The First Third

Join us as we reflect on our January-April 2024 reads. At this point in time we have read around 170 books combined and want to make sure you know what's worth your time. We will focus on our favorites and 5 star finds. 

Transcript

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Welcome to Romance Wrecks, where three book besties explore the world of romance novels and encourage you to expand your TBR. Join us as we dive into the hottest releases and hidden gems of the genre. You can find us on Instagram and hopefully TikTok if it's still around when this comes out at Romance Wrecks Pod. I'm Jordan And I just started listening to The Witch Collector by Carissa Weeks. Woohoo! I love that for you! Hey guys, I'm Devonnie and I just finished listening to and reading Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. But today I started Vicious by LJ Shen. Hello, you wonderful, beautiful people. I am Christina, and I have just started reading Three Ways to Mend a Broken Heart by Tralina Pucci. You're welcome. Thank you, Jordan. So buckle up for some bookish banter. No, we better buckle up. No, I think I need Christina to say the book and I need you to say that last word again because Poochie No, what did you say? Yeah, Poochie, but what did you say before that? Oh, no hey, does everyone have a quote? Yeah, I was just about to say who has a quote. Oh yay, Christina, kick us off. Okay, this is a serious quote. Same. Okay, good thing it's a long quote then. Yeah. Okay, this quote is one of the most highlighted quotes in this book. What book? It is. From Glow, which is the Pleaded Prisoner series, book four. Yay! This is not a fun quote. This is a sad quote, and it will speak to your heart. Like it did mine, hopefully. This is from Glow by Raven Kennedy. That's the thing with trauma to the body. It shows up instantly. In breaks and bruises. In burns and in blood. But the trauma on the inside, that's harder to see. It creeps around your mind, poisons you with disquiet. It can hit you out of nowhere, debilitating and ruinous. There are no marks visible for those. None, save the shadows in your eyes. Yeah, that book is beautiful. Yeah, that is actually. It spoke to me. I am a survivor of DV, and as someone who's just reading these books, and experiencing this along with her, I'm just like, wow. It's just been so eye opening. I just love that. Yeah. Aww. I love when all our books fit us in the feels. I'm glad that you've, I'm glad, yeah, that it's resonated with you like that. It's a healing book, too. Going through it, in an empowering way. Yeah, not in a let's get over it kind of way. Just in a stages of grief you need to go through each step. Yeah, it's not belittling, it's not the male main character going just, you know, come over here and let me take do everything for you so you'll get over it. Let me just show you can trust me and everything will be fine. No, that's not what this is. It is such a good series. If you are a survivor of a abuse or trauma in your life of any kind, I highly suggest this series because it is so, it's so good to just see it on paper and be like, hmm, those feelings are valid. Even if this isn't a real person, like, to see that other people can experience it and understand it. It's pretty cool. Yeah. So everyone out there on the internet that is saying that romance books are just porn, they can suck it. Yeah, just fuck right off because yeah, this series gets in deep, really deep. Just kidding. And there she Oh yeah. It took me a minute. I was like, huh. Comedic relief. Who else, Deb?. I'll go so and this is a this is I'll go with a funny one to break the tension So this is from one of the books I'll be talking about today. It's from the heist which is the first book in the Valin Valin check legacy series by Tate James and This one I'm dedicating to Dev Because I know it's her favorite little microtrope. I'm excited! It's not. It's not. It's sarcasm. Oh no! I bet he has a tiny dick. What? Tris asked, and I froze. Had I said that out loud? Uh, I think I saw a tiny duck, I replied, pointing out the window. Over there, but it was just trash. Maybe I don't know. I want to rage. I want to rage right now because yes I hate that. I hate it. I hate it when the main character says something like oh my god Did I say it out loud? Yes, you said it out loud. I hate you for that Jordan I thought it was gonna be sweet, something I would like that's the mailman character. Who's saying that? The mailman character. Because he doesn't like the guy that she's talking to. Anyways. This was one of my five star reads. Don't worry about it. I'll talk about it later. Don't worry about it. Crazy. Okay, I got a quote for you guys too, but um, unfortunately it is going to be a little sad because I just finished reading Come on guys, really? I'm, sorry. We gotta temper the mood. No, no, no, no, no, you can you can do it I just didn't know we had a theme and i'm really off Yeah, well, no we need we need your your um theme actually great I have another one after you if you really want me to do it. So it's fine. I have another thing Go for it Okay, so this is from before I let go by Kennedy Ryan, which is such a great book. I've been seeing like mixed reviews about it But when I tell you this book is phenomenal like her writing just the storytelling. It's so great. Anyway, this is the male and female main character talking to each other so he said We said vows and then she goes, those are words, not walls. They don't defend, they don't enforce, they