Latest / Fated / Convincing My Husband to Read Romance Books
Transcript
- Tay: Welcome to the podcast where your next favorite story is already written in the stars. April: For your new book besties, April. Tay: Ante here to get your book craving started and satisfied. April: Why? Tay: Because around here it's faded. April: So grab your current read, maybe a cozy drink, and hide your TBR list because today we're trying to convince my husband that these books are worth reading. And we have a special guest, Kevin! Tay: Common April: Welcome to the podcast. Yeah, introduce. Tell us about yourself. Do you Tay: Yes. April: like to read books? What do you like to read? I'm Kevin and I'm married. Well, Kevin who's married. And I like to listen Tay: That's a good start. He's trained well. April: to books. What kind of books do you like to listen to? Good ones. Good ones. Mostly fantasy. Tay: I heard you're reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and I just started book one. I'm like on chapter twenty or something like that. April: I think I'm better than halfway through the third one. Tay: Yeah. There I took the recommendation of listening it or like I switched from doing Kindle to audio and the audio's hilarious. The computer AI is my favorite part of it's like, I can't even think of a direct quote, but it's something along the lines of you just won this, blah blah blah, your mom. I'm like, April: Yeah. Tay: I was like that I was like, that is so funny. April: Yeah. Tay: That would make sense if an alien race of like listening to like gaming from the eighties, they're like, Yeah, that's that's the way people talk to each other. We're gonna do it all the time. So April: I love it. Tay: yeah. I am enjoying it. So thanks, Kevin, for the ride. April: Yes. So Kevin, we have a treat for you today. We're gonna tell you about some romance books and just try to convince you that they really are romance books and tell you some fun things about them that you know you might not know, which I want to preface this by saying this was really hard for me to pick books for because I tell him literally about all of the books that I'm reading. So I had to really think on some ones that maybe I haven't really told you much about. Tay: That's great that you tell him a lot about books because I try and keep some mystery with Austin. He's just gotta know some things that I have not read. Now, because of this podcast, he now is very aware of the stuff I read and is like a little, you know, concerned. Yeah, shooketh, you know. He actually had April: Shook it. Tay: a coworker, was like, dude, have you listened to her podcast? Are you like okay, bro? I was like, my God. Clarifying that with him. It's like, I just like to read freaky stuff, not do it. Okay. So my first book, let's set the scene. Okay. We're gonna, we're gonna get you into sports for the first time ever, Kevin. Okay. We're gonna get you into reading a sports book, okay? This book is April: No boy. Tay: called Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. Now, if you just heard Icebreaker, what would you think that it's about? April: sports thing I guess like finger skating? Finger skating. Finger skating? Well it's probably closer to finger skating. Considering your guys is a deal. But figure skating maybe? Tay: Okay, for a romance reader listening to that, you have to coin the phrase finger skating for your next romance novel. But yes, you would be correct. It is figure skating. Figure skating and hockey, so it's the best of both worlds. Our main character, Anastasia, she is a figure skater on her way to the Olympics, ready to, you know, show them what she's got. She's in college. And they find out that her skating rink is now gonna be taken over by the hockey team. And she's like, hell no, I am training for the Olympics. This sucks. So she's telling everybody and her grandma that she's mad and upset about it. Well, lo and behold, there's a guy on the team. He's Mr. Cocky, Mr. Arrogant, whatever. And her partner ends up getting hurt. Well, somehow he gets roped into being her partner and having to prepare her for her. Show. Okay. what kills me about this book though is let's say they they do all of this training where her partner ends up getting better and he just comes back and performs with her. So I'm like kind of like, man, I'd be pissed if I was that guy and I did all that work. Be like, I paused my hockey stuff so I can help you with yours. Say love. Anyways, so this is where their romance takes off. How spicy, Kevin, do you think this book is on a scale of like One chili pepper to five chili peppers. How much spice do you think is in this book? April: Sounds wholesome, right? Like Olympic figure skater, very serious athletes. Well yeah. I mean Tay: The and and I don't have this book, but