S02.29: 1989 (Romance Your TBR’s Version) [Deluxe]

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So we were in the middle of a discussion when I realized we weren't recording and this is a story that I do need the internet to hear.

(00:10):
I was on a FaceTime call with originally one of my best friends and it eventually became both of them.
And she was like, have you heard that song by Racial Girl?
And I was like, no, what are you talking about?
She's like, oh, it must be like really big on maybe it's like black TikTok or something.

(00:33):
She's black for context.
And so she's like, maybe this is just like on my side of TikTok.
Like this is where I'm getting it.
She goes, there's this guy.
This album is from 2009.
This guy puts out an album of music called Ladies of Color and all of the songs are different ethnicities.

(00:55):
And it's so bad.
It's so it's so trocious.
Ladies of Color by Sean Fury.
Actually, the first couple are big girls and Why Should It Matter?
And you do get big girls too and Why Should It Matter too at the end of the album.
But the rest are as follows.
Ebony Princess, Snow, Latina, Asian Girl, Indian Arabic Girl, not Indian or Arabic or Indian Arabic Girl, Exotic Girls, which is my personal favorite.

(01:26):
It's acapella for some reason, but badly and biracial.
Now, all of these are terrible, mostly because this man can't sing, but also for the weird fetish vibes.
Yeah.
So we're talking about this because the friend who showed me this is black and the other friend who had not gotten on the call yet, she's Sri Lankan.

(01:51):
And so we're figuring out, we're like, OK, so you're Ebony Princess, I am Snow.
What is she?
Because Sri Lanka, like that's Asian, but you can tell the Asian he means.
He refers to like yellow skin.
Like, you know what kind of Asian he means.
It's East Asian.
So we're like, is she Indian Arabic girl?
But the thing is, she's neither Indian nor Arabic.
So we spent a good chunk of time and eventually brought her in.

(02:15):
And we're like, which of these songs is you?
Because Indian Arabic girl, I have to assume he just watched Aladdin.
This is why it tied into our previous discussion.
I was like, how is this live action movies?
And I saw a debate about whether Jasmine is Indian or Arabic.
And it's just kind of not clear.

(02:36):
I think she's Persian, but like Agrabah, like it's Arabian Nights.
But it just there's so much isn't clear going on there.
And so I'm like, I'm pretty sure he watched Aladdin and then wrote the song Indian Arabic girl.
I highly recommend giving this a listen because it's terrible.

(02:58):
And it made me laugh.
And that's from like 2010?
2009.
Yeah.
He wrote a lot of music in between 2009 and 2011.
A lot of full albums.
But this is my favorite.
The first one is about Jesus.
Oh, my.
The first album that I love that it's still being listened to is Jesus Made Me Do It.

(03:20):
Jesus Made Me Do It.
The albums are all phenomenally named, by the way.
Jesus Made Me Do It, Ladies of Color.
Then you have The Legend of Sean Fury, So Let It Be Written.
Incredible.
Possibly my favorite.
Then we have And Then There Was Sean Fury, Rex Imperious, in quotes.
Sean Fury's Diversity.

(03:41):
There's only one Sean Fury, The Collection.
The Man, The Myth, The Sean Fury.
And Sean Fury is, I don't know how to say this, but Naya's Furium.
So truly wonderful.
I just listen to the album Ladies of Color.
It's awful.

(04:02):
Wow.
That's my recommend.
This is about a completely different album this episode, but that is my music recommendation.
Wow.
We've got all the recommendations today.
None quite so genre bending, boundary jumping, wall breaking recommendations as that.

(04:32):
So, I mean, I don't know what you want.
You could stop it here or you could keep listening.
There's slightly lesser quality recommendations.
Just trying to look out for you.

(04:53):
Because...
You can't breathe.
I'm fine.
She was not fine.
We are doing 1989 Taylor's Version.
Deluxe.
I suppose.
Yeah.
Add the Sweet of the Fiction for the symmetry of it.

(05:15):
Romance Your TBRs Furium.
Yes.
Taylor's Version Deluxe Romance Your TBR.
What's the longest we could make that title?
So very long.
No true.
Wow.
Love that.
All the versions.
We're finally doing it.
This was a hard album.
I still don't feel confident in a lot.

(05:36):
I agree.
There are quite a few that I'm like, this can work.
Yeah.
If I squint, take off my glasses.
It's not as solid as I felt with Speak Now.
Yeah, I agree.
I just...
And the songs that I had the most trouble with were surprising.
I was like, why?
There were so many that I was like, this is so romance novel.
And I feel like I've read something that matches it, but I could not think of what it was.

(06:00):
Unless maybe it was contemporary.
I mean, this album is definitely very contemporary.
I agree.
So it was kind of like...
But you know what?
We did it.
We did it.
We definitely did it.
I was still down to the wire, like changing some things out.

(06:22):
Yeah, I changed some things a couple hours ago.
And yeah, it was a hard one.
But what a banger of a rerecording though.
That's so true.
Good God.
I wasn't prepared.
I have always liked the songs of 1989, but I would never just put on the album.

(06:46):
The songs are in lots of other playlists.
So I never considered it one of my favorites, but now it has shot up in my rankings.
This is one of my top albums.
I don't know what happened.
I was definitely like when it first came out, I was like, she's going pop.
I was a little bit...
Because all my friends who hadn't listened to Taylor were suddenly Taylor fans.

(07:07):
So I was like, I got over that real quick because I loved it.
I mean, I also felt that way about Red when she did We Are Never Getting Back Together.
I remember in like 22, I think when she did her album cover reveal, she sang those two songs.
Then Treacherous.
I was like, what is this album going to be?
And then the whole thing was like, great.

(07:29):
So I was definitely like, it's always been a top album.
But this, I didn't think she could really improve it.
I was skeptical of just how she could make it better.
And I think all of the songs sonically sound better.
I think she went further into the 80s inspiration.

(07:50):
And I love those vault tracks so much.
It's true.
So go her for making a great album again.
Although, if anything, the vault tracks are hard to match with romance novels.
They feel like some of them were easier than others.

(08:12):
True.
Some of them, I'm like, you know what?
Fuck it.
We're done.
I read two years ago.
I barely remember.
I think that matches the vibes.
Maybe somebody is going to read this on our recommendation and be like, what?

(08:34):
Don't worry.
Vibes are so personal.
They really are.
And it's just like you said, I think for Speak Now, some songs like fit, but like would not fit the album itself.
Like they fit the lyrics, but maybe they don't fit like the album.
This one, I was like, you know what?
I'm not. I can't be that picky.
I just need anything.
Yeah.

(08:55):
Does a Highlander scream?
No.
Do I have a few?
Yeah.
Well, but if you wanted to match to the vibes of the album, they would have to all be like Gilded Age.
Yeah, it would be hard.
It's a New York album.
And they can't all be Gilded Age guys.
Yeah.
And I love that I never I didn't even choose New York one for Welcome to New York.

(09:17):
What do you mean?
It's called it's the whole thing is about you'll understand.
Okay.
But yeah, I have a I don't have I think I have like one other or two.
Yeah, two.
I have a shoot.
The other one.
So but yeah, without further ado, here we are.

(09:41):
We've got Welcome to New York.
Am I going?
Are you sure you go?
Take it away.
Well, I did pick a New York.
I went with a Scandal is Dealed by Joanna Shoop.
Oh, I don't think I've read that one.
It's I think it's an older one or like early.
I can picture the cover.
Yeah, it's the only shoot I've read that isn't the one series.

(10:05):
Yeah, the Rebels.
You know, the one that one Rebels of Fifth Avenue or is that the other one?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Thank you.
That probably or unless that's the other series.
I feel like it's that one.
I think it's Fifth Avenue Rebels.
Yeah, whatever.
A Scandal is Dealed.
It's this kind of convoluted.

(10:27):
He's like a super rich guy in New York and he's building a hospital, a hotel, and he
hired like an incredibly famous architect to do it.
Cut to the architect who has not been able to work in many months because he has it's
never stated, but some kind of like dementia or some form of illness that is affecting
his memory.
So he has not been able to work in a long time, but luckily his daughter trained as

(10:51):
an architect with him and aspires to be an architect.
So basically she's been working under his name.
Does she happen to be the architect in The Bride Goes Rogue?
Probably, but I don't remember.
I have to assume because there's a there's a female architect.
Probably.
Okay, cool.
Now she has a book.
I like that.

(11:12):
I have to assume because how many female architects are there?
Anyway, basically she's coming to pretend that her dad sent her to work on it, but like
never she's working pretending that she's carrying out his orders and also on the ship.
Oh, and she's put three fiancees in the ground also.
So everybody thinks she's super unlucky.
That's also a thing.

(11:33):
She's like the unlucky lady.
I don't remember.
She has a nickname.
So she's trying to like not go somewhere where nobody knows her and on the ship crossing
she has a really hot anonymous hookup with a guy and then she gets there and it turns
out it's her boss and she tells him that she's the daughter and that her father's sick and
he can't come but not how sick he is.

