0:00

I almost started to say this week's episode of

0:02

Faded Mates is brought to you by and then

0:04

I realized we're recording. No, we're not there yet.

0:06

We're not there yet. Faded Mates Live just happened.

0:09

It did. It's very exciting. That

0:12

recording will come out in May everyone. So

0:15

yes. Get ready. We're

0:19

like at the point where we're like really like

0:21

kind of like really fine tuning things. It was

0:23

funny because so Sunhee and

0:25

I were in like having breakfast this

0:27

morning before we got pedicures and the

0:30

Dua Lipa song came on from the Barbie soundtrack

0:32

and we both started like and she was like

0:34

you need to play this at Faded Mates Live.

0:37

So I was like you're right because

0:39

there'll be like music playing while you know we're

0:41

waiting to get started and I texted Sarah and

0:45

Eric and your response

0:47

was Eric just died a little. No,

0:51

because he doesn't like the Dua Lipa

0:53

song but because well you are talking

0:55

to somebody who literally my CD book

0:57

listen everybody I know that just aged

0:59

me but my CD book

1:02

growing up was like all

1:04

soundtracks because it was like it was just the

1:06

bangers from the movies I liked. Yeah.

1:09

So anyway. Do you remember the

1:11

brilliance of the like John Hughes

1:13

soundtracks? Yes, although you

1:15

are older than me and that

1:18

is how we know because that's

1:20

true. While I do I do

1:22

know many of those songs they

1:24

are not DNA coded. The Pretty

1:26

and Pink soundtrack was like my

1:28

life everyone. My life. I

1:31

had it on cassette. There you

1:33

go. I

1:35

did have I had a very I was very

1:37

lucky in that I had a junker of a

1:39

car when I was in high school

1:42

like a true junker like you could see

1:44

the floor through the passenger seat. This is the

1:46

ground through the passenger seat floor which you know

1:48

whatever and it had

1:50

a tape deck a tape deck

1:52

in it. Nice yeah. I

1:54

actually almost died on a

1:57

back road in New York in on a back

2:00

road in Rhode Island because

2:02

I kept all my tapes in a shoebox on

2:04

the floor of the passenger side

2:06

of the car,

2:09

probably covering up the

2:11

hole through which you could see

2:13

the ground like the Flintstones. And

2:19

I was listening to Blue's traveler

2:22

on tape

2:26

and like tearing down a back road.

2:28

This is why parents should not let

2:30

their children drive. And I was

2:33

like, I'm not vibing with this. I'm

2:35

going to change the tape. And

2:37

I leaned over to get

2:39

the box. No, Sarah.

2:41

Came back up and I

2:44

was driving directly toward a

2:46

mailbox for which

2:48

I hit a like post, not like a blue

2:50

mailbox, like a just like a person's mailbox. Yeah.

2:53

And I mashed into and

2:56

barely avoided flying

2:59

off a cliff into a quarry. Wow.

3:03

It was definitely I could

3:06

have died. I

3:08

would say my most dramatic. So

3:10

I grew up in a place that

3:12

was flat. So all of my, there

3:14

were probably quarries though. I mean, very

3:16

flat. Very flat. Ohio. They

3:18

don't mind in Ohio. No, they plant corn. And

3:24

what I did was we, I like

3:26

lived in one town, but went to a Catholic high

3:28

school in the next town. And so we,

3:31

we drove and like, you

3:33

know, you were kind of following kids who

3:35

were also driving to school and I

3:37

was behind this kid. And I

3:40

like, I think about this now and I'm like, how

3:42

am I alive? How are teenagers giving the keys to

3:44

cars? It's really amazing. And it was like, so there

3:46

was like a corner coming up where it was like

3:48

a really sharp corner kind of back. You know what

3:51

I mean? Like, I don't know that angle,

3:53

like a smaller angle. And

3:55

I called something I can't remember why. And acute,

3:57

acute or right. I switched back.

4:00

Instead I drove through the

4:02

cornfield to like cut off the corner

4:04

and like bounce off into the road on

4:06

purpose Yeah in front of the guy ahead of me to

4:08

like beat him to be a bear

4:10

Basically racing on the way to school. Yeah,

4:12

this is like Footloose like you were in

4:14

the plot of Footloose. Yes exactly

4:19

And I all I really remember is like

4:22

it just doing it like having no

4:24

thought Just being

4:26

stupid being really like me in the rearview

4:28

mirror and seeing this kids like mouth hanging

4:30

open like what the fuck did This dumb

4:32

bitch just do well, you took out like

4:35

an acre of corn, but you did win

4:37

And that's I did win and that's what's

4:39

important for a few season for me All

4:42

the time. All right, so no and that

4:44

poor farmer was like what the fuck these

4:46

and he knew it He was like these

4:48

fucking sure these fucking kids a hundred thousand

4:50

percent and now You

4:53

are a middle school teacher and you're

4:55

getting your penance every day every

4:57

day everyone Every day, although it is spring

4:59

break. So not today Welcome

5:02

everyone to fate of me. We

5:04

don't always talk about bad driving.

5:08

I'm Sarah McLean I read romance novels and

5:10

I write them and I'm Jennifer

5:12

Prokop a romance reader and editor and

5:14

reckless driver I

5:16

met a person the other day. I had

5:18

a zoom with somebody and I

5:22

got on and I was you know, looking

5:24

like this and And

5:30

I was like I'm Sarah McLean I

5:32

read romance novels and I write them and she's like My

5:37

god amazing go high more again, I Love

5:41

it. Okay. So this week

5:43

everybody we are Talking

5:46

about like a real like we're talking about

5:48

beauty and the Beast romance It's like a

5:50

classic for a reason and everyone loves it.

5:52

We're really like I feel like we're really

5:54

doing the job here on these interstitials recently

5:57

Hymnbo's great

5:59

hubba The Raptors, Beauty and the what else

6:01

should we be doing You guys what it's

6:04

like big ones that yeah radio I mean

6:06

and we have like a great lips and

6:08

but sometimes it's fun to just do these

6:10

ones that are really like of like primordial

6:13

to the romance genre even Right Leg Beauty

6:15

and The Beast as Man Who. Do

6:18

you must? Fairy tales De Uma. Fairy tales

6:20

in your kids are. I

6:23

love to this fairy tale. Of

6:25

has. No,

6:28

I didn't love. Here's the thing. Beauty and

6:30

the Bees is one of the first fairy

6:32

tales I think our I interacted with were

6:34

like the harem wasn't asleep. Or like in

6:36

a coma or suffer and legendary and.

6:39

Shores the whole time. And

6:41

was it the Disney version for you? Yeah,

6:44

I mean I knew the I knew the

6:46

story I must admit I had when I

6:48

was a kid. I had a. Both.

6:50

A Fairy Tales. That. Had

6:52

all of the kind of like they

6:54

were not the Disney. Version They were

6:57

like the you know grit. It wasn't grams

6:59

of his life but it was like the

7:01

seventies eighties and had like very ill. The

7:03

of oil on the cover. Yeah. I know

7:05

the exact when I have it's still in

7:08

my classroom, know and out as to journey

7:10

from Mondo who is or babysitter. And

7:12

it said. The. Year I turned

7:14

five. Adorable and

7:17

suggesting. Sick. Maybe. Kids

7:19

today. Don't.

7:22

Have like I got my daughter when

7:24

she was like five or six. A

7:26

fairy tale, but that is similar at

7:28

the kind of compendium of it has

7:30

them all. And

7:33

she I don't think ever cracked it

7:35

like I think because there were so

7:37

many other books. And

7:40

yet like it's not like picture book didn't

7:42

exist and we're not that old. but you

7:44

know, It's a really different. It's

7:46

different. like for. I feel like

7:48

for us. Like getting on an dollar

7:50

t. Sounded like

7:52

you are getting handbooks in one. Cel

7:55

beauty and to be so. i

7:58

feel like it's the real cornerstone

8:00

text for readers largely

8:02

because of the Disney

8:06

version. Sure. But they're on that fucking library.

8:08

Of all of these books that I wanted

8:11

to talk about, a lot of them predated,

8:13

like, historical romance

8:15

has predated the Disney version of

8:17

Beauty and the Beast. Sure.

8:21

What year was the Disney Beauty and the Beast to go? I'm going to look

8:23

it up, but it was definitely in the, I want to say it was like

8:25

1993. Wouldn't that be

8:27

a shocker? I was going to say like early

8:29

90s, right? 1991,

8:32

which makes sense that Lord of

8:34

Scoundrels came out fairly quickly after.

