[00:00:00] Welcome to Ink Drinkers, a literary tea party podcast where we discuss books and drink tea.
[00:00:30] We are quite the energetic duo this morning.
[00:00:36] It's been a week
[00:00:38] Yeah, I know I have no room to speak because you have a newborn at home
[00:00:44] but no everyone has their own stuff going on and different things happening in their lives and they're just as important.
[00:00:52] Between these two
[00:00:54] puppies and
[00:00:56] John and Hillary are out of town this week. So my mom and I have been taking care of the kids.
[00:01:02] Mm-hmm
[00:01:03] And like thank goodness
[00:01:05] I don't have to get up with them and get them ready for school and take them to school and do all those things
[00:01:10] But I'm still exhausted. I can't even imagine how my mom feels
[00:01:14] It's a lot. Yeah, it can be a lot especially when it's not something that you normally do. Right. And then all of a sudden
[00:01:20] I mean in two
[00:01:22] Actual children, I mean an infant is rough but you know, they can't
[00:01:28] fight you. Tantrums and yeah because we've had a few of those
[00:01:32] Yeah
[00:01:32] And they both like get really emotional in the evenings like missing their parents because they haven't seen them since Monday and
[00:01:39] Yeah, when do they get back? Tomorrow. Okay. Tomorrow evening. Okay. Yeah
[00:01:44] I know but we're here to talk about books. I know thank goodness for books, right?
[00:01:50] What would we do without those to keep us sane? I don't know sometimes you just need to dive into an alternate reality
[00:01:57] That's not your own
[00:02:00] Well, my alternate reality this week was a rom-com
[00:02:05] because I needed light and breezy and easy yeah and
[00:02:10] So I read the rule book by Sarah Adams
[00:02:14] Okay, so this is the same author that did the when in Rome series. Ah, okay
[00:02:18] Did you ever go back and read the first one didn't know okay. So this is
[00:02:26] Like listening to you sip your tea on there
[00:02:29] Sorry
[00:02:30] so this is
[00:02:32] She she's written a couple of like not series because I think it's just two per series
[00:02:38] But like when in Rome has to and then the off-limits rule
[00:02:42] Has two books
[00:02:45] There's
[00:02:47] Like a Charleston two book series and so this one is this second one in the
[00:02:55] The cheat sheet series. Okay, that was the first one. I feel like I've seen that cheat sheet, but I cover maybe
[00:03:05] No, no I haven't actually never mind anyway, you don't have to read the cheat sheet to read
[00:03:11] Yeah, they stand alone right and I would I didn't love the cheat sheet
[00:03:16] So I would say you know what if you want to skip it skip it say cheat sheet
[00:03:21] fast
[00:03:23] Five times. Oh, right cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat. Did I say five?
[00:03:28] Yeah, you did really good
[00:03:32] It's mouthful it is okay so but I'm telling you about the rule book not the cheat sheet, okay five times fast
[00:03:39] Um
[00:03:41] Wow, let me wrap my head around what this book was even about because my brain just went blank. Okay, so
[00:03:47] Did you like it? I did I really enjoyed it. I'm gonna be talking about it. Okay, so
[00:03:53] We have Norma Kinsey who goes by Mac most of the time and her Norma Nora
[00:04:00] Nora Kinsey Nora McKenzie Nora McKenzie. Sorry. I need a sorry. Oh down
[00:04:05] Okay, okay Nora McKenzie Nora McKenzie, but in her professional life she goes by Mac that's kind of cute for Mackenzie
[00:04:11] I like it because she works in a man's world
[00:04:15] she
[00:04:16] Works at a sports agency. So she does that on purpose to go by Mac
[00:04:21] So the people assume at first that she's the man
[00:04:24] Yeah, it just kind of makes her life a little bit easier if people think that she's a man. Okay
[00:04:28] um, I
[00:04:30] Think it was something that just kind of like people started calling her Mac and I just caught on and she went with it
[00:04:34] Even though she hates it. She hates me. Oh, yeah, but she's like this makes my life a little bit easier
[00:04:39] So I'm just gonna go with it
[00:04:42] so she works at a sports agency and
[00:04:45] She's been an associate for a while, but she's finally getting her own client
[00:04:50] The problem is the client that she's getting
[00:04:54] Is her ex-boyfriend from college? No
[00:04:58] And he doesn't know it's her because he doesn't know it's her because
[00:05:04] Mac and she asks her boss multiple times. She's like, he knows my full name, right?
