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Intrusive Intentions
Daniel’s semester abroad in Poland turns into a nightmare that makes him wish he never left home in this creepy queer psychological suspense novel by talented author Sebastian J. Plata.
Life back home might’ve been boring and predictable, but it was safe . . .
Coming to terms with his sexuality and craving adventure, twenty-one-year-old American Daniel begins a semester abroad in Kraków, Poland. It’s not only a stunning city full of culture, but Daniel also hits the jackpot with his host family.
Young couple Henryk and Aneta Lis, and their little son Kuba are wonderful―and ultra-wealthy! Daniel can’t believe his luck. But the more time he spends with beautiful and charismatic Aneta, the more he senses that his fairy tale experience is turning dark . . .
He’s soon sucked into a powerful and dangerous web of obsession, deceit, and connivance that will make him wish he’d never left his quiet hometown . . .
Exploring the complexities of morality, identity, and who we aspire to become, Intrusive Intentions is ideal for fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, the movie Saltburn, and books by Lucy Foley.
Life back home might’ve been boring and predictable, but it was safe . . .
Coming to terms with his sexuality and craving adventure, twenty-one-year-old American Daniel begins a semester abroad in Kraków, Poland. It’s not only a stunning city full of culture, but Daniel also hits the jackpot with his host family.
Young couple Henryk and Aneta Lis, and their little son Kuba are wonderful―and ultra-wealthy! Daniel can’t believe his luck. But the more time he spends with beautiful and charismatic Aneta, the more he senses that his fairy tale experience is turning dark . . .
He’s soon sucked into a powerful and dangerous web of obsession, deceit, and connivance that will make him wish he’d never left his quiet hometown . . .
Exploring the complexities of morality, identity, and who we aspire to become, Intrusive Intentions is ideal for fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, the movie Saltburn, and books by Lucy Foley.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published August 4, 2026
About the author
Sebastian J. Plata
3 books35 followersSebastian J. Plata was born in Poland and raised in Chicago. He spent his twenties in Japan, his thirties in New York City, and is now based in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 6, 2026
Suspenseful and spicy!
Twenty one year old, Daniel, is excited to spend a college year abroad in sophisticated Poland. His host family is young, hip, and wealthy and Daniel feels like he’s won the jackpot in placements. His host father, Henryk, is cheerful, friendly and treats him like an adult and their young son, Kubo, is excited to have a big brother. But his host mother, Aneta, while beautiful and sultry, hinges on the side of inappropriate with Daniel right from the beginning. While her advances start out as making Daniel uncomfortable, he soon discovers that she has ensnared him in a vicious web of lies, obsession, and complicity.
This was a really fast popcorn read. It was tense and cringeworthy until it became downright terrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed the Polish setting and being introduced to the language and culture of this country.
Thank you Netgalley, Joffe Books, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is available now
Twenty one year old, Daniel, is excited to spend a college year abroad in sophisticated Poland. His host family is young, hip, and wealthy and Daniel feels like he’s won the jackpot in placements. His host father, Henryk, is cheerful, friendly and treats him like an adult and their young son, Kubo, is excited to have a big brother. But his host mother, Aneta, while beautiful and sultry, hinges on the side of inappropriate with Daniel right from the beginning. While her advances start out as making Daniel uncomfortable, he soon discovers that she has ensnared him in a vicious web of lies, obsession, and complicity.
This was a really fast popcorn read. It was tense and cringeworthy until it became downright terrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed the Polish setting and being introduced to the language and culture of this country.
Thank you Netgalley, Joffe Books, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is available now
August 30, 2026
This was such a creepy, atmospheric read! It’s definitely a slow burn, and there were times when the pacing felt pretty sluggish. But honestly, I realized that slow buildup was totally necessary to crank up the suspense and intrigue. The payoff at the end was so worth it in my opinion - the twists were fantastic and totally caught me by surprise. My only real issue was the main character. To be completely honest, I found him super irritating, and his choices made me want to shake him sometimes. But even with an annoying MC, the plot is so clever and the ending delivers such a good punch that I’d still highly recommend it if you like dark psychological thrillers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Daniel 2.0 Comes With Travel, Sex, Money, and One Small Conscience Problem
“Intrusive Intentions” Offers Its Anxious Hero the Glamorous Reinvention He Wanted – Then Shows Him the Invoice
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 29th, 2026
Daniel Bullmann’s room in the Lis family mansion has a king-size bed and a balcony overlooking the garden. It has no lock. Sebastian J. Plata places that omission among so many comforts in “Intrusive Intentions” that objecting would feel almost graceless. Daniel has come from suburban New York to Kraków for a semester abroad, hoping a harder language, a serious interest in renewable energy, and three months away from home might make him less painfully alert to himself. The room offers another curriculum: luxury first, terms later.
Even the drive there seems to certify his luck. Henryk arrives in a black Mercedes; the family lives in Wola Justowska; the welcome table is crowded with catered food and vodka. Henryk is exuberant, affluent, and almost boyishly eager to please. Aneta is beautiful, exacting, and calm enough to make objection sound faintly hysterical. Their six-year-old son, Kuba, has already learned to register a change in her tone. At the piano, she stops him and orders another passage. In this house, even talent belongs partly to the person who commands it.
More important, Daniel is not blind. He is embarrassed by his own eyesight. Closeted, eager to please, and terrified of seeming uncultured, he examines each blush, joke, silence, and gesture for how it might look from outside. He notices Aneta’s tests, Henryk’s fear, the missing lock, and the suspicious fluency of Warren, the handsome American student he quickly adores. Beauty, money, masculine ease, travel – Daniel reads each as a credential. When Saya calls Aneta’s conduct harassment and Warren calls the family unconventional, he chooses Warren’s word.
Embarrassment keeps Daniel in rooms the reader has already left. His thoughts arrive in fragments, reversals, rhetorical questions, and apologetic punch lines. He tries to turn discomfort into a joke before anyone else can call it weakness. Plata’s first-person voice is youthful, colloquial, and often funny, particularly when Daniel’s earnestness collides with the sophisticated figure he hopes he is cutting. It also records a mind forever appealing its own verdicts. Daniel imagines the audience before it appears. By the time Aneta or Warren sits down, the chair has already been pulled out.
