“Gods Gone Wild” | Myths & Legends Romance 101

Hades & Persephone are soo hot right now…The villainous creatures of old might just be sexier than you learned in school…hercules is a girl? We’re here for it!

In this episode of Blush & Bindings, hosts Lindsey, Lauren, and Kacy delve into romances sparked by myths and legends. They discuss popular tropes, themes, and the modern-day allure of placing ancient characters in contemporary settings. The conversation highlights the resurgence of stories like Hades and Persephone, the empowerment of female characters, and myths from different cultures. Tune in for chaotic commentary, insightful discussions, and plenty of TBR recommendations!

Books Mentioned in the Episode

A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah Maclean

A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St Clair

Neon Gods & Electric Idol by Katee Robert

River of Shadows by Karine Halle

Gild by Raven Kennedy

Hooked by Emily McIntire

The Never King & Devourer of Men by Nikki St. Crowe

Beast by Measha Stone

Wicked Ugly Bad & Happily Ever Witch by Cassandra Gannon

Entreat Me by Grace Draven

Until the World Falls Down by Jordan Lynde

A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon

For a full list of books mentioned  in the episode check out our website!

This episode contains mature themes and explicit content recommended for those who are 18+. Listener discretion is advised.

About Us

We’re a couple of friends and sisters who bonded over a love of romance novels. After countless book discussions and shared book hangovers, we decided to create Blush & Bindings, a space to break down stigmas, lift up love stories and get cozy with the pages that bind us together.💕

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Legal Disclaimer: The views expressed in this episode are solely those of the hosts and not necessarily those of any affiliated authors, publishers, or platforms, and all content is for entertainment and informational purposes only—not professional or legal advice—and Blush & Bindings and its hosts are not liable for any decisions made based on this podcast’s content.

Transcript

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Lindsey 0:05

Welcome back to Blush and Bindings. In this podcast, we crack open the sensual, the swoonworthy, and the spicy world of romance novels. We hold nothing back, discussing everything that happens between the sheets of our favorite genre. Whether you're popping your first spicy chapter cherry, a habitual HEA seeker, or a cross-genre goddess, you're in the right place. So get cozy and settle in as we lift up the love stories that bind us together. Hello everyone and welcome back. I'm Lindsey here with my fabulous co-hosts Lauren and Kacy. This is a Romance 101 episode where we break down the tropes, themes, and signature elements you will find in Myths and Legends romance.

Kacy 0:50

Join us as we learn about these love stories, provide some chaotic commentary, and stuff your shelves.

Lauren 0:57

Definitely shelves. With all the on-theme TBR goodies. Okay, time to get cozy and jump in. What is that supposed to lead into?

Kacy 1:07

Stuff your like pussy?

Lauren 1:09

Pussy. Pu-pu-pu-pu pussy.

Lindsey 1:13

You know it's been way too long since we've recorded when we're just like full send on the chaos. I mean what? It's been months, guys. I missed you.

Kacy 1:23

So I think we we need to talk about what myth and legends are in regards to romance. Because I feel like it could be taken a lot of ways.

Lindsey 1:32

Yeah. Well, I feel like in the romance genre, it's obviously retellings. I like to think of legends encompassing things like fairy tales, you know, creatures, whether that's like a retelling of like the Wendigo or Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, some of those legends that have been repeated over and over again where myths are really retellings of

Lauren 1:56

mythologies from different cultures, right?

Lindsey 1:58

Yeah.

Lauren 1:59

It's in the name Greek mythology, Finnish mythology,

Lindsey 2:02

Norse mythology, you know.

Lauren 2:03

Yeah, anything like

Kacy 2:04

Yeah, stories passed down is kind of like how I take it, you know. Like everyone knows the Greek gods, everyone knows the Norse gods, but you might get some other things thrown in there as well.

Lauren 2:16

And you have creative liberties with it as well. And you have, I feel like retellings or myths, they're kind of like loosely based, but it's not one of those things where you have to stick to it completely. Like we have the Plated Prisoner series, right? That's based on King Midas, but it's goes a completely different way. And it's fantasy where you may have also a retelling that is set in a contemporary, right? Like uh Emily McIntyre's Hooked.

