Retellings

Do you love a good Cinderella story? Are you obsessed with Greek mythology? Do you doom scroll AO3 for the latest fanfic? This episode is all about retellings with romance. From Star Wars to Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan to The Handmaid's Tale. You are bound to find an old favorite in these new romance recs. 

Transcript

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Welcome to Romance Rex, 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 TikTok at romance Rex Pod. I'm Jordan, and I'm currently reading The Dread Queen's Bargain, a novella by Molly Toulouse, and I'm listening to A Court of Nightmares by K. A. Knight and Four Psychos. By Christy Cunning. It's a mixed bag, and it's all twisted. That's crazy, yeah, that is very mixed up. Hey guys, I'm Dev. I am currently reading an ARC from NetGalley and Berkley Publishing. Thank you guys so much. I'm reading Cross the Line. I'm really excited. It's by Simone Soltani. This just looks like it's gonna be a chef. Kiss kind of read and it is F1. So that's exciting. I'm also listening to book six of Zodiac Academy, which has also been fun You're also reading a lot there, Def. Yeah Unlike me, it's me, Christina, and I'm only reading one book An Unexpected Kind of Love by Hayden Stone That's so cute. Hello everyone. I'm glad you're here. So please buckle up for some bookish banter to join us. Oh We are glad you're here Yeah. Thanks for sticking with us. Hopefully through this season of Romance Wrecks. If you are new, then go back. We have a whole season. Yeah. Hey, hi, nice to meet you. Okay. This episode before we get off the rails is retellings. I know I've actually read quite a few. I think a lot of us have read like not just us, but you guys listeners, you've probably read a lot of retellings and just don't even realize it. It's so easy to sneak in like a fairy tale or like a myth or Lord or a legend or something into contemporary romance or fantasy. And then you're just, Eating this book up with No idea because that brings one of one of the I guess a very popular retelling Yeah, which Christina you actually mentioned earlier a lot of you may not know but Christina Why don't you tell us what that book is? It's a little book. You might have heard of it It's called a court of thorns and roses by Sarah J so but what I mean, we all realize see the Beauty and the Beast parallels, and everyone's Oh, it's the Beauty and the Beast retelling, at least the first one is. But, when we went to the release of Crescent City, House of Flame and Shadow, we did the trivia. And apparently, it is a mix of seven different retellings? Yeah, which is crazy. Which, I mean, come on, give it a break at that point. I'm sorry, that's a lot. Do we need that? Can we just say it's an original story at that point and it just takes like I mean Yeah. I can't even remember the other fairy tales that it's supposed to come off or be about. But yeah, it's I know. It's a mix. Of a lot of them. There was some I had never even heard of. It was very much just like Hero's Journey, which goes back to Greek storytellings, though. It's all the same pretty much at this point anyways. Everything goes back to Greek storytellings, let's be honest. Mm hmm. Exactly. Probably. Including some of our ones today. Yeah. Well, I actually have a quote, like my quote for today is from a Hades and Persephone retelling. It's from The Dread Queen's Bargain by Molly Toulouse, which I'm currently listening to. currently reading. It's a novella. So I'm right in the middle. I just started it today. But I thought, you know, I'd do a little on brand themed quote. So Hades and Persephone did it. She went by a different name when she met him. She doesn't know her fate to be with him because Demeter has kept her away from that. And she seduced Hades because she's like, Oh, he's hot. Anyways, this is like the next morning and she was just calling him out on BS that he was saying. And he goes, now wait a minute. Hades growled, pointing his finger in Persephone's face. Don't put words in my mouth, goddess. I don't think you're a child like your mother does, but I am older than you. I noticed you didn't say shit about being wiser. It was implied. I must have missed it. Persephone countered. And, and then the term brat gets brought up and punishing and it goes from there. I'll let you use your imagination from that. I love me a brat. Yeah, Persephone is a brat and Hades is the crotchety old god. So not please don't say crotchety Well, I mean he's he's multi millennia old. So I think if anyone could be crotchety it's it's giving crotch short end of the stick. Yeah, it's not short Oh Okay, I have a quote or I technically have two it is from a book i'm going to mention today, but Or both of them are from a book I'm going to mention today, but they're so different and I just really liked it. So in this book, it is My Dark Desire by LJ Shannon Parker S Huntington and the first quote, it's just so cute and sweet and like, It's like amping you up, right? It's if you want to quit quit sometimes quitting is braver than persisting I tipped her chin up forcing her to look at me But if you're quitting because you're afraid of what others think that's bullshit and you're stronger than that pharaoh valentine I was like, oh, that's so sweet and uplifting I love that quote so much. No, I relate to that. I love it. Sorry. Go. Right. I know. That's why I relate to it. It's like, Oh yeah. Like, you know, like a good uplifting quote. But the next one is we girls have girl boss too close to the sun and now we're spending our weekends cleaning up, cleaning up puke instead of reading books in the hot tub. And I really relate to that being a toddler mom because WTF, how the hell did I get here? I was supposed to be reading books in a hot tub and every weekend I'm like, Chasing my toddler around and cleaning up whatever bodily fluids have come out of him. So those are my two quotes Very close to home both of them. Yeah, exactly Those books are so relatable. Love them Very really even though I have I can't like they're wealthy but still Yeah, I relate to the strife But not their journey No, that's their journey. No, absolutely Just strife, but just strife in general. I could not, I could not relate if I tried. Neither can 99 percent of us. Right. Not us laughing through our pain. I'm laughing so hard and crying. Okay, I have a quote. It's from a book I've recommended on an earlier episode and I will shout it out today. It's from the Gilded series, specifically from Glow by Raven Kennedy. This one says I need you all to tuck your dicks in for a second and try to think rationally. Like a woman. And I just love that. Yes! Yes! No, that is so good! Yeah! I