Ep 75 Behind the Mic w/ Book Club After Dark 🌙📚 | Bookish Pet Peeves, Origin Story, + more!

In this spoiler-free collab episode, we sit down with the brilliant duo behind Book Club After Dark and bring you a whole lot of fun (and some serious tea 😏) on our very first podcast collaboration episode with Danni and Michelle over at the Book Club After Dark Podcast! 

Where to find them:

YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@Bookclubafterdark

All Podcast Platforms | @ Book Club After Dark

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bookclubafterdarkpod?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

We are so excited to have these ladies on! If you don’t already listen, we know you’ll absolutely love their bookish content. They’ve covered everything from The Crowns of Nyaxia Series by Carissa Broadbent, to Quicksilver, The Empyrean, and now Twilight! So… basically everything we love! This episode will be completely spoiler free, so feel free to stick around as we get to know the creators of Book Club After Dark! We’ll yap all about what inspired them to start their podcast, how they met, what their favorite books are, and then get into each of our top bookish pet peeves! 

Does Tamlin deserve a redemption arc? What constitutes a special edition? Should all bookstores have a romance section? Is it a pet peeve when our books don’t match? Listen on to find out our thoughts on these popular bookish problems! 

Book Club After Dark describe their vibe as an inviting, moonlit podcast where they break down fantasy, romantasy, & thriller novels; all things enchanting, intriguing & suspenseful. Each of their episodes feature intimate discussions on captivating stories, character breakdowns, fan theories, & much more. They invite you to throw on your sweats, grab your comfort drink, & unwind every Thursday for a brand new episode!  

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

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of Split or Swallow! Now a Barnes & Noble & Amazon best seller titled: Kiss of the Basilisk!  https://youtu.be/fknhocSNIKM

Shop bookish apparel worn in this episode!

Ashley is Wearing:  “The Thirteen” Throne of Glass tee @thebeanworkshop Use code BOOKBESTIES10 to save! | * https://www.thebeanworkshop.store/BOOKBESTIES10

Liz is Wearing:  “Books Are Trashy” tank @darkanddisturbedshop | Use code VEGAN10 to save! | https://darkanddisturbedshop.com/products/trashy-micro-rib-racer-tank-top?_pos=2&_sid=331d95e20&_ss=r

Any link with an * is an affiliate link thru the service Magic Links and is eligible for a commission to us with no extra cost to you. T

YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Podcast Platforms
@BestiesandtheBooksPodcast

Besties and the Book Club on Fable!
https://fable.co/bestiesandthebookclub-474863489358

Liz
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Ashley
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@AshleyEllix

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Besties and the Books
• 2:00 About Book Club After Dark Podcast
• 4:05 Favs and Fails starting a Book Podcast
• 8:30 Get to Know Book Club After Dark Q&A
• 54:19 Bookish Pet Peeves
• 1:14:40 Unhinged Smash or Pass

