#Devil's duet

[fallenraffe]

19. Fate's Demand by Aleatha Romig (2*)

<b>2 stars</b>

<b>MCs:</b> Rett + Emma

<b>POV:</b> single (Emma)

I don't hate the idea of these short prequels, but I've yet to find one that actually works for me. I've certainly read worse than this, but that doesn't mean this was any good either

and why must authors insist to cram in some smut, your page count is limited as is and here this was literally their first meeting, there's no need for the MMC to go down on the FMC before the first course.. like I know sex sells and all, but c'mon

I was excited for this duet, upon reading this prequel my excitement went📉📉📉

I've read shit prequels that ended up having a decent enough full book, so I'll still give this a chance, once I can drum up some of that interest again, but it ain't looking too good lmao

Rett seems like my kinda MMC, tho I could have done with less of the insta love/lust happening here, but Emma? ugh she was such a pushover with Rett, she barely put up any fight and I wasn't living for it.. my first impression of her was b a d, but here's hoping shell find her backbone in the actual duet, otherwise...

the story line sounds interesting, if a bit far fetched.. so all in all we had some good, some bad, I still intend to give the duet a read, I just dunno when

PS.: I was debating between this duet and kingdom come, last night I decided to go for this obvi, after this prequel tho I was gonna skip to kingdom come for now, however I just read a review of KC and apparently Greyson is in this duet and the reviewer felt like KC would've been more enjoyable after this duet, with more of a backstory on greyson, so I guess I'm gonna have to stick it out with the Devils Duet first after all

(ax2

n👍🏻)

[willosword]

the vees take up such a unique antagonistic role in hazbin. they're so silly and pathetic except in specific bursts of competence. but even those moments are overshadowed by the way they just brute force everything. vox lost his own diss track against alastor. velvette didn't even do anything with the information she gathered at the overlord meeting. the more valentino lashes out like a child the more he loses control of angel. the person they picked to infiltrate the hotel ended up becoming its very proof of concept. they sung gleefully about the power vaccuum created by alastor's absence only for alastor to reappear 30 seconds later. what are they even doing. they're like an extremely unhinged team rocket

[xviruserrorx]

Something that The Amazing Devil does so beautiful is that even though a lot of their songs are very wordy they don't rush or skip over the rests in-between. And my favorite examples of this are Elsa's Song and Old Witch Sleep/Good Man Grace, because in old with/good man the beggining is so nice because they put so much pauses between each phrase and even parts like the "Sleep now, oh, she said" there is this smallest rest between the "Now" and "Oh" and it's so subtle but if you don't do that rest it's very very noticeable because your just slurring these two (almost) very short phrases of their own. Then in Elsa's Song l love how the tempo and when they come in, is almost dragging, they are coming in at the very last second of the beat and it makes the tone of the song so so so good

[ninjaturtlecosmo]

For anyone who follows me for my Book related posts, I should be making my February 2025 Reading Summary by March 2nd or 3rd. I'm currently reading Hideaway by Penelope Douglas and I'm predicting I'll likely finish the book one of those days, so I should be posting it around that time.

In the meantime, here are the nominations for book boyfriend of the month;

- Josh Hammond from Lights Out by Navessa Allen

- Hayden Bennet from the Possessing Her Duet by Morgan Bridges

- Johnny Kavanaugh from The Boys Of Tommen series by Chloe Walsh

- Boone Sawyer from Charmed by Nora Roberts

- Liam Donovan from Enchanted by Nora Roberts

- Kai Mori from Hideaway by Penelope Douglas

[hockeylovee12]

Every time I see Luke spin or do some sorta dance move on the ice I generally wonder if he ever tried figure skating because those are nice spins

[daily-vocaloid-rock-metal]

Today's entry is デビルじゃないもん (Debiru Janai Mon) - (Not) a devil by PinocchioP and Deco*27 featuring Hatsune Miku.

It is a pop rock song.

The PV was illustrated by No.734 and PinocchioP

[heartsfortwotpot]

did you watch electric dreams lol

.............i might of rewatched it for the fourth time, yes 😭

[con-alas-de-angeles]

Sophie Lark, There Are No Saints (Sinner’s Duet #1)

[catcatb0y]

Honestly though saying (or implying) that vocaloid or vocal synths in general "devalues the human voice" is SUCH an incredibly shit take for SO many reasons.

Like yeah Saki Fujita getting so many other roles in voice acting because of her contribution to Hatsune Miku (the anime cameos and stuff are usually done with her original voice, them modified to be robotic) is a bit of an outlier when most other vocaloid and sythns don't have that influence.

You can even sort of wave off the dozens upon dozens of people who go for realistic tuning- like whenever a synth has any sort of clarity, there are like five people commenting about how real they sound. Clearly people do still care about human sounding vocals, because they go nuts over realistic vtuning.

