Hooked by Emily McIntire

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Oh, my God. We didn't tell you. When we were at Emma's on Friday,

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Melissa was like adjusting her dress and.

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Tissues fell out of her dress. Her dress. Like she was

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stuffing her bra because there was like. No. You know what

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I immediately went to is melissa is a 95 year old woman who keeps

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tissues in her bra for when she needs to blow her. No,

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but a tissue has more than one blow in it.

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That's false. She did. Yes, that's factually inaccurate.

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Used it, put it back. No, she did.

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And then she yelled at us because we were crazy because it had another use

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out of it. No, that's wrong. She's clean. She's tidy

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though. The thing is, is I think she is too dry to be stinky.

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Yes, 100%. So she was like whipping her,

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like her leg out and showing us her alligator skin. I'm really

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grateful that I was not invited to that party.

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It was something. It sounds like it was. It was girls movie night

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with fireball and cocaine.

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Fireball. Cocaine and crocodile skin legs.

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You missed like the best part.

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I did. I missed when I left haggle, got everybody naked

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and then was massaging them. Oh. Literally. I walk out the door and the clothes

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came off and she said at one point, Melissa was laying on the ground face

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down, and both Emma and Pagel, she was on the couch.

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Oh, okay. On the couch. Because Pagel is a professional.

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So we're gonna make sure that our people are comfortable. Emma and Pagel were sitting

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on her back and Pagel was like positioning Emma's arms on

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how to massage her. Wow,

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I'm so helpful. You. Oh my God, you are. It was great.

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The thing is, is like, can we just go back to the fact that Pagel

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should be a dominatrix? Because of course she managed to get everybody naked. Actually.

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Actually, what a skill you want was

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like, that's it. Close off, close off. Everybody listen up. I'm the boss

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now. But when I was there, Peg was like cowering next

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to me and like, like, tell them no, I don't want any cocaine.

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That is. It was a night.

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Yeah, we won't do that often. Okay, well, good.

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It was rough. I wasn't drinking or doing drugs. Well, good for you.

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Honestly, the fact that you were sober while everybody else

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was chaotic actually makes it a little bit better, I think. Probably been a different

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night if I wouldn't have been. I don't really think I've ever seen you just

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like get wild. On my birthday. I drank a lot. You did

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tell Emma multiple times that you wanted to have sex with her and

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that you liked her boobs. I do, but I just like. You made it sound

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like you are like a chaos demon with like

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more than three drinks in you. And I just haven't seen that

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yet, so I don't know if I believe it. You know,

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I think I've calmed down in my late 30s. Sure.

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Pagel can attest to there. Pagel and I have photos

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of the kissing contests we used to hold. Oh, I know. It's. There's like a

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kissing board on Page's phone. Basically just multiple

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different nights of Pagel. And I making out, which I really just sincerely love for

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you both. I do too. I. I've saved them. No. Yeah, as you

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should. It was 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, I still

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have all the evidence. We talk all the time about how we need. We should

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have saved more of those photos. Oh, my God. Sex. My husband saved no

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nudes. That's wild. I know. I would send nudes

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videos. He saved none of it. Oh, my God.

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What a respectful king, though. I know. My God.

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But now I have no evidence of how great my boobs

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looked back in the day. I'm sure that there's

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probably one photo of you floating around.

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You might not be wrong.

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I feel like Moira Rose being like. Even if

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it's spooky, you take those photos and cherish them.

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All right, well, welcome back.

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I'm Amanda. I'm Nicole. We read, recap and review somebody

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books. Let us help you decide if this book should stay on your tbr.

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What are we reading today? We are reading hooked by Emily McIntyre.

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This is a part of a. Yeah. It'S like the Never

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after series. Hegel recommended this to me years

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ago because her mom recommended them to her and

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she's like, they literally. It's the first page and they're

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talking about a dick. Not this one. We weren't reading a ton of smut

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a few years ago, so this was revolutionary.

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Wait, so did you read it a couple of years ago? Yeah. Really?

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Yeah, I read this a while ago. Oh, interesting. I borrowed

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me all the books and I read three of them. Scarred is my favorite

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for anyone who cares. Okay, well, and that's an important note is that they are

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standalones. Yes. Yeah, These all are a different fairy

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tale type thing. Yeah. And this one is obviously Peter Pan. I just keep

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like. I keep getting like, fixated on the fact that this was recommended by Pagel's

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mom to Pagel because it just like how many generations

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of women have been passing down Smut. Yes.

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Because my mom 100% was like, you should absolutely read Flowers in the Attic.

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Yeah. My mom recommended Mr. Perfect. It's Nora Roberts.

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Sure. Right. Or is it Linda Howard? Maybe it's Linda Howard.

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Sure. And there's not a ton of spice, but there's. There's sex.

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And my mother is the one who gave me, Me and my sisters who were

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in high school that book. Yeah. It's just we're new. I know.

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Generation. And then I can do that for my niece. Absolutely. I love

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that. Do that for your daughter and my. Nieces, actually,

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for that matter, because I don't think anybody else will. This author

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has a very specific way of sharing

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her career. I'm going to read it from the book and then I'm going

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to follow it up with the actual trigger warnings. He doesn't

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have a trigger warning page or a content warning page. He has an author's note,

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and the author's note says that Hooked contains sexually explicit

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scenes as well as mature and graphic content that is not suitable for all audiences.

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Reader discretion is advised. I much prefer for you

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to go in blind, but if you would like a list of detailed triggers,

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you can find them on emily mcintyre.com.

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if you do not want to listen to the triggers, you can just,

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like, fast forward 10 seconds. I'm going to read them. Because some of these things

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are things that you should be aware of before you listen to this

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podcast. So if you want the full Emily McIntyre experience,

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proceed with caution. Skip ahead 10 seconds. If not.

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The trigger warnings are explicit sexual scenes, breath play,

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choking, torture, gleeful violence, killing on

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page, physical assault, kidnapping, descriptions of pedophilia,

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descriptions of sexual abuse of a minor, descriptions of physical abuse

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of a minor, and Stockholm syndrome.

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I didn't read the trigger warnings. No. I don't have too

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many triggers at all that you guys. You guys will see, but that

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was an adequate list. I agree. I do think, like, if you are going to

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read the book, know that the gleeful violence is violent.

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It's graphic. Yeah. So I. We don't really talk

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about it because there's really no need for us to go into great detail about

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it. But before you read the book, just know, like, it's pretty graphic.

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I really like the dedication in this book. The dedication is for anyone who has

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been the villain in someone else's story. I'm obsessed with that. You and

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I are the villain in multiple people's stories. Oh, my God. It's so true.

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And they're all wrong. Agreed. Every single one of them.

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If I though was a character in a book, I'm a villain

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with maybe a redemption or, like an anti

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hero. Maybe I'm the hero in your story. Maybe you

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did come into my life and bring this podcast to me. It was

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like Butterfly Effect in live action, actually. Yeah. There are so many things

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that had to happen for this to happen. It's random that they did.

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Yeah, absolutely. I am really excited to talk about this book with

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you. We haven't talked about it at all. We've talked about this with Zero.

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Yeah. You did text me after you finished it yesterday.

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Mm. Yeah, well. Cause you kind of asked me if I knew what

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the twist was gonna be, and I was wrong. But she

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really did use a red herring. Well, we open with a prologue

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where our main male character, James Barry,

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AKA Hook, is thrusting his hooked blade into

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the neck of his uncle, killing him. We don't get

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the full backstory of their relationship dynamic here, but it's not

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meant to be a mystery, so I'm just gonna share it on the front end.

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Hook's backstory is that his father and uncle were the head of

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a large, wealthy criminal empire, and they went

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into business with a man named Peter Michaels, who killed his father

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and mother in a plane crash that only Hook survived. He was

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then sent to live with his Uncle Croc, who sexually abused him for several years

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as a child and carried a pocket watch that would tick

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loudly during the abuse, causing him to

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develop an aversion to the ticking sound. He was taken in

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at 14 by Roo, another criminal boss, who stopped the abuse

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by his uncle and took him under his wing and taught him everything he knows

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and then cleaned up the mess after he kills his uncle.

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Knowing all of that, if I were Hook, I would have made my

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uncle suffer a whole lot more. That was way too quick of a death for

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a child abuser. I agree a hundred percent. Right to the carotid artery. He was

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dead in seconds. Yeah. And he tortured James for.

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For years as a small child, a defenseless child. Their business runs

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out of the jr, AKA the Jolly Roger, which is a club with

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a basement where Hook does most of his maiming.

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Hook is, in his mind,

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completely unhinged. As a person, there is no

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empathy, no sympathy, no compassion, no warmth.

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He is written super interestingly.

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I also want to comment because I have always. I've always loved

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the name the Jolly Roger. If I was a pirate, the name

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of my ship would be Jolly Roger, and I would tell people that, and nobody

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gets the reference, and I feel like that says Something about me as a kid

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that I held onto the pirates in the story

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of Peter Pan. Like people wanted to be a lost boy and I

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pirate. That's actually very interesting because Peter

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Pan the movie came out when we were very. You would have been very,

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very young when that came out. My biggest thing with Peter Pan was Tinkerbell.

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I was always obsessed with Tinkerbell. I really could have cared less about

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any of the other characters, so. And I actually think

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even I would go so far as to say that the Disney Peter Pan movie,

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Captain Hook is probably one of my favorites. Yeah. He's always portrayed so,

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so well. And he always is portrayed as a more complex

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character, I think, than just, I want to kill these boys.

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Yeah. Which actually makes him perfect for these types of books. Do you

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want to give your physical description? So James goes by Hook.

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I'm not sure what you'll call him, if you'll call him Hook or James.

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I think I'm going to call him Hook. Okay. I called him James, so that'll

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be fun. Okay. Just know they're the same person.

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He's in his late 20s. He has jet black hair, slightly wavy

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that he slicks back. He's around six, three, muscular but

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lean. And he gives off very dangerous but controlled vibes.

