February 26, 2025 • 43 mins
Hi friends!
On our second episode of the podcast we talk about a little romance book called Love & Lattes by Beth Reekles.
We give our honest opinion, and talk about how the book related to our own lives.
Join us to see what we think and let us know your opinions!
Welcome back to our Court ✨🫶🏻
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to a court of copy and books podcast. This is episode two. I'm Chelsea. I'm Alisha.
(00:23):
And today we are going to be talking about love and lattes. So this was a book that I saw and
randomly grabbed and then talked Chelsea into reading it. And we have regrets. Yeah. It was a
rough one. Yeah, it wasn't our best but here. I had high hopes for it. I did too. I was like,
(00:48):
okay, cute premise. Love that. Yeah. And then it just kind of went downhill from the back cover.
Yeah. We both gave it two out of five stars. Yep. Which is we're pretty generous with our
usually we are. So yeah, I feel like even two stars has a little bit generous. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:08):
Because I'm going to be honest, I don't really have many good things to say about it. If any,
the premise was good. Yeah. I feel like the idea was there. Yes. It was not executed well. Yeah,
I would agree wholeheartedly. I also think that having a book called Love and lattes,
(01:31):
where you literally have them drinking lattes once. I also had that problem. They drink tea. Yeah.
All the time. Or hot chocolate. I know it's based in London. Yes. So like, I understand like,
they're bigger tea drinkers there. For sure. But if you're having it called Love and lattes, like,
(01:52):
have him write like cute little messages on the latte cup and bring it to her. Thank you.
Thank you. Like, have it involved somehow where it's like part of the plot. That was what I was
expecting. Yeah. And I just was let down constantly because every time that she was like, I'm gonna
go get a fresh cup. It was a tea. Yeah. Like, don't get me wrong. We're big tea drinkers. Yeah,
we're drinking tea. Right. We love tea. However, if you're calling it a latte. Right. Because the
(02:21):
whole reason we even decided to read this book for Book Club, our podcast, is because it's a
court of coffee and books. Right. So figured we'd stick with the coffee theme. And it's February,
so love and lattes. Right. Right. That was my whole thought process behind getting this book in the
first place. And then I was just severely let down. Yeah. I will say the kissing booth. I'm gonna
(02:47):
really date myself here. I read it on Wattpad. Whoa. Like when it was being updated. You say this,
first off, you say that's like, I'm not older than you. So I mean, so you're aging us both. I know.
(03:11):
And I really liked it then. I mean, I was like 13 at the time. Yeah. You know,
teenager. This would have been great around that time. We probably would have liked it better.
I think I still would have been confused by some of the language in here because I was
confused now. Yeah. I think my main problem, not main problem, but like one of the bigger
(03:33):
problems about the writing that I found is that it did feel like a Wattpad book. It did not feel
like she had an editor. That because I have one yellow tab on here, which is a spelling error.
I highlighted it. I didn't have but I did highlight it.
(03:56):
Because I was like, excuse me, as somebody who works in quality and literally tabs all day long,
I was like, I have to like it. I can't not, I can't not like make me be your editor,
Beth, because somebody is slacking. I yeah, I know it's one spelling error. Like,
but still I was just looking to see who the like the publishing house was. Delacorte romance.
(04:24):
I mean, you just stop up your game just like a little bit. Just a tad, just like one letter. Yeah.
But I will say like, I felt that her writing was still very childish. It was very young. It did
not feel like she has grown as an author from the Wattpad days. I can agree with that. I know you
said you didn't read the book, but you watched the movies for the kissing booth. Yes. And I've seen
(04:51):
them too. I think a lot of people have. Yeah. And they are very corny, cheesy, like 100%. I feel
like they're made to be good, cheesy. Yeah. Yeah. Like they're meant to be like almost bad. Yeah. Yeah.
And the second hand embarrassment I felt watching that movie, even though I enjoyed it, I enjoyed
(05:12):
it because like I knew what I was going into. Right. But like, like I knew it wasn't going to be like
this great cinematic masterpiece going in. It wasn't going to be like how to lose a guy in 10 days.
Right. Or like, you know, these classic rom-coms. Right. But this book gave me the same like
second hand ick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can agree with that.
(05:37):
It was a struggle from I, page one, I opened it and I was like, oh, they're mentioning Harry Styles.
This is going to be the best freaking book of my life. I literally, I sent you the picture of page
one and I was like, okay, there's Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo. I was like, this is probably,
(06:01):
you know, fairly up to date. Yeah. Good references. Yeah. And that's word on them. You know what?
I should have known because she didn't even know what Harry Styles song it was.
Okay. That's valid. It was Watermelon Sugar. Let's be very real here. Probably. In a club for sure.
Well, that's like, yeah. One of his more upbeat songs. Yeah. Yeah. Every other song is depressing.
(06:26):
Facts. We love you, Harry, but very depressing. Okay. That's the second time we've talked about
One Direction on this podcast. Oh, it's not going to end. Okay, cool. Glad. Glad for that.
I sneak them into my everyday conversation. There's nothing wrong with that.
I also, I know you feel the same way. The main character, Anna and Elise Sherwood.
(06:54):
Absolutely insufferable. Okay, so bad. I took notes. The first, first thing I wrote on here.
First impression of Anna. She's rude. Facts. She's rude. She was. She was, what was it, cold and
unlikable? Yeah, cold and unlikable, which is, if you guys haven't read the book, which good for you.
(07:19):
I don't blame you. Just take this all in and don't bother reading it. Yeah. She complains the entire
time that people see her as cold and unlikable. And yes, they do because that's what you are, honey.
Yeah. She just, she pushes away anybody who tries to care about her. She pushes away her friends.
(07:40):
She pushes away this guy who likes her and that's trying to like treat her well. She pushes away
her family. Yeah. And I feel like there's a, there's a line of, of where people are actually cold and
unlikable and where people can be portrayed as that. For sure. I think Deep End by Allie Hazelwood,
(08:04):
they do a really good job of showing how somebody can be portrayed as cold and unlikable when they're
not. Correct. She is and was really, she was just rude and self-centered. Yeah. And everything was
like, only about her. Yep. She very much was like, I don't want to do these things because my mom did
(08:29):
them and I don't want to become like my mom, but then did all the things that her mom did. Yeah.
Everything was about work, just like her mother. Yep. And like, trust me, I understand, like,
people are going to have PTSD when it comes to like parents and stuff. Yeah. But
to base your entire life and all of your adult decisions about not being your mom.
(08:51):
Not to mention, these people are 19 years old. Why did I think that the entire time they were like
26 working in like these fancy corporate jobs? Like they're 19. They're all interns from college
and this is their summer break. It's our university. Which was another thing. She's, I felt like
(09:16):
college is very much like an American word. Like a lot of people I felt like called it uni. Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't know. There was some disconnects there. Yeah, but she's from,
she's from the UK. Is she? Yeah. Well, I'm even more confused. I'm pretty sure. I don't know. I'm
like 99.9% sure she's from the UK. I mean, it would make sense. Yeah. But, well, I don't know.
(09:42):
What? Because I'm the kissing booth would have been the snogging booth. I don't know, man.
Oh, the first tab I have in here. Oh, I'm ready. Okay. There's a passage in here.
The first sentence of it is, Nadia Winks, which looks totally menacing. And there's a,
(10:08):
I can't read. I got to take this. There's a polite ripple of laughter. How do you wink menacingly?
