Besties and the Books Podcast

Afleveringen

• 
  Ep 121 “I’m SO Embarrassed!!” Reacting to Embarrassing Bookish Confession Stories! 04.08.2026 1u 12min

  Send us Fan Mail Have you ever had something bookish AND embarrassing happen to you? We’re not shy… and apparently we don’t embarrass easily (shocking 😂)… so we’re here today to share other people’s mortifying book stories! But don’t you worry, we make sure to include a little tidbit or two about ourselves. So sit back, relax, and get ready to laugh at a spoiler free, homework free episode! We bring you librarian faux pas, the classic Bluetooth Smut Connection™, a Fourth Wing shower enc...
• 
  “I’m SCARED!” Iron Gold Red Rising Book 4 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 31.07.2026 1u 53min

  Send us Fan Mail Well...we finished Iron Gold. This is the part in the show notes where we typically include a quippy little one liner from one of our most favorite Red Rising characters or moments. And whoever gets the inside joke, gets it. Then we laugh (😂😂), or throw up the rock n’ roll hands (🤘🤘) and get excited to be a Howler (🐺🐺). We hate to break it to you, but we fear those days are over for now… It’s ten years after the epic ending of Morning Star when Iron Gold begins. Everyone is o...
• 
  Ep 120 *EYE OPENING* Historical Fantasy Autumn Kruase The Gods Will Sing Our Song | Author Interview 29.07.2026 54min

  Send us Fan Mail Today we have a very special spoiler free author interview episode for you with young adult Romantasy author Autumn Krause! Autumn is the author of four novels (so far): A Dress for the Wicked, Before the Devil Knows You’re Here, Grave Flowers, and coming soon…her very timely and extremely important fourth novel The Gods Will Sing Our Song. Out everywhere (including Audible!) on September 1st, The Gods Will Sing Our Song is a magical and tragic story inspired by her own famil...
• 
  "HAIL THE REAPER!" Morning Star Red Rising Book 3 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 24.07.2026 1u 37min

  Send us Fan Mail “Finish the bucket, or get the box!” At this point most of you are fully aware of what you’re getting into with this series, so let us officially induct you into our den of Howlers. Just remember two things: “Omnis Vir Lupus 🐺🤘,” and “sh*t escalates.” Because there ain’t nothin’ Pierce Brown has written thus far to indicate that the next four books will bring us anything other than chaos and pain, yet here we stay. Wolf cloaks on, loyal until the end. We kicked off Sci-...
• 
  Ep 119 *Skin Suits and Literal Hair Ties?!* We need to talk about Headlights by CJ Leede!! 21.07.2026 1u 31min

  Send us Fan Mail Time to deep dive CJ Leede's newest horror book, Headlights! You want horror, we gave you horror. You want horror, give you horror. Ask for horror, you got horror! You asked for horror, you got it! We’re even! We’re even, besties! We don’t know what more you want from us! (IYKYK! 😜🍪) Here’s the thing… you said you wanted us to cover more spooky books, so we present to you our first foray into the horror genre - don’t say we never warned you. We know that we’re a “summerween” ...
• 
  “BREAK THE CHAINS!” Golden Son Red Rising Book 2 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 17.07.2026 2u 4min

  Send us Fan Mail Listen closely, my goodman, Golden Son ruined our bloody damn lives… and we’re here to fill you in on the heartbreak. ☄️ We kicked off Sci-Fi Summer with a full-length episode introducing the genre and setting the scene for a closer analysis of science fiction. We discuss who has historically defined and dominated the genre, its subsequent evolution, and how our newest deep dive obsession, the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown fits into it all. Next, we covered book one to se...
• 
  Ep 118 “DON'T DO THIS!” Bookish Pet Peeves + Hot Takes w/ Fantasy FanReads host @TheLostBooksofJess 14.07.2026 1u 19min

