Boozy Bookgasms - Fifty Shades of Fang

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Forged in Blood by Sadie Kincaid This book gives a whole new perspective on college life. Join the ladies as they dive into this dark romance full of magic and intense relationships. We promise you will never think of a lecture hall the same way again.  Signature Cocktail: The Crimson Vow This vampire inspired cocktail has a beautiful shade of red and a refreshing bite.  Ingredients: 2 oz Pomegranate Juice  ¾ oz Fresh Lime Juice ¾ oz Cinnamon Simple Syrup  1 ½ oz Dark Rum  Ice Lime wheel or pomegranate seeds, for garnish Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the pomegranate juice, lime juice, and cinnamon simple syrup to the shaker. Shake well until the shaker is thoroughly chilled (about 15-20 seconds). Strain the cocktail into a chilled coupe or rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel or a few pomegranate seed (optional.)

I'm okay with shifters. I like shifter romances too. I don't know how I feel about shifters. I don't like the nodding. It creeps me out. Okay, that's different. That's different. We're all.

Book-a-love 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. We're back. Welcome back, literature fans.

I'm Kim. I'm Jen. And I'm Lynn. Today we're going to dive into the first book of the Broken Bloodline series by Sadie Kincaid. But before we do that, let's belly up to the bar. Okay. So I am so excited I found this drink online when I search for a vampire-inspired

cocktails. I mean, your search history has got to just be off the chain. God, the FBI, the CIA, it's going to be a problem. When you die, we're going to just delete all of your cookies. No, it's in my, it's in my will. And we'll shave your mustache, too. I appreciate that. Oh, my God, you're so sweet. I'm here for you. I appreciate it. Okay, so we're going to do the Crimson Val, which I think is very pretty. It's super cool. It is a spiced rum. pomegranate juice, some lime juice, and some cinnamon simple syrup with a dash of bitters. So I'm not a huge pomegranate person. I know you guys are. I do. I absolutely love this drink. I love the color of it. The color is very pretty. Yeah, I was between this one and there was another one where you had to

like pour the mixture over your spoon so it looked like blood topping the drink. And I was like, oh, that sounds like a lot of work. I've done one to me blow pop drinks and they never turn out right. You don't turn out. I did. Nope. This one is great. Of course you have. Hey.

Hey. And you've got the spiced rum too. We're getting into, you know, the summer season with pools. And it's very, very on brand for the summer. Well, you know, Kim likes a rum too. I do. I do too. Yeah.

Who doesn't like rum and vodka? Well, that's a good point. One of our other cousins loves spiced rum. And I've gotten into the spiced rum kick as well. Yeah. I don't hate it. It gives a nice little flavor. Like vodka sometimes can be a bit.

bit boring. Well, you're going to switch it up or else, you know, you get a drink fatigue. Also, vodka's never boring. Take it back. I drink it with water. You got to fix the mixer. The water is the problem. It's not a lot of that. That's true. Right. It's the fact that I'm trying not to have any calories. Exactly. That's on you. Okay. So this is kind of a new genre for Ms. Kincaid with no mobsters to speak of. I can find one mobster and I look. They were mentioned. They're kind of mobby themselves. They're mobby themselves, but they're not mobsters. Yeah, fair.

And supernatural powers. I personally am into the sort of fantasy romance tropes. So I was here for it and I really wanted to like this book. Wanted to. I wanted to like it also. But you all know how much I love Sadie. You know I love her. I bought this immediately and could not wait to see her write something different.

So yeah, let's get into it. Okay. You have ideas. I know. Like, this is going to be so good. Okay. We kick it off with a lot of confusing world building. Some hype around a lost prophecy, a secret order of guardians. And what appears to be like a murder attempt with a bunch of witches in the wood where they're all... A murder attempt. Well, I think there was a successful murder. Well, but two are still alive at the time that we open up the book, right? There's this water demon named Jaden, who's barely alive with his pregnant mate, which I don't even think we learn the name

of his wife. I don't remember. It doesn't matter. It's not important. It doesn't matter. I mean, she's only the birth mother of the chosen one. But whatever. They have summoned Jaden's brother, Kaman.

