You know, once Alarming Beeping enters the chat, it's gonna be crazy.
That's like the most confusing way to kick this episode off for anybody who wasn't on
this recording before you hit record, which is quite literally everyone except for us.
Yeah.
Do you feel left out, listeners?
Kind of weird.
Like, Carrot, are you trying to dangle?
They want to know about the beeping!
They don't.
There's nothing to know.
She just beeped when she hit record.
Like I was NASA launching a rocket, but it was just me hitting record on the podcast.
Sometimes when I'm reading about cats in books, they describe the cats as making a beeping
noise.
I feel like they might have done that in We Could Be So Good.
You ever heard a cat beep?
No.
So cats make a lot of weird noises, my cat in particular, he's Siamese, and Siamese
cats talk a lot.
So he talks constantly.
Anytime you go outside, he has things to say.
And it's always weird and new and exciting noises.
And sometimes they really do sound like beeps.
He'll be like, and you're like, oh, what does that mean?
I don't know.
How did we get here?
Oh, you were beeping.
I just think it's funny when cats are described as beeping.
Or they chirp.
Chirping, I've heard that before.
Beeping, I don't, I guess I just never noticed anyone saying that about cats.
I'll have to keep an eye out.
I just do sometimes because my cat beeps occasionally and it makes me laugh.
Because I'm like, that is how you would describe that noise.
You weird, weird little animal.
You sad, strange little man.
Exactly.
So we shan't delay because we're tired.
What?
Us?
Tired?
I'm sure we say that every episode and somebody listening is like, why don't you just record
at a different time of day?
Yeah, it doesn't work like that.
It's just so hard.
Because I'm like, my family's either being loud or there are other things happening and
I'm like, I don't want to deal with that.
And then on the weekend, you just want to be lazy.
So then we end up here at 9pm on a Sunday night and my eyelids keep not wanting to reopen.
Not to mention, I'm gonna be so real.
Keeping it real today, listeners.
No matter what time of day we recorded, I would probably be sleepy.
That is so true.
I just love sleeping.
I'm just sleepy all the time.
Yeah.
I just...there's something so real about sleeping.
I mean, yeah.
I love it so much.
I suppose.
You ever think about what the first person to ever go to sleep must have thought?
Be terrifying, honestly.
Because sometimes when I'm falling asleep, I'm like, what if I'm dying?
You ever have that?
You're like, what if I just don't wake up?
No.
Okay.
I mean, sometimes.
I can't wait to go to sleep now.
Oh no.
Sometimes I get a weird...I'm like, well...it makes me think of the prayer that I used to
say all the time as a kid.
The little ending was like, and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul shall take.
Yeah.
Dark.
I mean, reasonable that you would be like, if I die in my sleep.
I mean, yeah.
I hope I see you, but like...dark nonetheless.
Dark nonetheless.
Yeah.
Well, here we are.
Romance or TBR?
Here we are indeed.
I was trying to find...I really feel like there was a funny where I just finished...well,
actually, let's just jump into it, shall we?
Hell yeah.
TBR Tuesday.
Because I just finished We Could Be So Good.
Yes you did.
Which I won't talk too much about because you've talked about it before, and also it
was for my Fable Book Club, so if you really want my thoughts...
I saw your little updates as a hack.
I never have anything super insightful to say in those, because I don't tend to have
insightful thoughts until the end and I can kind of reflect back, but I want to keep people
posted as I'm reading because that's the whole point.
So my updates are always just kind of like, wow, I love him.
You reference some historical writer person.
There's a book throughout that...Mary Reynolds?
Is that what you're thinking of?
Yeah.
I thought that was impressive.
Also, I've read...so throughout the book they reference this book that a book reviewer that
works at the news...
Oh, that one, yeah.
That he leaves a galley copy of and the whole thing is that he's like, I don't want to read
Kill Your Gays essentially because all of the queer books, they have to be miserable
or dead at the end because it's America in the 50s.
And the guy is like, this one's not like that, but he doesn't believe him until Andy reads
it and is essentially like...I mean, they're not super happy, but they're not unhappy either.
And I was like, Mary Reynolds?
I didn't know that she had written World War I era historical fiction because I read her
Alexander the Great historical fiction and it was gay, but not overtly.
It very much reads as like, they're in love.
We're not really going to talk about it that much because Alexander the Great was almost
definitely gay.
Speaking of which, this is not related to the topic at hand.
However, I just need everyone to know that I found a t-shirt on TikTok that I'm definitely
going to be purchasing at some point.
It's like the Alexander the Great World Tour.
It's a tour style t-shirt, like rock and roll.
And on the back, it's got a list of all the cities he conquers, but then any of them that
aren't already called Alexandria, it's scratched out and renamed Alexandria.
That's funny.
I'm really excited about it.
Do you have a fascination with Alexander the Great?
I just really like Alexander the Great.
