Of Swords and Soulmates
Is this a kissing book? Of Swords and Soulmates features two couples (and sometimes more), with varying reading preferences and experiences, as they read, listen, and sometimes watch romantasy stories and discuss plot, fantasy elements, romance, spice, theories, and more. Join us for our non-expert opinions as we discuss, argue, rave, rant, and hopefully entertain. We may just help you find your next reading obsession or at least contribute to that TBR list!
Of Swords and Soulmates
Vikings in the Mist / Shadows of Kiev
Discover the enchanting intersections of romantic literature and fantasy realms as we, your impassioned hosts Mari, Kelly, Ashley, and Jonathan, unveil literary treasures that will beguile your heart and challenge your imagination. With the buzz surrounding Carissa Broadbent's "The Songbird and the Heart of Stone" and the anticipated mecha magic of Xiran Jay Zhao's "Iron Widow" sequel, we're thrilled to share our musings on these upcoming releases and the beautifully bound new editions of "Legends and Lattes." We also will also touch on the announcement of the next installment of Rebecca Yarros' 'Fourth Wing' sequel as well as the special edition of the Throne of Glass books on FairyLoot.
Our book for this episode is "Vikings in the Mist / Shadows of Kiev" by Eliza Milton. As we navigate through a whirlpool of mixed fantasy elements and dissect the fiery romance of Viking fantasy novels, our candid thoughts flow like a cascade of insights as we give an overall rating in a spoiler-free segment before a detailed discussion where spoilers abound.
We're excited for you to join us and share your own thoughts on these narrative odysseys. Whether you're drawn to the thrill of a well-wrought fantasy or the tender entanglement of soulmates, our podcast is your sanctuary for all things romantasy. Engage with us across our social platforms, and let's revel in the art of storytelling together.
Links from the News Segment:
The Songbird and the Heart of Stone (Crowns of Nyaxia book 3) by Carissa Broadbent release date November 19, 2024 - https://a.co/d/5bLjZki
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow book 2) by Xiran Jay Zhao has been pushed back to December 24, 2024 release date - https://a.co/d/imKsqJa
Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree being released in special edition hardcovers on October 29, 2024 - https://tinyurl.com/5e683f92
Fairyloot is doing special editions of Throne of Glass, open to the general US public for purchase on April 18, 2024 - https://tinyurl.com/2p8k7xdj
Rebecca Yarros announces on Good Morning America that the third book in the Empyrean series (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame) will be released on January 21, 2025 and will be titled Onyx Storm - https://tinyurl.com/2zv5ufbs
Romantasy Book Convention (Orlando 2024)
https://www.fabledfantasyevents.com/
Book Reviewed:
Shadows of Kiev / Vikings in the Mist by Eliza Tilton - https://a.co/d/eog2XFp
Author’s Webpage - https://elizatilton.com/
Follow us:
Instagram - @ofswordsandsoulmates
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ofswordsandsoulmates
Hey, hey, and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast where we discuss romanicy stories. I am one of your hosts, mari, and with me I have Kelly.
Kelly:Hey everyone, it's Kelly and also joining us, we have Ashley.
Ashley:Hello everybody. This is Ashley, and we also have Jonathan hey bringing up the rear.
Jonathan:It's me, JP.
Mari:Today we're going to be going over a book we read, but before we get into that I thought we would hash out, talk a little bit about some of the news, romantic stuff that is coming up. It's not everything, it's not all exhaustive, but some stuff that I thought we might be interested in talking about and that I thought you guys might be interested in hearing about.
Kelly:And of course this is at the time of recording, so by the time you listen to this, it may be old news.
Mari:It probably will be old news, but I tried to do stuff. That's a ways out. I didn't do anything that very, very soon. For the most part, first thing I had up on the news was that Carissa Broadbent, the author of Crowns of Niaxia, released that her third installment is going to be coming out November of this year, november 19th, 2024. And it's going to be called the Songbird and the Heart of Stone.
Jonathan:Did you read the first two?
Mari:Yes, and I think Ash did as well.
Ashley:Yeah yeah, we devoured that one pretty quickly. I think I don't know if we're saying branding names. I was going to say that it is on Kindle Unlimited. I mean you can buy them.
Jonathan:Your money spends better than mine.
Ashley:This is also true. Well, and I might want the book trophies because I think their covers are really pretty, Very pretty. Very excited for book three. The first two were pretty good. Were really great actually, especially after coming off of the Rebecca Yaros high.
Mari:Yeah. Yeah, I honestly wasn't expecting a whole lot, because I love vampire stories and so I've read a lot of vampire stories and I was like, oh, it's another vampire story, whatever. And then it was kind of described and it kind of is the first one starts off it's a little bit Hunger Games-y in that there is a contest, there is a game kind of thing. But the world feels very much like Castlevania type vampires, like you have lords and you have this feudal kind of system and you have different kinds of vampires and you have like vampire gods that are involved. It's a fun and unique vampire world.
Ashley:So you definitely don't sleep on it. It's a different lore.
Kelly:And the novellas in the world really good my only exposure to castlevania is nintendo, but just the first one well, there's quite a world of castlevania now there's, in addition to all the games from nintendo to playstation and so forth, there's also several animated series on netflix. Yeah, that are on netflix, and some of them quite in the rated R section for gratuitous violence.
Mari:Yeah, I mean, it's vampires Favorite. One of my favorite games of all time is Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I was, I think, in early college playing that and I love that game so much and that's the vibe of this book to me the world of that book. That's going to be one. I'm looking forward to the other one I had on here and I am going to pre-apologize because I do not speak Chinese and I know that this author is of Chinese descent.
Mari:I believe her name is Ziran Zhe Zhao. She wrote Iron Widow I very much loved. It's a fantasy retelling of the only female emperor in Chinese history and it's told using like mecha robots. It's a really weird, very cool book. The sequel was supposed to come out this year and she had earlier this year and she had some issues with it. It got pushed back and so now it's coming out on Christmas Eve, december 24th of this year. Very good, another very good book, very good author. I would recommend. It's a very unusual story I never would have thought I would be interested in like a Mecha Robot story, but she fleshes it out really, really well.
Jonathan:What's Mecha? What's Mecha Robot Like? Is it just like a robot?
