I'm Also in Love with Mothman

A forgotten summer, a hungry garden, and a winged legend with a soft spot for small kindnesses. Our creature-feature month kicks off with two romances that trade jump scares for emotional stakes. 

We start in Yarrow, Kentucky, where three generations of Haywood witches tend a shadow garden that grows on sorrow and fuels a rival distillery’s enchanted bourbon. When the town collectively erases the summer of 1997 from their minds; old feuds flare, magic falters, and a tangle of mysteries — Addison’s messy gifts, Kaden’s fractured past, a garden on the brink — pushes everyone toward truth. Think Practical Magic energy with tea leaf readings, bourbon and love that builds slowly behind closed doors.

Then we head to Point Pleasant, West Virginia for a Beauty-and-the-Beast twist with real heart. A burned-out influencer seeks offline quiet in a remote cabin and collides (literally) with Mothman. He's grumpy, misunderstood and unexpectedly tender. Their forced proximity becomes a lesson in alternative intimacy:  gluten-free menus shared on purpose, a hand remembering the morning pill case, a bath and a braid that say “I see you” louder than any grand gesture. It’s cozy monster romance with jalapeño spice, crisp humor, and a surprisingly grounded look at how public narratives can dehumanize both people and myths.

Along the way, we swap drink pairings (bourbon cocktail meets adult Shirley Temple), laugh at craft quirks (big schlongs, smirk overload, the eternal bridge-of-the-nose pinch), and parse what makes memory-erasure plots so propulsive. If you’re into witch romance, small-town secrets, Mothman lore, and love languages that look like care, this one’s for you. Hit play and share with a fellow bookish biddie. And, if our "creature feature" picks made your TBR grow wings, leave us a quick review and tell us:  team witch or team mothman?

Meghan's Cocktail & Book:  Dirty Shirley + I'm in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie

Nicole's Cocktail & Book:  I Put a Spell on You (Hocus Pocus Inspired Cocktail) with Bardstown Bourbon + In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker

Other Episodes Mentioned:  Season 2 Episode 18: Hot Swap

Transcript

Nicole:
I’m Nicole Danielle. 

Meghan:
I'm still Meghan Leigh. And this is Romance on the Rocks, where two bookish biddies imbibe, read romance novels, and sometimes press record.

Nicole:
We were almost like done with the frickin' episode. Like, I was like, oh my God, Meghan, we never hit record.

Meghan:
I'm gonna take the blame though, because I was having an echo issue.  Because who knew that there was a button on my little magic box here that actually says “echo effect.” So, we went through all of like me shutting down my computer and you trying to back out and come back. Yeah, like I caused this. This was me. 

Nicole:
Oh my god. I'm just glad I caught it finally. Oh my god, can you imagine? 

Meghan:
We were almost done.

Nicole:
We were almost done.

Meghan:
Okay, well how much beverage do you have?
Nicole:
Oh, I still have a little bit of beverage. 

Meghan:
But that's not enough beverage. 

Nicole:
Oh no, I'm good, really.

Meghan:
All right. Well, speaking of which, what are you drinking? Or what were you drinking?

Nicole:
Well, Meghan, we for the month of October are covering creature features. So, witches, werewolves, mothmen, you name it, we're covering it. Uh and sasquatches.

Meghan:
And yeah, if it's a monster, it's on our list.

Nicole:
Yeah. Monsters and magical beings. Uh, so I am drinking a bourbon-infused cocktail because there's a lot of bourbon drinking in my book. And it is inspired by Hocus Pocus, and it's called I Put a Spell on You. And it has Bardstone bourbon that I put in because it's an up-and-coming distillery that I quite enjoy. And then it has maple pecan syrup and just a dash of orange bitters. 

Nicole:
Maple pecan syrup sounds really good. 

Nicole:
Mm-hmm. And what are you drinking? Finally! You're finally drinking!

Meghan:
Yes. So, so for those of you who have been with us for the last few episodes, you know that I was doing a health and wellness challenge, which meant that there was no alcohol for several episodes. I'm very excited to announce that I am drinking a Shirley Temple. 

Nicole:
Tisk, Tisk. 

Meghan:
Nicole's shaking her head, but it is an adult Shirley Temple. There is vodka in it. And the whole reason I'm doing this is the female protagonist in my book has an evening where she drinks far too much wine and then doesn't feel so stellar the next day. And when she goes out with her mother later on, she's like, I don't think I can drink yet. And she orders a Shirley Temple, and her mother, in solidarity, also orders one. So, they sit at the bar and they both have Shirley Temples. I thought that was adorable. 

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
And so, I am doing an adult Shirley Temple. And I also have a little skewer of cherries…

Nicole:
Love. 