don't protect us from life, from pain, from how things change. And I don't want to say, stay in this just because we said we would. I need to stop hurting and being with you, it hurts now. I just, and this point in the book is so raw and open and sad. I know it's really sad, but it's happy. Right, right. It's like real life, but it does have a happy ever after so the whole thing isn't sad. It's just sad Yeah, actually the whole book is a little sad moments. Yeah, lots of sad moments, but beautiful Realistic sad exactly it very much felt like I was reading a real couple real life So with that sad ass note jordan what you got for us comedic relief in three two one Subtle john real subtle. Maybe next time just flop your dick out on the cake and see if anyone wants to suck it It's from the same book! I couldn't even make it through without laughing. Do you need me to say it again? Did I laugh too much through it? Do I need to say it again? No, you don't. No, we got it for sure. But I'm just, the quote. What is happening in this scene? I, that was, I was there. Blowing would be a better word. Like you blow out a cake. That's point. No. Maybe next time just block your dick out on the cake and see if anyone wants to suck it. Right? But no one sucks on a cake. Yeah, I don't remember the scene at this point, but Christina's really upset about the cake. Well, when is the last time you on the cake? If I was a grandma with just gums, I'd probably be sucking on cake. Oh my. Im a grandma. Okay. I don't suck on cake. So thank you listeners for being with us. We will be going over our quarterly review of reading. We are nearing the end of April, and we just want to reflect on everything we've read. The good, I don't know how much we'll mention the bad and the ugly, but we will definitely be focusing on our five star reads. We'll take you through our journey, without boring you too much. And just give you an idea of. Where we're at this year and maybe talk about looking forward. Yeah, cute little, discussion. It'll be adorable. As adorable as a dick in a cake. I guess so. Okay, so do you guys have, do you feel like you have five star reads this year so far? The year's not done. I'm sure that by the end of the year, we're going to tack on a bunch of five star reads. Hopefully one can hope, right? But do you think right now you have some like heavy hitter five star reads in the arsenal that you've read? Yup. I have two. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. I have a lot, I, I've never given five star reads like I did this year. And I'm usually pretty picky about them, but I really staunchy with mine. I I found a lot of wowies for myself this year. And I know not everyone would give them five stars, obviously looking at good reads. Some of you are crazy. What about you, Deb? Do you have many? Oh yeah, I do have a couple. I have actually I have 6, but 3 of those are in a series. Off top, I have a love song for Ricky Wilde, immediate 5 stars. I have the Brown Sisters by Talia Hibbert, which is a 3 book series about Danny, Eve, and Chloe Brown. Immediate five stars absolutely ate that series up It just made me feel so good when I was finished with it That I couldn't think of giving them anything other than five stars and like for five stars They also have they have to have a good story, but they also have to be written Well, like I don't want to be your editor as i'm reading babe I don't want to auto correct in my mind, you know, and all of these have that So yeah, I love song for rookie wall by Tia Williams. We've got the brown sister series by Talia Hibbert. I've got, just for this summer by Abby Jimenez, which I've, this is my first Abby book. And now I'm going back and, listening slash reading her other works that are also kind of standalone slash interconnected to this book that I just read. But just for the summer had me crying, laughing, blushing and kicking my feet. It was ridiculous. The scope of emotions that I went through. Reading and listening to this book. So Abby, you did your big thing with that one. Absolutely love it. Can't wait for it to be turned into a Netflix movie or movie theater. Situation because I know that's coming for you. And then before I let go by Kennedy Ryan, which I literally just finished today when I, same thing, I was laughing, crying. I cried a lot more than I laughed with this book, but, it was just so rich and so raw and so real. It was like the three R's, you know, everything I needed in a book, chef's kiss. Kennedy Ryan is like a godsend of a woman. And I really like, I feel like I look up to her or just look at her In her writing, because one, if you don't know, I am working on my own novels and so I'm always following all the author babes, but also Kennedy Ryan she's an autism mom. So she has a son who's autistic, which she talks about. She mentioned she has like a charity or a program that she does. And she mentions it in the beginning of book two. In the Skyland series, which is what before I let go as a part of, but just the way she talks about her son and navigating being an autism mom, because I too am an autism mom. Um, it's just so beautiful. So I I'm always searching for that community and knowing that an author I love is actually part of that community. It's just been really nice. So yeah, those are like my five star reads and like, I've read what 52 books. And I only have four. I'm only going to count it as four five star reads just because of that one series. They're all together. But yeah, I don't have that many. So, I