We've reached the Finish Line!

Today we discuss the third installment in the Ravenhood series. Join us as we give an honest review of Finish Line by Kate Stewart and give our honest reviews of the characters, writing, and content of this riveting book!

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Be advised: this content is not appropriate for younger viewers. These books may contain depictions of sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. We urge listeners to regard the trigger warnings at the beginning of the video before continuing!

Episode Transcript

(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.
Today we are going to be discussing the last installment in the Ravenhood series, Finish
Line by Kate Stewart.
For a more in depth and uncensored version of this review, head over to our podcast and

(00:35):
learn all about our favorite scenes.
You can just look for the link in the description below.
In this one though, we do flashback from Cecilia and Tobias' point of view, and we do get flashbacks
into Tobias' past.
So it's a lot of switching perspectives, it's a lot to keep up with, so for simplicity

(00:59):
sake, we are just going to kind of get through most of half the book, just to kind of catch
everyone up because you'll see why.
You'll understand in a few minutes.
There's a lot of book and there's a lot of flashing all over the place, so I think it's

(01:20):
helpful that we are going to keep our kind of storytelling in the present day activity.
And obviously, we fully encourage you go read this book for all the like juicy details.
Right.
So okay, our book summary for the Finish Line.

(01:43):
Tobias returns intent on gaining back the love and trust that he destroyed when he ordered
Cecilia away and all the torment that followed.
Cecilia grapples with this renewed version of Tobias.
She finds it hard to trust him.
She builds a wall between the two of them and is not fully allowing Tobias back into

(02:03):
her heart.
And while Tobias and Cecilia try to navigate their emotions and reconciliation, there is
a new threat that arises on the horizon.
This ghost from Tobias's past could ruin everything they're working for.
Can they survive another villain and find their way back to each other?

(02:24):
Well said.
So again, I'm going to kind of just recap about the first half of the book.
We open in the prologue with Tobias's point of view at age 44 in France.

(02:53):
But again, we have a flashback within this point of view.
So many flashes.
We're flashing here, there, everywhere.
I mean, it's about it states that he is 44 in France, but the initial paragraphs are
him as a child and a memory.

(03:15):
And it's him walking on a beach with his biological father, who if you've read the other books,
you will know that he and his family fled from his biological father because he started
to have mental health issues and was becoming very mean and irate.
Are we clear that he had mental health issues in the other books or did we just know he

(03:37):
had kind of gone off the deep end?
I think towards the end of Exodus, Cecilia figures out that his father did in fact have
some issues in that because he mentions that his mother didn't really understand what was
wrong with her with his father.

(03:59):
And as he grew older, he realized what was happening.
And I just point this out to say that it did not seem clear to me that, and we actually
get the diagnosis of schizophrenia here, and that had not been clear to me before, but

(04:22):
I think it adds this layer to what Tobias and Cecilia have in common because of the
issues that she grew up with her mother.
And we find out, although he didn't grow up with his dad necessarily, that schizophrenia
diagnosis is kind of a...

(04:45):
It just adds a new layer to this story.
That's all I wanted to say.
He's in this memory walking on the beach with his father back before all of the other bad
stuff had happened.
And they talk about a sand dollar he had found.
And his father told him that if you break it directly down the middle, you get a special

(05:08):
surprise.
And now Tobias is standing on that same beach at 44.
And he is waiting for Cecilia to show up because they are at the finish line, which if you've
read the other books, you know what the finish line actually is.

(05:30):
It's a house in Paris that he built like 20 years prior to this that he had never stepped
foot in, but it was supposed to be like his retirement house, like his, I'm hanging up
my vigilante gear and I'm going to just live in this house, but he never stepped foot in
it.

(05:51):
Just the prologue is such, this is such a Tarantino moment because we're back to the
future.
It's like...
She's being an ass.
It's a back to the future moment because we're in the future with a flashback to the past,

(06:19):
back to the future.
Referencing the past.
It's just like, yeah.
So this prologue...
You nailed it right on the head.
It's very Tarantino.
This prologue sets you up for the kind of like mental gymnastics that you're going to
be doing in this book.

(06:40):
So, we enter chapter one and he is 38 years old and the first line in the book is, hell,
day one.
And it's not him saying that out loud.
It's an inner monologue, but he had, at some point after the second book ended and they

(07:04):
were in the parking lot and they headed back to her house, he was jet lagged from coming
back from Paris and running on no sleep.
So he fell asleep before fulfilling any of the promises that he made in that parking
lot and wakes up at four to her not in bed.

(07:25):
And so he does what any invasive, arrogant man would do and he starts snooping through
her shit.
And he finds a to-do list of things that she has to do or things that she's debating.
And on the bottom of this list is written, entertain Mr. Handsome.

(07:47):
And his inner monologue says, I decide not to start our morning with who the fuck is
Mr. Handsome.
Which we know from the end of Exodus that Mr. Handsome is this handsome guy that keeps
coming into the diner that she's, I don't know that she's crushing on necessarily, but

(08:08):
he's obviously crushing on her.
And so she's kind of trying to decide if she wants to entertain Mr. Handsome.
Yep.
And Tobias is clearly not happy with it, but he understands that he's also in the dog house
and has no room to argue about anything at the moment.
So he keeps it to himself.

(08:31):
And he goes to look for her.
She's in the garden and she's pulling away from him, not really engaging with him as
he speaks and physically takes a step back when he takes a step forward.
And he explains that he didn't come after her for eight months because for the eight

(08:52):
months between when she left triple falls for the last time and he arrived in the parking
lot, it was because he was trying to tie up loose ends and get things ready to go so that
he could take a step back from the Raven hood to give her his full attention so that he
wouldn't be distracted by being the boss of this very large, very dangerous organization.

(09:17):
Which at this time, she's still not having it.
She's like, how, how do I believe anything you're saying at this point?
Invalid.
I mean, he's finally being honest, but it's kind of, you know, a second too late for that
much honesty.
After all the shit that he put her through when she went back to triple falls in Exodus,

(09:41):
he deserves.
Oh yeah.
He should have to, he should have to brawl for sure and work for that back.
But then we are thrown back into another flashback where he's living with Delphine a few months
after his parents have passed.

(10:02):
And from what we know about the theme in the last book, she, well, the first book, she
is a drunk who was married to an abusive husband who, you know, left her and left her heart
broken and she never really loved again until Tyler.