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He always wears a three piece suit perpetually. And he has a

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British accent. Yes. All of the things. He is physically

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just about perfect except for the blue eyes. Have you. Oh, and I

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know you haven't. And this drives me crazy because we do a lot of Peter

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Pan, which I think again says something about us in the show. Once upon

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a time. There is. Captain Hook is in there. This is exactly how I

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picture him because he has jet black hair in the show. His hair's not

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wavy, but it's a little longer. He has blue

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eyes and an accent. British accent.

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And he's so sexy. I wish you would watch the

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show. I think I googled him once after we talked about it.

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That doesn't do it. I think it's the same as if you googled like

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Pride and Prejudice or 2005 Pride and Prejudice. Mr.

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Darcy. You look at him and be like, really, guys?

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But then you watch the movie and you see his hand. Sure, I get

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it. Can't just Google a picture of him. It doesn't do it. Interesting.

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All right, well, I'm gonna add it to my list, but realistically, I'm probably just

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gonna watch reruns of Twilight. So we were watching Twilight to.

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I was. It was driving me crazy. Amanda was trying to Finish her notes.

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And then every second, I would look up and she's mouth agape,

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watching Twilight, explaining things to Pago.

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Actually, Peg, have you seen Twilight before? Oh, my God,

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I'm. I'm so annoying. Holy. It explained,

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like, what was happening. Oh, he's gonna turn into a wolf to defend her honor.

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One person in this house cared, and it was you.

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Oh, my God. I have no regrets. All right, well,

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we meet our characters about eight years later

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when Hook's boss, Rue, shares a business opportunity

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with Hook about a new player in town by

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the name of Peter Michaels. It's here where

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our main male character meets our female main

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character, Wendy Michaels. While discussing the particulars

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of the first meeting, they are interrupted by the bouncer of the JR

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club about some women with fake IDs trying to get in. And Hook

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directs him to let them in. After checking them out on the surveillance video and

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getting excited about how sweet or innocent or

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out of place Wendy. Looks, did he recognize her

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right away? No. Okay. Nope. He anonymously sets

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them up in vip and when Wendy goes to the bathroom, he intercepts her and

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they share a little banter before the night ends and Wendy goes

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home in a cab. And it's here that Hook realizes that the innocent woman on

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the cameras is, in fact, his arch nemesis, Peter, Michael's daughter.

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And Wendy is 20. So she's trying to get into this bar and she's

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only 20. She has long honey blonde waves,

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blue eyes. She's petite and slender,

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around 5 4, very, very much. She.

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This whole book, I feel like, is portrayed as very soft and sweet.

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I'm like, literally picturing basically Wendy from the cartoon.

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She's giving child for, like, half the book.

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Interesting. You disagree? I do.

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What are you picturing? First of all, I think it's surprising

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00:15:23,830 --> 00:15:27,170
that she is petite and slender because he

237
00:15:27,670 --> 00:15:31,570
talks multiple times about her curves, and I think that's

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a little bit of a conundrum. Sure. I think when

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I imagine her in my mind, she looks kind of

240
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mousy and a little plain. And I

241
00:15:44,690 --> 00:15:48,470
know that he thinks that. She'S beautiful, but, like, you're not seeing it. I'm just

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not Wendy's character. I have more thoughts about it,

243
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but she is interesting. We'll get

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00:15:56,690 --> 00:16:00,270
into it. Wendy Michaels and her family, which includes her dad Peter, and her brother

245
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John, just moved to the city from Florida. Her father owns Never

246
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Air Land airports. And although

247
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he has a very refined,

248
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,840
well loved facade, he actually has long

249
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arms in the criminal underworld. Wendy's mom tragically died in a car Accident

250
00:16:19,620 --> 00:16:23,440
when she was young, and for the earliest part of her life was

251
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basically groomed to be the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur.

252
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So much so that she was called her father's little shadow.

253
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However, as she aged, her father has become absent

254
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and she has taken over the maternal duties for

255
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her younger brother John, who is mercilessly bullied

256
00:16:43,530 --> 00:16:47,190
by his peers. Although she lives in her father's mansion and has a

257
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very wealthy lifestyle, she still likes to work to keep herself

258
00:16:51,690 --> 00:16:54,750
busy. And she has a part time job at a coffee shop where

259
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Hook shows up during one of her shifts and

260
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tells off a unruly customer, showcasing the magnitude

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00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,660
of his power and influence. And in the next scene, we see him in the

262
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,660
basement of the jr where he has taken the unruly

263
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,980
customer hostage and is torturing him for his transgressions

264
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against Wendy. Good. That guy was such a dick. He was a dick.

265
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You just know if you treat Waitstaff

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like, oh, yeah, you know, that you are treating everyone

267
00:17:28,279 --> 00:17:31,619
else in your life like they are less than. And I feel that death

268
00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:35,459
was justified for him. Sure. I understand

269
00:17:35,619 --> 00:17:39,259
now why Carmen doesn't want us to have the death penalty in

270
00:17:39,759 --> 00:17:43,299
our cult. Because you would be knocking people off left and right. Men.

271
00:17:43,619 --> 00:17:46,979
Okay. Just the men. Yeah. Okay. I think women can

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be redeemed. Oh, okay. For the most part.

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I do remember when I worked at Nordstrom, it was the first Trump Hillary

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election, and I had voted for Hillary. And spoiler,

275
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I'm who shocked there. Yeah, I voted for Hillary. That's why actually, I voted

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for Bernie. And then he was. Yeah, literally, like, squashed.

277
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Then I was forced to vote for Hillary. But this girl I worked with was

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like, you know that the Clintons have actually

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killed people? Like, not even speculation. They've killed people.

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And I was like, okay. So she's like, you're telling me that there are

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people that you would kill? If I'm going to get away with it and have

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the resources. Are you joking? Yeah, I am. She had

283
00:18:33,570 --> 00:18:36,950
such a big problem with it, and I was just like,

284
00:18:37,510 --> 00:18:41,270
yeah, there are. I can think of at least five that I

285
00:18:41,770 --> 00:18:45,240
don't think need to be here any longer. So I've always been a

286
00:18:45,740 --> 00:18:49,440
villain, and. I really don't know that I

287
00:18:49,940 --> 00:18:53,240
have it in me. But you, if you could have somebody

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00:18:53,740 --> 00:18:56,240
else do it for you, just know that I'm here.

289
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Noted. So let's talk a

290
00:19:01,060 --> 00:19:04,200
little bit about Hook and Wendy and the way that they interact with

291
00:19:04,700 --> 00:19:07,960
each other. Okay. You hate it. I do. No, the thing of it

292
00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:12,750
is, I don't hate It. I hate think the most natural

293
00:19:13,230 --> 00:19:16,510
interactions that are written in this book are the ones between Hook and

294
00:19:17,010 --> 00:19:20,830
Wendy. Everything outside of those interactions feels

295
00:19:21,230 --> 00:19:24,670
clunky and forced. And I don't

296
00:19:25,150 --> 00:19:28,870
know how to describe it. I understand why the

297
00:19:29,370 --> 00:19:33,390
author wrote Wendy the way that she did. To your point, she's written

298
00:19:33,890 --> 00:19:37,860
very childlike initially, but then she makes

299
00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:41,540
all of these very adult comments.

300
00:19:42,340 --> 00:19:45,780
Like all of a sudden gets around Hook. And she just like, all of

301
00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,980
a. Sudden is like so bold. And it's like this pretty mouth will say whatever

302
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,940
the fuck it wants. And it's like you were literally just like,

303
00:19:54,100 --> 00:19:57,420
not but five minutes ago were like, oh, my God,

304
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,260
are they gonna like me? I don't think they're gonna like me. They don't like

305
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,130
me. I don't like that. I will agree with

306
00:20:04,630 --> 00:20:08,650
that. I think that the way she interacts with her friends Angie and Maria Marie

307
00:20:08,810 --> 00:20:12,730
is very realistic. Really. In the first, like, little chunk

308
00:20:13,230 --> 00:20:16,170
where they're baiting her to get her to go to the bar was very realistic.

309
00:20:16,570 --> 00:20:20,570
A type of girl that would be baited into going to the bar because your

310
00:20:21,070 --> 00:20:23,930
friends are basically calling you a baby and asking where your babysitter is.

311
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She read as defiant to me.

312
00:20:27,450 --> 00:20:31,620
The relationship with her father with Peter seemed very weird.

313
00:20:31,860 --> 00:20:35,260
Interesting because she was somehow blinded to what he

314
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,460
was doing. Which seems insane to me because we get to it throughout the

315
00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,220
whole book. Maybe you didn't, but Peter is very dismissive of John.

316
00:20:43,460 --> 00:20:46,580
He's not very nice to John. He doesn't really look out for John.

317
00:20:46,740 --> 00:20:50,220
Wendy's a little shadow. John just like, can't. He can't be bothered

318
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:54,460
to parent him. And Wendy seeing that when she is so protective

319
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:59,200
of John. For me, no. I would have seen through

320
00:20:59,700 --> 00:21:03,120
my parent, sure. I mean, that they were not a good person,

321
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,160
but I don't. Do you think that she felt like he was a good person?

322
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:10,640
She. I feel like for a lot of the book made excuses

323
00:21:11,140 --> 00:21:14,480
for him and didn't really believe who he was. But at

324
00:21:14,980 --> 00:21:18,000
the same time, she was. So easily convinced that he was bad.

325
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,080
Yeah, but when she told him and she's like, we moved here so that you

326
00:21:21,580 --> 00:21:25,350
would be home more. Why. I know, but that's what I'm saying,

327
00:21:25,850 --> 00:21:29,270
though, that feels the most natural. Because the reason that she's written like

328
00:21:29,770 --> 00:21:32,630
that is because that's the only way that her and Hook work. That's the only

329
00:21:33,130 --> 00:21:36,950
way for her to be able to see past that. And she has years and

330
00:21:37,450 --> 00:21:40,230
years and years of practice of doing that with her dad. This is the One

331
00:21:40,730 --> 00:21:43,310
thing that I really liked about this book is that Hook is a bad guy.

