Naughty by Nemesis

Summer Lovin' month continues with an episode full of beach towns, Wisconsin traditions and romances where first impressions are anything but accurate. In Season 3 Episode 15: Naughty by Nemesis, Nicole and Meghan review two summer romances featuring grief, ghosts, fake enemies and a whole lot of unexpected chemistry.

First up, Nicole reviews Sun-Kissed Nemesis by Willow Winters, a contemporary romance novella that proves love can appear when you least expect it. After the recent loss of her mother, Luna rents a beachside condo hoping a change of scenery will help her heal. Instead, she finds herself at odds with her landlord, Parker, after one loud night with friends leads to an emotional confrontation. What begins as an awkward misunderstanding slowly turns into something much deeper when Luna discovers Parker unknowingly painted a portrait of her late mother years earlier. Nicole loved the balance of emotion and spice, the realistic dialogue and the beachy atmosphere, making this one of her favorite quick reads of the summer.

Then Meghan heads to the Wisconsin Dells with The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert. Sabrina returns home after losing her journalism job and takes a seasonal position driving the famous Wisconsin duck boats. Unfortunately, her new employer is owned by the family of her high school nemesis, Erica, while the town's newest supper club owner, Ray, is trying to save his late uncle's beloved restaurant. Add fake dating, ghosts, family secrets and plenty of authentic Wisconsin history, food and cocktails, and you've got a romance that blends heart, humor and a touch of the supernatural.

Along the way, Nicole and Meghan swap stories about Wisconsin tourism, water parks, supper clubs, old-fashioneds, bachelorette parties and why "woo girls" have apparently invaded every vacation destination in Wisconsin.

Book & Beverage Pairings

📖 Sun-Kissed Nemesis by Willow Winters
🍷 Whispering Angel Rosé

📖 The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert
🥃 Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned Sour (with cinnamon-infused simple syrup)

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Transcript

Welcome Drinks And Summer Theme

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hello, I'm Nicole Danielle.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

And I'm Megan Lee. And this is Romance on the Rocks, where two bookish biddies talk about the romance novels or novellas that they have been reading lately.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Yes. Megan, I think you said earlier to me that you're not drinking anything today, but I'm sure you have like coffee or tea or something. Well, I may have lied because Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I was so excited about the things in this book. My my book is called The Kindred Spirit Supper Club. So spirits being double entendre, and we are discussing many different kinds of beverages in this book. So I really wanted to make this stupid drink. So I should not be having anything to drink today. I am exhausted and I have so much stuff to do, but I couldn't not make it because I bought all the stuff. So okay, guys, in my Schlitz lager glass here, which Schlitz is no longer being made, which is very sad. Anyway, this is a proper old-fashioned, a Wisconsin-style old-fashioned. And not just any Wisconsin-style old-fashioned, but I went in this book where they were talking about making one specifically for their supper club, and they were doing a cinnamon-infused simple syrup. So I went ahead and did that. Mine is a sour. Most people in Wisconsin drink it a brandy sweet. Mine is a brandy sour, but it does have the cinnamon. So that is what I am drinking today, even though I should be sober.

unknown 1:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Well, you know, maybe it'll help you move things along. One can only hope. Right. I was super excited because my book this time around is The Sun Kiss Nemesis. And I found the beach rose, which I'm like, this goes perfectly. Even like the color schemes kind of match. So yeah, very pretty. It is a lovely rose. I have had it before. It's from Whispering Angel Vin de Provence Rose. Nice. And I'm gonna be really classy and drink it out of a mason jar.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Hey, that's the kind of girls we are.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Well, I'm on the road in fabulous Las Vegas. Uh, for listeners who aren't familiar, that's Wausau, Wisconsin. But normally I'm in North Carolina, but right now I'm traveling and I'm staying with friends, and so we're we're masongering yep.

