Ep 28 Fully Digesting KISS OF THE BASILISK (aka Split or Swallow) by Lindsay Straube Book Review!

Did you hear?! A couple of weeks ago we did our very first author interview with Lindsay Straube | @oxfordlemon and talked to her all about her new Amazon bestselling debut love triangle romance book, Split or Swallow. 

So what are we doing today? We’re taking our deep dive into the plot, so this one if for all the girlies who’ve read it, and who have been DYING to discuss it. 

Are you team Leo or Team Caspen? What did we think of the ritual? Are you a Bastian Stan? Are you into snakes now? 

Let’s spend the next hour at the virtual water cooler discussing monster smut together. Because why not?

Oh, and don’t worry, we’ve got a faves and fails Molly Moonplume, Harry Potter, horror movie edition, and a smash or pass with a classic bald man, and some of our most beloved furry footed friends.

Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!! (And sometimes, Friday!)

Check the official Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of Split or Swallow! https://youtu.be/fknhocSNIKM

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Liz 
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Ashley
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Liz
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@TheRealLifeVeganWife

Ashley
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Chapters

• 0:00 Spoiler Free Intro
• 4:00 Favs and Fails of the Week
• 20:50 Our Star Review of Split or Swallow
• 25:27 Spoiler Filled Deep Dive into SOS
• 1:02:50 Unhinged Smash or Pass

Transcript

0:00

[Music] hey you guys I'm Ashley and I'm Liz and this is the besties in the books podcast welcome in welcome welcome so today we're going to be discussing split or swallow Lindsay Straw's new Amazon bestselling book congratulations it's so exciting if you guys have been following along we actually interviewed Lindsay and she was our first author that we've ever had on here which is so exciting you know that podcast was a bit more about you know her writing process what she hopes people get out of the book um you know what the people in her life think about it like kind kind of a little bit more like behind the scenes interview that is spoiler-free for you guys um so today the first 15 minutes will be spoiler-free but then we're going to go into the deep dive so we're going to do the splitter swallow Deep dive examination of this amazing book um with you guys but we will start off you know with our spoiler-free star reviews spice rating and who we would recommend it for um before we get into that and then Ashley will um you know give us the noise give us the special give the noise the spoiler sounds yeah yes I will for sure spoiler sound of the day uh but before we get into that before we you know start talking about this wonderful book uh we just want to say thanks for being here yeah yeah thank you guys so much for being here today and thank you so much for taking time out of your day and your book to come and take a little listen to us over here at Bes in the books podcast we would love it if you would consider following subscribing anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast including YouTube so if you like to get a little visual aid if you like to watch the podcast better you know whatever pick your adventure choose your adventure you can check that out and you can also check us out over on Instagram and Tik Tok at bess's in the books podcast where we are doing smash or passes unhinged Edition we're doing crowd sourcing from popular opinions little giveaways here and there so check us out there come hang out send us a DM say what's up all that fun stuff but um yeah that's where we're at that's where we're at today where are you so where are you where are you at let us know we're out in space that's where we are that's where our BR brains feel like for sure just floating around out in space yeah seriously oh the other thing that I wanted to mention before we get into our fav and fail of the day is that we do plan on doing more author interviews moving forward so if there's someone who you really want us to try to get on the podcast if you're friends with an indie author if you read a series by an indie author that you absolutely love DM it to us like and that way we can like put it in our good old little handy Google doc that has a list of all the people that we would just you know hope to interview someday yeah um so let us know um yeah but okay so let's get into our fav and fail of the week well before we do that like you know if you guys over and then another thing and another thing while you're following us over on Instagram you know we're talking about Lindsay's book today again so make sure you're following Oxford lemon over on Instagram that is Lindsay's handle over there so she has great fun stuff to check out so go check it out for sure while you're over on Meandering while you're dming us all the authors you want us to interview we have a homework list for you yeah you don't even school out nope it's not you're back in session with bess's in the books podcast we'll give you a list of things to do cuz as if no one ever has stuff to do oh my gosh for for any of the 30 Rock people one of my favorite things that she that Tina fa says on that show is um there ain't no party like a Liz Lemon Party cuz the Liz Lemon Party is mandatory perfect so yeah besties in the books party is mandatory so you're welcome thanks for being here yeah so okay so this week we're just doing fav and fails of the week we don't have a theme or anything like that so we're just going to kind of get into it do you want me to go first today or do you want to go first I'll switch it up I'll go first I think it's been a minute I don't know who knows I honestly don't remember okay uh my favor of the week is that we got a doggy oh if if it wouldn't disturb her Slumber I would pick her up and hold her right here for you guys to see on the tube so instead I will insert some video footage and some pictures for you guys to see Miss Molly that's her name and I had to I was I had to try to figure out a way to get some little fantasy Vibes in there somehow and my toddler was like oh Mommy why does she have a feather tail and I was like what and she has this little little white tuft on the end of her tail she's a greater SMI Swiss mountain dog for anybody that knows which is like a cousin of a Bry mountain dog is that how you say it so she doesn't have long hair though and she also is going to get really large like maybe 130 lb so we're so excited but so she has a little tufted on her tail and so I was like feather tail you say cuz everything I was trying to work with was one too obvious or my husband would catch it and be like no and number two it wasn't fitting her you know you have to like has to fit a dog so he came up with Molly and when we saw we like oh definitely a Molly and the feather tail I was like talking to him about that and I was like oh maybe you know can we call maybe her middle name Moon plume and he's like H maybe Molly moon and I was like okay I love that so Molly moon after Moon plume the feather tale from when the moon hatched boom there you go she already has like in my opinion she already has two really great nicknames cuz it's like I'm going to call her Moon plume when I come down there cuz that's like just