Prescott. Five star. Five spice. So it is a unicorn. Oo. Five star. Five spice. Mhm. Hot af morally pitched black chef meets his match in the kitchen. And also not in the kitchen. Think Think the show You had a baby with the show The Bear, but make it really kinky. Oh, put that on your list, guys. It's so good. It's so good, guys. So good. My first book I will be discussing is Ann of the Island. So, this is part of our Ann of Green Gable series. And a lot of these, by the way, we have full deep dive episodes on. So, if you want to hear more, search it on our channel. You can go to view channel, the little search, little magnifying glass, type it what in what you want to see, and if it's there, it'll be there. You know what I mean? Yep. So, Ann of the Island, five stars. I loved being able to continue to read through Ann's growth as a person and her times at Redmond College and the importance of listening to her female intuition and letting and not letting the status quo stop her from pursuing what is right for her. Mhm. Without spoiling anything, I thought that was the best I could do. Yeah. There we go. Ann of Aan Lee. Five star zero spice. This is the one where Diana and Anne stumble on a beautiful lodge in the middle of the woods where they meet Mrs. Lavender and help her basically rekindle lost love. So, I was obsessed with this book. It was so romantic. So, stars Animal Farm by George Orwell. So, I listened to this audio book real quick in the summer. Four stars because I listened to the audio book. So, hey, take that with a grain of salt. That was a mistake. I would I should have just read it physically. I know. Okay. Cuz I definitely probably missed some stuff in there. So, hey. Yeah. Uh Ann of the Island, five stars. This one is about Ann's wild college years. Um and her interesting dating life, which included some people that I really, really enjoyed. And it was just a really classic kind of like cozy read that reminded me of like college times. And so, I love this book. Five stars. Nice. And of Wendy Poppplers. Four stars. An enjoyable time, but a completely different structure than the previous three books. These are kind of written like letters, so keep that in mind. Um, very emotional moments though throughout and character growth, but it wasn't necessary wasn't necessarily necessary for the overall story of an in particular. Yeah. Um, yeah. Same. An of Wendy Poppplers, four stars, zero spice. So, this one gets a slightly lower rating because it was mainly about Anne living with the widows, just living her life and learning to navigate society as a young adult. Um, and you know, when her and Gilbert are [clears throat] separated in middle in um he's in medical school, so I could have used more romance and yearning is what I put. I just felt like it didn't have enough of that for me. Yeah. My next one is Tangling with Trolls. So, this is the Haven Ever After series, book two by Hazel Mack that we interviewed earlier this year or last year, end of last year. Five stars. A fun time with this book. It follows the story of Ren and a troll named Oaken with themes of body positivity woven throughout. Very nice. Very nice. Nice. Yes. Thrum by Mega Smitherman. Four stars. Two Spice. She wakes up from deep space sleep to find all of her crew dead. So, she puts a signal out and gets the attention of a hot alien, but there's also an excellent twist. Very good. Partying with Pixies, also by Hazel Mack. I think it is book three. We get actual Halloween with this book, so therefore, it'll be a reread for me during that time of year. Love the vibes. Mhm. Yeah. Super cute. Devour the Dark by Nikki St. Cro. As you guys know, I'm a very big fan of this series. Um, I gave this one a four star, three spice. I said, "These books are all delightful little little spicy novelas with a surprising amount of magical world building that takes place in Neverland. This one in particular is about Wendy the crocodile and Captain Hook finally being together. And the audio is unmatched. A curse carved in bone by Danielle L. Jensen. This was Oh, sorry. Four stars though. Four stars but an Ugg. This was hard for me. Um, it does have a satisfying I want to say last half is when it starts like ticking back off, but like overall the two books as a duogy. The character the main characters weren't my favorite. So, it's hard to recommend this series. I had a hard time with it. It wasn't that it was poorly written. It's just that I didn't like the characters. So, that makes it tough. Yeah. Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. Three star zero spice. This was my first Chuck Tingle novel. This had so much potential to be fantastic, but just fell flat. It's a horror book about teens who get sent to conversion therapy camps where they're haunted by literal demons if they tell. But the story was predictable and anticlimactic, which disappointed me because it really detracted from the message. Bummer. Next, I got Ann's House of Dreams. Five stars. Great characters, so many emo moments, and the birthplace of That's Just Like a Man. That's Just Like a Man. I know. Love it. Uh, A Curse Carved in Bone by Daniel L. Jensen, book two in the saga, The Unfaded duology. Four stars, two Spice. As a huge fan of Bridge Kingdom, I was a little let down by this duogy. The mythology elements were really awesome, but the characters were insufferable a lot of the time, and the spice was mediocre. Yeah. All right, next I have Ann of Engleside. This is four stars. Insufferable Aunt Mary Maria kind of drags this