Brimstone Review: What a Hot Mess!

February 2026 Book Recommendations: Fae & Alchemy series: Part 2 Brimstone 

Host R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) and Book Club Bestie guest reviewer Asiah Muhammad return to review “Brimstone” the follow-up to “Quicksilver” by Callie Hart. And boy do they have notes! Did the sequel win them over, though? Listen in. Agree or disagree? Share in comments or send a text.

Revisit their brutally honest review of "Quicksilver". 

Special thanks to the Bookish Goblin for source material for the recap section. 

IRL Book Event not to miss:

• February 28, 2026 - Book signing with CM Lepore, author of "Lucid" and Book Bestie guest on Onyx Storm episode - 2nd & Charles, Hagerstown, Md.  

Follow us on IG: @mustluvromantasy

Transcript

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Rosemary Jean-Louis (00:00)
Welcome to Must Love Romantasy your podcast for recs and reviews of books and other content where love, magic, mayhem, and hot takes collide. I'm your host, Rosemary Jean-Louis, but call me R.J. I'm a lifelong sci-fi and fantasy lover turned Romantasy superfan. I love the genre so much, I started two real life book clubs.

Join in to get recommendations and reviews of the Romantasy books worth obsessing over, or not. I also include shows and other content, plus the occasional author chat. So grab your swords, or your coffee, and let's fall in love one epic story at a time.

Rosemary Jean-Louis (00:52)
Hi Book Besties! This is part two of the Fae and Alchemy series review. Last episode we tackled "Quicksilver" and "Kingfisher's Point of View", the novella. Now we're reviewing its sequel, "Brimstone". All of this by Callie Hart.

Now if you haven't finished the book yet, that's okay. You can pause and come back or just listen along if you don't mind knowing what happens. It's totally up to you. We'll do our best to flag spoilers. Last time, Book Club Bestie Asiah Muhammad and I had strong opinions about "Quicksilver". "It definitely went into our It Shall Never Be Read and Thought of Again" pile.

Did our views change with "Brimstone" though? Keep listening to find out.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (01:57)
We are back to review "Brimstone by Callie Hart and joining me again is my wonderful Book Club Bestie, Asiah Muhammad. Welcome back.

Of course she's a member of one of my book clubs, so that's why she's a Book Club Bestie. Glad that you are here for round two. Tell us how did you

read "Brimstone" this time around? Did you do an ebook? Did you do a hardback? I think last time you said, audiobooks are not your jam. So which one, ebook or hardback?

Asiah Muhammad (02:32)
I did a hardcover again and I got like a special edition one so my pages were golden. Very beautiful.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (02:39)
she got that really sprayed a orange very nice Got him. ⁓ nice. Okay

Asiah Muhammad (02:39)
Yeah. And we got our little baby wolf on the front.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (02:47)
Okay, Sometimes the hardback really makes things pop and I did both the audiobook and the Target edition because I jumped on the the Target train I didn't want to be left out this time like "Onyx Storm" I failed didn't get the Target edition last year. So this time I'm like I'm getting the Target edition for "Brimstone"

Asiah Muhammad (02:47)
Mm-hmm.

Peace.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (03:11)
You know, I think the hype was was more hype this time around where it had very nice sprayed edges map and then it had a point of view from Carrion. Did yours have Carrion's point of view in it? Okay Yeah, so this one had Carrion's point of view so you said you saw a chapter of his life. In this situation

Asiah Muhammad (03:26)
Oh no, I'm gonna have to look that up.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (03:38)
it wasn't that Carrion was regurgitating parts of the plot. You just saw a chapter of his life, of his love stories with somebody else, not with Saeris. And so that was kind of interesting. It's interesting to have that. Yeah. before we get into our full review, here's a quick and dirty recap of the story. So we are all up to speed.

Asiah Muhammad (03:43)
Mm-hmm.

That's very interesting.

Rosemary Jean-Louis (04:06)
Here's what happened in "Brimstone" by Callie Hart. Saeris is now half vampire, half fae and queen of the vampire court, but the vampires don't accept her. To prove her authority, she feeds on her own mate, Kingfisher, in front of everyone. Problem solved, sort of.

In her new state, she can't go home to Zilvaren to get her brother Hayden, so she sends Kingfisher and everyone's favorite smuggler, Carrion Swift, on a road trip to fetch him.

They find Hayden and bring him back, but Saeris and her little brother's reunion isn't joyful, as Hayden is an ungrateful brother. Making matters worse, a zombie vampire plague called The Rot starts making a mess of the realm.

The chaos culminates with Saeris and Kingfisher going to a hell dimension to get brimstone to fight the ends with two cliffhanger revelations. Kingfisher, suddenly unleashing god mode shadow powers while in the hell dimension,

then basically announcing he's the son of the Shadow god Styx ruler of said dimension. And he wants a dragon. The end.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (05:32)
Alright, so now that we are all up to speed, we will remember what happened. Let's start with the vibe Check. What was your immediate reaction after finishing "Brimstone"? And also, what did you think that this time it had the two character points of views?

Asiah Muhammad (05:33)
Okay.

Again, I don't care for the two points of views. I feel like she should have chose third person if she wanted to do multiple point of views, because there was one point when I was reading, because like I said, I'm not an audiobook person. When I was reading the physical copy, there was one part where she switches point of views.

in the middle of the chapter. Like not chapter by chapter like she usually does. So then there was one in the middle of it and I did not catch that. So I was like reading like, wait, what are we talking about? Like who's saying that? And then I had to go back a page and I was like, ⁓ she switched perspectives. And that's why to me, I wouldn't have chose that because it did get confusing at that one moment. But chapter by chapter was better to manage. I also thought, just, "Brimstone" made me so mad.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (06:11)
⁓

Mmm.

