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TSR Book Club: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
36 Plays2 days ago
This month for book club, we're talking building tension and intimacy. And repetition.
Note: This episode contains SPOILERS.
Second note: This is a slightly edited / reuploaded version of this episode.
Buy The Everlasting: Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Show notes at smutreport.com/podcast
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Book Club Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
Are we going to introduce ourselves? No. Do you feel the need to? Just no. Let's do it just for funsies. I'm Ingrid. I'm Erin.
00:00:11
Speaker
And I'm Holly. Yes. And we are The Smut Report. that's The Smut Report. Yes. Na na na na Smut Report! Hello and welcome to The Smut Report Podcast.
00:00:22
Speaker
I am your fearless book club leader today because today is book club and it's my turn. which is great. And I know we've all been looking forward to that. It is great. I'm super excited to talk about this
Overview and Initial Thoughts on 'The Everlasting'
00:00:38
Speaker
book. feel like i usually have so much anxiety about picking books, but this one I was very confident about recommending because often when you look for books online and you look across different sources, you're going get a really mixed review. And this one by and large was a hit. A lot of people really liked it.
00:00:57
Speaker
Even if they had mixed feelings about how to categorize it or the vibe of it, most readers really seem to like it. And that's why I recommended that we read The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow. And I am not the only person who liked it. This was a finalist for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 2026 Locus Award for the Best Fantasy Novel. It was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for Reader's Favorite Fantasy. It was named a top book of 2025 by the British Fantasy Society, which everyone knows is the tops of fantasy societies. Oh, obviously. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that. And it was described as a feat of the ages by author Rachel Gillig, which I was about to comp Rachel Gillig for this book. I think that if you like Rachel Gillig, you'll probably really like this one. Okie dokie. So anyway, the point is... But Ingrid, notice yeah there's no romance people recommending it on that list.
Synopsis and Emotional Themes Discussion
00:01:56
Speaker
I was very concerned when we started, so... Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up. I'm glad you brought that up because one of the questions I was going to ask is if you guys felt this was veering into smut-adjacent territory...
00:02:08
Speaker
But before we get into that, which we will, I was going to go ahead and start by just reading the synopsis. Let's see if we feel like this synopsis tracks. So here's the synopsis. Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero, the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters, but her life as it truly happened and has been forgotten.
00:02:32
Speaker
Centuries later, Owen Mallory, failed soldier, struggling scholar, falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives, and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
00:02:48
Speaker
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend, if they want to tell a different story, they'll have to rewrite history itself. I mean, that doesn't capture everything, but there's nothing in there that's incorrect.
00:03:01
Speaker
I think agree with that. This is why I didn't want to do the plot summary, because as I was reading, I was like, how even? Would you capture the fundamental essence of the way that this story is told? I don't know. Because also this blurb is so, it's just blurby like all the other blurbs. This book is not booky like all the other books. it Yes. So we can get into that too. But let's start with the heat factor and character chemistry and plot and overall. for Well, Ingrid, you wanted to ask the question of do we feel like the blurb reflects the yeah What do you think? Oh, well, I feel like it does.
00:03:37
Speaker
And I actually, shockingly, maybe the first time in Smut Report history, read the book first, like finished the book first. And so for me, i have a I have an unusual period of time between having finished the book and talking about the book. Usually it's I just finished it. So maybe it's just the passage of time that makes me think that's actually pretty accurate.
00:03:56
Speaker
I think that the most accurate part is the over and over and over again part that was really, really dead on. There was a lot of that. Yeah. And that is the part that I feel like is undersold in the blurb. Yes.
Time Travel and Plot Structure Exploration
00:04:06
Speaker
Yes. I have to agree with that. Anyway, the heat factor. This is maybe the moment where I will say that I feel like the heat factor does play into the is it smut or is it smut adjacent situation. conversation i'm gonna say that it it is bit of a slow burn would you agree i would say kind of a no burn i mean they not they do have sex but i do not feel like there's a ton of sexual tension in this book Well, yes. So let me I feel like this ties into the character chemistry. And my thought was, there's not a deep well of emotional depth for their character chemistry, but there is deep devotion. i agree. Yeah. And I feel like that comes through in the heat factor, too. It's not a hot thing. No, yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I think it's cool that we have both heat factor and character chemistry, because you can have a book that is not necessarily a very physically intimate book, but it can be super intimate in other ways. And I feel like that is the nut of this book is that it's very, very intimate, but it's not very hot. Yeah, but did you think yeah by the time you get to the end, and this books will do this to me sometimes. So this is not unique to this book. But by the time you get to the end, I think that you've been through it with them so many times that the detachment in the early story falls away. And that is where you get more of the intimacy. But there's not the emotional vulnerability. that i I shouldn't say that quite because they they have some emotional vulnerability, like they see each other, not necessarily that they share all the time. They do share some things, but they see each other really well.
00:05:47
Speaker
And there's some vulnerability there, but you don't get the like pretty standard romance. like let me share my inner traumas with you the characters still have their own little reservations that they kind of you know you get peaks of they have different stories told in their different overs and overs but it's not when holly was talking about sexual tension that also plays into their emotional tension a little bit too or did you not think so yeah the emotional connection is kind of Presumed?
00:06:18
Speaker
Presumed. Yes. I was going to say taken for granted, but presumed is a better way to put it. It's there and we know it's there and that's not. But it's so interesting because at first we don't know it's there. The first time we're thrown into the situation, we're like, what? Where is this going? And then as you come to understand what is happening, that's where it becomes presumed. But also you are getting more and more information as time goes on. And so you are also developing.
00:06:43
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, maybe I should talk about the plot. Yes, the synopsis is correct that Una is legendary warrior and Owen is a scholar. And the way I described this book to my husband was, imagine if King Arthur could do time travel and move other people through time to continually rewrite his myth and ensure that he was literally the once and future king forever. Yes. Oh, yeah, that works. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Except that focus is more on our bad guy. On Arthur. Right. And less on like the sword that Arthur is wielding, who is Una, the everlasting. Yes. Or if Lancelot were more central to Arthur's endurance. Exactly. Although I guess Arthur has Excalibur and Una has the magic sword. So like, don't know. So I feel like that's a good plot summary though, Holly. Don't you, Ingrid? Yeah. The hard part about getting too far into it, I feel like, is that if you go any further, and you know, we can do some spoilers, I'm sure. We'll do some spoilers. We're going to be doing spoilers.