Meghan:
…cherries next to me, because…

Nicole:
They're so pretty. 

Meghan:
Yeah. Well, they're gonna fall into my drink if I tried to put them on the rim. So, they're in a little bowl by themselves. But that is what I am drinking. 
And so, for our monsters this time around, Nicole, I know you start. What kind of monster do you have?

Nicole:
And I have witches. I started looking at the rest of my books for the month because we're gonna do four episodes for the month of October instead of our usual two to three. And I think I've got a lot of witches happening over the course. I don't know why. I just feel drawn to the witches. Because even my werewolf book has a witch in it.

Meghan:
Yeah, you're uh typecasting yourself. 

Nicole:
Yeah, there we go.
But I read In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker. It was published in 2022. I'm putting this in the contemporary slash romantasy genre. And there are witches in terms of trigger warnings, there is murder. There's murder as a trigger warning. My hot take is this is a novel centered around three generations of witches in Kentucky and their magic shadow garden. It is a great read for fans of practical magic. 
Our main characters are Mora Haywood, the matriarch of the family. She's about the age of our mothers. Irene Haywood, Mora's daughter. She's about our age. She co-owns Lavender and Lemon Balma Tea Shop. She creates custom tea blends and does tea leaf readings. She also uses her magic to help take away people's pain and sadness, which she then feeds to the family's shadow garden. The shadow garden grows a variety of plants and herbs, which the Haywoods use to make tea for their shop as well as produce for the local grocery store. And the garden needs the pain and sadness it's given in order to grow. 
And then we have Addison Haywood, Irene's daughter. She's about our daughter's age, Rosie and Sydney. Addison is in charge of taking care of the shadow garden. And then there are two other families to know about as well: the Bonners and the Bakers. The Bonners own a local bourbon distillery and are the sworn enemies of the Haywoods. And then the Bakers own the local grocery store. 

Meghan:
All right.  And this is when I interrupt and I explain ages, just so we can kind of like envision in our head who these characters are. So, when Nicole says our daughter's age, like early 20s, when we're talking about us, we are middling age ladies in our middle 40s, and then our mamas are in their mid-60s. So that helps you envision these characters as she's talking about.

Nicole:
This story is set in Yarrow, Kentucky. As just a little bit of background, every summer in Yarrow, there is a harvest festival. At this festival, everyone in town makes a toast with Bonner bourbon. And doing this enables them to give up an unwanted memory. This is because the bourbon has magic properties thanks to being made with a special black corn given to them by the Haywoods from their magical shadow garden. You're only supposed to give up one small memory, but for some reason, everyone in town has given up all of their memories surrounding the summer of 1997, which, by the way, for our listeners, is the year that Meghan and I graduated high school. And it's generally understood that something really horrible happened that summer, not for me, but for these folks. And not for you. 
Something really horrible happened that summer for these folks that everyone wants to forget. That's really fascinating. Like I love this plot. So, at the beginning of the book, Christian Durant, the husband of Sylvia Bonner, has just passed away. Sylvia approaches Addison for some rosemary for cocktails for the wake. Addison gets a sign from her tea leaves that morning that she should sell the rosemary to Sylvia, even though her mother and grandmother think it's a horrible idea, but they won't argue with the tea leaves, so they allow it. They regret having given the Bonners the magic corn that they use to make the bourbon and don't trust the Bonners. Especially Sylvia and her youngest son Nate, who is once engaged to Irene until she caught him cheating on her. 

Meghan:
Ugh no. 

Nicole:
Sylvia's oldest son, Caden, comes home for the funeral, but he doesn't want to see his mother or brother. His father horribly abused him growing up, constantly beating him. And Sylvia never did anything to protect him, but Caden still loves his mother, and that's why he's come home for the funeral, is for her.

Meghan:
Poor Caden.

Nicole:
I know. He's such a nice guy, too. But there's some weirdness with Caden's return. No one in town, including his own brother Nate, can seem to remember him or what he looked like. He's been gone for 20 years, but there's definitely something weird with all this difficulty everyone in town and his family is having remembering him. He did leave back in 97, the summer that the town erased their memories, and even he can't remember what happened that summer or why he chose to leave. In the midst of the funeral proceedings and the preparation for the annual harvest festival, we learned that Addison is really struggling with her magic. She's not good at helping to take away people's pain and sadness like her mother and grandmother can. In fact, she fucked up her ex-boyfriend's memories, trying to help ease his pain after his grandfather died because she accidentally took away all the love and memories that he had of his grandfather as well. 

Meghan:
Ooh. 

Nicole:
Yeah. So, they broke up. 

