Betty & Bonny

Hello readers, welcome back to Betty and Bonnie, the shit talking book slayers.
I'm Bonnie.
And I'm Betty.
Yay.
We're.
Happy New Year.
Yeah, I cut.
You know what?
I actually completely forgot that it was January 2026.
0:28 I don't know why I thought it was still December, because the kids were like, why did you leave the decorations up?
I'm like, because it's December.
They're like, no, no, I'm like, shit.
They're right.
How was your Christmas anyway?
And your new year?
What did you do?
Really good.
Yeah, I know what you're saying about like the in between.
0:46 I have been at work so I have still been on a bit of a schedule, but I get how you've missed it, especially if you don't like go out for New year and stuff because you're in that tween bit.
Like no one knows what fucking day it is.
No one knows what time it is.
You get out what you want, do whatever you want.
You just slobbing around your house.
Yeah, full time.
1:02 But I have been working but from home which has which has been nice and it's not been.
Working at home.
Yeah, I work up.
Yeah, I work at home.
The office is just dead loads of people.
People will generally have Christmas off.
I didn't have enough holiday to take because I used all my holiday on holidays.
I had to work.
1:17 But it's nice, it's quiet.
I got to do some like personal learning stuff and all that shit.
See how that was good.
But Christmas worked all the way up until Christmas Eve was off Christmas Eve.
We went to Harry Potter studios on Christmas Eve.
Fucking jealous.
It was so cool.
I loved it.
1:33 I I liked it more than what I thought I knew.
I was looking forward to going, but I definitely enjoyed it more than what I thought I was going to.
Is it?
The first time you've ever been.
First time I've been, yeah, we've been saying for years that we wanted to go.
And then when I was looking at booking, it just happened that Christmas Eve was free.
1:48 We was all free.
So it's like, yeah, OK, we'll go Christmas Eve.
I thought it was going to be super busy, like ridiculous.
Well, that's what I said.
And I think that it was, we were sort of waiting outside.
We didn't want to go in too early because it does say don't arrive until 20 minutes before.
And it's not until you get in that you see the big fuck off queue and you only see half the queue as well.
2:06 And then it goes, but because my mum's on a crutch at the moment, because she's got her fractured hips really later the works there was we'd only just sort of joined.
We didn't been in a queue about 5 minutes.
She come and grabbed us out and she took us round and we basically walked straight in.
So handy because by the time my mum had got round there, we did sort of sit down and stop where we could, but there's not really a lot of places to sit down.
2:29 Yeah, she really would have if she'd had.
We basically saved 45 minute queue in from that Really nice lady, but I think so done in.
But yeah, I was on like Diagon Alley.
I went into Gringotts.
That was really cool.
Yeah.
I nearly cried when I went into diagonality.
2:46 Not going to lie, it was, I just felt really overwhelmed.
I was like, Oh my God, you know, like because what, the first film, I mean, I wasn't a kid when it come out.
I was up top, but it was just, yeah, it really like took me back.
Well, you must have been a kid when all that stuff come out.
So I think the first movie came out.
3:01 I was what, 1819?
I think.
So the books must before they must have been at least a teenager.
Remember watching it with Sean, like Jack Sean's Jack.
Unless that was before that.
Maybe it went.
Maybe it was when I was Harry Potter.
Books out.
Fuck, it was released film, not the book.
3:18 I didn't.
I didn't do the book.
So I was a reader at that point.
I know, but the first book come out in 1997.
So when was the first film?
Then I don't know movie.
Maybe you are right.
I just no not.
You did the first film come out, Harry Potter.
3:34 But yeah, what we also did was I didn't want to drive back because we had to go across the Dartford Crossing and I was like, Christmas Eve is like the worst day to do that.
So we booked a Premier Inn, we paid like £50 each.
It was like 10 minutes away from Harry Potter studios, it's in Watford and we paid £50 per room.
3:53 And at the time that I booked it, they had free breakfast off us.
We had free breakfast and in because it wasn't busy.
The lady that works there rather than us all like it was one do a buffet on the hot food.
They would come and like ask you what you wanted and then do your plate.
She was like, oh, there's a little group here, shall I just do your little buffet for the table?
4:10 We had all like the hot serving things with like all like the hash brown sausages, eggs.
She brought it all out and we had luck.
A little little buffer on our table.
It was fucking amazing.
It's incredible.
What's the name of the place so people know?
It was premiering Watford N was very good actually.
I'm not really one for always leaving feedback, but when I got an e-mail with feedback, put feedback for that Lady because I just.
4:29 There you go.
That's Betty approved right there.
Made it very special.
And then we drove home that morning and there was no traffic.
Well, there was.
Yeah, Christmas, right?
But just, yeah, nothing.
So and then we still got home by like 10 and then her Christmas Day obviously at home, just a couple of chill days.
4:45 Other than that work.
That was great.
Good Christmas.
You how was yours?
