Ain't No Mountain High Enough

June's "Great Outdoors" theme is officially underway and the bookish biddies are heading into the mountains with two romances delivering adventure, emotional depth and some surprisingly thoughtful conversations about mental health.

Meghan reviews Highest Point by Kels and Denise Stone, a grumpy sunshine romance set in Alaska featuring a struggling ballet dancer, a traumatized mountain climber and a wilderness competition with a $20,000 prize. Between Clementine's debt spiral, Alec's climbing trauma and one unforgettable grandma who deserves her own book, this one was exactly the palate cleanser Meghan needed after a rough month of reading. 

Meanwhile, Nicole heads to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Southern Seducer by Jessica Peterson. This friends-to-lovers romance follows retired NFL linebacker "Beau" Beauregard and his college best friend, Annabel, as they navigate postpartum depression, possible CTE concerns and years of unresolved feelings. The result is a romance full of heart, healing and some very relatable conversations about motherhood, anxiety and learning the difference between feeling full and feeling whole. 

Along the way, the ladies discuss Daddy Montgomery CPR moments, Prince Albert piercings, an $8 million pirate porno, postpartum realities and why grandmothers continue to be some of the best side characters in romance.

Book & Beverage Pairings

Highest Point by Kels and Denise Stone with a K2 Cocktail

Southern Seducer by Jessica Peterson with Daycation Gold by Highland Brewing Company

So grab a drink, hit the trail and join the bookish biddies for the first stop on this summer's Great Outdoors adventure.

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Transcript

Welcome And Great Outdoors Theme

0:07

I'm Nicole Danielle, and I'm Megan Lee. And this is Romance on the Rocks, where two bookish biddies imbibe and talk about the romance novels that they have been reading. I'm pleased to say mine's a romance novel this time around, and I enjoyed it. Oh, there's that. Yay! And we are doing this month of June The Great Outdoors as our theme. We like to kind of do a theme from time to time. We were just talking about your struggles in the kitchen with your drink in the evening, but what are you drinking? I am drinking something called the K2. My outdoorsy book is called Highest Point. It's about a mountain climber. So I was trying to go on theme. I am not serving it in the Collins glass like it told me to. I am serving it instead in a mug that has mountains on it that I got Italy over in Switzerland. So I felt like this was appropriate. Very cute. So yeah, it's called the K2. The K2 has bourbon, Irish cream, uh, a coffee liqueur, a stout reduction, and a little bit of maple syrup and a tiny bit of nutmeg on top. Like I did a cocktail this time around. Wow. I know I was feeling very Nicole because I feel like you always do a really good job of, you know, flair with yours, where I walk in and I'm like, yeah, it's wine in a paper cup. So okay, you put some thought behind the wine in the paper cup. I did. It just wasn't something that, you know, took a lot of effort. So this is an actual effort. I have not tasted it yet. I'm hoping it'll be good. So cheers. How does she taste? Sweet. Um, sweet and boozy. So all right. The K2. All right, there we go. Yeah. What do you have, my dear? Well, my book, Southern Seducer, this week, uh, it takes place in the North Carolina Highlands. So I felt there was nothing more appropriate than going with my favorite Highland Brewing Compasheville, North Carolina. They have a lot of great flavors, if you will. This particular one is called Dacation Gold. So I thought this was appropriate because she's essentially taking like a little mini vacation into the Carolina Mountains. So I'm gonna crack her open. Very good. Refreshing sounding. Was yeah, so Nicole and I both went with mountain books for this one, which I thought was kind of fun. So I'll just I'll just get right into it.

