November 14, 2024 • 69 mins
Join us in this week's episode to discuss The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore. In this episode we talk about everything from stupid breeds of chicken to our personal beef with Hallmark! Please send us book recs and follow us on our socials @theRPHpodcast https://linktr.ee/raunchypowerhour
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Raunchy Power Hour, a book club for discussing romance from the erotic to
(00:05):
the erroneous. As always, this is an explicit podcast and contains strong language, adult
themes and sexual content. If you are sensitive to these things, we urge you calmly but sincerely
to turn off your radio now.
This month, we are reading The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Lori Gilmore. This is part one of
(00:25):
Pumpkin Spice Cafe. This podcast will contain spoilers through Chapter 17. If you want to
read along with us, stop listening now. It's okay. We'll wait for you to come back. This
book contains themes of death. You have been warned.
I'm your producer Ashlyn.
I'm your host Sydney.
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And I'm the other Pumpkin Spice host, Christina.
Now get ready to get raunchy.
Hi, Christina.
Hi, Sydney. Hi, Ashlyn. I'm back.
She is back. Um, so I have a question for you. If you could name a storefront of your
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choice based off of some fall food or drink item, what would be your storefront and what
would be the name?
I have this prepared and I've had this prepared for years. It's coffee and queso.
Okay.
Soak it in. Soak it in. Yeah. Everyone's a hater. Everyone's a hater of the dream. But
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there's something about coffee and like any cheese product. That's what it would be. The
queso is just kind of fun because it's not like your typical C and C. Like it's like
playing off of the like, like visually looking different. And I understand that everyone's
a hater, but.
Well, here's the thing. I'm just a hater of cheese and that's just my problem. So
I forgot you cheese hater. Okay. Then what's your idea?
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Cheese hater. Okay. Um, I think it would have to be something like super, like super specific
and like super seasonal. Um, cause I think that would be the most fun. Um, I think it
would be.
My storefront slash establishment that is named after some sort of food would be called
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PB and jammies where they just sell really comfortable pajamas, but they also serve peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches.
So it's like, it's okay. I can get behind this. It's comfy. Like you get like a little
like you can like get in your like get new, some new jammies and then like hang out on
some couches and like eat some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
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That's really cute. I can see this going really bad.
I do too. There would have to be like explicit warnings on the door. Be like people with
peanut allergies do not enter. You will die.
It's kind of like five. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Well, except they've started taking
out some peanut. Have you noticed that? I haven't seen a peanut thing recently. Oh my
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God. That could just be in my area guys. But conspiracy theory, five guys is trying to
like not kill as many people.
This is crazy development. Okay. So you have peanut butter jellies and jammies or is it
PB and jammies? That's cute. That's cute. That's clever. I'll give you that. Thank you. Thank
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you. I just came up with it on the spot. Thank you.
But since I'm going to be going over the book today, Christina, why don't you tell us a
little bit about what we've read for this month?
We read the pumpkin spice cafe by Lori Gilmore. Lori Gilmore is the pen name for the author
Melissa McTernan. As Melissa, she writes steamy, fanny, as Melissa.
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Fanny? Steamy, fanny?
Yeah. She writes a steamy fanny. As Melissa, she writes steamy fantasy romance. But as
Lori, she writes steamy small town romance. The inspiration for the dream harbor series
comes from Gilmore Girls. Very clear. And the quirky small town vibe of stars hollow.
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It's very, very, very much inspired by Gilmore Girls. Her books are no call mark movie vibes
for every season. She's got fall with the pumpkin spice cafe and she's got some winter
ones. We only read pumpkin spice cafe and I think that's all we'll read.
Yeah, I'm good.
The pumpkin spice cafe was published August 30th, 2023 by One More Chapter, a division
(04:49):
of Harper Collins. The ebook comes in at about 286 pages and this is her debut as Lori Gilmore.
And it's the first in the dream harbor series. There's three books out and two planned for
a 2025 release. On Goodreads, it has a three and a half stars out of slightly more than
158,000 reviews. And on Storygraph, it's got a 3.39 stars out of 16,814 reviews. There
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is a pumpkin spice cafe official Spotify playlist created by One More Chapter.
Thank God I didn't have to do it this time.
We have some words about this. It is printed in the beginning of the book so we all have
access to it.
Yeah, fun fact, I didn't know about it because I just skipped over that part and I just learned
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about it less than 15 minutes ago that there was an official playlist.
I love Taylor Swift, but there's a lot of Taylor Swift on this that doesn't make sense.
There's a lot of angsty songs about love and I'm like, but we weren't really angsty. We
were hanging out for a month.
Yeah, the book doesn't get angsty, but the songs are. So if you're interested, it sounds
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like 20,000 people saved it, which is a lot.
Yeah, so if you like the book, I guess listen to the playlist while you read.
Look up the playlist. It might be a little angsty for the book, but hey, go for it. And
also the book is a Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller and the winner of the TikTok Shop
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Book of the Year award. I don't know what that is and it's a tongue twister.
Yeah, that's complicated. I was gonna say, did you know about this book before? Who suggested
it? I think it was Ashlyn is the one who suggested we read this one.
I think Ashlyn did.
Yeah, because I haven't heard of this book before until Ashlyn told us about it.
What? Okay, no, it was all over Bookstagram, all over and it had me convinced that maybe
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I would like it. And I'm a Romethator, guys. Remember that.
Yeah. Sorry, guys, we did bring a Romethator onto the podcast because we had a short supply
of people in the basement.
It's just me, guys. It's fine.
She's trying her best.
I'm trying my best and it was it was all over Bookstagram. I can't talk for TikTok, but
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obviously it did well. It was viral.
I think I picked up a LumiCrate, I think is the one who did like a limited edition.
That was LitJoy. I'm not sure one of those.
One of those awards Book of the Month, you know, those services.
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It made its rounds. It definitely made its rounds.
You hit something. Why don't you introduce us to the characters, Kasina? Why don't you
tell us who we're talking to?
Well, why don't you introduce us to our two main characters?
We, okay, we've got a giant cast, but two main characters, super easy. We've got Jeannie.
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She's our 28 year old yappy business casual wear and main female protagonist. She was
a business girlie when she was in Boston. She saw her boss Marvin dead at his desk.
And then she hightailed to the Dream Harbor, which I think is in Connecticut, to run her
Aunt Dot's pop in the sky.
New England, I think.
It's in New England. New England general.
(08:17):
It's somewhat guys. And you know what? I'm going to offend the people who live up in
those states. You know, it's in that area.
It's in that area. I have thoughts about what New England constitutes. Apparently it's like
people have differing opinions of what states are in there, but it's up there. It's up
there in its fall.
Oh my God. I forgot that New England isn't just like a state. I forgot it's just an area
up there.
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You thought it was a state Sydney.
I did.
Okay.
I'm a defense in my defense. My defense guys, I never learned about the geography of the
United States. I literally did not know that New England wasn't a state for a very, very
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long time. I thought New England was a state.
Is it because of the football team?
Probably.
I feel like I just learned so much. Okay. I have to like compose myself.
I keep giggling.
Okay. I'm back. I'm convinced.
I love that I keep forgetting that New England is not a state.
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Sydney.
Did you blame me?
Yes.
Yeah, you can.
I'll take that.
I can.
Leave that on a shirt. I didn't know New England wasn't a state. New England is a state. That's
going to be her merch someday.
New England is a state.
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State of mind, baby.
State of mind.
Hey, Syd.
I'm going to send you a picture and I want you to tell me what state this is.
Okay.
Can you tell me what state that is?
Connecticut?
It is! It is Connecticut! Good job!
(10:12):
That's the one I know! I know that one!
I'm so proud of you.
I almost just said Connecticut's where Boston is, but it isn't.
Boston is the capital of New England, it's confirmed.
(10:34):
The resident geography nerd, I'm having heart palpitations.
I just drove through all these states recently.
Boston is the capital of New England!
Also Montepulje is there. Is that how you pronounce it?
Say it again?
How do you say it?
Say it again.
(10:55):
Mont-pil-je?
Mont-pil-je?
I said Montepulje.
Not Monty Python!
I said Montepulje.
It's not like Mont-pil-je, like ballet.
What is it?
Montepel-je?
It's spelled bad.
It's spelled Montpel-je.
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It's spelled Montpel-je.
So I don't know where you're coming up with that extra sound.
Montepel-je?
It's the southern me.
I add extra syllables where they don't belong.
I've always been Montpel-je, but who knows?
Montel-je?
Montepel-je?
Montepel-je?
Montepel-je?
(11:45):
Okay, I got it.
New England is the state and Boston is the capital, guys.
I'm having heart palpitations.
Holy smokes.
I'm stressed.
It's like we're in a geography, what would you say, like a buzzing geography bee?
Is that a thing?
(12:06):
Geography bee!
I like that.
I literally got bored one summer and taught myself all of the flags of the world and I
can also identify every country on a map.
Oh my god, Sheldon.
You surprised me.
You're in the room with us.
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And I still haven't learned my state capitals.
That's too much work.
No, flags is not capitals.
Oh my god, I'm dying.
Oh my god, this is so off topic.
Okay.
Well it may be debated what state Dream Harbor is in, we would debate this hotly.
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Regardless, Jeannie does run from Boston to Dream Harbor to run her Aunt Dot's Pumpkin
Spice Cafe.
It's hers now.
And our other main character is Logan.
He is a 30 year old bearded flanneled gruff voiced farmer living with his sweet grandparents
Nana and Grandpa.
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This hunky working man is called Mr. Pompdy.
And he did have a humiliating failed proposal to his last girlfriend named Lucy.
Yeah, which is important to bring up now just because like the events of like with Marvin
and Lucy don't happen in the book.
We just get told that they happen.
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Lots of telling.
They just tell us.
There's a lot of telling.
And honestly they're both pretty awful situations, but the fact that we're only told about it
makes it feel less awful.
Yeah, yeah.
I just feel like in their own now those characters, now those people are characters even though
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they're like meant to be just background.
Anyway.
Thank you, Christina.
Thank you for introducing our two lovebirds for this evening.
And with that, let's jump right into Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore.
So our book opens with Jeannie thinking there's a ghost or some someone is trying to murder
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her, which wasn't wouldn't be the first thing I would have thought in chapter one or like
thought of when I first moved to a new place is scratching off my walls or door must be
a murderer.
But she's new in town.
She's new in town and she has moved into the apartment upstairs in the Pumpkin Spice Cafe
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and she has grabbed a baseball bat bat and she has like she's coming down the stairs
because obviously she thinks someone's about to break in.
So she's like, Oh, gotta gotta beat them up apparently.
She opens the door and we meet Logan, who's the new produce, produce, deliverer, delivery
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farmer and she threatens to hit him and he's like, I'm just dropping off some pumpkins.
My guy.
She also debates if they're pumpkin or gourds a lot.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I don't think it matters.
I've never contemplated.
Yeah, I've never contemplated.
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So like so much whether it is a pumpkin or a gourd.
I'm like, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, so Jeannie like lets him in this strange man inside and she's like, Oh, sorry, haven't
been sleeping very well because I keep hearing these scratching noises in the night and Logan's
like, uh huh.
And he's like quiet and Jeannie has like this is where we first get introduced to really
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Jeannie's POV, which I grew to not love being in by the end of the book.
I would describe Jeannie as very, very neurotic and also very like in the best way possible,
very ADHD, just like all over the place.
But it's meant to be like funky and quirky.
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No, no, she's not one of those people.
She just talks good.
Even in her whole head.
Her head is viral.
Yeah.
And I'm like, girl, we need, we may need to be on something.
So she has been like not been able to sleep and she's like, but I want to be like this
new person and I don't want to be this crazy girl from Boston.
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Like I want to be cool.
Come Jeannie, you know, like the eclectic type that owns a cafe.
So new Jeannie as she keeps calling it.
So because of the trouble that she calls Logan, she invites him in for a cup of coffee and
this man accepts.
He's like, okay, why not?
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And honestly, honestly, if a woman, if I was trying to just do my job and a woman tried
to hit me upside the head with a baseball bat, I wouldn't then willingly go into a
coffee shop with her.
So we jump into Logan's POV and so here's my first gripe about this book.
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I'm going to bring it up early so we can get this over with.
This book is advertised as grumpy sunshine.
Logan is not grumpy.
He's quiet and he's reserved.
That's different than grumpy.
I don't think at any point he's grumpy.
No, no.
He's just kind of quiet.
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Yeah, he's very sweet, but he's sweet to everyone and typically with grumpy sunshine, I expect
like he's grumpy or he's like he's mean to everyone else.
But but you, you know, he very rarely had a bad attitude even from the beginning.
He was just a little more reserved and it's not harder to be reserved than Jeannie.
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Like she talks a lot.
It's easy to be quiet.
She talks a lot.
