Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday chat show.

Today we are talking about the book A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Moss.

This is the first book in a five-part series that has caused a worldwide sensation.

Also known by its acronym Akotar, the book tells the story of Farah.

She's a scrappy 22-year-old hunter who's taken captive by her enemies, which are fairies,

after she accidentally kills one of their kind. She's imprisoned in a manner, and it turns out

that the high lord beast man who has taken her is actually extremely attractive,

and what ensues is a steamy romance overlaid with her fighting immortal beasts.

The book came out in 2015, but it's only continued to grow in popularity, partially because

its genre, Romantasy, is exploding, so much so that it's carrying the entire book industry.

As one headline put it, this is the book that half of the people you know are obsessed with.

And we're going to get into it.

I'm Lila and I have the face of a thousand nightmares and dreams.

With me in New York, she is a Romanti and Akatar expert, so we are appointing her

Hi, Faye, the FD's U.S. investment reporter, Madison Darbyshire. Welcome, Madison.

Thanks for having me, Lila. So excited. And joining us from London, she loves you,

Thorns and all. It's our deputy books editor who leads fiction on the books desk, our friend Laura Battle. Welcome, Laura. Hi. Hi. Good to be here. Good to have you. So why don't we start with just, maybe you both can tell us your relationship with the series and what you think of this book. Madison, why don't we start with you?

So I picked this book up during the pandemic.

It was recommended to me by a friend who, in hindsight, is an avid romance reader,

but I had no idea what I was getting into.

And because it was locked down, I had like no attention span at all.

And I just found that this book,

...