[00:05:09] Like because she she broke up with him and she's like there's no way he would have been okay with this and her boss
[00:05:16] Is like yeah, I've cleared everything like it's all good. You're fine
[00:05:20] And but she didn't tell the boss that right. She didn't tell the boss their history
[00:05:25] So her college boyfriend is named Derek Pender and he is
[00:05:31] a famous NFL tight end playing for
[00:05:35] The Sharks, which is not a real team
[00:05:37] But that's like the team in the book and so there was another player from the Sharks in the cheat sheet
[00:05:42] And so that's how the series okay
[00:05:44] It's got it's fun because it's got a little bit of like bromance book club vibes
[00:05:48] Because like the football players like all get together and they're like, okay
[00:05:51] Well, how are we gonna how are we gonna manage this situation?
[00:05:53] So anyway
[00:05:57] Nora is determined to keep Derek as a client because it's her first client
[00:06:01] She doesn't want to screw up and like look terrible when he either turns her down immediately or
[00:06:07] Like only keeps her for a week and then lets her go but Derek still is
[00:06:13] He has a lot of feelings about
[00:06:16] The breakup from years ago, and he does not want her as
[00:06:21] His agent of course, I wouldn't want an ex is mine, right?
[00:06:25] So she's determined to keep him and he's determined to like push her away and he's doing everything he can
[00:06:30] Like calling her in the middle of the night like oh, I'm trying to be a jerk. Yeah
[00:06:34] Just trying to be awful to her so that she will want to get rid of him
[00:06:40] Like how to lose a girl into nays basically, yeah, but uh
[00:06:46] Yeah, client agent addition
[00:06:48] Addition
[00:06:50] And it's just really fun and there's obviously some
[00:06:54] There's still lots of chemistry between them and you can tell like
[00:07:00] That they were good together once
[00:07:03] And they have a lot of inside jokes and just have fun together
[00:07:06] um, but the reason it's called the rule book is that he says
[00:07:12] At the beginning he's like look if i'm gonna take you on or if you know, if you're gonna take me on whatever
[00:07:17] We have to establish a set of rules in order to make this relationship work
[00:07:21] And so they sit down and like write out this set of rules. That's so ridiculous. It's like
[00:07:26] No friendship no
[00:07:28] Like we can't ride in the same car together
[00:07:31] We can't like all these just radiate and they they both keep going back and forth like adding ridiculous things to the list
[00:07:37] to the rule book
[00:07:39] and
[00:07:41] It's really fun. It sounds fun. Yeah, it's so cute
[00:07:45] They just they had like a good romcom really good chemistry
[00:07:49] Yeah, that's really all you need in a good romcom, right? Yeah when a when a romcom has no chemistry
[00:07:55] It's just like why am I reading this? I agree
[00:07:58] It's always a bummer too because you're like, yeah, I need something light but you also want it to be
[00:08:03] Decent. Yeah, and then you started I want to believe that the characters like usually i'm like, okay
[00:08:08] I finally found something that sounds interesting and then when it's not done well
[00:08:11] I'm just like god now I have to like put in effort to buy something else
[00:08:15] I'm gonna have to stop this book. This book was supposed to be the no effort book
[00:08:19] Right, and now you're putting in all this effort
[00:08:22] Um, well, let me tell you about my book it is called the husbands
[00:08:27] um by holly
[00:08:30] Gramazio. Mm-hmm. Have you have you read this? No, I haven't read it. I've heard of it
[00:08:34] Okay, I have it. Um downloaded but I haven't read it. So i'm curious. Yeah, I really liked it
[00:08:39] I would say this is women's fiction
[00:08:43] More than anything. It's not a rom-com or no, but it's a little um, like
[00:08:49] sci-fi ish, right? Yes. Okay
[00:08:52] Not sci-fi is not the right word, but
[00:08:55] Yeah, i'm trying to think of what genre to put it in. Let me just explain and then maybe we'll get there. Okay
[00:09:01] Um, so this actually came out the beginning of april of this year
[00:09:04] So it's new to the scene. Um, and I just thought the
[00:09:07] The plot sounded interesting, yes, and I really liked I really liked the book so um
[00:09:15] Lauren
[00:09:16] Is living in I think they're in london. Yeah, they're in london. It's british. Um
[00:09:21] Which obviously makes it better. I didn't know it was british. Okay. Why did I not start this sooner?