Caitlin came home Christmas Eve, so she was here and we always, me and Caitlin always put together the kids stuff like during the day when the kids are like doing stuff, other stuff.
5:00 So we did that and I bought the kids what I thought was a smallish basketball thing so they could throw little.
Balls.
Yeah, no, this is a full-sized arcade 11 in the fucking basement because board was like 3 1/2 feet wide.
5:18 Fucking caveman's like they have full-sized balls.
Mum, how did you not know?
I'm like, I thought it was a little one.
Hey, yeah, no, it's fucking huge.
And it took her 2 1/2 hours to build.
I.
Bet you enjoyed playing that Christmas.
Well, we had to do it in the basement because you should see Peanut.
5:34 OK, my daughter, she's 7 Trini.
She's tiny like EDD and she's throwing these fucking balls and she's like swish nothing but fucking net every time do.
You remember we used to play with my dad in the garden.
Yeah, we like we have a net outside too.
5:50 Yeah, Every lunch break he would come home and if we was at mine we'd play like half hour and we was always, we sat at the top of the garden.
Wouldn't we just be like, yeah, every time?
Could not do not.
What I was she beat me.
This is like the first time she's done this and we because it has a timer thing on there and nothing but fucking net and even she even managed to do 1 where it hit home.
6:11 Rim went in my basket, but she's already had another one so it looked like she'd like double stacked.
I'm like shit, how the hell are you moving so fast?
You're little weirdo.
But it was so nice like we talked to mum in the morning, we Skyped her.
Oh, I guess not Skype now it's WhatsApp because Skype don't do that.
6:26 No, we.
Always call it a Skype call and it's not.
And no, it's not a Skype call, it's we did it through WhatsApp.
So we talked to mum, she watched them open their Gibbs Thomas.
So Thomas is big on Lego.
So I bought him this really beast of a Lego table with these two little chairs and all this Lego.
6:42 And when he saw the table he was like, not again a table until he realized it was a Lego table.
But my mum was fucking dying of laughter because I took Mike ages to put together 2 because the instructions weren't correct.
No, he was saying it says to put 5 and 6 together but five and six are not even in the same area.
7:01 So he had to look at all the pieces and figure out what was what based on this rather than the numbers on the foot again.
Was he doing this on Christmas Day or do you predict?
Christmas Eve, so we put everything together so that the kids it's it's play ready.
I'm sure Lane, because she has autism, likes toddler toys.
7:19 So she got this like DJ Bebo thing.
And if you push the button down, it will record your voice talking at her.
So she spent the whole morning screaming into it and then chasing us with it.
And Thomas decided he wanted it.
So now we have to find another fucking Bebo.
My God, you said about saying you didn't want another table.
7:36 That just reminded me.
I'm sure it was.
My mum gave you a Christmas present when you was younger and I think it was clothes and he was like, you opened it and he was like, oh, clothes, that's not present, that's not present, which he gets pretty young.
That's one of my mum's favorite stories about me.
7:51 And when I ate your mum's chocolates and I ate a bite out of each room and put them back.
Yes, I've heard this.
And you also managed to get out of your cot in the night and get yourself back in this.
I don't know if this is the chocolate night, but there was also or if there was also one where you got cotton and you wrapped it around something.
8:09 I don't know.
Everybody know my baby story.
Talking about this a little while ago and but I think what they couldn't figure out is because you were still only baby, they didn't know you could get out of the cot.
So bearing in mind the cot is obviously like the mattress, you know, it's a bit higher on the inside than it is on the outside, but you've been and then get back in.
8:28 So when they woke up, they didn't even know you'd been out until they see the destruction that was left behind.
Yeah, when she says caught for anybody in the US, she means crib hots back home.
Because you've just said that and it makes it sound like a military, like a cot for military people because that's what they So I'm like, it's a crib.
8:44 She means a crib.
See this, this word, when I was reading The Housemaid, it kept saying cot and I was like, what's why does it keep saying cots where it uses that word?
Yeah, it has like, like you said, like military.
Yeah, like it's like a fold up edge.
Yeah.
Look, I guess because I was an air kid that we use cops all the time.
9:03 You pack them up, did you like here?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They call them tops too.
I don't know.
It's weird words when you move from like different regions.
It took me ages to get used to that.
Like even in reading books, like I know it's like we're reading that John Mars book and that he was obviously using a lot of UK words and I'm like, and it was like, it was almost like a joke because I'm not used to that anymore.
9:26 You know what I mean?
I'm like, I haven't said someone quite that in years, you know what I mean?
So fucking weird.
I liked it.
No, but.
You like?
You told me to go and read a book.
You're like, what was it called The husband secret?
Did you do it?
Well, I got it on KU, but I really wanted the audio book because I'm like I ain't got fucking time for that.
9:46 But it's they had a load of other books called that.
And I actually downloaded what?
Yeah.
Well, there's one called The Husband's Secret by Leanne Moriarty.
And you know what?
I wouldn't have found it if it hadn't been for you.