book down as we are feeling and then as well as Ann unfortunately kind of feeling like an old hag while she's in her 30s. And then Gilbert saying some unfavorable and out of character things. Although they were kind of accurate for the time, it was still a bummer and it sucked nonetheless. So it brought it down a little bit for me. Yeah. Uh, Partying with Pixies by Hazel Mack. Five stars. Three Spice. This was The Haven book where the pixie who owns the candy store not only falls in love with the adorable single dad gargoyle, but she recreates Halloween for the humans, which is literally adorable. Yes, exactly. Love it. So good. Rainbow Valley. Um, it's a a mean three star. A mean-spirited three [laughter] star, but the overall writing is four star. It's based on Ann's children, their point of views. It kind of jumps around. So, I didn't really care for it. I just got through it. I would say you could skip it if uh unless you're a young child or you care. I don't know. It was a necessary read for me. So, yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Uh, Walting with Witches, also by Hazel Mack. Five star for Spice. Out of all the Haven Ever After books, this has to have the best character backstory. It was the only book in the series that made me cry, which always gives it extra points. And this one includes a sentient house who participates in the spicy time. So, I'll go with that one right now, too. Five stars. Also, one of my favorites of the series as well. It's It's hard cuz they're all five stars, but for different reasons, pretty much. Not all of them. There's a couple that are four, but this one also five stars. I can't say exactly what happens without spoiling it, but it's the most heartwrenching of the bunch. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's what I love about that Haven Ever After series is there's something for everybody. They're not all exactly the same. Yeah. Yeah. I know. They We were wondering if [clears throat] it was going to become repetitive reading all, you know, eight books plus a novella and they were all special and different in their own way. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. So, Victory for Vampires, also by Hazel Mack in that series. Four stars for Spice. This is the only Haven short nolla about the two vampires who own the coffee shop and their mate. It was cute, but I wanted a full-length book about them as well. So, my only the only reason why it got bumped to four stars for me was because it was too surface level. I would have preferred a full length. Yeah. Yeah. House of Beading Wings by Olivia Wilden Wildenstein. Sorry. Took me a second. Wenstein. Four stars. Crow shifter romanty that reads a little YA, but it does have great world building and I'm excited to eventually continue through the series. Uh, Ann's House of Dreams, five stars, zero spice. This book was so perfect. [laughter] Gilbert buys Anne her dream house in Four Winds Harbor where they meet Captain Jim and Miss Cordelia, which in my opinion are two of the most iconic characters in the series. and they help this woman Leslie free herself from her husband who has amnesia in order to find her true love again. So it was just what a delightful time. It was one of my favorite anbooks for sure. Yeah. Yeah. The next one is The Night and the Moth by Rachel. Is it Gillig? I forgot to write that one down. Okay. Three stars. Sorry. It was a struggle bus for me. Struggle bus. Passenger me. Okay. Apparently, that book was very like polarizing. You either loved it or you didn't. And I was in the didn't. I really struggled with it. Yeah. So, hey. Hey. Uh Ann of Engleside. Four stars. Zero Spice. This book was mostly about Gilbert and an starting their large family. Um there is some real and emotionable t emotional times in this book. Um, but the rest of the book was a little bit slower, focusing mostly on raising children and navigating married life. So, I liked it but didn't love it. So, that's why I got it four stars for me. Yep. Burn for Jack by Aiden Pierce. Dark romance fans will love this book if they're looking to dabble in some monster Halloween romance that's anything but tame. Read it, but trigger warning, please. Yeah. Mhm. Uh, Rainbow Valley, four stars, zero spice. So, this is the Ann book, mostly about Ann's kids from their perspective. So, it got a lower rating from me since it's not really my biggest interest. However, when I look at the books as one big collection, I do appreciate the setup it provided for book eight, which is the last book. Victory for Vampires, Haven Ever After. That was a four-st star for me. Also, same reasons. a nolla that I just wish you made a full-size book so we get some more character development because it was cool seeing them set up some havens out there. Yeah. Uh Rilla of Engleside. So Annie Gables book eight, five star zero spice. So this book is tied for my favorite with Anna Marie Gables because it's so important as a piece of literature depicting World War I from a woman's perspective, but it also completely destroyed me emotionally in a way I'll never forget. So please read it. [laughter] Yeah. So good. So good. That book haunts me still to this day. [laughter] Wrestling with Werewolves. Five stars. We are entering different havens now with this one. And it was so exciting to get a glimpse on how big this world actually is. It's also a fun age gap romance in there. I won't say more. