"Architecti" - Heat Over Plot

If you’ve ever finished a romantasy and realized you remember the sex scenes way more clearly than the plot, we’re right there with you. We’re Mari, Kelly, Ashley, and JP, and we’re back with a high-heat, high-chaos conversation about Architecti by Ruby Roe, a spicy sapphic fantasy romance set against contracts, demon favor, secret cults, and the threat of celestial war.

Before we dive into the book review, we hit the fantasy and sci-fi romance news that’s on our radar: John Wiswell’s The Dragon Has Some Complaints (a dragon rider story from the dragon’s POV), The Seven and the Swift cover reveal that closes out Daphne Perry’s Shield of Sparrows trilogy, and Sarah Beth Durst’s next book, Magical Cheese Emporium release. We also talk adaptations and hype, from the upcoming Hunger Games film centered on Haymitch to why prequels are tough to pull off when you already know who survives and how you still create real stakes. And yes, we unpack the murky Children of Blood and Bone movie situation and the questions it raises for readers.

Then it’s time for Architecti. The premise is delicious: Mercedes “Midnight” is a reaper in debt with one year left before hell collects, Lucy Corvine is the devil’s daughter locked into a contract she never agreed to, and their bargain could either free them or damn them. We talk about what we loved (more sapphic romantasy that isn’t just cozy, a surprisingly perfect ghost cat side character) and what didn’t work for us (plot gaps, confusing worldbuilding, time jumps that skip major scenes, and a romance arc that struggles to keep up with the spice). We close with our signature question: is this a kissing book?

Subscribe for more fantasy romance reviews, share this with your favorite romantasy reader, and if you enjoyed the conversation, please leave a rating and review so more listeners can find us.

Links from the News Segment and Show:

• New John Wiswell book out - The Dragon Has Some Complaints
  • A dragon rider book from the viewpoint of the dragon
  • Instagram Link
• Cover reveal for Seven and the Swift
  • Final book in the Shield of Sparrows trilogy by Devney Perry
  • Releasing March 09, 2027
  • Instagram Link

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Transcript

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Mari 0:00

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,

Welcome And Upcoming Event Prep

Mari 0:27

and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast where we read, watch, and discuss fantasy and sci-fi stories spiced with romance and ask, is this a kissing book? I'm one of your hosts, Mari, and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly 0:38

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

Ashley 0:40

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

Jonathan 0:43

What's good, everybody? It's JP. How are we doing tonight?

Mari 0:47

Doing good. Doing good. Can't complain. We are in the lead up to Villains and Dixons. So trying to get our act together for that. I have read all of zero books specifically. Zero. It's going to be a surprise for all of us, guys. Yeah, yeah. I think at this point, if I've read any of the authors, it's because I've read them otherwise. Like D. Russo, I read, Bay Northwick, we read, you know, but the rest is going to be a surprise. So that's fine. That's it's fun discovering people that way too. Yeah. So today, though, we're going to be discussing Architecte by Ruby Rowe. But first,

New Book Releases We’re Watching

Mari 1:25

as always, we're going to start in on some news. I don't have a lot of news, but I do have some news. The first thing I have is that John Wiswell has a new book coming out. Um, and I don't know if this has got romance in it. His uh other book that I talk about all the time. Someone you can build a nest in. Whoo had a brain brain freeze there. Someone you can build a nest in. It has romance in it. This one, I don't know if it does or not, but it's coming out July 14th of 2026, and it's called The Dragon Has Some Complaints. And it's basically a dragon rider book, but it's from the point of view of the dragon. Heck yeah. It sounds really cool. It's he's a it's a four-headed dragon that has had one of its heads cut off and it kind of sneaks into like a dragon riding school to like lay low. And so it pretends, from what I could tell of the tropes and snippets in the summary and synopsis, um, it pretends to like be tame so that it it so they'll feed it and you know give it water, take care of it. It's a lazy bitch. Pretty much, pretty much. And then apparently it does bond with like a kind of wonky writer. So it seems like a really interesting, like fun story. I'm looking forward to reading it. So I I like the one Wiswell John Wiswell book I've read. Um I think he's got another book that I haven't read yet. I need to, but this one looks interesting. I'm I will absolutely be reading this one.

