Real Housewives on Real Housewives
We’ve all wondered if our texts and journals would make a good two-part book series, right? We read Real Housewives of DC Cat Ommanney’s two books and discover that we can’t all quit our day jobs.
Sharon: Inbox full. Sounds like a rom.com.
Caitlin: Mm Yeah, like, you’ve got mail.
Sharon: Oh. Oh, she took that from you. She got totally rip off AOL. You’ve got.
Caitlin: She’s like, inbox full.
Sharon: Inbox full.
Caitlin: Oh, my gosh. People will want to read it.
Sharon: I mean, it does.
Caitlin: It’s not a very romantic story. It’s just getting cat crapped on.
Sharon: Cat crap.
Caitlin: Litter box full.
Sharon: She. Litter box full. Like, letter box full. oh.
Caitlin: That’s funnier. Silly. She missed an amazing opportunity. Hi, this is Caitlin.
Sharon: And this is Sharon.
Caitlin: And welcome to Real Housewives on Real Housewives, where we unravel housewives story threads and keep the tea flowing. So, Chicago, hold on to your reading glasses.
Sharon: Today we’re digging into two books written by Kat Amini from Real Housewives of DC season one. The first is called Inbox Full. Be careful what you wish for. Written in 2011. And the second is called the gift, the highly anticipated sequel to Inbox Full, written in 2012. That’s part of the title.
Caitlin: That is not me saying, that’s enough. Gosh, we were anticipated.
Sharon: Okay, so the first book is, quote, extraordinary true story of choices and where they can lead you. Fear and loneliness. Painful lessons and hilarious escapades. A roller coaster ride. From spiritual adventures in Peru to all night parties in Ibiza.
Caitlin: I feel like that’s everybody’s life story except you. Take out Peru and Ibiza and put them with whatever vacations you’ve personally taken.
Sharon: And then the second book, the desk jacket, is much longer, so I’m gonna summarize it for you guys. Kat, and her two daughters move stateside with her new husband, who works as a photographer at the White House. Turns out he’s a huge jerk. Her family collapses. She realizes she can, quote, never fix him. And here’s what it says. Kat is left totally heartbroken, homeless, and on her knees, thousands of miles from home. But giving up is not an option. This is the journey to a newfound reserve of strength. It keeps going on.
Caitlin: But she does give up on the marriage, to be fair. So there’s some giving up just to be contrary.
Sharon: All right.
Caitlin: All right. Let’s dig into this, because it’s a, That’s a something.
Sharon: I got a lot to say.
Caitlin: Yeah. Could you hear her smoker voice the entire time you’re reading it? I’ve never read a book and felt like someone was reading it to me. More like I couldn’t not read the words and hear that, like, low, darling Charles voice. Okay, let’s talk about. Let’s try to talk about the best part. What did you like about this book, the hot Tea?
Sharon: for me, I liked where she talked about her friendship with Linda from real housewives because, I didn’t realize they were such close friends. I had no idea. And Linda was really there to support during her breakup.
Caitlin: That was a surprise, Charles.
Sharon: So that’s what I liked. Oh, and that she called Tarek Turd. Like that’s what she called him throughout the book.
Caitlin: Yeah, I forgot that. Okay. I said I would have liked cat better. The one who explained her life more in book two. Like if we had seen more of book two, cat in the real Housewives of DC. I didn’t enjoy that cat, but I liked that cat better than the DC housewife role that she was playing because she hid everything that was interesting.
Caitlin: I felt like. But she was so honest about it in the book and yet it’s not like she was talking about it in front of Charles when she had her, confessionals. Like she could have given us more as to why she was acting the way that she acted and how weird she was being during season one. Because I liked book two, cat, better than the cat we saw.
Sharon: I don’t think how she acted was at all because of what she was going through.
Sharon: I really don’t.
Caitlin: You just think that’s who she is?
Sharon: Yeah, like honestly, none of that I can really peg to like.
Sharon: Oh, well, that’s because she, I mean, I guess she’s stressed out, but it.
Caitlin: Felt like that British like stiff upper lip thing. Like we’re not going to share our private life. But then, boy, does she share it in the book.
Sharon: But then at the same time she’s a tell it like it is person.
Caitlin: So I felt like it was sort of like a double life on her part too. And she was accusing him of that. I don’t know. I did like hearing obviously about the filming of DC. That part was interesting. That was probably my favorite part. Just hearing like the ins and outs and how it worked with the producers and her relationships with the producers and who she trusted and who she didn’t like. That was interesting because we don’t get a lot of that in some of the other housewives books.
Sharon: Yeah. what was the worst part? What didn’t you like about this book? The ice tea.
Caitlin: Okay, so it felt, it was dull. It was a hard read for me. It’s pretty much someone typing up her journals with the names changed in the first book where Charles is Carl, except she screws up one time and calls him Charles. And then in the second book, he is Charles.
Sharon: I knew you might.
Caitlin: That drove me crazy. it’s just like, it’s a. I want to say it’s a silly read. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but like, it’s not fun. Like, I thought it would be a rom.com romp. Like, I thought it would be like a beach read. And instead it’s like I’m reading someone’s dull journal that I found, and I was like, well, I’m on the subway for an hour, so I guess, like, I’ll look at it. But it’s like she lived in this beautiful house in Spain, and then she left her stupid husband. And then she had all these affairs with like a guy in Italy and a swiss guy and a guy, like from the airplane and then a guy she called trouble and like a young guy. And like, none of these relationships does she put much effort into or do they work out? And the texts are annoying. She was love bombed by the swiss guy. I felt like. But. Oh. And then the worst part for me was she let him take the dogs.
