Episode 2 Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Book Besties hosts Kelsey and Nikki start their podcast episode by warning listeners about mature content. They discuss Acrylic Picks' special edition book release and the high resale value. They mention author Raina Kent's expensive special edition set and the backlash it received. They also talk about Jennifer Armentrout's new book and a Sarah J Maas advent calendar. They express concerns about Red Tower's rushed releases and hope that Melissa Day-Lacruz's adult fantasy book is well-edited. The book is set to be released in 2025. Hi Book Besties, we're your hosts Kelsey and Nikki and this is For The Shelf Podcast. Before we get started, this podcast is intended for a mature audience. Use of profanity is a definite, along with discussions of mature sexual themes and graphic content which may not be suitable for those under 18. Listener discretion is advised. Okay, now for this week's bookish news. Acrylic Picks is doing a special edition of Crown of Niaxsia duology. This actually just launched like a couple hours ago so I was so excited that I caught it to talk about it, the podcast, especially because we just covered Daughters Know Worlds. Here's some information regarding this drop. So it's going to be one per order and the drop is going to be on August 31st at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And if you want, you can go to their Instagram and then you can check out more details about what is all going to be included. Obviously there's like a special cover, foiled edges, sprayed edges. I think there's a couple of page overlays but you can go to their Instagram and see all of that information. Is it just the two books or is it the two books and the novella? No, no, it's just the two books. The novella doesn't get enough love. And it's for $98 which honestly I think is not that bad of a price. That's really reasonable. And the resale on that, guys, is going to be a high. Once that's sold out of that original print run. Well, Acrylatex, they do multiple print runs, right? Like if they run out, they just keep doing more? I don't know if they're going to do more or if it's just going to be a one and done because it's in collaboration with Carissa. So I don't know if she's going to allow more. Because I know what they're like thrown of glass like, you know, once a year or whatever they restock. But they just got to that point where they're like consistently doing more prints. But when they first started it, it was like one and then, yeah, I think it was like one a year that they were doing it. Okay. So, yeah, if they only do one print run, that's going to resell highly. So you're going to want to get that. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. August 31st, 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on their website. Okay. The next one, a couple of these I did not tell you about because I need your just I just need your general reaction. And this is one of them. Do you know the author Raina Kent? No. Okay. I don't know who she is either. But she caused a lot of drama like this past week. She announced that she's doing special editions for her Legacy of God series, which I think is like six books or so. But that's not what got everybody all up in arms. So guess how much this special edition is. It's for all six books. They're like linen covered. And I think there's a couple of overlays and maybe some sprayed edges, some extra artwork. Like signs, you know, all the usual artwork, blah, blah, blah. Six books for a not household name author. I would say that she can't get away with more than 300. 500. Wow. $500. Does everyone know who she is and we just don't know? Like do you think? I don't think so. Because there are people that were making like stitches on TikTok talking about it. And basically everybody is like, girl, that's too high. That's way too high. That is too high. I mean, especially when we're just talking about the Acrylic Picks, Crowns of Niaxia, which is a beloved trad published series that has a bajillion reviews and everybody likes it and it's available and hard to noble and, you know, even those aren't $100 a book. Yeah. Yeah. $500 for her six book set. I think that there's like some like character art, maybe a couple bonus chapters and all. I hope that she sells them. Yeah. I hope so. We'll see. Okay. So this next one that I have, so JLA, Jennifer Armentrout is released. She just released the first six chapters of her new book, Born of Blood and Ash, a Flesh and Fire novel. And it comes out August 13th. So the first six chapters are available. Now, is this the series that's like the prequel series for Blood and Ash? Yeah. Yeah. I haven't read any of this. I haven't either because I, when it's a huge series like this, I kind of like to wait until there's a ton of books printed and then I can read them. I did that with Throne of Glass. Like I waited until the first like six were out and then I started it. So then that way I was like- Throne of Glass was so hard for me because I was reading it as they were coming out. Yeah. And then like waiting so long in between. And I'm like so odd. I waited until I knew which book was going to be her final. And then I read the six leading all the way up to KOA. And then basically as soon as I finished, I did tandem. With Emperor's Storms and Tower of Dawn. The first time I read it, I did not do tandem because I was reading it as they were coming out. But when I did my reread last year, I did tandem. And that was a lot more fun. And it was easier to get through Tower of Dawn that way. So then I like finished it right before. So everything was fresh in my mind. But yeah, so I haven't started. I own all of them. But I haven't started it yet because I just kind of want to wait a little bit. But with us going to PolyCon and it is obviously put on by JLA, I think I might have to start. So all right. This next one is another one that I kept from you. And you may have or not heard. I really hope not because I want to be the one to break the news to you. Reading Portals. Do you know who they are? No. So they're somebody that does like they're licensed and they do a lot of like special editions and things like that. They are going to be releasing a Sarah J Maas advent calendar. That's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No additional news just yet. But yeah, there's going to be a Sarah J Maas related calendar. So I would assume it would be all of her series. So it's not just like ACOTAR or Throne of Glass. Like it's her. I think maybe a mixture of like all three. But it's an advent calendar. Yeah. Okay. So the only thing that I could think of when you said that is like the LEGO advent calendars that I buy Parker every year. I'm like, you know, you open a little hole and there's like a little LEGO Santa. I thought just my mind went right away to like LEGO Rowan, which I know obviously. Yeah. Here's to see what's obviously going to be a Christmas time thing is what they release as far as possible sneak peeks. Is it going to be books? Do we know? We know nothing. We know nothing. There's no price point. It's just a surprise. It's just, hey, we're doing it. Santa, I would like that, please. Yeah. So I'm definitely going to keep an eye out. And as we get more information on it, I will obviously let you guys know. But that's all we know is that there's one that's going to be created. And I hope hopefully it actually does get created because I'm not big into advent calendars. I think the only advent calendar I've ever done is like a wine advent calendar where I get a different mini bottle of wine every day. But this will definitely be one I will want. So hint, hint, honey, if you're listening, which you better be. I want that also better be reviewing and liking, honey. Okay. So I'll talk a little bit about this not too long ago. So Blue Bloods by Melissa Day-Lacruz. I know you haven't read it. It was one of my favorites. She was one of my favorite authors like when I was a teenager growing up. Blue Bloods was one of my favorite series when I was growing up. It's like Gossip Girl, but vampires. I know you also haven't read Gossip Girl. I also haven't read Gossip Girl. But I love a little bit older than you. So the books that were popular when you were a teenager, I was in college. So I probably wasn't reading them. Yeah. But I love her. She was my favorite author when I was growing up, her and Sarah Dessen. But Blue Bloods is getting made into a TV show. But the biggest news is that she's making an adult fantasy book. And it is called Rings of Fate. And I'm so excited. And then I read Who It's Through. Who is it by? Who's publishing it, Kelsey? Red Tower. And I know what you guys are thinking. But Fourth Wing. Yeah, Fourth Wing. It was great. And then everything that they've released since. I have a sense that that one was okay. That was a Red Tower release, right? Okay. I don't think so. I'll have to double check. Okay. But all of the most recent ones that have come through have not been great. Okay. They're pretty. But they are not great. They are beautiful. Thank you, Red Tower, for normalizing sprayed edges on our original release book. We love that. But they've been so rushed. Like, they've skipped a lot of editing. For such a big publisher to release not-ready books just to be on this hype of sprayed edge, sprayed edge, sprayed edge, and know that Fourth Wing was so huge and that they were like the it publisher there for a second, it's just not an excuse for releasing books that are just not ready to be released. And