#79 - The Deal by Elle Kennedy (with Dawn Marie of Opinionated Lushes)

Explicit content warning

11/09/22 • 131 min

4 Listeners

Tune in as Dawn Marie (Opinionated Lushes) stops by the program to break down The Deal, the New Adult contemporary romance by Elle Kennedy (Briar U, Avalon Bay). As the first entry in her Off-Campus series, it follows the banter, the tutoring, the sparks, and the vulnerability between music major Hannah Wells and hockey captain Garrett Graham at Briar University. Breaking Bad, the importance of consent, and using overly cruel words to dump your partner are just a few of the topics that Arthur and Dawn touch on throughout the episode.

TW: discussion of rape, domestic abuse, child abuse, parental death, and cancer; there’s also quite a bit of sexual content, specifically in the second half of the book.

Spoilers start at 21:10

Good Word:

• Dawn: Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann

• Arthur: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, and Letterboxd: @arthur_ant18

Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram: @two_centscritic

Follow Arthur on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144101970-arthur-howell

TW: discussion of rape, domestic abuse, child abuse, parental death, and cancer; there’s also quite a bit of sexual content, specifically in the second half of the book.

Spoilers start at 21:10

Good Word:

• Dawn: Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann

• Arthur: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, and Letterboxd: @arthur_ant18

Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram: @two_centscritic

Follow Arthur on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144101970-arthur-howell

Previous Episode

#78 - Bungo Stray Dogs, Coffee, and Cats | A Japanese Literature Discussion (with Saba)

1 Recommendations

Tune in as previous guest Saba comes back to the show for her second episode, where she and Arthur open up a discussion on the works of Japanese literature they’ve collectively read. Limited time travel, familial angst, and bleakly written self-insert characters are just a few of the topics that get coverage here.

Japanese literature read by Arthur and Saba:

• No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Japanese literature read by Arthur:

• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Japanese literature read by Saba:

• Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

• The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

TW: rape, death, suicide, suicide attempt, addiction, pregnancy, miscarriage, terminal illness, animal cruelty, possible incest(?), misgendering, pedophilia

Spoilers start at 28:50

Good Word:

• Saba: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

• Arthur: Twenty-Five Twenty-One

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, and Letterboxd: @arthur_ant18

Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram: @two_centscritic

Follow Arthur on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144101970-arthur-howell

Next Episode

#80 - Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn (with Sam Cabrera-Dixon of Hardcover Hoes)

4 Recommendations

Tune in as Sam Cabrera-Dixon (Hardcover Hoes) returns to 2CC for a discussion on Bloodmarked, the second book in the Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn. The first book, Legendborn, had plenty of goodness to offer fantasy readers as a contemporary YA retelling of Arthurian legend. Is Bloodmarked a worthy follow-up (spoilers: it is)? Comparing the intricate worldbuilding to that of the Blood and Ash series, taking a minute to remember a specific Taylor Swift song, and diving into the layered dynamic between Bree and Sel are just a few of the things that Arthur and Sam do on this episode.

TW: Death of a parent and traumatic grief, combat/battle flashbacks, alcohol consumption, mind control/memory manipulation, drugging/medical abuse, forced captivity, racist macro and microaggressions, emesis (vomiting), blood, ritual magic self-harm to access blood (via hands with safety pin and sword), mild gore, torture, combat/interpersonal violence, murder, death, and mention(s) of: physical abuse, racist violence, sexual violence.

Spoilers start at 12:15

Good Word:

• Arthur: Netflix’s Falling for Christmas

• Sam: Midnights (3am Edition) by Taylor Swift and Christmas by Michael Bublé

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, and Letterboxd: @arthur_ant18

Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram: @two_centscritic

Follow Arthur on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144101970-arthur-howell