Meghan's Book: Highest Point by Kels and Denise Stone

2:50

Dive in, my lady. I have Highest Point by Kells and Denise Stone. I would call this uh Grumpy Sunshine, bit of an age gap romance. I enjoyed this book. And I don't know if I enjoyed this book so much because it comes on the heels of two books I did not particularly enjoy. You're like, well, take anything. I did do a palette cleanser book in between that was completely unrelated to romance novels. Um, it was called the Paris Library. Also lovely. If anybody's looking for something that's not romance, enjoyed that. But man, what a breath of fresh air. So this book was republished in 2025. And the general premise, we have Clementine Lennox. She is a 24-year-old ballet dancer in New York. She gets rejected for a promotion that she had her heart absolutely set on and she has been striving for for years. So she's crushed. And her way of coping is to turn to shopping therapy. She's in deep, deep debt, basically. Oh, shit. And yeah. And all of this has been brought on by living in a very expensive city, pursuing her dream in the arts, which we all know doesn't necessarily pay the best. And again, shopping is her therapy. It's what she does when she's happy, it's what she does when she's sad, it's what she does when she's bored. So after this rejection, she takes herself to Sephora. Oh shit. Yeah, tries to buy away the sad. Fuck, even a Sephora trip normally can be like 500 bucks. Yeah, pretty much. Well, and I say yeah, like I know, I wear no makeup hardly ever. So I wouldn't really know. But in the book, that's kind of what she's trying to spend is about $500. Yeah, yeah. Quote, stores can change the weather inside of your body. I know exactly what this eyeshadow will do. It'll fix the ache inside me. Oh. Yeah. And then she gets up to the counter and her credit card is rejected. Her second credit card is then rejected. She knows she has no other way to pay for this stuff, and she basically has a meltdown right there at the counter. Like just starts crying and yeah. This is very confessions of a shopaholic. I've never seen it or read it. That's Kinsela, right? Is it good? I love it. It's one of my favorite. Yeah. Because it's Isla. Isla's the actress in it. Isla Fisher. She does a great job. Nice. Well, this is what happens to her. She has this breakdown, and as she's crying in the subway on her way home after leaving all the stuff on the counter because she clearly can't afford it. She calls her grandma and is like, I need to get out of here. Can you buy me a plane ticket? She's just running away from all of her problems. Well, what she decides to do is take a year off from ballet. She's like, I am crushing my body here and I'm not being appreciated. Clearly, I'm not doing well. I'm not gonna be able to survive on this salary. I need to go home. I need to figure shit out. So home to her is her grandma. Her mom lives in California, but grandma is in Alaska. And she's like, I want to go home to my grandma. So grandma buys her a plane ticket. She heads home. Enter the picture, 32-year-old Alex Hastings. So 32 to 24. Decent age gap there, but doable. Aleck and his climbing partner Finn have been conquering the world's highest mountains for the last how long would that be? Eight 18 to 32. For a long time. Give me some math in there. Look at us. We haven't even had that much to drink yet. Math is not my is it 12? 12 years? That's not 22 years. 12 years. 32 minus 18. 14 years? Hold on. 14 years. 14 years. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh my goodness. I was not anticipating doing math tonight, Megan. I am so sorry. Apologies. 14 years. They've been climbing for 14 years. They've been friends since they were five. This is a partnership that has just been very strong. They've been enormously successful with the climbing. They've got brand deals, sponsorships under their belt, documentaries that they've been part of. Very well known. And one of those things where people who are in that industry or that activity know exactly who he is. He's he's a level of famous. Unfortunately, during the last descent that he and Finn had on the K2, hence my drink, there was an awful accident. Finn fell, and this was as a storm was rolling in. And so Alec had to go and try and find him and see if he was even still alive. It was a pretty harsh fall, and Alec spent a lot of time trying to dig him out of underneath big chunks of ice and things like that. Thankfully, Finn survived, but crushed pelvis, you know, multiple fractures in his leg. I mean, there's there's no guarantee that he will ever climb again or even possibly walk properly. So Alec is carrying around a ton of guilt. And it doesn't help that a lot of these summits and a lot of these peaks have taken multiple lives, right? So he's been in this for 14 years. This is not the first accident he's been around. And in fact, he's got, I think it's eight names tattooed on his arm of other climbers who he's climbed with who have lost their lives in accidents. So it's a very dangerous hobby to be part of. So anyway, he ends up in Alaska because when he and Finn were like 18, 19 years old, they had just done their first real good brand deal and sponsorship and had been given all of this money for being good at the climbing. And they drunkenly bought a lodge in Alaska. They were like, that's what we're gonna do. We've got this money. So they bought this lodge in Alaska, and that was going to be their retirement someday when they got out of climbing. So now, 14 years later, they've done all the peaks. It needs a place to stay and recuperate. And so Alec goes up to this lodge in Alaska to try and get it ready, wheelchair ramp, you know, things like that, for Finn to come up and start recuperating, which is how he and Clementine meet because Clementine's family used to own the lodge. So her grandma still has the house next door, and they end up meeting each other. And Clem's big thought about trying to get rid of her debt is that there is a competition. It is kind of like a wilderness competition. It's climbing, it's, you know, running and hiking and kayaking. And the prize for whoever wins this competition is $20,000. And she's like, that would take care of most of my debt. So if I can find a partner, let's do this thing. So she approaches Alec and he has zero interest in doing this because he's still pretty traumatized, doesn't