Of Swords and Soulmates

"Jingle All the Slay" - A Hallmark Romantasy Mystery

• Mari • Season 1 • Episode 22

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This week, we're celebrating Sarah J. Maas's triumph with "House of Flame and Shadow" in the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards. Join us—Mari, Kelly, Ashley, and Jonathan—as we passionately chat about the allure of Maas's different series and the electrifying energy it brings to the romance community. We also highlight Emily Henry's "Funny Story," which continues to captivate readers worldwide, proving the timeless charm of romantic tales.

But that's not all! Get a sneak peek at the sizzling cover reveal for "Accomplice to the Villain," and hear our wild theories on where this thrilling series might lead. Our recent escapade to New Romantics, Orlando's sparkling new romance bookstore, left us buzzing with all the exciting events lined up. Plus, collectors, take note: the LitJoy Crate's re-release of "The Folk of the Air" series is bound to be this season's must-have. We chat about all this while keeping an eye on the trends and updates shaping the book community.

Finally, who doesn't love a touch of whimsy with their mystery? We take a merry jaunt into magical realms with "Jingle All the Slay" by Dakota Cassidy, a cozy mystery wrapped in holiday cheer. We ponder how this story is a mash up of 'Murder She Wrote' and a stereotypical Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie. As we gear up for our end-of-year wrap-up, we invite you to be part of our adventure, send in your questions, and join our community on Goodreads and Fable. Cheers to the enchanting fusion of romance and fantasy—and to you, our wonderful listeners!

  • Links from the News Segment and Show (not all were discussed):
  • Goodreads Reader Choice Awards winners are in
  • Hannah Nicole Maehrer revealed the cover for Accomplice to the Villain
  • The New Romantics bookstore opening weekend (Orlando, FL)
  • LitJoy Crate re-releasing special edition Folk of the Air series
    • $180, on sale Jan. 8 at 10am MDT for early access, Jan 9 at 10am MDT for public
    • Ships Summer 2025

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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 we also have Ashley.

Ashley:

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

Jonathan:

It's JP. How's everybody doing tonight? Generous?

Mari:

Yeah, You're just happy to be at the caboose again. The last of the four, aren't you?

Jonathan:

Oh yeah, it's my comfort zone.

Mari:

He likes cabooses.

Jonathan:

I'm a caboose man. I bring up the rear, I bring up the back, alright.

Mari:

So today we're going to be discussing Jingle, All the Slay by I bring up the rear, I bring up the back, Alright, alright Makes me excited. So today we're going to be discussing Jingle, All the Slay by Dakota Cassidy. But first, as always, some news. So we have Good Choice Awards. The winners actually came out. They were announced a few days back. Did you guys see? The Romanesie winner was no surprise. Sarah J Maas.

Kelly:

Are you talking about the Goodreads Awards?

Mari:

Is that not what I said?

Kelly:

You said Good Choice.

Mari:

Oh, I'm so sorry. It's been a day. It's been a day for the past several weeks and months.

Kelly:

Goodreads.

Mari:

Choice Awards winners for 2024 are in Sorry, yeah. The Romanesie winner was House of flame and shadow. Romancy winner was a house of flame and shadow by sarah j mass. I know she's like a good reads favorite, I think she generally, I think, has won just about every time that she has a book in a category yeah, have you.

Jonathan:

Is this is a book you read?

Mari:

no, this is the crescent city series and I'm on book two. Book one took me nine months.

Jonathan:

Oh wow, this is that series.

Mari:

She's a thick girl. It's a thick girl and it's got a lot of stuff in it. Like you keep getting all these new characters and new situations and I had a hard time just getting into it, Like the last little bit. Like most Sarah J Maas books, the last little bit got really good and interesting but you just had to read, like I don't know, 800 pages to get there or something, and so I'm on the second book now. This book that won is the third book in that series.

Jonathan:

Oh, wow.

Ashley:

And a recent release right In the last year or two. Yeah, I want to say it was january of this year. I believe okay, yeah, it's been such a long year yeah, it has there was quite a difference between the amount of votes.

Jonathan:

so like almost half a million uh votes in total for for the romancy category and, uh, sarah's book took it with over 20% of the vote, like maybe like 20, 21%, 20, sorry, right, maybe even more than that. So 122,000, I'm not mapping right now, but 122,000 were the next closest rival. Apprentice to the villain was came in at just under 57,000. So more than twice the amount of votes for this, and then the Wall and Podium portion of this. They were within striking distance of each other. It could have gone either way for the next four.

Ashley:

So the Massverse is like a cult, Like that shelf that you yelled at me about the one time. That's all her.

Jonathan:

Is it like the Swifties you yelled at me about the one time? That's all her. Is it like the swifties?

Ashley:

is it the mathies? It's actually. Well, they call it the moss first right m-a-a-s first like universe or masochists.

Mari:

The masochists.

Ashley:

I love that so much. Um so I mean just arguably, she has a encyclopedia's worth of world building between these three worlds yeah theory. They're different series, but I, if I'm not mistaken, there's there's a theory that they are interconnected, right um I believe, so I'm not that deep yet. So but like all of that, to say what's her name nicole, our friend nico Nicole, that we haven't met yet.

Kelly:

She doesn't know we're friends.

Ashley:

Our friend, nicole, is on book two compared to the Webster's Dictionary, thickness of Sarah J Maas' encyclopedias Right, Three different series.

Ashley:

So I mean it's hard to stack up against that if she's got something in the category yeah, especially you're talking about somebody who arguably I mean, when people talk about romancy, sarah j mass's works are almost always mentioned well, I think she was one of the first, if not well I I don't have enough data to say she was one of the first to do it, but I think she's one of the most impactful to do it.

Mari:

The popular, I said at least, yeah, popular, I agree.

Jonathan:

So, looking at some of these other categories along the way, it's interesting to see how many total votes there were per category. I know I only jumped into the Romanesie category. I didn't go out and vote in other categories, but the idea that half a million people were like let's vote on romantic versus like the audio book results, which you think would be a much broader category, had just over 400,000. So it's like you know, it's a broader category, as in audiobook.

Mari:

Yeah, so it spreads out you drill down, it goes nuts Right.