Are we calling him Kameen? Come on. Whatever you want. The most powerful demon to this pile of burnt body. He was annoyed. He was like, did you really mean? Yes. He's the worst character of this whole book, by the way.

Like, the worst. I mean, if I invite my brother over and he's like, what do you want? Right. What a jerk. Well, it's like, it's like, Like they invited him over to save their lives. And he's like, can't do that. Right. And he wasn't even sad.

He was just like, you're interrupting my evening. Here's the thing. Jada was exiled. So he shouldn't have even picked up the damn witch phone because. Well, demon phone. Demon phone. He's a water demon. That's right.

Sorry. Jada was exiled because he married this human. Human. Yeah. So nobody cares. Right? I'm sorry you called, but I'm busy. We don't get involved.

Humans pregnant. This group shows up. They talk about, Should we save them? Should we not save him? Jaden says, save her. You have to save her. They say basically no.

Kanzim, whatever, waves his hand and everybody goes up in flames, except the baby that is not born. The flames were set by the unborn baby. The original flames were. The baby killed all of the attackers. Yeah. But not before her parents were gravely injured. Broh shows up and says, I can't get involved. Basically kills them out of mercy, but then the baby.

survive. Here we are with this big powerful demon. And his witch girlfriend. His witch girlfriend who's bound to him. I like how he called her. Shut up witch. Well, she is a witch. Like a bad name, but she is a witch. But it wasn't an insult, but he said it in a way that it felt like it should be. I don't know. I mean, I think he was trying to like, because she wanted him to intervene and he's like, I can't intervene because I'm the head of the secret society that doesn't intervene on him. We don't do that. We don't do that. So he shows up with a witch and a wolf. What the whole are they for? Here we go. This is when they realize this baby might be there to save everyone. Baby of the prophecy. Let's see how it works out. But before we do that, because we don't want her, you know, burning up everyone in kindergarten, we're going to

bind her power. Which they did feel like it was a little in humane. Yeah, it's awesome. You know, that wasn't a practice. They did. It was the old world practice. And it stuck her in foster care. So we fast forward 19 years. She's been in foster care. She's bounced around everywhere. I see her as this really shy, somewhat awkward, loner girl who's starting college. Insecure. Yeah, she's super insecure. She's got my favorite color hair, which is hot pink, kind of a candy pink. Super cool.

I get the sense that she's super attractive, but just doesn't know it. She's been bullied her whole life. There are a lot of subplot in this book, like a lot. And one of them is that she's bullied by somebody at her high school because she get a part in a play that the other girl wanted. So the other girl tormented her for years. And at some point, she's accused of burning down her high school. The school burns down. And this is when we realize it might be the same baby. It just might be the savior of all thing. That burned the forest from the womb. But she doesn't think she burned on the school. Like she's very confused and she doesn't think it was

her. Yeah. She doesn't know that she has. She doesn't know why she's an outcast. And she doesn't even know there are powers in the world. I think it's important to say she's at this very unique college. Right. Oh, she gets a scholarship. She gets her GED and then all of the sudden this social worker calls and there's a mysterious benefactor that has this trust set up for her that they claim is from her parent. That gives her a full-ride scholarship to this special school. But only if she goes to that school. Only if she goes to that school. And she wants to be a social worker. So she wants to help people like her. It feels like she's got a good heart. She's, she's just been bullied. She's been treated awful for years upon years. And now she's finally at this place she can make a new beginning.

And she's so excited. And she's walking around campus. She walks around the corner and lo and behold, there are three guys assaulting this girl. So she stands up for her. And they turn around and start lewdly talking to her, I would say. Taunting her. Just taunting her back and forth. And then she realizes they're sucking blood from this girl's neck. It's upsetting. I mean, it's a little odd that she doesn't haul ass in the other direction. Well, they basically pet that girl in the ass and say, like, be gone with you so that they can taunt her, but she's still super worried about this girl.