8:37

We know from our conversation with Loretta Chase that

8:39

she loves movies and like

8:41

she rewrote Mr. Imposs, she wrote Mr.

8:44

Impossilizing Dialogue with the Mummy. Lord

8:47

of Scoundrels is a flat out Beauty and the Beast tale.

8:49

We're not going to talk about Lord of Scoundrels except to

8:51

say we love it and go listen to the deep dive.

8:56

Beauty and the Beast is a classic for a

8:58

reason, right? Sure. Right. I

9:01

mean, that's, well, and like you said, I

9:03

think we all, I also liked it. You

9:06

everyone's heard me say Rumbold Stoltzkum was my real

9:08

favorite. Me too. But I

9:10

liked, like, right. Like she was,

9:12

she was not a passive bystander, right?

9:15

And I also think that there was a lot

9:17

of like, like he was

9:20

the one who was cursed and cursed

9:22

for being an asshole. Right.

9:27

A flower will save you. Turn

9:29

away from Dr. Mansulinity. Could

9:31

we make it any later? But

9:34

also like, listen, in 1991, that movie came out. It

9:39

was absolutely, I

9:42

mean, it rewrote

9:44

my like, genetic code for sure.

9:47

Because between like Belle

9:50

Going through that town being considered weird

9:52

because she always had her nose in

9:54

a book. And Then like being swept

9:57

up into this fantasy like castle where

9:59

every. The body nice few on

10:02

Also he has a library

10:04

that ends all libraries like.

10:07

A dream. Oh yeah completely

10:09

I'm as I am there are so

10:11

many ago had this is also a

10:13

their some of you like. Google, Beauty

10:15

and the Beast, romance recounts or

10:17

whatever it's like. You

10:19

know a scroll and roll and

10:21

front of you on your ankle

10:23

length. I do think that they

10:25

are are. I. Think a lot

10:28

of the books that are on the list said

10:30

it's sort of like peak. Yeah, after I made

10:32

my i Like football I did. This was not

10:34

a difficult. Of so for me to

10:36

prepare for in any way. I literally sat down

10:38

over my know but and wrote twelve. Bucks.

10:41

One after another after another after another.

10:43

The and. Then I was like oh let me

10:45

go see like what I've forgotten and there were some

10:48

books that are on the first that I have a

10:50

where I was So for example Judith Ivory, The

10:52

Beasts it out on a bunch of these lists. But.

10:55

Fun fact: every one do. The ivory beast

10:58

is not of beauty in the Be three

11:00

Telling There is nothing about beauty and the

11:02

beast in that book is retelling of Cupid

11:04

and Psyche and it is now and for

11:06

saying great and you should although read it.

11:09

But. Don't. Believe it. Well

11:12

sometimes people. Make. Across

11:14

assumptions this untitled. I. Mean

11:16

he literally is. He sneaks there on a

11:18

ship and he sneaks into her cabin to

11:20

make to like. Make her

11:22

fall in love with him in the

11:24

dark every night like it's flat out

11:26

cupid and psyche anyone? I. Have I

11:28

am feeling you have quite a few his

11:31

struggles. I only have one historical so I

11:33

think we have start many men. So why

11:35

don't we start with historical like you just

11:37

go and I'll just like jump in with

11:39

my one. I mean, I know

11:41

there are lots of them, but I figured you'd handle that. There

11:45

are some that I think are classics like

11:47

in. Historical. When we talk about historical

11:49

that are beating the be three telling

11:52

I think I'm. So. Obviously

11:54

lot of scoundrels setting that one aside

11:56

because that's. The obvious one that everybody

11:58

thinks of I'm I'm. Start

12:00

when. Okay

12:03

I'm a storyteller is James this one

12:05

flake low hanging. Fruit Riot like it feels

12:07

like you talk to anybody who the romans.

12:09

Reader or with a historical romance reader

12:11

and say name a beating the be

12:13

three telling this is gonna be one

12:15

of them when beauty him to be

12:18

is this is part of a Louisa

12:20

As A Fairy Tale series she wrote

12:22

oh I don't know. Five

12:25

books may be that were

12:27

each a retelling of one

12:29

of the kind of classic.

12:32

Ah, Fairy Tales

12:34

So you know there's. Am.

12:37

Including like The Ugly Duckling. Then

12:39

it's it's. it's. a. Cute series

12:41

of it's a very sweet series so

12:43

but when beauty kinda. Be says very

12:45

cool because it is simultaneously. A

12:48

retelling of Beauty and the Beasts and an

12:51

homage to the Tells is Michelle. So.

12:54

Fun! House. If you were ever

12:56

a house. Watch are you

12:58

know that house? The. Television show

13:01

is actually. House is

13:03

based on ah, he's

13:06

Caesar. Sherlock

13:09

Holmes character. And

13:12

he's yeah that the concept in

13:14

he is he's this like kind

13:16

of like renegade doctor who can

13:19

diagnose any saying that other doctors

13:21

can't diagnose. Select you know you

13:24

think. You have lupus. It's never lupus like

13:26

a running joke in a in the shell,

13:28

but you know you think you have. You

13:30

know, whatever. it's. And. They test you

13:32

for everything is none of those things which you

13:34

have all these. Weird. A weird combination

13:36

of symptom. He looks the mall and

13:39

then boom you have. right?

13:41

Yeah, whatever thing, as. A

13:43

way. I'm so I think Eloise was

13:45

watching the story goes, it always was.

13:47

watching a lot a house. And does

13:49

she really into this character And then

13:52

she. Went on the research

13:54

rabbit Hole and Sound a Real life.

13:56

ah george an era

13:58

doctor who was

14:01

this kind of physician where he was

14:03

sort of gruff and had a terrible

14:05

bedside manner but basically was known

14:07

to be saved, you know,

14:10

saved everywhere, could

14:12

save anyone. And

14:14

so she rewrote this idea with

14:17

Peers, the Earl of Marchand, who is

14:19

a, you know, incredibly

14:21

skilled physician, like knows a lot

14:23

about the human body and can

14:25

diagnose basically anything and cure it.

14:28

But who has, you know, I think one

14:31

of the things that you can

14:33

sort of love or not love about

14:35

this shot, this particular retelling, this

14:37

like vibe, Beauty and the Beast is often

14:40

the hero is scarred or harmed

14:42

in some way, has kind of war, like has

14:44

a war wound, has something that he feels

14:46

he has to hide from the world, right?

14:51

And so essentially, this is deeply

14:54

grumpy sunshine, this book. He's

14:56

like a hermit in

14:59

a castle wherever he is. And

15:04

she is his like,

15:06

she has this like stunningly beautiful

15:09

bright, sunshiny heroine who is betrothed

15:14

to him for real. And

15:19

then she heads out there sort of

15:21

basically feeling like, I can

15:23

make anybody fall in love with me. I've never

15:25

had a problem doing that. I'm the

15:27

sunshiniest, most perfect heroine ever. She's a

15:29

classic Ellewisa James heroine. And

15:32

she gets there. And he's

15:34

a grump and miserable. And she has

15:36

to like basically pull the thorn from

15:38

his paw. Nice. It

15:41

also has what I believe, and I probably

15:43

talked about this on the gravel episode, but

15:46

it has what I believe is like, literally

15:49

the greatest moment of a hero

15:51

having to just like prostrate him.

15:53

No, that's not right. Prostrate

15:56

himself. like

16:00

to a heroine and it is

16:03

terrific. So that's Elisa

16:05

James's When Beauty Tamed the Beast. Perfect.

16:09

Okay, well, let me do my

16:11

one historical, which

16:13

is Where Dreams Begin

16:15

by Lisa Clapis. And this is

16:18

a book, I don't know

16:20

if you've ever had this experience of reading

16:23

a book and then being like, oh, this is

16:26

Beauty and the Beast, right? Which

16:28

is right. So this is not a book

16:30

that I read because it was

16:32

Beauty and the Beast. It was a book

16:34

I read because I recognized

16:37

it as Beauty and the Beast, if that makes

16:39

sense. And so what

16:41

happened is, what happened in this

16:43

book is Zachary Bronson is our

16:45

hero and he is like, he's

16:49

kind of a proto

16:51

Reese Winterborn. I'm fail. He's

16:53

lowbrow. Aren't they all he's

16:56

lowbrow. He's rich, but you

16:58

know, everyone thinks he's just,

17:01

you know, they make fun of him because he doesn't have an aristocratic

17:04

background or whatever. And so he and

17:08

he's a former boxer turned a businessman.