But Logan is like reminiscing about how he doesn't really come into town very often,
doesn't really socialize with people in town and how he like asked Jeannie like kind of
what's going on a little bit.
And Logan is like, so something's keeping you up at night and she tells him what's going
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on and he says to her to go to a town hall meeting and see if anyone could suggest anything.
And she's like, oh, of course, and then you're going to be there too, right?
He wasn't planning on it.
But because of, you know, those gosh dang hedgehog jammies that she's wearing, that
makes her so cute.
And for the fact that she's gorgeous after just waking up and trying to murder him, he's
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like, yeah, of course I'll be there.
He mentions the hedgehogs a lot.
Like this is not the only time they're mentioned.
They come up later and they come up at the very end too.
They come up at the very end.
And that's why I had to mention them because otherwise I would have forgotten the whole
thing.
Anyway, they meet up at the town meeting and here we get introduced to some new side characters,
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which are going to be like pretty prominent throughout the rest of the book.
So we get introduced to Hazel and Annie, who are both BFFs with Logan.
So Hazel runs the bookstore.
No, the bookstore is next door.
The bakery is across the street.
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And then Annie runs the sugar plum bakery, which is across the street.
And she does a lot of business with the pumpkin spice cafe.
She brings over baked goods.
Yeah, like all the time.
I will say, this is a little shade to the author and I kind of hate that I'm giving
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shade so early on.
It's so early.
I couldn't remember the difference between Hazel and Annie most of the time because they
had the same personality.
They were kind of the same person, two different names.
They're both friends with Logan.
Yeah, I kind of wish we had like some more, maybe some more distinctive traits.
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So I will say that could be improved upon.
But that was like I was really struggling with that.
And then on top of it, we get introduced to people like the mayor, who is Annie's father.
We get introduced to the book club.
There's a bunch of people in it, but I can't even remember all their names.
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So again, we're just going to call them the book club because they're more of just a conglomerate.
They even call themselves the book club.
And then we also get introduced to Noah and Mac, who are the respective possible love
interests for Annie and Hazel.
But again, they're so interchangeable.
Sometimes I can't remember who's who.
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The only thing that I can remember is Mac and Hazel have like this weird like enemies
thing.
No, Mac and Annie.
You're even mixing it up now.
Annie and Mac.
Annie says like they're nemesis, nemesis, nemesis-i.
I don't know.
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Ne-ma-si-i, and I'm like, girl, you're the only one being like weird at this situation.
Like nemesis?
I would argue no.
We never really hear much bad about him except for whatever Annie decides to say.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anyway, so we meet all these people in this town meeting and they're going to play roles,
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I guess, throughout the rest of this book.
And we go to the meeting, we meet everybody.
And this is where internally in Jeannie's monologue, we find out why she's moved to Dream Harbor.
So as Christina kind of like mentioned in the character introduction with her, she was
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living in Boston.
She was leaving her big city dreams, goals or something, and it was feeling pretty empty
when suddenly her boss Marvin died and she found him in his office.
That's awful.
Like honestly, that is an awful thing to come across.
Like you go into work one morning and she mentions dropping her, I think, her coffee
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on the floor.
It was his.
Because she just sees his coffee, yeah, that she was bringing him.
And like can you imagine you go into work, it's just a normal day and someone's dead.
Like that's awful.
Yeah.
I mean, I was pretty, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, that's pretty devastating.
I do hate to tell you though, it did just remind me of the opening of Stardew Valley.
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Oh no.
It kind of reminded me, there's an episode of Psych that has like a dead boss situation,
but it's a lot funnier than this.
I was just thinking of like a dead grandpa gifting the player a farm and then they just
moved to the small town.
And I was like, yeah, that's Jeannie and Aunt Dot right here, except Aunt Dot isn't dead,
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it's Marvin.
That's fine.
It's used a lot.
A lot of people love the whole, like, I mean, that's literally the plot of Horace.
True, true, true, true, true, true.
You're not wrong.
You're not wrong.
So they're at the town meeting and she's like reminiscing about this and she goes up in
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front of everyone because, no, she stands up, she's like introducing herself like, hi,
I'm Jeannie, I'm the one taking over the coffee.
Sorry, I closed it for a little bit while I got settled in, but it'll be open soon.
And then she tells everyone, she goes, yeah, there's like some scratching noises or something
that's causing me to not be able to sleep.
And the mayor, who apparently has dreams that tells him stuff about the town, says that
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he had a dream that Logan helps her with whatever it is.
And someone mentions ghost and like the town takes it seriously.
They say, yeah, I bet it could be haunted.
And I'm like, you know what?
These are my kind of people.
It's very, this is very Stars Hollow.
The whole town meeting thing pulled straight from the Kilmore Girls.
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100%.
So Logan is a little reluctant, but you know, he's into Jeannie and he thinks she's cute.
So he agrees to do what Jeannie is calling a stakeout.
So the dream.
Yeah, exactly.
It's so stupid, but I also kind of love it.
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So but before Jeannie can do her little full stakeout with Logan, the day before Hazel
and Annie decide to like hop in and tell Jeannie a little bit about Logan and being like, hey,
be careful with him.
He's been hurt in the past.
And this is where Jeannie finds out about Lucy, who is Logan's ex girlfriend, almost
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fiance.
Basically, what happened is, yeah, not fiance, just ex girlfriend.
Because I don't remember how long ago it was in the book, but he was with this girl.
He loved her and he wanted to marry her.
And when he tried to propose to her in front of this tree lighting ceremony, like in front
(26:02):
of the whole town, she turned him down because apparently she was like doing more soul searching
and wasn't really like settling down in like a small town.
So he was really embarrassed and obviously like really heartbroken.
So they're essentially like, you can't fuck this up.
And also you can't hurt him because the whole town also wants to protect him and love him
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because also, surprise, he's an orphan.
Yeah, the orphan storyline just kind of keeps on going.
He's an orphan.
He's an orphan.
He lives with his grandparents who are super cute.
But like, I mean, you're getting like little orphan Annie.
Like it's like, oh, the whole town feels bad for him.
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And then like his friends are standing up for him.
And like he and Jeannie are both like, nah, nothing's going on.
And the friends are like, now we caught vibes.
Yeah, everyone's like, we caught vibes.
But yeah, so on top of the fact that Logan had his heart broken publicly, he's also an
orphan.
So yeah, Jeannie's like, oh yeah, no, definitely can't do anything, even though I think he's
(27:07):
a sexy, sexy farmer.
She talks about his beard a lot.
Oh my God, so much.
A lot.
And while this is happening, oh my God, so much.
So before, like they basically tell her like, yeah, you can have sex with him, like a casual
relationship.
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Just like don't mess with his heart.
And Jeannie's like, okay, I didn't even I barely know the guy.
Anyway, speaking of the devil, Logan decides to come on in and he decides to change out
Jeannie's locks for him.
For her, sorry.
So that she'll sleep better at night.
And also he gives her earplugs.
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Yeah, he gives her earplugs.
Which is wild, because if you're trying to get someone, I had thoughts about this, if
you're trying to keep someone safe at night, I would not wear earplugs, because what if
someone breaks in, then you don't hear it.
I guess it's small town and they don't expect anything or they think she's being silly.
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So I don't know.
Yeah, it's it's very silly.
So very silly.
So kind of so going to the next part, it's more of Logan now reminiscing about his failed
proposal to Lucy.
(28:31):
And we get like some more details about that.
But he's kind of using this whole motivation of his getting his heart being broken to be
like, why he can't be with Jeannie, because he's like, so, like, so damaged.
Well, he doesn't say it like that, but he's like, I don't want to like jump into anything
with someone who's just going to pass through again and use me.
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And I'm like, fair enough.
But you also barely know this girl.
But OK, it's fair.
But the way he goes about it is so dramatic.
At one point, I just highlighted, he says, I guess this is this point of view.
He was greeted by the only ladies he had ever understood as soon as he stepped outside.
And he is talking about his chickens.
He's talking about the chickens.
Ashlyn, would you like to discuss your thing about the chickens real quick?
(29:19):
OK, so you know what?
I have chickens.
I've had many chickens and I love them dearly.
I get it.
They're all sweet, sweet ladies.
I understand.
Now, for listeners that have chickens, these chickens are silkies, which is a breed of
chicken that do not they're not good for anything.
(29:40):
They are really bad meat hens because they're very small.
They're very bad layers because, again, they're very small.
And a little fun fact about silkies is that their skull doesn't isn't like totally enclosed.
So they do have a hole in the top of their head.
And chickens like to peck each other on the head to assert dominance.
(30:01):
So silkies can't chicken right without dying because they peck each other on the head.
They'll just die.
Silkies die if you look at them wrong, they are a horrible breed to have.
And no self-respecting farmer would ever have silkies as a breed of chicken.
That's bonkers.
Thank you.
The reason we had to bring that up is because Ashlyn had a whole discussion with us about
(30:26):
chickens and the fact that silkies can't chicken right.
We just had to talk about it.
The fact that Logan keeps silkies.
Also, well, no, I'll wait for this.
I'll wait for my little rant on all of the animal names that comes up shortly after we
get the next animal name.
(30:48):
So it's stakeout time.
And I just love Ashlyn's note that says, can I be honest what the fuck is going on?
So Jeannie has invited Logan over basically for a stakeout of seeing if there's a ghost
or not.
They eat candy, they flirt, and Logan asked Jeannie to explain the noises she's hearing
(31:13):
and they talk about it.
And a little time later, they're still up, no spooky noises quite yet.
And then Jeannie opens up to Logan about why she's scared about things.
And it's because in her life in the past 10 years of living in Boston, her life has been
empty because she doesn't have friends because she's like been into her job and no one would
(31:35):
check on her.
And Logan's like, damn, she's hot.
I'd come check on you any day, baby.
In her context, they're on the floor at this point.
They're cuddling.
They're cuddling.
They're on the floor.
They're supposed to be in their sleeping bags that Logan got.
For some reason, they're sleeping at the front of the storefront.
(31:57):
I'm like, why not just up in the apartment?
Because she could hear just fine up there.
She could hear just fine.
I mean, I guess they have the snacks.
So you have to be downstairs for all the snacks that Jeannie brought.
She brought so many snacks.
Specifically, she was debating about Twizzlers.
Oh yeah, she asked if she was wondering if Logan was a Twizzler man because she hates
Twizzlers.
And I agree with her.
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Twizzlers are not a good candy.
They're gross, but Logan loves them.
Which is a red flag for me personally.
Jeannie also here opens up about Marvin and all of that stuff.
And just as they're getting all sexy and about to lean in for a kiss, they hear the spooky
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noises.
And it's just some scratching.
And they go sneak to the back and Logan opens the back door.
And guess what it is?
Because I guessed it, folks.
I'll give you three seconds.
Never mind.
I'll give you three seconds to guess.
It was a little cat.
(33:00):
And the little cat is on the cover.
It's on the cover of the book.
So you could have guessed.
You could have guessed.
But I didn't even see the cat on the front of the book.
So I didn't guess that.
Well, I actually did surprise.
So it's a little white cat with bright blue eyes.
And I'm like, there's no way that cat was not already picked up by someone else.
(33:23):
There's no fucking way.
No way.
It's just living in the clean alleyway.
There's nothing for it to eat.
She mentions that there's not a lot of trash in the alley.
It's like a clean alley in a small town.
So what's the cat eating this whole time?
Well, what I'm more talking about is the fact that not another person would have picked
up a small white blue eyed kitten because she's looking like a dead cat.
(33:46):
I'm like, bullshit.
There's no way that cat was living out in the street for that long and just decided
to come inside.
Like someone had to be feeding it.
I just love that we're just BSing the fact about the cat.
Well, there's so many other things.
Anyway, Logan has cat food in his truck.
Why?
(34:07):
Because you never know when you're going to need it.
And they feed the cat and it's like, dang.
I forgot about the cat food.
I guess I have a cat.
Guess I have a cat now.
And Jeannie and Logan want to have sex, but they can't.
So Logan leaves after that because he's like, yep, go salt.
Got to go.
(34:27):
And Jeannie's like, yep.
Okay.
Have fun with the cat.
Bye.
Honestly, this is what happened when Lauren got her cat because it just wandered into
her house too.
So.
It's a cat thing.
Well, the only reason I know this is because I was there when it happened.
Oh yeah, and Ashlyn with Maymay.
(34:49):
So this is where I'll have my little rant about the animal names because I hate them
and I think they're stupid names and I think they're very out of character.
So in this chapter, she's daydreaming about Logan and how she wants to like have sex with
(35:11):
him, so on and so forth.
And we get told that the name of the cat is Gasp is Casper because you know, he was Jeannie's
friendly ghost.
It's so stupid.
It's so stupid.
I it made.
(35:35):
It made me so irrevocably mad for no reason.
