Ep 91 BRIMSTONE (by Callie Hart) Is a Romantasy Roller Coaster 🔥 Full Book Review & Deep Dive

Listen…Brimstone is here. Are we obsessed with the Fae & Alchemy series by Callie Hart? GUILTY. AS. CHARGED. Not to give anything away (including our spoiler free star and spice ratings) but we think it’s safe to say that there’s nothing better than Kingfisher in our eyes and ears, Onyx the perfect animal sidekick companion, and a one horse scene starring none other than Carrion… our favorite scoundrel. 

Take a deep dive into book two: Brimstone as we follow up our Quicksilver episode, and our interview with Callie Hart! We discuss how this book performed as a “middle book” in a series, if there are plot holes, unanswered questions, or theories we need to know more about as we anxiously anticipate book three! Was it chaotic like some middle books can be? Or do we feel satisfied with the ending it left us on? 

We have all of our favorite and least favorite parts, characters, tropes, quotes, and we even dive into the audiobook narration, our faves and fails of the week, and a very important smash or pass (for the official record). 

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Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Need more Halloween reads in your life? Find out if “Halloweentown for adults” with Gilmore Girls vibes might be for you with our Haven Ever After Hazel Mack Interview! https://youtu.be/-kDxchCTysw?si=KpEbcsCHAniU-JTS

Penn Cole talks with us about Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

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

Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE

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Chapters

• 0:00 Spoiler Free Intro
• 3:40 Favs and Fails of the Week
• 14:20 Spoiler Free Brimstone Book Reviews
• 19:00 BEWARE SPOILERS! Brimstone Book Summary
• 25:50 Brimstone Book Discussion
• 50:40 Brimstone Quotes
• 59:42 Brimstone Audiobook Review
• 1:03:35 Plot Holes and Loose Ends
• 1:17:19 Unhinged Smash or Pass

Transcript

Brimstone, which everyone's talking about chapter 7. I'm a chapter 20 girl. It's totally like you give me a cookie, I give you a cookie. Yeah. Wonder. But it's like I want to know. He's been around for a thousand years. What's this dude been up to this whole time? Are they just throwing him around like weekend at Bernies?

Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast, guys. I'm Liz. And I'm Ashley. And today we are not diving into the quicks. No, no, no. We are deep diving head first. Hits out to Brimstone. Brimstone, the roller coaster of emotions. Ooh, that this was Yeah, guys. Wow. So, in case you didn't know, this is book two in the Fay and Alchemy series by our beloved Callie Hart, who we had the pleasure of interviewing earlier this year with the release of Quicksilver. It was so fun to hear about some behind the scenes, what it was like going from a traditionally published romance writer to an indie published fantasy writer and then being picked back up traditionally. What a roller coaster even that was for her. So, we're so excited today to talk all about Brimstone, though. This book was released now, I want to say just a few weeks ago, so hopefully you guys all had time to pick it up and get it read. But if you haven't either finished it yet, you're in the midst of it, or it's on your TBR, we will give you spoiler warnings when it is time to get into spoilers. So, you know, like the usual, we'll be giving you a fair fair intense warnings, so don't worry. Yep. Yep. So, yeah, that's about the first 15 minutes or so because we'll be going over faves and fails we of the week. We'll be going over um our spoiler-free star and spice rating, who we'd recommend it for, before we get into the deep dive, starting with our classic five sentences or less, which rip me for this. Um like this might be uh maybe the hardest one I've done aside from like heat of the ever flame. So great, great, great, great. It is definitely more than five sentences, but I just make it work as we do. We just we just go, "Yeah, that's a sentence. Sure. Yeah, it's not a paragraph." You know, there's a there's a lot of dashes. There's a lot of semicolons. But listen, we're here to bring you the important information in the most chaotic way possible. We've got an instrument for you. But before we get into any of that, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here. Seriously, thank you for taking time out of your day and your book to come and hang out with us and see what we have to say all about this sensational viral book series. This one in particular being Brimstone. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen favorite podcasts, including YouTube. And we're also on Instagram and Tik Tok. We are Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. And if you're in the mood for some book club reads, we do have a monthly book club that we host over on Fable. And that's besties and the Book Club, but all the announcements remain on Instagram, so that way you don't miss out. Yep. Girl, follow us over there. I know. I was just looking too. I did look it up, just a little FYI in case anyone was curious. So, right now there is a third book in Fay and Alchemy slotted to come out November of 2026. So, we'll be back in your ears then to make sure that we cover that. But, you know, this is kind of a unique thing talking about a middle book because I feel like those can either be a very big hit or a very big miss depending on like how we're able to get from point A to point B and have it make sense and be entertaining. Right. So, yes, I'm excited to talk about that. Mhm. Okay, so why don't we just get into our faves and fails of the week really quick? We haven't done I don't think just a general of the week and we just came off of the Thanksgiving holiday just a little bit ago. So we probably have some some Mine are reading related. So my fail is that I literally always go into vacations thinking I'm going to be able to read. Yeah. Could we just How silly. So silly laugh. Can we just laugh? We're laughing. We're laughing. Who can relate out there? You have all these great grand intentions, great expectations, if you will, book pun intended, of all these reads you'll be able to get done. And how much do you get done, Liz? Barely any at all. Yeah. So that's my fail is that I was like, listen, I've got Brimstone. I'm going to be binging that. I've got our book club read, The Lost God by Sheila Masterson. I'm going to binge that. It's going to be such I had 10 days off. I mean, I was hosting company the whole time, but I did have 10 days off. What did I end up reading? Probably I think I made it to literally chapter 7 because the FOMO was so strong that I like could not not get to chapter 7 in Brimstone and then literally read no more the entire time. Yeah. Because I just had no time. So, what did I do? because I was like, "My brain is tired. I am busy. I don't have time." The reason why I didn't go back to Brimstone is because at the end of the night after doing stuff all day, it's like I knew that I wanted to be able to retain information. I wanted to be able to piece things together and I just didn't have the brain capacity to do so. Yeah. So, I decided to I actually kept a reading log to see what that way I can look at it next time I have delusions of grandeur and I can look and see how much I actually read on vacation. I entitled it reading log. I have it right here. Beautiful. But I will say here's the thing. I decided I was just going to invest in some nollas that I could just like easy peasy not get invested. Turn the brain off, just enjoy it. And so I did read A Very Killer Christmas. So these are my faves. Okay, this is a fave. I read A Very Killer Christmas, which is the sequel to A Very Stalker Christmas by Leila Fay. So was that one one of my favorites? No, but it was still entertaining, easy, chill, you know. Um I read So our uh I want to call her friend of the podcast, but we haven't had her on here, but we've had her books on here multiple times. Aiden Pierce, um, who did Burn for Jack and Cry for Krampus that we've covered. I did read Step Devil One and Step Devil 2 about a paranormal stepbrother romance. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. So, that was a good time. Um, but the crowning jewel of of my novella spree for my uh Thanksgiving break was Bend for Bor by Aiden Pierce as well. So, I went into this thinking it was another holiday romance novella. It is, but I thought it was like Christmas, but it was actually St. Patrick's Day. Great. But I didn't realize that until I was like basically done. I was like, "Oh, okay. Great." But it was like all the hints were there. I just didn't get it. I just didn't get it. So, that's my bad. But basically, it's like about the I It's like uh Irish lore about like a giant like kind of like a giant Irish Viking guy, I guess, named Bor. Um and it was great. It was like top tier monster romance. Yeah. So, highly recommend. I mean, obviously you could read it around St. Patrick's Day if that's what you want to do, but really you could read it anytime. Yeah, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Plug it in. Plug it in. So, that is my fave is that I finally just stopped fighting it and I just was like, I'm going to read nollas and that's what I did. And it was a grand old time. Everyone go read Ben for Baylor. Okay. Yeah. It's a bit of a mood reading moment and like what your brain can handle because fantasy you got to be got to be paying attention. You can't be like, "Oh, this is a St. Patrick's Day book." After I read the whole thing. Yeah, exactly. To where your brain space was, honestly. Well, yeah. It's like literally like leprechauns and rainbows and like shamrocks. You're like, "Huh, this interesting." They're in Ireland. He's Irish. Like literally all the pieces. They have Christmas, too. It was like St. Well, yeah, but it was like St. Patrick's Day. Like all of the things like added up and I don't know what finally made it click in my brain, but I was like, "Wait, the cover was green and I was like, oh, Christmas." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, hey, it was a good old time. Uh, and then yeah, no weirdness in the step books if you guys were interested in that. Um, and that was just a great like demon paranormal romance kind of deal. So, Yeah, you know, enjoy enjoy at your leisure. So, what about you? What was your faves and fails of the week of the recent times? Well, guys, we'll give you a little peak behind the curtain, if you will, the wizard's curtain into a fail that just happened just now cuz we got to talk about it. No. Um, hey, Liz and I filmed our racking ranking and wrap-up episode for the Wicked series, which is so fun. It's such a hoot. And when I went to sit down and film this, I realized my mic battery needed to be changed because at some point it died. And it doesn't give me any indicator. It's just I'm dead. So that means I had to go back and say, "Okay, well, did it cut off while we were talking in the last filming or did I get lucky and it just now died?" No. Um, most of it most of the episode we will now be refilming. So, apologies if that episode was delayed for your liking because hey, we're doing the best that we can and the best is not good enough.