that's what I think that they gave us. Unless, I mean, do you think that their whole idea is trying to pick maybe some lesser known authors? I don't know. Like, a purpose? Like, I don't know. I will be so upset if they fumble this book. Because like I said, Melissa was one of my favorite authors when I was young. And I am so excited that she's venturing into adult. I just want it to be what it needs to be. And that is a not-rushed, well-edited book. Because she can do it. I know she can. Yeah, we'll put the fives out in the universe for you to all take. It's coming out in 2025. So crossing my fingers that it is what I hope it's going to be because I will be so upset if it comes out like the other ones that just released by Red Tower. Yeah, I was not a super huge fan of Five Broken Blades. Yeah. It was fine. It was fine. Shadow. I did read that one. I did read Vasakana. That was also not my favorite. It was fine. Yeah. I don't like to say negative things about books and authors, but it was fine. No, it was just, it's not our cup of tea. That's for sure. Okay, so moving on. There's, of course, more drama surrounding the, what is never going to happen, ACOTAR TV show. Oh, I don't know this. Tell me. Ronald Moore is no longer the showrunner. No, he's the guy that did Outlander. Damn it. Yep. He's no longer a showrunner. Didn't really say why. Know that he- It's been like 17 years and nothing's happened, probably. So Hulu still very much owns, doesn't own, but Hulu is still very much who's producing ACOTAR, which is on Disney now. And Moore now works with Sony, so we're thinking that's kind of why maybe he's no longer the showrunner. I'm still upset that it's with Hulu because it's not going to be what it needs to be if it's a Disney movie, I mean, a Disney TV show. I was so hoping- Although, Hulu did The Handmaid's Tale, and that was dark. Yeah, but that was before- And that was exquisite. Was that before the merger? Yeah, Disney just recently acquired Hulu. So what needs to happen is that Hulu needs to release ACOTAR back out into the universe, and ACO needs to pick it up, and they're going to put as much attention as they put into the first however many seasons of Game of Thrones. We're going to ignore that last season. The last season does not exist. It is not canon. I think it was because there was a change of writers. Well, the writers were the same. The issue was that the books ended, and they had no source material at all, because George Martin only wrote five books. There's supposed to be seven. Come on, George Martin. Let's get on this. So while he loosely gave them an idea of how he wanted it to end, they had no written material to go on. They were just like, hey, we're going to make this up, and that's why it's not there. Yeah, we'll see what happens with this never-going-to-happen TV show. But I really don't know how- They're going to make so much money. I don't know why anyone is sitting on this. I don't know why, because I'm telling you, it's going to make so much friggin' money, not just from the people who love this franchise and these books and SJM, but the new people that are going to come across it and all the merch. They're going to make up a jillion dollars off Agathar. I think it's because of us, because her fan base is so huge, and because we're so attached to the book, they know they can't fuck it up. And I think Sarah, who should by all rights have most of the creative control, and I think she's not willing to put out something that will suck. Well, and I think, I mean, I'm sure that there's talk that maybe that's why Ron Moore is not involved, but Diana Gabaldon was extremely involved with the making of the Outlander series. So he really should have been used to that author input. I think his reasoning behind not being the showrunner, it was a Disney decision, because he works with Sony now, and so they're competitors. So I think that's why. But yeah, Disney needs to release it. It needs to go to HBO, because I honestly don't know how they're going to make all of the other, like Agathar, fine. There's spice, yeah, there's a little bit. It's not that much. That can be a PG-13 show, fine. The rest, no. It needs to go somewhere that can do that. And it's not Hulu. Anyways, it's never going to happen. One more point about that. I have seen a lot of people going on about how they want to see it as an animated show. I do not want to see that. No, no, no, no, no. I do not want to see an animated show, people. No, thank you. No, nope. Yeah, moving on. But we'll see. We'll see if anything comes about it. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. Okay, and then the final news that I have is also something I kept from you, because I'm so excited, and I know you're going to be excited. The second book in the Moonfall series, which is the sequel to When the Moon Hatched, is called The Ballad of Falling Dragon. Goodreads. Now, this is Goodreads. This has not been announced by Sarah herself. So Goodreads, right now, says it will be released in October of 2025. But that's not official. It's so far away. I know. It's so far away. I was really hoping it was going to be released either a year or before a Polycon, so that way I could have it and get it signed by her when we're there. But Goodreads is saying October 25th. I'm going to use my bookstore owner power and attempt to get an ARC from... Yes. I'm going to approach... I mean, I don't know if it would even be on NetGalley. Is that Trad published, When the Moon Hatched? I think so. No, I know it's at Barnes. I mean, I know I bought my copy from Barnes. And I've seen some of her other books there. But I don't know. I'm going to get on this. I'm going to request an ARC. Yeah, we have a theme. We have a potential release date. I don't know if that's for sure. That's exciting news. Very exciting. I knew you were going to be very excited to hear that. Okay, so now we're going to get into our review of this week's book, which is Quicksilver by Callie Hart. I know you guys have heard about it. I know you've seen it everywhere. It's a book talk sensation. It has blown up literally all over the place in the last couple of weeks. Like, you can't open an app that is somehow related to book news without seeing it everywhere. So it's the first book in the Feign Alchemy series. And it's her first fantasy novel, I believe. Yeah, she's a primarily dark romance author, at least according to Goodreads. She has 15 or 20 other titles. Yeah, so this is her first show that has been dipped into a fantasy genre. So let's talk about its current Goodreads rating. So at the time of this recording, it's a 4.5 star with 16,000 reviews currently. The book was just published, too. That's really impressive. What came out in June? Yeah, yeah. So for it to have almost 20,000 reviews and it just be a little over a month and a half old, yeah, that's quite a bit. And you can assume that that's happened in the last couple of weeks since it's blown up all over book talk. So where can you find it? So you can find this book. It is available on Kindle Unlimited. You can get physical copies. Go shop on bookshop.org to find your copy. There's also two covers. So there is the regular cover, which has Kingfisher on the front, which is the cover that I own. And then there's the discreet cover, which just has a sword and a mountain. I would assume that's his sword. Yeah. I don't remember. Nemorel. Nemorel. I'm assuming it's his sword. And then, of course, there's the butterflies that are all over both covers. So I have the discreet cover because it looked more attractive online when I was looking at it. But now that I have the physical copy in front of me, I kind of prefer the regular cover. Yeah, I like the regular cover better. I just feel like it's a little bit more detailed. I mean, it has Kingfisher on the front. I could use maybe less of him on the front. Well, his Quicksilver tear is a detriment to the cover, in my opinion. But I do. I like the font that the regular cover has. I like how more detailed even the little butterflies are. It just, to me, looks more appealing than the discreet cover. The discreet cover looks... I'm so sorry to whoever created it, but it looks like something that you would create on paint. I'm so sorry. I was going to say Canva. I'm like, someone got their Canva Pro account out, and they were like, we're going to put the wolves here and the butterflies here. I'm just... I'm sorry, guys. I'm not a fan of the discreet cover, and I'm so glad I got the original. It's interesting, though, that they had that option for a discreet and a regular cover. I don't feel like I see that very often, and I don't think... I know authors do discreet covers, but those, I think, are for books that have more suggestive covers, you know? Like, I'm thinking more along the lines of, like, romance. So, like, Willow Winters, for example, some of her covers on her books that aren't discreet have, like, a clear picture of a man and a woman in a compromising position, which then, yeah, I mean, some people would want a discreet cover, because you don't want people to know that this is a book about corn. Or maybe your monster romances, you know? You may not want people to know about your monster corn. But this book, just having Kingfisher on the cover, I feel like... No, it's not... It doesn't need to have a discreet... It's not super suggestive. Yeah. Also, we noticed the writing is different. Like, the quotes on the book are different. Yeah, the little quote on the front of mine says, strike the bargain, pay the price. Yeah, and mine says, strike the