Episode 3
A Soul To Keep
Step into the darker corridors of love as Jenn and Mistie, your quirky hosts, reflect on the slow-burn intimacy and complex character arcs that we loved in this dark monster romance.
Content Highlights
- The unique charm of non-human love interests
- Mistie's PTSD from another series
- A whole new world, that leaves us craving more about it
Jenn's Ratings - Skulls: 2, Peppers: 3, Stars: 3
Mistie's Ratings - Skulls: 2, Peppers: 3, Stars: 3
Other books mentioned: Black Dagger Brotherhood, Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Transcript
Come, little human. He gestured his hand out to present more of his left arm for her. Let me melt your heart.
::And today Jenn and I are discussing A Soul to Keep by Opal.
::You're the one that pulled it up.
::It's R-E-Y-N-E. Renee, oh Rain, I'm just going to say by Opal, how would you?
::say that. Um, you can probably say Renee or rain. I mean, obviously there's a right way to say it, but either or for this episode.
::So the Dust Walker Brides book one, yes, and it has been a minute since I read it and it's been double the minute since Jenn read it. So that's our disclaimer.
::In a long time.
::Is there anything that stains out to you?
::Okay. So one thing I don't know. I kind of went into it blind. It was like hyped up on TikTok and Facebook groups and I was expecting him to like take a human form at some point. Like I kept thinking like he's not going to stay this, like dead longhorn head the entire time, right and it, that, it, that was that was the. He stayed that way and then his eyeballs glowed and I'm like okay, this, this, this is different. I think this was my first foray into like true monster. What's the word romance?
::Monster romance yeah.
::Yeah, so like it probably. I was probably halfway through the book before I was like all right, we are not getting a human form. Okay, Noted, nope, so that was. That was different, but I do remember him being so adorably sweet. And I almost got like fed up with her.
::Oh yeah, for sure.
::Like just wouldn't listen or like understand, like see that side of him because he was just so sweet.
::Yeah, she was so worried about this misconception of what is everybody else going to think, and I'm like the people that you just came from the village. They don't care what's happening to you. Why do you care what they're going to think?
::Yeah, and how would they know? Yeah, yeah, so completely agree.
::That really, I agree, that really bothered me that she was just so worried about this imaginary population. I'm like you're in the veil or wherever you're at, like nobody fucking cares. Like if you're happy, be happy. Stop being an ass to him, I mean. But she, I. This was not my first monster romance, no shit. Well, I was just kidding. I was just kidding.
::Thank you, Sherlock.
::I was just trying to speak to the audience.
::God, Jenn, Sorry. Apparently I'm like channeling Sully's sassy energy today.
::I love it. For those listening, if this is your first time, Jenn and I are quirky. No, I loved the book up to the 80% mark. I loved everything about it. I was pulled in different world, different kind of monster. I love that he didn't change human. I love the whole emotions with the eyes. I thought that was really clever because, otherwise how would she be able to read the situation, Right?
So that was pretty, pretty genius. I liked part of the magic. So I don't know if you remember the way that they become cognizant and have thoughts and be able to speak and a little bit of magic is. They get that from the humans that they eat. That's how they absorb it. Nope, yeah, and so one human that he ate, I guess, had a little bit of magic, and so that's how we got some of that. And then the fact that in the veil there were levels of intelligence not just among the dust walkers but also like the demons. So I thought that was pretty clever.
Yeah, all the creatures. Yeah, the more humans they eat, the more they take on those characteristics.
::Yeah.
::I guess that's the best word for it. So I really appreciated that it was new. I understand the hype, but I hated this book.
::Really.
::And I only hated it because of the last 20%. I have this thing. Okay Again for the audience. I love it if people get hurt, if people die, especially if it's like main characters, like dark romance reader here. I'm dark and twisted. It says it on my sweater dark and twisted Okay, I cannot, I cannot and I never will stand by killing one of the main characters, the couple characters, only to bring them back as a fucking ghost or a phantom or a plasma or whatever word she uses and that, for whatever reason, they can turn caporial whenever they want or to do things, and then they're back to being ghostly. I'm so fucking not. No, I have PTSD.