Nicole's Book: Sun-Kissed Nemesis by Willow Winters

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yep. Yep, yep, yep. I believe I go first this time. All right, let's make it happen. All right, so as mentioned, I have Sun Kissed Nemesis by Willow Winters. I have this lovely book uh on the cruise, The Lovelit Cruise, this past spring. She was one of the attending authors. I have not read Willow Winters before until this time, but she is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author. Let's dive right in, Megan. 2025 is the publishing year. I'm putting this one in the contemporary romance category. Two main characters, super easy peasy. We have Parker, who is an artist and landlord. He owns an art shop and a small condo building in a beachy touristy area. It's unclear to me where this area is, but we're going with Beachy on a coast somewhere. Then we have Luna. She is renting one of Parker's condos for the summer as she struggles to deal with the recent loss of her mom, and we're talking super recent, about three months. She chose to rent in that area because her and her mom used to spend summers there. And her mom even spent summers there before she had Luna, her daughter. The plot line: Luna invites some of her friends over from out of town to her summer condo in an effort to try to have some fun and temporarily forget about her mom's passing. They have a pretty good party, but it doesn't do anything to help with her grief, unfortunately. What the party does do is annoy Luna's landlord, Parker, who's in the condo next door, who didn't get any sleep from all the party noise. But he doesn't want to be that guy who complains about a good party, because he's fairly young himself, and he doesn't want to, you know, be like the icky landlord to like, could you keep it down? You know. But when he runs into Luna in town, he tries to play it cool and just casually asks that the next time Luna has a party, if she could give him the courtesy of letting him know in advance that she's gonna have a party so he can make some arrangements to maybe stay at a friend's house or whatever. He's very nice about it. He's trying to keep it casual, make some jokes, and Luna loses her shit. And she's like, That's not in my lease agreement, and you could have texted me and come over and let us know we were making too much noise, and she's yelling and crying and being pretty damned unreasonable. I'm gonna assume it's really all coming from her grief. She's going to therapy and stuff, but her mom's death is very recent, just three months, as I mentioned, and it's causing her to lash out. I mean, she's getting upset about the tiniest things like broken seashells and beyond that, and it's just really spiraling. She does realize she was being over the top and goes to apologize to him at his art store, where she discovers a painting of her mom that it turns out Parker once saw her mom at the beach and just happened to paint a portrait of her from a distance. And Luna has another highly emotional moment. I'm gonna leave it there because this is a short novella. It's it's very, very thin, not girthy at all. And I don't want to spoil it completely. For spice level, I'm gonna put this a jalapeno. Things I loved. I loved the balance of emotions and spice. I loved that this was a delightful quick read, which I honestly really needed. You and I have been both so busy lately. I also love a beachy story. Um I'm a mermaid tripped on land and I love all things ocean, so that was a vibe in for me. And I loved the realism of the characters and the natural dialogue. I also liked the physical nature of the book with its sprayed pink edges and pink pages and like artistic elements. I don't know if you can see that, Megan, but you definitely see that. That's very pretty. It's very pretty. I it was a fun little like visual journey as I was reading the book. Challenges, just one small challenge. I literally turned a page and things kind of jumped, i.e., escalated quickly. I kind of did a double tick and had to come back and turn back the page, and again I was like, oh, okay. I mean, it's a novella. Things are gonna transpire quickly, but I did kind of feel like I needed to know there was a bit more uh traction on both their parts before things escalated to that level. But, you know, I love my spice, so I wasn't entirely mad about it. Final thoughts. I wanted to give this five out of five stars on Goodreads, but it's not currently on there. I don't know if that's because it's a novella. I'm I'm not sure. But I would definitely give it five out of five stars. This is a great quick beach or pool or vicay read. I read it in one morning and it was delightful, and I would totally read more from Willow Winters. And that's all I got. Bravo. How about you, Megan? What a do read.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Oh, so like I mentioned earlier, mine was called uh the Kindred Spirits Supper Club. And this was perfect for a summer lovin' theme, which is what we are doing right now. It takes place in the Wisconsin Dells. And for any of our audience members who are familiar with Wisconsin, we do talk about Door County quite a bit because that's where I live, and that is a big tourist summer, you know, destination. Wisconsin Dells is the other one. I would argue probably the biggest one, you know, more so than Door County. Dells tends to be a lot of water parks and you know, like bumper cars and helicopter rides and stuff like that, but it's also got a lot of beautiful nature-y, nature kinds of scenery, blah, blah, blah. So it's it's one of one of those spots.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

