August 16, 2025 • 31 mins
Romance is having a huge moment and let's be honest, sometimes we all need a dose of a little happy ending. In this spicy bonus episode of Mamamia Out Loud, Jessie, Holly and Em V are diving deep into why we're all completely obsessed with love stories right now.
From seriously sexy fairies, Mr Rochester's problematic Victorian charm to complicated love stories set on the backdrop of Dublin (so romantic) — we're covering it all and getting way too invested in fictional relationships.
Plus, we'll play you a taste of Em's spicy obsession she's been listening to on her commute that has her practically levitating into work. 🌶️
We're sharing our favourite romance audiobook recommendations that'll transform your most boring tasks into something magical.✨
Support independent women's media
Our Recommendations
Holly recommends Jane Eyre, Little Women and The Paper Palace.
Jessie recommends Again, Rachel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Romantic Comedy.
Em V recommends Fourth Wing and the ACOTAR series.
What To Listen To Next:
- Listen to our latest episode: The Dating Experience Women Keep Having
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and warders
that this podcast is recorded.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
On Hello and welcome to a very special episode of
Mamma Mia Out Louder. I'm Polly Waynwright, I'm Jesse Stephen
and I'm in Vernham. So in this episode, which is
made with our mates at Audible, we're talking about romance,
specifically romance audio books of all kinds. We know that
(00:40):
love stories are having an enormous moment. Look at the
rise of Romanticy. A friend M's going to be talking
to us about that, for example, which sells millions of
copies around the world within days of release. And sometimes
we all need a dose of a little happy ending
that'll we me do. So out Louders know that I
love audio books in particular. I'm always driving and I'm
(01:02):
always listening to them. And today We're going to try
and convince each other and you out Louders to press
play on our favorite love story.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It's like a bonus jam packed episode of recommendations.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yes, wall to wall recommendations for audio books about rock
that are going.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
To make you feel good about the world.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yes, m Vernon. You can go first because you are
the most on trend with your recommendation. Are you going
to convince Jesse and I that we need to listen to?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, we have talked about romanticy on the podcast before,
but I want to talk about this certain series. You
might have heard the word akata, yes on TikTok or
the internet if you've been around the last few years.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Remind us all what it means.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So it's an acronym for the series of books by
Sarah J. Mass and she's a big romanticy writer. The
first book is called a Court of Thorns and Roses,
and there's that's where the akata. That's where the akata
comes in. There's five out right now, and she recently
said that there's another three coming up, so we're going
to be having eight in total. So this is if
(02:08):
you want to get into romanticy, now the time, because
it's big right now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Can I ask what the main character is named in
this favra?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Because I was going to say that there's going to
be a baby boom of favras is slightly not right
for it. I just wonder if in you know, twenty
years or the new Karen's.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Face because they say the biggest audience for romancey, but
not only demographically, is eighteen to thirty. So this is
a young woman's obsession at the moment, but spreading well
beyond that.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
This series has me in such a chokehold. And I
thought it was for very very young girls, kind of
like when we were first thrown into the Harry Potter universe.
But literally, I haven't felt anything like this from a
series of books since I read Harry Potter when.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I was Okay, can we listen to a little bit? Yeah,
I take So.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I've got a snippet from the last audio book that's
come out, A Court of Silver Flames. It's very sexy.
This is the only PG snippet I could.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
She opened her mouth, and his tongue swept in the kiss,
punishing and savage, and the taste of him like snow
kissed wind and crackling embers. She moaned, unable to help herself.
It seemed that sound was his undoing for the fingers
in her hair. Dug into her scalp, angling her head
(03:33):
so he could better taste her, claim her. Her hands
roved over his muscled chest, desperate for any skin, anything
to touch as their tongues met and parted.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
So that was just a kiss. My question for you is,
how are you listening to this and not like going
bright reddick giggling.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
It feels like that shouldn't have been a shed.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Experience with you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I cannot tell you how good these as audiobooks have
been because I listen on my way to work when
we were in that old office. It was about like
a thirty five to forty minute walk for me, and
I'd come into the office gleaming below it. And I
think so many young women listen to these stories specifically
because when you're dating, and dating is really hard and
(04:18):
annoying and a bit shit. Going into a completely different
world where the men are just amazing and are they
yearning for their women?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Are they humans?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Which makes it even better, right, because you can't draw
like these parallel lines to your life that I feel
like other romance stories can make you do, Like subconsciously,
I'm literally like, I'll never find a man like that
because he's a high lord of the night Court with
wings so he can fly like a bat, and he
has trillions of dollars, so it's just so far fetch
that you have no like, you can't do anything else
(04:50):
but just immerse yourself and just stay there.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Okay. This is my question that I suppose is that
my barrier to listening to these has been Okay, does
it require too much imagination because it doesn't take place
in the real world? Like is it relatable? Are the
characters deal real?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You're thinking too much into this.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It's really good world building, so it's really easy to
put yourself in there.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Can you give me a brief overview of the plot?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So I know we're not really here for the plot.
We're here for the sexy fairies, yes, but just broadly,
what is the Akatar series about?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay? So the protagonist is this young girl named Farah.
She lives in this little village, in this tiny cottage
with her two sisters and her dad, and she's like
the provider of the family, meaning like they're literally living
on the edge of the world. She has to go
out and literally hunt for food. So it's kind of
like hunger game.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Is she?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Is it modern days? It like sci fi? Or like
this time doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
That's another world the world.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So what happens is it's like Farah is on the
hunt for food and she sees a wolf and she's like,
that will be a really tasty meal and that will
like supply food for everyone, so she kills the wolf.
The wolf was actually a fairy in disguise, and the
humans are not only scared of the fairies because they're
so powerful and mythical, but they also really really hate
them because they're just stealing, like all the good stuff
(06:15):
from the human world. This fairies friend finds her and
then kidnaps her to the fairy world. And now she's
in the fairy world and there's all these different courts
like Summer Court, Winter Court, Autumn Court, Night Court, Day Court,
Dawn Court, and she just goes exploring all these worlds
and she just gets with all of these high lords
or the high lords of all of these courts.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's the adventures.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It is so good because it's so far removed from
our every day jes see, you don't have to relate
to it.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
My favorite art is the art where you go if
you pitched me this, I would go, I think you're mad.
I absolutely would not commission this, and yet it is
the biggest in the world, in the.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
World Sarah J. Mars like she started writing when she
was sixteen, and they're like massively published books, and I'm like,
it's for the fanfit girls.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, you know what it is for the fanfit girls.
I love it. I love it. I haven't listened to them.
But you are edging me cluss it is that's an
inappropriate as ye, yes, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm glad you said it.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Edging a lot of women clothes.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Up, but lots and lots and lots of women love
these stories. I'll often bump into people and like talk.
