Bookwild - Thrillers with Romance with Gare Billings and Steph Lauer

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

This week, we answer a listener request for thrillers with romance. At least, we tried to answer it. Some felt questionable to call romance once we started talking, but that's thrillers for you!Books We DiscussedThe Woman InsideBath HausHello, TranscriberMy Lovely WifeSeeing StrangersThe Girl in 6EThis Violent HeartThe Grave Between UsKiller PotentialCackle 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 have an icebreaker. Nice. I thought of it today when I was running errands. And I want to know if you guys have any books that like when you see them, you immediately think of like one of us or like the podcast in general, not just like, oh, I know Kate and stuff like this book. But like for me, like I'll just go first because it like this is my example. But like if I.

if I ever see Margo has money troubles, I always think of Steph. Yes. If I see the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I always think of Kate. And then like whenever I see Mad Woman, I think of like the both of you and like the podcast in general. But like, do you have any books like that that like when you see them, you're like, oh, I think of these little pumpkins. Yeah. I always think of you and I see bright young women. always always and forever forever and always um did you imagine if you guys are like no

you're like that's such a stupid question yeah no i just think of the buck not you not you garrett but when you were bringing it up i also thought of mad woman because we've all talked about it now but yeah step and i were very mad woman there for a few months yeah that's what i want to like oh and um an ink convenient woman always makes me think of stuff because she turned me on to that one and I loved it so much. Yeah. What were you going to say, Gare? I'm trying to, I want to, I can't wait to have another experience like Mad Woman. We're like, all three of us were like obsessed over a book. I know. Mine for, uh, please see us definitely is a Gare book. And I like remember that reading experience

so much because I like was traveling to Florida to visit AJ while he was working. there and I like remember so much of my feelings reading it even though I like don't remember the book of course all of it but just like certain images of it yeah um I think like a lot of books I've talked to Kate about but right now I think it's was it we used to live here oh same yeah it's like I'll think of it and I'm like I don't know if it's for me but I know Kate really loved it's like you know there's books that you're like I don't know if it's for me but like when someone you really like likes it you're like well but i don't know maybe maybe something so i think that that one always like sticks out whenever i see it i think of you yeah i have made

it quite clear how much i love that book i'm also psyched i don't know if i've mentioned this but it is only like the second video on my channel that's about to break a thousand views That's amazing. So that one has been doing really well after the fact. And so I'm just using it now to tell anyone if you want to deep dive into that book because the nature of that book is deep dive. Yeah. You go to my YouTube channel.

And I'm sure people that read it are like, oh my gosh, I need more. It's a common search term. Yeah. I like that. What was the other one? Something else just came to mind, but it left. Oh, actually what I was going to say is this couldn't have been a better icebreaker for this episode because one of mine makes me always think of one of you.

Oh, really? So this was such a cool, coincidental pairing. I love that. Yeah. I can't wait to hear. So I guess now is a good time to say. segue. We are answering

Peyton. She has a private Instagram, so I'm just going to call her Peyton. Her name is Peyton. She reached out and was like, could you do one of these with thrillers that have a romance subplot?

Or romance that has a thriller-ish subplot. Yeah. Gear has whatever gear has for this one, okay, guys? I went with, I'm just going to tell you all of mine are MM stories. They're not necessarily like the MM, like, smart romance that I usually like talk about. But mine are all like males having interactions with other males. But mine, I would consider to be like steamy or thrillers where it's like kind of like your basic instinct,

fatal attraction vibes. So I just want to say that ahead of time. So like when you guys like really follow the assignment and I'm like well mine's not exactly romance but there's like some steamy steamy because sometimes you know romance is a broad term when it comes to what you find. Okay. So we were all having the same experience because mine I'm like so this is the best I have to offer for romance. Yeah.

And like it just means there's like. sexiness involved, but not tons of romance. I mean, I have, like, I love, like, a good romance story, like an MM romance, but I feel like the ones that involve thrillers for me get really, really, really, really dark. And, like, I, my only trigger warning is, like, nothing with blood or no animals dying. So, like, if I recommend, like, a romantic suspense novel, I don't want to traumatize anyone. Right. I get that.