Mari:Like a giant robot with a pilot in it. So what I think my first exposure to Mecha Robots was. Neon Genesis anime, but it's a whole genre. Yeah, it's a whole genre. Like big giant, almost like Godzilla sized robots, but they're piloted by a human pilot.
Kelly:Yeah, the Mecha thing is stuff like Voltron, the early Robotech series in the 80s giant Mecha Robots piloted by humans and, of course, eventually all these giant mechas fighting each other, fighting an equally sized large monster. That's pretty rad.
Ashley:Yeah, so I went to immediately add to TBR, because when Mari makes a recommendation, I usually take those seriously and the first sentence describes it as Pacific Rim meets the Handmaid's Tale. So I do have to ask how Handmaid's Tale are we talking, because I feel like that is going to deter.
Mari:Okay, so I did not I've not watched the Handmaid's Tale TV show but I did have several times read the Handmaid's Tale book. It was a pivotal book early on. So I would say the way that I think it falls into the Handmaid's Tale is in that it's a world that's very misogynistic. It's very anti-feminine. Women are things to be used up in this world.
Ashley:Okay, yeah, because it also says YA. So I'm assuming the triggers are probably less.
Mari:Yes, it's not as I don't know, I'm not going to, it's not as I don't know, I'm not gonna say it's not as gut wrenching. I say that the Handmaid's Tale comparison parts aren't quite as gut wrenching maybe as Handmaid's Tale in this book, Not to say that there aren't emotional. There's some very emotional parts and this is not spoiling anything. This is like, I think, the very first chapter. The main character's whole reason for what she does throughout the book is the death of her sister, the death of her beloved sister. So there's definitely emotional resonance that pulls you through. That is based off of tragedy, but the story as a whole I don't feel is steeped in tragedy.
Ashley:Yeah, I'm sending Jonathan the description because there's just some wild combinations of words that I wouldn't think to ever mash up before. So, like concubine, pilot is interesting to me.
Mari:Next news bit is Legends and Lattes, which I know Kelly read and I read. Have you guys read Legends and Lattes?
Jonathan:I have not.
Ashley:I tried. I tried Listen, it was great. It was good. I have not For me. I think if it were a movie, I would have been entranced.
Ashley:But for whatever reason, this audiobook was not doing it for me and I wanted to love it because I know you have been raving about it for at least a year, if not longer. Maybe I should have doubled the speed. Jonathan likes to listen to audiobooks and he's always listening to it at double speed. Maybe double the speed it would help me. I definitely got like halfway almost three quarters of the way through, and it was just like I'd had it. Libby took it back. I didn't finish it.
Mari:Yeah.
Ashley:I want, I want to love it. It was just not moving for me. It's not for everyone.
Mari:It has amazing potential for like, like series, adaptation or Well, the author, travis Baltryry, said, like the story, how he came up with it, how he decided to write. It was basically it was a nano, was it NaNoWriMo, the November writing? Whatever that November November novel challenging writing thing is. It was a thing that Travis Baldry did with a friend and the challenge was to come up with a Hallmark movie set in a you know, fantasy, d&d-esque kind of world. And once I heard that I was like, oh, now I want to read it. Looking at it from that viewpoint, that's kind of what I was expecting out of it.
Ashley:But it is very slow, plot wise there was definitely a lot of building and I appreciated the characters like individually and you know the banter and the jokes and the personalities, like they did a fantastic job building up this story. It was just taking too long for me. I didn't. I didn't finish it before I lost the audiobook.
Mari:Thor is releasing it on hardcovers. It's coming in October of this year to hardcovers because it was released just in paperback. The hardcovers look pretty cool. They in October of this year to hardcovers because it was released just in paperback. The hardcovers look pretty cool. They've got like printing on the side. It's Legends and Lattes and Bookshops and Bone Dust, the prequel. So it's going to be both of those are going to be released in October.
Mari:I'm going to skip to the last news thing we have and then I'll go back to the fourth wing because I think we're going to talk more about fourth wing. So the last new thing I had was Fairyloot is doing a special edition of the Throne of Glass series, of some of the Throne of Glass series. Whether or not anyone's actually going to be able to get to that If you're not a Fairyloot subscriber is up in the air. Apparently they're gonna open it up to Fairyloot UK subscribers and then Fairyloot US subscribers and then UK public and then last on the list on April 18, if there's any left is going to be the US public for Throne of Glass. Yeah, that's gonna sell out. Yeah, 100%, it's really. I thought it was really pretty. I know there's been some pushback on that. The art is too generic. I thought it was pretty. I'm fine with that. I'm not going to sit there and stare at the cover of the pages of the book If I'm buying a special edition. I just kind of want it to look pretty on my shelf.
Kelly:So when you say that, critics, some criticism has been that the art is too generic. Was there an actual artist or is this AI generated art that they're using for the cover?
Mari:No, there is an actual artist.
Ashley:Yeah, so it says exclusive redesign covers. I think the name is Michaela Alcane Design Alcano Design, and forgive me if I'm butchering that. I just looked it up really quickly, butchering that, I just looked it up really quickly. Reversible dust jackets character art by morgana anagram. Foil in the hard cover by the same michaela alcane design. Character artwork on the end papers foiled character artwork by morgana anagram again.
Mari:So it looks like it's those two designers yeah, I know they're actual people and I know the pushback is some people were like criticizing the artists for it, to the point where Fairloot had to come out and say like be nice, I think the artists did what they were commissioned to do. So I think the issue might be you know, you as an artist, you do what you're commissioned to do. You don't get to choose what you're going to draw is this series complete?
Ashley:like yes, sarah j maffs.
Mari:Okay, yeah throwing a glass is complete okay.
Ashley:So I was gonna say like, because I know like the akatar series isn't complete, complete, so maybe the artwork was a little bit more like quote-unquote, generic, you know, because she hasn't expanded yet.
Ashley:Yeah, but I mean looking at it, it looks really nice. I think what's interesting is that, while the cover art itself maybe is more generic, the sprayed edges depict like an actual scene. I don't know if it's a scene in the store I haven't read throne of glass yet. Uh, that's an investment that my bank account has not made yet but I think I like the fact that they're special edition covers and then like special edition sprayed edges that actually reflect like a picture, like a painting.
