Feudal Fantasy: Devil's Bride

Short Description

Impale yourself on your fate: marrying the Devil can be heaven. Semilore Sobande shares her all-time favorite romance, "Devil's Bride" by Stephanie Laurens. This book has it all: Honoria Prudence Anstruther-Weatherby, a heroine who balances strength and vulnerability, and a hero who might just be Batman in disguise and has a similarly ridiculous name. Discover how this historical romance stands out with its compelling characters, feudal fantasies, and unexpectedly humorous plot twists, all while reimagining the dynamics of power and partnership in the Cynster family saga.

Show Notes

Guest: Semilore Sobande

https://english.brown.edu/people/semilore-sobande

Learn more about the Ready to Score release event with Dame Jodie Slaughter and Shelf Love host Andrea Martucci on Monday June 9, 2025 at 7pm at Lovestruck Books in Cambridge, MA: https://lovestruck-Jodie-Slaughter.eventbrite.com/?aff=Andrea

Transcript

Devil's Bride

Andrea Martucci: [00:00:00] Hey, popping on real quick at the beginning of this episode to let you know that on Monday, June 9th at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, I'm doing an event with Dame Jodie Slaughter at Lovestruck Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to celebrate the release of her new book, Ready to Score.

You can find a link to get tickets in the show notes or visit lovestruckbooks.com. Again, that is Monday, June 9th, 2025 at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $29 and do include a copy of Jodie Slaughter's new book, Ready to Score, a sapphic sports romance.

Ready to Score is a witty, emotionally charged novel that is out June 3rd, 2025, and it brings together Friday night Lights grit, and Cleat Cute charm, in a story about ambition, attraction, and the high stakes of falling for the wrong person at the right time.

Think locker room banter, poker night tension, and two fierce women chasing both career dreams and each other.

I will be in conversation with the Dame. And you know that the Dame and I have excellent chemistry. So if you're listening to this and you like to have a good [00:01:00] time and you are somewhere near the Boston area, check it out and I hope to see you there.

Hello and welcome to Shelf Love, a podcast about romance novels and how they reflect, explore, challenge, and shape, desire. I'm your host, Andrea Martucci, and on this episode, I'm joined by Semilore Sobande to discuss Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens Hi, Semilore. How are you?

Semilore Sobande: Hi Hi Andrea You have such a beautiful podcast voice. I almost forgot.

Andrea Martucci: Thank you. So who are you?

No, like deep, deep inside

Semilore Sobande: Deep inside, who am I?

Andrea Martucci: Who are you and how are you not yourself?

Semilore Sobande: That's a great question. You know, those ones where they're like, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter. I am. But for the purposes of this episode, I am PhD candidate in English literature at Brown University studying Black Atlantic Anglophone and Francophone literature. And [00:02:00] oh, fun fact. But exciting fact is I get the chance to be in Paris this year to do my research with Fulbright Fellowship.

Andrea Martucci: Oui oui,

Semilore Sobande: yeah, it's crazy for multiple reasons. But other than that I am a third generation romance reader, so I've loved romance for a long time. In terms of how long I've been reading romance, really actively, I think it's been over a decade. And I've always been a big reader, which is, to be fair, the thing they make you be when you want to be a PhD candidate in English Lit. That is one of the thresholds.

Andrea Martucci: well, is it correlation or causation?

Semilore Sobande: I think it's entry requirement is a best way to describe it.

They're like, do you like reading yes or no? Then

you like reading.

If no,

you right. If no leave, but if yes, here's your PhD.

Andrea Martucci: yes, we're gonna make you do a lot of other things first,

but then you can get

your PhD

Semilore Sobande: yes, and then you can get your PhD. It's simple as that. I swear no

Andrea Martucci: one foot in front

of the other,

Semilore Sobande: No, there's actually, I basically just told you the inner workings of the ivory tower. So everyone You're welcome. Yes. And I don't know. Yeah, I would say that's, those were really the important things. I love, that's really corny. I was gonna say I love, but that would've been like really corny.

Andrea Martucci: But

you can love what? So what do you love about love?

Semilore Sobande: The thing is, I am a corn ball, so that's what it is. But so on one hand I am cornball. I love the emotion, like the emotional resonance of romance. I think romance. When done well. But as it is often takes a lot of time to think about different emotional registers of love or rather different kind of positionings of love, which is that a good romance in my opinion, is a romance that is often about two people.

But it's always necessarily about questions of family, questions of friendship. Really what is in is an interest in act interacting with love at different registers. Just focused around how it might work around two people. That's why I love very well done romance. The reason I love all romance is because I like shenanigans and hijinks. And this is this second preference is something that animates my taste almost more than the first preference, which is why, for example, me and my younger sister have a fundamental almost relationship, like risking, like almost jeopardizing, actually almost relationship jeopardizing disagreement on the honeymoon, the un honeymooners. But

Andrea Martucci: Christina Lauren,

Semilore Sobande: read Christina Lauren,

which she has never forgiven me for recommending to her because I was like a fun time and she was like. I didn't, I was like, you didn't like, it's funny. Ha. And she was like the brother cheats on her sister. And I'm like, yes, but weren't the Hawaii sections funny?

She's I really don't care.

Andrea Martucci: does your sister like romance?

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. My sister likes romance. My,

my sister, my, so my younger sister likes romance, although she won't usually read necessarily romance novels, but the romance novels I get from my mom who got from her mom. Yeah. So it's a third generation.

Andrea Martucci: Third gen. Okay. So tell me about the generations of romance readers that you descend from. How did you cut your teeth on romance? Were you surrounded by the books? Were they part of the discourse in your household? Say more.

Semilore Sobande: Oh, actually, that's funny. So the

answer is to those last question is no. But I like taking things as my mothers.

Andrea Martucci: so they were like

hidden.

Semilore Sobande: not hidden.

they just

weren't. So my mom would just have books and it would just be like an understanding that I couldn't necessarily read the books. And by this

Like when I was like. 12 or 13. So I was never really

interested also in romance at that age, actually, frankly.

I spent a lot of time reading like fantasy books. Like a lot of time I would say if it was like YA fantasy. And I also grew up during what I would call the heyday of like young adult literature,

frankly.

Because when I was when I was like a young adult when I was in a tweens, I wanna say Twilight was coming out, Aragon was coming

out hunger Games came out. I wait, if you guys think you suffered, I waited. We waited for all three Hunger Games books to come out.

Andrea Martucci: You, yeah. The rest, everybody else here. You haven't known true suffering

like.

Semilore Sobande: You haven't true suffering until you open until you finish catching fire. And they said there is no district 12 and you truly have to wait a year for that to

come out and your frontal lobe isn't even developed. So year seems

like a year seems like the worst thing that could happen to you. But like divergent, like all those things were coming out when I was a kid. So I was like. Not, frankly, not that preoccupied or interested in reading romances. But I also, I loved romance in books. Like I loved the

romances that happened. Because I also for some reason ended up back reading a lot, by which I mean that I read a lot of fantasies that came out in like the seventies, the eighties. I remember reading the Chronicles Ordain, like I read a lot of Robin McKinley. Like I was a fan of Mercedes Lackey, like all of these incredible fantasy authors. And then I think I ran out Lowkey or

rather like I got burnt out. I think it was actually Game of Thrones that burned me out. I got like part of the way through the fourth book and I was like, this is a little too much for me. I'm sorry

I don't

Andrea Martucci: These,

shenanigans aren't fun.

Semilore Sobande: no, these shenanigans aren't fun.

I can't keep track of 50 11 characters anymore. There's no kind of and this is something where I like a cosmic universe in my fantasy in Game of Thrones, infamously, there's no kind of cosmic universe. So I was sitting there and I was like, I'm just putting myself through this for what you know.

And I think

then part of the transition to romance was, I read, it's happening in the midst of the transition, was that I read Outlander and I got

very far through Outlander, although. Confession time. I did skip through so much of Dragonfly and Amber, I'm sorry I didn't care

about them going to the French court, but in my defense, in the beginning of Dragonfly and Amber, you figure out they're separated.

And so I was like, actually I don't want the whole book to be a flashback when I know I'm gonna be upset. But yeah, I think I gave

up fifth bookend of Outlander. I was like, why is there slavery? But sorry,

Andrea Martucci: indeed. A great question. Honestly.

Semilore Sobande: but the roundabout answers, I think, like I had read romantic books before Ya Romance, but I think, and I remember this very distinctly, the thing that got me into historical romance, which was my entry into romance in general, was Dukey by Elizabeth White, which I found like my mom had borrowed a paperback a beautiful step back actually like from the library.

And King County Library is one of the best library systems in the country. So she had borrowed the step back and I had snuck it from her room and read it and I was like, oh, this is incredible. And it was like, which is funny because it's still one of my favorite romances in general.

And then King County had just instituted this Libby, they had just.

Basically started Libby. And so many of the historical romances were like online, so I didn't need to go physically to the library to pick them off the Shelf. I could literally just fill my Shelf with them and it was like a 25 book limit. So I could literally just check them out and then return them when I was done.

And so I read a bunch of historical authors that way, like Mary Below, Julia Quinn. I read a couple of Amanda Quick, and then I was like, why is everything a seance? And I didn't read as much Amanda Quinn.

Andrea Martucci: that's true with Amanda

Semilore Sobande: It's true.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: And so I had read these and then I remember I was like so nervous to finally confess to my mother that I was reading them. And then I just realized that she had read all the same books, like the whole time, like had been familiar with all the same books. Like I was like, oh, I finally finished this Mary Below series. She's oh, did you get to the one with Wolfer yet? I was like, I don't have anything original for myself.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. That's how it started. And so later, funny enough, because we hadn't really talked about it, 'cause I wasn't reading romance, but my mom had

been reading romance since she was like a kid.

Like she would take her mom's mills and boon novels.

And so all of these romance authors were publishing in like the nineties, like early two thousands. My mom had already read

them. Like my mom like original Susan Elizabeth Phillips Enjoyer.

Andrea Martucci: So was it your heritage or was, it fate, nature, or nurture? was it was fake. It fate. was fake. It was fake. It It was fake because we'd never talked about romance. Like it was very eerie. She'd be like, oh, as I got older, she would recommend me specific books that she would, but

Semilore Sobande: at no point did my mother actually sit me down and make read a romance novel to me. The one, yeah. Actually no. It would always be these weird coincidences. For example, like when I was younger, I think either I bought or, but I think it was probably that I asked for it. Like at this last book fair, the abridged version of Jane Re.

And I was

like, this is great material. I was like,

this is everything.

It turns out my mom's been turned out. My mom had been like a fan of Jane Eyre for like years. Just this coincidental, my mom reads what is inherited is how much we read. My mom reads

I'm not gonna say it freakish. My mom reads a lot. Which is why she's commandeered the library cards of most of our family.

So my mom has four library cards going on in her Libby at any time, which is an insane number of checkouts and holds by, for context. That's like access

to easily a hundred, 150

Andrea Martucci: At a

time.

Semilore Sobande: At a top including the hold system, which is how when we were younger at our local library, they used to have to put our holds behind the desk because they were

too, they would be like new stuff that was coming out.

And so people would steal them, like off the public holds Shelf

Andrea Martucci: Lots bastards.

How dare

Semilore Sobande: the public old, right? That's sick. But off the public old show.

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God.

Semilore Sobande: So to be it had to be like an exclusive

Andrea Martucci: This is the Shab

Day.

This is the Shae

Shelf?

Semilore Sobande: No, literally

Andrea Martucci: Yeah, there's 75

books.

Semilore Sobande: They would because it would come in with like our tag, like our last name

tag. And so they would just be like, okay, we're gonna hold it behind the Shelf for you guys. And then it would either be me and my mom or my mom who would come and pick up holds for the entire family. And it would be like, have many of the holds come in yet?

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God. Okay. So you've been reading for a long time, and so you love reading, you found your way into this English, English lit department. I guess as a result of your reading habit. How did we meet? How did our paths cross?

Semilore Sobande: even We met at PCA, a conference that I tried to go to in person in 2020.

Andrea Martucci: What happened with that?

Semilore Sobande: What happened with that? Nothing. It was funny. It was in 2024. [00:03:00] And the thing is, I love romance. It's really hard to write about. Not, it's really hard to write about romance, but romance doesn't serve quote unquote necessarily what I'm doing in my dissertation. So PCA is like this really cool opportunity for me to go and write about something else. And I had read this book and I was like, oh, I need to submit this for PCA. It's called Everything's Fine. So we went to PCA and that's how I met you.

We actually I think just started talking to the table and I really liked what you had to say and also the fact that, not that you were being critical, but as an academic, I tend to orient towards hater a little bit.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: But also it was really useful for me because Everything's Fine as a book is really critical of romance genre and so I love romance. One of the things that's difficult about romance for me is that as someone who like does something like study race, historicals are crazy, like from a racial point of [00:04:00] view, like historicals are crazy.