  Send us Fan Mail Today we’re bringing you an entirely spoiler free fun bestie chat with the Queen of bookish comedy: Jess @thelostbooksofjess and the host of the podcast ⁨@fantasyfanreadspod⁩ ! Jess’s hilarious reels, polls, and character boards introduced us to her bookstagram years ago, and here we are today yapping about unpopular bookish opinions and pet peeves, ready to get the people goin’! Get to know Jess, the person behind the bookish account and podcast. How did she get star...
• 
  We FINALLY Read RED RISING and we need to talk!!! | Book 1 Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 10.07.2026 1u 55min

  Send us Fan Mail Sci-Fi Summer is here in full force, boyo! Are you prime? 🤘🐺 Earlier this week we brought you a full-length episode introducing our summer bonus series covering Red Rising by Pierce Brown! A long anticipated request from you, our listeners, to join a passionate science fiction fandom… of a book series written by a man. And we had to be honest with you - we were more than a little bit apprehensive. Do we even like sci-fi? Would we understand it or get too caught up in the jarg...
• 
  Ep 117 "You’ve Loved Sci-Fi ALL ALONG!" Intro to Science Fiction and Red Rising Deep Dive Series! 08.07.2026 2u 8min

  Send us Fan Mail What the heck is science fiction and how is it different (or suspiciously similar 🤔) to fantasy? We’re here to tell you! On today’s episode we’ll be setting the scene for our newest bonus series covering Red Rising by Pierce Brown, starting this Friday with our deep dive into book one! We’ve covered dystopian themes with our exploration of The Hunger Games universe by Suzanne Collins, then moved on to ask the question: “Are books political?” with our deep dive coverage of e...
• 
  Ep 116 “He does WHAT with his CORN DOG?!” Reacting to AITA & AIO 4th of July Stories 30.06.2026 1u 16min

  Send us Fan Mail Live from the Barbeque Hotdog Store… It's Tuesday afternoon! Also known as our annual celebration of everything “American” and our Fourth of July 🇺🇸 | Am I the A Hole spoiler free episode! We take it even further this year to expand into a special “AIO,” or “Am I Overreacting?!” segment to remind us all why we love getting together with friends and family for the “holidays.” What a joy it is! If you want to see our most red, white, and blue-coded outfits make sure to tu...
• 
  Ep 115 “TEARS EVERYWHERE!” Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A Parker | Book Reviews, Recap, Summary 23.06.2026 1u 39min

  Send us Fan Mail We’re fiiine. Totally fiiine. We hope you're fiiine too! Here’s your reminder to go read The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A Parker. Book two in the Moonfall Series, the follow up to When the Moon Hatched, and what we now know to be the “middle book” in the trilogy hits hard and scores high on our Cry-ometer (IYKYK 😭🫠). Check out our recap video of book one if you need it, then let us help guide you through not only our spoiler free reviews, but our five sentence s...
• 
  Ep 114 *NEW* Psychological Paranormal Horror with CJ Leede and Her Release Headlights | Author Interview 16.06.2026 1u 4min

  Send us Fan Mail You asked for some horror coverage, and that’s exactly what you’re getting! Today we’re here with CJ Leede, THE Queen of horror, to get to know her, introduce her brand new book Headlights and discuss why horror with feminist themes is so important and is resonating on a different level with readers right now. Don’t worry, this episode is entirely spoiler free, so if you’re horror curious but not sure if it’s for you, stick around to find out why we think the thriller and fan...
• 
  Ep 113 “THAT’S IT, I’M DNFing!” Ruining the Fantasy (books) some more with the Petty Problems! 🐉😝📚 09.06.2026 53min

  Send us Fan Mail So, here’s the thing… Today we’re bringing you a spoiler free, homework free, judgement free (kinda) episode where we ruin fantasy books for you by being naysayers. We’re bringing light to what we’re calling “Fantasy Probs,” aka those things in our favorite books that pull us right out of the story because… well, they’re just not realistic. And hey, if you like this go check out our first ruining fantasy episode for more! Believe us, we know this sounds completely insan...
• 
  Ep 112 Liz makes Ashley Return to Oz, was it worth it? | West of Wicked by Nikki St Crowe 02.06.2026 1u 11min