Character Depth and Theme Analysis
00:07:52
Speaker
Spoilers, yeah. I just got to say that right now. Let's just do it. Because I think it's really difficult if you don't do spoilers to understand the impact. Yeah. That's why I think the synopsis feels not quite right, is because you can't give any more without it ruining the whole book. Right. So I do want to say one other thing about the plot, though, that I think is kind of important. Oh, yeah. So we've kind of circled around how they do it over and over. And so basically what happens in more clear language is that Owen is given a book that's the story of Una Everlasting. And this book allows him to travel back to her and be with her in her story.
00:08:31
Speaker
And as he does so, he realizes that every time he travels back, he is the person who writes the story. So he reads the book and then is given a blank copy and then goes back and writes the book that he read.
00:08:41
Speaker
But he writes it a little bit differently each time because things happen a little differently each time, partially because of his interventions in being there. Also, as the book progresses, his experiences become like a palimpsest. for him and Una and other characters who have traveled through time, where even though they're starting over, they start to remember other times that they've done this. So there's like a stacking. And I think eventually later in the book, that's where the chemistry comes in because they remember having been in love already. So they're in love because they were already in love in all of these other lives that they are starting to remember again.
00:09:22
Speaker
And that's why I think the chemistry is kind of presumed because it was already always there. Yes. And also, and I feel like I should wait to talk about this later, but going to do it right now. I'm just going do it right now. Are you ready? yeah Yeah. Because, you know, I have to talk about writer's craft and this is why I think this book is incredibly well written. Okay. Ready? So we're talking about how the structure of the book at this point is how they keep repeating. And it's the hero's journey. They're talking when they go back, there's a quest, that a specific quest that they have to go through.
00:09:52
Speaker
do right right so owen has to convince una to go and kill the last dragon and bring back this grail to the queen that's the quest right every single time and one of the things that i think is so interesting when we're talking about intimacy and whenre when we're talking about you know chemistry and stuff like that is that we become involved in the execution of this plan. So we know that he's repeating it. He doesn't know that he's repeating it. What does that cause in the reader?
00:10:23
Speaker
Tension, tension. You feel stressed. You're invested, right? So now you're part of this. You want them to resolve it. There's this tension. then Then when they start remembering, you get this feeling of, oh, thank God. So now you're connecting with this in a different way. you're You're seeing the intimacy build between the characters. You are inadvertently involved. Not inadvertently. It's calculated. She knew what she was doing. You're kind of involved in that intimacy. And what solidifies that you're feeling involved in the intimacy?
00:10:49
Speaker
The use of the POV. Yeah. But I think also, because I think POV is a whole separate issue. It but is, but that's why I had to say it This repetition also, the intimacy builds and involves the reader also in the way we see the slight changes in the story each time. It's like, how is the story different each time? And how does that impact the intimacy between the two characters. Yeah. As they go through these same experiences.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. Over and over, but react in slightly different ways. And so there are a couple conversations where they have, they have the same conversation more than one time. Yes. But it'll be tweaked. Just a little. Just a little bit. And that's how that intimacy builds.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah. Well, there's a, I think I would argue, I think there's a lot of different ways that they end in the sequence, but that's definitely one of them. Yeah. Yeah. And we can definitely, we can talk more writer's craft later, but I think the overall, just as we've covered kind of how the heat factor in the character chemistry is more complicated in this particular book and setting. and we covered the plot so like overall did you love it I should can I ask instead how much did you love it because I loved this book thought it was so good love this book so bad decision book clubbed
00:12:08
Speaker
this book, Daytime Edition, where I like started reading it over breakfast and then was like, oh ah I'm just going to not get my stuff done today. Oops. you know So that was bad for other parts of my life, as is It always, when you bad to decision book club a book. So I could not put it down. Unputdownable. Unputdownable is a terrible word, by
Romance Genre and Literary Qualities Debate
00:12:30
Speaker
the way. But we've used it a lot of times now. I know we use it, but I think it's a terrible word. We can come with a new one later. Yeah. well We'll noodle it. I couldn't put it down. And i mostly liked it. I felt like it was...
00:12:45
Speaker
It's like a little slick for me. It was like a little too perfect. Like there weren't any rough edges. And I don't really know how to explain that. But sometimes I read a book and I'm like, wow, I really enjoyed that. But I don't feel this like emotional oomph with it.
00:13:01
Speaker
You know what I mean? yeah i know what you mean. i know what you mean. so Well, I think, okay, I get that. I think for me, that was the detachment component of at least the first two sections. I was like, if this were a regular romance novel, I would be very intimately involved in like the inner, the inner so struggles, turmoils. Mm-hmm.
00:13:27
Speaker
Emotional vulnerabilities of the main characters. But this is the type of book, this is where the is it romance or romance adjacent slash what category thing that Ingrid said earlier comes into play where this book is doing something else.
00:13:43
Speaker
ah Right. So my overall is, i think I did really enjoy it. I know Ingrid was like, well, I'm destroyed now. And Holly Bad Decisions book clubbed it. Y'all, I fell asleep like four times trying to read this book.
00:13:59
Speaker
Not because it's boring, but because I actually had a paper copy and I like, this is hard work. Like my brain is working hard. ah And so for me, I was like, wow, I marked, I guess I've got so many tabs in this book. I was like, let's talk about religion here. Let's talk about history here and how history is reflected both in the present period for Owen and in the medieval period and storytelling and propaganda and familial devotion and trauma. And I was just like, let's just talk about all this. Like, let's break it down. Yeah.