It's funny that you got so mad because like I thought it was silly, but I didn't think
it was the worst thing.
And you're over here hating like what about it?
I hate it so much.
I think what made it worse was the fact that we got names later of all of Logan's animals,
which for some reason, this big, gruff, sexy small town farmer has named all of his little
(36:00):
silky chickens after pop superstars.
What?
Oh, and not even it doesn't even start stop at the chickens you get.
Don't get me started on the bobs.
It's Marley and.
I can't even remember the other one is Bob Marley, Bob, Bob Saget.
(36:23):
There's another singer, some other singer.
I don't care.
It's stupid.
And the fact that he goes, oh, thank you.
Yeah, it's it's the bobs.
It's Dylan and Marley.
Yeah, it's stupid.
Don't get me started on that fucking alpaca.
(36:43):
I hated that alpaca, which specifically did what it says here.
He stopped in front of the old fence that kept Harry Styles, his rescue alpaca.
I could just imagine Harry Styles, but just for some reason, just like with a bit in his
mouth, just be like the movie cast Harry as the alpaca.
Please.
(37:04):
I understand that in that in that little bit, it's like, oh, well, it was like for charity.
So like the kids could name the alpaca.
I'm like, then look in what was the excuse for the other animals?
You had the other ones before you had Harry Styles.
What was the excuse?
It just.
(37:27):
It just felt like really poor writing.
And I really I hate hating on this author so hard because she is a small time.
Well, actually, no, I take that back.
She's not a small time author.
She's fully published.
Actually, I take it back.
I hate on the Lord.
She's won quite a few awards.
I take it back, actually.
Hey, what the fuck were those names?
Give up.
(37:47):
Give give Logan a little bit more personality than just the ideal farm guy like.
Can you like music that's not like what every 30, 20 to 30 something white girls dream is?
Like, come on.
I'm very confused because he does mention that Harry Styles, I think, was named by the
Girl Scouts that came like his grandmother had the Girl Scouts come.
(38:11):
And I'm like, OK, but it didn't explain it all the other says he was like, oh, there's
a theme.
And I'm like, when did he pick up social media?
Like I he never talked about this at all.
This was so out of character.
So I think on top of it, adding Casper, the white cat that was the friendly ghost just
like threw me off.
I'm like, we can name the cat something else.
(38:32):
We can name it something else, like name it something interesting.
But no, we have to do some quirky pop culture reference.
I guess they could they could name it like Adele Lady Gaga.
I hate that.
One of the chickens is already Lady Gaga and they already had an Adele chicken as well.
(38:52):
True you can't you can't double name.
Yeah.
What can you do?
You can't do it.
Especially when it's a chicken and a cat.
Anyway, I think it just made me so mad.
It didn't make me mad.
It irritated me because it was just very boring and I felt like none of the characters had
(39:14):
character and they all were just the same person.
You know, like it wouldn't have been too far off if Genie named those farm animals and
not Logan.
Yeah, it just wasn't on character.
And maybe side because it didn't talk about what would he have named them, like what are
(39:35):
the kind of names that he would be interested in?
He never talked about what he was interested in at all.
I don't think we have any interest for Logan.
We only know that he likes Genie.
We know he likes coffee.
He likes coffee.
He likes the farm.
He likes his grandparents.
That's about it.
That's all we know.
Like I didn't know that he liked pop icons that much until I didn't know he liked reggae
(40:02):
music.
You could have brought it up at any point.
At any point.
I talked about Taylor Swift too much.
It would make sense if I named something about Taylor Swift.
You do love her though.
You do love her a lot.
So yeah, it was just...
I don't know.
I was just very underwhelmed by this whole thing with the naming of the animals.
(40:24):
I think that just summed up quite a few other frustrations I had with the book.
Maybe that's why it's all accumulating in this one area because I'm just like, it just
could have been better.
Anyway, going back to more what actually happens in the book and getting off my little soap
box.
(40:45):
So Annie comes in while Genie is daydreaming about Logan and she's like, are you sure it
was just the cat?
It could be someone messing with you or something like that.
Or it could be Mac messing with you because apparently he wanted to buy the building or
something and Genie's like, no way.
(41:05):
Anyway, Logan comes in for a little bit, grabs a coffee, but at the same time it's book club
day baby, which means this muddy erotica book club comes into the coffee shop to talk about
their most recent book.
And I'll be real, for some reason I felt like some of this was a little bit of a dig at
her own readers for some reason.
(41:27):
How she kept describing how they openly talk about sex and other things.
I was just like, hey ma'am, you can't.
The call is coming from inside the house.
It really was.
It was kind of funny at a point where I was like, oh, they're the gossipy neighbors.
Of course they'd have a book club and they're talking about this farmer and a milkmaid romance
(41:53):
and it's like, ha ha.
But then it's overdone.
They keep coming up.
They keep being involved in everything.
They keep making Logan feel uncomfortable, which felt unfair.
You know what?
Actually that might've been the problem with the whole book.
I feel like there was many things that kept happening where things kept coming up and
it's like, okay, we get it.
(42:15):
We don't need to keep exploring this.
Book club's funny, but kind of pull them in somehow.
They were very one trick pony.
Yeah, and they were all in unison.
I truly have one trick alpaca.
I like that.
We also, as we're saying, we're calling them the book club because there are individual
names.
(42:36):
I remember Matteo, but that was the baby.
He was just there because his body was there.
There's some other people, but I literally can't think of their names.
No, I can't either.
So yeah, anyway, Logan, we jump back to Logan now.
He's also very much into Jeannie.
(42:59):
He's very much like, damn, she's hot.
Definitely want to do some nasty things to her.
But he swears her off because he's not doing any more what he calls eat, pray, love relationships.
And he's not going to do any more of those soul searching kind of things.
(43:20):
Oh wait, no, this is when he actually comes into the cafes, his little bit, while Jeannie
is talking to the book club.
He does a quick little brief, hello Jeannie.
And Jeannie's like, hello Logan.
And then he leaves because he's feeling awkward, which fair enough.
If a bunch of town people in my town were questioning me about my sex life, I would
(43:41):
also be wanting to run away.
Yeah.
And like they see this interaction just like, hey, hey, and book club is eating it up.
They put the book away.
Yeah, it's odd.
Anyway, oh, and then in this chapter is when Laurie...
(44:05):
Jeannie mentions the milkmaid and farmer book because one of the people in the book club
tries to give her the book, which is like the farmer and the milkmaid.
And she's like, and I assure this is not her pen name.
And I just went, Laurie, you can't talk.
Now it's just like in my notes.
It's like, Miss Ma'am, we know Laurie Gilmore is not your name.
(44:31):
Which might hurt just be like trying to be cheeky and I'm just like taking it in a weird
way.
I just thought it was funny.
I was in full hater mode throughout a lot of this.
Also I think the book club is just book talk, honestly.
It was just what people think book talk is.
(44:55):
And so yeah, they basically recruit Jeannie into the meeting and she's now part of the
book club.
So later that night, she calls her brother Ben.
He's her younger brother and he's living out in California.
And she is talking to him like having this heart to heart.
(45:15):
And Jeannie realizes that she's got a lot of self doubt about herself and like whether
or not she can do certain things and like, you know, Marvin and da da da.
And like, I was just like, I was already at this point getting over the fact that she
kept bringing up over and over again her like fast life and how she like lived fast and
(45:40):
all of that stuff.
And I was like, okay, yes, we get it.
You're trying to slow down.
You're trying to become a new person, but you can also just be the same person you are.
Who gives a fuck?
I don't.
That's what her brother says.
He's like, okay, you're talking about new Jeannie, but like, what about old Jeannie?
Like old Jeannie is fine.
Yeah, exactly.
Also, the fact his name is f**king Bennett.
(46:02):
That name follows me everywhere and I hate it.
Christina, you weren't here for that one.
That was November 9th.
I don't have a hatred to the name Bennett.
So it was fine for me.
I was like, Ben, sure, whatever.
It is specifically when she said Bennett.
Now in November nine, his name is Benton, but oof, all Ben's, all Ben's are off the
(46:28):
table.
Never, Ben, never, never, ever again.
But it follows me and I hate it.
Stop naming your kid Ben 2024.
That's my new slogan campaign.
Yeah, so you know, brother FaceTime and heart to heart.
(46:49):
And now it's time for the farmers market.
So basically, the reason this is only just not being brought up is because Logan tells
her about it in the previous chapter.
And Jeannie surprised because she surprised Marvin, who is a not Marvin.
What's his name?
Now you've got me doing it, Christina.
(47:11):
Norman, Norman, that guy grumpy old man.
Norman, the grumpy grumpy in the grumpy sunshine grumpy in the grumpy sunshine.
Actually, Norman and Aunt Dot are actually the grumpy sunshine.
That's kind of a spoiler.
Who cares?
I always do a little bit anyway.
(47:31):
It's hinted at throughout the whole book.
Who cares?
It's not much of a spoiler.
Not whatsoever.
Anyway, so Norman is one of Aunt Dot's old employees.
So he kind of transferred over from Aunt Dot to, to Jeannie.
And Marvin had never told her about the farmers market that happens every Saturday.
(47:53):
Jeannie was a little whatever his name is.
I don't care.
The old grumpy guy.
I'm going to start referring to Marvin as the dead guy and Norman as Norman.
So that helps me be a live guy.
Grumpy, a live guy.
So he was meant to tell her about the farmers market.
(48:14):
He didn't.
Jeannie is like upset.
But anyway, she sets up for the farmers market.
It's farmers market day.
Yay.
Small town, New England.
Yay.
Woo.
We love it.
We love New England.
Isn't it a great state?
A great state of England.
I'm never going to be able to live that one down.
It's okay.
No, sorry.
So Logan helps Jeannie set up her farmers market tent.
(48:46):
And basically as soon as they do, it starts pouring and they all have to like run inside.
It's pouring but it's also windy.
Yeah.
And I'm like, where did that come from?
Yeah, because coincidentally enough, the tent just like went up into a tree.
That was straight up like twisters.
Like twister twisters.
(49:06):
Like I feel like there's a scene.
Oh, 100%.
100%.
So Logan and Jeannie like run down Main Street to go get it.
They don't catch it.
They just walk out in a tree.
And she like drags them back to the cafe where they make it through the back door and they
start making out hardcore.
(49:28):
They're both very, very into it.
Like this, have you noticed how many times he pinned her up against a wall?
I lost count.
I think it was like five or six times.
Like when they started making out.
And there wasn't any pinning?
It was a wall.
They were right there.
They were against that wall.
So they make out for a bit.
And then I love them just glossing over the fact that this is like their first kiss and
(49:52):
it's like meant to be romantic.
So I'm just like, whatever.
Well if you backtrack though, because it's like they're chasing after this tent.
It gets stuck in the tree.
And Logan's like, I have to get this tent out of the tree or she'll never stay.
So he's like enraged in this moment.
And then they like, she's like, come on, let's just go back.
And then they make out.
(50:12):
So he's like, he's upset.
Like he's up, like he's being very like masculine rage in that moment.
And so I wonder if that has to do with him pinning her against a wall.
No, because then, spoiler, next time they make out, he does it again.
It's the same thing.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's the same thing.
But then the third time they make out, up against a wall.
(50:38):
The walls better watch out in this town.
Honestly, I, yeah, the walls better watch out or else Genie and Logan are going to make
out on them.
Yeah, if you're flying the wall, watch out, you're going to be smashed.
You're going to get squished.
But the power goes out and Genie's like, oh, I would love to keep making out with you,
(50:59):
but I really have to go run a cafe.
So she decides to go be a good little cafe owner and help out with what's going on.
And then we kind of switch perspectives.
This is when we start getting half chapters between Logan and Genie.
(51:20):
And we're back in Genie's POV and she is having some suspicions that Norman and her aunt had
a little affair because she's like, Norman doesn't really like me.
He doesn't like treat me great.
And I think it's just because he misses my aunt and yada, yada, yada.
And she's like, no, I'm just thinking about Logan too much.
Like that little make out sesh is just putting thoughts into my brain.
(51:43):
And that's when she picks up her little Smutty Farm book and begins to read it in the cafe.
And I was like, ma'am, I am not brave enough to read some of these books out in public
unless it is on my Kindle.
And I am like, so no one can see what the fuck I'm reading.
In the cafe where the book club people come.
(52:05):
Like she knows that they gave her the book.
It's like a whole thing.
They know what's in the book.
They read it.
Yeah.
She's brave.
She's so brave.
Braver than I could ever be.
Okay, so jumping forward, don't remember how much time has passed, but now it's trivia
(52:25):
night in the bar.
This is like the whole thing that Mac proposed.
That was like the same night as Annie's cooking class and she was like really mad about it
or something.
I don't even think you brought that up before.
No, she thinks he's sabotaging her.
It's like this whole back plot that's happening where Annie is in this moment where she's
(52:48):
like, this man is against me.