There are many different aspects of vocaloid that use human voices, too- from Set It Off's duet "Why Do I?", human rap artists using Miku's vocals as background, and the entire CONCEPT of Project Sekai which releases AND COMMISSIONS songs for vocal synths and real people.

But the sheer number of vocaloid producers who use their own vocals as back up (MikitoP, PinoochioP, and I believe Kira off the top of my head), the number of producers who can sing and/or do self covers (again Kira, GIGA, Ayase, Teniwoha, syudou and so many more), and the amount of vocal producers who have gone forward with legit musical careers after working with vocaloid (Kenshi Yonezu, most notably, who did work for years under the alias Hachi)

I mean, hell. There are vocaloid producers who go on to become vocaloid vocals themselves- like nostraightanswer, the vocal provider for DEX, who has made both vocaloid and original songs. Some even duets.

That's not even including creators like JubyPhonic, Rachie, Will Stenson, Lollia, Octavia, Razzy and Co., and SO many other HUMAN cover artists who gained following or honed their skills on none other than vocaloid covers. (And that's just a handful of English Cover artists, not like Sati Akura a Russian cover artist or Ado who has commissioned songs from vocaloid artists)

It's also not including UTAUites who input their own voices to use for covers.

"Devalues the human voice" is such blatant bs. They ARE human voices. They are OUR voices. "You'd think by now that we would have learned, behind every piece if art is a human to be heard." (- CircusP, 'Better Off Worse')

[thebestusernamepossible]

They should tell the Gacha kids abt Isat, I think we could get some fun mischaraterization and weird misunderstandings this fandom needs

[brightbeautifulthings]

There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark

"I need to experience his strength, his power, his ruthlessness, because that's what I need in a man. It's the only way I feel safe. He has to terrify me so I know he'll terrify everyone else. I've never met a real hero; I don't think they exist. Only a monster can protect me."

Year Read: 2024

Rating: 3/5

Thoughts: I enjoyed this duology more than I thought I would. Lark's writing makes it easy to slip into Mara's mindset, and sometimes escapism is all I want out of a novel. In no sense do the characters ever feel like real people doing things that real people would do, but that's fine. I enjoyed the sort of larger than life aspect of it, and the conflict between Cole and Shaw comes to a tense conclusion here. While there aren't a lot of surprises, it has a nicely visual aspect, which is one of the things I liked about this duology as a whole. I feel like I can actually see Mara and Cole's art at times, and their work brings further dimension to their characters.

This novel also takes an unexpected detour into an examination of abusive relationships, particularly in Mara's childhood. I was expecting Shaw to be the major threat--and in the present timeline, he is--but man, Mara's mother and stepfather give him a run for his money on most evil character of the books. I'm skeptical about the conclusions Mara comes to about needing a monster to love her in order to feel safe. In a real world application, I think this just leads women to additional abusive relationships in adulthood, but since this is fiction, it doesn't have any obligation to be realistic. Mara and Cole are a nice complement to one another, and I'll likely revisit these eventually for their entertainment value.

[watcherglowcloud]

i think an impromptu duet would fix me

[crosswire]

the things you put in ur burlesque insp tag always rly interests me. my concept of burlesque is only limited to very stereotypical portrayals of it but the thinggggs you tag are like opening up my mind like I want to know more about ur burlesque

thank you! i'm approaching one year of doing it (with a very amazing queer and body-diverse troupe) and didn't really know much about burlesque before, and i've only recently realized that my local scene is not the typical cultural association people have with "burlesque." the choreo we do has been pretty diverse; in group acts we've done classic burlesque, neo-burlesque, specific attitudes like a "trash animal" act where we were a cult of trash animals (eg. possum, squirrel, bear, raccoon, cat, etc.), other examples are a fruit basket (lol)--I was a lemon (lol), clowns, etc. it's always a lot of fun.

we have a lot of crossover with the local drag king group so there's also a lot of draglesque, butchfemme duets, stuff like that. our mc is always a drag king pretty much. most of our solo performers in the big quarterly shows we do are women in their 30s-40s, a lot of chubby milfs, the producer/founder of our troupe is involved in the midwest fatlesque scene, and though our troupe is mostly white, she invites in a lot of black solo performers in from other places in the midwest, which is cool.

personally, i'm pretty new but i have done a few solos at our smaller shows at the club; my first was cowboy improv with pink lingerie, then i did a sparkly drag act to perfume genius, and my most recent one was a blood cryptid to siouxie and the banshees. rn my costumes are pretty simple because i'm not talented at costume-making and don't have the money for expensive materials, but that's what the insp tag is for, i love seeing a fashion shoot and going "hmm there's some interesting vibes going on here...i wonder what this would look like in a striptease" lmao. especially since my act/persona is kinda of a creepy/scary vibe:)