Transcript

0:00

I love Quicksilver. When people were mentioning it, I was like, "Oh, what did you think about this?" And I was like,"Really?" I pictured like the National Lamp version of Hunger Games. Yeah, I am a sucker for good redemption art. And he hates it. Jigsaw versus the Terrifier. You got to pick one.[Music] Hey everyone, I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz. And this is the Besties in the Books podcast. our very first podcast collaboration episode with the wonderful Danny and Michelle over at the Book Club After Dark podcast. We're so excited. So, we're so excited to bring these ladies on. If you don't already listen, we know you'll absolutely love their bookish content. They've covered everything from the Crowns of Naxia series by Cararissa Broadbent to Quicksilver, The Imperion, now they're doing Twilight. So you guys know everything that we love, everything that you guys love, we know that you'll be into it. So feel free to stick around for this completely spoiler-free episode. Um, if you guys are interested in getting to know the creators of Book Club After Dark, we'll yap all about what inspired them to start their podcast, what their favorite books are, and then we will get into what our bookish pet peeves are. So I'm really excited to talk about that. But before we get into that, we just want to say thank you so much for being here. Seriously, thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day and your book to listen on in and find out all about this awesome podcast. We're so excited to have them today. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcasts, including YouTube. And you can find Book Club After Dark Podcast over on Instagram as well and YouTube and also anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast. So, give them a follow there. We will also be having a collab episode with them in the future. So, make sure those notifications are turned on. That way you get notified when that episode goes out as well. Super exciting. Yeah. So, just a couple more things um about Book Club After Dark before we bring them on. So, Danny and Michelle launched their podcast in October of 2024. They describe their vibe as an inviting moonlight podcast where they break down fantasy, romanty, and thriller novels. All things enchanting, intriguing, and suspenseful. So, each episode offers an intimate discussion on captivating stories, character breakdowns, fan theories, and much more. Throw on your sweats, grab your comfort drink, and unwind. They have new episodes every Thursday. And let's welcome Danny and Michelle on. Welcome. Welcome. Hi. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much for coming. I don't know. You pretty much knocked out our intro. Like, you just like nailed it. Like I feel like you just come be a night owl. Like I feel like it just works out really well. It was awesome. It was so good. Ashley, you by by you know by association. Come on too. You just did a great job. I mean but it was just awesome. I'm excited to uh be on another podcast. That's exciting for us because I feel like we're often having guests on. So it's really excited to be part of someone else's show. So thank you so much for inviting us to be here. We're really excited. Yeah, definitely. We're excited to It's kind of like your co-workers in a way. Well, no, it's not co-workers. What is it called? We're like, you know, we're in the same industry. So, industry friends, you know, so it's like, hey, what we're talking about tech issues ahead of the time uh filming this, you know, as you guys all know, we complain about. So, it's like camaraderie. It's like, hey, you know, what issues are we having this week? Cuz they're they happen constantly. They do. You know what it reminds me of? Yeah. It reminds me of industry night. I was a server in college and so like industry night is usually like on a Monday night, you know, and everyone like goes out for drinks and stuff because that's the night that you're vibing with all the people that are finally not at work. You have a night off and it's like this is our night off with our fellow podcasts and we're doing our our thing together. So, it's pretty fun. Yeah, totally. Totally. I love it. All right, so we're going to just get right down to it. On our podcast over here, we like to throw each other on the spot and do a fave and fail every week. Sometimes different themes. So for you guys, we decided to ask you what your fave and fail is about starting Book Club After Dark. So maybe like what the hardest thing would be, you know, as a fail or just like, you know, tech fails that have happened or like what's your favorite thing? Michelle, you go first. You want me to go first? Okay. Okay. So favorite thing obviously um I get to talk books with Danny. Me and Danny go way back before uh we were moms. We were dog moms way, you know, was that 2018. Uh we met on a Instagram dog mom group. So we get we had our own inerson book club and now I just get to talk books with her all the time. So that's obviously my favorite part of being in book club after dark that we just kind of you know have this really strong friendship. Uh fail is anything technology. basically anything technology um and just figuring out you know the editing process you know it's kind of like you trial and error you make it you fake it till you make it ultimately so that has been you know I guess a fail with that couple of late nights right panics yeah yeah I would say yeah early mornings for sure I think my favorite thing about starting this is um I went to film school so and I hadn't gone and done anything with that in such a long long time and I just had talked to Michelle we talked you know about it for a while and I was saying to her it would be really fun to try it I have some background in it we can see you know what we can do can we get started is this something like real that we can do and I think the the best part about it is the same thing I'll echo Michelle's sentiment is being able to watch ourselves grow. But I think the best best thing so far has been able to we launched in October of 2024 and to see kind of where we're at in less than a year is really incredible. All the people that we've already got to talk to, the relationships we've got to build. Um the things we've got to talk about that related to other people. I I think that relationship building is kind of something we were really looking forward to in starting the show to begin with. Um because a big reason we started it was we would have such low intermittent attendance in our book club because folks just have lives and things happen and you couldn't meet up and these things would happen and we're like man be nice if we had like some more consistency where people could like go that was virtual and and talk in a different way and and so that part for me has definitely been the the biggest uh fave part of of it is for sure is just um realizing that I think the biggest fail was kind of underestimating How much of that would be like learning how to social media? Um, I didn't realize like the level of like the amount I have learned about reals in the last like however many months is just probably more knowledge than I ever cared to know. Um, I have learned a lot about social media. I did not realize the level of social media marketing management that would go on behind the scenes. Um, so that that has definitely had its learning curve for sure. It's been fun. I'm glad that I've learned it, but um yeah, there's there's a lot a lot of posting. There's a lot of marketing that goes behind this. And there it's it's a tremendous amount of work that that we put in. And I know you ladies do too. And and it's um I think most folks don't really see that. They see what comes out, but they don't realize like how many hours, how much time, how much love is put into each and every episode that we all do and how much thought behind it goes in. So, I wouldn't say that's necessarily a fail. More of just like a learning curve as you go. And I think any any big venture you go into is going to have those types of learning curves. So, it's just I wouldn't say a fail. I think a fail is always like necessary. You can't have success without failure. So, I think it's been a key ingredient, but yeah, always learning, growing, trying to get better. Totally. Totally. That's what we always say around here, too. We're like, we call it a fail, but most of the time it's not. You know, at the end of the day, it's not. Yeah. But I love that. So, I mean, the next thing that we wanted to know was like how you guys met and then how this podcast came to be. So, you've already kind of answered that a little bit, but you said that you guys met on a dog mom group on Instagram. Yeah, it was the Orlando dog mom group um on Instagram. Some random group. I had just moved to the Orlando area and um I just got a dog and so I'm like, I need friends. Um, and we we joined it and we just we just clicked a lot and we were the last two in the group who actually still live in Orlando. Everyone else moved away. So, um, and then we went through motherhood together. Um, so that was 2018. you know, COVID was a trying time, especially with like social groups and everything and we just really um got a strong bond there and then motherhood and then our book book uh book club that we had in person. So, and then we just like Danny said, we just had really struggling um turnout consistently. Like at first it was great and then there would be just a couple of people and we wanted to do something where we could, you know, reach more people and have more of those conversations and it didn't have to be a set time. It could be on your time cuz it's it's hard being an adult and having free time is just what what is free time. Good luck. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And I think that what was crazy was at the time like we both had puppies and so we were trying to get our dogs more socialized and that's how we joined the the the dog mom group and um not to get heavy but I feel like you know you guys are already so comforting at this point that I'm just going to spill the beans. I uh I was going through a loss. So, my husband and I um had a a trying time having our son. And so, I was actually going through a loss and I was looking for um some some more companionship. And I was like, I got to get this puppy out of the house. We're going through this really really difficult time. And Michelle and I just had like, you know, when you meet somebody and you kind of feel like you already knew them and it kind of just feels like that organic the conversation like we would have subtle pauses and it never felt like forced. I could just not talk for a while and it was not weird. You know what I mean? Like these kind of awkward things where it's like it wasn't awkward and that's like that friendship just kind of clicks really naturally. I feel like Michelle and I kind of had had that for years and it made some of the trying times that both of us have gone through through motherhood for through postpartum through COVID. We both had our our kids through a co a trying time with co and just all that. We were just such good friends through all of that that it kind of made sense when it was like if we're going to try and start a business to really grow something substantial that's longlasting like you want to build that with somebody that you've known and know you can trust and can be there through the kind of thick and thin that's dependable that can really be something lasting. And I think that that's where when we talked about it, it just made sense that we could do book club after dark and really like have the each other's backs because it's hard. You know that things happen, people don't show up that you ask to come on, things change, schedule changes, times change, life happens. And like having someone that's your co-host that's super dependable has just been like it's been great. I I really feel like that's Yeah. Well, I was kind of and I'm pointing to to Ashley and Liz. I'm sure that they can relate heavily to that that and like kind of back at you. I'm like turning the question around like what about I would love to know that about you all like what what um that has to be there for you to feel be successful in your show as well is that level of trust between each other. Yeah. I mean just as you were like saying that I'm like great I'm going to like get emotional about this. Like it's so true. I'm sorry. It's totally it's good, you know, it's good to be genuine and real here and we welcome it. But yeah, I mean Ashley and I go way back to the ninth grade, you know, so we've been working on projects together since then. So I feel like it just you know life kind of sent us in like we were always close but I you know we moved to opposite sides of California and so you know we didn't see each other in person as often and you know college happens trade school happens kids happen and I feel like this was our way of kind of coming back together and you're absolutely right like finding that person that like literally yeah you can depend on through thick and thin. Like sometimes I even tell my husband like you realize Ashley's been around longer than you, right? Like a lot longer than you. Yeah, but it's true. That's by ninth grade. That's crazy. I don't think it is crazy. I don't talk to anyone from high school. That's amazing that you guys have been friends for that long. It's one of those like yeah we always I mean being in almost all the same we came from a very small town so we were always mostly in the same classes together working on projects like she said and we always work so effortlessly together it's easy basically how you were describing the relationship's always been easy there's no awkward silences if we're silent we're just we just don't feel like talking right now and there's nothing weird about it you know it's like we're just vibing you know where some people have to fill the room all the time which is okay but it just depends on the personality and the needs So, it's always been easy. It's just been, you know, so when we decided to do this podcast, Yeah. it's like one of those, you know, they people, oh, are you sure you want to, you know, work with your friend? And it's like, oh yeah, this is like the only person I could know I could consistently work with and it's easy. So, yeah, we can relate to everything you guys said for sure. 100%. Mhm. Oh, that's awesome. All right. So, well, I mean going out there and meeting people that feels like this tells me the answer, but maybe not. Introvert or extrovert? What are you guys? Oh, introverted. I am so introverted and I find myself in these extroverted situations. I'm like, how did I get here and why? Um, I have to recharge a lot and even like in person events, you can kind of see like Danny's an introvert too, but she extroverts a lot more and you'll kind of see like the difference in dynamic when she's in situations. She like talks and like is like really like outgoing and I'm very much an observer and then I'll chime in. But yeah, so I I need a lot of time to recharge socially after events and everything. Yeah. So introverted. I can relate for sure. I'm an introvert too. However, it's funny cuz I don't see myself that way. The way she just described me, but she's watching me. So, if you saw a video of yourself on the outside, like you're you're which is great because I'm very much like when I'm meeting new people, I'm very calm and I'm very like, you know, feeding off of their vibe and you're like, I'm going to control the vibe instead. So, Oh, it's not a bad thing. I think it's like a It's probably just a very type A thing. I just kind of like to I want to know where it's going to go. And so like I just I'm like, "Okay, what's the expectation here? Let me figure it out." And then which is also kind of an introverted thing because I want to exit from it, but I also want to get to know you. So it's very weird. It's like I do want to meet you. I want to get to know you, but I'm also so get I kind of get drained by the social element. I get tired from it. I I want I want to meet everyone who wants to meet us. And it it we had an event at Speaking of We had an event at the end of um June and it was amazing. Uh, it was for Quicksilver and we had this great Quicksilver event and I think this exact thing happened that Michelle's saying is like I kind of had a tendency to just like talk and I think that's like my coping mech mechanism in the situation. I feel like you either like you know go turtle you go in or you you're just like I don't know whatever the opposite of turtle is the hair you're just out there. So that's that's me. I'm just out there trying to mop around until I figure Yeah. Yeah. like I don't Yeah, it's a little bookish throwback. Um it's like I don't I just I'm trying to figure it out as I'm going through it and like what the expectation is and there's just way too many thoughts happening at the time. So it's like I just it's a lot. See, it's only been a lot to explain to you. Like that's what's happening. There's too much happening. Maybe it depends on the situation cuz I'm very situational, you know? I'm mostly an introvert, but if I'm comfortable in the situation, you wouldn't know that. Yeah, you would describe me as extroverted in that time. I mean, we went to a romanty book con in LA this year and I was, you know, talking to people and stuff and more outgoing. Um, but in the dayto-day, I'm not talking. I'm like, yeah, I'm very turtling, you know, so I get that. Hard to explain, but yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing is like I love Quicksilver. So, when people were mentioning it, I was like, "Oh, what did you think about this?" And I was like,"Really?" Now, I'm like leaning in. I'm like, "Really? I didn't think about that. That's amazing. And then it was just like you just start to like talk to people more because it's something you love and you already know that they love that thing, too, cuz that's why they're there. So, it's kind of like the same thing. It's like I get I get what you're saying, Ashley. It like comes out of you because you're just you're both already excited about the thing, whatever the thing is. So, you're sharing this common this common bond already from the jump. Yeah. Makes sense. I know this. Go ahead, Liz. No, I was just going to say I know for me, I struggle if the conversation isn't organic. Like I think that's what the difference is is like I'm very introverted and I'm exactly like Michelle was saying like I am the quiet observer. So some people are like is she okay? And I'm like yeah I'm just like literally just chilling and like watching everything pan out, you know? Um but yeah, it's like what you were saying. If I'm really into the topic of conversation or someone mentions something that I'm really excited about, then the conversation just flows super easily and you wouldn't even know that I'm introverted. But then I'll go back to lurking like after that conversation stops. You know what I mean? She said lurking. Yeah, for sure. Lurking. We're lurking. I get it. Hiding in the rafters. Uh, so all right. You You guys got hit this. This is where my mind blanks out. So I get it if it's hard, but if it flows out of you, that's great. What are three random facts about yourselves? Three random facts about myself. Um, I can defend myself very well. I have extensive training in this department. Yeah. Don't come at her. Um, I have never felt unsafe with her. So, that is true. Going downtown Orlando, going anywhere. Yep. Never felt unsafe. Nice. Um, three other facts. Let's see. I am a really