And so working with that, like between a love for something and like really wanting to break it down critically is something I do a lot.

And it was also nice to talk to something about, because my friends are lovely. They're not like deep in the romance mood like I am. And so I'm like, you guys don't even understand how important the name Sebastian is to the historical romance oeuvre. Like, You guys don't understand me. So it was really lovely to chat.

Andrea Martucci: It is nice when you find people, you're like, my very specific interest is the same as your very specific interest.

Semilore Sobande: I'm like, no, you get how weird it was that everyone thinks Dreaming of You is the best Lisa Kleypas book.

Andrea Martucci: yes.

Look, if you know, you know,

Semilore Sobande: no, everyone's like Dreaming of You is the best. And I thought they were lying for years.

I was like, okay, I get Devil in Winter 'cause it's [00:05:00] silly. Dreaming of You? It's Stranger. No Stranger in my Arms is just insane. Suddenly You is the sleeper hit

Andrea Martucci: Suddenly You, oh my God, yes. No, I love Suddenly You, oh my God. Older woman, younger man. And Kleypas loves a sex worker.

Semilore Sobande: Truly,

Andrea Martucci: Or like a fake sex. I don't even know.

Semilore Sobande: fake sex. worker,

Andrea Martucci: or a real one. I don't know. It doesn't even matter.

Semilore Sobande: The lying about the age, like something

The entire idea of I am 30,

Andrea Martucci: I'll be dead soon. Before I die.

Semilore Sobande: before I die.

Andrea Martucci: The Typhus could get me at any point.

Semilore Sobande: genuinely.

Andrea Martucci: To be fair, yes. Genuinely. Okay. So speaking of historical romance, since we met, I was like, look, I gotta have you on the pod. You gotta come on the pod. And I said, what do you wanna talk about?

And you said,

Semilore Sobande: Devil's Bride. There was no competition. For a [00:06:00] while I was demure and I pretended like Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas was my favorite. But then I remembered two things. One is that I actually never reread that book because two, when I reread the book, I remembered that Devil in Winter is best when you remember it fondly not in the actual.

Andrea Martucci: absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Semilore Sobande: Right. Not in the actual consumption of the material, but in the remembrance of the overall as I would say, shenanigan, which is obviously Sebastian St. Vincent. Not to be confused with Michael St. Vincent from Susan Enoch's. London's Perfect Scoundrel, which has always bothered me that there's an entirely separate book with a St. Vincent and an Evie if I recall correctly. And it's or not with a St. Vincent or with a Saint. And I'm like, what? And they're published really close to each other, so I was like, you clearly [00:07:00] were going through development in the same time.

Andrea Martucci: you know like how in, Jane Eyre, right? It's "Sin Gin"

Semilore Sobande: "Sin Gin"

Andrea Martucci: So is it "Sin Vin"

"Sin Vincent"

Semilore Sobande: Genuinely thank you for tapping on one of the questions I've had every single time I see it in historical Romance, because God forbid you're in front of a Jane Eyre fan. You say something other than "Sin Gin". God forbid you say Saint John

you're like, oh, suddenly you're the dumbest person on earth.

Andrea Martucci: like, look at this dumb bitch.

Semilore Sobande: Literally. This dummy. Get outta here. Like I senior year, and I think I said St. John and out loud, and another one of my classes was like it's "Sin Gin" And I was like, oh sorry. I looked up what was on the page

Andrea Martucci: You ignorant fool.

Semilore Sobande: Literally an ignorant fool. How could you ever think that? And it's like Semilore, (name pronounced incorrectly) how could you ever think it was pronounced St. John?

Sorry. I would never imagine that someone could [00:08:00] mispronounce someone's name.

But

Andrea Martucci: yeah,

Semilore Sobande: but then I admitted to the fact that it's probably the book I reread every 18 to 24 months, which is Devil's Bride. Is Devil's Bride objectively more ridiculous than Devil in Winter? Yes.

Andrea Martucci: I think Devil's Bride is in on the joke.

Semilore Sobande: Yes, that's true. That's true.

Andrea Martucci: Devil in Winter takes itself a little bit too

Semilore Sobande: very seriously, Very seriously for a man who finds redemption by running a casino.

Andrea Martucci: Well, capitalism

Semilore Sobande: capitalism, right?

Andrea Martucci: as opposed to what's the system where you have vassals and what's the word I'm looking for? Feudalism.

Yes. It's feudalism versus capitalism.

Semilore Sobande: Devil's Bride is like, what if we brought Feudalism back, or more correctly? Feudalism actually never left. I don't know why you guys would think it left. [00:09:00] It never did,

Andrea Martucci: Make feudalism sexy again.

Semilore Sobande: Make feudalism sexy again. And it worked.

Andrea Martucci: That's what Stephanie Laurens said. Stephanie Laurens, who was born, in a British colony. Was it like Sri Lanka

Semilore Sobande: yeah. She's born in Sri Lanka

Andrea Martucci: and then she went to another British colony, Australia, and then she went to study in England, Britain, the the seat of Empire, and then went back to Australia, the British Empire. Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: that's what's so funny about it is that it's so feudalistic, and this happens to Devil's Bride. It's so feudalistic in the sense that we should stay in England actually and mind our business.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: like, Which is to say you guys have been here forever.

Which is something you see sometimes in historical romance. The idea of they have been here since the Conquest as in, not colony, like they have been here, they came over here with the Normans.

They said this is your land and you're [00:10:00] gonna guard it. And that's what you should be doing.

You were off fighting Napoleon, you survived that. Now it's time to settle down, have a wife, have several children, and basically be a little feudal Lord. And that happens in genuinely every single Cynster book. And this is important because listeners, there's 40,

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. This is the first Cynster novel, right?

Semilore Sobande: And in my opinion, the best.

Andrea Martucci: it was, this published in 98. 1998.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah, I think 19 98 or 97

Andrea Martucci: What is the basic premise of this story?

Semilore Sobande: So you meet Honoria first. Yes. Honoria is this 24, soon to be 25-year-old woman who is employed as a finishing governess. Important distinction. She's not your regular governess. She's a finishing governess because she doesn't like working with kids. That's actually important to the [00:11:00] story. And she's just biding her time until she comes into her inheritance at 25 and she wants to use that inheritance to basically go leave England forever to go explore in Egypt.

And so she's just accumulating wealth until she can pay to do that. Or really, like I said, biding her time until she's firmly on the shelf, so to speak, so she can go and she's supposed to work for this family who really wants to trap this incredibly marriageable prospect? Sebastian Cynster. Duke of St. Ives.

Duke of St. Ives as their marital prospect, except one day she's literally on her way home from the vicarage as you are. And it's a horrible storm, which Honoria is very scared of. And she comes across this, and this is what I think distinguishes it from a lot of normal meet [00:12:00] cutes. She comes across this body laying on the side of the road and she's a good Samaritan, so she's like, oh my God, there's this young man dying on the side of the road. And so she tries to help him.

The storm gets worse and worse. And as she's trying to help him, just, like in Jane Eyre almost gets run over by this massive black horse with this diabolical looking rider who basically hops off the horse and is like, what are you doing? What are you doing? She's like, obviously I'm trying to save this young man. So they take the young man, they take him to a gardener's cottage, and of course, because this is a romance novel, the man, unbeknownst to her, he is actually Sebastian Cynster, who is known to literally everyone.

And I do mean literally everyone, including Honoria as Devil.

Unfortunately, the young man who is actually Tolly, his young cousin, doesn't make it. But they have to spend the night. And so they spend the night, they're discovered, and now they have to get married. Except the premise, the conflict of the novel is one, they have to figure out who [00:13:00] killed Tolly. Two, the fact that Honoria doesn't care that they were discovered. She really doesn't wanna get married. And devil's like, well, you kind of have to marry me. And Honoria is like, no, I don't. And that continues for a good two thirds of the novel.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah there's two conflicts in this book. I don't wanna get married, but you have to marry me. That's one.

Semilore Sobande: Yes.

Andrea Martucci: number two is who killed Tolly? And both are foregone conclusions two chapters in.

Semilore Sobande: Immediately,

Andrea Martucci: you are like, I know who killed Tolly and girl, you are gonna marry him

Semilore Sobande: you are going to get married.

Andrea Martucci: you've already made out next to a dead body.

Semilore Sobande: She doesn't know they've made out because she was sleepwalking, because she's afraid of storms.

Andrea Martucci: yeah, a likely story

Uhhuh,

Semilore Sobande: I like this storm. Oh God. No it's very interesting because even though Devil doesn't know who killed Tolly it is very much a foregone conclusion and

Andrea Martucci: they're [00:14:00] like, whoever it was had to ride in, but the only person who rode in was (Semilore: Charles) but it can't be him anyways. Like, Yeah. And it, it was Charles, our ugly cousin.

Semilore Sobande: our ugly cousin, whose mother was insane and who probably resents true fans know, I'm I wanna say the eighth book which is a prequel where you learn about Sebastian's father or rather Devil's father. No, sorry. Devil's first name is Sylvester.

Devil's father was Sebastian. Devil is Sylvester Sebastian. Devil's father is Sebastian. Very easy mistake, especially considering Devil's son is again Sebastian.

Andrea Martucci: Sebastian Sylvester,

they're just switching them back and forth

Semilore Sobande: Oh, literally I was sitting there, I was like, oh my gosh.

But she learned in that book that essentially Charles' mother was hoping Sebastian would never get married so that Charles could ascend to the Dukedom.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah, she married the second son thinking the first son would never get married.

then that [00:15:00] hussy came in and

Semilore Sobande: Hussy

had a

Andrea Martucci: son,

Semilore Sobande: important French hussy

Andrea Martucci: French hussy.

Semilore Sobande: came in, French hussy came in, married him, had a son off rip, which

Andrea Martucci: was like, unacceptable. And then it just it was so inconvenient for

Semilore Sobande: So, for Charles, for Charles' who didn't deserve Devil's existence

Andrea Martucci: And Charles wasn't even hot.

He wasn't even commanding. Like I think that if Charles was hot, like the rest of the Cynsters,

Semilore Sobande: Would not have been guilty,

Andrea Martucci: that well, A, he wouldn't have been guilty, but b, he wouldn't have had so much to prove because he would've been getting that hot free society pussy, sorry,

Semilore Sobande: No, because it's actually, no, you don't understand because it's actually within the book. Like literally with, like you said, within the first two chapters, you find out that, mind you, they have hella cousins. Okay.

Andrea Martucci: cousins upon cousins

Semilore Sobande: it's Devil. His [00:16:00] younger brother Richard. Then their four

Andrea Martucci: manly

Semilore Sobande: hot cousins, hot, manly cousins, and the six of them get to be the Bar Cynster and Charles doesn't.

Andrea Martucci: They're just like no he's not with us,

Semilore Sobande: they they said not Charles. Richard gets to be a member of the Bar Cynster. And he's illegitimate

Andrea Martucci: illegitimate and legitimately they're like, he just isn't like the rest of us

Semilore Sobande: he doesn't have a certain joie de vivre.

Andrea Martucci: panache!

Semilore Sobande: He is not literally, quite literally, large and in charge like the rest of us. Because the other thing about all of the what can only be politely termed as overgrown. Which is not like the way that they're described as like just large, and Devil as we might imagine is the largest. And then all of them are like subsequently slightly less large than Devil.

Andrea Martucci: Oh, because he's the Duke,

Semilore Sobande: Yeah.

Andrea Martucci: but they're all distinguished in their own way, right? Kinda like a boy [00:17:00] band.

Semilore Sobande: Because they all have nicknames

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. Also like a boy band. What is it? It's like Devil Lucifer. What else?

Semilore Sobande: actually remember them in order, which is how, you know I've read it too many times. It's

Devil Is devil is the oldest Devil isn't the oldest, but he is the oldest of the relevant ones. Sorry Charles. Devil's the oldest. Everyone calls him Devil.

Andrea Martucci: Charles

left out.

Semilore Sobande: Charles left out.

He does not have a nickname. Richard, who no one calls Scandal. Vain who everyone calls Vain and except for Patience, because Vain's real name is Spencer. Demon as opposed to Devil whose real name is Harry, my least favorite, sorry, demon. Then they're not twins, but they're just very

Andrea Martucci: Wait, hold on. Missed opportunity for Harry to be Beast.

Semilore Sobande: Absolutely missed opportunity. Absolutely missed opportunity. That's sick. Wait,

Andrea Martucci: name is harry.

Semilore Sobande: his name is [00:18:00] Harry.

He loves horses. This is also what's really quaint is this is true of billionaire. It's basically billionaire romance in historicals, which is that they all have their own little billionaire jobs.

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

Semilore Sobande: Devil's little billionaire job is being a Duke. Richard's billionaire job is genuinely, if I recall correctly, wait a minute. Richard's billionaire job is farming, which is hilarious,

Andrea Martucci: Superhero power.