332
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He is a bad guy from beginning to end. And one of my biggest pet

333
00:21:47,290 --> 00:21:50,380
peeves is when we have a bad guy who is like, he has a soft

334
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:54,140
spot for the girl and then it's like he just is like a

335
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,700
total prince all the time and he never does anything to hurt her. And.

336
00:21:57,860 --> 00:22:01,660
And in this case, like, we haven't gotten there yet. But she has a

337
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:06,260
very real to life experience with a literal psychopath,

338
00:22:06,340 --> 00:22:09,900
because this guy is a psychopath. And she has

339
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,940
years and years and years training to look past

340
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,480
all of the bad behavior and still find something to love about that person.

341
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,920
And so it makes sense to me that she's written like that. But then outside

342
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,480
of the context of her relationship with Hook or with her dad

343
00:22:25,980 --> 00:22:29,040
or with her brother, she's not that person. And I don't like that.

344
00:22:29,540 --> 00:22:33,000
I feel like there needs to be some continuation of that into the rest of

345
00:22:33,500 --> 00:22:37,000
her life. Could that be the. How the naivety is written though? Like, could that

346
00:22:37,500 --> 00:22:41,760
just be her being a 20 year old? Is she naive, though? Because then like

347
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,360
again, like when they run into each other in the club here when she's on

348
00:22:45,860 --> 00:22:49,320
her way to the bathroom and he's like, oh, like put the pretty mouth to

349
00:22:49,820 --> 00:22:52,440
good use or whatever the fucking stupid thing that he says is right. And she's

350
00:22:52,940 --> 00:22:55,760
like, she's like, I'll use this pretty mouth for whatever the fuck I want to.

351
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,160
That's not giving naive. That's out of character to me.

352
00:22:59,660 --> 00:23:02,840
Agreed. Agreed with that. Yeah. And there are going to be a couple

353
00:23:03,340 --> 00:23:06,240
other things that we're going to come up on here where it's like, this character

354
00:23:06,740 --> 00:23:10,490
does not track. And I don't. We don't necessarily see her growing

355
00:23:10,990 --> 00:23:14,250
into a strong woman. I think all of her

356
00:23:14,750 --> 00:23:18,170
strong moments are out of character. Because the next second. And we

357
00:23:18,670 --> 00:23:22,050
will. I have thoughts later, we'll talk about it. The next

358
00:23:22,550 --> 00:23:25,970
second. She's back to being this sweet, innocent, naive girl. Yeah, I think we're on

359
00:23:26,470 --> 00:23:29,770
the same page with her. We just voiced it differently. Yeah, for sure.

360
00:23:30,330 --> 00:23:33,850
Wendy's friends take her out for another night at JR's. And this

361
00:23:34,350 --> 00:23:37,680
time Hook makes an appearance and approaches her and her friends

362
00:23:38,180 --> 00:23:41,800
at the bar and tells Wendy to go on a date with him.

363
00:23:42,300 --> 00:23:46,000
And she acknowledges that she understands. And I really had

364
00:23:46,500 --> 00:23:50,040
to make sure that I expressed that correctly because there is never,

365
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:54,080
not one single time in this entire book that

366
00:23:54,580 --> 00:23:58,440
Hook asks for consent. Every single thing that he does,

367
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,680
he's telling Wendy. And she is.

368
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,920
Yes. Okay, I agree. Which tracks with her

369
00:24:06,420 --> 00:24:10,240
childhood and how she was raised. Absolutely. At the end of the night, he is

370
00:24:10,740 --> 00:24:14,440
collected by one of Hook's lackeys and brought back to his office to say goodnight.

371
00:24:14,940 --> 00:24:18,240
And just as they are about to kiss, they're interrupted by Rue.

372
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,000
Was very disappointing. Was it? Yeah. It's a

373
00:24:22,500 --> 00:24:25,160
short book. We. You knew we were getting to it. I know, but I just

374
00:24:25,660 --> 00:24:29,120
feel like their chemistry was so well written. I agree with that.

375
00:24:29,390 --> 00:24:32,830
So, so well written. I think they, like you said, I think they are written.

376
00:24:33,330 --> 00:24:37,110
As I read Soulmates, I didn't read. Them as soulmates as

377
00:24:37,610 --> 00:24:40,910
much as I just think, like, their relationship to me makes sense.

378
00:24:41,310 --> 00:24:44,230
You know, it's like I would compare it to like sky and Sparrow when,

379
00:24:44,730 --> 00:24:48,350
like, Bryn Weaver wrote what you're.

380
00:24:48,430 --> 00:24:52,310
You already said that you're going to compare this book to sky and Sparrow and

381
00:24:52,810 --> 00:24:55,550
you know, I loved guidance. I'm not saying anything bad about it. Okay.

382
00:24:56,050 --> 00:24:59,450
Yet. Huh? We'll get there. No, but like, since Guy

383
00:24:59,950 --> 00:25:04,210
and Sparrow, the way that Bryn Weaver paired up Rose

384
00:25:04,770 --> 00:25:08,610
with Fion was thoughtful. Right. She used

385
00:25:08,690 --> 00:25:12,370
the same type of paternal love that Fion

386
00:25:12,450 --> 00:25:15,530
used to help dictate how his relationship was

387
00:25:16,030 --> 00:25:19,530
chosen. And in this case, she chose somebody who has clearly

388
00:25:20,030 --> 00:25:24,100
got some mommy issues and somebody who has daddy issues. And they

389
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,500
fit together like a puzzle piece. So I agree with that.

390
00:25:27,660 --> 00:25:30,740
Hook picks Wendy up for their date, and the date

391
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:33,340
is on his yacht. I loved this.

392
00:25:34,620 --> 00:25:38,140
I loved this. Yeah. He also lives on the yacht

393
00:25:38,380 --> 00:25:42,420
full time. Hook has some live on help named

394
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,980
Smee, who prepares and serves the dinner.

395
00:25:46,380 --> 00:25:50,320
And this is the part of the story here

396
00:25:50,820 --> 00:25:54,320
where things start to go a little bit off kilter for me. Wendy is asking

397
00:25:54,820 --> 00:25:58,400
Hook, like, tell me about yourself. And he's like,

398
00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,080
this is me. And kind of like gestures to his yacht.

399
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,400
And Wendy is like, this isn't who you are. This is

400
00:26:06,900 --> 00:26:10,200
what you have. I want to know what's in here. But she does this by

401
00:26:10,700 --> 00:26:13,840
getting up from her seat at the dinner table

402
00:26:14,180 --> 00:26:17,380
and going over to Hook and just plopping down

403
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,060
on his lap. I have a note about that. She's supposed to be a virgin.

404
00:26:21,380 --> 00:26:25,060
A young, naive girl. No, no, thank you.

405
00:26:25,220 --> 00:26:28,420
No, thank you. Are we gonna agree on this whole book? We will definitely agree

406
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,420
on this. Okay. Because it's. She's not giving.

407
00:26:32,660 --> 00:26:35,860
Where did the. Where did that confidence come from? A hundred percent.

408
00:26:36,020 --> 00:26:39,540
Yeah. It does not track at all. She was so nervous

409
00:26:39,780 --> 00:26:43,100
and like you said, literally thinking about him, wanting to go.

410
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,260
She is the one who Asks her friends to go to the Jolly Roger.

411
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,660
Yeah. To maybe run into him. Yeah. And now she

412
00:26:51,220 --> 00:26:54,740
has the confidence to go sit on his lap. Yeah. A hundred percent.

413
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,940
That's giving something I would do when I was never like this. You did do

414
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:01,380
that. I did do this. That's how Dave and I got together.

415
00:27:02,900 --> 00:27:06,300
I was never like this. I was not the one ever

416
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,620
thinking, like, oh, does he like me? Right. Yeah. A hundred percent. It doesn't.

417
00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:14,780
Yeah. The whole thing is just very out of character. What she's asking him is

418
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:18,780
very in character for her. Yes. Very, very much so. It tracks. But the

419
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,700
action there just. It really kind of takes me out of the book.

420
00:27:22,860 --> 00:27:26,140
And she didn't need to be written as a virgin. I could have seen

421
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:29,580
her being written as Wendy Winnie Darling. Yes.

422
00:27:29,820 --> 00:27:34,260
Because like. Like a strong woman who is

423
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,300
confident with herself and her body. Maybe, like, secretively,

424
00:27:38,380 --> 00:27:41,900
daddy doesn't need to know, but I feel like that would have tracked more

425
00:27:42,540 --> 00:27:45,660
as her being, like, secretly a freak rather than

426
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,540
she's a virgin who. I get the vibe she's not

427
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:53,300
watched porn, but just knows things

428
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,420
about herself somehow. We'll get there in, like, two minutes. Yeah.

429
00:27:57,580 --> 00:28:01,300
It does not track. Yeah. So he basically,

430
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,860
like, takes this opportunity not to talk about himself, but to kiss her instead

431
00:28:04,990 --> 00:28:08,020
of. Because he will not be told what to do. Nope.

432
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,980
So he's gonna kiss her and then we get a fun scene. Which scene.

433
00:28:13,940 --> 00:28:17,260
But this is where it doesn't track for me. Yes. Okay. I'm gonna tell

434
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,340
you guys what it is, and then we can talk about it. Hook tells Wendy

435
00:28:20,420 --> 00:28:24,300
to straddle him and grind herself against him. And then he

436
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,140
asks her, when you're all alone in your room, how do you make yourself

437
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,180
come? And she doesn't say anything. She just grabs his hand

438
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,350
and brings it to her throat. She is implying here that when she

439
00:28:36,850 --> 00:28:40,350
makes herself come, she chokes herself. She basically

440
00:28:40,850 --> 00:28:44,310
tells him that she needs her air cut off to orgasm. Yeah. He asks,

441
00:28:44,810 --> 00:28:47,550
like, you like him when I choke you? Or he says something like that.

