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Speaker 1: This is tell Me What to Read, a podcast from

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Speaker 1: the booksellers at book Toopia, where every week I chat

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Speaker 1: to some enthusiastic readers about the books they love and

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Speaker 1: why you might love them too. I'm Ben Hunter and

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Speaker 1: I'm recording this on unseated woe Wood Country. We pay

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Speaker 1: respects to Elvis past and present, and extend that respect

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Speaker 1: to any First Nations people listening with us today. On

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Speaker 1: today's show, we're going to be racing through our new

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Speaker 1: May book of the Month. It's a terrific, terrific novel,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to be diving into some new fantasy

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Speaker 1: slash fantasy romance fiction. And to do all of that,

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Speaker 1: I have a couple of brilliant people in the room

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Speaker 1: with me, Stephanie Gregor and Crystal Campbell. How are you

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Speaker 1: both good? How are you?

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Speaker 2: Ben?

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Speaker 1: I'm feeling excited. I'm feeling good.

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Speaker 2: Me too, super pumped fresh.

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Speaker 1: Off watching Eurovision and I'm just jazzed of so much.

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Speaker 1: So many genres just smashed together in one event of

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Speaker 1: musical chaos.

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Speaker 2: And that's exactly what we're going to do on the

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Speaker 2: podcast today, but with books.

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Speaker 3: Well said, eurobook Vision Vision, I did see a TikTok

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Speaker 3: of someone doing like the filming of the Eurovision and

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Speaker 3: it was like from the other side, so rather than

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Speaker 3: like the cool filming you wouldee, is the actual video

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Speaker 3: of the cameraman. I'm like behind the see this guy talented.

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Speaker 3: Like the moves he did with that camera.

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Speaker 1: It was there was a lot of production that goes

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Speaker 1: into a very short and very frazzling extravagance. Anyway, I

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Speaker 1: could talk about Eurovision all us, I'm not going to.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about may book in the month.

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Speaker 1: It is Safe Haven by Shanku Chandran and this book

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Speaker 1: is gorgeous and special and I think you should read it.

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Speaker 1: Let me take you into why so. Uh. Shanku Chandren

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Speaker 1: broke out very significantly. She is an author and a

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Speaker 1: human rights lawy, a very busy woman. But she broke

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Speaker 1: out with a book called Chai Time at the Simon

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Speaker 1: Gardens and that was the Miles Franklin winner last year.

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Speaker 1: And that is a big book that takes a very

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Speaker 1: It takes a lot of big themes around migration, displacement

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Speaker 1: and war and crams it into a really beautiful and

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Speaker 1: human and domestic kind of setting. And Safe Haven comes

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Speaker 1: kind of Hot Off on the heels of the success

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Speaker 1: of that book. Safe Haven is a mystery and a

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Speaker 1: romance and like a bit of a political thriller, and

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Speaker 1: it is set on a offshore detention centers. That's my

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Speaker 1: elevator pitch for it. It has two perspectives that are

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Speaker 1: very This one is like a really rapid fire thrilling read,

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Speaker 1: whereas Chai Time was more of a slow burn. So

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Speaker 1: this is a much more accessible novel, which I as

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Speaker 1: a bookseller, I'm really excited about because I just feel

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Speaker 1: like I can just get into people's hands. It's got

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Speaker 1: a gorgeous cover and yes, this book it follows two women,

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Speaker 1: Fena and Lucky. So Fena is a former asylum seeker

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Speaker 1: who is helping the asylums community in Australia when she

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Speaker 1: gets rounded up by the immigration cops and taken to

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Speaker 1: this place. And Lucky is an investigator who is looking

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Speaker 1: into a suspicious death of a security guard on this island.

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Speaker 1: A lot's going to happen and it's really hard to

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Speaker 1: go even further into it without it. It's an awesome book.

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Speaker 1: You should read it. Have I sold you?

