Silver Elite by Dani Francis

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So I have to tell you, slowly but surely, my husband

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is expanding his palette of things

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that he is open to trying. And the

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other day, he. Every morning before he leaves, he comes in, he kisses me goodbye,

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which he asks. I just saw on TikTok the other day

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that men who kiss their wives before they go to work in the morning live

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five years longer. Yeah. Than men who don't. Yeah. Why are you making that face?

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Because Dave used to do it every morning. And then I would yell at him

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and get really mad because he would wake me up. Oh, sure. Now, I.

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I saw that, and I was like, I have shortened his life. But I'm not

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going to tell him about this because I don't want him to wake me up

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in the morning. Oh, shoot. Darn it.

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I don't know that I've ever met such a princess in my whole life.

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I sincerely don't know if I ever have.

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I. You're so pretty. Yeah. Such a compliment,

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honestly. Well, anyways, so I was, like, going through

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my routine, and I was, like, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting

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lotion on or whatever, so he came in and he grabbed me by my neck

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to pull me in for the kiss. Oh, my God.

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It was probably a highlight of my life. I told

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him that it was gonna make it on the podcast. Did he get laid?

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If I had had 10 extra minutes in my morning routine, he would

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have absolutely gotten laid. But I just, like. I'm just such

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a responsible adult. I know. I don't know if Dave would do that

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to me, how I would feel. I'm not sure your husband

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is more open to trying things. Yeah. And then just. He continued

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to do whatever he was doing, so. That's really hot.

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I know. Oh, my God. I'm so proud of myself.

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Meanwhile, Dave went from getting laid multiple times a

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week to now maybe twice a month. Oh, no.

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Because he doesn't look into getting a vasectomy and

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condoms. I'm so sorry I don't have

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as much fun. Sometimes it goes too long, and then I get a little

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bored. Oh, no. We have it down to where

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we get each other, where we need to be, and then it's done. Yeah.

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I mean, get the vasectomy, Dave. So just for

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anybody who's wondering, Dave's not getting late anymore. So if he's in a foul mood,

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you can tell that this is all foul. Wow.

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I'm, like, so, like, in love with you for putting your foot down.

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Well. And he. He told me he would think about it. I talked to him

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about this in February. It's now June. We had all this time to think about

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it, and he's like, well, I haven't thought about it. Yeah. He's like, I kind

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of just thought that you cave. Sure. So now I can basically never have

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sex with him again. Because he just said that. Yeah. And I need

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to prove to him how much I will not cave. You know, that I have

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to make everything about me. Yeah. And I just have to brag

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because the whole reason that we use condoms is because my birth

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control. I have tried literally every single type of birth control that there is,

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and I can, like, tell when I'm on them that they make me miserable.

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And so the whole reason that we are currently using condoms is because I.

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My husband was like, I just feel like I don't want you to be miserable

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anymore, and I just don't want you to be doing it anymore. So he was

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like, if that will help, then like, let's do that. Also, we're too old.

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You're not supposed to use birth control over 35. That's actually increases

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your risk. Blood clots. That's actually some really important information

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to share with the world. Mandatory vasectomies for all. It's reversible.

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It's reversible. As soon as they start waving it around.

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Snippet. You and I could have a whole entire podcast about

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women's rights. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm Amanda.

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And I'm Nicole. And we're plot tarts. We read,

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recap, and review smutty books. Let us help you decide if this book should stay

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on your tbr. What are we reading today? We are reading

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Silver Elite by Danny Francis. And we have actually

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already recorded this episode once before, and the audio was not great.

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So now we're rerecording and Beauty of

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my life. Remember it? I don't remember anything about our

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previous recording or about the book, so I don't know. It'll be interesting.

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And the fun part about this is too, because you and I were just talking

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about, like, Phantasma and how I still think about Phantasma.

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I haven't thought about this book. I was kind of dreading re recording it.

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I don't want it to affect my ratings. Sure.

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But I. It didn't make any

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mark, which is. So interesting because when I finished it, I was like,

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very eager for the second one. But you're right,

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I moved on to my next book series. Right now I'm reading the. Well,

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I just finished last night the Four Horsemen series. And Once I

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moved into that series, it was like, long forgotten. So it

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was a. It was fun to read. Yes. It's a very quick,

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easy read. Yes, for sure. But it was. You're probably not gonna

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get a tattoo of it. No, probably not. Which I'm actually

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grateful that we're recording it now, because when we recorded this, I had

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just finished it that weekend and felt differently about it. Yes. That's so

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interesting. I know. Wow. Okay. Well, this will be fun.

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It will be. We open with a short backstory on our main female

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character, Wren, and we learn that our book is based in a dystopian

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world and based on the map and the description of the way that the coastline

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is crumbling away from the continent. I'm assuming we are in post

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nuclear war North America. We learn that she was raised by her uncle

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and that the earliest part of her life with him was spent in a pocket

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of the continent known as the Blacklands, which is named for the literal pitch

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black, lightless stretch of land. Her upbringing was brutal

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and unforgiving. Her uncle is not biologically her uncle,

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that's no secret to her, but the identities of

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her parents are shrouded in mystery. This section of the world is

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broken up into wards, similar to the Hunger Games, where each ward

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is responsible for their specific industry.

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Wren and her uncle moved to their current ward,

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Ward Z, three years after he brought her to the Blacklands,

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and are currently living as cattle farmers. The world is run by a militant

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leader. The general jobs are assigned when people leave college and

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homes, possessions, lands are all assigned by the government, similar to the Giver.

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The cause of the World war is unknown, but it resulted in a mutation of

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some humans where they were born with special powers, healing, telepathy, projection visions,

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and inciting, AKA making other people do what you say.

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The powers are distinguishable by the way that the mods, as they're called Veins,

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glow silver when they use their powers.

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Ren being an exception to that rule because when she uses her

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telepathy powers, her veins do not glow. The emergence of the

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mods, also referred to as Aberrant, caused a rift amongst

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the humans who survived the war. Initially, mods rose to

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power with the advantages of their gifts, but were eventually overthrown by non mods

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and all but eliminated from the continent. All current mods

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must register with the government and are either kept alive or enslaved, depending on their

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loyalties. We meet Ren as she is sneaking out of a soldier's

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quarters after having a one night stand. The soldier would like to prolong

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their time together But Ren does not want that. And when she tries to sneak

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away, he follows her. Desperate, she ducks into the first room she sees and is

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immediately overcome by the room's occupant and tackled to the ground. The man is,

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according to Ren, the most beautiful man she's ever seen. She manages to convince him

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that she is not a spy and that she's a cattle farmer, and he lets

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her leave. Do we have a physical description of Ren? Ren has

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long dark hair, her eyes are very green. She's lean,

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athletic, and she has scars on her legs.

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She's described as being very, very beautiful. Yeah. We learn later

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that powerful mods with more than one power often present with a circular

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red mark on their body somewhere. And at

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six years old, when her uncle discovered hers on her thigh, he used boiling water

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to melt the skin and burn the mark off of her, which sounds

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excrucia. One of the things that is really, really hard in this book

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is how many correlations there are with

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other books I want it to stand on. I'd love to be able to

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let it stand on its own, but there are so many. Even, like, the fact

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that the veins glow. There's a book called the Power, which is about women

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who develop a mutation where they can electrify

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people from their chests, and they're like, veins glow

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in that. So, like, everything about this is very familiar. It's a combination

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of a lot of books and tropes, and that's why a lot of people on

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Booktok, it's going viral. People are saying it was written

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by AI. Yeah. Or it's just copies of other books.

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And there are. It is hard, but with a dystopian novel, it is

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really hard to do something different. Fantasy. It's really

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hard. A lot of these fantasy books, kind of a checklist,

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and you check those boxes and you have your fantasy novel.

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Well, and also I think a little bit of it, too, is like, at least

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in the United States, maybe we are seeing a very clear direction

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of what our dystopian future looks like. Yeah. And a lot of these things align

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with that. So I think that's a little bit of it, too, is like,

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this is closer to reality than, like, we realize,

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which I realize is like, the purpose of a dystopian novel. But where were

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you at at this point in the book, like, when you were reading it the

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first time? I. I was into it. I mean, I feel like this

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was pretty fast paced. I liked Ren right away,

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like, slipping out of Jordan's bed. I can Relate.

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I was not hanging around. Yeah. What I was

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looking for. He's like a puppy dog. Yes. He's like, oh,

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do you. Oh, you're gonna go to the bathroom. Let me show you where the

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bathroom is. Oh, wait for you. Yeah. Yeah. You're coming back, right?

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This is the whole reason why I would go to men's houses

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that I could just leave after, and I wouldn't let them come over because

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then they. They hang around. I'm uninterested in that.

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But you were not like Ren in this way. You would have men

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come over, and then when you were done, tell them to wait outside in the

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rain for their lift. Yeah. For their Uber. Yeah. Which I

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just, you know, I stand by that, so. And I feel like

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the thing of it is, is that it sounds really mean,

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but every single one of those men that I did that to was

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still texting me a hundred percent to get together again. They did not care.

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They were like. Their standards are so low. It's unbelievable.

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It really is. The city center of

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Wren's ward is in the midst of a small celebration

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of sorts, of the soldiers of the continent are given short spurts of

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leave or leisure time. And when they do, the cities become crowded

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with people. As Wren is leaving the soldiers quarters, there is a disruption when

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a coyote attacks a small boy from her ward. And in

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a moment of stress, Ren forgets herself and shoots the

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coyote. She ends up killing it and saving the boy. But she

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also, in the process, exposes herself as being highly skilled and well trained with

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a firearm because the bullet went through the coyote's eye from,

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like, miles away. She's standing with all of these military people

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and then decides to make a perfect shot. I think she's just gonna walk

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away. I'm actually a little bit surprised that you don't like Ren.

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I think that Rose would have made different

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decisions. Oh, interesting. Rose is not Ren.

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No, they are not the same, but some things

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are. So I feel like almost Ren is

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not smarter than Rose, but more skilled

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than Rose. Sure. Whereas Rose was doing her best. She was

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trying to make the world a better place. She was doing her best. Yeah.

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I think the difference that I see between the two of them is that

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Rose was very insecure and Ren is very secure.

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Yes. Ren is. Ren is overly confident,

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and Rose is incredibly insecure and.

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And lacks that same confidence. I don't think either of

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them. And, like, we'll talk about it later too, but if you've ever read the

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Throne of Glass series, the early books where you Meet

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Selina, the female main character. Ren is giving. That she's

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giving. Like, I'm highly trained by the smartest person in the world, and he

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taught me all these things that I can't do wrong. And then she, like,

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goes and does the things and then just, like, constantly gets in trouble. And it's

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just like. Selena was 16, though Ren is, like, in her

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early 20s. Yeah. The next day, military recruiters stop

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by her and her uncle's home to take Ren into the army. And one of

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the soldiers recognizes her uncle as a deserter and an Aberrant,

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and they arrest him. So Ren is not there.

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He mind links with her that there

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are soldiers here and not to come home. And she, of course, doesn't listen.

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So she goes home and we hear here that she

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talks about how she has unnaturally good sight, where she's,

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like, up on a cliff watching what's happening with her uncle.

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And she can see it. Even though she's, like,

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like, many miles away. She can see all of the details of what's

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happening at her house. I feel like they maybe could have this.

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And I say this a couple times. This book could have been more fantasy.

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Like, they could have played up her. Powers a little more. And maybe they will

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in the next one. We don't find a ton out about her powers, so maybe.

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But I do think that because they never address

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why her veins don't glow, they never address why she

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has the unnatural sight. I do feel like there's probably room in the

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second book for there to be some more. Yeah. Fantasy elements

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to make all of that make sense. Because it doesn't make sense.