You know, you'll be talking to someone in a shop
or in a cafe or whatever, and that's what they
want to talk to you about, and you're like, yeah,
there obviously mean a lot to a lot of people, so.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So now's the time to get amongst it. Sometimes my
friend will see my phone and she'll see like the
audiobook logo with the book logo, and she'd be like, Hannah,
what you've been doing?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
It's private, Holly, what is your audiobook recommendation for us?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Please?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I am going to try and sell you, and I
know this is a little bit hard work with you.
Jesse Stevens, in particular on a classic on an absolute
pinnacle of classics. Right, I'm going to try and sell
you on why you should listen to Janeair by Charlotte Bronte.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I'm sure you ever definitely at school, but I haven't
revisited Okay as an adult, and I feel like I should.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Any vibes on how you felt about Janeair at school.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I remember it being a little scary. Is it scary?
I like scary? Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So I'm going to sell you on this because one
of the things that audiobooks do really well. My favorite
kind of audiobook are the ones that have got really
interesting narrators. So I love listening to memoirs that are
narrated by the author, and I love listening to literature
to fiction. I guess that is narrated by a really
good actor. And there is a version, an audible original
(08:28):
version of Jana that is narrated by Tandy Way Newton,
who you would know from like Westworld, The Pursuit of Happiness,
Mission Impossible to She's an English actress.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I know her from Line of Judy.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yes you do. Oh, I love her Tandaway Newton. She
is fantastic and she narrates Jana.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So she British accent.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Oh yeah, it's a British story.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Sorry, I just had to confirm because this needs a
British accent.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So here are my reasons why you should revisit The
Wonderful Jenna. It is one of the best books ever
written anyway. But first of all, let's hear it for
the Bronte sisters, because so all three Bronti.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Sisters wrote right.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And Emily's most famous story is Jane Ey. Charlotte's most
famous story is Wuthering Heights, and those two are obviously
like masterpieces of the Victorian novel and the whole genre.
And the third sister, she never had a smash hit
masterpiece like that, but she wrote a very well respected
book called The Tenant of Wildfield Hall. All three sisters
(09:29):
had to write under male pseudonyms because in those days
it wasn't really acceptable for women to write things, particularly
things that were seen as like unchristian and dark, so
they had to pretend to be dudes to get published.
And they live in the countryside in the north of England.
They're not in London, they're not in high society. They
literally live in the middle of nowhere, and they're so
(09:50):
extraordinarily talented. These young women. We know, we were talking
about genius in the week on the show. They're so
extraordinarily talented that they create these absolute masterpieces with their
pen and ink whatever in a little bloody garage on
the moors in Yorkshire. Some of the best literature ever created.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And they were like each other's are competitors.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
They were, but you know, I think they were very
very tight, right, And they had a brother as well,
but we don't talk about him. And their mother died young,
and their two older sisters died like this is the era,
and all of those three women all died before they're forty,
Like this is a time when it was tough. Life
was tough.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
So why Jane Eyre though.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So the Bronte sisters full stop her a wonderful story.
But Jane Eyre has darkness. But it is sold as
a great love story. We'll put a pin in that
because there are some problematic aspects of that. But quick
little plot outline. It's very gritty. So we do like
to think of historical fiction as being very sweeping and romantic.
It's not really like that, Jane Eyre. It's the story
(10:47):
of a young girl who's orphaned and brought up by
a mean auntie. That very often happens in old stories.
Children never had any power and they'd be shoffed, especially
if they had no money, and they were shuffled around
between relatives. And Auntie's really mean to her and sends
her off to this school which is horrible and she's
mistreated and everything's not good for Jane, but she's a
very smart kid and she goes. When she finally escapes
(11:09):
from that school and has embarking on some kind of adulthood,
she goes and she's the governess to this man, this
big fancy man called mister Rochester, who lives in a big,
mysterious house and is the ward for this young girl.
It's not clear what their relationship is, but Jane comes
in to be the governess right anyway, She and mister Rochester.
He's nearly forty, she's only nineteen. That's problematic point number one.
(11:33):
And he's crotchety and miserable and a grumpy guy who's
not always around. But when he is, they have a connection.
And their connection is kind of inexplicable, but it's a
mind connection, is.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
There like a sexy connection?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, it gets to be sexy, but actually it never
gets explicitly sexy. But it's like this real connection. But
the problem is mysterious bumps in the night, a strange
ghostly figure at the end of the bed. What's going
on in the attic up there in this spooky big
house in the middle of the night, like weird things happen.
(12:06):
Oh my god, what's happening?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Who could it be?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Could it be? Who could be up there? And what
does it mean for our star cross lovers. That's basically
the premise for Jane Eyre and I won't spoil it.
But the thing that's so wonderful about it is it
goes in all these different directions. It tells you so
much about what it was, and maybe in some ways
is like to be a young person who's not in
any control of your destiny, but she's got this very
(12:30):
strong will and then all this bad stuff happens. Mister
Rochester is not the world's best romantic hero. He's kind
of like your prototype for your brooding anti hero, you
know what I mean. He's mysterious and sexy, but a
bit cruel at times, but he is obsessed with her,
like he loves us.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
So I'm thinking of Bridget Jones's diary, like Colin Fath,
like that kind of thing. That's what I'm imagining. I'm
thinking the.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Beast and Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, both of those
are fair.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Like I reckon that so many archetypes come from these
big stories, and mister Rochester is certainly of a type.
And these days there's lots of modern critique of this
story being like, oh, well, you know, clearly the age
gap is problematic. I won't go into any more spoilers,
but there are, but you know, who cares. It's a
great story, Like, it's a shazing story, and it has
(13:20):
a very mysterious and happy ish ending. So one of
the other things about Jane is that she's not supposed
to be very good looking, which is one of the
things I always really enjoy, and that romantic Carolin whenever
they cast her in a movie. Obviously she's really good looking,
but like she's supposed to be this plain, poor little girl.
But the connection that she and Miss Rochesters have is amazing.
And the bit you're about to hear is a lot
(13:44):
of shit has gone down. Let's just put it that way.
A lot of shit has gone down, and he's always
telling her what to do because he's big, fancy mister Rochester.
But she is little, but she is mighty, and she
is going to stand up to Oh, then I must go.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
You have said it yourself. No, you must stay. I
swear it, and the oath shall be kept. I tell
you I must go, I retorted, roused to something like passion.
Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you?
Do you think I am an automaton.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
A machine without feelings, and can bear to have my
morsel of bread snatched from my lips and my drop
of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think
because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am
soulless and heartless you think wrong. I have as much
soul as you, and full as much heart. And if
(14:41):
God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth,
I should have made it as hard for you to
leave me as it is now for me to leave you.