::But, like the dust walker, isn't alive, so she's just in the same form. I guess my defense to that is he. It's not like he's alive in this sense that she was alive or we are alive. He's his own version of a phantom or a ghost, or he's a dust walker. Dusk dusk or dusk dusk walker Dusk?
::I don't know, it's one of them.
::So I feel like her being a phantom actually puts her closer to his real form.
::I mean, but he doesn't go, caporial, he saw it all the time.
::Well, yeah, but she saw it all the time to him.
::No, she can go caporial yeah.
::Unless I misread it. I mean you read it a lot more recently than.
::But I was also angry. As soon as they made her a ghost. I was like fuck this shit. I hate this motherfucking book. What the fuck? Lots of F bombs.
::I thought she only dies after.
::She died because of his ex from 100 years ago through a knife and stabbed her, and she doesn't want the Dust Walker or the witch Aller or whatever. Something tells her give him your soul, because that's how they bond. And then what you don't learn is after the fact that giving the soul makes them the phantom or whatever, so that they could essentially live forever, because being the phantom means that she doesn't die because she already died and that's because the Dust Walkers can't die and that's how they have immortality together.
::Okay. So then, if she hadn't died and given him her soul, would she have still had?
::Why Okay, no, why did she have to become a phantom? If she could have created this any way that she wanted by giving the soul, they could have like locked immortalities together she would have been protected by his magic or whatever because he ate her soul or whatever. She didn't have to become a fucking ghost. I fucking hate it when they do that. There's only one other author in one other series that I refuse to fucking read because it pisses me off and it makes no sense. I can handle anything but that.
::Okay, but in that case you're talking about a romance with all humans, so I can see a ghost having like multiple-.
::The other one. They are not human.
::Oh.
::They're not what happened? Don't let me tell you I'll tell you it's JR Awards, the Black Dagger series, one of the books. Because they're vampires. She dies and they bring her back as a ghost and she can only become caporial if she's having sex with her mate because he has a special powerful hand, or if somebody gets hurt like stubs her toe because she's a doctor. Okay, yeah, what the fuck ever? It's stupid. I hate it.
::I mean, that's fair.
::And so I just had PTSD when this happened on this book and I'm like absolutely not, no, absolutely not. I hate it. It's trash. Just stop at the 80% mark, don't even go any further. They get their AGA.
::I mean, it's true, they do have their happy behavior after. Before you hit that point.
::When he goes to go hunting for her, whatever, right before the demon king comes and can nap her. Just stop, just end it there. They're happily ever after he's fetching food to make her happy. She's over here making things to make him happy. You don't need the rest. Or at least skip to the end so you can see her have the conversation with the witch out. That's it. You don't need that chunk in the middle. Pretend like it doesn't exist. And now I won't even read the rest of the series because all the other motherfuckers are going to have to die and become phantoms to be able to be mated, whatever Stupid.
::But what is the other one? Oh wait, the witch owl tells her they all die right.
::The witch owl tells them that for them to become the brides is that they have to become phantoms. It's the only way it works.
Because the witch owl is their mom and the darkness or the veil is their father, and that's how they were created. I don't know, it was genius. I'm pretty sure it was great. I blocked it out because I was pissed. The last part, I was like no, there could have been magic, there could have been anything, there could have been a spell, there could have been a tether, there could have been anything. And the fuck turned them into dust walkers themselves. He had the magic to make her koo-ha become big enough for him. Like what the fuck?
::That's a good point. I forgot about that part.
::Yeah, whatever.
::Okay, so what did you? So you said you liked 80%. So what was the aspect of the book that you did like? I like?
::how the intimacy between them was really slow. Yeah, I mean because you know it's a human and a monster like you gotta, you gotta get to know it, but how we got to know it.