Have we said what our female main character's name is? Ophelia. Ophelia, yeah. They basically kidnap her and take her back to their place. Their house. Well, she realizes their vampires. And they take her down to the basement. you're pretty sure this is it for her. They're talking about making her the toy. They're going to do all these things to her. And she's kind of like, she's hot and bothered by it. She's not afraid. Turned on. Kind of weird too. She's a little turned on. She's a lot turned on. I mean. Which wouldn't be my reaction in this circumstance. No, I mean, it's different. Three hot vampires. Why would you be turned on? Yeah. So we have these three hot vampires, Axel, which I also love when Sadie Kincaid names.

all these alpha males. I love the name she picks. So we have Axel Malachi, of whom is also known as Kai, which is cute. And Xavier, all taunting her, all touchy-feely, talking about just nailing her to the wall and keeping her forever. Now she's their pet. And in walks the professor, Alexander. Daddy vamp. Also, he's kind of their sire, which we find out later. He's hot. He's He was my favorite. And he's pissed. He's mad that they're all in there with this girl and there's something about her. He's reading a weird energy.

And he's like, take her home. Drop her off and don't ever bite her. But watch her. And if he says not to do something, they have no choice but to obey. Well, and he makes them swear. Like, they have to take a note not to do it. And if they make a note, they break the oath, they die. Like, it's a really serious promise they make.

So they do. They babysit. But this is really hard for them because they obviously think she's super hot and they start giving her little nicknames. And they all have their own nickname for her, which is very common in these reverse harems. So Axel calls her pyro because she set the fire at the school. She's like, hey, how'd you know that? It's a rumor. Yeah.

It's a rumor. Savior calls her Cupcake. Hi, calls her. Princess. Is it Princess? Sweet thing. Sweet thing. Sweet thing.

And then the professor ends up eventually calling her little one, which I thought was a little creepy. Oh, no. I did not bother me at all. It bothered me a lot. I'm in. But I will say also, I listened to this book and it was multiple actors. So it wasn't just duet style. It was like three to four men and then the female actress. And I was not a fan of this audiobook. And I've listened to several Sadie Kincaid. You guys know I love her. I've listened to several Sadie Kincaid audiobooks. I've read several Sadie Kincaid books. Didn't love this audio. at all. And I think it was just the multiple actors. And specifically, the professor was really theatric. Yeah. It was off-putting. I started with the audio. And I struggled because, like you said, there were so many actors. Like, you went from Malachi who has an accent. I don't know what the accent is. He's Irish. Yeah, that's not what I got. That was. So he has an accent. And then Alexandros was very like, Brown, Stroker, Dracula. Very like, yes, but he was so theatrical.

Yeah. It was hard. I had to turn off the audio probably about a quarter of the way in and I was like, I can't. I'm picturing like these thugs in leather jackets, fonsie type guys because of the way they sounded on the audio. So once I turned it off and I used my own personal imagination, they were beautiful. And I actually. Way better. Yeah.

It was a slow burn for me. Like it just felt really drug out where I struggled. the most with this book because I guess I don't like a bully romance. These guys were so mean to her for the first 40% of the book. They made her cry. They followed her around and taunted her feel like shit and taunted her. But they were told to. Well, that doesn't make it more pleasant for her. I mean, vampire oath. That's where I got stuck because I was like, why is this fun and sexy? Well, Malachi tried to be nice to her and be friends. Until he was, I don't know. Until he wasn't.

I didn't like that part of it. And it really soured the book for me. The rest of it. Because when they decide they want to fuck her, then they start being nice. And I was like, wait a minute. You guys have been total dicks to her for like 40% of the book. And now you want to have sex with her. And you're going to be.

They wanted her from the get-go. They liked her from the get-go. They kind of had to build a wall. This was their wall building. I'm with you, Lynn. This was their wall building. It's no different than a, Eight-year-old boy pulling pig tail.

Agreed. I get it. I mean, I get what she was going for here, but I didn't love it. And that's not a typical Sadie's style of build. It's new. And I guess, too, I'm not a romanticcy person. This wasn't my, and I, listen, I was surprised that you were like, kind of like this because, and I get what you're saying about them being kind of mean to her and not being, like, instill love.

Once they did love her, it was like sickly sweet obsession. They did. And I figured you would like that because you liked the sickly sweet. They worshipped her. Like, there's the hearts where I'm like, felt too much. Walk away. So we'll go back. The boys start to follow her around.