442
00:28:48,050 --> 00:28:51,910
And then she's like, yes. Tell me how a virgin who has never watched porn

443
00:28:52,230 --> 00:28:55,430
magically found her way to having her hand on her throat.

444
00:28:55,670 --> 00:28:59,670
Yeah. To the point of cutting off her oxygen. Because she likes

445
00:29:00,190 --> 00:29:03,750
heavy breath play. Yes. Very heavy breath play. Who stumbles

446
00:29:04,250 --> 00:29:07,310
upon that. Yeah. I would have really liked to see him put his hand on

447
00:29:07,810 --> 00:29:11,550
her throat and her finding herself liking it. Yeah. Rather than her.

448
00:29:12,350 --> 00:29:15,630
This is some. This author does this a lot. She's into breath play.

449
00:29:15,870 --> 00:29:18,910
Oh. But I would have liked to see Here,

450
00:29:19,310 --> 00:29:23,390
Wendy finding out that she likes that rather than being written

451
00:29:23,890 --> 00:29:27,310
as a virgin. Yeah. Who sits on laps and wants you to choke her.

452
00:29:27,780 --> 00:29:31,580
How. It's a big. It's a big leap. Find that out. Yeah. Even first

453
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,780
learning about your body when you're young and how to get yourself

454
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,780
there in any capacity. But she literally says that she can only come if her

455
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:42,180
oxygen is cut off. Yeah. How do you find that out without.

456
00:29:42,420 --> 00:29:46,180
Yeah. Without having a partner. Agreed. Yeah.

457
00:29:46,340 --> 00:29:50,300
And that's where it didn't ruin the book for me. But I. Just to

458
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,540
clarify, if you are somebody who knew these things about you, like, we are not

459
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,840
judging. I think we are. Just because for me, I can't comprehend

460
00:29:59,340 --> 00:30:02,320
that, like, I fumbled around my body. I was. Oh, my God. Same.

461
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,160
Yeah. So just knowing. And let me just also say I

462
00:30:06,660 --> 00:30:10,160
was very, very, very active and

463
00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:13,840
curious about fumbling around my body. Yeah. So for all of the time.

464
00:30:14,340 --> 00:30:18,560
And I did watch porn at a very, very young age. So I had

465
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,960
a lot of opportunity to learn about some of the things

466
00:30:22,460 --> 00:30:26,490
I know now. And it took me many years, like a decade

467
00:30:26,990 --> 00:30:30,370
at least, of having sex before I was like, oh, yeah, I like a

468
00:30:30,870 --> 00:30:33,690
little mild choking. Oh, yeah. I like a little mild pain.

469
00:30:34,090 --> 00:30:38,130
You don't go to that at 20. No, normally. And it's because she sounds

470
00:30:38,630 --> 00:30:42,330
very, very. Yeah. Yes. She has not done this.

471
00:30:42,830 --> 00:30:46,290
She. I don't picture her being alone in her room, touching herself. In fact,

472
00:30:46,790 --> 00:30:49,290
we never see that in this entire book. And one of the other things that

473
00:30:49,790 --> 00:30:53,450
I really struggled with, too, is in that scene where she has the man

474
00:30:53,950 --> 00:30:57,270
that's being mean to her. She's like super clums and, like, super. She is

475
00:30:57,770 --> 00:31:00,710
written as incredibly graceful for the rest of the book. Yes.

476
00:31:01,210 --> 00:31:04,550
There is no more clumsiness. There is no more mistakes. There are

477
00:31:05,050 --> 00:31:08,870
no more mishaps. There's just a lot of inconsistency. I would have loved

478
00:31:09,370 --> 00:31:12,350
to love this Wendy as much as I loved Wendy Darling. And I think with

479
00:31:12,850 --> 00:31:16,150
a few tweaks, I could have. But just a couple things.

480
00:31:16,550 --> 00:31:19,830
I don't like reading about a virgin. Same. 100%.

481
00:31:20,150 --> 00:31:23,980
I want to hear about a woman who is a little more in

482
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,860
tune with her own body rather than. Because. I'm sorry,

483
00:31:28,260 --> 00:31:32,100
Your first time. I am sorry. Yeah. Your first time is

484
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:36,100
not this magic. Yeah. This is not what happens.

485
00:31:36,180 --> 00:31:39,540
Yeah. It's like on the floor of your boyfriend's bedroom

486
00:31:39,700 --> 00:31:43,780
with his parents upstairs. Right. And it's awkward and you're

487
00:31:44,260 --> 00:31:47,700
tense and you're not last. It hurt.

488
00:31:47,860 --> 00:31:50,180
Yeah. I. Yeah. No.

489
00:31:51,220 --> 00:31:55,310
So give Me, Winnie darling, any day.

490
00:31:55,710 --> 00:31:59,270
I think that there's like the virginity thing is like I again,

491
00:31:59,770 --> 00:32:04,070
I totally respect virginity and I just think like when

492
00:32:04,570 --> 00:32:08,110
reading it in a smutty book, it's giving sort of a childlike,

493
00:32:08,510 --> 00:32:11,870
I don't know, essence that I just am not fond of. Agreed.

494
00:32:12,190 --> 00:32:15,550
She's 20. We already made her significantly younger than him.

495
00:32:16,110 --> 00:32:19,680
Less experience. Like, no, she's not even going to college

496
00:32:20,180 --> 00:32:23,160
because she has to stay home and like take care of John. Yeah. We've already

497
00:32:23,660 --> 00:32:27,040
made her basically like an infant and now we're just continuing this

498
00:32:27,540 --> 00:32:31,360
stereotype. And it's not. It just doesn't track. See? And it's so interesting

499
00:32:31,860 --> 00:32:35,280
that you are getting infant because I get motherly most

500
00:32:35,780 --> 00:32:38,880
of the book. I feel like she is mothering the people around her.

501
00:32:39,380 --> 00:32:42,800
Even her dad. Well, yes, she very much is like the caretaker in that

502
00:32:43,300 --> 00:32:46,560
house. Yeah. So it's. But with Hulk, I feel like she's made to be very,

503
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,300
very childlike. Which is also interesting because she says multip times

504
00:32:50,540 --> 00:32:53,420
that he treats her like an equal. Multiple times.

505
00:32:54,140 --> 00:32:57,580
Yeah. 100. I have a note about it. No, I. 100.

506
00:32:57,820 --> 00:33:00,340
That is exactly how I feel about it. At one point in time he says

507
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,700
something like, I'm as much yours as you are mine or something like that.

508
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,700
And it's like, sir, we see inside of your brain and you call her

509
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,780
your little pet. So believe me when I say that we're not equals here.

510
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:16,060
But she really sees him. And again, it goes very much back to like

511
00:33:16,430 --> 00:33:20,510
very, very young, very malleable, very easily

512
00:33:20,590 --> 00:33:23,830
influenced. And I'm not saying that as

513
00:33:24,330 --> 00:33:26,390
a 20 year old woman who's been through the things that she's been through that

514
00:33:26,890 --> 00:33:30,430
you can't like be a very competent and,

515
00:33:31,070 --> 00:33:34,470
you know, well developed person. Yeah. Wendy didn't need to be

516
00:33:34,970 --> 00:33:37,870
20. She did not know. She could have gone to college.

517
00:33:37,950 --> 00:33:40,750
Yes. And been home to help with John now.

518
00:33:40,830 --> 00:33:44,160
Yeah. 100%. All right, so Hook

519
00:33:44,660 --> 00:33:48,600
is choking Wendy. He starts fingering her. She orgasms.

520
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,560
He tells her that no one else is allowed to touch her and then she

521
00:33:53,060 --> 00:33:54,360
passes out. That's giving young.

522
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,960
Shoot. He does a lot of praising, which I

523
00:34:01,460 --> 00:34:05,120
do. Like he does her a lot. How perfect she is. It does

524
00:34:05,620 --> 00:34:09,340
get to be repetitive though. Yeah. So that first sex scene didn't do

525
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,900
much for me. Yeah. Honestly, every sex scene in this book did nothing for me.

526
00:34:13,060 --> 00:34:15,540
Really? I thought it was very sexy.

527
00:34:15,940 --> 00:34:20,260
It is, but it wasn't like cold curling.

528
00:34:20,420 --> 00:34:23,859
Yeah, I agree. I was struggling when I was thinking about whether or not this

529
00:34:24,359 --> 00:34:27,060
Was a. Because I was like, well, this is clearly a smutty book. Like,

530
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,340
just based on the writing alone. We'll get to it when we get to our

531
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,340
ratings. This is clearly a smutty book. But then I was kind of like,

532
00:34:32,580 --> 00:34:36,440
it's really. I know. It's really not that smutty.

533
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,040
It was hard to quantify it. I think our ratings will be very interesting.

534
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:44,080
I agree. So she wakes up, and this

535
00:34:44,580 --> 00:34:48,600
is where they joke about Stockholm syndrome. And he tells her to

536
00:34:49,100 --> 00:34:52,760
tell him that she's his, and she does. And again, he never

537
00:34:53,260 --> 00:34:56,560
asks. He just tells her to tell him. This is where I have

538
00:34:57,060 --> 00:35:00,040
a note. I start to see. Hook is supposed to be a criminal mastermind.

539
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,000
He's, like, the head of some underground organization. And he's

540
00:35:04,500 --> 00:35:07,720
already, like, Wendy is unraveling him. He's already falling in love with Wendy.

541
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,680
And I would think that a criminal mastermind like this

542
00:35:12,180 --> 00:35:15,000
would have a little more control over his emotions. Yeah.

543
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,840
See it time again. Oh, he got to be this criminal mastermind.