They do like duck boats there, and people go look at rock formations and stuff. So yeah, nature is good there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yes. And the duck boats is part of this, so we will get to that. So, my premise, and uh again, the reason I picked it, my last summer loving book was Indoor County. I grabbed this one because it was Wisconsin Dells, and I was like, that's the most summery thing I can think of is both of these books being in tourist season, you know, during the summer. So our main female character, Sabrina Monroe, has just returned to her hometown of Wisconsin Dells after she was recently let go from her journalism job. To be fair, she hated journalism, me too, girl. Uh, this transition time is pretty much just what she needs. And just a quick quote here: internet research has always been her strength as a journalist. That, and the writing. She loved how the right words could reveal truths. It was the pushy part she hated, the way her mouth went dry and her stomach twisted every time she reached for her phone to call a source, the furious thumping of her heart and blood and sweat, and anytime she met somebody for an interview. Those should all have been signs that she needed to know she picked the wrong career. I feel like that's totally legit. Yeah. I kind of must up some of the words because I am having a day, you guys. So don't come at me if you read this book and you're like, that's not the exact quote. It's not. I made it work. I'm so tired. Anyway, she decides to take this penultimate job in the Wisconsin Dells. The tourist job is a duck driver. So, as Nicole mentioned, the ducks. That is a huge part of the Dells. The ducks are these large, like flat-bottomed boats that can also drive on land. They were originally World War II vehicles for transporting soldiers. So they are heavy duty and they are ancient. And there are a couple companies that keep these things running and people drive down the roads in them and then splash directly into the Wisconsin River and go around and see all of these gorgeous rock formations. And it's fun. It's one of those things that even as a person in a tourism industry area who doesn't particularly love tourist kinds of things, I do love me the docks. So, anyway, that is where she's working. Unfortunately, in this book, the company is owned by the family of her high school nemesis, Erica. Uh, even worse, Erica is now engaged to Bobby, which was the only boy Sabrina dated in high school. This combination makes for a fairly uncomfortable work situation. Erica is clearly never grown up. She's still the same kind of snot that she was back in high school. Um, one of those people that we would see in a movie and be like, nobody's that awful, right? You know, she's that person. Yeah. Our leading man, Ray Jasper, has also just recently left a job. However, he has come to the Dells to take over a traditional Wisconsin supper club that was owned by his uncle Harry. Unfortunately for Ray, his wealthy parents are not on board with this decision. They are doing their best to ensure that he returns to New York and his real estate career and that he cuts ties with the Dells. Sabrina and Ray have a couple like meet cute types of moments, and they just can't seem to stay out of each other's path. One thing leads to another, and eventually Sabrina is helping Ray do some event planning, and the two end up even fake dating in order to keep Nemesis Erica and ex-boyfriend Bobby at bay. And if that isn't complicated enough, Sabrina is harboring a major family secret. Not only can she see ghosts, but for decades, the women in her family have been responsible for helping spirits with their unfinished business. OMG, that just adds a whole nother layer. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So the the the ghosty presences in this book, they're fun and even managed to pull in a secondary romance plot line, which I know you love. I do love a secondary romance. Yeah. So that is all I'm gonna say about that. Okay. Spice level Megan? Pablano.

unknown 12:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

There really wasn't a whole lot. Which was fine. You know, that's not really my thing. I like having other bits and parts of the story. My one real problem with this book was Ray's parents and the way they were treating him around this whole supper club deal. They've got their own secret that they're harboring. Speaking of secrets, and you don't find out uh about that until the end. And when that was revealed, I was so annoyed. I was just like, this is unnecessary.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

