Welcome to the romantic Z fan girls podcast. Melina and I are so excited that you're here. You're already a subscriber to the show you are awesome. Honestly, your support means more than you know. And if you just stumbled upon our little corner of the interweb over here, hello. Make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button, we release new book deep dives every Tuesday. Okay, time to get lost in a world of magic, romance and adventure. Let's go. Welcome to the romantic Z fan girls podcast where Charlie and Melina were cousins, self professed book nerds and unapologetic romantic sci fi and girls. Each episode we bring you an in depth summary of a few chapters from your favorite fantasy romance books. After that, we get to the juicy and spicy parts, which includes chats about characters, unpacking fan theories, and more. Before we dive in, we do need to go over a few ground rules so please listen closely. Most importantly, these episodes are very spoilery. But don't worry, not in a leftover food sort of way. In a let's get down and dirty into the details way and not just for Crescent City, but for all of 30 Masters other works including avatar and Throne of Glass. So if you don't know why we're still crying every time we see pixie memes on social media, go finish the first two books in the Crescent City series and come back to us we'll still be here. Next, whether you've fully gone down the rabbit hole of romantic Z or just starting to dip your toes in, you're probably aware that these books are not always appropriate for younger eyes and ears. With that being said, This podcast is rated our Melina and I are adults. We love to read and chat about adult books. And we do use adult language on here. So if you're not into that, it's totally cool. But this isn't the podcast for you and our favorite pronunciation. We will not be held responsible for mispronouncing any of your favorite characters, places, spells, foods, etc. So please do not come at us in the comments on social media, or give us a flat rating solely because of pronunciation. And lastly, before we jump into houses lemon Chateau episode two if you really love what we're doing here on our mantasy fan girls and you want to support us, please check out our Patreon or you can show a one time gift of support through buy us a coffee. We have two membership tiers within our Patreon. The first is the drop or for just $5 a month you get access to our awesome discord community can participate in live monthly q&a is with Melina and I and get special discounts on our fantasy fan girls merch which is coming soon. We also have our Starborn tier which were just $10 a month includes everything in the drop. Plus early access to both the audio and video versions of our episodes are full episode outlines and shownotes. They're seriously like 30 to 40 pages long and literally take us hours to write bloopers and so much more joined today@patreon.com backslash mantasy fangirls. Or you can check out the link in the show notes or our YouTube captions. And regardless, Melina and I just want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who has ever listened to an episode, shared it with your romantic besties or left us a rating and a review. We are seriously so grateful to be able to do this and love being a part of the bookish community. And now it's time to dive in. Yeah, so Molina is going to take over our chapter summaries this episode. So we are once again doing two through six.
Right, let's get into it. Alright, so here's our anchor our chapter summaries starting with chapter two. So Etherion is now an MMA fighter for the Viper queen. We find him beaten and bruised after his latest fight in the meat market. So he shares a bathroom in his apartment suite with Ariana de. Is that how you pronounce it?
That's how I say it. Yeah, great.
Okay, that's what we're going with. Here we go. Ariana is a dragon shifter and one of the best fighters that the Vype Queen currently has on her impressive roster of slaves.
Yeah, and if you guys remember from the for the Ariadne has been trapped for a long ass time. Before she was with the Viper queen she was trapped inside a ring worn by the astronomer.
Correct. So theory Ian's been spiraling ever since core Max death which happened right in front of his eyes at the lab at the end of House of sky and breath and his whole debacle with the river Queen's daughter and calling off the engagement. So on top of that, he's now also addicted to the Viper Queen's venom, as are all of her slaves outside wandering the soles of the meat market is our favorite boy group boy band here. Ethan Flynn, Declan, Mark Jacqueline's boyfriend and Sigrid the fender Alfa That Ethan rescued from the astronomer's mystic tank where she was serving as a mystic for him.
Yeah, and SJM reminds us here that her father's sacred father was the primary parent and also Sabines brother. But currently the circumstances around her sail to the astronomer and how she got there are unknown at this point.
Right. So the boy band here is trying to figure out how to not only rescue hunt rune and vaccine from the Eternal City, dungeons, but free Ferien and find Bryce so not much on their plates at all. Yeah. So Ethan determines that they need therians help as a way to get on the depth charger, which is one of the ocean queens. Remember, she's the sister to the river queen that Ferien defected from one of the ocean Queens memberships that can cross the ocean unnoticed to get them to the eternal city to Prison Break Huntron and backscene. But before they get a chance to try their their shot at getting a meeting with theory and through the Viper queen, Ethan catches a scent of wolves converging on them in the unprotected market. Done.