544
00:35:19,340 --> 00:35:22,080
I don't know. I have a note about it. I was going to. I skipped

545
00:35:22,580 --> 00:35:24,840
it and was, like, going to come back to it later. But, yes, at the

546
00:35:25,340 --> 00:35:28,610
beginning of this book, when we're originally reading the first few scenes with

547
00:35:29,110 --> 00:35:32,250
Hook, he is written as, like,

548
00:35:32,750 --> 00:35:35,130
untouchable. Yes. He is written as,

549
00:35:35,850 --> 00:35:39,490
like. I would compare him to the, like, the pan from the

550
00:35:39,990 --> 00:35:43,730
Never King, where it's like, he's written as, like, larger than life. I imagine him

551
00:35:44,230 --> 00:35:47,410
as this just beast of a man. And the deeper

552
00:35:47,910 --> 00:35:50,210
that we get into the book and the farther that we get into the book,

553
00:35:50,710 --> 00:35:54,550
the more I'm like, no, he's just a man. He is like,

554
00:35:55,050 --> 00:35:57,790
the definition of a man who fell into success. And the fact that he,

555
00:35:57,950 --> 00:36:01,710
like Rue, is even like, you need to stay behind. You're too intimidating.

556
00:36:01,870 --> 00:36:06,350
Yeah. Is he. He's kind of an idiot Again,

557
00:36:06,850 --> 00:36:09,910
we'll get there. Yeah, we will get there. Rue and Hook are in

558
00:36:10,410 --> 00:36:13,470
negotiations with Peter about partnering to run their drugs.

559
00:36:13,970 --> 00:36:17,790
Pixie is what the name of the drug is through Peter's airports. And while

560
00:36:18,290 --> 00:36:21,870
this is happening, things are starting to fall apart within their network,

561
00:36:22,030 --> 00:36:25,950
including someone encroaching on their territory and

562
00:36:26,450 --> 00:36:30,230
picking up their monthly payments from the businesses that they get

563
00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:34,510
paid to protect. While Hook is interrogating one of the businessmen,

564
00:36:35,010 --> 00:36:38,510
a new bakery in town. Wendy walks into the bakery,

565
00:36:39,010 --> 00:36:42,670
and he encourages her to go to the JR that night, where he eventually picks

566
00:36:43,170 --> 00:36:45,860
her up and takes her back to his place. Nicole and I are not impressed

567
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,700
with the scene. No Here, Hook offers to show Wendy what he thinks

568
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:54,180
of her. They make out, and Wendy bites his lip until

569
00:36:54,260 --> 00:36:58,260
he bleeds again. It just doesn't track.

570
00:36:58,660 --> 00:37:02,540
No. It's harder to be mad when you're also

571
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,740
mad. It doesn't usually happen. Usually I love it and

572
00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:10,550
I'm trying to convince you. Yeah. And you hate it. Yeah. And then

573
00:37:11,050 --> 00:37:13,070
we fight about it, but now it's just, like, I say it and you're like,

574
00:37:13,570 --> 00:37:16,190
yeah. It's not as much fun. I know.

575
00:37:16,910 --> 00:37:19,790
Well, the next book we do, we're definitely gonna disagree.

576
00:37:19,870 --> 00:37:23,390
Oh, great. I love that you guys like

577
00:37:23,890 --> 00:37:26,870
those. You will like the next one, because I think we do pretty much agree

578
00:37:27,370 --> 00:37:31,110
on this book. We both have a lot of big thoughts. Yeah. Which actually

579
00:37:31,610 --> 00:37:35,070
has been kind of fun so far. Yeah. I feel like I.

580
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,760
You're so pretty. This is probably one of the more thoughtful

581
00:37:40,260 --> 00:37:43,920
conversations that we've ever had about these books. So usually I have my

582
00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:48,040
little notebook. Yeah. And I write down, as you heard last week,

583
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:53,360
I write things down. Yeah. That I

584
00:37:53,860 --> 00:37:56,200
don't put, like, my thoughts in there. I just kind of fly by the seat

585
00:37:56,700 --> 00:38:00,160
of my pants. Yeah. This time, like, I did my notes and I typed up

586
00:38:00,660 --> 00:38:03,940
my notes and I put my thoughts in it that I had,

587
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,500
like, as I was doing it, because I made notes about it. So I feel

588
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,700
more prepared today. Yeah. Twilight is still on in the background,

589
00:38:11,940 --> 00:38:15,460
and Amanda keeps glancing to it. Well. Because Bella is

590
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,740
a vampire now and she had a baby, and one

591
00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:23,900
of the Denali family members saw the baby and thinks that they've

592
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:28,260
committed a crime against vampires and made a vampire baby,

593
00:38:28,770 --> 00:38:32,010
but they didn't. And Bella was trying to catch her to, like, be like,

594
00:38:32,510 --> 00:38:34,490
hey, what's going on? And she, like, fled so that she could go tell the

595
00:38:34,990 --> 00:38:38,330
Volturi on them. I do think that we should maybe,

596
00:38:38,830 --> 00:38:41,970
like, watch and react to Twilight at some point. I would.

597
00:38:42,050 --> 00:38:45,330
I saw Twilight one time. Yeah. When it first came out,

598
00:38:45,830 --> 00:38:49,410
because my sister really liked it. I've not seen it since. I never saw any

599
00:38:49,910 --> 00:38:51,890
other one. So I think that would be interesting.

600
00:38:53,650 --> 00:38:58,010
You guys can see how excited Amanda gets on this and

601
00:38:58,510 --> 00:39:01,260
how little I care. Okay. Well,

602
00:39:02,060 --> 00:39:06,020
where were we in the scene? Oh, yes. So he's bleeding. For whatever

603
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,860
reason, it turns him on, even though normally the sight of his own blood makes

604
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,820
him squeamish. Which, if you've got that thing,

605
00:39:14,220 --> 00:39:17,260
like a Vasa Vega reaction or something,

606
00:39:17,580 --> 00:39:20,900
you have that thing. It's not. You're not just going to get over

607
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,780
it. It's like a reaction. You can't help. Right. Well. And it just feels

608
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,540
a little bit like, aren't you kind of in the wrong business? You're pretty much

609
00:39:28,700 --> 00:39:32,940
bound to get hurt at some point in time. Also, as a criminal mastermind,

610
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:36,780
in the. First scene, he slit his uncle's carotid artery and had no

611
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:40,460
thoughts, no feelings about the blood. I mean, I guess he says his own blood,

612
00:39:40,780 --> 00:39:44,300
which I don't get. I don't get it. Yeah, that part.

613
00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:50,460
I didn't even write it down. Yeah. He rips

614
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:54,770
her underwear off, goes down on her to orgasm while choking

615
00:39:55,270 --> 00:39:58,330
her. So we're still being thoughtful about that.

616
00:39:58,730 --> 00:40:02,530
And then Wendy decides that she's going to repay

617
00:40:03,030 --> 00:40:06,650
the kindness, and she crawls to him for the first

618
00:40:07,150 --> 00:40:10,930
time. Yes. And she takes his dick out. And then immediately

619
00:40:11,430 --> 00:40:15,050
is like, I may have overestimated my abilities here because

620
00:40:15,130 --> 00:40:18,860
he is monster cock. Of course he is. He's a man

621
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,300
and a book. So he has the most giant.

622
00:40:22,540 --> 00:40:25,740
Yeah, she's so, so small. The soup bowl.

623
00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:29,420
He has a soup bowl penis. Yes. And she's so tiny and she's

624
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,700
so petite. And she can't wrap her hands around it. Fit it in her little

625
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,980
mouth. And he's going to just talk about how tight she is. Yeah. In every

626
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,460
orifice. Yeah. Yeah. And like, how she needs to relax so that he can get

627
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,900
it all in there. So he tells her to get up and strip.

628
00:40:44,190 --> 00:40:47,550
There's inconsistency here. So he tells her to get up to strip.

629
00:40:47,950 --> 00:40:51,230
He's stroking herself and she does. And he's like,

630
00:40:51,870 --> 00:40:54,510
you know, don't torture me here. And like,

631
00:40:54,670 --> 00:40:58,150
whatever. And she says, say please. And he gets

632
00:40:58,650 --> 00:41:02,230
up off the couch and he rips her dress off. So then. Well,

633
00:41:02,730 --> 00:41:05,790
he's already ripped her underwear off. Now he's ripped her dress off.

634
00:41:06,270 --> 00:41:10,030
And then he goes to lay back down and she says that she's playing with

635
00:41:10,530 --> 00:41:13,880
her nipples, so I have to assume that she's got no bra on. And then

636
00:41:14,380 --> 00:41:17,440
he says, continue. What else does she have to take off?

637
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:20,960
What else is she wearing? I don't understand. Pulling your tit out of

638
00:41:21,460 --> 00:41:24,160
a bra is a super not sexy thing to do. No,

639
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,040
no, I. It's. I don't know. I. That part

640
00:41:28,540 --> 00:41:32,360
was very confusing for me. I read it three times. Were you

641
00:41:32,860 --> 00:41:35,440
too invested in it? What am I missing here?

642
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:40,040
So then she ends up going down on him. I will say, in this

643
00:41:40,540 --> 00:41:43,480
scene, I know that the sex scenes didn't do it for you. This is a

644
00:41:43,980 --> 00:41:46,840
great example of anticipation Done. Right. Okay.

645
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,520
So in Skye and Sparrow, when they're like making cotton candy.

646
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,560
No anticipation, no sexual build.

647
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,760
This was a great example of. I was, like, ready for

648
00:41:58,260 --> 00:42:01,320
them to have sex at this point. I was like. Like. I was, like,

649
00:42:01,820 --> 00:42:05,520
championing it in Skyth and Sparrow. I was like, oh, my God, could you

650
00:42:06,020 --> 00:42:09,120
please? Why are we making the cut? I was, like, so mad about the process

651
00:42:09,620 --> 00:42:12,120
that I. Like, it was so unsexy and just completely took me out of the

652
00:42:12,620 --> 00:42:15,960
scene. After a few minutes, where she's like, oh, I don't know how I'm gonna

653
00:42:16,460 --> 00:42:19,960
keep doing this. I'm exhausted already. He stops her,

654
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:23,760
gets her on her back, where they proceed to have sex, where he

655
00:42:24,260 --> 00:42:27,160
takes Wendy's virginity. And. And it feels so good.

656
00:42:27,240 --> 00:42:30,440
Yeah. She. There's a little pain. Yeah. She powers through.