I don't know. Like I was trying to like genuinely sit there and figure it out because I didn't want
to give this book like a fair shot. But yeah, how do you wink menacingly? If somebody can tell us
(10:30):
that would be great. Yeah, please send us a video. So that we can see it. We'll put you on our next
podcast. This is what it means to wink menacingly. Yes, sir. There was, I had like a few places that
like I highlighted because I felt like she was like relatable in those moments. And like,
(10:51):
people who know me personally and some of you I know will listen to this. So, hey,
work tends to run my life. So there was definitely things that I felt like I definitely connected
with her on and then they went out the window shortly thereafter. So like there was one passage,
(11:12):
this is one of the first ones that I highlighted. It's just that there are bigger, more important
things to focus on that this time in my life feels so make or break and I can't let myself miss out,
which would I regret more missing a night out or missing out on an opportunity that could change
the trajectory of my future career, potentially my whole life for the better. It's a no brainer.
And I've always felt like that I'm always more the person that's going to focus on work.
(11:37):
And I think we definitely feel the same way. Like, yeah, this is an opportunity for something
better. I don't want to miss it. Right. I'm always going to focus more on work than I am to like
my social life. My social life does not really exist. Like I hang out with you. Yeah, I was
gonna say I hang out with you and I live with my fiance. So my mom and you. Right. Right. Like we
(11:58):
are each other's social life. So like, but I feel like even honest, like, if work came first to one
of us, like, we understand because of who we are. But when I was 19, I almost had like,
they were almost even where like I wanted to have a social life more. And I was still a
workaholic, but it was different because my position wasn't as like serious as mine technically
(12:23):
is now. I worked at Payless when I was 19. I was gonna say I worked at a nonprofit when I was 19.
Yeah, it was like, I moved to very different. Yeah. Like I moved here and started getting more
serious positions. But like, I don't know, it's just crazy to think that somebody at 19
is so concerned about their like, how it's gonna affect them. Yeah, every single 30 years that
(12:50):
they make. Yeah. And like, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. No, not at all. I think
that's a good thing to be aware of like the choices that you make and how it's gonna affect you. But
I think she definitely let it control her in a way that if she didn't stop and she woke up in 30
years and looked back and was like, what have I been doing all this time? She's gonna have nothing
(13:13):
to show for it other than no family, no friends. And you're gonna sit there and you're gonna be
working for 12, 14 hours a day. No one wants to be doing that when they're 50. No one wants to be
doing that now. Nope. I definitely don't know. I definitely didn't want to do that as a 19 year
old. No. Like, don't get me wrong. Do I work those hours sometimes? Yes, but it's different.
(13:37):
I have a career. Like, you know, I don't know, it's just crazy. So like, there were some things
that like, I do think that the writing was good to point out, like, how work can overtake your life
if you're not careful. Yeah. And you will miss out on things. I don't know if that was like,
(13:58):
meant to be part of like the lesson of the book. Yeah. But I almost took it as like, maybe I need
to maybe reevaluate things a little bit because I do spend a lot of my time working. Yeah. I think
with this being such a work heavy related book, I felt like that's part of the reason I couldn't
(14:19):
get into it because when I'm picking up a book to read, I don't want to be reading about outlook
and teams and like all these things. There were V lookups in here and I do them all the time for
work and I was crying on the inside. I was like, please stop talking about Excel. Literally.
(14:41):
I yeah, yeah, I want to escape when I'm reading a book. Like, I don't want to then think about and
compare it to my own life. Like, and I think that I did it would read nonfiction. I think there are
good ways to do an office romance without a hundred percent like they are sitting at the computer
doing that job. Yes. Yes. I think that was definitely where I struggled a bit and like,
(15:04):
I would have to pause when it got really heavy into like the work stuff. It just was taking over
and was difficult for me to separate. Yeah. I also think when they introduced Lloyd, first of all,
(15:26):
all I could think about every single time they said his name was Lloyd's taco truck.
If you're not from Buffalo, you will not understand this, but there's
a restaurant that has a taco truck and that's called Lloyd's. Yes. And it's very well known
around Buffalo and Western New York where we're from. So it's literally every single time I read it.
(15:50):
I was like, thank you. Because she started calling by his last name, which is Fletcher,
which I felt like was more digestible for me because, okay, maybe it's gonna grow up here.
Maybe. Maybe. Like, I don't, when I think of Lloyd, like I think of like, I don't know. I
guess I don't really think of anything. I mean, that's all I could think about every single time
(16:12):
I read his name. I just, I also don't love Lloyd's. I don't love Lloyd's either. Okay. That's because
I don't really love cabbage and they put a lot of cabbage. So much cabbage and like, I don't eat
cabbage. So I'm sorry, we're getting sidetracked. Welcome to the preview of our brains. Sorry.
This is very ADHD central. It really was. So when they introduced him, other than the fact that I
(16:37):
all I could think about the entire time was tacos, I felt that it was very much, okay,
this is Anna. This is Lloyd, whatever Anna likes, Lloyd's the opposite. Yes. And it was very,
it felt like they just listed out Anna's qualities and was like, okay, what's the opposite of that?
(16:59):
Oh, Lloyd, that's your personality. Yeah. I thought. And then they tried to like make him
into a similar version of her and like have him be almost Jekyll and Hyde. Yeah. And I struggled
with that a lot because he would put on this huge like big persona at work that he was this great,
(17:20):
you know, big deal and that he thought so highly of himself. Well, realistically, he was like,
I'm trying to sabotage my dad's company because I don't want to be here and he's taking over my
entire life. I also didn't like that turn of the story. I agree. I felt like it was very,
well, here's the savior kind of thing. And I'm like, he's so young. He's so, not that he doesn't
(17:49):
have experience there because he did say he's been there since he was, you know, 15 years old. Right.
But, but what 15 year old is going to start plotting against our dad? Right. And also,
so it made it seem like his dad was fouling at the company and he was doing right like Lloyd
(18:12):
was going to save the company and he had all these great ideas and I'm sure he does, you know,
I don't know for sure. He's going to have great ideas all the time. Absolutely. I might not think
about that. Of course. I think they kind of painted Topher. Is that the dance? Topher. I think they
kind of painted Topher as like a bad guy when I don't think he really was. I think he was doing
(18:37):
the best with what he had and he was trying to raise two very strongly minded men. Yeah.
Who, and you know, grieve his wife at the same time. Right. And I don't like the fact that they
never really did anything with that either because one of the main things that I had, what's his
name, Floyd, I kept wanting to call him Topher. Lloyd kept saying is I miss my dad's smile. I
(19:03):
miss that he smiled. He just puts on this corporate persona now where it's he just like laughs. Yeah.
And it's his business laugh. Yeah. They never really, they never went into like
what that grieving process looks like and how like maybe Topher could have helped his sons get
through all of this. Yeah. Like there if you wanted to have somebody be a savior, like why didn't
(19:26):
you have it be like Topher being there for his kids? They really didn't have a lot of interaction.
No. With Topher. No. And like dad with his sons. Yeah. Will barely like and I understand like part
of the thing was that, you know, Will was stepping away from the company and didn't want to be a part
of it and all of that. But when he's there, he had zero contact with his father. Yeah.
(19:51):
Like I just felt like it was very weird and like forced. I also, I loved Will. I'm just going to say
that. Will was my favorite character. Yeah. He will was the two stars. He was. I felt like this
book I could have skipped 30 pages and picked up and not have missed a thing. I didn't feel like
(20:12):
there was really much going on. Like, you know, there's like this story where like it has like the
introduction, the climax, you know, there wasn't one. No, I would say maybe the attempt was to
have the climax be like the emails. Yeah. Maybe the emails being released or like the interns,
(20:37):
the day where they all presented what they did for the summer. Yeah. Which they never even said
who got a job offer. They never even said what came of that. I thought they did. They said the
two people were working there, but they didn't say that they got the job offer. I will also say that
when the first email showed up, I literally wrote, why would you write email drafts? OMG,
(21:01):
I literally can't. I just thought to myself, I was like, why would you put this on your work
computer? Yes, that was my thought. Like maybe that's just like corporate America. Like you
don't do anything personal on your work computer. No, but like exhibit a why not? Because your
emails are going to get leaked to the entire company. I T can literally see all of your
(21:23):
teens messages. Yeah. Like why would why wouldn't you just like go home and write it on your home
email or like in your diary or yeah, write it down. Like are you going to tell me that your
only option was to write an email draft to this son of the CEO? Yeah, no, I couldn't. I could.