And that fucking book was great.
Really enjoyed that.
Yeah.
And Oh my God.
So because it recommended for the book that you recommended, it said try this instead.
10:05 The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll.
I don't recommend that.
I don't recommend that.
It was, it was.
It's supposed to be a thriller.
I'd say the last like 10% of the book is thriller adjacent, the rest of it is just narcissistic women backstabbing like I don't recommend it, don't read it.
10:26 Please do read that husband's secret, though.
It's so bad that it's good.
I was actually laughing at all the turns and I was literally like, am I reading three books?
Am I reading one book?
Like what could possibly happen next?
And he keeps topping it.
And I'm not saying it's good, but it's bad that it.
10:44 I don't think I had the experience that the writer might have wanted you to to have, but I've found it hilarious.
Well.
It's.
Unbelievable.
Like I need you to read it just so I know I'm not crazy.
OK, well, I'm going to do that for.
I'm going to do that.
I'm also waiting for my copy of Bar.
Please don't read but.
11:01 No, I went to my psychological thrillers book group and I was like, hey, my cousin read this book for book club and they said it's like not really a thriller.
And she was like, no, it's more like literary psychological because psychological fiction or something, I can't remember what she called it.
11:18 So I'm going in with that mindset and I'm wondering if it's because you guys thought it was a thriller that whether that's why you were disappointed.
I don't think we thought it was a thriller.
Somebody's somebody recommended it.
I think, you know, like things pop up on TikTok and everyone's talking about it was like one of them.
11:35 OK, well, because a bunch of people said that they really enjoyed it.
So I mean, this is what I think I'm going to go in with a open mind.
Just in case anyone wants that.
The husband's secret that I'm talking about that I think is absolutely bonkers.
It's by Franklin Christopher if anyone wants to read it and send us their thoughts because I'd love to hear what other people have to say about this book, honestly.
11:56 Does he have any other books on KU?
I don't know about on KU.
Well, I'm sure that there is a second and a third book and I am going to read the second book, even though I only to start it because I've it just it got a bit mental, but I am going to read the second book because I'm I just want to know what I'm just going to come out with.
12:14 Yeah, I like books that do that.
I have, I do have it on KU.
Like I because I have so many books on KU right now because I download the form an X amount and I'm allowed like I sometimes I don't even get round to him, but I just finished the Good Samaritan and I sent it back so that I could get that one.
12:30 So I have it.
I will get around to reading it.
But if my net galley list is out of control, I don't know if it's ever happened to you where you've gotten into We called it a book slump.
So you read a book, it's kind of giving you a hangover and now you don't want to read or you can't find anything to like that you want to read.
12:48 And I felt that way about I call it I reading now because audiobooks and reading.
I couldn't settle to a book book.
So I have a book on my Kindle that I was supposed to finish is really bad.
So I supposed to finish it in November and I still haven't finished it.
Like that's how behind I am because I was just order book was the only thing I could settle to.
13:05 So I'm so far behind I've got like at least 12 books I need to finish by the end of January just to get back on a level playing field.
So these are like in your like review.
So you've got like a time limit.
What I was supposed a couple of them were supposed to be for December, so I'm not that far behind.
13:24 Usually 4 weeks is the grace period.
But I feel really bad because Paul Braxton's one of like, I love her and this series that she's writing right now is so good.
And The Cathedral of Lost Souls, it's not.
It's not a bad book at all.
I love it and I'm really enjoying it.
But just reading, like sitting down to actually just fucking read, you just felt like a chore.
13:42 Do you find it easy with an audio book because you can get on and do stuff as well?
That's what I do.
I do it when I'm getting ready in the morning because it's like mindless like doing hair doing make like congest.
I do it in the car.
I was saying to you earlier, I keep listening when I'm doing my food shopping, but then I sometimes I'm thinking about shit, do I need milk or did I need that?
14:04 And then all of a sudden I've missed a bit so I need to stop thing.
I think it needs like housework.
I think you can do it.
Just sit down and listen to an audio book, though I'd have to be doing something.
Yeah, I can't either.
Like my friend JC was like, I just sit in the chair and I'm like, I'm like, I can't do that.
14:19 Like I'm making bookmarks.
Yeah, like, I don't know that's she shuts her.
Eyes and just absorbs into the story.
She just lays there, she shuts her eyes and she just lets the story overtake her.
And I wished I could do that.
I feel unproductive and I hate being unproductive.
Yeah.
14:35 I make bookmarks.
I was packaging orders over Christmas and I can't read and do that.
I can't, I can't do it.
I just, I was in AI, was in a slump.
I was in AI, can't hold this Kindle and read.
But last night I did finish The Cathedral of Lost Souls.
I think I have like maybe 10 minutes after the book, but it's like the epilogue part.
14:53 So as far as I'm concerned, I'm finished and I'm ready for the next book and I read John Mars.
I read most of that in one go.
And I'm wondering if that's why I couldn't settle to reading either, because that book was still on my mind.