want to be out there without Finn, because that's his climbing buddy. And so the first part of the book is basically the dance between the two of them trying to convince him to be her partner. Okay. He eventually does say yes. They partner up for this wilderness competition, and that's what keeps them connected then throughout this thing. I'm not gonna say anything more about this because I think it's a worthy read. I really enjoyed it. A couple things. The grandmother is a fucking hoot. I loved her. She makes commentary about Tinder and OnlyFans and makes little comments about muffins and what kinds of muffins need tasting. And she's just, she is, she's great. She's like 87 and she feels like she could be in her 20s. She's fun that. I love that. She was a lot of fun. Um, I appreciated the fact that there was no easy out from the debt. I understand that like winning a competition is like, oh, my debt would be wiped out. But she had to like actually try in this competition, like physically hard trying, learning how to do repelling and you know, doing training. I appreciated the fact that this love affair was not, they fell in love immediately. There was an instant like chemistry and attraction, but it took them a couple months to really, you know, be together. And I appreciate that because I hate the overnight love affair that I'm gonna do. I know you do. I know you do. But the fact that this was all working toward being better emotionally and and with the money. And Alec Hastings comes from a wealthy family. Like that debt could have actually been wiped out with him just saying, You want me to take away your debt? And she could have said yes. But instead, he was like, You know, I could do that. And she's like, I do not feel right about that. I put myself in this hole, and I want to be the one that says I got myself out. Kudos. Love that. So yeah, in general, enjoyed it. I will give you a few quotations. Oh, yes, we love some quotes. Uh-huh. Okay, let's see. This is a my cat. My girl has actually been very good this evening and waiting outside of my clawfish for me. Well, mine hasn't taken the background down yet. So we've got that. This is Clementine coming over early in the morning to bother Alec and trying to get him to agree to do this competition. And his thought is it's far too early to deal with people, especially people who look like they skip for fun. Okay. Random, but all right. Well, it's just, it's so grumpy sunshine. Like he, you could tell, like, she is that ray of sunshine, and he's like, ugh. Like that. This is Clementine watching Alec make notes in his notebook about their training. I watch as he flips open pages of clean block letter handwriting. The man writes like an architect. And apparently, I'm growing attracted to this level of organization. I thought you would appreciate. Uh, fun fact, both my dad and my husband write in block lettering. Well, feel like you could relate. Couple things here. In order to be in the competition, everybody who is in the wilderness competition has to be CPR certified. Safety first, right? So they arrive for the certification. Each team has a CPR dummy on a mat. Ours has a fake septum ring. And within seconds, Clementine jammed a beanie on its head and christened it Buttercup. Okay. Like, she's fun. Now she takes his little notebook full of block print and she decides she's going to write it in it. And he's like horrified because he's like, you don't put doodles in that. And she's like, lists are made for doodles. And he's like, he's like, no, no. She goes, no, it's a rule. He's like, oh, what other rules do you have? Her response grocery lists always end with chocolate. Packing lists always start with underwear. And my to-do list always includes something I already did, just so I can check it off. Okay. One more. This is Alec explaining to Clementine what he finds so attractive about her. You don't back down. You don't bite your tongue. You're too much for men who want easy. Oh. And clearly he's not a man who wants easy if he is climbing all of these intense and insane mountains. So I thought that was great. I also remembered to write down the scents this time around. I am very proud of myself because that is something that we have been kind of forgetting once in a while. But this is for Clem. Her skin smells of sunscreen, sweat, and grapefruit. And then for him, he smells like cedar, road dust, and the faint sting of Ben Gay. Perfect. I thought that was great. That's realistic. It's mentioned twice that he smells like Ben Gay. So this man is making sure that he is like properly lubed up with the muscle looseness. And there's one thing I wanted to find in here if I can find where I wrote it. Because I wrote it specifically for you. I literally wrote a line and then on the bottom just wrote Daddy Montgomery. Tell me more. So he asks, Are you CPR certified? Her response, not since I was a teen. He says, I can retrain you. He nods like it's the simplest thing in the world. I'm an instructor. So now in her head, the way he says it shouldn't short out my brain. But I'm picturing his mouth covering mine, not to save me from drowning, but to keep me under until I forget my own name. And I was just like, mm-hmm. And there is a CPR demonstration further in, which just solidifies the whole Daddy Montgomery thing. I also have a Daddy Montgomery comment for my book later. Do you? Yes. The cover, can I just say, really cute cover? His hair's not long enough and she's not nearly thin enough. She's a ballet dancer and it talks all about like how like just she's very tall and very lean. Yeah. And he's supposed to have like long, kind of messy hair that he can like kind of pull back in a little man bun. Yeah. They're cute. I'm not saying man bun on a ball. No, they're cute, but they're not quite matching. Yeah. That's okay. All right. My only I have thought on this book. Yeah. My only one. She puts a rug in the kitchen. I don't get it. Why? Don't do that. Gross. Just don't. Because she didn't make it sound like a little tiny rug to stand on when you're doing dishes. Yeah, no. No, no, no, no, no. Just she bought a big ass rug for the kitchen. Is there like a breakfast table up in that shit? I don't know. It didn't explain. I mean, maybe, but I just I see carpet in kitchen or carpet in a bathroom, and it makes my gag. So same. That's my only I have thought. I think that's pretty good. So

