When Safety Is An Illusion, What Does Love Protect

A prank at a small-town festival. A king without a crown sitting in your kitchen. A necklace in the clearing that turns into a fight, a kiss, and a question you can’t unknow. We dive into Kate Stewart’s Exodus and follow every raw thread—love, loyalty, manipulation, and the price of silence—until it knots or snaps.

We start where the lies echo loudest: Sean and Dom vanish, then reappear on schedule to find Tobias “playing house.” That single collision cracks the story wide open. We unpack Roman’s factory, the hidden deaths that fueled the Ravenhood, and why Tobias shares just enough truth to control the narrative. From French lessons and chess boards to a tattoo forced under the banner of safety, we call the ethics by name: consent, coercion, and the way secrecy steals choice. When Miami shows up, we sit in the crossfire. Dom lays down his gun, casts a quiet future that won’t come, and makes the choice that reshapes the series. Grief takes the wheel.

Exodus refuses tidy closure, and so do we. A time jump delivers a raven on a contract, a bar that turns away ghosts, and a brotherhood that morphs under the weight of survivor’s guilt. We challenge the miscommunication trope, weigh Tessa’s frost against Sean’s soft loyalty, and ask whether Tobias is protector or predator when desire outruns duty. The romance burns hotter, the stakes feel sharper, and the thriller edge bites down—because when safety is an illusion, every promise is a gamble.

If you crave book talk that doesn’t look away—clear analysis, messy hearts, and hard questions—press play. Then tell us: did the ends justify the means, and whose love felt true when it cost the most? Subscribe, share with a friend who loves morally gray heroes, and leave a review with your verdict.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage: Exodus

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Racked by Fiction podcast.

Amanda 0:06

Yes, it is.

Emma 0:07

Did I read it on my lunch break?

Amanda 0:08

Yeah. I made I made notes because I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz.

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything's for a great while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Racked by Fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability.

Amanda 0:31

So we're back again. Talk about Exodus. Yes. The second book in the Raven Hood series. Yeah. By Kate Stewart. Thank God.

Emma 0:42

We're into the meat and potatoes finally of this damn series.

Amanda 0:46

Literally the meat and potatoes.

Emma 0:48

So good. Um okay, so we finished off with Flock where we realized that we're meeting the real Frenchman. Yes. What we missed last time was the exit of our boys, Sean and Dom. Yes. Where uh you get in the very beginning of Exodus, you get a flashback um of the Triple Falls Apple Festival and how Cecilia has been so heartbroken because the boys have left. Right. And she hasn't heard from them and she doesn't know what's going on or why her heart is broken or why they haven't told her, yeah, updated her, checked on her anything. Right. Yeah. Where the silence has come from. She has no idea.

Amanda 1:38

Right.

Emma 1:40

And she pulls herself out of bed and she's, you know, drifting through her life and finds herself at the festival downtown Triple Falls. And Sean materializes. And he is, you know, uh, a vision. She thinks he's, you know, she's seeing a ghost and she doesn't she still doesn't understand what's happening. Right. And he hangs out for a couple minutes. They dance. She and then uh he says, you know, I gotta go now. And she's like, what? What are you talking about? Right. Why tries to beg him to stay. Yeah. Because why would why would he show up and then bail?

unknown 2:28

Yeah.

Emma 2:28

And so she chases him through the festival, and he cuts around a corner, and there is Dom and his car, his beloved car standing. He says nothing. Dom doesn't speak. And Cecilia is just left with this parting you know, physical ache from literally watching them leave this time.

Amanda 2:58

With no explanation, no nothing, no timeline, anything. No where am I going.

Emma 3:04

Right. No why am I going. Uh no explanation as to what they did to her at the end of Flock.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Mm-hmm.

Emma 3:15

At the garage when they tore into her but not, but like it with silence. Yeah.

Amanda 3:25

With songs.

Emma 3:26

Yeah.

unknown 3:26

Yeah.

Emma 3:28

Who's that song by? Cecilia by who?

Amanda 3:30

Cecilia was by Because Cecilia was by Diamond and Garfunkel. Oh, okay. But they also played Um Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band.

Emma 3:46

Which is so sad.

Amanda 3:47

Yes.

Emma 3:48

You can just imagine Cecilia's embarrassment in that moment where she's standing there. Right. And the all the Ravenhood brothers are laughing, and it's this giant setup that they've created, and she is the butt of the joke. And so they disappear in silence like a you know puff of smoke. She has no answers. And in walks, um our Frenchman, the real Frenchman, Tobias. Your buddy's here. And Tobias is just a big giant bastard. The biggest. Yeah.

Amanda 4:39

And he shows up when she's naked out of the pool.

