Oh. Megan is interested. Right? Turn on the cum
lamp and sign me up. Hello Brats and welcome
to another episode of Rainbow Book Rats, a queer
romance podcast where four feral rats nerd out
about their favorite reads. On this Rat Chat
episode, we are going to talk about the books
we read recently and what's on our book radar
at the moment. So grab a treat, settle in, and
let's get to yappin'. I'm JD, my pronouns are
they, them, and I have a piece of stained glass
shaped like a glorious crab rangoon. I thought
you were going to say you had a penis. No, I
don't have one of those yet. I'm Kit, they, he,
and if the zombie apocalypse ever happens, I
want to get bitten first. me too i will not survive
okay okay you know i'll just hide away that's
when you'll see katie's mean side finally i've
had a lot of conversations with how we would
survive a zombie apocalypse with my family and
i have flat out told everyone i am not surviving
don't expect anything of me exactly right the
second my glasses break i'm done for oh my yeah
i can't see well even with my glasses so um i'm
megan she her they them and i used to think that
there was a salami animal and i believed this
up until like my mid -20s my mid to late 20s
wait like Like there was an animal made of salami
that we harvested salami from? Yes, like salami
or pepperoni. Why is that so cute? Wow, that's
the cutest fact I've ever heard. You win. Oh
my gosh. I'm Katie. She, her. And if you don't
already know, I collect trolls. And I'm obsessed
with them. So cute. I love your collection. My
babies. Little treasure trolls all staring down
at you as one. Actually, yeah, because they're
all on the walls and stuff. I have a tattoo of
one on my arm. Yeah. How was your week, JD? What
dirt do you have to share? You know I don't want
to talk about the dirt. I do want to talk about
the dirt, unfortunately. Sorry, everyone. It's
real actual for real dirt. My wife bought some
garden beds. for our yard this year two really
big ones and we vastly underestimated how much
dirt was necessary to fill those suckers i think
she bought like i want to say close to 10 bags
of soil and it didn't fill it like at all oh
no oh my gosh So, last weekend, we borrowed my
father -in -law's truck to go get dirt from,
like, the dirt place. I don't know. The dirt
store. The dirt store. Dirt is everywhere. It's
wild that you can go buy it. You had to buy it.
I know. You need specific dirt. Yeah, if you
just go find some dirt, you have to, like...
dig it up i'm not doing that you're not gonna
go dig a hole in the it was hard enough to dig
it out of the truck and when we got there the
guy looked at us like no because of the size
of our truck because no not a very big one but
he was like yeah i don't i mean we'll see what
we can get in there so He did the first scoop
and it filled the truck. And he was like, I don't
think we can get any more in there. So yeah,
we just ended up doing half a yard and then I
shoveled it into a wheelbarrow and we had my
husband assemble while we were out getting the
dirt because his foot is still, you know. in
a booth and so he couldn't help us with the dirt
which is why i was helping with the dirt um anyway
against your will yeah well i mean i'm happy
to help them if they need my help but usually
they don't and i'm happy for that because i don't
like doing stuff like that listen i i think i
think wifey bought the planners and then your
husband was like I'm going to break my toe because
I don't want to help. For real, yeah. We got
the planters and then suddenly somebody broke
his toe. Yeah, no. So I shoveled all that dirt
into a wheelbarrow. Yeah, so that took a long
time and it made my arms hurt. But I look really
cool doing it, though. So anyway, yeah, that's
what's been going on with me. Just dirt. What's
going on over there? JD's got dirt, Kit's got
sand. Yeah. Yep, I've been getting the tank ready
because we might have some crabs coming. Yay!
I'm so excited. The babies. Babies. Oh, I've
got three coming. And you've got names picked
out. Yep. So we're thinking Pebbles, Crabather,
and Clorins. Gotta meet them first. I mean, I've
seen that tank. They're going to be pretty spoiled.
Yeah, it's a pretty lush tank. I would live in
it if I was a crab. Yeah, they've got a lot of
toys in there. They're going to have fun times.
But yeah, how about you, Megan? I went and saw
Conan Gray on concert. I was so fun brought my
husband with me because I've listened to him
a lot and so Alex heard a couple songs here and
there so he was like yeah I'll go it'd be fun
like I'll hear the couple songs I'm excited about
and then like we were there and we had really
good seats and and like Conan's just such a great
performer and then when we left my husband was
like oh i'm a fan now yeah he was like asking
me about like some of the different songs and
stuff and i was like oh this makes me so happy
that's so sweet every video you were sending
i was like oh my god i love it i was so excited
and i was just like the sailor costumes i know
the set was so cute he had like the yeah the
sailor costume and he had like a pajamas costume
how much did you cry oh yeah So the first song
he started with, I cried. It was just like chills,
instant chills, right? And then obviously cried
during Vodka Cranberry. The first song, the second
song, and then the third song. Yeah, so that
was my week. What about you, Katie? My week.
Well, it wasn't super exciting. I have a nephew
and he turned five. So I went to what I thought
was the rat house, but I learned it's the mouse
house. Chuckie Keys is not a rat. He's a mouse.
I didn't know that. And he was in the building.
I don't like, I'm not a mascot person. They freak
me out. i don't like him and he was walking around
and i was like mr cheese was there you're like
yeah from me i'm over here you know his real
name is charles e cheese right yeah entertainment
cheese charles entertainment cheese as a british
person is this true yeah i think true oh my god
It was awful. Like, it was just so loud. So chaotic.
And like, of course I'm there for my nephew's
birthday, but like, he's not. My nephew doesn't
want to hang out with me at his birthday party.
He's five. He wants to play with his friends.
He's like jumping everywhere. Yeah. And playing
games. And so I'm just trying to survive and
make small talk with other parents. And I ended
up getting stuck in the bathroom for like 20
minutes because I went to go pee and there was
no toilet paper and I didn't have my purse on
me. And we were all too far away to help you.
Yeah. Yeah. We got an SOS. I'm texting you guys.