So, we'll be refilming that, which you know, it's just holidays right now. So, it's just really crazy chaotic times, but but we love it and we want to get it out to you guys and we'll make it work. So, it will probably be what is it this Friday that it'll go out? It was supposed to be last Friday, but hey, it is what it is. For people to watch the movie, the second movie. Yes, you better part two. This is your last warning. Watch it. That way we can talk about talk all about it. It'll be full of spoilers, full of rankings and wrap-ups, all those things for all of the Wicked fandom. So, hey. But that wasn't even the fail I was going to talk about. So, we went to Vegas this last weekend because my husband surprised me with Broncos, you know, to go see the Broncos because they're playing at Raider Stadium. Super fun. So, that's a fave in general. We had a great time. I've been kind of a Vegas naysayer for a while now because since co it's been stupid. Like quality's gone down, prices have gone up. It's like, what is this very nickel and dimey? But, we actually had a good time. Quality was a little bit better for the food. Prices were a little bit more reasonable. like parking for instance, they tried charging like $60 a day back uh a couple years ago. So, we're like, well, what's the point of that? We might as well fly. And now it's back to I don't know, it was like 20 or $30 a night, so that was better. I still want it back free because hey, that's what it was. So, anyways, we had a great chill time. Uh all good. And maybe our fail, I don't know, kind of turned into I was happy about it. Um, after dinner, cuz we had like a 9:00 dinner, which that's way past my bedtime, but we're in Vegas, so I'll rise the occasion. And after dinner, we were like, "Let's just go take a little nap, you know, and I was like, and he was tempting me with pizza in bed at 2 a.m. if you get up." I'm like, "Oo, I'll love that. That's great. He's finally speaking my language. Good. That's that'll motivate me." And I was kind of getting a little headachy because the desert, climate change, and that's what I get, migraines. So, I was like, "Let's set an alarm for one hour and I'll get up with you." I will cuz he's the one that wants to get up and do some slots and stuff. Like that's fine. I'll do it for you if you reward me with pizza in bed. Yeah, fine by me. We're only there one night, too. So, he sets the alarm and I'm just like, if I don't my husband at all, he ain't getting up after that alarm goes off. So, it's a win-win in my book. Sure enough, the alarm goes off and I'm like, "Okay, I said I would do it. You want to go? Let's go." And he's like, "Let's just sleep." Like, "Okay, great. Good night." and we went to bed. It was so good. Yeah. So great. Yep. So, I don't know. Fave, fail, a little bit of both. Because you're like, you're in Vegas, but it's like what are we going to do? I'm going to sit and watch him play slots and I'm going to like listen to an audio book. So, yeah. Yep. Or like read my Kindle on my phone. Oh, the fail might have been that it was uh country overlay weekend, guys. Ah, no offense to people that like modern country, but it ain't it for me if you can't tell lives and it was country music everywhere. We were staying at the MGM. I did like the giant cowboy hat on that was very cute. It was super cute. So, um, that was cute, but everything else was like, wow, where am I? This is crazy. But all in all, a good time. Yeah, it's like when we were there for when we were young and everything's emo, only everyone was there for the cowboy stuff. Why were they there? like what were they doing there? What was happening there? Do you know? There's a rodeo, like a giant rodeo rodeo. There was also this like uh outlet convention of cowboy stuff like Stenson's boots like those kind of things. My sister-in-law was there for that actually. But then for some I don't know if it was near I don't know. I I feel like it was everywhere but specifically it was a lot. Yeah. I don't know what convention center they were using. Whatever. It was a lot of cowboy hats. I did try really hard to find a cowboy with an earring for Liz to ick her out, but I I didn't find one. I mean, hey, that could be a good thing. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. I was disappointed because I wanted to her out, but it was a bad thing because I couldn't. But it was good because they're not doing it. Yeah. So, so great. Yeah. Well, so there you go. All right. So, let's get into our spoiler-free reviews of Brimstone. Oh my god,

we haven't talked about this book yet because I like literally just finished it. Okay. Okay. All right. Spoilerfree. Well, I give this a resounding five stars. Ooh. Yeah. Nice. And I would say, you know, as much as as much as I would love to give this as four spice, guys, it's still a three spice for me because it doesn't really it doesn't cross that threshold into four spice, but I would love it to go there. I would love for King Fisher to take us to a four spice, but that day has not yet come, so we're still at a three. Um, I loved this book. It was so entertaining. Like that's the thing. It's like this is a rating based on vibes, okay? Like this is not any literary critique, like anything like that. This is literally just five stars. Entertained me the whole time. Couldn't wait to find out what was going on. Twisties, turnies, great spice. Like I just all of it I ate it up. Does it have issues? It does. We'll talk about them. Um, but did it ruin it for me? Not at all. Nice. So, I am thoroughly enjoying uh the series so far. I'm excited to see where it goes. What about you? Oh, well, for me, I'm going to be landing on a four stars for this book. Not because I didn't have a good time, not cuz I wasn't entertained, cuz I was. Um, and I and I thoroughly enjoy it. Four stars is still pretty strong in our books over here, literally. Um, but to me, it's a good solid middle book. Mhm. I think that there are a lot of loose ends. Mhm. And as long as they get tied up in the future book, I'm happy. And it could bump up to five stars. You never know. But as it stands right now, and I'm comparing to the emotional like level of investment I had in Quicksilver, I'm like, that was a five star. This I'm like, this is a four star. down a little bit. Down a little bit. Not too, but but more more TBD, right? We have a lot to talk about in this book. Is it only going to be a trilogy? Do you know? Or is it planned for even more than that? I'm like I feel like we asked Cali Hart that and she told us and now I can't remember. I feel like it was still kind of up in the air cuz Quicksilver would had like just gotten picked up for Netflix. So yeah, I think that it was like this is supposed to be a trilogy, but she kind of alluded to the fact that side characters might end up getting their stories told too. So I don't know if that means maybe there'll be more books in the future or if those are going to be like side stories, like a different thing. You know what I mean? So I think the universe will not be complete after the next book, but who knows? It can't be complete. It's getting too big. It's getting too big. It's getting too big. and can't contain it. Yeah, I'm really hoping it's personally I'm hoping it's longer than three books for sure. Um, who who would you recommend this for? Other than people who just read Quicksilver, obviously like if we were to recommend Fay and Alchemy to someone, who would you recommend it to? Yeah, anybody who loves romanty. Yeah, give the Quicksilver series a try for sure. Literally, you want romance, you want fantasy, boom, there you go. I mean, I definitely felt like I got I'll just say this, and this might be completely inaccurate and is based only on my opinion and no factual evidence. Um, I got high fantasy vibes from this throughout the whole thing. And the romance to me was just like the freaking icing on the cake, man. you know, so it's like I really feel like at this point in time I would even recommend Fay and Alchemy to people who maybe haven't tried spicy fantasy yet um and are thinking about like dipping their toes in because I do know, you know, we always call Acatar the gateway drug. It doesn't do it for everyone. And I've had a couple clients that I've recommended Acatar to who just couldn't get sucked in who I did recommend the audio of Quicksilver to and it did resonate. So, I feel like, you know, to me, it might help bridge that gap for some more people. Oh, there you go, guys. Yeah. And I mean, hey, Stella Bloom and Anthony Palamini's voice in your ears, like those voices in your ears, you can't go wrong. You can't go wrong. So good. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect casting. Perfect casting. Totally. Okay. Insane. Well, should we get into the spoiler section with my terribly written five sentence summary? Wait, now I don't remember how to play this. Great. Hey,

