"The Hurricane Wars" - No Hurricanes And A Shadow Daddy Anyway

The Hurricane Wars sets expectations fast, and we had one immediate question: where are the hurricanes? We bring our full reading group energy to Thea Guanzon’s viral fantasy romance, digging into what worked, what dragged, and why a book can be beautifully written while still leaving you feeling like you hit pause halfway through the story.

Before we get to the main review, we run through bookish news we can’t stop thinking about: upcoming romance releases, cozy sci fi we’re excited to read, and the surprise announcement that sent us spiraling into Baldur’s Gate curiosity. We also unpack a New York Times conversation about massive fantasy age gaps and why so many readers find it appealing when the love interest “knows how to adult.”

Then we get into The Hurricane Wars review: the Raylo fanfiction roots, the dense worldbuilding, the light magic versus shadow magic setup, and the kind of true enemies-to-lovers tension that’s rare when a story commits to making the characters actual enemies. We debate pacing, trope overload, and the uncomfortable edge where “redemption romance” can start to resemble a colonizer love story if the narrative doesn’t do the moral work. We also talk about whether the audiobook format makes the poetic prose easier to sink into, and who we’d still recommend this to even if it wasn’t a slam dunk for everyone at our table.

If you’ve read it, we want your take: did the slow build pay off, or did you bounce? Subscribe for more romance book reviews, share this with your favorite romantasy reader, and leave a rating or review so more listeners can find us.

Links from the News Segment and Show:

• Sara Raasch’s Royals and Romance book 3 has been announced: Joyfully Ever After releases March 2027
  • Instagram Link
• Becky Chambers new novel As You Wake, Break the Shell releases October 2026
  • Sapphic sci fi love story
  • Facebook Link
• T Kingfisher has written a Baldur’s Gate novel called Astarion 
  • Releases late Sept. 2026
  • Instagram Link
• New York Times article about the allure of multi hundred-year-old age gap
  • “A 481-Year Age Difference? For Some Readers, That's Hot.
  • Instagram Link
  • NY Times Link

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Disclaimers

Mari 0:05

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts. All creative works, discussed or reviewed, are the intellectual property of the creators of said stories and are being used under the fair use doctrine. Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast where we read, watch, and discuss romance and romance plus romance adjacent stories. So I am one of your hosts, Mari. And with me, as always, I have my beloved Kelly.

Kelly 0:44

Hey everyone, it's Kelly. We also have Ashley.

Ashley 0:47

Hey guys, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan 0:50

Hey everybody, it's JP. How are we doing tonight? What today? Whenever you're listening.

Mari 0:56

A full disclosure, I am exhausted. I just got back from Monsterotica BookCon. And you guys that follow us on social media, you'll see a billion stupid, silly posts from me about it. But yeah, this is the voice you're getting because this is the best I got.

Jonathan 1:20

It's pretty good, pretty good voice. Pretty good voice. But I try I try to be like as supportive, like some like, oh, you're posting about Monsterat. Let me just hit the heart here. And then now all of a sudden it's just like Monster Atica, Monster Autica, Monster Atica.

Romance Release News Roundup

Mari 1:42

Well, it just ended and everyone is posting stuff about it. So yeah. Whoops. Yeah. Come come join the dark side. Um good stuff. So today, though, not Monster Romance. Today we're going to be discussing The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon. But first, as always, some news. I don't have a ton, uh, but I do have a few interesting tidbits that have happened since last we did news. The first one is Sarah Roche, who wrote uh Nightmare Before Christmas that I've talked about a lot that I really liked. Um, it's that series is called the Royals and Romance series. It's book one and two, it's out now. She announced that book three, which will be the final one, is coming out. It's going to be called Joyfully Ever After. So this is the one where it's the holidays are like royal families. So it's basically set in in a modern kind of setting, like modern day, there's cell phones and whatnot. Um, and you have like the King of Christmas, aka Santa, you know, and his his his kid, the Prince of he's got two kids, Prince of uh Prince of Christmas. You've got like the Prince of Halloween, and the first one is it's a male-male, like rom-commie story. It's really sweet. Yeah. And then the second one is like the other Prince of Christmas and the Prince of like St. Patty's Day. And I believe this third one is gonna be their friend that's been throughout all of them. It's uh it is um she's the queen of Easter or the Princess of Easter. It's gonna be the third and final one. Um it's supposed to wrap them up and have like a blog for everybody. I am really excited. This is the same author who did um The Entanglement of Rival of Wizards, which has been a little bit more popular that people may have heard about. It's a that's a male-male um yes, yes, yes, yes.

Ashley 3:38

Right now that you say it out loud.

Mari 3:40

Yeah, it's like an academic rivals kind of thing. Like they're they're at a wizard, it's all modern day. They're at a wizard like college and they are, you know, enemies and they have to like share space and share a grant money, and hijinksons sue from there.

Ashley 3:57

Hijinksons.

Cozy Sci Fi And Becky Chambers

Mari 3:59

It's good. So this one's coming out March 2nd of 2027. It's gonna have purple edges. The first one had red edges, second one had green edges, this one's gonna have purple edges, and it'll be the the conclusion. I'm I'm excited about it. I I think I mainly just read it like maybe three years ago now, when it was just like I was picking up some like something light, cheesy, you know, Christmas reading. Yeah. Um and I'll yeah, I ended up liking it a lot and ended up reading a bunch of her other stuff. So I'm excited about that. Um next one that I'm excited about, another favorite author of mine is Becky Chambers. She writes sci-fi, but it's not hard sci-fi. It's like sci-fi, cozy sci-fi storytelling about what it means to be human. Um so she wrote the long way to a small angry planet. She also wrote the oh, what is it called? Wild Psalms for a Robot. These are very cute titles. They are like it's definitely like cozy sci-fi, and the audio is really good too. So the first series, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, has several books, has five books, um, but they're not like like you can read any of them. They're not necessarily you have to read all of them in any specific order or anything. They're all complete individual stories, and that's called the Wayfarer series. And her other book is the monk and robot series. It's two books, two very short books. It's a psalm for a psalm like P S A L M for the Wild Built. Okay. And it's basically uh takes place in a world like a post-technology world where humans have gone, it's in the future, but humans have gone back to doing things without like AI or robots or things. And a robot wakes up and meets a monk, a traveling monk, and asks the monk, like, what do humans need? Um, and so they're on this little journey to figure out what humanity needs.

Ashley 5:58

Oh my.

Mari 6:01

I've read them both several times, but she's got a new a new series. This is a sci-fi as well, but it's unrelated to the others. And it's going to be called As You Wake, Break the Shell. Um, it's a sapphic uh sci-fi love story, and it's gonna be released September 15th of this year of 2026.