Nicole's Book: Southern Seducer by Jessica Peterson

17:45

that's what I got for you folks. Read the book. Have fun. And you, Nicole? I read Southern Seducer. Picky. I know. I know. You're not a fan of this cover. I hate the cover. You know what I've noticed, Megan? She has changed the cover for other variations or renditions of the book. All right. So I'm guessing we're not the only ones who are. For people like me. Who are like, I don't need his armpit hair just shoved in my face, please. I will also say, similar to your book, that he had much more of like a touchable beard thing happening in the storyline. Yeah, that that's like a. That's too pretty boy for me. Also, I feel like uh not the right age either. Just gonna just gonna say. But let's get into it, Meg. Southern Seducer by Jessica Peterson. Published in 2020. Subgenre would be contemporary romance. I feel like some people might classify this as a rom-com. I there are a lot of feels in it for me to like completely put it in a rom-com category, though there were some funny haha moments. Uh, but I'm not, I I don't feel confident in putting it in a complete rom-com subgenre. One of the key tropes is friends to love us. Our main characters are John Riley Beauregard, aka Bo. Mm-hmm. He is a retired NFL linebacker who is now the CEO of his family's resort/slash farm in North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville. He's got a Super Bowl ring. And from what I gleaned from the book, I'm gathering that he played for the Green Bay Packers. Really? So I'm giving it bonus points because it talks about how he had to move to Green Bay from college and how Aaron, when they won the Super Bowl, invited him to his place in Cabo. So I mean, I can't imagine that being another team. So there you go. Right. I was like, yay, Packers. Then we have Annabelle Rhodes, aka Bell, a finance professional living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Bo's best friend from college at Chapel Hill. I'm assuming that's Duke University, but I could be wrong. I've only lived in Carolina for three years, so I'm not entirely, you know, up and up on. I think it's Duke. Chapel Hill is beautiful. I've I've only been there one time, but what a gorgeous town. Yes. Also very expensive to live in. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Annabelle is divorced and she is a new single mom with a four-month-old daughter. She chose to do artificial insemination because she really wanted to be a mom and have a family, and she was worried she was getting too old in her mid-30s and was never gonna find Mr. Wright after her disappointing first marriage and divorce. What I can gather, Meg, too, is that they seem like they're not much younger than us. It sounds like they graduated in 2003 and they're about 35 in 2020. So I'm gonna say they're they're like three to five, six years younger than us, but it all felt very relatable. Like a lot of the things that we kind of experienced because you and I met in college and became good friends, and it just a lot of it really kind of mirrored, you know, our life points. The plot line. Belle is suffering from really bad postpartum depression and struggling with the new mom life and stressing about her maternity leave ending and heading back to work. She does have great friends and her mom is helping her a lot, but it's it's still a struggle. Her best friend from college, Bo, invites her up to his newly built and growing resort and the family farm up in the Carolina Mountains. Her mom goes with her to help take care of the baby and whatnot. And during a cozy little evening by the fire pit, Bo and Belle share that they're both struggling with depression and both working to get through it. They're doing therapy, they're doing the meds, diet, exercise, whatever they can. And they offer each other really good encouragement and support, as friends do. Bo and Belle also talk a little bit about their history and attraction to each other since the start of meeting in college. Then things Heat up and they have a little makeout session. Just as things are about to go further, Bo pulls the stops on it and says he needs to talk to her about stuff in the morning because there's more to why he's depressed. The following day, Bo reveals to Belle he has a possible diagnosis of CTE. Oh. It's a degenerative brain disease. It stems from repeated trauma to the brain, like concussions and hits taken in professional sports like football. We have to list it as possible because it can only be, even to this day, diagnosed after someone is dead. Yeah. Bo's dad had it, and it was really difficult for his family because his dad suffered from dementia and other health problems from it. He was also a pro football player, as are Bo's three brothers. Bo feels like he's already experiencing a lot of the symptoms like depression, brain fog, impulse control, etc. And he's convinced he's going to go the way of his father and doesn't want to put that on anyone. So he doesn't want to start a serious relationship with the person he loves most in the world, his best friend. And he doesn't want to do that to her and her daughter and make them deal with his deteriorating health. That's so valid, and that's really heartbreaking. And I agree with you, and I don't want to minimize Bo's health concerns because he saw lots of medical professionals to search out answers for what he was dealing with. But honestly, it feels like he's experiencing a lot of things that most of us as we start to approach middle age experience, especially because he has the stress of running a new and growing business. I think he's being really hard on himself for feeling fatigued and brain cloud and whatever. And I again I don't want to minimize his genuine health concerns, but I'm also like, give yourself a little grace and space, buddy. You know? I I get that, but I also can respect the fact that he's looking at his health and thinking, I don't want to put that on somebody else. And maybe that seems very I don't want to even say short-sighted. It seems far-sighted. It's like he's not allowing himself to enjoy the now because he's so worried about what's coming down the pipeline, but I can also understand that. And so like I give him a lot of credit for at least having that kind of hesitation. Yeah. I I think that's that's genuinely very thoughtful. Well, and what happened next exactly hits on