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There's another character in the book who also. Whose veins also

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don't glow. Yeah. And so it. All of it has to come together somehow.

223
00:14:26,150 --> 00:14:29,030
I hope that it's not a brother sister thing. No,

224
00:14:30,150 --> 00:14:31,750
I told you. I think it's mates.

225
00:14:32,870 --> 00:14:36,470
Yeah, that's right. Fantasy. So mates is on the checklist.

226
00:14:36,710 --> 00:14:40,590
Yeah. It does hit all of the things you did say that. Wren solicits

227
00:14:41,090 --> 00:14:44,190
the help of her best friend, Tana, who is also a mod and who also

228
00:14:44,690 --> 00:14:47,390
communicates telepathically. And Tana's dad,

229
00:14:47,890 --> 00:14:51,830
Griff, contacts a network of spies called the Uprising,

230
00:14:52,330 --> 00:14:55,430
presumably to get Ren into the city center, where her uncle will stand trial.

231
00:14:56,070 --> 00:15:00,190
When transportation is arranged into the city, Ren discovers that the

232
00:15:00,690 --> 00:15:03,910
Uprising have no intention of helping her free her uncle. They are only helping

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to relocate her. She sneaks away from them to witness the live outdoor

234
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,420
trial taking place for her uncle in the city center. And when he is found

235
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,820
guilty and the firing squad comes out, Ren, emotionally charged,

236
00:15:14,900 --> 00:15:18,340
thinks to herself that they should turn the guns on themselves. And they do.

237
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As the crowd panics, Ren loses control of her thoughts, and the firing squad turns

238
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,100
their guns back on her uncle, shooting and killing him. The crowd begins

239
00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,020
to flee the square, and Ren is captured by city soldiers and taken to stock

240
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:34,240
cells, which are a type of prison where she is interrogated and accused

241
00:15:34,740 --> 00:15:38,360
of being an Aberrant. And knowing that her uncle was an Aberrant. When she doesn't

242
00:15:38,860 --> 00:15:42,360
confess, they bring in a Loyalist named Jade, famous for her unique

243
00:15:42,860 --> 00:15:45,960
abilities to see visions of the future and her strength at breaking through

244
00:15:46,460 --> 00:15:49,720
people's mental shields and reading their thoughts. However, Ren is

245
00:15:50,220 --> 00:15:53,280
well trained by her uncle to protect against the woman, and she clears Ren.

246
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,240
And it's during her time being interrogated that he learns that the man

247
00:15:57,740 --> 00:16:00,640
whose room she broke into the night she was fleeing from her one night stand

248
00:16:01,260 --> 00:16:04,860
is the command captain for the Silver Block Soldiers, an elite

249
00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:08,540
team of soldiers with some of the highest clearance on their continent. Again,

250
00:16:08,780 --> 00:16:12,900
part of the checklist. Yeah, for sure. Once Jade has cleared

251
00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:16,580
her captain, Cross informs Ren that she will be joining the command as

252
00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,700
a recruit and that the next eight weeks, she will be in training for Silverblock.

253
00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:25,340
Do you have a physical description of Cross? Cross is tall, broad shoulders,

254
00:16:25,580 --> 00:16:28,970
built like a soldier. He has dark hair that's usually

255
00:16:29,470 --> 00:16:33,010
a little, like, wild or unkempt. He has gray eyes,

256
00:16:33,330 --> 00:16:37,250
a very, like, strong jaw, angular face.

257
00:16:37,890 --> 00:16:40,530
Super. I mean, she's the most attractive man she's ever seen.

258
00:16:41,090 --> 00:16:44,610
Also has tattoos. Crosses. For me. Yeah.

259
00:16:46,290 --> 00:16:48,930
Yes. We don't like Ren. No,

260
00:16:49,650 --> 00:16:53,290
we do like Cross. Yeah. He reminds me of what I

261
00:16:53,790 --> 00:16:57,810
picture Hook looking like when we do fucked. Oh, sure. Do you

262
00:16:58,310 --> 00:17:01,530
know who I was picturing for Jane, for Jade? Who?

263
00:17:01,610 --> 00:17:04,090
I was picturing Edna mode. Oh.

264
00:17:06,090 --> 00:17:09,690
It lightens it up a little bit. I pictured Joan Cusack.

265
00:17:09,850 --> 00:17:12,330
I didn't imagine her being,

266
00:17:13,450 --> 00:17:17,050
like, super intimidating. It doesn't sound like you did either, either,

267
00:17:17,550 --> 00:17:20,010
though, if you were picturing Edna mode, because she's also not intimidating.

268
00:17:20,330 --> 00:17:23,030
There's. There's like. I imagined her as, like,

269
00:17:23,110 --> 00:17:25,830
buttoned up and, like, prissy, but also, like.

270
00:17:26,710 --> 00:17:30,310
I don't know if you ever seen the movie School of Rock with Jack Black.

271
00:17:30,390 --> 00:17:33,590
Yes. Love that movie. It's one of my favorite movies. Of course it is.

272
00:17:33,990 --> 00:17:36,790
Joan Cusack is in that. That's how I imagined her.

273
00:17:37,590 --> 00:17:41,350
So the training program for Silverblock is designed to produce specific

274
00:17:41,510 --> 00:17:45,270
types of soldiers, so the way that they can complete

275
00:17:45,770 --> 00:17:49,890
the challenge Isn't or the way that they want them to complete the challenge isn't

276
00:17:50,390 --> 00:17:54,730
always the most obvious. They're trying to pull a specific like behavior

277
00:17:55,230 --> 00:17:58,570
out of the people that they keep. And so their first challenge, before they're even

278
00:17:59,070 --> 00:18:02,890
shown to their room, consists of them completing an impromptu quiz

279
00:18:03,450 --> 00:18:07,210
where two of the trainers come out and do a welcome speech. And then

280
00:18:07,710 --> 00:18:10,770
they are all asked to remember details about the

281
00:18:11,270 --> 00:18:14,930
room and about the trainers. After they've left, Ren decides

282
00:18:15,430 --> 00:18:18,850
that she's going to self sabotage in hopes of them kicking her out of the

283
00:18:19,350 --> 00:18:23,010
program. After their initial quiz, they're distributed into two groups and

284
00:18:23,510 --> 00:18:26,570
sent to their first day of training. And the training consists of classroom and

285
00:18:27,070 --> 00:18:30,330
book work and then also field work, including weapons

286
00:18:30,830 --> 00:18:34,050
and ops trainings. And Ren makes friends with a

287
00:18:34,550 --> 00:18:38,250
soft spoken bookworm named Liddy and a self assured pretty

288
00:18:38,750 --> 00:18:42,140
boy named Kane. Kane is also for me at this

289
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:46,180
point. Yes, I would have definitely befriended Kane. Yeah, I don't think I'd

290
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,900
have gone for Liddy for some. Ivy always sticks out for me. I feel like

291
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,020
I would have been friends with Ivy, but I would have had a problem probably

292
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,300
not sleeping with Kane. He's described. I mean, he's blonde, which is not for

293
00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:01,220
me, but there's just something about. Him that I just described

294
00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:05,580
as tall. So, I mean. And attractive.

295
00:19:05,660 --> 00:19:10,770
Yeah. And I feel like your prerequisites go first tall and

296
00:19:11,270 --> 00:19:14,730
then hair color. So maybe he had a chance.

297
00:19:15,050 --> 00:19:18,570
But hands and voice, too. I have a. I have some deal breakers. Thank God

298
00:19:19,070 --> 00:19:22,570
I met Dave. Oh, my God. Yeah. I would have

299
00:19:23,070 --> 00:19:26,890
been best friends with Lyddy because Liddy is a

300
00:19:26,970 --> 00:19:31,050
plethora of gossip and I am the most.

301
00:19:32,250 --> 00:19:35,930
The most gossipy person. Yeah. That has ever existed.

302
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,200
I love a good little drama.

303
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,960
I love a good little gossip. I don't even need to know the people.

304
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:46,160
I'm the person that when I'm scrolling on TikTok and somebody is like,

305
00:19:46,660 --> 00:19:50,120
all right, so my neighbor's best friend's cousin works at the movie

306
00:19:50,620 --> 00:19:53,840
theater. And the movie theater lady was sleeping with her boss behind

307
00:19:54,340 --> 00:19:57,600
the movie theater in a red Corolla. And like, I would, like,

308
00:19:58,100 --> 00:20:01,120
be like eating popcorn listening to the story. I don't have to know the people.

309
00:20:01,770 --> 00:20:05,290
The thing of it is, is, again, I don't know why I'm so complimentary

310
00:20:05,790 --> 00:20:08,730
of my husband. That's one of the things that I, like, really love about him.

311
00:20:09,230 --> 00:20:12,370
My husband will 100% go in on a little story on a

312
00:20:12,870 --> 00:20:16,210
little gossip. Yeah. He's absolutely the type of person who, like, if there's

313
00:20:16,710 --> 00:20:19,530
a fire truck at the end of the street. Will be outside like sweeping our

314
00:20:20,030 --> 00:20:23,650
front yard, you know, like, so that he can like bring back the

315
00:20:24,150 --> 00:20:28,250
tea to me. Dave Wooden. So he's a typical guy. Yeah, like. Oh yeah.

316
00:20:28,970 --> 00:20:32,090
Our friends got. Are getting divorced. What happened?

317
00:20:32,590 --> 00:20:35,770
I don't really know. Kid had. Your best friend had a baby two

318
00:20:36,270 --> 00:20:39,210
years ago. How's he doing? No, I mean Star wars is going great.

319
00:20:39,710 --> 00:20:42,650
They play a Star wars game. Knows nothing about the kid. Are they getting married?

320
00:20:42,970 --> 00:20:46,970
Is the woman divorced yet? He knows nothing. We don't

321
00:20:47,130 --> 00:20:51,210
usually gossip about people that we know. It's we. It's always like

322
00:20:51,530 --> 00:20:54,970
the external stuff that is like harmless. Those are the things that

323
00:20:55,470 --> 00:20:58,950
we like to gossip about. I live for it. I would make best friends with

324
00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:02,950
Lydie. Of course you would. For sure. I also love like a

325
00:21:03,450 --> 00:21:07,390
quiet little mouse that I can take under my wing and like take

326
00:21:07,890 --> 00:21:10,750
care of. And that is kind of what Ren does with Lydia. She kind of

327
00:21:11,250 --> 00:21:14,590
takes her under her wing and like takes care of her. So that night comes

328
00:21:15,090 --> 00:21:18,270
and their next test comes when they

329
00:21:18,770 --> 00:21:21,870
discover that they are short of bed in the shared dorm.

330
00:21:22,340 --> 00:21:25,940
The test being that anyone who would give up their bed

331
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,980
is too soft hearted to stay in the program. So again, it's not the kind

332
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,660
of. It's not the test that you think that it is. Ren gives up her

333
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:38,180
bed and makes Kane, who has been flirting with her since they

334
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,660
first met, share a bed with her to his great, great pleasure.

335
00:21:42,740 --> 00:21:46,700
Yeah, you wanna get kicked out? Sleep with him. Yeah. First night you're for

336
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,180
sure getting kicked out. Yeah. What I would have done. Yeah.

337
00:21:50,820 --> 00:21:54,460
They don't have sex, but she does, I think,

338
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:59,180
enjoy her little sleep party with Kane because she mentions like snuggling

339
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,740
into something warm the next morning. So love that for her.

