January 27, 2025 • 76 mins
On this episode we dive into part 2 of Flock by Kate Stewart. Join us as we break down this book and discuss each riveting and spicy chapter!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to A Novel Affair, the bookish podcast where we kiss and tell about our torrid
(00:13):
affairs with fictional characters.
So grab a drink and get ready for some pure unadulterated fun.
This week we are diving into the second half of Flock by Kate Stewart.
So we're getting to like the parts of this book that I like a lot and I love the scene.
(00:40):
So she wakes up and she's at Sean's house, she's in Sean's bed, she wakes up and goes
to the bathroom and Dominic is sleeping naked with his door open and she just...
Right across from the bathroom.
Right across from the bathroom, right.
And so she's just standing there like checking him out and he totally wakes up.
(01:04):
It's shocking intrigue.
Yeah, she's like, oh my god, oh my god.
Cause she's 19, I mean it's not like she's seen more of them, you know.
I think I would have done the same and I'm not 19.
I would have been like, oh my god, oh my god, because in my head, you know.
But um...
(01:25):
That's stitched on a pillow.
Yes.
Oh my god.
But she gets busted, he wakes up and she's totally busted.
She has no like recourse, she's just standing there staring.
My favorite part about that is that she's staring at his junk.
Yes, specifically.
And then she slowly moves up his body and makes eye contact.
(01:50):
She was checking him out from toe to head and then was like, oh fuck, I'm busted.
And then...
But nothing is said, there's no reaction, she's frozen.
Well, okay, but she finally gets out of there and when she gets back in bed she like, I'm
(02:11):
pretty sure like, because she feels guilty, comes onto Sean and like, they have sex because
she's like, secretly feeling guilty because she was just gaping at his best friend.
Well, it's not all on her either because when she makes eye contact with him, he looks back
at his junk and she follows his gaze and he's hard as a freaking rock.
(02:35):
I mean...
I mean...
That's not her fault.
That was not her fault.
Did she stare longer than she should have?
Maybe.
It's a little bit her fault.
I mean, just saying.
But how are you not gonna stare at something when it springs up and says hello?
When it pops up to say hello, yeah, no, agreed.
(02:58):
But I do...
Maybe you can say hi back.
I love her reaction is just like, well, I'm just gonna go have sex with the other one
that I'm supposed to be having sex with.
She's like, oh my God, I looked at something else, let me go.
Yeah.
And she even has to call and talk to her friend, Christy, and ask, do I need to own up to this?
(03:24):
Do I need to tell Sean that I saw Dominic naked?
And so young that she is so ridden with guilt.
Yeah.
To her, it's not some innocent mistake.
And she decides, I know how I'll make up for it.
I will make them dinner.
Yep.
A whole steak dinner.
(03:47):
Yeah.
Apparently the sex is not enough to rid her of guilt.
Clearly.
So she's cooking and I don't know where Sean is.
Is he out or he just wasn't home yet?
He's out running an errand.
Okay.
Wink Wink.
And Dominic comes in and starts poking the bear.
(04:12):
As he does.
As he does.
Be clear, throughout this entire thing, he makes like smart ass remarks just to piss
her off.
Yeah.
Just to like get her riled up.
Constantly to get her eyes out of her.
And this time is no different.
I love this part.
I love the way the switch happens.
(04:32):
Yeah.
So well, actually, okay, you take it from here.
So she's cooking, Dominic comes in.
So she's cooking the steak dinner all domesticated like and she hears the door open.
She thinks it's Sean and she like turns with the knife in her hands.
(04:58):
And it's not Sean, it's Dominic and he rounds the corner quickly and she nearly impills
him with this fucking knife.
He like snatches it from her hand and like knocks it out onto the ground.
And they kind of get into like the altercation or whatever.
He's being an ass like you're trying to fucking kill me.
(05:18):
She's like, no.
And then suddenly there's like this.
There's a switch.
And Dominic starts like teasing her.
And he backs her up into the counter.
He places her hand on his junk and it's hard.
(05:39):
And he just holds it there.
And then Sean comes in.
My understanding is that she doesn't necessarily stop touching it either.
At some point, she actively participates in this to a certain degree.
(06:00):
The funny part about it is that he placed his placed her hand on his job and they're
arguing while this is happening.
Yes.
And then she's she yells at him, let my hand go.
I'm not even touching your hand anymore.
And she looks down and she is free for all rubbing on his junk and not just touching
(06:23):
it.
She's rubbing that shit.
Let me go.
So, of course, Sean comes back just in the nick of time and Dominic's immediately like
she touched me.
Like a little kid.
(06:47):
Yeah.
And Sean sends him upstairs.
He's like, fuck off.
Go upstairs.
Get out of here.
Yeah.
And then Dominic, you know, goes upstairs.
She starts muttering.
Cecilia like turns and leaves.
Sean comes and gets her and is like, you have to stop letting this.
(07:10):
This scene was weird to me when I like I because I didn't understand this dynamic at all.
But basically, he's like, you have to stop letting Dominic bother you.
And she initially is like, OK, like, I'll try.
(07:31):
Comes back in and Dominic just picks up right where he left off with his bullshit.
But he's hard this time, though.
He does come at her hard and Sean does not intervene or say anything.
Then in true 19 year old girl fashion, she storms out of the house for the second time.
(07:59):
And this part killed me when she comes back inside because she she storms back aside.
She tells Tyler because he had just gotten there right before everything happened.
And she comes back aside demands he moves his truck, which we've all been in the situation
where we storm out somewhere and then we're like, I forgot my keys.
(08:23):
And this was like the same level.
It enraged her even more that she had to come back in after the drummination.
Yes.
But she demands it.
And Tyler and Dominic are playing a video game on the couch and they're like, yeah,
after this round, blah, blah.
So she goes and she gets the cake she just made.
(08:43):
I laughed out loud at this part because she takes the cake and she smashes it all over
Dominic and Tyler.
And Sean steals Tyler's keys, moves his vehicle, gets it, goes to try to get hers.
But Sean grabs her first.
(09:05):
Yes, takes her upstairs and they angry literally throws him over throws her over his shoulder
and just like is like, let's have a hate fuck really quick.
Yeah.
And they get it all out.
Yeah.
Kate.
Um, by the way, Dominic pissed.
(09:28):
He was not happy to have cake in his face.
Yeah.
Well, he kind of earned that.
But eating it off of Cecilia.
She actually stays away for the next two days.
She's mad.
She's not responding to Sean.
(09:48):
And she goes through this like, I'm not going to let them.
I'm not going to let Sean hurt me the way my ex boyfriends have hurt me.
And she's like, done.
She cheated on her and like broke her heart.
Yeah.
She also is like kind of tired of Dominic belittling her.
(10:11):
And she even like has a moment where she's thinking about her mom's failed relationships
and not wanting to repeat that pattern, which I think is understandable.
And Roman even picks up on the fact that she's not having a good day.
(10:39):
But she again is trying to find like, she turns it back on him and is like trying to
get more information out of him.
And he asks, she asks him, did you, did you love my mom?
And he actually admits that he tried to love both her mom and her, but couldn't.
(10:59):
And that is, that was a rough blow for sure.
That tapped into my daddy issues.
I was about to say, daddy issues, anyone.
So that doesn't help any at all.
She's got this fight thing going on with Dominic and Sean didn't really back her up and her
(11:25):
dad's kind of being a dick.
And she's just having one of those days where she's over men, which I can completely understand.
And after, after that blowout to with him admitting that he doesn't come back from Charlotte
the next day, he goes to Charlotte and stays in his apartment there and just doesn't come
back.
(11:45):
He just goes back there, which confirmed her theory that he didn't actually live in the
house, that it was just an empty shell for like theatrical reasons to the town.
But he actually lives in Charlotte.
It's just kind of fucked up.
You tell your daughter, you don't love her and then you just disappear.
But you make her stay in this place.
(12:06):
Yeah.
Well, so.
But her staying her standoffishness ends up working because after deciding she's just
going to focus on work one day after she's sitting by the pool and Dominic, Sean and
(12:27):
Tyler show up unannounced.
Yeah.
And Sean decides to like, we need to talk about this fight.
And I don't feel like they really actually resolved anything.
They just know have sex in the pool real quick.
(12:49):
He apologizes, kinda.
But he also demands that Dominic apologizes and that she go make amends with him.
Well, he tells her to go make amends.
And so she goes in the pool where Dominic is and swims to him.
And he.
(13:12):
This is why I love him, because he.
He like, how do I describe it?
She's standing in front of him in the pool and he's leaning back against the back of
the pool with a beer and he drinks the beer first.
He tells her, hang on.
I need more.
Drinks the rest of his beer, sets it down and then apologize.
(13:36):
He made it clear he needed alcohol to apologize.
I know her to apologize.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they kind of like share a small chuckle.
And then he gets out of the pool and she goes back to Sean and they do it real quick while
Dominic and Tyler disappear to quote unquote, go get more drinks.
(13:57):
So she they go to the midnight picnic on his friend's property and she asks him about some
of his other relationships.
And he does admit he's done a lot of the same things with other women that he's doing with
her.
But he says, Cecilia is in fact still special and.
(14:18):
This is this is why I pointed it out.
She notices there's something about him where he looks afraid, but it's like a very fleeting
like moment.
And then but then they have sex and it's gone.
So it's like all these little like bits of like foreshadowing that I'm still not getting
(14:41):
100 percent of the story here.
Yeah.
Which is it's that way for a while.
Yeah.
But then, OK, so that's where I have the it's like really hot in the plant that day and
everybody's like no AC and it's super tense.
(15:06):
And there's a fight that breaks out basically because Vivica is yelling that her paychecks
have been shorted and she accuses Cecilia of being in on it and shorting the employees
(15:27):
to make more profit.
And Sean has to intervene and take Vivica into his office.
But Cecilia, this is the first she's hearing about it.
And so she's like talks to Melinda is like, is this really a problem?
And she's like, shit, yeah, I'm going to talk to Roman about it because she think, you know,
(15:50):
she's like, that's wrong.
But then finds out that Sean had to fire her and she's like about that.
Yeah.
Now everybody's going to hate me even more than they already do.
So saying that she didn't really do anything wrong.
She's mad and has a right to be mad.
(16:11):
Like Cecilia gets it, even though she was called out in the middle of the floor for
something she didn't do.
Yeah.
But everybody thought she had pull and sway over her father because she's his daughter.
But nobody realized they're estranged.
Emails her dad to set up a meeting about work the next morning.
Let me tell you what, if I have to email my dad to get some of his time, I'm probably
(16:35):
not going to bother.
I'll take what I can get.
When she does get the meeting with her father, she finally like stands up to him.
She brings up the point that, you know, pretty much every worker has been getting shorted
(16:56):
just enough to not raise like any hell about it.
Like they're not being shorted hundreds of dollars, but they're being shorted enough
that it just doesn't seem worth it to raise hell about it.
But when you add all of that up for every check for every employee, it's a lot of money.
(17:18):
And she kind of throws that at him and he keeps, you know, on this defense that he owns
the company, but he doesn't work in accounting.
You know, he doesn't know exactly who's doing what.