00:14:38
Speaker
And that is what I think is really awesome about this book. Like as a romance. I mean, I'm glad there was a little bit of romance in it. I think that pulled it together in a beautiful way that I don't think it could have functioned without Owen and Una's love story. See, and I don't see that that way at all. Like, I think it is. the You think it could have worked without Una and Owen loving each other? No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that I feel like when you say like, oh, I'm glad that there was romance involved. I think it was romance. I think it just was a different flavor of romance. I'd be comfortable even calling it smut adjacent, romance adjacent. think when you're categorizing books, like there can be romance-
00:15:23
Speaker
TM, like this is a romance novel romance, right? And then there's books that are, you know, like they're romance, but they're, I don't know how else to say it, a different flavor. Like in this book, I found it to be a really deep investigation of this really interesting romantic relationship. I think the book was about the romance. It wasn't that it was like history and, you know, like sci-fi and time travel and there was romance in it. I think it everything else revolved around the relationship. Yeah, well, and I do want to say, i know I was kind of teasing you for all the places you saw it recommended and all the accolades it got and how it was all like fantasy places. But I will say that the places that I saw it recommended, and it's because I'm on social media, the people I saw talking about it and recommending it. are all romance people who were in fact recommending it as a romance. And I remember very distinctly, the first person I saw talking about this was Olivia Waite, who has written some romance novels and now is kind of switching into like sci-fi mystery stuff. But she writes romance reviews for the New York Times She's their romance reviewer. And I saw her saying, oh, man, I'm so mad that i read The Everlasting after I had already submitted my list of best romance books of 2025, because this would be at the top of the list. Yeah. so yes, there are also romance people who are, we'll say, tastemakers in romance spaces.
00:16:57
Speaker
who are categorizing this as a romance and recommending it to other romance readers as a romance. Well, I don't think it's not a romance. No, I don't think so either. I'm just, I just wanted to yeah. It fulfills the brief. Yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
Romance is central and there's an optimistic ending. So. I was pretty apprehensive about that ending for. Well, I was like, how is she going to pull this off? Cause I get, I get so irritated when i'm like, this is going so well. I am so invested. and then, you know, like, oh, oh man, you could either really pull this off, but I don't see how, or just like not follow through. And she definitely pulled it off. so Well, and i I was also feeling anxious because I have for much time now, not worried about the endings of books because I read romance and they're supposed to end a certain way.
Ending and Writing Style Evaluation
00:17:46
Speaker
So I've always been like bumping along, trusting in the process. But then I read that one where they die.
00:17:52
Speaker
And now I feel like I have a new level of fear and anxiety. on afraid Yeah. um My eyes have been opened. This is like maybe a great candidate for a textbook romantic definition, maybe. yeah Yeah. And you know, like fantasy doesn't always people can play fast and loose with when you kind of take a little walk on the on the wild side. Yeah. And i mean, just to be clear, Alex Harrow's background is in fantasy.
00:18:20
Speaker
She has written several other books of which I have read two and they are strictly fantasy. i want to say the Once and Future Witches has a very minor romance subplot for one of the main characters but that is not the point of the book at all.
00:18:39
Speaker
So that's the background that she's bringing into it. Okay so we basically we agree with the synopsis. We think it's kind of complicated. Overall I loved it. You guys are appreciated it is that a good way of putting it you know i would say Yeah.
00:18:56
Speaker
Like process it all over again. I would say this is a book that I would reread. So. So that's, that's good. ah Sticking to the outline, my fine friends, we can talk about what worked for us and what didn't work for us specifically. Okay. If I'm just a shallow reader, like I'm just reading it and I'm just gut instinct, like zero explanation. There were times where I was, I was like, I i don't think I can go on because I was, especially when Owen was going back and he was,
00:19:24
Speaker
becoming more apathetic. It was dragging to the point of a little stressful at those points. But if I am a more complex reader, I would say that that is the exact emotional response the author probably wanted at that time. Mm hmm. What's for you to be stressed up and dreading the potential apathy, you know? Oh, see, interesting. So the book is broken down into four sections, which are titled by her four deaths, right? So it's the first death, the second death, the third death, and then I think that's the final death. or You know, like it's not the fourth death.
00:19:55
Speaker
whatever And so the first death is all very new information. It's not just new for the reader. It's also written as brand new for Owen. i can't recall because this was very early in the book. But I believe at this point there are moments when Owen is like, the face looked really familiar, but I didn't know why. Stuff like that.
00:20:18
Speaker
So there are little nuggets. Yeah, I think even when he sees Una for the first time, it's like, oh, yes, I know her. yeah This is her, even though she doesn't look like the paintings of her. Right. Well, and I feel like this is another another nudge toward rereading because I suspect on ah on another reread that in that first section, especially we would see so many like.
00:20:39
Speaker
Indicators, hints, nudges, Easter eggs whatever, you know. And so the first section is they go on the quest and the quest is all brand new. Yeah. And Owen is at this point filled with patriotic fervor.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I feel like maybe now is a good time for a little additional background. So the story is Dominion is the country So in Owen's time, the narrative of Una Everlasting is like the origin story of Dominion. Una becomes the queen's blade and is the instrument by which the queen, quote, unites Dominion and prosperity rules the land. And, you know, it's all because of Una Everlasting, right? So they're at war again. And Owen's father is a known dissenter and an alcoholic. And Owen is a little ashamed of his father. And it starts out with basically he ends up signing up in this patriotic fervor. So he and his dad are like at opposite ends of there's a there's conflict there.
Emotional and Plot Mechanics
00:21:53
Speaker
Right. But he has this patriotic fervor. So he comes back from the war and he has this. passion for Una and this like for dominion chant in his heart and so he goes back to his graduate studies after the war and that's where we pick up with him and is trying to become don't tenured or whatever and gets this book and it goes from there so picking up from where we left off my concern was when we get to the second time
00:22:21
Speaker
I was like, oh, no, are we going to do this all over again? So I think, Ingrid, you were talking a little bit about the repetition. oh What did you say? It was it wasn't just straight repetition. it was oh, you it was like attitude. Now, I i did find a couple. Can I just read for you guys what Ingrid is taught or what we're talking about here?
00:22:39
Speaker
And this is after he gets the book. So there are multiple times when I noticed this, but this I actually really liked about the difference between the first and second because I started and I was like, oh my God, are we just going to do this over again? And even when he goes back to the U, Y-E-W, the tree that is essential to the plot, it's like its own character almost. They start telling the quest again. And then I was like, are we just going to do the quest again? But this is interesting what she's doing here because he doesn't remember yet, but his attitude has changed. So the first time it's, I barely touched the book that first day. I simply crouched in my flat above the butcher shop and smoked an entire pack of lucky stars, lighting each cigarette from the butt of the last blah, blah, blah, blah. I moved the book from my bedside to the desk and back again. I performed a series of tests, not on the book, but on myself, writing out my whereabouts for the past three days to ensure that there were no odd gaps, reciting every monarch of dominion from Yvonne to the Republic, pinching myself quite hard, etc. I had suffered some little disturbances after the war, forgetting things. There's a nugget.