deal, pay the price. I like strike the bargain better. I feel like that was a better choice. Yeah, I do, too. You know, you're getting that fairy bargain vibe, you know? What's on the back are different, too. Mine says, do not touch the sword, do not turn the key, do not open the gate. Mine just says, devil is in the detail. Okay, so I have a problem with this. So gather around, friends. I have a bit to say about this. So at one point, we have a magical power called Angel's Breath, and we have multiple devils idioms throughout this book. Devil in the detail, she says that a couple times. If we are having a polytheistic religion with multiple gods, I don't think that these fairies know anything about angels and devils. It does not belong in this fantasy novel, Callie. The die has not been cast, sir. We'll get to that later. Miss Hart, get it together! Maybe that's why the other cover has that quote on it. Yeah, they were like, wait a minute. We have 27 different gods, but the devil? They do talk about hell. He says he goes to hell. You know, we'll get into that later. But we have lots to say. Okay, so Nikki, do you want to talk about some special editions? So I did some digging, and there was a special edition paperback with some silver foiling. It looked very similar to the Discreet cover, and it was available on the author's website, but it is sold out, obviously, because this book has blown up and everyone has run around to get a signed copy. I wouldn't be surprised with the popularity of this book if all of a sudden we start to see special editions pop up, and then Booker's Box, and so on and so forth. And I also wouldn't be surprised with this trend right now of all these indie authors whom are popular becoming trad published later on, like the Plated Prisoner series. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody picks this up for trad publishing. Yeah, I definitely see Booker's Box getting their hands on this. If not them, Owlcrate. I feel like those are the two who pick up very quickly on indie authors. You know, Owlcrate has a new subscription, I think, that's romanticy, fantasy, adult stuff. I'm not too familiar with Owlcrate. I know they used to do a lot of young adult. I think all of the big subscription boxes are getting both young adult and adult, like Fairyloot got it. I know they just released that they're doing a romanticy one, Booker's Box, for sure, which... Oh, the Faecrate one, the wait list is like 10 years old. I have a beef with Booker's Box, for sure, for changing my subscription. And I mean, I was kind of an idiot because I didn't realize. I wasn't paying attention to all, like, 14,000 notifications I was getting on it, but still, whatever, Booker's Box. Okay, so, Nikki, I read the description last week. I need you to read it because what you have to say is just perfect. Okay, so it reads blurb for the book. At the land of unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water. 24-year-old Cerys Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's Reservoirs for as long as she can remember. But a secret is like a knot. All right, blah, blah, blah. There's so much plot on this blurb, and we just need to fast forward. I'm gonna sum up. I'm gonna sum up this whole blurb. Wow, they exist, and they're supposed to be scary, and they're at war, and there's one that's really hot. We go back. Jeff has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Asian Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks, and he's the only way Cerys is going to make it home. I'm sorry, what? His attitude stinks? We couldn't think of a more intelligent way to say that? His attitude stinks? I mean, it does. There's a lot of things that happened in this book that bothered the crap out of me. His attitude stinks is a very bad one. Okay, so with this book, there are some trigger warnings. This actually comes from Goodreads, so you can actually find some of the trigger warnings directly on Goodreads. There is depictions of graphic violence and adult situations intended for 17 and up. Now, it also says that there are more trigger warnings on the author's website, but Nikki, you said you tried to find them? Yeah, I went on the website, but I couldn't find the trigger warnings. Okay. Yeah, I know that, yeah, on Kindle, it says for a list of trigger warnings, go to the author's website. Yeah, well, every time I tried to click on Quicksilver, it brought me to, like, a link to buy a new book. Okay. And not any information about the trigger warnings. Yeah, so other ones that we've just picked up throughout the book, obviously, there's war, there's gore, there's, you know... There's an exploding hand, so if that's a trigger for you. And then, of course, there is spice in this book. So there is some mature content and some descriptions and words that are used. And you know what? Some of the spice is a little kinky. Yeah. You know what I mean? So... Yeah. So that's all in there. I suppose there is also suicidal ideation. You know, by one of the main characters at one point, but it's brief. It is on page, but it is brief. Remember, mental health is important, guys, so... If you can find the actual triggers on Callie's website, let us know, and then we will attach them to this episode. All right, so we're going to get right into spice. So I have rated this three jalapeno peppers on our jalapeno scale. Now, remember, you can go to any of our social media accounts and look at our jalapeno scale and find out exactly what we think three jalapenos mean. For me, this is, you know, multiple explicit spicy scenes, use of the C word. Definitely some dirty talk. There is also a pervasive general horniness throughout this book. So even if they're not, you know, specifically talking about what they're doing with their P and their C, they're thinking about it. But still, there's definitely more pause in spice. I have so many words to say regarding... Preach. Come on, Kelsey. Regarding the spice in this book. Okay, I also gave it a three pepper. However, I want to say, I think it is very important when you're establishing the connection between the two characters, that the very first time that they get into their coming out of whatever trope they're coming out of, it's very important how you depict that first scene and the buildup to it. Tell me why. First, they're just having a general conversation where they're bickering at each other. And then he just throws in, like, I can't even remember what he said. It was like talking about her being like a dirty little slut. Oh, a bitch in heat. Yes. Yes. So they finally have their first kiss at their first get-together and she's like climbing and rubbing up on him. No, no, no, it was even before that. Really? It was before that. It was when he puts Quicksilver in her hand for the very first time. And she's like, what the fuck are you doing? This is going to kill me. And he goes, quit acting like a little bitch in heat who wants to be fucked. I'm sorry. And then they go back to just having a conversation about he's literally trying to kill her with the Quicksilver. And then he says it again. And I'm like, and then there's just nothing. There's nothing after that. No, but then they make out. No. This is all in this, yeah, when they're in the forge. And then she starts rubbing up on him. I think it's a little later than that. Oh, OK. Yeah. No, that's like the next day that that happens because she has it in her. The first time is she's trying to figure out if she can control it. And then the second day where she like climbs in his lap or whatever, it's because she knows she can. And then she has like that whole in her head. Right, right. Two different days. OK, OK, I'm sorry. But that is the first time we get that interaction between the two of them that they are, you know, attracted to one another. Besides when he's like, I can smell you, whatever. You know, that's a turn me on. Like, I know a lot of men calling me, or women, anybody calling me a little bitch in heat. That's not going to make me drop my clothes. I was so mad. I was like, why does it not belong here? Two instances in the middle of like an argument and then they just don't talk about it ever again. I was like, no, I can't. It was just like, it's literally like she just went, here's an interaction. Here's some dialogue. And then goes, spice, back to dialogue. It just doesn't, no. It didn't fit. It wasn't right. It wasn't the first way that I wanted their first interaction and more of like we're attracted to each other. We are coming together, mutually staying, like we're attracted to each other. And I understand that we're trying to, we're trying to push this enemies to lovers trope here. And we're trying to make it like, like this like angry get together. But I'm sorry, it falls flat. It was not executed. Yeah. And then when we get into like actual spice. And remember, these are, she's 24 years old. So she's an adult. He's like a thousand and something years old. Why are we using the word boob? Why are we using boobs? Come on. It's not sexy. It's not. It's not sexy. Breasts. You got, it's breasts. When you're talking about full on grown adults, it's breasts. No boobs. Nobody goes around talking about boobs and using the word boobs. I'm sorry. I can't. Maybe I'm nitpicking. Maybe I'm nitpicking here. But that just like killed it. When I got to that part and I read boobs, I was like, nope, I'm out. I'm done with this. I'm no longer intrigued in this interaction because you use the word boobs. Nope. I didn't think that some of the spikes was good. I would say that some of the