Of Swords and Soulmates

Wooing the Witch Queen: Come for the stacks, stay for the shadow mommy

• Mari • Season 3 • Episode 51

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A wicked queen, a runaway archduke in disguise, and a library begging to be tamed—this one had us grinning, gasping, and arguing about consent, secrets, and sex magic. We dive into Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgess, a romantasy that flips the script: the heroine is the fearsome protector with a laboratory and a reputation, while the love interest is tender, bookish, and carrying scars he didn’t earn. That balance of power isn’t a gimmick; it’s the beating heart of a story that treats softness as bravery and rage as care.

We walk through the fairy-tale echoes—think Beauty and the Beast, but reversed—and why the library courtship works so well. From flirtatious poetry and fountain pens to a cataloging project that doubles as foreplay, the romance is playful without losing heat. We also dig into the world’s quiet brilliance: a queer-normative society presented without fanfare, political stakes tied to how magical minorities are treated, and a found family that feels chosen in the best way. Predictable turns don’t dull the ride; the tension comes from timing, trust, and the danger of truths left unsaid.

Along the way, we share bookish news: audiobook narrator updates, Fourth Wing nights with the 76ers and Flyers, a Temeraire-inspired tabletop RPG, Ruby Dixon’s daily dragon-shifter serial, and special-edition Kickstarters lighting up monster romance shelves. If you loved Emily Wilde, Assistance of the Villain, or Villains and Virtues, this episode is your cozy, clever, slightly feral sweet spot. Tap play, then tell us your favorite trope reversal and which queen you want next. If this made your TBR grow, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review—your support helps more readers find the show.

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Mari:

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts. All creative works discussed or reviewed are the intellectual property of the creators of said stories and are being used under the fair use doctrine. I'm one of your hosts, Mari, and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly:

Hey everyone, it's Kelly. We also have Ashley.

Ashley:

Hi guys, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan:

What's good, everybody? Happy New Year.

Mari:

Yeah, happy new year. We this is our second one released this year, but it's our first one recorded this year. So yeah, happy new year. Happy Blade of Three Kings Day. Starting the year off strong.

Jonathan:

That's how we roll.

Mari:

Yeah.

Jonathan:

I gotta go cry in the shower for half an hour.

Mari:

It's too early for that. It's too early in the year for that.

Jonathan:

It's been this week has been one hell of a year. It's been a heck of a week.

Mari:

Yeah, this week has been a heck of a year for sure. All right. But today we're gonna be discussing Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgess, book one in the Queens of Villainy series. But first, as always, some news. I don't have a lot, but I've got a few things in here. First thing I have is that Anthony Palmini, which I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know him by name. I had to look him up, but he's the audiobook narrator who is the voice of Kingfisher in Kingfisher. Yeah, in Quicksilver. Also the voice of Rissand in Avatar.

Ashley:

I didn't know that.

Mari:

Yeah, you can hear it. You can you can I there's something about the quality of how he says some of his words that is similar to me that I'm like, wait, is that Rissand? Also, he does a play to prisoner series, and I'm also hearing yeah. So three very big like series in the Romezi genre. He does the busy guy. Yeah, he does like the male voices for all those. He is going to be doing an Instagram live with fantasy fangirls podcasts. It's gonna be on January the 22nd at 4 p.m. Eastern. Um I don't know exactly what all they're gonna be talking about, but I think I'm gonna try and listen in. I think it should be interesting just to hear how you get into that and how you differentiate. Like, how do you become the voice of like all those big name?

Ashley:

All the shadow daddies.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah.

Ashley:

So yeah, I think that's super interesting. I don't know that they've done narrators before, but I watched them on the socials, though predominantly the women. I don't know how many men dabble. I know there's like a guy, I forget what his name is. Teddy. There's a teddy somebody who does a lot of like the romance stuff, like more contemporary stuff.

Mari:

I know the name because apparently there's some I think there's some problematic issues with the person.

Kelly:

Sad.

Mari:

Yeah. Because he also has a very unique voice. But I think it's like look it up yourself if you're gonna, if you have anyone else has an opinion on it or whatever. I think it's like a a sexual harassment situation. So look it up, you know, make your own decisions, make your own choices. That's the only reason I know that name. I know it's a big name in the in the narrator world, and and that a lot of people have brought that up.

Ashley:

So wow, okay. Ashley's gonna go do some research.

Mari:

And if I'm wrong, please correct me.

