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Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re sharing our latest book reads conversation — but we went a bit long so this is part 2 of 2 featuring Fable’s stories!

Over the last few months instead of doing our typical bookclub episodes, we’ve started talking about some of the things we’ve recently read and enjoyed, connected with, or learned from. It’s been a great way to share what we’re consuming and loving lately and finding new recommendations.

In this episode, Fables covers a wide range of books - Ali Hazelwood’s latest Love, Theoretically, some widely talked about reads, a couple thrilling dark romances with fall vibes, several sweet monster romances, a funny spicey hockey read, a sequel that is arguably better than the first book of the series, a great craft book, and a taboo love story about a priest.

We also talk a lot about these stories from a mood and flavor perspective, but also from a craft perspective, what the authors did that we found interesting. Things like:

• Love, Theoretically - A lesson in how to create a relatable character who masks and is a people pleaser and dialing her up to eleven; Does a great job of cueing in the readers on the male character’s deep feelings, but using believable things to keep the MC in the dark

• Morning Glory Milking Farm & Unhinged - Sometimes the imperfect is almost better for getting people to talk about something; An intriguing and/or ridiculous concept can overcome many problems with writing and execution

• Mane of My Existence & Nora’s Kraken - Because sometimes you just want an enjoyably written and sweet monster romance

• The Coven & September Doves - Intriguing fall and engrossing fall vibey thrilling reads that pull you through

• Pucked - A funny, quirky, and spicey hockey romance that for some reason isn’t getting talking about as much

• Heartless - Fan yourselves, because this mouthy and sexy male lead is your next book boyfriend waiting to happen

• Priest - It’s exploration of religion and profound themes - like grace and forgiveness; How taboo stories can help us explore some dark places within ourselves

• Power Up Your Fiction: 125 Tips and Techniques for Next-Level Writing (Bell on Writing) - A boiled down, but wide ranging book filled with key pieces of writing advice from his own writing journal.

Towards the end of our conversation, we talk about Golden by Shannon Mayer — a story that’s a mashup of a lot of things. It’s a mix of Greek drama, Norse mythology, The Little Mermaid, Milo and Ottis, and Romantasy and it feels like madness that should not work, but somehow it does.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore talks about how Ali Hazelwood was discovered after she wrote a draft of what ended up becoming The Love Hypothesis on a fanfiction site. That site was Archive of Our Own (AO3).

The Verbivore mentions the character known as Hot Priest from the TV series Fleabag. Here is the video she references here actor Andrew Scott unpacks the iconic kneel scene:

• Andrew Scott relives Fleabag’s kneel scene | Action Replay | British GQ

Books and Films Mentioned:

• Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood 

• Bride by Ali Hazelwood

• Morning Glory Milking Farm by C. M. Nascosta

• Unhinged by Vera Valentine 

• Mane of my Existence: A Creatures & Coding Novel by Rhea Fox

• Nora's Kraken (Monster Relations Bureau Book 1) by Leigh Miller  

• The Coven by Harper L. Woods

• September Doves by Emmerson Hoyt

• Pucked by Helena Hunting

• Heartless by Elsie Silver

• Priest by Sierra Simone

• Power Up Your Fiction: 125 Tips and Techniques for Next-Level Writing (Bell on Writing) by James Scott Bell

• Golden by Shannon Mayer

Music from:https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)