Jonathan:

So it's just it's interesting to see that how that that breakdown is even going into the categories like romance was almost a million 752,000 people reading books these days.

Mari:

The romance winner was Funny Story by Emily Henry. We talked about the romance category when Hissin' and Kissin' podcast crew was on the podcast, because Bride was in that category.

Jonathan:

Which is interesting to me because I thought Bride was like monster fuckery.

Mari:

It's vampires and werewolves.

Jonathan:

Okay, all right.

Mari:

And there's fuckery. I didn't expect it to be in the romance category.

Jonathan:

Yes, I'll just say this with just under a hundred thousand votes, it still would not have won in the romantic category if it, even if it like just around, right.

Mari:

right, just to round it out, in the fantasy category, the winner was somewhere beyond the sea by TJ Klune, and in the YA fantasy category, ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross was the winner.

Jonathan:

How many you said that was in the YA?

Mari:

Yeah, ya fantasy. There's two YA categories, I believe yeah okay. There's YA fantasy and I think there's another YA category.

Jonathan:

I see that. I see that.

Ashley:

I guess. Why do you sound confused?

Jonathan:

Because I would have thought like YA fantasy would have been Apprentice to the Villain you know, or Assistant.

Mari:

I don't think it's built as a YA book. I think it's an adult book.

Jonathan:

Didn't feel adult to me.

Ashley:

No, but I don't think they were young persons in the story either. They weren't like 20 year olds.

Jonathan:

That's what it felt like to me, that she was like 20.

Ashley:

Maybe mid-20s, but he certainly wasn't.

Jonathan:

He wasn't the 22 that David and Ryerson is.

Ashley:

I think YA is a wide range.

Mari:

I think YA starts with like 9th grade or 8th grade. Isn't, like the YA category supposed to be fairly young? Well, I mean mean as far as the reader goes?

Ashley:

yeah, but I thought you know, because the characters that we're discussing in apprentice to the villain were generally not young adult or children age like. I'm pretty sure tristan is probably late 20s, early 30s and the rest of the characters are in that adult phase of their lives. They have jobs and I'm taking care of 10 year old sisters ruthless vows is about the horrors of war so ruthless love, yeah, but they're like 18 in the story oh, that makes sense.

Mari:

I've heard great things about it, but I've not read it I.

Ashley:

I read it. I didn't not like it. It wasn't cozy but it was quiet. Does that make sense? Like you, definitely had some pops of interest. I'd like to see where it goes. I don't want to spoil anything, but I wasn't clamoring for that second book, if that makes sense.

Jonathan:

You weren't lining up for it.

Ashley:

I was interested you lining up for it. I was interested, chomping at the bit I was not chomping at the bit.

Jonathan:

You like that one. It's going to go right next to hankering.

Ashley:

Yeah, it's in the same vein, good job.

Jonathan:

Okay, I gotcha.

Mari:

Alright, on to other news. Back to Hannah Nicole Mayer. I mentioned her. She did a cover reveal for the third book, the Accomplice to the Villain, which will release July 8th of 2025. The cover came out and it's pretty. It's in line with the other ones, I think, and our little buddy Kingsley's on it.

Jonathan:

Kingsley. Kingsley must have a larger role because he's got a lot of dang signs on here.

Mari:

I know when he says yes.

Jonathan:

You know what? It looks slightly different, so maybe there's a different pace or a different direction in this book.

Mari:

We'll see. We'll have to find out next year.

Jonathan:

It'll be exciting. It's a good series so far. Do we know if there's going to be a three book? Is this it Just three books?

Ashley:

Oh no, she's already slipped it up that there's a fourth.

Jonathan:

Did we get the name of that one yet? No, it can only be A Apprentice, assistant, accomplice A. Kelly, did you pick up on that? A double consonant. Addicted oh there it is Addicted to the villain.

Mari:

Talk about a slow burn. It was a four book slow burn. I try.

Ashley:

I try.

Jonathan:

I've been practicing in the shower.

Ashley:

It's an interesting place to practice.

Jonathan:

Nobody can see me. It's also where I go to cry.

Mari:

You're so pitiful, eye, so pitiful. The new romantics bookstore that we've talked about before is the first romance bookstore in orlando, opened up this past weekend, had their official grand opening. We went by on saturday it was saturday and sunday uh, they had a line way out the building, way out the building around the corner and across, I think, two streets. So it was pretty popular, yeah, yeah was it a?

Jonathan:

was it a big?

Mari:

was a big store no, no, it's not very big at all. It was basically rectangular shaped. So it had bookcases on one long wall and then like a half bookcase on the middle and then mostly bookcases and other materials on the other long ball and the little um cash register in the corner. But hopefully they did, they did well and and can continue to do well. I know they had author signings on sunday, but we didn't go on sunday, but they had author signings, so hopefully they'll continue to do well geez.

Jonathan:

They have events like every weekend coming up like merry. Merry Little Book Ornaments. Holiday Book Exchange, collective Corner Market Pop-Up. Ashley, you're not allowed to go.

Ashley:

Rude.

Jonathan:

Well, you're going to go to this next one with Nikki Pucks and Pages. Something about hockey gets their temperature rising. It's a vibe. Dale must dali tamale hot tail, not dale. Uh, very merry market as well.

Mari:

So it looks, it looks interesting yeah, yeah, look like they're going full swing with it. Did you enjoy going kelly?

Kelly:

yeah, I mean it was interesting, it's an experience. Yeah, it was an experience. I hope they're successful.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah, me too. They were real nice, though. And then the last little bit of news I had was that LitJoy Crate is re-releasing their special edition box set of the Folk of the Air series, which is better known as the Cool Prince series. So it's that really pretty series. It's a box set hardcover. They've done one re-release, so this is their third re-release of it. It's $180. It ships in summer of 2025. And if you're interested in trying to get it, if you're a Lit Crate member, it's January 8th for early access and then January 9th for whatever's left over for anybody who's not a Lit Joy C person that seems suspicious.

Ashley:

Do you think they just had so much left over that they keep doing releases?

Mari:

in 2025 no, they keep they. It's so popular.

Jonathan:

They keep um, like re-upping it, like ordering another, another round I don't know the terminology, but like doing another print, another round of them interesting yeah, I mean I'm sure they have to sell through whatever their stock is in it and then figure out how much what the customer base is like for the next series or the next round. Did you say this is the third print?