I was a class 6 minor.
And that was...I read...
He conquered your love.
Yeah, sure.
I just think he's neat.
I mean, he sure did conquer a lot of places and rename them after himself.
I used to know a lot more about him and I forgot most of it.
But that was a really good historical fiction.
So Mary Reynolds would recommend.
I've got a bunch of her other...she wrote a bunch of ancient Greek and Roman historical
fiction.
I need to read them.
Anyway, what was I going with that?
Oh, I was trying to find the ebook of We Could Be So Good because there's a cat in that one
and there's at least one where I'm pretty sure Cat Sebastian uses a funny beep or something
like that to describe the noise that that stupid cat makes.
That cat was adorable.
I love that stupid cat.
It's fine, we'll come back to it if I can.
It's not available at my library.
I was going to say, yeah, I looked...because I wanted to search it for the Speak Now pairing
and then I just had to get my physical copy.
Yep.
And it's not on script either.
Oh well.
It sucks.
I know every book that I wanted to search for those pairings that I couldn't access,
I was like, well, sucks to suck.
Indeed.
Because I'm not going to place a whole...
I wish you could search an audiobook and then it would just bring you to the time when they
say the word.
Not longer, but it would be very useful in my experience.
Well if anybody knows what I'm talking about, if they're like, oh yeah, I don't know if
it's beep, but it's something like that.
Beep.
Interesting.
Well, if I reread via audio, I shall let you know.
I really liked the audiobook.
I liked the narrators a lot.
I just can't handle third present, especially in audio, so I had to read it physically.
But either way, great book.
I love it so much.
Well it was so long ago.
I read Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon.
I think it's coming out on the 11th or it's already come out.
I think it's already out.
Well today when this goes live, it's 11.
Either way, you're right, by the time it goes live...
It's going to be helpful now.
Because I pre-ordered...
Maybe it wasn't really that long ago.
Did I pre-order it?
I just pre-ordered it the day before you couldn't pre-order anymore.
So it must have been...
I think it came out this past Tuesday because I pre-ordered it Monday night when I saw the
Ripped Bodice thing because she's going to sign them.
She was going the week of her promo and stuff.
So that one was great.
I had the audio book from PRH.
So I read it a while ago.
But the One Night...
So the entire premise is just sex lessons.
Because he is a child...
Was he a child actor?
He's some star.
It's kind of like Teen Wolf.
So he's the stylist Alinsky character of this Teen Wolf show.
And then they're grown up.
So then he's dealing with being like a B to sometimes maybe an A-list celebrity.
And then she is going to be, I think, the ghostwriter of his memoir.
And he shows up at a bookstore that she's at and they hit it off and they go and have
a one night stand.
It is the most awkward jaw dropping.
My god, what did I even write?
It was like hot and ready.
Little Caesar's up in this bitch.
It was literally...
There was so much lube.
It was hot and ready.
It was insane.
I hadn't read the back of this book before I started it.
And I was like, okay, he's going to be the hero because he's getting a lot of character
description.
This makes a lot of sense.
And then that happens.
And I was like, holy no.
He cannot be redeemed.
That is not possible.
He is...
And then I still didn't go back to read this.
I'm like, why ruin a good thing?
And then turns out that he gave her a fake name.
He was indeed the celebrity and she has to write his memoir.
And sweet Jesus, the work that that man did to redeem himself.
I did not think it would work, but it did.
It's my favorite of her books now.
Especially her adult stuff, I don't know if it...
You can't even compare it to Today, Tomorrow, Today, Tomorrow, Tonight, Today.
Whatever the fuck that book's called.
It's the blue one.
I have no...
I don't know.
So those are my two favorite from her.
But this one was just...
It was like a pure rom-com in the purest sense of the word.
It went back to the roots.
It was so good.
The audiobook was great.
The narrator was fantastic.
I loved it so much and it really gave Stiles, Dylanski fan fiction vibes.
And I adore that because I sure love Stiles.
So I had a great time and my job was on the floor.
Whatever I say, you're not ready.
You're not hot and ready for that chapter.
But like...
Ooh.
And he was so upset.
He thought he was so good at sex.
And then he texts all of his past girlfriends and he's like, was I that bad?
And they were like, yeah.
And he's like, oh no.
He's like, please teach me.
Oh god.
I went delivered on the sex lessons.
I really did.
It's giving to love and to loathe.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Where he's like the notorious rake.
Yeah.
And she agrees to sleep with him and he's so bad.
Whatever is that close?
And she's like, what is going...
Why are you so taken aback?
I'm like, I'm so mad.
And she's like, what is going... why are you so terrible at this?
And he's like, what?
Yeah.
Oh, I love when they're shocked.
Mm-hmm.
We actually, I do think there should be more bad sex.
Yeah.
Well, there's...
I think it's a wicked bargain with a rake, rogue something by Megan Franton.