Lindsey 2:46

Or Katie Roberts Neon Gods.

Kacy 2:48

Yeah.

Lauren 2:49

Right? It's this really cool subgenre within romance that you can get literally anything.

Kacy 2:57

Can we briefly talk about why currently it is so popular to take myths into modern day? It seems like a very popular way to write romance stories right now is to take a Greek god or something and place them in the modern day or slightly in the future, right?

Lauren 3:16

I think it's a popular juxtaposition of these ancient beings now navigating in a modern world. You have Hades as like a billionaire romance, right? Where he owns a big company, or you have Persephone who is, I don't know, she's in fashion or something like that, where it's this cool juxtaposition. Say, okay, if the gods were in modern day, what would they be doing? Is Apollo now a model? You know, does Dionysus own a club? It's this really cool viewpoint that authors get to play with of, yeah, what's their modern day job? What are they doing with the cell phone? Is Hermes texting everybody instead of flying around giving messages? You know, like what is he just tweeting now? So I think that is a cool play that you have, and it's one of those things that I think is very popular.

Lindsey 4:10

I think part of it is giving voice to women in these stories. Romance has always kind of been ahead of the curve in either retelling or giving voice to those characters, typically in myths and legends, that were side characters. Think Nimue in Lady of the Lake, the Arthurian legends, or even Persephone. Like it was always like, oh, it's Hades and Persephone. Whereas in romance, the focus on the retelling is giving voice to those women and centralizing them as the main characters. And there is a really big push right now to retell these stories from a female perspective. And instead of making them as side characters, they're the main character. Whether that's in literature, in movies, in series, I love it. I love where we're going. But it is definitely romance, I think, that was like, yeah, guys, we need to do this. We can do this. People want this. And it's great. I don't know if you guys watched Cursed, the Netflix series. I mentioned Lady of the Lake. It is essentially her story. Oh. And I was so mad. It was like, I think it was canceled after one season, but I was like, no, we need more of that.

Kacy 5:20

Yeah. Because, like, in reality, a lot of these myths and legends, women are kind of an afterthought, right? Like, I think in it really plays into the time in which those stories were created where women did not have power. Whereas now there is a huge push in the last 10, 15 years to have really strong female main characters. And so with these retellings, Greek just so happens to be the most common, right? You get people like Persephone or Demeter or Circe or whoever, who previously were kind of treated like crap, right? You know, Hades would sweep Persephone down to the underworld for half the year, and then the other half the year she got to stay with her mom. And no one really ever asks, what did Persephone think about that? Yeah.

Lindsey 6:09

What did she want?

Kacy 6:10

Right. But then you get these modern retellings of the same thing where it's from the perspective of that woman, typically. Like in A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair, it is all about Persephone and her relationship with Hades. But it takes place in the modern day world where she is trying to find her independence and become a reporter. And it's really great to see that side of these myths that really most people only want to know what Hades did.

Lindsey 6:38

Yeah.

Kacy 6:38

Right?

Lauren 6:39

Well, and you have all these books coming out, The Women of Troy. I can't remember who it's by, I'll throw it in the show notes, but it's all about basically like the women in that story. And it's like from their perspective. I have this fantastic book. It's called Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women. It's by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. And the intro, which I absolutely love, says this book isn't history, it's her story. Ever notice those this day in history sections in the newspaper or on TV? Most of those little factoids only give half the story, the male half. This whole book talks about these notorious women in history, not as the footnote or the side character that most history books tell them to be, but it's their story. From Cleopatra to Joan of Arc to, you know, I'm sure Helen of Troy is in there. Amelia Earhart. You've got, you know, Calamity Jane, Rose O'Neill. Some of these people I haven't heard of, but I know they're probably pivotal women in history that left such a huge mark.

Lindsey 7:49

You know what's so funny is when you were talking about that, it made me think of the Greek play Lysistrata.

Kacy 7:54

Lysistrata

Lindsey 7:55

It's basically how a group of women endeavor to end the Polynesian or

Lauren 7:59

Peloponnesian

Lindsey 8:00

Peloponnesian War by denying their men the one thing they truly desire. Sex.