I am not talking to you now through the medium
of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh. It is
my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both
had passed through the grave and we stood at God's
(15:04):
feet equal as we are as we are, repeated mister Rochester,
So he added, enclosing me in his arms, gathering me
to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Our snippets are very different, different types of romance.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
We're taking a quick little break. See you for more
romance audiobook rerecords in a moment.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
All right, it's actually what's your type of romance?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
My audiobook pick is a modern romance. It is by
one of my favorite authors of all time, friend of Holly's, Marion.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Kay Best We're besties now now.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
It is a sequel to a book that was released
like twenty five years prior. Right, But you can actually
listen to this without the first This is again Rachel
by Mary Kay's came out a few years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Is it the story after Rachel's Holiday?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
So Rachel's Holiday came out and that was one of
my favorites. And then when I knew that Again Rachel
was coming out, I went, okay, I'm going to listen
to that. And you know what made me listen to it.
You may not know this, did you know that Marion
keys herself with her stunning Irish accent, her warmth, she
has one of the most delightful voices in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Narrates she does, so she's started doing that with her
last few books, and I talked to her about that
when I got to meet her, and she's perfect for it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I know people who are auditioned to narrate their own
books and they don't wi the standard for what they
need for an audiobook is so high that they're like,
we're not just going to get you to do it
just because you wrote it, Like you need real skill,
especially with fiction, to characterize people and to sort of
not overact but be engaging enough, like for maryan Keys
(16:53):
to have.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That and to be narrated by maryon Keys, Like just
how far she's just a tiny behind the scenes is
that she told me. She says, it's very embarrassing to
be just you and the audio engineer in a tiny
little room where you are reading this slightly sexybit.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Well, I have had that experience because I Heart Sea,
which was nonfiction, and I would be reading very explicit
sex scenes with an audio engineer who might have been
twenty two lovely guy, just blushing just and it's so
it's really hard because you're also reading your own words.
Which just feels very intimate and scary, but fiction. No,
(17:27):
they had to get better than Jesse Stevens, and so
she narrates this audiobook. This is the general plot. So
I'll start with Rachel's Holiday because the premise of that.
Keys wrote that back in nineteen ninety seven. Rachel is
one of the Walshes, and if you've ever read Any
Marian listened to Any Marion, you will know that she
has this Walsh family and that a lot of it
(17:47):
is connected. It's a bunch of sisters and you follow them.
But Rachel's Holiday was so big because it was about
Rachel landing in rehab and she's had something terrible happened.
She's had this breakup with a former partner named Luke.
The rehab scenes are particularly realistic and insightful because Marion
(18:09):
Key has had that experience, so she's put a lot
of her lived experience into that. And what I love
I think I love this most in a lot of
romances is when the protagonist, the perspective you're following, has
made mistakes. It's a lot more interesting plot wise because
she's getting in her own way rather than her just
being with the terrible person he he's great. You're like, mate,
get out of your own way and you've got someone
(18:31):
lovely waiting for you anyway. Again, Rachel is set twenty
years down the track. I think she's nearing fifty, right,
And we learn that her and Luke did get married,
but they have now divorced, very very strange circumstances, and
she's with a new guy named Quinn, who she's kind
of looking at, going You're not Luke, so just have
a little listen to this. This is her the experience
(18:53):
of being in a new relationship, trying not to compare.
But here's what she says.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
When hinted heavily that he loved me with being Quinn,
he was too competitive to run the risk of seeing
it then being left hanging by my silence. Sometimes they
wondered how long we could go without I love you,
if we could last an entire relationship, an entire lifetime.
But having seen Luke, I was asking myself if I'd
(19:20):
been wrong to have held out on Quinn. It was
as if a spotlight was suddenly illuminating different types of
romantic love. The version of me who had fallen for
Luke was much more innocent than the woman who had
met Quinn. I was so much wiser, now shaped and
changed by all that life had given me, good and bad.
(19:40):
And Quinn was a very different man to Luke. So
of course the love I felt for Quinn, and I
was starting to accept that it was love, would be
different to how it felt about Luke.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I love. What I also love about Kays at this
point is like all her characters have grown up alongside her.
So now you're listening about these interesting love lives of
like forty fifty ish women which you never used to read.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
About that no, and it reminds you that love and
heartbreak doesn't just happen to young people. It's not a
young person's game. It's it's almost more interesting when they've
lived and there's maybe a little bit more cynicism. But
she's with this queen. Everything seems fine, she's got her
life together. But Luke's mother dies in Ireland and so
he's coming back to Ireland and it's this thing of
(20:28):
confronting the past if she kind of wants to get
back with him. The situation with the Queen, it's about
like forgiveness and redemption, but ultimately it's just this incredible
love story. And you know what you want out of it,
and you know what you're rooting for, and.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
It's more relatable than like Roman to see, Yeah, that's
where you get from. Like you can draw parallels to
your life to it, and it just makes me easier
to understand.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And I love anything set in an island.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Can I ask you a question about the Wall Shoes,
Jess Stevens, because so marying Keys, as you say, she's
written this big fictional family, and each of the sisters
has novels, and then the mom's really big character, the
dad's a big character. There's like a you know, there's
a whole world building. Do you love and relate to it?
Because you've also got a big, messy, hi Catholic family.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
I think writing about the dynamics of a family is
one of the most fascinating things to uncover. And I
think so the way that they laugh at the mother.
So the whole backstory in this is that her mother
is organizing her own surprise eightieth and like just the
funniness of it that you go, I know this happened,
Like I know that she's not made this up. It's
(21:35):
just so real. But the relationship between the sisters they're
also different.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
And it also means that there are almost like these
recurring side characters because the mom's always in it and
she's so funny. Yes, and like it's like you can
write these new stories but with these like cameos from
the comic relief.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
That maryon Keyes knows so well. She's not inventing them.
She's been with them for a really really long time.
So I loved this so much. It's such good escapism.
I suppose it's like it's just warm and fuzzy, and
she writes from sadness to comedy in a single sentence,
in a way no one else can. So love again, Rachel.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
What a great recommendation out louders. There will be plenty
more romance after the break don't move all right? Those
are our big three records, but we've got a few
side ones too for really good listens in this genre.
And what else are you going to put in there?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Okay, So I didn't have too many recos because I'm
fairly new to the romanticy world and I know there
are some die hard Romanticy fans and I didn't want
to do them in justice. So I will say, if
you want to get into Romanticee. The series i'd actually
recommend you start with is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros.
There's three audiobooks all together, and the last book came
(22:46):
out in January this year on ex Storm, And the
reason I'm saying to start with that is because that's
the one that everyone's talking about right now, Like Akatar
is something that everyone was talking about like last year
or the year before. But if you want to get
into Romanticye and then immediately want to talk to people
about it, if it's Fourth Wing that.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
They're all talking about, they're really different. Like it's the
Fourth Wing series really different from the Akatar series. I mean,
I know it's the similar genre, but plot lines and
everything completely it's one of them, like darker or lighter,
or sexier or less sexy.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I would say Fourth Wing is more adventure. There's dragons
in it. It's very games of throny, like greames are thrownes.