Ashley 2:51

It's such an interesting perspective, too. Like we don't often well, I mean, maybe lately you hear from the perspective of Dragons War. But uh this one sounds really fun.

Mari 3:02

Yeah, yeah. I think I think it'll be a good time. The next thing I have is that the cover for Seven and the Swift came out, and so that is the final book in the Shield of Sparrows trilogy by Daphne Perry. So it's called Seven and the Swift, and it releases March 9th of 2027. And the cover looks really pretty. All the covers are pretty for these books, and I'm really interested in seeing where this is gonna go.

Ashley 3:28

Agreed.

Mari 3:29

Yeah. I there's a lot of open-ended questions at the end of book two, so there's a lot to resolve in book three. So we'll see, we'll see where this goes. Um, but I've enjoyed reading them. I've I've I thought they were a good story with interesting characters. Um not everything in it has been like super original, but I do feel like the author has made me care about the characters. Like they feel like fully fledged, and I want to know, you know, what they're gonna do next, kind of thing.

Ashley 3:59

I think book two is such an interesting way to kind of tie in past and present.

Mari 4:05

Yeah.

Ashley 4:06

Um, because you knew the flashbacks were connected, but you didn't know how, right? Until and because there were a multitude of flashbacks, to be fair.

Mari 4:15

Yep.

Ashley 4:15

Um, so I think honestly, I think I liked book two more than book one.

Mari 4:21

I think so too.

Ashley 4:22

Um there was just a bit more, it was a bit more surprising because flashbacks can be tedious, right? And that was probably a good half, if not three quarters, of this book. Yeah. Um, so I I I'm really curious, like almost itching to see how she wraps it all up.

Mari 4:42

Yeah, because I think the second book has set us up for some real potential like real heartache. Yeah. Yeah, coming out. Real. So we'll see. We'll see how bad it hurts. We'll see.

Ashley 4:55

It hurts so good.

Mari 4:56

Yeah. And the last thing we have in the news segment, um, I I don't remember if we've talked about this or not. I know Dothan, you brought it up, but even if we've talked about it, we can always talk about it again. Um because we love Sarah Beth Durst. So she revealed the cover and the release date for the Magical Cheese Emporium. So the release date is January 19th, 2027. It's the fourth one in the series. Um and I'm I think we've talked about it, but it was before the the cover came out where we talked about like unicorn cheese. Do you remember our unicorn cheese discussion? Oh, yeah. I think that was before the cover was released. I think it was just like the name was mentioned. So now we have a cover and we have a date.

Jonathan 5:39

It's it's and it's just as whimsical as far as the cover. I do like her, I don't know what it is about the artwork, um, but that the her the covers of her books are enticing to me.

Mari 5:53

Yeah. Do you like puzzles like jigsaw puzzles?

Jonathan 5:57

Yeah.

Mari 5:58

Um, she posted something on Instagram that there was a company, and it if you follow, follow her, you'll find it, because it was not too long ago. There's a company that did a puzzle of her first book, and it's not just the cover, it's it's in the style of the cover, but it's a different image. So it's it's set for the world of the spell shop and it's a jigsaw puzzle. It looked really interesting. It looked really cute.

Jonathan 6:18

Very cool. Yeah, I'm gonna take a I'll take a peek at that for sure.

Mari 6:23

Any other news anybody had?

Ashley 6:26

Uh

Hunger Games Trailer And Prequel Stakes

Ashley 6:27

I have a couple. So Mari, I don't know if you got your copy, but my copy of the exquisite torment of loving your enemy came in today, which is part two to the drop from last year, which is basically the official branding and publication rework of the the one of the big Dramini fanfics that I'm a huge fan of. The cover is stunning. I'm super excited about this. Uh, Bridget Knightly, I think, is or Bridget, Bridget? There's no D in this Bridget. So I'm excited for the sequel. Um, there haven't been very many sequels that I've been excited about this year, so there's that. And then uh slightly unrelated, but kind of related, uh, the new Hunger Games movie trailer dropped this week. Um so this is gonna be Hamich's story, and I think we're all just gonna die a little with this one. I think the casting so far that we've seen is phenomenal. I am emotional already, and I think there will be a lot of very sad millennials on uh November 20th, 2026, which is the release date for the film.