Enter Tobias: Power And Control

Emma 4:43

Yep. I'd say, how do we how did we get here? How Tobias comes in when Cecilia is just trying to live her best life, okay? Right. But it makes his entrance just pisses you right the fuck off. Because you get the uh you go through Flock the whole time and you think that Tobias is or that Dom is the Frenchman, um, with his slight accent and all of that. And then all of a sudden, and by sudden, you know, 400 pages later, uh, Tobias is the actual Frenchman. Right. With his very heavy accent and his uh swapping between French and English. Yes. And they're fighting. Cecilia is sick of it. She's over it. You know, she'd been pushed around, she's been lied to, she's been manipulated for the last 400 pages. And Tobias is just walking in thinking he's the king, and Cecilia's like, no, not today. Nope. Not today, buddy. That doesn't last long. No, because Tobias is the actual king. Yes. Um, so we get our introduction of Tobias, and he is he goes all in on his manipulation tactics where he's he moves into her house. Basically, yeah. He sets up his own headquarters uh without asking, without any sort of prior conversation or authorization. Wow, buddy, look at that. And she's so angry. Yeah. And I remember thinking to myself that she should just hold on to that anger because you're right where she does let it go so fast. She, you know, bends. Yeah. She folds. Yeah, she lets her loneliness take over. And you get the first scene where she comes in to her kitchen and Tobias is in there cooking. Right. And she's answering, she's like, What are you? This is my house. He's like, Well, it's not really your house. Yeah. And then he exposes, you know, his knowledge of uh her father and um which is in that moment more information than she has known up until this point about the Ravenhood. Right. And while Tobias is manipulative and has, you know, some tactics that probably he could have, you know, uh smoothed out a little.

Amanda 8:02

Yeah, they're questionable. Mm-hmm.

Emma 8:05

I do think that he provides far more information. And I like from the beginning, from the moment he meets her, he lets the little things slip. Yeah.

Amanda 8:17

He is definitely more open, which is surprising with how strict he was on Sean and Dom.

Emma 8:25

Right.

Amanda 8:25

With giving away information. So it's funny how it's okay for him to do it, but it wasn't okay for them to do it.

Emma 8:33

Well, like I said, he's the king.

Amanda 8:35

Right.

Emma 8:36

God forbid anybody else spill the beans, but Tivis is allowed. You know?

unknown 8:42

Yeah.

Amanda 8:43

There's just a lot of things that could have gone very differently if she had been informed from the beginning.

Emma 8:50

Yeah, well, everything could have gone differently if she had known what the purpose was. Because where do we even find out what the purpose? When does Tobias actually like break down and realize that she's trustworthy?

Amanda 9:07

Yeah. Not until the end of Exodus.

Emma 9:10

Yeah.

Amanda 9:10

So even Well, and even into parts of Finish Line.

Playing House: Chess, French, Lies

Emma 9:15

Finish line, she's still figuring out. Yeah. But and that's not even from the main, like the key characters that are exposing bits and pieces of the actual reason why the Ravenhood was started and who the key players are. And so he's takes over her house, essentially. He's there all the time. They drink and eat and play chess and practice French. Yeah. Practice he teaches her French and they kind of form this unusual attachment to one another.

Amanda 9:59

They play house. They do.

Emma 10:02

And that's how Cecilia views it too, though. Is that they are playing house. She sees this future unfold with a man who came out of nowhere, seemingly, to her. And the two that disappeared disappear off the page, too. Like her brain, it empties of Sean and Dum. And then while Tobias is still working behind the scenes on what the, you know, his main purpose, the mission, um after sending the boys away, essentially fall in love. And I don't want to skip over the like heart-wrenching scene of them essentially like physically fighting and having sex in the meetup. Right. I don't want to stop that. I don't want to like skip over that because that piece of you do get.

Amanda 11:15

She had left and when she she'd gone on the date with the other guy, the random other guy. And then when she gets back, there's the necklace.

Emma 11:24

There's the necklace, and she goes out to the clearing. And she's sprinting. Um because and she's screaming at the top of her lungs their names. She's looking for them. Right. Uh, she doesn't understand, you know, why how did this get there? Uh again, in walks the Tobias' bastard ass. What how does he get there? My my thing about Tobias is that he is seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Right. Um, up until now, because you get bits and pieces of his influence up until this point. So he is everywhere, but he doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Right.

Emma 12:07

Um, and that's intentional. His non-existence is intentional. Um, but he's there. He is getting, you know, he hears her screaming, and he realizes that she has this that she has wings. And she he does not understand where they came from, why does she have them? Who gifted her with them, and he goes to take it from her. And they physically fight over it. But then they end up fucking. Yeah.

Amanda 12:44

Yeah, he rips the necklace off of her.

Emma 12:49

Whoa. Yeah, he takes the necklace from her, rips it off of her body, and then she's screaming, that's mine, that's mine, you can't take that from me. They they gave it to me. Right. And he just says, Who's they?

Amanda 13:09

And then gives her grief for not being able to determine which of the boys it was. Yeah.

unknown 13:15

Yeah.

Emma 13:17

He's like, You don't even know. You don't even know who it was. She's like, I know they did. And he's like, but which one?

unknown 13:25

Yeah.

Emma 13:25

Who was in your house? And she goes through that like denial stage pretty almost immediately, where somebody was there, and then she's like, Well, but if they're gone, then maybe it was Tyler. Maybe Tyler snuck in and they made a phone call and he's, you know. Right. Um, and all the while Tobias is basically just like standing there laughing at her, and then she launches herself at him, and then he trips and falls into her vagina, and then all of a sudden, they're having this like wild, yeah. It's like like a wrestling match outside. Right? And then he finishes and they're done, and he stands up and he drops the necklace on her chest or whatever.

Amanda 14:16

Hot take. I think he put it on her pillow. That's my interesting. Do you really? I think it was him.