it's very like cartoonish. It's not, you know, like it has like a two cartoon characters on the front. So like yeah. April: Mm-hmm. It has a very cute cover, yeah. Okay. So well, from your description, Tay: One to five chili peppers. What give it April: it's wholesome and blah blah blah. The way you guys are setting it up is like a dirty bird. One of them's a dirty bird. I'm talking cold hands, both of Tay: I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a s Gonna give you a specific scene from this book. This is just one scene, okay? They are in an Uber, okay. The whole like team has loaded up, they're crammed in this Uber luxe. every every row is taken. They get pushed to the very back, and he's like, It's okay, babe. You can sit on my lap. Okay. She sits on his lap, and mind you, this car is filled. So just think about that as well. This car is filled. He then proceeds to finger skate. April: Warming up them cold hands. Tay: On their night out. April: Yeah. Wow. With everybody there, huh? Yeah, of course, yeah. Tay: While everybody is in the vehicle. Yep. April: Well that's not like crazy spicy, but that's like why? Tay: It's questionable spice, that's for sure. Yeah. when I was reflecting on this book, I was like, wow, that that actually is incredibly not wholesome. April: Yeah. Tay: I think the first comment I read on one of the videos that I looked up about this scene was like, Imagine everybody in the vehicle, they're just like, Do I smell something? That would be horrible. April: Gr gross. Tay: So anywho, I recommend this book to you, Kevin, to go out into the sports world. How likely are you if if you did, based on that reading, if you had to read this book, would you or would you not? April: if I had to read this book, then by definition Tay: What? April: I'd have to read it. But Tay: Fair. That's fair. But let's say you had an option and they're like, okay, you have this romance book and one other book. Are you going to choose another book or are you going to go with that book? April: another book. Another book. Tay: Another book got it. April: then I will raise you another book, and we're gonna give you four book choices. Okay. And you can tell us which one at the end you're most likely to read, okay? Because I want to Tay: Yes, yeah. April: hear. I'm curious. Okay. So my book I want to tell you about is Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. And I told you a little bit about the series before. I know, look at it, it's beautiful. but this whole series is about Earth women, okay? They get abducted by aliens and they crash land on this ice planet, okay? They discover these local blue dudes, okay, these blue alien men, and they're extremely hot, they're extremely horny, and they're into monogamy, okay? Sure they are. Okay. Well, then there's this magical like alien organ that these Blue aliens have, and it's called their queen, and their que makes them it makes them mates and it vibrates when you're near your mate, okay? Tay: Mm-hmm. April: So like very similar to something weird I heard about once. So so like Tay: I just imagined like a pigeon cooing. April: yeah, yeah. Tay: We April: Yeah. Battery's not needed, I guess, right? Yeah, no, no batteries needed for this queen. but the women they're gonna be thinking, okay, this giant blue alien man, he's terrifying. I need to escape. But meanwhile, the alien guy is essentially thinking, like, this tiny female is making strange noises and refusing to be my mate. My queen is vibrating. Pass. Not even Tay: Okay. April: gonna give it a chance. Tay: What are we ranking? So so far, April: No stars. Tay: so Ice Planet Barbarians or Icebreaker? Which one's above which right now? Where's the ranking stand? April: If I'm forced to read one of these, On one end, awkward fingerstein. On the other end, your blue alien sounded very pushy. Sorry. me ask this Tay: borderline. April: which which one of them has a longer trigger warning than Honestly, I don't know. Tay: For sure, Ice planet. I think Ice Planet. Cause there's there's like a bajillion April: All right. Tay: books. I don't know if she shared that, but there's like April: Yeah. Tay: twelve books or something crazy in the series. And April: There's a lot of them, yeah. Tay: trust me, you can read through ten of them and you're like, how far have I gone? April: Yeah, it's such a good hole to go down. I enjoyed them. well. I'm glad you enjoyed the hole. How romantic to have this thing that vibrates. Tay: So have you been hearing about her Horde King Summer? April: yeah, my other alien men that I've been reading all summer. I've told you about scenes in He probably Tay: The whole game. April: just can't remember. It all blends together for him too. Hey, you know, whatever you're into. Exactly. Tay: It's an alien summer. You gotta