Kacy 8:04

Sex.

Lauren 8:04

Puss.

Lindsey 8:05

Yeah. And it just made me think of how, like, when women come together, whether in history, in romance novels, like we talk about taking back that autonomy and taking back your power. And sex can be such a pivotal way to do that. And I love how that's often portrayed in romance books. It made me think of Katie Roberts, Neon Gods. We're talking about Persephone and how she chooses Hades over Zeus. And you know, she's like, Yeah, I'm choosing to do this. It's not anyone making me do this. Like, I want to get back at Zeus this way. And then, yeah, it's such a good story. You guys should read it.

Kacy 8:41

But I I recommended it.

Lindsey 8:43

I know. Not you guys. I meant the I meant the listeners. Listeners. Our listeners.

Kacy 8:47

I was like, I was like, helped you like pick it out at the books now. I know Kacy's read it like, what are you talking about? I was the last of us to read it, okay?

Lauren 8:59

Getting back to myths and legends. Retelling myths as stories has been around since forever, right? We have the Iliad and the Odyssey, essentially epic romance stories at their core that before they were written down, it was these things that were retold, right? You have themes like love, betrayal, longing, fate, your destiny. You're on this journey for a reason. Whether it's fighting that fate, fighting a prophecy, or having a prophecy foretold and seeing what comes of it, right? There's so many different ways. And then, like Lindsey said, the modern retelling and getting that voice of silent women of the past and these authors really highlighting those women that were side notes in past stories or footnotes in, I don't know, these eighth grade ancient myths and legends, right? I feel like we were not given the full story when we were taught those things.

Kacy 9:53

No, because like, you know, Helen of Troy was not just a beautiful face, right? But they said like her face cast a thousand boats into the sea, sort of thing, right? Whereas like Guinevere was like the first, I would say the first love triangle between Arthur and Lancelot, right? But you know, you don't really hear about the women, you hear what they caused, right? Guinevere caused a riff between Lancelot and Arthur. Helen caused a riff between Turkey and Greece. I don't think it was Turkey at the time, it was probably Mesopotamia or something, but I think our history is all over. It's all like yeah, it's not Mesopotamia, it's something. Ottoman? It's the Ottoman, the Ottoman Empire.

Lindsey 10:36

Lauren's just like cringing with her dying on the inside.

Lauren 10:39

No, I'm sorry. My brain is hung up on Kira Knightley as Guinevere in the King Arthur movie.

Lindsey 10:45

Oh, so good.

Kacy 10:46

Oh my god. All I remember is her interview she had on TV once, where she met the director, and originally she was denied the role because he thought she was too pretty. No. And then he met her in real life and was like, oh no, you'll actually be just fine. Oh, how rude. Hold on.

Lindsey 11:03

Kira Knightley is like She's gorgeous.

Lauren 11:06

She's so gorgeous, but she was so badass in that movie. So badass. And hot.

Lindsey 11:12

What was the other one? It would fall under legends. It's Robin Hood, and she plays.

Lauren 11:16

She plays Robin Hood?

Lindsey 11:17

She plays like the daughter of Robin Hood or something. Oh god, it's gonna drive me nuts. It was one of my favorite.

Kacy 11:22

Well, I think is men in tights.

Lindsey 11:24

Tight tights. But Kira Knightley, like, I'm so glad you brought her up because she like made me love all of these kind of myths and legends. She played a lot of things.

Lauren 11:35

She rocks a period piece.

Kacy 11:37

Oh, she really does. Let oh my gosh, like Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Carribean.

Lindsey 11:44

Well, and it was such a like a pivotal time in like my female development, you know, when we were watching these movies, and I was just like, oh, I love this super badass woman that she is playing in these roles. And between that and

Lauren 11:57

Is that why you picked up Archery when we were kids?

Lindsey 11:59

Might be. I don't know.

Kacy 12:00

After watching her just completely slay, it could have been You know, actually, I did Archery for like 10 years. And you know, thinking about it, I had just watched Kira Knightley beat Guinevere, but mainly it was Legolas from Lord of the Rings.

Lindsey 12:14

Well, that's fair. Kacy's like-

Lauren 12:16

he rocks a period piece too, let's be honest.

