Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score

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I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. Literally.

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I do have to tell you something because, of course, I always have to tell

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you something. Tell me. So I was working today with. I had another

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co worker helping translate today. Okay. And I

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don't know what it was, but he started speaking Spanish. And I was like,

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oh, my God, you're so sexy. I feel

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like this guy, the guy that you're talking about, gives off big dick energy.

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I'm not attracted to him. No. He's. He's objectively

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unattractive. Yeah. Which is saying a lot, because I can find something attractive about

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anybody. So true. But it's just the vibe. Is that going to be. But you

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can't speak anything. Oh, no, no. It went away as

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soon as he started speaking English again. I was over it.

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Yeah. My husband obviously is bilingual.

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Yeah. And speaks Spanish. I really don't find it attractive. It just

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is like background noise for me at this point, especially once

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he and his dad get into conversations with one another. And it's.

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They're basically saying the same things over and over and

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over again, but they're kind of changing the way that they say them.

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At this point in my life. It's just kind of like the Charlie Brown teacher

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in my background all the time. And they are always, like,

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yapping, like, 100% of the time. If they're both in

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the vicinity of one another, they're yapping, which I, like, love for

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them. But no, for me, it's just like, I'm overstimulated.

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Yeah. All right, well, I'm Amanda. And I'm Nicole.

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And we're plot tarts. We read, recap and review story Smutty

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

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What book are we reading today? We are reading Things We Left behind by Lucy

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Score. This is the third book in the Knock Em out series.

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Yes. Nicole. My favorite. This is why we're reading

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it. This is why we did the whole series. Because I read this and then

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I told everybody about it, and I've now read this book three times.

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I'm so obsessed with it, and I just. I could read it again.

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The thing of it is, is that nobody, and I mean nobody

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listening, could ever understand how annoying you were about

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the fact that you had read this book and you were obsessed with it and

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nobody else had read it. And. No, still, you're the only one. I. I was.

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Basically. It was. It got to the point where I was like, I just have

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to read this book. So I can fucking get Nicole off my back. You're not

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even like, oh, my God, it's such a good book. You just pout about it.

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You just, like, would just, like, come into my office and just like,

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sit down and be like, someone says some of this book and nobody has read

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it. Like, oh, my God.

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Uncanny. Yeah. That's a

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really good impression. I know. And still you're the only person who's read it.

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And I'm just so obsessed with it. I'm so obsessed with Lucian. I just can't

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even handle this. But this whole book series, this whole world,

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yeah, 100% I'm obsessed. I'm devastated that

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we're not in it anymore and that it's not real. So this episode is gonna

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be our spoiler episode. So we will have spoilers in this episode.

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We are gonna start incorporating some spoiler free reviews

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in coming weeks, so look forward to those.

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They're gonna be kind of just little short recaps and reviews

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that we provide without the spoilers. Although our recaps are

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pretty high level. So you're missing so much. You're missing

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a lot of nuance, even if you're getting the details that we're providing in them.

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But either way, this book, we can't do justice. Yeah,

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well, I feel like we did, but we'll see.

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All right, well, there are no content warnings, as usual. I got

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these off of the trigger warning database online.

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Super limited this time. Domestic violence on page,

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alcoholism, death of a parent fire, and sexual themes.

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Pretty sure they're really. Yeah. This one, I feel like, had fewer than, like,

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the first one and even the second one kind of. This book. This book

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of the series was very interesting to read because this

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is the only book where both of the main characters are from Knock

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Em Out. So in the other two books, you sort of have this,

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like, learning experience where everybody's kind of like learning the town.

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And this book, in my opinion, felt very isolated

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to, like, Lucien and Sloane. There wasn't as much of that

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external noise because they were never. They weren't learning it.

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They had lived it. They'd grown up there. We get some Lena. We get a

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little Lena. That's kind of it, actually. It really is.

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And we only get Lena because she works for Lucian.

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Yep. But I want to just preface and say that I did really like the

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book. I just. I have a lot of thoughts about it. Sure. All right,

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well, we are going to kind of start a little bit different. We're going

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to start similar to the way that we did caught up, where we're just going

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to kind of give a little bit of background. This author does some flashback

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chapters which are actually really great in

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terms of, like, where they are and the way that she timed them, but I

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just seem silly to kind of bounce back and forth during the recap. So we're

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going to kind of go over a brief overview of their history, and then

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we'll figure out kind of later on some of the last

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interactions that they had together. So Lucian and Sloane have been neighbors

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their whole lives. And Sloane's window overlooks Lucian's

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family's home, so she can see everything that happens from her window.

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They go to school together in Knock Him Out. Sloan is a self appointed

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nerd to Lucian's popular football trope,

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although I disagree with that. But while watching

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from her window one day, she sees Lucian kick a rock that hits her fence,

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and she admonishes him from her bedroom. And hearing her,

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Lucian decides to climb the cherry tree in front of her window

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and let himself in through her window. And then from here on out,

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we have the inception of their childhood friendship. I was

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so obsessed with this also. Again, this is where Sloane gives Melissa,

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because if some someone kicked a rock at Melissa's fence,

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she would have something to say about it. Sure. And that's definitely

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not me. Well, my whole thing with Sloan is that she's like,

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I'm just like a nerd. I'm just like, I read books. She literally just got

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home from playing softball. Yeah. So it's like you're,

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in some ways, you're plugged into the athletic scene in your school.

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Like, you couldn't be that much of a recluse. Well, and she also talks about

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how she developed very early. Yeah. And the boys definitely notice

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her. So the fact that she thinks she's just this, like,

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bookworm. Nobody notices me. I'm so plain. Yeah,

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bitch. It's annoying. It's not my favorite, but it's

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fine. She and Lucien work on homework, read books, and share music

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with one another. And then Sloan's mom and dad, suspecting the abuse occurring in his

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home, take him under their wing, inviting him for regular dinners and mentoring

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him throughout the course of his high school years. So this goes on for years

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that they have this type of relationship. I would

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have. I don't how they didn't do anything. Yeah, this hot

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boy is sneaking into my room. We get this really sweet

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scene where after, like a particularly heinous fight

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with his dad, Lucian climbs in through her window.

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And she's like, do you want to listen to my new Shania Twain cd?

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And he's like, the. Like,

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whatever. And they get, like, all snuggled in, and then they just,

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like, hold each other all night long listening to Shania Twain. Cute. Because she's

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like, just listen to three songs, and he's like, two, and she's like, three.

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And then once it hits the third song, it's from his pov, and he's like,

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I just let the next one play. Yeah. And he's like. And neither of us

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said anything. Yeah. So, yeah, it's very,

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very sweet. I have some really, really, really, really intensely

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large opinions about Sloane's perception of

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Lucian. Sure. So I'm gonna go through.

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I'm gonna read a big chunk of what happens, and then we're gonna pause and

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we're gonna talk about it. Okay. Okay. So, like, if you can restrain

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yourself from interrupting, just try. Okay.

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Because I feel like we need to talk about all this, and then we need

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to take a break, and we just need to, like, chat book. Okay. Okay.

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So our book opens on the day of Sloan's dad's

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funeral. The women in his life, which include Sloan, her mom, her sister,

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and her niece Chloe, have gathered at their childhood home, which is

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currently Sloane's home. She has inherited this home

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from her parents when her father was diagnosed with cancer, and he and

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her mom moved the next state over to be closer to doctors

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for his treatment. Her sister, a big way attorney, also lives out of

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state. At the funeral, we begin to understand the depth at which Lucien

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cared for and still looks over Sloan's parents almost as

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if they're his own. We learn that Lucien and Sloan had a falling out

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after Sloan broke his trust. But we don't know the circumstances at this

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point. We also see from both perspectives the instinct to feel joy

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at the sight of one another, which is always clouded over by the anger

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and the hurt that they both have for one another. So they'll see each other

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and be like, my heart leapt for joy, and I felt the electric

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pull. And then they'll be like, but I hate him, like. And they both have

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this, like, instinct with each other. After the funeral, a young man comes to

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visit Sloane, sharing with her that Simon Sloan's dad had been helping

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him after his mom went to prison. Later, Sloane is

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assaulted by her friends, and the men, sans Steph,

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who's with the girls, congregate at Lucien's.

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Several weeks go by, and Sloane shows up at a local diner to meet her

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mom for breakfast. And she realizes her mom also invited Lucien in

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a surprise ambush to attempt to get the two of them on good terms again,

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promptly leaving them to finish their meal together, which they do amongst

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tense verbal jabs at one another. That's the first big chunk of

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the book. We covered a lot. This book is 6. 600 pages

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long, so it's, again, very high level. Good stuff

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happens. Yeah. So here's the thing. I have. At this stage

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in the book, I have some really grandiose opinions. So first

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of all, Sloane goes home after the funeral to be

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alone. Yeah. And then Lucian texts Naomi and is like,

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Sloan is pouting at home. And Naomi is like, don't worry, I got

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it. And she and Lena and Steph all go over to,

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like, cheer her up. It's so fucking

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rude and codependent. I fucking can't even stand it. If I sneak away

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from my parents funeral and go and lock myself in my house,

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and you fucking show up on my front step with a fucking entourage.

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I'm never talking to you again. I mean, she did the same thing back to

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him. I wasn't sure, like, what his intention was there,

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if it was malicious or, like, caring. It was caring. It was

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100% caring. I don't. But she gets him back, and she texts the guys

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and is like, hey, just so you know, he's also just next door. I also

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have an issue with Sloan being stinky. I can't.