Yeah, because he literally has a skull for a head. Yeah, how we learned about him through her. Even though I don't like her, I liked that journey, instead of like just dropping all of that stuff, like in the first chapter or whatever, and then you gotta like have to remember, like I liked the progression of, oh, his eyes are changing colors. I wonder why. Well, let's learn together, you know.
Oh, his body is really weird, but you know, play cuddles under the covers and you know, like there in high school and like figure everything out, right, yeah, and then like slowly emitting their I don't know, it was a good, slow, angsty. I liked it, except for her, I liked it. He was so sweet, yeah, and he was very honest, like, just, you know, don't do this. I, you know, he, she overcame her, her anger and this, like we were talking about the arbitrary judgment, and he overcame his, I guess, blood lust, blood rage, you know, every time he smelled blood it made him hungry or because part of his deal, part of like why he had an added companion, is because he ends up killing them right.
They or they run away and they end up dying or yeah but what we figure out at the end is that the demon king and whoever his ex is, it also takes them and kills them, yeah, manipulates them. So even if some of them wanted to stay, they were torturing him because she's a conceited bitch and they want nobody to have him but her, even though she didn't want him. She wanted more power and she got that with the demon king.
::Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I feel like of anything, that whole thing probably didn't need to exist. I think of everything that probably bugged me the most was this whole ex thing. I feel like there's so much intrigue with the owl witch and the veil being the father and, like the brothers and the other dust walker brides, I feel like she could have done away with the demon king aspect of things and then you wouldn't have the parts that you painted.
::Yeah, I agree. That's why I say just stop at about the 80% mark. But again, it was a really clever idea. I loved it, I really did. I'm probably not going to read the rest of the books. I mean, I'd have to be like really desperate or in like a mood to like torture myself. I might read book 6 that's about to come out, only because spoilers for those who have not read the blurb. If I read the blurb correctly, the dust walker bride is already dead and he's a wandering soul.
That's interesting so that I could be, I might, and it's an mm and I love mm, so I would be interested to see how she does it that way, but all the other ones that are human and then die to become bonded? No, absolutely not again, unless I'm really like. Go ahead and just read it, Mistie, that way you can. If I'm looking to be angry, oh, I'll read it. I would.
::I mean I read it so long ago. I probably won't read the the subsequent books, but the only reason I would is to find out more about like the witch owl, the veil, like that whole kind of subplot I really like.
::I agree.
::Why does that sound so special to you? Am I worth seeing it now in this video? I, yeah, I really like the romance was not bad. I loved him again, sweetheart, and I loved that she had the plus size representation with the main female character. I can't remember her name. Like I think she did both of those things really really well, but I'm not like huge in the monster romance, so like I could take it or leave it, but I was very interested, like intrigued by the whole world that she was building.
::Okay, so his name is Orpheus. I think O-R-P-H-E-U-S Okay yeah, orpheus. And then hers is Rhea, rhea.
::Yeah, I think I said Rhea, when I was working at.
::I probably just said R or Rhea.
::Yeah.
::Yeah, no, I'm 100%. I would continue to read it to torture myself and also, like you're saying, like the witch out in the veil and like that whole subplot, Because you know it's going to continue to grow and learn as a series progresses, Right.
::Yeah, exactly.
::But she was an interesting character. I would love to have a prequel of her. And like I know, she tells us to have her story, yeah. And falling in love with the veil. Oh my gosh, that kind of gives me like Adela Rupe vibes just a little bit oh.
::Yeah, it would be, hot, it would be hot, I'm just saying so. Do we want to go ahead and move into ratings for this one?
::Yes, Okay, so darkness. I'm going to say like a two or a three.
::Yeah, I was going to go pre-low on, because I mean, in my opinion, monster, monster, like just monster, doesn't mean dark.
::They killed. We see them kill the demons they do get. She does get her revenge on the bullies and feeds her her bully to Orpheus' brother. Oh, they're off page, though. They kill the ex-girlfriend and then they eat humans. I don't remember if that's on page or not. So, yeah, I would say like a two or a three.
::Yeah, yeah, I'm good with that. I mean, I'm good with a two, I think.