Semilore Sobande: right? Super farming.

Andrea Martucci: He like just puts his hand down on the earth and

Semilore Sobande: No, that's his girlfriend. Richard's wife's power is literally, she has this whole thing called the Veil, which is how you know that it's implied in Devil's Bride, you see this fate thing, but the fate is actually, they're very serious about it.

When you get to Catriona's book, you're like, oh, you meant actual prophecy. Sorry, my bad.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. Well,

she's like, I know something's wrong. He's in danger.

Semilore Sobande: she has a Lady of the Veil. There's a deity involved and everything.[00:19:00]

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God. Stephanie Laurens.

Semilore Sobande: That's the thing, there's something so indulgent about it. Oh, Lucifer's specialty is antiques. Yes.

Andrea Martucci: very sophisticated,

Semilore Sobande: I know, it's like gems and antiques. So he's just selling them. And then that's also, by the way, how they eventually circuitously catch Charles is because they're looking at all their little expertise and it's like, who would want to kill Tolly?

Andrea Martucci: Right?

Semilore Sobande: never do that. They never do that. It's like this elaborate.

Andrea Martucci: they're like becoming a little mini detective agency

Semilore Sobande: Yes.

I'm sorry. It's just funny 'cause that's why Honoria keeps staying also is that Honoria is like Honoria Prudence, who really should get out of Dodge as soon as Devil is like, no, we're actually getting married feels compelled to stay because she wants justice for Tolly too.

Andrea Martucci: Justice for Tolly. She's like, well, I know that I am drawn to this man [00:20:00] who wants me to marry him, and he usually gets what he wants, but I also usually get what I want.

Semilore Sobande: that's literally the basis.

Andrea Martucci: and she's like, I can withstand him. I can outsmart him

Semilore Sobande: And this is what I think is charming, is that it really only works because Devil convinces her not even that they should get married, that she wants to marry him, but specifically Devil's like I am threatening enough that any children we have would probably be fine.

Andrea Martucci: like nothing - disease, accidents, nothing would dare

Semilore Sobande: nothing would dare harm

Andrea Martucci: our child. I am so all powerful

Semilore Sobande: nothing would dare cross me Devil Cynster. And the thing is, by the end of the book, I'm convinced of it,

Andrea Martucci: he makes a bulletproof vest out of a flask.

Semilore Sobande: outta a damn flask! I'm so glad you brought up the [00:21:00] flask, I

Andrea Martucci: He's Charles is an expert marksman. He is going to shoot me through the heart.

Semilore Sobande: right in the heart.

Andrea Martucci: And then he like puts the flask over his heart and he just like repositions it just so, and then he moves his buttons outta the way to make sure that the buttons don't deflect the shot into any other vital part. 'cause he needs it to hit the flask.

Exactly. He's very confident that this flask can take the impact of a bullet.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. That's why before this I was like, oh yeah, like Devil Cynster is like Bruce Wayne, like

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

Semilore Sobande: That's also what's funny is based even on the planning, in terms of foregone conclusions, based even on the way they approach it, devil thinks from the jump that it might be Charles and is just not willing to share that information with damn near anybody. Oh, I'll keep that to myself. This was the book actually that taught me what the word autocratic meant. Because [00:22:00] Honoria has to use it so many times in reference to Devil.

Andrea Martucci: All right, keep going. I'm gonna search my book to see how many times autocratic shows up in here.

Semilore Sobande: No, we can't search autocratic because what she actually uses is autocrat, which is even more terrifying. Like she just uses the noun

Andrea Martucci: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, only seven times.

Semilore Sobande: only seven times. For Stephanie Laurens, who loves a little repeat word I fear, that's actually quite restrained. The scene where they're in London and it's this interesting dynamic because Honoria, at any point in time, frankly, is smart enough to leave. He'll be setting this trap for her that's like transparent. And Honoria is like, I'm just not gonna look at that right now. He'll be like, you know what we should do? We should go to London. You should go to London with my mom and Honoria is like, sure, why not. Honoria? Or [00:23:00] oh my God, the carriage ride where

Andrea Martucci: She's trying to get info about Tolly's murder because that's her goal is she's trying to find out and he's like, yeah, let's go spend some time together

Semilore Sobande: Go on a carriage ride with me. What could be the worst thing that could happen?

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And then meanwhile, it's like basically by being in his presence.

Semilore Sobande: I'm being in his presence.

Andrea Martucci: It's like, oh, that's his fiance now.

And she's like halfway through the ride, when's the last time you went on a carriage ride with a woman?

Semilore Sobande: He's like, I've never. done that.

Andrea Martucci: she's like, oh fuck.

Semilore Sobande: Oh shit.

Andrea Martucci: But she plays it real cool.

Semilore Sobande: She plays it so cool the whole time that she's literally being hunted by basically 18 hundreds Batman, who has done like this psychological read of Honoria's propensity to help. So they have a funeral for Tolly right? In the beginning of the book, very immediately.

And at every step of that funeral. Yes, 70% of devil's mind is I need to [00:24:00] orient this so I can figure out who murdered Tolly. A good 30%, possibly more is dedicated to how can this funeral for my cousin be the platform upon which I essentially make it impossible for Honoria not to marry me and also show her what she's missing. He's like, no, there's no cake and Honoria's like, don't worry, I got it. But I'm like, Honoria!

Andrea Martucci: And she just like effortlessly steps in to like both managing the household as if she is the woman of the house, and it just displays her effortless ability and also her breeding and lineage. She

Semilore Sobande: yes,

Andrea Martucci: exactly how to handle a situation,

Semilore Sobande: because she's a finishing governance

Andrea Martucci: because she's a finishing governess, but also because she's an Anstruther-Weatherby

Semilore Sobande: as you can tell from her chin

Andrea Martucci: from her chin, which she holds up in the air.

I thought that the themes around like lineage and heritage and the fact that the outsides match the [00:25:00] insides and vice versa. Always in this book, this is not limited to Stephanie Laurens, right? But because she's an Anstruther-Weatherby she has certain physical characteristics that also match her temperament, her behaviors, her like steely core, right?

And because of her family lineage, not only does it make her a suitable marriage partner because she also has an aged respectable family history, but also it makes her the appropriate temperament for a partner for him. She's the only one who can match him and master him

Semilore Sobande: yes.

Andrea Martucci: and make him her slave as he is, vice versa.

But then also true Cynsters are invincible,

Semilore Sobande: yes.

Andrea Martucci: And also hot and also good, and also smart and sexy and effortlessly [00:26:00] amazing.

Semilore Sobande: And they have wives, and this is what for me, makes Stephanie Lauren so fascinating.

Is that, like you said, the outsides match the insides and the outside is a feudal Lord. So Stephanie's like, actually you need a wife for that. Yeah. No, you need a wife for that. And you need an estate, which isn't relevant in Devil's Bride, but in the other books part of what happens is that these sensors will like stumble onto estates. They have to take care of.

Um,

Andrea Martucci: ah, fuck. Now I'm a feudal Lord.

Semilore Sobande: now I'm a feudal Lord.

this happens.

This happens actually, this genuinely Lucifer's book, his mentor essentially leaves him this entire estate. I think this happens to Vain as well, where he is like, oh, darn it.

Now I'm responsible for these people.

Andrea Martucci: I am just so good at it

Semilore Sobande: I'm just so good at it. It's loudest in, I don't know if you've read it because it's the last book [00:27:00] in the related, like same universe, I guess it's England, but same kind of characters. The Spy Master series, she has, Mastered By Love, where you finally learn about the Duke of Wolverstone, Devil's best friend, who has never been mentioned, he's mentioned once, like way later in the Cynster books, but Devil actually makes an appearance in this book. An unmarried Devil.

Andrea Martucci: Oh,

Semilore Sobande: Yes, it's a whole spy series. Sorry if you're gonna read the eight books spy series, but Devil's friend, who has actually been the secret unnamed spy master has to go home. After his father, the Duke of Wolverstone dies. And the whole book is a genuinely a love letter to feudalism. He marries his chatelaine, like

Andrea Martucci: Wait, what's the channelling? The keeper of the keys,

Semilore Sobande: the keeper of the keys, genuinely a chatelaine who has kept messages from not one, but both of his [00:28:00] deceased parents, for him to let him know

Andrea Martucci: Is this a Stephanie Laurens hallmark? Because she loves a both masters giving instructions to a servant,

Semilore Sobande: yes.

Andrea Martucci: Because like that happens where it's actually played for comedy in this where Devil calls in like his three most trusted feudal subjects. His butler, the housekeeper used to be his nurse, but it's now the housekeeper. Sligo was reported to him in Waterloo and now is like a dev. Yeah he's Robin. Yeah. Or no? Oh gosh.

Semilore Sobande: He's Alfred, like basically Alfred? Alfred, Bat Girl, and Robin. He's listen guys, need to lock this down immediately.

Andrea Martucci: And then Honoria Prudence gathers the same group in the room. She goes, alright guys, we need to lock this down immediately. And they're like uh, and she's like, oh, he already talked to you, didn't he? And they're like, yeah. And

she's but you need to protect [00:29:00] him. And they're like, okay, got it.

Semilore Sobande: got it. Got it. Like, And the implication is like, why would we do that? like,

he'll kill us.

Andrea Martucci: okay. So I wanna come back to family names. The moment this became clear. So yes, the whole Anstruther-Weatherby thing, which is so important.

I wanna come back to the moment that Devil decides he's gonna marry her. I wanna come back to that. We'll put a quick pin in that.

But it is related to the fact that she is Anstruther-Weatherby, right? She's not just some rando. But part of Charles' entire master evil plan is that he goes, "my name may be Cynster, but I've never been one of them. I've always felt closer to my mother's family. They're all dead now. I'm the last of the Butterworths, an infinitely superior breed.

Not that any Cynsters would admit that. Soon they won't have a choice. Once I take over the reins, I plan to change the family [00:30:00] entirely, not just in the behavior associated with our name, but I'll change the name too. There's nothing to stop me. Oh, yes, it can be done, but that was how it was meant to be. The Butterworths were destined to become the main line."

The Butterworths

Semilore Sobande: The Butterworths. It actually, I'm always thrown off by the name Butterworth because I think Julia Quinn there's this entire fictional universe about Miss Butterworth.

It's like you guys, or so, no, Miss Butterworth or something like that, where it's like Miss Butterworth has all these adventures it's like a recurring theme in the same way something which was omitted from the Bridgerton's, which devastated...

Andrea Martucci: Smiths

Smith Smythe,

Semilore Sobande: the Smith Smythe musicale. I was like, they don't even have the Smith Smythe musicale! Which is the occasion for many relationship in the Bridgerton. But no, it is [00:31:00] fascinating because it's funny because it's actually a threat in a way that because of the way that Honoria is thinking about it, she doesn't clock the threat immediately because she's like, why would Charles be a problem?

And they're like, oh, he's next in line.

Andrea Martucci: Nobody tells her that for a long time.

Semilore Sobande: She's like, what do you mean, who's next in line after Devil? They're like, oh yeah it would be Arthur. And then she's like, okay. And then it would be

Charles. She's like, Charles. She's Charles, what about Richard?

And they're like, oh no, Richard is illegitimate. She's like, he's illegitimate.

Andrea Martucci: like, No, what nobody told me. Also, it is so incomprehensible that Charles could possibly be like third in line because he's

Semilore Sobande: annoying?

Andrea Martucci: Charles. He's not even a Cynster

Semilore Sobande: He's not even a real Cynster.

Butterworth not. he's not.

Because this is, and this is funny enough as I hopefully work on my conference paper that [00:32:00] I've been avoiding the motto of the Cynsters, the Cynster motto, in case you thought it wasn't feudal enough, is to have and to hold that is the motto, which is

Andrea Martucci: which is also, as we all know very associated with marriage,

Semilore Sobande: Marriage,

Andrea Martucci: to have pos session.

Semilore Sobande: right? Speaking of marriage, the reason why Charles isn't a true Cynster is predetermined from birth. Why? Because his mother tricks Arthur into marrying her and it wasn't a true love match and therefore is ineligible to be a true Cynster marriage.

Andrea Martucci: Yes, exactly. If you are the product of a shitty unloving Cynster marriage, Charles is illegitimate.

Semilore Sobande: Charles. Yeah, basically Charles is illegitimate. And so they're like no, that's not a true Cynster match. Because that's also what's interesting about something that's lacking from this book, which I did not [00:33:00] realize it wasn't there until someone points it out in book like 11 or 12, which is that this book doesn't have a love confession.

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God, yes.

Semilore Sobande: doesn't have a love confession.

Andrea Martucci: I finished reading this 15 minutes before we started recording. Thank you for the extra 15 minutes so I could get set up after finishing this book, he never says, I love you. She's like, mm, he's not gonna say it. I'll say it for him. I know what he means.

