Shownotes
This episode is a look into Kristina Forest's beloved series: The Neighbor Favor, The Partner Plot, and The Love Lyric. Three sisters. Three completely different love stories. One beautifully layered portrait of Black women navigating ambition, family, and modern romance without apologizing for any of it.
Octavia breaks down all three books — Lily's sweet, bookish pen-pals romance, Violet's crackling second-chance fake marriage story, and Iris's tender, slow-burn love story with an R&B star who pines for her with his whole heart. And we're talking about what it means that Felicia Pride, showrunner of Netflix's forthcoming A Different World sequel, is the one bringing these sisters to screen.
Felicia Pride just optioned the Greene Sisters trilogy — and if you know her work, you already know we are in very good hands.
In this episode:
- Walk away knowing exactly which Greene Sisters book to start with — and why each one hits differently
- Understand what makes Kristina Forest's writing stand out in contemporary Black romance
Books Mentioned:
The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest
The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest
The Love Lyric by Kristina Forest
The Perfect Find by Tia Williams
The Skyland Series by Kennedy Ryan
The New Haven Series by JL Seeger
Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell by Taj McCoy
Find this and other recommendations at The CultureLit online BookShop and support independent bookstores at Visit my bookshop!
Culture Lit is a community celebrating black women and black love, and a reminder that black women deserve joy, love success, second chances, and all the beautiful magic the world has to offer.
Subscribe to the Culture Lit Podcast Community here: CultureLitPodcast.com
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Let me know what you’re reading, what you’re thinking, and what you’re thinking about what you’re reading.
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Music credit: Cool Jazz Beat by FASOL PROD
A Subito Media production
Mentioned in this episode:
If you're enjoying the show, join our community at culturelitpodcast.com.
You can find all the books I've reviewed in this podcast in my Bookshop! Visit https://bookshop.org/shop/CultureLitPodcast to get your copy!
Transcripts
Hey y'all, and welcome back to Culture Lit, the podcast where black
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:women's love stories, healing journeys,
and cultural brilliance take center stage.
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:I'm your host, Octavia Marie,
and if you're new here, hi.
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:Welcome.
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:I'm so glad you found us.
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:This is the space where we
celebrate Black romance novels.
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:The authors who write
them, black women, joy.
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:The themes that move us and the real
life conversations, those stories spark.
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:I have been sitting on this
episode waiting for the right
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:opportunity to really get into it.
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:And that moment it's now.
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:Felicia Pride's production company,
honey Chile Entertainment, has acquired
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:the film and television, writes to
Christina Forrest Green Sisters Trilogy.
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:Three books, three Sisters,
three Love Stories, and now.
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:Potentially three screen adaptations.
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:If you know Felicia Pride's work,
you already understand why that
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:news had me up out of my chair.
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:And if you don't know the
Green Sister Series yet, oh,
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:we are about to fix that today.
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:We're talking all three books.
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:Book one, the Neighbor Favor,
book two, the partner plot
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:book three, the Love Lyric.
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:We're getting into what
makes each one special.
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:Why this series has built the kind of
devoted readership it has and what this
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:adaptation announcement actually means
for black romance storytelling right now.
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:So grab your tea, get
comfortable and settle in.
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:We've got a lot of ground to cover
and every bit of it is worth it.
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:Let me start with Christina Forrest,
because if you're not already reading
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:her, today is the day that changes.
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:Forrest writes Contemporary Black
Romance with a combination of emotional
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:depth, real humor, and chemistry that
feels, and this is the thing it feels
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:lived in, like she's writing people,
you actually know conversations.
33
:You've actually had situations
that are a little messy, a little
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:complicated, and completely human.
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:The Green Sisters Trilogy follows
three sisters, Lily, violet, and Iris.
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:Each book is its own complete love story.
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:You can pick up any one of
them and fall in love without
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:having read the others first.
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:But if you read them together, what
you get is this full rich portrait of
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:black sisterhood, three women who are
accomplished, who are flawed, who are
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:ambitious, who love hard, and who show
up for each other the way we all want
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:the women in our lives to show up.