17:10

So you will like that. And

17:12

so basically, he is looking for someone

17:14

I think if I'm remembering correctly, he

17:17

has like a sister or something and he's like, look, I'm

17:19

rich, I'm going to put her out on marriage Mart, but

17:21

she's going to need to like learn the way. And

17:24

so he hires Holly

17:27

Taylor, who is

17:29

a young widow, who has a

17:31

small daughter named Rose.

17:35

And basically, you

17:37

know, he's like, well, you have to live here

17:39

because, you know, because you do

17:41

want the beast to live here. I don't know

17:43

romance reasons. And the here's

17:45

the part that it's funny, because

17:47

I went back to see if my memory was correct.

17:50

Because sometimes you're like, I remember this, but is it

17:52

true? The part

17:54

that made me like kind of key into

17:56

the fact that it was a beauty and

17:58

the beast retelling is the description. of

18:01

his home. And it's got

18:03

that like Derek Craven-esque thing, right, where it's

18:05

just like, you know, like

18:09

it's just this like wedding cake of

18:12

a house is essentially the way

18:14

it's described. But in particular, I

18:16

remembered that she comes in to this

18:19

hallway and it

18:21

is, it has like blue silk,

18:25

not wallpaper, whatever, blue silk

18:27

walls with like butterflies like

18:30

on it. And I just was like, oh, it's Beauty

18:32

and the Beast. I don't even know, like why are

18:34

you, right? I just can like picture

18:36

in my brain like the Beast holding that

18:38

like all those butterflies flying or whatever. And

18:41

so what happens between them is that

18:43

he ends up just of course falling

18:45

madly in love with her and it's

18:47

like all yearning and angst as

18:50

it is. And you know, so anyway,

18:52

it's, it's terrific. This one was published

18:54

in 2000. So it's kind of, and

18:57

it's I

18:59

think a one-off. Like I don't think this is part of

19:01

a series. It's just like a literal

19:03

standalone Beauty and the Beast retelling from Lisa

19:05

and it's great. This

19:09

week's episode of Faded Mates is

19:11

brought to you by Megan Quinn,

19:13

author of Rise Made for Hire.

19:16

Okay, so our heroine Maggie is

19:18

ready for a vacation. She has worked

19:21

for basically years straight and not

19:23

had a break because she's event

19:27

planner and a wedding planner and

19:29

I mean weekends are packed and so is

19:31

all the other time. So

19:33

she's got a plan. She has bought a ticket.

19:35

She's going to Bora Bora, which sounds lovely. I

19:38

also would like to go there. And when

19:41

she gets there, here's the problem. At the resort

19:43

where she is, is the

19:45

wedding of the century is being

19:47

planned and it's taking place

19:50

and even worse, one of the

19:52

groomsmen at this wedding, Brody

19:54

McSadden, happens to be her

19:57

brother's best friend and

19:59

her sworn enemy because they

20:01

had a kind of make

20:03

out session that didn't end

20:06

so great at her brother's

20:08

wedding. Listen, so Maggie

20:10

gets sworn stay away from him, but she

20:12

gets this opportunity to maybe

20:14

be able to be the event planner

20:16

for the wedding of

20:18

the century because of romance reasons,

20:21

except in order to get it,

20:23

she has to pretend to

20:26

be Brody's girlfriend

20:29

and a bridesmaid in the

20:31

wedding. So shenanigans

20:34

are the Megan Quinn promise in this

20:36

book. And I

20:38

think that if you are into

20:40

fake boyfriends, enemies, lovers, destination

20:44

weddings trapped on a Bora

20:46

Bora island, making

20:49

out with Brody's. Yeah, you

20:51

can pre order Bridesmaids for

20:53

Hire right now, or it will

20:55

be available with your monthly subscription

20:57

to Kindle unlimited. Thank

21:00

you as always to Megan Quinn for

21:02

sponsoring this week's episode. And

21:05

if your podcast supports it, you can click on

21:07

the chapter title right now to be taken to

21:09

preorder the book, which is out April 2nd. So

21:15

I think we should talk about this whole

21:17

like, Gar thing, because, as you know,

21:19

I love a scar, which

21:22

is probably why I love these books,

21:24

right? Because often in historicals there

21:27

is literal, you know, there, the

21:29

beastliness is a literal mark. And

21:34

obviously, like, this is not, there's

21:37

something kind of vaguely problematic, or maybe

21:39

not vaguely, there's something kind of problematic,

21:41

right about this, this sort of conceptually

21:43

in terms of, you

21:45

know, the, the

21:47

scar high forcing a character to

21:50

hide away. Right. But

21:53

I think there's something very, I

21:56

think what's really powerful about that is like

21:58

the Obviously,

22:00

within the context, it doesn't take much

22:02

work to see this. But in the

22:05

context of this particular

22:07

trope in books that are

22:11

historical, especially, we are looking at

22:13

the mark of patriarchy. Right? Yeah.

22:16

Right. And the way that

22:18

in a lot of these cases, like

22:20

war, we've talked before on the podcast

22:23

about how war is

22:26

patriarchy kind of like distilled

22:29

or supercharged or whatever. Yeah. And

22:33

so in many cases, coming

22:35

home from war, having been

22:37

through something, then makes a

22:42

hero a recluse. And

22:44

there is only one way

22:47

to win him and that

22:49

or to, if

22:51

I would use the word, win. Like there's only one

22:54

way to really like woo him and to

22:56

have him like find love. And

22:59

that is to go

23:01

and like sit inside the

23:03

kennel with the animal. Right?

23:06

Until he is willing to offer

23:08

himself like and his like

23:11

crack open his frozen heart.

23:13

So good. It's so

23:15

good. Yeah. Yeah. So

23:19

there are two people who I think

23:22

are in historicals where like this

23:24

is their whole kink. Like

23:26

I actually don't think either of them have

23:28

ever. Well, all

23:31

right. I think one of them basically has

23:33

only ever written Beauty and the Beast like

23:35

in different ways. I love that.

23:37

And like it talk about a core story and

23:39

that I'll start there. And

23:42

that is Elizabeth Hoyt. Yeah,

23:45

I would agree with that. And

23:47

sometimes the beast is more beastly than others.

23:49

Right? Oh, for sure. Especially

23:51

if we're talking made in lane. Yeah. It's

23:53

not always like Beauty and the Beast,

23:55

but it is kind of always Beauty and the

23:58

Beast. And so. There

24:00

is a real sense with her that

24:02

like the Hurwins are

24:04

goodness and light and

24:07

the heroes are darkness and

24:09

trauma, right? Like, and

24:12

in order for love to happen,

24:14

it's like almost morality

24:16

chain and some. It's

24:19

definitely like scarred hero

24:22

in a castle in some. And

24:25

it's, but it's always like he's

24:27

been brutalized by life. Yeah.

24:30

And she often has not

24:33

been like she is often in like

24:36

the most classic of ways thrown

24:39

to the wolves. Yeah, I

24:41

agree. And

24:44

listen, do I love it? I do. I

24:46

do. Yeah, me too. Yeah. So if

24:49

you have never read Elizabeth White,

24:51

you are in for a treat. There is,

24:53

I mean, it is just like book after

24:55

book after book of them. Just first

24:57

of all, when I first stumbled upon Elizabeth

24:59

White and I stumbled upon her debut, I

25:01

think when she wrote her debut, The Raven Prince,

25:03

we've talked about it on the podcast before, it

25:06

is also a Beauty and the Beast retelling. But

25:10

the like

25:12

these books were sexier than any historicals,

25:14

any really romances I had ever read.

25:17

Like, so if you're looking for a

25:19

historical that really is sexy, she's a

25:21

good choice. And

25:24

I love that first series, but the second

25:26

series, which is The Legend of the Four

25:29

Soldiers, is, I

25:31

mean, this is all about war as well. It's

25:34

about soldiers returning from war and

25:36

about how they

25:39

come to, you know,

25:41

be able to live

25:43

having seen and done and experience

25:45

what they have. Right? The

25:48

third book in that series is Tubagile,

25:50

a Beast. It's the blue one. Okay.

25:55

And Alistair is a full

25:57

on reckless. He

26:00

lives in a castle and he is

26:02

not seen. He

26:05

does not come out. He is

26:09

fully Beauty and the Beast coded.

