Ilona Andrews

Oh, and I really enjoyed, I'm going to do two more.

One of them is by Ilona Andrews.

It's called Sanctuary and it's sort of a Christmas novella with a priest of the dark gods.

It's really

Me.

By Ilana Andrews.

And so we are going to be reading this one.

I think it'll be a very fun one for November because we're all actively reading it right now and having a really good time.

Yeah, I feel like that's, you know, top tier witches.

I was thinking of the Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series, which is like... a wonderful sort of set in the future where magic has swept back in and the witches there are argumentative spend all their time arguing with the druids very powerful and who are mainly their husbands it's this sort of like family drama and they live in a giant turtle it's got sort of Terry Pratchett-esque

yeah I was going to say my second choice would be the Discworld oh yeah there you go Yeah, but I really love the Tiffany Aching series.

That is like one of my favourite series of all time for witches and children and just fantasy in general.

I also think if you're open to something slightly different, if you're into monster romance or if you're monster romance curious, there is a lot of cozy monster romance out there, which is like a very strange... phrase but it's like low stakes right fantasy world building the plot is really just like a romance with a lot of sex right so that could scratch the itch in a different way especially if you're like into gargoyles or krakens or merpeople or you know literally anything you could imagine and I think that would be a good thing to look for recommendations for on reddit like I think that reddit is a good place to find very specific recommendations so maybe if you think about what is cozy to you and then go on reddit and sort of Query that.

But since we're talking about fantasy, I also have to recommend This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Alona Andrews, which is a portal fantasy and not a cozy fantasy, but it's the most interesting fantasy novel I've read this year and does create a world I wanted to spend time inside of, even if it's quite violent.

Hold on.

What's the

Fox.

In book form, though, like Patricia Briggs and Kelly Armstrong and Ilona Andrews all have really fun books about were animals that aren't Laurel K. Hamilton smutty level, which is there's nothing wrong with that.

It's just it's a lot.

All right, so there's one more story that we want to leave you with.

The Mercy Thompson series.

I bet people out there have lots of other suggestions for us to read.

The Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series is more about a werecat or a werelion, but there's all kinds of wereanimals that I also enjoy the way that they're written.

So, yeah.

It's interesting to hear you talk about kind of the character development versus plot aspect, and it makes me wonder a little bit if my love of plot and your love of characters [laughs] is part of the reason why, like, this does not bother me, because I kinda feel like a good story is a good story.

But I think your, your point also about how the world building, balancing that with the romance can be difficult, I will just shout out two authors who I think do it really well, and one is Ilona Andrews, the other is Nalini Singh.

Mm.

I feel like both of them write the kinds of books that require a ton of world building, and they approach it differently.

[laughs]

... we are in love, and that's what's most important.

But also, here are some more details about the world that we are building." Whereas Ilona Andrews does something that I think is maybe a little different from the Assistant to the Villain series, which is she uses the same, at least in her Hidden Legacy series, she uses the same couple over three books.

Mm-hmm.

need pack sweats.

Like for anyone who's read any of like the Ilona Andrews stuff or some of the other, like some other authors is like, they need sweats.

They need to have like wet pants, like all over the place.

Piles of clothes, like always take clothes with you, no matter where you're going or what you're doing.

So fun.

And I would say the Kate Daniel series by, um, Ilona Andrews, the, they're two, the two, like, love interests are not vampires, but there's vampires in the world.

Yep.

And that is also a great series.

There's plenty...

This is basically like Ilona Andrews' Portal Fantasy book-

Mm-hmm

... basically.

And, like, I know there's other portal fantasies out there, but I've only ever read This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews.

Fantastic book, if you guys have not picked it up.

Um, but the reality-shattering stone, uh, okay, you just got transported into these.