Of Swords and Soulmates
Is this a kissing book? Of Swords and Soulmates features two couples (and sometimes more), with varying reading preferences and experiences, as they read, listen, and sometimes watch romantasy stories and discuss plot, fantasy elements, romance, spice, theories, and more. Join us for our non-expert opinions as we discuss, argue, rave, rant, and hopefully entertain. We may just help you find your next reading obsession or at least contribute to that TBR list!
Of Swords and Soulmates
"Throne of Glass" - Death Camp to King's Champ
When a teenage author asked herself "What if Cinderella was an assassin fleeing the palace?" she couldn't have known she was creating the foundation for one of fantasy's most beloved series. In this anniversary episode, we celebrate our podcast's first year by diving into Throne of Glass, the story of Celaena Sardothien – deadly assassin, reluctant competitor, and surprisingly relatable protagonist.
Our hosts debate the fascinating world-building that hints at a larger mythology, with magic that persists despite colonial-like suppression – much like human ingenuity finding ways around walls and barriers in our own history. We explore what makes Celaena such a compelling character, balancing deadly skill with vulnerability and confidence. The curious "pentagon of passion" between characters creates interesting dynamics without quite qualifying this as a romance in our books.
Whether you're new to Sarah J. Maas or revisiting where her literary journey began, this episode offers fresh perspectives on the foundation of an epic series. Subscribe, rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts, and join our reading community on Goodreads or Fable to discuss our next book: One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig.
Links from the News Segment and Show:
- We made it a year!!! Gift us a review to unwrap!
- T Kingfisher announced a sequel to Swordheart
- Threads Post/Article
- Titled Daggerbound, will be out in 2026
- Also, another book coming out Nov 2025, called Snake-Eater
- Instagram Post
- In an isolated desert town, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbors
- New website lists book conventions
- https://romcons.com
- Romance, fantasy, and romantasy book conventions
- Good tool for planning ahead the year’s bookish activities
- Charissa Weaks is doing a special edition release of The Wolf and the Witch through The Arcane Society
- Shopify Link
- $35. Stenciled edges and reversible slipcover
- Shipping in August 2025
- Ali Hazelwood is releasing a new book May 27
- News Link
- Title is Problematic Summer Romance
- Contemporary romance with age gap set in Sicily
Follow us:
Instagram - @ofswordsandsoulmates
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ofswordsandsoulmates
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. We also have Ashley.
Ashley:Hey guys, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.
Jonathan:Woo, it's JP back in the back of the bus again. I love it. We always save you for last. We also have Jonathan Woo, it's JP back in the back of the bus again.
Ashley:I love it.
Mari:We always save you for last. Yeah, all right. So today we're going to be discussing Throne of Glass by Sarah J Moss, which I'm very, very excited to finally do. But first we have, as always, the news segment. First thing, this is top of the news, which you already know, if you follow us on our social media.
Kelly:But we've been going for a year, guys, yay.
Jonathan:Happy birthday, guys.
Mari:I need a smash cake right now.
Jonathan:Ooh, cake sounds good, I agree.
Mari:Yeah, so we've been going for a year. So if you want to go back and listen to any of our older, earlier episodes, any books that you maybe have read that you hadn't read when we talked about them, you can always go back and listen to any of our older, earlier episodes. Uh, any books that you maybe have read that you hadn't read when we talked about them, you can always go back and listen to it. If you want to give us a little gift for our when your anniversary slash birthday, wherever you, listen to us, give us a review. I'm not even telling you to give us a good review, just give us a review. Tell people what you think, just say some words yeah, yeah, just a few words a little bit of feedback.
Ashley:We want to hear from you.
Mari:yes, exactly. But on to the rest of the news, the standard news first thing I have is t kingfisher announced that she is doing a sequel to sword heart. I'm very excited about this. It's going called Daggerbound and it will be out next year, in 2026. She announced it on threads, so that's literally all I know. It's not available for pre-order, there's no links, there's nothing. Just that Swordheart will have a sequel and it will be called Daggerbound and it'll be out next year. So I'm very excited about that.
Jonathan:Interesting. You know I'm going to be honest here. When you were like T King Fisher, I was like, oh, that dead author guy. And then you were like she and alive. I was caught off guard.
Mari:So well done. That's a good surprise.
Jonathan:I'm super stoked that she's among the living.
Mari:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how we get new books. Yeah, me too. We need to read some of her books on here, um, but she wrote the saints of steel series, sword heart. I think her most recent one was not nettle and bone. What's the?
Ashley:other one. There's something else is it them? No, I'm trying to look it up. Sorceress comes to call is.
Mari:I was like looking at my bookcase behind me and I could not read yes, that's it.
Mari:Sorceress comes to call is her newest one. It's interesting because sword heart is one that I often see recommended as a good standalone fantasy, romance, romancy story, especially because it has a you know, older than teenage main character. Um, so it'll be interesting to see it as how much of a standalone it is, or if it ends up being like an actual continuation of the story. You know what I mean. Like I don't know if it's going to be just another story in the world or if it's actually going to continue the characters from the first one. So we shall see Nice.
Jonathan:Yeah.
Mari:T Kingfisher used to write when she first started running. She used to write under the name which I think is her real name, ursula Vernon. To write under name which I think is her real name, ursula vernon. And then that was like uh, kids, well, graphic novel, kind of thing, and then some kids books and then all her adult books were under the t kingfisher name, gotcha, yeah well, and I think it's really common to at least I've been seeing a lot of it for romance or romanticist slash fantasy authors to initial their names so that there's not that kind of bias of being a female author, almost yep interesting.
Jonathan:I was wondering about that too, like it's very, very, very popular. I've seen yeah, I've seen a lot too. I don't know if I, if I very much enjoy that, but I, when I was mario, when we did the microfic, like I, I, my preference was to be like in a gender neutral name, like jesse or aaron yeah, I mean there's nothing wrong with that like a pen name.
Mari:Having a pen name is a very old, you know, author tradition. So yeah, also in tink fisher t king, fisher t king fisher uh news. So yeah, yeah.