big music lover of like all genres. I really love everything. I have commented on a lot of your guys' stuff because you guys had Alkaline Trio in one of your posts and I was like,"Holy [ __ ] Alkaline Trio cuz I hadn't seen Alkaline Trio on a post in so long. I got so excited." Um, so I was a music promoter in college. So there there's one random fact. So that's kind of why I've bopped around. I like listening to everything. Um, and it was really hard when we were that's why I take a lot of time when we do some of our posts. So, I'll put some out there music on there, but every single post of ours that has to do with a book has to do with a playlist from that book. So, it's very intentional. So, that was kind of like I'm going to say that's all of them because I feel like I gave you extra in there. So, we're going to throw them all into it. I love it. Yeah, that's good. Okay. Um, so Bine, my background, I went to college for uh literature, so I've always loved books, honestly. Um, and you know, I've I've been working in education, so that's, you know, together trying to make other people like books, and it it's a struggle with these teenagers, but it is a thing. Um, and let's see what else. I'm a black belt in See, two badasses. Watch out, guys. It's been a while since I practiced, but I got it, so it's still mine. Um, also have never felt unsafe with Michelle. There you go. I'm also like come hang out with us. So I'm also like almost six foot. So my, you know, people tend to steer away from me. Yeah, totally. Um, and let's see a third one. Um, I've been to almost every continent. Oh, nice. Antarctica. Yeah. Do you want to go to Antarctica? Just to get it done. I wouldn't just to say that I've been there. Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. Just hey nice. We should do like a book club after dark. I would totally do that. Dude, have you seen that weird like thing we have to go past? Like, oh my gosh. I I was just going to say this, Ashley. There's this viral video that there's this like pleasure cruise, which who does this? But there's some kind of like pleasure cruise Antarctica and like the intent is to like get on like the biggest of the waves and they have this like big open glass front thing and cuz you can see like the whole ocean like coming on to the to the and the and the ship is like and the way I'm like absolutely not like absolutely I'm not paying for that. They pay like $10,000 a ticket or something stupid and I was just like there is there is no way there is no I am very good not doing that. I love cruising and I don't think that that doesn't sound appealing cuz once the glass breaks and then I just I the intrusive thoughts just I couldn't enjoy myself. Too many intrusive thoughts. My motion sickness could never Yeah. $10,000 vomiting the whole time. I'm good. Yeah. But it's cool. Yeah. Is that even Can you take a airplane ride? I don't think so. That sounds better. Let's go through. Let's go over there. That part. Yeah. I will be doing that. So, do you guys want to share any of your favorite books? So, I just put on here your top three favorite books or books that got you into reading. Like, we're curious. What are they? Oh, like o like ever like literally anything you want to share. Yep. So like really just got me got me into reading first was Hunger Games for you know you know in 20 in the early 2000s YA dystopia was you know a big thing. So Hunger Games which led to Maze Runner and what also cuz we also do thrillers. Um, Pretty Little Wires, that book series when I was in high school was such like a big thing and before it became a TV show. The TV show kind of grew it. I know the TV show is very popular, but it wasn't the book. They changed like everything about the book, which made me mad. So, I definitely didn't watch it after season 1. Um, but like you know being I I think I was like a freshman in high school when I first saw the books and I was like I told my I picked one up and I bought it and then I would ask my dad very regularly to take me back to Books a Million and he was just like she's reading it's you know don't worry about it. But that was like a murder mystery. So that's like the first like peak into thrillers that I really got into. And then um so those are two of like my childhood books and the book that got me back into really reading and loving to read was the serpent of the night by Chris. So I just love that series as a the series that got me back into adult reading and now I've joined this. Yep. Over here love it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, now I'm like wondering cuz I was actually obsessed with that show Pretty Little Liars and now I'm like well now I feel like I need to read the books. No, you need to like the whole like like how I'm not gonna spoil it because if you're gonna read it, but how people are their relationships are, how the death went completely different in the book. Interesting. Yeah, I actually have that cuz I have like a YA section of my library. It's just out of reach in the picture. I have like all of them. So my daughter picks them up cuz they're like she's like,"Oh, pretty." But um yeah, I'm like,"Yeah, you you can read that. A good fall read for sure. H interesting. I will have to say I so I was in high school when Harry Potter was still coming out cuz Michelle and I are different in ages, right? And I vividly remember each book coming out and Harry Potter for me was I just remember like I remember book six coming out when I was in 11th grade and I remember each one like before that and just the excitement behind it and it was this was a time before internet is the way it is. You had the people waiting for midnight. I mean, at the different bookstores and Barnes & Noble and and they still do like the midnight release and stuff, but I just like I feel like it wasn't the same. And I don't want to be like, "Oh, it's back in my day was better." And that's not what I'm saying. It just felt like because well, because technology just has evolved in in a lot of great ways, but I feel like for the book community, I mean, we're on a podcast now. Of course, it's evolved in a great way. We would we couldn't do this then. Um, but it's just that book series was a catalyst for me for sure. I love that series. It led me to read basically I loved Divergent. I loved Hunger Games. I loved what's uh Clarissa or uh Cassandra Cla. Um the City of Bones, the Immortal Instrument series. City of Bones. I loved the Mortal Instruments. Oh my god, I loved it. I love that series so so much. I felt like I feel like they did the show and the movie, not like but so dirty. The books were so so good. Um and it just led me to keep going. I Twilight even I loved Twilight too. I will say it's a little bit problematic now going back I we we were in the middle of this and Michelle's never read them and so I read them when they were coming out and so at that time we talked about this a lot in our our series coverage is like we we just like I I was trying to explain to her the level of fandom behind when these movies came out and like how big of a deal it was and it was just like so massive and it's that still happens now. I feel like Hunger Games, you guys covered Hunger Games. I've seen some of your stuff for that and it's like that series is getting that same love again and I'm I'm here for it. Like I'm so excited. I loved the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games as a book series I read multiple times and I watched the movies like as a comfort watch which I'm not sure that but but like I still like I feel like Jennifer the casting of that the whole they just did such a good job. They really really did. and Woody Harelson just great. I mean, the best. So, so good. Um, it Yeah, I say that would probably be what was that kind of what got you into your your bookish origin story, if you will. Yeah, I thought I was a thought I was an introvert, but see, it's happening. Like, now you guys are getting me talking about like something I like, so we're just going to be here for a while. So, are there any other like little like authors that you want to shout out while you're here? Like maybe any indie authors that you've really been enjoying lately that you like or anything like that for I'm not sure for indie for thriller. I know I didn't mention her in my like top three. Um, Lucy Foley had like really opened my eyes to thrillers as like an adult and how and also that was like my first audio book and I became an audiobook girly after that. Before I used to be like audiobooks are kind of like weak, you know, I I want to read the book. I want to picture the voices and everything in my head. but after her because she has multiple voice actors in her audio books. I'm like, "Oh, this is actually really cool getting the different voices." And so now she kind of that book uh The Guest List by Lucy Foley opened like My Horizons to liking audio books and how they are actually, you know, beneficial if you're doing like a tandem read or if you're, you know, it's just fun listening to the different voice actors and you actually get the names proper the first time around instead of like saying the names incorrect forever instead of me who has no idea what she's saying most of the time. Yeah. I think for me for thrillers too is there is uh several thrillers that were like big that got me back into the reading. One of them is um Gone Girl all of all of literally Gone Girl for me I just it has always been kind of a palette I people use the word palette cleanser. I don't know that I love that term because I still love thrillers equally. I get why you need like to call it a palette cleanser in between fantasy because fantasy is so mindheavy. There's just so much more to like the worlds and visualizing them and all that. But I really do feel like thrillers uh have their own their