He addresses things when they're brought to him.
But if the, you know, payroll managers, the accounting team, anybody, if none of them
(17:39):
bring it to his attention, then he doesn't know about it.
And she tells him, that's no excuse.
This is your company.
Your face is on the building.
Your name is on the building.
You need to check in.
And then she also throws a fit about the AC.
They're working in the South in the middle of summer in a factory with no air conditioning.
(18:07):
They are dying.
They are sweating.
And he is forcing his own daughter to work there, but he doesn't even know how bad it
is.
He agrees that he will look into it.
He'll fix it.
But he's not happy that she's like, so brazen.
For me, she's not being.
(18:28):
Yes, sir.
The best moment of this is when she basically tells him that she's the best person to tell
him about himself because she's his biggest mistake.
And I was like, oh, shit.
Yeah, got him.
(18:52):
There's even a point where he's like, well, you're awfully forward today or something
like that.
I was like, this relationship is just doomed.
Like this is not happening.
(19:12):
So then Dominic picks her up and we get to meet his aunt Delphine.
I love Delphine.
Yes.
So his aunt who raised him because he lost his parents when he was young, and she's now
(19:35):
elderly and has cancer and is extremely independent, but definitely we see this tender side of
Dominic because he's obviously still responsible for her.
For the record, she's not necessarily elderly.
She's actually in her 40s to 50s, but she looks and acts elderly because she doesn't
(20:00):
take care of herself and she's going through chemo.
That was a point that Cecilia made that you can see the years have weathered her.
That she looks much older than she actually is.
That's an important distinction.
That has to be awful.
But you see why whenever she starts describing Delphine's home, you're like, oh, this is
(20:22):
a bad mental thing.
So we do start to, this is like the beginning of Dominic's hard exterior is starting to
crack a little bit.
(20:44):
He picked her up from chemo and took her home.
That's why Cecilia ended up meeting him or meeting her.
Yes.
I was just saying, you start to finally see these other sides of Dominic other than the
I don't want you around.
(21:04):
That's an angry guy.
My favorite scene comes up and this is a double whammy.
This is a two for one special back to back smut scene and they're both chef's kiss.
(21:27):
Okay.
So first of all, and this is going to be my first, first of all of this book, but Sean
picks her up and they're going to go swimming with in a lake, right?
(21:48):
Or stream or river, some body of water and Dominic's going to be there as well.
And she's in the car with Sean and I got to look, I wrote, I made a note of
(22:09):
he's playing night moves by Bob Seeger.
And this is a song that is about a meaningless hookup for the summer.
And she in her 19 year old brain decides that Sean is subliminally sending her a message
(22:31):
that she's nothing more than this meaningless hookup for the summer and literally storms
out of the car, demands to know like what she is to him and accuses him of failing to
stand up for her in front of Dominic.
And dude was just jamming to a good song.
(22:54):
He pretty much tells her like, it's just a song on a playlist.
Like literally the most random because no man ever has ever been like, you know what?
I really want to tell this girl something emotional, but I don't want to say it.
So I'm going to find a song lyric and I'm going to put play.
(23:14):
That's not thoughts that happen in these men's brains.
Well you say that, but there is a point later on in this book where a song is specifically
played.
We're going to get to that.
That's my second, first of all of the book, but we'll talk about it when we get to it.
(23:35):
All I know is that that's definitely not what was happening in this particular scene.
But again, she captured that 19 year old brain because back in my mind would have been the
same.
Like, is this a signal?
But basically Shawn gets her to calm down, simmer down now.
(23:56):
And he does this thing where I guess he realizes that some of this brattiness that's coming
across is actually sexual frustration.
And he says something to the effect of, let's take the edge off of that.
(24:20):
And it's just, it's so nice.
It's just a nice little foreplay scene.
And he totally is like giving sexually without taking because like it's all about her.
And there's like this really nice little scene that goes directly into, and this by the way,
(24:43):
for those who are taking notes at home, this is the scene that I basically text my husband
verbatim.
And it was the first time I'd ever done that in all of my smut books.
I was that excited.
It is a, this upcoming scene, not that one just now, but.
(25:11):
I do want to say that there is a point in that conversation when he's trying to calm
her down.
He states, you have a thing for Dominic.
You can deny it all you want, but I've seen it.
I've always, I've felt it and I'm not standing in the way of that and claiming you as mine
is not going to do either of us any good.
The truth is seeing it only makes me want you more.
(25:33):
And I do get off on it.
And I won't fucking apologize for it.
Just like I won't make you apologize for your attraction to him.
I told you when we first hooked up, I don't do things in traditional ways.
Neither does Dominic giving you the choice is more of a reflection on how I respect you
(25:55):
and feel about you and want you.
And it's much better than denying to myself that I've seen you.
I fuck him more than once.
And then we sweat.
(26:15):
He goes on a little speech there and like totally plants the seed.
And then what do you know, but they are all together on a float for hours drinking, listening
to music and swimming.
(26:37):
And I just want to point out that in my notes, I wrote the fucking rap scene.
Yeah, I get so feelings though.
This is this is our spicy little little three way scene with Sean and Dominic.
And first of all, I said it again, but there's something just extraordinarily hot about
(27:03):
a grumpy, angry man, like not really ever being nice to you, but also touching you.
And I feel like this would be a refer back to see a foreman's and daddy issues.
(27:26):
That should not be a thing.
But the fact that they haven't really connected on any other level yet makes this a much more
suspenseful, like moment.
Like she's like, oh my God, he's touching me.
He's touching me.
Yeah.
And what got me was the symbolism of the fact that it was starting to thunderstorm.
(27:52):
Like they could hear thunder out in the background and they thought that it was like going to
come near them.
And then they start doing this thing where she's kind of standoffish about it at first.
But she gets reassurance from Sean, like, go ahead.
And then we get some, you know, like Eiffel Tower situations here.
(28:13):
Very well put.
Very well put.
She got the green light and went for it.
She went all the way for it.
And it was hot.
It's a thing about reverse harems.
It's not that it's, you know, dirty and taboo.
(28:34):
It's the fact that the woman has enough power to command the attention of the men around
her and that they are so infatuated, just so attracted that they have to have her and
they don't care who's around.
And it's that way in all books, in all of these books.
(28:55):
But with a reverse harem, it solidifies it.
She is the focal point of all of their attention during the act.
I agree that that is absolutely the best part because it's like a little bit like, you know,
she's being worshiped by these two hot men, which is like A plus, A plus Kate.
(29:21):
We were all there with you for that.
But I also like that it is not, this is a very non-territorial, non-ego, you know, there's
plenty to be said for a touch my wife and I will unalive you possessive male, right?
(29:47):
Like there's definitely that place.
This is definitely the opposite of that, but it's still just as hot.
Yeah, it's power.
The power that the woman has over the man.
And for some reason that is attractive in these books.
This is a great A smut scene.
(30:07):
This is also the first time she's had kind of a larger glimpse into the Raven Hood.
Which she named.
Yes, yes.
Again, it's a fight club.
They don't talk about it.
They don't talk about it, but like what else?
There is no way there's nothing else.
(30:28):
I would have called it the same thing anyway.
They all have the tattoo of the Raven wings.
So that's why she calls them Raven Hood.
I like Robin Hood, but Raven Hood, you know.
But oh, at the meetup, she does ask like a bunch of people what this is.
(30:50):
Yeah.
And she's getting a bunch of no answers.
Yep.
They all keep calling it a party.
And she's, you know, adamant to try to find answers and nobody will tell her anything
other than that it's a party.
And it was getting pissed.
Because it is.
I want to know what this is.
Right.
(31:10):
But we actually kind of go from like the next few weeks kind of pan out and it becomes she
like falls into a pattern with Sean and Dominic where, you know, they have two very different
relationships.
(31:31):
So her and Dominic or no, let me back up.
Her and Sean go hiking together, are outdoors, they're going like, you know, going and doing
whereas her and Dominic spend rainy days at the house reading books and having sex together,
(31:51):
which again, perfect combination of like dark and light sunshine storm.
Like it's such a good like dichotomy here.
And she kind of demanded it be that way.
She states that she needed a separation.
She needed a line for her own morality that sunny days are for Sean and the hiking and
(32:17):
rainy days are for books in bed with Dominic.
She needed that distinction to live with herself in this situation.
And boundaries are fair and they respect it.
So and I feel like there's it relieves some of the pressure of making sure time spent
is equal because that's hard.
(32:44):
And I think through this, she realized is when she realizes she loves both equally,
like she really is fully in love.
It's not like she really likes one more than the other.
And the other one's just for fun.
Like this is a really genuine, meaningful relationship with both men.
(33:08):
They both offer something to her heart.
Yes, in a different way.
So that takes us to.
At this point, she still hasn't decided if she wants to really be a part of their life
(33:32):
because they give her the ultimatum.
Either you can truly be a part of our lives and be in on the secrets little by little
will unveil to you.
Or you have to decide to walk away.
Like we need a definitive decision.
You can't live in this limbo because that won't make anyone happy.
(33:53):
And she ultimately decides to be a part of it and.
Falls in love with both of them like equally.
Because she's getting to know more into their secret lives, they are not, you know, dropping
her off the deep end.
They're slowly giving her clues to figure it out on her own.
(34:15):
But she does make the decision.
She decides.
Yeah, to show that in a special dinner.
For Sean.
Because last time she made dinner, it went so well, she decides she's going to do it
again.
They shall learn your lesson.
(34:38):
But Sean.
Shows up late.
That's what she's mad about, right?
Because.
And he's working and it turns into if you don't realize how important this is.
What we're doing, then you know.
You shouldn't be around it.
(34:59):
Essentially, yeah, they get into a huge blowout about it because.
She starts saying like the whole phone thing is stupid after learning that they are into
some illegal activity.
And he tells her like this is a hard role for me, for Dominic, for Tyler, for everybody
involved.
You don't have cell phones because.
(35:20):
Yeah, somebody's listening in.
It's not a big deal for the average Joe who's, you know, sitting at home watching TV.
But we're not the average people.
We're doing things that if it gets out, we get caught.
We go to prison.
You need to respect that.
They get into this big blowout about it.
(35:43):
And then she screams, I made this dinner for you because I love you.
I wanted to tell you I love you.
And then she tries to storm out.
Cecilia.
Enlist Tyler to help her.
Go to Delphine's house, Dominic's aunt Delphine and clean it because of the conditions that
(36:06):
she's living in.
And of course, Delphine handles it like someone Dominic would going through some things would.
And Cecilia takes it on the chin.
She basically is like, no, I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do.
(36:27):
I'm not doing it for brownie points.
Yeah, because still makes that comment.
She's like, you know, this isn't going to get you in my in my nephew's heart.
It seems like I don't go fuck.
Yeah.
But then we learn about sweet Tyler and how he has been in love with Delphine, that they
(36:48):
had like an affair whenever he was a teenager.
And he like really loved her.
And then he went and joined the Marine Corps and.
This Delphine was still heartbroken over her husband, late husband.
Tyler reveals to Cecilia after they leave, after they've cleaned everything, that they
(37:15):
had been in love with her.
They had a trist, but she inevitably broke his heart.