spoilers coming. I feel I feel like Ashley's giving Carryon vibes right now, so I'm here for it. He's literally us, though. Okay, I know that means that we think highly of ourselves, but we're the comic relief, so hey, it's great. I loved him. It is what it is. here. I mean, I'm playing a freaking recorder right now, so hey, it just seems like something he'd do, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And we love him for it. We are. Are we ready for this? The five sentence summary of Brimstone by Cali Hart. Here we go. Let's go. Saras is now the leader of the vampires and must figure out how to navigate being half fay while reorganizing the power structure in the Sis Rothian blood court at Amantrath with the help of Talad Talidus her sire and friend to Kingfisher. She meets the other four of the five lords of midnight including Zena the keeper of missives and also Tal's previous fa lover. Aith keeper of the Evanlite who Kingfisher ends up killing for his attempt on Saras's life. Algot, the keeper of records, and the Hazrax, the keeper of silence, an ancient being whose power is ambiguous, but who does not swear feelalty to the court, but rather has a deal with Saras and previously Malcolm to help the court in exchange in yearly favors for their observation.

One, this is what we do. It's called motivation. Okay, for anybody new here. All right. It's to signify the end of a sentence and to motivate. Yes. And congratulate and salivate. It's weird. Okay. Um, next. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Just stick with just stick with me. It's not going to get any easier. Here we go. Feels like I am speaking another language. This is one of those books, you know. Okay. Meanwhile, a deadly blight is taking over in many areas of Aalia. The feeders, a feral hungry zombie-like breed of vampires, are almost impossible to kill and are quickly terrorizing their way across the lands, killing everyone in their wake and spreading the rot, a black death that kills the lands, animals, and people it touches, only becoming stronger when magic is used to try to stop it. The only thing that they discover can stop it is brimstone, an element that only the fire sprites and Saras possess. But Saras cannot wield it yet.

Two. Two. Okay. What's going to happen? What's going to happen? As Sarah searches for answers about her runes, magic, and how to stop the rot, she is visited by the spirit of Adena, King Fischer's mother. Speaking through the still comeos body of Everlane, his sister. She tells Saras that she will discover a book that is meant only for her with guidance for the future based on her visions as an oracle. Saras finds the book in the Santaisian library along with Foley, a previous member of the Luprolia, who was turned vampire by Malcolm and who she convinces to join her court as her new lord of midnight.

Three. King Fisher and Carion travel back to S to Zvarin to retrieve Hayden and to gather enough materials to make more relics to travel through the quicksilver and during their trip battle and trap the god of chaos, Joan, who they strike a bargain with to release once he helps them. Simultaneously, Kingfisher and Saras discover they can meet in dreams. But it seems 100% real. Saras learns how to wield more of her power to effortlessly summon the quicksilver and turns Solless into two shorts swords, Aramar and Selanir. Renfist goes missing while spreading the word about the blight. And the witch is Seael casts an insanely strong spell in the vampire court, killing most of them when they refuse to take the anecdote to turn them back into fay. However, some do turn like Tal against his will because he finally wanted to die. But Sarah saves him and makes him a godsord instead. Algot and Zavina who dies in battle later.

Four. Four. 10,000. 10,000 sentences. Yeah. Okay. All right. And the winner for the longest runon sentence ever goes to sentence five of Brimstone. Okay. But listen, it gets crazier. Okay. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. All of Kish is evacuated through a portal, but King Fisher disappears in the process. Meanwhile, Saras discovers that Madra is sending the infected soldiers through a portal she created by turning Zylverin into a huge magic rune and siphon of power. The saters recognize Kerrion as the lost Dianthis heir to the FA throne. Sarah's transports in a dream to college to try to find Fischer and the missing page of Adena's journal when the Hazra shows up and as her favor transports her to the Wickerwood where Bellacon is keeping Fischer prisoner. But Saras releases him by summoning King Fisher's godsword and by calling him by his true name Kaidan Greyar Finvara. They behead Bellacon and kill his henchmen in order to escape. Using her power, she brings Onyx, who was killed in the fight, back to life. We find out that Refus is a knight of the Azen gate. So Saras and Kingfisher meet up with him so they can travel through the portal to hell that Kingfisher went through as a boy in order to find answers. When we find out that Kaidan's true father is Stixs, king of the dragons. Oo

