did she read her best book of the year in april

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:02]I'm Kristen. And I'm Maddie. We're sisters and heavy readers. Join us every single week to talk stories, interview authors, and collab with fellow book nerds. Welcome to the Kristen Mad Show.

[00:00:13]Welcome back to the show, you guys. It's me, Kristen, and my sister, Maddie.

[00:00:17]We're going to talk all things stories today as we do our reading wrap-up for the month of April. This is everything that we read and how we felt about it.

[00:00:25]Yeah, I feel like it was a good month. I think we're both riding pretty high.

[00:00:30]>> Yeah, I would say the vibes going into May are great. I'm loving reading right now. It feels good. Feels good. We're We're back and we're alive. Um, if you're new to the show, we have a couple of little homework assignments for you.

[00:00:45]Uh, we need you to like the show. If you're listening to this anywhere where you are not on YouTube, you like and follow the show. Leave a little review if you're so inclined. that helps other listeners like you who want to find a show like this find us. Helps us get onto the charts. And if you're on YouTube, you know the drill. Like, subscribe. We'll ask you lots of questions throughout the episode. And you can leave your comments below. Well, I can't wait to get into this because me and Maddie actually have like so many genres that we dipped into this month.

[00:01:14]And I think that you guys are going to be surprised by some of the ratings.

[00:01:18]You're also going to be like, "It's so popular. That's not me and Maddiey's bag normally." Oh, we we got some popular books pop in this month, but also Yeah, our typical variety. I feel like I feel like we had a bunch of like adjacent reads. Yes, I feel like we could do that. So, do you want to start in our like historic fiction bag first?

[00:01:36]>> Let's start in the historic fiction bag.

[00:01:38]I also just want to tease that I think I maybe read my book of the year this month. So, technically the end of last month, but guys, I forgot to put it in last month's reading wrap-up. Like, it was it was taking over my whole life.

[00:01:48]Anyways, okay.

[00:01:49]>> Are we going to save that for the last?

[00:01:51]>> Oh, yeah. We'll save best for last.

[00:01:52]Okay, historic fiction. Let's go. Okay, so my historic fiction of the month was book three in the Wolf Den trilogy by Eldie Harper and it is The Temple of Fortuna.

[00:02:04]It was good. And I got to interview Elodie Harper the same month that I was finishing her book, which was just kind of magic.

[00:02:12]>> Yeah. Well, she's excellent.

[00:02:14]>> Yeah. If you have like heard me and Maddie talking about this for months and months and months and months, um it's because we're pretty much obsessed with it. And as soon as Maddie finishes something, that's great. Then I jump into it. So you guys get like six months of The Wolf done. However, if this is your first time being here and listening to this, I just have to tell you, this historic fiction is in fact my favorite historic fiction. It is the most bingeable. It's a trilogy, but you flip pages so quickly. You're like, "Did I just read three books about the same characters?" Yes, you did. And you loved every minute. This is ancient Pompei and it's like revolving around the lives of the women who work in the brothel. It's about classism. It has this like crazy girlhood bond that can turn bad and it can turn great. Um, you've got heroic female characters. You've got quieter female characters. You have a full range of emotion. And you have some of the most intense longing and complicated relationships I've ever read.

[00:03:12]>> Uhhuh.

[00:03:12]>> It's got it all. and you're so entertained and you're emotionally invested. I did rate book four, book three 4.75.

[00:03:22]The only thing that didn't make it perfect is it didn't make me cry like books one and two, but I think it's because >> Elodie did us good at the end.

[00:03:32]>> Satisfying at the end. Not really any reason to like sob or break down.

[00:03:37]>> First two books, >> lots of tears, different vibes. Yes. But so great. So, that was my um amazing historic fiction in the month of April.

[00:03:46]It's so interesting because somebody just asked us about like they love the Rex. They're like, I'm so intrigued by the Wolf Dun, but I know a lot about Roman history, so am I going to like it?

[00:03:58]Like, is it just kind of the author's wishful thinking about it? Whatever. And I can tell you after interviewing Elodie Harper, she did her freaking research.

[00:04:09]In fact, the historic site of Pompei stocks these books in its gift shop now.

[00:04:15]So, it's it's historically accurate. It granted it's written about a part of the history that we don't have a lot of written word for.

[00:04:24]>> So, of course, there's room for imagination, but >> she did her research. I think that even if you're a history nerd, you'll really enjoy it. So, I love that trilogy. I'm so glad you felt like it landed the plane. Yeah. And I think that there's just this um unknown aspect of this time in history that she made come alive for me as a reader. And that is my favorite part of the historic fiction genre is when an author can really make you feel like this real place is alive and it and it had real people in it. It makes it more human instead of just like a timestamp on the map of life, right?

[00:05:02]>> It feels so real. Honestly, I didn't know much about Pompei, but I be googling now, and I have a new place on my bucket list that I want to go. So, she sold me good. Oh my gosh, I love it.

