Check-In and Check-Out

A book can be good, and still leave you emotionally wrecked enough to read it in tiny pieces like it’s medicine you don’t fully trust. That’s where we’re at this week, balancing real-life schedules with an unhinged pile of romance reads that swing from dark romance intensity to cozy fantasy comfort.
We start with what’s on our Kindles right now, including the chaos of reading three books at once, then spiral hard into Paige Mohr’s "The Blood Captive" and why the writing grabs so fast it feels unfair. From there we talk MM romance for first-timers, what makes an interconnected standalone series so approachable, and the kind of “I need the next book immediately” hunger that only a true five-star read can create.
Then we get honest about the darker side of reading momentum: a trauma-heavy story (Saving 6 in Chloe Walsh’s Boys of Tommen) that we want to love but have to pace, plus the rage of finishing a twist-driven book that refuses to give satisfying closure. We cool down with Daphne Elliott’s Maplewood series, cottagecore vibes from The Spell Shop, a Studio Ghibli detour, and end with a BookTok classic nod to Penelope Douglas’s Credence and the miscommunication trope that makes our hearts sprint.
If you like romance books, dark romance, cozy fantasy, BookTok reads, and real talk about reading slumps, hit subscribe, share this with your favorite reading buddy, and leave a review. What book are you obsessed with right now?

Check out our Bookshop.com book store where you can get your own copy of the books we are covering!  https://bookshop.org/shop/wreckedbyfiction

Transcript

Welcome And Current Reading Stacks

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Wrecked by Fiction podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yes, it is. Did I read it on my watch break? Yeah. I made I made notes because I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz.

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything's for a great while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Wrecked by fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Hey. Hi. What's up? Not much. No, you're sitting here. What is that?

Amanda 0:40

What's up with you?

Emma 0:42

Well, you know, we're just doing the same thing. We're looking at what we're actually currently fucking reading. Because neither of us could remember.

Amanda 0:51

Yeah, that's what I'm re Yeah. Yep. Okay. What the fuck are you reading? Uh I started Saving the Rain. Ooh. Okay, that's a good book. But then I switched to the Press Tour.

Emma 1:08

Ah, yes. Our Ark. Yeah, that Ark that we got.

Amanda 1:14

Uh But then I switched to the Blood Captive because I couldn't put it off anymore.

Emma 1:19

And how much have you read of the three? Uh so you're in the you're currently reading three books, technically.

Amanda 1:25

Yes. I'm 10% into saving the rain.

Emma 1:28

Okay, that's nothing.

Amanda 1:30

24% into the press tour. Okay. And 34% into the blood captive. Yeah, you are. Yeah. And I've already told Paige that when she needs a female narrator, I'd like to audition.

Emma 1:43

So dude, The Blood Captive got me in the fucking dedication. Yeah. I was done for. Yeah. I read that book. I started it at like 9 p.m. and I finished it at 4 p.m. the next day.

Amanda 2:01

You're wild. I don't know how you do it.

Emma 2:03

And it was a week, it was a work day.

Amanda 2:05

Yeah, I don't know how you do that. Yeah.

Emma 2:08

I stayed up until like 1.30 in the morning reading it. I texted her in the morning and I said, um, you owe me uh reparations because I read 65% of this book before I went to sleep. And then when I finished it, I immediately texted her and said, Um, I need the other one like in an IV now straight to the veins. Immediately. She said, I'm working on it.

Amanda 2:38

Oh my god, that book is good. I am liking everything I've read so far.

Emma 2:43

Her style is top-notch. Yes. Yeah. Agreed. I'm glad that you like it. Yep. Because it's like we when we talked about her last, I have read one of her other books. And she's like consistently like she's humorous. The um she has this flow that is really, really nice. And I I don't want to say that I'm was surprised, but I did really enjoy it and across the genre. So like I read that holiday story, and this is a completely different direction. Right. And I had so much fun.

unknown 3:24

Yeah.

Emma 3:25

It was it was a five-star read for sure for me. So we'll see how you feel about it once you finish it.

Amanda 3:32

We'll see. So far, it's headed that direction. Yeah.