crazy up. How did you guys like that cliffhanger? Ooh. Ah, dude. Dude, I'm so pumped. Like, okay, I apologize for that chaotic summary, but like literally every single one of those things had to be in there. It had to There's more that you missed. Yeah. You know, like a lot. Yeah, it happened. There was so much that happened. I feel like almost sometimes we should say five part summary, but I'm a little afraid of how long it'll get. Yeah, I was going to say I think No, I think this is a good way to go. It's good to try to limit yourself as like a sentence like that you can to try to keep it as short and sweet. Yeah, cuz otherwise we'll be here all day. Literally, we'll be here all day. Let me just It'll just be an episode of me just reading the book to you. That's all it is. It will just become Yeah. So, all right. Let's just get right into it with three tropes that you loved. I loved and I don't know you call it a redemption arc but kind of but I loved the redemption arc of Carrion. Not that Carerion. I keep saying his name wrong. Um I mean but not really because like he we find out how he got that fake name and it was because one of the guards called him Carryon. Yeah. But I mean even Carion I'm not saying right but that's okay. Kerrion. Kerrion. Anyways that guy um because you know he's right. He's painted as like a playboy guy. last one. He's You get the comic relief from him, too, but you just get so much more of it right now. And so maybe maybe the trope that I loved is character development just in general, honestly. Like in general, especially for Carryon, um just his story. So, I mean, I think we all enjoy that. Yeah. His Yeah, cuz I mean he just has lots of layers. And now I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm excited to see like since he is the lost heir like he's the you know rightful king of Aalia. So it's like he needs or the winter court or whatever. So it's like he needs to challenge Bellon and I am super excited to see what happens with that. Yeah. Mhm. Yep. Um, I also put begrudging besties because of Carryon and King Fisher and he's not happy about it, but Carryon is love it. I love what I what we see forming there. The justosition of their personalities is great. And then world ending love, you know. Yeah. All good. All good. All good ones. What about you? Um, I just have to say the real love story, right, is between Kerrion and King Fisher. And that is that's that's what I'm talking about. World Ending Love Caring and King Fiction. Obviously, they're the best. They're the best. That's so funny. It's like it's totally like you give me a cookie, I give you a cookie. 100%. It's Nick. It's Nick and um what's his name? Yeah, it's Nick and Schmidt. You give me a cookie, I give you a cookie. That's so sweet. Don't make a big deal about it. Do you use my shampoo? Give me it back. I could just see them like that. It's great. Yeah, I know. I love him so much. Saras is just Jess. A Yeah, it's just her and Onyx hanging out over there. Yeah, those are the real love stories. Her and Onyx, her little bestie, and then Kerion and King Fisher BFFs. Yeah, it's cute. It's great. So cute. So, um, I chose chosen one because I am loving finding out Saras is an FMC who I actually really freaking like and have liked since the beginning. And so, I feel like with a lot of FMC's, I feel like I need to warm up to them over time. Like, I don't really love them right off the bat. I find them a little problematic and then they grow on me. But, it's like Saras I really freaking like. And the more powers she gets, the freaking cooler she gets. And I'm just like watching her like kick everyone's ass just gives me such joy. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely chosen one. That is top for me. Um Found Family was my number two because it's like you were saying just a little bit ago. If this universe didn't get expanded past an original trilogy, that in my opinion would be just so sad because there's so many freaking amazing side characters. Even the side characters that I don't like, like DA, like I still want to know her story. Yeah. You know, um obviously, and then we know that I'm a huge fan of Renfist, who we saw very little of in this book. So, um want to know more about him, like obviously want to know more about Carryon. And yeah, there's just there's too many good ones. Um, Taladus, like he's been around for thousand years. Teladus. Helas. That's what I hear every time. Sorry. But it's like I want to know. He's been around for a thousand years. What's this dude been up to this whole time? I want to know. Yeah. Um, his love story with Zavina, right? There's so much to cover. So, yeah. Found family. I love when she made Tal his god sword. I was like, "Oh, that's so sweet." There was just so many special moments. Yeah. Mhm. Um, and then I put plot twists like major. So, finding out. Okay, so here's the thing, guys. Okay, we need to start calling him by his new name. It's like one of those things where he's going to be king fisher to me till the end of time, but she's calling him his new name. Kaidan. Okay, so Kai. She calls him Kai. So like is he because it's only half gods are the only ones who are able to uh wield shadows, right? Yeah. So he's half god. Is he like what does that mean? Also, is he like a dragon somewhere in there? Like what's going on with that? Like I don't know. I want more information. But either way, I'm just like that cliffhanger that twist was excellent. Top tier. I didn't see it coming. I didn't think he was going to be like like I didn't think they were going to go to this other realm and he was going to be like, "Hey, call up dad. I got a bone to pick with him." What? It's always one of those like crap. I forgot to think about who his real father is. See? Well, that's funny you say that because I didn't I was wondering the whole time who his real father was. Oh, I didn't think about it. I was like, we knew who his mother is and who like the kid stepad. Step and I was just like la. Oh, man. See, no, I was wondering because I know that was a thing just to go back to Spark of the Everflame. That was the thing that was bothering me for a lot of the time in that story, too. And so, I was it was like in the back of my mind, I think, this whole time where I was like, who's his real dad? Who's his real dad? And like, but still, I didn't see any of that coming. I don't know. I I miss big cues sometimes also. Um, but yeah, so plot twist, cliffhanger ending. Good. Good. So, good. Yes, it's great. So, what about a micro trope that you like or you didn't like? Um, so we talked a lot about swords imbued with magic last time. Uh, this time I liked paper birds imbued with magic. I thought it was so cute. Annoying, but cute. I was like, "Oh, I just could totally visualize it. It was adorable." Then it came in handy. And she's like, "A crap. This was the bird was trying to tell me something." Yep. I know. when they were like divebombing her and like giving her paper cuts, I was like, "Oh no, are they evil?" Yeah. But I'm glad. So mine kind of goes hand inhand with that cuz like my micro trope was an oracle or like a book of secrets. And so obviously they were trying to get her to put together the, you know, special book of secrets from King Fisher's mom. So loved that. That was really cool. Yep. And all the runes that she's collecting. I'm loving that. That's good. Good stuff. I love the uh the trope, micro trope, creepy, you know, old ancient figure that's kind of you're not sure if they're evil or sweet and they're like following you around and they're like kind of helpful but annoying and weird. The Haz. Yep. Very, you know, from the very beginning, the Hazracks gave me surreal vibes. Like literally from the beginning. And that's exactly what's happening here. And so I'm just like, "All right, where are we going with this?" Like, so I am excited to see what happens with the Hazracks cuz who are they? What are we going to find out? Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. What kind of power do they have? For real. So, if it's popular, do you understand why? Wait, you know, you forgot. What about a trope that you hated? Oh, trope that I hated. That's so funny because I don't even think I wrote one down. That's so funny. I like skipped over it entirely. Okay. Why I was being petty for this? Um just cuz I'm like, okay, well, it kind of dragged on. It doesn't really seem like it went anywhere. But so sister in a coma trope cuz it was necessary at the beginning, you know, cuz she was in but it's kind of like they kept forgetting about her and I did too. And they're like, "Oh yeah, and Everane's in a coma." And then Yeah. Like what's going on there? Yeah. Ever being in a coma and Renfist being missing the majority or just gone the majority of the book. I'd say those things were a couple things I didn't love. Yeah. Um cuz Yeah. With Everlane, I was like, gosh, just to be in a coma for the whole book. Like, and I get that she acted as like a conduit for King Fisher's mom to come through. So, that's cool. But then you I mean, she could have woken up at some point. Yeah. I thought I kind of I kind of felt like she should have just died after that cuz it kind of seemed like she was going to like she served her last purpose because one of them I don't remember who was helping them now cuz it was the beginning of the book was like um she might not be able to hold on much longer after this you know like something was just keeping her there it seemed like and that was that. And so then I was like, "Okay." And then instead of like it closed in my head and then every once in a while it would come up again and like oh we need to move her and get her out of here because the rot's coming and it's like you know just like what are we doing with this better come up in the next book. I was going to say maybe we'll find out why obviously she comes back at the end you know but Well yeah but what if she I just thought of this. What if she's like in another realm this whole time doing some important stuff? Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. TV. Well, now that I'm now that I'm thinking about it, I would say that like probably a trope that I didn't like if I had to pick one would be I don't like it when the witch is always the scapegoat for something bad that happens. Like, yeah. And I get that like, you know, it wasn't necessarily bad that the blood court got annihilated cuz that was kind of going to be the plan anyway, but I didn't like that it came to be through um what's her name? I can't remember the witch's name now. Ta. Tena. No, that was the healer. Do you remember her name? That's going to drive me crazy. Good luck. Mia names. Yeah, there was a lot of there was a lot of names in here for sure. There was a lot of names. Um, Eabel, I think, is her. Yeah. Um, so I just I didn't like that. I feel like lots of times witches are like kind of used as a scapegoat for like propelling like uh the plot forward and I feel like the blood court needed to get taken down and she was like kind of the easy out, you know what I mean? She wasn't a major character but yet she took out all the important players in like one fell swoop which was a little bit like me to me. You know what I mean? Well, with Tal, but yeah. Yeah, with Tal. But still, I feel like without her like she's the one who basically did it, like came up with it. you know what I mean? With with all the magic necessary. He was just like the guy who kind of enacted it. So yeah, if I had to pick a trope that I didn't like, I guess it would be that just like why why we be blaming everything on the witches all the time. Yeah, it's hard right now because I am trying to keep in mind this is a middle book, you know, because there are there's a lot there's a lot going on and we don't have a lot of resolution yet. Yeah. So, I'm trying to keep an open mind, you know, and hoping that we, yeah, we'll get more to answer all these things and to make it make a little bit more sense than like, yeah, this witch character coming out of nowhere seemingly and like, oh, taking down the court. It's like we need to know more. Yeah. Like, what's the motive aside from political gain, right? I'd like to think that there's some other motive there, some other history, something that we don't know. Like otherwise, it's just like, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. So, yeah. So, if it's popular, do you understand why? And I did want to say that currently it's already up to 78,189 ratings, which for a book that's been out for basically like two and a half weeks is insanely high. And it gets a 4.3. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's really good. It's doing well. So, it is popular. Do you feel like it deserves to be? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Mhm. I would say I agree with you. I obviously really had a great time. Yeah. Mhm. No, I can't wait for three. Yeah. I know. I know that was a brutal cliffhanger to have to be like, "And now you get to wait a year." But I will say, not that I want it to be rushed or anything like that, but it is nice to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. like that in a year we'll get back which when we interviewed her I want to say Brimstone was almost done and that was January so I'm sure she got right straight to whatever the next book is going to be titled you know for sure it's not like she only has this time now yeah dude crazy so what was your favorite part okay favorite part let's see here in my handy dandy notebook book. Um, getting to know Carryon more and his backstory. Oh, like with his like first love and his families that he would connect with and then having to see them die cuz nobody really talks about that in these fantasy books where there's immortality versus mortality. Um, because he had to be incognito like he had to see so much so much death. Um, and then also Tal's choice to live specifically. That part really got me teared up. So, yeah, it almost felt like, you know, by uh Sarah, you know, making him a a godsword. It's like he was becoming part of the cadre, you know what I mean? And I was like, "Yes, let's add another one. Let's add another one to the group." Like, we're all invited. I'm so excited. I mean, he kind of like was very very emo and I was a little bit like annoyed by him at times, but it's like also I get it because I don't get it, but I get it because it's like he's so ancient and just like wants to die and he's a vampire, you know? Yeah. It's like all the makings of a Davy Havoc. I love it. Yeah, totally Davy Havoc vibes. It's so true. Yeah. I literally put my favorite part was everything. That's what I put in my notes. It just says literally everything. But I put um my favorite parts actually were Saras creating her blades. I loved that part. Yeah. Um her fighting Bellacon. Yeah, loved that part. The whole woods The whole woods was nice and creepy. Great um world building in those epic scenes at the ending with the creepy tree. Yeah, totally. with King Fisher just like getting sucked into one of the um whatever they're called. I can't remember now. So cool. Yeah, it was really cool. Um I also put chapter 20, which everyone's talking about chapter 7. I'm a chapter 20 girl. Like holy. Like literally, okay, I read so much dark romance at this point in time that it's like to get the face of like utter and complete surprise and shock like oh my god like out of me takes a lot. But like literally King Fisher like I just I put it in my quote section, but we'll just give a little taste. What does he say? He says, did I even Yeah, he says, "I want you on all fours for me." Saras crawling. Literally my jaw just dropped and I was like, "Wow." Like the spice in this is so good because we all just like love him so much that it's like it just hits at a different level, you know? So the fact that he's got like a a pretty dark kinky side just adds to the fun for sure. Yep. Um, so I put chapter 20 and then also I put King Fisher in Carryon's hug because that had me tearing up. That was so sweet. Yeah. Where he just hugs him and he cried. I was like, "This is so cute." All their scenes together. I just love it. I love them running around the city, you know, and Carion's like showing him his secret stashes and like getting into trouble and King Fish is like, "Ah." And you know, he's growing on him. You know it. Or even the opening scene, the horseback ride where he jumps on the back. Yeah. The one horse scene with uh them two. Yeah. Heck yeah. Someone someone I saw someone compare them to Shrek and Donkey and I was like, "That's so funny." It's so true. That's so cute. Totally. That's so cute. Um, so yeah, those were the favorite parts that stuck out in my mind. Aside from the twist at the end, I also love that now we're dealing with dragons. That is fun and cool and a nice element added in there. Yeah. Your least favorite part. What was your least favorite? Least favorite part. Oh,