[00:09:26] So she lives in a flat by herself. She's currently not dating. I love that you said a flat
[00:09:32] She's currently not dating anyone she did have a long-term relationship with a man named amos
[00:09:38] previous to this and he broke up with her I think she kind of just was
[00:09:42] Okay with the relationship and just thought you know, they'd be together and then once
[00:09:46] He broke up with her. It was a little uncomfortable and she was upset but um, she realized
[00:09:53] That it really wasn't a great relationship and she's much happier by herself
[00:09:58] So she goes out with her friend elinor for her hindu another british, okay
[00:10:05] Um for her hindu one night and okay. Sorry for a moment. I thought you were saying hindu like
[00:10:11] the language
[00:10:13] Oh, sorry
[00:10:14] Um, sorry, you know when you hear you say a word out loud in your in your mind. Do you think that's the only?
[00:10:21] Only definition for a second and then when someone brings up weight
[00:10:25] And they're like obviously they would be confused because your
[00:10:29] Your face looked confused and I was like what's british she's gonna know what a hindu is because we read a lot of british books
[00:10:35] And I was like you mean you mean the language hindu
[00:10:39] So for those who do not read british books, like we do a hindu is a bachelorette party
[00:10:45] Yeah, and then a bachelor party is a stag do
[00:10:49] So she is on a hindu
[00:10:53] Party
[00:10:54] Not the language with her friend elinor the wedding is coming up
[00:10:57] She doesn't have a date to the wedding and amos is also invited
[00:11:00] So she's like, it'd be nice to have a date, you know
[00:11:02] So I don't and for some reason elinor had them at the same table and she's like what?
[00:11:06] I don't want to be at the same table
[00:11:08] in his wife
[00:11:10] so um
[00:11:12] She gets back from the hindu. She's drunk and had a good night and she walks into her flat and there's a man
[00:11:17] In her flat
[00:11:18] And she like
[00:11:20] Understandably freaks out and he's like what is wrong with you?
[00:11:23] Why are you acting like this and she was like, what are you get out get you know, just losing it on him
[00:11:28] She's like thinking like is there something close enough for me to like throw at him if he comes at me
[00:11:33] And he's like, why are you acting like this?
[00:11:36] What's going on?
[00:11:39] She slowly starts to realize that he thinks that he's her husband. So she's like am I crazy or is he crazy?
[00:11:46] Um, I don't remember exactly how she comes to realize that they're actually married to each other
[00:11:54] um, and she doesn't know what's going on at this point and um
[00:11:59] She somehow there's a correlation and she figures out that
[00:12:04] He came down from the he was coming down from the attic when she walked in
[00:12:08] so what we come to find out is that the attic is
[00:12:12] Is magical or has some type of ability that once
[00:12:19] Well, what we know so far is once the
[00:12:23] Husband
[00:12:25] Husband I use that as like a loose term because there's a lot of them right goes up into the attic fully
[00:12:30] Like your whole their whole body has to be in the attic not on the stairs. There is a crackle
[00:12:36] Of electricity and down comes a different husband. Okay
[00:12:40] Her whole life changes paint on the wall changes and the in the like the decor changes
[00:12:48] She sometimes looks a little different and it's a whole new life and sometimes they've been married for years
[00:12:53] So she's trying to figure out what's going on by looking back in photos. She has different wedding
[00:12:58] Portraits on the wall when a new man comes down
[00:13:01] um
[00:13:02] So she just starts going with it after a while of understanding what's going on to as much as she can understand sure
[00:13:09] So she's just going through husbands
[00:13:11] some she stays with for a couple days and then she has to somehow get them back in the attic for them to
[00:13:18] Leave. Okay. So like it's up to her. Yes, it's up to her because she has to
[00:13:23] Formulate a reason why they need to go back in the attic, right?