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Uh, all right. Crow by Leila Fay. Three stars. Five spice. Absolutely not. Nothing about a crow shifter and birthing eggs does it for me, but three stars for originality and a jump scare. Yep. All right. Slaying with Silves, four stars. To me, not enough character depth. Um, but it is a fun time if you would like a why choose romcom romance. Uh, House of Eating Wings by Olivia Wildenstein. Four stars, one spice. We wanted to know if Crow shifters could be interesting and hot. And at this point, I think the answer to both of these questions is yes. Also, the world building and magic is very unique. The creatures are super interesting. The kingdom in the sky is super cool. We love a great scavenger hunt, especially for pieces of a shadow daddy. And the fact that the FMC can communicate with animals makes it even cooler. Yeah. Misbehaving with Minotaars. Five stars. More travel to other havens. So, that's fun. fun romance tropes, but not that are not always often times explorers explored in ways that I like. So, age representation and second chance romance. I love the way that she did this one. Yeah, it was really good. It was one of my favorites, too. Still Beating by Jennifer Hartman. Five stars, three Spice. He's her sister's fiance and longtime boyfriend who she's always been rivals with until they are kidnapped by an insane serial killer and have to work together to free themselves. The emotional trauma is insane. This book is so good for dark romance. So, highly recommend. Nice. Pet Cemetery by Stephen King. So, my final review is four stars. I'm not 100% sold on Stephen King yet, but only because something happens in the ending that really took me out personally. Um, but I did love his writing style and I do like how immersive he is and I was able to like go back and forth picking it up and feeling like I was right in there. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it was very interesting for my first Stephven King read to see how he can talk about smut and things like that. He can have spicy scenes that are male- centered. The women literally it's quick and off page, but nobody says [ __ ] about him. [laughter] Very interesting. Very enlightening. That's true. Yeah. Uh Holo Peen by Holly Wild. [laughter] Three stars. for Spice. [clears throat] Well, this one was strange. [laughter] Some young women at a party open up a portal like Bloody Mary style where some pumpkin headed, skinny men and a man made out of candy are waiting to dick them down, you know, as as you do. Yeah. A normal Tuesday. Um, Between Two Kings by Lindsay Stra. Five stars. You will not be prepared for where this book goes. And it's everything I wanted and then more. Burn for Jack by Aiden Pierce. Five stars, five spice. So, another unicorn. So far, we've only got two. A hot pumpkin-headed demon rescues his modern-day soulmate after traveling through spaceime and hell to find her after they were both killed in the Salem Wood trials. And the spice is off the rails. It was a good one. All right, we're getting into Wicked here. So, Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Five stars. It's the book that inspired the musical with heavy themes that go deeper, far beyond anything you ever thought about Oz. So, take what you know about the musical and whittle it down to a couple grains of salt. And then expand it and blow it up. Yeah, that's wicked. Uh, The Night in the Moth by Rachel Gillig. Four stars. Zero spice. This was a very well-ritten book, but it felt like the magic system was convoluted. The characters really bothered me and it was pretty slow, so I would doubt that I would continue. Yeah, Son of a Witch, four stars. I had a hard time with MMC, but I will admit that it was very well well written and the dual point of views with time hopping was very cool. Wrestling with Werewolves by Hazel Mack. Five stars for Spice. A Mexican princess werewolf falls for her dad's best friend, aka her much older bodyguard werewolf when she's sent to him for safekeeping. And yes, there's nodding. And Richard is one of my favorite MMC's of all time. So I love him. I love Richard so much. Basted by Abby Hunter. Two stars. Ah, it's one of our Thanksgiving um unhinged nollas and it delivered on that. That's for sure. Yep. Mhm. It was very unhinged. That's true. You have to experience it um if you must. So, uh Slaying with Silves again, Haven Ever After by Hazel Mack. Five stars for Spice. One of our favorite Haven Ever After characters finally gets her mates in an air air elemental with light stalker tendencies and a sweet werewolf shifter. You'll love it if Why Choose is your thing. There you go. Home for the Gobble Days by Latex Nova. Did I write that down right? Latrexa. Latrex. Latrex Nova. Uh Latrexa Nova. Latrex Nova. My auto correct. Okay. Yeah. Uh four stars. Halloween meets Thanksgiving. Horrifying but hilarious. It's ridiculous. And it does call out um you know what's it called? Colonialism. Problematic. Problematic. Yeah. Thanksgiving in general. Yeah. Yeah. Colonialism. Yep. Uh Making Out with Mermaids. Five stars. Four spice. This is also Hazel Mack. A downand-out mermaid with great disability representation and an ancient vampire billionaire. Fall in love. He rescues her from her terrible family, pays her millions for her artwork, and builds her a lake. How sweet. Well, well, well. I wonder if I forgot to put that one in. Make Maybe I hit 76 books because it's not on my list. So Oh, no. You loved that one, too. Yeah. So, I I loved that one. Um, five stars. Ooh, my f one of my favorite MMC's. Pretty sure. Yeah. Loved it cuz he was like the super old vampire dude. Yeah. Super old vampire mermaid. She has um she's like a Was she an amputee? Is that what it was? Cuz she had a fake leg, right? Is that what it was? Something like that. Yeah. When she was in her human form, people are like, "I thought she was a mermaid." [laughter] Okay. Yes. But she can turn the leg. That's [laughter] the problem. She's a mermaid. [gasps] I'm pretty sure that's what it was because he got her an appropriate prosthetic. That Yeah, it's coming back to me. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. It's beautiful, beautiful story. Beautiful story. Uh, misbehaving with Minotaars. Five stars for Spice. Also part of Haven Ever After. What a great monster. Second chance romance. Manorin. So, he's a Minotaur. Is so freaking charming and gives daddy energy so strong that he gave me a huge crush on a Minotaur. So, yeah. Hey, [laughter] love it. All right. We got Elfie by Gregory Maguire. So, this was the prequel that recently came out. I gave it a four stars. It's a cute prequel. It is not necessary in my opinion and doesn't necessarily answer questions that maybe you felt like were unanswered in the series, but it is a great option for maybe pre-teen, teen readers that want more of Wicked, but are a little too young for the heavy themes and some of the triggers and inappropriate stuff that happens throughout Wicked. For sure. Um, Any Man by Amber Tamlin. Five stars, zero spice. And yes, this is the Amber Tamlin from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which really surprised me. Um, extremely graphic and potentially triggering take on sexualized violence through the use of feminist horror. The multip and use of different types of poetry and pros throughout got this one a five star from me. Wow. Sisterhood of the traveling pants. Yeah, she read it and it's good. Nice. It's a lot, but it's good. Yeah. Put that on your list. Yeah. Cry for Krampus by Aiden Pierce. So, four stars for me because it was so entertaining and I was loling. Got a little um icked out at the end with the MMC, but hey, you know what? Not everything's for me, so I won't knock it. [laughter] Yeah. Uh, Wicked by Gregory Magcguire. Five star one spice. Excellent world building and some of the most wellthoughtout and executed political commentary I've read in any book, regardless of genre. Definitely worthy of the insane expansion pack that ca became the play movies and fandom. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. The po Oh, this was a hard one. This was a hard one because I really wanted to put it in my top three. So, I had to make sacrifice. So, I'm going to It's still a top though, guys. The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. I'm trying to tell everybody about it. It is so good. We read it in our book club. Uh, another fave. It was It's It was I'm just I'm obsessed. Please read it. It can be a one and done. It's not necessarily going to be a part of a series unless she changes her mind, you know. Hey, so good. Read it. Y so much in there. Just do it. It's romantic. Just do it. Son of a Witch, book two in The Wicked Ears by Gregory Magcguire. Five stars. Zero spice. What can I say? I love it when a book is told in two different timelines and they perfectly align at the end. I love this book. I just wish that Alphaba's son Lear wasn't such a dud. Yeah. [laughter] Ain't that truth? Yeah. Gifted to his dad by Jay Wilder. It's a three star for me. I just didn't love the way that this dynamic was done and we go in depth in that with our unhinged holiday reads. So, some choices were made. wasn't into. Hey, uh, A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire. Four star zero spice. Entertaining story about the cowardly lion's life, but because I didn't love his character and thought it was a bit repetitive, it didn't get five stars even though the writing was good.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping by Alta Hensley. And listen, we just did a live on this last week. Uh, and our lives stay up on YouTube, so if you want to hear like really unedited, unfiltered thoughts, not that really I do much editing with this other than making everything match up. Um, [laughter] it uh, no, absolutely not. Um, what did I rate this? Two stars, I want to say. Um, hey, I think you gave it three cuz I was surprised. No, I'm pretty sure I gave it two. Here, I'll look at my notes. Yeah, you gave it one. Oh, maybe that's what I was thinking. Maybe that's what I was thinking. Okay. Um, listen, as people who read dark romance and whatever, that's not what we're saying here, okay? Because it is dark romance, but it's like what a bunch of dummies who don't look at any red flags and you want to be pulling your hair out because people are so stupid, then read it. Okay. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Great. Uh, Between Two Kings by Lindsay Strabby. Five star, five spice. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Dang. You got three. Three so far this past. I think there was four for the for the whole year. I think there was four. Yeah. Beautiful. Obsessed with this follow-up to Kiss of the Bassilisk. Read it. It'll rip your heart out in every possible way with excellent soul crushing writing and character development, but make it spicy AF with several MMC's to choose from. Or why choose? Oh, The Lost God, also by Sheila Masterson. She got voted anonymously two times in a row. That's beautiful for book club. So, four stars for this one. The story does have a lot of potential and I will continue it someday. So, I can see I can see the groundwork being laid out much like our favorite fantasy series where it takes a little while to get hooked in and then at the end you're like, well, what's happening there? I want to know more. Yep. Absolutely. Uh, Basted by Abby Hunter. [laughter] Four stars, five spice. Jilted woman gets revenge in her ex's professional kitchen by banging three sentient meat basters who then become her soulmates. Just wow. Yep. It's all we can say. Just wow. Yep. Yep. [snorts] Emotional damage. Yep. Brimstone by Kelly Hart. So, this was four stars for me. I loved the continuing story and it is a solid middle book. There are lots of loose ends currently, but I mean I expect them to be tied up in the next one. So, yep. If all goes right and according [laughter] to plan. Yeah. Uh, Home for the Gobble Days by Latrex Nova. Three stars for Spice. Anytime there's mention of danger involving an orgy with angry, horny ghost pilgrims in their rusty screw, I will think of this book. That's true. [laughter] Ah. jump scare. The housemaid by Freda McFaten. So, this is a four stars for me just because it was quick and entertaining read. You know, there's some surprises in there and we had a good time. We just did a deep dive episode on it a few weeks ago if you want to check that out. We compared the book to the movie. So, shout out to us. Shout out to us. Go watch more of our stuff. Okay. [laughter] Um, The Last Feast by Axe Cole. So, this is my last unicorn. Five star, five spice. I do have to give a shout out to 9inch novels because she recommended this book and she re recommended any man um which was the horror one written by um the sister of the traveling pants lady. Okay. Um so two five stars. Honestly, this book has every freaking trigger imaginable in it. So look it up. It was gloriously deranged, brutal, horrific, gory. So it's like dark romance horror. Um and hot AF. Both main characters are as unhinged as they could possibly get and that's all that I remember. [laughter] Great.

Will reread. I'll tell you that. I will reread it. So, this is my last one before we get into tops and bottoms. Uh, Guild by Raidan Kennedy. So, this is a reread for me and I'm not going to go in too much to it because just last week, the last week's episode was all about Guild. And if you missed it, I'll tell you right now, my first time reading it was three stars. Uh my time reading it now and the reread is a five star, baby. So do with that information what you will. Yes. My biggest my biggest recommendation is just keep doing it. You can tell what what goes from a three star to five star. If not because you read further and things got better, made sense. Yeah. Yep. Uh Break the Glass by Jack Whitney. Three star, three spice. Think one of the Winchester brothers hooking up with a demon they accidentally freed. Could have been hot, but it was missing something for me. Oh. So, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Like, I didn't really know was wrong with it, but I was like, it just didn't resonate with me for some reason. I don't know. Yeah. You would think that the Dean Winchester vibes would have sealed the deal, but for some reason, I don't know. Just like fell flat. Yeah. All right. So, I'm just I'm just going now. It's all yours, baby. Okay. Here we go. Entity by Meg Smith. Five stars to Spice. A crazy scientist guy hires a fringe journalist to write about his run-of-the-mill sex robot, but she discovers that Hidden Away is a different sex robot, a secret one, and it was really good. Five star. [laughter] Okay, interesting. Okay, so then I went on to read Swallowed by Me Smitherman. So, if you haven't noticed, I basically read all of Me Smitherman's books this year except for fantasy one. Okay, so swallowed, five stars, three spice. A group of scientists and astronauts go to check out our only hope of a viable planet for the human race to colonize. And the planet itself literally starts consuming their minds and bodies. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. She writes like romance sci-fi stuff. It's good. Yeah. Trippy. It's a little bit of horror. Okay. Out of Oz by Gregory Magguire. Four stars, one spice. Well written, but at the end of the day, a somewhat long and unsatisfying conclusion to everything that is the Oz and Wicked Universe. Yeah. Cry for Krampus by Aiden Pierce. Four star for Spice. This was such a great take on the Krampus story with just enough fem rage, revenge, and horror elements in it to make it unique and interesting. Gifted to his dad by Jay Wilder. Four stars, five spice. Literally the perfect taboo topic without making it weird. She is dating her college boyfriend who just so happens to have a hot AF exppdad. They all met as adults who want her to be part of their throppple. So, they take her to their Christmas cabin in the woods to introduce her to their ways. Elfie, four stars zero spice takes a little bit of the wicked universe and makes it appropriate for kids and then have Cynthia Revo narrate it and boom, there's a prequel. That's all I [laughter] Oh, yeah. The narration guys do that. Yeah. Makes it a little bit more worth it. Didn't love it. Was a four star. Yeah. A very killer Christmas by Leila Fay. A three star, three spice. I didn't love this one as much as the previous book, which was a very stalker Christmas. This one is about a killer who is fully accepted as his true self by the woman whose house he breaks into for refuge from the police and they fall in love. It felt too simple and a bit hollow to