Have you ever wondered where romance and human trafficking overlap? Neither have we. Lucky for us, Margie is here to tell us all about Last Breath by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick: the book that answers the question that no one asked. Check out the supplemental episode where Rachel sits down with Dr. Tony Talbott from Abolition Ohio and discusses the real-life implications of human trafficking.
Have you ever wondered where romance and human trafficking overlap? Neither have we. Lucky for us, Margie is here to tell us all about Last Breath by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick: the book that answers the question that no one asked. Check out the supplemental episode where Rachel sits down with Dr. Tony Talbott from Abolition Ohio and discusses the real-life implications of human trafficking.
Hey guys, this is your co host, Rachel, repeat listeners will know that the fact that you're hearing my voice right now means that the following episode deals with some pretty intense topics. This episode deals with heavy topics of human trafficking and abuse. If you think that might be a problem for you, please come back in about two weeks, we have an awesome book to come back to, if you do decide to stick around and I hope you do, please after you listen, check out the interview that I had with Dr. Tony Talbott of abolition Ohio here in Dayton, Margie was able to reach out, get a hold of him, and he was able to take time out and sit down with me. And we had an amazing conversation about a lot of the topics that we discussed in this episode, and his expertise and his experiences. It was an incredible conversation. And I really appreciate him taking the time to talk to me about these things. It was something that I personally don't have a lot of experience with. And being able to talk to someone that has made it their life's mission to raise as much awareness as possible about this topic was just incredible. It was an amazing experience. Please check that out. That's it, Margie. And I had as much fun as we possibly could with this episode. And it's still a pretty fun episode. So I hope that you stick around. We will have resources in our show notes for a variety of organizations you can get in contact with if you would like to reach out, as well as the human National Human Trafficking Hotline. The number for that is 1-888-373-7888. I wanted to put that at the top of the show here. We come back to it in that interview as well. So please reach out we would love to hear from you guys. And I hope that you stick around. And so without further ado, here is episode 16. No leader tearing me apart.
Margie:Hello, and welcome to textual tension. I love hate relationship with romance novels. I am your co host, Margie, and I'm your co host Rachel. Every other week one of us will be summarizing a romance novel for summarize, I'm summarizing Yes. And then our other unsuspecting co hosts me Rachel will be listening in and together we will unpack what the fuck just happened.
Rachel:Okay. All right. Okay, so we kind of have a bit of a tweak, quick turnaround on Margie and I recording this episode. And the last time Yes, and Margie has messaged me twice. The first time was oh my god, my books boring. I'm gonna try to find another one. The second one was, oh my God, I don't want to read this. It's so bad. And
Margie:I was only 4% into it at that point,
Rachel:which I naturally responded bitch. You fucking finish that thing I want to know. So so
Margie:here we are drinking right? Yeah, I apparently this is really bad. I actually insisted because it was literally torture. Rachel, look into my eyes. Looking to
Rachel:finish my wine, okay.
Margie:This is the worst book I've ever read.
Rachel:Okay, wait, where's the land whale?
Unknown:Yeah,
Rachel:where's then? Our new king valerian?
Margie:It's hard, but I'm gonna say Yeah, wow.
Rachel:Yeah, I know. You're trying to get across how much you hated this book. Yes. All you're doing is getting me more excited to hear about this. I'm gonna
Margie:hate it. You're gonna hate it so much. And I have to so it's on a personal level because I actually so when I was in college, I studied this a little bit. Okay, one of my politics class. Oh, good lord. Okay. Yeah. So now Okay, okay. The topic that is covered in this book happens to be a topic that University of Dayton really advocates for a law I was lucky enough to learn a lot about it. So when I read this book, I was like, everything in this book is wrong. Everything we're
Rachel:gonna get a Margie social justice. Yes. Okay. So
Margie:I am going to pass over the cover cover to you. And so okay,
Rachel:if this is really, really bad, should we do triggers before I read the back of the book? Are we okay? Yep. Okay, I'm
Margie:gonna do a disclaimer. Now.
Rachel:We're gonna mix it up a little bit, and we're gonna do our triggers
Margie:before Okay, so this is more of a misrepresentation of a real issue. Okay. All right. Good to know. Okay, so the triggers are sexual assault, human trafficking. Oh, gun violence, knife violence and mystery type representation of autism thing. Whoa, yeah. A light thing. A lot of things if you
Rachel:have your textual tension trigger warning bingo card. Yeah. Oh, one holy shit. Yeah. It's just the most triggers we've ever had. Yes,
Margie:yes. So I was reading it and within like, like I said, within like three pages of the book, this book and it is on my Kindle. I was like, Oh, my God, because it's like kind of dichotomy of like, and we've experienced this before, where I'm not sure if I should even cover this. Wow, it's so bad. It's so bad. Well, that makes
Rachel:sense. And this is, again, a big reason, obviously, because I want to hear about it. But the big reason I pushed her to do it is because I think it's really, really important to talk about these things. Because these things should not be represented in the way that they're represented in a lot of romance novels. So yeah, you're gonna blame me.
Margie:That was the big thing is that if it's mystery, if human trafficking is represented in the way that it is in this romance novel, and I was gonna get into this later, but if it is represented in the way that is in the romance, novel, people will not see it when it's actually in front of them and not a huge issue. Yeah. So we'll get into that a little later. But first, I want to show Rachel the front cover right hands. Give her the book description. Wow, look
Rachel:at that pout. What about? Okay, this book is called last breath. It is a hitman novel. Neat. Okay, so it's by two authors. Yes. Jessica, Claire. And Jen Frederick. Smaller than the title. Um, yeah, this is so this dude. It's all in black and white. Except for last breath, which is baby blue.
Margie:Like, is it? Are they? Yeah. Oh, god.
Rachel:Um, so it's just like a really like, it's a handsome man, but he has that weird power that I'm not really a fan of. And it just kind of looks like like, maybe trying really hard not to have
Margie:to poop. No, he's looks like he's doing Blue Steel.
Rachel:Ah, ha. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I got that. I got that. listeners that came with an accompanying pout from Margie. So I got the full visual. It was beautiful.
Unknown:Put it on the ground. Oh, God. Yes.