340
00:22:03,300 --> 00:22:07,060
The next morning they are woken from sleep and Ren is brought to see

341
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,900
Cross. And she learns here that it's going to be harder

342
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,620
than she thought to get kicked out of the program. Cross at this point I

343
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:18,270
feel like doesn't know what to make of

344
00:22:18,770 --> 00:22:22,230
her. He can tell something's up. I think that his like spidey

345
00:22:22,730 --> 00:22:26,190
sense is tingling and he's trying to keep her as close as possible so that

346
00:22:26,690 --> 00:22:30,110
he can keep an eye on her at this point. See for me it

347
00:22:30,610 --> 00:22:33,990
was giving nights again like this like invisible pull that they have

348
00:22:34,490 --> 00:22:38,310
towards each other. That's what it was giving for me because I don't

349
00:22:38,810 --> 00:22:41,630
know what he thinks she is like. He doesn't think she's a model. You can't

350
00:22:42,130 --> 00:22:45,790
fool Jade. So for her to have given Wren the pass it. Nobody thinks

351
00:22:46,290 --> 00:22:50,350
that she's a mod. I think it evolves into, like, more as time

352
00:22:50,850 --> 00:22:54,270
goes on. But I think in the initial state, like steps, I think he is

353
00:22:54,510 --> 00:22:57,870
trying to puzzle her together. The interaction

354
00:22:58,370 --> 00:23:02,030
between the two of them here is very flirty. Yeah. And Ren

355
00:23:02,670 --> 00:23:06,270
rides that flirty high all

356
00:23:06,770 --> 00:23:10,730
the way to breakfast. Where Liddy promptly informs her

357
00:23:11,370 --> 00:23:14,970
that Captain Cross isn't just any captain.

358
00:23:15,470 --> 00:23:19,290
He's Captain Cross Breden, the general's son. Yeah. Lady also spills

359
00:23:19,790 --> 00:23:22,170
a bunch of other tea here about his ex girlfriend who's, like, in the program.

360
00:23:22,330 --> 00:23:25,610
She loved it. Yeah. I just lived for it.

361
00:23:26,090 --> 00:23:29,930
As Wren continues to sabotage her scores, throwing her shooting class and making

362
00:23:30,430 --> 00:23:34,330
weak shields that are easy for Avarin slaves to bypass, she is also simultaneously

363
00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:38,820
connecting telepathically with her friend Tana, seeking aid from the uprising

364
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:43,540
and getting her out of the program. And also with

365
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,780
her friend Wolf, who she's never met in person, but telepathically connected with

366
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,740
as a child and has been friends with ever since, seeking comfort.

367
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,420
And I have a note here that says Ren is very challenging for me to

368
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,780
like because she is so self absorbed. Let's just

369
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,700
make this very clear. I understand that she's in a very d.

370
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,470
Dangerous situation because she is a mod and she is literally being housed

371
00:24:07,970 --> 00:24:11,590
with people who are trained to kill mods. I get it, okay? But there's

372
00:24:12,090 --> 00:24:14,870
no risk of them finding out because her brains don't glow.

373
00:24:15,350 --> 00:24:18,950
She has a nice warm bed to sleep in and three strawberries a

374
00:24:19,450 --> 00:24:23,830
day. And she's messaging her friend Hannah. Their ward is completely

375
00:24:24,330 --> 00:24:28,030
overrun with military now because when they found Ren's

376
00:24:28,530 --> 00:24:32,190
uncle was staying there, the military basically assumed that that

377
00:24:32,690 --> 00:24:36,140
ward was also harboring other fugitives. And so Tana

378
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,740
is fighting for her life. She doesn't. And her veins blow. Veins blow.

379
00:24:40,060 --> 00:24:43,980
So every time that Ren is telepathically communicating with her, Tana has,

380
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,900
like, make. Sure she's wearing a turtleneck. Yeah. So that her veins don't blow.

381
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,140
And Ren is not even like, hey, how you doing? What's going on? Like,

382
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,980
what's happening? More she's like, immediately goes to like, what are you doing to get

383
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:57,580
me out of here? Get me out of here. Get the uprising to get me

384
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,500
out of here. And she's just like. She's so self absorbed

385
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,070
and impulsive, and I just. I can't fucking stand her.

386
00:25:05,790 --> 00:25:09,550
One night, while taking a walk with Kadeen, she sees a delivery bike posted

387
00:25:10,050 --> 00:25:12,710
at the entrance of the training facility. And decides that she's going to steal it

388
00:25:13,210 --> 00:25:16,710
and make a break for it. But is once again thwarted when Cross

389
00:25:17,210 --> 00:25:20,390
chases her down on a bike of his own. And as punishment for her behavior,

390
00:25:20,890 --> 00:25:24,670
makes all the other recruits, about 25 other people, run last until the sun

391
00:25:25,170 --> 00:25:28,670
comes up the next day. You always skint. Where he catches her.

392
00:25:29,270 --> 00:25:32,630
Yeah. And she tries to get out of it by offering to sleep with him.

393
00:25:32,790 --> 00:25:36,110
She does, and he calls her bluff and he's like, all right, let's go.

394
00:25:36,610 --> 00:25:40,390
He, like, unzips his pants. This girl is an idiot

395
00:25:40,710 --> 00:25:43,590
in every sense of the way. Do it. You know,

396
00:25:44,390 --> 00:25:47,630
I wouldn't have. No, no, I don't want it like

397
00:25:48,130 --> 00:25:51,550
that. I would do a lot to get

398
00:25:52,050 --> 00:25:52,150
out of things.

399
00:25:55,730 --> 00:25:58,930
All right. Well, the training exercises start to ramp up here. And for one reason

400
00:25:59,430 --> 00:26:03,010
or another, Ren continues to find herself one on one with Cross. She gets

401
00:26:03,510 --> 00:26:07,050
in trouble a lot. At one point, she's challenged by Cross that if

402
00:26:07,550 --> 00:26:10,690
she can get out of his office through him, he'll let her quit the program,

403
00:26:11,410 --> 00:26:14,290
which is very sexy scene Also,

404
00:26:14,530 --> 00:26:18,490
nothing happens, but I don't know, just the energy is so

405
00:26:18,990 --> 00:26:22,290
great. And then another night, she wanders off site back to the location of

406
00:26:22,790 --> 00:26:26,680
her uncle's death and is followed by Cross. And at some point, she smuggles

407
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:30,680
a knife back from training when she's caught off guard by

408
00:26:31,180 --> 00:26:34,040
one of the stable men. Staples are people who are born and bred in the

409
00:26:34,540 --> 00:26:37,960
wards to be in a special squad of the Silver Block called

410
00:26:38,460 --> 00:26:41,720
Silver Elite. So just like the careers. Yeah, Just like the careers

411
00:26:42,220 --> 00:26:45,320
in Hunger Games. Yeah. When she pulls a knife on him,

412
00:26:45,820 --> 00:26:49,240
they're interrupted by Cross, who doesn't take the knife from her. He lets

413
00:26:49,740 --> 00:26:53,930
her keep it. And again, like, we have to go back to. Cross is investing

414
00:26:54,430 --> 00:26:58,410
a lot of time and energy into Ren. So we don't see

415
00:26:58,910 --> 00:27:02,290
him interacting with any of the other people the same way that he's interacting with

416
00:27:02,790 --> 00:27:06,010
Ren. He is all up in her shit. He's watching her on cameras.

417
00:27:06,510 --> 00:27:10,770
He is keeping a very close eye on her. And it's very clear as

418
00:27:11,270 --> 00:27:13,730
of the point when she gets in trouble and he challenges her to get out

419
00:27:14,230 --> 00:27:17,540
of his office. It's very clear that he likes her. Yeah. That there's more

420
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,380
happening there. We get a pit night. Pit night is a night

421
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,660
off for the recruits where they all collect an underground pit.

422
00:27:24,980 --> 00:27:28,580
Everyone gets dressed up, they drink, and then there's a. Like a

423
00:27:28,980 --> 00:27:32,619
fighting ring. And again, very thrown

424
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,180
of glass. The recruits learn here that the leaders of their training,

425
00:27:36,500 --> 00:27:40,180
Ford and Struck, are dating and that Ford and Cross

426
00:27:40,420 --> 00:27:44,140
are childhood best friends. I love Ford and I wish we would

427
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,820
have seen more of him because he is a big, dumb idiot walking

428
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,540
around, bumping into things. He is. Cross is not. And I.

429
00:27:51,780 --> 00:27:55,380
I like that dynamic. Sure, I feel like I could really

430
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,820
like Ford. I can't give anything away, but I'm.

431
00:27:58,900 --> 00:28:03,020
Yeah. After Ford and Cross go round

432
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,900
for round in a ring. In the ring, Ren decides that she's

433
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,510
going to head back to the dorm and. And is stopped in the hallway

434
00:28:10,590 --> 00:28:14,110
on her way back by a slightly inebriated Cross,

435
00:28:14,510 --> 00:28:17,830
who tells her here that he doesn't date recruits and that any

436
00:28:18,330 --> 00:28:21,910
other woman would already be halfway back to his bedroom. She tells

437
00:28:22,410 --> 00:28:25,910
him that she's not interested and he tells her not to lie. Oh,

438
00:28:26,410 --> 00:28:29,590
this. There's. Again. She turns them down. There's no sex.

439
00:28:30,090 --> 00:28:34,510
It was so sexy. He is sexy. Yes. Yeah. And I like how undone

440
00:28:35,010 --> 00:28:37,870
he is. I like the dynamic of him being this commander,

441
00:28:38,030 --> 00:28:41,710
straight legs, completely undone around her.

442
00:28:41,950 --> 00:28:44,590
I like it in this context as well.

443
00:28:44,670 --> 00:28:48,550
It's not normally my thing. Even when he is undone, he's still very

444
00:28:49,050 --> 00:28:52,750
controlled, and I. I need that level of control around

445
00:28:53,250 --> 00:28:56,390
me. I am chronically undone all

446
00:28:56,890 --> 00:29:01,590
of the time. I am super messy. I am an emotionally unstable chaos

447
00:29:02,090 --> 00:29:05,080
demon. And I really need men who are very,

448
00:29:05,580 --> 00:29:09,720
very like men. Specifically, I need men who are very stable with

449
00:29:10,220 --> 00:29:13,640
women. I can, like, flex and be the stable one

450
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,800
with men, I cannot. I don't know what that is. So Dave is definitely the

451
00:29:18,300 --> 00:29:22,200
stable one. This is why I like reading these books, because what I

452
00:29:22,700 --> 00:29:26,360
have in real life, I couldn't be with anything else. But I love

453
00:29:26,860 --> 00:29:29,890
to read about other people being fine with other things.

454
00:29:30,610 --> 00:29:32,930
I couldn't handle it either. Yeah.

455
00:29:33,250 --> 00:29:36,610
Jealousy? No. Like a new fight.

456
00:29:36,770 --> 00:29:38,770
No. Arrogance, Like.

457
00:29:40,130 --> 00:29:44,250
Oh, my God. Yeah. My God, I love it. And we've talked

458
00:29:44,750 --> 00:29:47,850
about this before because I can't have, like, a crush or something on somebody who's

459
00:29:48,350 --> 00:29:52,050
too close to Dave. That's why I don't ever

460
00:29:52,550 --> 00:29:55,580
go for, like, the stable. Nice one. Yeah.

461
00:29:56,460 --> 00:30:00,260
And I do in real life and in books. I think we're such a

462
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,860
little conundrum, aren't we? Yeah. Oh, my God. And I think

463
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,820
you and I never even know what we like. That is actually very true.

464
00:30:08,300 --> 00:30:12,300
Normally, like, completely being undone and overly,

465
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,300
like, aggressive is not for me. No, you hate it.

466
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,060
And Credence. Yeah. But I loved it. Yeah,

467
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:20,620
you did.

468
00:30:24,150 --> 00:30:27,110
See, we need video because your face, like, went from,

469
00:30:27,610 --> 00:30:30,870
like to, like. Yeah. So fast.

