This is Suckers.
I'm Kailan Bell, I'm Dean Bell, and I'm Jared.
Habn An iHeartRadio podcast. Hello everyone, Welcome to an all new episode of Suckers Kaylan's Corner. This week, we're doing things a little bit differently, and by we, I mean me because Dean is not joined by my side today. I wanted to talk about books this week, and I hope you don't tune away because I talked about this last week how I kind of struggle talking about pop culture.
I love pop culture.
I could definitely chat about it, but sometimes it just feels like I'm talking crap and I don't love that.
My soul doesn't love that.
And I mentioned that I would love to talk about books and I could talk about them for hours and hours and hours, And as many of you know, I am trying to read fifty books this year. I'm currently on book ten. I just finished my ninth this morning, and in my DMS this week after this podcast. After that podcast came out, a few of you said you would be super interested in that, So let's try it out.
I hope you enjoy this. Let me know, give me some feedback.
I was thinking it would be hard to talk about books weekly, but if we did, like a monthly book club.
I do think that could be pretty fun.
Like we all read the same book, come together at the end of the month and chat about it.
So let me know your thoughts.
I am currently in a lengthy series, but I could definitely pivot because I don't think any of you want to start Thrown of Glass book four, but maybe The Nightingale. I'm open to any suggestions. If you hate the idea, we don't have to do it, but let me know your thoughts, because I do think it could be fun. And I have loved chatting with you all in my DMS about books, like just getting your thoughts and bantering back and forth.
It's so fun. So I think that could.
Be a better way and a bigger outlet to do that and chat more deeply.
So let me know.
But we're going to try it out this week, and I'm just going to kind of go through the books I've read so far this year and my favorite books in general. Last year, I think I read like three books, which is crazy because right now I'm on book ten. My favorite book I read last year was The Seven Husbands of Evely and Hugo.
It's such an easy read. It's such a good read.
It's about old Hollywood glamour, and it's really a really great story. If you haven't read that, I would suggest reading that. I think that's a good way to get back into reading. I think the best way to get back into reading. If you're like in a rut, you haven't read in a while, you gotta read Fourth Wing. It is the best book ever. Maybe not ever. I feel like it's hard to say that, but it is so good. I am so obsessed with this book. I
have never been so in love with the book. And the hangover that comes after it's brutal, but this book it's kind of like I heard someone describe it once and it was the perfect description, and I'll probably butcher it. It's like Game of Thrones. It's Harry Potter meets How to Train Your Dragon essentially, And if you love all those things, you are going to love this book.
If you love a strong.
Female lead, you're going to love this book mentally, even physically eventually.
It's so good.
If you love smut, You've got plenty of smut in this book. First and second book. It's so good. And the thing I love about this book. Typically you're like getting all the background in a book, it takes you a couple chapters to finally get into it. I think it was like three sentences in I was hooked. And what sucks is I'm still counting this on my twenty twenty four books because I started it December, let's say twenty seventh, and I finished it in January, so I'm
going to count it. But I started it right before we moved, and so I'm supposed to be packing. I've got so much to do, and all I could do was think about this book. And I took so many book breaks reading breaks. I just could not put it down, could not stop thinking about it. It was in my dreams. I was dreaming about dragons. It's phenomenal. And I've been telling everyone I know, you have to read this book and you will fly through it. I told my best friend.
She read it in three days, then she read the second book in like two days, and then she reread them, so now she's read them twice. I have read them twice as well, because I love them so much. I haven't counted them towards my fifty books because I did the audible version. So I read them the first time, and then when I was driving out to Colorado during the move, I listened to them. And I don't really consider audible reading. I think a lot of people do.
I don't, so I haven't counted it. So technically I am on my If I did, i'd be on my eleventh book, twelfth book. But I mean that just goes to show how much I love it twice. I've never read a book twice. I don't think, yeah never. So they are so so good, and they are being made into the series is being made into a TV show. It's going to be five books total. I believe, yeah,
it should be five books total. And then Michael B. Jordan and Amazon purchased the rights to the show, so they are casting right now for the show, and I think this is going to be hopefully, if they do it right, this could be like on Game of Thrones level. It is just so good and I can't wait to see who they cast. The thing that's challenging too, is these people, the way they're described. They are the most beautiful, the hottest, most ripped people you've ever seen in your life.