Ashley:Can we read that that one looks feisty.
Mari:Yeah, I'm down for it. It comes out in November, so that'd be a good like post-Halloween situation. Yeah. The little synopsis I found says in an isolated desert town, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces and eccentric neighbors. Snake Eater is perfect for fans of Silviavia moreno garcia, chuck tingle and rachel harrison. That is a heck of a mix of authors right there. Have you guys read any of those authors?
Ashley:or do you know them? No, I don't think I could take anybody seriously with a name like chuck tingle but that's the point.
Kelly:That's exactly the point. Yes, yeah I'm, I'm the core audience the title of all his books are way out there yeah, oh, I like it yeah.
Mari:so his stuff is very out there, very like irreverent absurdist. Sylvia moreno garcia wrote mexican gothic, so it's like horror, but not like your standard, like slasher kind of horror where there's a specific monster kind of horror. It's just kind of creepy gothic kind of horror like vibes, all right, and Rachel Harrison kind of writes spooky comedies is how I would describe her.
Ashley:Spooky comedies.
Mari:Yeah, so it'll be an interesting with those comparisons. Poor.
Ashley:Jonathan doesn't know what to do with any of those explanations. How do you feel about the cover on this book?
Jonathan:I don't like the cover. It's a snake.
Ashley:It's a snake, you're a snake, you're literally a Slytherin.
Jonathan:It scares me, it is the year of the snake.
Ashley:It is the year of the snake, that's good timing for them.
Mari:Kelly, have you read any Chuck Tingle? I have.
Ashley:Would you say he said that, like he knew secrets that we didn't know, kelly has all the secrets.
Kelly:All the secrets. I read one of his books because everyone was talking about it and it was right after he just came to Blue Sky, so he was pretty prolific and popping up everywhere and so everyone was like you should at least read one of his books. And so I read one and it's out there. Recommend.
Mari:What little I know about Chuck Tingle. I actually was through listening to the Hissing and Kissing podcasts because they talk about him on one of theirs. I don't remember. I think it might have been like a oh, I'm going to get it wrong Maybe like a dinosaur episode or something, I don't know. I don't remember, but like, okay, here's a random title of a Chuck Tingle novel, Pounded in the butt by handsome sentient library card, who seems otherworldly but in reality is just a natural part of the priceless resources our library system provides.
Ashley:That's a title, that's a title.
Mari:From two-time Hugo Award finalist, chuck Tingle. From two-time Hugo Award finalist, chuck Tingle.
Ashley:One of the books the book that I read that he did was a book he published basically just as a middle finger to JK Rowling, which was Harriet Porber, which was basically a trans wizard, harriet Porber, who's a master spell smith, trans wizard Harriet Porber and the bad boy Parasaurolophus an adult romance novel yeah. So his books are like that His books are like.
Kelly:he'll write a book just as a F you to somebody Jonathan, just went, ooh Sorry.
Ashley:I love this so much, so in looking up Shark, Tingle.
Mari:The website I'm looking at says hey customers also. When you look up Shark Tingle, customers also bought items by T Kingfisher.
Ashley:Oh, what is it Buttageddon the final days of pounding ass.
Jonathan:Oh, okay.
Ashley:Interesting. Chuck's Dinosaur Tinglers. I'm going to learn something. I can feel it. Dinosaur tinglers, I'm going to learn something.
Mari:I can feel it. I'm going to have to figure out which episode of the Hissing Kissing they were talking about, Because they did the whole story. Like he's very private, Like I think he doesn't do interviews Right.
Kelly:Nobody knows who he is or what he looks like.
Mari:There's a whole like aura of personality around him.
Kelly:And there's people who think he may not even be like actually like a male. Nothing is for certain about him.
Mari:Next bit of news, moving it along, there's a new website we found. It is romconscom and it lists fantasy, romance, romancy book conventions. So it's a really cool tool if you're like, hey, what's coming up in the summer, I want to go somewhere and look at book stuff and you can like, submit books to it.
Ashley:This literally happened to me two days ago. I was like why didn't we know about this book convention that was happening in the city of Orlando, where we just so happened to be?
Jonathan:And I said did you look at this website?
Ashley:Because it's right there on this website and I said did you look at this website because it's right there on this website.
Jonathan:We were in where were we in universal? And she was like what do you? There's a book convention. I was like, yeah, I was like I saw it the other day and she was like, why didn't you tell? I was like, well, you should probably go to this website. I was at work and somebody was somebody mentioned like a book convention near them and she, she and I started looking. I was like, also, we had fun at the book conventions that we've gone to as a, as a group, right.
Ashley:I didn't seem to be like a collective space. I agree.
Jonathan:It's a very so. Yeah, this is a. This was a. This is a pleasant discovery.
Ashley:Yeah, Cause I like no-transcript email list and also like share events, like if you don't see it on there already if a poly, I think if a polycon was a little bit closer, we could do some real damage there Right if?
Mari:it was more drivable, although I will say I have bought a rolly cart thingy, a little rolly cart to tote books around in, and I am actively adding book and bookstore stickers to it.
Ashley:You guys, I scored one at a yard sale from a teacher that had retired, I paid $5. Nice, I was so excited I had to like. Donathan was like stuff it down.
Jonathan:don't show them how excited you were, they'll triple the price, literally oozing glee the teacher saw it and saw her with it and she said you know, you can get like 100 pounds of books in that that's exactly what we're gonna do with it.
Ashley:Sold is precisely what I plan to do with it. It's a little beat up and loved, but dang for five dollars, yeah, exactly take my money, I would have paid her double nice that's why you can't trust me at yard sales so next romancy con in october.
Mari:We'll be rolling around with those we are set speaking of the romancy con, we went to charissa weeks, who we met and heard speak at the romancy con last year, is releasing a special edition of her, the wild, the wolf and the witch. I typoed myself, so sorry, the wolf and the witch book she's doing it with in conjunction with arcane society. It's really pretty, it pretty. It's got a reversible cover. It's a mauvey, millennial pink kind of version on one side and then the other side is a dark grays and burgundy.