Lindsey 12:19

Kacy's like, I don't want to be Kiera Knightley, I want to be fucking Legolas. Or fucking Legolas.

Kacy 12:25

That's true. Either or really.

Lindsey 12:29

But speaking of Percy Jackson, because I know Kacy and I went to, and this might be a little bit of a spoiler, but we went to Jasmine Mas's book tour for her second book in the Villains of Lore series. And they asked her, like, what made you want to write about, you know, Greek gods and stuff like that? And she's like Percy Jackson. And I was like, oh yeah. I don't know about you guys, but I was obsessed with Percy Jackson and I just wanted more romance. And I wanted Percy Jackson to be a woman.

Kacy 13:01

I literally thought about that after we went to the author event. And I was like, you know, thinking about it, I loved Percy Jackson growing up because I love gods. And like, you know, Greek gods, they're really fun. There's something for everyone in there, right? And she was like, you know, I was reading Percy Jackson, and all I kept thinking was, God, I just want a little more romance in there. And when she said that, I was like, oh my god, I had the same exact thing. Like, there were so many opportunities, and it never happened. Which is weird because in Greek mythology, they're so into like being open with sex and sex being nonchalant. Is that the right word? Nonchalant. It's just kind of like, its just there- no one really cares, right? But also I understand Percy Jackson is a children's novel, like it is young adult. Yeah. Like I do understand that.

Lindsey 13:49

But it it does make me think though, like Greek mythology and the way that the Greeks and Romans were about sexuality totally sets you up for like a great romance novel piece.

Kacy 13:58

Oh so good. Just like Blood of Hercules that Jasmine Mass wrote. It's like, okay, why why were we not doing this sooner? This is so obvious. Like, obviously, her take is so cool and so unique, and I am so excited to talk about it later. But I think though that should be a good segue. Like we talk about that very open sexuality. Let's talk about the tropes that we find specifically within this sub-genre, because I think there's a lot that you can do, but there's also some that you see over and over and over. I feel like the one that I see the most is Star-Crossed Lovers. It makes the most sense for the genre, just because it's typically two people getting together who people do not want them together. Whether it's, you know, the princess and the pauper sort of deal, or it's a god and a human, or it's two gods that come from different factions, so on and so forth. I feel like that is really, really common. Especially, I mean, like the general, you know, Hades and Persephone. They were not supposed to be together. Uh, Hades and Persephone, so hot right now. Real hot. There is so many retellings of them right now.

Lindsey 15:05

Zoolander vibes. It's so hot right now.

Kacy 15:07

It's real hot.

Lauren 15:08

But you brought it up. It could be an enemies to lovers. I've seen it written actually as like a prophesied fated or destined love as well.

Kacy 15:18

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Lauren 15:19

You know, it's a great myth to retell because you know what also is really hot right now? The shadow daddy dark--

Lindsey 15:26

Oh, yeah.

Lauren 15:27

Like taken to the underworld. You know, he's the dark prince, right?

Lindsey 15:32

Misunderstood-

Kacy 15:32

It's that Stockholm, you know.

Lauren 15:34

Yeah, he kidnaps her, maybe. And it's hot right now. I feel like dark romance is also having its heyday. And so you can get a dark Hades and Persephone retelling as well. And so that's a big trope that you see. Also, I think with the kickoff of Avatar Beauty and the Beast retelling, because that's kind of what it started as, right?

Lindsey 15:56

Well, there's Grace Draven's En treat Me, which is definitely a Beauty and Beast retelling.

Kacy 16:00

I Love EnTreat me. Oh my god.

Lauren 16:02

You know, it's interesting. I read, I'm not gonna remember the name of this, but you can sneak and peek at my good reads. There was a set of four retelling books, like Beast. There were there was like, oh man, there was the Rapunzel.

Kacy 16:17

Katee Robert did do a retelling of Disney characters.

Lindsey 16:21

Yes, okay, so that's another thing. Our Disney characters, which are retellings in of themselves, because they're from, you know, the Grimm fairy tales. Yeah,

Lauren 16:27

so fairy tales falls into this as well.