feel like there's still room for more five star reads, especially with what's coming down the pipeline for the year. I'm excited about what else is going to be added. What about you guys? I got heavy into Tate James. And that caused my book slump in March when I decided to I needed to read some other What is wrong with you, Dev? I was laughing because I remember your book slope after reading Tate James. so bad. I just got out of it. It lasted almost a month because Tate James just was, is amazing. And she has a lot more, I talk about Tate James and her repertoire on our favorite authors episode. So you can go over there if you haven't listened yet. I read, the Guild series, five stars for me, as a whole, as a series. There are three books. It is a very dark romance, so please check the trigger warnings. I'm on here, looking at the one star reviews for this series, and people are just upset that the main character is who she is. and the things that she does. And if you don't like that, that's fine. Don't read it and then give it a bad review for being what it promised. Right. You know what I mean? If that's not your cup of tea, then don't read it. Right. Like, and that's fine if you don't like it. Anyways, this is my cup of tea. And Tate James herself said, these people are not the good guys. Flat out, in no version of the truth. Could these people be good people? They are not. So do not go into this series thinking you're gonna find redemption. Like they are just who they are together. And they are bad people. Yeah, so if that's not your thing, skip it. But Tate James has other things for you, although most of them are dark in at least some ways. Then I moved over to the Valinchek Legacy. Was another three book series by Tate James that I loved. It was amazing. And then I went back and re listened to Madison Kate. The Guild. And heist. I highly recommend listening to the audiobooks because these characters, they have different Accents, and the people that narrate them are amazing and sexy. And there are multiple different accents going on at the same time and the same scenes. I loved it. I will say that was my favorite part. It's so good. But then that took me a long time to get out of that. Right before that, I read a whole other series that was really good called Mafia Wars. there's six different books. Written by six different authors. Technically seven, because one of them was written by Peckham and Valenti together, which is how I got into this series. It was one of their standalones that I had never read. So I could do a standalone. I didn't know they did that. And then I realized it wasn't technically a standalone because it was part of a bigger series. Yeah. I think maybe one or two was a five star and I dnf'd one of them because I did not like the writing and I won't say which one it was because I don't want to do that to an author. I just did not like their writing, the words they used. I didn't like it. But the premise of this is the six major mafia families in the Western world. North America and Europe, right, the dons of the mafias come together, and to do this, to broker peace, and the only way to do that, of course, is to blend the families. So, they decide to each put up one of their daughters. To marry the next in line and so they literally put names in a hat and they draw the names and They agree because the youngest girl is eight at the time that they will all Get married in the same week in ten years and it will kick off on that girl's 18th birthday And so each book is written by a different author and they follow a different girl going into this new mafia family. And when I tell you every single book is why choose every single one, we love that kick in my feet and because they're all different, authors. So it's Ivy Fox, Rebecca Royce. C. R. Jane, Loxley Savage, Peckham and Valenti did one together, and K. A. Knight. When I tell you they are all so different enough, but they all had to work together for some of these details, it was so cool. And there's different tropes within the like the Y Chews, like H Gap. I love that they're all Y Chews anyways, but to get me out of the reading slump after those four years, All of that was the beginning of this month. Megan Quinn had Bridesmaid for Hire come out on my birthday and I actually gave it a five star. For me, for a contemporary, it was a five star. It was a rom com. I don't know if I've ever given one of those a five star, but it was so freaking funny. It was so good. She does have a way with writing rom coms. I'm not gonna lie. Some of her earlier stuff, I don't think I vibe with as well, but I feel like she's really hit her stride, especially with this. I think I like everything after the Caine brothers. Mm, yeah, maybe that's like the turning point. So I haven't, yeah, I haven't read a lot of her earlier stuff. But like, I'm pretty sure most of the stuff after the Caine brothers, cause that's what got me on her. Yeah. Yeah, she even has a royalty book too. Yeah, I haven't read that. I'm not a big royalty fan girl, but, not when it's not romanticy Yeah, if I can do romanticy royalty, and my last one, I'm going to talk about more in our next episode, so I don't want to get into it too much, because it's a YA book, actually. And because I needed more YA books in my repertoire, Bright Red Fruit, by Safiya D'Souza. Bye. El I need to print. See, look out how to pronounce it. El, el el. Mm. I'm gonna have to look it up and read that because, it is just amazing. It, it's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. So, I will talk about it. And she's actually a poet, that author. And it's written in I know you were telling me that it's written in, like, poetry. Yeah, I want to read that. Because the main character is a young poet. Young aspiring poet. Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that. It's just so sweet. I'll talk about it more next time. But if you can't wait until the next episode, which you should, just go listen to it. When it's available. It's Bright red fruit. I listened to it on Libby. So I'm sure it's really beautiful to read a physical copy of that. I would like to see how it's laid out. But it stands up in audio too, I love that. Yeah. Oh, those are all of my highlights. Well, those are my highlights. Yeah, I'll talk about the other highlights later. Those are my most five star, most of them. Christina, what were your five stars? I only had two so far this year. I think I'm pretty I don't know, I'm pretty firm with not giving 5 stars. Unless I really love it, but, okay, so the first one is The Grinch! Yeah, basically. One of my five star reads is a series, Queens and Monsters series by JT Geisinger. Carnal Urges. I gave five stars. The other ones I gave three or four. There's four books in this series. They're a mafia series. Carnal. And, Carnal Urges. I feel like that's such a weird name for a mafia book. Is it? Each book is standalone, so you can read it on its own, but all four have crossovers with characters from other books, from the other books. So it's pretty interesting. These are mafia romance books with really amazing spice. Each of them has so much spice. It's great. This series is complete. The first book is called Ruthless Creatures, and it follows a middle school art teacher named Natalie and Cage, who's an assassin from the Russian mafia. And then, book two called Cardinal Urges follows Sloane, who's Natalie from the first book's best friend, and the leader of the Irish mob named Declan. And that's the best one of the series in my opinion. Love me a little Irish mobster. Oh my god, that was so good. Book three is called Savage Hearts. It follows Riley, who's Sloane from book two's little sister, and a Russian mafia killer named malik. And then book four, Brutal Vows, follows the Irish mob leader Declan's number two guy, Spider, and an Italian mafia princess named Reina. These Yes! This girl group, and they're like It's always a girl group that's like just pulling these men and I wish that's how it worked in real life. Like in real life, do the girlfriends, no, not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is in real life, when there's six girls, there's six of us, right? We all go out on the town. One of us pulls one of the men right now, all of us pull like their friends or associates. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. Is that really how it works? It really weakens. Yeah. Right. Is that how it works? Or like it can, it has, it's just never ends well for everyone else. You are telling me there's an entire group of men that know each other and all of them are ace it. Like, no. Right. Right. They are not all quality. That's what I'm saying. It's not happening. Yeah. There's some dumpster trash in there. Like there's, there's sprinkled throughout the shore. It's like they're, they're friends that they hang out with until they meet their, you know, partner, longterm lady and. Then they get new friends because they have to step up their game. Because of the chads. Yeah, not the chads. Oh man, that's hilarious. Not the chads. But I actually listened to these four books on audiobooks. So they're like men Oh, good for you. A man woman narrator with the accents. The Irish accent or the Russian. And it's awesome. Oh, the Russian, oh, that's the way to get me every time. That'll do it. That'll do it. And I mean, it's great because they're, like the Irish mafia or the Irish mob and the Russian mafia are at like war with each other. But these are best friends and sisters that are intermarrying. So like the men have to stand down because their women are telling them to. It's like, it's pretty great, you know, Yeah, well, so that's like a good read. That's a good read if you're looking for like heavy spice mafia, like, if that's what you're looking for right now. Which I've never liked mafia books because I was telling Jordan, I'm like, I've never read a mafia book. And then I read these and I was like, okay. Because you haven't found the right ones yet. Yeah, I've got more. I could do a whole mafia episode. These ones. And I still have to read these. You know, and they're rich people, in the first one he opens her up an account with like seven zeros and I'm like, I just, okay, marry me. I love that. No, I love that. I love when the trope is like millionaire wants to give away his money to his love interest. Please sign me up. Yes. Spend your money. Exactly. Okay. So that was one of my five star. And the other one, that I read just recently, I actually just finished it last week, is the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy. The one that I had my quote on earlier. This series is a retelling of the King Midas tale, you know, who can turn everything to gold. This series currently has five books, and here's what they're called. Guild, Glint, Gleam, Glow, and Gold. And then book six will be called Goldfinch, and it's going to be released in August. It's supposed to be the last book in this series. I loved this whole series, but book four was my absolute fave five star read. And