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I can't. In the very first chapter of

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this book, she goes, I forgot to put deodorant on. Oh, well, I guess the

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town's gonna have to deal with a stinky librarian. And then when she has her

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flashback memory to the first time that Lucian climbs in through her window, the reason

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her window is open is because she comes home from softball, sits down on the

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bench in front of her window to read a book, and gets a whiff of

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her armpit and is like, I gotta air this place out. It's just like,

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ma'. Am. Like, this is the first one where I'll maybe give that to

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you. I just. The thing of it is, is, like, I understand there

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are certain levels to personal hygiene where it's like, I'm willing to

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be gracious and understand I was homeless for a

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while. So, like, I'll be the first person to be like, look, hygiene sometimes is

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like the last of our worries. But this woman here, she's got

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nothing stopping her. The privilege of it all. And then she's like, I'm just gonna

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be stinky. Like, could you not assault me in. It's just Rude.

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I don't know. I have some really big feelings about it. And then on top

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of that, she fucking shows up to this meal with her mom, and she has

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holes in her leggings. She's wearing slippers, and she has coffee stained on her

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shirt. The person from the other two books would have put on a

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shirt without a coffee stain on it. Yeah. At the very minimum. Yeah. Like,

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it just. It's weird. It doesn't feel. I don't know. I was pretty upset about

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literally everything that Sloan does. I did not like that he, like, called her

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friends over. I was personally hoping that he would go over there.

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But it is cute. The whole scene is cute. Because at

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the end, he, like, she has his coat, and at the end of the night,

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she goes out while he's watching her from his place. Yeah. And she goes out

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and she makes a snow angel in his coat. And I died. Oh,

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wow. I was like, oh, my God. So cute.

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Interesting. He's so obsessed with her, and I just.

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I can't. I am not obsessed with this couple the way

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that you are, though. And that's a blanket. But this is my trope for both

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of them. The nostalgia. Yeah. Like, kind of second chance

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is that. That's my. This is my ultimate trope. Enemies to lovers.

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Nostalgia. Yeah. Do you think that these.

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At this. Like, we've read the book. You've read the book three times.

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I'm curious what your feelings are about the character development in

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this book. So I read this book, and I was like, this was

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the first book. Yeah. She wrote this book first. Yeah. And then the other books

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came after that. Except that. That's not true, because the first book,

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there are so many character inconsistencies that don't match with this book. I agree with

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that. But I read this book, and I. Was like, could have stood on its

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own. Yes, 100%. But I feel like she spent more

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time on character development with these two. She really

219
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made an effort. Like, in the first two books, all of the characters

220
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are caricatures. And in this book, Lucian and Sloane are like.

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She really, like, tried to go deeper with them,

222
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which was a pretty big task when the rest of

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your town is filled with characters. Yeah. And we don't get town characters

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in this one. We really don't. So it's. I think it. For me, it was

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kind of a swing. Like, I read them in order.

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I read the first two, and then I read this one. And at first I

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was kind of like, what's happening here? Like, is the

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stinkiness Part of her caricature is the cat. She lives with her cat

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and her cat's name is like Stinky McMuffin. Yeah. She calls it a meow.

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Meow, meow, meow. Yeah, but that is. That is very true. Where she

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says cats pick their own name. Sure they do. Sure. Did your cat pick

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a name? Well, they do. They devolve. Like the names devolve like.

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Sure. They start out as one thing and then they get a nickname

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and then they need a longer name for when they're naughty. And then they have

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like a cute name. Like my cat's Chloe. We also call her Chlo. Sometimes she's

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Chloe Marie Hitchcock. Sure. Sometimes she's Kitty.

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Sure. When she has a seizure, she's the piss kitty. Oh no,

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they just pick their own name. More often than not, we just call her Kitty.

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That's how I feel about Bird. Her name is Blackbird with

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the intention was her nickname was going to be Birdie. And now I

241
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just find myself out in my yard going, Bert, I don't even have the

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patience to say the rest of her name because she's so naughty.

243
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So they do kind of just choose them.

244
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Yeah. At this point in the book, were you pretty over it?

245
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No, I wasn't over it.

246
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I think I was just really trying to assess like what we were doing.

247
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I think I had to kind of actively remind myself like this is a knock

248
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em out. Yeah. Like this is in the same storyline as like

249
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Naomi and Knox and Nash and Lena,

250
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you know. All right, well, Sloan's dad

251
00:16:21,140 --> 00:16:24,799
was an attorney and her mom has put Lucian in charge of

252
00:16:25,299 --> 00:16:27,920
wrapping up some of his clients files.

253
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And after an eventful wedding dress shopping trip for Lena,

254
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they head over to Lucian's offices to deliver some files. And we get a

255
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scene kind of. Yeah, we do. So for context,

256
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they don't really touch on the true, I think,

257
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breadth of power that Lucian has.

258
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This man isn't just really wealthy. This man is like

259
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obscenely wealthy. Like owns multiple corporations,

260
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runs these giant companies, has like access to unimaginable

261
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resources and he is sort of working with

262
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the FBI as well. And he knows all these

263
00:17:11,100 --> 00:17:14,560
people in, in high places and all. Like the women and Steph show up at

264
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his office. They're like, let's get a tour. And then basically like

265
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they break off and Lucien and Sloan

266
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end up in his office. Yeah, they are

267
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their typical aggressive selves.

268
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Bantering and just generally being mean.

269
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Hostile would probably be the best way to describe it.

270
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They kind of go round and round and round about all the things that Sloane

271
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thinks that he does, because this is the way that I interpret

272
00:17:44,310 --> 00:17:46,730
it. So Lucien gets mad at Sloan.

273
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We're gonna find out what happened later on in the book. And then Sloan basically

274
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was like, well, if he's mad at me, then I'm mad at him, and he's

275
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a monster. And she just is like, he's not. Exactly been nice to her.

276
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He's not been, like. He's been pretty rude and aggressive with

277
00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,900
her. So if a man is going to be rude and aggressive with me,

278
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I'm going to match that energy. If a man is even mildly.

279
00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:13,500
Was it the first time or the second time that he gave her his coat

280
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,540
that he was being rude? Or what about when he ordered the burrito for her?

281
00:18:18,020 --> 00:18:21,580
Or rude? Or what about all of the things that we're going to find

282
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,280
out later? Rudely. Rudely.

283
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,880
He literally, when he gives his coat to her, he's like,

284
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,360
Sloan. He yells at her. You have to take care of yourself. This day is

285
00:18:33,860 --> 00:18:35,800
not about you. You're supposed to be supporting your mother, and you can't do that

286
00:18:36,300 --> 00:18:39,400
if you're. If you haven't eaten and you're outside freezing cold. So take

287
00:18:39,900 --> 00:18:43,240
my coat. Take. Yell at her. He does. Stern. He's stern with her

288
00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,680
because she acts like a child often. Her dad died, too.

289
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,280
I. Well, in this particular case, like, yeah, I get it. But like,

290
00:18:50,770 --> 00:18:54,090
many, many times in this book, Sloane is just a big kid. She's just

291
00:18:54,590 --> 00:18:57,730
a big baby. The frequency at which I'm like, in this book, I'm like,

292
00:18:57,810 --> 00:19:01,210
this woman has a master's degree. What's going on here? Why is she acting like

293
00:19:01,710 --> 00:19:05,090
that? She acts like a child. She acts immature. She acts

294
00:19:05,170 --> 00:19:08,410
like she is actually, honestly, it's a very well

295
00:19:08,910 --> 00:19:12,690
developed character because she acts like a princess. She acts like a spoiled brat

296
00:19:13,250 --> 00:19:16,050
through this whole book, and she is so.

297
00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:19,840
Which I, like, I love for her. I get it. But, like, she's in his

298
00:19:20,340 --> 00:19:23,480
office in this enormous building that he made, and she's

299
00:19:23,980 --> 00:19:27,160
like, how'd you get this? Kicking puppies and shooting babies?

300
00:19:27,660 --> 00:19:32,080
Or like, she just, like, accuses him of, like, the most horrific things because

301
00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:36,160
he's mad at her. And then he's like, what the fuck are you doing here?

302
00:19:36,660 --> 00:19:40,320
Like, get out of my fucking office. Like, okay. Oh, okay.

303
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,880
First of all, he's the one who told Lena to bring them to

304
00:19:44,380 --> 00:19:47,640
his office. Yeah. He's the one who takes her to his office. He. He takes

305
00:19:48,140 --> 00:19:51,180
her bag from her and takes it to his office. Yeah. And then she's mean

306
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,860
to him. And then she's mean to him. He stole her bag. Oh,

307
00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:59,020
God. The bag with her files that she was bringing to deliver to

308
00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:02,700
him that he carried for her. The heavy bag.

309
00:20:02,860 --> 00:20:06,300
He did not carry it for her. He took it. Okay. To his office.

310
00:20:06,540 --> 00:20:10,220
All right. Well, she gets perched on the edge of his desk. I love

311
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,210
this. I just can't. He's so.

312
00:20:14,930 --> 00:20:18,650
He's becoming so unwound with her. I really. There are some things about

313
00:20:19,150 --> 00:20:22,770
Lucian that I really like. He's just not for me. He's very, very sexy.

314
00:20:23,570 --> 00:20:27,090
Why would be the first person to admit. It is absolutely wild to me that

315
00:20:27,590 --> 00:20:30,570
I would say this out loud. Nash is my favorite of the three of them.