love that. Absolutely. Men are so much more irrational. So irrational. We have been gaslit as women to believe that we are irrational when we just call out B. S. in the moment. If you call out B. S. in the moment, You're being emotional and irrational. Yeah, tuck those dicks in, assholes. Right. Sick. If the world was run by women, I do love that. it'd be better. It would. It quite honestly would. Matriarchal society. Speaking of retellings I Yeah, who wants to go? Well, I, well, no, I want to, I actually want to hear Christina because Oh, I'm excited. I'm so excited I'm very excited about Christina's. I have chosen to do something a little different today. And instead of traditionally published books, I've chosen all either AO3 or like fanfic. One that has led to a publishing later on just recently. But the others are all, you find them online. Can you explain to our reader or our listeners who aren't familiar what AO3 is. Yes, sorry. Sorry, it's just still in my brain. AO3 is, it's called Archive of Our Own. There's another older website fanfic. net. Those are both, they got big in the early 2000s, 2010s as a way for writers well just fans of fandoms to write their own stories. Interpretations of different stories if you wanted to see a different ending or different characters get together or just hash it out. I myself wrote Harry Potter Pirates of the Caribbean fan fiction when I was about 14. Is it still up? Yeah, I need copies. Can I go find it? We can go find it. Please. Yeah, yeah. My name was probably like Orlando Bloom Lover. Man, weren't we all at that age though? Like. For real. I love that. Alright. So, yeah, it's just a great little way to get other people's work out there to see. So what are you highlighting? I'm so excited. Yes, I know, I'm, I can't wait. Lots of Star Wars, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Fun. I tried to tone it down for you guys. You, that is so, okay. So the first one is a pretty famous one. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you've probably heard of it, manacled, and I hope I pronounce her name right, Senline. Sorry, Sen Lin Yu, I think. I actually had heard she just got a publishing deal over this, but we'll have to obviously alter a lot because it's, the characters are owned by JK. Yeah, she has to make it not Harry Potter. She has to change the characters, so she really has to rework it, but. Yeah, that's, congrats on her though. But there's Dev had sent me a post. There's lots of works that have been previously that I had known about that were previously fanfics. Like a big one is Fifty Shades of Grey, or City Phones. Those were all started as fanfics. This will be the same kind of way. We'll see how it does. But the story is basically a Handmaid's Tale retelling using Harry Potter characters. So in this story, the Order of the Phoenix lost the Wizarding War and Voldemort won. Devastating. And yeah, so he kills off all the members of the Order of the Phoenix, except someone had thrown Hermione in like a dungeon and just, Left her there for like 18 months and she got wiped off the records. No one knew she was in this dungeon. They opened the dungeon and they didn't even know she was down there kind of thing. And they're like, how did you even survive? And she's like, well, someone was delivering me food. I thought it was you guys. And they're like, no. So that's part of the mystery at the beginning. So she gets pulled up in front of a healer and they're like well, we're sending you to go make babies, basically, because the war was really awful and lots of witches and wizards died. So, sort of, like, Germany esque, what Hitler did, he wants to repopulate, that's what Voldemort wants to do, he wants to repopulate with dark wizards and witches. So, he's using witches. Well, because a lot of the witches, pure blood, quote unquote, witches, Right? Also, we're infertile, they were finding. There was a lot of issues. Okay, that's what I was about to say because Okay, interesting. Because I was like, Hermione's not even pure blood. I was so confused, but that was a problem. Oh, I didn't know that was a part of it. Yeah. And they basically only used Hermione, I think, because they like, thought she was so strong for lasting in this dungeon for so long. So she must have really strong magical qualities. So we're going to just Go with it. We're going to use her because we can. Voldemort asked for her. Specifically. Sorry, this is like making me really emotional. I will stop adding. No, it's okay. I like your input too. What do you mean Voldemort asked for her? No, not in that way, but like he requested that she be part of this program. She was a special prisoner. And Umbridge is the one that put her in the cell. Of course. Behind his, yeah Who was feeding her? It's. It's part of the mystery, but oh, I'm like sitting here. I want to cry thinking about this story. Yeah, I can't read it because of that reaction from people. I did, I did. So she gets assigned to Malfoy Manor. She gets sent to Draco's house. Draco is married to a wife, but she's unable to provide him an heir. And he is also basically the, right hand man of Voldemort. He's going off to different countries to kill off the political enemies, hunt down Orders of the Phoenix members. Doing any of Voldemort's bidding. He is the right hand man. And Hermione is just stuck in a little room with no magic. They've taken away her wand they've made everything charmed, so even if she knocks down a vase, it can't break, so she can't try to kill herself, like, it's all charmed and everything, and they just And then, for three, four days a month, when she's fertile, Draco She's brought in front of Draco, and yeah, it's like Handmaid's Tale. And they're they're both compelled, neither one has a choice. Oh, so Draco doesn't want to do it? Draco doesn't want to do it? It's very clinical. Yeah. Oh, okay. He like drinks and is like, let's get this over with kind of thing. Yeah, so it's very Handmaid's Tale then because it was super clinical for them as well. Yeah. Well, it wasn't, it wasn't clinical in the way that he was like looking at this that way. You could tell he just didn't want to be a part of it. He was just like didn't want to have to do it, but he like was ordered to. Yeah. By Voldemort. You knew that from the beginning. He was ordered to. Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. And we get a peek as it goes on into more of Voldemort's plans for the world and like how he's planning on using Death Eaters. Because Hermione starts talking more to Draco and we just get a little more information. I don't want to give too much away, but this fiction is dark. It's perfect for Hermione? Dramini. See, I told you I'd mess it up! No, it's fine. But, I can't mess it up. But also I think the important part that I don't know if you mentioned too much about, she doesn't have her memories. Oh yeah, it's sort of jumbled. She lost her memories. She starts getting them back, yeah, slowly. And because through being in the isolation, something happened, a magic that they have no knowledge of, literally ate away at her brain. Attached itself to her. Yeah, and so they actually, you're right, they bring Snape in first because he's like the expert in curses and he's trying to find a way to fix it. In the village, or whatever it is. To look at memories. And fix her curse and her memories. And they can't and that's why he sends her to Draco because Draco is great at curses too. And they're hoping that having a baby with her will cure this curse. Because she also has memories locked away from the Order of the Phoenix that Voldemort wants. So that's part of the understory too. Yeah, and so you get flashbacks to before the end of the war. So you get like flashbacks to the war. And you learn more and more about what happened. I mean you see everyone except for Hermione die. That is not true. A spoiler either. You see Ron and all the Weasleys hung. Hanging in the, the, like, the Great Hall. Yeah. I'm like, I, she's making fun of the first one. Yeah, I, I, I couldn't. The, once I found out, like, just the basis that the Ron thing was like, everybody died and then the connection to Handmaid's Tale, I was like, this might be a little too heavy for me. And I'm okay with stuff, but, Yeah. Like the writing is so good. I've seen people post snippets and yeah, the writing seems very beautiful and flowery. I just, I'm not ready yet. I think I will just because it's so sensationalized and I would love to read it before it now goes to be published as something else. I feel like I want to do that. Yeah. But I just know that I am going to be crying every minute. So you have to be in the right headspace, but also it is free. On Spotify. I don't know if you know that, Christina. That's how I read it, is I listened to it. Each chapter is an episode. And it's under Podcasts. So you can listen to it. And it's been translated into so many languages, too. She worked with other artists to help translate it. So it's really worldwide phenomenon. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely popular. Thank you for bringing this one up, Christina. You're welcome, I'm sorry. It is, don't apologize. Anything that can, any piece of work that can really move someone to this length it's an accomplishment. It's, it's worth noting. Yeah. I agree, that's why I like reading fanfic. Should you have anything with tentacles after this? No. I went with cutesy on it. Oh, I love cutesy. This one is so special to my heart because, just listen to the premise of this book, or this story, okay? It's called Silent Smiles, Lilting Laughs by Halvohen. I don't know if that's pronounced the same name on a fanfic site, okay? This book, Fanfic is still currently unfinished. So I've been waiting for a while for it to be finished. I'm waiting But here's the summary from the author. So it's a star wars retelling Okay, ben solo was born deaf in a world where you find your soulmate by recognizing their laugh Turning to art I know. Turning to art to cope, he finds himself working as a comic book artist as the name Kylo Ren for First Order Publishing. Rey is a very stressed senior studio art major and frequents the same coffee shop as him. When she recognizes his laugh, she finds herself. In over her head, in a work hell, family drama, and facing the struggles of finding her soulmate. It is Oh! It's so beautiful. No, because they I'm actually crying. I just She's making both of us cry. No, that Oh my gosh. That just sounds so beautiful. Is it written really like poetic and like beautiful? Both characters have trauma dumps, right? And then, like, she comes up to him, like, she goes back for days watching him because he doesn't know that's her soulmate because that's how his parents found her, you know, soulmates. Her parents were soulmates because you hear each other's laugh. But he's deaf, so he just thought he'd never find a soulmate in his life, right? And so she introduces, finally, after days of watching him, her friends are like, you've got to introduce yourself. And so she does, and she learns ASL just to talk to him. Oh, I know. It was, it's so sweet, so. Yeah, I'm bawling right now. I've been waiting for this episode. In Star Wars, there Star Wars names, but it's set exactly in our world, except you find your soulmate by hearing their laugh. So that's the only difference, from our world. And so, Rey was orphaned young, and, Ben doesn't think he'll ever find a soulmate and when they, sorry, I'm kind of going out of order. She teaches herself sign and she's an artist looking for a job and he works for an art company. So, he's trying to introduce, but his boss is an asshole, a snoke from the series. And so they're like working, I know it's, yeah, because they work at Friday night. Who works at First Order Comics, and his best friend in the series is Oh gosh, what's his name? Hux. General Hux. Yeah, that's his best friend. And she's best friends with Finn. Yeah, it's just so sweet. Yeah. Yeah, I just, I love the characters, but like I said, it's unfinished, so I know some people don't like Like the book is unfinished? The fanfic is unfinished. They say, like, on the bottom you can see, like, how many chapters are planned and how many they've written. And so she hasn't finished writing it yet, and I don't know if that's real or not. Have you messaged her? Can you message? It was not written and not updated since 2021. So I don't know. Oh, I really hope you get it. That's a while. I've been waiting three years. Almost, almost four. So you don't know are they together where you've left off? Well, actually, no. Will that spoil it? No, they're, yeah. She started getting closer to him. Yeah, for sure. But there's no H E A yet. Oh. Yeah, that's crazy. Oh, man. So I read fanfics, but that's my favorite. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, Kim. No, so that was my question, actually. When you read fanfics that are, like, heavily Based on Star Wars. Do you have to have an overwhelming knowledge about Star Wars and that entire world? To read these or is it just like a name? Yeah, I think this one is just names I think some of them go deeper into the lore it's all just You don't really have to be an expert in it. I wouldn't say this one definitely, it uses the names of characters. You get Ben and he works as a comic book artist. His pen name is Kylo Ren, you know, which is, and he works for first order industries, which the first order is in stars, but yeah, it's just the names in this one and our it's set in our world. So coffee shops and, iPhones and all that, there's other ones that take place in space or other things. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Cause I know star Wars, but I don't know. I don't know as much, so I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, I have one more. And this one was originally published on an app called Webtoon. And Webtoon is, a comic book reading app, and so people submit their comics. And so their story is told in comic format. This one has been now traditionally published. It's called Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. And this is another Persephone and Hades retelling. It's a popular choice. It started way back in 2018. That's when I started reading it. And it was published in 2021. Yeah. So if you've never checked out Webtoon, you should there's another story on there, my favorite. I've been, I've told both you girls, The Cursed Princess Club. It's the funniest story you'll ever read in your whole life. But this app has so many different stories. It's great. But this artist, she wrote and illustrated this. So it's amazing work. And it's beautiful. I've seen it. It is. I've seen it every time I'm in Target. I see, and I'm like, this is, I know. I know. I wish I'm like, she's so doubly talented to be able to draw. Yeah. I can do that. Right. I feel that. No, not you, though. I tried to draw I tried No, I can't I can't draw. I tried to draw a blueprint for the kitchen in one of my scenes in my book. And if you ever saw that, like, I gave up because it looks like trash. So when I look, after you told us that she actually illustrated that book, I'm like, that's crazy. You could write and draw. Like, look at you. Lucky. Some people are just blessed by the gods. Some people are so blessed. Not us again. No, I'm just kidding. Take it away, Christina. Take it away. Sorry. We have a pity party for pity. Alright. This is Lore Olympus. It is comic book, graphic novel esque style. Beautiful artwork to go with every scene. The story follows Persephone, who was raised in the mortal world by her mom to keep her away from Olympus and, you know, all the, you know, Craziness that goes on with that. Anywho, she moves in with Artemis. Her mom actually, finally, she takes a vow that she'll always stay a virgin. And her mom allows her to come to Olympus. So she Wait, she's the fertility goddess, though. Yeah, her mom makes her take a vow. And she's like, okay. And then so she moves in with Artemis and Artemis gives her her first like iPhone and it's like, we're going to a party tonight and little sweet Persephone who doesn't know anything is like, okay, and gets dressed up and doesn't know how good she looks kind of thing, you know, because she's just like, You know, Persephone hit the town, looking like a baddie with a little iPhone, not a baddie or her baddie friend. I love that. Yes, Persephone, love that for you, babe. Fertility, womanhood, womb. Ignorance. Yeah. Heavy on the naivete. Exactly. So she bumps into who else but Hades at this point. Of course. And it starts their whirlwind friendship, forbidden love story. I love that you said friendship. Yes, they're heavy on the friendship at first. Like they text back and forth all the time. No, it's so cute. That's cute. That is so cute. I know. And they're always like sending, she sends selfies to him like every day because she's like the first ever iPhone. Right. I know. It's adorable. It is really cute. I didn't know it was that cute. I didn't. I didn't realize the story itself was cute. And so they all have, modern amenities. So, he drives the fanciest sports cars and he's always in, the fine suits. Of course. It's just, it's pretty crazy. It's got a 4. 9 on Amazon with over 11, 000 views. I thought that was pretty good. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's pretty high. And on Webtoon, there's over 1 billion viewers. Whoa. Wait, you said Webtoon's an app, right? I'm going to download it right now because I've never heard of this. So it's seriously that good. And it's perfect. If you love romance mythology, it's, got light on the mythology. It's not as deep in a mythology as other ones go. But I think that's good if you don't know a lot about Greek mythology to understand, a little bit about each one. But it's funny, you got, Hades button heads with his brother, both his brothers, I guess. Yeah. It's just a great fun little story. I love it. I love the journey you took us on. You started with me crying just from remembering the book and Handmaid's Tale to the, just the idea of this Tragic, beautiful love story that Dev is just even thinking about the premise and crying and then we end with this cute, oh my god, that's adorable. Right. I love what you just said there. Thank you. Yeah, you killed that. Making fanfic has so much to be able to share with people and I love it. So like sometimes I'll just read fanfic all the time. There was like two years of my life I didn't read traditional published books and I spent all my time. That's when I got deep into the tentacles there, Jordan. Did you get into the tentacles or did they get into you? Flag on the play. Flag on the play. Okay. I love that. Oh, you have another one? No, I just wanted to shout out just to the Plated Prisoner series that I've mentioned before by Reagan Kennedy. It's the King Midas retelling and If you're a survivor of any abusive situation, it's a, Carthab, Carthab. Nope, lost the word cathartic. Cathartic. Carthic experience. Okay, there we go, sorry. My brain, now I'm like, overwhelmed. You, teacher Jordan. Miss Jordan. Thank you, Miss Jordan. That's hilarious. Thank you. Christina. I like really from the bottom of my heart. Thank you all right, Joy, do you want to go next? Oh, sure. Yeah, you just keep working on your webtoons there. Sorry Yeah, that's literally why I asked because I knew it would I knew it would be I was like, let me get this So the problem I had with today's episode is a lot of my retellings and my favorite retellings I have already recommended in previous episodes and we try to do new ones whenever we can it. So I really only have two you'll see. My first recommendation is a series of videos. And you're going to be floored when I tell you, this is a YA series. There's no way. Yeah, the looks on these ladies faces right now, when they look at her, they say YA. I'm intrigued. Yeah, right. This series is called Daughters of Evil by Chanda Han. Not evil, but evil. So E V I L L E. There are seven books, and is seven vengeful sisters. Seven fairy tale kingdoms and seven daughters of Aveil. So Aveil is this enchantress, right? She has essentially adopted seven girls and taught them and raised them. In a loving home. So there are seven girls in this home in this basically tower home on the outskirts of Nil In the town of Nil which means nothing each one represents a different, not just necessarily Disney princess, but a different Disney character. One of them, I believe, the one I'm on right now, I've, so I'm on book five of seven. Wow. Yeah. I know, and I did this in the last two weeks. You guys have no idea. Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. I know. It's free right now on Audible, all of them. And it's just really cool. The first one is Beauty and the Beast. The retellings, I think, put just enough original spin on it, but enough to stay true to a lot of the characters. It's different enough to where I stayed interested in a YA series. Yeah, it's closed door. It's closed door. But I loved it Sleeping Beauty Was really cool. So it's of beast and beauty, of glass and glamour, of sea and song, of thorn and thread, of mist and murder, of gold and greed, and then of secrets and slippers. So I am on of mist and murder, which I believe is a it's a twist on Maleficent. Ooh, I love Maleficent. Maleficent's one of my favorites. Yeah, and so that's been really, it's just interesting. I like the twists that they have on them all. I don't really want to get into all the different nitty gritty because it is exactly what I tell you. It's pretty strict retelling. And you also learn different scenarios that brought these characters together. Babies and toddlers or children, to Lady Aveil, right? She, so they grew up learning to get revenge on the Seven Kingdoms because Aveil has a vendetta against all Seven Kingdoms because her marriage to one of the kings was null and void when something happened to her dad, and they ca all of them cast her out. And the moment her beauty came into play, they were they all dropped out and proposed to her, all seven, and she scorned them all. So she has raised these girls to take revenge on the kingdoms. Wow. But you'll learn through each book how these, who these girls were, or truly are, their true identity before coming to be with her. So they're all, spoiler alert, important characters, like important people in the kingdom that went missing or were thought dead. But it's just fun. Yeah. It sounds fun. I really enjoyed it. I've never heard of that series. Me neither. I found it through just scrolling through things that were included on my membership and I needed more for retellings. I wanted new things for retellings. I didn't realize it was YA until the first one got done and I was like, wait a minute, she's pregnant? Did we see them have sex? What? Oh, spoiler alert, she got pregnant. I was like, no. And I had to really think about it for like 10 minutes. I was like, I don't think I would have missed that., right. But that's good. That means you enjoyed it enough to stick with it. I did. I did. One series that is not YA Retelling that I love. It's pretty popular. Dark Olympus series by Katie Robert. I really enjoy it. I know Dev thinks it's okay for the most part, but she's following through with it. I love it. Personally, I love these retellings. I love the first three books. Okay, Neon Gods, Electric Idol, Wicked Beauty, then there's Radiant Sin. See, I loved Radiant Sin. I know you didn't like it. I loved Apollo and Cassandra. So the first one is Hades and Persephone. Hades has a sex club. Love it. Electric Idol is Eros and Psyche. Mm hmm. Wicked Beauty is Achilles, Patroclus, and Helen. Ooh! Radi Yes. Yeah, that one was hot. Mm hmm. Radiant Sin, Apollo, and Cassandra. I loved that. See, I loved Their dom sub relationship. Relationship. Yeah. Cruel Seduction is Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Adonis, and Pandora. They are in an open poly naught relationship. Which means some of them are with some of them, not everyone is with each other, basically. And one or two of them is just In an open relationship, it's, it's messy, and it's good. Midnight Ruin is Eurydice, and Orpheus, and Charon. Oof! Yes. That one, I have, no, we've had that one, I've talked about it on this podcast. Midnight Ruin. Okay. Yeah. It's the throuple, and that's the one with I puppy play. Sorry, puppy play. No, you, just from the title, you don't like it. But if you read it, Dev, I think you would love it. I so I really need you to read it. I am because I love your, it's Eurydice, right? Yeah, Eurydice. I love, I love Eurydice, And she's a switch in this, so Orpheus is Dom, Eurydice is a switch, and Charon is, he's kind of a sub, he's mostly a sub in this situation. Cause he is groveling and trying to earn trust back. Cause we, we meet them, we meet them two specifically in their whole plight. In book one. In book one, yeah. Yeah. And okay, and Dark Restraint comes out in a month or two. That's, Ariadne and the Minotaur. Then there's Sweet Possession is going to be Poseidon and Icarus. And then Untitled is going to be Hera and Zeus. And that is the one we are all frothing at the mouth for. Literally, we I need it. I need to understand. Yeah, and Book Ten is going to be Hermes and Redacted and Redacted. She just edited it to say there's two Redacteds, not just one. Cause she's like, I've been writing and all of a sudden I go, Nope, this is what it is. Or they said, sorry, Katie Robert goes by they them. So I haven't even described this whole series, but it is, as you can tell, like Olympus retelling, but it's set in a kind of like a modern world, but they have their own. Bubble almost. Realm. Bubble is a good way to say it, within our world. There is a kind of companion series called Wicked Villains that happens outside of Olympus, and that is where all the Disney villains are. Mm-Hmm. And I've read the first one and it was a Jasmine and Jafar together as this coming up on this. I, when I tell you, when I tell you, it was dark. I have not gone back for the rest, but there's one called the Beast. There's a whole bunch, but Dark Olympus. I just love it because they're also intertwined in the political system and the political system is really cool. And I love that. I love to watch the characters through each of the books. And it's a big part of the storyline. Yes, the Spice is amazing. As you go through the series Olympus becomes under, literal under fire as people from the outside world are trying to get in and claim the Spice. Claim the series. Yeah, and the thing I love about Katie Robert and their work, at least in the last few years, and especially with this series, is everyone is queer. Everyone is queer. Even if it's like a straight presenting couple, They've had lovers of any gender in the past. There is just representation of every kind. Yeah, everybody's included. And it's done in a way that nothing is highlighted to say, Hey, look at me, I'm non binary. It's just, that's how their world is. It's just everyone is, Just the way they are. It's so refreshing to read. I've seen it so many times when I've walked in a bookstore and I've just never picked it up Yeah, it's really good. And it's, it's an easy to read, like it's, you can read it quickly. But yeah, it's a easy series. Well, not even the length, but like the way that it reads. That's what I mean, they're not like huge books. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, in size and in the quality. I don't want to say the quality of writing, but like, the way it's written, you read quickly. It's very digestible. Yeah. That's a great way to say it. Yes. Yeah. I think one of my favorite things about Katie Robert and the way that they write, especially in just the Dark Olympus series, I read a lot of books, where like, if the character is considered a person of color or just anyone who is not white, there's a lot of emphasis on, it's highlighted, right? But Katie Robert will be like he looks like a middle aged white man with blond hair. Describing white people gets the same, I don't know, descriptions or you know what I'm saying? Yeah, the way that sexual orientation is represented, the same can be said with different body types and different ethnicities. And that's what's so refreshing about Katie Robert to me. Yeah. Is they have, just as many, plus figured people. Loved my girls. People. Not just girls. Not just guys. But non binary. Everyone is trans. It's who they are, and they put out, they, put out fan art too, and it's very much true. It's beautiful. Dark Olympus series by Katie Robert. Yes. And Go Katie Robert is a Washingtonian, too, Yep. Love that for Katie and for us. We're having a meeting this summer if you want to come. Come join us. Right. Yeah. Coming up, Katie. Bring Harley. Alright, then my honorable mentions are ones that have already been discussed in this podcast. So Beast of the Briar, I mentioned a lot in the first few episodes and I know I highlighted it once by Elizabeth Helen. It's a reverse harem Beauty and the Beast retelling. We have three books currently. The fourth one is coming out in a few months. So excited. They are also from Washington, from the Pacific Northwest. And It's a sister duo that writes them. It's amazing. Just, please read it. I did see the cover reveal for the new book. Yep. It was very cute. Please read that. It's so good. And they are indie authors. Their mom does, like, all their merch and stuff. Aww. It's so cute. So cute. I know. Mom's the win. I know. Moms are great. Then Another dark series, Vicious Lost Boys series by Nikki St. Crow. I know Christina mentioned this one in an episode. I think, did we, did you do it in your dark series? Dark romance? I think so, yeah. Yeah. It is a dark series. It's Peter Pan and the Lost Boys reverse harem with Wendy and the Lost Boys. Christina, I know you were like, It was good, but you didn't read the whole series because you were like, that's too dark. I, if you like dark romance and you want a retelling, this is where you need to go. I loved it. I ate them up one a day because they are so short, so short quick reads. Yeah. And it's on Kindle Unlimited. I love it. I love them. If you need something dark and twisted with a twin sandwich, go for it. And then to sandwich it all with YA. The Bright Red Fruit by Sophia Elhillo that I mentioned in our YA episode is Hades and Persephone, modern day. And it's absolutely beautiful. It's poetic by definition, so please, everyone should read that. I know, and that's still one of my favorites. The books I need to read, I have so many books to read. So many? I'm excited. I'm It's literally so little. I wish I could read one a day because that would make things go so much faster, but I can't. All right, but that's it. End scene. Thanks, Jordan. Okay, I've got Yeah, thank you, Jordan. Thank you. I've got a couple recs. Some of them I think I've talked about. At least two of them I've talked about on the pod before, but the first one I'm going to talk about is Hooked by Emily McIntyre, which is a part of the Never After series. And this series,, Emily describes it as fractured fairy tales. And they are some of them have direct fairy tales where they're like based on like hooked is peter pan and then others are just an idea like oh a prince charming and damsel in distress kind of vibe, but there are quite a few books in the series I think there are five right now with number six coming out or there are four number five coming out But there's one more coming out it is. You On Goodreads for you to check out, but there's Scarred, Twisted I think Hexed is the one that's coming out, a bunch. They are very quick reads. Hooked, specifically, is a dark romance. It was intense. I DNF'd that. You know how much I love my dark romance, Dev. I can't believe you're talking about it right now. I am shooketh. I had no idea you would be doing this. IDNF runs so fast. Talk about blood play. Yeah, no, that one was psychotic. I will say though, I didn't, after reading Hook, I slowed down on the series. I started the second one, which I'm pretty sure is Twisted. But Hook, after I read Hook, I had to sit with myself for a minute because I was like, did I enjoy this? Like, what? It is very dark. It is very dark. I, I honestly don't know. I am gonna finish the series just because I think I'm really excited about the last one. So I can't just skip to the last one. I need to finish all of them. But that's definitely a good one if you're looking for dark retellings where the villain gets the girl. I want to emphasize that the villain gets the girl, okay? Murdered, not like vigilante murder either. Yeah, like I mean they are bad people and they are winning. They're having their happy ever afters. With, you know, so yeah, very dark, very twisted, very spicy, get it while it's hot. You're an enigma to me now. I don't, I thought I knew you. I really thought I knew you, and here you are. I know, it was just something cool to read, but also I think Hooked was my first time reading a Peter Pan retelling, and it's very loosely based. Super loose basis. They, I don't, and that's the thing. I don't think Emily describes them as like rigid in the way that they're the retellings. But it was my, it was just my first time reading a retelling. With Peter Pan, because I read a lot of Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast retellings. So I think that's also why it stands out to me. And then my second, I know, right? It's so different! You're both throwing me with your first, like, rect. Between Christina making me cry and you're