The Lises tighten their hold through favors. Rides, meals, gifts, invitations: each makes refusal a little less available. Aneta enters Daniel’s bedroom, deceives him into visiting a sex club, and treats his resistance as an American inhibition she can cure. Daniel eventually objects, but shame keeps making his objections partial. Aneta makes refusal seem prudish. Warren makes caution seem uncool. Between them, danger acquires excellent manners.
Rather than sitting harmlessly beside the thriller, Daniel’s sexuality changes what he can say and whom he believes. He fears coming out to Warren because he may lose the loose physical ease of presumed heterosexual friendship. He cannot describe Aneta’s pressure without also disclosing the desires and humiliations she has learned to use. Daniel begins with secrets. Aneta and Warren use secrecy as infrastructure. They enter his room, his phone, his sexual life, and eventually the version of him accepted by the police.
In Kraków, his wish for independence keeps producing dependence. Daniel has studied Polish for a year, yet Aneta still translates for Henryk and Kuba. The university has approved the family, lending their hospitality an official glow. Warren seems fluent not only in languages but in adulthood itself. Daniel avoided the obvious semester in London or Paris because he wanted something more serious, less overrun with Americans. The choice is earnest. It also makes confessing fear feel like confessing failure.
Plata lets Henryk expose how easily masculinity can conceal a victim. Daniel doubts that Aneta’s conduct can count as coercion because she is a woman and he could physically resist her. Henryk seems even less likely to need rescuing: he owns a company, coaches soccer, fills a doorway, laughs loudly. Yet he watches Aneta for permission, apologizes for displeasing her, and finally admits that he wants only to make her happy. His devotion first appears comic, then needy, then plainly terrified. By then the laugh sounds like appeasement.
Aneta is less fully seen. She has appetite, grievance, intelligence, and a polished gift for making pressure resemble invitation, but the novel remains entranced by the dangerous beautiful woman. Her eyes, hair, voice, neck, clothes, and effect on every room recur with near-ceremonial regularity. Her looks begin to feel less like Daniel’s fixation than the narration’s standing appointment. Warren later admits that he found her resentments, flattered them, and waited for them to become useful. That shifts part of the blame without reducing hers. Still, Aneta rarely exists beyond being watched, desired, feared, or diagnosed by a man.
Perhaps Warren matters most as the counterfeit future Daniel has already ordered. He appears to possess the life Daniel wants: travel without anxiety, sex without shame, confidence without visible rehearsal. He knows a little history about every country anyone mentions and carries it lightly, the sort of man who makes cosmopolitanism look like favorable lighting. Daniel wants his body, certainly, but also his apparent exemption from awkwardness. When Warren’s age, background, student status, and adventures prove false, Daniel discovers that the man he hoped to resemble was assembled to be believed.
Another possibility then comes into view: Daniel may enlarge his life without replacing himself. Aneta makes him feel chosen by beauty and wealth. Warren makes him feel chosen by the man he wishes he could become. Saya is usually correct and never seductive about it; Daniel discounts her partly because truth alone does not make him feel exceptional. His semester abroad becomes an education in refusing charismatic supervision.
Daniel is cleared when Kuba’s hidden video shows Aneta murdering Henryk. The solution is almost suspiciously efficient: the child has borrowed Daniel’s phone, returned to the house, recorded the killing through a window, and hidden the device where his mother cannot destroy it. Yet the convenience grows from an established bond between Daniel and Kuba. The phone also completes a bitter reversal. Planted messages and a sexual recording have manufactured Daniel as a jealous killer; Kuba uses the same device to return the murder to the person who committed it.
It is not exoneration but Warren’s offer that supplies the final test. He promises Daniel travel, sex, money, and a life in which embarrassment can be outrun rather than endured. The freedom is financed by fraud and other people’s ruin. Warren offers Daniel 2.0 with the conscience removed. Daniel says no, but refusal does not disinfect desire. He accepts Warren’s farewell kiss. Later, he lies about how Warren escaped, protecting not only the man but one last scrap of the belief that admiring him was not wholly foolish.
Much of the novel is subtler in scene than Daniel allows it to remain. Plata writes in short and medium sentences designed for speed, with comic self-correction and a whole weather system of bodily alarm: heat, staring, swallowing, sweat. Daniel is engaging company, though he can be as exhausting to read as he must be to inhabit. A feeling is dramatized, named, reconsidered, and named once more for insurance. The narration wants no misunderstanding left behind. The reader gets intimacy. Silence rarely gets a speaking part.
In time, Daniel’s pattern begins to look less like psychology than delay. He notices something alarming, feels ashamed of the alarm, accepts a more flattering explanation, and stays. The cycle is credible for a long while. Years of concealment have taught him to mistrust discomfort, while Kuba’s affection and the university’s expectations make leaving feel cruel. But after the sex-club deception, the bedroom incursions, Henryk’s pressured advance, and Aneta’s complaint to the school, each fresh reason for remaining has a visible plot joint. Plata knows why Daniel stays. He simply keeps proving it after the proof has arrived.
The confession at Warren’s apartment shares that fear of leaving anything unsettled. Warren explains how he selected Daniel, which insecurities he cultivated, and how Aneta became useful. The information satisfies the plot, but the scene starts to resemble an exit interview conducted by an unusually handsome fraud. Two rattling drawers would have helped. Daniel has finally learned to trust his perception; the novel might have trusted it too.
Rather quietly, the 44 short chapters keep altering what an ordinary gesture means. A hand offered for a kiss becomes a first test. Hospitality becomes debt. Touch becomes evidence. A phone becomes both false witness and true one. The restricted first person holds the reader inside the distance between seeing and believing, though often only by a step. Daniel enters a transparent house that withholds safety and ends holding keys to an emptied apartment. He came abroad hoping to become memorable. He leaves notorious, exonerated, and not quite free of the man who helped make him so.
