Of Swords and Soulmates

"The Audient and the Phantom Night" - Fated Mates on the High Seas

• Mari • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Ready to uncover the latest buzz in the fantasy and romance book world? This episode of "Of Swords and Soulmates" promises a treasure trove of updates and discussions that you won't want to miss. We kick off with the exhilarating news that Moira Wally Beckett, the mastermind behind "Anne with an E" and "Breaking Bad," is set to helm the upcoming Fourth Wing TV show. Get the inside scoop on three must-read books hitting the shelves: "A Sorcerer Comes to Call" by T Kingfisher, "Dark Olympus: Book Seven" by Katie Roberts, and "Apprentice to the Villain" by Hannah Nicole Mayer. 

Our discussion for The Audient and the Phantom Night delves into the fantastical elements from The Flying Dutchman and Beauty and the Beast. We debate the story elements and character dynamics. Ever been baffled by a mysterious dice game in a book? You're not alone—we break down our confusion and share our candid ratings on the fantasy elements. 

Finally, our romance segment sails into pirate territory, where opinions clash over the alpha nature of Captain Devlin and his evolving relationship with Fena. Ashley's glowing review sparks a lively debate among the hosts about character transformation, romantic tropes, and the power dynamics at play. We also critique the book cover design by Sadie Hewitt, speculating on the artistry and the allure of its title. 

Wrapping up, we touch on the significance of romance in storytelling, with a rapid fire discussion spotlighting "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," and recommend the lesbian romance "Legends and Latte" for those looking to broaden their reading horizons.

Links from the News Segment and Show:

  • Fourth Wing TV show on Amazon Prime
    • Showrunner selected – Moira Walley-Beckett
      • Emmy, PGA, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award winner
      • Previous work includes Anne with an E and Breaking Bad
  • New releases of note (all released August 6th):
  • Cover reveal for Firebird by Juliette Cross
    • This will be a limited first print run featuring original illustrated stenciled edges, foil case stamp, and designed endpapers. available while supplies last.
  • Dragoncon
    • Largest multi-genre convention (anime, art, fantasy, literature, sci-fi, and more)
    • https://www.dragoncon.org
    • Thursday Aug 29th - Monday Sep 2nd in Atlanta, GA 
  • Romantasy Book Convention (Orlando 2024)
    • https://www.fabledfantasyevents.com/ 
  • This episode's book is The Audient and the Phantom Night by Sadie Hewitt

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Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ofswordsandsoulmates

Ashley:

Views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants. The hosts make no claim to be literary experts and their opinions are exactly that opinions. All creative works discussed or reviewed are the intellectual property of the creators of said stories and is being used under the Fair Use Doctrine.

Mari:

Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast where we read, watch and discuss romancy stories. I'm one of your hosts, mari, and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly:

Hey everyone, it's Kelly, and always joining us, we have Ashley.

Ashley:

That's me, hi guys. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan:

I'm kicking and fighting in the trunk. That's me, JP. What's good?

Mari:

So today we will be discussing the Audient and the Phantom Knight by Sadie Hewitt, but first some news. The big news is that we have gotten a little bit of tidbit of progress on the fourth wing TV show. I don't know if you guys saw this, but Rebecca Yarrow has announced that there's a showrunner for the fourth-wing TV show. It's Moira Wally Beckett. She's an Emmy, pga, golden Globe and Peabody Award winner and she's worked on Anne with an E and Breaking Bad. I loved Anne with an E. Have any of you guys seen it?

Jonathan:

I kept trying to search for it, but it was like I kept misspelling it.

Mari:

It's with an E.

Jonathan:

E-A-N.

Mari:

A-N-N-E with an E that's the name of the show, anne with an E, it's Anne of Green Gables story and it's so good, it's so well shot, so well done, it's beautiful. And then I know Breaking Bad is huge. I know Breaking Bad is huge, like I know Kelly watched Breaking Bad. I did not.

Kelly:

What's a showrunner? Showrunner is like the lead person on the show. Sometimes they also are the writer, so it's usually like the writer or the writer slash producer. They're the one that's basically in charge of the show, essentially.

Jonathan:

I haven't been pretending to know what it is for like since it came out.

Kelly:

Right know what it is for like, since it came out right. So, like in shadow and bone, the author was not the showrunner but the person who adapted it for tv. That person was the showrunner for shadow and bone not, so it wasn't leo bardugo, but it varies depending on the show. So it's just one of those things that kind of like. Dan harman wrote community, one of the writers on Community, but he was the showrunner for Community Interesting.

Mari:

Yeah, so I Breaking Bad is very well reviewed. Like I said, I haven't seen it, but I've heard I mean lots of people love it and I really loved Anne with an E. I think I've watched it like three times.

Ashley:

I mean, I think all progress is good.

Mari:

Yeah.

Ashley:

It's prime, so I have big hopes for it.

Kelly:

Hopefully We'll see I'm just glad it's not on Netflix, because that means it won't get canceled.

Mari:

Right, right, the other news there's several. There's three books that we've talked about or mentioned vaguely in the past that are coming out or that did come out. I'm sorry August 6th, because I know this episode is coming out mid-August, so by the time you guys are listening, this episode drops on August 15th. But on August 6th A Sorcerer's Comes to Call by T Kingfisher came out, which we've talked about before. It's a fairy tale retelling Dark Olympus. Book seven by Katie Roberts, which is that series, is almost. That's the Neon Gods series. There's only eight books in that series, so it's almost done, it'll be done. I think the last one is due April 2025. I've only read through book five, so I need to get caught up on those.

Ashley:

Only book five.

Mari:

They're not very long, but they're very. It's very interesting. I mean, it's Katie Roberts, so definitely high spice content, but it's a really interesting retelling of the Greek gods, because you have a more modern setting and rather than the gods themselves Greek gods, because you have a more modern setting and rather than the gods themselves being gods, the gods are positions. So you have, like, the position of Haiti, of, excuse me, poseidon, for example, is a position like mayor, governor, whatever, and whoever's. Poseidon has control of the ports in the city, for example. So it's kind of an interesting take on it.

Jonathan:

Do they switch roles or do they get an interview? Do they get elected into those positions? It depends on the position.

Mari:

So some roles are hereditary. So it's like your dad was the whatever was the Zeus, so you're going to be the Zeus when your dad's no longer around, or some of them. You have to get voted in, or just different things. You get voted in by the people or you get voted in by the board of the gods or whatever. It's an interesting concept. It's a different spin on it. That I thought was a really cool way of modernizing it, because it gets rid of a lot of the icky things in you know Greek mythology where you have, like someone's uncle bedding, some their own niece or whatever. You know, in this case they're not the same people.

