Gettin' Hot in Here

July's Summer Lovin' theme kicks off with two forced proximity romances that transport Nicole and Meghan from the shores of Door County, Wisconsin, to the rolling hills of Tuscany.

First up, Meghan reviews The Other Room by Katherine Hastings. Jo has spent years avoiding her former best friend, Matt, after he broke her trust. But when Matt suddenly finds himself without a place to live, Jo reluctantly agrees to let him move into her tiny beachfront cabin in Door County. Sharing close quarters with old wounds, unresolved feelings and one particularly nasty cat proves far more complicated than either of them expected. Meghan also shares how accurately Katherine Hastings captures life in Door County, from the housing shortage and bar dice to familiar local landmarks.

Then Nicole reviews One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle. Scottish author Grace Harper is struggling to write her first solo novel without her late best friend and co-author when her new literary agent offers her a month at an Italian villa to help overcome writer's block. The plan goes sideways when the villa's owner unexpectedly returns home with his 10-year-old son. The owner just happens to be Grace's agent's ex-husband, Claudio Romano. As the three share the villa in Tuscany, Grace begins to heal, rediscover her creativity and question whether falling for Claudio is worth the risk.

Along the way, Nicole and Meghan debate forced proximity romances and enjoy their typical witty banter.

Book & Beverage Pairings

The Other Room by Katherine Hastings
The Bernie Shot (tequila with orange and cinnamon sugar) and Peach Barn Brewery The Door County Sunset 

One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle
Limoncello Kisses

Whether you're craving a Wisconsin beach vacation or an Italian escape, grab your favorite beverage and join us for another romance-filled adventure.

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Transcript

Summer Theme And Drink Picks

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well, hello. I'm Nicole Danielle. 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. It is Summer Lovin'. Summer lovin'. That is our theme right now. Summer lovin'. We are in July. There's a lot of heat going on. For those of you who don't have the visual right now, Nicole is doing a one-shoulder jobby with her shirt and said she she needs that extra breathing room. And as soon as I saw that, I'm like, well, I'm not gonna be sitting here in my sweater. So I yanked that off. Right. I've got like the spaghetti straps going on. Summer loving outfits. We're we're ready to go. Love it. Well, what are you drinking this evening, Megan? My drinks are very on point for my book. And I say drinks plural. Oh God. Yes. I am starting with everybody's favorite. When I do shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut, shut. Shut, shut, shut. Yes. Okay. Let's discuss this particular shot. First of all, my glass. Oh my god, what's happening in there? This is a vintage hazel atlas, and it's got like a mariachi guy on one side, and then a lady on the other who is carrying, I don't know, maybe like plantains and stuff on her head. It is appropriate because a lot of my book takes place at JJ's restaurant in Sister Bay, which used to be a kind of like white Mexican restaurant. Uh, you know, as as spicy as Sister Bay can get. JJ's has since closed. They are now a place called the Cleat. However, the shot that is in this book is called the Bernie. It is tequila. And you start by licking cinnamon sugar off of an orange. You take the shot, and then you eat the orange. The Bernie is still being served at the cleat, which is what JJ's turned into. So this is a real shot that really existed at JJ's, still exists at the cleat. So I figured I had to do this. It's very important to my book. Okay, okay. And then I will be following that with Peach Barn Brewery, which is where my daughter is a manager. And Peach Barn is also in Sister Bay. They did not exist when this book was written, so you wouldn't have gotten this, or maybe they were just opening at the time. Anyway, this particular beer is called the Door County Sunsets, and it is a tropical sour. So I'm going super on theme here.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Love it all. Yes. I can open the beer because I'm probably gonna need that after I do the Bernie. Here we go. You ready for this? See if I can do it in the right order. So I've got lick, drink, eat. So complicated. Here we go. It could be worse. I could hear you swallowing. That's amazing. Sorry, audience. Sorry for the grossness. But I was really trying to get into it tonight. So there you go. I've never had cinnamon and orange with a tequila shot. That's pretty good, actually. Hmm. Alright, follow that up with my tropical sour. Which is, of course, liquor before beer. So you're in the clear.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