own type of vibe. It's in our world, but the ability that these authors can take these stories and I'm them like wrong place wrong time was just if you haven't read that incredible book. Go read that. Ellen's really good. but also Gone Girl. Obviously there's a film with Benf like everybody knows that one but her other books too were just phenomenal. Um so so what uh Sharps Sharp Objects in the same places dark places I was like they're all Yeah. Um and I'm always waiting for uh Jillian Flynn to write more more stuff. So So she's really great. And then one of my favorite audio books of all time, which again I am relative relatively new to just like Michelle to audiobooks is uh None of This Is True. And that one if you haven't listened to that, so it's Have you have you read it? Mm-m. Mm- No. So None of This Tree None is This tree, the audio book, it has um segments in time about it being a Netflix series. So like the voices transition to like and now we're starting the show on like there's just different ways that they like cinematically in the audio transition you to like the different phases of the book and these characters and ironically it's about a girl who starts a podcast about women's empowerment and it goes like horribly wrong. Oh no. But it was a great Yeah. It was a great read. Yes. It was a great read. So, none of the history is true would would be be one of those as well. Um, okay. Yeah. So, I shout I shout some thrillers out because I know I feel like we we both of our shows kind of cover a lot of fantasy and those elements, too. And I know you guys did um Oh, Educated was a great one, too, cuz I know you guys did. I have it right here. Uh, Wild Cher Cheryl Strade, super good. It's right on my bookshelf behind me. Um, but great books. I I love historical fiction, too. I could l I could just keep talking, so I'm going to cut right there. I'm I'm done with my responses. I've been saying for a while that I need to get back into thrillers cuz I definitely had like a chunk of time like in college where I got really into them and then it's I kind of fell off. So, I appreciate the recommendations. I'll download them right now. Yeah. All right. So, let's talk soul characters. If you could pick one book character that would be what you would consider your soul character, who would it be and why? That's a tough one. Very tough cuz a lot of the like FMC's like I see them and when I'm reading I am them but like as they are in the book so cuz I struggled when when I read this question I was like what is it? Um so I would say from okay the serpents of the wings of night there is a novella. that is in between the first six scorch roes roses. So I would say Lilith one, she's 30. She is not 21. So you know her mentality I could get into a lot more. And she really is just like, I'm going to do whatever I can to save my sister. And like, you know, I'm going to face this vampire who I know will probably maybe eat me who turns out to be like really hot and ends up eating her in a different way. Um, and then they are and they it works out great. I mean, am I wrong? Am I wrong? That's how it goes, right? Honestly, right? It's such a good nolla. There's so much in that little piece and the way like because I read it after knowing of Lilith. So, you understand like her in um the Star Curse King more than once you read the six um six scorch roses. Those her titles are like such a mouthful. They're artistic, but like such a mouthful. Um, but yeah, so I would say she's my soul character. That's a good one. Yep. All right, you're on the spot, Danny. Yeah. So, okay, I have two, which I guess Okay, it's whatever time of day. Um, yeah. So, the first one I thought of lessons in chemistry. So, if you haven't read lessons in chemistry, Elizabeth Zot is the protagonist. Have you read it? If not, I'll give you a little bit. Okay. So, uh, Lessons in Chemistry follows a scientist who is in around the 50s era, and she gets looked over chronically. She's in a male-dominated industry. I can relate heavily to her. She also like doesn't take any [ __ ] And what ends up happening is she gets picked up to, of all things, do like a cooking show. And what happens in the show is she eventually leads other women to go do the thing. Like for example, one of the one of the women in her audience, and this isn't giving it any any spoilers, um raises her hand to like give feedback. And the woman is like, "Yeah, I wanted to I really I was really great at science and I wanted to go be a surgeon, but I I made other choices in life. I had children and you know, now I'm going to be there for them." And she's like,"Well, why couldn't you go when they're grown or why can't you go take night classes if you want to finish your degree?" and like you know pushed her and then towards the end of the the book you find out that this woman goes and becomes a surgeon and it's this idea this premise of not allowing and my second one is Bryce Quinnland so if you've read Crescent City you will know who she is and they all kind of line up with so a real world character and a um a romanty character and both of them have the same trait which is they're not taking [ __ ] from anyone and they're also they're going to stand their ground for what they believe in, but they also know that there's room for growth and they're going to go out there and find it. But Bryce is just I loved her so much. She was the reason I recommended Crescent City to Michelle when we I was reading cuz I'm I'm also the friend there's always one friend who's like eons way ahead of the other friend. Usually that's usually brought me into the cult. Yeah. And so like I I've I've read all the things and so it would be like okay this one this one's really good or this one's a waste of time like or this one wasn't great or whatever it was. I I didn't love it maybe you will kind of thing and I was like Bryce and Danica like you you need to read Crescent City like you've got to read Crescent City and I just loved I know a lot of people have like their disses on Crescent City as a character. Are you saying I'm Danica? cuz like I'm sorry two chapters in like we had the same spoilers the same conversation. No spoilers. No, we've been there. No, that's not what I'm saying. Wait, those who know. Yep. Yeah. Yep. But um No, I just like I think she's great. I think that she is one of many characters by Sarah J. Ross that are incredibly empowering. And um what I really liked about Bryce too, specifically related to sexuality, is that she was one of the few characters that I had read in a long time that really just had didn't care. She did what she wanted to do and she didn't think twice about it. And she got whatever she wanted out of whatever situation she was in. Maybe it wasn't always healthy, but she did her thing. And there was no there there was no bitterness about what she did or wherever she went. And I I just felt really kind of empowered by her and I really liked her as a character and thought that I was really happy to read a character like that because I feel like it's it's not always the case and it was it's refreshing to read some about someone like Bryce. So there you go. Absolutely. Mhm. Well, now we need to know yours. You can't just like put us on the spot like that. I don't know. Oh my gosh, I didn't think this over. My sole character 100% is Neesa through and through till the end of time. Yeah, like I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory. I have like Adoraxia, huge tattoo on my leg like for her. I just The first time I read that book, it like changed my life. The second time I read the book, changed my life again, but in different ways, you know? So Oh, so good. I love her. Yeah, me too. Me too. Through and through. Ashley, what do you I will say not for the reasons you think. Uh I would say Katniss, but um in a comical way because I feel as though I would get myself in a situation that, you know, she's just like trying to survive, you know, at the end of the day. And she just has to rise to the occasion. And I feel like that's my dayto-day. Like I'm just trying to live and now, you know, the house is falling apart. I got to do some I got to get it together and I got to get through this. And I'm also fairly outdoorsy so I think I could survive for a little bit. There you go. Okay. I just picture like not like this is not a dig at you at all because I think that if you if you were called to be the mocking Jay, you would carry us through. I believe that too many jokes. How is that a dig? It's amazing. No, no, no. What? No. Well, I the dig is for the dig. Um, no, I was going to say, but when you said that, I pictured like the National Lampoon version of Hunger Games. Yeah. Yeah. So, like you're the comic relief while also being a badass with a bow. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. Yep. I love that. That's like when Katniss in the movie, it's when like Jennifer Lawrence when Katniss is playing Katniss in Mocking. That's what it would remind me of. And they're like she they're like, "Okay, do the do the promo." And she's like, "And I'm going to save the world." And everyone's like, "What are you doing?" Oh, yeah. What's going on here? Like what? Like just let me be in my element and everything's fine. But if the minute you tell me, "Okay, say this." I'm like,"Uh, well, hey, what do I do with my hands?" situation, you know? Yeah. Exactly. Little Talladega Nights. Yep. For sure. For sure. So, okay. Okay. So, coming off of that, what would you say is your guys's favorite trope and your like most hated trope? Like, give us one of each. I mean, I feel like enemies to lovers is a no-brainer. It's definitely one of those. Good every time. Yeah. Good every time. What's not to like? I mean, there's a there's a reason why there's a million memes of like the enemy enemies just became lovers. It's