(21:46):
There was some mistakes made. Yeah, there was just a lot of
a lot of mistakes made. Yeah. Anna was
from the first chapter. I was like, she's so rude. Like I really hope she gets better.
She didn't know. But from the second she saw Lloyd because across the bar, she was like,
(22:08):
oh my god, he's so hot. He's looking at me like, oh, and then she gets like distracted.
And then he shows up later staying next to her at the bar and she's immediately rude to him.
Mm hmm. Like he hasn't done anything. He just said he just existed. I'll just help you get a drink.
I'll help wave bartender. And she's like, what is it your way of flirting? Yeah.
(22:29):
Well, clearly it worked because you're talking to him. Right. But I like she was she was so rude.
She was rude to her co-workers. She was rude to her bosses. So rude to her mother. Mm hmm. Like
so rude. Yeah. But I the fact that she was mad that Lloyd pretended not to know her,
(22:52):
or like he didn't remember her. What did you expect him to do? Like you're standing in front of all
of his colleagues. I was like, oh, what's up girl I made out with. Yeah, you want him to drop down
on one knee and propose to you right? Like what was your thought process? And then she literally
brought it up throughout the entire book after he explained why he did that.
Which like I would have also done the same thing. Like I'm going to pretend I don't know you. Yeah.
(23:16):
I'm not going to embarrass myself in front of the entire company, especially after what had happened
the year prior. Right. Like she just would not let anything go.
I don't know. I struggled a lot with her and like there were some like cute moments throughout the
book or like forced cute moments, I guess more like it. Like I wanted to really like them, but
(23:38):
I think my favorite scene, I will say like this was cute was like them hanging out at the like
coffee shop. Yeah, I liked that one. Yeah. That was cute. But that's about as far as I got.
I got to that and I was like, oh, okay, maybe this is going somewhere. Right. Nope. And then we
backtracked for the next 45 pages. Yep. Yep. It was just I struggled. Telsi and I both struggled.
(24:05):
We're both saying to each other like we just kept falling asleep trying to read it because we just
were losing our minds. Actually, I just flipped to something that was really funny. So I'm in a
leadership class right now. And our first day, what we had to do was use marshmallows and
spaghetti to make a tower. And that's like called out in this book. And it was like my own team is
(24:31):
similar, similarly scattered. So I don't feel obligated to spend any particular amount of time with
them beyond building a tower of marshmallows and spaghetti as part of a teamwork exercise. And I
thought it was so random that I had literally just done that like a month ago. Really? Had no idea it
existed until a month ago. And then like no idea it existed. Yeah. So like you can use like tape,
rope, spaghetti and one marshmallow, like the marshmallow has to be on the top. And like you
(24:55):
have to see who can build like the tallest tower and stuff with it. Okay. It's very difficult. Yeah.
We were one of like three that were still standing at the end. I feel like that would be better than
like tell me three things about 100% because we talked while we did it. And it was great. Yeah.
It was a good team building exercise. So do I. They're terrible. Agreed. Like,
(25:18):
I'm like, don't get me wrong, I still had to do them. But like this was better. Like so I thought
that was kind of funny. I was like, okay, like, I can relate to that because I literally just did that.
So I thought that was kind of cute. I have a lot of quotes in here about Tasha being a bitch.
I will also say to not to Alicia specifically, but to you guys,
(25:43):
Alicia spent a lot of time annotating and highlighting in this book. I gave up.
I gave up so hard. I was like, no, I don't have time. Like I just want to get this done.
Like I couldn't, I couldn't stand to read the book anymore. And like I said, I think two stars was
very generous. Yeah. Yeah. I did spend a lot of time annotating. But like, I did that because I
(26:07):
was so concerned that I was not going to have a single good thing to say about it. Yeah. I tried
really hard to find good things. And I did find one, ooh, okay, I'm ready. One good thing, which you
are not going to agree with me on because I already know. One thing I say quite often, I probably
haven't said it to you because I know that you would not agree. One of the best cinematic scenes
(26:35):
ever. The baseball scene from Twilight. I read that and I was dying laughing because like you
and my friend Lauren, both of you love Twilight. Yeah. I don't dislike that scene. I dislike the
franchise as a whole. I'm just not a Twilight girl. But that scene was very well done. It's like,
(26:58):
I do think about it and I can picture it in my head. I have not watched those movies in
in literally since it came out. No, it's just amazing. So when she got that out, I did laugh at
that. Yeah. What page was that on? It's on page 249. And it's Dylan who reminded me a bit of Riddick.
Not going to lie. Same. He says they're iconic. The films at least. I mean, the baseball scene,
(27:22):
amazing chef's kiss. Yeah. Dylan. Yep. You're my man. I love you. I yeah, I can't believe your
grand's reading Twilight as she watched the films. I didn't ask. I haven't seen them. I haven't read
the books either, although I don't really feel the need to now. She practically gave me a talk on it.
I literally was like, Chelsea is going to love this. No, I literally read that part and I was like,
(27:45):
her and Lauren would love this. The Twilight movies are objectively bad. But yeah, they're
terrible. But they are so nostalgic that I love them anyways. They're like the Kiss and Boo movie.
They're like so bad. But yeah, you kind of still watch them anyways. No.
Like I feel like those are one of your comfort movies. I think I just watched it so much because
(28:10):
I was obsessed with Taylor Lautner. Valid. I had like a cardboard cut out of him in my room. Do you
still have it? I don't. But I do have a very sad one. Oh, are you putting it in your apartment?
I might have gotten rid of it. It was like in the back of my closet, like folded up.
I'm going to need you to figure that out real fast. I'll have to try and see. I'll put it in
(28:33):
like the windows so people think somebody's staring at it. Perfect. Harry Styles is just in your
apartment. It's like fetus Harry Styles too. It's like baby Harry Styles. Like one direction level.
Like what makes you beautiful? Oh, that's my favorite Harry Styles.
I love the curls. I love the curls too. All right. I have like 45 pages with absolutely no
(28:56):
notes. I will. This is um, I don't know if it's necessarily like a positive thing, but it's something
I related to a bit and I hope none of my family members are listening to this right now because
I'm going to call someone. But um, when she's talking about her mom and her relationship with her mom,
(29:24):
she says, when I think about her spectacular career, all the exciting things she's done,
there's only resentment and even that has faded to background noise after almost 13 years. At
some point I stopped caring just like she did. Maybe it's a trait that runs in the family.
I really was like, you know what? I'll give you that one, Anna. I'll give you that one because
(29:50):
I too stopped caring after a while. Eventually you have to realize that like there are just
some things you can control in life and some things you can't and your family members and the
things that they do and the way that they are is just one thing you cannot control. Yeah. And I,
yeah. They're not going to change. You can't change them. Nope. If it's like she said, it's been 13
(30:11):
years, you know, the chances of things drastically doing a 180 and like becoming perfect and you
know your best friends, it's not going to happen. I mean, sure you could. I mean, her situation is
obviously different, but there just comes a point where you have to say, okay, you know what? This
(30:34):
is how it is. This is how I'm going to react to it. And you do with that how you will. Yeah. I mean,
you and I have very similar family dynamics. Yes. And sometimes it's difficult because
they're your family and you love them and you want them to love you, but they don't. And well,
(30:57):
I think they do in their own way. They don't. They don't love you and like love us in the way that
maybe we want or need, but they love us in their own way, even if it's not how we wish it was.