[00:05:13]Okay, if you have already read The Wolf Den or you're interested in adding another to the TBR in that vein, this is The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.

[00:05:25]Uh, apparently there are two other books maybe adjacent to this one. You can read this as a standalone, but she wrote, I believe, three books about like women of the ancient world. Um, so I just read this as a standalone. It was shortlisted for the women's prize for good reason.

[00:05:43]And The Silence of the Girls centers Brissus or Briscus, however you would like to say it, which is a woman who's mentioned in like one line of Homer's Iliad. Like one line. She like she's barely mentioned but she is named and she is a Trojan woman who in the Iliad is known for being a point of contention between Agamemnon and Achilles. So for those of you who know the history of the Trojan War, uh the Greeks end up having this really intense falling out that almost cost them the war because Achilles is their champion. He's their most powerful warrior and Agamemnon is the king and or like the high king and he wants to take Achilles's bedslave Brussius and uh Achilles will not have it and so when Agamemnon takes her Achilles refuses to fight and the Greeks start losing really bad. This is what we know from the Iliad. So Pat took that little blip in the poem and created a whole novel out of it told from her point of view. And oh my god, it's so good. It's so gripping.

[00:06:57]I just I love these heroes. Anyways, like I've always been fascinated with the Trojan War.

[00:07:03]>> Same. I think that what it is is it's like there's so much moral ambiguity in the war and the gods are so fickle and so it's like there's humans and heroes on every side. Every man has a little bit of villain in his heart. They all kind of screw up bad, but they also have these like amazing moments where they're like sacrificing themselves for their people. And I just it's like >> it's just so human and so complicated and so messy. So to take like those feelings I already have about the setting and the heroes and then go into like really zoomed in into the lives of the people that you don't hear anything about who are grossly affected by this war.

[00:07:44]>> It was just absolutely gripping from start to finish. And what I put in my review is that >> I think when it comes to historic fiction based on fact that it could be really difficult to keep a reader hooked because you already know what happens.

[00:07:58]Like there's no plot twist like that. We know we know that the Greeks win. We know that the Trojans lose. So it's like we know like I already knew that Agamemnon and Achilles had this big fight over this girl. So I'm like how are you going to keep me invested when I already know what happened? But I think in the case of both of these in the Wolfen and in the Silence of the Girls, I am so invested. I don't really know what's going to happen on the intimate level. And that's what keeps me so hooked and I literally can't get enough.

[00:08:30]So, snaps to both of these authors because I think that they do a brilliant job of sucking you in.

[00:08:36]>> How do you feel about picking up more of Pat's books now that you've had success?

[00:08:39]>> I basically want to read all the ones in this uh like interconnected series.

[00:08:43]>> Oh, and you know what? I just feel like this reminds me of our childhood when we were homeschooled in elementary and our mom would like read all of these mythologies out loud to us and this is how we learned all of our history. And while she was reading to us, >> she would have like coloring pages that went with whatever we were reading. Mhm.

[00:09:05]>> And it's interesting how those histories that I learned with my mom just reading a book out loud to us and us coloring have stuck in my brain so much more than lots of education I did in the public school system where I was being taught at right and it was less storyled. I think this is why like stories just stick with me more.

[00:09:25]>> They really do.

[00:09:26]>> And something about the pictures too having like a visual to go with it.

[00:09:30]>> It's so helpful.

[00:09:31]>> It's so helpful. So, I mean any homeschooled people out there, did your mom read to you?

[00:09:36]>> Did you draw pictures? Just us? Did your parents read to you? Okay. I got this recommendation from Ed and Will, the brothers Gwyn. We can link their channel below. And the way they wrecked this to me, not just the synopsis, which I was totally gripped by, but they said this is the best first lines of a book that they can think of. So, just listen to this. These are the first lines. Great Achilles, brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles. How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things. We called him the butcher.

[00:10:13]>> Whoa.

[00:10:13]>> Tell me it's not epic.

[00:10:15]>> I think that this is a crazy unlock.

[00:10:17]When the brothers Gwen asked us, "What's your favorite first lines in books?"

[00:10:22]Now, every time I pick up a book, they are supposed to be powerful lines, but I'm paying attention and it's so fun, right? That's wild.

[00:10:30]>> Isn't that brilliant? Because I do think I think people do think of Achilles as like the paragon, right? He just like is the Greek hero maybe besides um like Hercules or something, right?

[00:10:42]>> And so to have it start with like all the things like all the things we know about Achilles and we called him none of those things. We called him the butcher.

[00:10:50]It just like immediately puts you in their frame of mind >> and like he's the devil to them. Like they're Trojan women and so the hero of the Greek army would be like >> the devil incarnate. So it was Well, anyways, I loved that. I'm so glad we both had a little like ancient history fiction moment.

[00:11:12]>> Yeah. I just think that it's one of those genres that's always going to get me good.

[00:11:17]>> I know.

