Boozy Bookgasms - Devil in the Details…and the Bedroom

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

The Devil by Ashley Jade Tonight the cousins dive headfirst into Book One in The Devil's Playground duet where the men are dangerous, the tension is sinful, and the emotional damage comes with a side of sexual chemistry.  Pour a drink and join us as we unpack power plays, toxic flirting, and a love triangle that feels less like romance and more like potential for felony charges. Cheers to bad decisions and even worse men. Signature Cocktail: Devil's Heart Ingredients: 1/2 oz 1883 Spicy Syrup 4 oz White Tequila 1 oz honey 3 oz cranberry juice splash of lime juice   Pour all the ingredients in a shaker, add ice and shake well during 10 seconds. Strain in chilled Martini glass. Decorate with a pepper and a lime peel. 

Listen, you are who you are, okay? Like things that freak you out, freak you out. And we love you. I mean, not as much as you love us, but, yeah. False. You don't love us as much as we love you? That's what I heard. No, she said.

That's what she said. She said it the other way. Did I? You know I love you. So fuck off. Buckle-off literature fans. We're in for some boozy bookgasms today. Join three cousins,

creating a titillating headspace where steamy romance novels collide with strong cocktails. So sit back, sip slow, and enjoy the ride. Welcome back, all you boozy book lovers. I'm Jen. I'm Lynn. I'm Kim. Tonight we are doing Book 1 in the Devil's Playground Duet by Ashley Jade. This one's called The Devil. And we have a treat for all of you, but mostly for Lindsay, because next week, we will read the second book in the duet and complete a series on the show when we do book two, The Devil's Advocate. At least we're doing the second book.

Exactly. You know, I hate when they try to force these onesies on me and then there's a whole other book. That's all she's ever asked. So here we are delivering. It's not too much. It's really just not too much to ask. But before we meet this new batch of dark, sexy, and seriously deranged men, Kim, what are we drinking tonight?

All right, ladies. This is a spicy one with strong, naughty personality, just like our little devil, Damien. It's called the devil's heart. It's delicious. It's got some spicy syrup, some white tequila, some honey, cranberry juice, and lime juice. Now, I use vodka because I'm a vodka girl, not a tequila girl, and it's just as yummy. We know. Tequila is also yummy.

To each his own. I poured mine in a martini glass just to be fancy, but honestly, this shit's good in a Dixie cup. Over the rocks. It's good stuff. Enjoy. Cheers. Bums up. So we open with a prologue that talks about how all-consuming obsession can be. It was a little twisted and dare I say poetic to some degree. But it aligns with the theme. So off we go.

In Chapter 1, we meet our female main character, Eden. Oh, Eden. Bless her sweet, naive little soon-to-be 18-year-old heart. Yes. The age is going to be a problem for Jenny. if anybody's concerned. We'll see. What?

This one we have a hot, really fast. All right, all right, getting ahead of ourselves. She's being interviewed by reporters, and her stepdad, Kane, is running for mayor, and they're asking her about her love life, which is irritating her. The reporter says to her, just between us girls, is it weird having a father who's only a few years older than you? Lord knows I couldn't live under the same roof with Black Hollow's most eligible bachelor without sleeping in his bed every night.

And Eden says he's my stepfather and he's only Black Hollow's most eligible bachelor because my mother is dead, you heartless bitch. And then she like runs out of there. Stepdaddy Kane walks in and says, what's going on here? Eden tells him what happens and he tells him what happens and he tells the reporter she'll never work in this town again. And we get a little backstory about how Kane married Eden's mom when he was 25 and the mom was 39. Eden was 14 years old at the time, but very quickly developed a crush on her stepdad that has been building over the years. So her story is very sad. She was wrongfully implicated in a sex scandal with a teacher. She was 14 at the time. Yeah. She had a secret crush on a teacher and wrote a bunch

of fantasies about him, which were discovered by a classmate and made public. The teacher was painted as a child molester, and she was a teenage Lolita out to destroy an innocent family man. He got off by throwing her under the bus. He was still perfectly situated in society. And She was made to be the outkiss. He got away with it because he didn't do anything. But he, we come to find out, did. Was meeting her. Nothing happened.

They may not have slept together. He had an inappropriate relationship with her. Yeah, he did have an inappropriate. It wasn't a sexual relationship. It was just an inappropriate relationship. But she got glasses as like a scarlet. Sure. Oh, totally.