(10:22):
But at this point, she is still a drunk.
Her husband had just left her a few months prior to Tobias's parents death.
That was a mouthful.
It is so complicated.
It's a lot.
Anyways.

(10:43):
But it becomes left up to Tobias to take care of Dominic, seeing him off to school so that
they don't get in trouble with truancy to make him brush his teeth, make him his meals,
you know, do all the stuff that a parent is supposed to do to like, I think he was like

(11:03):
seven, six or seven at this point.
Dominic was.
And he essentially does the same thing for Sean because Sean comes and hangs out with
them every day, even at this age.
So they've literally known each other for most of their lives.

(11:24):
And I have to say, just real quick, little Dominic is so freaking cute.
I love little Dominic and little Sean.
I think that they were little shitheads.
I think they were little brats.
They were little brats.

(11:45):
You can totally see how they grow into like who they become for sure.
Yeah.
And you can see where Tobias's influence starts on the boys is at around this point, back
into Cecilia's point of view.

(12:05):
And her entire day at work is a clumsy, bumbling mess.
And it does not help when Tobias shows up and sees that Mr. Hanselm is there flirting
with Cecilia.

(12:26):
So it's funny because in this scene, she's a wreck.
And she's worried he's going to show up and also worried he's not going to show up at
the same time.

(12:46):
Yeah.
Which been there, done that.
As soon as he sees the guy, he goes, Mr. fucking Hanselm.
I've never killed a man in cold blood or out of jealousy.
Something tells me today should not be the day I get this get to check it off my list.

(13:08):
And then whenever the guy starts talking about how beautiful Cecilia is, Tobias once again
thanks to himself, she won't be fucking to doing Greg, not to fucking ever because he
was on her to do list.

(13:29):
Yes.
His inner angst regarding the Mr. Hanselm is hilarious to me.
I also in this scene love his interaction with the old timer.
That's a regular there at her cafe.
When the old timers dissing on his basically his Walmart clothes that he's wearing and

(13:56):
he's like, old timer one, Tobias zero.
It cracks me up because we get to see this other side of Tobias where he's making fun
of himself or calling himself out on his shit, which is refreshing, I have to admit.

(14:16):
It's.
It's a whole different side of him that we'd never got to see in any of the other books.
It's a complete opposite of what he portrays on the outside, which I think is very important.
Like Tobias does in fact have a sense of humor and he does in fact know when he's wrong.

(14:37):
He's just not going to admit that outwardly for sure.
But he knows he's well aware.
Well, after this interaction, he reaches out to Sean of all people for advice.
And this kind of.
Starts like the amending process between the two.

(15:00):
I like this interaction because Sean.
Actually asks Tobias how he's doing.
And I think it sounds like it's the first time that he's done that.
And but I.
I love that we get to look these little snips of Sean here because he's like, you have no

(15:23):
idea what you're doing to you.
Yeah, it just it warmed my heart because he's like.
He's like, welcome to domestication Tobias.
You're screwed.
And he is.
He's totally screwed.
And I will say this, my favorite part is that she dresses head to toe in these long sleeve.

(15:48):
Like pants, flannel night outfits to sleep in.
Like she is covered everything buttons to the T.
Yeah, she's like, no, I'm making it very clear.
You're not getting.
I do have another little snippet that really, really made me laugh is, you know, Tobias

(16:09):
is obviously frequenting the diner where she that she owns and where she works.
And she's having one of her little.
Standoffs with him and her friend that works with her.
It says something to the effect of.

(16:29):
Do you need a condom or a weapon?
And she's like, what?
And she's like, like, do you need with exes?
You can't decide if you need a condom or a weapon.
And I'm like, that's so true and well said.
And I think about that with men all the time.
So I love that moment.

(16:51):
But it's just a lot of her still trying to figure out that she is she going to kill him
or is she going to give into this?
Yeah.
And to be fair, I am very proud of Cecilia for like sticking to her guns and not making
this easy on him.
She makes him go through hell.

(17:12):
Oh, yeah.
Which I mean, fast, we've watched like what a decade of this.
But she has done a lot of growing and she's put into bias through the ringer as she should
because he he deserves to go through it, which is hard to think that when you're listening

(17:35):
to his point of view of it.
But still, he needed to go through it.
He had to pay his dues.
And she comes home from work and realizes that he gave her her Audi back, the one that
he had impounded in the last book when she was joyriding.

(18:01):
So he finally gives that back to her.
And I mean, I get why he impounded.
She was kind of a lunatic that night.
She was driving speed racing down these windy roads high off her ass.
He wanted to protect her.
He wanted to protect her, though, because she could have.

(18:24):
She was spiraling.
And I think he saw that because she was not in a good place.
She was likely to kill herself.
He was also wanting her to get irritated enough to leave again.
It wasn't.
Yeah, but he should have known.
Oh, no, I don't deny that.
He's an asshole, but he also should have known that in making her mad and taking away her

(18:48):
transportation was not going to get her to leave town.
No.
But she decides to take the Audi to work.
And while she's there, Tobias shows up.
And just as they get through the lunch rush, a bus full of kids hop off and rain havoc

(19:12):
all over her diner.
And Tobias actually rolls up his sleeves and he starts busing tables.
We're like, OK, Tobias.
I love somebody that will roll up their sleeves and work.
So he one points with me here.
Yeah.
And again, I love Marissa, which is the waitress that works at the restaurant with her because

(19:37):
she looks at Cecilia.
She said, you don't look freshly fucked.
You just look fucked.
Yes, Marissa.
I can remember her name earlier.
But it you know, Cecilia has not been sleeping.
So you know, she looks haggard and Tobias is doing this cat and mouse thing, this teta

(20:03):
tet thing, which I will give credit here to Kate, she's really good at the tension building,
which is to me one of the more delicious parts of Smut in general.
And I actually like this is totally a name drop shout out.

(20:28):
But Hawk Hates You was talking about this on TikTok recently where she was like, it's
honestly all about the tension and the build up for her, which I totally get.
And it's just ironic to me because she's a adult entertainer.

(20:50):
She's a TikTok accountant.
And so it's funny that she's all about the tension and the build up and then she's like
the Smut isn't nearly as exciting.
We once again go into a flashback, which is Tobias at age 20 and he is kidnapped off the

(21:11):
streets in Paris and thrown into a van and then taken to this obscene location.
And he meets the man in the suit that he had been watching at that strip club a couple
of years ago with Preston.