[00:11:17]>> It's going to get me good. Okay, let's talk about a very random read that was recommended to me by many of our followers. Sometimes I go through this phase where I'm like, I need a romance.

[00:11:30]Like I used to really like contemporary romance and I would read it back to back to back to back and after reading so many I was like, oh, I'm getting a little bored. So, you know, I kind of went back to my roots and started reading more s fantasy, sci-fi, but every now and then I get this like nostalgic tingle or I just like am in a I don't know. It's probably where I'm at in my moon cycle, let's be fair. But I'm like, I think I need some romance. Well, I want something that's not cringe and I want something that's going to like take the traditional formula that a lot of contemporary romance gives us and kind of flip it on its head. like give me a few surprises, make me make me guess a little bit, right? Give me intrigue. And what was recommended to me over and over again is Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonham Young. And it's a short little guy. I've never read this author before. And um just from the jacket, you know, you learned that both of your main characters um have disabilities. So, our main man has um a leg that is like a is it called a bionic leg or am I thinking of sci-fi?

[00:12:36]>> He's an amputee. So, he would have like a prosthetic leg.

[00:12:39]>> Prosthetic. Why am I saying bionic? Too much sci-fi.

[00:12:42]>> I would hope that yeah, down the line that anyone who's an ampute is going to have incredible bionic situations so that they can like fully do everything and actually be super powerful.

[00:12:52]>> Maybe I'm manifesting like more bionic life. But then also Wifred is the name of the main female character. Guys, Winifred is the name of my daughter.

[00:13:00]>> It's such a beautiful name. And she was just born with um a smaller hand. And they um start off the book in like a very like we're in this way. So this is the analogy for me to explain this book.

[00:13:15]Every time you get in to read a book, it's like buckle up. You're in a roller coaster and you clip in. And because it's like I've ridden this roller coaster before. It's called Contemporary Romance. I'm like anticipating. I know how it's going to start. There's going to be a little swoop and then we're going to go up a hill and we're going to go down. There's going to be a couple twists, whatever. Okay. I got in and then I was immediately on the top of a very large hill and I was like, "Holy shit." And we just like are full on terror full drop.

[00:13:43]>> Yes. And I was like, "Okay, this is an interesting way to start." And then every time I was like, "Oh, I bet we're about to turn right." we would turn left. So, all that to say, it was unexpected.

[00:13:55]It was not cringe. The romance in it felt very real to me because our main character, it says this on the back jacket. She has a one night stand with someone, doesn't speak to him for weeks and weeks, and ends up finding out she's pregnant and wants to keep the baby.

[00:14:13]She's a little bit older and she wants to like be a mom someday anyways and she hasn't like found somebody she wants to be a mom with yet. So she's like, I'm just going to do this. So when she meets to tell the father, he feels the same way. He's like, I'm not in the kind of relationship right now where I would like be able to have a baby, but I do want to be a father. And so through this like joined camaraderie of having this common goal, which is to be good parents and to like bring a healthy baby into the world, um I think it's just like a unique way to see love blossom. And at the end, I did rate it 3.5 cuz it didn't like blow my mind, but no cringe, very sweet, nonformmulaic.

[00:14:54]Um, so this was a great wreck. And I love when people know my taste. I feel like our followers, our book club know me pretty well. So, they're always like spot on. So, thank you to everybody, like the dozens and dozens of you who recommended I pick out out on a limb.

[00:15:11]I'm really excited to find more like this so that I can share them with you guys. So, if you have any more contemporary romance wrecks with again no cringe and don't feel like that basic bee formula, I'm here for it because I do get in the mood about once every month and a half. I don't know. I really love the sock game on this cover. Yes, I actually Okay, so this is actually not my favorite cover. There's one cover where it's both of them with their backs facing out towards the ocean and their arms are just like embracing. It's way cuter. So, if I end up finding that edition, I might actually replace this.

[00:15:46]Oh, also I did this on audio and um I don't know if you guys knew this, but contemporary romance can be a little rough on audio, but >> you're welcome.

[00:15:56]>> I had no issues. No issues at all.

[00:15:57]>> Perfect. You didn't have any like pure romance other than the one that we did.

[00:16:02]Well, my whole romance every month is the unselected journals of Emma M. Lion, which we could be an Emma M Lion Stan account at this point. We literally talk about it in every episode. So, I'm going to attempt to not talk about things we've already talked about. Basically, the Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion are a breath of fresh air. I haven't yet met anybody who didn't like them, and I am binging them currently. So, I love them on audio. I love them physical. You really can't go wrong. It's historical fiction. It's got a sprinkle of romance.

[00:16:37]It's witty. It's funny. It's so charming. It's such a vibe. I'm so excited that we're going to England to live out our Emma M Lion fantasies. So, um yeah, the book club is going to go to England in October and we're all going to just if we don't binge these before we go, there will be people binging them on the trip.

[00:16:56]>> Maddie, I have to tell you about this impulsive thing I did yesterday.

