Boozy Bookgasms - Hat Tricks and Big...

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Love on Ice by Ja Low Join the cousins for this heartfelt love story, where fake dating leads to real feelings and hockey meets heart. Not a hockey fan? Doesn't matter, most of the action takes place between the sheets not on the ice. Grab your "Hat Trick" cocktail and settle in for a fun, flirty discussion of Love on Ice and all the sparks that fly both on and off the rink!   Signature Cocktail: The Hat Trick This drink inspiration comes from the game itself. The idea of a "Hat Trick" in hockey is where a player scores three goals in one game. Although our characters "scored" way more than three times I think this one will be a winner for you too.  Ingredients: 2 oz Vodka  1 oz cranberry juice 1 oz lime juice  ½ oz orange liqueur  Splash of club soda Ice red sugar for glass rim Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, vodka, orange liqueur, lime juice, and cranberry juice. Shake well until the shaker is thoroughly chilled (about 15-20 seconds). Prepare your highball glass by dipping the rim in water then placing the rim in red sugar. Strain the cocktail into your beautifully rimmed glass and add a splash of soda to give it some fizz.

There are zero pornographic-looking men hanging out in Yellowstone. It's a lie. None of those TikToks are real. Lots of them. It's not real. You get on Park Talk and you're welcome. Park Talk. You just lost 30 minutes a day for the next.

Buckle of 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. Hey, Clititure fans. Welcome back to Boosy Bookgasms. I'm Kim.

I'm Jen. And I'm Lynn. Today, we were reviewing Love on Ice by J.A. Low. But before we do that, let's get a little pucked up. Oh, hey. Yeah, our signature cocktail for today is the hat trick. If you don't know what a hat trick is, we're going to take our resident hockey expert. Jen, help us out here.

So a hat trick is when a hockey player scores three goals in one game, and oftentimes the fans will throw their hats on the ice to celebrate. Nice. But we're not throwing our hats, and our characters definitely scored way more than three times in this book. So I think this is a winner. We've got some vodka, some cranberry juice, a little bit of lime juice, some orange liqueur, and a splash of club soda. And just to be super fancy, I have rimmed the glass with red sugar. So meet it quite tasty. A few of my favorite ingredients here.

Sexy. Okay, so let's jump right in. We open this book with Felix Pierre. I think he's around 27. Would you guys agree? Yes. Wait 20s. Because there's seven years apart and she's 34.

30s. Okay. So he's about 27. He's a super talented Canadian hockey player. It's just finished his last game in California. he's leaving the team. He wants to head back to New York where it's cold. He misses the cold weather.

He's got some family there. And he's about to join the New York Mavericks. So Felix goes out and he's looking for his girlfriend, Cynthia, right after his final game, prior to giving his final farewell speech to all of his teammates. And he walks around the corner and he overhears a conversation with his best friend, Stephen, and Cynthia talking about how much in love they are. They've dated for years. Total scumbag.

They were high school sweethearts that found each other again when she started dating his friend on the hockey team. And then love at first sight. That's called a second chance romance. Yeah. She starts cheating on our boy Felix. Not cool. For years, though. Basically the whole time he's been on this team.

Gross. Bad Cynthia. So. Bad Stephen. Well, bad Cynthia and Stephen. Agreed. But he thought's his teammate, man. They're like best buddies played together.

spend so much time together and he's like out canoodling with the girl. Cynthia's pretty gross and we find out how gross she is later in the book. Felix is pissed. He goes out, gives his last farewell speech to the team and basically outs Stephen and Cynthia to the entire team, which I was like, it was for you. Mike dropped. This is like literally page four. Yeah, we get right into the drama. Pets of drama. He moves to New York and basically tail spins. He's depressed. He's sad. He's up to all the wrong things for all the right reasons. Well, all the right things.

Wrong reasons. Wrong things. Maybe. I don't know. He can spin it either way. He's getting like blow drops in club bathrooms and like sleeping with anybody who walks by. I mean, let the guy have some fun. Well, if it's not

on film or the newspaper. Right. Because he is a professional hockey player. So this isn't looking so good for the new team who he has, barely has a relationship with. They are a little worried. He's like a Dennis Rodman. He's like living with his publicist. Well, she's babysitting him, giving him a place to stay. During off season. He's in like this tailspin and his agent, publicist, manager, whatever you want to call her, Izzy, who is a vital character in this book as well, because let's be honest, she's the one who lit the match. She gives him a vacation, a week-long vacation to an island called Paradise Island. And we will get into Paradise Island in just a moment. I have so many comments about this place. But she doesn't really tell.