Mari 7:48

I think um is that the can we just watched it? Yeah, yeah, we just watched it like just earlier.

Ashley 7:55

The trailer. Yeah, yeah. So it is it's gonna be gut-wrenched, yeah. I think it's gonna like be like gut-wrenching, um, as as Suzanne Collins does. I have not. It is sitting on my shelf. I've not been brave enough, but I will. I was not particularly moved or in love with um the ballad of Songberg's uh song Birds and Snakes, which was President Snow's story, right? That one didn't speak to me, so I was a little put off. But I have found that when Suzanne Collins has something to say, it's usually impactful. So I I think as a as an adult now who was, you know, a teenager when the original Hunger Games came out, well maybe not a teenager, maybe a young adult. It it was, you know, it was a profound time. And I think we all love Hamich in a in a special sort of way. And so to finally see and hear his story is going to be uh pretty uh pretty remarkable.

Mari 9:05

Yeah. I mean Hunger Games is such a a pivotal piece of fiction for so many people. It's gonna be really interesting just to see what they do with it. And um I mean it looks like it looks like they're doing it right. You know, it looks like they're adding to the story, not just doing like a money grab. You know what I mean?

Ashley 9:26

Correct. Yeah, no, I it's I think it's interesting in that I think the movie was announced at the same time as the book, although the the book did come out first, and it is being directed by Francis Lawrence, who was part of the original, you know, trilogy. I don't know if he did the ballad of song Birds and Snakes off the top of my head, uh, but I thought so. And I think it's just uh a high quality investment that they're doing into this movie. I mean, the the young man that's playing a young Hamich is just the spitting image of him. L Fanning, who is a a delight overall being Effie Trinket? Are you kidding me? Um and then what's his name as uh a younger President Snow?

Mari 10:13

Yeah.

Ashley 10:14

That poor guy's always the villain. Does he ever get to be the good guy?

Mari 10:18

Well, it's like uh certain certain people, you know, when they're in there they're gonna be a bad guy.

Ashley 10:23

Yeah.

Mari 10:23

Or their character's gonna die. You know, just depending. Yeah, it is what it is. Kelly, you read the book, right?

Kelly 10:34

I did.

Mari 10:34

Okay.

Ashley 10:35

You liked it, right?

Kelly 10:36

Yeah.

Ashley 10:36

That's high praise coming from Kelly. Kelly doesn't like everything. Yeah, I haven't.

Kelly 10:40

Yeah, the song Birds and Snakes was terrible, but terrible, okay.

Ashley 10:44

It's not just me then.

Kelly 10:46

This book had more of the feel of the original, the same kind of spirit as the original Hunger Games.

Ashley 10:56

Gotcha. Yeah.

Kelly 11:00

And it it suffered from the problem a lot of prequel books can suffer from or prequel movies, which is how do you make the audience or the reader care about the character when you know they're not gonna die?

Ashley 11:14

Right, yeah.

Kelly 11:15

Yeah, that was like that was like one of the big things about that I was worried about when today's show Andor came out because you know throughout the series he's not gonna die because you know how he dies in rogue one.

Ashley 11:33

Right. Right.

Kelly 11:34

So how do you have tension? How do you feel scared for the character you know, when you know that he's gonna survive?

Mari 11:44

Yeah, how do you create stakes?

Kelly 11:45

So you create stakes by the people around him. Right.

Mari 11:50

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm looking forward to it. So we'll see. I've got chills just thinking about it, so I do have one more bit of news that I I

Adaptation Drama And Support Questions

Mari 12:00

forgot. Um Crybell uh sent this our way. So you know the Children of Blood and Bone book is being made into a movie that's supposed to be out, I believe, next year. Okay. It's based off of a YA series. It's I haven't read it, but it's supposed to be really good. Um, but Tomy Adayami Adayemi, who's the author, apparently, even though she wrote part of the screenplay and has been involved in it up until now, has just pulled back and is like gonna no longer promote or talk about the movie. Apparently she had some sort of a falling out with one of the actresses. Um so yeah, I don't know any details because it's all very vague, but she did post basically that she's you know, she doesn't have anything against anybody who goes to see it, but she's not gonna be promoting it or talking about it anymore.

