Deranged Bookworms: Valentines Day Book Exchange🩷

Happy Valentine's Day, book lovers! 💕 In this special episode of Deranged Bookworms, Lalie and Malia swap books and put their favorite reads to the test. Lalie gifted Malia  Dance of Thieves, and Malia gives her One Dark Window. From cat-and-mouse romances to political intrigue and questionable fantasy world-building, Lalie and Malia give their honest opinions.  

Spoiler alert: this is NOT a spoiler-free episode!

Transcript

 Hi everyone! Welcome to Deranged Bookworms, where this week is a special episode. It's the Valentine's Day edition of Deranged Bookworms, so happy Valentine's 

Day, guys!

For this episode, we exchanged books, so we both recommended a book that we wanted the other to read, So I read one of the books Lalie recommended to me, which was Dance of Thieves, and I gave Lalie one of my favorite books, which was One Dark Window.

We've read these books, and basically we're going to give you a quick synopsis, but we just wanted to let you know that this is not a spoiler free episode. If you do want a spoiler free episode, listen to our other episodes that are also wonderful.

For example, we have Six of Crows, our first episode, and also Persuasion with Miss Champlin, which was an awesome one. We did a spoiler free episode and also an extended cut if you're interested, so definitely get onto both of those.

Okay, so I'm going to read a quick summary of Dance of Thieves, when the patriarch of the Ballinger Empire dies, his son Jace becomes its new leader. 

But a new era looms on the horizon, set in motion by a young queen, Which makes her the target of the dynasty's resentment and anger. At the same time, Kazzie, a legendary former street thief, is sent by the queen to investigate transgressions against the new settlements. When Cassie arrives in the forbidding land of the Ballengers, she learns that there is more to Jace than she thought.

As unexpected events spiral out of their control, bringing them intimately together, they continue to play a cat and mouse game of false moves and motives in order to fulfill their own secret missions.

Okay, hang on. Blind book with a date, okay?  Let's talk about the romance.

That's a green flag, right? 

Yes, okay, you're right. Let's talk about the green flags. Let's be positive, let's be optimistic. Let's be positive, because you know, a blind date can always surprise you, even if It didn't go very well on the first date. Yeah, maybe there's 

a second date. 

Maybe there's a second date.

I don't know. We'll see. I don't know if this author deserves another chance. Green 

flags. 

I think something that the author did really well was maintaining the mystery and ambiance. There was so much suspense throughout the plot even when I felt like I knew exactly what was going on.

Which, okay, by the way

Didn't happen a lot. Okay, but I will try to focus on the positive things first So I think also she was able to like make both characters feel justified in their suspicions of each other which I think is a very hard thing to do when there's so many enemies to lovers, fantasy romance books out there.

Where they have no reason to hate each other. Exactly. It's just they had like a really bad first impression of each other and then that just kept going through the the plot of the book and that was just the main issue. Like that was just the issue of like the entire book. 

Yeah,  The prejudice they had against each other.

Yeah, which is not justified. Like, you need some sort of, like, prolonging, like, hatred against each other. And she did that really well. She did. She did. Um, and I will give her that. Because it definitely gave me, um, it's giving Cruel Prince vibes. 

 You know who funnily enough Kazzy reminded me a lot of? Who? Inej.

Yeah, I mean. Okay. Okay, I see the way I see it. I don't know if you can see it. But it's like. She like sneaks her, yeah, okay. 

But she's like so sneaky. She has a lot of secrets. She's really hard to open up. And I know that's like a common archetype with.

But I feel like it's done so well in this book. Like the character building is just so strong. The way Pearson did this, She just did it in such a good way. She just wrote it so well. 

She did, I think the synopsis does a really good way of describing this of them both like playing this game of cat and mouse And these false like games and these like red herrings that they leave for each other It's so like you you don't know what's real and I feel like that's what makes the romance plot So intriguing because the main issue is not that they don't like each other.

It's the fact that, like, there's so many divides that are, like, keeping them apart and they still want to be together. But, obviously, they also have their own, like, personal struggles to go through and that's, like, the core of any kind of, like, romance plot of any kind is that you You can't just have, like, the sole struggle just being them having problems with each other.

I 

think one thing's for sure about this book is that the characters did not fall flat. The characters were very well rounded. This is why I feel like this book could have been a five star read.  It had the potential. It could have been amazing. 

I'm not saying, I'm just like rolling my eyes because it did have the potential and I could have really liked this.

 I want to preface this by saying that this book has some insanely detailed world building and that also goes down to like the storytelling through like the Ballinger like history.

It's so detailed and I just like, I think I was so in awe of that but  between every , section of dialogue, there's some kind of exposition that's being set for something that someone else is going to say.

