Are you ready for story time? When Girls Talks Books is a podcast with two best friends bonding between the pages. They give comprehensive reviews of books where even if you haven't read the book, you can still enjoy the story. Brace yourselves for a tornado of laughter and literary love! When Girls Talk Books is here.
We explore our guiltiest reading pleasures and confess the books we love but hide from others in a judgment-free zone – well, almost judgment-free.
• Romance books featuring significant age gaps, including the infamous 104-year-old vampire and 17-year-old human love story • Serial killer romances like "The Mindfuck" where anniversary gifts include people who've done bad things • Controversial step-family romances such as Penelope Douglas's "Credence" • Books featuring stalking behavior reframed as romance, including "Under Your Scars" • Ruby Dixon's "Ice Planet Barbarians" with its unique alien anatomy and bonding rituals • Polyamorous relationships in books like "Flock" by Kate Stewart • Dark romance featuring possessive motorcycle club members
Hi everybody, welcome back to Book Bytes. I'm Susie, I'm Kylie and today we're doing we Listen and we Don't Judge. However, somebody always has to judge and there's only one proper person. I agree On the count of three One, two, three. Thank you everybody, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:
This, yay, who's my husband?
Speaker 1:
Here to do what I do best.
Speaker 2:
He was begging us to come back. So here we are. He's like when are we gonna do this again? So are you excited to be back, boy we are, he's like when are we gonna do this again?
Speaker 1:
so I got a taste of the fame to be back boy, am I well, the?
Speaker 2:
diva himself.
Speaker 1:
Okay, let's head into it so we're doing, we listen and we don't judge what is that, you ask? Well, we find the most shameful thing that we enjoy our guiltiest of guilty pleasures and then we tell our friends about it and we expect them not to judge.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so what happens on my Kindle stays between me and my Kindle and the safety of people who don't judge, okay, and me, who's the judgiest of them? All my eyebrows have a mind of their own.
Speaker 1:
They judge who they wish. Okay, all right, now everybody knows what it is. To my mom and grandma. I apologize.
Speaker 2:
Don't watch it.
Speaker 1:
Yes, I swear. I didn't know any of these words that you're going to hear before I met these two heathens.
Speaker 2:
Well, we met like 17 years ago. We don't have to say it out loud, it's really serious Honey.
Speaker 1:
We're in our early 20s. How could that be true? Yeah, I'm turning 22 this year, Okay.
Speaker 2:
Linda, Annie, do not watch this.
Speaker 1:
To my California in-laws that we're so excited to tune in. Please don't.
Speaker 2:
This maybe ain't the one. Yeah, nope, okay, I'll go first. Okay, ready, we listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 1:
I saw that I'm so excited. Okay, so mine the first one. Picture this you and your friends make a very questionable mistake slash illegal mistake. That happens, let's see. You think you get away with it. Okay ten years later, everyone in the group is hunted down by a spirit and entity from your childhood traditions. Okay this is classic, classic. Basically everybody's gonna At the end of it, okay, and you'll watch a creature become a creature, become a person become a creature, right, sorry, that happens to everybody.
Speaker 2:
We listen and we don't judge. Okay, mine's a little bit different, I'm so excited. Different brand here. We listen and we don't judge. Okay, so I'm going to get through this, no so I'm gonna get through this no, I'm gonna get through this. Let me pull my dock back up. I just closed it.
Speaker 1:
I'm sorry even your brain was like no, you can't do it, it's not too late let's get into the good stuff okay, I'll start off easy here.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, okay, so we have birthday girl by Penelope Douglas, and it's her boyfriend's dad who then, her boyfriend, ends up cheating on her, and so then they break up and then she gets with Her his dad. We listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 1:
That feels icky as far as real life things go. We listen, but as far as a book goes, that's fair. That was my light one, so you're going to have a rough day, okay.
Speaker 2:
Do you want me to do another one, please?
Speaker 1:
Take it away.
Speaker 2:
Okay. So next we have the Mindfuck by sd abby um, and she's a serial killer who is getting revenge on people that have wronged her and he's a detective who's working on her case and they end up together and so for their anniversary, every year he brings her somebody who has done really bad things for her to take care of it as a romantic gesture.
Speaker 1:
Okay, that's kind of fun, we listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 2:
I don't know why she was so nervous.
Speaker 1:
That was cutesy that was romantic. Okay, your turn. Okay, I wasn't sure if we were doing the titles.
Speaker 2:
You can do whatever Okay.
Speaker 1:
This one you guys will already know, so I'm not going to do the title, because literally everybody knows this book. All right, so picture this. Okay, he's 104 years old, she's 17.
Speaker 2:
Oh no, a tale as old as that no.
Speaker 1:
She's new to town. Her childhood bestie is a werewolf and he's in love with her.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm. He can't be with her, though, but they're soulmates, her and the 104-year-old. Uh-huh he just gets her. Okay. She's an old soul, Right? No, yeah.
Speaker 2:
That doesn't hold up in court.
