#romance novels are such a delight

[erionmakuo]

Cover illustration for A Duet with the Siren Duke by Elise Kova

[caitlynmeow]

Listen I know how I got about the daughters reading preferences and kinda just saying that Bela is mostly into non-fiction and historical stuff but!!!!

In her down time, Bela loves settling down with a good book. She doesn’t read stuff like her sisters do- She loves classics! She has multiple collections of almost everything and she keeps getting more. At times, she reads the occasional retelling of old stories/ (Greek) mythology and have found that some of these retelling are really good. She is also a sucker for historical fiction and eats that shit up every time.

Sadly, with her busy schedule, Bela rarely has the time to sit down with a pot of tea and a good book, but when she does, girlie has a mouth watering collection to go through!

[checkoutmybookshelf]

You Have My Attention: Secret Shanghai First Lines

Chloe Gong's Secret Shanghai universe has been hugely popular. It's based on a couple of Shakespeare plays combined with the glittering world of 1920s-30s Shanghai, so this universe is rich and packs a punch. We know Shakespeare's reputation for amazing lines, but how does Gong catch a reader? Let's find out!

So this universe is four novels and two novellas, so actually we get six first lines instead of five!

"In glittering Shanghai, a monster awakens."

-- These Violent Delights

"The New Year in Shanghai passed with such fanfare that a sense of party still permeated the city a week later."

-- Our Violent Ends

"Two knocks meant 'all clear,' and three knocks meant 'dorogaya, for the love of God, I'm holding something in my hands.'"

-- "A Foul Thing" in Last Violent Call

"The socks were bundled at the upper left corner, the shirts crammed along the middle, and the gun tucked right in between, nestled gingerly among the most padded clothes so that it wasn't knocking against the hard material of the luggage case."

-- "This Foul Murder" in Last Violent Call

"Out in the countryside, it doesn't matter how loud you scream."

-- Foul Lady Fortune

"The easiest way to disappear was to never disappear fully, always hovering right at the periphery of being caught, responding in an instant when there was movement."

-- Foul Heart Huntsman

[mermaidsirennikita]

Y'all are TRULY sleeping on Hyacinth by S.M. LaViolette. Like, I really enjoyed Phoebe (first book in the series), but Hyacinth is on another level. It features:

--a scarred libertine duke

--a neurodivergent heroine (23 to his 36) who happens to be KILLER at playing cards (in part because she's counting them) and sneaks out at night to play them while dressed as a very awkward young man

--a very casual interest in kink from her that makes him (a kinky man) go "O_O"

--a shockingly fabulous scene in which he tries to get her to admit she's a girl by taking her to a brothel, making her watch two people fuck while sitting beside him, and rattling off like 75 slang phrases for "jerking it" before being like "there's nothing WRONG with it bOY MEN MASTURBATE IN FRONT OF EACH OTHER ALLLL THE TIME" and starting to pull his dick out

--her: "AHHHH NO--YES? NO!"

--RIDING CROPS!

--so MUCH begging from this man, SO. MUCH. BEGGING.

--they're switches, your honor

--squirmy carriage BJs

[arylleth]

He wanted to tear through Julian's skin and map the shapes of liver and lungs, to memorize the path of every artery with his fingertips. He wanted to break Julian’s body open and move inside it alongside him, rib cages interlaced around a single heart.

[crystaltoa]

From Tale of the Toa: Extended edition.

[lipaspantas]

Fear&Delight: WIP Aidan Rizal (The Officer)

Meet Aidan Rizal! Your friendly neighbourhood officer, who would watch you from afar-- for safety reasons of course. He's the kind of guy who would distanced himself from you (literally) because of something he wouldn't explain to you. Freak. Also, I think he doesn't know any boundaries or have a personal space unless you spelled it out to him. Despite his strange quirks, he's actually quite nice and kind, just not how you expected it to be.

[thisisapaige]

absolutely SWOONING over the romance in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E Schawab

[marvelingjules]

Me: Where is my digital reading device and the charger for it, the latest of @halliewriteshockey’s books is out and I must read about the goalies.

