Bookwild - Dark Valentine Thrillers with Halley Sutton

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

This week, Halley and I dive into recommendations for Dark Valentine coded thrillers!Books We Talked AboutCross My HeartIt Takes MonstersTo Die ForThe Close UpMore Than You’ll Ever KnowKill for LoveThe Last PartyMy HusbandIt Had To Be YouVladimir Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

I need to take a drink of water. I will never not crack up at your enormous hydration station. And it's so great. And like we should all be so hydrated. But like every time you pull it out, it's like a cannon. Like I had to get. So this is a 64 ounce one. Whoa.

And you can technically take any size through the airport. But I did size down. You may have seen it in the stories if anyone's listening. I sized down to a 40 ounce or that it doesn't take. up as much space, but I'm so committed to my emotional spur water bottle. I love it. I love it. You would have made that TSA agent's head explode if he'd also seen the 64 ounce. He'd be like, what are you smuggling? I think he would have been suspicious at that point. So you can't tell. I'm back with Hallie Sutton wearing the coolest shirt ever. For people who are listeners,

it says, I'm with her. And it's Eileen. Warnos. Wornos. Yeah. The, serial killer who targeted men. This is actually, and credit, I have to give credit where credit is due. It is something that I saw my friend Hannah Martin, who is a fabulous writer. She has a few short story published working on a novel, but she's great. She's here in L.A. She, the first time I ever met her, she was wearing that t-shirt. And I was like the only one who knew what it was.

And I was like, yeah, we're going to be friends. And so now I have my own copy of it. I love it. it's reminding me, I can't remember what M.C. Wells had a really cool shirt and there was a really cool site. I'm going to have to remember what that was. I feel like I'd be friends with her, but I feel like you can't just slide into, I don't know, is it creepy to slide into her DMs and be like, I think we might be soulmates. I mean, like, just, we can just say that like we were talking about her. Perfect. There we go. There's my end. And the vibes are definitely, the vibes match.

And I'll be like, and don't listen to the Dark Valentine's podcast episode where I talk about like I feel like we're soul-based. Just skip that one. Skip that one. No, I felt the same way as when we started talking about, well, she and I had a conversation about being neurodivergent in general before we got to the podcast. I was doing the same thing. I was like, we just become best friends. Totally. Cordelia is like one of my favorite characters ever.

Yeah, I don't think it'd be weird. I'll just joint DM us or something. Okay. Well, start a, start a like stabby lady crew. Yes. So we haven't talked in a little bit. I mean, California was on fire. We don't have to get into all of it.

Sure. That happens, whenever we're glad that you're safe. Yes, thank you. With your feminist shirts. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I'm happy, very happy to be here talking with you. It has been a minute.

it. And yeah, it's LA wildfires devastating. You know, I have a couple of friends who did lose their homes, lost everything. It's crazy. And just the amount of rebuilding that they're going to have to do. Luckily, I was among the less impacted of the people in terms of like, I didn't have to evacuate. It was scary, but, you know, didn't, didn't affect me in that way. Who knows what happened to the air quality for a few days and what that'll do to everyone's long-term life expectancy, see, but not much you can do about that. So happy to be here. Happy to be chatting with you and happy the fires are out. Yeah. Happy to be breathing for now. Maybe it's going to rain today. And maybe it's going to rain today. Yeah. Yeah. We're recording on February 6th in case anyone

cares about those details like I do sometimes when I'm listening. Sometimes I love when they're like, and we're recording this day and I'm like, ooh, extra information. Totally. Go to the Farmers Elman Act, see if it actually rained, you know, check it all. Yeah. Have you, I know you said you've been busy, but have you read anything in like the last month or something that you loved? Yeah, I have actually. And I'm reading one right now that I'm loving. So earlier this year, I read this like crime novel from the 1960s, French crime novel called Trap for Cinderella by Sebastian. You read it in French? No. No. Oh my gosh. I didn't know. I couldn't remember she spoke French for a second. Yes, I should have a little of French, but not

a beaucoup. Not enough to read a whole novel in yet, although that's like a goal of mine. I could, you know, I could probably manage like the like early readers books, but like not a complex story. Yeah. Difficult. So I read, so it's called Trapped for Cinderella and it also deals with a fire. This young woman wakes up in a hospital.

with amnesia. And she's the survivor of this fire in this, like, villa in the south of France. And she's recognized by, like, her family nanny as this, like, really wealthy young woman who has been, like, disfigured by the fire, so nobody recognizes her. But the young woman was also staying there with her, like, childhood friend who maybe had, like, a Mr. Ripley fascination with her. And it's maybe, like, as she starts to learn more about, like, who she is is like, oh, am I this person or am I the friend? Like, I don't know who I am. Like,