It's 

giving fourth wing with, I don't, you haven't read it have you? But it's giving fourth wing in the fact that Violet was   reciting  her own history like what when she's nervous. It's one of her quirks. Wait. Yeah No, are you serious? Oh my 

god top ten laziest ways to Set exposition in your book, 

please.

I think it's really funny for the love of God Don't do that. I feel like they did it better here. 

So you have to like look at it from like Yeah, but okay, you still need to set like a standard every Every person needs to set a standard for themselves to have a good date with other people yeah, I think also the reason why this book had such like a well built out universe is because It was a spin off duology from already a pre existing series, which I think I will be reading.

Really? 

 I was really intrigued by the universe because They talk so much about history and politics and like power struggles within like the kingdoms and especially the Ballengers in this book.

 I wrote down the political intrigue in this is phenomenal. It's crazy. It's actually Okay, 

I think that there's a problem with that though because the political intrigue there was too much 

there's too 

much there was too much What 

do you like about The Cruel Prince? Because sure there's romance.

I love the political intrigue, but the problem with this book 

versus The Cruel Prince is that Dance of Thieves did the same thing with the political intrigue that it did with Exposition in the sense that it explained it to me.

Every other paragraph. Yeah. 

That's, that's a pretty red flag there. 

Pretty, yeah. Pretty big one. I mean, 

it can be ignored. It can be ignored. 

Yeah, but there's, there's a point when it reads like a textbook rather than like a book that you're reading for pleasure. Like a history, 

yeah. 

And I think that's where the pacing really lagged because I didn't know if the author knew how to like Like, set all of that up and like, show me without like, telling me every page about some treaty agreement that was broken by some kingdom and the Ballengers.

Like, I, it's like, I, I don't want to know about that. Like, some things you don't need to tell me and you can just tell me that there's problems and I will understand. 

That's, that's fair. 

Okay, I had a question for you. Yes. What did you think of the point of views? Cause I always have mixed opinions, cause I think you can do it really well, and then you can do it not so well. 

Can I be honest with you? Go for it. I would have DNF'd this book if it wasn't for the podcast. I will say that on air. No!

No.  But these POVs, it felt like there was 

nothing different between them. I felt like Jace's POV felt really flat. And maybe that's because I'm prejudiced to liking the female characters more.

Yeah, it's just Jace's POV felt weaker. It really did. Because he's a pretty weak, protagonist. I feel 

like the opinions about, the POVs and whether or not they, like, hold up as well, it really comes down to, like, the character's writing style and voice for each of the characters, which I feel like there wasn't a whole lot of distinction there.

I do have 

to give it to Pearson. When I was reading Jace's POV It was Jace's POV. It wasn't anyone else's POV. That's because she put 

Jace on the 

front page, okay? No, no, no, because like you Sometimes, sometimes you're reading a POV and you're like, No, this, the character would never say that. No, no, no, the character would say that.

The character, like, Jace is so blank, I can't. Jace sometimes, he I was trying 

to figure him out this entire book,  

 because

he's just complicated. 

Okay, I can fix it I can fix it. No, no, you can't. No, you can't. 

 Any other red flags? I Hated the fact that there were so many characters.  The fact that Jace had like a thousand siblings. Oh my god. He had like, he had like 80 siblings and And a hundred cousins.

And 

his mother was like so young.  I don't know how many how many siblings did he have 

 He's like burying one like everyday, I swear. Something is always happening to his stupid siblings. Oh my god. Yes. But, I think, that's like a, yeah, that's like classic fantasy. 

Back to, like, what I was saying. This is another thing, if you're gonna have, like, 15 siblings for one of your main characters, you better damn well, like, develop Use them in the story.

Use them and build each of them, okay? 

Wait, wait, wait, Kezi Byron with her riddles. Oh my god. Kezi Byron with her riddles. Oh my god, okay, I actually think this was I just remembered this, it's been like forever since I read this book. Yes. Like. Her riddles. I was trying to figure them out and then I was like, it's not worth it. It's really not worth it.

Girl needs to get some hobbies. She does, cause When, when does she have time to come up with these? 

I don't know, but it's supposed to make her seem like fun and mysterious when she's just really damaged  how old 

is she? She's like 17.  I don't she's young. 

I mean, she's definitely not pretty. No. Oh, yeah. I remember this was something I was also really annoyed by is the fact that all

all the characters are like under 30 

Yeah, all of the Ratan who are supposed to be the Queen's premier guard, the first are under 30.

