(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to Pillow Talk and Paperbacks, the podcast where a husband and wife tackle romantic books one dramatic chapter at a time. I'm Mary Angelica and I'm all in for an epic love story. And I'm Christian here to question every life choice these characters make. We're here for the plot twists, the chaos, and a whole lot of laughs. All after wrangling our three boys to bed and finally claiming the couch for ourselves. So get cozy, grab a book, and let me remind you why none of this makes any sense. Okay, we're live. We are. So I'm super excited because I got my husband to read some romanticy books. She forced me. Yeah, all I had to say was that I wanted us to do a podcast about it and here we are. And now we fly or die according to this book. So we're going to start. Romanticism is a new genre for myself. I'm Mary Angelica and I'm married too. Uh, Christian. Yeah, we've been married for a while, quite a long time. Don't even ask. Do you want to say? 13. Oh God. I will put him on the spot. It's been 11 years. And we have three children. They are six, four, and two. And, um, I love these books. I only recently got into this genre and I'm obsessed and I've read a couple of books in this genre and now I'm just like, please read them. And he said no. I said no many times. Actually. And yeah, she just kept insisting and I kept saying no. Exactly. So we thought if I record reactions because I love watching people's reactions to these books, maybe he would be excited to do it. And he said yes. Uh, and I'm also like, I'm not much of a reader, but when I do read, I'm reading mystery novels and reading things about democracy. Right. I'm not reading fourth wing. So we're going to start with fourth wing and, um, he knows very little. He knows that there's dragons and that's about it. But I want you to tell me before you read, before you even look at this book that we're holding here, what do you think, based on what I've said, the excitement I've had for this series, what are you expecting? You haven't even fully read the back of the book at all. I haven't. I can't wait. Uh, what am I expecting? Okay. So, uh, there's going to be a love triangle of sorts. There is going to be a king who is ready to, um, destroy his population. Okay. You're really just like going out there and the dragons are dragons with four wings. Oh, that's called the fourth wing are going to be the saviors. And there's going to be a lot of, uh, sex scenes in the love triangle. I don't know if it'll be girl, girl, girl, man, man, man. I have no idea. Maybe all three at the same time. We'll see. Okay. So have a look at the book. Look at the cover. Oh my God. Sexy and sizzling prepared to be fully spellbound by this epic fantasy E online. So that you see that's, that should give you a warning like E online for viewing a book, um, fly or die fourth wing. Yeah. I just, I feel like there's, I have a lot of questions and I'm not sure I want to find out like what the answers to these questions, a dragon without its writer is a tragedy is the dragon in the love triangle that I imagining my head. A writer without their dragon is dead. Okay. All right. Well, this is, I'm getting some, um, avatar vibes here. Something's happening. Some special connection between. Okay. Yeah. Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon writers. So is it just dragging writers? Like there's nobody else. I mean, I guess what we didn't see. Okay. I'm going to spoil it. Okay. Have you guys seen how to train your dragon? Cause I feel like why am I reading this book if I've seen that movie? Well, because you're an adult and not a child. Okay. Well, that's what you would think. So 20 year old Violet Zorengel, did I get that correct? Zorengel was supposed to enter the scribe quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. That sounds nice. Yeah. What is she choosing? Cause it's like was supposed to. So what is she choosing? She's choosing to fly or die, I guess. Now the commanding general, also known as her tough ass mother has, Oh, her mom is a boss. Okay. Yeah. Has ordered a Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre dragon writer. So the mom has like really high expectations for this girl, Violet, who apparently doesn't want this. She wanted to just read books. Um, but when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away. So the mom wants her dead. It's what I'm gathering here because dragons don't bond to fragile humans. They incinerate them with fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets. Most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. So there's a lot of people that want to write dragons, I guess. Okay. And only some of them are going to make it. Hunger games are going to kill each other. I guess the rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter. Oh, she's hated. I feel like everybody's going to hate this lady. I feel like when the King kills her, people will cheer. They're like, maybe the King isn't so bad after all. Where's the King? It's, I don't know. This looks like there's going to have Kings involved like Zayden Ryerson. Who comes up with these names? The most powerful and ruthless wink leader in the writer's quadrant. Okay. So there, there is the third missing piece of the puzzle. So the love triangle will be Violet, the dragon and Zayden. That's who falls in love. Okay. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly. The King, the kingdom's protective. You see, I told you there was a kingdom. And so there's got to be a King. The kingdom's protective wards are failing and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Her mom. Yeah. Okay. Her mom is probably in love with Zayden. Boom. There we go. I said it first. Mark my words, friends, enemies, lovers. Okay. Apparently there's a lot of sex in this book is what I've heard. What I've, you know, what does it call it? Romantic? Romantic? It's called Spice. There's a lot of spice. Is it sex or not? Well, yeah, but are they having sexual intercourse? Yes. Okay. Then that's what it's called. Why are you calling it Spice? Everyone, once again, these names, how do you say this name? Basquiat. Basquiat War College has an agenda for like keeping track of their tasks. Because once you enter, there's only two ways out, graduate or die and have lots of sex. They forgot that. So I, listen, on a scale from one to 10, in terms of excitement, I'll give you a two. Would you ever pick up this book? Never. Why would I? Just look at the cover. What is wrong with the cover? A lot. It says fly or die. Like no good book has. Excuse me. You've read books about people walking and dying. The Long Walk by Stephen King. Yeah. It's a masterpiece. Flying and dying. So, you know, it's very similar to what you had. Mine's a little more realistic. Yours is forever old and has no spice. Sounds boring. Well, it's going to be an interesting uphill battle for sure. By that I mean read. I just want to see how many pages I'm committing to. I'll tell you, I don't want you to get spoiled. You're committing to around like 530. Oh, is that all? Yeah. That's a lot of pages. There's some bonus content. Not interesting. Not interesting. OK, well, let's do this. And, you know, every week I'll give you my take, my thoughts, my comments. I'll tell you what I hated and what I liked, I guess, if there was anything there that I liked. The thing is, you have to go at it open minded. Yeah, I'm agreeing to this. I'm open minded. Yeah. And I said, OK, with dragons and people with love triangles, I'm pretty open minded. So what we're going to do is we're going to recap a couple of chapters that he's going to read at a time and then we will not read any further. And then we'll connect back on the podcast and get your takes on what you're reading, any predictions that you have, any ideas of things that are to come. And then we'll continue on with book two called Iron Flame. And when the third one comes out in January, we will wrap it up with book three, Onyx Storm. Yay. You know, I'm doing this just for you. Like, I know this is so Merry Christmas. I'm just going to go return all the other presents I got you. I love you and I'm so happy to be doing this podcast with you. It's going to be so fun. OK, let's do this. Bye bye. We're reading together, bringing the heat, laughing through plots with every chapter is a treat. So spread the magic, don't let it hide. We'll catch you next time on the road, let's see you ride. Give love triangles and fame, make your heart ignite. Dragon writers, daggers and books that are spicy just right. Don't keep it to yourself, share with your squad, it's true. And while you're here, subscribe and leave a review. We're reading together, bringing the heat, laughing through plots with every chapter is a treat. So spread the magic, don't let it hide. We'll catch you next time on the road, let's see you ride.