470
00:30:31,270 --> 00:30:35,110
Yeah. Give me a little Caleb Ren

471
00:30:35,610 --> 00:30:39,349
brushes Cross off. Basically. She Just is like, you're drunk. And she gets

472
00:30:39,849 --> 00:30:43,590
away and nothing. Nothing happens. But, yeah, it's just so sexy.

473
00:30:44,070 --> 00:30:48,230
The next training exercise has them climbing a building and jumping from one rooftop

474
00:30:48,470 --> 00:30:51,790
to another. Very divergent. Ren and her team

475
00:30:52,290 --> 00:30:55,070
of lady and Kane make their jump, but when they return to the ground,

476
00:30:55,710 --> 00:30:58,990
another recruit is in the middle of his jump,

477
00:30:59,150 --> 00:31:02,510
misses his mark, and falls to his death, where one of the

478
00:31:03,010 --> 00:31:06,910
other recruits, Betema, rushes over to help him and gets

479
00:31:07,410 --> 00:31:10,910
sick when he dies. And later that evening, Ren and Betema go

480
00:31:11,390 --> 00:31:14,670
to the roof and are intercepted by two stables.

481
00:31:15,170 --> 00:31:18,770
Anson, the man who had cornered Ren previously, and Ro,

482
00:31:19,010 --> 00:31:22,850
who is Cross's bastard brother, who is also in

483
00:31:23,350 --> 00:31:26,690
the program. And initially, they begin talking about the aberrant

484
00:31:27,190 --> 00:31:30,530
and how inhuman they are, and Ren thinks that they're talking about her and then

485
00:31:31,030 --> 00:31:34,290
is shocked when Ro takes out a gun and shoots Betema in the head,

486
00:31:34,370 --> 00:31:38,290
killing her on the spot. Turns out that Betima was an empath

487
00:31:38,790 --> 00:31:43,090
and could feel other people's emotions. And when the recruit

488
00:31:43,590 --> 00:31:47,310
was dying, her veins had blown, and it g ended up giving

489
00:31:47,810 --> 00:31:52,030
her away as a plant. By the uprising, which is just dumb.

490
00:31:52,750 --> 00:31:56,110
Why on earth would you put somebody. Because if

491
00:31:56,350 --> 00:31:59,470
I'm, like, a leader of this squad, everybody's wearing T shirts,

492
00:31:59,970 --> 00:32:02,630
tank tops. Yeah. If their veins are going to glow, I'm going to see it.

493
00:32:03,130 --> 00:32:06,430
Yeah. Why would you put someone, first of all, who has a useless power.

494
00:32:06,670 --> 00:32:10,190
Yeah. And her veins glow. She's honestly lucky she made it this far.

495
00:32:10,690 --> 00:32:13,390
There was no plan for her to keep making it. Except there was, because this

496
00:32:13,530 --> 00:32:17,530
uprising is stupid. I think Betema was, for context,

497
00:32:17,850 --> 00:32:21,050
she was a very good soldier. I can understand

498
00:32:21,610 --> 00:32:25,850
the empathing would be helpful if, like, you were interrogating somebody

499
00:32:25,930 --> 00:32:29,290
or you'd be able to, like, identify, like, oh, they're lying, or, like, whatever the

500
00:32:29,790 --> 00:32:33,490
case is. But, like, in this case. Yeah. That night, Ren goes

501
00:32:33,990 --> 00:32:37,330
back to the dormitory, and it basically is just kind of. Everybody is just kind

502
00:32:37,830 --> 00:32:41,230
of like, they don't care. Yeah. They're of like, well, she was aberrant and,

503
00:32:41,470 --> 00:32:44,990
you know, good riddance. Like, you know, And I think Ren

504
00:32:45,490 --> 00:32:48,870
here. Yeah, Ren here, kind of starts to realize how dangerous

505
00:32:49,370 --> 00:32:52,830
her situation is again. But again, her veins don't glow.

506
00:32:53,070 --> 00:32:56,110
She doesn't. You can't see her spot because of her burns,

507
00:32:56,510 --> 00:32:59,870
so really not a lot of risk. How would they know?

508
00:32:59,950 --> 00:33:03,630
Yeah. She decides that she's going to seek comfort in Kane's bed. And.

509
00:33:03,790 --> 00:33:07,230
Yes, she does. Yes, she does. And no.

510
00:33:07,730 --> 00:33:11,120
They stop before it goes too far. Ren decides that she's

511
00:33:11,620 --> 00:33:14,600
going to go to extreme lengths now to get out of here. And when she's

512
00:33:15,100 --> 00:33:18,520
paired up with a recruit that she had previously beat the

513
00:33:19,020 --> 00:33:22,600
shit out of for a 1v1 fight, she intentionally brings

514
00:33:23,100 --> 00:33:26,000
the woman down on her wrist to break it. Unfortunately,

515
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,680
Cross has a soft spot for her, and rather than kick her out of the

516
00:33:30,180 --> 00:33:33,560
program, he calls in a healer to heal her broken bones

517
00:33:34,060 --> 00:33:37,080
and sends her back to the dorms. And he flies this her in from the

518
00:33:37,580 --> 00:33:41,640
opposite side of the continent to fix her. If I'm Ren now

519
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,880
here, I would be like, all right, so I'm not getting out of here.

520
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,520
Maybe I should try a little harder. Yeah. But she doesn't.

521
00:33:50,020 --> 00:33:53,560
She's still like, I'm gonna get myself kicked out. Yeah. And also,

522
00:33:54,060 --> 00:33:57,000
Cross did say that she could leave, but she was going back to stock.

523
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,720
Yeah, that's true. Oh, just the decisions she's

524
00:34:01,220 --> 00:34:04,220
making are dumb. This could have been a shorter book, and we could have had

525
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:07,780
a little more resolution or had more sex. Yeah, there could have been a lot

526
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,780
more sex in this book. Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. After Betima's death,

527
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,660
Ren is approached by the Uprising to join them. Their task for her is to

528
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,220
make it into Silver Elite. As she works to bring her scores

529
00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:23,700
up, she realizes that he is still being scored lower than her teammates

530
00:34:23,780 --> 00:34:27,180
and decides to take matters into her own hands by figuring out how

531
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,050
to get into Cross's living quarters covertly and then confronting him on

532
00:34:31,550 --> 00:34:35,250
his scoring. Initially, he denies what he's doing, but he eventually agrees to

533
00:34:35,750 --> 00:34:39,250
score her fairly. As Ren starts to actually give herself over to the training,

534
00:34:39,750 --> 00:34:42,890
she begins to enjoy it. The things they do, the weapons they get to use,

535
00:34:43,390 --> 00:34:46,730
are all things that she enjoys, and she likes having access

536
00:34:46,970 --> 00:34:50,770
to these things that they're doing. And she frequently finds

537
00:34:51,270 --> 00:34:54,810
herself trying to keep her perspective on, like, what a monster they are and

538
00:34:54,890 --> 00:34:58,520
that it's. It's the military, and their objective

539
00:34:59,020 --> 00:35:03,040
is to eradicate people like her. But she's kind of falling in line with

540
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:07,040
the training program and with the other recruits.

541
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:10,960
During a desert camping trip, while Wren is showering,

542
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,440
she is interrupted by Cross. And this is such a

543
00:35:14,940 --> 00:35:18,320
fun scene. It really is. Honestly, going through this recap,

544
00:35:18,820 --> 00:35:21,960
I realized the only reason I like this book so much is because all of

545
00:35:22,460 --> 00:35:25,370
the scenes between Wren and Cross are so. Good, because they really are. They are

546
00:35:25,870 --> 00:35:29,610
rent. Yes. They are so fun. So what's happening here is

547
00:35:30,110 --> 00:35:33,530
they're in, like, a desert camp, and they have basically

548
00:35:33,770 --> 00:35:37,050
long stall of outdoor showers.

549
00:35:37,530 --> 00:35:41,210
Ren goes over there after everybody else. She Always showers after everybody

550
00:35:41,710 --> 00:35:44,890
else. Cause her burns, so she doesn't want people staring at them. Cross comes over

551
00:35:45,450 --> 00:35:48,730
and completely strips down naked in

552
00:35:49,230 --> 00:35:52,170
front of her, and then hops into one of the showers,

553
00:35:52,770 --> 00:35:55,770
and Ren is, like, staring at him, and he's like, you know, it's like,

554
00:35:56,270 --> 00:35:59,850
rude to stare or whatever. And she can't help herself because he's so

555
00:36:00,350 --> 00:36:03,450
beautiful. So then she decides to take her clothes off, and she's gonna take the

556
00:36:03,950 --> 00:36:07,010
spell right next to him immediately. Directly next to him.

557
00:36:07,250 --> 00:36:11,330
And she's, like, sensually washing herself.

558
00:36:11,650 --> 00:36:15,570
Yes. She's, like, lathering everything up. And it's

559
00:36:16,070 --> 00:36:19,650
really. It's just kind of a battle of wills at this point because they're both

560
00:36:20,150 --> 00:36:23,130
making, like, little noises. Oh, my God. It's just.

561
00:36:23,690 --> 00:36:26,970
It's so good. They're both trying to pretend that, like, the other one isn't

562
00:36:27,470 --> 00:36:30,170
affecting them. And it's just so fun.

563
00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:34,010
That scene was so great. Oh. Dave and I met when we were in a

564
00:36:34,510 --> 00:36:38,410
wedding together. And Dave knew this guy because in the dorms,

565
00:36:39,370 --> 00:36:42,730
he went into the bathroom, and there were a bunch of stalls, like,

566
00:36:43,050 --> 00:36:46,170
seven stalls open, and there's one guy, and, like,

567
00:36:46,580 --> 00:36:50,260
at a stall. So Dave, of course, goes directly next to the guy.

568
00:36:50,340 --> 00:36:53,780
Yeah. And peace. And the guy is obviously like, bro,

569
00:36:54,100 --> 00:36:57,340
whatcha doing? And Dave's

570
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,260
favorite thing is to try to make people uncomfortable. So maybe he shouldn't meet your

571
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,820
husband, because Dave would try to make him uncomfortable.

572
00:37:05,060 --> 00:37:08,700
He thinks it's fun. It would be very, very challenging to

573
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:13,260
make my husband uncomfortable. I told my husband that I was gonna talk about how

574
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:15,860
he grabbed my neck and pulled me in for a kiss, and he was just

575
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:19,940
kind of like, okay. And then went about his life. My husband is

576
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,020
absolutely somebody. We've talked about it before where he's like. Like, I don't. Everybody gets.

577
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,780
Always gets so mad when you use the stall right next to him. But it's

578
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,860
like, I'm not paying attention to, like, where other people are. I'm just going in,

579
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:33,020
and I'm finding the stall that feels most comfortable to me. And if it happens

580
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,980
to be next to somebody, it does not bother him at all. Yeah. Our husbands

581
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:41,020
would definitely pee next to each other. Yeah. Inadvertently. Yeah.

582
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,840
Your husband would just be peeing where he's going to pee, and Dave would be

583
00:37:44,340 --> 00:37:47,320
there trying to make him uncomfortable. And he wouldn't be able to. And I think.

584
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:51,000
What I think is so interesting is that Dave did this to make this

585
00:37:51,500 --> 00:37:55,080
man uncomfortable and then somehow ended up being in his wedding. Yeah.

586
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:59,280
I don't Know what that is? It's so interesting

587
00:37:59,780 --> 00:38:02,680
to me how that man would go from, dude,

588
00:38:03,180 --> 00:38:06,560
what is your problem? To being like, would you be in my

589
00:38:07,060 --> 00:38:10,790
wedding? Yes. Now we're best friends forever. Wow. Maybe we should get them together.