You're in the clear.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Anyway, Nicole, what are you drinking tonight? I am drinking a little something that I'm calling limoncello kisses. I usually, you know, make it all fancy and everything. I'm I'm not super fancy. I'm just boring it up because I do not have the uh brain power right now to get fancy. But uh then you know I have my backup mason jar of my refill. And it is a concoction of limoncello, obviously, and then gin. And I am doing I think it's gray whale gin. You and I started drinking this uh back on our mermaid episode last Sunday. Yes. Yeah. But I love it. I freaking love it. So I'm still drinking more of it. And then there is lemon juice and seltzer water. A little spritz. Spritzy spritzy.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I I remember picking up that gray whale with you. We were in Rhinelander, weren't we? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was I was trying to imagine the store we were in, and I'm like, that's not a wasa store.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Good old land of the hoard egg. There you go. Yeah. So Megan, you are first up this evening.

Meghan's Book: The Other Room by Katherine Hastings

SPEAKER_00 4:35

I am. Is your book? So my book is called The Other Room. It is by Catherine Hastings. It was published in 2021. The premise. Matt Michelson and Joe Something or Other. And I say that because I'm sure they've I'm sure Miss Hastings put it in the book. Could I find it when I was doing my show notes? No, couldn't. So Joe something or other. I apologize. Anyway, both Matt and Joe grew up in Door County. Uh they were basties throughout childhood into adulthood, but a cheating scandal rocked the friendship. You see, there was like a three amigos style friendship. It was Matt, Joe, and Jake. Okay. But in the previous book, because this is a series, Matt was involved with an unfortunate kiss. After a night of drinking at the Blue Ox Pub in Bailey's Harbor, he kissed Jake's fiance, Nikki. Because of this betrayal, uh, the friend group has had some reckoning to do and a lot of work toward forgiveness. I am not going to go into all those details because there's a lot of information that would be covered in the first book of the series, the other half, which is the first book in the Door Peninsula Passions series. Well, Passions. Passions. According to the author, Catherine Hastings, it is really best to start the series with the first book if you want to avoid spoilers. Um, I, of course, did not see that blurb when I bought this book. Uh, so I only saw that after, but decided to read it for the podcast. And so I've unfortunately strayed from a recommendation, but it works well as a standalone. So no harm, no foul.

unknown 6:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

I'm just more letting the audience know because if they want to do this series, it might behoove you to start with the first book. Anyway, we enter into this friend group after the blue ox kissing scandal. Like I said, Matt and Joe used to be best friends, but she's basically sworn him off because he violated friend code. However, she is the last person in this circle to be hanging onto the garage. So, like even Jake, whose fiance was kissed, that they're all good, right? So Joe is the only one who's clinging to this. In a very relatable Door County occurrence, Matt is about to be kicked out of the house he's been renting for the last few years. The property has been sold, and the new owners have decided to turn it into an Airbnb. Uh-huh. It that's a real big hot topic button issue up here. Yes. He has a very short time to find a new place to live. And as anybody who does live up here knows and is looking for full-time housing, that's a nearly impossible ask. He gets invited to go out drinking with the buddies, and even though he's really not feeling it, he says yes. Because, and I quote, if I knew anything about living in Door County, I had a better chance of finding a place to live through word of mouth than I did on the internet. Matt also notes, quote, we never had a lease or contract. I pay cash. So, yep, 100%, Catherine Hastings. Uh, you're keeping it real. I was gonna say that totally sounds like Door County. Yeah. Um my first living situation up here, I got that place to live because when I met with the landlord, he looked at me and said, Oh, I seen you. That was that was the entirety of my background check. It was, oh, I seen you. Uh yeah. Um, I have lived in four places in the nearly decade that I've been up here. Um, I've only had a lease for one of them. Spot on. Matt and the buddies show up at the bar that they're going out to that night. They are going to JJ's and Sister Bay, only to find out that Jo has recently started working there. After the ox incident, because she used to work there, she jumped ship and started bartending at JJ's instead. Another side note, my daughter's first job when we moved up here was bartending at JJ's.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Oh, funny. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