316
00:20:31,070 --> 00:20:34,810
Of course he is. Yeah. And I hate myself for feeling like that, because I

317
00:20:35,310 --> 00:20:38,690
wasn't overly fond of Nash either, so. But Lucian,

318
00:20:39,190 --> 00:20:43,030
I think, for me is just like. I don't know. It's like he

319
00:20:43,530 --> 00:20:46,990
pretends to be in control, and I don't like that. It's like he's not

320
00:20:47,490 --> 00:20:51,630
fooling anybody when he's walking around with one cigarette in his pocket that

321
00:20:52,130 --> 00:20:55,990
he, like, restricts to one cigarette a day. Like, sir, you're a basket

322
00:20:56,490 --> 00:21:00,030
case. Like, just fucking fess up. But anyways, moving on.

323
00:21:00,510 --> 00:21:03,790
So they, Like. So she's, like, perched on the edge of his desk.

324
00:21:04,290 --> 00:21:08,680
They're bickering back and forth. She's realizing, like, he's slowly

325
00:21:09,180 --> 00:21:12,120
coming closer and closer and closer to her.

326
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:16,160
She's like, is he getting closer to me? And they're kind of going back

327
00:21:16,660 --> 00:21:20,160
and forth. And then he says something that, like, triggers her, and she reaches

328
00:21:20,660 --> 00:21:24,040
out and grabs his tie and pulls him into

329
00:21:24,540 --> 00:21:28,480
her body and tilder. Basically, like, his. He's between her thighs.

330
00:21:28,980 --> 00:21:32,200
His. He's between her thighs. His hands are on either side of her hips.

331
00:21:32,630 --> 00:21:36,310
And then, just as it seems like they're about to kiss each other, his assistant

332
00:21:36,810 --> 00:21:40,870
walks in and interrupts them. And P. S. His assistant is

333
00:21:41,510 --> 00:21:44,310
an absolute comedic joy in this book.

334
00:21:44,550 --> 00:21:48,310
I enjoy her thoroughly. But she comes in and breaks them up,

335
00:21:48,630 --> 00:21:51,990
and Sloane is like, oh, my God, like, what's happening? She's,

336
00:21:52,490 --> 00:21:55,470
like, brought out of the moment, and she, like, tries to, like, get out of

337
00:21:55,970 --> 00:21:59,590
his grasp and doesn't realize like, how locked into they. To one another they are.

338
00:21:59,990 --> 00:22:03,510
And all she ends up doing is rubbing herself against his crotch

339
00:22:03,670 --> 00:22:07,230
and his. And he's hard. Yes, it's the whole

340
00:22:07,730 --> 00:22:11,270
scene. It doesn't seem very sexy just from that description, but it is a

341
00:22:11,770 --> 00:22:15,350
very sexy scene. At group dinner the next night, Knox forces

342
00:22:15,850 --> 00:22:19,710
Sloane And Lucien to secretly wear period simulators to

343
00:22:20,210 --> 00:22:23,550
keep them on their best behavior with each other. This is the part where it's

344
00:22:24,050 --> 00:22:27,030
like the caricatures are meeting these, like, well developed people.

345
00:22:27,190 --> 00:22:30,430
It just like. Yeah. The juxtaposition just is really.

346
00:22:30,670 --> 00:22:34,550
And Wei Lay's the one controlling. Yeah. Weyla, the 11

347
00:22:35,050 --> 00:22:38,390
year old is. Yeah. Controlling. Anytime it seems like they get a little

348
00:22:38,890 --> 00:22:41,230
out of line, she shocks them.

349
00:22:41,870 --> 00:22:44,589
And then when it's discovered by the rest of the group,

350
00:22:45,089 --> 00:22:48,310
Lucian and Sloane agree to a truce of

351
00:22:48,810 --> 00:22:51,510
not speaking to each other in public. And later,

352
00:22:52,010 --> 00:22:55,300
Sloane convinces Lena and Naomi to help her.

353
00:22:55,860 --> 00:22:59,140
The women are going to dig into the man who

354
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:03,460
visited her, like, the day that her dad died. They're going to

355
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,180
dig into his mom's case and try to exonerate

356
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,980
her or reduce her sentence. Also at this time,

357
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,700
Sloan is on dating apps. This is where they pull up her

358
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,100
dating profile because she's gotten no matches. Oh, I knew you were going to want

359
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,300
to talk about this. Of course I am. Yeah. She's gotten no matches on

360
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,580
her dating profile that's been up for, like, two weeks. Yeah. Because it's a sincere

361
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,820
and honest dating profile where she's like, basically like, I just want

362
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:33,300
a man who likes to read, who likes cats, and who likes to garden.

363
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,260
Yeah. And like. And the pictures that she chooses are horrible. Like, even Nash and

364
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:41,380
Knox are like, why are you trying to, like, repel men? Yeah.

365
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,820
But we had to talk about it because it reminds me of Melissa. Oh,

366
00:23:45,140 --> 00:23:48,510
yeah. Because Melissa showed me her dating profile when she was also

367
00:23:49,010 --> 00:23:52,350
going through this, and I was like, why would you have chosen these things?

368
00:23:53,310 --> 00:23:55,870
Why did you that picture?

369
00:23:56,430 --> 00:23:58,310
She's like, well, I wanted a full body picture. And I was like, well,

370
00:23:58,810 --> 00:24:02,350
that one's terrible. I will say, one of my favorite things about

371
00:24:02,590 --> 00:24:05,830
their relationship dynamic with this group is that the boys,

372
00:24:06,330 --> 00:24:09,630
Knox and Nash, call her slony baloney. Yeah. And it's

373
00:24:10,130 --> 00:24:13,590
so fucking cute. It really is. It's giving big brothers,

374
00:24:13,670 --> 00:24:18,070
and I really love it. They definitely, like, treat. Especially Nash treats

375
00:24:18,570 --> 00:24:22,230
her like a younger sister. Yeah, for sure. Which is typical of

376
00:24:22,730 --> 00:24:26,150
Nash and honestly makes me like him more.

377
00:24:26,390 --> 00:24:30,310
So. I don't know. I love a man who's in tune to his feelings.

378
00:24:31,190 --> 00:24:34,310
We learn here the history between Lucian and Sloane's falling out.

379
00:24:34,710 --> 00:24:38,190
After going across the lawn to Lucien's house to

380
00:24:38,690 --> 00:24:42,670
confront him about getting involved in Mary Louise's

381
00:24:43,170 --> 00:24:46,190
case, he discloses that his father died in prison.

382
00:24:46,590 --> 00:24:50,150
And it's here where the flashback starts. So over

383
00:24:50,650 --> 00:24:54,470
the course of their friendship, the abuse at the hands of Lucian's father was

384
00:24:54,970 --> 00:24:58,910
never really talked about, but it was, like, known. And Sloan

385
00:24:59,410 --> 00:25:02,030
had promised Lucien that she wouldn't get involved. However,

386
00:25:02,750 --> 00:25:06,510
after a fight where Lucien stood up to his father and was stabbed

387
00:25:07,010 --> 00:25:10,860
by him, Sloan did get involved and called the police, who promptly

388
00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:14,940
came over. And then, because of Lucian's father's relationship,

389
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,180
this was back when Wiley Ogden was the police chief.

390
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,220
He was the, like, corrupt police chief. They were, like, best friends.

391
00:25:23,620 --> 00:25:26,740
So instead of arresting Lucien's dad, he arrested

392
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,500
Lucien, and Lucien spent. Was it like, six days in jail? Yeah, he spent

393
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,170
his 18th birthday and his high school graduation in jail. Yeah. This was kind of

394
00:25:34,670 --> 00:25:38,170
the beginning of the fallout of, like, where Lucien was like,

395
00:25:38,670 --> 00:25:41,970
I can't trust you, basically. And I think a little bit of

396
00:25:42,470 --> 00:25:46,050
the fallout between. With Sloan in her being like,

397
00:25:46,450 --> 00:25:49,970
he's mad at me. And so I'm mad at him because she tried to,

398
00:25:50,470 --> 00:25:53,090
like, stand up for him when they were arresting him, putting him in the cop

399
00:25:53,590 --> 00:25:56,290
car. And he was basically like, don't. He's like, get her away from me.

400
00:25:56,790 --> 00:26:00,740
Like, don't talk. Yeah, don't talk to me. So. Which at 17, I get

401
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,500
the overreaction. 20 years later,

402
00:26:04,980 --> 00:26:07,940
you're still not over it. That I do have a problem with.

403
00:26:08,420 --> 00:26:10,580
Well, that's not the end of the story, but we don't get the rest of

404
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,300
it until later. While all of this is happening,

405
00:26:14,020 --> 00:26:17,140
Sloan is looking for somebody to start a family with.

406
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,780
So this is where they talked about the dating app. While that's happening,

407
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:26,510
Lucian is digging into the unfinished business with Hugo.

408
00:26:27,070 --> 00:26:30,510
So that is still, like, in the back of his mind,

409
00:26:30,750 --> 00:26:34,670
and he's still working with the FBI to

410
00:26:35,170 --> 00:26:39,070
try to, like, get to Duncan, Hugo's dad, Anthony Hugo.

411
00:26:39,390 --> 00:26:41,989
So there's so much that goes on in this book. It's a little chaotic.

412
00:26:42,489 --> 00:26:46,230
It is a little chaotic. Yeah. You just gotta. You gotta read it. While pursuing

413
00:26:46,730 --> 00:26:50,190
these objectives, their paths cross at a hotel bar that

414
00:26:50,690 --> 00:26:54,450
Lucien happens to own. Every single time I'm about to start a scene,

415
00:26:54,770 --> 00:26:58,450
Nicole's face just lights

416
00:26:58,950 --> 00:27:02,090
up. It's the. I. As soon as I start to say this, like,

417
00:27:02,590 --> 00:27:05,770
the beginning of the scene, I look over at Nicole and she's, like, grinning from

418
00:27:06,270 --> 00:27:09,610
ear to ear. It's my favorite thing. So we get a scene here. So Lucian

419
00:27:10,110 --> 00:27:13,770
scares away the adoring crowd of

420
00:27:14,270 --> 00:27:17,410
men who are lining up to buy Sloane a drink by

421
00:27:18,060 --> 00:27:21,500
being his intimidating self and telling everyone that Sloane is his wife.