And I don't know who the heck, they're going to cast because in my mind, I'm like, nobody looks like that, truly. They are just this couple in this like everyone from the college really is just perfect. But it is if you're in a rut, if you want to get back into reading, I do think this is the best way, because here's what this book does to you. You read Fourth Wing, you read Iron Flame. Rebecca Yaros has not said when the third book is coming out, which I'm
so frustrated by. But this one did just come out like three months ago, so it's going to be a while. You read those two books, and you are going to be in such a book hangover. You're going to want to get this book out of your mind, but you won't be able to. No book can compare. I give Fourth Wing five stars. I think it's that good. And so what I've been doing and why I have been reading so much is because all I want is to forget about Fourth Wing, and nothing is making me forget
about Fourth Wing. But I am reading good books in the process too, So that's I mean, I really do think that's the best way, because then you're like deep in a book hangover, desperate to get out and all you can do is keep reading. It's a great cycle that I'm in currently. So after that, I was suggested to read A Court of Thorns and Roses that is a five book series. Flew through that one. My issue
with it, and people love this series. They speak so highly of it, and I think it gets too much preyse Honestly, I compare it to when people say they love a TV show and they're like, just get through the first season, just get through the first two seasons whatever it is, and then it gets good, Like, well, is it really that good of a show if this show is only like three or four seasons and you're telling me to get through a few seats, Like, I don't know, I don't know if it's a good show.
That's how I feel about this book. The first book was so hard to get into. It took me so long to read, and finally towards the end I was like, Okay, maybe I don't know. I still have some issues with it. Second book it took me until halfway through where I was like, Okay, now I'm into it. Third book I liked. Fourth book, which I call a novella, was terrible and it's funny because reading those books and there's so much action and so much going on, and I was like,
I just want them to be happy. I just want to read about them being happy and living peacefully. And that's what Sarah Moss, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, gave us with the fourth book, the novella, and I hated it. I was like, no, I need action. So then the fifth book came around, could not get into it. It wasn't until like page three hundred and fifty that I was finally like, Okay, now I like this.
So is it really a good series?
If I technically only liked two books, I don't know, like two halves of a book and one full book, don't I don't know. But it gave me a lot of background for a book that I'm loving now, which is Throne of Glass. And people as much as they rave about Aqatar, now people are coming and dming me and saying no, Throne of Glass is the best series, which I'm so excited about because this is an eight book series and I have been flying through these books.
I read the first one in three days, read the second one in three days, just finished it this morning. Now I'm on the third book, and there's so I think why people don't love it as much some people is because there's not a lot of smut. Fourth Wing Iron Flame lots of smut, a Gatar whole thing, lots of smut.
This one.
I'm on book three and no smut so far, and I'm not missing it. For me, I like action, and that's the hard thing. I didn't go to bed until like one am last night because I was like in the thick of the book, thick of the action, and I just couldn't put it down. And that's also the problem with Fourth Wing is that it just doesn't let up. It's constant action, and you're like, how am I supposed
to stop reading? Because it's constantly action, Like there's no break, there's no pause, there's no little lull.
But I love it also for that reason.
So Throne of Glass is phenomenal. And so I've gone down this deep rabbit hole with Sarah Mas's series and I can't stop. So I'm in this eight book series and then she has one more three series book. This is all in the same world, if you will. So after that, after my eight books that I have left in this world, I'm going to pivot back to the real world because it's been a lot of dragons and magic and I need a break. I think after this, especially after eating more books of it, I'm definitely going
to need a break. And I think Nightingale I was told I need to add that to like top top top of my list. So you know, if you're interested in doing a book club, let me know you want to read Nightingale if you already have. I feel like that's a book a lot of people have read. So if you have any suggestions you want to do a Suckers book club, I think it would be really fun.
But in terms of talking about books, I don't want to give anything away, So if you haven't read the books, I'm going to do my best not to spoil it for you, especially Fourth Wing, but I do also want to discuss it with you, so I'm a little conflicted. But I do think most of you have read Fourth Wing from what we've chatted about in my.
DMS, and.
I so now that I've read it twice, there are so many clues in ways that the things were given away, like okay, so I am going to spoil it if you haven't read it, Zayden turning into a venin. I don't know that that was necessarily alluded to. And I don't know if you guys are on TikTok and reading all the theories, but I'm gonna give you a couple theories that I think have some merit to it. Someone said that she thinks, you know, this goddess is mentioned
so many times, the goddess of war. Maybe they think that that could be Zaiden's mother, And people obviously are all about thinking that Violet and her mom are both venin.
So there are so many clues.
And I even went back because in the second book, I really hope if you have not read this, you tuned out a while ago, because now I'm like even panicking putting this in the podcast. So I went back to book one when I reread it and was thinking about Jack Barlow because she's like, I know when he turned ven and it's when he fought me, and I didn't even pay attention to that, so I don't quite remember those red rings around his eyes. But it also didn't totally align with me, but who knows. I'm so
excited for book three. Part of me likes reading people's theories but another part of me is like, I just want to be so surprised. But obviously, Rebecca Arris is a phenomenal writer and she's gonna shock as left and right. But yeah, it's so funny because people are so they're like, I predicted that. I knew that was gonna happen. My best friend she's like, I knew Zadan was a mind reader.
I just knew it.