Ashley:

I think it's I mean, I think it's important to talk about those things, whether it's right or wrong, everybody should do their own research, right? Like there's a lot of situations, especially on the socials, where like there's issues of plagiarizing, not even just AI stuff, like legit plagiarizing. And there's a put there's two authors that are problematic that I'm aware of that I haven't done enough research on, but I won't read them or invest in them until I do more research. You know what I mean? Like everybody else's opinion is their own, and and sometimes facts are hard to come by, and that's why it's so important we do our own research. Yeah, but I'll let you know what I find.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah, please do. So that's happening. The other bit of news I have is more fourth wing sports crossover. The Philadelphia 76ers and the Philadelphia Flyers are having each having a takeover night, fourth wing takeover night. So March 4th is the 76ers, and March 9th is the Flyers. There's different packages that you could buy, different levels of packages. One of them includes like a limited edition or special edition or whatever sweatshirt. And at the end of this announcement, Rebecca, you're always head on there that there are more fourth wing nights to be announced soon.

Jonathan:

I am not a hockey fan. I'm not quite sure what a hockey even is.

Mari:

Uh but I wasn't sure what sport it was. I was hoping you would tell us.

Jonathan:

There's two, there's two sports here. So the the Sixers, the Sixers are basketball, like the Philadelphia 76ers. And I I'm gonna be honest here, I do not support the 76ers because of their ownership. The ownership is problematic, not in a not in a like a political way, but he owns they also own the Washington Commanders, which is a rivalry. So that's my distaste for him. He actually uh put his views align with with ours. We just don't I don't like the commanders, sorry. They're a rival. But the but the the Flyers have one of the greatest mascots. So Philadelphia has two of the most fantastic mascots known to man. The uh Philly Philadelphia, the Philly Fanatic, which is he's a he immigrated from the Galapagos Islands. Um that's his backstory, and then Gritty, who is just like like this giant monstery Muppet with like he just embodies the the spirit of Philadelphia, if you're yeah. I would I feel like gritty will be very dragged out, and it will be comical. I wish I could go.

Mari:

Yeah.

Jonathan:

Also, that sweater, I want that sweater. How do I get that sweater?

Mari:

That sweater looks pretty cool, I gotta say. Yeah.

Ashley:

My understanding is that it's all very specific to the events. So you get it on like eBay or a reseller.

Jonathan:

Maybe we should just buy a ticket to go there and just order the switch separately. Dang.

Mari:

I think that the tickets, I believe, went on sale in December. It was after I saw this. So I I unless they do ticket resales before March, I don't know how that works. Um, but like the original thing is still in December.

Jonathan:

So give me a wingleader package.

Mari:

Do it, do it and report back. All right. Next bit of news is the Tamorari series by Naomi Novic, which we've talked about, vaguely talked about the series before. It's a a series that's like dragon riders, and you have like the psychic connection with the dragons, you have the bonding, and it's in a war type situation. It's set during like Napoleonic war times, but the battles are on like Dragon Back. Um, yeah, it's it's an interesting series, it's really good. So, but that series is there's a Kickstarter coming this year. Magpie Games is doing a role-playing game based on the temporary world. And so it role-playing like as in like a DD type situation where you have a world, you tell a story, you pick your characters. Apparently, one of the characters you can even be are like dragons. You can be a dragon. Nice. Yeah. So the Kickstarter isn't up and running yet, but you can always like if you're interested, you can always go on Kickstarter and subscribe to it or whatever, and it'll let you know when it goes live. So there's not really any details over the pricing or when it would come out. But it seems like an interesting you know, fantasy world and gaming tie-in. Um, what else do we have? Oh, Ruby Dixon, the Hamilton of the of the of the modern writing world, because she hasn't written enough. She wrote all the Ice Planet Barbarians and everything else. She is writing a a serial, basically. So it's a a book that's coming out like a chapter a day, every day in January. It is called, I think it's called The Dragon Strays. I did not actually write down the name, I apologize. But her description of it was it's a daily post-apocalyptic romance serial with a human female character who just saved a kitten from being a dragon's next meal. But the dragon shifter's male main character's first chapter begins with, quote, that human female just stole my cat.

Jonathan:

Welcome. It's a good looking like image, too, like a little golden dragon-y tail and a tiny little kitten.