Kacy 16:29

Oh, 100%. Yes, 100%.

Lauren 16:31

S o, I mean, anywhere from Rapunzel, Peter Pan is huge. Yeah.

Lindsey 16:37

I read a Rumple stiltskin retelling.

Lauren 16:39

Rumpel stiltskin, uh Fox and the Hound, that's what it was. Oh. Okay, so it's a fox and the hound retelling, and she was the fox. It was all based on Primal Play. It was all contemporary, too, right? And he gave her a foxtail butt plug. And basically, like chased her down. He was the hound.

Lindsey 17:01

Did it have like a little tail like jingling off of it? Oh, Jesus.

Lauren 17:04

Yeah, it was a butt plug with the t with a foxtail.

Lindsey 17:06

I don't know how to feel about that. That's amazing.

Lauren 17:08

This was like a kinky, a very kinky series. I think I read it about two years ago.

Lindsey 17:14

I'm gonna give you homework and make you put it in the show notes because I'm sure people are gonna be intrigued.

Lauren 17:18

They were dirty. It was some good kink written in these books.

Lindsey 17:23

Yeah. While we're on the topic of fairy tales, Cassandra Gannon, I don't know if you've read any of her works, but she does fairy tale retellings, but they're like crossover fairy tale retellings. So one of hers is like Wicked, Ugly, Bad, and it's a Cinderella retelling where Cinderella's actually evil, and Scarlett is her stepsister, and she's like in prison and she meets like the big bad wolf or something like that. She also does Happily Ever Witch, which is Esmeralda the Wicked Witch, falls through a rabbit hole into Wonderland. And I just love how it's like, but make it romance.

Lauren 17:58

It's like multiverse. It's a fairy tale multiverse. Yes. And it's so cool. Well, I mean, once upon a time, the TV show. Oh, yeah. Oh, 100%. It had so many seasons. Everybody was really enraptured. And that's again bringing the modern day element, contemporary element, and pulling fairy tales into that. I think it's such a cool, interesting way. Like to see what they are gonna do in the modern world. Yeah. How are they portrayed?

Lindsey 18:25

Or you can go, and I don't think this is as common, but I was able to find one where you go completely the opposite direction and you set one of these retellings in a different time period. So there's a historic England retelling of Hades and Persephone. It's a rogue by any other name by Sarah McLean. And I'm like, that's a niche thing that I think would be so cool. I've seen a lot of like steampunk kind of fantasy-esque retellings with like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and some of those, you know, sort of retellings, but I haven't seen a lot of those in romance. It's a lot of more of those like Y-A-N-A, paranormal, or fantasy heavy with some like romantic subplot in them. But yeah, I love that this subgenre really can be set in modern times. It could be set in the past, in the future, in another world. There's so many possibilities, and I love what authors come up with.

Lauren 19:15

Yeah. Well, and if you talk mythology too, you can bring in not just Greek mythology for Hades and Persephone. There are so many different myths that have similar retellings. I read River of Shadows by Karina Hale. Oh yeah. And it's a dark fantasy romance retelling, but it's based on Finnish mythology, which also has an underworld. And I'm gonna probably not pronounce this right, but Tuonella, which is this underworld, and then you have the god of it, and it is kind of contemporary because this woman goes in search of her father, and then she makes a deal and gets, you know, pulled into this Tuonella, which is the underworld in Finnish mythology. So you have different versions of Hades in. Persephone of this person coming down into the underworld, of maybe an underworld god, but it's done completely different, which is very cool. I feel like I got to learn a lot more about a different type of mythology from a different culture that I had never been exposed to before. You even have like maybe Viking or Norse myths weaved in, maybe Egyptian Anubis. I think everybody learned about different Egyptian gods and goddesses. But it's an opportunity for readers to learn about a mythology that maybe it wasn't as popular in middle school, right? At least in the United States. Yeah.

Kacy 20:36

Yeah. One of the best books I read this year was Until the World Falls Down by Jordan Lynde. I think that's how you say her last name. But it's about the Goblin King. Basically, he kidnaps this girl and makes her go through his castle, which is a maze. I I did not think you were gonna say castle.

Lindsey 20:56

I don't know what I thought you were gonna say, but it was not castle.