Hahaha

Asiah Muhammad (06:37)
I got to the last couple of pages and I just, I finished it and then I closed the book and I was like, really? We're doing it again? We're just gonna keep word vomiting all the things that could have been said and sprinkled. One thing I will say about this book that is starting to just bother me with the romantasy genre is that, I know, I feel like back in the day, people used to understand the concept of yearning and soulmate.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (06:44)
Mm-mm-mm-mm.

Asiah Muhammad (07:04)
Like a soulmate principle has like its rules and it has like a way that it works. And then so in the "Brimstone", they're supposed to be soulmates, but like they don't know these big pivotal pieces of like, if you're soulmates, my soul is your soul. Everything about you becomes my information. Like there's no secrets with soulmates. Like if you're just saying they're lovers, then there can be secrets. I believe that. But if you're soulmates, there are no secrets between two people who share one singular soul.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (07:04)
Yes.

right.

Asiah Muhammad (07:34)
So the reveal at the end, I'm like, how could you have never revealed that to her? Like, how could she have never known that? How is that something you just draw? I don't know, I'm not, I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (07:47)
And I should throw out the spoiler alert here that everyone if you have not finished reading "Brimstone, it's okay. You can stop the pod right now. Go back, finish it up and come back and hear the rest of the conversation. But also if you don't mind and you just want to hear us continue to do our review and join in the discussion maybe in the comments or send me a text, that's fine.

It's a it's a free world. So we encourage you to do what you enjoy. But that's a good point with the spoiler about what happened at the end that there was a big reveal at the end of who King Fisher is. And I think it was also not only something where it was like a dang, you know, for Saeris saying, dang, you're well, what now? But

Asiah Muhammad (08:46)
Yeah!

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (08:46)
a dang for the reader that dang it turns out you're like a demigod maybe or you know the god of hell or something is your dad. Wasn't your dad some king who was murdered what you know so that does yeah it did not quite fit what we thought this was supposed to be and maybe because was just thinking

Asiah Muhammad (08:49)
This is me.

Think how does that fit?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (09:13)
the title will be "Brimstone", so I have to fit in hell somewhere. Because what do we think when we think of "Brimstone"? We think of hell. So yes, I will do that.

Unless you're thinking of X-Men and of course you're thinking of Nightcrawler and "Brimstone" and that's a whole nother thing. ⁓ maybe I'm not sure why that even fit there and that's correct. It just seemed like a very odd thing to reveal about his character. We also did learn about his real name and one of the things about

Asiah Muhammad (09:29)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (09:53)
characters or even elven characters is there's always this power over the name right if somebody learns your true name that they can have power over you so King Fisher was really not his real name King Fisher was kind of like a little nickname or kind of even even a derogatory name

Asiah Muhammad (10:00)
Mm-hmm.

Did she ever explain where she even got the name from? Like that was one of my curses as well. Like she said his name and I'm like, who gave you that name? Like it wasn't even in the book. Cause remember she hasn't cracked back open the book cause she wasn't supposed to until after the trade, which the trade is now happening at the end before it just like closed out. So I'm like, where did you get the name from?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (10:39)
Now I do think that's one of those situations where it was because it was a back and forth point of view. It's something that could have been missed. ⁓ As I recall, she did, this is Saeris. Saeris did learn his name through Edina, who's King Fisher's mom. She had this prophetic book that was kind of guiding them along to make decisions, if you will.

I remember that she did read it. Now, they didn't show you, again, it's another situation where it was not shown that she read that. It was more of a something that she kind of declared that this is his name. again, that's kind of where she got it from. Kind of when she declared it.

Asiah Muhammad (11:25)
Mmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (11:32)
Then she, she spoke the name out loud, then kind of as a side as she's telling you her thoughts, she's like, and I got the name from blah, blah, blah from the book that that Belikon will never get something to that effect. That's, that's how I recall that she was able to get it and his name, of course, let the spoiler alert of his, what his real name is.

Asiah Muhammad (11:55)
Ha ha!

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (11:58)
Khydan Graystar Finvarra. Say that 20 times, huh? Khydan Graystar Finvarra. I kind of like the Finvarra part. I think that's kind of unusual. But did that add anything? mean, did knowing his name really change how you view the character? Did it really, did it change him? Which was what I was looking for.

Asiah Muhammad (12:21)
No.

I like she was trying to force it on us. Like she just kept in Saeris's perspective saying like, this is his name and now he's free and this is for him and it's making him better. And I'm like, you're just saying that, but I have no interest in this name and I'm not going to call him that. He's just going to be King Fisher to me. I just, I don't see that name matching with him in any capacity.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (12:44)
I love that. I love that answers. You're like, that's nice, but he's Kingfisher to me. to be clear. He is. He is Kingfisher ⁓ to me. I did think it was somewhat cool to me that ⁓ she revealed the name.

Asiah Muhammad (12:48)
You

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (13:08)
in a situation where Belicon had him captured. I think he was in a tree with the dryad and he would have been stuck there forever ⁓ because of his... ⁓

his oath to Belikon and then she revealed it to him but then she also had like an additional fail safe with the magic that

as I'm remembering it a little bit more. We're not perfect reviewers, folks, by the way. We don't have every single detail written in front of us. it did come out of Edina's oracle, she had to, ⁓ Saeris had to find his name and it came out of a piece of paper that was like in a drawer in a realm.