(21:31):
And the guy, you know, pretty much just looks at him like a non threat, like just some weird
kid in Paris.
And he acknowledges that he knows who his father is.
And eventually he just sets Tobias loose like he has the guys blindfold him and taking back

(21:52):
to a location.
Well, he goes and gets his sloppy, weird roommate and drags him out of bed at the ass crack
a dawn.
And he starts texting Dominic to look into this guy or whatever.

(22:16):
Or he calls him.
He calls Dominic and Dominic says, OK, I'll text you.
Tobias says, what?
While they're both simultaneously showering and bathing, she notices that there are exit
wounds on his back.

(22:37):
And this kind of hits her because she knows that he did not have them prior to the night
with Dominic.
And she has agonized over not knowing what happened after that night because she was
sent away.
And so she starts to tear up and think about how she could have lost him forever.

(23:02):
Like this moment right now couldn't even might not have even been happening had he has succumbed
to those wounds.
We jump to Tobias's point of view and he tells her everything that followed that night where
Miami, the crew that killed Dominic that night, the crew, some of them got away and they went

(23:28):
back to report and all of their chapters all over the nation started getting hit right
after another.
He said that it was such a shit show.
He didn't even have time to put his brother in the ground before they were being attacked
again.
And he explains that that is how he met Alicia because her brother was one of the ones who

(23:48):
died and they met at his funeral and they both just needed comfort because they had
both just lost somebody they loved.
And that's kind of how that transpired.
He also kind of gives color to the fact that for the first year after she was, you know,

(24:10):
ousted, vanished.
Yeah.
A lot of the reason why this is a lot of the reason why there was no contact made between
them because he was not only trying to make sure that she was protected from all the stuff
that they were dealing with, but he was also trying to manage this mess.

(24:31):
And so he actually couldn't really contact her at first, which I think is a little bit
of a changes her view on how cold that was at the time.
And she comes home from work and she finds him passed out in an oversized chair with

(24:53):
a bunch of fattening snacks surrounding him all opened like we've got like kinds of Ben
and Jerry's melted and Mr. Health is eating junk food.
Yeah, and binge watching TV like like an American, which the Frenchman hates.

(25:17):
I mean, I have snacks right here on my desk, so I am not the person to argue against that
point.
Snacks are life.
Yeah.
But she reads into this like most women would.
And she thinks that he's going to get bored here.
He is going to get bored of not being in the action, being here and doing nothing and that

(25:43):
he won't be able to live this life with her.
This Tobias point of view present day is it's a great thing.
Really an endearing part because they've got this this tension going on where it's obvious

(26:04):
to both of them that they both want each other, that they both are, you know, physically right
where they were when they left off.
However, Cecilia is not allowing herself to give into that.
She's almost fighting with herself first and foremost.

(26:26):
And then Tobias secondary, whereas Tobias is really just trying so hard to be patient.
And we get to a point where Tobias's frustration kind of reaches a peak moment and he takes

(26:51):
a moment to take himself in his own hand, as they say in the olden times.
And I have to say that anytime you get any kind of self pleasure scene from the man's

(27:11):
point of view, I don't know why that's so hot, but it really is.
Yeah, there's something about it.
And then he gets busted.
Cecilia walks in and at first she tries to be like offended, like, oh, sorry, I'll like
leave you to it.
And he's like, no, this is you.
It's you that I'm getting off to.

(27:34):
And she goes to try to leave and he literally just looks at her and goes, don't you fucking
dare in his French voice and everything.
Oh, I loved it.
Love you, Jordan.
And there's an interesting moment in this scene where he basically gets her to participate,

(27:59):
but doesn't allow her any satisfaction from it either.
And so it's definitely not a, oh, thank goodness they finally broke the tension.
It actually ratchets up the sexual tension even more.

(28:19):
Yeah, it was spicy and frustrating and all of the above because it's like, come on, we're
like 17, 18 chapters into this.
Let's get something going.

(28:40):
Not a single pickle.
I don't see a single pickle.
Telling you if you don't know what book talk is relatable, then go get on book talk and
come back.
Yeah, you are not that thoroughly involved yet.

(29:01):
But after watching this, you're going to be that involved.
TikTok's going to start showing you that stuff.
It's true.
Anyways, but Tobias decides to call Sean, hoping for some advice on how to survive this

(29:23):
or how to get back into her good graces.
And he he's talking to Sean while he is grocery shopping with a honeydew list, but he's also
getting things to make Cecilia a special date night.
And as Sean is laughing at him on the phone, the cashier is also kind of grinning with

(29:46):
laughter at him.
And then he hangs up on Sean because he's being completely unhelpful and just laughing
at him.
Which is God, I love Sean.
I love so much.
And he's not even actually present in these scenes, but this this little antagonistic

(30:07):
role he hasn't changed is amazing.
I love it so much.
Well, he hangs up with Sean because Sean is just laughing at him being an ass.
And we love it.
So the cashier looks at him and suggests he get her flowers instead of just getting her
like a bundle of flowers.

(30:30):
He takes the entire cart and has the cashier ring them up like he grabs like a like a whole
bunch of them, a whole bunch of bundles.
OK.
And then he he brings them home.
But as he is loading up the car, which is Dominic's Camaro, by the way, he realizes

(30:55):
that he's being followed.
And as he goes to chase this guy down, he yells at him in French to stop.
And when he does and he listens and he understands what he said because he spoke French, he realizes
this is one of Antoine's men.

(31:17):
And so him and his ravens take him out back to bias, kind of, you know, gets a little
information out of him, he steals his phone and then the ravens take him somewhere else
to be information out of him.
And Tobias decides to start pretending to be this guy to buy himself time to figure

(31:39):
out what Antoine's plan is.
And then we skip to Cecilia's point of view.
When she can't get ahold of Tobias, she decides to rush home.

(32:00):
But finds him running down the road in one of her little girly aprons drunk.
And she's like, what the fuck are you doing?
Get in this car.
It's this moment where we realize that maybe Tobias has some unresolved issues, like maybe

(32:25):
like better help, you know, something would be good for our poor Frenchmen at this moment.
She manages to get him back to the house and he when she gets there, she realizes that
he has destroyed the entire fucking kitchen because he was trying to do a date night.

