Class Reunions Are Murder (A Poppy McAllister Mystery #1) by Libby Klein
Angela: Hopefully, we’re live.
Jeanne: Hello! Hi, friends, how are you?
Angela: Hi, everybody! As I look down, I told you guys, Max is going to be joining us; the little fluffy puppy is down on the lap.
Angela: Is that your end or my end? Did we catch it?
Jeanne: I think we did. I got it, thank you, my bad.
Angela: Okay, oh, echoing, my first thought was like, “Please technology, don’t do this tonight, we have too much to talk about when it comes to this book,”
Jeanne: Yes.
Angela: (holds up a paperback copy) which just happens to be Class Reunions are Murder by Libby Klein, and everyone seems to have so much to talk about so I’m looking forward to this, how about you?
Jeanne: 100%. I don’t know about you guys, but there were a lot of characters in this book, and I had to write a cheat sheet for myself on the side of my computer so I could keep remember everybody’s names.
Angela: Oh, my goodness. There were a lot of characters and then there was Kristen and Kimmy, and then at one point there was a Kellie, I think.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: That was fun. Oh, my goodness. All the comments are just pouring in. This is so crazy. You guys are amazing. (looking down at Max on her lap) “Yes, Hi, okay, so you want to say Hi to everybody?” (holds a treat and Max raises up to chew on it) This is Max.
Jeanne: Hi, Max!
Angela: Apparently, this is what we’re doing now.
Angela: Okay, okay, for a second, I was like, “Am I echoing?” So, yeah, I think I got confused with Kristen and I think it was Kimmy. I think that was who it was because there was the pregnant wife who, obviously, had a story that we’re going to have to talk about at some point, and then there was the campaign woman.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: So, it took me a little while before I realized who was who. So, I think having a cheat sheet was a very good idea.
Jeanne: Yeah, I definitely needed one because I couldn’t, I had to, in fact, go back and like thumb through the book.
Angela: Yeah, it took me a few minutes, too, because we don’t really get into the murder until later, so I’m kind of going, “Okay, we’re meeting all these people and you know they’re going to come back around and be a suspect,”
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: So, you kind of had to pay attention beforehand.
Jeanne: Right, (responds to comments) some have listened to the audiobook. I bet that was a really, really fun book to listen to on audio.
Angela: I listened to the audio. I actually always buy, I swear with every book of the month, I must help the publishing industry because I always get the paperback, e-book, and the audio.
Jeanne: Wow, that is commitment.
Angela: I really do! When it comes to Book Club reads, I am 110% there for them, and so I listened to the audio and I always try and go through the Book Club reads closer to the livestream date because there’s usually so many names or details, and I want to have them as fresh in my mind as possible; and so I just listened to the audio yesterday, after I had done the e-book, and that woman, I forget her name off the top of my head, she’s phenomenal. She was able to do the different voices, and then the way she kind of places emphasis for the jokes like she knows how to land the punchline, which is such a thing with this book because pretty much every other line has a sort of joke or comic or comedic moment. So, I give her a lot of credit for that. I’m curious who else listened to the audio. I was going to say, “Read the audio,” but it kind of counts.
Jeanne: (laughs) Kind of the same thing. It’s always so great when you have a narrator who really nails it; it really makes the book come to life for you.
Angela: Oh, yeah. (responds to comments) So, other people are talking about the audiobook. Okay, Krista (Avink), you liked it, and then oh, you guys, Max, yes, he is. I’m biased though. I’m the mom, so I have to say he’s adorable. Oh, my goodness, so, other people have been saying once they started reading book one, I think that there’s at least six sleuthers now from the Book Club who started with book one and are already on book two, three, and four. So, booksster0708 you are right there, I’m impressed. (displays comment by LadyVal05 “The book started off feeling like a Chick Lit!”) Okay, so, this was one of the comments that I, myself, had in my notes for tonight, as I’m wondering where my notebook ended up, because the dog took over.
Jeanne: (laughing) Max.
Angela: He’s looking at me like, “Is this my treat?” I’m like, “No, this is my notebook for tonight.” So, I think this is probably my biggest comment and I’m kind of glad to see someone else picked up on it, too, as he’s climbing all over me.
I was kind of wondering about that, myself, having the Chick-Lit components because the body doesn’t drop until the 33% mark. I was kind of curious what y’all thought about that because we definitely have the backstory leading up to the mystery, and the backstory to me had that kind of Meg Cabot/Stephanie Plum sort of feel, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it was just a little different than the typical cozy.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, yeah, it’s true. I’m actually a little bit torn about this book. I mostly, mostly liked it, and there were so many really fun moments that I loved, but there were some moments where I was like, “Really, are we doing this?” And that bothered me a little bit, took me out of the book.
Angela: I see. So, that was one of the things I saw, I think it was a lot on Instagram. I posted the question, “Is there anything you want to talk about the book, specifically, in regards to the livestream?” And I want to say probably out of the twenty comments I got, pretty much like eighteen of them were positive and then there was only like two or three, you know, out of twenty, twenty-one comments that were saying, “This wasn’t a book for me.” So, this book, I feel, was either a hit or miss, but it seems for a lot of people, it was a hit.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: So, I’m just kind of curious, what kind of captivated people or what was it that you were kind of going, “Oh, this was probably for someone else.” But I kind of think I have an idea because there were some pretty horrible characters here; Amber, thank you.
Jeanne: Yeah, there were a couple of times in the book for me, probably more than a couple, that gave me pause about how the characters were reacting to things and others around them that my left-wing liberal self was not down with, quite frankly; that’s just me though. I still enjoyed the friendship aspect. I really liked kind of revisiting the high school and sort of realizing that sometimes high school never leaves you, you know, you still have some of the same relationship issues and, also, the friendships that were really great; the women who stood behind Poppy and really cheered her on. So, I really liked that aspect.
Angela: I think Sawyer is probably the number one friend doing that for her. I have to admit, I posted for the polls with YouTube, this was the first time I’ve done it, posting the actual like, “Is it five-star, four-star?” So, you guys can vote which ones you liked the most. So, go over there and then, probably, in the next couple of minutes, I’ll end the poll; this way, it will be archived there. But, yeah, I kind of understand exactly the self-loathing comments that people were mentioning.
I was crying at the beginning of this book because for me it was very emotional with the husband passing. I was really sad, that’s not the typical cozy, especially crying near the beginning of the book. I don’t know, for me, I just got really emotional with the loss of a husband at the beginning. I was full-on legit crying and, so, I understand the part about going into the depression and gaining a lot of weight, but I almost feel as if she should have kept it in perspective going, like, “I just lost my husband, I went through a bad time, this isn’t how I always am. The last six months have been hard,” like been kind of more understanding to herself; she was so hard on herself and that was really hard because it was throughout the entirety of the book. So, and, if you, yourself, as a reader, I couldn’t figure out her size for the longest time because at one point it was size twelve, size fourteen, and then one time she says her “size eighteen butt,” and I was like okay, “So, she’s a size eighteen.” So, I’m like, “If you, as a reader, are size eighteen or larger and she’s putting herself down like that, it could be a little bit hard.” I mean, it had its moments when she’s like, “I look like I escaped from Jenny Craig” and I’m going, “Oh, gosh.”
Jeanne: I know, “Come on, Poppy, self-love! Beauty is everywhere.”
Angela: Yeah, (reading comments) oh, you guys are talking about Sawyer. (looking down at Max) I love how the little guy, he’s so quiet, and then he’s all of a sudden like, “She’s talking to people who aren’t me, how can you do this?” But let’s see if I can bribe him with treats.
Jeanne: Yeah, you can. (reading comments) A lot of people are talking about some of the stereotyping; that’s what bothered me in this book. But, overall, I was able to look past it. I don’t know if I will reach for a second book, although, I do want to know what happens with Aunt Ginny and Poppy’s B&B. I kind of have-to-know, so maybe I will reach for it. But, hopefully, some of the stereotyping will decrease.
Angela: Yeah, (reading comments) I have to admit you guys are pulling the exact scenes that I was kind of like, “Ugh!” the yoga one and then the nail salon scene. Those are two very, very stereotypical kind of moments, and I understand what the whole ‘you want instant character recognition’ but I’m like, “Is this really how we want to recognize these characters and attributes?” There are other ways to describe, and I’m kind of glad it wasn’t throughout the entirety of the book. But, at the same time, it would’ve been nice to have more diversity throughout the entirety of the book. So, we’ll have to see what happens because at least she’s going to be doing the B&B, and then you’ve got Tim with his restaurant and she’s got this thing with Gia; so, he’s got the cafe. So, there’s going to be more people coming in and out of the world. So, hopefully?
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: (displays comment by Lady Gizmo “Love this Jeanne, “Beauty is everywhere!”) Oh, I just saw this comment pop-up, “Beauty is everywhere.”
Jeanne: Yeah, since you just stopped on Gia, can we just talk about Gia? How much I love him and how much I want him to make me coffee every day.
Angela: Can we just acknowledge how he was kind of perfect for her from the get-go? He was so cute. Again, people with the audiobook, the narrator doing the accent, had me. She was doing the Italian accent for him, and it was brilliant! I had the best time listening to her do an Italian man’s voice. I don’t know why, but I loved it so much. I mean, this guy was so cute; he wouldn’t let her pay for coffee. I mean, it was two or three times, and then when he wanted to hire her for the muffins or the gluten-free stuff, he was pretty much losing money on the deal. He liked her from the beginning.
Jeanne: Which I loved (responds to comment) Senna says, “let’s talk about a Tim and Gia poll.” Was there a Tim and Gia poll that I missed?
Angela: Yes! So, I posted the poll on Instagram and then over on Twitter. In the Instagram poll Gia won, he was at 85% the last time I checked. So, everyone’s voting for him over Tim.
Jeanne: Okay.
Angela: I’m not really sure about Tim going on there, but everyone seems to be in camp Gia.
Jeanne: I did not like Tim, and I loved that he was still into Poppy twenty years later or however many years it was, twenty-five. But, toward the end, it sounded like Poppy started to realize, you know, “We may not really have much in common anymore, even though we had that initial spark.” So, hopefully, that is a good omen for Poppy as she navigates the rest of her life and figuring out, you know, “I deserve it all.”
Angela: I will admit, I did my little, “I was the sleuther. I was the sleuther about the sleuthing.” I did go into the next books in the series with their Goodreads pages. So, I did eventually figure out who she chooses from the love triangle because otherwise that was going to bug me.
Jeanne: Oh!
Angela: Love triangles, “Oh, love triangles.” I am so over love triangles in just any book, any series, like, I am so over them, I ended up deleting this tweet, but I was so annoyed at one point. It wasn’t this book, but I literally had just done this book, and then there was another one, and then all of a sudden, “Hey, another love triangle.” I was like, “The next time I pick up a book with a love triangle, it’s going in the donation bin unread. I’m done with this. No more love triangles.” Oh, boy.
Jeanne: No, on the love triangles.
Angela: That’s why I wanted to know who she chose because it’s been for me as a reader, it’s not so much a love triangle, it’s like waiting for her to reveal what I already know. For some reason, for me, it makes it easier if I already know the ending somehow with the love triangle. If it’s just ongoing and I don’t know, it’s a little unsettling.