But then I forgot I hadn't finished it.
Yeah, it was a weird month.
That book, I tell you now that had so many like ups and downs.
15:12 The first like 30% of that book spoilers everybody.
So it's about a lady who she works for the Samaritans, like she answers the phone like they're there to talk to you, they're there to listen and they're obviously.
So there's a lot about sort of suicide stuff and there's like a two person point of view.
15:30 Well, I think it might have more towards the end, but there's two at the beginning and when the next person and they're talking about someone they loved that has committed suicide, I found that a bit hard, but I also couldn't put it down.
It made me like not emotional crying, but I could like it was getting to me.
15:46 Do you know what I mean?
But I had I read to go to sleep and I was like, I cannot read falling asleep to this.
It's going to no.
So I had to had to read something else to go to sleep.
And then I think I pretty much finished it almost the next day.
Yeah, it's definitely got a lot of triggers in the book, I'll give you that.
16:02 Because there's a abuse like the suicide stuff for sure.
Like that was other stuff too, like.
When she.
Yeah.
Being Laura.
Her name's more again, his name is Ryan.
Yeah.
So Laura, when she was younger, there was a lot of sort of things around abuse or stuff that could have happened and.
16:23 Yeah, but do you not notice that they think that she was lying about that?
Like I couldn't decide whether or not what happens in that foster home was real or not based on what she said and based on what the information that was given out after, did you think it really happened?
16:39 Didn't even think that she was lying about that.
I thought that she got jumbled and she'll take a situation and make it that she's better from it.
Something similar might have happened, but she'll she'll turn it.
Like I think the whole thing with her son, she in her head made it that he was born where was actually something happened when he was older.
17:00 So I thought stuff like that.
I thought that was true because didn't.
So the guy can't remember his name?
The guy that's, yeah, the brother.
Right, Michael?
Well, she she was calling him like two different names during the.
17:16 So you calls him Nate and then at the end you find out it's a different character and then they link, don't they?
Well, no, it's the same.
It's the same person.
So she it made it seem like Nate was her foster brother and Michael it felt like.
David.
Oh, was it David?
Yeah, David.
Maybe it was David.
I don't know.
17:31 I didn't write that down.
But the reason I say this is because they said that she, the foster mum, Sylvia, wanted to keep her, but she was so disruptive.
She was bullying people at school.
She'd done all this horrible stuff.
And it just gotten to the point where she was manipulating the other kid, that social services were coming to take her away.
17:50 But she'd managed to convince the brother that something dangerous was happening and he pushed his mom and she cracked her head and died.
Yeah, I've totally missed that.
So I spent the current going.
That's what the official version said that Sylvia was like.
I, I, I want to keep her, but I can't.
Like there's all these things happening.
18:06 She's doing these horrible stuff.
They decided that she needed to be replaced and she had convinced like the brother to like, like put like to protect her.
And he did.
And that's how mum got hurt.
He ended up in jail because we never thought we never, he never says anything about being abused like he was in jail.
18:24 He comes out, he's basically homeless, right?
And he's like taking drugs and whatnot.
Yeah, but I think that's why that's still that's, I think that's why I didn't consider it because that she says that he was abused when he was younger and that he protected her.
And then when he got older, you would believe that someone that can happen to someone who comes from that situation and they, you know, use drugs and stuff like that.
18:43 So that's why didn't really question that.
I thought that that happened like she went to foster places after but that does.
Make no they stuck her in a group hind because they said she had she was narcissistic with sociopathic tendencies and that's why she couldn't be around foster other foster people and that's what the husband found behind the dryer.
19:03 The documentation to state that she was absolutely certifiable really just from that.
Enough XC.
This is the thing.
It's got fucking like, yeah.
That's why.
But it just had my fucking cock.
What's going?
Because I'm like, let's say that.
What?
Because I know that social services do cover stuff up like that.
19:20 Like, it's not unheard of for them to take a bad situation and make it look like it wasn't happening.
Like the paperwork will say something else, right?
Yeah.
Did that make her go nutty and squirrel shit?
But to know that she was in that house with her, like her mum passed away and her dad kills her siblings but leaves her alive and kills himself, well that would be enough to fucking have to.
19:44 I Yeah.
I was like.
I didn't.
Was there a real explanation of why he left?
Like left her alive.
Well, he told her that you you're a survivor, you'll be OK.
Just make sure that you can kill yourself to to your person.
20:01 Yeah.
Which I thought was fucking cruel, man.
If you not that I think he should have killed anybody.
But if you could, do you really leave somebody alive to deal with that knowing they lost their mom, their dad and their dad killed their siblings like.
And she's going to find all of them.
She's going to find all of them as well and know that they've been dead in the house with her.
20:20 Yeah, it was a week.
She was alone with them for a week before the police came.
Yes, I think that would be enough to psychologically damage anybody.
And this was a question I actually asked you.
Like who do you think was the worst of the two, Laura or Ryan?