Tell him what he's getting himself into. She's like, you need a vacation with no paparazzi. Go to this island. Have a good time. You'll love it. Now we're going to go to our main female character, cross town, New York. She is Harper Rose. She's 34, super successful PR mogul, a billionaire heiress.

I mean, she's got money coming out of her ears. She's gorgeous. And she is very used to being in the public eye. She's dating another scumbag, Josh, who I believe is in the final. finance world. Yeah, he's a finance bro. And one night, he basically tells her he can't come home. He's working late. Wow, wow, wah. And she does what all good girlfriends do and decide she's going to surprise him at the office. Note to all women out there, don't do this. Or do. Or do. She was like, come home, I'm horny. And he's like, you always are. I'll take care you later. Totally blows her off.

He's not nice to her. He's a jerk. So she, she packs his dinner. She gets ready. She goes up to the office. And sure up he is working. No. He is working his assistant over the desk. Intern. Oh, I thought she was the assistant. She was an intern. But she'd been there for like a year or more. This had been an ongoing affair. Yeah. Gross. Okay. So, and then we look at Harper. She's this haughty. She's super successful. But she has kind of a history of losing her ex-boyfriends who always cheat on her. She's a bad man picker. Yeah. And they always like blame it on her.

You're too successful. You're too rich. You're too much sex. You masculate me. It's never her fault. So they're all gone back. So anyway, she goes out with her friends and they all decide the best way to get over a guy is obviously to get under a new one.

This works every time. So she says, I'm going to go out to Paradise Island. So let's talk about the island. Paradise Island. Beautiful island. Love the scenery. Well, basically sex workers. And, and.

I thought so too. I'm like, it's a little iffy. Are they paid to have sex with people or are they paid to work and as an extra benefit? They can partake. They partake in sexual play. I'm going to go with the former. But they also bring you breakfast and clean the room. Well, that's the job part.

That's not the fun part. That's the Butler part. Yeah. The whole island's an orgy. But there's. there's also the interesting perk that your butler or your bungalow host your bungalow host will also have sex with you service you or set up other sex for you you have a menu it's on call you can order whatever sex you want you want a threesome sure why not i mean it is everything i have no idea what this

cost this price tag i'm guessing 50 000 experience i don't know to keep it a secret private do these places exist? Yes, they do. Club members. Yes, they do. It's no different than a sex club. It's the same thing. Private entrance. You have to be a member. You have to be invited in. Background checked, like the whole thing. Oh, yeah. Health check, bath, everything. SDD checked. What intrigued me the most about this island, and I really want to talk about, is the bracelet system. I thought this was great. I'm so hilarious. I mean, it's genius. However, if you can't keep up with the color coding, you have no idea what you're getting into. I guess it's a part of the life. You got to study this shit on the boat right on the way over.

Oh, you got to study. There's a lot of colors. So each color represents a kink of a fetish, a style, what you're open to, what you're open to, what you're interested in, threesome, a guy on girl, if you just like to watch. I mean, there are so many colors. I'm just envisioning, like, the 1980s where you had those little rubber bands going across your arm up to your elbow. And what if you're into everything?

Can you get, like, just a rainbow? There were people who had all the bracelet. There's a lot. They have to take a boat to get to this island. And Felix sees this knocked dead, gorgeous woman, starts flirting a little bit. It's Harper, obviously. And they realize they actually know each other. Harper's best friend is Izzy, the agent, manager, et cetera, small world.

And Felix's brother used to, which we find out later, date Izzy and he went to school with Harper. Yeah, so they don't know-know each other, but their worlds have been, like, orbiting each other. But this is our first romantic side plot of other people that we get. Of, like, 12. Yeah, there's a lot of friends. It's a little sex in the city with the whole New York vibe and stuff. Yeah, I see that. There's a little sex in the city.

And then sex on the island. And then sex on the island. And that was my favorite part. It was pretty good. I too. It was so hot. So they get on this boat. They start talking a lot.

And Harper kind of gets the vibe that Felix has no fucking idea what he is in for. No idea. And she's like, Izzy didn't tell you anything. Oh, my God. We're going to have to be friends. I'm going to help you. So she has taken it upon herself to be his guide. His mentor.

