Prepare to be ensnared in our discussion on "No One Has To Know" by Carin Hart and the twisted power dynamic in a tale of orchestrated abduction and unexpected control.

Content Highlights:

• How unhinge do we want him to be
• Good girl attitude
• A submissive topping from the bottom

Jenn's Ratings - Darkness 2, Spicy 2, Overall 3

Mistie's Ratings - Darkness 2, Spicy 2, Overall 3

NEW DARKNESS SCALE UPDATED JULY 2, 2024 - 2 Skulls

Other books mentioned - The Sinners Duet

It's only as Burns pulls me into his arms, stroking my back as my trembling hands turn to full body tremors, that it hits me that I never even thought to turn the gun on him while I had the chance. And today we're discussing no One has to Know by you know we've been doing this long enough that I should remember that I have to get the author's name. I think it's Carin Hart

I was going to Karina Owens.

Hey, I don't know how you got there, but okay, don't ask me where that came from.

Because I have no idea.

That's okay, we're in this together.

It just so popped into my head. Okay, so I remember when we were really excited about putting this in the buddy jar when you found it. Yes, because it sounded so good and we finally got to read it.

Yeah.

I don't know if we should jump right to the shocking part or start with what we didn't like.

Yeah, let's start with what we didn't like.

I felt like it was short.

Yeah, I mean I read it in like five hours. It was a very fast pace for like 240 something pages.

Yeah, I felt like there wasn't enough on the page.

Yeah.

Like when we talked about, like reading the blurb. I mean the blurb matches what's in the story, but I expected it to be more intense. I expected it to be a little bit longer. I think it's barely a week. Well, it kind of jumps because he goes on his two week vacation, right, so it's a couple of days and then it jumps.

Yeah, yeah, I think like when, like, the entire time of her in the basement is five or six days which to some might seem like a lot, but in the book it doesn't feel like it at all.

It literally feels like it's a weekend.

Yeah.

Like all of this happens in a weekend, so I didn't like that. I don't know if there's anything else I didn't like.

I didn't like that, especially once you get to the end and everything like. I didn't like that she didn't get to go back to her life after like she had this great like.

she loves flowers, she wants, she wanted to be a botanist. She had this great job at a florist shop working for somebody that was kind and like could use the help. I really wanted her to be able to go back to that job and they made it seem like that wasn't a possibility. And they're not that far from town, it's only it's less than two hours.

I know we'd like literally just read this like three days ago, but I don't remember that. I think if we're going down the the wants, I think it would have been a little bit better if the middle of the book was them coming to their conclusion and then going back into society and trying to figure out how to be I say normal in quotations a couple of society. I think that would have been really good because then, like you said, like she has her job, she has to interact with people. He's a cop, he has to interact with people and then seeing how unhinged both of them come together, I think that would have been hot.

Yeah, I completely agree. I feel like. I kind of feel like we, I don't know. It's almost like you know how, like in the centers duet, you have all of that what's the word? Like teacher protege, protege, like aspect, and he's teaching her and they're learning together and then like they commit murder together. And then you go into the second book. Maybe maybe they killed the rival in the second book. Anyway, they have like an intense thing, first book and the next book. Like you have the whole relationship building.

I feel like this rushed past that like rapport building between the two of them and we just jumped right into a happy relationship but in a cabin, rather than like real life scenario, kind of like what you're saying I'm on board with. I wish it would have been like, okay, fine, y'all can be together. But like how are you going to navigate the world now? Like, are you both gonna be unhinged? Are you just gonna be taking people out? That piss you off? Is it gonna be together? Are you gonna have like a burial site at the cabin? Like I need to know these things.

Yeah, it did leave it open. I am under the impression, though, that they go back into society, because this is a standalone in her world, and so I've already downloaded the Devil's Bargain to read it, because apparently they make a cameo in there, so to me that means that they come back.

I saw that, but it almost sounded like it was like the Devil's Bargain came before. No one has to know. So you would see them, but they wouldn't be together. I could totally be wrong. I may have misread it.

No, you could be right and I could. I'll let you know when I get to it. Okay, I didn't want to read it till after this Sure, cuz you know she's got like like six other books and I would have devoured them, and then I would have been like, wait, what are we talking about? Cuz I don't remember.

What are their names again? Actually, I don't remember either of their names. Burns, his is.

Burns Hers is. I never called him that, cuz I don't like that name. I called him Mace or Mal or M or just Burns. Yeah, what was her name?

It wasn't Daisy, oh my god, I was just about to say that.

What was her name?

I don't remember.

Does he even say her name? He calls her Angel Angela. I had to say the angel Angela, okay, yeah. So I have mixed feelings about the ending. You do too Sully, good girl.