Me this morning: *stares into my former-room my folks turned into storage* fuck.

(Guess I know what I’m doing tonight.)

[sarah-sandwich-writes]

Ok I lied, I also desperately want more about VLTD because I'm FERAL for it... *please*?? I'll take any little snippets you're willing to offer <3 - @fieldsofview

@fieldsofview god okay so Violet is coming a bit slow. I got 6k into it and realized I was already bored with the story. It just wasn't doing it for me, so I put it back in the percolator to stew some more and NOW I think I have the right setting for it. Originally I wanted to send them to Alaska bc of Nash's little throwaway thought about being brother of the year by buying Jo a plane ticket, but that's just not working for me creatively. Tennessee is where it's at, you know?

SO INSTEAD, he's going to buy her the ticket not knowing the reason she's been down in the dumps lately is because she misses when it was just the two of them. She's going to have a bit of a breakdown bc she's feeling all that and now he's trying to send her away?? But she still doesn't want to say it's him and Teddy that are the problem bc he's literally never been this happy before and she won't be the one to ruin it. So instead she confesses she misses her friends, which she does but also there's drama between her and Bella because of her moving away so it's a bit of a nasty surprise when she finds out that instead of Alaska Nash has arranged for her friends to stay with them for a week.

So now she has to deal with even less one-on-one time with her brother and also all the drama she thought was safely sequestered in Buford Hills.

So I'm going to have to cut most of what I have written (*sob*) but the intro is good enough to keep so here you go!

Here there be spoilers for Blue, like don't forget about me!

There’s an art to picking a hotel cheap enough that living out of it for three weeks won’t bankrupt you, but nice enough you won’t need to worry about bugs. In Jo’s opinion, it all comes down to the desk.

Hotel rooms follow a basic formula: bed (obviously), mini fridge (to store stress pudding), shitty single-brew coffee maker (always the same), a microwave (always different), an armchair in the corner (to sit in whilst eating pudding), and a desk. A good look at the desk and you’ll know whether you’ve made a mistake.

Too squat or wobbly—clearly not intended to be used—you’re in a cheap hotel meant for a single night stay and expected to be gone by breakfast. But a nice desk with a matching chair in a room that doesn’t make you feel like a dirty street urchin means you have successfully walked the line between frugality and indulgence.

Careful not to topple the precarious stack of client notes, Jo scoots the hard four-legged chair closer to the desk that’s too low to fit her thighs under despite being all of 5’4” in her derby skates. She sticks her plastic pudding spoon between her teeth and moves the stack away from the edge while creamy chocolate warms on her tongue. The sleeve of her favorite sweater, an ancient thing with a brown stain over her left breast that looks like a fatal stab wound (pudding incident of 2022), catches on the sharp corner but tears free without trouble thanks to the tattered state of the hems.

“When’re you gonna be home?”

She picks up her phone to see the familiar worry line between her brother’s eyebrows. Nash’s hair is overgrown again—beachy curls inching over his ears and peeping around the sides of his neck. He looks tired, but he always looks tired. More important is the aura of peace that he’s carried like a favorite blankie since they moved to their little mountain.

She swallows and slips the spoon from between her lips. “Thursday.” She points her spoon at the mini fridge where three pudding cups remain—one for each remaining day. “Think you can get the place baby sister proofed by then?”

The stress lines framing his mouth flex. “Yeah. ‘Course.”

She sticks her spoon into her pudding and leaves it there as she prepares to dig for whatever he isn’t saying, but, for once, he beats her to it.

He casts a surreptitious look over his shoulder then hunches forward and says, “Teddy’s got napkin swatches all over the front room.”

Ah, and they’re talking about Teddy again. It was a fun novelty for the first two months—she’s never seen her brother fall all over himself like he did for Teddy—but it’s been three years and she’s over it.

“I don’t understand why swatches. Why not just give us one of each napkin? It don’t make sense.”