[00:16:59]>> Tell me all about it. I went on my library app and I said, "Well, let's just see what I've had on hold. Let's see what's available, whatever." Blah blah blah blah. And book one of Emma M.

[00:17:07]Lion on audio was in fact available. And I said, "I don't know.

[00:17:11]>> I finished a couple months ago." And I was like, you know, I just feel like if I'm ever needing pure joy and if I'm ever needing just like the atmosphere that feels like my childhood comfort, which is like anything British, I'm just going to go for it. It's like the first time you read it, it feels like a comfort, nostalgia read and then you just keep going back to it again and again and again.

[00:17:31]>> Yes. And I I know a handful of people who literally read this series and then a month later reread it.

[00:17:38]>> It's just so happy. Like it is just if you are in any kind of a reading rut, a mental rut, a life rut, allow me to recommend The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. And now we shall move on because if you'd like to hear any more about that series, look no further than any of our previous like 15 episodes because we always talk about it.

[00:18:00]>> Always in forever.

[00:18:02]>> Let's talk about yestery year. Totally different direction. My copy is currently in the mail. Show them this cover. So if you are listening to this anywhere where you can also watch, Maddie has the UK edition which I love the US as well.

[00:18:19]>> We'll pop it on screen so you can see it bigger. Oh, it's so gorgeous. Mine is in the mail. I'm buddy readading it with my neighborhood book club.

[00:18:27]>> I do I think this is a perfect book club read.

[00:18:31]I really do because there's so much to unpack and discuss in it that no matter where you land on your enjoyment of the book because it is a polarizing book in terms of whether you will like it.

[00:18:42]That's just the truth. I think you will binge it no matter who you are.

[00:18:46]>> I think it's incredibly addicting. Uh, it's psychologically like so gripping. You kind of just I I like I think you'll have that kind of an experience with it where you'll pick it up, you won't be able to stop thinking about it and you'll just fly through it.

[00:19:01]But depending on who you are, how it lands in the end, you may or may not love the end. And I think that's a brilliant book for discussion. I think it's just a brilliant book to get people talking about things that matter. And I have so much respect for the book for that reason. I rated it very highly for that reason. I think Yester year is trying to scratch this itch from a social commentary perspective on we live in this world of content creation of people putting their lives out on social media for strangers.

[00:19:37]>> It is kind of weird if you think about it.

[00:19:39]>> For sure. Uh so there's this whole phenomenon since since the social media boom of people making their lives, their real lives a type of performance art.

[00:19:52]That is a huge component of this story.

[00:19:55]And so there's all of these questions to be looked at and discussed among friends and people who read the book about what do we do with that? What is the moral ambiguity of the fact that our lives have become performance art in a way?

[00:20:09]And at what point does that cross a line into like truly sinister territory >> both for the creator and for those consuming the content? And what kind of responsibility do we have? And this book doesn't really answer those questions.

[00:20:22]It just raises them in a super entertaining way. I also think there's a lot of conversations to be had just about motherhood, um, family dynamics, postpartum depression, uh, girlhood, the way women relate, especially around question. And I think we could have this discussion with men as well, but there's there's always going to be and always has been, let's be real, these social expectations on gender roles, class roles, and what uh yeah, just how we relate with each other and how we order ourselves in a hierarchy of who's better and who's worse and how we make judgments about each other based on the decisions we've made on how to show up in the world. And so the main character has chosen this very traditional wife role, this traditional mother role.

[00:21:10]She's really trying to romanticize and she's just trying to romanticize like the good old days basically. And then she gets pulled back in time, wakes up in 1855 living the pioneer life of a woman and a mother. and it's not as glamorous in reality as it is portrayed in modern life as she's like hearkening back to these good old days. So, it's a very intriguing premise. There's so much to talk about and I think people have come down on all sides of the conversation.

[00:21:46]There's plenty of extremely relevant, potent, brilliant negative reviews of this book. There's also brilliant positive reviews of this book. And the thing that makes me so happy about it is just that people are talking about it. I just think they're worthwhile things to discuss and it's got people thinking and it's a brilliant blend of just like addicting entertainment while also having all of this meat to chew on.

[00:22:09]>> I'm very curious to see what it's like when she goes back in time and she's no longer creating content, right?

[00:22:15]>> So like how would you act if no one was watching? Cuz I think that a lot of us um like you said are performing. So, it's like we've been just raised in an era where people um there are no curtains that that like are keeping your life private. Like everybody's curtains are flown wide open. And um what are the pros and what are the cons of that? And what would it be like to all of a sudden go from a life where the curtains are open to the curtains are closed?

[00:22:44]>> It's very intriguing. Yes, >> I am very interested. I don't want to start fights with people, but I'm down to have conversations with people about it.