Yeah. I mean, it's more hurtful than it is loving, I feel. Yeah, it can be. It can be. I feel like
(31:20):
that's not, I think that's why people tend to like, Anna said to have that resentment to like
stop caring. It's easier to stop caring. Yeah. Yeah. There definitely were some themes of like
just hurt and like pain and very difficult emotions throughout the book. Like your parents are supposed
(31:46):
to be there to protect you and to love you and to be there through all the hard moments. And when
they're not like that is very difficult. And I know that that's something we both experienced.
And like, you know, I could see that that was like an underlying theme.
It made it relatable. It made it so that like, you can almost understand why she's so cold
(32:11):
and why she just decided does not care as much and like stay away from people. Yeah.
But if you're trying to have a relationship with somebody, you got to let the walls
crumble just a little bit. And you can't be extremely rude to them every time they, you know,
glance your direction. Good God, no. That poor man. Let's get, okay, I will give Anna the benefit of
(32:38):
the doubt. Lloyd was a little, he had some problems too. Yeah. He was definitely not a perfect character.
No. He put on a big show at work. Spoiled. Very spoiled brat. Yeah. Was used to getting what he
wanted when he wanted it and wanted Anna to just let that go and like let that be a part of their
(33:02):
relationship. And their weird six week situation ship, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Also,
I felt it was really weird that he was so secretive about that file when all it really was was
information that everybody else already had. Right. I felt like they were both really terrible
communicators. They like did not tell each other a single thing for the life of them. Which like,
(33:27):
I will say, me and my boyfriend at 1920, like we also were terrible communicators. Yeah. We were
very bad at communicating, especially when it came to like serious things. Yeah. Roth. I think
it stood out so much to me because every time they would go to have a serious conversation,
(33:51):
something would interrupt. Yeah. And then it was like, I'm going to put this in this email draft.
And then the email drafts get sent out and posted all over the place. And you're not even going to
have a conversation about them. Right. There was no conversation. No, there was no. She told him,
she loved him in those emails and he didn't, he didn't say a word about it. No. He went to her
(34:15):
apartment and was like, let's talk about this. And she was like, okay. And then every other
person that was introduced in the book showed up. And she was just like, what's up, fam? Yeah.
Come hang out. It was very weird. It was. There was no closure on that big moment. Right.
(34:35):
I was just, I struggled. Oh, goodness. Yeah.
I'm going to say something really mean right now. And I'm, I'm very sorry to Beth Riekels,
because I'm sure that you're, you're wonderful. I'm sure other people who I love this book.
(34:55):
It's not for me. It's not my preferred writing style. It's not your cup of tea. It is not my cup of
tea. I'm so sorry. This is a shameless plug. We have some little coffee mugs, some coffee mugs
that say a court of coffee and books are very cute. We love them. Yeah. So anyway, if anyone wants
(35:22):
one, let us know. But okay, what was your, your mean comment? I'm ready. It kind of felt like
chat GPT wrote it. You know why you're not wrong?
(35:47):
Yeah, I feel like if you were to plug a template of a romance novel or like a romcom,
like a movie or something into chat GPT and say, Hey, write me a book. Write me a book that's 300
pages long. Yep. I want it to be as awkward and painful as possible. Make sure that you put lattes
(36:13):
in there one time. There was no character growth. None whatsoever by anyone, other than I would say
her mom. Yeah. And that was forced. Yep. And the entire time that she's working for this
(36:34):
intern internship, she's talking about how hard she worked, how much it's going to change her life,
how she wants it so badly, which is fine and dandy, but you not once do you say what you want this
internship to do? Where are you? Right? What is your aim? What job are you aiming for? Just to work
(36:55):
there? Like she's fine, but yeah, she didn't even say she want to work there. She just said it's
going to open a lot of doors for her in the future, which like, sure, I guess, like if it's a well
known company and but like what doors? What is your goal? What do you want? Yes. Yeah. Your five
year plan to marry Lloyd Stocko truck. Oh, yeah, I see I said what is Anna's goal? She never really
(37:25):
says what she's working so hard to achieve. And then I said ironic that she resents her mother
so much for choosing work over family when Anna continuously pushes people away to focus on work.
And I think that's the moral of the story. Yeah. That's like, that's what you need to know about
this book. Like, Anna just pushes everyone away that she possibly can. It's sad. Yeah. But I mean,
(37:51):
you got the guy in the end, I guess, somehow. But that's all I know. I don't know what she's doing
for work. I don't know anything. Nope. Well, I mean, it does say what she's doing for work, but I
don't feel like she works for her mom or something. No, I think she said she didn't want to work for
her mom because she was like, I don't want my mom to be the CEO. I was done with that. Yeah.
(38:20):
Yeah, I don't remember exactly, but she did say I wasn't interested in having her as my boss as well
as my mom. Yeah. In September, I start a job at a company that works alongside government sponsored
environmental projects. Yeah. So like, I mean, good for her. Yeah. But
(38:44):
what the very back says,
Beth recalls as the author of the kissing booth series, which inspired the Netflix films.
She first published the kissing booth on Wattpad 2011 at age 15. Yeah. Okay. So she's like,
close to our age. Right? How many months that out? Yeah. 15 years prior to 2011 would be 96, right?
(39:14):
No, because my sister graduated high school in 2011 and she was born in 94.
So she was 18. So 97. So she's probably the same age as you.
Yeah. So yeah, I'm sorry, girlfriend. I'm sorry. Don't use chat dpt next time.
(39:37):
No, I mean, overall, like it was fine, but I probably won't read anything else by her.
No, I don't feel like the maturity is there. Yeah. And I think it's difficult to
write as a teenager when you're no longer one.
I think that would be very difficult for me to write as a 19 year old, 10 years later.
(39:58):
I wouldn't have anyone want like me now. Like, I don't have any want to get inside the brain of a
teenager. No. Like even the other book that you said you were reading where you were like,
I'm so uncomfortable. They're literally like 16 years old. That was so awkward.
(40:21):
I'm trying to remember what it was. I literally like locked it downstairs because I was just,
it's not, it was not having it. Yeah. And like,
I feel like there needs to be a certain level of maturity for me to enjoy the book, not like
mature content, but like brain maturity, personality maturity. Like, yeah, you can't be
(40:43):
out here acting like, you know, middle school girls fighting in the bathroom. Right.
And I felt like that's kind of what this turned into. Yeah. Yeah, very much. There was mean girls
and whatever. Yeah. But, oh, next month, I'll have to be better. Yeah. Do you want to tell them
(41:06):
what we're reading next month? We are going to read a study in drowning next month. It's a book
that we picked up four or five months ago, probably now. The Barnes and Noble when we already got there.
Yeah. And it's just been sitting on our TBR. So it's beautiful. It's one of the prettiest books
I've ever seen. Yeah. So we're going to read a study in drowning. And if you guys would like to
(41:29):
join along, please do. And we'll post every Wednesday, every last Wednesday of the month.
Yep. So, yep. So we'll post the last Wednesday of March and we'll talk about a study in drowning.
Yeah. And let's hope it's better. It has to be. I have higher hopes for it. I have higher hopes as
well. We are really leaning hard into the romance theme this month, but yeah, because we'll get back
(41:53):
to our fantasy next month. We both, I'm not that we agreed. It wasn't like we were like, oh, let's
shake on this. It's a deal. We both had the idea that we were going to take a break from series
for this month and just read some standalone, standalone romance. Yeah. Yeah. I was also in
the biggest reading swamp after Onyx Storm. So everything I picked up just was not hitting.
(42:16):
It wasn't because Onyx Storm was just so good. Yeah. My brain worked a lot for that. So
it was nice to just kind of read some Dan alone this month. But yeah, not a lot of world building.
Yeah. Give your brain a break for a sec. Yeah. But we'll be back at it next month. I know. So
(42:38):
cool. It'll be, it'll be good. It'll be good. So we will see you next month and feel free to
leave us some comments and let us know what you think. Let us know if you read this book, if you
agree with anything we said. If you think we're being way too harsh. If you think that ChatTBT
(43:00):
could do better than this book. Beth. We're sorry. Love you. I hate your writing. I'm sorry.