Ashley:

I think if she's on book seven I'll hold off. Just I don't want to. Sarah J Massett.

Mari:

Oh yeah, yeah, so book eight. I believe it's April 2025. That's gonna be out, so you don't have to too much longer to wait.

Ashley:

Not far at all. Yeah, that's my birthday present.

Mari:

There you go. And the last one of the books that were released on August 6th that I thought we would mention would be Assistant to the Villain, book 2, which is Apprentice to the Villain, by Hannah Nicole Mayer, which I know we, at least Ash and I, are looking forward to, and I think Kelly's looking forward to reading the first one. So those will be even.

Jonathan:

Jury's still out. Jury's still out, so I got a question about the date of release. Do they just? Is this like? Is that like book drop day, Tuesdays?

Mari:

Yeah.

Jonathan:

Tuesdays are book drop day, so it's every Tuesday.

Ashley:

Yeah, it can be. I think it just depends on.

Kelly:

I feel like Tuesday's been like the day that media gets released since as long as I can remember, it's always been Tuesday was new comic day, tuesday was new movie day, etc. Yeah.

Mari:

Like I know, I follow meet cute bookstore on Instagram and every Tuesday they post like the different, like this is you know why, a books that came out that Tuesday and then like a little synopsis of what they are.

Ashley:

Right, a lot of authors do that too, you know, to promote and bring notice to other projects and stuff that are going on. Yeah, a lot of the book talkers do that as well. So, yeah, Tuesdays are pretty prominent.

Jonathan:

Interesting.

Mari:

Literally. I just saw I don't know, maybe an hour before we started recording was that Juliet Cross revealed the cover for her Firebird book. That's going to be out so pretty.

Mari:

Yes, comes out April 8th 2025. It's a limited edition, first print run and it features original illustrated stenciled edges, foil, case stamp and designed endpapers and it looks really pretty and the story seems interesting too. It's dragons and witches and I don't know what else, but it's got some interesting sounding storyline. So I'll be reading it, I am sure. And the only other thing I had was a little reminder that I will be at DragonCon, like we talked about last week, and that's happening at the end of August, and if anyone is going to be there and wants to meet up, reach out. Maybe we can hang out. All right. Any other news anyone wants to talk about? All right. Moving on to the book review, so basically we chose this book, I think, mainly because we had been hearing about it. I think Ashley had said that you had been hearing about it, like on TikTok and stuff Because I think you and Jonathan are probably the more active on TikTok of us four.

Ashley:

So I can't even take credit for this one. This one was all Kelly Kelly, sir. I don't know where you found it, oh, but I was a big fan. I think my suggestion is upcoming on our list, but not this one specifically.

Kelly:

I only saw this book because my Goodreads feed said it was like trending or something, so it seemed like a lot of people were posting reviews of it all at the same time.

Mari:

Okay, so the book is called the Audient and the Phantom Knight and I don't know if I'm pronouncing the word Audient correctly, because I literally had to look up the definition of it before reading the book. So I'm like I have never heard of this word. But here is the synopsis. It was published November 21st, 2023. So fairly new. I'm going to read the little synopsis and then we can get into it a little bit. Inspired by the legend of the Flying Dutchman meets Beauty and the Beast, this action-packed fantasy filled with searing romance, outlawed magic and seafaring danger.

Mari:

Fanna Tarragon never expected to leave her seaside village. She was too quiet, too gentle and far too kind to take on life outside of the bookshop she works at. But when her brother shows up on her doorstep begging for aid, with a pirate lord hot on his tail, Fanna will do anything to protect him. Devlin Cato is the captain of a cursed ship and can set foot on land for one day every seven years. Once again, he's found himself using it to chase a deserter across the continent. His hunt is short-lived when Fena agrees to take on her brother's 25-year debt in exchange for leaving her smoldering city to heal. As Fena spends more time abroad excuse me. As Fena spends more time aboard the Phantom Knight with the ship's mysterious and seductive captain, she soon finds herself caught between loyalty to her brother and her fiery passion for Devlin Cato. But the path to ending the curse isn't as easy as it seems when Fena's dark secret is discovered, A secret that threatens the very foundation of the continent's stability, and one that anyone would be willing to kill for.

Jonathan:

Ooh Dun, dun dun.

Mari:

Bum, bum, bum. What did we think?

Kelly:

Don't everybody go at once.

Ashley:

It's like uh, I was trying to remember who went first last time. It's probably me.

Jonathan:

I think Jonathan went first last time.

Mari:

Who's on deck deck. I don't mind talking, so for me it was a three, just kind of middle of the road. It wasn't like bad or anything, it's just um. Generally I'm not a big fan of pirate stories, so it's not at all the fault of the, the story of the book like. I like pirate movies and pirate TV shows and like pirate themed physical things like bars or whatever. But pirate books, pirate stories, are just not anything I've ever really been a fan of. I don't really know why. It just doesn't capture me the way the, the visual stuff of it does. But so I gave three to this, just you know, because not so much my jam. The romance part of this was a bit more dark romance than what I tend to like and I think I may have gotten my hopes up when it was described as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, because I fully disagree with that description. What'd you guys think?

Ashley:

I liked it. I don't think I've ever read a pirate book before.

Jonathan:

Never.

Ashley:

I don't. Not a single pirate book, not one that resonates, and so apologies to the books that I have read, because, lord knows, I don't remember everything all the time. I was actually a big fan of this book. I think I devoured something like 40% in the first sitting. I thought the quality of writing was far improved, compared especially to some of the first books that we read at the beginning of, you know, the podcast.

Mari:

Yeah.

Ashley:

I, you know, as someone who just wants to be entertained. I don't. My brain doesn't need to be challenged for these books, it doesn't need to be. I don't need to solve the puzzle along the way, right? So I was entertained and I thought it was a four. I really enjoyed this book. I will very likely continue to read the series Nice.

Mari:

Jonathan.

Jonathan:

I gave it a three. It was a three for me. It started off strong and then kind of like stalled in the middle and crashed at the end for me. But my initial had like a little bit of shock. When I hit play it was, it was in the king's irish yeah, we didn't see an irish tone yeah, I didn't see that coming. And then it hit. And when you hit it at like, at like 2, 2.2x the speed, it's like whoa, whoa I had to slow it down?

Mari:

Is that all it takes to slow down your reading? You'll have to read more accented stories then.