(32:45):
And there are like burnt steaks, there's flour everywhere.
I mean, the kitchen is a wreck and all that's left are the remnants of what should have
been a great date.
And they get into a fight and she's not mad about all of that, but he starts demanding

(33:05):
that she tell him right now, right here, if there is any hope for them and she can't give
him that answer and they have a big fight about it.
And she manages to see he's sitting on the floor and he's passing out on the floor in
the kitchen, still in this apron covered in flour.

(33:28):
She's like, oh, no, no, no, no Tobias, let's get you into bed right now.
We will talk about everything else tomorrow.
She manages to get him into bed, which I don't know how, because he's described as a massive
mountain of a man, but she's also gargantuan at like five, nine.

(33:49):
So can't relate.
Amazon.
Yeah.
And then we jumped to Tobias's point of view at age 24.
We're going into the past again.
And this time we see all of them getting their tattoos, their Raven hood tattoos.

(34:10):
And Dominic blows a gasket when he realizes that Tobias intends to get the biggest tattoo
out of all of them.
Like they all get the simple wings, but he is going to have pretty much the whole top
of his back covered in the Raven wings to show that he is running it.

(34:33):
And it's not because he wants it to be a hierarchy.
Dominic realizes he is doing this so that if the club goes down, Tobias will take the
most heat for it.
It will be obvious to law enforcement that he runs the show.
He is the head of the snake for law enforcement, for any of their enemies.

(35:00):
He will take the brunt of all punishment and Dominic and Sean and Tyler blow up.
They are not having it.
And then they realize all of the legitimate businesses are in their names while Exodus,
the threat for their brotherhood is into biases and they are not on that one.

(35:20):
So they realize that he truly is intending to take all the heat if something ever goes
down and they are pissed.
But you know, of course Tobias gets his way as always.
Always.
And this is a very like trying to show still another side of Tobias that like he does care

(35:43):
deeply and that there's more to him than just the bastard as she had taken to college.
Which I love.
Yeah there's he's deeper than what he let let's on.
Yeah.
But then we go back to today still in his point of view and they're almost about to

(36:13):
do it.
It's like the next morning after this is after the date night fail and she had seen that
he had strung up lights in the backyard to look like the fireflies that they used to
watch in the field in the woods behind Roman's house.
So he was trying to recreate that memory and she sees it and her heart kind of melts for

(36:37):
him a little bit.
And the next morning they're like to get it on there about to you know start getting to
some smud and then they hear car pull up.
And this is hilarious.
Naturally.
This not only because of the the like sexual tension but it's also really funny because

(37:02):
Cecilia's mom shows up with what is stepdad's name Tim Tom.
I think it's Tim.
So sure Tim they show up and we'll call him T. They came to visit and this is such a classic

(37:24):
domestic relationship like thing that happens when in any normal natural relationship.
But because of how they've had this secret love affair saga thing that seeing Tobias
in this incredibly domesticated situation where he's essentially dealing with the in-laws

(37:51):
type situation it's actually kind of comical the what does she know about me and what he
has you know Cecilia said and all this.
So this is kind of a interesting kind of turning point in their relationship as well.
Yeah but Cecilia is also freaking out because at the end of Exodus it comes out that her

(38:18):
mother is the one that got Tobias's parents killed.
She's the reason that they're dead.
Due to an accident she didn't do it on purpose.
Yes.
But it was her fault.
She was a frantic teenage pregnant lady who accidentally started a fire and she followed

(38:39):
protocol and didn't realize there was anybody else in the lab.
It was a complete accident and she felt horribly guilty over it which is we learn is why she
ended up not being that great of a parent.
But Cecilia is freaking out she doesn't know how Tobias will react to this but Tobias is

(39:02):
you know trying to say it's fine it's fine.
So he storms outside after cleaning himself up because he's still covered in flour and
gunk and all this other crap.
So he goes and tries to clean himself up a little bit and he rushes outside before Cecilia
can send her parents on their way.

(39:24):
And he walks outside and he says no you should stay.
Cecilia is like Tobias and then his mom just loses it.
She looks at him there's recognition over this is the little boy and she starts to kind

(39:45):
of lose it.
It's very awkward very tense.
They all go into the house and Tobias is kind of like who wants pancakes while everyone
else is like in turmoil and then Tim has no clue what's going on.
He is oblivious.
Cecilia is pissed his mom.

(40:07):
Cecilia is pissed her mom is like on the verge of tears just everybody's got a different
fucking emotion here and nobody can read the room.
Who wants pancakes?
And Cecilia kind of snaps at her mom and her mom goes out the back door out to the backyard

(40:35):
grabbing her cigarettes and Tobias follows her out there and he goes and he talks to
her and he lets her know like I forgave you a long time ago for what happened.
I Tobias tells her that he forgave her a long time ago for everything that had transpired

(40:59):
and then he thanks her for all of the anonymous care packages that she had sent over the years
to take care of him and Dominic because throughout their entire childhood they always got these
packages of like clothes food toys but they always assumed it was from the brotherhood

(41:21):
until Tobias was older and he started to think more about it and he makes a comment that
guilt is more powerful than blood that the brotherhood you know stopped coming around
a couple months after the death so it didn't make sense that they still sent care packages
but somebody riddled with grief and guilt definitely would still send them and this

(41:47):
is where we learn that she was the pregnant woman who drove him to the pharmacy when Dominic
was sick as a kid and it really puts into perspective just how much guilt she actually
felt because throughout the years she took care of them until they disappeared.

(42:07):
We realize that the money they to a certain extent didn't have a lot of money already
and one of Cecilia's frustrations has been that you know they struggled to get by while
her father had all this money but the money that they were getting was getting split because

(42:32):
she was trying to help take care of them as well which again Cecilia had no idea so once
again Cecilia finds out a bunch more stuff that nobody told her and she gets pissed because
I think she's tired of revelations for a hot second.