Of the comparisons invited by the premise, Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” clarifies the erotic appeal of a more glamorous self, though Plata is warmer, plainer, and far less withholding. Daniel is not Tom Ripley but the potential apprentice who declines. Jennifer duBois’s “Cartwheel” offers the closer structural kinship: an American student abroad discovers how conduct, cultural difference, and sexual rumor can be arranged into a persuasive murder story. Plata’s sharper contribution lies elsewhere. The closet can teach more than concealment; it can teach a person to prefer another man’s explanation of him.
Past the plot waits Kuba, whose losses resize Daniel’s ordeal. Daniel has lost a semester, his reputation, and the fantasy that Poland would deliver a finished self. Kuba has lost his father, his mother, and the home that once passed for stability. When Daniel gives him his number and promises to stay in contact, the gesture is almost stubbornly modest. After a novel in which intimacy repeatedly becomes trespass, he offers availability without access. It asks for no performance and grants no ownership.
On its own terms, “Intrusive Intentions” is a fast, psychologically shrewd thriller whose prose sometimes reaches for blunt instruments. Its connection between shame and deference is carefully built, and Henryk’s fear gives familiar machinery a less familiar ache. The narration overexplains, the exoneration arrives with suspicious efficiency, and several secondary characters complete their plot assignments more fully than they live. Daniel’s compromised refusal nevertheless lingers. He chooses his own reading over Warren’s, then lies to preserve one corner of Warren’s story. The novel earns 76/100, or 3/5 stars.
Ultimately, the guest room provides the cleanest measure of what Daniel learns. A lock is not an insult to intimacy or proof that affection has failed. Sometimes it is the first small mechanism by which a room, a body, or a life announces who is allowed inside.
“Intrusive Intentions” Offers Its Anxious Hero the Glamorous Reinvention He Wanted – Then Shows Him the Invoice
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 29th, 2026
Daniel Bullmann’s room in the Lis family mansion has a king-size bed and a balcony overlooking the garden. It has no lock. Sebastian J. Plata places that omission among so many comforts in “Intrusive Intentions” that objecting would feel almost graceless. Daniel has come from suburban New York to Kraków for a semester abroad, hoping a harder language, a serious interest in renewable energy, and three months away from home might make him less painfully alert to himself. The room offers another curriculum: luxury first, terms later.
Even the drive there seems to certify his luck. Henryk arrives in a black Mercedes; the family lives in Wola Justowska; the welcome table is crowded with catered food and vodka. Henryk is exuberant, affluent, and almost boyishly eager to please. Aneta is beautiful, exacting, and calm enough to make objection sound faintly hysterical. Their six-year-old son, Kuba, has already learned to register a change in her tone. At the piano, she stops him and orders another passage. In this house, even talent belongs partly to the person who commands it.
More important, Daniel is not blind. He is embarrassed by his own eyesight. Closeted, eager to please, and terrified of seeming uncultured, he examines each blush, joke, silence, and gesture for how it might look from outside. He notices Aneta’s tests, Henryk’s fear, the missing lock, and the suspicious fluency of Warren, the handsome American student he quickly adores. Beauty, money, masculine ease, travel – Daniel reads each as a credential. When Saya calls Aneta’s conduct harassment and Warren calls the family unconventional, he chooses Warren’s word.
Embarrassment keeps Daniel in rooms the reader has already left. His thoughts arrive in fragments, reversals, rhetorical questions, and apologetic punch lines. He tries to turn discomfort into a joke before anyone else can call it weakness. Plata’s first-person voice is youthful, colloquial, and often funny, particularly when Daniel’s earnestness collides with the sophisticated figure he hopes he is cutting. It also records a mind forever appealing its own verdicts. Daniel imagines the audience before it appears. By the time Aneta or Warren sits down, the chair has already been pulled out.
The Lises tighten their hold through favors. Rides, meals, gifts, invitations: each makes refusal a little less available. Aneta enters Daniel’s bedroom, deceives him into visiting a sex club, and treats his resistance as an American inhibition she can cure. Daniel eventually objects, but shame keeps making his objections partial. Aneta makes refusal seem prudish. Warren makes caution seem uncool. Between them, danger acquires excellent manners.
Rather than sitting harmlessly beside the thriller, Daniel’s sexuality changes what he can say and whom he believes. He fears coming out to Warren because he may lose the loose physical ease of presumed heterosexual friendship. He cannot describe Aneta’s pressure without also disclosing the desires and humiliations she has learned to use. Daniel begins with secrets. Aneta and Warren use secrecy as infrastructure. They enter his room, his phone, his sexual life, and eventually the version of him accepted by the police.
In Kraków, his wish for independence keeps producing dependence. Daniel has studied Polish for a year, yet Aneta still translates for Henryk and Kuba. The university has approved the family, lending their hospitality an official glow. Warren seems fluent not only in languages but in adulthood itself. Daniel avoided the obvious semester in London or Paris because he wanted something more serious, less overrun with Americans. The choice is earnest. It also makes confessing fear feel like confessing failure.
Plata lets Henryk expose how easily masculinity can conceal a victim. Daniel doubts that Aneta’s conduct can count as coercion because she is a woman and he could physically resist her. Henryk seems even less likely to need rescuing: he owns a company, coaches soccer, fills a doorway, laughs loudly. Yet he watches Aneta for permission, apologizes for displeasing her, and finally admits that he wants only to make her happy. His devotion first appears comic, then needy, then plainly terrified. By then the laugh sounds like appeasement.
Aneta is less fully seen. She has appetite, grievance, intelligence, and a polished gift for making pressure resemble invitation, but the novel remains entranced by the dangerous beautiful woman. Her eyes, hair, voice, neck, clothes, and effect on every room recur with near-ceremonial regularity. Her looks begin to feel less like Daniel’s fixation than the narration’s standing appointment. Warren later admits that he found her resentments, flattered them, and waited for them to become useful. That shifts part of the blame without reducing hers. Still, Aneta rarely exists beyond being watched, desired, feared, or diagnosed by a man.
Perhaps Warren matters most as the counterfeit future Daniel has already ordered. He appears to possess the life Daniel wants: travel without anxiety, sex without shame, confidence without visible rehearsal. He knows a little history about every country anyone mentions and carries it lightly, the sort of man who makes cosmopolitanism look like favorable lighting. Daniel wants his body, certainly, but also his apparent exemption from awkwardness. When Warren’s age, background, student status, and adventures prove false, Daniel discovers that the man he hoped to resemble was assembled to be believed.