So I just thought that was fun. So there's descriptions in here of the bar and where you sit. There's a weird mannequin at the bar. There's a boat hanging up, but there's like a whole bunch of stuff going on at JJ's. So when Catherine Hastings describes people sidling up to the mannequin and asking if anybody's sitting next to her and then being like, oh God, no, it's a mannequin. That's all real stuff. So that was kind of fun to read in here. Okay. Anyway, Jo has gotten off her shift. She's settling in at the bar with a margarita when that group arrives. She gets roped into doing bar dice with the group, also relatable. Totally Wisconsin. So Wisconsin. She's giving Matt the serious cold shoulder the whole time. Margaritas, tons of Bernie, the tequila shot I just did. After all the margaritas and bernies, we wake up the next morning and Joe has a very relatable hangover. So a lot of this is relatable, relatable, relatable. As she is stumbling about the house trying to get her head together, Matt arrives on her doorstep because ta-da! What she doesn't remember is she lost the last round of bardice. And the wager was that she would let Matt move into her spare room in exchange for him helping her fix up her little cabin that she just inherited. So they have, you know, a whole history of being friends to enemies, to now we're in close quarters together, right? Oh, I love me some forced proximity. Yeah, so we got a lot of forced proximity gear. I'm truly not gonna give you much more. You know I hate when a relationship happens too fast. So there's a lot of background with these two characters, which great, because it means that they actually know each other well. Yeah, anyway, I've I've got a whole list here. So let's go with what she got right. Quote: This is from Joe. I make more in four days bartending than most people make in a week, even with their college degrees and fancy jobs. Legit. Yep, yep, you do, especially on season in Sister Bay. Yeah. There's a night that they go bowling over at Sister Bay Bowl. And Joe notes this is the way our safe small town did bowling shoe rental. Just help yourself and don't steal them. The door county way. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The other thing that I super, super, super was like, yes, I can feel this in my bones. And I can feel it in my bones right now because our tourist season up here really hits hard after Memorial Day and goes past Labor Day at this point in time, kind of to the end of October, is where it really falls off.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

So this is a part where Joe, she's really upset about something. She just wants to get through town. She's trying to get out of Sister Bay. She's heading to her sister's house. I reached my Jeep and jumped inside, firing it up and slamming it into gear. The tires squealed as I skated out onto the street, darting between the cars, puttering along as their driver stared up at the goats on the roof of Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant. Move! I screamed at them, desperate to get the hell out of here. Authentic. Very authentic. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Things I really loved about this book. She has the world's grossest cat. And I can relate to that too. Can you, Megan? I also have the world's grossest cat. We could probably have a competition. Matt sees the cat for the very first time in the apartment. He goes, What the hell is that? And Joe responds with my cat, Petunia. And he says, That is not a cat. That is a gremlin, a hideous, terrifying gremlin. Why does it look like that? What's wrong with it? Where are its ears? So that was fun. And then another thing I really loved, and this was more of just it speaks to me. This is after Matt and Joe have really made up. They're starting to basically see each other. And he says to her, This feels surreal. It feels like a snow day. And she's like, What the hell are you talking about? It feels like a snow day. And he says, Well, on mornings of snow days when I would wake up not to my alarm, or my mom yelling at me to get up, or my sisters screaming at each other over the bathroom, I'd realize I'd gotten to sleep in because they had canceled school. And that feeling of excitement, of pure unadulterated bliss was the happiest I'd ever been. Just sheer fucking joy. And my whole life, I've compared moments of happiness to how I felt waking up on a snow day. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So he was just like, being with you makes me feel like I have a snow day. And I thought that was just so sweet and so lovely.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

I love that so much. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Writing this one down. Snow day. Right? Isn't that beautiful? So thank you, Catherine Hastings, for that. I do have a couple thoughts. Of course you do. Of course I do. It's not necessarily even for Miss Hastings writing or anything like that. It's more, yeah. My book that I read back this past Christmas. I read a book called Love and Lacchus. It was fine. But the thing that really, really bothered me was that this woman moved 10 minutes away from her hometown and then acted like she was hours away. And never saw people that she knew. Not her family, not her friends. Yes, yes. She was like, ah, they're so far away. And then she'd she finally, after like three years, made her back her way back 10 minutes down the road. And her friends were all like, oh my God, it's so good to see you. You've been gone so long. It was ridiculous, right? Okay. This book really, really is pushing the separation between Bailey's Harbor and Sister Bay. That is a 10 to 12 minute drive, depending on your tourists in your way, right? The whole reason Joe decided to move jobs from the Ox to JJ's was just the drive was so, so hard.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

