Synergy to Synastry: LIVE from the Void – Romantasy (BONUS) Podcast Transcript

Listen to the Episode

Welcome

Renee: You're listening to Synergy to Synastry, the podcast where two corporate girlies called to follow their intuition take you on a journey of self-exploration through metaphysical modalities.

Christine: I'm Christine, intuitive coach and clairvoyant.

Renee: And I'm Renee, psychic intuitive and astrologer.

Christine: We're excited that you're here and honored to be your spiritual guides.

Christine: If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen.

Christine: It helps listeners find our show, plus it automatically enters you into our raffles to win a free psychic reading.

Renee: Now, let's get into the episode.

LIVE from the Void

Christine: Welcome to this bonus episode of Synergy to Synastry.

Christine: We're gonna take you behind the scenes of recording this podcast, where you'll hear nothing but tangents.

Renee: If you're looking for free flowing conversation that's light on content, then these episodes are for you.

Renee: We gab about metaphysical modalities, current events, TV shows we're watching, and even bring on special guests.

Renee: Settle in, because we're coming at you LIVE from the Void.

Our Love of Reading

Renee: I'm excited for this conversation.

Renee: We've had a lot of buildup in anticipation, at least on our end.

Renee: No one knew that we were gonna talk about this, but we did.

Christine: We have to talk about it.

Christine: It's part of our therapy.

Renee: So we've mentioned many, many times on this podcast that the two of us enjoy reading, and we often are reading many books at once.

Renee: I've been doing a book club since April 2020, started the pandemic.

Renee: That really got me back into reading, and I now read way more than I did even growing up when I thought I liked reading.

Renee: So last year, 2024, Christine and I both got into the Romantasy genre, and that's what we wanted to talk about today.

Christine: Yes, and I think there's a big trend of women, specifically, getting into Romantasy.

Christine: There's been a big movement culturally, but I think we just naturally lumped into it.

Christine: You've got magic, you've got romance, you have...

Renee: Dragons and adventure.

Christine: Give me more.

Christine: Give me all of it.

Christine: I read when I was a kid, if I had a really good book that I loved.

Christine: I remember I read The Da Vinci Code in like three days in high school.

Christine: I was going through a breakup.

Christine: But I was an avid reader, and I think college, you have to read so much to study that the last thing I want to do is look at words.

Christine: You start working, and I felt like I had to read real books, like with an educational purpose and whatever.

Christine: I love learning, but before bed, like I don't want to learn, right?

Christine: Before the pandemic, I had a friend at work who recommended a book to me, and I started reading a little bit before bed, and I was like, I like reading again.

Christine: But I was reading like three or four books a year.

Christine: Last year, I think I read ten books.

Christine: Six of it was Romantasy.

Christine: Kudos to Romantasy for getting us adults back into reading.

Christine: I don't care how you're reading, as long as you're reading something you enjoy.

Christine: If you're a fan of this genre, buckle up because I'm sure you have opinions about what we have to say.

Christine: If you're not a fan of this genre, I highly encourage you to pick it up because, I mean, why not escape for a little bit?

The Romantasy Genre Themes

Renee: We mentioned a little bit of what Romantasy is, and for those of you, you've probably seen people read out in the wild.

Renee: I know I have some of these books that we are going to talk about today.

Renee: There are countless books within this genre, and because we are newer to it, we started with some of the heavy hitters, or ones that we knew they were releasing a new book.

Renee: Another thing I want to mention about these romantasy books, there is a degree of spice level to them.

Renee: ACOTAR, I would say, is probably on the higher level.

Renee: I don't know how much higher it goes.

Renee: So if that's not your kind of thing, that's something that you can screen for if you're interested or if you're not interested in reading that, or if you want to think about where you are reading it, how you are reading it, if it's an audio book, maybe don't play it out loud.

Renee: I am curious to know for some other series, and so listeners can tell us, but thus far, I have personally witnessed a pattern and structure is that they often are written from the female perspective, appreciate it, and by a female author, even better, and there's some sort of a love triangle.

Renee: No one is 100% perfect.

Renee: The woman, the lead, is very, very smart, studious, quick on her feet, sometimes literally, depending on whatever the story is.

