Content Highlights

• Frustration over a plot twist/s
• Perfect chemistry and communication between James and Olivia V1
• Recurrent use of the term "wolf" or "wolfish" - drinking game anyone?

Brace yourselves for a wild ride as we unravel the mystery and deception lurking in the pages of 'Perfect Strangers' by JT Geissinger. The heart of the book might be a mirage, but our reactions to it are as real and visceral as they come.

Jenn's Rating: 2 Skulls, 4 Spicy, 3 Overall

Mistie's Rating: 2 Skulls, 4 Spicy, 5/1 Overall

NEW DARKNESS SCALE UPDATED JULY 2, 2024 - 1 Skull

Books mentioned: PenPal and The Ritual

Other mentions: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 17, "Normal Again"

This casual summer fling has the potential to burn the whole city down and leave a path of smoking ruins in its wake. And today Jenn and I are reading for our buddy reads Dark Romance Challenge. We are discussing Perfect Strangers by JT Gunslinger, guy Singer, guy.

Singer Gunslinger, I was gonna say Guy Singer. We should probably look up the author names and how to pronounce them when we do these.

I mean, no, you're the more responsible one. I'll leave that up to you. I just I like winging it. It's fair. I read so many books that it's sometimes I don't even know who the author is, until people will be like, oh, this author, I'm like I don't know who that is. And then they start talking about the book and I'm like, oh oh, I know what you're talking about. I really liked that. That's funny. I feel like it's almost it's. It's compared to, like when people watch movies they don't know who the director or producers are.

Ooh, that's a good one.

Yeah, I mean, I think the title, you know the blurb, you know who's playing and who the characters are. I know that's probably a horrible example, but whatever. Okay, Jenn, I think I really like it when you go first. I just feel like you're just so much more, your thoughts and reasons, why, are just so much clearer, and then I can just play off of what you have to say. Okay, I mean, I can totally start if you want me to, but I think it might be best if you start.

Okay, I don't mind the start, okay, so the very first thing I want to bring up, I want to know, this really has nothing to do with the story, but I want to know if you noticed this the way I did. Did you notice how much she used the term wolf, or wolves or wolfish within this book? No, so I picked up on it a total of five times throughout the book.

She did do something about, about being an alpha right Was that this book?

Yes, Okay. So I kept like, I kept highlighting it and I was like this should be a drinking game. Like every time you come across the word like wolf or wolfish or something in this book, you have to take a shot.

I want to just wrote Okay, hold on. Now I want to search it and see how many times it comes up.

I'll tell you one, two, because I went back through three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight times. I think I might be missing one. It's eight or nine times between like wolf wolves or wolfish Okay, wolf by itself is just seven.

Yeah, oh yeah, I didn't. That's really weird. Normally okay, yeah, I got nothing. I normally pick up on that sort of thing. I didn't this time.

I? I don't know why I did, but I made a note, like, my initial note was wolf. What is it with this woman and wolves? That's on page 106 and then page 149. Oh, look, another wolf Page 217. I need to turn this into a drinking game Page 234. Page 234. Drink Page 259. Drink. I was like, are we reading a dark romance or a shifter romance? Like what's happening? That's sweet, it just it just cracked me up. Every time I saw it in the book I was like you know, I should. I should go get my bottle of bourbon and be a pirate for the day. Yes, agreed, okay. So aside, aside from that, I have such mixed feelings about this book.

On one hand, I felt that it was. I've never read anything like this before. Um, I you know, I felt like it was really unique and I kind of like a cool way to have a plot twist without it being a plot twist. But I was also extremely disappointed that James and Olivia, like the initial James and Olivia weren't real and like this incredible story that she told and this incredible character that Olivia is Because she was so fucking great, like was it real and it just kind of broke my heart a little bit.