“Uh, yeah I guess it’s kind of weird. Why napkins?”

His expression turns dour. “He wants me to pick one for the reception.”

“Alright, so pick.”

They were supposed to get married in February (fucked up, unnatural time for a wedding but nobody asked her), but then Teddy freaked out acting like a little backyard shindig wouldn’t be good enough and now they’re shelling out actual cash money to stand around in a swanky lodge for six hours and eat overpriced chicken.

Downright foolish, but again, nobody asked her.

“I tried but he said he could tell I was just trying to get out of it.” Steel gray eyes stare into hers. “Jo, I don’t care about napkins.”

“I don’t think anybody cares about napkins.”

“That’s what I—!” He lowers his voice. “That’s what I said.”

“But Teddy cares about—,”

“That’s the thing,” Nash interrupts, eyes wide, animated in his exasperation. “He doesn’t care either.”

“Then why—,”

“He thinks—,” He wrinkles his nose, then confesses, “He thinks it’s one of those things where maybe I do care, I just haven’t thought about it enough to know.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I know.”

“They’re napkins.”

“I know.”

It takes another five minutes to talk Nash around into telling Teddy that he’s put in enough due thought to determine he very much doesn’t care what people wipe their hands and face on at their wedding, but he turns down Jo’s suggestion that they stick a paper towel roll on each table so he must care at least a little bit.

When they hang up the pit of missing home hasn’t filled an inch. Even worse, her pudding is room temperature.

[sarahsupastar]

*Gasp!* A romance novel acknowledged the existence of aro people!

In classic cliché fashion, the protagonist begins by saying he doesn't ever really get feelings for anybody - essentially describing an aro experience, though he's presumably allo. BUT! Instead of following the cliché by then having him meet "the right person" and finally fall in love, this author had someone immediately clock the aro vibes of that statement and directly ask the protagonist if he's aromantic! And then, instead of just perfunctorily checking the box for acknowledging aro people exist and having him say no and move on, the author has him explain that what he means by "I don't get feelings" is: "I had my heart broken and have since actively avoided developing romantic feelings at all costs" - Not: "I've never experienced romantic attraction before this one special person"

[neixins]

i need to read a fantasy romance that’s so good it rewires my whole brain and leaves me with no other choice but to rate it 5 stars despite my incorrigible nature as a stingy reviewer

[waaanderingluna]

🥀 𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖊'𝖘 𝕶𝖊𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝕬 𝕳𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝕷𝖎𝖋𝖊

.

.

.

《𝚆𝙴𝙱𝙽𝙾𝚅𝙴𝙻》

[mermaidsirennikita]

The Duke Redemption (by one Grace Callaway) is very cute so far, but nonetheless my favorite moment has remained the hero being all "Adam Garrity please help me with my heroine who is doing the opposite of what you want" and Adam Garrity going "oh PLEASE only PUSSIES give up everything for a WOMAN"

And Gabriella immediately entering the room after with him running up all "WHAT DOES MY BABY NEED???"

[arylleth]

He wanted to forget everything but the way Julian's blood ran a little hotter than this own, how the warmth of him pooled just below his ribs cage and the hollow of his thrat. "You could do anything to me and I'd let you" It didn't surprise him that Julian had asked, but he still felt a shock of shame - not at the desire itself, but at the fact that Julian could see him. He wasn't ready to be seen, not yet. He hadn't done anything to earn it.

[lovecolibri]

The serotonin from fanfiction is UNREAL.

Like, I could see an actual book in a genre I enjoy with a synopsis that I find intriguing and STILL struggle to get started because ADHD brain is a bitch. Meanwhile, fic will be like "hey you know how you've never watched hockey outside of Olympic highlights and The Might Ducks movies growing up? Or how you wouldn't recognize a F1 from any other kind of racecar and have never once sat down and watched any kind of car race? Would like to read about your blorbos being deeply entrenched in this world you know absolutely nothing about? And my brain will just be vibrating going "sign me TF up!" 🤷🏻‍♀️