26:13

And she arrived, the heroine

26:15

Helen arrives to

26:19

his Scottish castle because

26:22

somebody has hired, has put a job opening

26:24

in the paper or whatever for

26:26

a housekeeper. And

26:29

she is on the run from her own

26:31

sort of demons. And

26:33

she gets to this house and he's like, get

26:35

the hell out. And she's

26:37

like, no, I need this. Like I

26:39

need this job. I need to hide.

26:41

She also needs to hide. So she

26:43

goes to this house. Oh, I love

26:45

that. And they are like, they are

26:48

like just circling each other like, like

26:51

rabid animals. Like it's so

26:53

intense. Elizabeth

26:56

writes these books that feel like

26:58

every emotion is just

27:00

dialed up to a million. And

27:04

it's great. I have

27:06

never had a bad time with an Elizabeth White book. Let

27:09

me put it that way. No, and it's funny because you

27:11

don't, you used to hear about her all the time.

27:13

And now she hasn't written in a few years. But

27:17

like, listen, if you're new here,

27:20

Elizabeth is a really solid place to

27:22

go. And you've got like

27:25

25 books to choose from. Who

27:27

else do you think has like a beauty in the

27:29

beast? Oh, are we still, it's gonna be all me

27:31

right now. I think it

27:33

makes it easier to just kind of like make sense out of

27:35

it. Yeah. That's true. Okay,

27:37

the other person I have to name check here

27:40

is Mary Balog. Who,

27:43

now listen, these books are

27:45

less kind of

27:47

adventury fantasy historical and much

27:49

more like quiet, emotional

27:53

turmoil romances. Like these

27:55

books are really

27:58

the secret in the history of. of

28:01

the of the Napoleonic

28:03

Wars, these heroes have

28:05

come back traumatized by war. In many

28:07

cases, they have PTSD. In

28:10

many cases, they have some kind of

28:12

wound or like long lasting injury from

28:14

war. The one

28:16

that I think about kind of

28:19

on the regular is Lord Caro's

28:21

bride. And

28:24

he has so Lord Caro has

28:26

come back. This is this is like

28:28

an ancient one. This is like, yeah, real,

28:30

real, but like, I love

28:33

it. Like with a signet regency.

28:35

Oh, yeah, that is a deep cut.

28:37

It's on my it's on my shelf.

28:39

And I like every once in a

28:41

while I pick it up and I just like read through the end.

28:44

So this is the main character

28:47

is Samantha.

28:50

And she it's like almost

28:52

Austinian the way that it's the setup. So

28:54

she's like taking a walk.

28:59

And she meets

29:02

this man who is on like she's

29:04

like wandered onto the property of the

29:06

Marquis of Caro and she

29:09

meets him and he's like friendly,

29:12

but like she thinks

29:14

that he's just like a gardener. Yeah.

29:16

And so like she comes back again

29:18

and again and they like have this

29:21

friendship. Like she's, you

29:23

know, a woman

29:26

of means than a titled lady. And she

29:28

like has done this. And

29:30

and so they have that they fall in

29:33

love in the kind of small, the

29:35

small space of this cast of

29:37

this, you know, estate where he

29:39

is basically in hiding. And

29:44

then she ends up in London for a season

29:46

and this

29:49

and he and like there's

29:52

another person there's like an

29:54

old lover is back in

29:56

town and she is searching

29:58

for somebody to like

30:01

kind of save her and out

30:03

of the blue comes this, comes

30:05

Lord Carrow

30:07

who has come down from his

30:09

apostle to prove that he is worthy

30:12

of her.

30:17

It's really lovely. It's a quiet

30:19

one. I mean, it's almost friends

30:22

to lovers in, in

30:24

a sense, but there is a real like

30:28

sacrificing his, the like

30:30

bruised ego that has

30:32

kept him away from

30:34

society for her that

30:36

is like really the

30:38

giveaway. Like that's really the business

30:40

in, at

30:43

the end of these books. Listen,

30:45

Mary Belag writes, a

30:48

beautiful romance. Oh, and she's

30:50

such a beautiful writer. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

30:52

Yeah. And

30:54

then I want to talk

30:57

about, since we're still on it, I

30:59

want to talk about Amelie

31:02

Howard's The Beast of Bezuk,

31:04

which is probably, listen, this

31:07

is probably the closest thing if you really just want

31:09

the Disney movie, but make it historical,

31:11

like make it, this

31:14

is the book for you. He is, he literally

31:16

like breaks plates and like prowls

31:19

around, yells

31:21

at servants and, um, the,

31:25

and so Nathaniel

31:28

is his name. And

31:31

so, but he has been betrothed, the

31:34

twist here is he's been betrothed

31:36

to like some little wisp of

31:38

a thing. And when it

31:40

gets, when the whisper comes down to that

31:42

woman, to the, like the woman

31:44

who he's betrothed to older sister,

31:46

Astrid, Astrid, like

31:48

basically Katniss Everdeen's this man and

31:51

is like, uh, I

31:53

volunteer as tribute. Um, and

31:55

she goes to him and she's basically like,

31:57

you should marry me. me

32:00

instead. And he's like,

32:02

why? And she's like, cuz

32:05

I don't know, cuz I'm hot. Like, she basically

32:07

is like, well, maybe we should like, let's just

32:09

make out and then like, she sort of makes

32:11

like very bad decisions for Astrid, but

32:14

then like ends up in

32:16

this, like, married to a

32:19

beast living in his castle, having

32:21

to like, control him.

32:23

It's great. It's a real fun

32:25

book that you will all

32:28

really enjoy. It's the it's one

32:31

of the better, one of the best, I

32:33

think, modern historical takes

32:36

on on the end of the beast.

32:38

Got it. What else do

32:40

I got? I have talked about this a million times, so

32:42

I'm not going to rehash it. But Breerley, which is a

32:44

male male World War Two retelling.

32:47

That's by Astrid Glenn Gray. The

32:51

this is Imagine if Bell's father

32:53

like wandered onto the grounds of

32:55

the beast's castle, picked a

32:58

rose for his daughter, and then immediately

33:00

was faced down with

33:04

a dragon, like the

33:06

beast in this case is a dragon. And that

33:13

and then they like fall in love. Bell's dad

33:15

and the beast fall in love. I

33:18

love it. I mean, I can't complain. No, not

33:21

at all. All right. So those are historical. So

33:24

I think we should move to like

33:27

kind of paranormal paranormal. I roll man

33:29

to see as the kids say. Well,

33:32

your favorite I ID. My

33:34

favorite ID is demon

33:37

from the dark is and

33:41

your favorite. You could argue like wicked abbess.

33:43

Yeah, right.

33:45

So I do think like paranormal, of

33:48

course, which is just what

33:50

we used to call it back in the old day, romancy, I

33:52

guess. Oh,

33:56

I mean, it lends itself, of course, so

33:58

well to this trope, right? So I And

34:00

start by talking really quick about Demon

34:03

from the Dark, which is Malcolm

34:05

is a literal demon living alone,

34:07

for the most part, on

34:09

a planet where because of his, like

34:11

he just avoids everyone, he just like

34:13

stays in his own realm. And

34:17

Haru is a witch who is

34:19

essentially, this is in the

34:21

torture island run

34:23

of series, gets sent

34:26

there and she

34:29

is supposed to essentially like bring him

34:32

back, right? Like the bad guys running

34:34

torture island need Malcolm for some

34:36

reason. And he is

34:39

just basically like, I

34:43

don't know, this woman fell into my lap

34:45

and probably I shouldn't eat her out. That's

34:48

my first line of attack. I don't know what to

34:50

do. I'll just, yeah, I'll just, I'll

34:52

see. And

34:56

really, there's no going down from there. I think

34:59

one of the reasons I really, I really love

35:01

this book is that he

35:03

like it starts off with like her going to like

35:05

essentially like the beast castle right this cave or

35:07

whatever. And he's like hoarding water and,

35:10

and then they get sent

35:13

to it flips right and

35:15

they get sent to torture island, which she

35:17

is like, get me out of here. And

35:19

he's like, no, this world is amazing. Water

35:21

is falling from the sky, right? Like, and

35:24

there's, and I

35:26

am, I'm sort of fascinated by I think,

35:29

like what I think is the brilliance of

35:31

that book is sort of taking

35:33

them out of the beast castle

35:35

and putting them somewhere he thinks

35:37

is awesome and she thinks is

35:40

terrible. Right? And

35:42

then having her like kind of have

35:44

to try and convince him like there's better

35:47

places even than this. So

35:49

yeah, that's definitely one of my favorite.

35:52

Do you want to talk about wicked abyss or not? Well, you just mentioned it.