I'm sorry, but you're driving all over the damn place, not only in Door County, but in Wisconsin in general.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

10 minutes, girl. And I get it, Sister Bay traffic on season is a pain in the ass, but we all know the back roads and don't even. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Then there's another, another part where the guys say something about they're coming up to JJ's to go to the bar and they're like, oh, what's what's been happening here in Sister Bay? We don't get here often. And I'm like, it is 10 minutes down the street. You hear about stuff. Come on. I'm like, okay. So anyway, my thoughts is that's just silly. It reminded me of Love and Latkas. It wasn't as ridiculous as Love and Latcas, where she literally didn't go home for three years. That was the dumbest. But anyway. And then another thing, uh hearkening back to other books, my other Christmas book was Christmas Kind of Perfect, which was by Christine Schimpf. And that book was really hard for me. I've lived here for almost a decade, and reading a book about Door County where it felt like somebody had just written a list of every place they'd ever seen and then just really crammed those in.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

And it felt like a, I'm gonna list off all the places to sound authentic, or and or this is a tourist guide to Dor County.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah. And that one felt very unnatural and very forced. It that was a very difficult read for me because Door County name dropping, if you will. Yes. Yeah, it it would it was just a lot of how many things can I say. So I am happy to say that this one did not make me feel like that. Yeah, it seems more authentic. Yes. And you can tell because Christine Schimff does not live here. If I'm remembering correctly, she lived in Hartford, which is middle of the state. It's a couple hours away from here. Whereas Catherine Hastings grew up here. She went to high school here, she knows the area. She even says on, I think maybe it was one of the local news articles, something about like she she often wishes that she wrote under a pseudonym because knowing that she's gonna see people in the grocery store and people who saw her raised up here, yeah, and having them look at her and be like, oh, she's writing about cox and cooch and whatever. She's like, I don't necessarily want that to be their thought when they look at me. She's a real local. And Katherine Hastings' biography makes her sound really fun and like somebody I'd love to hang out with. I don't think I've seen her around town, but who the hell knows? You know, maybe we've rubbed elbows somewhere at some point. Um now I feel like I need to stalk her social media. It's dude, the articles are cute. Her social media makes her sound fun. So yeah, if you're looking for just like a fun, easy, quick summer read, this Door Peninsula Passions series, you know, solid. She also is a USA best-selling author. It's for one of her other series, which the widows of I'm gonna say Widows of Windermere. I don't know if that's correct. It's Widows of Something. Anyway, she she's got up to 20 books or more at this point.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, I got this one at Novel Bay Books, which is right around the corner here. This is a signed copy. I wasn't too awful to it. You didn't defile the book like you normally do? I mean, I did, but not as terrible as normal. So I'm just gonna say if anybody wants to borrow it, it's not as bad as I normally do to my books. So there you go. All right. On to you, Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Shit, let me pull up my short on. I love it when you sing random show note show tunes.