422
00:27:24,140 --> 00:27:27,500
And then he propositions her with a one night.

423
00:27:27,660 --> 00:27:31,340
Get it out of their system. Hate. Fuck And Sloane agrees.

424
00:27:31,500 --> 00:27:35,340
I like that trope, too. Yeah. This is my issue.

425
00:27:37,340 --> 00:27:41,300
Is this the smelly armpits with the holes in her knees and the coffee stain

426
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,900
on her shirt, sitting at this luxury bar

427
00:27:44,980 --> 00:27:49,060
where men in designer suits buying

428
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,140
aged whiskey are lining up to hit on her? No, that does not track it.

429
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,980
None of it tracks. I agree with that, actually. This is the thing. I could

430
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,660
imagine this being Lena. Lena who owns designer clothes.

431
00:28:00,900 --> 00:28:04,540
Lena who has her. Who has an entire room dedicated to her bags and

432
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:08,940
her shoes. At the same time, though, like, Sloane is very well

433
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,250
developed and going to a hotel like that,

434
00:28:12,810 --> 00:28:16,490
looking the way she was looking, men are definitely going to fawn

435
00:28:16,990 --> 00:28:20,090
over her. She's clearly there to get laid. She's got a crowd.

436
00:28:20,730 --> 00:28:22,810
Yeah. Gathered around her. She does.

437
00:28:23,610 --> 00:28:26,850
I don't know. For me, it was just kind of like. And that's not to

438
00:28:27,350 --> 00:28:30,770
say that women are not, like, versatile and, like, can't be in sweats one

439
00:28:31,270 --> 00:28:34,370
day and then, like, dolled up the next. That's, like, not the point.

440
00:28:34,870 --> 00:28:38,050
It's more of just, like, the aura, the energy. Like,

441
00:28:38,130 --> 00:28:41,170
I just feel like in order to pull something like that off, you'd have to

442
00:28:41,670 --> 00:28:45,170
be sitting there with an incredible amount of, like, confidence and, like,

443
00:28:45,670 --> 00:28:49,890
poise and, like. Sloane is basically described as, like, this derpy.

444
00:28:50,390 --> 00:28:53,570
Like, kinda. Yeah. She's wearing glasses, which I could have done without.

445
00:28:53,970 --> 00:28:57,410
Yeah. See, And I love the glasses. That's. I like that part about her.

446
00:28:57,810 --> 00:29:01,170
So anyways, they make it up to the room

447
00:29:01,330 --> 00:29:04,530
where they continue to verbally spar. I have to tell you,

448
00:29:05,030 --> 00:29:08,700
this scene is so fucking hot. This scene

449
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:11,900
is so hot, I will not be able to do it justice. I'm gonna do

450
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,780
my very best. But it's such a nuanced scene. This is

451
00:29:16,340 --> 00:29:19,780
very unlike the first two books where the scenes are only a couple pages

452
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,700
long. This scene is, like, 10 pages long. Literally, it's two chapters.

453
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,060
Yes. Yeah. It goes on and on. Oh, my God. Basically,

454
00:29:27,620 --> 00:29:30,900
they make it to the room. Sloane is, like, talking shit.

455
00:29:30,980 --> 00:29:34,940
He's manhandling her. He's got her dangling. Her feet are

456
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,480
dangling off of the floor. He's got her pressed up against the wal wall.

457
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,040
They walk into the hotel room, and she's like. And if you think I'm kissing.

458
00:29:42,540 --> 00:29:46,080
And then before she can, like, finish her sentence, he's, like, ravaging her.

459
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,800
Yeah. And she's like, oh, my God, it was

460
00:29:50,300 --> 00:29:53,040
so sexy. Oh, my God. So good.

461
00:29:53,919 --> 00:29:57,200
He moves her to the bed, on. Her back with his hand on her throat.

462
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,240
They agree on a safe word. Which is library.

463
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,760
And then Lucien Rollin fucks Sloan with,

464
00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:08,050
as she calls it, his Guinness World record sized cocktail. Because of

465
00:30:08,550 --> 00:30:11,050
course it is. Because of course it is. There are multiple times where he's like,

466
00:30:11,550 --> 00:30:16,170
you gotta breathe for me, Sloan. And I'm like, TikTok, I sent you just

467
00:30:16,670 --> 00:30:20,130
one more inch. I understand. God. And it's so funny because he,

468
00:30:20,630 --> 00:30:23,690
like. He's like, do you have a condom? And she's like, yeah, they're over there.

469
00:30:24,190 --> 00:30:27,370
And he, like, pulls up. He's like, how many people were you planning on having

470
00:30:27,870 --> 00:30:31,370
sex with? She has, like, an entire treasure trove of condoms. And then

471
00:30:31,870 --> 00:30:34,770
somehow those condoms fit him. So apparently she was, like,

472
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,840
prepared for everything. She was prepared for a Magnum man. She ends

473
00:30:39,340 --> 00:30:42,160
up having an orgasm on, like, his second thrust.

474
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,360
He's, like, trying to talk through it, and she's like, are you gonna fucking do

475
00:30:45,860 --> 00:30:49,280
this? I'm getting so bored. And it's like he's, like, so worried about hurting her.

476
00:30:49,780 --> 00:30:52,200
Yeah. His penis is inside of her. And she's like, are we doing this?

477
00:30:52,700 --> 00:30:56,280
I'm falling asleep. It's just like, oh, my God. But it

478
00:30:56,780 --> 00:31:00,160
riles him up so much. Yeah. And it's just like, the whole thing.

479
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,840
She tells him that she wants him to be rough with her, and he

480
00:31:04,340 --> 00:31:07,640
is. And she comes again while holding his face

481
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,080
to look deep into his eyes. Bs. And then

482
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,160
his orgasm follows her. Yeah. Yeah, it did it for me.

483
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,520
That scene did it for me. I don't know who that scene wouldn't do it

484
00:31:20,020 --> 00:31:23,520
for. Although this is not my favorite scene. Oh, interesting. The very next scene

485
00:31:24,020 --> 00:31:27,360
is. Okay. Like, we haven't even. We don't even get, like, a little recoil

486
00:31:27,860 --> 00:31:31,150
after this scene. It just picks right up. This scene was my

487
00:31:31,650 --> 00:31:35,550
favorite one, I think. Yeah, it's actually funny because you're not wrong.

488
00:31:36,050 --> 00:31:39,990
It does pick right back up again. But we get a brief flashback. And again,

489
00:31:40,150 --> 00:31:43,750
I have to give this author props because I feel like that was perfectly timed.

490
00:31:44,250 --> 00:31:47,990
Yeah, it was. Like, it's the perfect flashback for the situation. And then

491
00:31:48,490 --> 00:31:51,670
it also gives us enough of, like, a breather to, like, get geared up for

492
00:31:52,170 --> 00:31:55,590
round two. So we get our final flashback.

493
00:31:56,090 --> 00:31:59,840
And this is the final piece of the Sloane Lucien

494
00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:04,240
fallout. So while Lucien was in jail after the fight with his father,

495
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,640
Sloan took it upon herself to prove his innocence by recording

496
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:12,240
Lucien's father abusing his mother and

497
00:32:12,740 --> 00:32:16,320
calling the police. But Lucien's father discovers her

498
00:32:16,820 --> 00:32:19,440
and breaks her wrist just before the police arrive.

499
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,440
The context for which Lucien's trust was broken

500
00:32:23,940 --> 00:32:26,720
isn't just the fact that Sloan called the police and got the police involved.

501
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,080
It's that she put herself in danger. Yeah. And that is consistently

502
00:32:31,580 --> 00:32:34,800
always his issue is, like, it's giving Edward and Bella,

503
00:32:35,300 --> 00:32:38,880
like, why do you. Why are you constantly putting yourself in danger, like, and trying

504
00:32:39,380 --> 00:32:42,880
to, like, protect her from that? All right, well, so then, as Nicole alluded

505
00:32:43,380 --> 00:32:46,720
to, we get another scene. We're back to present day. Sloane wakes

506
00:32:47,220 --> 00:32:51,080
up the next morning and slinks away. She doesn't even wait for Lucian to

507
00:32:51,580 --> 00:32:55,700
wake up. Yep. And Lucian drives a million miles

508
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,460
an hour, pissed off. She's like, she's going to leave me. Like I'm some dirty

509
00:32:59,960 --> 00:33:03,180
one night stand. Yes. And shows up at her

510
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:06,860
door and is like, you better fucking let me in. I'm coming

511
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,420
in whether you like it or not. Literally, she. He's banging on the door.

512
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:13,700
She opens the door and he just pins her up against the wall. Yeah.

513
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,300
And she's in a towel. Oh, my God. She just took a shower, like Nicole

514
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,660
said. They don't even make it upstairs. Lucian fucks Sloan on the couch until

515
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:25,780
orgasm and then goes down on her until she comes. And then

516
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:29,820
when she tries to return the favor, he turns her around and fucks her

517
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,940
from behind, using her breasts as leverage until they both come.

518
00:33:34,340 --> 00:33:37,860
And during this scene is where Sloane admits that she doesn't

519
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,260
want it to be the last time. He says, then we won't stop until you

520
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,580
tell me that it's the last time. So I'm surprised you haven't talked about how

521
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,340
obsessed he is with her breasts, because he is. Yeah,

522
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,940
he's very obsessed. I love that. I know I do. Yeah. These scenes are so

523
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,500
hot. Oh, my God. Yeah. She brings it up later. She's like, why are you,

524
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,380
like, so obsessed with my breasts? And he's like, probably the

525
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,020
same reason you're so obsessed with my cock. It's great. Yeah, it is.