Jonathan:

Yeah, it probably wasn't an accent to them, but I mean I brought it back to like 1.75. And then today I was like you know what? I wanted to hear some of the names, because when Ashley was talking about some of the people, I'm like I got different pronunciations and it's not that she was super far off, but I was like let me slow this down. And I was like, well, that's way too slow listening to it at regulation speed. But yeah, so anyway, I had to concentrate a little bit more. I started off enjoying it and I think it could have carried on, but it just fell flat for me at the end.

Ashley:

Okay, yeah, so this ending happened too fast for him. The last book that we read took too long to finish.

Mari:

So we're still finding the Goliath, we're still trying to find that happy medium, Jonathan.

Jonathan:

Kelly, what did you think of the porridge?

Kelly:

I thought it was a three. I agree with you to a degree. I think it started somewhat interesting, a little bit of some problems at the beginning. Then it really seemed like the plot started falling apart at the end, and I felt there was I don't know it was sold as a the Flying, falling apart at the end and I felt there was. I don't know, though it was sold. It's, you know, sold as a the flying dutchman.

Kelly:

Pirates of the caribbean meets beauty and the beast kind of deal which I guess there was some vibes like that, but I don't know you know the flying dutchman has been done to death that mostly thanks to pirates of the caribbean, which obviously that was a mainstay of several of the pirates of of the Caribbean movies. And of course you know, the Flying Dutchman legend has been around, you know, forever, probably since the 1600s and stuff. I mean it wasn't until like the late 1700s when some stuff about it was actually written down in stories, but it's been well around since before that.

Mari:

You know it's interesting that you guys feel Collie both you and Jonathan feel that it kind of fell apart towards the end. The more ending part was the part that grabbed my interest more than the beginning. So we'll get into details when we get to the spoiler part. Anything else anybody wants to say before we have Kelly do the little spoiler thing.

Jonathan:

Yeah, I just didn't get the Beauty and the Beast part.

Kelly:

In my opinion, it was because, oh, she works in a bookshop and she likes books and she's choosing to go in the place of someone else. Yeah, she chose to go in place of a family member. Just like Belle chose to go in place of her father.

Mari:

I think that was where the comparison ended for me. I agree, it was not Beauty and the Beast for me.

Kelly:

All right, kelly, spoiler bit sure, so from this point forward, we will be discussing spoilers. So if you don't care about spoilers, you can listen on, but if you do care, then this is probably the place for you to stop can I just say and I literally wrote this in my in my little notebook and underlined it and put exclamation points dasos is trash trash, trash yes, hundo p yes, oh my god she likes him, right, she respects him.

Jonathan:

That's not her. I was caught off guard. That's not her.

Ashley:

That's not her real brother, though right, I mean, they were raised together trying to find a book with real siblings, and he keeps being disappointed what is? What's the tie for the siblings? For you, just out of curiosity.

Jonathan:

Well, my brother died in a very violent way and I miss that attachment.

Ashley:

Thank you for asking so you're trying to find it in books, in a book, yeah, I've just never noticed that about you before.

Jonathan:

Welcome to Absurd and.

Kelly:

Soulmates, couples Therapy.

Mari:

We'll have to think on some sibling stories then, I don't know, we'll have to pull one out for you.

Ashley:

I think Assistant to the Villain does that pretty well yeah.

Mari:

Yeah, did you read it.

Jonathan:

Wait, are we supposed to be reading that next?

Ashley:

No, Okay, don't get ahead, you're super lost.

Mari:

Wow, ash works ahead. Back to my mind. Tell us about it.

Kelly:

All I want to know is all I want to know what this book is.

Mari:

What the hell were the rules for the dice game?

Kelly:

Oh my gosh, I have no idea, I gave up, oh see you could make your it wasn't. Liar's Dice. It wasn't Pirate's Dice. It wasn't any of the typical dice games that I've ever heard of or could even find reference to. It wasn't the dice game that the Life and Death were playing for in Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is, of course, sort of based on the Flying Dutchman legends. So I have no idea what the hell the rules were for this dice game.

Jonathan:

It almost seemed like so I think, the way I understood it, like you had the opportunity to set some as the victim, you could set some as a challenger, you could set some rules, but nobody told you the rules of the rules that you could set right. So you had to like lose first to figure out oh shit, I shouldn't do that that way. And then, whatever you roll, they have to roll. Okay, I don't know if it was under or above, and you can't have the same numbers showing. So if I roll a three and a four, you can't roll a three and a four. You would have to re-roll.

Kelly:

So when he threw dice for the guy that was already on his crew that happened twice they rolled what he called, what the guy called, not the captain. And then when he was taking Dezos or whatever his name was the first time, the captain called Snake Eyes and he said a pair of fives, but he never rolled the dice. I don't know. The rules made no sense at all.

Mari:

They started talking about the dice game and the rules and I was just like I read it three times and I'm like, okay, I'm just not going to understand that. Moving on it was.

Jonathan:

It was also like I didn't see it as being a super pivotal part. No, it's a lose-lose. When you got into it you, I don't even, it was just a matter of, I guess I also didn't understand how you were, how you were assigned the, your years of servitude, like it's just not 25 years for everyone?

Mari:

well, it's apparently based. It's based on what you rolled, isn't it?

Kelly:

I don't know, because he said two fives. Okay, so he said two fives, so five times five is 25. But dice don't multiply when you roll them, unless that's in the rules. That were never stated. So, like again, there was no sense to the rules. Like, if you want to have a game in there just to advance the plot, that's all well and good, but at least make the damn rules have some kind of semblance of sense to them.

Mari:

Agreed. What do we think about fantasy?

Jonathan:

Who's going first, mari?

Mari:

Okay, I'll go first. So for fantasy, I did a three. I thought that the soul packs with the gods was kind of interesting. It was almost like an economy with the years and whatnot, but the rules didn't make sense. A lot of it was made up as you went along. I thought that the different kinds of mind reading, different kinds of clairs, the clairvoyance were kind of interesting and, yeah, like it was fine, like it had some interesting bits. It's just a lot of it didn't seem to make sense to me. So it was just, it was fine, it was a three.

Ashley:

I agree it was a three for me, but again I was. I wasn't bothered by the lack of rules, I wasn't trying to make sense of everything, I just I enjoyed the ride. So it was a three for me.

Jonathan:

I was happy with it it was a two for me. I thought that it was. I thought that some of the so besides the so I thought the rules were kind of like very a detail that I could live without. However, what I couldn't get past was the you know a. What's the origin of the curse right b. I needed more details about the clairs um and and what the whole battle from, or the you know the the government trying to source them out, etc. I just don't think there was enough.

