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
"Captured by the Fae Beast" - Who Saves Who?
What happens when grief meets magic? When a woman on the brink of death is whisked away to the dangerous Fae Court and given a bargain she can't refuse?
Monster romance often gets a bad reputation—dismissed as shallow fantasy or even harmful to readers. Our deep dive into Mallory Dunlan's "Captured by the Fae Beast" reveals why these criticisms miss the mark. This novel stands out by beginning with profound loss rather than the typical setup of a protagonist desperate to escape their mundane life. After witnessing her partner's death during a mountain climbing accident, our heroine finds herself captive to a feared Fae prince with a monstrous reputation and appearance to match.
The story brilliantly explores how being treated as a monster can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Prince Rhysand has accepted his reputation as "The Beast" after years of being feared and reviled, even by his own mother. What unfolds over the course of a year and a day isn't just romance but mutual healing—she processes her grief while he discovers someone who finally sees beyond his beastly exterior.
We examine the fantasy world-building that introduces fascinating concepts like magical soul connections that don't necessarily indicate romantic destiny, and humans rescued from their moment of death. These elements create moral complexity that elevates the story beyond simple fairytale retellings.
Join us for this passionate discussion that might just convince you these stories offer more psychological depth and emotional resonance than critics give them credit for.
Links from the News Segment and Show:
- Toxic Fandom - Ali Hazelwood bullied off social media, cancels Fabled Fantasy attendance
- Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon, a romance set in the world of Critical Role
- Zomromcom by Olivia Dade, magic/paranormal/horror romance
- Author will be doing a book tour, releases August 5th
- News Site
- Bookcon is back! April 18 & 19, 2026 in NYC
- SJM has signed a multi-year worldwide licensing deal
- The Porn-Brained Women Of Monster Smut
- Facebook Post
- Problematic conservative article calls monster smut bad because it causes 'porn brain' in women
- CM Nascosta's (whose book cover Morning Glory Milking Farm) response was to make merchandise on her Etsy Store
- Etsy Store
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Dear listeners, we apologize for audio issues. This week we were plagued by internet outages and thunderstorms. Our editor did the best they could to clean it up and fix it. We appreciate your understanding. The 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 romanticist 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:What's good, everybody. It's JP bringing up the rear.
Mari:So today we're going to be discussing Captured by the Fae Beast by Mallory Dunlan, but first, as always, some news. We have a lot of news and I seriously still held back a lot. I was just like this can't be an all news episode, but man has a lot happened, yeah, so we're splitting it. The next episode is going to have a lot of news too, and it just is what it is. First thing I have is Allie Hazelwood. Is Ali Hazelwood, author of several STEM contemporary romance books and author of the Bride, and who's scheduled to be at Fabled Fantasy, has been bullied off of social media.
Mari:So basically, my understanding of what happened is there was some event that happened in April and it wasn't even related to Hunger Games. This is such a weird snippet of our time. It wasn't even related to Hunger Games, but someone asked or somehow the conversation came up about if they were Team PETA or Team Gale Hunger Games and she, allie Hazelwood, said that she's Team Gayle and whatever. Months after that happened. Then that video got. I don't know. I don't know if it got reposted or people just started talking about it, and then people started like bullying her and sending her all these not great things about her opinion and so she has like, gotten off all social media and have you guys seen the, the original footage, or seen, read any of this, about this or anything?
Jonathan:I got I I understood that something was like going on, but I had, like I, the two characters that, like I, almost actively avoid the hunger Games. It's not my jam.
Mari:I thought the Hunger Games were fine. I liked reading them. I don't have anything against the Hunger Games. I did not feel like the love story aspect. It may have just been the time in my life I was when I was reading it, but I didn't feel like the love story aspect of it was the point. I thought it was very much like Katniss' story and story of revolution and having to establish a better way of doing things and having to survive war and having PTSD. By the end I was just Team Katniss and I just wanted everyone to be okay. But regardless.
Ashley:You don't bully a real life person over their opinion of a made-up character. I was gonna say I mean I think the the love part of that story was super important to the boys. You know what I mean, like for gail and for pita, um, or at least for Peta. You know a lot of what he did wasn't necessary for what was right, but it was for what was for cats. You know what I mean and I think it started out that way for Gail. And I think you know that story definitely evolved Because it's not just a, it's not a simple story.
Ashley:Right, you're talking about forever and you're talking about, you know, big, big, big change, um, but I would agree someone's opinion on whether or not you know, whether to dis, to dislike or to like a boy in that story is definitely not the point of the story, right, and nobody should be bullied for what they think or what they believe yeah, and so I don't know if it's related to that, but um fabled fantasy, on their discord, said that they were quote sad to announce this happened on june 20th.
Mari:They were sad to announce that ali hazelwood will no longer be attending romanacy book con. While we understand this is disappointing, we support her decision and ask that our wonderful attendees do the same. Thank you, end of quote. But she's still listed on their website as an author, she's still listed on their Instagram page as an author and their official app still has her as a ticketed author. So I don't know.
Ashley:Just pulling back a little bit and reserving the right to not come. I mean, it would be unfortunate if we let this ruin the score for herself, if that makes sense. I mean I don't mean that in a condescending way, it's more like like, don't let the bastards grind you down, right.
Mari:I think it was. If I had to guess, I think it was a combination of this plus earlier this year when she had to cancel her uk author. She was doing a book tour in the uk and she had to cancel it because she's I believe she's a like here on a visa or lapr permanent resident, something like, and so she wasn't sure I don't remember her exact wording. She posted on her Instagram, but something like that. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to get back into the country if she left for this UK tour and, to be honest, it's on the back of all her books. She's here for her PhD in neuroscience. That's her main gig. That's what she's here to do.