00:23:38
Speaker
Forgetting things that had happened only the day before or remembering things which had never happened or confusing dreams for memories. But my mind seemed to be in perfect order now. I went to bed early and lay tense and unsleeping for several hours. At two or three in the morning, I said aloud, God, enough, slipped on a pair of cotton gloves and opened the book.
00:23:55
Speaker
I translated the first sentence. It begins where it ends beneath the yew tree. Okay. And then the second time, same, same, but different. hmm. I didn't touch the book that first day. I drew the curtains and went directly to bed, still in my slacks and undershirt, as I often did. The doctors had listed fatigue among my many symptoms, but I didn't sleep because I was tired. I slept because I dreamed, and every dream was of you. They were not always pleasant. I saw you weeping and bleeding, killing and dying.
00:24:21
Speaker
I saw you on your knees and I saw you on your beer and I woke with tears on my cheeks and a tremor in my hands. I smoked two lucky stars. I drank half a pot of thin acrid coffee. Then I opened the book. Over the following week, I fell into a sort of fever, translating without pausing to stretch or smoke, eating only when I felt myself flagging.
00:24:40
Speaker
I decided very quickly that I disliked the author. His prose was stilted and portentous in a way that reminded me of narrators at the beginnings of films. Right. So it's like he's a different person. is after he goes through the first death. And I was like, this is pretty cool. Like he's so bright eyed and optimistic. And like, like I said, the patriotic fervor. And then he comes back and he's like a bitter, pessimistic man who's kind of going through the motions. And that ties directly to his experiences with the first quest. Right. And so this book is extremely important.
00:25:17
Speaker
angsty extremely angsty i argue you that i think it's pensive and broody okay maybe it's broody but to finish this the tension in the first death even though he doesn't remember and the reader doesn't know where this is going in this first quest the whole time owen is feeling like he's meeting una for the first time but he's been obsessed with her his whole life the stories about her and he knows that at the end of this quest when she brings the grail back to the queen she's gonna die that that's the end of the road for her right but that her doing this quest is necessary for dominion to be dominion and he like aaron was saying he's gripped in this patriotic fervor he's It's very for king and country kind of thing. Well, for queen and country. But right, very like country over everything. And essentially leads Una to her death. Bringing her to this is sacrificing her because he believes it's what has to happen.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, so are you the tension is from his inner tension about as he goes along with Una and loves her and loves her more now that he knows her, yes at the same time he feels like he has a duty to Dominion right to follow through with the story. This is something that I immediately clocked and loved maybe because I've read so many fantasy books but one of the most common threads that runs through fantasy books is this whole fated mates dynamic right and this book was so much about choice I think if i came up with the thread that knits the whole thing together it is about choice and so what what you're talking about Erin where you're when you're talking about how Without realizing it, how the choices from before change him as a person, how we see that there's this ripple effect through time of how when certain button buttons are pushed, different outcomes create a whole different versions of ourselves. Because bringing it back to the fantasy thing, right? Like it feels like they're being pulled along by this
Reader Engagement and World-Building
00:27:28
Speaker
fate that they're fighting the whole time because it's being orchestrated by... this is a spoiler, by the Vivian, by the political figure that is pulling him into it with the book the whole time, right? And so it feels like they're getting just pulled along in this river of fate and that they want to step off or they want to change fate. But really, it's all fallacy, right? This is not fate. This is being subjected to the choices of others. And it's choosing to to fight, choosing to give up. It's It felt to me almost like a really complicated comparison to long term relationships.
00:28:07
Speaker
Okay, so I yes, interesting. I was feeling like even though Owen doesn't really age, yes because there's this back and forth like Una and Owen are kind of the same age. All the time. They're just being sent back and forth, but they continue to have these life experiences. And so by the time we get to the last time Owen tries to change the script, he has so many life experiences. Like now he can relate to his father better.
00:28:41
Speaker
Now he can see the lies or manipulations of the stuff that he believed so wholeheartedly in his past. Right. And it's like he is maturing.
00:28:57
Speaker
Right. um as he is staying the same age, but it's taking him through like an entire lifetime of growth it's like wisdom he's gaining wisdom to able to relate to his father like I said in earlier he and his father have had so much conflict and it's partially because he's got this belief in the system and his father doesn't believe in the system right and he comes to a point where he's like dad I see you now you know like i got well and that's I had in my notes so like I said choice so the one of the other ones was truth
00:29:32
Speaker
And, Aaron, I was thinking about that earlier when you were talking about the history, right? And then you brought up again the situation with his dad. And one of the reasons I think you you become aware that the dad, no matter what the lifetime, he's um rebelling against authority. Mm-hmm.
00:29:49
Speaker
it becomes clear that it's because of the experience that he's had when you, when you live, when you see, when you have your eyes open, then you understand that in ah in a lot of ways, like the truth depends really on the perspective. And so that's why he's able to see that his dad, his dad is a more complete person because he gets more information about what his dad experienced and why his dad is the way he is. And then all of a sudden this gray area just continues to expand throughout the book as the book goes, it starts very black and white and narrow And as you go, the the gray area between what's what's real and what's false, like what's good and what's bad, it just kind of continues to get broader. And then in that space is the wisdom. that you're talking about his growth. That's what I was. So I picked up on that too, but I think the way you phrased that was really good.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess let's go all the way back to Ingrid was saying what worked for us, and what didn't work for us. Like, and Ingrid, I think you were talking a little bit about pace or we were talking about repetition. Like I
Final Thoughts and Appreciation
00:30:42
Speaker
had concerns, but I think Harrow did an exceptional job of using repetition really well. There are even points where first it was like, they're back at the yew tree.
00:30:53
Speaker
i was like, oh my God, is Owen going to take us on the quest all over again? and he's like no you tell it my love right so then we get una's voice i don't know if our romance graybeards are listening to the podcast or if all y'all are youngins but in the before times sometimes now if you get a not very well edited book when dual perspective became very common in romance you would just have like the same scene retold From the different perspectives. Like authors do not do that. That is not effective. ah But in this case, on the surface, maybe that's what it looks like Harrow did, but that's not what she did. They're going on the quest again, yes, but they're focusing on different elements of it. You know, it's like, oh, and then we did the dragon thing again, instead of going step by step through the dragon that thing or whatever whatever it is. So there are different points being pulled out. It's not a strict retelling. week We already said there's the different
00:31:45
Speaker
attitudes and perspectives and then what is focused on becomes some of that stuff that is the gray area expanding that ingrid was talking about ah so for example with owen and the bright-eyed patriotic fervor of the first person that holly i think maybe illuminated what i was getting out a little bit better there is like they go on the whole quest and owen might have his struggles but he believes that he's doing the right thing even if it hurts and And that because Una is very taciturn about her own feelings, that maybe Una has had her struggles, but she is still she still loves the queen, right? Yeah.