Mari:

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I got in on the second print. So the first print sold out. Everyone was clamoring for it. And then the second print. They did like another print of it. I got in on that one and that one sold out. That was maybe early last year. No, I bought it year before last. It came last year and so then this one is the third time go around. So I think it's what we were talking about last episode, where you have new fans and people who become enamored of the series and then want the special edition series and you know it's too late, but if they can get in on this and they can have their little special edition series if they want Interesting, yeah, I wonder if their prints are getting more and more limited with each round, because it would be scary to be like if I did a thousand and it sold out, well, I don't want a thousand back again, but maybe we can do.

Jonathan:

But also, at the same time, if you're talking about a category where you've got four half a million people voting on goodreads for a specific category and you're like well, maybe we can move a few extra hundred here, and these are pre-orders.

Mari:

So I mean I don't think they're printing more than they have. People pre-order, Right, you know what I mean? I don't think they're losing any money on that.

Jonathan:

We need to take that approach. I call that the Tesla approach Order today, get it two years later, mm-hmm.

Mari:

I know I have this series and the series itself is good. I would recommend the series, but this particular version of it is really pretty. If you are a fan or know someone in your life who's a fan and want to gift them something special, I would. I would definitely look into that if it's in your, in your budget.

Ashley:

So that's not a hint, husband. We already have a basic version.

Jonathan:

Oh, I tuned. I'm sorry I tuned out husband. We already have a basic version. Oh, I tuned.

Ashley:

I'm sorry I tuned out, I wasn't gonna buy it. Good, yeah, sorry my bad. I was just making sure that we're on the same page you lost me 180 dollars too steep yeah, too rich for my blood I mean it's a bunch of books.

Mari:

I'm trying to remember how many books there are, is it? Oh is it eight?

Jonathan:

I'm sorry, the s looks like an eight and that's I've been. I've been misled, I don't know. I really don't know how much it is, uh, or how many books are in it. Um, this is the. I'm assuming it. It's the one that was linked. There is the did you say the cruel prince collection so I thought that it's a folk of the air.

Mari:

I was gonna say cruel prince is only three books oh, okay, let me yeah, it is three books, so cruel prince is the first one and that's why I think everyone I know right the cruel prince series, because that's what we all ever think of. Okay, so it says, um, it's all three books in the folk of the air series the cool prince, the wicked king and the queen of nothing, plus the novella how the king of elfheim learned to hate stories. It's got a digital signature, a signature page annotations handwritten by Holly Black. The author covers artwork, page edges, gilded page edges, custom slipcover, tip-in art, original illustrations in the novella and paper art printed on acid-free paper. Bonus content at the end of King of Elfheim process sketches for our books, illustrations and we'll have editations by Holic. That's from their little post, interesting, alrighty. Any other news anybody has?

Jonathan:

Not news specifically, but I got a question, question, yeah, I got a question. I need direction. Oh gosh, yeah, where's like, if BookTok is going away, where are people going? Bookstagram Is it going to Bookstagram?

Ashley:

I mean Bookstagram exists.

Jonathan:

I think either.

Mari:

Bookstagram or BookTube.

Ashley:

I don't know about BookTube.

Mari:

I got into BookTube first in terms of finding out about books. I think BookTube is the first book thing like this that I got into as far as a book community and then I got into Bookstagram. After that, tiktok was the newest one for me. I'm newer to it. I mainly got into it because I'm doing stuff for the podcast, to be honest.

Jonathan:

So you think it's going to be like it's going to lean towards reels or shorts on YouTube, then On YouTube.

Mari:

I would think it would have to be.

Ashley:

I really feel like that's just going to be, I don't know, dependent on the viewer themselves, like I think that was the beauty of tiktok.

Mari:

Right is that it was short clips, pictures or video and text here's what think, having had some experience trying to post videos on all three of these, I think that for when it's people talking about like a book review, like giving an in-depth review, I think that book, uh, booktube, youtube will be fine with that. But I think that all this stuff that you see on TikTok, where it's people making memes and doing like funny mashups and music and thing to aspects of the books, it's going to have to be Instagram. Because even with the few little things videos and things I've posted for us on TikTok and then tried to cross post on YouTube, like we've gotten dinged for like music snippets that are fine on TikTok and Instagram and not fine on YouTube.

Mari:

So, YouTube is much more picky about that. Yeah, so if you're doing like full on just your content you're not, you know, putting any anything from anybody else. Literally, you creating the music, you're creating the sound, you creating the music, you're creating the sound, you're creating the video, you're creating the artwork then you're fine on YouTube. But if you're doing mashups and a lot of the funny stuff we see on TikTok that I think we all enjoy, you're not going to get that on YouTube unless YouTube changes.

Jonathan:

Interesting. Okay, so I think he's got to go both places. He's got to go both places. He's got to scour two apps now. Well, we'll have the time A chunk of my day is going to give it back to me. Good stuff, that's all.

Ashley:

I had, I got nothing.

Mari:

Anybody else. So we're going to go into the book review now. We picked this book Actually, let Jonathan pick this book because jonathan is the christmas fiend amongst us and needed a.

Mari:

Jonathan needed a christmas raid, yeah festivities around and so this book was published in uh, october. On october 12th of 2020. I'm gonna read the synopsis and then we can get into a little bit. Welcome to Marshmallow Hollow, maine, a holiday mystery where it's all Christmas all the time and murder is hung by the chimney with care. I'm Halliday Valentine Yep funny name is funny A psychic witch who's recently moved from New York City New York City back to my very human hometown of Marshmallow Hollow, where I run the family factory that caters to all things Christmas. I inherited the factory from mom, who inherited from Nana Karen, but now it's just me Kind of long story.

Mari:

My curmudgeonly British familiar Hummingbird Atticus, one ungrateful rescue cat, my talking reindeer, karen, and my B, my bff styles, the only human aware of my witchy side. Oh, and digby dainty known as hobs, the tall drink of water, who rents my guest cottage and who I wouldn't mind getting to know better. We have a lot in common common, including a love of true crime. So, as macabre as it sounds, when a shady real estate tycoon shows up dead in the middle of the annual ice festival, I'm thrilled to spend time with Hobbes flexing our amateur sleuthing skills. Well, not thrilled I mean a guy's dead after all, but he did try to con some businesses right out from under the hardworking locals. In fact, the only thing more surprising than a murder in our charming Christmas town is how many of my friendly beloved neighbors seem to want the man dead Dun dun, dun.