Rachel:Jesus Christ. Okay, cool. I will. I'm going to scroll down. It's literally just a handsome man's face. Yeah, that's a suit. Yeah. And he's just honestly he has this look on his eyes that are like him. He looks a little bit like he's like, oh my god like surprise. Here we go. Remember your trigger warnings friends? Yes. Reagan,
Margie:Reagan. Reagan again? I don't know Reagan. Reagan looks Yeah, I
Rachel:don't know. Yeah. Reagan if you said Reagan also Reagan. Oh, good. I never really knew what misery was until the day I was kidnapped and sold for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two months later, I met a brothel in Rio when I met Daniel Hays. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel Daniel. Oh, God. He says he's here to save me. But can I trust him? All I know of him are his sarcastic retorts and his tendency to solve every dispute with his gun. He's also the only safe thing in my world, and I know it's wrong to fall in love with him, but I can't seem to help myself. He says who protects me until his last breath but I don't know if I should believe him. Or even if I can, Daniel. For the last 18 months I've had one goal to find my kidnap sister. She's not his sister. No. No, no, no. Okay, good. Good. Yeah, I
Margie:know. I thought I had this thought and I was like, oh
Rachel:my God gonna get bad. Okay. I've left the army turned paid Hitman and have befriended criminals all across the globe. Wait, should I be saying this in a more rugged voice? Yes. Okay, sorry. Cuz last 18 months, I've had one goal to find my kidnap sister. I've left the army turned paid Hitman and have befriended criminals all across the globe. In every brothel, brothel I raid or even human trafficking truck stop. Her face is the one I'm desperate to see. In Rio. I find Regan Porter, bruised but not broken and still sane. Despite her weeks in hell. I should leave her behind or send her home because the last thing either of us needs is to get involved. But with every passing minute, I find I can't let her go. How's that? Archie's dying,
Unknown:I broke me it broke me. Good. Um, okay, so
Margie:suspension of disbelief goes flying out of the ozone layer for this book. So you have been warned.
Rachel:Okay, so I won't even try to hold on to the potatoes. So
Margie:now that you guys kind of know what this book addresses.
Rachel:Okay. So when I was like her part seems interesting. As soon as we get to his part, I'm a little like, Okay, what is okay?
Margie:It's not so much interesting. It's just flying inaccurate.
Rachel:Okay, cool. I'm excited to hear your your knowledge of the subject. And I want
Margie:to just stress that like, the reason why I know about it is that I took a class at UD global politics, and my professor happens to be like, just like a really big advocate. So I learned a lot and UD, like I said, has a lot of advocacy. They have like a yearly World Summit or whatever. Yeah, travel. Cool. Very, very cool. So I just happen to know a lot about this topic because of
Rachel:Is that why you picked it up? Yes
Margie:and no, because I was like, I think I picked it up because I found that other book. You know, the one that was boring race was like, this isn't interesting. I don't want to keep reading this right. I want to make go back to but it was it was just written very more certain. Yeah, those are good. So the story was, it was so I was just kind of like, dragging my, you know, I'm dying through this. But when I picked up this book, I definitely wasn't bored. Good. Yeah, it was a board when I was like, so angry. All right. I felt like a heart was burning in my chest in my eyes. Could it get any wider? Okay. Pay
Rachel:me a word for word picture of you. And remember everyone, this is okay. We're all together. We're really bad. Okay, if feel free to skip this one if you need to.
Margie:So this book starts off by introducing Regan who a 22 year old blonde with green eyes who is currently being raped in a brothel in Rio. That's how the book starts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're wondering how she got into the scenario, as I very much was to this
Rachel:book written in media
Margie:res. What does that mean?
Rachel:Where it starts with like, like in a movie, so when it like starts with something crazy happening, and it stops? No,
Margie:no, no, no, it's treated as something normal. Like, it's not that weird, which I'm going to get into that later. So um, but just so the story is while Reagan was living in Minneapolis with a roommate, Daisy, she and her roommate are kidnapped because what the kidnappers really want is Daisy because Daisy is dating this hitman. And so that's like book one out of the series. This is, this is book two. Okay, so I didn't realize I was just a dumbass. So
Rachel:that's a pretty common thing in romance novels were like the books. You don't necessarily have to read them in order. They just follow different couples in the same universe. Right? So Daisy was saved by her boyfriend.
Margie:So DAISY turned out to be fine. Because, you know, rescue saved the day when Reagan was sold to the Russian mafia and drugged and shipped off to Russia. Yeah, so that was that was her first stop. She's like, literally dragged out of her apartment. And like, yeah, like, grab it, because I think that she's Daisy because she has Daisy's phone on her at the time. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Rachel:Okay. Yeah, I was not prepared. Let's go.
Margie:Yeah. Like, that's the that's the crazy thing about this book is that I've been telling you this looks horrible. This because
Rachel:I know, like, Okay, let's do this. I want to know, and I don't want
Margie:to you really don't want to know. So, um, while she's in Russia, this guy who is an American, uh, huh. Comes into like her Bravo room or whatever. And he she, he wants to buy her outright. And he's very, very, very, very, very creepy. And
Rachel:there's nothing not creepy about
Margie:him. Yeah. And, but he's like, I can get her broken at first. Basically, he's like, break her spirit. Like, so that she's more docile when she gets to me because she's literally at that point biting fingers off, like biting fingers.
Rachel:Take a picture of my face, right?
Unknown:Yeah, yeah. Recording for 15 million. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So far past land. Well, yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah.
Margie:Yeah. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. It's like a different so I'll get into that. But so can I
Rachel:just real quick, I'd like to a bit of where my brain is right now. Part of me is like, Holy fuck. Oh, my God. This should not be marketed as a romance novel. Yes. It may be
Margie:some good. Yeah, I'm
Rachel:gonna get rid of that. Fine. The other thing though, is that like, I mean, it's tackling a topic that is not something that's done very often, which is interesting. Also get into that too. Okay. All right. You know, I defer to you. Yes. I'm sorry. I drink my wine and hope that I'm sober enough to do record my episode later.
Margie:Um, so this guy who Reagan ends up calling Mr. Freeze who wants to purchase her?
Rachel:Okay, not convinced me. He's not Arnold Schwarzenegger. Keep going. That's a
Margie:later reference. Yeah, he's actually just like he's got like that denarius. Targaryen white boy hair, white blond hair, and so very pale skin. And I think like very pale eyes. That's Mr. Freeze. And so he's like, I want her docile as a kitten. That's how she's described. And she eventually is carted off to Rio where they chain her up to a bed in a brothel. And pretty much his only stipulation is keep her clean and keep her healthy until I come back to retrieve her. So everybody who comes so they're still making money off of this girl. But every guy who comes in and visits her has to wear a condom no matter what. And she's like, bathed twice a day or something and is forced to eat vitamins. It's crazy. It is bananas. This is the first like 20 pages of the book. Rachel, you're face. You see why I was messaging you?
Unknown:Yeah, yeah.
Rachel:Oh, yeah. I still think it's important to address books like this. Well, I am not comfortable, right.
Margie:I know. Okay, so now we're going to get into my turn my rant. Okay, are you ready? Guys? That's not how human trafficking happens. Okay? It's not it almost never if ever happens this way. Okay, ever if that makes you feel better, okay, it does because, and the way that I wrote it down was people are not taken. Okay? This is not Liam Neeson people are taken advantage of. And that is the big difference. So they pimps and Jon's are going to scope out people who are in vulnerable positions, whether they're hungry, they have no place to go, they're supporting a drug addiction, they're being forced into it by their family members, they're being forced into it because their family rejected them based on their gender or sexuality. These people have nowhere else to go. And that's why pimps and Jon's find them because they're like, Well, what's worse than where you are now, you know? Or they're like, they're affectionate with the person or like, Hey, I'm sorry that you're going through this, and then manipulates them into doing things that they don't want to do. Because they feel like they have no other choice or because they they feel like they owe something to their pimp or John, you know, so it's always it's never like, it's never someone who has choices, people who are trafficked, it's especially, it's hard, because it's such a global issue. And I'm really, really putting it down into one issue. Right. It's off there often, like huge outlying circumstances, poverty, drug addiction, right, a bunch of other issues, abuse, family abuse, and that's where human traffickers come in and take advantage of people.