Nicole's Book: One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Okay, I read One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halley. It was originally published in 2020, and this is the second edition printed in 2022. For subgenre, I'm putting this in contemporary romance. Tropes, we have hot single dad.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Hmm. We don't get many of those in our podcast. Yeah, because it's not my cup of tea, but yeah. I don't mind a hot single dad. Uh, you know that's my type, to be perfectly honest.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah. You, you, yes, we know. Then we have Forest Proximity, so something in common with your book. And then we have Forbidden Love. Four main characters. I got four people for you. We have Grace Harper, a Scottish author. She's co-written 13 mystery fiction books with her bestie, Robin, Robin with a Y. Now she's trying to write a women's fiction book on her own after Robin's death. Then we have Jana Lee, Grace's new lit agent based in London, because the agent who was repping Grace and Robin dumped Grace as a client after Robin's death. Which I think is a little harsh, but what abs. Then we have Claudio Romano. Jana's Italian ex-husband. He's an artist who specializes in sculpture. So then we have Vonnie, short for Giovanni Romano, who is Jenna and Claudio's 10-year-old son. He's something of a boy genius and is really into science, particularly physics, like wormholes and megaverses and alternate universes. Quite nerdastic, but I feel the vibe. The plot line. Grace is working with her new lit agent, Jenna, and has scored a new book deal with a publisher already. The problem is, Grace's book proposal was just an idea. It was just a proposal. She has not written the book yet, which I have to say, from my understanding, my limited knowledge, but my understanding is that that's unusual. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she is an already published author. Because typically a publisher would be like, oh, it's an idea. You haven't written it. Yeah, no. So I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she's already published several books with her co-writer. Anywho, she's having huge issues with writer's block as she's still struggling with her best friend and co-writer Robin's death. And Megan, if you're wondering what happened with the death, I'm just gonna go ahead and put this little spoiler in because I think it's helpful for me at least to understand what happened. So Robin was hit by a drunk driver on Christmas and basically left to die in the snow. It was a hit and run. Ooh. Her and her fiance had gotten an argument. She decided to go let off some steam and walk it off, and then got hit by the car. They drove off. She was found by her fiance when she didn't come home later on. But then by then it was too late to save her. Horrible. Fucking horrible. Yeah. So do you. Diana, the lit agent, offers to let Grace stay at her Italian villa in the Tuscan region for one month so she can get some inspiration, get her writer's flow going, be in a different environment. Grace decides to go ahead and get out of the gloomy old Scotland and take advantage of the offer. Two days in, Grace is doing some nude sunbathing because why not? She's the only one there. And that's exactly when Jana's ex-husband and son show up. They were supposed to be sailing in the Mediterranean for the month, but plans fell through, and now they're back home. And Megan, here's the kicker of the whole thing. Okay. Janna and Claudio have been divorced for six years. She does not have any legal rights to the villa. It's Claudio's home. Oh Jana is not on the deed and does not co-own the property. Okay. I will talk more about that with my challenges later on. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Claudio is a really, really fucking nice guy, though. And when he finds out about Grace's situation and why she's there, and the fact that her co-writer and best friend is died from a horrible tragic death, he agrees to let her stay, even though he is under absolutely no obligation to do so. So, round of applause for Claudio for being a really stand-up dude, even though it's not his responsibility to do so. So, of course, there's instant chemistry and physical attraction between Grace and Claudio. And before the month is out, things get heated between the two of them. And that's where I have to leave it off. Yeah, yeah. Did we talk about spice level for your book, Megan? We did not. Okay, what was your spice level?

SPEAKER_00 23:49

I'd give it a jalapeno. It's an open door. They definitely use some of the more in your face words, but there wasn't anything over the top that there was nothing that really to me pushed it to like a habanero. Although, interestingly enough, something I didn't bring up the first time they have sex, they do it in a boat, not a big boat, like a smallish boat. And in my head, I'm like, this sounds like it's about to tip, and that water is too cold. Anyway, I was very concerned about tipping into the water. Concerned about the boat sex. I get it. It really bothered me. But that's a me problem. That's a Wisconsin problem. We're all concerned about the boat sex.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Jalapeno. And you. Well, I'm gonna just interject quickly that a lot of Bob's relatives have been conceived on boats in Wisconsin. I think a lot of people in Wisconsin have been conceived on a boat, but I'm just That's very possible.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

I don't know. It just sounded very uncomfortable to me.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Yeah. Uh so mine is also a jalapeno. Uh the spice hits about midway through the book and it's open door as well. There's a little hint of some spankings and some light bondage, but there's nothing overly wild. And yes, there's cock and and the see you next Tuesday, which you know I fucking hate. Yeah. And then there's Clit and whatever, but the sex scenes are still fairly brief, and I still wouldn't put it in the habanero hot hot. It was fairly standard stuff. Yep, same. Things I loved, the alcohol consumption.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

I'm sure you're shocked. I mean, let's just say mine was a Wisconsin book and it was a bartender. So, like, we were on point with the alcohol consumption. So I'm pleased that yours was as well because mine was very, I kept saying it, relatable.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

There was lots of wine drinking at every turn and every meal, and Aperol spritzes, which I lerv, and delicious cocktails. There was also lots of great descriptions of the food as well. I felt like I was on a fabulous food and drink journey and I was here for it. Also, another thing that I loved, Claudio and Grace have fairly good communication. They're both in their 30s, so there's no juvenile game playing or anything like that. So I appreciated that.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

I feel like, given the fact that she was there based on Janilee's inability to communicate properly, it does show why this would maybe be a better match, is if they're able to talk to each other.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