Mari:It's got stenciled edges on the pages. It's $35, and it ships in August of this year.
Jonathan:Very nice. It's got very good-looking edge paper too.
Mari:It looks really pretty, I bought it.
Jonathan:Confessions.
Mari:It's actually, I think, book two or three in the series which I've read her series and I would recommend it, but it's a good series up to where it's at. I thought it was really well done. I hadn't ever heard of her or read it before we went to Romanticy Con, so that's really what got me interested in reading it.
Ashley:I love how Romantic Con just like opened up all of our worlds, jonathan's in particular, but all of us, yes.
Mari:I agree.
Ashley:He's making friends everywhere.
Jonathan:I'm talking to Juliet Cross right now. How dare you? I'm going to sidebar with her.
Mari:Well, next year at RemediesyCon, Allie Hazelwood's going to be there. I saw.
Jonathan:I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself.
Mari:I'm going to text her. Next, we need to read the Bride on this podcast as a group and talk about it sometime before then as a group and talk about it sometime before then. Allie Hazelwood is going to be releasing a new book which I don't remember hearing anything about until very, very recently, and it comes out May 27th. There's no cover for it that I saw anywhere, but the title of the book is Problematic Summer Romance. It's a contemporary romance. There's no fantasy element to it, so it's not like a romance story. It's a contemporary romance with an age gap, and it's set in Sicily, so I'm very excited about.
Mari:I like her books, I like her writing style.
Jonathan:I like her books.
Mari:You give me anything in like Italy. I'm there, I'm done, I'll read it, sign you up.
Ashley:Do we have time for one more bit of news? I I sent you something that I don't think made it on your list and I'm I may not, I may have lost it yeah, no, well, I think I. I think I sent it just last night, so you'll see it on your tiktok. Uh, our bestie sarah beth durst has announced a third book. Oh, in the spell shop cozy yeah, the spells, the?
Ashley:is it the spell shop? The bookshop, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right um. So, yeah, she announced literally just like yesterday, I think it hit the socials um that they are doing a third book in the in the cozy fantasy series and it's called the fairway inn anything else like that's it. That's all I got.
Mari:Okay, no, that's all I got yeah, it looks like it's not even available for pre-order anywhere anything I mean honestly, the second book hasn't come out, so yeah, I need to slow my roll.
Kelly:The marketing strategy for you book nerds is we give you a tease and then we give you a title for you to speculate over for three months. Then we give you a tidbit about the plot, uh-huh, then we give you a character name yeah, don't forget, like then.
Mari:Then you have the cover art that's gonna come out.
Ashley:They gotta talk about that too yeah, it's how they're keeping it, that's how they string us along. Um, I thought it was super early for that because, you're, I didn't realize that the the enchanted greenhouse hadn't hadn't released yet. I mean, at least I, I believe that it's in the same you know storyline, because she seemed to. I thought in the video that I watched, she, she had said third book. But I'm looking at this post now and it doesn't say that. So, um, I hope that I'm not wrong, but maybe I am. But it is, at the very least, then, another cozy fantasy, although it does say ya, so maybe it is a different, maybe it's not book three.
Kelly:Um, that's true, young.
Ashley:Young adult fiction. Yeah, this is Vermont. I feel like we were not in modern day anything.
Mari:Yeah, unless there's going to be some sort of a weird time jump or something. Who knows?
Ashley:Sure, I think it's interesting that authors are doing these kind of back and forths in and out of fantasy, and I'm here for it, especially if it gives them them, you know, the the will to go back and complete other things, um, you know, like Rebecca, and now Sarah, sarah Beth Durst, so, um, and as we're seeing too, with like Allie Hazelwood and some of the others, yeah, lots of books on deck this year all right. Any other new time?
Ashley:no, just rumors yeah, lots of rumors, lots of rumors akatar six was big rumored this week, but it did nothing.
Mari:Nothing came out we got nothing and we will like it nothing we will just sit here contently yep yep, can I please have some more?
Ashley:no, no, denied, hurry up and wait yeah, yeah, all right.
Mari:So we um read throne of glass for this episode. We picked it. I wasn't. I wasn't sure I remembered if we picked it, because I just I wanted to read it so bad I whined about it so much. I feel that I, you guys, may have been along for the this'll shut her up situation.
Ashley:Some of us more than others, but no, I was stoked to have the homework assignment of this book.
Mari:Okay, yeah, so we read it. Let me read the synopsis and then we'll get into it a little bit. This book was published August 2nd of 2012. And the synopsis is In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not come to kill him. She has come to win her freedom. If she defeats 23 murderers, thieves and warriors in a competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Selene Sardothien. The crown prince will provoke her, the captain of the guard will protect her and a princess from a faraway country will befriend her. But something rotten dwells in the castle and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying mysteriously one by one, selena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world. So, reminder, we're doing our reviews where we talk about everything's. Yeah, I don't?
Ashley:there's this we what 15 years after the release of this book. So if you guys have not read it and don't want to be spoiled, you should come back later.
Mari:But we are going to be talking about Just Throwing a Glass.
Jonathan:Yeah, Just Throwing a Glass, not any of the others. Yeah, it was released in 2012,.
Mari:But she actually started writing it. Um, I looked it up, she was like 16 16 when she started writing this book in 2002 that was a long time ago, but I've gotten to the point where now everything is pre-covid, or after covid yeah, yes, 100, 100 one.
Mari:Yeah, yes, 100%, 100%. One thing that I found out before we get into the rest of it is I was like looking up some a little bit about her writing it, because I had heard that she was 16 when she wrote this, but I wanted to see it somewhere rather than just, you know, someone randomly saying it. So, yeah, that's apparently true. And also the. What gave her the idea to write this like the? The germinating story that made her write this. Was she wanted to do or she wrote like a Cinderella retelling is what it started off as Didn't end up that way even in this first book, but she was like what if Cinderella runs out of the ball? That moment where she runs out of the ball, that was like the germinating event in her brain.