Mari:Yeah, I think it's really pretty. I read Throne of Glass. I committed to it without realizing exactly how many books there were. It pulled me in. Especially those last few are so long. It's a very good series Like. It's a very involved, multi character point of view, multiple things going on at the same time, multiple worlds and cultures coming together. I think it's a very, very good fantasy. And then the last bit of news Rebecca Yarris went on Good Morning America and let everybody know the name of her next fourth wing book, the third book, and when it's going to be released. So it's going to be called Onyx Storm and it's going to be released January 21st. Thoughts.
Kelly:Any theories Like I'm thinking there were so many spoilers in that sentence I know I feel it's necessary yeah, we're gonna have to cut that out it's been out for a year.
Jonathan:I mean, like what's the?
Ashley:rule. It has not, I don't know.
Kelly:I think leap over jonathan talking, so we can all laugh about it I think that's far better content.
Mari:Leave some suspense absolutely I will say that every one of rebecca yaros' imperion books, or whatever books in this series, uh end with a huge reveal and a plot twist and a bum, bum, bum at the end. So I don't know what's coming in this one that bothers me.
Ashley:I don't think every book needs to end on a cliffhanger and, rebecca, if you're listening, it would just be really nice if you gave us one that just like didn't rip our hearts out with the last page.
Jonathan:She's going to. She's announced that. Well, but Book number five.
Ashley:Like it's just, it's just not necessary for every single book, like some yeah, some cliffhangers, yes, yes, yes, no, but I think I think they've alluded to some stuff. So when they said the word onyx, that made sense. I'm not sure if anyone on this show noticed, but last week there was an awareness that came to the book talkers that Rebecca Yaros and a lot of her team flipped their profile pictures into black and white photos.
Ashley:I heard about that it was very much like Taylor Swift-esque, because that's some Easter egg stuff that Taylor will bust out to keep people on their toes. So it did not seem like a coincidence that a dozen or so folks had changed their profile pictures suddenly to black and white pretty quickly. I think I read one comment somewhere that said this probably has to do with the Venon, because the Venon drain right they take. And so someone was like yeah, we're going to see a lot more Venon in book three and maybe like dive into that explanation and to that world.
Mari:Yeah, so the three of us have read it. Kelly, you are out right.
Kelly:Yeah, I'm like I don't even know which part of this needs to be edited for spoilers.
Jonathan:I didn't know you didn't read it, Kelly, you should read it. You're going to, if I were you. I mean try to align yourself when you go read it. You're gonna, might I if I were you? I mean try to align yourself when you go into it just love dane.
Kelly:He's such a kind-hearted soul. I mean, if the years have taught me anything, jonathan, it's that I should do exactly the opposite of what you say.
Mari:But what we are gathered for today is our review of Shadows of Keeve by Eliza Tilton. We all read this book and we decided that we were going to do a little review, a little overview, little ratings, and talk about it. I will say, kind of, why we picked this book, or how we picked this book is. We're all going to be going to the Romanacy Book Con event that's going to be happening in Orlando in October of this year, and so we basically got their list of Romanacy authors and randomly picked a number and this is what we ended up on. And then we chose one of her books that were fantasy, romance-y based, because she had a few genres that she writes in. But, yes, shadows of Keeve by Eliza Tilton, which was released in September of 2018. So not new, new, so it's been out there for a little bit. I am going to read the synopsis from Amazon, because I am bad at summarizing stories.
Mari:The Northmen are coming and they seek vengeance. After accompanying his father to a Slavic settlement to investigate strange tales of the undead Viking, folkvar discovers that not only do the dead walk, but the whole forest seems to want his kind dead when his father is kidnapped by the magical Rusalka maidens, there's only one person who can help, and Vikings and Slavs just don't mix. Ever since her parents were slaughtered by Vikings, agne has feared and hated the Northmen. When a Valdak attacks her in the woods, she realizes the dead are much more terrifying than Vikings. Putting aside the hate and distrust, she decides to help the young Viking and stop the madness invading her home.
Mari:With generations of dislike running through their veins, folkvar and Agna must embrace their growing desire and work together in order to save both their people from the rising dead. But sometimes love isn't enough and it can't stop what's about to come. And then what I thought was interesting is at the end of the little Amazon blurb it said sink your teeth into this YA dark fantasy filled with Vikings, romance, fantasy and monsters in ninth century Kiev. Fans of Lea Bardugo's Grisha trilogy will fall in love with Shadows of Kiev. And it was different because when I went to her, the author's website, in her little synopsis what she had on it was Romeo and Juliet meets the Walking Dead in 9th Century Kiev. So I thought it was interesting what each of them decided to highlight.
Kelly:Yeah, I think those are two very different ways of marketing the book Very.
Jonathan:Did you get Romeo and Juliet vibes?
Mari:100%. Yes, oh, really so in our general overview here.
Kelly:This will be a spoiler-free discussion while we talk about it, and then for you listeners out there that don't want spoilers, we will warn you once we begin discussion that includes spoilers, oh I got to go on mute.
Mari:I'm sure you can be controlled. So for the non-spoilery parts, I figured we can just give our overall stars of what we thought about the story, plot, character development, just general rating of the book, and then we would get into the spoilery stuff once we go a little deeper into it. I gave it overall three stars and for me that was mainly the plot and the elements that were pulled into the book that put it up there. What do you guys think?
Jonathan:I mean on Goodreads. I gave it three stars because they don't let you get fractional stars, but I would totally, if we're just talking story plot 2.125. That's where I'm at.
Mari:Very specific.
Jonathan:I did some magic math.
Ashley:Okay, creative accounting.
Mari:What about you, Ash? What do you think?
Ashley:Yeah, I think this one for me was a solid two and a half. I'm about the halfsies. It was a good story. It was fast-paced. You could jump on a flight from here to Colorado and knock it out. Yeah, so I appreciated it, kept the pace that it started with right not all books kind of low made you choose colorado because that's the only big flight I've ever taken. Okay I was like how are you measuring that?
Jonathan:florida to colorado. That's a book we, just we use arbitrary really arbitrary units of measurement here on the show.
Ashley:That was my creative accounting guys that was all I had. I think no, seriously, like it's a. Two, it's a. If I were to sit down and dedicate time to it, I could have knocked that out in less than three hours, like with no distraction easily, and so for me it's a. It's a quick fix. I would get a story Fairly entertaining Because zombies right Undead. There was gore. There was far more gore than I thought there would be.