And he's never really recovered from that.
And I want to make a point of that because that comes in later.
But then later on.
(37:36):
Dominic and Cecilia go on their first real date.
Now I say first real date, they can't actually be seen in public together.
They're trying to protect Cecilia's reputation and make it seem like she's just with Sean
since they've been out in public together before.
(37:56):
So yes.
So they hadn't.
But they go to a different town, right?
I believe so.
That's why they're able to go out to dinner together, because they're in Asheville.
Yeah.
And they have a nice date.
And sex in the car.
(38:19):
Again.
Once again, they have sex in the car.
But this is the night that Dominic opens up about his parents and talks about how they
died in an accident when he was six.
(38:40):
And that becomes important in the overall story at a certain point.
But Sean actually interrupts their little happy hood of the car moment, comes out and
he's got like fear in his eyes and they said, you have to go home.
We have to talk.
(39:01):
So something has clearly happened.
It's very obvious to me as the reader.
I don't know that it's obvious to Cecilia.
But basically the part that the part that got me that made me realize like, oh, some
shit's about to go down.
Was when they walked into the garage and he saw that look Sean had and then he just goes
(39:25):
when and Sean says now.
He says, fuck.
And then that's the end of that.
Sean decides to take her home.
But as soon as they walk out of the garage, she can hear Dominic just go fucking mayhem.
He's throwing shit, cussing.
She's like, what is happening?
(39:48):
Sorry at chills thinking about like watching Dominic throw things.
I mean, fair point.
Fair point.
OK, so then this really.
This is if if you read this book, if you read this book and you didn't get weren't completely
(40:10):
confused and then really frustrated by this part, then we are not the same because I had
to go back and reread this chapter so many times because I was like, I missed something.
I missed it.
I'm dumb and I cannot clearly comprehend what I'm reading because she's having a freaking
(40:33):
meltdown and I don't know why.
So she comes.
She leaves that night and then doesn't hear.
From Sean or Dominic.
I don't remember how much time goes by.
It had been days.
(40:54):
OK, days and.
Doesn't have a man.
That's a lot.
Yeah, sure.
And decides she's going to go confront them at the shop.
(41:17):
Real quick, when Sean took her home that night, she tried asking him what happened and all
he would tell her was that somebody couldn't keep a secret.
And that's important for the next book.
So yes, keep that in mind.
Yes, and.
(41:38):
After not hearing from them, she decides she's going to go up to King's Automotive and see
them because that's where they're hanging out.
And she walks in and there's people there and they're hanging out and there's music
playing.
(41:58):
Now we're going to explain it.
You disagreed on this one.
We still disagree on this.
There's music playing, which is referenced.
This book is very music specific.
When she plays a song, she will tell you what song she's playing, right?
She likes to set the mood.
But there's music playing and all of a sudden, Cecilia is her world's ending and she's melting
(42:24):
down and oh my God, everything is awful.
And then she runs out and I'm like, what?
What just happened?
What is her problem?
It's the song that she was playing.
I'm like.
OK.
OK, let's get into it.
OK, let's let's have it out right here right now.
(42:46):
OK, here's the thing.
Pretty much called her a whore for sleeping with both of them in a room full of people
who were looking at her with pity.
I would have fucking cried if the two people I just confessed my love to called me a whore
in a room full of people.
(43:06):
By playing a song.
It wasn't just a song.
It's like they wouldn't walk over there after ignoring her for days.
They do it.
They they don't.
They just it was over off.
I get that.
But like that whole scene.
(43:29):
Tilts around the lyrics to this song when when like.
I listen to rap music and we could be listening to a song where he talks about how like.
He.
Disrespects these women, right?
And I don't take it as a personal affront to women everywhere because Snoop Dogg talking
(43:55):
about we don't love them hoes.
OK, like I'm just saying as a personal attack.
He told them this did not land for me and how she the song calls a girl named Cecilia
a whore and in the beginning of the book, she tells them she does not like the song
and she is not like that.
(44:17):
She admits of her fear of sleeping with both of them and being a whore.
When they play the song, the moment that she walks in, they change the song to this specific
song and stare at her.
Lock eyes with her across the room and then dominant gives her a little smirk when she
hears the lyrics and he sees that she recognizes it.
(44:40):
It all culminates.
It was meant it was targeted to hurt her to call.
I understand.
It just did not land for me.
That's all I'm saying.
This was she a little dramatic.
Yes, this did not land for me, but I maintain that if you're confused as fuck while you're
(45:02):
reading this, you are not alone because I've seen other people post in the Facebook groups
in the smut hood that they were like, wait, what did I miss?
Why?
What happened?
Nothing has happened.
Something happened.
They didn't respond appropriately to her arriving and all everything that you just said.
(45:30):
We're not getting into this again.
We've had so many fights about this.
I want people to comment.
I need to hear people's feedback on this episode and let me know after you've read the book,
would you have been hurt?
Whose side are you on here?
There is a side.
We're going to take a fucking poll.
(45:51):
There is two sides and one of them is right and the other one is wrong.
We're going to take a fucking poll.
I need answers.
Long dramatic story short, they're no longer all in love and happy.
Now she's devastated and she has like a hole in her heart the size of two men and she takes
(46:18):
two weeks off of work, which I'm sorry.
Breakups do not warrant time off of work.
Do I wish I could have had two weeks?
Oh sure.
For sure.
Here's my thing on this though.
It's a breakup after three months and only one of them was a month in.
(46:45):
Not saying that it's any less valid to feel sad, but that much time off of work after
such a short relationship.
She does spiral quite a bit and maybe that's not to rehash, but maybe they don't drop everything
they're doing and run over to her when she walks in the room after three months of dating
(47:10):
also seems a little.
It was intentional.
What part of this dream am I getting?
You are intentional in trying to rob me.
I get it.
I get it.
I get it.
That's why I said it's very action-packed.
A little dramatic, yes, but would I have run out of there crying to the love of my life
just called me a whore in front of a room full of people.
(47:30):
It was targeted.
It was meant to call her a whore.
I would have grabbed somebody else in the room and started making out with them and
been like, Shana, Dominic who?
But that's just me.
Then that's not Cecilia.
We were two different people.
And that's okay.
That is okay.
Also, keep in mind she's 19.
She's still a teenager.
She's still, I mean, she just turned 20, but she's still a child and she hasn't lived any
(47:56):
life, any real life.
She took the safe path throughout her entire life.
She has no real experiences.
This is her first real experience and heartbreak.
She takes Joliet off work.
She goes and spends, goes to see her mom.
Christy meets her there.
(48:17):
They watch some like classic, like romance films and they have that like girl talk about
love and relationships and heartbreak.
And Sean does call Cecilia.
They're watching tragedies by the way.
I just wanted to point that out.
(48:38):
They're watching tragedies.
They're romantic films.
Not rom-coms.
No, she states that they're tragedies.
They end in the people not being together.
I know, but that doesn't mean they're not romance.
Saying they're not romance.
I just wanted to point out that they're specifically watching movies where the cold don't end up
(49:01):
together.
Specifically watching them when they don't end up together.
It felt like, again, dramatic.
Yes, for sure.
Sean does try to call her while there and she does not answer, which I'm like, good,
be strong.
Stand your ground.
I don't know that I would have had the strength.
(49:26):
Yeah, not at that age.
No, definitely not.
I would have wanted an explanation.
At least that, at least hear the explanation and then tell him to fuck off.
But that's me.
So she goes back to Triple Falls.
Her dad has moved, fully moved to Charlotte and she's still mad with Sean and Dominic
(49:52):
and she's avoiding them until one day she's out for a drive and Dominic, they have a little
high speed car chase there for a hot second.
She really thought she could outrun him.
Right.
He totally assaults her and it's amazing.
(50:18):
It's one of those great, great like, no, listen to me.
I love you assaults, which I love.
I also want to say he's pissed at her though for how she was driving and how she nearly
caused a wreck between the two of them and then she gets out and she walks up to him
(50:41):
and slaps the shit out of him.
And I was like, while I was reading it, I was like, you fucking go girl.
Yeah.
Get old.
Yeah.
Slap that bitch.
But also like, don't tell me how to drive.
What are you, my dad?
Like no.
Right.
So he does like start to I'm sorry, like we were just trying to protect you.
(51:08):
We still want to be with you.
But she's not trying to hear it.
And I can't blame her for that at all.
I was proud that she stood her ground.
This is like the first time in the book that she actually stands up to them and doesn't
just accept them on blind faith.
She's had it with all of the riddles.
This is a grow up moment where she's like, no, I'm not playing around anymore.
(51:35):
And it's good.
It's good to see.
So then, oh, at work, Sean, like makes her come into the office, right?
He calls her on the intercom.
Yes.
Like just broadcasted that shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(51:55):
And that's when he finally gives some answers.
Right.
So he was still trying to be cryptic, but she again was like, I'm not doing this anymore.
Either give me a straight fucking answer or fuck off.
Yes.
(52:15):
And I love it.
And agree.
Because I was I was already there like pages ago.
Right.
So somebody answer a question around here.
She put up a lot more than I would have.
So basically, they have been investigating her dad's company because they think they
(52:38):
are responsible for the death of Dominic's parents who were working in the chemical plant
when it caught fire, which is how they died.
And they believe Roman covered up the incident or he did and they are proving it.
You know, settlement.
(53:00):
Yeah.
So Sean and Dominic initially were actually using Cecilia to get into Roman's house to
spy on him and the company.
And she was like, happy surprise.
They didn't expect to have fallen in love with her.
(53:20):
And they complicated the plan.
It complicated everything because they realized that she was in danger because if Roman was
found guilty, she would be at risk.
And if they were discovered, she would be at risk.
(53:40):
So either way, she was in a precarious position.
And so at this point that she learns she was the secret.
Every time they mention a secret that they needed to keep a secret that somebody couldn't
keep a secret, she's realizing.
(54:02):
She's the secret.
She was the secret.
Yeah, but she's still not.
She now knows she's the secret, but she doesn't know in what way she does.
There's still a lot of they going on.
And it's like, who is they?
Who is they?
(54:22):
They always refer to somebody, but they never mention the name, never even speak of him.
It's just referred to.
And this is a confusing moment because Sean's like, I love you.
Stay away from us.
Yeah.
(54:42):
Oh, piss me off.
We love you so much that we can't be with you.
And I'm like, what?
I just I think it's I can't even say that part because that's in the next book.
But yeah, because men I'm going to upset a million times and say it again.
(55:09):
Men ain't shit.
OK, yeah, yeah.
That's sorry to my fiance.
That's the whole thing.
Men ain't shit.
Yeah.
So she actually does her own like research and starts to understand a little bit better
(55:33):
like what they're actually trying to accomplish.
But it doesn't really change how they handled this with her because they still really hurt
her regardless of their good intentions.
And so this ends with her blasting music topless.
(55:56):
I love this part because first of all, though, she realizes that the meetup, every time they
took her, they took her in a backwards, you know, dirt road type way that took forever
to throw her off.
Turns out meetup is in her backyard.
(56:17):
And she recognizes this by a fucking cell tower.
And that pissed her off.