Ashley:

Building.

Jonathan:

Yeah, there wasn't enough world building or story building.

Mari:

I mean, you did get a little bit of the origin of why Devlin was cursed, though you did get that.

Jonathan:

Yeah, but that was late in the game.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jonathan:

I just felt so.

Ashley:

I think what bothers me the most is this book had had, it has potential, it could have been a contender what's so funny is that, you know, we also picked this book because it was a little bit shorter, right, because we've been reading some dense, dense ladies lately yeah so I think you know it's funny how this is probably one of the shortest books we've read in a while and we're all kind of feeling a little lacking.

Ashley:

And I don't mean that in a derogatory way, because I've thoroughly enjoyed the book, but not for nothing. Arguably there could have been a bit more world building.

Mari:

I agree.

Ashley:

A little bit more depth yeah.

Mari:

How many weeks that would have come the the density of the book. Yeah, it would have been more pages, for sure right, it's a.

Ashley:

It's just interesting how we were like yeah, let's pick a little bit of a shorter one. You know we've all got a lot on our plates this week let's pass the dutch over to kelly and see, maybe kelly found this to happen

Kelly:

yeah, did he have like a?

Jonathan:

yeah, like a. He could have had a five for this, kelly, would you know?

Kelly:

I gave this a two for fantasy. You can have world building without having to have a thousand pages on it. A good author can do that. There are some things you don't have to explain you can allude to and it's kind of understood, like it was very easy for the author to make it alluded to that having this gift was bad because they set it up with the whole first part where her parents tried to keep her hidden away and not use her talent. Right. That's all you needed to say to know that having this talent made you an outcast, made you a target, right. So you can do world building without a thousand pages, it's not. It's not that there wasn't enough page space and words devoted to world building, it's just the world building wasn't there, it wasn't alluded to. You had to take a lot of things on stereotype, like. You had to rely on knowing stereotypes and tropes which, of course, as many of you listeners know, I detest and I feel like this book leaned heavily, heavily into Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jonathan:

A hundred percent, a hundred percent, pirates of the Caribbean.

Kelly:

Like part of me wants to think is this a Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, you know? Is that? Inspiration for this Like is that kind of where this came from? Was maybe thinking about a Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, which is fine because that's all well and good, but the characters, I don't know the characters didn't do a lot of things that made sense in the fantasy world they were in.

Mari:

Yeah, to me I thought it was a bit Pirates of the Caribbean and a bit Black Sails, like it had a vibe of both of those, like the TV show and the movie. Romance for me I guess I'll go first, because I've been going first Romance was a two. It was kind of I felt like the faded mates thing was shoehorned in there. I wrote down what's the, what's the romance, equivalent of smash magic, smash romance, smash romance. And we felt very, very Barbie and Ken doll, like we are faded mates. Therefore we must want each other like from and this is probably just a very much a me thing because, like I said, I'm not a huge fan of dark romance. And this is probably just very much a me thing Because, like I said, I'm not a huge fan of dark romance.

Mari:

And to me, from the get go, when her brother has shown up at her house bloodied and scared out of his life and she doesn't yet know what an idiot he is, and so she goes out to try and go to the bookshop to help people and she runs into the guy who's kidnapped her brother. He grinds her up against the alleyway or whatever and like kisses her, smash mouths her. And she liked it. I don't, I don't. I think that set the wrong tone for me for romance and then from there it was just. It never quite caught me.

Jonathan:

I got to challenge you. I have to challenge you on this one why is it a negative for Devlin to do that for you and a positive for Brendan Fraser to do it in the Mummy?

Mari:

Did Brendan Fraser kidnap? Her brother and whip him and threaten to keep him kidnapped for 25 years that I'm unaware of.

Jonathan:

Definitely he violently attacked her brother.

Mari:

After her brother stole from him.

Kelly:

Brendan Fraser did not have power over Rachel Weisz while he was in that prison cell.

Mari:

That's true, that too.

Jonathan:

Is it the power over that drives it, or is it just the action in general? I just think we're moving the goal line a little bit I think that's my.

Mari:

He had the power in that situation.

Jonathan:

I mean she could have walked away and he would have died well, I think her brother, her brother would have, he would have just found her. He would have found her brother, that's there was no hiding from him. So what, like she didn't, there was no hiding from him, evie could have from him.

Kelly:

Evie could have walked away from Brendan Frazier after he kissed her and he'd have been hanged and that would have been the end of the story. She had more power and agency. But, correct, you know, if you read the part where they first kiss, it explicitly says as he kissed her, she moved against his and matched his ferocity. So I don't know that. There is, I don't know. It seemed like they were both doing something there. Yeah, like he made the first move in to kiss her without consent, which is bad, but she certainly seemed to go along with it, which doesn't make anything right. It's just I don't know.

Jonathan:

Yeah, it definitely leaves you with some uneasy feelings.

Mari:

Yes, I don't. I'm not necessarily opposed to the Fated Mate trope as a trope, because there's plenty of books I mean don't call me a hypocrite, because I love me some Ice Planet Barbarians, and there's nothing more Fated Mates than Ice Planet Barbarians. So I don't mind the fated mates trope. I mind it or I guess it bothers me when it's a fated mates trope, but it doesn't include caring for your mate.

Mari:

So in the type of fated mate tropes that I like when it comes to romance, what ends up happening is you are, I'm not gonna say all consumed, but you're definitely very devoted to the needs of your mate. If your fated mate person needs you to give them space, then you go away. You give them space. If your fated mate person needs you know you to cook dinner for them, needs you to go out and hunt for them. Like your tie to the fated mate, your I'm not gonna say reason for existence, because there is plenty of life to be had without a mate situation. But in the fated mate thing that I tend to like, it's because they're all about taking care of each other and I feel like the whole enemies to lovers and antagonistic hate fucking thing doesn't work for me when combined with fated mates.

Jonathan:

That personal preference what were you on this one? Were you a two? Two on the romance. Yeah, ash, what's a? You were very ash was entertained ashley was super entertained. She was not reading into any of this.

Ashley:

She was like oh, they're kissing now I'm trying to figure out, like, what's wrong with my brain, because I did not have the issues that you guys had. I'm thinking to myself this guy's like a badass alpha road. I mean, he's a pirate. He's not gonna be super gentle and compassionate. He gave her first dibs to sexual pleasure, though, and didn't lay a hand on her without her asking. I really liked the romance in this book.

Jonathan:

What are you giving it? What kind of kind of romance are you giving?