Ashley 6:22

Oh, that sounds so interesting.

Baldur’s Gate Book Hype

Mari 6:24

Yeah, I really like her writing style. It's very um, like I said, it's very cozy, but yet it's in space, so it's like futuristic. There's there are like love stories and things, but it's like the found family and the and the friendship stories are equally as important as the love stories in it, or just you know, different kinds of love stories in it. Um yeah, yeah. I have liked every book of hers I've read, so I'm excited that's coming because it's been a while since she wrote a book. Next thing I have, surprise, another favorite author of mine has made an announcement. Um so I was, you know, doing the doom scroll on I think it was Instagram, and I saw like I flipped through and I saw, oh, that's that character from that video game. I guess they're making a book of him. And then I look and it's like, oh wait, this is a Baldur's Gate novel. It's called Astereon. Asterion's like this very popular character. I don't play the game, I don't know a lot about him. I just know that Astereon is very beloved by many people. And then I look at the top of it and T. Kingfisher is writing this book. You're messy. Yeah, yeah. And then people are like, oh my god, and Neil Newban is doing the audiobook. Neil Newbin is the voice actor who does the voice for the character in the video game.

Ashley 7:43

Oh wow.

Mari 7:44

Yeah, so I'm like, they just got everybody together for this thing. And I was like a party. Yeah, oh my god, I would like to pre-order, please, and thank you. And then I I actually was able to get in on I think it was Barnes and Noble, I and get a assigned pre-order assigned copy.

Ashley 8:01

Nice.

Mari 8:02

So excited. But this book is coming out September 29th of this year. It's gonna be, I I believe, uh, and I have never played Baldur's Gate. Kelly, have you ever played or do you know more about Baldur's Gate at all?

Kelly 8:16

I know a little bit about Baldur's Gate 3, which is the one you're talking about.

Mari 8:20

So that's the one that's coming out, right?

Kelly 8:22

Or has it already Baldur's Gate 3 is already out.

Mari 8:24

It's been out for a while. Okay, see. But it's it's a like DD-esque kind of type setting, right?

Kelly 8:35

Yeah, I mean it's set in the Forgotten Realms. It's set in the classic DN, one of the classic DD worlds. So it's set in the same world that the Dungeons and Dragons movie with Chris Pine was in.

Ashley 8:46

Okay, okay. So in context. First of all, I'd like to thank Kelly for referencing something recent for those of us who have not DD'd it. Like at first, he started out like this was common knowledge that that I should, and I just I just don't, you know what I mean? But then he he he strung it all together to make it something Chris Pine locked in. Thank you, Kelly. I went perk. My ears were like, oh, Chris Pine, I know this. So kudos to Kelly for making it referenceable.

Kelly 9:18

The video game is very well received, it's pretty popular because it has a huge, almost open world concept where you, you know, there's a whole story that you follow along, but you can do a lot of customization and do whatever you want. You know, you can romance this character or that character or make choices that affect what happens as far as the story, like eh, I don't like these wood elves, so I'm not gonna, you know, do favors for them or whatever.

Mari 9:48

So would you say it's like next stage open world from like how Skyrim was, which I think is the latest. Okay. I may have to play this then, especially before September, before the book comes out. So I'll halfway know what I'm reading.

Kelly 10:02

Yeah, and just like Skyrim, part of the popularity of it is that there's a a thriving community of programmers who make modifications to the game that you can install. Like there's somebody who's made a whole like thousands, I think thousands of different hairstyles that you can import into your game so that you have more choices in hairstyles for your character creation.

Ashley 10:26

Okay.

Mari 10:26

They're invested, is what you're saying. Well, I know like I haven't played Baldur's Gate, obviously, but with Skyrim, it was very cool because you could whatever it was you were interested in made the game for you. If you wanted to go out and explore the world, great. If you wanted to get all the ingredients and like make potions forever, that's your jam. If you wanted to like find all the materials and do weapons forever, cool. You know, you've played the game how you wanted to play the game. And so if Baldur's Gate takes that another level, that's that's pretty cool. So but that was a huge thing, like that was crossover for me. There was like book people talking about it, there were gamer people talking about it and geeky and DD and whatnot, and I was like, okay, all right.

Kelly 11:05

That guy's character is probably the most popular character in the game.

Mari 11:09

Um do you know anything about him? Like what is he? He's a vampire. Oh well, vampires are popular, sold.

Kelly 11:15

Flipbench smart ass vampire, so all he's hugely popular amongst you know women gamers because of it.

Ashley 11:22

I mean, who doesn't love a smart ass vampire? I mean our standards are low here, guys. It's just we're not asking for much.

Mari 11:31

So yeah, I bought that when it's coming, and we'll see. Maybe I'll get into playing the game before September and have a little more context before I read it. But I was excited just for a new T. K. And Fisher book.

Ashley 11:43

I was gonna say it's a heck of a lineup to start with. Yeah. Even without the game.

Age Gaps And Why They Sell

Mari 11:47

Like I saw the the the Instagram post and I was like, oh, that's a cool looking book. Oh, wait, that's that Baldur's Gate thing. Oh, wait, shit, that's Tiki Fisher. It was like a levels of surprise. And I was like, oh, let me let me go buy this now. Yes. The last bit of news I have was a um New York Times article. And I found this through a Instagrammer I follow. She's an author, but I mainly I have to fully, full, full uh my brain's not working. Full disclosure. That's what full disclosure. I have not read any of her books, but I follow her because she does these funny skits about like reading and you know being a little book goblin and things like that. Her name is Elizabeth Wheatley, W-H-E-A-T-L-E-Y. And she was one of the people interviewed for this article, is why she was talking about it. Uh, the title of the article is A 481 Year Age Difference. For some readers, that's hot. And basically it was talking about why it is that these age gap differences of, you know, multiple hundred years, like huge age gaps, like non-human age gaps, are popular in so many um genres and or fantasy romance and like with so many people, mainly where the readers are mainly middle-aged women. And her response was that it was because they know how to adult. Like you don't have to ideally, you don't have to teach a 400-year-old year old person how to adult. They can make their own choices and they can do their own thing without you having to teach them.

Ashley 13:26

I mean, my thought process there is that they're their prefrontal core, what is it called? Um lobe. Like yeah, like their their their brain is fully developed, right? So they've reached a level of maturity that not most young adults have reached when you're when you're in that space. Yeah. They've evolved. They are the adult in the room when you're when you don't want to be. You're looking for the adultiest adult, it's them. They've got to be.

Mari 13:51

It's a 481-year-old Faye.