Like, you'll help. But like, I can't. I'm not
going to ask a... I was too embarrassed to ask
one of the other kids in the bathroom to like,
hey, can you get me toilet paper? Hey, kid, bring
me some toilet paper. So I'm just I'm like texting
everybody. I need help. But they're not responding
because they're busy with the children. So, you
know, if we were real friends, we would have
looked up the Chuck E. Cheese you were at and
called it and told them. I was like a minute
or two away from taking a sock off, guys. I was
done. I was ready to leave. Only other highlight
I have for my week. We have this. So where the
water comes down from the rain gutters is broken.
So it's like dripping from up high now. So all
the snow melting off the roof. And it makes these
giant icicles on the side of our house. And I
got in trouble one year. because I wanted to
break it. And I broke our broom in half, smacking
it. So I haven't done it since. But this week,
my nephew decided to take up the family job and
smack it with a broom. And he broke a broom.
It's tradition. You must have been so proud of
him. I was pretty proud. He and his friend, they
got the bright idea to take hammers. They took
hammers. They didn't get hurt. They were fine,
but they took hammers and we're just, me and
my sister inside the house, just watching like
TV or something. And you just hear like, he kept
coming in. Look at this chunk I got. And I'm
like, okay, that's nice. wow it was great he's
playing outside you know that's yeah yeah it's
not a tablet he's fine oh boy see i would have
helped him and taped the hammer to the broom
there you go kid that should work tape an ice
pick to the other side just in case Go have fun.
Oh, boy. All right. Well, let us. move on to
what we read i will go first in the last couple
of weeks i read a couple of books that i want
to talk about the first one is stick around by
em lindsey it is a spin -off series from the
punk as puck series it is about jonah who is
a goalie in the pphl and he was born blind he
is a blind goalie and he plays professional hockey
and we love him he's baby we love him We love
him. He's like my favorite character in the first
three books and he's only a side character. Yeah,
yeah. He's just so sweet and lovely. This is
his book. It was actually like more emotional
than I was expecting. Oh no. Uh oh, Megan. Jonah
is estranged from his parents because his dad
was like super checked out when he was growing
up. He has two other brothers. Micah is also
fully blind and he also plays professional hockey
as a goalie but on a different team and then
his other brother caleb he is partially blind
so their dad was like really checked out when
they were growing up and he resented the fact
that jonah and micah couldn't see and he like
favored caleb but only just barely yeah it was
really awful and then their mother basically
exploited them for their blindness like started
like a youtube channel and was like watch how
my kids eat blind like it was awful truly truly
you fuck parents like that yeah fuck any parents
that exploit their kids for youtube but especially
that they have a lot of trauma surrounding that
and they get a call from their mom saying like
i need you guys to come over like i have to tell
you something and so they're like oh my god what
now so they all go over there and jonah is kind
of the one who ends up shouldering a lot more
of the drama between parents and and kids because
micah and caleb are very much like a no fuck
this this is not my problem they leave and then
their mom tells jonah that she's moving to the
uk completely ignoring all life's responsibilities
and fucking off basically and then she tells
him too that his dad has alzheimer's and he's
gonna need help so lol bye Fucking parents. Yeah.
So he finds out by getting a phone call from
a man who owns a restaurant asking him to come
pick up his dad. And he's like, what? So apparently
his dad is like really late stage Alzheimer's
and he's been like, yeah, wandering around. and
his mom just like rented him this shitty apartment
and like put him there and left him and he finds
out that his dad has been going to this restaurant
and like bothering the guy who owns it and uh
but the guy's super super kind like really nice
so jonah's like oh my god like she really did
it because he tried to call his mom and it was
disconnected oh my god yeah so he goes down to
the restaurant gets there and uh the guy who
owns it is like he's he's fine you know like
he comes in here and sits here for a while every
day and yeah i just think you should probably
get him home and jonah's like i don't know where
he lives i don't know anything about him like
i haven't talked to him in years and he's like
oh okay well let me call my brother because my
brother brings him home sometimes so he calls
his brother and it turns out his brother is an
nhl player that jonah knows and thinks is an
and it's his name is Alexio he doesn't know that
Alexio like recognizes him because he doesn't
like really expect anyone to know who he is because
their team like you know their league in general
isn't as well known so Alexio does recognize
him and when he finds out that that's his dad
he thinks that Jonah is a neglectful person there's
no way you didn't know and so he like instantly
hates him all he knows is that this man has just
been wandering around alone with no one and he
thinks that jonah was just like letting it happen
but the story is pretty much about jonah trying
to find care for him and trying to get him into
a good home jonah was like absolutely not willing
to have him live at his place a because he wouldn't
be able to really take good care of him and b
because even when he wasn't suffering from alzheimer's
he didn't do things that kept jonah's place in
order on purpose so we don't owe our families
anything yeah you don't want to be like i'm a
horrible person but you also like he's like you
know he deserves dignity It was just really hard
for him. And he couldn't ask his brothers because
his brothers really didn't want anything to do
with it. So he was like trying to do everything
by himself. And then Alexio and Alexio's brother
who owned the restaurant were helping him out
a lot because they had already been helping make
sure he was eating and stuff like that. They
considered him kind of a friend. And so they're
helping him. But it's just it's like a big spiral
kind of for Jonah. Alexio kind of shifts into
a little bit of like a caretaking role. It's
a hurt comfort situation for sure. The found
family comes in big time with the punk as puck
crew really coming together to help him out.
Killian! Yeah, Killian's in it because he's really
good friends with Jonah. Should I have read punk
as puck before I read this? you don't need to
no I don't think you need to I mean it would
help because then you would know all the side
characters and I think it's always better if
you do but I guess it depends on how much you
care about that I mean, I plan to read them.
I just want to read this now. Very good. Yeah.