Ashley:And so I mean gig.
Mari:That's what she's here to do, and so I mean she's not going to put her her livelihood and her career or whatever on the line for this?
Ashley:no, and I think you know reminding people of the sensitivities of what's happening politically will probably ruffle some feathers. There has been a really big movement on some of the socials. Um, there's a, there's a fairly big contemporary romance on there, although she's down within romanticity. That has, like, put her foot down as far as if you align a certain way politically, then don't read her books. Like she straight out said it yeah, and so that has very certainly pissed some people off. Like who are you to tell me what to do or don't do? Or why couldn't I read your books?
Jonathan:like yeah, but it was more like in her defense.
Ashley:It was like why would you even want to right? You know she writes about lgbtq plus, you know ideas and you know it's all very, it's all very much maligned with certain political parties.
Mari:Anti-fascist et cetera. Yeah.
Ashley:Right, and so Ali's post, if I'm not mistaken, might've been around that very a similar timeframe as that other author's post, so it might've ruffled some feathers and I thought Ali handled that question very well. I thought it was more high level the way she responded.
Mari:It was just not a safe travel time. Yeah, and honestly, she's an immigrant in this country, talking about the immigrant experience in this country. Like you can't tell her she's wrong about how, what she feels you know what I mean. Like, yeah, you can have your own opinion, but you can't you can't tell her she's wrong for, like, being afraid she's not gonna be able to get back in or whatever. She's just stating what she feels. People are entitled to their feelings. I know that Tiffany Roberts, who wrote the Spider-Mate, the Spider-Shuff.
Mari:Yeah, they did a similar thing. They're like hey, if you like our books, you know this is what we stand for politically, like. I don't remember their exact wording either, but it was kind of the same thing. I think several authors probably did it around the same time. They were like hey, you know these authors or these characters of mine in these worlds of mine that you like and these stories of mine that you like? Like, if you like a certain political ideal, you would not be on the good side in these stories that you say you like. You know so.
Mari:But, yeah, so I right now, I think, and I assume that Allie Hazelwood's not going to be at Romantic Con in Orlando in October, and I assume that they'll probably announce it officially, like in August, when they do the official update on their, on their app, when they, when you have to like, do the whole ticket thing for the authors, like I assume by then is when it will have to be somehow officially decided or officially announced.
Mari:So, because I I looked on their other like, I looked on the Romantic Fabled Fantasies website and their Instagram and everything, and it wasn't anywhere else. I'm like if, like, if you're not on Discord, how would you know. So, yeah, I thought that was kind of sad and it's very sad, yeah, like I already, like Ali Hazelwood, have read almost everything she's written, but I am two books behind, so I've bumped those up on my TBR Because I like. I mean, I like her contemporary romance. There's not that much contemporary romance I like, but I like what she does with contemporary romance. I think she writes really interesting introspective characters that feel very real and fully formed. Like I'm not a person who works in STEM, but I feel like I'm along for the ride when I read her books.
Ashley:So yeah, her books are are easy to read and that you know this and I've only read the contemporary STEM stuff right, so I would agree that her books are are easy to absorb without feeling like overwhelmed or, you know, unintelligent if that makes sense yeah, all right.
Mari:Next bit of news is that there is a book coming out called tusk love, t-u-s-k. Love, by thea guanzon. She and I'm not even sure I'm saying her name right, so I apologize, but she's known for writing the hurricane war, which I have and haven't read yet. It's in my physical tbr pile. It's it's. She's supposed to be a really good author. Has anyone read anything by her?
Ashley:I have not, but I do remember when hurricane wars dropped and it was like one of those really beautiful covers and straight edges too, if I'm not mistaken kind of situations.
Mari:But I have not read I've heard great things about it, like it comes up on a lot of lists, supposed to be very good. I can't speak to that. However, tusk love was um. There's a story behind how it came about. So there is a, a youtube web series of people who play d&D, dungeons and Dragons, and it's these professional voice actors with a professional DM who runs it and it's called Critical Role. You may or may not have heard of Critical Role. If you play D&D, you've heard of Critical Role.
Mari:There's a lot of people who are very heavy into the Critical Role world. So in this world there's this like running gag or running joke that they go to, like these little bookstores, or they go into a store. There's like a in the back, there's like a shelf with naughty books or whatever. And Tusk Love is this series. It's a fictional in-game book known as Tusk Love, which is a racy novel that follows the saucy romance between a half-orc and the daughter of a traveling merchant, and so from this made-up game, following the rules of a made-up game, this author basically made the book a reality. So it's like this real book based off of this fake book, created in this critical role, which is like a big nerd thing basically a lot of people are into, so I'm excited about this. I am going to be reading it. Kelly, you don't know much about Critical Role, do you?
Kelly:No.
Mari:Okay, I only know about it because my best friend is way into it and she runs one of the games that we play online and it's set in like a Critical Role world and so there's much more to the world that I play in than I know because I don't really follow a critical role. But I know a lot of people are very excited about you know, people who don't necessarily read romance or romancy or whatever. We're excited about this book coming out because of the tie in to this like game, so I'm excited about it. I pre-ordered it.