Ashley 13:54

Also, the bank account, right? Like for me, like you've been around this long, you're you're probably not broke.

Mari 13:59

Yeah, yeah. I thought it was just an interesting, like, little discussion. But I I generally agree. I think it's the idea that there's somebody that can like take care of things.

Ashley 14:08

Yeah. Here, here. So we're tired of making decisions over here.

Mari 14:13

Yeah, yeah. For sure.

Jonathan 14:15

Hear that, Kelly? Only 440 more years to go, Kelly.

Ashley 14:18

That's it.

Jonathan 14:18

And we'll be set. We're not asking. And the love of our lives, we just have to make it that far.

Ashley 14:24

You just have to grow up a little bit more, house.

Jonathan 14:26

Grow up a little bit more, Kelly. We're gonna make it. Couple, a few more centuries, Kelly. We're gonna be on an easy street.

Mari 14:33

Are you looking for some camaraderie there, Jonathan?

Jonathan 14:35

Yeah, I don't know. I'm still putting the toilet seat down. I learned that in the first century of life.

More Book News And Surprise Buys

Mari 14:43

Uh-huh. All right. Any other newsy things or anything that I haven't put on here?

Jonathan 14:50

I got a handful if you're if you're up for it.

Mari 14:53

Absolutely.

Jonathan 14:54

I got um Aurora Asher announced the book six in the Hellbent series, a little bit of like surprise. The it it's contemporary Demon Spice, which is fun for me, not fun for everybody, but fun for me. Um, I do like her. I thought she was a pretty receptive uh author, good with communication. That's coming out in uh January of 2027. And uh it just means I'm it looks like it's gonna fit, like the size of it and the design of it looks like it's gonna fit right in with the other five that I've got here. But now I've got to call her again and be like, hey, I need another book plate. I need a book, yeah. I need another book plate because you you done you done messed up Aaron.

Ashley 15:35

Hey, Bessie.

Jonathan 15:36

Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. I've got one from uh from a uh a fan favorite here, uh Sara Beth Durst, S S B S B D, as uh I call her when she's not looking. Um she's got uh The Faraway In hit the New York Times bestseller list, and I'm not sure if this is her first book on the New York Times bestseller, but she looked kind of like emotional when she was announcing it. And that's uh that's always fun. Mar, you've had some more intimate uh interactions with uh with Sarah. I think at the last uh book con, you are like, hey, let's take this elevator, and then you got on the elevator, and then Sarah was like, Are you guys here for a book con? Here for book coverage.

Ashley 16:21

Just the nicest, for sure.

Jonathan 16:24

Absolutely. Uh so yeah, that was a that was a cool one, and and it's a very lovely book to look at, too. So good edges, good cover.

Ashley 16:32

Sorry about Beth Durst really does put her foot in these book covers. I don't know who's on her design team, but they're killing it.

Jonathan 16:40

Yeah, yeah. Looks really pretty. And then the last piece that I have is I did I finally achieve the the quest of discovering which mystery signed a release that I purchased.

Mari 16:52

Oh yeah. What did we buy?

Jonathan 16:56

It is uh it is Stormside, which is part two in Alex Astor's series. It's a deluxe uh limited edition. So I did I I I can't remember I've we read one, I I think I read book one of the other series.

Ashley 17:11

Yeah, you read Light Lark.

Jonathan 17:13

Light Lark. Okay, cool, cool, cool. I was like, those books look familiar. And I did like uh what I read from her in that one. So, you know, hey, I'm not mad at this. Uh, it's gonna trigger me to buy book one in this series. But yeah, they definitely sucker packed me. Uh so I don't think I had a bad deal uh at all. I'm happy and content, and I'm gonna keep my uh pre-order in place. The cover has not been revealed yet, but uh at least I know what I bought.

Ashley 17:42

So, and I think when we looked it up, we found that this is book two to the new her newest series, but book one released like a month ago or two months ago. So it's interesting that she's dropping two sizable books, I think, in the same calendar year.

Mari 17:58

Yeah, book one is called Star Side, 512 pages, dropped March 31st of 2026.

Ashley 18:05

Yeah, I didn't realize that that was a whole new series. I thought that that was like part of a prequel series or something to the Light Lurk series. So I was underinformed. But yeah, so that's what the surprise book is.

Jonathan 18:18

Interesting. So I'm cool. I'm cool with that.

Ashley 18:21

Yeah, we didn't get to meet her last year at the book conversation. Yeah.

Mari 18:25

The first book synopsis is an orphaned blacksmith's apprentice enters a deadly competition to reach star side's magical realm, seeking vengeance against the goddess who killed her family.

Ashley 18:36

Vengeance.

Jonathan 18:37

It could be good, yeah. Um, you know, it's dangerous for me to watch Forged and Fire too long because I'm just like I can do that. I can get me go get the new hobby, right?

Ashley 18:48

We don't have enough hobbies, I guess.

Jonathan 18:50

Yeah.

Ashley 18:52

Pray for me, you guys.

Why We Picked The Hurricane Wars

Mari 18:54

All the hobbies. All right. So I believe that is everything. That's all I got. That is all the things. So we read The Hurricane Wars by The Eguanzon because this month, May, is PI month. American, Asian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So we wanted to, you know, pick a book by an author that would be in that category. And we've done that, we've done that, I think, every year. We've we we've we've done a May read. Um tried to do that for for you know throughout the year for different groups. Um I had read a book by her before, not not this series. I had not read this one before, but I had read a book by her before. Has anybody had anybody read anything by her before this?

Jonathan 19:41

Not I. No, I I don't believe so.