Kelly:The whole problem with Cinderella is the prince has to find her by shoe size, which just tells you he didn't look at her face the entire time.
Ashley:I was going to say that's the problem.
Jonathan:So he was looking for her feet on an OnlyFans page.
Mari:Maybe, Right, Okay. So it says she cited Cinderella as like the inciting event that made her write it. She said the scene where the heroine flees the ball, she wanted to reimagine some of it. And she said what if Cinderella was a thief? No wait, an assassin fleeing the palace? And then, but who is she? Was she sent to kill the prince? Is she the enemy of the prince? Is there? Nope, it's going to be a powerful, corrupt empire, et cetera, et cetera. So like that's how the Cinderella fleeing the ball is was the germinating event for, for this story, For this novel.
Mari:Yeah, yeah, I thought that was neat. What did we think of it overall? Like overall rating guys, am I?
Ashley:going first. Jonathan just immediately looked at me, so I I feel like I'm going first. So I think, I think it's important to recognize that this is book one in a very long series. Like we're not even just talking trilogy right, we're not talking about a quad, or you know. This is, it's what?
Mari:seven total books seven books and a series of short stories, so really eight and a series of short story.
Ashley:That's wild.
Jonathan:Um, that's like an average series size now I think now but fantasy I guess, maybe sure, but like what else is that big?
Ashley:that isn't brandon sanderson or jk rowling juliet cross now ma'am, but not 2012.
Jonathan:Aurora Asher.
Mari:How long is that Zelazny series that you like, Kelly?
Kelly:It was 10 books. But I mean those books also weren't that big. I mean you're talking about they were 200, 250 page paperbacks.
Ashley:Right.
Kelly:So I would say probably at the time, like the big book series you're thinking of, you know in the early 2000s would be stuff like the Wheel of Time and Shannara, and so there were some big fantasy series, but they were like strictly fantasy series.
Ashley:Right, and not necessarily young adult either. Right, because hers is, you know, age wise. We're talking young adult here, we're talking young adult here. So, anyway, you know, thinking of all of these things, this was not a life altering, you know, wild life changing read for me, and I actually probably didn't devour it in the way that I've really kind of just osmosis like, absorbed some other books recently, but I thought it was really good. This was a solid three and a half and I will, you know, asterisk caveat that to say that I was like a crackhead on book two, that Libby took it back sooner than I was ready for and Jonathan had to give me access to his so that I could finish it. And I'm already several hours into book three, um, so I think the first one is very, you know, chamber of secrets, and that it's very base level world building. I wasn't too invested in it, um, but I was. I was ready to go into it. He's staring at me so hard, you guys. Three and a half for me. Why are you glaring at me?
Jonathan:Because you equated it to Chamber of Secrets. Honestly, I was like this was a good way for me to anchor into the series Book one Mara, should we? And when we talk about book one, two, three, I think we're not talking about book one. No, no, no, no, no. But I mean like when, if you're out there listening and you have read the series, there's different journey. I didn't know there were different journeys. Somebody had to like, clue me into, like the coding.
Mari:Oh, yeah, there's different ways to read the series.
Ashley:That's why there's different ways to read the series.
Mari:But I think they all start with Throne of Glass, don't they?
Ashley:Oh, do they?
Jonathan:I don't know so when Ashley references book two, that means she's going on to the romantic journey. Oh, yes. The pathway that she's taking. Anyway, just to give context.
Mari:So let me flesh out your context. It is a seven or eight book series, depending if you count the short stories as a book, I do. I'd say it's an eight book series. You can read it in publishing order, the order they were released, or there is what Jonathan referenced like the romantic reading order, and you can look this up. It's on all the social medias you can find it and basically it gives you, I think, the first three or four books is basically the standard publishing order, and then the difference is going to be where you're going to read the short story collection which I think is Assassin's Blade. I have my bookcase behind me. I don't remember. Is that right?
Kelly:Yes.
Jonathan:Okay.
Mari:Where you're going to read. That is one thing you have to decide, because they're basically prequel stories, and so it fleshes it out. But I've only read the entire series once, and so this is my first time rereading Throne of Glass, and in doing so I see how much of the prequel stories are actually referenced in this first book. So I don't know that it matters, but you have choices as to when you read it. And then the second thing that the reading order you have to decide on is the last two books, whether you're reading them individually or whether you're reading them where you flip between the chapters of the different books to intersperse the story, because there's things happening at the same time in different aspects of the world, and so there's, like, this whole published order of like okay, read chapter three through chapter eight in this book, and then, flip and read chapter 23 in this book and then go back.
Mari:That's how I read it and I enjoyed it. I thought it was a good way to read it. I may reread it in publishing order this time We'll see.
Jonathan:Nice, nice.
Mari:So how many stars did you give it Ash?
Ashley:It was a three and a half for me. I thought and so this is not my reread, right in the way that it is for you, I wouldn't say that I would never reread it again, but I thought, you know, adventure wise, I thought I wasn't staying up until 2 am every night reading it. You know what I mean, like that's. That's where my mind goes when we do this rating is how obsessed was I, how committed was I? And I thought this was just very baseline for me. This book was baseline for me Because I knew she spoiler. I knew she was going to make it right. We had seven more books.
Mari:Right.
Ashley:So there wasn't a lot of tension for me.
Mari:Kelly. What did you think?
Kelly:I'm kind of in the same camp with Ash. I gave it a three and a half. I think this book had a lot of interesting stuff in it. I think overall it was interesting. There was some unique stuff to the setting and the world and all that. I didn't really care for the almost feeling like forced love triangle type situation between the three main characters.
Mari:Yeah.
Kelly:And again we fell into a lot of the same man. If somebody would just talk to the other person, we wouldn't have nearly as many problems. People who knew what was going on would just tell the other person this is what's going on. It would definitely solve a lot of problems, Right? So overall, I think it was a three and a half would definitely solve a lot of problems, right? So overall I think it was a three and a half. It was overall, even though I kind of gave I think I gave akatar a three. This was definitely better than akatar by leaps and bounds yeah, agreed, yes, agreed as well.