Ashley:I'm not going to lie. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Mari:Next thing that I have on the news is another new book coming out. This one is called Zomromcom. All one word. I love this already. Yeah, this is by Olivia Dade, who, as far as I know, has only ever written contemporary romance. That's all I know her for. Has anybody read any of her stuff? Not off the top of my head. So she wrote there's two big series that she's known for. Spoiler Alert is one of them, and the other one is there's Something About Marysburg. The Spoiler Alert series I read it's a contemporary romance series. The Spoiler Alert series I read it's a contemporary romance series.
Mari:Almost all of her stories have one or both main characters being plus-sized, but in the Spoiler Alert series it's basically, I think it's like game of thrones, but it's basically there's a show being filmed which is very like game of thrones, being filmed, you know, on location and there's actors which are very like the game of thrones actor, and then it's like um, it's like a love story around, what it's like to be in a show. That that's, that's that popular. Everyone has an opinion about that can be toxic and everything else. It's a good series, especially if you've watched Game of Thrones because you're like, yeah, you get some little Easter eggs and tie-ins that make for good little love stories.
Mari:There's something about Marysburg series I've not read yet. I have one on my Libby hold that should be coming in. I believe they're all like education teacher, like they're all teachers, all the ones in that series. But this book is basically her first like foray into fantasy, or paranormal or horror or fantasy, whatever you want to call it zombie apocalypse, and so I think the female main character has to try and survive the zombie apocalypse and she gets the help of her neighbor next door who happens to be a vampire. So it's like a vampire human romance story in a zombie apocalypse All the tropes Right right, yes, I will take them all.
Mari:Thank you very much. All in one big zombie trope scene? Right right, yes, I will take them all. Thank you very much.
Ashley:All in one big zombie trope. I love it.
Mari:Yeah, sign me. This will be Olivia Dade's first book tour, which I find surprising because I thought she was fairly well known in contemporary romance stuff. But I mean, I guess that doesn't mean you have to do a book tour, but I would have assumed she would have done one before now. But this will be her first book tour, so I hope it does well. I hope it's a good book. I mean, like I said, I've liked all the books I've read by her, but I've not read all of her books. So that one's coming out August 5th, so in time for spooky season. So in time for spooky season, all right.
Mari:Next bit of news is that BookCon is back. So BookCon the last BookCon that existed was in 2019. And so this next BookCon is going to be April 18th and 19th, 2026 at the Javits Center in New York City. And it's not the same People I've heard talking about it. It's not the same as like Book Expo, which is apparently a publisher kind of event. This is very much like a fan event. So it's going to be like authors and panels and signings and, you know, buying, like special editions. It's going to be like a big book convention. I was going to say it's like a big book con, yeah, so I signed up for the mailing list to see what it's like. I know a lot of people are really excited about it. People who had been to previous ones are very excited about it.
Jonathan:The details are still very up in the air, right, right like.
Mari:I don't even know what kind of books, because you know book, book, con could be anything. It could be children's books, you know it could be ya, it could be adult. It could be all the genres it could be, you know, non-fiction, if I must. It could be all sorts of things. So yeah, it's interesting looking to see what it's going to be.
Ashley:Yeah, they're definitely hyping it up and they're hyping it up super early.
Mari:So I signed up for the list. I will be interested in the details. I wonder if it's going to be crazy expensive or crazy exclusive, or how they're going to limit it in order to be able to go. It might be interesting to go. April's a good time. New York it's not, you know, crazy cold, it's not crazy hot.
Jonathan:So I think actually you'd have a maybe an easier time talking me into the California Romantic Con.
Kelly:I'm not going to lie.
Jonathan:I started seeing the author list pop out for that one. I was like, ooh, that might be a fun time. If you're thinking about traveling, I feel like I could be a West Coast guy. Why are you ignoring me?
Mari:actually, sometimes, when is the LA Romantic Con?
Ashley:February Okay.
Jonathan:I have no idea.
Ashley:I think it's February.
Mari:Coming off all the holiday end-of-year stuff. Okay, the other thing I have is Sarah J Maas signed a multi-year licensing deal is that with image licensing? Image licensing that's what it is. Img licensing it's going to be an exclusive, worldwide, multi-year deal and it's going to include apparel, beauty, lifestyle I mean games, food and quote immersive fan experiences. End quote.
Ashley:That's interesting. Wait, that was Rebecca.
Jonathan:No, no, no, that was Sarah. That was Sarah, yeah.
Ashley:For some reason my brain heard what you said, but translated it into Rebecca. That doesn't sound right with what I know in the literary world right now.
Mari:I'm sorry, continue. Yeah, so interesting. Could be cool, could be some interesting merch and stuff coming out. But instantly as soon as that came out, I saw people posting who you know. There's a lot of small businesses that have licenses and everything with her already. You know people who do like little bookmarks or t-shirts officially licensed t-shirts, officially licensed T-shirts, officially licensed products and things that are SJM officially licensed. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with those, especially if you build a big part of your business on that. And also a lot of times what happens in cases like this is you run into ideas that already exist that maybe these small businesses have done, getting taken by bigger manufacturers and then the small but smartest not getting any credit or payback for it, any money for it.
Ashley:Yeah, I mean, that's not going to happen. I mean, sarah j mass is below right now. Um, it's an interesting move, I wonder. I wonder why now right? Because, like she's not new, there's nothing particularly big happening or coming that we're aware of, and I know that the movie stuff or the show got not canceled because it was never actually in production. It's an interesting move, I'm not opposed, but I would probably continue.
Mari:Yeah, it makes me wonder if there's another announcement coming you know what I mean in conjunction with this If there is going to be some sort of a TV or ooh, our lights just flickered.
Kelly:The internet went down.
Mari:Can you guys hear us?
Kelly:No, the computer went out, so we lost them.