Semilore Sobande: And the craziest part is it took me genuinely until book 12 to remember that he doesn't say I love you

It might be Simon's book where Honoria turns to him and this is crazy. After years of marriage says, have you ever told me you love me?

And Devil's like, have I? I don't know. I do love you though. After like three kids!

I could imagine Stephanie Laurens and her editor finishing the book, [00:34:00] sending it off and then writing multiple books and then someone sends in a letter like, did Devil tell Honoria Prudence?

Did he ever?

tell her he was in love with her? And she probably looks, and she's like, no.

What's interesting is that, so the true Cynster match the idea of like Cynsters love the woman they're married to is like the fundamental Cynster presumption. Which is why it's so silly when some Cynsters struggle with it, but by indicating that Honoria is going to become his wife. The implication is that in Devil's mind, he's like, well, of course I'm in love with her. Why would I marry her?

Andrea Martucci: Okay. And also I was like highlighting the parts where he's like, I feel a strange sensation in my chest. What is this feeling like? He's so emotionally constipated.

Semilore Sobande: Just emotionally constipated.

Again, this is why Devil is basically Bruce Wayne, which is to say this person who nominally works [00:35:00] alone, but who for some reason has like 50,000 family members attached to him.

Andrea Martucci: legions.

Semilore Sobande: Legions, truly legions of random people that he knows, a random rival that he pretends to hate.

Um,

Andrea Martucci: my God, yes.

Is that the

Joker?

Semilore Sobande: No, that's Superman. Giles is

Superman. Giles is absolutely Superman.

Who is instrumental in Charles's plan to take down Devil. And it's so telling that Charles is like, okay, yeah, I killed Tolly because he was obviously onto me. But now that Tolly's dead, let me go for what I really was aiming for, which is Devil and Honoria basically, murder suicide of Devil and Honoria. Like his most direct hit at Devil actually [00:36:00] is setting up something so it looks like Honoria is cheating on Devil with Giles, which would feasibly make Devil angry enough to murder both Honoria and Giles and then himself.

Andrea Martucci: Charles doesn't understand,

He misunderstands.

Semilore Sobande: yes. He doesn't understand that they actually like each other, is the problem. That's, you're right, that's exactly it. He doesn't understand that Devil and Giles actually like each other a lot

Andrea Martucci: because he's not a Cynster,

Semilore Sobande: the implication being like he doesn't have the emotional capacity not to be threatened by another man.

Andrea Martucci: Yes. doesn't understand the like pissing contest that the two of

them are in.

Semilore Sobande: And which is funny because Honoria understands it.

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

Semilore Sobande: I'm trapped here with basically Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber while they have a little sword fight in front of me.

Um,

Andrea Martucci: a, big sword fight.

Semilore Sobande: a big sword fight. A big sword fight, [00:37:00] and. And it's also funny because it doesn't occur to Charles too, that Devil would never think that Honoria would do that as well.

Like it doesn't occur to Charles that Devil would be like, oh, this is Charles's fault.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. This book is so funny.

It's

Semilore Sobande: actually a really funny book.

Andrea Martucci: there's this part I was in the car and I like read this aloud to my husband and he didn't really get it 'cause you need the context, but like when Honoria is like eavesdropping to figure out that he hasn't actually let Tolly's murder go. He is investigating it. She's like, yeah, I'm onto you. And so she's eavesdropping and she's standing there with a plate as cover and he like catches her and turns around and grabs her arm and is like immobilizing her arms. And he and somebody was talking to

Semilore Sobande: Stop that. I was thinking of that exact moment where he basically like swings [00:38:00] her up in the air.

Andrea Martucci: Yes. And the mother's like put her down. But before that he "goes wave to their lady ships," her tormentor instructed. "With what?" She hissed back, "my plate?" Because she's got like a plate in her hand and he's holding her other hand. And I'm just imagining her like.

Semilore Sobande: very, it's one of those things where I'm sorry to people who are only children, but one of those things where you can tell people grow up with a lot of siblings or cousins where it's actually how you would treat like a sibling you were very familiar

Andrea Martucci: Yes,

Semilore Sobande: would used to be like, we, why are you hitting yourself? He's like, what? You can't move. Oh my God. But not in not even a sinister way, which is interesting 'cause it's difficult to explain the humor outside of the context, but the implication is essentially that Devil knows that Honoria is literally just not even willing to a, make a scene, but that Honoria at any time is [00:39:00] actually genuinely amused by the antic.

So in the way that, like someone who's really professional at annoying people knows that sort of thing, which is that Devil spends a lot of this book annoying Honoria. That's actually one of my favorite scenes is that he's just being annoying. And his mom was like, Devil cease.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

And he literally has her up in the air. I was trying to picture it and I was just like, what is happening?

Semilore Sobande: I was taller than my siblings for quite a while. But it's like this thing where feasibly, what Devil is doing is supposedly showing his support for Honoria by putting his arms around her. But in actual fact, his arms have clasped around her and then he's lifted her ever so slightly,

Andrea Martucci: Her feet are uh, just dangling on the

Semilore Sobande: floor and it's like swinging her back and forth in a way that looks like comfort, but is clearly just meant to irritate. [00:40:00] And Honoria is literally just too much of a stickler to be like, no, like, uh, I wouldn't do for others to know about this.

Andrea Martucci: Okay so let's go back to their, so they've met in weird circumstances. His cousin is dying. They're like in this cottage together and she doesn't know who he is and she's kind of are you gonna introduce yourself?

But she's too much of a lady to actually press him on it because she's like, he knows he should introduce himself. So he's choosing not to do this. So whatever. So she's introduced herself and he's like, Anstruther-Weatherby. Okay. Good family. I know your grandfather.

Semilore Sobande: No, that's what's interesting is I don't think she introduces herself as Anstruther-Weatherby, because as governess, she's working under Weatherby and he says, Weatherby. Not Anstruther Weatherby?

And this goes back to your point about the outside inside, where she's like, oh, I don't use the Anstruther name because her grandparents disowned her father for marrying someone they didn't approve of. [00:41:00] And so she doesn't like her grandparents, but he's like, there's something about you that reminds me of how stubborn your grandfather is. There's a section where he talks about, it's not even the chin itself, but exactly how you hold your chin.

That reminds me of this man.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: And she's like, yes. Anstruther-Weatherby. So for context, the first time Devil looks at Honoria, he's like, that's my wife. And

Andrea Martucci: Thatsa my wife.

Semilore Sobande: Right at their meet cute her employers were inconveniently there, are like, oh, what has Ms. Weatherbee told you? And he's like, what has Miss. Anstruther-Weatherby told me? And then they're like, oh. And then mum. And then they're

Andrea Martucci: yeah. oh,

Semilore Sobande: didn't,

they're like, I didn't realize it was like that.

Andrea Martucci: I didn't realize I have to respect her in a different way. Like oh, she's actually higher on the social ladder than we [00:42:00] are.

Whoa. Yeah. Okay. So basically we've been in Honoria's perspective. And by the way, when she first came upon the man shot, I was like, oh, is this gonna be our hero?

And then I was like, no, because in a Stephanie Laurens book, our hero would never find himself injured to this extent, because also then he would be in a position of

Semilore Sobande: yeah.

yeah not

Andrea Martucci: in a position of power.

Semilore Sobande: No, when I first read it, because Devil's Bride was the first Stephanie Laurens book I ever read, and when I came across a young man, I was like, oh, she's gonna nurse him back to health.

I get it. That's also something about Stephanie Laurens is Stephanie Laurens will kill somebody. Like

Andrea Martucci: Oh, she killed him.

Semilore Sobande: And so I was like, oh, she's gonna nurse him back to health and they're gonna have to explain. They're in the gameskeeper's cottage and then all of a sudden, Beelzebub

Andrea Martucci: Rochester, rides up on his devil stallion.

Semilore Sobande: and this Devil Stallion. Which Um. is named Bucephalus after Alexander the Great's horse.[00:43:00]

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And she's kind of like, okay, he's ordering me around, but under the circumstances I'll allow it.

Semilore Sobande: allow it.

Andrea Martucci: once it becomes clear that he, she's like, well, he is helping me and I do need help.

Semilore Sobande: I can't carry him by myself. He has military expertise and he knows this young man

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And then he like takes his shirt off to, to pack in the wound. He's gonna die anyways, and then she takes her petticoat off and he's like, you don't wear underwear, do you? And she's like, unfortunately not. And he's like, he he and, she's like,

Semilore Sobande: which is,

Andrea Martucci: uh, did he just,

Semilore Sobande: I can't emphasize is crazy because that's his cousin laying there dying.

Andrea Martucci: and she's kinda like, did he just a little bit? And she's like, nah, it was gone too fast.

Nah,

Semilore Sobande: No, no, no. I'm sure

Andrea Martucci: the wrong time for that.

Semilore Sobande: I imagined that one.

Andrea Martucci: No, she did not imagine it. Um, So anyways, his cousin is laying dying and he's standing there shirtless and glistening, and then the cousin dies and then okay, now we'll just [00:44:00] wait until the morning and she falls asleep.

And as you mentioned earlier she has a nightmare and he puts her in his lap and then he kisses her just to quiet her nightmares. And she's kinda like, ah, ah,

Semilore Sobande: Come on.

Andrea Martucci: and this is all sort of like in Honoria's perspective, does it flip a little bit beforehand?

Semilore Sobande: it flips before the kiss. So Honoria goes sleep. And then Devil who as a man is watching. Is obviously keeping vigil, but also

Andrea Martucci: Men don't need sleep. I don't know if you know this. They

don't.

Semilore Sobande: if you know this. Men don't need sleep. Devil in particular doesn't need sleep.

Uh, the devil never The devil sleeps with individuals. The devil does not sleep. It cuts to Devil's perspective and Devil's wording is literally like, wow, my future wife looks amazing. Why?

Andrea Martucci: Like, wow.

Semilore Sobande: first for three pages. What a woman truly, [00:45:00] he's like, wow, Anstruther and he's like Anstruther-Weatherby good lines, amazingly beautiful. Obviously not given to hysterics, stubborn. I can see it already and I'm really into that. And then he's like, of course. I knew it. This is why for the past six months I've been feeling weird.

Fate obviously placed me directly in the path of Honoria Anstruther-Weatherby so that we could fall in love. I could get married and I could settle down after a tough Napoleonic War.

So from the jump Devil is oh, obviously we're getting married and this is important that it happens here because it's actually before they get caught, basically.

Andrea Martucci: yeah. He's like, yep, I will allow this to happen.

Semilore Sobande: Obviously this is like the machinations of the universe have put the perfect woman in my sights and we're going to get married. And this is an attitude that the [00:46:00] more Cynster of the Cynsters have, but that is not uncommon to a Stephanie Laurens protagonist. I think Royce, when he decides to marry Minerva says, how long could it take me to convince her a week?

Andrea Martucci: It took Devil like three or four months.

Semilore Sobande: But that's the thing, it takes Devil like a long time because they're riding back and he's like, oh, we're gonna get married. And Honoria is like, oh no I'm, I'm going to Egypt. And Devil is genuinely taken aback. What in the, are you talking about going to Egypt?

Andrea Martucci: He is like, uh, but why when you have a man like me?

Semilore Sobande: No, genuinely. He's no, you're not gonna Egypt. And he objects to Egypt on two grounds. First of all, we need to get married. Second of all, you can't go to Egypt by yourself. And she's like, why not? He's like, you'll get kidnapped by Pirates, Barbary Coast Pirates, which [00:47:00] make appearance in historical romances often, but who are of course described in ways that are eerily similar to Devil Cynster himself. The amount of times she'll look at him and she'll be like, wow, there's something piratical about him.

Dah dah. Luckily in this book, the Orientalism doesn't get as loud in the future subsequent Cynster books. The volume increases. So she is like, no, no, no, it'll be fine.

It's this very frankly, for lack of a better comparison, Taming of the Shrew, where the whole point is convince Honoria to marry Devil.

Andrea Martucci: There's no external conflict, like

Semilore Sobande: There's no external conflict. Devil has no opposition to marriage at all. Devil from the beginning is ready, they have a chapel. Devil's like, I'll get a special license. Let's get married right now. And the way he talks to Honoria is as if they're already married, because Devil has some of the craziest lines things I've ever read into a romance [00:48:00] novel.

Andrea Martucci: She goes to a dress maker and he sends a message to the dress maker, basically, I think first of all to be like, spend a lot of time there because I am doing my spying. But then also send the bill to me and she finds out and she's like, rip shit. She's like, how dare you.

So unacceptable. I'm not your mistress. And he's like, no, but it's not unacceptable for me to buy it for my wife. I'm not your wife. And he's like, but you will be. Or he says something like, something time will solve this problem or something like that.