The highest level of defense that this country has. There are all of 

17 year olds. No, 

all of them are under 20. Kazi is 17 that's 

your prime, like your prime age in this world. Girl needs to live a life, okay? I know, I know. She shouldn't be, like So, how old is the Queen? I was so confused. I was imagining her this,  old,  woman,  No, she's like No, she's like She was Pregnant at the end of the book.

Yeah, she's like, she's young. She's, yeah. She's there. She's just there. Yeah, she also felt really underdeveloped, but I feel like that's also because we started this book as a spin off, but you know, it's okay. It's okay. 

So what I'm hearing you 

say is that you would not go on a second date with this book. I'm gonna 

have 

to say no, Lali. No! Okay, fair, because the second one is not that great. But! 

 I might be picking up the original series, which I don't know. How that would feel, because now, like, I'm sorry!

They're like mutual friends. I set her up with the wrong 

person, I set her up with the 

wrong person. You really did, because I ended up liking their mutual friend more than them. 

 What would you rate this book out of five? I would probably say like a three. A 

three?

Listen, I think it just, all the elements were there, it was the pacing that just really dragged. 

Yeah, that's fair. 

And it could've, I could've really loved it. 

Mm hmm. 

But I didn't. 

Yeah, okay. I agree with you. Should we move on to Alspeth Spindle's story? Yes. And Raven with a Y? 

Yes. Okay, you didn't need to introduce it like that, but yes.

Okay, 

so anyways, this is a book called One Dark Window. I will read you the Goodreads summary, I will try to, because it's really, really dramatic, and it reads like an AO3 description. Oh my god, stop, please. Alspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist locked kingdom of blunder.

She needs a monster. I'm reading this. I'm not making this up She calls him the nightmare guys the nightmare capital and you don't need the commentary you can just read this Ancient spirit trapped in her head. He protects her.

 When Elspeth meets a mysterious highway man on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder, from the dark magic That is a place, that is a place.

From the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? Question mark. He just so happens to be the king's nephew, captain of the most dangerous man in Blunder. Three dots, dot, dot, dot, and guilty of high treason.  Okay? Why are you reading the grammar?  Because why would you put three dots in a summary?

It's not even a summary. It's a good read summary. The author wrote this. I think we've had enough.  Okay, so, what did I think?  I thought a lot of things about this book. I really like the atmosphere of this book. I thought the kind of, like, dark fantasy, eerie atmosphere, it was giving Shadow and Bone, but in a good way, and it was kind of just, like, really encapsulating Overall, so intriguing. 

 Something I have to say about this is that an element that this book has is something that  Dance of Thieves did not have, which was a concrete magic system. That, that's correct. I don't understand what the Dance of Thieves, is there one?

I don't, I would argue that Dance of Thieves was not a fantasy, but that is, but I digress. Let us, let us move on. 

 uh, 

the magic system in this case  like these Providence cards, and also the way you You get magic when you come across this,  plague like, like, looking disease, and everyone has different magic if you survive this.

And the world building around this, the fact that if you do come across with this disease, you're, you cannot live in the society. I just thought it was so intriguing and that's what makes this book really good. 

Mm hmm. 

 By the way how you can track this disease is by going into the woods and There's this like magical poisonous mist that was cast down upon to punish the shepherd king who created the providence cards,  I guess, but, you know, it's, it's just so interesting because, like, the people who obtain that kind of magic, it's out of their control because they contract this disease. 

Magic costs something, nothing, no magic comes for free. Yeah. And so, we see Elspeth, and her magic power, because she survived this like, plague like disease after she went into the mist, she touched a providence card, 

which was the nightmare card. And the  card kind of imprinted in her head now she talks to this Mystical  dark being that's 

in 

her head 

somehow. 

It's complicated. It's weird. 

Yeah. 

 I'm raving about these names. Elspeth, Raven, Raven, let me spell Raven out for you. R A V Y N. She's being completely sarcastic, guys. No, no, no, it's spelled Raven. 

With the character's last names. Some of them were like, uh, uh, what was it? Like Hawthorne? Yeah. There was Elzbeth Spindle. Spindle. Yeah. We have Emery Yu. Emery Yu? Raven Yu? I don't know. Yeah. Like, I understand the struggle to come up with unique names, but I think also Dance of the Years struggled with this.

Yeah. You can't just like throw out a bunch of names. I know, I need to think about it for a second. Like, I don't know. I just feel like there was something It's trying to be unique. It was trying to be too much. And sometimes you can just have normal names. 

Like, it's like Raven with a Y, really? The brooding character's name is Raven, , ugh,  I feel like we're better than this.

Wait, we are better than this, guys. It's 2025.

I think what really bothered me in this book was that it really read like a ya book. Like the writing style was really ya, the characters felt really ya and just overall the plot felt really ya 

Also 

with that, uh, with that ending, that ending was illegal. 