Kacy 20:59

But he uh he can uh duplicate himself. And uh literally I I couldn't I couldn't put it down. And I was like, oh, this is so cool, because like how often do you read about Goblin Kings? Yeah. You know, and like their history and their story. I mean, I think a lot of us are really familiar with Labyrinth. I mean, when you hear about the Goblin King, I think of the Labyrinth with David Bowie, right? That's what I think of. I

Lauren 21:28

think of The Hobbit. It's in the first Hobbit movie, right? Are they trolls?

Lindsey 21:33

Orcs?

Kacy 21:33

Those are trolls.

Lauren 21:34

What's the guy with the the really gross big like double chin?

Kacy 21:37

Oh, he's the goblin king.

Lauren 21:38

Yeah, and they

Kacy 21:39

He has the cleaver, yeah.

Lauren 21:40

Yeah.

Kacy 21:41

That is the Hobbit, yeah.

Lindsey 21:43

Clearly, we don't study our creature things well enough.

Lauren 21:47

He has a song, he's like Dr the Goblin King.

Lindsey 21:51

Please continue, Lauren. I'm enjoying your rendition.

Kacy 21:55

You know, I hadn't thought about that, but yes, he is a Goblin King too. And they roll into the barrels or something. Yeah, yeah.

Lindsey 22:02

Yeah.

Kacy 22:03

It's in the new Hobbit.

Lauren 22:05

The new Hobbit movie.

Lindsey 22:06

Okay. Which isn't really that new anymore, which that was like five years ago, wasn't it?

Kacy 22:10

Newer, I guess. Not the cartoon version.

Lindsey 22:13

Oh got it. Yeah. Oh my god, we've gotten so sidetracked.

Kacy 22:16

It's nice when you come across, and I honestly I came across that book on threads. Nice. A long time ago when threads was brand new. I followed a bunch of indie authors, and I saw this author being like, hey, you should try and read my book, blah, blah, blah. And I read it and I was like, oh my god, this book is fucking fantastic. And I just started being like, I think I posted several comments on her threads, just being like, I'm gonna tell everyone to read this book. And like, here we are. And it, and yeah, here we are.

Lauren 22:43

Telling everybody, listening.

Lindsey 22:45

So we kind of like jumped to common retellings, but I want to touch on a few other ones that I know we pulled out. Eros and Psyche. I thought that one was really cool. I know I haven't read it yet, but one of Katee Roberts.

Kacy 22:58

Neon God's has it.

Lindsey 22:59

Yeah, so Psyche's in it, but doesn't she get her own story in the Dark Olympus series?

Lauren 23:04

I believe so its the second book.

Lindsey 23:05

It's the second one? Just Psyche.

Kacy 23:07

It's the second or third book.

Lindsey 23:08

Yeah, so I'm actually really excited to read that one because I do like a good Eros and Psyche retelling. But also Tristan Isolde. You talked about Starcrossed lovers. I don't know if I'm so saying her name right. It's-

Lauren 23:18

it's Isolde.

Lindsey 23:19

Isolde? Okay. Yeah, they've got such strong thematic elements that make for like a really good love story. The tragedy.

Kacy 23:27

Yes. Very tragic. Authors, please write more because I will read whatever you put in front of me if it is a myth and legend retelling. There's just such a world of possibilities, but please let it have spice because I need that in my life.

Lauren 23:40

Uh speaking of spice, I love the Peter Pan retellings. You got Vicious Lost Boys, which

Lindsey 23:46

I haven't read that one.

Lauren 23:47

At first, I was like, oh, when I think of boys, the Lost Boys, I think of children. And I at first was like, oh, I don't know how this is gonna go. But then Vicious Lost Boys, Reverse Harem. Those boas are delicious.

Lindsey 24:07

If it wasn't reverse harem, I would be disappointed. Just from the title.

Lauren 24:10

And you've got like you've got Peter Pan. I mean, I've always had a crush on Peter Pan, right? Like always.

Lindsey 24:17

Oh my gosh.

Kacy 24:18

Jeremy Sumter from like the 2003 Peter Pan.

