Ep 530: Nothing holds my attention like a romance

Summary

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Podcast Summary: What Should I Read Next?

Episode 530: Nothing holds my attention like a romance
Host: Anne Bogel
Guest: Christina Forrest
Date: June 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Anne Bogel welcomes contemporary romance novelist Christina Forrest, celebrating the release of her newest book, The Summer Girlfriend. The conversation delves into Christina’s personal journey from YA to adult romance, her deep affection for the romance genre, and the importance of generational legacy, baked goods, and sense of place in her latest work. The episode is rich with recommendations for beach reads and reflections on the power of fiction to transport and comfort.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Christina Forrest’s Reading & Writing Journey

• Early Inspirations & Entry into YA Romance

  • Christina, a proud Jersey girl with ties to New York City, began her career writing YA romance inspired by authors like Sarah Dessen.
  • “I really want to write those kinds of stories featuring people who look like me with Black characters.” (06:52)
  • A pivotal high school moment: realizing writing could be a real career after meeting author David Lubar.

• Switch from YA to Adult Romance

  • The transition was inspired by reading The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang:
    • “The Kiss Quotient was the book that I read and I thought, oh, maybe I could do this too.” (06:13)
  • Christina describes how reading adult fiction outside of her children’s publishing day job reignited her creative energy.

• Falling for Historical Romance & Author Deep Dives

  • She credits a box of historical romances from a colleague as a revelation and describes reading through entire author backlists for immersive experiences:
    • “Nothing captures my attention the way that a romance novel does.” (14:14)

The Allure and Role of Romance Novels

• Romance as Utter Escapism and Immersion

  • Christina’s reading is about 95% romance: “I read different subgenres of romance... nothing holds my attention like a romance.” (16:51)
  • She values reading as hobby and escape: “When I am not reading a good book, I feel off.” (17:08)

• Connection Through Book Worlds

  • Anne reflects, “I like to know there is a book, a specific book and story experience waiting for me at all times.” (19:00)
  • Christina agrees that reading builds a sense of community, especially for introverts.

Diving Into The Summer Girlfriend

• Changing Release Timing

  • The Summer Girlfriend is Christina’s first June release, intentionally designed to be a beach read. (22:02)

• Capturing the Jersey Shore

  • Inspiration from Wildwood and Ocean City, NJ; vivid memories of boardwalks, fried treats, and family rituals.
  • “I wanted to put that onto the page so that when people read the Summer Girlfriend, they would feel like, ah, this is what it means to be at the beach in New Jersey for the summer.” (23:52)

• Setting and Legacy in Heart Beach

  • The fictional ‘Heart Beach’ draws from Bruce’s Beach (CA) and Chicken Bone Beach (NJ), reflecting Black generational wealth and community.
  • “I was intentional with starting the prologue by describing the house because I feel like Heart Beach is a character in itself.” (29:05)

• Book & Plot Summary (25:09)

  • Noelle dreams of becoming a librarian but is short on tuition after losing her job. She agrees to a summer-long fake-relationship with Jeremiah, heir to a thriving baked goods company, at his family’s beach house—where love may become anything but fake.

• Themes of Generational Wealth and Sweet Legacies

  • Family, legacy, and homemade pound cake (inspired by Christina’s own grandma) play a central role both emotionally and narratively:
    • “We don't tell anyone... If we ever need to figure out a way to make money, we will start selling that pound cake.” (31:28)

• Libraries, Bookstores, & Bookishness

  • Noelle works at “Hidden Gems Books,” a used bookstore, and later at “Heart Beach Books”:
    • “She realized she wanted to be able to be that person for someone else... who was shown kindness and patience and was provided with a bunch of really good books to read.” (34:22)

• Relatable Economic Struggles

  • The fake relationship plot is tongue-in-cheek inspired by Christina’s own student loans:
    • “I wish someone would just come along and pay off those loans for me.” (38:44)

Book Recommendations & Beach Reads

• Current Beach Reads Picks (40:12)

  • Only for the Week by Natasha Bishop – A Tulum-set destination romance featuring messy family history and steamy drama.
  • Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen – A summer of dating (and a bartender!) en route to a 30th birthday bash.
  • One and Only by Maurene Goo – A love-triangle with a magical twist, exploring destiny and choice.

