We Know How to Read

Welcome back! SPOILERS This is a spoilers series. We will be going into detail about the chapters of Onyx Storm in each episode. Ending on a sad note from the previous episode, we head into DRAMA!! Our hearts break for Andarna. Xaden's secret becomes not so much a secret that shifts the dynamic in the squad, but so much more happens in this short section. 

Welcome back! SPOILERS this is a spoilers series. We will be going into detail about the chapters of Onyx Storm in each episode. Cant believe we are here, half way through Onyx Storm! After last section how can it get better? It does! This book really builds on itself as we go through each part. Ridoc is iconic as always, Violet is our little problem solver, and of course, drama, war, and dragons!...

Welcome Lauren M. Leasure, author of the The Benevolence & Blood Series! The first novel in the series; The Sin of Saints is a sexy, action-packed first installment of the Benevolence & Blood Series. We loved having Lauren on the podcast, it was like kinder spirits catching up! Lauren shared all the ins and outs of her writing experience, novels, and more to come from her in the future. 

After a brief spring break we are back with an amazing Dragon Season Author interview with the talented A.E. Bennett. Step into the world of The Serrulata Saga a speculative sci-fantasy you have to read!  In the distant future, the United States is long gone... the Realm stands in its place... and one peasant woman will become the catalyst for a revolution. We absolutely LOVED having A.E. Bennett...

Welcome back! SPOILERS this is a spoilers series. We will be going into detail about the chapters of Onyx Storm in each episode. Cant believe we are here, almost halfway through Onyx Storm! This section might be our favorite yet! The action is picking up, Xaden is being Xaden, honestly, the whole squad is top-notch, and the death begins. Praise Malek! These chapters have hit after hit of quotable...

We are very excited to announce our Dragon Season! This author interview season will be paired with our read-along of Onyx Storm. Every other Wednesday, we will release a They Know How to Write with one of our amazing authors! This week we had an AMAZING time with Judy Liu; author of The Vending Portal. Her debut novel is a sci-fi dystopia for middle and high school students, but young adults woul...

We have been keeping this a secret, we wanted to surprise you this Valentine's Day with what we like to call the latest Shadow Daddy!  Happy Valentine's Day from us, we hope you enjoy our thoughts, comments, and review of QuickSilver by Callie Hart. Book one in the series, Callie brings us; KingFischer, a broody fae male with dark magic, a bad temper, and oh-so easy to love! 

Welcome back! SPOILERS this is a spoilers series. We will be going into detail about the chapters of Onyx Storm in each episode. This week we head into the true beginnings of Onyx Storm as the plot thickens, players are making their first moves and we are learning A LOT! Everyone has secrets this time and the key is to who to tell and when to reveal. We absolutely love diving farther into the chap...

We are very excited to announce our Dragon Season! This author interview season will be paired with our read-along of Onyx Storm. Every other Wednesday, we will release a They Know How to Write with one of our amazing authors! Starting off the Dragon season with the talented Allie Shante! An avid author of romance, fantasy, and BIPOC characters we all fall for, her series Living Legends will do ju...

SPOILERS this is a spoilers series. We will be going into detail the chapters of Onyx Storm in each episode. This week we start off the sensational book three with a prologue and chapters 1 through 8. Going through and annotating, tabbing, and more we have stumbled across many memorable moments that we must talk more about! Come back next week for an author interview with Elisa Kova! 

Spoilers!! In this episode, we are excited to go down the rabbit hole of Onyx Storm predictions. Some of these are cannon, some are a possibility, and some are just straight chaos theory! Hopefully, you enjoy or descent into madness as we are days away from Onyx Storm being released and all our theories are proven right or wrong. What do you think will happen next for Violet and Xaden?

We reread and summarized Iron Flame so you didn't have too! Onyx Storm is just days away so now is the time to lock in and review the text! Today is just a detailed summary of the events of Iron Flame so we can all go into reading Onyx Storm ready to pick up where Violet and Xaden left off. Not that any of us could forget THAT ending! Come back tomorrow for Onyx Storm Theories! 