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Speaker 3: I have it on my list already. I literally I

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Speaker 3: literally was talking to someone the other day about books

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Speaker 3: that are like jumping up my priority list, and this

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Speaker 3: one did after you talked about it in office, Ben, Like,

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Speaker 3: as soon as you sold it the first time to

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Speaker 3: us at the office, it jumped straight up my list.

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Speaker 3: And what sold me was the fact that it has

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Speaker 3: a more thriller element to it than her previous title,

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Speaker 3: because I feel like, again it is going to be

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Speaker 3: more palatable for me as a thriller reader. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: I'm very excited. It's definitely jumped up my list thanks

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Speaker 3: to Ben selling it to us.

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Speaker 2: I've got one Dick, No, I would definitely read it

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Speaker 2: as well. Yeah, I've wanted to reach High Time at

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Speaker 2: Cinnamon Gardens for ages as well. Have you read that one, Ben, Yes.

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Speaker 1: I have. Yeah, she's a really clever writer. And getting

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Speaker 1: to speak to her when she signed some copies there

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Speaker 1: are limited signed copies of safe Haven on the book

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Speaker 1: to w website at the my when she signed, she

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Speaker 1: was really interesting to speak to. She is a very yeah,

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Speaker 1: just frank, down to earth, and she comes from a

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Speaker 1: legal background, so she's she will grill you, I love you.

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Speaker 1: But she's just so open and conversational and so so smart.

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Speaker 1: I just yeah, I'm a fan, as you can tell,

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Speaker 1: which is good. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: You literally haven't stopped smiling since she said, let me

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Speaker 3: tell you about this book.

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Speaker 1: All right, So I'm here to get educated now on

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Speaker 1: new entrance into the very combative world of fantasy publishing.

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Speaker 1: There are some new ones that are getting very, very

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Speaker 1: highly hyped, and they are hitting into this ven diagram

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Speaker 1: of fannessy and romance, which Iron Flame and Fourth Wing

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Speaker 1: have sort of drastically exploded in the past twelve months.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about these new books. What have you guys

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Speaker 1: been reading.

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Speaker 2: Hmm, well, okay, I'll go first. I've been reading the

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Speaker 2: amazing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. So

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Speaker 2: for a background, Sarah A. Parker is an Ossie romanticy author,

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Speaker 2: and she's just skyrocketed over the past a couple months

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Speaker 2: or so with her debut book, When the Moon Hatched,

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Speaker 2: and it's doing incredibly well and it's beautiful, it's fun.

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Speaker 2: The world building is fantastic. It's very much in that

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Speaker 2: like Fourth Wing Iron Flame world of classic romanticy with

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Speaker 2: like elves and fairies and things like that. I got

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Speaker 2: so yes, dragons and yeah, really leaning into that Sarah

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Speaker 2: J Mass stuff too with like there's elves and fairies

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Speaker 2: in this one and all sorts of magical realms and

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Speaker 2: basically our main character Rave Rave. I don't know how

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Speaker 2: to pronounce it because I read it and I read

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Speaker 2: it as Raeves. I'm just gonna say Reeve. Sorry, Sarah,

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Speaker 2: it correct me if I'm wrong. She's like, this is

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Speaker 2: sass for this like rebel group. So she goes around

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Speaker 2: just like you know, kicking butts and taking names, and

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Speaker 2: then she gets kidnapped by a different group and she's

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Speaker 2: being held prisoner and she meets this like fallen dragon

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Speaker 2: writer guy. So that's the kind of premise of it,

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Speaker 2: without you know, spoiling anything. But the cool thing about

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Speaker 2: this one is the world building is just on part

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Speaker 2: it's beautiful. It's like, I guess a lot of the

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Speaker 2: time when you do read a romanticy, you kind of

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Speaker 2: go into it thinking it's just going to be full

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Speaker 2: on romance with like none of the fantasy, Like maybe

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Speaker 2: it's like an elf, but yeah, it's like, oh, this

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Speaker 2: girl has magical powers but we don't know why, or

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Speaker 2: like just a random magical character. No, this is actually

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Speaker 2: the opposite. So the whole kind of first part of

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Speaker 2: the book is really building up this fantasy world, and

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Speaker 2: it's building up the main character and like magic and

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Speaker 2: elves and all of the realm staff and beautiful maps

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Speaker 2: and things and what's really cool. As well as that,

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Speaker 2: Sarah puts like letters and images and stuff throughout the book,

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Speaker 2: so you get like a lot of visual representations of

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Speaker 2: different things. Yeah, so it's got this really rich world.