We spend the next at least 10 chapters with them basically torturing her, like you said, done with rude comments, making her feel ostracized from everybody. And she does. Yeah. And if somebody tries to talk to her, they scare him away. Meanwhile, they're really kind of getting to know her. Malachi is he's the sweetest. He spends time with her in the library and talking to her and walking her to classes.

And Axel's mean, he's one of the meanest. But he like pops into her room and hangs out with her. Xavier's all over the place with her. They're all building a relationship with her. They're building relationships. Their own individual relationships. Despite the fact that they can all freaking hear each other talking the whole time in their head. Yeah.

Which I did like that. Kind of cool. I did too. But they're telling her she stinks. But they're telling her. that because that's how they've been told her at an arm's distance. That's what they have to do. During this, we hear about this old schoolmate, Penelope. Penelope. I just always want to call her Penelopee. She means. Because she tortured Ophelia and at some point spread rumors that she pissed herself on stage or something and it became a whole thing. And called her Ophelia. Opeelia. Penelope shows up to this college out of the blue. She has no gifts. She has no abilities. But she's at, this college and we don't know why. There are humans at the college. But it's odd that she showed up to the exact same one.

Yeah. So she shows up and she's hanging out with the werewolves. She's plotting against Ophelia. She's starting rumors about her again. She's making her more uncomfortable. So poor Ophelia is like crying her eyes out. Oddly enough, it storms and rains every time she cries. I mean, for shadowing there.

But one day she goes out to the woods to meet. up with this group. She feels like she's finally making friends. She gets there. And they, like, show up to kill her in the woods. Out of the blue pops up our three vampires to save her life. They were always there protecting her. They were inserting themselves in her life. You could see what they were doing. But for Porophilia, like she just kept sinking into herself because she was just tortured. Yeah. She was being treated like garbage by these. guys and really everyone. Yeah. And the guys get so upset because, you know, normally they could track a person and feel their emotions and stuff. They just bite them and move on and then they have that

connection. And they're not allowed to bite her. So they're literally spending their time following her, making sure she's okay, checking in on her. But they do decide once they figure out Penelope is kind of a bitch. They bite her and it's disgusting. They literally say take one for the team. And they And I think, who was it, Axel that bitter? Well, let's point out that they wanted to fuck her to piss off Ophelia because they liked making her upset and making her cry. They're cruel. Let's fuck her nemesis. And the alley, well, they get alone with her and they realize she's evil all over.

She's like biting a rotten apple. And they were like, ugh, we don't want to do this. So it was like a rock paper, scissors moment where it's like, okay, you do it. And then he did it just because once they bite them, they can track them. So he did do that because they knew she was up to something that would hurt Ophelia. Kai kept saying, don't sleep with her. It's going to upset Ophelia. And they're like, yeah, whatever, can't wait to make her cry again.

And I was like, you guys are assholes. Kye was like always very good to her, though. He was sweet. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, all right. Yeah, one out of three eight, I don't guess. May I also say

This female main character And this is really unusual In a Sadie Kincaid book too I didn't love her She didn't love her either Was really annoying Like she asked a lot of questions To the point where she annoyed the characters

In the book where they'd be like Oh God, how many questions can you ask? But I thought that it was endearing to them Like it became endearing Because she was very curious Well but she had nothing though But some of them are like, shut up. But I guess I had a hard time connecting with her.

I thought she was very immature. And I thought she was 18. She was irritating. Well, she's 19. She is immature. She's been bounced around. She has no real stability, no family. And she's curious.

I mean, she doesn't know anything. And yeah, it would be annoying. But it's a lot like a kindergartner asking 700 questions. Why? Why? Why? Yeah. I don't like other people's kindergartners either.

That's fair. Oh, gosh. Okay. I just didn't warm to her in a way that I was like rooting for it. I was kind of medium to, to be honest, I wanted to really love this book. And maybe I set it too high of expectations. Oh, I did for sure. The first to middle was really slow for me.

And like this sort of build up of their relationship just, I don't know, it took too long in my opinion. But she did become endearing to me. The further I went into the book, the build was very hard for me. I didn't. Well, in her relationship with. the professor, which I actually really liked that relationship. That's like the way. See, and I didn't understand it because, like, she was a little frightened of him.