Meghan:
Sounds bad. 

Nicole:
Yeah. They broke up for obvious reasons because he was not happy that that happened. So, Addison is really struggling with her magical abilities, and her grandmother blames her for lots of things in light of that. And both Mora and Irene don't trust Addison because of her un-honed and messy magic. We also discover during this time that something is wrong with the shadow garden. Its roots are trying to reach out beyond the garden enclosure, and parts of it are dying off because it's essentially starving. Only Irene is able to feed it from time to time because Addison isn't allowed to, and she's only allowed to weed the garden harvest from it. And Laura has essentially retired, so she can't really feed it either. And now the magic corn the Bonners have been growing is struggling too. So, Sylvia and Nate either want the Haywoods to give them more magical corn seeds, or they think the Haywoods should just go ahead and give them some of their land, specifically the shadow garden, so they can keep growing corn for the distillery, you know, for the good of the town.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen. 

Meghan:
Like to me, this sounds like a lot of Hatfields and McCoys type of small-town bullshit and generational blood feud stuff. 

Nicole:
That is definitely, I would say, the vibe that is happening here.

Meghan:
Yeah. And I would say that Mora would give them the garden over her dead body. 

Nicole:
Exactly. For real, blood feud. Yes. Addison finds herself drawn more and more to Sylvia following the funeral. And Caden finds himself inexplicably drawn to the Haywood family. He feels very naturally comforted by them. And this only increases the tension between the two rival families, then. There are lots of mysteries and questions regarding the Bonner's motivations, the trouble with Addison's magic, who the heck Addison's father actually is. She was conceived during the summer of 97, but because everyone's minds have been erased, they don't know how it happened. And then the questions about the garden and the cornfields and why they're struggling and how Irene's brother died that summer and just what the hell happened that summer. These are the questions that plague us.

Meghan:
Fascinating.

Nicole:
I'm gonna stop there and let the mystery remain because I do think this book is worth reading and it is a newer publication.

Meghan:
I'm super excited about this. You and I got the chance to be together in the same vicinity last week, which rarely happens because we live so far apart, but we were together and you were trying to finish this book. You were probably in the last third of the book trying to trying to get through so we could do the podcast. But when you were explaining the plot to me, I was so drawn in. Like this definitely sounds like something I would love to read. And I'm so excited that you are kind to your books. You are not an asshat like I am. You do not highlight and bend pages and whatever like I do for the podcast. So, your book is ready to be passed on to me so I can actually read this.

Nicole:
Yes, and I will bring it up for you when I start to drive up this weekend. And I am going to make notes, though. I told you at the beginning of the book with the family tree about who's who, because it is confusing.

Meghan:
Yeah, that is totally acceptable. But again, so grateful that you do not ruin books like I do. I try not to. This podcast has made me into a monster. Speaking of monsters, I never would have been like this in the past, but I cannot stop highlighting now. So, I've even started highlighting books that are not related to this podcast, where I'm like, well, I like what that says, and I yank out the highlighter. And in case anybody's wondering, don't use yellow. The pages will swallow the yellow. It fades. You don't even see it. You need orange or pink or green, just FYI. If you want to find those passages in the future and be a total jerk off like me, get yourself some colored highlighters. End of rant.

Nicole:
Yeah. Spice level for this one, Meghan. I'm going to give it a green pepper. And I was questioning if this was even a romance book for a hot minute. 

Meghan:
Yeah, you and I discussed that. Like when you and I were together, you still weren't sure. 

Nicole:
Yeah. I'm sure now. It is. It is a romance story. There are two separate slow burn love stories, one involving Irene and the other one Addison, as well as a couple of ancillary love stories involving Irene's sister-in-law and business partner, and then Addison's ex-boyfriend sister and Addison's cousin. And that's why I have to make notes for you. 

Meghan:
Yeah, I'm so glad you're putting in notes. 

Nicole:
But the physical encounters are pretty tame. And the couple of sexual encounters are definitely closed door. People get in touchy-feely, they're taking out their clothes, and then they literally close the door. And we that's all we get. Things I loved about in the shadow garden is the shadow garden. The descriptions of the plants and fruits are very cool. Everything is black in color, and it actually makes me want to design and plant my own shadow garden following that theme. I think it'd be very cool. 

Meghan:
I think that's fantastic. I am looking forward to you getting that done. 

Nicole:
I also loved the practical magic vibes and the tea concoctions and the tea leaf readings. And the bourbon? Need I say more. Love the bourbon. I also really enjoyed the plot twists and turns, of which there were plenty, and the extremely well-thought-out plot, as opposed to a recent book that Meghan forced me to read that had very little plot to gratuitous sex. 