me. So that's why I got a three. No. Listen though, I went down the rabbit hole of Aiden Pierce as well because we've [clears throat] read some of her stuff, right? I accidentally read Bend for Bor by Aiden Pierce. Five. Spice. Four stars. Yep. Uh I thought it was another Christmas romance, but it actually was a St. Patrick's Day romance. I didn't realize that until I was basically done. Yeah. He's a literal Irish giant who can hold her in his palm and shower her in his stuff, if you get what I mean. Kinky AF. And I loved every minute of it. Literally, it was so great. All right. Uh again with Aiden Pierce. I included these in the same review. So, Step Devil One and Step Devil 2. Okay, these are both four stars for Spice. When you think you hate your stepbrother, but he turns out to actually be some type of paranormal demon in a cult you need to escape from who you cannot resist. Wow. Okay. Yeah. A lot going on. [laughter] Also, adults, everyone's on the up and up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brimstone by Cali Hart. Five stars. Three Spice. In my opinion, this was the perfect follow-up to Quicksilver and did not slow down in pacing whatsoever. The found family was perfect. The world is expanding exponentially, but it didn't feel chaotic. The spice was really good and the twist at the end was amazing. So, I'm obsessed with Brimstone. The Lost God by Sheila Masterson, four stars, one spice. I had no idea what to expect from this book, but I will definitely be continuing the series. The world and magic system is really unique and our FMC got very powerful and very interesting by the end. So I want to see what she can do and if she ends up in a why shoes kind of situation then great. Scream Snowdrop by Aurelia Knight and Amy Oliviera. Five stars for Spice. So she's a ballet dancer from a wealthy family with an alter ego working for the underground crime lord in charge of her city. And he just so happens to be her ex-stepbrother who she goes to for help in a bind. But little does she know that he has a plan to ruin her life because he is that same crime lord that she works for. And all of this starts by him forcing her to marry him. Literally obsessed. Yeah. Forced marriage mafia. Such a match made in heaven. [laughter] Uh, The Housemaid by Freda McFaten. Three stars. One spice. I read it because I wanted to be part of the movie hype. The book was just okay and didn't have as much feminine rage and horror elements as I would have preferred. It was also fairly predictable but entertaining. Run Starlight, which is also uh by Aurelia Knight and Amy Oliviera. That's um book three in the series. Four stars, three Spice. So, this is a different ballet dancer with a dark tortured past and she's sucked into the underground world of two mafia brothers who have become obsessed with her. I wasn't obsessed with it, but it was a fun good time and kind of like a why choose situation. Mhm. My last book of the year, The Housemaid Secret. Three stars. Zero spice. I thought I'd get more vigilante feminist justice in this one and it didn't happen. I'm done reading the series. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Fair. [clears throat] Okay. So, that being said, why don't we end with our bottom three and then we'll do our top three at the very end just so we can like end on a high note. Sounds good. Sounds good. Okay. Let's keep on ping ping camp. I can't even say it. Keep on pinging and ponged back and forth. [laughter] Great. Okay, you go. All right, so bottom three. And I know these aren't meant to be serious, but oh well. Um, Hello Peen by Holly Wild. [laughter] What the hell? Like it could have it could have been better. You know, there it was a very like lot of weird things going on and then it just wrapped up real quick. So, wasn't into it because we read a lot of unhinged books that end up being our favorites. So, you know. Yeah. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Shock Induction by Chuck Palanuick. Never thought I'd see the day where he'd be in my bottom three. Yikes. Three star zero spice. I've read a great deal of Chuck Palanuick's catalog and highly respect his originality and social critique, but this book this book felt like a fever dream with no real point and the writing was barely comprehensible. Yikes. Yeah, that's how it was. Pygmy was like that for him. I literally DNFed it. I couldn't do it. Yeah. [clears throat] Um, Crow by Leila Fay. Two stars. Let's go ahead and just delete this book from my memory. It's Crow. the crow involvement specifically. They will not ruin crows for me, but I will never look at an egg the same way again. Congratulations. I already hated eggs. I'm a vegan. I already hated eggs, but somehow that book made me hate them more. Yeah. Great. Elephants. Eggs. Yeah. Why did we have to do that? I forgot about the elephant thing. Why did you remind me? Cuz I can't forget it. Yeah. Uh, so I saved you from reading this one. So, you're welcome. You're the one who put it in my brain, too. I didn't even know about it before. Krampus Crook by Serena Pierce. Oh, that's so funny. I was like, "Sure, I'll read this." Three stars, three spice. Honestly, I don't know what the point of this book was other than to read about doing a guy in his 60s. It had nothing to do with Christmas or Krampus. Great. Let sure you read The It was It was And I like to this day still have no idea why. Yeah. I didn't try to get any more in because I looked up more pictures and I'm just like, you know, I just can't get behind it. I'm