35:56

I mean, wicked abyss, he's basically the

35:58

devil. He's the king of hell. And

36:01

she's like a perfect fairy.

36:05

She's beautiful and perfect in all ways.

36:08

And now the twist on that is

36:10

that he steals her to

36:13

hell because

36:16

they have, you know, because of Brian Mann's reasons,

36:18

they have been chasing each other

36:20

for millennia. And

36:23

she doesn't remember, but he, like they have been

36:25

fatal mates for millennia. And

36:29

they, and so she, he steals

36:31

her basically to her cat, to

36:33

his castle, which is the

36:35

realm of all hells. And

36:38

they dance around each other. There

36:40

is also he basically at one point is like, I don't know what to

36:43

do. Let's just eat her out. Yeah. Terrific.

36:46

No notes. And then, but what ends

36:48

up happening with that, that I mean,

36:51

this has like a great moment. There

36:53

are lots of, there are lots of, I feel

36:55

like Cressly really like, I mean, this, it's

36:57

one of the later books in IED, but you could read

37:00

it. You don't have to have read the whole

37:02

series. You can really start there. But

37:05

what's really remarkable about this is like, Cressly

37:07

really is like cooking with so much gas

37:09

by the time she gets to this book

37:11

that like she takes, she's just taking every

37:13

single risk. There's such fearlessness in it. And

37:15

there are a lot of things that

37:18

happen like in the end of that

37:20

book that just feel powerful. Like the

37:22

heroine just getting so much power

37:24

over and over and over

37:26

again. And ultimately like

37:28

the hero having to choose to

37:32

live in the world, like Lord Carole's

37:34

Bride, right? Like there

37:36

comes a point in all of these books

37:39

where at the end, like if you are writing a

37:41

Beauty and the Beast retelling, at

37:44

the end, he has to

37:46

choose the world. Yes. Yeah.

37:50

Because that's the growth,

37:52

right? Right. He

37:54

can know a lot. He has to come

37:56

out of his reclusive space. Right.

37:59

And choose. to live so

38:02

that he is worthy of her in the

38:04

world. When like take

38:06

the risk, right? Which is what love is, love

38:08

is a risk for all of us. I

38:12

think there are few books that

38:14

do that really

38:17

as well as Wicked Abyss. Yeah,

38:20

well and I think back to Seaman

38:22

from the Dark for a minute. Caru

38:24

has a, like

38:26

a younger cousin or niece or something

38:29

that she's watching, a little baby witch. And

38:32

Malcolm is like, I

38:35

know the job right now and it is to

38:37

protect the two of you. And Caru's like, no,

38:39

not here. And he's like, yes, here, right?

38:41

And so like going into the world, it

38:44

gets complicated by the fact that everything

38:46

Caru is telling him is essentially

38:49

like really against what he feels is

38:51

right when it comes to like having a young,

38:53

right? Yeah,

38:55

and so I thought that was really interesting.

38:57

So, well, it's interesting too. Like

38:59

I think Cressly plays with Beauty and the Beast

39:02

throughout the whole series because, and

39:04

then there's always that sort of underlying and

39:06

I'm fascinated by this in general in books.

39:09

I think this happens a lot in modern

39:11

retellings of not contemporary, but modern romance retellings

39:14

of Beauty and the Beast where

39:16

the question is like, well, which one is the

39:18

beast, right? Like who is

39:20

the beast in the story? And

39:24

it's really a compelling, I think Cressly rides

39:26

that line really well in a lot of

39:28

those IOD books. Like the question

39:30

there can be like, is Caru the

39:32

beast? And

39:35

that is a fundamental question in the plot

39:38

of that book. Like there's a massive betrayal

39:40

in that book. And the question is like,

39:43

has Caru been the beast all along? So

39:45

yeah, I think it's a great example of it. This

39:51

week's episode of Faded Mates is

39:53

sponsored by Hannah Murray, author

39:55

of Sharing Shame. Listen,

39:58

you know Hannah Murray, to get

40:00

all of the good romantic angst and

40:02

all of the super spice you want.

40:05

So in this one, we have

40:07

Veronica who is all booked to go

40:09

away for a week to Bermuda with

40:12

her charming boyfriend. Instead,

40:15

she finds him charming the neighbor. And

40:17

so she's pretty mad. She needs someone

40:19

else to go with her on this

40:21

double occupancy requirement kind of resort vacation.

40:24

And so what happens is she ends

40:26

up taking Shane, who's a friend of

40:28

a friend. And Shane is too busy

40:30

to take a vacation, but his boyfriend

40:32

is kind of like, maybe we need

40:34

a break. And so he

40:36

ends up, poor guy, in a beautiful

40:39

beachside bungalow with a very beautiful Veronica

40:41

and only one bed. Shane

40:44

is grumpy and bearded, and Veronica

40:46

is really ready to jump back

40:48

into being single by jumping on

40:50

Shane. But I think

40:52

the thing is, is there's all of

40:54

this complex stuff happening. Because sure, Shane

40:57

is bisexual and polyamorous, but what happens

40:59

when they get back home? Can

41:01

this vacation fling turn into a future?

41:04

This one's perfect for you if you've been

41:07

looking for a poly romance, if you love

41:09

an only one bed, if you love it

41:11

when people make their exes jealous with sexy

41:13

times with hot men

41:16

and others, and if

41:18

you love a vacation romance. You can

41:20

get it in print or ebook. And

41:23

if your podcast app supports it, you can click on

41:25

the chapter title right now to buy the book. Thanks

41:28

to Hannah Murray for sponsoring

41:30

this week's episode. So

41:35

maybe this is your other one. Is it Lover

41:37

Awakened? Lover, Zadist, and Bella? Lover, Zadist, and Bella,

41:39

yes. Okay. I

41:41

mean, that's a classic, right? Yeah. And

41:44

part of the reason I wanted to bring it up,

41:46

everybody, is, well, I'll save that. I'll

41:48

save the why. I wanted to bring it up in

41:50

a minute. But Zadist has

41:52

been a... So he's

41:54

one of the Black Dagger Brotherhood vampires, and

41:57

he is for the first couple

41:59

of books of this series. series, just like this

42:02

terrifying, even to his brothers,

42:05

a terrifying mystery. He had essentially

42:07

been enslaved as a blood slave

42:10

and sexually assaulted and abused

42:12

for, you know,

42:14

millennia or whatever, you

42:16

know, however long, because

42:19

he's an immortal. And he has a

42:22

twin brother, Fury, who is like

42:25

kind of this beautiful, happy,

42:28

right guy. And

42:30

so everyone, and I think

42:33

the brilliance of that is like, people

42:35

know what Zadah started out

42:37

as. And so his

42:39

fall from grace, like the way he

42:41

was destroyed is made

42:44

plain to them every single day.

42:48

And so he's this like terrifying

42:50

monster, right? And Bella

42:52

is a female vampire, who in

42:56

the previous book, like is a neighbor to

42:58

Mary and brings Mary in and they

43:00

have this really like, raw

43:03

like interaction where like, he scares the shit

43:05

out of her, right and does it

43:07

on purpose. But yet she

43:09

is so drawn to him. And

43:12

he is of course, like, I'm

43:15

dirty bad wrong, because I was abused,

43:17

right? He's a victim of sexual

43:20

abuse. And so

43:22

I cannot possibly be good for her

43:24

because she is pure good, right? Right.

43:28

And so this story is one that,

43:31

you know, you're just really like, how's it gonna

43:34

work out? Well, and also like through the

43:36

first two books, there's just this like

43:38

constant sense of like, he's dangerous, like

43:40

we live wire, like we, we

43:42

don't know what he might do,

43:44

right? And then it's

43:46

worth reading the first three books

43:49

of the Black Dagger Brotherhood in order, like,

43:51

starting and moving forward to

43:53

this book, because I think

43:56

the rescue of Bella, so Bella gets

43:58

like, right in the second book. book

44:00

she is abducted

44:02

by the baby.

44:04

And she's like, I don't know what she can

44:06

feel like she's kept in a hole. I can't

44:08

remember. But she's like, something terrifying. Like, check

44:10

all your content. These are, this is all

44:13

very like, you have a content warning concerns,

44:15

you should check them before you go into

44:17

this. But she kidnapped, she's being

44:19

held in a hole and he saves

44:22

her. Yeah, he's the one who

44:24

rescues her. Yeah. And then she he

44:27

is the only person she will

44:29

let near him, near her

44:31

rather. So he has no choice.