So obviously this made her a bit of a social pariah and embarrassed her mom who was running for district attorney at the time. Mom pulls Eden out of school and medicated her into a zombie state and just hid her away for years. So sad. So sad. Because of the drugs and the isolation, she has this crippling social anxiety and agoraphobia. Her mom's campaign platform revolved around family values, so she needed a husband, and it's implied that the marriage to Kane was a marriage of convenience. We'll find out later. It definitely was. Indeed.

The mom recently died in a car accident and left her daughter nothing. But Kane being the great guy that he is, said that she could live with him and he would take care of her as long as she does what he says. Such a nice guy. I mean, what a guy. He's so nice. He's running for mayor with his endgame being president. And he has been very driven towards this goal his whole life. Everything he's done has been in pursuit of this.

Every. His whole life. But mayor of this little. little town. I mean, it's just like, wow. It's a jumping point, Jen. Come on. It's a stepping stone. It's growing. Goals. Yes. So we get a flashback to, we get a flashback to three weeks ago and Kame comes home a little drunk from dinner. He sees Eden and they start talking and she tells him a story about how her first kiss was with a girl. This evolves into him giving her oral sex on the couch and her returning the favor. She basically undresses herself.

opens her legs and says, come and get me. And he's like, okay. She's the younger person here. She's like 17, but she's seducing him because she has this massive crush on him. Yeah. And it works. And he goes for it. And as soon as he comes, he realizes what happened and says, oh my God. Oops, I shouldn't have done this can't happen again. She's devastated. Devastated. In her loneliness, she's signed up for this dating app where she was conveniently given a free membership. Her login is Angel Baby 1, 2, 3, and she's been talking to a guy who goes by devil. She assumes that this is Kane because he knows a lot about her and he's very familiar and she feels like this is our secret way of communicating. And he can tell me things here that he wouldn't tell me in person.

The banter they have on the app is very flirty. But also kind of deep. They end up having very serious conversations and she feels like this Kane, the app, Kane knows her so well and it doesn't translate sometimes. He treats her as an equal on the app versus in person. He talks down to her, treats her like a child. Oh, we're not going to do that because I'm your stepdad. Don't make it weird. But then, you know, I'm going to go down on you. Whatever. Right. You know, boundaries. He's very conflicted about how much he wants her. Yeah. Quote unquote, trying to do the good thing. This part of the book, I didn't know what to think about him. I was really torn about him. I did not like him.

because I don't think he was torn at all. I think he was fucking around with her emotions on purpose. Well, looking back. That was my first initial thought with him was like, this guy's a skeeys. He married the mom. She dies out of the blue. And then he gets all the money, all the fame. And he's her guardian.

He's skeezy. I was really torn on him. I couldn't figure out if I liked him as the main male character. I just couldn't see where it was going. They're back and forth on the app, just kind of getting to know each other in this secret way. And one day she asked him, so you never told me, where were you the night that the fire happened that killed your family? And he goes dark on her. So we're like, hmm, what is this?

We're starting to get an idea of Kane and Eden's dynamic. She's hopelessly in love with him. And he's, at this point, he's an arrogant asshole who thinks she's just a naive girl who happens to be extremely hot. But she risks his mayoral campaign. Well, his whole life, she's 17. He also gives her just enough at every turn to keep her hooks. So one night they have another moment in her room, but right before they have sex, she says she's a virgin and he freaks out and leaves. And again, she's upset.

She's vulnerable. She's hurt. The end comes. She's hurt most of the book. Next we meet our male character, Damien King. He is watching these beautiful tropical fish in a tank in his office. and he's joined by the reporter from earlier who upset Eden. And as it turns out, he hired her to do just that.

Just to do that. That was the purpose. So Damien is clearly stalking Eden and Kane. And he wants details from the reporter. And she says she thinks that Kane is screwing Eden and kind of fills him in. Then he releases a piranha into the fish tank that kills all the tropical fish and then tells the reporter to take her clothes off. So I guess he's insane. friendly hot. Every woman wants to bang and rich. And he's very wealthy. Also kind of a psychopath.