The Necklace, The Clearing, The Clash

Emma 14:25

I guess I didn't really question where it came from. Um because at this point the assumption because of the silence is that the boys are gone. Right. Um, how slash why would they have done that, you know? The betrayal is so hot at that point. But I didn't, I never thought that it was Tobias because he is so angry about it. He does not understand how someone gave her wings and it wasn't like voted on or discussed or but he's so he's so manipulative.

Amanda 15:08

Yeah. That I could see him doing that and acting like it wasn't something that he did. Oh, okay. I could see that. It was a way to lure her out because he knew that she was going on the date.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Mm-hmm.

Amanda 15:22

And because she calls him out for knowing that information later.

Emma 15:27

Yeah.

Amanda 15:27

And then so if he knew that she was out, he had ample opportunity to go put it in the house.

Emma 15:32

To be there.

Amanda 15:33

And then to also be in the clearing, knowing that she would probably go look for Dom or Sean.

Emma 15:39

I could see that. So she has wings. He is stomping on her. He bails out again, and at that point, you don't get any answers as to why Tobias was there. Right. Who did the wings come from? You don't know, right? And you move forward in the book and you haven't you still don't know. But then they form this attachment after their wrestling match of fucking, and it's they like you said, they start to play house. And they're making pancakes, or I'm pretty sure it's pancakes, and they are chasing each other outside, out through the house, into the back gardens, and uh, you know, your breath is stolen out of your chest and you vomit all over the floor because Dom and Sean walk back in.

unknown 16:40

Yeah.

Emma 16:42

While they're like mid flirt session. Yeah, well, like rolling around on the ground. Yeah. In the garden. Because of cinnamon.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Mm-hmm.

Emma 16:53

All over everything.

unknown 16:54

Yeah.

Emma 16:56

Okay. So you get to just under halfway through Exodus, and she knows the entire plan about the Ravenhood and her dad. Right. She knows the like what their plan is with him, why what they believe he did, which super spoiler, um, is uh that they killed well, I should say, Roman Cecilia's dad, you know, runs a factory or whatever.

Amanda 17:38

Right? Yes. It's a factory. Calculator factory is what it is now.

Emma 17:43

Um, and there was a like explosion, uh massive accident inside the factory.

Amanda 17:52

Um and that's how Dom and Tobias's parents were killed.

Emma 17:57

Dom and Tobias's parents died. And so Tobias has built this because nothing ever happens to Roman. No, he doesn't go to jail, there's no investigation. It was it was a work accident. Those happen all the time. Right. And Cecilia is finding out that this whole thing is built to bring down her dad and his millions that he has curated um through this life. And the goal, well, the plan was to use Cecilia, and that was why Sean had originally brought her in.

unknown 18:37

Correct.

Emma 18:38

However, the plan was never for all of them to fall in love with her. Right. Can't, you know, God forbid they fall in love with a 19-year-old as grown-ass men.

Amanda 18:51

Well, and Tobias never really wanted her as part of it anyway. He was trying to protect her.

Cinnamon Pancakes, Boys Return

Emma 18:56

Yeah, he wanted to keep her on the outside. Correct. And the boys, Sean and Dom, thought they knew better because Tobias became a ghost. He wasn't in the States, he wasn't a part of it, he wasn't in the day-to-day functioning of the brotherhood, and they wanted to m start moving on their plan. They didn't understand why he was waiting.

unknown 19:20

Right.

Emma 19:21

And so when they he specifically told them the before they Tobias specifically told them before he left, the last time he had visited them, was that they were leaving her out of it to not touch her. Right. Um, Sean couldn't help himself. Fast forward, she knows Tobias has told her almost everything. Not everything, uh, because not all of it is Tobias' story to tell. There are bits and pieces of characters that have um, you know, alternative information. Um but she finds out that uh she can leave Triple Falls because her father has issued her inheritance early. Right. And they kind of have this last hurrah of playing house.

Amanda 20:12

Right. And that was the deal that they had made, was that he would he would hang out and wait for her to get her inheritance before he finalized his plan with her dad.

Motive Revealed: Roman And The Factory

Emma 20:24

He wouldn't move in on her dad until she had what she had come to Triple Falls for, right. And they are, you know, giggling, laughing about cinnamon pancakes in the well, cinnamon because uh she put cinnamon in the pancakes, pancake batter, but Tobias doesn't. Um, and in walk uh Sean and Dom. And they I'm gonna read because so it's uh the last page of chapter 21. And Dom says, Well, brother, would you take a fucking look at this? Are you seeing what I'm seeing? And it's them, chest to chest, laying in the grass, covered in food, and they're like whispering to each other. Right. And she uh he told Tobias tells her right before this is that she told him that she would not make room in her heart for him because it was full of Sean and Dom. And then they walk in and find her, you know, wrapped up in Tobias. Yeah. So that's that's less than halfway. The boys are back, less than halfway. Now, Exodus for me up until this point is uh the the betrayal part, the manipulation on Tobias's part, um wasn't really a big deal to me. Because Tobias is Tobias, you knew from any sort of background conversation, or I I wasn't expecting him to be forthcoming. Right. Or kind. Yeah. No, not really, because of all the information that you've been fed about him. And so he was the wolf. Yeah. Yeah. He was the the kingmaker. Um and up until now, I, you know, I didn't really have any sort of big feelings about what was going on. She was finding out information. I love that. But then the boys walk in and everything changes all of a sudden. Um, Tobias can't handle his own damn feelings. He can't manage himself at all. And rightfully so, the boys are pissed.

unknown 23:34

Yeah.