Synopsis And Setup For Discussion

First Reactions And Raylo Origins

Mari 19:44

So I read and enjoyed, it's a standalone, it's called Tusk Love, T-U-S-K Love. And it's uh kind of a D D vibe. Uh it's written in the world of Critical Role. So basically, there's a I'm gonna break this down, and people who play DD who know way more than me are correcting me right now. I'm sorry. Jeannie, I'm sorry. But basically, um Critical Role is a group of like audio voice actors and and narrators and whatnot uh played this game in this world called Critical Role, where it's the Dungeons and Dragons rules, but they have like their own storyline. And it's gotten so popular. There's been, I think, cartoons. I know people cosplay them all the time. The characters that these people do are very like popular, so you can like watch them play this game or listen to them play this game on like YouTube or pod, you know, listen to them in audio or whatever, multi-hour long um games. But in this world, the characters in that critical role had this in-joke that they were like, oh, we we're going to the new town, we have to like go check the bookshop for the newest bookshop for the newest spicy books or for the newest like edition of Tusk Love. And it became a running joke. And so then this author, Thea Guanzan, wrote Tusk Love to be like a tongue-in-cheek of this is the book that they that they re reference in this. This is the smuddy spicy book, little romance book that they reference in it. It's a cute story. I it's a cute little standalone story. It's a fun read and a fun listen, and I would I would recommend it to anyone who thinks that any of that sounds intriguing to them. Okay. So that was my experience with her. So, what did we think of the hurricane wars? Actually, no, I'm sorry. I was gonna say I am changing our format. Did I say I was tired? I am tired. Okay, so this book was published November 5th, 2024. And let me read the synopsis and then we'll get into the details. Um, all Talassan has ever known is the hurricane wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless knight emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But Talassan is hiding a deadly secret. Light magic runs through her veins. Blazing power that can cut through the Knight Empire's shadows. Believed to have been wiped out years ago, Prince Alaric, a morally great hero and his father's weapon, is sworn to obliterate any threats to the Knight Empire's rule with his mighty shadow magic. He and Telassin lock into a deadly dance of warring empires that neither can seem to truly win. Until, in a clash of light and dark, their powers emerge to create a strange new force, and a dangerous, forbidden attraction reveals itself. This war can only end with them. But an even greater danger is coming, and Telassin and Alaric must decide, can they work together to save their world, or would they end up destroying each other? Thoughts.

Ashley 22:39

I have big feelings. Go for it. I I have big feelings because I read somewhere, and I don't know if this is true, so I don't know if anybody else has the lore, but that this book was originally like a Raylo fanfic. Correct. And so I think I spent an abundance of time in my brain trying to figure out not like who was who, but like how these things applied in a in a George Lucas Star Wars world. And I think that that was very distracting for me, having not read the fanfic first, so that I could then enjoy this one more. I don't that doesn't make any sense. This is not rational at all, but I have very big feelings. I I wanted to love this book. I've been dying to read this book for like two years, and I there there were where were the hurricanes? First of all, where were the hurricanes? I didn't see one hurricane. Um and so that was a little disappointing. I did appreciate there was a ton of worlds building, which I appreciated. Um it was a little thick for me though. Like there, I there was so much buildup, I felt, and I don't I don't think I got enough out of it at the end, but I thought she did an amazing job at building this story and creating it into something else that was not Star Wars, assuming that it is based on that fanfic. I think that's what I remember.

Mari 24:12

It is, it is definitely a Relo fanfic. And I agree with you. I feel like I can't fully review this book because I don't feel like it was a full story.

Ashley 24:22

Yeah.

Mari 24:23

I feel like we put pause in the middle of a movie, yeah, and that's it.

Ashley 24:28

And not in a bad way. Like I I I started this book being very like, oh my god, this is gonna like I I couldn't like latch on. And definitely by the end of it, I was looking up if the second book was available because to your point it felt unfinished. Like it wasn't even a cliffhanger, like usually we get just like a brutal ass cliffhanger, right? From these romanticy authors. Um, I I definitely got drawn in, you know, in the last like quarter to third of the book. There, there I haven't had tension this good in a long time. There was there's a lot of there's talk about enemies to lovers. This is a true, true enemies to lovers um in a way that I haven't seen in a in a long, long time. So I I did appreciate the storytelling. It just felt like so like 500 pages of storytelling without a lot of story. Does that make sense? Like it's I think for me it was just a little bit too much world building. Um, and the only reason I will be fair, because I I was ready to just figure out how to finish the second book, but I found out it was a trilogy and the third book is not out yet, it's expected out later this year. Yeah, so I think I'll tackle it then because I couldn't handle another 400 pages plus, and it's not shitty pages by any means, because I was ready for book two. I think I just need I think I'm gonna need a complete picture after knowing what I know in the first book. There's a lot left undone, yes, incomplete, unknown.

Mari 26:01

Like this is like most of the things, yeah.

Ashley 26:04

It wasn't it wasn't bad in the sense that I have no desire to finish it, but it it's kind of close. You know what I mean? Like there was a lot there and a it felt like not a ton of return, but she did something, right? Because I'm ready for book two.

Mari 26:17

Right. No, I agree. I was like, uh this feels like an incomplete story, but I'm gonna read the next one.

Ashley 26:23

I feel almost like it's a a prequel.

Mari 26:25

Also has the vibes of a prequel.

Ashley 26:27

Oh yeah, now that you say that, I I can see that.

Mari 26:29

Um but I yeah, I agree. I feel like there was a lot of repeated world building. And um and I did I did spend a good bit of my first half as well being like, oh, this is this in Star Wars, and this is this in Star Wars, and this is this planet, you know. And at one point I was like, um, are are the lightsabers just like lightsabers, like giant lightsabers? Um, which is fine. Like I don't have a problem with fan fiction, you know, being changed into something else. Um but I feel like the they weren't even in the same room or even really in each other's thoughts for the vast m vast majority of it. And then like towards the end when there was a little bit of like a forced marriage thing, I was a fan of that. But by that point, I feel like you you had so much of Telas's like viewpoint of everything that she'd lost in this war and everything bad that you know the Empire did, that it it was all of a sudden it was like this oh, this is feels like a uh colonialist love story, which I do not uh vibe with at all. And no shame on anybody else who loves it, that maybe they're jam, whatever. But like this guy is part of the baddies. You know that skid, are we the baddies? Yes, yes, yes, he is the baddie, yeah. And I believe that he is smarter than this. The way they they make him out to be like this smart character, and yet he's just like I think at one point in our fable n club thing, book club thing. I put that he's got big throbbing daddy issues. Big throbbing daddy. Can we put that on a shirt?

Ashley 28:15

Yes, big hashtag big throbbing daddy issues.

Mari 28:20

I was like, come on.