Yeah, they've been using the cell tower to access Roman's personal server files.
Yeah.
So she I don't remember the song.
I don't remember the song, but she's blasting it on repeat.
(56:40):
I think it's because she's or something like that, something to that effect.
And she's sitting there and you just know she's like sitting there like practicing in
her head what she's going to say when they come there.
You know, she pointed the speakers towards the meetup spot.
(57:01):
Yes.
And she's just waiting for them to show up and she's like topless, just ready to let
them have it.
I loved it.
And the end she's she's waiting.
And there's like a shadow that crosses over her and realizes it's not Sean and it's not
(57:24):
Dominic.
But it's tall, dark and handsome incarnate looking down at her and she immediately realizes
it's the wolf.
And that's like a callback to when they said we have, you know, we have to make sure the
wolf doesn't find out about you.
(57:47):
We thought it was Dominic.
We also thought Dominic was the Frenchman.
Yeah.
The last line in the book.
And it made me so mad that I had to immediately pick up the second one and I hadn't bought
it yet and I had to buy it and I had to wait.
(58:07):
So if you read the first one, go ahead and buy the second one.
Yeah.
The last line.
And then it cuts off is just you're the Frenchman.
And then that's it.
Yep.
And I'm like, who the fuck is this now?
(58:31):
There's not much of a description, just that his eyes are like this, you know, bright,
like hazel gray color.
And then that's it.
We don't know who he is.
We don't know what he looks like.
We don't even know who he is to the Ravenhood.
(58:51):
Or to Dominic or Sean.
We're gonna find out.
I'm so mad that I had to wait.
Yeah, that was the ultimate cliffhanger.
If anything, the cliffhanger should go in the trigger warnings so that you know that
you need to have that next book ready to go or you're gonna have a meltdown.
(59:13):
Too late to add it now.
Just like it was too late for me when I read this the first time.
Yeah.
The next one's gonna have a trigger warning just FYI.
A spicy scene, spicy?
(59:38):
Oh my gosh.
Spicy scene spotlight.
Can't say that.
I think we all know at this point which one was our favorite.
So I still have to say this might be one of my like, I don't know, it's up there.
(01:00:02):
I don't want to say top three.
Top three seems like that's gonna be clutch.
But top five.
We'll say top five.
And it's because it's with Sean and it's great.
But it's the first interaction with Dominic that's not straight up like just mean.
(01:00:28):
It's the unique blend of those two things.
The rap scene.
The rap scene.
But here's what I'm gonna also say.
Hot take.
Because right now at minimum there's the two love interests and I do love Dominic.
(01:00:49):
But you know how like in the Twilight days there was like Team Edward and Team Jake and
I was always Miss Mainstream right?
So I was Team Edward because that's who she's supposed to end up with because that's who
she does end up with right?
Well, this is one of those books where I don't think I end up where the author intended for
(01:01:16):
us to end up.
I think I would have ended up with Sean.
I think I would have just.
I think I would have stayed with Sean.
I like the way the book panned out.
But we'll get into that in the next book.
(01:01:37):
Because I've already written a note on that one.
Yeah, but I just wanted to share since our hot take wasn't that hot because we already
said.
So the rap scene though.
My question.
What kind of raft are we talking about?
(01:01:57):
Because for some reason in my head.
That's a super, super valid question that you have to know the smut was good because
I didn't even think of that.
So valid.
I asked because I know many of us have tried to get on like one of those layout floaties,
(01:02:20):
even the big ones.
And you feel like a beach.
You feel like a beached whale because you can't get your leg all the way up.
You're just like slipping.
(01:02:41):
Yes.
OK, yes.
Valid questions.
Because I imagine the like shiny inflatable.
But like maybe it's like a cool hand tied bamboo raft that's like super easy to get
onto or something like the like the not bamboo, but like the actual wooden rafts that they
(01:03:03):
put out further for like the lifeguards in the lake.
This is supposed to be like a lake in the middle of nowhere.
Right, right.
I could climb the pole ladder to get on a floaty.
I could not get on a raft.
(01:03:27):
Why can't you just wait a second.
Why can't you put it on and then jump in the water?
I'm talking about the layout floaties.
OK.
OK.
OK, that's fair.
That's fair.
Yeah.
I'm not going to lie to you.
(01:03:52):
I don't know.
I don't know if that's.
I don't think that scene is actually physically possible for somebody like me with my low
center of gravity.
If you catch my dress.
(01:04:15):
And here's here's my other thing.
OK, this is and we're assuming that it is an inflatable raft.
OK, and I have I have a scenario for both for the inflatable and for like the wooden
bamboo.
OK, yes, yes, I'm here for this.
Here we go.
(01:04:35):
The inflatable version, OK, we have two grown men that are well over 200 pounds and a woman
who we can't understand because we're five foot and like a hundred pounds.
Yeah, she's an Amazon woman at five, six.
So I actually think she's five, nine.
I'm actually like a little certain she's five, nine.
(01:04:56):
That's even more unimaginable.
And it is already described that she has a huge but don't get on.
So we know she's got some weight on her.
Yeah.
How did that not float?
How did that how did it not sink under the weight in the movement?
Because there was a lot of movement.
(01:05:18):
There was.
And now I don't know if I can read that whole scene the same.
It never occurred to me.
But it's such a valid question because that's not happening on any raft I've ever been on
ever.
So benefit of the doubt, it's a wooden raft.
OK, right.
Yeah.
OK.
I best case scenario.
(01:05:39):
If it's a bamboo raft, that is going to be painful.
OK, that there's going to be like scuff marks and like burns and not pleasant.
If we've got a wooden raft, I hope it's sanded and laminated because there's going to be
(01:06:03):
splinters.
There's going to be splinters.
You can't have splinters.
So I can't breathe.
I'm tearing up.
(01:06:24):
These are all really valid and important questions.
And I'm going to tell you that should I ever have a chance to meet Kate Stewart, this is
going to be the very first question that I ask.
And I'm not even going to preface it.
I'm just going to come straight out.
I'm going to say what kind of raft was it?
I need to know.
I need to know what the raft was made out of.
(01:06:47):
It doesn't even matter what kind of raft it is.
No scenario is going to hold up.
Either they're going to get to it, they're going to see it, or they're going to end up
with splinters or burns.
(01:07:08):
I just had a full sex fail montage in my head of what this would look like.
If I were to attempt this in real life, I fully visualized it.
I'm scarred by it and fully embarrassed.
(01:07:34):
When I read, I visualize and the actual raft itself was something I could not visualize
because none of this makes sense.
It's impressive.
For sure.
Still my favorite scene though.
It definitely fits in my top five of all books.
And out of all Reverse Harem's, this is my favorite Reverse Harem scene.
(01:07:59):
This is not my favorite Reverse Harem scene.
Is it?
It's fine.
But I think you've read more RHS than I have.
Just in Den of Vipers alone, I would still put, if we're talking about specifically RHS
top scene, it's going to be the tattoo scene.
(01:08:19):
You brought it up earlier, so I'm bringing it up again.
The tattoo scene is good.
That's my second because that is fast, hot, and steamy.
This one gets my top one because of the actual emotion.
That is also my drag name, by the way.
Fast, hot, and steamy.
You can't have all of them, Tara.
Yes, I can.
Yes, I can and I will.
(01:08:41):
You got to leave some for the rest of us.
This one had emotion though, and there was so much angst leading up to her and Dominic.
And I liked the way that Dominic was described looking at her.
It wasn't just lust.
It was...
Yeah, that's true.
I have been dying to touch you.
(01:09:02):
We have to give it our overall ratings.
And this is overall number and then content spice, romance, writing, and characters.
This book is very high up for me.
(01:09:22):
I am in love with this whole series, even though it breaks my heart constantly.
This is my overall rating.
So good series.
It hurts so good.
Except there's one part that does not hurt very good.
(01:09:43):
The overall rating I gave it was a nine out of 10.
For content, I gave a nine out of 10.
For spice, I went, you know, seven to eight out of 10 because it's hot and steamy and
there's a lot of buildup, but it's also not like...
(01:10:06):
I mean, I've read the Lord series, so...
And Haunting Adeline.
You got to be on that level to get a 10 out of me.
That's fair.
For romance, I definitely gave it a 10 out of 10 though.
The way she wrote the emotions just made me feel them.
(01:10:29):
And writing and characters, I gave them both 10 out of 10 because they were so in depth.
The writing's quality and style was amazing.
The characters had so much depth and every character had a backstory, no matter how little
the character was.
(01:10:50):
And the arcs, the character arcs.
One thing I loved, I hated it when I first read this book.
One thing I loved was the fact that we didn't have a POV from anybody other than Cecilia.
I usually like to have the guy POV.
That's my favorite part.
Love the guy POV.
(01:11:13):
But I know why she didn't.
She wanted the reader to be as in the dark as Cecilia was.
Yes.
About the whole secret society.
Yes.
I hate it.
I hate it, but I respect it.
I get it.
But definitely, you cannot judge the series if you don't read past this first book.
(01:11:36):
And I say that to lead into my rating because I'm going with my original gut instinct rating
when my first read through of this.
And you can actually, on my Goodreads, I did not rate Flock as well as I rated Exodus.
(01:11:56):
Focus back in.
Oh, I don't...
It auto focuses, so sometimes it loses me.
I did not rate this book, but I don't think you can adequately judge this series if you
(01:12:17):
were to stop at Flock.
Because Exodus makes Flock, elevates Flock quite a bit.
So overall, for Flock, I would have rated it, when I first read it, probably a seven
(01:12:38):
out of 10, which I'm probably a hard grader also.
We'll see.
This is our first one to compare notes on, but we'll see.
But keep in mind that I would rate it higher after having read Exodus.
Does that make sense?
(01:12:58):
So content was, I think...
I'm second guessing my numbers that I wrote, that I jotted down this morning.
I think content is eight out of 10, spice, eight out of 10.
(01:13:24):
The romance, I think, is a nine out of 10.
For me, in this one, I think both the writing and the characters, I give it a nine out of
10.
But again, I would change that in retrospect.
(01:13:45):
But when I first read it, I was like, this doesn't make any sense.
What has happened here?
It's like they lose that point because they were...
Yeah.
But later on, I realized it was not just confusing.
(01:14:08):
It was intentional, which is interesting.
It explains a lot.
And I say all of that to say that Kate is brilliant with her ability to take you through
it with the character.
I love an unreliable narrator.
(01:14:29):
I think it's a really clever way to twist a story that nobody sees coming because you
assume the information that you're getting is accurate or complete.
And so...
Yeah.
I agree with that.
(01:14:51):
I also think that Exodus is the best book in this series.
Exodus hurts.
It does.
Be prepared.
But it's also the best writing in my opinion.
Yeah.
But we can't talk anymore about that yet.
(01:15:17):
So that's a wrap for this episode.
As always, thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed our take on this very steamy book and we will see you all next week
on A Novel Affair.
Where we will be discussing our next spicy book, Exodus of the Ravenhood series.
(01:15:39):
Don't forget to head over to our podcast to listen to a full breakdown of this book and
many others with spoilers and discussions unfiltered.
You can find our link in the comments.