In this lovely week of Tabatry. I think we should say there's a seven-year age difference. And she realizes that right away because she was the older brother and went to school with him. And hates him. She feels a little like a mentor. in this moment. She gets that he's hot, but I don't think she's like, oh, we're going to definitely screw. She's like, I'm going to help you.

I'm going to tell you what you have available to you. And she's like, Izzy would kill me. I would never. But I'm going to admire the view. He's beautiful and he's lovely to look at. So they decide to have dinner together. She gets off the boat, goes back to her bungalow with her host, who also sounds very hot. Agreed.

And orders lots of sex from the host. From the host. He services her like immediately. Anything you want. He goes back to his. Hers was named Dom and his was named Sunny. They arranged to be neighbors too. Yeah.

Oh, right. She made sure that they could be neighbors just in case he needed anything, which he did. He did. Lots of things. They meet up for dinner. He's still very much attracted to her. But overwhelmed by the whole situation, I think. He is overwhelmed, but he's not against it.

No. He's in. He's excited. about it. People are walking around naked. She's been going to these sex clubs for years, partially owns the island with her brother, and he's like, this place exists. And so while he is totally a kid in a candy store, he's also kind of overwhelmed. He doesn't even know what all the things are. He's a baby. It's a weird thing to just pick up a menu on an iPad and go, I would like all of these kinks, please. Also, if you could follow it up by bacon and eggs, that would also be wonderful.

Yeah. When you're done, could you clean up here and bring me some? To the pool. That is weird. It's weird. It's weird. It's a little overwhelming. So they go to dinner and all he can think about is her. And he says, let's go to the beach after or let's hang out. She says no. She declined. She goes back to her room. He goes to the beach. He's thinking about her and decides he is going to adapt to the island and starts having a good time with himself. With her in mind. With her in mind, of course. And then she appears out of nowhere like a goddess right in front of him. They have a whole conversation about how he was thinking about her. And she's like, oh, okay, well, we can't do this. And he says, what, you know, what happens on the island, stays on the island. She drops to her knees, helps him out a little bit. Then she gets up and walks away and goes, oh, see you tomorrow at breakfast. She's very sexually liberated.

She really is. Yeah, she knows how to do this. She's like, I am just here to have sex. I am not here to fall in love. Certainly not with you, Felix, St. Pierre. I'm here to just show you a good time. And she does. But with him and others.

And they have a whole conversation about we can hang out on the island. We can have lots of fun together. You can't get jealous. I'm not going to get jealous. This is basically fantasy island. Yeah. It is exactly like that. But we can't tell Izzy anything because at one point she calls Izzy and Izzy says, don't

mess with him. He's my client. He's also like a kid brother to me. And she's like, oh, I would never. Meanwhile, she's giving him head on the beach and doing several other things. But it's meant to end. They've agreed once the boat arrives, the fantasy's over. They continue to be friends.

And they spend a lot of time together, fulfilling all the fantasies. And becoming really good friends. Yeah. And it's starting to fall for each other. Or he's definitely falling for her. Oh, yeah. He falls first. I think she was starting to fall pretty early in the game too.

I think she was starting to, but I think she always in the back of her head said, like, he's seven years younger than me. I'm too old. Izzy's friends. So there were all these blockers. That was a sticking point for her. Yeah. They even joke about her not being a cougar because she's not old enough, but she's a Puma. Puma. I laughed out. I was like, is that a thing? I did look it up. Yes, it is. It's a thing. Yeah. Basically, they have an amazing week doing anything and everything. They have threesomes. The lake threesome with the other girl. Well, and they had the one with the Dom. Yeah, the waterfalls. Oh, yeah. The host where he jumps in. He originally just. starts watching and then he's like, oh, I'm in too. Okay. She set up the fantasy with his host with a bunch of women. Lots of fun. But now it's time to go. It's time to leave the island. We're just going to be friends. It'll be fine. She says that. He's a little sad about it. Maybe we could just be friends

with benefits. Slippery slope. Nope. She's trying to cut him off. I don't want to forget this part. While they're on the island, Felix gets this text from his ex, Cynthia. Oh, yeah. He wants his house, His beautiful home that he purchased in California. She wants it. And if she doesn't get it, she's going to trash talk him across all tabloids. To the medium. And just ruin his career. So Harper jumps in kind of like Jen, you said she's like a engine angel.

She's a PR agent. Well, you're my friend now. So I'm going to protect you. I'm going to call my PI guy. We're going to do A, B, C, D. Like she got on it. She made the phone calls and she made sure to protect him. assets, which I thought was pretty hot. She's, she is a boss. Boss, babe. She's large and in charge.