Renee: Between the guys, there's always one that feels darker, but then are they both dark?

Renee: We're back to The Vampire Diaries.

Renee: Is Stefan really the good brother?

Renee: If you like Vampire Diaries, if you like Twilight, you will probably also like these books.

Renee: They usually have active plot.

Renee: There's stuff that's going on, they're introducing a lot of characters.

Renee: There's some suspense to them, where is this going to go?

Renee: What's going to happen?

Renee: How are they going to solve this thing, figure this out, not die?

Renee: There's usually pretty high stakes in all of them.

Christine: Yeah, the story is good, and the character development is really good.

Christine: There's no one perfect person.

Christine: Everybody has their issues, and maybe at some point, I'll forgive Tamlin and give him another chance, but I mean, he's on the list.

Christine: I also think it's nice as a woman to see a female protagonist who is strong and resilient and healthy, like mentally healthy, like watching her navigate relationships and be like, you know what, this probably isn't the best for me.

Christine: And wanting to learn new skills and wanting to be strong.

Christine: I mean, now when I go to the gym and I lift heavy, like I imagine I'm a Valkyrie and I'm training and Cassian is behind me.

Christine: And you know what, it motivates me.

Renee: Even just the comparison I was trying to draw between all three of the characters of these series that I have read or reading right now, they all question the dynamics with these individuals.

Renee: They're not actually pulling a Bella.

Renee: Again, I haven't read the series in a while, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Renee: But it's less just like, oh my gosh, I have to be with this guy.

Renee: My whole life is around this guy.

Renee: That's not what's happening in these series.

Renee: They have their own agenda.

Renee: They have their own mission.

Renee: They have their own people out to get them and things that they're doing.

Renee: And there just happens to be one, two guys that are involved who is an ally, who is a perceived enemy.

Renee: And then, they're having to work with them.

Renee: And then, their relationships develop.

Renee: It's very different.

Renee: All of these women have a ton of agency.

Christine: Yes.

Christine: And it's nice as a woman to see a female portrayed in a series, whether that be TV or books or whatever, in some form of entertainment, to see a woman acting in the way I myself would act.

Romantasy Books We've Read

Renee: So for me, I read the ACOTAR series, A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Renee: Christine tipped me off about reading it, and that's how I got into reading it.

Renee: And then I would fill her in as I got through each of the books.

Renee: So she was ahead of me on that front.

Renee: And then I jumped into the Fourth Wing series at the beginning of 2025.

Renee: I read Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, perfectly timed for Onyx Storm to come out.

Renee: I continue to recommend that to Christine.

Renee: I thought it was a really great series.

Renee: So we won't be getting into that one because I don't want to spoil anything.

Renee: 10 out of 10 recommend, very, very good.

Renee: Lots of adventure, twists and turns, every single book.

Renee: I must know what happens next.

Renee: I must.

Renee: And then fortunately, every single time, the next book was available and I was able to read it, and now I'm not so lucky.

Renee: We don't even know when the fourth book is coming out, and so I have to sit in torment as I wait for this unnamed fourth book in the series.

Christine: Doesn't it remind you of when you were younger waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out?

Christine: Like it's such a similar dynamic.

Christine: But yes, fourth wing is on my list.

Christine: I haven't gotten there.

Christine: For the listener, I read physical books, so I have to go to the store, find it, it has to be in stock, buy it, and then like physically read the book.

Christine: And some of these books are really long.

Christine: So I'm a little bit slower, but I have read the full ACOTAR series.

Christine: I started that last year and finished it early .

Christine: And then I just started the Throne of Glass series.

Christine: And I also have to finish Crescent City.

Christine: I've been seeing in the comments that like, to finish all three of those series before you continue on to ACOTAR, the sixth book.

Renee: Sarah J.

Renee: Maas.

Christine: Yes.

Renee: Okay, I have seen those before, but I kind of forgot.

Renee: Honestly, after I finished the fourth wing series, I added Throne of Glass to my Libby queue.

Renee: And when I was doing that, because I went, oh, this is a famous book.

Renee: I've been seeing this cover online.

Renee: I went to add it and went, oh, this is a series.

Renee: I literally didn't know when I was putting it in my queue.

