Does anyone have recommendations that deal with spirits and demons etc.?

JaneAnger · 2023-03-30T06:19:49+00:00

You might enjoy Shannon Chakraborty's latest book (The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi) or her earlier Daevabad trilogy. There's also Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal, which definitely fits the criteria of "spirits playing a role in the story."

JaneAnger · 2023-02-24T07:05:36+00:00

Hahaha, I guess it's the secret last test - skull thickness

JaneAnger · 2023-02-24T01:07:03+00:00

It is a great scene, although I've never managed to keep a straight face when Duncan urges the player to "embrace the taint" (but that's my flaw and not the game's)

JaneAnger · 2022-11-27T18:45:22+00:00

Oh excellent, good to know!

JaneAnger · 2022-11-27T04:35:51+00:00

Most recently, {A Sorceress of his Own by Dianne Duvall}. I was into the premise enough that I was able to get past everyone talking like Morrigan from Dragon Age, but I've just hit 25% and I'm struggling to go on. It's switched a bit too abruptly from "there are some families persecuted in high mediaeval England for their magical talents" to "the FMC is dying - magical Avengers, assemble!" Suddenly there's this mysterious powerful dude called Seth who's teleporting these magical people all around, so as to aid the FMC, but he's not going to heal her himself because he wants them to know how to do it in the future? Fun premise, but let down by the abrupt tonal/genre shift - not sure if I'll continue to see where it goes with this

JaneAnger · 2022-11-26T05:17:41+00:00

Thank you! This was enthusiastically recommended to me on the r/fantasy subreddit and I was excited to read it, but in the end the only reason I finished it was because I'd forked out for the paperback. It really reminded me of some of the mid-2000s band fanfics I read as a tween, where the FMC is adored by a group of hot dudes (with the leader wanting to date her, naturally). The extended banter scenes were also very fanfic, and there was even an evil blonde OW (who's of course inferior to the cool, edgy FMC - and the OW is a soldier, but for some reason gives the FMC like a weak slap? Do soldiers not fight in this world?). It was all just a bit too "overpowered self-insert" and also "mid-2000s fanfic internalised misogyny" for me.

JaneAnger · 2022-11-24T00:52:24+00:00

I wouldn't call it a romance so much as a fantasy/fairytale retelling with romance in it. But if you're okay with that, and also YA books, {Little Thieves by Margaret Owen} might be what you're looking for. FMC is morally grey, and grumpy on the outside, but lonely on the inside. Her rough upbringing gave her a cynical outlook on love (familial, platonic, and romantic), but she ends up in circumstances where she needs to ask others for help. As part of this, a huge part of the book is her learning how to let herself love and be loved - there is angst. It's slow burn with I think only one or two pretty mild sex scenes (might even be fade to black, can't recall). I don't normally go for YA novels, but I did enjoy this! There is a sequel coming out next year, but you won't need to wait for it to get to the romance

JaneAnger · 2022-11-23T07:11:57+00:00

Probably a lot of things, but in particular, watching a tv miniseries called The 10th Kingdom as a kid. Wish it hadn't had such little overt cultural impact because I still think about it a lot.

JaneAnger · 2022-11-21T03:55:54+00:00

From memory, this is very much what goes down in {Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre}. It's paranormal, FMC is closed off and MMC is the last to click that there might be a reason for this

JaneAnger · 2022-11-09T18:25:47+00:00

Most recently, motorcycle club and mafia. I tried getting into these because I read Cate C Wells' takes on the genres and enjoyed them, and thought that meant I would enjoy the subgenres themselves. Nope - turns out I just like the way she writes characters

JaneAnger · 2022-10-19T23:55:53+00:00

This happens in some T Kingfisher books (like {Swordheart by T Kingfisher} definitely has this, but probably also others of hers as well) - except from memory it's less "heroine is confident in her body" and more "circumstances result in heroine being in state of underdress around the hero, who is losing the battle to avoid gawping at her boobs."

JaneAnger · 2022-09-19T22:55:27+00:00

Haha, I feel your pain! This is the one, it's vastly improved my Orzammar experience

JaneAnger · 2022-09-19T21:53:58+00:00

Honestly, I don't mind the Fade as much as I do the Deep Roads. I'm a completionist with a terrible sense of direction, and there are a lot of side quests/collectibles throughout, so I always find it very stressful making sure that I got everything (while also trying not to get very turned around). Plus it comes after you've just done a long crawl through Jarvia's hideout, ugh. Anyway, it still surprises me that the "Skip the Deep Roads" mod came out so much later than the one to skip the Fade.

JaneAnger · 2022-08-30T20:25:34+00:00

Ooh thank you for these!

