Did Broken Country live up to the hype?

This episode's pick: Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall — a Reese’s Book Club favourite that’s been compared to The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing. It’s got love, loyalty, guilt, and a courtroom drama at its heart… but did it win us over?

In this episode, we cover:

Why this book caught our attention (and everyone else’s)

How hype and word-of-mouth shaped our expectations

Love triangles: satisfying tension or too much drama?

The role of setting, class, and family in driving the story

Our very different reactions to the main character

How tragedy and loyalty are woven through the narrative

The structure: past vs present, and how it builds suspense

💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: travel tales, hotel room hijinks, and book club catch-ups03:00 – Book reveal: Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall05:00 – Why this pick + hype factor (Reese’s Book Club, bestseller lists)08:00 – Author bio + past works10:30 – Goodreads stats + ratings snapshot12:00 – Our Kiss, Kill, Marry ratings reveal14:00 – First impressions and what hooked us20:00 – Themes of loyalty, love, and loss28:00 – Thoughts on setting and style34:00 – Side characters that stood out37:00 – What other readers think: quickfire reviews40:00 – Would we read Claire’s next book?

Jungle fever or just fever dream?

This episode's pick: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett—a literary thriller set in the Amazon, complete with pharmaceutical intrigue, moral dilemmas, and one very unfortunate snake encounter. It’s lush, layered, and filled with anacondas, tarantulas, and questionable fertility science. But did it live up to the hype?

This week’s guest:

Pamela Cook —author, podcaster, and teacher. Pam writes contemporary women’s fiction that digs into relationships and psychology. She’s published six novels (traditionally and indie), hosts the Writes4Women podcast, and teaches through her business Wild Words. She also rides horses, wrangles dogs, and somehow finds time to keep her TBR stack alive.

In this episode, we cover:

Why State of Wonder felt both “plotty” and literary—and why that’s rare for Patchett.

The infamous anaconda boat scene (aka: the nightmare fuel we’ll never forget).

Fertility science, pharmaceutical greed, and the ethics of 73-year-olds having babies.

The big twist: Anders is alive (!), but was it too convenient?

The controversial ending—trauma sex, bark chewing, and possible surprise pregnancies.

The unanswered question: who’s the father of Dr. Svensson’s baby?

Desert Island picks, DNFs, hype regrets, and why Pam cries at Emily Henry.

📚 Books Mentioned on the Pod

Ann Patchett:

State of Wonder

Tom Lake

The Dutch House

Commonwealth

Bel Canto

Other fiction faves:

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Pam’s Auto-buy Authors:

Emily Henry

Hannah Richell

Ann Patchett

Taylor Jenkins Reid

💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

Which way did the votes fall? You’ll have to listen in…

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: meet Pamela Cook, our guest author04:00 – How State of Wonder came to be (and the Big Magic story)08:50 – Kiss, Kill, or Marry verdict13:00 – Fertility, pharma, and Patchett’s plot power18:00 – Anacondas, tarantulas, and nightmare fuel22:00 – The Anders twist—too neat or just right?25:00 – The controversial ending (trauma bonding or life affirmation?)28:00 – Who’s the father? Milton, Easter… frozen sperm??32:00 – Writing craft: seamless backstory, moral dilemmas, and jungle research37:00 – Pam’s DNF rules, hype regrets, and wish-I’d-written titles42:00 – Guilty pleasures, crying at Emily Henry, and auto-buy authors45:00 – What we’re reading next—and why no one’s going to the Amazon anytime soon

Is this space book really about space?

This episode's pick: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid—a book that is rumoured to have made her an $8 million dollar advance but may have come at the price of her personal privacy. Part space epic, part love story, part unbelievable side characters and strange snacks. We blast off into TJR’s most interesting book yet.

In this episode, we cover:

Why Atmosphere is a love story that took us by surprise

How the high stakes created good tension

Why we felt we were ‘told’ how the secondary characters felt about each other

Was Joan just too goody-two-shoes for us?

How difficult being gay would have been for two female astronauts

Was it media or reader pressure that forced TJR to come out as bisexual around the time of the novel’s release?

💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: hair disasters, Kununurra trip, The Lucky Sisters tease03:02 – Book reveal: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (spoilers)05:51 – Why this pick + TJR reading history08:58 – TJR bio theory + Goodreads stats10:27 – Quickfire worst reviews12:09 – Kiss, Kill, Marry ratings reveal14:53 – Our ratings explained18:18 – Ending breakdown + epilogue debate24:18 – 1980s setting, taboo love, NASA culture28:01 – Gender politics in space31:00 – Romance vs love story discussion📖 Coming up next:

🎽 Do you read between deadlines too? Grab the merch

☕ If you’re loving the show, we’d be so grateful if you’d buy us a coffee (or a prosecco). It helps keep the pod fun, frequent, and free.