Mari:All right, we're good. Okay, sorry, all right. So the next bit of news I have is an article that came out from EVIE EVIE online website magazine thing, talking about the porn-brained women of Monster Smut and how Monster Romance Monster Smut is rotting women's brains and leading to depression because apparently only women read monster smut when you say like leading to depression.
Jonathan:So, besides the obvious omission of the rest of the people, you read monster smut? Yes, yeah, and I think I think in my journey of monster fuckery, it's a realization that we've all kind of been brought up on monster smut. There's softcore, monster porn, right. So there's Beauty and the Beast. What's that movie about the fish lady Ashley?
Ashley:Oh, the Fish man. Shape of Water, Shape of Water, yeah, that's close Beast. What's that movie about the fish lady Ashley? Oh, the.
Jonathan:Fish, man, shape of Water that's close. Though that's close, I was thinking more like kids, right? So, like you're all kind of like, these stories exist in our childhood, right? It's natural that as we grow up, we source out like more mature versions of them.
Ashley:Right. But also, like what depression Are they talking about? The depression that we fall into when we realize the monsters aren't real?
Jonathan:Like or Fairy tales. Yeah, let's call it what it is. These are just adult fairy tales and maybe not even like adult fairy tales, but fairy tales. We had watered-down fairy tales as kids, right? Was it the Brothers Grimm? They weren't like they. We had watered down fairy tales as kids, right? Was it the Brothers Grimm? They weren't like. They weren't telling the same stories that you. They were warm and fuzzy.
Mari:Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Jonathan:This is like we're just getting a dose of reality.
Mari:I think fairy tales have a role to play in society and I think the role that they have to play differs depending on society and what age group but also society that you're talking about. I think at one point fairy tales were about a way of warning people of things in the world Be careful. The Blackbeard stories were about warning women about getting married to bad men, you know, abusive men or whatever. Like, each one had a warning in and of its way. I think that monster romance now is a counterculture. You know it's for if you don't see yourself or your preferences or your aesthetic, or you don't see yourself in whatever way, in what's out there with Disney love stories or contemporary love stories or billionaire romance love stories or mafia love stories, whatever. It's just another version of what's out there, another option. I did not read the whole article because it asked you for all this information about yourself to be able to read it, so I just did like a few screenshots in between that box popping up, because I refuse to give them any information about myself.
Mari:I refuse.
Ashley:Yeah, that's a trap.
Mari:Yeah, yeah, but it was basically saying that traditional porn, aka stories where hot women fall for generic men in a you know whatever, at the dentist, you know, or in the pizza shop or whatever, are acceptable because they're mainstream and because they focus on this idea that the average guy is sexually attractive, idea that the average guy is sexually attractive. Um, but that monster romance is bad because it's interesting, because it conflates monster romance with dark romance stories, which are two different stories. Like not all monster romance stories have like the monster choking you out. I'd argue that's a lot of like mafia romance and dark romance.
Jonathan:But I just got a dark romance book this weekend. Actually, what's it called? I don't know, it's um enigma enigma. Yeah, yeah, that is that what I have to look forward to.
Mari:It feels like spooky ish I haven't read that one, I don't know yeah, dark.
Ashley:I think when you say dark romance, that can fall into several different categories the mafia romances. Sometimes you're dealing with like some light, you know bdsm things or you know kind of maybe even lighter abuse for lack of better language, scurrying consent issues and whatnot, yeah.
Ashley:Well, I mean, some of it is consent, like the BDSM is very, very clearly consensual stuff, right, like they have very firm lines about what is consensual versus not, because that's how they balance their desires. It's not meant to be punishing, right, it is meant to be at the pleasure of both individuals. But I think when you get to the dark stuff, it's not that it lacks consent, although some stories can. Um, I think it's just not the average romance yeah it is your.
Ashley:Your characters are maybe a little bit more gray. They're probably, you know, not warm and fuzzy. It could be some foul language.
Mari:Yeah, I picked this book based on the cover and the texture of the pages. I mean got to pick it forever. Whatever draws you to it. I don't think there's anything wrong with, I mean, dark romance. I generally don't, generally I don't like dark romance, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with it. I think dark romance, monster romance, even honestly, some mainstream romance stuff I think a lot of it is a way for people to safely explore ideas like to try things on, to see what it would be like to be, in, you know, someone else's head in a different situation. You know, and I think, so long as you know what you're getting into, if you have triggers like read the trigger warnings, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Ashley:I also don't know what's leading to depression. I think that article is gaslighting.
Mari:The whole thing is real cray cray. Yeah, real difficult. However, what I thought was yeah, real difficult. However, um, what I thought was wonderfully, chef's kiss done um, was the. The picture that they used to promote this article was the cover of morning glory milking farm, which we've all read.
Ashley:What there was I've recommended that. Yeah, I was gonna say I've recommended that book more than any other book.
Mari:Right, there's nothing wrong with that book Like that could be any contemporary love story. It just other the fact that it's a minotaur and the situation where they met, you know. But there could be yeah, there could be so much darker things. Like at one point it even made this comparison that, like Twilight was wholesome and Morning Glory Milking Farm was not. And I'm like shut the front door. He stalks her in her room while she's asleep, like I'm not saying Twilight is horrible. I enjoyed the Twilight books but nothing is a shining example. Like everything's got issues, you know, and that's okay as long as you read it, you talk about it, you understand, you figure out what you like, what you don't like, what you're comfortable with, what you're not comfortable with, but it doesn't, it's not bad just because one, one or more of the main characters are monsters.