A little bit. He's a little unhinged. But in a hot way, you know, like it's not. There's a spectrum. I don't think he's a psycho. I think there's a spectrum and he's on it. The man enjoys watching piranhas kill other fish. Leave him alone. That is weird. He is highly manipulative himself. He's one of my favorite main male characters this season. Stop it. It has a slight of session with Kane. More that's like, we never hear from the reporter again. The police eventually start looking for her in question Kane about it. I'm going to do your favor right now. In Book 2, we find out she's been in Vegas with her girlfriends. Probably on. Damien's dime. Damien disappeared her to make Kane look guilty and to make all these questions come up. She's safe. Nothing to worry about here. But it adds to the mystery of who Damien is. Like, did he kill her?

Is he a murderer? It adds to the mystery of the book, which I really liked. Oh, yeah, for sure. So the piranha story is important. Damian was raised by a neglectful druggie mother who only cared about her tropical fish. And after she died of an overdose, he runs down to the fish store and purchased a piranha, took it home, and put it in the tank to eat all his mom's fish while he waited for the ambulance to pick up her dead body. He's got some work to do in therapy.

emotionally. Is that psycho? It's an outlet. Leave him alone. I mean, sure. We all need one. What happens if he killed a cat? Okay, I'm just saying it's a slippery slope.

But he didn't. Well, he bought a piranha to kill the fish. Okay, he wanted those fish to die. His mom's fish that she loved. Yeah, he's fucked in the head. We might need some therapy, like some intensive therapy. A little. So now it's Eden's 18th birthday.

Yay. Finally. Now we can legally. mess with you. Perfect. All the men are like, yes. She's still upset with Kane and won't come downstairs because she feels like he's playing games with her head, which he totally is. Yeah.

But he has lunch plans with another soon-to-be arranged marriage. Her name is Margaret Bexley, and she's the governor's daughter. And this is a very calculated move to position his political career. We get a flashback to Kane and Damien's high school days now. Damien is having sex with Kane's girlfriend who Kane's been dating for a year and a half. They're doing it in a shed behind the school and Kane walks in on them and asks if she's having fun. Because the whole school's talking about it and they're like, hey dude, your girlfriend's back there banging Damien. He's like, I can't believe it.

He's so calculative that he's dating this woman in pursuit of his presidential ambitions 20 years from now. And his dad and his brother are assholes to him and always talking to. down to him. They beat him. Yeah. Yeah, he beat him. He has to be like the perfect student body president, the whole thing. He's trying to get into Harvard. He hasn't gotten in. And now his girlfriend who he was dating specifically to help him with his image is not fucking the biker dude. But the interesting thing is that he was told by his dad, you have to date someone and marry someone that you are not attracted to in order to go far in politics. But he broke the rule with this girl, because he was attracted to her. He did.

This girlfriend, he walks in and she's like, oh my God, Kane, I'm so sorry. Damien, stop. Kane's here. He doesn't stop. Hey, Kane, you can have her in a minute right after I bust my nuts. Like, he's completely disrespecting her and him. And him. And Kane's like annoyed. He's a high school boy.

High school Damien is second to none. Trash. Yeah. Second to trash. He's totally trash. I mean, just the worst. He was dating her because. her dad was a senator.

So it was like, oh, I'm positioning my political career. His own dad didn't like this match because she was attractive. He's like, God, I just wasted a year and a half on her. Now I can't stay with her. But he's not really upset about it. No, he's like, now the whole school knows she screwed Damien. What a waste of time. And I guess start all over.

It makes me look bad. Yeah. And so once Kane is like, fuck you, no thank you. Then she turns to Damien as like, can I see you later? and he's like, I'm good. No. She locks them in the shed together. Damien calls his pot dealer to get them out.

But while they're waiting, Kane says, I can't believe she cheated with somebody like you. And Damien's like, why not? I'm richer and I fuck better. Two good reasons. Kane's like, you don't know anything about me. And Damian says, oh, I know a few things. Your dad's a senator and you wear preppy shit like khakis and polos.

I know people respect your twin brother more than you. I know you rig the Student Council President Race, and I know your dad's credit card got declined at the country club last week because I'm screwing one of the bartenders. And he says, if you ever want to stop being a pussy and have some fun, you know where to find me. Damien wants to hang out with King. Oh, he's obsessed with him.

He is fascinated by him. Obsessed. But you find out later that he wasn't obsessed in the way that it becomes obsession. Right. He was obsessed because he caught him when he was cheating. He caught him doing something bad in this goody, goody persona was shattered. And he's like, I got to know more. What else is he doing?