(11:54):
And so basically he's like, okay, we'll pretend that you're not related to him, but you're
like his secretary who's here to oversee this building.
But then there are lots of problems because there are workers like that don't want a woman
on the site.
Yeah.
And also they start hooking up in secret.
There's just a lot happening here.
However, it is very like, wow, New York.

(12:15):
I'm here and it's the Gilded Age.
And like I can be an architect and be who I want to be.
That's it.
That's all I got.
I love how you said be who I want to be.
That was funny.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
I have a couple of videos, a Caribbean heiress in Paris.

(12:37):
One, it says a location in the title.
I'm telling you, I'm not batting all home runs today, but I do think this is one of
the closer ones in vibes.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's also called the City of Lights.
That is Paris.
The lights don't blind me.

(12:59):
I just think the vibes of her going to Paris, looking for the business ventures, getting
railed on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Lights are so bright, can't blind you up there.
She can go on the Eiffel Tower and mine, she gets railed in a brand new hotel that isn't
open yet, I think.
No, it's not a hotel.

(13:20):
It's something else that's just been built.
It's something famous.
We love christening things with sex.
So true.
Not to welcome to New York for you.
But yeah, I felt that that one had the vibes of going to a new place and being both a little
starstruck but also having hopes and dreams, but being brave enough to do it.

(13:46):
So that was mine.
Blank space.
This one, I tried not to pick this one because I was like I've already picked it in another
album but I had to go Bombshell by Sarah McLane.
I had to do it.
I just think Cecily has just the attitude of blank space.

(14:12):
I do have this one later.
Cecily does have big 1989 vibes.
I just feel like she really embodied the kind of tongue in cheek-ness of the song.
And also her reputation was not nearly as bad as people were saying, but she was also

(14:38):
she owned what she's done.
She was not ashamed of anything she'd done.
And it's just a hot book.
I love Caleb.
I love that book.
I get some hate, but delicious.
I think it's also because I have a weird fascination with Mary Jane Wells' American accent, which
is doubly funny for that book.
If you've read it, you know, but people hate it, but for some reason it just unlocks a

(15:05):
vault in me of yearning.
So there's that.
Yeah.
So true.
So relatable.
I also went with I think I might have picked this one for another one.

(15:25):
Maybe not.
Anyway, I also went with a heroine who's like, fine, call me a slut.
I don't care.
And that was The Wrakesh by Scarlett Beckham.
I think mine's like if Cecily were angrier, I think.
That idea of like, everybody's decided I am this way and therefore I'm just going to play

(15:48):
it up and behave the way that you think I'm going to behave.
And also have some hot sex with a single dad.
And good for her.
Great for her, might I add.
I also as a backup had The Ruin of a Rake by Kat Sebastian just because his reputation

(16:09):
was like causing strife in his life.
Didn't mean to make that a rhyme.
And he definitely had a bad reputation, but it was amplified and made public and splashed
everywhere by the other hero to add some drama in there.

(16:30):
It'd be like that.
So true.
Style?
Listen, do I have a back and forth relationship like that?
No.
Do I have a good girl?
Yeah.
Good girl, bad boy?
Yes.
And that's a good girl's guide to rakes.
Nice.
That really fits.
Good job.
Thank you.

(16:51):
Thank you.
They do have a little bit of on and off, I think, with the no strings vibes and then
he's trying to court other people to get married.
Yeah, a little bit happens at the end.
It's not all easy breezy.
Right.
But really mainly the thing is the good girl.
I like that.
Bad boy with the long hair.
He's not an actor slash singer, but he is a poet.

(17:12):
That's about as close to Harry Styles as you get in historical romance.
So true.
This one was hard.
Style was hard.
There's not much more I can say.
I did A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman.

(17:34):
It's not necessarily the good girl, bad boy.
It's reversed.
It's reversed in that sense.
But even then, he does kind of have a little bit.
He's got an edge to him.
He's not all good.
At the beginning, he's like, why don't I?
I could just fuck her now.
She's open to it.
He's not the typical cinnamon roll.

(17:55):
He's definitely not a cinnamon roll.
And then I just think she's really big into fashion.
So I was like, style.
I feel like they fit the vibes of the song more than the lyrics.
But that one was hard.
And I do have to say, my friend Maddie reads historical romance.
And she always says that A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare is her style song.

(18:21):
So I wanted to throw that out there for anyone who wants to read that.
Next is Out of the Woods.
This one is an arc.
Doesn't come out until 2024, but I had to do it.
It's The Diamond and the Duke by Christy Caldwell.
It's book three in whatever series she's currently writing with Berklee.

(18:46):
I was just really stuck on the hospital scene and getting out of the woods.
She met the guy when she was pretty young and he was going off to war.
She has had a crush on him.
And then she ends up the Lisa Kleifus book, writing him letters as someone else because

(19:07):
he's got a sweetheart at home and then she doesn't write him back.
And then she picks it up and then she stops and then he gets injured.
These bitches in historical romance not writing, they're like wounded.
I know.
It worked out better for him in that regard than the Lisa Kleifus one of at least the
reason why she didn't write back.

(19:30):
So then he ends up getting grievously wounded.
So this entire second half or even two thirds of the book is him just having to heal from
the trauma and just talk to her.
She's one of the only people who can actually talk to him.

(19:53):
And there's a really emotional scene.
They're not at a hospital, but it's a healer, a bones that are actually.
And it just really gave me those vibes of her always thinking like, is this like, is
he going to let me in?
Are we going to get through it?
And then obviously by the time that he's ready, she's kind of moved on and then it's dramatic.

(20:16):
But it was really good.
So I love that series so much.
But that stopped.
I quite literally just switched my pick because I was all mad because so my backup for this
one is The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean.
That one could go so many places, so many places.
And this was a slap it.

(20:38):
But I've tried really hard to only do one book per author in these.
Yeah, I can spread it out and I have another Sarah MacLean later.
And so I finally was like fine Day of the Duchess.
But then I just now realized I have a better or maybe not better, but different one that
works for this.
So that is my backup because my God, that book is angsty.
They go through a lot of woods.

(20:59):
But I just realized Morning Glory by Laverle Spencer is so like they just cannot catch
a break and they fall in love and then he goes to war and then he's injured and he comes
back and he's sad and then he gets arrested because they think he's murdered someone and
they just eventually they get out of the woods though.
And there's like a moment where oh, oh, break up, not break up, but I'm going to push you

(21:25):
away.
And then because we're going to have the sweetest, sappiest ending you've ever read in your entire
life.
And the sun came up and they were looking at Morning Glories and each other.
Nice one.
Oh, I wrote the abbreviation.
All you had to do is stay is that the full title?

(21:46):
I cannot because she has that one and then she has stay, stay, stay.
There's too many stay songs.
All you had to do is stay.
How to Deceive a Duke by Samara Parrish, which I think I actually use on the official like
forever pairings that we did.
But I'm using it for this one too because it was my idea.

(22:06):
So we're putting it in all the places and also because I couldn't think of a better
one because twice over because you start the book, it's already a second chance where he
they were so in love and then he left her for reasons.
And so already you're like my guy, all you literally all you had to do is stay like she
was in love with you.
He really did.

(22:27):
He screwed the pooch on that one.
And then strictly speaking, he didn't like leave the second time, but it has the like
kind of big breakup vibes in the third act.
That he has to do a little grand gesture situation.
It was grand.
It was grand.
And I respect that.
But yeah, just the vibes of her being like literally all you had to do.

(22:54):
Like you just left and you never like really explained why.
Oh, his mother.
I hate that wench.
That's a good one.
I chose marrying off Morgan McBride by Amy Berry.
I thought about that one.
Yeah, he just kept on leaving.
And I was like, dude, stay like literally like that one was definitely it was a hard

(23:20):
one for me to choose because at first I wanted to do Aphrodite and the Duke.
But I didn't think he didn't grovel enough for me.
When also it's not like he really left like he got married.
Well, but I mean, yeah, no, like he didn't leave.
It was like a he he had to like you read the why and you're like, oh, yeah, you would be

(23:41):
like a bad person if you because then she wasn't mad and then I wasn't mad.
So then I was like, that doesn't give me the correct enough vibes.
But yeah, Morgan, I was just like, dude, stay.
Junebug wanted him to stay like I was just irritated at him.
But I did still really enjoy the book because then she ends up leaving.

(24:04):
And I was like, yes, see how you like that taste of your own medicine.
But yeah, do I think that book fits 1989 vibes?
Not really.
But if you want a strict lyrical.
Interpretation, interpretation like she was just there to do the cooking, to do the like

(24:25):
she was she would have done anything.
She just wanted a family and a home.
And he just really fucked it up for so long.
Like he was so.
Back and forth stubborn.
But I did end up liking him.
So there is that.
And there was sex in that one.
We didn't know.

(24:48):
Just as an aside, it was hot, too.
I was like, oh, OK.
It's a good day for me all around.
The next one is Shake It Off.
I think I also featured this story somewhere else, but I said screw it because in which
Margo Halifax earns her shocking reputation by Alexander Basti really gives me Shake It

(25:11):
Off.
Like Margo is just going to shake it off.
And that's kind of that.
I don't.
She didn't.
Not as bad.
You know, like book two, let the rumors and stuff like get her down a little bit and like
didn't really want the reputation.
But Margo was kind of just like, yeah, I'm going to go fuck this barrister outdoors.