Ashley 28:21

People are gonna come up and be like, tell us more. Big throbbing daddy issues. We're gonna use that in conversation this week. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm I I don't know, actually, to be fair, and I think only because we know, and I'm just a basic Star Wars appreciator, right? Like, I don't know the deep lore, I haven't gone beyond the movies. I watch the documentaries that Jonathan watches, but like, is she gonna do something different? Because the story that Alaric gave for their quote side, right? Their reason for fighting doesn't necessarily sound unreasonable. Did someone fire on them first, right? Did someone violate, you know, the the land treaties or whatever? Yeah, they wanted technology, but the technology didn't exist and it hadn't been used yet. So was there someone that was out for it for the wrong reasons and now this turned into this other thing, right? What if she, what if Alark's side is not the dark side? I don't know if that's where it's going because he is very much, you know, just an angsty damaged little boy, let's be honest, but not for nothing. She's an angsty damaged little girl. She has this whole found, true found family situation, and she just left them, right? To go back to the found family that she found on her own, kind of thing, out of loyalty or whatever. So I don't know. I'm really curious to see if she follows, you know, they're quoting here like Star Wars lore, good side, dark side, light side, dark side, whatever. Or if this is more gray matter, right? Like, are there two sides and both sides are right in their own points of view, and this all just escalated into something really, really bad. Like, she wasn't wrong, right? You don't go massacre an entire country because your grandfather was slaughtered. Right. It sucks, but like you gotta man up, right? Sometimes you get a bite of bullet. But you know, wars have been started for less and continued. So he seems to be processing a lot faster than any of the baddies in Star Wars. So I don't know. Like, I don't, I don't know where this is going. And I think that's what's driving me for the next book. As in and the first book was beautifully written. Like I audio booked it and I read it. I was just going back and forth. And so I actually think I had an appreciation for the audiobook just because there was a there was a lot of like there was a lot of language, like she's very wordy, like almost poetic. And that that's a dense read sometimes.

Mari 30:59

I agree. Guys, what do you think? Boys.

Tropes Pacing And Colonizer Romance Debate

Ashley 31:02

I need the Star Wars experts to to chime in.

Kelly 31:05

It was terrible.

Ashley 31:08

Sorry.

Kelly 31:09

So the pacing was terrible. This this book was a fan fiction that was opted to be published much like the Hermione. The Draco Draco Hermione, whatever thing.

Ashley 31:20

Yeah.

Kelly 31:21

So she had to take the crux of this story and then jam a whole bunch of world building into it to create a whole new world. And that's why there's so much world building over and over again, because she just had to cram it in there. Um, so that's where you get all that from, and a lot of the elements were just left in there, you know. Yeah, you had a light side and a dark side. So instead of a you had a light weaver and a dark weaver instead of a a Sith and a Jedi. So it's all very straightforward with that. And I'm guessing it's called the Hurricane Wars because the star destroyers or storm ships, you know, when they would go around, they created these magical storms like hurricanes that did all this destruction.

Ashley 32:06

Oh, I didn't know that. So I just thought they just like blew up planets.

Kelly 32:10

Well, no, and I mean in this book that's what they did.

Ashley 32:12

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 32:14

So I guess that's why it's they call the the conflict the Hurricane Wars.

Ashley 32:19

But not a damn hurricane in sight. That really pissed me off. Right.

Kelly 32:22

It's not like we ever made we never actually have one happen in the book. They just talked about them having had happen during the war.

Ashley 32:29

Unpleas unpleased. I was unpleased.

Kelly 32:32

Um and and you know the characters were very boring. Very flat. Very flat. And it had a lot of the I mean, it had a lot of the classic tropes that are popular in this genre. You had the shadow daddy with, you know, parent issues.

Ashley 32:50

He was a shadow daddy.

Kelly 32:52

Again, he is a literal shadow daddy with parent issues who's six years older than she is, which doesn't seem like much, but she's like twenty, which means, you know, when he was twenty, she was fourteen. So I guess it's not a terrible age gap compared to some other stories, but that's still kind of a pretty big age gap for such a young person. Um, and then like we had all this world building about the diamonds and the dominion and all this, but not a whole lot about the night empire other than they're the night empire.

Ashley 33:27

I think I think that's gonna be the next book.

Kelly 33:29

But yeah, to be clear. Yeah, so like, okay, it's the Night Empire. We're calling it the Night Empire, so you just have to assume they're bad.

Ashley 33:36

That's what I'm saying. I don't know if that's what she's gonna do.

Kelly 33:42

They they essentially invaded her land, Sardovia, and wiped out all the people and then started rebuilding it and repopulating it. That is exactly what the Nazis did. That's exactly what every colonist conquering nation does.

Mari 34:00

Yeah, the Americans.

Kelly 34:01

So you cannot tell me that the Night Empire is not the bad guys. Right. They are 100% the bad guys. So we're getting into this setup where she is gonna somehow redeem him, which is what every fucking Raylo or the fan fiction about Rey and Kylo Ren or whatever is based on, is that somehow she gets him away from the dark side, right? It's the classic thing in these romantic stories is he's a bad, evil person, but I can fix him.

Mari 34:31

I can fix him.

Kelly 34:32

You can't fix him.

Mari 34:34

You can't fix that.

Kelly 34:35

Okay.

Ashley 34:36

That's a lot of fixing.

Kelly 34:38

So it's and then what the fuck even happened on their wedding night?

Mari 34:42

Who knows?

Ashley 34:43

That's so many metaphors. Who knows? I was gonna say that's angry sex, is what that was.

Mari 34:48

That was horniness, is what that was.

Ashley 34:50

Yeah, that was that was a lot of angst buildup.

Kelly 34:54

So, first of all, you're not gonna tell me that a 26-year-old dude who is the son of an emperor, who is apparently attractive and in shape, has not had sex, has not had women throwing themselves at him his whole life. So the fact that he has never had sex, never touched a woman is in probably the most unbelievable part of this whole story.

Ashley 35:17

That's what doesn't it for you. That's the line. We found the line for Kelly.

Kelly 35:23

So it's just so many terrible things. I mean, arranged marriage, enemies to lover, shadow daddy. I can spix him, you know. I'm just uh I'm just you know, a teenage girl, but I'm special with these special powers. I'm the only one in the world with these special powers, and I'm the only one that's gonna be able to do this. Oh, and by the way, I'm an orphan. By the way, I'm an orphan who's secretly power a powerful wizard.

Ashley 35:50

Jonathan, what what did we call what did you call this?

Jonathan 35:53

Oh, I don't know.

Ashley 35:54

The cornetropia.

Jonathan 35:55

Oh, when they put when they smash everything together.

Ashley 35:57

Yeah, they smashed all the tropes in.

Jonathan 35:59

The tropes are in the same place, in the same place. Yeah.

Kelly 36:02

Yeah, this is totally the the meme of the the dude from Pimp Your Ride. Yo, dog, I heard you like tropes, so I put some tropes in your tropes for your tropes.

Ashley 36:14

Yes. Oh man. Yeah. You're not wrong, Kelly. You're not wrong. There is nothing wrong about this, but I still can't wait to eat up the second book, and I don't know what that says about me.

Mari 36:26

I don't I think I just I want to, I want, I want a complete story. This is why I I I used to have such a hard time DNFing. Like, I want to know what happens, even if I'm like forcing myself to finish it.

Ashley 36:39

I think that makes us masochists.