Jonathan:You're a word skipper, you've got to put it into regulation speed. Don't tell me how to read, sir.
Ashley:No, no, I know that.
Jonathan:If you're telling people like, hey, man, it's gonna be like a three-hour book, but that's like you're a word skipper, so like that's where you're like, that's how you're.
Ashley:Not all words are necessary.
Mari:I agree. Well, I mean okay. So the book's only like what? 200 pages, 211 pages, it's not a very long book. It definitely is a book you can read in not very long. Yeah, I agree with Ash.
Ashley:Yeah, and that was enjoyable for me, right, there wasn't an overwhelming amount of time or energy that needed to dive into. So two and a half I was entertained. It was a good story. It could be, you know, it's one and done. I'm not sure Is there a sequel? It felt like. No, it's a standalone, it's a standalone, but it sure felt like there was a potential to try and set up a sequel. Right, right, right, kelly, what was your rating? You said three.
Kelly:Yeah, I had to go with everyone else here. Pretty much I felt it was a three. Again, I agree with you. Actually it was a pretty short read. I didn't really time myself but I know I read it in only a couple of evenings reading it. Here and there it made some interesting story points, but I think it just really failed to deliver on any new plot. It really didn't avoid any cliches either. So, yeah, it's kind of one of those books that it was like it's an easy read. You pretty much are going to get what you expect. Everything is pretty straightforward.
Mari:I agree with that. Like going back to Jonathan's like word skipping thing, I found myself skipping over or reading very quickly over the very, very long action detailed sequences where it was like the fights were super detailed, like it was fight choreography set up for like an action movie. And what's interesting is I went back and read a little bit of what the author had talked about how she writes. Her husband wrote the action parts and she wrote the rest of the book. About how she writes, her husband wrote the action parts and she wrote the rest of the book and it felt like two different writing styles to me. I'm not interested in fighting choreography like I'm interested in watching it. It's cool to see. I'm not interested in reading it. So I did find myself very much glossing over the parts that were very much about like oh, the blade went this way and then the knee went this way and then like I punched it or whatever. Not. That part didn't pull me in.
Mari:I will say what I was very impressed with with this author was how many different elements I'm not going to go into them because that'll be later in the spoilery part but how many different elements of fantasy she was able to pull in to one story and make it mesh together was pretty well done. What I did not like was character development wasn't there for me. I didn't feel like the actions matched what we knew about the characters and I didn't feel like they changed a whole lot from the beginning of book to the end. And also I wasn't very invested in their story because to me it did a good job of being a Romeo and Juliet story and I'm not a fan of a Romeo and Juliet story, so it was definitely truth in advertising to me. It's just not my jam.
Kelly:What we're coming to here is, if we average all of our scores together, we get a 2.65. And that includes Jonathan's arbitrary 2 and 2.12.
Jonathan:There's definitely some math that goes into that.
Kelly:I'm sure there's a very complicated formula for that.
Mari:Is that new math, or is that ye olde math?
Kelly:So 2.65,. I guess we feel like we would say if we're doing halvesies then we've got to round that up to a 3.
Ashley:Yeah, yeah, I'd say so, I'm not opposed.
Kelly:Because you can't do halves on Goodreads right.
Mari:Correct.
Kelly:So there you go, probably an overall average of three.
Mari:Yeah.
Kelly:So now that we've done the spoiler-free section, dear listeners, if you do not want to hear spoilers, then you need to just go ahead and skip all the way to the end, or just stop the playback right now and come back and listen to it once you've read the book. Mari will open up talking about spoiler-filled reviews.
Mari:Yeah, Okay. So my thing as far as the spoiler-filled that I was so super impressed with this author is it felt like she put all these fantasy elements in a bag. It was like, oh, zombies and Vikings and maybe vampires and fae and witches and you know what, For shits and giggles, let's put Baba Yaga in there. Why not? Why not Baba Yaga, Always Baba Yaga? And she just like pulled it all out and was like mush but made it work. Like somehow this worked, oh, in Norse mythology, which I guess goes with the Vikings, but like all of it and just made it work. So I was, I was very impressed with that. I was like how it's interesting.
Ashley:It's interesting that your focus was on the fantasy, because for me, my focus was the faith and the female characters, more rural faith, right, the spirits of the forest and the generational yaya's that know all and see all and you know just inherently can tell things like folk whereas you know you, yeah, folk math, that's the terminology I was looking for, I was digging for.
Ashley:but then, you know you, yeah, folk magic, that's the terminology I was looking for, I was digging for. But then you go, like you said, into the Norse mythology, which was very much a faith for them right For a Viking and they believed in Odin the way that Christian believed in God.
Ashley:I thought it was very impressive how she took the folk magic, the Norse belief, as well as what presented as christianity, yeah and, and brought them all together in a cohesive what I felt was fairly cohesive without really there was there was mistrust, right, you could, you could tell that there was some, some concerns about honesty, or but they but yeah, but they all, you know, they came together. Oh well, this bad thing's happening. Let's, yeah, power rangers unite and oh man.
Jonathan:so I, I attached the same things that mario attached to, but for the opposite reason. So, like I, I literally my notes said like it would smash magic, she just took bits and pieces of everything Well, catholic dogma and then we're going to get some. We're going to get some like a fairy and we're going to get like the zombie Will of the Wisps. I'm sitting there and reading. I'm like John Wick is in this book. I don't get it. There's just too much going on.
Ashley:It's a smorgasbord Tone it down, lady, down, lady, but it worked.
Jonathan:Choose one. No, stay in your lane. Choose one. Be north. Be a witch, that's cool. You can make a whole book about witches and wizards. That's been. That's a thing. You can put them in different places.
Mari:She put them underwater yeah, that's true, there's underwater stuff too. I did.
Jonathan:Did you see scuba snails coming?
Mari:I didn't see scuba snails, no that was not on my bingo card I think the the smashing of all this stuff together.
Kelly:I agree with both jonathan and marie and ashley. It felt like she was just taking a shotgun approach to try and stick as many different elements in there and it almost felt like like search engine optimization. Let me make sure I include every bit of different fantasy elements so I can get all the hits.
Ashley:It was an equal opportunity fantasy Right.
Jonathan:So you could be mildly racist with your magic and just choose one.
Kelly:Well, the problem I felt about it was I find it very difficult that all of those different, the diaspora of all those elements, all came together against a common foe.