Mari:

Little orange kitten. Yeah, it looks really cute. I've read, it's like a little short chapter a day. So I went ahead and I caught up on them all today. There's, you know, seven today. Today's the eighth. So there's seven, the eighth one I haven't read yet. They're short, they're light. It's apparently set in her dragon shifter world, which I've not read any of those books, but the concept is, and apparently you don't have to, you don't have to have read anything or know anything about them to read this. You can read it as a standalone. But it's basically a post-apocalyptic world where some rift opened and like dragons came in and the world has been destroyed because dragons like lost their mind when they came through the shift through the rift or whatever. So like everything's been destroyed, and the dragons are some of them are coming to like get back into their right mind and trying to figure out what happened and why they're there and etc. So you get a lot of the almost alien human miscommunication tropes that she does very well in Ice Planet Barbarians because these dragons are like they talk through, oh my god, like ESP or whatever, through Mind Mindspeak, telepathically. Telepathic, thank you. I was like telekinesis, no, that's not it. Yeah, telepathic. They talk telepathically. Um, and so they're they're like, what are these crazy sounds these these little puny human creatures are making? And why can't they understand the thoughts I'm beaming at them? You know? So yeah, I'm I'm enjoying it so far. Like I said, it's just like seven chapters that are released out so far. But it's it's the Ruben Dixon magic that she does, where everything she does is a fun read.

Jonathan:

So nice.

Mari:

If anyone's interested in that, I enjoyed it so far.

Jonathan:

I hope to be able to meet her someday.

Mari:

That would be great. We need to do like a Texas trip.

Jonathan:

Yeah, there's so many, so many great authors that are just pinned in Texas at the moment.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah. Um, Kelly and I went to Texas. Well, I mean, I've been to Texas a few times because my best friend lives there, but uh Kelly and I went to Austin God, how many years was that two, three years ago, Kelly?

Kelly:

Yeah, it was like three years ago.

Mari:

Two or three years ago. And Texas, Texas's biggest independent bookstore is in Austin. And it's called Book People, and it is huge. I don't know, I'm trying to remember. There was some author there that was signing. I I went in, I went with Kelly. Kelly was doing like a work thing and I tagged along and did that. But yeah, there's definitely definitely cool spots in Texas that have a lot of book-related stuff, a lot of cool authors there. So all right. Next little bit I have is Mallory Dunlin, who wrote Captured by the Fabies that we read last year. She's doing a Kickstarter for special editions. So currently a special edition exists or existed for Captured by the Fabies, which is the first one in that series, and the second one, which I haven't read. Um, but this Kickstarter is for a special edition for her third book, which is claimed by the Flame of Fairy. But as part of the Kickstarter, you would also be able to buy the special edition of book one and or book two if you want to, if you want to like have a complete set. I did buy the special edition of book one. Um trying to remember when I did that. It might have been at Monster Rotica. Was she at Monster RoticaCon? Yeah, she was. That's where I met her. Okay, so yeah, it might have been at Monster Rotica BookCon last year. And so I had the special edition. The covers is a cool image, but like the underneath it's nice gold foil with like the gold leaves and uh gold on the leaves on the pages, um and pretty like gate imagery. So it's lots of shiny, shiny bits on it. They're really pretty.

Ashley:

We love pretty.

Mari:

Yeah. I still haven't read anything else, any of the rest of those. I really enjoyed the first one. I just haven't fit the others into my reading schedule. So but I will. Um last bit of news I have, we talked about I think it was a few weeks back, about the oops, I summoned a light erk, which is part of that Witches Monsters series. So that first book was by Regina Bell. I ended up I read it actually. It was good. I would have had no idea what a light erk was if we hadn't talked about it here. Because then I was like, and I read the book, I'm like, oh yeah, there's the armpit situation. Got it. I knew that was coming. Um but this the the next next one in that series has just come out on a few days ago on the 4th of January. It's the one by Opal Rain, and it is oops, I summoned a metamorphic monster. Oh so it's like a tentacle monster situation. Have not read that one yet, but I will because I like Opal Rain.

Ashley:

So I was gonna say, I'm not opposed.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah. She reads it, I will write it basically. Nope, it's reverse it. Oh, it's been a day. Any other news?

Jonathan:

Not that I have.

Ashley:

No, I tend to send you everything that I can find in advance. Also, initial investigations of my Web MD PI certificate as my as my proof of of identity. It doesn't seem to be a Teddy Hamilton issue, it seems to be a Joe Arden issue, and they are not the same person. Okay. Um currently we're not seeing any drama with Teddy Hamilton on the record. But the the problematic potential person is a narrator named Joe Arden. Okay.