Yeah, I absolutely hated this fucking book. It was trash you can. That is. It's essentially the idea of you have a couple through this whole book and then all of a sudden, it's not the couple, Like it's essentially. We've just read 70% of a book and it's not even the couple that the book is about.

Yeah, and technically, you don't even meet that couple until the epilogue, right yeah?

I don't like this, See, I don't like Metta. I do not like Metta. I especially do not like it in my books, and I don't like that. We were essentially told a lie. I think one of the trigger warnings should have been unreliable writer or unreliable author. Right, Because she tricked us. And then he's actually really not a pest control. Whatever thing you, Magigar, he is right, he's an artist and they live in New York. I get it. I agree with you. It was a great twist. I the whole entire time I'm boxering you, giving you my little tidbits and I'm guessing the whole storyline, and then we get to it and I'm like, wait, what the fuck just happened? Am I an episode of Buffy? Because that's what I felt like.

You know what? You know what was so funny? No, I'm not saying Buffy.

You have never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Sarah Michelle Geller.

I wasn't listen. I grew up Southern Baptist with like I wasn't allowed to watch Buffy. I wasn't allowed around to be this in Butt Head Cat, dog like any of them.

Okay, there's an episode it's kind of like conception. There's an episode on Buffy where she gets one of the demons, blood mixed with hers, and she's stuck between the two worlds. When she closes her eyes, she's in a stainless island, her parents are still together, but then when she closes her eyes, she lives in this fantasy world where vampires exist and she's got to kill them, and so you don't know what the reality is. Which one's her true reality? I thought she was a vampire slayer, yeah, but in this episode she doesn't know.

Oh, it was just, it was just the one episode. I thought it was a cool series.

Just the one episode. But the way that the one episode ends makes you think that it's quite possible that her being a vampire slayer is all in her head. Oh, that's weird. It was pretty twisted right. That's, that's trippy. I was just. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like it because, I agree with you, she was great, he was great, it was funny, the communication was fantastic, the sex was off the chain, like the way that, oh my, and then no, just no, and then what? I think what really upset me? Well, actually, it all upset me. But another thing that upset me was where did the fucking idea come to have her daughter be murdered and at the end she's coming home from school like nothing fucking happened, like who does that.

Oh see, that's actually something I think. I actually like woke up thinking about that today when I was kind of thinking about our episode today. There is no way that I could write a book and have my child I say that with quotation words like be killed in the book. I feel like that's such scary energy to put. I know I'm getting very like woo woo here y'all, but like it's such scary energy to put out into the universe. I'm like there's no way I would. I would write that with my own son. Like there's no way. I felt. I completely agree. I was happy that the real Emma, emmy, ellie, something.

Emerson, they called her Emmy. Okay, let me just do that. Was alive and well but there's.

There's just no way I could. I could take that kind of Chance if I was writing something like that.

The other things that no what god, no, no, no, I was gonna say, it's just one big April Fool's prank.

I Was gonna say here's the thing that I Hate it about the book. Not, I could have dealt with the twist, I could even have dealt with her Having ALS like your second Olivia will slow call her. You know, I felt like the author did a really good job of Kind of tying in all of the the External cues from like the how do I like second Olivia's.

Yeah, you know, into Olivia. Second, third.

Yeah, so I feel like she did a really good job. Like you have the the province poster in her room, her what did I call those? Her aides name was you know so-and-so's name and that kind of thing. I feel like that was done really well what I hated is.

You took something that was like a Psychotic break for someone having ALS and then took it a step further and she Killed her own child on accident because of this medical condition and I felt like that was really unnecessary, you know, like understanding that, okay, real life or second, olivia is, you know, has to lose her child some way Okay, I get that. But to make it go that far, after we've already, as a reader, grieved this little girl being shot and dying that way, you're going to kill her again Even worse. And that really, really bothered me. I wouldn't say triggered me, but if I, if I, had to pick anything that I hated out of the book, it would be that I felt like that was really, really Unnecessary.