[ninjaturtlecosmo]

February 2025 Reading Summary

1. Lights Out by Navessa Allen

Rating; 10/10 (I found this to be a really unique take on the dark romance genre, as this is the first time I've come across a dark romance MMC with a golden retriever type personality, and one who's at least self aware when it came to some of the questionable things he did to look out for Ally, like putting cameras in her bedroom. He wants to protect her, but he also doesn't want her to be afraid of him, and he's scared of turning out to be a complete psychopath like his father was, this is something I've never seen in in dark romance until reading this, and I love overall how Josh was written, especially his whole conflict about how scared he was that he might be like his father. The banter and chemistry between him and Ally was something I found to be really sweet and adorable too..... Need I mention how Josh would often talk to Fred (Ally's cat) as if he were a human child? Seriously, we need more dark romance MMCs like Josh xD )

2. Now You're Mine by Morgan Bridges

Rating; 8/10 (I read the first book in this duet, Once You're Mine, back in mid or late December before I started posting on here, and only just got the second book and read it a few weeks ago xD That said, I loved the whole duet, I love how Hayden spends the whole duet trying to repent for killing Calista's dad by being there for her and finding out who assaulted her before her father died, and I really felt for Calista when reading her attempts to get her life together after losing him. Despite Hayden's possessive nature and stalker behavior, in his own twisted way you'd expect out of a dark romance, he does truly love Calista, and I could feel that all through the duet. There's obviously some trust issues between them especially when Calista learns about Hayden stalking her and killing her father, but in the end, she chose to go back to him upon realizing her love for him (not to mention her dad as it turns out did some shady things during his time as a senator), and I couldn't help but find their ending to be really sweet QwQ I really don't have many cons here, just that I would have liked the story to be a little longer, and that I wish the main villain of the whole duet hadn't been missing up until towards the end of the second book. But, that's just my opinion xD )

3. Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

Rating; 10/10 (Now, first I want to start by saying that if you've been keeping up with all my Booklr posts, you might have noticed that I mainly tend to read spicy books depending on how many titles i mention you're familiar with, but I want to be clear that I strictly only buy books if I think the plot will interest me, or if it's by an author who's work I adore, and in this case, I kept hearing people on Booktok talk about how sad and now amazing the Boys Of Tommen series is, so I basically caved one day and bought Binding 13 because now and then I also love a book that will wreck me emotionally xD And Jesus H. Christ, this one did not fail to wreck me here and there...... Honestly, I really felt for Johnny seeing how he was struggling with his injury the whole time and how much he was sacrificing to be able to follow his dream of playing rugby professionally, but..... if I'm being honest, the character in this book I was especially rooting for to find happiness was Shannon. Reading about the pain she was going through, from her trauma of being bullied so much, the hell she was going through at home from her abusive father, and a mother who while she's also a victim of her husband's abuse, she still enables his awful treatment towards his family..... Not to mention her only savior at home being her older brother Joey who's just getting worse and worse off mentally from the abuse he also suffers from their father, and reading about Shannon's fear of him leaving one day like their brother Darren did, just..... Jesus guys, I don't know, when it comes to female protagonists from any media who are going through a rough time, none of them have made me feel as attached to them as Shannon has. I don't know how to explain it, I just know whatever happens in this series, I just want Shannon to get a happy ending. Alongside her being my favorite character, I really love how this story teaches us so much Irish slang, and how the story does a good job balancing comedy and drama now and then. When we need a break from all the sad stuff happening in this book, now and then we can count on some funny moments to give us a good laugh, especially if it involves good old Gibsie xD Not gonna lie, for some reason Gibsie reminds me of an Irish version of Denki from My Hero Academia. Overall, I have a feeling Boys Of Tommen will be my new favorite series, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the next 4 books unfold, plus the ones I heard should be released in the future)

4. Charmed by Nora Roberts

Rating: 7/10 (First I should start by saying that this is my first Nora Roberts book, and this and Enchanted were basically both printed in a 2 in 1 format inside one book called "Book Of Dreams". They were both a gift from my grandma when I casually mentioned during a family gathering one night that I had an interest in Wicca, and she figured I'd like this since they were both about witches. Charmed was the first book in this set, and it basically follows a witch named Anastasia who has healing powers, and she falls in love with a children's author named Boone Sawyer who's raising his 5 year old daughter on his own after losing his wife, while Anastasia is still dealing with the aftermath of being rejected by her last boyfriend after she revealed herself to be a witch. Admittedly, Charmed kind of felt here and there like I was reading a book version of a Hallmark movie, except as it went on it didn't feel as cheesy like Hallmark movies are, and we do see some good chemistry and development between Anastasia and Boone, plus we get to see Ana bond with his daughter Jessie now and again. Alongside them having a really sweet relationship, and the story overall having a happy ending despite things getting rocky for a while between Boone and Ana after she does reveal herself to be a witch, Charmed is a really sweet and cozy read about finding a second chance at love)

