Romance Recs

Friends to Lovers

• Jordan, Devonnie, Christina • Season 2 • Episode 24

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Join Jordan, Devonnie, and Christina as they close out season two. They feature TEN friends to lovers romance books by trad and indie authors. If you love your romance full of heavy pining, years of suppressed feelings, and involve a healthy amount of jealousy you're sure to find your next read here!

Although this is the end of the formal season, we'll be bringing you more interviews and events this summer before coming back with exciting changes next fall! So make sure you're subscribed and follow us over on IG and Threads. 

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Devonnie:

Welcome to Romance Rec. We are three romance obsessed besties, sharing book recs broken down by genres and tropes, so you can be sure you're getting exactly what you want out of your next read. Hey guys, this is Dev and I am currently reading or listening to plus sized player by Danielle Allen.

Jordan:

Woo. Hi, I am Jordan and an hour ago, finished the Dream Thieves Book two in the Raven Cycle by Maggie Sty, fan Ter. So I'm in between

Devonnie:

oh,

Christina:

hi guys. I'm Christina and I currently just started reading City of Ruin, which is book two of the Witch Walker series by Carissa Weeks.

Devonnie:

Yes.

Christina:

Okay guys, so buckle up for some bookish banter.

Jordan:

for the last time in season two, or.

Devonnie:

you guys all sad listeners? This is our last episode for season two.

Christina:

Yeah

Devonnie:

what a whirlwind of book recs we've had. So

Jordan:

Geez.

Devonnie:

exciting. Today's episode is actually brought to you by some attendees. We had at our last meetup, our Gallant Times's event, we actually had winners of our what was

Christina:

extremely hard trivia. Hard, brought to you by Devin.

Jordan:

level.

Devonnie:

yeah. I'm, yeah. I'm not gonna lie to you. Don't pick me to do trivia'cause it's gonna be hard if you like hard things. I'm your girl. If you don't. Find somebody else to do it. So yeah, they won

Jordan:

everything hard and she All hard. Yeah.

Devonnie:

all the time. Anyway, they won trivia and so one of the prizes of that was to basically pick our, pick an episode for this season. And we were assigned friends to lovers, which I can say we all probably equally hate. I don't know. Do we

Christina:

Oh yes.

Devonnie:

How do you guys

Jordan:

no, I love, I like it. I enjoy

Devonnie:

it's just me. It's just me and Christina. Cool. Cool.

Christina:

I do not like

Jordan:

I, no, I enjoy it. I enjoy it.

Devonnie:

I will say, you know what, hate is a strong word. I don't enjoy friends to lovers, but it,

Jordan:

It's not when you seek out.

Devonnie:

yes, not one I seek out, but the ones I've read hit I have some wrecks for y'all that really hit in the Friends lovers department, you know? But yeah, it's not my favorite t trope.

Jordan:

You gotta dig through them though. I feel like it takes a while to really get to,'cause some people like I, and I think we can just, yeah, and I think we can discuss this as we go. Sometimes I don't quite follow like the logic of some of the things and,

Christina:

Agreed

Jordan:

but I think when it's good because that's it can be like the ultimate pining, you can get the ultimate pining out of that and the buildup and the slow

Christina:

and I will agree that the best relationships are founded in a friendship. A hundred

Devonnie:

Yeah. Right.

Christina:

I just don't think you need to be friends for two decades to get there, but that's just me.

Devonnie:

And most of the time, like most of the time in French lovers too, they're like. They've been harboring these feelings for years and I think that's what takes a'cause. Like baby girl, sir. Stand up, like somebody say something.'cause

Jordan:

The friendship

Devonnie:

The friendship can burn. What if there's a loving relationship on the other side, you know,

Christina:

it burn.

Devonnie:

let it burn. Anyway, we'll get into it and like I said, it's not my favorite trope, but I do have really good wrecks that I stand behind. So I got a little bit of everything

Jordan:

So I will say that the group that chose this, and I talked to one of the members of the group that did trivia, right? Shout out em. I love her so much. She is one of our besties. She listens to, everything, she comes to all of our events. I worked with her years ago. She's so sweet. I love her. Her handle on Instagram is book reading princess. M she was, I was messaging her about this trope. And I was like, okay, you recco, this is the trope your group chose. You gotta tell me like, do you have some good books for me?

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Ahead of this episode and She listed somehow out. She's honestly. And I take those all with a grain of salt. I don't know why we chose that one. We couldn't really think of anything. And that was the name of our group for trivia was Friends to Lovers. So here we are, thank you all so much.

Christina:

Wow.

Devonnie:

Wow. So they punished us. Yeah.

Jordan:

are here to do their homework. We are here and that's what the pod is. Anyways, that's what we are here for. And after all that said, I had eight friends to lovers and I read two specifically in the lead up to this.'cause I wanted some fresh stuff, but I have a lot. So that I enjoyed that. I enjoyed.

Christina:

You know, when a teacher tells you, write three to five sentences, I wrote three sentences. Okay, that's, I did the bare minimum I had to do for this episode. I'm like, no, thank you.

Jordan:

But on that note, I will share my first quote because this is one of my favorite. Series of all time, and it just so happens to be a friends to lovers. Okay. This is from Sinner's Playground by Caroline Peckham and Susie and Valenti.

Devonnie:

Of course. Going out with a bang.

Jordan:

I had to, there was just a part of my soul that was always going to ache for the boys. These men had once been and would recognize them even in the dark because they grew up as like kids before romantic relationships came into play. And there's just something about knowing someone their whole life.

Devonnie:

Yeah. That's so sweet.

Jordan:

yeah. And it's why choose so all the best things.

Christina:

Okay, well I have a quote.

Devonnie:

perfect.

Christina:

also from a recommendation today, and I felt like it really kind of encapsulates friends to lovers how there's always like these blunders going on and no one really knows what's happening till it's happening. So the quote is from the book Him by Serena Bowen. Oh wait, it says Jesus. Good thing he's not a traffic cop because he's sending enough mixed signals to cause a 10 car pile up.

Devonnie:

Oh my gosh, that's cute. Very funny. Okay. Okay. This quote is from one of my wrecks. I'm gonna share it because it's just so ridiculous and I think outta control, but it is from behind the Camera by Chelsea. Curto We'll get into that in a bit and it's. What about the plates? I tease and he opens the door to his bedroom. Washing dishes is one of your favorite pastimes. I think. Fucking you into the mattress might edge it out, so I'd like to give that a shot.

Christina:

Ooh.

Devonnie:

Yeah, the whole fucking into the mattress thing. I, feel like that's just something that gets me, like

Jordan:

No. Very

Devonnie:

the mattress Very specific. It like just pulls a certain type of visual for me, you know?

Jordan:

I do know. Let's take a moment and let that visual

Devonnie:

Yeah. Uhhuh,

Jordan:

Thank you.

Devonnie:

right?

Jordan:

Thank you, Chelsea.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Thanks Chelsea.

Jordan:

Well, I'm gonna jump in and I'm gonna start because I am the most excited for this, and I'm gonna just get us going. I will say, I'm not gonna talk about Sinner's Playground, the book, my quote came from, because I've talked about it on another episodes. I just go look it up if you haven't. Okay. Or better yet, go back and listen to our whole catalog, you'll hear. So my first recommendation today is called The Pact by Bell Harper. This is an Omega verse, why choose friends to Enemies to Lovers? Okay.

Christina:

Wow. Packs a lot in there.

Jordan:

I mean, yeah, and it's a light bully romance. So

Christina:

It's up your alley.

Jordan:

it's right up my alley. It follows Mila, Roman, Jace and Hunter from high school through college. And so it, it has alternating timelines. So with the change in chapters, you get not only change of POVs, but change of whether we're seeing them as teenagers or we're seeing them as young adults. So Mila and her boys were the best friends growing up. Like they were their own little group. They were super tight. No one could get in there. They'd spend every day, all day together during the summers. I mean, they had their own treehouse in one of the kids' backyards, and it was their spot, right. Mila and her boys and everyone knew it too. Also, she didn't know this at the time, but like all the boys in the school knew to stay away from Mila like that. That was a no go because they were looking out. So,

Devonnie:

off limits.