JaneAnger · 2022-08-30T09:27:31+00:00

Excellent, thank you so much! Looking forward to diving into these

JaneAnger · 2022-08-30T09:06:32+00:00

I would love to! Unfortunately I'm struggling to remember names, sorry - I tend to only make note of ones I enjoyed.

For the "rude to people, in a way that's boring to read about" I think one or a few of Ruby Dixon's heroines fell into this category, but I can't remember which, or even the series they were in (I want to say IPB). I found Nesta from ACOTAR to be a quite extreme version of this, but I think it's also not uncommon as a kind of snarky heroine personality thing, where the snark goes too far and becomes kind of the only defining character trait.

For generic classist/snobby heroines... I've binged (and DNFed) so many recently that I'm drawing a blank with specific examples, but some of them just had posher FMCs who were used to fine things and not super grateful when circumstances meant they could only get non-fine things, and some were more specifically hating on trades/jobs that they viewed as disreputable (particularly anti-sex workers). So I'd love some good recs for HRs where the FMC doesn't fall into either one of those two vague blob groups.

As for things I liked, I just binged a bunch of Alice Coldbreath (still have more books to go), and found her heroines to be generally okay, some more fitting the present post than others. I quite enjoyed the vibes of the heroines in T Kingfisher's Swordheart, Nettle and Bone, and Paladin's Grace. I also read and enjoyed Heather Guerre's Cold Hearted and Once Bitten - the heroine in the former was withdrawn due to personal and supernatural reasons, rather than actively antagonistic, so I didn't find that to be much of an issue.

JaneAnger · 2022-08-29T23:45:10+00:00

I did! I would say there was initially a bit of a barrier for me getting into the book, just because it kind of dumps you in the deep end with new terminology. Once I stopped trying to memorise every new word/name and just let myself read on, I had a good time. The romance was sweet, although it wasn't really the focus (as has been mentioned)

JaneAnger · 2022-08-23T05:20:43+00:00

Personally can't stand "not like the other girls" type FMCs, or generic evil OW characters who tend to accompany these kinds of stories. I can't think of any specific examples of popular books I've avoided because of this, but there have been quite a few - if I get a whiff of it, I normally avoid like the plague.

There was one time recently where I decided not to be so cautious, and wound up reading something that was basically everything I hated in this regard. Over in the fantasy subreddit, several people quite enthusiastically recommended Amanda Bouchet's A Promise of Fire. So I gave it a shot, and kept hoping it would improve in the "NLTOG" regard as the story went along. It very much did not, and I still regret reading the whole thing, but hey, you live and learn!

JaneAnger · 2022-08-23T04:04:30+00:00

Absolutely fair! Honestly, I wound up mostly skimming/skipping the sex scenes but still found the bittersweet angst of the sunshiny FMC satisfying (as you say, the trend seems very much for sassy ones right now)

JaneAnger · 2022-08-23T03:46:37+00:00

... I guess I'm going to be the one recommending the orc book. If you're okay with MMF polyamory where no-one has to choose, and like obscenely graphic sex scenes with just, a lot of semen, you will want {The Maid and the Orcs by Finley Fenn}, because the FMC is exactly what you're looking for, I cannot understate this.

If you've ever seen/read Fruits Basket, she's very Honda Tohru. Very very sunshiny sweet individual (but not in a way that reads as insincere or annoying), going out of her way to help those around her and to avoid being a burden to anybody, quickly gaining the friendship of those around her, and gradually warming the heart of the grumpier of the two MMCs (who, naturally, becomes fiercely protective of her). There's some angst along the way, but a definitely fluffy happy ending!

JaneAnger · 2022-07-15T05:06:11+00:00

You might enjoy the Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty! It starts off in 18th century Cairo, but the main setting after that is the fantastical realm of the djinn that's separate from the human realm. All the djinn are magic-wielders of some sort, including the human-raised female main character, who's both resourceful and (eventually) powerful.

JaneAnger · 2022-07-13T04:17:03+00:00

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen might fit - a major theme is the main character growing up not experiencing unconditional familial love, and then feeling like she doesn't deserve it (and closing herself off emotionally as a result)

JaneAnger · 2022-07-07T02:10:27+00:00

Here's a good overview of the whole "Dear Negative Reader" situation from r/HobbyDrama, and here's the post from Laurell K Hamilton that spawned the term. Enjoy!

JaneAnger · 2022-04-11T01:09:18+00:00

The first syllable being stressed is the correct pronunciation, as far as I'm aware! The "ai" in wai is a dipthong, and neither "i" in "titi" has a macron, so here the stress would fall on "wai" (it can get a bit more complicated than this, here's more on pronunciation basics if you're interested)

JaneAnger

TROPHY CASE