And I was like, what, I think I read so fast, and I'm like, so in it. I'm not thinking ahead or trying to predict things. And I do that with shows and movies too, where I do not like to predict anything, and I hate when people are like, oh, saw that coming, saw that coming from a mile away.
I'm like I am.
I just want to be present. I don't want to be thinking anything else. So that's my thoughts on that. Yeah, didn't predict Zaydan being a venin. Maybe everyone else did. I don't know. I'm doing my best not to predict, but I like the goddess theory and I think obviously Violet is part venin as well. This will be so much easier when it's a book club podcast.
If we do that, maybe you guys say this.
Maybe you guys never want to hear me talk about books again, but if we do that, it'll be so much easier because I know everyone has read the book. But I'm struggling because I don't want to give anything away and I don't want to spoil anything. I certainly cannot spoil Fourth Wing for you, because, oh my gosh, I can just rave on and on about it. But there are so many predictions on tiktoks and theories and places my mind never went, and it's been really fun
to dive into that. Also, cast predictions has been really fun. I haven't found a single person for Violet that I've liked yet, Zayden, Matthew Dadario possibly also Reggie Bridgerton guy possibly, I don't know.
No one's really like hitting it.
I'm like, I haven't found him yet, but probably the casting directors who are really good at their job are going to find the perfect Saiden. So I do want to talk a little bit about Akatar too and my thoughts without spoiling again. I'm gonna hit two points two loose ends that I'm super frustrated by, and maybe some other people are too and can explain. Maybe I miss something or maybe it's just not that important and I'm fixated on it.
Again. This isn't spoiling anything.
But I was shocked that the loose ends were never tied with Aris and More, especially in the fifth book. I mean, so much had been talked about about this for three books at that point, and there was a huge emphasis on it on the final book and Hearing the Truth, and Aris kept saying more knows the truth, more knows the truth, but she doesn't want to tell you. And they were alluding to some sort of goodness in
Eires and we never got that. We never got the truth of what happened, why he did what he did. I think I know obviously why he did what he did, but we never got it. And I kind of needed it to be said outright, and I needed I just needed that to be finished. And it just I don't know, that was weird to fixate it on so much and then you're just like.
Oh, right, bye.
Also, there's one thing that could be a spoiler, so I guess I won't say it. Maybe just skip fifteen seconds if you haven't read it and you're going to read it. But I thought either Nesta was going to be queen. It just kind of like I thought it made sense. I thought she was going to be queen, and now I'm blinking because I'm on a different series. Her boyfriend, her mate. I thought they were going to roll together because there's this whole fixation on the bastard thing.
But that never happened, and I was like, okay, yeah, maybe I was wrong there. But then I was like, okay, then definitely Rice is going to be king, right, No, So I was shocked by those two things, not necessarily a loose end, just something that I predicted that I was wrong about. The other loose end that I'm frustrated, which is a much smaller thing and a much smaller plot in the story storyline. In the story uh Lucien and Hellian, we just never never going to address that
to either one of them. That seems so dumb, like why would we never? There was a great instance for something to happen there, whether it be in a battle, nothing, So that I was pretty frustrated by. I don't have any loose sense for Fourth Wing, because you know, we were only on book two out of the five, and on Throne of Glass, there are so many loose ends but I'm on book three and I still have five more books to read.
So those are my book thoughts.
So just one last time, if you are interested in a book club. I know I'm pushing it hard, but I do think it would be so fun to chat with you guys, to read a book together, to have our own little suckers book club.
I just love the idea of it. Share what books you think we should read.
I don't want to jump into book five of Throne of Glass because that seems silly. We could do book one of Crescent City if you guys haven't read that, but it.
Seems like most of you have Night and Gale open to anything.
Honestly, let me know, Lemon know your thoughts, DM me, DM help. I suck at dating and we can discuss. But if Fourth Wing you want to get back into reading, Fourth Wing seems a little daunting to you.
It is a thick book. Maybe you're not into the fantasy thing.
I honestly thought didn't think I was into the fantasy thing, but now I'm on book ten, so if that's not really your thing, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is also such an incredible book, and another thing that kind of revamped my love for reading.
I also really liked Normal People.
It was different from other books that I've been reading, but it was good and I watched the show after I Actually I haven't finished the show, but I started watching the show.
Thought that was cast pretty well.
But The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is such a great book and I can't wait for that to be turned.
Into a movie again.
I don't know who they would cast as Evelyn, because she's another one who's just written as the most beautiful person. Everyone stops and stares as she enters into the room. And these writers are so good at writing. I'm like, who the heck looks like this? I have no idea, but I'm excited for all of these books to come to life. Excited to chat with you, chat more books with you, even if you hate the idea of doing it on a podcast. We'll just keep chatting to my dms.
So let me know and be sure to tune in next week, where we'll talk about pop culture and maybe suck just a little bit less.