Meghan:
I apologize.  Again, so for folks who may not have been here for our last few episodes, we were doing a book exchange, and I specifically picked a book. Its title was the what..”The fall of Bob”.

Nicole:
“The Bob's Fall.” 

Meghan:
Yeah. Nicole's husband's name is Bob. I grabbed that book just based on the fact that the name Bob was in the title. I had no idea what I was doing. And again, so sorry, my lady. 

Nicole:
It had almost no plot. It was terrible. Yeah.  Not my favorite read. 

Challenges with this book, just a little bit with the pacing, really. It was pretty slow in the beginning. And I found the characters and connections between characters pretty confusing initially. And the combination of the pacing with that character confusion made it just pretty difficult for me to stay engaged and got through the first two-thirds of the book at my normal pace. But the pacing definitely picks up in the last third of the book, and the payoff in the storyline was absolutely worth the wait and the read. 

Meghan:
I'm really looking forward to reading this one. 

Nicole:
Yeah, I think you'll really enjoy it. My final thoughts: if you love practical magic and all things witchy or gardening and bourbons, I highly recommend this book. 

Meghan:
Love it. 

Nicole:
Meghan, tell me about your book. I am so excited because there's a little bit of history to why you chose this book. 

Meghan:
Yeah, I was very excited about this book.
So, I have, “I'm in love with Mothman” by Paige Lavoie. I'm going with Lavoie. I tried to look to see how her name was pronounced. I could not find anything with her saying her own name. So, I'm going with Lavoie. Could be more French, like Lavoie. We're going with the way I'm saying it. 
Anyway, I actually made the pilgrimage in 2023 to see the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant. So, in 2023, I was taking a road trip and I came down to see you. 

Nicole:
Yes. 

Meghan:
But on my way back, uh the one thing I made a pilgrimage to was Point Pleasant, West Virginia, because I needed to see the Mothman Museum. I was very excited about that. So I went to the museum, I walked through the town, I took my picture next to the Mothman statue. I love things all like weird and kind of funky and kitschy and just a little bit off kilter. And the Mothman is one of those things. So that was very exciting for me. Nicole is now in possession of a picture of me trying to kiss a portrait of the Mothman while I was there…

Nicole:
Which I will 100% share online. 

Meghan:
This book was written in 2022. That picture was taken in 2023. My apologies. I did not know he was taken. I did not know the Mothman was in a relationship or I would not have tried to kiss him, just putting that out there. 
But that was why I picked this book. And actually, this has been on my list for a very long time. So, I was really excited when we got to do creature feature, and I could finally have the Mothman book. 
Basic premise here: Our main character is Heather. Online, she is better known to her thousands of followers as HoneyBeeLatte. She's been a beauty and lifestyle influencer for several years already. And prior to launching her own branding, she grew up in the spotlight of her mother's social media. Her mom would be what I'd call one of the original mommy bloggers. And so, Heather's not really had any time to herself. She's always pretty much been in the public eye. She was almost an influencer before we even knew what an influencer was. So, it comes as no surprise that Heather is craving some peace and quiet and privacy. And after one of her beauty brand endorsements went completely sideways and garners some controversy, she impulsively buys a property in rural Point Pleasant, West Virginia. And when I say impulsively, it's kind of like how you and I do trying to calm down at night. I don't know about you, but I look at real estate listings and there's actually like an SNL where they talk about how Zillow is the new equivalent of a porn site for people our age.
Nicole:
Okay, legitimately, Bob was totally looking up houses in Angler online last night, and I was getting hot and bothered over some of the kitchens.

Meghan:
I'm telling you, man, I look at the yards and the views and like how many windows they have. And I'm like, ooh, look at that deck. Yeah. If you haven't seen the SNL I'm talking about, just look up on YouTube, SNL Zillow. It's there and it is exactly what I'm talking about. 
So, this is what happens to Heather. She's having a really bad day. All of this stuff is going south. She's getting all this snipping comments online. And so, she starts looking through her calming Pinterest page. And a lot of it happens to be cottages in the middle of nowhere. And so, she clicks on cottages for sale. She finds one where she likes the view and impulsively just calls the listing agent and is like, I'll buy it. She has no idea what she's buying. 

Nicole:
She's doing it sight un-scene, right? 

Meghan:
Yeah. 

Nicole:
So, it's West Virginia. 

Meghan:
Yeah, West Virginia. And if I remember correctly, she's coming from Florida, I think. 

Nicole:
Okay. 