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Speaker 2: And then against that backdrop is the actual romance. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think it's more fantasy than romance, is what you

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Speaker 3: would say if you were going to genrealize it.

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Speaker 2: Definitely a mixture of both, So don't worry, romance fans.

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Speaker 3: I'm still love Oh You've like I was already interested

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Speaker 3: in this, but you guys, every single time we come

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Speaker 3: on this podcast just make me want to walk straight

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Speaker 3: out the door and pick up the book. You guys

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Speaker 3: have been talking about instantly, and this is no different.

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Speaker 2: Yes. Oh, and we do have the deluxe hardcover that

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Speaker 2: will be coming at the end of this year, so

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Speaker 2: you can always pre order that if you want a

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Speaker 2: fancy foiled edge version.

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Speaker 1: And I'm excited to see that in person. Me too,

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Speaker 1: because we had a signing for the paperback edition. Those

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Speaker 1: signed copies sold that very quickly, so quick. But the

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Speaker 1: paperback by itself was just really beautiful, like so much

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Speaker 1: foil and gold and embossed detail and illustration. The book

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Speaker 1: has illustration at the top of every chapter. It's really

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Speaker 1: really well done.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful.

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Speaker 3: It is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The paperback squads and I'm decited.

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Speaker 1: The other thing that interests me about this book and

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Speaker 1: Sarah Parker as a Aussie author, is she was she

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Speaker 1: was huge as an independent publishing deal. So thousands of

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Speaker 1: people were just raving about the book on Goodreads, yes,

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Speaker 1: and then suddenly a million dollar deal with major publisher

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Speaker 1: and kind of ripped the rug out of it and gone,

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Speaker 1: don't tell this cheap online anymore. We're going to do

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Speaker 1: this as our own thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's it's really interesting too with that, right,

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Speaker 2: because I think a lot of people now are saying

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Speaker 2: like everything is the next Fourth Wing or everything's the

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Speaker 2: next Iron Flame, just just gets thrown around so much,

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Speaker 2: which you can understand why because it's done so well.

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Speaker 2: But I actually think When the Moon Hatched is a

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Speaker 2: pretty worthy comparison to those to those kind of blockbuster

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Speaker 2: romanticies that we had last year, so yeah, really excited.

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Speaker 1: The other one that's really taking off at the moment,

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Speaker 1: Crystal is five Broken Blades. Is that the correct title?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: By my call in, I keep seeing this cover just

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Speaker 1: popping up on my screen, going bestseller best'll.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I ended up picking up this one instead of

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Speaker 3: When the Moon Hatch because I kind of had both

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Speaker 3: of them staring me dead in the face. And this

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Speaker 3: one is very much five people that are all liars, thieves, criminals.

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Speaker 3: I guess it's probably the gist, and they've all received

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Speaker 3: a random letter to say, we need you to come

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Speaker 3: and help us kill the king. The king is one

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Speaker 3: of those treacherous terrible kings. Under his rule, everything's kind

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Speaker 3: of gone wrong, but he's a god king and apparently

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Speaker 3: he's unkillable. But these five people now need to kind

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Speaker 3: of like learn to trust one another when they're pretty

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Speaker 3: much untrustable or untrusting because of the fact that they

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Speaker 3: are last thieves, horrible people and they need to get

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Speaker 3: together and find a way to kill this god the

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Speaker 3: king that can't die, and only one of them will

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Speaker 3: like succeed in killing and getting the thing that they need,

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Speaker 3: and if they kill and are successful, they get like

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Speaker 3: a big money reward and a lot of the mari

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Speaker 3: in a situation where it'll either free a sister who's

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Speaker 3: in slavery or it'll free something like they need the thing.

