BYOB Talks Celebrity Book Clubs

Best & Worst Books of 2023

BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book Podcast, is back for Season 3 featuring your favourite bookworms Nikki and Kelly. Every episode we'll discuss the book we read and share our unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

We're finishing off season 3 and ringing in the New Year by talking about our best and worst reads of 2023. We thought it would be fun to chat about what we loved, what we hated, and what surprised us throughout our reading year.

So grab a drink, sit tight, and let us take you on a ride through our bookish journeys. See you next year... Cheers!

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BYOB Talks Celebrity Book Clubs

BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book Podcast, is back for Season 3 featuring your favourite bookworms Nikki and Kelly. Every episode we'll discuss the book we read and share our unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

Celebrity book clubs. Whether you love them, hate them, or are indifferent about them, every celeb and their cousin seems to have their own book club nowadays! Getting a big name's stamp of approval on a book can help smaller authors sell more copies, but with the rise of BookTok and the growth of the online reading community, do people still care about what the ~elite~ are reading?

Inspired by booktuber Jack Edwards' video (linked below), in this episode, Kelly and Nikki take a quiz (also linked below) to see which celebrity book club they would most likely enjoy taking part in and discuss the age old question: are these celebrities actually reading all of these books?

Take the quiz here or, watch Jack in the Book's video that inspired this episode, here.
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"Iron Flame" by Rebecca Yarros

BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book Podcast, is back for Season 3 featuring your favourite bookworms Nikki and Kelly. Every episode we'll discuss the book we read and share our unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

Burn. It. Down.

In today's episode, we are going all in on one of the most highly anticipated books of the year, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros.

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Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
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Back in May, we had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with Rebecca Yarros about Fourth Wing, her writing process, and more, so we knew we had to share our thoughts on the second book in The Empyrean series as soon as we finished reading it.

Readers and listeners be warned... there be spoilers ahead!

Haven't finished reading Iron Flame yet, or missed our special interview episode with Rebecca Yarros discussing Fourth Wing? You can check it out here: BYOB In Conversation with... Rebecca Yarros!

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"Circe" by Madeline Miller

BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book Podcast, is back for Season 3 featuring your favourite bookworms Nikki and Kelly. Every episode we'll discuss the book we read and share our unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

In this episode, the BYOB ladies are once again joined by Tilly to discuss Madeline Miller's second novel, Circe. In season 1, BYOB read and loved The Song of Achilles, which you can find linked below in the show notes.

“You are wise,” he said.

“If it is so,” I said, “it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes.”

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

The Song of Achilles - Season 1 episode
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BYOB in Conversation with... Jennifer L. Armentrout!

BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book Podcast, is back for Season 3 featuring your favourite bookworms Nikki and Kelly. Every episode we'll discuss the book we read and share our unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

In today's special episode, we’re sitting down with #1 New York Times & #1 International Bestselling author, Jennifer L. Armentrout, to discuss her latest book, A Fire in the Flesh!

On sale as of October 31st, 2023, this highly anticipated release from Blue Box Press is the third in the Flesh and Fire series, which also happens to be a prequel and companion series to one of our favourite books at BYOB, From Blood and Ash.

The only thing that can save the realms now is the one thing more powerful than the Fates. After a startling betrayal ends with both Sera and the dangerously seductive ruler of the Shadowlands she has fallen madly in love with being held captive by the false King of the Gods, there is only one thing that can free Nyktos and prevent the forces of the Shadowlands from invading Dalos and igniting a War of Primals.

Convincing Kolis won’t be easy, though–not even with a lifetime of training. While his most favored Revenant is insistent that she is nothing more than a lie, Kolis’s erratic nature and twisted sense of honor leave her shaken to the core, and nothing could’ve prepared her for the cruelty of his Court or the shocking truths revealed. The revelations not only upend what she has understood about her duty and the very creation of the realms but also draw into question exactly what the true threat is. However, surviving Kolis is only one part of the battle. The Ascension is upon her, and Sera is out of time.

But Nyktos will do anything to keep Sera alive and give her the life she deserves. He’ll even risk the utter destruction of the realms, and that’s exactly what will happen if he doesn’t Ascend as the Primal of Life. Yet despite his desperate determination, their destinies may be out of their hands.

But there is that foreseen unexpected thread—the unpredictable, unknown, and unwritten.

We'll be talking about her writing process, what it's like to release *three* books in one year, and everything From Blood and Ash and A Fire in the Flesh. We even have some spoiler-y questions for those who have read the book so, if you don't want to be spoiled, or haven't finished reading A Fire in the Flesh yet, please refer to the chapters in this podcast episode!

Where to find Jennifer:

• instagram: @jennifer_l_armentrout
• website: jenniferlarmentrout.com
• facebook: @Jennifer L. Armentrout
• threads: @jennifer_l_armentrout

Thank you so much to Blue Box Press for providing us with free advance reader copies to feature in this episode.
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Missed our other episodes on JLA's books? Check them out below:
Kelly's Husband Reads a Romantasy!
The War of Two Queensby Jennifer L. Armentrout
From Blood and Ashby Jennifer L. Armentrout
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