Be sure to like and follow us on our social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and hit
that subscribe button before you go.
We'll see you all soon.
Hey guys, welcome to A Novel Affair, the bookish podcast where we kiss and tell about our torrid
(00:13):
affairs with fictional characters.
So grab a drink and get ready for some pure unadulterated fun.
This week we are diving into the second half of Flock by Kate Stewart.
So we're getting to like the parts of this book that I like a lot and I love the scene.
(00:40):
So she wakes up and she's at Sean's house, she's in Sean's bed, she wakes up and goes
to the bathroom and Dominic is sleeping naked with his door open and she just...
Right across from the bathroom.
Right across from the bathroom, right.
And so she's just standing there like checking him out and he totally wakes up.
(01:04):
It's shocking intrigue.
Yeah, she's like, oh my god, oh my god.
Cause she's 19, I mean it's not like she's seen more of them, you know.
I think I would have done the same and I'm not 19.
I would have been like, oh my god, oh my god, because in my head, you know.
But um...
(01:25):
That's stitched on a pillow.
Yes.
Oh my god.
But she gets busted, he wakes up and she's totally busted.
She has no like recourse, she's just standing there staring.
My favorite part about that is that she's staring at his junk.
Yes, specifically.
And then she slowly moves up his body and makes eye contact.
(01:50):
She was checking him out from toe to head and then was like, oh fuck, I'm busted.
And then...
But nothing is said, there's no reaction, she's frozen.
Well, okay, but she finally gets out of there and when she gets back in bed she like, I'm
(02:11):
pretty sure like, because she feels guilty, comes onto Sean and like, they have sex because
she's like, secretly feeling guilty because she was just gaping at his best friend.
Well, it's not all on her either because when she makes eye contact with him, he looks back
at his junk and she follows his gaze and he's hard as a freaking rock.
(02:35):
I mean...
I mean...
That's not her fault.
That was not her fault.
Did she stare longer than she should have?
Maybe.
It's a little bit her fault.
I mean, just saying.
But how are you not gonna stare at something when it springs up and says hello?
When it pops up to say hello, yeah, no, agreed.
(02:58):
But I do...
Maybe you can say hi back.
I love her reaction is just like, well, I'm just gonna go have sex with the other one
that I'm supposed to be having sex with.
She's like, oh my God, I looked at something else, let me go.
Yeah.
And she even has to call and talk to her friend, Christy, and ask, do I need to own up to this?
(03:24):
Do I need to tell Sean that I saw Dominic naked?
And so young that she is so ridden with guilt.
Yeah.
To her, it's not some innocent mistake.
And she decides, I know how I'll make up for it.
I will make them dinner.
Yep.
A whole steak dinner.
(03:47):
Yeah.
Apparently the sex is not enough to rid her of guilt.
Clearly.
So she's cooking and I don't know where Sean is.
Is he out or he just wasn't home yet?
He's out running an errand.
Okay.
Wink Wink.
And Dominic comes in and starts poking the bear.
(04:12):
As he does.
As he does.
Be clear, throughout this entire thing, he makes like smart ass remarks just to piss
her off.
Yeah.
Just to like get her riled up.
Constantly to get her eyes out of her.
And this time is no different.
I love this part.
I love the way the switch happens.
(04:32):
Yeah.
So well, actually, okay, you take it from here.
So she's cooking, Dominic comes in.
So she's cooking the steak dinner all domesticated like and she hears the door open.
She thinks it's Sean and she like turns with the knife in her hands.
(04:58):
And it's not Sean, it's Dominic and he rounds the corner quickly and she nearly impills
him with this fucking knife.
He like snatches it from her hand and like knocks it out onto the ground.
And they kind of get into like the altercation or whatever.
He's being an ass like you're trying to fucking kill me.
(05:18):
She's like, no.
And then suddenly there's like this.
There's a switch.
And Dominic starts like teasing her.
And he backs her up into the counter.
He places her hand on his junk and it's hard.
(05:39):
And he just holds it there.
And then Sean comes in.
My understanding is that she doesn't necessarily stop touching it either.
At some point, she actively participates in this to a certain degree.
(06:00):
The funny part about it is that he placed his placed her hand on his job and they're
arguing while this is happening.
Yes.
And then she's she yells at him, let my hand go.
I'm not even touching your hand anymore.
And she looks down and she is free for all rubbing on his junk and not just touching
(06:23):
it.
She's rubbing that shit.
Let me go.
So, of course, Sean comes back just in the nick of time and Dominic's immediately like
she touched me.
Like a little kid.
(06:47):
Yeah.
And Sean sends him upstairs.
He's like, fuck off.
Go upstairs.
Get out of here.
Yeah.
And then Dominic, you know, goes upstairs.
She starts muttering.
Cecilia like turns and leaves.
Sean comes and gets her and is like, you have to stop letting this.
(07:10):
This scene was weird to me when I like I because I didn't understand this dynamic at all.
But basically, he's like, you have to stop letting Dominic bother you.
And she initially is like, OK, like, I'll try.
(07:31):
Comes back in and Dominic just picks up right where he left off with his bullshit.
But he's hard this time, though.
He does come at her hard and Sean does not intervene or say anything.
Then in true 19 year old girl fashion, she storms out of the house for the second time.
(07:59):
And this part killed me when she comes back inside because she she storms back aside.
She tells Tyler because he had just gotten there right before everything happened.
And she comes back aside demands he moves his truck, which we've all been in the situation
where we storm out somewhere and then we're like, I forgot my keys.
(08:23):
And this was like the same level.
It enraged her even more that she had to come back in after the drummination.
Yes.
But she demands it.
And Tyler and Dominic are playing a video game on the couch and they're like, yeah,
after this round, blah, blah.
So she goes and she gets the cake she just made.
(08:43):
I laughed out loud at this part because she takes the cake and she smashes it all over
Dominic and Tyler.
And Sean steals Tyler's keys, moves his vehicle, gets it, goes to try to get hers.
But Sean grabs her first.
(09:05):
Yes, takes her upstairs and they angry literally throws him over throws her over his shoulder
and just like is like, let's have a hate fuck really quick.
Yeah.
And they get it all out.
Yeah.
Kate.
Um, by the way, Dominic pissed.
(09:28):
He was not happy to have cake in his face.
Yeah.
Well, he kind of earned that.
But eating it off of Cecilia.
She actually stays away for the next two days.
She's mad.
She's not responding to Sean.
(09:48):
And she goes through this like, I'm not going to let them.
I'm not going to let Sean hurt me the way my ex boyfriends have hurt me.
And she's like, done.
She cheated on her and like broke her heart.
Yeah.
She also is like kind of tired of Dominic belittling her.
(10:11):
And she even like has a moment where she's thinking about her mom's failed relationships
and not wanting to repeat that pattern, which I think is understandable.
And Roman even picks up on the fact that she's not having a good day.
(10:39):
But she again is trying to find like, she turns it back on him and is like trying to
get more information out of him.
And he asks, she asks him, did you, did you love my mom?
And he actually admits that he tried to love both her mom and her, but couldn't.
(10:59):
And that is, that was a rough blow for sure.
That tapped into my daddy issues.
I was about to say, daddy issues, anyone.
So that doesn't help any at all.
She's got this fight thing going on with Dominic and Sean didn't really back her up and her
(11:25):
dad's kind of being a dick.
And she's just having one of those days where she's over men, which I can completely understand.
And after, after that blowout to with him admitting that he doesn't come back from Charlotte
the next day, he goes to Charlotte and stays in his apartment there and just doesn't come
back.
(11:45):
He just goes back there, which confirmed her theory that he didn't actually live in the
house, that it was just an empty shell for like theatrical reasons to the town.
But he actually lives in Charlotte.
It's just kind of fucked up.
You tell your daughter, you don't love her and then you just disappear.
But you make her stay in this place.
(12:06):
Yeah.
Well, so.
But her staying her standoffishness ends up working because after deciding she's just
going to focus on work one day after she's sitting by the pool and Dominic, Sean and
(12:27):
Tyler show up unannounced.
Yeah.
And Sean decides to like, we need to talk about this fight.
And I don't feel like they really actually resolved anything.
They just know have sex in the pool real quick.
(12:49):
He apologizes, kinda.
But he also demands that Dominic apologizes and that she go make amends with him.
Well, he tells her to go make amends.
And so she goes in the pool where Dominic is and swims to him.
And he.
(13:12):
This is why I love him, because he.
He like, how do I describe it?
She's standing in front of him in the pool and he's leaning back against the back of
the pool with a beer and he drinks the beer first.
He tells her, hang on.
I need more.
Drinks the rest of his beer, sets it down and then apologize.
(13:36):
He made it clear he needed alcohol to apologize.
I know her to apologize.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they kind of like share a small chuckle.
And then he gets out of the pool and she goes back to Sean and they do it real quick while
Dominic and Tyler disappear to quote unquote, go get more drinks.
(13:57):
So she they go to the midnight picnic on his friend's property and she asks him about some
of his other relationships.
And he does admit he's done a lot of the same things with other women that he's doing with
her.
But he says, Cecilia is in fact still special and.
(14:18):
This is this is why I pointed it out.
She notices there's something about him where he looks afraid, but it's like a very fleeting
like moment.
And then but then they have sex and it's gone.
So it's like all these little like bits of like foreshadowing that I'm still not getting
(14:41):
100 percent of the story here.
Yeah.
Which is it's that way for a while.
Yeah.
But then, OK, so that's where I have the it's like really hot in the plant that day and
everybody's like no AC and it's super tense.
(15:06):
And there's a fight that breaks out basically because Vivica is yelling that her paychecks
have been shorted and she accuses Cecilia of being in on it and shorting the employees
(15:27):
to make more profit.
And Sean has to intervene and take Vivica into his office.
But Cecilia, this is the first she's hearing about it.
And so she's like talks to Melinda is like, is this really a problem?
And she's like, shit, yeah, I'm going to talk to Roman about it because she think, you know,
(15:50):
she's like, that's wrong.
But then finds out that Sean had to fire her and she's like about that.
Yeah.
Now everybody's going to hate me even more than they already do.
So saying that she didn't really do anything wrong.
She's mad and has a right to be mad.
(16:11):
Like Cecilia gets it, even though she was called out in the middle of the floor for
something she didn't do.
Yeah.
But everybody thought she had pull and sway over her father because she's his daughter.
But nobody realized they're estranged.
Emails her dad to set up a meeting about work the next morning.
Let me tell you what, if I have to email my dad to get some of his time, I'm probably
(16:35):
not going to bother.
I'll take what I can get.
When she does get the meeting with her father, she finally like stands up to him.
She brings up the point that, you know, pretty much every worker has been getting shorted
(16:56):
just enough to not raise like any hell about it.
Like they're not being shorted hundreds of dollars, but they're being shorted enough
that it just doesn't seem worth it to raise hell about it.
But when you add all of that up for every check for every employee, it's a lot of money.
(17:18):
And she kind of throws that at him and he keeps, you know, on this defense that he owns
the company, but he doesn't work in accounting.
You know, he doesn't know exactly who's doing what.
He addresses things when they're brought to him.