All right. Well, I'm not no friend. We'll see you next month. Yep. Bye. Bye.
Welcome back to a court of copy and books podcast. This is episode two. I'm Chelsea. I'm Alisha.
(00:23):
And today we are going to be talking about love and lattes. So this was a book that I saw and
randomly grabbed and then talked Chelsea into reading it. And we have regrets. Yeah. It was a
rough one. Yeah, it wasn't our best but here. I had high hopes for it. I did too. I was like,
(00:48):
okay, cute premise. Love that. Yeah. And then it just kind of went downhill from the back cover.
Yeah. We both gave it two out of five stars. Yep. Which is we're pretty generous with our
usually we are. So yeah, I feel like even two stars has a little bit generous. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:08):
Because I'm going to be honest, I don't really have many good things to say about it. If any,
the premise was good. Yeah. I feel like the idea was there. Yes. It was not executed well. Yeah,
I would agree wholeheartedly. I also think that having a book called Love and lattes,
(01:31):
where you literally have them drinking lattes once. I also had that problem. They drink tea. Yeah.
All the time. Or hot chocolate. I know it's based in London. Yes. So like, I understand like,
they're bigger tea drinkers there. For sure. But if you're having it called Love and lattes, like,
(01:52):
have him write like cute little messages on the latte cup and bring it to her. Thank you.
Thank you. Like, have it involved somehow where it's like part of the plot. That was what I was
expecting. Yeah. And I just was let down constantly because every time that she was like, I'm gonna
go get a fresh cup. It was a tea. Yeah. Like, don't get me wrong. We're big tea drinkers. Yeah,
we're drinking tea. Right. We love tea. However, if you're calling it a latte. Right. Because the
(02:21):
whole reason we even decided to read this book for Book Club, our podcast, is because it's a
court of coffee and books. Right. So figured we'd stick with the coffee theme. And it's February,
so love and lattes. Right. Right. That was my whole thought process behind getting this book in the
first place. And then I was just severely let down. Yeah. I will say the kissing booth. I'm gonna
(02:47):
really date myself here. I read it on Wattpad. Whoa. Like when it was being updated. You say this,
first off, you say that's like, I'm not older than you. So I mean, so you're aging us both. I know.
(03:11):
And I really liked it then. I mean, I was like 13 at the time. Yeah. You know,
teenager. This would have been great around that time. We probably would have liked it better.
I think I still would have been confused by some of the language in here because I was
confused now. Yeah. I think my main problem, not main problem, but like one of the bigger
(03:33):
problems about the writing that I found is that it did feel like a Wattpad book. It did not feel
like she had an editor. That because I have one yellow tab on here, which is a spelling error.
I highlighted it. I didn't have but I did highlight it.
(03:56):
Because I was like, excuse me, as somebody who works in quality and literally tabs all day long,
I was like, I have to like it. I can't not, I can't not like make me be your editor,
Beth, because somebody is slacking. I yeah, I know it's one spelling error. Like,
but still I was just looking to see who the like the publishing house was. Delacorte romance.
(04:24):
I mean, you just stop up your game just like a little bit. Just a tad, just like one letter. Yeah.
But I will say like, I felt that her writing was still very childish. It was very young. It did
not feel like she has grown as an author from the Wattpad days. I can agree with that. I know you
said you didn't read the book, but you watched the movies for the kissing booth. Yes. And I've seen
(04:51):
them too. I think a lot of people have. Yeah. And they are very corny, cheesy, like 100%. I feel
like they're made to be good, cheesy. Yeah. Yeah. Like they're meant to be like almost bad. Yeah. Yeah.
And the second hand embarrassment I felt watching that movie, even though I enjoyed it, I enjoyed
(05:12):
it because like I knew what I was going into. Right. But like, like I knew it wasn't going to be like
this great cinematic masterpiece going in. It wasn't going to be like how to lose a guy in 10 days.
Right. Or like, you know, these classic rom-coms. Right. But this book gave me the same like
second hand ick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can agree with that.
(05:37):
It was a struggle from I, page one, I opened it and I was like, oh, they're mentioning Harry Styles.
This is going to be the best freaking book of my life. I literally, I sent you the picture of page
one and I was like, okay, there's Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo. I was like, this is probably,
(06:01):
you know, fairly up to date. Yeah. Good references. Yeah. And that's word on them. You know what?
I should have known because she didn't even know what Harry Styles song it was.
Okay. That's valid. It was Watermelon Sugar. Let's be very real here. Probably. In a club for sure.
Well, that's like, yeah. One of his more upbeat songs. Yeah. Yeah. Every other song is depressing.
(06:26):
Facts. We love you, Harry, but very depressing. Okay. That's the second time we've talked about
One Direction on this podcast. Oh, it's not going to end. Okay, cool. Glad. Glad for that.
I sneak them into my everyday conversation. There's nothing wrong with that.
I also, I know you feel the same way. The main character, Anna and Elise Sherwood.
(06:54):
Absolutely insufferable. Okay, so bad. I took notes. The first, first thing I wrote on here.
First impression of Anna. She's rude. Facts. She's rude. She was. She was, what was it, cold and
unlikable? Yeah, cold and unlikable, which is, if you guys haven't read the book, which good for you.
(07:19):
I don't blame you. Just take this all in and don't bother reading it. Yeah. She complains the entire
time that people see her as cold and unlikable. And yes, they do because that's what you are, honey.
Yeah. She just, she pushes away anybody who tries to care about her. She pushes away her friends.
(07:40):
She pushes away this guy who likes her and that's trying to like treat her well. She pushes away
her family. Yeah. And I feel like there's a, there's a line of, of where people are actually cold and
unlikable and where people can be portrayed as that. For sure. I think Deep End by Allie Hazelwood,
(08:04):
they do a really good job of showing how somebody can be portrayed as cold and unlikable when they're
not. Correct. She is and was really, she was just rude and self-centered. Yeah. And everything was
like, only about her. Yep. She very much was like, I don't want to do these things because my mom did
(08:29):
them and I don't want to become like my mom, but then did all the things that her mom did. Yeah.
Everything was about work, just like her mother. Yep. And like, trust me, I understand, like,
people are going to have PTSD when it comes to like parents and stuff. Yeah. But
to base your entire life and all of your adult decisions about not being your mom.
(08:51):
Not to mention, these people are 19 years old. Why did I think that the entire time they were like
26 working in like these fancy corporate jobs? Like they're 19. They're all interns from college
and this is their summer break. It's our university. Which was another thing. She's, I felt like
(09:16):
college is very much like an American word. Like a lot of people I felt like called it uni. Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't know. There was some disconnects there. Yeah, but she's from,
she's from the UK. Is she? Yeah. Well, I'm even more confused. I'm pretty sure. I don't know. I'm
like 99.9% sure she's from the UK. I mean, it would make sense. Yeah. But, well, I don't know.
(09:42):
What? Because I'm the kissing booth would have been the snogging booth. I don't know, man.
Oh, the first tab I have in here. Oh, I'm ready. Okay. There's a passage in here.
The first sentence of it is, Nadia Winks, which looks totally menacing. And there's a,
(10:08):
I can't read. I got to take this. There's a polite ripple of laughter. How do you wink menacingly?
I don't know. Like I was trying to like genuinely sit there and figure it out because I didn't want
to give this book like a fair shot. But yeah, how do you wink menacingly? If somebody can tell us
(10:30):
that would be great. Yeah, please send us a video. So that we can see it. We'll put you on our next
podcast. This is what it means to wink menacingly. Yes, sir. There was, I had like a few places that
like I highlighted because I felt like she was like relatable in those moments. And like,
(10:51):
people who know me personally and some of you I know will listen to this. So, hey,
work tends to run my life. So there was definitely things that I felt like I definitely connected
with her on and then they went out the window shortly thereafter. So like there was one passage,
(11:12):
this is one of the first ones that I highlighted. It's just that there are bigger, more important
things to focus on that this time in my life feels so make or break and I can't let myself miss out,
which would I regret more missing a night out or missing out on an opportunity that could change
the trajectory of my future career, potentially my whole life for the better. It's a no brainer.