• Best Book Read This Year (43:35)

  • One and Only by Maurene Goo
  • Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson (“talks about a little known history of mixed race children in Germany Post World War II” – 43:37)

• Most Anticipated Upcoming Read

  • Score by Kennedy Ryan (“I loved Real and so Score is definitely high up on my list to read once I hand in this next book.” – 44:48)

Notable Quotes & Standout Moments

• “Nothing captures my attention the way that a romance novel does.” – Christina Forrest (14:15)
• “When I am not reading a good book, I feel off.” – Christina Forrest (17:08)
• “I wanted to write about... this family, who they really love each other, but the house is a reflection of that love.” – Christina Forrest (29:05)
• “If you read The Summer Girlfriend, I hope it transports you to a beachy, summery environment.” – Christina Forrest (45:59)
• “A good book can take you anywhere.” – Anne Bogel (46:21)

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Important Timestamps

• [05:02] – Christina’s background and entry into YA
• [13:03] – Discovery of historical romance and “author backlist” reading sprees
• [16:51] – Why romance is so compelling to Christina
• [22:02] – Intentional summer release for The Summer Girlfriend
• [23:52] – Wildwood, NJ beach inspiration and sensory details
• [25:09] – Summary of The Summer Girlfriend
• [29:05] – The significance of Heart Beach and generational legacy
• [31:09] – Family legacy of baking; pound cake inspiration
• [34:22] – Bookstores and how they shape Noelle’s identity
• [38:44] – Fake dating plot inspired by real-life student loan woes
• [40:12] – Beach reads recommendations for summer
• [43:35] – Best book read in 2026 (so far)
• [44:48] – Most anticipated summer read

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Tone and Style

The conversation is warm, earnest, and full of camaraderie. Christina Forrest is candid about her literary inspirations, personal history, and the joys and solace of reading romance. Anne Bogel's questions are thoughtful and inviting, matched by Christina’s enthusiastic and heartfelt responses—a treat for book lovers, especially those whose “happy place” is a compelling love story. Both host and guest cheerfully share their infectious passion for books, reading as escape, and the traditions that shape their lives.

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For Listeners

Whether you’re looking for a book to bring to the beach or one to help you envision the waves from your own backyard, The Summer Girlfriend and Christina’s recommendations promise warmth, humor, and heartfelt connection. This episode is a must for romance fans, summer reading seekers, and anyone who finds magic in books and the communities they build.

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Transcript

[Christina Forrest]

What I love, particularly about romance. You'll find a book that you really, really like and you'll be like, this was amazing. And you'll look up the author and they've written like 50 other books and you're like, perfect, I'm getting them all.

[Anne Bogle]

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[Christina Forrest]

Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

[Anne Bogle]

Oh, the pleasure's mine. Congrats on your new release.

[Christina Forrest]

Thank you so much. I'm really excited for it.

[Anne Bogle]

Okay, we're talking before the day, but the Summer Girlfriend enters the World on June 9, so it'll be ready and waiting whenever readers are listening.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, just in time for summer.

[Anne Bogle]

Exactly. All Right. Well, I'm so excited to talk today. I really enjoyed your book, but I've been reading you for years and I know many of our listeners as well. And you're probably new to some of our listeners. So I hope you all enjoy listening in and meeting anew to you author. But Christina, could we start by just giving the readers a glimpse of who you are? Would you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, sure. So I'm Christina Forrest. I am a romance novelist, contemporary romance particularly, but I started my career writing YA Romance in 2019. I am a born and raised Jersey girl and I'm very proud of that. Even though I spent about a decade of my life living in New York City, which I also sort of feel like a New York City person still. I worked in publishing children's books publishing for many years. I love reading romance novels, which is probably not a surprise to a lot of people. My favorite subgenre is historical romance. That is definitely my happy place of reading. Reading period is historical romance. But that's what got me into reading romance novels. I was reading Tessa Dare and Beverly Jenkins and Lisa Klepus and from there I started reading contemporary. And it was really the Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang that made me a bigger contemporary romance reader. And I believe that novel published in 2018, I think is when that came out. And from there I went to Jasmine Guillory and Nisha Sharma and, you know, I just Alicia Rai. I was discovering so many contemporary romance authors, but the Kiss Quotient was the book that I read. And I thought, oh, maybe I could do this too, because at the time I had been writing ya, but I wanted to try and write adult romance. And so yeah, it really romance novels is like what I live and breathe.