Hey, don't be talking like that on here.

I mean, that kind of is our forte.

Oh my gosh, what did you say? I don't know. The more the good girl part.

No idea.

Something about the ending.

Oh, I had mixed feelings about the ending.

I had mixed feelings about the ending too. I didn't dislike it. I kind of thought, possibly, that that's where things were going to go.

Really.

Yeah, the only reason I say that is because he, like, I felt like a switch got flipped at some point for him, like where he was, totally it was months of seeing her, you know, just kind of walking his beat, you know whatever, and then all of a sudden he wants to kidnap her and I felt like that. I think once he read the journal, that's when everything changed obviously for him and he was like oh, I can actually act on this intense attraction and stalking thing that I'm doing.

OK, that's not the part that I'm hesitant about. I'm hesitant about her, the one setting up the whole thing.

Oh yeah.

That I know it was really good. It was because I never expected it to be her. We expected it to be him because he did everything physical. He literally you know after the date, his jealousy, he's like nope, your mind, nobody can have you. But until we get to the end, where he's reading the journal, we have no idea that she literally set everything up to push him to do it.

Yeah.

I wish we could have explored that more, having them, you know, and it's crazy because the book is from her perspective and not once did she ever give it away. There was no hint, there was no foreshadowing, there was nothing until we get her omission. And I don't even think she told Burns about the dude sticking her up.

I don't think he knows that.

But the date and everything, it was all set up.

Yeah.

That's crazy. To me that's good twist.

Yeah, I liked it.

Yeah, it's just 50, I don't know, it's almost. I almost feel like it's. You have a dom and a sub and it's a sub that's topping from the bottom. That's exactly how that felt to me, and sometimes it's OK. There's nothing bad. But I was just like to me, because then we know he's a stalker, right, like that's his thing. But how much of her journal influenced all of his behavior, like how much of it was really him.

Oh, I think the journal influenced all of his behavior from the time that he took her. I don't think he would have taken her if he hadn't read the journal and she'd got on the late. That's why I'm saying yeah, yeah, because she gave him the blueprint on how to win her.

That's true.

And he was like, oh OK, I can do this. He granted, like he had to be unhinged enough to already be at a place to be reading the journal.

And actually follow it.

Yes, you know. So I think she just nurtured the natural instincts that he already had.

OK, so you think that he had it in him, or that what's what he would have done?

I don't know that it's something he would have done without the journal.

OK, and see, that makes it kind of sad for me because I want him to be that unhinged for her, not because, yeah, see, it's a sub topping from the bottom and I don't know how I feel about that.

I mean, you're not wrong, I just kind of like that. She, I don't know, I like that. She set the stage for everything and she was like, okay, all right, he's super hot and I want him to give me a knee and make me his wife, so let me set the stage.

Yeah, yeah, it's clever, because I don't think I've read anything like that.

Yeah, no, I certainly haven't. I don't know. I think it maybe goes back to our conversation that we're going to have about the female characters in these books.

Yeah, yeah, I don't got anything else. Really, it was like really cut and dry. There was like, yeah, I did not like. You go.

No, go ahead.

I don't think I like. I mean he was smart to like call her parents and like, hey, you know, I'm engaged, you know whatever, but I didn't like that she still had a relationship with them after they didn't believe her. And I can't. I don't know if it clearly stated whether or not he raped her or if he just forced her to give him head.

You know, I couldn't.

I wasn't clear on that either.

Yeah, I wasn't clear on that either, but I'm glad you got it revenge.

Oh, for sure that mofo deserved it.

Yeah, that was great.

I can't really think of anything else.

Yeah, I mean. I mean, it wasn't a bad book by any means.

It was a very you know quick read.

It wasn't super steamy, I don't think.

Not at all.

And you know ratings. Okay, so spicy like two.

Yeah.

Yeah, Dark like four.

Yeah, I was thinking four too.

Okay, and I mean it all happens on the page. So yeah, everything happens on the page. I mean like their relationships fucked up, they kill people. The only murder you don't see on page is the brick kid.

Yeah.

And I would say overall like a three, like I. You know, if you want a quick, easy read for dark romance, then this is, this is a good. That you don't want to be like Pierce Mutt, then this would be a good one.

Yeah, three overall two. It was good, check it out, I was.

I was laughing so hard when you asked me well, where are you at I'm finished, and then like an hour and a half, two hours later, I'm finished. I'm like okay, yeah.

Makes sense Super quick.

Yeah, it was. It was a very quick read. All right, y'all, if you read no One has to Know by Karen Hart, what would you rate the darkness as?

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Jenn signing off from Bones of the Story.

Transcribed by https://podium.page