Speaker 1:
She learns about his very dark secret. It starts a war amongst worlds she didn't know about. Who will she choose? Is there even a choice? This is only part one. Oh, by the way, he's a vampire. She's a human Awkward as hell. Love triangle. Wolf vampire girl, Okay sure. Thank you we listen and we don. Yep, okay, sure, I give you the diagram, thank you, we listen and we don't judge. Okay, we listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 2:
So this is a series, but I just did the first one. This is Flock by Kate Stewart and she ends up meeting. She ends up moving and she meets this guy named Sean at her work and then she goes and she hangs out at their house and then she also thinks that his friend Dominic is also attractive, so they both just end up dating her.
Speaker 1:
Oh my, Okay, and we don't judge. There's nothing wrong with polyamory.
Speaker 2:
We listen and we don't judge. There's nothing wrong with polyamory. Listen and we don't judge. Okay. So now we have Lights Out by Nevesa Allen and he Okay, I have almost read this book before. It's so funny. It's so funny.
Speaker 1:
I'll add it to my list.
Speaker 2:
He posts thirst traps oh, masked thirst traps on his social media.
Speaker 1:
Is this like the cooking ones on tiktok?
Speaker 2:
no, but they're mac. He's in a mask and he posts these thirst traps on his social media. And then he finds out that she's a fan of his and so he breaks into her house and records a video in her room and he also, kind of like, stalks her and sets up cameras in her house so he can watch her at all times. And his roommate also happens to be her ex-boyfriend, so she also knows him in real life.
Speaker 1:
We list Don't judge. Don't judge. Okay, all right, I feel like you got some bombs, here we go.
Speaker 2:
Your turn. Okay, all right, I feel like you got some bombs, all right. So we listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 1:
All right, this was my first Qualify somebody book, yes, butcher and Blackbird. So good. Okay, so you're both serial killers. You're both equally frightening, feared serial killers Notorious almost.
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:
He stumbles upon her trapped. He's also her biggest fan and in love. Yes, becomes a. Let's see, I'll call it slow bird. They have an annual game and it's not like game night, like y'all this game night turns into. They both end up taking out people that are bad and evil and they're both kind of also after one of the gnarly cannibals. Yes, yeah, I don't eat cookies, and cream, ice cream anymore. Let's just say that, but it's a romance. Yeah, it's romantic. We listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 2:
She also removes eyes. It sets them in strings.
Speaker 1:
She makes art out of it we listen and we don't judge.
Speaker 2:
This one's pretty notable. We have Credence by Penelope Douglas and she goes to live with her step-uncle so not her uncle, her step-uncle After her parents pass away and she ends up getting together with him and both his sons, but she only ends up with the one who doesn't speak, and he also throws away her birth control.
Speaker 1:
Oh my gosh, we listen and we don't judge. No comment, okay, it's step, it's fine, they're not related. She didn't say half.
Speaker 2:
Surely you clearly don't read any. Tarzan, who are the?
Speaker 1:
baby. Okay, we like a man that takes initiative, all right. Yeah, I'm not like that Okay.
Speaker 2:
So next we have Under your Scars by Ariel N Anderson, and he's a serial killer who's called the Silencer so many serial killers between you two who ends up saving her.
Speaker 1:
We have a type.
Speaker 2:
Who ends up saving her in this alleyway, and then he takes care of the people that were in that alleyway.
Speaker 1:
Romantic.
Speaker 2:
And then he also kind of ends up stalking her.
Speaker 1:
But then he's also. Maybe he's just really interested.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, he's also the CEO at the company that she works for, but she doesn't know. Does he know? Yes, he knows who she is, because she's not, you have to know who they are to talk to. She's not. I guess that's fair.
Speaker 1:
It's different, don't worry. I don't have much experience. So thank you, susie, we listen, we don't judge, we don't judge. It was a little problematic, but it wasn't as bad as the uncle.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so he is her stepbrother, who is notably very dangerous in a motorcycle club and whenever she leaves or anything happens he kind of loses his mind.
Speaker 1:
I'm pretty sure they call him the psycho in the club, but I'm not 100%.
Speaker 2:
And then, when she starts to fall for somebody else, he says that he will unalive them unless she becomes his girlfriend. And he also forces her to get a tattoo with his name and the MC logo as a brand.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'm glad he's not pushing her too much too soon. I'm glad he's really chill.
Speaker 2:
He sounds like a great listener, we listen and we don't judge too soon. He's really chill. He sounds like a great listener, we listen and we don't judge too much. So this is Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dix. So aliens abduct her and then her ship crashes on the ice planet.
Speaker 1:
What do the aliens look like?
Speaker 2:
Let me speak. Oh man, and the only way to survive is to bond with a giant blue alien with horns and very interesting anatomy.
Speaker 1:
How do they bond?
Speaker 2:
Well, they have like this vibration thing in their chest, and so they resonate.
Speaker 1:
Oh.
Speaker 2:
We listen and we don't judge. Okay, that's Book Byte. Thanks everybody, I'm gonna go crawl in a hole. This may be our last Book Byte episode, but we're not judging. No. Susie said titles, titles, please. I can send them on. Okay, that would be great. My TBR just got a lot longer. Anyway, I'm shaking Bye.
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