[Anne Bogle]

I am so curious about the leap from YA to adult. It never occurred to me that, I mean, what do I know, Christina? But it never occurred to me that reading one specific work would be the impetus. I'd love to hear more.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, sure. So when after I graduated from undergrad, I went to undergrad in New Jersey, I took several creative writing classes. And at the time, because I was younger, I was reading a lot of ya, particularly YA romance. I was a huge and still am, but I was a huge fan of Sarah Dessen. When I was in high school, I took a creative writing class in high school and my teacher brought in her father who was an author. His name is David Lubar and he wrote middle grade nya and he gave a presentation on his books and he essentially Made a comment that was. He said something to the effect of, oh, my books helped put your teacher through college. And it just was like a light bulb in my head because I really loved to read. But it had never occurred to me that it was a career, if that makes any sense. You know, I was 17 at the time. I was like, I really like reading books, but I didn't think of it. I didn't think of the career of being an author the same way that I thought about being a teacher or being a lawyer or something like that. I was like, wow, this is a career where he makes a livable wage to the extent that he can help put his daughter through college. And I thought again about Sarah Dessen. I was like obsessed with her books. And I was like, I really want to do that, but I want to write those kinds of stories featuring people who look like me with black characters. And from there, there was literally that moment, my senior year of high school when I took that creative writing class that I decided that I wanted to be a writing major in college. And thankfully my parents didn't ask a lot of questions. They did not ask me, really. I don't think my dad said anything. He was like, okay. My mom was just like, okay, Fin. You know, I was very lucky that they just, they thought you come to

[Anne Bogle]

your senses on your own.

[Christina Forrest]

No, it was more just like I was a very determined kid. I was like the kid who would come home from school on Fridays and do my homework right away. And that's just like a perfect way to sum up the way that I was when I was younger. I think definitely still like that as an adult. But I think that my parents just knew that I. I think they just trusted that I knew what I was doing to the extent that a 17 year old can know what they're doing. But yeah, they didn't ask me any question. And so I was a writing arts major, which I think is a major that's particular to my college, which is Rowan University. And so I had to take several creative writing classes while I was there. And I had a few professors who read some of my short stories, which were primarily middle grade. And ya, they encouraged me to apply to get my Master of Fine Arts, which was great because I had no idea what I was going to do after graduation. And these few professors encouraged me to apply to grad school. And so I applied to the New School in New York City and I was accepted into the Writing for Children program. So then I moved and I was, while I was studying I got. I had a few internships because I thought it would be important to learn the inside of the publishing industry if I wanted to be an author. I was like, I really want. Essentially, I wanted to know how the sausage was made. And my first internship was at Macmillan in their children's publishing department. And I wanted to stay in New York, you know, like a lot of people, I moved there and fell completely in love. It's still my favorite city and it's very expensive. So I needed a job. And so while I was in grad school, I was interning in publishing. And one of the internships turned into a job. This was at Simon and Schuster. A quick way to sum that up is while I was working at sns, I graduated from grad school and my graduate degree, as you can imagine, was not cheap in New York City. And I was like, I need to make all the. All the loans that I took out to get this degree worth it. And so I became very determined to get an agent and to get a book deal. And so what I was working on was my first novel, which was titled I want to be where you are. This was a YA rom com about a ballerina who goes on a road trip with the boy next door to a dance audition. And at the time, I really was inspired again by Sarah Dustin, but also authors like Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins. I thought that I would spend my career writing ya. And I wrote three YA novels, and I loved the experience. I think that there's something very fulfilling about writing for youth. And I loved meeting librarians and younger readers out at festivals because they loved the books and they wanted to see more books like that, particularly young black readers who are looking for books like that. Because when I was in high school, there weren't a lot of contemporary YA romances featuring young black girls. And so I really took a lot of pride in being able to write those stories for young girls who were like me, how I was when I was in high school, who were looking for those books. And then I turned 30, I was turning 30, and I just sort of felt like I had said all I wanted to say in the teen space. And also because I was working in children's books publishing, a lot of what I read was children's literature, of course. And so I'm reading picture books and chapter books in middle grade and YA all day. And I started reading adult fiction for pleasure because it was a way to separate what I was doing for work from my personal life. And a friend of mine worked at St. Martin's Press. And she was a publicist who worked on historical romance. And we used to send books back and forth to each other. And one day she sent me a box of mass market historical romance novels. And when I tell you, I think I read that entire box in like two weeks. I was like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And. Oh, that sounds like a peak.

[Anne Bogle]

I mean, we're talking in June, so it sounds like peak summer experience. Wow. It brings back so many childhood memories too. Of trading books with my neighbor.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah.

