Boozy Bookgasms - Witch, Please: She Doesn't Need Saving

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Wretched by Emily McIntire Go undercover with the cousins as they journey down the yellow brick road and venture into a drug running mafia group, some family drama and a volatile romance.    Signature Cocktail: The Flying Monkey This one is green, herby and fierce like Evie's femme energy.  Sip slowly as you fly away.   Ingredients: 1.5 oz Vodka  1 oz Midori  .75 oz fresh lime juice  .5 oz honey syrup (1:1 honey + water)  Splash of green Chartreuse Cucumber ribbon or mint+ gold dust rim for a little extra  Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, vodka, honey syrup, Midori, lime juice, and the splash of Chartreuse. Shake well until the shaker is thoroughly chilled (about 15-20 seconds). Strain the cocktail into a chilled coupe or martini glass rimmed with edible gold dust. Garnish with a ribbon of cucumber and a sprig of mint. 

No clapping, moving paper, rustling, breathing deeply, breathing at all. Or Jenny will kick you off the podcast. I just want to put that disclaimer out there right now. There will be absolutely no breathing. Yeah, I'm scared. Book 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. Welcome back, Clitature fans. I'm Kim. I'm Jen. And I'm Lynn. And we have our lucky reader guest, Marley After Dark, on board with us. Say hello, Marley.

Marley. Hi, I'm Marley after Dark. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Marley from Maine. That's Marley from Maine. So today we're going to review a sweet and beautiful love story full of poetry

And Romance. Called Ratchet by Emily McIntyre. Yeah. Sounds romantic. It really was. What made you pick this one? My best friend reads Smutty Books. I was like, I want to pick a good one.

So I asked for her advice. I'm really into like fairy tale kind of stuff. You know, I like the story. So she said these kind of align with those books. So that's how we ended here. And I loved Wicked and all of that. So I was like, this kind of falls perfectly in line. Yeah.

A little more slutty. I can't wait to hear if it. met your expectations. Oh my gosh. Yeah. However, before we do get started, we are going to have to drink. Yes. Yeah.

So tonight's drink is the flying monkey or monkeys, if you have several, obviously. We've got some vodka, some Midori, some lime juice, some honey syrup, which I've never made, but it's amazing. Honey syrup. Yeah, it's like one-to-one water and honey. And it just makes this really quite yummy. Some green, I always say this wrong, chartreuse. I think it's char-truth. Okay. And just for some fun, we did some edible gold dust on the rim.

I love edible gold dust. Yeah. Garnish it with some cucumber ribbons and maybe some mint leaves, but it's a beautiful green. It's super herbie and fierce. Like our main characters, Fem Energy. It's so refreshing. Anything with my door is like, crisp. It's a nice balance cucumbers. So we know why you pick the book. Have you read any of the other series? No, I wanted to raw dog it. Go right in. For those of you who are not familiar with these books, they are steamy and twisted takes on the classic fairy tales. And this one in particular, wretched, is basically an upside down version of the Wizard of Oz.

As I did with Hooked, I'm about to school some folks on some similarities. Is it wretched or wretched? It's wretched. I pronounced it wretched. But I guess you could say either, right? I just called it the W. Right. The W.

The W. Okay. I need you to school me on this because in Hooked, I really struggled because I knew enough about the story and I was getting confused and I kept wanting to like figure out the Peter Pan part of it. For this one, the Wizard of Oz theme did not mess me up at all. Like I just wasn't close enough for some reason. See, I was the opposite. I kept trying to measure it out. I was like, wait, wait.

And I was telling Jen earlier, I struggled to get to the story because I was like, oh my God, that can actually. Oh my God, that connection. See, I like this one better because I couldn't connect it, so it didn't distract me at all. What I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of give some of the characters up front. You guys jump in. And I'm going to give you how they're connected unless you want to guess. Oh, okay. I have some guesses. Oh, spicy. We're going to open with an crazy Irish mob family of drug runners named the Westerlies. They run a small but profitable business selling a new drug called the Flying Monkey in the town of Kinland, as in Munch Kinland. And are now looking to expand into the Canon L.A.'s Italian mob to do so. Now, westerly, cut westerly in half. What do you get? West.

West, as in the Wicked Witch of the West. Here we go. Oh, that's good. I was like, oh, I tapped so many things. I'm so glad that I was not distracted by that. Well, I was distracted by it and I didn't pick it up, so it doesn't matter. Wait, because it gets better. Oh, I'm sure.

They're smacking you in the face. She was amazing at this. Our main character is Evelyn Westerly. Also the name of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Whiz. Oh. She is the youngest of three Westerly daughters. She's dark and moody and has a horrible temper and is working on impulse control issues, which we obviously see throughout the button.