657
00:42:31,300 --> 00:42:35,260
Absolutely not. Yeah. Absolutely not. Yeah. And then you have

658
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:40,820
to keep in mind, this is how much I didn't like sns. Okay. But she

659
00:42:41,540 --> 00:42:44,860
asked him, are you going to come inside me? And he says, is that

660
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,740
what you want? And she says, yes. And he does. And Scythe and Sparrow,

661
00:42:48,820 --> 00:42:52,260
their conversation about him coming inside of her was.

662
00:42:52,660 --> 00:42:56,100
It was a little sloppy. It was sloppy. Like, this is how it should have

663
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,470
been done. If Scythe and Sparrow's sex scenes had been written like this, I would

664
00:42:59,970 --> 00:43:03,310
have liked it more. Okay. I don't think you would have. Well, that's because Rose

665
00:43:03,810 --> 00:43:07,110
is stinky. Exactly. And I just. You couldn't get past it. Get past that.

666
00:43:07,610 --> 00:43:11,310
No, don't be stinky. I don't know what you want from me. The next

667
00:43:11,810 --> 00:43:15,670
morning, Wendy shares with Hook that she has to take her brother John to

668
00:43:16,170 --> 00:43:19,750
boarding school to drop him off. Leading up to this moment, we learn that Peter

669
00:43:20,250 --> 00:43:23,850
is very hands off and cold with John and that initially, because of

670
00:43:24,350 --> 00:43:27,810
the bullying, had agreed to let him homeschool, but later changed

671
00:43:28,310 --> 00:43:32,490
his mind and decided to put him in this boarding school. But despite Wendy's

672
00:43:32,990 --> 00:43:36,890
plea to tell him in person, he hadn't and instead told

673
00:43:37,390 --> 00:43:40,610
him unceremoniously over the phone. So this dropping him off is a

674
00:43:41,110 --> 00:43:44,650
big deal for Wendy because it's a very emotionally charged moment for her.

675
00:43:45,210 --> 00:43:48,130
And for whatever reason, Hook is like,

676
00:43:48,630 --> 00:43:51,410
oh, do you want me to go with you? And she's like, yeah, that'd be

677
00:43:51,910 --> 00:43:55,210
great. I get the vibe kind of from the start that Hook sees a kindred

678
00:43:55,710 --> 00:43:59,210
spirit in John just because Hook was basically left alone

679
00:43:59,710 --> 00:44:03,570
around the same age and had no one at that point to look out for

680
00:44:04,070 --> 00:44:07,410
him. John does have Wendy, but he's going to this boarding school that Hook

681
00:44:07,910 --> 00:44:11,330
also wanted to go to this boarding school. And he was told that

682
00:44:11,830 --> 00:44:15,900
this boarding school is known for its discipline and now took to

683
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:19,740
clarify. Sorry, I just have to clarify something. Yeah. So at

684
00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:24,020
the point where he asks, do you want me to go

685
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,860
with you? He still hasn't met John yet. No. But he still

686
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,499
knows that John is 16 and being sent to a boarding school. Yeah. That he

687
00:44:31,999 --> 00:44:35,340
didn't necessarily want to go to. Yeah. But just so that we're like,

688
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:39,540
storyline, like, timeline. I just want to make sure, like, that's. Yeah. That he's

689
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:43,940
not. He's not offering because he has a kindred spirit with John. He doesn't

690
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,860
have the kindred spirit until he meets John. Yeah. Oh, you felt it

691
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,700
before. Yeah. Oh, interesting. I think the moment he heard

692
00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:55,340
about John, he wanted to be there. And I think it could

693
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:58,940
have had something to do with Wendy. But I think as soon as he heard

694
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,580
that John was 16 and going to his boarding school, even though he'd never

695
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:06,300
met him, he wanted to be there to make

696
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,790
sure it went well. Oh, interesting. See, I missed that.

697
00:45:10,190 --> 00:45:13,710
And then also another clarifying point. The reason that Hook

698
00:45:14,210 --> 00:45:17,510
wanted to go to this boarding school despite the discipline was because it

699
00:45:18,010 --> 00:45:19,630
would have meant that he would be able to get away from his uncle,

700
00:45:20,130 --> 00:45:23,910
who was still abusing him at that point. So they go back to Wendy's

701
00:45:24,410 --> 00:45:27,990
place to pick up John. While Wendy is changing, Hook meets

702
00:45:28,490 --> 00:45:31,790
John. And he decides that when he goes to the school,

703
00:45:32,190 --> 00:45:36,170
he is going to make sure that John's

704
00:45:36,670 --> 00:45:40,970
experience does not have some of the discipline that

705
00:45:41,050 --> 00:45:44,650
the school is known for. And he does that actively when they get there.

706
00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:48,530
And he gives John his card, too, and says, call me. Yeah, anytime you

707
00:45:49,030 --> 00:45:53,570
need anything. And again, I just have to go back to fucking

708
00:45:54,070 --> 00:45:57,050
hate it. But the inconsistencies in character just does not.

709
00:45:57,210 --> 00:46:00,410
He says over and over and over again that Wendy is making

710
00:46:00,910 --> 00:46:04,790
him feel something that he has never felt. Empathy and compassion

711
00:46:05,290 --> 00:46:08,590
and all of these things. And yet somehow he has this, like, big soft

712
00:46:09,090 --> 00:46:12,550
spot for John. It just does not track it. I don't know. I just.

713
00:46:12,950 --> 00:46:16,350
It kind of does because he also. We didn't talk about it,

714
00:46:16,850 --> 00:46:19,710
but he also took Smee in. Smee was a homeless man sitting outside of the

715
00:46:20,210 --> 00:46:23,110
Jolly Roger. That's true. And he did take SME in. He felt bad. He met

716
00:46:23,610 --> 00:46:26,390
him, took him in, gave him a job, gave him a home.

717
00:46:26,790 --> 00:46:30,230
Sure. So he does kind of seem to have a soft spot for,

718
00:46:30,310 --> 00:46:34,000
like, helpless. Animals, but I simultaneously feel like he would just as

719
00:46:34,500 --> 00:46:38,920
easily kick a dog. Well, unfortunately, while he is dropping

720
00:46:39,420 --> 00:46:42,680
John off with Wendy, Rue makes the

721
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:47,040
very unfortunate decision to meet with Peter in person, alone,

722
00:46:47,540 --> 00:46:50,840
and is brutally murdered. By the time Hook shows up,

723
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:55,320
Rue has been hung up and nailed to a tree and disemboweled.

724
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:59,700
Just gruesome. Graphic. He says he's

725
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:03,700
been like, left for animals. Yeah. He, like, pulls the nails out.

726
00:47:04,260 --> 00:47:08,060
It was a pretty gruesome scene. And you can, like.

727
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:12,500
She does a really good job of writing him spiraling. Agreed. Yeah, it's stupid,

728
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,660
but I agree. And he spirals very, very quickly and basically

729
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:20,300
comes to the conclusion that Wendy is working with her dad and had

730
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,380
intentionally distracted Hook to keep him away so

731
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,320
that Peter could kill Rue and seize control of their territory.

732
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,800
And in retaliation, he kidnaps her and holds

733
00:47:32,300 --> 00:47:36,000
her hostage to interrogate her about her involvement. When we say he

734
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:39,680
kidnaps her and like, holds her hostage. He hates

735
00:47:40,180 --> 00:47:43,120
her. Yes. This is not. It's not cute.

736
00:47:43,620 --> 00:47:46,880
It's not cute. No, this is not. That tiktoker, that blonde guy

737
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:50,320
who is. Like, why'd you pick

738
00:47:50,820 --> 00:47:54,350
me? I do need to say this

739
00:47:54,850 --> 00:47:58,470
was dumb. His little spiral was dumb. We've kind. You've kind of

740
00:47:58,970 --> 00:48:02,710
touched on it. All these men he's interrogating are people that, like, work for

741
00:48:03,210 --> 00:48:06,950
him or with him who have betrayed him. He is getting betrayed

742
00:48:07,109 --> 00:48:10,630
left and right by these men. And he immediately goes to

743
00:48:11,130 --> 00:48:14,510
Wendy, even though he's the one who offered to take them

744
00:48:15,010 --> 00:48:18,990
to the school. He thinks this 20 year old naive girl is

745
00:48:19,490 --> 00:48:22,630
a criminal mastermind. And I thought it was dumb. I don't think that

746
00:48:23,130 --> 00:48:27,670
he thinks that she's a criminal mastermind. I think that he has become very accustomed

747
00:48:27,750 --> 00:48:31,430
to being able to control her

748
00:48:31,830 --> 00:48:35,230
actions, and he assumes that she

749
00:48:35,730 --> 00:48:39,310
is a good girl. He says it multiple times where he's

750
00:48:39,810 --> 00:48:43,470
like, you're so good at following directions. And he thinks that she

751
00:48:43,970 --> 00:48:47,830
is kind of just a dumb, innocent girl that.

752
00:48:48,330 --> 00:48:51,750
Is following directions, but smart enough to get a guy to fall

753
00:48:52,250 --> 00:48:55,470
in love with you. He's being betrayed left and right. Yeah,

754
00:48:55,550 --> 00:48:59,350
go off, honey. Let's talk about that. And he immediately goes to like,

755
00:48:59,850 --> 00:49:03,270
the number of times that he's interrogating his men because they've betrayed

756
00:49:03,770 --> 00:49:07,670
him is actually outrageous. Again, you're a terrible criminal mastermind.

757
00:49:08,170 --> 00:49:11,230
And I would say, honestly, of all of the character things, that is the most

758
00:49:11,730 --> 00:49:15,270
practical because this guy is a fucking loose cannon. And it makes sense to

759
00:49:15,770 --> 00:49:18,410
me that he would not inspect by our loyalty. I know, but how did you

760
00:49:18,910 --> 00:49:22,770
get there? How did you. He got there through Rue. And again, we go back

761
00:49:23,270 --> 00:49:26,650
to this. Like, he's an egomaniac he says multiple times in the beginning

762
00:49:27,150 --> 00:49:30,250
of the book that he's the real boss. Rue is the real boss. And that

763
00:49:30,750 --> 00:49:33,850
Rue is just the. Is just the. What's it called?