Semilore Sobande: Solve this problem. No, from the beginning, like there's no doubt in Devil's mind that Honoria is getting married to him. And so these back and forths are just like a funny little game they're playing in Devil's mind, but it's also very important to Devil that they get married married, which is why in two thirds, like towards the mid, past the midpoint of the novel, when Honoria is like, oh, actually, you know what? I do want to sleep with the Devil Devil's like, keep your [00:49:00] hands off me Jezebel. Not until we agreed to get married,

Andrea Martucci: And she's like, I'm ready. And he's like "shhhhh", nope, you're under the influence of my sensual spell. You can tell me when I'm not touching you because I don't want any coercion.

Semilore Sobande: He's like, you must be of sound mind to sign the dotted line. I don't want, no, I got seduced by Devil. He's like, this isn't happening again until you say you're gonna marry

me.

Andrea Martucci: he's withholding orgasms he's, like, okay, I've given you a taste, but like, I will, I'll work her into her lather. Then

Semilore Sobande: but then

Andrea Martucci: if you, you gotta marry me.

Semilore Sobande: It's so very kind of reversal of this frankly misogynistic why would they buy the cow if they have the milk?

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. He's like, you want this milk?

Semilore Sobande: you're buying the cow.

Andrea Martucci: And she's like, oh, please, I'm so horny.

Semilore Sobande: And he's like, that's too bad.

Andrea Martucci: Control yourself Honoria [00:50:00] Prudence

Semilore Sobande: control yourself. He's like, that is too bad. And then like in the middle he's like, oh my God, no, I want her to like me for me. And the gag is Honoria mentally would never marry Devil if she didn't like him for him, because he's insufferable. And that's also something that's interesting in the subsequent books where people will meet Devil and they'll be like, thank God. like, glad you took care of that. That's not for me personally.

Andrea Martucci: I love characters like that who are like, so much that everybody else is like, oh, oh like, oh. she's also like that,

like um,

Semilore Sobande: that, everyone else who meets her is oh my God, I'm

Andrea Martucci: like.

Semilore Sobande: terrified for my life.

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God, the, I cringed at this, but so the night they get married they've been doing the hanky panky for a month.

But all six of the cousins are out taking a walk and they look up in the window and [00:51:00] it's completely illuminated, and they see them like, yeah, they like share a drink and then she like drops her robe and they're like, they're all like, like they're all standing there at their sister-in-law, cousin-in-law, nude

Semilore Sobande: they're gagged.

Andrea Martucci: and making out with their head of household.

Semilore Sobande: By the way, they've all placed bets on them getting married. Which is telling, because Honoria says, that is so funny. You know where that money is going? A new church roof. And now all of you pissed me off. So all of you are getting married. And they're like, wait, we didn't say that? She's like, I did actually.

Andrea Martucci: and they're like, okay.

Semilore Sobande: We're like, okay.

Andrea Martucci: I don't wanna, but I would rather

Semilore Sobande: That's also the implication. It's that all of them are like, wow, Honoria is one fine woman. That's a hell of a woman.

Me personally though, I would be scared.

Andrea Martucci: Well, At one point she wears this like really sexy dress and Vain is kind of like, [00:52:00] well, if Devil did not claim you immediately, we would be jockeying to claim you. And honestly, it's like stuff like that where I'm I don't like that. Like I don't, I mean like, I kind of laughed, but I'm kind of like, oh

Semilore Sobande: it's the grossest part of the novel, but it's also sharp contrast to all of the women they marry who are like, actually me personally, I'm glad that's not my business. Like when it comes to Devil, they're like hot, Totally. Actually interpersonally dealing with Devil, that's not something I would want to do myself.

And it's because Devil is a terrible, not terrible, but he is crazy. Like they're on the ride home. Her new home on the ride home to the place from the cabin that they stayed in overnight, their feudal seat, which is referred to as the Place, the Place.

There's this conversation he and Honoria have, which at 18 gagged me so bad where she's like, I'm not gonna [00:53:00] marry you. You're saying I should marry you out of obligation, basically. He says, you can marry me out of obligation. I'll be marrying you because I wanna sleep with you. That's crazy.

I'll be marrying you to get you into my bed. Why do you ask? I was like, what?

Andrea Martucci: also so you can bear me children,

Semilore Sobande: which is actually the sticking point, which I don't think we've talked about, which is the sticking point for Honoria is that she does not wanna have children because she's afraid of losing them because she saw her parents and then her two younger siblings who she basically mothered die in this, to be clear, unavoidable, carriage accident,

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. It's not like she like was standing in the lane and they like swerved to avoid her or something. She's like up in a window watching them approach the house and there's a lightning flash or something that spooks the horses or whatever. The horses already seemed spooked, but yeah. And then like they all die and she watches [00:54:00] is horrified and she's like, well, never having kids

Semilore Sobande: never having kids because her first kids basically die.

Andrea Martucci: so I have to become a spinster and I have to go to Egypt

Semilore Sobande: For adventure. And leave england and live by myself forever. And Devil's like, oh, so the real conflict is actually Devil trying to figure out why Honoria doesn't wanna marry him.

I think it takes him a good chunk, like a third of the book for him to finally meet Honoria's brother Michael.

It's so devastating for me. It's so sad to see Honoria be like, you know what? I'm calling Michael. I'm calling my brother and her brother being like, dude, you do have to marry him.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. He's gonna come take me away. And he's like, I'll, if you really want me to, but I'm on his side

Semilore Sobande: I'm on his side with this one, which Devil does, by once again, supplanting Honoria and meeting Michael before he arrives,

Andrea Martucci: diabolical.

Semilore Sobande: like Devil is like at every single point. It's like [00:55:00] I'm marrying Honoria. How do I make that happen? And I don't care. I don't care what has to happen for that to happen.

Like not even just sending her to the seamstress, but sending her to his seamstress, who he knows

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. Yeah. and then being like, I'll pay the bills.

Semilore Sobande: I'll pay the bills.

Andrea Martucci: I would, I want the honor of paying for her under things. And yeah. So he realizes that she's afraid of having children, and this is why she doesn't wanna get married. And obviously the whole point of being a Duke is you have to carry on the Ducal line.

So she can't be like, okay, I'll marry you, but we're not gonna have kids. That's not really an option. She knows that. He knows that. Everybody knows that. And then that is when essentially he's like, okay, I have to just convince her that nothing can happen to me. And also that the safest place for her and her children is with me.

Semilore Sobande: And the sick part is he really eats it.

Andrea Martucci: It works.

Semilore Sobande: and [00:56:00] because the kind of interesting journey that Honoria has to go on is essentially that's not how life works, obviously, that you can't perfectly protect yourself, but also this is why it's a story about Honoria in a way that a lot of romances aren't, which is that most romances have this kind of development of the male lead. Devil develops a little bit, which is to say Devil's like, oh, I actually do have feelings for Honoria,

No literally, what is this feeling in my chest? And even though I've made what I think is a foolproof plan to trap her into marriage, I would actually not feel as great about it as I thought if I trap her into marriage and she doesn't genuinely have feelings for me,

Andrea Martucci: Right.

Semilore Sobande: make me feel really bad and nasty.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. He's like, no, I want her to choose this. I want her to have consent.

Semilore Sobande: I want her to choose it, which is crazy for someone who, and this is the line in Devil's Bride, which I objectively recognize is the worst, but I have to admit [00:57:00] to a fondness for which is in that there's a conversation where they're in the study or something, and I think it's the same conversation actually.

The phrasing of the conversation they have in the dressmakers where she basically says, I'm not like a sort of game to you da, da, da. da. I was like, I don't think of you as a game at all Honoria Prudence, and they go back and forth and she says, you're riding for a fall your Grace, and he says, I'll be riding you before Christmas.

Insane.

She

doesn't have

Andrea Martucci: my God.

Semilore Sobande: to that because what would you say to that?

Andrea Martucci: And she, she just takes it in stride. Honestly like that, I think Honoria Prudence is fun.

She's so sure of herself. I don't think she suffers one moment of self-doubt. She changes her mind over the course of the story and she evolves, but it's never like, oh, I'm so stupid.

[00:58:00] Before, she's just like, well, circumstances have changed

Semilore Sobande: it's like I've received new information.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And she's so levelheaded and I think that it just stands in stark contrast to so many other heroines in romance, but in historical romance who I feel like in order to make women more palatable.

Okay, she can be beautiful, but she like, can't know it or has to feel doubt about it, whatever. Has to have feelings about it. Like I just, I feel like there is a lot of work done in romance to make characters realistic, but in a way that is really just more palatable or they have the characters the heroines in particular react in ways that serve the story more than their characterization.

Semilore Sobande: yeah,

Andrea Martucci: Okay, she can't give into him now, so she has to be like, sad and misunderstand what's happening. I mean, it really is just refreshing [00:59:00] where, the book keeps them apart for a fairly long time.

And then I'll be honest, the sex scenes in the middle, I was like, I don't, I love sex scenes, but I'm like, oh my god, Stephanie

Semilore Sobande: No, they're so embarrassing. I was describing to someone, I was like, the way to experience a Stephanie Laurens novel, ideally is that you read every third word. The sex scenes you read every fifth, like genuinely, you get the sex scene, you're like, I can't believe this. I'm humiliated,

Andrea Martucci: I think the dialogue, read every word of the dialogue.

Every third word of narration, every fifth of the sex scenes.

Yeah,

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. Yeah. You guys like, there's a way to read it and because the sex scenes are just like, I can't believe this is the way that two characters that I actually genuinely want to read having sex are having sex.

Andrea Martucci: Hold on. "Intent on impaling herself on her fate, she seemed to have no concept of how much [01:00:00] he could hurt her, of how much his strength overshadowed her, of how much harder than her he was."

Semilore Sobande: You see what you just read to me. I don't recognize it. It doesn't even seem familiar and I've opened this book easily 10 times.

Andrea Martucci: intent on impaling herself on her fate.

Semilore Sobande: it's just better if you scroll.

Andrea Martucci: Just to be clear, she is poised over him about to be penetrated and also underlying that is he's like, uh, I I need to keep her from just like jumping on it because I'm enormous. And I will rip her a sunder with my giant Cynster cock. I'm getting crude, but that's the subtext.

Not

Semilore Sobande: the subtext. That's literally what he says.

Andrea Martucci: But

Semilore Sobande: [01:01:00] Sorry.

With Purple Prose.

Stephanie Laurens, to me invented Purple Prose. Okay. I should also say like Stephanie Laurens will say stuff, and I'm like, dude, this is so specific. Once I had a concussion and I was in the ER waiting to get checked for the concussion. Fun fact, if you get a headache after getting into a crash, they're just like, yeah, it's a concussion. And I wish I had known that before I spent two and a half hours in the ER and because I couldn't look at screens, I was like, what is my audiobook?

And the audiobook I had was Mastered by Love and Stephanie Laurens. Listening to someone read every single word to you is torture. The fact that stephanie Laurens's people or maybe herself choose to make the audiobook narrator a man, which is so unusual for romance.

Andrea Martucci: okay, so I started reading this book in ebook and then, I guess I didn't realize this, it came with the audiobook. And so I was sewing yesterday and I [01:02:00] was like, oh, I can keep reading while I'm sewing. And I turned it on and he's like, I am very dramatic. I was reading the sex scene wherever it is, where they're like, and he's like, like, (Andrea makes dramatic, indistinguishable vocalizations) I was like, no, this is wrong.

This is not the right narrator

Semilore Sobande: But in, in a way for the sex scenes it is the right narrator because that's what I would

(in a very dramatic, deep voice) get to.

Andrea Martucci: on impaling herself, on her fate, she seemed to have no concept of how he hurt her..."

Semilore Sobande: you see how it starts to it starts to connect?

Andrea Martucci: Like that's my impression of the narrator.

Semilore Sobande: team. It's a pretty fair impression. You're in it for the buildup. Honoria is like,

Andrea Martucci: the shit.

Semilore Sobande: No. Yeah,

Yeah.

Literally it's just, it's more prominent in like romantasy now, where I'm like trying to describe what I can't stand about romantasy or like even dark romance. And I'm like, I don't actually like it when I'm reading a couple and only one [01:03:00] person could kill the other person. You know what I mean? Where it's like some man who could like in five minutes really get rid of this female protagonist.

I'm sorry. Sarah J Mass is an excellent example an example of a turnabout if she's listening to this. Sorry. No, she's not. If you are,

Andrea Martucci: let's send it to her.

Semilore Sobande: I'd explain why Feyre is like that when Celaena literally kills people for fun. But just this idea that Honoria is actually genuinely a match for Devil.

Intellectually, socially not physically, but it's romance. So there are limits but it's like phenotypically a match for Devil. The point is that if she really wanted to. And I think this is also why it's like relaxing to read in a way. If Honoria really didn't want marry Devil, at no point in the novel do you actually think she has to.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah he physically overpowers her in [01:04:00] ways, but yes, because we are, in Honoria's perspective, we know very much how she is responding, like she never feels threatened,

Semilore Sobande: Yeah.