I don't know if I'm the victim or if I like set the fire. And like it's so interesting. And like through the course of the novels, she becomes like the detective, the witness, the victim and the perpetrator like at different points. It's so interesting and so well done. And it's really short. It's like 180 pages. It's like and they also just made them, I shouldn't say just, but I think there's like a 2013 movie adaptation of it. I loved it. It was really great. It was really uniquely done. That sounds so uniquely vibey. Yeah. Wow. It is. It's really good. That's nice of you. And then I'm reading one to review for Ms. Magazine this month called Goddess Complex by Sanjana Satyam. And it is,

is it's coming out in March. It might be the funniest book I've ever read. It's really well done, but like I am like laughing out loud reading it. And I feel like I shouldn't give a full review until like write the review for Ms. But like it's just, I'm really enjoying it. It's the story of this young woman who's of Indian descent and she's married to this man and has kind of been like ambivalent about having children. And then she gets pregnant and realizes like, oh, I'm not ambivalent. I like don't want to have kids. And so she has an abortion. The marriage kind of blows up because of this. And she like moves back to they had been living in Bombay together. And then she moves back to New York to like be closer to her family and like pursuing her grad program. But what you

realize and then these all these really strange things start to her course. She starts to get like texts from like people that she knows in India being like, oh my gosh, congratulations. I just saw you. You're expecting. You're going to have the baby. You're going to be such a wonderful mother. And she's like, what the fuck? Like, no, like, I'm not pregnant. I was, but like I'm not. And you start to realize there might be something surreal going on where there's like another version of her who like kept the baby and is like living in India. It's like, it's, I don't totally know what's, it's so good though. It's really good. This sounds amazing. Yeah. It's really good. And it's just like so, like, has so many.

interesting things to say about like motherhood from like a millennial woman's perspective that I really appreciate. And like, again, is there are parts of it that are like some of the funniest things I've ever read. I think it's so hard to write funny and she's killing it. I know. Yeah. Like when I think about that, I'm like, I just feel like humor is so much. It's one of the things that's harder to convey in written word than like TV. year movies, I feel like. Totally. Totally. Yeah, because you're like, it's not somebody reacting to it or telling you it's funny. It's like, yeah, it's, but she's, it's so good. Ooh. I wonder if it's on that galley. I bet it is for March, but maybe it is. I bet it is. Yeah. What about you? Are you reading

anything good? So I finished vantage point like two days ago. I really, really likes it. Oh, good. I need to read it. I can't wait to talk about it with you. And like, I went to Sarah's book launch for it. And like, I'm so excited to read it. Yeah. She's great. She's like so smart. And also just like the most adorable human alive. Like she's great. Yeah. Yeah. I need to. I need to connect with her for sure because I loved it. The gist of it is wait. I want to. So some of it is like I've seen her posting about this plot point. But I can't remember if it's in the synopsis. So I'm like, should I say this plot point? I'm not going to say the plot point. So it's basically about the Weiland family or members of this family, the Wylens, who for like generations have been cursed. And in April, a lot of them die in like really not necessarily mysterious, just like,

sudden circumstances and a lot of it happens in april so that's like the curse that their family carries um and so clara and teddy are the the heirs basically their parents passed in a very gothic way years before um and so they're the they're the remaining wildens at this point and then um her what i can't i think of her friend's name jess um clara As friend Jess, they were like friends all through childhood, then married her brother Teddy. So now she's her friend and she's also, though, her sister-in-law. So there's a lot of complicated stuff going on there because Teddy has decided to run for Congress. And when he runs for Congress, like shortly after he starts running, a really compromising, intimate video is what the synopsis calls it.

of Clara is leaked online and then more stuff starts coming out. Interesting. And they don't seem like they're real videos and like they might be deep fakes. So the like description says succession meets Megan Abbott. And like I get I get that comparison. I would also compare it. Where did it go? I just had it.