Meghan:
So, she's crossing state lines to just go to this middle of nowhere, right? So again, I went to Point Pleasant not too long ago. First of all, y'all know I'm more of a small-town girl when it comes to where I want to be. But here, this is this is what I picked up when I was there. I know that most of you can't see us, but maybe Nicole take a screenshot. This is my sticker that I got when I was there. And it says, “born to lurk, forced to work.”

Nicole:
Which I love. And now I need to stop there and get one too.

Meghan:
Yes. And it and it is one rendition of The Mothman. And I do need to pop this on my car. I have to take off some stickers before I can do that because my car is very full of stickers. I'm sorry, mama, but I gotta take some of those off of there. It is profusely covered. 

Nicole:
There's a lot of stickers. 

Meghan:
My mom's done a lot of traveling. I purchased my mom's car from her and it came pre-stickered. There's some where I'm like, I've never been there. I probably should take that sticker off, but Mothman can come with me. 

Nicole:
Yes. 

Meghan:
So anyway, if you're gonna stop and get a sticker, can you please stop and get me like a little beanie baby-ish The Mothman? 

Nicole:
Yes. 

Meghan:
Because that is the one thing I really regret is like above my head, right where I'm sitting for this podcast, I've got these little stuffed animals that inspire me. And they're all kind of like beanie baby size. I've got one that's a bookworm. 

Nicole:
Well, then you absolutely need to add the Mothman to the collection. 

Meghan:
I've lived in regret. So, if you can help solve that for me, I'd appreciate it. 
Anywho, so Heather moves to this cabin in the woods where she can be free from all the internet bullshit. And in fact, there is literally no internet service, and even phone calls are kind of spotty. She becomes a little bit friendly with some of the locals who run the small grocery store in town, Rosie and her wife Clara, and Rosie's brother, Chris. 
Rosie and Clara also, along with the grocery store, have kind of a small farm where they raise their produce for the store. They do baking, they rescue livestock. And Chris is a self-proclaimed monster hunter. He swears he has seen something terrifying in the woods, kind of around where Heather's cabin is. And she shrugs it off, but he's very persistent trying to convince her that she's in danger. And he's constantly trying to like swoop in and be the hero and stalk around her property. To me, to the point of overwhelming and creepy, right?

Nicole:
Like that's to me more creepy than the actual threat of a potential monster.

Meghan:
Yeah, exactly. So, we get to the first meeting with Mothman. Again, she has been thinking of everything in terms of how people see her, right? It's all putting together kind of a look. So, in her head, she wants to have a perfect, picturesque tree climbing moment. And so even though she's not taking pictures of this for her followers, she's still envisioning what this needs to be. And so, she's got a vintage copy of Pride and Prejudice that she tucks under her arm. And she puts on kind of like a boho, long, cute, flowy cottage course skirt and some boots and stuff. And she's gonna climb a tree to read her book in a tree. All I could think about when I saw that was girl, you're gonna climb a tree in a long ass skirt. Like that just has disaster spelled all over it. So anyway, here's the quote, “I will have my cute tree climbing moment if it kills me. I feel like a rebellious Victorian lady who refuses to bend to society's norms.”
Okay. So, she gets up there. She sits, she reads her book, she's watching the sunset, she's feeling it. And then she realizes she cannot get down. She doesn't know how to get out of this tree. She's in this long skirt. So, as she's trying to figure out how to get down, her thought is, “I live in this tree now. And that's fine.” She ends up getting caught up, she starts tumbling, and out of nowhere, Mothman comes and like scoops in and grabs her up so she doesn't fall and hit the ground. 
But to her, he's just a big, terrifying monster. So, she starts trying to fight with him. And so, they're like mid-air. She's getting hit by branches. She's trying to fight off this monster. Somehow, she passes out. Don't know if it's from fear, don't know if it's from bonking her head on a branch, but she wakes up the next morning on her own porch. Several days go by. She's still trying to figure out if that was like a whole fever dream, if this is real, whatever. 
A wild thunderstorm whips through. And during this, there's tons of wind gusts, and she hears this huge crash on her roof. When she goes out to check, it's clear that Mothman has somehow managed to injure himself while hovering around her home near the storm. Her urge to help a wounded creature is much stronger than her fear. So, she drags him inside and does her best to like heal his wing. She needs to reset it, whatever. It looks like it's kind of all wonky. We also come to find out that Mothman is his moth-ishness is a bit like werewolfy. 

Nicole:
Okay. 

Meghan:
Um yeah, he has his moments of being like sort of humanoid and moments of also being like full-blown lepidoptera. Um I said the fancy word, and I might have even said it right this time. But this whole thing made me think of that comedy sketch you and I sent each other. 

Nicole:
Yes. 