Emma 23:35

And Sean is Sean, and he can't shut up. He talks and talks and talks so much shit. And Dom is silent. So, really, our character like build of all of these men is exactly the same as as it has always been. Right? This is not new information about these key characters.

unknown 24:00

Yeah.

Emma 24:02

But then Cecilia is like I don't know if she thinks that things are just gonna magically be fine or that they're magically going to believe that she waited. Right. But she didn't they She didn't. No. She didn't. Not at all. And then from here, everything goes a million miles an hour. Okay. It takes forever. Half the book is leading up to them coming back.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Right.

Emma 24:40

You do get new information about what the Ravenhood is, why they're doing what they're doing, what everybody's role is, you get that information in the first half of the book. Yeah.

Amanda 24:52

But he doesn't, he is not honest with her about where the boys went and where they went.

Emma 24:58

No.

Amanda 24:58

No.

Emma 24:59

She doesn't know that he sent them and why and what they were going to be doing during that time.

unknown 25:07

Right.

Emma 25:09

And she also didn't know that there was a timeline on it, that they had to be gone for a certain amount of time. Yeah. Um, which is uh this huge piece of manipulation because even though he did know that there was a time, they had a return ticket. There was a specific time they were going to be returning. And then here they come on fucking schedule. You know what I mean? Like and yet here you are playing house. Tobias, what is wrong with you? Did you want it to explode in your face?

Amanda 25:41

I think so.

Emma 25:42

Was that the way you decided to handle telling them that you fell in love with the love of their lives? Right.

Amanda 25:51

Because it makes no sense. He wanted to win. And that was the way he wins, is by them.

Rules, Timelines, And Manipulation

Emma 25:56

Do you think that's true? That he was so broken that he wanted to win, and that was his only in his eyes, his only shot.

Amanda 26:06

Maybe. I mean, he claimed that he claimed that they came back early, but they were saying it was only like a day or two earlier. And so, sure. Cause he was like, I was gonna tell you tonight. I was gonna and it's like that's the excuse every man has ever given. I'm gonna tell you tonight, right? Like right. I was gonna tell you. I was gonna tell you, yeah. And so, no, I I think he knew, and I think it was just a way for him to kind of cut her ties with them in that way because he wanted her.

Emma 26:43

Yeah. And then you get a like I said, things go a million miles an hour from here on out, and things change so drastically, so we're running, we're speeding towards the finish line. Literally, that's a good joke. Um, and Dom and Sean are, you know, they're Sean is still Sean. He's goofy and a little bit dumb. Aloof. Yeah. Yeah. And Cecilia cannot understand. Everybody is silent. She likes she gets radio silence from all fronts. Right. Careful. And she doesn't understand what she's like, I we just survived the silence. Why are we doing this again? And again, nobody fucking talks to her. I cannot get behind this idea that these men do not know how to open their mouths and speak to this woman.

unknown 27:58

Yeah.

Emma 27:59

This poor woman. And yes, she is a a child, basically, but she still she has an idea now. She knows the point of all of this. At least enough to be, you know, to to to consent to being involved.

Amanda 28:20

Yeah. I feel like while she did know more, I don't think she asked enough of the right questions when she was getting information from Tobias. She also wasn't taking enough steps to make sure that she was going to be safe.

Marked Without Consent

Emma 28:43

Well, one of the main freaking themes in this book is Tobias' idea that safety is an illusion. Right. Safety doesn't exist. Um no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter who the people who are standing next to you are. And the fact that safety is an illusion is pretty a pretty hot topic when you talk about this book, because I agree with him in the fact that the Ravenhood like literally doesn't exist. They are an invisible entity, um, or so they think, you know, up until this point. And the fact that nobody knows about them, and yet they are still so afraid of there is this constant threat of getting caught. Right. Um, and really that that getting caught part is on like Dom and Tyler, really. Um, and so she has information, she's not asking all the questions she should be asking, and no one is talking to her. Everybody's back, everybody's in Trouble Falls, and she can't get a response out of any of them. Right. And so she gets her inheritance, she says, I'm done, I'm leaving. I'm getting drunk and she goes out in style. Yeah. Packing my suitcase and going insane. And she, well, she lights shit on fire because they fucked with her. Right. And they so she decides she's done. She's leaving. Um, she was she got drunk, she started packing her stuff up. She wakes up, she's in pain. Why is she in pain? Amanda, why is she in pain? Her heart's broken. Mm-hmm. And she's hungover. She's hung over, but but she's tattooed.

unknown 31:10

That's right.

Emma 31:12

She's tattooed. Why is she tattooed? She had been drugged. Because fucking Tobias is a bitch. And he couldn't talk to her. But he believed that because safety is an illusion, the only way to actually keep her safe was to mark her. Was to mark her. Was to give her wings.

unknown 31:32

Yeah.

Emma 31:32

To claim her as his, as part of the Ravenhood, so that she could not be taken or used against them or whatever it might be.

unknown 31:44

Right.

Emma 31:45

And so she shows up to the garage, and there everybody's there, hanging out, except for Tobias. Tobias is in there. But the boys are there. And she just starts wrecking stuff in the parking lot.

Amanda 32:01

Rightfully so. I mean, I would never go that far. You wouldn't light shit on fire if somebody tattooed you against your will. No, I have other methods of going about revenge.