Even though she's like a billionaire heiress, she doesn't have to work. She wants to. She does. She's incredibly successful. And it sounds like that's all she does is work. She micromanages quite a bit. We find that out too that in this relationship that keeps building with feeling she starts to pull back a little bit and enjoy her life more. And her friends are really proud of her. So she handles it. Her PI starts digging. And, Lo and behold, Cynthia is not only sleeping with Stephen. She's sleeping with several members of the hockey team, as well as swinging with some married couples and some other people. Who were on the hockey team.

So Stephen was cheating on his best friend, but the girlfriend is going to another hockey player's house who's married and they're doing swinger parties once a month every Thursday for girls' night. And Stephen doesn't know. So not only is she cheating on Felix. She's cheating on Steven. She's a ho. Oh. All of these friends, these teammates are all like cheating on each other. I'm glad he got out of there.

Same. With friends like those, you know. Felix jumps on Harper's private jet to get back to New York. They get back to her apartment. She gets out and they walk up the steps and lo and behold, scumbagg, Josh shows up. This is the ex-boyfriend that was doing the intern. Josh shows up. He is telling her, he's glad she had her little fling.

It's over now. They should be together because they're this society couple. Power couple. And his parents are huge donors to her parents, non-profit organization. It's just gross. It ends with Josh flat on his ass on the sidewalk. Felix came to her protection. Of course he did. So now they're protecting each other. And Josh gets up and basically says, you're going to regret this. She gets a little shaken. Also, Felix is his favorite hockey player. Felix is his favorite hockey player. Yeah, I forgot about that. Oh, you had to pick my favorite hockey player. It's back of me, bur.

And she's like, you have a favorite hockey player. She is shaken up. Felix kisses her on the forehead, says good night to her. The next day, all hell breaks loose with social media. There are pictures of them getting off the plane together. There are pictures of him kissing her on the forehead. There's all this stuff going around that they are now together. It's everything from, yay, this couple's great, to she's a whore.

It's too soon. to I can't believe he's doing this. So between Felix and all of her friends, they decide that they should stick with this fake relationship for Harper's protection. Right. Against Josh, who's threatened to release photos. I'm back to get her and they're not going to ever break off. She's kind of scared. She takes it to an extreme. I don't need anybody's help. I can protect myself. She really is kind of obstinate about accepting anyone's help for a good few chapters. He kind of has to force it. Fake dating trope. I love it. I do too. It's one of my favorites. It never ends with them going, okay, so we're friends now. Hi-five. They always end up together.

They should. Always. She fought it longer than she should have, though. And I was like, she did. But again, she's a 34-year-old, successful, rich woman. Like you said, she's a boss babe. And she also feels like she's way too old for him. I disagree. Oh, she was only 34. And he's in his late 20s. Our age, that doesn't sound so bad. There's even a part in here, which I honestly, thought they were going to wrap up at some point. She's talking about freezing her eggs and getting pregnant and with her mom going, oh, you're not so young anymore.

So a lot of that played into it too. I didn't think about that being a plot hole. They didn't wrap that up. But her age is very much on her mind. And the fact that she can't find a guy that she likes enough to marry. So what's she going to do with her life? Finally, she gives in. And Felix moves in.

They are now girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, in public only right now. For now. They have a lot of events to go to. We're still in offseason. At some point, this scale tips a little bit, right? Because you can only be in that close proximity. She's super attracted to him. And he's vice versa.

Obviously with her, he's really falling for her. She's still very much resisting. I felt like this could have been two chapters shorter. Easily. The angst. Come on. You've already slept together. You each think each other's hot.

Go with it for the summer. extend fantasy island through the off season. So they do, like you said, they decide, yes, we can be friends with benefits. We will pretend to be girlfriend, boyfriend, through the summer. We will have lots of fun, do all the things. We will go to all the events. Of the weddings. Two weddings and a gala.

So they did all the things. They ended up in Paris. I mean, Oda be so bougie. I know. Private jetting everywhere. This was fun to read about. What I loved about this as they're flying around and doing all these things is Felix is, again, like a kid.

Yeah. Which reiterates her issues with him being so young is he's looking at Paris going, ooh. But she's also way wealthier. I mean, he's got money. He can fly around. Yeah. He's got money. Multi-million dollars a year.