(42:53):
He also divulges a lot of other secrets regarding the past pretty much all of the flashbacks
that we've gone through up to this point he reveals to all of them and that makes her
even more mad because she's like I shouldn't be finding this out with my parents I'm the
woman you love like I should know all these things about you already and it becomes a

(43:18):
thing they have another fight the parents sleep in the camper in the front yard they
decide not to sleep in the house which is probably a good call and in this fight Tobias
ends up sleeping on the couch both by choice and by being in the doghouse like she doesn't

(43:43):
want him there and he doesn't want to sleep in that bed but she wakes up the next morning
feeling a little more forgiving after actually thinking about the events that happened and
realizing she was just raw of emotions and she opens herself up a little more to him
we see a little more give from her at this point and he decides to start journaling about

(44:10):
his past and it's his way of telling her everything without her feeling like she's just
like she did the night that he told her parents everything so she begins to look forward to
these journal entries and learning more about him and his past and his childhood and his

(44:35):
years in Paris he amongst all of this journaling and stuff you know we move forward in time
and he plans a super special Halloween date for her with all of the classics apple bobbing
for apples the pumpkin carvings the Halloween movies and it's it's a cute day but he states

(45:02):
we're gonna have a whole day of Halloweeny she's like what Halloweeny he's like yeah
you know you you do Christmas and you have Christmas caroling you do Thanksgiving you
have a turkey carving you have Halloween you have Halloweeny and she's like that's not

(45:24):
a thing to bias I it's like that's what my mother always told me and she's like I think
something got lost in the French to English translation but it was so cute because he
innocently genuinely did not know that was not a thing he thought it was a real thing
and for once Tobias didn't know something yeah I loved that and they finally finally

(45:56):
finally do it and it almost broke me because Tobias loses all control of his emotions and
he eventually during this lovemaking starts crying and apologizing to everything and

(46:16):
I liked the way that that Kay Stewart wrote this because she not once says he's crying
he's tearing up she always explains it as his emotions are overflowing his emotions
are streaming down his face so it doesn't make it masculine it doesn't make it weird

(46:38):
during the moment yes I feel like describing it any other way would have made it weird
during this moment it is it's cringy to think about somebody like sobbing during sex so
she does write it in a way that makes it seem genuine versus over the top which I will give

(47:03):
that and this is one of those sex scenes where it's not really a sex scene in that it's
all about this emotional climax that they've reached I wouldn't even qualify this really

(47:25):
as like a spice just it's it's this final like relationship moment for them it's a reckoning
not meant to be focused on the sexual part yeah just on the emotions but after this act

(47:51):
she finally lets him fully back into her heart and she's ready to start mending what was
broken start putting in her side of the effort to mend and we jump to her point of view and
she comes home ready for another journal entry and wouldn't you know it she's finally let

(48:14):
him back into her heart and he decides this is the right moment to say I'm still hiding
something from you yeah gotta love it men so she's supposed to go up she comes home
like all excited and jumpy to like it's going to be the highlight of her day to read another

(48:37):
journal entry and he's like you're not gonna like this one you're not gonna like it he's
like so why don't you go shower read the journal entry well she goes upstairs she reads the
journal entry it states as Tara pointed out I'm hiding more shit and sorry I still can't

(48:57):
tell you what that is yet so she first she foregoes the shower she's like the shower
I need answers and she storms out to the backyard and lo and behold Tobias is FaceTiming's
some beautiful French woman around his age and they're talking about staying in contact

(49:21):
and how he hasn't contacted her lately and then they finally hang up and Cecilia not
I'm not quoting here but just to give you the vibe Cecilia says who the fuck is that
bitch again not a direct quote okay that's just the exact vibe of this entire situation

(49:46):
and he of course says it is not what you think you will get an explanation shit soon but
any explanation that's not right the fuck now is insufficient yeah understandably exactly
I'm sorry if I caught my man FaceTiming another woman when he thinks I'm in the shower immediately

(50:07):
gets off the phone and then tells me it's not what it looks like bitch please you better
give me some fucking answers right now I need her name date of birth and social security
number stats exactly I would be googling so hard she does start to kind of close herself

(50:30):
off just a little bit after all of this happens and we jump to Tobias at age 33 and we see
the day that he was shot mind you he's what 38 now he's 40 in the prologue at the time

(50:52):
of this he's 38 so this was about five years before he comes back for Cecilia about four
years before she came back to triple falls to put to bed everything that happened and
we see the day that he was shot he was walking in the street and he was jumped and they shot

(51:16):
him multiple times and he wakes up in an ambulance and Sean and Tyler are there they're trying
to pin him down but he's screaming for Cecilia and he starts to come to the realization Cecilia
is not there he's not in that time anymore this is a different time and there's a part

(51:41):
in his inner monologue where he says that he wished the bullets had taken him that the
bullets felled him because he doesn't want to live a life without her which made it made

(52:02):
me so sad but then I thought about this moment and I put together the ages and I was like
this is four years before she does come back to him in triple falls and how can he go from
that from wanting to die because he can't be with her to treating her like absolute

(52:25):
shit in triple falls four years later so it's this was a hard one for me I can tell you
why and I can tell you how it is let's go much easier to be angry than to be sad yeah

(52:47):
that's fair and so this vulnerable you know because he doesn't die and he has to keep
on living and the only way he can do it is shoving all this down underneath an angry
place where somehow he blames her and his messed up head for how in love with her he
is and how much that hurts because he has to live without her and so then it festers

(53:11):
and it becomes the asshole that is Tobias in Exodus yeah this is when he decides he
part of his deal with being there with Cecilia was that he had taken a step away and he was

(53:32):
retired and done with all of that because he was focusing on them and you know rebuilding
what they had and so when he realizes you know Antoine is coming for for them for him
and will use Cecilia to get to him he's like you know I'm going it'll just take me a few

(53:58):
days I'm gonna handle this and Cecilia puts her foot down and says if you walk out that
door you are never coming back and it's not clear for a second what he's gonna do he
really struggles with this because he it's in his nature to just go handle it and not

(54:23):
include her or involve her or whatever and he in in true Tobias fashion decides to stay
by angry fucking her again again and then later that night it turns into makeup sex

(54:46):
which is great when you can do those just back-to-back like that just bam bam we switched
back well more happens throughout the book but again it's more push and pull stuff not
a whole lot of major key moments so I'm skipping ahead a little bit skipping to the next day

(55:10):
and we are still into bias this point of view and he has decided to stay and follow you
know Cecilia's direction on this and he is sitting outside after going for a run and
Cecilia comes bursting through the back door panicking and he realizes he never left a