Emma 32:18

I'm on property damage train all the way. Are you kidding? If somebody drugged me, removed me from my home, had me get tattooed, brought me back to my home, still drugged, and I woke up the next morning or later that night, whatever, and I had been marked on my body permanently. I'm showing up. You I'm we're going face-to-face battle with this thing. And Cecilia gave no fucks. She had none left.

Amanda 32:54

Oh, see, if I had the inheritance, I'd be calling the cops. And like, I got all kinds of information for you.

Miami Arrives: Dom’s Sacrifice

Emma 33:02

See, but that shows, and that's this uh this concept of the the like switching sides, right? Yeah. Where the loyalty piece is so big in here because she had to be loyal in order to be given her wings. She's not telling nobody. She's not spilling secrets. He wouldn't have marked her if he thought that she would go to the cops. True. She's been, whether it's uh significantly gaslighted, manipulated, Stockholm syndrome, whatever you want to call it. She's not going, she's not telling anybody. She's not telling on anybody, she's not spilling secrets. She's in it, whether she likes it or not now, but and so she shows up, and the men have no idea what she's talking about. She's screaming, who did this to me? Who did this to me? Sean, like slowly, like approaching a wild animal, comes out at her while she's, you know, got torches and she's wrecked everybody's car. And then she gets in her, she, you know, she's screaming at them, asking who did this to her, and they don't know. And she takes off back to her house, and she's in her home, and she and now she's frantically packing to get the fuck out of Triple Falls. And Dom shows up. Mm-hmm. And he's allegedly, seemingly, alone. And she's she's like, she's so angry. But Dom's a silent one. And if we're gonna listen to anybody, we're probably gonna listen to Sean, or to Dom. Yeah. Because if he's got something to say, she's paying attention at this point. And the thing is we're we're all in danger now. Like, Dom's not there because he wants to make her feel better.

unknown 35:05

Nope.

Emma 35:07

He isn't trying to placate her and like just get her to calm down and stay in Triple Falls, and they'll make everything better, happy, happy family, everything's fine.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Right.

unknown 35:22

Nope.

Emma 35:23

Miami's there.

unknown 35:24

Yep.

Emma 35:25

Yeah. The Miami group of the Ravenhood Brothers are there. And they're after Cecilia. But Tobias marked her, which nobody knows yet, right? The the it hasn't spread past the local. Right. Um, and Dom is trying to like carefully get her out of the house. And then she realizes that there are other people in her home. Bad people, dangerous people, people who are not her friends.

unknown 35:58

Right.

Emma 35:59

And then Tobias is there, and they're like, you know, stretched out along the staircase at the bottom and the top and the middle, and they're trying to get everybody to just have a conversation. Right. Let's just walk out. Everybody can leave. And Miami's like, no. This is we're done. This is the end. We're gonna. We got hired to do this job, we're gonna do it. Right. Yeah. Fuck the Ravenhood. We're, you know, this is a job. And there's money involved now. So we're gonna, she's ours. We're taking her. Uh and you guys are gonna get out of the way. And this is where this series makes my the my lists on Wrecked by Fiction like top almost, is the fact that Dom sacrifices himself.

Amanda 37:00

Yeah.

Emma 37:01

Things are heated, they're you know, there's really it's not a lot of yelling. They're just trying to have Dom is Dom and Tobias are very calmly trying to have a conversation and inch their way towards each other because there's too spread out, nobody can cover Cecilia, and Dom puts his gun down.

Amanda 37:26

He had tossed it to the stairs because he it was freaking Cecilia out and then she she was like he he's like, I'm not, it's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine, and it's too far away, he can't reach it now.

Aftermath And The Call

Emma 37:43

And fucking Miami takes Dom out. Well, not necessarily intentionally in that moment, but I just the scene of Cecilia holding him and before he, you know, jumps or lunges, he says to her, um, he he paints the perfect picture of what happens after this. And after they're all out and everyone is safe. And the one last rainy day, and the you know, we we like rainy days, don't we, baby? And watch a movie. Mm-hmm. Watch a movie, let's go with movies after this. And she says, Yeah. Dom doesn't talk like that. And in that moment, Cecilia knew that this was not going to end the way that anybody wanted it to. He had checked out. And he he knew it too. Dom knew it. I think they all kind of hoped otherwise, but Dom knew in that moment. And she is holding him and she's like, just wait, just hold on, hold on, hold on. In swoops, Tyler. And Tyler says, You can't be here. You gotta go. You gotta go. And she's covered in blood, and he's whisking her through the woods. And cash. Yeah, giving her cash and a bag and uh his t-shirt. Yeah, so that she's not covered in blood. And she is waiting to hear and waiting to hear and waiting to hear. She gets out and she gets that phone call. And it's silent. And she can hear the ice in the background.

Amanda 39:54

And the lighter.

unknown 39:55

And the lighter.

Emma 39:56

So we know we got Sean. We know we got Tobias with the ice.

Amanda 40:02

And then Layla talks.

Emma 40:06

Layla on the phone telling her that everybody's fine. And Cecilia's like, I can come back. I can I can help. What do you need me to do? And Layla's like, nope. You're done. Yeah. Your time with the Rainbow is done. It's time to go. You're permanently marked, but don't come back.

unknown 40:23

Yeah, what the fuck?

