The Everygirl Book Club hosts interview New York Times bestselling author Ashley Poston about her novel The Someday Garden, in which Sophie, the new head gardener at Lilymoor, discovers a secret garden and a mysterious man trapped inside. Poston explains how growing up in fandom and writing fanfic shaped her voice and led to her magical realism romances. She shares her craft process: using fanfic-style scenarios to test character chemistry, then ensuring the magic serves character growth. Poston reflects on The Seven-Year Slip’s personal origins, its reader-driven “long tail” success, coping with grief while writing it, handling reviews (including a harsh Kirkus line as motivation), researching gardens despite having a “brown thumb,” drafting The Someday Garden’s time-based magic through multiple versions, and teases a forthcoming romantasy duology.

0:00 – Introduction

2:03 – The Dead Romantics & Discovering Romance

6:27 – Fandom, Fanfic & Reylo

12:47 – Characters, Magic & Writing Process

15:35 – The Seven-Year Slip's Success

28:20 – On Reviews, Ratings & Reader Taste

35:20 – The Someday Garden & The Secret Garden

41:12 – Sophie, Grief & the Garden's Magic

47:10 – The Challenge of Writing Time Travel

51:52 – About Time & Character Inspirations

57:23 – Easter Eggs & the Ashley Poston Universe

58:20 – The End of an Era & What's Next

1:00:59 – Book Recommendations & Closing

The Someday Garden – Ashley Poston

The Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston

The Seven-Year Slip – Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron – Ashley Poston

Geekerella (Once Upon a Con trilogy) – Ashley Poston

Novel Love Story – Ashley Poston

Bishop Takes King (Hawkeye) – Ashley Poston

Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon

Howl's Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros

Dearly Departed – Chip Ponds

The House of Now and Then – Edward Underhill

The Summer Girlfriend – Kristina Forest

Romantic Hero – Kirsty Greenwood

Star Wars (franchise, plus Ashley's upcoming Star Wars novel)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

About Time

Fairy Tale

Dimension 20 / Dropout (TV series)

Enjoy the episode? Like and follow The Everygirl Book Club Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share the episode with a fellow reader. Then, join the conversation on Instagram @theeverygirlbookclub for monthly book picks, book recommendations, reading challenges, and more.

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The Everygirl Book Club hosts an interview with debut novelist and journalist Jessica M. Goldstein about her novel Retro—a speculative time-travel novel that kept us hooked from the moment we first read the synopsis—discussing “the sickening pain of nostalgia,” escapism, and why female friendships and platonic love are undervalued. Goldstein shares formative childhood reads and describes her affinity for vintage media and film craftsmanship. She explains building Retro’s grounded speculative world—an office-run time-travel agency using a Metro-like system—while setting clear limits, blending satire with serious themes of debt, corporate power, moral responsibility, modern dating, and the need to stay present. Goldstein also reflects on moving from journalism and McSweeney’s satire to speculative fiction, and on crafting an emotionally open ending meant to spark debate.

• 00:26 Why Retro hooked us
• 01:15 The books that shaped Jessica as a writer
• 04:12 Developing her love of vintage media
• 10:37 Nostalgia and escapism
• 15:42 Building Retro's world
• 21:46 Offices are actually so weird
• 32:19 Moving from Journalism to Fiction
• 36:35 Laughing at reality
• 44:59 The nostalgia trap
• 46:58 Choosing hope amid uncertainty
• 53:57 Friendship as a lifeline
• 01:02:36 Balancing humor and heart
• 01:08:12 On the importance of staying present

• Retro
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• Peter Pan
• Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels
• Yesteryear

• Dog Day Afternoon
• The Red Shoes
• Before Sunset
• Clueless
• Independence Day
• Argo
• Forrest Gump
• Coco
• You've Got Mail
• When Harry Met Sally
• Sinners
• One Battle After Another
• La Chimera
• The Wolf of Wall Street

• Euphoria
• Severance
• Party Down

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In partnership with BookSparks, The Everygirl Book Club welcomes Erica Hendry, author of June Book Club pick, Let's Not Go Overboard Here.

If you've ever defended your love of reality TV, assigned yourself a favorite boy band member, or found comfort in messy female characters, this episode is for you.

Erica joins Garri and Lauren to chat about how her debut novel came to be, why pop culture is so much more than a guilty pleasure, and how she built a mystery that's equal parts funny, heartfelt, and deeply relatable. Along the way, they swap book recommendations, reminisce about the pop culture references that live in their heads rent-free, and make the case for letting people unapologetically love the things they love.

• 00:00 Welcome & introducing Erica Hendry
• 02:49 Reading Receipts: What Erica is reading now, recent 5-star reads, and her most anticipated upcoming releases
• 08:18 Erica's journey to publishing her debut novel
• 13:26 Writing authentic characters through pop culture
• 20:54 Balancing humor, grief & emotional depth
• 23:24 Why reality TV fans are misunderstood
• 31:25 Do pop culture references date a novel?
• 35:08 Why we should let people love what they love
• 43:07 Building the world of Let's Not Go Overboard Here
• 47:25 The parallels between reality TV and real life
• 53:17 Rapid-fire questions with Erica
• 1:03:43 Final thoughts & what's next for Erica

1. A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz
2. Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It by Brooke Averick
3. Night Objects by Eli Raphael
4. Big Nobody by Alex Kadis
5. Hopeless Romantics by Mhairi McFarlane
6. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty
7. You'll Love It Here by Natalie Sue
8. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
9. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
10. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
11. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
12. Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein
13. The Book of Luke by Lovell Holder

Enjoy the episode? Like and follow The Everygirl Book Club Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share the episode with a fellow reader. Then, join the conversation on Instagram @theeverygirlbookclub for monthly book picks, book recommendations, reading challenges, and more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.