526
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:07,980
Oh, my God. It's such a fucking good scene. Yeah. That was my favorite scene.

527
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,900
I. The fact this man, who's so. So. He has such

528
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,850
good self control that he keeps one cigarette a day and he

529
00:34:16,350 --> 00:34:19,690
wakes up and immediately drives her house to fuck her again. Oh, my God.

530
00:34:20,190 --> 00:34:23,570
He literally says, I'm not done with you yet. Yeah. Oh,

531
00:34:24,070 --> 00:34:27,690
my God. Yeah. During the basking afterwards,

532
00:34:28,250 --> 00:34:31,650
Lucien discloses that the apartment her mom and dad moved

533
00:34:32,150 --> 00:34:35,490
to when her dad got sick, Lucien found and then bought

534
00:34:35,990 --> 00:34:39,570
that for them. He's been just fixing everything in her life and

535
00:34:40,070 --> 00:34:42,840
her family's life for her whole life. Yeah. Shortly after this,

536
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:46,840
Lucian arranges a Meeting between Sloan and a powerful,

537
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,360
like, attorney's office to help Mary Louise.

538
00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:55,080
And the attorneys meet with her, and they say that they're

539
00:34:55,580 --> 00:34:58,600
gonna take it on pro bono. But, like, we all know that Lucian is paying

540
00:34:59,100 --> 00:35:01,720
for it. Yeah. He's footing the ball. She doesn't. She doesn't know that. She's like,

541
00:35:02,220 --> 00:35:06,240
I'm so lucky. Yeah. They spend Valentine's Day evening, AKA just

542
00:35:06,740 --> 00:35:09,770
another Friday evening, according to Lucien, together having sex,

543
00:35:10,090 --> 00:35:13,610
eating takeout in bed. And it's very, very clear here,

544
00:35:14,110 --> 00:35:18,130
I made a very specific note that these two are madly in love. And I

545
00:35:18,630 --> 00:35:21,730
have to make that clarifying point, because I think listening back to these notes,

546
00:35:22,230 --> 00:35:25,290
you'd think, like, they're falling in love. These people are madly in love. Yes.

547
00:35:25,790 --> 00:35:28,370
They're not falling in love with each other. They've always been in love with each

548
00:35:28,870 --> 00:35:31,770
other. They're now admitting it, and they're. Yeah. And they're. To each other. Yeah.

549
00:35:32,270 --> 00:35:35,890
They're just living it out right now. But it's very, very clear in the way

550
00:35:36,390 --> 00:35:40,220
that all of these scenes are written that these two have such a strong history

551
00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:44,420
and such a strong connection. They just fall right back into being

552
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,500
teenagers. Hanging out in her room, listening to music and,

553
00:35:48,660 --> 00:35:51,300
like, talking and just so perfect.

554
00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:55,300
This continues. The friends meet for drinks at Honky Tonk.

555
00:35:55,460 --> 00:35:59,420
Lucien shows up unexpectedly, which I have to

556
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:03,020
say I related to Sloane. When she, like, gets there and he's not there,

557
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,740
and she's disappointed, and she's like, I wore my slutty lingerie underneath this because I

558
00:36:07,240 --> 00:36:09,850
was hoping to get laid tonight. I have a hundred percent been there, where I.

559
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:13,200
I go to a group outing, and I'm like, I did that with my husband.

560
00:36:13,700 --> 00:36:16,720
Yeah. Because that's. We met through friends. We were all in the same friend group.

561
00:36:17,220 --> 00:36:19,160
And so I'd show up, and I'd be like, in the back of my.

562
00:36:19,660 --> 00:36:21,400
I would never admit it to anybody else, but in the back of my mind,

563
00:36:21,900 --> 00:36:24,360
I'd be like, I hope he shows up tonight so that I can fuck with

564
00:36:24,860 --> 00:36:27,600
him. You know what I mean? I did relate to her on that. But then

565
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,960
he does show up, and then they get into,

566
00:36:31,460 --> 00:36:34,720
like, a confrontation against the bar while the other couples

567
00:36:35,220 --> 00:36:38,330
are on the dance floor dancing. And then the couples, like, interrupt them.

568
00:36:38,730 --> 00:36:42,730
She's got her breasts out, and he's. She's been stroking

569
00:36:43,230 --> 00:36:46,490
his dick so he's hard. So he has to, like, adjust her sweater.

570
00:36:46,650 --> 00:36:49,970
Yeah. And then have her stand in front. Of him, pulls her in

571
00:36:50,470 --> 00:36:54,050
front of. His, and then they, like, slink away. Down the hallway of the

572
00:36:54,550 --> 00:36:58,090
honky tonk and, like, basically make out. And she, like, starts to

573
00:36:58,590 --> 00:37:02,700
suck his dick in the middle of the hallway. And then Lucian

574
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,140
is like, I have. We have to get out. Like, we need to go home

575
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,580
right now. This is my favorite part of this book because he is

576
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:14,220
like, we can't finish here. They hear people coming down the hallway. He's like,

577
00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:16,620
in half an hour, you're gonna make an excuse. I'm gonna make an excuse.

578
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,220
And we're going back to my place and we're gonna have sex. And Sloan is

579
00:37:20,720 --> 00:37:24,380
like, all right, well, like, good luck getting your dick soft before you go

580
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,180
back out there. And he's like, wheezing. He's like, this is so

581
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,030
uncomfortable. And she's like, talking about how. She's like, how do you walk around with

582
00:37:32,530 --> 00:37:36,230
that thing? My boobs are so sore. And he's like, stop talking about your boobs.

583
00:37:36,730 --> 00:37:40,830
And then she continues to, like, talk about her boobs. So heavy. Yeah. And he's

584
00:37:41,330 --> 00:37:44,750
like, you're not making it any easier. And it's just. I, like, love the way

585
00:37:45,250 --> 00:37:49,070
that she teases him. I truly do love that when it's good natured

586
00:37:49,570 --> 00:37:53,230
like this. Yeah. This. From this point on, their banter is so enjoyable for

587
00:37:53,730 --> 00:37:57,510
me. And this is where I started to be in on this book. Sure.

588
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,120
They don't last 30 minutes. They last 20 minutes. Yep.

589
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,360
She doesn't even get to her car. And he pulls around. He's like, get in.

590
00:38:04,860 --> 00:38:08,080
Yeah. He's like, you thought you'd be able to make it home after that little

591
00:38:08,580 --> 00:38:11,920
stunt you pulled? Yeah. And then he takes her back to his place. And then

592
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,760
they don't have any condoms. They've both been like, in their mind,

593
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,160
like, I don't want to use condoms. I don't want to use condoms. And they

594
00:38:19,660 --> 00:38:23,040
don't have condoms, conveniently. Like, he could. They live next door to each other.

595
00:38:23,540 --> 00:38:26,000
He could have brought her back to her place where there were plenty of condoms,

596
00:38:26,500 --> 00:38:29,640
but it's fine. And then he fucks Sloane Bear.

597
00:38:30,140 --> 00:38:34,080
And then from behind while she's, like, leaning over the ottoman

598
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:38,280
in his living room. And then after discussing

599
00:38:38,780 --> 00:38:42,280
that they're clean and that he's had a vasectomy, afterwards, they head over to her

600
00:38:42,780 --> 00:38:46,040
place to find something to eat, but are interrupted when they discover dead,

601
00:38:46,540 --> 00:38:50,040
frozen rats on her front step. And this is

602
00:38:50,540 --> 00:38:54,320
coming on the tails of a warning note that she had received at the library

603
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,640
some weeks prior. To this as well, which she didn't tell him about.

604
00:38:58,140 --> 00:39:01,640
And he is so unhappy about that. Yeah. It's Bella, and he

605
00:39:02,140 --> 00:39:05,640
is Edward. Lucian believes that this is Hugo's attempt to

606
00:39:06,140 --> 00:39:09,720
get to him. He gets scared. He picks a fight with Sloan, which of

607
00:39:10,220 --> 00:39:13,840
course works because neither of them have. Have been honest with each other. He's so

608
00:39:14,340 --> 00:39:18,000
mean. I didn't. He compared her to his mother. Said, I already dealt

609
00:39:18,500 --> 00:39:21,710
with one woman putting herself in danger. I'm not doing it again, which is so

610
00:39:22,210 --> 00:39:25,150
unfair. I can't with you.

611
00:39:25,390 --> 00:39:29,230
Get out of here. If you got a letter,

612
00:39:30,430 --> 00:39:33,830
like a ransom note in your mail

613
00:39:34,330 --> 00:39:37,670
slot at work, would you not tell somebody

614
00:39:38,170 --> 00:39:40,870
about it? She tells Nash, doesn't she? Or does she not tell. She does tell

615
00:39:41,370 --> 00:39:45,030
Nash, but then she makes Nash not tell Lucian. She specifically.

616
00:39:45,530 --> 00:39:48,350
In her mind, she knows. She doesn't overreact. Okay.

617
00:39:49,220 --> 00:39:50,580
I just.

618
00:39:52,420 --> 00:39:55,660
I'm not used to men being mean to me, and I don't like it.

619
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,140
Sure. And he was so mean to her. I feel I would have been.