So it's like a high heat one, too. So there's
spice like right off the bat. There's a big time
praise kink in it. Oh, yeah. And we love a praise
kink. Yes. Face fucking. And also this one is
a small peen tag. Yes. Oh, yes. I love it. Yes.
Diversity. So. so yeah it was really really good
oh and also one of the side characters in this
one Vanya he is the goalie for the NHL team that
Alexia was on he's one of my favorite characters
ever oh my gosh I adore him he's like a big teddy
bear Russian himbo Oh my gosh. I'm pretty sure
he is getting a book in this series. I don't
know when or who it's going to be with, but I'm
pretty sure he is. And I can't wait because I
fell in love with him. He is so lovely. I will
be reading. Stick Around by E .M. Lindsay. Very,
very good. And then the second book that I want
to talk about is Eden by Lily Main. Yay. You
can't see, but I'm like fist pumping and shaking.
Yes. Katie was very excited to get me to read
this and I read it on audio and I like followed
along on my. Oh yes. The audio is so good. Yeah,
it was good. I, I liked it a lot. I'll just give
like a brief overview. I feel like everyone's
read this book, but me, but not just you guys,
but like everyone, but I'll just do it anyway.
Hunter and his fellow soldier BFF Charlie were
on a mission and never heard back from HQ, basically.
So they decide to walk to the base, which is
a pretty long walk. They get there and it's destroyed.
It's the base from the first book. This is an
apocalyptic setting. So they're like, well, okay,
great. I guess we'll go back to the other base.
There's a lot of walking in these books. So as
they're walking, Charlie gets captured by a swarm
of monsters and Hunter trying to... Hunter tries
to save him and he's running towards him and
he doesn't realize there's a giant sinkhole in
the ground. Foles in a hole. Yeah. And then over
the hole peaks Eden. Yay! And he's like, what
you doing? nice hole you got there so he pulls
hunter out and hunter tells him like his friend
just got taken he's like okay i'll help you and
hunter's like i don't need any help i'll just
get him myself and he's like oh yeah how are
you gonna do that which way did they go He has
no idea. So Eden helps him. They spend the book
tracking where these monsters are going. They
think they're taking them one place, but it turns
out something else is going on. They meet up
with Wynne and Danny. They get Wynne and Danny
to help them. And oh my gosh, I was like so excited
because I love the voice that Michael Leslie
does for Wynne. Ooh, the Wynne voice. Oh my gosh.
It is so good. I also love his Danny voice. I
was very happy to see them. I'm assuming it,
maybe the next one is about Charlie. I'm not
sure. I haven't looked it up yet. No, you have
a little bit. Oh, well, anyway, I liked the ending
because it was very calm. yeah you have charlie
walking in on um hunter and eden and oh my gosh
and then there's my the part that lives rent
free in my head is when charlie calls hunter
a size queen yeah yeah he's like i didn't know
you were a size queen hunter's like don't ever
call me that again you're not cheating that word
yeah so this book is a size difference book which
is crazy because charlie is six foot five hunter
eden is just ginormous yeah yeah like seven foot
something he's just a big purple monster in his
kid a kilt in a kilt yes just a giant sweet precious
angel baby and i love him he is my favorite i
love him too yeah it's a it's a grumpy sunshine
the monster is the sunshine i love hunter i love
that he's just so grumpy i just want to like
i love i love it when the grumpy becomes like
soft you know he had grumpy yeah but He does
soften up a bit. So yeah, so this book was a
size difference, a grumpy sunshine. There was
some caretaking in it. Also limb difference because
Hunter is missing a leg. I have one quote that
I highlighted that I loved so much. It is when
they're at the homestead after all the drama
happens. Eden is drawing him a bath, but the
water in the house isn't heated, so he's warming
it up over a fire and bringing it. upstairs oh
i love that scene yeah yeah so the quote goes
i heard eden tromping back up the stairs his
foot falls a little slower than usual as he carried
up water for a bath something hot and sweet pulsed
in my chest he was so good kind Had I ever told
him that? Had I ever said the words? I loved
that so much. Eden's just so good. He's just
so good. He's Beth's boy. He really is. He is.
Every time when Hunter confesses his love for
Eden for the first time, it always gets me in
my feels because one thing in the book is you
find out Eden is the last of his kind. He's pretty
much alone. It just makes me so sad because there's
a part after Hunter says, I love you and Eden.
like i'm wondering if love means something different
for him i just want to cuddle eden he's so sweet
and kind when he was telling hunter like his
background and everything i like almost cried
it was it was really sad they almost got don't
worry don't worry lily's gonna get you she'll
get you yeah oh yeah just wait yeah probably
from what you guys say i believe you yeah another
thing that i really loved about this book and
hated at the same time was that eden didn't know
what kissing was He hurt Hunter's feelings so
much, but he didn't even know he was because
Hunter has like a big scar across his face that
goes into his lip. He's really self -conscious
about it and he thinks that he's really ugly
because of it. And he thought that Eden was like
rejecting kissing him because he didn't like
the way that his lip crooked up. And it broke
my heart and I was like screaming in the buddy
read like, Eden, how could you? But then he didn't
even know what kissing was. And it was just so
sweet. I was like, okay, instantly you are forgiven.
I love you. I'm sorry I'm not mad. That's one
of my favorite tropes, actually. Someone doesn't
know what kissing is. Oh my God. It was just
so, so sweet. But yeah, I enjoyed it very much.
And I will end this segment by reading a few
more of the tags that I had for this book. Throat
fucking, rimming, snowball, restraint, tail play,
and huge hog. Let's go Eden! Those are the books
that I wanted to talk about from last week. So
what about you, Kit? Great. Yes, I've got two
that I want to talk about. The first one is Hallucidating
a Demon by Ashlyn Mills. So this is part of season
two of the Monster Match series. It's a multi
-author series. It's urban fantasy. And this
book was really cute. Okay, so it's a sleep paralysis
demon who, instead of wanting to feed off people's
fear when they sleep, wants to see if he can
feed off of good energy rather than giving them
nightmares. Give them... happy dreams and that
kind of thing and see if he can feed off that
energy also he's like really cute oh my god he's
the cutest sunshine character you've ever met
his name is arian and then the other mc is elias
and he has narcolepsy with cataplexy oh no yeah
he doesn't really sleep more than a couple of
hours at a time but he sleeps a lot he gets a
lot of nightmares because he has trauma from
his very first cataplexy episode where he was
in a car crash when he was driving yeah it's
really sad and somebody died in it one of his
loved ones oh no yeah so he has like all of these
what he thinks are just um Night terrors? Yes,
thank you. My brother used to get night terrors.