Kelly:It just seemed a little bit far-fetched. I did like that there was some inclusion of the old religion, because we've and it's not like that's anything new We've seen the old gods versus the new gods type conflict before, even as recent the Game of Thrones books and TV show, where you had the old gods and the new gods type conflict, and many other TV series, fantasy books, etc. You have the old, isolated witch or medicine person who lives off away from the village that knows everything and is somehow in touch with nature greater than anyone else. These are all tropes we've seen before or read before. So I don't feel like there was anything new that was done with that. I mean, I was convinced from the start that Yaya was going to be Baba Yaga because, just because of the name, I was just like oh, she's going to Yaya who lives in a hut away from the village. Oh, it's obviously Baba Yaga. I felt that was what was coming.
Mari:I would have been really excited by that, because I love Baba Yaga. I love Baba Yaga so much, but also I love mashups, so, but also I love mashups. So I loved all this stuff coming together, because to me a mashup is just chef's kiss.
Ashley:It's a different source of entertainment.
Mari:Like.
Ashley:I was entertained for those reasons, but Jonathan and Kelly were not.
Jonathan:It's just it was a little too much to try to figure out. I think it was too much and such a short book. That was one of the issues I had. It was such a short book. That was one of the issues I had.
Kelly:It was such a short book there was no. It felt like for some part of it, you know, like they went to go collect the priest and he came back to help them. You know, just that easy it felt like there was a lot more exposition that should have been done, but it's just like oh, we got the priest now. Oh, we got this, we got the party together. We got all these different elements together, Did you?
Jonathan:notice that when they got the priest, the priest was like hold on, All my brothers are out of town right now. Let me just leave them a note. So he got this note, wrote it down, stuck it on the refrigerator. None of his brothers came.
Mari:Yeah.
Jonathan:Where's the love? They got home and they were like Caspians out saving the world from, uh, from like john wick and whatever. And then he's just like we don't need, he's got it. He's good. He's never used magic in the real, in real time, just only in theory. He's only like hypothesized.
Kelly:He's good yeah, and thank goodness that not only was he able to do it, he was also apparently very able to do it that's the cleric mindset, though, right, it's all faith-based.
Mari:To me they were. It was a dnd party, you had cleric and it's all about faith. It's not about, like, how much experience you have, it's how much faith he has in his God. So you had him. You had the magic witchy enchantress, I guess, in in Yaya and in Agna in a way. You had like the brute force, folk var. Yeah, it felt like a like a dnd party coming together. You have dnd parties, for, like your different characters have different gods and different ways of getting their powers or their strengths, and then they go get together and fight the big bad, fight the undead yeah, may the force be with you kelly's a much more experienced dnd
Kelly:player than I am and the thing too, I had about this book is anytime you start to bring Vikings and some kind of undead monster like the undead zombies, vampires, etc. You're running smack into the Michael Crichton book Eaters of the Dead, which was made into the movie the 13th Warrior.
Kelly:Oh, I love that movie so it felt like this was absolutely nothing new, Like I liked the idea of let's throw in what do Vikings fear the most? They fear not being able to go to Valhalla. So the undead to them are an abomination because that means you can't go to Valhalla. I get that aspect and that was kind of cool, but felt like so much of this was lifted or borrowed or inspired by the 13th Warrior.
Mari:When did 13th Warrior come out?
Kelly:So the 13th Warrior was released in 1999, but the book Eaters of the Dead was published in 1976.
Mari:Oh, I've not read that one, but I like the movie Antonio Banderas.
Jonathan:I think my biggest issue is that it feels like the story took a hard left turn. Once Daddy Viking was just like oh, let me just see what these sweet dames gotta say. Like he was like. He was like we're here to check stuff out. And then they lied to him and he is like let me, let me go address this liar by cutting off his head. And then he was like now that I've cut off this dude's head, let's go, let's bring me some, bring me some broads. I need to get my rape on. And then they were like oh, let's go out into the woods. And he's like more women to rape? Yeah, all right, let me have some of that. And and then they were just. And then the story just took this turn. I thought it was going to be like this romanticy, we're going to save, there's this damsel in distress, we're going to save her. And then all of a sudden it became like this I need need to rescue my broad-raping dad.
Kelly:I think a lot of that. Painting the dad in such a negative light and the other Viking character in a negative light was an effort to distinguish the main character as being different from the rest of the Vikings, because that's one of the whole parts of the book was. On both sides it was the he's not like other Vikings and the Viking character was like she's not like other Slava girls. So there was a lot of that teenage rom-com I'm not like other girls or I'm not like other boys kind of feel to it, which I guess is fine if we're considering it a young adult book.
Mari:Yeah, here's my thing, though Felt like the character development was not as good as it could have been, because to me, like Fol folk, far's dad home gear. Jonathan, I know you read the audiobook, so you may be our pronunciation guy, the dad I can't, I can't say, there I what I call um the main character is volkswagen.
Jonathan:Um the the sister is john wick. Uh, I know who Yaya is. I got Agnes Is Louie's a goat.
Mari:Oh my God, Lou is my favorite character in the entire book. I love Lou the Ram. He was like he gave zero craps about anything. Love him.
Jonathan:I'm pretty upset that they didn't like reveal that Lou was like somebody, like an elder who passed away and like I was like that. I thought that was cool because they were like you gotta take him. And then he was. She was like how and she. They were talking to him like he was a human being and then he's like doing all sorts of cool stuff. He's like he reminds me of, like like you know, it'd be great to play him danny devito, like just a little edgy, a little bit of spice, like I'll, I'll, I'm gonna, I'll headbutt you in the nuts, kind of like. Get out of my way, but I love my family.
Mari:Yeah, lou was absolutely my favorite character in this book, but my thing with character development, going back to that with Folkvar and with Agne it's. Agne was saying that Folkvar is not like the other Vikings, right, but Folkvar himself, whenever Agne brought up the bad things that the Vikings did, like you know, raping and like murderizing this nice guy according to agne he was a nice guy who got beheaded early on. Folk bar is an apologist the entire time. He never is like oh man, yeah, maybe we shouldn't have done that.