You know. I do have one that's traumatizing though, but it's because the suspense part of the story is nightmare-inducing. Ooh. Wow. Nice little preview of you. And I wore pink. I wore pink.

Everybody. I thought about it. I have purple leggings on. I wore pink. I'm wearing purple for our listeners. Because I am ready for January to be done. ready to start binging Valentine's Day themed scary movies to sign free this season. Good riddance. For everyone who's listening, we recorded this at the very end of January. So

that's the context of where we're at right now. Oh, there's still a week left. I know. I know. I know. Well, talk about some books. I want to hear, I'm like dying to hear what your first book is. since there was a segue. So this one always makes me think of gear. So it's kind of cool that you were the one who picked. But I think we haven't talked about the full synopsis of this one in a long time. The woman inside by E.G. Scott, aka Elizabeth McCulloughkeenan and Greg Wattons, as they become this year.

But I think this will always say that it's E.G. Scott who wrote it. If you've been listening to us forever, you know that this is like, like one of Gare's hearts. Essentially. Yeah, it's definitely one of my top five. Yeah. It's definitely one of time. So I don't think we've read the synopsis anytime recently.

So I was like, this would be a good time to bring this up too. Rebecca didn't know love was possible until she met Paul, a successful, charismatic, married man with a past as dark as her own. Their pain drew them together with an irresistible magnetism. They sensed that they were each other's ideal. perhaps only match. But 20 years later, Paul and Rebecca are drowning as the damage and secrets that ignited their love began to consume their marriage. Paul is cheating on Rebecca and his affair gets messy fast. His mistress is stalking him with growing audacity when Rebecca discovers Paul's elaborate plan to build a new life without her. And though Rebecca is spiraling into an opiate

addiction, it doesn't stop her from coming up with a devious plot of her own. And this one could end absolutely everything. What follows is an unpredictable and stylish game of cat and mouse, a shocking tale of unfaithfulness in unreliability that will keep you racing until the final twist and make you wonder how well you really know your spouse. Wow. I was like, we have to. We have to for this subject. I just think it's like also like so funny how like I make fun of myself and I'm like I'm not going to talk about the woman inside. I'm not going to talk about bright and women and you're like I'm going to pick this one and like on behalf of get I I know and the fact that today like I just decided that like an hour before the podcast I was literally picking up groceries and I was like I need to do the woman inside for this one. So the fact that I randomly thought of that and then that was your icebreaker is so cool.

I like yeah well and the thing like the funny thing is is that like I was listening to like I was listening to like I. listened to us when I'm in the car generally. So like I was listening to us like snacking on my Burger King running my errands. And I was like I don't know what we were talking about. But they're, I think one of you had mentioned Mad Woman. And I was like I like in my mind, I'm thinking to myself like I will never not look at that book and think of the two of them equally. You know like like Steph and Kate Madwoman. Like it's like this triangle for me. And then I just thought about Ice Breaker. So it's really cool. that.

Yeah. It makes me so a fun episode. I know. It really is Palantines. I love that. Yeah.

It's a Palantines episode. It is. Now I want to read The Woman Inside again. Gotta go. Do you want me to go next? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, my first one is a book that has some good steam in it and it's edge of your seat and it's called Bathhouse by PJ Vernon. Yes. It has one of the sexiest, creepiest openings and I just thought like this is like such a good book for people to, the gay aspect with like sexual things is not like too overly done. But I think that it's a very great thriller for in intrigued. So it is about Oliver Park. He's a young recovering addict from Indiana, finally having everything he ever wanted, sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they've made a perfect life

together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn't be visiting house, a gay bath house, but through the entrance he goes and it's a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room and it's the final line. Whatever happens next, Nathan can never know. But then everything goes wrong, terribly wrong, and Oliver barely escapes with his life. He races home in a full-blown tear as the hand-shaped bruise grows dark on his neck. The truth will destroy Nathan and everything they have together, so Oliver does the one thing he used to do so well. He lies. What follows is a classic runaway train narrative full of the exquisite escalations as of the edge of your seat chills and oh my God twists. I just love that one. I loved that one. I loved that one.