[Anne Bogle]

I mean, boxes of books.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah. And it was. I know we would just send each other packages. That was. That's another plus of working in publishing is just like the amount of leftover free books that you find around the office. And that feeling that I had of discovering these historical romance novels reminded me of like you're saying of when you're younger and you find a book that you really love. And what I love particularly about romance, but, like, because I'm talking about historical, I'll stay there, is you'll find a book that you really, really like and you'll be like, this was amazing. And you'll look up the author and they've written like 50 other books and you're like, perfect, I'm getting them all. And you can just immerse yourself in the author's entire backlist. And so for years, I think this might be the first year that I haven't done it, but I usually pick one author and I just read their entire backlist for, you know, a couple months at a time. And it's just like the most enjoyable experience because a lot of the times it's series which then break off into other interconnected series and you're just immersed in this world of this family or these friends. And nothing captures my attention the way that a romance novel does.

[Anne Bogle]

That sounds incredible. Who are some of the authors you've done this with?

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, gosh. Lisa Klepus, Beverly Jenkins, Tessa Dare, Laura Kinsale, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, who writes. She is actually the romance author who invented the sports romance genre, in my opinion, and I think a lot of people would agree with me.

[Anne Bogle]

We like a hot take.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah. Because her Chicago Star series is about a team of football players. The Chicago Stars are a fictional football team and the different women who fall in love with either these players or these coaches. But she maybe didn't invent it, but she popularized it and she made it very popular in the 90s and early 2000s. So I did that with her and that was a great time. Last year it was Laura Kinsale. I read a bunch of her backlist and she's a historical romance author. But, you know, I haven't had time to do it this year. This has been like a busy. The probably the busiest writing year that I've had this year has been. So I'm way behind on anything, any reading.

[Anne Bogle]

I trust you'll catch up in the fall.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah, that's. Fingers crossed that I will be able to catch up on my tbr.

[Anne Bogle]

So do you read solely romance, Christina?

[Christina Forrest]

I would say about 95% of what I read is romance. I read different subgenres of romance. I'll sometimes read sci fi. I will read historical. Like I said, I'll read contemporary and then I'll read rom com. I think there's a difference between a contemporary romance and a romantic comedy. But then occasionally I do. I also read historical fiction. There are a few authors who I really love. Like I love Sadiqwa Johnson, Yellow Wife, and House of Eve. Those are two of my favorite books. And then I also do read literary fiction. I love Brit Bennett. Her book the Mothers is one of my favorite books of all time. I'm looking forward to reading Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray Kin by Tayari Jones. These are books that I bought when they came out and I'm just waiting for the chance to be able to read them when I meet all my deadlines. But. So, yeah, majority of what I read is romance, though.

[Anne Bogle]

Well, you said nothing holds your attention like a romance.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anne Bogle]

Which may speak to what your personal reading does for you. I'd love to hear more about what reading means to you or what role it fills in your life, whatever direction you want to take.

[Christina Forrest]

That a question that I feel like I get asked a lot or that authors get asked a lot is like, what are your favorite hobbies? And the only one I can ever really say is reading. And always I'm like, oh, does that sound boring? Because I'm an author, of course I'm going to say reading, but it really is my number one hobby. When I am not reading a good book, I feel off. And I don't know if you feel this way too, because I know that you read a lot or if the people listening feel that way. But if I'm. If it's. If it. If too many weeks have gone by where I haven't read a book and this sometimes happens when I'm on deadline. I'm just so locked in that I can't immerse myself in the works of someone else. I start to feel really like something isn't right. I love reading good books. I love being immersed in other people's art and reading brings me joy and it feels like a safe space. And I feel happiest when I know when. Of course things are going well in my personal life. But also when I'm reading a really good book. I just, it makes me excited. It makes me excited about literature. And I love seeing like how people respond to a book that I read and really liked too. Like, you know, in, in the reader community. I think that reading creates a sense of connection also because I think we tend to be. Readers tend to be introverted people. I know I describe myself as an extroverted introvert. I'm naturally introverted, but I can be extroverted if I need to be. But I think that what brings us all together is that we love to be immersed in the pages of a fictional story or nonfiction. You know, people prefer to read nonfiction, but it really is my favorite hobby. It's what I really love to do in my spare time.

[Anne Bogle]

Well, I relate to that. I think I feel restless when I'm not in the middle of a good book or when I, when I don't have one on deck that like I just can't wait to get into. I just, I like to know there is a book, a specific book in story experience waiting for me when I'm ready for it at all times.