spikes, despite the interaction, are kind of the highlight of this book. Yeah. You know, some of them. Maybe not this one specifically. But spikes isn't poorly written, mostly, in my opinion. Mostly, yeah. I mean, it definitely, once you got there and you got past that thing, and then like for some people, boobs probably doesn't bother them and they didn't think twice about it. The rest of it was, you know, executed pretty good. So it was fine. Like, I wasn't completely turned off from the whole thing. I was invested in their chemistry with each other. Those were just my things. Those were my things regarding the spikes in this book. So we obviously know this is an enemies-to-lovers romance. We're not spoiling anything for you. And that, as I've said before, is my favorite aspect of any of these romantic debuts. I love the journey that the characters go on to go from enemies to lovers, to getting to that sweet pepper stage. How many sweet peppers would you give this book? Two and a half. I think by the time we got to that part, it was so much later in the book and it was then kind of rushed. And then with the rest of the plot, which again, don't get me wrong, I'm happy when books focus more on the actual plot line than just making the plot the romance. So it was there. It was good. I enjoyed it. It was just on a two scale for me because I feel like we didn't get as many scenes of it. And there's one scene that we do get where they go to this apartment, right? And she walks in and he's lit all these candles for her. And she's like, oh, you did this for me? And I'm like, did what, bitch? She lit some candles. Like, what? She is so excited and so over the moon about this gesture. It's like, oh, you lit my candles! Yeah, but also think about it, where she came from, there was no chance in hell she was thinking that anything like that was ever going to happen for her. They're all candles in the desert? Why would you? It's already hot. Oh, true. True. Okay, fine. I just was like, okay, do the bare minimum, Kingfisher, whatever. But not even that they were in the desert, but because she was from such a poor place, I don't think she ever thought she was going to make it out alive. You're bringing your logic to this argument, Kelsey. You're totally right. I can see why she would be excited by somebody giving her a romantic gesture, like lighting a room full of candles, even if he did it magically. See, and I guess I'm thinking about this from, like, our plate of existence. Like, oh, you went to the dollar store, bought a bunch of candles, and you lit them? Good job, buddy. He did it magically. But even worse, he's just magic coming to existence. He doesn't even have to go to Target and buy some candles. She thought it was a big gesture. What I'm saying is I can see why. Okay, so tropes. So we know it's an enemies-to-lover. It's a forced proximity, a found family. There's another trope, but I don't know if I want to mention it. That's fair. Let's not answer that. Yep. And then, of course, one of my favorites, which is the touch-her-and-die vibes. Right. I will burn the world for you vibes. Yep, for sure. Do I think that they were really enemies-to-lovers? Yeah, kind of. Okay, I don't really want to give my opinion, because I think my opinion would be spoilery. Okay. So I'm not sure that I really felt like they were true enemies-to-lovers. I feel like she played her part. I feel like she definitely hated him. Oh, yeah. I feel, yeah. And for a reason I will get into in the spoiler part, I think she had every right to hate him in the beginning. So, yeah, I think it was definitely more enemies-to-lovers on her side. Maybe not necessarily his, but definitely on hers. Okay, so now the part that we are all waiting for. Oh, it's time for the smell report. Yes. Okay, so Kate Fisher. Kate Fisher has a smell, of course. So according to the book, he was, and I quote, cold morning air and smoke and fresh-turned earth and a thousand other complex scents. I didn't have names for him, which is fair. She came from the desert. There probably is not a lot of fresh-turned earth and, you know, cold morning air. So she doesn't know what those things smell like. We've also got, at another point, he smelled like wood and leather and spices and something green. That's a little vague. I'm going to go with maybe she was thinking grass or forest, but also could be like avocados. I don't know. Then later on, we've got, he smells like the cold dawn morning and the promise of snow. And I'm just like, okay, Rowan. I'm sorry. If anyone smells like snow, it's Rowan, and no one is allowed to smell like snow. That one's you, Steph. I want to talk about, like, a scent that he has that maybe she doesn't know a name for because she grew up in the desert. Can you talk about the other thing that really, really, really, really, really, really, really bothered me about this stuff? Yep. Yes, we can. Is it the fox? It's the fox. Okay. So she's a fox in the forest. The fox bites her, right? At first, before the fox even bites her, she's like, what the hell is that thing? And he's like, it's a fox. And she's like, what is a fox? I don't know what a fox is. We don't have foxes in the desert. And he's like, it's just a fox. It's like a little wild animal. And then she befriends the fox, right? And then fast forward to, like, a few hours later, which I presume in the book, she knows things about foxes now. Like, that they have a thousand times better sense of smell than humans do. And she knows about their fur and how it's temperature controlled. And I'm like, you spent the day in the forge with the fox. You didn't go to the library and research foxes. So how is it that she didn't know what the thing was three hours ago, but now you know all of the details about foxes? Well, taking the fox research was off page. It drove me insane. Okay, fair. The thing that bothered me about the fox was that, like, Bishop was like, let's kill it. And I'm like, why would that be anyone's first response? Foxes are cute. It's not like it's a rat or something that's like, I don't know, really gross looking. I don't know. I wouldn't be like, hey, let's kill that fox. But then he's just like, magic's a cage and some chicken bones. And it's just like, yeah. I love the fox. He's one of my favorite side characters. No, I think he's cute, yeah. I don't want to talk about her knowing, not knowing what a fox is. Just leave it at that. It's kind of endearing, though, in the beginning, if she's like, I don't know anything about foxes. That's fine. That part's fine. But then you can't just, like, magic the knowledge of the fox. Exactly, exactly. What's his name, Onyx? Yes, his name is Onyx. Which is weird because he's white. But he has a black tip here. Oh, OK. Because he's like, remember when they go to the tavern or whatever, and somebody's like, oh, he's rare because he has the black tip ears and you wanted to buy him from us? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he's like a rare, like, winter fox. He's the most special fox. Yes, and he's very, very cute. He is very cute. But the knowledge thing just drove me insane. OK, so speaking of cute things, what are your thoughts on the usage of nicknames in this book? OK, so do you say nicknames in fantasy or just nicknames, you know, from the MMC to the FMC? I mean, that's, like, in every single fantasy book. I'm not for or against it in general. I think it kind of helps us to identify who the MMC is. Because I feel like right away, he's like, oh, hey, little banana face or whatever. Sorry, that's the first thing that popped into my head. Banana face? I don't know. How's our Osha? Well, I know, but not in this instance. I was just, it's fantasy in general. Oh, little banana face. OK, so then it's kind of a little, whatever. Yeah, try to get an Asha, little Asha. It's fine. It's important later, but we can't talk about that. No, we can't. Not right this second. But, I mean, I don't know how I feel about nicknames, especially out-of-date nicknames. You know, like, it's just, I guess, like, in this instance, it was to annoy the shit out of her, which makes sense with their, like, relationship. But I can take it a little bit. I haven't had an MC. I'm trying to think of any other nickname and any other romanticy books that I've ever heard, ever. And I can't think of a single one, other than Violet, for Violet. Yeah, yeah, unfortunately. I thought that was cute. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's too important to name, because I think, yeah, it's one of those things where it's not necessarily needed. And everybody does it, but it's just a little, a little. And I do like the way that she did it, though. I like that it's not just, like, a random nickname, to have a random nickname. I like that it means something, which we'll talk about. We're not telling you what. You have to read it if you want to know, or just listen to the spoiler part of this podcast. Let's get into our characters, and let's kind of discuss what our thoughts are. I don't even care about our main characters. I like my characters way better. Okay. Carrion is definitely my favorite. Okay, but can we talk about Carrion? So, Carrion, like, literally means the decaying flesh of dead animals. That was a weird choice. It was a weird choice for a character name. But he's also my favorite character. I also like that his last name is Swift. I just, I love Taylor Swift. Okay. You get a Swift reference. Okay. So, but yeah, he's one of my, I, yeah, sometimes I wish he would have been the, one of the, I guess he kind of is, in a sense, like, one of the main characters. He's a secondary character. Yeah, but I thought it was really random how he continued through the whole book, but I'm very glad that he did. I also, I really love Loris. Yeah. Yeah, he's great. Yeah. Love him. Love him. I mean, don't get me wrong. Cyrus and Kingfisher are fine, but I feel like Kingfisher as a name, it took me a while to get used to that, and I still don't know if I like it. Well, it's actually also not an original thing because it comes from the Fisher King, which is a reference to Arthurian legend. The Fisher King was the last king to, you know, be tasked with, like, having possession and guarding the Holy Grail. Okay. So I think that maybe she was pulling different Arthurian kind of, like, vibes into this book because we have the sword, you know, the sword that's in the Quicksilver. I'm not ruining anything by saying that. Solace. So, and I think even on my Kindle notes when I got to that part, I was like, Excalibur! So I think that it's a little inspired by Arthurian legends. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't know if you picked up on it, but her name is apparently a Fae name. Is it? Yeah. Lane, Everlane says so. Oh. When they get introduced, she says it's a Fae name. Yeah, which I thought was really interesting because her brother's name is Hayden. And their other friend's name is Elroy. Yeah. I don't know if they ever said what her mother's name was. I don't remember. I don't think that they do. But yeah, so she has a Fae name and then everybody else has, like, random human names. Okay. It's like, okay, great. I will say that I do like, again, thinking back to Daughter of No Worlds, Ceres is a very strong female character. And I think especially given that she's a human who's then dropped into a world of Fae and she holds her own with the Fae, I think, you know, it's so nice because when you think about other books where it's, like, human in a Fae world, like Akatar, Ceres starts off as a very, kind of, weak character and then grows into a strong character. Whereas here, she starts off as, you know, a very, very strong character. She starts off as a survivor. Yeah. So she's had to be. She's had to be because of her upbringing and where she lives and the hardships that she's had to face just fighting for water and fighting for a space to sleep. I also like that she came preloaded with the ability to fight. Didn't have to do a training montage. You know, she just came that way. Yeah, I do. I think, you know, she's a very well-rounded character. And then obviously in the, when we get to later in the podcast, like we can talk about, you know, more things related to her. But yeah, I mean, she starts off really strong, you know, as somebody who is a fighter and a survivor and she cares about her family and she's continuously showing that. And then you see that she grows and she learns to care about more people and more things like, you know, Onyx doesn't necessarily need to be added into the book, but it shows that her ability to care about things very quickly. And I thought that that was really great because sometimes when you get into these, they don't care about Fae and Fae things. And with Cerys, she's trying to get back to her world and she's not wanting to care about things. Right. But she does almost immediately empathize with the troubles in the Fae world. Yeah. And she's like, I mean, I'm just a human, but if I can help, I can help. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, and the fact that she recognizes what her abilities are and she doesn't give up trying to learn those and she's not, you know, stomping her feet and being difficult and not wanting to like help out. And she's like, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and I'm going to do that. Yeah, immediately. But also to be fair, why would you want to return to the desert world with no water? When you have a hot Fae who's erect all the time and you've got as much water as you want and you've got these like disbound family. And I think that that, you know, leads into her morals. Like she even says she feels guilty because she doesn't necessarily want to leave. She wants to go and get the people she cares about and then come back. But she's not just a fully abandoned ship at this point. You know, she is very much still, I'm going to get back to my brother and to Elroy, even though, you know, she finds out that things are going kind of OK with her being gone. And instead of her just being, OK, well, like, they're fine. I'm just going to, you know, stay here now. She's like, no, I'm still very determined to go back and do what I need to do there. So I think that, yeah, I think she's a great, a great character. There's a lot going forward. We've got a lot of plot to wade through. We've got witches. We've got zombie vampires. We've got Seymour. We've got kings. We've got anything. Yeah, there was so much that was happening in this book that sometimes it was a little confusing for me. A lot of things that from the sounds of it are happening very quickly in moving forward. And it's just, I don't know. Well, we'll see. We'll see how it goes, I guess, in the next book. But in this book, OK, so there's lots of, there are lots of problems. There are a lot of problematic elements to this. And the thing that stood out for me the most, first of all, I am 100% that bitch. I read this on Kindle Unlimited and I am the person that while I'm reading on Kindle that I submit the grammar errors for review. I can't not. And actually, I would love to know if we have any indie authors that are listening or anyone that's on the receiving end of those errors. Like, what happens? Like, do people actually review them and change them? Like, I hope it doesn't negatively affect the author. That might. But also, when she misspelled adrenaline three times in this book, there's no way that I cannot submit that. Yeah, there were a lot of spelling and grammar errors in this book. And even though I can a lot of times move past it and I know what they're trying to say. I know what they're trying to say, but I can't. My brain stops right there. It's like, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. It's not like there was just one or two. There was a lot. The dye has been cast. I'm sorry. It's dye like dice. The part, the part, it's like rolling the dice. Like your dye, dye, D-I-E, has been cast. Not dye like hair dye or clothing dye. That is not correct. Century years. Yeah, that's not me. Century years. I'm not sure what she's trying to say in that. I believe it's just centuries, if that's what she's alluding to. But century years, multiple times, got me. Yeah, maybe it's like a plot device to make it sound more like say or something, but it really just sounds kind of dumb. Yeah, it's just centuries, you know? Like, or just say years. Or just, you know what? If you don't want to confuse anybody, say exactly how many years. No, just that. Not century and year. Same word. I mean, same thing, kind of. No, it got me. It did. There was a lot in this book. So my favorite thing to discuss about this book. I'm sorry, everyone, for this. So somewhere in the beginning, we are still in the desert world. We are with Sarah. There's a fight scene. I'm trying not to reveal anything. There's a fight scene, and this is a direct quote. She's literally sword fighting with somebody, okay? He winks at me over the top of his mask, and then he came. Bam, bam. I'm sorry. And then he came. So you're in the middle of a sword fight. So for a moment, I was like, wait a minute. Is this the MMC? Is this going to be the love entrance? Why is he winking at her and being cute and playful while they're sword fighting? Is he pretending, you know? But, and then he came. And what I think she meant to say was, and then he came at me. Or, and then he came towards me. Or, and then he attacked me. Or, he swung his fucking sword. Not, and then he came. Because, like, immediately, I was picturing him having a big O in his pants. Yeah. While sword fighting. Yeah. And then he came in his pants in the middle of the desert during the sword fight. And then he had to leave because he was embarrassed. Come on! Nobody edited that. Where are the beta readers? Yeah, and that's what, like, if she doesn't already have beta readers for an ARC team, she needs to get one. All right. I volunteer. Callie Hart. I volunteer as tribute. I will be your editor, your beta reader, for free. So that this time, so that when the second book comes around, that I can just sit back and relax and enjoy it. It can be. Without having to edit and submit my hours on Kindle. Yeah. If she gets a good editor, or she gets, you know, a good beta and ARC team, I think the second book could be so good. There's potential. There is potential in this story. Yeah. There sure is. She just needs to have a few eyes, look it over, and then make those corrections. And I don't know if she did. And if she did, if it just missed it, or if they caught it and she was like, nope, I'm just going to go with the way that it is. I don't know. But there was a lot. More than 10 instances in the book. For sure. For sure. Yeah. It got, it just, it was too much. It was distracting. It was. It was distracting. There are a bit, there's a bit of plot hole. Aside from the grammar and spelling issues, there was a lot. Again, I can see the outline and the skeleton of this book, and I can see it being so, so, so great. Yeah. And so enjoyable. And we will get more into some of the issues with the plot and the spoiler, because that's where a lot of it comes from, is