Jeanne: Yeah, (reading comments) I love everybody’s thoughts on Tim and Gia.
Angela: (displays comment by Crystal Tea Knits “I don’t get what’s Tim’s motive I feel like something’s behind him so obsessed with her”)
I saw this one. So, at one point, I was kind of wondering about Tim, like, “Would he be the suspect because he bailed her out of jail?” Like, “Is there a guilty conscience?” I was kind of wondering about that when you said you were wondering what was going on with Tim’s motives.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: I will admit, though, he was super sweet to get her out and do the bail and put up his restaurant as collateral, so I kind of got to give him a little bit of a soft side, a little bit of a pass. So, “Yes, I’m team Gia,” but I still like Tim, I’m not rooting against him, but I’m just, “I like you more.”
Jeanne: (laughs) Got it. It’s a choice between two good things. So, it’s, you know, chocolate and strawberry. I mean, how can you go wrong, really?
Angela: But that’s the thing though, right? When it comes to love triangles, sometimes, there’s a clear winner and then there’s just this horrible Playboy bad boy, like, he has all the negative attributes and adjectives attached to him. You’re like, “Why are you in the love triangle?” So, I’m glad it’s two nice guys for the love triangle, even though we all know or everyone seems to be in one particular camp.
Jeanne: Right, good. Well, I’m all glad we’re all in agreement with the Gia thing.
Angela: (displays comment by Elle Wren Burke “Also it was weird that Poppy was not thinking about her husband anymore after only 6 months”)
Oh, this was something. I saw this pop up on Goodreads. Yeah, so, her husband, he passed away six months prior, and now she has two guys vying for her attention, so she’s re-entered the dating pool, apparently.
Jeanne: I think, at least the way it read for me, she sort of accidentally re-entered; like, she didn’t consciously think, “I am ready to date.” It just sort of fell into her lap and she just kind of went with it? So, you know what? Everybody deserves to be happy, and if she feels like she’s ready for that, I say, “Go Poppy.”
Angela: Yeah, I have to admit, it wasn’t as if she joined eharmony.com or something.
Jeanne: (laughs) Right.
Angela: Like, “This is how I’m getting out of the house now.”
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: Like, “This is my reason,” that would have been a little much. So, again, I kind of liked the fact that it had that natural progression, plus she didn’t just walk into the café, and even though it was like heart eyes, which is how I pictured her, she was just like, “This is the hottest man I’ve ever seen. This is the hottest man I’ve
ever seen,” she didn’t just walk up to him and be like, “Here’s my number, what’s your number?” I mean, at least she tried to do the friends thing first; like, get to know him. So, apparently, Max agrees with this because he’s growling about something.
Jeanne: Ah!
Angela: What do you want little guy?
Jeanne: I think he’s angry that we haven’t started talking about Aunt Ginny, yet, because, hello, my very favorite character. Aunt Ginny fans, anyone? Oh, it’s this hand. Hands up? Yes, Aunt Ginny, two thumbs up.
Angela: She’s so cute. (reading comments) I’m trying to go down with the comments that I missed. Okay, my favorite scene of the entire book had nothing to do with the mystery or anything. She’s down there in the kitchen baking or making breakfast, and she’s got a full-on evening gown, tiara, the gloves, like, this woman was decked out and I loved it.
Jeanne: I’m telling you what, Aunt Ginny is what I aspire to be in my old age. Wear whatever you want to wear, do what you want to do, you’ve earned it. Go Aunt Ginny!
Angela: She was so cute, though, with the driving.
Jeanne: I know!
Angela: She’s so bad! Like, it’s cute as a reader, as a human being, but if I had lived in that neighborhood, I would be so worried.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: She’s like, “Oh, yeah, the Stop sign doesn’t apply to me because they know that I’m going to go through it.” I’m like, “That is terrible logic.”
Jeanne: Yeah! (responds to comment by LadyVal05) LadyVal, my favorite, “Aunt Ginny is my spirit animal,” that’s like my new favorite phrase.
Angela: Yeah, as soon as I saw her mention the tiara for no reason, I put a tiara over there on my books as decoration. I should just wear it; it doesn’t need to be decoration anymore. I can just put this on as I’m typing at the computer and I’ll be like, “Aunt Ginny told me to.”
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: (reading comments) I like how everyone loves her. She was so cute, and so I think this was one of the things that made it, I don’t know if I want to call her an unlikable heroine, but it kind of struck me that Poppy really didn’t check on her for a while; like, she did kind of leave Aunt Ginny unattended. So, apparently, Grandma Emmy, even though she’s not the Grandma, passed away three years prior to the start of the book, and so in-between that time, the house was in disarray and all the grass was overgrown and the dust and everything else, and so I was kind of wondering about that, “Did she ever visit or did she never want to visit?” because even in the in-between period with that like the twenty-five year gap between graduation and where they are now, it didn’t seem like she visited Aunt Ginny too much, and I felt really badly about that. I wasn’t a big fan of that.
Jeanne: Same, and I think they sort of alluded to it in the book that maybe Poppy felt badly about that, but I was expecting a moment where Aunt Ginny and Poppy had a moment where Poppy says, “I’m so sorry I haven’t been here for you, I’m going to do better” or something.
Angela: I kind of think, for me, it almost seemed like she was trying to make amends with the whole, “I’m staying here doing the B&B.” At least that’s how I kind of read it and, maybe, I’m looking at it that way because, I don’t know, I think it has to do with the fact that there are so many different things going on with Poppy and her personality, wanting to be the baker, wanting to do this, wanting to do that, and so the fact that she lands on B&B, that seemed to be sort of something about connecting her with her Aunt versus, “Oh, this is my new job.” It just seemed like she had so many different things on her plate that she wanted to choose from; to choose that one in particular kind of struck me like, “Oh, she’s doing this because of,” so I don’t know if anyone else felt that way, but that’s how I viewed it.
Jeanne: I can definitely see that aspect 100%.
Angela: (reading comments) I love how everyone’s talking about the driving. Yeah, I mean, I know she’s in her seventies, but she’s dancing, she’s putting on the cowboy boots, she had the outfits, she had the energy, she’s the one who took Poppy out wanting to go out dancing until 2:00 AM.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: Not the other way around.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Angela: She’s like that crazy friend that you need but somehow ended up being forty plus years older than you; it’s just, she’s great.
Jeanne: (laughing) Right.
Angela: She’s doing things; like, she’s doing the dancing going until 2:00 AM. But then two nights later, she’s doing Bingo; it’s not like one or the other, she’s doing all the activities across the board and age range.
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: I just thought that was brilliant.
Jeanne: It’s everything.
Angela: Yeah, her friends are great.
Jeanne: Yeah, it seems, too, like Aunt Ginny was really pulling Poppy along to do things and get out of her comfort zone and experience life again. But Poppy really kind of nudged this healthier lifestyle onto Aunt Ginny and maybe that was kind of her way of giving back in a way. I don’t know. I think I’m stretching there, but that’s what I’m going with, okay.
Angela: I’m loving, yeah, I think it’s kind of nice that she’s trying to do it with her; it’s like giving them something to bond over, too.
Jeanne: Uh-huh.
Angela: Because, you know, sometimes, you don’t have the most in common when it comes to family; it’s like they’re blood, you’re kind of forced to be in proximity, sometimes.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: Where you’re like, “I’m related to you, but I don’t really read the same books as you. I don’t watch the same TV shows as you.” I mean, this kind of gave them something to have in common as a sort of, I guess, common ground for them to grow from; at least that’s how I kind of thought of that. But I was looking at the comments like, yeah, “Why couldn’t she visit Poppy?” – “Maybe, she didn’t want to be near the mother-in-law either.”
Jeanne: Yeah, it’s very possible.
Angela: Yeah, who is it? Someone mentioned the mother-in-law, we don’t even really meet her. She’s on the phone two or three times, and I was like, “This is enough.” I don’t know if she pops up in future books, but that woman is trouble.
Jeanne: Yeah, at least she was able to get her, whatever it was, inheritance or whatever from John and, hopefully, that just severs the tie for Poppy because she doesn’t need that anymore.
Angela: Yeah, I like how everyone’s talking about the mother-in-law. She was just, I’m kind of curious about that entire dynamic with Poppy and the mother-in-law because John was a lawyer and, apparently, he was a successful lawyer, so he had his own money and I’m going to guess he had his own bank account and other stuff put aside. But I know there was family money as well, but you’d think being a lawyer with a good career would be somewhat lucrative so he wouldn’t have to rely on the family money as much. So, I’m not really sure why she had as much say as she did.
Jeanne: I interpreted that John was the late husband, right?
Angela: Yes.
Jeanne: That John had put his money that he was leaving for her into some kind of trust, right?
Angela: Uh-huh.
Jeanne: And that somehow his mom had control over it, rather than Poppy, I don’t know how the mom got control of it, but.
Angela: That’s why I’m kind of like, “I’m not really sure what the specifics are,” but I would think the bank account would be a separate thing versus the trust; I mean, unless the bank account ended up being folded in somehow. I’m looking at other people’s comments like, “Yeah, okay.” I’m glad I’m not the only person with the details like, “Hey, how did she get in charge of this?”
Jeanne: Yeah, yeah.
Angela: Because I mean, again, too, we’re not talking about a couple of kids who got married when they were eighteen, who were still learning about life, and how to balance a checkbook or something like that. They’re grown adults, they can figure out their finances. They can have the credit cards and ATM and, you know, I’m not concerned about them figuring that out. So, that’s just why I was a little like, “Wait a second,” because even then she made a comment about the mother-in-law looking at the receipts or seeing that she went to the salon and the spa, and I’m going, “So, she doesn’t just have control over the money, she’s seeing every single thing you’re doing with the money.”
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: My goodness, everybody hates her.
Jeanne: Well, speaking of people we hate, I mean, can we talk about Barbie? Here’s my question about Barbie, “Why? Why was she such a raging b***h from the get-go?” Something had to have happened to her in her life to make her that way. Am I wrong? Did I miss it? What happened?
Angela: Okay, so, literally, every single person at that reunion had a motive.
Jeanne: That’s true.
Angela: Every. Single. One. Again, Amber, I’m not even sure how the police, I don’t know what the internal laws would be; I mean, you’d think Internal Affairs might say something about it, but her being in charge of the case also seemed suspicious, like, “You were kind of also potentially a suspect, so why are you in charge of this case?”
Jeanne: Right, exactly.
Angela: But she was so mean to everybody, and it wasn’t just she had one type of meanness, like, it wasn’t just one thing she would do to people. She would sleep around, cheating on her person, she would sleep around hurting her friends with their people, and then she’d spread rumors, say cruel things; I mean, the one that killed me was she wanted the coach to administer steroids to the football player. Was it the football or basketball?
Jeanne: Basketball player.
Angela: Yeah, she wanted him to actually give out steroids and that was so that the cheerleaders would be going to the main events, and I’m going, “That is so terrible. You’re encouraging this.”
Jeanne: I know.
Angela: That was the one where I’m like, “I’m done with you. I don’t feel badly for being the one that they killed off early.” I’m like, “Okay, Barb, bye, Barbie.”