Fascinated is a good word because he has this personality and then he catches him doing something wrong. He's like, hmm, maybe he's more interesting. Mm-hmm. Maybe he's like me. I'm intrigued. I want to know more. So he stalks the girlfriend and then fucks her so he can get Kane's attention. And he did.

He sure did. I worked. Yeah. So now we're back to little lee. She has received two large boxes. One is a ball gown with a pair of shoes and a pearl G string. And a note that says, wear these for me tonight. There's a masquerade ball that night. And she wasn't dreaming of going because of her agoraphobia. But she ends up finding the courage and gets all dolled up for the ball thinking she's going to have her moment with Kane. She really thinks this game from Kane. Back to the past. We head back to high school and Kane is getting himself a new girlfriend that isn't attractive. because of what happened last time. He's like, this one will make a good politician's wife.

He is thinking that far ahead at 17. So sad. This will please my father. He says you shouldn't be attracted to your wife if you're a politician, which is like super weird. So anyway, Damien comes in and says, Where's my phone? And Kane has had his phone for a few days

and has been like sexting with all these girls that sexed Damien. And he's like jumping in on the fun. Damien says, you better return it to me after Mrs. Miller's eighth period class to or else. So little do we know. Damien fully knew that Kane had his phone. Fully knew Kane was sexting girls. Fully wanted him to have that experience. Oh yeah. And fully wanted him to walk in to Mrs. Miller's class at 8th period. Yeah, sure did. Mrs. Miller. Kane clears all the sexting history and goes to drop the phone off and finds Damien banging Mrs. Miller in the back of the classroom. So Mrs. Miller is a character I was surprised I didn't dislike more. I loved her, actually. I really did like her. I thought she was pretty good. I don't know if I loved her, but I empathized with her. I liked her confidence. I did not hate her.

She's in this abusive relationship with the assistant football coach. So you feel bad for her, but she's also having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, which I struggled with, no matter your circumstances. I will say Damien's clearly the dominant in the situation and very mature for his age, especially sexually. I love Damien. Obviously, this is not okay in real life. I have to compartmentalize that and I had no problem doing that. Are we divorcing ourselves from reality in this moment? Interesting. Interesting. So this was a lot like a Freedom McFadden book to me. You're there for the twists and turns, but you don't get emotionally attached to the characters. You just enjoyed the journey. Is it because it was a boy who was 18 and not a girl? Because do you have a hard time with underage? Eden's 17. And did you have a problem with that? For this book, I don't feel like the author put you in a position where we had to judge that situation. I disagree. I mean, I'll have to go with Lynn on this one. I'll dig deeper later.

I think your opinion is changing because you have read so many of these now. I'm getting desensitized. Totally. Let's go back to five brothers. Yeah. Nope. There's actually only four. Here's the difference.

The author isn't trying to convince me. this is okay. She's just telling me a story. And I feel like in other books, like in a Five Brothers, I am trying to be convinced that this is a love story. I don't think the author is trying to do that. I think you were trying to convince yourself it was okay and just really struggling with it. And in this and you're like, I actually did feel bad for her more than any other book where they were younger because I did feel like she was being manipulated where a lot of times we read these books and the young girls feel more confident. They're almost more the aggressive. They are very confident in their choices where I feel like she was manipulated.

100% the whole time. By both of them. She was drugged. She was manipulated. She was lied to. It was easier for me to digest the story because she was just sort of a side character. I wasn't invested in her. She was definitely not the main character.

This book was not about her nor was the second one. No. They were about these two guys battling it out. She was a pawn in their chess game. 100%. That actually made me feel for her more. Me too. The fact that she was completely manipulated throughout her entire life, essentially.

I really struggled with book one. Oh, really? Interesting. We go back to the past, and Damien and Kane will start having three sums with Ms. Miller. And eventually this will turn into some vicarious situations. That will eventually just be gay sex where Miss Miller's, not in fact. I'm excited. Kane and Damien's relationship builds during this time frame. Kane is so anti-gay sex. He's hesitant the entire time. And Damien is just like easing him into it. And Damien's not gay. He's very by. He's also easing him into just letting loose. It's not really about the sex. He's just like, I want to see you be bad because you spend so much time trying to be good. You're boxed up and you can't let that go. And so he uses this three way as a way to let Kane let off.

steam and you start to realize how obsessed Damien is with Kane and wanting to let him have these moments, but Damien wants to have it with him. There are a lot of quotable moments where she talks about the difference between obsession and love and what that means. And I wish she didn't have Eden saying it because out of an 18 year old's mouth here, just like, oh, this feels silly. But poignant. Some of the stuff she wrote was beautiful. I mean, Kane's obsession with Eden. Damien's obsession with Kane. Eden's obsession with Kane. Eden's obsession with Kane. I think obsession is pivotal theme in this book and why it drives the decision making that some of the characters have. So back to the masquerade ball.