44:35

Now listen, vampires have to feed

44:37

and in the context of

44:39

this series,

44:42

they have to feed it's sexual

44:44

and they have to feed from the opposite.

44:46

Well, at least in these books, they have to

44:48

feed from the opposite sex, right? That all shifts

44:50

later in the series. But um,

44:54

the what's fascinating about this is

44:56

like, she won't be near

44:58

men. So he is her

45:01

only option. Yeah. And it

45:03

is such a clever way

45:06

of pushing

45:08

these two together. This is

45:11

also like, you know how

45:13

you have scenes that are just like, what

45:15

my so when a

45:17

female vampire then goes into essentially a

45:20

heat cycle. And it's

45:22

called the needing because you need

45:24

to fuck right, you need to

45:26

and in fact, if you are an unmeted

45:29

woman about to go to the cycle, they

45:31

will like, put you into essentially

45:33

like a medical coma until it's over. Because

45:35

you literally it's so painful, you can't live

45:37

through it. And the

45:39

scene where her needing hits

45:41

is, I is like, they

45:44

hear also because can't the

45:46

men like, yes, mail it and

45:48

then they go feral. Yeah, it

45:50

impacts everybody around them. Essentially, it's

45:52

like like a heat cycle. So when they're

45:54

all in the kitchen. Yes. And then

45:56

like, if you have a mate, even though

45:58

you're it's like it's like secondhand smoke.

46:01

It's only like secondhand pheromones, right?

46:03

But also exhausting for the men.

46:05

Like it's so they're like, they're,

46:07

I'm gonna lose the whole like,

46:09

I mean, it is really, for

46:14

all of like the seriousness of

46:17

these books, like this, this

46:19

is so insane. It's great. But

46:21

this it is I, I

46:24

actually am on record. I don't love

46:26

Zeta Stimbella. He, he's like a

46:28

little too mean for me, right? But this

46:30

theme is fucking amazing. And I

46:32

have read it a million times. So

46:35

here's the reason I brought it up

46:38

though, everybody. You have heard me say that

46:40

she, JR Ward

46:42

has like managed to reboot the series.

46:45

And I wasn't sure exactly how it's going to happen.

46:47

But in the last book, which was called Last Miter,

46:50

she reboots it so that at the

46:52

end, that there is a time jump

46:54

forward, like 20 or 30

46:56

years. And, and,

46:59

and it you're not quite sure what happened. And

47:01

like some of them are still alive. And some

47:03

of them aren't. And like the Black Dagger Brotherhood

47:05

is essentially like broken up or whatever. And there's

47:08

all these like bread comes about what she's thinking. But

47:11

the next book, which is coming

47:13

out, I think soon this spring,

47:16

maybe is called The Beloved. And

47:19

it is Zeta's daughter is

47:21

the heroine. And can you

47:23

imagine that man with some other

47:26

some vampire sniffing around his vampire

47:28

daughter? And listen,

47:31

I'm not I don't, I don't love that really.

47:33

Like I'm always like, women are their own men

47:35

do not own them fathers, I don't give a

47:37

shit. Like I don't really play that game. But

47:40

I read I read this. And I was like,

47:42

oh, I'm I'm down for this. I'm I'm down

47:44

for what's about to happen. So that is

47:47

called The Beloved. And like I said,

47:49

it is coming out soon.

47:51

I don't know the exact date. Sometimes the

47:53

spring, I think. Okay, so,

47:56

um, oh, I have another one.

47:59

Okay, that's it. that I have talked

48:01

about before, but I stand by. Marion

48:05

Pereira wrote a

48:07

book called The Beast Prince a million

48:09

years ago. And

48:12

it is really a

48:14

terrific fantasy. It

48:17

was romantic before romanticity

48:20

existed, truly. So

48:24

the concept is that there

48:26

is every, every, some

48:29

number, there are gods in this

48:31

world and each, they are brother

48:33

gods, essentially. And

48:37

each one controls some aspect of

48:39

the world, of

48:42

like nature. And

48:46

so the idea is that this

48:49

particular, and then each of the

48:51

gods like lords over some area

48:53

of, what is,

48:55

I think, Earth like? And

48:57

so this

49:00

particular god is the earth god and

49:04

he can basically destroy, like he can

49:06

manipulate earth. He can make stone, he

49:08

can make landslides,

49:11

he can make like

49:14

a volcano erupt. Like he sort

49:16

of can manipulate the planet, the

49:18

like earthiness of the planet. And

49:21

every generation or so, he must

49:24

be fed a virgin. Right.

49:29

I love it. In order to keep him happy,

49:31

because if he is not made happy, he has to, he'll

49:36

like destroy the village. Like he'll

49:38

destroy the world that he is Lord of. So

49:43

he's now living in this like

49:45

kind of rock formation. He's like

49:47

built himself of Elsa style castle,

49:49

like up on a hill and

49:52

he lives up in there. And

49:55

the heroine of this book, Katsumi, is

49:57

the captain of the guard of the.

50:00

of the military of

50:02

this like small outpost like community. And

50:05

she volunteers to be the virgin

50:07

tribute to this God this

50:10

year. And

50:12

she like trudges up the mountain and

50:14

like walks into this stone castle and he's

50:17

just like laying like

50:19

a cat, like just sort

50:21

of fully naked

50:23

and massive in his

50:25

human form, waiting

50:28

to be like honored. And

50:32

she thinks she's gonna die, but

50:35

she's going to experience what the French

50:37

call the little fat. Of

50:40

course. She

50:43

is. There, a deep cut, a

50:45

deep cut. A deep romantic

50:47

cut. It's fine. So, and then

50:49

of course that you discover that like in actual

50:51

fact, he is not,

50:53

all is not as it seems

50:55

with this like Prince God and

51:00

he has lost his ability to

51:02

like manipulate the earth and

51:05

his brothers if they find out are

51:07

gonna fuck him up. So

51:09

amazing. It's really fun. It

51:11

is actually, I don't

51:14

know, maybe it's not that fun. It's

51:16

really fascinating. It is

51:19

dark and like serious

51:22

in a way that, can

51:26

really hit if that's what you're interested in

51:28

reading. I love it. So

51:31

I will say this, Marianne reissued.

51:34

This book was published by Sam

51:36

Hayne in a million trillion years ago

51:38

and she reissued it a

51:40

year or so back and

51:43

it is now dedicated to me because I have

51:45

like basically been talking about, it went out of

51:47

print and I've been talking about this book forever

51:50

and now it's back in print and she

51:52

said, and I don't know her, but she

51:55

said, it's because I kept asking for it.

51:58

So self-publishing is. the gifts it

52:00

keeps on giving sometimes, you know? Because then people just feel

52:02

like, yeah, I'm putting it up there. This

52:06

week's episode of Faded Maces brought

52:08

to you by Toby Carter, author

52:11

of The Bottom Line. Stella Daniels,

52:13

our heroine, is very, very

52:15

loyal to her family. She has

52:17

put her competitive finance career, which

52:19

she loved, on ice,

52:21

and passed up a very big

52:23

promotion to help her elderly grandfather

52:26

manage his struggling funeral

52:28

homes. Here's the problem, this funeral

52:30

home is right now in danger

52:32

of closing. And so Stella's only

52:34

option is to inject fast cash

52:36

into this funeral home, which means

52:39

she can't help Grandpa during the

52:41

day. She's gotta go back to her

52:43

old finance job and make a bunch

52:45

of money to help that way. She

52:48

gets there and she's back on the

52:50

promotion track, except, except

52:53

Jen, as always,

52:55

it's romance offices. There

52:57

is a very hot, very

53:00

grumpy, very full

53:02

of himself, a financial guy, who's

53:04

also on the same track to

53:06

a promotion, and they're in competition.

53:09

Jameson, though, he's there

53:12

because he's just moved to the States to take care

53:14

of his mom. And

53:17

his father, he

53:19

happens to own the firm. But

53:21

they can't let anyone know because nepo babies

53:24

are a no-no. So

53:26

anyway, Jameson and Stella are at each

53:28

other's throats. They are fighting for the

53:31

job. They

53:33

are sabotaging each other for the job.