Ashley:That's what jonathan calls moving the goalpost right. So, like 10 years ago, 15 years ago they probably were mocking twilight for the stalking right, but now, based on what has been normalized right, that is a more acceptable or palatable story compared to what's coming out now, right actually I don't think 10 years ago they were mocking for.
Jonathan:For that I think there was like it's like media. You just got away with a little bit more 10 years ago, like you could say and do dumber stuff.
Ashley:Well, they sure as hell made fun of us for loving it. I'll tell you that, yeah, yes, you were one of them, sir.
Jonathan:Yeah, but you were a tweener. I mean, you weren't a tweener, but I saw that story as being for more of the adolescent.
Mari:Yeah, I believe they are YA books, aren't they? They adolescent?
Ashley:um, which is, I believe they are books, aren't they? They're labeled as ya books, aren't they?
Jonathan:they are, and I was my young 20s when we went to go see it together yeah, we went to go see that and uh, it was like the premiere night of one like was like twilight three, the awakening, I don't know what it was called, anything like that. We go into this theater, we're sitting down and uh, this horse like um, who's the ninja boy? Jacob, jacob, yeah.
Ashley:Taylor Lautner Taylor.
Jonathan:Lautner. Taylor Lautner comes on the screen he ain't got a shirt on and then, like all the girls are like ooh. And then he turns into like a horse-sized dog and puts his head next to the lady and I, like audibly said, oh, that's a good boy, bro, I feared for my life, Death said oh, that's a good boy Bro. I feared for my life. Death daggers From all these young Teenie boppers. Yeah, these adolescent young women who were there to see. This was their event. And here's this dude.
Ashley:It was our Super Bowl, sir.
Jonathan:Here's this dude.
Ashley:Team Jacob versus Team Edward was probably the first split decision major love triangle of that generation, right, and so, yeah, there was a cult following of sorts, but while if they weren't mocking the the movies or the books themselves, they were certainly making fun of the people who enjoyed them. Right, and so this article that you're talking about is very similar to that, and except they're not mocking, they're shaming.
Mari:Yeah, I agree. And so CM Nascosta, who wrote Morning Glory Milking Farm, whose cover was used to promote this article, said oh yeah, f you. And on her Etsy page, her Etsy store, which is called Monster Bait Shop, monster B-A-I-T Shop, she created this merchandise with the cover from Morning Glory Milking Farm and it says Porn Brained Monster Reader. Stop it. Yeah, she's got t-shirts and she's got mugs. She's like oh yeah.
Ashley:I will be checking that out later.
Mari:I'm seriously thinking about it. It's purple. It's like a fairly bright purple that I normally don't wear. But you know what?
Ashley:I may still get it, because Sometimes you just need to do it.
Jonathan:She offers it in black as well. It's in black, berry and violet.
Ashley:Mari sold yeah.
Jonathan:The violet is a little bit more subdued, the berry is a little more wild and I imagine, and the black I think it's one of the last images in her carousel. There the black actually looks pretty freaking sharp.
Mari:I'm seriously thinking about getting it, and maybe the mug too, because you know At least one more. I wonder what shirt is printed on that? That's gonna? Yeah, the shirt type, the shirt brand matters to us. I'm not sure. Yeah, but I was like that. I mean, well done, nascosta, well done, it's a way to turn it around the whole. Uh, no, there's no such thing as bad, bad publicity amen to that any other news bits anybody want to talk about?
Mari:no, I think we covered it all right. So, moving on to the book, we basically chose this book because we were wanting to support and talk about an author who had been affected by the million lives book fiasco thing that we've talked about. That happened in Maryland, and Mallory Dunham was one of them, and I met her at MonsteroticaCon and I saw not the cover of this book but the inside image of the main male character and I'm like that's weird. Tell me more. So I was wanting to read it anyways. Yeah, all right, so let me do the synopsis and then we'll go from there.
Mari:Um, this was published october 18th 2022 and it's part of the monsters of fairy series, and the synopsis says I never intended to become a princess or make a deal with a monster Lost in the wilderness. I thought the handsome stranger was my salvation until I looked into the eyes of a beast. They say not to bargain with the fae, but there was no other choice. The deadly prince of Stag Court claims I belong to him. I only have a year and a day to convince him to let me go before I'm his forever. He's without mercy, known as a ruthless killer, yet he protects me, defends me, tells me his secrets. In front of the court, he's the beast, but behind closed doors he gives me the chance to choose him or not. The Fey Court is a dangerous place, and the prince isn't the only terror lurking in the shadows. But I'm stronger than his enemies. Give me credit, for Together he and I might be each other's salvation or ruin. All right. So what did we think? Overall rating.
Ashley:I like this book. I gave it Stupid Goodreads doesn't do half marks, but I did it like a three and a half. I didn't mind it. It maybe felt a little bit long A year and a day is a long time to write about personally but I thought it definitely had its you know kind of twists and turns, like how I didn't expect it to start the way that it did like, with her having a whole other boyfriend, love, you know person, and then when that went sideways, that really went sideways. Um, so I thought it was a unique entrance into the fantasy world and so so I wasn't not entertained. It maybe wasn't my, you know, most favorite read of the year, so I said like a solid three and a half.
Mari:Kelly, what'd you think?
Kelly:Overall, I thought it was a three. I didn't think the book was that great, but not that terrible either. I think that the plot was really reaching for a lot of things. I think that it suffered a great deal from. Let's take this girl who is about to die, who most certainly has post-traumatic stress, who just watched her lover die in front of her and now, within the span of a year, she's going to fall madly in love and want to live in this other world and not at all address or resolve her post-traumatic stress from seeing somebody die right in front of her. She was completely Stockholm Syndrome.