Onyx sacrificing himself. So sad. Yeah. And you called that. You were like, "Oh, this is going to be foreshadowing that he's not going to have enough magic to bring back." I thought it was going to be somebody else, but it was just enough magic to bring Onyx back. Um, so that whole thing was just so tragic and it felt very poetic of just like King Fischer just essentially delayed the inevitable. Like we've seen in a lot of movies before, you know, he saves a life but for like it just sparing him a couple more days. like his ending was still coming, but Final Destination, if you will. Final Destination. Yeah, totally. But then we did have It was a fake out death. How do you feel? How do you feel about that? Um, that's funny. I thought you might ask me that. Um, it didn't make me as mad as when it's like a fake out death of like a major character. Yeah. Necessarily. Like not to say that like Onyx isn't a major character, but you know what I mean. Um I'd categorize Onyx more as like a sidekick. Um yeah. So it didn't really bother me, but I also didn't love it. Like I feel like I kind of expected Onyx to get brought back, so I wasn't super like sad or shocked by it. I think that it might have been a little bit more impactful if Onyx would have just died, but at the same time, I didn't want Onyx to die. So yeah, I feel kind of I guess neutral about it at the end of the day. Just kind of like, all right, I feel like we're still delaying the inevitable because now she's given up something to bring him back a second time, right? Okay. So, I'm a little concerned. Do you think he's going to be on the chopping block for book three? Or because didn't she give up a piece of her magic to be able to do that? Yes. Yeah, for sure. that's gonna like it's gonna come like they're going to need it later and she won't have it. So again, kind of delaying exactly what happened with King Fisher bringing him back to begin with, you know, and again, yeah, it's sad. We love Onyx. We want the best for him, but it would have been I almost would have rather if I if I was writing this, if this was me, I would have kept it as basically her cute little ghost fox that she knows is always there because the Hazrack was like, I see him. He's right there, you know? Yeah, that's cute. And he's like, he's sitting right next to you. It's almost like he doesn't really know like that was getting me. I I would have cried and been more taken by the scene if that's then how they moved on because they did say like the souls can stick with different people, right? So if Onyx's soul was just attached and tethered to her from then on out, I would have really liked that. Sorry guys. It would have meant that he would be dead. But I just I don't know. I'm I'm And I'm concerned what's going to become of that cuz something's going to happen from that. I don't think it's on accident. Mhm. Yeah, good points. Good points all around. But yeah, it didn't bother me too much, but I also didn't like like it that much either. I was just kind of like, okay. Yeah. Kind of saw that come in a little bit. Figured that Onyx would pull through yet again. Yeah. Yeah. Which feels silly, too. Yeah. Kind of a little like two fake out deaths. Um cuz they need the drama. Sorry. Yeah. So, I didn't love it. Well, especially cuz it's not like a main character. Yeah. Like I said, like he's kind of a main character, but not really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about your favorite character? Does that go to carry on for this book? Yeah. Have a grand old time. It was fun. Liked hearing his story. Mhm. What about you? I picked Saras this time. Yeah. Very nice. I just love how freaking cool she was. like her just all of the scenes where she was just like taking people out. I love that stuff. I was like that vampire scene with the girl that was super annoying and she's just like figures out that wait, I can control her and she like makes her Oh, when she pins her down with the candalabra and then uses her her back as a foot stool. I was like, dude. Yeah, exactly. That was a great moment when she has those little epiphanies like, "Wait, I can freaking take you down. You're going to bend your knee to me." That's what's up. Yeah. Uh, so definitely. Yeah. Saras was my favorite character for that reason. Um, and my least character favorite character if we're going there, it was Zena. Yeah, she's the worst. Yeah, she was pretty terrible. And I felt sad because of the fact that literally Tal became a vampire for this [ __ ] and then she just like kicks him to into the dust. What the hell? Yeah, that pissed me off. So Zena got what was coming to her and I wasn't sad about it except for the fact that Tal was sad, but other than that, she deserved what she got. He'll figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. My least fave would just be is it Oras? Sniveling gross looking dude at the end. You know the boot. The bootlicker she called him. I was like that's freaking perfect. Yeah. Onyx killer bootlicker. Gross. He reminds me of what? Worm. Worm ear from Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. I was like special shout out to her brother Hayden for being so dumb and annoying. Can't stand him. Also, literally Hayden, I was like, is there a way for him to not die, but just like go back? Like, could he just like leave us alone and be fine, but like just not be in the story anymore? He's so annoying. Yeah, he's so annoying. He brings at this point in time nothing to the table. Yeah. At all. Um, so I'm hoping that in the next book we see him kind of evolve a bit because if we don't that's going to be a problem for me. It's like, dude, the story's going and you're staying back here. We got to we got to do something. Oh, when he said that comment to her about um, oh well, we always seemed like we had more food and water than everyone else, so like it wasn't that big of a deal. And she's like, "I was climbing through the freaking sewers every night, fighting off guards and almost getting killed to make sure that you had enough water every day and you're like literally acting spoiled." I would have been like, "Go back to the dry place. Get out of here. King Fisher, take him back through the portal. Get him out of my sight." Like literally. Yeah. Infuriating. Infuri. I mean, he came he came around, but it's like I think she's just trying to like make sure that we know that he's young and he's naive and Sarah says shield him from everything and like he's got a long way to go. Yeah. Yep. So, he's got some growth to do. Yeah. So, do you have any notable quotes to share with the class? I do. So, let's ping pong a little bit. See what happens. Okay. 1,00. So, this was the moment that I loved um from Tal deciding to live. Okay. Okay. She finds him on the cliff. 1,63 years, 5 months, and 3 days, his voice tapered to whis whisper. That's how long it's been since I felt the sun on my face. Saras, if I had gotten here an hour earlier, I would have done it. I would have jumped. He blinked, his eyelids open, a stillness falling over him as he looked out onto the water. But now a crooked, heartbroken smile hovered at the corners of his mouth. How can I cosign myself to another endless dark when I've been given the light back? Oh, it makes me wonder if See, I have a hard like that's a great quote, but I have a hard time connecting when I'm like thinking about other stuff in the moment where I'm like, wait, but if he jumps off the cliff, how does that kill him if he's immortal? Like, does that kill vampires? Could they just start pushing them off the cliffs? He's not a vampire anymore. Oh, he's fa now. That's why. Okay. Also is questionable, but I think it's a bad fall.