Lauren 24:22

Yeah. I do believe in fairies. I do. I do. Yes. I am all about that. And what's interesting is like you can either have Wendy. You can have like Wendy's like great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter. Like you get some interesting, or sometimes like that you never know who Tinkerbell's gonna be, right? You never know.

Kacy 24:44

That is true.

Lindsey 24:45

There's a Tinkerbell one. There's one that's it might be Nikki St. Crow. I don't know, but I just saw it Instagram. I don't know if it's MMF or just like we'll just say throuple, but it's Hook and the Crocodile and Wendy. And I like

Lauren 24:59

Oh, is it a prequel? Because-

Lindsey 25:02

-it might be-

Lauren 25:03

-in Vicious Lost Boys. It's Wendy's granddaughter and Peter Pan Croc and the original and like Wendy way back, I think had an interaction.

Lindsey 25:13

It is okay. So I don't know if it's a prequel, but it's Devourer of Men, which is Devourer number one, and The Crocodile and Captain Hook. And

Lauren 25:23

Oh, is it Hook or is it Peter Pan? I don't know.

Kacy 25:26

Can we get one with Rufio?

Lindsey 25:27

Okay, so Devourer of Men is a dark MMF romancy fairy tale retelling. It must be Wendy. So good. I'm so excited for it.

Lauren 25:35

I love how this genre takes like real people as well. So one book that is on my list, it's kind of almost on my next read. I have to finish Bride by Allie Hazelwood. I've been reading that book for literally ages. But it's Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, and it's an Anthony and Cleopatra retelling.

Kacy 25:54

Oh!

Lindsey 25:55

Oh

Kacy 25:56

and because they had kids.

Lauren 25:58

They had kids, yeah.

Kacy 25:59

Yeah.

Lauren 26:00

And I'm so excited because Cleopatra is such an interesting character in our own history. And I'm very excited to read this. And that kind of like swings around to where this subgenre can be modern, it can have magical elements, it can be straight fantasy retelling. You know, I feel like last season we had like really hammered down on the subgenres of paranormal versus fantasy versus contemporary, right? But this Myths and Legends theme can just be in anything, right? Because you could have a retelling with no magical elements, and the only part of the retelling is the characters themselves and their profession or their character profile is very much a Captain Hook or a Rumpelstiltskin, right? You've once upon a time set in that modern world where they don't actually have powers, right?

Kacy 26:56

Right.

Lauren 26:57

Um, until, you know, magically things happen, right? But it's just a very interesting kind of theme. I I call Myths and Legends more of like a theme that you go with versus, you know, fitting into a specific subgenre.

Lindsey 27:13

Yeah. I know we've spouted it. Did we did we hit all the books that we wanted for our TBR Recs?

Lauren 27:18

As far as like shout-outs, well, I did talk about the Plated Prisoner series, which is one of my favorite by Raven Kennedy. I I can't talk too much about it because the first book really goes in like a completely opposite direction, and it is part of the overall like plot line that is very much a reveal. But I love the way that one went. And it was such an out there story because like King Midas, I feel like that story has like touch of gold, right? Like he's a historical person, but he's also kind of a myth and legend wrapped up in magic. It's just it's so fascinating. I love the main character in it, and the main MMC as well is fantastic. I know the the historical figures. I love the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.

Lindsey 28:10

Oh my god.

Lauren 28:10

Uh I love that movie. With Sean Connery.

Kacy 28:13

With Sean Connery .

Lauren 28:14

And it brings in a lot of those characters that have just like this mystical kind of element. Like the Invisible Man and The Invisible Man, you have Dorian Gray and his like kind of magicality. Immortality, you have Mina Harkness, she's got that vampire element, then you have Captain Nemo, and you have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which last season for our Wicked Pleasures After Dark,

Lindsey 28:42

we had A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor.

Kacy 28:44

Lady of Rooksgrave Manor.

Lauren 28:46

Lady of Rooksgrave Manor, by Kathryn Moon, who brought in that, you know, magical element, right? And there's these characters from history that have done things that have bred these kind of out there mystical stories. And I love that aspect as well. And I know, Lindsay, you had a book recommendation that's kind of based on the Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll.