Knowing what Laura went through as a child and that Ryan I know he lost his wife.
20:37 Who do you think was the most unhinged out of the pair of?
See, The thing is, his is like all revenge.
It's all motivated by revenge.
So I don't know, I think, oh, it's really hard.
I know like.
We can, like you said, we can say like how she is fucked up.
20:54 Obviously he's fucked up because he knows that this happened and then knows that it might not have happened if it wasn't for her.
But then that's like lengths that people will go to for revenge.
Like, yeah.
And then all the like, tit for tat stuff that they do, like she goes into his house and she the way that it all neatly ties up when she takes the hammer but you don't know at the time.
21:12 And then at the end, at the end.
This is the best John Myles book I think I've read so far.
It was brilliant.
It was brilliant.
But I'm a big John Myles fan.
I am.
I love his work.
Love it.
Yeah, my SO I think we spoke about this before I downloaded a John Myles book.
21:28 I think it's a family experiment.
He was like, oh, you've read the first two?
And I was like, no, I didn't know there was a first two.
It's the dark something.
Yeah, dark future, but they work as standalones.
They do.
I didn't read them in order.
Oh, well, that's going to be my plan in 2026.
I'm going to read those three books.
So I've I've got the one anyway.
21:44 So I don't know if I've read it, if I have it years ago.
So I'm going to read either.
I'm going to do the Marriage Pact which is the second one that.
1.
That's unkind to Unlimited.
So I'm going to do that.
And then I'd already bought it was like 99 P for the third one that I got a little while ago.
So I'm going to do that series.
22:01 Well, I think there's technically six books.
I know that.
I don't know if they really put it into the trilogy, but they all interlink.
It's on Amazon.
It did say book like one of three.
Yeah, well, I think that because that's the official, they're the official ones, but there are other books that kind of Easter egg off of each other because I read 6 in total.
22:24 Maybe you'll have to let let me do these first.
OK, yeah, that's what you got.
But yeah, I didn't do any of them in order.
Like I think I started with the one I that's the only one I got right.
And then I did what I would consider book 4.
Then I did book 3, then I did book 6, I did 5 and then I did 2.
22:40 Like it was all over the place and it didn't matter.
Like it really didn't matter.
Good to know I'm going to do it.
I thoroughly enjoy his books but you're that ending like.
That ends so many different.
Do you know, there were so many times in the book that I thought, why is there still so many pages left?
22:59 Surely wonder this is going to finish, surely this is done.
And then it just kept.
Yeah, it was a lot.
I liked the ending.
I liked the bonus chapter.
So I think when the book was originally released, I don't think it had that.
And that's been added on since.
23:14 So I read it on Kindle.
So it was on there.
And you had it as well, didn't you?
Yeah, I did.
So yeah, I liked the, I like that bit as well.
It was a really good read.
I literally it was one of those ones where you couldn't put it down.
Yeah, I really, I really, really enjoyed it.
And I'm hoping that because I know John Moss does like to do follow on backs, I'm hoping that he gives us Effie's story after she gets out of juvie.
23:36 That would be good.
Imagine the revenge because she is her mum.
Like she's just like her mum with the way she is.
Could you imagine her coming after her mum after her mum got away with all that?
And I you could credit me in the credits, John.
OK, you just Ford Stacey money, no pay.
23:53 And Bonnie.
Obey and Bonnie.
That would be.
You write that one.
It's personal.
I absolutely loved it.
Like I've literally wrote anything.
I'm like what the fuck did I just read?
Yeah, I saw your review on Goodreads and I felt the same.
It was, you know, sometimes when you've read a book and then you have to sit and just be like, did all of that just happen in that one book?
24:16 There was so much going on and you're right, I kind of wish we had deep dive this one because I think that we could have talked about this for a long effing time.
Yeah.
And the other thing I was going to ask is how like everything that happened with Tony, like the husband, like he broke up his marriage based on finding that shit behind the tumble dryer, right?
24:35 Like the assessment that was done on her.
Now up until that point, I'm guessing that they had some form of a marriage.
I know things that like stale between them a bit, but do you really think it's bad that something that happened all those years ago was the catalyst for him leaving her?
No, no.
And you're right, I don't think there was an explanation like of So they've had two kids together.
24:57 Oh, No 3, sorry.
Yeah, 3.
Together what?
At what point?
Like there must have been stuff going on in between that for him to be like, right?
That's why.
Because you're a fucking nut job, I mean.
Well, they said they were having like issues, but every marriage has issues like.
25:13 This though around the time when with the accident that.
No, this was the catalyst for the accident.
They're arguing around when the kid came home and they didn't know he was there.
Yeah.
Because we talked about that, you were like, would a parent really drop off a fucking kid without seeing the other parent?
25:31 They see this was the only hole in the story for me because I don't think that would happen.
I think it would that's that's the funniest thing.
Like if you if you're dropping a kid off and he gets out the car and you're parked like at the at the curb and you're watching them go to the door, like ring the bell and you away from your car, you're trying to get back to your sick kid.