Kane is chatting up his new secret fiancé Margaret and her dad, the governor. Margaret's got this weird codependency with her dad, and she's kind of a strange character anyway. Didn't like her. They are going to announce their engagement tonight. They're thinking this is going to help Kane in the polls for the mayor race. Oh, this is definitely a marriage of convenience. She's glad that he's hot, but she's doing it to help him. It's a political marriage.

Yeah, her dad's making her do it. She's also in her 30s and not married and has no prospects. She's like a spinster. And she's kind of a shrew. So her dad's like, shut up, get married, do the right things. Yeah. So poor Eden is just walking in, knees knocking. She's terrified.

She's being coached by the devil on her app. But the agoraphobia and the anxiety, like for her to go to something like this is a really big deal. I think we can just say now, it's not Kane on the app. So actually, Damien, and we don't quite know why yet, but he's what coaxed her out because she was talking to him on the app. She felt really connected. And she had the mask. But she went because she thought Kane was finally going to agree to love her. She was so obsessed with him that that got her out of the house.

So she gets out of the car and she bumps into this waiter who almost spills a whole tray of drinks. But then swoop Damien's there. With his mask on, she doesn't know him. But he saves the tray. She keeps texting the devil and he tells her to meet him in this coat closet. So he can play with her pearls. And so he ties her wrists to this coat rack. Her face is against the wall.

He's wearing the same cologne as cane. And he goes down on her and she keeps yelling, cane. And then she orgasms and she tells him she loves him. Talking to him on this app has been the best part of her day. He tells her, I'll see you downstairs. She goes downstairs and she sees Kane with Margaret on the dance floor and she's devastated. She feels like he tricked her into going down there just to break her heart, which he did. Damien did.

He manipulated her. Damien sees this lone tear roll underneath her mask like down her face. So sad. She's a very sad character almost to the end. So she isn't. Yeah. So Damien's thinking to himself, ooh, like he's having this emotion. Should I feel bad about this?

She was a pawn in his game and like now I've actually hurt this human that is innocent. He's kind of falling for her too through their apps and he's realizing how vulnerable she is and how much Cain's manipulated her. But he's using her to get back at Cain for something we're not sure about yet. He also sees himself in her at this point. Like he sees the obsession she has with Cain. Yeah. And it's a reflection of how he was very similar. He's still 100% manipulating and you.

using her. This is why the first book made me insane. So we flashed back to the past and Kane is sneaking into Damien's window after a terrible night at home. And we get a little backstory about Damien's obsession with Kane. And the moment he fell in love with him was when he was watching him stuffed the ballot box for student president. And then Kane jerked off and spread his jizz into his opponent's mom's jelly and fluff sandwich. So weird. So unnecessary. You eat to fluff and peanut butter like jelly. But Damia liked how twisted he was.

And he pestered him until they started threesomes with Mrs. Miller. That eventually evolved into a dude-on-dud relationship that Kane is still in denial about. It was very interesting how that all happened because using the woman and then there was some slight touches. And then Kane kind of closed his eyes and pretended it was Miss Miller when he knew it wasn't. There was a lot of pretending that this guy-on-guy thing was not happening. until it ended up just being the two of them. Neither one of them are gay. It was just a relationship that evolved from their friendship

out of having all these mutual interests. This particular evening, Kane is upset because he didn't go get into Harvard. And his twin brother did and his dad beat the shit out of him while his twin brother laughed. He was waitlisted. It wasn't even like he was denied. But his brother got in and his dad and him just, man, that, it was toxic. He did everything right. It was so awful.

Kane has just wound up really tight. And then Damien says this very confusing quote that we hear throughout the duet. There are two types of people in this world, Kane. Those who are capable of greatness, but don't bother trying. And those who still try even though they're not capable of greatness. He says, you are neither. You are the type of person who can do anything he sets his mind to. And I don't want to get hung up on semantics, but that feels like there's three kinds of people.