Yeah, so Chapter Two was kind of weird for me, I think because like, I just never imagined Darien being like this low. I mean, he I think in House of Earth and blood and House of sky and shadow, like sky and breath. He was just so kind of solid, like he just knew his place in the world and to see him just pletely strung out and thinking that he's never going to have a future that was kind of tough to read.
Yeah, that's a really good point. I think this was Yeah, as we as we've caught up with him here. I mean, this is us real low point for him coming so far from the confident kind of swagger e mail that we knew before to strung out he's really kind of apathetic about everything, and just really, really down on himself. Yeah, this is a huge shift from from that earlier male character that we knew. Yeah,
and I love this is the first time we're seeing the whole boyband as you call it, which I love. In houses, Lehmann shadow, and these guys just cracked me up the whole time. Just their thought process is like, who goes into this thinking like, oh, yeah, we're gonna, you know, get their hands help. You know, basically jailbreak him from the Viper queen. Also, let's find brace also let's Prison
Break the break the other. Yeah,
I love that confidence issue.
Right, like, okay, good. I love that. Those are three minor things on our to do list for the day. And they're just sitting in the meat market planning. Literally, they're a boyband, there is no other way to describe them. So yeah, I love that. Oh my gosh. So switching from them. Then chapter three. We're back in Perth in with Bryce still in her cell in the hewn city, being questioned by Rhys as an Amarin. And they want to know why she's there in prison, and why she has the language tattooed on her back. Remember, we talked about in episode one. It's the same lettering as the book of breedings has so Amarin and this is what you mentioned in episode one. Amberlynn tells her rise to go get Nesta and he just immediately is like, okay, whatever you say. Yeah,
he's just such her bitch and I love it. Like
it's amazing. It's amazing. I love like you we all know those couple of women who just like it is a complete vibe and ever I'm sure I'll drop whatever I'm doing and it's just there's no nonsense love and I like
to think that we're those women but we're probably not. I'm
too goofy. I think I am and then I'm gonna get goofy about it.
So rise returns with Nesta and she's in her Illyrian fighting leathers. Love that note, thank you. And she says to the group, quote, there's something made capital and made on her beyond obviously the star sword that she fell into Pythian with and nessa confirms it's the tattoo. It's Bryce's tattoo. So Bryce doesn't know what capital M maiden means, and will reveal nothing to them out of caution. She only wants to know where they've taken the star sort of, but obviously they don't tell her. So as Bryce spends time alone in herself, she knows that even if she gets some answers on this world, she won't be Gotta get back to mid guard without someone to power her up, quote unquote, and activating the horn in the process. She also doesn't know if she needs a gate to get home. Because where she landed in this world, she didn't land near a gate, they there was only gates in mid guard. Um, so she's contemplating that her only consolation of being here is that the dagger truth teller is here, which seems to fulfill the prophecy, quote, When knife and sword are reunited, so shall our people be. So
I was I'm still trying to like, I don't know, I'm still trying to put all this together because I feel like SJM puts Bryce like you said in a place where she's not even she doesn't even know if there's gates there. So she doesn't know that she can get back. And then she also though is like, given this purpose, or figures is purpose out though. I you know, I am here in the place where the knife is. So like the wheels just kind of start turning for her at least that's in my head with what happened.
Yeah, I, I think there's so I think there's so much and Sarah always does this to us, right? There's so much going on here. Even if we don't know exactly what it is we can tell it's, it's leading us to something else. Yes. So Meanwhile, back in mid guard, the boy band are trying to get out of the market with say greed and the three sprites and somewhere safe because we know we now know the wolves are converging on them. Just as they push open the door to a side alley, there stands to beam and her sights are set squarely on her niece agreed.
How does the bean always know and are? I mean, I feel like I don't know me reading this. I figured like the Viper Queen already knows that this whole crew is there because she never not knows what's going on in the market. So I'm thinking, you know, she kind of called it into Sabine. Not that Sabine doesn't always necessarily know where her pack is, but like I'm thinking the two of them kind of are in cahoots and she's shining a bright spotlight on them going your cruise over here. Oh,
I like that a vibe Queen tip off to Sabine. Right. We know it's been stated multiple times throughout the series. The Viper Queen always knows what's happening inside the boundaries of of her court. So interesting. All right, like that. All right, so that's where Chapter Three ends. Then chapter four. We're back in the prison of the Crystal Palace, with Hunter rune and baxi and even through hunts, extreme pain and state of semi consciousness. He's only thinking of his mate, his wife, his princess Bryce, swallow. Okay. No, thank you. I
don't think I think my husband would be like, I'm thinking of food. I'm thinking of this. I want to get down from these shackles.
As somebody who knows that loves your husband dearly. I don't disagree with that.
Like, she'll be fine. We'll find her later.
Right. Give me a snack first. Yeah, to be fair, I feel like a snack would be first on my priority list.