Mari:Uh, as a first book. Yeah, jonathan, what do you think?
Jonathan:oh, I love this book um loved it.
Jonathan:Yeah, I really did enjoy it. It anchored me. I feel like it, like it rooted me in in the series, like it's what. I will read the entire series because of um, because of this book, I like. I like that selena is the. She's like the stale, uncrossable, you know like it's. It's there, it's hanging around pretty banged up, but it's still. You get in. You sit in the sunlight a little bit. I think it's a little warm and and comforting, gooey, um, yeah, exactly exactly like it's. Just, there's just this. For me, it's just like character battle, like she's. She's a stunningly beautiful woman but she's fierce as fuck and yeah, like it's and she's lethal. I like. I like a good countdown in a story too, and I feel like this gave me a good countdown, like when we read um the games gods play. I love that book and I love that story, but I feel like at one point that story was just like yeah, here's the countdown, let's skip ahead, right?
Ashley:yeah, I think oh, you were so mad about that.
Jonathan:I remember here they did that here, but they didn't. They did it and she did um, she did in such a subtle way that it was acceptable. She didn't skip four levels. She's like, she's well, she skipped, like like there were, there were people like your competitors were getting bumped off right and like it it was almost. And then, like, at the same time we had this like murder.
Jonathan:She wrote kind of thing going on where it was like you want to just be like, oh, let's go with the who's the obvious one. And then you're like that's never the obvious one, it's got to be. But you know, fuck, maybe, maybe it is the obvious one. So this whole like journey and then like the idea of like the, the love interest where you know, it's kind of like, it's like dang, she's.
Jonathan:This lady can go wherever, do whatever she wants, whomever she wants, ever do whatever she wants, whom ever she wants, and her body count can be as high as she wants, whether she's murking people or making love, it doesn't you know, she can just whatever she chooses. She's in total God's damned control, right, and it's of everything and in control of nothing. At the same time, she had control of her freedom. She could waltz out the door if she wanted to, but she was like, meh, maybe not right now, let's go, let's go do some other stuff. Right, she was like a, a prisoner fighting for her freedom. But you know, it's up to her when she pulls the trigger, you know, and and that's what I, that's what I enjoyed about this I I like a good, I like there's vulnerability and strength all rolled into one.
Jonathan:I like the idea of like the. I kept I would read the book and would listen to, like this description of her, and then I would flip to the cover and look at the silhouette and be like, okay, cool, cool, I can see that. And then go back into the story and be like, okay, yeah, let's keep going. It was just a very overall. I enjoyed the shit out of this one. Five stars, mari. What'd you think?
Mari:I'm more leaning towards similar to you. So when I first read it let me set the scene here Sicily, 1912. When I first read it I had already read Akatar and I was like I'm gonna read Crescent City, book one. And then I read something. I got one, two chapters into Crescent City book one. And then I saw something where people are like, oh, you have to read Throne of Glass first. So I stopped reading Crescent City and I was like, let me pick up this Throne of Glass first. So I stopped reading Crescent City and I was like, let me pick up this Throne of Glass. Didn't know how many books it was, had no idea. Yeah, total sucker. So I read it and I ended up.
Mari:Honestly, the first time I read Throne of Glass book one, it was a four star. It was good, but it wasn't like oh, my God, I want to read that over and over. I didn't leave an actual review on Goodreads, I just left a star review. So I don't know what I thought about it the first time. I read it more than that. Now, having read the entire series, I basically inhaled the whole like eight books in, if not a month. It was like a month and a few days. It was a very short span.
Ashley:It was a very short span.
Mari:I very much enjoyed it. So now going back and reading it, I will. I have I've talked about this before. I have a hard time differentiating books in a series. Once I've read the whole series, it's like the series as a whole is now a five-star series for me. So this book is going to be a five-star for me and I, you know, updated my Goodreads and I put actual and all the other, all the other social stuff that I do book reports, book reports on book reviews on. I updated it to a five and I basically said that First time I read it it was four stars. On a reread it's a five.
Mari:The main character goes from this barely surviving teenager in a death camp to interacting with royalty and potentially making long lasting changes in her world. And in the span of one book like even if it ends, you know, with this book she's gotten to a position where she's now in a position she can go and talk to the prince of the land or the king of the land, you know, princesses of other lands, etc. And the book dealt with like surviving and endurance and friendship and camaraderie. It dealt with colonialism and slavery and revolutions and overthrowing horrible systems of government. Right, it had all that and if that wasn't enough, if you want, like you had said, the murder she wrote. If you want, like a whodunit, there's a whodunit mystery in there to try and figure out. Right, I feel like this is a very good book to appeal to a lot of different readers' tastes. Five stars for me.
Jonathan:Well said, I like it.
Mari:Yeah, like I said, after you read the whole thing, you go back and read it. You pick up on so much of it. I will say it was interesting because I read it so fast. I think I didn't remember what all happened in each book and I thought that more of the story happened in the first book. I was like, wait, this book is empty, so now I can't wait to reread the second one. Yeah, what did we think about the fantasy? Fantasy world building, etc.
Ashley:I loved the fantasy. I really. I thought we accomplished a lot of world building in this book because it was not somewhere traditional and, as someone who has read most of the ACOTAR series, it was a little disorienting because in the back of my mind I know they're all kind of somehow connected, but we've definitely not reached the connection yet anywhere that I've read. So I thought you know, the fantasy itself and the lack of magic in this way was so unique because obviously there's an underlying story there and then there's very obviously weird shit happening, right that it's not completely gone. And then you get little dabbles of like who? Maybe she is under it, all right, because they talk about her walking past the forest and how she doesn't want to look too deeply in case they leave presence or like. I caught on to that really quickly and I thought that that was just really so. So, uh, what's the word I want? Like it was just, it was artfully done.