Jeanne: I know. I feel like Barbie had an undiagnosed mental health issue,
Angela: Probably.
Jeanne: where she couldn’t feel any empathy or something. Crazy; cray, cray, crazy.
Angela: I think that’s a really great way of looking at her saying that she had no empathy. There definitely was a lack of that in just every single action she did because unless you were literally her daughter, she didn’t care about you. I mean, literally, unless it was Tiffany, the dog, everybody else, especially the husband, I don’t know what that relationship was, he was also a little, he has his own issues as well. I really don’t want him to win the seat. What was it? They were saying that he wants the presidency. I’m like, “Okay, please don’t let this happen in future books,” thank you.
Jeanne: Yeah, I had a hard time understanding how he continued to have such a good reputation when he was ogling people out in the open, in public, at these big events like how he was ogling Sawyer, openly. Wouldn’t somebody catch that and write a news story about him and then it would be a big deal?
Angela: The first time he meets her he hits on her, really? He saw her at the reunion, but they never interacted, and so when they were doing that sort of fundraiser slash, I don’t know, wake, it was just the fundraiser. The first time he meets her, he starts hitting on her, and then he hands the key to the friend to hand to her, so there wasn’t even a concern about having another third person know that he was hitting on her directly.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: What if she was a blogger? An actual, you know, someone, influencer, or someone, you know, who’s a journalist? How do you know this third person over here wouldn’t actually say something?
Jeanne: Right, and this book was written in, I think it came out in 2018? People had plenty of YouTube channels and stuff like that. I’m surprised that somebody didn’t take any video of that and post it and do that whole big thing.
Angela: Yeah, it’s 2018. You have a good memory; that went right over my head. I was like, “Yeah, when was this?” Oh, and now I’m seeing the dedication, “For all the chunky girls who really try hard for minimal results, we’re beautiful just the way we are, and for the men who are lucky enough to love us, and to all those who bullied me in high school, I win.” That’s awesome.
Jeanne: That’s way cool. I wish it was a little more representative in the actual writing.
Angela: I didn’t know. I didn’t even read the dedication, that was so cute. When you were making me look up the year, I saw it. I like that, yeah. I think one of the things that sort of caught me, was I can relate, so I don’t really think I’ve talked about this on YouTube or social media too much. I mean, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, but not the full account of it or the extent of it, but when I was, literally, the day before the second year of my master’s program, I had a back spasm, and I was on the floor. I thought I was going to live my life on the floor, and so I spent the next pretty much two years, again, my graduation with my master’s from Georgetown, I had a cane for the graduation stage. I couldn’t even do the two events. I could only manage one because I was in so much physical pain.
So, I immediately had problems, it hurt to stand. I couldn’t exercise, and because I couldn’t stand for too long, I was like, “Let me just do takeout, it’s easier.” So, I put on a lot of weight very quickly, and so I kind of related to Poppy in that regard but, again, same thing with her, I knew that was out of my control, so I’m not mad at myself that that happened, like, that’s just circumstances, that’s just how it went down. So, I’m not mad, like, “Oh, I hate myself” or, “Oh, I can’t believe,” you know, whatever. I mean, it is what it is. So, I think the fact that she was just so mad at herself the whole time and not giving herself a pass, that was really hard because I’m like, “I can literally relate to this,” not the depression element of it, but gaining the weight and seeing your body change very quickly in that regard, but she didn’t seem like she got too far off base. She said she gained two dress sizes. I’m like, “That could have been worse.”
Jeanne: I know I can do that in a weekend. What!?
Angela: I felt badly that she didn’t seem to have any sort of positivity or just way to reframe it, so I think that’s kind of true with the mental health component of it. She just didn’t know how to look at anything in a positive way because it just seemed like it was everything about her life that she was just so mad at; there wasn’t anything she could be like, “Oh, and this is how this happened, and let me look at it from this way.” It was everything, I mean, that kind of negativity, no wonder she was kind of going into a depression spiral. Like, if everything in your life is terrible, of course you’re going to be on the couch watching Julia Childs for the umpteenth time.
Jeanne: Right, right.
Angela: I’m surprised you got out of the couch at all.
Jeanne: Uh-huh. (responds to comment by Marta’s Magical Mystery Class) Marta has a good point. She feels like we’re supposed to see a character arc for Poppy moving from self-hatred to self-acceptance. I feel like the author really tried to get there, but I wished it were packed with a little bit more of a punch. For Poppy’s sake, I mean, right? And for all of our sakes, every woman’s sake, no matter your size, everybody needs self-acceptance; there’s always going to be something, right? That you’re like, “Oh my eyebrow’s weird” or whatever it is.
Angela: Oh, yeah.
Jeanne: But you know what? We’re beautiful.
Angela: I think that’s why I liked Gia because she’s like, “This is the worst I’ve ever felt or looked.” He loved her and he was nice to her anyway; he was attracted to her anyway.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: You know, one of the things that kind of, again, maybe this is just my perspective, but the first husband, John, he fell in love with her when she was clumsy, and he really loved her for her, and it didn’t matter to him if they couldn’t have kids, he just wanted to be with her. That should be the best ego boost in the world that this person loves you so freaking much and you’re just with them. I mean, this guy really loved her for her. I understand losing him would, obviously, cause the depression, which I totally get, but here’s this guy who just loves you inside out; and, so, I’m trying to kind of phrase it, how that love didn’t transfer to herself in some way, like seeing herself through his eyes.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: I’m like, “How do you not realize this guy loves you and adores you? Don’t you realize that means something, going to give yourself some sort of ego boost?”
Jeanne: Exactly, yeah, yeah.
Angela: I mean, again, I’m not trying to say get self-satisfaction from men and be like, “Yeah, our significant others,” but even just trying to say, you know, “Someone loves me, someone cares about me, they love me for me. We might not have kids, but I was enough for him,” that should have been something for her to hold on to and give her some sort of positive mental health component.
Jeanne: Right. We are often our own worst critics, right? I mean, especially women, for whatever reason, we tend to be so much harder on ourselves, that if the very same scenario were to happen to a friend of ours, we would react totally differently. So, I think that we can learn from Poppy and realize that, you know, forgive me, “s**t happens,” and we’re still worth stuff. We’re still worth it, even though stuff happens.
Angela: (displays comment by Crystal Tea Knits “yeah size 18 isn’t that big she made it sound like she was a size 30 it really got on my nerves and the whole part when she was buying a dress how do they not have a size 18 in the store”)
I was looking at the comments which was saying that you thought she was going to be a size thirty. I’m like, “Yeah.” So, I forget which point in the book because it was prior to the reunion when she was about to go dress shopping. When she was sending her prayer, she was praying to God, going, “Okay, we’re going to be looking at size twelves and fourteens,” and I’m going, “Wait, what? Hold up. What are you talking about!? This is the size you’re praying about!?” Some people are praying to get into those sizes.
Jeanne: Thank you! Right! Twelve is beautiful. Yes, that, that.
Angela: There’s a Meg Cabot book that actually says Is It Size 12 or A Size 14 Isn’t Fat; that’s literally the title of the book.
Jeanne: Love that, good.
Angela: Yeah, I thought that was kind of great, too, though, I love how my mind works, the bringing back-and-forth, I actually got some major Meg Cabot vibes with this book, with all the pop culture references; that kind of gave me a little bit of like her style. Just throwing that out there as a random tangent.
(displays comment by Stephanie Aurelio “What was up with the dress she picked out for the reunion? That was the only option???”)
Yes, we do have to talk about the dress she chose. What?
Jeanne: Oh, my gosh, right? I don’t know if I would have made that choice just because it was the only thing she could find right then.
Angela: So, maybe, this is the planner in me, but you knew you were going to a reunion. You waited until the day of to go buy the dress? Couldn’t you just order something on Amazon, and have it shipped to Ginny’s house?
Jeanne: Right, right.
Angela: I mean, just curious.
Jeanne: (responds to comment by Stephanie Aurelio) Right, Stephanie, “It had feathers???” Question marks.
Angela: Yellow! She said it was yellow and there was supposed to be a belt that was plastic to it!? Oh, my gosh.
Jeanne: Yikes.
Angela: (reads comment by Lyn McEnaney “Meg Cabot has both titles – Size 12 Is Not Fat, and Size 14 Is Not Fat Either)
Oh, Thank You, Lyn! Oh, Thank You. Okay, that’s why I couldn’t remember because I’ve read both of the books in the series. I knew it was one of the two. So, Size 12 Is Not Fat and then Size 14 Is Not Fat Either. Thank You!
Jeanne: Go, Meg Cabot. (responds to comment by Marta’s Magical Mystery Class) Oh, that’s interesting Marta, “the dress is her self-punishment.” Maybe, maybe she’s advertising herself by wearing that dress.
Angela: Yeah, I have to admit, I got a little cringy when she said she’s going to be wearing the funeral dress. I’m going, “Oh, oh, that is such a, don’t open up that wound, don’t do that.”
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: So, I was glad she didn’t fit into that dress and, again, I know this is a fictional person, but if you’re a real person trying to fit into a dress that you wore at one of the most traumatizing sad days of your life, and you put that on, you’re going to have some emotions at some point while you’re wearing that outfit.
Jeanne: 100% yes, oh, my gosh. I’m a little bit surprised that she didn’t have anything else at all at home because, I mean, being the wife of a lawyer, I’m sure they attended some events throughout the years; but okay, that was what was in the book. Can I just admit that I thought all along or most along that the killer was Kiersten or Kristen, the pregnant one. I was fully like, “That’s her! Yep, I called it!” and then I was totally wrong.
Angela: I don’t even know where we are. I haven’t even looked at the notes at all with the discussion. I kind of was wondering if it was going to be her because I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen a pregnant killer before? That would have been really interesting to me just from that perspective. I thought that would have been interesting. I don’t know why. I mean, the poor baby, that would have been awful for this fictional child being born in the cell; that’s a whole separate issue. But for some reason, I kind of wanted it to be her in a way. But literally, every person was a suspect; even Sawyer to me, at one point, because she was missing. Nobody really questioned her like that.
Jeanne: Right, right, just the fact that she was gone during that time totally made her a suspect.
Angela: (displays comment by Manon “I would’ve literally gone in the yoga pants”) I like how people are still talking. I just looked up and saw people talking about the comments, “the yoga pants.” (displays comment by lorid927 “I’m hoping in the next book her self-acceptance grows more”) Yeah, I’m hoping her self-acceptance grows in the next books, too.
You just reminded me, this is totally a little tangent digression moment, but I love it when there are events or something, and if you’re taking photos, it’s usually just from the waist up I’m totally standing there in yoga pants; they look black, I mean, nobody knows I wear yoga pants all the time. Right now, I’m wearing the Victoria Secret boyfriend pants, you can’t see them.
Jeanne: There are a couple of people talking about Amber. I really was expecting and hoping that there was some major slight that Poppy didn’t realize that she did to Amber; that would sort of tie everything together. I think the author tried to do that, but the reasoning for me just wasn’t as strong as I think it needed to be.
Angela: So, if it wasn’t Kristen, I wanted it to be Amber because, otherwise, the way she was acting during that entire investigation was so inappropriate and so wrong and cruel and unnecessary and all the other things. That Amber storyline, that character, I know she’s now living in this town and we’re going to see her again because, “Hey, cozy mysteries are murder mysteries and she’s the cop in the town,” but I really don’t want to see her again. She was terrible, she was so mean.