Jonathan:

So maybe that's what I was saying. Keep hope alive there, Teddy. It's not too late.

Ashley:

It's only January, Teddy.

Jonathan:

You're misbehaving in early.

Mari:

Man.

Jonathan:

We don't we don't condone that.

Mari:

No, please.

Jonathan:

That was in jest. Yes. In case anybody's out in case anybody out there is like, hey, try to. Correct.

Ashley:

And the people who are making statements are being especially on the socials, are being careful about naming names. But yeah, no, my I couldn't find any bad anything on Teddy. Like people were distraught at the thought it could have been him, kind of thing.

Jonathan:

Okay. Interesting.

Ashley:

But that's only like four minutes, so well, job done.

Mari:

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure it would have come up if it was like the big thing that I'm Yeah.

Ashley:

I feel like even if there was a tiny bit, it would have popped up. And there are some weird searches that are highlighted, but like nothing that's actually pointing to him. So okay, good.

Mari:

Um, okay, so then we'll move on to the book we're we we read, yeah?

Ashley:

Yeah.

Mari:

Okay, so why we chose this book. I think I've I think I've suggested this book. I had actually read it before. I read it last year with my eyeballs, and I knew that the sequel was coming out this month, and I was looking forward to the sequel, so I wanted to reread it. I also saw that it was on Kelly's like wanna read list. So I'm like, let's give this one a shot. Yeah. Yeah. So the sequel comes out later this month, January 27th of 2026. But this one, Willing the Witch Queen, was published February 18th of 2025. I'm gonna read the synopsis and then we can go into our little talk about it. Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn't have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic. When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Seskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. Fabian is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange. What in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? But he's getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well little does Seskia know that the wizard she's fallen for is actually an imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever, on the run with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast-growing yearning for the wicked sorceress. He's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies too. When his identity is finally revealed, with will their love save or doom each other?

Kelly:

Ooh, sizzling.

Ashley:

Can I clarify the inflection of of his name? It's Fabian.

Mari:

I don't know. I managed to write.

Ashley:

Will you guys listen to the audiobooks? I'm looking for your Kelly.

Mari:

Do you remember was it Fabian Fabian?

Ashley:

Fabian.

Mari:

It was Fabian, Fabian.

Ashley:

That's not how it wasn't.

Jonathan:

You were reading it as Fabes.

Ashley:

Why wouldn't I?

Jonathan:

I I cranked the I cranked the speed on this one. So this is sometimes like when I'm when I'm cooking with an audiobook, I can cook, right? And like when I was like, oh, tell me about Sostia. And Ashley was like, who? And I was like, what do you think about Sostia? What are you talking about?

Ashley:

Funny, we did that with the name too, but I hadn't gotten to Fabian yet. Still just Felix.

Jonathan:

We did, because I called him Fabian.

Ashley:

And I was like, who is it?

Jonathan:

I call him I call him Fabio. Fabio. Oh, you did. When you listen to the audiobook sometimes at speed, it'll be like, it'll jam a couple letters in. So I was like, Sostia and Fabio. And I was like, cool. And you were like, who the thing was? I was like, Felix? She said, no, you mean Felix. And I was like, no. No. Talking about Fabio. But I hadn't gotten there yet.

Mari:

Right. So like you introduced like Felix Augustus. Okay. And then he like introduced himself as the Wizard Testro. Okay. But then he's Fabia. I'm like, okay. Three names in one. There was a lot.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Jonathan:

It was there was a lot of effort. There were six in this house. If you listen to the audiobook in MySpeed, we got six names for that guy. The man with many names.

Mari:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what did we what did we think?

Ashley:

I mean, I liked it. I kind of liked, you know, the the the flipping of the script, as they say, right? So you had this gentle royal member, and he was a gentle soul, and he was poetic, and he was being abused, and you know, his wife died, and he was brokenhearted, you know, widower, and he was on the run from the evil, nasty in-laws. And so it was just it was an interesting perspective for me to kind of see a male in that role and in that space, and the female main character be, you know, the vengeful one, the the protector, the the yeah, the shadow mommy, the touch em and you'll die, you know. I really liked I liked seeing it that way.