It's like a mahogany, like brownish cover.
It's in our Hazards of Duke series, I think.
He is also, he thinks he's great and he is not.
And the vaguest memory I have.
Sure.
It's in that one too.
So we've got three.
I just think there should be more bad sex.
There's the...
How to Win a Wallflower, it's not bad exactly, but their first time having sex isn't very
good.
And it's just kind of presented as like a normal, like, it's not going to be great the
first time.
And I actually really liked that.
I thought it was like very like tender emotionally, like it worked.
It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was like, oh, that's like very realistic.
I know.
I like when that happens.
Like, there's also The Duchess War by Courtney Milan.
I think was he...
I can't remember if...
I think he was just really bad at sex.
I think that's what it really is.
I can't remember if he was like a...
Yeah, he was a virgin.
So one, he was a virgin.
So I guess that explains it.
But he thought the first time that they had sex was great.
And it was not.
And she was like, yeah, because he was like, holy shit.
That's what the poets write about, guys.
I understand now.
I am part of the knowledgeable.
And that's also Eloisa James's Rapunzel one.
Oh, I think he was also a virgin.
They're both virgins and it hurt so bad for her.
And he was just on cloud nine.
Because they got married super fast and it was like crazy chemistry.
He played the cello or she played it.
Someone played a cello.
And then they had sex and she was like, I am never doing that again.
She locks herself in the tower.
He is distraught.
Honestly, I didn't even like the book, but it was hilarious.
Because it was so bad.
So apparently that's that we know a lot about that one.
Once Upon a Tower is that one.
But it's so fun.
Just the horror that they feel when they're like, you're not satisfying.
Like what?
What?
As they should.
As they should, yes.
And that one, she doesn't really tell him.
She just like, I think she just like shuts down and just ascapes.
And he's very confused.
But I think most of the other ones, they're like actively like, hey, you need some work.
So that was that was nice.
Got some notes for you.
Yeah.
Big day.
She wrote him like a syllabus in Business with a Professor, I think.
She had like a full, she was invested.
Just giving the kiss quotient.
Yeah.
That's another one of my favorite sex lessons books.
Yeah, I need to reread it.
God, that book hits every note.
Yeah, it's fine.
Helen Wong, I will read anything you write and it will own me.
Let's see.
I'm trying to look at like what I read in July.
That isn't something we already discussed.
I know.
I'm just a little bit daunting for this episode because we haven't done like a normal.
I'll throw out.
I won't really talk about it because I know we're planning on doing a full episode about
it.
But I did read Queen Bee.
Oh, yeah.
By Omelie Howard.
I don't really care for YA most of the time, but I'll take a YA historical.
And I think that one was really fun.
Like quite literally, it's just like a vibe.
It is honestly.
Go get your revenge girl.
Make her suffer.
Yeah, because when you start, you're like, does she really deserve like, is she just
kind of a mean girl?
Does she deserve and then you're like, oh, yeah, it gave me everything.
Like it was it was I love that book.
Because, yeah, I love when the YA and the historical intersect.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's good.
That's good soup.
That's a throwback meme.
I guess that doesn't really count as my submission.
Speaking of good soup, I did read the seven year slip.
My eight person book club picked that for our July book and the audio book came in and
I was like, I guess I'll read it way early because normally even for my own book clubs,
I'm reading them the night before.
I had to read that one night before and after and every I love that book so much.
I know you do.
It didn't hit for me the way it did for you, but that's OK.
I think Ashley Poston's writing is just not for me or not not not for me.
Like I didn't I gave it four stars because you did you get three stars at Dead Romantics?
Yeah, I didn't care.
Yeah, one.
Um, I think part of it is just it does that thing that most contemporary romances do where
it uses too many contemporary references for me.
She does that a lot.
Yeah.
It tries to be funny and I'm like, ah, your humor and mine does not align.
It's fine.
I gave it four stars.
It was more like the romance itself was not something that I was like, oh yes, the best
romance ever, but I think that the time travel aspect was done really interesting.
Have you seen The Lake House?
No.
Aha, it's based on the Lake House, which is Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
And that movie is crazy.
It's time slept, too.
So basically, like he gets a house.
She has a house in two different time periods.
They like write letters back and forth and then they're like presence merge.
And so and then the Dead Romantics was just like heaven kind of by with Reese Witherspoon
and Mark Ruffalo.
So like to if you like those movies, those books.
Okay, well, I'm not seeing either of them.
Probably will not be watching them.
But I thought it was an interesting it did not go the direction that I thought it was
going to go in a good way.
I was kind of worried about it.
And then yeah, it was lower angst than I thought it was going to be.
It was lower angst, and I just thought it was kind of a fascinating vehicle for looking
at like, processing grief.
Yeah.
So that's, I think, when most of my enjoyment of it came from.