Jordan:

yeah. So when she emerges as an omega,'cause remember this is an Omega verse. The

Christina:

Of

Jordan:

all, the boys are obviously a pack, right? But she emerges as an omega and the nature of their relationship begins to change. But due to her abusive home life secret, like with this shift in becoming an omega, things change very quickly and very drastically at home. And I'm not gonna talk the specifics about it because that's, you know, a big mystery in the book, but she's ripped from their lives without a word. So she basically to them disappears overnight after making some big statements and promises to each other. And it's caused years of abandonment and resentment between her and the boys until she literally bumps into them the first day at college. She literally turns around, they don't recognize her at first and like it's this whole thing. But of course there's a mistake at housing and she gets put into their suite

Devonnie:

of course.

Jordan:

because duh. There is some light bullying and there it should not be possible for an Omega to be even be housed with. Alphas like it's not. But anyways, it is just like things and how their past truths are revealed and what really happened on both sides and then not only that, but they also have, they do, this book does a great job of unpacking like who they each became because of this. Does that make sense? Like the way they all chose to handle their different traumas, they do a great job in representing those and unpacking them. So some of the characters have a harder time moving forward than others, but they really tried to get the help they need and I just really enjoyed it. So yeah. That's the pact by Bell Harper.

Devonnie:

I love that.

Jordan:

Yay.

Devonnie:

Cool.

Christina:

have one quick question, Jordan. When you say light bullying, some of us don't recognize what you consider light bullying. So tell us on a scale of one to 10, what is this light

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Christina:

I go into it.

Jordan:

That's a good example. Like they're just really, they're really rude to her. They go out of their way. I think they're mostly just, I'm trying to remember if they actually do, it's why it's called light bullying. It's not like they're setting her up. It's not like they're setting her up for these big things.

Christina:

It. So there's no big

Devonnie:

being rude.

Jordan:

like it's even described like under Jean, it's called light bullying. Like in the description for the, Good

Christina:

I just know sometimes we're on different wavelengths for light bullying.

Jordan:

Mm-hmm. They do have sex with other people in the living room while she's home. So there's

Devonnie:

That's rough

Jordan:

there's shit that happens.

Devonnie:

But also she left. She left, and they don't know

Jordan:

She's, and she's caught, like looking around the corner and watching them, and it's

Devonnie:

Oh, Mila. Mila.

Christina:

voyeurism.

Devonnie:

Don't get caught, baby.

Jordan:

there's yeah.

Devonnie:

Okay. Yeah. Well, I guess y'all just gonna have to read that.

Jordan:

Definitely.

Devonnie:

All right. I guess I'll go. Okay, so my next rec is actually two, and I'm pretty sure I've spoken about the Love through a Lens series by Chelsea Kdo multiple times ad nauseum, like y'all are probably sick of it. But I do love Chelsea. And this series like was one of my favorites. The first this series kind of blossomed out of her just writing a novella, I think. And then we got an entire series out of it. And so the two books are caught on camera and then behind the camera caught on camera follows Sean Holmes and Lacey Daniels. And they are. Respectively, the best friends of the people in the novella camera chemistry. And because those two people ended up in a relationship, Sean and Lacey end up spending a lot of time together. Lacey is like this free bird also in fashion. But Sean is a NFL coach for nf football team. Yeah. And basically they're just really good friends. They're there for each other. They were forced proximity in the respect that their best friends got together. But they, you know, they're fine. They're best friends. They all hang out. And then one, yeah, they vibe. One day Lacey comes to a game with a date and the date is like effing awful. Like the date is so bad. Yeah. And something happens on the date, but basically I think a kiss cam. Moment tries to happen and the date could it was like not happening. So Sean takes it on himself to not have his girl be embarrassed. Are you kidding me? He's not gonna have her there floundering, looking crazy. So I think he goes and kisses her because her date refused to, and she's like panicking. So he kisses her. And then basically, you know, in the age of social media, rumors fly, oh, co NFL Coach Sean Holmes was kissing this girl who's the girl, blah, blah, blah, which pretty much changes their friendship. They try to fake a relationship through the holidays because there's a lot of uptick and it's obviously mutually beneficial. And throughout this friendship they realized wait, you're my person. You're always over here every Thursday so we can play video games and eat pizza. Why don't we just do that? As like boyfriend and girlfriend,

Jordan:

With orgasms. Why don't we do that with orgasms?

Devonnie:

And there, some of the hottest scenes happening here, Sean, the man that you are. But it's so cute. He, it's so tender and you see their friendship way before you actually realize that they're into each other or before they come to the realization that they're into each other. So it's very cute, it's very wholesome. But once that for instance, the lovers parts hits balls to the wall. It's so good. And then book three

Jordan:

are flying

Devonnie:

balls are actually

Christina:

Heavy on balls.

Devonnie:

lots of balls. And then the other book is behind the camera, which. Book three, and it basically follows Maven Wood and Dallas. What is Dallas last name? I can't remember. But Dal Dallas. Lansfield Maven is actually the daughter of the main character in camera chemistry. So the couple that gets together there, the guy is a single father and his daughter is Maven. Maven is also Sean's, like goddaughter. Goddaughter, like his very uncle daughter, dad, vibes between Maven and Sean.

Jordan:

Not the guy that she's getting with Christina. That's a

Devonnie:

yeah. No. Oh,

Jordan:

also. Also, I would just like to interject that Chelsea and she's talked about this on her social and stuff, had to do a little finagling'cause she messed up with the time jump and how old Maven was. And she's you guys are just gonna have to play like fairy land in that and

Devonnie:

yes, exactly. And which honestly, it was very easy for me to ignore that if I didn't dig too deep, like it was

Jordan:

don't think about

Christina:

Just reading for the vibes.

Devonnie:

Yeah, exactly. But Maven, let's, Maven is Sean's goddaughter Sean. Sean is the NFL coach. Right on that team is Dallas Lansfield. Dallas is a single dad, and he has a baby girl that we call Junebug. And basically Maven is in a predicament where she needs a new job and she becomes Dallas's nanny. They start off as friends. Like it's very much friendship, like again, mutually beneficial. And then it's not, then it's, my daughter really loves you. Then it's, we're making dinner and having drinks, and now we're having sex. It's, you like see the friendship kind of developed between them, which is really cute. It was really sweet. And Maven is like a, she's I don't think she had one bad character. Like I couldn't find a flaw with Maven. So she was very sure of herself. She knew what she wanted and she was willing to take risks. Yeah I thought she was like a really well written just like wholesome character. And then Dallas, of course, he's a single dad. He wants to make sure he picks the right woman to be around his daughter. And when he found that in Maven, you know, they, you see their relationship progress as well. They each have to go go through their own hurdles. But like these two books in that series I think are really good. And I know you're probably thinking, why didn't I include the first book in the French Lovers?'cause that is not French to Lovers baby. They meet at a photo shoot and then they together. Like it's very much so Insta Love, if anything

Jordan:

so good though. That was

Devonnie:

is

Jordan:

Chelsea book and

Devonnie:

It is really good. And I think you don't have to read their book first, but those characters are in books two and three, and so it's way better, you kind of, it sets the playing field, so if you do, you are looking for a little spice, well, a lot of spice. And also friends to lovers. I would definitely check out The Love through a Lens series by Chelsea Kdo. I love Chelsea. I love her work. She's cranking out books like crazy right now, but yeah. Yeah, check this out. So that's my French to lovers. The, and again the key to French to lovers is you have to see them as friends. They can't, it can't just be like, oh, he's my friend, but I'm in love. I need to see some of that friendship develop. And I think these books both have that.