Ashley:

it. I mean it was. It wasn't world altering for me, but I thought it was a solid. I thought it was like a three and a half. I was pleased. I liked their connection. I liked that they were feisty with each other, right like he. He gave her some shit because he's captain and he's badass and he's lived, you know, for 200 years or whatever the hell it was. But damn if she didn't give it right back to him after being kicked in her own village for 20 plus years, right for simply just existing and being a little different. And she's giving it back to this badass captain of an undead pirate ship. Hell yeah, girl, go get it. I thought it was great. I had a great time.

Kelly:

Once again, we welcome you back to.

Jonathan:

Couples Therapy on.

Kelly:

Swords and Soulmates. Now I know what to do Go down to the Halloween store, jonathan, get you a little plastic cutlass.

Jonathan:

I'm going to get me a tricorn and, like a hook, I'll shiver your timber. Come here, walk me plank.

Ashley:

That is not what Devlin said at all. No, okay.

Jonathan:

Just checking, I'm going to grow you a crow's nest. No, that's not going to work for you. Gonna grow you a crow's nest? No, that's not gonna work for you. Just checking, to the mizzen mass no, that's not a thing.

Mari:

No, devlin said I kissed you because I wanted to, because you looked ruthless while the city burned to the ground behind you, and I really like ruthless things.

Ashley:

Come on, that's gold.

Kelly:

Yeah, so was I can't think about anything else. I wake up in the middle of the night wishing my tongue was between your thighs.

Ashley:

Yes, gold, gold star.

Jonathan:

I'm going to give it. For the romance, I'm going to give it a four. I thought that she held her own and made her way. On her terms. I kind of.

Jonathan:

I didn't really fall for the faded mates thing like I. It felt one-sided. It felt like it was just devlin who was feeling that that pull and she was probably just naturally attracted to the. The the debt didn't take to her. It felt like she was kind of like immune to that, to that magic. Let's see, I thought the, the, the debt didn't take to her. It felt like she was kind of like immune to that, to that magic let's see.

Kelly:

I thought the debt, the debt being immune part, was a way of saying that he didn't have power over her like he did the rest of his crew yeah, that's what I got, too like it, where he just didn't have the same control, and that's that's why I could say the passion that was there.

Jonathan:

The romance I'll give that a four. How many romances are you? Giving it Kelly.

Kelly:

So I gave it a three. I think there was some parts that were romantic, but it seemed kind of I'm not a big fan of the bad guy, I can fix him. I'm the only one for him, I can fix him Because it was really pushing that angle hard by saying how terrible of a person Devlin was. I mean, we had several points where he was talking about, of course, his daddy issues, because his dad told him about, you know, a woman's nothing more than a receptacle, right? You know, from an early age women were meant to be seen and not heard, and those were words Devlin lived by. So you have some of that. He's the bad guy, but the right woman can fix some kite thing going on which I'm not a fan of.

Kelly:

But there was a lot of really, like Jonathan, like y'all had said, he never or actually said that he never forced himself on her. There was a lot of. He was waiting for her. So there was some of that you know you'll come to me when you're good and ready for it which some people dig. But I think one of the interesting parts of it was that the romance seemed to bring out a different persona of Fena. You know, she went from being a sheltered book girl to a murdering pirate. You know, full-blown pirate and everything.

Mari:

Magic user. Yeah, In a very short time yeah.

Kelly:

In a very short time she went from no throughout the book. She went from. You know, she went from book nerd girl who has never kissed a man, to I'm a experienced sexual woman who can cut down men during a boarding action of another ship. So it was an interesting journey that her character took part of, which was the romance that they had character took part of, which was, you know, the romance that they had. I did like how they did banter back and forth. I did enjoy that part so I ended up giving it a three. I think it could have been better, it could have been worse. So, kind of middle of the road, there were some good parts but there were some bad parts I didn't care for, and for those of you keeping track at home, but did we have a bangening in this?

Mari:

Jonathan has strong feelings. Go Jonathan.

Kelly:

Let's get into the spice. So, mari, do you want to start with spice, or do you want to let Jonathan start with spice?

Mari:

Jonathan can go.

Kelly:

There was no bangening.

Mari:

I was very upset.

Jonathan:

We had such a long conversation about how upset he was. You got to fuck the magic on very upset. You gotta fuck the magic on there's. If you're not, it's a requirement for me, it's a, for it's a. The bar is set at you gotta have the banging. If there's no banging, then the magic is not officially on, and so, for spice, it gets a one for me I I require the banging wow yeah, wow, this is what I've been dealing with why don't you go next, ashley?

Ashley:

yeah, I thought this was delightfully spicy, were you entertained.

Jonathan:

Actually, the whole time you were just entertained you're so mean.

Ashley:

I I thought it was a four. There was quite a bit of spice in here, I thought, and it was very politely explained. There was not a bangening. God forbid, people have just their own magic without a penis to bring it on.

Jonathan:

It's like a magic wand, Ashley.

Ashley:

It's a magic wand. Someone help me please, but I thought the spice was a delightful. Four.

Jonathan:

Mari, what did you think? What did you think of the spice?

Mari:

Actually, the spice I thought was 3.75 to 4. Yeah, the spice is definitely amongst the higher of what I wrote because I said, objectively, if you take the whole pirate thing out of it, which wasn't my jam, the whole Devlin being a straight up psychopath murderer out of it, if you're just looking for the spice, without the characters with no personality, I thought that it was well written. The spice parts were well written. Consent was very well done, other than that first kiss. I mean there was a some bravo bs talk on on devlin's part where he was like, oh was it? He certainly wasn't going to allow a scrubber of the stern deck the chance to touch Fenne, whether she wanted him to or not.

Mari:

Not my favorite, but the actual scenes were good. I just, yeah, I didn't like Devlin much at all, so it makes it hard, but if I take him out of it, like his person out of it, just the way the things were written, consent were written consent and some of the I thought it was well done. So for me it was basically a four for spice.

Kelly:

I think the author missed a great opportunity for a joke there by instead of saying the four deck should have used the poop deck. So, in a surprising twist, I also gave this a four, not for the quantity, but also because the quality was definitely better. And it could be because we're coming off of some books where it wasn't quite as a good quality, but there were several scenes where I felt the way the spice was pretty good and it was well written. Pretty good and it was well written. I think it was kind of. It was awfully fast for her to go from completely inexperienced girl to basically masturbating on the other side of a door from him at his command. It seemed pretty quick for that to have happened in the relationship.

Jonathan:

It's like some first date action though.