Where you're like awake, yeah. Yeah, it's a night
terror. It's like when you're awake, but your
eyes are open, but you're not really awake, but
you're kind of awake. Yeah, okay, thank you.
Sorry. No problem. So he gets kind of like night
terrors where he's having a cataplexy episode
and he's awake, but he can't move. He's paralyzed.
And he sees these like hallucinations of... Essentially
the person who died begging for help and like
all bloody and stuff. Horrible. I'm making this
book sound really gruesome and scary and it is
not. Because what happens is our sunshine little
sleep paralysis demon gets hired as like a test
subject thing to go into this guy's life and
see if he can Not heal him from his narcolepsy
because you can't cure somebody. But make his
dreams nice instead of awful. Yeah, and see if
he can help him get into a proper routine and
help him heal a bit from the trauma and all of
that. Now, the guy doesn't know this is going
to happen, but suddenly this really cute guy
pops up in the middle of his nightmares and is
like, actually, we're going to go and fish in
this nice, fantastic lake. Aww. Yeah, and we're
going to ride giant slug monsters and race each
other instead of being in this car crash. Oh,
racing slug monsters. That sounds lovely. Right?
It's so cute. It's really well done. I want to
say Ashlyn Mills actually has narcolepsy. So
this is Own Voices and it's really well done.
I learned so much from this book. So yeah, and
they also go on some really cute dates. It's
because obviously the demon ends up popping up
in real life as well. He's like, I know you.
But it's a lot about learning to live with loss.
So it's his brother who died and he completely
idolized his brother. And then as the book goes
on, we learn some things about him that like
not great. Oh no. But the thing is that he still
loves his brother at the end of it. So it's learning
to like live with the reality of having complicated
feelings towards someone and still loving them.
Ooh, I like that. Yeah, I thought it was really
good. Like missing the person that you thought
they were, like mourning the person you thought
they were while also learning about who they
really were. yeah exactly there's not much spice
in this book but the spice scenes that we do
get are a lot of like cataplexy spice scenes
where it's kind of somno but he's awake but he
can't do anything oh megan is interested right
so obviously like he's consented beforehand like
they both know it's gonna happen but yeah it's
pretty hot and a lot of come play as well Sign
me up. Turn on the cum lamp and sign me up. And
then the other one that I read is The Handyman's
Howl by Ducky Mac. Oh, yay! I'm going to read
that soon. This is a lowish angst paranormal
romance. This is Fated Mates. The insta -love
in this is so good. I love that kind of insta
-love. You see someone and it's like, mine. So
literally this guy is, he's human, but he can
talk to animals. He doesn't know why. He just
thinks he's a weirdo. All of these animals are
like, something is chasing you. You need to go
west. He's like, okay, going west. Oh, I guess
you better listen. Yep. So he ends up on this
island where there's an inn. And he's like booking
into this inn. Like, I don't really know why
I'm here, but like, can I stay? And then he hears
this like growling sound behind him. And the
guy just goes, smells so good. It's werewolf
handyman guy. So the thing about the werewolf
guy, right? He's, as I say, he's the handyman
for the inn, but he also co -owns it. It's paranormal
found family. They all own the inn and it's the
whole island is basically for supernatural creatures
to come and be themselves. is the idea of it
i like that yeah it's really nice and so werewolf
guy his name is rudy rudy i love him that's such
a cute name what the heck right so he has like
two really different sides to him you've got
the werewolf side who by the way he doesn't just
come out on the full moon um rudy doesn't have
control of him and he comes out a lot in this
book oh he just like pops out werewolf yeah He
is a self -confessed alpha hole. Massively possessive.
But also really likes dog treats. And being told
he's a good boy. Oh my god. So you have like
that. And then you have. Quick question. Does
he only eat dog treats. When he's transformed
into a werewolf. Or does he eat them when he's
a person too. Oh I'm going to get to that. The
important questions Katie. Oh, trust me. So he
eats human food, but there's a whole scene involving
a bully stick and wanking. Oh, okay. I don't
know what a bully stick is, but I'm intrigued.
Yeah, what's a bully stick? It's like a rawhide
chew. It is the only one with a dog. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, when they first meet, they meet first with
him being a werewolf. And Bowen, who is the human,
gives him a bully stick. He spends like half
the night chewing it. And then he wakes up as
a human. He's still got this bully stick. He's
like, oh, God, I'm remembering the scent of the
human. And then he starts, he starts like jerking
it. oh god I need to remember the night so then
he stops and he wants something in his mouth
so he just puts the bully stick back in his mouth
I mean if it works right and it becomes a whole
running joke in the book as well which I loved
like that was my favorite thing actually because
Bowen carries his bag everywhere and it's got
lube in it whenever they would go to have sex
he'd like reach for the bag and then Rudy would
go It's not time for a bully stick. Oh my god,
that's so cute. That is so cute. You've got the
alpha hole possessive side of the werewolf, but
when he's a human, he's really shy and uncertain
and cute and sweet. Oh my gosh. I'm excited to
read this one. It's so good. You're going to
love it. I downloaded it on my Kindle last night.
Opened it up, downloaded it. immediately fell
asleep kindle controller in my hand i passed
out i was so tired relatable i'm very excited
to read it though yeah i loved it i just found
it really fun i love the found family aspect
of it the whole like he's very separate from
his werewolf at first and the whole book is about
him becoming like one with his werewolf yeah
It was a great time and I thoroughly recommend
for anybody who enjoys paranormal romance. I
cannot wait. I'm excited. What about you, Megan?