There's so many characters that the reason it's so good
to listen to is that you know the pronunciations of
everyone's names and you can hear when the narrators changes,
so you're able to like follow the story much easier.
And similar to Akata. I listen to it on my
(23:38):
walk to work and I walk home and like when
I'm just doing the laundry and when I'm just like
tiding up my apartment. It's just really easy storytelling and
there's dragons and everyone has superpowers.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
It's just fun.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's just lots of fun. So start with Fourth Wing
because then you'll be able to talk to everyone who's
just finished on Extorm and then straight away go to
Akatar so you're there before the next three books get released.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Okay, I love that. I love the idea that it's
still coming.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I was going to recommend another classic, but mostly for
the audiobook experience.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
One of the good things about audiobooks at the moment
is they're doing lots of different you can get different experiences.
You can get like full cast reads, for example. So
in the vein of classics, I want to recommend Little
Women by Louis at my alcot there is a brilliant
movie by Grena Gerwig. And in that movie, Laura Dern
plays Mammy, who'd like the mom and she's so great
(24:29):
and she narrates Little Women in with like a cast,
so that's almost like a fully acted out almost like
an audio.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Play, so every character has a different narrange.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yea, So it's the whole like, you know, the whole
story of the March Sisters and all the stuff that
we're familiar with, but with a full cast. It's also
a really good reco for like a car lest in
that right, because another really good place to listen to
audio books is with other people, Like you know, if
I was with my daughter, we might listen to this.
So that is one of my other w recos.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I actually have two. My first is Romantic Comedy by Curtis.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
One of my favorite books ever.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Okay, so the audiobook is fantastic because you know how
I mean, it's it's quite meta in that it is
about someone who wants to write a romantic comedy and
it's also called that, and she is so witty and
the dialogue is the cornerstone of this, like the dialogue
between her and Noah. So just if you haven't listened
(25:29):
to it, it is romantic comedy and it is set
in like an SNL type workplace. She's a comedy writer,
and there's this thing there where they're like, it's funny
how these talented but ordinary looking men keep getting supermodels,
never happens.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Of that and Hollywood actresses. That's kind of like very true.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Colin Jost married to Skyle I think, is Emma Stone
married to one of the SNL writery types. They like
the guest hosts coming and they fall in love with
the writers, and she's kind of like, why does it
never happen.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
To And so this pop star comes in and meets
her and they just hit it off and the chemistry
is insane. And what I like about the audiobook too
is that there's like lots of texting and sometimes I
can find that a little bit abrasive in writing, but
read out, it's really really good true and it's also
(26:19):
one of the few audiobooks that nails.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Lockdown COVID Yeah yeah, email exchange between them and stuff exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
It does that really really well. And the other one,
my last one, is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugoes.
Again great for audio because there are three narrators for
different characters. Oh really, because the way that this is
structured is that it's like a long form interview that
this young journalist comes. She doesn't know why this Evelyn Hugo,
(26:47):
who is almost like a Elizabeth Taylor, I don't know,
like a very much famous older woman who has had
this Hollywood life.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Who doesn't do interviews.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
She doesn't do interviews, wants to sit and tell her
her story. And it's a love story in that it's
like the Seven Husbands and she goes through them. She
loved them to varying degrees. But there's a twist as
to why it's a love story and throughout history, how
who we're allowed to love has changed. It's just absolutely.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Brilliant lot that book. It would be a great listener, Yes, yeah, right,
because it is, as you say, the format of an interview.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
What I've found is the greatest, like a moment of
my life that I never thought I would appreciate so
much is being in my car alone. So because whenever
I am in my car with Darling, Luna can't listen
to my audio books.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I can't.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It is just we have very strict demands about what
we're listening to. You can't be listening to a gitar.
Although she might like the dragons, she loves a fairy.
She loves a fair I am. But now, like the
greatest joy is I get in the car sometimes and
I go, oh, my goodness, I can listen to whatever
I want. And the thing that I don't want to
do is spend ten minutes deciding I need to have
(27:58):
something on the go that I'm looking forward to. That
in those moments where I get Jesse time, it's something
that just Jesse wants to listen to. Like, even when
I sit down to watch something at night, it's like
Lucra and I have to agree on it. Yeah, but
I love the idea that I kind of get in,
or even like I'll put Luna down for a nap
and I'm cooking or I'm doing the washing. It just
makes all of those moments so much more joyful when
(28:20):
I've got something I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, especially when you're like in the midst of an
audio book, because there's just so many hours in one
book that I find Like if I'm listening to a
podcast or something and driving somewhere, I'm aways timing it
and I'm like, oh, my driver is thirty minutes, but
this podcast is forty minutes. I'm going to miss ten.
But when you're listening to an audiobook, you're like guaranteed
you're going to get a good chunk out of it.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
And a lot of people say they don't have time
to read, which I think is is you know, very true,
you're very tired at the end of the day. But
pretty much everyone who gets through a lot of books
does a lot a lot of audio. And it's good
for people who drive a lot, because you drive a lot.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I drive a lot, so I love listening to them
in the drive. But I also I'm just now obsessed
with the notion of em doing her morning walk to work,
or sitting on public transport with her dragons in her
ears and just this little smile on her face, like
if you guys, you don't when I.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Come to the next by the way, you can tell
exactly you never.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Want your headphones to diected to bluetooth.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I have one more I'm throwing in, which is also
I would call a modern classic Paper Palace by Miranda
cal And I think you probably recommend to me. And
it's one of those books that I read and it
changed like I haven't read it to write or you'd
love it. So it's great as an audiobook because and
I didn't really know this, but there are some actors
who well voice actors who specialize in reading audiobooks. They're
(29:44):
the most in demand of their field because they're just
there's a special skill to being able to do it
that doesn't sound like overly theatrical when you put on
voices for people and stuff. They just got that.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Nailed, because you never want the voice to get in
the way. No, that was my brief is. I was like,
I don't want it to be like this voice is
either slightly annoying me or whatever. It's like the perfect voice.
Just yeah, you can listen to all day.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah. So this this is voiced by a woman called
Laurel Lefko, and she's one of the top voice performers
in the whole business. And she reads the story, which
is all told from the perspective of El, who is
a woman who is It begins and she is on
holiday in the place that she always spends her summers
on Cape Cod in this like falling down ramshekl holiday
house that she's literally going to since she was a kid,
(30:29):
the Paper Palace, And the sense of place in this
story is so striking, like I feel like I've I've
been there. Yeah, swumming the kettle ponds, fought off the
Great Whites in the ocean like, it's so stunning. Anyway,
it retells the story of her life, but the love
story crux of this is that ultimately she is choosing
between her husband and her childhood true love. And it's
(30:53):
very The ending is very controversial. People have a lot
of feelings about what happens at the end of this book.
