Pen Pals to Pop Stars: Breaking Down All Three Books in Kristina Forest's Greene Sisters Series

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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.

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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.

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A few years ago, I left a career

I built for decades and started

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over at 54 in more ways than one.

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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.

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And one of the things that has stayed

with me throughout building culture lit

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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.

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That changes something.

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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.

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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.

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Mara Brock Akil re-imagining forever

with black characters on Netflix.

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That is not a coincidence.

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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.

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The Green Sisters adaptation is part of

that wave, and having Felicia Pride at the

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helm, a black woman who built her career

around centering our stories, that's not

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just good casting, that's protection.

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That's a guarantee that the intention

behind these books makes it to the screen.

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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.

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The series goes.

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The Neighbor Favor the Partner plot, the

love lyric books one, two, and three.

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If you want to read an order, which I

actually recommend because you get to

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watch the Sister show up in each other's

stories, and that's its own kind of joy.

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Start with the Neighbor

Favor, Lily's story.

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The bookish pen pals romance

that starts this world.

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If fake dating and second chances are your

sweet spot, go straight to the partner.

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Plot, violet and Xavier, the fake

Vegas marriage that turns real.

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That's book two, and it

stands completely on its own.

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: 00:19:53

And if you love slow burn celebrity

romance, single mom heroines and a hero

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: 00:19:59

who pines with his whole entire soul,

the love lyric is waiting for you.

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: 00:20:04

Angel writing songs about

Iris while she figures out if

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: 00:20:07

she's ready to let someone in.

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: 00:20:09

Again, I cannot overstate

how good that is.

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: 00:20:12

All three are at the culture Lip

bookshop bookshop.org/shop/culture

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: 00:20:19

lip podcast.

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: 00:20:20

Grab them all, read them all.

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: 00:20:23

Tell your friends and then come

back and tell me which sister

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: 00:20:26

is your favorite because I have

thoughts and I wanna hear yours.

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: 00:20:31

I mentioned the love lyric briefly

back in episode 15, so some of

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: 00:20:34

you already have it on your radar.

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: 00:20:37

If that's you, this is your sign

to finally pick it up, y'all.

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: 00:20:41

This is why I love what we do here at

Culture Lit because every time a Black

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: 00:20:47

Romance author builds a readership,

every time a production company bets

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: 00:20:51

on our stories, every time one of

our books makes it to a bigger stage.

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: 00:20:55

It adds to something larger

than any single title.

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: 00:20:59

It adds to the evidence that our

love stories matter, that our

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: 00:21:02

experiences are worth centering,

that our joy is worth putting on a

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: 00:21:06

screen and sharing with the world.

335

: 00:21:09

Lily found love in letters.

336

: 00:21:11

Violet found her way back to a

first love she never fully got over.

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: 00:21:16

Iris, let herself be

loved again after loss.

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: 00:21:19

Three sisters, three beautifully

different paths to the same truth.

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: 00:21:24

You deserve a love story and it doesn't

have to look like anyone else's.

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: 00:21:30

Christina Forrest wrote these

women into being Felicia.

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: 00:21:33

Pride is going to bring them to life,

and we get to be here reading the books,

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: 00:21:39

watching the adaptations, having the

conversations as all of it unfolds.

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: 00:21:45

What a time to be a reader.

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: 00:21:46

If you enjoyed this episode, share it.

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: 00:21:49

Text it to your reading group.

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: 00:21:51

Post it in your stories.

347

: 00:21:53

Tag a friend who needs to know about

the Green Sisters and please leave

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: 00:21:57

a review wherever you're listening.

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: 00:21:59

It helps more people find this show

and that matters more than you know.

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: 00:22:04

Follow me on Instagram and

threads at Becoming Octavia.

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: 00:22:08

I want to hear from you.

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: 00:22:10

Which Green Sister is your girl?

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: 00:22:13

Which book are you starting with?

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: 00:22:15

Slide into my dms and let's talk about it.

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: 00:22:18

Until next time, be soft.

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: 00:22:21

Be bold, be visible.