[00:22:51]>> I don't think anyone's really fighting about it. I think it I think there's a worthwhile tender point for some people who are reviewing the book that it's just you don't want to confuse a character who is somewhat morally corrupt with the lifestyle she's living and bastardize the lifestyle. So I think some people are are trying to make sure that we don't heir on the side of being like yeah any attempt at motherhood or family values is performative and not good which is not what the book is saying in my opinion but it's a worthwhile thing to bring up in the conversation to be like okay if you do have a character who is false and she's chosen to glorify this life of motherhood and having all these children and baking your bread and living off the land and eating organic and submitting to your husband and having this beautiful nucleic family and it's all a lie. We just want to make sure that we're not trying to say that anybody who's choosing that kind of a life is living a lie or that that life is inherently evil, which again, when I read the book, I did not take that away from it at all. I think you could you could just as easily have taken this character >> and the whole plot and themes of this book and made her a business tycoon in New York City who is >> an influencer doing >> an influencer trying to be like a fitness influencer who's also a millionaire who's also >> she should write another book where she just just go through all of the niches online.

[00:24:26]>> Yeah, let's talk about it. Yeah, I think that any life can fall into the trap of being super performative and we would never I would never read a book like that and be like, "Yeah, therefore women should never be in leadership roles and should never make money and should never take care of their bodies or make homere made bread, which let's just be honest, homemade bread is superior. It's so good.

[00:24:46]>> It's so like >> you'll never catch me dogging anybody making me a sourdough from their house."

[00:24:52]>> Yeah. So good.

[00:24:53]>> Ever. Never. Ever.

[00:24:55]>> But I'm really excited about the conversations. I'm glad that you brought it up. It's obviously a pretty popular book right now. Or maybe it's just because that's how the law of attraction works that Maddie gets into it and now we're just seeing all these videos about yester year >> discussing right now. So that's a it's an exciting one to jump on if you want to get in on the combos cuz they're fascinating. It's so fun.

[00:25:14]>> Yeah. And I just think it's so good when books make people talk.

[00:25:16]>> Agreed. It's so good. Let's talk about a book that Maddie loved last month and then I immediately picked up. We actually were sharing an arc, so I had to wait for her to finish it. This is Into the Blue by Emma Brody. We just interviewed Emma on the podcast, so that episode is live. We'll make sure to link that here. Into the Blue is being sold as a contemporary romance. However, I just do not think you can just put that one stamp on this book. This feels like Litfic. This deals with grief. This is one of those books that is for the nerds. When I say it is for the nerds, so for them, >> it made me so happy to be like, there's somebody out there, a woman named Emma Brody, who gets me and my sister. She gets us. She's one of us. She's the adopted third sister. We actually have a third sister, so she's technically like the fourth sister. But Into the Blue follows two young people and adolescence.

[00:26:15]They meet. They work at a video store. I miss it. I miss it with my whole heart.

[00:26:21]And they have, you know, these fandoms they're obsessed with and these shows and things they're into. But our boy is from a family of actors. This is like his lineage.

[00:26:32]>> Noah's like a nepo baby has an actor family.

[00:26:35]>> Yes. And and you know what? AJ, our main girl, is also kind of curious in that world because she really like looks up to and idolizes some of these performers. So turns out they end up being like improv partners as like younger kids and then time passes and you see them at another stage in life and then time happens again and you see them at a later stage in life. All the time there being this spiritual magnetic power that brings these two together and it is the type of longing that you will be in pain and love it throughout the entire book. It's not necessarily a light read. If you've ever read Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zeven, is that their name?

[00:27:19]>> Um, I would say it's kind of in that same vein, but a little bit less heavy. There's definitely lots of light comedic moments, guys. There is just something in this that is some kind of magic. And I think for anybody who is a nerd, who likes being around nerds, Dungeons and Dragons, the cons, um, if you've ever been a part of like the fandom that is Star Trek, like you're a Treky, your parents were into those things. Like, you just won't find anything else like this on the shelves.

[00:27:54]I dare you. I feel like your nails are so into the blue coated.

[00:27:59]Maybe it's just my lifestyle. You did it subconsciously, but it was absolutely cosmic. into the blue blue nails forever. Actually, she does call her fandom what? Blue coats.

[00:28:08]>> We are literally the head of the blue coats fandom. I feel like >> Wait, did she give us that position or >> No, I'm just taking it by force.

[00:28:15]>> Well, so now you have to read it to figure out about the Blue Coats and why we call ourselves such. I'm just really excited to read a five-star read that I never in a million years would have thought would be a five-star read. I just think it's so powerful when a love story has the power to create a cult following like this, but it truly does.

[00:28:32]And I feel like in the realm of like movies, it's movies like You've Got Mail have a cult following or even like Love Actually has a cult following. I feel like Into the Blue has the power to have full-blown cult following as it should.