Asiah Muhammad (13:52)
Yeah,

it was on the piece of paper on the bookshelf when she dreamed there when she had Dinah or whatever her name is, Dana knock her out. No, no, Dana, Dana knocked her out. Remember, she was like, punch me. And she went into that dream for the looking for Kingfisher and then found the piece of paper. Yeah, she found the paper on the bookshelf.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (13:57)
Correct. Adina. ⁓ yes. Danya. Correct. It was Danya knocked

her out. Okay, so I stand corrected again and we're not always perfect re viewers here. And I'm like, yeah, I came from the book, but.

You know what I'm talking about. It came from parchment. That's could have been part of a book. Let's just say it that way So anyway, we are kind of remembering how it all came about that it came through the dream world that that she had Kingfisher at this point of the book is later getting towards the end of the book where Kingfisher

Asiah Muhammad (14:26)
Kudos.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (14:40)
was missing; they all kind of were fleeing vampires who were overrunning the seat of where his family's land and house was and these vampires with the rot were were just overrunning it and it was too much so they basically evacuated and King Fisher's like "Yes I'm right behind you" and he was not and then it turns out he got captured and

So the way for her to figure out good grief. Where did he go? Where is he was? now using this dream power An additional power that she had to go into dreams and meet ⁓ King Fisher and that's another thing and let's talk a little bit about the fantasy aspects of it and the fantasy powers and sometimes with romantasy certainly the whole

Asiah Muhammad (15:19)
Ha ha.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (15:35)
of the genre is to elevate the romance along with the fantasy so that you have a better sense of ⁓ how these these two characters have gotten together and to elevate that the fact that love love is love is good. Okay, let's let's not be mean to love just because they're an elf doesn't mean they can't find love, you know? But sometimes then because of that and they're they're focused on love or rather in this case

Asiah Muhammad (15:36)
All

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (16:02)
spice and knocking boots and stuff. Then the fantasy part of it can sometimes be a little bit lacking in explaining what's going on and helping you understand the fantasy world building. Did you find the fantasy world building was also a bit too convoluted

Asiah Muhammad (16:07)
Ha ha ha. Okay.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (16:25)
so that sometimes it was hard to follow

Asiah Muhammad (16:28)
I don't think it was hard to follow. I just think she just had like so much going on. One thing too I've realized about romantasy writers as a person who writes myself is that people don't, I don't know if people kind of like sit and plan the books. Like you kind of have to like sit down and like from first book to whatever your last one is.

write out every single character, especially if one's intertwined at different stages, people who are dead or people who come back or people who are sending messages from the void, like it has to connect. And like all the worlds and all the convictions and all of the people have to have like a purpose and it has to connect with every book. And I feel like people don't do that. They just have like a really great idea and then they just write it from start to finish that first one and then they just put it out. Then they have their second one. it's like, you have to plan them all out.

so that you're not introducing a million things. She has so many different aspects of fantasy in this book. There's just so much going on. Because alchemists aren't something that people write about. So I was deeply excited when I first started this series that, wow, the last time I read about alchemists was if you know who Rachel Mead is, who did "Vampire Academy". It has a spinoff where there are some alchemists that help cover up the vampires and make sure the vampires never mesh with the human world.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (17:29)
Yes.

Asiah Muhammad (17:44)
So that's the only other time I've ever heard of like an alchemist in a book. So I was deeply excited, like, this is cool. This is something cool to explore. She's got like vampires and then faes. She's got slaves with humans and poverty and then different dimensions and dragons and there's hell. There's demons. I'm like, girl, you've got so many elements going on to where I'm like, I don't know which one they should be afraid of. Like they're afraid of everything. There's just everything going on at one time.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (17:44)
Okay.

Ha!

Woof, woof.

Right.

Right. let's talk about that vampire aspect for moment because that was one of the things I didn't see coming at the beginning of this book because we learned that, well. ⁓

Saeris at the end of "Quicksilver" beheaded Malcolm who was half vampire half fae and head of the vampire court by default. It's kind of like the Santa Claus if you push Santa Claus off a roof and he goes to the great beyond now you're Santa Claus. So same thing with her, know, she beheaded Malcolm and he's a

Asiah Muhammad (18:31)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (18:51)
He's gone now, so now she's the vampire queen and half fae, half vampire. The other part of what made that a little odd too was that she was injured and she was fading and Kingfisher's like, we have to save her, we have to save her and he had one of... ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (19:04)
Mm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (19:11)
His old friends who happened to be this is Talladius. This is a person who was Malcolm's second even though he did not want to be but he was forced to be and so he convinced Talladius to bite her and ⁓ turn her into a vampire

The whole point of Malcolm being the head of all of them was that he was the last full

half-fae, half-vampire person. then again you're kind of trying to work out the logic that because of a vampire with fae lineage bites her she becomes half-fae, half-vampire

Asiah Muhammad (19:35)
Yeah.

I think it's because they intervened, the gods, right? That she became this ultimate half-breed thing, because that's what they wanted her to be, that's what they needed her to be. I don't know if it's because if it was Tal, I think it's because they intervened. But still, I'm with you, like it didn't really make sense logically.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (19:58)
Okay.

Asiah Muhammad (20:06)
Hahaha

Mm-hmm. ⁓

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (20:09)
just seemed

⁓ a bit challenging. I think also ⁓ just the pacing of it seemed like a lot of different vignettes were almost like pieced together. the first, and you were trying to understand like what kind of book is this going to be? Because initially I'm thinking, this is a buddy book. Because at the beginning of the book, it's Carrion and Kingfisher.

