Morally Gray Is My Favorite Color: Talese Nicole on A Beautiful Disaster, Love, Rage & Obsession

What happens when heartbreak, abandonment, obsession, and a whole lot of rage meet a woman who really does not like being left?

Author Talese Nicole joins LaCie Knight, Sloane, and Morgan for a funny, layered, and unexpectedly deep conversation about her psychological thriller A Beautiful Disaster.

⚠️ Spoiler warning: We get into major plot points and the ending, so read the book first if you want to stay unspoiled.

Talese takes us behind the story, from writing Nicole while she was genuinely angry to researching women who kill, talking through character psychology with her therapist (who the book’s therapist is based on), and building a heroine who can be loving, successful, vulnerable, controlling, and dangerous all at once. We also get into the wounds underneath Nicole’s choices, especially abandonment, the need to be chosen, and what happens when love starts to look more like possession.

Of course, we have to talk about Jamal keeping Nicole a secret, whether Nicole truly loved Eric or just loved finally being chosen, Eric ignoring some very obvious red flags, the symbolism behind the plants and fire, and Mickey, the moment some of us finally side-eyed Nicole. And yes, we get into that ending. 👀 We even try to settle the Verity debate: the letter or the manuscript?

Talese also shares what she’s working on next, why thrillers have her heart, and which of her books to read after A Beautiful Disaster.

Come for the thriller. Stay for the debate over whether Nicole is a villain, misunderstood, or just a flourishing Black woman whose exes should have stopped playing in her face. 😂

📚 Read next: Buried Secrets by Talese Nicole
📍 Catch Talese at Licensed 2 Thrill in Nashville, October 23 and 24
🌐 TaleseNicole.com | @LoveTaleseNicole

Follow us @urbanwhisperspodcast
Sloane: @sloane_bueller | Morgan: @morgstaysbook

Author S.M. Love joins LaCie, Sloane, and Morgan for a conversation about One Night Only, The Pink Room, and the Club Venus universe.

We begin with Taysia’s transformation into Tasty Ty and the survival instinct that pushes her through one unforgettable night at Club Venus. S.M. talks about writing women with confidence, humor, complicated lives, and strong circles of sisterhood, while showing that the women working inside Club Venus are much more than their occupation.

Then we move into The Pink Room, where the story becomes much more personal.

S.M. shares why she wanted control to initially look like care, why she gave readers access to Smoke’s perspective without excusing his behavior, and why Nas was never going to be written as Taysia’s rescuer.

As S.M. explains during the conversation:“You have to rescue yourself.”Leaving a harmful situation does not automatically mean the healing is finished, and supporting someone is very different from taking away their agency.

S.M. also opens up about her own experiences, the role therapy played in encouraging her to tell this story, and how Club Venus unexpectedly became her healing series, centered on survival, confidence, underdogs, and women finding their way back to themselves.

We also get a few hints about Book Three, what may be ahead for the Club Venus characters, and whether S.M. would ever want to see this world adapted for the screen.

Ultimately, the message S.M. leaves us with is simple:

You are your own hero.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of domestic violence, coercive control, emotional manipulation, financial abuse, trauma, and substance abuse.

Follow S.M. Love on Instagram @authorsmlove and TikTok @smlove_writes. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok @urbanwhisperspodcast.

Our summer break is over! Season 3 begins with author Anna J., and it turns into much more than a book conversation.

Anna joins LaCie, Sloane, and Morgan to talk about "Rainy Days", the romance she wrote after her divorce, and what it takes to find love, faith, and yourself again on the other side of a seventeen year marriage. She talks about healing without pretending you'll never be triggered again, learning to keep her own cup full before giving anyone the overflow, and why she wrote a man who is allowed to be vulnerable.

We also get into her twenty plus years in publishing. Anna left traditional publishing to build her own imprint, and she's direct about why. What an advance really is. What a publisher will cut and who they're cutting it for. What she'd never accept again. Her advice for writers comes down to going hybrid and never giving one house everything you have.

Plus music, faith, dating with intention, soul ties, what's next in the City Love Stories world, and why Anna J. refuses to claim writer's block.

Funny, honest, and exactly the conversation we wanted to open Season 3 with.

The conversation after the last page.