Sharon: Mm
Caitlin: Like, that drove me. No, you don’t like. No, she’s like, I love these dogs. They’re so important to me. Then you take the dogs. Like, you go find a place that’ll take the dog. You take the dogs.
Caitlin: That pissed me off.
Sharon: Tell me how you really feel.
Caitlin: Yeah, I’m mad about the dogs.
Sharon: Okay.
Caitlin: What did you hate?
Sharon: Oh, I already said what I hated.
Caitlin: Oh, that’s right.
Sharon: Sorry.
Caitlin: Wait, did you.
Sharon: Yeah, I said, calling. Oh, no, I didn’t. Sorry. I just, I was like, so in tune with you. Okay. Actually, I have a lot. I have a lot that I hate. Okay. I hated the first book, the whole first half. I think she thought it was a unique story. But it’s not. The whole story is she’s got this kind of good life, but she’s not in love with her husband. Does she blow it all up for finding true love? Meaning she has to walk away from money and safety? Kind of.
Caitlin: And her dogs.
Sharon: Yeah. So that’s her dilemma. This is a very common story. The only thing I think that might’ve made it interesting is because she was in like this old broke down mansion in Spain that she was renovating, and she was like hopping on the plane to different countries in Europe, so it made it more exotic.
Caitlin: It was like, it was like under the tuscan sun backdrop.
Sharon: Exactly. So the kind of the environment made it interesting. But then it was over and over her. In this dilemma, I was like, I get it. You only have to tell me once. It was extremely redundant. The first book was boring.
Caitlin: Also, you were on tv. We know how it plays out, so it’s not even a surprise.
Sharon: There was nothing particularly unique about it. that I was like, I need to read a bunch of it.
Caitlin: I just kept flipping and flipping and flipping.
Sharon: how long did it take you to finish this book? Did you have to force yourself to read it or couldn’t put it down?
Caitlin: Forced myself. It took way longer than it should have. I just kept flipping and thinking I was there and I wasn’t there. The second book read faster and better. I probably read it off and on over the course of a week. But maybe, like, for both books, maybe three days, if I’d really pushed myself.
Sharon: The first book took me forever. It was horrible.
Caitlin: It took so long, and I don’t understand why.
Sharon: We can talk about. Are we gonna talk about the structure soon? But we’ll talk about that in a minute. I think that’s part of it. The first book was so boring.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: Had to force myself. The second book, I actually read it over the course of 4 hours. I think I read it in, like, two sittings.
Caitlin: It was better.
Sharon: So it was better. I have.
Caitlin: But she also left the first book hanging. She couldn’t even wrap up what happened in the first book because all the juicy stuff was in the second book.
Sharon: Well, that’s because she knew she was coming.
Caitlin: Right. But why even write the first book?
Sharon: So you can have a highly anticipated.
Caitlin: I guess so. You’re right. Can’t anticipate it if it’s not there. Okay. Were there parts of the book you need to talk about?
Sharon: There are so many parts of this book I need to talk about. Okay.
Caitlin: Yeah. There’s a ton of.
Sharon: In no particular order. One of my biggest pet peeve, Caitlyn, say she m acts like she’s never seen the show. She has no idea what she’s signing up for. Oh, she says numerous times. I have numerous page references. 233463 171, where she says, I don’t watch tv. I rarely watch tv.
Caitlin: What is that box on your wall?
Sharon: They told me about the show, and then I forgot about it. Like, you wouldn’t. You put yourself up for reality show and you don’t go research it. You just forget it exists.
Caitlin: The other thing that’s, interesting, and maybe she could say I lived in Spain, so I didn’t have as much reality tv. But the Brits have even more reality tv than we do. And most of the shows that we have, except for housewives.
Sharon: They do have housewives.
Caitlin: Right. They do have it, but most of the shows that they have that are reality or that we have came from them, and they did them first. We’re usually the second round. So it’s not like reality tv. I mean, like, they’re the premiere reality tv, and then there’s us.
Sharon: Yeah, that made me nutty.
Caitlin: Yeah. Okay. The thing that made me the maddest is that she said more about the Prince Harry kiss, which we have kind of talked about in both episodes. We talked about her on the media circus that she did after Real Housewives of DC air, like, when they did their media tour. Then she said in the book, and it was like, this was the one hot. This was the only tea that you had to spill. Like, the only thing that you had that was interesting.
Sharon: The only thing anyone cared about.
Caitlin: Exactly. Cause I was reading this whole boring book to get to this part, and then it was like, it was nothing. Like, did they sleep together? Was it just a kiss? Then she alludes to. He made her bacon sandwich. So does that mean, like, the next morning or that evening when they were drinking? Did they just, like. I want to know what happens. And she gives slightly more in the tour, and then also the british press gives a lot more, but I don’t know what the actual story is. And it’s like you had the chance to have the one interesting story that you owned and nothing. She doesn’t say anything.
Sharon: Come on, tell it like it is, cat.
Caitlin: Exactly. That drove me nuts. That’s my biggest. That’s my biggest annoyance.
Sharon: the other thing I know both of us want to talk about is, where is the money coming from?
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: This. Her finances make zero sense throughout this book. So her and Tom. She and Tom, they meet doing some interior design. She’s like, an interior design.
Caitlin: Yeah, we learned that on Wikipedia. And I get it, but, like. But they get the book, and you kind of get that hint because of the way. But for other people or just herself, but.