And Jeannie's like, hoo hoo, hee hee, kiss me up against the wall.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, but it's just a lot of we've been told this and we have seen no actions between
Mac or Annie to like see if like there's any animosity.
(53:10):
Like it just seems like Annie's the one who's perpetuating it because Mac shows up and apparently
he's just like smiling and laughing and having fun, which I would be too if it was a trivia
night.
Anyway, it's trivia night.
They're all doing trivia.
And it's suspicious for some reason for Annie that it's all happening.
(53:30):
Anyway, trivia ends, Logan's team loses and then he and Jeannie leave at the same time.
And then guess what?
It's time to go get gets that wah baby and make out some more.
Except this time.
You go ahead.
It's in the alley.
(53:51):
It is in the alley this time.
And he also picks her up this time, which is also a very common thing that he keeps
fucking doing.
And it kind of pissed me off after like the fifth time.
I was like, we get it.
He is strong.
If you think like PETA in the Hunger Games and how it's like, I work with heavy things
and I can pick you up.
(54:11):
That's exactly the theme that's happening here is I work with a modernist farm.
I get it.
I know it's meant to be sexy.
But like when you keep doing it every single time, like I think it would be sexier if it
happened one time.
And it was like meant to be like kind of the bigger moment where they're actually getting
hot and heavy because it's a 28 year old and a 30 year old making out and just make it
(54:34):
out like fucking 15 year olds like Jesus Christ, keep it in your pants.
It definitely is something where I'm like, hmm, yeah, the one trick alpaca thing stands
the one for alpaca is standing very much so.
Anyway, they hear a noise while they're making out and they're like, someone could have seen
(54:55):
us.
But it wasn't a basically Jeannie's trash cans had been tipped over for the third night
in a row when she reveals Logan.
And he's like, well, why don't you tell me?
And she goes, I don't know.
Like, it's just kind of weird.
And he's like, well, it could just be raccoon.
She goes, yeah, but the bags are untouched and they're like not ripped open.
And at this point, we're all like, someone's messing with Jeannie.
(55:17):
Like it makes so much sense.
It's not Casper anymore.
No, it's definitely not Casper.
Anyway, to leave you guys on a cliffhanger later that night, Jeannie wakes up to noises
in the same alley and a window gets broken.
And she calls her brother and said the police and she's like, wait, I don't know if this
(55:37):
is weird.
But you okay.
I somewhat get about the same time.
The fact that she's like, I just don't want to be a bother.
I'm like, shut the fuck up and call the police.
Dear God.
Or call someone in town, not someone in California.
I'm the exact opposite.
And the fact that she's like, I don't want to call Logan because I don't want to like
mess up this thing that we have because they had just agreed to be like casual and like
(55:58):
not tell anybody.
And I was like, this is so fucking stupid.
Wait, oh my God.
Okay.
Something maybe just connected in my brain.
I don't know.
So okay, trash cans falling over seems pretty purposeful, right?
We were just talking about like how could the cat have wandered in?
Is the cat on purpose?
Was it placed?
I don't know.
(56:19):
I don't know.
I think the cat happened organically and then other things started happening.
Okay.
Okay.
I think that's what happened.
Anyway, she's like not able to fall asleep.
And we've said this a couple of times on this show.
We've talked about millennial humor and doing millennial things.
(56:42):
The fact that this bitch pulls up Schitt's Creek on Netflix and decides to watch that
instead of going back to sleep.
Dear God.
Oh my God.
You're frustrated.
But like if there's anything that Jeannie did that I felt like I could relate to more,
it's this moment.
(57:02):
She calls her brother and said the cops is like, hmm, guess I'm going to put some TV
on and then stays up all night.
I have done that myself when I first moved into a new place and my windows wouldn't lock
and I was terrified that being in like a more urban place and I literally called my family
and was like, I don't know what to do.
(57:24):
And they were like, call someone.
I said no.
And then I watched TV all night.
Okay, fine.
I'll give it to you.
I'll give that one to you.
I think it just annoyed me that it was like Schitt's Creek.
I was like, can we do another fucking show?
Something else.
Well, Schitt's Creek is kind of another like small town.
(57:49):
I know.
I know.
It's in the same genre.
Anyway, she doesn't go to sleep and she's about to get up when she gets a text from
Logan like in the morning.
That's like seeing how she was and she goes, oh, he's so sweet.
She goes, yeah, I was fine.
Nothing happened.
Well, let's see the end of part one, guys.
(58:11):
What a place to end.
What a place to end.
My hater energy is coming out so much right now and I didn't hate the beginning of this
book.
But going back through, it's clear that not much happened.
Like, you know, we're like, we're trying to make something out of nothing on a lot of
these things.
Yeah, like it was fine.
(58:33):
Anyway, Ashlyn, do you have questions for us before I get us into more trouble?
Oh, my questions won't stop us from getting into trouble.
So in the books that we read, couples get together in a lot of wild different ways.
(58:54):
But this couple may be the earliest to meet cute scene that we have ever read.
How do you feel about the scene?
Mm hmm.
Don't get me started.
I'll get in trouble.
I like your scene to go first.
I have mixed thoughts on this because my problem with romance is when I'm reading a romance
(59:17):
and I don't I don't have the characters at first and then I'm frustrated because I'm
like, who are these people?
Like when does it start?
This one, it started and then I was like, when does it start?
Because it did start so early and it started with like serial killer vibes, which I just
read like thrillers right before.
And so I was like, oh, a thriller.
(59:39):
But it wasn't.
So here's my thing.
I've established this pretty early on in the show.
And that's why I let Christina go first, because I'm a yapper and I'll just keep going forever
and ever and ever.
Are you really a yapper?
I would never know.
I know, right?
I wouldn't know.
(01:00:02):
I am fully in the camp of I don't love meet cutes.
I don't like them.
I don't like the insta love thing.
I think it's a boring and honestly overdone trope in romance.
And I just thought I was fine.
Truly.
Like, honestly, the I was thinking back to X Hex reading this one because it was the
(01:00:28):
most recent one we read.
And what I liked is these both give off similar small town vibes, you know, like it's a small
community.
It's people.
It's like people who all know each other and grown up with each other.
But what was interesting about the relationship dynamic that I liked so much more in X Hex
is that they had a history beforehand, you know, and then they like met up again and
(01:00:54):
they had to like go through this complicated will they won't they in the sense of like,
well, we've already had these feelings like how will we work on them now as adults?
The history did help and made it more interesting.
Yes, it makes it more interesting.
So when it's just like, oh, I'm in love with you and I just saw you for the first time.
I think you're very sexy and I want to like fuck you up right now.
(01:01:15):
It's just boring to me.
Like, give me give me a reason.
Give me a reason to root for these characters.
I know that most of the time, like in real life, I meet cute or just like meeting someone
and be like, oh, that person is attractive.
And like, that's how a relationship starts.
I understand that that's how things work in real life, but that's not what I want in my
romance books.
(01:01:38):
The gored man coming to your door.
You don't want that.
Yeah, I know.
I need a need my gored man.
I need my man to bring me goreds.
Apparently, that's how you win a woman over.
Or were they pumpkins?
Who knows?
I think he confirmed they were goreds.
I don't give a shit what he thinks they are.
(01:02:01):
Important plot moments.
So where we've stopped right now in the book is just about halfway through.
At this point, do you think Janie and Logan have good chemistry?
This feels like a loaded question.
It shouldn't be, but it feels like one because my answer is no question mark.
(01:02:27):
I don't feel the chemistry, but they obviously do because they decide to fuck.
They have like, I think they have like physical chemistry with each other, which doesn't translate
well in a book, though.
When they're like, oh my god, I'm so physically attracted to him.
I'm like, well, guess what?
This is a book and I can't see him.
So it's a little difficult and I would rather if there was a little less telling us these
(01:02:54):
things and their emotions came through a little bit better, which I don't think they did.
No, it felt like both of them were more focused on their past selves rather than their present
selves, and they kept focusing on how the past was like holding them back from being
with each other.
And it was like, it was just unnecessary tension at times just for tension sake.
(01:03:20):
Yeah, I mean, I didn't personally feel like there was any chemistry between the two, but
obviously they do in the book because they bang.
At this point, we've been given several different explanations for what might be going on in
(01:03:49):
the cafe.
What was your hypothesis when you got to this point in the book?
Oh, Norman.
I instantly I was like, it's Norman.
There was no there's no other person it could be because even Mac wasn't really villainized.
It was only villainized by Annie and it's like clear that he was just vibing with his
(01:04:10):
trivia night like the trivia night confirmed that it wasn't him in my mind.
Yeah, the thing that I knew I knew Mac was like a red herring once and he was like, oh,
you know, he's like doing this.
I'm like, no, they're just like, that's that weird sexual tension.
And the fact that Jeannie instantly brought up, she goes, oh, yeah, my aunt and Norman
(01:04:32):
may have had a thing.
I was like, yeah, it's Norman.
He wants to fuck up the cafe.
So like, because he's mad, like maybe they had a breakup or something.
I was like, it's Norman.
I was thinking breakup because I was like, Aunt Dot, we didn't get much about her at
this point.
We just kind of know she's in the Caribbean vibing, having a good time.
Yeah.
So she seems like the kind of woman that would break hearts.
(01:04:54):
Yeah, exactly.
Maybe he like wanted to settle down or something.
So I was like, yeah, it's Norman.
I don't know his full reasoning why he's doing it, but it's Norman.
No doubt.
In addition to pregnancy, another one of Sydney's very deep dark fears is a public proposal.
(01:05:15):
What did you think of Logan's proposal to Lucy?
I cringe so fucking hard.
I would have had Lucy's same reaction.
I would have been like, no, gotta go.
I can see the point in this book with like it being Gilmore Girls or even like if you
pull in Schitt's Creek small town, small town vibes.
(01:05:38):
I could see this being so cute in Gilmore Girls, like Luke and Lorelei or someone like
do proposals about a town thing and it would just make sense.
But it sounded cringy written down.
And it's really cringy when it happens and sorry for people who've done that.
(01:06:00):
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
It's cinematic.
Yeah, but I'm not looking for cinematic in a book.
I'm looking for...
I'm trying to think of an equivalent word to cinematic for a book.
If you can't show us, which you can't with a book, you have to tell us through words.
(01:06:22):
We need something better if you're going to do like...
I need something better than that.
So it is cringy.
I think that's the whole point is that he's coming from this cringe, but it feels out
of character for him to do something so public.
It's also very hallmark.
This is a very hallmark move to do.
I've seen, I've unfortunately seen a lot of hallmark movies in my time, so I do know the
(01:06:45):
formula and the format.
So this is giving very much hallmark movie at the end of a Christmas movie and the guy
decides to propose.
And that's not very Logan.
No, he's so reserved.
But I think he says it too, the whole thing is that he did it because he thought Lucy
(01:07:07):
would wanted something bigger and he was trying to do bigger and it backfired on him.
Yeah, they do talk about how like she just never felt right.
Like his friends talk about that.
Like they just never felt like they fit in.
And so I'm curious why they think that Jeannie fits.
Yeah, I'm like, what about Jeannie makes you guys fit?
Is it just because you know, she has plot armor?
(01:07:29):
And she's...
I'm a hater.
I'm so sorry.
This was meant to be fun and cute and I'm not having a fun and cute time.
This is not very...
What is it?
I'm not being very demure.
Not very cutesy right now.
Demure.
I am not being demure.
It's a hating hour.
(01:07:50):
We've hated on chickens, we've hated on red vines or Twizzlers.
I think they call them Twizzlers in there.
And then now we're hating on proposals, meet cutes.
And in the next part of...
And with that, in the next part, we will continue to hate on this book.
Tune in next time to part two of Poke and Spice Cafe here with Raji Power Hour, where
(01:08:15):
we'll discuss the rest of the book.
Will I bring up how I think it's stupid that Jeannie is able to run a cafe even though she
has no barista experience?
Yes, I do.
But we'll talk about that later.
Anyway, if you liked this episode, we've got so many other episodes for you to listen to,
so please go check those out.
You can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, if we're not over two hours long.
(01:08:43):
You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitch.
And you can also find us on Storygraph.
And actually, you can only find us on Goodreads.
My bad, guys.
But go follow us on Goodreads and Fable so you can stay up to date with what we're reading
and what we're saying about certain books.
(01:09:03):
And yeah, tune in next time to listen to the rest of our thoughts for Pumpkin Spice Cafe
by Lori Gilmore.
And I'll say goodnight to you, you Gilmore gals.
Welcome to Raunchy Power Hour, a book club for discussing romance from the erotic to
(00:05):
the erroneous. As always, this is an explicit podcast and contains strong language, adult
themes and sexual content. If you are sensitive to these things, we urge you calmly but sincerely
to turn off your radio now.