What did you read this week? I read a lot. As
you guys know, I always read a lot. I narrowed
it down. The first one I read, I did with my
ears, my ear balls. I listened to it, read it.
It was a novella called Blessed by the Cupid
Distribution System. Katie had recommended this
one in a post or two, I believe. And it's by
Robin Jo Margaret. And it is a sapphic human
slash Cupid romance. Yes. And it's very, it's
very sweet. It's very cute. It's low angst, but
like high heat. And Iris, who is a trans femme
human, a spec. We love that rap. Yes. And then
Jaya is a as the Cupid and she is black and plus
size. So I'm obsessed with her. I want to marry
her. Yes. She's like, she's like so sweet and
naive, but bubbly, but also like really interested
in sex. Because it takes place during Valentine's
Day and they go places and people are like getting
frisky in public. And she's like, look at those
people. They're at a bookstore. She's like picking
up like a smut book. And she's like, look at
these people. but yeah so it was a very sweet
novella and it's got like a lot of first times
because even though jaya's a cupid and she's
like 100 years old or 101 um she's still a virgin
because she spent like 100 years training to
become a cupid wow thanks that's a long time
yeah i know right um and iris is a virgin still
too because she's got kind of she's got low self
-esteem and you want to just like cuddle her
and so the premise of it is that iris is looking
at valentine's day and thinking she's going to
be alone again her friends are all coupled up
and so she's feeling lonely and sad and so she
kind of makes a wish saying like i just want
somebody and so the cupids all hear these wishes
and what like thousands of cupids or something
like that they all get to pick out somebody that
they're going to spend valentine's day with and
help them fall in love and help them find their
person right yeah so jaya ends up choosing iris
because jaya kind of thinks iris is pretty but
also is like i want to help her find you know
her person and so when jaya shows up to iris's
house she iris kind of mistakes her for like
being there for her for as her date and so they
decide why not for one day we'll be each other's
dates and we'll experience Valentine's Day together
go on all these really sweet dates and do all
these things that Iris had never gotten to do
oh but then also yeah it's really sweet and along
the way she finds out that like Because she spent
100 years training to become a Cupid. She doesn't
really have any interests of her own. So they
kind of start exploring things that she might
like. And so it's just like a lot of really sweet
first times, first dates. Super cozy. Super cozy.
It has a few of really hot spice scenes with
exhibition in it. Excellent. Yes. But it's like,
yeah, it's a really sweet novella. It's a lot
about like learning. about yourself while also
learning about what it is to like, what it feels
like to fall in love. Yeah. So I got it off of
Hoopla. I'm sure it's available other places
too. And you can also eyeball read it, but I
loved the narrator. So definitely recommend reading
that one. My next one was. I read Glitched Fates
and Stolen Mates by TJ Rose. Yay! I got the ARC
for it and it was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes, yes. Yeah, Kit and I love the series. And
JD, you read the first one. Is this the ARC that
you signed up for that you didn't select the,
I promise not to tag the author in negative reviews
or whatever? That was lockstep. Oh, yeah. Which
I did get. so thankfully this is one that I forgot
to sign up for that I thought I had oh no I know
it hit my kindle and I was like did you get it
and they were like no I must have got denied
but then they hadn't even applied for it I was
really sad for like three hours and then I was
like wait wait a minute I didn't apply yeah like
i have the opposite where i've literally had
an author tell me that i signed up for their
form like four times like okay you'll get it
just stop filling it out i'm so sorry i kept
or like with gemma where i signed up for the
arc and then i was like oh i'm gonna get the
fucking a patreon like i never sign up for demos
just because i'm on the patreon so i always get
the the arcs that way but i used i used to sign
up for arc teams and not realizing i'd get it
from like their patreon or whatever and then
i'd get two copies and i'm like what am i supposed
to do with this i just signed up for her patreon
so i completely forgot that um i was gonna get
that way i love her patreon yeah okay so it's
uh yeah glitched fates and soulmates by tj rose
it's the third book in the killagrew street case
files so it's the third book in the killagrew
street case files that's a mouthful for me to
say um it's felix who is the hacker human shy
anxious little bean baby such a little bean I
know, I love him so much. And it's Kit, who is
the wolf shifter, ex -military, kind of older
brother of the crew. And literally Rory's older
brother. And so basically it starts with you
finding out that, well, I guess we kind of already
knew, but we find out that... felix is kit's
fated mate and kit knew it from the moment he
met felix and i'm just happily wiggling in my
chair right now and it's just so cute because
kit is so like awkward about it and because he
doesn't know how to how to handle felix like
because felix is such a you know nervous shy
bean he's like doesn't want to scare him off
so in the book it's got like three different
timelines and TJ does it really well in in terms
of like you've got the current timeline which
is December of this year and then you've got
one that's a few months earlier in like September
of this year and then you've got the timeline
from when Felix joins the crew and and kit realizes
that felix is bait and you've got that timeline
is in the form of kit's mission reports so tj
wrote these like mission reports of kit trying
to have encounters with felix the first one is
like kit realizes that felix likes earl grey
tea so he's like making the tea it like says
something like practice here's your tea 46 times
in the mirror so cute and then it's like approaches
layer to deliver tea and scares felix and then
and it's like mission aborted subject subject
is terrified well like we'll reassess next encounter
you know oh my god there's one where he's the
mission reports talking about how he's noticed
how felix likes ice cream so the mission is to
ask felix if he wants to go get ice cream after
work and it's just like it's so sweet um and
just watching like this like alpha you know ex
-military grumpy wolf shifter kind of stumble
and like just be soft only for felix you know
precious That's so cute. I can't wait to read
this one. I'm excited for it. So it's got multiple
years of pining, obviously, from afar. I love
that. And the pining slowly turns into light
stalking that kind of turns into full -blown
stalking. Is this the stalker episode? Yeah,
I think so. You've got Kit doing that, and then
you've got Felix's. His anxiety is... ramped
up and he's also um demi so yes yes we love the
demi rep and it's done really well so while like
kit is like making a fool of himself and like
and then attempting to make these um these you
know these gestures towards felix the last thing
on felix's mind is that kit is attracted to him
you know no no in the book two wait in book two
yeah in book two I think there's a scene where
Ren from the coffee shop and Felix kind of start
dating so in this book Kit is kind of assuming
that Felix and Ren are still dating even though
they're just friends so he's like standing off
in the back watching them hang out and he's like
talking about how or like internally he's like
thinking about how felix he's watching felix
laugh with this guy and open up and give him
smiles and and kit's just like i'm too broken
for him it's also baby then so there's one night
where felix is at home and he's like he looks
out his window and he sees a man in a hood standing
outside his window oh no that's normal that's
fine and so he gets really scared and he calls
sebastian he's like i've been being stalked for
a while and i don't know what to do And so, so
he, so Sebastian's like, okay, I'll send Kit
over. He's going to get there so fast. yeah there's
a few moments like that like he accidentally
runs into kit like a weird part of town and kids
like trying to hide behind some some trash cans
and felix is like what are you doing back there
and kids like taking a piss like who wants to
know this is normal felix is like well i was
doing i was Mapping a new running route or something.