these are all on Kindle Unlimited, and this is the series I talked about earlier that, is really great of explanation of trauma and getting through trauma and understanding you're even in trauma, in a situation that's bad for you. Because I think, like myself, like the character, I also didn't know when I was in something bad, that it was something bad, because I was just like, Hmm, must be normal, and not even really recognizing, you know, she's literally kept in a cage. Literally, there's a cage around her that he keeps her locked in. But a lot of us feel like we're in cages metaphorically. And so realizing you can unlock the cage and get out of it is a really hard step that a lot of women take. And so you see this character. You are preaching right now. And I love it. You were saying all the good things to make my heart feel happy. Or, and also a little sad, but you know. This is a great fantasy series, so it's fantasy. But it is, it hits real life so hard. Seeing that you're encaptured and not even realizing it and being comfortable in your capturement and just being like, well it's okay, like it's just, I've just been this way for so long that it's just gonna be the way it is. And just accepting that and then realizing but wait, it doesn't have to be. And then kind of learning the main male character doesn't just swoop in and unlock the cage and Whip you away and take you out of here. She had to unlock her own cage, metaphorically. She had to realize she was being locked up. She had to realize what was going on wasn't okay. And she had to build up her own endurance and strength for that. I just love that. She had to face her past, too. She had to Take a look at her past where she never wanted to look before and really see it for what it was Not what other people made her believe it was Which is a really big thing for a lot of people even if you don't like you don't come from Necessarily like an abusive situation to see the past for what it was and see you for who you really were not what other people made you believe is a Really empowering thing and not something that everyone does And it's a really entertaining story with really great smut on top of it Okay, so i'm really happy that you read it and that you're sharing it with us christina because i'm not gonna lie to you I've been seeing this series around For a while now famous on book talk. I know for sure right but I was judging a book by its cover quite literally Because the cover and the name of the book give me the ick And the fact that all of them are named like gold, something I just could not take it. And they just, I think what I also, what I was doing is I was confusing it with another series. I'm pretty sure the cruel Prince series and that series covers look the same to me. Yeah. They both have one of them has a bird cage or a cage or something. Yeah. And so I was just putting them together too much. So now that I know more about it, yeah, I'm running right to who's about Raven Kennedy. Raven Kennedy. Yes. And I tell you, this book is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. the way she describes trauma and describes getting through things. I just, I've loved it. I've never highlighted a book so much as I've highlighted this book, these books., I'm so excited for the next one. A lot of the plot, you can guess, like I said, but that's okay because the trip getting there is worth it, in my opinion. But it's not like a book that you finish and you're like, oh, that was so predictable. I wouldn't say that. Yeah, no. It's like the major story arc, you could probably guess, but the little things within it you don't, aren't necessarily thinking about before they happen. There are some bigger stuff. No, yeah. It's good. And I will say I think the books just get better as you go. the writing. I do. And the story. I wasn't the biggest fan of the first one, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't that I was a big fan of it, it was just like, I wasn't committed. It was good, but I was like, I don't know, and I think I waited a while before I picked up the second one, and then I was mad that I waited. I think it's because the character, like, in the first one still is like, I'm okay with my, yeah, I'm okay with what's going on in my life. It's frustrating. To see a female main character just Except, her lot. Except the bad things, yeah. Yeah, interesting, I can't wait. Yeah, so I am excited to hear if you read it, Dev. Because the third one, or the fifth, sixth one, I can't talk, the last one will be coming out, I think it's my son's birthday, so August 29th, I think, yeah. Yeah, I did see a post about that, Raven Kennedy posted that it was coming out. So I'm excited. I'll definitely add it I think it's really important to read what you want to read and read the things you love and read all the smutty books Please don't let anyone tell you different read them But I also think it is really important that you read books that you have to sit with for a little or that make you Think about them long after you read them, because sometimes reading can feel like fast fashion Like we're just inhaling them and taking them in and spitting them out and like moving on. But I think there's something really beautiful and sitting inside of a book and like really thinking about not only what the author said, but what the actual story is. So it sounds like this was that kind of book and yeah, I'm excited to, I love those kinds of books. Yeah, I'll be reading. You got me! Don't have to twist my arm or