Rachel:So I'm getting a little bit a little bit heavy here for a second. And hang in there, guys, we have a much better palate cleanser for you next week or two weeks from now.
Margie:This episode does get five years just okay. I was gonna ask
Rachel:me gets better. Yes, it does. Thank God. Second, we will have some resources. Also, if you're interested in reading up more on the topic of human trafficking, and where kind of our knowledge and background comes from, we will have resources again, available in the show notes on this episode. Yeah. So yes. And I'm going to go into that after we're done with this book, right? We're not we're not coming from exclusively like, Well, we think is this way, it's more of Okay. Research has shown and like this, what we know that kind of deal. So right, we're by no means experts, but Margie has experienced, like, knows, has done the research and knows kind of where that's going. And you know,
Margie:it's like it's to it gives us some so the other thing that I want to point out, especially within this story with Reagan, is that if you steal a person who has power, who feels like they have choices in their lives, do you think that they're going to be docile as a kitten? Or do you think they're going to fight back? Right? Because they know that they have other options? Yeah, yeah. So a pimper a pimper? John, I don't know what the difference is that I guess that's one thing I should know, I don't know, if there are differences. They're not going to steal somebody who knows that they have choices? Because it doesn't make sense for them to do that. Right? What are they? So this isn't the scenario of people being more vulnerable than others isn't always the case. There are people who are trafficked out of their homes a lot of the time, just because of like, they they're blackmailed, or they feel like they also have no other option. It's not just because of instability is about. It's just about putting people into a corner. That's really what human trafficking is about. So
Rachel:So for what it's worth a John is a buyer or a trick is another word for them. And it's an individual who pays for or trade something of value for sexual acts. Okay, so Pam would be someone who is, you know, handling the Okay, ladies or whatever. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. Okay, so ready for it to get better whenever you're ready. Okay.
Margie:Um, there's one other thing that I wanted to say that this image of human trafficking is just really like this book is really harmful. Because for advocates of human trafficking, or trying to stop human trafficking, it makes it so that people are looking for the wrong things. That's my last statement. That's my last rant. Yeah, right. Now we're going to get into the story. Find out well, I'm
Rachel:going to pour some more wine. Yeah, and go
Margie:ahead. Okay, sounds good.
Rachel:Hopefully, again, hopefully, I'm sober enough to record my episode next.
Margie:So Regan's customer that I just described at the very beginning of the book, leaves and Reagan is laying in bed crying when a new dog Yeah, of course, as you would have. Reagan is lying in bed crying when a new customer comes in who wants to buy Reagan outright, just like another person, another person, okay person. And so this is quote, unquote, our boy is he our
Rachel:boy or homeboys on
Margie:the edge, you On the edge because there's only one instance. And for the most part, he's really, really good. There's one instance where I was like, Okay, well, homeboy, we shall reserve judgment. Yes, that's a good idea. Okay. So I'm gonna call them the quote unquote, our boyfriend because right now he is in our boy Daniel. Okay, no haze, whatever. Daniel, Daniel hears that Daniel describes Regan who has been enslaved and is where I can change your ankle dirty star-spangled bikini. Basically lay out okay. Yeah, yeah, she hasn't been eating well. Her delicate boats are beginning to look sharp in places at her shoulders, ribs and hips. But there's no denying her breathtaking looks. Her blond hair is damp and small strands stick to her perfect skull. Her oval face with its pink cheekbones and lush labs and eyebrows that look like wings stand out like a piece of fine china at a flea market, though she said there's a delicious curviness And the slope of her side as it dips into the waist and flares back out to form a comfortable those endlessly long legs
Unknown:God you Yeah. To to bed wall, whatever. Yeah, it's been human.
Margie:Yeah, yeah. You're about as horrible as the warfighters. I was. Yeah. Yeah. I had to drink my way through this book. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's literally what I wrote down too. So I'm glad you're here. For me. It's
Rachel:only when it gets better. It's gonna get better, right? Her face isn't
Margie:conclusive. Okay. So I will say this about this book. And I want people to know this is that this? So this is a guy's a significant other in the book. Okay. He never does anything abusive. Okay, at least her relationship is healthy despite the trauma that she's been through. Okay. So that's okay. That's a redeeming quality in this book. In fact, he's over the top trying to be like, you've been through this horrible thing. Let me be described as being high. He did. He did. He totally did. I'm literally trying to find a light at the end of the tunnel here.
Rachel:All right. Yeah. All right. This part is I feel disgusting. Yeah, making jokes about this, right. I'm trying so hard to keep it light. Well, to make it like, enjoyable and funny and at least a little bit light for our listeners. But y'all, this is a really heavy topic.
Margie:And it's really bad. Oh, again,
Rachel:I find it incredibly important that we tag these books. But understand that me making jokes isn't me making fun of anything regarding this. No, it's me trying to bring a little bit of brevity and lightness to this because it's so heavy.
Margie:Like I said, this is so unrealistic of how human trafficking happens anyway, that in a way, I'm like, as much as horrible as it sounds. And as horrible as it is. I don't feel bad making fun of it. Because it's not realistic. This is not this is not how human trafficking happens. Yeah, at all. So I'm gonna make fun of the book, not because of human trafficking, but because it's so ridiculous. It's like, yeah, just so much anger. I'll put it in the show notes. Okay, yes, yes.
Rachel:Our we will, we will try to keep our ranting to a minimum from now on and put them all in the show notes because we're
Margie:running over oh my god. Okay, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Um, so he buys her for$25,000 happened to Mr. Frost, Mr. Freeze, um, he's in Russia and they're in Rio. So yeah. This is a sale can't argue with business sense. So Regan, Daniel, lead the brothel together, but someone follows them, who Daniel catches. And while Daniel isn't a standoff with this other guy, Regan just bolts. She's like, I'm going into the flowvella. It's like the slums. And she's just trying to get the fuck out of there. Because she's like, I gotta get to the embassy as fast as right. I don't know who this guy Daniel is. Because, you
Rachel:know, he should probably have told her
Margie:Yeah. Literally left. Like, it was a situation where he was trying to get her into the taxi. This guy shows up like he, he literally didn't have time. So she runs into the slums of Rio, and someone almost immediately snatches her and puts a gun to her head.
Rachel:Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous. Luckily, of course,
Margie:our boy comes to the scene and shoots the guy who grabbed Reagan. So that guy's dead. Okay, body count one. Yeah, good idea. Do a body track. Yeah, so Daniel was like, please stop running. I'm not here to actually rape you. So can we leave?