Kelly 36:41

I guess if I had to predict she is gonna somehow save him. She's gonna save him. He's gonna see the air of his ways. He's probably gonna have to kill his daddy. Oh that's what's gonna redeem him, and they're gonna stop the whatever it is from wiping out half the world.

Mari 36:57

Yeah.

Kelly 36:58

I mean the Thanosnap. Yeah.

Ashley 37:01

Not another trope. Sorry.

Kelly 37:05

Yeah, I mean, it's it's the I it there's an apocalypse, and I'm the only girl in the world that can stop it.

Mari 37:11

Beat me when the apocalypse happens, in the words of of Buffy. Yep.

Ashley 37:17

All right, husband, give it to us.

Jonathan 37:19

This was not the book for me.

Ashley 37:21

He's so polite. Very early on, he told me too. He was like, this one's gonna be a bitch.

Jonathan 37:28

I I I I I'm I d I contemplated uh like DNFing it, DNFing it. Um I don't know, it just wasn't it just wasn't my vibe. I yeah, it was it was almost I don't know. I like the cover.

Ashley 37:49

I actually bought the book. I bought like I have these pretty sprayed edges. Did you get it? Yeah, it's here on my desk. Can you see it?

Jonathan 37:55

I can't see it, but I oh wait.

Ashley 37:57

Yeah, yeah, I bought that. I didn't know you bought it. I can't remember when was I can't remember if it was Fernz and Noble or like the tiny little bookshop that's by our house. If you like to shop small.

Jonathan 38:06

It's a good looking book.

Ashley 38:07

It's a stunning book. I just wish there was a fucking hurricane.

Jonathan 38:13

Yeah, I wasn't as concerned about the hurricane. I am it's the as you are book. Yeah, no, um the name is Hurricane Wars. They're fighting over them.

Ashley 38:22

No, they're fighting in them. The next one is monsoon a monsoon rising.

Jonathan 38:27

Well, you'll be happy to know that there will be no monsooning.

Ashley 38:30

You shut up. There need to be hurricanes.

Jonathan 38:32

There might be hurricanes in the monsoon wars.

Ashley 38:35

Isn't arguably isn't is a monsoon not a hurricane? No, that's a typh typhoon.

Kelly 38:40

A typhoon is a hurricane. A typhoon is a hurricane in the s the other hemisphere.

Ashley 38:45

Right. Okay. Monsoon, but I was still wrong.

Where The Hurricanes Actually Are

Mari 38:50

It's just right. Right, that's right. Hey, which fun fact, did you guys know that hurricane is a tyino word? The the Native American peoples of like uh Puerto Rico and and Haiti and Dominican Republic and Cuba, the the native first peoples there, it's it's a Tyno word. Hurricane comes from that.

Jonathan 39:06

Oh. What is her what's it what's the let's okay, let's dig into that.

Ashley 39:10

What's the um now Jonathan's interested?

Jonathan 39:13

Yeah, what's the uh what's the origin of hurricane and like what is the actual meaning?

Mari 39:19

I don't speak Tyno, I don't know. Yeah, you guys have to deep too fast. Get me off the cuff here. I didn't look it up.

Jonathan 39:26

It's just I know this as a if you're if you're gonna come at me with random facts, Mari, I'm gonna need more.

Ashley 39:32

I will send it to you later. You gotta send in your questions ahead of time, sir. Yeah.

Jonathan 39:39

Is that maybe maybe it doesn't mean like the weather storm. Like and so maybe you're looking for something that isn't supposed to be there. Yeah, uh so it looks like definition-wise, it just means that uh cyclone. Sorry, Ash.

Mari 40:00

So in dino culture, hurakan also spelled hura hurakan H-U-R A-K-A N, also spelled Hurakan J-U-R-A-C-An, or hurakan H U I C A N refers to the god of wind, storm, and fires. Okay.

Jonathan 40:12

Were there any wind? Was there any wind that you noticed, Ashley?

Ashley 40:15

No.

Jonathan 40:16

Any storm?

Ashley 40:19

But they were no active hurricanes ever.

Jonathan 40:21

So they fought in the hurricane war.

Mari 40:23

No, it's what Kelly said. Those big ships, the stormships, so there were hurricanes.

Ashley 40:26

Yeah, their version of the storm ship in this story created hurricanes that would devastate areas and then allow the darks, I forget what they're called, or the night every yeah.

Jonathan 40:37

This is a white noise book for me.

Ashley 40:39

Sorry. I feel like we're bashing this, and that's not my intent.

Jonathan 40:43

I I mean, like, you gotta be into the story, right? So, like, uh, I had no idea that that this was a like a Star Wars fanfic. I may have paid a little bit more attention, or things may have made more sense to me. But I've read I've read books where the story where it lost me, and I was like, and I was able to kind of recover, or elements of the story lost me, but the entire plot wasn't lost on me. Like I read this thing at a at a reasonable rate. Like I didn't put it on 3x and hammer down, you know. Like I but it it was definitely like I'd be reading the book at like a like a 1.5 to try to force focus, and I would just be like, Did I pay taxes in 2022? You know what?

Mari 41:28

I'm so glad that you said this because I had a similar experience and I didn't know if it was me, if I was not giving the book enough credit or the author enough credit, because I started reading this before Monster Rotica BookCon. And I put it on pause because I was like, I cannot. I cannot I need to finish my monster books and I need to just focus on this con. I didn't do anything. And then I came back and Sunday I was exhausted. I kept trying to read, you know, read on my Kindle and my and I would fall asleep reading. And I don't mean in a, oh, I'm going to go to sleep now. Literally, it would smack me in the face. I would fall asleep reading without giving myself permission to fall asleep. So I finally had to like I switched to audiobook, like 30, maybe 40% in, so I could like walk around and do stuff in the house while listening to it, so I would not literally fall asleep.

Ashley 42:15

I think I did I think maybe I preferred the audiobook. Um, I've not had a ton of time for audiobooks lately. I I I think I preferred it in that format. I think that was more attention grabbing, but I just think with the level of world building and attempt at character building, right? Because there was a lot of time spent on a lot of these characters, not just the two main ones. Um I this to me would be maybe a better like TV series. Like there's maybe some potential there with that, but just the way that things are drawn out. But I I think the when I first explained this book to Jonathan, I felt like a lot of push and pull. Like there was a lot of time spent describing things that maybe didn't need that much attention, and then they would like whiplash you through, you know, the next scene, and that would just go by really, really fast. So I think to Kelly's point, the pacing wasn't there for me. And maybe I'm romanticizing the whole Kyle Kylo thing or uh Raylo. Raylo, yes, yeah, that's the ship name. Yeah, so maybe I'm I I think I hold a lot of space, you know, in the fan fiction world, although I'm not, you know, an any an avid reader as much as I could be. I appreciate those who have taken fan fiction in a in a successful way and then convert it into something traditional so that others can enjoy it as well. I just this one I don't think fully landed for me. But she did something right, because I'm gonna read the next one.