I agree, it was overkill. Literally apps. Oh yeah, absolutely. If I ever recommend this book to anybody, I'm going to tell them to stop before they leave the lavender field. I'm like you don't need to read. The rest is trash. Just just hear those chapters out of the book and just end it. We have the perfect romance novel. You do have the perfect romance. The perfect romance novel, yeah. And then you have this this Writer within a writer, within our story, within a story, within a story or whatever. And then we don't get it. We don't get to see the third of the real Olivia and James have their love story. We get the oh, it's. Oh, it should have been a fucking novella. If that's all you wanted to write was them eating in a cafe in fucking New York City. We didn't need all this other shit. A short story guy meets girl, they fall in love, whatever, and then we don't even realize so, so and and, with Emmy being alive, why the fuck did they divorce her and Christopher? What was the purpose behind that? We don't know. I thought.

Emmy was J like a third, olivia and James kid. I don't think it was.

Chris. And no, because when she comes home from school she says my stepfather and mom. It's not a normal over here to hear them having sex in their bedroom. Oh, oh yeah, I totally miss that Mm-hmm and that Chris loves when real Olivia puts him in her books.

That was one thing that I really liked that she always makes her ex husband like the bad guy in her book Writing books with an ex-husband. I'm like I love this idea a lot.

Yeah, and. I hate cool with that, I mean that was yeah, I just, I know, I, just, I, yeah, and I was a little thrown off at the beginning and I think we talked about this a little bit that I didn't know who the perspective was. Was it a guy or a girl? Yes, like it's a minute to figure out who.

Okay, it's a female, and then you have to find out she's a writer, which is the least, one of my least favorite tropes. Least she wasn't a roman. Well, no, I guess she is a fucking romance writer. See, this is why I don't know, In the book.

Really, I know, before the ending I loved how, how she, how she did it. We didn't spend chapters upon chapters of her trying to figure out how to fucking write a romance novel and comparing it to her and you know what else. I was really upset about a lot of things with this book, if y'all can't tell. I was really upset that he Asked her to write down how she felt and I thought the story was gonna be her love letter to him. But it just felt like that piece was Unsatisfactory to me because we didn't get that, because it wasn't fucking real. Everything we talk about doesn't matter, because it wasn't fucking real. Trash. Yeah, I mean you're, you're not wrong. No, absolutely not. Isn't there another book by her that everybody raves about? Pen pal? I don't know, I never read it. I never had anything by her before. I'm assuming it's a chick. We assume JT's a chick, right? If you're not, we apologize, not pretty sure, great.

Now I have to know. Right, I did add pen pal. I did add pen pal to my list.

I'm trying to pull up good reads to see what I know I think she has a number one.

Yeah, VT's a woman.

Okay, I want to know what made her decide to write this. I don't know.

I was. So I was excited to read it because one I've seen it all over the place on one of the facebook groups you and I are in and everyone was raving about it and I I didn't hate the book in its entirety. I feel like the first 70 percent of it was just so phenomenally written and done and the humor was great, the banter was great, like you said, the sex was great, but because of the twist, I would have been again. I would have been fine with the twist if it hadn't gone as far as it did with the little girl. I would have been fine with the entire thing, I think, if that wasn't a factor, but because it was I, by the end of the book I was like, okay, well you know, I don't know that I would recommend it.

And now I would be terrified to read anything by her. I'm gonna have to read, like the last five chapters to make sure that it ain't no fucking meta book.

I would. I I put pin pal on my list because that's another one I've seen a lot of people talk about the premise. Looks really interesting.

Have you looked at that one? Nope, I will let you read it and then you let me know, because I trust your opinion, on whether or not I should waste my time with it, and that is one thing I'm loving about this Um buddy read series.

I feel like you and I are getting a very good handle on like what the other person enjoys, because oh my gosh, I don't think I sent it to you. I recorded a voxer on my own voxer in my notes. That's like I um I was predicting how much you would hate this book. All of us sent that to you later.