a fun word to say anyway Moon please you know it is but then her original name do you want to tell us about her original name hello it's meant to be so her original um her all her sisters were named after mean girls characters so when I was looking for her I was like this is the sign it's meant to be so her original name was Katie or caddy depending on you know who's saying it so I definitely was team caddy but uh yeah so that's it was hard to like decide if we wanted cuz a lot of times you know they always name dogs ahead of time and you have to it's usually pretty much a no-brainer to not get it but I was just like M I do really like that for her it's a cool name well yeah it's like it's like that's why it cracked me up cuz I'm like oh yeah I'm going to call her caddy and then it was funny cuz it's like that's exactly what Janice says I'm going to call you C I was like oh I love that it's so great yeah cuz I heard the girl calling her Katie and when I was on the phone with her she like yeah so Katie is you know telling us about the different personalities and was like thinking in my head that exact line too that's great I'm a color caddy so would it help with like recalling anyways cuz it's a slight difference so you know Molly fits her though and it flows so good with Molly moon plume so so cute I love it I will fit in uh Mean Girls homage in there somewhere when I go to get her licensing this week because the girl said that's what they did with the middle names cuz everybody like caught that so yeah so they did like middle name was uh is butter or carb and I think someone's middle name was on Wednesdays we were pink like that kind of thing cuz they were all girls too so it was so cute it was just so like it felt so right and she's so sweet you guys it'll be like and none for Gretchen Wieners bye yeah yeah Molly moon Bloom number for Crut Wiener's by I was like thinking GRL or it's October 3rd you know that's good that's good M there's so many good ones yeah yeah I love it so fun o Glen Coco oh oh shoot that's a good one too guys got to think about it s it to there's too many there's too many there's too many good ones there's too add it to your homework B yeah yeah for sure yeah add it to your homework list what's your favorite your favorite author yeah we have another one stay till the end we have a very special DM that I need you guys to send us so reward it's a reward for those of you who stick around yep yeah because we know how hard it is to listen to us for an hour H Ramble On tangents so definitely listen to the end and you will have an opportunity to be rewarded for your hard listening hard work yes indeed my fail of the week is more so um an ongoing fail that we quite don't have a solution for and we have to laugh or else we'll cry and that is we use Google Drive for all of our go Bes stuff for some reason here we go if anybody has a solution or can let us know that we're not alone oh my God we're giving them so much homework sorry I hope you guys have your pens and papers out no but like seriously L our Google Docs and drive keep just throwing themselves in the trash just I go like Liz will upload something and I'll be like great and I let it go like 12 hours cuz at this point we're superstitious cuz I don't want to like mess anything up while it's uploading so I'll wait a good chunk of time and I'll like go to check and either it's still processing or it's it's there sometimes it's a great little treat or like lately everything is in the trash Oh my God or sometimes some things are in the trash but no but none of none of us are putting things in the trash like I will specifically tell her okay I'm deleting last week's footage now you know and then it'll be gone and I will like go physically empty it right away so that way it doesn't like thank God when it goes into the trash thank the crows I should say yeah when it goes into the trash it will stay there for like 30 days or something but I just know one of these days is not going to it's going to empty itself and it totally gave I don't know if it gave you a heart attack or if it just gave me a heart attack but when we were getting ready to go on the cruise yeah it's like we we open the Google Drive and nothing's in there everything was gone everything you guys and that's like all of our captions that we use like links and idealists that we have literally everything podcast yeah it's like our whole little brain gone everything's going so I was like you know what before I panic I'm just going to look in the trash literally everything was trash for no reason re no reason except we went International so what I don't know we were in international territory decided to dump itself I don't know first of all when we started doing this we were using our Notes app and obviously that is not that just stopped working for us one day we were sharing notes super annoying so we're like okay we won't do that it doesn't make any sense but okay and that's unreliable at least the Google Drive we have a certain you know thing set up everything I looked up said that was the number one solution so we did that and so now I'm like okay well what else everything says everything else is so much worse drop walks is worse like so there's no winning technology I swear at this point is not real it's all a facade it's The Wizard of Oz guy with the curtain and he's going to unveil and it's just like freaking paper cups and cardboard taped together is what is inside our computers just to take it back to like the printer conversation it's literally just the guy with the tennis sweatband on printing out the cruise photos that's literally what's happening back there now so someone's working at Google Docs and is just like I don't think they need these dump it just throw it all away just like someone behind the scenes is just putting too many pushing too many buttons I don't know but what it might have well no it still happened never mind I was going to say that first time it happened where all the docks went in the trash was kind of around that time that weird stuff was going on with Matt you know Microsoft or whatever but it was still like 3 weeks later and ever since it's happened so maybe there was a glitch when that happened maybe maybe I'm hopefully I'm hopeful thinking that like they fix a bug but yeah right yeah good luck good luck as we like to say here okay let's hear your fav and fail let's have at it yeah okay so so my fail the week so listen the buildup I mean I feel badly because I feel like I'm talking bad about us but but not because obviously I'm saying it out loud to us but I still feel bad about it so my fail of the week is that I am struggling so hard and we'll talk about this more obviously but I am struggling so hard to finish Harry Potter 4 The Goblet of Fire it is like snooze Central snooze Central yeah so that's my fail of the week because I'm just I'm trying I'm like literally I am giving it my most effort 100% effort and I'll be like okay I've got like last night I was like I made you know it's this is my legacy everyone's like oh we know you make s'mores well I made a croissant s'more I made croissant s'mores so you know I your hyp s'more if you will yeah my hype s'more I was like okay I'm going to get like a little sugar rush I got my like Diet Coke I was like ready to go I went and set up my little spot it was only what I think I texted you at like