Renee: As of this recording, I've read the prequel, which I went back to after reading the first book.

Renee: And I'm currently reading the second book.

Renee: I'm sure by the time this airs, I will be another couple books out.

Renee: And I have been reading all of these books thus far, but that will change.

Renee: All of the books that I've mentioned, I listen to them by audiobook, which is very helpful psychologically, because you don't realize that they're, I don't know, 900 pages or something ridiculous like that.

Renee: When you pick up one of these books in the bookstore, or you see somebody holding it, you're like, is that a dictionary?

Renee: It's so long.

Renee: It's a little bit more digestible as an e-book or as an audiobook.

Renee: Once I finish not this one, but the next one, which will be the fourth in the series.

Renee: My library only has physical and e-books, so I will be switching to that as well, which I'm fine with.

Renee: It's not a big deal.

Renee: This is the first time that Christine and I have actually read a book simultaneously.

Renee: I finished it first because it was an audiobook and I had limited time to read it.

Renee: You have to return it to the library.

Renee: Then Christine just recently finished it.

A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) Series

Renee: So we wanted to mostly talk about that, but opening the floor in case there's anything that you want to say about the ACOTAR series.

Christine: Of course, there is.

Christine: Spoiler alert, we're going to tell you everything.

Christine: When I started ACOTAR, I'm curious if you felt the same way.

Christine: I hated the first book.

Christine: I was like, what is this?

Christine: Bullshit, tampering, toxic.

Christine: Why are women into this?

Christine: Something is wrong with our society.

Renee: I didn't look up any reviews of anything until I was already like three or four books in.

Renee: I've been doing it with movies a lot, but I've also started doing it with books.

Renee: I go in 100% cold, Throne of Glass.

Renee: I didn't even read the description.

Renee: I didn't know she was an assassin, okay?

Renee: I went into the book and went, whoa, she's an assassin?

Renee: I did the same thing with ACOTAR.

Renee: I just went in and I was like, these are incredibly popular books.

Renee: I know that there's some romance in it.

Renee: And there's something about fairies.

Renee: That was all I knew.

Renee: And I went in pretty much cold.

Renee: I only heard books later when I started consuming content on it, that people didn't like the first book.

Renee: And I didn't hate it.

Renee: I just was like, okay, I'm trying to understand what's happening here.

Renee: Honestly, I think one of the best comparisons is Twilight.

Renee: Think about it.

Christine: Makes sense.

Christine: It makes sense.

Renee: There's some toxicity in this main relationship.

Renee: You're kind of rooting for it.

Renee: But then you get to a certain point and you're like, am I rooting for this anymore?

Renee: And it's sucking the life force out of her.

Christine: As an Italian, I have a list of people and places and things that I hate.

Christine: And Tamlin is on the list.

Renee: He didn't slightly redeem himself in the later books like a hare, nothing?

Christine: No, grow the fuck up, Tamlin.

Christine: I'm angry with him.

Renee: No, I'm not great.

Renee: He's definitely was shown to be definitely in the second book and continuing on to that.

Renee: You're like, okay, this dude is toxic and he doesn't realize it.

Renee: But then it seemed like they were kind of giving him like this tiny little redemption opportunity where he was helping them when they're all working together.

Renee: But this dude needs therapy.

Christine: A hundred percent.

Christine: He almost ruined the series for me because I didn't want to keep reading a book about a woman putting her all into a man who just sucked.

Renee: So then what did you think about when Rhysand was introduced?

Christine: So basically, I wasn't going to read the next book.

Christine: Shout out to Brittany if she listens to this podcast.

Christine: She's also a Virgo and we're very similar people.

Christine: She's like, keep going.

Christine: I promise.

Christine: So I was like fine.

Christine: So I took the second book with me, which is about 500, 600 pages, to Italy when I was there for a month.

Christine: And that's when I like kept going because after lunch, it was so hot.

Christine: There was nothing to do besides exist.

Christine: So I would read like a chapter or two.

Christine: And once I got halfway through the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, I was in love with Rhys.

Christine: Rhys was my book boyfriend.

Christine: I was obsessed with him.

Christine: I loved him.

Christine: And that's what redeemed the series for me.

Christine: How did you feel?