Sharon: Yeah, but then.
Caitlin: Well, because she does a lot in the house. I’m not, like, belittling that. No.
Sharon: I got the feeling she worked there and that’s how she met him.
Caitlin: Maybe.
Sharon: But then she goes and they buy this broke down place in Spain that’ll cost so m. It has nothing. They have to build it from the ground up. They have all these people ruins. I mean, it doesn’t even have electricity. Or plumbing.
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: So she has no money. Exactly.
Caitlin: And you assume all the money that she has is probably wrapped up in.
Sharon: The house, and then she’s jet setting constantly.
Caitlin: Yeah. I can’t afford to go to Peru to some random. It’s like a chicken.
Sharon: But she travels to see Olivier, her other man. She’ll be like, oh, to see him for one day, two days. And I’m like, well, maybe because it’s Europe, you know, european.
Caitlin: She has, like, a friend. Was it Bermuda or the Bahamas?
Sharon: Yeah. She goes there.
Caitlin: She’s there all the time.
Sharon: and plus this Peru retreat.
Caitlin: Right.
Sharon: Which sounds fancy, would be extremely expensive. And at one point, she says, like.
Caitlin: It might be grudger, but she says, all the time, I have my money.
Sharon: I don’t have any money. And at one point, she says, like, her frequent flyer miles are gone. I think she was trying to make it seem like, no, she clearly has money coming from somewhere.
Caitlin: She does. I don’t know if it’s family money. That’s kind of.
Sharon: I think it is. I think maybe her family’s giving her money. I do not believe she doesn’t have money. She has hidden assets that she doesn’t want Tom or Carl.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: Charles.
Caitlin: To find out, because it’s also. This is like, a create space independent publication, which also means she had to probably upfront her own money just to publish the book.
Sharon: All right, should we go on to what makes this book unique?
Caitlin: Yes. Okay. I wrote. It’s amazing it got published. Question mark. Because it is. Okay. The weirdest thing for me is the informality of the texts just thrown in. They add nothing to the story.
Sharon: Yes. The texts are coming from Olivier to her.
Caitlin: Exactly.
Sharon: They’re little boxes on the screen, and they’re not.
Caitlin: Yeah. They’re not even long. I send longer texts, my husband sends longer texts. And then the other guy, she’d give a number to the one guy, or Cameron, I think it was the guy on the plane or the guy who was called trouble, but it would just be like, essentially booty calls. M from a lot of those guys. And then from the other guy, it was Olivier. It was just like love bombing.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: Oh. How I wish I was with you. Oh, I wish you were with me. Oh, I think about you all the time. Oh, you’re so beautiful. And it felt like a vanity play for her. Like, look at how many people are saying how beautiful I am. Look how wanted I am. I’m not wanted by my husband, but I’m wanted by all these texts. I mean, like a there’s nothing to prove that they’re real or not. B they were impossible to read. Now, I’m sure they’re great in the book, but we both had the digital format. They’re impossible to see.
Sharon: You cannot. So on, the Kindle, you cannot enlarge. Even if you enlarge the font, you cannot enlarge the picture or whatever.
Caitlin: And on my phone, I couldn’t, even if I couldn’t see it at all, unless I could kind of open it.
Sharon: So I had to, like, really squint my eyes.
Caitlin: It was bad.
Sharon: Yeah. And yeah, you’re right. The text, they were extremely. Again, they were extremely redundant. Yeah, I kind of got it after the second one.
Caitlin: It’s like one was something like, I love you so much. BTW, did you have to leave? BTW? I mean, it’s so informal that it doesn’t make any sense, especially coming from someone who’s british and maybe snogged Prince Harry. Like, I thought you guys were fancier. And these texts are just so pointless. It’s like when people add quotes, like when they’re learning to write essays and. You’re like, no, that’s. That’s just a fact. Or like, no, that’s just like, he called you great. Like, this doesn’t add anything. It didn’t make it interesting. It didn’t make it intriguing. It didn’t make it fun. And it just. It was. I don’t know. The whole story is so boring.
Sharon: I think that’s her way of making it, because the whole thing is, this is her diary. So it’s more real if she puts in texts, I think.
Caitlin: Right.
Sharon: And that’s, So that’s actually what I thought was problem with this structure is this faux diary.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: Because I think it might have been.
Caitlin: A real diary book.
Sharon: One does not have what are considered chapters. It needed more.
Caitlin: Right.
Sharon: It was all just one huge.
Caitlin: Oh, my gosh. I didn’t even think after that.
Sharon: Well, because it felt like I would look at my bottom of the kindle and it was like 5 hours left in this chapter.
Caitlin: And I’m like, oh.
Sharon: Cause there’s only one chapter.
Caitlin: I didn’t even notice. I just felt. Felt like it was mind numbing. Page flipping. But it’s like, just because you have a diary doesn’t mean you’ve written a book.
Caitlin: Like, I’ve written trip journals. Should I just publish those? Do you guys just want to see where I went on my trip? And like, no actual information and bad texts. And it’s not like there still has to be a storyline and there has to be a reason. I’m not saying that like, I mean, everyone has a story to tell. But some people’s aren’t good.
Sharon: Exactly.
Caitlin: Or like, it’s the way you tell it. I’m sure there’s other people who could have penned this and made it readable. Maybe, but not her.
Sharon: But do you? It’s okay. Parts of the time I read it and I was like, I do think it’s her diary. And I’m like, I’m sure she had to edit some of it to make it readable. I’m sure, like, you can’t probably just can’t take it directly. But in the other hand.