To Shay. Yes. Sorry,
future partner of mine. Y'all are out of luck. So, right. So hunt still thinks she's in hell. And his only goal is to stay alive long enough to buy her the time she needs to figure out how to get Hell's help to defeat this theory. But he's also drowning in his guilt about the whole situation, telling himself he should have seen it coming. We're seeing that we're seeing that guilt. That guilt come up to the surface for sure. But then as the other to kind of slowly awaken after their latest speeding. Rune makes a joke to angels and a Fae prints walk into a dungeon. And soon they're just the three of them are just hysterically laughing because what else is there to do and the situation truly, I think at that point, you're just there's nothing to do but laugh really? Yeah.
And we'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode but I that was one of my favorite lines from this whole chapter. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. Colic soon arrives and is accompanied by the hawk this time. He tells them to shut the fuck up and that rooms father has disowned him. The males continue to just blatantly defy the hammer and the Hawks threats of more punishment. But the shitshow begins a new Wu Tang thinks that he's hallucinating at this point, because of the torture, because he sees something behind the fireplace, Something darker than shadow older and watching them. And he assumes its death. So that is not a positive thought.
Yeah, did you? I mean, we'll get to what it was, but I did not. I did not guess right. Did you
know? I thought it was gonna be? Yeah, we can get to that then. But when there's death, I always just immediately assume like it's something related to Nesta. So, Okay, interesting. All right, we'll get to that. We switch to runes point of view, then where he's on mental raft sort of in this sea of pain, hearing his call sign night, being called from somewhere far away.
So he hears day say, God's What did he do to you? To which he then answers nothing you haven't done 1000 times yourself, and describes her as the most beautiful female he'd ever seen. But she was a flawless mask over rotted heart. And I just thought that that line was, yeah, that was really powerful.
Yeah. And he's still grappling with the fact that his father and Morvan disowned their sons. And though that shouldn't shock him, he always sort of held on to this scrap of hope that his father saw the isteri for what they truly were. And now he knows that hope is dead, and he knows that his father is a spineless coward, which is my theme of the Fae kings in chapter in episode one. So yes, I'm with him on that day, tries to talk to him wants him to understand why she did the things she did. But he tells her to save her sob story for someone who gives a shit and rolls off the mental raft back into the sea of pain. I'm
dying at this point, like I just need them to make up and be happy, right?
Like what a way to start off this book. I'm like, oh, okay, like thank you for making me wait two years for this and I am horrendously depressed now. We're on chapter four. I've nothing exciting or happy to happen.
Thank you going well going
well. So chapter five. Then we're back with Ethan and then Sabine, Ethan, the boyband and Sabine in the meat market. Sabine tells Sigrid she knew her brother's beans brother had let her find him and her agreed sister too easily, and that he had lied about how many pups he had. So she promises Sigrid, she'll make this quick quote like she did for her sister. Remember,
they agreed went into the astronomer's tank for her sister. But then Sabine ended up killing her sister and Sigrid is hearing this for the first time. Oh,
this is now I mean, this is culminating into a serious serious issue. Ethan's for threatening to go to the authorities Sabine saying Sela Steena and isn't going to care and neither is the autumn king. He wants a clean slate for the ball barn say. So. Sigrid and Sabine exchanged a few more threats and then say greed is just just loses it and leaps for Sabine Declan fires his gun at the same time as Flynn unleashes a second shot. And then we find out decade four Sabines need to just kind of incapacity. Flynn's shot, blasted Sabines face clean off.
I was shocked reading that, like I was not expecting that.
That I literally paused that that threw me. I was not because again and we talked about this last episode, this is a level of violence that I don't think we've we've really, I don't know, it feels different for some reason. Yeah,
it definitely feels more adult than even new adult. This book does for me. I had to read that line a couple times because I thought they can't really have said that like her face is blown off. I just I don't know it was a very big pivot for me from previous books. Well,
I think to the interesting wafting off to get into this then is the healing the level of healing that these these Fe can do and shifters can do on mid guard. I think very different than what we've seen. Pass Ian's wings were shredded, right you can Knack guitar, and we had to have the healer he'll him, he didn't regrow his wings, hung space has chopped off and his or re growing. So I think that in a very weird way allows for the violence to be more intense here. I don't know, I
didn't think about that. I mean, that's a good point. And we'll talk about it in the drop and the ascent where we talk about characters and stuff. But that is a good point. Because I really think like in the other books, and the other theories, when people if this would happen, if somebody would get their face blown off, like they, they're just rip, right like you're not coming back from that. Right.