I'm just putting it out there.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I loved it, and then when it was over, I
wanted to go and talk to people about it. And
there are a lot of people who want to talk
about So it's a brilliant audio. Listen to if you
feel like you're on holiday in Cape cod in this
amazing place and yeah, it's the Paper Palace and it's
by Miranda Cary Heller. Out Louders, thank you so much
for listening to this bonus episode of Mama Mia out loud.
(31:25):
We want to know what your go to romance audiobook is.
Are you team Slowburn Classics, Team Spicy Contemporaries. Are you
fully down the romance see rabbit Hole with m Jump
into the Outlauders Facebook group and share your favorite romance stories.
We'll be back in your ears tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Bye by
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and warders
that this podcast is recorded.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
On Hello and welcome to a very special episode of
Mamma Mia Out Louder. I'm Polly Waynwright, I'm Jesse Stephen
and I'm in Vernham. So in this episode, which is
made with our mates at Audible, we're talking about romance,
specifically romance audio books of all kinds. We know that
(00:40):
love stories are having an enormous moment. Look at the
rise of Romanticy. A friend M's going to be talking
to us about that, for example, which sells millions of
copies around the world within days of release. And sometimes
we all need a dose of a little happy ending
that'll we me do. So out Louders know that I
love audio books in particular. I'm always driving and I'm
(01:02):
always listening to them. And today We're going to try
and convince each other and you out Louders to press
play on our favorite love story.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It's like a bonus jam packed episode of recommendations.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yes, wall to wall recommendations for audio books about rock
that are going.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
To make you feel good about the world.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yes, m Vernon. You can go first because you are
the most on trend with your recommendation. Are you going
to convince Jesse and I that we need to listen to?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, we have talked about romanticy on the podcast before,
but I want to talk about this certain series. You
might have heard the word akata, yes on TikTok or
the internet if you've been around the last few years.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Remind us all what it means.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So it's an acronym for the series of books by
Sarah J. Mass and she's a big romanticy writer. The
first book is called a Court of Thorns and Roses,
and there's that's where the akata. That's where the akata
comes in. There's five out right now, and she recently
said that there's another three coming up, so we're going
to be having eight in total. So this is if
(02:08):
you want to get into romanticy, now the time, because
it's big right now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Can I ask what the main character is named in
this favra?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Because I was going to say that there's going to
be a baby boom of favras is slightly not right
for it. I just wonder if in you know, twenty
years or the new Karen's.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Face because they say the biggest audience for romancey, but
not only demographically, is eighteen to thirty. So this is
a young woman's obsession at the moment, but spreading well
beyond that.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
This series has me in such a chokehold. And I
thought it was for very very young girls, kind of
like when we were first thrown into the Harry Potter universe.
But literally, I haven't felt anything like this from a
series of books since I read Harry Potter when.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I was Okay, can we listen to a little bit? Yeah,
I take So.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I've got a snippet from the last audio book that's
come out, A Court of Silver Flames. It's very sexy.
This is the only PG snippet I could.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
She opened her mouth, and his tongue swept in the kiss,
punishing and savage, and the taste of him like snow
kissed wind and crackling embers. She moaned, unable to help herself.
It seemed that sound was his undoing for the fingers
in her hair. Dug into her scalp, angling her head
(03:33):
so he could better taste her, claim her. Her hands
roved over his muscled chest, desperate for any skin, anything
to touch as their tongues met and parted.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
So that was just a kiss. My question for you is,
how are you listening to this and not like going
bright reddick giggling.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
It feels like that shouldn't have been a shed.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Experience with you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I cannot tell you how good these as audiobooks have
been because I listen on my way to work when
we were in that old office. It was about like
a thirty five to forty minute walk for me, and
I'd come into the office gleaming below it. And I
think so many young women listen to these stories specifically
because when you're dating, and dating is really hard and
(04:18):
annoying and a bit shit. Going into a completely different
world where the men are just amazing and are they
yearning for their women?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Are they humans?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Which makes it even better, right, because you can't draw
like these parallel lines to your life that I feel
like other romance stories can make you do, Like subconsciously,
I'm literally like, I'll never find a man like that
because he's a high lord of the night Court with
wings so he can fly like a bat, and he
has trillions of dollars, so it's just so far fetch
that you have no like, you can't do anything else
(04:50):
but just immerse yourself and just stay there.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Okay. This is my question that I suppose is that
my barrier to listening to these has been Okay, does
it require too much imagination because it doesn't take place
in the real world? Like is it relatable? Are the
characters deal real?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You're thinking too much into this.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It's really good world building, so it's really easy to
put yourself in there.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Can you give me a brief overview of the plot?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So I know we're not really here for the plot.
We're here for the sexy fairies, yes, but just broadly,
what is the Akatar series about?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay? So the protagonist is this young girl named Farah.
She lives in this little village, in this tiny cottage
with her two sisters and her dad, and she's like
the provider of the family, meaning like they're literally living
on the edge of the world. She has to go
out and literally hunt for food. So it's kind of
like hunger game.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Is she?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Is it modern days? It like sci fi? Or like
this time doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
That's another world the world.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So what happens is it's like Farah is on the
hunt for food and she sees a wolf and she's like,
that will be a really tasty meal and that will
like supply food for everyone, so she kills the wolf.
The wolf was actually a fairy in disguise, and the
humans are not only scared of the fairies because they're
so powerful and mythical, but they also really really hate
them because they're just stealing, like all the good stuff
(06:15):
from the human world. This fairies friend finds her and
then kidnaps her to the fairy world. And now she's
in the fairy world and there's all these different courts
like Summer Court, Winter Court, Autumn Court, Night Court, Day Court,
Dawn Court, and she just goes exploring all these worlds
and she just gets with all of these high lords
or the high lords of all of these courts.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's the adventures.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It is so good because it's so far removed from
our every day jes see, you don't have to relate
to it.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
My favorite art is the art where you go if
you pitched me this, I would go, I think you're mad.
I absolutely would not commission this, and yet it is
the biggest in the world, in the.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
World Sarah J. Mars like she started writing when she
was sixteen, and they're like massively published books, and I'm like,
it's for the fanfit girls.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, you know what it is for the fanfit girls.
I love it. I love it. I haven't listened to them.
But you are edging me cluss it is that's an
inappropriate as ye, yes, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I'm glad you said it.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Edging a lot of women clothes.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Up, but lots and lots and lots of women love
these stories. I'll often bump into people and like talk.
You know, you'll be talking to someone in a shop
or in a cafe or whatever, and that's what they
want to talk to you about, and you're like, yeah,
there obviously mean a lot to a lot of people, so.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So now's the time to get amongst it. Sometimes my
friend will see my phone and she'll see like the
audiobook logo with the book logo, and she'd be like, Hannah,
what you've been doing?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
It's private, Holly, what is your audiobook recommendation for us?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Please?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I am going to try and sell you, and I
know this is a little bit hard work with you.