5. Enchanted by Nora Roberts

Rating: 7/10 (The second half of Book Of Dreams. This one is connected to Charmed, as it follows Liam, Anastasia's cousin who's a shape-shifting male witch, and the girl he falls in love with, Rowan Murray, who is staying in a cabin nearby his home in an attempt to get away from her life in the city and figure things out with her life. I will say that I think Boone and Anastasia's story is probably my favorite out of the two, but Enchanted is a really sweet story too as we see the chemistry and development between Liam and Rowan, and how protective Liam is of her to the point of sometimes turning into a wolf just to be able to spend time with Rowan in her cabin. What I also really love about this story is how Rowan finds a new purpose in life after spending so much time with Liam, as she takes on the job of being an artist/graphic designer for the video games Liam makes. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what time period these books are supposed to take place in, so I'm not quite sure what the graphics of the computer games Liam makes are supposed to look like, but what really matters here in my opinion is how this story handles the theme of following your heart and passion instead of worrying about what others tell you to do, and I loved seeing how Rowan stood her ground here to do what made her happy. All in all, if you want a cozy Romantasy read of sorts, I would recommend Charmed or Enchanted by Nora Roberts)

6. Hideaway by Penelope Douglas

Rating; 9/10 (The second book in the Devil's Night series by Penelope Douglas, this one basically follows Kai Mori and the one who got away 6 years prior, Nikova Banks, who as it turns out is actually Damon's secret half sister. I'm a huge Penelope Douglas fan, and I really loved how here we got to see more of Kai's perspective in this series, plus how we got to get to know Nikova the whole story as well. We definitely see here that Kai is the most tame out of all the Horsemen, but we also see a lot of the struggles he deals with too, between running the business he, Michael, Will and Erika formed, how he feels like a disappointment to his parents after ending up in prison 4 years prior, his stress over finding Damon because of the leverage he had over him regarding Natalya, and how we can see how much he loves Nikova, but..... Well, Nikova soon realizes she wants him too, but between her trapped servitude to her father, the crime lord Gabriel Torrance, and her waiting for Damon to come back so they can both run away together, she can't choose Kai, because she swore loyalty to Damon and can't break it.... Course, this soon changes when Nikova eventually realizes the unhealthy hold Damon had on her, and as the story progresses and she spends more time with Kai and therefore gets a taste of what life with him could truly be like, we soon see her eventually choose happiness for herself, and choose to take freedom for herself too, although her liberation from Gabriel would also be thanks to certain actions taken by Kai in his attempt to free her once he realizes all the circumstances of her bindings to the Torrance family. Overall, the Devil's Night series is a series I highly recommend for dark romance lovers, and I look forward to reading Damon and Will's stories as well in the future, in he 3rd and 4th books in the series, Kill Switch and Nightfall)

February 2025 Book Boyfriend of The Month; Josh Hammond from Lights Out

What my first read of March 2025 will be; Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh

[thatpunkmaximoff]

[Book Two of Two]

Story: 3.5 out of 5 Spice: 2 out of 5

This book was a decent read, but very much could have been told all in one book rather than two.

Mara’s development was very much to my liking. I like that she went from being a victim to taking matters into her own hands. And Cole! This guy is a grade A psycho but we love him for it.

And though these books are short, don’t worry. All loose ends are tied up with a pretty red bow.

* Cole is way too controlling. Dude might be hot, but he’s not about to pick out what I eat, drink, wear, etc…

* That shower scene 👀 😂

* Wow. Joanna’s being a bitch.

* Damn. Cole’s first victim was his own uncle. Dude deserved it tho 🤷🏻‍♀️

* Man, her stepfather Randall and her mom Tori are a real piece of work. Disgusting.

* wtf crawled up officer Hawk’s ass? Dude needs to chill.

* Yes! They chose Cole’s idea. Shaw is gonna spiral lol.

* I fucking knew that reporter would find Mara’s mom. What a bitch.

* Ugh. The stepdad is gross too.

* So the stepdad got what he deserved. What about the mom now?

* And now they’re gonna go after Shaw? Not much left of the book and I still need something to happen to the mom and the cop who keeps stalking Cole.

* THIS FUCKING COP! OH MY GOD.

* Finally Shaw has been taken care of. Still, fuck that cop.

* Well… that was anticlimactic.

[akkivee]

ooooooh……… this tension between me and these next 16 hours before the kuukou and jiro duet………… it’s kinda……… it’s kinda giving………… 😳😳😳