[Christina Forrest]

Really.

[Anne Bogle]

I'm realizing as I listen to you talk about this.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, yes, I agree with that.

[Anne Bogle]

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[Christina Forrest]

Yeah, no. Very, very strategic to have this book come out at the beginning of summer.

[Anne Bogle]

Well, I'd love to hear more about like writing a beach read in all the senses.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes. So I really was just thinking about all of my memories and old current of spending summers at the beach in New Jersey and particularly Wildwood beach, which is where we went every summer. It's also where we went after promotion. I think that might be a New Jersey specific thing. I don't know if other States have this, especially if you don't have a beach. But in high school, after prom, we would spend the weekend at Wildwood. Like, everybody would go. You would get hotel rooms or some people had beach houses or whatever, but we would spend the weekend at Wildfood. And so that felt quintessential to my youth. My parents used to drive us to Wildwood Beach. We would sometimes go for the day, sometimes go for a few days. And Wildwood has this huge boardwalk. And along the boardwalk, there's places where you can get funnel cake and fried Oreo. Literally, like, you can get anything imaginable fried in dough and with covered in powdered sugar. It's there at these places. And these huge slices of pizza, these huge cartons of lemonade. And it's like so sugary and sweet. Saltwater taffy. And the different sections of the boardwalk that have games and rides, it is just so much. So much going on, so many people. And the beach itself is really long. Like the point of when you get off the boardwalk to walk to the actual shore. Oh, my gosh. That always feels like the longest walk in the world. Especially if the sand is hot and you're just trying to run and get to the wet sand as fast as you can because your feet are burning. These were just very clear memories in my mind, and I wanted to put that onto the page so that when people read the Summer Girlfriend, they would feel like, ah, this is what it means to be at the beach in New Jersey for the summer. Yeah. So that and the smell, the smell. The smell of the salt water is just like, everywhere. And the seagulls like, calling to each other and also bothering you. Like, the minute they smell food, they are right in front of you. So I was just trying to capture all of those memories when I was drafting.

[Anne Bogle]

Oh, I'm so jealous. You were singing the praises of New Jersey beaches before we hit record on this conversation. And I love where I live, except I'm incredibly jealous that I'm 600 miles from the ocean and no citizen of New Jersey is that far away.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah. No. Yeah, we're lucky.

[Anne Bogle]

I would love to hear more about the specific story setting of the Summer Girlfriend, but first, could we zoom out for a moment?

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah.

[Anne Bogle]

Christina, could you just give our readers a sense of what the book is about?

[Christina Forrest]

So the Summer Girlfriend is about a woman named Noelle who is saving up to go back to college. She had to drop out when she was originally in college, when she was a teenager, and she wants to get her master's degree and become a librarian. But she's just been let go of her main job as a bookseller. She also has a. A side hustle as a bridesmaid for hire. And she happens to meet a young man named Jeremiah, who is wealthy, he's the heir to a big goods company, and he is in need of a fake girlfriend for the summer at his family's beach house in the town called Heart Beach. And so they decide to fake date for the summer. He'll pay her to be his pretend girlfriend, and then she'll get the money for college. But not actually falling in love while pretending to be in a relationship is a lot easier said than done.

[Anne Bogle]

I enjoyed all the details so much. Okay. But I'm not gonna get distracted right now. Let's go back to the story world. Like in the book's prologue. I think it's set in 1974, and we hear a little bit of the history of Heartbeat and this one specific house that comes into the protagonist family. I mean, this was a whole new world to me. The tone is so wistful. And, you know, as a reader, like, this is the origin story for this house and this place that is going to come to mean so much to this family that we're reading about it in the present day storyline 50 years later. But also the way you describe Har beach is so fascinating. Like, I loved hearing the details in history and is like, I was wondering if it's based on a real place, perhaps. You just hinted at that.