What, , the ending?

Are you serious? I started like, I was almost like sobbing. The foreshadowing? 

In fact, um, the monster in her head takes over, like takes. over her consciousness, and that's how the book ends.

 It's like a Second book. I need the second book right now.

 So I feel like this goes really well into like, talking about the dynamic with the nightmare. 

Yeah, the nightmare. Um This voice in her head. I feel like that's always really hard to write when people can either communicate telepathically. Yeah. Which happens in Fourth Wing. Once again, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm in the universe since the new book just came out, communicating telepathically is always really hard because how do you write it?  I just feel like she did it so well, in the way that The nightmare was constantly there. The nightmare was a part of her life.

 He never left. He was there. And the fact he had this, like, protectiveness of her. 

I think it was either The Nightmare or Raven who said this, where he said like, You know, sometimes the voice in our head are just a reflection of ourselves, which, yeah, that was one, one. Part of that is, yes, it's fanfiction.

Fanfic. It's so cringey. But also I think that was like a, I think this is given 

with ya books. 

Yeah. But it, I feel like it was also like a, whoa, that's so deep moment. You know? It's like, but it is true though. It is, it is. 'cause like, to a certain extent, how much of. The nightmare is also just, like, reflecting back the thoughts to her.

She had yeah elizabeth had a lot of courage around The nightmare and I think that actually also reflects nicely into her relationship with raven because I'm, I'm starting to hear it now. It's a bad name, guys. It's Raven with a Y. It's Raven with a Y. See, I told you. We're gonna edit this out. No, we're not.

We're keeping 

Raven with a Y. Um, Raven with a Y, guys. 

But I feel like it reflects nicely into their dynamic because she also He also brings out this really like combative side of her. Oh, brooding raven. Okay, but it's also because Oh, dark and mysterious raven. Yes, he is dark and mysterious. It's literally the first description of him I checked.

Yeah, 

I'm sure it is. I, 

listen, okay, if that's not your thing, then it's not a book for you, but 

did you, like, say that you didn't like Ione? Okay, I I thought Ione in the beginning of the book was just really basic, but then the fact that she had this kind of like whole arc when she started using the Providence Maiden card, and it started making her look beautiful and kind of took her kindness away from her.

Yeah, because each card has 

a consequence for using the magic. 

And the Nightmare actually pointed this out. He goes like, Oh. I like her better now. And I agree, I like her better now. She's more interesting, yeah. She's so interesting. Her, we, I don't know what her, I want, this is why I want to read the second book.

Yeah, no, I completely understand. Like, it's, there's this really weird, like, power struggle where what her motives are in terms of marrying the crown prince.

What he's getting out of it and also I would love a book from her point of view. Oh, actually, yes. I think that would be really interesting. It'd be so fun. 

I think something that this kind of ties back to with Ione and her dynamic with the prince and also with Raven with a Y and Elspeth 

 with like both of them, like both of their relationships, they had like these, they had these conflicts within themselves, like, they All of these characters had secrets that they were keeping from each other.

Yeah, like, Elspeth was literally hiding a creature inside of her. And like, Raven probably had his own ulterior motives that I don't even remember. No, he like, 

doesn't, like, I want his point of view. I want all the, I do want his point of view. From everyone's point of view. Yeah, 

but that's, that's what I think makes it so interesting, is the fact that you  No, and because the conditions are set that you can't that these characters can't really have conflicts outside Like external conflicts outside of like the main plot.

You need to have these like internal conflicts like  This guilt that is eating away at them for keeping these secrets from each other. Yeah, and that makes it so much more interesting because you know, there's like conflict with each other that's keeping them apart because Raven with a Y and Elspeth want to be together.

They 

do, but there's these secrets that 

are keeping them apart. 

Would you go on a second date?  

With this book? 

Yes.  

Yes, obviously. I want to know the, I want to know what happens next. I want to know so bad.   

Um, so out of 5 stars, how many would you give this book? Hmm, I think on 4 stars, but it's more like a Really?

That's really good. Yeah, right? It's Yeah. It really came down to the characters. Yeah, it really did. And I think that's, that's how it's in book books. Yeah. Yeah. So overall, not a terrible experience. It could have been one star, you know?

Yeah, and I got to revisit one of my favorite books for a date, so that was really nice. Anyways, overall, not too bad. Yeah. Yeah, I had fun. It was a fun read. We both had fun. Yeah, so that's all that matters. 

Go on a date with a book, or Yeah, go on a book date. Go to Strand, pick one up. They have those there if you look for them. And have a great Valentine's Day once again. Yeah, have a great Valentine's Day. Bye! Bye, see you in the next one.