what you just mentioned, Megan, is the now. Belle and Bo both recognize what they're feeling for each other and decide to just live in the moment, live in the now for the duration of her visit at the farm resort. And of course they fall hard for each other. I mean, we're talking about 17 years of being best friends and each other's everything in a friendship sort of way and always having that underlying chemistry. And it's so easy for the two of them to just fall into those intimate moments. And that's unfortunately where I have to leave it because I don't want to give anything away. Megan, I don't think I asked you what your spice level was for your book. No, and I I realized I forgot to even say it. I I'd probably go with like a jalapeno on this one. I'm gonna give this one a habanero on the lower end. Um, and I will tell you, thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long for the heat. Mine was a good slow burn, and you know I love that. So yeah, that made me happy. I don't. And so I was glad that they started macking out right early on in the book. No, my my folks waited. They waited a lot. I mean, they weren't banging right away, but it there were some steamy moments, which I'm like, you don't have to actually put the peen in the hole for me to enjoy the moment, you know. I I think you would still I think you would still be cool with this book, even though it takes a while, because there is a lot of recognition that shit is going on. Yeah. And and so it it's very good relationship building. Things I loved. I appreciated Jessica Peterson's writing style. This was a smooth, fast, slash, easy read overall. I felt engaged from start to finish and was able to complete reading in about 24 hours. I liked her descriptions of various places in Carolina, and they were all accurate and or plausible, and I liked her characters and character building. I liked Bo as an MMC overall, even if he was an idiot about some stuff. He is a genuinely good guy with a fabulous sense of humor, and he likes to read books and make jokes about movies and porn. And he sounds pretty hot AF, and he was a Packers. So, you know, what else? I related to Belle a lot, Megan. She's ambitious and career-driven, even as she recognizes she may need to make a career or job change now that she's a mama. She was super sick for two out of three trimesters of her pregnancy. Oh, who does that sound like? Right? And she struggles with being a new mom. Yes, yes, and yes to all of that. You guys, Nicole was so sick that we would make plans, and I wouldn't know up until five minutes before we were about to do something whether or not we were really going to do it. You were so sick. Yeah, it was not good. That was not good. No. Sydney, we love you, but your mama was so sick. And I felt like the shittiest friend ever. And you were just like, hey, it's okay. What are we gonna do? Like, I can't take you out while you're all like green in the face and feeling like you're all over. Right. So some quotes that that totally fall in line. Well, I feel like I'm back in my first trimester when I was always this close to vomiting up the cracker I just ate. Holy crap, I could barely eat anything when I was pregnant with my daughter Sydney, and people kept telling me to eat saltine crackers, and the mere thought of putting some dry ass cracker in my mouth made me want to vomit even more. So I was like, girl, yes, I relate. Also, some other quotes that totally just hit it home for me with Belle. Bo. You're still allowed to feel flattened by parenthood, even if you wanted it that badly. It's okay to admit that it's a lot fucking harder than you thought it'd be. That doesn't make you a bad mother. It just makes you honest. Belle. But no one talks about it. Not really. They just ask me if I love it, motherhood. Bo. And when you don't, you feel like you're fucking it up. You're failing. When in reality, you're just figuring out how to survive an insanely intense experience nothing could have ever prepared you for. Correct. Another quote from her friend Mandy Remember, you gotta put your oxygen mask on first, mama. Another quote. I think maybe the joy of motherhood isn't always about kids. It's about you, us, mothers, finding strength of spirit and of self so we let go of the women we think we should be and become the women we truly are. And finally, Belle, it's hard for a type A planner like me to keep my feet firmly planted in the present. I'm always thinking ahead. My brain always roaming for a worry to latch onto, a but or a should or a shit. I fucked that up. The depression only makes this anxiety worse. Yep. It's all so real. There's a line in my book where Alex says something to Clem and whatever her response is, he he goes, Am I making you anxious? And her response is, anxiety is 90% of my personality. So uh valid. It also takes Belle four months to fall in love with her daughter. It didn't take me that long to fall in love with my daughter. It took me about a week or two. But I think it is so important to understand that love, even when it's a child that you produced out of your body, isn't always instantaneous when you have a baby. There's this intense pressure to feel and have that. And if you don't, you're made to feel like shit, which honestly is not cool. It doesn't mean you're being any less of a mom or caring less for your baby. It just means that love is taking a little time to plant and grow, which is normal and okay. Motherhood's motherhood is tough and people want it to be like consistent. It needs to look like a specific thing. And it just it isn't. It's a spectrum like so many other things in the world. And a lot of that spectrum is beautiful and acceptable, and there's that teeny tiny sliver of the spectrum that can fuck right off. But you know, in general, moms are just doing what they can to survive and make sure kids are doing okay. Right. Belle was a great mom. I feel like she was trying genuinely hard and giving herself a very hard time because she wasn't filling all these visions and ideas and societal expectations of the mom that she should be or feel like she should be, which I just I really loved and appreciated all the many relatable things about Belle and her pregnancy and her new mom experiences. Another really cool thing that I loved, um, Belle and Bo talk about and think about on their respective ends feeling full and feeling