Asiah Muhammad (20:23)
Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (20:36)
going back to the third to finally get the real Hayden and so they're on this this buddy trip and I thought well that's going to be the whole book and and maybe you know I'm not really into into that but it might be interesting it might be cool and they had some interesting battle scenes and stuff like that and interesting interactions and then okay then it wasn't now now back back to ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (20:40)
Yeah.

Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (21:04)
Back to Yvalia Let's go back there. And back to the vampire court. And people are mad. And now let's turn everybody back into a fae. Okay. And I mean, all these things.

Asiah Muhammad (21:07)
Ha

That scene,

all of that scene made me so mad, because it goes back to what I was saying about the commitment to the character development. Tal was giving like, I'm a brooding older man vampire who has gone through so much and I've sacrificed everything. And I think consistently for a while she kind of had him going real well. I was really convinced that he was who he was and it was developing properly. So it blew me when we got to that scene where he's like, nanananaboo boo, ha ha, I got you. And then was like,

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (21:30)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Asiah Muhammad (21:46)
You were all evil people and I knew you would never change. Ha ha. And I've gotten you all and I'm going to die too. And I was just like, what? Like this doesn't even match his personality. Like, and then like how Kingfisher kept saying like, well, you could have ended up killing her if this wouldn't have worked out in the way you wanted it to. So it was just like a weird risk where nobody was communicated with. I just thought it was really weird and out of the blue. Like I just think that it was cool that she wanted to turn them back.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (21:53)
Mm-hmm.

Asiah Muhammad (22:15)
I thought originally like I would have just killed them all. Like as soon as I had became a vampire, I would have just said, all of you kill yourselves or kill each other. Let's turn this into a bloodbath because you're all bad people. But then at the end of the day, right, if you're a little empathetic, not all of them chose to be there. So I get it. Like why she wouldn't choose to do it. But that's just maybe what I would have done. But I just thought it was weird that that ended up being Tal's choice. That he was like, I'm gonna stick it to you guys and do that. That was just weird to me.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (22:18)
Hmm, yes.

Yes.

what we're kind of delving into with Talladius that at the vampire court when there's the ball that apparently, Saeris really didn't want to go to because she was like, "I ain't got time for this". And you're wondering, What are you doing that you don't have time to go to the ball? You're the queen. ⁓

What? mean, you need to preside on these things. I mean, come on, you're the administrator now. it's almost like, you're doing the government gala or whatever with the, you know, the townspeople or whatever. They're the richy rich people who rule your country. You have to be seen. But anyway, so that's the setup that she had to go with Kingfisher to this.

Asiah Muhammad (23:10)
Nah.

Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (23:25)
this ball and unbeknownst to her, Talladius had worked with, I think the witch's name is Ishbal, to come up with some concoction that all of these, the vampires would take that would turn them back into fae. And instead of giving them a choice, cause he was like, they're not gonna, if I say take the red pill or the blue pill, you know, they're not gonna take any pill or whatever.

He just made the decision for them. But the caveat was that potentially if Saeris drank that drink, she could have died. But definitely with Talladius, when he drank it, I think it did poison him and he had to get...

assistance to get that reversal and he was just showing ⁓ you were saying you know he seemed like this evil vampire and you know kind of more on the "True Blood" end of the spectrum type vampire but then it turned out he was this person who was very much regretting being a vampire and hated himself so much

He was like I'm gonna take that drink too and it's gonna kill me and I'm good with it and everybody was quite upset honestly, I was quite upset because I will say this that I really like Talladius

So making that comparison to "True Blood", I will say with Talladius that he kind of reminded me of Alexander Skarsgård's character, Eric, of his maker, and that when we met his maker, his maker was kind of like...

I'm kind of tired. I really don't want to be a vampire. I'm just It was it was tough and it was such a sad scene where he was like, you know, Eric was Here's this big bad Vampire and his maker comes and his maker is a younger guy too And you could see that deference but then when he decided he just told him I don't want to be a vampire anymore and I'm done and he just went out into the sun and he just burnt up and you just saw

Asiah Muhammad (25:16)
That's true, yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (25:42)
Eric just fraught and crying. it was the first time that I really, really connected with him of having feelings other than being like this awful big bad character.

Asiah Muhammad (25:45)
Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (25:55)
kind of kind of character. Yeah, kind of like that. Yeah, yeah.

Asiah Muhammad (25:55)
wanted more of there though. I think there was a lost opportunity here. The one thing that I was upset

about was I feel like there's a lot of forced relationships in this, like the Carrion thing. The one relationship aspect though that she could have explored was there's nothing sexier than the relationship between like a maker and the one that he made. And like, I feel like that I thought that this was gonna get real spicy. I thought there was gonna be two relationships in here.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (26:05)
Mmm.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

Asiah Muhammad (26:22)
I we were gonna explore it. Like, I thought Talladius

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (26:23)
Okay.

Asiah Muhammad (26:24)
was gonna be, like, a bit of a love interest for her and that they'd try to explore their relationship through this blood. I thought this was another side of her and him that we'd get to see. And I just feel like it was a lost opportunity where he immediately was like, yeah, let's denounce this. I don't want anything to do with this. I'm like, aw, come on. Like, you could have made that so much more fun. Like, they all are gonna live probably forever. They could have been together for a second. I just thought that would have been interesting. I think it was a lost opportunity there.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (26:27)
Mm-hmm.