So off to off to dive into that later with the others begin running for the end of the alley to make for the boats. But Ethan's wolf instincts, he's seeing his current alpha on the ground, and he just yells to the rest of the group. He can't make himself move, he tells the rest of the group to stop, and then he hears something behind them. And the Viper queen now appears. So now we've gone from regular deep shit into even deeper shit. Perfect. The boy band is doing well. Yeah,
their plan is working perfectly. Oh my god, do we expect anything loves?
No, no, we did not. Thank you for asking. Now, we switch back to Lydia's point of view at the Crystal Palace where she's asking Regulus to allow her permission to get Erath This is that
I say read. Even now I can't even say Oh, I don't know. It's one of those words that when I'm reading a fantasy book, I just skip over because I'm like, Yeah, I just mumbled something. And like
the first part. You get like the first part of the name and then you're done.
That's what let's call her this spray queen. Oh, perfect. Perfect.
So she's asking to get permission to get Erath is to motivate athalon. That's the That's her reasoning behind it. So as Lydia tries to convince him, they're making their way down there in the Crystal Palace, even lower than the level of the dungeons where the three males are being kept to an iron door. And that trigger I was like, oh, iron, I know that that's important. Yeah, Regulus uses the power of his hand to open. So they enter into a heavy humid room, where 1000 Duncan tubs are submerged into the stone floor, shining with a pale light that illuminates the floating bodies within them. So obviously, these are mystics and then before these mistakes before the machines we meet a withered humanoid form, named just simply the Mistress of the mystics. Lydia doesn't think that she has any other name.
Yeah, and I looked back through the chapter when we were making this outline but I don't think we I think that's just what she's called. Yeah,
I think that's all we got. Love that for her. So Regulus tells her that they tells the mistress that they have need of Erath this the current sprite queen, Lydia tells Aerith is that she needs her help with interrogating three prisoners, and she silently agrees. Regulus says to Lydia you have one week with her. So now we're jumping back to Parthian. Meanwhile, Bryce is still in her cell contemplating how she got herself into the situation. A lot of people are doing that currently, I believe, and how she's going to get herself out. The whole time that she's been in there. We know there's the grate in the middle of the floor. And the whole time she's been in there, she's been hearing this chorus of hissing from the beasts underneath. So she figures out trying the door and there's that wall of impenetrable night. So she figures out the gray is their only way to go to get out. And so she removes it and looks into the pit below. And then with her starlight, she sees a pit full of so Beck's or their dark twins she, as she calls them, and she that she has pretty much no other choice so she decides to chance it for everyone that she loves and teleports into the pit.
And the I'm going like I would just sit in my cell and not go into that pit like I would just say sorry, folks. You're on your own. I'm not going down in there.
I would totally depend on I think for me I see You'll look at one at some point I would get antsy, like I'd get. I get mad and get antsy about it. But I also don't and it's it says she only has a narrow ledge to teleport to, like, you mess this up and you're going to be eaten by the sub x like, love, love that. That's gonna go well,
so yeah, probably about a month ago.
Yeah, not not my first choice, but I'll
be sitting in the cell you can go down and come back for me.
I'll come back for that is that that tracks for our personalities. That's fair. Then we leave for ice we come back to the boyband who's been apprehended by the Viper queen and brought back to the suite with Syrian and Ariana que Ferien is completely strung out on the Viper Queen's venom. And the guys Ethan and Flynn and DEC plead with Darien to help them. Try and rescue hunt and rune and backscene from eternal city, but he says there and says there's no escape. He's just pretty much apathetic about it. Then we do we swap back to Bryce, who is teetering on the rock ledge. Down, she made it she made it. beneath her cell were a mess of Sobiech like creatures are hissing and writhing underneath her. And we've she figures out that her STAR homes, the creatures and they settle. And this is a quote that caught my attention, quote, as if her emotions were there. And then the star also acts as a compass, so brightening, in which direction to tell her which direction in the tunnel to go.
I thought that was really clever. I thought that was really cool.
I liked that. I thought that was really neat. So we end chapter five. Well, a lot happened in this one, back in theory and sweet, where Ethan is just disappointed at how much the mayor has let himself go. And fairy and pretty much just tells them that they can't help and he can't help and falls onto his bed in a drugged out state. So that's
a thing. Live. Yeah. And I felt like this was the first time in a SJM book that we really saw, like blatant consequences of drug use. Obviously, she talks about drug use in House of Earth and blood, you know, with Danica storyline and everything. But like, we really didn't see Danica using on page or like, you know, the effects of it on page. And so again, back to that whole, like this is has a very adult themes in it. And I think it just maybe Stram has, I mean, I think we all have family members, or at least know somebody that is going through this type of situation. And I really, as much as it pained me to read it. I appreciated her bringing that characterization into it. Right?