This month, we are reading The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Lori Gilmore. This is part one of
(00:25):
Pumpkin Spice Cafe. This podcast will contain spoilers through Chapter 17. If you want to
read along with us, stop listening now. It's okay. We'll wait for you to come back. This
book contains themes of death. You have been warned.
I'm your producer Ashlyn.
I'm your host Sydney.
(00:48):
And I'm the other Pumpkin Spice host, Christina.
Now get ready to get raunchy.
Hi, Christina.
Hi, Sydney. Hi, Ashlyn. I'm back.
She is back. Um, so I have a question for you. If you could name a storefront of your
(01:14):
choice based off of some fall food or drink item, what would be your storefront and what
would be the name?
I have this prepared and I've had this prepared for years. It's coffee and queso.
Okay.
Soak it in. Soak it in. Yeah. Everyone's a hater. Everyone's a hater of the dream. But
(01:39):
there's something about coffee and like any cheese product. That's what it would be. The
queso is just kind of fun because it's not like your typical C and C. Like it's like
playing off of the like, like visually looking different. And I understand that everyone's
a hater, but.
Well, here's the thing. I'm just a hater of cheese and that's just my problem. So
I forgot you cheese hater. Okay. Then what's your idea?
(02:03):
Cheese hater. Okay. Um, I think it would have to be something like super, like super specific
and like super seasonal. Um, cause I think that would be the most fun. Um, I think it
would be.
My storefront slash establishment that is named after some sort of food would be called
(02:29):
PB and jammies where they just sell really comfortable pajamas, but they also serve peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches.
So it's like, it's okay. I can get behind this. It's comfy. Like you get like a little
like you can like get in your like get new, some new jammies and then like hang out on
some couches and like eat some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
(02:51):
That's really cute. I can see this going really bad.
I do too. There would have to be like explicit warnings on the door. Be like people with
peanut allergies do not enter. You will die.
It's kind of like five. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Well, except they've started taking
out some peanut. Have you noticed that? I haven't seen a peanut thing recently. Oh my
(03:14):
God. That could just be in my area guys. But conspiracy theory, five guys is trying to
like not kill as many people.
This is crazy development. Okay. So you have peanut butter jellies and jammies or is it
PB and jammies? That's cute. That's cute. That's clever. I'll give you that. Thank you. Thank
(03:38):
you. I just came up with it on the spot. Thank you.
But since I'm going to be going over the book today, Christina, why don't you tell us a
little bit about what we've read for this month?
We read the pumpkin spice cafe by Lori Gilmore. Lori Gilmore is the pen name for the author
Melissa McTernan. As Melissa, she writes steamy, fanny, as Melissa.
(04:02):
Fanny? Steamy, fanny?
Yeah. She writes a steamy fanny. As Melissa, she writes steamy fantasy romance. But as
Lori, she writes steamy small town romance. The inspiration for the dream harbor series
comes from Gilmore Girls. Very clear. And the quirky small town vibe of stars hollow.
(04:25):
It's very, very, very much inspired by Gilmore Girls. Her books are no call mark movie vibes
for every season. She's got fall with the pumpkin spice cafe and she's got some winter
ones. We only read pumpkin spice cafe and I think that's all we'll read.
Yeah, I'm good.
The pumpkin spice cafe was published August 30th, 2023 by One More Chapter, a division
(04:49):
of Harper Collins. The ebook comes in at about 286 pages and this is her debut as Lori Gilmore.
And it's the first in the dream harbor series. There's three books out and two planned for
a 2025 release. On Goodreads, it has a three and a half stars out of slightly more than
158,000 reviews. And on Storygraph, it's got a 3.39 stars out of 16,814 reviews. There
(05:18):
is a pumpkin spice cafe official Spotify playlist created by One More Chapter.
Thank God I didn't have to do it this time.
We have some words about this. It is printed in the beginning of the book so we all have
access to it.
Yeah, fun fact, I didn't know about it because I just skipped over that part and I just learned
(05:38):
about it less than 15 minutes ago that there was an official playlist.
I love Taylor Swift, but there's a lot of Taylor Swift on this that doesn't make sense.
There's a lot of angsty songs about love and I'm like, but we weren't really angsty. We
were hanging out for a month.
Yeah, the book doesn't get angsty, but the songs are. So if you're interested, it sounds
(06:01):
like 20,000 people saved it, which is a lot.
Yeah, so if you like the book, I guess listen to the playlist while you read.
Look up the playlist. It might be a little angsty for the book, but hey, go for it. And
also the book is a Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller and the winner of the TikTok Shop
(06:24):
Book of the Year award. I don't know what that is and it's a tongue twister.
Yeah, that's complicated. I was gonna say, did you know about this book before? Who suggested
it? I think it was Ashlyn is the one who suggested we read this one.
I think Ashlyn did.
Yeah, because I haven't heard of this book before until Ashlyn told us about it.
What? Okay, no, it was all over Bookstagram, all over and it had me convinced that maybe
(06:49):
I would like it. And I'm a Romethator, guys. Remember that.
Yeah. Sorry, guys, we did bring a Romethator onto the podcast because we had a short supply
of people in the basement.
It's just me, guys. It's fine.
She's trying her best.
I'm trying my best and it was it was all over Bookstagram. I can't talk for TikTok, but
(07:14):
obviously it did well. It was viral.
I think I picked up a LumiCrate, I think is the one who did like a limited edition.
That was LitJoy. I'm not sure one of those.
One of those awards Book of the Month, you know, those services.
(07:35):
It made its rounds. It definitely made its rounds.
You hit something. Why don't you introduce us to the characters, Kasina? Why don't you
tell us who we're talking to?
Well, why don't you introduce us to our two main characters?
We, okay, we've got a giant cast, but two main characters, super easy. We've got Jeannie.
(07:56):
She's our 28 year old yappy business casual wear and main female protagonist. She was
a business girlie when she was in Boston. She saw her boss Marvin dead at his desk.
And then she hightailed to the Dream Harbor, which I think is in Connecticut, to run her
Aunt Dot's pop in the sky.
New England, I think.
It's in New England. New England general.
(08:17):
It's somewhat guys. And you know what? I'm going to offend the people who live up in
those states. You know, it's in that area.
It's in that area. I have thoughts about what New England constitutes. Apparently it's like
people have differing opinions of what states are in there, but it's up there. It's up
there in its fall.
Oh my God. I forgot that New England isn't just like a state. I forgot it's just an area
up there.
(08:38):
You thought it was a state Sydney.
I did.
Okay.
I'm a defense in my defense. My defense guys, I never learned about the geography of the
United States. I literally did not know that New England wasn't a state for a very, very
(08:59):
long time. I thought New England was a state.
Is it because of the football team?
Probably.
I feel like I just learned so much. Okay. I have to like compose myself.
I keep giggling.
Okay. I'm back. I'm convinced.
I love that I keep forgetting that New England is not a state.
(09:23):
Sydney.
Did you blame me?
Yes.
Yeah, you can.
I'll take that.
I can.
Leave that on a shirt. I didn't know New England wasn't a state. New England is a state. That's
going to be her merch someday.
New England is a state.
(09:45):
State of mind, baby.
State of mind.
Hey, Syd.
I'm going to send you a picture and I want you to tell me what state this is.
Okay.
Can you tell me what state that is?
Connecticut?
It is! It is Connecticut! Good job!
(10:12):
That's the one I know! I know that one!
I'm so proud of you.
I almost just said Connecticut's where Boston is, but it isn't.
Boston is the capital of New England, it's confirmed.
(10:34):
The resident geography nerd, I'm having heart palpitations.
I just drove through all these states recently.
Boston is the capital of New England!
Also Montepulje is there. Is that how you pronounce it?
Say it again?
How do you say it?
Say it again.
(10:55):
Mont-pil-je?
Mont-pil-je?
I said Montepulje.
Not Monty Python!
I said Montepulje.
It's not like Mont-pil-je, like ballet.
What is it?
Montepel-je?
It's spelled bad.
It's spelled Montpel-je.
(11:25):
It's spelled Montpel-je.
So I don't know where you're coming up with that extra sound.
Montepel-je?
It's the southern me.
I add extra syllables where they don't belong.
I've always been Montpel-je, but who knows?
Montel-je?
Montepel-je?
Montepel-je?
Montepel-je?
(11:45):
Okay, I got it.
New England is the state and Boston is the capital, guys.
I'm having heart palpitations.
Holy smokes.
I'm stressed.
It's like we're in a geography, what would you say, like a buzzing geography bee?
Is that a thing?
(12:06):
Geography bee!
I like that.
I literally got bored one summer and taught myself all of the flags of the world and I
can also identify every country on a map.
Oh my god, Sheldon.
You surprised me.
You're in the room with us.
(12:28):
And I still haven't learned my state capitals.
That's too much work.
No, flags is not capitals.
Oh my god, I'm dying.
Oh my god, this is so off topic.
Okay.
Well it may be debated what state Dream Harbor is in, we would debate this hotly.
(12:53):
Regardless, Jeannie does run from Boston to Dream Harbor to run her Aunt Dot's Pumpkin
Spice Cafe.
It's hers now.
And our other main character is Logan.
He is a 30 year old bearded flanneled gruff voiced farmer living with his sweet grandparents
Nana and Grandpa.
(13:14):
This hunky working man is called Mr. Pompdy.
And he did have a humiliating failed proposal to his last girlfriend named Lucy.
Yeah, which is important to bring up now just because like the events of like with Marvin
and Lucy don't happen in the book.
We just get told that they happen.
(13:35):
Lots of telling.
They just tell us.
There's a lot of telling.
And honestly they're both pretty awful situations, but the fact that we're only told about it
makes it feel less awful.
Yeah, yeah.
I just feel like in their own now those characters, now those people are characters even though
(13:56):
they're like meant to be just background.
Anyway.
Thank you, Christina.
Thank you for introducing our two lovebirds for this evening.
And with that, let's jump right into Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore.
So our book opens with Jeannie thinking there's a ghost or some someone is trying to murder
(14:29):
her, which wasn't wouldn't be the first thing I would have thought in chapter one or like
thought of when I first moved to a new place is scratching off my walls or door must be
a murderer.
But she's new in town.
She's new in town and she has moved into the apartment upstairs in the Pumpkin Spice Cafe
(14:57):
and she has grabbed a baseball bat bat and she has like she's coming down the stairs
because obviously she thinks someone's about to break in.
So she's like, Oh, gotta gotta beat them up apparently.
She opens the door and we meet Logan, who's the new produce, produce, deliverer, delivery
(15:23):
farmer and she threatens to hit him and he's like, I'm just dropping off some pumpkins.
My guy.
She also debates if they're pumpkin or gourds a lot.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I don't think it matters.
I've never contemplated.
Yeah, I've never contemplated.
(15:43):
So like so much whether it is a pumpkin or a gourd.
I'm like, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, so Jeannie like lets him in this strange man inside and she's like, Oh, sorry, haven't
been sleeping very well because I keep hearing these scratching noises in the night and Logan's
like, uh huh.
And he's like quiet and Jeannie has like this is where we first get introduced to really
(16:05):
Jeannie's POV, which I grew to not love being in by the end of the book.
I would describe Jeannie as very, very neurotic and also very like in the best way possible,
very ADHD, just like all over the place.
But it's meant to be like funky and quirky.
(16:28):
No, no, she's not one of those people.
She just talks good.
Even in her whole head.
Her head is viral.
Yeah.
And I'm like, girl, we need, we may need to be on something.
So she has been like not been able to sleep and she's like, but I want to be like this
new person and I don't want to be this crazy girl from Boston.
(16:52):
Like I want to be cool.
Come Jeannie, you know, like the eclectic type that owns a cafe.
So new Jeannie as she keeps calling it.
So because of the trouble that she calls Logan, she invites him in for a cup of coffee and
this man accepts.
He's like, okay, why not?
(17:15):
And honestly, honestly, if a woman, if I was trying to just do my job and a woman tried
to hit me upside the head with a baseball bat, I wouldn't then willingly go into a
coffee shop with her.
So we jump into Logan's POV and so here's my first gripe about this book.
(17:42):
I'm going to bring it up early so we can get this over with.
This book is advertised as grumpy sunshine.
Logan is not grumpy.
He's quiet and he's reserved.
That's different than grumpy.
I don't think at any point he's grumpy.
No, no.
He's just kind of quiet.
(18:05):
Yeah, he's very sweet, but he's sweet to everyone and typically with grumpy sunshine, I expect
like he's grumpy or he's like he's mean to everyone else.
But but you, you know, he very rarely had a bad attitude even from the beginning.
He was just a little more reserved and it's not harder to be reserved than Jeannie.
(18:25):
Like she talks a lot.
It's easy to be quiet.
She talks a lot.