Caitlin: But it also dragged so much. Did she edit ah, it?
Sharon: If she wanted it to be so real, I feel like she should have left some of the. More because it was very polished.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: If you wanted it to be the diary, I kind of feel like you should have gone more with the diary and go less polished.
Caitlin: That’s true.
Sharon: That’s how it is.
Caitlin: There was probably more to have said about the divorce. There’s probably more to have said about these guys.
Sharon: Like, I hate him exclamation. I don’t know, maybe instead of a text from Olivier, put in a little picture you drew of him with an x over it or something.
Caitlin: You’re right. The way she framed all of it is to make her look in the best light possible. That’s absolutely.
Sharon: It’s almost like she was telling her story.
Caitlin: Hm.
Sharon: How she would want someone.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: Like someone is going to read her diary. Which I understand sometimes when you write a diary, you kind of fall into that a little bit.
Sharon: But I. Yeah, that’s how I found it.
Caitlin: No, you’re right. She was polishing herself and she was building herself up and I’m sure she needed to do that. And that’s probably kind of the point of a diary. Like, you don’t have to worry about the other person’s side of the story, but at the same time her story. Like, she’s not a huge celebrity.
Caitlin: So if your life doesn’t already have this like, really it factor, then you’ve got to give us something that is different. Because like, I was thinking about now that I said under the Tuscan sun, like, I love those books. They’re so interesting and like, there’s not a huge story there either. But her writing, like, the way she, the way she writes a travel, memoir and the way she describes things and puts us in those places. Like, she doesn’t do that. Her personal story isn’t interesting, nor does she make where she is at all interesting. There’s no prose to it. There’s no.
Sharon: Yes. Like, I thought the most interesting thing was, like the old house.
Caitlin: Yes, I did too.
Sharon: I wanted more of that. Tell me about this house. Tell me about how you’re renovating it. Exactly. That was fascinating to me. And we barely got anything.
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: Why did you decide to leave everybody go in the middle of nowhere? Why was that your dream? To live in this middle of the nowhere? Just stone wall castle that you have to rent it? Tell us about that.
Caitlin: And if she is in fact an interior designer, she would have an eye for that. And you think she would want to share that? Yeah, it makes no sense to me.
Sharon: It really doesn’t. She never comments throughout any of the two books about having a job. At one point, she says she wants to earn money again, like be independent, but never in the book does she talk about ever having made money. No, she does talk about making money from the show.
Caitlin: Yeah, I got the vibe that that’s why she did the show.
Sharon: And she kind of says that, but she doesn’t say like, oh, at my job as an interior designer. Yeah, but then she doesn’t make it sound like she was a stay at home mom either.
Caitlin: No, I don’t know what she did.
Sharon: My next comment is going back to the text breaks. To me, that was very 50 shades of gray. Every time that happened, I thought about Christian Grey sending those messages.
Caitlin: Like, if his were polished and funny. yeah, I would have fallen for his. I’m not falling for these tugs.
Sharon: Yeah, totally.
Caitlin: Yeah. I mean, it’s like she had read these other books like that. Yes. And she was trying to do what they did, but she was not skilled enough to do it.
Caitlin: I mean, I know we have a question later on and I hadn’t really thought of it. Do you think she had anybody? I think she just had an editor. Like, I don’t think she had anybody ghostwriting with her. I know I’m jumping ahead, but I just. Now all of a sudden I kind of.
Sharon: She mentioned somebody who helped her go through the book, but I guess that’s.
Caitlin: Sounds like an editor. Yeah. Yeah.
Sharon: I mean, it wasn’t like horrible writing. Some of it was really cheesy and cliche, most of it. And then maybe someone should have helped her make it more concise.
Caitlin: Yes, I think that’s where it really stood.
Sharon: It just, which isn’t that an editor’s.
Caitlin: I just feel bad because I just feel like there was really no purpose to it. I just really feel like, what did reading this or even writing it do? That, seems so mean to say.
Sharon: No.
Caitlin: It’s so dull. Like, dull is the word.
Sharon: When you go down to the next question, we were gonna say, what surprised you in the book? And I literally wrote that it exists. Yes, because why does she have a book? This is before real housewives aired, right? So it’s not like she was a celebrity that I want to know her story. She’s just some lady who left her husband and flies around Europe. And apparently she’s not even rich. She’s broke.
Caitlin: I want to know, like, were her parents writers? You know, like, was there something that made her think, well, she did say.
Sharon: She doesn’t like to watch tv. She usually liked her write.
Caitlin: Yeah. Oh, that’s right. Because she was a writer.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: Uh-huh.
Sharon: But really, why did she get a. Why did she have a book? Why does she think we care about her life?
Caitlin: Yeah, that does surprise me. because I don’t.
Sharon: Because, again, her story is not unique.
Caitlin: It’s not even like. And I’ve read some bad rom coms by mistake. The cover’s pretty. And then I’m like, this was a terrible book. But there’s at least something that kind of, like, draws you in for a second. Like, I didn’t care about the characters. I also. The characters of the men were all. They were all secrets. Like, she was hiding all of them, and she was sort of hiding herself from us. Like, there was no authenticity in the book.
Sharon: She came across, very much the victim. And now here’s what I’m saying. Yeah. Vaping. She was the victim. She was. And I do absolutely believe that her husbands were total.
Caitlin: I think so too.
Sharon: But we see zero of, like, what she saw on them, how she got there.