Behind this trash can. Exactly. I'm doing very
normal stuff. Lisa, thank you. Felix thinks he's
being stalked. Sebastian suggests that Kit starts
training Felix self -defense. So, yeah, self
-defense classes turn into other classes. because
yeah Felix even though he's he's had I think
he's had sex twice but it's been with women so
he's never been with a man and so therefore Kit
takes over to try to uh show him the moves you
know I don't know what it is about it but I'm
so obsessed I love a book where it's like teaching
um specifically like those like intimacy whether
it's sexual or just like dating I Can never get
enough of that. Yeah. There's a lot of dating
in this because Kit, big sweetie he is, he's
like, I'm going to do so right by you, Felix.
I'm going to take you on all the dates before
we do anything. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
So there's, yeah, there's a lot of dates. There's
also the mystery part, which is a continuation
of the story from book two with the gray water
experiments and stuff. Oh yeah. It's just really,
it's really sweet and it's really cute and it's
cozy and cut. and Felix is a pillow princess
yes and Kit is a plant daddy and you've got like
a shifted scene where Kit is like for you know
for training purposes takes Felix into the woods
and shifts and and so it's a really sweet moment
with like Kit in his shifted form and Felix is
like giggling and being like oh you're just like
a little puppy and they're playing around And
it's really sweet. So I cried a lot at Kit's
pining. But that's me. Yeah, so it's a great
book. And then the fourth book is, I think, the
last book in this series. Really? Uh -huh. Sorry.
So, you know. Read it, love it, and enjoy it.
And definitely five out of five stars. And it's
like... Also, the thing I'll say is it is slow
burn, but it's not as slow burn as the other
books in the series. OK. Yeah. And that's partially
because of the dual timelines. Yes. Katie, what
about you? Me. OK. I have been. Back at it with
the Leighton Green, the Morelli family series.
I'm actually listening to one right now. Well,
not like actively, but like currently my read
is another one. So I read Yelling at Us. Listen,
I get so worked up with these books. Oh, my God.
So the first one I read was I read Beloved by
the Boss, which is book two. And that one is,
like, the continuation of Luca and Finch. We
start off, like, Luca is now the head man, the
mafia daddy of the family. That's the official
name. And so this book, immediately, like, a
mood, man. Like, they just went through a lot.
Like, Luca's the head guy. Angelo is now his
underboss. Yeah, well, he hasn't made him underboss
at the beginning of the book, but he does make
him underboss at the end. He's like his right
-hand guy. Also, Finch's older sister, Maggie,
who's just a complete, just a total bitch. I
cannot stand her. She's not a nice lady. She's
not a nice lady, to put it lightly. So they want
to take her out. On a date? No, like, with the
mafia. I don't know how. They want to kill her.
And put his other sister in her place as the
head of the Donovan family. There's a lot going
on. They go to Vegas because... So Luca gets
invited to go to Chicago to meet with the Mafia
Commission, which is heads of a bunch of other
Mafia families from all over. And they go and
he sort of... Spits in their face because while
he's there, they invite him to, like, a dinner
to, like, welcome him and, like, celebrate him
becoming the head or whatever. But while he's
there, Finch gets news. And so he, like, lies
to Marco and, like, he's like, we're going to
go on a road trip. But Marco is well aware of
Finch's shenanigans. Marco is, like, the bodyguard
assigned to him. And it causes a lot of drama.
So they end up... realizing that they need to
kind of get away for a bit so they go to vegas
but while in vegas somebody tries to kill them
finch and luca yeah and a lot of drama happens
i don't want to like give every bit of the story
but um how much of this is spoilers this is spoilery
yeah all of it um hey brats it's editor megan
I'm just cutting in to tell you that I had to
sadly cut a lot of Katie's review here because
it gets, it gets real spoilery. And since recording
this episode, we have changed our stance on including
spoilers. So it was, it's kind of difficult to
edit this in a way that is complete, but spoiler
free. If you're really interested in what she
has to say, we will have the unedited version
of this episode for sale on our Patreon. Or you
can join the Rat King Patreon tier and you will
get every episode unedited and early and ad -free.
So, yeah, sorry. And sorry, Katie. I love you.
But, okay, so this killed me. This is why I got
upset with JD and Megan. They did nothing wrong.
This is on me. But I don't like spoilers. Just
to clarify. When I read a book, I don't want
to know anything that's going to happen until
I read it myself. And so I had been talking to
them about how excited I was for the series.