Saving The Rain And First MM

Emma 3:36

And then you said you're only 10% into saving the rain. You're still you haven't even they haven't even laid all the groundwork. No.

Amanda 3:44

I and it's been so long since I started the rain. You're gonna have to start it over. I don't remember where I am.

Emma 3:50

How so is saving the rain your first MM? Yes. I you it's the one you recommended. No, it is a Elliot Rose is an incredible writer. I am a I don't think I realized that um it would be your first MM when I suggested specifically that book. Throw me in the deep end, it's fine. It's naughty. That's okay. Elliot Rose is dirty stuff. That's fine. Like four out of five chili peppers, probably. That's so. It's I mean, I love I've read every book in that series, so it's not like it's not like I didn't enjoy it, but I don't I think I think I would have suggested a different book had I known that it was your first MM.

Amanda 4:41

Nope. Just throw me in the deep interview.

Emma 4:42

Well, you're gonna have to get into it because I'd like to know your feelings on the dynamic of having two MMCs.

Amanda 4:51

Yeah.

Emma 4:51

I want to know how you feel about that.

Amanda 4:53

I was enjoying it what when I was reading it, but then we had some shifts and priorities. Some things that had to be done. Yes. That's all. And I I can't read a book in a day like you can.

Emma 5:07

So hey, the press tour took me a hot minute to read. Yeah. Um so and we were when our last check-in on the press tour, we were in the same spot. Yeah, we were. So it's not like and then you just switched to reading something else. Right. So it wasn't like you, you know, you gave up. You just are re you just switched to Paige's book. Yep. And yeah.

unknown 5:36

Yeah.

Emma 5:36

Are you listening to anything? Or are you just no are you straight up ebooks right now? Just ebooks right now.

Amanda 5:42

Okay. Which is partially why I'm a little slow too.

Emma 5:45

Just because with work and everything, you can't, yeah.

Amanda 5:48

Well, and the changes with with my work have made things a lot more difficult.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Your schedule is nuts right now. Yes. Yeah.

Amanda 5:56

Yeah. Yeah. By the time I get the chance to lay down my eyes, or like, alright, we're out. You're like, what is a book? Right. I get like maybe a half a page in and then my brain shuts off. So it should be better soon.

Emma 6:13

I'm interested to see how it goes with honestly, how you feel with the rest of The Blood Captive, and then I would I would I'm very interested to know how you feel about when you get into Saving the Rain.

SPEAKER_05 6:29

Yeah.

Emma 6:30

Because that series as a whole, if you like that one, it's an interconnected standalone, so like you'll meet characters from the other books, but if you liked that one, you could always go back and you know, into the series and read the other ones. Yeah. But they're not. Um I think that Saving the Rain, I'd have to double check. This could be a lie. Um, is the only MM in that series, though.

Amanda 7:02

Okay.

Emma 7:02

I think the others are there's like an age gap, there's like a godfather and goddaughter book. Okay. Like, yeah, like dad's best friend type situation. Um there's a boyfriend or ex's dad situation in that series too. Okay. Yeah. I like Ellie Rose. She writes some good smut. It is, and it is smut. It is genuinely smut. Good to know.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Um yeah. So what are you reading?

Saving Six And Emotional Prep

Emma 7:36

Well, currently, I have been puttering through.

Amanda 7:46

Um that's saying something for you.

Emma 7:48

Yeah. And it's not because it's not good. So I've been reading Chloe Walsh. Okay. Um, and the book currently is Saving Six and is the Boys of Tommen series. And we've talked about that a little bit because I read the first two, Binding and Keeping, 13, um, where I was heavily traumatized um when the dad covered all of the children, the young children in booze, and then attempted to set the house on fire. Yep. Um I so this is the technically the third book in this series. Um, it's about Joey Lynch, and he is the eldest. Nope, that's not true. He is the second to the eldest, so he's the second born um of the Lynch kids from that, from the first two books. So Shannon is the next youngest after Joey, and Shannon is the FMC in the first two books.

SPEAKER_05 8:53

Okay.