Emma 40:25

God. And Dom's death feels too big to only be the first half of that fucking book. For me, that makes the whole like it changes the way that the group works after that. Everything is different. And the series as a whole, for me, the is shaped by his death. And I think that, and really that's true about the rest of the series. And I think that she, you know, essentially we get this crazy flash forward. We don't know what's going on with her and how we got here. So you're right. She decides to, she she realizes it's time. And what does she do?

Time Jump: Selling The Company

Amanda 41:16

She goes back to Triple Falls. And she's got oh, well, first of all, she has a bad dream and wakes up and rips up her wedding dress for her wedding to Colin. Yeah and then breaks up with him and decides it's time to sell and goes back to Triple Falls and calls her attorney/slash ex boyfriend Ryan. Ryan. Yeah. And then he had already had a deal that somebody had offered, and she said, get the paperwork drawn up. And then when she gets there and they go to sign, she sees the logo and it's a raven. And that's when she realizes connects the dots that it's Tobias trying to buy the company. Which was predictable because he had wanted to get it all along anyway. Right. That was his goal. Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Mm-hmm.

Amanda 42:10

And so then she makes his attorney make him show up.

Emma 42:15

Yeah, she says, I'm not doing this unless I can meet with the right owner, CEO.

Amanda 42:20

And then he shows up and they have a big blowout argument, and so she changes the terms on the contract, and then he eventually agrees to her ridiculous stipulations of meetings and whatnot.

Emma 42:38

All of the meeting meeting workers and making sure that the people that work there now under her, you know, maintain their employment and things like that. Right.

Amanda 42:49

And then he's dating the girl. Alicia. Yeah. That was a brief person that we met in the in flock at the first gathering. Um. But they end up breaking up because Tobias can't leave Cecilia alone. Right. Well, and Cecilia can't leave him alone either.

Emma 43:11

Well, and you get we get that scene where she goes into the bar um and bartender, I think his name is Eddie. Yep. He says, You cannot be here. And she's like, why not?

Amanda 43:28

And he won't serve her, and so she tries to pour her own drink out of her flask that she has with her.

Emma 43:32

And then in walks Tyler. Yep. And he's like, What the fuck are you doing here? Yep. He's like, You don't you don't you don't belong here anymore. Yep. And God, she hasn't seen Tyler in, you know, the better part of a decade. And he's a he's a grown man now. He's different now. And she was shocked by the change in his appearance and his growth and this kind of who he has.

Amanda 44:00

Become now, and that's when she finds out he doesn't live there anymore, too.

Emma 44:06

Yep. Uh, you know, the the moves on the Ravenhood stuff hadn't stopped. Right. And she kind of realizes that Roman wasn't the end of it. That while she thought she knew the whole plan, it was never the whole plan. And that the boys didn't just let it go when Dom died. Right. And two, though, I think she realizes that one of the things that she fights with Tobias over even after he agrees to her crazy terms over the purchase of the company is everybody's guilt.

Amanda 44:54

About Dom's death. And everybody that blames themselves. Yeah. Yeah.

Emma 45:00

If if I hadn't done this, you know. Tobias carries so much guilt because if he hadn't fallen in love with his brother's girl, you know, none of this would have happened because which is all not true. No. And it's I mean, it's just not true. And in this too, she goes again in part two, she goes through back to Triple Falls, and one of the first things she does is she goes to the clothing store. And she meets up with Tessa. Mm-hmm. And she had told, you know, Tyler to go to be the one, or, you know, had told her, I'm gonna send somebody to come pick up the stuff. And the plan had been for Tyler to be the one to go. Um and it wasn't Tyler. Not at all. And Tessa is mean.

Bar Reunion And Old Wounds

Amanda 46:12

She's so mean. Yeah, and I don't understand that. To her. I don't. Cause she also says that she's secure in her marriage because Cecilia tries to say, I won't, you know, I I won't step in. I will leave you alone, I will respect your marriage. And Tessa cuts her off and says, My husband won't. And it's like, but if you're that secure in your relationship, then why are you being an asshole? Why why can't you just be nice and be like, yeah, we're happily married and we love each other and we have two beautiful children, and you know, it's good to see you. Hope you're doing well, kind of thing. Like, why do you have to be ugly about it if you're that secure in your relationship?

Emma 46:53

Well, and I think too, so Tessa marries Sean. And because Sean is the one who goes to pick, you know, to p pay the store or whatever. Yep. And I I think too, that sucks is that Sean, I mean, quite literally refers to Cecilia as like the one that got away. And even at the end of Exodus, holds her face in his hands and tells her that he will always love her and care for her and all of this stuff. So I don't, while I don't necessarily think that Tessa should have said what she said, I do think that she's not Tessa's not naive. Right. And that's why she's so mad, is that she knows that if things had gone a little bit differently, she wouldn't be. It's very possible she never would have gotten married and had two beautiful children with Sean.

Amanda 47:59

Yeah. And agreed. I just if you're gonna play it off that you're that secure. Right, that you're fine. Everything is fine, then also don't be a dick about it.

Emma 48:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's true. I she was just such a bitch. And I was like, that's unnecessary. Uh that's just really not necessary.

Amanda 48:22

Also She's spending money at your store.

Emma 48:26

Yeah.

Amanda 48:26

Like just be kind.