Christina:

Nice. Okay, so my first recommendation is people we meet on vacation by Emily Henry. I think this was my first Emily Henry book. Actually, I don't think I've read one before first, so I'm excited. So this book follows best friends, poppy and Alex who met in college and we're surprised to find out they're both from neighboring tiny towns in Indiana. And so that's how they first met. They have nothing at all in common, like the most opposite people on planet earth. But they agree to car will cool carpool back to Indiana together because might as well share the gas, right? And then on their drive back, maybe they feel, realize they have one thing in common, so they're like, let's hang out this summer. Right? And they. Decide to hang out. And Poppy confesses, like she loves to travel, but she's never traveled. That's all she wants to do in her life. And Alex is oh, I've never traveled either. It sounds like fun. So then they decide they're gonna travel together to Vancouver Island. So that's their first summer together ever. They go to Vancouver Island and have an amazing time. And so it becomes tradition for Alex and Poppy to go on vacation every single summer together. And they go traveling all around the world. And so the book is set up where you have like modern this summer and then like 12 summers go then this summer, then 11 summers go and it goes back and forth every single summer to kind of see their relationship. But as they get older and have careers and stuff, they stop hanging out. Really? Right. And Poppy is like miserable. She misses having her best friend Alex around. So she calls him up and she's Hey, let's go on one of these vacations again. And he's well actually, I've already gotta go to my brother's wedding. And she's that's okay. We'll make your brother's wedding in Palm Springs, like our destination. And he's okay, sure, fine. And so she decides she's gonna have this perfect trip to make Alex be friends with her again. So she plans this amazing trip, right? But everything goes wrong on this trip. So, the AC goes out in their Airbnb and it's like a hundred degrees in Palm Springs. They have this faulty rental car with a tire that bursts in the middle of the road. And then a kid like has diarrhea in the pool and they have to empty the pool so they can't even go relax in the pool. It's like awful. Alex is having a miserable time and Poppy's trying to finagle this. Trip to work. Right. It's rough,

Devonnie:

It's

Christina:

couldn't go worse, but

Jordan:

Well, and they're already tense, right? They're already like, their relationship

Devonnie:

It's not seamless.

Jordan:

their relationship is strained to begin with. So.

Christina:

So pop's really just trying to bring this whole trip together and she finally is just please let's be friends. And he's we're not even friends anymore.

Devonnie:

Good god.

Christina:

It's so rough.

Devonnie:

Yeah. I'm like, I'm having secondhand embarrassment for Poppy. I'm like, girl, why are you trying so hard?

Jordan:

Well, and the reason that they fell out, sorry, I read this one too. The reason they fell out is super Aw. It feels super once you learn,'cause you don't know why they fell out for

Christina:

Yeah. Till the end of

Jordan:

Remind me, I haven't read it for quite a while, Christina. And then once you find out, you're like, oh, this is more awkward than I thought.

Christina:

So you have to kind of find out if their 12 years of friendship is enough to last the chaos of this trip, or if it's gonna really like, be the final straw of their friendship. So it's cute and fun. It's a quick little, like summer read. You could read it in a day. It's a good one. It's all, it's like warm little beach read I think. So it's just a fun little b celebr. I will say though, there is, it's closed or romance, so Yeah. Mostly it's not a lot.

Jordan:

I wouldn't say it's closer. I would say there's just not, they don't really, there's not a lot of action.'cause when they tried, there was issues,

Christina:

Yeah.

Jordan:

not with them, but like the air, like There's just not a lot.

Christina:

out and the Airbnb, it's a hundred degrees. No

Devonnie:

Hot and sweaty. Yeah, that's too much. I must have go into cardiac arrest, please. No thanks. That's crazy. Okay.

Christina:

Yeah. But I thought it was cute.

Jordan:

I'm glad you thought it was cute, Christina.

Christina:

Thanks. I do not think, Jordan did

Jordan:

I

Devonnie:

I have a rough time with M Hen but I tried reading this one and actually donated this book where I gave it away during one of our book events,

Jordan:

did I.

Devonnie:

because yeah, it's not my favorite, but I will say there I have an m hen rec on this. I'm gonna give y'all,'cause I found a book that I actually liked by her. No offense to Emily Henry, but that's not my girl. Okay. Okay.

Jordan:

Thank you, Christina,

Christina:

you?

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

positive tonight. Well, I'm gonna bring it back to Chelsea Curdo, because Chelsea has another friends to Lovers. This is in a different series, but you see the characters that Dev just mentioned actually. In the background and in the larger friend group from the DC Stars series, and this is book three in that series called Slapshot. It just came out this last February 2025. This is professional hockey player, Hudson Hayes. He needs a chef he can trust to be in his home. He has had chefs like steal his underwear. He has had chefs lie about being chefs just so they could get into his house. Like just all this stuff, right?

Christina:

He cannot catch

Jordan:

had no, he's had it, he's had it and he doesn't have, he's a professional hockey player. He does not have time to be, you know, cooking his own homemade food that's gonna fit his dietary needs so he can like, get his calories in, he can get his protein, he can get whatever, you know, he needs. He needs some help. Now Michelin Star Chef Madeline Galloway enters the scene. She needs a job after her restaurant is bought out and she's let go because they decide to go in a different direction with the, they change the whole menu and everything and they have their own thing. And she is living in Vegas. She's a single mom with her daughter Lucy. Her daughter is deaf. She was born deaf. And so she's very aware. She doesn't wanna make her daughter move, if she doesn't have to you know, moving any kid is a lot moving. A kid who can't always communicate with the general public is gonna be a whole nother thing. So, but. She finds at the bottom of her purse after this ordeal, and she's trying to figure out what to do. A number that she got from someone over in DC that she met this wonderful woman who was signing with her daughter after a hockey game because her daughter is obsessed with hockey. And if she ever needs a job to let her know, because I, they, it was a connection from another book. So This is a little deal in this book, but, so she calls it up and she's Hey, do you know of anyone or do you know of anywhere with a job opening for a chef? And she's well, if you wanna do a personal chef, like Hudson's the nicest guy I know. And also you guys, Hudson is the nice guy on the team. He is so sweet. He's the one everyone can count on, he's always there and he's so nice. And he's not a playboy. He doesn't get around. You know what we do? We do sometimes. Well, nevermind, because in this book, nice guys do finish last, but they finish last in the bedroom because they're thoughtful like that.

Christina:

We love that.

Jordan:

She goes out, she meets Hudson. It's very professional. She's I have my daughter, so this needs to be a serious thing. He offers her more than she was getting paid. I mean, he's taking care of it, right? She tries to find affordable housing in DC

Christina:

Good luck, sorry.

Jordan:

That she feels comfortable bringing her daughter into. And so after all these different things, she can't find anything. So like her and her daughter eventually move in. But the biggest thing is because she is a single mom especially, and she's providing for her daughter, and he is her boss. She's this cannot we have to make sure that we have boundaries for our personal lives, like this needs to be a working relationship, but they get to know each other. And this happens over months, right? They become friends. Like they work. Together on things. He helps her out with Lucy. Like they hang out all together and it's just so sweet. He secretly learns ASL so he can communicate with Lucy, but he, this is the thing, he doesn't tell them he's learning until he's feels like he can communicate back and forth at a good enough level. So he's like getting tutored by kids at the college. He's doing all this stuff and any

Devonnie:

Oh, that's so sweet.

Jordan:

Yeah, it is. And so, they really get to know each other and they are just friends and they really are. And of course, you know, yeah, he's this like professional hockey player. He's attractive, but she's I haven't had those kinds of feelings for anyone since before Lucy was born. And that was like nine or 10 years ago.

Devonnie:

Right.

Jordan:

and she's got some trauma from her husband of many years leaving her. Their daughter was born because she was born deaf. So there's like things to work through. Yeah. People are just great. So it, it was just really nice. It was really sweet and they really did get to know each other and they were friends for a long time before they kind of found themselves in certain situations where they're like, well, we lived. I just see your lives. Were already interconnected and best friends when the romance hit, so, and when the romance hit,

Christina:

It really hit.

Jordan:

yeah. He'll talk her through it. He'll

Devonnie:

Ooh, we love that.

Jordan:

a while and,

Devonnie:

We love that. Love that.

Jordan:

yep.