nothin have either of you, gone too far out of your comfort zone? Tried something new? I know, Christina, you said you did Mafia romance. I was trying to do one non romance book a month. Just for something different because of the amount that I read And it's been hit or miss It's been okay. The biggest meh book was legends and lattes because it had such a big following But I know I went in knowing that people either love it or hate it it's like session zero of a d and D game, session zero. Except for those of us who don't play d and d. What is like when you're setting up, it's like when you're setting up your character, it's when you're building your character and building your background. That's what it felt like. A whole book of world building. Yeah. Literally, it's an orc setting up a latte shop. And explaining to people what coffee is, because in this world they don't have, if you just want to read something, fluffy, Go for it, but also, you know. I was just saying, did anyone have it was just such a big name that I felt like I had to, I wanted to read it. I had to just know. It was a big one I wasn't too excited about. No, we were excited. We were excited, we were let down. Crescent City was a really big moment for all of us. I. Personally, Crescent City was my favorite. Sarah J. Maas. And you personally bullied both of us into reading it as quickly as we possibly could. Oh, you hadn't even read it yet. That's right. No, I know. And you and her are like, trying to go as fast as we can. I apologize for that now. Um, but I'm glad I had you there on that journey with me. We were not, Our group chat of reading that was intense, but I mean, okay, so yeah, we didn't love it. We didn't hate it, but we didn't love it. But that wasn't really outside my comfort zone. So I'm like trying to think if I've read anything outside my comfort zone this year and I don't, or just different, not even outside my, yeah, just different. I don't think I have. Right. You hadn't read other cowboy books before that, right? No, I have. Oh, okay, because I thought you said it was something kind of new for you. Wasn't new. No, because technically I'd read the chestnut spring series way before that. And I feel like that was very cowboy. So I guess there is something very, there was something different about that. And the series we're talking about guys, sorry, is, the rebel blue ranch series by Lila Sage. She has two books out. The third one comes out later this year. Um, it is very different as far as the cowboy romances that I've read. It just hit a little different. And I was It was very cute. I don't know. So I did enjoy it a lot. But, yeah, no, I'm thinking and like, I don't think I've read anything different but what I will say my plan though, I do have a plan to Oh, your dad little to read something. I've never, you told us that was so new for you, You're welcome. Yeah, that was rough though. So your dad will do by Katie, Robert. It was revenge, but I don't know, for me, it was just, it was too, I was tired. So I know my FMC was tired, baby. You were being run through. Like this man was on you, like white on rice. There's no way you were not exhausted. And by proxy, I too was exhausted. And I feel like that book just left me exhausted. But if you were looking for, I'm not even gonna pause. If you're looking for erotica, just about to say, if you're looking for straight erotica, it is the perfect quick read. You will read that sitting. And like lying at CVS, you're just going to finish the whole damn book. Like it's a quick read, babe. There's nothing to it. Absolutely nothing. So that was different for me, but there's a lot to it actually. But, yeah, you're right. That was different for me. Okay. Have you guys read the crossfire novels by Sylvia day? No. Okay. Those are longer novels that I read like after 50 shades of gray, they're in that same world. But I feel like they were a lot of, there were erotica ish too. So not as bad as your dad will do actually maybe, but they were long form novels, so not short stories. So maybe, yeah. So maybe I have actually. Read something like that, but I've I was reading that like my first year of college or something So that was a while ago. But I do want to read are you ready for this? I want to read my first historical romance Is it bridgerton Well, I so I downloaded remember I told you guys that like the first four books of Bridgerton were I Downloaded all four of them because I'm gonna listen to them, but I don't I mean I want to listen to Bridgerton But I feel like because I know the story of Bridgerton Maybe I'm gonna be like in and out of the world where I want it to be brand new It's still gonna be good. I Watched the show and then I've listened to some of the books I don't think I could I don't know. It's different. That's what I'm saying. I don't want to listen to them after having watched the shows, but I will eventually, but I want something new. I want, and I've heard like Beverly Jenkins writes a lot of historical romances. She's honestly the only name I know off top about historical romances. So I do want to get a good historical romance and that is going to be like my very different thing. So, I'll let you guys know how that go and what book I pick, but that's my goal for May. Yes, tell me, what period are you thinking of? Like, Regency period? Or are you thinking of That's the thing, I have no idea. I have no idea. I have no idea. The thing is slavery. You know what I'm saying? That's a sour point in history. And so, I don't want