Jeanne: Yeah, and not even just mean, but unprofessional, so unprofessional. Have you not seen NCIS or any of those many cop shows?
Angela: I’m also curious, again, I think after you’ve read a certain number of cozy mysteries or just watch TV, again, with the cop shows, how you could even arrest her for the murder of, it would have been the suspicion of, and you could have held her for up to forty-eight hours, but she wanted to arrest her for the actual murder, not for the suspicion of, that caught my attention.
Jeanne: Right, right.
Angela: And then she was saying she thought she had seventy-two hours until she handed in the report, and she’s like, “Then you’re going down!” Just because you hand in a report, it doesn’t mean she’s all of a sudden going to be tossed in a jail cell, picturing her in like the pinstripes. Oh, gosh.
Jeanne: I know, the bright orange, at least it wouldn’t have feathers, I guess. I don’t know.
Angela: Or plastic belts.
Jeanne: Right. Oh, man.
Angela: Yeah, she was not looking at any other suspects, which included the entire class reunion.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: Every single one of them had a motive and she was just looking at Poppy.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: That made no sense to me.
Jeanne: No sense.
Angela: Also, I’m kind of curious if you guys, actually, can answer this or not. So, I could not tell you if my life depended on it, which locker was mine in high school, I would not be able to pinpoint it. I wouldn’t know my own locker, let alone anyone else’s locker, and everyone knew that was the front of Poppy’s locker. I’m sorry, I know that I’m younger, but if I went to whatever reunion it was, I wouldn’t know it, and she’s twenty-five years out, and she knew it. I would never be able to figure out which locker was mine, and then everyone else like knew that was the prime suspect real estate location.
Jeanne: And, also, if she had done it, why would she take her body in front of her own locker? What? Yeah, I probably would have guessed the bank of lockers that I had, I remember the section, but I could never tell you which one it was.
Angela: No, I mean, people will mention, too, they’ll remember their old locker combinations and I’m just like, “Okay, my brain cells are being used differently, apparently, because I don’t remember that at all. I couldn’t tell you how many numbers were involved with the lock combination, let alone the numbers themselves. But when she literally, like, four characters right off the bat, “That’s Poppy’s locker,” that blew my mind. For some reason that really hit me; I was going, “They know which locker is hers!?”
Jeanne: Right, exactly. I found myself more interested at times in the secondary storyline. I really loved when Poppy went to visit all the neighbors.
Angela: Yes!
Jeanne: I loved the neighbors. I mean, right?
Angela: That was so cute, I love that. I thought it was so great how everyone was so positive about her aunt and how everyone was just supportive of her; that was just so cute; that was the cozy-community element for this book, and it was so perfectly done.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: And, again, they must also hate Amber or have suspicions because when they ever said, “We wanted to make sure they weren’t planting evidence on your property,” I was just kind of going hands up, “I love these neighbors,” that is amazing. They were on her side, and she’s worried that they’re judging her, that they’re going to be mad at the aunt, mad at her, but they were looking out for her. I love that. I was so happy to see that in the book because so often it would have been, “Oh, my goodness, look at our neighbor. Let’s gossip. We have all these negative things to say,” and they were looking out for her; that was so great.
Jeanne: Right. I have to say I was totally duped. The author did a great job at duping me because the few times she mentioned neighbors prior to that, it was always in a very suspicious way, and I started to think, “Oh, no, they have it in for Aunt Ginny, and then it was the total opposite, and it was so genuine, and I loved it.
Angela: I’m glad that they, I love how I say they, I’m glad Libby Klein didn’t have the engineer’s storyline go out throughout the entire course of two or three books of, “Yeah, what’s going on with Aunt Ginny?” We didn’t have to worry about her for too long; it was just throughout this book. Yes, I was upset and worried, but I didn’t have to worry into the next storyline because I would have been so upset going, “Leave her alone!” she’s the best character, aside from the cat and, so, I was just appreciative that this kind of ended within one story, you know, like, the episodic sort of content. I don’t think I would’ve handled it too well if this had been prolonged. I’m glad that this was a short little interlude because I would have been so mad and been so worried about Ginny. So, “Thank you, Libby Klein, for putting me out of my misery.”
Jeanne: Exactly, I’m glad she wrapped it up, too, and it was a very satisfying wrap up for me.
(responds to comment by Elle Wren Burke) Elle Wren says, “Can we get a cozy mystery with Aunt Ginny as the MC?” I’m all for that spinoff. Let’s make it happen.
Angela: I, actually, was wondering about Sawyer. I felt like she was kind of a sleuther in her own right because to me she had those cozy-mystery components, too; she’s divorced, she owns a bookshop that’s Alice in Wonderland themed.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: She has the friends who could be her Watson to the Sherlock. I think she could have her own spinoff, too.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: The way she was written, she could be her own main character.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: I think that’s brilliant; every single character pretty much could be the main character.
Jeanne: Yeah, there were so many who really had enough oomph that they could hold their own in a book as a main character. I’m with you.
Angela: Can we also just acknowledge just briefly Henry, Gia’s son, how stinking cute was he? This little kid, I know you’re fictional, but I adore you. He’s like, “I want to look at the kitties.”
Jeanne: Exactly, and the fact that he was so cute and bonding over his, what was it? A dairy allergy or an egg allergy or something?
Angela: Yeah.
Jeanne: So sweet that he, I love just how boisterous kids can be, and I think this was pretty genuine where he’s like, “I just met you, but come with me to the zoo.”
Angela: “You want to go see the kitties? You want to come with us?” Yeah, he’s so cute. She doesn’t even know who this kid is yet, but they’re just totally bonding. I just loved it so much.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: The way he spoke to her, he was just so comfortable, and he was just so positive. He brightened her day and for me as the reader who was, again, like, “What is going on?” this is really negative over here, then, all of a sudden, things just kind of felt lighter and brighter with him, so he was a really fun addition to the story for me.
Jeanne: I totally agree 100%.
Angela: (responds to comment by Vonnie Jeffers “The neighbors were great! Book Two has lots of neighbors in it!”) Hey, book two has a lot of the neighbors in them. I like that.
Jeanne: Oh, maybe, I’ll reach for that. I also liked, oh, my goodness, I forget the name of the friend who had the daughter who was a cheerleader.
Angela: The daughter’s name was Sabrina. I remember that.
Jeanne: Okay, there you go. I was rooting for Sabrina. I liked that they put her in there. I like that she liked to hang out with her mom a little bit and her mom’s friends. I was like, “That’s a good team, I’d take that girl.”
Angela: It was so cute, though, when she kind of gave them the inside scoop, she’s going, “Did you know he was arrested during the school day?” And if you’re the mom of a student and you find out someone working there was arrested a year later, that’s also kind of concerning. You would think the parents might’ve talked about that at some point; that a teacher was arrested on the premises.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: But she told them; they wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for her. I thought that was great. It was like she was the, I love like how this is what comes to mind. There’s a scene in The Middle of the show with Patricia Heaton where she’s sitting there with her mother and her sister, and then her daughter, Sue, wants to come sit there; that’s what it reminded me of. Like, you know, the young one wanting to sit with the adults to feel grown up; that’s what it reminded me of.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, right. Yeah, yeah. That’s great, that’s great.
Angela: I thought it was funny how she had just assumed she was the girlfriend, but I mean, yeah, they were very friendly for brother and sister; maybe, they were step siblings, I don’t know.
Jeanne: (responds to comment by Manon “Okay, anyone else thrown off by Gia’s sister smacking him on the bum? Lol”)
Yeah, I don’t think it’s necessarily weird that a sister smacked a brother on the bum. I never really smacked my brother on the bum, but who knows? I probably would have come to the same conclusion as Poppy, though, I’ll be honest.
Photo by @_justanotherchapter_
Angela: I’m like, “I have no idea.” I’m just like, “What else did I want to talk about with this book?” because there’s so much to it; it was so interesting. There were so many characters and so many things to just get your attention or just be noteworthy. There’s so much to this book to unpack and discuss. So, I almost feel like this is going to bring the mood down almost, but I’m just going to say, I felt really badly about the John background and I was kind of curious for like the first, probably, what, fifteen-twenty percent of the book, if there was a child, if she had a son or daughter, because we didn’t know that she had a miscarriage and then had the hysterectomy after the fact. I was wondering, I want to say a solid five chapters, if there was a child because she was all alone, and so I was kind of curious if you guys with the finding out about it, you know, a little bit later kind of backstory, if you were expecting or where the child was, or if you were like me, “What’s going on here?” because I kind of had that delayed answer. So, until I got the answer, I was kind of wondering, going, “Where’s the kid? Where’s the kid?” So, that kind of threw me off for just a few pages.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, uh-huh, I was searching for what was going on with that as well. But I will say, I think that Libby Klein did a good job of making her experience with motherhood really kind of gut wrenching. So, I really felt for Poppy about that.
Angela: No, I have to say, I’m trying to figure out how to say it, but I liked that backstory in a way. I mean, it’s a terrible thing to happen, but people go through that; people will not be able to have children, not everyone is going to be able to have the two-point-five with a picket fence, and so I appreciated the fact that that was her character, and I’m trying to kind of say it because it came out in 2018. I feel like it’s still a modern thing to have that in a cozy mystery; it was the Merry Ghost Inn series that a character had a hysterectomy and that was something that she was dealing with throughout the entire course of the series. Right now, I think it’s just a three-book series, but that was something she was very much grappling with, and that had been the first time I had actually seen a cozy mystery have a hysterectomy mentioned; and, so, when I saw this one and how it was a part of the backstory just why they got married, you know, getting pregnant, getting married, and then losing the baby, I thought that was really kind of a nice way to kind of pay homage to the world as it is, the current state like, “Yeah, not everyone can have kids, but they were still able to have a great marriage.” So, I just kind of appreciated the realism of that, even though the book is an escapism, I liked that there was realism to it.
Jeanne: I 100% agree and I think it’s great that, hopefully, more cozy mysteries will adopt some of those real-life examples of things that women especially are going through. I also appreciated in that same vein Poppy and John’s relationship and how she openly discussed about how it wasn’t love at first sight, sparks, and pinwheels. But that she could really appreciate the depth of love that they were able to grow into, and I don’t know that I’ve seen much of that in cozy mysteries either or in love stories because it’s often about the hot guy and “Does he like me?” and all that stuff. So, I really appreciated that we had a genuine love story that developed differently.
Angela: I have to agree with that, too. I liked that it wasn’t, again, my dissertation is on the romance genre fandom, and I’ve read a lot of romances. There’s usually an instant attraction, and when she ever said, when she first met him, he was like the big brother, I was just so intrigued in their love story. I’m going, “You’re calling this guy, he reminded you, he was like a big brother to you? I need more information. You’ve got to elaborate on that.”
Jeanne: Yeah, yep.
Angela: I thought it was so cute, though, that he was a nerd, he was geeky. He was sitting there reading Lord of the Rings. She said she started babbling about Frodo and Samwise Gamgee. I’m like, “I probably would, too,” but I might’ve been talking about Legolas and Aragorn, I don’t know.