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Speaker 3: So it's really cool and it jumps through multiple povs,

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Speaker 3: but it's not confusing, like you can tell the characters

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Speaker 3: apart really well.

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Speaker 1: And the world is really good.

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Speaker 2: I was just about to say it sounds so much

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Speaker 2: like like a Dungeons and Dragons inspired kind of a yeah, I.

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Speaker 3: Could see how that would probably happen, but it's just

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Speaker 3: it's really cool because you'll be like they're short chapters too,

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Speaker 3: so you'll kind of like be thrust into this scenario

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Speaker 3: of this one person and then it's like boom back

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Speaker 3: to another scenario, and then I get to the point

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Speaker 3: where it just kind of all joins together and their

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Speaker 3: world's coming intertwine and more things come to the surface,

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Speaker 3: and it was just really, really well done. I had

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Speaker 3: a really fun time with it. It was one of

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Speaker 3: those things that I just gobbled up. It was like,

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Speaker 3: from start to finish, I could not stop thinking about

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Speaker 3: what's going to happen next, And I was not disappointed

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Speaker 3: by the ending.

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Speaker 1: All good to hear, and is it the first of

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Speaker 1: many or is it?

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Speaker 3: I honestly think it is a part of a series.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if it's going to be more than

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Speaker 3: a duology, but it's definitely the first in a series,

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Speaker 3: so we'll see. I don't I wasn't left like on

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Speaker 3: this huge, huge, huge cliffhanger, but like, I definitely want

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Speaker 3: to know more in the in this world. Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: the cover is obviously stunning, so oh.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it. Actually, the covers of When the

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Speaker 2: Moon Hatched and Five Broken Blades side by side would

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Speaker 2: be epic on a bookshelf. Oh yeah, the red and

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Speaker 2: the blue, like we've got it all covered here.

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Speaker 1: And the other cover I keep saying is the one

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Speaker 1: that had what I thought was jellyfish on it, the

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Speaker 1: jellyfish jellyfish that's actually a flower.

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Speaker 2: We have the fantastic North Wind book, which is also

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Speaker 2: a new romantic book based on the Hades and Persephone

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Speaker 2: kind of retelling, and that one's I think we do

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Speaker 2: have limited signed copies of that at the moment too.

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Speaker 2: Really really love that one as well. Yeah, super different

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Speaker 2: from When the Moon Hatch Super different from Five Broken Blades,

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Speaker 2: except that I think all three of them are quite

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Speaker 2: like what would you say, Like Five Broken Blades has

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Speaker 2: like a rich fantasy world too, like, yeah, it's so cool.

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Speaker 2: I think the three of them, I mean, with the

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Speaker 2: North Wind and When the Moon Hatched one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: really rich, beautiful worlds, and then the romance is kind

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Speaker 2: of like against that, so you get a lot more

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Speaker 2: of this high fantasy kind of storytelling.

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Speaker 3: I definitely recall more of like the character building and

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Speaker 3: the like crazy brutal scenes more than the romance. Out

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Speaker 3: of five Broken blaits like it's there for those that

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Speaker 3: need it, but it doesn't like overtake from the cool

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Speaker 3: plot and like the character driven story.

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Speaker 2: Is five Broken Blades, I'm guessing there's violence.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, like oh yeah, it's.

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Speaker 2: The same for When the Moon Hatched, Like there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of a lot more darkness to it that I

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Speaker 2: kind of originally thought, I think.

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Speaker 3: When I yeah, definitely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but exciting and yeah, so The north Wind Sorry

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Speaker 2: is Alexandria Warwick's book, another one that was popular online

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Speaker 2: before it was picked up for publishing. Interesting deal and

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Speaker 2: this one's beautiful. It's just yeah, beauty and the Beast

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Speaker 2: vibes like haties and persephone retelling. It's about a girl,

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Speaker 2: Wren of Edgewood, and her little sister is going to

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Speaker 2: be taken by this thing called the north Wind and

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Speaker 2: she's like, don't take my sister, take me instead, and

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Speaker 2: he does.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

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Speaker 2: And the cover has little like blue flowers on it, which, yeah,

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Speaker 2: Ben thought they were jellyfish. If you look at the cover,

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Speaker 2: I can I can see how Ben thought that, because

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Speaker 2: they kind of do have jellyfish.