get with the times. All right, I got another one for you. This one's a zinger. Okay. This one is the Raven Hood series by Kate Stewart. Now, when I read this book, I went in with the knowledge of it says the Raven Hood. So I'm thinking it's a retelling of Robin Hood. If it is, April: Sound similar. Tay: it's a very distant series. very distant. I wouldn't even say they're first cousins. I wouldn't even say they're third cousins. They're probably fourth cousins in relation to that. But before you say absolutely not, I do need you to understand what we're getting into. So there's secret societies, there's fast cars, there's tattoos, galore, and morally questionable men. And many, many secrets. And there's one woman who approximately sees 900 or so of these red flags and says, interesting. Tell me more. So there's three books in this series. The first one is Flock. Cecilia moves back to a small town to work for her father, which you start off very confused, wondering what that dynamic is because they low key hate each other, but he just gave her a job and she needs to be there. Very confusing, but it is what it is. She's there to work. Well, she meets Sean. Sean's this very like rugged, mechanic, blonde guy. She starts visiting Sean and they go on a few dates and then she's at his house and she sees the roommate, Dominic. And Dominic doesn't talk, he's brooding, he's very much an asshole. But what do we do in books when we hear an asshole? We gravitate towards them. We're like, he doesn't talk, he's moody, he's dangerous. We like him. So this is where Cec this April: Shadow Daddy Material. Tay: is where Cecilia takes a turn. And at this point, you're probably asking a lot of questions. And Kate Stewart will, the author, will approximately answer none of them. at some point you're going to realize this relationship is not just a situation ship. and it's not operating under a one boy, one girl rules that you were probably expecting. Something is occurring between the three of them and it happens over a lake and all three of them love one another so much, so dearly. The ravens is because they have a raven tattoo and they're in like a a gang. well I won't say who, but one of them ends up dying and she's all heartbroken. no my guy, he gone. So sad. And then his brother shows up. He's French. And he wants to stick his baguette where it doesn't belong. they live happily of ever after the end. April: think I've I lost track. I think I lost track here. So whose brother? The guy who died. The guy who died. Okay. So Tay: The guy who died. I'm trying not to spoil it for our listeners. So the guy who died, one of the two, Sean or Dominic, dies. But the other April: And then Tay: one also gets forgotten. So he dies and she forgets about the other guy suddenly. Even though they all said to the three of them that we all love one another. But as soon as the other one dies, she's like, see ya. April: And then the and then the the French guy shows up and just pumps any l other feelings right out of it. Just like boom boom. Forget him. That's yeah. yeah, a lot of that I bet. Tay: Yep. Yeah, he's like wee wee. You want to see April: All right. Tay: It is genuinely that. But otherwise a pretty high stakes entertaining series kept me interested the entire time. Lots of deceit, lots of lies. Pretty solid overall. April: Yeah. Tay: Just questionable decisions and a very untrustworthy FMC. April: Yeah, 'cause 'cause if you're gonna if you're gonna have a threple, it's gotta be built on trust. Yes. Yes. Tay: You know? Gosh, quality thruples you just can't find anymore. And she, Cecilia's the worst. April: Yeah. Tay: She just forgot about him, tossed him to the curb, fell in love with his brother. His French brother. April: Alright, what's the next one? Well, where are we at ranking wise now? So Tay: Yeah, where are we at now? April: we had Icebreaker, we had Ice Planet Barbarians, and now we have the Ravenhood. Where are we at? Well there's a I So Number one is still the skating one. Okay. And then it's this Ravenhood thing because yeah, it's weird, but there's no queee. But that's the problem is there's no que Well we're just gonna have to disagree on that. I don't think there's any que needed in the Tay: Just wait until you hear about what how what their anatomy is shaped like, Kevin. April: yes. I don't think you should spoil your listeners. Tay: They have like I don't remember what they called it, a f a tickler. I don't know. April: Something like that. Yeah. They're they're built for women, Tay: Okay. April: just so you know. Tay: We're just gonna give you the shape here. We're gonna go here and then we're gonna go here. April: How good for them? I'm sure that's r that's really good for them. Tay: So women were suddenly like, What? I don't care that we can't communicate. I