Right. Not sugarcoating it and not putting like a positive spin on it. Like there are rock bottom times that in that people hit and that's a valuable thing to be able to bring in front of people. So because that's their that's their truth. That's what they're living right then. So I agree that was really important. And our last chapter for this episode that we're covering chapter six. So Bryce has gotten down off the ledge and she walked through the pit of so back like creatures and made it into the tunnel where her Starlight directed her for behind a gate that is too small for the subjects to squeeze through, thank goodness. But she kind of gets settled and is just so exhausted, she falls asleep. And she wakes up and is startled to find Nesta standing over top of her. And Nesta tells her that she's been sent to escort Bryce. So I love that because we all know love rise always has like 18 cards up his sleeves. So right there's there's no sneaking around him really though, after they walk for a little bit and then after trying to escape Nesta using a burst of Bryce's starlight. She finds herself at the sharp end of ataraxia and realize that her Starlight has caused to cave in. So there's no way back the way they came. They have to move forward. Bryce tells Nesta she feels like our star is guiding her somewhere for a reason and she needs to follow it. So Nesta agrees. And since they can't go back, they might as well see where this tunnel leads. And that is how we got to chapter six.
These tunnels I'm telling you, we'll get into that in a minute but oh my god, I just did Is this
the start of your the start of your tunnel saga?
Yeah, my claustrophobia?
Yep. That's very fair.
That's a lot. A lot happens though. I mean, some of the chapters were shorter than others. Obviously, there's a lot that happens.
Yeah, absolutely.
If you love our mantasy fan girls and want to support us and making this dream, our livelihood, if you want more bookish content, more community, discounts on merch, Early Access, and ad free episodes, five monthly q&a is with us book bingo and more, please check out our Patreon, we have two membership tears, the drop and Starborn The link is in the show notes or YouTube captions. And really, and truly, thank you for helping us bring these episodes to you. Yeah, let's get into our drop part of the episode, which is kind of our theories and predictions. So I made a note on our outline, which, if you're in our Patreon, you do get a copy of so you can see all of our notes and you'll be able to add your own. But in chapter two, like we released first see Ethan and secrets relationship that we kind of got a glimpse of in house, this guy in breath, you know, when we met her in the tank, but kind of just their interactions, and him trying to protect her from this world that she's not used to yet. And I think it's Declan that even it's Declan or Flynn that makes the comment, like, you need to remind her to shower. Because she doesn't, yeah, she doesn't even kind of understand how her this form that she's in really works outside of the tank. So I just think their relationship, going forward is definitely going to be more complex than we think it is.
Yeah, absolutely. I think right? I think we see, there's this really interesting, like duality of her being an alpha and Ethan recognizing that at the core of, you know, is his wolf Ness, I guess you would say. But then right next statement about you need to remind her to like shower, and it talks a little bit about Ethan had to like help her wash her hair, we see this duality of the alpha and then just this helpless creature who has just never been taken care of. And, you know, she she really doesn't have any sort of independence. That is the exact core of what an alpha brings. So I think that's such an interesting, interesting piece to bring to the whole narrative around the wolves. And Ethan, again, is right in the middle of, oh, he's been exiled, but he's helping an alpha that has ties to Sabine but he had close ties to Danica and it's just an a really interesting complex. We're seeing kind of the all the strings of the wolves narratives kind of coming together. I think we're really going to build on that coming up in this book. And
when Sigrid is talking or meets Sabine for the first time in that alleyway, and hears that Sabine killed her sister, like, I mean, she just sees red, and then she just goes full alpha. And it was really cool to kind of see her, you know, transition and transform on page not literally, but like just complete dive into that alpha connection that she has. And I think Ethan saw that and was oh, wow, that is really, truly offender air.
Yeah, absolutely. That we really see that that spark, that Alfa Spark, come alive, but I can't imagine and that's, again, what Sarah does. I think so well, in her books. The entire reason that Sigrid kept herself, you know, at the mercy of the astronomer was to protect her sister. And Sabine reveals in their first meeting, that she killed her and then it's this whole The whole reason for Sigrid, being one of the astronomers, mystics is now completely a moot point. I mean, that is, that's such a devastating effect for this character. And it just is that's also another piece for me if Sarah just drops the like, that is a huge, huge piece of news that is just sort of like dropped really lightly into a dialogue in the middle of of the end of a chapter.
Yeah, she does that to us all the time.