just making my jaw drop literally on the floor here. I did not say it's my favorite piece of literature. I'm just saying, I read it. No, I just, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just, I read it. I'm just shocked that this is your, like, I, that's it. Yeah, this is shocking for me, actually. I, I get what Jordan's saying. It's very shocking for me. I, you know, y'all wanted Rex. I brought Rex. My second rec is Cinderella is faking it, which I have probably talked your ear off about. So if you are just listening to this episode for the first time, you're going to love this. If you've been listening to us all season, baby, I'm so sorry. But I'm gonna talk about Cinderella is faking it again by Dylan Dyer because I am obsessed. Exactly what it is. It's a Cinderella type of story. You know, one girl's down and out on her luck, she's broke, her boyfriend's not pleasing her. It's very, very sad. We're in the swamp right now and we need something to make it better. There's a little bit of secrecy. There are billionaires. It is very spicy. It is. The spice is like so perfect. If you could see Deb's eye twitch when she said the spice, you would believe it. Like her, one of her eyes twitched at the thought of it. Yes. No, it is really good. Dylan is, and this is Dylan's first work, the debut work. And it is so good. So, so good. And I also wanted to mention this because Dylan is doing something called a princess crossover series where basically there are four books in the series and each will follow a princess So Cinderella is faking it follows Delilah Cordelia kind of Because Cordelia is the person who asked Delilah to trade places with her and go to these society events and then the mailman character is August Beckett and It follows like them and that's all Cinderella theme. The second book is Rapunzel is losing it, which is Cordelia and her bodyguard story. So it's like a bodyguard romance. Cordelia is agoraphobic. It's the snippets we have been getting so far. I just know Victor's the main character. He is so down bad for Cordelia. She is like, her house is pink. She wears pink dresses. She's like, she does not drive. So anxious all the time. Perfect little baby. Cannot wait to hear about them. And then there are two other princess crossover books who she's like not giving away who they are, but she, I think one is forbidden. And then another one, I can't remember if it's like grumpy sunshine. There's one more another book in the series So I just thought i'd mention that because very loose retellings, but you can definitely Find the fairy tale in in her stories and it's all modern. They're not fantasy. They're contemporary Romances in like our modern world. Okay second book It is so it did get pushed back, but dylan has been just Great about that. It got pushed back a little bit. She's just not ready to release it yet, but it is coming soon I think It was maybe supposed to come out on what is today, Wednesday, maybe on Friday, it was supposed to originally come out, but for right now it's still just as coming soon. So we'll get it eventually. But yeah, I can't wait for that. I'm so excited. Second book. We've also talked, I don't know if we spoke about this specifically, or we spoke about the other book, but my dark desire by LJ Shen and Parker S Huntington. We did, which is another Cinderella. I really wanted to do only Cinderella retellings, but I had to shake it up with Hooked. But Cinderella, I think Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. I think all we talked about was the first one. So I haven't talked about that. Okay. So we didn't talk about that. The first one so this is the prince road or dark prince series I can't remember the exact series title for these books, but the first one was Rome my dark romeo. I was about to say romeo must die that's a movie i'm pretty sure that's the movie and I absolutely love that movie. It's not romeo must die It is my dark romeo. These are billionaire romances. These are like 25 to 35 year olds. They're in that age range. Now this is more what I was expecting from you. They're very cute, but specifically my dark desire is a Cinderella story. There's Pharaoh who's just looking for revenge, honestly, but she ends up becoming, A maid in a mansion read it. It's really good. It's very funny. I think the characters in these books, both books I don't know. No, I think you should read the first book before you read the second book because they are kind of interconnected in a way where if you read the second book, it'll spoil a couple things. So, The characters, the way L. J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington, because they write these books together, the way they feed off of each other is so hilarious. The characters are so funny and the things they say are absolutely ridiculous. They are very wealthy and very stupid with their money. But they also just find themselves in situations that you're like, What? Like, huh? How did we get here? But it also has a lot of heart. All of the stories do have a lot of heart. They have a lot of, really strong and good themes. beneath all the snark and the money So yeah, make sure you read that. And then wait until book three comes out. Oh, yeah, I can't wait for book three is going to actually be psychotic. It might send me to an early grave because I just know von Bismarck. That is his last name. Yeah, that's that character's last name. Yeah, I know he's gonna get up to some stuff. Scalahad, Bismark, all your characters are so unhinged, I die. Yeah, he, they have a group chat that's like a theme throughout all the books and the group chat is so unhinged. All of them, well except for, Yeah, I was just about to say they always leave and there was a quote that I was going to read and it was about the group chat about how Zach says it's like harder to leave the group chat than like something in the government or whatever. But yeah, they're always trying to leave the group chat and he just adds them right back. But yeah, so those are my, thoughts. I do have a list of honorable mentions books that I really, that I have not read yet. They are on my have to read list, but I wanted to share them with you guys in case you're looking for more retelling recs. So first up I have pride and protest and then sex lies and sensibility. Both of these are by Nikki Payne and then. I mean, I think it's pretty clear what they were retelling, not necessarily exactly. They're Jane Austen retellings, modern day the covers are so pretty. They're very light and vibrant. But yeah, I think those are some cute retellings. They might be really nice to read. That's on my list. The second one I have, it's a series, the Wilmot series by Chloe Elise and I, okay. Chloe