The Sweetest Getaway – Excerpt + Commentary
Beyond The Page
What do you get when a good girl teams up with a group of semi-pro criminals and accidentally finds herself tailing a cop? You get The Sweetest Getaway. A clever, wild, and laugh-out-loud heist rom-com by indie author Sasha Preston, and the spotlight of this week’s Beyond The Page. In today’s episode, I read a featured excerpt from the novel (straight out of Chapter 19) and share my live commentary on everything from the voice and pacing… to a budding flirtation between Jennifer (our heroine) and Fred (the cop she’s sort-of stalking… for the heist). If you're craving a relaxing...
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Episode 8: The Idle Blade
Beyond The Page
The court calls it a rest day. Seventeen calls it an ambush disguised as leisure. With the arena silent and the remaining champions scattered, she begins to dig into the truth behind the disappearances. But curiosity in Elarion is a weapon with no handle. The harder she grips it, the more it cuts. Her questions draw the attention of Lady Dravenn, a powerful patron, and before the confrontation turns deadly, the Thornkeeper steps in, saving her, and raising new questions she’s not ready to answer. Freedom, it seems, was never free. And the most dangerous blade in Elarion might not be the one...
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Episode 7 – The Mirror Game
Beyond The Page
When the mirror stares back, what do you see; the lie or the liar? The Trial of Sand becomes a game of reflection. Paired against Champion Five of House Cyrinth, Seventeen steps into a chamber built from mirrors and lies. The Mirrormind’s gift is mimicry; face, voice, and thought, and soon, Seventeen finds herself staring into a version of her own deceit. But reflections break both ways, and when her true power answers back, the chamber, and the illusion of order, shatter. Six champions remain. The seventh has vanished.
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The AI vs. Authenticity Divide (Part 2): The Ethical Mirror
Beyond The Page
What happens when content is no longer created by people, but by patterns?
In Part 2 of The AI vs. Authenticity Divide, we move beyond copyright and courtrooms to explore the ethical cost of algorithmic creativity. What do we lose when machines mimic artistic works without soul?
This episode is a call to action. For creators to evolve, for consumers to choose human work on purpose, and for all of us to draw a line in the digital sand.
The soul of creativity is passion, spirit, and v
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Episode 6 – The Summons
Beyond The Page
The Thornkeeper’s summons is no mercy.
Within the cathedral vaults, Seventeen faces the man who buried her mentor, and knows her secret.
What begins as an interrogation turns into a dangerous negotiation. The throne watches, the trial waits, and the real game begins.
AI, Copyright, and the Public Domain: The Authenticity Divide (Part 1)
Beyond The Page
This week on Beyond The Page, we're taking a detour from fiction to dig into the rising controversy between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Where the future of writing, art, and creative labour is being rewritten in real time.
In Part 1 of "The AI vs. Authenticity Divide," we discuss the burning questions around market acceptance and legal ownership in 2025.
Don't miss Part 2 next week, where we l
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Episode 5 – The Thornkeeper’s Eye
Beyond The Page
The Trial of Sand grinds on, champions bleeding into the pit, while the crowd hungers for spectacle.
But Seventeen’s focus is elsewhere. She counts the dead, tallies the replacements, and wonders which houses profit from the shifting balance.
And through it all, the Thornkeeper does not look away. Kingmaker. High priest. Executioner. His attention fixes on Seventeen alone, and this time, he calls her name.
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Episode 4 – The Blood in the Sand
Beyond The Page
The waiting is over.
The Trial of Sand begins, throwing the masked champions into the arena, where blood and spectacle are the throne’s favourite currency.
Seventeen faces a lethal opponent whose lightning threatens to expose her for what she is not. To survive, she must mimic the power of the house she impersonates, or risk revealing the truth hidden beneath her mask.
Episode 3: The Waiting Game
Beyond The Page
Disqualified or silenced? Politics proves deadlier than the crawl.
The Hall of Masks grows restless. Lysandra Veil has been disqualified, and the champions are forced to wait as her replacement is summoned.
Tempers flare, powers clash, and alliances begin to take shape in the uneasy pause between trials.
Seventeen keeps her mask in place, but behind it, she wonders. Was Lysandra’s removal justice, or politics? And when the new Contestant Five finally arrives, one
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Episode 2: Blood in the Stone
Beyond The Page
She entered the wall crawl, found a corpse… and a locked passage with no way out.
In this episode of A Trial of Thorns, our heroine is faced with her first deadly consequence, and her first taste of the rot behind the crown.
With nowhere to run, and a body still warm beside her, she’ll have to think fast.
Question for you:What do you think she’s really here for? Sure, she's supposed to find the killer. Sure, the Trial’s rigged. But what pers
info_outlineIn this episode, we discuss The Unnamed by Rebecca Johnson. One of the winning stories in the Grand Masters Archive category of the Coalition Community Awards.
A thrilling, short story only on Inkitt.
To read The Unnamed, click on the book title.