I love that so much. Jenn and I was like you're going to hate this book. Just so you know, I fucking hated it. It was terrible.

I knew. As soon as we got to the twist I was like, oh god, this piece would be so mad about this.

Yeah, it was. Yeah, there's just and my problem with Okay, it's not a problem, like, like you said, the writing was phenomenal and she had the ebb and flow of the story that gave nothing away. Not ever once in my brain did I think that this wasn't real or this wasn't happening. Like not once. Yep, not once, until it's all like wait, why is she in the wheelchair? Wait, she's in a psych, wait what? And then he's not even real. No, yeah, no, I completely agree.

Okay, so what do you feel like? We can move on to rating.

Yeah, I was gonna say the one one thing, though.

Okay, it was very fucking funny, it was so like, okay, you guys, you have to know, typically Mistie and I will come on and get ready to to do an episode and we're picking a quote of you know, kind of that sums up the book really well. We thought was really funny or whatever, and typically we might have like to A piece to choose from and we each had over 10. Yeah, like we had to go back and forth and kind of figure out what, what quote to use, because there were so many good Good quote. Oh, mention, um. Okay, that was one quote that we didn't put at the beginning, but I want you to say it now.

The Bourbon one, because that okay, let me pull that up real quick it is. It is like my second favorite one in the whole book. Yes, my first one is still the lying down X. Yes, I'm so putting that on a shirt. I swear I am okay. Let's see. Drinking bourbon during the day doesn't make you an alcoholic, it makes you a pirate.

That needs to go on this shirt. That does too right. I will give her this. She's very quotable. I will make a jt yes, gun singer quote shirt. Okay, with all the great yes I'm and I already told my sister I need her make it for me.

Yeah, it was. That's one thing, you know. It was a lot of fun to read.

I need to read it up until it was okay, so how many we're gonna do the dark rating first? I'm gonna say like a two or a three. Oh gosh, I was thinking, like a one, I was thinking one, yeah, because I mean One's on a page, I mean, I guess the shootout Well, yeah, that's true. And then bringing the head back and then you know, her feeling of the water was pretty violent and dark.

All right, I guess. Yeah, I would be okay with two, Because I guess for me. I didn't feel like it was a dark romance. There were a couple of things that happened and I mean, yeah, I guess she really did kind of go into detail about the car accident.

I would say, even if we're not talking about him being the pest control, if we're just doing the storyline of her daughter being murdered.

Yeah, yeah, it's her husband's fault.

And then, when we go to second Olivia, she kills her own daughter, even if it's by accident.

Yeah.

That's it, though. I think those three things, and then, plus her, you know, the being in the mental instinct with ALS and then having to deal with a shitty husband, you know, in the second world that at least gives it two. Yeah, okay, I would agree.

Oh okay, okay, sorry, I have to backtrack. Can we talk about how much her aid at the house Like?

I loved her. Oh yeah, she was fantastic.

She was fantastic. She's like if you want me to suffocate him with a pillow, I will suffocate him with a pillow. Yeah, Okay.

Okay, we need a backtrack. I agree. You know what. Another thing that pissed me off with the second world is she didn't say anything about making sure that her husband didn't get in fucking any of her money from writing this book. That pissed me off too. Yeah, because he's married to her. Unless she did something in her contract, he's going to fucking get everything when she dies.

Yeah, while he's over here. Oh yeah, fucking receptionist.

Yeah, okay. So I would say it's spicy. I would say five. That couch scene like the couch scene is so hot. Just the chemistry. How she wrote the chemistry on the page Like I could feel it.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're not. If not a five, then at least a four.

Yeah, I would say four A four. Okay, yeah, because I feel like it. You know, I kind of go back to how we've rated other things, other books, other scenes, and like there was some like kinky elements, but it wasn't like very kinky in and of itself and I feel like five is like it's hot, it's detailed and it's pretty kinky. I mean Someone's gonna move, it was not nearly as kinky as the ritual.