7:19 p.m. it was like 7: 13:25

19 p.m. last night I'm like all right I'm good I'm locked and loaded I'm going to do this I'm going to get to at least my goal is to get to at least to like 75% and then finish it today yeah no I made it to 50% I fell asleep like I don't know three or four times like and I would only fall asleep for like you know 5 minutes and then wake back up and be like okay and and plus it was 7 o'clock at night like I'm not going to go to bed that early like anyway you know yeah yeah like not on even on a work night so I was just like oh my gosh this is crazy so yeah Struggle Bus over here yeah it's I almost yeah I figured you were going to say that as your fail so I didn't want to go with that because I was yeah struggling I've been I did I wouldn't struggle as much as the begin it was it's been a roller coaster let's just say that and now and I'm listening to audio I fall asleep within 5 minutes every time but if you want to turn it into a fave natural amban you know natural you you need something to fall asleep to just pop that on read it you know you'll fall asleep book four so we've been having a great time for those of you who don't know we're doing you know a bonus series every Friday right now we're doing the Harry Potter series because we've never read it before so we're on book for the week that we're filming this I know this is going out a little bit later but you know we're we're doing our best and that is just it's going to add to the review because we're just honestly as adults reading it what we think about it and O it's yeah but it did lead me this is not my fave of the week but this is something that I feel like we should talk about on here because um it's relevant it did lead me to do a little bit of research because here's the thing all the Harry Potter books are you know quote unquote free or however you want to describe it on Kindle unlimited so I'm not going to go out and I don't want to buy the audio books plus they're kind of spendy like on Audible they're like at least 20 bucks a piece um and I'm like I already have like the Kindle version and I read like most of my stuff on Kindle anyway but I'm thinking like oh my God if I'm GNA get through book four like I'm really hoping that you know five six and seven are better but like it's just a whole lot of Middle School probs right now you know so I'm struggling um but yeah I was like you know if I could bounce back and forth between an audio book that would be great um but I don't want to buy it and so and the Fable or not the Fable the um Libby weight on it is like a century it's like we'll see you in 10 years you know I got lucky that I like reserved it all when we first talked about it so I've gotten most of them but that's only that's luck that's luck it was very long wait so I'm like okay this is crazy so I Googled it and there is a like call it a hack whatever but basically you can go in and you can like enable I don't remember what it's called but like I don't know it's called like voice assistance or like I don't know something like that accessibility yeah is it yeah accessibility something like that I need to like look at the exact terminology on Kindle so you don't have to have a Kindle but it works on that or you could just use the Kindle app which is what I have on my iPad my phone and you toggle it on and then you also have to do a couple things you guys can Google it but you have to do a couple things in your iPhone settings and it will read your ebooks to you perfect yeah is it as like you know acted and Theatrical as if you you know purchased the audible like audiobook version no it's a little bit more robotic like imagine like Siri is reading it to you you know what I mean maybe a little you sent me an example and you're able to put it to a British accent which is what I'm which the Harry Potter I'm listening to is that obviously and it didn't it it would sounded great I thought yeah so and you can like speed it up you can slow it down yeah you can choose the voice so I kind of like went through all the voices on my iPhone and I picked the one that I thought kind of fit the story the best um so it's like I was telling Ashley I'm not going to be like reading any like dark romances this way but like for a book like this it's perfect because I don't need any Fanfare I just need it to be like read to me I need it to be filtered into my ears for me so yeah so for anyone who's interested you know that is definitely something that you can do with Kindle books you already own or ones that are just on Kindle unlimited that you borrowed or whatever pretty neat yeah so that was not my favorite of the week that was ironically kind of a tangential fail you know uh yeah yeah yeah public service announcement that stemmed from my fail a discovery if you yeah well because sometimes our fails lead us to a fave you know like a pot of gold there you go yeah end of the rainbow a really like sad terrible rainbow if if Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire wasn't so boring it never would have led to this discovery yeah there you go there you go so no my my fave of the week is I went and saw that new movie strange darling I don't I never even heard of that I had never heard of it either and my husband had mentioned it he had said hey this gets good reviews I'm like I don't care about what people put on the internet like I literally don't care like but then my sister um texted me and she's like you have to go see this movie it's probably the best movie I've seen this year so far it's so good and I'm like okay I'm more of like I will take what someone one person I know's opinion mhm I'll take that so much more seriously than a thousand people on the internet you know what I mean it just is what it is so um I was like all right that's kind of interesting we should go see it but I asked her cuz it looks like a horror movie and I'm like I don't want to watch anything gory or scary like that's not for me and she's like no I think you'll like it it's like more of like a thriller and I'm like okay interesting and so my husband and I went and saw it a few days ago and it's really good guys like oh nice I don't want to give anything away it is mildly like graphic so I would definitely like look up you know what it's rated R for like it you know I could could see it being triggering to some people because of the content um just like any thriller or horror movie would be though but like for me someone who like you know I really don't like watching gory things at this point and I get like kind of scared like pretty easily too um I really enjoyed it because I felt like it was just super unique and like well done the music was good the like I don't know the filming was good the acting was excellent um and yeah it just it brought up a lot of really interesting topics so yeah I would encourage people to go watch it I think that a lot of our our people would probably like it yeah nice you the people so write that down guys DM Liz when you watch it yeah well I been I put a thing I put a thing on my Instagram today that was like I need to talk to someone about this so please like if you've seen it DM me so that we can talk about it because I feel like I have a lot of emotions about it um and I need to get them out in a way like I can't spoil anything here but I want to talk about it yeah yeah water cooler of the future water cooler of the future that's what we need to do MH 100% okay so there you there's our fave and fail of the week should we get into the book should we talk about the book let's talk about it okay so this is still spoiler-free we'll just give our basic star and spice ratings for split or swallow by Lindsay strawy okay so I'll just I'll just go first this time for this um so I rated this book a five star and I rate it a five spice which to me is the perfect book it's the perfect book it's five spicy five star guys so hard to do so hard to do so hard to do there's plenty of Five Star reads you know that I've read that are usually I'd say they're low on the spice rating most of the time if they're five stars um if they're Five Spices they're usually they could be good but are they going to be a five star life-changing read I don't know um I definitely feel like this book you know just to get a little bit into you know my basic spoiler-free review and who I'd recommend it to I think the thing that makes this book so unique is there's a lot of really like like indepth themes and character development in the scenery of like something that's very smudy and I feel like the balance is great like and is really hard to find in like in any type of book where you're like okay it's super smudy like there's many scenes but at the same time the World building was really interesting the character development was really interesting and so yeah I was fully immersed in the world but then it's also a page Turner because it's like you know you're reading smudy scene after smudy scene which is great I love it y um so I would recommend it to pretty much like anyone who is interested in Reading like any type of romance book really like yeah if you read fantasy and you like romance you'd probably like it if you read romance and you're maybe wanting to try out fantasy you'd probably really love it cuz it's not super heavy