Renee: What I really liked is in the first book, they introduce him and he's there.

Renee: And you're like, okay, we can't trust this guy.

Renee: He seems really sinister.

Renee: This shadow wielder kind of guy, which as an aside, for anybody who has also read Fourth Wing, there is a intersection there.

Christine: There is?

Renee: Yes, which I thought particularly interesting.

Renee: You'll see it when you get there.

Renee: So, okay, this guy seems like a little sketch, but she described him, when she met him, as like the most attractive person that she's ever met.

Renee: Like she's like, whoa, who's this guy?

Renee: Even though she's already with Tamlin.

Renee: And then, you know, but there's nothing that's acted upon.

Renee: And then when they have this, that deal, and then she has to go to the night court for a week, once a month.

Renee: And at the beginning, you're like, oh, this is kind of interesting.

Renee: Like, where's this going to go?

Renee: Who's this this guy that's mysterious and like kind of seems evil?

Renee: And you start seeing the contrast, what it was like spring going to night, and then knowing like these two guys compared to each other and...

Christine: I am curious, do we want to talk about Nesta?

Christine: I'm curious what your opinion on her is.

Renee: I never disliked her.

Renee: Going in, I would see this after the fact when I finished the the ACOTAR series as it currently stands.

Renee: People really disliking her in the previous books.

Renee: And then even some people not 100% coming around to her in the most recent one.

Renee: That's the Silver Flames one.

Renee: I didn't have any issue coming around to her.

Renee: We don't know this girl from a hole in a wall.

Renee: We just know that she's her sister and that she's a human.

Renee: And then we have the circumstances happen.

Renee: She's becoming fae and you're like, well, this is going to be a big deal.

Renee: I was just in it for the journey.

Renee: I was like, okay, let's see what happens.

Renee: My only gripe with it is that little mini book they had in between the Christmas time one.

Christine: A Court of Frost and Starlight.

Renee: I was reading that book, which was very short.

Renee: And I said, more Nesta and Cassian!

Renee: Why aren't they in this book more?

Renee: Because they were there.

Renee: They were setting up the relationship.

Renee: You get it in the next book.

Renee: And I'm like, then why did we have this book?

Renee: I don't know what the wait time was with the releases, but I was reading it going, we are at the doorstep, literally.

Renee: Just put some of it in this book, build it out a little bit more.

Renee: I think what was a little disassociating with that book and then going into the next one is we were used to following Feyre, our main character, and all of a sudden now we're just in somebody else's head.

Renee: I don't know who this person is.

Renee: I miss Feyre.

Renee: Where's my main girl?

Christine: I'm so glad you brought that up.

Christine: So from what I understand, A Court of Thorns and Starlight was supposed to be a palate cleanser.

Christine: If you don't want to continue the series, the book before that, it's the third book, it is a good place to stop.

Christine: But I will say, when I read the fourth book, the book is like 200 pages.

Christine: I had to go back because I didn't realize whose point of view I was reading from.

Christine: The first few books are from, I think, Feyre's point of view and maybe Reese's.

Christine: And then all of a sudden it switches and we start to get everyone's point of view in the series, which I think is fascinating.

Christine: But Nesta was, again, a little annoying because I have trouble with people who play victim to their circumstances.

Christine: However, I was one of the people who came around to Nesta.

Christine: I would get upset with her in the A Court of Silver Flames when I thought she had finally healed and then she would get back on her bullshit.

Christine: I understand.

Christine: She's the older sister.

Christine: She went through a lot more with Favre's parents than Favre did with her parents.

Christine: Understanding how Nesta learned how to survive and cope and what her survival mechanisms were really informed for me why she was on her bullshit so much.

Christine: I forgive Nesta.

Christine: Nesta is not on the list.

Christine: I actually really like her now.

Christine: I'm like, you know what?

Christine: She's like the scary older sister that finally comes around.

Renee: Where is that trope?

Christine: Just in my life.

Christine: You remember when you were little, you would go to your friend's house and their mean older sister would be there and you'd be like, she's so mean all the time.

Christine: Then eventually you guys get older and you have a drink together and you're like, you know what?

Christine: I really like Janine.

Renee: I don't have that.

Christine: No.