Mari:

Mm-hmm, what do we think?

Kelly:

So, first of all, this book couldn't have come at a more timely moment. So, essentially, we have a book about a dead, evil, greedy, rich, presumably white guy who is trying to swindle people, swindle everyday folk, and got murdered and as a result, most of the people in this town were very apathetic about the guy dying and may have even been sort of happy that he died Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy type mentality.

Kelly:

I mean, what are the odds that we read this book with what's currently going on in the news with the recent deal with the United healthcare CEO?

Mari:

What are the odds?

Ashley:

You sure picked a winner, husband.

Jonathan:

No comment.

Ashley:

Your honor. I didn't know anything. I picked, picked this month ago we did pick it months ago.

Jonathan:

Uh, it was months ago so you're saying insider knowledge? Not at all, not at all completely unrelated, uh, to anything and everything. I don't even eat at mcdonald's thing. I don't even eat at McDonald's. No, you don't. It's at home. That's right. I wait until I get it home. Good husband, don't touch my fries. Don't even try to test them for poison. Don't even look at them. Don't look at them. Keep that bag sealed until we get home and I'll let you sneak them.

Ashley:

You gotta test for poison no.

Jonathan:

They're well-maintained fries. All the poisons were burned off in the oil. Keep going, Kelly. Keep going.

Kelly:

I just think it's interesting some of the themes in this book and I think it reflects some of the sentiment that's been going on for quite a while in America that there's a lot of resentment towards greedy rich developers, greedy rich billionaires and stuff like that.

Mari:

People becoming bankrupt because of health situations.

Kelly:

I just think in general, I think that people have become less enamored, certain groups of people have become less enamored of rich people, but of course, obviously it seems like there's plenty of Americans who still are enamored with rich people. But of course, obviously, it seems like there's plenty of Americans who still are enamored with rich people.

Jonathan:

Yeah, so is this the. Are we taking the side of the orcas in this book?

Ashley:

Man, you took it back to the orcas.

Jonathan:

I can't take it back to the orcas. What a time.

Mari:

that was Sorry, gloria, wasn't Gloria her name.

Kelly:

Or no, was it? It was something with a G, but I don't think it was Gloria.

Jonathan:

Or even mini sub days. Anytime the Titanic can claim an additional billionaire. Is that where we're at? Yeah, I mean, I think that's like the never-ending billionaire. Is that where we're at? Uh, yeah, I mean, I think that's that's like the never-ending story. Is that you know that? Let them eat cake class warfare like they're, unless they're versus robin hood. Right like the orcas were the robin hood. Come on, this is our stuff. Right? The mini sub yeah implosion, that's, that's people.

Ashley:

The memes, the meme game was I mean, that was a fuck around and find out situation, if there ever was one yeah, I think anytime a billionaire puts, puts himself out there with ill intent, that's fuck around and find out so it was gladys, gladys the orca gladys who of course, if you didn't know, also had a song written about her. Stop Wow.

Kelly:

A rock song talking. You know so much plastic too much for me. Blah, blah, blah. What an indifferent fleet.

Jonathan:

Until the cycle ends, yeah it's a little homage to Gladys the Orca Aw oh you can get your stuffies, gladys, gladys, the orca stuffies at wwwabsorbedandsoulmatescom. Feed the starving billionaires. That's what I always say. Yeah, I, I think that's a that's tale as old as time. That is the uh, the mentality of the mentality of when you have people or enterprises that rise to the top of the economic food chain, so to speak. You know it's people just wanting the downfall, especially because the thing of the stack of bodies you got to climb to to get there, I mean it is.

Mari:

It's an old tale because the thing of the stack of bodies you got to climb to to get there, I mean it is. It's an ill tale, it's. It's. So many of the stories we love is, um, you know, people overthrowing people at a higher power the top who have too much power. Yeah, you have. You know hunger games. You know hunger games. You had the rise up against. Um, it's been too long since I read it.

Mari:

The capital was that the district with all capital. Thank you, yeah, the capital rising and the other other districts against the capital. Um, it's, it's a common story of you know, when you have a a disparate power and resource allocation situation, of making it more equal yeah, robin hood uh, but what did we think of the book? Yeah, robin hood 100. What do we think of the book? Star rating who wants to? Who wants to start?

Jonathan:

jonathan does, it was his no, I like where kelly was going, kelly go ahead.

Ashley:

Yeah, oh yeah, kelly did kind of go off the first reel, yeah yeah, give us the star rating that doesn't mean I have to go now.

Mari:

Gladys wants you to go would you prefer not to go first, kel?

Kelly:

I don't go first okay, jonathan.

Jonathan:

I'm gonna give it a four and three quarters four and three quarters yes yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was delightfully fun read, not just because it was your pick.

Ashley:

Yeah, I thought it was a delightfully fun read, not just because it was your pick.

Jonathan:

Yeah, I thought it was. So I had the audio book and I liked how the voice sounded. That goes a long way for me. That makes sense. The tone of the story, the pitch, the direction of the story felt fun. I also liked each chapter name. That made me feel very holiday-errific. Yeah, that was fun holiday-errific.

Ashley:

Yeah, uh, I'll go second. I thought it was a three, it was a. It was an easy read, it was interesting. I feel like I've said it a couple of times this year we've read a few books that feel like they could be their own, like mini series, like they would translate very well you know, to television and I felt that in this right, like marshmallow cove, what was it called? Hollow? Marshmallow hollow are you kidding.

Jonathan:

Those marshmallows are not hollow. Have you ever bitten into a marshmallow?

Kelly:

if you bite into a marshmallow and it's hollow.

Jonathan:

You bought the wrong food. That's all I'm saying.

Ashley:

It's not a marshmallow at that point it just seemed very them, you know themed like it very well could be on tv and it would translate very great. Um, so it was a three for me. I was pleased by it. Um, I think I think what's interesting too is that this is a book that's part of, like, a bigger series, like there's more before it, there's very likely more after it, and it wasn't a requirement to read the before and you certainly don't have to read what comes next. Like it wrapped it up nicely. There's no cliffhangers. Um, it was a three for me. I was delighted. Kelly, you want to go next?