590
00:38:10,870 --> 00:38:13,470
I honestly, I think it'd be fun. And we would definitely have to talk about

591
00:38:13,970 --> 00:38:15,510
it. We have to have a whole episode. Where we talk about it. It'll be

592
00:38:16,010 --> 00:38:18,990
a bonus episode. It would be a fun little experiment. Maybe we should do it.

593
00:38:19,490 --> 00:38:22,110
I know that you're not a big drinker, but maybe we should, like, bring them

594
00:38:22,610 --> 00:38:26,670
out and make them be sober, and then you and I get totally ripped and

595
00:38:27,170 --> 00:38:30,950
then just see how they manage us. Like, maybe we bring Melissa.

596
00:38:31,030 --> 00:38:34,550
Oh, my God. And we just get, like, a little chaotic. And it's

597
00:38:35,050 --> 00:38:38,670
going to be fun to get them to come work together, team.

598
00:38:39,170 --> 00:38:41,750
Up to corral us. I mean, I think you and I could probably be easily

599
00:38:42,250 --> 00:38:45,510
corralled, but if Melissa's there, there's no corral in Melissa.

600
00:38:45,750 --> 00:38:49,110
My absolute favorite. I will remember it for the rest

601
00:38:49,610 --> 00:38:53,070
of my life. I will never forget. It was when on the

602
00:38:53,570 --> 00:38:57,710
way to the bathroom, Melissa threw up in a line to the toilet and

603
00:38:58,210 --> 00:39:01,910
then literally tried to come back out and just sit down at the table like

604
00:39:02,410 --> 00:39:05,670
nothing had happened. And the bouncer has to come over and

605
00:39:06,170 --> 00:39:09,550
be like, yo, she's gonna get a ride home, right? Yeah. You're just waiting for

606
00:39:10,050 --> 00:39:12,390
her car, right? Yeah. She was trying to. Like, it wasn't.

607
00:39:12,870 --> 00:39:16,430
Yeah, yeah. Like, no, there's a literal line from

608
00:39:16,930 --> 00:39:20,350
where you're sitting to the bathroom. Do you know who

609
00:39:20,850 --> 00:39:24,150
would have no time for Melissa vomiting is Dave. Oh, you think

610
00:39:24,650 --> 00:39:27,030
so? He's always really good with her when she cries.

611
00:39:29,710 --> 00:39:33,470
That's true. It is. Yeah. We gotta give him his credit. That's true.

612
00:39:34,190 --> 00:39:37,870
So Ren is starting to get her written scores up with the help of Lydia,

613
00:39:38,110 --> 00:39:41,950
but the trainers are challenging her weaknesses, which is

614
00:39:42,450 --> 00:39:45,790
very hard on her. One evening, when she steps away to get some air,

615
00:39:45,950 --> 00:39:49,470
she is followed by Cross, who corners her in a

616
00:39:49,970 --> 00:39:54,030
hallway of the training facility. And again, this is. It's so

617
00:39:54,530 --> 00:39:57,780
hot. It's so sexy. I think he, as a person is

618
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,660
just sexy to me. Sure. I don't think it has anything to do with

619
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,500
her. Well, it's the fact of how undone he

620
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,020
is. Yeah. He is the, like, little general guy.

621
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:13,260
He's the commander of this unit, and he cannot stay away

622
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,140
from her. He cannot help himself. Yeah. In the very.

623
00:40:17,420 --> 00:40:20,300
Yeah. In risking it for the biscuit. Hey. Oh,

624
00:40:21,670 --> 00:40:25,350
that's my saying. It is so yeah, because like in the very first

625
00:40:25,590 --> 00:40:28,950
scene, not the very first one where she accidentally stumbles

626
00:40:29,450 --> 00:40:32,310
into his room, but the first scene after she gets arrested and they're interrogating her.

627
00:40:32,550 --> 00:40:35,750
He comes into the room while they're interrogating her and just stands

628
00:40:36,250 --> 00:40:39,630
there silently. He doesn't say anything. She refers to him as Mr. Silent. So he

629
00:40:40,130 --> 00:40:43,430
is very like buttoned up, very straight laced.

630
00:40:43,750 --> 00:40:47,110
And yeah, he. He basically tells her here, like, I can't get you out of

631
00:40:47,610 --> 00:40:50,540
my head. This is where he says, I have to know. I have to know

632
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:53,900
what you taste like. And then he says, let me have it. And then he

633
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,460
says, like punctuated like, let me have it.

634
00:40:57,540 --> 00:41:01,620
It's so fucking good. Yeah. And then she grabs

635
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:06,180
him and pulls him towards her, which is again, so hot. Yeah. The urgency.

636
00:41:06,580 --> 00:41:10,500
Ugh. Yeah. The kiss in this scene is. It's so,

637
00:41:10,660 --> 00:41:13,910
so hard to write a good kiss. And this kiss is

638
00:41:14,410 --> 00:41:18,310
written so, so well. The author describes it as greedy and

639
00:41:18,810 --> 00:41:22,310
primal. And it is. Oh, my God.

640
00:41:22,810 --> 00:41:26,150
It's actually shocking to me because Skyden Sparrow

641
00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:30,630
was such a well written book. It did not even have

642
00:41:30,790 --> 00:41:34,230
half the intensity of this kiss. Agreed. And it's

643
00:41:34,730 --> 00:41:38,550
actually crazy to me. I think that sky and Sparrow had like scenes written

644
00:41:39,050 --> 00:41:42,410
like this in it. I would have liked it more. Nothing happens again.

645
00:41:42,650 --> 00:41:46,610
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's so painful. They're interrupted and she

646
00:41:47,110 --> 00:41:49,210
does this thing where she's like, can I be dismissed?

647
00:41:50,250 --> 00:41:54,010
So just. Oh, my God. Such a brat. We also

648
00:41:54,510 --> 00:41:57,530
get like a little moment here where Wren's one night stand from the beginning of

649
00:41:58,030 --> 00:42:01,450
the book recognizes her while, like on the training, like at the training

650
00:42:01,950 --> 00:42:05,650
facility and like comes over to say hi. And then later it is revealed

651
00:42:06,150 --> 00:42:09,300
that Cross, in his jealousy sent him far away

652
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,820
on a very long mission. That is for me that level

653
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:18,100
of jealousy where you are going to move a man regard

654
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,500
and doesn't matter anything else. Nothing else matters. You're going to get him away from

655
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,620
the girl you like. Yeah. Let me tell you this again.

656
00:42:25,780 --> 00:42:28,660
This jealousy works for me because it's very controlled.

657
00:42:28,740 --> 00:42:31,980
It's not like he's going over to her and he's like, nobody touches you.

658
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,950
I'm mine. He literally just does this behind her back. And she just like basically

659
00:42:36,450 --> 00:42:39,670
finds out about it later. It's not like he's like. He does interrupt them.

660
00:42:39,990 --> 00:42:42,630
He does come up when they're talking and he's like, ren,

661
00:42:42,950 --> 00:42:46,470
you need to come. I need you over there. It wasn't like she

662
00:42:46,970 --> 00:42:49,350
was just like at a bar talking to the guy. And the guy came over

663
00:42:49,850 --> 00:42:52,390
and was like, you can't talk to her. We're talking, you know, like, it was.

664
00:42:52,550 --> 00:42:56,030
They were running laps, and she had stopped running laps to talk to this guy.

665
00:42:56,530 --> 00:43:00,310
And he was like, you have to go run laps. And it was all

666
00:43:00,810 --> 00:43:04,510
very controlled. And even though we know that was not his motivation, because I think

667
00:43:05,010 --> 00:43:08,450
we get that scene from his perspective. Yeah. And I really, like, appreciate that.

668
00:43:08,950 --> 00:43:12,370
I just. Oh, God, I love a man in control. I really

669
00:43:12,870 --> 00:43:16,810
do. And I love when he's not in control anymore. Cross is very clearly

670
00:43:17,310 --> 00:43:20,370
obsessed with Ren. She literally makes him

671
00:43:20,870 --> 00:43:24,530
crazy. And he loves that he can't control her and that she is fragile

672
00:43:25,030 --> 00:43:27,330
in any way. And I really like that about him a lot as well.

673
00:43:28,050 --> 00:43:31,490
So he sets up a mission for the recruits to

674
00:43:31,650 --> 00:43:35,780
infiltrate a known brothel in the city, sending Ren

675
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:40,100
in to act like a young woman wanting to join the brothel, and then he

676
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:44,380
himself going in to partake. So, like, when this mission gets

677
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:49,300
set up, initially Ren is with Ford and then comes

678
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,020
over and is like, oh, you've been, like, reassigned. Ren is

679
00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:57,140
like, to who? Struck is like, who do you think? Because everybody

680
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:01,670
around them can tell, like, what's going on. The owner

681
00:44:02,170 --> 00:44:06,030
sends Ren over to sit on Cross's lap and

682
00:44:06,530 --> 00:44:10,030
entertain him as, like, an audition. And then after

683
00:44:10,530 --> 00:44:14,630
some talking, he directs her to run away. And she does. And during

684
00:44:15,130 --> 00:44:18,430
their debrief later in his office, he shares with Ren that he

685
00:44:18,930 --> 00:44:22,630
can't stop thinking about her. And he gives in to him, telling him that she

686
00:44:23,130 --> 00:44:26,190
will allow it to happen once, to get it out of her system.

687
00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:30,160
Cross cannot stop himself. He. Yes.

688
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,360
Throw everything off her chest. Yes.

689
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,160
Oh, my God, it is so, so good. So they start

690
00:44:38,660 --> 00:44:41,760
making out until Cross turns her around and then he

691
00:44:42,260 --> 00:44:46,000
bends her over his back. He can finger her from behind, which is my

692
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,200
favorite thing. And he's, like, whispering, like, little nothings in

693
00:44:50,700 --> 00:44:54,290
her ear, which is like, my God, the best. She gets impatient,

694
00:44:54,370 --> 00:44:57,570
spins around, tells him to stop teasing her,

695
00:44:57,890 --> 00:45:01,330
and he grabs her hand to, like, guide it down his stomach

696
00:45:01,830 --> 00:45:05,050
to his dick. And then he, like, stops his hand, and he looks at

697
00:45:05,550 --> 00:45:08,610
her and he says, undo my pants. You love being told what to do.

698
00:45:10,130 --> 00:45:13,770
It's so good. So she does. She falls

699
00:45:14,270 --> 00:45:17,170
backwards on the desk, and he fucks her. And they both come and it's.

700
00:45:17,330 --> 00:45:20,640
It is such a simple scene, but it is so,

701
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,440
so well done. The people who say this was written by AI.

702
00:45:24,940 --> 00:45:28,840
There's no way. There is no way. Yes. It would be so

703
00:45:29,340 --> 00:45:32,920
hard to be able to translate that level

704
00:45:33,420 --> 00:45:37,080
of passion and emotion. Yes. By AI and trust

705
00:45:37,580 --> 00:45:40,800
us, because Nicole and I have both been using ChatGPT

706
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:45,680
and they've. It's very helpful. Yeah. Very useful.

707
00:45:46,140 --> 00:45:49,180
But it's not this. Not this useful. No,

708
00:45:49,660 --> 00:45:53,140
no, this is a useful book. Yeah. Oh, if Dave

709
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,220
was getting laid, he would be getting laid. Yes. A hundred percent.

710
00:45:56,720 --> 00:45:59,940
Yes. Well. And the author does a really good job of describing the

711
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:03,820
noises, which we know that, like, I'm a big noise person.

712
00:46:03,980 --> 00:46:07,220
Yeah. A lot of our books lately have noises. Yeah.

713
00:46:07,720 --> 00:46:11,140
I really appreciate that because I am absolutely a

714
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,450
noise person. Our final three tasks include a rescue mission where

715
00:46:15,950 --> 00:46:19,810
the true way to pass is to leave the person that you are rescuing.