And he was definitely, still is, okay, alert, he's still with us, he made it. He was definitely an interesting and I'd say, in my opinion, sympathetic character and just so I'm correct here, I was kinda making that correlation between... ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (27:03)
Mmm?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (27:09)
Eric's maker and Talladius that Talladius was tired of being a vampire so he made that sacrifice to off himself just like Eric's maker was like I'm done so Asta Lavista a piece the baby and went out into the sun kind of situation but but yes there was hints of that

Asiah Muhammad (27:24)
Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (27:30)
the two of them that there could have been that love triangle situation going on. And especially since you had this odd situation where she is the Queen of the Vampires, but she has a maker that she has to still be. ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (27:38)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (27:50)
underneath if you will and still has to listen to and could be compelled by that person now he wasn't the type of person to do that, but there was that odd situation like that and ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (27:57)
Ryan.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (28:04)
it certainly would have been interesting to see if they had a different chemistry than she has with King Fisher. That is if we call that chemistry because largely it was, you know, just spice going on there. ⁓ So let's also then talk about

Asiah Muhammad (28:16)
Right?

Yeah

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (28:27)
the the trope bingo here was there a particular trope here that you liked or that you were like

Geez, I mean initially you're talking about the Fated Mates issue that there was some challenges there that in Romantasy they talk about Fated Mates but they're not fully fleshing it out as Soulmates. They're just like, Fated Mates it's just because the stars say you need to be together and boop you're you're together without them developing it out. But any other tropes here that you saw?

Asiah Muhammad (29:00)
We still got that, you know, who hurt you one again because remember when he went back to Zil-vaa-ren, he was trying to beat up all the guards as if all of the guards were the one who single-handedly ruined her life. But I'm like, dude, like, you don't even know which one in particular ever did anything. You're like attacking everybody and trying to kill them all in the courtyard square. Like, it was a little much. And then they were like, come on, dude, we got to go. And he's just like, I'm just having a great time killing all these humans. So that was in there again.

And again, it just to me felt very forced because I'm like, dude, we've got a job to do right now. And I will say the whole is that a trope? The one where the friend or I don't even know what you call this one. I think that it is a trope, though, because it's very common that like the friend or the sibling or whatever, because it also happened in ACOTAR. They're like, I don't believe you were doing what you were doing to help us. And I'm not going to acknowledge the help that you gave me, Hayden.

annoyed me so bad that I was like, if this was realistic, I would have just sent him right back through that quicksilver. Because it just seems to me like you love Zil-vaa-ren and you love poor being poor and not having enough water. So then you can go back home and then do what you need to do over there. Because you're very rude and ungrateful and to not believe that I was doing stuff to help us is crazy. That really blew me. I was like, he's terrible.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (29:59)
Bye.

they finally did bring Hayden through the quicksilver to be with Saeris. And of course, that was her reason of being in the first book was to take care of my brother, bring him back. And he had the gall to really, to not be grateful, first of all, but also believe these rumors that Saeris was this awful person. This is kind of what Madra was planting.

back in the third and everywhere in the land that Saeris is this terrible person and this fugitive and here comes the brother. First of all

Asiah Muhammad (30:54)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (30:59)
you're rescued from the situation in third life and and by the way at this point though he was cool. Carrion kind of I think he might have even mentioned this that you know I gave your brother a job he's fine he's got his apartment he's he's good don't worry but Saeris being the older sister and being that that's her purpose she was like no

You have to bring my brother. I'm concerned he could go to jail and you know, we get it and they were able to bring him over. But he was not grateful and when they get into the conversation as you said, perhaps that is a trope and we have to find out what what trope is that when the family doesn't believe.

Asiah Muhammad (31:40)
No.

Yeah. ⁓

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (31:45)
this family

did family disbelief didn't believe anything about the siblings sincerity and really being completely ungrateful for being rescued and then saying well you know you know the things that you were doing were kind of sus and ⁓

Because you didn't tell me, I think that's the other thing, because you didn't tell me, that's maybe the trope, because you didn't tell me what was going on and what was up, then it was sus. And of course, I was starting to believe all the things that Madra said about you and...

Asiah Muhammad (32:26)
But the thing is, the

way he acted with the gauntlet, it's like, why would I ever tell you anything? Like how you had acted, you almost had gotten us killed. So there's a lack of accountability too that authors have where they don't ever hold the other characters accountable for their things while they're trying to hold somebody else accountable. Like there's no way you're telling me that I'm the problem for just not telling you information. When you acted so crazy with that gauntlet, we all almost died. Then I brought you here to save you. And then he just like immediately forgives her after he shows his butt.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (32:30)
Correct. Correct.

Asiah Muhammad (32:54)
And then he's like, well, it's fine, actually. I do believe you and I'm sorry that I didn't. That just doesn't. And that's how you know it's like, it is a woman writing male characters. Because one thing about men that is very different from women is they are definitely more stubborn than women and they definitely are more convicted in what they believe. know, like once they believe something, it takes a lot of work to get a man to unbelieve something he's like been holding onto for a long time. So for him to immediately just be like, yeah, actually, you know, I was really tripping for that and I'm sorry.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (32:59)
My gosh, yeah, yeah!

Ha!

Asiah Muhammad (33:23)
I was like, that doesn't really, I don't know. I was just like, whatever Hayden, like I don't even care no more. Like just get out of the story because you're getting on my nerves. He was just getting on my nerves.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (33:25)
Mmm... Yeah.

Yes.

also was just very surprising to me. And maybe that's just part of my personality. I believe in the good in everybody. It was so shocking that he made those statements. It was so sad when she started breaking down all the things that I had to do to keep us afloat. know, people, know, beg, borrow, steal, in all these bad situations. You know, and you're talking

Asiah Muhammad (33:52)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (33:55)
about, well, we seem to have a little bit more than other people. What's up with that? I will tell you what's up with that. It's because I was going through the sewer and all this other stuff. It was really, really, really sad. it also just showed how immature he was. And, and I would say lastly, it was also sad to see that this is her purpose. Her purpose was to take care of her brother. And it's not.