on the fantasy World building to the point where you're going to be like you know so confused by it or anything paying super close attention to that um yeah like I just I feel like it probably has a really wide audience it's Pro that's probably one of the reasons why it's doing so well on Amazon right now because so many different people can enjoy it yeah something for everyone something for everyone and it is technically it's like um you know Lindsay said on our interview it is technically a monster romance and we'll get into that in a little bit as far as what it's about but at the same same time it's like what she said where it's just kind of a regular romance too yeah for sure and um so it's like conventional and unconventional so that's what you're saying it's like Choose Your Own Adventure mhm I can see how people would get different things out of it for sure conventional unconventional but nothing that I've read before so that was refeshing you know yeah unique very unique ideas mhm yeah so for me five star and uh I go with Liz for the Spice rating on this one you know she's my Spice Girl so uh five spice yeah I would agree with that anyways um so I want to you know clarify that whilst I'm not particularly a smudy girl that you know people say on the webs like I don't I I'm like don't care if it's there don't care if it isn't you know kind of usually um I don't want people to ever feel hesitant to read it because there's it's muddy you know that there's romance scenes involved because it's you know you get she's really good at writing those and she's really good at interweaving this plot you're instantly thrown into the world and things are very normalized so it's very different than our world and I feel like there's a very nice uh empowerment theme that's going on within the book and I think that you should give it a try you know see how you like it and have fun yeah have fun see where it takes you and the ending I felt like was so good I loved it I truly loved how things happened with that so I feel like it hits you it hits you in the feels if that's something that you like you know I feel like that's why the ending to me was unique because it's like it just it elicits that emotional reaction from you which I feel like a lot of times when I'm reading romance books like I don't really feel those like deeper connections to the characters as much yeah okay so should we get into the spoiler section oh my God that's your cue to exit that legitimately freaked me out like that that first part I'm like what's happening what is going on it was like a little bit of like a rooster crow if you will and a snake so yeah pertinent it was uh relevant to our conversation today I did not hear rooster I just kind but now that you're saying it it kind of makes sense you know yeah mhm yep so there you go that means spoilers up head L ho if you are just listening to this one you know and you haven't checked out the interview yet but you're like okay I kind of want to know more go check that out you know it's a great interview thank you so much to shout out to Lindsay for coming on our podcast and let us interview her it was so nice like hearing the author's like reasonings and her choices and having all of that kind of backstory it really like made me even have more feelings for the book yeah that makes sense like sometimes you know especially if we're reading really really you know quote unquote popular books by really famous authors you know the sjm of the world it's like we can feel very detached from the author the author doesn't I mean there are people but they seem less like people because they're kind of like this very like they're like an idea of a person you know what I mean and so I think that you know when and I think that's one of the really cool things about books to gr and book talk is that it's like we can get to know the authors that are writing the books that we love that's so freaking cool you know we can see them as people and have conversations with them and it's amazing it's one of the things I love about it the most so I completely agree it's great so all right so should we get into this this crazy uh twisty turny twisty turny yeah twisty turns Twisted turns yep Bess guys basilisk uh smart basilisk's doing it um okay so let's just paint the SE let's paint the picture let's set the scene let's let's give some tropes real quick here what we got we got why choose we got Choose Your Own Adventure we got we have what what was the second one you said Choose Your Own Adventure Choose Your Own Adventure yeah yeah yeah um but like you know we got to see uh you know decision making happening kind of thing that's not a Trope but yeah I um you know that inner monologue it's kind of like it that would be like a love triangle so like that's the word I was looking for decision making yeah love triangle so we've got y choose we've got love triangle so right there we're already giving something away cuz this is like is it a love triangle or is it a white choose we don't really know we'll get into that exactly you got to find out yourself um I think that there's a little bit of there's a little bit of element of enemies to lovers in the beginning for I think all both you know all of the love interests really multiple yeah there's enemy yeah definitely um you know it doesn't last long but there definitely is an element of that in the beginning because of the World building that's kind of established um obviously there's monster romance because one of the love interests is a basilisk uh he does take the form of a basilisk a few times in the book but primarily he is in a human form yeah um and let's see what else what else would there be I would say it's a Coming of Age tale that's a big that's a big part of not like 13 but like you know a different type if you know what I mean yeah yeah like uh I don't know know I don't really know how to say it's like it's coming of age it's coming of age but it's like um I I don't know how to put to your own female empowerment female empowerment I think yeah so it would be like a segue with that so you know T is like what she's in her early 20s now there's a specific age but I don't remember what it is yeah she's she's somewhere around there I want to say though like so it's kind of like that idea that yeah she's um learning who she is she's becoming empowered as a person but also like sexually which is really important in this book um yeah I mean I would say that those are all really great yeah like themes tropes from this book for sure definitely yeah so the book starts off and this is what I thought was really cool was it immediately sucked me in because of the amount of in my opinion very straightforward uncomplicated World building that happens right beginning um it gives us I think one of the things that's really interesting about the book is that we're given the information we need and extraneous information is just not there so it's like I feel like I loved that because we're not sifting through a million worldbuilding details to try to remember the few that we need to know we're only given the ones we need to know and they're very important y so it's like right out of the gate we're basically told that you know the basilisks and the humans however long ago I can't remember you know have this war they come to a truce or an agreement essentially where they'll you know stop being at war with each other um if you know the humans are kind of like living in this enclosed space the Basils are living on the outside of this enclosed space it's like kind of protected by mirrors because if basist look at themselves then they'll Turn to Stone right yeah that's the theory yeah okay so and then also like something with the roosters so chem chem's chem's mother you know is a chicken farmer rooster farmer too MH yep to help with that so everyone like has a rooster right like in their household I think um because they're scared of them like this is all like B it's not it's not important even you know like yeah there's a little it's there's a little sprinkle of it it's just it sets the scene but yeah and it makes it enjoyable to read because there is that element of World building but it's not overly complicated which I did like so so yeah so you know T her mom's a chicken farmer um and she's kind of always like kind of made fun of chastised about it she you know lives Within These Walls with all the Village People and then um basically the way that Lindsay described it was you end up with kind of like a bachelorette or Bachelor type uh elimination situation where you have a group of I think there was like around 20 you know women young women who are in competition to you know woo the prince Future King to be his future you know Queen because he will get handed the crown as soon as he gets married to this new and it's anybody in that um realm we'll call it and of that same age that the princes yeah so it only comes every so often you know so T is that same age so she automatically in the that running yeah and all that you know and it's just the way it is it's been like this for so long it's like everyone's used to it everyone knows that you know if you fit into this category then that's going to be your destiny is to participate in this competition to potentially be the queen