(25:33):
So true.
So true.
I love her.
She really did.
I also have used this one previously.
I don't care.
I'm going with an Island Princess starts a scandal by Adriana Herrera.
She was here to bang women and make art, make very lesbian art.
She was like, fuck it all the time.

(25:56):
That was just the vibe I got from.
I'm blanking on her name.
We'll pick Luz because no, no, that's book one.
Oh my God.
I know Cora is the other one.
Why am I forgetting Cora?
Yeah, this is going to make me want to die.
I'll find out.
Really tell some things.
Anyway, while you're searching, it's just that.

(26:20):
I did actually have that one as a backup for style just because Taylor Strupp gave an interview
saying that style is about a person who would come and interrupt your wedding.
Manuela and Manuela.
Yes, I knew there was an M.
And we know because I can't stop talking about it that she sure interrupted that Cora interrupted
Manuela's wedding.
So so true.

(26:41):
That was just a little fun thing, but I couldn't do another Adriana Herrera like that close
together.
So it does also have the big city vibes that you were talking about.
Oh, it's me.
What's the name of this song?
I wish you would.

(27:01):
Oh, I wish you would.
OK.
And then there's another would somewhere too many as opposed to out of the whatever.
The point is, I wish you would.
The Ugly Duchess Violet, Lucy James is what I'm going to because this and this one I read
and I was like, it could work for a few.
There are a few different ones it works for.

(27:23):
I went with this one specifically because they fight and he leaves for seven years and
becomes a pirate and then he comes back during the hearings to declare him dead in absentia.
So there's a lot of drama and basically she's pissed at him for waiting until literally
while they're trying to declare him dead.

(27:44):
Like she's like you couldn't and he turns out he really couldn't come back until this
point.
He didn't mean to time it like this.
It's just when he happened to be able to get there after recovering from having his throat
cut and whatnot.
But she's like, you have the audacity to let us think you were dead for seven years and
then you come back.
You don't bother to tell your wife that you're alive.

(28:05):
You just show up and then, oh, you happen to pick me up while I fainted.
And then he just stands there holding her and like talking to other people.
And she's like, hello, like the audacity.
Do you not care that I have full on fainted?
And she's pissed.
But she literally said she's like, I actually wouldn't be like I was really worried about
him and I wanted him to come back and be alive.

(28:26):
I'm only mad because of the way he's come back.
But she's not mad that he has come back because he's like her childhood best friend who married
her for the wrong reasons.
And like in the past seven years, she's gotten over it.
And it's just like, I hope he's alive.
That's a good one.
So those are the vibes.
She's like, I'm not even mad anymore.
Just preferably don't be dead in the Indian Ocean somewhere.

(28:50):
I mean, that's all you can really ask.
I wish you would.
I wish you would not be dead in the Indian Ocean somewhere.
That's actually the deluxe version of that song.
I chose this one was a hard one for me because to me it represents like a moment in a book,
you know, rather than like the full books.
It was like really hard for me to like pick out a book with that moment.

(29:14):
So I don't really even know how I just like thought of this one, but I did.
So we're going to go with it.
Which is Scoundrel of My Heart by Lorraine Heath.
Basically the book is like split into two.
And I don't think it's really a spoiler because it's like in the summary, I believe.
The first half, she is friends with his sister.

(29:37):
He overhears her talking about how she would never marry a second son.
That's a permanent chip on his shoulder.
Once he hears it, he's like, I'm not worthy.
So he gets like very angry about it.
But she's like, they've always kind of like had the fighty but lusty relationship.

(29:57):
And then his father commits treason.
I hate it when they do that.
As fathers are wont to do apparently in historical romance, they plot to kill the queen.
They do it a lot.
And so his older brother loses.
Wait, wait, wait, before you finish explaining, have you seen the TikTok trend of the like,

(30:22):
we're girls, we're gonna do such and such.
Okay, now I have developed a compulsive need to do that for historical romance, but I'm
a dad in a historical romance.
I'm gonna commit treason.
And then let your children suffer the brunt of it.
Sorry, continue.
That's all I'm going to be able to think of now.

(30:43):
So then he's technically in like a better position because he was only a second son.
So he's not really like he was never going to be the Duke.
And so the brother who was always going to be the Duke is in like more hot water because
now what does he do with his life?
So the second son, because he has a major chip on his shoulder all the way back from
that girl rejecting him, and she didn't even know she rejected him, he just overheard it.

(31:07):
He starts a club called the air or the spare.
So only second sons and below or whatever can get in.
So like firstborn sons literally can't get in.
He goes to the dark side, he's a little bit hot, he's a little bit bruised and battered.
So like the first half is her like, they kind of become friends in the first half.

(31:29):
And there's a Duke in the land who's looking for a bride.
And so he advertises it, that he's like, just write me a letter, and I'll pick whoever I
want to be my bride.
She's like debating if she wants to do it.
So this guy obviously is like, I can't compete with a Duke.
And then the second half is him living in shame of his father's deeds and creating this

(31:53):
nightclub.
It's like a few years later, maybe I don't really know.
And then she finds him a really hot now that he's like, full of historical romance hero,
I'm gonna start a scandalous club.
Yes.
And she was really into it.
There's a thing that he does with the whole Duke looking for a thing, a wife that was
like really dramatic and romantic.

(32:16):
But the I'd never forget you as long as I live was very, was the trigger for this book.
And again, like I just think the song is like a scene.
But then there is kind of that scene in the book, like at the end, it's very dramatic.
I don't know, but it felt like a very life changing, like relationship between the two.

(32:41):
So yeah, that's my long way of saying that's one of the ones that I kind of had to be a
crooked love in a straight line down.
So there we are.
Bad Blood.
Well, this one, it's just in the title Never Cross a Highlander by Lisa Rain.

(33:05):
Don't do it.
You're gonna have bad blood.
This one was a little bit hard too, because I just I didn't quite know what I wanted the
vibes to be.
But I distinctly remember like the big battle scene in this book.
And like in the music video, like it culminates to like the point where they're all going
to battle.
And so I had a really fun time.

(33:28):
Guys I'm bringing up Formula One again.
The McLaren team did a little, a very long actually commercial for their like Jack Daniels
sponsorship on their car for this past race.
And it was like an elaborate commercial where like the driver at Lando and Oscar had to
like go to Jack Daniels and like get this trailer and then they went on a road trip

(33:48):
and it was very silly.
However, there is a scene where the two of them are slow mo dramatically walking away
from something bursting into flames behind them.
And somebody shot or like edit edited them into either side of Taylor video.
And I have been watching it at least once a day.

(34:08):
So I just need you to know that exists.
I am very happy that exists.
Thank you.
But yeah, that this one like I just I really wanted like a really good rivalry.
And just like a good like bad villains that get comeuppance and a good battle scene.
And I just really remember that it was like a very cinematic battle scene in that one.

(34:32):
And what a good freaking book.
True.
So true.
I'm reusing things.
It's Queen Bee.
It's Queen Bee by Anne Howard.
I literally had that when I was I just literally had no other that fits the especially because
bad blood is a friendship breakup.
Yeah, I know.

(34:53):
That's I had it.
I was like Hannah, you can know I'm proud of you for coming up with something else because
I couldn't.
Yeah.
So just know that I'm fully support.
Thank you.
You doing that.
It's just the vibes.
It's perfect.
It's just better than revenge and bad blood.
Their sisters.
They are sisters.
So true.
Yeah.
So I agree.
Wildest Dreams, it's giving kind of forbidden secret affair that you think has no future

(35:23):
for reasons.
And therefore I went her night with the Duke by Diana Quincy.
I literally I was thinking about that one.
Because look, sometimes you hook up with a really hot guy in a hotel only to find out
or an inn rather only to find out the next day that he's on his way to get betrothed
to your stepdaughter.
And then you're still really into each other.

(35:45):
But he's the trope to your stepdaughter.
Should happens, guys.
Also bonus points for being a Palestinian heroine written by a Palestinian author.
Yes.
So you should read it anyway, if you haven't already.
You should also series and then the Duke et cetera.
I'll just all the books so good.
But also Wildest Dreams vibes.

(36:06):
Yes.
I chose the Lady Thames and Air by Harper St. George.
I also went with the doomed aspect of the relationship, like the one person knows it's
going to end that one.
Basically she is a widow.
She her husband got, I believe, like very angry when they couldn't get pregnant.

(36:29):
And it was a whole thing.
And so she knows that she can't have kids and that it's like impacted her relationships
because she's scared if she would remarry that they would expect that of her.
He is the heir to the huge the shipping company, I believe, that his father owns.
This is like book three in the series.

(36:51):
So he's American.
And they first they have kind of like a snippy relationship.
And then they have to go and rescue the book to his heroine because she goes on like a
road trip with a scoundrel who compromises her.
And then they have to go rescue her.
And you never you don't know in that book what they go through on that journey to get

(37:11):
to them.
So you learn a little bit about that in this one.
And then they just have hot sex.
And she's just like, I won't marry you because she's like, you need an heir.
Like you're not going to want to stay.
And so it's just a very dramatic moment throughout the I guess at the end of when she leaves.