Mari:There was a line in the book where he said something about how he couldn't. I don't have it with me, I should have written down. I'm sorry that that people's people thought poorly of the vikings and I'm like you think you think they think poorly of the Vikings and I'm like you think you think they think poorly of you when you're going around raping and beheading and killing people, like what kind of welcome do you want? But Folkvar never changes his view of his people, so he doesn't change. Agne goes from like these people murdered my parents to oh, but he's cute in like three days.
Kelly:What did Folkvar sacrifice? She was willing to give up her eternal soul, I guess, and did you know? To be with the Fae guy forever in exchange for helping to rescue the dad. And what did Folkvar give up? What did he sacrifice?
Jonathan:for her Quick question. Is Volkswagen the main character?
Mari:I think there's two main characters. I think he's the main male character and Agnes the main female character. I think they're equal, like equal main characters.
Jonathan:In the audio book, every other chapter was read from the other's perspective.
Mari:Yeah, so the book had like a different picture at the top of every other chapter. That was supposed to be supposed to signify that it was every other from their different perspectives yeah, so that?
Jonathan:so that made me think like who's like, who's so? Who's really in charge here? Who's like, who's like? Who is the main character is it? Is it agne? Or like her viking boy toy well, she was definitely the stronger character because she sacrificed more.
Kelly:She did more for going around slicing zombies and people up and stuff. She definitely was the stronger character that sacrificed more and did more. I mean she was.
Jonathan:They didn't paint her as a smart person, they just she acted out of lust for somebody. She just met somebody new and different that came to town. She knew nothing about.
Ashley:But put that into perspective. We're talking about the ninth century. This individual was a young adult. Was she even adult age? If they said an age, it was young and I mean like 17 to 19. So 17 to 19,. She's only ever known this tiny, tiny village. It's not like she went off to university, right? I mean, she watched her parents get murked yeah sure but they didn't teach her wisdom they were faking her marriage.
Jonathan:There was wisdom built into that how to care for her younger sister. You know it's. There definitely wasn't enough character development built into to her backstory. You probably don't have to go as deep but they like they forced relationships in. Like what was the whole point of, uh, of going over to her rich auntie's house, like it was, like it was the only reason I can think of that they went over there was so that they could say the book is somehow related to kiev I thought it was to get the cleric, wasn't that where the cleric was?
Ashley:well, they went there to get yeah, it was yeah when her aunt wouldn't help her.
Kelly:Then she was like well, I know one other place we could maybe get some help, and that's when she went to the christian church yeah but auntie's role wasn't pivotal at all.
Jonathan:The book survives without auntie.
Mari:Yeah, I do think that the aunt going back to the aunt I think that her one role that she had, other than being like parental figure, like basically after the parents died, it was Yaya and the aunt was the only think that helped push the two main characters together, because then they were like oh well, you know, we're not gonna let you get married to this random person, so I'm gonna marry you, although I gotta say I was.
Mari:It pulled me out a little bit and once again, I'm not a history person. So you know, I don't know necessarily, but to me it was like, okay, if you are an unwed young adult woman, in that time I would have thought that the idea of getting married for stability is not this crazy idea. Like the way Agnes made it sound was very like modern, like, yeah, through our eyes, sure it's crazy to get married to a random person just for stability that you don't know. But through what I would think would have been socially acceptable and expected in her time, I didn't feel like I understood why this character was so surprised by it or why she expected things to be different for her than for what they were for everybody else.
Jonathan:The auntie was also the only character that had a complete 180 of their perception. She went from bigoted and hatred to Volkswagen and at the end she was like, oh yeah, I'm so glad you guys are hooking up.
Mari:True, I mean, I think ultimately she just wanted Agnes to be safe, you know, and in that time for a woman in that world, it it would be getting married, you know, for better or for worse. That's that's what safety and and stability was. You know, when it comes to historical fantasy and ye olde timey fantasy, we can be okay with fairies existing and Willow of the Wisps existing and baba yaga existing and viking undead horde existing and underwater creatures existing, but the idea of a world where women can choose their path is crazy talk. So fantasy overall, I would say this this was pretty good. On fantasy element there were plenty of fantasy elements To me. I gave this four swords if you want to do swords for fantasy. It was a four sword fantasy because there was plenty of fantasy elements in this book.
Kelly:So did we establish we're doing halves or not?
Mari:We can Do. You guys have a preference.
Jonathan:Yeah, I think we have to.
Kelly:We're not doing all fractions on this, Jonathan.
Jonathan:Oh dang, I got a lot of fractions You've got to do just, it's got to be a whole number or a half. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I gotcha.
Mari:A broadsword and a dagger. That's exactly what you got.
Jonathan:It's you a broad sword and a dagger. That's exactly what you got it's a broad, broad sword and a dagger. Oh my god, uh it. Originally it was a broad sword, a dagger and a pocket knife, but so like one and a half, for me it just wasn't it. It was too, it was too much. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose. Just pick one thing, roll with it and we can go deeper, and then I can start to emote with the magic or the faith. The other thing for me Politics.
Kelly:We're going to have to cut that part out, jonathan who hasn't given their rating my opinion is for the fantasy. I'm gonna have to say a three, because it was some interesting elements brought together, but overall I felt it was just too many and it was just too many cliches that were being used, especially in the fantasy aspect.
Mari:Jonathan, what did you end up giving for the fantasy? What was your final rating?
Kelly:One and a half 1.5.
Mari:Okay, I'm putting it in here.
Ashley:I'm with Mari. It was a solid four for me. There was a lot of fantasy. I'm with Mari. It was a solid four for me. There was a lot of fantasy. I enjoyed the fantasy. I don't think the fantasy is always supposed to make sense. Four for me.
Mari:Agreed, all right. Moving on from fantasy to romance, the romance aspect, what do you guys think?
Jonathan:Oh man, what romance. There was an undertone of lust. I didn't really pick up on any romance romance aspect.
Kelly:What do you guys think? Oh man it, what romance it was. There was an undertone of, of lust. I didn't really pick up on any romance. Yeah, the rep, I think the amount of romance in this story was about the same as the romance that was in Romeo and Juliet. It was two horny teenagers which, for the, for the target audience. If this is being targeted at young adults, that may gel, but you know we're older adults, so you know it's like the saying reading Romeo and Juliet when you're 16 is very different than reading it when you're 50.
Mari:So, jonathan and Kelly, would you guys say one, or do you want to put zero?
Jonathan:I'm going to give it A scored One, I'm sorry. Hearts One heart, one heart, kelly.