Devonnie:

Okay, I have my next wreck. It's actually by Tara dewitt, which I love. Tara. I'm a Tara. Tara Sta I just love her and this is funny feelings. And in this we also have a deaf daughter, which is. Interesting. So carrying that Meyer Rigan has a daughter named Hazel. Hazel is death, and this story follows Meyer and Farley. Farley Jones Farley is a comedian. She's like loud and like chaos. And Meyer is essentially an ex comedian who is now he's he's an ex like standup star and he's now Farley's manager, if you will. They've been friends for like over a decade, I think at this point. Or no, not over a decade. It only a couple years actually. Maybe half a decade. But she's really good with Hazel. She knows a SL so she's constantly in communication with Hazel and it's just giving So anyway Meyer and Farley, so it follows Meyer and Farley Farley's, a standup comedian. Meyer is an ex standup star with a daughter named Hazel, and Hazel is death. Farley comes into their life and Meyer, I guess, sees something in her, right, like he, she's gonna be the big shot. He's gonna be her friend, but also her manager. It's like really platonic. Their relationship is very much like platonic. I do think it's a little bit like one of those friends to lovers where one of them has the deeper feelings. And Farley, she kind of knew she was into Meyer for a little bit, but she has him as a manager. He's a really good friend to her, and so she didn't wanna ruin anything. Something happened. She's basically presented an opportunity, but it comes with needing lots of publicity, people talking about you. When you're in entertainment, you kind of need good press, bad press. You just need press. You need people to be looking at you. And so she gets into this fake relationship with Meyer. So it's a little bit of fake dating as well. And yeah, they kind of just explore like these fake moments. And Meyer is like grumpy. Okay. I don't know if I would necessarily call Farley Sunshine, but Meyer is grumpy, like grunts annoyed with everybody, hates people. You know, he's very much, I love my daughter, I like Farley and that's it. But you see him open up and start to realize how deep and intense his feelings are for Farley and that she's been there the whole time and that his daughter loves her. And you see all of this yeah. Build up. And there are some like tense moments where, you know, career kind of gets in the way and stuff. But it is so funny. Farley is hilarious. Like she is actually so funny, which means I think Tara is funny for writing her and I already think Tara's hilarious. Like Tara Det girl. I love you down. I love your writing so much. But yeah, so this one you kind of see, like I said, Farley I feel like has a, has feelings for Meyer before they get into whole, the whole French to lovers things. But it's really good. It's also low key a workplace romance because comedians, yeah it's very trope filled. Yeah, absolutely. There's fake dating, French lovers, workplace romance grumpy, chaotic. I don't know. Farley is not sunshine, but she Maybe, yeah, black cat, both like a smiley face. I don't know. She's just something different. I really enjoy this. I think this is good for people who maybe don't want just straight French to lovers. Wanna see that angst and that pining. And also one of the characters really like, Ooh, I wanna jump his bones, but I can't Respectable

Jordan:

In a respectful way.

Devonnie:

Yeah, in a response. And it is slow burn. It is very slow. I will say it is a slow burn, so you do get pining and yearning and all that stuff. So yeah, that's my wreck. Funny Feelings by Tara Dewitt and the cover is so cute, honestly.

Christina:

Oh.

Jordan:

All of her covers are so cute.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Christina:

Okay, so I have another one that kind of goes with Jordan. It's another hockey romance. But this is a hockey romance.

Jordan:

Ooh,

Christina:

Yeah. Something different. So this story follows Jamie Canning and Ryan Wesley, their two hockey players who grew up as best friends since middle school. They both went to hockey summer camp together every summer in Lake Placid, New York. They always refer to it as the place of the miracle on Ice happened, you know, in the 1980 Olympics, the US hockey team won the gold. So it's like a really special place for hockey players. I guess it's like there. Place to go hang out. So they love the summer camp. It's like the best of the best. They're both there. And they spend every summer together. They write letters back and forth during the school year, and then they like send each other funny packages throughout the year. Like they'll send someone a gag gift and he'll send the same box back with another gag gift. So they've just been living this way since 12 to 18. It's their final summer before they go off to college. And Ryan, who, he goes by his last name, usually Wesley pushes his best friend Jamie to suck his dick the night before they leave. Yeah. It was like a shootout.

Jordan:

do you mean he pushes

Devonnie:

What do you mean pushed back up? You can't just drop that and going

Jordan:

Like

Christina:

They do a hockey shootout and the winner gets says oh, the winner, the loser has to suck the winner's dick. Right. And so he purposely throws it. So he gets Ja. So he gets him to suck his dick because he doesn't think his friend will.

Devonnie:

pinched.

Jordan:

is this only between the two of them? Do other people know about it? It is just pray. Okay. I was like,

Christina:

I love that. So any who then Wesley feels bad for pushing a straight friend Jamie to suck his dick. So,'cause

Jordan:

Yeah.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Christina:

Well, he didn't think he'd go through with it, so he feels bad.

Devonnie:

Well, that's bad on Jamie too, because Jamie could've said, no, Jamie, please stand up. What? Anyway, continue.

Christina:

I mean, some people are closeted. Here we go.

Devonnie:

True. That part.

Jordan:

Some people need the dare. Some people need the dare. Oh. No, I'm not gonna pick truth. I'm not gonna pick truth. Dare what? Do you dare

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Oh, no,

Christina:

Oh, I have to suck a dick.

Devonnie:

a little dick. Oh,

Jordan:

for how long do I have to do it? Until you come. Okay. Darn it Maybe just hold. Maybe just hold my hair. Just pull my hair a little bit.

Christina:

Exactly.

Devonnie:

Anyway, so he forces Jamie to suck his dick and.

Christina:

And then Wesley feels bad about it, right? So he goes off to college. He like immediately cuts himself off from Jamie, right?

Jordan:

because he is embarrassed.

Christina:

yeah, he feels so bad.

Jordan:

That's a me move. dumb.

Christina:

Suck and leave done.

Jordan:

No, not like that. Not like that anymore.

Devonnie:

Asterisk.

Christina:

oh my

Jordan:

Ah, I missed this Unhinging. This is perfect. What a way to end the season.

Christina:

go off to college and they never talk in separate colleges, like literally opposite ends of the country, right? Anywho, now they're in the frozen four, which is like the final four for college hockey sports. Lo and behold, their teams are playing for the championship. Wouldn't you know it?

Jordan:

Loser. Has to suck the winner's Dick. Got it.

Devonnie:

Not the bringing the back, bringing the deer back.

Christina:

Anywho. Wesley goes to Jamie's room after Jamie's team loses. He wants to say, oh, you know, good game out there and stuff, but who answers the door? But Jamie's girlfriend and Wesley, he is just, he goes out drinking. He's done with, he's so mad because this has been who he is. Pined after for years. Poor guy. He's heartbroken. So, but he

Jordan:

about that blowjob for a long time. Sorry.

Christina:

Exactly. He calls up his old coaching friend and he is look, I know that Jamie still like works at your summer camp to mentor the kids. So sign me up. I'll come work for you too.'cause he's what a better way.

Jordan:

Why?

Devonnie:

Wesley, my God, Wesley is so thirsty.

Christina:

He gets there and guess what? Their roommates history will call them roommates.

Devonnie:

That history, we call them roommates

Christina:

and wouldn't, you know, maybe Jamie isn't as straight as we're led to believe with

Jordan:

also, people can be bi,

Devonnie:

right?

Christina:

he finds that out. He looks up both. He looks up both porn, so he really likes the gay porn. And then he turns on the lesbian porn and he likes that too. And he's huh, that's interesting. My dick responds to both. So

Devonnie:

I love a good scientific research moment.

Christina:

yes, it was, it really was.

Jordan:

Really difficult. Work really hard.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Christina:

really hard. Really have to dig in deep there. I just wanna say that this is a book full of two 22-year-old boys, so it's gonna be a little juvenile. There's gonna be a little ball busting, literally. So just expect some. Some of that, you know, the little, our back and forth arguments where we're like 30 year olds and we're like, shut up and just kiss already.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Christina:

you get there, they have two little twin beds. They try to push'em together. They end up pulling their mattresses on

Devonnie:

Oh.

Christina:

to snuggle. It's so sweet.

Devonnie:

Oh,

Jordan:

that sounds really uncomfortable. Like my back hurts thinking about

Devonnie:

Oh my God.

Christina:

They're 20. Okay.

Devonnie:

about that. Ray. They're young and limber.