Another possibility then comes into view: Daniel may enlarge his life without replacing himself. Aneta makes him feel chosen by beauty and wealth. Warren makes him feel chosen by the man he wishes he could become. Saya is usually correct and never seductive about it; Daniel discounts her partly because truth alone does not make him feel exceptional. His semester abroad becomes an education in refusing charismatic supervision.
Daniel is cleared when Kuba’s hidden video shows Aneta murdering Henryk. The solution is almost suspiciously efficient: the child has borrowed Daniel’s phone, returned to the house, recorded the killing through a window, and hidden the device where his mother cannot destroy it. Yet the convenience grows from an established bond between Daniel and Kuba. The phone also completes a bitter reversal. Planted messages and a sexual recording have manufactured Daniel as a jealous killer; Kuba uses the same device to return the murder to the person who committed it.
It is not exoneration but Warren’s offer that supplies the final test. He promises Daniel travel, sex, money, and a life in which embarrassment can be outrun rather than endured. The freedom is financed by fraud and other people’s ruin. Warren offers Daniel 2.0 with the conscience removed. Daniel says no, but refusal does not disinfect desire. He accepts Warren’s farewell kiss. Later, he lies about how Warren escaped, protecting not only the man but one last scrap of the belief that admiring him was not wholly foolish.
Much of the novel is subtler in scene than Daniel allows it to remain. Plata writes in short and medium sentences designed for speed, with comic self-correction and a whole weather system of bodily alarm: heat, staring, swallowing, sweat. Daniel is engaging company, though he can be as exhausting to read as he must be to inhabit. A feeling is dramatized, named, reconsidered, and named once more for insurance. The narration wants no misunderstanding left behind. The reader gets intimacy. Silence rarely gets a speaking part.
In time, Daniel’s pattern begins to look less like psychology than delay. He notices something alarming, feels ashamed of the alarm, accepts a more flattering explanation, and stays. The cycle is credible for a long while. Years of concealment have taught him to mistrust discomfort, while Kuba’s affection and the university’s expectations make leaving feel cruel. But after the sex-club deception, the bedroom incursions, Henryk’s pressured advance, and Aneta’s complaint to the school, each fresh reason for remaining has a visible plot joint. Plata knows why Daniel stays. He simply keeps proving it after the proof has arrived.
The confession at Warren’s apartment shares that fear of leaving anything unsettled. Warren explains how he selected Daniel, which insecurities he cultivated, and how Aneta became useful. The information satisfies the plot, but the scene starts to resemble an exit interview conducted by an unusually handsome fraud. Two rattling drawers would have helped. Daniel has finally learned to trust his perception; the novel might have trusted it too.
Rather quietly, the 44 short chapters keep altering what an ordinary gesture means. A hand offered for a kiss becomes a first test. Hospitality becomes debt. Touch becomes evidence. A phone becomes both false witness and true one. The restricted first person holds the reader inside the distance between seeing and believing, though often only by a step. Daniel enters a transparent house that withholds safety and ends holding keys to an emptied apartment. He came abroad hoping to become memorable. He leaves notorious, exonerated, and not quite free of the man who helped make him so.
Of the comparisons invited by the premise, Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” clarifies the erotic appeal of a more glamorous self, though Plata is warmer, plainer, and far less withholding. Daniel is not Tom Ripley but the potential apprentice who declines. Jennifer duBois’s “Cartwheel” offers the closer structural kinship: an American student abroad discovers how conduct, cultural difference, and sexual rumor can be arranged into a persuasive murder story. Plata’s sharper contribution lies elsewhere. The closet can teach more than concealment; it can teach a person to prefer another man’s explanation of him.
Past the plot waits Kuba, whose losses resize Daniel’s ordeal. Daniel has lost a semester, his reputation, and the fantasy that Poland would deliver a finished self. Kuba has lost his father, his mother, and the home that once passed for stability. When Daniel gives him his number and promises to stay in contact, the gesture is almost stubbornly modest. After a novel in which intimacy repeatedly becomes trespass, he offers availability without access. It asks for no performance and grants no ownership.
On its own terms, “Intrusive Intentions” is a fast, psychologically shrewd thriller whose prose sometimes reaches for blunt instruments. Its connection between shame and deference is carefully built, and Henryk’s fear gives familiar machinery a less familiar ache. The narration overexplains, the exoneration arrives with suspicious efficiency, and several secondary characters complete their plot assignments more fully than they live. Daniel’s compromised refusal nevertheless lingers. He chooses his own reading over Warren’s, then lies to preserve one corner of Warren’s story. The novel earns 76/100, or 3/5 stars.
Ultimately, the guest room provides the cleanest measure of what Daniel learns. A lock is not an insult to intimacy or proof that affection has failed. Sometimes it is the first small mechanism by which a room, a body, or a life announces who is allowed inside.
August 25, 2026
Here’s my review for Intrusive Intentions by Sebastian J Plata
I found this story to be filled with obsession, emotions, deceit and a brilliant gripping psychological thriller that had me hooked right from the very start of the book. I found it so hard to put down as I wanted to know what happened next and how Daniel coped. When Daniel's three month semester started abroad in Krakow, Poland and he was introduced to his young host family, Henryk, Aneta and Kuba Lis, he thought he had hit the jackpot. They seem a wonderful couple and very rich with a very large gorgeous home and four cars plus Kopka the white cat. Aneta and Kuba can speak English but Henryk is limited. Daniel is coming to terms with being gay and hasn't told anyone yet. He's good friends with Saya and Warren plus hangouts with them a lot. He becomes embarrassed when he realises Aneta wants to kiss him and take him to bed, he even tells her no! But that doesn’t seem to be making her back off, what can he do?
This was an interesting and insightful read. Daniel was an intriguing character as he knew he was gay but he hadn't come out to family or friends yet as he hadn't built up the courage although he knew he should. He found Aneta very attractive and thought Henryk was batting above his weight though he was a nice guy and he got on with him. He got on well with Kuba. The story was written sensitively and with feeling, it was superbly plotted and extremely well thought out. The writing is very descriptive and everything is described in great detail. The characters are well described, well thought out and well planned. Will Daniel get what he wants?