[00:13:26] But they won't just go up in the attic on their own
[00:13:29] No, so usually she's doing except I was like that's pretty smart. She'll put her um
[00:13:35] Connect like a bluetooth speaker and put it up there and have sounds of like water
[00:13:39] And she's like, hey, can you go check out what that sound is? Like I don't know if there's a leak
[00:13:44] But one time she did that with a husband that was kind of
[00:13:48] Sounding maybe he was abusive and like not very nice
[00:13:51] And she she right away was like he needs to leave and he was mad at her
[00:13:55] She's like, how do I get this guy back up there?
[00:13:57] And when she did that her phone all one of her friends started calling her so then it started ringing in the attic
[00:14:03] He's like, what are you doing? And she was like, how do I get him out of here?
[00:14:07] um
[00:14:08] So anyways, she goes through these guys some
[00:14:12] Relationships are better than others. It's kind of interesting to see all the different
[00:14:17] Personality types of the men because it's people that she could have ended up with it's not like they're just like random guys
[00:14:24] it's
[00:14:25] You know
[00:14:26] There's things about each of them that she finds attractive or that she would like
[00:14:31] That she can see how it ended up in a marriage sort of
[00:14:35] Um, some she doesn't even allow she's just like, uh before you come all the way down
[00:14:41] Can you grab the such-and-such up there? I think I left it up there
[00:14:44] Um, so there's a lot of that going on
[00:14:47] Um, I don't want to give too much away and I know i'm not really explaining it super well
[00:14:51] It was just it's interesting concept
[00:14:55] Yeah, i'm just curious, uh how this attic came to be
[00:14:59] Me
[00:15:00] And I know yeah, I know i'm not asking for the answer but
[00:15:03] So yeah, so we find out a little bit more what's going on
[00:15:06] All of the husbands are very different. She sees how her life could play out in all these different types of situations
[00:15:14] She does meet one specific guy
[00:15:16] um
[00:15:17] I'll just say like he's an american. She's
[00:15:20] Oh an american. Yeah. Hmm. And she how did an american get in a british attic? I don't
[00:15:26] Know
[00:15:27] She really likes him
[00:15:29] She ends up taking him to her friend's wedding because she was like I need a date so she like quickly goes through them to be
[00:15:34] Like no, I don't want to take him to her wedding, you know, and then carter comes down and she really likes him
[00:15:40] Um, and then let me ask how was the american accent in the book?
[00:15:47] I don't know that they
[00:15:49] Did one I think she talked about his accent but in her british
[00:15:53] Narrator voice like I don't think she just said I really enjoyed his accent
[00:15:56] I really liked his the way he walked was different apparently they walk we walk with confidence or the men do in a different way
[00:16:03] He had like a sort of jaunt that was different than men that she normally goes out with
[00:16:09] So he doesn't have any dialogue in the book for him to have
[00:16:13] You don't remember. It's not a big deal. I was just curious. I think he did. Okay
[00:16:16] He did no, he definitely had dialogue, but it was just a narrator. She didn't do she did some I will say that's
[00:16:22] Right. She did do some because some of the guys were swedish and she did like a very slight
[00:16:28] Accent, so maybe she did and I just didn't realize it. She's not like an overly british like it's not from a specific
[00:16:35] Place like it's a very soothing british accent. So maybe I just didn't
[00:16:39] and he wasn't
[00:16:41] He wasn't there for long enough to where like it was
[00:16:44] A long period of time where you're hearing him, right? Um
[00:16:47] Um
[00:16:48] But I liked the narrator, okay. Yeah, the narrator was great. Her voice was great. It was a great british accent
[00:16:56] She did
[00:16:57] Fantastic. I really I don't know who it is, but I did like her
[00:17:01] It's an interesting book. It was fun to read. It's funny at times but not like a laugh out loud comedy funny, right?
[00:17:08] um
[00:17:09] And there really wasn't anything sinister or anything like that going on. Yeah, i'm still curious how to
[00:17:17] Categorize this book. I know it's harder. It's definitely not sci-fi
[00:17:22] Maybe some sort of fantasy offshoot. I don't know it could be sort of sci-fi like I feel like it could be in the realm of um
[00:17:31] Almost it's not not black mirror because I know that's specific to isn't that specific to um
[00:17:37] Like electronic type stuff and like things
[00:17:40] Mostly but it's um
[00:17:43] Almost it so there's nothing sinister about it, but it's almost in the realm of like this can be a nightmare
[00:17:49] Right. Do you know what i'm saying? So
[00:17:52] Like you can't you're she's not getting going back to her old life
[00:17:55] Like there's no real going back to get back to it. Right interesting
[00:18:00] So it's either you're stuck in your current relationship with this person
[00:18:05] Or you get a new one and how like her friend who's having the wedding like how does she react to all the new husbands?