Jeanne: (laughing) Exactly.
Angela: There are more comments popping up as I’m just talking.
Jeanne: Exactly, sorry.
Angela: I have no idea what you guys are talking about. You guys are so sweet, though, with all the comments. Yeah, I will just mention tonight, the giveaway is Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide (by Liz Ireland). So, every comment counts as a giveaway entry, and once this video is archived, I will randomly be able to go in and I will convert every single comment to an entry, and then I will randomly select a winner. So, be on the lookout for that; so, comment away. Just a little reminder for that one.
Jeanne: Love it. That’s the book I want to read. I have not read the Mrs. Claus yet, but that sounds like a fun one.
Angela: I kind of love that it’s a mashup of Christmas and Halloween. To me, that is just brilliant. I’m so looking forward to reading that book.
Jeanne: Two of my favorite holidays.
Angela: Right!
Jeanne: I mean, how cool is that? and I’m Jewish (laughs) still love Christmas.
Angela: Oh, my goodness. I just did the Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book Fair with Astoria Wright talking about Halloween cozy mysteries, and I had the best time talking about Halloween cozy mysteries and a lot of y’all have been asking me for Autumn-themed and Halloween-themed cozy mysteries, so I put together a blog post on my personal website with a list of just a lot of them. So, hopefully, that will help, but a lot of people really want to read the Halloween books, so I think Halloween is going to be a fun time with all of our cozy mysteries here.
Jeanne: Absolutely.
Angela: (displays comment by Victoria Hamel “The infertility was well handled. The racial & lgbtq stereotypes and the transphobic aspect was not. I was surprised this book was written in 2018. The way characters were portrayed was more 1974”)
Yeah, I was trying to say, I saw this comment pop-up, “I liked that the infertility was handled that way.” I thought it was kind of nice that she talked about how they had a failed adoption or multiple failed adoptions, so I thought that was really a kind of nice way to say, “Yeah, it doesn’t always play out.” Again, with the realism of life. So, I also think Libby Klein kind of, I don’t know how to phrase it, she kind of like put in the little hints like, you know, with Gia and his son and, maybe, if she becomes the stepmom, she’ll be able to take on that role, and she was open to that.
Jeanne: Right, right, exactly. Sometimes, it takes longer than you expect, but it becomes more than you imagine. So, life man.
Angela: (reading comments) Oh, my goodness. So many and, yeah, people are talking about Halloween. Yeah, I go crazy when I see Halloween decorations in the store.Michael’s, they have their Halloween decorations and they’re putting out the emails of 20% off one item. I’m going, “Make it the 20% off the cart and then we’ll talk.”
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: “If I put together a cart, you’ve got to make it worth it.”
Jeanne: Yeah, this year, I did the thing I’ve been wanting to do for years. I bought plain old throw pillows with not, just the pillow part, and then like twenty different covers. So, just today, I started washing all of my Halloween covers. I’m so excited.
Angela: I am so excited for Halloween this year. I love Halloween Town and I wore the shirt for the Book Fair. I bought multiple shirts, though, it wasn’t just the one. I bought the ones that said, you know, they were the quotes from Halloween Town about “Being Normal is Vastly Overrated” “Halloween, Believe in Magic,” all the little quotes from the show, and I’m going, “I get to wear that this Halloween season. I get to wear my shirts now.” And, of course, I have my old Hocus Pocus t-shirts and stuff, so got to get those out of the closet.
Jeanne: Absolutely. Hocus Pocus is a big family movie over in my house, too. Love it.
Angela: (reads comment by Manon “I love Halloween. My birthday is super close to the 31st so I always get double the excitement”) Happy early Birthday!
Jeanne: Oh, yeah, Happy early Birthday! I was just going to round out and say, “Missy, I sort of felt bad for her.” I know she was the killer, but I still feel bad for her.
Angela: Yeah, there was something about Missy that was sort of tragic.
Jeanne: Uh-huh.
Angela: Because you also don’t know the entire background with everything she’s been through, but when she laid it all out there, my goodness, no wonder she cracked after a certain point. I’m almost surprised she didn’t kill her sooner.
Jeanne: True, right?
Angela: That’s a terrible thing to say, but the way she was laying it out there, one thing after another, after another, I’m kind of surprised she didn’t have a mental breakdown earlier, because there was a lot going on there. I’m still not quite sure what pushed her over the edge, but clearly it was a long time coming that this feud or hatred she had for her.
Jeanne: What do they say? “The straw that broke the camel’s back,” so it might’ve been a tiny thing, but it was just heavy enough to make it happen.
Angela: I know people here said they already started reading book two and three. I’m kind of curious if she’s going to end up in a mental health institution instead of jail.
Jeanne: I hope so.
Angela: Because I kind of feel like that would be more beneficial for her.
Jeanne: I think so, too. I think she needs that kind of support.
Angela: I know she’s a fictional character, but I want her to end up there. Sometimes, we talk like they’re real people. I’m like, “I want her to end up there,” but you guys know what I mean because we’re all, this is how we think, how we respond.
Jeanne: True, yeah. (responds to comment by Vonnie Jeffers “I felt so bad for Joanne. She was so sad.”) Vonnie said she felt bad for Joanne. I did, too, and I don’t understand why she didn’t see value in herself when she had to seek it from Barbie for how freaking long, like, thirty years?
Angela: Uh-huh.
Jeanne: “Come on, Joanne, you’ve got a great voice.” I mean, I’m sure that’s just one of the many things, “Joanne, all right.”
Angela: What was it? The way she decorated the cakes.
Jeanne: Right!
Angela: She was so talented, but she kind of had that Poppy element of that self-loathing self-hatred and unlike Poppy, whose self-loathing was just all internal, I think Joanne’s was all external, like, “I’m going to make everyone else feel badly, I’m going to bully them,” because she was so unhappy with herself. But she could sing, she’s decorating, I mean, clearly, if she was, I know Barbie was the wrong person to have it, but she could be a good friend.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: She had good friendship qualities of being loyal. So, she had things going for her, too, but she couldn’t see it.
Jeanne: Yeah, okay, I’m convinced. I think I’m going to have to reach for the next few books because I want to see how some of these other characters develop.
Angela: (displays and responds to comment by Gina Waffles) I just saw this comment. “I figured it was Missy when I realized Poppy didn’t suspect her at all.” You’re like, “The one person who wasn’t a suspect had to be the answer.” That’s brilliant, I love that. I mean, I don’t even know if I really suspected Missy at all. I was curious about Joel. I was curious about the husband and his mistresses. I thought it was going to be one of the husband’s mistresses or something, but I don’t think I actually really knew it was Missy. I feel like this was one of those books where I didn’t figure, I wasn’t really playing the whodunit because, again, this kind of goes back to my whole like, “The body didn’t drop on the last page of chapter one.” So, I feel as if this was like Chick-Lit cozy versus cozy with Chick-Lit components.
Jeanne: Uh-huh.
Angela: So, I kind of went along like the Chick-Lit route. I’m like, “Okay, I’m just going to read this story and see how it plays out” versus “Let me get my suspect list together,” which is sometimes what I do. So, I didn’t really play the whodunit game this time and, if I did, I don’t think I would have won.
Jeanne: Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry to say that for most of the book I forgot about Missy entirely. There were so many other things that Poppy happened to be focusing on, and I’m sure they were trying to throw our attention off Missy, but if I could change, well, I shouldn’t say that. I feel like for me, this cozy mystery was like, “This is my limit for the number of characters I can follow, and I was just maybe right here.” (holds hands up, palms down, one slightly higher than the other)
Angela: There were a lot of characters because then you started throwing in, again, I think, even for the Twitter poll because I can’t remember the guy’s name to save my life; and again, I had to ask, “Was he the basketball or the football coach?” I was just like, “The coach.”
Jeanne: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: This person because I started remembering them by their conversations or by where she met them, like, “Oh, this was the person at the front desk of the school office.” I just started placing them that way because there were too many, even the names of, again, I love how I remember the name of the daughter, but I can’t remember the name of the friend because she had three friends instead of the usual one or two.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: There were a lot of characters to grapple with.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: I don’t remember the names at all, but there was a table of populars, who sat down next to them at the reunion, and we all learned their different names, and there was one guy there who was gossiping with all the women. I’m like, “I cannot tell you which character was which,
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: but I just know the conversation that happened.”
Jeanne: Exactly. I was taking notes on what was being said rather than who was saying it.
Angela: In a weird way, though, it was kind of good in a way that you just focused on Poppy because she was the main person, and as long as you knew who Poppy was, and who her close, you knew Poppy, you knew Sawyer, you knew Aunt Ginny, you knew the cat, and you knew the two love interests, and pretty much everything else was just, you know.
Jeanne: Extra stuff, yeah. (responds to comment by Regina Williams) Regina thinks “Joanne was in love with Barbie.” That is possible.
Angela: That’s what I thought!
Jeanne: That’s totally possible.
Angela: That’s what I thought! Okay, who said, where’s this comment? (reads comment by Regina Williams “I think Joanne is in love with Barbie.”)
Okay, Thank You! That was one of my thoughts, and I had that in my notebook. I thought, so, again, books are not perfect. So, Joanne spread rumors that I believe it was Sawyer and Poppy. I think it was Sawyer and Poppy. I knew it was Poppy, but I think it was Sawyer among the friend group that were a lesbian couple, and she was trying to make it into like a bullying sort of joke. I thought that was kind of one of those because she really wanted to be with Barbie, herself, like that whole external hate versus self-hate.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Angela: That’s what I thought that was, and I thought that was coming at the end of the book.
There was an episode of Glee that had something similar with Kurt, and so that’s what I thought was coming and it didn’t. So, thank you for thinking like me because when that didn’t happen, I was like, “Did I misread that?” because that’s why she seemed to have all those feelings about Barbie and being so upset like that, and that was how I justified her making those comments. You should never make those comments, but that’s what I thought was happening with her character.
Jeanne: Right, right.
Angela: So, I’m kind of thinking that’s going to come out. (reading comments) Okay, okay, other people are with me! Thank You, Thank You! That’s totally what I thought was going to happen. I mean, if someone read book two and that happened, please tell me, because I was just waiting for that scene. I thought that would have been such a great scene, too.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, exactly.
(responds to comment by Victoria Hamel “I don’t know how some of the way characters were portrayed was approved by editors prior to publishing. It’s really disappointing”)
I’m also reading Victoria’s latest comment about how some of the characters were portrayed and how they were approved by editors. When I read a couple of the really cringy moments of how things were said, first, it was making a disparaging comment about a pit bull, I’m a big pit bull lover, and then the trans woman at the reunion, and then this thing, and the yogi, and the this and that, I was thinking this book was published like twenty years ago, maybe, when we weren’t as heightened as we are. So, I was a little disappointed, too, that so many of those things just stayed in.
Angela: I’m kind of with you on that one in regards to the timeliness; you know, I think it’s so interesting to me with the whole Brittany Spears thing with the conservatorship. We’re now in a state where we’re more aware of mental health issues, we’re more aware of recognizing different things, like, “Okay, this is my pronoun.” We’re learning more about representation in that regard, and so I don’t, in my head, maybe, so if the book was published in 2018, it probably took her at least a year or so to write it or a year or two to get published because this was her first book. I don’t know if she’s written other books, but under the name Libby Klein, at least.