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:The series has built a
devoted global readership.
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:And that is not marketing
language, that is just the truth.
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:They show up on book talk on
bookstagram, in group chats with
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:messages that just say, read this.
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:That kind of readership
doesn't happen by accident.
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:It happens because the stories
are good, because they feel true
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:because black women see themselves
in these pages not as afterthoughts.
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:Not as sidekicks.
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:Not as cautionary tales as the
center of their own love stories.
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:And the mother, Dalia, y'all, I have
to mention her because she is a whole
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:presence throughout this series.
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:Overbearing, opinionated,
absolutely convinced she knows best.
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:She's the kind of character who
shows up differently depending
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:on whose story you're reading.
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:And Forrest handles that with real skill.
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:You'll understand what I mean
as I walk through each book.
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:Okay, let's get into it.
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:Starting from the beginning, book one is
the Neighbor Favor, and this one is for
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:every reader who has ever thought, give me
a love story about people who love books
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:as much as I do meet Lily Green, she shy.
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:She's a bookworm.
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:She works in nonfiction publishing.
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:But her real dream is to become
a Chileren's book editor.
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:And for months, she has been having
the most wonderful, intimate email
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:correspondence with her favorite
fantasy author, a writer who goes
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:by the pen name NR Strickland.
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:These emails are not
surface level fan mail.
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:They are real conversations.
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:The kind where you find yourself
saying things you wouldn't say out
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:loud because there's something about
written words and a little distance
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:that lets you be more fully yourself.
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:Lily and strict, as she calls him,
builds something genuine through those
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:exchanges, and then he ghost her.
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:No explanation, no warning, just silence.
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:So Lily trying to move forward, enlist
the help of her new neighbor, the
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:charming, handsome Nick Brown to find
her a date for her sister's wedding.
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:Nick has good people skills.
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:He seems to know everyone.
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:He's exactly the kind of
person who could help.
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:What Lily doesn't know.
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:She has absolutely no idea about
is that Nick is in our Strickland.
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:The author she fell for through letters.
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:Her neighbor, the man, she's now
asking to set her up with someone else.
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:Y'all the layers on this.
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:Nick recognizes Lily immediately,
and instead of coming clean,
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:he tries to do the right thing.
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:What he tells himself is the right
thing by helping her find someone
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:else while privately knowing he
can't stop thinking about her.
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:This is a, you've got mail set up
for a new generation pen pals, secret
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:identity, two introverts, who somehow
in each other's company get to
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:exhale and be exactly who they are.
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:There's something almost soulmate
like about Lily and Nick.
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:Two people who are closed off to most
of the world, but find themselves
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:completely open to each other,
first in writing and then in person.
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:The bookish of this story is genuine.
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:Forrest isn't just using
publishing as a backdrop.
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:It's woven into who these characters
are, how they think, what they love.
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:If you've ever loved a book
about books by the book.
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:Book lovers, the neighbor
favor belongs on that shelf.
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:One of the things I specifically
appreciated, once Lily and Nick
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:finally get together, there's
no drawn out third act breakup.
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:They get each other, they communicate.
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:Forrest trust that the tension she
built earlier in the book is enough.
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:She doesn't manufacture extra
conflict just to delay the happy
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:ending That restraint takes
skill and Dahlia the mother.
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:She's present in this one, but Forrest is
smart about how much space she takes up.
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:We get one scene where Dalia makes her
opinions known about Lily's choices, and
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:by that point, Lily is ready to tell her
mother exactly how those opinions land.
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:It's a quieter confrontation than
what plays out in the second book,
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:but it's real and it matters.
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:The neighbor favor is sweet, smart.
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:Funny and genuinely romantic.
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:A perfect opener for this series.
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:Book two is the partner plot, and
this is the one that impressed me
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:within the first few chapters in
a way that I don't take lightly.
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:As someone who reads over 200
books a year, it takes something
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:real to make me stop and feel the
Christina Fors made that happen.