But if the, you know, payroll managers, the accounting team, anybody, if none of them
(17:39):
bring it to his attention, then he doesn't know about it.
And she tells him, that's no excuse.
This is your company.
Your face is on the building.
Your name is on the building.
You need to check in.
And then she also throws a fit about the AC.
They're working in the South in the middle of summer in a factory with no air conditioning.
(18:07):
They are dying.
They are sweating.
And he is forcing his own daughter to work there, but he doesn't even know how bad it
is.
He agrees that he will look into it.
He'll fix it.
But he's not happy that she's like, so brazen.
For me, she's not being.
(18:28):
Yes, sir.
The best moment of this is when she basically tells him that she's the best person to tell
him about himself because she's his biggest mistake.
And I was like, oh, shit.
Yeah, got him.
(18:52):
There's even a point where he's like, well, you're awfully forward today or something
like that.
I was like, this relationship is just doomed.
Like this is not happening.
(19:12):
So then Dominic picks her up and we get to meet his aunt Delphine.
I love Delphine.
Yes.
So his aunt who raised him because he lost his parents when he was young, and she's now
(19:35):
elderly and has cancer and is extremely independent, but definitely we see this tender side of
Dominic because he's obviously still responsible for her.
For the record, she's not necessarily elderly.
She's actually in her 40s to 50s, but she looks and acts elderly because she doesn't
(20:00):
take care of herself and she's going through chemo.
That was a point that Cecilia made that you can see the years have weathered her.
That she looks much older than she actually is.
That's an important distinction.
That has to be awful.
But you see why whenever she starts describing Delphine's home, you're like, oh, this is
(20:22):
a bad mental thing.
So we do start to, this is like the beginning of Dominic's hard exterior is starting to
crack a little bit.
(20:44):
He picked her up from chemo and took her home.
That's why Cecilia ended up meeting him or meeting her.
Yes.
I was just saying, you start to finally see these other sides of Dominic other than the
I don't want you around.
(21:04):
That's an angry guy.
My favorite scene comes up and this is a double whammy.
This is a two for one special back to back smut scene and they're both chef's kiss.
(21:27):
Okay.
So first of all, and this is going to be my first, first of all of this book, but Sean
picks her up and they're going to go swimming with in a lake, right?
(21:48):
Or stream or river, some body of water and Dominic's going to be there as well.
And she's in the car with Sean and I got to look, I wrote, I made a note of
(22:09):
he's playing night moves by Bob Seeger.
And this is a song that is about a meaningless hookup for the summer.
And she in her 19 year old brain decides that Sean is subliminally sending her a message
(22:31):
that she's nothing more than this meaningless hookup for the summer and literally storms
out of the car, demands to know like what she is to him and accuses him of failing to
stand up for her in front of Dominic.
And dude was just jamming to a good song.
(22:54):
He pretty much tells her like, it's just a song on a playlist.
Like literally the most random because no man ever has ever been like, you know what?
I really want to tell this girl something emotional, but I don't want to say it.
So I'm going to find a song lyric and I'm going to put play.
(23:14):
That's not thoughts that happen in these men's brains.
Well you say that, but there is a point later on in this book where a song is specifically
played.
We're going to get to that.
That's my second, first of all of the book, but we'll talk about it when we get to it.
(23:35):
All I know is that that's definitely not what was happening in this particular scene.
But again, she captured that 19 year old brain because back in my mind would have been the
same.
Like, is this a signal?
But basically Shawn gets her to calm down, simmer down now.
(23:56):
And he does this thing where I guess he realizes that some of this brattiness that's coming
across is actually sexual frustration.
And he says something to the effect of, let's take the edge off of that.
(24:20):
And it's just, it's so nice.
It's just a nice little foreplay scene.
And he totally is like giving sexually without taking because like it's all about her.
And there's like this really nice little scene that goes directly into, and this by the way,
(24:43):
for those who are taking notes at home, this is the scene that I basically text my husband
verbatim.
And it was the first time I'd ever done that in all of my smut books.
I was that excited.
It is a, this upcoming scene, not that one just now, but.
(25:11):
I do want to say that there is a point in that conversation when he's trying to calm
her down.
He states, you have a thing for Dominic.
You can deny it all you want, but I've seen it.
I've always, I've felt it and I'm not standing in the way of that and claiming you as mine
is not going to do either of us any good.
The truth is seeing it only makes me want you more.
(25:33):
And I do get off on it.
And I won't fucking apologize for it.
Just like I won't make you apologize for your attraction to him.
I told you when we first hooked up, I don't do things in traditional ways.
Neither does Dominic giving you the choice is more of a reflection on how I respect you
(25:55):
and feel about you and want you.
And it's much better than denying to myself that I've seen you.
I fuck him more than once.
And then we sweat.
(26:15):
He goes on a little speech there and like totally plants the seed.
And then what do you know, but they are all together on a float for hours drinking, listening
to music and swimming.
(26:37):
And I just want to point out that in my notes, I wrote the fucking rap scene.
Yeah, I get so feelings though.
This is this is our spicy little little three way scene with Sean and Dominic.
And first of all, I said it again, but there's something just extraordinarily hot about
(27:03):
a grumpy, angry man, like not really ever being nice to you, but also touching you.
And I feel like this would be a refer back to see a foreman's and daddy issues.
(27:26):
That should not be a thing.
But the fact that they haven't really connected on any other level yet makes this a much more
suspenseful, like moment.
Like she's like, oh my God, he's touching me.
He's touching me.
Yeah.
And what got me was the symbolism of the fact that it was starting to thunderstorm.
(27:52):
Like they could hear thunder out in the background and they thought that it was like going to
come near them.
And then they start doing this thing where she's kind of standoffish about it at first.
But she gets reassurance from Sean, like, go ahead.
And then we get some, you know, like Eiffel Tower situations here.
(28:13):
Very well put.
Very well put.
She got the green light and went for it.
She went all the way for it.
And it was hot.
It's a thing about reverse harems.
It's not that it's, you know, dirty and taboo.
(28:34):
It's the fact that the woman has enough power to command the attention of the men around
her and that they are so infatuated, just so attracted that they have to have her and
they don't care who's around.
And it's that way in all books, in all of these books.
(28:55):
But with a reverse harem, it solidifies it.
She is the focal point of all of their attention during the act.
I agree that that is absolutely the best part because it's like a little bit like, you know,
she's being worshiped by these two hot men, which is like A plus, A plus Kate.
(29:21):
We were all there with you for that.
But I also like that it is not, this is a very non-territorial, non-ego, you know, there's
plenty to be said for a touch my wife and I will unalive you possessive male, right?
(29:47):
Like there's definitely that place.
This is definitely the opposite of that, but it's still just as hot.
Yeah, it's power.
The power that the woman has over the man.
And for some reason that is attractive in these books.
This is a great A smut scene.
(30:07):
This is also the first time she's had kind of a larger glimpse into the Raven Hood.
Which she named.
Yes, yes.
Again, it's a fight club.
They don't talk about it.
They don't talk about it, but like what else?
There is no way there's nothing else.
(30:28):
I would have called it the same thing anyway.
They all have the tattoo of the Raven wings.
So that's why she calls them Raven Hood.
I like Robin Hood, but Raven Hood, you know.
But oh, at the meetup, she does ask like a bunch of people what this is.
(30:50):
Yeah.
And she's getting a bunch of no answers.
Yep.
They all keep calling it a party.
And she's, you know, adamant to try to find answers and nobody will tell her anything
other than that it's a party.
And it was getting pissed.
Because it is.
I want to know what this is.
Right.
(31:10):
But we actually kind of go from like the next few weeks kind of pan out and it becomes she
like falls into a pattern with Sean and Dominic where, you know, they have two very different
relationships.
(31:31):
So her and Dominic or no, let me back up.
Her and Sean go hiking together, are outdoors, they're going like, you know, going and doing
whereas her and Dominic spend rainy days at the house reading books and having sex together,
(31:51):
which again, perfect combination of like dark and light sunshine storm.
Like it's such a good like dichotomy here.
And she kind of demanded it be that way.
She states that she needed a separation.
She needed a line for her own morality that sunny days are for Sean and the hiking and
(32:17):
rainy days are for books in bed with Dominic.
She needed that distinction to live with herself in this situation.
And boundaries are fair and they respect it.
So and I feel like there's it relieves some of the pressure of making sure time spent
is equal because that's hard.
(32:44):
And I think through this, she realized is when she realizes she loves both equally,
like she really is fully in love.
It's not like she really likes one more than the other.
And the other one's just for fun.
Like this is a really genuine, meaningful relationship with both men.
(33:08):
They both offer something to her heart.
Yes, in a different way.
So that takes us to.
At this point, she still hasn't decided if she wants to really be a part of their life
(33:32):
because they give her the ultimatum.
Either you can truly be a part of our lives and be in on the secrets little by little
will unveil to you.
Or you have to decide to walk away.
Like we need a definitive decision.
You can't live in this limbo because that won't make anyone happy.
(33:53):
And she ultimately decides to be a part of it and.
Falls in love with both of them like equally.
Because she's getting to know more into their secret lives, they are not, you know, dropping
her off the deep end.
They're slowly giving her clues to figure it out on her own.
(34:15):
But she does make the decision.
She decides.
Yeah, to show that in a special dinner.
For Sean.
Because last time she made dinner, it went so well, she decides she's going to do it
again.
They shall learn your lesson.
(34:38):
But Sean.
Shows up late.
That's what she's mad about, right?
Because.
And he's working and it turns into if you don't realize how important this is.
What we're doing, then you know.
You shouldn't be around it.
(34:59):
Essentially, yeah, they get into a huge blowout about it because.
She starts saying like the whole phone thing is stupid after learning that they are into
some illegal activity.
And he tells her like this is a hard role for me, for Dominic, for Tyler, for everybody
involved.
You don't have cell phones because.
(35:20):
Yeah, somebody's listening in.
It's not a big deal for the average Joe who's, you know, sitting at home watching TV.
But we're not the average people.
We're doing things that if it gets out, we get caught.
We go to prison.
You need to respect that.
They get into this big blowout about it.
(35:43):
And then she screams, I made this dinner for you because I love you.
I wanted to tell you I love you.
And then she tries to storm out.
Cecilia.
Enlist Tyler to help her.
Go to Delphine's house, Dominic's aunt Delphine and clean it because of the conditions that
(36:06):
she's living in.
And of course, Delphine handles it like someone Dominic would going through some things would.
And Cecilia takes it on the chin.
She basically is like, no, I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do.
(36:27):
I'm not doing it for brownie points.
Yeah, because still makes that comment.
She's like, you know, this isn't going to get you in my in my nephew's heart.
It seems like I don't go fuck.
Yeah.
But then we learn about sweet Tyler and how he has been in love with Delphine, that they
(36:48):
had like an affair whenever he was a teenager.
And he like really loved her.
And then he went and joined the Marine Corps and.
This Delphine was still heartbroken over her husband, late husband.
Tyler reveals to Cecilia after they leave, after they've cleaned everything, that they
(37:15):
had been in love with her.
They had a trist, but she inevitably broke his heart.
And he's never really recovered from that.
And I want to make a point of that because that comes in later.