::Yeah, I think a two because, like, they're the life that they're trying to live and the nature of them is not dark, it's the environment and like all the out things. So, yeah, I would say a two. Yeah, that would be different if, like we saw him, like, eat the human Right right.
::Like if it was, if it was described, then yeah, I agree, but it's, it's not.
::Okay, and then the spicy.
::You're going to have to leave the pack here, because I don't remember much of the spicy. I remember when you mentioned like the under the covers thing, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot she like explored him.
::Yeah, so he had to give her a bath twice a day to put the thing, or once a day or twice a day or whatever to put the lotion on to stop her scent. So he, there was a lot of you know, touching and stuff like that, and then I mean the sex was pretty good, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I don't remember much of the other things, but I don't remember much.
::Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. So I don't remember much.
::Okay, Okay, Okay, yeah, Okay, Okay, Okay, yeah, Okay, Okay, Okay, Okay, Okay. But I would say three. I mean it's a monster. He's got a monster Once she gives him permission, okay, so I just remembered this. Once she gives him permission to like, yes, we are like in this sexual relationship we can have sex Like he wants to have sex all the time, obviously, I mean even as a monster, as a guy. But she was like I'll let you know when it's too much, Because he's like well, let me know if I. You know, like he was very verbal, as we previously said. Well, I guess I can't remember, but I guess one night it was just too much.
And then so she goes to sleep in her bed, even though she's been sleeping in his, and he's like oh my God, what did I do wrong? Why is she mad at me? She's sleeping in her own room, she shut the door and like he's like he's pacing, he's like you know what? I'm just gonna go ask her. And he creeps into the room and he's like you know, like, touch us, you know taps or whatever. He's like why are you mad at me? She's like I'm not mad at you. She's like well, why aren't you sleeping in the bed with me.
She's like well, I told you, if it was too much I would let you know I need to sleep. And he's like, oh. And then she's like well, what do you want? He's like, well, I just wanted to cuddle. And she's like, oh, well, if it's no sex, no hanky-panky, because I'm really tired, I need to sleep, Then we can cuddle.
I loved that moment. That was so. Yeah, I mean, obviously that's like not what's what's said and happening, but that's pretty much the gist of it. And then she like reminisces about it. She's like I can't believe you thought I was angry at her and he just wanted to cuddle. I'm like, of course he just wants to cuddle. You should cuddle him. So I would say I would say a three, because sometimes with monster romances they don't go into the detail or you can't understand the anatomy or how they're having sex because of the proportions. She did a really good job of explaining it and it was kind of kinky but not sweaty or whatever, and there was multiple, if I remember. There's at least two or three scenes that we see on page. Some of it's just like kind of like fade or it jumps. But I would give it like a three on the spicy and then the overall.
::I mean I would probably rate it as a three overall, like it's not something I would reread. If you like monster romance, I would recommend you to read this book. Like what bothered you so much, was it? I didn't even think about it when it all happened.
::I would probably give it a three because it's more than 50% that I enjoyed. It was like, like I said, like the 80% mark or 90. It's literally just that. But then that that taints it for me because all of this greatness and then the last thing I read is trash. But for everything else I would give it a three, but I would probably be explicit in my review of being like just stop here. So I would say a three yeah, we done.
::Yeah, Okay, All right listeners. Thanks so much for listening in on this episode. And if you've read this book, where would the darkness rate with you?
::Thank you for joining us on the journey into the shadows of love, where dark romance stories come to light.
::We hope you enjoyed this episode of bones of the story as much as we did. If you did, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback means the world to us.
::And to stay updated on all things dark romance, follow us on social media. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
::We'd also love to hear from you, Share your thoughts, ideas or even your own dark romance stories with us. Drop us a line at bonesofthestoryatgmailcom.
::Remember our next tantalizing episode is just around the corner, so keep your hearts open and your senses sharp.
::Until then, embrace the darkness and let the stories continue to stir your deepest desires.
::This is Mistie and Jenn signing off from bones of the story.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