Caitlin: She didn’t learn anything. You know when you’re like, write a book. Cause you’re like, well, at least I can be a horrible example to other people.
Sharon: People, yes, exactly.
Caitlin: That wasn’t even. She didn’t learn anything from it.
Sharon: Yeah, because, like, she goes at it, her whole thing. It’s like she’s too happy with herself.
Sharon: She’s so proud of herself that she got through these adverse situations. She’s just too pleased with herself because I don’t think she really got through anything great. I don’t know.
Caitlin: And I’m not sure she even handled it all that way.
Sharon: She didn’t handle it well, yeah, yeah. She came out of it broke with her family, broken up, and, I mean, I’m glad she feels happy, but,
Caitlin: And, you know, she said so much of the time, the girls handled it so well, and they. But then at the end, it really sounded like they didn’t handle it. I mean, like, it was really hard for them to. And they said some honest things to her, and that was like the most honest moment of the book.
Sharon: Yeah. They each got, like, a couple pages to write at the end. yeah, yeah.
Caitlin: It’s like their stories were more honest in two pages than hers was in however many pages both books were. And that’s shocking. Okay. The other thing that surprised me, she pulled a vicky, and she has fan comments from Twitter. Oh, my gosh. And the gift.
Sharon: Oh, my gosh. I totally forgot I was gonna say that.
Caitlin: Oh, and what a gift to all of us. Those Twitter comments.
Sharon: I added a comment in the book when I was writing, I wrote, this is boring. It was so boring. They weren’t even short comments out there.
Caitlin: amazing tweets. These are tweets.
Sharon: They were long comments, and they were.
Caitlin: Just, like, people saying that she was so awesome, brilliant.
Sharon: She would include who? Every mom. Every now and again, she would include one that, like, insulted her. But then most of them were all about how awesome she was and, oh.
Caitlin: My God, you don’t get to just publish your Twitter feed of compliments. That’s not a thing. Oh, this is like your journal. I mean, your personal journal. You put those in.
Sharon: Yeah, no, totally agree. I hated that. It’s almost like she was filling pages at that point.
Caitlin: It was worse. Vicky’s were better. I feel bad. We ragged on Vicky’s now. Hers were at least answers to questions.
Sharon: So I guess overall, I feel like the problem is she’s making herself out to be a survivor, but I’m not sure of what. I mean, I understand everyone. She had a jerk husband, but, I just don’t see her in that way.
Caitlin: Right.
Sharon: I feel like she sees herself in that way and I don’t get it.
Caitlin: Yeah. And also, who hasn’t had a relationship go a little bit sour? I mean, even in smaller situations, that’s a fairly common thread, and it’s a fairly common thread for women. So to act like you’re the only woman in the entire world.
Caitlin: Who’s ever like. That’s what it felt like, too. Like she was the only person who ever went through a divorce. She was the only person who ever had a bad relationship. She was the only person who ever had people text her these things. She was the only person who ever went on Twitter.
Sharon: She was not. And like, she was being judged for it. She act like everyone hated her for these things.
Sharon: Which I don’t think she was blonde.
Caitlin: You probably hate blonde.
Sharon: Like, no one m people hated her. Cause she was a jerk.
Caitlin: Right. And also, it’s like, it’s that camaraderie where you’re like, I see myself in this story where you get behind an author and you’re like, oh, my gosh. I also went through a toxic situation, but she’s like, no. Cause mine was worse. And you could just feel that in the writing.
Sharon: Yes.
Caitlin: Okay, so I’ll just sit back here and watch it. But then put it on tv. Yeah.
Sharon: Like, it was this really rare.
Caitlin: You left all the good Charles information off of the tv. All this juicy stuff, which we’ll talk about soon, but. And didn’t even give it to us. And now you’re like, but I’m so interesting. Well, you would have been, but you hid it all. I don’t think saving it for the.
Sharon: Here’s the thing. I think that is a ruse. She’s like, oh, well, I came off this way because let’s say she had told us the story. Would you like her more? She told me in the book, and I don’t like her anymore. No, I mean, while I was.
Caitlin: But it might have been better tv.
Sharon: Yeah. While I was reading the book, I did soft and Turtle. And then by the end.
Caitlin: Yeah, no, I was.
Sharon: I was back to, like, not liking.
Caitlin: Yeah. At the beginning of the second book, I was like, oh, I didn’t realize all this stuff was going on.
Sharon: Yeah. And then it’s like,
Caitlin: And, oh, this is a little bit interesting.
Sharon: Mm
Caitlin: Like, maybe she learned her lesson from the first book.
Sharon: Nope, she didn’t. She didn’t at all. Nope. She doesn’t even acknowledge that she didn’t learn it.
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: Like, man, I didn’t even learn my lesson. I keep making the same mistake.
Caitlin: Nope.
Sharon: No, she’s just a survivor, man.
Caitlin: Yeah. She’s not very self reflective.
Sharon: Gonna keep going and surviving, which is weird.
Caitlin: Ama survived.
Sharon: Oh, God.
Caitlin: Okay, do you have another.
Sharon: Oh, no, wait. I have another quote. This is really important. She writes when m she’s in Peru.
Caitlin: Let me get my pen out so I can put this in my journal.
Sharon: She writes, she never imagined that the Amazon to be so beautiful, lush, alive and bursting with nature.
Caitlin: Wow. She. You know what’s amazing? I don’t think anyone else has ever been to the Amazon.
Sharon: Why didn’t she imagine the Amazon was bursting with nature? Are you kidding me? You don’t what from, like, some of those other books?