Mari 43:50

I'm right there with you. Like it didn't, it did not work for me, but darn it, I'm still gonna read the sequel because I want to know. But I will say, anyone who's read this and it's not Author Jam, like I said, don't judge a author by one book or one series because different times in their lives, different genres, you know, may work better or differently for them or may hit better with you. Like I said, I really loved her Tusk Love. And she's she is one of the authors that wrote a short story in the um there's uh there's three books. It's a Star Wars like um short story. It's a bunch of authors just wrote short stories in the Star Wars worlds. It's called From a Certain Point of View, and she's one of the authors that wrote that. And I like I liked her short story in there. So like she is not a bad author. This particular storyline did not work for me. But like I said, like like you said, I still want to know more. I'm still gonna read the second one. So I guess it worked well enough. And maybe my you know, mine will be completely changed by the second one. I don't know, you know.

Ashley 44:50

I and that's happened before, like not for nothing. We love in this house, we love Abigail Owen, right? And there there was a book that we read that was the first in a series way back at the beginning of our podcast journey, and not for nothing, the bones of that story were there, but I don't know, I don't think it was the writing that was terrible, but the editing that was terrible. Like somebody did not do that book due diligence, and by the next book, someone had gotten their shit together and devoured. I think that was a series that Kelly actually ran through, and that's saying something. So, I mean, the first books are not always the the epitome, right? To your point. Like sometimes it takes a minute to be able to find your pace. Yeah.

Jonathan 45:36

I think along that same vein, like Akatar, that first book was weeks. It's not even a minute. Like, I'm there, like I it w you're still not convinced. I do, I'm not I'm gonna I've made I pledged to myself to never again read.

Ashley 45:52

He still loves Tamlin, you guys.

Jonathan 45:54

Like I'm not mad at Tamlin, yeah.

Ashley 45:56

You don't know, yeah.

Jonathan 45:58

But uh Kelly's not there. Kelly, I know Kelly has a hankering for uh book two, The Teal World, so I don't want to ruin that for him.

Kelly 46:06

No, I'm not reading any more of that story.

Jonathan 46:12

Uh that's that's two of us.

Who Might Still Enjoy This

Mari 46:14

Um okay. So anything else about the book before we wrap up the book portion?

Jonathan 46:21

Who would you who would you recommend this to?

Mari 46:23

I would recommend this to someone who likes Raylo fan fiction, but doesn't mind a lot of world building. So, like, for example, Ellie Hazelwood's Love Hypothesis is a Raylo fan fiction, but it's written in modern world and so it cuts off all this like layers and layers of political world building trying to turn you know, file off those serial numbers and turn Star Wars into something else. So the Raylo relationship or whatever is there, but there's like world building. So somebody who likes Raylo stuff should probably read this. Someone who likes or doesn't mind colonizer romances might enjoy this. Um maybe is a younger reader who hasn't had the time to get jaded by a lot of tropes like we have, maybe, where some of the stuff might be their first time encountering it. That's reasonable, you know, might enjoy it.

Jonathan 47:17

Yeah, I think it's uh I think it's important for us to note that although this this so this book wasn't for me. This book doesn't seem to have been for Kelly and Mari and Ashley struggled with some parts of it, but maybe are looking forward to part two or he are learning more, giving it uh but time sunk fallacy.

Mari 47:38

We've put this much time into it, we gotta know how to finish this.

Jonathan 47:41

Yeah, exact exactly. Even though like those things may happen to us as readers, I don't think it's a it wouldn't be it may still be suitable for others who would enjoy it. So um, take take from it what you will, but if someone's if somebody's out there basing their uh book uh selections on how I opine, like that's not God forbid.

Mari 48:05

Right.

Ashley 48:06

Well, no, and I think this book actually has quite a cult following, like it was very popular in the book talk world, you know, on the socials when it first came out. People raved about it. So it is a loved book, you know. Just to your point, Jonathan. It it didn't quite land with everybody on this podcast. Uh, but half of us are suckers and we need to know more, be that what it may. And uh maybe TVD would when you and I finish Ash, we can we'll follow up in like a in like a year. We'll follow up when book three is out. Yeah, and we have closure.

Mari 48:41

It's coming out this year, then like October or something. This is gonna be.

Ashley 48:45

I think I I don't know if I saw a date, but it definitely was the latter half of the year, the latter quarter of the year. Book two is available and out. Um, and with as long as it took me to read it, maybe I should start book two now. That was mean. I couldn't stop it as the words were coming out of my mouth. But it's it's like it's like watching a train wreck. Like I just can't turn away. I'm addicted in a very unhealthy way. So, you know, kudos to to Thea. Is it Thea? Am I saying her name right? I think. Um Yeah, I think it's Thea. Thea. So uh Girl, you got me. Um, and I bought the book. It is a beautiful trophy book. It's a good looking book. It's very pretty. It has like all books by their cover. We sh in this house we do, yes. So it is a pretty trophy book. Um I'm curious. I'm yeah, I'm piqued.

Mari 49:30

Okay, want to know more. So, Ash.

Ashley 49:35

My favorite question is it a kissing book? You know what? Um, I'm gonna say yes, but not because I have any facts, not because I learned anything wild in this book. I know that it's that it's Raylo based, so I'm gonna say yes. I'm going to say that uh if there wasn't some other ness about what this relationship is going to be, he would have just fucking cut her head off in the first scene. And there would be no story of this caliber, right? Um maybe the Dominion and and the Knight Empire would have struck a bargain after the fact, after he raised everything, but um, I don't it would not be this path, right? There would not it it it wouldn't it wouldn't be him questioning his own processes and beliefs and going home and like disobeying, you know, the be all end all that is his father. So I do think there is an there's something more to them that is not the average, and for that reason it's a kissing book. I got there.

Mari 50:46

Okay.

Kelly 50:46

Guys, what do you think? I don't think it's a kissing book. That was deep, Kelly.

Jonathan 50:51

I'm not sure. I I really didn't pay that much attention. I'm going with Kelly's answer.

Kelly 50:59

So I say that because their romance is not essential to the plot. It's their I guess in theory that they have to work together to create this shield or whatever.