I think it was, I think the grief aspect was really well done, which I think makes sense
when you read her author's note, she was experiencing a loss during the rewrites for the book.
And you can, I think, see that.
So yeah, one of the better contemporary I mean, like I said, I feel like I did not act
accurately, describe I gave it four stars, like it was a good book.
I enjoyed it.
The romance was sweet.
I loved his southern accent in the audio.
See, I didn't.
Oh, I loved it.
I guess I am from the south.
I do not hear it often.
So it worked for me.
Yeah, that's okay.
My next one is Her Good Side by Rebecca Weatherspoon.
It's a YA.
Again, I read this one so long ago.
When did I even read that?
It was June 2nd.
So pardon my memory.
But I really liked this one because I feel like I've read a lot of like contemporary
like YA's like, you know, throughout my life, and especially recently and stuff.
And there's definitely like, I think I saw this in Twitter too.
There's a marked shift of kind of like aging up YA's and like there's a lot of like sex
talk in them now, which I think is good.
Like there are different like things, you know, when you're a young person reading,
it's good to have a range.
But I think nowadays, it's really rare to find like an older like YA characters who
are still like very inexperienced and like very like innocent.
And this one, I think did it really well.
Like they were both super awkward.
She had never even had a first kiss.
She like had a huge crush on this guy, asked him to the dance.
He was like, absolutely no way, Sailor.
Like I can't do it.
You're just too, you're too innocent.
And then the hero, suddenly like he had like a glow up over the summer.
So he got really hot.
And he had previously like been a nerd.
So he didn't know like he had no experience with girls.
He had no clue what to do.
He was kind of a lackluster boyfriend to her friends.
Like they had started dating like half like a little bit into the book.
The friend is kind of like he is cute, but not a lot going on.
And so then they start fake dating to like figure out how to actually date someone and
like be, I don't know, experienced or whatever.
And so I just thought it was really nice to kind of like take it back a little bit and
like experience some of the more innocence of YA.
I've just read a lot recently, which again, I think it's a good thing.
I just remember like when I was reading YA, like when I was a YA, there was like no sex
or any like talks of it or anything.
And I feel like four out of five now that I read are like the one characters at least
already had sex, one whatever.
So it's just interesting to compare.
But it was really cute.
The audiobook was really good.
And I will definitely reread it at some point.
I read someday my Duke will come by Christina Britton, which I've been sitting on for approximately
a million years.
Oh, that's going in my speech now.
I know.
It probably will make it into mine, although I don't think it'll be the same as yours.
I have a feeling I know what at least I have a couple of options that I feel like you would
rank it before the one that I picked.
So I'm hoping we have different.
It'll be fine.
I still have the last book in that series to read, but I've read all the other.
Wreck my heart.
Why don't you, Christina?
I've been sitting on these latter two because I mean, I read the Sinful Spinsters.
Yeah.
The green and the pink.
Yeah.
The three I Love Sin books, someday my Duke will come is the second.
I cannot for the life of me remember the titles of the others, but they're related to Dukes.
It's the one Mulan song, A Duke Worth Fighting For is book three.
Sure.
Yeah, that's horrible.
And the red is the first one and it's Peter and Lenora, but I don't remember what the
title is.
It doesn't matter.
The point is that's that trilogy.
And then the second book will have come out today when this episode is out.
I have to read that still.
It is very good.
And some dudes have all the luck.
There we go is the first one.
And then once a Duke got to do with it will have just come out.
And those are like spin offs of this.
So it's on the same island and you see some of the characters.
I actually I so I've read those.
And then in someday my Duke will come you have Lady Tash who like is in all of the books.
And oh my god, I literally just read this.
Why can I not remember her name?
Our main character, Clara, is like, you know, you'll you'll need a companion trying to like
imply that maybe she could still be the companion and Lady Tash is like, Oh, no, don't worry
about it.
I've got a girl picked out Katrina Denby.
She's on the way.
And I of course have read Katrina's book, which is the one that came out.
I know her.
It brought me a lot of joy.
It was fun.
I like I really like the I love sin as her writing, writing the heartstrings every time.
Yeah, it was.
Well I had read it because she was ruined.
Although you don't know until later in the book what precisely happened.
And I was like, it was rougher than I was expecting it to be.
Oh, I was gonna say I put this one in the last one on hold for so long, even though
I read the first one a million years ago because they don't have audio books.
I know.
It rips my heart out not having an audio book and just reading the book.
I think I think I gave that book four stars when I first read it because I like took like
a huge gap.
Like I read like the first half, took a break, read other things just for like reasons that
I don't remember.
And then like I picked it back up.
So I don't think the end hit as much as it should have because I reread the second half.
I was like, oh my god, so I bumped it up to five stars.
I was like, I weeping epilogue.
So I also read half of that in this time frame.
Well I've already talked about so I read the entire the London trilogy series.