716
00:46:20,310 --> 00:46:23,770
And despite Ren refusing to do so, she still receives a passing score.

717
00:46:24,410 --> 00:46:28,169
The second task, they are kidnapped and held hostage in a dark

718
00:46:28,669 --> 00:46:31,890
room for four days, tortured and beaten for information until they

719
00:46:32,390 --> 00:46:35,810
pass. And Wren has an advantage here because she is with

720
00:46:36,310 --> 00:46:39,930
Ro and Ivy, who know about the challenge. So Ren knows

721
00:46:40,260 --> 00:46:44,020
all that she needs to do is hold out against the clock. Had Ren

722
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:48,220
not known that this was a challenge, she would have failed it miserably.

723
00:46:48,720 --> 00:46:52,020
Yeah. Well. And I think anybody, like, all right, I get tortured for a day.

724
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,620
I can. I can make it a day. But when day two rolls around and

725
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,260
I'm still being tortured, I'm getting close. And then on day three,

726
00:46:58,740 --> 00:47:02,020
I would feel like I'm never getting rescued and I would probably break.

727
00:47:02,420 --> 00:47:05,700
I think day three is even. Ivy says when a lot of people break.

728
00:47:05,780 --> 00:47:09,020
Yeah. Well, and so. And I think, like, with Ren

729
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:12,960
especially, like, I don't think that she would have held out even a day.

730
00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:16,800
The way that they kidnap her, it is very real. She doesn't

731
00:47:17,300 --> 00:47:19,720
know that it's part of a challenge until she wakes up and Row and Ivy

732
00:47:20,220 --> 00:47:23,040
tell her, had they kidnapped her and she been stuck in there with Kane and.

733
00:47:23,540 --> 00:47:26,960
And Kane didn't be or alone. The moment they got her into

734
00:47:27,460 --> 00:47:29,760
the other room, she would have been spelling secret. She would have been ready.

735
00:47:30,260 --> 00:47:32,440
She would have been the cereal. She would have been like, yes, let me tell

736
00:47:32,940 --> 00:47:36,000
you everything I know. Like, you know.

737
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:40,200
So I think it was very strategic and I think we kind of, I think,

738
00:47:40,700 --> 00:47:44,230
agreed that it was maybe like that Cross did that intentionally. Oh, yeah.

739
00:47:44,710 --> 00:47:48,230
After this task, the recruits learn whether they made it into

740
00:47:48,730 --> 00:47:52,830
Silverblock and then what positions that they're in within Silverblock

741
00:47:53,330 --> 00:47:56,750
and run. Surprise. Surprise has made it into Silver

742
00:47:57,250 --> 00:48:00,790
Elite. There is one final task because it's

743
00:48:01,290 --> 00:48:04,590
like 12 people or something get picked for Silver Elite, and it's

744
00:48:05,090 --> 00:48:08,370
a very small group, so they put all of the

745
00:48:08,870 --> 00:48:12,290
recruits, they pair them up and put them into rooms, and then they either have

746
00:48:12,790 --> 00:48:16,090
to fight until the death or until someone taps out. And Ren

747
00:48:16,590 --> 00:48:20,610
is paired with a staple who refuses to tap and ultimately

748
00:48:21,110 --> 00:48:24,330
dies at Ren's hand. This scene

749
00:48:24,650 --> 00:48:28,090
was very interesting to read because

750
00:48:28,650 --> 00:48:32,290
the stable that Ren kills, her dad shows

751
00:48:32,790 --> 00:48:37,210
up to watch the fight. And when Ren leaves

752
00:48:37,710 --> 00:48:40,410
the room after killing this man's daughter,

753
00:48:40,970 --> 00:48:44,690
the man looks at Ren and nods at her. It's just. It is giving

754
00:48:45,190 --> 00:48:48,810
again. So much Hunger Games. They're raised to beast

755
00:48:49,310 --> 00:48:52,890
in Silver Elite. If they're not, they're dead. Just like a career. If you don't

756
00:48:53,390 --> 00:48:56,330
win, you're dead. Yeah, that's it. That was your life's mission.

757
00:48:56,730 --> 00:48:59,900
Like, this man has no remorse about it. It's. This is

758
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:03,140
just like. I've got three more of them at home. 100%. Do this again next

759
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:07,220
year. Yeah. Ren is reassigned to her new quarters, which are private

760
00:49:07,720 --> 00:49:11,180
rooms. And while unpacking, Cross shows up at her place and offers to help her

761
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:15,860
forget what she did. He goes down on her and fingers her until she orgasms.

762
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:20,020
And then they have sex in her bedroom in missionary. And despite that, it's still

763
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:24,100
so fucking sexy. So good. The inspiration you could draw from this

764
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:27,990
book is real. Oh, God. This whole book is missionary. Yeah, it really is.

765
00:49:28,490 --> 00:49:32,550
Yeah. There's still so sexy. Yeah. I don't know how this author managed

766
00:49:33,050 --> 00:49:36,470
to do that. I'm so impressed with them. Ren and Kane are sent on

767
00:49:36,970 --> 00:49:40,390
their own first mission to a hospital to scout for

768
00:49:40,890 --> 00:49:43,430
supplies that are being held by a known black market dealer.

769
00:49:43,990 --> 00:49:47,390
While at the hospital, Ren discovers a room full of moths that are fractured,

770
00:49:47,890 --> 00:49:51,830
meaning that their brains have been scrambled, and she realizes that they are being experimented

771
00:49:52,330 --> 00:49:55,350
on. They're abruptly pulled away from their mission to visit Ren's ward,

772
00:49:55,850 --> 00:49:59,540
Ward C as. Since finding out that it was protecting her uncle, the military

773
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:04,140
has determined that it's a hub of illicit activity. They're interrogating

774
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:08,220
Hannah's dad, Griff, and Ren convinces Cross to allow her

775
00:50:08,300 --> 00:50:11,180
to offer him a deal. The deal being that for information,

776
00:50:11,820 --> 00:50:15,180
Cross will not kill Tana and Griff, who will send them to the salt mines.

777
00:50:15,580 --> 00:50:19,060
While they work through this, Tana links with Ren, asking for help, and she

778
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:22,620
rushes to the inn that Tana owns with her father, Griff, only to discover that

779
00:50:22,980 --> 00:50:26,740
Anson, the stable from her recruit class,

780
00:50:26,980 --> 00:50:30,180
who had been in charge of watching her, had attempted to force

781
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,140
himself on Tana, and she had killed him with his own gun.

782
00:50:33,620 --> 00:50:37,220
Wren stages the scene to make it look like she had walked in on

783
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:41,460
them and that he had shot at her. And so she shot him

784
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:45,700
back and killed him. And even though Cross can tell that that's not what happened,

785
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:48,820
he keeps to their deal. He sends Tana and Groove to the salt mines.

786
00:50:49,060 --> 00:50:52,260
And then when he tries to comfort her later that evening, she tells him to

787
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:56,020
go away. She just makes bad decision on bad decision.

788
00:50:56,420 --> 00:50:59,900
But also, I do kind of feel like Ren shouldn't have been in Ward

789
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:03,940
C. Cross knows she has friends there. She shouldn't have been there.

790
00:51:04,180 --> 00:51:08,140
Yeah. The fact that you think she all of the sudden is now

791
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,500
just going to give up on her best friend, that's not happening. So that was

792
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,780
a dumb decision on his part. He could have gotten laid tonight if he would

793
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:18,600
have just kept her away. And honestly, this wasn't. This didn't really move the plot

794
00:51:19,100 --> 00:51:22,680
forward. Yeah, I think it was hard to recap this book because the other books

795
00:51:23,180 --> 00:51:27,520
aren't out yet. So it's hard to know what relevant information there is. And I

796
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:30,960
really just kind of had to, like, go with my gut and assume that

797
00:51:31,460 --> 00:51:34,800
it was in there for some purpose. I think that there is something being set

798
00:51:35,300 --> 00:51:38,480
up between Tana and Wren. Yeah, I don't think. Yeah.

799
00:51:38,980 --> 00:51:43,260
Because Tana is very, very unhappy with Ren and,

800
00:51:43,740 --> 00:51:47,540
like, for making the deal. Ren continues to pass along information to the

801
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:52,340
uprising. And she and Cross continue their friends with benefits situation after

802
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,380
an air quotes not date, which was totally 100% a date,

803
00:51:56,880 --> 00:52:00,620
where he brings her to a cave system filled with irradiated flowers that glow

804
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:04,500
in the dark. They are called away to deal with his mother and

805
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:08,300
they go to Ross's childhood home. And Ren realizes that his

806
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:12,220
mom is in fact a fragmented mod, although he claims

807
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:15,410
that she is schizophrenic. But something else happens here.

808
00:52:15,970 --> 00:52:20,210
Wren puts together that Cross is her childhood telepathy

809
00:52:20,710 --> 00:52:24,010
friend, Wolf. There's some details that Wolf had shared

810
00:52:24,510 --> 00:52:28,130
with her about his home that she gets

811
00:52:28,630 --> 00:52:32,410
to this home and realizes and puts together. He basically

812
00:52:32,910 --> 00:52:36,250
calls her to his room that night and with, like, one goal in

813
00:52:36,750 --> 00:52:39,450
mind, which, oh, yeah, he's gonna get light. Yeah, well, he's gonna make love for

814
00:52:39,950 --> 00:52:44,100
her. So his mom was not eating, and so Ren

815
00:52:44,420 --> 00:52:48,020
made her some soup and, like, fed it to her. And Cross

816
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,660
was like, oh, my God, this is the woman of my dreams. So he wants

817
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:55,140
to make eye contact while they fuck. And they do.

818
00:52:55,300 --> 00:52:58,820
And it's very romantic, but still sexy.

819
00:52:59,060 --> 00:53:02,540
So this is not usually my thing, but it's still

820
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:06,780
a good scene. And they finish up and Ren starts to tell Cross

821
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,720
a story that only he knows, and it comes out

822
00:53:11,220 --> 00:53:14,320
that he is a bad wolf. And they don't have time to talk through

823
00:53:14,820 --> 00:53:17,560
it because they are called away. For addition, which we all saw coming.

824
00:53:17,720 --> 00:53:20,960
You knew that crossed away. Yes. 100%. Yes. It is

825
00:53:21,460 --> 00:53:25,320
interesting, though, because he says he doesn't. He has one power. He can do telepathy.

826
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:29,320
I think that's it. And his veins also don't blow,

827
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:33,240
so why is that? Yeah, see, I don't believe that.

828
00:53:33,720 --> 00:53:36,680
She doesn't have any other powers.

829
00:53:37,180 --> 00:53:40,760
Yeah, I think we're gonna find that out. I feel like Cross is

830
00:53:41,260 --> 00:53:44,440
gonna be a bad guy. I literally. I knew you were gonna say that.

831
00:53:44,940 --> 00:53:48,320
Yeah, it's. It's giving Tamlin. Well, it is giving

832
00:53:48,820 --> 00:53:52,160
a little Tamlin. No, I think it's giving more like the whole

833
00:53:52,660 --> 00:53:56,440
Peeta and Gail dynamic, where, like, I was

834
00:53:56,940 --> 00:54:00,520
Team Gail until Gayle was like, I'm team Military.

835
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,060
And Katniss was like, don't you see,

836
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:08,500
like, what a problem all of this is? And I feel like this is gonna

837
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:12,140
turn into. He's gonna pick military. This is gonna turn into,

838
00:54:12,220 --> 00:54:16,460
like, a Cross, Kane, Wren situation.

839
00:54:17,340 --> 00:54:20,860
But once we get to the end, we'll kind of talk over my other theory.

