LN Cronan

 Assure your daughter you have plenty of people to discuss Crossfire with ..... right here!

 I'm on it ..... just like I'd been on the radio interview last week in which Sylvia had dropped the ultimate Reflected spoiler.  P.S. I "telecommute" -- working from a home office via Internet and telephone. Thus I can multi-task personal stuff while at work. I'm in the Eastern U.S., so my work day is just getting underway - it's just before 9:30 a.m.

 One-way street in New York City is my guess. But headed somewhere.

 Although the shot is careful to avoid the brand of the car (likely out of copyright respect) I'm guessing this is Gideon's Mercedes. It's the car he and Eva went off together in -- just the two of them, with him driving -- to have their serious talk near the end of Reflected, the talk in which Eva explains his secrecy is a deal-breaker -- and where he breaks the wall of secrecy by starting to discuss the abuse he suffered as a child. This is also the car where some beat cop found Eva in his lap hugging him, a cop who told them to break it up and drive away, or else she'd charge them with public indecency.  So two thoughts on Chapter 11: An ominous plot turn about the blowback of Gideon publicly going after Eva one day before Reflected ended -- "rescuing" her from the clutches of one of his worst enemies (Dr. Lucas), the pair of them going off together in public, and Gideon being spotted by a cop alone with Eva, the pair of them in one another's arms. A continuation of the abuse history discussion, a talk Gideon and Eva might have in his car

 I have. From what I can read, Eva is being driven away from Gideon's apartment (probably by Clancy -- he's the one who drove her there from Krav Maga at the very end of Reflected.)  The final words I can make out are ...."intense Krav Maga class, and my mind was spinning ...."  Obviously, Eva was thinking back to everything that had unfolded starting with Detective Graves approaching her at Krav Maga to leak to Eva the fact the cops figured out Gideon killed Nathan -- the detective's theories of how, and more importantly, why. How she (Eva) had run right to Gideon's doorstep, and how he had found her there. Him falling to his knees when Eva revealed why she was there .... (the last we knew, they were hugging with Eva vowing they would face things together.)

Oh and today is Snapshot 11 of Entwined.  So there's oodles of places to play today: Group re-read of Chapter One of Bared Group discussion of Day One of Reflected Unveiling of Snapshot 11 of Entwined  SQUEEEEEE! Pretty good for a Tuesday, eh?

P.S. There's another thread already begun earlier this week to cover the day-by-day of Reflected. Sylvia has recommended we re-read Reflected very carefully. Â This morning, I put up a timeline summary of Day One of Reflected, which plays out over chapters one through three plus nearly all of chapter four. (the final few pages of chapter four cover one scene the morning of Day Two). Â Day One of Reflected was pretty intense, including Corrine pulling her nooner-with-Gideon stunt, sparking one of the worst fights Gideon and Eva ever have, probably second only to the fight they had after Gideon catches Eva in Brett's arms. The evening covers their first therapy appointment with Dr. Petersen. And that night, Eva has the first Nathan-raping-her nightmare she's had in a long time. Also that day, Nathan and Gideon face one another for the first time, something not explained in the novel but revealed by Sylvia in this forum.

I'm going to attempt to listen to each on audiobook. Some things jump out when I hear the story read to me. Other things jump out on the written page.Â

 Hey Mrs. C.  We all were bound to find out anyway well before Entwined is released on June 4.  Sylvia is releasing Chapter One of Entwined early, on May 7. Obviously, very significant spoiler info will be in that chapter.

Sylvia recommends we all re-read Bared to You and Reflected in You, one chapter per day, before Entwined in You is released. She said if we start April 23, a goal would be to cover one chapter per day between now and the June 4 release day. Â So today is Bared To You, Chapter One.

 Shaz, because the name of this thread is Reflected in You - Series of Events, I've started a new thread to better cover the chapter by chapter re-read:   One Chapter A Day - Re-Read Of Bared and EntwinedÂ

It's Tuesday! Twice-weekly snapshot will come this morning (likely around 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time based on when all the other ones thus far have hit the Internet.) Â Today will be a glimpse into Chapter 11. Recap of the snapshots of chapters 1-10: Â 1. The word "Press" super-imposed over a fuzzy background shot of a newspaper page. A fancy pen in the foreground. 2. Unwrapped Christmas present boxes 3. The word "Business" next to a cup of coffee 4. A microphone on a stand 5. A pile of neatly-folded white terrycloth towels, wrapped in a red ribbon. 6. A bathtub in a modern-style bathroom 7. An open bottle of red wine, nearly full, and in front of it, one wine glass holding some wine. Near it is a small vase holding four red roses. 8. Two different types of pills in blister packs plus a bottle of some sort of liquid medication. The meds are on a glass coffee table in front of a white couch. 9. Fuzzy shot of a crowded dance floor. One woman in the center of the shot is in semi-focus. 10. A diamond and gold women's watch. Â Here's the link to the page where the snapshots (and snippets too) all are posted:Â http://www.sylviaday.com/category/snippet/

 SQUEEEEE!!!!