Andrea Martucci: And I think that is important, that leads to the enjoyment of this book. like if I think about the experience of reading this book as opposed to other historical romances that I have enjoyed, I did notice during the sex scenes where I was like, there is nothing about these sex scenes that I feel is furthering the plot.

Semilore Sobande: Not at all.

Andrea Martucci: And honestly, in a way that made the sex scenes less enjoyable. Where I was like, I guess technically this is hot, I'm not here for this.

Semilore Sobande: it's actually so irrelevant.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. I'm here for the verbal sparring. I'm here for them interacting, but in the bedroom, they're boring as fuck.

Semilore Sobande: Truly, the amount of times I have done what I call a Sound of Music to this, which is that as a confession, to be fair, when you're like four years old, you don't know what Nazis are. But the amount of time, because as a child where a Sound of Music, they got married and I'll be like, okay, [01:05:00] that's enough. Turn off the tv.

Andrea Martucci: yeah, We don't need the rest.

Semilore Sobande: We don't need the rest. What? What's the plot?

Andrea Martucci: How do we solve a problem like Maria?

Solved.

Semilore Sobande: I guess we know. So the amount of times I've actually opened this book and just stopped reading, which is a shame 'cause the ending part is fun. Stopped reading after literally they tie the knot like literally like right after that I'm like, that is fine. After that silly little scene where they cut the cake with Devil. The best way to describe with Devil's literal calvary sword,

Andrea Martucci: oh my God.

Semilore Sobande: how does that even work?

Andrea Martucci: The description of the sword was phallic.

He puts her hands around it. Hold on. First of all, it's presented to him "with exaggerated ceremony Vain accepted the package, a sword in its scabbard, reversing it, and presenting it to Devil. 'Your weapon, your [01:06:00] grace.' The ballroom erupted with laughter," so also everybody else knows it's a dick joke.

Semilore Sobande: That's the thing about this whole thing is everybody is in on this elaborate joke,

Andrea Martucci: Okay, "so he wielded aloft, a piratical buccaneer in the heart of the elegant ton. Then his eyes met Honoria's. 'Wrap your hands around the hilt.' Bemused, honoria did so, gripping the thick ridged rod of the hilt with both hands. Devil wrapped his hands around hers. Honoria suddenly felt faint. A deep, soft chuckle sounded in her right ear, 'just like last night.'"

Semilore Sobande: Literally like you guys, like that's the thing is Devil is literally talked about it for what? 300 pages? Just the most menacing. And I don't mean menacing as in scary, truly like Dennis, the Menace level.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. Just,

Semilore Sobande: Level like irritation.

Andrea Martucci: he's [01:07:00] like,

Semilore Sobande: and that's why no one else wants to deal with it!

Andrea Martucci: But I think the fun of it is, yeah, he's obsessed with her, right?

And

Semilore Sobande: But not in a like wear your skin kind of way,

Andrea Martucci: yeah. But like in a I'm fascinated by you and everything you do is interesting and I just, I love getting a rise out of you and you like it too, and Ooh. And I think that being the center of the universe that is the part of the fantasy that's like fun and interesting.

I definitely read more of the Cynster books back in the day. I can't remember any of them. This book, at least, it doesn't rely on like melodrama for the interest.

I was thinking about other books where sex scenes in particular, like they're a place where people reveal confessions or they might say something like angsty hurtful or like it's a place where these things come out that make the sex scenes more interesting,

Semilore Sobande: yeah,

Andrea Martucci: but also can be a bit like melodramatic,

Semilore Sobande: yeah.

Andrea Martucci: Like I, I'm just, I'm thinking of Kleypas, [01:08:00] clearly.

Semilore Sobande: Obviously, absolutely. Or like the absence of it where the whole point of Devil in Winter is well, the whole point is you can't not have sex for three months. And he is like, I bet I can. Mind you. Does he get shot? Yes. He doesn't manage not to have the sex for the three months.

Andrea Martucci: and look there's room for all kinds of romance, but I do think that, that's interesting about this book is that like it's all about the characterization between them and it's not that anything in particular interesting happens, I suppose the initial setup is interesting, but then, they're mostly hanging around the house and going between London and the Place

Semilore Sobande: That's why it reminds me so much of a Jane Eyre, Jane Austen book and author, Charlotte Bronte writes this critique of Jane Austen's books where she says "they're just going to people's houses." That's all this is.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: they're going from the Place, then they go to the house, then they go to someone else's house, then they go back to the Place,

Andrea Martucci: And then they throw a party and then [01:09:00] they kill Charles, and then they burn his body in a cottage. And while this is happening, she's like, maybe we could save the furniture. And they're like, okay, Honoria. And they pull the furniture out to save it for the

Semilore Sobande: That's where, that, that furniture comment is so indicative of the fact that Honoria and Devil work, because they're both out of their minds.

Andrea Martucci: yes. Yes. And then all of the Cynsters are walking around without their shirts on. She's like, yeah, they're hot. The only one that really bursts my bubble is that hunk I'm married And then she's like sitting in the chair and every time she gets up from the chair they told her to sit in they're like, scowling at her. And she's like, okay, I'll sit down while you burn Charles's body and hide the evidence of killing him.

Semilore Sobande: and the key is it's the kind of plot that you think would come out later. Like book five. It's actually Charles was da, da da. And it's important because Charles and Tolly have [01:10:00] siblings, they have three siblings, Amanda, Amelia, and Simon who all have books. And in none of their books does it either come up or do any of them find out how Charles died and you're like, so it's literally just never talked about again. Like Tolly is almost never mentioned again,

Andrea Martucci: Like they're never, like I had a brother once ...he was killed,

Semilore Sobande: Simon mentions it, but it's like in the context of Simon's, like at a young age, I became head of household and it was really weird. And of course, like any kind of multi familial, feudal dynasty it's in relation to him falling in love with his cousin's sister.

Andrea Martucci: This si isn't his cousin's sister, also his cousin?

Semilore Sobande: Oh fuck no, sorry. His cousin's wife's sister.

Andrea Martucci: cousin's

Semilore Sobande: His cousin's wife's sister, His [01:11:00] cousin's wife's his cousin-in-law basically.

Andrea Martucci: Fair,

Semilore Sobande: with. And then it's set 10 years in the future or something. 'cause Simon obviously has to grow up

Andrea Martucci: boy child,

Semilore Sobande: a boy child,

A boy

child. Um,

Andrea Martucci: boy in short pants,

Semilore Sobande: no, he is a boy in short pants, like walking of course. And the thing about Devil's Bride that's interesting is that there are moments which are actually genuinely evocative. Like the moment where Amanda and Amelia and Simon as well as, I wanna say, two of the younger cousins all walk to say goodbye to Tolly by themselves. And Honoria proves that she's a very good matriarch by basically saying, Devil, you can't interrupt them.

But the book is funny because it's not about the sex at all, but it's one of those things where she's like, I guess you guys want it. So here.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And then it's like almost like too much, like it is too much, it's like, Stephanie, maybe you could have spaced these out a little bit.

it's like at one [01:12:00] point she's ah, alright. Yeah, give the people what want. Sex, sex, sex, and she's like, all right, I'm gonna bring the plot back now.

Semilore Sobande: With other books, I think you can tell she cares a little bit more. But with this, she's like, I have a story to tell. I got my PhD in microbiology or biochemistry. I just want to tell the kind of romance I would want to read. And it's so transparently very much not actually about sex. Like you said, it doesn't fit into the plot very well.

Andrea Martucci: They do have a lot of chemistry, but yeah, I think that this novel, their relationship definitely avoids that trap of like, yeah, I've got pants feelings for her. I guess I'll marry her, but it won't be emotional at all. Like it's none of that. He definitely is emotionally constipated, but he's like, and she'll be my wife and I'll protect her and I will do everything that a Cynster... like he's all in, right?

Semilore Sobande: from the beginning.

It's the exact opposite of Lord of Scoundrels.

Andrea Martucci: Although Honoria Prudence reminds me a lot of [01:13:00] Jessica,

Semilore Sobande: Honoria Prudence and Jessica are very similar. Except frankly, Jessica gets the worst deal in that but Dane and Jessica are like, Dane's like, oh, I find Jessica really attractive and I hate that. And Jessica is also like, I find Dane very attractive and I hate that.

And I'm also going to make sure that Dane is never capable of guessing this for as long as possible.

Andrea Martucci: Mm-hmm. And he's like, oh no. Is it my big nose? Is that why she doesn't like me?

Semilore Sobande: Then it will cut to Jessica and she's literally saying the most down, bad, nasty stuff about this man

Andrea Martucci: she's like, oh yeah, I wanna ride that big old nose. Like,

Semilore Sobande: Genuinely, I'm like, Jessica, get up. oh my god.

Andrea Martucci: oh my

Semilore Sobande: But Honoria just has this capability, I think to match, like Devil brings out the crazy but also the best in Honoria, [01:14:00] which think is really interesting because part of what he says to Honoria to convince her is basically like you could go to Egypt or you could rule London society with an iron fist.

Doesn't that sound fun to you?

Andrea Martucci: And she's kinda like, mm, yes, it does

hold a certain appeal

Semilore Sobande: She's like, it does it does hold a certain appeal to literally run London Society. And he is like a waste of your talent if you go to Egypt. And what he means is management, but also just a kind of high level manipulation that Honoria is capable of it any moment. it's fascinating. It's fascinating. I find them as a couple so compelling much more compelling than other Cynster couples. Save for, I'll give a shout out to, I think it's Dominic and Angelica where Angelica.

Andrea Martucci: Oh my God. Okay. The names

Marker

Andrea Martucci: okay guys. So I have to [01:15:00] admit that Semilore and I were having a little too much fun, and we did go on some tangents. There's maybe about 10 minutes where Semilore is recounting me with basically all of the details of the rest of the Cynster books. And then we talked about Lord of Scoundrels a bit more, and it is lots of fun.

However, this episode was getting really, really long. So I had to make some tough choices to kill our darlings and, uh. This is kind of an abrupt cut to later when we get back to talking about Devil's Bride.

Marker

Semilore Sobande: wait. Okay. I don't know if you've read this, it would've been a long time ago, but God, and this is me confessing exactly how many in the books I've read books 16, 17, and 18

are,

Andrea Martucci: I have no memory. Okay. Yeah,

Semilore Sobande: yeah, it's okay. I'll tell this to my mother and she's like, why would I remember these Laure? There's so many of them, but there's this entire three book arc where. The, I can't remember who their older brothers are, but one of the sin, like a trio of sin, sisters keep getting kidnapped by the same man. And so they get kidnapped. The first time she gets rescued,

they get kidnapped. The second time she gets rescued. And the thing about them getting kidnapped is the kidnapper.

Whenever the rescuers come, the kidnapper is like, that's not my business. I'm gonna let y'all have it. Except in the second book, he supposedly dies. So they're like, oh, thank God we finally got rid of this kidnapper. Who keeps at it? So there's a sacred necklace given by

Richard's wife that is supposed to unite them with their, the love of their lives. So they're at like the engagement ball for the second couple or something like that. And so they take, she takes off the necklace, gives it to Angelica and says, Angelica, take this necklace. It brought me so much luck, da. And Angelica takes the necklace and almost immediately sees this man on the edge of the ballroom. And she's who is that? He is so attractive. I'm so attractive to him. I'm going to proactively go and talk to this man that I feel a draw towards. And so they talk and she's actually, we should go into the garden, because in Angelica's mind, she's I've decided. I'm gonna lock it in. Of course it is not dead at all.

Our kidnapper. So he's like having conversation with her. He's I'm so sorry. I'm gonna have to kill napper. He chloro her, takes her into the carriage, but when he's in the carriage, Dominic, the of Grand Gray has this crisis of confidence. He's I can't continue to do this. And so she wakes up, they're in the carriage together and he's look, here's what happened.

I'm so sorry for kidnapping you and your sisters. It turns out that my mother, my moth, my father was in love with your mother and it didn't work out. So he had to marry my mother and basically talked all the time about how much he still was in love with your mother. So my mother went crazy. And so what she wants me to do is she wants me to ruin one of you, which normally would not work, except here's where we get futile. But he's Scottish, by the way. This is what gives it a little

but my mother has in her possession this incredibly valuable cup, which she has hidden, but which we need to give to the bankers as insurance so that I can afford to feed my entire clan.

Andrea Martucci: Uhhuh. we will starve if she does not give us back this cup. So what's happening is that I'm trying to make it seem like I'm ruining you in order to get the cut from her so all of the children, et cetera, et cetera, can't survive. But I feel really bad and I recognize that this isn't, I can't do this, like I can't keep doing this to people. Angelica hears all this and she's in the firm, and so she proposes this elaborate plan in which they fake a rumination to convince her, his mother, while to her family. She just says that she's off with a friend. And then internally Angelica, which is what makes her terrible, and everyone in the family, including double fines are terrifying. Says, I knew it. This necklace works like crazy.