Right. Your truth, my truth, and the truth truth? So I don't know. And they say this quote easily, three to four times of the book. So there's three type of people. Again, three. Every time you're talking about the third person. So there's more than two people.

I don't know. Whatever. Damien says he wants to kill Kane's dad. And Kane says he can't let him do that. But if you were going to do it. How would you do it? How would you do it? Like tell me more. But they have this conversation right after he actually has.

sex with hip. I guess it's after play. They're in post-coital having this conversation. Hate that word. We've talked about not using coital, Lindsay. Hey, that word. Do you got to X that out of your bocab? I'm asking in their after-sex glow and talking about... There you go. That's nice. Killing his dad in a fire. I don't know. I don't like poital. I'm going to keep using it just to annoy you. I don't like it. Okay. So he's like, how would you do it? And Damien, says, oh, easy. I would slip him sleeping pills, and after it falls asleep, I would rewire an appliance to set the house on fire. No problem. Dumb-Dum. Dun. Bada-boom. Hadn thought about it, but here's my go-to. Yeah, exactly. So the next day, Damien sees Kane in the locker room,

and he comes up behind him and runs a finger up his arm. He thinks it's just the two of them in the locker room, except it's... That twin brother. Dun, dun, da, awkward. And this guy. He's a douche bag asshole. What the fuck? Oh my God. You thought I was my brother. Oh, I'm going to tell. Like, he was such a douche.

Yeah. When Kane gets home, he's like, oh, you're a homo. I mean, he's just the worst. And Kane is so calm when he sees him because he just knows you're about to die. And he slips this plastic bag over his head and he murders his twin brother. So if he hits him. Remember this moment where he was like, it's so weird to see your twin dead. Yeah, I was a little sight.

This guy is so unhinged. You realize as we go further and further in the book, he actually doesn't have any real emotions. No emotion. No. What's that called when you don't have that? Is it psychotic? What's the word? Sociopath.

Sociopath. That's what he is. Textbook. Yeah. He has no real emotions. He thinks he should have emotions and he pretends like he has emotions, but he doesn't have any. Yeah. And he's got a really high IQ.

So then the next thing we know, he's over sneaking. into Damien's house. He asked Damien if he loves him and Damian says yes. He thinks Kane was meant to be his destiny. And like many 17 year olds who fall in love, Damien has him. He's got it bad. Kane's phone rings and it's the police and he tells Damien he's right to the hospital because his father and brother died in a house fire and seen. Unfortunately, Kane made some mistakes. No shit. Didn't plan well. Apparently sociopaths are not great murderers. Check. Not always.

He doesn't feel bad about it, but he wasn't covering up his tracks. So there were no traces of soot in his brother's lungs because he was dead before the fire. There was soot in the dad's lungs because he had drugged him with sleeping pills. I'm going to call this a minor plot gap that didn't deter me too much because I love a good crime drama. You don't have to wait for the lab results. They did the autopsy. In a half a minute? Like in half an hour.

They were important in the community. They do that in law and order too, right? In normal time, it takes four weeks to get something like that shit back. Kane tells the cops that his brother was having an affair with Mrs. Miller and got mad when he found out she was also sleeping with Damien King. So he's throwing everybody up under that bus. And basically that the brother threatened to tell the husband, Kane had planted Mrs. Miller's panties under his brother's pillow in his room that cop. end up finding the panties. Oh, and also a tarot card because she did tarot card reading. That was kind of like her hobby.

Like a school dance. Yeah. So he frames her for the murder and it works. So this is the campy part where I'm like, oh, come on. But then I'm here for it. Like, what else happened? It's very gumshoe. I hated this. Oh, I didn't. This is why I'm not going to get hung up on. She's 17. He's 17. He's 17. They're 18. Whatever. Because we're here for a ride. Because it didn't feel real, maybe. Exactly. I mean, he definitely penned it on her. And I liked her as a character. I hated how it ended for her. Why did you like her as a character? I would like to know that because if this was a book where we were focused on her relationship, this was her storyline. Right. Then I would have had a very hard time with her having sex with students. But the 17-year-old, the 25-year-old stepdad didn't bother you? No, I also. would have a hard time with that. If she was the main character. Right. But these were, this was

side plot. We're here for the murder mission. Right. Like so. Okay. I was not here with the murderous street. I liked her as a character. She was vulnerable. She and Damien had a really fun relationship and good banter. It felt like equals, even though he was a student and she was a teacher. And it was obviously there was something not right about that. I liked their relationship. I liked her gumption. I didn't like that she was with a beater. And I wish she had just been strong. enough to leave him, but that wasn't the point of her story. Her story was really just about how she connected these two guys. And I think her relationship, Damien was like really fun. And I didn't like that. Kane, probably because he was jealous, used her what he was mean.