And I've always felt like that I'm always more the person that's going to focus on work.
(11:37):
And I think we definitely feel the same way. Like, yeah, this is an opportunity for something
better. I don't want to miss it. Right. I'm always going to focus more on work than I am to like
my social life. My social life does not really exist. Like I hang out with you. Yeah, I was
gonna say I hang out with you and I live with my fiance. So my mom and you. Right. Right. Like we
(11:58):
are each other's social life. So like, but I feel like even honest, like, if work came first to one
of us, like, we understand because of who we are. But when I was 19, I almost had like,
they were almost even where like I wanted to have a social life more. And I was still a
workaholic, but it was different because my position wasn't as like serious as mine technically
(12:23):
is now. I worked at Payless when I was 19. I was gonna say I worked at a nonprofit when I was 19.
Yeah, it was like, I moved to very different. Yeah. Like I moved here and started getting more
serious positions. But like, I don't know, it's just crazy to think that somebody at 19
is so concerned about their like, how it's gonna affect them. Yeah, every single 30 years that
(12:50):
they make. Yeah. And like, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. No, not at all. I think
that's a good thing to be aware of like the choices that you make and how it's gonna affect you. But
I think she definitely let it control her in a way that if she didn't stop and she woke up in 30
years and looked back and was like, what have I been doing all this time? She's gonna have nothing
(13:13):
to show for it other than no family, no friends. And you're gonna sit there and you're gonna be
working for 12, 14 hours a day. No one wants to be doing that when they're 50. No one wants to be
doing that now. Nope. I definitely don't know. I definitely didn't want to do that as a 19 year
old. No. Like, don't get me wrong. Do I work those hours sometimes? Yes, but it's different.
(13:37):
I have a career. Like, you know, I don't know, it's just crazy. So like, there were some things
that like, I do think that the writing was good to point out, like, how work can overtake your life
if you're not careful. Yeah. And you will miss out on things. I don't know if that was like,
(13:58):
meant to be part of like the lesson of the book. Yeah. But I almost took it as like, maybe I need
to maybe reevaluate things a little bit because I do spend a lot of my time working. Yeah. I think
with this being such a work heavy related book, I felt like that's part of the reason I couldn't
(14:19):
get into it because when I'm picking up a book to read, I don't want to be reading about outlook
and teams and like all these things. There were V lookups in here and I do them all the time for
work and I was crying on the inside. I was like, please stop talking about Excel. Literally.
(14:41):
I yeah, yeah, I want to escape when I'm reading a book. Like, I don't want to then think about and
compare it to my own life. Like, and I think that I did it would read nonfiction. I think there are
good ways to do an office romance without a hundred percent like they are sitting at the computer
doing that job. Yes. Yes. I think that was definitely where I struggled a bit and like,
(15:04):
I would have to pause when it got really heavy into like the work stuff. It just was taking over
and was difficult for me to separate. Yeah. I also think when they introduced Lloyd, first of all,
(15:26):
all I could think about every single time they said his name was Lloyd's taco truck.
If you're not from Buffalo, you will not understand this, but there's
a restaurant that has a taco truck and that's called Lloyd's. Yes. And it's very well known
around Buffalo and Western New York where we're from. So it's literally every single time I read it.
(15:50):
I was like, thank you. Because she started calling by his last name, which is Fletcher,
which I felt like was more digestible for me because, okay, maybe it's gonna grow up here.
Maybe. Maybe. Like, I don't, when I think of Lloyd, like I think of like, I don't know. I
guess I don't really think of anything. I mean, that's all I could think about every single time
(16:12):
I read his name. I just, I also don't love Lloyd's. I don't love Lloyd's either. Okay. That's because
I don't really love cabbage and they put a lot of cabbage. So much cabbage and like, I don't eat
cabbage. So I'm sorry, we're getting sidetracked. Welcome to the preview of our brains. Sorry.
This is very ADHD central. It really was. So when they introduced him, other than the fact that I
(16:37):
all I could think about the entire time was tacos, I felt that it was very much, okay,
this is Anna. This is Lloyd, whatever Anna likes, Lloyd's the opposite. Yes. And it was very,
it felt like they just listed out Anna's qualities and was like, okay, what's the opposite of that?
(16:59):
Oh, Lloyd, that's your personality. Yeah. I thought. And then they tried to like make him
into a similar version of her and like have him be almost Jekyll and Hyde. Yeah. And I struggled
with that a lot because he would put on this huge like big persona at work that he was this great,
(17:20):
you know, big deal and that he thought so highly of himself. Well, realistically, he was like,
I'm trying to sabotage my dad's company because I don't want to be here and he's taking over my
entire life. I also didn't like that turn of the story. I agree. I felt like it was very,
well, here's the savior kind of thing. And I'm like, he's so young. He's so, not that he doesn't
(17:49):
have experience there because he did say he's been there since he was, you know, 15 years old. Right.
But, but what 15 year old is going to start plotting against our dad? Right. And also,
so it made it seem like his dad was fouling at the company and he was doing right like Lloyd
(18:12):
was going to save the company and he had all these great ideas and I'm sure he does, you know,
I don't know for sure. He's going to have great ideas all the time. Absolutely. I might not think
about that. Of course. I think they kind of painted Topher. Is that the dance? Topher. I think they
kind of painted Topher as like a bad guy when I don't think he really was. I think he was doing
(18:37):
the best with what he had and he was trying to raise two very strongly minded men. Yeah.
Who, and you know, grieve his wife at the same time. Right. And I don't like the fact that they
never really did anything with that either because one of the main things that I had, what's his
name, Floyd, I kept wanting to call him Topher. Lloyd kept saying is I miss my dad's smile. I
(19:03):
miss that he smiled. He just puts on this corporate persona now where it's he just like laughs. Yeah.
And it's his business laugh. Yeah. They never really, they never went into like
what that grieving process looks like and how like maybe Topher could have helped his sons get
through all of this. Yeah. Like there if you wanted to have somebody be a savior, like why didn't
(19:26):
you have it be like Topher being there for his kids? They really didn't have a lot of interaction.
No. With Topher. No. And like dad with his sons. Yeah. Will barely like and I understand like part
of the thing was that, you know, Will was stepping away from the company and didn't want to be a part
of it and all of that. But when he's there, he had zero contact with his father. Yeah.
(19:51):
Like I just felt like it was very weird and like forced. I also, I loved Will. I'm just going to say
that. Will was my favorite character. Yeah. He will was the two stars. He was. I felt like this
book I could have skipped 30 pages and picked up and not have missed a thing. I didn't feel like
(20:12):
there was really much going on. Like, you know, there's like this story where like it has like the
introduction, the climax, you know, there wasn't one. No, I would say maybe the attempt was to
have the climax be like the emails. Yeah. Maybe the emails being released or like the interns,
(20:37):
the day where they all presented what they did for the summer. Yeah. Which they never even said
who got a job offer. They never even said what came of that. I thought they did. They said the
two people were working there, but they didn't say that they got the job offer. I will also say that
when the first email showed up, I literally wrote, why would you write email drafts? OMG,
(21:01):
I literally can't. I just thought to myself, I was like, why would you put this on your work
computer? Yes, that was my thought. Like maybe that's just like corporate America. Like you
don't do anything personal on your work computer. No, but like exhibit a why not? Because your
emails are going to get leaked to the entire company. I T can literally see all of your
(21:23):
teens messages. Yeah. Like why would why wouldn't you just like go home and write it on your home
email or like in your diary or yeah, write it down. Like are you going to tell me that your
only option was to write an email draft to this son of the CEO? Yeah, no, I couldn't. I could.