Mari:

cliffhangers. It was a three for me. I was delighted.

Kelly:

Kelly, you want to go next? Sure, I pretty much agree with Ashley. I thought it was a three. It was a delightful book, not very heavy, somewhat predictable, you know it was. I think I described it with Tamari, as this was basically a Hallmark movie book.

Ashley:

It is Nailed it, it was 100, basically a Hallmark movie book. It is.

Kelly:

Nailed it. It was 100% a Hallmark movie you have. Essentially, the girl leaves the big city to come back to the small town to take over the family business, has a guy in town that she has a crush on. She's got some weird, unusual, quirky thing about her. In this case it happens to be that she's a witch and has talking familiars, and then we throw in a little bit of some murder. She wrote and that's it.

Ashley:

Good stuff.

Kelly:

Yeah, this was a mashup of a Hallmark movie and murder, she wrote.

Mari:

Yeah yeah. I also gave it a three Similar vibes we listened to to this in audiobook as well. It was really well done audiobook. I think it was christmasy vibes. It was basically exactly what I was expecting out of it. It was cozy, it was closed door, it was christmas, it was kind of a hallmark movie it was. I described it as a murder. She wrote, made bed knobs and broomsticks and then make it all Christmas. Anything else we want to talk about non-spoiler before we get into full details.

Ashley:

No, I want to talk spoilers.

Mari:

Yeah, kelly, would you do the honors Hit?

Kelly:

it Sure. So from this point forward, dear listeners, we will be discussing spoilers. So if you have not read the book and you do not want to be spoiled, now is the place to stop or skip to the end so what'd you guys think?

Jonathan:

spoiler edition spoiler edition I feel like, feel like the uh, was it uh uh, reindeer karen grandma, grammy, grammy reindeer I thought that y'all were gonna be like that's my faves. I know how you like a talking animal.

Ashley:

Critter person no, it was Atticus you like Atticus.

Jonathan:

Atticus, the equivalent of like the toucan from, or the hornbill from, lion King yeah are you talking about Zazu yeah a little curmudgeonly British accent, like it was fun.

Mari:

I liked Atticus. The only thing I didn't like about Atticus or question I had about the situation was like why were they, why was he so hardcore about her not using her magic?

Jonathan:

So she doesn't get busted and burn at the stake.

Kelly:

Not just that, but why did it seem like you know, he was able to talk to her like that and be all bossy? He was her familiar, like yeah, I mean, I think it's because he's the oldest person in the room at that point.

Jonathan:

He's a guardian, he's got a guardian role. They can rewrite that, that role of what a what a familiar is.

Kelly:

Yeah, but I mean, it's just like the way he talked to her and, like you know, oh to her. And like you know, oh, don't you dare use magic to make up your bed, like who the fuck cares. Well, he's keeping her.

Mari:

It would have been interesting to know what the what, the like result of that was like. If it was like oh, if you do a certain amount of magic, then like you get like a bad windfall against you or something. You know what I mean like it would have been, and maybe we do. There's multiple more books.

Jonathan:

Maybe we find out in the rest of the series magic does require balance in a lot of these fantasy realms I'll just straight up say it atticus was a little bitch he was a bossy bitch, yeah he was like little in terms of size and stature. Yeah, he was a hummingbird, wasn't he?

Mari:

he was hummingbird you think so?

Jonathan:

he didn't have a squeaky voice. I always imagined hummingbirds are like oh, I couldn't hear his voice.

Ashley:

What was the?

Jonathan:

name Uptight British, uptight British.

Mari:

Yeah, deep, deep British, like a Butler voice you would think of, maybe. Oh, I like it.

Jonathan:

He was a, he was, he was pater. She didn't have parents. Her grandmother was a reindeer with a sweet tooth Always going out after trying to get her fix from the men in town.

Mari:

Getting her candy cane fix?

Jonathan:

Yes, Mari, keep your mind out of the gutter. Yikes, yikes. Grandma's always trying to get out there and suck on a candy cane.

Kelly:

Jeez Mari I mean it was a euphemism Church in the morning.

Jonathan:

What the heck? Now our chins are sticky.

Ashley:

Oh.

Jonathan:

See what I did there. Yeah, well, it's what Mari did, not me. I'm the innocent one, I'm the victim. Yeah, I feel innocent, I'm the victim.

Mari:

He thinks he doth protest too much.

Jonathan:

Yeah, I thought Grandma was spicy. I like Grandma, grandma was edgy. Grandma probably had a short crop cut when she was alive. Yeah, grandma goes grr, that's all I'm saying. Grandma goes grr. If you were an elderly lady with a crop cut and you catch me in public, just go grr, that's all. Go grr. We'll take a, we'll snap a selfie. You don't know who I am, so you're gonna have to grr every jonathan you see all, the jonathan all the jonathan.

Jonathan:

So you get to me, I'll let you know. If you got the right one, I'll go grr back. Don't look at me like that ashley grandma's go-ger.

Ashley:

I really liked it. It was. I just think I think it would have been better on a TV. The visuals, like you know, the whole Christmas town, the, the factory. We didn't get to see the, the snow and the festivals, and there was a lot of imagery, which I think the author did, you know quite well, for the space that she had. I don't how long was the book, it was like 250 pages 230 pages or something.

Mari:

Yeah, it was tiny, real short.

Ashley:

I think she accomplished a lot, you know, in a small package, and it was a delightful package, I felt.

Mari:

Yeah, I tend to like. I tend to like fantasy or or not fantasy, I'm sorry mysteries in in visual format?

Jonathan:

yeah, what do we think of love interest? Uh well, let's start with skipping stuff well, yeah, let's do fantasy.

Mari:

What do we think of fantasy? What do you rate in the?

Jonathan:

fantasy. Great question, fantasy fantasy. Uh, I'm gonna give it a, a, uh, 2.5, because fantasy existed. There were different characters and different uh with different abilities, but it wasn't like the make or break part of the story it was still at its core was just a murder mystery. So I'm gonna give it 2.5. Sprinkle of fantasy. A little spattering, smattering, a smattering, a dabble smattering. I like smattering. If we're going to clamor, then we have to smatter.

