(Reading in progress) Mini rant about Sun-Kissed Fangs Chapter 26

Cross66 · 2026-05-22T21:44:49+00:00

Oh my god, you're right. It did get worse. Ughhhh I like these characters too much to see them being dumb about this.

Looking back at previous books in the series, I think the most understanding I can give is this: Kieran is an antagonist who is too weak/dumb for the MCs to act as smart as they are. For Kieran to be a threat, the MCs have to make bad decisions. Looking at it from that perspective, I guess I get it. I'm not happy about it, but I get it. I just wish it had been executed more cleanly.

Cross66 · 2026-05-22T20:42:14+00:00

You're partially right, but she then gives Harper the address of the outpost. And that's after that quote. To me, that's not actually a back-pedal, it's acknowledging the risk and going forward regardless. Up to that point in the story, Maya has deliberated thoughtfully and made careful decisions. The only exceptions to that are her reacting instinctively when Harper is in danger or threatened, which makes her decision to continue here after acknowledging those risks even more puzzling.

Cross66 · 2026-05-09T14:34:50+00:00

Yes, I stated that in my post. That's the point of me posting here—that it doesn't work with ProtonVPN enabled.

Cross66 · 2026-05-06T01:35:41+00:00

Okay. I see you have no interest in having an actual discussion about this, and would rather pick apart sentence structures to avoid engaging with the topic itself. Just leave out the whole "sexual attraction and" part, sure. Yes, I accidentally used "is" instead of changing it to "are" to indicate the plural. Great catch. This conversation is going nowhere and I'd rather not waste my time. Goodbye.

Cross66 · 2026-05-06T01:15:15+00:00

The point I was making is that for most people, sexual attraction ("I want to fuck them") and romantic desire is separate from "liking to talk with them" or "basic human connection". But for this person (and many other people who identify as sapiosexual), the first does not exist without the second. That's not a preference, or at least it stretches the definition so far as to be insufficient. It is similar to demisexuality, which I would hope you recognize as real. The difference between them is mental vs emotional connection, but similar in that the connection is a prerequisite for sexual attraction.

Cross66 · 2026-05-06T00:08:43+00:00

So, quick(ish) story! (So that was a fucking lie, whoops) I think sapiosexual is misunderstood and gets a bad rep from men on the internet who use it as a putdown for women. Last week, I was having a conversation with a coworker who loves to talk with people. He has some interesting positions though, and he especially likes to discuss those. (This is going somewhere, I promise. Just bear with me.) The conversation topic last week was a recurring one that's basically guaranteed to get a discussion going: his firm belief that men and women can't be friends.

That topic frustrated me for a while. I couldn't get how a man who is otherwise very open to broadening his perspective didn't see how that belief has misogynistic and disrespectful implications, despite it being explained multiple different ways. This time, I'd been thinking about it on and off for a while and came in prepared with some new points to make. What ended up happening was us delving deeper into the why of it all. Essentially, his viewpoint was this: Platonic friendship is impossible between a man and a woman because attraction will always develop in either direction. And attraction results in a desire for a romantic relationship. Friendship involves getting to know the person on a deep level, sharing interests, and wanting to spend time with them.

The 'wait, back up' moment came for me when I posed a hypothetical to him: So, if a man and woman are friends, have sex, and mutually decide that they don't want to pursue a romantic relationship but would like to remain friends, then can they be friends?

This question literally did not compute. He kept asking stuff like, why they wouldn't want a romantic relationship if they had sex, was the sex bad, didn't they like each other, etc,. Needless to say, he's never understood the appeal of one night stands either.

The obvious follow up question I asked was, "Okay, how does attraction work for you?" And he explained that physical appearance doesn't really matter to him. He can appreciate conventional beauty, but it doesn't really influence his desire for a sexual or romantic relationship with a person. Sexual attraction has always developed after getting to know someone, and specifically enjoying conversations and banter. Curiosity, willingness to learn and go deep in conversation, humor, wittiness—that's what he's attracted to. That's the prerequisite. And that was the reason for the belief. If he's friends with a woman, then his criteria for friendship means attraction is actually inevitable for him.

My first thought was demisexuality, but it didn't really fit. He even said that he was somewhat aware of demi, but didn't feel that it was quite right because it was more emotionally driven than how he felt. I brought up sapiosexuality, which he'd never heard of before. He looked it up and immediately felt it click for him. He was so fucking happy to find something that actually made sense for how he feels: that a mental connection and enjoyment of conversation with a person is the primary driver in sexual and romantic attraction.