Jordan:

I slept so many places. I don't

Devonnie:

Yeah. Like when you're 22, you can sleep on the hood of a car all night. You'll be fine. Like

Jordan:

a sink in the, yeah. Anyways, you know,

Devonnie:

Yeah. 22 is something different. Us in our thirties, I'm not sleep. I can't do it. I need a king-sized bed pillow top, like

Jordan:

No, I get to VRBO and like I jump on that mattress and I'm like, oh, gross. Like this

Devonnie:

Very judgmental. yeah.

Christina:

I have a$50 pillow I take everywhere, so I get it.

Devonnie:

See, yeah.

Christina:

Anyways this book does have a sequel called us and then a novella follow up after that called Epic. So it is part of a series. I haven't gotten to read the other two yet, but I do love these two characters. They're super sweet and it's just kind of cool to see like their relationship grow from like best friends who send each other gag gifts to like gagging on Cox. You know, like that's how it goes.

Jordan:

You've been waiting to drop

Devonnie:

yeah, I know you wanted to say that. one.

Jordan:

that was

Devonnie:

Not gag gifts to gagging. Yeah, That was perfect. Love that. Thank you so much for that.

Christina:

So read him.

Jordan:

Okay. I'm gonna take us in a completely different direction. Usually we're pretty smooth on accident, like with these, but like the last big rec I have is super sweet novella called Please Be Mine, by Kay Cinco. This is an indie author I found, I read this book in February on, what is it called? Fable, sorry, I read this on Fable in a book group, monthly book group with Stacey Hicks from Romance Landia Bookshop, who we interviewed last year, who she was our first interview actually. I know she carries a lot of Ksko books. But, so this is a novella about Jake Talbot, who's coming out of a dark six years of a deep depression in addiction. Okay.

Christina:

Aw.

Jordan:

out wild and wrangled.

Devonnie:

Yeah I forgot that it was on my shelf and that I haven't read it yet. Sorry. I was looking, I was just looking at my shelf. I'm sorry. I pulled out Wilder wrangled guys. I feel, I was thinking that might be friends to lovers. I know. I just, I got distracted by pretty books.

Christina:

squirrel.

Devonnie:

That's, yeah. That I, yeah. That moment was given squirrel. Christina, I'm not gonna lie to you. I looked over,

Jordan:

shiny.

Devonnie:

pretty. Yeah,

Jordan:

I was like, does she have this book? Does she have kko? This is wild. I don't remember seeing. Oh, okay. The wine is whining.

Christina:

please. Trauma, we were talking about trauma

Jordan:

Thank you. Yeah. I'm like addiction de deep depression and addiction.

Devonnie:

Oh

Jordan:

Look at, Okay, I'm gonna start this over.

Devonnie:

Okay. Please, I'm gonna mute myself.

Jordan:

Okay. So Jake Talbot, who's coming out of a dark six years of deep depression and addiction his mother passed away years ago. So while cleaning out his mother's house to sell,'cause he is getting ready to sell it he finds a piece of paper wrapped like in a pair of pants that were like thrown in the corner of his old room. And the last time he wore these pants was to his mother's funeral, right? Like he was. He was on he was not doing well because depression and big moments like that already in life are kind of hazy anyways. So he finds the name and address of his high school best friend. Okay. They did marching band together. They were really big into band.

Christina:

We love band

Jordan:

going, yeah. They were besties. And on a whim he writes to his old high school best friend not even knowing if the letter will still reach her. Right. She might not even live at this address. Yeah. He's I'm not gonna look her up any other way. I'm just gonna set if this letter gets to her. Awesome. And it finds her. And she writes a letter back the whole book is that the letters they send to each other, and then occasionally they'll talk about things that happened in high school. And it is just so cool. They, through these letters, they tell each other the things that they've missed over the last six years. They rebuild their friendship and they really gain a deep understanding of where the other person is in life, the things they've been through. She is now the band teacher and leader of a band for like their old high school's like rival school and. She teaches and does all this stuff so that kind of comes into play. It's just, it's really, it just feels really deep and meaningful and it's super sweet. Kind of heartbreaking at times, but just the way it's written is really cool because it's all letter form and they sign it differently. Then they get bring up their old high school nicknames and it's a novella. It's 73 pages. So it's a short read. But just really moving. It's cool and I like when this happens, it that people, characters find each other after they've already decided to change and have already made moves to change you know, to heal themselves. It's not like they find each other and use each other. To heal and move forward as a crutch or anything like unhealthy like that. They've already taken the steps too and they've, yeah.

Christina:

That is so sweet. That sounds amazing.

Jordan:

Yeah. It's cute and they don't, they decide not to look each other up like online. They just talk about it and it's just, it's cute.

Christina:

Oh,

Jordan:

Oh, I know. Sorry. No,

Christina:

Aw. No.

Jordan:

truth or dare blowjobs here.

Devonnie:

Yeah, I know. That was actually very sweet. Very sad. Very demure

Jordan:

Very cutesy though. That is pretty cute.

Devonnie:

Yeah, very cutesy. Okay. I've been to, I have two recs left and I've been toying with which one to go with next, but I think I'm gonna save the most salacious one for last. So my next rec is actually truly Emily Henry. So I wanna bring it back to m hen book that I actually really enjoyed. I've only read one other fully. I dnf most of her books, I'm not gonna lie, but I read book lovers. I did like it. I think the main character of that book was very strong and flawed and I loved watching her growth and just also just watching her exist.

Jordan:

I liked

Devonnie:

But this book, yeah, book Lovers was I think, good. Nothing else I can tolerate. I'm so sorry. Funny story,

Christina:

you feel.

Devonnie:

Funny story by Emily Henry is so I, okay. I li I'm pretty sure I was like reading this because you know, I love to read and listen at the same time. I'm pretty sure I was reading this on my Kindle and also listening to it and I had so much fun. This is the most chaotic Fred lover when I tell you the tea is hot in this book, let me set the scene. We have Daphne and then we also have Miles. Is his name Miles? One second Miles. Okay. I didn't, okay, lemme tell you about, I'm so sorry, but this is so chaotic. It's so messy. Emily Miles and Daphne. Are in separate relationships. They're not even friends y'all. They don't know each other. Okay. Right. They, the, there are two main characters. Right. So eventually there are love interests, but at the be they do not know each other. Daphne is She's, she loves her fiance Peter. And they have a story about how they met. Right. I know. I, first of all, I hated Peter. I'm scarred by a Peter,

Jordan:

pumpkin

Devonnie:

Yeah. But I hated Peter I can't do it. So anyway, they're one of those people who like, when they're at the function, when they're at the party, when they're talking Peter Honey, tell them how we met. And then they go into this long, sickening story about how they met. They have one of those stories and it's a story that they, it's like a bit they do all the time. Peter will tell the story and he'll say, yeah, all these things. He's kind of, well off. Daphne pretty much uproot her life and moves to Waning Bay, Michigan, where Peter's from and his family is and everything to live there and support her fiance. And like, when you're getting married, those decisions make sense, right? You uproot your life, you make those decisions because it makes sense. You're getting married. Married, so, but she doesn't know any, she's not from this place. So she moves there. She has no friends. She's a children's librarian.

Christina:

I love that

Devonnie:

with her. work. I do love that for her. And one thing about m hen she gonna put a bookstore somewhere in her novels, right? Because like book lovers was around an agent of, anyway, you know what I'm saying? So anyway, Daphne is in Michigan. She doesn't have a, she doesn't know anybody. She's working as a children's librarian. Her coworkers are like, she's very secretive. Like we don't really know her. Is she in witness protection? Like, why aren't we friends? What Daphne's very isolated from everybody. one day Peter is telling the story of how they love each other and he realizes, oh, I'm actually still in love with my childhood best friend.

Christina:

No.

Devonnie:

Yes, girl. He realizes he's actually in love with his childhood best friend. And you know what, Petra, that's the childhood. Petra was a little sneaky whenever she

Christina:

Petra and

Jordan:

Petra and Peter.

Devonnie:

Petra and Peter, sick. You see why I don't like

Christina:

What is their ship

Devonnie:

you do

Christina:

Pet.