But Logan is like reminiscing about how he doesn't really come into town very often,
doesn't really socialize with people in town and how he like asked Jeannie like kind of
what's going on a little bit.
And Logan is like, so something's keeping you up at night and she tells him what's going
(18:51):
on and he says to her to go to a town hall meeting and see if anyone could suggest anything.
And she's like, oh, of course, and then you're going to be there too, right?
He wasn't planning on it.
But because of, you know, those gosh dang hedgehog jammies that she's wearing, that
makes her so cute.
And for the fact that she's gorgeous after just waking up and trying to murder him, he's
(19:13):
like, yeah, of course I'll be there.
He mentions the hedgehogs a lot.
Like this is not the only time they're mentioned.
They come up later and they come up at the very end too.
They come up at the very end.
And that's why I had to mention them because otherwise I would have forgotten the whole
thing.
Anyway, they meet up at the town meeting and here we get introduced to some new side characters,
(19:34):
which are going to be like pretty prominent throughout the rest of the book.
So we get introduced to Hazel and Annie, who are both BFFs with Logan.
So Hazel runs the bookstore.
No, the bookstore is next door.
The bakery is across the street.
(19:55):
And then Annie runs the sugar plum bakery, which is across the street.
And she does a lot of business with the pumpkin spice cafe.
She brings over baked goods.
Yeah, like all the time.
I will say, this is a little shade to the author and I kind of hate that I'm giving
(20:16):
shade so early on.
It's so early.
I couldn't remember the difference between Hazel and Annie most of the time because they
had the same personality.
They were kind of the same person, two different names.
They're both friends with Logan.
Yeah, I kind of wish we had like some more, maybe some more distinctive traits.
(20:41):
So I will say that could be improved upon.
But that was like I was really struggling with that.
And then on top of it, we get introduced to people like the mayor, who is Annie's father.
We get introduced to the book club.
There's a bunch of people in it, but I can't even remember all their names.
(21:02):
So again, we're just going to call them the book club because they're more of just a conglomerate.
They even call themselves the book club.
And then we also get introduced to Noah and Mac, who are the respective possible love
interests for Annie and Hazel.
But again, they're so interchangeable.
Sometimes I can't remember who's who.
(21:23):
The only thing that I can remember is Mac and Hazel have like this weird like enemies
thing.
No, Mac and Annie.
You're even mixing it up now.
Annie and Mac.
Annie says like they're nemesis, nemesis, nemesis-i.
I don't know.
(21:43):
Ne-ma-si-i, and I'm like, girl, you're the only one being like weird at this situation.
Like nemesis?
I would argue no.
We never really hear much bad about him except for whatever Annie decides to say.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anyway, so we meet all these people in this town meeting and they're going to play roles,
(22:08):
I guess, throughout the rest of this book.
And we go to the meeting, we meet everybody.
And this is where internally in Jeannie's monologue, we find out why she's moved to Dream Harbor.
So as Christina kind of like mentioned in the character introduction with her, she was
(22:31):
living in Boston.
She was leaving her big city dreams, goals or something, and it was feeling pretty empty
when suddenly her boss Marvin died and she found him in his office.
That's awful.
Like honestly, that is an awful thing to come across.
Like you go into work one morning and she mentions dropping her, I think, her coffee
(22:52):
on the floor.
It was his.
Because she just sees his coffee, yeah, that she was bringing him.
And like can you imagine you go into work, it's just a normal day and someone's dead.
Like that's awful.
Yeah.
I mean, I was pretty, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, that's pretty devastating.
I do hate to tell you though, it did just remind me of the opening of Stardew Valley.
(23:12):
Oh no.
It kind of reminded me, there's an episode of Psych that has like a dead boss situation,
but it's a lot funnier than this.
I was just thinking of like a dead grandpa gifting the player a farm and then they just
moved to the small town.
And I was like, yeah, that's Jeannie and Aunt Dot right here, except Aunt Dot isn't dead,
(23:32):
it's Marvin.
That's fine.
It's used a lot.
A lot of people love the whole, like, I mean, that's literally the plot of Horace.
True, true, true, true, true, true.
You're not wrong.
You're not wrong.
So they're at the town meeting and she's like reminiscing about this and she goes up in
(23:57):
front of everyone because, no, she stands up, she's like introducing herself like, hi,
I'm Jeannie, I'm the one taking over the coffee.
Sorry, I closed it for a little bit while I got settled in, but it'll be open soon.
And then she tells everyone, she goes, yeah, there's like some scratching noises or something
that's causing me to not be able to sleep.
And the mayor, who apparently has dreams that tells him stuff about the town, says that
(24:27):
he had a dream that Logan helps her with whatever it is.
And someone mentions ghost and like the town takes it seriously.
They say, yeah, I bet it could be haunted.
And I'm like, you know what?
These are my kind of people.
It's very, this is very Stars Hollow.
The whole town meeting thing pulled straight from the Kilmore Girls.
(24:49):
100%.
So Logan is a little reluctant, but you know, he's into Jeannie and he thinks she's cute.
So he agrees to do what Jeannie is calling a stakeout.
So the dream.
Yeah, exactly.
It's so stupid, but I also kind of love it.
(25:14):
So but before Jeannie can do her little full stakeout with Logan, the day before Hazel
and Annie decide to like hop in and tell Jeannie a little bit about Logan and being like, hey,
be careful with him.
He's been hurt in the past.
And this is where Jeannie finds out about Lucy, who is Logan's ex girlfriend, almost
(25:41):
fiance.
Basically, what happened is, yeah, not fiance, just ex girlfriend.
Because I don't remember how long ago it was in the book, but he was with this girl.
He loved her and he wanted to marry her.
And when he tried to propose to her in front of this tree lighting ceremony, like in front
(26:02):
of the whole town, she turned him down because apparently she was like doing more soul searching
and wasn't really like settling down in like a small town.
So he was really embarrassed and obviously like really heartbroken.
So they're essentially like, you can't fuck this up.
And also you can't hurt him because the whole town also wants to protect him and love him
(26:22):
because also, surprise, he's an orphan.
Yeah, the orphan storyline just kind of keeps on going.
He's an orphan.
He's an orphan.
He lives with his grandparents who are super cute.
But like, I mean, you're getting like little orphan Annie.
Like it's like, oh, the whole town feels bad for him.
(26:43):
And then like his friends are standing up for him.
And like he and Jeannie are both like, nah, nothing's going on.
And the friends are like, now we caught vibes.
Yeah, everyone's like, we caught vibes.
But yeah, so on top of the fact that Logan had his heart broken publicly, he's also an
orphan.
So yeah, Jeannie's like, oh yeah, no, definitely can't do anything, even though I think he's
(27:07):
a sexy, sexy farmer.
She talks about his beard a lot.
Oh my God, so much.
A lot.
And while this is happening, oh my God, so much.
So before, like they basically tell her like, yeah, you can have sex with him, like a casual
relationship.
(27:27):
Just like don't mess with his heart.
And Jeannie's like, okay, I didn't even I barely know the guy.
Anyway, speaking of the devil, Logan decides to come on in and he decides to change out
Jeannie's locks for him.
For her, sorry.
So that she'll sleep better at night.
And also he gives her earplugs.
(27:48):
Yeah, he gives her earplugs.
Which is wild, because if you're trying to get someone, I had thoughts about this, if
you're trying to keep someone safe at night, I would not wear earplugs, because what if
someone breaks in, then you don't hear it.
I guess it's small town and they don't expect anything or they think she's being silly.
(28:10):
So I don't know.
Yeah, it's it's very silly.
So very silly.
So kind of so going to the next part, it's more of Logan now reminiscing about his failed
proposal to Lucy.
(28:31):
And we get like some more details about that.
But he's kind of using this whole motivation of his getting his heart being broken to be
like, why he can't be with Jeannie, because he's like, so, like, so damaged.
Well, he doesn't say it like that, but he's like, I don't want to like jump into anything
with someone who's just going to pass through again and use me.
(28:52):
And I'm like, fair enough.
But you also barely know this girl.
But OK, it's fair.
But the way he goes about it is so dramatic.
At one point, I just highlighted, he says, I guess this is this point of view.
He was greeted by the only ladies he had ever understood as soon as he stepped outside.
And he is talking about his chickens.
He's talking about the chickens.
Ashlyn, would you like to discuss your thing about the chickens real quick?
(29:19):
OK, so you know what?
I have chickens.
I've had many chickens and I love them dearly.
I get it.
They're all sweet, sweet ladies.
I understand.
Now, for listeners that have chickens, these chickens are silkies, which is a breed of
chicken that do not they're not good for anything.
(29:40):
They are really bad meat hens because they're very small.
They're very bad layers because, again, they're very small.
And a little fun fact about silkies is that their skull doesn't isn't like totally enclosed.
So they do have a hole in the top of their head.
And chickens like to peck each other on the head to assert dominance.
(30:01):
So silkies can't chicken right without dying because they peck each other on the head.
They'll just die.
Silkies die if you look at them wrong, they are a horrible breed to have.
And no self-respecting farmer would ever have silkies as a breed of chicken.
That's bonkers.
Thank you.
The reason we had to bring that up is because Ashlyn had a whole discussion with us about
(30:26):
chickens and the fact that silkies can't chicken right.
We just had to talk about it.
The fact that Logan keeps silkies.
Also, well, no, I'll wait for this.
I'll wait for my little rant on all of the animal names that comes up shortly after we
get the next animal name.
(30:48):
So it's stakeout time.
And I just love Ashlyn's note that says, can I be honest what the fuck is going on?
So Jeannie has invited Logan over basically for a stakeout of seeing if there's a ghost
or not.
They eat candy, they flirt, and Logan asked Jeannie to explain the noises she's hearing
(31:13):
and they talk about it.
And a little time later, they're still up, no spooky noises quite yet.
And then Jeannie opens up to Logan about why she's scared about things.
And it's because in her life in the past 10 years of living in Boston, her life has been
empty because she doesn't have friends because she's like been into her job and no one would
(31:35):
check on her.
And Logan's like, damn, she's hot.
I'd come check on you any day, baby.
In her context, they're on the floor at this point.
They're cuddling.
They're cuddling.
They're on the floor.
They're supposed to be in their sleeping bags that Logan got.
For some reason, they're sleeping at the front of the storefront.
(31:57):
I'm like, why not just up in the apartment?
Because she could hear just fine up there.
She could hear just fine.
I mean, I guess they have the snacks.
So you have to be downstairs for all the snacks that Jeannie brought.
She brought so many snacks.
Specifically, she was debating about Twizzlers.
Oh yeah, she asked if she was wondering if Logan was a Twizzler man because she hates
Twizzlers.
And I agree with her.
(32:18):
Twizzlers are not a good candy.
They're gross, but Logan loves them.
Which is a red flag for me personally.
Jeannie also here opens up about Marvin and all of that stuff.
And just as they're getting all sexy and about to lean in for a kiss, they hear the spooky
(32:40):
noises.
And it's just some scratching.
And they go sneak to the back and Logan opens the back door.
And guess what it is?
Because I guessed it, folks.
I'll give you three seconds.
Never mind.
I'll give you three seconds to guess.
It was a little cat.
(33:00):
And the little cat is on the cover.
It's on the cover of the book.
So you could have guessed.
You could have guessed.
But I didn't even see the cat on the front of the book.
So I didn't guess that.
Well, I actually did surprise.
So it's a little white cat with bright blue eyes.
And I'm like, there's no way that cat was not already picked up by someone else.
(33:23):
There's no fucking way.
No way.
It's just living in the clean alleyway.
There's nothing for it to eat.
She mentions that there's not a lot of trash in the alley.
It's like a clean alley in a small town.
So what's the cat eating this whole time?
Well, what I'm more talking about is the fact that not another person would have picked
up a small white blue eyed kitten because she's looking like a dead cat.
(33:46):
I'm like, bullshit.
There's no way that cat was living out in the street for that long and just decided
to come inside.
Like someone had to be feeding it.
I just love that we're just BSing the fact about the cat.
Well, there's so many other things.
Anyway, Logan has cat food in his truck.
Why?
(34:07):
Because you never know when you're going to need it.
And they feed the cat and it's like, dang.
I forgot about the cat food.
I guess I have a cat.
Guess I have a cat now.
And Jeannie and Logan want to have sex, but they can't.
So Logan leaves after that because he's like, yep, go salt.
Got to go.
(34:27):
And Jeannie's like, yep.
Okay.
Have fun with the cat.
Bye.
Honestly, this is what happened when Lauren got her cat because it just wandered into
her house too.
So.
It's a cat thing.
Well, the only reason I know this is because I was there when it happened.
Oh yeah, and Ashlyn with Maymay.
(34:49):
So this is where I'll have my little rant about the animal names because I hate them
and I think they're stupid names and I think they're very out of character.
So in this chapter, she's daydreaming about Logan and how she wants to like have sex with
(35:11):
him, so on and so forth.