25:49 Like I could see that being real.
I could.
It's like, oh, the board's probably open, goes, opens, it walks in, you know?
Yeah, I guess so.
If it wasn't for that though, I maybe I might need to change my star rating.
So I did 4, but it would have been like 4 1/2.
I might change it to 5.
26:06 I am.
I'll change it to A5.
Brilliant.
The only the only reason I didn't give it 5 was because I felt like Laura shouldn't have got away with all that stuff.
I don't.
I feel like there should have been something like she needed a spank somewhere and I'm hoping that This is why he does another break.
26:25 Is.
That she get the Effie brings a fucking justice.
Then it will be a 5 star.
I need it.
I need the benchers.
I felt bad for her.
I felt like she had a really fucking rough go but Christ almighty did she have like a section of the Lulu land?
26:43 Huh.
Didn't even know they weren't living there.
Had no fucking clue that they weren't there.
Yeah, I didn't know you still met them yet When when that happened and you realized that that's that's what you're like.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah, like she's imagining she, she's like, she can replace her mind and her memories with like, what she thinks happening.
27:04 She can convince herself that something else is completely different in her life.
She obviously had a psychotic break.
I know that she was trying to say she had cancer, and that's why I like everything, you know?
That's why she thought they were all like having problems.
But she literally had convinced herself that all that stuff was really happening.
27:23 Like she was like and she was.
He even Easter eggs it in there because he mentions about how she was making dinners before and she was the only one eating it.
Yes, yes, taking them out somewhere.
I'll make enough and I'll leave it in case they weren't.
When you first read that, you don't really think that about it, because that's normal.
27:43 Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he full the fuck out of me.
I didn't, and the best part for me was it was like Punch didn't see that coming.
Punch Punch didn't see that coming.
What the fuck does that?
You can see that he left close to and I'm like fuck I missed every single.
27:59 One, I like that, like I said earlier, when it seems to tie together and you're like shit because of that it when it's not just comes out of nowhere and you're like, well, I wouldn't have known that, but yeah, I liked it a lot.
Oh.
My God, it was so good.
Like I think I think I'm going to really enjoy the next month's coming out too because he's got a book dropping on the 20th.
28:19 I have it.
I'm so fucking excited.
I got the audio copy, so I'm very excited.
Oh, and I tried to get the vacation and I'm like, it's not an audio book.
I'm like, fuck it, whatever.
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of them on KU, right?
Like he's.
Have you checked though?
Because on mine on KU and a lot of John Mars is audio as well.
28:38 But we don't, for some reason, Canada does not have the audio rights the same way that the UK has their audio rights.
Like is when I do my influencing.
I got a book from Penguin Random House Canada and I'm like, cool.
And they shipped me a paperback copy of it.
28:55 And I'm like, oh, this is exciting.
And then Saint Martin's Press in the USA had the rights to the ebook and they were like, here, do you want this?
I'm like, what the fuck's the difference?
It's it's all to do with licensing and rights.
That's why my influence program for Saint Martin's Press has to be separate from the US one, because they have different rights depending on where you live.
29:15 And Quebec doesn't even get half the rights we get.
Weird.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's a French thing or what, but yeah, they were like, you can't be in this program if you're in Quebec, OK.
Yeah, I was like.
Sometimes I do like before I found Libby or sorted out my Libby I did use to audio from Kindle Unlimited and and it would be Mars.
29:35 I've done a couple of them on there.
Yeah, I don't know.
the US has it.
A lot of the Kindle that a lot of them come with Kindle.
No, a lot of ours do not come with audio.
We have to.
Now what they'll do is they'll say, hey, if you read it on KU, you can buy the audio book for like I think it's like 1 or $2.00.
29:52 Like if you if you do it, you can buy it.
But no, it doesn't.
We can't just listen.
I don't know.
I just we can't.
Sad for you, good for me.
Sad me.
Have you got any other book plans 2026?
Anything like it's just for you.
Well, I've done my always do a Goodreads reading challenge and I try and do what they're like diverse things with the bookmarks.
30:13 I don't know if you saw them where it's like, did you read a book for Heritage month?
Did you do a you know, Yeah, So they have all these extra things.
And I do try and do all of those too.
And it that helps me like push my boundaries a little further for books that I wouldn't read.
And they had one for Black History Month.
30:29 I don't know if you've ever read Octavia Butler.
No.
Oh my fucking God.
OK, so I read my very first Octavia Butler book last year and it was called Kindred.
And I was expecting like, because she's and I probably this was probably so like racist of me, but I assumed it was going to be like, you know, slave stuff, right.
30:46 Like she's, she's an author of color.
Fuck no.
She wrote about this like, colored women.
And it's modern day, like 70s or 80s, whatever it was.
And she was going back in time by accident to her great grandfather, who every time he got into peril, was pulling her from the future into the past to basically rescue him.