Rachel:Okay. You know, okay, sure. I'm around Neptune right now as far as where my floating so
Margie:I didn't warn you. I didn't wait. Let's go and he's been paid to find Regan. Bye. Bye, Daisy. Hey, well yeah paid I think he was paid to find Reagan by doing it. Okay. That was the girl that the mafia was supposed to kidnap and was a buyer boyfriend neck and nowadays he feels guilty. I would too. Yeah, so um, Reagan was sold by a guy named Vasily Petrovich Petrovich was part of the Petrovitch mafia family in Russia. This plot gets very confusing. I'm sorry, do your best doing my best. Daniel also has personal motivations. There's apparently been a stream of blonde girls being funneled down to a guy in Rio and Daniel thinks that one of them might be his sister Naomi. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And he also so he's also been hired. I don't know when this comes up to find a hacker called the Emperor. Your face. Ah, okay.
Rachel:Hacking. All right, great. Yep.
Margie:Yep, a lot of good typing. So now Reagan and Daniel are in a taxi going to the US Embassy. And we hear a lot about Daniel's Dick, and how attractive it is to Reagan. And I mean, during the entire book all the time, at least once a chapter if not every other page. Yeah. Why are you thinking of this right now? And I don't need to hear it. But you just keep his hands off of Reagan, for the most part. For the most part, you say? Yeah, for the most part, he only does it when he's like trying to create a distraction because there are people in the street who are following them. And he's like, let's pretend that word Horace
Rachel:goddamn Yeah, no. Ah, Christ.
Margie:So but for the most part, understandably so she jerked away from any sort of touch from Daniel shit. Yeah, yeah. As you would you don't fuckin
Rachel:say. Um,
Margie:but here's the even weirder thing. Daniel does keep his hands off Reagan until she throws herself at him to like, hug him because she's like, Oh, my God, you're taking me to the embassy, you're actually going to do it. And she pushes her away. And she's like, don't want to touch a dirty whore. And it's like it's just the whiplash. This book is crazy. But Nana's
Unknown:I'm so I know, I
Margie:know. I'm so sorry. I warned you. I did warn you. You did and you told me
Rachel:to do it so important to call out these books and we can call out the author absolutely at the end of it
Margie:right up on the author yet okay. So they they get to the embassy, okay. And Reagan though sees one of Mr. Freezes bodyguards is also guarding the embassy, the US Embassy. So he works for the US Embassy and she's like, Fuck, I can't go in there. Because she knows that she gets taken in there. She's seen and taken right back out and taken back to Mr. Freeze. That's not okay. Yes, I'll work now. I would have been like Hey, Daniel, why don't you escort me into right into them to see if I can stay there where I can stay there. And because Lane my story because I have a paper trail of
Rachel:who I want, right? No, I
Margie:am. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's where it goes. The potato is gonna play out. Okay. Yeah, yeah, they're way out there to play that out. So um, Daniel, so she's like, begging him. I don't want to leave you please don't make me leave you. And Daniel's like, okay, you can stay for me for with me for one night. But then tomorrow, you're going to the fucking embassy. And she's like, right, I bought myself 24 hours. The way Daniel describes her trauma makes me want to make him a homeboy. Because they get home. She comforts her she falls asleep. Yada, yada yada. You
Rachel:take more pictures of my reaction faces and like a four picture thing. Reactions.
Margie:Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna do it for this one. Here's how he describes her sleeping. She looks fragile. The first time since I've taken her out of the whorehouse. She looks like I can break her. I prefer the spicy site sarcastic girl. The teary eyed victim scares the hell out of me. Yeah, it's so bad. It's so so so. So bad. So she sleeps on the couch that night and the next day goes out to get her some clothes and find someone who had been following them and I plan to kill Daniel and take Reagan back to the brothel. Daniel kills the poor dude and then gets close to two and returns to the apartment and falls asleep. So Reagan is terrified Reagan. Oh shit. Well, I get that but like Reagan is afraid in particular that suddenly he's going to leave her he's just going to drop her off at the embassy and then she's gonna be fucked. But she wouldn't be but okay, would it be but okay, let's assume that's what happened. And so while Daniel is sleeping, she tries to seduce him to like he'll keep her basically. I mean, it's horrible. It's horrible. I'm only laughing because of your reactions. It's the only reason I'm laughing Zacks taking a nap you guys y'all Any mores anymore. Yeah. So he gets off. He gets no he just like get off. Thank God he gets really pissed off. Yeah, I mean no, not good, but he doesn't get like super pissed off he gets like kind of like what are you doing? Are you? What the fuck are you doing? And so she ends up throwing up because she's like, I can't believe I tried to do that one. You know, he's the only guy who's trying to be nice to me. And after that little meltdown, because she's like in the bathroom crying. Daniel calls Nick. What?
Rachel:Keep going, keep going. We're in it now Daniel calls
Margie:Nick who is Daisy's boyfriend? Okay.
Unknown:Where did you find this book?
Margie:I think oh good reads it was on Goodreads under like the top mafia bucks because I told you I've been looking for it mafia 1920s kind of Mafia Buck so Nick now killed the head of the mafia that he was working for. Then he and Daisy went into hiding so Nick became an art student and they both lied low and now depend on Daniel to save Reagan. Okay, so Nick got this original tip that Reagan was in Rio not Russia by the Petrovitch family that that vessel a bunch of guys on you about earlier in return Petrovich. Once Daniel define that emperor, okay, I'm going over this. Okay, okay. Yeah, this is confusing, but I think So to recap, Daniel has three goals. Yes. Find Reagan. Find the Emperor and find his own sister.
Rachel:Cool, great fallen.
Margie:So Daniel hears from a contact Maria who has an informant as to where exactly to find the Emperor Regan Daniel are supposed to meet with Daniel's contact the next day and their route when they're rudely woken up by another hitman who breaks in to the apartment to take Regan back. Daniel shoots them
Rachel:great. They're trying like, like, they're trying really
Margie:hard to get back. Yeah, also super unrealistic. Yeah, super unrealistic. Mr. Frese also mentioned at the beginning of the book that he likes blonde girls, American blonde girl, that's what he likes to purchase. And I say this because he's done it before. Okay, yeah,
Rachel:we're at three everybody.
Margie:Um, so Daniel trees tries to leave Reagan to go to this meeting where different gangs, so he knows that it's not a safe area where he's going to meet this informant? No. Again, I'm trying to leave you behind to be safe. It is literally a place where gangs execute people by setting them on fire.
Rachel:Metal
Margie:Yeah, really battle right. And Daniels like maybe I should say here the safe or house and not calm.
Rachel:You know, the safe house that someone tried to get into to kidnapper? Well,
Margie:yeah, they've now moved to a different type of house. Right that yeah, and Reagan's like, fuck that you're not leaving me. And so they have this really heated argument about trust. And then Reagan's like, his lips are sexy, and she tries on kissing him
Rachel:what? And I don't think I've ever meant this as much as I do right now.