(37:34):
And he's just so hurt.
He's so sad.
And yeah, it looks and she's also like he needs like a plot of land.
And then she's also like having I think there's like an orphanage that she wants to put in
the building.
And then they're kind of like battling in that sense.
But they're also just like getting down and dirty on a rug in front of a fire.

(37:56):
He's really hot.
I just felt like all of their scenes were like this is going to end, but let's just
burn it down.
So yeah, that's a good book.
I think number two is my favorite, but that one's a close second.
Wow, we've got how you get the girl next.

(38:17):
This one was a fun one because I chose A Rogue's Rules for Seduction by Eva Lay, which is
Dom.
OK, I was like, I saw your face.
I was trying to do mental math.
It's not the one that I said.
No, no.
So this is book three in that series.
I just think if I were the girl, how you would get me would be dressing like an ancient Greek

(38:47):
hero, like taking me to this like stone.
What was it like?
Pavilion.
Pavilion.
And then blooding your knees going down on me, like groveling and then like just trying
to get my forgiveness the entire book because you know you were wrong.

(39:11):
Standard like a ghost shaking from the rain.
He literally slept in the attic that was like leaking and he just like was really soaking
wet the next morning.
And she's like, what are you doing?
He's like, I'm being dramatic.
It was just I just think that book is so funny while also being so like because it was angsty
but in a different way than I thought it was going to be.
And it was just so good.

(39:33):
And I just think if there was a manual on how to get the girl, Dom, he knows it.
He could write it.
And I think Willow would co-sign it.
Yeah.
Shout out to my man.
I also have one that's funny but also angsty and that is Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage

(39:58):
by Jennifer Ashley, which is from the McKenzie's and McBrides.
See I have not read it's the book after The Madness of Lurdy and McKenzie, which I also
have not read yet.
So it's in that yet.
That one.
I remember that one.
Okay.
We'll be reading it though because I love Ian.
He shows up in this book and he is fantastic.
Anyway, this one, the premise of it, you get not like flashbacks, but they talk about what

(40:23):
happened in the past.
So basically, Mack is like a big Scottish guy.
He's a big Scottish.
He's just a big Scottish.
And Lady Isabella has her debut ball.
She comes out and his like terrible annoying friends who he is done with by the time we
meet him, but at the time he is falling in with them, they basically like bet that he

(40:44):
can kiss this debutante during her coming out ball.
And so he takes her out on a balcony and kisses her and then they proceed to elope that night.
They are like so immediately, this was, I almost did it for Wonderland too for reasons,
but like they so immediately are like, we are in love.
Her family, like her father like disowns her.

(41:05):
She hasn't had contact with them and for like, they go off, they live a very scandalous life
because he's very scandalous and she wants to like live up to that.
He's an artist, but the problem is he's also like an alcoholic who disappears for months
at a time to go to the continent to like paint and stuff because he has this, he's like afraid
that his abusive father's tendencies are going to show up in him.

(41:28):
So there's all of this going on.
And so it's very like fiery passion, but then they'll fight and then he'll disappear without
really telling her.
And so all of this cumulates in her being like, I love you, but this is going to kill
me.
Post it, something really tragic happens.
And so she finally is like, no, I'm leaving you.
They stay married, but they separate.

(41:50):
And the thing that I find so, I have a lot to say about this book actually.
I find it so fascinating that the whole book, they constantly tell each other they love
each other, even though they're not together because they know that that was not the issue.
And they are openly anyway.
So now it's like seven years later or something, I don't know, years later, she's still close
with his family.
She shows up in his house.

(42:10):
He's trying to paint a naked woman.
It's not going well for him.
She shows up and is like, hey, somebody is trying to pass off forgeries like or like
paintings that they are claiming are yours.
And he's like, I don't really care.
But it turns out she really cares.
So he decides that he's like, oh, she's back and I am still in love with her.
So I am going to get my wife back.

(42:31):
I'm going to investigate these forged paintings, not because I care, but because it means I
can.
And he just like the entire book finds reason.
Like his house burns down and he just shows up at her house with all of his servants and
is like, we have to stay here.
And she's like, no, you don't.
And he's like, yes, I do.
Whoops, I have to.
And they're like traveling with her family or his family rather for a lot of the book

(42:53):
and they're all besties.
And then at one point, there's this whole little running bit where he starts like he's
like, hey, I have this friend who's really bad at courting.
What would you tell him to do, like to properly court someone?
And she knows what he's doing, but she plays along with the bit anyway.
And so kind of this running bit throughout is like her telling him the advice to tell

(43:16):
his friend on how to properly court a lady and then him doing it to her.
So it is literally how you get the girl.
Like this is just this large Scottish man being like, did I fuck up?
Yes.
Am I now going to annoy my wife into loving me?
Also yes.
And he does.

(43:38):
And it was excellent.
And in fact, if you look at my review, it was a this is a fuck it five stars situation.
Oh, hell yeah.
Where I finished and I was like, you know what?
Maybe it doesn't fully deserve the five stars, but I'm giving it to them, giving them to
it.
Whatever.
You get it.
I love when that happens.
There you have it.
Onward.

(43:59):
This love.
Onward.
Mm hmm.
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall.
Oh yeah.
It's soft.
It's tender.
It's not second chance, but they grew up as childhood friends and then she basically faked
her own death in a war so that she could like live as herself, but she didn't tell him that
she had faked her own death.

(44:20):
So he was just depressed and so they had to let the love go free.
But then it came back different than it was before.
It was just very soft.
It was such a soft book.
And the Jack Scallion.
Oh, like Rap Scallion.
But he was Jack.
We know.

(44:40):
I still weep in the dark.
I did.
I did again The Magic by Lisa Klepas.
That's a good one.
I just the whole this love is good.
This love is bad.
This love is a light back from the dead.
She didn't know if like he was alive, if he was dead.

(45:01):
This love left a permanent mark.
They both got permanent marks, man.
Lots of things happened.
Very angsty, very romantic.
I also like so that's since again, The Magic has two romances.
It was like it was hard for me to place it because I thought was going to be another
one because I thought the secondary romance kind of fit for another one.

(45:23):
I went back once I placed again, The Magic in this love and I cleaned up some other things
like that's when my Rex kind of like came into line.
It was when I was really sticking it into the one bucket that just didn't quite fit.
And I was having a hard time.
So yeah, that one just really like embodies.
I mean, strictly speaking, the secondary romance could work for this love also because they

(45:49):
have to go or like separate.
She's like, you have to get better.
Just a very angsty, dramatic time, but also incredibly romantic.
Especially when she's like, you won't love me.
And he's like, I am offended.
He's so angry.
He's so mad.
McKenna.

(46:10):
Yeah.
What a scene.
He said, actually, I'm going to have sex with you right now.
I'm so mad at you.
And he did.
And he did.
So good.
I know places.
I did the Wolf in the Wildflower by Stacey Reed.

(46:33):
You haven't read that one yet.
That's the one where he goes like spelunking or whatever.
I don't know if that's the right word.
He just like goes traveling in like Alaska or somewhere cold with caves and mountains.
I don't know why you would do that back then.

(46:53):
Like I just couldn't be me.
But he does.
And then he gets lost in the wilderness of like around Alaska, Alaska-esque climate for
10 years.
So for 10 years, he's been literally raised by wolves and they all think he's dead.
And then they find him and he has to be rehabilitated because he is basically part wolf at this

(47:19):
point.
I just have a theory Stacey really wanted to write a Shifter romance, but didn't want
to have to deal with like all of the world changing things.
So she's like, fuck it.
I'm going to make this guy raised by wolves.
We're going to Tarzan it.
He's going to like love doing it from behind.
That's how wolves do it.
And she did.
She wrote it.
I don't support her because then the heroine has been living as a man for her entire life

(47:44):
because her father was desperate to have an heir.
The mother could not handle another pregnancy.
And so the mother was like, he didn't see the baby.
It's a boy.
And so the father literally never knew.
So she's like had to like, it did a lot of like psychological damage.
I'm also a romance father.

(48:08):
I'm going to force my wife to have babies until I have an heir.
Literally like he wasn't like a terrible guy like after like in the present, but in the
past and even then I'm like, bro, I hate you.
And so like, but they're psychologists.
And so she's like a higher she's like his apprentice.
So she's like hired with the father to go help the Duke.

(48:32):
Like re acclimate himself to society when he doesn't want to.
It's his family who wants it.
And it turned like it's a wild premise.
A lot of things happen, but it's also just like they just create places for themselves
to just like go and be together.
They kind of say fuck it to everyone like they don't care.

(48:52):
Like it's just like he like sense her like through like through walls like they're like
like a joined route, like joined rooms.
But like there's no but remember, he's part wolf.
I don't know if that's how wolf sentences work either, but he's like, I smell your arousal.
And there's like a scene where he like shows up at the ball, dances with her one time and

(49:14):
just like leaves.
And like she's dressed like she's like in a dress because she's always dressed as a man.
And so when she's finally able to dress as a woman, like no one knows who she is.
So then they're like, who the hell this like wolf Duke just come dance with and then leave.
It dramatic.
I was not prepared for it.