Yeah, we do. We do see some of that. Very emo. He's a bit moody. Well, I kind of liked it. I can really. Yeah, it's kind of neat. I'm here for it.

She has an older sister or did, Nessa Westerly. Similar to Nessa Rose Throp, the Wicked Witch of the East in the musical and the novel of Wicked. Didn't get that one? No. Didn't get any of this. Oh, God. I'm the only one. I know she was the West.

Nessa, who was the oldest sister. The one who died. The one that passed. The one that got killed was the East. And the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was good. And in this one, she's not good. And that's the whole opposite. I love that about her.

Nessa died while out on a boat some years back. She actually had to raise both Evie and their middle sister, Dorothy. And her and Evie were super close. And neither one of them, big fans of Dorothy. Dorothy, middle child, spoiled brat, wants lots of attention. She's the last one to see Nessa alive. not heartbroken, she's gone, and make some insinuations throughout the book that maybe she was the one who knocked her off. And then she has the audacity to wear her ruby red high heels to the funeral.

That was very tacky. She was very tacky. This one's going to blow your mind. The father, Farrell Westerly, which is also the name of J. Farrell McDonald, who was the primary director for the motion picture. And he also played the scarecrow in the 1914 edition of the Wizard of Oz. The amount of research you did crazy. Beryl, he's a low-life criminal, does time, is now leading the family mob. Poorly. He's leading it poorly.

Yeah, he's done some time. He's in the who scout? The mom left. So then the older sister had to raise them. Kind of dumb, little chauvinistic. And then they have their mother, Glenda, who would have been. I miss that for her name was Glenda. It is because it's only mentioned one time.

You have to really catch it. Oh, I miss that. I did catch that part. That was the only one that connected for me. Yeah. Same. I was like, oh, I caught that one. Oh.

Well, and Dorsey, obviously. This is kind of a Rinky Dink operation as far as mob families go, though. It's pretty small. Totally. I mean, this is the family dollar. I've got a couple more characters and that's it. Cody, longtime friend of Evie, computer whiz. They grew up together.

He's very iffy. And then you have Zeke. Anybody recognize Zeke? I thought he was a cowardly lion. He is the cowardly lion and he was also the farm hand. on the original Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Zieg was forced into the business by legacy.

His father went to prison and was tortured, and therefore Zique is terrified of ending up the same way. And then Nicholas Woods. Anybody? Wood. Wood. No. A.k.a. Nick Chopper,

who was transformed by the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz into the Tin Man with a heart. Yeah, he does have. have a heart. And other things. Yeah, lots of other things. And other things. Hard, wonderful things. Mm-hmm. Oh, boy. I mean. It's even early for us to be starting. I was just saying, not pretty well. I like it. Okay. No foreplay. Just right in. He is an undercover police officer, sent in to infiltrate the West Relief family and find the flying monkey suppliers and shut down the organization. He lost his mom to drugs and his sister Rose,

who is also a play on the Nessa Rose from earlier and in the Oz universe with the Rose princess. Mine is the Wizard of Oz thing. I felt like this was a very codependent, brother-sister relationship. Super codependent. There was a lot of, like, hugging and, like, touching each other. Well, and living together. And I don't know. I mean, she was an addict.

She was a recovering addict. She was his older sister. It's fine. He was hardly home. Yeah, true. He was never home. It was fine. He did seem to really care about her, which was like, oh, it was nice.

It was for teaming. He needed somebody to connect to. It makes you like him. It was like humanizing for him because otherwise he would have been. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Like 10. A hard character to like.

Yeah. Like a hard character. Yeah. Good. Good. It's good. It's good. Now we kick it off.

Evie, Evely, Evely, is in a club after shooting someone, which, like, they were super graphic on her. I did struggle with her badassery, and I don't know why I don't struggle with it when it's a guy, but she had like no real remorse. She had no emotion. She was just like shot him in the head. Oh, there's brains on my shoe. So annoying. First line. Gross. I have body parts on my shoes. I'm like, oh. Do you have a heart? Like, what's happening? I don't think she did. That's very sociopathic. She's at this bar, and she is there to basically wipe out the bartender because he's peddling the wrong drug. He's messing with her job. She's scary. She is scary.

She has like a light switch. She's sitting at the bar and this guy rolls up. Cute guy. Kind of clean cut. And she's clean cut. She's got blonde hair. She's got no piercing. A wig.

It's a wig. She's hot. She's blonde. She's definitely our leading man's type. And they start a banter. And it's a cute banter. It is kind of hot. And it gets kind of heavy.

But it's also like really corny. Is it supposed to be really corny? It is corny. Next level. My favorite line, she doesn't want to give him her name. He gives her his. She doesn't want to give it back. And she says, just in case you want to stalk me.