764
00:49:34,250 --> 00:49:37,650
The figurehead. The figurehead, yeah. And that he's really the one

765
00:49:38,150 --> 00:49:41,410
running things. And it's like, this guy has such an inflated sense

766
00:49:41,910 --> 00:49:45,870
of ego that he really thinks that. And when Ru dies, he realizes really

767
00:49:46,370 --> 00:49:49,310
fudgeing quickly that he had absolute. He was not running shit.

768
00:49:49,470 --> 00:49:53,350
No, like. And probably the only reason that these people were somewhat

769
00:49:53,850 --> 00:49:57,790
staying in line is because they respected Ru and not him. So same.

770
00:49:58,030 --> 00:50:01,550
I would have followed Rue. I would not Hook. I would be like,

771
00:50:01,870 --> 00:50:05,510
another one turned on you. He is so unhinged, though.

772
00:50:06,010 --> 00:50:09,480
Like, we don't talk about it in these. In this recap, but, like, we have

773
00:50:09,980 --> 00:50:13,040
what, probably four or five scenes where he is,

774
00:50:13,540 --> 00:50:17,160
like, torturing and maiming people. Yes. He's completely out of

775
00:50:17,660 --> 00:50:22,320
his mind. So the opportunity comes for him to break Peter when he

776
00:50:22,820 --> 00:50:26,440
and Wendy are invited to an appearance at a

777
00:50:26,940 --> 00:50:30,760
fundraising gala as a couple. And Wendy,

778
00:50:31,260 --> 00:50:34,480
in this moment, is being forced into compliance by the

779
00:50:34,980 --> 00:50:38,220
looming threat that Hooked has made against her brother's life.

780
00:50:38,460 --> 00:50:42,220
And at dinner that night, Hook realizes that Wendy had nothing

781
00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:46,940
to do with Rue's death. And Wendy starts to piece together that her father is

782
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,980
actually more nefarious than she thought.

783
00:50:50,620 --> 00:50:54,100
And on their way home that night, they stopped by the J. R to discover

784
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:57,940
that it has been burned to the ground. This scene I did kind of

785
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:01,820
think was funny because Moira is outside. We didn't talk about

786
00:51:01,900 --> 00:51:05,360
Moira yet. She works at the bar. She's been just a

787
00:51:05,860 --> 00:51:09,520
bitch to Wendy. Yeah. She sucks off Hook when

788
00:51:10,020 --> 00:51:13,400
he needs a fix. And she's just standing outside like.

789
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,160
I don't know. It just. It just went in flames. I don't know what happened.

790
00:51:17,240 --> 00:51:20,520
Yeah. And immediately I was like, you don't?

791
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,920
Yeah. Like, Hook, everybody's betraying you left

792
00:51:24,420 --> 00:51:27,240
and right. And you see that this girl's just outside. She's magically here.

793
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:30,760
And you don't think, like, everybody else has been betraying me.

794
00:51:31,420 --> 00:51:34,780
Yeah. Why not her? And he's just like, you're right. I don't. I don't know

795
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,940
what happened. Yeah. Wow. You're so mad. You're so

796
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,340
fired up. Oh, my God. I think this is the most fired up I've ever

797
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:46,180
seen. You is a bad villain. He's a bad villain in this

798
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,820
book. He's a big, dumb idiot walking around, bumping into things. Yes. Yeah,

799
00:51:50,060 --> 00:51:52,860
he is. He's not A criminal mastermind? No,

800
00:51:52,940 --> 00:51:56,300
definitely not. No. But again, I have to go back to

801
00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:00,060
like, this is. I. I truly feel like this is very typical man.

802
00:52:00,540 --> 00:52:03,620
I won't disagree. There's an absolute level of like,

803
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:07,620
certainty that they are excellent when in fact they

804
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:12,620
are mediocre or in most cases, just really terrible

805
00:52:12,940 --> 00:52:16,340
at whatever it is that they do. I really liked the scene

806
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:20,460
because I thought that it was. I thought that the.

807
00:52:20,540 --> 00:52:23,580
All of the dialogue in it was really well written in terms of like,

808
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:27,930
how Wendy was interacting with her dad. I agree. I love a little dramatic

809
00:52:28,430 --> 00:52:31,530
scene at a dinner table. Sign me up for that drama.

810
00:52:32,490 --> 00:52:36,050
I was not participating in the drama. I was sitting at the dinner

811
00:52:36,550 --> 00:52:39,850
table chewing my steak very quietly so that I could make sure I

812
00:52:40,350 --> 00:52:44,130
didn't miss anything. I really did enjoy that. And this is the

813
00:52:44,630 --> 00:52:49,210
moment where like the Stockholm syndrome comes into play. Because basically

814
00:52:49,370 --> 00:52:53,320
they're having a conversation with another couple before

815
00:52:53,820 --> 00:52:57,520
they go to dinner. And the guy says something about

816
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:00,840
like how the woman on his arm is like a high

817
00:53:01,340 --> 00:53:04,720
paid prostitute or alludes to something of that nature.

818
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,720
And Hook gets all bad of shape and like defends her honor.

819
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,760
I am not kidding you. You guys not. But five minutes before

820
00:53:13,260 --> 00:53:16,920
this, he had her chained in a cellar. Like, I think she

821
00:53:17,420 --> 00:53:20,920
spit on him. Like they. This, he says, I hate

822
00:53:21,420 --> 00:53:25,120
her. Yeah, I get there's a thin line between love and hate, but this.

823
00:53:25,620 --> 00:53:29,200
And he doesn't apologize. Yeah, she's just over it. They're both just

824
00:53:29,700 --> 00:53:33,560
like, oh, you didn't betray me. I love you. Again, pretty much actually like

825
00:53:34,060 --> 00:53:37,440
declare their love. Oh, we're gonna get there. I can't wait. So Wendy

826
00:53:37,940 --> 00:53:41,320
and Hook make up. And again, no apology, no apology.

827
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:45,080
Wendy and Hook makeup, and she tells him that she loves him.

828
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:49,040
After they have another brief sex scene and he comes on her face.

829
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:55,000
They literally describe ropes of cum, like all

830
00:53:55,500 --> 00:53:58,480
over her face. And then she's like, I love you.

831
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:02,640
Yeah, like this is. It's a bad porno.

832
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:06,160
Unhinged. Well, Hook is now on a

833
00:54:06,660 --> 00:54:10,120
mission to find the culprits responsible for the issues that

834
00:54:10,620 --> 00:54:14,500
he's running into. And he is interrogating two

835
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:18,980
of his men. And it is revealed that in fact, his trusty

836
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:22,940
bar wench Moira is in fact the ringleader

837
00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:27,580
of all of the dissent that has been happening

838
00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:31,260
amongst his ranks. I don't have any more notes after this.

839
00:54:31,420 --> 00:54:35,140
You skipped. So he interrogates a couple people. The first

840
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:39,260
one he interrogated, this guy is almost going to tell him who this woman is.

841
00:54:39,660 --> 00:54:43,300
And then this enforcer, Starkey, his finger slips and he

842
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:46,340
accidentally shoots the guy in the fucking head. And he's just like, oh, my finger

843
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:50,540
slipped. Whoopsies. Yeah. And Hook is like, yeah, that tracks. Yeah, let's go. And let's

844
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:53,980
go interrogate another one. I think that happened, like, a while ago, though, right?

845
00:54:54,059 --> 00:54:56,940
No. Oh, it was immediately before this. Yeah.

846
00:54:57,100 --> 00:55:00,340
Oh, interesting. Well, it was right after he left her

847
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:04,710
on the boat. Then he went and did that, and then

848
00:55:04,950 --> 00:55:07,510
he goes to. Back to the Jolly Roger.

849
00:55:08,550 --> 00:55:11,510
No, he doesn't find out about Moira at the Jolly Roger. He finds out about

850
00:55:12,010 --> 00:55:15,270
her while he's interrogating the two men in the basement. Of the Jolly Roger.

851
00:55:15,590 --> 00:55:18,550
No, because the Jolly Roger. Yeah, they're at the top.

852
00:55:19,350 --> 00:55:22,710
Yeah. Okay. The lagoon. And his boat is named the Tiger Lily.

853
00:55:22,950 --> 00:55:26,270
It's all very cute. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. There's two separate

854
00:55:26,770 --> 00:55:29,710
interrogations. Yeah. The first one is the Starkey one. The second one is where we

855
00:55:30,210 --> 00:55:33,670
find out it's Moira, and then Moira is there, and she wants

856
00:55:34,170 --> 00:55:38,030
him to know that it was her. Yeah. Giving Game of Thrones.

857
00:55:38,530 --> 00:55:41,790
Tell Cersei. Yes, it really is.

858
00:55:42,290 --> 00:55:45,630
Except that Moira is a big dumb idiot, too. From here on out,

859
00:55:46,110 --> 00:55:49,390
essentially what happens. I'm gonna wrap this up real fucking quick, because I think

860
00:55:49,890 --> 00:55:53,590
I'm over it. Right. Yeah. So basically, fucking. What's her name?

861
00:55:54,090 --> 00:55:57,280
Wendy. Once again, Wendy gets kidnapped. Tina kidnaps

862
00:55:57,780 --> 00:56:01,960
Wendy. Tina is Peter's assistant. She's Tink.

863
00:56:02,460 --> 00:56:06,600
Basically, yeah. So she kidnaps Wendy, takes her to the same cave where

864
00:56:07,100 --> 00:56:10,440
they murdered Rue, and it is discovered here

865
00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:13,960
that, basically, Peter and Moira are

866
00:56:14,520 --> 00:56:18,040
in cahoots with one another, and Peter is really

867
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:22,230
willing to sacrifice his daughter to further

868
00:56:22,730 --> 00:56:26,750
his cause in business. And here we also find out that

869
00:56:27,070 --> 00:56:30,990
da da da da da da da SME is,

870
00:56:31,490 --> 00:56:35,470
in fact, going by Croc because he is Hook's

871
00:56:35,870 --> 00:56:38,910
uncle's son. He's Hook's cousin.