(49:38):
I just think the theme of I know places we can hide and go have crazy wolf sex is the
theme of that one.
Like all of it was from behind, like so much.
Like I just I was shocking him out.
It was so fun.
I love Stacey.
I love her so much.

(50:00):
Like no one else could have done it.
I also chose to interpret I know places very literally.
Listen, listen, I went with scandalous desires by Elizabeth White because specifically, very

(50:21):
specifically, he had a place he knew a place where they could go hide from people who were
trying to throw whatever that acid on them was the acid.
He said, don't worry, babe.
I've got an estate, like a country manor where everybody I have an alter ego and no one knows

(50:42):
who I actually am.
And we can go hang out there.
I know place and I'm just a respectable.
Yeah, I'm just a respectable boat shipbuilder.
Hey, you are.
Go you.
He knew places a place specifically one.
He knew also erogenous places.

(51:03):
Nice.
So true.
Charming Mickey.
He was charming.
He was charming.
Clean is hard.
I chose to interpret it not strictly in the truest sense of the song.
Yeah.
Well, that mean how do you even like I don't even.
Yeah, because the problem is if it's a second chance romance, you don't want them to be
fully clean.

(51:24):
Yeah, it was hard.
Instead, I went with Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleipas because number one, he's clean in
the literal sense like he's no longer an alcoholic.
Yay.
Shout out to Daddy West.
Number two, she's finally like emotionally moved on from her dead husband.
That's a good one.

(51:46):
Which again isn't like the whole like kind of toxic relationship moving on thing, but
just the like here is a past relationship that I have now moved on from and I'm ready
to have some sex with a guy who really deserves these children.
Yeah, Sebastian's even like I loved your last husband, but you weren't like fully like who

(52:07):
you could be with.
Like she lived like a completely different life with him.
I know Sebastian has like a very pointy.
And you could be banging a really hot farmer gentleman who's really into food and you and
raising your children.
As he should be.
Nobody's doing it like Daddy West.
And then your child's gonna call him.
Was it dad that he called him and?
Yeah, and we're all gonna cry about it.
In chasing Cassandra?

(52:27):
Yeah.
That did a number on me.
Yep.
Still does.
Just thinking about it.
It hurt his heart.
And it did a number on him too because he's crying.
He just started crying.
Yeah.
I do love him.
I'm unweliches.
Me too.

(52:51):
Again, this one I was like, I don't know.
So I went back to my queen, Lorraine Heath, and I did Once More My Darling Rogue.
That book is like historical overboard, basically.
She has always shunned him and not been the nicest to him.

(53:12):
And he is like a family friend.
She is friends with his sister.
He's adopted, but his adopted sister.
And the adoption is crucial because it happens in another book.
And then he loves his father.
So then he gets a huge dragon tattoo on his back, which is also pertinent to things because
she bathes it.

(53:34):
Yeah.
A lot happens.
And so they just don't like each other.
And he's miffed that she doesn't like him.
He's like, you think you're better than I am?
She's like a full lady.
A full lady.
She's just a lady.
Like different social standings.
So then he finds her passed out in like a ditch because, you know, like an overboard,

(53:59):
like she ends up like going overboard and she ends up getting a head injury in this
one.
And then she's like, oh, she ended up there.
It was like after the ball at the beginning of the book.
And so he's like, well, I'm just going to like take her home.
I don't know how she like got here.
And then he has the incredibly smart idea to pretend that she's his housekeeper for
a little light revenge.

(54:20):
And then he has like, I mean, that's not a great intention, but then he has like some
good intentions of like going to her brother and being like, are you missing her?
And the brother's like, no.
So he's like, well, I don't want to give her back to the brother.
Like if she doesn't remember who she is and like, he could be bad.
So then he kind of just like keeps her, but also he's already told her she's his housekeeper.

(54:41):
And she like, no, like she feels in her body that that's not right because she's like,
get like, she's like, you make like draw me a bath.
Like you do all this.
He's like, no, you're my housekeeper.
It's like funny.
And then she's like dealing with things that you don't know about and she doesn't know
about because she has amnesia.
And it, you know, that book, it's, I think it's like my favorite Lorraine Heath book.

(55:08):
It just, it works.
And is it clean?
I don't know.
I think in my sense, it's kind of a spoiler, so I can't quite say, but she's able to like
do a lot of things when she has amnesia because she, she like wouldn't like, there were things

(55:30):
that she wouldn't let herself do before.
And you know why, like you find out why she like was shitty to him.
Like always kind of like had like a very self-possessed like air about her and he ends up feeling
real bad.
And also she gives him a bath and he got clean.

(55:54):
And I think he also gave her a bath and she got clean and then I had sex.
So a literal interpretation, quite literal, I will say.
I took some liberties.
But what a good book.
And I like, it would make sense.
Like if you've read it or you do read it, like I don't even really like the, that she's

(56:16):
clean.
Like it's not that she is clean, but it's that she's just like, she can like realize
that she's not.
I don't know.
But it, oh, I love it.
So terrible.
Me describing how it relates to the song, but I think it, I think it does.

(56:37):
If you try hard enough.
For Wonderland, I chose Touch of Enchantment by Teresa Medeiros.
Now is it fully historical?
No.
She is, she is born in the 20th century, but she does go back in time and she ends up right

(57:02):
next to a wounded, like knight who falls off his horse and is like, Ooh, I'm wounded.
And she's like, Ooh, you're kind of clean for being a knight.
You know the things you say when you fall off a horse.
She's just very, like, she's like talking to him and then she's like, what is going
on?
And he just like falls off the horse.

(57:22):
And so she's like lugging him and he's being chased.
It's a whole thing.
It's book two.
So like, you definitely have to read book one, which that could also be Wonderland because
she's in like a whole Wonderland.
Like she goes to the 20th century or is that would be the 1900?
Yeah.
So then maybe she's in the 20.
So this daughter is in the 21st.

(57:43):
In book one, it's the 20th century.
And so she just goes back in time, falls down the rabbit hole.
He is like, what, who are you?
What are you?
Like she is in pajamas, talks about Big Macs.
He's very confused.
She gets outed as a witch and he's like, literally, you're a witch.

(58:05):
I have to burn you at the stake.
Like you're a witch.
And then he's very confused.
Close.
There's a dragon.
He's very confused, but he's also like, you're very hot.
Things happen.
I'm a romance hero.
I'm going to try to burn you at the stake, but also think you're hot on your own.

(58:29):
Literally.
He was so, he was like very conflicted about it, but he was close to doing it.
And then she started crying.
He's like, witches can't cry.
What are you?
A lot was happening.
It also happened in Lady Pirate by, no, by Lindsay Sands.
She's literally like very close to like hanging him by the neck off her ship.

(58:57):
Like very close.
It really didn't like that.
Yeah.
Because she thinks that he's going to turn them in for keeping treasure from the crown.
And he wasn't, but she didn't know that.
She didn't talk to him about it.
So he was like very close to just being murdered by her and she was feeling very bad about
it, but she was going to do it.
And then she was like, well, our only recourse is to get married because then you can't turn

(59:19):
me in.
The 11th hour, she gets him real drunk.
They get married, end up on a deserted island and she has to have sex with him.
And it's great.
It was so good.
He's like, what is happening?
But it was good.
So two for the price of one for that one.
But really, Touch of Enchantment.

(59:39):
We're just in a crazy Wonderland the entire time.
Yeah.
Big yawn.
Big yawn.
Yeah.
You still like me talking to my cat?
Yeah, Wonderland.
I went with the once again, the forbidden aspect of like, we're not really supposed

(01:00:02):
to be together.
And as soon as people start to suspect something, it's going to be bad.
Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins.
They forgot.
They forgot that this could not last forever because he is passing as white and she cannot

(01:00:27):
because she is dark skinned.
Also, I'm pretty sure he has green eyes, which ties into the song.
So it's forbidden.
They go a little bit mad.
They fall down the rabbit hole and then things go badly from there because they thought they

(01:00:51):
were alone.
But there were strangers watching and Whispers turned to talking.
Talking did turn to screams.
It didn't go well.
But it's fine because they fell in love and there was an H.E.A.
So forbidden.
You are in love?
Not me not remembering what the song was.

(01:01:12):
I'm like, why did I pick this book?
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian.
This is another just like it's very soft.
It gives the like friends to lovers vibes, mainly because of the lyric where he says
you're my best friend.
That one I think I had I contemplated that one.
I just feel like it could be in the background of that whole book when they're hanging out.

(01:01:36):
Yeah, it's such a song.
We just friends falling in love.
It's unfair how soft it was.
So soft.
And just them falling in.
And also it has the vibes of like they don't have to say it to know.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's all I have to say about that.
Also set in New York.

(01:01:56):
You're so right.
I had this one and I didn't touch it like I had this one so long ago and I just left
it there.
It's How to Be a Wallflower by Eliezer James.
My reaction to first reading that book was absolutely unhinged.
I like it was just so like they were so in love.