[00:18:11] Or sorry, I didn't explain that so life continues on in the time
[00:18:17] Time continues on regardless of the husband. So so once her wedding is over whoever came to that wedding
[00:18:24] She only went to the wedding with carter
[00:18:26] But once she changed his husbands then everyone at that wedding would have memories of the
[00:18:31] Whatever the current husband was at the wedding, but she doesn't okay got it
[00:18:35] And she has so it's not like they come down and then she she has all these memories of their life together
[00:18:41] She doesn't know that she has to piece it all together. She has to piece it together, but everyone around her
[00:18:46] And the husband has those memories has those memories got us got it
[00:18:50] Yeah, and so it's kind of interesting because you know
[00:18:52] she'll have her best friend and then her family members and
[00:18:55] It what I thought was kind of this was interesting was that
[00:19:00] She had based on the husband
[00:19:05] Better or worse relationships with the people in her
[00:19:07] Oh, well that makes sense it does but it was just kind of crazy like certain people that she's like
[00:19:12] You know, I look back and she's looking at her text messages and she's like I haven't talked to my best friend in
[00:19:16] Six months. Oh my god, what's going on there or you know now i'm seeing my mother every week before I didn't
[00:19:24] you know, or I have a promotion at work that I didn't think I was gonna get and
[00:19:29] Now people think that i'm more responsible than I even thought of myself and want me to do all this extra stuff that right
[00:19:35] They never asked of me before it's just kind of crazy to think about the person who you end up with how they can affect
[00:19:41] All your life so drastically that is interesting
[00:19:47] It was a good read. I think that you would like it and if anyone who likes british
[00:19:53] Women's fiction good writing narrator's great. It's just a good book. Yeah, it is an interesting premise
[00:19:59] Okay, good to know because like I said, I have it downloaded but something was just like
[00:20:03] I you'll like it. It's like it's an easy read
[00:20:07] Okay, you don't get bored with it. Okay, i'll check it out. Yeah, the characters are interesting
[00:20:11] All the different husbands are interesting, you know, so it's cool
[00:20:15] For sure. Check it out
[00:20:17] I will do that
[00:20:19] All right. This tea is a little bit of a letdown. It's definitely a let down. I keep trying it and it tastes a lot like water
[00:20:27] There's not a lot of flavor
[00:20:30] It's not a lot of flavor I do like that our palates are the same though
[00:20:34] We generally like the same
[00:20:36] So this is creamy earl gray. I don't taste anything creamy
[00:20:40] No, it's part of the churchill's fine teas earl gray collection that I bought a world of earl gray
[00:20:47] This is what it does on the back. Yeah
[00:20:49] In um in cincinnati a world of earl gray
[00:20:52] Um, it's pure salon black tea with oil of bergamot and creamy corn flour petals
[00:20:59] It's not creamy
[00:21:01] It doesn't have a lot of flavor. I'm so bummed because I was like this is gonna be so good
[00:21:06] I even made like a big mug of it. Like this was gonna be my
[00:21:10] Like this was gonna be one that I was gonna love. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't love it. No
[00:21:16] Again, I keep taking sips and
[00:21:18] I think i'm just gonna stop
[00:21:21] There's no need to finish this right? It's not bad
[00:21:24] It's not like it's hot water with a slight flavor. Mm-hmm. Yeah
[00:21:29] Okay
[00:21:32] On that note that kind of sums up our morning
[00:21:36] What a disappointment a lot of hot water with a little bit of flavor
[00:21:40] We just talking about books
[00:21:44] Well
[00:21:47] Thanks anyway marissa
[00:21:49] Cheers
[00:21:50] Cheers
[00:21:51] Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out the show notes for the full list of books we discussed today
[00:21:56] You can find that in your podcast app or on our website ink drinkers podcast.com
[00:22:01] And please support us by subscribing anywhere you listen to podcasts and leaving a review
[00:22:07] You can find us on instagram and on twitter at ink drinkers pod
[00:22:11] Cheers