can communicate. April: Yeah. They they they Tay: With my eyes. April: they felt it out, you know. I have one last book to convince you. And also maybe he's questioning our marriage by now, I don't know. But No, I wouldn't go that far. You can read whatever you want. I mean, whatever you're into. thank you. Okay, so Yeah. Tay: Yeah. He said, just don't make me do it. April: Yeah. But there's a difference between you like you reading it and rereading it. I don't Tay: So what she's saying at Halloween is paint yourself blue and start to bark like a pigeon when you come in the bedroom. April: Yeah. Well, life's, you know, not only about disappointments, but how you handle them. sometimes you just gotta wake up and go, you know, is it that bad that he didn't paint himself blue? You know? Dreaming. Okay. Yeah. I don't think I'm ever gonna have a quee. Dang it. I tried. Yeah. Tay: darn. Sorry. I tried to make it happen. April: So my last book here I want to tell you about. Okay, it's called Nectar of the Wicked by Ella Fields. It's actually a two book series. And It's about this woman who discovers that she's actually a changeling. And changelings are fairies that have been whists to the human world and vice versa. But she's actually really a fairy. And so she wants to get back into the fairy world. And she makes the deal with this ridiculously hot, of course, morally black fairy king. And he offers to help her find her real family in exchange for marrying him. Okay. And they hate each other, right? Like they're. Constantly scheming against each other and he's basically also a walking red flag with a crown though, so that's nice. somehow they develop feelings along the way, okay? there's murder, there's betrayal, there's curses, there's psychological warfare, but there's also marriage and sexual attention and enemies to lovers, and a man who is literally like I'll help you find your family, but you gotta marry me. the fact that the husband is potentially evil is like just a potentially. He's potentially evil. Is like a minor detail. I wanted to add this in because this character is one of my favorites. Her bestie, her best friend, is a like this grumpy goblin guy. I don't know if he's really a goblin. That's what I think he is. And he literally calls her flea. Because she won't let him live in peace in his library. So yeah. And we'll just ignore the fact that her husband may or may not be using her as bait to get revenge. Yeah, 'cause in a relationship that heart's important. No. He's hot. He's morally black. That's the important thing. man. This guy's got abs for days. I don't care that he murders people. Shit, man. I gotta I gotta get off on his queen. Tay: do have some questions about his nickname, the flea, for her. April: Yeah. She literally gets called a flea. That's her nickname. Yeah. Why? Tay: That would be like Austin calling me cockroach. Hey cockroach. Scatter. April: Yeah. it's really truly very romantic. Is it the book ends, which I feel like is not Tay: Mm-hmm. April: big huge spoiler alert because they spend the whole book fighting with each other, but you think that he's maybe gonna k her at the end. okay. Thoughts, feelings. Well, I don't know. Sounds like badass abs conquer all, I guess. You know, it's like and you just need to go to the gym and like Tay: You know, I do think April: Just really just like watch what I eat and then Tay: it does stem from problems. Like we just we're like, Hey, I can save him. April: can save him. Yeah. Well, it's a book. It's not supposed to be real life. Tay: No. April: You know? I mean, hot blue alien men would be really nice in real life, but I agree. Reality check. If a blue person like Tay: Ha ha. April: stomps in through the front door, the last thing you're gonna go is ooh. Tay: Okay, did he hear about the Scrub Daddy book the sentient sponge that turned into a man? April: Yeah. yeah. The Scrub Scrub Daddy book was hilarious. Scrub. I was reading him scenes from that book and yeah, he agrees it's really funny. That was funny. Tay: Yeah. April: He also knows about Milked. He knows about that one as well. I told everybody at work. literally the first thing out my mouth. It's like Tay: I still I haven't seen it as a coffee table book yet, so I'm a little disappointed. I need it as a coffee table book. That in the the triceratops April: I know. Tay: book. I did April: bottoms. Tay: read, by the way. I read for our monster series and it was so rough. I couldn't even I couldn't even give a a thing because it was all just smut of her riding the horn of this triceratops. April: See, we give you four really good choices here. Yeah, solid choices. Tell us Tell us your ratings, yeah. Tay: Yeah. Yeah. I honestly I feel bad I didn't give him Souls and Ruin. I think Souls and Ruin would have been a good one to like