Lindsey 29:07

It was more, it's less of a book recommendation. It doesn't fit the romance genre, but it is one of those, like when I was in my full like fantasy mode. It's The Strange Case of The Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss. And I really like it and wanted to talk about it because it takes Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein and some of these other retellings and like recasts them as like young female character monsters.

Lindsey 29:32

And one of the things like on the back of the book is, you know, it's time for the monsters to defeat the monstrous. And this theme of okay, these women might be portrayed as monsters, but that doesn't mean that they're monstrous, which is I know something we touched on a lot in we're just throwing back to season one episodes, but our Beastly Desires episode where just because something is a monster on the outside or is perceived as a monster doesn't mean it's monstrous on the inside. And it's almost more they're like, oh, I am just want to be loved. I'm soft, cuddly creature. I deserve love. And that's misunderstood, not monstrous, yeah.

Kacy 30:08

Yeah.

Lindsey 30:08

And how those who might be deemed by society as normal on the outside can be the truly monstrous ones. So that was just one that like really got me into some of those retelling books. And again, I'm like, I want more romance. It's a really good book on its own. It does not fit the romance category. I don't even know that there's like much romantic subplot. I can't remember. It's been a while since I read it. But there are some like other YANA fantasy retellings. Naomi Novik does Spinning Silver, which is a Rumpel stiltskin retelling. She also does Uprooted, which is a beauty and a beast retelling.

Lindsey 30:42

So, like along with Percy Jackson, there are some of those, you know, intro retellings that aren't necessarily romance. But again, I found myself being like, I want more romance. And I'm so glad I've started to find that now. But if someone did a female Dorian Gray romance retelling, I'd be totally for that.

Kacy 31:02

That'd be good.

Lindsey 31:03

And it might be out there, so let us know if it is, because I want to read it.

Lauren 31:06

Well, and I'm writing a retelling right now, but it's not anywhere near ready. And I'm not gonna spoil what retelling it is, but it's putting a female twist on a male fairy tale.

Lindsey 31:18

Maybe that's what it just I just need to do. Like if I want a female Dorian Gray and I don't find it, I just need to write it. Like Jasmine Mas said. If you can't find it, write it.

Lindsey 31:27

Speaking of Jasmine Mass, we are going to announce our book club pick for our Myths and Legends series. So we're doing things a little bit differently this season, as you may have noticed. Instead of combining everything into one episode, we heard your feedback. So we decided to kind of break up these episodes, give you guys a little bit of a teaser and an intro about what's so cool about this theme or subgenre, and then announce the book that we're gonna be covering in its own separate book club episode. So without further ado, our book club episode drumroll...-

Lindsey 32:01

Our book club episode for Myths and Legends is going to be, if you have not guessed it, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mass, which is a dark fantasy enemies to lovers retelling of Hercules and our Greek pantheon. It is set in the future, a dystopian future. It is amazing. It is what Jasmine Mas does best is her enemies to lovers. She also said she will never write anything else. It's got tension, it's got edging, it's got why-

Lauren 32:32

slowburn.

Kacy 32:33

It's a very slow burn.

Lindsey 32:35

did they not. Just. fuck already.

Kacy 32:36

Good slow burn.

Lauren 32:37

So sassy FMC.

Lindsey 32:39

O h, she's amazing.

Kacy 32:41

A horny snake.

Lindsey 32:42

Oh,

Kacy 32:42

you know?

Lauren 32:43

Everything you could ever want.

Lindsey 32:44

A murderous horny snake.

Lauren 32:47

A nd it's the first in a series.

Lindsey 32:49

Yes. So go get it. The audiobook's incredible. We all listened to it on audiobook when we did our little Blush and Bindings retreat between this season and the last. It's going to be amazing.

Lindsey 32:59

Dee Dee agrees.

Lindsey 33:01

That's our episode for today. If you enjoyed this episode and can't wait for more, please like and subscribe and maybe even leave a review. It helps other romance lovers find us.

Kacy 33:11

Thank you so much for listening, and as always, here at Blush and Bindings,

Lauren 33:14

we're breaking down stigmas, lifting up love stories, and getting cozy with the pages that bind us together.