Synopsis :
Daniel’s semester abroad in Poland turns into a nightmare that makes him wish he never left home in this creepy queer psychological suspense novel by talented author Sebastian J. Plata.
Life back home might’ve been boring and predictable, but it was safe . . .
Coming to terms with his sexuality and craving adventure, twenty-one-year-old American Daniel begins a semester abroad in Kraków, Poland. It’s not only a stunning city full of culture, but Daniel also hits the jackpot with his host family.
Young couple Henryk and Aneta Lis, and their little son Kuba are wonderful—and ultra-wealthy! Daniel can’t believe his luck. But the more time he spends with beautiful and charismatic Aneta, the more he senses that his fairy tale experience is turning dark . . .
He’s soon sucked into a powerful and dangerous web of obsession, deceit, and connivance that will make him wish he’d never left his quiet hometown . . .
Exploring the complexities of morality, identity, and who we aspire to become, Intrusive Intentions is ideal for fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, the movie Saltburn, and books by Lucy Foley.
I found this story to be filled with obsession, emotions, deceit and a brilliant gripping psychological thriller that had me hooked right from the very start of the book. I found it so hard to put down as I wanted to know what happened next and how Daniel coped. When Daniel's three month semester started abroad in Krakow, Poland and he was introduced to his young host family, Henryk, Aneta and Kuba Lis, he thought he had hit the jackpot. They seem a wonderful couple and very rich with a very large gorgeous home and four cars plus Kopka the white cat. Aneta and Kuba can speak English but Henryk is limited. Daniel is coming to terms with being gay and hasn't told anyone yet. He's good friends with Saya and Warren plus hangouts with them a lot. He becomes embarrassed when he realises Aneta wants to kiss him and take him to bed, he even tells her no! But that doesn’t seem to be making her back off, what can he do?
This was an interesting and insightful read. Daniel was an intriguing character as he knew he was gay but he hadn't come out to family or friends yet as he hadn't built up the courage although he knew he should. He found Aneta very attractive and thought Henryk was batting above his weight though he was a nice guy and he got on with him. He got on well with Kuba. The story was written sensitively and with feeling, it was superbly plotted and extremely well thought out. The writing is very descriptive and everything is described in great detail. The characters are well described, well thought out and well planned. Will Daniel get what he wants?
Synopsis :
Daniel’s semester abroad in Poland turns into a nightmare that makes him wish he never left home in this creepy queer psychological suspense novel by talented author Sebastian J. Plata.
Life back home might’ve been boring and predictable, but it was safe . . .
Coming to terms with his sexuality and craving adventure, twenty-one-year-old American Daniel begins a semester abroad in Kraków, Poland. It’s not only a stunning city full of culture, but Daniel also hits the jackpot with his host family.
Young couple Henryk and Aneta Lis, and their little son Kuba are wonderful—and ultra-wealthy! Daniel can’t believe his luck. But the more time he spends with beautiful and charismatic Aneta, the more he senses that his fairy tale experience is turning dark . . .
He’s soon sucked into a powerful and dangerous web of obsession, deceit, and connivance that will make him wish he’d never left his quiet hometown . . .
Exploring the complexities of morality, identity, and who we aspire to become, Intrusive Intentions is ideal for fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, the movie Saltburn, and books by Lucy Foley.
August 6, 2026
Daniel is given the opportunity to spend three months in Poland living with a host family while studying abroad. Henryk and Aneta Lis, along with their young son Kuba, have never hosted a student before. On the surface, they seem like the perfect family—young, wealthy, successful, and incredibly welcoming. But from the moment Daniel meets them, something about Aneta leaves him feeling deeply uneasy.
While settling into life in Poland, Daniel befriends Saya and Warren, the latter of whom he has a growing crush on. However, Daniel hasn't yet shared his sexuality with either of them. The only people who know are the men he meets through Grindr, making it even more difficult for him to explain why Aneta's increasingly flirtatious behaviour makes him so uncomfortable.
As time goes on, Aneta's advances become impossible to ignore. After one social gathering, she openly tells Daniel he can kiss her if he wants to, but he firmly turns her down. Hoping that will be the end of it, he's shocked when she later orchestrates another opportunity for them to be alone together. This time, Daniel is completely honest and tells her he isn't interested, making it clear he wants her to stop. Although he still doesn't reveal his sexuality, his rejection finally seems to get through to her.
But the whole situation leaves Daniel with one overwhelming question: why was Aneta so determined to seduce him? The more he observes her relationship with Henryk, the more he realises that something isn't right beneath the family's polished exterior.
From this point on, the story becomes increasingly tense. You know something terrible is coming, but you have no idea what form it will take. When the shocking turning point finally arrives, it changes the lives of everyone involved. Just when you think you've worked everything out, Sebastian J. Plata throws in another twist that completely changes your perspective.
This book explores a wide range of difficult subjects, including sexual harassment, manipulation, hidden motivations, and the extraordinary lengths people will go to in pursuit of what they want. Every character has layers, and nothing is quite as straightforward as it first appears.
I absolutely loved this book. It kept me hooked from beginning to end, with a constant sense of unease that made it impossible to put down. The suspense builds brilliantly, the twists genuinely surprised me, and the ending was incredibly satisfying. I've read a huge number of books over the years, but Intrusive Intentions is one that will stay with me for a very long time. It's thought-provoking, emotionally gripping, and one of the most memorable psychological thrillers I've read. I can't recommend it highly enough.
While settling into life in Poland, Daniel befriends Saya and Warren, the latter of whom he has a growing crush on. However, Daniel hasn't yet shared his sexuality with either of them. The only people who know are the men he meets through Grindr, making it even more difficult for him to explain why Aneta's increasingly flirtatious behaviour makes him so uncomfortable.