[00:28:46]It's so good and it went through so much editing and it went through so and she spent years and years writing it. And Noah, she told us, spoilers for our interview with her, Noah was actually pulled from another project that she that never saw the light of day. So, I feel like Into the Blue just it's it's such a labor of love and time and you can tell and so many people championed it and put their heart and soul into it and that's why it is so good and it just deserves it deserves to be the top of the charts ongoing in my personal opinion. And it's like what like 600 pages which normally I'd be like gosh does a love story need to be this long?

[00:29:22]>> Is it? No. No way. I don't I know it's more than like the typical fort but no no it's like 430. Okay. Well, anyways, I was like, "This is kind of long for a love story." And then I was like, "Cuz it's so much more."

[00:29:34]>> It is. I think she told us it was originally 600 and they cut down.

[00:29:38]>> That's why thinking that.

[00:29:39]>> Yeah. Okay. So, now let's actually talk about a 600page book that's also a love story that we also surprisingly loved.

[00:29:46]>> It's called Dire Bound. This is by Sable Soren, which is actually >> Sorenson. Sorenson, which is actually a pen name for a writing duo. Mhm.

[00:29:56]>> And we did this on a whim. Can we talk about random?

[00:30:02]>> So random.

[00:30:03]>> Same mood, same time.

[00:30:04]>> People who have been following me and Maddie for three plus years from the days when I was doing reaction videos of Throne of Glass will remember me and Maddie read over a hundred romantices in a very short amount of time.

[00:30:17]>> Yeah. I feel like it we just went and went hard and got our little degree in romantic right there at the beginning.

[00:30:23]Real hard. I think we just like when we have a special interest, we just get in it.

[00:30:27]>> We go hard.

[00:30:28]>> It's intimate. We get in there. And then, you know, just like with contemporary romance, for me, I say, "Whoa, Kristen, the enjoyment's going down. Maybe we need to stop watering down this genre and give it some time to cook and marinate and just read it a more sporadically." So, we really stepped away.

[00:30:45]>> Yeah, that's how you felt with Epic Fantasy for a hot second, too. You said, "It's been too many. I just have to have variety, man. Anytime I don't, it just kills me." But anywh who, this felt like variety cuz when was the last time you and I buddy read a fantasy where we were willing to do >> world building and theories. I think it's been so I think it might have been fourthwing.

[00:31:04]>> No, I know that was a year and a half ago.

[00:31:07]>> So yeah, this was this was perfectly timed. We were so excited for Dire Bound and uh we did time it intentionally on purpose so that we could read it and go right into Fury Bound because what we have found this is just for us guys.

[00:31:20]This may not be the case for you. For us, it is super tough in romantic if if you can't build momentum in a series.

[00:31:30]It's hard to read a book one and then for me to go back into that world a year later and enjoy a book two as much. I've just noticed in my ratings they tend to go down. And I hate that. I hate that for me. I hate that for the author. I hate that for you guys. I hate that all the way around the block because I really think it's like user error on my part. I just think some of these stories are made to be binged. And when I think about like the beginning of my romantic journey with Sarah J. Mass, it's like I binged A Court of Thorns and Roses, all five books in like 3 weeks. I definitely binged Throne of Glass in like 3 weeks.

[00:32:02]And so when you got to wait, something gets lost. So we were like, great, Fury Bound is coming out the beginning of May. Let's read this Dire Bound book.

[00:32:12]And if we like it, then we know we can go right into book two. And we did sleuththing like we asked our friends who had read it. We were like how is this stacking up to other thing other romanty that's come out in the last two years like tell us tell us the structure tell us all the things. And they were like it's spicy. I think we counted six spice scenes in book one which is a lot for a book one. Uh they were like it's spicy. It follows a deadly trials uh trope and structure. We were like check check. Uh they've got some inversion of tropes. They've got some chosen one vibes and the end of book one sets you up for the bait and switch. And we were like, "Okay, all right. Check, check, check. This is what we're looking for."

[00:32:55]Now, if all of what I just said sounds to you like, "Wow, that sounds super predictable and not what I want." Then this is not going to be for you. You got to know what you're reading it for and what you want. Like, when I pick up a lipfic, I know I want an ambiguous ending that's going to leave me in my feelings and leave me confused. Okay? If you don't like that, don't pick up a litfic. When I pick up a romanty, I want something that earns its pages, has immaculate pacing, is super addicting, slightly predictable, and feels very familiar. That's what I got. If you don't want that, don't pick up a romanty. Well, and I think you have to be in the mood for it, right? Because I've seen some people say that they didn't like it so much, but they read romanty back to back to back. So, I just feel like, yeah, it's going to hit different based off the time. This freaking hit. There were two twists in the book that I didn't see coming that I immediately texted Maddie. It was just like, "OMG, freaking out. Are you kidding? Blah blah blah blank blah blah blah blank blank. Need to talk ASAP." We ended up doing a whole reading vlog, which also made it very fun. It's called intentional reading, guys. I'm just going to say everybody's different, but for Maddie and I, our reading is best when it is with intention.

[00:34:02]>> Agreed.