Asiah Muhammad (34:21)
Okay.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (34:22)
It's not a very ⁓ golden, if you will, or higher purpose at all, because he does not deserve it whatsoever for her to care for him that much and put him as her reason for being, I would say.

Asiah Muhammad (34:35)
Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (34:42)
But she also had another reason for being and that is our little fox Onyx and as a dog lover I was a little I was like, you know a little tickled I would say to have to bring that fox character into the situation and sometimes a little scared every time they're like, we brought him to the battle and you're like

Asiah Muhammad (35:03)
Why?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (35:03)
Yes, why? Why did you do that now? Yeah, yeah.

Asiah Muhammad (35:03)
For God's sakes, why? What's he gonna do?

That's another trope too, I think is one, right? That like, I'm gonna

give up everything, risk everything that could be important for something very, very non-important. Like, I know we're not at the ending and we're not talking about it, but the choice that she made, spoiler alert, of course, that like she chooses to give up power so strong and ancient and helpful has saved her in this book, like at least five times. I'm gonna give up all that.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (35:21)
Right.

Asiah Muhammad (35:39)
or just a tiny little fox that means nothing in this grand scheme of like this world, the fates, the gods, all the powers that be for a singular fox. It's like, and then like I said, you can tell that this is just a woman writing for male characters. like, again, he's an ancient old being, a man. He had been like, I mean, I don't want to hurt your feelings or nothing, but girl, that's a little crazy. Like, and at no point did anyone say like, this is probably not.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (36:04)
(Laughter)

Asiah Muhammad (36:08)
a good idea. Like I feel like if he really loved her, he would have told her like, dude, like, let's just kind of like take a second to think about this. Because like that don't make no sense. That doesn't make any sense. I just don't know why you would have done that. That power was way more essential than the Fox ever was.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (36:24)
they also implied that it was one of these.

corrupting type powers right that in the past that these alchemists that they grew so powerful because they were looking to raise the dead and believe they got to the point where they actually did so they were getting so they were getting really powerful. It was corrupting them. Powers that be didn't like it. like our good friend Belikon and stuff and they all got killed off

Asiah Muhammad (36:33)
Yeah

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (36:56)
And so for the longest time, people didn't even know how that type of power worked. And so in this situation, was Onyx who, poor little fox dude, in the midst of some sort of skirmish ⁓ he jumped in the way and he got...

stabbed. I mean he was he was basically mortally wounded and he died and Saeris she couldn't handle it. She was like no, I will not accept this No, no, he has to come back and let me figure out and to your point she taps into this power that is beyond her understanding to bring him back and it'll be interesting to see

Asiah Muhammad (37:28)
And girl.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (37:38)
if that alters Onyx as a character, if you will, probably not. It probably be like one of these, okay, he's back, he's good. It would have been interesting to see, is he like zombie Onyx or something or whatever? Does he have alchemy powers? I don't know. Does he talk now? Whatever. I think a similar situation where,

Asiah Muhammad (37:44)
Yep.

I don't

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (38:05)
We didn't know whether he would make it or not was Archer and and this is kind of getting into these these side characters that we were that were kind of the MVPs of the book. I would put Archer in that category and Archer is the fire fae servant that King Fisher had for the longest time and when I believe was Saeris and Carrion were attacked by vampires Archer

Asiah Muhammad (38:10)
Bye!

Yeah!

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (38:33)
was in the melee and again, well, yeah, he was he was just there but they were having a conversation they were having a conversation and then you know here comes vampires, right and he was I believe he was attacked first and and he was bitten and they were everybody was freaking out and it's like, my goodness He's gonna it's he gonna be offed and dead and that's when we then learned that

Asiah Muhammad (38:36)
don't know why he was even doing it.

NNNN

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (38:58)
A. Because he is made of brimstone or healed by "Brimstone", ⁓ his brimstone was like poisonous to those rotted vampires, so it died. But then, of course, Archer was gravely injured and they had to take him to the Fire Fae world, which was made of brimstone to have him healed.

Asiah Muhammad (39:18)
Mm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (39:22)
Here comes the awful Danya who I didn't mention how much I really didn't like her in a "Quick silver" but then in "Brimstone" is like, you know, they didn't show her that much so every now and then when she popped up it was like, yeah. All right, sometimes she Yeah, yeah good point that they replaced her with the angry vampire who was part of the court that did not like Saeris.

Asiah Muhammad (39:27)
Me neither.

I just replaced her basically with Zovena.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (39:48)
Here comes Danya at the time, ⁓ Archer's ill here and talking about, you know what? I have an idea. See all these fire fae, they have brimstone. Why don't we just use it all and kill the vampires? And like, what? And you'd kill everybody.

Asiah Muhammad (40:02)
I wasn't mad at her though. I wasn't

mad at her, I'm not gonna lie. Because some sacrifices have to be made and what doesn't make any sense is at the end of, closer in the middle of the book to the end, right? This is the plothole to me. They were like, ⁓ they're not coming with us through the gate because they have to stay close to the heat or they die anyways. So this basically conveys to me that like, if they can only stay in Calish in this one spot, the rot

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (40:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm.

Asiah Muhammad (40:30)
is taking over Calish. We never hear nothing else about them, whether or the rot reached them or not. So if they're gonna just kill themselves anyways, why didn't we just then use their brimstone to stop the rot? Like, it just made me so mad. Like, I hate when people are trying to make it seem like the stakes are so high, but then there's a simple solution. If you're gonna stay in Calish and get rotted out anyway and just die and sacrifice yourselves because there's nowhere else for you to go or belong, then you could have just used your life force then for the greater good of the whole world.