Ashley 12:52

Well, now I need to know.

Mari 12:54

I know.

Ashley 12:56

Dang girl, are we supposed to support it or not?

Mari 12:59

I don't know. I don't know. So I guess we'll find out more as it comes closer to it, but that's all I've got on it. Um so we'll see what happens with that as it develops. All right, any other news before we move on? No. Okay. So,

Architecte Setup And Quick Synopsis

Mari 13:15

Architect T. Why did we read this? Jonathan, you suggested it. How did it how did you come across it?

Jonathan 13:22

I had a coworker uh who was I think getting a little bit more interested in uh some spicier reads, and sometimes we'll read uh the same book at the same time, and uh they said, Hey, you should read this book. And I said, Oh, okay. They have not read this book yet. I think they're gonna wait for this podcast and then they will read this book. But yeah, it's uh that's uh my coworker was kind enough to share this title with me. And yeah, so I said, Okay, let's let's do this.

Mari 14:02

So it was published September 30th, 2025, so it's fairly new. Let me read the synopsis and then we can get into the details. Mercedes Midnight is a reaper in debt with exactly one year left before hell comes to collect. Lucy Corvine, the devil's daughter and revered professor, is imprisoned by a contract she never agreed to. For nine long years, Midnight scoured graveyards and grimoires for a loophole, while Lucy wore a gilded smile and dreamed of revolt. Until a chance encounter sparks a pact neither of them can afford to break. When Midnight claws her way into finished academy, she and Lucy strike a perilous bargain. Lucy will train Midnight to win the Academy's coveted demon favor, and Midnight will break Lucy's contract. But this is no simple deal. Not when a secret cult is scheming to resurrect a fallen angel and the city is veering towards celestial war. They're gonna have to trust each other. Not easy when they're both hiding dangerous secrets. Harder still when stolen glances in candlelit libraries ignite a forbidden desire neither woman can resist. Now they must decide. Shatter the contract or surrender to a love that damns them both. One year, one soul, one impossible choice, their love or their own damnation.

Spice First Reactions And Reading Experience

Mari 15:14

What do we think?

Jonathan 15:17

I like spice.

Ashley 15:20

So sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't I didn't mean to cackle.

Jonathan 15:25

We didn't prepare them for this. There's so much spice. Uh listener, uh, I see you. I'm about to get a little graphic. It was cover to cover it was cover-to-cover pussy. Like this whole book from the get-go.

Ashley 15:40

Vaginas out the gate.

Jonathan 15:42

Yes. It was like, I think, I think this is the first book that I read that there was more chapters with sex than there wasn't. Even when there's a lot of book. I I feel like they could be like there were maybe were points in this book where they were like, and they cut her head off and were having sex. Yeah. It was like I was just like, wow.

Mari 16:10

There were points where hundreds of days or hundred and something days were fast-forwarded in between sex scenes.

Jonathan 16:17

Yes. Yeah, they did not fast forward the sex. No, no, ma'am. There was there was um there were there were tools used, the toys. I don't know if it's appropriate. Tools. Special runes. There was, yeah. There was uh, yeah, I listen. I was into it.

Ashley 16:37

I'm so sorry.

Jonathan 16:41

What did uh what did that lady at the book con call these things? Uh one-handed read. Yeah.

Mari 16:50

That was uh Michelle Hercules? Isn't that her name? Is that is that is that who it was?

Jonathan 16:56

Yeah, I think if you're out there and you're like, uh, maybe it's the audiobook for you, or maybe it's the uh or maybe you just want to like, yeah, you want to just one yeah, get yourself a little mount because it was up there for me there.

Ashley 17:15

You were a fan.

Jonathan 17:16

I was a fan.

Ashley 17:17

I was a fan.

Jonathan 17:18

Yeah.