Mari:I'm sorry. Hearts One, one heart, one heart.
Kelly:Kelly, I mean I think there was some effort to build up romance. I'd have to say a two. I just I very dislike the trope of I'm not like other girls or I'm not like the other guys.
Mari:Ash, what do you think?
Ashley:I think it's two. I think there was some effort. I think you have to take into account. You know the time, right. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of years ago, courting was not really going to be a thing. If you're talking about love, it would have been very fast, right? It didn't speak to my soul. It's solid.
Mari:Two it's solid too. Okay, I think for me it was a one, and it mainly is. It felt very much like a romeo and juliet story. That was what it is for me, which is not my jam. I have never liked the romeo and juliet story very insta, lovey, insta, lusty, like it basically would be almost a zero romance. For me, it's mainly more lust than anything. However, if we're going to define romance as like love of any kind, I will say that I very much appreciated the relationship between Agnes and her yaya, agnes and her grandmother. I thought that was a very sweet and caring and supportive relationship relationship.
Kelly:Maury is right, there was some bromance type elements between Agnes and Yaya, but there was definitely no bromance anywhere else. I don't think there was any bromance between the Vikings.
Jonathan:Dad's relationship was very power over. Like I'm the patriarch of the family, you're going to do what I say or I'm going to backhand you.
Mari:Yeah, and how dare you fall in love with someone that I don't approve of? Yeah, he wanted to control every aspect of folk bars.
Kelly:You got to remember. This is in the time when marriage for love was incredibly uncommon. We're a long way from when marriage for love became more common.
Mari:Spice guys.
Jonathan:It was almost non-existent. It just it really felt like a Hallmark movie to me, where things were like we're on the precipice of a little bit of spice, but we just didn't, you just couldn't get over the edge. And then there were reflections of it late in the book, so I gave it a hey what? What object are we using? Is this like?
Mari:I'm going to like chili peppers. Yeah, chili peppers, peppers.
Jonathan:I did give it two peppers, though.
Kelly:Yeah, there really wasn't a whole lot of spice in this book, which is fine. I mean it is targeted to young adults, so the place that any spice could happen was between the two main characters, and it did. It happened late and it was pretty tame.
Mari:How many peppers are you giving it?
Kelly:I mean I would say two. There wasn't a whole lot of it. A lot of it it was the thinking afterwards like, oh, if she was any other winch I would have just taken her right there.
Jonathan:Yeah Right, it was like I would have just raped her.
Ashley:Ash, what you think it was a one. I think it's so cute how the boys think it was two. I feel like sweet summer child it's cute there was.
Jonathan:There was neck biting, there was neck biting. I think that's a two, that neck biting is a two, a kiss is a one or neck biting I mean, I guess I didn't think about.
Kelly:You know if we're gonna give something a zero, but I just assumed a one was like there was none at all. You know where there was. So little at least there was. I guess. I feel like there was some effort to have some spice I'm with kelly.
Jonathan:I'm with kelly. I didn't see zero as an option.
Ashley:Uh, I mean, like ashley, zero on the map no, but you're so cute, so you guys recognize the level of spice based on like, quantity or whatever. But when it came to the fantasy, you, you reversed it. There was too much fantasy, so you gave it a lower rating, like yeah, interesting, the math doesn't well, the math doesn't math.
Mari:Yeah, math ain't mathin.
Kelly:I didn't expect there to be yeah, I didn't expect there to be lots and lots of spice because, knowing this, was a young adult. Now I'm a little bit worried that Ashley and Maura may think that what their perception of what is an appropriate amount of spice is a higher threshold.
Ashley:Well, but again, I don't think we're talking about what's appropriate versus not. I think, again, it's perspective, right, and that's why I compared it to how you both rated the fantasy, compared to how Mari and I rated the fantasy. It's based on palate, right. It's based on taste, it's based on what we've experienced, what we know. So let's pause that line of thinking. Mari, what did you rate for the space?
Mari:So for me, I read a little bit of the author's page about her, what she said about herself. I went to her website and read that and it tainted me a little bit, to be honest. She described her writing in terms of like sexy times, as being clean. She said all her books were clean. That's a term she used, which is a terminology that I do not like to refer to when I'm talking about sex positivity or sex writing at all, because it feels like okay, if no sexy times is clean, then sexy times must be dirty, which I'm more about sex positivity, so not my jam.
Mari:So I was expecting it to be super mild, like vanilla. So, going in with that expectation, there was more in it than I expected. I thought what was there was fine, it was little snippets were fine for what they were. I think the overarching jarring sentiment for me was the comparison of like the little snippets of description of, of spice, versus the in-depth description of fights and battles and stabbings. Yeah, and it's like yay, violence, violence is great, violence is wonderful, but sex is dirty so what you're saying is this was entirely an american novel yes, where we shame the sex tone down the sex.
Kelly:Can't talk about nudity, but gratuitous violence is a-okay.
Mari:Yeah, decapitate people in the first chapter and go from there.
Jonathan:So I give it a one for Spice At one point All right.
Mari:So, ultimately million dollar question do we feel that this is a kissing book? Is this a kissing book? Is this romancy? Would feel that this is a kissing book. Is this a kissing book? Is this romancy? Would you label this a romancy book? I agree, I say no, Yep, yeah.
Jonathan:I say no.
Kelly:I feel like it's a no.
Ashley:I feel like if it, isn't a solid yes, it's a no.
Kelly:Okay, if it's not a solid yes, it's a no, then no.
Mari:I think overall, overall, probably no. I I lean probably heavily into the no. One other thing I wanted to go over um was the cover. Like how well we thought that the cover reflected the story of the book. I'll say the cover is was done by erica's mystical creations, that's who was given credit for the cover. I know this is a audio media so I will say it's mainly a black cover with some icy blue icicles hanging off of a metallic looking eagle. And I don't know if it was just the day that I had Hunger Games on the brain, but there's something about it that very much read like Hunger Games to me. I know that an eagle has some significance in North mythology but for me I felt like the there's so much that goes on in this book that the cover didn't really do it justice. For, like all the directions that this book goes, it's not a bad piece of artwork. I just didn't think it was very reflective of everything that happens in the story. What do you guys think?
Kelly:Well, there's two covers, though is the problem. So there's the cover you described with the bird and the moon in the background. Right, that's the one you're talking about.