Okay. Either way, that Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's not a vampire anymore. So, he's basically like now he can die technically easier than a vampire will. Yeah. But still, can Fay just die from being pushed off a cliff? I think, like I said, it's maybe it's a bad fall, you know. Let me add to the list for reals. Yeah, listen. We'll have a plot hole list that we'll talk about that people will either rage or answer our questions. Maybe we missed it. Um, but like, you know, Yeah. Even Fay, he's high Fay, right? Cuz he wasn't just a human turned vampire. He was a high Fay also, right? Yeah. As far as I Yeah, cuz he wanted to go back to like his uh like castle or whatever. His fa life. though. I do also think it would be harder to kill him. Maybe he was going to do more than just jump. Maybe. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I don't know the logistics yet. I don't know. Maybe he was going to jump onto like a into the Was the rock down there? Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. We're trying to like patch the holes right now. We're just going to have to accept it for what it is. Maybe you guys could explain it to us that he was going to fall onto to behead himself. He's going to cut his own head off while he jumps. I don't know. But anyways, it was a beautiful moment. Okay. It was It was love. No, it was great. Like I said, I loved it cuz then she gives him his his god sword and it's like a whole beautiful time. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Great. Okay, your turn. Um, let's see. All libraries contained magic, even libraries that didn't specialize in such things. Because what was a book if not a portal into another realm, another time, another life? Oh, yeah. That's good. That's a good one. King Fisher says, "I'd spend the fortunes of the universe to protect you. I drain the seas dry, fell every tree. I would sacrifice the sun for the [ __ ] sky and surrender the stars, too, if I could. But those things aren't mine to give. All I have is my life. It isn't much, but I'll spend it. and consider the price small if it meant keeping you safe.

King

just soak it in. Just soak it in. Soak it in, baby. Okay, so I put one down that he said, "Uh, Fischer cradled my lower jaw, gripping my face between his thumb on one side and his index and middle finger on the other. You're so [ __ ] beautiful, he whispered. You've existed in my mother's drawings for most of my life, but you were never real to me before. I didn't believe. His eyes were wide and full of awe. I had no idea what you would mean to me. I had no idea what I would do to keep you safe. When I closed my eyes, you are all I [ __ ] see, Sarah's fame. I could be dead in the ground 5,000 years and the frost could have taken my bones and still no other male will ever have loved another female the way that I love you. Oo, that's all we want. That's so hard. Good golly. God, is it too much to ask? Jeez. It's so beautiful. All right, you got any more? The universe could end and carry on. Swift wouldn't have run out of questions. Hey, me too. Me, too.

Let's see. Um, oh, so this was about our good old little animal companion, Onyx. We believe that animals are too pure for this life. They are all ascended beings who live in the after. Everything is perfect there. No pain or misfortune or heartbreak. But sometimes they peer beyond the veil between this life and the next. And they see us here in the depths of our suffering. And they choose someone. One soul they want to help over any other. They come to us as dear friends, he cleared his throat. When we need them the most. You needed Onyx when you first got here, Saras. He saw that perhaps and he came. Oh, how sweet. See, I loved that. I loved that. I love it. So cute. All right, my last one is, "Aren't we just the same? Made from the same material as the sea and the dirt and the sky, folded from the scraps of the gauze and entrusted with a spark of magic that makes us real." I put that one, too. Oh, it's a good one. It's a good one. It's good stuff. Good stuff. Okay, so my last one. Of course, King Fisher says this because why would he not? Okay. I will not rob you of your path by insisting I carry you. Oh, that's good. Mhm. That's good. Oh, King Fisher, you'll go down in history. You'll go down in history. Like you say, a wordssmith. Wordsmith. For sure. For sure. So that brings us to how is the spice would you say? How is the smot? How is the smot ratio? Great. Perfect for a middle book. I think perfect. Literally. Yeah. Like you get us something in chapter 7. Like you said, you didn't make us wait too long. A lot of times they do. Yeah. This was great. This is perfect. And then it's just like a little fun sprinkle sprinkle. It's great. Yeah, it was a good balance. Like I said, I would love to see like a fivestar four spice in a romanty cuz I honestly don't know. I'm trying to think. Like maybe when I reread Plated Prisoner, some of the later books might be that, but I'm not sure. Um but that's a hard that's a hard rating to get. You know what I mean? Um I feel like more spice. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. because I feel like if you go to five spice, then the smot ratio obviously goes down with the plot more. Um, but I feel like you could still get a significant amount of plot and we could move right right over that little ledge into like a four spice and that might be like the perfect amount. Um, but yeah, I mean it was great and like I think it must be said here for the record, stated for the record, King Fisher has a dirty mouth and oh dear lord, we appreciate it. Thank you Calie Heart for your service.

Good. Um, so yeah, I agree with you. Smart level. Excellent for sure. Are you excited? I know you'll read the next one, so I'm not going to ask you that. Are you excited for the the next book to come out? Yes. Yeah. That cliffhanger. Come on. Yeah. Come on. Give it to us now. Just kidding. Don't. But I wouldn't mind. It was one of those moments where it's like I think we both finished the book listening to audio, right? Mhm. And I'm just like putting my makeup on, doing my stuff, you know, running around, doing my dishes, whatever. And then all of a sudden it's over. And I was like, "Wait, what? Wait, what? Wait, what?" Yeah. I was like, "No." It's like one of those moments where if I was reading the the paper book, I would have like turned back the pages and then turned forward the pages and then turned back the like I was like, "Oh, no. It's over for a year." Okay. Yeah. Okay. Which, you know, I was thinking about this the other day. That is actually faster than most TV series come out now. Yeah. That's wild. Like we have to wait longer for like we have to wait like two years for another series of our favorite show to come out, but the book doesn't take that long. That's wild. Yeah. Well, I think the book does, but she's already working on it. You know what I'm saying? But you know what I mean. It's like in the time we get it. In the time we Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Or at least that's how it seems to be going at this point in time. So, obviously we'll both read the next one. We'll both be covering the next one for you guys. I'm sure of it. Very excited. What did you think about the audio book? Oh, obviously amazing. Five stars. Five star. Infinity star. Five stars. 10 out of 10. It's okay. The only thing, my only complaint about the audio book is I want to listen to it more than physically read it because it's so good. You know what I'm saying? So, I start off I start off with the physical and I'm like going and I'm going and then life is catching up and I'm like, "Okay, you know what? I know the audio is going to be so good. Let me just let me just pop that in my ear sometimes." But then what's happening with what happened with this one is like I could listen to it or I could physically read it and I'm gonna be listening to it, you know, and I never got around to doing the subtitle hack where you have the book with it. It's just they do such a good job that it makes me gravitate to the audio, which is unusual for me. Like if I get time to physically read, I'm going to try to choose that, especially with fantasy. But because the both um vocalists do such a good job, both narrators do such a good job. Such a good job. Even with the different characters that they have to just slightly change the tone. Great dude. Literally, dude. Dude, like it's it's like Yeah. Obsessed. So, it's hard once to start audio with especially Anthony Pelamini. Like once you start one of his audio narrations, it's hard to go back to my own voice in my head. Like, well, I don't want to listen to me read this, you know? I listen to Stalin Anthony. Yeah. I subtitled I'd say probably 70% of the book because of that same reason. I was like, if I'm sitting there reading the Kindle, like I had the audio on at the same time cuz I just couldn't not like the only my Oh, you did the trifecta. the trifecta. Audio, Kindle, and physical. I literally did. Yeah. Like all all all the ways. Yeah, that's a trifecta, baby. Yeah. But anytime I was reading with my eyes, I was also reading with my ears because I couldn't even help myself. And um yeah, I would say my only and this wasn't even an audiobook problem, guys. This was just a me problem. The only problem I had was that I love how he does uh Renfus' voice because he has that Scottish sounding accent. Um and he was in it so little that I didn't get to enjoy that. Yeah. Only but a few sentences and it was quite sad. Yeah, totally. Um but yeah, audio book 10 out of 10 recommend. Yeah, go get it. Totally. Go get it. So good. So good. They do such a good job.