Like I said, Private Arrangements is coming up in speak now we talked about a little bit
for us one of mine that I just read as well.
Yeah, for our like speak now moment.
So I won't talk about it besides the fact that I love it.
And the fact that she should have shoved that wedding ring up herself.
I will be fascinated when you read Ravishing the Heiress.
Yeah, the whole time I was reading Private Arrangements.
I was like, this is a they're different relationship dynamics, but a very similar premise in the
sense that it's a marriage that it's not a marriage in truth that now could potentially
be coming to an end at least the way that it has been, and they have to work on producing
an heir.
So there's that like forced intimacy aspect.
But again, very different like relationship dynamics, because private arrangements, they
hate each other.
And Ravishing the Heiress, she's just been secretly pining for him for years.
And I preferred Ravishing the Heiress.
And I thought it was a more interesting relationship arc than I mean, I love private arrangements
also.
But the whole time I was reading Private Arrangements, I was like, I like Ravishing the Heiress better.
And I mean, knowing us, you'll be the opposite.
That has a good chance of happening.
You'll probably have a great chance of having.
Yeah, I mean, I was on the verge of like four or five star like I was on the verge of like
four stars for a lot of the book.
And then like the end I really liked.
It just it was not what I was expecting, because I anticipated like that I was gonna hate it.
His At Night though, the third one of that series vehemently disapprove.
And they start off so good.
And then it just got so goddamn long.
But one character from the one she's technically like engaged to in book two is the hero's
brother in book three.
So it was nice seeing him and like I liked like parts of the book.
But as a whole, Luckiest Lady in London is still my favorite of that series, I think.
And then Pride Arrangements.
So it goes in order.
Then his At Night.
But I have Ravishing the Heiress and I think I have the entire series that I got on the
Audible sale or on trip or something.
So time, they will come.
And I guess that was enough of a talk to go to you again.
It was supposed to be short, but look at us.
So Pride Arrangements.
I read to Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins, which rounds out my Women Who Dare series
read.
I wouldn't call it a favorite of hers.
I still give it four stars.
I have some others of hers that I prefer.
I think I was a little disappointed in the heist.
I think that was my main...
Kat, I was really invested in the relationship, the heist I really didn't care about.
Well, and it's because she didn't give you anything to care about.
It was like they have to go on this quest, or not quest, they have this mission, they
have to get it back.
And it just kind of works out every step of the way.
So I was looking for more difficulty that they would have to overcome.
And they just went...
Everything got according to plan and then they got out of there and I was like, oh,
where was the heist?
Beverly, I know that you can write a heist.
Maybe it was just a little treat, a little snack.
She's like, I know what you guys have been through, all these kidnappings.
This is just a little treat.
He's just going to pamper her and bathe her and give her massages and spoil her and then
it's just going to all work out.
I mean, it was fine.
The relationship was good.
The villains did be villaining only to get really some not great ends.
Not great in the sense that they deserve them.
And then there was an axe murder that you find out about.
And you're like, oh, like it was it was foreshadowed.
Beverly still Beverly.
It still happens.
Beverly still Beverly.
Just in the background.
Yeah, I was like, okay, sure.
I did appreciate Juliana Levesque pulling up.
I was like, hey, Queen, missed you.
Love you.
She was like, let me take you.
Great to see you again.
She's an icon.
She's a legend.
She is a moment.
So yeah, it was a vibe.
Again, wasn't a favorite, but it was a vibe.
Nice.
What else do I have here?
I've already read that series and I don't feel like talking about it.
I read The Duke Gets Desperate by Dan and Quincy.
It was an arc.
It comes out September 26th.
So it's in a while.
I won't say too much about it.
But basically, like he's been like, I guess, disinherited like twice.
Like his father died.
And so he's obviously a Duke.
His father, the Duke, died, left everything or like left the castle to his like new wife.
So the hero was like miffed about it.
But he's like, okay, when she dies, I will get it.
And that was like understood.
So he like had the surrounding lands and then she had the castle and then she dies, starts
out at her funeral.
And then you find out that he was also not given it this time around.
He is angry about it.
He's a wee bit dickish about it, but it worked.
And so then you find out that the second wife gave the castle to the heroine.
She had no clue it was coming.
She was like in business with her family.
Her brother was like trying to like force it out of the business.
And then she like went to this funeral and realized she now has a castle.
And since he has the lands and she has the castle, it's like a symbiotic relationship
because all the money the castle would make would be from the lands, stuff like that.
And so they have to like work together.
He wants to buy it, but he doesn't have the money.
It's a whole thing.
And they just hate each other, but they're so attracted to each other.
There's a scene that like they're just like making out, but they're so angry about it.
And it lives in my mind.
Like Mr. and Mrs. Smith energy.
Like it just, they were so angry, but it was hot.
It was good.
It was like just really, it was just a really good story, I thought.
And whenever there's like the forced cohabitation of like the castle and all that, there was
like a good drunk scene.