As we are well into 2025 we have had time to reflect on 2024, our reads, our reviews, and our top 12 books of the 2024 year! Enjoy or chaotic list of best reads for 2024. Let us know if you've read them AND what books were in your top 5 for 2024 so we can read them this year! We are very excited for our new reading goals for 2025.

Welcome to our annual holiday season series, They Know How to Write, where we interview authors for the holidays. This week we have V.B. Lacey, author of  Elementals of Iona duology: It is a captivating fantasy adventure set in a world where beings wield the powers of earth, water, fire, and air. With richly developed characters and a plot full of suspense and enchantment, the series explores the...

Welcome to our annual holiday season series, They Know How to Write, where we interview authors for the holidays. This week we have Hillary Raymer, author of  Starstorm Series: A spicy romantasy series of eight interconnected books following each of the Starstorm siblings, set in a world where marriage is required but love isn't always guaranteed. Full of magic, love, banter, and emotional damage....

Welcome to our annual holiday season series, They Know How to Write, where we interview authors for the holidays. This week we have Shania Scichilone, author of Fates Divine Series. An author with many talents weaves a supernatural, fantasy, and adventure in her books, starting with A Fate of Smoke and Ash. This Young Adult novel is great for those who wish to read witches, dark fantasy, and suspe...

Welcome to our annual holiday season, They Know How to Write where we interview authors for the holidays. We are starting our season with the talented Kate St. Clair, author of Ptolemy. She is an advocate for education through fiction, and works with young writers through various #OwnVoices and underserved youth groups. She loves speaking on the topics of mental health, Queer characters, and addre...

Welcome back to our Stacks on Stacks series, a once-a-month book club. We started this to help us conquer that never-ending TBR, talk more with you, and abbreviate it as “S.O.S.” because yes send help! We will never finish our TBR at this rate!! We announce our “SOS” read at the beginning of each month, inviting you to read, listen, and talk with us on Instagram or Discord about that month's "SOS"...

Let the trials begin! This week we are putting Romance to the test in the following categories first impressions, design, writing style, general plot, characters, and our critical and enjoyment scores. In one corner for men, we have Thunderstruck by Carter Blake, and in the other corner for the women is Jackson by Nyssa Kathryn. Carter Blake writes novellas about steamy alpha romances. Nyssa Kathr...

Welcome to the Trial of the Tomes! We're looking closely at the idea of author gender in genre, publication, and writing style. How that impacts the public eye, reader experience, and marketing. Most importantly who does it best?! We have read one male author and one not man in the following genres Romance, Romantic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Murder/Thriller! Pitting them against...

Welcome back to our Stacks on Stacks series, a once-a-month book club. We started this to help us conquer that never-ending TBR, talk more with you, and abbreviate it as “S.O.S.” because yes send help! We will never finish our TBR at this rate!! We announce our “SOS” read at the beginning of each month, inviting you to read, listen, and talk with us on Instagram or Discord about that month's "SOS"...

Welcome to our TROPE-tastic summer series season finale! Wrapping up this whirlwind of a summer with the good, the bad, the ugly, and the fun of tropes. This final episode goes into the tropes you can't avoid because they are the genre! Yes, we are getting into it today on the podcast. Come back tomorrow for our Stacks on Stacks episode and next week for Trial of the Tomes!

Continuing our discussion from last week, are tropes bad?  Bad for marketing? Bad for the reader? How do tropes impact reader experience, marketing, and more in the book community? We talk about how we see the impacts of tropes in the publishing and reading world. 

We put tropes under the microscope to see what they really are and are they good? How do tropes impact reader experience, marketing, and more in the book community? We talk about how we see the impacts of tropes in the publishing and reading world. 

Microtropes that have a chokehold on us - enough said! This week we are getting to the subcategory of tropes with all our favorites! The TROPE-tastic summer episode gets wild with these micro tropes, mainly in fantasy romance, but across all genres.