31:05 So she was going back into a past where black people are like, you know, slaves and he's white.
So she didn't know that.
Yeah.
And then she's like having to try and, like, work out how to get home.
And it's it was brilliant.
I was fucking good.
So I'm going to prioritize reading some more of her books this year.
31:23 And I'm definitely like I did.
I've set 150 books, which is pathetic because I do way more than that.
I want to do more independent authors.
I'm going to read books that haven't been published by publishers.
More of that.
That's my plan for 2020.
I've set my Goodreads reading challenge, I set 50 for this year, the first year that I've done one and I've first year I've, I've only sort of got back into reading quite a lot last couple of years.
31:49 So I said yeah, I did 85.
So I was really pleased with that.
So 125 for next year, which I think I'll get there.
Well, hopefully I'll get there because audiobooks, I think I'm more in December than what I have done before, and I think it's the audio book I'm going to try.
32:05 That will be quite a challenge for me, but we will see.
The kids for Christmas got me a set of four Riley Saga books, so excited, but the only one left Home after dark, can't remember the other house across the lake maybe, and there's another one.
So I want to get through those.
32:21 I bought myself the Eddie Flynn series, Steve Kavanaugh.
There's about six or seven books in that.
Yeah, do you know what lots of people on my books around I follow.
Absolutely fucking love that series.
Love it with a passion.
Love it.
But meaning to read 1 for ages, I think 13 kept popping up a lot.
32:39 And then I realized it was a series and I was like, oh, to read.
And then it kind of just get getting sort of put to the wayside because it was, I need to buy the series.
Do I want to do that?
And then I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna.
So I've I've got it for myself just before Christmas.
So.
Do that and I have written down more Andrea Marra because I read one of her books and I really liked it.
32:57 Or did I listen to it?
I found the audio book tip.
I don't think I've actually done any of her books.
Have you read the Thursday Murder Club?
Because I know it's a movie.
OK, so they just, I think the author must have just dropped a book and everyone was raving about it.
And I'm like, I want to watch the movie but I want to read the books first.
33:15 It's like these 4 old farts they all live in like a senior home and they solve murders, they scold crimes that have already happened and then they get caught up in a real one.
I'm absolutely fucking hooked.
I love it.
I love it.
Yes, I will.
I bet that's not on Kindle.
33:30 Right, little armchair detectives that they're all older and I'm, I'm, I'm absolutely fucking enamoured.
I love it and Oh my God.
OK, Do you know what I said to you about doing maybe Stephen King thriller?
Because he has thrillers.
OK, sorry.
There's a TV show on Netflix called Mr.
Mercedes.
33:45 OK.
And I'm like, we start watching it and I'm like, fuck, I think this is the Bill Hodge books.
Like what I was saying to you about like doing one of those.
Oh my God, it's so fucking unhinged.
So fucking unhinged.
Like we, we're about 5 or 6 episodes in and Mike's like, if this is how bad the show is, like how like we're both just kind of look at each other.
34:05 We're fucking like, Oh my God.
He's like, how bad are the books going to be?
And I'm kind of afraid now to even buy them.
So what book is?
What is?
It it's so it's a book series.
It's Bill Hodges.
Stephen King wrote a trilogy.
So it's like Mr.
Mercedes find his keepers.
34:20 And then I think he also was like in the end or something.
And it's about this.
So he's a retired cop and he's retired because the the Mercedes killer drive through a job fair where everyone was standing outside and killed a bunch of people with a car.
And this crime was the one that he got obsessed with and he ended up like drinking.
34:37 And so they made him go into early retirement or the killer because he wasn't the court starts taunting him.
It's like sending him messages.
And Oh my God, like the clip on the TV was like, he sent him this like video clip.
And he's like, and it's like, you want to be up my ass?
34:53 And it's got like a little character, dude.
And it's got another dude going up his butt.
He's like, Oh yeah, baby, feed it to me like that.
That's how daddy like Michael, like really, you pick the worst shit to watch before bed.
I'm really almost well, like, I don't know if we can do this.
It's really quite something.
35:09 It's got mad eye Moody in it.
He's like, dude, and I'm like, and he's so funny.
And it is, yeah, I'm grossly like, yeah, I'm hooked.
But you feel like you don't want to watch when you speak first, kind of like you're like, why would you watch that?
But when you're watching it, you're like can't look away.
35:26 No, I can't.
It was, yeah, it's Mike's like if that baby dies, I'm not watching it.
And then the baby dies and he's like, yeah, yeah.
It's now I'm like, do I want to do these books knowing just how bad the show is?
And the shows and movies are never quite as good as the book.
35:42 So could you imagine how unhinged Stephen King is this incest and everything in this fucking show.
Oh.
My God, yeah.
I'm like.
We'll come back to Stephen King when we just.
He's done a lot of thrillers, like there's a spin off character from this book series called Holly and she's got her own little thing.
36:02 We could probably move away from the really graphic stuff and there.
I mean, I'm up for reading anything.