Mari:

I agree. Like that's part of what made this book stand out to me of the ones I read last year, and why I was like wanted to read it again. I I very much enjoyed that this was not the same romanticy story that we get oftentimes told over and over. And don't, you know, don't get me wrong. I still enjoy the old romantic stories. I read them as well. But it's nice to to get something a little bit different. I loved the the moment where she sees his his scars and stuff on his back, and she's like, Did that do that to you? Like the first time I read that, I had to the first time I read that, I read it with my eyeballs. I had to put the book down. I'm like, oh, take a break. All the claps, yes.

Ashley:

Yeah. Full shadow mommy moment.

Mari:

It was so well done.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Mari:

I'll tell you one thing that I got this time that I don't think I got when I read it the first time that I thought was interesting was when they're describing her library. He's a librarian to her library, and I'm like, wait, is this like a kind of a reverse? Beauty and the beast. Is she the beast? And he's like the nerdy person, like in love with her library.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Mari:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Yeah. I was really trying to pin down which fairy tale it was, you know, in the in the retelling piece. Like you you would think the library is a dead giveaway. It it wasn't necessarily, but yeah, it was definitely Beauty and the Beast, you know, gender reverse. Yeah. I felt it.

Jonathan:

This it felt like this was now. I could be wrong, but I I feel like I want to say this is uh this is our first bangin'. Oh indirect banging, like it's an a uh it's it's bangin' adjacent.

Ashley:

First bangin' bangin' for 2026.

Jonathan:

Yeah, so I think like because she was like they were like doing her thing. She was like, What's that abomination? Why would you have that? And then just through that action of like, hey, we're getting we're getting real close here, boom, boom, boom, pow. Oh, dang, you've got this magical lock on you. Why would you have that if you're a dark wizard? Yeah, you know.

Ashley:

I see where you're going with this. I approve.

Jonathan:

She she are through the act, not through the direct act of um bangin'. Bangin' was his magic release, but indirectly as a result. Had they not had the banging portion, the beginning of the magic note would not have been known to him henceforth. A may is this like a sub-tier banganning? Like a B plot. Um, I just parking garage banganning.

Ashley:

I do the visual. I do think it's been a while, a long, long while, since we've had a true banging. So would you please define for the audience a bangin'?

Jonathan:

A banging. I'll try to keep it. I'll try to keep it PG 13, or you want me to go full X? However, you want to do it it's uh bangin' is the act of fucking the magic on. Like I don't have any magic. Now we have sex. Now I have magic. Good job. To die.

Mari:

Sex magic.

Jonathan:

You explain sex magic? The beginning of magic through banging.

Mari:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Good refresher. Good job. Yeah.

Jonathan:

Yeah. Sometimes I forget. New ears might be around.

Mari:

Kelly, what'd you think?

Kelly:

Yeah, I think like I actually said it was nice to see the flip-flop, you know, kind of doing something different than the typical 18-year-old girl in the Shadow Daddy. So that was a nice change. I think that fell into some of the typical stereotype tropes that most romantic books fell fall into still. Just people talking would have solved so many problems.

Ashley:

Yes. She shushed him a lot.

Jonathan:

Yeah, I mean the beginning too. Like she would he was like, hey, I gotta tell you.

Ashley:

And she's like, No, I don't have time to tell you.

Jonathan:

I got stuff I gotta do. But wait, you're gonna want to hear it now.

Ashley:

No, it's fine. Books are over here, don't challenge.

Mari:

I agree.

Ashley:

Um so it's her fault this time, though, because he was trying to tell her quite a bit over. And then he and then she took his voice away. So I mean, she's like, Oh, this is how much I trust you. I'm gonna take your voice away so we can have consensual sex, even though you're trying to tell me something really fucking important.

Jonathan:

What if what he wanted to say was no?

Ashley:

Well, he could have turned around and walked away.

Jonathan:

He had free will, yeah, except he can't just not a voice, yeah. Interesting. So she put a magical ball gag.

Mari:

Yeah, that I thought the same thing. I was like, oh, this is magical BDSM. Got it.

Jonathan:

What if what their safe word would have to be in sign language?

Mari:

Or taps, you know.

Jonathan:

Oh, yeah, okay. I like how this went, this meant full like octagon here. Like, so like tap out. She got them in a hole. Morse code.

Mari:

The square ring.

Jonathan:

Yeah.