Kelly:

Yeah, but the sequence where afterwards, where he said make no mistake, I'm going to worship that water for the rest of my life. I'm going to bathe in it and bottle it, taking pleasure that you came while submerged into it, I'm going to spread it on my palms before stroking myself at night and I'm going to lock it in my safe and no one except you and me will know what I use it for.

Mari:

Yeah, that was pretty good.

Kelly:

That was pretty spicy. So deep, kelly, so deep, yeah, and I think, like Mari had said, there was no question about some consent issues, you know, because that definitely was a big hang-up in some of the books we've read in the past. But to Jonathan's point about there was no bangening, I would 100% disagree. There was a bangening. What the bangening was? Her becoming a murdering pirate who fully used who fully used her gift to kill people she did, true, she was she was murking people on that boat by killing him with her brain.

Ashley:

Yeah, without a second thought she's like I'm in, I'm getting out of this.

Kelly:

There was yeah, there was totally a banging, and it was him making it. So the romance between him making her so consumed with wanting to be back with him or being in love with him, that she killed without a second thought.

Kelly:

There's no orgasm and I thought there was another interesting point in this spice slash romance area, which was one of the characters said. Romance stories give us proper insight into our perceived notion of communication with our partners and renew our belief that life has meaning beyond ourselves. So is that the author trying to justify that there's value in romance books?

Jonathan:

yes, I was like that's such a planted line. I was like that's the there's. No, there was. Those guys dropped out of school in kindergarten and can't really read. They're trying to like, scratch their mate when they don't even, they can't even sign their name. They're just making a mark on paper and they're having deep thoughts with jack handy.

Kelly:

This is dumb well, I mean, the pirates were enjoying listening to finna telling them their romance stories and stuff.

Mari:

It's like she'd been teaching them yeah.

Kelly:

Right. So I don't know, I think that was a little bit. That was not quite holding up a brand and saying I love whatever brand pizza this is. You know the audience and the Phantom Knight brought to you by Domino's Pizza. You know it wasn't quite that bad, but there was definitely. It felt very not self-referential but kind of like a I don't know. It feels like something the author was trying to say to justify the value of romance books.

Mari:

Yeah, which? Why would you do?

Kelly:

that if they're reading this book, they already obviously value romance books.

Mari:

But you're playing to your audience, because there's always people who I mean that's part of what our question of the is this a kissing book thing is about. Like there's people who will automatically pass a book over if they think it's a kissing book and they think it's got romance in it. You know, there's, there's, there's something about romance, and I don't know if it's because it's for so long been seen as a as a female genre or female centric or female focus genre or for women or whatever, but it's, it's definitely a genre that has had to defend itself in a way that not many genres do anymore. Like I know, when sci fi was new, people had to defend themselves with sci fi, but like there's not very many genres right now that I can think of that are still as denigrated as romance that's fair.

Jonathan:

I I agree with kelly, though it feels like she was trying to sell swimming suits to people who are already in the pool or just saying what the people who are in swimming suits wanted to hear, which is swimming suits are awesome maybe that Was it preaching to the choir. Yeah.

Kelly:

So, interestingly enough, the three of us gave it high marks and Jonathan bombed it.

Mari:

Jonathan wants a bangening. That's the thing.

Jonathan:

Oh yeah, I got a hankering for a good bangening.

Mari:

What do we think of the cover?

Jonathan:

Of the cover. I think up close it's mid from across the room. It's cool. I'm giving it a three, Mari. What do you think of the cover?

Mari:

I thought it was a four. I thought the colors were attention grabbing, like that teal and that fuchsia pink were pretty, with the big white text on it and it's got a ship on it. So you know it's going to be like something pirate or seafaring. So I mean it's reflective of what's inside, it's eye-catching. I don't know that they could have done much more detail related to the actual story, so I feel like it was fine. I could not find any information on who designed this, so I don't know if that's something where it was done by the, by the publisher and like some in-house thing, or if it's AI. I have no idea. But even like on the cover reveal posts by the author, there was no mention of who the artist was. So yeah, I liked it. It's a four for me.

Ashley:

I agree, I think it's a very pretty color. It's a very nice, you know, purple violet there's something to be said, you know, for sunsets and and things like that. It's not common, I think, for those colors on a book cover. I liked it a lot. It probably would have grabbed my attention at a bookstore, although Although I think, mari, like you said at the very beginning, audient itself would have thrown me. I would have had to have read the synopsis to be in for it. But yeah, I thought it was a four. It's pretty. I would have purchased it for my bookshelf. Kelly, jonathan, no, I already went. It's Kelly's turn, kelly.

Jonathan:

Jonathan. Oh Jonathan, no, I already went. I already went. It's Kelly's turn, Kelly.

Ashley:

Oh, that's right, you went first.

Kelly:

I gave it a three. I feel it was okay. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible. Part of me kept wanting to try and find a pattern that was like in the background with the that pinkish color. But and I think that's what kept throwing me off when I looked at it was I wanted to see something that was there, but there isn't. So but I mean, yeah, I mean it's a pirate book, so you gotta have a pirate ship on there, I guess yeah, I just like I said nothing spectacular, nothing terrible.

Kelly:

Just I feel like maybe they could have included some more elements on the cover to make it more representative of what's in the story. But I don't know what they could have done without giving too much away, right but I agree that put a god on the cover, a shadowy figure overarching. I think that the title was definitely a little problematic, because the audience is just not a word that is going to grab you.

Mari:

I don't know For me. It grabbed me because I didn't know what it was, Because it was so unusual.

Ashley:

Yeah, and I think arguably the title said more about the book than the synopsis did. Yes, for me.

Kelly:

I don't know. Looking at the title, the first thing I think of is the microphone in the Phantom. What? Because an audience like a microphone company or something related to microphones, if I remember right. But like yeah, just I don't know.

Mari:

I feel like that maybe the title could have been tweaked a little bit better, but but I guess in that way it's a little bit of a reveal, because you don't really know what audience is, and neither does fena, until you know she reads that journal entry. So in a way it makes sense. Do we think it's a kissing book?

Ashley:

yes, I agree I did yes too. No, you think no just because there wasn't a bang and ang.

Jonathan:

No, no, no, no, no. I think no, because Okay, so let's remove Fanna from the story. And what happens with the Devmeister?

Mari:

Devlin.

Jonathan:

Devmeister finds asshole at Dassos and mercs him and keeps on rolling, keeps on trucking, that's it.

Mari:

Or would Dassos have, I believe, time marches on.