So, let’s say she wrote it in 2015, maybe, I don’t know, I mean, “Were we there yet?” I think we were, maybe it was kind of coming more forward, I’m not really sure, but I would like to, hopefully, think in the future books, because she is still working on the series, there’s another book coming out like, maybe, now because it is so prominent, is so well received in that regard with society, now in future books it will be more well-addressed, more well-written in that regard. I don’t know how to phrase it, but that’s what I’m kind of hoping.
Jeanne: I think that’s a really good hope and that sort of makes me want to pick up the next few books, too, to see how Poppy and all the characters evolve in that way, too, because you’re right, we’re constantly in a learning experience.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeanne: And, hopefully, it will be kind of neat to bring, like you were saying, they brought a hysterectomy into this and that’s a big deal. Why not bring a learning experience like that into a cozy mystery? I think that would be really ground-breaking and pretty awesome.
Angela: I will say, the woman in the jail cell, again, the portrayal, we’ll ignore that for a second, or at least the way that it was talked about, she liked the characters that she was with in jail. She liked those women.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: I thought that was at least one positive. Again, I think, maybe, just because I look for positives everywhere when it comes to cozy mysteries, that was one good thing about it. She was nice to them, and she liked them; they were the ones who kind of made her snap out of it.
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: They were the ones who were like, “Get your life in order.”
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: So, I mean, at least there was, maybe, camaraderie would be the word.
Jeanne: Uh-huh.
Angela: We’re in jail together, we’re all in this experience; I mean, I liked the way they interacted though.
Jeanne: Yeah, I agree. Despite how they were portrayed, the bottom line is they had a really positive impact on Poppy that lingered with her, and I loved that she kept coming back to it. So, that’s a really good thing.
Angela: I thought that was so cute, though, and what’s her name? Again, so many characters. The one who offered her Juicy Fruit gum? She wanted to make her happy, she wanted to make it better.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: She’s like, “Do you want some gum?” For some reason, I thought that detail was just so cute.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: I don’t know why, but I love that. I love that so much, “Gum’s going to make everything better.” I thought that was so cute.
Jeanne: (nodding) Uh-huh.
Angela: (responds to comment by Cooking With My Cozies “Did anyone try the recipes? I really liked the muffins.”)
Oh, okay, yes, the recipes. I’m curious if anyone else? Okay, Cooking With My Cozies, I love that you’re the one who asked about the recipes, that is perfect.
Jeanne: (big smile) Yeah.
Angela: I love that so much, and I love that that’s your channel name or just your username, that’s great!
Jeanne: I did read, oh, go ahead.
Angela: No, no, no, you’re fine, go.
Jeanne: I read a little bit about the author and how she had some dietary things that she learned about later in life, that she needed to change her diet, and she went Paleo. So, obviously, that’s why she, that’s a big contributing factor to why the Paleo Diet, but I mean, healthy is healthy. So, I liked that she was learning new things and realizing after she ate those two Ring Dingsor Ho Hos or whatever they were, that they made her feel yucky, and so she wanted to eat things that made her feel better.
Angela: Yeah, that was something in my notes because I very much, when it comes to eating, if I eat Oreo cookies, I will feel lethargic. You know, if you eat junk food, you’re going to feel it, and so I liked that it was written that way. It wasn’t as if, “Oh, I can just eat anything I want and still be a size two.” No, if you eat something with sugar and more calories than you burn, you’re going to gain weight, and I liked that she did have a sort of realization of like, “Yeah, this isn’t good for me,” and “Since starting this, I do feel better.”
Jeanne: (smiling) Uh-huh.
Angela: She didn’t like the green tea, but at least she’s trying things, and I think I liked the fact that near the end, it seems more of a natural progression, so she kind of went full throttle of, “I’m going to go all Paleo, all organic, right this second,” like from the get-go versus what I try and do when I want to integrate things healthier, like, “Okay, this week I’m going to drink more water. Next week I’m going to make sure I have the water, and I’m going to have an apple every day.” So, I do like the gradual progression when I try and, again, clearly the fact that I’m talking like this, I’ve done it more than once. But she was just going right in, full throttle, and then at the end she was going, “Oh, I’m trying to figure out the Paleo Diet, how I can integrate it here and there.” So, again, the realism of it was kind of nice.
Jeanne: Yeah, I have to say, I am a cold-turkey person, that’s why I can go with her. (responds to comment by Victoria Hamel) But Victoria made me laugh, she said, “To be honest, I don’t want diet tips in my cozies.”
Angela: That’s true.
Jeanne: Give me the cookie recipes.
Angela: Maybe, I think part of the good thing of that is, though, if there are people who have celiac disease or dietary issues who are reading cozies, at least there’ll be recipes they can relate to. I don’t eat meat and, so, whenever I see that, “Oh, we’re going to put bacon here,” I can’t relate to it, but I read it. So, I do like that it’s a different sort of food representation. I think that’s nice. I don’t think I’ve actually encountered any other sort of gluten-free things like that in other cozies. I think I’ve come across references here and there, “Thank you, Hannah Swenson, because you’re awesome,” but I don’t think they’ve ever been featured so prominently like this.
Jeanne: Uh-huh, uh-huh, and I liked that she noted that just because you’re eating healthy, it doesn’t mean you’re having beansprouts for every meal, you know, she made some really delicious-sounding food.
Angela: Yeah, that’s one of those things where, when people go cold turkey like that, they’re like, “Let me count my almonds.” She’s like, “No, I ate my almonds,” she wasn’t counting them like that. She didn’t go super, super; she did dive in full throttle, but at least it wasn’t like, “Hey, we’re going to really rev up the engine first.”
(responds to comment by Stephanie Aurelio “I think it’s cool to have gluten-free recipes like in Jenn McKinlay’s cupcake books”)
Okay, so Jenn McKinlay has the gluten-free cupcakes; all of a sudden, the word gluten-free pops up and I’m like, “Oh, people know things.”
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: Yes, I think that would be nice to have some more diversity in regards to the type of food in the cozy mysteries. I mean, I love my cookies and the muffins, but I see those in a lot of cozies. So, it’s nice when the food is a little bit different and a little quirky or something with the, I don’t even know how to phrase it, I’m going to go with thematic, that’s what I’m going to go with, thematic, because the Jenn McKinlay one, they had clam chowder as the recipe, but that was also in the book. So, I like it when we have things like that.
Jeanne: Right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s fun.
Angela: There are so many comments I can’t keep up. Was there anything else? I know when I asked the question over on Instagram, there were a lot of things that people wanted to talk about with the book, and I’m pretty sure we’ve touched on at least most of them. I’ve put together all the Instagram highlights, which I’m very proud of myself for. I did that earlier today, so I’m pretty sure we’ve been able to answer most of them or touch on most of them, but if there is something else you want discussed, a line of dialogue, a character or something, please let us know, because I don’t want to overlook any of the things that you guys wanted to have discussed tonight.
Jeanne: Yeah… and go!
Angela: Yes, comment, comment, comment. But yeah, I think that was really cute that a lot of people, I’m going to make the screen less so you can see. So, I thought it was really cute that a lot of people already started reading the next books in the series. I mean, they started reading book one and they’re like, “We’re on book two and three and four,” people just keep reading, and I think there’s something super sweet and interesting about that, like, once you find a character or a series you like, you just stay there. And, so, clearly, people want to stay in this world, and I’m just kind of curious, what about it inspired you to stay there? I think it has definitely Meg Cabot vibes. I love her. I’ve talked about her a lot. I love Meg Cabot, and this had Meg Cabot vibes, and then there was some Stephanie Plum vibes in here. So, I’m just kind of curious, what was the hitting home, “Yes I’m already starting book two,” sort of thing. What was it that captivated you?
Jeanne: I tend to fall in love with environments a lot, and so anything on a beach or in a coastal town I’m up for, and then when they threw in the fantastic neighbors, I mean, “Okay, fine, I’m in. You got me.”
Angela: (reading comments) So, I saw people were talking about Aunt Ginny, and then we didn’t really talk about our little cozy companion there, Figaro.
Jeanne: Figaro! Figaro had attitude, I loved it.
Angela: This cat, I kind of loved that it wasn’t his home they were visiting, but the second they were in Aunt Ginny’s house, he was like, “This is mine, now. This is my arena. This is where I am.” I thought that was great.
Jeanne: Right, yeah, exactly. I have a cat similar to Figaro, except she’s not nearly as nice as when he’s nice. She’s nice when she’s outside; inside she’s like, “No, thanks.”
Angela: I liked that at one point he was hitting her on the butt, like, “Wake up, feed me. Wake up, feed me.”
Jeanne: Exactly.
Angela: That was so cute; like, that’s kind of something Max would do, except he wouldn’t be hitting me on the butt, he would just be staring at me waiting for me to wake up, and then I wake up, and the dog’s staring at me, and I jump out of my skin; that’s a whole separate issue.
(displays comment by LadyVal05 “The Gen X aspect was a big part of it”)
Oh, my gosh, this was the comment I hit my thumb on. Yeah, people love the eighties references, too; that was something else that people were referencing. They liked the character who dressed up for the reunion in the full hair and makeup for the eighties.
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: That was something else I was marking down. So, yeah, I thought that was cute, too, as something to be in the book.
Jeanne: Absolutely, it was fun to relive that a bit. I graduated high school in ’91, “Go Gen X!”
Angela: (reading comments) And everyone loves the side characters. I was just pulling up the Instagram thing. Oh, yeah, and so we already talked about, so, Gia won the ‘Who would you choose’ poll at 83% and Tim was at 17%. So, the love triangle was something other people wanted referenced tonight. So, I think we’ve hit most of the big things that y’all wanted referenced.
Jeanne: Excellent.
Angela: But Figaro, he’s so cute. He’s not on the cover, is he? I kind of wanted to see a picture of how this cat is supposed to be drawn or just, I can’t really get the eyes with the cat. I tried to find a GIF or Jiff, however you want to say it, to use on the Twitter feed, but I’m going, “None of these looks quite like the way he’s described.” So, I want an actual Figaro. I’m pretty sure Libby Klein has cats all over the place on her, I want to say, “the website,” they pop up on her Twitter feed. Like, “Is that supposed to be Figaro in that one?” because now I’m curious. I know she has a cat pop up in different places and it’s so cute. You guys know how we have Purrlock dressed up as Sherlock, her cats are also dressed up like a little sleuther; it’s super cute. It’s a really cute image.
Jeanne: Yeah, every time Figaro flopped, I was like, “I get that.” We have a cat who will stop in the middle and look at you and then just go plop.
Angela: I love it when, was it Aunt Ginny, who pushed him with the foot into another room?
Jeanne: (laughing) Yeah, yeah, and he just let her do it.
Angela: The cat didn’t, he didn’t even respond. She just pushed him with the foot into another room. I’m going, “How lazy can this cat be?” I’m also not really sure if I like the fact that she was using her foot to push him, you know, when people tug on leashes too hard, I also mentally note that one as well. But she just pushed him, and he didn’t even respond.
Jeanne: Right, he was just, “Fine, whatever.”