And his line is, I don't want to stalk you, pretty girl. I just want to fuck you. I mean, I'm going to the bathroom, but don't follow me. Wink, wink, wink. And he does, obviously. Off to the lady's room. Hook line sinker. Gives her the best orgasm of her life in the bathroom.

Best ever. And then she walks away and goes and shoots. somebody in the alley. And then she's fine. She has a good eight hours of sleep after. It's like, is it better than smoking? Maybe. Murder? After sex? It's better for you. I don't do either. You won't know until you try. I guess. Ooh. I'm willing to try anything once, you know. No, you should always try something twice. Oh, always. Murder? I mean, I'll be a one and done on that. You either follow the rule or you don't follow the rule. get a chance after you go to prison.

You might actually want to die. Nick, this undercover cop, he and his team have cut a deal with Zeke, who we talked about earlier is kind of the mole, coward guy in the organization. Super coward. But I got the impression he outwardly appeared to be kind of a tough guy. Mussely, a hot dummy. But also, yes, very stupid, like dumb. I don't think he was dumb.

I think he just let stuff go because he was stuck. I didn't get that he was dumb. I kind of got big bird. really idiot. Oh, I didn't get idiot. I didn't get idiot. He was trying to not be his dad while still following his dab. That was also too much. He was so fixated on it. They manipulated him very quickly. It was very easy. That wasn't hard. It was one life. He was afraid to go to prison. That's why I thought he was cowardly lying. Yeah. Because he was so scared. Because he didn't want to be somebody's bitch in prison. God, what a weenie. Same. I don't, I don't want that.

I also don't want that. I don't blame him. Yeah, I feel like it wasn't a quick turn. It was like, you can go to prison just like your dad and be someone's bitch and get tortured. Or? Or? Or? Yeah, there's another option.

Sounds good. I'll take it. Side up, side up, side of. He's like, what's behind curtain me? Yeah, exactly. Ooh, good odds reference on the curtain. Nice. There were some good odds references.

I totally did that on purpose. I see you. Pink-wink. So, Zique agreed. to bring in Nick, aka now, Braden, into the org. Because he's undercover. I don't like that name. I didn't get behind it.

I didn't either. I felt it was kind of wishy-washy. Well, he was kind of wishy-washy. Yeah, I liked Nick better. Braden doesn't sound like a gangster. No, it doesn't. Braden sounds like a 16-year-old skateboarder. What does sound like a gangster?

What name would you have given him? I'm just curious. Dante. Oh, Dante. Nick sounds like a gangster. Lorenzo. Lorenzo. More.

He's supposed to. to be like a gym expert, diamond expert. Yeah. So he's not an Italian mafia guy. He is purporting to be an expert in diamonds because the dad wants to diversify his illegal business. But he's still in an illegal business. He comes in like a tough guy. He just doesn't have a tough guy name. Yeah, Brayden. Braden's like, oh, Braden and accounting. Like he just, it doesn't. It doesn't. It feels right. You know what I mean? Like you can see him popping his collar like, oh, yep, that's good. Vineyard vine. Did you guys think it was weird how much effort he put into the prep work for this job?

But he never had to use it. I mean, this guy was so bad at his job. I don't even know where to begin. Oh, okay. How did he not know that he slept with the daughter while he was doing a month of surveillance on this family? This is the worst undercover shit I've ever seen. All the pictures were blurry and from far away. They technically didn't have her.

How convenient. She's not the front and center. She's the behind the scenes girl. And she was in disguise at the bar with a blonde wig. All her tasks were covered, no earrings. And then all the surveillance photos are far away blurry. So he only has childhood photos and not very many of her. They didn't really explain that away.

Fine. It felt like a hole for me. But I thought if you're going to go undercover, you're going to do a month's worth of work. Yeah, he focused a lot on the diamonds and not the family. Well, yeah, he had to be a. diamond expert. But he wasn't. And he was also bad at that. And he was only asked about the diamonds one time. One time. They never really went into the diamond side business. They actually just used him as muscle and he never did anything with Jim ever. That was a pothole. That was very strange. Except when he went to yellow brick,

the strip club. I really liked that name. Oh yeah. That was awkward. Clever name. That was a reference I obviously got. Oh, good job, Lindsay. The Flying Monkeys. Yeah, I got that. Yeah. It really did take me old name. Did you get to the Dorothy one too? I got Dorothy, I got the yellow brick road. I can't believe you guys didn't get Kinland. That's so funny. No, but I lot. That was my favorite.

That was really clever. Man, I'm like mad at myself. I mean, I didn't write it, but thanks for, you know. Well, your research is impeccable. Oh, thank you. He shows up and Evelyn doesn't trust him. As she should. Good.