I mean, it ain't jump change. But Paris, he doesn't travel a ton. He'd never been. Private Jet was like huge eyes. He's not used to that. Everything she was introducing to him, the wealthy part of her life. He was so cute about it, but was a lot. not accustomed to that lifestyle. But I don't even know that it was the wealthy part as much as it was the

experience. He was young. Yeah. If he had been a little bit older, making the 20 million a year or whatever, I think he would eventually get there at 34. And if you think about he's a professional hockey player, probably spends a lot of time playing hockey, not to get to that level. Yeah. He's working out. So they continue. All of her friends love him. Her parents love him. He gets up every morning and runs with her brother. Through Central Park. Yeah, through Central Park. That was so cute. It is cute. The brother had a man crush. Totally. He's so dead. He was so cute. And her and her brother were really close, which I loved. They did the business together. They were very protective of her. The parents were in still love before they ever met him. The dad is actually on the board of the Mavericks team. So they knew him. And they kind of knew his shenanigans that were going on. So it was nice for them to kind of embrace him and the whole family and the whole family. And the. and the friends and everybody likes him now. They go to the Axel and Olivia wedding and they're having a great time and there's just love

in the year. It's Paris, right? She's got her own apartment with the perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. Oh, right. She owns her own. She buys him a fancy smancy watch for like, what was it, 50 grand. $50,000. Oh, it was amazing.

And he's like, oh, this is really high. She's like, no, but I love giving gifts. If I could only have a gift to give her like that. Just take it. So the final trip that. they're going to take is his brother's wedding. This wedding? Yeah, the huge one.

In Italy, of course. His brother's name, which I also did not like, was Pierre St. Pierre. Yeah, that's interesting. We really didn't like that. And he was kind of dushy. He was duchy, but he is also a famous hockey player. Seven years older. And he is the main character in the next book.

Oh, is he in book, too? Him and Izzy. Okay. So we know that Harper hates Pierre. Well, and she thinks Pierre hates her. Well, he does. He did Izzy dirty. They talked about that early. They go into why they hate each other. The brother figures it out. But she even says to Felix, I really don't want to go to your brother's wedding. We don't like each other. And I don't want to impede his wedding. And Felix is like, I want you there. And I've talked to him and he's fine. She helped catch Pierre cheating on Izzy and got them to break up. Back when they were younger in college. Yeah. There's a lot of heartbreak there. Neither one of them seems to be over it. But now we're at Pierre's wedding to Kitty. Oh, Kitty, Bridie. Bridezilla. who is a influencer.

I just kept picturing kind of a clueless look to her. Dingy. Very TikTok. They're all over Instagram and all the places with their image. And that's been driving Izzy crazy because she's got to see him living this very public romance. She blocked him on everything. And so now he's even more upset. He blew in for Izzy's dad's funeral.

Yeah, which was very hard. And that made it even harder for him. And he started questioning this new relationship with Kitty. Why am I with this this vapid woman? At some point, Pierre and Harper are kind of going out of a little bit. And she's like, look, I forgive you. Get over it. Let's move on.

And they hear something in the wood. Well, this is kind of weird how Pierre takes her outside and into the garden. And they're not even friends, but he purposely pulls her. I also thought that was a bit strange that I'm going to take my brother's girlfriend, that I don't like, that is my ex's best friend, out to the woods somewhere to chat. Before they catch Kitty, he was saying to her, I am not so sure about this wedding. I don't know what I've done. How's Izzy?

I want to talk about Izzy. So I think he pulled her away from the crowd because he wanted to talk about Izzy. And he didn't want anybody to hear. I didn't think they were in the woods, but they were definitely in like a garden. Far away from the house. At some point in the conversation, they hear something. And he turns to her and he says, turn on your camera and record this, which I also find very strange. They thought they heard Kitty.

And then they were like, who's she talking to? And then they get closer and closer. And turns out she's getting banged over like a balcony railing by the hockey team that Pierre plays for is owner. Yeah. Who's old. Yeah. He's like in his 60s, right? He was in a 60s.

And she was in her 20s. And he's married with Chish. children. Yeah. And he's a billionaire. Sure. And then they start putting things together. And Harper again jumps in to PR mode. Save the day. Saves the day. Ushers everybody back to the house, which they find out later. Kitty's been cheating in for months with this old guy. It's the owner's villa. And they have an SOS for all of Felix's family to get together. And they make a plan. Mom, two sisters, the brother she's dating. Yep, everybody's there.