Honest Motherhood Talk And Best Quotes

32:00

whole. Two different feelings, but important ones. I really loved that. There's so many things in life that can make us feel full and make us feel whole. I really enjoyed that. What okay, so I'm trying to parse that apart right now. Full versus whole. Yeah. Like how how were they trying to explain the difference? So, like with their depression, yeah. You know, you're not instantly gonna feel like, oh, everything's magically perfect and whole again. But I feel full right now. My heart feels full, my stomach feels full of good food. I'm feeling full. Okay. Full of cock, full of cock, too, if we're being honest. You weren't feeling like you were healed and whole again, but you felt full. Like you feel like enough. Yeah, or you had enough, or like, or you were feeling satiated, or you were feeling gratified. Okay. Versus I'm whole and fabulous and perfect again, or I'm healed, or I don't have a care in the world. Like and and let's be fair, does anybody ever really feel completely whole? I f I feel like it's something we can strive toward, but I don't know that you're ever going to be 100% whole in this world. So feeling full satiated enough, I I I think that that's that's a good thing to strive for. Okay, interesting. Thank you. No, I and I loved the the conversations and the internal thought processes around that kind of theme of full and whole, you know? I it's something I haven't seen before. And we've read a lot of books. Yeah, I love a good philosophical conversation because it it does. It makes you look at the world in a slightly different way if you can really probe into some of that underlying angst and what we all carry around. So yeah, interesting. Um, one more additional quote. You were talking about the Daddy Montgomery. And for those who were to the podcast, this is directly from season one episode two, uh, where I read a Jude Devereux book, The Princess, where we had a giggle, a giggly quote that was breathe, baby, breathe for Daddy Montgomery. Basically, basically, Nicole's heroine was drowning, and her twice her age dude drug of the water. And as he's like giving her CPR, he was really admiring her breasts. And instead of just really concentrating on CPR, he was checking out her body and saying things like, breathe, baby, breathe for Daddy Montgomery. It was so wrong. It was very made us laugh. And it's an ongoing joke in season three and forevermore. I wanted on a fucking t-shirt. Anyway, there's one point where Bo says, Oh, honey, I love loving up on you. That's adorable. It was adorable, but it gave me the giggles. And I was like, oh, that's something Daddy Montgomery would say. That is actually super adorable. I gotta go back to my book though and say that there were two points in this book where the CPR stuff came out, and there were some fucking Daddy Montgomery moments. Like it was it was like, I just needed you to read this specifically for that. Also, it didn't hurt that our uh our MMC really liked being called Daddy. So we're gonna. Oh god. Okay, yeah. Oh god, okay. That might be my first book where that actually was a thing. Oh lord, okay. Challenges. My only challenge in this book was Bo, in terms of his thinking about his possible CTE diagnosis. But when I say it was a challenge, I don't mean it in the usual way when I say have a challenge with a book. Like I'm not going to downgrade the book because I thought Bo was being too cautious, etc. It was emotionally challenging for me, but it was a key plot point and helped drive the story. So I get it. So both of us had like an I have a thought challenge, and both of those were kind of like, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Additional notes, Megan, I learned some new things again. Do tell. You are always schooling me on new things. The last book I learned, some new terms, uh, was Sloan Spencer's Every Version of You from earlier in this season of the podcast. Number one, apparently Mo had at one point gotten his dick pierced. Oh, yep. During a drunken adventure in Myrtle Beach. So they call that a Prince Albert? Yes. Okay, now I've heard of Prince Albert in a can, which for those who don't know, it's an old type of chewing tobacco. And the the running joke of the olden days was, is your Prince Albert in a can? Well, let him out. But I have never heard of Prince Albert in reference to dick piercing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I have the typical I was in college in early 2000s piercings. So I have my navel pierced and I've got a shit ton of things in my ears. Yeah. But I got one of those that I think I got my rook pierced when I was with a friend who was getting his nipples gauged up. Oh God. Oh God, yeah. That that's the correct. But when you said Myrtle Beach, I'm trying to remember where we were because we were definitely in South Carolina when the two of us went and did that. Apparently you just get pierced in South Carolina. Yeah. So as soon as you said that, I would, I didn't go back and see my face where I was like, huh, like, yes, that. You go to South Carolina to get pierced and tattooed. I can, I have a very vivid memory of that. So I'm sitting in the living room last night reading my book, and I got to this, and I'm like, wait, what? And I had to go down the rabbit hole because I was just trying to like, I needed visual aids. You know, I need to know how the fuck does this work? What is happening? And we have a house guest right now, my dear friend from high school, uh, base. And so it was me, base, and my husband, Bob, and we're all sitting there. And they're both like, mm-mm. Oh yeah. I would never. Yeah. And then we were all like, so if it goes through your urethra, does the pea leak out of multiple holes? It was just a whole fucking conversation. Yeah. Dude, I'm one of those people who gets impulse problems where I'll suddenly be like, you know what I need? I need a piercing. That's what I need. I need to do that now. I've run out of things I'm willing to pierce. Fair. Very fair. And I think it's because I've spent enough time in tattoo and piercing places looking at all the possibilities. And I'm like, uh, I'm good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Number two, they talk a couple of times in this book about a porn called Pirates. And you know me, Megan. I had to do some research. Of course. Is that a real thing? Oh, yes. And it's not one, but two movies. Oh, it's an actual movie. It's not just like a home-produced. Just wait, just wait. The first one came out in 2005, playing off the success of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was to the budget tune of a million dollars, which for a porn is like That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Yeah. So then the sequel came out three years later, and apparently it is still to this day the most expensive film ever produced at $8 million in terms of porn. And both movies sound, Megan, like they have actual plots. Eight million dollars on a porn. And I'm honestly intrigued. So I was like, Girl, you know, you know I would watch that with you. Okay, so I looked up on Amazon and you can't even you can't even get the first movie, but you can get the second one at the price point of like 70 fucking dollars. How stop. How am I supposed to watch the second one if I haven't seen the first? Well, right. But wait, there's more. Oh my god, bring it. Okay, so the sequel caused some controversy at the University of Maryland when the student union wanted to screen the film. And they were not the only university that ended up showing it, which honestly I think is both hilarious. I love this. I love this. Uh we used to have porn Tuesdays when I was in college. Mom, shut your ears. The fourth floor, Sutherland. Guys, if I've got the wrong day of the week, let me know. I think it was Tuesdays. Maybe I was wrong. But what I can remember is like 12 to 20 of us cramming into one of the guys' rooms and watching whatever porn that they had gotten from the local video store, which was the family video, which is where I worked. And we would sit and have dinner and watch whatever this was and make commentary. And I think that's how I ended up watching