She no trust of nobody. She no trust of nobody. You right. You right. However, Dorothy does. Dorothy is an idiot. D'allie can be super cute. Yeah, I feel like Dorothy's kind of a whore.

She's a smart bitch. Smart whore. Is she smart? She's not smart. She's a dumb whore. I don't think she's smart. If I was in a stupid horror, dumb horror. Yeah, see, but Evelyna, like, she's a botanist.

She's wicked smart. Real green thumb. She's the brains of the operation. I like how you did that. Wicked. Wicked smart. Yeah. Amazing.

Yeah. She's talented. Dorothy and Brayden are kind of flirting around. He's still hung up on Evelyna. But he thinks Dorothy's his way in. Right. Because he's a stupid man. So they're flirting and it's really getting to Avelina big time.

Some of my favorite comments is when Dorothy is commenting about how, you know, she could be with Braden and Evelina says, don't worry, he can still be your little lap dog, Dorothy. I'm not interested in training a new bitch. That's fine in the book. So cheap. Lap dog. Yeah. Dorothy had a lap dog.

Yes, Toto. Yeah. Hello. I got that one. Ding, ding. They used pup, and she called them pup. She calls him pup the whole time. That makes sense, though.

Tomito. So I am liking the book better now that we're talking about this together. Otherwise, it was medium. Not hearing that. Okay. So they're constantly bantering about hating one another. He gets under her skin. She gets under his.

And she is now tasked with trying to take down who in their organization has been cutting their drugs into crap. And he gets saddled with her to do this. He's not the right person for the job, first of all. I mean, he watches her. Not even a little bit. They're trying to break him in, I guess, into like the family biz. I just don't get how he went from the jewelry guy to muscle. There's no jewelry.

They never got into the jewelry business. It's not like he's showing. showed up with a trench coat full of diamonds. Evie even says, like, this is weird. Dad never lets anyone come close. And now he's all of a sudden... Because they trusted Zeke. Yeah.

He had Zeke's sign of approval, so kind of fast-tracked him a little bit. This shakedown at the drug dealer's house was bananas. Yeah. I was like, oh, shit. This was, yeah. It was like Pulp Fiction. It was intense. That was crazy.

So he's on this journey with her, and he watches her lose her temper. He watches her shoot people. That was some dark shit. Very dark. Without remorse. Yeah, no remorse. When he was really struggling because he's a cop still. He's a police officer.

Yeah, barely. Watching murder. I mean, is he in the wrong line of work? Yeah, absolutely. You see this a lot like in cop dramas. They're undercover. Like, there is sort of a let it happen for the bigger purpose. They're there to find the supplier is the bigger mission.

The bigger deal. But he's watching people be murdered. He did struggle with it emotionally. He did. But he didn't because he's like, these are scum of the earth. Yeah. They're drug dealers. These are the reason my mom tweaked out all the time.

Yeah, my sister was an addictant. He kind of rationalized it for himself, I think. Yeah, but so is the girly. Oh, she's a nut job. She's crazy. Well, and he does really struggle with liking her. He does. He does, but he knows he shouldn't.

The point where she gets her little, I say little, they're like super, high heels and digs them into that guy's groin. Very creepy, but I like it. What? I mean, I was okay with it. Very femme fatale. That's why I wore heels. And just in case, you got to just in case. You never know. She didn't even take him off. She was wearing up. I know. My plan was to take him off. I'm not as savages. I never would have got somebody on the ground. But if I took him off, because Lynn and I, we're both very visual. I am in my head going, how is she flipping this guy over? And stabbing him with her heel. She's got her gun.

What was the name of her gun? It's a desert eagle. It's a brand of, it's a huge brand of gun. And she was like five foot nothing. Yeah. A hundred ten pounds. Yeah. I mean, these things are heavy and she's carried it around on a strap on her thigh and she

whips it out and she's like stabbing people. Like she's a nut job. Yeah. Well, she's in turn. She has a lot of red flags. A lot. A few. A few.

You know, relationship wise. But he can't stay away. He can't. It's volatile, but it's hot. And they are together all the time. He's into it for sure. So, moving ahead, Evie is really starting to fall in love with Nick slash Braden. She still doesn't know his real name.

She knows he's a liar. Can't quite put her finger on why. And he's getting a little bit looser with his cover. Mm-hmm. Was he ever tight, you know? Yeah, well, I mean, I think he started out kind of well. got to end to her and started being more honest about who he was with her. She always knew something was off, but she kept writing it off.

Like, every time he would slip. So his lives are starting to unravel as he's getting closer to her. Both Evie and Nick share this love of poetry. I don't know about you guys. Really cheesy. Thank you. It was so bad. Yeah, corny, cheesy, made me on a bar.