You you actually told me about it while we were hanging out last week, and I was like, Yeah, that's kind of douchey.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, it it was it was a a crap move on their part.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't understand what they have against Wisconsin Supper Clubs. Like, that sounds like a really cool opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Like it wasn't even that. It was more so that they didn't like the fact that he was going to be so far removed from family because even though this was a family property, nobody except his uncle had really been living there. And now the uncle has passed away. He's the only one there. They're all still in New York. He's leaving a successful career. They thought it was a mistake. They were just like, this is a bad idea, and they were finding ways to try and block that, right? But things I thought were really fun. First off, one of Ray's ideas with this supper club and trying to, you know, put his own spin on things without changing it too much was he was doing an entire outdoor project, like building the stuff himself. And you know how we all love a man who is building and working with his hands. So he was out there putting together a fenced-in area that he was going to call the pup club. And he was inviting a uh shelter in the area to bring dogs every weekend so that there could be a meet and greet while people were like waiting for their tables. And so, right? Isn't that great? So, like they had dogs and bandanas, and like a volunteer would come with a couple dogs to introduce to people. And so, like, you could come for your cocktail, and while you're waiting, you could meet dogs. It was like great. I love that. That's

Meghan's Book: The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert

SPEAKER_01 14:15

a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Mm-hmm. They reference bubblers for anybody who's not a Wisconsin person. We don't have drinking fountains, we don't have water fountains, we have bubblers. And I thought that was adorable because it was just floated in there. One of the drinks that Ray and Sabrina have when they're celebrating is described as a champagne-style cider from Door County with a cream-colored label. Anybody who lives here knows that's Island Orchard Cider. So I was like, I know what that is. They also mention Jin Ricky's, which is a fantastic drink I love. It's not on enough menus. They talk about the history of bitters and whiskey during prohibition. And there's a lot of brandy, which is very Wisconsin. Very, very Wisconsin. They talk about walking across the hot blacktop when you're at the water parks. And I'm like, uh-huh. Yep, you set your sandals down somewhere, you can't find them, and now you're gonna get blisters because you gotta move from one water slide to the other. Right. There's a section in the book, too, where it you get to know Sabrina as a very kind of introverted person who has a lot of high anxiety, but she's trying to spread kindness and joy in the world. And one of her ways of doing that is leaving notes and treats in books that she's read. So when she returns them to the library, there'll be like a little note that she left. So for example, this was an anonymous note she left for whomever checked out the book next, along with $5. Here's a treat for someone with exceptional taste in books. Oh, I love that. I was like, that's really sweet. And so she's like constantly doing like little things like that, but not wanting to call attention to herself, like really. It's yeah, it's her way of of giving back. And I thought that was very tight. Exactly. Yeah. And again, like I said, she's she's quite the uh anxious person, and a lot of that comes from wanting to be perfect and being perceived as you know, having it all together. Sure. So this is like at the very end of the book. Striving for perfection and worrying what others thought about her only ever led to unhappiness. The flaws were what made life interesting. Like the uneven wood grain and sporadic knots and a beautiful wood floor. I thought that was very nice. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I love okay. I love wood floors with like character and history where you could see like coal marks from where they fell out of the wood stove or like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Yeah, or like where where a bed frame sat for so long that there's like a little bit of a groove because that's where the furniture was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I I love what somebody was telling me that's called patina.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Yeah, anything with a beautiful like finish. You usually hear patina used when they're talking about like metals. So like an old gun will have a beautiful patina, and you actually take away a lot of the value if you clean it because you're cleaning off the history. So there's a lot of pieces, don't take off that patina.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Sense.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Were there any sense in your book, Megan? Yes. Um Ray is described as smelling like his soap, which was oranges and something woodsy. Ooh, I kind of like that combo. Yep. And I'm sure there was something for her. I didn't mark it. I definitely missed the booby prize. Now, is it one of these pages that I dog eared? Very probably. I went through them multiple times and I cannot find a booby word on any of them. There might not be. There might, I was gonna say, and the fact that it is a poblano, there really may not be in this book. So I decided not to do what I normally do, which is waste a half an hour going through the whole thing again. And I would just was like, we're just gonna pretend like it didn't exist. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Not found. So if any other readers have read this book and have found a boob reference, please let us know so we can update our record.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

And and, you know, juxtaposed to some of the other things we've talked about in the past, especially my last book on the podcast, which was set in Door County, and then my previous one, the Christmas book, that was set in Door County. The last one was called The Other Room, The Room Next Door. I can't remember. I'm so sorry, you guys.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