Renee: What I had was there would be an older sibling and my friend would be bickering with them.

Renee: I just would see that and not understand it.

Renee: It wasn't like the older person was always initiating it.

Renee: It could have been my peer that was initiating whatever the thing was.

Renee: It just felt like there was just animosity and an attitude between the two of them.

Renee: This I witnessed in multiple households of friends growing up.

Renee: More so, I'd look at it and go, I don't understand why they're acting like this.

Renee: Because I might even have an older sibling who was the same age.

Renee: I just wouldn't understand it because my family unit does not operate that way.

Christine: I love how your history really informs how you feel about these characters.

Christine: I love it so much.

Christine: I am now a Nesta fan, huge Cassian fan.

Renee: How can you not be?

Christine: Just obsessed with him.

Christine: I'm trying to think if there's anything else on this series that we should touch upon.

Renee: In my mind, honestly, I'm like, I read it what feels like a lifetime ago.

Renee: It was only a few months.

Renee: But because I read an entire other series, and then now I'm reading this other one, and I've read other books.

Renee: Christine, I read five books last month.

Christine: That's wild.

Renee: My brain is full of books.

Renee: So to be like, oh, so this thing in ACOTAR, I'm like, I read that like 20 books ago.

Renee: I don't remember it.

Christine: Oh my God.

Christine: Okay.

Character Names in Romantasy Books

Christine: Let's move on to how you picture the characters and how you pronounce their names.

Renee: Well, I listen to an audiobook, so I know how to pronounce their names.

Renee: So I have the cheat code.

Christine: So before we jump into how to pronounce the names in these books, I feel like in every book, the names are of an olden language that like Gaelic or something, or like old Scottish or their names are picked from different mythologies from all over the world.

Christine: A lot of these names are very difficult to pronounce.

Christine: So you'll see a bunch of consonants and maybe a vowel, and then you have to figure out what the name is.

Christine: Now, you can look up how to pronounce these names, but the real fun is coming up with your own pronunciation first and then figuring out how it's said.

Christine: The main character in Throne of Glass is Celaena Sardathean.

Christine: I first read that name as Selena, and then if anyone has seen the movie, there's a line where someone says anything for Salinas, so every time I read Selena, it's Salinas.

Christine: She is JLo and Selena for me, Selena.

Christine: Chaol is his name.

Christine: It's spelt C-H-A-O-L.

Christine: Before I knew that's how it was pronounced, I called him Charcoal because that makes sense.

Christine: Then my friends were like, you should really look up how to say the words, and then I did and I realized Charcoal's name is Kale, like the vegetable, and I cannot, no, thank you.

Christine: How am I supposed to find a Kale attractive?

Christine: He's a garnish, Renee.

Renee: Or the base of the salad.

Christine: The base of the salad.

Christine: And then the last one is like, how did we like imagine these people?

Christine: And Dorian Havillard is one of the romantic interests of Salinas in Throne of Glass.

Christine: I just imagine him as like an entitled, pimpily little teenager.

Christine: And actually, another friend of mine pictures him as Lord Farquad.

Christine: And after she said that, I can't unsee it.

Christine: So I have Jennifer Lopez as the main character, a vegetable and Lord Farquad in this book in my head.

Christine: And it's been really hard to like focus.

Renee: That is not my experience with this book.

Renee: Not at all.

Renee: To preface this conversation, we're going to be doing slightly more of a deep dive on Throne of Glass because we both read this at the same time, very recently.

Renee: Whenever I listen to these books as an audiobook, I have the opposite where I know how it said.

Renee: When I took my notes, I wrote her name as Selena, S-E-L-E-N-A.

Renee: I looked it up and it's like a C and like, there's all of this other stuff in it.

Renee: I went, whoa, and I'm trying to see Selena in there.

Renee: I'm like, no wonder people get confused.

Renee: Chaol.

Renee: They kind of say it's like, it's not kale.

Renee: It's like Kay-uhl.

Renee: I was writing it in my notes as K-A-E-L.

Renee: I was like, oh, it's probably like an A-E situation.

Renee: So when Christine is saying it looks like charcoal, that's not one I had seen written.

Renee: So that threw me for a loop.