I did not even know what to do. when he starts quoting poetry to her. I'm just like, what? I don't want it to be spoken to. If a guy did that to me and started quoting poetry, I would run for the fucking hills. I'd be like, shut out. Get out.

There is nothing hot about that. He thought it was hot. That's what's important. True. Everybody's different. We have different types. Different journeys. Hey, undercover police officers.

with muscles. I meant, check, check. Poetry. Quoting poetry, deal breaker. I'm out. Like in general or just to your private areas? I'm curious. I don't know. So the private areas, but just in general. If he's like talking to me and giving me. But she was into poetry. So it was like their common language. Yeah. It doesn't make him hot. It broke down her walls, though. It did. But I just like to me, here's a line of poetry. lick, lick, here's the line of poetry. Lick, like, what the fuck is happening? That's pretty, yeah.

Hmm. I don't know how to feel about this. And anyway, shape, or form. It was weird for me. I didn't care for it. Everybody's on their own journey. Yeah, I was uncomfortable. I'm not going to lie.

It's weird, right? Yeah. Okay. Nothing else about the book, nothing else. But the poetry to her vagina. What about the loaded gun sex? Oh, wait, we're not there yet. What about the spit in the mouth? Okay. Oh, I don't like that. It's a little sarcastic. There was a lot of flags in the hook. Okay. Oh. This couple is very toxic together.

They're a lot, but hey, every lid has a pot, right? That's true. That's true. That's what they say. They found each other, which makes me happy. They do have some pretty hot sex here and there, but every time they hook up, there's some element of violence. Always. Like whether he's choking her or the Desert Eagle is not choking her. Loaded inside of her? She's like, oh, is this been loaded? It's the safety on? I sure fucking hope so. I was just going to say, who listened to it?

Who listened and who read? I was a mix. I was a mix. Okay, I was a mix. But I happened to catch that part where she's like in the midst. She's in the throat. And she goes, wait a minute, is the safety on? I spit my drink.

I laughed so hard. Like, you're up to the... Like, you're a little late. Like, you're all the way in, girl. A good sneeze, screwed. Your uterus is blown to oblivion. You're toast.

You won't care because you'll be dead. Also that. But we talked about this last time. We're seeing more and more of this. We're pushing the boundaries on these books. There is more and more sexy with weapons, whether it's knife handles, gun handles, it's creeping me out a little bit.

I'm a little worried about society. It made me anxious. Not something I'm going to do. The whole time I'm like, it's going to go off. It's going to go off. Don't sneeze. Don't move. You're not hot because you're just worried about her.

I'm stressed for her life. Is that how she goes out? Yeah. I don't know. A part of me was like, oh, he's going to accidentally kill her right here. But guns. And then he's going to go after Dorothy. End up with Dorothy.

Yeah, I shot her in the vagina. That would have been a plot to us. With her own gun. The poetry to her and to both of them are like the words in their chaotic world. So like you said, Lynn, it helps him relax. It's a way of her dealing with her stress and her pain. I think it was necessary because it showed that they were not these horrific individuals. They had a vulnerability.

They had a softer ed. I see your face, Jen. It tried to redeem. They were still pretty horrific. They were, but I think there was another side to them. There is a softer side. It's there if you look really, really, really, really close. Yeah.

But not too close because not too close. Because not too. Got floated. There is still pretty awful, but. There was a lot of drugs in this book. A lot of heroin. A lot. I mean, the good stuff.

It's a drug dealers. I mean, you have to expect to see it. It's a mob book. Like, what do you expect? You're right. You're right. They're going to kill people and sell drugs. True. I just didn't see it coming still.

A little off putting. I don't like a mafia story where I don't really need to know what's going on. Right. I just need to know you're hot and you're rich. So that's really not a book. It's a mob. Yeah. at all.

That's a billionaire romance. You like that's a different genre. All together. You know be in the mafia and be a billionaire? We can combine genres. But they're in the mob. Yeah, but I don't need to know what he does during the day. But the whole point is that it's dangerous.

I don't want to see the hostage being made. I just want to eat at work. I don't need to see that. Yeah, exactly. No, you need the context behind it. So, back to the actual story. Please. Avila, she has now come to terms with the fact she's in love with

this guy. She is soft now. She loves him. She is going to come clean. She's going to show him her greenhouse, which is pretty fucking cool. It is cool. The imagery on this was awesome. Yeah. That was cool. I was like, do I want one? Yeah, I do. I do want one. And it was Emerald City, right? It's so cool. Yeah. Yeah, with the greenhouse. And the drum that she she cooks in and circles it around like a cauldron. Yes. It's the same thing. It was just, imagery was great. So Emily, kudos on that. Not on the gun sex thing because I didn't like that. So she takes him in. She professes her love to him. He realizes right then and there, holy shit, she's the supplier. She says, I love you. And what does he do? Pee Bales. Puff of smoke where he was standing. Like out of there. He's gone. I got to take a call. See ya. Every guy I dated in my 20s. That's what happened. Right there. Is that where I love you? Wait. Where are you going?

