I know I've said it before but while in general I am a fan of the fact that romantasy as a genre exists, and popular culture is finally acknowledging that women get horny and like sex, I wish it didn't mean formulaic heterosmut now has to be shoehorned...
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I must confess there are two wolves inside me at the moment, one of whom wants to continue reading out of spite and the other of whom is reminding me that I only have so many reading hours in this my one and only life and I could be spending them reading far better books than this. For the moment though I'm glad spite is winning because in a twist I didn't see coming our apparent hero has fucked off to attend to his brooding and manly affairs somewhere else.
He and our heroine shared a moment when their hands touched and their eyes met while repairing a torn map together by candlelight, but this nascent intimacy was shattered when she discovered that this man (who I feel even the most inattentive reader must have noticed is more muscular than average by now, there really is no need to keep going on about) had prevented his ten year old sister from learning she had magical talent to protect her, adding paternalism and gaslighting to his many flaws
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He and our heroine shared a moment when their hands touched and their eyes met while repairing a torn map together by candlelight, but this nascent intimacy was shattered when she discovered that this man (who I feel even the most inattentive reader must have noticed is more muscular than average by now, there really is no need to keep going on about) had prevented his ten year old sister from learning she had magical talent to protect her, adding paternalism and gaslighting to his many flaws
She has now convinced him to leave the sister in her care by swearing not to teach her magic and then immediately started to teach her magic, which counts as one of the most sensible decisions she's made so far. If I'm lucky he won't come back.
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She has now convinced him to leave the sister in her care by swearing not to teach her magic and then immediately started to teach her magic, which counts as one of the most sensible decisions she's made so far. If I'm lucky he won't come back.
There's also a ghost now. I don't think she wants to fuck the ghost.
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There's also a ghost now. I don't think she wants to fuck the ghost.
Anyway lunchbreak was abruptly curtailed by the need to rescue a colleague. Further updates if and when I can summon the will to keep reading.
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Anyway lunchbreak was abruptly curtailed by the need to rescue a colleague. Further updates if and when I can summon the will to keep reading.
Right, updates. I thought for a moment I'd managed to leave the blasted book at work on Friday, but no such luck.
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Right, updates. I thought for a moment I'd managed to leave the blasted book at work on Friday, but no such luck.
In the absence of either romantic lead, some actual plot happened. A portal was discovered, wards were scrutinised, new lore was dropped. Magic lessons were given, and little sister turned out to be a magical prodigy because of course she did. The white shape in the woods (which may not after all be a ghost, but I still don't think she wants to fuck whatever it is) flitted about portending things portentously
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In the absence of either romantic lead, some actual plot happened. A portal was discovered, wards were scrutinised, new lore was dropped. Magic lessons were given, and little sister turned out to be a magical prodigy because of course she did. The white shape in the woods (which may not after all be a ghost, but I still don't think she wants to fuck whatever it is) flitted about portending things portentously
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and she decided to go and catch up with love interest number one of the piercing eyes, which were blue earlier but are apparently now an icy silver. On reaching his castle she was immediately accosted by one of his minions for no particularly clear reason, but when all hope seemed lost he showed up to the rescue and as the last scion of a powerful magical dynasty force choked him to death with swift brutality
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Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and she decided to go and catch up with love interest number one of the piercing eyes, which were blue earlier but are apparently now an icy silver. On reaching his castle she was immediately accosted by one of his minions for no particularly clear reason, but when all hope seemed lost he showed up to the rescue and as the last scion of a powerful magical dynasty force choked him to death with swift brutality
She is frightened by how powerful he reveals himself to be, and this would be an excellent place to have a discussion about how fear and arousal can produce confusingly similar physiological reactions but being scared of someone is never a healthy basis for a relationship, and how patriarchy tells women they have to find a strong and violent man to protect them against other strong and violent men but it's their fault if that man turns that violence on them.
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She is frightened by how powerful he reveals himself to be, and this would be an excellent place to have a discussion about how fear and arousal can produce confusingly similar physiological reactions but being scared of someone is never a healthy basis for a relationship, and how patriarchy tells women they have to find a strong and violent man to protect them against other strong and violent men but it's their fault if that man turns that violence on them.
But that discussion doesn't happen. Instead he tells her how she was nothing before she had him as a patron but he saw and believed in her potential right from the start, and then shows her her reflection in a mirror where she sees herself looking confident, powerful and beautiful in spite of having spent the past hour being either terrified or relentlessly negged.