There's lots of reasons why they are a much better match. But I mean, they're both on the artistic side. They they talk about their muses. They just really have a lot in common, truly. Uh, whereas Jenna did did not. But I can't really talk about why Jenna and Claudio ended up together, because it would spoil a bunch of things. So no, no, that's cool. Skip it. Skip it. So my challenges. I'm always reticent to talk about challenges, but also you and I firmly believe in being honest. My biggest challenge with this book was the fact that Jana sends a professional client to a home she doesn't own and has absolutely no rights to. And when Claudio questions this, her only response is, well, you weren't supposed to be there. That is hugely problematic, in my opinion. In addition, Jana never apologizes to Claudio or to Grace for doing that, which is also very uncool, in my opinion. And to me, that's a whole legal can of worms. My second challenge was the writing style. There wasn't any bad grammar or anything like that. I just found the particular approach and style of writing to be a little slower paced and not to my personal cup of tea. Again, nothing wrong with the actual writing. It's not bad writing. It just wasn't drawing me into the story or the characters as I would have liked. And I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I love an Italian romp. I love Italy. I'm here for it. Another challenge was the P.O.B. writing, which alternated between Grace and Claudio. I feel like the character narration differences could have been further developed and made more distinctive. Additionally, some of the dialogue for some of the characters seemed a little off given their cultural backgrounds. Finally, I'm always personally challenged when people fall in love over a short amount of time, and I know you are too, Megan. Yeah. Yep. I know it can be different when you're older. I completely understand that. You you know what you know at a certain age. You've been there, done that. You're more open to things, less open to things. You can hone in better. I get it. I totally do. But I still struggle with taking a love story seriously when it happens in less than a month. And just to compare and contrast, one of my books from June, The Catch, featured the two main characters over a two-week period. But in that novel, they both understood that it was a ridiculously short amount of time and that they would need more time to continue developing their relationship. And they both discussed how they were having strong feelings and attractions for each other and wanted to see where things went, but it was too soon to be making major declarations of love. I just found the scenario in the catch to be way more realistic and believable. Um, and I felt like I was being given the, well, Italian men have very strong feelings and are very, I don't know, I wasn't vibing with it. My final thoughts. I think if you love a romance novel set in Italy and hot Italian guys with Ferraris are your jam, this could be a fun read. Also, if you like a single dad troupe, this could be a nice option as well. Personally, I'm probably gonna give it two out of five stars on Goodreads, which equates to it was okay. I think a lot of people would enjoy this book. I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading it, but it was just okay for me.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

So, Nicole, may I ask you?

Breast References And Scent Rants

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Do you have a breast reference? Yes. And where is your breast reference?

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Page 22, Megan. Oh and I quote, My first thought is that I'm totally na I can't even do a Scottish accent. Hold me. Let me see if I can do a Scottish Scottish? Come on now. She's Scottish. She's Scottish. I can't do that accent. My first thought is that I'm totally naked and that I have to cover up immediately. But my bathing suit is on the other side of the pool, and all I can do for now is cover my breasts and my cooch with my hands, staring at the stranger, mouth open. It's pretty good, girl.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Love it. Way better than I could have done with that accent. Ah. Well, I will tell you, you absolutely won this one. It it's the page and the accent. Mine fell on page 36. My eyes bulged when I realized I may be wearing a tank top, but I was not wearing a bra. Heat scalded my cheeks as I crossed my arms and covered the breasts. This thin tank top did little to hide.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Why do we care about hiding anything? The tank top is the hider. But it wasn't. It wasn't hiding enough. Oh, it's hiding.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Showing all the goods.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

It's it's summer in North Carolina. I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Girl, I am not wearing a bra. I have I have worn a bra once in the last year, maybe. Like just F it. If COVID taught me anything, it's that bras are stupid and extraneous and I don't need them.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

I hate them. If I hate them.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Sense. What scents do you have, Megan? I actually did not highlight any scents. I went through my book to see nothing written down for scents. I don't know if it's because there just weren't any. I don't remember like really having any of those pop up for me. So yeah, I got nothing this time around.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Grace regarding Claudio. It's subtle, but it's sweet and warm, like almonds and sunshine. Nope. Don't like it. Don't like it. I don't like it either. And then later on, she's like, he smells like spicy almonds. And I'm like, Ew, no. No, still no. No.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

I think out of last direct, as I said, the one thing I really hate is when they say peppery. So there's something about spicy that just nope. Mm-mm.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

And then it was like sweaty almonds. And I'm like, how many times can we use almonds? And like no.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

And I love the way almonds smell. I do not need my man to smell like a sweaty, spiced almond. Gross.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

In terms of Claudio regarding Grace, he admired her orange scent of shampoo and later described her as having vanilla and orange fragrance mixed with roses that he kept making her hold while he was sculpting her. That's too many things all at once. That's too many fighting smells. So, Megan, that was our first books for the summer lurvin.