cater to you, which Souls and Ruin, there's two guys. You think her marriage guy, they're literally in her marriage bed and she starts hearing screams and she's like, What the heck is going on? He slayed the entire kingdom. Her family, everybody. And he's like, That's what you get for enslaving me for years on end. It the craziest twist I ever seen because in a book you're like, he's so morally great. No, this guy was genuinely awful. And then she ends up being in a prison cell and her prison cellmate is the one April: So he was a slave and he like turned on him. Is that what happened? And he's Tay: Yeah. Yeah. So he got released. April: the bad guy though? Tay: Yeah, but he's the bad guy. It was that was April: okay. Tay: kind of I don't know. You just gotta read. It was April: And Tay: good. That was a good one. I'll read that I'll bring that up on the next round. But that one was a good one. But give us your four out of today's. Rank them again. Yeah. April: There you go. Next round, huh? Yeah, tell us what's your top book. Or actually let's start let's start number four choice of a book you'd want to read and let's work our way that way. Number four, like fourth choice. Yeah. At the bottom. Starting at the bottom. Blue man with the queen. Ice Planet Barbarians. No. Look at it. It's a very pretty book, but no. Okay. There's nothing about that that like No. Okay. What's number three? Give us number three. number three is probably your other one. Both of mine are at the bottom. The guy is like the way so here's how you presented it. Hey, check this out. Two fairies, you know, they hate each other the whole time. Like that's how their marriage is. But at the end, like when you think they're gonna come back together. Or maybe he's just gonna kill her for bait or something. No. No thanks. Hard pass. Bo Buddy's really pretty. Sweet. No. No. But he I mean, they kinda like each other. Yeah. Like, all right, maybe I'm just weird, but if I read a romance book and it was from a guy's perspective and it just like, Wow, that succubus is like throwing all sorts of red flags, eating people and stuff with the horns and stuff. but that body rocking up like dude. Do not finish. Do not finish. Play play play stupid games, win stupid prizes. That's what you're doing. Tay: I mean he brings valid points to the table. If we did reverse, yep. April: Fine, fine. Yes. Okay, so give us second place. shoot. I mean Taylor wins anyways, but Yeah, the the Ravenhood Tay: What? April: one is gonna have to be second. Tay: the thruple. April: Okay. Thruple with death and then a brother. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and I'm putting that in because really it's just not n it's it's not as good as the other one. I don't even like sports, but if the the worst thing you have to say about it is they finger bang each other in a limousine, like all right, that ain't bad. Tay: Finger skate. It's finger skate, Kevin. We're we're coining that term from now on. April: F yeah fingers they they're finger skating. That's your word, yeah. Yeah Tay: Nice. I feel the win. April: Yes. Taylor wins this round. I'm not Like Tay: Rain on me. Confetti. April: I I know that as your husband I was probably supposed to pick you. But let's just break it down here. I mean, what were you doing with the quee? I mean what wouldn't you do with a quee? Tell you what I wouldn't do with a quee. All of it. Do all of it. Yeah. We've been switching around a bit. Blue woman with whatever, you know? Yeah. They're mates. Tay: It's his heart song. It's the way he sings to his lady. He's like a male bird showing off. But it's like his chest just. April: Yeah, exactly. Just like that. Yeah, it's very romantic. Well if it was a blue woman and she was humming through the front door naked and we'll even say she's stacked, you know? still no. Tay: Hey, you know, I Kevin, I'm calling you out now. And to our listeners, Kevin is a stellar person to watch any passion flick show with. So he's not off the hook yet. As soon as Black Dagger Brotherhood makes a reappearance for season two, we are doing watches and we are doing reviews. Ha ha! April: I'm so excited. I will be the most excited person while you Tay: Yeah. April: two are just, you know. board cringe town. I'm so ready. It's coming. That's it for today's episode. Tay: Make sure to follow, download, and share our podcast socials with other book besties. We would love to hear about your books that you're trying to convince your husband to read. And please leave a comment on your favorite platform letting us know which ones you recommend. April: Yes, and join us next week where we're going to be interviewing a very special guest, local Austinite author, Carolyn Hawkins. Tay: Woo and remember April: We're glad you're here because Yay. Okay. Tay: It's faded.