(21:46):
There was some mistakes made. Yeah, there was just a lot of
a lot of mistakes made. Yeah. Anna was
from the first chapter. I was like, she's so rude. Like I really hope she gets better.
She didn't know. But from the second she saw Lloyd because across the bar, she was like,
(22:08):
oh my god, he's so hot. He's looking at me like, oh, and then she gets like distracted.
And then he shows up later staying next to her at the bar and she's immediately rude to him.
Mm hmm. Like he hasn't done anything. He just said he just existed. I'll just help you get a drink.
I'll help wave bartender. And she's like, what is it your way of flirting? Yeah.
(22:29):
Well, clearly it worked because you're talking to him. Right. But I like she was she was so rude.
She was rude to her co-workers. She was rude to her bosses. So rude to her mother. Mm hmm. Like
so rude. Yeah. But I the fact that she was mad that Lloyd pretended not to know her,
(22:52):
or like he didn't remember her. What did you expect him to do? Like you're standing in front of all
of his colleagues. I was like, oh, what's up girl I made out with. Yeah, you want him to drop down
on one knee and propose to you right? Like what was your thought process? And then she literally
brought it up throughout the entire book after he explained why he did that.
Which like I would have also done the same thing. Like I'm going to pretend I don't know you. Yeah.
(23:16):
I'm not going to embarrass myself in front of the entire company, especially after what had happened
the year prior. Right. Like she just would not let anything go.
I don't know. I struggled a lot with her and like there were some like cute moments throughout the
book or like forced cute moments, I guess more like it. Like I wanted to really like them, but
(23:38):
I think my favorite scene, I will say like this was cute was like them hanging out at the like
coffee shop. Yeah, I liked that one. Yeah. That was cute. But that's about as far as I got.
I got to that and I was like, oh, okay, maybe this is going somewhere. Right. Nope. And then we
backtracked for the next 45 pages. Yep. Yep. It was just I struggled. Telsi and I both struggled.
(24:05):
We're both saying to each other like we just kept falling asleep trying to read it because we just
were losing our minds. Actually, I just flipped to something that was really funny. So I'm in a
leadership class right now. And our first day, what we had to do was use marshmallows and
spaghetti to make a tower. And that's like called out in this book. And it was like my own team is
(24:31):
similar, similarly scattered. So I don't feel obligated to spend any particular amount of time with
them beyond building a tower of marshmallows and spaghetti as part of a teamwork exercise. And I
thought it was so random that I had literally just done that like a month ago. Really? Had no idea it
existed until a month ago. And then like no idea it existed. Yeah. So like you can use like tape,
rope, spaghetti and one marshmallow, like the marshmallow has to be on the top. And like you
(24:55):
have to see who can build like the tallest tower and stuff with it. Okay. It's very difficult. Yeah.
We were one of like three that were still standing at the end. I feel like that would be better than
like tell me three things about 100% because we talked while we did it. And it was great. Yeah.
It was a good team building exercise. So do I. They're terrible. Agreed. Like,
(25:18):
I'm like, don't get me wrong, I still had to do them. But like this was better. Like so I thought
that was kind of funny. I was like, okay, like, I can relate to that because I literally just did that.
So I thought that was kind of cute. I have a lot of quotes in here about Tasha being a bitch.
I will also say to not to Alicia specifically, but to you guys,
(25:43):
Alicia spent a lot of time annotating and highlighting in this book. I gave up.
I gave up so hard. I was like, no, I don't have time. Like I just want to get this done.
Like I couldn't, I couldn't stand to read the book anymore. And like I said, I think two stars was
very generous. Yeah. Yeah. I did spend a lot of time annotating. But like, I did that because I
(26:07):
was so concerned that I was not going to have a single good thing to say about it. Yeah. I tried
really hard to find good things. And I did find one, ooh, okay, I'm ready. One good thing, which you
are not going to agree with me on because I already know. One thing I say quite often, I probably
haven't said it to you because I know that you would not agree. One of the best cinematic scenes
(26:35):
ever. The baseball scene from Twilight. I read that and I was dying laughing because like you
and my friend Lauren, both of you love Twilight. Yeah. I don't dislike that scene. I dislike the
franchise as a whole. I'm just not a Twilight girl. But that scene was very well done. It's like,
(26:58):
I do think about it and I can picture it in my head. I have not watched those movies in
in literally since it came out. No, it's just amazing. So when she got that out, I did laugh at
that. Yeah. What page was that on? It's on page 249. And it's Dylan who reminded me a bit of Riddick.
Not going to lie. Same. He says they're iconic. The films at least. I mean, the baseball scene,
(27:22):
amazing chef's kiss. Yeah. Dylan. Yep. You're my man. I love you. I yeah, I can't believe your
grand's reading Twilight as she watched the films. I didn't ask. I haven't seen them. I haven't read
the books either, although I don't really feel the need to now. She practically gave me a talk on it.
I literally was like, Chelsea is going to love this. No, I literally read that part and I was like,
(27:45):
her and Lauren would love this. The Twilight movies are objectively bad. But yeah, they're
terrible. But they are so nostalgic that I love them anyways. They're like the Kiss and Boo movie.
They're like so bad. But yeah, you kind of still watch them anyways. No.
Like I feel like those are one of your comfort movies. I think I just watched it so much because
(28:10):
I was obsessed with Taylor Lautner. Valid. I had like a cardboard cut out of him in my room. Do you
still have it? I don't. But I do have a very sad one. Oh, are you putting it in your apartment?
I might have gotten rid of it. It was like in the back of my closet, like folded up.
I'm going to need you to figure that out real fast. I'll have to try and see. I'll put it in
(28:33):
like the windows so people think somebody's staring at it. Perfect. Harry Styles is just in your
apartment. It's like fetus Harry Styles too. It's like baby Harry Styles. Like one direction level.
Like what makes you beautiful? Oh, that's my favorite Harry Styles.
I love the curls. I love the curls too. All right. I have like 45 pages with absolutely no
(28:56):
notes. I will. This is um, I don't know if it's necessarily like a positive thing, but it's something
I related to a bit and I hope none of my family members are listening to this right now because
I'm going to call someone. But um, when she's talking about her mom and her relationship with her mom,
(29:24):
she says, when I think about her spectacular career, all the exciting things she's done,
there's only resentment and even that has faded to background noise after almost 13 years. At
some point I stopped caring just like she did. Maybe it's a trait that runs in the family.
I really was like, you know what? I'll give you that one, Anna. I'll give you that one because
(29:50):
I too stopped caring after a while. Eventually you have to realize that like there are just
some things you can control in life and some things you can't and your family members and the
things that they do and the way that they are is just one thing you cannot control. Yeah. And I,
yeah. They're not going to change. You can't change them. Nope. If it's like she said, it's been 13
(30:11):
years, you know, the chances of things drastically doing a 180 and like becoming perfect and you
know your best friends, it's not going to happen. I mean, sure you could. I mean, her situation is
obviously different, but there just comes a point where you have to say, okay, you know what? This
(30:34):
is how it is. This is how I'm going to react to it. And you do with that how you will. Yeah. I mean,
you and I have very similar family dynamics. Yes. And sometimes it's difficult because
they're your family and you love them and you want them to love you, but they don't. And well,
(30:57):
I think they do in their own way. They don't. They don't love you and like love us in the way that
maybe we want or need, but they love us in their own way, even if it's not how we wish it was.
Yeah. I mean, it's more hurtful than it is loving, I feel. Yeah, it can be. It can be. I feel like
(31:20):
that's not, I think that's why people tend to like, Anna said to have that resentment to like
stop caring. It's easier to stop caring. Yeah. Yeah. There definitely were some themes of like
just hurt and like pain and very difficult emotions throughout the book. Like your parents are supposed
(31:46):
to be there to protect you and to love you and to be there through all the hard moments. And when
they're not like that is very difficult. And I know that that's something we both experienced.