one so much. I love that book so much. There is something with books that remind me of like 90s thrillers. So like like basic instinct fatal attraction like that era of like thrillers. If I read a book that reminds me of those movies or like how I feel when I watch those movies, it just is chef's kiss for me. And like this is the perfect example of that. Oh my gosh. It's been a long time. I think you guys have talked about that book on the podcast like a long time ago. And so I haven't really like thought about it in a while. But as I scroll through like so many people I follow both on Instagram and their own, I follow them on Goodreads too. It's like five, five, like fours and fives all of them. And they all have like really different taste. Yeah. That's awesome. It's just really good.

It's just a really good thriller in general. When it came out, Steph, you said this in an episode that I listened to today. Um, when I was hanging out with us in the car. but when it came out it was what you would call one of the bookstagram darlings i love that i love that term that you used oh thanks i forgot where i first heard that but it just made so much sense like we all know where they are yeah yeah but when like when that book came out it was like all over the place and i just remember that kind of being like so cool because it's like obviously like a queer author telling a queer story and it was like getting some of like the hype that like gone girl got and stuff like

that so and it's just I will never ever forget that ending god that like cover like this is also it's like so sexy like it has beautiful wonderful covers do you have all the covers no I really really really really want the paperback one the orange like I only see the orange and the pink X one are there more I mean sure there's UK one but I want the I have I have like an arc of it because I only see the I was like, I'll give you guys an organ if you send this book to me. But like, um, I know that like, I really like really want the paperback copy because I love a silhouette too. Yeah. That's a book that I always think of you with too. Me? Yeah. We're so cute today. I know. We're like so adorable. It's making me suck.

I have no segue for that. Well, actually, speaking of ARC, well, kind of. So this one that I'm picking is actually continuing their story in a book that's coming out this March. But this is the first time they were shown. And it is Hello Transcriber by Hannah Morrissey. So this is the Black Harbor series. They're all standalones, but they have like Easter eggs in each other. but the fourth book that's coming out is revisiting these characters specifically.

Every night while street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin's most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbors' gruesome secrets. As aspiring novelist, Hazel believes that writing a book could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape, but her life isn't exactly brimming with inspiration, until her neighbor confesses to hiding the corpse, of an overdose victim. With an insider's look at the investigation, Hazel becomes spellbound by the lead detective, Nicolai Cole, and the chilling narrative he shares with her. I'm really sucking at reading this with the punctuation. Through this reporting, she learns that a specific death is linked to the Candyman, a drug dealer notorious for selling illegal substances to children. And when

Cole invites her on a covert operation to help take the dealer down, the promise of a calls to her. As the investigation unfolds, Hazel will discover just how far she will go for her story, even if it means destroying her marriage, her career, and any chance she has of getting out of Black Harbor or alive. Because if she's learned only one relentless truth about this place, it's the fact that everybody lies. I liked, that was probably one of the first thrillers I read a few years ago that had like some sexual tension. And I was like, this is good. I like it. Cole is so hot.

I know. I can tell. I actually really like the way this book ends. And so I'm interested to see like how their story continues. Yeah. I'm really excited for that one. I love her. Like her, like imagery and her writing reminds me of how the show the killing looks.

Yeah. If that makes sense. But like I just think she is so good. And there is one scene in that book that, like, terrifies the shit out of me that I like constantly think of. Yeah, she's good. I think about in her in the, what's the one that is her most recent one, not the widow maker.

It's the one newer one. But there's stuff with teeth. And I was like, wow, way to like figure out another like thing that gives me cringy feelings. I wouldn't even say that when I'm dead. When I'm dead, yeah. I wouldn't even say it's like a spoiler either,

but like in Hello Transcriber, there's like a scene where like Hazel thinks that somebody's watching her in a window and like she looks and sees the person kind of pulling away and like their breath is still on the window. And it was just like so like creepy to me. But I was like, what a fantastic way to like scare the shit out of me. Oh yeah.