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:This is Violet's story,
the second green sister.
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:Violet and Xavier were
high school sweethearts.
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:That first love all consuming.
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:We have our whole lives
ahead of us kind of love.
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:And then it ended abruptly
with feelings left unresolved,
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:and questions left unanswered.
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:Flash forward a decade.
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:Violet is now a celebrity stylist
living a high profile life of glamor
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:travel and high stakes clients.
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:Xavier is a teacher and a coach.
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:By his students', very fond
accounts, deeply unfashionable.
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:They run into each other in
Vegas and because life is funny,
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:they end up in a fake marriage.
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:Each of them getting something
they need professionally.
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:Neither of them quite prepared
for what happens when old
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:feelings meet new circumstances.
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:Fake dating is one of those tropes
that can go very right or very
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:sideways, depending on execution.
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:The danger is always that the
romance feels manufactured.
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:Like the author is using the premise
as scaffolding without doing the
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:real emotional work underneath it.
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:Force does the real emotional work.
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:The story moves between past and present.
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:Those high school moments when they
were smitten and figuring out who they
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:were gonna be and the present day.
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:Reality of two adults carrying
the weight of how they've grown
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:and the ways they haven't.
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:That dual timeline makes the present
story hit harder because you understand
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:the full history of what's between them
before they figure it out themselves.
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:The plot feels realistic.
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:Their reasons for the
arrangement makes sense.
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:The stakes make sense.
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:Nothing is contrived just to manufacture
conflict and the character growth,
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:both of them change over the course
of this story in the way that people
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:actually change when they let someone
see them clearly and choose to stay.
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:Violet and Xavier have the kind
of chemistry that makes you
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:put the book down, stare at the
ceiling, and pick it back up.
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:The humor is there.
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:The steam is very much there, and
the emotional payoff is earned.
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:Now, I also want to mention Dahlia
here because she is a real presence in
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:Violet story, more so than in Lilly's.
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:Overbearing doesn't fully cover it.
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:There's a moment that gets referenced
and built up throughout the book where
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:Lily finally stands up to Dalia, and when
it happens, it's almost over before it
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:begins, which if you've ever had a parent
like that, you know exactly how it goes.
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:The anticipation is bigger
than the moment, and somehow
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:that's even more true to life.
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:The partner plot is one of my top
recommendations from this entire series.
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:Start here if second chance, romance,
and fake dating are your things.
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:I promise you won't regret it.
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:Book three is the Love Lyric.
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:This is Iris's story, the Third Green
Sister, and where Lily got a sweet
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:bookish romance and Violet got the
crackling tension of a second chance.
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:Iris gets something different,
something quieter, something that hits
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:you in a place you weren't expecting.
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:Iris is a driven corporate executive, high
powered career, long hours, high stakes.
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:She's doing all of that as a single
mother to her daughter, calla.
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:After losing her husband, she has
built a life, a good life, a full
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:life, and that life does not have
room for the unpredictability of
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:a new relationship, especially not
with someone famous inter angel.
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:Angel and r and b superstar
with a heart that is genuinely.
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:Thoroughly, completely made of gold.
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:From the moment Angel sees Iris, he is
smitten and not in the surface level.
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:I find you attractive way he sees her.
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:He wants to know her as a person.
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:He is patient in a way that celebrity,
heroes and romance are rarely
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:allowed to be because Forrest isn't
interested in writing a man who
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:steamrolls his way into someone's life.
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:Angel waits.
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:He listens.
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:He writes songs about her.
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:He sends sweet little
texts just to check in.
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:He earns his place beside her slowly
without demanding anything in return.
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:I wanna pause here and just say, angel
is the definition of a lovey-dovey hero.
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:The man pines.
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:He pines with his whole heart.
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:If you love a hero who falls first and
falls completely, angel is your man.
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:But what makes the love lyric
more than a Sweeny celebrity
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:romance is what's underneath it.
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:Iris's grief is handled with real nuance.
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:She's not a widow who just
needs love to fix her.