00:32:23
Speaker
And so she she just needed a push and then went on the quest because she still believes in dominion. And then we get from Una's perspective that she has had some experiences that were deeply traumatic. And it's not just... Like, oh she needed a little push. I mean, being the blade of the queen who unites a kingdom means you have to do some seriously fucked up things. Yeah, because think about it. Like, if you think if you think about it, that means that the queen has basically offloaded all of the dirty, dark things. gritty parts of herself onto Una yeah so that she can be the shiny beacon of light and hope.
00:33:06
Speaker
Right. Then we get the perspective of a disillusioned Una. And so that expands our gray area. And I think the interesting thing there is that she doesn't tell Owen any of this, but she's like, there's one point where she's thinking of this particular experience that is regurgitated several times in the book. And she's like, after this, I swore I would never kill for the queen again, but I'm not doing it for her. I'm doing it for Owen.
00:33:30
Speaker
choice we get to know that she doesn't exactly so owen sees this as her loyalty to dominion but she is choosing loyalty to owen because owen is asking for this thing that he believes in yeah it's oh man it's just i don't know that i had a lot of quibbles with it i think the only thing that maybe didn't work for me is the reason that i'm like i need a reread maybe but Because I'm like, this is the thing of my brain pretzel.
00:33:56
Speaker
And I have to think about so many things. And what am I missing? I really feel like the author, yeah you know how we frequently say like, man, it could have used another developmental edit. No, I don't. i feel like she had ninjas. Like she scalpel edited this thing because like you said, Aaron, I had the exact same reaction. Holly, did you have the same thing where You got to the point and you were like, oh, God, no, she's going to retell it again. And then and then you and then like you turn the page and you're like, oh, because the way she does it, it feels like she does these little tinkering adjustments. And then it's not emotional reactions that are just overtaking you. It's like ah waves on a shore where every time the wave comes up, you're just like, oh, God, like that's more information that I'm processing. And so like the pace of this book was so artfully done. And I thought it was so subtle that, yes, I agree with you, Erin. I feel like I would probably have to read it three times to really just fully grasp
00:34:48
Speaker
how she did it. so Yeah, I mean, the pace is interesting because it's kind of a slow book, right? Not a lot happens. It's pretty repetitive. But yet, but yet, I read it in basically a sitting. As much of a sitting as is one can. Holly, did you think that the, what did you think about the the tension? Did you find it to be tense, slow? Because you read it like me, you read it in one sitting, basically. I read it, I put the kids to bed, open the book, I'd read it, Bad Decisions Book Club.
00:35:19
Speaker
I think I stopped at one o'clock in the morning. So what did you think about that? Like I said, it's tricksy, right? Because it feels like it should be slow, but it's incredibly tense. Yes. So that's interesting. So then how? I don't feel like it was super tense. Oh, God. i was So much as... riveting or yeah well that's we mean it wasn't I didn't feel a lot of tension but I was like oh my god where am I going now so when I feel like tension maybe Ingrid when I'm like oh that was really tense like there have been books that I've read usually more suspensy books where I'm just like the adrenaline is running and I am kind of a ball of anxiety until I get to the end and I'm like okay everything's okay right you know And that wasn't this. This was not that kind of tension. um So maybe you're thinking of describing tension like a different emotional result. Like talk more about tension. i don't even know if I would say riveting because riveting also is like holds my attention. to Like I said, like I crashed a couple times. Just nope. Can't read anymore. Sleep. Yeah. And it's not because I wasn't enjoying the book, but it wasn't giving me the adrenaline rush. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, I have to turn the page. But it was like, where are we going to go now? It's like very filled with curiosity. So describe this tension that you're talking about. more ah Well, I was like. sorry grocery store see you another day we're getting takeout tonight so for me it was riveting so you just had a different experience i just had a different experience I was like uh nope I should be doing this other thing but actually I'm just gonna like read another chapter of this Well, and I will say this.
00:36:56
Speaker
I think part of the reason it's maybe different, Erin, is that we're having – I think there's two different conversations about tension here. There's yeah the tension that you feel as a reader. It's an experiential tension. And then there's tension as ah as a writing tool, right? So I was experiencing the plot tension. I think that when I say tension, I think that you might be hearing that and saying – how you experienced, like as ah as a reaction. You know, I guess my question was, and I think more like what Holly was saying too, maybe, but maybe both, is that the way that the tension was being executed in the book, the ingredients that were s spinning that tension up,
00:37:31
Speaker
are so subtle that you don't feel like something's happening in in a thriller, right? You you're being chased by a bear or a man with a gun, you know, and so and and you know that it's going to resolve, you know, so it's like, okay, the problem here is this man is chasing this character with a gun. And as soon as they disarm the man with the gun or shoot the man with the gun, the tension will be over, right? But this is a more pervasive water under the ground method of tension where you can't, how do you say why it felt so tense? Well, what if they have to keep living this over and over again? That's the whole book, people. Yeah. You know, that's the tension. And there's a lot of foreshadowing, right? And so even in moments where it seems like it's okay, there's a lot of, but you know, it's not. It's not going to be okay. yeah And I think a lot of the reader response tension for me stemmed from how are they going to get out of it, especially as it becomes clear later in the book that this isn't something they've just done.
00:38:28
Speaker
three or four times yes oh god the hopelessness like ah like this is something that has happened thousands of times and even when they escape the villain character is allowing it because they've done that before too right yes and man that was just like heartbreaking it's like no no This is the part where, yeah, so often, like when we talk about romanticity, right? Because I feel like that's kind of the best niche through which to relate to this because of our lens. So so often they'll have this unsolvable problem, but then you'll sit there and be like, well, why don't you just do this? you know And this is one where they can't even give up.
00:39:06
Speaker
They can't give up because fate, which is another person's decisions, they don't get to choose whether they keep reliving it. They're going to keep reliving it. no matter what. So there there was this moment in the book. Was this the moment that you cried, Erin? Where there's just this moment where you think, my God, they've tried everything.