There's a new thread to cover chapter-by-chapter of each book, starting today with Bared in You chapter One. The scheduled group re-read Sylvia suggested starts today (April 23).  This thread covers day-by-day events of Reflected, nearly all of those days unfolding over multiple chapters. In addition to a group re-read of both books, Sylvia suggested we very carefully re-read Reflected.  Reflected in You, Day One: Thursday plus middle of the night Thursday into Friday Pages 1-64 Chapters One through almost all of Four (the end of Four is early Friday morning). Timeline:  Chapter One: waking up at Gideon -- Gideon assures Eva she's the one he wants, and his brunette issue is over. Eva wakes up at Gideon's. He's already up, dressed and on the telephone, tense about something. He tells her he needs to go on a business trip that weekend, and he wants to her to come with him. He wants to leave Friday evening and return on Sunday. She says she needs to spend time with Cary, straightening out self-sabotage he's suddenly engaging in again, culminating with the orgy the night before. They compromise: Eva and Cary will go to Vegas, and Gideon will go to Arizona. Gideon ends up talking about how he first met Eva, following her into the Crossfire. This leads to a discussion about his "brunette" thing -- because Corrine had been surprised, meeting Eva the night before, that Eva didn't look like her (Corrine). Angus drives them to the Crossfire.  Chapter two: Eva's morning at work plus lunchtime - and Corrine's nooner stunt Mark asks her for help on a new account to market blueberry flavored coffee She speaks with Cary on the phone to firm up the Vegas weekend plan She starts researching Dr. Terry Lucas online (she'd met him the night before at the disastrous dinner at the Waldorf). Online she also sees media pictures of her and Gideon at the fundraiser the night before. Magdalene calls her up at work, to take sides against Corrine about the night before, when Corrine had hogged Gideon's attention during dinner (Magdalene had eavesdropped.) Eva has a phone conversation with Gideon in which she's expressing a desire to perform oral sex on him in his office. His insecurities initially prompt him to question her motive for offering one-sided pleasure -- and she's able to convince him her reason is offering it as a gift. Eva goes out to lunch with Megumi. Returning from lunch, Eva catches (and takes a cell phone picture of) Corrine coming out of the Crossfire looking freshly f*****. Angus is waiting by the curbside, and he drives Corrine away.  Chapter three: Serious fight with Gideon, and the first therapy appointment that evening Note: though not contained anywhere in the Chapter, Sylvia later revealed Nathan had been with Gideon in his office while Eva was out of the building at lunch with Megumi. Eva barges in to Gideon's office to demand an explanation about Corrine. Both he and the office are in disarray, and Eva assumes the worst - he just had a nooner with Corrine. She accuses him of cheating. She's so angry, she loses control and hits him. In turn, Gideon gets angry that Eva thinks he cheated and that she's still so insecure in spite of everything he does to try to reassure her. He denies any knowledge of Corrine having even been in the building, but he admits Angus naturally would have offered Corrine a ride. As for Angus being downstairs in the first place, Gideon says he (Gideon) was supposed to go out to a business lunch but it had gotten cancelled last minute by an unexpected meeting in his office (i.e. Nathan, not that Gideon says anything about that.) The fight ends unresolved with Eva's parting words warning him his has the ability to push her away. Gideon goes down to Eva's office at 5 p.m. to fetch her so they can leave together for their first scheduled couple's therapy appointment. Session with Dr. Petersen. They continue to fight about Corrine, now in front of a shrink. The fact the f*** pad hotel room still exists slips out while they're arguing. One other matter also comes up during the session, the highly sexualized nature of Eva and Gideon's relationship. Dr. Petersen questions whether the relationship is working, and he tries (unsuccessfully) to recommend a period of abstinence. Afterward, Eva wants to go home alone. Gideon persuades her to let him come over. She realizes part of her moodiness is hormonal: she's got PMS. On the surface, the latest Corrine fight is over, but underneath, Eva's insecurities are raging.  Chapter four: nighttime at Eva's apartment - the stress she's under has triggered a return of Nathan nightmares The chapter opens with her in the middle of a Nathan nightmare, the first one she's had in a long time. She awakes to find a fully-dressed Gideon with her. It's just after midnight. He explains he had some things to take care of, and he was just arriving back. (Note: we don't find until very much later he was clearing out his f*** pad.) Cary was just coming home too, so he and Gideon came into the apartment together, and they overheard Eva still in her nightmare, being raped. Gideon and Eva shower together, Eva wanting to feel clean again after the nightmare. She comes on to Gideon in the shower, but he takes complete control of the situation. He admits being terrified of ever triggering her sexually. Instead of engaging in any sort of intercourse, they each get themselves off together. The scene (and Thursday itself) with them holding one another.  Note: the final few pages of Chapter four are early the next morning, with Cary and Eva talking in the kitchen about the Corrine mess, about Gideon's secret-keeping issue, and about the fact Eva's now so stressed over her relationship with Gideon that the Nathan nightmares have triggered again. It's the first chance Cary has some face-to-face time to talk with Eva about the whole mess that started at the Waldorf dinner two nights prior. Gideon supposedly is still asleep in her room, but it's my belief he eavesdropped on this very important conversation between Eva and her best friend in the world.