As time goes on, Aneta's advances become impossible to ignore. After one social gathering, she openly tells Daniel he can kiss her if he wants to, but he firmly turns her down. Hoping that will be the end of it, he's shocked when she later orchestrates another opportunity for them to be alone together. This time, Daniel is completely honest and tells her he isn't interested, making it clear he wants her to stop. Although he still doesn't reveal his sexuality, his rejection finally seems to get through to her.
But the whole situation leaves Daniel with one overwhelming question: why was Aneta so determined to seduce him? The more he observes her relationship with Henryk, the more he realises that something isn't right beneath the family's polished exterior.
From this point on, the story becomes increasingly tense. You know something terrible is coming, but you have no idea what form it will take. When the shocking turning point finally arrives, it changes the lives of everyone involved. Just when you think you've worked everything out, Sebastian J. Plata throws in another twist that completely changes your perspective.
This book explores a wide range of difficult subjects, including sexual harassment, manipulation, hidden motivations, and the extraordinary lengths people will go to in pursuit of what they want. Every character has layers, and nothing is quite as straightforward as it first appears.
I absolutely loved this book. It kept me hooked from beginning to end, with a constant sense of unease that made it impossible to put down. The suspense builds brilliantly, the twists genuinely surprised me, and the ending was incredibly satisfying. I've read a huge number of books over the years, but Intrusive Intentions is one that will stay with me for a very long time. It's thought-provoking, emotionally gripping, and one of the most memorable psychological thrillers I've read. I can't recommend it highly enough.
August 19, 2026
4.25-4.5 *
I enjoyed this the whole way through!
I really liked the characters, especially the main character, Daniel, 21, who was sweet, kind hearted, polite and relatable. I was routing for him! I also really liked his female best friend, a social butterfly, Saya!
The beginning of the book gave me Frieda McFadden's The Housewife' vibes because the grateful, young main character goes to stay with a wealthy young family in their stunning house but things are a bit off with the wife!
I'm straight myself, but I loved the romance blossoming between the Daniel and Warren.
Plot overview:
Daniel Bullman arrives in Poland from America to study for 3 months. Instead of a dorm room on campus, he arranged a homestay so that he could learn more Polish. His hosts are the Lis family, I seemingly perfect family, with the husband and wife only 10yrs older then himself, (hosts are not usually this young). Henryk, 33, is likable, friendly and devoted to his wife, Anita, 31, who is a stunningly good looking women who loves her son Kuba, 6, who builds a great relationship with Daniel. They live in a massive house in one of the country's wealthiest residential neighbourhoods, Wola Justowska. This is the first time they are hosting. I don't want to say too much more but thing's turn very dangerous!
The twists were great and the tension was gripping and beautifully built throughout the book, lending up to a satisfying ending!
🥰 Things i most enjoyed:
🇵🇱 Learning about Poland: the places and tourist attractions in and area Krakow: ⛰️ Zakopane, 🏰 Wawel Castle, Grodzka St) the culture 🇵🇱
😬🫣The suspense and intrigue
🥳💘A thriller with a dash of spice!
📖 The writing was great, a style that was easy to read, i flew through this book!
Thanks to the author and Zooloobooktours I received a free advance reader copy and am leaving my honest review voluntarily.
I enjoyed this the whole way through!
I really liked the characters, especially the main character, Daniel, 21, who was sweet, kind hearted, polite and relatable. I was routing for him! I also really liked his female best friend, a social butterfly, Saya!
The beginning of the book gave me Frieda McFadden's The Housewife' vibes because the grateful, young main character goes to stay with a wealthy young family in their stunning house but things are a bit off with the wife!
I'm straight myself, but I loved the romance blossoming between the Daniel and Warren.
Plot overview:
Daniel Bullman arrives in Poland from America to study for 3 months. Instead of a dorm room on campus, he arranged a homestay so that he could learn more Polish. His hosts are the Lis family, I seemingly perfect family, with the husband and wife only 10yrs older then himself, (hosts are not usually this young). Henryk, 33, is likable, friendly and devoted to his wife, Anita, 31, who is a stunningly good looking women who loves her son Kuba, 6, who builds a great relationship with Daniel. They live in a massive house in one of the country's wealthiest residential neighbourhoods, Wola Justowska. This is the first time they are hosting. I don't want to say too much more but thing's turn very dangerous!
The twists were great and the tension was gripping and beautifully built throughout the book, lending up to a satisfying ending!
🥰 Things i most enjoyed:
🇵🇱 Learning about Poland: the places and tourist attractions in and area Krakow: ⛰️ Zakopane, 🏰 Wawel Castle, Grodzka St) the culture 🇵🇱
😬🫣The suspense and intrigue
🥳💘A thriller with a dash of spice!
📖 The writing was great, a style that was easy to read, i flew through this book!
Thanks to the author and Zooloobooktours I received a free advance reader copy and am leaving my honest review voluntarily.
August 4, 2026
An ideal family exchange placement turns into a dark and dangerous situation in this
psychological thriller.
Daniel from the hustle and bustle of New York thinks he’s struck gold when he meets the
family that he has been assigned too, by the Krakow University. He applied for a place
staying with a local family, believing that this would give him the opportunity of a lifetime to
learn Polish and experience the Polish culture. Little did he know that the chance of a
lifetime might become just that.
On his meet and greet day with his new family he’s surprised to find how young they are, not
much older than him but also by the stunningly attractive wife of the family, Anita. He’s
captivated and also confused by his own feelings as he is only just coming to terms with his
own sexuallity. He has only “come out” to his parents and an ex-girlfriend and his close
university friends and his host family have no idea of his attraction to boys. He’s also
shocked by the wealth of the young family and falls in love with the lifestyle.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch as they say and things start to get stranger and
stranger as the hosts Henryk and the stunning Aneta begin to make demands that are more
and more dark and obsessive. This is a creepy and dark tale which gets more and more
dangerous.
psychological thriller.
Daniel from the hustle and bustle of New York thinks he’s struck gold when he meets the
family that he has been assigned too, by the Krakow University. He applied for a place
staying with a local family, believing that this would give him the opportunity of a lifetime to
learn Polish and experience the Polish culture. Little did he know that the chance of a
lifetime might become just that.