So for a middle book, you feel like it was executed pretty well? Yes. I think there's a lot going on right now and there's a lot to be answered that I I better get answers for. And as long as I do, we're cool. We're cool. We We are cool. No fight. We're friends. Great. Yeah. That's how I felt. I felt like honestly for a middle book, this was actually, in my opinion, one of the better middle books that I've read because it didn't lose me in the chaos. It didn't um bog me down with information that felt like it was going nowhere. Like I feel like that's the difference is like if I feel like the loose ends are going nowhere, I get mad. Yeah. And I felt like we don't have evidence yet at this point in time to believe that these trails are going nowhere. So, right, that makes me feel good because I'm like, oo, this is just ramping us up for the next book. And in the meantime, it was very entertaining. Like, it didn't make me bored. It didn't make me frustrated. So, I feel like as far as middle books go, it did like a really good job. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. I'm very hopeful. So, that being said, Ashley, give us your list of plot holes. Listen, and I don't know if there are plot holes yet, but they're just questions that we would like answered and things that we're like, "Huh, wait, what's going on with that?" But is it because we don't know yet? Are we waiting for the next book? So, these are just things that I thought of, some things I've seen people think of, some things we came across while discussing this. Obviously, number one, how do Fay die if you could throw yourself off a cliff? Maybe we missed that part, you know? Yeah, I don't think you could just fl throw yourself off a cliff. It seems like it's like well now we know that that King Fisher is actually half god. So, but I was going to say it wouldn't make too much sense if like King Fisher could just fall off a cliff and die, but like that wouldn't happen to him because he's half god. Yeah. So, okay. Well, I have a question for you guys and maybe I missed it. It could be a memory problem. It could be a me problem or it hasn't come up specifically yet. Why is it so hard to kill Bellacon specifically? also like they they chop off his head, but they said they know that he's not going to come back. It's not He's going to come back. And that's a second time. Yeah. Dude must get tired of that. Do we not know yet why he's so hard to kill? I don't think so. This is why I struggle with the throw yourself off a cliff analogy because it's like unless he has special powers we don't know of cuz we know he I mean he can't even wield a god sword. What makes this dude so special? Like Yeah. Um, yeah. I don't know. I don't think we know. Okay. I don't think we know. Okay. And I'm okay with not knowing some of these as long as like I'm not the only I'm not taking crazy pills here, right? No. Um, okay. If half fay and half vampire is so rare, it's almost non-existent because they brought this up a lot with Saras being half fay, half vampire. Yeah. But isn't that literally how you make a vampire? By biting a fay? And isn't that how Malcolm made his entire legion? But was it only humans? It was fa too, wasn't it? I thought it was both for sure. Especially because we find out that a lot of the fay that were fighting in King Fisher's army got turned by Malcolm, not unlike um Foley. Right. So, Right. Yes. And even that when they gave them basically the antidote to being a vampire essentially they get turned back into fay. So I'm confused on why they make it such a big deal for Sarah. Well because I don't think that they're half fay half vampire. I think they're full vampire when they turn and she because she was given special powers by the god or whatever is actually able to embody both at the same time. Okay. Okay. Because she's not full vampire cuz she doesn't, right? She can eat regular food, for example. Like, so I feel I just don't remember why she's only half and half as opposed to getting the full transformation. Yeah. And I think that Yeah, maybe somebody could clarify this for us cuz we I was wondering this too. We were kind of talking about it a little bit yesterday. We could just be completely forgetting a part that was discussed. But no, I think it's because Yeah, I think it's because obviously Tal turned her to make her half vampire, but then while all that gruffle is going on, she also got like a special gift from the gods. And then King Fisher gave her a piece of his soul, right? Also, yeah. So, there was like a lot of things going on there. So, maybe it's just as simple as like she's something new, you know what I mean? like because of all these reasons. Yeah. But I don't know like maybe someone can clarif someone's going to answer this and be like actually this is exactly what happened. We'll be like okay great thank you pin your comment please. Okay. All right. Um so this is an unanswered question that I predict we'll find out more about right um because it was a big moment that I was like whoa what the heck. Ma Madra is siphoning magic from the city possibly the residents. So, we have like something going on there, right? And then we it was kind of like a big moment and then because everything else happens right after, we don't hear anything else about that. And I'm just like, okay, I need to know more. Is Madra a witch? Is she a part of a coven? Who's propping her up? What's going on there? Does everybody in what is it, Sean? Do they have magic and just not realize it? Like kind of maybe a little bit of uh like thrown of glass situation with the you know stuff. Yeah. Or I was even thinking like Crescent City situation where maybe she's subduing their magic a little bit, you know? Yeah, something with that. Something like that. I don't know. I mean, I feel like we'll definitely learn more about that. There's no way that that's going to be a loose end to nowhere because that's going to basically probably be a major conflict in book three. He's taking her down, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, this one is something that you even texted me and I was like, "Oh, it's already on my list. Don't worry." What's up with the Scorpion King dude in the little box? Okay, the last we've seen of him, King Fischer's like, I can't deal with this dude. Here, folly. You don't have enough on your plate with dealing with your existential crisis. Take this scorpion king in a box. Demon demon box. And then we never see it again. So, I don't like that. But yeah, it better come up because we had to read a lot about that. Maybe it'll be like a jurian situation where he'll just pop out later. Yeah. Hey, in the nick of time. In the nick of time. Um, I will have to say, okay, the fact that his name was Joan was cracking me up because I kept on hearing Jobin in my head like Josh. Join. Yeah. I was like, dude, I can't take this dude seriously. You know, and for how much I had to read about Bill in the beginning, I did think that horse was going to come back more often and it never did. There's a couple names there that were like, well, Bill, he'll come back. Mr. Bill, Mr. Bill, he's in he's in the stables. Although I mean Kish got destroyed so hopefully he sent him through the portal. Ooh yikes. So then some other questions I got. What's going to happen with Tal? What's going to go on there? What's going to happen with King Fisher sister? Are they just throwing her around like Bernie? Are they just throwing her around like we did Bernie's? Are they though? They're just tossing her over the shoulder and running from the next place to the next. I I love that Laura just got her like in a freaking fireman's carry or whatever and is just like dragging her around through these portals. I'm like, this is crazy. This is crazy. Some sunglasses on her. Listen, it's got a little crazy. Um, what's going on with the feeders? Okay, who is sending the feeders? I feel like we should be trying to get to the bottom of that a little bit more aggressively. I mean, I kind of was under the impression that they figured out that Madra was doing it because they're coming from lots of them are dressed like Zylarian soldiers. Yeah. But it's like a lot. Yeah. And then they're turning the people they get to. How is she opening up the portals to do that? It's real crazy. There's a lot going on right now. Yeah. There's a lot. Okay. Um, the journal in general, you liked the journal. I don't know how I feel about it. I think it's a little weird. Really? Why? I think it's a little annoying. I don't know. I think it's kind of like a Oh, we don't know what to do. Oh, yeah. I have this journal. Let me look at it. It's like a prophecy. It's like anything else. One word. But you But you like a uh oracle like crone. How is it any different? I don't know yet. It has to grow on me some more. Um yeah, I liked I like the secret book, you know, that comes together and then only she could read it. And then I did love that uh King Fishcher's mom is like, "Don't show this to King Fisher." And so she does and that's actually the test. I was like, I love that so much. Yeah. Um so, and I like that, you know, she's like, don't read ahead because you'll damn us all. I'm like, okay. That's pretty serious. Um so I'm really enjoying the whole like prophecy thing and just seeing where that goes. I do like it. Yeah, I'm open. I'm open, but I'm skeptical. Yeah, it's the best way to put it. Yeah. Well, let us know. Is there anything else that's been bothering you guys and keeping you up at night? Wait, wait a second. What's going on there with that? I think I think it's a very middle book and we're going to have the answers to all of these. And if we don't following book, it's okay. No, just kidding. Do you have any other bonus questions for me or anything else you want to share before we get into our smasher pass? Surprisingly, no. Yeah. feel like we're in a limbo because there are a lot unanswered, but I don't have the answers, so I can't say anything else. Yeah. You know, does anybody else feel that way after this book? Like, oh, there's a lot. But that's okay. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I feel good about it. I feel like the cliffhanger was crazy. The twists were crazy. But I loved every bit of it, and I'm okay not knowing right now. It's the difference between like that and when it's so chaotic like with the period book three for example where I was like this does not make me feel good. I don't like it. Everything's crazy. I don't know what's going on. Like it's none of it. It didn't make me feel like that. Yeah. Like the things that we have like questions about I don't like to say plot holes except we're a little bit confused on the vampire fay death immortality whatever. Um, and maybe we just missed it, but like the there are loose ends that need to be tied. I think what we've been running into issues with past FourthWing book one is that they are plot holes because they say you can't do this and then they do that, you know, or like things like that and just annoying. Just annoying stuff. Yeah. Or it's just nowhere and it's like people would say, "Well, there's going to be five books." And it's like, okay, well, I shouldn't have to wait like 10,000 years to get like the answer to this one little thing. That's crazy. But these are all kind of big things that I think we're going to find out. Yeah, I would hope. I think so, too. I think so. Yeah. I have faith. I have faith in the process. Yes. I am excited. How do you Okay, here's a bonus question. Okay. Because I know that a lot of people were not super super thrilled with like our MMC being named Kingfisher. So, do you like his new name better?