Mari:I loved this book. I was expecting to like it because, to be honest, I have read something by every author that was at MonsteroticaCon and have at least liked, you know, something by all of them, so I figured I would like it. I felt it was a pretty well curated event, but I really ended up really enjoying it. The beginning, with the traumatic death, I was like where are we going from here? Because normally the setup in these stories is in a lot of ways very Disney oh, the boyfriend was a shitty person, or, you know, she doesn't have any sort of relationship because, whatever, all people are trash and she hates her family or she hates her job. So it's a very easy decision to to like disappear into the world of the monster.
Mari:But I think Mallory Dunlin and I think the point at which I realized how ballsy she was in her writing and I thought she did a good job at pulling it off was that she took this character that was in a great point in her life, you know, like taking time off from work, mountaineering with the love of her life in this beautiful view, and then tragedy strikes, and so from that low, low point then had to build this love story and I think, the year. Even though I made the book long, I think it had to happen that long for it to, in my opinion, turn into this, I guess, enemies to friends to lovers, so I almost feel like this is more of a friends to lovers story. Yeah, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the main characters' sass, I enjoyed the almost fourth wall breaking and the humor hit for me and it was a five star for me.
Jonathan:I did not like it at that same level. What I did like is the purchase that I just made. I got myself a porn mug. You may not drink out of it. Ashley, there's a bowl on it.
Ashley:Why did you buy before getting me a shirt? Because I wanted the mug for my coffee Was the shipping free.
Jonathan:No, but you know what is free? The look on my co-workers' faces For this book. I think it started off interesting for me Right off the bat. I'm going to give it a 3.5 for sure. It wasn't the 5 for me, but I don't know whose fault that is.
Jonathan:It might I've been influenced by dylan, so that's what I saw in my face. I saw dead dylan fall off the parapet and then this to me was the journey that his uh, his fiance went on afterwards, right, um, and then it was like it's a, you know, like a good contemporary um tone, like that's, like that's if, if you have a, if you, you have a monster, or a romantic story that has a contemporary setting. I'm usually in it and I was like, oh okay, this could be a thing. Oh wait, here's Dylan, oh wait, we're not with Dylan anymore. She had to me. I thought she had a couple times the story went sideways for me. One. She had to me I thought she had a couple times the story went sideways for me. One. She had this like she came with built-in knowledge of the fae world. She was like, yeah, I know about this stuff, I read some books.
Ashley:And then I don't like she reads fairy porn too. Right, she knows she reads fairy porn too.
Jonathan:She knows. And then the next, like I don't like when they do, like here's this time, this time frame, you're going to have this in this. And then they drag their feet to the first six months. And then you realize like, oh, they better make this ship work a little bit faster, a little bit harder. And then they do the old skipperoo and all of a sudden they insert an element in the story where someone goes into a coma or someone goes to war prison for some reason for three months and then comes back later and I'm like, oh, did you miss me? I'm back. I smelled your pajamas, okay, cool, like those flashes back to that modern world tone that I was like.
Jonathan:Those flashes back to, like that like modern, like world tone that didn't do it for me, like pick, put you had your foot in too many worlds at the same time and that it pulled away. I could deal with like the whole. I'm a modern person in a modern world with modern influences and feel this way about this being and it would, it would survive for me. And also, it doesn't have to be a year and a day, it could just be like a year, it could be a year and a day. But it could also be like I don't know how time works in your world. You can change the story that way, but you don't have have to throw somebody, remove a character for a period of time to fast forward. You lose me on that.
Mari:Okay.
Jonathan:Sorry.
Mari:Okay, everyone's entitled to their opinions. No need to apologize. What do we think about the fantasy world building?
Ashley:So I enjoyed the fantasy world building in the way that jonathan did. I thought having the toe in in both the fantasy and the human world was an interesting perspective. You know, like the back and forth I've, I also thought it was interesting to have, like a, a modern day human be like. Oh, I've read some these books and so it's funny to me right now to hear Jonathan with his list of complaints, right, because they were the reasons why I liked it more. I don't think the magic system itself was super complex. I thought it was. I thought it was.
Ashley:I think the one part that I thought was most interesting was how quickly she adapted to the, to the no more pleases and thank yous, because you didn't want to owe a debt to a fairy kind of thing. I feel like I would have struggled with that for a long time. I wasn't disappointed in the fantasy world. I thought it was easy to understand, it wasn't super complex, we weren't doing anything super crazy. I also thought it was an interesting perspective to see a member of royalty who was not respected and, for the wrong reasons, that he was the one being abused and so he kind of accepted this mask of the beast, of the monster right, because that's just what was expected of him, that's how he was treated for so long, so it helps build your sympathy for him very quickly. So I would say the same it's about a three and a half for me.
Mari:Kelly how about you.
Kelly:I think that the fourth wall breaking type stuff where there was self-referential humor, was probably one of the saving graces of this book. I think that was a way to keep it lighthearted to a degree, but there were just so many other egregious problems. I I don't know like a three.
Mari:Okay For me. I liked the fantasy world building aspect of it. I really like the idea of you're destined to be soulmates. But this means something different in this world. This doesn't mean like destined soulmates in love, like maybe you're destined to be, you know, comrades in arms. Maybe you're destined to be, you, comrades in arms.
Ashley:Maybe you're destined to be, you know, enemies, arch nemesis the destined to be enemies thing wasn't, was a brand new, you know construct. I had never thought about that before either.