Ashley:The Pretty subtle, yeah, the way that she would hint at these connections that come to light later on. And books later on. I agree with Kelly about the love triangle. Like that part wasn't necessarily for me, but I did think that the fantasy was interesting. I thought her very human presentation and her very human reactions. But her vulnerability was also very obviously built into this and her trauma and how she didn't necessarily shy away from either of those things. She was content with being lethal. She was proud to be otterland's assassin. Um, I really, I really did enjoy the fantasy in the world building and the magic and lack thereof in this first book. It was a five.
Kelly:It was a four for me, nice kelly, I'm pretty much thinking the same thing that ashley's thinking. I think the world building was interspaced throughout the plot, without trying to hit you over the head with an exposition dump. I get why sometimes authors do the big exposition dump, because it gets the reader knowing what's going on and gets the background. But it's always better when the author works it into the background so you're learning about it and it's not seeming like the characters are explicitly giving the background information, are explicitly giving the background information, and I always think about the movie the Great Muppet Caper, where Piggy is talking to one of the human actors and the human actor is telling her all about her brother and the problems she's had with her brother and this and that and then how she has this huge diamond and blah, blah and basically all of this backstory, and Piggy just looks at her and says why are you telling me this? And the woman says it's plot exposition, dear, it has to go somewhere, 100%. So it's always annoying when authors resort to that, and so in this book they definitely didn't have that happen.
Kelly:There was a lot of tidbits here and there that were hinted at into the world building, the magical forest, which you had little glimpses of what's going on there. Why is magic going away from the world? So there's a lot of good cool exposition into the main part of she became the super assassin, because that that's like directly like the Black Widow origin story, you know, orphan girl taken in and trained to become an assassin and is the, you know, mostly the assassin in the world kind of been done several times. I mean that was.
Mari:Isn't it like Femme Nikita's, like that too, isn't it?
Kelly:Yeah, it's the Femme Nikita. It's the Black Widow, it's depending on which era of DC you're talking about. That's Batgirl. That's the Christopher Nolan Batman reboot where Batman went and was trained by the League of Shadows. That's a classic trope, but overall I enjoyed a lot of this world building.
Ashley:I found the world interesting so definitely I had to give it a four high praise. Hot damn, you guys can't see my eyes right now, but I am. I did not see kelly liking this so much, I'm so excited. We're just so close guys yeah, you can't.
Jonathan:You can't guess what you can't guess. No, I'll tell you that right off the bat. Anyone outside looking in you see Kelly Kelly never lets you know his next move.
Ashley:No, Never, never, never I love it. Yeah, mari, I think you're up, jonathan, oh, jonathan.
Jonathan:Sorry, Fantasy, right, Fantasy Fantasy. Yeah, you know, I liked. You know you got to love a dame who escapes the clink, you know.
Ashley:That's what does it for you.
Jonathan:Oh, gotta love you. Gotta love a dame who escapes the clink. You know, that's what does it for you. Oh yeah, uh yeah, that's why I write all those prison letters. Actually, you never know who you find, um, so, so, yeah, I, I thought it was a very um, clearly, somebody saw something in, uh, selena and and, um, I don't even I don't I not knowing how the entire series unfolds uh, in my mind, I think to myself they, or?
Jonathan:When I was reading the first part of this book, I thought you know, here you have this, um, this very strong and powerful person, somebody who demonstrated their, their, uh strength and resolve by just touching the boundary of where people get like murked in this prison system, right, and so I thought to myself. I started to ask myself how did she get there? Why would? How did she allow her? She's so powerful and this heir to the throne decides to select you as their champion Because they know he's going all in. He's like you know what this is. Who's going to win this? For me, this person, this person is also going to be the biggest middle finger I'm going to chuck to my dad. Is the concept right that he's built up in his mind? So he grabs his bestie, he says let's go down and get this lady and let's make it happen, captain.
Jonathan:But in my mind I'm thinking she had to have been placed there. It has to be set up. She just feels too strong, too powerful, too untouchable. Um, and so when you talk about setting up that, that fantasy world for me, um, like I want, I've got this image in my mind of of what this prison system looks like, and then, and then the, the, the change in the change in a living situation, and how that kind of shakes out, and then how almost rich and fanciful her life can be.
Jonathan:But it's still kind of lacking. It's still like you're in a castle, you're surrounded by stone, you don't have like, the luxuries of, like, the cell phone kind of thing. It's then, and then the, the idea of like the hierarchy, the classism, and then the, the ability to have these battles, and the awareness of, of magic and how you, a space can be drained of magic or it can be prohibited, um, like it, to me it's, there's so many side quests that I want to go on as a result, um, and yeah. So anyway, um, yeah, I, I, I loved it. I thought it was great no notes what's that?
Jonathan:no notes, I those that felt like a lot of notes.
Ashley:No, like nothing to improve upon.
Jonathan:To improve upon. No, I mean I got yeah. I like it was just it was a lot of everything. It was like 80% of everything. It's like 80% you're an ass kicker, 80% you're a lover. 80% it's a lot, it's a whole lot 80%.
Ashley:You're an ass kicker 100% of the time.
Jonathan:Yeah, 80% of the time, yeah, 80 of the time, I'm gonna ask it yeah, whatever, uh, but yeah, and then I thought about like this you know, in this, in this climactic battle scene where, where, um, you have this like almost like this out of body experience, I almost thought like going back to like the dc thing. I thought I thought of the um, my mind went to this realm of like um Dr Strange, when he's like outside of his, outside of his body and having this moment where everything, time is slowed, your body hasn't even hit the floor yet, kind of kind of moment and it's just like everything's you're opening your world to, or your mind to, this new world. So, yeah, what's?
Jonathan:your, your rating I didn't like the boys.
Ashley:I'll say that no, we're not there yet what's your?
Mari:rating on fantasy I'm rating on fantasy five stars okay so much to say uh, for me, fantasy, like world building fantasy, I'm gonna give it a four stars. Um, because I did like there were a lot of things I liked about it. It wasn't like groundbreaking, like I'd never seen this before, you know, but it was. There were a lot of little breadcrumbs that were laid out that are expanded upon in other books, so it makes the world feel very flushed and it exists outside of the main character and her experience. Like you know that there's stuff going on outside of the world and you get that in little tidbits as other people talk or as things are. You know, are mentioned. I thought the whole weird signs and weird gates and weird magic thing was was interesting and I always love a story about, like human ingenuity Whenever something is outlawed, we're going to work around it, we're going to find ways to like do it.