I'm always like, what
Wait a minute, and that's why I read slow as we announced in the first episode, because I'm like, I need to reread that again. Because I think I missed something where
understand understandably understand, and then
I wanted to kind of ask you about your thoughts on you know, like chapter six especially is where we kind of start to see Nesta and Bryce's connection and relationship. And I love both of them. Specially in Estelle, he's just, you know, my girl. I thought it was really interesting how and we, we do spend a lot of time with them together, as we'll see in later episodes. And so just kind of that bond that they have that they don't know they have yet like just kind of starting to develop, I thought was really cool in that chapter. Yeah,
and I think right we only just Chapter Six is just the beginning, right? It builds much more in later and later chapters. But I think for me, so far that we've seen here that I think is really cool for Bryce and nest especially, these are both of our absolute like, hype a assertive, like there is, Bryce has probably a little bit more of the dry humor and irreverence, I think is like such a callback to alien, that humor Ness does a little bit more reserved. But it's still that both of them have that unbreakable, like steel in their spine, we're not going to back down. And if we are I'm plotting eight other ways to take you out anyway, type deal. Yeah, so I love that we get I love that we get our to believe very strong female characters together and interacting. And they're not buddy, buddy, that's also a new, you know, in throwing the glass we have alien and lasondra, who I just adore for all of time. But this is they're not on the same team. Both of them have their own agendas here. And I think there's a mutual respect there kind of which I love, right? Like Queens recognizing queens. How how that's gonna look moving forward at neither of them are backing down on what they perceive to be what they're protecting. I mean, that's going to develop into a I think we're going to come to a bit of a standstill, I would assume, right, like two opposing forces. So that'll be interesting to see.
Yeah. And when we first meet Nesta, basically Amarin, like we talked about is treating Rhys like her bitch again, and just saying, Go get her. And then the line I think they say, well as as like, Cassie is not going to be happy and amurense like kacian can deal and so there's another we just don't care about what the boys think here. And it's interesting to me too, though, that nessa like given her strong personality. There has to be in my mind and ulterior motive for her to agree to go after Bryce at Reese's request. Because literally I don't think she would just do that. Just because he said to do it, you know, because they've always had kind of like, you know, this brother sister contemptuous relationship type thing. So I'm, in my mind right now. I'm thinking okay, what's, what's her ulterior motive to this? Because it's not just because Reese wanted her to do it.
Oh, that is fascinating. I love that. Because right. Yeah, she doesn't. She never listens to him if she can help. So that's, that's a really interesting. Oh, yeah. Hopefully we'll get into that more in later chapters.
So those were our theories and predictions for chapters two through six. Definitely let us know which ones you had if you had the same ones as us or I'm sure there's tons of them out there. So definitely comment on that and let us know. But let's move into the ascent, where we talk about characters canon and kind of other little tidbits that we took from these sections. So let's start with chapter two. And I had made a note in our outline the sprites being allowed to call sacred Ziggy like just but nobody else was I just love that i don't know i The name Ziggy to me just is so like, I don't know. I just loved it.
It's so different than like what I like Ziggy to me is like, island like Bermuda shorts. Like has a guitar and a drink and a coconut or something. Right. And Sigrid la like morally right? And then sick greed like has no idea what's going on obviously hasn't like, washed her hair recently. Bless her well relatable. She's not letting but I love the little peek into like, the sprites get to call her Ziggy, and nobody else does. But she also makes a comment to Ethan about she doesn't even know why she has to have a name. Yes. Which just like break my heart. Why don't you?
Yeah, that was that was tough. Ah,
but I love the three little sprites I love Oh my word. I'm so mad. We how do we not have a single ounce of magic in this world?
I know. I know. And for me, I'm picturing them as like a cross between Like the three fairy godmothers from sleeping beauty Sleeping Beauty yeah but like a younger like cuter version of them.
Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Oh, I wish I would have thought about my brain is doing the sort of look like have you seen elemental the Disney movie came out last year so fire girl from elemental but like the like her face, but then a body of the little What did they call them in Brave? The will of the West? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the little that's like a cross between those two. The Sleeping Beauty. fairy godmothers are much better. I'm absolutely stealing that.
Oh, that's just what I'm picturing in my head as I'm reading and I'm like, oh, maybe they'll fake Ziggy a cake.
Fold in the eggs. Yeah. Courage
to tests sold and achieve.
Right, Abby? Anytime anytime we could get a shits Creek reference with a reference. Yeah, we're set. Oh, my gosh.
You had some comments about chapter three, which I absolutely loved. I was dying when I read these on the outline.
Yes. Oh, my word I in chapter three when Bryce is in the cell. The Comp first of all, she talks about like the I love that Sara pretty much always gives us like food content. Thank you. I had a meme on my own Instagram earlier about. I know everybody complains in medieval times about their meal of hard bread, cheese and wine. But that's like my ideal meal. That's always like, BREAD CHEESE, like soup or whatever. I'm like, Oh, nice. Like, I take that too. I like. Yeah, but the comment about the spices. She says something about like maybe the isteri brought rosemary and thyme to mid guard. And I'm like, who's thinking about that? Certainly not me. I love food. But I'm like, I don't care. I don't care that everybody can
have beveling it in my mouth. I'm not thinking about the spice Roma's are combinations that are on my plate. Yeah, thank you. That
is there's very very few times in Sara's books where I feel like I'm pulled out of the world like back into Molina. That was one of them. I have one of my very good friends bakes and is very good at baking and she would she would absolutely love that reference. Molina's brain was like,
cares. Who cares. Just eat the damn thing. Exactly.