It was just, it was so fun.
His little angsty at the end.
He was down so bad.
I loved it.
So yeah, mark your list for September.
I had a marvelous time.
Yeah, I guess I said, I'm like, I was going to keep talking.
I don't have any more words.
Call me Ariel.
I have no words.
So true.
I just before this call was like, I have to stop saying that phrase because I've said
it so many times.
Like it's not funny anymore.
I just keep saying it.
And yet here we are.
Here we are.
Anyway, the last one I've got, because honestly, God, I don't feel like going back to my June
Reads.
So we're just sticking with July.
I read Knockout by Sarah Maclean, which comes out at the end of August.
I understand that especially these later Sarah Maclean's are not for all historical romance
readers.
Some folks just don't vibe with like the really overt aggressive like take down the power.
Which is funny because I vibe with these more than I like her old ones.
Sure.
And there I was just recently having a discussion with people that were like, that's too.
Because I saw so many people hating on bombshell.
And I'm like, do we read the same book?
Because he fucks.
He's hot.
Can you look at who?
I see or just that it's not as interesting as the more kind of subtle.
I guess.
Yeah.
Which, you know, if that's what you're here for, peace and love.
I love that for you.
I love a good, subtle historical as well.
However, do I eat up a secret society of ladies carrying out vigilante justice?
Yes, I do.
I'm a wild Winchester stand in my court.
That's not ladies, but you know.
Vibes.
I listen.
Listen.
The dynamic.
The dynamic of just a little chaos goblin.
And a starchy detective who is so obsessed with said chaos goblin, but also is so stressed
about it.
Yeah.
And he's like kind of mad.
But it's also like, I will put my life on the line.
And God forbid you put your life on the line.
That is the most like that is the worst thing.
You can do so bad.
He got so he was like, what the hell are you doing?
And then he got angry at side character.
He's like, you let her do this.
They're like, he's like, oh my God.
We didn't know.
He's like, I will murder everyone here.
Like if she gets hurt, I will kill you so hard.
And he I he I was picturing him as the detective from Miss Scarlet and the Duke, except the
detective in that show is Scottish.
And that did kind of throw me off because I had to stop.
I kept hearing that guy talk and I was like, wait, he's not Scottish.
Let me imagine Mary Jane Wells voice doing the voice that she did for him in the audiobooks.
Yeah, the whole thing.
However, Detective Inspector Thomas Peck would have a great day if I had anything to say
if I ever ran into Detective Inspector Thomas back, he would have a fantastic day.
You have a terrible day because Imogen would blow you up.
That's true.
She would not hesitate.
But maybe maybe you'd have a great like hour before it.
Maybe she will tell me you would never let's be real.
You would not.
There's not a chance.
He already didn't realize how into him everyone is.
He's like, I don't know.
I have the objective idea.
Like, I guess I'm attractive.
I love when I'm like, I want to eat you whole.
I have nothing.
I'm nothing.
I the vibe is when you can't really talk about because everyone needs to experience it for
the first time.
It's hard.
Yeah, it's got that good.
Like, it's also just so chaotically like the things that happen.
You couldn't like a million dollars brothel where I was like, that's like, what?
Like, for a million dollars, I would never have guessed that anything that was coming
in that I was like, what the f***?
That was wild.
It was big a cab energy, which you don't expect because he's a detective.
Like, there's a mystery.
And then and then and then you get to the teaser for book four.
Oh, God.
Yeah.
I am so excited.
Yeah.
Big, big image and loveless stand over here.
Every time there was a sentence that was like Detective Inspector Thomas Peck was having
a very bad day.
I was like, that's a direct quote.
That's exactly what I sounded like.
It was it was a good book.
The only thing I didn't like was that he was really caught up on the class difference.
He got over it.
It took him a while, but that's never my favorite trope.
That one that always grates on me.
So like, but I still give it five.
I mean, it was still a great book.
Yeah, there were just so many parts of that book that were just so unexpected.
So wonderful.
I think I talked about I think I ended up cutting it from the episode to say because
it was a super long episode.
I read an Earl to Remember by Stacey Reed.
Maybe I left it in.
It's basically like if you wanted to write a book for me, write this book and be Stacey
Reed, because the two things overboard and Stacey Reed together are like my like 100
percent my hopes, dreams, wishes.
Like if I had a genie, all three wishes would go to this.
Like, sorry, world peace.
And Earl to Remember by Stacey Reed.
Like it is the book.
And the funny thing is, is that I love Overboard so much.
We all know this.
But the funny thing was reading some reviews, people were like, what the hell?
Like, why is he so why is he so like, why is he so bad?
I'm like, just girls who get it, get it.
And girls who don't don't.
And that is my official statement, because it was perfect.
It was so good.
It was so hot.
It just it was so perfect.
I again, it's just overboard.