None of them liked Kitty, so this happened real nice and easy. Two of them stay, the mother and the sisters. Yeah, because she's like, we can leave right now. And so he's like, I want to leave. Like, I don't want to be married. And the mom and sisters are like, we can't wait to tell Kitty, we're staying. We're staying. And then we're just going to tour Italy.

I got to see the look on her face. We're going to go on your honeymoon for you. Totally. Harper goes back with Pierre and Felix. They fly back to New York. York, Harper drops him off at Izzy's apartment and says, Izzy, deal with this because he's hiding out. Take him. And no one will expect him to be here. So here you go. Also, you're going to have to go get his dog. Sounded like a cute dog. She was not happy with us. No. I'm not sure why he didn't just end up at Harper's place. But I guess because

the brother was living there. He was already there. This seat's taken. Yeah, it was a lot. It was a lot happening in a little time. Harper gets that same PI, the good guy, starts digging, finding out everything he can about Kitty, and the owner and binds a way to get good old Pierre out of his contract, makes him a free agent, gets him signed on to the Maverick. Of course she does. Also, his sister left that team as well, moved over and helped out the Maverick. So the St. Pierre brothers are going to be on the same team and the world is ecstatic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Felix was like you're not going to be a dick, right? Like, I think Felix had some anxiety. You're a dick because I'm your older brother and I'm helping you. Yeah.

So we get to the hockey game seasons about to start. They've got training coming up. It's time to put a close to everything. Summer's over. They had an end date. They had a deal. And he doesn't want it to end. He's so upset and he's like, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Don't leave. Let's keep this going. And she's like, we had a deal. We're done. Summer's over. It's over. And she really likes him too. But again, it's with this like resistance.

She's stuck on the age. She is really stuck on the age. And she has trust issues big time. Well, yeah. And especially because he's so young, she feels like he's just going to go to a younger woman because that's what keeps happening. And he did, he was fresh off a scandal of like puck bunny crazy sex capades. I mean, his heart was broken, Jen.

I wasn't judging. I said let the boy have some fun. He was sad. It's totally understandable. They do say throughout the whole summer, I'm not going to share you. It's just you and me. It's just you. Oh, yeah.

They were exclusively. No even sex. Club. Like they visited a sex club and it was like, nope, just you and me. And nobody watches. Yeah, I thought that was very nice. But why go to a sex club if you're not going to. Because they have all the toys that are Take or let. You have the room and the toys and the yeah, all this stuff. And like when you go in, you get like all hot bothered and then you don't have far to go. Or you get grossed out. It just depends on which room you walk through. There's some weird shit that goes on there. I mean, I think the idea is that you. I would have a hard time using toys in a sex club. I think it's like how sanitary are they? I think it's. It's like hospital sanitary. I think it's supposed to be a huge thing. I'll just get my own.

In some of the books that I've read, they open new ones. I'm just saying I'll do it. I'll do it at home. I don't think I could go to like a sex club and use someone else's sex twice. That is just too personal. And then leave them there with your goop all over it. I think they clean them for you, much like Paradise Island to a hygienic level. All inclusive.

And they do exist. I know they exist. I have not been to when. Dennis, see your eyebrows going up. I didn't ask. Jin has a high ick factor. They do exist. Do you know they exist, Lindsay? Oh, I know they exist. I've not been to one. Do you know for sure the island exists? I don't know about the island, but I know the places like that do exist. Mind blown. Anyway, carry on. Sorry. Most of this will get cut. Anyway. Not that part.

So summer's about to end. Training started. Felix moves out of Harper's and in with his brother. He leaves Harper alone. He is. is going to give her the space that she needs to basically come back to him. This is a gap for me, though, because the ex who's been threatening her, he moves out without any clear resolution that that situation is over. I think it's because he basically vanished. Like, he wasn't around. She was so comfortable. I mean, at one point, like, she was, she felt like he was following her all the time.

And then she got in such a routine with Felix. I mean, he would walk her to work. He would pick her up. He would take her to dinner. They would take walks in the park. So at some point, her guard goes back down and she feels relaxed and like, okay, Josh went away, got a life, he's a scumbag, crawled back under his rock, we're good to go. But at some point, she drinks a little bit and he drinks a little bit. And Felix tells her, I love you, I want to be with you.