Devonnie:

The, it's actually just Peter or just Petra. It's sickening. But she had to have make them unlikeable because they are truly unlike It's peepee. And they stink. So it tracks anyway, they realize they're in love. So they, Peter breaks up with Daphne goes to

Christina:

is off.

Devonnie:

Petra is in a relationship. She breaks up with Miles. Okay. You remember, you

Christina:

Oh no.

Devonnie:

lemme get there. Christina

Jordan:

Did I

Christina:

This happened in real life.

Devonnie:

Petra breaks up with miles, right? So now Daphne's like, where the fuck do I live? I can't be here in the house. I'm pretty sure Daphne had to leave their house. I'm

Christina:

I'd be kicking him out.

Jordan:

maybe, you know what, maybe I read the beginning of this

Devonnie:

Maybe. Yeah, it, I really enjoyed it. But the tea is too hot. Get, so anyway, Daphne and Miles move in together. It's just a, like no one else could understand how effed our lives are except you.'cause you're also going through it, right? This woman who you wanted to marry, who you wanted to be with just up and left you for her childhood best friend. So they have that like in sync, like that camaraderie, but they didn't know each other before this. Now they're thrusted into being roommates. So each of them has somewhere to live. So each of the, but Miles is very unserious. Miles is a sommelier. I'm gonna take that back.

Christina:

I love that for him.

Devonnie:

No. Miles is a waiter. at a winery.

Jordan:

So he wishes he were a sommelier.

Christina:

still amazing.

Jordan:

Hey, I have nothing against waiters. I serve tables for 10 years. I like but we know, which is why we can say, we

Devonnie:

exactly. Exactly.

Jordan:

you're not a sommelier.

Devonnie:

yeah. So You waiter

Jordan:

all the bottles when we open them.

Devonnie:

yeah, miles is the complete opposite to Daphne. Daphne's high, strong and ordered and you know Miles is free thinking. Like he, yeah, he walks out the room, he's high as a kite. Daphne's can you not smoke? What are you doing? Can you not smoke in a house or something? They have that kind of relationship, so you honestly don't, they're not friends at the beginning of this book. They're adjusting to still living together. They're going through the motions. They're like in this situation because their exes suck and are now happy and

Christina:

trauma to friends, to lovers.

Devonnie:

Right? Anyway, they decide. Miles and Daphne, I think they're both going to try to make their exes jealous, right? So they get together and it's fake dating essentially. And they like try to, You know, I know fake dating? finds me. And you know, I think that if I'm gonna do friends to love her, I think I I think I need the fake dating in there. I, for some reason, I don't think I could just do straight friends to lovers. So,'cause all my friends to lovers Rex, I think have a bit of fake dating anyway. They decide to get together. It's like a bunch of a adventures. There's photo op, there's like getting people jealous. There's exes actually getting jealous, which is crazy. It is so much

Christina:

chaotic.

Devonnie:

in this book. It is chaotic and that's why I think that's why I like it.'cause typically the reason why Emily Henry doesn't always land for me is because it just feels very tame. It feels very low stakes. It feels like they're while she does write serious situations and lots of trauma, the people fall flat, the characters fall flat. For me, the story just kind of falls flat. But this, I was like, I can't believe this is happening. Oh my gosh. And Miles was so funny and Daphne was unintentionally funny. Like it, it was just, honestly, I

Christina:

there washing her dishes, gasping.

Devonnie:

Because, you know, I'm listening, I'm like death mild. That is me. The whole time I'm listening to this. I did give it four stars, so I think I really did enjoy it. Enjoyed the

Christina:

Hi, honor.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Hi. Hi. Yo y know that five stars coveted, so I do enjoy it. I think you'll enjoy it. It's really cute. It's really funny. It is so unhinged at moments and it's, I also think there's an element of very se like seriousness, you know, because again, Daphne picks up her entire life and moves to be with this man and is like not the best situation. You know, she becomes isolated and she kind of has to like, grow herself. She has to develop. So it's really fun to see. And it's also nice to see her relax and enjoy life the way Miles does, you know? So yeah, good job. M hen you killed it there. Opposites in the worst way and. It,

Christina:

Come together.

Devonnie:

came together. Yeah. They Oh, they come together.

Jordan:

Yeah I do wanna say we've kind of, while we've given you to m Hen I, and, but we've kind of hated on Emily Henry as a writer. I just wanna make sure we let people know we do not dislike her.

Devonnie:

No.

Jordan:

We do not, I do not have anything against her. I don't even have anything against her books. It's just not for that's not what I want to spend my time reading. I think are so many people that love her books and good for them.

Devonnie:

a cult

Jordan:

Yes. Good for you guys. I'm so glad you guys have that. And it's you're having fun with those books and that's what you're looking for. We just, we need a little bit more drama, I

Devonnie:

We need a little bit

Jordan:

that's like the one thing we all have in,

Christina:

full of drama.

Jordan:

The one thing we all have in common. I feel like we all need, like

Devonnie:

we need a little

Jordan:

we need, either we need like death trials or we need angst, or we need we need something like we don't want, like we don't, I don't do cozy that

Devonnie:

Straight, cozy is tough for me. Straight

Christina:

We need to be second Dicks.

Jordan:

Well, yeah.

Devonnie:

And that's what it is. So anyway but see, okay. Real quick little tangent. But that is what I love about the podcast and what I love about readers is that like we will read things that may not necessarily be our cup of tea or read authors who, and okay, I wanna say this. If you have an author who you have completely written off who you're like, I'll never read anything. They write, and if it's like serious reasons, then obviously do not read that author if they're triggering you, whatever. But I will say if there are authors who you just feel like. They don't write my style. Try to go through their catalog, see, read some of the reviews and see if you like something that they've written. Because when I read the blurb for Funny story, that's what pulled me in. When I read Emily Henry's other blurbs, I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna fall asleep. I can't do it my love. But this caught my attention. So I would say if you're like struggling with an author, just dive into their catalog. That is what reading is about. You don't have to necessarily like the author or the trope or the genre, but find something that might work for you. Open up your mind enough to say, I'm gonna give this a shot. And if you don't like it, you don't like it. You just read a book you didn't like And you could also DNF Right? You know?

Jordan:

DNF. Looking at you,

Devonnie:

There's so many books, right? There's so many books to read. Not Christina being silent this whole time. Christina's yeah. Okay. Alright.

Christina:

Well, I was just here to say maybe you don't like Twilight, but you'd like the host by Stephanie Meyer.

Jordan:

Okay. The

Devonnie:

what I'm saying? Yeah. The host is so good. The host is good.

Christina:

it's one of his favorite books ever. Actually,

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

good.

Devonnie:

it is good. But I'm not gonna lie, I, as much as I tease about Twilight Baby, I was in line every time that book came out. Whenever a movie dropped. Guess who was in the theater? Me. Okay. Yeah

Christina:

I picked up Midnight Sun at midnight. I was

Devonnie:

Yeah. So just

Christina:

I was in my thirties and I was there.

Devonnie:

expand your horizons. Take a risk, take a chance, and just read. There's so many books, and if you hate it,

Jordan:

It is in a book.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Period. Oh

Jordan:

Oh, my daughter's been watching that. No, my daughter's been watching that. Reading Rainbow.

Devonnie:

that our

Jordan:

No, most of our demographic is actually

Christina:

People better know LaVar Burton. I'm gonna fight them if they don't know LaVar Burton,

Devonnie:

Period.

Christina:

gonna

Jordan:

And his daughter too is amazing. Mika is so cool.

Devonnie:

Yes. Oh, okay. So that's our tangent.

Jordan:

Christina, do you have any more? Did you do. okay? You have one more? Ooh,

Christina:

I do. This is a long time coming by Meghan Quinn. It's number three in a series.

Jordan:

I don't know if I've read that.

Devonnie:

I'm sorry. round of applause for this. The Kane brothers eat down. Continue.

Jordan:

They eat down.

Christina:

This is number three in the.

Jordan:

Damn. I need some of what Deb is having because

Devonnie:

it's this wire from Costco. It was 1199. And when I tell you it got me turned up, I will have to share'cause like I've never had wine. Wine so hard.