(01:02:18):
I was like not OK.
It was like I pulled an all nighter, which was unwise because I was incoherent.
But like just the little things of Jacob Astor Addison.
I mean, the little I mean, he's big.
He's a big thing.
But like the little things that he did have to just like get her to fall in love with

(01:02:39):
him and to just like see that she is in love with him.
Like, I mean, he started the book with a woman he was going to propose to.
So like so soon he's like, no, bye.
Love that.
That's the only way I support.
And in the song Coffee, His Place or like breakfast, something.

(01:03:00):
Breakfast is like a huge thing between them.
Like they just end up just like eating breakfast together all the time because he loves kippers.
And at the end, he loves her more than kippers, which was just it decimated me.
It really took me out.
Doesn't sound great right now, but in context, it hurts in a good way.

(01:03:20):
I just really felt like they were two people who could just sit in the same room in silence
and just be content.
Now that I think of it.
One by Eva Devon.
What was that?
He like buys her a chair to just like have a reading chair next to him.

(01:03:42):
That also gives those vibes.
One second, just so I don't mislead you, because I truly don't know what that was called.
The spinster and the rake, because like at the beginning, it's a whole thing like she's
sitting in his chair.
But by the end, like they just have two chairs and they can just sit together forever.
Takes me out.
Well, new romantics.

(01:04:05):
Here's a New York one.
I did the Ducats even by Joanna Shoop.
I just feel like Nellie is a real big new romantic.
Like the scarlet letters just kind of like not giving a fuck, building a castle of all
the bricks they threw at her.
Yeah, I loved them together.

(01:04:27):
And I just feel like I also had like the bride goes rogue.
I feel like that entire like friend group, because I was like looking for something with
like a friend group that could like show up to a party and just kind of like have at it.
And that happens in book two.
Nellie and what's her name?
So sorry.
They show up and then she gets absolutely pleasured by that guy, which is also hot,

(01:04:51):
because then in that book, Nellie, the Duke sees Nellie and he's like real jealous because
she's with like an artist guy and he's like, and then they like talk about it in book three.
No, book four.
It's book four.
I forget book one exists.
High five on that, you insistent.
Yeah, I just feel like Nellie really gives you romantic.

(01:05:14):
This is my bombshell pick.
Yeah, that's really also gives me romantic.
The whole friend group also gives every day is like a battle, literally, but every night
with this like a dream.
Yeah, yeah, they give new romantic vibes.
And Cecily specifically is like, I am here to have a good time.

(01:05:39):
So there you have it.
It has an exclamation point.
I went unclaimed by Courtney Milan and it makes me unhinged because the more I think
about it, the more perfectly it lines up with the song.
Yeah, like the entire because nobody even knows that she okay.

(01:06:00):
Wait, premise.
She's a courtesan.
She's hired to like seduce this guy because he literally wrote the book on chastity.
And so he's like a celebrity.
He did.
But he would mean for it to get famous.
And so now he's accidentally famous for not having sex.
And he's like, I mean, none of you guys get what chastity really is about, which was hot.

(01:06:25):
I love him.
But anyway, so she's hired by a rival to seduce him and therefore undermine him.
But she can't because he's into her.
But he also understands that like chastity is about like you feel desire, you just have
to say no.
Anyway, she's very in the name or that guy is like his veins are popping out of his head

(01:06:45):
and he's just like, true.
But he was like, yeah.
Anyway, but everybody like even though nobody knows in this town that she's a courtesan,
they do know she's a slut.
Like I say that lovingly, but they all slut shame her constantly.
And she's like, OK, bet.
Like I'm going to look really good and I'm going to seduce you.

(01:07:08):
You're not saying you're in love with me, but you're going to.
But then she gets love struck because in a world of boys, he's a gentleman.
It's all it's all coming together.
So now every time I listen to the song, that's all I can do.
I am a mastermind.
Oh, yeah.
I that book was so I wish there was an audio book because I would reread it so fast.

(01:07:30):
I just love that Courtney was like, I'm going to write a superstar like romance, but he's
going to be a superstar because he wrote a book on chastity.
It was just so like the camp looking at straight in the eye.
I chose seduction of a highland last by Maya Banks.
This one quite literally, she's not a slut, but she was slut shamed so terribly that she

(01:07:52):
had to leave her clan because the chief guy, whatever, what would the chief.
What is it?
Is he not a chief?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe it does.
It doesn't sound right.
What is the leader of a highland clan?

(01:08:13):
I'm Google.
Laird.
Laird.
Oh, I knew there was a OK.
Yep.
OK.
Because the the Laird tried he was basically a pedophile and tried to rape her.
And so the wife found him like pawing at her.
Yes.
This is the second in a series, right?
Yes.

(01:08:34):
And I read the third two.
Yeah.
And the wife like found her.
And instead of like blaming the husband, she's like, you're a slut.
You were trying to seduce my husband.
So you have to go.
And then her best friend was like the daughter of those two.
So that was like very dramatic.
So she's like had to leave.
She's been like living on her own.

(01:08:54):
And she's a healer.
And then the rival, the rivals that come up to her house.
And basically the hero is like wounded and she has to like treat him and they kind of
like kidnap her.
They do kind of kidnap her also.
And just quite frequently throughout the book, she's just like, you know what, it'd be worth

(01:09:15):
it for once to be called a slut if I can, you know, have him because he is fully engaged
to her former best friend.
And she's like, you know, it would be it's worth it.
And then the people in like the like that.
He's the hero, the hero.

(01:09:36):
Wow.
The hero of the third book, right?
Isn't he the one that everybody is getting engaged to?
What is I thought she the the hero of book two is the guy who's engaged to the heroine
of book three.
Oh, the heroine is the one who keeps getting passed over.
I couldn't remember which is which.
That poor girl.
Yeah, I know.

(01:09:57):
So he like because they get all the way because I read this one because I wanted to do for
the style.
I wanted to find an interrupted wedding one.
This wedding does get interrupted because they're under attack and she's like running to them
and then she gets shot.
Oh, so then he's like, I can't marry you goes and saves her.
And so it was dramatic in that sense because she was like going to give him up and it was

(01:10:22):
angsty.
But really, she was ready to be a slut for him.
And it was like very hot.
They just had so much sex after that.
She committed to that.
Also the cover, I think they like edited out her nipple because like she's fully like her
boob is just there.
Like I don't quite know how that got through.

(01:10:45):
But if you look at it, it's just like blurred.
Like it was the top.
Just like, you know.
Yeah, I love that song.
It was my favorite, but now say, well, I don't know if they don't cause I don't know.
It's so hard.
But I do love.

(01:11:06):
They don't go.
So you just want to say.
This one came to me on a just an inspiration.
I thought you were going to say it came to you in a dream and I was really excited.
It didn't.
No, I can't say that it did.

(01:11:27):
That's a bummer.
Yeah.
But.
Carry on.
Bringing down the Duke by Evie Dunmore.
I really wanted one that had like a very dramatic, like he just wasn't going to tell her to stay,
even though like they both loved each other.
And she knew it was kind of doomed.

(01:11:48):
He was kind of like in denial.
And then I feel like a lot of us have read this book, but if you don't know, she like
a lot of the book happens.
You know, they're very like they're lusting for each other.
They're very well suited.

(01:12:09):
They have a night when he's like, be my mistress.
And she's like, no, that's insulting.
And then she finally, she's like, but I do kind of want to sleep with you still.
He thinks that she's going to like she's agreeing to be his mistress.
She's like, no, I won't do it.
So then she leaves.
He's kind of just lets her because he's like, well, I can't marry you because you're not

(01:12:30):
of my social class.
And he's kind of a little bit of a jerk about it, but it's fine because his name Sebastian.
But like there's like another scene where he like tries to get her back, but he still
doesn't like offer marriage.
And she's just like, you could say like, it's very easy for you to have me.

(01:12:53):
Like if you would just say that you're going to like want me for your wife and he just
doesn't.
So then she dramatically goes again.
And then he has to finally get her back that third time.
I mean, yeah, I feel like time because he does try and it goes badly for him.
Oh, yeah.
He falls off a fucking.
Oh, he falls off a horse, gets a head injury.

(01:13:14):
He's like, ah, it struck me.
He's so slay.
And then he like goes up to her.
He's like, I have a head injury.
I can marry you now.
She said, what are you talking about?
Go home.
And then he's like all drunk and his brother's like, what's wrong?
He's like, I said no.
He's like, you told her that you were like wounded in the head and that's when you could

(01:13:35):
finally like love her.
And he's like, oh, oh, Sebastian.
I hope his name is Sebastian.
I think it's the blonde duke, my blonde duke named Sebastian.
Yours is Saint Vincent.
So, yeah, I just want to one that like he really at any point could have just said marry
me and he never did.

(01:13:57):
And she was was it I'll be yours, but you're not mine.
That kind of thing.
And I just love the kiss me and it stops time part of that song.
That verse is excellent.
It gets me.
It does.
It's like song me.
It's particularly the screaming in the background.

(01:14:21):
I said, I love you.
No one talked to me ever again.
Anyway, listen, mine's a role reversal.
It's because I was really stuck on it being the heroine walking out.
But it's not.
In Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman, I went back and I reread the scene because
I was like, I swear to God, this happens in this book and I couldn't remember.