Right. Yeah. Well, he's very angsty right now because he also likes her, but, well, he doesn't know she's growing the stuff yet. He's about to find out, when he leaves, he finds out he runs into Dorothy, who's like, she's going to train me. Right. Yeah. And he's like, oh, shit, it's her because, again, he's a bad cop. It took him to, like, the end of the book to figure out who the supplier was when he was fucking her the whole time.

Yeah. He's not very bright. No, he's really not. He's not good at his job. He also says, oh, I don't feel. anything for anyone and this is why I'm in this profession and this is why they put me on this job. But really, he finally does feel something in its fur. Catches the feels.

That had me. That other side plot, though. So the dad's making deals over here and she's getting kind of pissed because she's the brains of the operation and he's kind of cutting her out and treating her like crap, slapping her around and saying, like, you will do what I tell you to do. And train Dorothy. Yeah, dad got mean. Yeah, he was kind of always a dick. But, yeah. I just thought he was just.

But no, he just, he was mean. He was awful. Yeah, and Dorothy was useless. She didn't want to learn either. No, but she wanted to be important. She wanted to be the favorite. Right. They're all a little damaged.

A little. They're a lot damaged. So eventually, Evelyna, catches Nick. She overhears a conversation between Nick and his partner, Seth. Because she followed him because, again, he's horrible at his job. I never really realized that until you guys have really been hammering that home, but. In his defense, he thought, like, she wasn't supposed to be in Chicago. She was not supposed to be there.

He evaded everybody else that was in Chicago. She wasn't supposed to be there. She figures out where he is. You should know. Yes. Like, have you do look around when you walk outside? He even tried to catch her at one point in the book, and she was like, hey, I see you. I mean, knew you were following me.

Duh. He's not going at those. In the beginning, they talk about how he is the best cop for this job. I just, I see no evidence supporting that. Well, because he's unemotional, so he doesn't catch feels. Yeah, well, he caught him. He caught him, he caught him, he threw him, he did all the things. Her heart was hurt because she said, I love you, and he ran away.

And she's a psychopath. Just a little bit. So she ran after him with her big gun. They're a grudgy. Yeah, really. Sorry, but all. If it quacks like a duck, I mean, this woman has murdered how many people. people. She has no feelings whatsoever. She hears him basically talking to his partner and talking about

how Zeke had betrayed them. And now she's really pissed and she heads back to her greenhouse and everything. This is where shit got super dark for me. But this is why I really liked it because the chapter starts with him and it's like, well, my cover's blown. B.T does. I'm over it. It hasn't really been covered. And this is the part where you're like, wow, he's not super professional because he's like, my cover's blown, so I'm going to quit. I'm out. And I'm going to go after the girl, the drug dealing, the psychopath murderer that I've fallen in love with. I mean, what did you think he was going to do?

Love makes you do crazy things. It's so romantic. It's true. Stupid. I know. I just forget. Oh, I love it. I told you.

There was romance, there was love, there was poetry. A lot of poetry. But it does get dark, you're right. It does get very dark. Yeah. Fast. At this point, she has realized we're in trouble. I got to get rid of the evidence.

But before I do that, she has now confirmed that Dorothy was the reason her sister was dead. Dorothy killed her sister and she's going to get revenge. I can't believe she said that. I mean, I can. I mean, she said it like four times. I know, I'm glad she's gone. I'm not sad about it. She was. She was almost proud of it just because she knew it would hurt her sister. She said it. So back at the greenhouse, this thing was so dark. Once it hit, you could not stop what was happening. So Dorothy shows up with the thought in mind that her sister is now going to train her finally to make the poppy, to make the flying monkey drug opium, basically. Yes. So she's going to train her how to do this. And she's like,

walking around and she is, like she always is, mouthing off, talking about, oh, I'm so glad Nessa's gone. Aren't you glad you're not in her shadow anymore? And she just is feeding the flame. Meanwhile, yeah, meanwhile, her sister is like hooking her up with a nice syringe of opioid to stab into her quickly and she deserved it. Yeah, she like collapses, gets super sleepy. I didn't either, but it was so dark where it went. And I get why they did it like that. That was weird. She hung her above the drum. Could have done without that.