Ashley:Oh and ghosts. I didn't even talk about the ghosts. We had ghosts, yeah.
Mari:Yeah, I, I liken the whole like magic thing to like when people put up walls, because I lived in Germany when I was, I lived in Berlin when I was in high school and so we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and it always was impressive to me. You go through and you see all the different ways and the ingenuity and the thought process and the brilliance that people put into getting around this Berlin Wall, getting over it, getting under it, flying over it, going in a submarine under it, hiding in a car cushion just the amount of things. And so in this world you have this colonial authority that is taking over all the land and saying you can't have magic. So of course magic's going to wiggle its way in in different ways. Four stars for me on the fantasy world building.
Jonathan:I like that what you brought up there, mari, because it's like my doppelganger. Who's that guy from Jurassic Park, jeff Goldblum? Yeah, and he's like is he like life will find a way? Or something like that? Yeah, yeah, you can't stifle what's meant to be free.
Mari:Right, 100%. What do we think about the romance in this story?
Ashley:Boo, you know. So I will say before I give my rating. Jonathan said to me I don't even think I'd finish the book yet, but he was like are you team, you know, dorian, or team Kaol? And I said I don't feel like either one of them have done anything to warrant her affection over the other. It felt a little forced to me, but I could understand the appeal, you know, of a young girl who had been let down, betrayed and devastated for the majority of her lifetime. So to have what feels like authentic friends, you know, for the first time in a long time, especially after being liberated from what is essentially a slave camp, right, a death camp. I can see the appeal in that.
Ashley:I praise her admiration for herself. She was all very like I'm a big deal, and I know it, and I loved that for her. I loved that perspective because she was also very aware of her own flaws, you know. So it wasn't just boast, it was humility as well. So I thought I I felt the romance was a little forced in the first book, but I understood, you know, the need for that kind of you know quote tension, right, who's she gonna choose? And it probably sets up for more later it was, it was a three. For me, I could have done without it, and I think I thought it was more important that their affection for her was powerful. Um, even though they never like duked it out themselves, you know, they were all very much. Whatever she chooses, which again I love that for them. I didn't feel like she needed to make a choice, though I praise her for thinking between oh, this guy, or that guy, this guy, that guy, this guy.
Kelly:But I think Ashley's right, they both were kind of crappy. They were both kind of crappy to her. The prince was using her, obviously, and then, yeah sure, maybe he fell in love with her or whatever. But I think the reality is is that both of them were treating her pretty poorly. The only one who actually seemed to genuinely care about her welfare above all else was the other princess.
Mari:Nehemiah.
Kelly:Nehemiah. Yeah, she should have just left with Nehemiah and told those dudes to fuck off. So I don't think the romance was all that great. I think it was part of it's just because I'm just not a fan of the love triangle trope.
Ashley:Yeah.
Kelly:Because it's not even really a love triangle, right? No, a love triangle would mean that all three of them are all vying for love of each other type deal. So it's more like just two dudes competing for one girl One person's attention, yeah. So I gave it a two and a half Jonathan.
Jonathan:I saw this as pentagonal passion.
Ashley:I'm so sorry. I was not prepared for multi-syllabic titles.
Jonathan:So let me explain the points here.
Mari:Did you just snort Ash, yeah?
Jonathan:she did. That's what you know. I don't understand, because I thought I told you this. I thought it was like you were like well, what do you think about this line? I thought it's more of a love pentagon is like for me.
Ashley:But you can say the other word.
Jonathan:The pentagonal passion? Who's?
Mari:the fifth person.
Jonathan:So we got KL.
Ashley:You can't see this, but he's going off of his fingers.
Jonathan:So that's one one. Okay, all I got, uh, dorian uh-huh uh, nahemia, nahemia. And then, uh, we got uh, fleetfoot. Oh, because they're still, they're still loving passionate in there, you know. And and of course the fifth is of uh, you know, you gotta come take it all the way back to. What's her name? Selina yeah, I forget her, but you know. And there's also the pretentious broad who's just in it to win it for funds.
Mari:I keep calling her Caitlin and it's not Caitlin. It's not Caitlin.
Jonathan:What is her? I forget her name.
Mari:I wrote it down because I knew I wouldn't remember it.
Jonathan:She's liketane yes, that's it, that's not gonna exactly. Yeah, that it's she's. She's got a forgettable. She's a forgettable character, but I'm sure I almost imagine that she's gonna come back eventually, but uh, she's, it feels, yeah. So there's this like I feel like in this world, selena's love, selena's passion is uh versatile and it can go anywhere, in any direction at any time. That's part of the power that she holds, you know, and that's she is the center point that everybody is drawn to. But it is Kayol coming to her, it's Dorian coming to her, it's the Hemia coming to her, it's Fleetfoot coming to her. You know, there's she. She must be so absurdly beautiful and oblivious at all in one fell swoop. So I just think there's so much opportunity for romance throughout the entire series for her, like you know. You know it's just it's open season for her open season. So yeah, five stars.
Mari:So I'm going to see your Pentagon and I'm going to raise you to and I'm going to say it's a heptagon. I'm going to add in we're going to make this a ghost love story. We're going to add in queen Elena and we're going to add in Knox, who she basically confessed her identity to, and let him go off to his freedom.
Ashley:Amen, says her you know what.
Mari:Seek his life. Yes, solid point. No, seriously, romance. I actually am going to give it a two because I don't think there was any romance in the amorous way.
Mari:I think there's plenty of really good friendships and I think that Selena is, she provides something to these people and she is something for them, but I don't know that any of them provide any particular actual love interest for her, like the affection on her end. So I think that for Dorian, she's a person who's not a courtesan, who's just lusting after him for his position to become, you know, the queen or whatever, become the princess and a queen, like she's not even really interested in him and he's like, oh my God, I can have a conversation with someone and like, talk about books and enjoy them on the level of a person. And I think he became enamored of the idea of having a genuine friendship, a genuine relationship. But I don't think that he necessarily did that for her. I don't think there's anything he necessarily did for her.