👉Next Ep we’re chatting to Pamela Cook about State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

Maeve Binchy’s Evening Class—comfort fiction or structural masterclass?

This week, bestselling author Tess Woods joins us to discuss her all-time favourite Maeve Binchy novel: Evening Class. It’s a quiet, sprawling book with no clear protagonist, barely a plot, and somehow...it works.

In this episode, we explore:

- Why “quiet” doesn’t mean boring

- The weirdly satisfying moment when a character locks her mum in the bathroom

- How Maeve’s “everyday” prose masks big emotional arcs

- What makes a book comforting enough to reread

- The surprising real-life person Tess became friends with because of this novel

Plus:💋 We rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?📚 Book recs from Tess, including The Bridges of Madison County, Looking for Alibrandi, and The Paper Palace

Next up: The Names by Florence Knapp

Can a Name Change Your Fate?

This episode's pick: The Names by Florence Knapp—a 2025 debut that’s been dubbed the best in years. It’s a literary “Sliding Doors” novel, but with three parallel lives instead of two. The question at its heart? What happens when a single choice—a baby’s name—changes everything?

In this episode, we cover:

Why The Names is more craft experiment than comfort read

The DV scenes that had us stunned (and one that had food on faces)

Who’s really the main character here—Cora or her son?

Why “Hugh” might have changed everything

How names shape identity—and your high school romance

The emotional distance that kept it from being a “Marry”

💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro, T-shirts, and caffeinated chaos05:00 – The Names recap: three timelines, one decision12:00 – Bear, Julian or Gordon? Which name gave the best life?18:00 – DV, death, and dinner plates: the novel’s heaviest scenes24:00 – Why we rated how we did28:00 – Naming your kids: Sue, Anthea, and the sliding doors of Starbucks34:00 – Gordon’s (the father) final POV and a haunting ending38:00 – Would “Hugh” have changed the course of fate?40:00 – Next up on the pod and where to grab our merch

📖 Coming up next:

Maeve Binchy’s Evening Class—comfort fiction or structural masterclass?

This week, bestselling author Tess Woods joins us to discuss her all-time favourite Maeve Binchy novel: Evening Class. It’s a quiet, sprawling book with no clear protagonist, barely a plot, and somehow...it works.

In this episode, we explore:

- Why “quiet” doesn’t mean boring

- The weirdly satisfying moment when a character locks her mum in the bathroom

- How Maeve’s “everyday” prose masks big emotional arcs

- What makes a book comforting enough to reread

- The surprising real-life person Tess became friends with because of this novel

Plus:💋 We rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?📚 Book recs from Tess, including The Bridges of Madison County, Looking for Alibrandi, and The Paper Palace

Next up: The Names by Florence Knapp

This episode's pick: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry—her sixth novel and departure from pure rom-com territory into mystery/women's fiction waters. But did we want to take that journey with her?

Welcome back to Reading Between Deadlines, the podcast where we read with the same chaotic energy we usually reserve for missed deadlines, burnt toast and re-reading our own bios in horror. This week continues our new format—where a guest author brings a book they adore, and we read it for the first time (sometimes very reluctantly).

Our guest this episode? The always delightful and impressively multi-hyphenate Sophie Green bestselling author of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon and creator of The Sunshine Society Substack and Sunburnt Country Music Substack.

This month’s pick: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld—a book inspired by Laura Bush, drenched in domestic detail, and long enough to qualify as weight training. Was it a hit? Or did someone yell “kill” during the Kiss-Kill-Marry rating?

In this episode, we cover:

👑 What even is a “plotless novel,” and does American Wife qualify?

🥪 Can we survive one more description of a sandwich? (Asking for Anthea.)

💔 Is Charlie Blackwell a swoon-worthy presidential husband or just a charming alcoholic in a good suit?

🛏️ The ethical can of worms: how does one fictionalise the very real, still-living First Lady?

📚 Archetypes, agency, and how women shape power without always being seen.

🤯 Why the ending sparked a podcast existential crisis.