Emma 8:54

And so Joey's books are this one and the next one. And it is Joey's version of the same story. And so it's his trauma and his experience and his journey. Right. And I I just know that I am not prepared. Yeah. Um for how I sobbed my way through um the end of binding and all of keeping 13. The whole time I cried. And so I'm like, do I am I opening myself up? So I'm like reading it in little bits, right? Which I don't like to do because it I I want to be emotionally invested, but I'm like, but I also don't want to stop reading it. Yeah. So I'm just reading little bits. So I'm only I'll have to like it says 13%. Um yeah, I'm only 57 pages in, which is not not a lot. Um but I'm just I don't know. The first two were I didn't think I was gonna like it. I had been avoiding the Boys of Tom and series because of the emotional trauma, which is not normal for me, right? And so I was not expecting to be so affected necessarily. Yeah. Um, and then Shannon and Johnny in the first two books got me good. And so now I'm like, am I ready to read Joey's story? Because Joey's story flips from like Shannon is a I don't like 15 in the first two um books, and Joey is grown and or well, as grown as you can be with a you know, right grown before he was supposed to be grown. Right. And he there's addiction and drug abuse and uh uh m multiple attempts at rehab and like all these things in this book. And I'm just like, maybe, maybe I do have a line, and maybe Joey is the one that I can't do. Yeah. But I want to read the other stories in the series, and so I'm like, well, I have to read Joey's two books if I want to read the next.

unknown 11:40

Yeah.

Emma 11:40

So because they're written in duets. So we'll see how I feel about it when I get further in. I think it'll hook me. That's what happened with the first one, is that it took me a while to get really into it, and then I like couldn't put it down.

Amanda 11:55

Yeah.

Emma 11:56

And then I read the second book in like two days because I couldn't stop. So I don't know. I'm also that is the only thing that I am actively currently reading. Yeah. Um yeah. Cause I downloaded uh The Wrong Catch by CR Jane, and it says I'm 3% in, which basically just means that I have surpassed the You opened it on accident. The the chapter uh display. Right. Um I think it literally, if I open it, I think it says chapter one. Um and that's a like it's like the third book um in the series. And I like CR Jane. There are a bunch of books by her that I have read. Um and so I will read it. I'm just not, I'm kind of i feeling a little slumpy at the moment. And I think that it sucks because you know how usually when I get into a slump, it's because I read something bad. Yeah.

Amanda 13:08

Now it's because you read something good.

unknown 13:10

Damn it, Paige.

Emma 13:12

Every book that I have read not every. No, the one I just finished was four stars. But the other books that I have read in April so far, all five star reads for me. Which is abnormal. So like I read what I just read was another arc, um, but it was it's the second book in a series, so I went ahead and read it myself. Um, and it was uh Maple and Moonlight. That was the four-star read. Yeah. Um I also finished the press tour. Okay. Um which was fine. Yeah. It was fine. Um, and then though, I got Bound in Blood was a hundred percent a five-star read. I'm trying to see if where I put it in my which folder it's in.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Where are you? I can't find him.

Emma 14:09

Oh no, because I got it off of Kindle. So I turned it back in.

Amanda 14:12

Oh yeah.

Emma 14:13

Um, and then I read switch to my good reads, hold on. Because there are the books I have read in April were so good.

Five-Star Reads And Book Rants

Emma 14:30

Okay. So I read the last thing I read in March was Hunt the Villain, which is Rena Kent, which is Dark Romance. I love Rena Kent. Um, I've talked about God of Fury on the pod before. Um so, and that's from the like prequel series. I wouldn't that's that's not really the right word, but it's the series that comes before this series. Right. And it Hunt the Villain was a five-star read for me because it was like this, it's an MM book, which I love. I love an MM book. And it's like Mafia meets uh like found family meets one of them is a chaos goblin, and the other is a uh anal retentive, like control freak. Of course. Um and it's like this like mutual obsession, but one of them acknowledges that it's obsession, and the other one it believes until like the 70% mark that it's deep-seated hatred. Okay. And so it's like enemies to lovers, but they were never really enemies. Right. One of them was just like, I can't have actual feelings for this person because that would be insane. Uh, so I must just hate him really hard.