On his meet and greet day with his new family he’s surprised to find how young they are, not
much older than him but also by the stunningly attractive wife of the family, Anita. He’s
captivated and also confused by his own feelings as he is only just coming to terms with his
own sexuallity. He has only “come out” to his parents and an ex-girlfriend and his close
university friends and his host family have no idea of his attraction to boys. He’s also
shocked by the wealth of the young family and falls in love with the lifestyle.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch as they say and things start to get stranger and
stranger as the hosts Henryk and the stunning Aneta begin to make demands that are more
and more dark and obsessive. This is a creepy and dark tale which gets more and more
dangerous.
August 19, 2026
This was my first read by this author and as the front cover image didn't really give too much away, I went into this completely blind and excited to discover what was to come.
Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting really, but this was so much more than I'd imagined.
As the story took hold, I was completely hooked and really hadn't thought this would be quite as dark as it turned out to be.
And I loved this!
Daniel heads off to Poland for a 3 month semester at Kraków University staying with a host family to really immerse himself in the culture and language to get the most from his adventure abroad.
He is amazed to find that his hosts are not much older than him and live in a fantastic space that feels like he's living the life of luxury.
When we meet Henryk and Aneta and their little son, things feel perfect and I was really looking forward to seeing what Daniel would gain from his visit - but when Aneta starts to flirt and proposition Daniel, things become a little strained.
I loved Daniel and really felt for him especially as he was already struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality - which given that he was gay, really didn't help with the situation with Aneta.
I couldn't believe how the atmosphere changed after Daniel turned her down and what follows take us into even stranger territory.
This had me on edge throughout as I was just waiting for something to happen and although I had a few ideas, I really wasn't sure what or when.
There are some tough themes explored within this story and I've been thinking about it since finishing.
A really well written and compelling read and I'm excited to see what might come next from this author.
Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting really, but this was so much more than I'd imagined.
As the story took hold, I was completely hooked and really hadn't thought this would be quite as dark as it turned out to be.
And I loved this!
Daniel heads off to Poland for a 3 month semester at Kraków University staying with a host family to really immerse himself in the culture and language to get the most from his adventure abroad.
He is amazed to find that his hosts are not much older than him and live in a fantastic space that feels like he's living the life of luxury.
When we meet Henryk and Aneta and their little son, things feel perfect and I was really looking forward to seeing what Daniel would gain from his visit - but when Aneta starts to flirt and proposition Daniel, things become a little strained.
I loved Daniel and really felt for him especially as he was already struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality - which given that he was gay, really didn't help with the situation with Aneta.
I couldn't believe how the atmosphere changed after Daniel turned her down and what follows take us into even stranger territory.
This had me on edge throughout as I was just waiting for something to happen and although I had a few ideas, I really wasn't sure what or when.
There are some tough themes explored within this story and I've been thinking about it since finishing.
A really well written and compelling read and I'm excited to see what might come next from this author.
August 23, 2026
I was honestly 50/50 about this book, but something kept drawing me in and I’m so glad it did, because I devoured this one in two sittings. I loved the suspense and the impending sense of danger; I could really feel the tensions rising.
I thought the plot was fantastic and I really enjoyed the twists along the way, despite working a couple of things out, the author still managed to blow me away. I have the say the creepy, possessive side to this really did satisfy the darker reader in me, so this definitely ticked the thriller box.
I really enjoyed the characters, they were all intriguing and had me questioning from the very first page who was genuine and who may be cat fishing me! I could really feel the chemistry between some of them and the sprinkle of spice worked really well.
It was also nice that the author weaved the polish culture in to the story too, it was nice to have the opportunity to explore another country, without actually being there!
The ending had me reeling too but also craving more! I swear there is scope for another book I’d love to see where things go next!
I thought the plot was fantastic and I really enjoyed the twists along the way, despite working a couple of things out, the author still managed to blow me away. I have the say the creepy, possessive side to this really did satisfy the darker reader in me, so this definitely ticked the thriller box.
I really enjoyed the characters, they were all intriguing and had me questioning from the very first page who was genuine and who may be cat fishing me! I could really feel the chemistry between some of them and the sprinkle of spice worked really well.
It was also nice that the author weaved the polish culture in to the story too, it was nice to have the opportunity to explore another country, without actually being there!
The ending had me reeling too but also craving more! I swear there is scope for another book I’d love to see where things go next!
August 24, 2026
I'm reviewing this as part of a tour with Zooloo's Book Tours.
I found the book's protagonist, Daniel, to be an interesting character from the start. He was living with strangers far away from home, and his situation struck me as daunting but also exciting. I wondered what exactly was in store for him, and I think that was part of the appeal. Daniel had secrets of his own that he was guarding, and I wondered how this might fit into the story.
I found this quite psychological, and at times found myself questioning what was really going on, in terms of the characters and their dynamics. This turned out to be a gripping nail-biter of a read, with twists that I didn't see coming, particularly in the second half.
Thank you to Zooloo's Book Tours, and to the author and publisher, for the opportunity to read and review this.
I found the book's protagonist, Daniel, to be an interesting character from the start. He was living with strangers far away from home, and his situation struck me as daunting but also exciting. I wondered what exactly was in store for him, and I think that was part of the appeal. Daniel had secrets of his own that he was guarding, and I wondered how this might fit into the story.
I found this quite psychological, and at times found myself questioning what was really going on, in terms of the characters and their dynamics. This turned out to be a gripping nail-biter of a read, with twists that I didn't see coming, particularly in the second half.
Thank you to Zooloo's Book Tours, and to the author and publisher, for the opportunity to read and review this.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Frieda McFadden’s The Housemaid meets Christopher Bollen’s A Beautiful Crime—INTRUSIVE INTENTIONS is the sexy gay thriller you’ve been looking for this summer!🔥
Sebastian J. Plata’s previous novel, Seeing Strangers, caught my attention, but his upcoming dark and twisted queer literary tale caught my eye for months now, and I’m so happy it delivered.
Daniel heads to Kraków, Poland for a semester abroad, hoping for adventure and a chance to embrace his identity, but his dream quickly turns into a nightmare. As he becomes entangled with his wealthy host family, he is pulled into a dangerous web of obsession, deception, and manipulation. With a juicy plot and quick pacing, I ate this book up in one sitting!
