Favorite Reads of the Summer & Desert Island Stacks Book Bites

Two readers share summer standouts—Grave Matter and the polarizing, unforgettable Still Beating—then build a desert island library that mixes epic fantasy, nostalgia, and pure fun. We weigh comfort against challenge and admit that sometimes the best survival tool is a giant series.
• mini-series intro and summer theme
• Grave Matter as standout emotional read
• Still Beating dark romance premise and ethical tension
• island rules: no phones, no limits, long stay
• Zodiac Academy for length and escapism
• Yarros tearjerker and Twilight nostalgia
• Throne of Glass as new long series to try
• Manacled fanfic and Ice Planet Barbarians for volume
• library trading, survival book joke, playful wrap
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Chapters

• 0:08 Mini-Series Setup & Summer Theme
• 0:24 Favorite Books of Summer
• 1:22 Dark Romance Deep Dive: Still Beating
• 4:06 Island Picks Ground Rules
• 4:30 Series to Survive: Zodiac Academy
• 5:02 Cry Reads and Nostalgia: Yarros & Twilight
• 5:20 Fantasy Additions and New-to-Read Picks
• 6:00 Trading Libraries on the Island
• 6:45 Fourth Wing Temptation
• 7:30 Survival Book Joke & Closing CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Hey. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Book Bites. I'm Susie. I'm Kylie. This is our mini-series. So this is, you know, if you don't want to listen to us yap for a full book, you can just come in for a little bite and then you'll want more. So you'll go watch our other books. Because you totally should. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 0:24

Um, today we're gonna do a kind of summer recap. What was your favorite book of the summer that you read now that we're getting into fall?

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

Thank God! Sweat a weather! Sweater weather! Sweaterweather! It ain't sweater weather right now.

SPEAKER_01: 0:38

Yeah, it's hot. Um, and then also we're gonna do kind of three to five books or series, was what Susie put in the text. So there may be a miscommunication error there. Um tale as old as time.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Susie forgets what she says.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

That uh you would take on an island. So if you were on a deserted island, which books are you taking?

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

Facts. My favorite book was Grave Matter by Karina Alley. Best book ever. Speaking of our full episodes. Yeah, you know, it technically happened after, but I couldn't, nothing else could top it. I can't think, so that was mine. Um, it was really good.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14

I you've never heard of this, so I will give you a little tidbit of it. Ooh. There this we listen and we do not judge. Okay. So my favorite book of the summer was a book called Still Beating. This is dark. This is b bottom of the cellar dark romance. And but it was very complicated. So I'm just gonna give you a little tidbit. Okay. So essentially, this girl and her soon-to-be brother-in-law get kidnapped by this serial killer who is called the matchmaker. So yes! No! So he kidnaps them, he keeps them in the basement. Oh, it's all very traumatic, very horrible, very awful. They end up falling in love in this basement. So his whole thing is once a couple he feels like falls in love, because he also only goes for people that aren't actually couples, once he feels like they fall in love, he typically kills them. It's horrible. And it's very complicated because then they get rescued, they get out, and they have all of this stuff they have to deal with. I've heard people talk about this book on TikTok. And he is engaged to her sister, and so there's this whole thing there. And the sister's been trying to find him. Wow. It's really complicated, but probably really dark. But it's so intense to read. It's so intense. It was so good, and it's so like conflicting. Okay. The whole thing is just messy and icky, and it feels weird. But and then also it goes into like their healing journeys because they've been through this traumatic thing together, and so they kind of feel like they're each other's safe space, but like you can't be spending the night at your sister's your fiancé's sister's house, like snuggling in bed.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01

Absolutely not. What in the Game of Thrones?

SPEAKER_01: 3:03

Like, but they've also been through this horrible, horrible thing, and that's how they're coping. And anyways.

SPEAKER_00: 3:10

Yeah, that's not it'd be good. It was so good. I'd read it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

I don't know if I would recommend it to you. A little dark. It's very dark. It's very dark. If you decide you want to read it in a couple years after I get some more under my belt, let me know. But um, so that was that's my favorite book of this. That's great, Kylie. I was recommended actually by somebody, and I read it five stars. It was good. Dang, it was it was dark and it was messy, but it was good. God damn. Yeah. I like it. So maybe we'll we'll start tearing you. Yep. We'll start tearing your your smut. Your dark romance.

SPEAKER_00: 3:52

I like that.

SPEAKER_01: 3:52

Okay. So, next up. Five books, roughly.

SPEAKER_00: 3:57

Yep. Well, so I'm having to go to an island where I'm gonna be bored. I can't scroll and be chronically online. You don't even have your phone.

SPEAKER_01: 4:08

You're gonna make it, girlfriend. Screams of me. You're not lasting on that island, I'll tell you that, on Grave Matter Island. Facts.

SPEAKER_00: 4:15

Uh, the first thing that I would take, the first now, also, this is understanding that there's no rules about weight limits for checked bags. Like, there's no we're not thinking practical. And I'm thinking I'm gonna be there for a real long goddamn time. So, Zodiac Academy.