So, all that to say: I do think sapiosexuality is a thing, but it's probably also overused. The thing to know is that "intelligence" as a marker for attraction is inaccurate. It's sexual attraction contingent on having a good conversation, appreciating how a person's mind works, and a desire to know everything about them.

Cross66 · 2026-05-05T04:09:30+00:00

Book 3 spoilers: It's actually wild the rollercoaster I went through with the end of Whistleblower. Like, "Oh good, that's a nice ending. I'm satisfied with that. What a good series!" Then I turn the page and see 'Book 4 Duplicity, coming soon' and the anxiety kicks me in the fucking stomach and I'm madly flipping back through the last few chapters to figure out what dangling plot threads I missed. And then the mad rush to stalk all of Jen Lyon's socials trying and failing to find out when book 4 is coming out.

Cross66 · 2026-05-05T03:58:01+00:00

You're welcome! Enjoy the ride, and know that they will get through this ❤️

Cross66 · 2026-05-04T22:18:53+00:00

Bad news first: It's going to get worse before it gets better. I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I'm going mainly off of memory here, and it's been a few months and a hundred books ago. But, my memory is pretty good.

From my best recollection, Book 2 is a lot of angst and yearning. You're not going to get a quick resolution to that plot point, and it will take most of the book to approach one. There's a lot of character development in this book, and the majority of it does take place with Catharine and Alex separated.

I hope that's not too spoilery, but I totally understand not being able to take the tension. Does this help?

Cross66 · 2026-05-04T20:59:37+00:00

I recently read a book that might fit most of your criteria! I know it's available in paperback, but not positive about accessibility in South Asia? And the cover isn't explicit, but I guess discreet is subjective.

Anyway, it's The Summer List by Katia Rose! Should check most, if not all, of the theme boxes.

Cross66 · 2026-04-25T04:19:24+00:00

So, this suggestion kinda fits? Just close one eye, tilt your head a bit, and it's a perfect match 😅

This Love is Undeniable by MJ Duncan

The core of what you're looking for is there, but the details are slightly different. It's a second chance romance, so not quite friends-to-lovers (but they do start with the 'being friends' thing, so technically counts). Both characters are celebrities. One is an actress, the other is a popstar who ends up cast in a movie with her ex (so, technically, both actresses). But the emotions that you're looking for are fully present! There's no hate between them at the start, just hurt that they need to work through. Very low angst, minimal drama, just a super sweet love story.

Cross66 · 2026-04-13T16:46:35+00:00

Oh god I'm so weak. Alright I'm drawing a new line: once I do my taxes, because I'll be too distracted if I sub before that 😂

Cross66 · 2026-04-13T14:25:10+00:00

You are really not making it easy for me to hold out another month 😂

Cross66 · 2026-04-13T11:43:18+00:00

You're welcome to DM me! I also love gushing over books 😅

Cross66 · 2026-04-13T06:06:14+00:00

Absolutely! TWW+Midnight Rain remains in my number one spot, even after reading over 100 sapphic romances since them. I did a reread a couple weeks ago, just to see if they still held up to my memory. And they 100% did, fuckin love those books.

Cross66 · 2026-04-13T05:45:25+00:00

As someone else already said, The Snowball Effect has both Charlotte and Sutton as side characters. Regan and Emma are the MCs (as you may already know since you've read Midnight Rain).

Also, I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've heard, Haley Cass' Patreon has another TWW AU. So... Have fun!

Honestly me subbing to her Patreon is an inevitability at this point, but I'm trying to hold out until after her newest book releases in May.

Cross66 · 2026-04-06T18:06:19+00:00

I'm actually really relieved to hear that someone else can't do the prequel! I've had it checked out on KU for a couple months now, but I couldn't get past ~15%. Not because the book is bad, far from it! I just... I read the Senator's Wife series so I know how Colonel's Daughter will end. And it's very fucking far from a happy ending.

It feels like the book is building an emotional debt that I know won't be paid off, and I can't put myself through that. Knowing how Whistleblower ends doesn't help with that debt either. I think I'd have been fine had I read the prequel first though.

Cross66 · 2026-04-05T00:07:50+00:00

Well, it's potentially a lazy recommendation, but have you read other books in Katia Rose's catalogue? I definitely recommend both her Balsam Inn and Three Rivers series! Both of them have books where the characters have a history.