Guilt, Legacy, And Shifting Ravenhood

Emma 48:28

For me though, I think that in my head, I was like, Sean should have left after Dom died. If it was me, that they were so connected. I don't think I think that living in a space like that after something so tragic, it would haunt me. Yeah. And and we do, you know, we from talking to Sean at the end of the book, it does. It does haunt him. He can't leave it alone. Um, which is why the Ravenhood kind of morphed into what it has become by the end of Exodus. Right. Because they um they they can't let go of the guilt of you know, the sort that survivor's guilt that they have. And we are hit at the end of Exodus with this scene of Sean and Cecilia and him giving her Dom's keys and telling her, you know, he he would have wanted you to have his car to have it. Yeah. And then Tobias is like he like tries to steal the car back. That next book, I'm trying to that happens right at the I think it's right at the end of Exodus. Yeah. It is right at the end. He's like, he like tries to steal the car back. Yeah, ten months later, we get all of this information. Um, and she's like, he's like, bullshit. Only one person has uh keys and me, it was me and Dom. And she was like, yeah. And and I'm like, Thomas, you're a fucking tool bag. If there was anything else that I my feelings on this book specifically, I the only thing I would ever talk about is the fact that Dom died.

Amanda 50:43

Yeah.

Emma 50:44

I don't I still can listen to the audiobook clip of him telling her that they're gonna go to the movies, and I will cry. That's what ruined my life. And I know you I know you didn't cry. No, because you finished this book and you were almost done with Finish Line, and I was like, I was texting my friend who her and I read the all of these books to get books together, and I said, Amanda didn't even mention that Dom died. She didn't say anything, she didn't say that Dom died, she didn't say that she had feelings about it, she just moved on, and I was like, How do you just move on?

Amanda 51:33

I did not understand how you because it's It's somewhat predictable that not all three of the main male characters are going to make it to the end of the series. Okay. So I knew one of them was gonna go. Like it's just hard.

Emma 51:52

Did you have a favorite?

Amanda 51:55

If I was if all three lived to the end, Dom would probably have been my favorite.

Emma 52:04

Okay. So you didn't give a shit that he died?

Amanda 52:08

I didn't say that I didn't give a shit that he died.

Emma 52:11

But you didn't have any feelings about the fact that he died. At least not enough to like bring up.

Amanda 52:19

I was also at a point where I was I knew we were going to be doing this, and I didn't want to text you about everything because I wanted to save it for when we talked about it here, so that we it's like that fine line. That's such bullshit. You did not. I it did not make me emotional, mostly because why? Because I compartmentalized my feelings.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

Right. We know.

Amanda 52:48

Yeah. It's just how I roll.

Emma 52:50

And everyone will know soon enough after the we get into more books because Amanda has no feelings and is basically a statue and a robot.

Amanda 53:00

Yep. Pretty much. I have all these little boxes on little shelves and Dominican.

Emma 53:07

And Dom's death just got slid into one.

Amanda 53:09

Is that what you're telling me? Dom's just got his own little box.

Keys, Cars, And Ten Months Later

Emma 53:12

Or you're uh just a demon and you don't give a shit. Maybe it's both. Jesus Christ. So I yeah. For me, Exodus was this all of this buildup, which is in reality only like 200 and less than 250 pages to him dying. And then the aftermath is another 250 pages. And in my opinion, none it's not that nothing happened, but nothing that sticks out as much after his death for me. Right. Because the timeline jump is hard.

Amanda 53:53

It is difficult. Um, it also for me is more of a build-up to finish line.

Emma 54:00

The timeline jump?

Amanda 54:02

Yeah. Oh that second half of the book is like, okay, we're gonna start building you up for the next book. Okay. Kind of deal.

Emma 54:10

Yeah.

Amanda 54:10

Because there's kind of two timeline jumps in the end, because you have the six-year jump and then you've got the ten months where Dom comes or Tobias comes back to try to take the car.

Emma 54:21

Yeah, and yet you have no idea, you get the end of where really so the timeline jump, you come in at the second timeline jump, the 10 months, you come in with Tyler. You don't you don't come in with Tobias, you come with in with Tyler telling Tobias that he's a fucking idiot. Yeah. And that if he wants her to go get her. And Tobias is like, she's better off without me, she doesn't need me. And Tyler's like, throwing himself a pity party. Are you fucking joking? Right. And then Tobias is like, okay, fine, and then just the clothes on his back, and out the door he goes. Right. And Tyler's like, wow, he's really an idiot. I mean and and and he says, I hope she hurts you. I hope she breaks another chair. Like, I I just think that that you get all of this building, building, building in the second half of this book, but nothing really happens. Right. She doesn't get married. No. That was like an imagination, like a ghost in the dust in the wind situation where Cecilia almost got married. She almost married a perfectly nice human being with no secrets and no scary mafia brotherhood. Right. Imagine that illegal act that she has a normal life. Who who wants that? Uh no, I have to go find the older brother of the man I was in love with who died.

Amanda 56:02

Yeah.

Emma 56:04

Anyway, and No, she opens a restaurant. Yes, she does. Well, yeah. In Does she stay in Triple Falls?

Amanda 56:14

No.

Emma 56:15

No, she does she leave.

Amanda 56:16

She finds some little small podunk town.

Emma 56:18

Yeah, in the middle of nowhere. Yep. And she's like, and I remember twice asking, like, why are you here? She's like, it was quiet, nobody knew who I was. Mm-hmm. Start over. Yeah. I get to do whatever I want, be whoever I want. And so you get this kind of this unfinished feeling, like at the end of Exodus, where for me, I still was left raw. Um and then you get the comedic Tyler piece at the very, very end, which is funny.