He kept a guard up around her. And I liked his point of view because it was like, oh, I want her, but I can't go there. Yeah. You know, and but he never showed his hand. He never made her feel like he was attracted to her. He never made her feel good. But he's like a million years old. Well, that's the other thing, too.

Well, and he did have an idea that she was the prophecy. And so he was, was trying to stay away from. her and telling his boys to stay away from her but to protect her. So how did they build that? She thought he didn't like her and he, I mean, I guess it was angst on his part. I just, Sadie does this so well and this one just didn't land. Didn't hit the mark. Yeah.

I liked it. So, Alexandros is super interested in her. He wants her, but he can't have her, as we just discussed. And he's got like a whole subplot, too. Like he's got a pass. He's got some other issues going on. After the boys end up saving her life, all of the sudden they kind of come clean and they're like, we should all go back and screw.

And she's hot and she's down for it. So they head back. They start messing around. Does anyone feel like that happened too easy, though? She's in a park. Oh, it felt like it took forever. They murder her nemesis, Penelope, and the three other people she's with. She did.

She did deserve to die. I didn't hate the murder. But I am saying, Ophelia is a little shocked. right? She's like, wait, what the fuck just happened? And they're like, never mind, get in the car, honey. And they like squish her in the middle. And they're like, by the way, I know we've been treating you like total garbage and the scum of the earth for like this past few weeks. But we all really want to have sex with you. And then they start feeling her up. And she's like, okay. Sounds great. Let's go back to your place. I was fine with that. I don't know why you're so negative. You got to suspend some reality. Yes. Lady, come on.

Let me feel it on both sides. Oh, then we're into it now, finally. She was excited. She's processing a murder and they're like, and then her bullies. That's the thing. She's not afraid during any of this. And they're like, oh, that's true. There's something about her.

We're all drawn to her. But we're in the car. And they give her an orgasm. And it causes an earthquake. Yes, the ground shakes. You're starting to realize, like, that her emotions. are tied to the elements. During their romping, they figure out that she's a virgin. Let it go. She's a virgin. And they're fine with that. Axel goes down on her. He fingered her and broke her Hyman. And he gets a tinge of blood. And then like this surge goes through all of them. The next thing you know, the professors at the door.

Daddy Vam. Not happy. Get the hell out of here. Take her home. I told you not to bite her. What did you? do. He's pissed. He basically walk her home and get your ass back there. And cut all ties with her. So here they are. They gave her the best orgasm she's ever had in her life because she'd only had none. Big zero. But, you know, now she's had this great orgasm. The ground shook literally. I mean, we hear about it. This is a real thing. And they've been so mean to her and now they're being nice to her. So she's on a bit of a high herself. She's had her clothes off

with them. They're all intimate. And then all of a sudden they're dropping her off going, get out of here, bitch. We're done. Thanks. It was a prank. We don't want to be around you. Awful. And now more pages of being mean to her. Yeah. This poor girl. I know. It's a roller coaster.

It's a roller coaster for her. So the next day, Axel's sick as a dog. Can't move. They find out that the reason is because Ophelia has special blood. Dun, dun, dun. She's an elementi. She's an elementi. Who knew?

Prophecy. We all knew. We all knew. Everybody knew. So. But Daddy Vamp didn't tell them, stay away from her and don't bite her. because she'll kill you. He just, he kind of just like left this.

Or you'll be bound to her forever. Apple, you know, like this like savory treat and said don't touch. So, I mean, what if they hated her? I mean, I guess you can't hate her after you bite her. But what if you hated her and you're like, well, that was the other thing that was really annoying. She was annoying. That was the thing that was annoying. Like, you didn't really know if they loved her.

Well, she even wondered that sometimes like, I think you just like me because I taste. Because I taste good. Like I cup. What did she say I'm vampire catnip? Catnip. Yeah. Well, I mean, she was. Once they figure out that Axel needs her blood one more time.

To heal him. To survive. They allow it. And then they're all like, well, I want some. Well, we want some. I want some. So he's like, okay, everybody join in. And she's like, okay, that's fine.

