Besties and the Books Podcast

Afleveringen

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  Ep 128 👻 🎃 SPOOKY STORIES + Guessing *1 STAR* Horror Book Reviews! 23.09.2026 1u 32min

  Send us Fan Mail It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The season of the crows has officially returned and as slightly spooky, elder emo, introverted book girls, it’s our time to shine. We invite you to cozy up with a blanket and a crispy Alani, light that overpriced candle, and watch Edward Cullen lean his awkward fingers against tables and trees in the background while we talk fall. (It’s like talking “shop” or “business” but much more serious.) Because we have a fever, and the on...
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  Ep 127 “Uhhh…” 😬🔥 Burn of the Everflame Review, Summary, and Deep Dive | Kindred’s Curse Saga Book 4 15.09.2026 2u 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Burn of the Everflame, book four and the final installation in The Kindred’s Curse Saga by Penn Cole is the talk of the town in the Romantasy world. Today we’re doing our deep dive, reviewing one of the most anticipated releases of the year… and our opinions might be different than you think. After deep diving Spark, Glow, and Heat and having the lovely Penn Cole on the podcast twice to talk about strong female characters, deep themes, and writing under pressure, was Bu...
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  “WE THOUGHT WE KNEW PAIN” Light Bringer Red Rising Book 6 | Light Bringer Red Rising Book 6 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 13.09.2026 2u 18min

  Send us Fan Mail This deep dive coverage of Light Bringer was the most difficult in this bonus series to film. Pierce Brown… you have unapologetically broken us with this book and we do not know if we can forgive you. Ashley took a whole star away from her spoiler free rating for the pain and suffering. Did Liz feel the same way? Do you? In today’s final episode (for now!) in our Red Rising bonus series we will not only be discussing in great detail every aspect of how Light Bringer mad...
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  Ep 126 The Gods Will Sing Our Song by Autumn Krause and The Importance of Historical Romantasy | Book Review + Deep Dive 08.09.2026 1u 21min

  Send us Fan Mail Today we’re bringing you our deep dive coverage for The Gods Will Sing Our Song as the follow up to our extremely impactful author interview 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 OUT NOW… her very timely and extremely important fourth novel The Gods Will Sing Our Song, inspired by her own family’s experiences in the World War 2 Japanese Ameri...
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  “THIS IS HORROR!” Dark Age Red Rising Book 5 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap 04.09.2026 2u 26min

  Send us Fan Mail Tis’ a Dark Age Indeed…👯‍♀️US: 🆘We are officially sending out a distress signal to anyone in the galaxy who is willing to listen! 📣Pierce Brown!? Are you out there?! If so, please send help because we’re pretty sure we’re not gonna make it! …Wait… what was that? 😈Pierce Brown: “The old rage in colder ways, for they alone decide how to spend the young.” US: 🥺🥺 We’re not going to sugarcoat the truth for you. If you’ve made it this far, you already know that th...
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  Ep 125 *SPOILER FREE* 🔥 Burn of the Everflame and the Epic Conclusion to Kindreds Curse Saga | Penn Cole Interview 01.09.2026 1u 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Penn Cole returns to Besties and the Books Podcast returns to Besties to prepare us for all things Burn of the EverFlame! The final installation in her New York Times bestselling Kindred’s Curse Saga drops EVERYWHERE on September 8th! That means that exactly one short week from today we will all know how Diem and Luther’s journey ends… for better or for worse. How high on The Cryometer™ should you expect to get? We’ll tell ya! This interview is completely spoiler free s...
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  Ep 124 MAASPIRACY! Spiraling w/ these *NEW* ACOTAR 6 & 7 Books + Conspiracy Theories!! 28.08.2026 1u 58min

  Send us Fan Mail We’re reacting to all things related to the cover and overview releases for ACOTAR 6: A Court of Splintered Harmony, AKA The Valkyrie Cycle: Movement 1, AKA: ACOSH, annnd ACOTAR 7: A Court of Forgotten Melody, AKA The Valkyrie Cycle: Movements 2 & 3, AKA ACOFM, by none other than our lord and savior Sarah J. Maas. If you’re new to us, the book community in general, or the SJM fandom, just know that we love our abbreviations. #cantstopwontstop 😉 YOU GET A MAASPIRACY! And Y...
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  Ep 123 *NEW* K!nks Unlocked + What We’ve Learned from Romance, Romantasy, and Fantasy Novels 18.08.2026 1u 17min

  Send us Fan Mail At this point we think most of us are willing to admit that romance and fantasy novels saved publishing. We watched Barnes & Noble come back from the brink of collapse, Target bring back their book section, and movies made from book adaptations like Wuthering Heights and The Housemaid bring people back to theaters. If you don’t believe us, maybe you’ll believe math - just go look it up. These genres have historically been diminished in seriousness and importance bec...
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  Ep 122 “This is MAJOR!” The Poison Daughter Discussion with Indie to Trad Author Sheila Masterson! 12.08.2026 1u 16min

  Send us Fan Mail The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson has taken the Romantasy and Dark Fantasy world by storm and as of August 18th will be rereleased and traditionally published by Zando Publishing in hardcover and dual narrated audiobook! We’re here to celebrate with none other than Sheila herself, the beautiful, smart, and incredibly talented woman behind one of our favorite books of the year, multiple monthly picks for Besties and the Book Club, and USA bestselling author of The Poison...
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  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...
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  “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...
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  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...
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  "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-...
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  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” ...
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  “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...
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  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...
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  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...
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  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...
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  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...
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  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...