872
00:56:39,230 --> 00:56:43,710
Yes. So he is Hook's cousin. This part was weird for me because

873
00:56:44,110 --> 00:56:47,750
I. I was fine with that reveal. Yeah. But Snee's description

874
00:56:48,250 --> 00:56:51,700
of how he would, like, watch Hook through the window with his dad,

875
00:56:51,860 --> 00:56:55,220
and his dad said, just once he gets Hook out of there,

876
00:56:55,620 --> 00:56:59,460
then Smee can come and live with him. That's weird.

877
00:56:59,700 --> 00:57:03,140
Yeah. Why? It's just weird. And then he was there.

878
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:07,300
He watched Hook kill his uncle. Yeah. And then swore vengeance

879
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:11,620
against him. This whole thing was weird because while Tina

880
00:57:11,780 --> 00:57:15,540
was confronting Wendy, before she threw

881
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:18,740
a vase at her head and knocked her out and kidnapped her, she was saying

882
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:21,900
something along the lines of, like, everybody's always like,

883
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:25,940
no, not Wendy's so important. We need her. And it's like we never really understand

884
00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:29,780
why they need her. It just. They don't. The whole thing is. Yeah.

885
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,380
This is also surprise where we find out that John

886
00:57:33,460 --> 00:57:35,940
is in fact Hook's half brother.

887
00:57:36,420 --> 00:57:39,900
That's why Peter blew up Hook's parent.

888
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:44,690
The plane that Hook was on with his parents, because Hook's dad

889
00:57:45,010 --> 00:57:47,810
had an affair with Peter's wife.

890
00:57:48,610 --> 00:57:51,850
And that's how he got John. So then Wendy breaks

891
00:57:52,350 --> 00:57:55,410
free, shoots Tina in the fucking head, and is like, tell me

892
00:57:55,910 --> 00:57:59,930
the truth. Yeah. Did my mother die in the car accident? Yeah. And Peter's

893
00:58:00,430 --> 00:58:03,650
like, what do you want me to say? She was a whore. And then Wendy

894
00:58:04,150 --> 00:58:07,050
just point blank shoots in the head. Done with him. The funniest thing about all

895
00:58:07,550 --> 00:58:11,010
of this is that I was on page 286. This is a 319

896
00:58:11,510 --> 00:58:14,800
page book. And I went into Nicole's office and I was like,

897
00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:18,640
there's so much that needs to happen. Because this all basically

898
00:58:19,140 --> 00:58:22,160
happens in a matter of about five pages actually. Like, actually.

899
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:25,720
And it was kind of like building up to it. I was like, I know

900
00:58:26,220 --> 00:58:29,760
something is coming. I just don't understand how it's all

901
00:58:30,260 --> 00:58:33,320
supposed to happen. And I knew that there wasn't a second book. So it

902
00:58:33,820 --> 00:58:37,120
was just. It was very interesting to say the least.

903
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:41,880
Well, the long and the short of it is that John goes

904
00:58:42,380 --> 00:58:45,560
to college, he becomes a engineer, he builds

905
00:58:46,060 --> 00:58:49,440
planes, and Hook and Wendy get married.

906
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:52,880
After a year together, they pop out several kids

907
00:58:53,680 --> 00:58:58,120
and they basically live like, happily ever after. And Wendy

908
00:58:58,620 --> 00:59:02,440
becomes the sanity that Hook never had. Because, you know, what good

909
00:59:02,940 --> 00:59:06,190
is a woman if not a pacifier for a man? So the ending for me,

910
00:59:06,430 --> 00:59:09,830
yeah, was meh. I know I would've liked to see.

911
00:59:10,330 --> 00:59:13,630
Them both grow up. We actually do get another sex scene as well. And again,

912
00:59:14,130 --> 00:59:17,350
I just have to go to, like, meh. I'm just kind of meh. I did

913
00:59:17,850 --> 00:59:21,830
like a lot of parts of this book, and I think small tweaks

914
00:59:22,330 --> 00:59:25,550
could have made it really great for me. All right, well, that was

915
00:59:26,050 --> 00:59:29,550
one of our weirdest recaps that we've ever done.

916
00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:33,920
Emily McIntyre is a number one New York Times and

917
00:59:34,420 --> 00:59:38,080
number one Sunday Times bestselling author whose stories serve steam, slow burns,

918
00:59:38,580 --> 00:59:42,840
and seriously questionable morals. Her books have been translated into over

919
00:59:43,340 --> 00:59:46,760
a dozen languages and span across several sub genres within romance.

920
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:50,600
She's been featured on outlets such as Good Morning Chicago and Cosmopolitan.

921
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:54,600
A stage four breast cancer thriver, you can find

922
00:59:55,100 --> 00:59:58,870
Emily enjoying free time with her family getting lost in a good book or redecorating

923
00:59:59,370 --> 01:00:02,950
her house, depending on her mood. Well, that's something that I can.

924
01:00:03,270 --> 01:00:06,390
All three of those things are something that I can relate to. And these books

925
01:00:06,890 --> 01:00:10,670
are really popular. Hook is by far the most popular. Again, my favorite is Scarred

926
01:00:11,170 --> 01:00:14,310
Forbidden Love. Check it out. But people love her writing.

927
01:00:14,810 --> 01:00:18,470
They're good, short books. They get the job done. They're interesting enough.

928
01:00:18,970 --> 01:00:22,390
There's twists. Yeah, yeah, fine. They're fine. I think they're a

929
01:00:22,890 --> 01:00:25,630
good intro to dark romance. Sure. I could do that.

930
01:00:26,110 --> 01:00:29,190
I would read this rather than jumping right

931
01:00:29,690 --> 01:00:32,710
into, like, Haunting Adeline or Brutal Obsession. I mean. Yeah,

932
01:00:33,210 --> 01:00:36,550
I agree. I think, you know, choking aside, most of what they do

933
01:00:37,050 --> 01:00:40,149
is very vanilla. It's very straightforward. It's. I think every

934
01:00:40,649 --> 01:00:44,630
time they have sex, it's in missionary. Yeah. And he doesn't last more

935
01:00:45,130 --> 01:00:47,950
than Maybe. Yeah. How is she getting there?

936
01:00:48,350 --> 01:00:51,370
I'm not sure. Yeah. So I could see that. I agree.

937
01:00:52,250 --> 01:00:55,850
Oh, my God, you're so perceptive. I know. How you don't even need me anymore.

938
01:00:56,570 --> 01:01:00,650
Holy shit. Well, we want to go ahead and thank Paigle, as always,

939
01:01:01,210 --> 01:01:04,370
our lovely hostess. Honestly,

940
01:01:04,870 --> 01:01:08,530
we take so much from Pago. We really do. Oh, my God. We use her

941
01:01:09,030 --> 01:01:12,370
house to record, and now we force her to do all of

942
01:01:12,870 --> 01:01:16,330
our social media stuff. And we just. We would be nowhere

943
01:01:16,830 --> 01:01:24,230
without Pagel. So thank you to Paigl. You can find us online@www.booksletspodcast.com.

944
01:01:24,630 --> 01:01:28,150
all of our links to our socials, including Facebook,

945
01:01:28,470 --> 01:01:32,070
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok

946
01:01:32,230 --> 01:01:36,070
are on there. All right, let's jump into ratings. Spice level.

947
01:01:36,310 --> 01:01:39,670
I would give this for how graphic. I would probably give this

948
01:01:40,170 --> 01:01:43,750
a three. I'd give it a four. Okay. Spice frequency.

949
01:01:44,050 --> 01:01:46,290
Spice frequency. I gave it a three.

950
01:01:46,930 --> 01:01:50,570
Oh, yeah. I think it's a sexy book. They're talking a

951
01:01:51,070 --> 01:01:54,770
lot about sex and thinking about sex. Yeah.

952
01:01:54,850 --> 01:01:58,730
Except that I was not turned on during this book at

953
01:01:59,230 --> 01:02:02,330
all. I know. I wasn't either. Oh, I'm gonna give it a two. Okay.

954
01:02:02,830 --> 01:02:04,770
It's not bad. You're giving it one less than me.

955
01:02:05,250 --> 01:02:08,610
Pros. Oh. Do you want me to be honest?

956
01:02:09,500 --> 01:02:12,220
I think I gave it the same rating you did. I gave it a three.

957
01:02:12,380 --> 01:02:16,140
I did, too. Oh, I did, too. I think that we

958
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:20,500
really had some very sincerely,

959
01:02:21,000 --> 01:02:25,020
some really excellent potential. Agreed. I think that this

960
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:29,060
book, the way that it's written. Again, we kind of

961
01:02:29,560 --> 01:02:32,940
already talked about it, but it is written like a smutty book.

962
01:02:33,020 --> 01:02:37,310
Like, how I would expect a smutty book. To be written, which is kind

963
01:02:37,810 --> 01:02:41,470
of carelessly and haphazard. Character development for me is where it

964
01:02:41,970 --> 01:02:45,310
fell flat. I was entertaining. I also gave it a four. This plot,

965
01:02:45,390 --> 01:02:48,750
like we've said it multiple times, it had all the potential.

966
01:02:49,310 --> 01:02:52,350
So overall I gave it a 3.5.

967
01:02:52,910 --> 01:02:56,670
It was interesting enough I've read

968
01:02:57,170 --> 01:03:00,910
it at least twice now. It got me intrigued enough that I've

969
01:03:01,410 --> 01:03:05,350
read now, I think, four of her other books. So overall,

970
01:03:05,670 --> 01:03:09,590
if I'm entertained, I will give a book A3. And the

971
01:03:10,090 --> 01:03:12,510
fact that I was willing to read her other books push it up a little

972
01:03:13,010 --> 01:03:14,150
bit. But it's not a four for me.