And slowly drops her into acid. Hence, I'm melting. I'm melting. Oh. Yes. So circling back. At one point, she's almost up past her knees. And she's like, oh, you should start to feel it now because the drugs are going to start to wear off.

And I was like, and she does. She's a psychopath. I don't know how else to, yeah, like you can be mad at your sister. But you don't acid wash her. That's a bit. Well, she did kill the other sister. She did. She's been making Evie's life miserable.

She has. And then the dad comes in. He's watching it happen. She's got the gun to the dad. And somehow the dad gets the best of her. And they're wrestling and fighting. And the dad is choking her. And he's about to kill her when all of a sudden he has a bullet hole in his head.

Zeke. That worked out for her. Yeah. Zeke found his courage. He needed a redeeming moment. He got his redemption art. Much like the cowardly lion. Just like, he makes up for it in the end.

And then you love it. Yeah. I actually, of all the characters, I think I like Zika. He was great. Same. He just wanted to give him a bug. Take him out for a beer. He cleans it all up for her.

That was nice. Gets rid of the sister and the drum and the dad. So then we fast forward. She's at her little cottage and she's about to go on the run. Cody comes in. She's been calling Cody. Where are you at? Where are you at?

I need help. Cody walks in. Cody doesn't look like Cody. Cody looks like Cody. Cody looks like a douchebag cop. I did not like Cody. Same. Not that cops are douchebags, but Cody also was a douchebag and a cop. Did you feel like his personality totally flipped? Because he was this warm and fuzzy, the gay best friend. He was super cool. He was playing a part. He was playing. But then all a sudden he's like a douchebag. He knows how to do undercover work. He was good at his job, which is why he's not

like him. Yeah. You know, nobody wants to see you be good at your job. That's boring. So he starts to handcuff her and in comes our best friend. Nick. My favorite part is coming up. Who ends up? What does he do? Come on Marley. Marley after dark, hit it. He kills him. For her.

He kills him. For her. It's so real. I mean, at least he's through in the end. He can do something right. He watched the whole book. He watches her kill the whole book. That's right. And finally he comes in and he's like, I'm going to kill for the woman that I love.

I mean, come on. So romantic. It was sweet. I was here for it. I thought it was sweet. It was sweet. It was good. I was very sad about Cody, like, ending up being a bad character.

So I was okay with the staff. I was wondering, like, who he was going to be. I kept being like, he's got to be somebody. She's. I knew he was not who he said he was. Yeah. Dang. I knew he was going to turn.

I just, that was a good twist. She pleased. And where does she plea to? Ireland. Ireland. Ireland. Finally, the Irish and her comes out. She heads to Ireland.

And she waits for Nick to a quit his job. Which he should have done a long time ago. Get past all of the legalities of the fact that he just killed a cop. She's all every wanted poster. Every. Yeah. Well, and try not to get caught for murder, Nick. Because he did that.

One of his own, too. Of a cop. Yeah, it's not good. Yeah, but he wrote that off. He wrote off. And they believed him. Like, he quit his job. but they were trying to get him to stay.

But he had to tie all that up so he didn't look like he was back back. Like crazy. That was the only smart thing he did for himself. No, no. The smartest thing he did was flea to the island. Well, that too. And he goes over and he meets up with her and he takes up woodwork, which is my favorite thing.

Oh. Just like the tin man. Small Irish town. Oh, that's cute. The tin man took up woodwork? Yes, the tin man was a woodcutter, a chopper in the Wizard of Oz. That's what he did for a little. How not whittling animals out of it? He's chopping.

So is he? So in the end, he's, like, chopping up firewood. He's doing all this stuff in this little Irish rinketing town. They're having weird sex. It's so cute. It was great. Happily ever after on America's most wanted. They found each other.

Perfect. There's a lid for every time. I love it, laugh. I mean, there was still some plot holes about, like, how she escaped. Oh, sure. New paperwork. Yeah, like, who flew that jet? Who does she know?

Right. We found a jet and they took me to Ireland. Wow. That's how I don't have a jet on some. That's called having friends. She had probably millions at her fingertips. Which is also nice, I'm sure. And she became a poet, right? Like she just. Oh yeah. She's a writer, a dreamer, a poet. She retired. She works out. I mean, do you think she's really retired or you think she's like growing some weed and some poppies in the backyard? I mean, she has the land, I'm sure. She could do whatever. She could always fall back on that. Rating. Jen. I gave this three stars. Emily McIntyre writes to a formula. I think the tie-in to the Wizard of Oz and even when we did Hucked, the tie-in keeps it really interesting and it's super creative. But as far as mafia romances go, it's a little watery. I like a stronger vodka. You know what I'm saying? Do you know what you're saying? I gave it a three because I just felt like the storyline was a little weak. But all the other stuff was very creative. Nice. I gave it a three and a half.