There was something I would compare it to more. Oh my gosh. Oh, black meat. Like if a black mirror episode was like told with some gothic like themes, like they live on this really deserted island and this very large like house or mansion or whatever. So like to me it felt like a black mirror episode with gothic vibes. And it's kind of fun like using tech. Like that's what's really unique about it as a thriller. I haven't written my review, but now I'm just going to like pull the transcripts.

of this. What's really new about this one as a thriller is that she managed to like use tech in like like tech seems very modern to me and very futuristic and then gothic always has like an older feel to me but she managed to like do those two together and it's pretty cool. Totally. Totally. I'm dying to read it

and hearing her talk about it like so I hadn't realized maybe she says this in the book somewhere too. It's actually based on like the first horror novel like the first like American horror novel that was written in like the 1700s yeah um and so she basically like takes it and like updates it in all these different ways and like uses that as the spine but like yeah and so it's so cool kind of like to speak to what you're talking about where it's like this sort of like very now technology or technology that's maybe even like five minutes in the future from where we are now

um to marry to like an older more gothic story and sensibility yeah it's it was good I feel like it would be a really good movie. Oh. I just feel like it would be visually. It would be very fun. Maybe. Yeah. Hopefully we'll see it on the big screen.

Yeah. Small screen. A screen. Yeah. Yeah. And then I started, this book will bury me because I'm interviewing her at the end of February. So I could finally start it and it would be in my head enough still.

Excellent. What are your thoughts of are? Not that I ever forget large parts of her books, but you know what I mean. Totally. You want it like there. What do you think? I loved that book. So I'm still so much at the beginning. I have not had much time to read in the last two days. So I'm still in the first 50 pages. So she's kind of just gotten to the forum. And so I'm excited. Like everything's about to like pick up, I think. And I will say I don't mean this as a criticism at all because we're Ashley Winstead is willing to, it was going to take us. I'm willing to go. There is as I recall a fair amount of set up in that book too where you're sort of like. Yeah. Because she's doing. so many different things. Yeah, exactly. She's like talking. It's like really about grief and it's about this other, you know, she finds this thing that makes her feel and then the like the way she gets more

into like the big sort of case that you're like coming up on. But it's God, it's so good. Yeah. So I'm like, I know I know that I don't know like most of what I'm about to encounter. But I'm like, it's Ashley. So I'm just along for the ride. And our writing is so beautiful because grief is hard for me. in general. I don't think anyone's like loving grief either, but sometimes it's so hard to start off a book and grief like to get into the story, but her writing about it is so beautiful.

I know. She's such a good writer. She's such a good writer. She's so smart, like hearing her talk about her work. And I'm always like, whoa, like it's like a TED talk, you know, like the stuff she's thinking about and trying to do in her work. It's amazing. Yeah. Like some are instincts. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you had a cool idea for a topic. I did have a cool idea for a topic that I also said to you, I don't even know how I interpret this. Let's see what happens. But with Valentine's Day coming up, I thought it might be fun to do. And I know you just put out the romance episode today. I saw in Book Wild Community. But this is a little different. I was calling it a dark Valentine's episode. And I was really kind of inspired by you were the one who told me to watch Strange Darling. And I really loved that movie. And so that's, I was sort of thinking things in that realm that like Mary's like, like, like in some ways, this like romantic sensibility with also very dark, dark stuff.

And so that's, so I have some picks for us and I'm eager to hear about yours. Yeah. I like this version because like we had, we had someone for that episode just mentioned, someone like messaged in and was like, are there thrillers with romance in them? And then we had kind of like a wide array of like sometimes it was romance. and sometimes it was like, well, this is thriller romance, but it had like a mixture. And do you feel like this is a different vibe? Oh, for sure.

I could. Me too. Because, yeah, I know what you mean. Like in Ashley Winston's books, a lot of her books, they have like elements of like romance in them too. And like, yeah. I went like, no, it's got to be fucked up. Hence my like, Eileen Warnow's thing. It's like, we're not looking at a romance that's like, right, that's like, well, we

solved a murder together and we came together. It's like this blew up our lives or like. you're the killer, you know, like whatever version it is. Yeah. Yes. It was cool because then when I went to look for them, I was like, oh, I actually have some that really fit this really well. Excellent. Yeah. Do you want to go first? Sure. I will go first. So my first pick is a book that I've talked about a bazillion times on this podcast. And I think you are maybe familiar with too and probably a lot of people. But I have to bring it up again. It just came out. Cross my heart by Megan Collins. is to me like a great example of this where it's really about like the dark places that love can take you

is sort of like really the like inspiration for the book. So I will read the little summary, which is Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find the one. A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, Rosie is working at her parents' bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can't come soon enough. As the recipient of a life-saving heart transplant, she knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called Donor Connect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret. She's convinced that now that she has his wife's heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together. As Rosie and Morgan correspond,

the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie's keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan's previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she's falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife's death? And can Rosie's heart sustain another break? Or is she next? This one is perfect. It's like it's so good. And it's about like the part of what I loved about this book. I mean, first of all, Megan Collins just like must read. You know, anything she writes. She's such a beautiful writer. And so like, yeah, just goes down so smooth. But like, like, I loved how much it's about like that sort of without being too gender essentialist,

like female experience of like, when is love going to find me? I've watched the rom-coms. I've seen the things. Like, I will be complete once I find a man, which not all women believe, nor should we. But just like that that is so like a trope that's in there. And it's like, what if we took it to the darkest extension of itself? Yes. Perfect.