And then following that she's more Bryce's board, and she's throwing her peas down the great to the scary bee stem below. I was dying. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's so something I would do. Because one I'm not eating peas. Thank you. And peas. Oh, no, I can't I thought I could I just
disagree on some peas.
But there it is. That's the one the one checkbox for today. But I'm like I'm just like, these are the beasts of the pit. Right like we're in the human city like the quarter nightmares. Like everything is scary and dark and black. She's throwing peace at them. I'm like, over the past however many decades they've eaten all of like rises enemies and Nope. Right? Just tossing peas at the incredible incredible. I love that.
I can just picture my brother has three kids and I can picture his youngest two is the boy doing this in a second like salutely board and then going over and peeking over into the grate and being like what happened to my peas?
He would absolutely do that I love
but yeah, that'll food and her boredom game or whatever we're calling. Yeah, that was that was great. Yeah,
I love that. I love that.
And then in chapter four, we transition back to the dungeons of the Crystal Palace and then I was dying at the banter even though these three males are like being shredded physically the fact that they're still able and I guess to the point like when you're in that state of pain, I mean really like you said what else is there to do but laugh about it and so when first backs in, wakes up after hunt and then hunt asks him how he's doing and vaccine desert flies great, which, if you know us like I love just absolute dry humor and then In the next thing Brune is doing his job an angel and FA prints walk into a dungeon. And I don't know, it just reminded me so much of like, I don't know, I just found it hilarious and I really appreciated it.
It's so right and if you if you know us in real life, like the dry humor is where I live, right? That's Yeah 98% of my personality. So I love and it has to be done. Well, let me justice some of some people in my life. Try it and it doesn't quite work. It has to be done well, and Sarah does it really well. I feel she definitely. I obviously don't know her personally. But I am assuming that she has a pretty dry sense of humor because she does. She does this back and forth banter. It gets me every time. I love it. I love it. And it was you had found that meme and it's on it's on our Instagram page of star lordy
Yeah, I made it I was so proud of myself. Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah, I went into cap cut and I was like that's because that's immediately what popped into my head when these males are like, Fuck you, you know to back or to the hawk and the hammer. I'm like, I don't know it just popped into my head like Peter Quill Star Lord his little crack
in his middle finger from Guardians one that's like an iconic scene. With you. Oh my gosh, I love that. Well, I was just gonna give a shout out to wherever beams come from went and made it so I love that for us. Yeah, so
at Romana C fan girls pod on Instagram, you can check out my now infamous Peter Quill StarLord. Yes, singer me,
please go give that some love. Clearly, artists credit cow. Yes.
And then we moved to chapter five, where we talked about we're doing a total 180 Then from kind of the dry humor of the prison Palace to this battle that's going on between civilians pack and our boy band and Flynn like blasting soybeans face off. And we kind of talked about that a little bit as far as just the amount of lawn page violence that we're seeing in this book, but then also learning about what secrets been through and then what Sabine has just revealed to her. And it kind of all comes full circle in that fight.
That's, that's, I think such an interesting and again, yeah, we talked a little bit about this of, it's such a big reveal in such an interesting space and time, right where everybody is. And I think the fact then at the end, we know that the Viper queen comes to apprehend them. So I think to your earlier point, how much of that did the Viper queen here? And we know that she's a slippery character all over the place all the time. So how much did she hear? What's what information is she going to be able to use and leverage for her own game. And now the fact that she's the person that knows that Flynn and Dec and Ethan, you know, and Siegfried just blew the face off the prime apparent of the wolves. I mean, that's not a small, that's not a small character. So I think that the repercussions of that I think we're gonna see coming down the line here. And
they mentioned it to in that chapter, though, when the wolves drags the being away. But they do mention about a will show, she'll make it she'll heal from this. And I guess like, to your point, oh, that's really the only way we can explain it at this point is like, these creatures on mid guard, obviously have different healing capacities than what we're used to in, you know, Avatar and Throne of Glass, because I don't think that would ever happen. And I mean, if that happened to one of those characters, I said, you're just you're done.