Yeah, she's totally fine with it. She was a virgin who had been bullied and treated like shit by these guys. But now she's basically having a threesome. But like, this isn't our first time to go from. I had one boyfriend. to four in one of these books and be fine with him. This is like a Sadie Kincaid special. For sure.

Yeah. She's crazy powerful. They all get the high from her. Alexandra's is really trying to fight off the wants because he definitely wants it. Meanwhile, he's looking into her benefactor. He's trying to figure out what's going on. He's summoning his brother, which was also a weird voice. I have to call it on this one.

Sadie, I've never heard of a teleporting vampire. Oh, I have. He just shows up in the library. Yeah. Well, not everybody has that power, but this. This guy did. This guy did. The brother.

Which was convenient because I think he lived kind of far away. Yeah. Like at the top of a mountain in Transylvania or something. He takes the red eye and meets his brother at the library. At the library. They have this fancy shelter library at the school. So we find out she's got this elementi power. She's been able to control air, earth, the ground moves.

When she has an orgasm. When she cries, it rains. And of course, she blamed up. the high school. Well, then you kind of start getting into Alexandra's background and his connection to the Elementi. I felt like you didn't get enough to put all the pieces together. And I know that you've gone through the whole series already. I have that the whole series. So you know, give me more of that. I want to know who he was bound to. I want to know what happened

there. We do know he was married to an Elementi. He was bound. Because the Elementi, they are the only ones that can birth vampire babies versus turn vampires. There aren't any left. They're all extinct because we'll find out why. So that's why it's really special that Ophelia's here because they didn't think there would ever be another one. But they killed them all off down to her parents and she was the only survivor. So Ophelia is like having sex night and day in the library, everywhere. All of a sudden. And now she too. is connected mentally to these guys. Which I love.

The whole part of that I love. It's like a group chat, but like in your brain. I want that. Yeah. But like she doesn't know how to turn it off. And they do. And I think that is totally unfair. They can shut her out.

Yeah. But she can't shut them out, which is rough. Well, you just wait. Like when she's in the library and two of the guys are getting it on back at the frat house and they're like, oh, we feel like you're hot and bothered too. Here, we'll send Xavier over to the library. And they can feel each other's. emotions. But Donny Vamp can turn off all of his emotions. He can build a brick wall between

himself and the other three. But he's struggling with shutting her out. My favorite part in this book, other than the Popsicle tampons. Oh, God. Would have to be the auditorium where he's trying to teach. And they end up basically fingering her in the back of the classroom while everyone is. Basically, like they are. They spread her open and they all. they all put one of it. But Daddy Vamp is like smelling it and he can feel their emotions and he is losing it. And he's teaching the class and he is losing his mind. He's got a raging heart on it.

It was great. I was down for it. I thought it was funny. Then he basically dismisses all of his boys and says, get out of here. Takes her down to the secret room's office. And this is kind of where we end the book, right? When he takes her and I'm on a cliffhanger. Well, we should say while they're having sex, she sets his office on fire.

That was my favorite part. But she puts it out. This was like the last kind of thing to unlock her. And where he really then believed she is who he's been suspecting. That sex scene on the desk in the professor's office was so good. It was not. That whole thing was thought. It was good.

Yeah. His relationship with her is my favorite of the four. Are we foreshadowing baby daddy? Is that what's going to have in here? Like, she's going to have this offspring. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.

I wouldn't spoil that because there's two more books after this. Let's talk about some of the subplots because there's a ton of subplots here. There's the trials. Oh, yeah, vamp trials. Basic hunger games for the vampires to get in. There's like three vampire houses and they all compete for the best students that then they eventually turn. Which was giving a little Harry Potter, right? Like you're doing.

Yeah. And there's competing house. And then there's the witch house and the warehouse house. But like half the student body is humans. And like half are supernatural. Yeah. Is what they are. With the trials, basically these are students that want to be vampires.

It's almost like rush. Oh yeah. It's totally rush. Hazing. The trial's like a final obstacle course or whatever. And if you win or if you get to the end, you get turned into a vampire. a vampire. They said they turned them into vampires so that they can be hired by the mafia to be hitmen. So I was like, and there we go. There it is. There we go. Sadie, we couldn't get

out of here without mentioning the mafia. It was a very quick mention about like basically they turn into vampires and then like the son, the dad, the king dad takes, you know, the head of the family will take like the best of the best. And the brother employs some of them. And then, yeah, that they like hire them out to the mafia. But it was a very fleeting mention of sort of like what becomes of these vampires. I was like, why? I don't think we needed that.