He is a nasty Earl.
He's like having to going to have a threesome.
He thinks she's in on the threesome.
She's the caterer on his like houseboat.
He has a horrible mistress.
She pushes him off the boat.
He gets amnesia.
She like rescues him.
And she's like, the funny thing is that in the movie, he like takes Goldie Hawn as like
a little bit of revenge.
But like in the book, because they like they like made out like once like he like thought
she was in on this threesome.
And she was kind of like, I mean, he's hot, but like, I'm not.
But also, so he has the only thing he remembers is when he sees her is that they like had
a passionate affair.
It didn't go any farther than that.
But in his mind, he like knows what she feels and tastes like.
So he's like, I know her.
I have had intimate knowledge of her.
So she's immediately ruined.
She's like, I like you.
That's not me.
Like, you don't know me.
And he's like, no, actually, I know.
I know you.
Like, I don't know much, but I know you.
And so she has to like claim him as her husband, like her husband's that they got married like
super fast because she'd be ruined otherwise.
So I thought that was really fun.
It was just a really great book.
I eat up amnesia.
So no surprises there.
I just was like this is like one of my most anticipated reads for the year.
And it delivered.
Boy, did it deliver.
So that's all I've got.
And like the food content.
And then she's got like the little she's got her siblings.
So then, oh, yeah.
And then he cooks for her.
It's a whole thing.
So when is that out?
I don't even know.
It's out in my heart.
August 22nd.
So go for it.
Knockout.
What a great day.
August 22nd is going to be.
Yeah, I love that book so much.
Stacy, she's her writing.
I love it.
I guess you don't have any you don't have any more you.
Nice.
Let me see if I do unplug my phone.
Bebidi babidi babidi bebidi boo boo.
Bibbidi babidi boo.
But if it were scat jazz.
Wait, that would kind of hit somebody who can just scat.
I was like, I can't.
I don't know, Bibbidi babidi boo for us.
I read A Lady for a Duke, which is great. I'll be talking about it more in a future
episode so I don't need to talk about it now. You've already talked about it, but it was
so good. So I read that one. That one was on my TBR for ages. I did read the first three
Maiden Lanes that I hadn't read. Wicked Intentions, Notorious Pleasures, and Scandalous Desires.
Of the three Wicked Intentions is my favorite of those. I really enjoyed that one. It's
a fun book. It was really fun. It's wild. It was wild. The third act of that book is
actually insane. There's no reason for that to happen. I was like, whoa. It's also one
of my favorite examples of the historical romance hero who's like, oh, I have these
dark, twisted sexual proclivities. In his defense, he is touch averse to that out of
layer to it, but for the most part, it's just that he likes to tie up and blindfold his
partners. And it's like, my dude, that's just bondage.
And then unfortunately, people are being murdered in that fashion and he's like, oh shit. Yeah,
that's rough for him. That's really rough for him. I think my favorite part was it was
a great, this isn't even, it was just a great murder mystery. I was like, what the fuck
is happening? But I just love how he was so uninterested in love until he found her. And
then he was just so hurt at the end. He was just so, he was down so bad, but he stood
up for himself. It's like, I deserve it. It was Lazarus. Lazarus. Well, cause then he
shows up in, I think it's that Duke of sin, the crazy one I read for the Valentine episode,
cause his name is Valentine Napier. Whoa. Lazarus shows up. So I had read Duke of sin
before this one because the heroin of that has some connection to that family. My review
of Duke of sin. Well shit. I mean, that stands. What a crazy book. I mean, yeah, I, everything
that I've learned about me in lane, cause I've only read the first one, but everything
is like, huh? Honestly, because then like this number two could have technically worked
for like our, like, like a love triangle situation, but I didn't enjoy it as much. Scandalous
desires was the charming, charming Mickey. The river pirate. River pirate. It was an interesting
book. It wasn't my favorite. Um, I actually will just never recover from his character
introduction. The introduction hit so hard. There was, we've, I'm, I don't remember if
you left it in whatever episode we were discussing. No, it's in the, it's in the bonus episode.
Okay. So if you're subscribed to the newsletter, you can listen to the bonus episode. Our entire
unedited. Um, so we don't have to talk about it now, but Jesus Christ, nothing hit me.
That smacked me across the face. There's no reason for Elizabeth to have written that.
No, because then I like, cause like I said, I think in our last episode, like I saw that
character, she was happily married. I was like, Oh, that's cute. And then he was bad
at sex. I was like, Oh, I understand now. I see how this is always going to start. Marked
for death. If you worked for death, you won't go down on her. So in the daylight hours and
wouldn't go down on her. Like it, I mean, don't do that if you want to stay alive, I
mean, um, so like the setup, I think was just like the book itself was, is very good. I
liked a lot of it. Um, I know, I'm not sure if I liked Ashford McNabb's accent for him.