Ashley:

I agree it wasn't a lot of fantasy. I feel like there was a lot of backstory that we didn't have and some stuff was just kind of crammed in there. So yeah, I'd say a two and a half for fantasy um, was that next?

Mari:

or was kelly next, kelly kelly go next.

Kelly:

It's fine. I I mean, I agree, I think it was a two and a half the. There were just some very basic fantasy things. There were a lot of things that weren't explained. Just, you had to take it for what it is Grandma reincarnated by a reindeer. I feel like that was only done as a play on the. Grandma got run over by a reindeer thing Like a pun. I agree.

Kelly:

It was fun. The biggest issue I had with some of the fantasy, aside from the whole weird thing with Atticus being a bitch about magic was she said in there that the witches in her family, the female witches, were like immortal right.

Mari:

Yes.

Kelly:

Okay, how the fuck are they living in this town for all this time as immortals, without anybody knowing, something that's?

Mari:

a good question Glamour.

Ashley:

Memory. Like are they doing a?

Kelly:

Highlander. Are they, like you know, acting like they're older and they disappear and come back as their own kid or, you know, long lost niece? You know, just like, oh, the women in our family are immortal. You know they can still die if there's an accident. But I don't know just. It was that just didn't seem to make any sense and it just kind of really kind of like huh, but a lot of this was, I think, the idea of don't think too hard about it yeah, I agree.

Mari:

Um, for me it was a, for me it was a three. It was what I expected it to be, much like the Hallmark movie frame of reference we talked about earlier. There's a lot of hand-wavy stuff you do in the Hallmark movies. How is this specialized bakery staying open in this little town in the middle of nowhere, of nowhere, you know? Um, it's kind of the same thing. It's like how does this magic work? It just does. It's just whatever. It's a witchy mystery christmas story. So it was a three for me yeah, not for nothing.

Ashley:

I'm not reading romantic fantasy, romance books to think some of them I am, you are well, like one of them you are. Yeah, I want to figure out what's going on.

Kelly:

Yeah, it's not necessarily to think as much as it is just you know you're following along the story and not really thinking. But then it's like some part pulls out, like that. That doesn't make any sense. It's not like you're deliberately looking for holes in the magic system or whatever.

Mari:

Yeah, I think there's a difference between when something feels like a hole, like in this. Stuff felt like a hole. I agree, kelly, it was a short story and maybe it's fleshed out in the further books, I don't know. But there's a difference between when something feels like a hole and when something feels like a mystery to be explored, like I am thinking about when the moon hatched, where there's a lot of weird things that happen with the dragons and a lot of weird world building, fantasy stuff, and you're like I want to know more. How does that happen? Why does that happen? Why is it that way? But it doesn't feel like a whole, it feels like a mystery to be explored. So I think just depends on how it's done.

Ashley:

I really want to read that one I liked it.

Mari:

I recommend it. I think it's a good fun read. It's a long right read. Think it's a good fun read. It's a long read, but it's a good fun read. Romance.

Jonathan:

I'm going to give that a 1.5. Maybe it was there, but not really.

Ashley:

That's fair, I'll give it another two and a half. There was definitely some interest and there was some light flirting and she took a chance at the end, right, it was like, hey, do you want to go out to dinner, dinner with me? And um, you could tell again. For 250 pages I think we got, you know, just just a hint of it. Could there have been more? Yes, it probably would have felt forced and we wouldn't have liked it. Um, so I'd say like a two and a half romance yeah, I feel the same.

Kelly:

It was like a two and a half. It was a standard hallmark romance. Here's this guy. He's a great guy. Oh, he happens to also be rich and he's doing great things with his money helping the poor out, helping. Do this. He has no flaws. So okay, of course, but I just feel like there wasn't a whole lot of other than her gushing about the quality she liked in him. There wasn't a whole lot of seeing him actually be a romantic or good person yeah and'm sorry.

Kelly:

I can't imagine anyone who grew up in Texas deciding that they're okay with living in Maine. Never, ever.

Mari:

Yeah, for romance, I think it was a one. I didn't know if my expectations were just too high. I think I read too many Christmas romances, christmas rom-coms, and I was expecting the romance element to be a little bit higher. But to me the romance aspect fell very flat. I thought Hobbes was very flat. There was very little we knew about him. There was very little stood out about him. I still feel like we don't know anything about him. Um, and so it was hard to feel like they had any romance between them, cause he felt like a cardboard cutout to me. So, with a Texas accent, spice there was no spice.

Ashley:

Yeah, what are you rating it?

Jonathan:

oh uh, there was no spice there's zero, I don't have a spice right, do you get?

Ashley:

it like a 0.5 no, there's no there's some daydream going on there yeah, there's no spice just so, just know. There's no numbers, I don't have a number for spice there's. Yeah, I'd say it's like a one. There was hope for spice, but there there was no space.

Kelly:

This is not the one well, I'm gonna have to say it's a one and a half just for reindeer grandma sucking on candy canes you know what kelly and carrots?

Ashley:

Only from Hobbs, yes.

Jonathan:

She likes to slob on Hobbs carrot.

Ashley:

Slob on Hobbs knobs.

Jonathan:

No, I wouldn't say anything like that. Why do you got to take it there right away?

Ashley:

Right to the gutter. Right to the gutter. Have you met me?

Jonathan:

I live with you.

Mari:

That's terrible Four Hail Marys and an hour father to get past that one I, I was gonna say zero spice, but you're right, kelly, I agree, there was grandma. Uh, so that was a one. All the spice that existed was because of grandma grandma was a spicy reincarnate yep in a.

Ashley:

That was an interesting choice.

Jonathan:

Snow deer.

Mari:

I mean I agree with what Kelly was saying and Jonathan, I think it was the whole. Grandma got reincarnated as reindeer. Pun on, grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Jonathan:

That's the beauty of this book. The whole beauty of this book is not that she's some remarkable author, but that she managed to tie it to all sorts of different Christmas movies and songs and puns and things.

Mari:

I love a good pun. I love a good pun. Puns are fun. Puns are fun, so do we think it's a kissing book?

Jonathan:

Not at all.