And then took it a little further. And then took it a little further for sure. Like there's a moment where you're like, wow, that's everything. And then you're like, oh, that's not everything. Totally. Totally. It's so good. And like I don't really want to talk too much about what I think is so genius in this book

because it's like there are things I don't want to give away. But like some of what she pulls off in this book truly spectacular. Like a high wire ballet. act of like writing. It's amazing. Yeah. It's so good. I think I think everyone will be talking about this book for a little while. So I think so too. It'll make multiple appearances. Yes. The first one that I thought of like I think before I even had to look through good reads was it takes monsters by Mandy McHugh. It is very bloody specifically, kind of bloody Valentine. Not that I'm like an MGK fan.

But so this one is about Victoria Tate, who has had enough of her controlling incompetent husband Warren. But planning the perfect murder is more difficult than it looks. When the social event of the year and over-the-top costume ball is rescheduled for the date she selected for her crime, Victoria has to scramble to make sure she will still be able to follow through. But even hours of listening to crime podcasts can outbrose. prepare her for the next wrench that is thrown in her plans, Warren turns up dead by someone

else's hands. Now Victoria finds herself at the center of a murder investigation in which she is actually innocent. The real killer is taunting her, making it clear that they know what she was planning all along. With the police closing in and her neighbors turning on her, Victoria is going to lose everything she had hoped to gain from Warren's death unless she can figure out who wanted her husband dead and why. It turns out that Warren was better at keeping secrets than she ever could have guessed but which secret is the one that led to his death and if she can find the answers does Victoria have what it takes to confront a real murderer. Ooh la la la.

Bloody like campy and like I think I've talked about it. I love how many like pop culture references Mandy puts into all of her books. It's like so fun to find them. Oh, I that sounds excellent. I really need to read that. I need to pick that one up. That sounds great. It's really good. There were a couple scenes that were just like seared in my mind that made me think of it first. So yeah, it's fun. It's snarky too. I mean, the woman wants to kill her husband. I mean, honestly sounds like a thing I might need to pick up around Valentine's Day. Sounds great. Yes. Yes. You should. I definitely will. Oh, this came out on my birthday in 2023. Oh, amazing. Yeah. Amazing. When's your birthday? Do we say on the podcast?

October 17th. October 17th. Okay. I will remember. Yeah. Very cool. Nice. You don't have to, but yeah. I will. Just the random things that cross, like, take my attention. I know what you mean. I do that too. Like, if I read about a historical figure and they're on my birthday, I'm like, oh. And like, as if we have some sort of connection, you know, like, Him has the same birthday as me and I'm like, oh my gosh. I see it. You two are very similar. We have her similarities. I'm just kidding. Okay. My next pick, I'll move us along from that is a book called To Die for by Joyce Maynard that came out in the 90s. Yes. So this book is very, this, I'll explain what it's about in a second. I will also say a couple of things. It's based on a true life murder in which this woman got involved

with these like high school kids and was having an affair with one of them and convinced them to kill her husband for her, being like, we could be together. But it was this kind of group of kids that she kind of like in trances. I don't remember what her name was. I want to say it's like Pamela something or other. Pamela smart. If I pulled that out from just like the recesses of my brain, I'm going to be very impressed with myself. But I'm maybe. American woman who's convicted of being an accomplice to first degree murder. Yep. And witness tampering in the death of her husband.

I know my lady killers. And it's also was made into a movie in the mid-90s starring Nicole Kidman. And in my opinion, I think it's Nicole Kidman's best performance ever. And it's great. And it's got a very young Joaquin Phoenix in it. It's got Matt Dillon. Like, it's a great watch. It's on the Criterion channel right now streaming this month if you're,

if anybody's interested. But it's, let's see, it's written in a unique documentary style too. And I had forgotten that until I'm reading this just now, which is like for anybody who liked the favorites or by Lane Fargo or Daisy Jones and the Six. But you're like, more murder please, this might be a good one. So it's...