to read none of that. If that's in it, if, there's no caste systems in You don't want to be, it's to be like, See, for me, that's why I have a hard I have a hard time Transcribed because of women's rights. I don't care if it's a part of the world. I have a hard time even with Regency because it's like you need a man. I just have a hard time reading that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like it. Outlander is good for that I DNF'd Outlander. Oh, I've read all of it. I DNF'd the show. I did too, after a while. It was too much. Gravy, I never finished the show. Yeah, it was too much. It was. It was too much. after his scene, like in the first season or something, I just could not. The prison. You, yes, I literally could, I was shaking in my little boots so I couldn't do it. But yeah, I don't want to read historical romances with slavery. So I want the up to the time people writing about his writing historical romances where everybody's free. There are no slaves, color, a rewritten history. Yes. Like I want the entire history rewritten because. It's otherwise, yeah, i'm just not gonna enjoy it, you know, I get it Yeah, I don't want to think about that So if you have recs for those guys listeners if you know any recs for historical romance that will avoid all those things for me, then I would love to read that I was gonna say Dev got christina and I to read two of her favorite series, which are, Kindred's Curse Saga by Penn Cole. I loved it. Don't trust him, man. Christina, we know 100%, Christina does not trust male men, male people. For some reason, she doesn't trust male people. There are many reasons. Okay, sorry. But in this world, there are specific reasons. So we're excited about that. We love it. We talked about it in our enemies to lovers episode. Go over there if you need to hear more and you haven't yet. And then we also, because, have got Christina and I to read Crown of Oaths and Curses. And then the novellas, The Sword in the Scepter, from the Mortal Fates series by Jabri. That is my new favorite book, The Crown of Oaths and Curses. New thing. Yep. Absolute favorite. Mm-Hmm. Top. You'll listen to it on enemies to Lovers. Mm-Hmm. Again or No? So maybe Kindred's Curse was in romantic, I think. Mm-Hmm. Oh, maybe. Maybe we could. So that was in normal, romantic moral fate was definitely enemies to lovers'cause it's the best enemy lovers to ever enemy and to love. Yeah, you're right to enemy There's a lot of hate there is Coming coming someday Yeah coming soon. And we are excited. Can't wait to read it. Yep. Yeah. We can't wait. We cannot wait to read it. Anything else anyone's excited for besides those releases in the next month? I know I have my Zodiac Academy Restless Stars, book nine next week. Dev and I still gotta pick that up. Yeah, you can do that this summer. We're gonna do that this summer. No, you know what? I, if you think you'd like it, I want you to pick it up. If you don't I want to the way you describe it. I want to read it Yeah, i'm excited to read it based on how you've described because all of a sudden there's been people on the internet Okay, the zodiac academy and these authors have had a cult following But I feel like it's a quiet cult following we keep to ourselves. We're in our own Author forum like the author fan page minding your own business like minding your own business. I know it's a really popular Series, but I don't see it out in the wild very often until the last week and all of a sudden all I've seen is this hate towards it and these book talkers and just bashing it. And I'm not here for it, and I have words. I'm currently trying to make some content to put some positive vibes out there because it deserves it. Good. Yeah. So we're excited to read it. I think we, we're gonna, most likely be reading it, so we'll let you guys know how that goes. I don't know if there's anything, right now my, the biggest thing I'm looking forward to is Mortal Fates, the book two coming out, but I have some like indie author stuff like my girl, Chelsea Curdo, who I've mentioned multiple times on the podcast. She has, a couple of books coming out within the next couple of months. So I'm really excited about that. That, I feel like there might be another book coming out that I'm excited about this month, actually, besides when Mortal Fates was supposed to come out. But, I can't remember what it is. But yeah, there are quite a few books that I'm excited. Oh, actually it's not this month It's coming out soon, but Dylan Dyer's Book two in the princess crossover series. The first one I've mentioned before is Cinderella is faking it The second one is Rapunzel is losing it. I cannot wait. I just Cannot wait. It's we love in your divergent baddie FMC who got money. So can't wait to eat that up. Who's got money She's rich rich. Okay, and she stays in her little house because she also has agoraphobia Which is I think when you hate to go outside. Yeah, love that for her Yep. Mm hmm. Love that. Can't wait. I know. Any, what about you, Christina? Do you have any? I am mostly excited to read Dev's book when it comes out. Ooh. Stop to make me blush. I will send you the first five chapters right now. You have five chapters? I have seven chapters, but only five are fully complete. Yeah. I'm writing. I'm writing. I'm so proud of you. I'm so excited. I know for myself, I'm putting myself on a book buying ban. And it's serious this time. These have not worked for me. It's serious this time. So I think I can be of no help here. Looking forward, The only