Margie:But What the actual fuck? What the fuck just happened? Yeah, what the fuck just yeah. Um, oh my. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I will say this. Daniel gets consent at every stage, which I have to give him credit for. He's like,
Rachel:not every book is very overwhelming consent. Yeah. But
Margie:like the literally only like in the title of this book.
Rachel:I don't think there's any I know, I don't count that. I don't count that.
Margie:Um, so Daniel relents and Regan is allowed to go to the mafia murder festival area. Sorry. That's hilarious. I was in such shock. Right. So the mafia murder festival area. The informant tells Reagan and Daniel where Daniels where the emperor is who happens to also be his younger sister. His sister, Naomi
Rachel:is the Emperor. Yes.
Margie:Is that okay? That's actually kind of awesome. Yeah. Um, it's also the person that Petrovich is looking for. Okay, so it's kind of an so Daniels and kind of in between a rock and a hard place because he wants to find a sister but like Vaseline is also the person who wants his sister and he doesn't want Vasily to have a sister if he finds her. She says
Rachel:this is fucking convoluted. I'm so glad I'm glad you convinced me to drink wine for this right?
Margie:So then I convinced you because my arm right then the sniper sniper shoots the informant in the head and for that's the sniper not doing I'm still
Rachel:counting it it is a dead body in this body would have kind of five because
Margie:we also had the guy that Nick kill. I'll take it. Okay, fine five. So then the sniper shooting form in the head and tries to kill Reagan and Daniel but they managed to survive. They head to another really shitty hotel. And while Reaganism this part So, whilst Regan is in the shower, she sees a spider. So then she has Daniel come in and wash her hair, where she's moaning and really enjoy yet. And so after that she's clean. He practically pushes her out of the shower so we can take care of his huge boner by fantasizing about her. I'm describing this because it goes on for a while, like a pages where he's describing this. Yeah, yeah. Just take another drink that we both do. She crawls into bed, naked. And after he gets out of the shower, has him joined her bottom line. They both end up masturbating together.
Rachel:Emoji. Yeah, Margie. Yeah, look at me, Margie. What the fuck?
Margie:Okay, I did warn you and you said let's do I
Rachel:did and I still think it's important to do
Unknown:it. I still want that fucking okay. Okay, okay, suddenly masturbate together. It's really weird. I am
Rachel:so proud of you for reading this book. You kept saying how bad it was. And I'll admit, I maybe didn't believe you to the extent I knew it was gonna be bad. I knew it was gonna get I had no idea.
Margie:Okay, you know what, I don't even believe you have a little drama queen. But like whatever
Rachel:I didn't. I knew it was gonna be really bad. I was expecting land Well, bad. I was not expecting this. Oh, this is bad. I was not expecting real
Margie:bad things. Well, here's like, like real is in real life bad? No, it's not even that because it's not real life is just horrible. So here's the difference between land whale in this bill, this book is that land will could actually happen. Yeah, and variably happen. This in my mind is a fantasy. It couldn't it 99.9% of the time. And I want to emphasize this. It does not happen like this. It just doesn't again, will provide sources. Yeah, I mean, girls are kidnapped. And you know, it happens. But like, it's just so rare. It's not the status quo of human trafficking. So yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And you know, especially in the United States,
Rachel:well, and you know, like even saying, Okay, this is a book, it's for entertainment. Sure. Well, let's assume that this happens to be one of the point 00 1% of cases that happen like this. That doesn't make it something that we should
Margie:remember. romanticize.
Rachel:YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. I'm going to drink more wine now.
Margie:Okay. So, um, they leave the room to go get food, they come back, the room is ransacked, and which doesn't make any sense to me at all, because they're looking for her. So why would they ransack their room and say, put up a big red flag of hey, we are still looking for. Okay, all right, does not make sense at all, at all. So they had to a super fancy hotel and stay there. Because they're like, more security here. People are gonna be watching. Okay, if anything crazy happens, I'm going to call the police. Okay, so they stay at the Ritz basically. And that's when they finally have sex. Gray. Yeah. Wonderful. And it's all of the sex in this book is not written well. It's written, maybe because of my perspective, but I'm like, this is horribly awkward. This is just horribly awkward.
Rachel:So I'm not saying that this is the case. But I say this because it's something that actually comes up in two weeks from now, I episode. The idea of mistaking adrenaline for love. Good point, is very interesting to me. I'm not saying that's what's happening here. I would hate to invalidate her emotions and feelings. But at the same time, this entire plot is rather suspect to me there's also
Margie:only like two things that they ever connect on in this book that isn't about the experiences that they had. Well, that you know, that
Rachel:does nothing to Yeah, exact prove their point. It makes honestly points for me. Great. Awesome, keep going.
Margie:Okay, she's so um, they are interrupted after this glorious sex, however, by Vasily Petrovich Reagan recognizes him as the asshole who originally sold her.
Rachel:Jesus Christ. Okay, hang on while I go, Hang on alright, I put my pegs in my cork board, and I've connected my string. And I think I'm starting to follow it now because that's what I fucking need to figure out what the hell is going on in this book? Bear Bear I've done my Foley work for the day.
Margie:Okay, so then Reagan thinks that Daniel is with the mafia since he knows Vaseline Daniels like no, I just got a tip from him, I swear. But that's kind of like the quote unquote climax of their relationship where it's kind of like at the tipping point of like, I don't trust you know, you should, I promise I'm here to protect you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that's that moment. Okay. Um, so, okay, so we find out that the hacker that Vasily is looking for also happens to be Naomi, which he does not know is being held Daniel Now Daniel knows but neither the other two now. Okay. Um, it's being held at Mr. Fraser's compound.
Rachel:It's amazing. All this wraps up a nice tiny little
Margie:bow? Yes. It's he's also known as Hudson and he's just like this super evil mustache twirling guy who happens to have a shitload of money. Okay.
Rachel:I mean, at least rich people are able because that's pretty common. Right?
Margie:That's so true. But um, so Vasily and Regan come up with a plan. Basically, gift wrap Regan give her to Hudson with a GPS tracker, like in her bra or whatever. So then she's charged with finding Daniel sister Naomi. Also the Emperor, and Daniel Vasily will then sneak in to get both girls out. Everything is right is right.
Rachel:Why would she agreed to this? Because she's in
Margie:love with him.
Rachel:He didn't mean that I was gonna have to cut out a whole bunch of loud noises from our audio. I would be smacking the top of our goddamn microphone boxes.
Margie:What the actual shit? Yeah, fucking shit. Daniel is obviously like, fuck that. No, but Vaseline and Reagan both insists. So this is part of where Reagan is. Basically, like, if you don't come to get me, I am going to make them kill me. I'm gonna I'm not saying with this guy. All right, I'm gonna make them shoot me,
Rachel:y'all. If you have hung around this far. Please, please, please, please, please hang around for two weeks from now. Yes. Where we have a plot that is tangentially related to this and actually makes sense and is a very good book. Listen, pause.