And like, you know, I could see that that was like an underlying theme.
It made it relatable. It made it so that like, you can almost understand why she's so cold
(32:11):
and why she just decided does not care as much and like stay away from people. Yeah.
But if you're trying to have a relationship with somebody, you got to let the walls
crumble just a little bit. And you can't be extremely rude to them every time they, you know,
glance your direction. Good God, no. That poor man. Let's get, okay, I will give Anna the benefit of
(32:38):
the doubt. Lloyd was a little, he had some problems too. Yeah. He was definitely not a perfect character.
No. He put on a big show at work. Spoiled. Very spoiled brat. Yeah. Was used to getting what he
wanted when he wanted it and wanted Anna to just let that go and like let that be a part of their
(33:02):
relationship. And their weird six week situation ship, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Also,
I felt it was really weird that he was so secretive about that file when all it really was was
information that everybody else already had. Right. I felt like they were both really terrible
communicators. They like did not tell each other a single thing for the life of them. Which like,
(33:27):
I will say, me and my boyfriend at 1920, like we also were terrible communicators. Yeah. We were
very bad at communicating, especially when it came to like serious things. Yeah. Roth. I think
it stood out so much to me because every time they would go to have a serious conversation,
(33:51):
something would interrupt. Yeah. And then it was like, I'm going to put this in this email draft.
And then the email drafts get sent out and posted all over the place. And you're not even going to
have a conversation about them. Right. There was no conversation. No, there was no. She told him,
she loved him in those emails and he didn't, he didn't say a word about it. No. He went to her
(34:15):
apartment and was like, let's talk about this. And she was like, okay. And then every other
person that was introduced in the book showed up. And she was just like, what's up, fam? Yeah.
Come hang out. It was very weird. It was. There was no closure on that big moment. Right.
(34:35):
I was just, I struggled. Oh, goodness. Yeah.
I'm going to say something really mean right now. And I'm, I'm very sorry to Beth Riekels,
because I'm sure that you're, you're wonderful. I'm sure other people who I love this book.
(34:55):
It's not for me. It's not my preferred writing style. It's not your cup of tea. It is not my cup of
tea. I'm so sorry. This is a shameless plug. We have some little coffee mugs, some coffee mugs
that say a court of coffee and books are very cute. We love them. Yeah. So anyway, if anyone wants
(35:22):
one, let us know. But okay, what was your, your mean comment? I'm ready. It kind of felt like
chat GPT wrote it. You know why you're not wrong?
(35:47):
Yeah, I feel like if you were to plug a template of a romance novel or like a romcom,
like a movie or something into chat GPT and say, Hey, write me a book. Write me a book that's 300
pages long. Yep. I want it to be as awkward and painful as possible. Make sure that you put lattes
(36:13):
in there one time. There was no character growth. None whatsoever by anyone, other than I would say
her mom. Yeah. And that was forced. Yep. And the entire time that she's working for this
(36:34):
intern internship, she's talking about how hard she worked, how much it's going to change her life,
how she wants it so badly, which is fine and dandy, but you not once do you say what you want this
internship to do? Where are you? Right? What is your aim? What job are you aiming for? Just to work
(36:55):
there? Like she's fine, but yeah, she didn't even say she want to work there. She just said it's
going to open a lot of doors for her in the future, which like, sure, I guess, like if it's a well
known company and but like what doors? What is your goal? What do you want? Yes. Yeah. Your five
year plan to marry Lloyd Stocko truck. Oh, yeah, I see I said what is Anna's goal? She never really
(37:25):
says what she's working so hard to achieve. And then I said ironic that she resents her mother
so much for choosing work over family when Anna continuously pushes people away to focus on work.
And I think that's the moral of the story. Yeah. That's like, that's what you need to know about
this book. Like, Anna just pushes everyone away that she possibly can. It's sad. Yeah. But I mean,
(37:51):
you got the guy in the end, I guess, somehow. But that's all I know. I don't know what she's doing
for work. I don't know anything. Nope. Well, I mean, it does say what she's doing for work, but I
don't feel like she works for her mom or something. No, I think she said she didn't want to work for
her mom because she was like, I don't want my mom to be the CEO. I was done with that. Yeah.
(38:20):
Yeah, I don't remember exactly, but she did say I wasn't interested in having her as my boss as well
as my mom. Yeah. In September, I start a job at a company that works alongside government sponsored
environmental projects. Yeah. So like, I mean, good for her. Yeah. But
(38:44):
what the very back says,
Beth recalls as the author of the kissing booth series, which inspired the Netflix films.
She first published the kissing booth on Wattpad 2011 at age 15. Yeah. Okay. So she's like,
close to our age. Right? How many months that out? Yeah. 15 years prior to 2011 would be 96, right?
(39:14):
No, because my sister graduated high school in 2011 and she was born in 94.
So she was 18. So 97. So she's probably the same age as you.
Yeah. So yeah, I'm sorry, girlfriend. I'm sorry. Don't use chat dpt next time.
(39:37):
No, I mean, overall, like it was fine, but I probably won't read anything else by her.
No, I don't feel like the maturity is there. Yeah. And I think it's difficult to
write as a teenager when you're no longer one.
I think that would be very difficult for me to write as a 19 year old, 10 years later.
(39:58):
I wouldn't have anyone want like me now. Like, I don't have any want to get inside the brain of a
teenager. No. Like even the other book that you said you were reading where you were like,
I'm so uncomfortable. They're literally like 16 years old. That was so awkward.
(40:21):
I'm trying to remember what it was. I literally like locked it downstairs because I was just,
it's not, it was not having it. Yeah. And like,
I feel like there needs to be a certain level of maturity for me to enjoy the book, not like
mature content, but like brain maturity, personality maturity. Like, yeah, you can't be
(40:43):
out here acting like, you know, middle school girls fighting in the bathroom. Right.
And I felt like that's kind of what this turned into. Yeah. Yeah, very much. There was mean girls
and whatever. Yeah. But, oh, next month, I'll have to be better. Yeah. Do you want to tell them
(41:06):
what we're reading next month? We are going to read a study in drowning next month. It's a book
that we picked up four or five months ago, probably now. The Barnes and Noble when we already got there.
Yeah. And it's just been sitting on our TBR. So it's beautiful. It's one of the prettiest books
I've ever seen. Yeah. So we're going to read a study in drowning. And if you guys would like to
(41:29):
join along, please do. And we'll post every Wednesday, every last Wednesday of the month.
Yep. So, yep. So we'll post the last Wednesday of March and we'll talk about a study in drowning.
Yeah. And let's hope it's better. It has to be. I have higher hopes for it. I have higher hopes as
well. We are really leaning hard into the romance theme this month, but yeah, because we'll get back
(41:53):
to our fantasy next month. We both, I'm not that we agreed. It wasn't like we were like, oh, let's
shake on this. It's a deal. We both had the idea that we were going to take a break from series
for this month and just read some standalone, standalone romance. Yeah. Yeah. I was also in
the biggest reading swamp after Onyx Storm. So everything I picked up just was not hitting.
(42:16):
It wasn't because Onyx Storm was just so good. Yeah. My brain worked a lot for that. So
it was nice to just kind of read some Dan alone this month. But yeah, not a lot of world building.
Yeah. Give your brain a break for a sec. Yeah. But we'll be back at it next month. I know. So
(42:38):
cool. It'll be, it'll be good. It'll be good. So we will see you next month and feel free to
leave us some comments and let us know what you think. Let us know if you read this book, if you
agree with anything we said. If you think we're being way too harsh. If you think that ChatTBT
(43:00):
could do better than this book. Beth. We're sorry. Love you. I hate your writing. I'm sorry.
All right. Well, I'm not no friend. We'll see you next month. Yep. Bye. Bye.
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