Mafia boss, morally gray villain, or a beast in a mansion: why do we love book boyfriends we'd run from in real life?

Cassie and Emily start with a real Reddit request for a mafia romance where the FMC has no idea the MMC is in the mob, and he refuses to let her walk away once she finds out. Then they get into what makes a love interest unhinged in a fun way versus too far.

In this episode:

• The Aristotle theory that fiction lets us feel big, dangerous things with zero real stakes
• What unhinged means to each of us: Emily wants the obsessive, broody guy who's only down bad for one girl, Cassie wants the mob boss and the white collar criminal
• Why we fall for the beast, the vampire, and the recluse in Beauty and the Beast retellings
• Where the line is: villains who get a moment of clarity, motivations that make sense, and why serial killers and stalkers are a hard no
• Why we always pick the bad boy over the nice one
• Our most unhinged book boyfriends and TV men

Chapters:
(00:00) The Reddit request: a mafia boss the FMC doesn't know is mafia
(01:09) Why we love unhinged love stories (Aristotle weighs in)
(02:52) What unhinged means to each of us
(05:49) Beauty and the Beast, monsters, and paranormal men
(07:29) When fantasy goes too far: real life criminals and Tommy Shelby
(09:32) Where's the line? Villains, motivations, and hard nos
(11:50) Why we always pick the bad boy over the nice one
(13:50) Our most unhinged book boyfriends
(23:46) Unhinged TV men: House of the Dragon and True Blood
(26:42) Your turn: send us your most unhinged love interest

Tell us your most unhinged love story or love interest in the comments or DMs @bookbitsclub.

Mentioned: Fourth Wing, Zodiac Academy, Daggermouth, Poison Daughter, Fall of Ruin and Wrath, Chasing the Wild, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Peaky Blinders, House of the Dragon, True Blood, You

Heads up: adult language and spicy book talk.

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