um the way the okay so this work gets interesting though I mean that's already interesting right but where it gets real interesting is that well how do you learn yeah to win to win over the prince right like how are you supposed to woo him more than all these other you know women woo him and that is through basically a sexual education with a basilisk who are you who you're assigned to yep because they are such sexual beings so they are the ones to know it all and they want to teach you teach you yeah so there you go so everybody gets ass sign their own personal bass list that they go to every night in the cave in a cave in the caves and and they teach you the ways they teach you the Wy ways of how to impress the prince yeah and then you're kind of paraded around through a series of yeah I don't even know like dates and uh you know balls and things where he's not the prince is not just sleeping with everybody right out the gate he's getting to know them too and eliminating through different things I mean they start I mean yeah you know they start having some things so and uh but you know well it depends it depends on like you have to read it you have to read it we're actually not going to tell you anything about the book we're not going to tell you anything um well no it's like some of the contestants you know think that the best way to win over the prince is to just you know have sex with him on the first date or to basically like just be like do whatever you want with me and you know Leo who's our Prince you know he likes to challenge he can have whoever he wants he's the prince yeah like let's be honest you know it's like does he just want to lay or does he want well something else you know exactly so you know T and we talk with Lindsay about this too is very like even though you know she's of low social ranking um you know she's chastised a lot for that reason um never has really felt like she fits in very well she doesn't have you know she doesn't know who her father is um so she raised by her single mother um who they don't seem very close either for most of the book um you know it's like she still seems to have a very strong sense of self a very high you know self-worth she knows that she deserves you know really good things in her life and yeah and she doesn't take any crap which I think is great it's awesome it's great yeah I really enjoyed her character for those Reas she like a Meek little young you know naive girl even though she may be naive in just one Department you know she's willing and open to learn and she does she's and but you know like mentally she's not a naive person she has that self awareness and empowerment about her which is refreshing in the fantasy world 100% I think it's just like this idea that it's like you know even to the prince who you know know to a certain degree should be feared you know and obviously whether you respect him or not you have to pretend like you do because it's just like how it works in society you know in the society um still she's like I feel like she stands up for herself no you're not going to treat me that way no you're not going to talk to me that way I don't have to do anything that you asked me to do if I don't want to you know this is about me just as much as it is about you and I think that because of that Leo gains a respect for for her very early on um that's reciprocated and I really appreciated that even though Leo was not my favorite of the two um I I still enjoyed his character I still thought he was a good character yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay so here she goes into her cave into her Cave of Wonders yeah yeah that's what it is and that's where she meets caspen who's like the super old he's not old he doesn't look old but you know it's like Fay yeah where they're 500 years old but not they don't look it they have the wisdom of yeah he looks like he's 28 you know or whatever but he's probably I don't know how old he is probably like 300 or something yeah he's been around he's been around he knows what he's doing you know and so um but they seem to have like a more personal connection like right out of the gate aside from like it's supposed to just be like a teacher student situation but they clearly have a deeper connection and at this point like T doesn't really know why she's kind of like is everyone getting treated this way by their basilisk like or is it just me like she doesn't really know yeah she doesn't really nobody really talks about it with each other her mom went through it she didn't talk to her about it and um she also kind of surprised casin right out the gate you know so that made him differently and you have to remember too that he's training other girls too so she's not like other girls yeah you know well he's yeah he's not just trained other girls his girls are always the ones that win yes that's right um because he is the serpent you think he's the serpent King but you find out later that he's actually the serpent Prince so but he you know he ends up being the king but yeah so um he has a reputation for sure so she's like oh he does this all the time with girls like I'm nothing special but then at the same time she's like I don't know I kind of feel like I am something special cuz it seems like we have this connection and they talk but as you're reading it you don't really know you're like oh oh no is she like going to get her heartbroken like is he really is she really just another one or is this something because you're feeling it as a reader you're like yeah this does seem like something more do seem so it's you go through it too as a reader yeah so I feel like that's kind of a fun like little element you're like what are they are they faded Mates is he just this is just his personality and the thing that I like too is that casman is very he's like the dark mysterious you know quote unquote man a few words it's like he's not given up a whole lot of information about himself he's not you know that type of guy whereas like then you have Leo on the other hand who she goes you know to the castle to one of these you know balls or parties or whatever that they have to do and they obviously have a connection and like each other too yeah he's a little bit more you come to find out like heart on the sleeve but he's also human you know what I mean so I think he's a little bit more vulnerable yeah as a person he's one of those like yeah he's not going to just open up to anybody but when you're in he's going to tell you everything and UST his heart with youh yeah and I think that's why I liked Leo's character because I you know you guys know me like if he is a golden retriever I'm getting KCK out if he's telling us too much about his feelings I'm getting Ked out like if he's too nice I cannot deal with it and I'm just like e no get away but like I felt like Leo was a good balance he was a good balance of yeah like I don't know just being it's like hard to even describe his personality because it's just like once you read it you're like Leo's just Leo it makes sense he's just himself but like at the same time he is guarded because he has had trauma of his own mhm um and so he's not just too like forthcoming and like emotionally dumping on her either yeah yeah which I liked sure yeah definitely a good balance for him so we end up in a love triangle that's what happens yeah that's as you do as you do you end up yeah you've got like who do I choose do I choose this bass list shifter snake dude or do I choose the you know the safe choice I would say which is the obviously the Prince and they both they all love each other I mean cine and Leo don't love each other but you know what I mean they both love her what I thought was unique about the story too is that they both love her and they know about each other because of this whole process yeah so this is not like a secret like so you don't get that kind of icky feeling because everybody's open about everything so it's very different than other books that try to like do that kind of love trial situation there's no hidden anything she's very open and forthcoming about her feelings cuz she's talks about why shouldn't I be you know this is just the my human human nature and you know we find out later vasist nature about her so yeah let's talk about some of these twists the first twist is caspen does have feelings for her and has gifted her an engagement lanyard necklace well okay I was like what are you going to talk about are you going to talk about the claw are you going to talk about there's L there's lots of twists and turns in this one just like a snake would you know so you got to know that yeah he gives her a few things so well there's a few connections they have so he gives her the claw if you know you know there's only it's a very unique uh it's the claw it's the claw you're scared the claw no I mean it's great good for her good for her sounds fun sounds fun um but yeah so he gives her this claw but then also yeah he gifts her this necklace that's made from his blood that is also in the form of a claw um and you find out that it's basically like when a basilis gifts that to someone it's like you're proposing to them yeah but he didn't she doesn't know that right away until later and then she's like oh whoa whoo whoa yeah she's like oh