Mari:

Yeah. Yeah. I I very much enjoyed this. Obviously, I was like, let's read it again. Well, for me, let's read it again. And uh I figured you guys would enjoy it as well. And I really think more people should read this if you like romantic or romance fantasy or whatever. Like it's it's a lot of the elements that we like. It's just yeah, freshened up in a new way.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Mari:

Which makes you think about them in different ways sometimes. I thought it was also much more up-to-date than some of the romanticity we've read, in that I really like that it was a basically a queer normative world, you know, where it was like, oh yeah, I've had girlfriends. Oh yeah, you know, now I've got a boyfriend. Like it wasn't a um a big taboo, but it also wasn't a, oh yes, queerness doesn't exist because magic.

Ashley:

And like also addressed, you know, the inequities of magical creatures, right? And how the kingdom was treating them or had ruled against them. And, you know, I think I I forget, and it was towards the end where Felix was like, you know, it it started in my parents' or grandparents' generation, and it it's I have to stand up, like I have to do this and try to make it a little bit better. Um, and so that was impressive. Like there was a lot jam-packed in, you know, to what was a fair a fairly short story.

Mari:

Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. Definitely a lot of like hot topics, yeah. Othering of a minority group or a group that wasn't in power and you know, mistreating them, and also the idea that like with great power comes great responsibility. Yeah, you know, because you are in this position of power, then you have the responsibility to do better.

Ashley:

And found family as well. Like we to Kelly's point, we covered a lot of tropes, but I thought they did it tastefully.

Mari:

Yeah. I love the found the found family trope in almost any kind of story. It's one of my favorites because it it brings people together a lot of times of disparate origins, and yet they mesh together, you know, well. And it shows us how important it is to like rely on each other and help each other just because you should, not because someone's your blood or because of a response, you know, a built-in responsibility, just because it's the human and humane thing to do. Yeah. Be a decent person.

Jonathan:

Yeah, hey, fun fun fact on Found Family. Did you know that in the original Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer that they left everybody, all the toys on Misfit Island?

Mari:

You mean the original like movie?

Jonathan:

Yeah, it was only after.

Mari:

I've never seen that movie. I have to admit. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is the song for me.

Jonathan:

Ah, gotcha. Yeah. It was only after the the the original airing came out that they were that fans, the audience did like a letter writing campaign. We're like, hey, what about those toys? Like, should send those toys. And to give context to it for Mari, who was deprived, is basically like Rudolph, who's a misfit, ends up on in a in on an island of misfit toys. And it's like a jack in the box that doesn't Jack in the Box. Yeah. Like it was like all these toys that like kind of don't belong. Yeah. And I think one of the elves was like, I wanted to be a dentist instead. Like I have dreams of being a dentist, not making toys. Anyway, so Santa eventually in in the second airing, he comes back and it's like, let's give these toys to people who need toys. Yeah. It was like a was it a lion that meowed or something like something like we're weird. I don't know. I gotta I gotta watch it.

Mari:

Yeah, I'm not opposed to watching it. I'm probably watching me also I'll put it on the list for like next you know holiday season and watch it. On this topic of watching movies, by the way, though, Kelly and I, Kelly had already seen it, but we watched the Muppet, no, no, not Muppet. I'm sorry. The Mickey.

Jonathan:

Are you sure?

Mari:

Oh we always watched the Muppet Christmas Carol. But we watched the Mickey Christmas Carol because I'd never seen it. And Ash, I think you said it was your favorite version of it. So now I've seen it. Oh yeah, it was cute.

Jonathan:

Nice. Nice.

Mari:

But this book. So back to Derailed. Yes. That's my fun. Back in the halls of justice or something. Okay, so I think generally, generally we enjoyed it. It's something a little bit different, a little little twist on the things that we usually have. I don't think that there were a whole lot of twists in the actual story or the plot. I think for the most part we saw most things coming. Like I don't I'm not one to usually pick out things, but I was like, that coffee is sus.

Jonathan:

Right?

Mari:

Yeah. So I mean, there's a little bit of plots and things, but it's not, it's not like crazy plot twists in it. But it was still a really good, a really good read and a really enjoyable ride. I will say that if anyone enjoyed it, I don't know how the second book is gonna work because I don't I'm not a fan of this character. So I'm I'm gonna be really interested to see how the author makes me like this character. But the second book is the series is called The Queens of Villainy. The second book is called Enchanting the Fey Queen. And it's Queen Lorelai.