Like it just sort of. But it's Sadie. You have to, you have to talk about it. It's Sadie, there's got to be a mafia. You have to. Then you've got Penelope, the bully who came out of nowhere. And then died by. Who was crazy.

It's the high school play issue. That was a little soft for. Well, There needed to be angst, I guess. And then she tasted really bad. So that sort of foreshadowed are there darker powers at work? So they start peppering against what's going to happen next and that people are after Ophelia. Yeah, I just thought her backstory was a little weird for me.

It was shallow because the hatred, I didn't think, warranted her treatment. From her not getting the part in a play. That she ultimately tried to murder Ophelia. And it was like, because of the play? What? Play in a high school? But, like, 18-year-old psycho girls are psycho. That's true.

What it was like to be around 18-year-old murder? Over a play when you're in college now? Have you watched the news? Over the smallest things. Girls are mean, especially at that age. I believe the meanness. Yeah, I felt it was Finn. I'm with you.

I thought because she tasted bad, there would be a bigger reason why she was trying to her. Well, there's two more books. Oh. Now, that makes me happy. Because when he was about to murder her, he was like, tell me why. And it was like, Daddy took my credit card away because of something Ophelia did. And he liked her better and was gross. It just felt like, really, that's how we're going to end this storyline?

It's very bizarre. Okay, so Ophelia learning that she has powers and someone bound them. That's side plot there. Alexandros is past love. The relationship between the boys, all the boys are all sleeping together too. We have to say that. This is a full body thing. There is sword crossing.

Yes, there are sword crossing. I do always like the way Sadie Kincaid writes it when there is sword crossing. You can always feel the love between the people that she writes about. She writes those sex scenes very well. You're definitely in the relationship and you're feeling what they're feeling. The guardians and the loss promising. We've got the mysterious benefactor who paid for her to go to. to this specific school.

And then you also have, which was kind of a weird thing, is Alexandros and his brother and his father and those relationships because those are also kind of just sitting on this. Yep. Those come to play later. And his father is very powerful. Well, he's like the head of the most powerful vampire house, the Draco house. Right. And so the dad's kind of the king, like the head of the family.

It's kind of where the mob part, the mafia part was then he's the head of the family. Yeah. And then you've got the two brothers. Alexandros is the younger brother, but he's the next in line to the throne, essentially. Older brother who can teleport, supposedly, is fine with that. Drama ensues in books two and three. But I will say that this was my least favorite of the three. I think maybe just because there was just so much build of the world building and the meanness.

I went into book. to and I d-n-fed it. Wow. I'm honestly 50% through and just could not do it anymore. The third book's the best because it closes everything out. I think they could have done this three-parter and two. I might pick it up again. I don't like the female main character and having a really hard time wanting to read about her. You don't finish if you want to I finished it and I read them very quickly. It's an easy read, but there is some stuff to get over. It's slow in parts. He drags out in parts. Then there's some grid scenes like that kind of keep you engaged. I expected more from Sadie Kincaid. But this is the first time she'd kind of gone into this fantasy genre. So give her some grace. I think that's so funny because I had a different reaction to it. It read like year one. It has that

fantasy. It has that. So you had to get through that release low piece of it to build into those characters. But you don't like the characters. And I don't know if it's because you just don't like the characters or because you started out with the Audible? Because I really struggled with the Audible. I don't like the female character. So that's the hard part because you have to have a really good strong female main character if you're going to convince me that the reverse harems going to work, right? Like that they're all going to be obsessed with her and she is someone they can't keep their

hands off of. She's got to be really amazing. And I did not love this one. I don't hate her. I see her as a 19-year-old. I thought she was endearing after a while. Yeah, I think you just had to get used to her. Like, she was curious the whole time and it can be annoying.