especially at the very end of the book. And so we don't want to spoil it for you if you are interested in reading it. But yeah, there was a lot of issues within the plot itself. But if we were to talk about it right now, it would definitely spoil the book for you. And we don't want to do that. And we want you to form your own opinion and go read the book if this is something that sounds like something you'd like to read. Yeah. So speaking of that, Nikki, what's your take on this book? Is it for yourself? Okay, okay. So on my first reading, I gave it 3.5 stars. I think it definitely had a compulsive readability. I think I read it in, like, two sittings. And I couldn't put it down at first, but I just couldn't get past the editing. I think that because of the beginning, the opening of the book, I would have DNF'd it if I didn't have to read it for the pod. I'm happy that I continued because by around 50, 60%, I was definitely committed, you know, to seeing what was going to happen. On my second read, I was getting really pissed off because I was trying to help answer some plot questions for our spoiler discussion, and I was just getting really freaking mad because I just wanted to sit there and fudge with the say, and the spice, and the arting, and I couldn't do that. Yeah. So is this for my shelf? I don't know. I mean, I bought a copy, and I put it on my shelf. So I guess. Yeah. So I guess it's for the shelf. For me. It's for your shelf. I guess it's for my shelf. Yeah. So for me, I also put it as 3.5 stars. It definitely has a lot of potential. I think, yeah, if the errors were cleaned up, if the plot was more concise, it could definitely be an easy, like, 4, 4.5, even maybe 5 stars. For me, I got so lost at the beginning of the book. I think I remember even talking to you. I'm like, did I miss something? Like, was I not paying attention enough? Like, did she explain this already? And then by the middle of the book, I'm like, all right, I'm picking up on what she's putting down. I'm getting there. I'm enjoying the characters. Like, I'm enjoying the banter. I'm now starting to follow along a little bit better with the plot. And then you get to the end of the book, and I'm like, the hell did I just read? Am I reading the same exact book that I started? Because I don't think so. Because it just went off the deep end at the very end. And it just, I mean, I guess I'm glad that it happened at the end of the book, because if that happened in the middle of the book, I think I would have just put it down and just been like, okay, well, I guess or not, I'm just not, I'm not doing it. Because it's just, it's just too much. It's just too many things all at once to the same exact characters. No, it was 60% of the book I was, I was just not vibing with. And just the middle part, I think, I think I was. So for me, I can see why it has the appeal that it does for people that are just starting off in fantasy and just starting off in romanticy. It's, it is. Or if you're here for the spice. Yeah, I mean, I think if you're looking for something that's super easy world building wise, and like relatable characters, fine. But if you are somebody who is deeply invested in the fantasy genre itself, I've been reading it for a long time, have read lots of different authors and lots of different books like myself, you're gonna, you're not gonna have a good time. I, it's not for my shelf. I'll say that. It's not. Like, will I maybe read the second book? Probably not first when it comes out. If we decide to do it for the pod, I'll read it for the pod. I'll let you be the first one to read the book. And then you can tell me if you think it'll be for me. But this one, as somebody who... You just answered his tribute. Thanks, Kelsey. I, I think because I'm, I'm such a fan of the genre, and I've been reading it for such a long time. It's just, it's not, it's not for me. It's not a fair. And I read a lot of romanticity. Yeah. And it's, it's not, it's not for my shelf. But I can see why it would be for some, if they're just starting off in this, in this world. And that's, that is great. I'm, I'm very excited anytime anybody wants to get into fantasy. Because for such a long time, I feel like it was such like a taboo read. And it was one of those, like, you, it's like, well, I only read mystery thriller. Like, come on, that's not... And to be honest, despite my errors with the book, I'm so happy for this, you know, self-published author who's blowing up. Like, great. Good for you. You take that quick silver money and you buy yourself an editor. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm very, I'm very happy for her. But there's a reason why if I ever got around to like actively writing books, I, I know I'm not a fantasy writer. I know I can't do the genre justice. And I'm not even going to attempt it. I would love to attempt it, but, you know, to be honest, I... Yeah, nope, nope. I already know if I was trying to put something out there fantasy-wise, it just would fall flat. It's, it's, I'm not, I'm not that kind of writer. I will stick with my contemporary romance. That I know how to write. A fantasy, not going to touch it with ten footballs. But I am glad that she tried it out. I'm glad that it's working out for her. It's just not for me. All right. Well, thanks for joining us for our spoiler-free review of Quicksilver. Make sure you follow us on all our social media platforms for mini-reviews and other content in between episodes. We've definitely got a mini-review up of Belle Before the Elf Queen. And we have an Ali Hazelwood mini-review coming in the next day or so. As always, we love to hear from you. Let us know what book reviews and content you would like more or less of. Drop a review if you can. Give us some stars, Spotify, Amazon, Apple. Help me let the folks know what we're going to be doing next week. So next week, we will be discussing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. Another book talk sensation. Very excited for next week's review. I know that we already talked a little bit about her in the next book that's coming in the series. So tune in next week if you are interested in hearing our take on When the Moon Hatched. Now, we will be jumping into the spoiler portion of our review. So if you haven't read the book and you're planning to, you have been warned. It's time to leave. Bye. We'll catch you next week. Okay. All right. Okay. I couldn't wait any longer. I just need to get into the things that we can talk about. All right. Let's do it. Okay. All right. Zermate. Zermate. Duh. Surprise. I mean, come on. It's a fantasy romance book. Zermate. Yeah. It's a fantasy fae. Fae to mates. I do love a good fae to mates. But okay. And I hate to bring everything back to Sarah J. Moss. I feel like we do kind of do a lot of comparisons here. But I'm sorry. This is giving me hardcore Court of Mists and Fury energy. This is our Kingfisher of Legarma fan here. He knows Zermate. He feels the bond snap in almost immediately after Seabish was coming. He knew she was coming. And he kept it from her. He had a drawing of her. Yeah. You know. So it gave me very much. Yeah. He didn't want to. He wanted to hate her because he knew that he was already in love with her. Yeah. It's very much Feyre and Rassand in that instance for sure. Which don't get me wrong. I love that part of Mists and Fury. And I mean her take on it is fine too. But like come on. Yeah. Yeah. If you were hoping for an original plot line with the fae and the human in love. I didn't get it. I don't even think we have any original plot lines anymore with the fae and the human. They are fae to mates. You know. I did like the tattoo. So that's that was different. It's also a guitar. Oh yeah. Shit. Yeah. But these moves. And it's in the same. Yeah. All right. All right. Right. You're right. All about that. Okay. Yeah. Yep. No. It's definitely a take on ACOTAR. It's very clear to see. I mean if you're going to if you're going to take inspiration from somebody. Of course you're going to take it from our queen and savior. Our Lady Tara. But yeah. It's the one thing I will say that I did like is that the mates are unique. Because how many other fae you know mates do we see that it's uncommon. But it's so common because all of the main inside characters have mates. Right. So. So far that I can tell they're the only ones. Right. And they're god bless. So that you know. Not only. Yeah. But they've got a god blessing or like you know the gods are watching over them. And. Yeah. Wow. Okay. To our actual favorite character. I say Carrion. Um. Him being the heir? I love this. I love this. Because it's always always the female main character. It's always the actual main character. Yeah. And I was waiting for that. I was waiting for it to be revealed that she was the heir. I was going to throw my fucking book across the room if she was the heir. So when it was him I was like heck yes. It's somebody different. And it's a character that I really love. Because I was so confused why he just like was there. Like you know. Like why is he here? But cool. I mean this reminds me of. You've never seen or care about the Kardashians right? I know. Okay. He is so Scott Disick. Anybody that watches or knows anything about the Kardashians will agree with me. He's Scott Disick in this book. I freaking love it. He's fantastic. He's my favorite character. I was so so sad. I thought he was going to die. And he didn't. And he ended up being the heir. And he's like what up bitches. Like I'm back. You know. My favorite thing with him is I think she's like all