And it's like, So Midwestern noir, you know, like that. It's like so you can feel if you're from the Midwest or probably even from like New York or something where it's like when the winters are just brutal. And it's just dark and kind of gray all the time. Like that's what it is. Hopefully that won't steer anyone away because some people like can't stand that. This is still a really good book. That's how I feel about like island weather.

Like people are like, oh, this book takes place on like an island. and it's 90 degrees in humid. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, that's horrific. Like, it's an adventure tale of survival. I'm like, not for me.

Yeah, I'm like, no, I would die on day on day one. Get me a squeeze breeze. Let's go. Yeah, let's get out of here. Well, my next one, I'm laughing again, because like, can you really call it romance? But this is one of my favorite marriage-related thrillers. my lovely wife by Samantha Downing.

Just had to remind everyone of this gym. Oh, I almost read the wrong thing. Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams,

our darkest secrets, and then we got bored. We look like a normal couple or your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

That's all you get to know. But things go wrong. Bat shit. In wild ways. Mm-hmm. I love that book so much. I think that's my favorite. It is my favorite, like, marriage-related thriller.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love, like, your theme, too, is, like, marriage thrillers that are, like, also, like, anti-marriage. Like, these are, like, these are, like, like, like, if you had, like, a poster for this, like, it would be like, this is not a love story. You know what I mean? Exactly. I love that. I mean, granted, I mean, Bathhouse, the relationship between the two of them is really fucked up, too.

So I can't really. Same thing. speaking of messed up relationships and what happens when you dive deep into something you were not prepared for, my next one is Seeing Strangers by Sebastian J. Plata. It is a stylish novel of obsession set in a world where sex is just a swipe away. Life is going well for Greg Kelly. He's married to Christian, a Spanish-born artist who is handsome kind and can even cook. Greg's work as a translator for an IT startup allows him to live. comfortably in a chic, Bushwick, two-bedroom, and enjoy just about all New York City has to offer, including sleeping with other men. Greg and Christian's marriage has been open for the past few years,

and this arrangement has been particularly appealing to Greg due to his voracious sexual appetite. As they approach their mid-30s, fatherhood and adulthood call, and they enlist a friend to act as a surrogate. In order to focus on building a family, Greg and Christian decide to close their marriage when the baby arrives. Greg is going to miss his hookups, but he has the summer for one last hurrah. He methodically plans his connections via Grindr and Tinder, carefully coordinates train routes for lunchtime Triss, and scouts potential candidates anywhere, anytime. As their baby's due date draws closer, anxiety sets in over Greg's impending parental

responsibilities, the loss of his sexual freedom, and even his marriage to Christian. But before he can sort out his feelings, an old hookup reappears. Russell, an arrogant TV producer who Greg spurned. And the problem is, Russell will not go away, infiltrating himself into Greg's life in the worst way possible, threatening his marriage and sanity. What Russell doesn't know is Greg will stop at nothing to protect both. Damn, that's a long synopsis. And the book is 257 pages. I was thinking, I was like, I know.

I've been trying to keep my dogs quiet. And I'm like, has it been as long as I thought? Well, it was like really funny because like as I was like getting in the middle of it, I was like, God, I didn't realize how long this synopsis was. And then when I was done, the first thing I see is Kate yawning. I was like, sorry. More related to, again, my dogs who have not let me sleep this week, but the timing was bad. Yeah, that one, I've got to read that one. I read Bathhouse and meant to read that one, but I haven't yet.