(55:31):
note for her so when she woke up she thought he had left that he was gone and he feels
bad about it and he apologizes then they start to have a very emotional moment where she's
telling him to please talk to her please tell me what you're thinking what are you struggling
with and he starts talking about the fight that he had with Dom and Sean the night that

(55:59):
she was marked whenever he tried to go and talk to them about everything that happened
and how he blames himself for what happened later that night when Dominic is inevitably
shot and she finally tells him what Dominic told her that night before everything went

(56:23):
down which was he pushed you out of the way first before he shielded me Dominic's or Dominic
said that he had never seen you in love and so happy forget the rest of that quote I forgot

(56:46):
to write it down essentially saying that Dominic understood he was essentially giving permission
because he had never seen his brother light up like that and it's fair and then Tobias
is begging her like please stop telling me these things like he's breaking down he's
starting to cry because he's thinking about his guilt over the death of his brother and

(57:10):
she continues to tell him you know like he pushed you out of the way before he shielded
me from those bullets it was Dominic died so that you wouldn't have to because he knew
you would put yourself in that line of fire and he wanted you and me to live he wanted

(57:34):
both of us to live and you have to stop blaming yourself over it this kind of you know Tobias
has a full breakdown and finally let's go of all of those emotions that he had pushed
down for the last decade and starts to face this head-on but Cecilia tells him you know

(58:00):
you have to live with the fact that he didn't just sacrifice himself for me he sacrificed
himself for you too so that you could live and you're dishonoring him by not living
your life by still holding on to all of this and he finally starts to face that and accept
it so we come to back to Tobias's point of view and we reach this kind of a culmination

(58:30):
moment of the plot this current plot where Antonio has been Antonio Antoine we reach
a culmination of this ongoing plot where Antoine is after them and who's the bad guy other

(58:57):
than Mr. fucking handsome and he has obviously been there at Antoine's behest trying to hone
in on Cecilia and therefore Tobias and then Antoine is there in Cecilia's house and holds

(59:30):
Tobias at gunpoint Cecilia is not there we don't know where Cecilia is but Tobias realizes
like this is his moment of reckoning with the entire Antoine situation that's been years
in the making and Tobias is ready to sacrifice himself to hopefully get Antoine to back up

(01:00:04):
so that Cecilia does not get harmed and I hate that I'm so mad at him in that in this
moment I'm like Tobias this is not the time yeah so just as we think that like this is

(01:00:25):
about to have the worst ending in book history backup arrives there's laser pointers pointed
at everyone's heads and they've clearly been you know you're surrounded and Cecilia is
there and she is about to put a serious ass whooping on Mr. handsome and totally get you

(01:00:54):
know is about to have her I'm woman hear me roar moment yeah when Tobias basically launches
and holds her down to prevent her from saving the day and just as he intervenes we switch

(01:01:17):
point of views again back to Cecilia yeah and it turns out Cecilia planned the whole
fucking thing all of it throughout this entire book she was plotting planning and scheming

(01:01:40):
and she learned from the best on how to do that and how to hide it so Cecilia had an
inside man Julian the guy that was supposedly following them on Antoine's behest turns out
to be her inside man and it turns out that when Tobias had the phone from Julian and

(01:02:07):
he was sending like update photos to quote unquote Antoine they were actually getting
sent to Cecilia and she makes a comment about it and is like those were some really good
photos you took of me though something I would say and he's just lying on top of her they're

(01:02:29):
still on the ground and he is just dumbfounded trying to work his brain around this because
he's like because it comes out about all this when he asks why the fuck isn't Julian and
handcuffs it's because he was an inside man and Cecilia tells him so much and she admits
that her and Sean had concocted this ruse of Julian doing you know taking the photos

(01:02:58):
and stuff to try to coerce Tobias into owning up to everything and telling them all the
truth about what's going on but he never rose to the occasion he never divulged any of those
secrets so the this wasn't working obviously so she decides to speed things up she knew

(01:03:23):
from day four of Mr. Hanselm being in the diner who he was what he was doing there turns
out in the previous books the guy Jerry that she took down when she was still working at
that big corporation this was that guy's son so even though Tobias killed Jerry before

(01:03:49):
he came to Cecilia the son was still alive and he did not get any inheritance after his
father's death because Cecilia stole all his money all of it so Mr. Hanselm was there for
him so when she realizes who he is she starts playing dumb and feeding him little informations

(01:04:11):
about Antoine just enough to lead him to Antoine she put it all in motion and planned everything
so that Antoine would show up she wanted to speed up the process she knew he was coming
but she wanted to speed up the process she wanted to get this done and over with her

(01:04:32):
Sean and a few of the Ravens that she had known for years planned all of this and Mr.
Hanselm Tobias and even Antoine all took the bait in this plan they played their parts

(01:04:52):
well she said the only thing she didn't count on was Mr. Hanselm goading Tobias into a fight
which Tobias referred to him as a JCPenney dressed Jackie fucking Chan reject I lost
it when I read that and then he was like and he comes at me and then I punch him in the

(01:05:19):
nuts because I'm not above playing dirty as if for surprise right but she she planned
it all and they essentially all showed up to the non-existent invitation that she threw
out I mean it's like she put up a back signal and they all just came to it like moths but

(01:05:42):
she tells him and I loved this part it was it's probably my one of my favorite quotes
in the whole book this book not out of all but she says for the first time ever I was
in on it and you weren't my blueprint my plan now swallow that medicine king and let it

(01:06:04):
settle in oh Cecilia woman after my own heart it's good it's a good moment we love we love
to see someone get a taste of their own medicine right and Cecilia is smug about all of it

(01:06:26):
and Tobias is still just like he's dumbfounded but he's also so impressed by her that right
there on that floor he's thinking about screw it are and Sean pokes his head around because
Sean shows up and he like squats down to get eye level with him and he's like are you fucking
serious right now I love it I love it I love Sean here in this moment I also love that

(01:06:57):
we kind of see since they've been working together in the background that Sean and Cecilia
have found their way back into a friendship and I love getting to kind of know that they
can still be in each other's lives on a friendship level yeah after everything that they've been
through it's a good you know consolation prize for us Sean stands out here yeah but there's

(01:07:25):
definitely a shift in this moment with everything that they've been through after Dom's death
we get to see that they this somehow is the thing that puts everything to bed that they've
been through and we even get to see like it's like old times again right before Cecilia