(01:14:45):
I don't think I said this earlier.
I work for forever.
Disclaimer.
Anyway, Marry Me By Midnight.
It's like a Cinderella gender swapped Jewish historical romance situation.
He's been collecting blackmail for her suitors that she's trying to choose for business reasons.
It's a whole thing.

(01:15:05):
And towards the end of this book, things go badly for her.
And she shows up at his little room beneath the synagogue where he lives, feeding birds
and mice and such.
And she basically freaks out and is like, none of this is going the way that I wanted
it to.
They're going to outplay me, blah, blah, blah.
I don't even want to marry them, all this stuff.
And she's trying to get him to make her feel better.

(01:15:27):
And he is having none of it.
And he is so mad at her.
And he's like, I don't know what you want me to say, but I'm not going to be the one
to say it.
Like, you have to tell me, essentially, literally goading her to be like, you have to say you
love me.
I'm going to America.

(01:15:47):
Like, my boat is leaving before this festival.
I'm leaving.
And she's like, why?
And he's like, why do you think?
Like, I can't be the one because he's like a custodian and she's like a business owner.
So he literally is like, I can't be the one to say it.
And he's so mad at her.

(01:16:09):
And then she tries to pay him for his service, you know, because he's been doing stuff for
her.
And he's like, I don't want your money.
I got this just for you.
Keep your money.
But he's offering blackmail on suitors.
And it's just so and she ends up leaving and he does he leaves.
And there's like a very dramatic like they have to go chase him down and get him to come

(01:16:32):
back and all this stuff.
But I reread the scene and it really is so like he is waiting for her to say, don't go
like stay and be with me.
And she doesn't because she can't she's not there yet.
He's like, OK.
Yeah, like, well, then I'm like, this one had to hurt, you know, and it did hurt.
Yeah, because like the song you're just like, er.

(01:16:54):
Yeah.
And the way she sings it.
Yeah.
What a good song.
So true.
It gets stuck in my head.
Speaking of songs that get stuck in my head now that we don't talk.
Oh, God, I love this song so much.
All these songs like they're all that classic Taylor Swift thing where like you're crying,
but you're all like bopping.
You want to.
Yeah.

(01:17:14):
I'm like, why am I dancing?
But also devastated now that we don't talk.
I also this unlocked something in me when I paired these because I got so excited about
how well it fits.
Third degree yearn by Lainey Hatcher is they grew up to get he was the son of their housekeeper,
their nobility of some kind.
I don't remember what level, but nobility.

(01:17:37):
And he's the son of their housekeeper.
But his mom is kind of terrible.
So he spent most of his childhood growing up with the kids and like the family is kind
of unconventional and very loving.
So like they literally did treat him like one of his own, one of their own.
Like he never quite felt like he fit in there because his mom was really telling him like
you're the housekeeper son.
Anyway, he was best friends with the youngest daughter.

(01:18:01):
And they grew up and they were very, very close.
And then his mom sent him away to some like stable.
I think it was like his uncle ran like a horse breeding business.
And so at like 15 or something sent him away.
And they basically they both send each other letters.
But because of interference, neither of them ever gets any of the letters.
So both of them think for years that the other person just completely forgot about them.

(01:18:25):
The difference being he stopped writing letters after like a couple of months and she continued
for years to write letters.
But like they were best friends.
But she by the time he left knew that there were more feelings there, but he didn't.
But then he gets the letters and now oh and now he's back because he's working with she's
staying with her sister and he's working with the sister's husband.

(01:18:47):
So like they're in the same vicinity again and they're mad at each other.
But there's also a lot of like hurt feelings.
But then they realize what's happened and then they're trying to like kind of be friends
again.
But they're also into each other.
Anyway, this whole idea of like, well, I can't be your friend.
Like coming to terms with what you've got like the whole like now we don't talk.

(01:19:07):
And so you're doing all these things.
And I'm watching from the outside as you like run your horse breeding business and work
with my brother in law.
But we don't talk, so I have nothing to say.
And it hits so hard.
The only thing that doesn't quite match is the little petty part at the end that I love
so much, which is like pretend.
That doesn't quite work.

(01:19:28):
But the rest of it of like, oh, it's a friend breakup because the song feels like a friend
breakup to me.
But also there were feelings there.
It's not platonic.
It's just ended.
I think mine actually pretty much I think it works for the petty moment.
Just because of how like the book opens.
They were childhood friends.

(01:19:49):
They were like really good friends.
Definitely like either had like a little romance or everyone thought it was going to happen.
And he's the Duke.
She's some she's I believe a lady.
And basically, it's a little bit Indiana Jones.
It is I was going to just start saying the plot before I even say what it is.

(01:20:11):
It's for the Duke size only by Lenora Bell.
It was just like a very fun book.
It opens with them being at like this like gentleman's club and she's like in disguise
and he's looking for it like they're both like artifacts and like going to different

(01:20:33):
locations and stuff and like jet setting and everything.
And she thinks like he like stop talking to her like randomly.
And he she doesn't know he's a spy.
So as spies are wanted to do, they kind of have to stop talking to people because of
danger.
She didn't know that.

(01:20:54):
So he just becomes a spy and he's doing all these things.
He's like maybe growing his hair long, maybe getting new icons because he has to like fit
a role and like be like a very pretentious, like very kind of like dumb dude who doesn't
know what he like the value of artifacts and everything.
Because I think the whole thing is like they're like artifacts missing from somewhere that

(01:21:16):
they have to like go rescue.
And so she like sneaks into it.
He recognizes her.
There's like sexual tension.
But she's just like very miffed at him because she doesn't know why they stopped talking.
She thinks that he's just like doing this for all the wrong reasons.
He doesn't know like his motives.
He doesn't know hers.

(01:21:37):
And they just kind of like go places and do things and have good 69 times.
Go places, check, do things.
Yeah.
So this one really, it really hits on the she like thinks his new like persona is just

(01:21:58):
completely fake and she's just disgusted by it.
But then she's turned out when she realizes that it is fake.
And then he's always been the same guy who had to stop talking to her.
So that was a fun one.
Suburban legends or I should say dot dot dot suburban legends.
I chose the secret lives of country gentlemen by KJ Charles.

(01:22:23):
You know, they weren't there to make friends.
They just wanted to fuck.
I just think like they just feel very like urban legend.
I don't know, like the vibes of that book just feel very mismatched star signs, like
two very different people from like two very different places, like trying to make it work

(01:22:49):
and like trying to just like be in love.
This one was another hard one.
I was like, I don't quite know.
But I just I think the mismatched but very well matched under all of it.

(01:23:09):
But this one was hard.
I don't know.
I have now that we don't talk stuck in my head.
I was like, you're you're dancing.
You got to bop to it.
You got to the chorus of that.
I'm going back to now that we don't talk just because the chorus of that scratches an itch
in my brain.
But I call my mom, she said to get it the way it goes up.
Oh, scratches an itch in my brain every time.

(01:23:30):
Anyway, suburban legends, which is one that I didn't love when I thought it was fine.
Now that I've listened to it, gotten better.
Kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up.
I don't even love like the story of the song, but the song just hearing it.
Anyway, this song reads to me as like a childhood or young relationship that you really wanted

(01:23:53):
to make work.
Both of you had other things that you had to go do, and so it just did not quite work
out.
Although the book I chose, it does eventually work out.
And that is a Rope to Remember by Emily Sullivan, which doesn't work out because of meddling
from other people.
But nevertheless, I think he was like the ward of her uncle or something.

(01:24:17):
It was another like they grew up together situation and the feelings were there.
Yeah, the feelings were there.
And then he also became a spy.
What is it about becoming spies?
But she doesn't know.
She does know.
It's not that he became a spy.
He went into like government service doing something or other.

(01:24:38):
So she does know that because it's her uncle that gets him into it.
But oh yeah.
But still, it doesn't know like, yeah, he just kind of leaves and she doesn't know why.
And then she's off trying to like fake a scandalous elopement so that she can go live in Italy
and mind her business.
And then he comes to get her.
And then it's a cross country Italian road trip.

(01:25:02):
And it just gives the vibes of like, you don't knock anymore.
And my whole life's ruined.
And also you kiss me in a way that's going to screw me up forever.
But it gives that like childhood friends that you thought.
But then they didn't come here to make friends.

(01:25:23):
They were born to be suburban legends.
That's so true.
Yeah, the you don't knock anymore.
Like for mine, definitely.
The bridge hits so hard.
I broke my own heart because you were too polite to do it.
Anyway, on to my actual favorite song possibly out of the entire album.

(01:25:44):
I'm like, I love Say Don't Go, but I'm just like, do I love it more than it is over now?
Like, I don't know.
Is it over now?
I will listen to that song in a loop.
It doesn't matter.
What's now?
The entire what, pre-chorus?
The Did You Think I Wouldn't See You?
They were flashing like that sequence.
I feel like I'm like the hottest person ever when I'm singing that song.