Meghan:
There was a comedy sketch where they were doing an interview with a young woman who is pretending to be a heroine in one of these stories. And one of her quotes is, “My father always says, it's not bestiality if he's human sometimes”. And that's all I could think of, was sometimes he's man-ish and sometimes he's a total moth. But what ensues is their burgeoning romance and trust building and just really getting to know each other now that he's kind of stuck in her home while he's healing. And they bond over their shared love of nature and also their shared experiences of being misrepresented in the press. 
I guess I'll kind of say it that way. Because when you think about it, like with her background, she's got a lot of people judging her for what she's posting. She's got people in the comments who are raking her over the coals for things she said or how she looks. And that's kind of what he's had too. Decades of people saying that he's a monster or he's attacking livestock or whatever. And so that is something they actually have in common is that misinterpretation. Basically, it's a beauty and the beast variation with forced proximity and a bit of the grumpy sunshine trope. And I'm not gonna do any spoilers. I think this was a really fun read. It's also a series. So, if you decide to read this one, there's more coming after it. And in general, like the author was really fun. She's got a really cute Instagram that I thought was worth following. In fact, her most recent post was “Some of you have never been lovingly cradled by a winged harbinger of doom. And it shows”. Like super cute. I think this was her breakout series. She's written other things as well, and I would be totally willing to read other things she's written. 
Any of my complaints are very minor. I wrote, “How did we get here?” Which is basically there'd be scenes where they're going to stay wrapped in each other's arms, but you never figure out how they got there because just a second before they were standing on the opposite side of a room having a discussion, but now suddenly they're wrapped in each other's arms, and you're like, I don't, there was no motion that got them there. There was a lot of smirking. I highlighted that because she wrote smirking quite a bit, but again, not enough to bother me to tell me I'm not gonna read this. I still thought it was super fun. 
And then again, the size of our junk, you guys. Why does our dong need to be the size of a soda can or a flashlight on steroids? I don't get it. What is going on that you're like, “a fist fell out of his pants?”

Nicole:
And I don't I don't get it either. And we've seen it a lot, and I just I don't understand it because size does matter, but not in the way a lot of people think.

Meghan:
No, no, I just okay. It again, not enough to make me stop reading this, but why? That's all I want to know, ladies. Why? Maybe it's just me.

Nicole:
Oh no, it's not just you. 

Meghan:
Yes, yeah. 

Nicole:
Also, Meghan, I had to look it up because inquiring minds need to know do moths have penises? And yes, Meghan, they do. 

Meghan:
Thank you for helping us out on this. Are they the size of a flashlight? 

Nicole:
Oh no. Well, with a real moth, they're tiny, but there you go. 

Meghan:
Thank you for looking that up for us. 

Nicole:
You can rely on me.

Meghan:
Well, I'm gonna throw a few quotes at you, just to kind of give you a little bit more idea of the book, and then I will I will pull back and we can talk about other things. 

Nicole:
Yes. 

Meghan:
But quotes that I really liked. First of all, she says, “my brain thinks in snapshots and captions.” And I was like, yeah, that makes sense for somebody who's been so tied into the internet that her trying to pull back from that and figure out how to see the world differently, you know, very relatable. And then she follows it up with, “I wanted to connect with who I am outside of the brand I built. I didn't consider that person might actually suck.” It was like really getting to know yourself and deciding whether or not you like what you see, right? I thought that was great. 
I titled this “Meghan Relates” to. “I can't stop talking. And his lack of response is only making it worse.  “As a classic oversharer: Uh huh.  Yeah.  
She says, after being in this rural town for a while, “I might miss food more than I miss people.”


Nicole:
Ooh, valid. 

Meghan:
Yes, ma'am. Totally get it. 
And then, “I don't need booze to make self-destructive choices.” Like, uh huh. Nope. You can make those on your own. Y

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
All right. Here's a list of why Mothman is a catch. 

Nicole:
Tell me more. 

Meghan:
She says, “Moth was right when he called me frivolous. I'm lucky it's a trait he's attracted to because I'm a fancy-dress-in-the-middle-of-the-woods kind of lady, and that's never gonna change.” That's very sweet. And then there were other things that I really appreciated about him as a character. 
You and I are always talking about those little acts of service or the things that we wish people would notice. And Mothman's very good at noticing the little things. Uh, Heather has a thyroid condition and also has to live gluten-free. And so, they actually managed to go out to eat somewhere together. And, “he ordered off the gluten-free menu just so we could share. It shouldn't feel like it's special, but it is.” 

Nicole:
Oh, I like that. 

Meghan:
Yeah. She said that nobody else had ever done that in the past.

Nicole:
Yeah, well, you can't take a bite and like girlfriend tax it if it's not meeting your dietary restrictions.