Right. Right. Yeah. So I think that's a really interesting and I don't know that I've thought enough about I'm have to, as I go back through and, and reread for this, I'm going to have to think more about the repercussions of that level of healing the violence then becomes, and I think I said this earlier, more aloud, which is, I mean, right. That's the whole consequences of violence, right is that we're hurting another creature, you can't come back from it. But if that's taken away the morality then of the violence in question almost right. It's not it's not but but it also kind of is, and that is such a that's such an interesting piece when you think about you know, quote, unquote, the bad guys and what, what level that they can stoop to, I mean, that opens up a whole, a whole world have levels of depravity that you can take, which is Yeah, horrifying. Yeah.
And the last piece to like, that kind of really stuck out for me was We finally meet. I'm just gonna say this right Queen because I care I'm not even gonna try. But we know from House of sky and breath that you from the other sprites, the three fairy godmothers. She was revered for her honor and loyalty. We know from that book that the sprites don't really know what happened to their queen, you know, they don't even know if she's alive or dead. Coming, bringing that full soul circle in this book right away I thought was really interesting because we do soon get to see like how that loyalty is tested. I just kind of thought like for Sarah too, obviously, she's a master of her craft, but like for her to just remember all those little details about even, you know, no pun intended, like the smallest characters. Like I just love that about her books. Yeah,
absolutely. And I think it's so telling to have, we get to see you know, Erath has in this setting. She's in the room with the mystics I thought that was really interesting as well. And then, and she wants to talk about this and in later episodes, too, of Erath has the newer Queen because les hubba was talking about being a descendant of a different I believe a sprite queen, before even Erath this and her I think it's a whole different line. So that call back to lay about really not always like, yeah, dagger to the heart for
mine, but just twist it in a little bit.
Right. But again, I think and just to to make a note of Regulus having a room with a 1000 domestics. I mean that is that's terrifying. Getting just the level information is power, all that he can get from that is just that's that's a huge piece, I think that is just another another facet of the power that he holds.
And when I wrote when I read the description of that room, too, it was so vivid for me, I could just kind of feel the heat and humidity and all these submerge tanks and like the power that was kind of flowing to the estuary from them. And I think it even mentioned like the mistress that the mystics had constellations swirling around above her head, telling the reader that all 1000 of these are searching for Bryce. That's what they're trying to find across galaxies and stuff. So it just painted a picture, like you said, of just this immense source of power that the isteri have, you know, on the backs of these people that don't even really know what's happening. Right,
right. Yeah. But then the final piece of chapter five that I wanted to make sure that we thoughts on, I loved that piece where Bryce got down into the pit underneath the cell. And she was walking amongst the so Beck's and they didn't react to her. They didn't eat her. They were calm. We mentioned earlier they kind of reflected the emotions that she had. And there was a line about her feeling like a queen walking amongst them and I just loved that call to the power of have her in that moment and and what that meant, but yeah, thoughts on that did that that surprised me? I don't know if that threw you off.
I wasn't expecting that to kind of be the resolution to her being down in the pit there. But I think even in that chapter, doesn't it again, referenced the light calls to like things. So Bryce was in my mind. Okay, somehow these so Beck's And it mentions we mentioned the line about like, her emotions reflecting into them or off of them. But somehow there's a connection there between whatever ancestry they came from, you know, and Bryce's ancestry through so I've just been really curious to see like kind of if that comes back around again, or is it just something really cool that Sarah just threw in there? I don't know. Yeah,
that's a good point. Right. Interesting. Yeah.
So final thoughts on chapters two through six there wasn't a lot.
There was a lot that we went through I think we're really getting kind of the overall we're kind of setting up right we got a rescue mission with the boy band is really not great at rescue initially rice is is in pristine we're now she's now in a tunnel. caved in tunnel with Nesta. We don't know where that's headed. Lydia obviously has several cards up her sleeve because we don't think her getting Erath this is going to be for nothing. Right? And then we have hunt and rune and backscene who are just being torture. They're not doing super well to the point that hunts now thinks he's like hallucinating shadows in the corner and that their death.
Yeah, it's four chapters of not so happy. Like we don't get a whole lot of positive.
Not a lot of cheer on this. Yeah, yeah. So
hopefully, episode three will bring some of that for us when we dive into chapter seven through 10. So be sure to join us for that one. And we will see you in the next episode.
Yeah. Thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you soon.
First off, thank you for listening. You and the bookish community are amazing, and we're so thankful to be included in it. We hope you enjoyed the episode. If you haven't done so already. Make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss one. We release new episodes every Tuesday. We'd also love to see you on our mantasy fan girls newsletter list. Just head to our website, romanticize the fan girls.com and enter your email address where it says join the email list. No spam here. Ramez just more honest to goodness book content. Learn what we're currently reading upcoming new releases we can't wait to get our hands on. And what Molina says about my unhealthy obsession with all these cold brew coffee foam. Seriously though, if you haven't tried it yet, are you even living? Sign up today?