That don't make no sense to me.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (40:59)
Exit

and I will also bring up ⁓ in a very shallow way that the name of the book was "Brimstone" so I really thought that this must be the point of it all that these fire fae are made of brimstone so they're gonna sacrifice themselves to help no, they're not! Right

Asiah Muhammad (41:09)
Yeah.

she was gonna make a deal with them and then it was gonna

like activate that brimstone rune and then she was gonna get going or something but you just never hear any more about them they're just like yeah we're just gonna stick back here and maybe die so good luck you guys on the other side and I'm like yo what like and you heard nothing else about them even when she went back to Calish in the dream world she only goes for that singular note and doesn't check on them I don't know it just it was weird

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (41:41)
Well, I tell you "Brimstone", "Brimstone", "Brimstone" we have a lot of notes we have a lot of notes so let's get to the ending and that we learn about King Fisher who is now We learn about his parentage that his father is Styx the god of shadows who's the

the ruler of hell? I'm sorry, what?

Asiah Muhammad (42:07)
I don't know

what.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (42:10)
So I think that's our reaction. of us, I'm sorry, what? You're like, I don't know. Okay, sure. Yeah, all right.

Asiah Muhammad (42:11)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

⁓ yeah, sure. It's like another fantasy

thing element that she's adding in. Now there's demigods. I'm like, girl, you're just putting so much in there. I don't know where we are.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (42:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. And especially since the cliffhanger ended with him saying, okay, tell my father I'm here to get a dragon. And we have established before though that he's kind of fought with dragons and it's not like he had power in that situation.

Asiah Muhammad (42:45)
Yeah.

You almost died.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (42:51)
kicking the

yeah he almost died fighting this this dragon so now he's kind of in a court of dragons and they're mad they want a retribution and this is in hell but now he's revealing that this is my true parentage and also i i do like to ride a dragon here and there so let let me claim one what yes right

Asiah Muhammad (43:12)
My father told me so that I never talk about ever. And what also

made me mad too is, again, the lack of conviction that these characters are so scary because like the two demon brothers that were talking at first, they were like, you know, all gas, no breaks with it. You know, they're like, yeah, we're these bad, evil guys and you are going to die here and we're going to eat your flesh. And then they said like real weird misogynistic stuff to Saeris about what they were going to do to her personally. And I was like, all right, stakes are real high and they're a little wild. And then all of a sudden.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (43:37)
Right.

Right.

Asiah Muhammad (43:41)
Kingfisher's like, yeah, I'm gonna expose my shadows and it breaks through these, I'm a demigod, mind you, in another dimension where I was boiling up and I could barely breathe and we could only spend two hours here or we're going to die. But my shadow powers are better than these two complete fool gods' powers. And they're like, immediately folding and they're like, what? You're not supposed to have this type of power. The only person who can have this type of power is a god. And then I'm like...

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (43:53)
Yes.

Asiah Muhammad (44:09)
Now you've confused me. They're not even as scary as you said they were. Now they're already immediately scared and like about to poop their pants. I'm like, this is just it just made me so mad. And so like all the way to that last page. But he was like, by the way, sorry, Saeris, but I have to say this. I'm collecting this dragon from my dad and I'm going to ride it out of here. So who wants to make a deal? Who wants to make a trade? What is happening?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (44:14)
Yes.

Right,

right. And so just to again, we are spoiling the ending here and the setup here that the last couple of chapters is they decided they being Saeris and King Fisher.

Keep let's just keep calling him Kingfisher. Okay, right. That's that's a him They decide that they're gonna take this road trip to hell and and Renfis is kind of helping Figure out how to get there. So they found ⁓ a quick silver pool in near the Ajungate area, but

Asiah Muhammad (44:50)
It's just him,

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (45:10)
so how I understood it is they were going to do that to again find another solution to kill off the rotted vampires and so they're taking this road trip to to hell and one of the things that to your point about why it's confusing with this reveal is that

Kingfisher reveals that Belikon used to force me to go through this quicksilver pool when I was a child Thinking that I would die, you know, he kept doing that to me But I I survived and you're like, okay. It's because you have some fortitude and then because you know We're learning about how he got the the quicksilver in his his eyes that kind of make him crazy but then

Asiah Muhammad (45:34)
Yeah.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (45:57)
to have this bizarre reveal at the end after all that setup and then after all that telling you that his real father was killed off by Belikon and stuff then to have that setup to have him go there and to your point ⁓ they're they're they're captured they are

Asiah Muhammad (46:00)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (46:16)
down on their luck because they were strung upside down. I think he might have been semi-conscious. I mean was was just you know crazy like my goodness my goodness type scene but then for him to all of a sudden then be so powerful and then easily get them out of it and leave on this cliffhanger to say that he's a demigod was just ludicrous. I was gonna say another word that begins with the word bat but

Asiah Muhammad (46:19)
Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (46:46)
But it was just ludicrous. And I think, yes, ultimately, that is why we both said that we were pretty much ready to throw our books at the wall because it just was not... There are certain books where even in Romantasy or Fantasy, like traditional Fantasy, where the cliffhanger...

makes you go, "Aw, Man!" but then you you're just like, "I can't wait to the next book!" You know? Like, aw man! you know, you're just okay, dang, how long is going to take this author to get the next book because I want to know what happens next. In this situation, not so much. It was just like, I just want to throw this book against the wall because I just yes.