Meghan:
Exactly. Um, and then because of this thyroid condition, she has daily medication she has to take. And so, they wake up one morning and he goes and searches and picks up her pill case and brings it to her. And she’s like, “Yeah?”  And he's like, “Well, I noticed that you do this every morning”. And her response is just, “I can't believe he noticed something this small.”

Nicole:
Yeah.

Meghan:
And it's like, it is. It's small, but it's big. 

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
In the way that for her, it's just a daily whatever. But for him to hone in on it and actually do something about it, that's the big part. 

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
One night he slipped away to draw them a bath. And she says, “It makes me feel like I'm in a historical romance novel.” Oh. And like braided her hair while they were taking a bath. Oh, that's so sweet. I thought so too. I was like, I really like that. And now I have a section where it's quotes that I wrote specifically for Nicole.

Nicole:
Oh.

Meghan:
So, this is she and her mother talking about the fact that she is going to run away from all of her publicity. And her mom says, “What are people going to say?” And then Heather's thought process, says, “She spits the words as though I've done something awful, like use a cheap box dye on my hair.” 

Nicole:
Oh.

Meghan:
Which, to be fair, I also did.

Nicole:
No!

Meghan:
Yeah.
Um, the ladies at the local grocery, because again, it's a lesbian couple, they were talking about how they were mostly accepted into their small community. And Heather comments, like, “I'm surprised that this small community, you know, in the middle of nowhere's-ville is accepting.”  And uh one of one of the ladies says, “Well, they realized real early on, bigots don't get banana bread.” I was like, that's a great slogan to put outside your story. Just, “bigots don't get banana bread.” If you want to step over the threshold, leave that judgmental bullshit at the door. 

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
And then finally, page 89 pinches the bridge of his nose. 

Nicole:
Oh, shut the fuck up. 

Meghan:
So that's for you. 

Nicole:
Okay, I was totally feeling Mothman until then. 

Meghan:
Yeah. Sorry, babe, but he did. He pinched the bridge of his nose. 
So overall, Heather's a really likable character. I enjoyed the book. I'll definitely read more from this author. And again, follow her Instagram. She's really adorable and the stuff she posts is great. I'd love to meet her. And again, I am so sorry for trying to make a move on Mothman. I just didn't know that he was taken. I didn't know.

Nicole:
So, Meghan, what would you give this book for a spicy Scoville scale ranking?

Meghan:
I will give this probably a jalapeno. Yeah, there's some decent stuff. It's not closed door. It's not as graphic as some of the other books we've read. I would say really, this is probably about the level of jalapeno that I like. You and I have talked about spice levels and where we're both at with what we enjoy. This about where I'm at. Okay. This one right here.

Nicole:
And then any foods or anything? Because we're focusing on foods this year.

Meghan:
They eat a soup that they both hate. Okay. She feeds him oatmeal. And again, she's gluten-free. Nothing super standout in this book for food. That's what I got. How about you?

Nicole:
Nothing standout for food. There was just lots and lots of bourbon and bourbon cocktails and then lots of herbal tea concoctions.

Meghan:
Mm-hmm. How about your romantic reminder? 

Nicole:
Yes. The romantic reminder for this book, I feel, is that comforting and supporting your significant other during emotional times and personal loss can simply be by being present and offering a shoulder to cry on. You don't have to try to take the pain away, though that's often our first instinct. But just being physically present for them is comforting and supporting in itself. And I have to say that's very true, even in friendship terms, because you were totally there for me this past weekend when I was attending my grandma's funeral and you were just there for me. And I appreciate it.

Meghan:
Well, thank you. And more than happy to be there. Gotta be there for the people you love.

Nicole:
Mm-hmm.
How about you, romantic reminder? 

Meghan:
I'm gonna call it alternative intimacy. I feel like it's stuff we've talked about, you know, in in previous podcasts, small acts of service. In this case, it was the braiding of the hair. Like he sat at the edge of the tub and he combed through her hair and he braided it and he just I just thought that was very sweet. It was attentive. It wasn't sexual, but it just was a really nice bonding moment. So, I thought that was great. 

Nicole:
I love that.  Maybe I should have Bob braid my hair. That sounds kind of sexy.


Meghan:
Doesn't it? Like I just thought that was very sweet. 
So, boobies, Nicole, you've got a closed-door romance.

Nicole:
Oh, Meghan. Not applicable to this book. The boobies never hit. The closest I got was a mention of a sports bra on page 114, but I just don't think I can count that. So, I'm gonna say no, no boobies in this book. 

Meghan: Well, here's the thing…I had a jalapeno book with no boobies. 