Ashley 17:19

Do you guys remember um way, way back in our baby podcast days, we were fresh, we were new here, and we read a book uh by our by who we now love, Abigail Owen. And it was the first of that series was called The Liar's Crown. And um the premise was there, right? Like we saw we saw the promise, we saw the potential. Um it was just it was lacking something, right? And I actually think it was I think Kelly read book two, if I'm not mistaken, because we liked the concept of book one, um, even though maybe like the editing was a little rough, like you know, we needed to bump up somebody's salary, give it a little bit more oomph. And now we love Abigail Owen. We have multiple books on our bookshelf about Abigail Owen. That's how I feel about this book. I feel like uh sex aside, because there was a lot of spice, and it was decent spice. I was not um mad at the spice. I don't feel I was telling Jonathan, I don't feel like I ended this book knowing more than what I started. But like it's there. It's like it's almost like it's at the tip of your tongue, right?

Jonathan 18:36

Like it's at the tip of someone's tongue.

Ashley 18:38

I knew as I said it he was gonna make a joke. Um I really liked the concept of this book, and I'm really curious if uh maybe some more funding came in and book two is slightly better edited because I'd really like to understand what's going on outside of the spice.

Mari 18:58

So what I'm hearing is you got some spice in your eyes and you couldn't see anything else.

Ashley 19:03

The spice was the only thing that made sense. It was just like they went too fast in some places and too slow in other places, and all of the detail was in the spice. And again, I'm not mad at it. Um, but I actually do care about the premise of the story, and I don't know. I don't I don't know where we stand. I read the whole thing, and I read it with my eyeballs, not my ears. I don't I don't know what happened other than the spice.

Plot Gaps World Rules And Time Jumps

Mari 19:33

Yeah. Kelly, what'd you think?

Kelly 19:36

I think this book had a lot of problems.

Ashley 19:38

Yeah.

Kelly 19:40

I think the biggest problem is that the plot was definitely secondary to the sex.

Ashley 19:46

Yes.

Kelly 19:49

So a lot of things about the plot were never explained, didn't make any sense. Like Okay, so is this a city on Earth that now angels and demons are the norm inside the city? Is this another world where this is the norm? Because when it has the flashbacks to Architectes past, it sounds like demons and angels weren't all over the human world in the mortal world. So none of that was explained. And then you have these crazy flashbacks that go back and forth, and then you have these weird time jumps in the middle of the story. And I think the worst of that was near the end when Lucy has been, you know, kidnapped and taken to where the angel is, and you know, all that stuff, and it's like, okay, we're gonna have to have the rescue mission, you know, sequence, and it's just like, nope.

Ashley 20:46

And then she's home.

Kelly 20:47

All of a sudden she's home. We have no idea how she got rescued, no idea how any of that went down, other than apparently when it went down, Lucy and Midnight got angry at each other about something. Right? So we have no idea what happened.

Ashley 21:04

None.

Kelly 21:05

So that was a crazy jump. And all I could think of when I was reading this and it got to the in the the end of the book was right there, and of course it left it on a cliffhanger. All I could think of is like, okay, so either the author is going to have the rescue sequence as a flashback in the next book, because she loves doing flashbacks, or she didn't know how to write the rescue.

Mari 21:33

Right.

Kelly 21:35

She had written herself into a corner, and so we'll fix it later. It's a we'll fix it, we'll fix it in post.

Mari 21:43

Yeah.

Ashley 21:45

I think just to piggyback on something you said, I I got the feeling that this was like a different type of earth timeline or reality, because ironically, her safe word, Lucy's safe word.

Kelly 22:04

She had said something that how he was a mythical blah blah blah. So it sort of lent towards this as some kind of alternate reality dimension universe, whatever.

Mari 22:15

Could it be?

Kelly 22:16

But Satan? Yeah.

Mari 22:21

I agree with you, but also okay, is it alternate reality? But if it is, it's an alternate reality that still has U-Haul trucks, because she talked about U-Haules. U-Haul. It still has you know tenure for professors. It still has like trying to like, you know, also horse carriages.

Ashley 22:44

Yeah.

Kelly 22:44

Right. And motorcycles. We have we have people motorcycles. We have people transporting around in horse-drawn carriages at the same time. We have, you know, sport performance motorcycles.