More murder, please. More murder, please. In a brilliant, shocking novel of ambition and sexual obsession, Joyce Maynard tells the chilling story of a young woman who arranges the cold-blooded murder of her husband, written in a unique documentary style to die for exposes with disturbing accuracy, a community for whom television is more real than their own lives. Suzanne Stone is a golden girl, her family's favorite,

a lively accomplished young woman with one driving ambition to be a network anchorwoman, a television star. The job she lands at a local cable station is merely an unexpected stepping stone to the big time. What is unexpected is her husband's murder. as those around the case and Suzanne herself start talking to the media, a fascinating picture of seduction and fixation emerges. Has Suzanne promised a 16-year-old boy unlimited sex to shoot her husband? Why would three teenagers become pawns in a depraved plot to kill? The people closest to Suzanne see her as a role model, a woman striving to become like her television idols.

Others see her as a self-centered, cold-hearted manipulator, a woman who considers the media celebrity that follows her husband's murder, a career, opportunity, who Suzanne really is and what impels a young boy to swear he will not only die for the woman he thinks he loves, but will kill for her combined to form this riveting novel of sexual and psychological domination. I think you would love it, Kate, like truly, and I think you would love the movie because it's all about like celebrity and like, like, like what gets like traction in America. And I will say, I think reading it from a 2025 sensibility, you're like, I don't know if we have to be like, an ambitious woman is definitely a killer, but like it's, it's still really good.

It's still like a great read and the movie is like Nicole Kidman is unbelievable in the film. Oh my gosh. Yeah. This is like, this is some real backlist. I wonder if maybe we'll choose it for our book club, but we'll see. If you do, I would love to be part of that conversation because I have a lot to say about this book and the movie. Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm going to make a note of that to bring it up. I love this. This is fascinating. Well, my next is the close-up by Pip Dreisdale, who I just interviewed recently. So also, if it sounds kind of good to you, you can go listen to that episode.

But this one, this one gets bloody too. When Zoe and Wise moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, her whole future is wide open. But then Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she's falling for, ghosts her. Her debut novel, A Thriller, fails, and she has Writers Block worse than ever before. Now, three years later, Zach is famous and Zoe is not. She's facing her 30th birthday, a dead-in job at a flower shop, and a demanding agent. terrified she'll never get her life back on track. But when she goes to make a flower delivery and

Zach is at the address, it's like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating in secret. Her writers block disappears and Zoe begins to feel Zach inspired her first novel so why can't he inspire her second? But then the inevitable happens in photos are leaked landing Zoe in the press. Her first novel goes viral and now everyone seems to know her name except the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name including the mysterious stalker obsessed with stack a stalker who begins reenacting violent events from zoe's book step by step against her oh i forgot how long that synopsis was and how many things are going on oh it sounds great though and i was also just like yeah aspiring actor who goes swimming in los angeles i i can relate

like cool okay yeah my not saying i hope he winds up murdered at the end of the novel but i'm just saying i'm open to this possibility well i won't say anything but yeah the whole the events the violent events that they start reenacting fit a very dark valentine theme oh god i got to read that one that's like right up my alley too like said in l.a and like yeah i also have it i can send it to you If you like prefer physical versions. That's nice of you. We'll talk offline. Yeah.

Well, excellent. Yeah. Very nice. So my next one is, and I just have my advanced readers copy, which I had zero chill. I saw this book announced and I ran to her Instagram and I said, pretty please, may I have a copy of this? She was like, is this how it's done? And I was like, no, it's quite rude of me to just be like, give me a copy of your book, but I'm dying to read it. So it's more than you'll ever know by Katie Gutierrez, which you've read it.

I love this book. It's so good. It's so good. And I would say in some ways, it's like one of my more, like, it's definitely like dark and like the dark forces of romance. But it's like it's like it's a little kinder than some of these books. It's really like a, it's anyway, it's a. It's a little more grounded. It's a little more grounded. Yes.

Yeah. And it's so the story of, it's kind of inner, inner woven narratives. In 2017, this young woman, Cassie Bowman, is a true crime writer. And she's looking for kind of her next big hit to like write an article or a podcast about. And I think. And she basically finds the story of this woman, Dolores Rivera, who was leading a double life. She was married to a man in San Antonio, Texas and had kids. and she was also traveling for work and winds up married to another man in Mexico City.