And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Meet your hosts: Rachel Johns & Anthea Hodgson, chaos queens of literary chat02:00 – Special guest Sophie Green and the great bio rating debate05:00 – This week’s pick: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld06:40 – The Kiss/Kill/Marry showdown: who said what (and who changed their mind!)10:00 – Sophie explains her fascination with first ladies, feminine archetypes, and political wives15:00 – Anthea confesses: “I would’ve DNF’d it if it weren’t for the podcast”20:00 – Rachel says: “It was a French kiss...but I’m not putting a ring on it”24:00 – Charlie and Alice: toxic, tragic, or just realistically complex?30:00 – The risk (and craft) of writing fiction about living people36:00 – When you’re moderately famous and still have to go to Woolies40:00 – Books about fame: Jackie, Rodham, and Monica Ali’s Untold Story

📚 Recommendations from Sophie Green

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Jackie by Dawn Tripp

Untold Story by Monica Ali

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Plain Jane and the Birthday Party by Ruth Park (a childhood favourite)

👉 Listen now, subscribe, and tell us—did you swoon for American Wife?

Welcome back to Reading Between Deadlines, the podcast where two authors read with the kind of energy usually reserved for stress-dreams about book launches. In this episode, Rachael Johns and Anthea Hodgson dive into Swept Away by Beth O’Leary—a bestselling author known for quirky, heartfelt rom-coms.

But this one? Let’s just say, our anchors weren’t the only things that didn’t stay put.

In this episode, we cover:

🌊 Is this a fun high-concept romance… or an oil rig of far-fetched plot devices?

🛏️ Why did they bang while the boat was sinking?

🤷‍♀️ Chemistry check: did anyone else feel like these two had nothing in common?

🪑 Contrivances galore: secret logbooks, missing dock ropes, a deserted oil rig—oh my!

👩‍❤️‍👨 Age-gap angst: is a 30-year-old woman really ancient compared to a 23-year-old?

🫣 Plot twist or plot oops: the baby daddy reveal that should’ve come with a group chat first

📚 Plus: Rachael listens on audio and cringes at every sexy scene, while Anthea reads in Bali and possibly gives the book too many margarita points

And of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:30 – Meet the authors (again): coffee, Diet Coke, and questionable memory

02:00 – Why we picked Beth O’Leary and what made Swept Away sound so irresistible

05:00 – The premise: one-night stand, houseboat, shenanigans

08:00 – Rating time! Anthea says “kiss,” Rachael shocks us with a “kill”

12:00 – Why the boat plot lost steam: flat characters and no real tension

15:00 – The romance that couldn’t: forced proximity but no spark

19:30 – Plot twist breakdown: baby drama and logic gaps

24:00 – Is this book secretly anti-swimmer?

28:00 – Our rewrite suggestions: enemies-to-lovers, surprise houseboat squatters, and maybe less rig collapse

31:00 – Does audio change how you experience a book?

34:00 – The verdict: will we read Beth again?

👉 Listen now, subscribe, and let us know—did you get swept away or were you screaming “abandon ship” by chapter five?

This book contains a content warning for loss of a child.

Welcome back to Reading Between Deadlines, the podcast where we read with the kind of unhinged energy usually reserved for deadline week meltdowns. In this episode, Rachael Johns and Anthea Hodgson attempt to unpack the cult favourite Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido—a book that’s been praised by literary giants and passionately pushed into readers’ hands since 1982.

And yet... we didn’t love it. In fact, we might get cancelled.

In this episode, we cover:

📚 Is this a feminist classic… or just a snobby book with a confusing cast of J-names?

👶 That baby loss twist: gut-wrenching shock or tonal whiplash?

🧼 The Goldman family—lovably eccentric or absolutely exhausting?

😳 Roger, Jonathan, John, Jake, Jane—why does everyone in this book have the same name?

😤 Catherine: hot mess, sad snob, or just aggressively beige?

🍷 Plus: how many wines does it take to realise you’ve skipped 40 pages?

And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

⏰ Timestamps

00:30 – This week’s pick: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido

03:00 – Rachael loses her place and 40 pages in New Zealand (relatable content)

08:00 – The literary world LOVES this book. Do we…?

11:00 – The rules: no influencing, just instincts (and the kiss, marry, kill rating)

14:00 – Catherine Brown: the protagonist we didn’t need and still don’t understand

19:30 – Is this book feminist? (Spoiler: probably not)

23:00 – Snobbery, elitism, and emotional detachment—are we just not clever enough to get it?

28:10 – Confusing names, weird family dynamics, and public cervix announcements

33:00 – Have we evolved since 1982? (Yes. But also… maybe not.)

35:00 – Reading regret and the weight of literary expectations

👉 Listen now, subscribe, and tell us—do you believe in the hype, or are you secretly glad someone else finally said “meh”?