Renee: But yes, they do have some of these names that are absolutely crazy.

Renee: Did I picture Dorian as Lord Farquad?

Renee: Absolutely not.

Renee: I pictured him as like a prince.

Renee: Smooth, charming, slightly an inflated ego.

Renee: I did not picture him as pimply or Lord Farquad.

Christine: I need to interrupt.

Christine: Lord Farquad is technically a prince.

Renee: He's a lord.

Christine: Oh, he's a lord.

Christine: Oh, my God.

Christine: My Shrek-alor is off too.

Christine: Disregard.

Visualizing Book Characters in Our Minds

Renee: So I was picturing him as he comes across like slightly uppity, and he has a big ego because he's the prince, because people think he's attractive.

Renee: Some people get really fixated on this stuff.

Renee: If they give me a description and they said, oh, this person has all of skin tone, okay, so that's what I'm trying to picture.

Renee: But I really don't fixate on their appearance all that much.

Renee: They're just like a foggy person that when I'm reading it or listening to it, they're moving through stuff and they're not fully in detail.

Christine: I think I've always had a wild imagination.

Christine: It's almost like I've watched a movie.

Christine: The setting, what they look like, what they're wearing, what the dog looks like.

Renee: I'm very visual.

Renee: When I'm reading things, I will check in myself, oh, okay, so if this was made as a movie, oh, this would be really good how they could do this scene.

Renee: My brain goes into a production mode, but I'm not thinking about every single nuance of the person's face and everything they're wearing.

Renee: If they say this person's walking in and they're wearing a red dress, I go, okay, they're wearing a red dress because they just told me.

Renee: For any story, for a TV show, for a book, for a movie, it's always about the dialogue, plot and character development.

Renee: That's what I care about.

Renee: If those pieces aren't there, I'm just going to absolutely pick it apart.

Renee: I will not be able to continue with it.

Renee: So if I feel like those pieces are present, then I'm like, okay, this is going somewhere.

Renee: This is doing something that makes sense.

Renee: They're not betraying their sense of identity, and this is holding my interest, etc.

Christine: I'll be honest, even if they don't give a description, I'm making something up in my head.

Christine: I think I just have a very vivid imagination.

Christine: I thought we were going to have more to talk about on how we misinterpreted these characters.

Christine: No.

Christine: No.

Renee: No.

Throne of Glass Plot Overview

Renee: So when it comes back to this book, so I think we should set the scene for people.

Renee: Selena, she's a known assassin.

Christine: She's 17, by the way.

Renee: Oh, my gosh.

Renee: Every time they mention her age, they talk about her age in the prequel, and I'm like, stop telling me that all of this stuff is happening, and she is a literal child.

Renee: This is alarming.

Renee: So she comes in.

Renee: She's very, she's young.

Renee: She's a girl, obviously.

Renee: She's very unassuming.

Renee: She goes by a fake name.

Renee: So she was picked up to be in this, to be the king's champion.

Renee: When we get dropped in, I'm immediately comparing to Hunger Games.

Renee: There were a lot of scenes that were reminding me of the training that they had Katniss do.

Renee: So you're kind of checking out your competition.

Renee: They're doing archery.

Renee: I'm like Katniss Everdeen is around the corner practicing with her arrows.

Renee: They would do these different tasks.

Renee: And I was actually surprised because I thought they were going to spend more time there.

Renee: We were kind of weaving in and out of her doing things behind the scenes outside of these different challenges.

Renee: We didn't always hear what every single challenge was.

Renee: We might just jump ahead in time.

Renee: And it's just her talking to Chaol, one of the king's guard.

Renee: We're seeing her encounters with the prince who has an interest in her.

Renee: And then her kind of discovering things happening within this castle.

Renee: And they're supposed to be in a land of no magic.

Renee: But there are some mystical things that are happening.

Renee: And obviously all this conversation is spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.

Celaena and Dorian's Relationship

Renee: They don't end up together, because she's just like, I shouldn't be in a relationship with somebody, you know.

Renee: I've had a hard life.

Renee: I'm going to have to leave at some point.

Renee: And so therefore, I don't want to start something and then have to like break up.

Renee: I'm reading this going, you'd leave in like multiple years.