00:39:22
Speaker
Everything. And you're just like, like there's no hope. And i it was one of those times where i was like, this there's look when they hopeless. When they went back to the very beginning. No, I felt that feeling of hopelessness after the children.
00:39:36
Speaker
Oh, no. For me, it was when they went back to the very beginning and she was there. Yeah. And and the hell I was like, you can't you can't even destroy the source. You can't even destroy the source. No, I was with Ingrid, I guess, because I think that's when I felt the most hopelessness where it's like they tried this and it still didn't work. And there's still a number of pages left. I was like, OK, I know that something is going to go wrong. You know, as i there are several chapters. I know, but I just you can't see a way out. Right.
00:40:08
Speaker
Yeah. And so, yeah, I think Holly is what I had when the moment that you were talking about Holly, like I already was in swimming in a lake of hopelessness. And then I was like, there's an anchor. Of course, of course. Might as well give up. That was where it shifted to me from like to horror.
00:40:24
Speaker
i was like, oh, God. no No, no. I felt so hopeful at this point because I was like, this is the only place for them. Right. They thought they had to figure it out this time. They thought they had to figure out this time. They thought they thought they thought. But this is different. And then there's a point. Maybe this is where Holly's talking about the hopelessness where even here, our villain says we've done this before. Right.
00:40:51
Speaker
Right. Owen says, I remember this before. But first of all, it was almost the end. Yeah, so it's either gonna end at some point. At that point, I was like, because I knew that Alex Harrow comes from a fantasy tradition. And while the other books that she's written that I've read do have closed off endings that are generally happy for the protagonists, that is not always the case in fantasy. So I was like, well, we're almost the end. So either they're gonna figure out a way to defeat a villain or we're they're just gonna be stuck in the cycle forever. Right. So but here's where i was like, okay, Owen, Owen has a plan. And he's talking to his professor. So this time, and then he had a plan before and it failed. This time he's like, all right, I guess we'll just keep on playing this game villain. But let me say goodbye to my people first. And that's part of when I was crying, Ingrid, because I love the dad. The dad is my favorite character. Really? Yes, because he is super, super, super flawed, but he loves his son with his whole heart.
00:41:54
Speaker
And you just see it over and over again every time he appears. Right. Which could be a metaphor for the consistency of a parent's love. Or, you know, a metaphor for you, you were talking about truth earlier, and I really thought you were going to talk about how, even through all these permutations, the characters are still true to themselves, no matter how that's true different they are. There's a core a kernel of this is who I am. Holly, I thought about you actually a lot with Professor Sawbridge. I'm going to take that compliment. yeah Because she...
00:42:27
Speaker
I think because she was just so such a feisty, smart person, but um also because I loved that as a character, she would pop in periodically with just like just some truth bombs. Like, and just know about. Yes. And so, yeah, Holly, I you are dead on. I hadn't thought about that before because so much changes, but that there's something about the characters that kind of also you can't fight the depth of who people really are. Yeah. And that's really interesting. If you're saying that the other theme is choice is like, what is that tension? Right.
00:43:00
Speaker
Is like, we have choice and free will and the characters ultimately choosing for themselves and making the world based on their, kind of aware choices coming up against this tension of who am I at my core? And I think some of it is they finally win victory when their choices are in alignment with the truth of who they really are. yeah Yeah, I think there's a good balance here between... choices made out of fear and choices made out of hope and choices made out of love Ingrid you were going to say when you were talking about love in terms of I think the romance specifically i was thinking it's all about love right like even the villainous character is making these arguments of I love you but she's like deeply abusive right like but and then we've got
00:43:50
Speaker
this romantic love we've got this sort of like camaraderie relationship between Owen and Sawbridge his professor right and then we have Owen and his dad but this is part of like the hopefulness right he went to see Sawbridge first he's getting his ducks in a row and I think the big foreshadow Holly was talking about foreshadowing the big foreshadowing moment here is when he's saying goodbye to Sawbridge and he's like Sawbridge I think you should be prepared for some things to happen Sawbridge is like nah And he's like, what do you mean? nah She says she has Sylvie.
00:44:23
Speaker
She said it slowly as if she were writing out a very simple equation on the board. If I can't run with her, then I can't run at all. And if you can't run, she spread her hands. Then I suppose if you'll excuse the melodrama, you stand and fight. was like, OK, but then there's like 60 plus pages left. So, you know, how did that go? Yeah.
00:44:46
Speaker
But that I think is when, because this is right after also Owen and Una had made a lot of choices out of fear. Right. And they were trying to change the story based out of fear. And and thus I was like, this is, I just, she did such a good job. We went everywhere. We went everywhere in this book. If we talk about the setting as, because in here, this the setting isn't just a place and a time static, you know, it moves and the movement of time is kind of its own setting and I wanted to know how how is it done effectively was it too confusing would it have worked if it hadn't moved so moved you mean like back and forth in time yes which is a good question i didn't find that particularly confusing I don't know I've read a lot of time travel books
00:45:29
Speaker
so Well, that's one of the reasons I was curious because i was you, I feel like Holly, have done a lot of like sci-fi stuff. And so i I thought that kind of seemed like it was kind of up your alley. More time travel can be sometimes... That's when the holes start getting poked in. And I didn't feel like there were a lot. Okay, so I think if you actually look at it from a purely time travel perspective... My husband is really into time travel stuff. So I've seen many time travel movies and we...
00:45:57
Speaker
Read time travel books, etc And so I think if you start really poking into it You'd be like, well, if they actually remake the whole thing Then how is Professor Zawbridge even alive? Then it's a multiverse Right, yeah you know, and and so you can't you can't get that deep into it And actually during this conversation When one of you was talking about how they don't age and But they have all these experiences I'm like, oh, they're in the Jeremy Baramy In the good place, right? i love that, yeah That's where they are. They're in the Jeremy Bear Me and time is all loop-dee-doop-dee, but they're still going. I'll include a picture of it for people who don't know what that is.
00:46:35
Speaker
Slash go watch The Good Place. It's so good. But, you know, I feel like it's drawing on some of these ideas that other people play around with in time travel stories. It reminded me actually a lot of this book called Life After Life. by Kate Atkinson, which is a book about a woman who every time she dies, she starts over.