It's a hard day for me. Uh The Other Room by Kathleen Haywood. The other room was your other summer lovin', and then the the door kind of Christmas one. A Christmas kind of perfect by Christine Champions.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah. Okay. Anyway, this this book definitely mentions places that exist. This book definitely mentions local lore and takes their own spin on it. There were a couple people and or characters that after I saw the name, I was like, that seems like the author, Amy Rikert, it sounds like she's pulling this from kind of real things. And so I looked it up and I'm like, oh yeah, that that is an actual spirit that people say they have seen. That is an actual restaurant. Okay. And you know, in my own area, Indoor County, that bothers me because I feel like it's really distracting. I didn't find it distracting, this book. And is it not distracting because I don't live here? Is it not distracting because it was like meshed into the story so well it didn't stick out? That's what I'm still trying to figure out for myself, because the other room was not as jarring as Christmas kind of perfect. Christmas kind of perfect was was very much like here's a list of stuff and I need to mention it. The other room seemed more natural, but it still was a little bit distracting because I know the places, and so I found myself coming like out of the story to think about the places, whereas this one just felt a little more seamless, probably because I don't live there. I don't know. So that was a thought I had. And I did appreciate the fact that Amy Reichert put in a proper recipe at the very end for a Wisconsin old-fashioned.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yes. If anybody decides to read this, this is a proper old-fashioned here. It's an old-fashioned sweet. If you want to do it with sour, you can do a sour soda or add a little lemon. But I thought that was nice. I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

I'm assuming there was muddling involved. There has to be muddling involved for it to be authentic.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Here's the thing muddle, I'm gonna say muddling really depends on what kind of fruit you're using and in what context. I will allow for no muddling depending. Like that to me, I don't feel like there has to be muddling, but there definitely has to be the soda wash and the bitters. You can't get away without having those.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

You have to have bitters. Bitters has to be in there for sure. I I think for me personally, I need the muddling because like the sugar cubes and the orange slice and the cherries and the muddling just makes it like it's the extra step. It's the extra love like that goes into it.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

I I think I think too, a lot of peace people will put in uh uh sugar cubes instead of simple syrup. Which I think and to me, because I don't like things super sweet, I'm usually only going with the soda wash instead of the simple syrup and or the the the cubes. I think that's why I'm like there's that to me, there there is some flexibility in what you're doing. There's there are so many. And I'm looking here to see if she even said she does. She says muddle, then muddle. So for for you, she's she's on point.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

For sense and mine, I I didn't catch anything about sense, and I also went back through and skimmed it over. It's possible I missed something, but I didn't notice anything. I thought maybe there would be at least like something but but no. So if anybody has read this and I'm missing it, or Willow Winters herself hears this and is like, yeah, I totally mentioned sense. Uh please school me and tell me if I'm wrong. Um her booby prize for me it was page 54. You in sure quote then his lips moved to the side of my neck then down to my pebbled nipples. And I feel like we skipped over the actual boob and just went straight for the nips on this one. Maybe that's all she has, Nicole. Why are you judging? I'm not judging. I just I was like I was like I'm assuming this still counts. It's still part of the boob. Oh it absolutely does.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

But I'm just saying maybe she has no boobs just nipples. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Like okay I mean don't be pushing your body norms onto other people. Hey hey you know what's a former member of the itty bitty to be club I'm still the president and CEO. Girl the only reason I have boobs now is because I'm fat. So you know God. Oh but I do have to show you I wore an outdoor shirt for the episode. No, what do you have? I have the great smoky mountains from North Carolina. Look at that.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

I I actually I'm glad you said shirts because I forgot to mention I specifically wore this this is my Salesville Sparks 4-H Club t-shirt that I have had since probably fourth or fifth grade. Yeah yeah it's obviously they they gave it to me huge back in the day because it it fits me now. It's also a testament to how well things were made back in the day. I wear this constantly and this thing is holding up. Anyway, my 4-H club always went to the Dells for our summer camp. And so reading this book I can totally picture exactly where things were and you know my summer camp every once in a while when I'm going through that area I still drive up there and then I kind of like park off at the side of the road and I sneak onto the back side of the camp and I sit sit in the lookout and I I look over the river because that was always one of my happiest spots of the entire year. Like I always looked forward to being there. So I I wore this as my my ode to the Dells and my Wisconsin upbringing.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