(01:26:06):
The rage that I channel as if this has ever happened to me.
Anyway, listen, have I used this book on one of these before?
Yes, I have.
Did you think of a better one?
No, I couldn't.
Private arrangements, Sherri Thomas.
That was my what?
Yeah, it's not mine, but that was my backup.
They're both sleeping with other people and they're so angry at each other and he's flaunting

(01:26:30):
it and she's mad about it, but they're still like the feelings are so there.
They are there.
So many feelings.
And what really gets me is that I feel like Sherri Thomas is the only writer.
That's true, there is a boat.
Blue dress on a boat.
And then he sees her and then she sees him and then he was going to go apologize and

(01:26:54):
then he sees her with another guy and then he's like, oh, so that was his final straw.
He saw her.
Oh, God.
And then the You Dream of My Mouth before it called you a lying traitor.
And they both are so...
I feel like nobody I could have put a Sherri Thomas book for like all of these songs.
I don't because Ravishing the Eras I almost did for I think I was going to do it for Say

(01:27:18):
Don't Go.
It doesn't quite fit because she wasn't going to walk out necessarily, but she was going
to let him go.
Listen, Sherri Thomas just gets the kind of problematic we're sleeping with other people,
but into each other, but we can't admit our feelings and now we're angry.
The luckiest lady in London, I feel like also has 1989 vibe.

(01:27:42):
I have that one as like backups for several.
Yeah.
And I'm just like...
So...
Yeah.
Sherri Thomas.
I have it for like one, I think on like Folklore or something.
I don't know what's evermore.
So I've been like saving it for that.
We've got a whole long time before that's ever going to happen.
But Sherri Thomas and Taylor Swift are besties.

(01:28:06):
I just like they don't know each other, but in my soul, they are besties.
So yeah, Private Arrangement and Is It Over Now is a combination that will just make me...
It'll throw me deep into my feels.
And then to combine that with The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean, which is my pick,
I think it's just...

(01:28:27):
It all hurts.
This one, I just love the... if she has blue eyes, I will surmise that she'll probably
date her.
Because I did some investigation.
I investigated via a plea on Instagram because I didn't have the ebook.
The woman that he was fucking by the fountain had blue eyes.

(01:28:50):
So that's just very critical to everything that I stand for.
She wasn't sleeping with other people.
He thought she was.
Yeah, he thought she was.
Because like, women empowerment.
But like, it's fine.
But he thought she was.
And that one just like, again, like you said that earlier, like it could have went a lot
of different places.
It also could have been...
I kind of wanted to put it for suburban legends just because her nickname was TikTok.

(01:29:15):
And then the song goes TikTok on the clock.
It doesn't fit the song.
But I thought it was just funny.
And basically, like they got married, and then they were in an unhappy marriage.
That's it.
Also, she does fully walk in on him fucking another woman by a fountain.
Yeah.
Well, and then his sister...

(01:29:35):
Well, sure.
Which pushes him into the fountain.
The first book.
Like that whole, did you think I wouldn't see you?
Like...
Yeah, they were...
Yeah.
And he's like, well, yeah, that was the point.
He's like, what is correct?
And I don't even believe you're carrying my child.
And like, he was so awful in that.
He was so horrible.
I am lucky that I read...
Because I just went balls deep into this book before reading the other ones in the series,

(01:30:00):
because I don't know if I could have gone over it as well as I did.
It was intense.
If I would have read book one before this, because I really did want to get a rubber
hose and beat him with it.
But in the third one, if you just start there, you're kind of like over it.
Is it over now?
It's like when you read Devil in Winter without reading and having one on him, and you know

(01:30:22):
what?
He doesn't seem so bad.
That's what happened to me.
I did that too.
Yeah.
So like, was it my favorite book ever?
No.
But it was very good.
I will give Sarah McLane props, because not a lot of times...
I mean, it felt easy.
No.
To come back from just that man blatantly cheating on page.

(01:30:46):
And maliciously.
And intentionally.
Yeah.
But then, obviously, it wasn't good reasoning.
And I don't support that.
But you read about why he did it, and you're like...
Exactly.
And then he never touched anyone for the next however many years.

(01:31:08):
And then he's like, oh god.
There's a scene where she's giving birth, but he carries her in, and it's a whole thing.
I mean, that book will devastate you.
Red blood, white snow, guys.
I don't know.
There's no snow, but oh god.
Yeah, it hurt.
Yeah.
I think she did it really well.

(01:31:30):
He just really regretted it from the time it happened all the way through.
And he was visibly...
You knew that he felt bad.
Because Eloisa James has one, like his duchess or something, I don't know, where he does
the same thing.

(01:31:51):
He fucks a lady on his desk at work because his father had weird proclivities.
And so he's like, if I fuck a very conventional, normal mistress while I'm married, people
will think that I am not like my father, which was just a very bad reasoning for him.
And I don't support him at all in that sense.
But she then was like, okay, well, whatever.

(01:32:12):
I'm going to go.
I'm going to sleep with other people like it's like, oh, I think.
So they live estranged for a while and come back to it.
It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but his reasoning in this one was a lot better.
I mean, you're kind of just like, I feel for you, bro.
Yeah, I was found in the ditch, lost control.

(01:32:35):
So that book did a number.
And we've reached sweeter than fiction.
I didn't even realize she was going to put this one on.
I didn't realize it was like 1989 time when it came out.
But I just chose Forever You're Wroled by Aaron Langston.

(01:32:55):
I never looked back.
I don't like it just was like, oh, that could work.
And then I didn't touch it again.
So I just think like because he starts like very low and like very down on his luck, like
the beginning and she he's like her only option.
She's trying to get custody of the two kids and the awful family members are trying to

(01:33:20):
get it from her.
And the only way she could gain it is to have like a like a fiance, which sucks for her
because like the one that she chooses him, he has a terrible reputation and she has to
like they have to like build that back up.
And she had done like a favor for him.
She like bailed him out like years prior.

(01:33:42):
And she was like the only one who like believed in him.
And that just turns out into like a very sweet book of him just like kind of like daddy Westing
it up, West, daddy Westing it up.
And I just think that she like always knew all along that he would be the guy that she
needed and it ended up very sweet.

(01:34:03):
Good.
Also for context, if you didn't know this one is a bonus track on the final, you will
not find it on.
Streaming.
I mean, you'll find the original on streaming.
You can still listen to that.
But and I will eat it up every time, even though that one lyric still doesn't make sense to
me.
Wider than distance doesn't make sense.

(01:34:24):
We've had this conversation before.
I went a love by design.
It's a role reversal.
She knew she was going to go do great things.
That's cute.
And that's really the whole explanation.
He just really had faith that she was going to go be a great architect and gave her up
in the past because of it.
And now he still knows that she's going to go on to do great things.

(01:34:46):
He's just got so much faith in her.
That's it.
That's the whole reasoning.
Sweeter than fiction.
Hell yeah.
So there you have it.
We did it.
It only took us an hour and 40 minutes.
It could have been longer.
It could have.
That's so true.
This is a win in my book.

(01:35:07):
You will take what you get.
Yes.
Yeah, that was hard.
Happy that it's over.
I didn't like it was so hard.
Well you made it through.
Ow.
I did.
Oh, that's fine.
I just knocked my trash can over.

(01:35:28):
Everything is fine.
Yep.
That's it.
That's all I got.
Uh huh.
We've got a little maybe bit of a break I think.
Next episode is on December 8th.
I don't think that.
I think we skip a Friday maybe.
I think we skip Thanksgiving weekend.

(01:35:49):
No, we're doing this is Thanksgiving this week and I'm going to drop this on the 24th
on Black Friday.
Oh.
So however it shakes out, our next episode is The Bride by Julie Garwood.
That is our last old school school book for the season and I have already read it but

(01:36:09):
it was two years ago, maybe three at this point.
So I'm very excited to reread it and see how I like it.
I didn't do the audiobook back then either.
I just bought the book.
So I'm giving that a read and I just remember a lot of blanket fire sex so good times will

(01:36:31):
be had by us, I am sure.
I mean I haven't read Julie Garwood but that is what I know her for.
Sex and a kilt by a fire.
Sex and a kilt by a fire.
Very true.
Yes.
And then we're almost done with the year.
So who we got?
And then we'll maybe do a holiday TBR.

(01:36:53):
It's been very hit or miss with holiday reading.
I'm just really trying to do the year of novellas for that because like it's only a hundred
pages.
Can it hurt me that badly?
For some reason Christmas books are just hard.
Yeah I really struggle.
I have Halloween books hit I think because they don't have to be Halloween specific.
They can just be like magical or paranormal or whatever but Christmas books and of course

(01:37:18):
there's barely any other books for other winter holidays.
So you know the like one Kwanzaa and one Hanukkah book or whatever that you can find especially
when you're trying to find historical.
Oh historical it's so hard.
I know there's like a Kwanzaa series on KU.
Yeah.
Holly Jolly Diwali which Diwali like has different dates but it falls within like this range

(01:37:40):
of fall winter.
Hanukkah.
Yeah it's rough.
I would love there to be more for the historical romance especially.
But we will see what we can come up with and do that and then I think we should do the

(01:38:00):
ranking of all of our old school school and then see what that gets us.
If we do the superlatives or whatnot but yeah.
Is it over now?
Yes.

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