He started being abusive to her. And Damien was like, slow it down, dude. He let this go. And then stopped inviting her over because Kane was being like that. So he didn't cut his relationship with Kane, but he knew. New Cain was getting aggressive and so stopped inviting her because he wanted to protect her. I loved the Damien Miss Miller relationship. I thought it was really sweet. He really cared about her. Like, he was almost the adult in that relationship. The part that made it icky was he kept saying she's the closest thing I have to a mom. Oh. That's fair. But at the same time, he would lift her up, make her feel better about herself.

I was very conflicted about Mrs. Miller. But I liked her. I liked her too. I didn't not like her. I wanted good things for her and I felt bad for her and I liked her relationship with Damien. And you knew it wasn't like a love connection. It was just her escape and Damian was using her too, but it was mutual in their respect for each other. And I like... Miss Miller's husband bails her out of jail and murders her and kills himself. Damien is extremely upset about it because he cares about Ms. Miller, but he's so in love with Kane that he agrees to lie for him to the police.

They're arguing about it and Damien says, I am not. happy about this, but I've got your back. And Kane says, why? Why do you have my back? He says, you already know why. They've already said, I love you, or at least Damien has said that to Kane. I think Damien has. Kane always skirted it. Kane knows that he's got him where he wants him. Kane says, because you are a cock sucker who is infatuated with me, and his tone is really mean. And Damien says, last time I checked, the feeling was mutual. And the next thing we know, Damien's fish tank lights up and there are now two piranhas in the tank. Kane says that Damien's piranha has eaten and he's not aggressive, but Kane's

piranha is starving. Kane's piranha eats Damien's piranha. Like he sets it up. The fish that he bought for revenge against his mom has now been eaten. Like it's just so fucked up. He explains two piranhas can coexist in a tank. Sooner or later, one will lose. And he's messing with his head.

And Cain's like, oh, I'm so sorry. And he asks for a blowjob. And Damien is like, I just want to make him feel better. He's really upset. I just want to fix this. Damien drops to his knees and he wants to show Cain that they're not rivals, they're equals. And he tells Damien that he has to pee. He tells him to open his mouth. And it's a power play. But Damien is desperate to please Cain. And he does it. He opens his mouth. And Cain laughs at him and calls him pathetic. And he says, you're so obsessed with me. you don't realize I was the one in control this whole time. And he takes out his phone and he plays back a recording of Damien saying how he would kill Kane's dad. Kane says his future plans do not include Damian. He takes out a gun and he aims it at him and says you have one of three choices. One, I'm going to blow your head off. Two, I'm going to turn you into the cops because of this recording.

Or three, you can walk out this front door right now and never set foot in this town again. And Damien chooses option one. He's like, just kill me. I'm humiliated, I'm miserable, this is awful. And Kane picks up his phone and goes to call the police and Damien says, fine, I'll leave. And he walks out. And he thinks to himself on the way out that the only difference between love and obsession is a broken heart. And he promises to himself that he will let Kane forget about him.

And then when he at least expects it, he'll come back and destroy everything he ever wanted and cares about until he has nothing. In line between love and hate, baby. The end. So this is the end of book one. I'd love to do ratings. So I'm going to start with Kimberlina. Ah, I knew you're going to get me. We all start with Kim.

I know. I read it and I did Audible and I preferred the Audible like the Sultry Voices. It was really good. Teddy Hamilton is one of the readers. He is a very, very popular audible reader. He was in Lights Out. Oh. Oh, okay.