Amanda 16:17

Just don't like him.

Emma 16:18

Hate him real hard, yeah. Right in the butt.

Amanda 16:26

You're gonna come back to that when you're editing and go, I didn't realize I said that. Uh 100%.

Emma 16:31

I'll text you about it when I go through. Um but it was so good. I I actually I posted about it on the rec TikTok and I was like, I'm gonna cry, aren't I? Because Rena Kent somehow she crosses, she walks this very fine line of like, is it too fucked up and emotional damage. And I fell right over into emotional damage. And yeah, it was it was five. That was my the I finished it on the 31st of March. Five stars. I then read The Press Tour, and then I read Rider, which is um a cowboy romance book um by Jessica Peterson, and it is the fifth book in um the Lucky River Ranch series, which I started when she first started releasing them. I believe it was last year when the first book came out. But those are so they they are a like feel good. There's like very little, you know, there's no mystery, there's no like there's nothing dark.

Amanda 17:44

No miscommunication trope.

Emma 17:46

Uh well, sometimes. Sometimes. But uh like there was one in the series where it was a like an accidental pregnancy, which I love. I love that trope. I don't know what it is. Whoops. Um, but this one, Ryder and Billy were um have known each other their whole lives. So it's like a friend to lovers. And Ryder has always brushed off Billy's like girlhood crush. Um, but she they're grown now, they're in their 30s. Um, and she like doesn't give it up. And she like hits on him hard, like funny. Like it's so funny. She makes the dirtiest comments. Um, and she in the very beginning, she has um she has gone through the training to become a barrel racer. And as I mean, you have you know, rodeo knowledge and things like that, right? Barrel racers are not 35 years old.

Amanda 18:47

No, not typically.

Emma 18:48

Um, and so it's her first ever rodeo. And she comes down, she takes the second barrel, and she comes down hard. Um, and Ryder is up in the stands, and in the blink of an eye, it you get his POV, and he's like, I don't know how I got down here. I just how it was magic. I teleported, and all of a sudden I'm in the dirt um trying to wake her up, giving her actual CPR, trying to get her conscious. Oh gosh. Um, and it like it goes from there where she can't do anything. She hates her job because she wants to be outside, and they go on this like journey of like her finding herself after recovering from this fall. Um, and the book ends with her racing again.

Amanda 19:39

Okay.

Emma 19:40

And she makes it and it's beautiful, and everyone is screaming, and it's wonderful. Um, and then he proposes with a a string ring, um, like the Taylor Swift song, because uh when they were kids, it was the first song he learned how to play on the guitar because she loved it when they were like tweens. Yeah. And very cute. Very, it's very cute. Um, but that was a five-star read. And I think mostly when I get to that point in a series where it's like we're like four or five books in, I I don't maybe my five-star reads aren't totally dependent on the actual story. Maybe it's I have enjoyed the journey so far.

Amanda 20:23

Right.

Emma 20:24

And this is the end, and I'm Oprah. Everybody gets a everybody gets a five-star. Everybody gets five stars. Um, and then I immediately uh I finished Rider on the 11th, and I started the Blood Captive on the 12th. Or sorry. Rider was the 10th, Blood Captive was the 11th, and Blood Captive was less than less than a day. Less than a day. It was so freaking good. However, then I texted you about the the mindfuck book.

The Twist We Won’t Name

Emma 21:03

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The one that had all the different Oh my god. I couldn't decide if it had the if the mind fuck was good or bad. I could not. And I mostly think that I finished it out of spite because I was convinced that we were gonna get more information. Right. No. There was no he hallucinated the whole fucking relationship. Also, um, I'm not going to name the book if you are interested and you hear it on the podcast. I did talk about it on our social media.

Amanda 21:41

Yeah.

Emma 21:41

Um, but I am not going to name the book because the author specifically states in her uh in the foreword and the afterward of the book that she requests that people who read it do not leave like spoiler review content. Gotcha. Um and uh I don't I have heard that maybe she's not very nice about it when people do. That's fun. Um and so I love this author. I just didn't like this book.

Amanda 22:16

Yeah.