Jonathan:

I don't know where that came to me from, but time marches on.

Ashley:

I mean, I disagree, I fully disagree. How do you say his name? How do you say the sea god's name?

Jonathan:

Lidros, lidros. Yeah, say it again, lidros.

Ashley:

Okay, that guy was big mad.

Jonathan:

Or an Irish at 1.75 times the speed Lidros.

Ashley:

That guy was big mad and I think that if Devlin wasn't keen on finding a solution faster, it's Captain Caddo to you, Ashley.

Jonathan:

Okay, no.

Ashley:

Not to me, sir Simmer down. I think if he wasn't trying to find a solution faster, I think if he didn't have Fena to drive for, then he wouldn't have met his mark and that would have been the end of him and his crew as they knew it.

Jonathan:

The mark wouldn't have existed.

Ashley:

What are you talking about?

Jonathan:

He would have just kept on trucking.

Ashley:

He wouldn't have, because the guy was mad.

Jonathan:

He was mad because he got distracted by that broad no, he was mad because Devlin was giving people options.

Mari:

He was giving people to Samael, to the god of death, rather than taking them for him.

Kelly:

He was mad at him, just like they were mad at Jack Sparrow for not holding up his end of the deal.

Mari:

Yeah.

Kelly:

Like. I mean. That's why I said it feels like it was very much a lift from Pirates of the Caribbean. And I said it was a kissing book because I felt the romance was central to the plot, Because, even if you didn't realize it, at the very end the author spelled it out for you and I actually put this as a bookmark here. So it's sacrifice. Lidrow's response was airy, as though the answer was simple Executing every prisoner on this ship wouldn't have mattered. It needed to be done willingly and by the person he is bound to, out of love, if you will. So the author is telling you this book and everything wouldn't have happened this way without Fenna.

Mari:

Yeah.

Kelly:

Without the love between Fenna and Devlin. So I feel like that was a big hey, this is a romance book, this is romancy. She never would have survived any of this had they not been bantering and her being becoming more of a bloodthirsty, fully into herself, willing to murder without a second thought about it. Because of him. And he changed because, you know, he was very much a did like his dad did, you know, didn't have feelings for women. Women were just things.

Ashley:

Well, and then he was burned right and so he was definitely not going down that road again willingly. He wasn't actively searching for that partnership or companionship. It happened upon him in a very faded way. I didn't mind. You know the faded meats thing in this story. You know the faded meats thing in this story. But I do feel like if you remove Fena from the story, devlin and his crew don't succeed.

Mari:

Right.

Ashley:

They don't get to keep on going status quo, and that would also be the last thing that Devlin wanted, because that was his family.

Mari:

He did love them. And Fena wouldn't succeed either. I mean she would never live up to her full potential if she had never interacted with them. Yeah, she wouldn't succeed either. I mean she would never live up to her full potential if she had never interred with him.

Ashley:

Yeah, she wouldn't have lived, she just would have existed at best. What do you think over there, husband?

Jonathan:

I remain unconvinced.

Ashley:

What did?

Jonathan:

he say hey, if there would have been a banging in, maybe, but there wasn't, and so meh, you are setting the bar in a really strange place.

Kelly:

Jonathan, my pants, you have a very strange hill that you want to die on.

Ashley:

Can I also just remind everyone, the book that we read that had the impressive bangening was the book that we did not like the most. So far Right, with all of its consent issues.

Jonathan:

I still think you got to fuck the magic on. Well just a quick rundown from history here.

Kelly:

Jonathan believed the last storm was not Romanesie, which we all said it was not Romanesie. He also said Shadows Over Key wasn't Romanesie, which we all agreed on. But he said Wolf Gone Wild was not Romanesie.

Ashley:

Wild, I cannot. The audacity of you.

Jonathan:

What do I think is Romanesie?

Kelly:

So you agreed with us on the mummy, but you diverged and said the liar's crown was Romanesie, when we all thought it wasn't.

Ashley:

Kelly coming in with the receipts.

Kelly:

And then you said Oak King, holly King, was Romanescy, which we agreed on. And then you said Ivy and Bone was Romanescy, which we agreed on. And then you said the Spell Shop was not Romanescy, which Mari and I disagreed with you on, and Ashley was no, maybe yes, can't decide.

Jonathan:

Okay, so I'm all over the road. I still, you know.

Ashley:

He can't decide. Okay, so I'm all over the road, I still you know he's just feisty this week.

Jonathan:

You guys, let's, you know, let's I think you know what as a standing rule for me, if there's no magic wandage. There was lots of magic, wandage no no, no, no, Not mad, there was satisfaction, but yeah.

Mari:

So, jonathan, are you saying that there's no such thing as a sapphic romanticist story?

Jonathan:

A what Don't use multi-syllabic words around me. Break that one apart. Define.

Mari:

Are you saying that there's no such thing as a lesbian love story? Romanticist.

Ashley:

We haven't read one yet, Well there wouldn't be a wand, though there wouldn't be a wand.

Jonathan:

I Well, there wouldn't be a wand. Though there wouldn't be a wand, I mean there might be, that could be the whole. It could be a physical wand. But yeah, I mean, like I'm not going that far, I'm not going to say that, that's not going to, that, that couldn't happen. So what you're saying?

Kelly:

Jonathan, is you feel like there has to be some sort of bangening where one of the characters unlocks some type of potential or power?

Jonathan:

yes, you don't have to have a phallic appendage to engage in the banging, but the sex has to unlock.

Ashley:

You have to unlock the magic. Yeah you gotta again, alice you're gonna be sorely disappointed, you have to yeah, because I would say like I said, I think if you want to say there was a, a banging has to happen.

Kelly:

I think finna unlocking her full potential of her power was a banging yeah actually, that's a point she was not.

Ashley:

She was not gonna go around killing people.

Kelly:

She thought all she could do is listen to people's thoughts, and then she slowly realized afterwards that she had so much more power and potential.

Ashley:

That was out of survival, because of the confidence that he banged into her.

Jonathan:

No, he didn't luge it into her, not like that. It was survival, because if he had done that, if he had dumped a little bit of dick in there and flipped the light switch on, she would have defeated her captors way earlier than that. She was just like I got to get out of here.

Ashley:

Well, no, that's not true, because the captain of that ship was very aware of what she was and put people further away from her.

Jonathan:

Smelly cat, smelly guy yeah.

Ashley:

He came down the stairs.

Jonathan:

He wasn't there the whole damn time she lured him in with her sex.

Mari:

Stinky Ewald Ewald E-W-A-L-D. Is that yeah?