00:46:58
Speaker
And she doesn't remember, but it's like she has muscle memory. And so she can avoid the things that happen. So you know, it's so it's like one way she dies, I'm making this up. But for example, she falls through the ice at a pond and she drowns. And so the next time she lives that life she doesn't go ice skating that day because she just like has this instinctual fear of no I can't go there and so it's it's got that same kind of repetitive living the same thing over and over palimpsest kind of thing but it's also a world war ii story and her eventual goal is to save her brother who dies fighting world war ii
00:47:39
Speaker
So it's not a romance, but a lot of the repetition and playing with time kind of reminded me of that. But there wasn't this vast movement of like back and forth going on. Yeah. Okay. What about, can I ask time-wise maybe Ingrid, you have thoughts about this from a literary perspective as opposed to the time travel perspective. What about the increasing obviousness or intensity of the control that villain character has? It starts feeling like, oh, if I just make a different choice, then the outcome will be different. And then as time goes on. Or the book progresses and time does not go on. Right. I guess that's that is, I think, where some of our hopelessness stems from. Right. And how I somehow really bought that as a narrative choice that this one person could have time traveled so much to have made a lot of trouble. Yeah. I mean, it worked that really worked for me. I guess it does make the villain kind of
00:48:43
Speaker
omnipotent and omniscient which well i think that was what there was a point again in the first quest where una was like the queen knows everything and predicts everything and no one is ever as clever or cunning as the queen and that's when owen you know is like oh she still loves her but you know una's not really saying it out of admiration necessarily it's more just like oh no this is the truth yeah And so that's another one of those interesting nuggets that we get early on.
00:49:16
Speaker
I didn't even think about that. Well, you guys, i just I just finished it and I read most of it in the past two days. It's fresher than it is for you guys. No, I know. But that was something that didn't...
00:49:27
Speaker
this is the i read it right that's something in the first read that i didn't even pick up on but now that you say it i'm like oh my god that given given the information that we know come to learn later right like i think in terms of time travel that's where this falls apart a little bit is like the villain character's role and how time works with her because she does make clear ah that if you do it too much It starts messing with you and you see that with Owen and Una and how they start remembering and they have these false memories even before they start really remembering. And they are both unstable because of how much they've been forcibly put through. And there's a bit about Una has a war horse who's like the perfect war horse because he, she, he was created that way. He was put through enough times, but he is not right. This is a... This is a not right horse.
00:50:24
Speaker
But the villain has gone through more iterations than anybody and has lived multiple lifetimes in various presence and yet has never aged. Like her age doesn't make sense. And she is fully in control of her faculties and doesn't have the same palimpsest dissociation that the other characters who time travel do. Well, and I sliding into what i one of the last things I wanted to talk about here was the second person.
00:50:53
Speaker
And what you're talking about now would normally be considered the plot holes, right? Right. But on the flip side, I think one of the reasons they don't feel like plot holes is that one, I feel like a lot of the plot is pretty well locked in. I mean, a lot of this stuff was, like I said, developmentally, it was like with a scalpel here. hmm. But also my assertion here, and I was wondering if you guys agree, is that the frequent use of a second person, so you, that ends up kind of smoothing over some of these things that would be normally plot holes. And the way that I think that that happens is, is that when the narrator is saying, oh, well, you know, like this thing, they...
00:51:29
Speaker
you did and we talked about there's almost like an assumption you know when you have a conversation with somebody and they're like oh you know like when we went to that place they're like yeah okay and you just kind of fill it memory wise and you just kind of fill it in with whatever makes sense to you because it's your brain and you're remembering and so you just kind of do that without thinking about it and I think that kind of happens in this book I know what you're talking about. I just think it's not what I would have expected to be the effect of second person. And I don't think it was necessarily like over. I think it's one of the more little like glimmering side effects almost. you know mean? Because normally it would really bother me that we didn't get an explanation for why all of this is happening until a hair's breadth from the end of the book. That would bother me i'm because excited I'd be like, oh, so all of a sudden you're just going to give us this huge explanation in the last chunk.
00:52:19
Speaker
But it didn't really bother me because I was walking through it with them the whole time and I didn't learn it until they learned it. And so that made sense to me. You know, i was like, all right, cool. So I was wondering if you guys felt like maybe that's that possibly did have something to do with the perspective. My attention was definitely pulled by the second person because it's so unique. You just get led by the hand. So you go where they take you.
00:52:43
Speaker
You know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, in this book, interestingly, has all persons. Yes. yes it's It's told from just Owens and Una's perspective. Fast and loose. There's point where it's told in third person because of a request that a character makes. And then there's most of the action is second person. There is an explanation, holly you just might not remember it, for why it's like a one-liner for why the villain does not experience the same I remember them saying it and I was like, that makes no sense. Yeah, on it's interesting. I think that probably is it's a one liner. And so it didn't get picked apart.
00:53:21
Speaker
Whereas we've been living in this sort of chaotic brain space for the rest of the book, you know? Right. I mean, and it could be that she also has chaotic brain and we just don't see it. I mean, she is a complete megalomaniac. Yeah. So it's entirely possible. But even that, those threads are even pulled together. Yeah. Nobody is one dimensional. Not a single character in here. Even Ansel, for Pete's sake, who is this knight that is periodically thrown in man to serve as kind of like a counterpoint manipulation tactic for Owen and Una, mostly Una. Even he is not a flat character. Even he like there's this real interesting depth. And it's this is the part that I think is so amazing. It's just in these little momentary anecdotes. Right. Usually when they're talking about past experiences, Vivian will will throw out there. Oh, well, you know, Ansel, we had this trouble with this or that.
00:54:15
Speaker
One of the times and then this happened and then it's just this little offhanded comment. And all of a sudden that character is suddenly three dimensional. Right. So it's really interesting. OK, but my question about setting is more relating to historical time. So this is a fictional world. Right. But did you get I was like, OK, so we are in like post-war England.
00:54:40
Speaker
That's what I got. And I was like, oh, okay. And then we are yeah, like the world of King Arthur. And I felt like Harrow did not do a significant amount of world building. She really relied on your ability to plug and play with those temporal settings. Yeah. Would you agree? Yeah. She's not like creating a whole brand new world, but she kind of is.