But then later on.
(37:36):
Dominic and Cecilia go on their first real date.
Now I say first real date, they can't actually be seen in public together.
They're trying to protect Cecilia's reputation and make it seem like she's just with Sean
since they've been out in public together before.
(37:56):
So yes.
So they hadn't.
But they go to a different town, right?
I believe so.
That's why they're able to go out to dinner together, because they're in Asheville.
Yeah.
And they have a nice date.
And sex in the car.
(38:19):
Again.
Once again, they have sex in the car.
But this is the night that Dominic opens up about his parents and talks about how they
died in an accident when he was six.
(38:40):
And that becomes important in the overall story at a certain point.
But Sean actually interrupts their little happy hood of the car moment, comes out and
he's got like fear in his eyes and they said, you have to go home.
We have to talk.
(39:01):
So something has clearly happened.
It's very obvious to me as the reader.
I don't know that it's obvious to Cecilia.
But basically the part that the part that got me that made me realize like, oh, some
shit's about to go down.
Was when they walked into the garage and he saw that look Sean had and then he just goes
(39:25):
when and Sean says now.
He says, fuck.
And then that's the end of that.
Sean decides to take her home.
But as soon as they walk out of the garage, she can hear Dominic just go fucking mayhem.
He's throwing shit, cussing.
She's like, what is happening?
(39:48):
Sorry at chills thinking about like watching Dominic throw things.
I mean, fair point.
Fair point.
OK, so then this really.
This is if if you read this book, if you read this book and you didn't get weren't completely
(40:10):
confused and then really frustrated by this part, then we are not the same because I had
to go back and reread this chapter so many times because I was like, I missed something.
I missed it.
I'm dumb and I cannot clearly comprehend what I'm reading because she's having a freaking
(40:33):
meltdown and I don't know why.
So she comes.
She leaves that night and then doesn't hear.
From Sean or Dominic.
I don't remember how much time goes by.
It had been days.
(40:54):
OK, days and.
Doesn't have a man.
That's a lot.
Yeah, sure.
And decides she's going to go confront them at the shop.
(41:17):
Real quick, when Sean took her home that night, she tried asking him what happened and all
he would tell her was that somebody couldn't keep a secret.
And that's important for the next book.
So yes, keep that in mind.
Yes, and.
(41:38):
After not hearing from them, she decides she's going to go up to King's Automotive and see
them because that's where they're hanging out.
And she walks in and there's people there and they're hanging out and there's music
playing.
(41:58):
Now we're going to explain it.
You disagreed on this one.
We still disagree on this.
There's music playing, which is referenced.
This book is very music specific.
When she plays a song, she will tell you what song she's playing, right?
She likes to set the mood.
But there's music playing and all of a sudden, Cecilia is her world's ending and she's melting
(42:24):
down and oh my God, everything is awful.
And then she runs out and I'm like, what?
What just happened?
What is her problem?
It's the song that she was playing.
I'm like.
OK.
OK, let's get into it.
OK, let's let's have it out right here right now.
(42:46):
OK, here's the thing.
Pretty much called her a whore for sleeping with both of them in a room full of people
who were looking at her with pity.
I would have fucking cried if the two people I just confessed my love to called me a whore
in a room full of people.
(43:06):
By playing a song.
It wasn't just a song.
It's like they wouldn't walk over there after ignoring her for days.
They do it.
They they don't.
They just it was over off.
I get that.
But like that whole scene.
(43:29):
Tilts around the lyrics to this song when when like.
I listen to rap music and we could be listening to a song where he talks about how like.
He.
Disrespects these women, right?
And I don't take it as a personal affront to women everywhere because Snoop Dogg talking
(43:55):
about we don't love them hoes.
OK, like I'm just saying as a personal attack.
He told them this did not land for me and how she the song calls a girl named Cecilia
a whore and in the beginning of the book, she tells them she does not like the song
and she is not like that.
(44:17):
She admits of her fear of sleeping with both of them and being a whore.
When they play the song, the moment that she walks in, they change the song to this specific
song and stare at her.
Lock eyes with her across the room and then dominant gives her a little smirk when she
hears the lyrics and he sees that she recognizes it.
(44:40):
It all culminates.
It was meant it was targeted to hurt her to call.
I understand.
It just did not land for me.
That's all I'm saying.
This was she a little dramatic.
Yes, this did not land for me, but I maintain that if you're confused as fuck while you're
(45:02):
reading this, you are not alone because I've seen other people post in the Facebook groups
in the smut hood that they were like, wait, what did I miss?
Why?
What happened?
Nothing has happened.
Something happened.
They didn't respond appropriately to her arriving and all everything that you just said.
(45:30):
We're not getting into this again.
We've had so many fights about this.
I want people to comment.
I need to hear people's feedback on this episode and let me know after you've read the book,
would you have been hurt?
Whose side are you on here?
There is a side.
We're going to take a fucking poll.
(45:51):
There is two sides and one of them is right and the other one is wrong.
We're going to take a fucking poll.
I need answers.
Long dramatic story short, they're no longer all in love and happy.
Now she's devastated and she has like a hole in her heart the size of two men and she takes
(46:18):
two weeks off of work, which I'm sorry.
Breakups do not warrant time off of work.
Do I wish I could have had two weeks?
Oh sure.
For sure.
Here's my thing on this though.
It's a breakup after three months and only one of them was a month in.
(46:45):
Not saying that it's any less valid to feel sad, but that much time off of work after
such a short relationship.
She does spiral quite a bit and maybe that's not to rehash, but maybe they don't drop everything
they're doing and run over to her when she walks in the room after three months of dating
(47:10):
also seems a little.
It was intentional.
What part of this dream am I getting?
You are intentional in trying to rob me.
I get it.
I get it.
I get it.
That's why I said it's very action-packed.
A little dramatic, yes, but would I have run out of there crying to the love of my life
just called me a whore in front of a room full of people.
(47:30):
It was targeted.
It was meant to call her a whore.
I would have grabbed somebody else in the room and started making out with them and
been like, Shana, Dominic who?
But that's just me.
Then that's not Cecilia.
We were two different people.
And that's okay.
That is okay.
Also, keep in mind she's 19.
She's still a teenager.
She's still, I mean, she just turned 20, but she's still a child and she hasn't lived any
(47:56):
life, any real life.
She took the safe path throughout her entire life.
She has no real experiences.
This is her first real experience and heartbreak.
She takes Joliet off work.
She goes and spends, goes to see her mom.
Christy meets her there.
(48:17):
They watch some like classic, like romance films and they have that like girl talk about
love and relationships and heartbreak.
And Sean does call Cecilia.
They're watching tragedies by the way.
I just wanted to point that out.
(48:38):
They're watching tragedies.
They're romantic films.
Not rom-coms.
No, she states that they're tragedies.
They end in the people not being together.
I know, but that doesn't mean they're not romance.
Saying they're not romance.
I just wanted to point out that they're specifically watching movies where the cold don't end up
(49:01):
together.
Specifically watching them when they don't end up together.
It felt like, again, dramatic.
Yes, for sure.
Sean does try to call her while there and she does not answer, which I'm like, good,
be strong.
Stand your ground.
I don't know that I would have had the strength.
(49:26):
Yeah, not at that age.
No, definitely not.
I would have wanted an explanation.
At least that, at least hear the explanation and then tell him to fuck off.
But that's me.
So she goes back to Triple Falls.
Her dad has moved, fully moved to Charlotte and she's still mad with Sean and Dominic
(49:52):
and she's avoiding them until one day she's out for a drive and Dominic, they have a little
high speed car chase there for a hot second.
She really thought she could outrun him.
Right.
He totally assaults her and it's amazing.
(50:18):
It's one of those great, great like, no, listen to me.
I love you assaults, which I love.
I also want to say he's pissed at her though for how she was driving and how she nearly
caused a wreck between the two of them and then she gets out and she walks up to him
(50:41):
and slaps the shit out of him.
And I was like, while I was reading it, I was like, you fucking go girl.
Yeah.
Get old.
Yeah.
Slap that bitch.
But also like, don't tell me how to drive.
What are you, my dad?
Like no.
Right.
So he does like start to I'm sorry, like we were just trying to protect you.
(51:08):
We still want to be with you.
But she's not trying to hear it.
And I can't blame her for that at all.
I was proud that she stood her ground.
This is like the first time in the book that she actually stands up to them and doesn't
just accept them on blind faith.
She's had it with all of the riddles.
This is a grow up moment where she's like, no, I'm not playing around anymore.
(51:35):
And it's good.
It's good to see.
So then, oh, at work, Sean, like makes her come into the office, right?
He calls her on the intercom.
Yes.
Like just broadcasted that shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(51:55):
And that's when he finally gives some answers.
Right.
So he was still trying to be cryptic, but she again was like, I'm not doing this anymore.
Either give me a straight fucking answer or fuck off.
Yes.
(52:15):
And I love it.
And agree.
Because I was I was already there like pages ago.
Right.
So somebody answer a question around here.
She put up a lot more than I would have.
So basically, they have been investigating her dad's company because they think they
(52:38):
are responsible for the death of Dominic's parents who were working in the chemical plant
when it caught fire, which is how they died.
And they believe Roman covered up the incident or he did and they are proving it.
You know, settlement.
(53:00):
Yeah.
So Sean and Dominic initially were actually using Cecilia to get into Roman's house to
spy on him and the company.
And she was like, happy surprise.
They didn't expect to have fallen in love with her.
(53:20):
And they complicated the plan.
It complicated everything because they realized that she was in danger because if Roman was
found guilty, she would be at risk.
And if they were discovered, she would be at risk.
(53:40):
So either way, she was in a precarious position.
And so at this point that she learns she was the secret.
Every time they mention a secret that they needed to keep a secret that somebody couldn't
keep a secret, she's realizing.
(54:02):
She's the secret.
She was the secret.
Yeah, but she's still not.
She now knows she's the secret, but she doesn't know in what way she does.
There's still a lot of they going on.
And it's like, who is they?
Who is they?
(54:22):
They always refer to somebody, but they never mention the name, never even speak of him.
It's just referred to.
And this is a confusing moment because Sean's like, I love you.
Stay away from us.
Yeah.
(54:42):
Oh, piss me off.
We love you so much that we can't be with you.
And I'm like, what?
I just I think it's I can't even say that part because that's in the next book.
But yeah, because men I'm going to upset a million times and say it again.
(55:09):
Men ain't shit.
OK, yeah, yeah.
That's sorry to my fiance.
That's the whole thing.
Men ain't shit.
Yeah.
So she actually does her own like research and starts to understand a little bit better
(55:33):
like what they're actually trying to accomplish.
But it doesn't really change how they handled this with her because they still really hurt
her regardless of their good intentions.
And so this ends with her blasting music topless.
(55:56):
I love this part because first of all, though, she realizes that the meetup, every time they
took her, they took her in a backwards, you know, dirt road type way that took forever
to throw her off.
Turns out meetup is in her backyard.
(56:17):
And she recognizes this by a fucking cell tower.
And that pissed her off.
Yeah, they've been using the cell tower to access Roman's personal server files.
Yeah.
So she I don't remember the song.