It wasn't my favorite. And then the audio book itself, I lost some steam because I was
getting to their first sex scene and then it just skipped over. Like it, yeah, it was
like, she was like feeling him up. And then it was just like, they woke up, he woke up
from a dream and she was next to him. And I'm like, did Elizabeth Hoyt give me closed
door? I was like, what? I was scandalized. And then I was like, I was like, rewind it.
I was like, what am I missing? So I listened to it again. I was like, no, that's not right.
And then I kept listening. I was like, what, like there was, how are, like they talked
about having sex. I was like, huh? And so then I go to my, my physical copy, lo and
behold, they cut five pages of the sex scene and I was like, where'd it go? So I keep listening.
And then you get to a part where he's literally like pulling out of her or actually, no, he's
staying inside of her and they're going to bed. He's like, I'm just going to stay here.
It's fine. Um, and then you, and then, and then the next scene cuts to the sex scene
that was cut. So then she's now just like feeling him up again. They haven't had sex.
Penis is not in that vagina. And I'm like, why is this happening? And then there was
a dream that he had. And then that dream is then pasted like at the end of it, like that
editor, whoever edited that audio book. And it's been out for a long time now. I don't
know what happened, but it kind of harsh, the vibe a little bit. I was like, it was
4 AM. I was so confused and I was just like, oh, what is happening? We got there eventually.
I had just read it physically for that scene. And then I piece it all together, but who
knows? Um, yeah, crazy book, crazy times were had. And if you listen to the audio book,
just know it ain't right. It ain't correct. So that happened. And recently, uh, yeah.
Okay. So I read a nobleman's guide to seducing a scoundrel like KJ Charles. Again, that's
an arc. I haven't written my review yet, which sucks for me because that is daunting because
like it's so hard to write book like reviews about books you love. Like, it's just so hard.
And I finished it. I was like, that was perfect. That's all. That's all I've got. Like it was
just, it was perfect. Yeah. Everything that happened in the country lives, secret gentlemen
was just like amplified, like the romance, like this one just like it was just so good.
Like the one character, like I said, it was like Luke, who is the 13 year old in secret
lives of country gentlemen. And then it's 13 years later. So he's like 26. And then
there's a, what is he seeing Earl? Yeah, Earl. Um, so I went back and reread a part of the
secret lives of country gentlemen. And it like introduces like the characters of this
book there. They're like the, he's like the Earl of Oxney and they like come up in that
one. Um, and just like the relationship, Luke is he's scheming and you don't know what his
scheme is. And then like it gets revealed and things happen. And the appalt, the groveling
here was key. It was a really good gravel. Um, it was just so good. And it was hot. I
think it was hotter than book one. The relationship hit harder for me. I loved the, like the high
civil, like everything that they were doing is just, it was so good. And I am terrified
of writing review, which is okay, I guess. Best position to be in, I suppose. Um, and
then just the other one, the last one would be diary, diary of an accidental wallflower
by Jennifer McQuiston. Um, Jennifer McQuiston is an author that I have loved one of her
books. It was What Happens in Scotland, another amnesia. They have a one night stand. She
like wakes up in his bed. Um, she proceeds to knock him out with a toilet because she's
like, what the fuck happened? And then the entire day is them like piecing together what
happens the night before. He didn't have amnesia until she hit him in the head. And then he
had amnesia was because it's just like, like they were like so drunk. So it was like they're
blackout. Like what did we do when we were blackout? Um, and that book, ooh, again, another
like, if you were to write a book for me, it's that one. Um, so diary of an accidental
wallflower. Um, she was like a like a kind of a mean girl, not really. He's a hot doctor.
Um, she gets attacked by a goose, um, twists her ankle. So she's a wallflower. She has
to stand in the wallflower line. And then the lady who's hosting the ball, um, her private
doctor is there and she's like ailing. So he's there to make sure she stays okay. Um,
and so then he like checks on her ankle and they just, they fall in love throughout the
book and it was really good. He was a hot, he was hot. He was a hot doctor. And I just
really liked the, the mean girl characters and seeing them. And she, it wasn't even really
that mean. She was just kind of like stuck up a little bit, um, and didn't think that
she could ever lower herself to a mere doctor. Um, but it was really fun. And then her, one
of her sisters is the heroine of the next book. Um, yeah, it was, it was really good.
So that's all I got, but expect more on the other books as I read them. And then that,
that's all we read and that's all she wrote.
Yep. I got nothing else.
No, currently reading Dreaming of You. I'm excited for that. For that episode of every,
like people keep swiping up on my Instagram and being like, this is your first time. I'm
like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Well, there you have it. Go forth, listen to Dreaming
of You and stream Speak Now, Taylor's version to prepare for the next episode. So long,
farewell. Auf Wiedersehen, adieu. Adieu. Adieu. And you, and you.
I just, you needed to finish that out. I needed to get to the rhyme.