[Christina Forrest]

Yeah. Yeah. So there are actually a few inspirations for Heartbeach other than beaches like Wildwood and Ocean City, which is where I went growing up. Heart beach was founded by a black couple, and that was inspired by the history of Bruce's beach in California, which is a part of Manhattan Beach. Bruce's beach was founded in the early 1900s. It sounds so weird to say the early 1900s, but it was founded in the early 1900s by this Bruce couple. And they'd moved to California during the Great Migration. And they purchased a plot of land and turned it into a seaside resort that was welcoming to black beachgoers because not all beaches were welcoming to black people at the time. And it became a very popular attraction for black people. But the people in the predominantly white surrounding area were not happy with this. And because there was so much pushback from the people in the surrounding area, the Manhattan Beach Council voted to condemn Bruce's Beach. And then the land was unlawfully seized and the resort was demolished. And it was a few years ago that the land was finally returned to the descendants, but they ended up selling it back to the county for about, like, $20 million. And they decided to use that money to finally build some generational wealth within their family. But I kept thinking, what if that hadn't happened to this family? What if they were able to keep this land and to continue to be allowed to have this be a beautiful resort where black people were buying homes and where they came to vacation? And there's also Chicken Bone beach in New Jersey, which was a black beach in New Jersey during segregation. And so the history of those different beaches went into Heart beach as well. I hint on that a little bit in the prologue, when they're talking about the history of how the town started, but also the particular house. I was intentional with starting the prologue by describing the house because I feel like Heartbeach is a character in itself in the novel. It's the place where everyone always comes back to. The heart of the story, of course, is the relationship between Noel and Jeremiah. But then the broader heart of the story is this house in Heartbeach and how hard Jeremiah's grandparents worked to be able to buy this house and what that meant to them, to be able to have a beach house that they could vacation at in the 1970s, and how they've continued to keep this house in their family and how multiple generations have walked through the front doors. It's especially because I think generational wealth is such a hard thing for black people to be able to get and then attain in this country. And so I really wanted to write about that and to write about this family, who they really love each other, but that the house is a reflection of that love and how the house has been expanded over the years in the same way that the family has expanded over the years, but it's where everyone comes back to every summer. They are here in Heartbeach. And which is why it's a point of contention for Jeremiah, because he's been avoiding the house in Heart beach after he had a argument with his grandfather before his grandfather passed away. And he feels a lot of guilt over that argument. And so he's been avoiding this house, which also means so much to him. And so it kind of is eating him up inside that he can't. That he feels as though he can't go back because of the bad memory that he has there.

[Anne Bogle]

Yeah. I love how you describe the house as being a character in its own right. And it does feel so. I mean, some books are, in part, enjoyable to read because you Want to spend time in the world they're set in. And I wanted to be at that house.

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, good. I'm really glad to hear that.

[Anne Bogle]

So I love how we see the legacy of the home and the generational wealth in this black family. And also, the recipes were passed down through the generations as well. This story is. I mean, I really enjoyed reading about the family business, but also it's a family business that makes baked goods. And something I've learned about myself is I like to read about things that taste good. I'd love to hear anything you have to say about legacy or sweets.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes. So that was inspired by my grandmother. We were very close, so she passed away two years ago. And also, the relationship. The relationship between Jeremiah and Pop, who's his grandfather, was sort of inspired by how close I was with my grandmother. She was like a second mom to me. And she made the most amazing pound cake. And it's a secret. My. I know the recipe, My mom knows the recipe, but that's it. And we don't tell anyone because we're like, if we're ever in dire straits, we can make that pound cake and sell it. It's literally what we keep in our back pocket. Like, if we ever need to figure out a way to make money, we will start selling that pound cake. And it's the cake that my friends. Whenever someone's having a baby or they're moving or some kind of exciting life thing is happening, my friends text me, like, does this mean I can get a pound cake at holidays? They're like, are you making the pound cake this year? And it's just like, everyone loves this pound cake. And because it was my grandmother's recipe. And I was thinking a lot about how I remember being so young and standing next to her at the kitchen counter while she whipped the batter. And she would only let me eat a little tiny spoonful because she said I couldn't eat the raw eggs. And I was always so disappointed by that because the batter of this pound cake is honestly my favorite part of making the pound cake is when I can eat the batter. And I just have these memories of, like, helping her to whip the cake. And she was a little woman, and I remember watching her with her little tiny arm whip all this thick batter and being so fascinated by how she did it so, so perfectly. But she would make drop cookies and pies and everything from scratch. My grandmother, she really was like the grand kind of grandmother from a storybook. And we would come home from school and she would have cookies and my friends would always want to come over and be like, did your grandma bake? You know, like, she would make lemonade fresh. Like, she really was like, she's just an amazing woman. And the three of us, me, my mom, and my grandmother had this joke that we would one day start selling those pound cakes. And so when I was thinking about what the Smith family would be known for, what their legacy would be, I thought, oh, pound cakes. It starts with his grandfather making a pound cake for his wife. And then from there, he's like, well, what else can I bake? And so that was inspired by my own relationship with my mom and my grandma and how much we all love to bake and all the secret recipes that we have. Have.