Mari 22:56

Yeah. Yeah. I I didn't understand the world setting at all. At all. That was a big like con for me. I'm like, I don't, I don't know what world this story is taking place in. I don't understand. I that was something that I didn't, I just had to like get get past.

What Worked And What Didn’t

Mari 23:19

So okay, here's what I liked. So I I liked that it was a sapphic romanacy, because there's not that many sapphic romanticies. So I did like that. I like that it was a spicy sapphic story because almost all the sapphic stories I've read have been like cozy sapphic. Cozy. Cozy, which is fine. I love cozy too. But it's nice to have, you know, spice too. Um so I did, I did like that aspect. What I did not like is that I like spice, but I feel like there needs, for me, there needs to be substance with the spice. And I mean that in two ways. Like I need romance with the spice. Otherwise, it's just like an erotica book, which is fine, but I don't need a 400-page erotica book. You know, I can get a 50, 90 page story and and get an erotica story out of it. If we're gonna have, you know, straight up erotica, it doesn't need to be that long. And so to me, they it was just like hot stranger lesbians banging. And it never got beyond that. I don't feel like they had a connection. Because it went from, you know, this kind of like lust at first sight, and then it was all like super hidden, and we're only gonna do this once every single time they did it. We're only gonna do this once, again, and again, and again, and again. Yeah, so the spice was fine, but it just didn't have the romance or the substance to it that I pr tend to prefer in order for me to enjoy to enjoy the spice. Otherwise, it just gets kind of repetitive and boring when it's that long. I loved the cat, the ghost cat character. Mortem was like the the most realistic cat character. We love a side character. Yeah, like I I felt like if cats could talk, that's that's the kind of attitude that they would have. So I thought that worked really well. And I kind of like the whole sentient campus thing when we I thought that's what was happening. Apparently it wasn't, but like the the idea of a sentient magical campus was cool until apparently that's not actually what happened. Uh I guess. I don't know. I I maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I still don't know. We still don't know. Um yeah, I didn't like the the lack of character building and and and romance that was built. I don't I don't I didn't thought that this was very spicy but not very romantic. I didn't like the weird time jumps. I didn't like not knowing what what world setting we are in. And so because of all that, I kind of didn't care what happened, you know, what happened. This is definitely like a gothic romance, romantic. And it pulled very heavily from some of the gothic stuff where you have a lot of like melodrama, everything's kind of like, you know, there's a hidden twin, and oh my god, there's a secret identity, and this side character that you've met once is actually this entire thing that we're supposed to know. I'm like, what? No clues. No, like uh what's it called when you when you uh foreshadowing, no foreshadowing, just bam just surprises everywhere. Yeah, so it felt like you're watching kind of a soap opera and they had a different writer come on every week to advance the story. So this wasn't necessarily for me, but there were things that were good, and there it definitely would be for some people. So yeah, those are my thoughts.

Jonathan 26:46

So I'm looking forward to the flashback makeup sex.

Ashley 26:50

Flashback makeup sex. Yeah, I mean, I I was a little frustrated with it. I don't want to rag on the book because I think it has a lot of like bones there. Yeah, and and I I really did have a lot of like flashbacks to reading that first the first not her first book, but like the first book I think we read of her getting ready for our first romantic book con all of the years.

Jonathan 27:15

Who's her?

Ashley 27:15

Abigail Owen. Okay, yeah. I said her name.

Jonathan 27:18

Yeah, yeah. I just think like you like I needed a refresher there.

Ashley 27:23

Um, and I I do remember the Liar's Crown being a bit challenging to read. There was it was very jumpy, right? It was a little choppy, but the bones were there, and I'm actually reading book three now because it was finally available on Kindle Unlimited, so it is actively open in my in my Kindle. So I I think I'll give book two a shot eventually. Um I'm not always the best at following up with my sequels, but uh I I enjoy the angels and demons, you know, tropes, foundations. I'm curious to see where it goes. I do but I I need to know what's going on. I kind of feel like a crackhead. That's how they sucker you in. That's how they sucker you in.

Mari 28:06

That's how they do with these soap arbiters and things too. They stop at mid, you know, mid-action, and you're like, oh, let's find out what's happening. Well, but like, where is she?