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:She's a woman who has been honoring the
life she shared with her husband while
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:trying to figure out what it means to move
forward without erasing what came before.
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:That tension is written
with care and honesty.
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:An angel isn't without his own weight.
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:He carries religious trauma, family
expectations that don't always
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:align with who he actually is.
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:Forrest gives him a full interior life.
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:He's not just the perfect man
showing up to rescue the heroine.
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:He has work to do too.
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:The mental health thread
in this book is real.
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:Both Iris and Angel are doing the work.
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:Individually in therapy
on their own terms.
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:There's no moment where love
magically heals everything.
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:There's just two people choosing to
grow and choosing each other, and
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:then there's Cala Iris's daughter.
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:I have to talk about Cala
because she is not a plot device.
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:She is a full character.
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:She has her own personality, her own
moments, her own arc within this story.
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:Watching her warm up to Angel
over time is the cherry on top of
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:an already beautiful love story.
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:The family dynamics in this book are some
of the best writing in the entire trilogy.
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:The love lyric is slow burn,
emotionally deep and full of the kind
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:of tenderness that makes you want to
read it slowly just so it lasts longer.
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:It's a love story wrapped
in music in healing.
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:In grief, in hope.
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:It hits all the right notes, and I
mean that literally and figuratively.
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:Alright, now let's talk about
why this week had me so excited.
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:Felicia Pride's production company,
honey Chile Entertainment, has acquired
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:the film and television rights to the
Green Sisters Trilogy from Penguin
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:Random House Pride will write and
produce the first installment herself.
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:She'll serve as producer
on the remaining two films.
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:If you only know the name,
Felicia Pride in passing.
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:Let me give you the full picture.
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:Felicia Pride is currently the showrunner
and executive producer of Netflix's
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:forthcoming sequel to a Different World.
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:Yes, that A different World.
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:The iconic nineties series
set at Hillman College.
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:She is building the next
generation of that story.
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:She most recently served as
co-executive producer on Peacock's,
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:Bel Air and Honey Chile Entertainment.
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:The company she founded in 2020 is
specifically dedicated to developing
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:and producing stories by four and
about black women, 40 and over.
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:That is the entire mission, not
a nice to have the foundation.
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:So when I tell you Felicia Pride is
the right person for the Green Sisters,
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:I mean that with everything in me.
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:Christina Forrest said it herself.
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:I've been a fan of Felicia Pride's
work for years and we share the same
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:mission of creating life-affirming
art featuring black women.
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:And Pride said about the series.
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:Christina is such a smart writer whose
work completely draws you into her world.
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:Her Green Sister's trilogy
captures romance, ambition, and
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:partnership in ways that feel
aspirational and deeply familiar.
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:Aspirational and deeply familiar.
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:That is the exact combination that
makes black romance matter stories
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:that show us something to reach toward
told in a voice That sounds like home.
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:I wanna zoom out for a second because
there's something larger happening
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:here that I think about a lot.
258
:A few years ago, I left a career
I built for decades and started
259
:over at 54 in more ways than one.
260
:And a huge part of that rebuild has been
this podcast, this space, to talk about
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:black women's stories, to celebrate
the authors who write them, to have the
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:conversations that actually matter to us.
263
:And one of the things that has stayed
with me throughout building culture lit
264
:is this, visibility is not a luxury.
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:It is not a bonus for black women.
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:Visibility is a form of healing.
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:When we see ourselves in stories as
complex, as romantic, as ambitious,
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:as worthy of a happy ending, something
in US exhales, something we've been
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:holding finally gets to put itself down.
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:That's what the Green Sister Series
does on the page, and that's what
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:this adaptation has the potential
to do on screen for black women
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:who read every word of those books.
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:And for black women who
haven't found them yet.
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:Because the screen reaches people.
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:The page doesn't always reach when
someone who has never picked up a
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:Black Romance novel sees Lily and
Nick's bookish love story or Violet
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:and Xavier's Second Chance, or Iris
and Angel's tender patient romance,
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:adapted with care and authenticity.