 Gideon took a phone call just as the cops arrived at Eva's. My guess is that call was from Angus, sitting in one of Gideon's cars downstairs, having driven Gideon and Ireland to the dinner at Eva's. Angus probably spotted the cops enter the building, and warned Gideon.  But I'm sure other calls were from his various security people keeping him updated about the fact someone (i.e. Nathan) was found murdered in one of his hotel properties that day.   As for Corrine, realizing at that point the cops in all likelihood were going to pull his phone records, Gideon would have probably answered any call she made Friday night to his cell and spoken with her briefly, long enough so that the phone record would clearly show they talked. We know she's had a habit of calling him daily. She probably was wondering where he was Friday evening, especially because "their" picture together had been in the paper that day. She has his home number. If she didn't reach him there, she likely would have tried his cell next.

 I'm sure there will be some good plot twists about how it all went down.  All the info we readers have -- all that Eva knows -- is what Detective Graves told her (see pages 333-337 of Reflected.) We can't assume that's exactly what happened. The cops may have gotten some of their theories wrong It's possible Graves told Eva some half truths or even lied about some things, especially lied by omission, if it is true the cops are trying to set Gideon up by using Eva.  The only things we know for sure: Nathan is dead (duh, I know) His body was found Friday morning (that's what the cops said at Eva's apartment Friday night in front of everyone, including her father, a cop himself) Gideon was out partying with Corrine on Thursday evening (newspaper photo and press-release story about the PR event he hosted both document this). Detective Graves got Eva to confirm she (Eva) broke up with Gideon on Saturday morning (that is, Eva ended the relationship after Nathan was dead, not Gideon ended it before Nathan died.) The cops have been hounding Stanton too, including seizing copies of security videotapes from his office building. In fact, they'd taken videotapes just one day before Graves "ran into" Eva at the Krav Maga studio -- that's according to Eva's mother, who told her about it on the phone that evening.  So everything Graves said to Eva must be taken with a grain of salt.

Does this make Eva bad like Gideon? Â No. Â What Gideon did, taking the law into his own hands, was wrong. But he's not evil. He is deeply flawed for very valid reasons. So is Eva. Sylvia is not making any apologies for the characters. They are who they are.

 â€œWaking up to you is like… presents on Christmas morning.†~ Eva to Gideon, Entwined Snippet #2

From the Entwined excerpt -- this is what goes through Eva's head when she finds Gideon has sneaked into her apartment to see her soon after she'd learned what he'd done:   He must’ve been so worried about how I would react to what he’d done for me. To be honest, I’d been worried. Did my gratitude mean I was more twisted than I realized?  Then I remembered my stepbrother’s hands all over me… his weight pressing me into the mattress… the tearing pain between my legs as he rammed into me over and over…  I trembled with renewed fury. If being glad the f*****  was dead made me twisted, so be it.