Jesse Stevens, in particular on a classic on an absolute
pinnacle of classics. Right, I'm going to try and sell
you on why you should listen to Janeair by Charlotte Bronte.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I'm sure you ever definitely at school, but I haven't
revisited Okay as an adult, and I feel like I should.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Any vibes on how you felt about Janeair at school.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I remember it being a little scary. Is it scary?
I like scary? Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So I'm going to sell you on this because one
of the things that audiobooks do really well. My favorite
kind of audiobook are the ones that have got really
interesting narrators. So I love listening to memoirs that are
narrated by the author, and I love listening to literature
to fiction. I guess that is narrated by a really
good actor. And there is a version, an audible original
(08:28):
version of Jana that is narrated by Tandy Way Newton,
who you would know from like Westworld, The Pursuit of Happiness,
Mission Impossible to She's an English actress.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I know her from Line of Judy.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yes you do. Oh, I love her Tandaway Newton. She
is fantastic and she narrates Jana.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So she British accent.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Oh yeah, it's a British story.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Sorry, I just had to confirm because this needs a
British accent.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So here are my reasons why you should revisit The
Wonderful Jenna. It is one of the best books ever
written anyway. But first of all, let's hear it for
the Bronte sisters, because so all three Bronti.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Sisters wrote right.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And Emily's most famous story is Jane Ey. Charlotte's most
famous story is Wuthering Heights, and those two are obviously
like masterpieces of the Victorian novel and the whole genre.
And the third sister, she never had a smash hit
masterpiece like that, but she wrote a very well respected
book called The Tenant of Wildfield Hall. All three sisters
(09:29):
had to write under male pseudonyms because in those days
it wasn't really acceptable for women to write things, particularly
things that were seen as like unchristian and dark, so
they had to pretend to be dudes to get published.
And they live in the countryside in the north of England.
They're not in London, they're not in high society. They
literally live in the middle of nowhere, and they're so
(09:50):
extraordinarily talented. These young women. We know, we were talking
about genius in the week on the show. They're so
extraordinarily talented that they create these absolute masterpieces with their
pen and ink whatever in a little bloody garage on
the moors in Yorkshire. Some of the best literature ever created.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And they were like each other's are competitors.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
They were, but you know, I think they were very
very tight, right, And they had a brother as well,
but we don't talk about him. And their mother died young,
and their two older sisters died like this is the era,
and all of those three women all died before they're forty,
Like this is a time when it was tough. Life
was tough.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
So why Jane Eyre though.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So the Bronte sisters full stop her a wonderful story.
But Jane Eyre has darkness. But it is sold as
a great love story. We'll put a pin in that
because there are some problematic aspects of that. But quick
little plot outline. It's very gritty. So we do like
to think of historical fiction as being very sweeping and romantic.
It's not really like that, Jane Eyre. It's the story
(10:47):
of a young girl who's orphaned and brought up by
a mean auntie. That very often happens in old stories.
Children never had any power and they'd be shoffed, especially
if they had no money, and they were shuffled around
between relatives. And Auntie's really mean to her and sends
her off to this school which is horrible and she's
mistreated and everything's not good for Jane, but she's a
very smart kid and she goes. When she finally escapes
(11:09):
from that school and has embarking on some kind of adulthood,
she goes and she's the governess to this man, this
big fancy man called mister Rochester, who lives in a big,
mysterious house and is the ward for this young girl.
It's not clear what their relationship is, but Jane comes
in to be the governess right anyway, She and mister Rochester.
He's nearly forty, she's only nineteen. That's problematic point number one.
(11:33):
And he's crotchety and miserable and a grumpy guy who's
not always around. But when he is, they have a connection.
And their connection is kind of inexplicable, but it's a
mind connection, is.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
There like a sexy connection?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, it gets to be sexy, but actually it never
gets explicitly sexy. But it's like this real connection. But
the problem is mysterious bumps in the night, a strange
ghostly figure at the end of the bed. What's going
on in the attic up there in this spooky big
house in the middle of the night, like weird things happen.
(12:06):
Oh my god, what's happening?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Who could it be?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Could it be? Who could be up there? And what
does it mean for our star cross lovers. That's basically
the premise for Jane Eyre and I won't spoil it.
But the thing that's so wonderful about it is it
goes in all these different directions. It tells you so
much about what it was, and maybe in some ways
is like to be a young person who's not in
any control of your destiny, but she's got this very
(12:30):
strong will and then all this bad stuff happens. Mister
Rochester is not the world's best romantic hero. He's kind
of like your prototype for your brooding anti hero, you
know what I mean. He's mysterious and sexy, but a
bit cruel at times, but he is obsessed with her,
like he loves us.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
So I'm thinking of Bridget Jones's diary, like Colin Fath,
like that kind of thing. That's what I'm imagining. I'm
thinking the.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Beast and Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, both of those
are fair.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Like I reckon that so many archetypes come from these
big stories, and mister Rochester is certainly of a type.
And these days there's lots of modern critique of this
story being like, oh, well, you know, clearly the age
gap is problematic. I won't go into any more spoilers,
but there are, but you know, who cares. It's a
great story, Like, it's a shazing story, and it has
(13:20):
a very mysterious and happy ish ending. So one of
the other things about Jane is that she's not supposed
to be very good looking, which is one of the
things I always really enjoy, and that romantic Carolin whenever
they cast her in a movie. Obviously she's really good looking,
but like she's supposed to be this plain, poor little girl.
But the connection that she and Miss Rochesters have is amazing.
And the bit you're about to hear is a lot
(13:44):
of shit has gone down. Let's just put it that way.
A lot of shit has gone down, and he's always
telling her what to do because he's big, fancy mister Rochester.
But she is little, but she is mighty, and she
is going to stand up to Oh, then I must go.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
You have said it yourself. No, you must stay. I
swear it, and the oath shall be kept. I tell
you I must go, I retorted, roused to something like passion.
Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you?
Do you think I am an automaton.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
A machine without feelings, and can bear to have my
morsel of bread snatched from my lips and my drop
of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think
because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am
soulless and heartless you think wrong. I have as much
soul as you, and full as much heart. And if
(14:41):
God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth,
I should have made it as hard for you to
leave me as it is now for me to leave you.
I am not talking to you now through the medium
of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh. It is
my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both
had passed through the grave and we stood at God's
(15:04):
feet equal as we are as we are, repeated mister Rochester,
So he added, enclosing me in his arms, gathering me
to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Our snippets are very different, different types of romance.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
We're taking a quick little break. See you for more
romance audiobook rerecords in a moment.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
All right, it's actually what's your type of romance?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
My audiobook pick is a modern romance. It is by
one of my favorite authors of all time, friend of Holly's, Marion.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Kay Best We're besties now now.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
It is a sequel to a book that was released
like twenty five years prior. Right, But you can actually
listen to this without the first This is again Rachel
by Mary Kay's came out a few years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Is it the story after Rachel's Holiday?
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
So Rachel's Holiday came out and that was one of
my favorites. And then when I knew that Again Rachel
was coming out, I went, okay, I'm going to listen
to that. And you know what made me listen to it.