  Send us Fan Mail Did you see that we got to interview Nikki St. Crowe?! When the Queen of spicy fairytale reimaginings calls, you answer and promptly cover her new book West of Wicked! We thought we’d made it out of the Oz universe alive and *relatively* unscathed but “spoiler alert* we got sucked right back in. Are we happy about it? Listen on to find out. West of Wicked is book one in the Great and Terrible Land trilogy, with book one out now, and book two East of Envy scheduled...
• 
  Ep 111 Let’s UNRAVEL Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry | Book Reviews, Recap, Summary 26.05.2026 1u 53min

  Send us Fan Mail Rites of the Starling, Rites of the Starling, Rites of the Starling…if you say it three times, does The Guardian appear? 😂 We jest, because we know this second installment in the Shield of Sparrows series by Devney Perry is highly rated, but definitely somewhat polarizing because of its unique storytelling style, and the introduction to completely new characters for half of the entire book! You either love that or hate it… or begrudgingly love it by the end because the ...
• 
  Ep 110 *WHAT HAPPENED IN* Shield of Sparrows? Recap Before Reading Rites of the Starling | Review & Summary Deep Dive 19.05.2026 1u 27min

  Send us Fan Mail So what happened in Shield of Sparrows? Well, we will tell ya! We’re not sure about you, but we know that when we love a book… like five star love… infinity star obsession-level love… we forget absolutely everything that happened. It’s a black out phenomenon that cannot be explained. Which is exactly what we both experienced last year when we read Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry for the first time. Go check out our live Besties & the Book Club playback (linked below) a...
• 
  Ep 109 AM I THE A HOLE? + Bookish Unpopular Opinions & Unhinged Questions w/ Little Blonde Books! 12.05.2026 1u 35min

  Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is all spoiler free and fun vibes filled with unpopular opinions, hot takes, and even a bookish AITA! We’re doing our first book influencer interview and collab episode with none other than bestie of the pod: Kat over @littleblondebooks! We’re sure that you know her from her excellent book recommendations, impeccable taste in music, and her vegan advocacy over @littleblondevegan! Grab an Alani and join the party! Today she’s here to talk a little bit about her...
• 
  Ep 108 *listen to this* When The Moon Hatched Recap BEFORE Reading Ballad of Falling Dragons!! Deep Dive, Summaries, and Breakdowns 05.05.2026 1u 18min

  Send us Fan Mail Remember two years ago (almost to the day!) when this new dragon book came onto the Romantasy scene called When The Moon Hatched, we voted for it as a Besties & the Book Club read (going in completely blind), and it took us all by storm?! Well, we do! We’re here today to officially deep dive When the Moon Hatched by the amazing Sarah A. Parker to finally do one of our favorite dragon books of all time justice. Hey… it might even be our most favorite dragon book to d...
• 
  Little Women Book VS Movies Deep Dive Discussion ( + Christian Bale VS Timothée Chalamet) 01.05.2026 1u 46min

  Send us Fan Mail Our 2026 Classics Series is coming to a close with today’s very special episode covering not only the 1868 novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, but also the 1994 and 2019 film adaptations. We deep dive, rate and review, and rank them all. Was the book our favorite this time around? Or did Christian Bale’s hair or Greta Gerwig’s feminist-leaning script steal our hearts? This episode is our response to the many things that so many female authors across centuries have...
• 
  Ep 107 Have you tried DYSTOPIAN ROMANTASY? Why you need to read Above the Ashes + Deep Dive! 28.04.2026 1u 1min

  Send us Fan Mail Did you read The Hunger Games or Divergent and love it with your whole heart but want more adult romance… or maybe even some fantasy? Do you love dystopian shows like The Walking Dead and Fallout but wish the entire time for those main characters to just kiss already!? We know we’re not alone in this, and we know that Above the Ashes by K.M. Lister, book one in her Survivors of the Smoke series, will scratch that itch. Today’s episode is our follow up deep dive into this dyst...