So in 1980, so the story takes place in the 80s and it's like she's winds up, she's a female bigamist, which is like also fascinating. And it's a fascinating. The story goes between 2017 where Cassie's interviewing Dolores and then back to the 80s where you're seeing what's happened that like, how did she come to be this woman married to two men and what happens? And there's like a very fatal conversation. confrontation that leads to somebody's death over this. And it just, it's such a beautiful book and

like felt like so interesting. Like I maybe it's so much about family to like hardcore about family, more than you expect going into it. Totally. So much about family. And then also too like like she almost gets to live these two different lives and these two different marriages. Like in one, she's like the mom that she always expected to be and is married to like her childhood sweetheart. And the other one is like about her as like an older woman who's like got this thriving career. And she marries this man in Mexico City and it's a little more adventurous. And she like has how do you like you can see in a weird way why both appeal to her. And like it's so good.

It's so believable. Like you just you understand and believe how much she loves both of them. It's kind of. It's wild. I remember, I think this was one that I got in Taylor Jenkins Reeds newsletter. I think because I had a similar experience where I think it's that. And did you hear about Kitty Carr? I think those were the two where they were in her email newsletter.

And I like ran to Nat Galley. And I was like, please, can I have this? Yeah, totally. But like, if you, it's a number. one where like this actually is a good comp for evelyn that i feel like you don't see as often too because it also just like explores so much of like uh like the multifaceted experience of women and like how at different times in their lives getting to be both meant like making drastic changes sometimes and or in her case having two husbands at the same time so totally it's fascinating if you really

of those stories. You're right. I've never thought of it as a comp for Evelyn Hugo, but I think you're right in that way. It's like really about like women's interiority and like it also takes you. It is historical because part of it said in the 80s, which is so funny that that's considered historical, but it is. And yeah, that kind of takes you into like like 1980s, Mexico City and San Antonio is like not a thing you see in literature as much. And I loved it. Yeah, I remember Googling like the places in the city so much. Like some books, like it really becomes so much a part of the book that I'm even like Googling it and trying to see it all.

And I was like minorly obsessed with the city for like a couple of weeks. Totally. I'm dying to go to Mexico City. Yes. I loved that book. There's so much to talk about with it. But I don't want to spoil anything because it is cool how it's like a, it's like a family saga. And then there is like the thriller kick.

in a lot at the end basically. Yes. Yes, it does. So that part is cool, the way that she did all of that too. My next one, I have no segue way, but none needed. Another bloody, bloody one, House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. It is just a really unique book. So Marian Shaw has been raised in the slums where want and deprivation is all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper seeking a blood made. Though she knows little about the far north where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service, Marian applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest blood made at the notorious house of hunger. There, Marion is swept into

world of dark debauchery and at the center of it all is her. Countess, Lisavette, who presides over this hedonistic court, is loved and feared an equal measure, but she takes a special interest in Marion. Lissavette is magnetic and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She'll need to learn the rules of her new home fast or its halls will soon become her grave. Ooh. I love it. Saffic kind of vampire fantasy, thriller and gothic vibes all in one. You, I've heard of this book before. You might have even mentioned it before. And every time I hear it, I'm like, yeah, I got to read that. I know. I kept having that experience because I would like recommend

it. I'm like, I need to read it. Yeah, it sounds great. Yeah. But her other, one Academy for Liars. I'm not going to get into it because I have talked about that one a lot. But that one would qualify as well. Okay. If anyone's interested, that one is like the psychological dark magic of like persuasion and mind control. There's a lot of blood and a lot of debauchery in it too. Oh, I got to read it. I got to read both of you. I do remember you talking about Academy of Liars and it's just like so many books so little time, you know.

I know. I know. Yeah. Well, excellent. I don't have a segue either. I wish for just out of thing around. Segway less. But my next one is Kill for Love by Laura Picklesheimer.

Have you read it? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like the way I describe it is kind of like feminist Patrick Bateman vibes, like very American psycho kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And it's set in LA and it's the little synopsis is as a fifth year sorority student at a major university in Los Angeles, Tiffany is juggling a busy schedule of commitments that includes shopping, fitness, self-care, and socials. She's one of the most beautiful and popular young women on Greek Row. She's also one of the cleverest, so no one really cares about that. And yet she chooses to strategically fail in order to avoid the real world. As her final year of college begins, Tiffany finds herself haunted by nightmares of fire and destruction, approach,

life with nothing to offer her and increasingly sadistic impulses, which is really where the book goes pretty quickly is like, yes. After a frat party hookup devolves into a bloody fatal affair, Tiffany realizes something within her has finally awoken the insatiable desire to kill. As Tiffany's bloodlust deepens and the bodies of attractive young men pile up, she must contend with mounting legal scrutiny, social media fueled competing murders, and her growing relationship with Weston, who she is starting to believe could be the perfect boyfriend and her only shot at redemption. And it's great. It's so dark and so funny and voicy and just like she goes there. Very bloody. Very bloody. Very bloody. And like I really, she does something in here that I really love that I'm

to talk about because like I like for some reason Tiffany is like in particular only drawn to like blonde men. And it's so interesting because it's this like inversion of this trope that like from Hitchcock on where it's like these blonde women who die in beautifully, like, painful ways. And she's just, like, murdering blonde dudes. And I'm like, yeah, get it, Tiffany. Like, close the murder gap, you know? I know. Kill some blonde dudes.