has a very. Popular series. I think it's the Bergman brothers. There's like seven books and people love this series. They are so obsessed, but the Wilmot sisters are three, three sisters. They each get a book and their Shakespeare retellings. So you get a 12th night, you get much ado about nothing. I think I can't remember the third one. Yeah, so when I tell as a theater major I am like I wonder I cannot wait I just the only reason I haven't started that series yet is because I don't know if I need to read the Bergman Brothers first So I just I have to do a little more research. So keep that in mind if you decide to read it. Yeah Sorry, really quick you saying those reminded me that today. I put a hold on a book on Libby called Worthing Nights Worthing nights An erotic retelling of Withering Heights. What? Yeah. That's gonna be one favorite book, right? Yeah. Withering Know What? iLIGHT Bella Swan's. Favorite book. Maybe she wrote it. Maybe it's her fan, right? Oh my. Can you imagine a Bella Swan fan? Fake, but yeah. Oh. There. That actually sounds good. So send that to me. I'm curious about that. I wanna read all of the Yeah. When it comes out. I have another one, blood Orange by Karina Halley. And this is a Dracula retelling. I have read, I've read a lot of Karina Halley's work. I love the way she writes, but I don't think I've ever read a Dracula retelling. So I'm really excited about Blood Orange. Okay, so this next book I've had on my Kindle for at least a year. Months at this point. It's called Rise of the Cinder Fae by Whitney Dean. Oh, yeah. Me too. You know what I'm talking about? And it's a dark Cinderella retelling. So, that's one. Well, the original Grimm stories are dark. Right. I mean, to be fair. Let's bring it back to the originals is all you have to do. Right. A lot of fairy tales I think were told to like scare kids and stuff. They all, yeah. Yeah, so. They're all scary. You're like. Mhmm. Mhmm. We've just kind of fluffed, well Disney. Has fluffed them up a little bit, but yeah, they're like, they're scary stories. I found a King Arthur retelling, which I did not realize, but I don't know if you guys know the Legendborn series by Tracy Dion. It's a beautiful cover. It's like a pretty little black girl on the front. It's on my forever TBR that I always get to, but I never do. Same. And the second book is Blood Marks. I did not realize that Legendborn is a King Arthur retelling. So that just makes me want to play it. Push it up on the list. That's like the hurricane wars. I didn't know was a kylo ren. Oh, I saw that Yeah, I found that out in the the slide it's the one that peyton bought me for christmas and I still haven't read it Because it's a physical. I want to read those. I want that's on my list because popular Book talker that I follow. She that's like one of her top, top five books. So she made me want to read it, but I haven't gotten to it. And then my last, my last rec is actually by Marissa Meyer or mayor. Unsure how she pronounces her last name, but it's the lunar Chronicles. Okay. You just have to look up the. Do you know, and each book, the cover, like the first one, I think it's called Cinder and Oh, I have this with the red shoe on audible But they're like super modern She is and that is why I had it on my kindle because you know, we're trying to get through those authors But there's an entire series of these books where each is like a retelling the first one Like I said, it's cinder, but there's like robotic stuff and You I don't know. It's not at all what I thought it would be. It's very futuristic. Yes. So I'm intrigued. But yeah, I just wanted to share a bunch of books that I like had on my list or had my eye on in case you guys are looking for even more recs as well, like more than what we told you about, but yeah, go ahead and rewind if you want to hear those again. I'm very excited to read those. Those are all my recs. So many. We had such a variety. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. This is impressive. I'm really proud of us here. Way to go. We did that. Did the damn thing. Yeah, I know. And I had two YA wrecks. Who am I? Jordan. And I had a dark, I had a dark romance that Jordan had to DNF. Who the hell am I? And I made you both cry. That's crazy. This entire episode is like WTF. I know. I, wow. Retellings do weird things too, right? I think this is weird things. It is perfect though because this is technically our penultimate episode of the season. So maybe it's like on purpose that these things happen and the way this lined up. I know we are almost towards the end of the season. It is gismet. So yeah, I think maybe that's why the universe just kind of wanted to shake us up a little bit. Get us like deep, you know, have us deep dive. I hope they get us deep. I really hope they get me deep. Jordan! Do I want them not to go Do you want them not to go deep? I mean, I just I mean, if they just swim around the top in a circle, I think that's fine. A figure eight motion or something? Just use your hands. That is going from being all smooth to Sad and oh, penultimate episode to like erotica in the next breath. Basically. on that note, right? You wanna write a romance? Ran romance Rex fanfic. There you go. Please. I'll read it. Oh my God, I just love that. Please, can you imagine? Oh, hide my old one. Now I know what I'm gonna do on our break between right, our summer break seasons. But this has been a really good season. I've really enjoyed it. Thanks for sticking with us if you've been here through the whole thing. If not, go back. We, while we find our way, our voices, Our recs with you, for you please get in touch with us on our socials too and follow us this summer. We will have probably bonus content throughout the summer as book releases happen and we might have some events if you're in the greater Seattle area or in Washington. So keep up with us. Yeah. I love that. One more episode. I know. One more episode, one more episode, and it's going to be a good one. So make sure you tune in. A little bonus for those that can participate and know about the Mortal Fates world by Jabri. That's coming at ya. So who wants to take us out? I will. Okay. Thanks guys for listening to us ramble about retellings and everything this season. If you're looking for more Romance Wrecks, be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Romance Wrecks Pod. You can find our favorite book wrecks from our episodes from this whole season. As well as behind the scenes content that we love to share with you guys. Again, that's at Romance Wrecks Pod, so make sure to give us a follow, and we won't be back next week! Why are you reading the Romance Wrecks obituary right now? This is crazy! Bye! Bye guys!