I don't remember the song, but she's blasting it on repeat.
(56:40):
I think it's because she's or something like that, something to that effect.
And she's sitting there and you just know she's like sitting there like practicing in
her head what she's going to say when they come there.
You know, she pointed the speakers towards the meetup spot.
(57:01):
Yes.
And she's just waiting for them to show up and she's like topless, just ready to let
them have it.
I loved it.
And the end she's she's waiting.
And there's like a shadow that crosses over her and realizes it's not Sean and it's not
(57:24):
Dominic.
But it's tall, dark and handsome incarnate looking down at her and she immediately realizes
it's the wolf.
And that's like a callback to when they said we have, you know, we have to make sure the
wolf doesn't find out about you.
(57:47):
We thought it was Dominic.
We also thought Dominic was the Frenchman.
Yeah.
The last line in the book.
And it made me so mad that I had to immediately pick up the second one and I hadn't bought
it yet and I had to buy it and I had to wait.
(58:07):
So if you read the first one, go ahead and buy the second one.
Yeah.
The last line.
And then it cuts off is just you're the Frenchman.
And then that's it.
Yep.
And I'm like, who the fuck is this now?
(58:31):
There's not much of a description, just that his eyes are like this, you know, bright,
like hazel gray color.
And then that's it.
We don't know who he is.
We don't know what he looks like.
We don't even know who he is to the Ravenhood.
(58:51):
Or to Dominic or Sean.
We're gonna find out.
I'm so mad that I had to wait.
Yeah, that was the ultimate cliffhanger.
If anything, the cliffhanger should go in the trigger warnings so that you know that
you need to have that next book ready to go or you're gonna have a meltdown.
(59:13):
Too late to add it now.
Just like it was too late for me when I read this the first time.
Yeah.
The next one's gonna have a trigger warning just FYI.
A spicy scene, spicy?
(59:38):
Oh my gosh.
Spicy scene spotlight.
Can't say that.
I think we all know at this point which one was our favorite.
So I still have to say this might be one of my like, I don't know, it's up there.
(01:00:02):
I don't want to say top three.
Top three seems like that's gonna be clutch.
But top five.
We'll say top five.
And it's because it's with Sean and it's great.
But it's the first interaction with Dominic that's not straight up like just mean.
(01:00:28):
It's the unique blend of those two things.
The rap scene.
The rap scene.
But here's what I'm gonna also say.
Hot take.
Because right now at minimum there's the two love interests and I do love Dominic.
(01:00:49):
But you know how like in the Twilight days there was like Team Edward and Team Jake and
I was always Miss Mainstream right?
So I was Team Edward because that's who she's supposed to end up with because that's who
she does end up with right?
Well, this is one of those books where I don't think I end up where the author intended for
(01:01:16):
us to end up.
I think I would have ended up with Sean.
I think I would have just.
I think I would have stayed with Sean.
I like the way the book panned out.
But we'll get into that in the next book.
(01:01:37):
Because I've already written a note on that one.
Yeah, but I just wanted to share since our hot take wasn't that hot because we already
said.
So the rap scene though.
My question.
What kind of raft are we talking about?
(01:01:57):
Because for some reason in my head.
That's a super, super valid question that you have to know the smut was good because
I didn't even think of that.
So valid.
I asked because I know many of us have tried to get on like one of those layout floaties,
(01:02:20):
even the big ones.
And you feel like a beach.
You feel like a beached whale because you can't get your leg all the way up.
You're just like slipping.
(01:02:41):
Yes.
OK, yes.
Valid questions.
Because I imagine the like shiny inflatable.
But like maybe it's like a cool hand tied bamboo raft that's like super easy to get
onto or something like the like the not bamboo, but like the actual wooden rafts that they
(01:03:03):
put out further for like the lifeguards in the lake.
This is supposed to be like a lake in the middle of nowhere.
Right, right.
I could climb the pole ladder to get on a floaty.
I could not get on a raft.
(01:03:27):
Why can't you just wait a second.
Why can't you put it on and then jump in the water?
I'm talking about the layout floaties.
OK.
OK.
OK, that's fair.
That's fair.
Yeah.
I'm not going to lie to you.
(01:03:52):
I don't know.
I don't know if that's.
I don't think that scene is actually physically possible for somebody like me with my low
center of gravity.
If you catch my dress.
(01:04:15):
And here's here's my other thing.
OK, this is and we're assuming that it is an inflatable raft.
OK, and I have I have a scenario for both for the inflatable and for like the wooden
bamboo.
OK, yes, yes, I'm here for this.
Here we go.
(01:04:35):
The inflatable version, OK, we have two grown men that are well over 200 pounds and a woman
who we can't understand because we're five foot and like a hundred pounds.
Yeah, she's an Amazon woman at five, six.
So I actually think she's five, nine.
I'm actually like a little certain she's five, nine.
(01:04:56):
That's even more unimaginable.
And it is already described that she has a huge but don't get on.
So we know she's got some weight on her.
Yeah.
How did that not float?
How did that how did it not sink under the weight in the movement?
Because there was a lot of movement.
(01:05:18):
There was.
And now I don't know if I can read that whole scene the same.
It never occurred to me.
But it's such a valid question because that's not happening on any raft I've ever been on
ever.
So benefit of the doubt, it's a wooden raft.
OK, right.
Yeah.
OK.
I best case scenario.
(01:05:39):
If it's a bamboo raft, that is going to be painful.
OK, that there's going to be like scuff marks and like burns and not pleasant.
If we've got a wooden raft, I hope it's sanded and laminated because there's going to be
(01:06:03):
splinters.
There's going to be splinters.
You can't have splinters.
So I can't breathe.
I'm tearing up.
(01:06:24):
These are all really valid and important questions.
And I'm going to tell you that should I ever have a chance to meet Kate Stewart, this is
going to be the very first question that I ask.
And I'm not even going to preface it.
I'm just going to come straight out.
I'm going to say what kind of raft was it?
I need to know.
I need to know what the raft was made out of.
(01:06:47):
It doesn't even matter what kind of raft it is.
No scenario is going to hold up.
Either they're going to get to it, they're going to see it, or they're going to end up
with splinters or burns.
(01:07:08):
I just had a full sex fail montage in my head of what this would look like.
If I were to attempt this in real life, I fully visualized it.
I'm scarred by it and fully embarrassed.
(01:07:34):
When I read, I visualize and the actual raft itself was something I could not visualize
because none of this makes sense.
It's impressive.
For sure.
Still my favorite scene though.
It definitely fits in my top five of all books.
And out of all Reverse Harem's, this is my favorite Reverse Harem scene.
(01:07:59):
This is not my favorite Reverse Harem scene.
Is it?
It's fine.
But I think you've read more RHS than I have.
Just in Den of Vipers alone, I would still put, if we're talking about specifically RHS
top scene, it's going to be the tattoo scene.
(01:08:19):
You brought it up earlier, so I'm bringing it up again.
The tattoo scene is good.
That's my second because that is fast, hot, and steamy.
This one gets my top one because of the actual emotion.
That is also my drag name, by the way.
Fast, hot, and steamy.
You can't have all of them, Tara.
Yes, I can.
Yes, I can and I will.
(01:08:41):
You got to leave some for the rest of us.
This one had emotion though, and there was so much angst leading up to her and Dominic.
And I liked the way that Dominic was described looking at her.
It wasn't just lust.
It was...
Yeah, that's true.
I have been dying to touch you.
(01:09:02):
We have to give it our overall ratings.
And this is overall number and then content spice, romance, writing, and characters.
This book is very high up for me.
(01:09:22):
I am in love with this whole series, even though it breaks my heart constantly.
This is my overall rating.
So good series.
It hurts so good.
Except there's one part that does not hurt very good.
(01:09:43):
The overall rating I gave it was a nine out of 10.
For content, I gave a nine out of 10.
For spice, I went, you know, seven to eight out of 10 because it's hot and steamy and
there's a lot of buildup, but it's also not like...
(01:10:06):
I mean, I've read the Lord series, so...
And Haunting Adeline.
You got to be on that level to get a 10 out of me.
That's fair.
For romance, I definitely gave it a 10 out of 10 though.
The way she wrote the emotions just made me feel them.
(01:10:29):
And writing and characters, I gave them both 10 out of 10 because they were so in depth.
The writing's quality and style was amazing.
The characters had so much depth and every character had a backstory, no matter how little
the character was.
(01:10:50):
And the arcs, the character arcs.
One thing I loved, I hated it when I first read this book.
One thing I loved was the fact that we didn't have a POV from anybody other than Cecilia.
I usually like to have the guy POV.
That's my favorite part.
Love the guy POV.
(01:11:13):
But I know why she didn't.
She wanted the reader to be as in the dark as Cecilia was.
Yes.
About the whole secret society.
Yes.
I hate it.
I hate it, but I respect it.
I get it.
But definitely, you cannot judge the series if you don't read past this first book.
(01:11:36):
And I say that to lead into my rating because I'm going with my original gut instinct rating
when my first read through of this.
And you can actually, on my Goodreads, I did not rate Flock as well as I rated Exodus.
(01:11:56):
Focus back in.
Oh, I don't...
It auto focuses, so sometimes it loses me.
I did not rate this book, but I don't think you can adequately judge this series if you
(01:12:17):
were to stop at Flock.
Because Exodus makes Flock, elevates Flock quite a bit.
So overall, for Flock, I would have rated it, when I first read it, probably a seven
(01:12:38):
out of 10, which I'm probably a hard grader also.
We'll see.
This is our first one to compare notes on, but we'll see.
But keep in mind that I would rate it higher after having read Exodus.
Does that make sense?
(01:12:58):
So content was, I think...
I'm second guessing my numbers that I wrote, that I jotted down this morning.
I think content is eight out of 10, spice, eight out of 10.
(01:13:24):
The romance, I think, is a nine out of 10.
For me, in this one, I think both the writing and the characters, I give it a nine out of
10.
But again, I would change that in retrospect.
(01:13:45):
But when I first read it, I was like, this doesn't make any sense.
What has happened here?
It's like they lose that point because they were...
Yeah.
But later on, I realized it was not just confusing.
(01:14:08):
It was intentional, which is interesting.
It explains a lot.
And I say all of that to say that Kate is brilliant with her ability to take you through
it with the character.
I love an unreliable narrator.
(01:14:29):
I think it's a really clever way to twist a story that nobody sees coming because you
assume the information that you're getting is accurate or complete.
And so...
Yeah.
I agree with that.
(01:14:51):
I also think that Exodus is the best book in this series.
Exodus hurts.
It does.
Be prepared.
But it's also the best writing in my opinion.
Yeah.
But we can't talk anymore about that yet.
(01:15:17):
So that's a wrap for this episode.
As always, thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed our take on this very steamy book and we will see you all next week
on A Novel Affair.
Where we will be discussing our next spicy book, Exodus of the Ravenhood series.
(01:15:39):
Don't forget to head over to our podcast to listen to a full breakdown of this book and
many others with spoilers and discussions unfiltered.
You can find our link in the comments.
Be sure to like and follow us on our social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and hit
that subscribe button before you go.
We'll see you all soon.
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