3: 40:25

00 a.m. They're in the cabin and there's one bed. One bed. Yeah. I mean, mine is the inn with one bed. I mean, I love that's not even I think it's a mic a mini trope. I don't know what that is. I like it. I don't care. As soon as I know it comes up, I'm like, "Yeah." I was like,"Michelle, there's only one bed." I just get so excited. A fan girl. That's the thing. I was like, "I'm kicking my feet." I'm like, "That definitely that's the one. That's the one right there." I just started kicking my feet. There's something clearly about this of the excitement of like physical reaction, you know? It's like Right. Yeah. Exactly. Rebecca Yaros made a comment about this. She was like, "I'm extremely happily married, but I love to see new love stories um develop, and that's why I love to read about them." And I thought that that was such a good way to describe um like spice and this the whole spicy book genre world is that it we get a lot of grief. Women get a lot of grief for reading this stuff, which is ridiculous. But aside from that, I think there was a whole lot of truth to that statement of saying like we just enjoy seeing other women have a good time. Like what's wrong with that? I don't know. What's happening here? So, yeah. Enemies to lovers. The one bed in with one bed. Care for it. Those are good. Good choices. My favorite one is I I am a sucker for a good redemption arc. I'm I'm that person. And Danny hates it. I am a sucker for a good redemption arc. And then I love it when I'm correct. And then I tell Danny, "Fucking told you that's The truth is no one knew. Michelle, don't even bring up Tamlin, y'all. Don't bring up Tamlin. Don't do it. Don't do it. Oh, well. But my least favorite one is miscommunication. I hate miscommunication tropes. Like the whole like I love the Imperion series, but book one of Iron Flame, I'm like,"Guys, come on. Just talk it out. It's fine. So, book two, Iron Flame." Yes. Yeah. When so fourth after fourth ring the se book one the section is that what you mean the section first section of iron flame. Yeah girl the way Violet was on my nerves she was telling the choir all of our nerves could all be solved by a quick chat. Also they're military. You guys have been together for three months. Okay. So yeah. Uh Danny did you say yours your most hated trope? I think Michelle said it for me. Communication. Oh, that's your favorite. Okay. So, yeah. So, your least favorite is Sharks. I love that for you. Look, Dane. Yeah. I've Oh, good friend. Dane was supposed to be her best [ __ ] friend and he didn't believe that she could do something like neither. Sorry. That [ __ ] pisses me off. I'm like, come on. Okay. So, yes, he he wanted to protect her and be fragile because she was fragile or whatever and he didn't believe in her and all that stuff. But the whole like betrayal, the huge betrayal, right? He's in a military family. He was groomed to believe his father, honestly. And he's 20. He's 20. How much How many of us do stupid [ __ ] when we're 20? Great. think it's bad cuz I'm rationalizing it because he's not evil. So redemption arcs, it's good people do something bad and they get to redeem themselves because that's kind of life, right? A good person can make a big mistake. You know, so I don't know. There's a lot of dark romance and I'm still reading it, so who knows, I guess. But like with genuinely evil people, like they don't deserve a redemption arc. like you know snow president snow redemption arc I don't know about that but D he wasn't evil so that's why redemption I like the redemption arc it sees the good person do something [ __ ] stupid and then they get to evolve and grow as a grow as a character and that's kind of like what life's about yeah it's realistic so you're more like team not everybody deserves a redemption arc but you you love to see it yeah for sure yeah I love to on the same page. Yeah. Mhm. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry not to leave you out, Danny. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Okay. Well, sorry. Another apology. We need to know if Tamlin deserves a redemption arc. Yes. Cuz this gets some people. I've been converted. Oh, I do. I do think I've been converted. Imagine taking some time. We We talked to We've talked to Steven Walker now. I don't know how many times. And I feel like he's just like slowly pushed that now. And I feel like I can't on you. I knew Yeah. Well, you guys have been colluding is what's happened. And now there's no other way. Now I feel like Tamlin is I would read it. I'd read anything she wrote. Yeah. Yeah. But I would I would Yeah. It's going to be hard to swallow, but you'll do it. Yeah. I feel like she writes it so well that I would still like it. She just is that good, you know? I don't know. All right. I'm guessing everyone else here likes likes these redemption arcs. We all are here for it. Yeah, because Tamlin isn't evil. He did something stupid. He had so much like think of all the pressure he had. Basically, he had to do the whole Beauty and the Beast thing, right? Fall in love. Have someone fall in love with you not for your looks. And like do that and save all of Fay or don't do that and everyone dies. So he's like, "Okay, I'm gonna internalize everything." Because think about it, he doesn't have a family. He doesn't have like his only friend's Lucian. He's kind of [ __ ] up, too. And he doesn't have a strong support system. The boy needed therapy. He's depressed for this is what it always comes down to. They needed therapy, too. Exactly. Therapy. These people need therapy. We're not in the real world, though. So, yeah. Faith therapy. All right. What's y'alls now? I need to know now. We're just We're going to throw it right back. We're in a volley. Um, you know, podcast folly. I don't care. Obviously, I don't care for him whatsoever. I will I will eat up anything Sarah J. Mask wants to serve to us. How about that? Same. You know, if she wants to give him redemption arc, okay. But, you know, I've read a lot of conspiracies out there and I eat those up, you know. Yeah. I That's what I was gonna say. Like, obviously, I'm a big fan of a redemption arc. Neesa is my sole character. Do you know, kind of goes hand in hand. Um, I'll read anything SJM writes, so that's a no-brainer. I think it'd be cool if Tamlin got a redemption arc, but it was because of some information that we don't yet have. Right. Exactly. Like I I feel like that would be just so cool to find out why he was doing what he was doing. And it was a lot more complicated than maybe we know at this time. You know what I mean? Liz, you just you just made me realize something that I didn't actually know about myself. I love Neesa, so therefore I must secretly enjoy Redemption Arc. There you go. I must There you go. On some subconscious level. But there Yeah, Neesa I feel like was just misunderstood though, too. Like I feel like level of depth. Yeah. Okay. She also did some bad stuff for sure. She did. She wasn't the best sister. Was not the best sibling. At least she didn't have the power to grow things and grew while they were starving. Yeah. So that is Elaine does not get enough hate. Sorry I said it. Yeah. I agree. I agree. And Phyra is the youngest. I still will never get over that. I still won't. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. That's not normal baby sister behavior that she was doing. Yeah. But someone had to do something, you know. Yeah. These not these girls, they weren't doing nothing but growing flowers and throwing pity parties. So, would you guys say that Tamillin is like your most hated character from a book series or do you guys have someone else who you hate more? Like, we need to know your most hated character. I would say Atroxus is my probably one of my most hated characters uh ever and he is from book three of the Crowns of Naxia series and he is just he's a god and um yeah, he's a dirt bag. [ __ ] hating him the whole time. Okay, he's awful. Awful. I would say honestly Verish from the Imperion series. Oh, hated him. Every time he spoke it was just Yeah. Yeah. He's He was greasy the entire time. You can add Daddy Atos to that too cuz he's also Yeah, he was all Yeah, he's all gross. No. Yeah, those are all good picks for sure. What about you guys? What's your most hated? There's so many. Um, well, we just talked about this on one of the episodes that we did, I thought. Um, and now I'm blanking out on his name. Is it K? What is it? It's the guy who I don't want to give anything away. Yeah. I'm like, how do I say this without giving anything away? Um, when a certain character that we really love from Throne of Throne of Glass is kidnapped and locked in a box, he's the one who tortures that person. Yes. That's a good one. Golly, what is his name? That's a good one. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, he really is bad. He's actually real hor sucks. Yeah, so I'll make it easy on my brain and say Duke Pington for the same reasons. Like gh uh gave me the ick always. I think he would have sucked even without something inside of him. Probably. Yeah. So, okay. So, we have to know you guys are covering Twilight right now. So, you know, we I mean, I don't know if I could speak for Ashley and say that she loves Twilight. I became a full-on obsessed with Twilight Lady after we read it for the first time last year. Um, but we have to know, are you guys team Edward or team Jacob? Oo, good question. I am in the middle of reading Midnight Sun right now. And you know, I'm I'm team Edward for Bella because I feel like they're faded mates, which is before faded mates was a thing. They are definitely like there was no one else for her. That's clear to me in a way that the trope, so that's a good trope, too, is faded mates. Like, are you into faded mates? Do you want to read about faded mates? Is that your thing? A lot of people put a lot of hate on faded mates, but I I'm here for it. I like this idea. It's part of the fantasy. I love this idea that there's absolutely nobody else that they're quite literally like biologically made for each other. It's a crazy ridiculous out there fantasy that I love and will read every time. I enjoy them. And I think I think Bella and Edward are faded mates before that was a known trope. Like people didn't really I never read about that then. I never heard of faded mates at that time. I just didn't know really about it. But I think that for me that there was no one else for her than Edward to me. That's like I just don't think there is any argument or place where Jacob is is the team there. Mhm. That's my thoughts. Mhm. Okay. What about you, Michelle? What do you think? They're both a bunch of red flags. I just Also true. Also true. Also true. I I don't like either of them. They're just I have so many problems with Wait, is this for you or for the character? For the character, they're a bunch of red flags. For me, I would 100% be a puppy. I would let me join the pack. For me, I'm a dog person. Seems pretty cool. Why not? They're like one community. Exactly. Exactly. Like that sounds like a good snuggle fest, you know? They're just warm all the time. And let's just go play fetch. go for a jog. They're like horses, you know? You could ride one, I guess. So, they're like they're as big as horses. That's how Bella describes them as big as horses. Picture a saddle like on on a Jacob. Well, they have to like carry their pants around, right? It's carry the saddle around. Crazy. That was like probably my least favorite thing about Twilight, honestly. Let's just remember they tie their pants to their their back leg. Let's just Let's just throw it in there. Ruin the fantasy. make that plot film. Oh, that's what made it all worth reading though. Yeah, totally. All those weird like random things they didn't include in the movie. I loved it. Mhm. Yes. Yeah, there were a lot of that. Weird. So, what about you? Team Edward, team. Yeah, 100%. Through and through. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It like wasn't even a question. It's his maturity. It's his old age, you know. It's that's what gets us. He's guys get it right after a hundred. I'm like I firmly believe this. This is why everyone likes the fay. They're like a thousand years old. If you don't have it right when you're over a thousand. Yeah. Even Reand, he's like 500 years old, you know? That's They get it right after some time. Yeah. So true. They got to figure themselves out, which takes way longer. It all It all tracks to me. It tracks to me. I think it makes sense to all of us. This is why we love them so much. Yeah. Okay. So, we're like, yeah, so, okay, we've gotten to know you guys a little bit. Why don't we just get into the dirt? The unpopular opinions are bookish pet peeves. This is an easy one. I think we all as a community can agree on. My biggest bookish pet peeves is not only just stickers on the front of book covers, right? Cuz that sucks. Sure. But stickers that aren't removable. Mhm. And I'm looking at you, Netflix. That was why are they ruining our lives? Nameropping. Calling you out specifically. I hate that. I hate that. It just ruins it. Yeah. Fair. Yeah. It's the worst when you Especially when you buy it too like at Target or something and then you think that you can remove it and then you go home and you go to like scratch it and you're like, "Oh, it's literally there forever." Great. Great. Cool. Mhm. Yeah. They did that to the handmade. The handmade um the housemmaid. Sorry, excuse me. They did that to the housemmaid. There's like a cover that looks like a sticker. I think it's a Target edition as well. And it's like I get home and I and I'm like, "Fuck, this thing is it's on there. It's there forever. What is this?" I did see there was a company that was making cover like specific to the book, you know? I didn't go that far, but it's out there. You know, like sticker covers that will cover the the stickers on the cover. Yeah. So, for anybody out there, it's out there that needs it. Mhm. Yeah. So, okay. So, the first one that I wrote down was when a bookstore doesn't have a romance section. Oh, yeah. Okay. It grinds my gears, man. Like, oh, that's [ __ ] It's [ __ ] I didn't know that was a thing. I thought, you know, most bookstores have like a little bit I don't like that they put them in the back. Like, they're like way away from everything. Like forbidden. They're taboo. Yeah, it's like the It's like the dirty section in the like video store from the, you know, '9s or whatever. No, it's like I actually went to a bookstore recently and it was like a local one in this town I was visiting or whatever. And I was like, hey, where's your guys' romance section? And the guy working at the front was like, we don't have a romance section. And I was like, okay. I told my husband, I said, we need to leave cuz I don't want to buy anything from here now. Yeah. and and then have you need to have a Pretty Woman moment where you come with all your book bags from the other store and say, "Big mistake, buddy. Big mistake." Sounds so much money. Yeah. Well, the thing is it's like I wanted to go to the local bookstore and support them, but what I ended up doing was walking down the street to Barnes & Noble and buying books there instead because it really annoyed me. And I think that every bookstore needs a romance section. Also, it would prevent a lot of problems from romance books getting filed into inappropriate locations like YA, for example. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those two things should not mix. No. Mm- I think mine is not like with the book with with like that. Mine is if if I talk about the show or that that I read the books I read and someone responds with, "Oh, but do you read real books?" Like, "What other books do you read?" Yeah. Ooh, infuriating. Yeah. And I'm only doing classic. It's really I'm like I want my immediate ask wants to be like, "Oh, how many books a year do you read?" Oh, you haven't read in like 10 years? Oh, like not since high school. Oh, okay. Thank you for telling me about your opinion. I will collect that and file it into the trash under tea for trash. Please, please don't ever tell me that again. You know, it's so it's like those types of things where there's an immediate assumption that the books that we read are not classified as as in the same category as books. They're like c they're like somewhere else. Like I don't I don't know where they are. What else like where else would they be? Like I don't I just don't understand the and it's almost always by someone who doesn't who doesn't hasn't read anything in a very long time or doesn't read at all. It's always kind of like an ignorant comment. So I try not to let it bother me too much, but it definitely still is it is something that um that me that happens for sure. I always try to say something to the degree of have you ever read a romance book? And lots of times they say no and I'll say you might really like it. You should try it just to see. Yeah. And that's pretty much like where I usually I can't I don't normally snap back cuz I want to but I don't. I'll normally cuz I know that the place is usually coming from a place of ignorance. And so I'll normally just say like oh well you know if I know the person I'll say like you like X Y and Z. Like did you know that's in this this book? Or oh like have you tried audio books? If you don't read a lot you might actually enjoy this. There this guy has accents or whatever. I don't know. It's some crazy thing I'll figure out. But like that's another way of like instead of like trying to match that energy, I'll try to like turn it around because like I don't need that in my day. Does it still irritate me? Yes. But I'm just I'm like I'm not going to bring that. It brings me joy and happiness. I'm not about to let someone else who doesn't know anything about it rain on that happiness or that parade. So yeah, agree with you there. Totally. Yeah. Sometimes I'll say things too like if I have someone who almost like talks badly about romance books because they only read like quote unquote literature or whatever that means. You know what I mean? I'll say I know blleh. Exactly. I'll say something like well you know that historically women have actually written romance books because it was one of the only ways that they were able to like talk about women's lives and like critique societal issues safely. and they'll be like,"Oh, interesting." And I'll be like,"Yeah, just try it." You know what I mean? It's like, it's a lot more than you think it is. Well, and a lot of people, they're like,"Oh, the classics aren't romance." It's like, I'm sorry. Tale of Two Cities, that's a that's a romance book. The Great Gatsby, that's a romance book. Just because it's not a classic, doesn't mean it's not literature. So, those are people that are just like, "Oh, you're not one of like the main titles that I grew up in high school reading cuz someone told me that I need to read." um it's it's purely out of ignorance, but also like the the implication too that open door scenes mean that it doesn't classify as like a good story just because of that. It's like uh do you watch anything rated R? Cuz I'm pretty sure those all have open door scenes. So I'm not really sure like what it's not a real movie. I don't get it. Yeah, we don't use that same thing. You're not watching real. Yeah, exactly. And what about you Michelle? So mine is a little less heated, I guess. Um it's when um when midseries an author or the publisher decides to change like the formatting of the book. So like if it's on the bookshelf, it's not the same height or it's paperback. Now it's all hard covers, but they don't re-release the hard covers or so. That just drives me nuts just because I like uniformity in my series and then I can't achieve that at all. So that's like a big pet peeve. That makes me want to rage too. Okay, I have that on my list. Me, too. The only exception I'll make is for Chris of Broadbent specifically who changed publishing houses. That's the only time I've ever given somebody an exception, a pass. Yeah. But she did re-release all of them to be the same height. I'm just not going to get Exactly. The the re-releasing is different. So if you re-release like, okay, you change publishers, you know, that's that's something that's out of your control. But if you're just like going to leave it at that, then listen, we're going to have some words or some hands right now. We need to we need to do something about this. And she's a black belt. You don't want to mess with her. Seriously. Uh, okay. So, let's see. I got one more for you. I mean, this kind of goes back to the book covers, but it drives me crazy. It's something that I literally won't buy it if I go to buy a book and it's now a movie and it's the movie poster as the cover. Like, oh, I just won't buy it. I'm going to just do the Kindle. You'll buy it. There's one exception to this rule, and it is The Witcher. Oh, well, yeah. Okay, fair. Okay. Okay. That That's a fair exception. That's a good exception. I would say super flexible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But otherwise, no. Like I won't like even Hunger Games. I'm like I don't want the poster. I don't I don't I don't We want the pretty ones. That's fair. Mhm. All right. Uh Liz, what's your next one? Uhh when special editions are impossible to get and then people resell them for insane amounts of money. Brew. The worst. R. food. You don't want it. You're just buying to sell them. Question for you. What What uh cuz I I we're shortening our list here. So, what um what classifies a special edition for you? M cuz that's one of mine. I would I mean for me a special edition would be like something that I can that has a completely unique obviously like cover that I could only get from like a specific company. So whether that's like fairy loot or like I don't know like there was this one that I wanted to get from Twisted Fiction recently that I couldn't get. You know what I mean? Like things like that. Okay. Mhm. I think that's what would constitute it as a sex not like something that's that everything else is the same. Okay. Yeah. Curious. No, because that to me is not it's mass-produced. It's going, you know, sorry, Fourth Wing, I'm calling you out, you know, but they do that with every one. Sure, when it runs out, it runs out. But it's very it's I'm glad that it's accessible, but I just don't consider them special editions cuz they have the dragons on the on the edges, which I like them, but they're not like the other appearance that they come out with, right, that are exclusives at this point in the book world. I consider those special editions. It's a little bit harder to get limited prints. That's where I stand. What about you guys? Agree. I would agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. I don't like when like the Target exclusive editions where with um Onyx Storm for example, when it was like a Target exclusive and they only had like six or seven in the store. It was like super hard to get. I remember I was literally at Target at open it was gone. They were gone. The morning of it was gone. And that's a good pet peeve. The only difference was there were some Yeah. Right. Yeah, and I understand they're trying to have the hype, but the only difference was the inserted art. That was the only difference. And the different sprayed edges and the inserted art wasn't even unique to Onyx Storm or the Imperion series at all. It was reused, I believe, from DND. Yeah, D and D. Yeah, it was reused. Yeah. So, that I'm like, is it exclusive? Can you legally do that? Do you have the rights to that? If you It sounds like you're not even in the community. Like you didn't even take the time to do a tiny bit of research or like just a money grab from It just feels so inauthentic. It's not a good vibe. Mhm. You can't pay an artist a few thousand to make some renderings and prints. Come on. Yeah. There are plenty of Instagrammers. There are plenty of artists that would have died to do that. And let's just retake something. Yeah. That was swept under the rug pretty quickly, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was so glad I didn't get one. I don't know if you guys went got one, but I was like, let me just go by my target real quick and just see if they have it. Even though because the first or sorry, the second release for um whatever that one was, Iron Flame was really chaotic too and like people weren't getting their orders. So, Onyx Storm, I was like, "Well, let me just see cuz I know I ain't getting this for a week." And