Emma 22:17

I liked it. You were very frustrated. Yes. I liked it until I hit the point where I realized that it was not going to give me any sort of like tied up in a bow feelings. Yeah.

Amanda 22:32

Yeah. Yeah, because I think you said that you were at like 75% when you texted me about it.

Emma 22:38

Yeah.

Amanda 22:38

And you were like, how is she gonna close all of this up in the last 25% of the book?

Emma 22:43

So Yeah, and update, she doesn't. She everything was uh his imagination. That's infuriating. And you find out he had schizophrenia the whole time. And he made up a whole person that he then fell in love with and lost his gay sex virginity to in prison. But he imagined it all.

Amanda 23:07

Where's our board?

Emma 23:09

Right. I maybe we put one up. Maybe we start here. We hang it behind because I that was me trying to understand this book. I could not. I was I was very frustrated. Um and I do think I finished it out of spite because I needed to know if she was gonna just leave it. Um and I downloaded the second one in the series. I don't know if I'm gonna read it or not.

Amanda 23:36

Glutton for Punishment.

Emma 23:38

Yeah, I don't know. Because I like her. And there is one specific book by this author that I reread all the time. Yeah. And we've talked about it on the pod and just in our life. I talk about this book. So I'm like, why did I have to? I don't know. There has to be, she has to have other series that maybe, maybe I give this one a rest. And maybe I go find a different one, and then I can like fall back in love with her.

Amanda 24:06

Come back to this one when you want to torture yourself.

Maple And Moonlight Small Town

Emma 24:10

So, um, but then I and then I read Maple and Moonlight, and that was solid. It was traumatic. It was a single mom and a like grumpy farmer. Um, the single mom had three kids, and her youngest was autistic, and she was running from um, she had put her abusive ex-husband in prison and she was trying to start over.

Amanda 24:48

Yeah.

Emma 24:50

And so Maple and Moonlight is part of the Maplewood series, and the first book was a accidental pregnancy. Uh Cream of the Crop. Um, and you get shut the fuck up. I like that fucking trope.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

It's not the nervous innuendo and what you said, and I just was like gonna gloss over it, and then I went to the case.

Amanda 25:20

Because of the farmer and then cream cream of the crop. When you said when you said accidental pregnancy and cream of the crop. You're insane.

Emma 25:29

Sorry. Um, but Maplewood has this mystery, like there was like a murder, and through so they're interconnected standalones. Um, so you could just read the first book and be done.

SPEAKER_05 25:44

Yeah.

Emma 25:44

You could just read this one and not have read the first one and be done.

SPEAKER_05 25:48

Yeah.

Emma 25:48

Um, but there is context in both that fit together like puzzle pieces. And so the next one is supposedly from, you know, clues given at the end of the book I just finished was it's the town mayor and like a marketing specialist who's like there to like what are those polit in like um uh nope. In when like you're like running for president and there's people Yes, but it's like the the person who's hired to spin the news in a positive. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Yeah. I mean Do they have a name?

Amanda 26:30

Usually it's like PR or something. Yeah, it's either public public relations, or it could be just your campaign manager is gonna be kind of in charge of making things go smoothly.

Emma 26:42

This woman comes to town to fix their negative views, yeah, presence. And uh at the very end you find out that she is yes, she is there to help spin it and bring back the tourism and all this stuff, but she's also a Maplewood um like townie. She grew up there and she left. And the mayor and this woman have had um like deep connections, hatred for each other. Hatred for it. But but it has to be there there was there had to have been something because of the way that they talk to each other. Yeah. So maybe there was a hookup or something, but somebody's feelings got hurt. Yeah, that's what I think. Yeah. So I am I'm I'm loving it. Oh, the author of the Maplewood series is Daphne Elliott.

unknown 27:43

Okay.

Emma 27:44

And I am a fan, and I didn't realize that she had a full fucking catalog. Um, and so maybe I'll read something else that she's written.

Amanda 27:57

They sound good. I might have to check them out.

Emma 27:59

There are a great mix of the feel-good and kind of the intrigue piece. Um, I I will say that this one got me in the feels because number one of the autistic youngest.