right fine. I'm going to go. And I'm going to get your damn brother. And you're going to shut the fuck up about it. And he comes back with like her ex-lover. And he's like here's your brother. Yeah. And she's like oh no. I know. The mask. The mask. Like cleaning. Like the the sprites cleaning him with the mask. It was so funny to me. And the fact that like he talks about it throughout the rest of the book. And just like every female character. Or even some of the male characters. He's just like hey. Thank you Anna. Thank you Anna. Yeah. I love him. He's he's my favorite character of the whole book. He definitely is part of the reason why I kept reading. Because anytime I was getting so annoyed with Fisher and Saris. I was like oh my god. And then here he came. And he just be like like doing this thing. And I just. Little him though. I love it. And when he names his sword Simon. She's like I will forge this blade for you. And the fires of you know. Yeah. So serious. He's like. This ship is Simon to me. And he's like he likes it. He likes it. Oh my god. Yeah. I I love him. I love everything about him. Although I don't know why he really waited so long to reveal himself. I mean I'm glad he did. Because like I said he was the comic relief. Throughout this novel. But it just seems a bit like a plot hole. I don't know. I'm kind of thinking. Why was he waiting. Like from his point of view. Like why would he wait to tell everyone. He just wants to see if they're good. I mean I guess so. But I mean he sets it up. Because I think if they all knew who he was beforehand. Like that scene may have played out differently. Where they're all just like. You know standing in the background. Like he's like. Like I'm just gonna do what's supposed to happen. You know. Where in this instance. They're like genuinely afraid. They're horrified. Yeah. And so it feeds into Malcolm's ego. To like. Oh you know. I'm gonna give you guys a fuck you. And I'm gonna take somebody you care about right now. So you actually are not. Yeah. I was also waiting for Dana to double cross him. The whole time. Did you audio book or physical book? Physical book. Is that not how you pronounce it? I don't know. I actually did not look at the. I have the pronunciation. I have the book. It's right here. Yeah. I hated her. I did. I was waiting for her to double cross. That's what you get. So yeah. I was waiting for her to be like. I'm the Midian form. And I mean she's still my. I don't know. She might be. Yeah. She might be. So. But that's why I was thinking like. Okay maybe he waited. How did she get. How did she end up in this inner circle of the. I do love that. Her hand went poof. I do. I do love that. The hand went poof. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So. We've got our zombie vampires. Hated them. I kept picturing them like the cartoon version of Venom. You know like the Marvel. I've never seen that. So. Just picture like the skin tight like black situation. With rows of teeth and like one long stupid tongue. I pictured them as the zombies from The Walking Dead. I've never seen The Walking Dead. Because they're describing this book as like. One of them's their jaws hanging off. Like they are like missing skin. And like they're sometimes just bones. Like they're in all sorts of different state of. Tongue and teeth talking. Yeah. I don't know. I just. I just pictured them. You're totally right. I pictured them as the zombies from Walking Dead. But like with really sharp teeth. And like claws. Because they had claws. So. Yeah. That's how I pictured them. Revisals I hated them. Yeah. Okay. So. Pictures Madness from the Quicksilver. Okay. So. It's just so convenient. That you know by the end of this book. They have kind of figured out a way. And they're going to solve it. And it's going to be fine. Right. Because the healers figured out ways to like pull the Quicksilver out. Yeah. Her. She's such a. Kind of a big part of the end of the book. And they're just like. Yeah. Okay. Here she is. I'm like. What? Yeah. Like we get. Just a little tiny back story. Of this person who's supposed to be the strongest ever. Well. Was it the witch that figured it out? I thought it was Taylana. No. I think it's the witch. Okay. Figured out how she could. Because Taylana. Yeah that makes more sense. Because Taylana was there the whole time. She kept trying to like. She knew how to like help him manage. Like this. The madness. But the witch is the one who's like. I think I can. Oh. And they're just like. Just showed up randomly at one point. Wait. So that's just like. Yeah. The sex machina that's at the way. Yeah. No. I feel like. If I like. We can take away from the 57 plot lines. That. Yeah that's great. We still have 30 other ones that we can follow. Yeah. But like. That's what I'm talking about. Is. She has. Seven different plot lines. For herself. Couldn't just like. Leave one of those out. And like actually talk about like. This witch queen. Or she's not the queen. But like. She's the most powerful witch. Don't man. Or like. Maybe. You know. The power whatever. Yeah. Maybe take some pages. And show how they. How they. You know. Brought her to come. Because. The little bitch fay. Went and like. Screwed it up the first time. And so then. Fisher went back. And then all of a sudden. He like. Appeared three hours later. And here she walks in. And then like. We don't get. Oh you know what I just thought. I wonder if he made some kind of like. Bargain or like. You know like. Some kind of like. If you do this. We'll do that. And it's gonna. Kind of like alien. Like it's like a plan. That's gonna come back later. I don't know. It's just like. Popped in my head. Being like alien. Where he has like. All of these plans. But he won't share them with anybody. I'm gonna. No. You'll let me know. You're gonna read. I'll let you know. I'll read the second one. Okay. Speaking of vampires. I'm so over vampires. I'm so over vampires. And fantasy. There are. Again. At the end of the book. So many different plots. That are happening. So one. All three of them are in cahoots together. Kind of saw that coming. It's Halliday and. Oh. Oh you mean the. The vampire king. The human king. Yeah. Yeah. So Malcom. Belkin. And Madra. Are all together. Yeah. They call each other brother or sister. I don't know if they're really related. Or. I don't think that'd be possible. Because one's a human. You know what? I don't know. But. I don't care. So. There's a scene. Where Fisher. Guts Belkin. Right. And then they think that they kill him. And then. He comes back. When they're in the. Like in the maze. Or whatever. And he's like. You thought you could kill me. To kill me. To kill one of us. You have to kill all three of us. And then. Sarah's like. Somehow. You know. I mean she chops. Malcom's head off. And then it. Turns into blue smoke. Which is a whole other thing. I was like. Are you fucking kidding me? Blue smoke. Fine. And then he dies. So what was with the whole speech. That Belkin. I try. I tried so hard Kelsey. I tried so hard to reread the end of this. So that I could provide that answer for you. But I got so annoyed. That I. Don't think that there. Didn't. Is an answer. Because. That's a whole. That's a plot hole. He says. You can't kill. Unless. Unless. Malcom magically reappears. Maybe that's something to do with the fact that he drank. Um. Carrion's blood. And it like. Weakened him or something. Maybe it like. I mean I guess so. I don't know. Because I mean. After he drinks Carrion's blood. He says to her like. Oh well. You can fix me. Because like. You're so much powerful. Like you can do more things. Than like. Than just the Quicksilver. Because of all the runes all over her body. And he's like. You can restore me. And like. Make me stronger. But yeah. I mean it's just like. But if that's the case though. Shouldn't Belkin have died? I don't know. It was a plot hole. Because then of course. They like. And I can find out again. I didn't. I didn't care. Madra and Belkin just like. Run away. Don't know where they went to. But they just ran away. And then. Okay. Let me talk about. How. How. How do you. I think it's Palladaeus. Palladaeus. Is good. He's a good guy. Yeah. Yeah. He definitely was. He definitely had some. Like behind the scenes planning. Friendship with Kate Fisher. Yes. That was obvious. Okay. I don't know. Well I mean. It was obvious to me. That they kind of had. They've had some kind of friendship or bond. Or like. You know. Through maybe mutual hatred of Malcolm. Whatever. Yeah. It's not a friend. The first time that he shows up. You don't get that vibe. And I guess maybe you're not supposed to. I don't know. And then. And then yeah. All of a sudden he's good. And he cares. And you know. Like he. He fights her. And turns her. And then. She's the. Gonna be the fucking queen now. I thought that was kind of cool. But. Here's my. My question with that. So. I think it's cool that like. Succession goes. If there's not like a child. Or a designated heir. It's whoever kills you. So great. She kills Malcolm. And. She wakes up. And she's like. What? What's happening? And they're like. Hey. Guess what? You're the vampire queen. I thought that was kind of cool. But my big. Big question is. Does that mean now that the theaters. Somehow know to listen to her? I don't know. She's like. How am I going to control theaters? She does. I don't know. Okay. I don't know. But I mean. It's just. At that point. At that point. Because that's the last sentence. Of that book. I was so over it. I was just so done. Because. Can we talk about the other part. To this