Yeah. Gross for it. Yeah. And like all the jokes about, like, I don't know why, but I see more jokes on, like, book talk of people who are like, when they find out he's blonde when they're, like, reading a book and they're like, nope, he's, he's not, he's just not, he's not. That was definitely how I felt. And then I saw the, um, Alexander Scars Garden, true blood. And I was like, that's a fair point.

Maybe, maybe. The old doll, I think, was a one where I was like, okay, I think he's blonde. We're like, we can, we can do with it. He's like mainly who I imagine or Joe Alwyn, which is so great in them, but like he works for a lot of stuff. Just like every blonde man is Joe Alwyn, you know? Yes. Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's good.

Well, my next one, it's like it's not, but I also still feel like it does fit the vibes. Okay. But it's the last party by A.R. Tori. Yes. It is so dark. And it is related to relationships. Like, it does. count, but the synopsis might not sound like it.

Pearla Waltz lives with her husband Grant and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. A fluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become Perla's dark and consuming secret obsession. 23 years ago, Leewood Folkrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party, though he's been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten, not by Perla, nor by an inquisitive doctoral student, interviewing Fulcrum for his dissertation. He's getting the killer to open up about his motives, his confession, and the truth of what really happened on that horrible night. As the past and present entwine, the deceptions behind the infamous murder begin to surface, but who's deceiving who now and why? And as an ingeniously twisted plan is set in motion, who will be the next to die.

This is one of the darker, darker, darkest books I read last year. It's dark. It's very dark. It's not. I mean, I don't think any of these are for the faint of heart, but. That's true. Like, all of our books should have trigger warnings here. Yeah.

But, like, that sounds so good. And I have seen that book everywhere on social media, and I still haven't picked it up just just because. It lives up to the hype. Oh, my God. And also just, like, all the books behind me that need to be read. I know. Yeah, and Steph had both read it and talked about it and how good it was.

And I was like, I just have to read it. And the second I was in it, it was one of those ones where you're like, can I cancel everything I'm doing and just finish this? I got to check it out. Yeah. It's really good. That's high on my list. Excellent. I'm excited to see, too, how it like might fit the theme because you're right.

The premise of it doesn't necessarily sound like. Yeah. Valentine, but I believe you. It is. It fits. Okay. Okay. My next one, I have two more. My next one is My husband by Mod Ventura. It's great. And also funny, my lipstick matches. The winner, the narrator, I don't know that she even has a name. I think she might be just like nameless. But it's at 40 years old, she has an enviable life. Stunning looks. a beautiful house in the suburb, suburbs, a job she likes, two healthy children, and most important, an ideal husband whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class.

After 15 years together, she is still besotted with him, but she's never quite sure whether her passion is reciprocated. Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did as he did when they first met until one day she realizes she may have gone too far. And this is a French book and translation and it won like France's first novel prize. It really, it's really,

you, it's like I, I think that there, it's probably marketed more as straight like just lit literature, genre, but it really is like, to me, has all the elements of a psychological thriller in there, too. This woman who's got this like carefully charted system for measuring how much her husband loves her and trying to make sure he loves her enough. And like it is, I read it and it felt so uncomfortable because I recognized myself, like, not fully in this, but like in the sort of like anxious, like, does he love me enough? Like I have been that person in relationships and reading it. I was just like, Oh my God, but it's so good. It reminds me, same.