Um, I have a family member named Kai. So, no. No. See, I don't know anyone. Well, it's Kai child family member. Kai Kaidan Greyar Fvara. So, just call him by. That's a cool No, it's a full It's a cool name. I But I didn't have problem with King Fisher either. So, I don't know. I the only names that I have issues with is Bill and Bill the horse and um Jobin. Join Join. He's gonna be Join in my mind forever. The problems are not King Fisher/Kaiden. That's not the issue for me. Yeah. All right. Yeah. No, those are good. Bill is funny. It's fine. Bill is I feel like Bill is funny and ironic, so it's okay. But Join is throwing me off because he's a god. He's literally a god of chaos. It's like, come on, dude. Yeah. Have a better name. Okay. Yeah. Do you feel okay with Kaiden? I think it's fine. I love it. Yeah. I didn't necessarily It's a Yeah, it's a good strong name. I didn't necessarily have an issue with King Fisher, but I also didn't love it. I liked it better when she called him Fisher. Mhm. Cuz it's just like King Fisher is a little like cumbersome to me and also like I just picture a bird all the time and I'm like gh I don't know. Yeah. Well, so I feel like this is a little bit more This sounds like a god name. You know what I mean? It sounds Yeah. So, makes sense. It makes sense. Totally. Oh, interesting. That quote, doesn't he say something about what's that famous quote that King Fischer says? Doesn't he reference himself as a god? He might. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I have to say Okay, so I just looked up the quote because I just wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I hadn't looked it up. Okay, I'm about to introduce you to all seven gods. When you meet them, don't forget to tell them I'm the one you worship on your knees. So, foreshadowing perhaps foreshadow. I think so, guys. It was right there the whole time. I mean, you could you could read that either way, but hey, I'm taking it. And a dra a dragon. Like, he's part dragon. It's double and tandra. So, hey, dude. I'm excited for the dragons. Me, too. It's going to be crazy. It's going to be crazy. That whole scene we didn't talk about. She like went into Saras's memory and saw that he killed one of her dragons. And so she's like and she's like, "Sorry, I didn't have time to teach you this. I shielded my mind. I forgot about that. Oopsies. Oops. Well, I think he intentionally didn't share a lot of those things with her because then it could have been stolen from her mind by other people and used as well, you know. Okay. So, if you're feeling good about Brimstone, I'm feeling good about Brimstone. Everybody feels good. Everyone feels good. That's so nice. Guys feel good. I feel great. Yeah, I'm ready for an unhinged smasher pass. So, I have a smasher pass, but it's more so for the record and is not unhinged, but I had to ask it and so here we are. Okay, as you guys know, Ashley's repertoire of Book Boyfriends is small. It is a club that is very exclusive. Almost no one is allowed into it. And it is I don't like crowds. What can I say? She doesn't like crowds. Okay. So, we've got Reand obviously. We've got Veil uh from Six Scorched Roses by Kissa Broadband. And then did you recently add someone to it? I did. Who was it? Who was it? I just remember. Who was it? What did we read recently? H shoot. Was it Apollo? Apollo? I mean, Apollo is a good one. Might have been Apollo from Between Two Kings. Um, I mean, hey, if anyone deserves to be in there, it's Oh, no. It might be Apollo, though. We might need to ask him right now. Or ask him. Ask him. Let's ask him. We might need to add him right now. Um, no, it was Now I don't remember his name, so I'm not a very good girlfriend. Um, the guy from Poison Daughter. Oh, Henry. Henry. That's cuz he has a very nondescript name. Yeah, Henry from The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. Guys, pop here. Okay. The point is on the list is he's on my list, too. The point is that Ashley is a very exclusive club. So, for the record, we must know after this book, is King Fisher in your book boyfriend's list? After this book, I think he's going to take the cake. Let's go. No, not the top. I take it back. I don't I just mean he can get in the list. He can get in the cake. Okay. He get my cake. Hey. We went there. Okay, good. I He can go up there. Sure, he can join. He can go up there. He can go right up there. Go right in there because like he's a god now and something with dragons. That's got to be good, dude. Literally, he was already like 7 foot five before. So,

moment of silence for the seven foot. There was a lot of like talk about his like his hair like oh the moody hair gruff and he was all creepy in the chair and her dreams great also by the way. Oh yeah, we didn't even mention that. The whole like I want to know more about that. What's going on there in that dream realm? What's real? What's not? Can they die there? Can they kill people there? Can they What's going on? Ooh, so crazy. It's like the Matrix, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Um, okay. Well, have it be known that King Fisher uh has now been added to Ashley's very short list of boyfriends. Stipulations. Okay. It better be good in book three. It better be very dragony and broody and goddy and good. Yeah. He We don't want him getting I think that's what I liked about this is like he didn't get soft on us. You know what I mean? I feel like sometimes that happens. It's like we like you because you're grumpy and you have an edge. Like if you lose that then you're going to become less attractive to many of us. Not all of us but many of us. And so I did like that King Fisher stayed grumpy and that came out a lot. It's almost like the grumpiness shifted from being towards Saras to being towards Carryon. And I love that. Yeah. And he's still like he accepts Carryon now. So that's what I love. I love that he still razes on him and like they have that relationship. That's hilarious. But if somebody says [ __ ] about Carryon, he's like first to punch him in the face. Yeah. Like don't talk I can say that about him. You can't. Yeah. It's like a brother. I love that. It's like a brother relationship. Yeah. I agree. Mhm. Yeah. That's great. I love it. So obviously he was already on your list, right? Oh yeah, for sure. Since last last week. Mhm. Well, on to something more serious. My Unhinged Smasher Pass. Um Okay. Do you ever you ever read Curious George growing up? Watch the shows. Read the yellow books. Yeah, I'd like read the books when I was little. I don't think I ever watched the show, though. Exhibit A, The Man in the Yellow Hat. Smash Pass. Um, I can see it, but I want to look it up on mine. Want to be closer? Yeah. Uh, I need to examine from from closeup. Who Who is he? Like, I don't remember him. He's called the man in the yellow hat. It's Curious as George caretaker. He takes him in. He adopts him, if you will. He's very He's kind, but he's weird because he just takes a monkey off the street. Um, a little Ross. He has Listen, I'm I'm going to tell you right now, it's a smash for me. It's a vibe. I don't know. I can't explain it. I mean, he cares about the animals, you know, based on cuz I don't remember his personality at all, but based on what you've told me and honestly like his pictures, as far as like cartoons go, he's pretty hot. Like, honestly. Yeah. So yeah, I'm going smash. His hat's a little big. Yeah, but maybe Hey, you know what they say, big big brimmed hat.

You know what they say. Um, I will say that if you know me well, you know that I hate a good monkey. You know what I mean? Like I am very scared of monkeys. I don't like me and like if I ever went on a date with a guy and he was like, "Hey, I have a pet monkey." I'd be like, "Absolutely not. Red flag. I'm running away to the hills." Um, but since this is fictional and he is a hot cartoon, we're going smash. Yeah. He's the one exception to the rule. Yes. Agreed. Hard. Agreed. Here. Here. Here. Here. Gavl has spoken. Yeah, that was good. That sounded good. Let us know what you guys think this weekend on our Smasher Passes. Well, anything else on this brimstone book? No, it's great. Let's leave it there. Okay. Okay, guys. as well. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like favorite podcasts, including YouTube. We are Best of the Books podcast everywhere. If you didn't get enough of us, come check us out on Instagram and Tik Tok cuz we're hanging out there putting up the polls, talking to the people, talking to you guys. What's up? All right, guys. We will see you, I think, this Friday and next Tuesday. Bye bye.