out. Sorry, Krampus. I'm out. So, I do enjoy a good Krampus book, but this one was not even about Krampus. I don't understand why it's called that. Yeah. Yeah. Great. That's annoying. Mhm. All right. My last one I'm going to mention is my most bummer book of the year cuz it's not like that it was bad, poorly written necessarily. Well, Out of Oz, Gregory Magcguire. It's the one that took the wind out of my sales. It was so hard to get through. It was so unnecessarily long and it did not satisfy. So, yeah, it gets that award. Yep. Uh my biggest bummer of the year was He Sees You When You're Sleeping. Yeah. Yeah. By Ala Heley. [snorts] Uh at least it wasn't long, right? Yeah. [laughter] This is the only book that I can ever recall rating one star ever. Yeah. Uh I gave it a two spice and one star. I literally would have DNFed this if it wasn't for book club and our hilarious chat. This book felt like it was written by a 15-year-old boy about what dark things girls might be into. I use dark in air quotes. It was literally my worst read of the year. So crazy. Okay, so let's get into our top three of the last half of 2025. Let's do it. All right, we got Ananthemma by Carrie Lake. Dude, I love this book. dark fairy tale. I was immediately sucked in. I loved the spooky creepy vibes the second I started reading it. And the MMC is perfection, dude. Is there a coinc is great, too? Love them. I'm like, is this a coincidence that like literally Anathema is sitting right behind me here? Right in this spot. Um, yeah, cuz it was also my top three in the second half of last year. Yeah. Nice. [screaming] Uh, five star, three spice. Literally the perfect dark romanty with a gothic atmosphere, Salem witch trial vibes, and next level shadow daddy, and a badass FMC. Like, one of the best books I've read in a while. No exaggeration, because the world just feels like you're immersed in a Grim's fairy tale, but like with the spice and love story we wish we had when we were younger. Yeah. Oh, so good. makes me I mean I still haven't gotten around to Eldrich which is the sequel and it's like killing me inside and like honestly though I will say since we're reading Played of Prisoner it's fulfilling that for me right now but if I wasn't I'd be like dying to read it so I need to get to it very soon. Yeah and I think this was one that I switched to the audio halfway through or something and it's so good audio is so good too. Yeah, we had a lot of good book club reads this year. We did. We did. We did. Um because my next one is also book club I believe. Shield of Sparrows by Devany Perry. Is that also yours? Do we pick all the same top ones? I think our third one isn't the same, but that's pretty funny. Um so, but my my review for this for you guys right now because I believe that was the beginning close to the beginning of last year. Um no, it wasn't. It was after six months. So, I don't know when. I don't even know when I read this book. I don't even know when I fit it in. Good luck. I don't remember really anything, but I remember being obsessed and enthralled and I will probably be rereading this because there's a lot of important stuff. Well, the sequel comes out in like 3 months, I think. Crap. I need to reread it. It was super good. It was one of those that was like super hyped up. So, it was right after we read, not right after, but shortly after we read Silver Elite, so I was like, I don't know. But it was voted for a book club, so I did it anyways. And I was my flabbers were gasted. What do you have to say about it? Uh, Shield of Sparrows by Devany Perry. Yeah, top three for sure. Five stars, two spice. This book came out of nowhere and I'm completely obsessed with it and cannot wait for the sequel to come out. The Guardian, who is the MMC, is top tier book boyfriend material. The world building, magic, and creatures are so unique and creative. And the completely insane ending has me on the hook. Like, it had that crazy ending. Oh my god. So good. It's all coming back to me now. Not all of it, but some. [laughter] Ah, yeah. Just a a solid extremely good book one in a new romanty series. So, really exciting. Yeah. All right. My last one is going to be I gave it to Reilla of Engleside. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I must have finished cuz I went off of my dates in good readads. I did the first two books before so in June. So, that's why they weren't on my list today. Um, so I gave it to of Engleside and my little teaser is what were the women doing in World War I? Well, finally someone tells us and it's an emotional journey with growth and development and also staying true to who the character is. Yeah, I really struggled with giving it was between the it was between real of Engleside and this book. Um, and so honestly like the reason why I gave it to this book and not real of Engleside is because I just love the author and she is still with us [laughter] whereas obviously Ella Montgomery is not and so I really wanted to give her this shout out. Um, The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. I mean just the fact that I was choosing between her and literally Ella Montgomery should be a really big compliment I would think that she's up there with like some great authors. Um, five star, three spice. Mhm. Literally, this book like took us by storm. Like a near It's like a oneoff nearperfect romantic with twist turns, great tension and spice, and arranged marriage, political subturfuge, vampire zombies, excellent world building and magic, FMC we love, and one of our new