I gave in…

Rel Mollet Books, Film

So, I gave in.

To be clear, my husband is a generous, sweet, kind man who hands over the remote control to me whenever we watch television. I mean, without a doubt, I am the Supreme Ruler of the Remote Control. And we often watch what I call “compromise” tv shows. Like, for example, All Creatures Great and Small.

Calm. No shooting. No fist fights. The biggest drama is a suffering cow (although, that can be dire!)

And Hubs is so sweet. He watches them with me. Even laughs at the right parts.

But sometimes I see him longing for a show. A man show, I call it.

A show like Braveheart. Or the Patriot.

Or…Gladiator.

Oh, my man loves Gladiator. One of his top five shows.

About six months ago, Gladiator 2 came out. We didn’t see it in theaters as we were busy, but…well, it hit the streaming services a few months later, and admittedly, I’ve been scrolling past it.

Until this weekend. Hubs made a small grunt when we were scrolling and I knew…it was time to surrender the remote control. I’m not a huge fan of blood and gore, but I thought—I’ll watch through my fingers.

It was what I expected—fighting, sadness, war—until about 15 minutes into the movie. And then came the unexpected twist. Suddenly, I was all in.

Now, I’m not giving anything away as it’s all over the internet, (so I’m not sure how I missed it), but (and, spoiler alert, if you don’t want to know this… **Lucuis, the main character, is the son of Maximus…(aka Russel Crowe)**)

This suddenly got very interesting. Longish story short—I loved the movie. I wasn’t a fan of some of the other characters, but the main storyline—the return of the Prince of Rome—made the movie for me.

I love it when characters have unexpected connections and twists and we get a larger view of backstory. Or, we simply see old beloved characters show up in new stories. I try to do this in every story now—I look at my cast of past characters and ask…who can show up in this book?

​Jack has Wyatt and Coco (from the MT Marshalls). Conrad has Jace (from the Christiansens), Doyle has Ranger (from the the Sky King Ranch), and a few of the Jones, Inc. guys… and Austen has… well, you’ll just need to wait and see!

Loved this review from a Goodreads reader:

If you haven’t picked up Austen yet—the book is available exclusively in the Susan May Warren store at the launch price. 😊

Let’s do something fun!! Do you have a favorite character you’d like to see in an upcoming book? Click HERE and give me your feedback. I’ll draw from the names of those who left a suggestion next week for a $20 gift card to the Susan May Warren store!

Until then, thanks for reading (and look for a free book link on Friday!)

Have a fabulous week. 😊

XO!