And we get told that the name of the cat is Gasp is Casper because you know, he was Jeannie's
friendly ghost.
It's so stupid.
It's so stupid.
I it made.
(35:35):
It made me so irrevocably mad for no reason.
It's funny that you got so mad because like I thought it was silly, but I didn't think
it was the worst thing.
And you're over here hating like what about it?
I hate it so much.
I think what made it worse was the fact that we got names later of all of Logan's animals,
which for some reason, this big, gruff, sexy small town farmer has named all of his little
(36:00):
silky chickens after pop superstars.
What?
Oh, and not even it doesn't even start stop at the chickens you get.
Don't get me started on the bobs.
It's Marley and.
I can't even remember the other one is Bob Marley, Bob, Bob Saget.
(36:23):
There's another singer, some other singer.
I don't care.
It's stupid.
And the fact that he goes, oh, thank you.
Yeah, it's it's the bobs.
It's Dylan and Marley.
Yeah, it's stupid.
Don't get me started on that fucking alpaca.
(36:43):
I hated that alpaca, which specifically did what it says here.
He stopped in front of the old fence that kept Harry Styles, his rescue alpaca.
I could just imagine Harry Styles, but just for some reason, just like with a bit in his
mouth, just be like the movie cast Harry as the alpaca.
Please.
(37:04):
I understand that in that in that little bit, it's like, oh, well, it was like for charity.
So like the kids could name the alpaca.
I'm like, then look in what was the excuse for the other animals?
You had the other ones before you had Harry Styles.
What was the excuse?
It just.
(37:27):
It just felt like really poor writing.
And I really I hate hating on this author so hard because she is a small time.
Well, actually, no, I take that back.
She's not a small time author.
She's fully published.
Actually, I take it back.
I hate on the Lord.
She's won quite a few awards.
I take it back, actually.
Hey, what the fuck were those names?
Give up.
(37:47):
Give give Logan a little bit more personality than just the ideal farm guy like.
Can you like music that's not like what every 30, 20 to 30 something white girls dream is?
Like, come on.
I'm very confused because he does mention that Harry Styles, I think, was named by the
Girl Scouts that came like his grandmother had the Girl Scouts come.
(38:11):
And I'm like, OK, but it didn't explain it all the other says he was like, oh, there's
a theme.
And I'm like, when did he pick up social media?
Like I he never talked about this at all.
This was so out of character.
So I think on top of it, adding Casper, the white cat that was the friendly ghost just
like threw me off.
I'm like, we can name the cat something else.
(38:32):
We can name it something else, like name it something interesting.
But no, we have to do some quirky pop culture reference.
I guess they could they could name it like Adele Lady Gaga.
I hate that.
One of the chickens is already Lady Gaga and they already had an Adele chicken as well.
(38:52):
True you can't you can't double name.
Yeah.
What can you do?
You can't do it.
Especially when it's a chicken and a cat.
Anyway, I think it just made me so mad.
It didn't make me mad.
It irritated me because it was just very boring and I felt like none of the characters had
(39:14):
character and they all were just the same person.
You know, like it wouldn't have been too far off if Genie named those farm animals and
not Logan.
Yeah, it just wasn't on character.
And maybe side because it didn't talk about what would he have named them, like what are
(39:35):
the kind of names that he would be interested in?
He never talked about what he was interested in at all.
I don't think we have any interest for Logan.
We only know that he likes Genie.
We know he likes coffee.
He likes coffee.
He likes the farm.
He likes his grandparents.
That's about it.
That's all we know.
Like I didn't know that he liked pop icons that much until I didn't know he liked reggae
(40:02):
music.
You could have brought it up at any point.
At any point.
I talked about Taylor Swift too much.
It would make sense if I named something about Taylor Swift.
You do love her though.
You do love her a lot.
So yeah, it was just...
I don't know.
I was just very underwhelmed by this whole thing with the naming of the animals.
(40:24):
I think that just summed up quite a few other frustrations I had with the book.
Maybe that's why it's all accumulating in this one area because I'm just like, it just
could have been better.
Anyway, going back to more what actually happens in the book and getting off my little soap
box.
(40:45):
So Annie comes in while Genie is daydreaming about Logan and she's like, are you sure it
was just the cat?
It could be someone messing with you or something like that.
Or it could be Mac messing with you because apparently he wanted to buy the building or
something and Genie's like, no way.
(41:05):
Anyway, Logan comes in for a little bit, grabs a coffee, but at the same time it's book club
day baby, which means this muddy erotica book club comes into the coffee shop to talk about
their most recent book.
And I'll be real, for some reason I felt like some of this was a little bit of a dig at
her own readers for some reason.
(41:27):
How she kept describing how they openly talk about sex and other things.
I was just like, hey ma'am, you can't.
The call is coming from inside the house.
It really was.
It was kind of funny at a point where I was like, oh, they're the gossipy neighbors.
Of course they'd have a book club and they're talking about this farmer and a milkmaid romance
(41:53):
and it's like, ha ha.
But then it's overdone.
They keep coming up.
They keep being involved in everything.
They keep making Logan feel uncomfortable, which felt unfair.
You know what?
Actually that might've been the problem with the whole book.
I feel like there was many things that kept happening where things kept coming up and
it's like, okay, we get it.
(42:15):
We don't need to keep exploring this.
Book club's funny, but kind of pull them in somehow.
They were very one trick pony.
Yeah, and they were all in unison.
I truly have one trick alpaca.
I like that.
We also, as we're saying, we're calling them the book club because there are individual
names.
(42:36):
I remember Matteo, but that was the baby.
He was just there because his body was there.
There's some other people, but I literally can't think of their names.
No, I can't either.
So yeah, anyway, Logan, we jump back to Logan now.
He's also very much into Jeannie.
(42:59):
He's very much like, damn, she's hot.
Definitely want to do some nasty things to her.
But he swears her off because he's not doing any more what he calls eat, pray, love relationships.
And he's not going to do any more of those soul searching kind of things.
(43:20):
Oh wait, no, this is when he actually comes into the cafes, his little bit, while Jeannie
is talking to the book club.
He does a quick little brief, hello Jeannie.
And Jeannie's like, hello Logan.
And then he leaves because he's feeling awkward, which fair enough.
If a bunch of town people in my town were questioning me about my sex life, I would
(43:41):
also be wanting to run away.
Yeah.
And like they see this interaction just like, hey, hey, and book club is eating it up.
They put the book away.
Yeah, it's odd.
Anyway, oh, and then in this chapter is when Laurie...
(44:05):
Jeannie mentions the milkmaid and farmer book because one of the people in the book club
tries to give her the book, which is like the farmer and the milkmaid.
And she's like, and I assure this is not her pen name.
And I just went, Laurie, you can't talk.
Now it's just like in my notes.
It's like, Miss Ma'am, we know Laurie Gilmore is not your name.
(44:31):
Which might hurt just be like trying to be cheeky and I'm just like taking it in a weird
way.
I just thought it was funny.
I was in full hater mode throughout a lot of this.
Also I think the book club is just book talk, honestly.
It was just what people think book talk is.
(44:55):
And so yeah, they basically recruit Jeannie into the meeting and she's now part of the
book club.
So later that night, she calls her brother Ben.
He's her younger brother and he's living out in California.
And she is talking to him like having this heart to heart.
(45:15):
And Jeannie realizes that she's got a lot of self doubt about herself and like whether
or not she can do certain things and like, you know, Marvin and da da da.
And like, I was just like, I was already at this point getting over the fact that she
kept bringing up over and over again her like fast life and how she like lived fast and
(45:40):
all of that stuff.
And I was like, okay, yes, we get it.
You're trying to slow down.
You're trying to become a new person, but you can also just be the same person you are.
Who gives a fuck?
I don't.
That's what her brother says.
He's like, okay, you're talking about new Jeannie, but like, what about old Jeannie?
Like old Jeannie is fine.
Yeah, exactly.
Also, the fact his name is f**king Bennett.
(46:02):
That name follows me everywhere and I hate it.
Christina, you weren't here for that one.
That was November 9th.
I don't have a hatred to the name Bennett.
So it was fine for me.
I was like, Ben, sure, whatever.
It is specifically when she said Bennett.
Now in November nine, his name is Benton, but oof, all Ben's, all Ben's are off the
(46:28):
table.
Never, Ben, never, never, ever again.
But it follows me and I hate it.
Stop naming your kid Ben 2024.
That's my new slogan campaign.
Yeah, so you know, brother FaceTime and heart to heart.
(46:49):
And now it's time for the farmers market.
So basically, the reason this is only just not being brought up is because Logan tells
her about it in the previous chapter.
And Jeannie surprised because she surprised Marvin, who is a not Marvin.
What's his name?
Now you've got me doing it, Christina.
(47:11):
Norman, Norman, that guy grumpy old man.
Norman, the grumpy grumpy in the grumpy sunshine grumpy in the grumpy sunshine.
Actually, Norman and Aunt Dot are actually the grumpy sunshine.
That's kind of a spoiler.
Who cares?
I always do a little bit anyway.
(47:31):
It's hinted at throughout the whole book.
Who cares?
It's not much of a spoiler.
Not whatsoever.
Anyway, so Norman is one of Aunt Dot's old employees.
So he kind of transferred over from Aunt Dot to, to Jeannie.
And Marvin had never told her about the farmers market that happens every Saturday.
(47:53):
Jeannie was a little whatever his name is.
I don't care.
The old grumpy guy.
I'm going to start referring to Marvin as the dead guy and Norman as Norman.
So that helps me be a live guy.
Grumpy, a live guy.
So he was meant to tell her about the farmers market.
(48:14):
He didn't.
Jeannie is like upset.
But anyway, she sets up for the farmers market.
It's farmers market day.
Yay.
Small town, New England.
Yay.
Woo.
We love it.
We love New England.
Isn't it a great state?
A great state of England.
I'm never going to be able to live that one down.
It's okay.
No, sorry.
So Logan helps Jeannie set up her farmers market tent.
(48:46):
And basically as soon as they do, it starts pouring and they all have to like run inside.
It's pouring but it's also windy.
Yeah.
And I'm like, where did that come from?
Yeah, because coincidentally enough, the tent just like went up into a tree.
That was straight up like twisters.
Like twister twisters.
(49:06):
Like I feel like there's a scene.
Oh, 100%.
100%.
So Logan and Jeannie like run down Main Street to go get it.
They don't catch it.
They just walk out in a tree.
And she like drags them back to the cafe where they make it through the back door and they
start making out hardcore.
(49:28):
They're both very, very into it.
Like this, have you noticed how many times he pinned her up against a wall?
I lost count.
I think it was like five or six times.
Like when they started making out.
And there wasn't any pinning?
It was a wall.
They were right there.
They were against that wall.
So they make out for a bit.
And then I love them just glossing over the fact that this is like their first kiss and
(49:52):
it's like meant to be romantic.
So I'm just like, whatever.
Well if you backtrack though, because it's like they're chasing after this tent.
It gets stuck in the tree.
And Logan's like, I have to get this tent out of the tree or she'll never stay.
So he's like enraged in this moment.
And then they like, she's like, come on, let's just go back.
And then they make out.
(50:12):
So he's like, he's upset.
Like he's up, like he's being very like masculine rage in that moment.
And so I wonder if that has to do with him pinning her against a wall.
No, because then, spoiler, next time they make out, he does it again.
It's the same thing.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's the same thing.
But then the third time they make out, up against a wall.
(50:38):
The walls better watch out in this town.
Honestly, I, yeah, the walls better watch out or else Genie and Logan are going to make
out on them.
Yeah, if you're flying the wall, watch out, you're going to be smashed.
You're going to get squished.
But the power goes out and Genie's like, oh, I would love to keep making out with you,
(50:59):
but I really have to go run a cafe.
So she decides to go be a good little cafe owner and help out with what's going on.
And then we kind of switch perspectives.
This is when we start getting half chapters between Logan and Genie.
(51:20):
And we're back in Genie's POV and she is having some suspicions that Norman and her aunt had
a little affair because she's like, Norman doesn't really like me.
He doesn't like treat me great.
And I think it's just because he misses my aunt and yada, yada, yada.
And she's like, no, I'm just thinking about Logan too much.
Like that little make out sesh is just putting thoughts into my brain.
(51:43):
And that's when she picks up her little Smutty Farm book and begins to read it in the cafe.
And I was like, ma'am, I am not brave enough to read some of these books out in public
unless it is on my Kindle.
And I am like, so no one can see what the fuck I'm reading.
In the cafe where the book club people come.
(52:05):
Like she knows that they gave her the book.
It's like a whole thing.
They know what's in the book.
They read it.
Yeah.
She's brave.
She's so brave.
Braver than I could ever be.
Okay, so jumping forward, don't remember how much time has passed, but now it's trivia
(52:25):
night in the bar.