It is so like, I don't know. It's just like so good and it's so like interesting to read about like, I don't want to say like cheating because they have an open relationship. Right. But like it's so refreshing to like read a story about like an old like third party that enters their situation. That's not like, oh, I'm trying to keep this a secret because like, you know, I am married. Like he's like kind of like they have an open relationship and he's like battling between. like oh I want to like bang as many people over the summer as I can but like also this like obsessed person is like trying to get in the way of my life and it's like you don't realize sometimes how dangerous people can be when you have a one night stand but like you also don't know

how dangerous you can be when you're trying to protect everything that means a lot to you okay copywriter yeah yeah yeah like felt like a really good segue into my next one. Oh my god, let's go. This is amazing. Yeah. My next one is the girl in six E by our horror. You guys are fucking crushing this. You all are. You are. You guys are like listing like all of my favorite books that I like wish I would have thought of. Well, I mean it was hard to pick through. Well, I just have to say this helped me because one of mine was also Samantha Downings, the twisted love story. So I was like, well, Kate talked about Samantha Downing, so I know where I'm going to, like, edit my list. Yeah. So this one is,

my life is simple as long as I follow the rules. One, don't leave the apartment. Two, never let anyone in. Three, don't kill anyone. I've obeyed these rules for three years, but rules are meant to be broken, which is a very short synopsis to say that Deanna Madden's, this is the first of a series of three books. She works in her apartment as a like kind of a camera girl. Like she has clients that they do like sex tape type stuff or she performs for them. And she's she has a family history that makes her think that she could be dangerous. So that's why she keeps herself locked up in her apartment. But there's a client of hers that gives all the

wrong vibes. And so she kind of is thinking of breaking her own rules. It's very, uh, it isn't always like spicy, like physical sex, but it's definitely like a, um, unapologetic. This is my life and I'm really good at it. And it's, it's like descriptive, I'll say. I fucking love that book. And I like love her. There is a budding romance that goes through the series. And I, I'm very into that as well. I still need to read the third one. Yeah, it's interesting. That plus the author's note, like, I always wonder if maybe there will someday be a fourth one, but I'm not sure. I love her.

I just need to read it in general. Kate, I think you would fly through it. You would know. Yeah. And it's also, like, especially right now with, like, female rage and, like, female empowerment and everything that's going on in our country, like, you would be like, I could see you, like, fist pumping to this. Like, fuck yeah. Yeah. And also, I think.

in, well, there's a lot of notes and stuff, but in this book that's like 330 pages, there's 83 chapters, so it's like really quick. Ooh. Which we, I really speak in my language. I know you like a fast-paced little book? I'm obsessed with it. And if you liked the last party. Oh, I loved it. She just has like that.

I think her voice carries through that, like this book. That's cool. Yeah. I agree with that. I'm looking at my collection of all of her books. Yeah, she's so good. I know. I want to read more of hers. My next one, though, is someone we've had on the podcast. Actually, Gere and I had her on together.

Heather Levy has a book coming out. This will probably be the week we release it, but February 11th, It's called This Violent Heart and this one is so perfect for it. I love that title. It's actually romantic and not just traumatic. So I'm finally not having a marriage hating recommendation here. Devin Mays thought she was done with a small conservative town. She once called home.

She fled when she was 18 after her best friend Summer took her own life, leaving Summer's twin brother Keaton lost in his grief. But when tragedy strikes again, Devin has nowhere to turn, but back to the place that first broke her heart. Being back in Arcana means struggling with the old guilt that shrouds her bisexuality and her feelings for Keaton. There's so much she's still hiding from him and so much of their shared past that's now resurfacing.

It's not long before Devin has reason to believe Summer's tragic death wasn't suicide after all. summer had secrets too and she wasn't the only one who didn't want them exposed as devon and keaton piece together the mystery of what happened that fateful summer they must reckon with their own truth before they can move forward but one person will do whatever it takes to stop them i loved this book um it especially if you love like even the uh like going back home to like figure something out or to solve something from the past But I also thought it was, I'm sure it shows up in maybe more romance that's like just just romance.

But I thought it was fascinating having a teenager who's like friends with twins that are brother and sister. And that's how she realizes she's bisexual because she has a crush on both of them. And I was like, that would be so intense. And they're all friends. So there's just all this like tension and pining and all of them. and all of that. But then there's also this whole mystery happening about what happened in the past.

Oh, my God. And also Devin is from, she's a character from Hurt for me. So she's in a couple's, she's in a little bit of that book. So that's kind of cool too. Oh my God. That is awesome.