Angela: (responds to comment by Sharon Elizabeth “Figaro is on the cover of book 2”) Okay, I’ve got to go look at the cover of book two. I want to see what Figaro looks like.
I think we’ve hit on all of my notes actually. So, if you guys have any other questions or comments about the book, I think I’ve said, I mean, there’s so much to this book. Even if there were a couple of moments, this was a really interesting read for me, so I was there for it. I wanted to see what happened. I wanted to see how Poppy changed and evolved, and I wanted to see about Aunt Ginny. I was there for it. I mean, it’s a sad backstory, but when it started, I was in it from the beginning.
Jeanne: The banter had me. I couldn’t put it down because of the banter. I think it was super clever, and I think Libby Klein has a real knack for that type of dialogue, which I really enjoy.
Angela: Yeah, again, I think the pop culture references and all the different references (reading comments) I like how you guys are mentioning the reunions. I thought it was really great to have all the different songs mentioned and to mention all the different looks, and then even to just have other sort of contemporary references. I even like the fact that she had the makeup brands, and they were actual makeup brands like it was Smashbox. I saw that, and then there was another pallet that was indirectly referenced, but I still knew what she was talking about, and I love it when authors are able to do that, and I don’t think a lot put in the names like that. A lot of them try, and this is why I think I’ve had the Meg Cabot thing come in my head. A lot of times, editors and people, when they do those sort of pre-reads, they’ll say, “Okay, if you put in too many references, the book is going to become dated very quickly.” Well, maybe, but maybe not, because everything at some point is going to be historical, I mean, books that were published in the nineties are different than books being published today, like, everything eventually ages, so almost like “Why not have those references? Why not put in the pop culture stuff?”
Jeanne: Yeah.
Angela: Because as a reader, I loved it. I thought it was great.
Jeanne: Yeah, I recently re-read a series of, I think, Thrillers by Harlan Coben, Myron Bolitar series. They were written in the nineties, and they had all these crazy like pagers and stuff, but I still loved it just as much. I mean, it was just a time capsule. I was in for it.
Angela: I mean, yeah, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have those references, and I think a lot of writers fall into the trap of feeling as if they can’t have them; or, my favorite is when there’s a fictional social media platform and I’m going, “Okay, I know this is your version of Facebook. I know this is your version of Twitter. You can just say, this is Twitter.” It’s a little much sometimes when there’s this need to not name something. So, I liked that she actually just flat out said, “Oh, they’re posting photos to their Facebook page.” She just used it, it was great. I didn’t have to go, “Wait, what? What is this social platform?”
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: Because there’s one author, it took me a minute because she actually had to say on her website, “Oh, this is the social media platform I created,” because she was referencing it throughout the book. I’m going, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jeanne: Yeah, yeah.
Angela: It went right over my head. (reading comments) Hey, more Harlan Coben fans!
Jeanne: Sorry, I hijacked with Harlan Coben there for a second.
Angela: No, I kind of fell into the Harlan Coben with the Netflix adaptations.
Jeanne: Yeah, yeah.
Angela: There was, oh, my gosh, I can’t think of the name of it, but there was one that’s so good! There was one that was amazing, and I was there for it from the beginning to end, and I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head.
Jeanne: Safe?
Angela: That one’s great.
Jeanne: The Stranger?
Angela: That one!
Jeanne: Yeah, that was good.
Angela: The Stranger, that was the one; that was really well done. I was there for that mystery. I’ve also been there for the Hulu series, Only Murders in the Building. That’s another thing I’ve been going for.
Jeanne: Yes! Me, too. Our whole family, my husband and my teenage daughter and I, we watch it together as a family, and I keep telling my kid, “When are you coming home? because we have to watch a new episode.”
Angela: Oh, my goodness, I am, yeah, I actually went back to the beginning to watch because I can’t stand waiting week to week. This is killing me. I like bingeing stuff, “What are you doing to me, Hulu?”
Jeanne: Yeah, and now that The Great British Bake Off is back. I mean, I am thrilled.
Angela: It’s still week to week, though.
Jeanne: I know it is, but I rewatch them sometimes.
Angela: Oh, no, I’m starting, I’m going back to the beginning. I’m going back to Martha and Nancy and coming back from there.
Jeanne: Nice.
Angela: Because I can’t watch it week to week; it’s too frustrating to me. I need to be able to know what happens. Again, this is why I needed to figure out the love triangle early on, you can see a pattern with my thinking. (laughs) I need to know the answer. But, at least, with Only Murders in the Building, you start with the ending and then you figure out how they got there.
Jeanne: I know, that’s such a fun quirk, and I love Steve Martin and Martin Short. FYI, Martin Short’s autobiography is phenomenal.
Angela: He is so amazing on the show.
Jeanne: (nodding) Right.
Angela: There’s a really random moment where he’s wearing these colorful clothes and a taxi stops as if it almost hit him, and he’s going, (moving her hands up and down, fingers pointed in towards her body) “How did you miss this!?”
Jeanne: (laughs) Exactly.
Angela: And the way he says it is just so funny. I mean, it’s such a simple line, but the way he delivers it is just brilliant.
Jeanne: (nodding) Exactly, exactly.
Angela: I love how we’re just pumping up their show.
Jeanne: Right.
Angela: So, I flipped to my notes at the end. So, if anyone has any other thoughts, questions about the book, please comment them now. I was going to say, “I learned all these cool things within StreamYard that I can do,” and so I wanted to see if I could utilize them, see if I got this.
So, as you guys figure out your comments or last-minute questions, I did want to mention the Buddy Read information. Let’s see if this will work. (displays a large, informative chart of book covers and dates for The Cozy Mystery Book Club Buddy Read) Will this go? Yes!
Jeanne: Oh! (clapping) Nice job!
Angela: Okay, I’m loving this. So, I uploaded all of the Buddy Read information to the website, so there is officially a Buddy Reads’ page; it says Buddy Reads underneath the Chatting Cozies link, and it has all of the info about the Library Lovers Mystery series, and you guys seem to love this series, and I wanted to make sure that I answered all of your questions. So, there is a link on the page in that regard; it has answers to the dates that we’re reading the titles. I’m really hoping that you guys like everything that’s going on right now; everything is organized for October in regards to having Instagram Challenges. So, when it comes to The Cozy Mystery Book Club, I want to put the little (displays image #SherlockHamsters) oh, here we go!
Jeanne: Oh, it’s so cute!
Angela: So, one of the things that I really wanted to do for The Cozy Mystery Book Club was to make sure I utilized all of the different social media platforms because I know not everyone can join all of the events all the time, and not everyone has capabilities for all the events. So, I wanted to make sure I was doing things across platforms and with different technology, and this one I’m kind of making it more Instagram focused. So, we have Cozy Corner Chats, which are the second Tuesday of the month, and those are on Twitter, and now we have this, which is, hopefully, the Instagram, and the Livestreams, which are, obviously, YouTube.
So, now, hopefully, this will be our Instagram component, and what I did was I created the Instagram Challenges around book two; so, if you guys liked that, please let me know. If you want to help me develop the future Instagram Challenges for the next books in the series, please send me your thoughts, your responses, what you like, and what you hope to get out of the Buddy Reads. I have been working really hard on this, and I’m really excited to see what happens.
Jeanne: Angela, on behalf of everybody who’s here, I just have to say, “Thank You So Much for all the amazing, fantastic things that you do for The Cozy Mystery Book Club.” I think you are amazing, and you really brighten my day and my months because I look forward to this every month.
Angela: Aww, Thank You! I really do love this Book Club so much, and I get really emotional talking about it because this Club has really meant a lot to me over the last couple of years. This has become my happy place. You know, cozy mysteries are where I go to seek positivity and laughter and enjoyment because my dissertation has been very, very difficult and every time I go to relax, I’m like, “What can I do for The Cozy Mystery Book Club?” because every time I do something, it makes me feel better that I’m doing something for you guys because you mean so much to me.
So, I’ve been working on 12 Days of Cozies for the longest time; what ends up happening is I’ll put on something on Netflix or Hulu or whatever and like last night, I had a Murder, She Wrote episode on and I’m like, “Let me make sure I have the Instagram template look like this.” So, I’ll have my Murder, She Wrote on in the background, and then I’ll be working on the Instagram template and that makes me happy. I love doing that stuff for y’all; it is an absolute pleasure, and I’m really happy that you like what I’m doing.
Jeanne: We love it!
Angela: Well, I’m glad. I really want to do a good job for y’all, so I’m really hoping the Buddy Read answers your prayers in the way that you wanted it to go. So, if you have any thoughts about how to organize it for the future, please let me know because I’m pretty sure everything has been organized properly for October; so, come November, give me your feedback. You guys are so sweet as I start blushing. So, yep, you guys, we’re officially (displays image) #SherlockHamsters.
Jeanne: Sherlock Hamsters, I love it.
Angela: And then what else was there? So, when I came over here, I lost the comment section, so I’m just going back to see if there was any other things you guys have questions for.
Jeanne: (reading comments) People are just being the sweetest, most wonderful.
Angela: (reading comments) You guys are going to make me cry. I love you guys; it really is my absolute pleasure; that makes me so happy.
(responds to comment by Crystal Tea Knits “Definitely love that the buddy read is on Instagram. I don’t get Twitter, so I miss the things with the author, so excited to reread these books”)
Oh! Thank You! I’m glad to see Crystal. Thank You, Crystal Tea Knits, you like that it’s on Instagram. Okay, that makes me happy. I’m glad that my thought process is working because sometimes I’m like, “This makes sense to me, does it make sense to somebody else?” That’s kind of my life.
And then what we figured out, I love this, let’s see if I can do this properly, (displays colorful font image Sleuthing Tuesdays) ha, ha! I made these on Procreate, too. I really went for it when it came to making these items with the fonts and the colors. I really put in the time.
So, we’re going to be using the hashtag Sleuthing Tuesdays (#SleuthingTuesdays) for all Buddy Reads. But for this particular Buddy Read, (displays image #SherlockHamsters) we’re the Sherlock Hamsters. This way, all Buddy Read information for the Library Lovers is going to be under one heading for Instagram and Twitter.
And, I looked into this, I don’t know why there are only two, there was one person who posted, I’m not even sure if it was a hamster, we’re going to have to look back. There were only two posts for Sherlock Hamster, but we are Hamsters. We are Sleuthers. We’re groups, so there’s an ‘s’ on it, and nobody has used this before, so we are unique in that regard.
Jeanne: Excellent. Power to the people, to the Sleuthers.
Angela: And then I will just mention, I was looking down (at my notes) to make sure I mentioned it; so, if you post a photo of any of our Books of the Month, please let me know because I will send you a bookmark as a Thank You and, obviously, I fill up the envelope with other little swag and goodies because I can’t help myself, because I love you guys.
But what I did is, I also officially made a page for International Sleuthers because this is just me, U.S. postage is going up, too. So, for International Sleuthers, I made a page for y’all. So, if you post a photo, I will send you the password to access exclusive content as a Thank You because I can’t mail you anything, but you will get exclusive bookmarks. I designed a lot of them, and I had the best time designing them. So, that is something I added and, hopefully, that will be okay because I can’t mail Internationally. I just can’t; unfortunately, I wish I could. I’ve been trying to figure out a future Giveaway that would probably be a twenty-dollar Barnes and Noble Gift Card that would be International, but mailing a bookmark Internationally didn’t really make sense. So, what I did was, I created all these designs so y’all can print them out or do double-sided printing and get creative with them and mix and match. So, I did add something else that’s new; always doing something new.