Mari:Yeah.
Kelly:So that was the cover I saw in the Kindle book, but on Goodreads there's an entirely different cover. The one on Goodreads has like a skull with a woman's hand touching it or holding it maybe, and then you can kind of tell it's a woman by the hand, but also because, like in the background behind the title text, there's like a woman's hair and kind of, uh, you can see, like maybe what, like just a bit of her yeah, like a bit of her, like chest or whatever.
Ashley:I feel like that one's far better suited than I agree.
Jonathan:I didn't see that one. Where's that other one at?
Ashley:Goodreads it actually. Yeah, well, I was on Goodreads and I saw the bird as you were describing it, so I had to Google it again. But yeah, so I see what Kelly's talking about. I don't know that either of them are very representative of the story. Maybe the skull and what appears to be younger girl is a bit more inclined, but neither overwhelmingly speak to me.
Jonathan:You know, artistically I like balance and I think that the one with the Trans Am logo on it was pretty cool.
Ashley:Mockingjay, Mockingjay yeah.
Kelly:Yeah, the.
Ashley:Trans Am logo.
Kelly:I like that because the only person we didn't run into in this to get mashed into this book was Smokey and the Bandit.
Jonathan:Yeah, no, I did like that. The cover art. I don't think it relates at all Like. I don't even think I felt like snow, it felt like springtimey in there so it didn't give like cold vibes. Of the two, I like the, I like the fire chicken the best, but I still like if I was just giving, like the, if I was looking at the art and buying a book based on the cover. I'm more attracted to books that have some sort of balance on the front and that have a circular pattern to it. What, what system are we using? Paintbrushes.
Mari:Paintbrushes. Yeah, let's do paintbrushes.
Jonathan:I'm going to give it four paintbrushes for overall artistry.
Kelly:But we were going for. The rating was based on how well it portrays what's in the book, right? Not what we actually thought of the art itself. As far as the quality of the art, half a little skinny paintbrush Because for me it's like from the dollar store yeah, it's like one brush, because neither of them really had anything. Neither of the covers told you anything about what's going on in the book, or even hinted at it so how many brushes was that kelly?
Jonathan:one one and jonathan uh, taking into into consideration the idea that it didn't uh, parallels between the story, the actual cover, but I still like the cover. I'm just going to. I'll give it two.
Ashley:And Ash, what do you think? Man? I'm zooming in and I'm really trying to find the connection from the pictures to the book and I'm not finding it. It's a one, yeah.
Mari:Even though I have Goodreads. I just looked at the Amazon version, I didn't look at the Goodreads version. So this is my first time really looking at the Goodreads image and I'd say one thing. What's interesting is it's under a different name On Goodreads it's Vikings in the Mist as the title. But I would say that if I were walking by a library or a bookstore, the Vikings in the mist cover the one that's on Goodreads with the skeleton would pull me in more and I feel like it. It definitely gives you more vibes of what's inside the book than the other one. So I would have given the other one one, but this will raise it, I think, like this one would be a three.
Ashley:So the average between the two, I guess, would be a two for me this is like the gift that keeps on giving, though, like I was, I was trying to like zoom in to the, to the witchy one with the skull, and I found a third one. Guys, what? Where? I'm trying to see what this is. Uh, so it's definitely her, it's Eliza Tilton, and there's a couple on the front, and I think this one is actually the most likely for what we just read.
Jonathan:Where did you find this one? Oh no, this doesn't work for me at all.
Ashley:So I was just Googling. This one looks like.
Jonathan:A paperback version.
Ashley:Paperback bog, but it's also like Amazon Music. I don't know.
Kelly:Oh, wow, wow.
Ashley:I'm going to do it more for you.
Jonathan:He looks fake. He looks like a Ken doll and a Barbie doll, pressed up against each other. Way more spliced when their bumps are touching like that. That's a zero. He doesn't have a forehead, he's got a five head.
Ashley:I don't know. It feels a little bit more Fabio for me.
Kelly:It's 100%, fabio.
Ashley:Those Harlequin romance novels at the grocery store. But I think when you're talking about whether or not it represents the book, I think that one's a little bit closer.
Kelly:If I saw that cover and had to guess what was on the inside of it, I would say it was a vampire and a werewolf, because there is no way I would think that dude is a Viking. Looking at that cover, I would think that she was some kind of princess, because of the crown, because she has a crown on and a ring, I think. It's a nice piece of artwork, but that's like. I think that's even worse than the other two covers as far as representing what's in the book.
Mari:Other than it pulls it. Well, I don't know. I think if it didn't have the crown it would be better. I like that it pulls in some of the leads, so it's got a little bit of the illusion to the the magical tree. Interesting, Interesting any of those versions existed.
Jonathan:Did anyone have a favorite part?
Mari:A favorite part. I had a favorite character. As I've said, I love Lou, but that's my thing. I end up loving the side characters of most books. Side characters are usually my favorite characters.
Ashley:He has the most personality.
Kelly:Yeah, so you're saying the most well-developed character was Lou the ram.
Mari:I would read him all day. The ram, I mean, I would read him all day. Yeah, I want to know what he's up to. What's his story? There's more to him.
Ashley:Where did he go, yaya's gone.
Mari:Oh my God, I want a prequel of like young Yaya and Lou like off on their adventures.
Kelly:That's what I want.
Mari:Yes, all right.
Kelly:I think we have talked this book to death, unless anybody wants to add anything else about the book. Well, we talked about briefly about how it was setting up a sequel in the non-spoiler section. So I just want to point out that I feel like the author was really trying hard to set the groundwork for a potential sequel and bringing back Dear Daddy as an undead vampire that he's going to have to go hunt down, agnes talking about how she has to figure out a way to get out of the deal she's made. So there was definitely, I think, some groundwork being made in an attempt to set up a sequel.
Ashley:I think she got distracted. Eliza needs to complete the story for Lou.
Mari:So we're looking forward to having a fun time with you guys, looking into more stories, more books, more adventures to pick apart, and we hope that you come along for the ride. Thank you for listening to of swords and soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check the show notes, rate and review us on your podcast app of choice. And make sure to follow us on Instagram at of swords and soulmates, or join our Facebook page same name of swords and soulmates. Or join our Facebook page same name of swords and soulmates. Or look us up on Goodreads of swords and soulmates and see what we're reading. Thank you.