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Speaker 3: You know what. I actually think they look like mushrooms

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Speaker 3: from here, because I'm looking at it from like a

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Speaker 3: bit of a distance away, I can see him.

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Speaker 2: Mushrooms got everything. Yeah, mushrooms jellyfish? They are actually flowers.

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Speaker 2: So you're all wrong.

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Speaker 1: But you guess anything else, you're wrong.

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Speaker 2: And Ben, you get The north Wind today. You can

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Speaker 2: also get When the Moon Hatched and then you can

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Speaker 2: get another book. And it's part of our book Binge promission.

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Speaker 1: Oh well, well sold, like that was your job. I

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Speaker 1: love book Binch comes around every year and it's a

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Speaker 1: it's a buy more, say more extravaganza deal. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you like to read lots, you can save lots.

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Speaker 1: It's a good it's a good thing. So check out

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Speaker 1: book bench. If you're in the in the market for

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Speaker 1: some more books, I always let's move. We are such

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Speaker 1: good sales. Let's talk about what we're reading next. What

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Speaker 1: what do you have on the bed side table right

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Speaker 1: now or or are you aspiring to kind of read

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Speaker 1: this weekend? Oh?

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Speaker 3: I am halfway through Heartless, which is booked two in

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Speaker 3: the Chestnut Spring series by Elsie Silver. I read Flawless

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Speaker 3: last month, and by read, I mean literally sat down

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Speaker 3: and gobbled it up in one day. It was amazing.

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Speaker 3: It made me cry, which you don't expect from a

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Speaker 3: romance munty book.

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Speaker 1: But Silver, I hear it's hot, hot, hot.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it is very, very hot and amazing. But it's

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Speaker 3: also got characters that you just care so much about

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Speaker 3: and they're emotional, and he did at the end of

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Speaker 3: book one the most romantic thing I ever read in

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Speaker 3: a romance book in my life, and he has put

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Speaker 3: every man that I know to shame, like, Oh, anyways,

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Speaker 3: you have to read it if you want to find

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Speaker 3: out what I'm talking about. But I'm currently in Heartless,

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Speaker 3: which is book two, and obviously the whole test Nut

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Speaker 3: Spring series follows like a different man for each story,

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Speaker 3: so you can kind of read them separately, you don't

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Speaker 3: have to read them one after the other. But this

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Speaker 3: one follows. Daddy Kid is as well.

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Speaker 2: We're talking about this the other day at lunch.

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Speaker 3: He is a man who is on a ranch and

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Speaker 3: he works a lot and requires someone to come and

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Speaker 3: help look after his small son, and obviously he ends

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Speaker 3: up hiring a nanny, and then the rest in shoes.

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Speaker 3: You guys that have read romans know exactly what I'm

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Speaker 3: talking about.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, we know whether this was going when you

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Speaker 1: said he has a ranch.

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Speaker 3: So it is a cowboy romance. But Elsie Silver has

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Speaker 3: the ability to not just write corny romance, Like there's

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Speaker 3: depth to her stories. There's always a little bit of

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Speaker 3: like reperence, representation of something, some issue, something that's going

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Speaker 3: on with her characters that is really relatable and obviously

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Speaker 3: you want to be in a relationship with every man.

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Speaker 3: She writes like she's just really good at writing book boyfriends,

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Speaker 3: really boyfriends.

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Speaker 2: And so she's got a few series, right, So this

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Speaker 2: is Chestnut Springs, and then there's Wild Love as well.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, which I will be jumping into next because

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Speaker 3: I'm doing the Chestnut Springs as like a read along.

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Speaker 3: So we do like one a month, and because I

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Speaker 3: finish it too soon, I'm like, I need to jump over.