Ashley 28:15

Is she still down there? Is she still in her cage? I don't even know.

Mari 28:20

Was the whole thing a fever dream?

Ashley 28:23

It kind of felt that way at the end, didn't it? Um I have I have questions.

Mari 28:31

I told Kelly it was like, you know, in Lord of the Rings, where if a lot of people joke, and I I'm not the biggest Tolkien fan, so take this with a grain of salt. But like the big joke is like at the end, he kind of writes himself into a is it Lord of the Rings or is it the Hobbit? But with the Eagles. Is that Lord of the Rings, Kelly?

Kelly 28:48

I mean it was Or is it in both? Kind of in both, but mostly in the Lord of the Rings.

Mari 28:53

Lord of the Rings, okay. So Lord of the Rings at the end, but like they they kind of write them, he writes himself into a corner and they don't know how to get out or get back home or whatever, and then these giant eagles come and like spared everyone away. So it kind of feels like the giant eagle trope, except we didn't even get to hear about the giant eagles. It's just like, and everyone's away. And we're done.

Ashley 29:13

I feel like we were really close, like it was I just I yeah, I I really felt it felt like a cliffhanger in the worst kind of way. It was like it was right there. Yeah.

Jonathan 29:26

So I I think like there's this, like I'm still searching for the Goldilocks elements here. So like like you said, Mari, there's there's a lot of like the sophic stuff where it's like just cozy, and then there's this where the spice very well.

Mari 29:43

I just think it forgot the romance, in my opinion.

Jonathan 29:46

Yeah. So I'm looking for something in in between though, like that that stuff. And it did what it did is it it triggered me to go to I had to go to Sarah and I was like, hey Sarah, here's what I'm looking for. What do you got? Like I treated Sarah like she was uh a drug dealer today. I was like, what you what do you what do you got? What do you got? Got this itch, you scratch it. What do you got?

Chasing The Goldilocks Sapphic Romantasy

Jonathan 30:10

So she said she definitely gave me a title um to read. Uh so I'll probably explore that as well. Uh tits out slips.

Mari 30:20

Slits out, yeah. That's Emma. Oh, that's a real book. Yeah.

Jonathan 30:23

Yeah, you thought I was you thought I was joking, Ashley. Oh no. Is it Emma Elizabeth?

Mari 30:28

Is that the author?

Jonathan 30:29

Yes, yeah. Tits out.

Mari 30:30

It's a sci-fi romance. It's on my list. It looks really interesting.

Jonathan 30:34

It does it does, and I like, I like uh I'm not gonna lie, I like uh a couple of uh I like I like the curvy nature that I see on a cover. I like uh like I like some chunk. I like I like thick ladies.

Ashley 30:46

He likes some chunky.

Mari 30:48

That author was at uh Monster Rodica BookCon, and there was a giant life size cutout of it. If you look back on the little uh videos we did, like here are my ladies, like towards the end of it, she's at the end. That character's at the end.

Jonathan 31:04

I'll take a look at yeah. Yeah, so I mean it it's it it's interesting. Uh like it was almost like at some point, like I wanted to be like we were in I was on I had it on audiobook and I had bought the um the analog book for Ashley. And uh so like I feel like we could have been in different rooms and I could have been like, they're fucking again. And she she would have been like, I know.

Mari 31:30

So Kelly and I listened to this. Was it on the way home mainly, Kelly? On the way home. On the way home from North Carolina. Oh man. And like from the get-go, like very early on, where the I think it was midnight refers to someone as a pussy in a derogatory way. I was like, hold on, because I I really didn't know anything about the author or the book. I was just like, this is what we're reading. I didn't look up anything really about it. So I had to stop. I'm like, wait.

Jonathan 31:58

Because I have never you just take the suggestions blindly, you're just like, yeah, okay.

Mari 32:02

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It's only like 400 pages. That's what, like a few hours of my life, and I have a conversation about it, you know, not the end of the world. Uh it's not, you know, it's a but did you die? No. But like I when when the author used the word pussy in a derogatory way, I was like, hold up. Is this written by a dude? Because I had literally never read anything written by a woman that used pussy in a derogatory way. That called someone a pussy in a derogatory way. I was like, hold up. Yeah.