Caitlin: Cause we’ve read some, like, really cool books. Like, from, What’s that called?
Sharon: Oh, yeah.
Caitlin: We read. That was explorer.
Sharon: That explore.
Caitlin: But it’s like, it’s really. It’s bursting with life that will attack you, actually. yikes.
Sharon: Like, lush? What else would you describe as lush?
Caitlin: Wouldn’t green be the first thing you thought of when you thought of the Amazon?
Sharon: I feel like she showed up to the Amazon and she’s like, oh, my.
Caitlin: Gosh, I didn’t know what this was. That’s kind of cool.
Sharon: Oh, wow. Next question. Do you have any lingering questions after finishing the book?
Caitlin: Okay, I was thinking this, like, I’m not a prude. I don’t care how many men she dates. It’s not like I’m like, oh, my God, she dated so many men. It’s that they’re dull love affairs. Like, her story isn’t interesting. It’s average at best. She’s also hiding any information about these men that would make them remotely interesting. She’s hiding any information about herself that makes herself remotely interesting. And then she comes off just so vapid, because, and again, I don’t judge any of this. I mean, take time away from your kids. Do whatever you need to do for you. Like, I’m not judging the fact that she’s going out and doing all these things, but they’re so boring. I don’t know why I’m supposed to care about them.
Sharon: And they shouldn’t be boring.
Caitlin: They shouldn’t be boring.
Sharon: They should be jet setting around the world. Yeah.
Caitlin: How do you jet set and make it dull?
Sharon: I don’t know. You name yourself cat.
Caitlin: I guess you just have no idea about any of the places you’re going.
Sharon: Yes, Switzerland.
Caitlin: I’m so surprised how swiss it was. You know they have cheese there.
Sharon: I was so surprised. Oh, my God, there’s chocolate.
Caitlin: Who knew? Did you guys know? Yeah, we did some tv, maybe.
Sharon: Yeah, she doesn’t watch tv. Maybe she needs a little channel.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: So lingering questions. I wrote, where is she now? I don’t care enough to research.
Caitlin: Yeah, that’s. That is a good question. But I also don’t care. I’m betting in England.
Sharon: I don’t know.
Caitlin: I don’t know. I was, like, thinking, should I pick up my phone?
Sharon: No, no.
Caitlin: We’ll look later. If it’s really interesting.
Sharon: We’ll add, like, honestly, you know, when you’re so, like, you just don’t care enough to even look it up.
Caitlin: guys, she’s ruined our interest in the world around us. Yeah, that’s how sad she is.
Sharon: And the other thing, going back to her talking, I feel like the guys, she didn’t give us any reason to like the guys.
Caitlin: Yeah, once.
Sharon: She kind of mentioned that once. Charles was nice and funny. Right, but maybe you should.
Caitlin: She really makes us hate them from the beginning.
Sharon: I want to see another side because that’s what made the dilemma harder. It’s not a dilemma if the guy is just a huge jerk. Yeah, well, I’m like, okay, leave him. M. It’s not like, you know, I understand it was her life and this.
Caitlin: And that, but the story should be. And if you want us to feel what you’re feeling, it should be. I loved this person. I fell in love with them. I then fell out of love with them. But, like, how did you get from there to there? Okay, I’m looking at this Bravo thing. I decided to look it up, but it’s like, where are they today? And Linda and Mary still hang out, which makes me happy, but. Okay, cat, they’re still close with Kat. Both of them. Well, Linda was there, but who moved out of DC and this is in 2024 and now lives in Spain. So we went through all this crap and she went back to Spain.
Sharon: She went back to that castle.
Caitlin: I don’t know.
Sharon: Is it refinished by now?
Caitlin: No, it doesn’t. Who knows where she is? But she’s back in Spain. I mean, like, so what was the point of this whole journey?
Sharon: Oh, gosh. She’s probably back with Tom.
Caitlin: Stay in space. She probably is.
Sharon: He probably left his.
Caitlin: He probably didn’t. Was like, you know, let’s go. I’ve got. I still have the dogs. Yeah, you want those back? Then let’s go renovate a new castle, honey. Okay. How honest do you think the author was? I kind of don’t know how to answer this.
Sharon: I don’t either. I think she was honest. I think she was dramatic.
Caitlin: Mm Yeah. I think also what you said, I think she was honest. I think she cleaned up her image, though.
Caitlin: So. And I’m a little torn on the stuff with Charles, which we’ll go into, which I kind of put under, like, how do you see the franchise differently? I’m a little torn. She gives us a lot of dirt on him. I feel like it was a really contentious divorce. I don’t know. How much to trust? All of it, I guess I’ll say that I agree. Yeah. Okay. Did reading this book change your view of the author or the housewives franchise?
Sharon: first I started liking her more than I was back to where I was. So back to square one. so I don’t like her very much. She’s better than Mikhail, the franchise, it made me even happier because she had a lot of respect for Bravo and m. She said they treated her well and they were nice. Everything went well. Yeah.
Caitlin: Okay, this is kind of a shocker. I actually said I would be into seeing her on housewives. Now that she’s older and not as stupid or as inhibited by Charles. It would be kind of interesting to maybe see who she is now, now that she’s been through it once. Not like her just picked out of random and thrown it, but like, if they were to bring her up now at this age and at this point in her life, she might be more honest and more interesting than she was back then when she was hiding everything.
Sharon: This is what I’m confused about. The whole point of her is she’s the uninhibited. Tell it like this woman, and yet she’s not. So why do we all think she’s the uninhibited?