Renee: So what, why?

Renee: I don't, so what are your, what were your thoughts on that?

Christine: Well, I also thought it was hard for her to be in a relationship with him because of all the shit his dad and like his crown did to her people.

Throne of Glass Love Triangle

Christine: The little love triangle she's in with Chaol and Dorian, I feel like that's going to be interesting as well.

Christine: I can't say I would want her to end up with any one of them just yet.

Christine: I like that she is sort of focusing on herself.

Christine: You know, I think Chaol has integrity and I would like to see more of that integrity as the books continue.

Christine: I think Dorian wants to be, I don't want to say a good person, but I think he wants to grow, right?

Christine: I think he wants to evolve his view on the world.

Christine: There are things for him to explore.

Christine: So I'm curious to see how his character develops over the series.

Renee: I think there was a kiss in this book.

Renee: It feels so much more innocent, at least as of this juncture.

Renee: I don't know where the series goes.

Renee: I have heard that it is less spicy in general, but thus far I would say it's like a full PG.

Renee: The action, and there's things that are going on, and obviously people are murdering each other, taking that out as far as the intimacy stuff, like it's really not present in this book at all.

Renee: Same thing even with the prequel.

Renee: It's not spoiling anything.

Renee: We're not in that kind of a space.

Renee: So if you're curious about this genre, obviously we can't speak to it having completed the entire series.

Renee: But as of right now, enjoying it, that's not there if it's something you're concerned about.

Renee: I would say Fourth Wing rides the line somewhere in between.

Renee: It definitely has some scenes that I think are similar to ACOTAR.

Renee: But I would say that overall, there's less of it.

Renee: It's the proportion is a little bit smaller because I think there's more action in the Fourth Wing series and then you have the spice in there.

Renee: And I think it's the same level of intensity.

Renee: It's just there's less.

Christine: I will say overall, I liked the book.

Christine: And I think it was PG-, and I'm happy it was because again, she's basically a child.

Christine: I think Chaol and Dorian are like 19 and 20.

Christine: Like it's, I don't want to say child because yes, you're kind of an adult at that point, but like your prefrontal cortex is not developed.

Christine: I'm very happy that this was very PG.

Christine: ACOTAR I thought was like, it was spicy.

Christine: I didn't think it was anything that like knocked my socks off.

Christine: It was like, I guess, like medium spice.

Christine: And then Throne of Glass was like entirely PG.

Christine: I'm curious to see like if the spice level increases throughout the series.

Magic in the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass Worlds

Renee: One thing that I wrote down, which I thought was a very interesting parallel, because yes, you can read fantasy books and it's an escape from reality, but I can't do that when I read these books.

Renee: I'm always drawing a comparison.

Renee: For ACOTAR, you're in the land of fairies.

Renee: That's what you're focused on.

Renee: Here, they mention they're being fae that were hunted by the king and that magic was banned.

Renee: It felt very much like banning of different spiritual modalities, witch hunts, etc., and book banning.

Christine: Yes.

Christine: You're so right.

Christine: They tried to, I feel like, take away people's power and take away everyone's autonomy.

Christine: I think it's like a life lesson.

Christine: Even though they banned magic, magic didn't go away.

Christine: It finally just went underground.

Renee: Yes, exactly.

Renee: Isn't that what's happened here?

Renee: Same thing with, we've talked about this previously with astrology, with divination tools, that was the only science that existed.

Renee: It's how people understood the universe, it's how people understood each other, understood events, etc., looking to weather, the stars and then receiving divine insights.

Renee: We get to a certain point in history and you have some powers at be.

Renee: How do you break up these groups?

Renee: You are rejecting, you're making it illegal, but it doesn't go away.

Renee: Astrology survived, tarot survived, all of this other stuff continues today.

Renee: We are in this period of time where we are slowly coming out incrementally into more of the mainstream.

Renee: Still not fully accepted by all of the public, but we are on that journey of coming out of the Castle Dungeon.

Christine: I love that I read these books and I'm like, Salinas and Charcoal and you're like really looking at like the message behind it.

Christine: Thank God we have you here.

Christine: But no, I love that analogy.

Throne of Glass and LOST Collide

Renee: Other quick comparison I wanted to make to our previous Void episode, we were talking about Lost, a show we love and adore.