Push the boundaries?
Why not?
Oh, this is this is going to be a boundary you probably didn't even know you had because I know you read thrillers.
I love thrillers.
36:18 I like really fucking gross share.
And I was kind of like, yeah.
I was like, me and Mike kept looking at each other and he's like, are we going to carry on?
I'm like, yeah, like, normally we eat at bedtime.
We have not been eating at bedtime.
No.
So I highly recommend the Netflix show if you haven't watched it yet.
36:36 So what is it called on it?
Mr.
Mercedes, just the first episode, you're going to be like, what is wrong with you?
I could guarantee you'd be like, I think I need to say that we're not related anymore.
I'm not joking, Jack.
I'm not.
What's worse is now I'm intrigued and I'm like, I need to see this shit.
36:54 Just have a little rootsie.
Just have a little look, OK?
Because I don't want to be in this bubble by myself.
I'll try.
I am trying to do DRY January so.
Here you go, I've.
Got some weekends free probably.
Just try and hopefully you have it on your Netflix because I know sometimes mum's like, have you watched this?
37:13 No.
Yeah.
Yeah, that happens to us a lot.
Mum's like, hey, did you watch this?
I'm like, we don't have it on our.
She's like, wow.
Do you know what is coming out on on?
It's coming out on our Netflix.
I don't know if you've ever read.
There's an Alice Feeney, his and hers, and the book was really good.
I like the book.
37:29 It's coming out.
Is it?
Have you seen it?
No, I haven't seen it.
I've read the book.
No 8th of January.
I think the series comes next.
OK, I'll have a look.
I'll have a look.
Hopefully.
We get it.
Sometimes we get gypped really hard over here, but sometimes you do too.
Like I've noticed that sometimes we don't get stuff.
37:46 Just just just try, just watch a little bit.
OK, I'm scared I've got no one to watch it with either.
It don't help to have someone next year.
It don't help.
When the sun's out, it'll be fine, yeah.
Maybe do that.
38:01 It's not like scary scary.
It's just kind of like really disturbing.
Like really fucking disturbing.
Like this guy's mind, he's twisted as fuck and then some.
OK, I will.
I'd I'm like, I have the books in my Amazon cart and I'm like, shall I do it?
38:18 And Mike's kind of looking at me, and we're like, do we really want to know how really bad it is?
Yeah, Witcher.
It's nice, actually, because he read in bed with me last night.
Like, we read for about an hour before we watch TV, and he's reading the Witcher series.
He has to read a lot now.
38:34 He really doesn't.
He wants to get back into it.
So I was like, yay.
And Sammy wears his glasses.
He looks fucking cute.
If you guys want to know more about us, we have our social medias.
We have an Instagram page which is instagram.com/betty and Bonnie books layers.
38:52 We have a Facebook page which is at Betty and Bonnie books layers.
We have a TikTok at Betty and Bonnie.
We actually have a book merch store now too and I don't remember the name of it.
So it's Betty and Bonnie books layers dot square dot site and you will literally be able to buy our official merchandise.
39:08 I'm just about to start loading it today.
You'll be able to buy bookmarks with a podcast name on there, anything thriller or a true crime mystery based in bookmarks you'll be able to find on our store going forward today.
There is stuff on there.
It's just it's not all there yet.
39:24 And we have an e-mail address if you want to send us any of your submissions, of course requests.
Maybe you want to be a Co host, Who the fuck knows.
It's Betty and bonniebooksayers@gmail.com.
You find us on Spotify at Betty and Bonnie Booksayers and Amazon Apple.
Fuck where else?
39:39 Jack fucking everywhere.
Everywhere.
Just Google us, you can find us.
We are everywhere and Jack also came up with a website.
What was the website's name again?
I don't think I wrote down.
Put me on the spot.
I think it's just Betty and Bonnie books those.
Yeah, yeah.
39:55 I thought it was that, but I was like, I was going to write it down, then I forgot.
And the other thing you can do right now is something called Buy Me a Coffee.
So it's buymeacoffee.com/book Pod and we actually put it on there.
Buy us a book.
Because I thought that was like cuter than the coffee things.
If you want to buy us a coffee, you go ahead and buy us a coffee.
40:13 The link will be in the descriptions below.
It's been lovely catching up with you.
I know I love it too.
I love sharing the book thing with you because I haven't really had that before.
So this is really, really nice.
I'm really enjoying this.
Good that we both read a lot at the minute so we always have lots of different books to talk about and recommend and it's always nice to have someone recommend you a book.
40:32 Definitely, yeah.
We hope that you've had a really good new year and that you're 26 is the best reading year yet.
We hope that you have the reading week that you deserve and we'll catch you in a couple of weeks when we are doing what we're doing.
Girls.
That's right, I bought paperback because I'm that extra.
40:51 Nice.
Take care readers.
See you.
Later.

Betty & Bonny

Betty and Bonny’s Holiday Highlights and Bookish Delights! John Marrs and more!

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