This is

Semilore Sobande: I will be, she said, This is a good necklace. I will be keeping this man in between now. And when we find that cow, we will be married. And so it goes on this elaborative venture to Scotland and Dominic is just sitting there I have to save my people. And Angelica's we are going to lock this so tight that you're never going to escape. And meanwhile her family is honestly, they're like, did she go with her friend? And we're like, friend. And then they're like, she got kidnapped. And they're like, she got kidnapped. Oh, poor him. That's gonna be a lot. So she, there's multiple times where

they referenced that she's moved to Scotland and they're like devil's thank goodness. 'cause that was honestly a lot for me. That was honestly a lot for me to deal with. So I'm incredibly fond of them. But it's interesting that it's that like you don't, like you see it in historical romance, but when they make women meet their Waterloo, so to speak. I'm thinking of the ab song

here, of course. There's a way that it's oh actually, like I have to be really soft and I have to be I have to take this man who's literally not scum of the earth, but who's genuinely

Andrea Martucci: Applauded.

Semilore Sobande: generally having some sort of wildly complicated trauma response to reference Lord of

scoundrels,

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

Semilore Sobande: to reference

Lord of scoundrels again, where he is what, where he's having a psychosomatic

response to

Andrea Martucci: and daddy never loaned me.

Semilore Sobande: genuine. My mommy and daddy never love me and this is where race comes in again. And I'm not white enough which is

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

Semilore Sobande: I'm not white enough, I'm too Italian and I'm having a crisis about it. And also I have a illegitimate son that I never told anyone about. Which is why when people are like, does Dane deserve to get shot in the arm?

It's frankly, I think that it had to zero out somehow.

It had to zero out.

Andrea Martucci: never the answer,

Semilore Sobande: That is never the answer, except when Jessica does shoot Dane in the arm. I read it for a book club. And the satisfaction, I felt giving that to people knowing that there was no way in which they could

anticipate that Jessica would shoot Dane directly in the arm and make it because she meant to,

Andrea Martucci: She's an excellent

Marx woman.

Semilore Sobande: She's an excellent Marks woman like Charles, so should have one little club. But this idea

well, dead Charles is dead risk.

Ashes it's Charles, I'm sorry, Charles dying is the funniest. It's not funny. Haha. But it's really funny in how unimportant it is

Even the people who were there.

Andrea Martucci: They're

Semilore Sobande: like,

Andrea Martucci: now that's taken care of,

Semilore Sobande: literally book two is Vains book.

Vain is not thinking at all about, Charles never thinks about Charles. None of these people think about Charles after that or about that entire conflict. They're just like yeah,

double nor almost,

Andrea Martucci: Charles is like, I feel bad for you not being a buttersworth. And everyone else is I don't think

of you at all.

Semilore Sobande: I don't think of it all. Like almost to the point where the way they talk about devil and Noia in future books is as if devil in Noia have always been married. Again, this fatalistic thing, like they were always going to be married. Like they have never

not been married in the world as it is. Honoria like right, Honoria is like wa checking in on every single new sensed your wife.

Like how are you, what are you

Andrea Martucci: are you, can you cut

it?

Semilore Sobande: Can you cut it? Not even and also I'm sorry, they're all like this. Even the women, which is Mark too, because Angelica's the one who gets her man. Amanda and Amelia both decide Charles's sisters, who also don't think that much about Charles.

Andrea Martucci: He was only their

Semilore Sobande: oh, he is only their half brother. So it's like not the same. Amanda and Emilio one day decided the ball. They're like, we're not finding the material we want in the time, so we're gonna go outside the tongue to look. We're just gonna do a little bit of investigation. And Amanda in particular?

Amanda is it? No, it's Amelia and Martin. Amelia and Martin. The way Martin genuinely tries to get out a marriage with Amelia and Amelia's I don't know where you think you're going. Get Amelia. Amelia will be like, actually, I just wanna explore Naton. Like I wanna explore the stuff that's not for a good girl. And Martin's yeah. And she's you're gonna be my guide. And Martin's like, why would I be your guide? And she's I'm gonna do it anyway. So are you gonna be there or no?

Andrea Martucci: What do you think she's like? I was finished by Honoria Prudence Anstruther-Weatherby.

Semilore Sobande: right.

Andrea Martucci: Like I learned from the best sir.

Semilore Sobande: cousins are like watching her and they're like, we don't feel good about this at all. But no, it's just I don't, I,

Marker

Semilore Sobande: think that's why Devil's Bride is so special for me. Like it's Honoria, I love Devil to be clear. I love Devil. But Honoria is it's like the lack of self doubt.

I think really that's particular where she's not preoccupied with oh my goodness am I good enough to get married? Which is fair. It's not a bad question. And she's not preoccupied with, there's something terrifying about men. She thinks a lot about his personality, which I don't think is something you see as much in romance novels, where it's not even like, [01:16:00] objection to marriage general. She's literally like, do I wanna live with that?

Andrea Martucci: This

Semilore Sobande: this,

She's like, oh my God, if I signed up for that, I'll be living with someone who told me what to do for the rest of my life.

Andrea Martucci: yeah. It's very interesting that like the whole, she's like, I wanna go to Egypt. And he's like, no. No, you're not doing that.

And I was thinking about that where I think that in this book he's right that she didn't wanna go to Egypt. This is like a weird little fantasy she had to escape her true destiny. And she truly would have been wasted on that if she wouldn't have been happy, blah, blah, blah.

I feel like in the hands of a less deft writer or like a writer without a sense of these characters in the sense that Stephanie Laurens has, there is like a version of this story where the softening of Devil is, I'll take you to egypt.

Semilore Sobande: Yes.

Andrea Martucci: can go [01:17:00] to Egypt. it's not actually her dream.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. There's a way that both Honoria and devil are really, devil is very emotionally constipated, but hopefully only three bruce Wayne mentions we'll get into the cut, but there's a way that Devil has a really strong understanding of the way people think.

So to Devil, he's like, why would you want to go to Egypt, not because Egypt isn't an interesting option, but because again, like it's a surprising deftness from Stephanie Laurens because the way Honoria articulates Egypt is always in terms of independence, which is to say I want to be able to do these amazing things, and there's nothing actually about Egypt in particular that Honoria is interested in. And so Devil picks up on that and he asked her very early on, he's like, what about Egypt is interesting to you?

Oh, Honoria doesn't need to go to Egypt at all. Which again, is the feudal logic where Honoria needs to stay at [01:18:00] home and mind her own business.

Andrea Martucci: She doesn't need to go conquer a new land.

Semilore Sobande: right.

right.

She needs to

Andrea Martucci: stay and rule the land she already is the mistress of.

Semilore Sobande: And she has

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: which is the same thing with Devil. Devil's like, well, I was abroad, like I did my summer abroad. It was war. It was a Napolianic war. And Devil's actually, what I think you should look forward to is getting to have a home, is going home and being happy at home in a way that is so not actually like that Honoria should be in the domestic sphere, but that Honoria should be able to build a kind of place for herself and her family.

And again, like I think you said the deftness of the book is that the answer- And I remember being a little surprised when I was 18 and I read it for the first time

because along the lines of a normal historical romance, you would think the solution is, oh, Devil is going to take Honoria to Egypt and it's not, they never go to Egypt.

Andrea Martucci: [01:19:00] Yeah. Or like, I would never hold you back from your dreams. And it's annoying that the good characterization in this book is him being like, you don't really want that. That he actually knows, and he's right.

Semilore Sobande: sick.

Andrea Martucci: You

Semilore Sobande: very sick. The relief of it. Yeah.

Andrea Martucci: you, didn't want kids. You want kids.

Semilore Sobande: You You want kids,

You want

Andrea Martucci: my kids

Semilore Sobande: You want my children specifically. And it's relieving because I think that she does a good job of padding what would otherwise be really unpeeling. So like a characterization importance is that Honoroa doesn't have to be a finishing governess.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: Honoria doesn't have to do that. She has plenty of money. Honoria wants to be a finishing governance because she's nosy.

Andrea Martucci: Yes.

She likes winning.

Semilore Sobande: And like winning. And being in society, which is also what her brother tells her. And that's also the funny thing is that her brother [01:20:00] comes back from a conversation with Devil and it's like, so a couple things.

One devil is absolutely right that this would ruin you socially. Two, I actually think you guys are a great match. And I think Devil understands your personality quite well. Yeah, no, I think he actually has you on quite a, frankly, really good lock as to what your personality is

like.

Andrea Martucci: this could be good for you actually.

Semilore Sobande: I think this could be good for you,

Andrea Martucci: And,

Semilore Sobande: is always a devastating thing to receive from a sibling being like.

Andrea Martucci: She's not mad at him either. She's like a little annoyed, but she's like, you are right. Like I'll play along with

this for a

Semilore Sobande: She's like,

you know what? You know what? We'll see where it is. She's I'm still going to Egypt. We'll see what, and that's why I think I find her very relatable, which is to say like, she's like, and I'm still gonna go to Egypt. What now

It's very much like a negotiation where it's not even the, Honoria has to be convinced in the way that I think you see in a lot of historical romance, it's almost like a business negotiation where Devil's like, you know what? Okay, I'll [01:21:00] add 25% to your salary. What about that? Have you considered this? And Honoria is determined not to take it almost like a haggle, like not to take it until it's really good for her.

Andrea Martucci: Okay. And so then to come back to him paying for the dressmaker's bill, so that causes a fight, right? Where like, how dare you?

Semilore Sobande: their first genuine fight actually.

Andrea Martucci: yeah. And they actually have it out. And then is it somewhere between then and the resolution of this, they like make out and it's very sexy.

And then he comes and he apologizes and he's like, I'm sorry. And she goes, for what? And he's like, for not telling you about the dressmaker's bill. And she's like, that's right, because you better not fucking apologize for kissing me. Also, he's like, and I'm not apologizing for paying it.

Semilore Sobande: actually paying

Andrea Martucci: Yes. And that is a great example of that negotiation, right?

Where she's kind of like, I need to know that you're sorry for the right thing.

Semilore Sobande: [01:22:00] Paying.

Andrea Martucci: yeah, they both still are themselves, but then there's that middle ground of he's like, but I promised to always tell you in the future, and I'm gonna stop trying to protect you from Tolly's murder.

Yes. I think that is the point at which she's like, okay, I can work with this.

Semilore Sobande: no, literally that's the point at which she's like, okay, and it's interesting because you see that, I'm sorry, trope used a lot in romance and there's a way that it's often cut off at either oh, I'm sorry. And she makes the assumption that it's about the kiss or that the male hero usually genuinely apologizes for the kiss. And I always found that like genuinely fascinating The devil's like, oh, I'm actually sorry for tricking you. Like I am sorry for tricking you into me paying for the dressmaker's bill. And she's like, you better not be sorry for kissing me.

He's like, why would I be sorry for that?

And he's like, also, I am not letting you pay for that.

So what now? like a back and forth that also involves a [01:23:00] transparency that I think is important to Honoria.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. Like she's fine with the games,

Semilore Sobande: she likes the games,

Andrea Martucci: she likes the games. She's not fine with him paternalistically withholding things from her. Like she can be fake mad at him paying the bill,

Semilore Sobande: yeah.

Andrea Martucci: mad at him going behind her back,

Semilore Sobande: back,

Yes. She's mad mad.

That's what makes her angry. But the thing that's always really striking to me is both of them have a really good sense by the end of the novel of their respective limitations. At no point in time is Honoria like, I'm going to take a gun, something, which is not uncommon in romance, historical or not, at no point in time is Honoria like, I'm gonna take a gun and find Tolly's killer.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: She's like, I will do what is my business to do, and then I'll report back. And what they have disagreements is on the level of danger that involves, and whether or not Honoria, but Honoria [01:24:00] very much is like, I have the right to investigate this child who died in front of me. And basically whether or not you wanna marry me, you can't take that away from me.

And it's so charming because that is of course, in the end, what does appeal to Devil about her is the sense that in the same way I'll protect my children, honoria will always be someone who is invested in protecting children. Even if she doesn't have any. which I think is also part of the argument

Andrea Martucci: and our dynasty and the family, the Cynster family, like she's loyal to us. She's not even officially one of us, yet. She's already acting like one of us, and therefore she is

Semilore Sobande: yeah.

Andrea Martucci: capable and worthy of being a Cynster.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah, again, in romances I love, which this is a romance I love why the kind of emotional registers occur both interpersonal between the couple and with the family. The moment where Honoria really decides to marry him is that moment where she's sitting at the party and someone comes up to her and asks, [01:25:00] are you dancing? And she says, I'm not dancing tonight. She says, I'm not dancing tonight because in refusing to dance because he can't dance and because none of the family can dance because they're in mourning for Tolly, but she's not obligated to be. And so in refusing to dance, she has essentially publicly put her foot down to say, this is the family I'm aligned with.