books I actually buy are new releases that I've been looking forward to. So it's not a ban at all. No, it's No, I'm not gonna not read Zodiac Academy when it comes out. I'm gonna freaking buy it. I'm not gonna be like, oh, I'm in a book buying ban. Oh, never mind. No. I'm saying those are the only exceptions, and I'm not gonna go out and buy physical copies. I'm not, I can't do that right now. I just can't. But anything on your Kindle is okay. No, Kindle Unlimited, yeah. Oh, okay, K. E. B., because we already paid for that. I'm gonna, yeah. No, I'm not gonna, but I'm not gonna buy a title. Yeah, got it. And I'm not, no, not electronic buying. I can, it can be Kindle Unlimited, I can listen on Libby, and I can listen on Audible. With a credit. If I have a credit, I can get one, which I don't. Because those go fast. I think that's perfect. Book buying bands are actually the perfect way to support your local library. So if you don't know, if you can go support your library by becoming a member, if you have multiple libraries because I live in King County, I get a King County membership. And then also a Seattle public library one. So I have those two, you plug them into your Libby app, and then you can take out books as if you were taking them on in the library. So that's a great way to save money on books and also support. The library system because we love to do that. So yeah, I support you. They have audio books, magazines, and you can read them on your Kindle. These special editions are just. Driving me nuts. It's too much. There's so many that I want. No, I feel, I fell victim to that. Today actually you guys know I've spoken about out on a limb. I have the indie cover of out on a limb Which you know is like the first and when hannah bonham young got picked up She now has new covers for that entire like for her first three books, right? so today she announces that if you Pre order the new version of the book. Not only do you get and Extra chapter in the book from the couple, but you also are going to get the first chapter of her next book. That's coming out next year. So what do you think I did? I pre ordered it immediately. Thanks. Especially. This is where you had to buy five copies of a book to get any chapter. Have you seen, that was actually psychotic. That was actually psychotic. Bought all of them, took them all out and binded them all together in one. So it's all the bonus chapters. I did not that's actually really smart. I mean, that's a cute little thing if you do that, right to read and I shared you guys so i'm like, yeah, this is how we're gonna read them because It's yeah, i'm glad you did that and it's good but it's unfair to us readers. I never read them Not even the version I have because I was so let down by the books. I didn't want to read anymore That is that's valid actually that's really valid and I support that decision I'm, not gonna lie to you and say that anything was like, oh my gosh You just told me all about it and I told you all to tell me Like yeah, like I wanted to know but I didn't want to read it, right? So if you're listening and you haven't read the bonus chapters Yeah, cute, but nothing to write home about like I actually wanted more from his chapter. There's a lot of podcasts out there that talk about Sarah Janet Mass. If you would like a special episode of us just ranting on our opinions about Sarah Janet Mass I'll go off. I'll go off about Rowan. This is her universe. Christina lives in this universe, so please excuse her. Any of the SJM books, we will be happy to do that. Are we talking about Hunts in book 1 or Hunts in book 3? We're not talking about any of them right now. Not the time. Yeah. This is her Twilight. I do not. It's too late to start that conversation. If you would like an hour of Christina talking about Twilight too, she will do that. We will set this up. We'll walk away and let her just talk about it for an hour. I can have a PowerPoint ready. Let us know. How Mormonism ties to the Twilight series. No, I would love that. A philosophical, explanation of Twilight. I did write a paper, Harry Potter and the Mental Disorders, but, in college. That's actually such a good title. So, that's where we're at this year with our reading journey. I think we need to start getting ready for our summer book club. Our summer reading goals. Like we used to do when we were kids in library. And next time, we're gonna switch it up and we're gonna talk about YA. I know guys that we've mentioned in previous episodes that we're going to be doing YA the next episode, but you know, we're fluid here. We like to move things around, shake things up a bit, but we are going to do a YA episode with tons of YA recs for you. So stay tuned for that. It is coming. We are hoping to get it done for next week, but if not, that means you just have to stick with us so that you don't miss the episode. Duh! Anyway. We got a duh. All right. But it's going to fade to black before it comes because it's YA. Yes, you did the thing. That was so good. In advance. All right, guys. Thanks for listening to us ramble about our favorite books for the quarter so far in the year. However, we're categorizing them. If you're looking for more romance recs, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Tik TOK at romance recs pod. You can find our favorite book recs from our episodes, as well as behind the scenes content. Again, that's at romance recs pod. So make sure to give us a follow and we'll be back next week with another episode and more laughs. Thanks. Bye.