great that would have been nice to know that you proposed to me I didn't mean to know that and he's like well it's because it's too complicated and then we find out why but yeah so but then they also have like a mind to mind connection M as well so that's really cool they find out essentially through the claw right something like that like they you know things were going on I'm just picturing Jim Cary yeah great that makes it creepy that makes it creepy ruined it for everyone you're welc sorry sorry about that um but yeah so yeah I think that they do figure that that out but basically they have this like mind to- mind connection they can communicate they can talk to each other mhm um you know she ends up telling Leo about that he's obviously jealous I think that's also the thing that I love is that cman is jealous Leo is jealous clearly they are however they're able to like put on their big boy pants and say oh this was a situation that Society at large has put Tim in yeah this was not and like of course you're going to have feelings you know catch feelings yeah and it's like this is obviously a special situation because we do find out that t is half basisk mhm but still even so it's like can we really blame any of the people involved for the outcome when you're literally creating this circumstance for everyone they're both very respectful of her boundaries too yeah you know so appreciate that I really liked it cuz I was like the you know I'm just so used to reading books where you know the touch her and die Vibes are strong you know and I feel like there were touch her and vibes die Vibes in this book but it wasn't towards each other like caspen was not that way towards Leo and Leo wasn't that way towards cman but they were both very protective of her and I I liked that a lot I was like but it was very unexpected I was like oh no when's one of them going to like try to kill the other one or you know whatever and that just never happened so I thought that was cool yeah yeah pretty unique yeah cuz they have the self-awareness to know that like well if I do that then I don't get her at all because she's going to freaking be pissed at me for killing the other one yeah cuz she's in love it was good it was it was it was very well done love triangle 100% yeah yeah yeah it was like and if you have the Kindle copy or you have uh the paperback there is a bonus chapter that's called The Challenger scene at the end of the book um which I guess we can I'm like are we allowed to talk about that I think we're allowed to talk about that cuz we're in the spoiler section right like we can tell we can tell the people what it's about so basically it's like a bonus scene if um you know Leo caspen and Tim all had some sexy time together yeah all three of them so enjoy that like yeah what that would look like yeah and I felt like it was all written very like respectfully for everyone involved well and I really like how she plugs it in like this is where I would have put it within the story so if you would like to you know kind of remodel the story in your mind cuz I was honestly waiting for it I was like you know from what I've seen from Lindsay on her Instagram I'm like oh that's for sure what's going to happen yeah and it didn't so I was kind of shocked but then it it does potentially and I feel like it would whether you have that in or not it perfectly makes sense how it continues on after does that make sense like towards the ending and everything like it all the dynamic doesn't change in my mind for the story it's just you know a little treat she gave you guys little sprinkle sprinkle a little sprinkle sprinkle yeah a little wide shoes sprinkle sprinkle so all right how did you feel about the ritual I love that you're asking me this cuz that was clearly my favorite part okay so yeah so here's the thing I I think I DMD this to Lindsay at one point where I was like why choose Leo or caspen when bastion's an option like I don't understand like my brain is short circuiting like if I was T I would have been like sorry both of you yeah like I am now the serpent queen I am married daddy Bastion like it just is what it is um so I I was here for the ritual through and through I thought it was genius I I did not see it coming I was like no well cuz the whole okay so the ritual right is what um so okay let's back up let's back up for a second okay so C gives T the necklace she doesn't know it's a him asking her to marry her you know so she finds this out and she's like well why wouldn't you just ask me like hello you know and he's like well because you know the baselet are pretty particular we have different rituals and in order for you to be accepted as my fiance and therefore future bride you have to have sex with my dad like what yeah and I did not see that coming at all I had no clue that was going to be a thing and I was like mind blown I'm like oh my gosh this is happening yeah so I'm thinking there's going to be like some way that they're going to get out of it because that just seems like I don't want to say too unhinged cuz there's truly nothing that I've read in a dark romance it's too unhinged but like I don't know man I don't know how's this going to go down and not only is it like a ritual where she has to sleep with his dad but everyone is watching yeah I didn't think it was going to go that extreme you know I was like okay you know that's you know but yeah everybody's there too so it's m multi-elemental yeah multidimens that's not the right word multidimensional multi so yeah so I mean but but you know it happens and you get to read about it such as the Basilisk way it is and that's what they say she triumphs and he gives them their his Blessing and that and it works out what it just continues on you think that's it no it just keeps going it does keep going well but here's the thing the way the Bastion is described okay and I was like why is there not more about him the fact that he okay the fact that he dies I was so bummed cuz I was like this has to be going somewhere like H I was so sad about it and he dies in like this horrible way too like super gory like horrible way um but yeah it's like in that moment you know where she she's describing what Bastion looks like I'm like oh so he looks like caspen but older and hotter yeah like I'm sorry like is this why is this a choice so anyways yeah I the ritual is my probably my favorite part I'm you know um moment of silence for Bastion rest rest in peace rest in peace yeah even though he's a little bit of a POS you know but that's all right yeah but you know but at the same time it's like was he yeah but at the same time he was upholding like pretty ancient Traditions so such as the masc way such as the basus way I mean that's one of the themes though is like you know just because it has been done it doesn't need to continue to be done there can be better ways to do things and we can evolve and grow as people or snakes or snakes we shed that skin move on yep so yeah so after that what happens Liz what happens I mean we already kind of talked about it t finds out that she's half Lisk so that's obviously really important she uh you know the crest becomes the solution so she's supposed to infiltrate you know the human Court um you know at the wedding because you know Leo's choosing her then she's supposed to cross the royal family which is basically like brainwashing them I don't even really know like turning them into like a kind of cant just chill zombie who's just like willing to do whatever you want kind of a thing it's almost like what the Blood Oath would do on throat of glass right with mave like they tell you to do something you H can't you have to do it you can't refuse it but I feel like the Blood Oath was a little bit different because it's like um you know they would kind of like like mentally they didn't always agree with what she was saying I feel like the crest was a little bit different because it's like you're blissfully unawares that you age it it's kind like you're just like like they want me to do this okay great you know what I mean um so she's supposed to do that to the whole Roy royal family she's like absolutely not I'm not doing that to Leo or his sister or her kids I'll do it to the other people though that's fine so make that agreement make that agreement um and that was interesting to like see how that was going to unfold cuz I was like how is she going to all this how her cake can heat it too you know yeah so she it was beautifully done it was yeah so I feel like you know at the end you end up with this really interesting scene where she essentially crests herself yep which I thought because she's well you have yeah it's it's a whole bunch but yeah before that cuz well caspin rips Rose you know nether regions off and then because he tried to Crest her so then something happens to caspen right and then he has to Crest Tim because he's dying uhuh but then in turn that bassless side of them he's dying and then she's dying so she's like oh crap and this crazy scene is unfolding Bastion is Bastion I have so it's so hard for me to read these names and then start saying them out loud so I often times will stutter over and stumble over my name well especially because like in creson City it is Bax gen so it's confusing is that what I'm mixing