I haven't been to the Dells in years. For a hot minute there were some hair shows that were happening yearly there. And it was a good excuse to take Bob my husband and my daughter Sydney because they could play in the water parks all day while I attended professional education and training and and the hair shows and whatever.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Yeah just to clarify she is talking about actual like hairstylist stuff. She's not talking like age of Aquarius hair shows.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah yeah yeah yeah cosmetology yeah yeah um and we would stay at the Wilderness resort which I have to say I like I really liked that resort because their indoor water park was pretty legit. They had like a wave pool and stuff and I never once got to experience any of it because I was always busy with the shows but Bob and Sydney loved it. Like do you have any resort memories of where you stayed?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

No ma'am we didn't do anything like that. We we never had that kind of money and and I'm saying that as like a child because clearly you were going as an adult and dropping your child off right and writing it off as a business expense. Yeah yeah but but as a kid no like we stayed in in old cabins that had mice in the middle of the woods and then you know maybe every other year we would go as a group with like church or 4-H or what my neighborhood even to like Noah's Ark, which was at the time the largest water park. I don't know if it still is at this point.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I guess it still is but I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah so we would we would go every other year and you know you pack your own lunch and you eat it outside the gates because your mom is not going to pay for that that food. And I I still have the nightmares of having to go into the bathrooms or the showers and panicking because I needed my flip-flops so bad. Anybody who really knows me knows I still have a problem with like wet floor. So like me getting over myself to go to the the

Old Fashioned Rules And Drink Talk

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Dells to a water park is a pretty big deal.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

For a hot minute in Wisconsin the Dells was the place to go for bachelorette parties for like Wisconsin bridesconsin brides were going to the Dells for bachelorette parties because it was in state it was somewhat cheaper than Vegas because you didn't have to pay for flights you could drive there and it was like two three hours away and there's this whole thing where like huge swaths of bachelorette parties were going to the Dells.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

They come up by me now. Yeah they're all up here they all wear sparkly cowboy hats or matching denim shirts or sashes and glow in the dark necklaces and then they walk into your business and they all go and you want to murder every single one of them because their voices pierce and echoes off the ceiling and you're like I need the woo girls to go away.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

So that was the thing that happened in Sunkiss Nemesis my book for this episode that's why he couldn't sleep because he's like the woo girls kept going and the girl is shrieking and he's like I guess I can't sleep no matter the headphones no matter what and I'm gonna tell you I love me a group of supportive women I'm sure that is not the issue.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

It is just I swear when these women get together first of all I worked at a distillery and they would come on the trolley tour to the distillery at 10 30 in the morning and they had already had a drink somewhere and now they were coming here and I got to mix them drinks and talk about liquor and they're already starting to get liquored up they haven't eaten yet because lunch is like the next stop and they're all like oh my God I love that drink can you make it with vodka and not gin oh my god I love that drink but can you just I don't like gin please make it with vodka do you have just like vodka and soda do you have tequila can you have and you're like I I can't handle you this early in the morning Marissa just stop take Sheila and Christy and get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

I can't but as a former bartender as well in the Wasa area and and McQuanago or Mosquego McQuanago or Mosquego? I think you were in Mosquego. I think I was in Mosquego but anyway I also dealt with a lot of bachelorette parties at the uh former retro club in Wassa which is long gone it's a quick trip now the girls would come in there be like we want shots and I'm like okay that's a real broad horizon and like you want fruity you want hardcore like what what are we talking fruity and I'm like okay you want pineapple you what what are we talking you want coconut what do you want here like ew Nelly hate pineapple I'm like help a fucking girl out like help me help you give me some guidance on what I can serve you I think for me it was just always frustrating because it was always substituting something for the gin.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

And the gin was the best thing we made. So like me having to spend all day talking people out of changing that drink was real exhausting. I was also accused of being a basic bitch at your distillery when I ordered the lavender lemonade. Because you wanted it with vodka