53:35

And both of them have a lot

53:38

on the line, but also

53:40

they can't keep their hands off each other. Of

53:43

course not. So this contemporary rival

53:45

silver romance is for you if

53:48

you like brothers, ex-girlfriend,

53:50

complicated family dynamics, and

53:52

steamy swim lessons. It

53:56

also is a book that really explores

53:58

issues around men's mental health. So if you've

54:00

been looking for that, this would be a great book for you. And

54:04

if your podcast app supports it, you can

54:06

look down and click right now to be

54:08

taken to buy the book. Thank

54:11

you to Toby Carter for sponsoring this

54:13

week's episode. Okay. I

54:17

have two more to talk about. Me

54:21

too. Perfect. Okay. I'm

54:25

going to talk about Intreat Me by

54:28

Grace Draven. And

54:30

Grace Draven is, I don't know if

54:32

she's still, she writes to me like

54:34

fantasy romance, right? We're not talking

54:37

romanticy. Like this is fantasy. And

54:41

she is one of those

54:43

authors that I think people

54:45

really love because I think

54:48

she's just very good at the job. And

54:51

in this case, Intreat Me, and I really

54:53

enjoyed reading this. Like this is a book

54:55

I kind of was like, I want to

54:57

read something new, right? So I was like

54:59

kind of Googling like, you know, bromance, beauty of

55:01

these romances. And I was like, okay, this

55:03

one sounds good. And people really like Grace

55:06

Draven, so I'm going to try it. And

55:08

I was not disappointed. And so the

55:10

book is, it starts off

55:13

with essentially two sisters and

55:15

their father is just

55:17

like a real waste girl.

55:21

He has gambled away the

55:23

family's money or they're not quite sure

55:25

where the money is going. And

55:27

it takes them a while to figure out. And her

55:29

younger sister, the heroine's name is

55:31

like Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou Velen.

55:34

Lou Velen? I don't, it's like

55:36

a strange spelling, everybody's sorry, it's probably well-shredged.

55:38

I'm sorry, Lou Allen, L-o-u-v-a-e-m,

55:40

I don't know. See? Okay.

55:44

I'm just gonna call it Lou. Lou's

55:47

younger, Lou isn't a widow. And

55:50

she moved back home. Her younger sister

55:53

though is Helen like

55:55

kind of renowned for her beauty. Name

55:58

is Destiny. Name is Destiny. That's

56:00

not, I don't remember Leir's sister's name,

56:02

but it's something. Anyway, the younger sister

56:05

is just so beautiful and the

56:07

man that her dad owes this

56:09

money to, essentially,

56:12

you find out

56:14

pretty soon, has been like

56:17

buying up his debt and encouraging him to get in

56:19

more debt and encouraging him to make even

56:21

more risky, you know,

56:23

kind of gambles with his money because

56:26

what he really wants is the younger

56:28

sister. Now meanwhile,

56:30

the younger sister has like a new man

56:32

and so, Lou's just like,

56:34

you're not going to get my sister and he's like, I

56:36

am going to get your sister because there's no other way

56:38

out of this and you have, you

56:40

know, 10 days or whatever. Next

56:43

morning, Lou wakes up and her sister has

56:45

run off with this guy and

56:47

the sister leaves a

56:49

note that says, like, I know you're going to be really mad at

56:51

me, but I, and she, I don't

56:55

think the sister quite knows what's happening. Like I think

56:57

it's like a coincidence. She's like, I'm, I'm in, I'm

56:59

going to run off with him and the,

57:02

the note is enchanted so that

57:04

Lou can find them because it's

57:06

enchanted to his home. Now

57:08

the thing is that you're like kind of

57:11

wondering is he's going back, you

57:14

know, the home he's going back to has

57:16

appeared in the prologue where

57:18

a warlord, you know, I was

57:20

super interested in this named

57:22

Ballard. His

57:25

son has just been born. His

57:29

wife is dying and he goes in

57:31

to see her and it's clear that

57:33

there's no love lost between them and

57:36

she curses him like on her

57:38

deathbed and he's kind of like,

57:41

what's she going to do, Lowell, right? And his

57:43

man, you know, the servant, it's kind of like,

57:45

I wouldn't really be

57:47

so cavalier if I were you. And

57:50

so it's 300 years later and

57:52

you're like, wait, why does the

57:55

younger sisters, you know, bow

57:58

have the same name as the son? the

58:00

300 year warlord, like what's going on?

58:03

Well, the curse essentially was the beauty

58:05

of the beast curse. So there

58:07

is this magic that is seeping into

58:09

the castle and everyone in there is

58:11

sort of stuck in time. And

58:14

the sun can like leave and try

58:17

and like find cures or whatever. And

58:19

but he's called back when the the

58:22

magic is like up essentially. And so

58:24

he that's the reason they went back, he

58:26

felt this pull to like return home. And

58:28

so Lou comes along and

58:32

you know, the sun is like, dad, I just really

58:34

like the squirrel. And

58:37

he's kind of like, okay, well, we'll pay off

58:40

the dead and you can like spend the winter

58:42

trying to get to know her. But you

58:44

know, that sister is probably gonna try and

58:46

talk you out of it. Like there's a

58:49

it's so rich, like the whole setup, it's

58:51

not at all silly, like it really is

58:53

like playing into like the beauty of these

58:55

tropes. But like imagining essentially that what we

58:57

can figure out is like the curse is

58:59

going to kill Ballard and then move on

59:01

to the sun. And so finding

59:03

a way to break this curse is really

59:05

important to everybody. And like the roses are

59:08

like poisonous and like climbing up the walls

59:10

and giving everybody nightmares and oh, it's

59:14

great. I really loved reading it. And I

59:16

was super compelled like, you know, when you put a book

59:18

down and you have to go do something and then all

59:20

you think about is like getting back to the book and

59:22

finding out what happens next. That's why

59:24

I felt reading and treat me it was awesome. That's

59:27

awesome. Yes, great. It's really good.

59:32

So um, I also feel like we have

59:34

to just nod to the Ice Planet barbarians

59:36

and all alien romance like

59:38

I feel like there is definitely

59:41

human human heroine. Alien

59:43

hero all has just like a slight

59:45

vibe of beauty and the beast going

59:47

all of it. I agree. Yeah, there's

59:49

that. I do have two

59:51

contemporaries. I have one. All right.

59:56

I want to start with let's talk

59:58

about Alexa Riley. Who we

1:00:01

never talk about for some reason.

1:00:05

A long time ago, Alexa Riley was the

1:00:08

Jessicaan of their time. So

1:00:11

I want to talk, have you read the Snow and Mistletoe, Jen?

1:00:16

I have not. Which is about an audiobook narrator.

1:00:19

I have not. I have a favorite Alexa Riley, but that's not

1:00:21

it. I can guess which one is

1:00:23

yours. You perv. You can't guess. I

1:00:26

can't. It's like a weird one.

1:00:28

12 million of them. Exactly. I'm

1:00:30

like, are you kidding me? I

1:00:33

can't guess someone's favorite Alexa Riley. No,

1:00:35

impossible. No, impossible work. So,

1:00:37

okay, but Snow and Mistletoe is really fun. So

1:00:41

the main character, it's a Christmas

1:00:43

novella. Her name is Noelle, obviously.

1:00:45

Of course she is. So

1:00:48

she is an audiobook narrator

1:00:50

who has been hired by

1:00:52

this, like, audiobook producer. I

1:00:54

think his name is Alex. And

1:00:57

he spends a

1:01:00

lot of time, like, basically

1:01:02

the moment he hires her, he's, like, obsessed with

1:01:05

her voice. Alex

1:01:07

has been, has received, has,

1:01:10

like, a terrible injury from a

1:01:12

past accident and lives as a

1:01:14

recluse in a cabin on a

1:01:16

mountain somewhere. So

1:01:19

they do all of their work remotely,

1:01:21

but over the last, like,

1:01:24

however long that they've been working together, he

1:01:26

has, like, basically become obsessed with her voice.

1:01:28

He's obsessed with her. He thinks she's amazing,

1:01:30

but he would never, ever dream of

1:01:32

telling her because he is not good enough

1:01:35

for her, Jen. He just isn't. Of

1:01:37

course he isn't. And she, they speak

1:01:39

every day on the phone. And

1:01:41

she is all just

1:01:44

crushing on him so hard. Luckily,

1:01:48

so some very serious

1:01:50

audiobook emergencies happen on Christmas

1:01:52

Eve. Listen,

1:01:55

romance is on that. I'll

1:01:58

say it again. There's

1:02:02

an audiobook emergency. She has to turn in

1:02:04

her final files on Christmas Eve. Like it's

1:02:06

a very serious thing. And then would you

1:02:08

believe Jen, the power goes out? And

1:02:11

so, or the internet goes down, something

1:02:14

happens and she can't get her files

1:02:16

to him digitally. So

1:02:19

what is a girl to do but

1:02:21

go out in the snow

1:02:23

and find her reclusive foxes,

1:02:26

Mountain Cappin? So

1:02:28

she can deliver the files

1:02:31

on time and save

1:02:33

audiobook emergency. And

1:02:36

also, got eaten

1:02:38

out. Obviously.