840
00:54:21,020 --> 00:54:24,660
So. Yeah. The mission goes awry because they are

841
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:28,880
ambushed and Ford's girlfriend Struck and Ren's

842
00:54:29,380 --> 00:54:31,320
friend Kane are killed during an explosion.

843
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:35,440
Cross and Ren are trying to navigate what the relationship means

844
00:54:35,940 --> 00:54:39,240
to them, and Cross is having a hard time trusting Ren, so she does something

845
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:42,520
so, so, so fucking stupid and reckless.

846
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:46,680
She goes to a healer to have them heal her scars,

847
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:50,320
exposing her red circle mark that identifies

848
00:54:50,820 --> 00:54:53,880
her as a mod. This was so, so stupid.

849
00:54:54,380 --> 00:54:57,440
So stupid. It doesn't even. What? When she's like, oh, I wanted. I was trying

850
00:54:57,940 --> 00:55:01,670
to prove my love to you. How? This didn't. No, it was

851
00:55:02,170 --> 00:55:05,950
dumb. Yeah. She shows Cross and then she

852
00:55:06,450 --> 00:55:09,550
lays him out and then rides and dig until they both come. He's,

853
00:55:10,050 --> 00:55:12,950
like, real mad about it. And she's like, lay back. I got you.

854
00:55:13,190 --> 00:55:16,150
And of course, just like a man. Yeah, he forgets about it.

855
00:55:16,470 --> 00:55:19,110
Afterwards, Cross admits to Ren that he loves her.

856
00:55:19,670 --> 00:55:23,110
Ren is given a mission by the uprising to plant explosives in

857
00:55:23,610 --> 00:55:26,870
a supply closet of the mansion where a large gala is being

858
00:55:27,370 --> 00:55:30,060
held that evening. While planting the devices,

859
00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:34,220
she is confronted by Jade, the powerful mind reader from earlier in

860
00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:38,060
the story, who can also see the future and had seen a

861
00:55:38,560 --> 00:55:41,900
vision of Ren doing this and was so

862
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:46,220
incredulous that Ren would be able to bypass her powers that she had to

863
00:55:46,720 --> 00:55:50,540
Come and see it for herself. After some back and forth, Ren incites

864
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:54,540
Jade to kill herself and then calls Cross to come help her.

865
00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:57,940
And again, just stupid, selfish, reckless.

866
00:55:58,420 --> 00:56:01,700
She has this, like, mentality of, like, I can do whatever I want,

867
00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:03,860
and then I'm just gonna call somebody else to clean it up and fix it

868
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:07,140
for me. Well, they do, Uncle. And they do it her whole life. And now

869
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:10,660
Cross just cleans up everything that she does. Yeah,

870
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:14,420
it's ridiculous. He sends her back to her quarters where she.

871
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:18,100
Because she's supposed to be meeting her friend Lydia to get ready for this gala.

872
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:22,530
And again, I have to go back to. This scene is just. I do

873
00:56:23,030 --> 00:56:26,290
not understand. I can't wrap my head around it. So lady

874
00:56:26,790 --> 00:56:30,930
notices Ren's scars are healed and for whatever

875
00:56:31,430 --> 00:56:34,770
reason, decides that she's gonna get up close and personal and,

876
00:56:35,270 --> 00:56:38,450
like, tugs up or whatever.

877
00:56:38,770 --> 00:56:42,450
She's wearing underwear. Like, boy short underwear. And she, like, goes over to her

878
00:56:42,950 --> 00:56:45,730
and it's like, let me lift those up so that she can see it.

879
00:56:46,230 --> 00:56:48,490
It's so. I just want you to know that I would never do that to

880
00:56:48,990 --> 00:56:52,330
you. Thank you. I don't care if you've got any tattoo. I would wait for

881
00:56:52,830 --> 00:56:56,070
you to show. It's so weird to me. She realizes that

882
00:56:56,570 --> 00:56:59,950
Ren is a mod. And then while they're discussing it, Ivy walks in on

883
00:57:00,450 --> 00:57:03,910
them. And Ren sort of spins this, like, story that she's like, an undercover mod

884
00:57:04,410 --> 00:57:08,070
for the General. And they head to the gala where a leader

885
00:57:08,570 --> 00:57:12,510
from the uprising has infiltrated the crowd. And while the General is giving

886
00:57:13,010 --> 00:57:17,230
a speech, she fragments his mind. It really kind of turns into chaos.

887
00:57:17,310 --> 00:57:20,660
And I would say the last whole section of the book is

888
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:24,900
chaos. It really is. It moves so fast. The whole time I was like,

889
00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:28,580
I had one anxiety because Ren is such a fucking head. Yeah. And I

890
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:32,340
was just like, she's gonna fuck everything up. The party dissolves quickly

891
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:36,620
from here, and as Ren is fleeing, she's stopped by Ro, which is

892
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:40,420
Cross's bastard brother. And Liddy had

893
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:43,100
turned her in again. Saw coming.

894
00:57:44,540 --> 00:57:47,550
That's why I said I wouldn't. Even from the startup, I would not have been

895
00:57:48,050 --> 00:57:51,190
friends with fucking Liddy. I have chosen Ivy. I know, baby,

896
00:57:51,690 --> 00:57:55,550
but, you know, like, Carmen is like, a Liddy. And Carmen would

897
00:57:56,050 --> 00:57:59,550
never. Carmen would never. Would never. So. But I also saw

898
00:58:00,050 --> 00:58:02,350
it coming. Yeah. I think everybody reading it saw it coming.

899
00:58:03,150 --> 00:58:06,350
Ro doesn't kill her because he's been asked to take it,

900
00:58:06,850 --> 00:58:10,030
like, easy on her, which I just, like, don't understand that at all. It's it's

901
00:58:10,530 --> 00:58:14,050
her main character armor. Yeah, 100%. And he has her

902
00:58:14,550 --> 00:58:17,650
put in the stocks again. And then it's determined by the Tribunal, which is like

903
00:58:18,150 --> 00:58:21,410
the equivalent of their court systems, that she will be killed for her concealment of

904
00:58:21,910 --> 00:58:24,650
her status and her attempted infiltration of the military.

905
00:58:25,130 --> 00:58:28,689
She attempts to get help from the uprising, who tell her they cannot

906
00:58:29,189 --> 00:58:32,330
get her out, but that if she can make it to the other side of

907
00:58:32,830 --> 00:58:36,490
the Black Lands, that they will protect her. Honestly, this whole part

908
00:58:36,990 --> 00:58:40,410
didn't have to happen. It doesn't make any sense to me. No. Why?

909
00:58:41,070 --> 00:58:44,590
If she can get out of the prison, you're telling me that there's.

910
00:58:45,310 --> 00:58:48,750
They broke her out. Once you break through the Black Lands,

911
00:58:49,250 --> 00:58:52,670
what are you protecting her from? Yeah, at that point. Exactly. Like, the whole thing

912
00:58:53,170 --> 00:58:56,270
is just obscure. It doesn't make any sense yet. Maybe it'll make sense in the

913
00:58:56,770 --> 00:59:00,110
next book, but. Well, unlike Cross, obviously breaks her out of prison,

914
00:59:00,350 --> 00:59:03,550
which seems like it's like, really not a big deal, so. This whole part,

915
00:59:04,050 --> 00:59:07,200
it didn't even need to happen. Yeah. I would have been happier if this whole

916
00:59:07,700 --> 00:59:11,000
little thing didn't happen. It was just dumb the way it happened. I didn't

917
00:59:11,500 --> 00:59:14,520
like it. So. Yeah. So Cross and board break her out. They get her to

918
00:59:15,020 --> 00:59:18,360
the edge of the Blacklands, where Cross basically tells her,

919
00:59:18,860 --> 00:59:22,080
like, surprise, I'm not coming with you. I have to go back. My mom is

920
00:59:22,580 --> 00:59:26,320
back there. My brother, who is much more evil than he is,

921
00:59:26,820 --> 00:59:30,760
has taken over my father's spot as the General, and he leaves

922
00:59:31,260 --> 00:59:34,460
her with Ford to return to a do damage control.

923
00:59:34,860 --> 00:59:38,900
And Ren and Ford make it to the other side of the Blacklands. After a

924
00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,540
short layover at the cabin that she and her uncle survived in when she was

925
00:59:43,040 --> 00:59:46,980
a young girl, they're picked up by the uprising. And the person who

926
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:50,660
is flying the plane that picks them up is General Lum.

927
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:54,420
Lum Kane. So he had not died. Ford is

928
00:59:54,920 --> 00:59:58,620
taken as a hostage because Ren doesn't communicate with them that she's bringing

929
00:59:59,100 --> 01:00:02,530
one of the military with her. Stupid, so selfish

930
01:00:03,030 --> 01:00:05,730
lord has selflessly brought you here. Yes.

931
01:00:05,970 --> 01:00:09,210
And you just forget. And they do the

932
01:00:09,710 --> 01:00:13,330
thing where they, like, like, reach out a hand for Ren. And Ren,

933
01:00:13,830 --> 01:00:17,010
like, stands at the edge of the cliff with her hair blowing in

934
01:00:17,510 --> 01:00:20,330
the helicopter wind and thinks about whether or not she's going to take his hand

935
01:00:20,830 --> 01:00:24,610
or maybe she's going to go back and she

936
01:00:25,090 --> 01:00:28,940
takes the hand. And our final page is a copy

937
01:00:29,260 --> 01:00:33,300
of a letter that Wren discovered at the cabin during their short

938
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:37,420
usage of it. And in the letter, it is revealed by her Uncle Jim

939
01:00:37,740 --> 01:00:41,100
that her mother and her father were both mods

940
01:00:41,180 --> 01:00:44,780
who worked against the uprising and killed thousands of mods,

941
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:48,140
and that her real name is Salahass. And that's the end of the book.

942
01:00:48,220 --> 01:00:51,980
Which brings me to my other theory, which is that she

943
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:56,130
is going to put in a similar timeline with

944
01:00:56,450 --> 01:00:59,890
Cross, like, as her and her parents, where they.

945
01:01:00,290 --> 01:01:03,490
Because the uprising is giving to me. District 13.

946
01:01:03,570 --> 01:01:07,010
Yes, it's giving. Adrian is President Coin.

947
01:01:07,510 --> 01:01:11,690
Yes, it's giving. Like we're outside of the existing precedive

948
01:01:12,190 --> 01:01:14,850
structure, and so they must be better. And then it turns out that they're not.

949
01:01:14,930 --> 01:01:18,650
And we don't talk about it a lot here, but there is another continent

950
01:01:19,150 --> 01:01:22,460
that is directly adjacent to their continent that is

951
01:01:22,780 --> 01:01:25,940
not under the same military rule. I will read the

952
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:29,620
next book. Oh, yeah, for sure. I'm invested in the world and

953
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:33,420
the story. It's compelling. It's a good read. It's a fast,

954
01:01:33,660 --> 01:01:36,540
easy read, 100%. It's not a deep book.

955
01:01:37,100 --> 01:01:40,940
It doesn't take any analyzing. We agree on basically everything because

956
01:01:41,440 --> 01:01:44,860
it's pretty straightforward. I wouldn't necessarily say that any of these characters

957
01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:48,730
are especially well developed. No. So I agree with that.

958
01:01:48,890 --> 01:01:52,810
I don't know that they're necessarily lovable. No. It's an interesting

959
01:01:53,610 --> 01:01:56,850
storyline and the sex. Scenes are so good. It really is.

960
01:01:57,350 --> 01:02:01,010
Read it for that alone, Whoever Danny. Francis is, if you could just write just

961
01:02:01,510 --> 01:02:05,330
a smutty book. We don't need it to be with truly. And give me

962
01:02:05,830 --> 01:02:08,890
a Throw together a. Good story for you. Yes. Five men and one girl.