Jordan:

you need food.

Christina:

Thanks, Costco.

Jordan:

Christina. I'll mute Deb now and

Christina:

Costco White, if you'd like to sponsor us. Message diff

Jordan:

Oh my God. Can you imagine Kirkland? Dogs? Hot dogs, and Kirkland Wine.

Christina:

Wieners and Wine. Okay. Anyhow, this is book number three in the Cain Brothers series, but you can read it as a standalone because it's its own individual story. It just has tiebacks to other characters. This book is kind of like a take on my Best Friend's wedding, right? It follows two best friends, Ophelia, she goes by Leah and. Breaker. They meet as juniors in college in a secret scrabble society. And this is top secret, like you gotta know special codes to get in. It's crazy, right, Kate? They bond not over, not only over their love of Scrabble, but also all things nerdy. I absolutely just was loving this, right? They're like Ray Low fans, Lord of the Ring fans. It was getting me as a nerd girl, but they really bond over Leah's fanfic. She wrote, it's a supernatural fanfic called Lovers Not Brothers. It ships Dean and Sam, and yes,

Jordan:

Oh, what? I have to read this now because. I am a huge supernatural fan. I went to Supernatural Con years ago up in Vancouver. I like, I have cosplay, gender bent, Dean. Okay. I'm listening.

Christina:

Okay, so she's just in love with this. Lovers, not brothers. She wrote it. He's like fangirling over her. He's you wrote this. Oh my God, you're amazing. And so he's continue writing, because she had stopped writing. And she's okay, I will you be my friend?'cause she's a new transfer student as a junior to this college. And she's I don't have any friends. And he's yes, I'll be your friend. And that's the beginning of their friendship. And fast forward next chapter, it's a decade later, and Leah's guess what? I'm getting married and they have been best friends. This whole, their whole, you know, 10 years. They even have an apartment next to each other. They share like a wall. They like knock secret codes on the wall at night to each other. They have a pizza and like board games night every single week or dinner like he brings or whatever kinds of dinner. He's a billionaire by the way, but he's so down to earth. He's staying in this little apartment. He could afford a Malibu home and he's staying in like downtown LA'cause that's where she wants to be. Like, he's like he'll, he's well puppy. He falls her wherever she goes. She going to the beach. He's going the beach. He's we are going to the beach. Like he's wherever she is, however, he does not like her new fiance. The new fiance is Brian. Brian is like trying to become a billionaire, but not in a good way. He's like into insider trading and like bad deals and all this. And he's it's not good. But Leah does not like being in the middle of. Breaker and Brian's little t they're having, right? So she's like, just let's be friends. And they're like glaring at each other from across the table, like not having it. Okay. So she has to tell him, I'm now engaged to this guy you hate. And he's damn, that sucks, but happy for you. Right? And so Leah goes out to dinner with Brian and to see Brian's mom and Brian's mom's guess what? I already booked you a venue in five weeks for your wedding. You don't have a choice in where you're getting married. Too bad.

Devonnie:

Hate it.

Christina:

Exactly. Her name is Mrs. Beaver by the way. And they call her the be

Devonnie:

Yeah. They call her the beef, and

Jordan:

Wait, who is. Okay

Christina:

Brian's mom, her new future mother-in-law.

Jordan:

dude.

Christina:

She has Monster in law written all over her. She's you're gonna wear my veil. You're gonna get married at this church. Oh, you're not Catholic. Too fucking bad. Oh, well you're getting married here, you're gonna have this, you don't get to carry. She's I wanna carry daisies at my wedding.'cause her parents died and she's it was my mom's favorite flower. And she's I don't care if a shit what your mom liked, you're carrying red roses. It's like awful. She's just this horrible person. So Leah's like dying inside and she's I don't know how to stand up to this woman. And then she's Breer, will you please come be my man of honor and will you come help me do the wedding planning? So like I can have a little bit of myself in this wedding. And he's absolutely, girl. Like I'm there. Let me back you up. Right. Okay, so he's helping her pick out flowers. He's helping her at the church. He's going around with her. Then they go to pick out the dress, right. Leah puts on her dream wedding dress and Breaker sees her and cue the part of the movie where there's all these flashbacks, but you see it in a new light. He's looked back on the 12 years of his life and he's what the fuck was I doing? This was the woman for me. He is like, all along, it's been her. No wonder I haven't been able to ever have a girlfriend, right? Because it's always been her in my mind. Right? He has a new plan. Instead of helping her like plan the wedding, he's gonna break up her wedding. That's his plan. And not tell her. She doesn't get to know. Apparently he's got this secret plan going

Jordan:

It sounds like this female main character doesn't get to make any decisions in this book.

Christina:

for a while. No, you are right. right. She doesn't because breakers having this old thing too. And then breakers guess what? You're gonna do this and you're gonna do this. So you're right, she doesn't have a lot of choices. Finally, Leah stands up for herself a little bit, puts her foot down. You know, it's a great scene. Breaker is the fastest rebound that's ever rebounded on this whole planet. You blink and you miss it. It's like the next page. It's crazy. But it is very spicy. Like it's hot. Damn. Is it hot? That's all I gotta say. Like this man.

Jordan:

When Megan Quinn is on, she is on.

Devonnie:

The Cain Brother series. I read this entire series and when I was foaming at the Mouth for Breakers book, because you get hints about it, like in the first two books, they're always mentioning his best friend, and then you finally see the best friend and you're like, oh my God. And yeah it's really good. They are very compatible is all I'll say. And also like you're right OPH, she doesn't get to make a lot of decisions and I hate that the be pisses me off. The fact that I know her as the beav and that everyone calls her the be also pisses me off because why is that your name? Why are you a tyrant? Why have you planned this girl's entire wedding with no input from her? And Why? is your son a little bitch who will not? That's the worst

Christina:

That's the part. Would not stand up for her. Just rolls over. He is well, my mother wants what I want and

Devonnie:

yes.

Christina:

I wanted to eat this man off a cliff.

Jordan:

P-S-A-P-S-A for all of our female listeners. All of our women, all the girlies, non-binary. Anyone else? If you have, if you are single or you are dating and you are thinking about getting married or when you do, your in-laws are important, like to kind of like figure out what that dynamic is gonna be about. But the most important thing is where does your husband stand? If there are issues or if there will be, that is the most important thing. Does your husband have your back first and foremost,

Devonnie:

Right.

Christina:

Snaps

Jordan:

because they absolutely should. Sorry,

Devonnie:

And if he doesn't run.

Jordan:

Yeah,

Devonnie:

I am sorry. That leads me quick tangent, Quin Tangent. I'm watching Extracted on Hulu. I don't know who, what service provider does this right? But I'm watching Extracted on Hulu and they're extracted. The premise of the show is that you have loved ones that are out in the wilderness and people are back home and HQ and they can send their loved ones survival things to help them win

Christina:

Not the Hunger Games

Devonnie:

Yes, girl. It is the hungry games in real life. And yes, you can send sponsored gifts. I, that's crazy. I didn't realize it was the Hungry Game. It's the Hungry Games and it's in British Columbia.'cause you know, it's beautiful, but they're trapped in the wilderness. There is one couple this, oh my god, this sweet woman, I think her name is Ashley. She's engaged to someone and her team is her fiance and his dad. Right. This man, Ashley, struggling to make a fire. She can't make a fire. He gets multiple opportunities to send her like cheat code gas stuff, lighters to help her make a fire. He one the first time she can't make it. He said, I'm not marrying her if she can't make a fire. He says that out loud in public, number one. Number two, he refuses to send her the easy way out. So watches her struggle, be cold, can't boil water, instead of sending her a lighter run from the people who would rather teach you a lesson than see you survive. That is terrifying and I just hope that when she finishes the show, I don't know if she's been like extracted yet, but I hope when she finishes, she watches it and see that her fiance did not have her back. And would instead love to watch her struggle and teach her a lesson and make sure she knows how to start a fire. Then send her fucking lighter so she can light some shit and boil water.

Christina:

It reminds me of my favorite quote. It says, it's not your job to set yourself on fire to keep

Devonnie:

To keep ever warm. Exactly.