00:55:09
Speaker
I mean, she ostensibly is, but she isn't. I don't know. did you? i was like, oh, so how much of this can be kind of plug and play? And then i can read into historical values or political ideology. How much of it is she's drawing on stuff that you know feed the story? Well, I mean, I think there is such an economy in this book, right? Where she can give us a very small scene that doesn't seem like it has a lot of detail and it's just the right words. You painted the whole picture. yeah That we have the whole picture. Right. I think a lot of high fantasy, especially, tends to be let's talk all about all these things, you know, because they're trying to be Tolkien and Tolkien's like, let's I'm going to tell you about this walk in the woods. And they're doing for a month.
00:56:00
Speaker
And about the trees and about the history and about the mushrooms. And I think a lot of high fantasy still does that. Right. And she's like, i I don't need to do that. I can just tell you and you'll be able to fill it in. And I agree that, but that she gives just enough because I did not feel like the world building was sparse. No, no you feel very like connected to it as a place.
00:56:26
Speaker
Well, and I would argue, have you guys ever heard? I don't actually know if it's true or not, but there's a story that like Ernest Hemingway wrote, like it was a challenge to write a story and like 10 words or less. Yeah, about the baby shoes. Baby shoes, the baby shoes. So i think it says for sale baby shoes never worn. And that's right a whole story, right? In 10 words or less. Right. And I got the feeling that even though this isn't a short book by any means, that that is the kind of when you're talking about setting, Erin, when you're talking about that built in currency, because you already know, a lot of cues are already being provided based on different different indicators. And I feel like that's the type of vibe the author has as well. Yeah. Where this is what I'm talking about, like that scalpel developmental editing. It's like every single word is being carefully chosen. Every single sentence is being carefully crafted. And then on top of that, you've got paragraphs. So so we've talked about how, oh yeah, this book's all about choice. Oh yeah, this book in truth. Oh yeah, this book and true selves. You know, like we're talking about really amazingly deep overarching themes here that are never explicitly spelled out. hmm. They're at best hinted at. hmm.
00:57:38
Speaker
every single one of them is done fluidly and well. That's how she she does that. Yeah. Well, and you said it's not a short book and it's not a short book, but for a fantasy book, it is because it's only 300 pages, like 308 pages in my hardcover yeah written book. Yeah.
00:57:52
Speaker
And that, I mean, fantasy is easily 500 pages because of the world building typically. Well, and that's frequently you're talking about a slog of six books as well, you know? So yeah there's that. I love when authors hit that economy of language. I i liked it. A lot. So can i ask a final question, please? I mean, I think we've established that we found this a very successful so book, a good reading experience. Do you think this is a satisfying... romance novel yes i think the the cathartic ending pulled it off and i also think i agree but i also think that it's important to note that it is a successful romance novel when we understand that romance is a much broader genre than it once was and that
00:58:44
Speaker
That's a good thing. Maybe, Ingrid, I want to hear more from you because here's why i said yes, is in this case, because we know that they have done this over and over and over again and failed over and over and over again. There are moments when we learn it doesn't matter what you do.
00:59:02
Speaker
This is the same every time. And there is the period that I will not necessarily get super into. but as I said, when they made choices out of fear, That was momentarily their happy, happy ever after. And so even though the ending, i mean, we go down to the wire, right? we We go down to the wire with this one. It is not resolved until the bitter end. But because we have this prior information We actually have more vision of the future for these characters than if we did not have those, you know, multiple lifetimes of experiences and the information that we know that these things are consistent for them forever. So I guess, Ingrid, you said as long as you understand, and I was thinking more along the time lines of like, well, this has a much more literary flavor in the text. than a romance novel will frequently have but it sounded like Ingrid you were talking about it more from a romantic relationship standpoint oh no I'm talking I'm just like that the structure flavor yes I'm saying that the the same it's ice cream it's just not vanilla do you know what i mean
01:00:09
Speaker
And I think now romance, we know that it encompasses a lot more. This one doesn't feel as much like that mass market romances of yore. And i feel like often we assume that for it to be a romance that also there's an unspoken agreement that it kind of has to feel more like tension. Oh, no.
01:00:28
Speaker
Phew. Aw. Like that's the, that's it you know what I'm talking about? I feel your facial expression should go with that sound description. i'll find some gifts. This one had a lot more options in that flavor. It wasn't romancing the beets. Right. and And, but that doesn't mean that it I think that if we're really going to look at romance for what it is and what it can be and keep the door open for really cool experimentation and flavors, then yeah absolutely this qualifies.
01:00:57
Speaker
But I don't think that it feels like a traditional, like if someone said, oh, romance novels, what do you recommend for a romance novel? This isn't one that I'd be like, all right, if you want to have romance novel in a nutshell, 101, this isn't the one that I would pick. I would be like, if you want something different for a change, you've been reading a bunch of romance and you want to really like put your heart through the ringer and process relationships and time and blah, blah, blah, blah. It would be this one, Holly. So it's interesting because, because of the things that Erin was talking about, I believe they're happy ending.
01:01:28
Speaker
more than I believe the happy ending in many yeah other romance novels that I found very compelling and successful. Oh, right. Yeah. But it didn't hit me in the feels the way romances normally do. I mean, I had emotional reactions to it. i did not cry. Well, I cried because the dad. cry of relationship. Well, no I know. But like, you know, you guys know that I'm the crier yeah um and I did not cry reading this book. Yeah. But I think when I think about it, the conflict is purely external.
01:02:02
Speaker
It's not between them. i mean, it kind of, the conflict between them is very, it's understated and it's gotten at in roundabout ways, right? Like this whole section that Aaron's referred to where they're living their happy ending through fear, that is conflict between them, yeah but it's so understated and- definitely The external conflict is so focused. And I think that's why for me, I'm like, it felt different as a romance reading It's just a different flavor. yeah i But I do believe they're happy ending. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. Would you read it again? We already said that. We'd all read it again. It's not even would I. Would you do this experience again for the first time?
01:02:40
Speaker
Over and over again. Just kidding. Over and over. Next month on TSR Book Club, we will be discussing The Everlasting. The Everlasting.
01:02:51
Speaker
Just kidding. Next month on TSR Book Club, we will be reading a Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant because we have to keep TSR Book Club as weird and different each month as possible.
01:03:04
Speaker
And that's our flavor. Yes. All right. Well, if you read this and you should, you should definitely find us on the socials and tell us what you think. We are sometimes on there. blue sky and instagram ish we have show notes at smut report.com slash podcast and if you like us go ahead and follow us wherever you do that and uh anyway yeah until we talk more about books in depth next month slash catch our tumble reads in between i guess we'll just have to um keep it smutty folks na