I liked it better than hooked, probably because I didn't get as distracted by trying to figure out all the connections. I caught a couple, but they didn't distract me like the other one did. I thought that she was really aggressive. And I did connect the dots between I've read other mafia ones where the guys are like that. It doesn't bother me as much. So I'm obviously not a feminist. I didn't mind that he was bad at his job. I thought the story was fine.

But I agree it's a formula. There were some twists that I went. I wasn't expecting. You knew Dorothy killed the sister. You figured that was going to come out. I wasn't expecting Cody. I wasn't either. There were a couple of things that did surprise me. It was much like the cave scene and hooked. Yeah. Where it all came to a head. Came together. Yeah. I agree with that. I thought it was fine. It was shmedium. It's not knocking it all the part for me. But I liked it. I liked it. I thought it was super cheesy and kind of corny. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. love the poetry. I think he's kind of weird. He's about his job. How are they not seeing each other for what they are? But then when he shoots the guy, he finds her a year later in Ireland. I was like, oh my God, I fucking loved it. Tied it all that. That's where the half star comes in. She's like, ooh, bumped it up. That's like, all right, I'm going to read another one. They got me. Kim. I struggled with this one, but I still gave it a four because I struggled with it. I like trying to. I was. I like trying to

to compare the two. I have the next one scarred, so I'm going to read that one too. And what's that one? Lion King. Oh, that makes sense. It should be very interesting. I love trying to find the correlation and the amount of work that goes into it. I did think there were some weird gaps. Why is he a jewel thief? Doesn't make sense. He wasn't. Right. And I thought it was like, he never stole any jewels. I'm just saying, like that's what I hired. You could say it, but that was his title. That's a thuddle. Yeah. Like you, I think. think it was a lot like the cave at the end of hooked where everything just kind of came to a head really quickly. I like that though. Ties it all up. I liked this one better. The dark moments of

dropping into acid and the imagery there. That was a lot. I thought it was amazing. She always puts a good twist in there that you don't see coming. She does. I do love a twist. Yeah. Bad cop and psychopath. Perfect love stories. Yeah, I gave it a four. Spice meter. It was a good solid three, maybe three and a half. I mean, the spice was hot. I didn't love the loaded gun sex, but all the rest of it, I was there for it. Or the clit poetry. That was not your thing either. Poverty line, lick, lick.

Oh, it's clitature. It's literally literature. Oh, my God, that's amazing. I didn't hate that as much as the gun sex. I can't get into that. But I thought she knows how to write some spice. I agree. I thought the spice, I mean, I almost give it a four.

Like, I thought where there was spice, it was really good. I don't, it wasn't as distracted by the. the gun scene. We all have our thing. I mean, I'm not looking for that, but she wrote it. Thank you for clarifying. She wrote it really well to the point where you could see her getting into it and like why. So yeah, I thought the spice was good. Marley? I'm still very new to smutty books, but this felt like a floor to me. There was a lot of smut. It wasn't bad. The gun scene, yeah, it was too much. Marley said it got her talking dirty to her husband a little bit. Ooh. Well, that is the goal of this show in general. Yeah, Marley after dark came out.

Ah, she did. Things are good. Just be a smart whore. That's all we say. Yeah, the smartest whore. Yeah, that's the smartest. Our poor listeners have no idea what you two are talking about. I gave it a four. There was almost four times as much sex in this one as there wasn't hooked. There was hardly any sex in hook. And it's like she hit the ground running in this one and just took off with it. And I thought, It was pretty hot other than the fact that I really worried about the gun scene, any given moment, sneezing, any problems that would go wrong. Did he have his finger on the trigger? I don't remember that. Does it matter? I mean, look. I mean, kind of. Not really. I mean, look, it definitely does. Yeah. It gets slippery. I mean, like, if he's got his finger on the trigger, he's slipped. What? They did mention how slippery it got. So that is a good time. And, like, does she clean it later? I mean, you have to assume. I doubt. She cleaned it. She probably got jammed.

She probably just hung it to dry. We called it good. And safety. Yeah. So, four for me. Super hot. Agreed. All right, Jen.

Wrap it up. Thank you so much, Marley, for being here with us today. It has been so much fun to have you here. If anyone else would like to join our show, please send us your book recommendations. You can go directly to boozybookgasms.com, or you can email me directly at Jen at boosybookgazums.com. Be sure to find us on TikTok. Instagram and Facebook. Check out our website for reading lists,

cocktail recipes, and episodes of the show. And until next time, happy reading, everybody. 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 or it's at boozy-bookasms.com. Enjoy the ride. And we'll see you soon.