Caitlin: Because she said she was.
Sharon: Why do we think if she comes back, she’s gonna suddenly dress uninhibited? I think it’s because she’s rude.
Caitlin: Yes, yes. People hide behind that.
Sharon: People are like, well, she just says.
Caitlin: It like m a truthful person. Actually, you’re kind of a jerk.
Sharon: Yeah. I mean, she might be the same way.
Caitlin: The only thing that did change my mind, and not about the housewives franchise, but about how I saw DC, is the tease that Charles is a mess. It was really interesting to find out that they were trying for a baby. Yeah, that’s fascinating because that was like his one regret. She wanted to give him a baby. She was really in the whole fray of that, which also probably would have made her a little kooky on the show. He was also still really attached to his ex wives.
Sharon: Mm And his lover.
Caitlin: And his lover. Yeah. And he had like, okay, he, I mean, he like ghosted her. He maybe abused alcohol, he was probably cheating. He maybe stole her pain pills from her surgery and took them. Like, she makes him sound out to be a really horrible human being. He didn’t put them on his medical insurance. So when she went in for her surgery, she was like, she owed like $18,000. They had this sick dog that then was from the ex wife that she wouldn’t take care or he wouldn’t take care of. So she had to take care of, and she had to leave him behind at the end. That just broke my heart. I didn’t like that. Maybe he’s gay or bi, which, again, is not her place to really say, but then she’s hinting at all these things. Ah, again, you got to be careful, kind of what you’re saying. He divorced her without her knowing by saying to the courts that she left the country, didn’t find her. Just also kind of. That does seem cowardly.
Sharon: I mean, it is, but it’s also kind of funny. Like, I didn’t. How can you do that so easily? I mean, it feels like it should be a little harder.
Caitlin: I think she would love harder. And it’s like, I guess my biggest surprise was for someone who says she’s so strong and she’s, you know, she’s the phoenix rising from the ashes of every, like, relationship that took her for a spin. She, like, cowers to these men, though.
Sharon: Mm
Caitlin: Especially in the book. Like, she’s protecting the names. And then to their faces, she’s like, oh, I’ll still take care of your broken dog, and I’ll still make you a lovely house, and I’ll still make dinner, and I’ll still do this, and I’ll still do that, and I’ll still put my children in the middle of it, and I’ll still do this and that. And I’m not judging her, but she, who she says she is and how she acts does not line up.
Sharon: I think you’re absolutely right. Her self perception is way off. Way off completely. Right.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: Let’s judge the book by its covers.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: Do we like the artwork? Do we like the title?
Caitlin: Okay, so remember when we were watching the DC episode and she was taking these awful pictures, and then Charles showed up? Yeah. It seemed so romantic and sweet that he showed up. Did he take the picture of her on the first one? Because she’s standing on the COVID she’s looking over her shoulder, and she’s doing that stupid thing where you put your hand under your chin. That is not, you know what? Someone who took Obama’s picture in the.
Sharon: Tunnel, I like with my pen, like, filled in her eyes and her hair. I actually have to look at your picture now. She looks like a zombie.
Caitlin: She does. Well, she looks a little.
Sharon: Yeah, like it almost like the hand under that. It’d be better.
Caitlin: So dumb. So I don’t feel like Charles took this picture.
Sharon: Well, remember Charles when he was taking the pictures? I mean, granted, he could have took a ton of different. She was on an escalator.
Caitlin: Exactly. So why didn’t we use any of those? And I think she had, like, a leopard thing. Why are we of her? Did they get a divorce? And then she lost the right to.
Sharon: The photos, and she’s sitting in a chair, and I just noticed that.
Caitlin: I thought she noticed, too. I did, too.
Sharon: I mean, she looks pretty. Also, it says Catherine Ashley.
Caitlin: Right?
Sharon: Not cat is her middle name. Yeah, I guess so.
Caitlin: But why don’t she has to hide from all those previous relationships? Maybe her family is really famous and really rich and just want us to know her, like, maiden name.
Sharon: But that’s how you’re known on the show.
Caitlin: Yep.
Sharon: And that’s how you’ll make money.
Caitlin: Exactly. So why put that. That? It’s what’s really weird.
Sharon: Yeah. so this cover, I mean, it’s, eh.
Caitlin: yeah, it’s eh. And it looks, again, it’s got the little subtitle thing that looks like. I added it with. What? It’s not comic sans. Yes, like comic san. Right.
Sharon: I like the inbox full font, but you’re right to be careful what you wish for. A font is horrible. It’s. Right.
Caitlin: And we were also saying, like, it’s just. It’s your phone inbox, it’s not your email.
Sharon: Yeah. Are we talking about black now, too?
Caitlin: Yeah. Oh, yeah, we are.
Sharon: Yeah. Yeah. The inbox full made zero sense to me. Is it because she’s getting so many texts, she’s so popular, and that’s what it’s about, is all these texts. Is that what she’s alluding to?
Caitlin: I think that’s what she’s. That’s the gimmick.
Sharon: And the second book she makes all these callbacks to her inbox is full, like, joking. And it was like, so, what do you call it? Strain. Like when someone’s forcing it.
Caitlin: Right. You, just pay for the amount of extra storage and calm down.
Sharon: So earlier we were joking, like, it was like a aol.
Caitlin: Like, you’ve got mail.
Sharon: You’ve got mail. That’s exactly what she, like, ripped this off from.
Caitlin: Like, sorry, you don’t have a rom.com ten box full. There’s no Tom Hanks here.
Sharon: But what is full?