That's really If I was choosing between this and the ritual, I would say this one is hotter than the ritual. Oh, I agree.

Because the ritual becomes redundant. But the ritual still has way more kink than that is true. Perfect strangers.

I don't that counts. The casting was so hot that like said it for me. That's it, Like it totally did, but I can. I'll agree with you on four. I'll agree with you on four, Even though it was intense and not as kinky. I'll give you four.

Okay, okay.

Now the overall rating.

Do you want me?

to go or you.

Yeah, you go first cause I would give it five stars. What? Yeah, I fucking hated this book, but I never fucking saw that ending coming. Okay, if you can trick me and be that fucking good at it and surprise me, I will give you the kudos that you want, but I still fucking hate it and it's trash. I'm shocked, yeah, if you think about it, if we didn't have that, if we didn't have that plot twist, I would still give it five right, or at least a four, because it was so good, oh sure, 100%.

But the fact that she tricked me. Even if I hated for my own personal reasons and opinions, I fucking hated it. She did an amazing job. Now, only she tricked us once, she tricked us twice. Twice, yeah, twice-y, yeah, you're not wrong, wow. So I would give it five stars, but in my review I will explicitly say I fucking hated the shanice trash and don't read the past, this chapter. But I will still give her the points that she deserves.

Okay, for writing the trash that it is Wow, I'm shocked, okay. Okay. So if we go by being surprised and how well it was done at the twist and that kind of thing, 100% five. But personally for me I would give it a three. It just I feel like tape. That extra scene with her daughter in Second Olivia's World. I just I can't. I really I struggle getting past that. So I would recommend you to read it With the caveat of, like you need to check the trigger and content warnings and kind of go in with an open mind, cause I don't remember the content warnings on this either.

I don't think there were any listed. I think you're right. I don't think there were. I just yeah, I'm gonna stick with my five because on my rating scale a five is. It shocked me and I was fucking shocked.

Yeah, you're what? Yeah, I mean you're totally, you're totally right.

But if we're talking about my enjoyment of it. I'm giving it a fucking one because of that. That's what I'm expecting, Okay.

That's what I was expecting.

I'm sitting here like what what's so first, when I write my review, I'm gonna do five, slash one. Okay, here's my high-scrub review. Here's my one star review, my one star review is it's trash and don't read this as this chapter.

Yeah, I mean the writing was great. You know, she did the twist really well. Like I said, I really like how she pulled all of like the real life. Second, Olivia, you know perspective on things and created the first world based off of those things and I love the conversation with third Olivia and Estelle. I thought that was a great conversation, it was just yeah.

Yeah, I'll give it to you. Jt, you got us, you stumped us.

Yeah, 100%.

But I'm not reading you again until somebody else vouches for your next book. I ain't doing it.

I'll read for both of us and I'll let you know I just Because here's the thing If the first 70% of the book is like what's typical of her writing, then I am down. I can handle big twists, but like, don't bring your kid into it.

I just feel like, well, I know, we already said it, it just erases the whole story. It's like it never happened and James was just so hot. Oh my God, absolutely f**king lute-ly For a pest control exterminator.

It's so great, it's so great.

I don't think I've ever read a book that had this much of a big shock at the end. Yeah, I can't think of one. I've had books that surprised me Right.

Right, I was like, oh OK, I didn't catch that.

That's who the killer is, not this person, or that's who the villain is, or whatever it is, but like, completely threw me out of the world, yeah, into a set world, right, and then threw me out of that one too. Like you're not f**king welcome to either one of these. Be gone, I can't think of one. Ok, readers, and where does the darkness rate with you? Thank you for joining us on the journey into the Shadows of Love, where dark romance stories come to light.

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This is Mistie, signing off from Bones of the Story.

Transcribed by https://podium.page