Jeanne: That is so amazing, Angela, I love it.
Angela: Again, I love y’all, so I want to make sure you guys know that I appreciate you. I want to make sure I answer, you know, if there’s a need, I want to try and fill it. I felt badly that I can’t do International Shipping, so I was going, “What can I do instead?” so I came up with, I want to say, twelve different bookmark designs. So, if you guys want, I will give you the password to the page and you can go in and print and get creative and, obviously, because I’m me, I also threw in an extra coloring page because I can’t help myself; it couldn’t just be the bookmark, there had to be another extra in there, too.
Jeanne: So great; that’s fantastic. You’re amazeballs.
Angela: And let’s see if I can do this again with the overlay. I was so proud of myself that I learned how to do this stuff.
(displays colorful informative chart listing September, October, November, December book covers for The Cozy Mystery Book Club TBR)
So, yay! So, we have our future reads. I love that this came out the way this looks, right now. So, obviously, today was Class Reunions are Murder. October is One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon, and I am so looking forward to this book. This has been on my To-Be-Read list since it came out, and I knew you guys were going to want to read this book so I put it aside and, eventually, it won, and I’m so glad that I get to read it for the first time with everybody. So, fingers crossed that everyone loves it. I think we’re going to. November is Death of a Kitchen Diva by Lee Hollis and then December is In Peppermint Peril by Joy Avon, and that is going to be our Buddy Read.
Jeanne: Excellent.
Angela: Ha, ha! I can still do the overlays! I really got into this you guys. (displays stunning white-font image of The Cozy Mystery Book Club TBR with Club Mascot MoriarTEA placed over Jeanne’s head)
Jeanne: Oh! Look at that! (gestures with open hands looking up at image)
Angela: Yeah, I was like, “These are our books.” So, I’m hoping you guys are able to get your copies, you’re able to read them, and partake. Oh, and I forgot I even had this overlay for the Buddy Read information. I forgot I made this!
(displays images of three colorful informative outlines explaining the Instagram Photo Challenge for October’s Buddy Read using the hashtag #SherlockHamsters)
Jeanne: You do so much that you don’t even remember all the stuff that you do!
Angela: Well, I even did the little one for Buddy Read (displays colorful font image placed over Jeanne’s head) and then it can pop up over there, too, so we can find the Buddy Read. Let’s see (points to the words on screen) Buddy Read, and then we got, “Buddy Read, Buddy Read” (displays colorful font image in front of herself while Jeanne attempts to point to it).
Jeanne: Oh, wrong way (smiles then successfully points to it).
Angela: (laughs) As soon as I realized I could start doing this, you guys know future livestreams are going to have all sorts of stuff now, right?
Jeanne: (nodding) It better, I love it, 100%.
Angela: Yeah, I even threw in the extras as backup for,
(displays promotional image for social media icons and mascot pertaining to MEET #COZYCORNERCHAT’S CASEY)
you know, we now have Casey for future Cozy Corner Chats and that actually reminds me, these are the authors for October:
(displays logo of Casey with profile-picture images [with individual Twitter icons] for October’s Cozy Corner Chat Featured Authors: Catherine Bruns, Mollie Cox Bryan, Lee Hollis, Jessica Thompson)
Jeanne: Fantastic!
Angela: So, we have four authors for the second Tuesday of the month; second Tuesday of the month, Twitter Authors Chat, ask them all your cozy questions. So, we have four authors next time, including, I was going to say, “We’ve already read Mollie Cox Bryan,” so I was going to say, including one of the authors we’ve read for the Book Club. So, you can, hopefully, ask her questions about her characters and, hopefully, introduce you to some of your new favorite cozy mystery authors and, plus, Lee Hollis, they’re a brother-and-sister writing duo, I’m pretty sure. So, their book is on our TBR, too, so you can ask them all sorts of questions about something that’s coming up.
Jeanne: Awesome; that’s going to be great.
Angela: (responds to comment by MrsMcD918 “Angela, my daughter Mary says thank you for our bookmarks you sent! Thank You!!”) Oh, you’re very welcome for your bookmarks.
Jeanne: That’s sweet.
Angela: It’s my pleasure to send them to you. It’s so funny, I didn’t realize this, again, trying to figure out things as the Club progresses. So, I figured out that there are people who are posting the Book of the Month, every month. So, if you post four months in a row, you are going to get either a Book Club enamel pin or, I think I only have one left here, so I’m going to probably have to do another order. I was going to see if I could hold it up, but you’ll get an enamel pin or a keyring keychain. The enamel pin features MoriarTEA, our logo, and the keychain features Purrlock. So, four months in a row, extra bonus swag.
Jeanne: Incredible. “Swag of the Year, Winner,” that’s you. “Swagmaker of the,” I don’t know, I’m not saying things well.
Angela: Well, y’all are just so great and so sweet it’s really hard not to want to go above and beyond to do extras. I even went, and this one didn’t come out quite the way I wanted, it’s going to look really big on the screen (displays a colorful large font with the word Sleuther) but I did a whole new line for Zazzle with you guys wanting extra things that said Sleuther on them. So, there are all sorts of extra mugs and t-shirts and stuff now. So, hopefully, I fulfilled that desire, too.
Jeanne: Fantastic.
Angela: Every time you guys ask for something, I try and answer; and then mark your calendars, the last note I have is for December 1st. I’ve been planning this event for the longest time. I’m like, “I can’t believe it’s almost here.” 12 Days a Cozies, December 1st, it’s starting.
Jeanne: I’m so excited for 12 Days of Cozies!
Angela: I have been working on this and I’m really excited. I just went into the Author Interest Form, I had already had thirteen authors, all of whom are very well-known within the cozy-mystery world, and now we’re up to twenty-five authors partaking in the event.
Jeanne: Amazing.
Angela: So, things are going to get very interesting and busy and cozy. So, I’m sure you guys are going to love it! I am so pumped to have this organized and be able to do it across platforms. So, no matter what platform you’re on, Instagram, Twitter, I have the email Newsletter, we’ve got the website with the blog posts, I am going to have you covered, I promise. I’ve been working on this, I’ve got you. I’ve got it covered. You’re going to be cozy December 1st through 12th like you’ve never seen before, I promise.
Jeanne: I am 100% in, cannot wait!
Angela: So, I just thought I’d mention it because make sure you stay on the lookout for all that information. I’m going to be revealing stuff leading up to 12 Days, obviously. There’s going to be all the Instagram Challenges, there’s going to be the Author Reveals, so much, so just stay on the lookout. Things are coming your way and, hopefully, you like it.
Jeanne: Will do!
Angela: And let’s see, I did have one more thing that I thought you guys were going to think was cute, where did it go?
(displays an image of the book cover Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide by Liz Ireland next to words The Cozy Mystery Book Club September 2021 Giveaway)
And then tonight, we have the Book Club Giveaway.
Jeanne: So cute.
Angela: So, all of your comments, everybody who’s commented, I will go back, and you guys are entered to win this book.
Jeanne: Awesome.
Angela: I love how these came out. I even did our thumbnail (displays tonight’s YouTube livestream image showing the cover of Class Reunions are Murder and headshot pictures of Angela and Jeanne) just to put it in there at one point.
Jeanne: I love it!
Angela: I made the background match the cover of the book and I even have this one (displays The Cozy Mystery Book Club logo MoriarTEA in front of images of previous Book Club reads) I don’t even know what I plan to do with this one, but I thought it was just cute, so I did it.
Jeanne: Super cute.
Angela: So, I’m going to have to get creative with some more of these overlays that I can do for future livestreams (displays a large brown font #Sleuthing). I really was having a good time. I mentioned on Twitter that I learned how to do stuff; this was what I learned.
Jeanne: Nice, and you’re, obviously, very proficient because those are amazing.
Angela: I can’t help myself. As soon as it comes to this Book Club, my heart is in it 110%. I really can’t help it, as soon as it comes to Sleuthers, I’m going to learn it inside out because I want to do a good job for y’all.
Jeanne: All right.
Angela: Let’s see, I think if I can go back to the comments, there we go. So, I think that is all of my announcements, updates for tonight. If you guys had any last-minute questions or thoughts, please comment now because otherwise I’m pretty sure my voice is going to give out because I’m an introvert and I’m not used to talking this long.
Jeanne: Thank you so much for letting me co-host. I had a fantastic time.
Angela: So, this woman is amazing. If you’re not already following her on all of her social media platforms, please do so. I think they’re already in the comment box, but I will add them to the comment box, if they’re not already there. I will add them to the comments themselves. I will post about them on Instagram and Twitter. I’ve been tagging her as I’ve been posting about this night. She is so amazing and so sweet, and I just want to give her all the shoutouts and all the virtual hugs because she’s been a Sleuther with us for a long time and, obviously, based on tonight, she is sweet and eloquent and all the other positive things in the world. So, Thank You for joining me tonight and being my hostess.
Jeanne: My pleasure, totally.
Angela: I really just want to virtually hug her. I don’t know how you can do it.
Jeanne: I know, right.
Angela: Yeah, it’s one of those, I mean, I know it’s virtual, but she’s a friend, she’s amazing. Just all the shoutouts and love! So, Thank You for joining me, and you guys are so amazing for joining tonight. I think at one point we had something like fifty-plus people watching.
Jeanne: Wow.
Angela: That might be a new record. As soon as I saw that, my heart started beating and I’m going, “Oh, my gosh, they’re watching, they’re joining the conversation!” And even right now, there are thirty-seven of y’all, that is so incredible!
Thank You for taking time out of your day to celebrate cozy mysteries with us, that is just mind blowing to me. I’m so appreciative of you reading the book, chatting about it. Thank You So Much! You guys are so amazing. I really do love you guys with all my heart, you guys make me so happy. Thank You for being here tonight, you guys are everything.
So, I’m glad you liked the book! For the most part, I’m glad everyone seemed to be in Team Gia. I mean, we all seem to be on the same wavelength with that guy, seems like he’s winning, so I can’t wait to see what happens next with that. And if you guys do read the next books in the series, please let me know because I want to know your thoughts.
Jeanne: Me, too!
Angela: (reading comments) Aww, that’s so cute. You guys are so sweet. I wasn’t looking at the comments then, all of a sudden, they just pop up, but Thank You guys so much and please stay safe and healthy. Please keep reading cozies and I want everything to go well for you, so please take care of yourselves. We talked about this tonight, self-love, self-care, do it.
Jeanne: 100%. You guys all deserve it. Love, big love.
Angela: Yeah, I was going to say, this group, we need to take care of each other, and you guys are so positive and so amazing, you deserve just all the best, so Thank You for joining us tonight. I’m going to hit the End Broadcast and, hopefully, end on a positive note. Thank You for joining us! (waves) Bye, everyone.
Jeanne: (waves) Bye.
Angela Maria Hart: @writerahart
Jeanne Epstein @jeannewrites