You may not know this, did you know that Marion
keys herself with her stunning Irish accent, her warmth, she
has one of the most delightful voices in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Narrates she does, so she's started doing that with her
last few books, and I talked to her about that
when I got to meet her, and she's perfect for it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I know people who are auditioned to narrate their own
books and they don't wi the standard for what they
need for an audiobook is so high that they're like,
we're not just going to get you to do it
just because you wrote it, Like you need real skill,
especially with fiction, to characterize people and to sort of
not overact but be engaging enough, like for maryan Keys
(16:53):
to have.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
That and to be narrated by maryon Keys, Like just
how far she's just a tiny behind the scenes is
that she told me. She says, it's very embarrassing to
be just you and the audio engineer in a tiny
little room where you are reading this slightly sexybit.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Well, I have had that experience because I Heart Sea,
which was nonfiction, and I would be reading very explicit
sex scenes with an audio engineer who might have been
twenty two lovely guy, just blushing just and it's so
it's really hard because you're also reading your own words.
Which just feels very intimate and scary, but fiction. No,
(17:27):
they had to get better than Jesse Stevens, and so
she narrates this audiobook. This is the general plot. So
I'll start with Rachel's Holiday because the premise of that.
Keys wrote that back in nineteen ninety seven. Rachel is
one of the Walshes, and if you've ever read Any
Marian listened to Any Marion, you will know that she
has this Walsh family and that a lot of it
(17:47):
is connected. It's a bunch of sisters and you follow them.
But Rachel's Holiday was so big because it was about
Rachel landing in rehab and she's had something terrible happened.
She's had this breakup with a former partner named Luke.
The rehab scenes are particularly realistic and insightful because Marion
(18:09):
Key has had that experience, so she's put a lot
of her lived experience into that. And what I love
I think I love this most in a lot of
romances is when the protagonist, the perspective you're following, has
made mistakes. It's a lot more interesting plot wise because
she's getting in her own way rather than her just
being with the terrible person he he's great. You're like, mate,
get out of your own way and you've got someone
(18:31):
lovely waiting for you anyway. Again, Rachel is set twenty
years down the track. I think she's nearing fifty, right,
And we learn that her and Luke did get married,
but they have now divorced, very very strange circumstances, and
she's with a new guy named Quinn, who she's kind
of looking at, going You're not Luke, so just have
a little listen to this. This is her the experience
(18:53):
of being in a new relationship, trying not to compare.
But here's what she says.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
When hinted heavily that he loved me with being Quinn,
he was too competitive to run the risk of seeing
it then being left hanging by my silence. Sometimes they
wondered how long we could go without I love you,
if we could last an entire relationship, an entire lifetime.
But having seen Luke, I was asking myself if I'd
(19:20):
been wrong to have held out on Quinn. It was
as if a spotlight was suddenly illuminating different types of
romantic love. The version of me who had fallen for
Luke was much more innocent than the woman who had
met Quinn. I was so much wiser, now shaped and
changed by all that life had given me, good and bad.
(19:40):
And Quinn was a very different man to Luke. So
of course the love I felt for Quinn, and I
was starting to accept that it was love, would be
different to how it felt about Luke.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I love. What I also love about Kays at this
point is like all her characters have grown up alongside her.
So now you're listening about these interesting love lives of
like forty fifty ish women which you never used to read.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
About that no, and it reminds you that love and
heartbreak doesn't just happen to young people. It's not a
young person's game. It's it's almost more interesting when they've
lived and there's maybe a little bit more cynicism. But
she's with this queen. Everything seems fine, she's got her
life together. But Luke's mother dies in Ireland and so
he's coming back to Ireland and it's this thing of
(20:28):
confronting the past if she kind of wants to get
back with him. The situation with the Queen, it's about
like forgiveness and redemption, but ultimately it's just this incredible
love story. And you know what you want out of it,
and you know what you're rooting for, and.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
It's more relatable than like Roman to see, Yeah, that's
where you get from. Like you can draw parallels to
your life to it, and it just makes me easier
to understand.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And I love anything set in an island.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Can I ask you a question about the Wall Shoes,
Jess Stevens, because so marying Keys, as you say, she's
written this big fictional family, and each of the sisters
has novels, and then the mom's really big character, the
dad's a big character. There's like a you know, there's
a whole world building. Do you love and relate to it?
Because you've also got a big, messy, hi Catholic family.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
I think writing about the dynamics of a family is
one of the most fascinating things to uncover. And I
think so the way that they laugh at the mother.
So the whole backstory in this is that her mother
is organizing her own surprise eightieth and like just the
funniness of it that you go, I know this happened,
Like I know that she's not made this up. It's
(21:35):
just so real. But the relationship between the sisters they're
also different.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
And it also means that there are almost like these
recurring side characters because the mom's always in it and
she's so funny. Yes, and like it's like you can
write these new stories but with these like cameos from
the comic relief.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
That maryon Keyes knows so well. She's not inventing them.
She's been with them for a really really long time.
So I loved this so much. It's such good escapism.
I suppose it's like it's just warm and fuzzy, and
she writes from sadness to comedy in a single sentence,
in a way no one else can. So love again, Rachel.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
What a great recommendation out louders. There will be plenty
more romance after the break don't move all right? Those
are our big three records, but we've got a few
side ones too for really good listens in this genre.
And what else are you going to put in there?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Okay, So I didn't have too many recos because I'm
fairly new to the romanticy world and I know there
are some die hard Romanticy fans and I didn't want
to do them in justice. So I will say, if
you want to get into Romanticee. The series i'd actually
recommend you start with is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros.
There's three audiobooks all together, and the last book came
(22:46):
out in January this year on ex Storm, And the
reason I'm saying to start with that is because that's
the one that everyone's talking about right now, Like Akatar
is something that everyone was talking about like last year
or the year before. But if you want to get
into Romanticye and then immediately want to talk to people
about it, if it's Fourth Wing that.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
They're all talking about, they're really different. Like it's the
Fourth Wing series really different from the Akatar series. I mean,
I know it's the similar genre, but plot lines and
everything completely it's one of them, like darker or lighter,
or sexier or less sexy.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I would say Fourth Wing is more adventure. There's dragons
in it. It's very games of throny, like greames are thrownes.
There's so many characters that the reason it's so good
to listen to is that you know the pronunciations of
everyone's names and you can hear when the narrators changes,
so you're able to like follow the story much easier.
And similar to Akata. I listen to it on my
(23:38):
walk to work and I walk home and like when
I'm just doing the laundry and when I'm just like
tiding up my apartment. It's just really easy storytelling and
there's dragons and everyone has superpowers.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
It's just fun.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's just lots of fun. So start with Fourth Wing
because then you'll be able to talk to everyone who's
just finished on Extorm and then straight away go to
Akatar so you're there before the next three books get released.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Okay, I love that. I love the idea that it's
still coming.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I was going to recommend another classic, but mostly for
the audiobook experience.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
One of the good things about audiobooks at the moment
is they're doing lots of different you can get different experiences.