Amanda 56:58

He's such a cutie.

Ratings, Triggers, And Takeaways

Emma 56:59

He's one of my favorites. And so I just think that going into finish line, I was convinced that nothing else could hurt quite so bad. And I can't believe that you didn't. I was so convinced. I was convinced I had you. I was convinced I had you in you were gonna cry. I don't know why I thought that, but sorry to disappoint. My feelings about this book are uh I think mixed. I I do I would rate it, so I gave Flock three and a half stars out of five. I would give Exodus probably a solid like four and a half, maybe just like a four, two, five situation because of the sobbing. Screaming, crying, throwing up. That's me when I read this book. But the unfinished nature of part two, where I don't I don't love the that Tobias has a woman and they are like rekindling, you know, him and Cecilia are sparks are flying, and I'm like, you have a woman. How dare you get drunk and be here in my face? And she's like, what about Alicia? And he's like, Alicia knows. I'm like, Alicia knows what? That you suck?

Amanda 58:46

Yeah. Me too. Alicia told him to go work it out.

Emma 58:50

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Amanda 58:52

But Cecilia doesn't know that.

Emma 58:54

No.

Amanda 58:54

I'm like, so I It's after Cecilia almost lit the restaurant on fire.

Emma 59:01

Yeah, it is. I do think that um it's all of the back pieces are necessary and everything. I just I struggle with the the the flash forward, the timeline jumps. Break it up for me in a way that I think I think we could have waited. I don't, I don't, and maybe she did this, and maybe you know, Kate Stewart is a genius, so I don't know. Maybe she did that second timeline jump, that 10 months, to get you to read Finish Line. Because if you didn't know Tobias was coming back, then what would you think is in there? Right. Yeah. Would you read it? Um, and I guess if I think about it that way, I could see why having that, you know, last two chapters or last chapter, right? Plus a bonus chapter or whatever.

Amanda 59:53

Yeah, I think without it, you could have just ended it there. Yeah.

Emma 59:55

And it could have just been It wouldn't have been a happily ever after. It wouldn't have been an EA technically, but it would have been the end. Um and yet, Finish Line is so you move into this, it's so intense. It could be its own, like so much happens in that in the next book that it could be its own like sub-series. Yeah. Um I'd read it again, which I do on a regular basis, but I don't know. I think so. When we talked about Flock, I asked you if you would tell people to read it, and one of my things was the the miscommunication trope is heavy, and if you don't want if you're not into that, then I I wouldn't read this series. I think that that's still true for sure. And if you came for the love triangle from the first book, that's that's that's over.

Amanda 1:01:03

Yeah.

Emma 1:01:04

There's no more love triangle.

unknown 1:01:06

Gone.

Emma 1:01:09

There's a lot more fucking though in the second book. Yes, you said that right before we started filming. I did.

Amanda 1:01:14

I was like, I forgot how much sex was in the film. Yeah, there's a lot. There is a lot of things.

Emma 1:01:20

Way, way more.

Amanda 1:01:22

It was only slightly awkward while I was listening to that in my car and in my headphones at the fabric store today.

Emma 1:01:32

I forgot that you did a reread.

Amanda 1:01:34

Yeah. I was doing a little quick recap to remind myself.

What’s Next: Finish Line Tease

Emma 1:01:39

Well, I think that because of the heavy like triggers with the death of the gun, you know, the violent nature of his death is that if there are people who can't handle it, yeah, you know, um, of his murder, that that would that is enough to trigger some people not to read a book like this.

Amanda 1:02:03

Yeah.

Emma 1:02:04

Um, and this is why I when I talk about this series, I refer to there's it almost hits on that thriller note for me. I could see that. Um, because of the violence in the books, or in this book specifically, the violence.

Amanda 1:02:24

So yeah, the other two aren't as bad, but this one in particular is I could see that for sure.

Emma 1:02:31

But well, we're gonna go ahead and add Exodus to the Goodreads. Um, and Amanda needs to update her Goodreads. I started two the other day. Did you?

Amanda 1:02:45

I did.

Emma 1:02:46

Proud of you. Thanks. You remembered your password?

Amanda 1:02:49

I did.

Emma 1:02:51

I don't have my password is saved. I don't know. I don't know my passwords or anything, so God forbid I ever lose my cell phone. Um, but we're gonna go ahead and update things on our end, and we're gonna come back next time and talk about the finish line. And we're gonna wrap up this Ravenhood journey with the last book, and then maybe we'll come back and I can do the other cry about side stories. Yeah, cry about the legacy series. Because if you loved the original trilogy, it's it's easy to fall in love with the legacy series for sure.

Amanda 1:03:38

So I have them on my list. I had to switch gears to throw in a glass. What?

Production Credits And Sign‑Off

Emma 1:03:44

God don't give me so much shit about me asking you to read another series that I am obsessed with. So okay, I still love you. Yeah, I know. Okay. Good talk. Good talk. See you later. Bye. Wrecked by Fiction is recorded and produced by Westhouse Productions. They handle all the audio, video, and post production, so we get a clean sound, smooth edits, and zero tech headaches. Westhouse Productions aligns with podcasts, live music, and creative projects that want to sound professional without losing their edge.