279
:That changes something.
280
:It tells a story about who we
are, not who we've been told
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:we are who we actually are.
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:We have been watching Black Romance.
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:Take up more and more screen space.
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:The perfect find on Netflix.
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:Taj McCoy, savvy Sheldon
feels good as hell.
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:Kennedy Ryan Skyland series.
287
:Heading to Peacock, JL
Seeger's New Haven series.
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:Option for television.
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:Tia Williams getting
multiple adaptation deals.
290
:Mara Brock Akil re-imagining forever
with black characters on Netflix.
291
:That is not a coincidence.
292
:That is a cultural shift.
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:Black Romance went from being called
Niche, and we all know Niche was
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:often code for not for everyone
to becoming the stories that
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:studios are actively seeking out.
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:The readers prove the demand,
and now the screens are starting
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:to reflect what we already knew.
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:Our love stories are universal.
299
:The Green Sisters adaptation is part of
that wave, and having Felicia Pride at the
300
:helm, a black woman who built her career
around centering our stories, that's not
301
:just good casting, that's protection.
302
:That's a guarantee that the intention
behind these books makes it to the screen.
303
:All right.
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:If you're ready to get into
the Green Sister series, let
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:me give you a clear path.
306
:The series goes.
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:The Neighbor Favor the Partner plot, the
love lyric books one, two, and three.
308
:If you want to read an order, which I
actually recommend because you get to
309
:watch the Sister show up in each other's
stories, and that's its own kind of joy.
310
:Start with the Neighbor
Favor, Lily's story.
311
:The bookish pen pals romance
that starts this world.
312
:If fake dating and second chances are your
sweet spot, go straight to the partner.
313
:Plot, violet and Xavier, the fake
Vegas marriage that turns real.
314
:That's book two, and it
stands completely on its own.
315
:And if you love slow burn celebrity
romance, single mom heroines and a hero
316
:who pines with his whole entire soul,
the love lyric is waiting for you.
317
:Angel writing songs about
Iris while she figures out if
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:she's ready to let someone in.
319
:Again, I cannot overstate
how good that is.
320
:All three are at the culture Lip
bookshop bookshop.org/shop/culture
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:lip podcast.
322
:Grab them all, read them all.
323
:Tell your friends and then come
back and tell me which sister
324
:is your favorite because I have
thoughts and I wanna hear yours.
325
:I mentioned the love lyric briefly
back in episode 15, so some of
326
:you already have it on your radar.
327
:If that's you, this is your sign
to finally pick it up, y'all.
328
:This is why I love what we do here at
Culture Lit because every time a Black
329
:Romance author builds a readership,
every time a production company bets
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:on our stories, every time one of
our books makes it to a bigger stage.
331
:It adds to something larger
than any single title.
332
:It adds to the evidence that our
love stories matter, that our
333
:experiences are worth centering,
that our joy is worth putting on a
334
:screen and sharing with the world.
335
:Lily found love in letters.
336
:Violet found her way back to a
first love she never fully got over.
337
:Iris, let herself be
loved again after loss.
338
:Three sisters, three beautifully
different paths to the same truth.
339
:You deserve a love story and it doesn't
have to look like anyone else's.
340
:Christina Forrest wrote these
women into being Felicia.
341
:Pride is going to bring them to life,
and we get to be here reading the books,
342
:watching the adaptations, having the
conversations as all of it unfolds.
343
:What a time to be a reader.
344
:If you enjoyed this episode, share it.
345
:Text it to your reading group.
346
:Post it in your stories.
347
:Tag a friend who needs to know about
the Green Sisters and please leave
348
:a review wherever you're listening.
349
:It helps more people find this show
and that matters more than you know.
350
:Follow me on Instagram and
threads at Becoming Octavia.
351
:I want to hear from you.
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:Which Green Sister is your girl?
353
:Which book are you starting with?
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:Slide into my dms and let's talk about it.
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:Until next time, be soft.
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:Be bold, be visible.