And JD and Megan were like, yeah, keep reading,
keep reading. Like, no spoilers. They didn't
tell me anything. Well, no, you said. You didn't
agree with anything I said. You're just like,
I'm not going to give you spoilers. I said, stop
looking things up because you're going to spoil
it for yourself. Yeah. But no one ever told me
I was wrong. I didn't tell you you were wrong.
I said, it's not. That's true. When people say
they don't want spoilers, I take that very seriously.
Yeah, I do. Because you were like, oh, it's going
to be Yvonne. And I was like, well, that's. it
doesn't say that and that's not right but stop
looking or you're gonna get spoiled you both
respect my spoiler no my no spoiler wish very
well that's sort of how the book ends like things
are good again the spice between Luca and Finch
like it's not the priority of the book like the
priority of the book is all the drama because
they're already together they love each other
their relationship is fine they like know each
other really well at this point and I kind of
love how I like how Luca knows that he tells
Finch to do something and Finch is going to do
what Finch is going to do still. Oh, yeah. Which
is great. They're very in sync as a couple. They
are. Yeah. It's so much better. Like the angst
and stuff is not there. So it's so much easier
to read their relationship in this book because
you're not like, oh, my God, Luca, just tell
him you love him. I know. So it's really cute.
And Luca ends up letting Finch take over the
club that they met at, which is so sweet because
he ends up buying the club. So, yeah. The next
book is a novella. And it's 2 .5 in the series,
Heist of the Heart. And it takes place pretty
much entirely at the club that Finch now owns.
And so this is Hudson, Connie's brother, and
Gio, who's a new character. And he is the new
bodyguard. Yeah. And it's a really short, like,
it's really quick. It is so good, though. Like,
honestly, I think it's my favorite so far just
because it was so fun. It's really fun. It's
like a little whodunit. Oh, yeah. Like a holiday
whodunit. Yeah. It was like New Year's Eve, right?
And it's the end of the night at the club. And
every night they do, like, the count of the money.
This night stuff happens where somebody dies
in the club during that. And like, yeah, it's
like a whole bunch of drama. Like on purpose
or? Overdoses. And they go upstairs to do the
count and they realize that the money is gone
from the lockbox. yeah it's this whole thing
of like who did it um but during it like hudson
and geo sort of work together and it's it's so
cute there's this moment where they're in like
a little passageway they're like standing super
close to each other and i just goosebumps i'm
like i was kicking my feet it's really adorable
there's surprisingly like a lot of adorable cute
like little banter between them And there's no
angst, anything like that. Like, it's pretty
much immediate that they like each other. But
there is, like, a little bit of, like, the teeniest
bit of pining in the very beginning. But it's,
like, not even a day, like, because it all happens
within the same night. And also, there's a coat
closet scene. Ha ha ha. Yes. There is a coat
closet scene. But they figure out what happened,
and then they go back to Hudson's house, which
is, like, a really nice townhouse. And then they
just, like, pork for, like... the whole night
like just go at it like a rabbit maybe fucking
good for them honestly they earned it yeah yeah
they really did but they're just it was so cute
like i love hudson because he's so anxious the
whole time he's just he doesn't want he doesn't
want finch to think that he would one like betray
him or like steal from him and he's still kind
of new to the family and so like the suspicion
around him from everyone else was kind of high
because he's like this newer guy who's come in
and taken a management position and even though
finch really trusted him hudson was really worried
that that he was gonna lose that trust it's a
lot of drama but it was so fun it really feels
like one of those like those dinner party murder
mysteries but like yeah in a book it was so fun
i didn't want to stop reading it i read it in
a day yeah so that was what i read this week
nice um okay so let's move on to book radar um
i have a couple this week one is portrait of
a killer by k a american It is in a multi author
series and it's going to be coming out April
10th. It's about a twisted painter and like a
famous painter who's kind of like a recluse and
like another painter whose career was ruined.
I don't know if it was from. the famous one or
not but his career was ruined and so he's like
out to prove that this other like this famous
painter isn't all that basically so he like breaks
into his house and is like trying to find proof
that he's lame i don't know and but in doing
so he ends up captured oh this famous painter
is apparently like a pretty evil dude and so
yeah i'm i'm i couldn't find anywhere if it said
if it was stockholm syndrome but i think it might
be um and it is a size difference touch starved
there is dacrophilia there is bondage and Foot
jobs. Oh. Wait, I'm sorry. Did you say necrophilia?
Necrophilia. I knew you would love that, Katie.
Oh, I'm excited for the foot jobs. I got scared
about the possible necrophilia. No, no, not necrophilia,
dacrophilia. No, I mean... Get clarified. It's
like a crying pain. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so one
of the, like, kind of quotes... advertising this
book was think home alone but the intruders end
up impaled on spikes hidden in the floor and
the mysterious reclusive homeowner has exquisite
taste in who he keeps oh my god i'm so here for
that yeah so that one i'm excited about comes
out april 10th um which might already have happened
by the time this airs i can't remember no this
is um april 9th okay tomorrow no tomorrow yeah
no this one no it's 23rd yeah oh not tomorrow
so it's already out right yes yeah yes okay so
this book is out now um uh so yeah i'll be reading
that soon um it sounds really fun the next one
that i have is it's called poof my life And it's
by D .G. Carruthers. It is book four in the Twilight
Temptations series. And I have read the other
three books and enjoyed them. It's about, it's
fated mates, but they're brought together by
an organization that kind of like works for the
cosmic fate. Oh, that's pretty cool. yeah so
it's it's kind of like an outside force that
like decides to bring fated mates together via
certain situations so which is a really weird
way to say that but um but in in this one we
have a neurodivergent portal mage who is a half
elf half like a deep dwarf so The name of this
race is really hard for me to say. And then the
other person is a bear shifter described as gentle
but bratty. It is an insta -love fated mate story.