Jonathan:

I don't know, you're not going to convince me on this one, but I'm going to be honest. I would be interested. Is there a lesbian romancy book that we could try out?

Mari:

Absolutely. There's several of them. The first one that comes to mind for me is Legends and Latte.

Kelly:

Yeah 100%.

Ashley:

We should definitely there is not a banging in Legends, and Latte is there.

Jonathan:

I don't know, I haven't read it yet.

Ashley:

I didn't make it that far.

Jonathan:

If we get to, i'm'm gonna warn you. If there's no, if we don't bang the magic on, I'd be disappointed in my lesbian pals I think you have a really weird standard here, jonathan I, I mean so for romanticism. Yes, yeah, I think you gotta bang that magic on that's a, that's a tall order every time, sir yeah, you, yeah, yeah, depends who you're asking, but yeah All right, you've got your hill.

Mari:

You want to stand on?

Kelly:

That's fine, like I said, that's a really weird hill to die on.

Mari:

Yeah, All right. So for our rapid fire. Because of the theme we've got with the book, we decided we're going to do rapid fire Pirates of the Caribbean first movie. Is it a Kissing Book? Yes, agreed.

Jonathan:

No.

Ashley:

Yes, unequivocally yes.

Jonathan:

All she did was get in the way. She chose to get in the way. Yes, if she wouldn't have gotten in the way, will Turner would have turned the magic off.

Ashley:

If she didn't care about Will Turner Turner, she wouldn't have gotten on that boat and it would have been somebody the fuck else. And if Will didn't love her, he wouldn't have gone to the ends of the earth to get her back. It's a kissing book. We agreed.

Kelly:

Jonathan, initially, that and you said the same thing that the definition of romanacy is a story in which the romance element is central, that the plot falls apart, the story falls apart without the romance element.

Jonathan:

Not that there has to be a bangening. So are you changing now your?

Kelly:

definition of romancy to be that there has to be a bangening in addition to the romance being central to the plot, Because if that's the case, then, the Princess Bride in your estimation is no longer a romantic movie.

Jonathan:

It's a murder-for-hire film. Anyway, I think that if you remove what's her name from the pirate story, Elizabeth. If you remove Elizabeth from the story, it's over in 25 minutes.

Ashley:

And then there's no story, right, so it falls apart without the romance, so it's romantic.

Kelly:

And then there's no story, right, so it falls apart without the romance, so it's romantic.

Jonathan:

No, no, no. The story, it reaches resolution. Everybody goes home happy.

Ashley:

Who are you? I don't know.

Jonathan:

Yeah, we don't have to go through all the rigmaroles.

Kelly:

Has Jonathan been replaced?

Ashley:

with a pod person. Yeah, this is not the Jonathan that started this process a couple of months ago.

Jonathan:

Who are you talking about? I am the contrarian I have always been. I don't buy it. I don't think it's a kissing scene If you take Elizabeth out it just ends and there's no story.

Ashley:

Everybody goes home happy and there's no story.

Jonathan:

It falls apart.

Kelly:

Jack Sparrow would have been hanged Period.

Jonathan:

I don't need the drama. Yeah, that's good, I'm cool with that. I don't need the drama. Yeah, that's good, I'm cool with that. Wow, too bad. So sad, Jack, you're out. Shouldn't have been pirating, that's you know. Should have kept his wits about him.

Kelly:

Yeah, so my opinion, pirates of the Caribbean. The first movie, curse of the Black Pearl, was romantic-y.

Mari:

Agreed.

Kelly:

Now the rest of the series Questionable. It gets questionable and kind of turns into some being milked.

Mari:

It gets questionable in all kinds of ways.

Ashley:

Yeah, for sure, but there's Will and Elizabeth are still very much the underlying story. You see it in like the fifth or sixth movie I don't remember what number we're on and I think too, not for nothing. But if this book was based on Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, I think Devlin was Will when he became captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Jonathan:

Right Will and Calypso Not Calypso.

Ashley:

I agree with you. There's no Calypso at all in this story.

Kelly:

My thinking was that this was like what if Elizabeth and Will hadn't met till. He was the captain of the Flying Dutchman type thing, Agreed.

Jonathan:

Now and met till he was the captain of the Flying Dutchman type thing. Agreed Now.

Ashley:

At World's End. That's a kissing book. I'm done with you. I honestly feel like.

Mari:

I have no memory whatsoever of any of the other movies.

Jonathan:

I don't know who you are. Are you going to?

Mari:

do them.

Jonathan:

Anything else you want to talk about the?

Mari:

book before I wrap it up.

Jonathan:

I got a joke for Ashley. What's a pirate's favorite letter?

Kelly:

I know this joke, I know this scent.

Jonathan:

No, you just went way off script with that one. Ashley Kelly, fall for it. What's?

Kelly:

a pirate's. No, I'm not falling for it because I know the joke, kelly knows the joke because I told him the joke.

Jonathan:

Oh, you got me.

Ashley:

Yep, I don't know who you are.

Kelly:

You've even got bad dad jokes tonight you tried to get somebody to say oh, it must be R. No, you think it'd be R, but it's the C.

Jonathan:

I just want. I like hearing.

Kelly:

Kelly go R. No, my favorite pirate joke was that image that's been around, oh my gosh, since, like the early 2000s of the back, when keyboards were huge and they had to be plugged in, it was a pirate keyboard for your computer be plugged in. It was a pirate keyboard for your computer and it had an R key, a space bar and then a key up in the top corner that, instead of escape, it said avast.

Mari:

I love that. All right, I am going to wrap it up if we're good, okay.

Jonathan:

Yo ho.

Mari:

Thanks for listening to of swords and soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check out the show notes, rate and review us on your podcast app of choice, and follow us on Instagram at of swords and soulmates. We're also on blue sky and threads with the same username, or join us on our Facebook page or our website of swords, wwwof swords and soulmatescom, and on YouTube same username. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for future rapid fire questions or any other discussion topics, books you think we should read whatever, reach out to us on any of those options. If you'd like to read along with us as we prep for a new episode, you can follow us on Goodreads at Of Swords and Soulmates. We hope you'll join us in two weeks for our next episode when we review six scorched roses by Carissa Broadbent. Thank you.

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Mari

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Ashley

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Jonathan

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Kelly

Co-host

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The Meet Cute BookPod

Meet Cute Romance Bookshop
Switchblade Sisters Artwork

Switchblade Sisters

MaximumFun.org
Right Here Write Queer Artwork

Right Here Write Queer

Sebastian Nothwell