Margie:Should we be concerned? No. Are you sure? I
Rachel:again, find it really really important that we talk about this shit. Okay. I think it's important,
Margie:because nobody is Do you think that's very true? Nobody is. Okay, that makes me feel a lot better.
Rachel:Yeah. Okay. No, this is this. Someone needs to talk about this shit. Right? Let it be us. Right? If it's gonna be anyone Fuck it. If people don't like it. Well, yeah, it's uncomfortable. It sucks. But you can deal with it real? It's real. It's exactly no no girl. I will get up on my fucking high horses. goddamn time.
Margie:Um, so there's this part where Reagan is basically like, if you don't come to get me I'm going to make them kill me. I'm not saying with Hudson and Daniel's responses. It's not alright. There's a fierce possessiveness and his eyes as he pulls me close and begins to press feverish kisses to my skin. Your mind Regan Porter, you don't get to decide if you die or not. Because if you do, you're destroying me too.
Unknown:situation where she was trapped and possessed by people. And you're
Margie:gonna say that you own her? No, no. No, I know. So sorry. Drink it for Reagan.
Rachel:This is a really good wine to
Margie:one rock guy. What's the wine called?
Unknown:It's complicated.
Margie:I know. So yeah, that makes me and that also it just I'm just really wrong on so many levels. Just you can keep keep unwrapping it like a present. Um, it's her life and what the bottom line of what I came to with that is that her life isn't what's important. It's how you affect me and my life that is most important. Also, that was the layer that I on wrapped that in that she's literally being
Rachel:portrayed as an object. Yeah. But yeah, like literally and figuratively. Right entire book.
Margie:Yeah. I mean, it's like it's like, he got out of the situation. So he's an AR boy, but all of his thoughts
Rachel:homeboy homeboys always homeboy.
Margie:Okay. Anyway, I'm sorry. It's just because like I like I said, I read this book. So I think I tried to find the light at the end of the day. That's
Rachel:fine. I mean, you have to rationalize it anyway. You can't feel anything is I'm that third party like what the fuck?
Margie:Yeah. Okay, so the IRS had a note after that that just said, Just Dear Lord help me.
Rachel:Yes, you're done. I'm there, honey, I'm there.
Margie:So Daniel sends Reagan in not giving her all the pertinent info that she even needs because he doesn't tell Reagan that the emperor is also Naomi and sister. What? Why would you do that? I don't know.
Rachel:Isn't a goddamn rom com you're selling someone into the person you tried to buy her at first, but told her to break her? Because she wasn't.
Margie:No I know. I know. I know. I know. So Reagan is delivered the Hudson and it is the creepiest bladder is she food literally. So she's she's, they drop her off there because it's Hudson's birthday. So they drop her off with a birthday card and say that she's literally like, basically a present from the mafia dressed in lingerie. I can't breathe. I know. I yeah, I can't. And so Reagan is delivered the Hudson and it's the creepiest exchange where Reagan calls Hudson, her master? Yeah. And basically he has her stripped naked and handcuffed in the basement. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. Rachel, baby. Look into my eyes. Oh, please. Please look at my eyes. This is the worst book I've ever read I never found out that this became a physical book. I need to figure that out.
Rachel:Guys. I'm actually almost crying because of how bad this is. Hurts me.
Margie:So reconnect Christ towards the end. Yeah, we are. We're good. Yeah. Okay. Reagan is crying in the creepy, horrible torture room. Oh, and also there's like a bunch of sex toys down there that are quote unquote, very much for one sided pleasure. And here comes the over the top. This is the so I will fully admit
Rachel:I look of sheer abject horror.
Margie:I don't. I know some things about autism. Not a lot. But I still feel like this is not a good representation of autism. So I'm not going to act like I'm an expert. I'm not sure. I also feel like this is not a great read. Just wondering where
Rachel:that was gonna come in.
Margie:Like what Naomi has autism. His younger sister who's the hacker Here we go. So um, Naomi comes into the creepy ass basement torture right there. That she says silence. I told Hudson that if he wants me to be as Emperor, I have to have silence. Silence makes the atoms happy. If the atoms are happy, my brain functions at a higher level. You are making my atoms very happy. I've never heard you making sound like that before. Holy shit. I know. Like I know. Like I said, I'm not an expert on autism. But I'm pretty sure that is a really bad just over over the top representation of what autism is. Okay, so Naomi antis Reagan put some clothes on her. And the ties are up again near the computer where Naomi is working, because she has to be tied up. She knows that. So Naomi knows that like in order for Hudson stay happy. Reagan has to be tied up somewhere, but she wants to tire up somewhere where Reagan is both gonna be quiet, and gonna be more comfortable. And she also put Yeah, she puts like a sleeve shirt on Reagan. So she's a little bit more comfortable.
Rachel:He raped her at this point. No,
Margie:he's not. He never gets I will say this. He never gets a chance to rape her. Fantastic. Okay, sorry. But of course, Daniel comes to both of the rescues and I just hate him right now. Because he knows Naomi does not like to be touched. And yet he hugs her and says, I don't want to hear how you don't like to be touched. That's not going to fly by me today.
Rachel:Listeners you can't see my face. Right. And that's it's I can't words. I'm good. I can just face keep going. Because I know nobody's done.
Margie:I'm not even touching where to God. Thank Christ. Yes. So they get out of the compound. Homeboy has gotten shot and gotten shot in the process. They head to the hospital immediately, but in the throes of Oh, no. My boy got shot, fastly grabs Naomi and takes off with her. Okay. Okay, so I told you all before, how we here in this book, how Daniel's dick and his frickin needs. Like I've heard about his deck every other page. I hate it so much. I think it is whatever. If you guess that almost immediately after he wakes up at the hospital that they have sex in the hospital? Yes. On the hospital bed while he's connected to tubing. That's got
Rachel:to call some nurses.
Margie:Nope. Okay.
Rachel:I'm broke. You hate me?
Unknown:You think you're broken?
Rachel:Fair right hair cut. How'd you get all the really shitty ones?
Margie:Okay, so re the HEAR FROM Petrovich and Naomi, who apparently are all having their own adventure, like saving the world or some shit with hacking, so
Rachel:I'm gonna take a wild guess I'm going to hate every word that comes out of my mouth in next 10 seconds. Naomi Petrovich, probably the subject
Margie:of books. I don't know. I don't know. That's what I thought too. But I was like, I don't want to hear any more about this. No representation. No, okay. No, I don't. I don't want to hear it at all. Um, so Reagan and Daniel head back to head back to Minneapolis. Finally, to meet up with Daisy and Nick after all this horribleness and this is Reagan's reaction to meeting Daisy again, Daisy, who fell for Hitman and got me into this mess. I shove any bitterness down and hug her back. It's not Daisy's fault that any of this happened. And while not glad I was sold into slavery. I have Daniel Now Daniel is all that matters. Margie,
Rachel:Margie, your job is going to be to reach out to your professor. Okay. And contact them who said yes, your job is to do that. Okay.