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the Robin Hood one. There was an old Robin Hood one. The Robin Hood. The Robin Hood. Yeah, but there was there was one that was uh this nurse who was really helping these guys get better. It was probably the first time I saw something, and I'm like, I didn't know you could have that at the same time. Fascinating. And I remember that thought as I was eating a bowl of spaghetti. It is a very vivid memory. Similarly, wow. Base and I, when I had my national student exchange semester at University of Connecticut, he came over one night and we watched some porn with my roommate in the room, and she was horrified and pretending not to pay attention on the upper book. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Where was this? In my dorm room at University of Connecticut on my national student exchange semester. I was trying, um Okay, sorry. So we did not watch The Robin Hood, though that was a temptation, or maybe we did, but then we watched one that was a Shakespeare thing with sword fighting, if you know what I mean. Uh yeah, so all bombs, Mama Baysowitz, Mama Z. Nobody listened to this. Seriously, you guys. All right, final thoughts on this book, Southern Seducer. Megan, this book got me in all the fields for a lot of reasons. We talked before uh at our end of year, beginning of year stuff about what book made Nicole cry. And I was like, nothing from this podcast. But then since we've had that conversation, um, oh God, what was it? Savorite, I got emotional at the end of that. And then this one, I was getting emotional at a lot of different points between Belle's pregnancy and new mom experiences, which were definitely bringing up a lot of my own experiences and memories from 22 to 23 years ago. And the trauma and experiences that are discussed with both dad's health deterioration and end of life really hit me hard with what my family and I are currently going through with my dad's MS and him being at home on hospice care and having dementia and feeling health. So I definitely got teary eyed multiple times while reading this book. The emotions were also really well balanced with moments of humor and love and spice. So this book really had it all. None of it felt forced for the sake of anything, too, because I have felt that when reading books were like, we have to make this happen or we have to force this situation. None of it all felt very Uh natural and what's the word I'm looking for? Organic. Organic. Organic. I love that. The ending felt just a tiny bit rushed overall, but I think this was such a great book, and I'm giving it five out of five stars. I would definitely read more from Jessica Peterson, especially the books that feature Bo siblings, Southern Hatcha, Southern Sinner, and Southern Playboy. I believe you also mentioned to me at one point that your book is a series. Yeah. Um, so this was a great standalone, and I'm assuming the rest of them are probably also standalone. However, this is from the Hastings series. You know, Alec Hastings has several siblings, male and female. You know, Finn, his climbing partner, is technically counted almost as like a brother. And Finn definitely met a woman in this book. So I am under the assumption that that might be the next one in the series, but I would read any of these, to be honest. The siblings all seem like a lot of fun. Everybody in this book seemed like somebody that I would be willing to read about their future, including grandma. So Kells and Denise, if you have not decided to write something about Margaret, I highly recommend that Margaret becomes a book as well because she kicked a lot of ass. I will also say that in the book Southern Seducer for this episode, Belle's mom Lizzie, hooks up with a very Robert Redford-esque fisherman in the mountains. And I would also love to see that story happen by Jessica Peterson. Girl, Robert Redford, if we want to talk about old school crushes, back in the day, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, like Robert Redford and Paul Newman, I would have let them do what some of those people were doing in the spaghetti porn. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. Like, I had a poster on my ceiling. I was not a normal teenager. My poster was Robert Redford. Paul Newman. Meanwhile, I had like Chris O'Donnell and Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah. No, no, my guys were like 20 to 30 years before that. Okay, but we also both have a lot of faves from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and I 100% get the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid attraction. Thank you. Okay, before I forget, sense from my book. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've got some quotes because I actually was paying attention. She smells like girl. No perfume, just shampoo and soap. She smells like Annabelle. And then Annabelle put, You smell like happiness. Like, I don't even know what that would do. But I was like, okay, we'll go with it. Booby prize. Where did your boobies fall at? Page 201. Oh girl. Yeah. My brain slips forward. Brushing over the swell of my breasts. His fists curl at his sides. That's it. Oh, oh, that was quite brief. Yep. That's what I got. Page 201. Okay. Like more than halfway through the book. I have page 32. Quote I've lost most of the weight I've gained while pregnant, but my tits are enormous and they leak so much. I have to wear extra padding in my ugly nursing bras. And you know what this reminds me of, Megan? What does it remind you of, Nicole? That time we went to Addy's Bachelorette party, and I was still nursing. You know I love you. So, listeners, it's our friend Addy's Bachelorette party in Appleton, Wisconsin. It's my first fun night out with the ladies after giving birth to my dear daughter Sydney. And I'm still breastfeeding at that point. And so I'm wearing the liners, the padding in my bra. And Megan and I are out on this dance floor. We're having a great time. And I don't dance often. Like I suck at it. It's