This is like the whole thing that Mac proposed.
That was like the same night as Annie's cooking class and she was like really mad about it
or something.
I don't even think you brought that up before.
No, she thinks he's sabotaging her.
It's like this whole back plot that's happening where Annie is in this moment where she's
(52:48):
like, this man is against me.
And Jeannie's like, hoo hoo, hee hee, kiss me up against the wall.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, but it's just a lot of we've been told this and we have seen no actions between
Mac or Annie to like see if like there's any animosity.
(53:10):
Like it just seems like Annie's the one who's perpetuating it because Mac shows up and apparently
he's just like smiling and laughing and having fun, which I would be too if it was a trivia
night.
Anyway, it's trivia night.
They're all doing trivia.
And it's suspicious for some reason for Annie that it's all happening.
(53:30):
Anyway, trivia ends, Logan's team loses and then he and Jeannie leave at the same time.
And then guess what?
It's time to go get gets that wah baby and make out some more.
Except this time.
You go ahead.
It's in the alley.
(53:51):
It is in the alley this time.
And he also picks her up this time, which is also a very common thing that he keeps
fucking doing.
And it kind of pissed me off after like the fifth time.
I was like, we get it.
He is strong.
If you think like PETA in the Hunger Games and how it's like, I work with heavy things
and I can pick you up.
(54:11):
That's exactly the theme that's happening here is I work with a modernist farm.
I get it.
I know it's meant to be sexy.
But like when you keep doing it every single time, like I think it would be sexier if it
happened one time.
And it was like meant to be like kind of the bigger moment where they're actually getting
hot and heavy because it's a 28 year old and a 30 year old making out and just make it
(54:34):
out like fucking 15 year olds like Jesus Christ, keep it in your pants.
It definitely is something where I'm like, hmm, yeah, the one trick alpaca thing stands
the one for alpaca is standing very much so.
Anyway, they hear a noise while they're making out and they're like, someone could have seen
(54:55):
us.
But it wasn't a basically Jeannie's trash cans had been tipped over for the third night
in a row when she reveals Logan.
And he's like, well, why don't you tell me?
And she goes, I don't know.
Like, it's just kind of weird.
And he's like, well, it could just be raccoon.
She goes, yeah, but the bags are untouched and they're like not ripped open.
And at this point, we're all like, someone's messing with Jeannie.
(55:17):
Like it makes so much sense.
It's not Casper anymore.
No, it's definitely not Casper.
Anyway, to leave you guys on a cliffhanger later that night, Jeannie wakes up to noises
in the same alley and a window gets broken.
And she calls her brother and said the police and she's like, wait, I don't know if this
(55:37):
is weird.
But you okay.
I somewhat get about the same time.
The fact that she's like, I just don't want to be a bother.
I'm like, shut the fuck up and call the police.
Dear God.
Or call someone in town, not someone in California.
I'm the exact opposite.
And the fact that she's like, I don't want to call Logan because I don't want to like
mess up this thing that we have because they had just agreed to be like casual and like
(55:58):
not tell anybody.
And I was like, this is so fucking stupid.
Wait, oh my God.
Okay.
Something maybe just connected in my brain.
I don't know.
So okay, trash cans falling over seems pretty purposeful, right?
We were just talking about like how could the cat have wandered in?
Is the cat on purpose?
Was it placed?
I don't know.
(56:19):
I don't know.
I think the cat happened organically and then other things started happening.
Okay.
Okay.
I think that's what happened.
Anyway, she's like not able to fall asleep.
And we've said this a couple of times on this show.
We've talked about millennial humor and doing millennial things.
(56:42):
The fact that this bitch pulls up Schitt's Creek on Netflix and decides to watch that
instead of going back to sleep.
Dear God.
Oh my God.
You're frustrated.
But like if there's anything that Jeannie did that I felt like I could relate to more,
it's this moment.
(57:02):
She calls her brother and said the cops is like, hmm, guess I'm going to put some TV
on and then stays up all night.
I have done that myself when I first moved into a new place and my windows wouldn't lock
and I was terrified that being in like a more urban place and I literally called my family
and was like, I don't know what to do.
(57:24):
And they were like, call someone.
I said no.
And then I watched TV all night.
Okay, fine.
I'll give it to you.
I'll give that one to you.
I think it just annoyed me that it was like Schitt's Creek.
I was like, can we do another fucking show?
Something else.
Well, Schitt's Creek is kind of another like small town.
(57:49):
I know.
I know.
It's in the same genre.
Anyway, she doesn't go to sleep and she's about to get up when she gets a text from
Logan like in the morning.
That's like seeing how she was and she goes, oh, he's so sweet.
She goes, yeah, I was fine.
Nothing happened.
Well, let's see the end of part one, guys.
(58:11):
What a place to end.
What a place to end.
My hater energy is coming out so much right now and I didn't hate the beginning of this
book.
But going back through, it's clear that not much happened.
Like, you know, we're like, we're trying to make something out of nothing on a lot of
these things.
Yeah, like it was fine.
(58:33):
Anyway, Ashlyn, do you have questions for us before I get us into more trouble?
Oh, my questions won't stop us from getting into trouble.
So in the books that we read, couples get together in a lot of wild different ways.
(58:54):
But this couple may be the earliest to meet cute scene that we have ever read.
How do you feel about the scene?
Mm hmm.
Don't get me started.
I'll get in trouble.
I like your scene to go first.
I have mixed thoughts on this because my problem with romance is when I'm reading a romance
(59:17):
and I don't I don't have the characters at first and then I'm frustrated because I'm
like, who are these people?
Like when does it start?
This one, it started and then I was like, when does it start?
Because it did start so early and it started with like serial killer vibes, which I just
read like thrillers right before.
And so I was like, oh, a thriller.
(59:39):
But it wasn't.
So here's my thing.
I've established this pretty early on in the show.
And that's why I let Christina go first, because I'm a yapper and I'll just keep going forever
and ever and ever.
Are you really a yapper?
I would never know.
I know, right?
I wouldn't know.
(01:00:02):
I am fully in the camp of I don't love meet cutes.
I don't like them.
I don't like the insta love thing.
I think it's a boring and honestly overdone trope in romance.
And I just thought I was fine.
Truly.
Like, honestly, the I was thinking back to X Hex reading this one because it was the
(01:00:28):
most recent one we read.
And what I liked is these both give off similar small town vibes, you know, like it's a small
community.
It's people.
It's like people who all know each other and grown up with each other.
But what was interesting about the relationship dynamic that I liked so much more in X Hex
is that they had a history beforehand, you know, and then they like met up again and
(01:00:54):
they had to like go through this complicated will they won't they in the sense of like,
well, we've already had these feelings like how will we work on them now as adults?
The history did help and made it more interesting.
Yes, it makes it more interesting.
So when it's just like, oh, I'm in love with you and I just saw you for the first time.
I think you're very sexy and I want to like fuck you up right now.
(01:01:15):
It's just boring to me.
Like, give me give me a reason.
Give me a reason to root for these characters.
I know that most of the time, like in real life, I meet cute or just like meeting someone
and be like, oh, that person is attractive.
And like, that's how a relationship starts.
I understand that that's how things work in real life, but that's not what I want in my
romance books.
(01:01:38):
The gored man coming to your door.
You don't want that.
Yeah, I know.
I need a need my gored man.
I need my man to bring me goreds.
Apparently, that's how you win a woman over.
Or were they pumpkins?
Who knows?
I think he confirmed they were goreds.
I don't give a shit what he thinks they are.
(01:02:01):
Important plot moments.
So where we've stopped right now in the book is just about halfway through.
At this point, do you think Janie and Logan have good chemistry?
This feels like a loaded question.
It shouldn't be, but it feels like one because my answer is no question mark.
(01:02:27):
I don't feel the chemistry, but they obviously do because they decide to fuck.
They have like, I think they have like physical chemistry with each other, which doesn't translate
well in a book, though.
When they're like, oh my god, I'm so physically attracted to him.
I'm like, well, guess what?
This is a book and I can't see him.
So it's a little difficult and I would rather if there was a little less telling us these
(01:02:54):
things and their emotions came through a little bit better, which I don't think they did.
No, it felt like both of them were more focused on their past selves rather than their present
selves, and they kept focusing on how the past was like holding them back from being
with each other.
And it was like, it was just unnecessary tension at times just for tension sake.
(01:03:20):
Yeah, I mean, I didn't personally feel like there was any chemistry between the two, but
obviously they do in the book because they bang.
At this point, we've been given several different explanations for what might be going on in
(01:03:49):
the cafe.
What was your hypothesis when you got to this point in the book?
Oh, Norman.
I instantly I was like, it's Norman.
There was no there's no other person it could be because even Mac wasn't really villainized.
It was only villainized by Annie and it's like clear that he was just vibing with his
(01:04:10):
trivia night like the trivia night confirmed that it wasn't him in my mind.
Yeah, the thing that I knew I knew Mac was like a red herring once and he was like, oh,
you know, he's like doing this.
I'm like, no, they're just like, that's that weird sexual tension.
And the fact that Jeannie instantly brought up, she goes, oh, yeah, my aunt and Norman
(01:04:32):
may have had a thing.
I was like, yeah, it's Norman.
He wants to fuck up the cafe.
So like, because he's mad, like maybe they had a breakup or something.
I was like, it's Norman.
I was thinking breakup because I was like, Aunt Dot, we didn't get much about her at
this point.
We just kind of know she's in the Caribbean vibing, having a good time.
Yeah.
So she seems like the kind of woman that would break hearts.
(01:04:54):
Yeah, exactly.
Maybe he like wanted to settle down or something.
So I was like, yeah, it's Norman.
I don't know his full reasoning why he's doing it, but it's Norman.
No doubt.
In addition to pregnancy, another one of Sydney's very deep dark fears is a public proposal.
(01:05:15):
What did you think of Logan's proposal to Lucy?
I cringe so fucking hard.
I would have had Lucy's same reaction.
I would have been like, no, gotta go.
I can see the point in this book with like it being Gilmore Girls or even like if you
pull in Schitt's Creek small town, small town vibes.
(01:05:38):
I could see this being so cute in Gilmore Girls, like Luke and Lorelei or someone like
do proposals about a town thing and it would just make sense.
But it sounded cringy written down.
And it's really cringy when it happens and sorry for people who've done that.
(01:06:00):
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
It's cinematic.
Yeah, but I'm not looking for cinematic in a book.
I'm looking for...
I'm trying to think of an equivalent word to cinematic for a book.
If you can't show us, which you can't with a book, you have to tell us through words.
(01:06:22):
We need something better if you're going to do like...
I need something better than that.
So it is cringy.
I think that's the whole point is that he's coming from this cringe, but it feels out
of character for him to do something so public.
It's also very hallmark.
This is a very hallmark move to do.
I've seen, I've unfortunately seen a lot of hallmark movies in my time, so I do know the
(01:06:45):
formula and the format.
So this is giving very much hallmark movie at the end of a Christmas movie and the guy
decides to propose.
And that's not very Logan.
No, he's so reserved.
But I think he says it too, the whole thing is that he did it because he thought Lucy
(01:07:07):
would wanted something bigger and he was trying to do bigger and it backfired on him.
Yeah, they do talk about how like she just never felt right.
Like his friends talk about that.
Like they just never felt like they fit in.
And so I'm curious why they think that Jeannie fits.
Yeah, I'm like, what about Jeannie makes you guys fit?
Is it just because you know, she has plot armor?
(01:07:29):
And she's...
I'm a hater.
I'm so sorry.
This was meant to be fun and cute and I'm not having a fun and cute time.
This is not very...
What is it?
I'm not being very demure.
Not very cutesy right now.
Demure.
I am not being demure.
It's a hating hour.
(01:07:50):
We've hated on chickens, we've hated on red vines or Twizzlers.
I think they call them Twizzlers in there.
And then now we're hating on proposals, meet cutes.
And in the next part of...
And with that, in the next part, we will continue to hate on this book.
Tune in next time to part two of Poke and Spice Cafe here with Raji Power Hour, where
(01:08:15):
we'll discuss the rest of the book.
Will I bring up how I think it's stupid that Jeannie is able to run a cafe even though she
has no barista experience?
Yes, I do.
But we'll talk about that later.
Anyway, if you liked this episode, we've got so many other episodes for you to listen to,
so please go check those out.
You can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, if we're not over two hours long.
(01:08:43):
You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitch.
And you can also find us on Storygraph.
And actually, you can only find us on Goodreads.
My bad, guys.
But go follow us on Goodreads and Fable so you can stay up to date with what we're reading
and what we're saying about certain books.
(01:09:03):
And yeah, tune in next time to listen to the rest of our thoughts for Pumpkin Spice Cafe
by Lori Gilmore.
And I'll say goodnight to you, you Gilmore gals.
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