It reminds, I haven't read it, but what you just described reminds me of how in therapy, when we talked about anxious attachment means thinking the last interaction you had, like colors the entire relationships feeling. And I was like, that is a good way to put it where like you're constantly like, did that change everything? Did that change everything? Totally. sounds like that like this is like the book about like anxious attachment like i have ever read in fiction

form it's like great it's so good yeah yeah i'm intrigued yeah because that's like uh i don't know if i'll keep it in but that's that's like it's how i learned to navigate my parents so then that of course that's then what i brought into totally 20s when i was in therapy was like am i doing all of the things right did i forget something totally like If I don't, if I don't do this, will somebody stop loving me? Like, yeah, for sure. Can identify. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. And I love all of your French influence that you're bringing. I know. I guess it's like, it feels appropriate for the, for the Valentine's Day. Yeah. You know, for la more, la more French style. Yes. Well, I have a European one. I mean, it takes

place in Europe. But I have talked about this one so much. Like, I feel like I've brought it up for multiple subjects, but that's probably because it combines so many things. But it had to be you by Eliza Jane Brazier is like just so perfect for this one. So I couldn't not talk about it. Yes. But since I really have talked about it so much, like it's about Eva and Jonathan. And they're basically two strangers who hook up on a train from Florence to Paris. And they have like all this sexual chemistry and they're like, I'm never going to see this person again.

And then they're both assassins and they get their marks are each other like the next the next kills that like both of them get. And so then there's like sexy cat and mouse all across Europe trying to see who is going to outwit who. And it's so much fun. It's just really fun. It's such a fun book. I love that book too. It's very, yeah, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets, like, before sunset and, like, just so, like, so fun. I imagine that her experience writing that was just very, like, joyful, too.

I agree. I completely agree. She's so cool, too. She's so cool. I've met her a couple of times. Yeah. She's, like, got her horses and, like, she's amazing. And, like, that book is, like, so fun.

So fun. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. I need to get a physical copy. Yes. I know. I have one behind me somewhere. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I know. I'm like, figure it out. No. It's somewhere. Oh, that's a great one. That's, and that's like, I do have one more. Go ahead. I'm just nervous for your dog walk.

Oh, I know. I'm sorry. Yes. No, I get it. And it's that, it's that dog that was like, I was babysitting that time when we were doing the thing. And I had the like skeleton or the skull. The skull that I'm like chasing him around trying to get him to like drop it.

And it was like negotiating a hostage situation. Oh my God. So my final pick is not really a thriller, although it has thriller elements to it. And it's got like such a great cover. And like honestly it's so good. Vladimir by Julia May Jonas. Mm-hmm.

Have you read this one? No, I just really, I've heard you talk about it. Yes. Yes. And it's so. When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me. And so we meet our deliciously incisive narrator, a popular English professor whose charismatic husband at the same small liberal arts college is under investigation for inappropriate

relationships with his former students. The couple had long maintained a comfortable understanding when it came to extramarital pursuits, but with these allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator finds herself alarmingly infatuated with Vladimir Vladensky, a celebrated young novelist newly arrived on campus, their Tinderbox world comes dangerously close to exploding. And so that's so funny. That is like, that is the premise, but like, I don't think it's anything to give it away because it happens in the first couple of pages. You find out that our narrator who's like maybe in our 50s or something, like, has taken this young man that she's second.

obsessed with hostage and is holding him at like their cabin and he's like like chained up and she's like what am I going to do with you now? Like, uh-oh. Yes, I knew there was something like wild to this one. That's like how it starts. And then it goes back and it tells the story of her marriage with her husband who is, has been like doing gross things where, you know, he's like been having affairs with young women. But it like, and she's kind of always turned a blind eye to it. But then this young woman comes forward and is like, actually he like harassed me and pressured me. And she has this like mixed reaction to it and like and then at the same time has this blossoming like attraction but like obsession with this this young man on campus and it is a weird and wild ride

and like so voicy and like it's so good it sounds like an um even more r-rated tell me lies kind of situation. For sure, for sure. Like a little higher stakes, but some of the same like things going on on campus. Yeah, definitely. And like from a slightly different perspective where it's like, you know, she and her husband, she's sort of living in this generation of like, like, you know, older. She's a consenting young woman.

She doesn't necessarily see it the same way we might. Where it's like she might have been quote unquote consenting, but also like he's older. Did he groom her? Like all these other things. And she's kind of like. basically like women didn't whine about it in my day and age. But like you can also tell that there's like other stuff under there that she's like trying to like reckon with.

And it like all leads to her kidnapping this dude. Yeah. Which is kind of amazing. I mean, it's a premise. I think you definitely want to know, especially if that's like in the first few chapters. Like it's worth putting it out there.

Totally. I feel like that captures the right audience. For sure. And that's kind of why I lead with it is because I feel like the summary is good. But you would read the summary. and I would think it's sort of like quiet a campus novel about like people having affairs and stuff and it's like oh no like we start with a bang like it's we're on literally it's off yeah it's off to the races yeah I need to read this one too there's just so much to read the conclusion of every

episode I know it really is and then every time I talk to you the it gets longer