Ashley:

Queen Lorelei. I was gonna say when you were talking about you know the lack of like real plot twists, I was like, I really didn't know where Lorelei was going with that at the beginning. I was like, why is she kidnapping this motherfucker? Like what she what's she gonna do with him? Is she gonna kill him? Does she want him for herself? Like, did she know? So arguably, I I didn't know where that was going until we got there. And she was like, I protect my friends. And I was like, but do if you did, you'd just kill him.

Mari:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Like, where are you going with this girl? So yeah, I think she's gonna be. You know what she reminds me of? Um, that what's the pink, the the super pink pony in my little pony?

Mari:

Oh, I don't know.

Jonathan:

Really? I think pink pie? I would I was like, these are like the the mean girl wackies.

Ashley:

I think she's the mean girl lackey, but I but like in the sweet, in the sweetest way possible. So like her damage is so deep that she tricks all the boys into falling in love with her like a siren, and then she kills them or breaks their own hearts or something like that. So I kind of get her vibe. I'm not opposed to her story. It was just a little much.

Mari:

Yeah, I think she's very like in the moment and pragmatic. And like to me, she reminds me of okay, so in Scrooged, the the Bill Murray version of the Christmas Carol, you know how there's the three spirits, the the the pink fairy one that's the ghost of Christmas Caroline.

Jonathan:

I love her. I love her. What is that actress's name?

Mari:

Kelly, you know who it is, right? You're good with these names.

Jonathan:

What?

Mari:

She played the she played the woman in The Princess Bride. I'm not a witch, I'm your wife.

Jonathan:

She has a very, she's a a high a higher octave sound too.

Ashley:

Now that you've explained it that way, I know who you're talking about, but I don't know her name.

Kelly:

Carol Kane.

Mari:

Yes, Kane. Carol Kane.

Ashley:

I did not know her name.

Mari:

That that her in the Ghost of Christmas present as the the that fairy version of her from Scrooge, that's what I in my head, that's what Queen Lorelie is.

Ashley:

I see it now. I didn't see it then, but I see it now. Good job, guys. You got us there.

Mari:

It's it's weird associations. It's weirder associations. Yeah, so I plan on reading the sequel because I like the first one, and I'm I'm really intrigued to see where this where this is gonna go from there.

Ashley:

So I'm not as interested in Lorelai's story, but I do want to hear the the third one. What's her name? Yeah, the Queen of Norns. Yeah. She's she's got she's got some shit.

Mari:

Yeah, she seems really like super smart.

Ashley:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like she's gonna teach us something.

Mari:

I would hope so. That's I think or somebody's gonna come come through and blow her world apart.

Ashley:

Yeah, yeah.

Mari:

She's gonna be the Tom Comco collected one that can't be com cool collected. That could be really interesting, too.

Ashley:

Because when Lorelei was like, Oh, but he's trying to dupe her and she's our friend, and we protect our friends, and she was like, Oh, well, dumbass, he's in love with her. And I was just like, That's that that's me, that's who I am. I resonate with this. It was really funny. I thought that was like one of the funniest books. Oh, duh. That's all I heard.

Mari:

He's in love with her.

Ashley:

What are you worried about? Why are you not paying attention? That, yeah, that was funny to me.

Mari:

Yeah, I agree. So, do we think it's a kissing book?

Kelly:

Yeah, I mean, it absolutely is a kissing book.

Mari:

I agree.

Jonathan:

I am going to uh have to agree. Yeah, I think it was I like how you drove.

Ashley:

Stretch it off for dramatic emphasis. Yeah, seriously. Like I wasn't sure where you were going with that.

Jonathan:

I was like, I thought we were on board here.

Ashley:

It's your favorite part.

Jonathan:

Yeah. Parking garage banganing. Parking garage banging. We're hoping to get main floor banging. Hopefully, some penthouse banging this year.

Mari:

Penthouse banging? We've got a whole slew of books coming up this year. We got a whole year's worth of books, so I'm sure there'll be all sorts of things ahead of us. Um, all right. Anything else we want to say about the book before I get into the rest of it? What's the author's name? Um, Stephanie Burgess.

Ashley:

Stephanie. Good job, Stephanie. We're fans. Yeah. Add her to the list.

Jonathan:

What kind of what kind of if what what type of reader do you think would enjoy this?