which is coming to Netflix soon. I'm so excited about that. Anyway, I actually gave this a four-star. Book one. I loved it. I was in from the get-go. I wanted to know what's next. I was driving to and from work going,

oh, let me just sit in the parking lot for five more minutes, five more minutes. Let me just figure out what happened. I loved the writing. I loved most of the characters. I hated the other characters, which is what is supposed to happen. I was in wholeheartedly. Awesome. Four stars. Okay, Lynn. I was a two star. What? Book one. The back and fourth. I love the back and forth. And honestly, to some degree, I was definitely interested. I definitely wanted to keep understanding what was happening, like the thriller aspect of it. And the author says this is a prequel. She doesn't say that this is a book one, which I thought was interesting as how they play this up. This is a full-fledged book. But she calls it a prequel. She doesn't say that this is a book. She doesn't say that this is a book. She doesn't say that this is a prequel. She doesn't. She doesn't say, doesn't call it a book one of a duet, which I think is important because it very much is setting up

the story for book two. But as a standalone book, which is basically what it is, like 350-some-odd pages, I really struggled because none of the characters were redeeming to me in any way. Wow. I gave this book four stars. I liked this book. And now we all know how I feel about tabby romance, but this to me felt more like a thriller novel. It was. And the romance piece was in the background. So nobody was trying to convince me, this is okay. They were just telling me what was happening. I was there for the journey of the story. You read it as a novel versus a romance. Yeah, because in a romance, I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of the characters. And in this book, I wasn't. I was like, ooh, what do we have here? And it was just more of a story. Let me eat the popcorn. Trauma. In most romance books, I want to have the experience

as the female man character. I did not feel like I needed to do that here. No. It does say in the beginning, this book is a prelude and expects you to go in blind. There are no heroes in this story. Only devil. Yeah. You go in knowing everybody sucks, literally and figuratively. Next week, when we talk about, when we talk about the next book, how it all comes together, you might change. Spoiler alert. I'm eager to hear what happens next, but as this book standing alone, I did not love it. Were you mad that it ended, though? Were you like, what? That's how it ends? I mean, I guess because I know there's the next one. I'm going to just pick it up right after. But it is a prelude. It's the prequel. It is not the first book. That's an interesting distinction.

What is the difference? This was just setting up the next book in all of the like chaos of the next book. This is your story builder. And then you get the story. Right. So it's kind of like, here's the context of why the next story happened. Why everybody's so fucked up. Because this had a lot of the back story. The front story.

I don't know that we've often, okay, we've had done, what, 50 episodes? Lindsay has maybe given two, two stars. Like this is, I've never seen anything like this before. And we're usually kind of close in some of ours. I'm here for the romance. And I liked the thriller aspect of it. It was much more thriller than romance for me. And I'm here for the romance.

I will say it was well written. It did keep you on the edge of your seat 100%. But I like to see myself in the book. And I like to have redeeming qualities. And nobody was redeeming in this book. No. No. I liked.

I pretend I was popcorn on the sidewalk. Totally. Oh, my God. What's next? What's next? Kim, how did you feel about the spice? I actually gave this spice. Five peppers.

Five. I don't know if Kim's ever done this. I don't think I have. Maybe the first Sadie Kincaid I ever read. To me, like, there were so many buildup moments, like when they were with the teacher and it was, well, he won't he? Oh, it was hot. Yeah.

Not usually a sword crosser kind of gal, but I'm down for this one. Let's say. I was well done. Very, very spicy. I actually gave this two chili peppers. Oh my gosh. We're all over the map. It was a lot of graphic scenes, but for me, it wasn't hot.

And I think it was the teacher thing. Because it was a lot of teacher sex, right? And it was a lot of 17-year-old. I struggle with that and you guys know that. But story loved. I love that the 17-year-olds in the story didn't bother you at all. But the sex parts bothered you. It's my journey, Lindsay.

Everybody's different. Everybody has their own moments. It is your journey. And I totally caught in front of you. What was your story? Spice. I was three and a half on the spice. The sex scenes definitely played where they should have, and I liked the three-way teacher sex, and I liked the closet. I liked the foreplay. I loved sexual banter that they all had together. And I do think that she did the sword crossing extremely well.

She did. Well, it felt very natural and unforced. Agreed. All right, ladies. Well, this was fun and interesting. And I hope all of you will tune in next week to see what Lindsay thanks as we finally finish out a duet for her. Please come back and we will see you then. Be sure to check us out on boozy bookgousins.com where you can find reading lists, cocktail recipes and more episodes of the show. We are on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram and don't forget about YouTube. And until we meet again, happy reading. Happy reading. Bye. Thanks for tuning in. We hope to Today's episode was the climax of your day, leaving you breathless and wanting more. Until next time, remember to indulge in the pleasures of life and to keep the passion alive.

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