[Anne Bogle]

Oh, that sounds amazing. My mom always talked about her grandmother's baking as well, that it was incredibly delicious, but the ugliest baked good you had ever seen. I'm not sure they were Smith Sweets material. Now, many readers will not be sad to discover the book that they're reading features a library or a bookstore. We kind of get a twofer with a summer girlfriend. Would you say more about that? I especially loved your bookstore's name.

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, thank you. Yes. So Noel, at the beginning of the novel, she works at a place called Hidden Gems Books. And it's a particularly. It's a used bookstore, hence the name Hidden Gems. And her boss, Harold, is, you know, lovingly curmudgeonly, but he's very strict on we only sell used books. And I believe that what he says is people need to read about what came before, before they read new things. And even though Noel's like, we need to sell new books in order for, you know, to keep people wanting to come to the store. And because. Because a lot of the time, the big bestsellers are the ones that are driving the revenue. But he's very, very solid in the fact that he only wants to sell older used books at the store. So that's where that name came from. And then also, Heartbeat Books is the bookstore in Heartbeat. That name is just. You know, there's only one bookstore in Heartbeat, so it's called Heartbeat Books. But, yes, Noel is a book lover, and she discovered a love for reading when she was. After she had to drop off college and her mom was going through some health struggles, she found reading, and she found reading to be a safe space. I think the way that many of us come to reading, or what we love about reading is that it provides an escape. And she just became a very avid reader, and she had a very wonderful interaction with a librarian who took her around the library and just gave her a bunch of recommendations and she realized that she wanted to be able to be that person for someone else who was going through a hard time and was shown kindness and patience and was provided with a bunch of really good books to read to help her get through a tough time in her life. So that becomes her goal. She loves to read, but she also wants to share the love of reading with other people.

[Anne Bogle]

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[Christina Forrest]

Yes, I just have a lot of student loans because I went to grad school in New York City and I remember thinking, and this was early on when I was in the preliminary stages of working on, of thinking of the idea of the summer girlfriend, of fleshing it out. And I thought, oh, I wish somebody would just come along and give me a bunch of money. You know, I wish someone would just come along and pay off those loans for me. And then I thought about Jeremiah. Like, wouldn't it be lovely if you knew some guy who was handsome and, you know, kind and, you know, of course he's not perfect. He's got his own emotional wounds going on. But if he came up to you and was like, you don't have to do anything. I'll just pay off your loans for you. And so that's sort of what ends up happening to Noel. He's like, I will pay your remaining tuition if you come to my family's beach house with me and pretend to be my girlfriend for the summer. And she's like, oh, gosh, so hard. You're so hot. Of course I'll do it. You know, it's not hard money to make, but that was, it was inspiration. It's just like thinking about the student loans that I currently owe.

[Anne Bogle]

Well, I enjoyed reading about that and her, her Summer at Heart Beach. Christina, for those heading to the beach themselves this summer, or for those who are not heading to the beach and really wish they were, I'd love to hear about some of your favorite beach reads.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, of course. So my first recommendation is going to be a novel called Only for the Week. And this is by Natasha Bishop. Oh, I don't know. This, this is a romance novel and is a true beach read because it takes place in Tulum, Mexico. A woman named Janelle is in Mexico for her sister's wedding. She's the maid of honor. But the twist is that her sister is actually getting married to her ex boyfriend who she broke up with years ago. She doesn't care about him anymore. But there's tension there, of course, that her sister ended up dating her ex, but she ends up getting in a very flirtatious situation with the best man who is of course the groom's best friend. So it's like a lot of like messy drama between like those four people, but they decide that they are only going to be in a very short fling for the week that they're in Mexico. But of course when you decide that, you know, we're only going to be together for this week, limited period of time, things don't always end up like that. My other recommendation is a novel called Curvy Girl Summer by an author named Danielle Allen. And this is a novel about a woman named Aaliyah who is determined to find a boyfriend by the end of the summer where she's having her big 30th birthday party. So she goes on a series of dates trying to find different guys who could be potential boyfriend to bring to this party. And she goes on all of her dates at the same bar and she ends up striking up a very interesting friendship with a very cute bartender. And it turns out that it might, the person who might be the best boyfriend for her could have been in front of her the whole time. So those are two that I off the bat recommend because they take place during summer and have very like summary, summary. Feeling perfect for the beach. Oh, I also this is a book that published early this year. It's called One and Only by Maureen Goo. Maureen is another author who started out writing YA and who is now writing, I would say, I would say One and Only toes that line between women's fiction and romance. But this is a story about a woman who, she's Korean American and in her family they have the secret magical gift of being able to read into people's past lives and discovering who their soulmates are. And so that's how they make their living. No one knows how it's done, but people pay a lot of money for them to figure out who their soulmates are. And she is nearing her 40th birthday and she knows her soulmate's name, but she still has not met him. And she ends up gift falling for someone who's a little bit younger than her. But then it turns out that the person who whose name is on the note for her soulmate is this guy's boss. So she ends up in this very interesting love triangle between the younger guy that she likes and then the boss, his boss, who she also really likes. This was the first novel that I've read in a long time that had a love triangle. But I really, I genuinely did not know how it was going to end. And I thought that was really refreshing. I really love Maureen's books. So those are three novels that I highly recommend people take to the beach this summer. Ooh, thank you.