Mari:I was like that's a really interesting take because you know you're somehow tied to this. You know you're somehow magically tied to this person in this world where magic exists. You just don't know how. You know you're somehow magically tied to this person in this world where Ragek exists. You just don't know how. You don't know how it's going to develop.
Mari:I thought that was really cool, really well done. I liked the machinations and politics that had to happen in this world. I know there's other books in the series and the other ones are from different courts, so I'm sure you're going to get different perspectives of everything, but I thought that it was interesting that he had this one role that he played. You know he was this horrible beast and so he had to keep playing up and being this horrible beast. That's all he knew. And she worked him through, therapized him through becoming a better person, which I mean she either was incredibly empathetic or like she had to have a side hustle in like mental health something, because she was real, real good at seeing the things that were going on, the emotions that were going on, and talking him through them, and I thought that it was interesting that there was, I think, multiple times.
Mari:There's the idea of I had to do this because it was the best of all bad options, like, I think, the whole him being the beast of Faisal Khan or whatever that city. He had to do it, you know, and everyone you know made him out to be this beast for it and in his mind, he did it because it prevented this war. So it's the old like trolley problem If you kill this one person but it saves these other people, is that okay? No-transcript. The idea that the humans that were there were there because they were plucked from a moment before they were about to die. The idea that they were like all from different kinds of cultures and worlds. I thought that was really rich and well done and for me it was a five in the fantasy world building.
Jonathan:And not a five for me. Sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm going to give it. Like you know, it was interesting. I couldn't. I saw this book in like an outdoor setting and then I saw it in like a really, just a really dark room. I just didn't, I didn't get anything outside of that, like I couldn't get imagery and I, I couldn't decide what his um, what his house looked like. Was it a condo, was it an apartment? I couldn't figure stuff out, um, and so I couldn't even figure out, like the green room, like what did I? What kind of space were they? Were they in for their green room, kind of thing, like before you're allowed to walk in, kind of thing. So, and I didn't quite understand, like the transportation systems. So it was just, it didn't slap for me. I'll be gentle, I'll give it a, I'll give it three, but it just, you know, that's just me.
Ashley:He was on the struggle bus with this one, okay.
Jonathan:I could have liked, I wanted to like it so much.
Ashley:Ash romance. I think the romance was also. I think this one was probably closer to a four for me. You know, you had this, this arguably unpopular, unliked royal right, and then you had this human that was being brought in that could potentially disrupt, you know, court here, even further right, the other fairy. Court here, even further right, the other fairy, um the other fay, didn't respect her or like her or want her to make him better to them.
Ashley:You know this, this was just a bad situation where, so you had these two unlikable main characters, but I thought the author did a really good job of you know, like you said it, it was very potentially starting out as enemies to lovers, but it was enemies to friends and then friends to lovers, um, and it it was a lot of story to get there, but I don't think it was poorly done, um, especially when you have this strong anti-hero as the main male character. But I also really respected the friendships that he had and how they brought her into their circle in hopes that it would make him better and to see himself in a better light and so that the rest of the world could see him. So I think, you know, romance from the friendship perspective was also really, really, really important to the story, and so I rate it a little bit higher. For that. I'll give it a four, kelly.
Kelly:The romance did nothing for me because I couldn't get past the fact that it was essentially Stockholm Syndrome, the way she would like oh don't you dare kill for me, and got so offended and upset that he killed some people for her. But then she's perfectly fine with him, having slaughtered thousands of innocent people. So I just I can't reconcile how a person can be like that. I appreciate that the idea and the romantic notion of finding the flawed person and fixing him that's a common trope in romanacy apparently is that you have the big bad main character who has a flaw and the female main character is the only one who can fix him, and that's pretty common. But how do you fix somebody who's committed genocide? Essentially?
Mari:For me, romance surprise was a five. I thought it was a really interesting story. I felt like it was two things going on yeah, they were becoming friends, and then friends to lovers. But I felt like it was a story of someone getting over grief on her side and learning to live again and knowing that if someone loves you, they want you to move on, they don't want you to stop living because they've died.
Mari:And then on his end I don't know that I felt that she was making him better. I think she was just giving him the space to make himself better, Like there's one point where there's a quote that I highlighted where he says to her you have my scent on you, which, combined with the fact that I would know your scent even if I lost my entire memory, makes me feel like there's a place in the world for me where I don't have to fight to keep my footing. Like she held space for him to become a better version of him and in some ways, I think he held space for her to be able to make her own choices and come into the choice naturally and not be forced. It wasn't like a magical kiss. Happily ever after. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I was all over the romance for this Five stars.
Jonathan:Jonathan, I think the romance was pretty okay here.
Jonathan:I mean, I initially walked into it with the whole idea like where Kelly was.
Jonathan:I was like, um, you know, it's what chance this lady have of getting out of there without being like like forever mated, like there was just there was like zero chance going like you know, I think that's a given going into the book and I think part of this book, um, part of reading this book made me for as much as I didn't enjoy the book.
Jonathan:It wasn't like there was probably a bit of a transformative experience while reading it for me, where it was like I just came to terms with the idea that she was going to fall in love and it doesn't matter how I feel about the situation or the circumstances that it's going to happen regardless and I can either be on board with it and just go with the flow of the story or I can step away. And there are a lot of books that we read where I'm just like God, this is no way to live your life and I still don't think this is like if it was my choice, I'm not doing that, but if that's the way the story is written and that's the way it's going to develop. Um, I think I just kind of I'm not accepting it socially, but I'm accepting it for the merit of, for the context of the story. Does that, does that make sense? Or?