Mari:

So I think that if you enjoyed Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia Fairies, you would enjoy this book because it's got a little bit of that like academic, smart female main character who's a little bit clueless about the whole love situation. So there's some similarities to the Emily Wilde series, I would say. Also, if you enjoyed oh my gosh, Scarlet Gale is the author. I want to say it's his secret illuminations. Yeah, his secret illuminations is another one that to me did the same thing as this in terms of like turned a lot of the romantic tropes on their head. In that one, the female main character is like a badass warrior, paladin, fighter, not even paladin, really like a fighter person. Um, and the the main guy is like a nerdy learning to be maybe a sorcerer kind of person and is like new to the world. So I would say if you liked either of those books, that's you would enjoy this book. What about you guys?

Jonathan:

Yeah, I think so I liked since the story isn't like identical at all or like the same, but I liked the the vibes. Like if I was just going on like vibes, I feel like if you liked Assistance of the Villain, this is kind of like it's it's maybe a little bit more mature. Um, but it's a it's it it to it felt like I could put those two next to each other and they complement each other.

Ashley:

Yeah, I would agree. That was actually my example. It was just it was funny, it was witty, it was you know, it didn't drag you down, it had some serious topics, but it didn't like it, it wasn't it didn't have that much weight to it, if that makes sense.

Jonathan:

Like, um she kept it moving.

Ashley:

Yeah, she kept it moving, you know. It I didn't feel like things dragged on. I do feel like she did world building here too, right? Like, but also not so much in that I needed to like go back and forth to a map, you know, like fucking Avatar. It wasn't it was serious without being without weighing it down, and so that was fun for me.

Mari:

I agree. I will add one more. I think there's some similarity, similarities, maybe a little bit in like the world thrown in the dark that we read. Um yeah, I see that Kagiano, I think was the author.

Jonathan:

Mm-hmm. AK AK or AC.

Ashley:

Something like that, yeah.

Mari:

No, I'm so sorry. Yeah, AK, AK Kagiano, the Villains and Virtues book series. I think some of that would be if you like that, you might like this as well. Um and really honestly, even if you just if you like romantic, but you want something that's like not it's a little bit different than than some of the plug and play tropes that you've had before, it gives you some of the tropes, but in a twisted, like in a new in a new way, in a fresh way.

Kelly:

So agreed, yeah.

Mari:

How about you, Kelly? Any recommendations?

Kelly:

No, not really.

Mari:

Okay. All right. Anything else we want to say about the book before I move on? Okay. Um, well, I will say before we wrap it up, I'm gonna do a little bit of not so much reviews that we got, but I was really excited about this regardless. So I had done a Recommendations of like winter readings that weren't necessarily it was winter reading recommendations that weren't necessarily at Christmassy reading recommendations. And one of the ones I had on there, of course, was Ice Planet Barbarians. So I put it on a TikTok and Ruby Dixon liked it. And she said thank you guys for the shout-out.

Ashley:

Wow. That's high praise.

Mari:

I know.

Ashley:

She doesn't just do that with anybody. Good job, Mari.

Mari:

I was like, I need to I need to finish Ice Planet Barbarians.

Ashley:

Motivation of the series.

Jonathan:

The series, not just the book, the series. The series. The series.

Mari:

I believe I'm on like because I read them, I read several of them last year, and then it started getting warm, and so I got out of the habit of reading the them. I've read ten of them, so I'm on number 11. So I could 20-something, I'm not sure. Of that series. Because there are multiple series. Alright. Anything else before I round it up?

Ashley:

No, I'm still impressed with you getting a shout out from Ruby Dixon.

Kelly:

I'm impressed that we've only been recording for 43 minutes.

Ashley:

We're efficient. Don't get used to it. We're as efficient as Stephanie is.

Mari:

Yeah. Okay. So thanks for listening to Of Swords and Soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check out the show notes, rate, review, and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us and lets us know what you're enjoying. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Of Swords and Soulmates. Check us out on our website of Swordsandsoulmates.com. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode, book, or discussion topic, feel free to reach out to us on the DMs of any of those options or email us at Mari at of Swords and Soulmates.com. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode and get chapter by chapter interaction, join our Fable app Book Club by searching for the Of Swords and Soulmates Book Club on Fable. And last but not least, we hope you'll join us in two weeks for our next episode when we will be reading A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle Jensen, which is book one of Saga of the Unfated.

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Mari

Host
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Ashley

Co-host
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Jonathan

Co-host
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Kelly

Co-host

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