Amanda 28:20

That's always near and dear to our hearts, for sure.

Emma 28:23

But also the oldest of the children is a daughter who had to grow up before she should have. Right. Um, and she has this kind of like hypervigilance that you that kind of carries through the book. Um, and that got me right. We don't know straight like that. Straight in the heart. Um and you can see it, and they they kind of brush on it about how she just like her mom, she's scanning exits and um, you know, her she's looking at people with suspicion rather than, you know, blind trust and things like that. So yeah, but I I really enjoyed it. Um Daphne Elliott, the author, actually did find us on TikTok and has commented commented on some of our things. And so that's cool. I will continue reading because I'm enjoying it now.

SPEAKER_05 29:21

Yeah.

Emma 29:22

But other than that, no, I'm not I'm not in anything right now. I haven't started, I finished Maple and Moonlight yesterday, and I just was like, it's so many good books, and then the one that the mindfuck. So I'm like, because what was that? Like four five-star reads in a row, and then the mindfuck, and then maple and moonlight, which I gave four stars. Yeah. So I'm like, where do I go from here? Honestly, I'm waiting on our the book mail.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Yeah.

Emma 29:54

So you can read that.

unknown 29:55

Yeah.

Amanda 29:56

Yeah. I'm really excited. I was kind of wishing that you would come with me today so that you could read to me while I drove.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

You want me to read to you while you drive?

Amanda 30:06

Because I didn't have an audiobook to listen to. I caught up on some podcasts, but yeah. Needed you to read to me today.

Emma 30:17

I used to do that for Corey.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

On road trips, I would read out loud. It's cute. It's how he read the first three Harry Potter books with me reading them out loud.

Emma 30:31

That's adorable.

The Spell Shop And Cozy Vibes

Emma 30:32

I also read you one of the books you have re you recently finished was The Spell Shop.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Yes, I did. And you liked it, right? Yeah, it was it was very cute. I liked it a lot. Cutesy. Uh, you know, it was comfortable.

Emma 30:48

Yes, it was the cottage core vibes, but with plants that come alive. Yeah. How'd you feel about his name is Cass, right? Mm-hmm. How'd you feel about Cass who has the soul of a person but is a plant?

Amanda 31:06

I liked him. He kind of made me think of, oh, and I'm totally gonna go blank. What's the uh the series that came after Harry Potter that has all of the creatures? Fantastic Beasts. Yes, thank you. The little stick guy that he oh, yes, yes, yes, give him a little bit. I know that's not the same imagery, but that's like what I kind of imagined in my head.

Emma 31:31

So in my head, the personality type, completely different different imagery for Cass from the spell shop was the fire from Howell's Moving Castle.

Amanda 31:45

Oh see, I don't know that.

Emma 31:46

You don't know the you've Wow, okay. Studio Ghibli? No.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Are you joking?

Emma 31:54

No, no Kiki's delivery service, no Howell's Moving Castle, no Secret Life of Ariety, no books, movies, movies.

Amanda 32:03

Nope. None of them. This is where our age gap comes into play. Oh, I am we can have a movie.

Emma 32:13

No Totoro, no, it's anime.

Amanda 32:16

No, nope. Anime was not a thing when I was growing up, though. These are not recent. How long ago were they?

Emma 32:26

I have Google. Uh let's see. Okay, so let's just look up uh Kiki's deliver 1989.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

Yeah, well.

Emma 32:37

Kiki's delivery service was 1989. How about secret?

Amanda 32:42

It was not a thing that I was aware of growing up.

Emma 32:44

Secret Life of Arieti is far more recent. Secret Life of Arietti is 2010.

Amanda 32:49

Yeah, I know.

Emma 32:50

House Moving Castle was 2004.

Amanda 32:53

Nope.

Emma 32:54

My neighbor Totoro was 1988. Nope. Wow. Do you not know the imagery? No. Because now I'm like, I need to show you for specifically. So I mentioned House Moving Castle.

Amanda 33:08

Yeah.