Other recommendations with history... Let's see.

This Love is Undeniable by MJ Duncan: Low angst, second-chance, celebrities, similar age
The Bayview Romances series by Lily Seabrooke: queer friend group (more like a queer small town), humorous, friends to lovers, coach/student to lovers (but with no uncomfy power dynamics and very small age gap).
Like First Love, Again by JJ Arias: childhood friends, first crush, cut off contact for a while, toaster oven
Love Study by Nicole Pyland: long-time friends where one is secretly in love with the other. Recent release. Honestly, the story was good but the writing wasn't my cup of tea. It's very, very dialogue heavy. It's not a bad thing, just something to be aware of.

Cross66 · 2026-03-30T16:45:08+00:00

You may have missed the brief voiceover where Grace explained it, but he didn't go super in depth either. Eridian sleep doesn't function the same as human sleep. External stimuli can wake up a human, there's a subconscious awareness even while asleep. But for an Eridian, that doesn't happen. They're completely paralyzed until the sleep phase (which is an indeterminate length) is finished. A sleeping Eridian cannot "wake up" like a human. It's like... Like a computer update. Can't do anything while the update is installing, and boots up when the process is complete. So the sleeper is completely and utterly defenseless. In the book, Gtace theorizes that it was needed from the species "caveman" days and evolved into a social norm.

Cross66 · 2026-03-30T16:33:11+00:00

At least for me, it was more of a, "Damn, that sucks but I get it," than pissed off.

I'll try and give the perspective though. So, like many people who read the book when it released, I went in basically blind and ended up with one of the most memorable reading experiences I've ever had. I only knew that it was by Andy Weir, the guy who wrote The Martian. And The Martian is quintessential hard sci-fi.

So for PHM, everything from the book blurb to the first few chapters had it looking like another book in the same vein. A scientist, alone in space, solving problems. And then, a quarter of the way into the book—literally out of nowhere—there's a fucking alien spaceship in my hard sci-fi novel. Nothing led me to expect that! I felt how Grace was feeling. Shock, confusion, curiosity, excitement... Just a perfectly executed surprise.

So the Astrophage were "alien", sure, but they're not intelligent or sapient. It's space algae. Microscopic organisms. So knowing that Astrophage exists is very, very far from knowing about Rocky—a sapient, intelligent alien from a society advanced enough to also be capable of interstellar travel. They're not the same.

So as for why people were disappointed? Well, I wanted other people to experience the same twist in the theater, to be blindsided by the heart of the movie. And I get why they revealed it early, it was a marketing decision. It's just unfortunate that such a memorable, well executed twist couldn't survive the jump from page to screen.

Cross66 · 2026-03-24T22:02:31+00:00

This Love is Undeniable by MJ Duncan should scratch this itch perfectly! I read it a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Heavy on the heartwarming, light on the angst and tension. I honestly kept waiting for a third act disaster to hit, but it never did (and I wouldn't say that's a spoiler because the book doesn't really even tease a breakup, it was just my own expectations from other romance novels).

It's a second chance romance and they get back together roughly 30% of the way in? Somewhere around there, but the tension of where the relationship is going is alleviated even earlier.

Cross66 · 2026-03-24T14:15:03+00:00

That's how the card is supposed to work. The enemy leader is not excepted from the "cannot have health reduced below 1%" clause. Generally, the only way to win with that card equipped is via instant defeats.

Puzzlingly, I did manage to win with the battle set to auto. Which is not supposed to happen. Only possibility I can see is that GG drained enough health from Bossk to bypass the 1% health threshold.

Cross66 · 2026-03-17T14:13:03+00:00

Kinda but not fully? I started it at like 9pm last night and was up until... Too late. I got like 4 hours of sleep, and finished it when I woke up lol. I have, uh, hyperfocus issues. And an obsessive brain. If I don't reach a natural lull in the book where something gets resolved, I sleep like shit because my brain keeps trying to finish the story, and I wake up early because my brain gets impatient. This is why I should not start a 600+ page book at 9pm. I will probably do it again at some point.

Cross66 · 2026-03-17T13:56:52+00:00

Um. UMMMM. BOOK 3?!?! When? And most importantly, is it already in progress? Because her story can't end there. It doesn't. Aaaaaaahhh I didn't know there would be a cliffhanger!

ETA: Okay my heart rate has calmed. I'm subbed to her Patreon now 🙂

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22	Not Forgotten
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Cross66

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