book. That made. No sense. Where she goes. And talks to the god. And he. The god of chaos. Just. Yeah. And he's just like. Oh well. You see this tree. And this is that. And like. It reminds me of fucking Marvel. With their. All their multiverses. And like. That's so funny. Because all I could picture. When he was talking. Was Russell Crowe. When he played Star Lord. Not Russell Crowe. Kurt Russell. Plays Star Lord's dad. And you know. He's the god. That's like. You know. And that's all I could picture. Was like. His face. Talking. Yeah. That's cool. I can also picture the same thing. Because I haven't watched a lot of Marvel things. But my husband is like. Unhealthily obsessed with Marvel. So I learn all this information. That I'm like. Yeah okay. Whatever. I'll listen to you. I don't know. So Loki. And then there's this thing. With Marvel and the TVA. And it's like. They control all the timelines. And that's all I could think about. The entire time. This whole situation. Oh okay. I see where you're going with that. Yeah. And then like the tree. And then this is dying. And then like. Okay. She was supposed to be fae. So the drawing of her. Made. Was accurate. But then like. He plucked her. And made her a human. And then. Trying to keep them apart. Yeah. And then he realized. Like that wasn't going to work. Because they were always. Going to come together. And then now he's like. Well now you're a thing. That doesn't exist. But you exist. But you don't exist. So now she's going to be. He makes her fae. So she's like a created fae. But she's half fae. Because now she's also. Turning into a vampire. Yeah. But he. Okay. So she gets bitten first. Yeah. And then he's like. Hey come to the six silver. Into my god living room. And let's talk. Yeah. And that's again. So he's like. We're going to create. A new species. A new thing. So that the rest of the gods. And the fates. Can't see you. And manipulate you. He like looks her. Basically. From what I gathered. He like. Puts her on the timeline. He moves her from the timeline. From the timeline. And you know. Puts her. So that nobody else. Can see her. Like he can't see her. None of the other gods. Can see her. She's unfated basically. Like she. She doesn't have a fate. Nobody knows. What's going to happen to her. Except for her fated maintenance. See I don't even know. I don't even know. So she's not only. Now half day. She's also not only. Half a vampire. She's also. Something that technically. Doesn't exist. But she exists. So I think the thing that doesn't exist. Is the half vampire. Half day. I think that's the thing. And so now. It's on her. To make sure. That the tree of life. Multiverses or whatever. Don't die. But she has no idea how to do that. Because she. No longer has a fate. But now she's a vampire queen. Pick one. Callie. Pick one. There can only be one. I'm sorry. No that's fine. Like I don't. That. You've summed it up perfectly. My friends. Yeah I don't. I don't care. I don't care what happens. Sorry. I'm sorry Callie. I'm just. I don't know. Again. I think if it was. One of those things. Occurred. Fine. I'd follow along. I'd be very invested. But. Halfway. Like pick one. Okay. Like pick one villain. One villain to defeat. You know. And then we defeat that villain. And then there's another villain. That's fine. That's like how every fantasy novel goes. Yeah. But you've got all these hurdles to jump. And now. I mean I see where they're going. So she's the vampire queen. And now they're going to have to. I'm assuming in the second book. It's going to be this journey to. A. Her. Figuring out how the hell she's going to be the vampire queen. And then I'm assuming Fisher's going to be like the vampire consort. But. Now they're. The second plot point of the second book. Is going to have to be putting Carrion. On the throne. Because he is the lost heir. And replacing Bellicant. So do we no longer care about Quicksilver? Do we no longer care about opening the portal to all those realms? Making the relics? Do we no longer care about Hayden and Elroy? Like. What is. Okay. But. What is the first most important thing here? What are we doing here? Like, well, what's what's going forward? You know, that's is my problem with the book is. You are left with more questions than answers. And yet how is she going to tackle this? Every book going to be. Cerys solving one problem. That's what I'm saying. Like, give Cerys one goal. One job. One thing to do. Have some of these other characters be the ones that have to do whatever, whatever. But she's the only alchemist. Is she even an alchemist? Because she's no longer human. That was a human thing. She's now half gay. Half vampire. And that's just going to take her alchemy powers away. Who's going to do the thing? Exactly. But that's what I'm saying. We don't like. How is this? How is this going to work? Like, there's just too many questions. It's almost like she took a bowl. A mixing bowl. And was like, I'm going to throw in this. And I'm going to throw in that. And I'm going to throw in this. And like all these ingredients. And it's just too much. Yeah, it's way too much. There's too many things going on. I'm overwhelmed. As a reader. And it doesn't make me want to continue. Because it's too overwhelming. There's too many things to try and remember and grasp. And they all happen at the same time. She almost could have turned this into two books. Yeah. OK, can we normalize like the first book in a series not being over 600 pages? Yeah, this is a big, chonky boy. Yeah. This took like hours. Hours and hours to read. Yeah, this and 603. And 609. OK, maybe. FYI. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Maybe mine's different. I've got a different pull quote on this one. But it's over 600 pages. And that's a lot for the first book in the series. It is. And same thing with When the Moon Hatched, which we're going to do next week. That's a huge one, too. That's like a brick. Yeah. You could knock someone out with that book. That size should be second to last, last book, maybe. I don't know. When you're established and everyone wants to, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's too much. Too much with the first book. I feel exhausted. I feel exhausted after this book. I feel exhausted after talking about this book. Because it's an exhausting book. OK, before we wrap up, anything else that you want to say regarding this book? Oh, I feel like I've said so much. Yeah. OK, I'm going to share. Yeah, I am. You know what? Bear with us another couple minutes, guys. I know this is a long one. So I'm just going to share my Kindle Unlimited, my notes journey with you. So I have a huge problem in the beginning where she's talking about how the water in the district, how they filter out the solids, but they're still drinking sewer water. A, that's fucking disgusting. But B, that is so not possible. Because if the humans are walking around drinking shit water, where they've just removed, like, the shit logs from it, then they would have mouth sores and they would be dead. You would be dead. That's just unrealistic. That's the goal, is for them to die. And remember, she talks about, like, oh, I have the rattles, which is like their version of a disease at the very beginning. Oh, yeah. So they say the third, like, the third wheel or the third spoke is the playing board. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that's the pullback from the beginning. I don't know why we needed to world build all of this, like, human world, desert world. We spent a lot of time there, spent a lot of time world building, and it just did not really have that be important in the second slightest in the other pages of the book. It's not even on the map. The map is only of the Fae world, because I went looking and I was like, I'm very curious to see how this spoke, this wheel works. And it's not on there. It's just it's just the Fae world. Same thing with, like, the pronunciations. It's only for all the Fae characters. I mean, yeah, Hayden's not that hard to figure out. But like, yeah, it's like she put in so much effort and she's like, but I don't really care about them. Yeah, it's just like, why did we why did we need all that? Yeah. Why do we need to sponsor that? Yeah. Yeah. Again, a lot of things that I think should have been cleaned out of this book, and it would have been so much better. There's also a point where she's commenting that someone's bed, I don't even know who it is at this point, because I'm not looking at my actual Kindle. I'm just looking at my nose. But someone's bed, she makes it a point to say that the bed smells like muskrat. It's just random. She's like, oh, well, his bed smells like muskrat. Is there a muskrat problem? What is the point here? I don't know. What is the fucking point? I don't know. These are just like the little things that got me. Yeah. I could go on and on, but I won't because you have other things to do than listen to me bitch about this book, guys. Seriously, I could go on. Yeah. So that is going to be our review of Quicksilver by Callie Hart. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and listening to us rant and rave about this book. Let us know in the comments if you have any opinions, if this book ends up being for your shelf. Maybe it's not for your shelf. And again, let us know if there's anything else you want to hear us talk about, any recommendations for books you would like to hear on the podcast. And again, tune in next week for our discussion of When the Moon Hatched by Sarah Parker. All right. See you next week with Bethes. Bye, guys.