(01:07:57):
came and and threw a wrench in everybody's life but then we go back into Tobias's point
of view and this scene choked me up there's something emotional something intensely emotional

(01:08:18):
about this because this has been a journey of Tobias and Sean figuring out how to forgive
each other how to grieve losing Dom and how to kind of patch themselves back together
as well as their friendship and so Tobias is loading up their luggage outside because

(01:08:44):
they're going on a vacation after this and Sean kind of walks up to him and they have
this talk where they actually address you know what happened and where they've been
and have like a real heart-to-heart and Sean you know gives insight to how him and Dom

(01:09:06):
felt then and he says you know we forgave you a long time ago and he says I just want
my fucking brother back and that was just that hit hard it hits so hard all all the
feels in that moment I definitely got choked up

(01:09:28):
yeah that that was a very heavy and happy moment for the characters but also like for
us as the reader to finally see these two brothers get back to where they were and they

(01:09:48):
kind of do like this weird hug thing where they're not hugging but they're like forehead
to forehead with their hands on each other shoulders gripping each other tight and this
kind of concerns Cecilia because at first she thinks that they're like about to wrestle
each other over her and then she realizes oh she's like oh my god are they gonna make

(01:10:14):
out are they gonna fight no she didn't really say that but that's what I was thinking in
my head
but then she realizes that this is just some weird hug and she even tells Tobias as much
she's like I thought y'all were wrestling but turns out you were doing some weird fucking
weird hug

(01:10:37):
and then he says oh I forgot something in the house and she says no you didn't he was
okay I'll be right back so he didn't forget anything he was just trying to cover the truth
that he was going back in to essentially off Antoine and she says I'll be waiting as she

(01:10:58):
waits in the car but he goes back in and this is kind of a poetic moment because chess is
such a important like little detail in all of these books especially with Tobias in his
life because he played it with Cecilia throughout his time with her he used to play it with
his biological grandfather in the park until the day he died and he gives Antoine a big

(01:11:23):
speech about this chess piece about the king and the pawn and how the pawn is unassuming
but has the power to check the king if overlooked and then he proceeds to do a sleight of hand
and changes the king pawn the king chess piece to a pawn and then shoves it down his throat

(01:11:48):
and then gives him a long spill about they do like a checklist of everything Antoine
lost he lost his money he lost his contacts he lost his crew he lost his wife to his first
hand and now the keys to his kingdom are getting handed over to the man who has been boning

(01:12:11):
his wife yeah it's a good conquer moment when we finally defeat this villain yeah and then
Tobias puts a bullet in him and then we switch to Cecilia's point of view and this is a moment

(01:12:31):
that I want to absolutely choke the life out of Tobias because he decides to that he actually
after all of this isn't sure about this lifelong commitment that he has totally turned her
life upside down for which is stupid but he says he doesn't want to do anything permanent

(01:12:57):
like marriage or kids which is so stupid is me but he says that he's worried he's gonna
have schizophrenia like his father did and this is where we find out that the beautiful
French woman named Sonia that he was caught FaceTiming with was actually his father's

(01:13:19):
psychologist so again this is like this last moment of revelation and vulnerability and
all that that he fesses up to and obviously she does not take his bullshit for you know
an answer they're in this together and you know basically if you do have schizophrenia

(01:13:47):
we'll deal with it although at his age I think it would have presented by now which I think
he does acknowledge at some point during this book if not in this moment but she decides
to give him a gift that is a symbolic gift where it's a custom tailored suit with raven

(01:14:13):
cufflinks and it symbolizes her permission for you know his retirement hiatus whatever
you call it to end and for them to go back working in the Ravenhood obviously with the
understanding that she's on the inside now and not on the outside and we switch back

(01:14:35):
to Tobias's point of view as part of this conversation that the condition for him returning
to the Ravenhood is that she has some splaining to do to the people that are closest to her

(01:14:55):
starting with Christy and I love Christy we haven't really seen her in this book at all
so I'm glad that we get to kind of touch base back with her in this book he was not happy
about him being in her house he was like actually sweating sitting in her living room with the

(01:15:19):
death daggers like out of everything that he has like faced and not been afraid of Christy
was what made him sweat yeah and I loved that if somebody put you through all of that it's
like they should be nervous to come into my house so honestly though points for Christy
now in this epilogue we're all the way back to the beginning of the book so we're back

(01:15:50):
into bias's point of view he's at age 44 this is seven years prior or seven years later
than where we left off and they are married and they are meeting at the finish line they
haven't seen each other because he was off handling some stuff but he sent her a message

(01:16:15):
that was like encoded or you know yeah devil entendre but he said meet me at the finish
line and so he for the first time in the 20 years that he has had this house he goes in
it because he refused to go in it without her and so they meet there and she surprises

(01:16:42):
him by letting her know that she is off her birth control and ready to have babies with
him which is a big step because this is permanent right this is I mean they're married but she's
ready to to move forward with this with him and we find Tobias back out on this beach

(01:17:11):
the beach where he was originally with his father the beach where he found the sand dollar
and for the first time since Dominic has passed he decides to talk to him and this is such
a huge moment into bias's trauma and loss and grief and it's another tearjerker moment

(01:17:40):
which I'm like really you had to like get us here like the very end this part had me
in my fills while I was reading it I was like do not make me cry again it's impossible not
to be in your feelings like honestly because Tobias has finally reached the point that

(01:18:05):
he has wanted his whole life and that is happiness and Dominic's not here and so he doesn't get
to share it with him or get to see Dominic enjoy this level of happiness and so it's
super emotional but a good kind of emotional because it's kind of closure moving on growth

(01:18:32):
that sort of thing yeah this epilogue is kind of a two-parter because it also contains an
epilogue for Sean which I really liked which this is the same epilogue that was actually
included in Exodus is it because and I don't know maybe it was the edition that I read

(01:19:01):
but yes this moment gets I guess repeated because this epilogue happens at the end of
Exodus we don't know about any of the other stuff that has happened but we do get this
moment with Sean and his son Dom who is just like Dominic sad face but yeah so you get

(01:19:35):
a Sean POV two years later of him and his wife Tessa which I don't know why but it's
still stung a little still a little hurt over it I can't explain why because yes I understand
these are fictional characters okay don't come for me but his son is now Dominic is