Margie:We'll just email him tomorrow, please. Oh, but he's awesome. Um, that's pretty much how the story ends. Um, they, Daniel and Regan start their life together. And they have a happily ever after. So in response to this episode, and he never finds his sister again. No, he pretty much is like, Oh, she's fine. What the fuck? So in response to this episode, please visit the Polaris Project and hope for justice.org
Rachel:Yes, that's actually where I went to find the definitions of John and everything.
Margie:So this is really great resources.
Rachel:Again, all of this is going to be in our show notes. And we'll probably honestly release a special episode after this or in conjunction with this. I'm talking to people who actually know this shit. Because we are fortunate enough to live near a university that has a human like, like you said, they have like a World Summit on it. Like this is important. Like this is a thing. Yeah. I really, really think we should reach out to them. Yeah,
Margie:we should we should be totally shut. Okay. And also, which is really cool. Who this is our resident boy for this episode. Okay. All right. It's Ashton Kutcher. Yes, Ashton Kutcher is amazing. A ton of advocacy for giant sex trafficking with his organization Thorne and helped create a software that saved 6000 children from sex trafficking me amazing talk about just That's awesome. So this is the next thing I want to point out is because we went a lot into human trafficking and about how unrealistic this is yeah, please do not want so watch taken as something that will tell you what what trafficking is not okay. That is not what it is at all. Yes, do not go to Europe and get kidnapped you are not safe and get shipped off to another country. It almost never happens like that. But here are your general indicators. being fearful a policeman authorities this is for more just in general right. being fearful of the track goal or believing their lives or family members lives are at risk if they escape, exhibit signs of physical and psychological trauma ie anxiety, lack of memory of recent events bruising untreated conditions, be fearful of telling others about their situation be unaware that they have been trafficked and believe they're simply in a bad job. have limited freedom of movement be unpaid or paid very little have limited access to health care seem to be in debt to someone have no passport and mentioned to someone that someone or mentioned that someone else is holding their passport be regularly moved to avoid detection, sexual exploitation. Ordinary residential housing slash hotels are being used more and more for brothels. People forced into sexual exploitation may be moved between brothels sometimes from city to city, sleeping on work province premises display a limited amount of clothing of which a large proportion of sexual display substance misuse, before intimidated or coerced into providing sexual services be subjected to abduction, assault or rape, be unable to travel freely, pig ie picked up and dropped off at work location by another person had money for their services provided or collected by another person. And if you want a more realistic version of human trafficking and a book, I highly recommend the book sold by Patricia McCormick. Okay, it's still fiction, but it's it's not romantic at all. It is just very stark and very eye opening. And if you've never like heard about human trafficking or really know what it is, it's a really good eye opener book to it. So that was one of the first books that I read when I was in high school and I was like, Holy crap. I never knew that this is what trafficking was actually like, right? So that's the book that I recommend. Hell,
Rachel:y'all. It's hot. I mean, it's absolutely possible that you've like interacted with someone who was human trafficked, and you had no idea. Yeah, because it's not something that's like, they don't walk around with it. You know, star-spangled banner bikini with a sign on there just says I'm being trafficked like this. The shit happens and it's under everyone's nose. Yeah, this is not yes. Okay. So if you've hung out with us this long. Yeah. Thank you. Really appreciate you doing this because again, I've ranted about this, honestly, I'll probably keep part of it in the episode, how important it is to talk about this shit because nobody is. And I'm going to argue that we don't even deign this book with a rating. Yeah, this is a zero. If there's this even anything,
Margie:the problem with this book is that it's romanticizing human trafficking, and therefore it can't even be considered a romance novel. It shouldn't be. It should not be like all considered a romance novel if you
Rachel:Okay, let's assume you want to make again, a novel about that point. 00 1% of crazy experiences happen. It should not be romance. No. Because it's not romance because
Margie:it should be like a stupid Liam Neeson movie is what it should be. Yeah, that's it. Like, because it should be presented at a level of fantasy, right? Just does not happen.
Rachel:Right? And this is fantasy, but it you shouldn't this should not be romanticized in any,
Margie:any way, in any way. Um, and I was telling Rachel, like, I, you know, the first five minutes of reading this book, I was super concerned. Yeah. Because I was like, I don't know if we should even talk about this. Right.
Rachel:And I'm, I'm usually the ones like, Bitch do it. Yeah. Because part of it is like, Oh, this won't be that bad. This will be it's like, it's like the Fabio book, which has yet to come out yet. But good will be there. Yeah, um, where it's like, oh, this will be so bad. It's funny. And then it's so bad. It's just bad. And that's, yeah, it's I'm Yeah. So I'm usually on the pushes for that reason. And then it's always worse. And I think and then I'm always like, No, this is important. So
Margie:now the next thing that we're going to do to make it a little lighter, because you're right, we should just skip right over ratings because it's zero.
Rachel:It's don't ever ever spend money on this IR Whoa, this is? Well, this is the first one that I would say I'm willing to completely call out the authors on. I will call the shit out. Llanddwyn Margie wanted to call him out on I will call people out on this one. Because this is not okay. Okay, more about the office. See, so okay, I'm going to get up on my high horse just a little bit. Right. Um, I've been drinking, so it's going to happen. Let's go. So, I've had people ask me, especially when I first post a recording, when we first started floating this idea to people. The A lot of guys usually and you know, it just in my experience, mostly guys have been asking this. Well, but Rosenbaum novels? I mean, you read it for the smart, right? That's the point. Right? And I would argue yes, to an extent. But there is a very important distinction between porn and romance. porn, watching it for sex. When was the last time you saw you watch porn for a relationship? Right? Right. You don't pay attention to the relationship with a book, romance novel, specifically. There has to be a relationship there. Because it's usually like a 400 page book. It's longer book, there has to be relationship. And the relationship is marketed as romance porn is just porn, right? A romance novel shows a romantic relationship to people who may not 100% know what a healthy romantic relationship is. That is the main difference. So yeah, sure. A lot of us read it for smart because we want smart and I like books more than I like watching porn, right? Be honest. Yeah. But in porn, there's no romantic relationship that's being marketed as a romance it as like something that is a healthy relationship in a book there is and this shit is not healthy.
Margie:Well, also, and there's a difference too, in the book world between erotica. Yeah, and romance. Absolutely. This is not this is not erotic. Ad. Romance. Yeah. And yeah, not not, you know, like, even. So like, that's really going into the relationship in this novel. But even if you just get, I mean, like, we shouldn't even write this, but like, the story is just not good. Writing. It's just not good. Like, none of this is okay. And the characters, they literally find like one one or two things that they're like that are about the experiences that they've been through that again, and connect. We'll talk
Rachel:about this a little bit, two weeks from now, the whole like mistaking adrenaline and excitement for love. Like that's very possible a fit possibly a thing, but this is not
Margie:this is also in the discussion. She does mention this in the book. It's very Stockholm Syndrome.