Emma 33:09

So House Moving Castle is um the the like the like Hearth, the fire, um, is a soul. Okay. And he fuels Howell's Moving Castle. Um and when he's removed from the Hearth, he just looks like this. Aww, he's cute. He's just a little guy. Just a little guy. Um and I've I think he would like this. It is one of the So Howell is hold on, we're gonna sidetrack for just a second. Howell is a uh like a he is cursed and he has he's like a monster human. Um and he turns into a set what's what's essentially like a giant humanoid bird. Okay. Um, and a young woman is cursed because of a lot of reasons. I'm gonna butcher it, so I'm not gonna explain. Um, but she is cursed and she becomes an old woman.

Amanda 34:22

Okay.

Emma 34:22

And she is then employed by Howell. Um, and he she doesn't think he knows that she's actually a young woman. Right. Um and but he does because he's a beast, he's not like an actual person. Yeah. He has magic and whatnot. Yeah. Obviously, his fire has a personality. Um, but I just I can't believe that you don't know what I'm talking about. Sorry. Nope. Oh my god. Well, I know my kids love all of those movies. And if yours enjoyed Demon Hunters the way that I know that mine did, yeah. That could be a like we could watch it together. A movie, yes.

Amanda 35:11

I'll need the list from you so that we can check it out.

Emma 35:15

Because I think, yeah, there are so many, so many, and there's still um like there was like a one that was released in the last couple of years, like since COVID. So they come out all the time.

unknown 35:30

Okay.

Emma 35:31

Well, that might be an exaggeration, but they let me rephrase, they have been coming out for for a long time. So yeah, we love uh My Neighbor Totoro was a was a fan favorite. We had a backpack, I believe, when um one of them was in kindergarten and it was uh her first backpack. And it was a my neighbor Totoro.

Amanda 35:56

Yeah.

Emma 35:56

Had a little figurine on it and stuff. So that we like those movies. Yeah. So that will have to be something that we uh that I introduce you guys to because that would be fun for sure.

Amanda 36:07

Hmm. Yeah. No, I wasn't I didn't get a lot of TV watching time even as a kid, so it wasn't a lot of that. And then I just I don't remember anime being a thing when I was younger. Dragon Ball Z. That was more my brother's age. We're eight years apart, and that was more his his thing. Sonic the Hedgehog was the big cartoon when I was younger. Okay. I didn't really watch that much.

Emma 36:40

Well, you and I are 11 years apart.

unknown 36:44

Yeah.

Emma 36:45

So a little over that. Because I just turned 32.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

So Happy birthday. Yay!

Emma 36:55

Sometimes I forget that I'm like, you don't have the same lived experiences that I do because we grew up in different decades. Yes. So and different parts of the country, because and that that changes the way that so well that is something for us to maybe we have a uh like a movie night situation or so movie day.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Movie day. Yeah.

Emma 37:21

Yeah, like our version of the Super Bowl because nobody here watches football.

Amanda 37:26

Um just a halftime show.

Emma 37:28

But uh yeah. Yep. Because that's the only part that I find even remotely interesting.

Amanda 37:34

Right, and the commercials.

Emma 37:36

But okay. Well, you're reading far more things than I am

Comfort Reads And Format Fixes

Emma 37:42

right now. I'll keep you posted. Maybe I'll pick something up that grabs me. Because I don't know. Um honestly, I think I'm going to get out of this feeling of like nothing is good enough.

Amanda 37:56

Yeah.

Emma 37:56

I think I'm gonna read uh Emily Wrath again.

Amanda 38:04

Get a little comfort read in there. I think so.

Emma 38:08

I just love her. And I love those books, and I've thought about it. Like, I keep trying, I keep my eye out for secondhand of those because I cannot afford actual brand new copies of them. But I want the Pucking Around series, The Jackson Rays, so bad. I want all of them. And she's currently getting ready uh next fall, she's releasing a like paranormal, like romance like fantasy book. Um and it's where it's uh why choose and one of the MMCs is a Wraith. He has he's he's just like smoke. Yeah. And she's like, Yeah, right? I wanna know. And so I will be reading it because I am very curious.

Amanda 39:10

Um We're gonna need another anatomical drawer.

Emma 39:14

See, I told you your brain can fill in the gaps. You just have to let it.