it up as yeah and then I think I must I keep calling Casp and Caspian cuz that just flows off my tongue I think easier but anyways so yeah you have all his threats being made and that moment that she realizes that she has the power to heal herself golden guys Golden Girls Golden Girls Game Changer it was great yeah so yeah so you have just like this Mayhem like before she can even like crust the Royals right it's like she's basically going to try to do it and then all these basilisks overtake the ceremony essentially and start killing all the humans yeah and it's crazy it's a blood bath it's crazy like the way it was described was just like literally body parts flying freaking everywhere just well we found out too at one point that they were like we actually could be in control like the mirrors don't do anything we just let them think that well because they don't do anything when they're in their human form they only do anything when they're in their B hum were too dummies to like realize that and her dad is in the dungeons exactly okay so that is a pivotal moment in time I think when yeah she chooses to tell Leo that her dad well first of all she tells Leo that she's half bass Lisk also P.S my father is a prisoner that you're keeping that your dad is keeping under the castle with the rest of the bassists where they're like essentially mining them for gold from their blood yeah and she's entrusting him with that information with the hopes that he will understand that that's morally reprehensible and choose to change this moving forward and he does so I was like wow I was really impressed that he was so open to that hearing her out yeah yeah for sure and accepting it because I mean they're pretty much like you know they're trained to believe that the basilisks are not you know that they're they're not people but and they're below them too below them I think that's a good way to put it she said there's also very like with her being low in society within her own town there's a lot of social hierarchy at play as well and themes within this book yeah yeah yeah so kind of in that final scene you know she has to Crest Leo yeah and I think that that was a really cool moment where I didn't expect it to go that direction but I thought it was really cool and that's what I meant earlier when I said kind of like getting into your feels is this idea that you know she knew that Leo had this first love MH that his dad forbade him from being with and you know this haunted Leo his whole life he's just heartbroken over this he still goes to the their special tree every day for that's so sad and you know rather than choosing to you know selfishly keep him T crests Leo and then orders him to go find his first love to be with her yeah and I'm like what a what an ending like what a way to you know so it's like you know she's still going to be with caspen they're going to be happily together you know caspen is now the serpent King because he murdered his dad in this crazy way yeah um and so they're going to be together and like you know hopefully lead the basilisks into this like future you know different way of being in conjunction with Leo who also is going to lead the humans or at least we're assuming at this point into a better way of being as well where everyone can kind of coexist yeah with each other so I thought that was a really good a really good ending yeah I did not see the ending coming at all I did not know I was like yeah during that whole like the you know love triangle how is this going to play out because not at that point once you get the love triangle builtup you also have this hierarchy at Play Between the bassists and the humans and then the you know bassas being used for parts and salvaged their whatever and I just didn't I'm like how is she going to connect all of this together and I think it was just it was so well done and it was so whoa crazy what's going on it's like just what I like in an ending well I was kind of like logistically wondering cuz I mean Leo says you know even if I could only have you part of the time like I still want you and basically caspen says the same thing but I'm thinking okay but how is she going to be like the serpent Queen and then also like the human Queen at the same time like that doesn't really I don't know how they would make that work so I felt like that was a really good socially exactly like they might have been able are totally against each other yeah so yeah so who knows what will happen with with them in the future yeah with any future stories we're not sure yet but yeah I feel like it leaves it open to the potential of a sequel but also wraps up nicely if that's something that you like yeah for sure for sure oh and then her mom and dad getting reunited at the end was like so cool yeah I loved that so much that was really nice yeah and talk I definitely you know seriously I'm sure you already listened to the interview but if you haven't yet like you know Lindsay goes into the the conversation that ttim had with her mom you know towards the end and that was such a meaningful special moment for her to write and I think it was beautiful to read too so definitely check that out yeah there's definitely some healing elements involved self-healing self-discovery stuff involved within this book lots of themes you can't even sum them up in just a few tropes you know because she just really did a great job storytelling making it all together yeah yeah I think that it was a really like overall I think the biggest theme that I took away from it was this idea that you know it's like Lindsay said in the interview women aren't really taught to put our own you know needs first let alone our own pleasure first and so I think it's this idea that like I'm not going to just be a pawn in this game yeah between these two men or a snake and a man um I am going to you know grow into my power and learn how to make this work for me too MH and I thought that was really cool I think that's something that they both liked about her too is that she demanded the same you know pleasure and respect and everything that they demand and that's another reason why like with the challenge or whatever for the for Leo the bachelor contest for Leo you know is that she's advocating for herself much different than the other girls are just throwing themselves at them so MH yeah yeah it's cool absolutely very well done I know I think that that pretty much sums that up so do you want to do our little announcement now before we get into our Smasher passes yeah you guys if you stuck around this long listen to us ramble on about all these fun things we talked about we are doing a giveaway just for you guys who stuck around all right so it's secret we're not posting this anywhere secret serpent giveaway yeah what are we giving away Liz we're giving away a copy of splitter swallow which I'm like where is it oh it's back here so we will be giving away a paperback copy of obviously this book that we have been talking about um but you will have had to make it to the section to know about it cuz like I said we're not posting about it anywhere else and what did you say DM us on Instagram because YouTube makes it really hard to reach out to people so sorry you're if you want to enter you do have to go to our DMS and DM us a snake just Dam a snake Emoji gift whatever and we'll know we'll know who it is and we'll put put all your names in a hat and pick something you know yeah and um that's bess's in the books podcast so go check it out even if you have a copy already still enter Because you can gift one holidays are coming what better time than now to gift your mother a little spicy snake book you know or you know you know gift it gift it along pass it along even if you don't need it if you already have you I was thinking about that when we were when we were doing the interview uh you know cuz I did ask we asked a question about like what Lindsay's family and people that she know in she knows in real life think about this book and you know she said everyone in her life's been really supportive her mom read the whole thing and you know I that got me kind of thinking in that moment like you know I've suggested tons of books to my mom but I always suggest the ones that you know are very very neutral like nothing with like too much romance in it and I'm like I wonder what my mom would do if I was like you know what you should read this book like and she finally picks one and that's the one you know what I mean I'm like I don't know know like would she secretly be like loving it and not telling you or would she like be like a Liz you know I have no I honestly have not the slightest idea how she would respond no clue no clue um but yeah so just go to yeah B's in the books podcast on Instagram us uh yeah sneak Emoji or something like that we'll know who you are and then we will send you a book if you're the winner yeah us only please just cuz we're shipping direct from Amazon and uh we'll run this for a week so this goes up on a Tuesday we will pick a winner you know by next Tuesday keep it Tuesdays keep it cool see you next Tuesday always all around okay so well okay we're going to do smash or pass but I have to know because we didn't talk about it like obviously know I'm team Bastion if I can't have Bastion cman will