Jordan:

in season three, we will be giving you dating advice and we will have callers call in

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

and we will be giving you relationship advice. So that's season three.

Devonnie:

Sorry, I have to go for that tangent'cause that pissed me off. Okay.

Jordan:

between me and you, we got it. So sorry Christina, I feel like we always do this to your books because you have such great things to say about your books. Like I love the way you succinctly wrap. I love the way you describe the books you read for one. I've always loved it. You're so good at it. And, but it always like inspires like Yeah. Let's talk about, so I'm so sorry. I'll mute.

Christina:

It's fine. I was really comforted in All I wanted say is, it was a really funny book. Like seriously laugh out Loud. I'm like dying laughing, reading this. Like she's where I can't even explain it, but there's like a scene in the Catholic church that just, I was dying with the veil. I was dying. Kay. I won't say any more than that, but it's so funny. And then it's so spicy. He takes charge. This is where the billionaire shines. He's girl, you gonna listen?

Devonnie:

Yeah. And we love to hear it.

Christina:

She's been into vanilla sex. She's I've never experienced these things. She's well, guess what? I'm gonna try it too.

Devonnie:

Yeah. Poor thing has been so deprived. She had no idea that what the possibilities of sexual relations could be, so

Christina:

And he showed those possibilities.

Devonnie:

Yeah. I love

Christina:

Yes, he did. So enjoy reading. A long time Coming by Megan Quinn.

Jordan:

Perfect. I do have honorable mentions'cause like I said, I had a lot, so aside from the Harley Quinn series by. Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti. I have something cheeky by Tin Kin Lamb, and I don't remember if I ever talked about that one. I feel like I did. That was really good. Look it up. It's also has Asian-American representation really great, like different cultures are really well represented. Her Greatest Mistake by Hannah Cowen another hockey romance. I talked about it on fake dating. I believe I mentioned it at the end too, as an honorable mention before we came by. Sloan St. James has a bit of, it's a bit of a mystery. They were friends growing up and she went, yeah, she went missing

Devonnie:

yeah, I have that on my Kindle.

Jordan:

Yeah, as. A child and they were best friends. So the mailman character is best friends with her older brother. He's like a part of their family pretty much. She didn't know she thought she was adopted by the woman she believed to be her mother. And it's just kind of unravels and them meeting again and stuff. So Switchboard by Duet, by Heather Long, I've talked about this in another episode too, but I just wanted, I consider this a friends to lovers because she, their operator, their handler and she is their eyes and ears for these three different guys for different missions that they do thieving and mercenary work and stuff. So they are good friends for years and then she goes missing and they have to work together to find her. And then finally. Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas. Their pen pals. What is it? With me and pen pals tonight? They're pen pals since like fourth or fifth grade for a school project. They keep writing to each other, but then by happenstance, he transfers schools, ends up in her school and she doesn't know that's him. And he goes by a different name so she doesn't find out. And to him, she's a completely different person than the way she portrayed herself. So he feels really lied to. Yeah, I talked about it a long time ago. I think he feels lied to. So it ends up kind of being a bully romance because it's Penelope Douglas and it is high school, but it's so good. There's a couple scenes in there. I just pretend they're in college and it's so good.

Devonnie:

To

Christina:

Use your imagination, huh?

Jordan:

Yep. And that is friends to lovers for me.

Devonnie:

Oh, I have some honorable wrecks. The other book I was gonna mention, which is Give Me More by Sara Cate. It's from the Salacious Players Club. I think it's either book three or four, sort of my favorite books. And the reason I put this as a friend's to lover's options there's a married couple. So it starts off with two best friends. The two guys are best friends, then they see a girl and both of them are, you find out later, both of them are interested in her at the same time, but one makes a move and then they get married. They eventually get married, and then it's the, like the married couple and the best friend Drake. And basically they go through life together. They're always together like the best tease are together. Eventually it gets into a space. I honestly don't even know how we get here, but Drake realizes he's in love with his best friend and he maybe always has been. But the other best friend, I think his name is Hunter hunter. He is kind of up in the air about his sexuality. He was raised very like religious and no, that's gay kind of vibes. So he has like trauma behind that, but I can't remember why one day he asks his best friend to sleep with his wife. I don't, I think it's like a kink thing. Salacious Players Club is, follows like a sex club. So there's definitely lots of kink exploration and people, you know, doing things. But he asked him Drake to sleep with his wife and Drake does. And then it comes up that he's also in love with his best friend's wife. So it's, I think his friends to lover number one, it is friends to lovers because the two men are friends and then eventually becomes lover lovers because it's MFM. But their relationship is honestly so beautiful and all three of them are really friends. So it's just very heartwarming. But the Spice, the Salacious Players Club, I wanna say it has six books. Maybe six books. And this is book three. This is my favorite book of the entire series. I love this book down. I love it. So watching Hunter explore his sexuality and come to terms with it was very beautiful and like eye-opening. So I love that for him. And that's again, give Me More by Sara Cate. I also wanted to mention Next to You by Hannah Bonum Young. Yeah, I know I can't go like an episode without mentioning Hannah Bonum Young. I'm obsessed with her. I love her. Next to You, follows Mattias and I can't remember the female main character's name right now, but. They're actually, they're also brought a friendship where they're brought together by their friends falling in love essentially. And you get to see them realize that, damn, we love each other. We're like really good friends and we're so supportive and I love your family. Let's explore this really good. I have a super indie author, adorable Hucklebee, Ordaz Rules of Association is a book two in her series, seaside Mergers, and it follows two best friends who their siblings have gotten married and they kind of just related to each other and then they realize, oh my God, are we in love? I think we might be. And so they explore that yeah, funny how that works, right? So yeah, those are like my extra honorable mentions. But again, they're great friends to lovers and I think all of the recs I've mentioned today, they can be like basic friends to lovers, but I think some of them have a little more if you want super spicy spice, go straight to give me more. If you want extreme slow burn rules of association and caught on camera and next to you actually by how to bottom young. So I think I got a little bit of everything in there for like people who might be hesitant for the genre, pick it up

Christina:

Yeah,

Jordan:

I was gonna

Christina:

many tropes.

Jordan:

yeah, I was gonna say that was it over me? What is it by Sara Cate? What was that one?

Devonnie:

Give me more.

Jordan:

Give me more. Give me more. Sounds like a, the same premise as gifting me to his best friend a novella by Katee. Robert. So good. And it's kind of the same premise where. are on a retreat like this married couple and their best friend who's always around. It's you know that old the popular thing was you and me and

Devonnie:

me

Jordan:

and my friend Steve.

Devonnie:

Steve. Yeah, Yeah.

Jordan:

it's very much, yeah. The three of them are very much like that and the guys have been friends since like college days and these are like grown ass adult, like older. And so part of the things that this married couple likes to do is you know, talk about her being with is like ups. I don't know if they actually have before, but it's like one of the things they've kind of been working up to and talked about a lot. And then they're snowed in over at Christmas with the best friend and. So then they set it up for her to be with him and him to walk in on the it's just, it's like that experimentation and then it ends up just like she, it's more like the woman is, sees it and it's you two need to figure this out. You two need, I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna lock you in this room, and you two just need to bang it out or something. I'll join you later, but right now you two just

Devonnie:

Literally the same is giving me more, and I love that. So, yeah. Cool. Oh my gosh. Is that it? Is that our friends lovers? Is that the end of season two?

Jordan:

this is the end of season two, so thanks

Devonnie:

bitter.

Jordan:

Yeah, thanks everybody for. Listening to us talk about friends to lovers, romance. If you want more content, you want more recs, go back. Make sure you listen to our other episodes. Also, you can find us on Instagram, TikTok threads at romance recs pod, behind the scenes content, other wrecks, bonus stuff. If you're in the Pacific Northwest area, we do get togethers so go ahead, follow us there and hopefully we'll see you later. Don't know when, but we'll see you soon. Keep your eyes posted. Keep

Devonnie:

Keep your

Jordan:

keep you posted.

Christina:

Eyes and ears posted.

Devonnie:

Yeah.

Jordan:

Happy reading.

Devonnie:

Happy

Christina:

Bye.