620
00:39:59,220 --> 00:40:02,940
He was definitely not kind to her here. I'm not, like, making any

621
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,580
excuses for him, but I also just think it's kind of like he's like,

622
00:40:07,060 --> 00:40:09,860
you don't take care of yourself. And that makes me mad. And you're like,

623
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,900
don't be mean to her. It's like, I don't know. Makes me kind

624
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,060
of mad, too, honestly. Like, she acts like an idiot. Wait until we

625
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,280
get further along here. There's another scenario that's going to come up here where I'm

626
00:40:21,780 --> 00:40:25,560
like, what the fuck are you doing? But anyways, this fallout happens.

627
00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:29,320
She goes home. They're ignoring each other. He's texting her.

628
00:40:29,820 --> 00:40:33,080
She is not responding back. He is, like, obsessively texting her. Like, it doesn't

629
00:40:33,580 --> 00:40:36,200
have to be like this. Like, we could still be friends. She's completely ignoring her.

630
00:40:36,700 --> 00:40:39,480
Him, which is, like, drives him absolutely insane.

631
00:40:39,980 --> 00:40:42,680
Yes. He has people come over to set up security cameras at her house,

632
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,160
and she calls the police. Yeah. And he's like, at least let me keep you

633
00:40:46,660 --> 00:40:50,240
safe. Like, don't call the police. Yeah. The cold shoulder thing.

634
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:54,240
Oh, it works. Ladies, do not text him back.

635
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,000
Never ignore him. Yes. It will make it.

636
00:40:58,500 --> 00:41:01,760
Yeah. That is. I can relate to that. Yep. Bit there.

637
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,400
Melissa could never. Oh, God, no.

638
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,960
Oh, my God. I can't even be like, oh, sweet, sweet Melissa.

639
00:41:12,460 --> 00:41:15,840
Because she's not sweet. Not sweet at all. She'd have been putting the

640
00:41:16,340 --> 00:41:19,680
dead rats on somebody's porch. Yeah. 100%, yes. Right before she cuts

641
00:41:20,180 --> 00:41:23,660
their electricity and water. Water. This is followed immediately by

642
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:28,020
Lucian taking out a string of women, which Makes Sloane jealous

643
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,980
and hurts her feelings. And the women are like astrophysicists and.

644
00:41:32,060 --> 00:41:35,580
Really, literally, like, NASA. Sloane doesn't wait around.

645
00:41:35,660 --> 00:41:39,260
She does take another blow, though, when the first

646
00:41:39,580 --> 00:41:43,820
of, like, attempts at the attorneys to get Mary Louise's case,

647
00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:46,940
like, suspended is thrown out.

648
00:41:47,500 --> 00:41:51,060
Sloane keeps on keeping on, though. She goes on a

649
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:55,460
date, which Lucian crashes inadvertently because

650
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,860
it's, like, at a bar where he's meeting Knox and Nash. Is it at the

651
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,620
Honky Tonk? Yeah, for drinks. And like, she's there with this guy,

652
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:06,460
and he's a teacher and he wants kids, apparently. Very attractive.

653
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:11,060
Very attractive. And he's literally. Lucian knows that he's everything that Sloane

654
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,580
is, like, looking for, and it makes him so jealous. And she goes to the

655
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,380
bathroom, and he follows her, and she, like, comes out of the bathroom,

656
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:22,140
and she's like, not today, Satan. And like, he's like, you've been avoiding

657
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,700
me. And it's. And then he says, come home with me tonight.

658
00:42:25,780 --> 00:42:29,740
Again? Yeah, I would have attacked him. Are you fudgeing?

659
00:42:30,240 --> 00:42:33,540
Kidding me? Yeah. And then she's like, oh, I would if I didn't have

660
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:35,980
all this. I have to go home and take care of this whiplash. And he's

661
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:38,820
like, oh, my God, you're so dramatic. Yeah, bitch.

662
00:42:39,540 --> 00:42:43,460
All right. Well, he confesses that he misses her, she doesn't give in,

663
00:42:43,980 --> 00:42:47,620
and instead, he, Knox, and Nash beat

664
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,820
each other up in the parking lot. Because there's always got to be a fight

665
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,260
in these books and knock him. Out, and it's always got to involve Knox and

666
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:57,820
Nash in some way. God forbid. So. And again,

667
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,380
we kind of have to go back to, like, the character development that

668
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,220
this author is working on here, because with Knox and Nash, they're just two

669
00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:09,020
big dumb idiots who like to wrestle. But, like, with Lucian,

670
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,970
they're like. Lucian's like, why don't you guys ever pick fights with me? And they're

671
00:43:12,470 --> 00:43:15,850
like, well, honestly, it's cuz, like, your dad always picked fights with you.

672
00:43:16,350 --> 00:43:18,770
And, like, they're really trying to, like, get to, like, the bottom of it.

673
00:43:19,270 --> 00:43:22,290
And throughout this whole book, Lucian is talking to his therapist,

674
00:43:22,790 --> 00:43:26,170
who is now his friend. Lucian is doing the work.

675
00:43:26,410 --> 00:43:30,490
Yeah, really, like, to try to get. I'm not sure he ever made any progress.

676
00:43:30,990 --> 00:43:34,850
I know. While having dinner with her mom, Sloan discovers

677
00:43:35,350 --> 00:43:38,410
an invoice for an experimental cancer study that is

678
00:43:38,910 --> 00:43:42,330
paid in full by none other than Lucien Rollins.

679
00:43:42,810 --> 00:43:46,330
She goes over to his office and forces her way

680
00:43:46,830 --> 00:43:50,330
in to confront him about it, along with all of the other blanket companies

681
00:43:50,830 --> 00:43:54,130
that have donated to Sloan, her library, and her family over the

682
00:43:54,630 --> 00:43:57,930
many years, all named after varieties of cherry blossom trees.

683
00:43:58,430 --> 00:44:02,290
Like the one outside Sloan's window. It's so cute. Nicole looks like she's gonna

684
00:44:02,790 --> 00:44:06,110
cry. Oh, my God. It's so cute. The cherry blossom. Because that's the type of

685
00:44:06,610 --> 00:44:10,630
tree that he climbed that was right outside of her window. Yeah. She accuses

686
00:44:11,130 --> 00:44:14,270
him of loving her, which he denies. So she's like,

687
00:44:14,770 --> 00:44:17,990
you love me? Yeah. And he's like, no, I don't. No, I don't.

688
00:44:18,470 --> 00:44:21,950
Lucien's bodyguard or, like, assistant or whatever the fuck

689
00:44:22,450 --> 00:44:25,270
she is. I don't know what she is. His assistant? Yeah. Is she your assistant?

690
00:44:25,750 --> 00:44:29,310
She, like, chases Sloane upstairs, and Sloane gets into

691
00:44:29,810 --> 00:44:32,560
his office before she can catch her. And she, like, gets up there, and she's,

692
00:44:33,060 --> 00:44:36,560
like, breathing. She's, like, panting, heavy, like, holding her side, and she's like, sorry.

693
00:44:37,060 --> 00:44:39,520
She's faster than she looks. Like,

694
00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:43,120
the way. It's just.

695
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,760
She's the Mrs. Tweety. She is. Yeah. 100%. Don't see

696
00:44:48,260 --> 00:44:50,480
any Mrs. Sweetie. Unfortunately, no, not really.

697
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,800
Sloan decides to go on a second date with this guy that was. She was

698
00:44:55,300 --> 00:44:58,660
on a date with that got interrupted by Lucian. It's here that he discloses

699
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:02,020
that he's actually in love with her sister. Oops. And.

700
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:06,220
Yeah. And they agree that they're gonna just be friends. And then upon leaving

701
00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:10,060
her date, Sloan is approached and warned to leave the

702
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:14,020
Mary Louise case alone. So she's approached by, like, a masked man,

703
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:18,420
basically. Then when visiting Mary Louise in prison, they discover that she's

704
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:22,380
been badly beaten and request that they stop pursuing justice on her case.

705
00:45:22,750 --> 00:45:25,950
So we knew at the rats what was going on.

706
00:45:26,350 --> 00:45:29,750
They, as a town, haven't put it together yet. While at work

707
00:45:30,250 --> 00:45:33,870
one night alone, Sloane realizes that the building is on fire.

708
00:45:34,350 --> 00:45:37,870
And rather than promptly exiting the building, she decides that she's

709
00:45:38,370 --> 00:45:42,110
gonna look for a fire extinguisher. Yep. She's gotta save the books.

710
00:45:42,990 --> 00:45:46,150
This place is fully engulfed in flames.

711
00:45:46,650 --> 00:45:49,840
And she's on the second floor. She's on the second floor. It's so smoky that

712
00:45:50,340 --> 00:45:53,440
she can't see anything. And she's like, no, I'm gonna find

713
00:45:53,940 --> 00:45:57,000
the extinguisher and I'm gonna put the. Yep. I'm gonna try to save some of

714
00:45:57,500 --> 00:46:00,640
these. This kindling. I can't. Yeah, I can't underscore enough

715
00:46:01,140 --> 00:46:04,760
how much I understand Lucian's frustration, because if this was somebody that I loved,

716
00:46:05,260 --> 00:46:08,840
I would also be fucking annoyed. She gets stuck on the upper floor, and then

717
00:46:09,340 --> 00:46:12,880
she ends up like, Passing out from smoke inhalation and has to get

718
00:46:13,380 --> 00:46:17,130
rescued. And Lucian takes his helicopter to

719
00:46:17,630 --> 00:46:20,770
town because Nash calls him and is like, where the fuck

720
00:46:21,270 --> 00:46:24,290
have you been? Your girlfriend, who's not your girlfriend,

721
00:46:24,790 --> 00:46:28,290
almost died in a fire. He gets there, she won't let him

722
00:46:28,790 --> 00:46:31,850
in, so he climbs the chair. I love this part.