Rachel:Yeah, it absolutely is. She
Margie:doesn't have anyone else that she can trust. Right? So, you know, even like, I don't care, honestly, with Daniel. I'm like, I don't care if she is like telling you you're putting a gun to your head and or not even that, but like,
Rachel:if she's like you get her home, you get her get her help. Uh huh. And then maybe eventually down the line we form a relationship but it's not. Not now it really feels like he's taking advantage Yes.
Margie:Yep. So loot Lee.
Rachel:Oh God, no, this book does not have a rating. I'm calling out both of the authors. What are the names? Okay, so
Margie:what Have them is here and her name is Jessica Claire Jessica Claire. So it's a pen name for Jill miles. Great. So that's that we have it. Dude, I guess yeah, she's been an incurable romantic since childhood. She reads all the naughty parts of books first looks for a dirty joke and just about everything. That's to say that the Little House on the Prairie books should have been steamier.
Rachel:Oh, oh. I grew up with a little house in the prairie. I have the entire set of Laura Ingalls Wilder couldn't get its children.
Unknown:Yes, the book is about children. Oh, that's war by children growing up on the prairie.
Margie:All right, here we go. After devouring hundreds of paperback romances, mythology books, and archaeological Tomes. She decided to read a few books of her own stories with a wild adventure, sharper banter and lots of super sexy situations. She prefers her heroes alpha and half dressed her heroines witty and she loves nothing more than watching them overcome adversity to fall into bed together.
Rachel:Okay, all of that is fine. You're literally grabbing the ball. I am. All of that is fine. And none of that is what is not his book. No, none of that is what happened. No, all of that is fine. And none of it's what's in this book. All right, other lady hit me with it.
Margie:I don't know. They're here. Let me see.
Rachel:Um, also I want to know what the generating Are you? Okay, here we go.
Margie:Oh, it got I think it got like a 4.17 What the fuck 4.13 Okay, Jen Frederick here. Let's find her. Oh, god, she's I want
Rachel:y'all. I am almost through this wine bottle and we still have another episode record. This is why challenging like
Margie:get to the author. Okay, here we got author profile. Oh, they don't hear I got to look her up on margin. Give me a second. Holy crap. I thought I was reading for the row. I feel a little better now. Jen fresh finish the bottle. Good. Oh, here we go. Okay, she has a website. Frederick. Romance. I'm gonna see if I can find on Wikipedia that says anything about her because I can't find new there's not there's not really a bio by about Jen. Frederick.
Rachel:It's very possible. This isn't the case. But I'm wondering if it's a dude with a pen name. Maybe that's a very common thing and romance novels. I don't Yeah, it's pretty. I mean, a guy writing romance novel and saying, oh, it's written by a woman. Yeah, more women
Margie:are likely to read it that way. Then Jane Austen. Pretty much.
Rachel:Alright, let's wrap this fucking shit up. Margie turn. What did you read when you were dealing with this shit? Tell me.
Margie:Did I read? Anything? I'll
Rachel:take any media that you consume that wasn't this.
Margie:Oh, I did rewatch sensei. Because it's literally my favorite TV show. And if you've never seen it, you have to watch it. Good. If you've never Oh my god. It's like, just so fucking good.
Rachel:Good. I love it. So I'm glad that you watch something that meant a lot to you.
Margie:Oh, when I did also watch Sabrina season
Rachel:two. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Nice.
Margie:I love Sabrina.
Rachel:I'm sorry. I'm just I'm so broken by this. You're broken. It's okay. We have an uplifter next week.
Margie:Mr. Mr. Freeze is not gonna break me.
Rachel:Would you say he had a cold personality this plot was very chilling. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. I'm feeling very Oh,
Unknown:shut up. I wasn't gonna be no, no. No, I wanna know, you can't leave us they're gonna leave us. They're
Rachel:frozen in shock right now. Oh, my. So real quick, I want to go ahead and mention to everybody again, please, please visit please check out check out textual tension pa comm where we have our show notes and we have all sorts of resources and contact information. If you need help, please reach out or if you suspect someone might be a victim of human trafficking. Lee's are places you can reach out. Yes. Um, we'll put those onto our website. We'll post them on Instagram and Twitter, where our Instagram is textual tension pod, right? Yes, Twitter is to God wouldn't put some on our Facebook which is again textual tension pod and our email initial touch pod@gmail.com So we we're gonna we're gonna put these resources out everywhere. Keep your eyes out for an additional bonus episode that we very possibly will do with us. Who's the experts here at UD. If for some reason we can't get them before this episode comes out, I will be hopefully interviewing them very shortly. So this will come out. If it's not already it will come out soon. That's something I think is really important for us to do. So I'm really gonna try to push for
Margie:that. So I'll put more in my show notes guys about how I feel about
Rachel:you're gonna have Okay, including my reactions, because I know you guys wanted to see my faces.
Margie:Oh my god. Oh, and also we are fully calling out the author. Yes, absolutely. This is not okay. This is not okay. It's not in our name. Yeah. In our name. And if you if band, please come after us. I would love a discussion. Yeah,
Rachel:yeah. We we are always willing to sit down and have an actual open, like relaxed discussion with you about anything you believe if you think we're wrong, please call us out. And we would love to talk to you about it. And you know, if we're wrong, we're wrong. We're wrong. Totally fine. Something that I don't think
Margie:they run around. That's all. All that it means is that we need to hear a different perspective.
Rachel:Yeah. And then we're totally fine. We're absolutely willing to change our opinions based on evidence, actual evidence based arguments that say this one would be tough to this one.
Unknown:Really, Tom?
Margie:This is like a flat earther.
Rachel:Oh, flat earth is my pet my pet. No. So if you guys I will say if you tweet at us, we will very gladly not send you anything telling you how wonderful and romanticized sexual trafficking should be. Instead, we will send you a random quote from one of our favorite romance novels, preferably out of context. Um, big thanks to Eleanor you for the use of her song. Oh, love the album be held. I'm really sorry that that had to come after that horrible episode. Yes. But check it out. It's a great album. Don't let this episode color the fact that it's a great album. Yeah. So we'll be back in two weeks, I promise with a good book. I read it. I love it. I'm in the middle of the second one. So promise, it's good. I managed to always get the good ones. I'm still going to try to find a terrible one. Just for you, Margie, just try to find a really good one. Yes. All right. Maybe next time. We'll see. Okay. All right. So thank you guys so much for listening, especially if you hung out for this long. I'm really sorry. This was not a great one. But again, yeah, I find it really a
Margie:collaboration in a couple in a few weeks. We ended up having
Rachel:I know, we talked about last time, we ended up having a little bit of technical difficulties with our recording. So we're gonna have to re record which is fine. It'll be really fun. But keep your eyes out. We'll be there with her them and it's a blast.
Margie:It's so good. Oh, it was so good. They also just check them out.
Rachel:Yeah. started listening to them like all the time and they're fantastic. I love awesome. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys again and hang in there. Please reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you. So we will see you in two weeks. All right. Bye, guys.