Amanda 39:19

No.

Emma 39:19

I like I like pictures. You know, you know, in a classroom where they have those big giant where it's like it's like a legal pad, but it's the size of a it's like this wide. Yeah. You can flip the whole thing. Maybe we need one of those. We just put it right here.

Amanda 39:37

Post-it makes the big like easel drawing. Yeah. We'll just get us an easel and a one of those big post-it pads.

Emma 39:45

We take notes. Yeah, I think I'm I'm I'm probably gonna read something that just I know that I know is gonna make me feel good because I don't want to be disappointed if I start a new book and then don't like it. And I have trouble getting into something new.

Amanda 40:02

Maybe I'm just bored. I still wish you'd read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. I know you said you started it and just couldn't. I did.

Emma 40:09

I don't get into it. Love I have difficulty getting into uh nonfiction.

Amanda 40:16

Yeah. Technically it's fiction. Technically is it's not though. It's it's based on it's not actually a true story. Maybe I'll try that again.

Emma 40:31

Or maybe I'll fucking I don't know. I haven't read an a like a real true fantasy book in a while. Yeah. I haven't read a thriller, so maybe maybe and maybe my Kindle needs to go in a bag in the dark somewhere, and I need to read something with actual pages. Cause that happens too, where I'm just like, Yeah, I I need to hold a book. A book.

Amanda 40:58

Yeah.

Emma 40:58

Yeah.

Amanda 40:59

Yep. I do have a hard copy book that I started but then had to set aside. I forgot about that one. What is it? I put it on my Goodreads. It's that one that I bought when we went to the bookstore together, and you said that the book looks like something you would read. Um What does that mean? A witch's guide to magical innkeeping. Sounds about right. I probably did say that. I will butcher that author's name. Sangu, Sanju, Mandana. Mandana. Um the pages that I had read were good. Okay. I just need to get back to it again. A hard copy is hard to read when I read a light on when I'm trying to code away.

Emma 41:52

When life is happening. Yep. Yes, I agree with that.

Credence And Miscommunication Madness

Emma 41:58

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the book that's up in between us for our friends who are just listening. We got uh Credence by Penelope Douglas up today. And man has never read Penelope Douglas before. And Credence is it took book talk by storm. Um it's the reason that I read it was Book Talk. And it is another one of those where you would laugh at me if you read it like you did Dena Vipers. You would laugh at me because I I have read it and will read it again um many times. It I the first time I read it was on my Kindle. I found this secondhand, and it lives upstairs on the bookshelf next to my bed. So that yeah, so I can just snag it. So Penelope Douglas um is though, possibly, in my personal opinion, the queen or demon, maybe, of the miscommunication trope.

Amanda 43:07

Yeah.

Emma 43:08

I read my first ever Penelope Douglas book was um I'd have to, I'm not even gonna try to remember the title of it. But I remember I read it, and I was so convinced that the series was like chronological, like one, two, they were all con they were all the same. Turns out they were the interconnected standalone situation. And but when I asked this question to my friends, I did not know that like I would finish this book and it would be wrapped up. Right. And so I was sitting there, like my palms were sweating. There was so much miscommunication, and they just didn't talk to each other. Oh no. And I remember asking, like, does this get Better. Right. Do you feel do you get answers? Do they get answers? Do you feel like? And they were like, I I think it's fine. I think you're being dramatic. And I'm like, No. I am my heart is pounding out of my chest. I'm having a heart attack because I can't sleep it under the rug. These two people can't talk to each other. And they're like, it's fine. And then of course, yes, it was fine. Right. Um, and they do figure it out, and everything is good and all's well and whatever. But she does miscommunication so right and so wrong. It yeah. So uh credence is a five-star read for me. Uh, but I love a taboo.

SPEAKER_05 44:47

Yeah.

Emma 44:47

I like it. I like a taboo. Everything's fucked up. You don't know the answers until you're at the very end, and then all of a sudden you're like smacked with shit. So okay. Well, we got things to read.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Places to go, things to read, books to listen to. Right. So Okay. We'll see you next week. Rerected by Fiction. Bye. Bye.

unknown 45:12

Bye.