[00:34:03]>> So, for us reading this book, we also were like highlighting. I was tabbing, taking notes because we were like, "How can we be helpful?" Me and Maddie did not create a social platform just to gab about nothing. All right, there's nothing wrong with that. But me and Matt are always like, "How can we be helpful to the people we love, readers?" And so we decided we would do a entire recap video of book one so that anybody who read book one when it like first came out and have been waiting for Furybound that they can say thanks Chris and Maz, my favorite sisters of the internet, just catch me up to date real quick on everything that happened, everything I need to know. Remind me the world.

[00:34:40]Remind me the terminology. So we'll link that for you if you need it. But >> yeah, it made it so fun for us because we got to nerd the heck out for you guys. Yeah. Yeah. And I I really like I really like romanty that knows what it is and and is well executed. And I felt like technically this book was super well executed. I love that it's a planned trilogy. You can tell it's planned.

[00:35:02]>> And I just like a planned aspect. I don't know that for me, my taste, I don't know that discovery writing and romantic work very well for me in tandem. It it just it spraws too long. I don't know where it's going. There's too many rabbit trails. There's too many side quests. And for me, that's just not that's just not my bag with romantis. I want it to know what it's doing and to get there in an efficient manner. And I feel like Dire Bound is doing that. So stay tuned for Furybound cuz I am sat for it. Like I gave Dire Bound solid four stars. Feel like it earned it.

[00:35:33]Really liked it. I think the places it was lacking for me are places that it can get as a series. I I don't feel like I was like crying at the end of this one or feeling like super emotional. And that's one of the things I rate on. So emotional was like slightly lower and then characters because at this point characters are meant to move a plot forward. So it's not like the characters are like I like them. I like all of them but it's not like I'm like really invested like if one of them gets their throat slit. Am I allowed to say that on a podcast? If one of them offs you know I don't know that I would have cried in book one but that's what a series is for. Like I think books two three we could definitely have tears. We could definitely get there. So, four stars for book one for me. I am highly anticipating that Fury Bound is going to be a five-st star romanty for me. I rated it 4.25 and I did the same thing when I put personal enjoyment. I said it was a five.

[00:36:27]>> Five stars. Personal enjoyment.

[00:36:28]>> It was a five and that's actually the one that matters the most to me of like our entire rubric of rating books in the different categories. Personal enjoyment has a lot of weight for me. The other one though is emotional impact. And that's the one that was slightly lower, just slightly, but also it's book one, so she's building. Maddie, for the people who are like >> newer here and aren't used to us talking about things like um discovery writing, what Maddie is talking about is when people start writing a book, they don't know how many books they're going to write. They don't even know the ending yet. They're just kind of like going with the flow. Love this for them. And then it gets popular and they get a book deal and the publishing company's like, "We want you to write five more books.

[00:37:09]We'll give you this much money." and they're stretching a story possibly further than its scope and ability. Exactly. So, it can make books sometimes feel like there's lols in it or like kind of slump moments or maybe there's whole slump books in a series because there's just not like the road map that the author should have hidden on a blackboard in their office where they're like, I know we're going to do this and this and this and it's going to be this reveal. Reveals don't always hit the same. deaths don't always feel earned. Um, it just starts to feel indulgent, like the author is indulging themselves or indulging the amount of pages and it starts to feel like it's taking advantage of your time. Like there's a there's a understanding between readers and writers that like we're all we appreciate the writer's time. We appreciate the writer's craft and then the writers appreciate that we are willing to buy and spend our time reading and hyping the book so that they can write more. there's like there's this understanding and sometimes it if either one of us are taking advantage of the other if we're rushing authors or if we're you know badgering authors that's not good but also if they're >> not earning their pages then that's not good. So uh Direbound successful on this front very excited for Fury Bound very stoked. We digress. Maddie what is your best potential book of the year because I am so sad for this the way I need to just read it this minute. My best book of the month and yes, possibly my best book of the year is this teeny tiny little boy. It's called A Room with a View and it is by Ian Forester. It is under 200 pages. It is a classic. So, the only thing I will say is even though it's short, there is a slight barrier to entry if you have never read a classic.

[00:38:56]But if you're part of our book club and you've started reading classics with us, I think that you will absolutely be fine with this. Anybody who is familiar with Jane Austin uh or has read any Jane Austin will be totally fine with Ian Forester. And there are tons of study guides and videos on the internet if you want a companion to help you along with this. Or you're welcome to slide into my DMs and we can discuss. But it's I it's a very small barrier to entry and it's so short. Okay. A Room with a View is in competition for me with Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin as my favorite classic of all time. And it may be my book of the year because it is so thematically strong. So thematically strong. And it is funny. Like it's so it has so much levity in it, but it's super deep. And at the end of the day, it's just a love story. And I couldn't be happier to recommend it to everyone.