Yes, there were parts where I'm like, okay, I get it. You're wearing a short skirt and boots. Me too. Move on. Ceddy's characters are usually witty and smart and snarky and the banter is good. That's where I was getting stuck because I'm like, I want some witty banter. I want a female woman character that impresses me. That's a badass stuff like is doing.

things that I'm like, yeah, and this one was just... Well, maybe she's growing into it. She's young. I didn't like Harry Potter until the end. I couldn't read Harry Potter at all. Thought he was a whining, sniveling little dude that had to imagine. I couldn't get through that one either. She's definitely young and finding herself.

And I think what redeemed it for me is, like, I could see the 18-year-old insecure girl. It felt real. And she gets stronger throughout the series. I actually rated it four stars because I really liked it and I will finish the trilogy because I like that fantasy. But I only gave it a three on the spice. Even though the ones that were spicy were super hot and spicy, it took so long to get there.

It did take a long time. I didn't exactly like the foreplay conversation for some of the guys where they start like, because they were ugly and they were mean. And they're like, oh, yeah, we're going to fuck you. It wasn't sexy talk. It was more like, you're an object and not in a good way. And so I didn't really like that, but like the auditorium scene, the desk scene. I mean, there were some hot moments.

There were some hot scenes. Four stars for me, three chili peppers. And yes, I am finishing the series. For this book, just reading this book, I gave it a three. It was slow at parts, but I think the sex was there. And the story, if you like fantasy, made sense. I struggled with her at the beginning, but she became endearing over time. And I did want to see what happened next.

It intrigued me enough to want to continue the series. But on the sex, I'm going three and a half-ish because same. The sex scenes that I liked were hot. The stringing them together was really difficult for me. But, man, the death scene with Alexandros was chef's kiss. Yeah. It was beautiful. That was very good.

We ended with a bang. I gave it two and half. I couldn't get on board with this female man character, and I'm not a bully romance person. I did not like the way they treated her. I had a hard time with the relationship building. It isn't a book I would have picked up if I'd known they're going to treat her like shit for 40% of the book. That's not my trope. They're super obsessed with her for the rest of the series.

No, I got that. I got that at the end. Whether they want to be or not. But they convinced her in five minutes. They didn't grovel enough. If you're going to do this to me, you like that. Give me an epic gravel like we did in a perfect fit because they earned her back. These guys didn't earn her. They're in the car and they're like, oh, by the way, we want to fuck you. And she's like, oh. No problem. That sounds like a great idea.

They made the ground shake, Jeff. That's a pretty big apology. I'm just saying. They made the ground shake. They didn't do anything. Because of them. I mean, she wasn't just standing there and went, Groundshake. No, there was some effort. I needed more. I needed her to be like, fuck you. And them to be like, please. And then her to say, okay. Like, I needed that. Fair, fair. That was missing for me. It's your journey. But I will say for spice, I would give it three and a half. I thought the scenes we got were really, really hot and Sadie. Look, she can write a sex scene. Yeah. Yeah. She knows what she's doing there. She's still one of my favorites. Same.

Same. Oh, same. I'm going to read the entire Manhattan Ruthless series. I mean, they're coming out and tandem with these. I'm gobbling those up. But this one just wasn't my thing. That's not what you wanted. That's okay.

That's okay. And like the only other vampire romance I've read is Twilight. And how do you even compare? I mean, like, that was literature, you know? They were also mean to her just so that we are clear. Edward wasn't. Yes, he was. In the beginning he was.

But only at the very, very beginning. And more just because you could see his fight. Like he was obsessed with her blood. Like it smelled so good. And he was like trying to keep his distance. He was rude. Yes. He wasn't taunting her and treating her like shit, making her cry.

Jacob like was totally in love with her. Yeah, Jacob was in love with her. But he was a dog. There's a wolf. That's also a dog. That's where they come from. It's a dog. It's a wolf.

All right, Jenny. Wrap us up. All right. Even on a bad day, a day with a Sadie Kincaid book is a good day. So I'm really glad we jumped into something new and tried this together. I'm excited to hear what you guys think of the other two books. Lindsay, love them. Kim, I'm excited to hear what you think.

I may pick it up again and see where we go with it. If you haven't already, please be sure to check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. And until we see you next week, happy reading. Happy reading. Thanks for tuning in. We hope 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. You can find more tantalizing episodes at boozybookgasms.com.

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