Instead of an actual declaration or anything like that. And that's the moment also where Devil begins to hope wait, wait, wait. Maybe she's actually gonna marry me for real.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah,

Semilore Sobande: he is sitting there

Andrea Martucci: he

Semilore Sobande: I don't want her to dance, but I actually can't stop it. And he also doesn't really expect her to do it.

Andrea Martucci: Yes, he's shocked when she puts her hand out, but it's like part of her refusal, but it's not immediately clear that she's going to refuse. Yeah. He's kind of like, oh no. I have to solve this somehow. And then he's like, oh, but she just solved it for

Semilore Sobande: before me, [01:26:00]

Andrea Martucci: Thus, she is the perfect partner.

Semilore Sobande: It's all about familial loyalty. It's very, I described it to Katie and they were like, oh, so it's like a mafia book. I was like, it's not, it is like a mafia book

Andrea Martucci: It's like a mafia book. They're, they are a mafia family.

Semilore Sobande: Absolutely.

Andrea Martucci: The Cynsters. And they rule the london.

The

Semilore Sobande: London ton, basically by fire, by force.

Andrea Martucci: So did was, we've been talking for a while about this. I guess there is an audience here that this has to be packaged for. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?

Anything that you were like, if I don't put this on the record in a conversation about Devil's Bride, I have not done this justice.

Semilore Sobande: Oh my goodness. For me, Devil's Bride is so fascinating because I don't wanna say it's underestimated in terms of a titan of the genre.

But it has this such a beautiful amalgamation of say, like an [01:27:00] Austen influence, a very Bronte gothic influence, while also having an allegiance to like the bodice ripper to sheikh romance, that's very racialized, of course, but also centering around this heroine that's genuinely, I think, frankly, more compelling than most historical romance heroines, most romance heroines even currently out, not to be rude

Andrea Martucci: def.

Semilore Sobande: Not, that are in that same kind of thing where it's like, oh, people's lives are actually on the line. Maybe not more compelling than like, it's like a sports romance and nobody's actually gonna die.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah.

Semilore Sobande: It's such an interesting juxtaposition of all these different things, even though the prose is super purple. And I dunno, I think it's important that Devil and Honoria are likable separately and together. Because frankly I find that very rare. I'm so sorry to Devil In Winter fans, Evie [01:28:00] is lovely.

Andrea Martucci: She's real boring.

Semilore Sobande: There's a kind of boringness I think to a lot of historical.

Andrea Martucci: She so hesitant Yeah. and St. Vincent is a piece of shit.

Semilore Sobande: St. Vincent is terrible. Like St. Vincent's, like I said, is fun in memory, which is to say in the next generation books, oh, that's actually a really fun character. But what she does very defly, Stephanie Laurens, is like, what if two really headstrong, like two genuinely headstrong protagonists. I think is incredible. I love them, they're my favorite.

Andrea Martucci: I love that fantasy where like a headstrong lady who wants to manage everything and knows what she wants, doesn't have to be humbled.

Semilore Sobande: Yeah.

Andrea Martucci: She doesn't have to be humbled. She's appreciated for who she is and what she is like it's not a downside. It is in fact what makes her attractive

Semilore Sobande: Yes,

Andrea Martucci: part. That's the fantasy right

Semilore Sobande: yes. It's a very [01:29:00] particular

fantasy, and I feel like for not to be down to, I feel like it's disappearing a lot or like disappears in kind of historical fantastic, like romantasy that a truly truly headstrong, not just stubborn, but in the sense that oh, Honoria if they went in a cage match and it was like actually not just physical, you genuinely don't know who's coming out the victor.

That quality is so appealing to me. And for it to happen in romance novel especially in 19, 97, I think it's lovely, and so it's always gonna be a favorite of mine.

Andrea Martucci: I'm glad you, I don't wanna say made me read it, but I'm glad you gave me a reason to

Semilore Sobande: Yeah. I'm glad because,

I didn't realize you hadn't read it. And I'm not gonna say it would be terrible to read the other Cynster novels without reading this one, but this one is the Cynster novel, in my opinion.

Andrea Martucci: Well, I think it's weird because I definitely read a bunch of Stephanie Laurens back in the [01:30:00] day when I was, in the library just like clearing the shelves of every mass market paperback. I definitely read them, but I was like, how come I can't remember these books?

I know I read lots of great books and I think it's at the time I was a naive reader of romance where I would read things and I was still figuring out what I liked and whatever. And I think it's just so interesting, like how you can come to a book, like I might have read this book 20 years ago.

Like it is very likely that I did and hold on, wait, how old am I more, it would've been more than 20 years ago, right? Let's say when I was like in high school it's very likely that I read this book and I don't remember it. And I'm like, why would I not remember it? It's 'cause I would've been at a place in my life when it wouldn't have maybe stood out to me at the time in the way that it stands out to me now as an expert reader of romance where a I can recognize what it's doing differently. I can appreciate what it's doing not just in [01:31:00] contrast, but I can just appreciate what it's doing. And maybe be more attentive to how it makes me feel and the pleasure of it. And also the parts that didn't work for me. 'Cause I think also especially I as a young romance reader, I probably would be more fascinated by the sex scenes even if they weren't very interesting.

Just out of like what is this? She's impaling herself on her fate.

Semilore Sobande: I know. I would've been I was like, oh my goodness. yeah, now it's no, this,

Andrea Martucci: Now I'm like, hmm. That's weird, but, okay, Ms. Laurens. But yeah, I love I don't wanna say discovering, but having people be like, okay yeah, yeah, whatever you're doing, just just turn your attention over here and look at this because this is amazing.

And I'm kind of like, I don't know, we'll see. And then I read it, I'm like, holy shit.

Semilore Sobande: I feel so validated. I'm so happy. No, because it's so helpful to also talk with somebody about it, because I'm like, no, I'm obsessed. It's the same thing where it's like I [01:32:00] read it and then it took me literally until I think maybe a year and a half, two years ago to be like, oh no, I'm attached to this specific book because initially I thought it was just because it's super long. I love a really long series. So I'd be like, I would open it and I'd be like, time to read the whole thing over again. But there is something about being able to speak to, especially like a wider genre, right?

Because like I read this early and I'm like, oh, so what's special about it? And I'm like, oh wait, in most historical romances, it's not even just that he doesn't fall first, it's that most historical romances are built around the male main characters' fundamental opposition to a marriage, especially a love marriage. And that just doesn't happen here at all.

Which was, I think for me, a sharp change from fantasy that was usually female led, which is like most of the heroines are [01:33:00] not quite as distinct as compared to like very distinct male leads, which obviously has to do with a very annoying, frankly underlying presumption of romance, which is that I, as romance reader must necessarily want to identify with the female main character.

So she has to be broad enough that she has to be identifiable with.

I'm like, I'm here to watch a cage fight actually. And like I can find Devil attractive. I can find Honoria attractive, but I'm here to watch them generally go at it. So I'm very satisfied.

I feel vindicated, obviously.

Andrea Martucci: Oh, I'm

glad you're validated, vindicated, all of the Vs.

Semilore, thank you for being here today.

Semilore Sobande: Thank you for letting me yak for a long time about this.

Andrea Martucci: yeah. Oh, and look all the way across the pond, across the wide Sargasso Sea. Sorry.

Semilore Sobande: wait, did you know I was writing a chapter [01:34:00] on Wide Sargasso Sea or is that just like

Andrea Martucci: I didn't, but it doesn't surprise me. You did bring up Jane Eyre. I'm not surprised also the post-colonial. Oh wait, maybe. Okay. Maybe I did know this because remember when I told you about Dreaming of You,

Semilore Sobande: Yes.

Andrea Martucci: was a wide Sargasso Sea-esque exploration of Joyce. Maybe this is why I knew

Semilore Sobande: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, yes, Yes. I

Andrea Martucci: Uh, Okay. If people want to catch up with you, IRL on the Internets, where can they find you?

Semilore Sobande: you can find me on my Brown page which will surely have my email.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah, english.brown.edu/people/semilore-sobande

Semilore Sobande: so you can go to that link. And if you send me an email, I will likely give you an easier, more checkable way to [01:35:00] contact me. I've just been off social media for the past few months, which has been for mental health reasons, but also for, you need to write your dissertation reasons. But if you wanna catch me, you can catch me there.

Andrea Martucci: thanks so much for being here.

Semilore Sobande: Thank you for having me! having me

Andrea Martucci: For, you know, quote unquote making me read this book. It was torture.

Semilore Sobande: It was torture.

There are sections of this book, which are torture. I just wanna say that. I wanna hold space for the fact that most of the sex scenes are in fact torture to read. Especially if you read them audio and have to hear the word primitive three or four times. But if you cultivate an air of whimsy,

Andrea Martucci: That is a hundred percent how you have to read this book.

I love it.

Semilore Sobande: You have to cultivate an air of whimsy. I also, I thought , this is a shout out to your blog, which I think is lovely. I was [01:36:00] also very glad you wrote on camp because I think this book flawless in many senses, genuinely flawless camp.

Andrea Martucci: They cut their wedding cake with his dick. This is a hundred percent camp

Semilore Sobande: hey, it was the sword he used to defeat Napoleon,

Andrea Martucci: the

Semilore Sobande: his cavalry with the French

and

Andrea Martucci: his feudal land.

Semilore Sobande: to protect his feudal lands, even though his mother is half French, which is no, his mother is French, so Devil is half French.

Andrea Martucci: there's definitely something about that where he protected the motherland and then he takes the sword he used to protect the motherland, which is also his penis, to cut his wedding cake so that he can then sow the seeds of the next generation.

Semilore Sobande: Which happens, as they are sure to inform you, that night

Andrea Martucci: They made a baby.

Semilore Sobande: because they made a baby. And we know because of the timing of the baby, which again, all of the cousins bet [01:37:00] on, which was the limit for Honoria who is like, you know what would be a great christening gift? The roof of a chapel. Don't piss me off again.

Andrea Martucci: Yeah. And they're like, okay,

Semilore Sobande: They're like, okay.

Andrea Martucci: it again

Semilore Sobande: That's how for 40 books by the way. Like every single person who comes into contact with Honoria is like, oh, so that's the person who actually runs things. My bad.

That's the actual boss.

Andrea Martucci: Hey, thanks for spending time with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate or review on your favorite podcast app or tell a friend. Check out Shelflovepodcast.com for transcripts and other resources. If you want regular written updates from Shelf Love, you can increasingly find me over at Substack.

Read occasional updates and short essays about romance at shelflovepodcast.Substack.com. Thank you to Shelf Love's $20 a month Patreon supporters: Gail, Copper Dog Books, and [01:38:00] Frederick Smith. Have a great day.

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Alice Murphy, Alyssa Cole, Amanda Allen, Amanda Cinelli, Amanda Diehl, Andrea Martucci, Andrew Piper, Angela Toscano, Arielle Zibrak, Ash Dylan, Becky, Bree, Bree Hill, Candice Ransom, Carter Sherman, Charish Reid, Christina Fattore, Copper Dog Books, Dani Lacey, Danielle Knafo, Denise Williams, Diana Filar, Dr. Margo Hendricks, EE Ottoman, Emma, Emma Barry, Eric Selinger, Erin Leafe, Esme Brett, Fangirl Jeanne, Felicia Grossman, Funmi B., Hannah Hearts Romance, Helena Greer, Hsu Ming Teo, Huike Wen, Jack Harbon, Jayashree Kamble, Jennifer Crusie, Jess, Jessica Lyn Van Slooten, Jhen, Jodi McAlister, Jodie Slaughter, Joe Martucci, John Jacobson, Julie Moody-Freeman, Karelia Stetz-Waters, Kassi, Kate Clayborn, Katee Robert, Katherine Grant, Katrina Jackson, Kelly Reynolds, Kennedy Ryan, Kianna Alexander, Kini Allen, Kit Rocha, Laura J. Mayo, Leigh Kramer, Lucy Hargrave, Lucy Score, Lynell, Margarita Guillory, Margo Hendricks, Maria DeBlassie, Megan Erickson, Mia Sosa, Nicola Welsh Burke, Nicole Falls, Norma Perez-Hernandez, Penny Reid, Philippa Borland, Rebecca Romney, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Reformed Rakes, Renee Dahlia, Rosie Danan, Ruby Lang, Sandra Kitt, Sarah Rutherford, Sarah Skilton, Scarlett Peckham, Semilore Sobande, Sionna Fox, Sri Savita, Steve Ammidown, Suzanne Jefferies, Talia Hibbert, Tamara Lush, Tasha L. Harrison, The Swoonies, Tif Marcelo, Tina Benigno, Whoa!mance, Whoamance, fangirl jeanne

Feudal Fantasy: Devil's Bride

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