[00:39:53]It's just the title is the theme. So I don't think I'm giving anything away. But the reason it's called A Room with the View is because at the heart of this story is this message that you can have this perfectly curated life where you feel super safe and comfortable in this perfectly accommodated room, if you will, with the most perfect view. And if you never get out there out of your room and go and live your life, that's all you'll ever be is in a room with a view and you may as well be in prison. You may as well be locked in. And so it's this idea that you have to go and embrace the messy, chaotic, uncontrollable, unpredictable life out there and find your way in it as a total novice, which we all are.

[00:40:44]None of us are experts at life. None of us. We all have this illusion of being an expert because of the social structures and the social constructs and all these hierarchies that we uh adhere to because it gives us some sense of knowing what the hell is going on. But we don't like classes and roles and identity and all of these things are just constructs that we put on each other and we put on ourselves trying to make some sense of this world. And the reality is it's all just beautiful chaos and it's so vibrant and it's so alive.

[00:41:16]And if you're willing to go out and engage with it, you may just transcend something like we may just transcend all of these constructs that we've put in place. And that is the those things those constructs could be the barrier not only to us finding the deep wisdom and truth inside of ourselves but also finding love and connection with other people and their true selves. It's so deep. It's so beautiful and it just pokes fun at itself the whole time. Like the premise starts with the main character abroad with her cousin and her cousin's a little bit older. So, picture like an aunt figure and they're traveling with all of these other English people in Italy and they all of course are rooming together because they feel more comfortable together with other English people and they're all like using their guide books religiously to like go out and do the tours. So, none of them are actually experiencing Italy at all. They're not hanging out with locals. They're not like learning any of the history. They're not engaging with the actual culture, but they all feel very cultured because they're like traveling and they feel sophisticated and but they're literally just glued to their guide books and hanging out with their own people. And it's such a like obvious metaphor to the reader, but to them they're just like we're sophisticated, like we're so we're not based like those country folk who never leave their homes. And it's like, but are you really I was so confronted as a traveler who loves tour guides. But anyways, it was great.

[00:42:44]It's so great. And Lucy, the main character, is uh just a great POV. She's a great POV and she's locked in but doesn't know it. And it's it's just it's a liberating tale, y'all. It's so good.

[00:42:58]I need everyone to read it and love it as much as I do. And also, there's a movie adaptation that's really old, but it has Maggie Smith and Helena Bottom Carter in it, and it's brilliant.

[00:43:07]>> It's a bop. We used to watch it growing up. Now I'm like, how did we not read that book? Usually our rule is to always read a book and then watch the adaptation. Um, >> I marked so many pages.

[00:43:18]>> Speaking of reading and watching, one of the reasons why me and Maddie had less books than normal this month, so I had four completed, Maddie had five completed, is because >> we have been continuing our Game of Thrones journey since January when we did it with our read and watch Patreon book club. And because we loved book one so much and it's a rewatch of the show and it was so good, we've just kept going. But when I tell you a storm of swords is a long book. It's so good, but it is long. So I'm almost done with that. Mattie's almost done with that.

[00:43:51]And our page to screen in the month of April.

[00:43:54]>> We decided to give an entire month and a half to the count of Monte Cristo, which is an amazing classic by Andre Dumas.

[00:44:02]>> Yes. And when I tell you I finished it yesterday, >> I finished it yesterday. I'm still going to be talking about it in May, but you've got to stay for this chat. This is the longest classic I have ever read.

[00:44:16]I would say it was the most heavy lifting, but with massive reward.

[00:44:23]So, if you're um classic curious and you want to give any of the classics a go, we keep every single deep dive collection we've ever done on our Patreon so that people can go back to do the ones we've done like Mattie's Sense and Sensibility, which is my favorite class. So, now I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's going to happen?" Yeah, we have like a whole archive on Patreon with all of the conversations saved in all of our deep dive videos. So for every book that we've read and we've done everything from sci-fi, classics, romance, we've done it all. But uh yeah, we save everything. So for the Catammani Crystal, there will be six uh videos on the Katamani Cristo. I think S of Sensibility has four. Usually they have four, but uh Catamani Crystal will have six and we'll be wrapping that up. Yep.

[00:45:07]In miday, so it's not too late to jump in and join us for that. I love so much when me and Maddie get to just sit and talk about these but with microphones.

[00:45:16]You know, we've been doing this for years as lifelong readers and girls that just like to discuss books. It's been so fun sharing it with you guys. Would you please jump into the comments and let us know your best book of the month of April and maybe like one or two hopefuls for the month of May? We have a really fun May TBR that we need to put out for you guys because we are sat. Well, we have Hold on. We have an entire quarter 2 TBR that we can >> Yes.

[00:45:46]>> link for you guys.

[00:45:47]>> We'll link that up for you as well. But yes, I hope you guys have an amazing May of reading. Hope the spring is off to a great start for you with tons of five star reads. We wish you nothing but the best in that. All of my reads in April were four stars and higher. So, keep that trend going for May. And we will see you all in the next episode. Bye.

[00:46:14]help and give me a chance.