The age doesn't bother me, let's be together. And she says no. He leaves and goes back to bed and she comes in and he's asleep. That's in air quotes because he's not really asleep. he's faking it. And she says, I love you too, and just be patient. So he decides when training starts, he's going to move out and he's going to be patient. He's going to give her that space. So he's got weeks of training and then it's the first hockey game. This is very exciting game. He sends her tickets for anybody that she wants to bring and a jersey with his name on it. Also with an F in front of

Pierre, St. Pierre. First name. So everybody knew it was him and not his brother. Yeah, which is super vital to him. So he says to her in this beautiful letter, if you come wearing the jersey, I'll know that you love me too and you want to be together. If you come wearing regular clothes, I'll know that we're just going to be friends and that's okay too. She's excited. Game day comes. She is getting ready to walk out and her Google alert goes off. She pulls it up and there are nudes of her posted all over social media. However, they're not nudes of her. They're AI, created nude. Deep face. That son of a bitch. Well, because he threatened to release these nudes as part of his campaign to get her back. And she hired the PI guy and the security company to basically hack the ex-boyfriend and clear all of the nudes off of his phone, his computer. She knew he didn't have any. And so he didn't have it, but he-

To clear like literally the entire internet across the world. Big story gap here because you can't do it. Once it's out there, it's out there. Somebody's got it. It's in a file somewhere. And so she's panicking. And then she realizes when she's looking at it closer, this isn't me. This is fake. It's not real. What are we going to do? So they start their PR campaign. All of her friends are sitting there. They're all working it out. But she doesn't want to go. She can't. She can't go. She's in the middle of crisis mode trying to fix this. Well, and she doesn't want to be photographed and she doesn't want to take the attention away from Felix. She kind of makes the decision, I feel like, for him a little bit too. So meanwhile, here's Felix. playing in his first game. It's doing great, but not really. Against the LA team. Against the team that he just left with the guy that's dating his ex-girlfriend. He and his brother are playing side by side and his brother keeps yelling him. Get your head in the game. And the team is giving him shit. They're talking about, oh, your girlfriend's a whore. She's got her nudes on. He's like, what are you talking about? He doesn't know anything about what's going on. They keep smack-talking her. And at one point, Stephen gates up to him on the ice and starts smack-talking him. And he's, he's,

He lets go and starts talking about how she's been cheating on him too with everybody. At some point, he gets clocked. Somebody hits him. I think it was Stephen who hit him, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Almost like a pock shot, like just he passes out. Hardcore drops to the ice.

He's out. Completely blacked out. At that point, Harper, because she's watching the game while she's fixing the PR stuff, gets rushed to the hospital. It was right as she turned on the TV, he goes down and hits his head on the ice. And then he doesn't move. It was really scary. Medics are coming in. He gets pulled out on a stretcher.

Scary, scary. She goes to the hospital. Eventually, he wakes up. She tells him, I love you too. And he notices she's actually got his jersey on. So she was on the way out the door. I know all the feels. She was on her way to the game when all the crisis hit.

She tells him what happens. And somehow they basically get rid of Josh out of the entire country. They blacklist him from everything and he has to go with his whole family. They basically tattle on him to the socialite society and his parents who are trying to be socialites. And so they basically run away in not because they could prove that it was illegal, but because they got ostracized from New York society. So the family takes him and just like they get out of town. It disappears. Yeah.

So they couldn't send him to jail, but they could start. certainly get him out in New York. Fast forward. She's a huge hockey fan. Also loves his big cock. It says in the last of the book, which I thought was hilarious. Verbatim! Did you need me to read it?

Verbatim. I can read it. No, I just took you a minute to spend it out. It did because I was like... That's why I was laughing. Yes, it says... Big... And I'm deliriously happy because of Felix's big dick.

That's what it says. Good for her. Yeah. Those things are said a lot in our books. It is. Yeah. Sorry. So we talked about a lot of gaps in this book.

We talked about there were an abundance of side plot characters that we didn't need. Side characters with, I would say, many subplots where it's like, these are my two friends and here's their backstory. And there's like two pages of drama about people we don't see for another 200 pages. Or the next book. And then they popped up at the end. And I was like, oh, yeah. Who's Cameron again? Who's Kimmy?

Who is this person? Who is the organized? Yeah. Wait, why do they? Wait, she has PTSD. What? Why? Yeah.

And I will say, too, there was a lot of inner dialogue where they talked to themselves. And it was like they were talking to someone else. And it was a little. It was a little iffy. And now, did you listen? No, I read it. And it was like they were arguing with themselves on the page. And I was like, okay, come on.

It just got a little hokey for me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Definitely. You're more tolerant of those things and I just, I got a little. Yeah. There was a lot.