Next Reads Christmas In July

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, what do you got coming up?

SPEAKER_00 33:10

No, I was gonna ask you what you I know, but you always asked me first. So I tried to get in there. I'm like, nah nah you go first. What do you got? What do you got coming up?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

I have this lovely little um, it's a novella. I'm I'm cheating right now. I'm not reading a full novel. I am so, so swamped right now with a variety of things. But I got this on the Love Lit Cruise. We love Lovelit Cruise. I'm so excited for you to join me next spring. Sunkissed Nemesis by Willow Winters. The Synopsis. It's supposed to be a summer getaway to calm my nerves. Instead, the next door neighbor, my landlord, has other plans. I know I'm renting from him and there are rules, but I can't deny there's something there. A spark that I can't refuse. He makes me want to scream at him and at the same time kiss him. Parker, tanned and muscular, tall and handsome, is as sexy as they come, but also my son kissed Nemesis. Maybe the summer brought me here for other reasons. Dot dot dot. What do you have coming up on the next episode of the podcast, Megan?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

I have The Kindred Spirits Supper Club. I love this cover. Isn't that cute? Okay, this is by Amy E. Reichert, and my last summer leaven was set in Door County. This one is Wisconsin Dells. I'm sticking to my Wisconsin tourist destinations locations for this theme. I'm here for it. Thank you. Jobless and forced home to Wisconsin. Journalist Sabrina Monroe can tolerate reunions with frenemies and kisses from old boyfriends, but not the literal ghosts that greet her in this heartwarming tale of the power of love and the connection from acclaimed author Amy E. Rikert. For Sabrina Monroe, moving back home to the Wisconsin Dells, the self-described water park capital of the world, means returning to the Monroe family curse. The women in her family can see spirits who come to them for help with unfinished business. But Sabrina has always redirected the needy spirits to her mom, who's much better suited for the job. The one exception has always been Molly, a bubbly, rom-com loving ghost who stuck by Sabrina's side all through her lonely childhood. Her personal life starts looking up when Ray, the new local restaurateur, invites Sabrina to her supper club, where he flirts with her over his famous brandy old fashions. He is charming and handsome, but Sabrina tells herself she doesn't have time for romance. She needs to focus on finding a job. Except the longer she stays in the Dells, the harder it is to resist her feelings for Ray. Who can turn down a cute guy with a fondness for rescue dogs and an obsession with perfecting his deep fried cheese curd recipe? When the Dell starts to feel like home for the first time, and with Ray in her corner, Sabrina begins to realize that she can make a difference and help people wherever she is.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Well, that is all we have for this episode of the podcast. We are continuing our summer learning for the next episode. And then I, Megan, I'm not gonna lie, I'm so excited for August. So excited. Or she Argus! Argus!

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Argus! Pirates! I'm so excited! I can't even contain myself.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

We do have we have pirates coming up. Although there's a secret episode in between. Did you forget? I did not forget, but Loki kind of did. But before we get into pirates, you guys, there's a secret episode because we're gonna do Christmas in July. Christmas in July. It's gonna be great. So we do have a book coming up for Christmas in July, and then followed by Argus for Pirate. Because those things go hand in hand. Yeah, they well, you know, they might as well. Why not? Anyway. Thank you guys for joining us today for Romance on the Rocks. Please like, subscribe, follow. You know, and if you are a hopelessly romantic, bookish bitty like us, think about giving us a review uh wherever you catch your podcasts, which is in all the places. Everywhere. Fucking everywhere. It's everywhere. We're all over. We're everywhere. Google us. You'll find us. You will. Until next time, know that your support really means the world to us. Stay safe. And know that you are love.