[Anne Bogle]

What's the best book you've read this year?

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, that's such. I loved every book that I read this year. Oh, one and only, I would say. One and only. Probably. That was probably my favorite book. Another book that I really loved this year was Keeper of Lost Children by Sadiqwa Johnson. I had mentioned her before. She writes historical fiction. And this novel was a little. It talks about a little known history of mixed race children in Germany Post World War II and how there was a woman who was a wife to a soldier who was stationed in Germany and how she discovered this orphanage filled with mixed race children. And this is usually for. From black men who were stationed in Germany but then weren't allowed to marry the German women that they met or for various different reasons, the children were given up. And she worked to get these children adopted by couples in the United States. Very interesting. There are multiple perspectives. That was also a really good novel.

[Anne Bogle]

Yeah, I really enjoyed that myself.

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, you read it too?

[Anne Bogle]

Okay, perfect. Yeah. And yeah, I really, I really like. And Christina, what's one book that you're really excited about reading this summer high on your priority list?

[Christina Forrest]

Oh, gosh. So I would definitely say Score by Kennedy Ryan. This is book two in her. Oh, gosh. I'm blanking on the name of the series, but the first book is called Real and that's one of my favorite romance novels. It's about essentially the series is about a group of creatives who are coming together to make a biopic about a woman named Desi Blue, who is a Harlem Renaissance figure. And the first book is about the director who falls in love with the lead actress. And that score is about the screenwriter and the man who's making the score for the novel. I know that there's an actual title for that job, but I'm just keep them blinking. Right now I'm thinking score creator. I know that's not right, but it's a romance between the two of them. It's a second chance romance because they had dated previously in college and now they're working on this film together. I loved Real and so Score is definitely high up on my list. To read once I hand in this next book.

[Anne Bogle]

That's good motivation. Christina, thank you so much for talking books with me today. Is there anything else you want to tell our listeners?

[Christina Forrest]

Thank you so much for having me. I guess what else I would like to say is that I hope that if you read the Summer Girlfriend that it feels like a wonderful beachy read. Even if you're not at the beach and you're just reading on your lunch break at work. I hope it transports you to a beachy, summery environment.

[Anne Bogle]

I mean, I love to take a good book to the beach, but also a good book can take you anywhere.

[Christina Forrest]

Yes, I agree.

[Anne Bogle]

Amazing. Well, we wish you well as you go out into the world to talk with readers in person so often about the book and hope you have your best reading summer.

[Christina Forrest]

Thank you so much.

[Anne Bogle]

Hey readers, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Christina and I'd love to hear what you think she should read next. Find Christina at her website ChristinaForest.com as well as on Instagram and we have all those links and the full list of titles we talked about today and @whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com follow our show on Instagram @whatshouldireadNext and share your favorite summer episodes with a friend who might enjoy listening too. That would help us a lot, so thank you in advance. Make sure you're on our email list by signing up at what Should I read next? Podcast.com newsletter. It's the best way to make sure you don't miss out on any of the latest episodes and other news from our hq. Please take a moment to check that you're following along in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to the people who make the show happen. What Should I Read Next? Is created each week by Executive Producer Will Bogle, Media Production Specialist Holly Wokachevski, Social Media Manager and Editor Lee Kramer, Community Coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, Community Manager Shannon Malone, and our whole team at what Should I Read next? And modern Mrs. Darcy plus the audio whizzes at Studio D Podcast Productions. Readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And as writer Maria Rocha said, ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Happy reading everyone.