963
01:02:09,050 --> 01:02:12,250
Yeah, that'll be perfect. My favorite.

964
01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:16,480
All right, well, normally here we would talk about the author,

965
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:20,160
but because Danny Francis is a pen name, we actually

966
01:02:20,240 --> 01:02:23,680
don't know a ton about her.

967
01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:27,040
Maybe it's a her. I guess. I don't know. It's a her.

968
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:30,640
Yeah. A man could not. I. I read. I started.

969
01:02:30,720 --> 01:02:34,120
I should say I did not finish it, but I started a spicy

970
01:02:34,620 --> 01:02:37,760
book written by a man, and I couldn't. I couldn't do it. When a man

971
01:02:38,260 --> 01:02:41,540
tries to. Right from a woman's pov, I'm like, women don't

972
01:02:42,040 --> 01:02:45,940
think like this. Women don't do this. Yeah. And it's just bad. Yeah.

973
01:02:46,440 --> 01:02:50,620
There's actually a really, really popular book that we read

974
01:02:51,120 --> 01:02:55,020
for our book club. I'm probably gonna get completely ostracized for.

975
01:02:55,520 --> 01:02:59,100
But the book is called Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

976
01:02:59,180 --> 01:03:03,260
And it is this, like, incredible universe, and it has all of this incredible,

977
01:03:03,340 --> 01:03:06,400
like, fantastic lore. And it's. Everybody is like.

978
01:03:06,900 --> 01:03:10,320
Like, people who read this book are stans for this book. The main character's

979
01:03:10,820 --> 01:03:14,680
name is Vin. The book is really supposed to be like, from her perspective.

980
01:03:15,180 --> 01:03:18,480
It is. And when we were at the book club, the one thing that we

981
01:03:18,980 --> 01:03:22,440
unanimously agreed on was that Vin was very clearly written by a man. But the

982
01:03:22,940 --> 01:03:26,440
one guy in our book club thought that it was such a good, like a

983
01:03:26,940 --> 01:03:30,200
good POV from a woman. And it was so realistic. Yeah. I was like,

984
01:03:30,700 --> 01:03:33,880
women do not think this way. Women do not miss wearing dresses and

985
01:03:34,380 --> 01:03:37,900
heels when they have to wear like army fatigues even. Just like

986
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:41,980
the way that she was fleshed out from a character perspective, it was so simple.

987
01:03:42,300 --> 01:03:45,820
100% very, very, very one note. She didn't have any depth.

988
01:03:45,900 --> 01:03:49,580
Yeah. And women. It is. It's such a good book. I loved

989
01:03:50,080 --> 01:03:52,180
this book. I read the rest of them. You did not. You stopped after the

990
01:03:52,680 --> 01:03:55,860
first one. Yeah. Which just. I have nobody to talk about this

991
01:03:56,360 --> 01:03:58,740
book with. I try to get Dave because I do think that'd be something up

992
01:03:59,240 --> 01:04:02,460
his league, but sure, God forbid he doesn't find a new video game to play.

993
01:04:02,740 --> 01:04:05,700
Shoot. Darn it. Well, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll add it to my tbr.

994
01:04:06,180 --> 01:04:09,780
I own the other ones. I just. I own a lot of books that I

995
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:13,340
haven't. Yeah. Did I? Because you got the three pack of them right? I did,

996
01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:17,180
yeah. Well, the information that we have about Danny Francis is that Danny Francis

997
01:04:17,680 --> 01:04:20,460
is an avid reader, a lover of all things breakfast, and a hopeless romantic.

998
01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:24,220
When she is not creating high stakes fantasy worlds and complex characters, you can find

999
01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:28,520
her spending time with family or trying to figure out why the printer never works.

1000
01:04:28,830 --> 01:04:32,270
And there are all kinds of theories online about who she

1001
01:04:32,350 --> 01:04:35,630
could possibly be. And it's all very fun.

1002
01:04:35,790 --> 01:04:39,070
I really sincerely hope that it does not turn out to be AI because

1003
01:04:39,570 --> 01:04:42,830
that would be. I can't imagine it is. I really don't think

1004
01:04:43,330 --> 01:04:46,670
that a big publisher would publish AI. All right, well,

1005
01:04:47,170 --> 01:04:51,150
we want to thank Paggles. Yeah. Spice level.

1006
01:04:51,710 --> 01:04:55,070
See, this is the problem because I don't remember when I rated it last time.

1007
01:04:55,450 --> 01:04:59,050
I remember you rated it. I'm gonna give this nice level where

1008
01:04:59,550 --> 01:05:02,010
if we're going off of graphic, I think I'm gonna give it like a three.

1009
01:05:02,410 --> 01:05:05,210
Okay. Last time you gave it a two. I gave it a two.

1010
01:05:05,850 --> 01:05:09,730
It was well written. Yeah. It was missionary in the dark. It really

1011
01:05:10,230 --> 01:05:13,050
was. But there was also some good noises.

1012
01:05:13,850 --> 01:05:17,690
You do. Which I do love the noises. Yeah. So I'm

1013
01:05:18,190 --> 01:05:21,530
gonna stick with my Three. Spice frequency. Spice frequency. I'm gonna give it

1014
01:05:22,030 --> 01:05:25,340
a two. We could have gotten rid of a lot and then just had some

1015
01:05:25,840 --> 01:05:28,980
more. There should have been so much more sex with Cross. Yeah, there should have

1016
01:05:29,480 --> 01:05:32,180
been some anal. There should have been just. There could have been more anal.

1017
01:05:32,420 --> 01:05:36,020
Cross would have been a dream come true. Are you kidding me right now?

1018
01:05:36,520 --> 01:05:39,900
Oh, my God. Wow. Missed opportunity, Danny Francis. Well, I mean,

1019
01:05:40,400 --> 01:05:43,540
this is book one. I'm assuming this is at least a trilogy. I bet Kane.

1020
01:05:44,100 --> 01:05:47,460
Kane will do some eight. Oh, for sure he

1021
01:05:47,960 --> 01:05:51,630
will. Yeah. Kane would do pretty much just about anything. Yeah, he seems

1022
01:05:52,130 --> 01:05:55,510
like a good time. He'll put a mask on. He'll chase you through the

1023
01:05:56,010 --> 01:05:59,270
woods. Whatever you ask, he'll do it. Cross won't.

1024
01:05:59,590 --> 01:06:03,670
No, no. He dominates you. He tie you to the bed because

1025
01:06:04,170 --> 01:06:07,550
he wants to. This is why I like. Why choose though? Because wouldn't it be

1026
01:06:08,050 --> 01:06:08,550
nice to have one of each?

1027
01:06:11,670 --> 01:06:16,280
We'll do some wide shoes. Thank you. I do pros.

1028
01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:21,000
I would give pros on this. I think it's just so simple.

1029
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:25,320
I'm probably gonna give it a three and a half. I give it a 3.52.

1030
01:06:25,960 --> 01:06:29,720
It's not a masterpiece. Yeah, it's. There are

1031
01:06:30,220 --> 01:06:33,640
things that we've read where. Well, I've read, I don't know that we've ever heard.

1032
01:06:34,140 --> 01:06:37,320
Oh, bagging the blue liner was terrible.

1033
01:06:37,400 --> 01:06:40,640
Yes. It's better than bagging the blue liner. Yes, we have

1034
01:06:41,140 --> 01:06:44,500
at least complete sentences, so. And the sex scenes are well written,

1035
01:06:44,980 --> 01:06:48,820
but it is definitely not a masterpiece by

1036
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:52,180
any means. So if you are new to fantasy.

1037
01:06:52,500 --> 01:06:55,900
Yeah. You could never put Penelope Douglas and Danny Francis in the

1038
01:06:56,400 --> 01:06:59,540
same category as one another. Storyline.

1039
01:07:00,260 --> 01:07:03,980
Storyline. I would give a four. I think the storyline is. It's super

1040
01:07:04,480 --> 01:07:07,940
interesting. Like, I. I think that we could have done a better job on fleshing

1041
01:07:08,440 --> 01:07:11,910
out the storyline. If somebody like Penelope Douglas had written the same story,

1042
01:07:12,150 --> 01:07:15,550
it would have been off the charts. Good. Yeah. The book would

1043
01:07:16,050 --> 01:07:18,550
have been a five star book for sure. Oh, yeah. Overall.

1044
01:07:19,030 --> 01:07:22,550
Overall, I think I'm gonna give it a three and a half.

1045
01:07:22,790 --> 01:07:25,870
I give it a four. I enjoyed reading it. I did too.

1046
01:07:26,370 --> 01:07:29,870
100%. I. I basically absorbed this book. I read it

1047
01:07:30,370 --> 01:07:34,110
over Memorial Day weekend where I was with my whole

1048
01:07:34,610 --> 01:07:37,550
family. My kids, my nieces, all of the dogs. We golfed,

1049
01:07:38,050 --> 01:07:41,370
we went on the boat, we played on the beach. We did so much stuff.

1050
01:07:41,870 --> 01:07:44,850
And I still read the book. So, yeah, definitely think it was a good.

1051
01:07:45,250 --> 01:07:48,490
But again, there's familiarity to it that I think I really

1052
01:07:48,990 --> 01:07:52,850
enjoyed. It was no different than like when I read Throne of Glass or Acotar

1053
01:07:52,930 --> 01:07:56,130
or the Maral Instrument series. It's all the same,

1054
01:07:56,630 --> 01:07:59,530
like, just the comfort of it. I'm definitely going to read the second book for

1055
01:08:00,030 --> 01:08:02,770
sure. Same. We'll definitely do the second book. I swear to God if there's not.

1056
01:08:03,270 --> 01:08:06,850
There had better be a healthy amount of sex. I swear.

1057
01:08:07,060 --> 01:08:10,420
Take our notes, Minnie Francis. Yeah, more noises,

1058
01:08:10,920 --> 01:08:14,220
some anal. If you

1059
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:18,820
have some time for two on one, that'd be. Yeah, great too.

1060
01:08:18,900 --> 01:08:22,300
But no pressure. If not, what about Ford? Do you think she could get

1061
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:26,420
with Ford? No, I'm not interested in that. Ford was in love with Struck

1062
01:08:26,500 --> 01:08:28,340
and I don't want anything.

1063
01:08:29,300 --> 01:08:31,060
Ford is also going to be in this next book.

1064
01:08:32,020 --> 01:08:35,589
They might get close. They're definitely giving friends.

1065
01:08:36,229 --> 01:08:39,189
I mean, they really are. Yeah, there was love. Friends to love.

1066
01:08:39,749 --> 01:08:43,429
Which I think is very, I will say is a very

1067
01:08:43,929 --> 01:08:47,469
good point to make about how well the chemistry between Cross and Ren

1068
01:08:47,969 --> 01:08:51,789
is because her chemistry with Ford is like non existent.

1069
01:08:52,289 --> 01:08:56,709
Agreed. However, this author was able to build that up and write that is really,

1070
01:08:57,209 --> 01:09:00,960
truly impressive. I agree. All right, well, as of right now

1071
01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:05,280
you can find us online@bookslipspodcast.com we

1072
01:09:05,780 --> 01:09:09,320
will eventually be updating all of our social medias on our websites

1073
01:09:09,820 --> 01:09:13,160
and things to be reflective of our new name. But for right now you

1074
01:09:13,660 --> 01:09:16,160
can find us there. It'll route you to all of our social media. Follow us

1075
01:09:16,660 --> 01:09:20,080
on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. We look forward to seeing you next time.

1076
01:09:20,400 --> 01:09:23,200
I'm Amanda. I'm Nicole. And we are Platartarts.