Asiah Muhammad (47:15)
Yeah, yeah.

Hmm?

it was weird. A plot hole to have written

It was like she didn't even want to write for Renfis anymore. She was just like, I don't even care about him no more. I don't even want to write nothing about him no more. So then he just magically was just gone. Then they find him and it's like, you're telling me that he was only at the Ajun Gate guarding it and he couldn't send no type of correspondence. He couldn't communicate in any way. Like I thought he was in the dimension too. Like I thought they took him. I thought they took the sister Everlayne, Renfis, and they took Kingfisher into the tree.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (47:36)
Right! Right.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Asiah Muhammad (47:58)
So I was thinking that she was gonna have to save all three of them or whatever. But then Renfis is just at the Ajun Gate and he's like, yeah, they just called me back for service. Were you dead or dying? Cause like, why didn't you tell anybody when you knew we were looking for you and you had a job to do and you didn't even do it. That's not very warrior view. That was weird. And I didn't think they gave Loreth enough flowers for being right about that witch. Like he was right from the beginning that we should not trust her.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (48:07)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Right.

Asiah Muhammad (48:22)
And I hate that, like I hate being the person who's right and everybody's just like, okay, whatever. But he was right from the very beginning not to trust that girl.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (48:31)
I'm sorry, I kind of liked her though. I mean, I know she was duplicitous, but you know, she was repping her people. She knew that, look, witches.

Asiah Muhammad (48:42)
Damn.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (48:44)
and the fae do not get along. We keep to ourselves. If it were up to us, we'd rule. But okay, you need my help. I will come. I will help out. But I have my own little agenda of what to do. And that's how she ended up working with Talladius to create that antidote that would kill off if it didn't work.

Asiah Muhammad (49:06)
Mm-hmm.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (49:10)
correctly or kind of work the way the witches wanted it to that people would be killed off.

Asiah Muhammad (49:14)
Wasn't the sigil

kind of random though? Like, I didn't really quite understand that part. Like they explained it, but it just was like, what are we talking about right now? Like, why would you have put that on there if the plan already was for him to go ahead and die? What was that sigil even doing on his chest? Why would you have done that?

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (49:23)
Yeah.

because we want him to live ultimately, okay Asiah? That's just, look. ⁓

Asiah Muhammad (49:38)
Because she said, I thought he was

gonna die, because if he died, then the sigil would have never activated. So then I was like, well, then what was the point in putting the sigil on there then if he was gonna die and it wasn't gonna do anything? Like, I'm not understanding. I'm not understand.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (49:43)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, again, yet another plot hiccup with this book, or plot speed bump, plot filling the challenge that it meets here. Yeah.

Asiah Muhammad (50:09)
just wanted to show us that that rune worked, that it would break things. And

I'm like, I get that, but I feel like she could have done it in a different way, because that sigil didn't make any sense.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (50:18)
Ultimately, let's get to our final rating. it's on a scale of one to five stars, we'd say.

five being the highest of whether we would read this book again. And I think we're both united in that probably the answer is no. No. So what is your rating? I'm really interested to hear this part.

Asiah Muhammad (50:35)
No, ma'am. ⁓

I'm gonna blow your mind, but I'm gonna give it a 1.3.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (50:47)
Whoo boy that was just even Whoo, even less Wow, you are you are just you are tough. You are tough. I mean, I think I'm too I'm too generous. I also give this one a three. there were moments of it that were kind of interesting like the whole buddy

Asiah Muhammad (50:49)
It just, it wasn't it.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (51:10)
Carrion and Kingfisher going together part and then even the emotional part with Hayden and Saeris's fighting. But ultimately I agree with you that I would not read this again so I'll just give it a three but I really thank you again for

coming back and bringing it all full circle Asiah with your commentary and your opinion of this book and also for reading it. Thank you for doing that.

Asiah Muhammad (51:41)
Yeah, no problem. Had a great time.

R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) (51:43)
Alright, you take care, Book Club Bestie.

Asiah Muhammad (51:46)
You too. Bye, Bestie.

Rosemary Jean-Louis (51:57)
We should tell you how we really feel about "Brimstone", right? I had such high hopes for the Fae and Alchemy series because of the social media buzz. That's why I recommended it in the first place. It turned out to be a hot mess for Asiah, Muhammad, and me. Did you agree with our review and ratings, by the way? Tell us what you thought in the comments or send us a text. Of course, a lot of fans fell in love with this book, including Netflix.

and they are developing the "Quicksilver" movie. And the third book in the trilogy is coming out in November of this year. Pass. I still enjoyed voice actor Anthony Palmini, who again played King Fisher and all of the male voices in the audio book. Stella Bloom, who played Saeris and the female characters was also excellent.

A shout out to the bookishgoblin.com for providing additional source material for my recaps. Now, a reminder about a Book Bestie event. Author C.M. Lepore, who is featured in my first episode on "Onyx Storm", is doing a signing for her book, Lucid. She'll be at 2nd and Charles Bookstore in Hagerston, Maryland on February 28th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Details are in the show notes.

Next month, we're doing something different. A palate cleanser, if you will. Instead of recommending and reviewing Romantasy, I'm just talking about Romantasy. What is it? Is it really a new genre? I'll share some highlights from the Love Y'all Festival to get to the bottom of that. Listen and join the convo. Until next time, happy reading.

Rosemary Jean-Louis (53:46)
Thanks for listening to Must Luv Romantasy If you enjoyed today's show, be sure to follow the podcast and then share it with your fellow Romantasy fans. Until next time, keep your swords sharp, your coffee strong, and your heart ready for the next epic love story.