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But that discussion doesn't happen. Instead he tells her how she was nothing before she had him as a patron but he saw and believed in her potential right from the start, and then shows her her reflection in a mirror where she sees herself looking confident, powerful and beautiful in spite of having spent the past hour being either terrified or relentlessly negged.
I mean there's not noticing red flags, and then there's gleefully and determinedly swimming out towards the centre of the riptide in a typhoon while the RNLI circle you and holler at you through megaphones
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I mean there's not noticing red flags, and then there's gleefully and determinedly swimming out towards the centre of the riptide in a typhoon while the RNLI circle you and holler at you through megaphones
Anyway fortunately at that point the moor catches fire.
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Anyway fortunately at that point the moor catches fire.
As the flames race towards little sister she canters to the rescue, desperately casting spell after spell to quell the blaze but to no avail. But just when all hope seems lost love interest number two shows up again, having clearly concluded his muscular and virile business elsewhere
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As the flames race towards little sister she canters to the rescue, desperately casting spell after spell to quell the blaze but to no avail. But just when all hope seems lost love interest number two shows up again, having clearly concluded his muscular and virile business elsewhere
In a twist that I must confess I didn't see coming, although I can't say whether that's due to the author's skill or the fact that my expectations for this book are currently at subbasement level and actively digging, it turns out he has magic too! If it turns out Christian Gray in a lacy ruff also has abs under all that brocade she's going to have real trouble choosing between them in this game of Pick A Pillock
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In a twist that I must confess I didn't see coming, although I can't say whether that's due to the author's skill or the fact that my expectations for this book are currently at subbasement level and actively digging, it turns out he has magic too! If it turns out Christian Gray in a lacy ruff also has abs under all that brocade she's going to have real trouble choosing between them in this game of Pick A Pillock
Although rough and untutored his raw masculine power combines with her fine control and they manage to put the fire out. As their magic mixes and mingles and their energy entwines in convoluted metaphors she feels an intimacy the likes of which she has never known before.
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Although rough and untutored his raw masculine power combines with her fine control and they manage to put the fire out. As their magic mixes and mingles and their energy entwines in convoluted metaphors she feels an intimacy the likes of which she has never known before.
Once the fire is out though, in a moment of post smut clarity at least she has the sense to realise he's lied to her about just about everything so they shout at each other for a bit then go to sleep. And I'm afraid I need a bit of a rest too.
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Once the fire is out though, in a moment of post smut clarity at least she has the sense to realise he's lied to her about just about everything so they shout at each other for a bit then go to sleep. And I'm afraid I need a bit of a rest too.
I looked up some reviews of this book to see if anyone had actually enjoyed it and someone said they tore through it in an afternoon. An afternoon! It's taken me three days to get through just under half of the bastard thing because I have to keep resting my eye rolling muscles
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I looked up some reviews of this book to see if anyone had actually enjoyed it and someone said they tore through it in an afternoon. An afternoon! It's taken me three days to get through just under half of the bastard thing because I have to keep resting my eye rolling muscles
Once more unto the well filled breeches, dear friends. Apologies for the lack of updates yesterday, I had a choice between spending Sunday afternoon reading and cleaning the bathroom and went with the more enjoyable option.
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Once more unto the well filled breeches, dear friends. Apologies for the lack of updates yesterday, I had a choice between spending Sunday afternoon reading and cleaning the bathroom and went with the more enjoyable option.
They did not in fact go to sleep after putting out the fire. He crept off secretly into the woods and she was suspicious and followed him, because as Fesshole has shown us mutual secrecy and distrust is an excellent foundation for a long term relationship. He opened the portal with the magic he'd been pretending not to have and she followed him through it.
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They did not in fact go to sleep after putting out the fire. He crept off secretly into the woods and she was suspicious and followed him, because as Fesshole has shown us mutual secrecy and distrust is an excellent foundation for a long term relationship. He opened the portal with the magic he'd been pretending not to have and she followed him through it.
She found herself in an actually fairly conceptually interesting faerie realm. This is what I'm finding so frustrating about this book, it could actually have been really good if it had delivered on anything it promised, but instead it raised expectations then delivered a steaming heap of garbage. Much like the current labour government.
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She found herself in an actually fairly conceptually interesting faerie realm. This is what I'm finding so frustrating about this book, it could actually have been really good if it had delivered on anything it promised, but instead it raised expectations then delivered a steaming heap of garbage. Much like the current labour government.
Faerieland is laced with forgetfulness spells not as a deliberate snare for mortals but as a way for its immortal inhabitants to deal with the tedium of eternity. Its inhabitants entertain themselves with endless revels and petty cruelties, having done anything meaningful and grown bored of it aeons ago