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awful. You gotta get me drunk enough, and I'm with my good friends, and I was willing to be out there. And I, guys, I'm so sorry. I dance with my eyes closed. I dance with my eyes closed because I know I suck at it. And it's just easier to like get into the music and really feel the feels. And this is important that I dance with my eyes closed because we're out there dancing, living our best lives. And Megan opens her eyes all of a sudden, and she's like, Oh my god, you're boobs. And I'm like, I know, they're so huge right now. She was so proud of her boobs. She was so proud. We're on the dance floor, and there's like loud music and lights, and she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know they're huge. And I'm like, No, no, you're boobs. And I'm like trying to point. If you can think about the lighting in a club, it's that glow in the dark type of lighting. And a breast liner is white, white. So it glows hard. So hard. In a club. So the liner was coming out of the top. She was dancing like her life depended on it. And that liner was escaping like its life depended on it. It was just flying out of her bodice. Your breasts could not hang on to that thing if they were trying. It was like, nah, I feel the music too. I'm coming out. We're gonna have a good time. Again, Megan, dear sweet Megan, is like, I'm so sorry. I didn't catch it sooner. I danced with my eyes glow bad. Because I am the person I will tell you if there's shit in your teeth, if they're stuck to your shoe, if there is anything going on, I will be the one. I cannot let you out there with something going on that I can fix for you. I would have said it earlier. I am to this day, I'm I'm clearly sorry. Which I'm like, hey, thanks for catching it. And it's a great story to tell here. So it is. What do you have coming up on the next episode of the podcast as we continue our great outdoors theme? I have Would You Marry Me? Yeah, I love the title. I know, it's so cute. I got this at Thirst in Milwaukee. And who is it by? This is by Daphne Elliott. Double L's for Elliot. What happens when you accidentally throw a blueberry pie in your brother's best friend's face? You marry him a week later for the health insurance, of course. Of course. Dreamy Lumberjack, Remy Ganyon, is not just my brother's best friend. He's my new husband, thanks to my pesky gallbladder. One year. That's our deal. I need surgery and I need to finish my PhD. And Remy's training to become a professional timber sport athlete. We're both focused on our goals, leaving no time for feelings. Easy as pie, right? Not exactly. Because he shows up on our fake wedding day with my favorite flowers, builds me bookcases, and he calls me his wife every chance he gets. So when I enter us in a wife carrying contest to beat his cheating ex, all bats are off. Running through the woods with my legs wrapped around his muscular body has me thinking, this marriage of convenience is anything but. But what happens when our year is up? Could I ask, would you marry me? For real? I love that. I love that. I'm pretty sure I bought this because I always say I'm very, very practical, and my husband and I got married because I was like, well, they need health insurance. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. So this speaks to me. Obviously, you know, 18 years later, I'm very pleased that my husband and I got married. Yeah. But it was a very much motivated by practicality. What do you got? The catch. In a last-ditch effort to rescue her brand from the brink of irrelevance, Boston fashion influencer Melanie Carlson finds herself in a rural fishing village on the east coast of Canada. The only thing scarier than nature itself, the burly and bearded BB owner and fisherman Evan Whaler, who single-handedly disproves the theory that Canadians are nice. After a boating accident lands Evan unconscious in the hospital, Mal is mistaken for his fiancee by his welcoming yet quirky family, who are embroiled in a long-standing feud over the BB. In a bold attempt to mend family fences, Mal agrees to fake their engagement for one week in exchange for Evan's help with her social media content. Amid long hikes and campfire chats, reeling and their budding feelings for each other proves more difficult by the day. But is Mal willing to sacrifice her picture perfect life in the city for a chance at a true, unfiltered love in the wild? I just realized we both have the fake marriage, fake fiance trope going on. Well, look at us coordinating. So uh thank you for joining us today for Romance on the Rocks. Please like, subscribe, and follow. And if you are a hopelessly romantic bookish bitty like we are, think about giving us a review wherever you catch your podcasts. Until next time, just know that your support really means the world to us. Stay safe and know that you are loved.