723
00:46:32,090 --> 00:46:35,210
Nicole's face. I don't even want to give it to her.

724
00:46:35,290 --> 00:46:39,010
She's so giddy that I don't even want to give it to

725
00:46:39,510 --> 00:46:42,890
her. But it's so good. It is. It's so good. 40 year old

726
00:46:43,390 --> 00:46:46,100
man climbing a tree to get in my window and then hold me.

727
00:46:46,330 --> 00:46:50,410
Yeah. He climbs the cherry tree, lets himself in, and finds

728
00:46:50,910 --> 00:46:54,410
her completely covered in soot and, like, rocking.

729
00:46:54,490 --> 00:46:58,330
She's like in tears and just incredibly traumatized.

730
00:46:58,970 --> 00:47:03,010
He runs her bath, he changes her sheets, and then he,

731
00:47:03,510 --> 00:47:06,690
like, arranges her pillows around her like

732
00:47:07,190 --> 00:47:10,570
they did when they were kids, in like a little pillow nest, which I

733
00:47:11,070 --> 00:47:14,700
also related to because I do that. But I just love that he remembered it.

734
00:47:14,940 --> 00:47:17,900
He remembers everything about her because he.

735
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,980
Loves her and he's obsessed with her. Yeah. He's been obsessed with her over 20

736
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,380
years, which does make me mad because, like, you could have had more time together,

737
00:47:24,940 --> 00:47:28,180
but no. Okay, hold on to this 20 year old grudge.

738
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,940
Yeah, for sure. The next morning, Lena and Nash show

739
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:36,380
up, announce it was arson. Lucien declares that he's never

740
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:40,860
leaving her. She declares they're never getting back together. And then Naomi

741
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:45,140
and Nox show up, and then the group make pancakes and bagels until Lucian

742
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:49,340
takes Sloane outside and basically, like breaks the news to her that, like, they're together

743
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:53,060
now, kids and all, whether she likes it or not. And she's not having it.

744
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:57,100
Yeah. She yells at him, which is so funny because there's this TikTok trend

745
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:00,740
going around. I don't know if you've seen it, where it's like a small woman,

746
00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:04,260
like, pushing her man, like up against a wall and like yelling at him.

747
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:06,940
And it's like, if you ever see me like this, just know I'm exactly where

748
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:11,260
I want to be. And it's giving Lucian, like, she's yelling

749
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:15,200
at him how they'll never be together and she hates him and calling him Lucifer.

750
00:48:15,700 --> 00:48:18,200
And he's just like smiling like, oh, my God, this is the woman I'm gonna

751
00:48:18,700 --> 00:48:21,560
marry. We're gonna have kids in this house. Yeah. He's so happy.

752
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:24,720
Yeah. She's like, it's never gonna happen. And he's like, I don't think you're

753
00:48:25,220 --> 00:48:28,720
hearing me. Yeah. Correct. We're together. We are not leaving. Yeah. He literally

754
00:48:29,220 --> 00:48:32,040
says, we are in a committed relationship and I'm never letting you out of my

755
00:48:32,540 --> 00:48:35,560
sight. He, like, says something almost identical to that.

756
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:39,240
It's determined that the rebuilding time of Sloane's library will be

757
00:48:39,740 --> 00:48:43,240
three to four months. And Lucian has Sloane pack a bag to stay

758
00:48:43,740 --> 00:48:47,400
with him at his place in D.C. they meet his mom for dinner to meet

759
00:48:47,900 --> 00:48:51,040
her new boyfriend, and the boyfriend joins them late,

760
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:55,120
turning out to be none other than Anthony Hugo.

761
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:59,600
We could have all guessed. Yeah. He arrives at dinner with a warning for Lucian.

762
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:03,680
The dinner ends badly, as you can imagine, and abruptly.

763
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,620
And while in the elevator preparing to leave,

764
00:49:07,700 --> 00:49:11,220
Lucian and his mom exchange words which result in her slapping

765
00:49:11,720 --> 00:49:15,460
Lucian. And Sloan gets in between them and basically tells her off and is like,

766
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:19,580
you're not gonna fucking talk to him again until you've apologized for what you've done

767
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,780
to him. And Lucian instructs his security to take his mom home,

768
00:49:23,940 --> 00:49:27,180
picks up Sloan, throws her to the backseat of one

769
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,740
of his cars. They race back home, where Lucian fingers Sloan on his dining

770
00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:35,400
table and puts his finger in her ass while she strokes his cocktail.

771
00:49:35,870 --> 00:49:39,870
And then they both come. And then she gets on her knees,

772
00:49:40,110 --> 00:49:43,630
sucks his cock until he tackles her to the ground and fucks her

773
00:49:44,130 --> 00:49:47,630
until they both come again. Ta da. The urgency. The urgency.

774
00:49:47,710 --> 00:49:52,270
Just fucking. He can't contain himself around her, and I'm so upset. He really,

775
00:49:52,350 --> 00:49:55,710
really, like, loves that she stands up for him

776
00:49:56,510 --> 00:49:59,150
because she's really the only person who ever does.

777
00:49:59,870 --> 00:50:03,760
Lucian takes Sloane to see his therapist again. Turned good friend.

778
00:50:04,260 --> 00:50:07,600
So he's not actually seeing this therapist for therapy anymore. Now they're just friends.

779
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,600
They work through some of their issues, which prompts Lucien to

780
00:50:12,100 --> 00:50:16,320
surprise Sloane by bringing her to the clinic where he is having his vasectomy

781
00:50:16,820 --> 00:50:20,560
reversed. And then afterwards has her bring him back

782
00:50:21,060 --> 00:50:24,560
to her place, where Knox and Nash, in full

783
00:50:25,060 --> 00:50:28,320
army fatigue, have arranged pizza and cherry blossoms.

784
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:31,920
And Lucien proposes to Sloan, and she. Says yes,

785
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,600
even though just last night they were like, okay, we need to

786
00:50:36,100 --> 00:50:38,840
take a step back and work on some things. Yeah. And he's like, I've quit

787
00:50:39,340 --> 00:50:42,520
smoking. I'm getting a vasectomy so we can start a family. Yeah. And this

788
00:50:43,020 --> 00:50:46,880
is it. Hop on board. And Nash is playing Shania

789
00:50:47,380 --> 00:50:50,240
Twain on his cell phone in the background.

790
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:53,760
It was so cute. It would have gotten me,

791
00:50:54,610 --> 00:50:57,770
like, a big gesture. And showing me that you're gonna change

792
00:50:58,270 --> 00:51:01,090
would have definitely gotten me. Yeah. I mean, I understand why he did it,

793
00:51:01,590 --> 00:51:05,010
because basically, when they're in their therapy Session. His therapist is like,

794
00:51:05,570 --> 00:51:08,850
this isn't a movie. Like, you guys have years and years of history that

795
00:51:09,350 --> 00:51:12,290
you have to work through. Like, you're gonna have like. And Lucian's like, yeah,

796
00:51:12,790 --> 00:51:15,610
I'm not waiting any longer. Exactly. You were mad at her for 20 years,

797
00:51:16,110 --> 00:51:18,890
though. Like, you could have gotten over this. You guys could have been married 20

798
00:51:19,390 --> 00:51:22,520
years ago. Whatever. Yeah, that's all I got. Okay.

799
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:26,920
Well, by this time, they've put it all together that Anthony Hugo

800
00:51:27,420 --> 00:51:31,160
has been bribing government officials to stack prisons because he

801
00:51:31,660 --> 00:51:34,440
owns them and he gets paid out for the prisoners.

802
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:37,840
Hugo is arrested by the FBI. Mary Louise's

803
00:51:38,340 --> 00:51:40,920
sentence is overturned. And then that evening,

804
00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:44,440
Wiley Ogden, the corrupt chief of police who shot

805
00:51:44,940 --> 00:51:48,190
and killed the cop during the shootout in the last book, shows up

806
00:51:48,690 --> 00:51:52,670
on Sloan's doorstep. And then the corrupt judge from

807
00:51:53,170 --> 00:51:56,750
Mary Louise's case comes in through the back door. It results in a

808
00:51:57,250 --> 00:52:00,510
shootout. The judge is killed. Sloan evades.

809
00:52:00,590 --> 00:52:03,790
Wiley goes upstairs. The cops show up,

810
00:52:04,290 --> 00:52:07,390
Lucian shows up. Everybody is saved. All is well.

811
00:52:07,710 --> 00:52:11,190
And the next day is Lena and Nash's wedding. And Sloan sets the date for

812
00:52:11,690 --> 00:52:15,410
her and Lucien, which is Christmas Eve. And Steph and Jeremiah

813
00:52:15,910 --> 00:52:19,210
are now also engaged. And that's the end of the book. And then we get

814
00:52:19,710 --> 00:52:23,450
some epilogues. They're just so cute. It's just all happy endings

815
00:52:23,950 --> 00:52:27,690
all around. I pretty much ugly cried through these epilogues.

816
00:52:28,490 --> 00:52:31,970
First, we get a Christmas wedding epilogue. This is the

817
00:52:32,470 --> 00:52:36,010
scene basically where Sloane and Lucien get married.

818
00:52:36,490 --> 00:52:40,570
Nolan has managed to get his wife back, his ex wife back. She's pregnant.

819
00:52:40,990 --> 00:52:44,830
Lena is pregnant. Sloan's sister has gotten back together with, like, the guy

820
00:52:45,330 --> 00:52:49,030
that had dated Sloan, which is again giving. Small town. Mary Louise

821
00:52:49,530 --> 00:52:53,230
and her son are there. Lucien establishes the Simon Walton foundation for Sloan

822
00:52:53,730 --> 00:52:56,670
to continue to help wrongfully convicted individuals.