I didn't know that. Yeah. And so she kind of like runs in the same world of kink as well. It's not available for requests anymore on Netgalley, so I have to wait for the real thing. Oh. I have a physical copy. I might just buy it on. Okay.

But thank you. I am becoming a Kindle girlie. I can't mean to pop over my little Kindle here. The macha. The macha, the matcha, baby. Well, I don't think I'm blurry. anymore. I think it was just the lighting. You're brighter.

The twinkle lights behind me and I was relying on natural light, but now, like you said, the bleak, the bleak winter gray settled in. Yeah. This one is probably the most functional relationship that I'll discuss in any book. I've already recommended a hundred times the murder between us by Tal Bauer. I love the Cole and Noah relationship and how it starts in that book. But like I don't get to talk about the grave between us enough. But like obviously it's not a spoiler that because it's a duology that Cole and Noah end up together in the first book.

So I'm going to talk about the second book because this is one of my favorite thrillers in the entire world. But I also love the relationship. And it's probably one of the scariest serial killers that I've ever read about in my entire reading experience. So the grave between us, it was just one moment. It was one mistake. For years, men have been disappearing. A father in North Carolina, a boater in California, a hiker in Arkansas, and more scattered across the United States. The FBI knows who's responsible. A serial killer they caught, a man they sent young profiler Cole Kennedy to interrogate. Then the killer escaped, leaving the FBI in chaos in Cole's psyche and tatters. Eight years later, Cole's life has been. changed. He's found the man of his dreams and he's moved to Iowa to be with special agent Noah Downing, leaving the FBI's behavioral analysis unit and the murders behind. Or so he thought. An attack on the backgrounds of Iowa shatters the FBI in the aftermath. They uncover the signature of the last man they expected, the killer that got away. Now he's hunting Noah and the BAU descends on Des Moines,

sending Cole back on the psychological chase. To catch the only man who has ever beaten him, will have to delve inside the killer's mind. It's a place he barely survived before, and the deeper he goes, the more horrors await. And though Noah is ordered to back off the investigation, he won't leave Cole to face his darkness alone. If Cole has any hope in saving the man he loves, he must unravel the killer's twisted profile and follow the trail of death,

even it leads him into a marrow of his worst nightmares. Yeah. I remember you talking about how creepy it was when you read that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know that, like, the murder between us, like the first book, it's like a serial killer who's, like, killing, like, college students. So it has that, like, dark academia vibe.

And then, like, the way that their relationship kind of forms together is, like, you don't want to stop turning the pages. But, like, with this one, I was nervous because, like, it's not like your typical romantic suspense where you're like, oh, I know everyone's going to be safe and everyone's going to be okay. Like he really makes you feel like just as hopeless as these characters do when like they're hunting like like they're trying to protect one another. But like also like there's like the most dangerous serial killer that like you will ever read about who is like we'll stop at nothing to go after them. Right. Yeah. And Iowa. I don't know. I was new I was creepy. When you said Des Moines, I was like, oh, thank you. Not Des Moines. But I like. I don't know. It's like farmfield dark.

This is one of those books, though, that, like, I don't, like, like, I would fall in love with either one of these men. Like, I would be like, I would definitely marry Cole and I would definitely marry Noah. And usually it's like, I am, like, in love with one character more. But, like, with these two, I'm like, I wouldn't even break up this marriage because I just love them so much. I love that. I love when you can root for a relationship in a book, especially a thriller. Like, they deserve each other and they deserve to be, like, happy for the. rest of their lives.

Yeah, and it's not the, the spouse did it. Like, they're actually a team kind of. Yeah, yeah. I haven't read, like, a lot of his other, like, romantic suspense because I think a lot of them are, like, CIA. And, like, as Kate knows, we've had this, like, conversation, like, it'll probably go over my head. But, like, I really do think that he's my favorite, like, M.M. Romance author because

of the way he writes his characters. And, like, it's very realistic how the. relationships start. So yeah, that's my Tal Bauer. Hey, oh. Um, I love it. I like that. I think I'm going to pick one. So I'm going to say this. My favorite thriller slash romance is the Mind Fuck series, but I've talked about it a million times. So I'm going to highlight something else. However, if someone's truly looking for a good mix of both, I think that that is where it's at. Little Spice, actually good couple and a solid thriller story. I think sometimes like one gets sacrificed for the other when they find genres.