Sebastian J. Plata’s previous novel, Seeing Strangers, caught my attention, but his upcoming dark and twisted queer literary tale caught my eye for months now, and I’m so happy it delivered.
Daniel heads to Kraków, Poland for a semester abroad, hoping for adventure and a chance to embrace his identity, but his dream quickly turns into a nightmare. As he becomes entangled with his wealthy host family, he is pulled into a dangerous web of obsession, deception, and manipulation. With a juicy plot and quick pacing, I ate this book up in one sitting!
July 13, 2026
This Queer thriller does deliver a satisfying number of plot twists, especially as we move closer and closer to the end of the story,
Some more predictable, but quite a few surprises, but the characters never feel quite fleshed out enough to completely fill the story. In particular there is an immense amount of focus on the aesthetic attractiveness of both Anita and Warren, and since we are meant to view Anita as intensely compelling and to understand that that draw isn’t at all sexual for the protagonist it made her initial successful manipulations feel unlikely. I did think that the story got better as the characterization became less important to the plot and their was more focus on actions spiraling into bigger and more dramatic actions.
Some more predictable, but quite a few surprises, but the characters never feel quite fleshed out enough to completely fill the story. In particular there is an immense amount of focus on the aesthetic attractiveness of both Anita and Warren, and since we are meant to view Anita as intensely compelling and to understand that that draw isn’t at all sexual for the protagonist it made her initial successful manipulations feel unlikely. I did think that the story got better as the characterization became less important to the plot and their was more focus on actions spiraling into bigger and more dramatic actions.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a very slow start for me, and the consistent repeated mentions of Aneta's and Warren's attractiveness did not help. For a decent portion of this book, I kept waiting for Daniel to be an active participant in his own life. He hardly ever trusted his instincts when things seemed sketchy and allowed himself to be easily roped into things that he wasn't particularly interested in. A lot of this, I understand, stems from his struggle with his identity and his anxiety around disappointing those around him that he holds in high regard. These characteristics ultimately made him the ideal candidate for the manipulation that occurs in this story.
This was a pretty decent, I've just found that I tend to prefer characters that are a bit more assertive when I read thrillers.
This was a pretty decent, I've just found that I tend to prefer characters that are a bit more assertive when I read thrillers.
August 10, 2026
Special thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was fine, but read more like a YA book. The way the main character interacted in the story and how that was portrayed to the reader felt quite juvenile.
Additionally, I want a fan of the pacing and the wrap up felt cliche and predictable.
However, this book wasn’t bad and had its moments. The portrayal of a male victim was well done and it was interesting to think about how different the situations in this book would have been if it was a female victim and male perpetrator.
This book was fine, but read more like a YA book. The way the main character interacted in the story and how that was portrayed to the reader felt quite juvenile.
Additionally, I want a fan of the pacing and the wrap up felt cliche and predictable.
However, this book wasn’t bad and had its moments. The portrayal of a male victim was well done and it was interesting to think about how different the situations in this book would have been if it was a female victim and male perpetrator.
September 13, 2026
Holy shit. I was excited to finally read Intrusive Intentions but I was not prepared to be utterly engrossed. It’s nearly 3am and I couldn’t put it down. Daniel’s journey through identity, deception, chaos, awakening, and morality is such a wild ride. Plata really knows how to write a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and then throws curveball after curveball that leave you reeling. The characters are rich and nuanced, endearing and infuriating. Cannot recommend this enough and already planning to tackle Plata’s Seeing Strangers immediately. Thank you to the author, NetGalley, Joffe Books | Severn House for the the opportunity to read and review an early copy!
August 18, 2026
There was lots of suspense through this book, and then it turned into dark and terrifying.
With lots of twists the story has a way of making the reader uncomfortable and on edge just waiting for what comes next. I love the details on Poland, the read had lots of layers to it but it all worked together so well.
A great creepy read.
With lots of twists the story has a way of making the reader uncomfortable and on edge just waiting for what comes next. I love the details on Poland, the read had lots of layers to it but it all worked together so well.
A great creepy read.
August 20, 2026
Intrusive Intentions by Sebastian J Plata
🌟🌟🌟
A different genre for me, but an enjoyable one
Daniel sets off for a trip to Poland, hoping to discover himself.
He stays with Anita and Warren. All seems well at the beginning. The story develops and we find Daniel is in an unknown world of deceit
I enjoyed the book, felt more like a YA to me
But I'd recommend
🌟🌟🌟
A different genre for me, but an enjoyable one
Daniel sets off for a trip to Poland, hoping to discover himself.
He stays with Anita and Warren. All seems well at the beginning. The story develops and we find Daniel is in an unknown world of deceit
I enjoyed the book, felt more like a YA to me
But I'd recommend
August 22, 2026
A good read.
Intrusive Intentions by Sebastian J. Plata.
This was a good read. I loved the cover and blurb of this book. It took me a few days to read this book. I liked the writing style and the story. I wasn't sure how I felt about the characters. I didn't have any favourites but I didn't hate them either. The ending surprised me. overall a good read.
Intrusive Intentions by Sebastian J. Plata.
This was a good read. I loved the cover and blurb of this book. It took me a few days to read this book. I liked the writing style and the story. I wasn't sure how I felt about the characters. I didn't have any favourites but I didn't hate them either. The ending surprised me. overall a good read.
August 24, 2026
meh
I wanted to like this book but ultimately the more I read the less I did. I did like the setting and enjoyed learning more about Poland. The writing felt a bit juvenile and the ending seemed kinda ridiculous.
I wanted to like this book but ultimately the more I read the less I did. I did like the setting and enjoyed learning more about Poland. The writing felt a bit juvenile and the ending seemed kinda ridiculous.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The title is bad, the cover is worse, but the story inside is a fun, fast-paced little cat-and-mouse erotic thriller.
July 25, 2026
This book had a mysterious undertone to it and it made me want to find out how it ended. The thriller part of the book did not take place until the end in my opinion. I was expecting more twists and turns throughout the. book. I would be willing to read something else from this author.
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