823
00:52:57,150 --> 00:53:00,310
And this part right here, I ugly cried.

824
00:53:00,810 --> 00:53:02,510
I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to get through it without crying,

825
00:53:03,010 --> 00:53:06,350
so don't fucking judge me. Sloane's gift to

826
00:53:06,510 --> 00:53:10,660
Lucien, her wedding gift to Lucien is a family

827
00:53:10,740 --> 00:53:14,220
photo from when Simon was alive that

828
00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:17,860
has Lucien in the photo. And the text underneath

829
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,620
is the last text that Simon had sent to him, which is, if I

830
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:25,019
could have chosen a son in this lifetime, it would have been, you take care

831
00:53:25,519 --> 00:53:29,380
of my girls. I cried. It was so like.

832
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:33,300
And he gets choked up. And when a big, strong guy gets choked up,

833
00:53:33,460 --> 00:53:36,760
I like, I'm. I'm an absolute sucker.

834
00:53:37,260 --> 00:53:41,080
I literally. It was. And then Sloan is like, don't you cry, because then I'm

835
00:53:41,580 --> 00:53:44,880
gonna cry. Yeah, yes. It's so good.

836
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:49,000
And then we get another epilogue a

837
00:53:49,500 --> 00:53:53,440
decade or so later. It's a Christmas celebration. And basically

838
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:56,320
Lucian and Sloan hosted at her house. Everyone,

839
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:00,360
all of the people that we've established relationships with over the last three

840
00:54:00,860 --> 00:54:03,430
books come. There's a million children.

841
00:54:04,230 --> 00:54:07,990
Sloan and Lucian have adopted. Nox and Naomi have adopted.

842
00:54:08,150 --> 00:54:11,670
They have significant others. They have kids. There's dogs.

843
00:54:11,830 --> 00:54:15,870
It's chaos. And, like, it's just. The whole thing is

844
00:54:16,370 --> 00:54:19,830
just so sweet. It's so heartwarming. And honestly, it was based

845
00:54:20,330 --> 00:54:22,630
on the way that these books were written. It was really just the perfect ending.

846
00:54:23,130 --> 00:54:27,030
I agree with that. I just didn't want to leave. I know. I didn't either.

847
00:54:27,530 --> 00:54:29,510
I think I text you when I was done. Like, I don't want to.

848
00:54:30,010 --> 00:54:33,450
What do we do now? Yeah. So to God, what we're not knocking out anymore.

849
00:54:33,950 --> 00:54:37,730
Like, I know. Maybe she'll. Maybe she'll bless us with

850
00:54:38,230 --> 00:54:42,250
a Steph and Jeremiah. A little, like, holiday Nolla.

851
00:54:42,750 --> 00:54:45,850
Like, we have the Bryn Weaver little. Yeah. Novella.

852
00:54:46,350 --> 00:54:49,850
Yeah. You think? All right. Well,

853
00:54:50,350 --> 00:54:53,130
that was it. I just so emulated.

854
00:54:53,370 --> 00:54:56,490
I know. We talked about Lucy's score

855
00:54:56,650 --> 00:55:00,400
in the last episodes. You can find her online. She has an

856
00:55:00,900 --> 00:55:04,880
extensive collection of books that she's written,

857
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:08,480
so you can find them easily at Target.

858
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:11,600
And, like, all her books are on Kindle Unlimited, too. Yeah,

859
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:16,160
you can find us online. We are still online@booksletspodcast.com,

860
00:55:16,660 --> 00:55:20,320
but we've updated our socials, so we are now plot charts pod.

861
00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:24,120
So follow us online and share with us what

862
00:55:24,620 --> 00:55:26,720
you like and what you don't like and what books you want us to read.

863
00:55:27,300 --> 00:55:30,180
Should we jump into ratings? Yeah. All right. Spice level.

864
00:55:31,140 --> 00:55:34,260
Spice level. I am gonna give

865
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,260
this book a three. I gave it a four.

866
00:55:38,500 --> 00:55:41,780
These are graphic. Really? She gets graphic in this book.

867
00:55:42,260 --> 00:55:45,340
Really? The inspiration I drew from this book, this is

868
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:48,340
the book that I was reading. It was like three in the morning. I woke

869
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:50,660
up. I couldn't fall back to sleep. I tried for a little bit, and then

870
00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,500
I was just like, I'm gonna read this book again. Yeah. And then at

871
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:58,910
5:30 after reading those scenes, I went in and into my

872
00:55:59,410 --> 00:56:02,950
husband's room and got laid because. Holy fuck. Yeah.

873
00:56:03,450 --> 00:56:07,350
The scenes were super duper sexy, for sure. I just don't

874
00:56:07,850 --> 00:56:11,590
think that they were, like, overly graphic. I mean, a lot of

875
00:56:12,090 --> 00:56:15,390
the scenes were the same as in the first two books, where they just are

876
00:56:15,890 --> 00:56:19,750
kind of, like, talking a lot about how they're feeling about one another as opposed

877
00:56:20,250 --> 00:56:24,400
to, like, we're not talking about sounds, smells like.

878
00:56:24,900 --> 00:56:27,400
We're not talking about those things. And so those would be things that I would

879
00:56:27,900 --> 00:56:31,640
typically like, reserve, like more graphic. Sure. For. So I

880
00:56:32,140 --> 00:56:35,920
would stick with my three. What about spice frequency? I would give this

881
00:56:36,420 --> 00:56:40,160
one probably a three. I gave it a three as well. Pros.

882
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:43,840
I would give this a four. I gave it a five. Yeah, I just,

883
00:56:44,340 --> 00:56:47,640
I. I have no notes. I just loved it so

884
00:56:48,140 --> 00:56:52,070
much. Yeah. So, so much. Wow. I love that for you.

885
00:56:52,150 --> 00:56:55,470
You are like truly obsessed with it. I really am. I can read

886
00:56:55,970 --> 00:56:59,510
them again. Oh my God. My mom's reading them right now. Oh, cute.

887
00:57:00,070 --> 00:57:03,550
Where's she on the first one? She had just started the first one last

888
00:57:04,050 --> 00:57:06,150
weekend. Okay. So I'm not sure. Yeah.

889
00:57:06,630 --> 00:57:10,390
Storyline. I'm gonna give the storyline on this one probably

890
00:57:10,890 --> 00:57:14,830
a four only because there's kind of a lot going on

891
00:57:15,330 --> 00:57:19,300
and also kind of nothing at the same time. I don't think I'm

892
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:23,500
fond of characters who are not like, being honest

893
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:27,620
with themselves. I can relate. So I gave it a five.

894
00:57:27,940 --> 00:57:31,780
Oh, sure. We're so much alike. It's so

895
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:34,980
funny. Overall, Overall, I would give this book a four.

896
00:57:35,140 --> 00:57:38,300
I gave it a five. Yeah. I really. I would give this book a

897
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:42,180
six probably. Oh my God. I loved this book that much. Is this like a

898
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:45,850
God tier book? It really is for me. Sure. I just. Every trope

899
00:57:46,350 --> 00:57:49,650
in this book is so perfect and for me. Yeah. See? And I can like

900
00:57:50,150 --> 00:57:53,530
really love a book without giving it a five. This book wouldn't be on

901
00:57:54,030 --> 00:57:57,410
the same level for me as like some of the other books that I've given

902
00:57:57,910 --> 00:58:02,170
a five to. But it's a really good book. I really enjoyed the

903
00:58:02,670 --> 00:58:05,810
book a lot. The whole series. Yeah. I really just

904
00:58:06,310 --> 00:58:09,690
like knock them out. I would take this would be a good one for them

905
00:58:10,190 --> 00:58:12,690
to turn into like a TV show. Yeah. Like a series.

906
00:58:12,930 --> 00:58:16,020
Yes. All right. Well, that was so much fun.

907
00:58:16,500 --> 00:58:18,900
I'm so glad that we did it. We weren't going to initially,

908
00:58:19,620 --> 00:58:23,340
so I'm glad that we did it. I hope that you enjoyed

909
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:26,820
it. We are posting every other week.

910
00:58:27,460 --> 00:58:31,780
Like I said, we're gonna start working on getting together some spoiler

911
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:35,820
free shorter episodes. Yeah. That we'll start posting in the

912
00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:39,820
future here. Just some reviews and would we recommend it and should it stay

913
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:44,010
on your tbr? Yeah, for sure. Just because then that way if you haven't read

914
00:58:44,510 --> 00:58:48,170
it yet and you are like sensitive about potential spoilers, then we.

915
00:58:48,670 --> 00:58:51,490
Have friends who don't listen to them because they want to read the book first.

916
00:58:51,990 --> 00:58:55,570
Yeah. But then like Carmi just never gets to it. Yeah, we have other

917
00:58:56,070 --> 00:58:59,210
friends that just listen just because they just. My sister listens to them all.

918
00:58:59,710 --> 00:59:02,490
And then she still can read the book after. Well, and then sometimes it's like,

919
00:59:02,990 --> 00:59:05,530
you don't have to read it kind of a thing. Which is kind of nice

920
00:59:06,030 --> 00:59:09,660
if you have, like, a million books on your tbr and you're like, this episode

921
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:12,540
was enough to tell me everything I needed to know about it. Brutal obsession.

922
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:15,780
My sister was like, no. Yeah, not for me. Yeah, for sure.

923
00:59:17,140 --> 00:59:20,820
All right, well, join us next time. I'm Amanda. And I'm Nicole.

924
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:22,020
And we're plot tarts.