Ashley:

No, it's not a kissing book. Kelly, is this a kissing book?

Jonathan:

I know you think it's a kissing book nope, it's not a kissing book are you sure, kelly, you want to re-evaluate?

Mari:

your point system, I'm sure yeah, it's absolutely not a kissing book. It's a fun book. It's a fun like cozy mystery holiday read and I would recommend it if you're in the mood for that. But it's not a romance, it's not a romanacy. It's not a kissing book. Look at us agreeing, I know how often does that happen not?

Kelly:

very good.

Jonathan:

Do we have a cover for this book?

Mari:

yeah, uh, yeah, we do um. What do you guys think of the cover?

Jonathan:

I gotta go look at the cover. I know I've been reading it on audiobook.

Mari:

Atticus is on the cover with the little witch's hat.

Jonathan:

Yeah, you know what? I've been looking at a miniature version of this, so let me get a big version here. Take a peek at it.

Ashley:

I didn't realize that you guys the audio was available on my Kindle Unlimited you miss out.

Jonathan:

Oh it on my Kindle, unlimited. You miss out on us.

Ashley:

Oh, it wasn't Kindle Unlimited.

Jonathan:

Good time. Let's see here Jingle All the Slave. Oh yeah, that's a clever I like this cover. Because it's got a big round thing in the middle right.

Jonathan:

If you're a new listener. I like my books to have a big circle on them somewhere. I don't care where the circle is. It's every book should have a circle on it somewhere. This one just happens to be a snow globe. But you know, if you're, if you're, if you're gonna make a book and you put like a little circle on it, usually that's where they put the award, uh, notification, like you, this book has a newberry medal, or this book has like limited edition or it's autographed. Just put a circle on it. It doesn't have to serve a purpose. Just put like a gold circle on it and it can say book. It doesn't even matter, people will buy it more. Books with circles sell. If you're a marketer trying to sell some books, circles are your best friend. You heard it here first people. Yeah, I think it's a. Delightfully. This is book one of how many, I don't know, but this is the first one. There's probably a second one and a third one.

Ashley:

Do you want to guess what book three is called?

Jonathan:

Is it? Is it? Is it Christmasy? Yeah, oh, okay, Hold on. Oh, what fun it is to die called one corpse open sleigh what's book two called? I don't know, it's better go find.

Mari:

Book two is called have yourself a merry little witness series.

Jonathan:

This, this whole book series, needs, it needs a t-shirt I love a pun have yourself a merry.

Mari:

The second one is have yourself a merry little christmas and it takes place like days after the first one, so you cannot tell me that this is not Cabot Cove Murder. She Wrote Capital of, like Carnage in a pear tree. Yeah, the world here Murder capital.

Jonathan:

Is that your? Are you at four, four of them Carnage in a pear tree? That's wild, oh my goodness.

Ashley:

We're all distracted now, yeah.

Jonathan:

I like that. I like that. It's a delightfully enticing book and I like the art, I like the colors with it. It's very, gives you a brisk sort of jingly vibe. I dig it. I'm in for that book cover. I'm giving that book cover a 5 okay. Ash, what are you giving the book cover?

Ashley:

there are so many punny books. She's out here.

Jonathan:

I'm super the book cover. There are so many punny books. She's out here. She's just over here looking at books.

Ashley:

I'm super distracted. Book cover was a four for me. It was very interesting, I think the color differential from Jingle and then Slay being bright red right, because death and blood. It was interesting. I probably would have put. I probably would have picked it up. So that's, that's probably why I'm going with the four. The candle is a little off-putting, like forced in there oh, I think it's very witchy I think they could have picked something else, but I see why they did it.

Ashley:

Um, but I do appreciate atticus in a witch's hat. So solid four for me.

Kelly:

I think it was a three. I'm not very impressed with it. I think it's okay. I think it's a weird choice to have horny grandma reindeer Karen in the center. And then, of course, yeah, that candle looks really weird. That was definitely a thing, I think, where they were like, ooh, better throw a candle with a pentagram on there, so people know there's witchy stuff going on.

Mari:

Yeah, I think for me it was a two. I it was a little it's it's over busy for me. There's too much, too many elements. I think it needs some editing down. Um, I think this would have been cute with a little cartoony cover and less elements thrown in there. So it's a bit too busy for me. I like the title, though the title would have made me pick it up and look at it Okay.

Ashley:

so it's Jingle, all the Slay, have Yourself a Merry Little Witness and then One Corpse, open Slay and then Carnage in a Pear Tree. Those are the four. That's hilarious.

Jonathan:

I'm so sorry that's great is on all of them all of them, because he's the star it gives like a retro vibe um in concert like 90s, like bewitched. I like that. I always like the opening scene well, but I do like I'm into retro this year for for crimis she has an accidentally paranormal novel series and it's like the accidental werewolf accidentally dead. It's punny too the accidental human.

Ashley:

I love a pun she did.

Jonathan:

Yeah, she seems to be doing like, like witch slapped the accidental genie oh I haven't read a genie book I haven'tie.

Ashley:

I haven't read a genie book in a minute I haven't read a genie book ever. Ever, Ever, ever, ever, ever ever ever the Accidental Mermaid I need to know. Oh, the gargoyle one. Stitches Accidental gargoyle. How fun.

Jonathan:

Sweet, do we have a rapid fire?

Mari:

We do not. So basically, uh, we are going to put it out there to people and think about maybe changes for next year, any changes in the formatting, what you want to hear more of, what less of, if there's parts that you skip over, stuff you would want to hear us talk more about. I'd love to hear what people have to say absolutely.

Jonathan:

Um, yeah, I. I hope they don't want to hear less of me yeah, no, we're all staying all the emails flooding. No more of him.

Mari:

He's weird yeah, the hosts are, uh, permanent fixtures. We, we are. We are saying, uh, just like, if we want to change anything with the format or anything different, you want to do. If you like, hate certain sections, whatever we want to hear, um, be nice, but we want to hear what you have to say about it. Also, before I get into the outro stuff, this is our last episode that's coming out for this year. That's wild, because the next one will be coming out at the beginning of the year. So this is our last 2024 episode. So, whatever you may do for the winter holidays, winter time, stay warm, stay cozy, you know, have a great festive time. Anything you guys want to say before I wrap it up, I've enjoyed this immensely.