 His security team probably suspects he did it, but none of them would ever admit it -- to do so would leave them open to criminal prosecution as well, because they had at the very least some inkling Gideon was planning to take matters into his own hands some way.  Besides, there are other people with motive for wanting Nathan dead too. Like Monica and Stanton -- who had the resources to hire a hitman. His security team can't be certain it was Gideon.  I'm convinced Angus does know because I think Angus was an accomplice. My theory is Angus assisted in sneaking Gideon away from the party to Nathan's hotel and then back to the party. Stood as lookout while Gideon did the deed. And helped dispose of evidence, especially the weapon.

My guess is Gideon found out Monday morning that Cary's assailant was Nathan. I don't think Gideon made the decision then and there that the only option to protect Eva was to kill Nathan. But Gideon did immediately that day start planning ways to increase already existing protection. Gideon, knowing that his being with Eva was a serious trigger to Nathan, sought to defuse the situation by  allowing himself to be photographed on a "date" with Corrine -- Gideon did this to buy a little breathing room as he had his security people scramble for new intelligence.  I think the things he learned during that security team meeting in his apartment Tuesday night became the tipping point where he rejected all other options but the one he took. Had he been able to get away with it, he might have immediately gone after Nathan that night. It still would have been premediation -- but it would not have been an elaborate plan.  But instead, he took two days to set things up -- protecting Eva from legal blowback as much as himself. Gideon made sure that if he did give his life for Eva in the figurative sense -- that he went to prison for murder -- she would be forever safe from prosecution. Thus I am willing to cut him some -- some -- slack for the elaborate planning.  He did more than just arrange an alibi and cover story for himself. He made sure Eva also had an alibi. And the way he hurt her was for her own protection too -- he made sure that if the police later pushed very hard in the investigation (which they did) all of Eva's actions in the days immediately prior to the killing would reinforce the fact she did NOT even know Nathan was in New York, much less know that Gideon plotted to kill him.

Excellent, Kirsten!  Maybe we could have a day-by-day book club discussion here by re-reading the chapter(s) involved, so we can hash out details and explore ideas of where some of the things in the chapters are leading. Â

The audio book narrator is top-notch, very talented!  Don't own an iPod or similar mobile device? Not to worry. If you listen to music on your computer, you have all the equipment you need. If you've ever purchased songs online, so you can burn songs to CDs, you already have the know how to buy an audiobook, play it, and even make CD copies to play in your car or on a stereo.  You can download the audiobooks onto your computer and listen to them there. (In fact, folks who use iPods download their audiobooks to a computer, then plus the portable device into the computer in order to transfer a copy onto the device. The original purchase stays on the computer, just like songs you buy stay there too.)  The two best places to buy digital copies of the audiobooks are the iTunes store or Audible.com (BTW if you have a Kindle Fire e-reader, you can listen to the audiobook on it.)  If anyone has some general tech questions about the process, I'll try to help.  P.S. In case you're wondering what my preferred method is .... I own an iPod, but I prefer to buy audiobooks on Audible.com instead of iTunes. Audible has membership plans for folks (like me) who regularly buy audiobooks plus frequent sales for members. In fact, during one sale earlier this year, both Crossfire novels were offered for sale.  It's less expensive to use Audible if you're really into audiobooks. However, you don't need to be a member -- you can make one-time purchases at regular price instead of member price.  Folks who own iPods can transfer Audible purchases to their iPods just like they can transfer songs onto their iPods from places other than iTunes.

 All along, I've believed Gideon did it -- in order to save Eva's life. I view what he did as a form of justifiable homicide, not cold blooded murder. And I think you're right that she couldn't be clearer. The whole cover-up plan, most especially cruelly distancing himself from Eva, actions that dramatically began four days before Nathan was killed. Why would he put her through h***? The Entwined excerpt, in which he says to Eva "What I did" The New Year's teaser, which is the same Excerpt scene but from inside Gideon's head as he views Eva "worth killing for." Sylvia saying he did when asked the ultimate spoiler question in an interview last week. Some of us were able to hear the interview via live Internet stream, and it's as much the way she said it (voice inflection) as the quote itself. Sylvia joining in the discussion here on the forum and the many things she's stated in posts, most especially that she doesn't make excuses for her characters.

 This makes sense, especially coupled with your explanation that Nathan probably would end up hospitalized again (like he had after being convicted of rape) instead of sent to prison. I had been thinking more in terms of the most serious criminal charge that slam-dunk could have been leveled, giving him the longest possible prison term, especially if he were charged Federally, where parole no longer exists.  If this isn't a spoiler question for Entwined, has Gideon (or Monica/Stanton) been able to get their hands on the originals and all copies Nathan made, destroying them all? And how had Nathan been able to hide that material somewhere for more than a decade?