Caitlin: I am full of reading these awful, teeny tiny texts that make no sense.
Sharon: I hate it when people put. It’s like, okay, when you put the words, it just sounds kind of edgy and cool. It does sound, but then when you think about it, it makes no sense. That’s the worst things in the world.
Caitlin: Well, then let’s talk about the gift.
Sharon: Oh, God. This one really gets.
Caitlin: What is the gift?
Sharon: The gift is, Linda says that, like, basically when bad stuff happens, there’s, like, a silver lining, like a gift that comes out of it. It took me forever to remember that. Finally it clicked with me because I was like, what is the gift?
Caitlin: Yeah, I didn’t.
Sharon: And then at the very end of the book, she talks about, like, I guess this is the gift when she’s flying away, but I don’t even know what it was. It made no sense in the context.
Caitlin: That’s what I thought she was referencing.
Sharon: Like, I don’t even know what the gift was. It wasn’t like, her freedom. That’s not what she was.
Caitlin: And she had it before she got married. It’s her fault.
Sharon: Yeah. She wasn’t implying, like, anything. It was nothing. Again, the gift.
Caitlin: The book is not a gift.
Sharon: And then she put the highly anticipated sequel.
Caitlin: You can’t just say that. It’s only. The only way it’s anticipated is that she didn’t finish the first book. And you’re like, well, I wasted all my time on that. I guess I’d like to see how this ends. That is the only way in which it is an anticipated anything. Okay. And let’s talk about the COVID for the gift. It is so whitewashed.
Sharon: Okay. It does look more professional.
Caitlin: It does? Yeah. I don’t think Charles took it, though. But it’s like, she looks like she’s blending almost into the background. She’s a princess Diana haircut in a pink, like, crossover dress.
Sharon: And her boobs look really big.
Caitlin: And her boobs are right in the middle of the thing there.
Sharon: The color, it’s like that white gray with a pop of color on her.
Caitlin: Dress, and they did the pink to match. Her lips are kind of pink.
Sharon: Yeah, it’s like. It’s. She looks really beautiful. She looks like a pretty version of Dorinda. I knew Caitlin was gonna flip that if I said that. Doesn’t she?
Caitlin: Yes. See, I just thought she was an ugly version of Princess Di.
Sharon: Yeah, well, it’s both. Both can be true. Two things can be true. Both can be true.
Caitlin: We sane parenting. Oh, my God. She. I can’t not see Jorinda now.
Sharon: I’m sorry.
Caitlin: I can’t unsee it. I’m gonna turn this over. I can’t look. Oh, my goodness. That’s what she looks like. Oh, that’s disturbing. Who did that? I just thought it was sort of rude to Prince Harry that she kissed him and then tried to look exactly like his mom later. Like, that’s a little messed up too.
Sharon: Okay, so I think the last thing we have is real housewives on real housewives, thumbs up or thumbs down? Should we do each book? Do each book individually and then together.
Caitlin: Okay, you press down for what about all together?
Sharon: So I guess that has to be done.
Caitlin: It’s not like there was inbox down together, further down, and then the gift together.
Sharon: They didn’t, like, rise together?
Caitlin: Nope. Down. I wrote no need to read.
Sharon: Yeah. First one. Oh, my God. Two thumbs down. Second one, I’m actually gonna give it a sideways just because it wasn’t as bad as the first one. Okay, so by that.
Caitlin: So instead of a zero, it’s 0.5.
Sharon: Yes, it’s bad. It’s annoying. I don’t like her. So actually, I’m gonna give it a thumbs down now that I think about it.
Caitlin: I mean, if you watch the show, I guess it’s interesting to know the tea of what’s going on with Charles. I don’t know how much of it we can trust. He says now he totally regrets doing the show.
Caitlin: I don’t know. I feel like I can’t trust her for some reason. I’m not trying to, like, I don’t like saying that because I feel like that puts me on the side of, like, a guy who’s a bad guy. But it’s just that we don’t have any way of knowing what’s true and what’s not.
Caitlin: Because the first thing is kind of like, well, how true is it? You’re using pen names.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: And then this. It’s sort of like, well, we saw there were problems on the show, but we didn’t actually see any of what really went down because you didn’t share your life. So I just don’t know what to make of it. It’s all a mess. And I feel bad for her kids.
Caitlin: Not like she’s a bad mom, but it’s just a bad situation.
Sharon: Yeah. Okay.
Caitlin: I don’t even know what to say.
Sharon: I have nothing else to say.
Caitlin: That’s all we got. All right. That is our episode. Okay. Do you think we’re done talking about Kat after this? I feel like she had an episode. We’ve done the books we talked about in your book. I want to lay her.
Sharon: I feel like I’ve kind of gotten out of my system. Cause I was really mad when I was reading, and I had so much to say. And, you know, when we read, we try not to talk to each other.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: So I couldn’t talk to Caitlin about it.
Caitlin: Exactly.
Sharon: like, we set her to. I think we’re done. I think she’s set free. I feel like she is really, like, on this girl.
Caitlin: Yeah, we’re free. Exactly. That’s the gift.
Sharon: The gift is that it’s over. This is the gift. The book is over.
Caitlin: I feel like the angels are coming down and singing. All right, remember, housewives bring the drama.
Sharon: We bring the receipts.
Caitlin: Thanks for. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button. And if you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others or leave a rating and review. Also visit us on Instagram and threads both at rh on RH for fun pictures and polls, or email us at rh on rhpodcastmail.com. thanks again, and remember to stay out of the shade.