Jonathan:

I've gotten the opportunity to read a whole bunch of books in 2024 that I would not have read. Otherwise, I promise you, I would have not read any of them.

Ashley:

And we're going to talk a little more about that in the new year, right.

Mari:

There's like a special edition we're going to do.

Ashley:

Yeah, we're going to do a wrap up episode, next episode Cool, so that's exciting.

Kelly:

If you're interested in non-traditional Christmas songs, check out the HP Lovecraft Historical Societies. They have two different Christmas albums A Very Scary Solstice and a second one I think it's A Second Scary Solstice which is basically old-timey Christmas songs reimagined with lyrics from Lovecraftian horror.

Mari:

It's a wonderful creepy Christmas.

Ashley:

Love it. Jonathan was excited until he heard creepy.

Jonathan:

Yeah, I love that you guys are trying to scare the Christmas out of me. It's not going to work. Sneak it right in there. It's not going to work. Remember Kelly, there's. It's not going to work. Remember Kelly, there's always plenty of time to hug.

Kelly:

Sure.

Mari:

If not Lovecraft, we could do Krampus, we could do, mario Lude, we could do, fabercta?

Jonathan:

You're breaking up Lots of creepy Christmas. I can hear you breaking up. Could you repeat that?

Mari:

One more event. Actually, did we ever talk about Dance of the Dragons on here On the podcast? Stop it, did we not?

Jonathan:

Did we talk about Dance of the Dragons Like the, or lack thereof?

Ashley:

I don't know that we did.

Jonathan:

Both booths.

Ashley:

I'm fully blanking. I don't understand how it's two weeks before Christmas. When did we even go? We timed it, so let's talk about dance of the dragons.

Mari:

It was like the end of november, it was like november 22nd 23rd jeez.

Ashley:

Has it been that long since we've talked like? No, no, we talked, but on here each other no, no, but like yeah, when did we record last that?

Jonathan:

we may have skipped over. We had guests, we had special guests we may have just not talked about it because we had guests last two episodes uh, so dance of the dragons was an event.

Mari:

It was a event by aluxia events. It was in the orlando area and it was like a dragon themed little craft fair kind of thing, and they had photos and, um, people were selling books and whatnot and then they had, like, had a ball at the end or at the end of the day. We didn't go to. What did you guys think?

Jonathan:

I thought it was a waste of money.

Ashley:

I didn't think it was a waste of money that was a massive waste of money.

Jonathan:

It was a $10 event. It was a massive waste of money Not to be a Debbie Downer Sorry, guys A Dragon dragony downer. Um, it was just, it was. You felt we fell for some stock photography for sure. Oh yeah, we were bamboozled. Uh, there weren't quite as many vendors, um, as you may have been led to believe the the space was. I thought the space was tight and maybe, maybe even mildly misused. Um, just to lay out the whole situation, it didn't. It didn't give off like fantastic vibes, although there were some interesting people there and some interesting, uh, elements there yeah, we bought some stuff yeah, uh, I just I didn't think it was.

Jonathan:

It wasn't a home run, it was a. It was like a close bump that edged out. Maybe I got it, maybe maybe you got a toe on the bag.

Ashley:

It's under review, I don't know I mean, I think too our expectations were higher because we had such an amazing time at the Fabled Fantasy event for Romantic Con yeah. And then like, followed up by the stock photos that were on the website. For this one, I definitely expected a far more wild time. Agreed, but what was there was interesting? It just I thought there would be more.

Kelly:

Yeah, I thought it was going to be a little bit bigger deal than it was it was. It was a nice small little book convention. I think that Jonathan's right. It was probably overpriced for what it was. I think it was one of those things where this was a convention that happened to be in a very popular place to vacation already. So for some people that were already planning to visit the Orlando area it may have just been icing on the cake that this is the weekend we should go down there to do other things like Disney or Universal, and there happens to be a Romanesque book convention going on like.

Kelly:

Disney or Universal and there happens to be a Romanesty book convention going on.

Mari:

But I think a lot of the people that were there were locals, like driving distance locals. Yeah, I agree, like I think if you were already there for something else or if you live close by, it's worth going to. I don't know that I would suggest anyone make a special trip for it. Mind you, we're all just talking about the day event, didn't do the night event. I have. We have nothing to say about the night event. We weren't a part of that. I enjoyed the the photography thing with the dragon. I thought it was a really cool dragon outfit. The person who made that and who wore that. They did a. They did really, really, really good job on that costume.

Ashley:

Wait, are you telling me there was a person in the dragon? Yeah, I did not.

Mari:

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah it was. It was really cool. Like I thought that was really well done. Um, I think their layout could have been better and I think that, um, yeah, I don't know that it was quite worth the cost for just the shopping that was available. That being said, like the whole reason I wanted to go was because Paige LaVoy was going to be there and I got to meet her. I got some of her books signed, so I was happy. And then there was a few other people who I'd never heard of that I bought books that seemed interesting, that may become authors, I like when I finally get around to reading them. It was fine If I had gone down there for just that event and nothing else. Like you know no other plans, I think I would have been more disappointed. But I would say, if you're local, it might be worth it, but it's not going to be like Fabled Fantasy.

Ashley:

Fabled Fantasy was a different level of event, for sure, for sure, but I did get some interesting stuff. I like my dragon skull.

Mari:

for $10 it was cute anything else you want to say before I wrap it up no, crushed it alright.

Mari:

So thanks for listening to of swords and soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check the show notes, rate, review and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on instagram at review and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on Instagram at of swords and soulmates or join our Facebook page of swords and soulmates. Check us out on our website of swords and soulmatescom or on YouTube, tiktok and Pinterest with the same username.

Mari:

If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode. Reach out to us on any of the options or email us. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode, follow us on Goodreads at Of Swords and Soulmates, or for chapter by chapter interaction on the Fable app at the Of Swords and Soulmates book club. We hope you'll join us in two weeks, in the new year, for our next episode, when we will have an end of year 2024 wrap up episode. If you have questions you'd like to ask us, send them in. Bye.

People on this episode

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Mari

Host
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Ashley

Co-host
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Jonathan

Co-host
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Kelly

Co-host

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