permanent book boyfriends for both of us. [screaming] Just read it. Like, literally, just read it. Oh, seriously. Seriously. You won't regret it. Yep. Five stars. So good. Five stars. Mhm. Well, that was a journey. Yes. Journey to the center of our reading list. Yes. There we go, guys. What was your favorite and least favorite read of 2025? Let us know. Maybe we'll add some more to our never- ending TBR. Yeah, for real. If we're feeling good about this, then it's time for Smash or Pass. Time to sign off with a smasher pass. Yes. Okay. So go Dr. Evil. [laughter] That's so funny. Wait, you're talking about from Austin Powers, right? Yes. Okay. Literally, that's so funny that you say that because I was literally just thinking about Dr. Evil. That's freaking weird. You were going to ask me that. No, no, no. I wasn't going to ask you it. I was just think the other day I was thinking about Dr. Evil. I was like, "Oh, I forgot about him. Those would be funny to like rewatch." He's definitely a pass. Yeah, he's a pass for me. He's hilarious. He's hilarious. And I want to watch the movie for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So funny. That's so weird. I was literally just thinking about him. That's so strange. Yeah. And I only thought of him because I was looking up I'm trying to look up like gold style or like you know, I don't know like things. So I thought of Austin Powers and Austin Powers led to Dr. Evil. So I put him on a list for a random episode. So this There we go. That's funny. That's so funny. All right. What do you got for me? So, mine is a you get to choose your adventure, but I'm curious because this is something that like um I'm really into, but like you're not as into it as me. So, you have to pick to smash a superhero, who is it? Like a comic book, like, you know, Marvel or DC? It's Batman. Yeah. Out of all of them. Okay. Which Batman? Christian Bale. Christian Bale. Batman. Okay. Yeah. Do you have a runner? Do you have a runner up? No. I feel like that was too easy for you. We need a runner up. You have to choose another one. Not a villain. I know. Villains are easy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Another superhero. Yeah. Yeah. You have to pick a runner up. Sorry. I don't know a lot of them, so it's hard for me. Um Oh,

Wolverine. Forget it. Batman. Wolverine. [laughter] Sorry, I forgot about you. Yep. [gasps] Wolverine. Hugh Jackman. He never disappointed. Although he's kind of iffy on me now. Ended up not being one of the good ones. He like cheated on his wife and stuff. Thought we had a good one out there. And he's getting weird. He's getting old and weird. I know. And not a good way. Well, that was one of the things we loved about Hugh Jackman, right? Is that he was like married to his wife forever and they seem to be like so happy and dreamy together. Now he's just gross. Being all gross with Ryan Reynolds. Forget it. Forget it. Yeah, that's why I forgot about Wolverine. You ruined it. What about you? Sorry, I'm just like having a moment of silence [laughter] to mourn. Yeah. Um I mean my top would I mean I'm I'm just a girl. My top is like freaking Superman. His gives me the His little curly queue. Man of Steel. What's his real name again? Kell. I still don't believe you. Google it. It's a conspiracy. Liz is lying to me. He doesn't His name is Superman. But literally, yeah, that's just his name. That's what they call it on his planet. No, I figured it out the other day. I don't remember. I was talking to my daughters or something about Clark Kent. I was like, it's because I feel like that's his name. Alter ego name. Yeah. So, it's a disconnect. Name is Clark Kent. It's not some guy. He's an alien. I know, but still. No, he gives me the ick so hard. But my runner up would would be um Christian Bale as Batman also. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Beautiful. I'm trying to think. Yeah, cuz I feel like they're just they're classic. Wolverine's good, too, but now he's been tainted. So great. We need a new one. Have to ru have to ruin I Well, I know. But then they're going to cast someone who's like 20 years old and it's going to ruin it, too. You know, I know. You just can't win anymore. You just can't win. This is why we can't [laughter] have nice things, men. I know. Yeah. Are they nice things? Are they nice things? Were they nice things? Yeah. [laughter] Were they nice things? They weren't. They weren't. It was a facade. Oh, you guys. Well, that's all the time we got for today. Thank you so much for listening. What a journey. Truly a journey. What an episode. I know. Yeah. It's a lot of pages we went through to lead us to this place. Pages and pages and pathes. Pages and paths. I was like, pages and what? [laughter] What's going on? All right, we're just getting delusional at this point. We got to cut it off. [laughter] Here, cue the like cane pull of stage by our necks. Like the old time movies. The Academy Award music. [laughter] The beeping, dude. Dude, is that what you just did? [laughter] And then a bomb just goes off. You took too long. You're dead now. Okay, great. Well, you guys, if you want to see more of this, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like favorite podcasts, including YouTube. We're also on Instagram and Tik Tok. Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. We appreciate your guys' support over the years. Now, are coming up on our two-year annie. [gasps] And thank you. Have a great freaking awesome, wonderful day. We'll see you next Tuesday. Bye bye. [music]