(01:20:02):
now 14 years old and he is demanding to be let in on whatever the secret is that drags
him out of the house in the middle of the night and he tells him put on your shoes we're
going for a ride and his son's being a smartass like so you leave the house in the middle
of the night to go on a ride a whole big secret because he's just he's Dominic is what he

(01:20:28):
is Dom is Dominic and Sean tells him that mouth of yours can you keep it shut what I'm
really asking is can you keep a secret and this I love this because this better set us
up for Sean's son Dominic to be getting a book okay so let's do some ratings so I give

(01:21:02):
my overall rating as a seven out of ten this book was not my favorite in the series for
a few reasons I felt like the book itself is good but it's not action-filled like the
other books were it's not a whole lot of like big key events it's more like two long storylines

(01:21:31):
floating side by side to each other or I feel like a lot of these flashbacks would have
been beneficial more in Exodus in the second part of Exodus but totally agreed and I also
gave this a seven out of ten I think that the pace is a little slower than needed I

(01:21:56):
think the inner monologues are a little bit more one is totally necessary still good still
entertaining still recommend it as part of the series just so you get the whole story
but definitely not my favorite in this series I had actually heard something that the book

(01:22:22):
series technically ended with Exodus but people were demanding a better ending so she created
finish line I'm not sure how much truth there is to that that was just a rumor that I heard
swirling around back when this book became like huge I mean that and it sold really well

(01:22:44):
so why not sell yeah a third book that was yeah yeah for content I gave it a five out
of ten because I mean for the same reason you just said it had a lot of inner monologue
that just felt fluffed like it didn't need so much internalized information we could

(01:23:10):
have done without some of that yeah I'm right there right in that range I said six out of
ten I think the only difference would be that it is at least different it's at least a different
than your average like if I'm comparing this book to the previous ones hundred percent

(01:23:34):
agree when I compare this book to all books or all smut books I still think that there's
a some originality there that we don't get to see yeah I can see that for spice I gave
it a seven out of ten because there were some I really enjoyed the spicy scenes but there

(01:24:00):
were so far and few between that it just didn't hit as a smut book in my opinion no I mean
granted I've read a lot of dark smut books which is nothing but spice so I actually am

(01:24:21):
gonna put this as a five out of ten because for me like you said it does not read like
smut and it it's there and like I had said several times when we were in our deep dive
I love the tension the buildup that was totally there however that's not spice for me and

(01:24:49):
so definitely one of the lower spice scores for sure yeah it didn't have a whole lot to
it the romance I gave a nine out of ten because I felt like there was actually quite a bit
of romance not not spice not smut but he was trying to romance her throughout the entirety

(01:25:16):
of the book trying to win her love back and I gave it a nine out of ten we're really close
I'm in eight out of ten I think there's definitely the side of romance where it's a struggle
and it's learning how to be domestic with someone learning how to yeah manage their

(01:25:38):
best friend and their parents and all that side but definitely not the sweet love type
of romance but I kind of liked that it was more real than the fantasy we usually see
in these books and I think that's why I still gave it such a high rating because it agreed

(01:26:01):
it right you can resonate with it it's not something so far out enough outlandish you
know yeah very relatable for the for the writing I gave a seven out of ten again because of
the inner monologuing there was so much of it and it I felt it was so unnecessary to

(01:26:25):
have all of that it felt kind of fluffed for the sake of a big book rather than actual
important details I agree and I'm right there with you seven out of ten on the writing it's
a good story but I think that there was maybe we tried to make it more than was there so

(01:26:55):
we're right right on track with that one on the same page yeah for characters I still
gave a ten out of ten because I love the way she writes her characters they are very well
developed they are so deep they are so complex they feel like real people so for characters

(01:27:16):
I still gave a ten out of ten I'm right there I think nine out of ten I think I think we
get to see some different sides of Tobias in this one which I think were needed I think
Tobias as a character was not fully developed by the end of Exodus and so I think if anything

(01:27:42):
the finish line is really Tobias's redemption character yeah wise I so it's a final like
summary of my feelings of this whole series I really loved the first one it was by far

(01:28:06):
my favorite the second one broke my heart and this one I felt like was needed just to
give Tobias some humanity and to gain a better understanding of what it was that made him
into who he is I like to know the why somebody is the way they are so I felt like this book

(01:28:29):
was necessary it was not my favorite but overall this entire series is one of my favorite series
I think this could have been two books that's kind of my takeaway I think Exodus could have

(01:28:50):
been split in half and we've the first book with the first part of Exodus and then you
know we could have gotten all of this kind of together again it's it's good it's entertaining
it's something different I think that's my big plug for this is that it does not follow

(01:29:16):
the same kind of cookie cutter plot and it's good but I actually would not put this in
my in my favorites category but I wish but I definitely think in terms of people starting
out I think regardless of your genre I think this is a really good one to read it's a staple

(01:29:41):
yeah it if there was one thing I could rewrite in this book I'm pretty sure we would all
rewrite the same thing but I would rewrite it not so that he didn't die but so that he
had faked his death and came back at the end I like that see I thought you were because

(01:30:02):
that would have been something he did I thought you were gonna say Tobias died instead I know
everyone simps for Sean okay but I do like Tobias I can relate to the having to be the
parent at a young age to your younger sibling so I get why he is the way he is and why he
feels a need to protect everyone totally for sure I get it I just am gonna say that if

(01:30:28):
I could have my fan fiction rewrite I would like for Tobias to be the self-sacrificing
one and then she stays with Sean and Dom forever it's a polyamorous happy ever after well that's
a wrap for this episode as always thanks for listening we hope you enjoyed our take on

(01:30:51):
this steamy book and we will see y'all next week on a novel affair when we will be discussing
our next spicy book the Crescent City series I'm very excited about this this is one of
my picks if you've been living under a rock and you're not aware Crescent City is the

(01:31:12):
most recently published series by Sarah J Moss for those that are in the Akatar book
club and this will be a new read for Destiny so I'm excited to get to lead her along into

(01:31:33):
my romantic adventure I did con her also into reading Akatar a couple years ago so I'm excited
to go on this journey together and we will start that series next week don't forget to

(01:31:54):
head over to our podcast to listen to a full breakdown of this book and many others with
spoilers and discussions and you can find that link in the comments be sure to like
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soon