Mari:And then with Kale Kale, I think that he was this protector role, but he was this very like ethical black and white, you know type personality. And then Selena comes along as this morally gray character and she rocks his world because he doesn't know what to do, how to fit her into his world, you know. So I think he did something for her, but I don't know that. I mean, I think she did something for him, but I don't know that either of them do a whole lot for her. And I felt that the first time reading it I was like man, if any of the people in this book are love interests, this just may not be a connection for me.
Ashley:I mean, there's something to be said for Kaol at the end of this first book, because he ends up killing Cain because her back is turned and Cain goes after her after she's already been declared the winner, you know, declared the champion, and so Cain goes, you know, basically to kill her off because he's pissed off and a super bad guy and then Cael crosses a line. So I think there's something to be said for Hit.
Ashley:I think everybody develops at the end of this book to something that they weren't at the beginning, and I think it says something for their affection for her or for how she's helped them develop as the humans that they're going to come later on in the series. I just don't think from a romance perspective it's healthy as a couple situation. But I do think the character development because of the romantic feelings that they're all feeling for each other, because even the friendship perspective right between Dorian and Kaol is it's very strong, it's borderline intense, right like there's not a I have to beat this other guy out for her affections, um right. So I think individually it's interesting because when we get to the is this a kissing book question I'm gonna hesitate but I do. I do agree that from a romance perspective it just wasn't much of anything in this book.
Mari:What did we think about the spice?
Ashley:Zero. There was no spice, there wasn't even salt and pepper in this one.
Jonathan:That means it's got to be a little bit of salt.
Ashley:It was like a one for me.
Kelly:Pretty much the same. There really wasn't any spice. There was some longing, some kissing, some lustful thoughts, but that's about it.
Jonathan:Jonathan, yeah, there was no spice. Some kissing, some lustful thoughts, but that's about it, jonathan. Uh, yeah, there was no spice. I had this. Uh had a 17 on the calculator.
Mari:Yeah, yeah, no spice, sorry no, I mean, yeah, I'm the same way. I put spice zero question mark. Um, this is the unseasoned white rice of spice. The final question, the all-important question ah, is it a kissing book? Is it a kissing book?
Ashley:I want to say no and my my pause very distinctly is the scene that I discussed with kaol coming to her defense at the end of the book. He he crossed a lot of his own morals. Um, not that he's opposed to killing people, right like he's the captain of the guard, but this is his first time killing someone.
Mari:Is it his first time? Killing someone or not killing someone on the battlefield I think it's his first time killing someone, which I found a little surprising I'm like, how did you get to? Be the king of the guards or whatever the high guard, but I think it's like his first time killing someone. He's very traumatized by it.
Ashley:I thought it was his first time killing someone not on the battlefield like for maybe not pure reasons.
Kelly:I think it was his first time killing someone. Period, yeah. And honestly, he's the captain of the guards. If you look at traditional military history, most officers come from, like you know, royalty or wealthy, so they're usually not necessarily the people that have been out in the trenches so then that kind of makes sense, then, right right fascinating.
Ashley:So I feel like that gives more to my pause. Then you know what I mean. Because why else, if we weren't talking about and maybe not necessarily mates, but possibly very true and deep love? If you're going to cross a line like that, whether it be moral or ethical, do you do it just because it's right or do you do it because it's love? So I have, I have, I don't.
Mari:I don't know my answer on this one especially because I've already finished book two so you want to be, and I have a little bit more context you can do maybe I feel like it's.
Ashley:I feel like it's almost a kissing book, okay.
Mari:Kelly, what'd you think?
Kelly:This book. No, it's not a kiss, jonathan.
Jonathan:I don't believe this is a kissing book.
Mari:I will concur. Oh sorry, good I I. I generally agree. I put no that it's not a kissing book. I don't think that there was any particular romance that affected the storyline in this particular one.
Ashley:Romance, no but feelings. Lots of feelings, yes, lots of feelings, lots of feelings, but like if they didn't have those very strong, very intense, very deep feelings, then the book would not have progressed in the way that it did and it would have ended a lot sooner.
Mari:I don't know, because, like, maybe I don't know, maybe, but maybe also, like, I think selena ended up being a, like they were hoping that she'd be a good champion. I mean, obviously that's when they went to get her, but I think she ended up being real good at her job and they were like, oh wait, we, this is, this could really happen. So I don't't know. For me, I put no, not a kissing book, and I will say that, technically, wikipedia lists it as high fantasy novel. It's not a romance fantasy, it's a high fantasy novel and oftentimes that's how I describe this series to people. Anything else we want to talk about the book.
Ashley:I'm glad Fleetfoot lived.
Mari:Oh yes, we love a fleetfoot, I told jonathan.
Ashley:He has to warn me if something happens to her long term I think a warning can be arranged.
Mari:All right. So wrapping it up, thanks for listening to of swords and soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check the show notes, rate and 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 soulmate. Check us out on our website of swords and soulmatescom or on YouTube, tiktok, pinterest, with the same username. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode, reach out to us on any of those options or email us. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode, you can do so on Goodreads at Of Swords and Soulmates, or chapter by chapter interaction on the Fable app. We have a book club Of Swords and Soulmates on there and we also have a Tome account. T-o-m-e account. Find us at Of Swords and Soulmates. Before we announce what we're going to be reading next for the next episode, I'd like to read a review that someone left us on Apple Podcasts.
Ashley:We have fan mail, we do.
Mari:It is from Playing Disney and the title is so Many POVs. They said the best part is how they all see things a bit differently than each other, and I agree. Last but not least, we hope that you will join us in two weeks for our next episode, when we will be discussing and reading One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig.
Jonathan:So excited, so excited. I have no idea what it's about. We'll find out. I hope it's about a window. Thank you,