Mari 51:11

Yeah. Honestly, I'm I'm with Kelly on this one. I don't think it is, and it's for the same reasons. I think that he was fascinated by the fact that like them them combining powers do does something weird and different, so he wanted to study it. Like I think I think that that was gonna happen whether or not he had actual feelings for her. And then on her end, she was gonna marry you know, be manipulated, forced, whatever, by grandma to marry the night emperor regardless. Um so I think things would have more or less gone that same way, even if they had no feels for each other. Like I said, it's hard to determine because I feel like I've read half a story. So my my thought may change by the end, then end of the series or end of the second book, but as of right now, I I'm gonna say no. So fair enough. I've got a question for you guys. Uh I was reading something that was talking about relating this to just to relate this to Jane Austen. Something was talking about part of the reason why Pride and Prejudice is such a good book is because uh he doesn't try to change her, she doesn't try to change him. It's not I can fix him situation. It's it's they make themselves each of them makes themselves better rather than them making each other better kind of thing, or trying to fix each other, they end up fixing each of them ends up fixing themselves on their own as a result of coming into each other's like worlds as a result of meeting. I think that if in the second book that ends up happening, like second or third book, if it ends up rather than her trying to fix him, if he ends up like coming to it of his own and realizing that, oh, we're the baddies, oh I need to like all this, regardless of like her not actually doing the fixing, it might possibly bring me around. If it turns into more of a pride and prejudice type of where they change who they are, as opposed to a I can fix him, I can fix her type situation. If you see what the distinction is.

Ashley 53:07

That book has been written.

Mari 53:09

If it's coming out in October, it has been written.

Jonathan 53:13

I love this journey for y'all. Let us know how it comes out because I'm just gonna subscribe to the to the to Ashley's cliff's notes. Yeah.

Ashley 53:22

Marion Ash notes. I mean, we could be I that's a fair analysis that I don't think I've really dived into because we have very of recent, and I'm by that I mean the last few years, you know, seen the you know, but daddy, I love him, and you know, I can fix him type situations. Um, so it would be interesting to see if we go that route. I do think, you know, to an extent, I I think I think Ray tried that to an extent, but it was more like trying to help Kai Kylo see outside, right? And to know that he was loved and that he had family and that his family would accept him back, that there was a path out of the darkness that he was in. Um, I don't think she did much to help him other than to talk to him and to see, you know, to have that hope. So maybe that it doesn't seem impossible to me. I'm I'm more far more delusional than Kelly for sure. So I agree. I think there's hope. I disagree with the three of you because if there wasn't something else, he just would have chopped her head off on the ice and there was no barrier at that point. You might be right. Yeah, it was the first scene.

Jonathan 54:36

Oh, it lost me early. I'm on the ice, I zoned out.

Ashley 54:40

That's okay. I was in for that one, and I was like, Oh, you know, there's a spark, there's a something, there's a an intrigue, right? He was like, Oh, I'll I'll deal with that later. Let's see what happens. But then it was very immediate, right? His his need to not kill her, and maybe it was interest, maybe it was selfishness, maybe it was I feel like the threshold for relationships is is is low if you're just like I just I said that at the beginning. I don't know why you're holding that against me now. I said our standards were low, didn't I say that?

Jonathan 55:12

I it feels like the standards are low if it's like kind of this is escapism, sir, not therapy. Oh yeah, no. I don't like I I I think I learned that through this podcast is that like we're here for a good time, not for a long time. We don't always have to like the like the content of it. It's as it is escapism, like you gotta just be if you like the trope, if you're reading the trope because it's a trope you enjoy that sounds like a song reading, yeah. Uh then you know, sometimes it it's sometimes they're just shit tropes, and but you and if you as a reader enjoy them, and if that shit trope is your jam, then yeah, jam in some shit.

Ashley 55:53

If that shit trope was your jam, that's it.

AAPI Reading Recommendations

Mari 55:56

And also like just because you like a trope doesn't mean you're gonna like the way it's done in every single book. Yeah. You know, I like I like the whole like fake marriage, forced marriage kind of you know, way of putting people together for forced proximity. That doesn't mean I like it the way it's done every time. You know what I mean? Yeah. So okay, so before we go to the outro stuff, I did want to put some other authors out there for AAPI. If you're looking to read uh someone else or more books by AAPI authors, I'm gonna give some suggestions. So I have Tusk Love by The Eguanzon, same author who did this one. We've already talked about that. I have A Quantum Love Story by Mike Shen, C-H-E-N. I've got The Kingdom of Back, B-A-C-K, by Marie Liu. I've got A Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang, which we read for the podcast.

Jonathan 56:47

I was gonna say that sounds familiar.

Mari 56:50

I've got Five Broken Blades by Maya Corlin, which we read for the podcast.

Jonathan 56:55

Familiar again.

Mari 56:56

Yep.

Ashley 56:57

I loved Mag Corlin, by the way. I'm a I don't think anybody here liked her, but I was a big fan.

Mari 57:03

Did you you read all of them, right?

Ashley 57:05

I have not finished it. I do believe it is a completed series now, but I devoured like the first two books in rapid succession.

Mari 57:11

Yeah. We've got Blood of a Brighthaven by M. L. Wang. We didn't read that for here, did we? Did we read it for the That does not sound familiar? Yeah, Blood of a Brighthaven. It's uh it's a standalone. We've got Water Moon by Samantha Sato Yamboa. We've got Iron Widow by Ziran Zhe Zhao. We've got Babel by R. F. Quang, which is a Thickums. It is a big, big book.

Ashley 57:35

Who also has a cult following with mistaken.

Mari 57:38

Yeah. But it's good. It is a good book. It's a dense book. And it's you have to be like the kind of fantasy reader who also likes dark academia. Like it's gotta be, it's very much in that jam. And then we have uh Pretty Fly for a Vampire Guy by CeeDee Rachels, who I met this weekend. There's uh numerous others, uh, but those are the ones I I just kind of wanted to put out. There's some some recommendations for you guys to look into. Does anybody have any maybe AAPI authors or any books they would recommend? I know a lot of stuff on here we've read together.

Ashley 58:12

No. I don't know. You you took you took the solid ones that I was aware of.

Mari 58:17

Yeah.

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Ashley 58:18

So anything else before I wrap it up? I don't think so. I feel good about this.

Mari 58:23

All right, so thanks for listening to Of Swords and Soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check out our show notes, rate, review, and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on Instagram at TikTok. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Of Swords and Soulmates. Check us out on our website, of Swordsandsoulmates.com. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode, book, or discussion topic, feel free to reach out to us on the DMs of any of those options. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode and get chapter-by-chapter interaction and sometimes bonus books, join our Fable app book club by searching for the Of Swords and Soulmates book club. And last but not least, we hope you'll join us in two weeks for our next episode when we will be doing a 2026 Monster Roticon book con retrospective.

Ashley 59:11

Bye.