Dells Nostalgia And Woo Girl Rants

SPEAKER_01 29:20

and not gin and I said to you don't be that girl don't don't do it. It was you and every other bachelorette that was literally the drink I was referring to when I was talking about that a second ago yeah which PS okay Nicole and I went out with our friend Marie last week. It was a delightful evening it was great. What was the first thing I ordered the lavender lemonade and what did I ask the kid behind the bar gin? I said can you switch out the vodka for gin because I think I'm gonna be an opposite bitch.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Let's let's go and make this drink the right way. I mean to be clear I do like my gin. I just always remember so many people will say like oh if you like gin drinks you're a serial killer. So I'm like oh I don't want people to think I'm a serial killer. I don't care what people think of me. Clearly clearly so on the next episode of the podcast we have coming up Christmas in July or maybe it'll be before I gotta check the calendar but Christmas in July we've also got this month you'll either have missed it or it's coming up by the time this episode comes out. And then we're hitting Argus the Pirate Month I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Yeah that'll be good. I have at least two books for for it I almost picked up a third we'll we'll see maybe I'll go out and get that third one anyway and just read a bonus book.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

I mean maybe we pull like no I'm not even gonna suggest it because it almost killed me last year. Last year for for feature creature creature feature month yeah what was it for October last year we did four full episodes one every week and we normally do one every other week and that just about broke me but like you know what I'm not opposed to maybe a possible additional pirate book.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

I'm not opposed to it. I will just tell you right now I'm at the broken point. So I am hoping that by the time we get to our Argus books that I'm feeling revived and revved up and I'm gonna say to you oh yeah I already read the third book you know like I want it to be that kind of feeling because right now I feel like I'm spiraling in the wrong direction. Yeah and I need to I need to bolster a little bit here.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

I know several authors that we kind of follow like Katie Robert and some other people did like this they all wrote on a topic of Blackbeard but it was like interpreted in their own way. So sometimes Blackbeard was a female and sometimes Blackbeard was a male and they all wrote their own romance versions of Blackbeard. I would be entirely intrigued to like check out some of those books too like it was a huge social media thing a while ago.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

I don't know why they didn't save it for Urgist though. I will tell you I definitely one of my pirate books is written by an author we have read before I don't remember who. I just remember picking it up and being like I know her I wonder if I grabbed somebody from that list.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Maybe I have one of those interpretations could be that could be also excited because one of our loyal listeners Mary Meredith sent me a Fabio pirate book and it will be my first foray into Fabio good luck. Good for those who are not familiar of the younger generation Fabio was a cover model if you will for many a romance novel in the 80s and 90s I want to say or maybe just the 90s like I remember them being at the checkout counter at Target.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yeah yeah like like as you were walking through and there were like packs of gum and candy bars and like Pez dispensers there were also like Fabio cover books.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

I'm pretty sure he is Italian he he does have a very classic male model body if you will and he had longer hair which was ideal for all these sweeping historical romances of the heyday of the historical romance. Apparently this one he I don't know if he had a ghost writer help him or co-writer but he definitely has another author listed with him. I don't know if this is just Fabio's like idea his his child baby of a romance novel and somebody helped him write it or what but I I am so excited I've never read Fabio because my mom was always like that's trash.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

I mean she's probably not wrong however it's worth it's worth delving into yeah I'm excited I remember Fabio being in commercials like like drinking seven up or something like that. Yeah

Next Themes Pirate Month And Fabio

SPEAKER_01 33:40

because he would represent the I can't believe it's not butter the fake margarine shit and he'd be like I can't believe it's not butter dot dot dot spray I was like I know I've heard him talk before yeah it was very Arnold esque like Arnold Schwarzenegger esque like yeah but like his very own different kind of accent yeah thanks for joining us today for Romance on the Rocks where this exhausted girl made it all the way to the end and Carnicole supported her the whole way through we love and support. Thank you. You know what supports as well? Liking subscribing following what a great transition right so if you are a hopelessly romantic booking spitty like us think about giving us a review on any of the spaces where you see our pretty faces or maybe you just hear our voices. Until next time just know your support really means the world to us stay safe and know that you are loved