1:02:41

Okay, you said Mountain Cappin. I just want

1:02:43

to mention that Kate Canterbury has a book

1:02:45

called The Bell and the Beard, which I

1:02:47

started, but like didn't get far

1:02:49

enough to recommend. But I know people really

1:02:51

love it, which is, she's like an arborist

1:02:53

who lives literally in a mountain cabin and

1:02:55

the next door, the old lady next

1:02:57

door died two years ago and like he

1:03:00

had to sort of like, no one ever

1:03:02

appeared and you know, like there was a storm and he

1:03:04

had to put up like stuff on the

1:03:06

window because like no one would take care of the cabin and

1:03:08

then he looks out one day and there was a woman with

1:03:10

a crowbar breaking into the cabin. And she's

1:03:12

like, yes, mine, that was my aunt, whoever. And

1:03:15

I was like, oh, this seems like a promising beginning,

1:03:17

but that's as far as I got The Bell and

1:03:19

the Beard by Kate Canterbury. The other one I want

1:03:21

to talk about was an ad last week, Moonlit

1:03:24

Thorns by P. Rain,

1:03:26

which is a Beauty and the Beast for

1:03:28

Telling. Annabelle is

1:03:31

like a just out of college, so pretty young,

1:03:33

22 and her, she's gone home to

1:03:38

visit family in like a small town called

1:03:41

like Magnolia Springs or something like that. And

1:03:43

she has a twin brother named Luke in

1:03:45

their home and their father has died and

1:03:47

their mom is really struggling with depression, like

1:03:49

can't get out of bed type stuff. And

1:03:52

she comes home one day from like this,

1:03:55

like literally being on a run or

1:03:57

something and finds like essentially romance.

1:04:00

a lien on the front of the house that says,

1:04:02

you have 10 days to vacate your, you know, ancestral

1:04:05

home. And she's like, what, how could this

1:04:08

be? Dad would have never, right? Well,

1:04:11

dad did in fact, ever. I apparently

1:04:13

had some gambling problems and went to

1:04:16

the four billionaire brothers who live next

1:04:18

door. One of whom, by the way,

1:04:20

this is great, Asher is the hero of this one. And,

1:04:23

you know, she goes and talks to Asher and Asher's

1:04:25

life, well, fine, but you have to live here. And

1:04:28

she like works as a maid for a while. And

1:04:30

then obviously his assistant and all

1:04:32

of the things you would expect from beauty

1:04:34

and storytelling. But the part I really loved,

1:04:36

I is unparalleled is one

1:04:39

of the brothers is Sid, like there looks

1:04:41

like it's Sid and Asher. And I can't

1:04:43

remember the other two. And at

1:04:45

one point he introduces himself to her and his

1:04:47

name is Obsidian. I am Obsidian boss.

1:04:49

And I was like, listen,

1:04:52

I, I love this fucking

1:04:54

genre more than anyone in the

1:04:56

universe except you. Anybody who

1:04:59

says that we're not amazing is

1:05:01

wrong. Sid, my

1:05:04

name is Obsidian. A

1:05:07

very common baby name. If

1:05:10

you are raising billionaire grumpy brothers, you're

1:05:12

living in a house with your three billionaire

1:05:14

brothers. Yeah, sure. So anyway, it's

1:05:18

great. So Annabelle, of course, is Belle,

1:05:20

right? And one of the

1:05:22

things I liked, it's kind of cute

1:05:24

is she's allowed to go home every

1:05:27

Saturday night. Like essentially she

1:05:29

lives there but Saturday night she can go home.

1:05:31

But Saturday nights is also the night that like

1:05:33

something mysterious happens. And so

1:05:35

sure, or whatever happens up

1:05:37

in there. So here's what it is. It's

1:05:40

really interesting. She notices about Asher who is

1:05:42

not scarred or you know, beastly

1:05:44

at all. He's of course that

1:05:46

does a devastatingly handsome, but

1:05:49

he has on his hand a tattoo

1:05:51

of a bear. So I'll just

1:05:54

leave that there. I'll just leave that there. But I feel

1:05:56

like a little morsel. Dangle a little morsel. little

1:06:00

tiny morsel. So got it.

1:06:02

Those are my well,

1:06:06

I think we should talk about one last

1:06:08

one. I want to talk about Jasmine Gillery's by

1:06:10

the book. There is part

1:06:13

of the Disney new adult

1:06:15

line that we've talked about before.

1:06:18

Zoraida Cordova wrote Kiss the Girl,

1:06:20

which is a retail contemporary romance

1:06:22

retelling of the

1:06:26

Little Mermaid and by the book

1:06:28

is Jasmine's take on Beauty and the

1:06:30

Beast. Now the way that these work

1:06:32

is they're contemporary and so they

1:06:37

are based on the movies themselves,

1:06:39

not the original stuff.

1:06:42

So like Disney's that right? Yeah,

1:06:44

exactly. So by the book

1:06:46

Isabelle is like in

1:06:49

her early 20s and has is

1:06:52

working in publishing and she

1:06:56

is desperate to

1:06:58

get that promotion, like to like get

1:07:01

noticed in a publishing in her

1:07:03

publishing house. And she

1:07:08

overhears her boss talking

1:07:11

about this like high

1:07:13

profile, like reckless of

1:07:15

an author who lives in Southern

1:07:17

California and has just like not

1:07:19

delivered. They've been like waiting for

1:07:21

this manuscript forever and they haven't gotten it. And

1:07:24

she's like, I know how I

1:07:26

am going to show initiative and get

1:07:28

seen by my boss and everybody else's

1:07:30

publishing house. I'm going to go and

1:07:32

like get this

1:07:34

guy to write his manuscript for

1:07:37

good luck to

1:07:39

you Isabelle. And

1:07:41

she gets there and essentially

1:07:43

like what it's really lovely like

1:07:45

what ends up happening is she

1:07:48

becomes his muse basically. Like he

1:07:50

he's had writers block, like he's

1:07:52

not able to deliver

1:07:55

to write but she is there

1:07:57

and suddenly like he's unlocked his

1:07:59

creation. creativity is unlocked and

1:08:02

they fall in love. Now listen,

1:08:04

these books are no spice closed

1:08:06

door. But

1:08:08

Jasmine writes a romance beautifully.

1:08:10

And if this is something that you

1:08:13

think that you'd be interested in, or if

1:08:15

you have what I do with these books, I

1:08:17

always recommend them to like young people. Like if

1:08:19

you're a young person, right? Who

1:08:21

loves a rom-com or like loves romance,

1:08:24

but maybe isn't quite ready for,

1:08:26

you know, the Alexa Riley

1:08:28

of it all. This is maybe

1:08:32

a nice, a sort of slow entry

1:08:34

into romance. Yes, perfect. Perfect,

1:08:37

I love it. So that is Jasmine Gillery's

1:08:39

by the book. Amazing.

1:08:42

All right, well, what

1:08:44

a fun trope. If

1:08:47

you have an interstitial idea for us or

1:08:49

you love a trope and we have not

1:08:51

talked about it or haven't talked about it in a

1:08:54

while, you can always tell us about it,

1:08:56

what you would like to hear us

1:08:59

talk about. And we will do the job for

1:09:01

you maybe. I'm Sarah McLean. I

1:09:03

am here with my friend, Jen Prokopk. We

1:09:05

are FadedMates. You can tell us all about

1:09:07

your favorite tropes or your favorite Beauty and

1:09:10

the Beast books at,

1:09:13

on Twitter at FadedMates or

1:09:16

on Instagram at FadedMatesPod. We're also

1:09:18

at Blue Sky and on

1:09:21

threads. And the content in all of

1:09:23

these places is different because we're all

1:09:25

running different stuff. So

1:09:28

enjoy yourselves, everyone. If you really

1:09:31

wish you could have more of

1:09:33

us every month, you can join us

1:09:35

on Patreon at patreon.com/ FadedMates.

1:09:40

What else? That's

1:09:42

it, Sarah. That's what we know. Thanks

1:09:46

to everybody who came out on

1:09:48

Saturday night for FadedMates Live. It

1:09:50

was a real blast and we

1:09:53

had a great time. All

1:09:55

right, everybody. See you next time. Thank

1:10:00

you.