the line was crazy. Like 30 people deep. So, I was like, "Okay, I ain't standing in that because I know they probably have like six copies." And then we find out all the the artwork issues. I'm like, "Oh man, that's horrible. That's horrible." Rough. So, what about you, Danny? What's your next pet peeve? My next pet peeve is when they're going to convert a book into any type of other media and they [ __ ] it up. Like, they don't take the original story, they don't involve the author, or they do to a small degree, but the author doesn't really truly get, you know, their producer privileges. they think they're going to get and we get something that's trash. And the way that I have expressed so many times, please dear God, let Quicksilver go well. Please. When it goes to Netflix, I'm like, please give Cali Hart as many rights as she needs to do this correctly because the way like I don't know who they could possibly cast for the King Fisher that's in my mind cuz I don't know that the band exists. But irrelevant like regardless of that like please like put the time and money in to make it visually correct. Like please don't put something together that's just not accurate or like the first Twilight was like there's so many differences between that and like the book. And I get it. This was from that time it made sense because they were kind of lucky to even get green lit to have Twilight as a movie. So it's a different time. So I'm hopeful that now that there is definitely clear demand and a huge u it's been proven time and time again how many of us will you know consume this media multiple times over that hopefully Netflix sees that please get it right take the time that you need don't rush it we'll wait a couple more months you know or a year even take the time get it right get the story right I think that for me is like a massive pet peeve is when they just butcher it I don't know if you're a game Thrones fan. Don't even I can't get started on season 8. I just We don't have the time. I just don't even look. I Yeah, it's a pet. Yeah, for sure. Agreed. And they water it down and they take out all the like major political themes, you know, other kinds of themes that are in there. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah, absolutely. All right. What about you, Michelle? What's your last one you want to mention? Um, so my mine more is more bookish. I hate when there's a new release and there are just spoilers all over social media and immediately like withhold Onyx Storm and there's like not a courtesy because people want to be like you know they want their post to go viral cuz it's the first thing and the whole with Onyx Storm people were getting the books early and spoiling it that way too and that's like a whole just disregard disrespect to the whole to the author to the whole community and that just a really big pet peeve of mine um that hopefully doesn't continue on but you know people will unfortunately want to have the views have you know the followers so it'll likely keep happening but I I just want people to be curious you know everyone's waiting for these books especially like really hyped series and you know most people wait over a year and I don't want it to like randomly scroll through my Instagram and be like oh now I know the ending [ __ ] Yeah, you know, this is going to ruin the whole experience. That was probably one of the ways I the quickest learned how to do reals was I was trying to figure out a way uh so I I did like a bad blood clip from Taylor Swift's music video, right? And I was just like, if anyone sends us an Onyx Storm spoiler like before the release of the book, like we will have Bad Blood. Like we are going to have problems. Um and I don't think we can solve them. Okay, because you made a really deep cut. I'm done. But like uh it's like that kind of stuff is the same thing. I was I was going to agree with her is like we people because we're a media outlet in some sort of way as a podcast and they'll want to send it to us and it's like I appreciate like I appreciate it. I I appreciate the thoughtfulness of it truly. I think it comes from a good place but also if the book has not come out yet the author has not is not okay with this. Like there's a line of courtesy here that needs to kind of be respected. So yeah, I agree with that one too, Michelle. Mhm. Definitely. Totally agree. Yeah. I think it's also like a problem with stores. It's like I feel like there should be some kind of like rule or like an accountability if Target is just like being lazy and like putting a bunch of books out 3 days early. Like I remember, you know, there was one new release. I can't remember what it was now, but I had contacted my local bookstore to see if they were getting it and they said,"Yeah, we've got like 20 copies behind the desk." And I was like, "Okay." Cuz I knew that I was going to be slammed at work. And I was like, "Do you guys mind if I come back by late tonight and pick it up?" And they were like, "No, we can't sell it to you until tomorrow." And I was like, "Okay." And I was like, it was like in that moment where it clicked where I was like, "That's actually what they should be doing." And so that's good. But I was like, "That's what Target and like the big stores should be doing, too." And Walmart. Walmart was doing the same thing where you're just, you know, same type of thing where I I think it's negligence. Like you're just you're not respecting someone's work. I mean, that's their work. that's that's their that's their prop that's their work and it's like yeah I get it you know you bought it you guys can sell it um but when you per when you go to sell it you you have guidelines that I know you guys are given of when the release date is there's no way that the little local bookstores can follow this to a tea and say look if we release it early there's there's legal things that can happen to us like they don't apply to Walmart and Target or Walmart and Target just so big they don't give a[ __ ] I don't know what the line is of what that means you know next thing you know they're going to come for me for saying that out loud, but it was it just that's that's the I think that's the message it sends when stuff like that happens is it makes you feel like they're like too big to care. They just don't care enough about it. Yeah. It makes it difficult to want to support them with a sale to want to go shop with them. Is those types of things. It's Yeah. Especially when Rebecca Yaros like literally was commenting on this stuff saying like it like broke her heart that people are ruining it and that's not like the way her release was supposed to be is because people were greedy and people were negligent and it became more about very self-centered as opposed to like being something celebratory in the community. You know rough that was a particularly rough one for sure. Yeah. Well, I know there were people even cuz one of the big stores, I don't remember which book it released it was, but it was like I think I want to say it was Target cuz I just saw this guy le this guy's Lego video about it where it says like do not sell when they scanned it. Um, so that was happening with the books and people were switching the covers out which is like that's like literally stealing, you know, cuz it would put a different cover cuz it's hard cover and so that's how some people were getting away with it I think at Target but dude not. But why were they out wild? Was it the bring them out of the box. You know what I mean? How they even problem is that they're out. Yeah. They shouldn't be out in the first place and then they immediately pulled if it was found, you know? Yeah. I think a Barnes & Noble employee got fired for the Onyx Storm thing. I think that was something that I saw that was viral, but then nothing happened that I knew of with anything with Target or Walmart. And they've done this before. This isn't the first time. They've done it several times before with other releases that, you know, maybe are on a smaller scale, but are still just just as impactful. I mean, it's still impactful to any of those authors. It whether it happens on the Rebecca Yarao scale or somebody with their very first book coming out, it it should still be treated the same with the same level of care. Um, which is another reason to support your indie bookstore because that's what they're doing. They're treating those books with that same level of care. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yep. So, what we'll have to do is we'll have to take these bookish pet peeves and we'll have to post them and get everyone's opinion. Agree, disagree. I'm sure most people are going to be like,"Yeah, that drives me crazy, too." But we'll make sure to put that on our Instagram so everyone can vote. So, should we just segue into our unhinged Smasher Pass for these ladies? Intrigued. All right. We like to keep it nice and unhinged over here. And so, this time we decided to hit you guys with a You have to pick one. Smash or pass. You have to smash one. You have to pass on one. All right. We got our beloved um you know MMC's if you will. We got Jigsaw versus the Terrifier. You got to pick one. Oh my god. Nightmare City. Nightmare City. Um or maybe not. I don't know. You know what we found in our polls because we do these Smasher Pass polls every weekend. Nobody's been a solid zero. So someone for everyone. So ju just context on the rules like we both we both are supposed to pick like a smash or we're smash both. Okay. You have to pick one of them. One has to be smash. I guess Jigsaw is smash for me. Honestly, I was going to go the same. At least he has a complex smile. No, I don't. Jigsaw looks cloudy a little bit. also a little cotty, but I feel like Jigsaw is like kind of has some kind of moral compass. Does I mean I haven't seen all of them. So technically I guess technically he's trying to teach him a lesson that they're all like really shitty people and they all like have this flaw by murder. I don't fine line. I don't know about that one. This is I'm sure there's a dark romance somewhere about something like this. Well, actually, Liz, you just read one, right? Mhm. Yeah, it is. Here about Jigsaw. Not directly about right there, front and center. It's called The Darkly Badly Duet by Trisha Wolf. And so, it's not actually about Jigsaw, but it's basically a dark romance if there was a very Jigsaw like character who then ends up in a romancy situation with his clinical psychologist. Okay. Now, does he present like Jigsaw with a little? No. So, he's like 6'2 and, you know, hands on. So, redeemable. It's fine. Kind of giving Joker more than Jigsaw. Yeah. I was getting Joker vibes off of that. Describe Liz. Yeah. Ashley, you like led us up to think like, oh, you know, we love our our male main characters. I'm like, oh, of course you do. walking into the fun house of unexpected Ashleyisms. I'm like, where am I now? Hall of mirrors. We can't make it easy. Yeah, we got to make it weird. We're weirdos. What can we say? I like it. Therefore, y my type of people. What's your vote? I picked I picked Jigsaw for sure. Yeah. And then Ashley, what about you? I'm going to go with the terrifier purely because he's very tall and he's funny. Okay. I know. You know. Hey, I got to pick one. So, it's a tricycle. I don't know what to tell you. Tricycle. That's where you draw. The tricycle does it for you. Yeah, it does. It does. It does it for me in the I Yeah, he has a good voice. I feel like I don't know. Yeah, it is pretty deep. So, it may be I I just I We're talking to it. I just No. clowns. No, can't. All right, you guys. Well, thank you so so much for joining us on today's podcast episode. You guys, make sure to go and follow, like, and subscribe everywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast. Michelle and Danny over at Book Club After Dark Pod, Instagram. Do you guys have a Tik Tok, too? Yeah. So, go follow them on Tik Tok as well. And it's been such a pleasure having you guys. We've had a lot of fun. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yep. And you guys make sure to like, follow, and subscribe for Besties in the Books podcast anywhere you like to listen your favorite podcast as well. And we will see you next Tuesday. Okay, bye bye.[Music]