Renee: There was one quote I wrote down, had to share this.

Renee: Salinas says, I hate being told what I can't do.

Renee: For anybody that's watched LOST, you know that's pretty much John Locke saying, don't tell me what I can't do.

Renee: So good.

Christine: So good.

Renee: Love that as a parallel.

Christine: Although, I like Salinas a lot more than John Locke.

Renee: Yes, but it's exemplifying what we were talking about before with she has such a sense of autonomy, even at a young age, because she has been shaped by all of these experiences.

Renee: I'm just going to do what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it to survive, etc.

Renee: Other quick parallel that I wanted to mention, we haven't talked about Elena coming in.

Renee: To me, a spirit guide, this is her spirit guide, that comes to her, she comes to her in visitation dreams, love that, I was like, okay, this is getting spiritual now, let's go.

Renee: She's talking to her, and she's advising her, giving her some tips and wisdom to help her with this King's Championship.

Renee: This is not a spoiler, but it's, of course, we have to pick up on this, so this continues going into the second book.

Christine: When you said Elena, I was immediately like, how are the Vampire Diaries making it in?

Renee: Elena Gilbert.

Christine: Yes.

Christine: We're not talking about Elena Gilbert.

Christine: I quickly realized that.

Christine: What I love about a lot of this magical series is that a lot of what happens to them that's like magic, and I'm air quoting right now, is stuff that happens to Renee and I on the regular in our psychic experiences.

Christine: Elena basically came to Salinas in a dream and gave her a premonition or a message or things that Renee and I talked about and we're like, how do you know it's a premonition?

Christine: The writing of work that's supposed to be fiction actually feels a little nonfiction for you and I.

Renee: Yes, I totally related.

Renee: And that's the part why I was kind of nodding and I'm writing some of this stuff down.

Renee: Like, wow, what a perfect book that we just decided.

Renee: We thought, oh, well, we'll just, we'll read this.

Renee: This is great.

Renee: We both are trying to read it at the same time.

Renee: What divine timing.

Renee: And it's even more divine timing when I'm reading this and thinking, oh, this totally relates to how society deals with spirituality, what part of our journey has been.

Renee: And this is not to say that Celaena is like in this book and she's thinking she has magic or she has an intuition or anything.

Renee: But she hasn't really delved into any of this magical space yet, which I expect is where the series is going to go.

Renee: And maybe, maybe, again, this is just a theory, don't know what's coming.

Renee: Maybe she is helping to free the magic, getting it back into the worlds.

Renee: And we learn why the monarchy was wanting to do this to suppress the people or these communities or what the power was or if they were secretly trying to harness it or whatever it is.

Renee: So I think it's going to get political and have a lot of commentary there.

Renee: Sarah J.

Renee: Maas also wrote ACOTAR.

Renee: We kick off the first book and it's in the human world and she encounters Fae.

Renee: And then she is spending pretty much the rest of it just in that space.

Renee: Knowing that she had also done this, could these be in the same universe?

Renee: That would be fascinating to know.

Christine: I've seen a lot of people talk about crossover between the series.

Christine: So I'm curious to get to that point.

Christine: But I had a thought, and this might be the final thought we could leave the listeners with.

Christine: If you find yourself attracted to these books, you know, we say everyone's a little bit psychic, is it calling you to develop your intuition as well?

Renee: Which we love that.

Renee: And we're here to support you on that journey.

Renee: Keep listening to Synergy to Synastry.

Christine: Thanks for listening.

Christine: If you'd like to learn more, the resources we used to prepare for this episode are listed in the show notes.

Renee: If you're curious to develop your intuition, we've partnered with the Nuurvana Be Light program to give our listeners a $500 discount on tuition fees.

Renee: Email us for more details and we'll connect you with the founder, Deganit Nuur.

Christine: Want to connect with us?

Christine: You can reach me, Christine, @ChanneledbyChristine with one L on Instagram.

Renee: And you can reach me, Renee, @_readbyrenee, or connect with both of us via email at synergytosynastry@gmail.com.

Christine: Keep your spirit curious and your aura sparkling.

Renee: We'll see you when the stars next align.