do I guess yeah um so who are you you know something I've had us think a lot about cuz there's pros and cons to both of them and indeed I just think that I would have to go with Leo ah yeah what a surprise I know I surprised myself with that one yeah why because caspen doesn't talk enough like I don't know I need somebody a little bit more open than that I guess you know I'm like I'm like thinking I don't feel like C has any humor either so tot and Leo definitely you know so we know who you will pick but let's be clear shall we who would you pick I mean OB what do you mean Casp yeah and I was going to say no backaction yeah he's gone he got his yeah he got his head RS off sorry yeah he's gone um no I would definitely pick caspen it's like as you're describing him you're like he doesn't talk that much I'm like yeah that's like my husband he he has you know he's got a sense of humor but it's kind of like very very deep in there also my husband I'm like yeah it makes perfect sense it really truly does yeah I mean also the fact that he's like 300 years old Works in his favor for sure yeah yeah that that almost is what made me go to the other side you know I'm like oh Leo's pretty young though he is he's like he's like also early 20s if I were Tim no if I were Tim I would have still picked caspen because she's she we don't know about the Half Breed she could live a lot longer and I just always feel like so sad for those uh connections when one is mortal and one is not because yeah it's like an Aragorn situation it's a heart p on your heart it always does so I'm just like you got to just go with the last heartbreak oh yeah but you but you did like Leo better interesting yeah I think I just I can't get past the the he gives Dorian see that's why that's kind of why I like him yeah because I do like Doran I like him at first but by the end which is exactly what Leo did to me so Leo's just missing some special powers so I've got respect for Dorian yeah because he has potential with his little Shadows but yeah he just never really like did it for me like he's a cool guy and I'd be his friend but yeah he's he's just never my favorite yeah controversial take because of the gold but I do like Leo's gold fangs gold tipped fangs I'm like that's pretty cool she'll take well because you know well B Karm I know bass Karm we'll give him the benefit of the doubt though maybe he got that gold from somewhere else yeah we don't know we don't know for sure I I would say out of everything about Leo I think that yeah the gold fangs were the best part yeah definitely for sure mhm y I mean also his personality but mostly the yeah okay so why don't you go first with no I think I'm going to go first with smash or pass this week all right that feels right to you do it okay so I thought that this was really timely because I actually saw Lindsay at Oxford lemon posting a bunch of stuff about this today and I was like oh my gosh we have we have not done this before so hers hers was it was the inspiration for this today um so you have to pick one okay are you picking Mary Pippen Sam or froda gross gross was not not expeced that okay um okay okay I know I know um I think it's Mary he's the one that was in lost right his name in life like Daman well I'll pop a picture up of the one I'm talking about looking little guy Mary from I always I mean I always mix up Mary and Pippen obviously but I'm pretty sure it's Mary okay I'm just going to make sure so I don't know yeah Dominic monigan is that who you're talking about that's the one and fun fact I actually actually served him one day back when I was a server yep he was nice his friend left no tip but it wasn't his fault oh my gosh jeez I'm just calling people out as he's watching but I hope he's watching and he feels bad about it yeah he was great they're fun I didn't like make I didn't even talk about it or anything I was just normal server but I was like oh that's pretty cool and he was a good-looking dude so yeah okay cool and he and he was nice and he had an accent so I mean hello there you go in real life so he didn't have a fake photo he didn't have a fake Hobbit accent yeah he was super nice so this is very biased but even still if I had never met them in real life I would still pick him just cuz he's the silly fun one I guess I froto is a little traumatized at this point he seems like he needs some some work done Sam I honestly feel like you know I don't know if he's interested in girls at the end of the day I think he really loves froto you know I so Justice for Sam I wish he could be with him you know yeah I mean but froto is like insufferable so I don't know I don't know if is a hard no Pippen's the bottom of the list if we were doing a ranking system here okay but who would you choose that's so funny because hippen is probably my the one I would choose why I don't know he because he's Scottish he has like a real Scottish accent so I'm like all right yeah I mean he looks like he's probably actually short though so I don't know that's the thing I think they all are so maybe Sam no I think he might be I don't know well they all have like one thing going for them so we have to just pick out of the one thing sorry guys but do you wear wigs ah sorry it just popped in my so okay so we're going with okay mine would be like Pippen Mary Sam and then Frodo last I can't deal with froto like I justnot all right ranking so Mary ah Sam I guess he'd be a good caretaker um froto Pippen yeah froto and then Pippen last well hey say it's all right opposites ATT trct I don't know opposites attct he'd be a good caretaker it's true it's true would be a good caretaker like you know yeah yeah he'd be with you to the very end very end yeah just hopefully he can just put his love of froto in like transfer it into me I'll just pretend I'll wear a wig do thr a wig you know it's arranged marriage you got to do what you got to do help a help a sister out I'm just picturing you with a froto wig on that's just fun fun it's just funny anyway oh yeah we have a we have a treat for Halloween you guys with something to do with that so stay tuned I'm yeah yeah yeah stay T I don't want to give away too much about that but little treat for people that stayed this long okay so my Smasher pass for you cuz we got to know I got to know for you I got to know for the people all the things all right Mr Clean I thought you I thought you were going to say Mr Rogers and I was like that is a for sure pass well we got to put that in there sometime Mr Clean can I Google him really quick cuz I don't really remember he's just like this bald guy right I mean yeah he need dances with the mob and stuff in a way there's been commercials about him when we were doing the Lyn truffle Guy this is like I thought of this one I was like okay commercial guys well we have an answer H it's going to be a pass and you want to know why earring I just remembered earring he's got an earring and I can't deal the white eyebrows they're fine the bald head I don't really love that but it's okay and he's buff so that's cool what I can't deal with is the earring that's a deal breaker for me why does he have an earring that's so weird that's is really weird okay Mark Mark our words put this down in your notepad one day the Medela effect's going to happen and he's not going to have an earring and they're going to try to make us all think that he never had an earring because that's this is a weird choice but guess what you guys he has an earring I'm just calling I'm calling now in a lot of these photos too like it's not just an earring but it's like GLE it's like gleaming it's like there's like it's glinting light off of the earring you know what I mean so they're making it a point to like make the earring extra Cleanin extra clean extra shiny yeah yeah so that's going to be a no from me but you know that's okay what about you yeah pass pass yeah yeah yeah pass it's a super shiny head for me but it doesn't too too clean yeah yeah all right there we go there you go guys let us know on this weekend your answers I'm sure people will be coming out of the woodwork for Mr Clean also I'm curious to see out of the core for Hobbits M who wins yeah I have an inkling that froto is going to come in last place yeah cuz he's just it's rough it's hard times with him it's hard times for him yeah yeah yeah yeah so you heard it here first though and that's what's important yeah so you guys dude thank you so much for tuning in for this second round of split and swallow thank you so much we appreciate you guys tuning in every week with us don't forget we post on Friday's two little bonus Series right now we're doing Harry Potter and we have a new series coming up soon which if we haven't announced yet soon we will because I don't even know when this is going to get posted so that's great make sure to follow like And subscribe all the places you like to list to your favorite podcast so you don't miss out on all those things and follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok at bess's in the books podcast so you can vote in these polls guys yeah we need to know we need to know I'm about to get real weird so we got to go of the day we'll see you next Tuesday or next Friday or both of those days and all the days and all the days see you there guys bye bye[Music]