SPEAKER_01: 4:30

The book or the series? The series. Same.

SPEAKER_00: 4:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 4:34

Yep. Same. Okay. Because there's 14 of them or whatever. Yeah. I'm gonna like 20 or some shit. Awesome. Yeah. I'm gonna be there for a long time. I'm gonna get through them. And some of them are big. So some?

SPEAKER_00: 4:46

Well, I've only read a couple.

SPEAKER_01: 4:48

Okay, most of them are like 900 to like 1300 pages long. Jimmy, they're huge, massive books. Anyway, but you're on an island, you have all the time in the world. Uh so I agree with that one.

SPEAKER_00: 5:01

Okay, I like that. The next one would be The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarrows.

SPEAKER_01: 5:06

On an island crying. Oh. Sitting there. Yep. Just sobbing. I would take the Twilight series as well. I also have the Twilight series. Yep, revisiting that while we're there. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 5:20

And then uh the last one is one I haven't read. Okay. Uh, but The Last Storm by JD Linton. I've heard that it's pretty good, kind of uh like fantasy-ish. Uh, very much, I guess, like she gets it's an arranged marriage, but then like they fall in love. And yeah, so there's a lot of that. Yep. Give me that. So that's my list.

SPEAKER_01: 5:43

Fair. Okay, so I also had Zodiac Academy.

unknown: 5:46

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 5:47

As we've stated. Twilight, nostalgic. You need it. Um, mine all have like reasonings for them. Uh I also put in there the Throne of Glass series. So this is definitely a fantasy. I haven't read it. Okay. I know people really like it. I'm gonna want something I haven't read, right? Facts. Keep it, keep it interesting. Um, and it's also kind of a lengthy series. Okay. So I'm gonna do that. I'm also gonna bring along uh Manaculd, which is being put into an actual published book of Alchemist, but this is a Harry Potter fanfic between Hermione and Draco. Very complicated, very messy. I read this at the beginning of the year and I was in shambles about it. Okay. I'm bringing that because I need to revisit that. Specifically, if I can take both versions, if I can take the pre-published version and the published version with me, I would like to do that. Oh if these are the rules. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 6:37

Yep, there are none.

SPEAKER_01: 6:38

Yeah. Um, my last one, I'm gonna need some smut. So I'm obviously gonna take Ice Planet Barbarians because there's 20-something books in that series. Oh. I got time. I got time. So I'm taking that.

SPEAKER_00: 6:52

Look at you.

SPEAKER_01: 6:53

I think there's probably close to 2020, 22 books a minute.

SPEAKER_00: 6:56

Yes, like we're prepared. Yeah. We're ready to be there for a while. And then just think if we're both trapped on this island, we can trade off of each other's library and just like we should see what the rules are for this made-up scenario. Yeah, we'll get more in-depth. It'll be a series within our mini-series of welcome back to the island list.

SPEAKER_01: 7:14

Um, so currently there's uh 17 of them, I think. Nope, 19, 19 of them.

SPEAKER_00: 7:23

Gosh, they're like the Duggar books.

SPEAKER_01: 7:25

And then there's novellas, too. Oh my gosh! Okay, yeah. So we're gonna have so much material.

SPEAKER_00: 7:32

I love this. We're gonna be so entertained.

SPEAKER_01: 7:34

Yeah. And it's all across the board. Well, mine are a lot of fantasy, actually.

unknown: 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:40

I like fantasy more than I think. I know I do. Yeah, fair. I think you would love fourth wing. We should do a fourth wing episode.

SPEAKER_00: 7:48

It does seem like I need to just jump right. Because also, there's so much of like stuff that I won't get. I'll be watching videos online, like, I don't get it, and I would I would think this is funny. If I would just read it, I would get it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:59

I do love Zaiden.

unknown: 8:01

I do love it.

SPEAKER_01: 8:02

I'm not taking it. I've already read it. Okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00: 8:06

And I don't feel like it's an plus, we haven't even finished our plot for this island. How do we know that some Dr. Daddy doesn't come with a ship of books?

SPEAKER_01: 8:14

Or just himself. I mean. Entertained. You know? We need to get off this grave matter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:22

Yeah, we need to stop.

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

We don't make the rules of the island.

SPEAKER_00: 8:26

Sometimes they'll be a little longer. Yeah, there's it's so new and uninhabited that there's no rules yet. So we're gonna have to we're in uncharted territory.

SPEAKER_01: 8:33

I did almost think, okay, I'm gonna bring like survival 101. You know, survival for dummies or something like that. Because hey, I can't I on an island, there's nothing there. We're just a couple of girls. A couple of girls. So I did I did think of throwing that in there, but I was like, no, we're doing fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

So survival practicality.

SPEAKER_01: 8:54

Survival for dummies is buried in the sand, and I just happened to find it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 8:59

Exactly. Okay, that'll be it from us. Yeah, that's how like, subscribe, share, follow.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

Thanks. And come back next time. Okay, bye. Bye.