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Speaker 3: So I'm going to be jumping over to her other

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Speaker 3: one when I finish this one, probably tonight, because I'm

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Speaker 3: already fifty percent through.

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Speaker 2: Amazing so like easy, like fun to read like but

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Speaker 2: still kind of meaningful. Okay, I'll have to adding to

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Speaker 2: TBR right now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's what I'm in the middle of. I

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Speaker 3: obviously I have it like a couple others on the

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Speaker 3: go because that's just how I roll. But that's the

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Speaker 3: one that like jumps to mine, that's on my bedside

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Speaker 3: table at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited. What about you, Steph. I'm currently reading

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Speaker 2: and Patch. It's Tom Lake great, so good, awesome, I'm

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Speaker 2: loving it, beautiful, just a lot. Yeah, I'm reading a

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Speaker 2: couple of other books at the moment too. I've just

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Speaker 2: picked up one called Diary of a Void, which is

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Speaker 2: a Japanese translated book. Looks awesome, haven't started it yet,

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Speaker 2: haven't even opened it, but it's about a salary person

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Speaker 2: working full time, just coming to terms with live, laugh,

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Speaker 2: loving life. Oh, literary translated fiction. Just yeah, I love.

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Speaker 3: Her every time we come from this point together. You're

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Speaker 3: reading like literary, beautiful fiction, and I'm just like, I'm

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Speaker 3: just reading the romance still.

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Speaker 2: I just I just went on a tangent about the

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Speaker 2: north wind. Come on, Okay, that's.

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Speaker 1: That's fair, that's true. I'm so glad you're reading some like.

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Speaker 1: It's such a special book and patches coming to Australia

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Speaker 1: for she is, she's well, well loved and right. So

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Speaker 1: she's one of the best authors at work today. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I've been on a bit of a thriller vibe.

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Speaker 3: Oh my ears are tweaking.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I've read some things that I can't really talk

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Speaker 1: about yet, some things that are coming up in months

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Speaker 1: to come. But the thing I'm going to read next

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Speaker 1: is the new Anna Downs book. Anna Downs is an

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Speaker 1: Aussie author and she writes really sharp thrillers and this

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Speaker 1: could be her best one yet. It just looks so good.

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Speaker 1: Is called Red River Road and it happens on the

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Speaker 1: coast of Western Australia, and it follows a woman who

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Speaker 1: is in a van in the bloody at back following

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Speaker 1: the trail of her missing sister and a chain of

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Speaker 1: social media posts that have gone cold, and trying to

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Speaker 1: find out where her sister who was doing I think

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Speaker 1: the whole van life thing what happened to her? And

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Speaker 1: it looks really dark and really exciting and has the

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Speaker 1: most beautiful, beautiful setting. And the thing I love about Downs,

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Speaker 1: apart from being a terrific author, is she does she's

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Speaker 1: like a method actor, so she doesn't kill people.

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Speaker 2: She traveled around w a in the van.

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Speaker 1: I think she did a bit of that. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 1: And her first novel is about an a pair in

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Speaker 1: the South of France, and she was an a pair

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Speaker 1: in the south of France.

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Speaker 3: Is that the safe place you're talking about?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 3: I read that. That was really good.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Did she do that before she wrote the book or

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Speaker 2: for writing the book? Like during the process.

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Speaker 1: I think she travel I mean, you know, it's nice

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Speaker 1: to go into the Western Australian out back copy.

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Speaker 2: That is true. I'm like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I just want to follow that

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Speaker 1: van down winding roads with an ominous feeling that someone's

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Speaker 1: following you. I think that's a scree pitch speak. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for enlightening me into the world of fantasy, romance

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Speaker 1: and so much more. We will be back next time

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Speaker 1: with more brilliant books. If you want to get the

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Speaker 1: lowdown on any of the books we've discussed today, jump

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Speaker 1: into the show notes. They'll be links to book Toby

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Speaker 1: Away can buy them and give the podcast a follow,

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Speaker 1: or recommend it, or do whatever you need to do.

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Speaker 1: But until next time, happy reading,