Ashley 32:36

Mari was upset on behalf of women everywhere.

Mari 32:39

I was. I'm like, oh, okay, okay. How dare you?

Jonathan 32:44

A little bit of poetic license there for her.

Mari 32:47

I you could c one could call it that. Um I like I said, this book just wasn't for me because I tend to like more romance. The spice was spicing. That's great, you know, but that I I like romance with my spice. Or if it's going to be all spice, then it needs to be like a much shorter book. I mean, there's plenty of high spice books I've read with very little plot, but they're very short, like novella type situation. Um, when you get into like an over 400-page chunker, I need more substance within.

Ashley 33:17

So it's a reasonable request.

Mari 33:19

Yeah. Um but yeah, uh Tit Sout Slitz out looks like it would be fun. We could maybe read it sometime if you want for the for the podcast. It's I don't think it's terribly long. And it's like I said, it's on my list to read. And I know we want to read a little bit more sci-fi and branch out, so that's something we could read later on. Um I will recommend something that I'm reading mainly to you, Ash, although anybody else might enjoy it too. So July is Disability Pride Month. I've been trying to highlight books with disabled uh main characters. And there's one that I'm reading right now. It's a monster romance, but the main character, the main male character, it's a male-female's monster romance, and the main male character is basically like a personified, like a wolf. Not wolf, a fox person. And I know you like the Robin Hood uh Robin Hood uh fox animated version. It's basically that's like the main character. Is that type of a thing? And then it's a human and monsters and stuff are are out. Um she is uh autism and ad, I think autism and adh and he uses a wheelchair most of the time and occasionally a cane. Uh it's called a zero fox given by Rhea Fox, and I'm I'm very much enjoying it so far.

Ashley 34:41

Um I also love a good pun.

Mari 34:43

Same. Same. It it tells me a lot when the when the cover or the title is is got a pun in it. I'm like, okay, I know what I'm I know the the flavor of what I'm getting into. Yeah. Um

Is It A Kissing Book

Mari 34:57

all right, so I guess the question is this a kissing book?

Jonathan 35:06

Yeah, I think it's a fucking book.

Ashley 35:12

I learned so much about sex in this book. But it I this this book was not a kissing book.

Mari 35:24

I'm torn. I was gonna say no, because like Midnight story could be the same, regardless, whether there was kissing or fucking or whatever. But Lucy's story, in order for the runes to show up, I believe had to have that true love or love aspect to it. I think it was tied to the magic. If I'm understanding it right, in between all the fucking sex. If I if I if I understood that teeny pot point correctly, I think that the in order for the runes to show up, it was like there had to be like a love component to it. So I'm gonna say it's half a kissing book. Kelly, what do you think?

Ashley 36:04

I don't think it's a kissing book because I just didn't feel the romance wasn't developed. Right. I definitely feel you on that one. So um but it was a fun book. It was it was interesting. The whole it was a ride. It was a ride. This book was a ride. Yeah.

Jonathan 36:29

They went for rides.

Mari 36:32

So many rides. Each one of them was their last ride. Every single one.

Jonathan 36:38

We can't keep we can't keep doing this.

Mari 36:41

Like out in the open in front of everybody. How many times did they get caught? I felt like the entire campus knew what was going on by like their third time on campus. Because every time they'd get caught by somebody else. I'm like, come on. Like professors and students gossip. Obviously, everyone knows by now.

Ashley 36:59

Obviously. Yeah. There's only so much spice to talk about. Right. Well, no, there's a lot of spice.

Jonathan 37:05

It was just coming fast and furious. Like, all this knows stuff over the phone. I was like, at first I was like, hold on, I just started this, but are we fucking? And then like I was like, okay, all right. And then like I a little bit later, I was like, oh we're doing this again.

Mari 37:19

Yeah.

Jonathan 37:21

And again.

Mari 37:23

Yep. Basically, every time they got together. All right. Uh, anything else about the book before we wrap it up?

Ashley 37:34

No, I think we covered it.

Mari 37:36

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