Nicole:
What? And giant schlongs, but no boobs? 

Meghan:
We have a stalemate, my friend. I went through this book again today, just thinking I had to have missed it, right? There's a lot of forcefully grabbing each other around the waist, grinding of hips. They're licking and sucking and yeah, there, there's unless I missed it. If someone else has read this book and can tell me where there is a boob, a curve, a nipple, uh uh, I can't find it. I was shocked. I'm like, come on, there's gotta be something for being a jalapeno level. Nah. 

Nicole:
Wow. How did you and I have a stalemate? I think that's the first time that's ever happened. 

Meghan:
Definitely. 

Nicole:
And that's shocking with your book, I have to say. 

Meghan:
I think it's shocking. Like, I thought for sure, but no. 

Nicole:
Wow.

Meghan:
Yeah.

Nicole:
Ay.  Well, what do you have for the next episode of our creature feature month? 

Meghan:
So, coming up for our next creature feature, I have “Sasquatch Love Spell.” 

Nicole:
I love the books that you have sourced for this month, Meghan. 

Meghan:
You know, I love the concept. I don't know if I'm gonna love the books. And the reasoning is, you know, we talked about your uh “Fall of the Bob” or “Bob's fall”, the lack of plot. I'm really afraid that we are going down that same road because this book is only 97 pages long. 

Nicole:
Oh my god, this is gonna be like the fastest read ever. 

Meghan:
Dude, I am worried about this. I'm hoping that it's gonna be good, but this is the most AI put together cover I've ever seen. The axe is too small, his arm is bent weird, his head's too big, his hands the size of her whole back. I don't know, her bangs are too thick. There's so much going on here. And I just I'm worried. 

Nicole:
You're worried. All right, read me the synopsis. 

Meghan:
Okay. First of all, the front of the book says “mated to the monster.”

Nicole:
Oh god. 

Meghan:
No one can force half banshee Aoife to marry anyone, including a pompous elf prince. Her solution? Run away. She can handle anything until she runs into the most monstrous, sexiest lumberjack in the North Woods. A lonely sasquatch who makes her yearn for something primal. He's off limits by law. But she can't help herself. Adam's life is lonely. Gone are the days of carrying off a willing bride to pleasure endlessly. Females are forbidden for his kind. When a gorgeous banshee stumbles into his woods, he promises to protect her, but the call to mate with her is overwhelming. It's almost like a spell. He knows it's against the law, but he can't resist the primitive call of the monster buried within him.  Aoife is his mate, his, and he'll protect her with his life, even if the elf prince's army draws closer.”

Nicole:
Okay then. 

Meghan:
“Sasquatch love spell.” Wish me luck.


Nicole:
Oh, I will.
You're gonna need it!

Meghan:
Oh Lord.
What did you pick, witchy woman?

Nicole:
Well, I picked How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein. And I think the cover is actually kind of cute. There's like a little werewolfy dude and a witch brewing in a cauldron, and then like a little raccoon hanging out. Not sure what he's about, but we'll find out. 

Meghan:
I think your guy and my guy are wearing the same shirt. 

Nicole:
Oh my god, they are.

Meghan:
Are you sure yours isn't cheating on my girl? That looks like the same dude. 

Nicole:
Maybe it is the same dude. 

Meghan:
That was before he was banished and not able to touch a woman. Okay, anyway.

Nicole:
When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook, the last person she expects to see is her former best friend Seth Brewbaker on her doorstep. After some heated exchanges, she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around. He's an actual werewolf who's certain that she is the witch who can help him. That, and he wants to make amends. So, he offers a proposal. He'll teach her all about her newly discovered magic, and she will brew the potions he requires. No feelings, no funny business, just two people striking a deal until they get hit with a do or die mating bond. Now the heat is starting to rise. Through fairy fights and encounters with talking raccoons, they just have to do their best and not to give in. 

Meghan:
First, I hate the mating stuff.
You know I hate it. Both our books have it. 

Nicole:
Yeah. 

Meghan:
Second, talking raccoons? Sign me up.

Nicole:
I know I'm excited for the talking raccoons. Good times. Totally excited for it. 

Meghan:
Yeah, the fated mates thing. I don't know. It's a trope. Some people love it. It's not for me. 

Nicole:
Yep.

Meghan:
All right. Well, I am excited to get to more of our monstering and our creatures coming up in the next few weeks. But until then, thank you folks for joining us today for Romance on the Rocks. Please like, subscribe, and follow. And if you are a hopelessly romantic fellow bookish biddie like us, think about giving us a review on Apple iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you catch your podcasts. Your support really means the world to us. And until next time, stay safe and know that you are loved.