Yeah. Let's see. So the one, the last one I have is coming out in March. It's called Killer Potential by Hannah D-E-I-T-C-H. Deach? I don't know. Yeah.

A scholarship kid with straight A's and big dreams. Evey Gordon always thought she was special, that she'd be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as an SAT tutor for the super rich of Los Angeles. Everything changes one Sunday when she arrives for her weekly lesson at the Victor's Beverly Hills estate, and in lieu of a bored teenager, finds the bloody remains of the parents strewn through their beautiful back garden and a woman crying for help within a closet. As Evie works to free, her, the two are spotted, and within minutes they go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives. Suddenly at the heart of a manhunt and accompanied by a mysterious woman who refuses to speak,

Evie knows the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. But first, she'll have to break down the barriers of her companion, who is quickly becoming the most important person in Evie's upside-down life. Their breathless spree takes them across the United States as developments in the case shock the nation and the press runs wild with Evie, runs wild with Evie's, a gifted kid turned killer. Weird. Okay.

She's now on the cover of every magazine and newspaper, anointed the new Charles Manson, a bloodthirsty 99% are looking to start a class war. Evie is finally someone. By turn, turns cuttingly hilarious and deeply insightful, killer potential is a strikingly original debut, a literary novel with the page turning intensity of a thriller. that asks timely questions about our belief in the romance of social mobility and how the stories we're sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives. That sounds so good. Yeah, it has a little queer romance. I like that. I think the ending is

interesting as far as like how the romance turns out. And it had some moments of being a little like literary, but I think it's just because you're in Evie's head a lot because for a very long time the person she's with is not talking. So like all you can be is like when you're driving across the country is like

in your head. Right. But it does have a really fun voice. I love that. That was a very like the imagery with that synopsis too where it's like the like body throwing out like the garden and then there's like a woman that locked in a closet I was like holy fuck yeah I know I know it's wild and it has like there were there was a moment where

when you find out what happens to the person in the closet I was like really I was like like like how she got there and I don't know and I think you guys would know what I mean because we've talked about it on the podcast before like one of the creepy things that we talk about sometimes So it would be interesting if you guys read it. I need to. I was just looking at the fact that I have six March arcs, but I'm like, why not throw another one?

I know. How does you spell her name again? It's Hannah D-E-I-T-C-H. It's a yellow with like a purple. I don't think that the person on the cover is a reflection of what the character looks like, but who knows. Interesting. You know, it's always interesting.

cover art and how it reflects the story yes yeah um can i also highlight something that if you want a book for palentines or galentines day i think that cackle by rachel harris is a really good pick oh a really good pick i love your bonus i do thank you i almost turned it but i was like no these people they asked for some romance and i'm going to give it to them but i feel like that was a really good one too for the holiday. Upcoming. Nice. I've got to start

reading Rachel Harrison. Yeah, I'm obsessed with her now, obviously. I want to read everything now. Like, now I don't even know. Like, I was telling Kate earlier today, like, I didn't know what I wanted to read and I can't, like, decide.

And now you guys have me wanting to read, like, books that I've already read that I want to revisit. So now I just really don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I feel that. I know. I don't have any book clubs in February, so I don't have anything I have to read until March, because I'm all caught up on most of my arcs. So it really is kind of like, well, what do I feel like?

Yeah. That's a good place to be. Yeah, it is really nice. I have seven arcs in February and that I have like 10. Really? In March. Yeah. Wow.

I need to start on my March ones, that's for sure. I went a little Buckwild. I love it. You mean Book Wild? Yeah. literally like I went book wild on net galley this week and I requested like nine books on net galley because I was like my matcha baby is going to be full of arts. She's going to be full.