You can get like full cast reads, for example. So
in the vein of classics, I want to recommend Little
Women by Louis at my alcot there is a brilliant
movie by Grena Gerwig. And in that movie, Laura Dern
plays Mammy, who'd like the mom and she's so great
(24:29):
and she narrates Little Women in with like a cast,
so that's almost like a fully acted out almost like
an audio.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Play, so every character has a different narrange.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yea, So it's the whole like, you know, the whole
story of the March Sisters and all the stuff that
we're familiar with, but with a full cast. It's also
a really good reco for like a car lest in
that right, because another really good place to listen to
audio books is with other people, Like you know, if
I was with my daughter, we might listen to this.
So that is one of my other w recos.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I actually have two. My first is Romantic Comedy by Curtis.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
One of my favorite books ever.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Okay, so the audiobook is fantastic because you know how
I mean, it's it's quite meta in that it is
about someone who wants to write a romantic comedy and
it's also called that, and she is so witty and
the dialogue is the cornerstone of this, like the dialogue
between her and Noah. So just if you haven't listened
(25:29):
to it, it is romantic comedy and it is set
in like an SNL type workplace. She's a comedy writer,
and there's this thing there where they're like, it's funny
how these talented but ordinary looking men keep getting supermodels,
never happens.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Of that and Hollywood actresses. That's kind of like very true.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Colin Jost married to Skyle I think, is Emma Stone
married to one of the SNL writery types. They like
the guest hosts coming and they fall in love with
the writers, and she's kind of like, why does it
never happen.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
To And so this pop star comes in and meets
her and they just hit it off and the chemistry
is insane. And what I like about the audiobook too
is that there's like lots of texting and sometimes I
can find that a little bit abrasive in writing, but
read out, it's really really good true and it's also
(26:19):
one of the few audiobooks that nails.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Lockdown COVID Yeah yeah, email exchange between them and stuff exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
It does that really really well. And the other one,
my last one, is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugoes.
Again great for audio because there are three narrators for
different characters. Oh really, because the way that this is
structured is that it's like a long form interview that
this young journalist comes. She doesn't know why this Evelyn Hugo,
(26:47):
who is almost like a Elizabeth Taylor, I don't know,
like a very much famous older woman who has had
this Hollywood life.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Who doesn't do interviews.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
She doesn't do interviews, wants to sit and tell her
her story. And it's a love story in that it's
like the Seven Husbands and she goes through them. She
loved them to varying degrees. But there's a twist as
to why it's a love story and throughout history, how
who we're allowed to love has changed. It's just absolutely.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Brilliant lot that book. It would be a great listener, Yes, yeah, right,
because it is, as you say, the format of an interview.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
What I've found is the greatest, like a moment of
my life that I never thought I would appreciate so
much is being in my car alone. So because whenever
I am in my car with Darling, Luna can't listen
to my audio books.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I can't.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It is just we have very strict demands about what
we're listening to. You can't be listening to a gitar.
Although she might like the dragons, she loves a fairy.
She loves a fair I am. But now, like the
greatest joy is I get in the car sometimes and
I go, oh, my goodness, I can listen to whatever
I want. And the thing that I don't want to
do is spend ten minutes deciding I need to have
(27:58):
something on the go that I'm looking forward to. That
in those moments where I get Jesse time, it's something
that just Jesse wants to listen to. Like, even when
I sit down to watch something at night, it's like
Lucra and I have to agree on it. Yeah, but
I love the idea that I kind of get in,
or even like I'll put Luna down for a nap
and I'm cooking or I'm doing the washing. It just
makes all of those moments so much more joyful when
(28:20):
I've got something I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, especially when you're like in the midst of an
audio book, because there's just so many hours in one
book that I find Like if I'm listening to a
podcast or something and driving somewhere, I'm aways timing it
and I'm like, oh, my driver is thirty minutes, but
this podcast is forty minutes. I'm going to miss ten.
But when you're listening to an audiobook, you're like guaranteed
you're going to get a good chunk out of it.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
And a lot of people say they don't have time
to read, which I think is is you know, very true,
you're very tired at the end of the day. But
pretty much everyone who gets through a lot of books
does a lot a lot of audio. And it's good
for people who drive a lot, because you drive a lot.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I drive a lot, so I love listening to them
in the drive. But I also I'm just now obsessed
with the notion of em doing her morning walk to work,
or sitting on public transport with her dragons in her
ears and just this little smile on her face, like
if you guys, you don't when I.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Come to the next by the way, you can tell
exactly you never.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Want your headphones to diected to bluetooth.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I have one more I'm throwing in, which is also
I would call a modern classic Paper Palace by Miranda
cal And I think you probably recommend to me. And
it's one of those books that I read and it
changed like I haven't read it to write or you'd
love it. So it's great as an audiobook because and
I didn't really know this, but there are some actors
who well voice actors who specialize in reading audiobooks. They're
(29:44):
the most in demand of their field because they're just
there's a special skill to being able to do it
that doesn't sound like overly theatrical when you put on
voices for people and stuff. They just got that.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Nailed, because you never want the voice to get in
the way. No, that was my brief is. I was like,
I don't want it to be like this voice is
either slightly annoying me or whatever. It's like the perfect voice.
Just yeah, you can listen to all day.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah. So this this is voiced by a woman called
Laurel Lefko, and she's one of the top voice performers
in the whole business. And she reads the story, which
is all told from the perspective of El, who is
a woman who is It begins and she is on
holiday in the place that she always spends her summers
on Cape Cod in this like falling down ramshekl holiday
house that she's literally going to since she was a kid,
(30:29):
the Paper Palace, And the sense of place in this
story is so striking, like I feel like I've I've
been there. Yeah, swumming the kettle ponds, fought off the
Great Whites in the ocean like, it's so stunning. Anyway,
it retells the story of her life, but the love
story crux of this is that ultimately she is choosing
between her husband and her childhood true love. And it's
(30:53):
very The ending is very controversial. People have a lot
of feelings about what happens at the end of this book.
I'm just putting it out there.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I loved it, and then when it was over, I
wanted to go and talk to people about it. And
there are a lot of people who want to talk
about So it's a brilliant audio. Listen to if you
feel like you're on holiday in Cape cod in this
amazing place and yeah, it's the Paper Palace and it's
by Miranda Cary Heller. Out Louders, thank you so much
for listening to this bonus episode of Mama Mia out loud.
(31:25):
We want to know what your go to romance audiobook is.
Are you team Slowburn Classics, Team Spicy Contemporaries. Are you
fully down the romance see rabbit Hole with m Jump
into the Outlauders Facebook group and share your favorite romance stories.
We'll be back in your ears tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Bye by
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