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Kim Lock's avatar

You two!! I am loving this podcast!! Highlights from today: ‘whoops … I didn’t mean to sell 50 million copies’ (Rach) and ‘That’s nice Bethany, sit down’ (Anthea) You are quickly becoming one of my favourite things on the internet. xx

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

HAHA - thanks for listening. Now I'm trying to remember who Bethany is!! x

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Kim Lock's avatar

It was Anthea pointing out what would be said if the author was a woman!

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

Ah I remember now! SO true!!

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Anita Heiss's avatar

LOVED the novel. Read it three times in 1995 when I was in Canada, then saw the film and really didn't like Clint Eastwood at all in that role. At all.

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

Have you read it again since? I wonder if I'd have liked it more when I was younger? Although should be able to relate more as a married woman? Who knows! lol x

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Taryn Hicks's avatar

And I’m definitely adding “The Paper Palace” to my TBR list! 📕

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

You MUST!!!!! x

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Taryn Hicks's avatar

KISS - I just found it easy and enjoyable read. I didn’t overthink the characters and accepted them as a characters relevant to that era, a stereotypical housewife bound to her families and responsibilities and keeping a secret until she died so as not to cause any scandal while still alive. While a stranger in the driveway resulting in a week long passionate affair and then a life longing for that one true love doesn’t seem very realistic, guess that comes down to a work of fiction and the writer’s creative licence to take us there!

Within the first page or so I was googling if it was a work of fiction, thanks to the introduction. But I did get hung up on one irrelevant piece of information thanks to the bogus intro. The author says when the siblings first contacted him, the son had read his book and the sister had read his book and the agreed he was the first person to tell the story they had to share. I just wanted to know what so special about that first book… and then there was never any more info about it! 😂

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

Ooh good point re the first book. Agree with all the era stuff too. Thanks again for joining our reading adventure! x

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Elaine_NZ's avatar

I hadn’t read the book but did see the film and remember feeling how sad it was that they parted - I really wished she went with him as what a dull life of looong days she lived in. Enjoyed your perspective. It made me think of angles that the movie wouldn’t have triggered in me. Yeah I think I ‘married’ it ❣️

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Rachael Johns Author's avatar

I think I might have liked the film better. Might have really believed their passion/connection more! x

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