Ashley:did I just confuse myself? Suspended display of you, sir. Yeah, yeah, kind of thing.
Jonathan:It's very deep of you, sir, yeah, yeah, I mean we could talk about some other books later on. That maybe made me feel some type of way where I was like, oh no, but I really enjoyed the story. So I don't understand, am I supposed to like this? Am I not supposed to like it? And that's kind of. This was the book that made me say like, hey, you don't have to like the concept of it, but if you're reading the story, that's. I think maybe that's what triggered me to like, pick up that book and say, oh, dark romance I'll give this a shot yeah, and the texture of the pages.
Jonathan:Um. So romance. I'll give this a four for romance because I feel like, even though going into it I knew there was this magical draw or connection, this sense of inevitability, there was still a whisper of choice involved. But I mean shit. I mean, ashley spends enough time around me. It's how I landed her. Wearing you down, baby, I'm wearing you down. She promises like within the next 10 years, she's going to let me sleep in the same bedroom.
Mari:What do we think about the spice?
Ashley:Ash, I think we definitely got a little bit of spice in this. It's probably a little bit more spicy than we've had in a while. You know, the spice definitely came later, but it was respectable spice and I enjoyed it. It was a three and a half for me.
Mari:I know this comes as a shocker to everyone, but the spice for me was a five. The combination of the yearning and the slow like, long, long, slow burn, and the longing and the like, the fact that she helped him see himself as something other than a monster, when everyone around him, including his own mother, like thought of him as disgusting, was just very well done. Yeah, like the scene where they come back together after he's been away doing that mission or whatever and they come back no notes, perfectly done. So, yeah, spice for me was five stars.
Jonathan:Yeah, there's lots of Spice, A little bit more Spice than we just did.
Mari:Oh my god, I hate to interrupt you, but I wrote down this note specifically for you, jonathan. I was like, oh my god, two percent, two percent. Into the book the word cock was in there.
Jonathan:Yes, yeah, I was like, and it was just like casual cock, right, it was just like. It was just like I'm feeling kind of cocky today. And then it was like, all of of a sudden it was out. I was like, dang, I wish there was a little more tail action, not going to lie Tail action.
Ashley:With his two tails.
Jonathan:Yeah, like spanking, you could do a whole bunch of stuff. What can you do with other things? You can go into bondage, you can have support mechanism, you can build a basket, you can do all sorts of stuff.
Ashley:He didn't need to use the tails.
Jonathan:He had four hands Actually think of the yeah, but you had the wing hands. The wing hands are different.
Ashley:I don't know dude. They were more claw-like, weren't they? Yeah, yeah.
Jonathan:But you could like, yeah, you could do all sorts of stuff with the tails, especially because they split off like at the as booty bone and there were spikes and stuff. There were so many different appendages that you could explore. She hasn't really, she didn't really dig into it as deeply as she could.
Ashley:Jonathan's got notes for her apparently.
Jonathan:Yeah, you gotta do. Yeah, I think you're right. There's the door. The surface is barely scratched here. For as cocky as this book was and for as and this guy was known for his cock, he was known. People didn't like him, but they were like. The ladies were like.
Mari:Intrigued to the experience.
Jonathan:Yeah, I kind of like to sleep with you, Just because you know what I mean. It's like, Ashley, if you had a third boob. You know what I mean.
Ashley:That sounds so unappealing.
Jonathan:Yeah, well to you, but if I had tails, how would you be? You'd be like you know what, what can you do with those things? You got any tail tricks? I'd be like let me tell you, yeah, you don't know, it could be things you don, you know, like, maybe, maybe it is a little spanky, spanks, maybe it's a little, maybe it's a little you know some bondage. Yeah, you know like, but there could be other things. Uh, I'm not going there, but these are things that you could go. What are you?
Mari:rating it jonathan five. I'm gonna give it five wow, but the real question is it a kissing book? No, no. Kelly, what do you think? No, no. I think it is. I think it would have been a completely different book if they hadn't have done the love route and made better choices, jonathan.
Jonathan:So I'm going to go with my gut. I'm going to say it is. If I dig deeper you'll probably talk me out of it, but I'm going to say it is and I'm going to lock that in Final answer.
Ashley:Yeah, I don't know. I think it would have led to war regardless and I think both of them would have done anything in their power to stop it or to end it as soon as possible. I don't think she needed to love him to want to save those people.
Jonathan:Remove her from the story entirely.
Ashley:I mean, then they just go to war.
Jonathan:Do they? Do they go to war regardless? Yeah, or was she a pawn? I think she escalated it she escalated it I think her presence escalated it for the mom yeah yeah, do you think it would have been just another lady? She would have looked for another love no or do you think she, her presence, was a crime of opportunity?
Ashley:I think it was a crime of opportunity.
Mari:I think the mom was planning to do it anyways, but when, when the human didn't like go under her sway or whatever, she had to move up her time scale.
Mari:Yeah, yeah anything else about the book, all right. 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 us on Instagram, tiktok, youtube, facebook, pinterest, tome or Goodreads at Of Swords and Soulmates. Check us out on our website ofswordsandsoulmatescom. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode or reach out to us about anything at any of those options, please feel free to do so, or email us. If you want to read along with us as we prepare for a new episode and a new read and get chapter by chapter interaction. Join our Fable app book club by searching for the Of Swords and Soulmates book club on there. And, last but not least, we hope you'll join us in two weeks for our next episode, when we will be discussing Filthy Rich Fae by Janita Lee.