It's two introverts. Also is described as like
a preening bear and like praise. And then snuggles
and cuddles. There's a tickle fight. Okay, I'm
in. Let's go. And then body worship is one of
the other ones. I love that. yes it's it's it
looks like it's going to be really cute and they're
these are all like pretty short books usually
they're like novella sized um the actually the
book before this one one of the characters was
a pygmy hippo shifter oh my gosh oh my god it
was actually kind of a really sad book but only
for the first half but the last half was great
and that character was super cute um but yeah
i i like this series it's it's like an interesting
take on Kind of like a, it's a little bit of
an Omegaverse -ish world, but magic -y and yeah,
it's fun. So that's the newest one. It is out
now. And yeah, it looks super cute. I think,
I haven't been able to like 100 % confirm yet,
but I think that the bear shifter is either like
a little or little coated. I'm not sure. Exciting.
Yeah, it just looks really cute. So I'm excited
for that. Yeah, so Kit, what's on your radar?
Okay, I've got one for today. I've got Muse by
N. Slater. It's an MM Omegaverse. Okay, right.
So it's dark -ish. Right. Inexperienced Alpha
is obsessed with his sassy camboy Omega neighbor.
Oh, yes. yes right so he he watches him in secret
he watches all of his videos he gets a little
bit stalkery but here's the thing right our omega
knows about this and is waiting for him to crack
so he can get the omega so he can get the alpha
on his knees and make him the omega's good boy
yes because this my friends is a power bottom
dom omega with a submissive alpha yes i am very
excited yeah let's go yeah so there's a couple
of quotes um at the moment on nick's instagram
if you want to go and have a look at those um
and uh there'll be a lot more near the top well
by the time this episode goes live i'm sure there
will be some more and there's some art already
as well so yeah uh definitely i'm very excited
and uh check it out if contemporary omegaverse
with a slightly dark twist, is your thing. Heck
yeah. That sounds great. Hell yes. Yeah. Megan,
what about you? Okay, I have... Well, I have
two that I'm going to talk about, but one of
them is a lot. So the first one I'm going to
talk about is Brie Soleil. It's her debut book
that's coming out in spring. It's called Veil's
Edge in Mahogany. And so it is... mythic and
modern southern gothic romance um yeah and Dante
who is like a soft boy poet yeah and then Rome
who is like a he he cries easily and he likes
wearing like mesh and lace um and the end it's
like a moody sunny um dynamic and it's got like
mental illness rap and it takes place in like
an eerie cozy town with hidden secrets and so
yeah so it's got magic and it's got spice because
brie's been posting some of the excerpts of her
spice on her page and she also posts non -spicy
excerpts but but i'm very excited about it yeah
so am rose are spearheading a multi -author series
called because canon sucks and basically they
wrote a short that you can get for free from
multiple people's instagrams but mainly go to
am rose's instagram you can get it for free and
it's the ending of it it's not great it's not
it's not a it's not a great ending on purpose
it was written yeah it was written like that
on purpose they didn't you know uh i'm not i'm
not you know saying hateful things about them
because i love them um so they they wrote this
short and then they've given this short to several
different authors and it said okay change it
for us and so it's kind of like a an a tribute
to fanfic because there's a lot of authors in
our space that like got started writing fanfic
um it's a really really fun concept it really
is i'm excited for it and they're also doing
an alternative version themselves yes they theirs
is the first one that comes out i believe i think
so and yeah so it's it's the two mcs are milo
and rowan and so all these authors i didn't i
didn't write down all the authors because it's
a lot but uh but you can find it out by going
to am rose's instagram again um and so yeah they
handed this off to all these authors and now
these authors get the chance to kind of write
fanfic style an alternative canon for these two
characters um and i wrote down what you can expect
um so we've got dragon that one i believe is
am roses um we have robot we have a football
dark romance idol shifter omegaverse coffee shop
monster um warrior and mage hellhound which that's
shannon yeah um selkie uh werewolf and witches
so that's so fun yeah yeah and so the werewolf
and witches one sorry is is sam northman they've
posted a lot of uh snippets on their instagram
looks so good yes but yeah and it so they start
releasing them in june and i think the last one
gets released in August. So I'm assuming it'll
be once a week until they're all released. So
I'm excited for that. That'll be good. Yeah,
that's going to be really fun. That's my summer
sorted. Yeah. I was going to say, I feel like
there's so many multi -author series to look
forward to right now. At least the two. Yes.
What about you, Katie? What do you have? The
first book I have is Gemma Croft's Worth a Try.
That is book three. Yay. I'm so excited for it.
Book three in the Try for Love series. And this
one covers Aiden and Flynn. They've been best
friends since they were teens. And they've been
made co -captains of the Bath Centurions. So
they're trying to figure out how to like kind
of play as team captains together. But they have
very different like styles, very different like
leadership. And so they're just trying to make
it all work and also hooking up in secret. So
there's a little bit of drama. So there is some
cheating in this book so that they can be together.
So I know that can be like a big no -no for a
lot of people. So if that is something, just
make sure you take a look at the content warnings
for the book. But it's got idiots in love, autism
rep, tons of banter because it's written by Gemma.
So, of course. There's Dog. Apparently it's going
to be a lot spicier than the others in the series.
The other two books haven't been that spicy,
but apparently this is the spiciest. So that's
something to look forward to. It looks amazing.
The cover makes me laugh because you've all seen
those reels of the sports teams doing the awkward
photo shoots. It's exactly that. And you've got
a mullet and a little slutty mustache. A slutty
mustache. Yeah. So I'm really excited for that.
So you can expect that May 20th. Yay. Great.
Nice. Awesome. I think we've got a wide selection
of very good things. Yes. Lots to look forward
to. Okay. Well, that's all for this week, Bratz.
Bye! Yeah, bye! And scene. That was good. That's
all for this week, Bratz. We are going to scurry
back to our book nests, but we would love it
if you join us next Thursday for more Rat Shenanigans.
Until next time, you can find us on Instagram
at Rainbow Book Rats or join our Patreon where
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Hey Brats, it's Editor Megan here with the Rat
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