There was a lot of it, right? Like if it was a cute little work every now and then, but it was a lot like every chapter they had to convince, you know, her convincing herself. Paragraphs of them talking to themselves and their own brains. And I mean, granted, we probably think a lot more than the guys do. And we probably have that inner dialogue to ourselves quite a bit. but I just, I felt like it was overdone with her. It was like over the top. Her's was annoying.

It was so, it was a little too. Yeah. It made me like the book a little less. Yeah. In the book I felt like was maybe 50 pages too long or 70, you know, so like that didn't help. You said the angsty part for her to actually just accept the fake boyfriend, you know, like was annoying. From a hot guy, you already know you like. I'd have slapped white multiple times.

All the friend characters, you pointed it out earlier, Kim, but like the whole dialogue about is she going to freeze her eggs? Is she going to have a baby on her own? and then that just drops away. Yeah, it just goes away. Why would she need to freeze her eggs? She can just get them fertilized right from the source. So overall rating, Jen. I'm going to give this a 3-5.

I thought it was really good. I actually loved the characters. I just felt like the dialogue got a little exhausting, and I felt like there were too many side characters and many plots. But overall, really fun read, easy read. I read it in like three days. and it was a good time. And I like sports dramas too. Like I think it's kind of fun. As far as spice, I'm going to go four and a half because Love Island. Yeah, Braceway, baby. Period. But I will say after Love Island, it got a little chenzy on the spice. I was expecting it to be that much spice all the way through, which I might have been too much, but like they got a little bit chancy after that. But yeah, they weren't on vacation anymore. Like a normal couple. It was more story. And you started with spice and ended with story.

But overall, I think it was really cute. I'm very, very similar. I did three and a half on the book itself for all of the reasons we've talked about, cute, fast, solid, solid read. Some plot holes, a little annoyingness sometimes, like how the brother's wedding ended so perfectly, quickly, how they found down the girl banging the owner and then wrapped it right up. And then it's over, like, you know, done, done and done. So they moved fast through certain parts and drug out other part. But overall, I liked it. I didn't ever want to put it down.

I wanted to see, like, where it went. And then sex, four and a half all the way. It was really good. The Love Island just set the scene for the whole book. So the fact that it kind of evened out on sex later didn't maybe bother me so much because we got so much of it and you figured out who they were and how much chemistry they had already. Their romance, as the book went on, felt very natural.

And the landscape was written really beautifully. I mean, the island landscape in New York. You saw the sex in the city girls. And I'm a sucker for a good landscape. So that really matched it up a little too. Rating it, I would give it a three, based on the first half of the book. After they left the island, I was kind of like, eh.

Schmedium. It was Schmedium. The rest of it was kind of like up and down. Some parts made me laugh out loud. He was quite humorous to me. I loved his character the most. Spice-wise, again, I'm with you guys. Paradise Island was the spice. Was the spice.

The bed with the moving notches and the flexibility to become like. It's crazy. St. Andrew's Cross. And I was like, what? The spreader bar and all the things. It's a modular bed. What is happening? The spice was there. I would give the spice a four, but the book of three.

And this was my first sports one. I've never read a sports romance before. So, book? Yeah. So, I mean, it wasn't bad. Yeah. You got it just enough of the sports stuff to make it a sports book without having to spend too much time in the sports. It was in the peripheral, like the entire time.

It was fine for me. It was a hockey rink somewhere. Yeah, I didn't want the whole. I love that she made her own, she made her own money and he made his own money. Because often the girl has no money and the guy is loaded. And he saves her. I love the characters because it was great to see a strong female-a-man character that made her own money. And she wasn't saving him either.

He had his shit together, too. So she saved him a couple of times. They protected each other, right? Like there was some possessiveness there, but they were, they was very equally matched. Good partnership. Yeah. It was good matchup for the, yeah, the Puma. Why can't I say that?

Puma. Puma. Puma. Because I'm pucked up. That red sugar. Well, thank you, Kim. This was really fun to recap with everyone. This was our last book of season three.

But we will be back next week to do a boozy rewind. We'll talk through all of our favorite books and tropes and FMCs and MMCs and have some fun with that. Be sure to find us on. TikTok, Insta, Facebook, and now YouTube. Check out boozybookgasms.com for reading lists, cocktail recipes, and episodes of the show. And until next time, happy reading.

Happy reading. Bye. 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 boosybookgasms.com.

Come, enjoy the ride, and we'll see you soon.