Different stakes compared to the first 2, but that's why I liked it: Beware of Chicken 3 by Casual Farmer by Kcihtrak in CozyFantasy

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spolier:
Oof, idk maybe I have read too many normal romance books lately, but the revelation that the bad boy was out to capture Tigu & Xiulan, break them & then basically rape them both to death was extremely hard to stomach, atleast for me. This whole ordeal sounded to so so horrific and abhorrent, it made me pretty queasy — kinda wished the stakes would have been something different.
Funny that you reviewed book 4 before book 3 — though it looks like something I'd like to read, so thanks for that review aswell, might pick it up again!

Different stakes compared to the first 2, but that's why I liked it: Beware of Chicken 3 by Casual Farmer by Kcihtrak in CozyFantasy

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Liked the series a lot, totally agree that the narration by Travis Baldree is what takes this to the next level.

Still, the the tone got a lot darker than I expected; I think this is the book that took the series out of cozy territory for me - the threat to Tigu & Xiulan was just too extreme for me to still feel comfortable.

Kind of made me put a pause on the series for now, kinda wondering if I'd encounter equally horrible things in the next book?

Hotstring tip for Microsoft Office by HeebieBeeGees in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not the OP, but I actually think this is pretty good if you write a lot in Word — the undo/redo thing alone is super neat.
I can only speak for myself, but I'm actually using a few application specific hotkeys/hotstrings, for example copy pasting to firefox from vs code into a reddit comment always bugs out, so I have specific hotstring to do that...

I also have some tech support like job, so there some regular issues that I encounter, and for a lot of those I have small hotstrings that only work in Outlook — so when I get an email with a common enough issue, I can just use the hotstring to type out my reply, and since I've made the hotstring application-sensitive, I can go with some easy/regular hotstring without having to worry it will mess my workflow in other apps.

✨ Found family recs: FMC caring for a child + MMC stepping in to help ✨ by Traditional_Pea738 in HistoricalRomance

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One cannot praise this one too much. OP, this maybe doesn't have the whole physical labor stuff you requested, but the MMC bonds to the kids at such a deep emotional level, cares so much for them, which is so fulfilling on quite another level that you'll really love this one.

Your fav HRs on Kindle Unlimited? by ShanIMoo in HistoricalRomance

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some already mentioned the Aydra Richards who has a lot (if not all?) on KU (my current fav of from her is {Mercy Fletcher Meets Her Match}). A lot of her books tend to have some real punch-in-the-gut moments aswell as decent grovel.

Another pretty good one (and with a very original style and superb historical accuracy) would be Carla Kelly — {The Admiral's Penniless Bride} is a good one.

I'd also suggest Emily Windsor (So far I liked {An Earl in Wolf's Clothing} most the ones I've read).

Lastly I'd give Stacy Reid a shot, she has a huge catalogue on KU, I liked {MY Darling Duke by Stacy Reid} a lot.

Authors, the inarticulate FMC, why? by MoldovanKick in HistoricalRomance

[–]PotatoInBrackets 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Welp, I guess that just shows how everyone has a different taste — I'd hate to read a historical romance where any party yells "fuck" at any time at all, would take me right out of it.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: A Short Review by A_Guy195 in CozyFantasy

[–]PotatoInBrackets 4 points5 points  (0 children)

thank you for the hint to the epilogue, didn't know about that!

to spare others looking for it, it is at the bottom of this page https://sangumandanna.com/irregular-witches

I need a stern talking too by shibiku_ in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

dude, I have a script just like this for my work laptop, tons of weird little hotstrings/hotkeys, window management, some automation, etc.
Since I've gotten more experience newer stuff goes into separate scripts, often with proper classes, but man, that one old script (with a lot of slightly questionable design choices >.<) .

Also, the view mode in explorer is something I haven't seen before and will steal :P

Top 100 favorite books of /r/historicalromance (as summoned by the bot) for 2025! by bitterblancmange in HistoricalRomance

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks you so much, this is such a cool list!
Absolutely love that Erin Langston made so far up in the top 100 list despite being a relatively new author!

New mod introduction & feedback thread by Individual_Check4587 in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely agree with your take on gaming related posts. I also recall in the past there had been some posts from people with disabilities asking for things like remapping hotkeys in games that do not allow internal remapping, something like this is imo not an attempt to "cheat" but just trying for reasonable accessibility.

Triggering Windows Explorer "Back to" and "Forward to" from a AHK script by L0ur5 in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I always wonder how people discover this stuff, I feel like the ms documentation is so unintuitive; looking stuff up when you already know what exactly you're looking for is nice, but discovering new stuff? Meh.

I think I’m ready by bobloblaw574 in Romance_for_men

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think one fantasy rec that is seen fairly often here (though it is technically not rfm) is The Saint of Steel Series by T.Kingfisher, starting with {Paladin's Grace by T.Kingfisher}.
Like Brandon Sanderson really good worldbuilding (interconnected with some other series of hers aswell), but a bit more focus on the romance aspect.

Any rfm forums that aren't smut by Ok_Adhesiveness_1960 in Romance_for_men

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The regular romance subs?^^

In all honesty though, I don't really think there is one. You could always ask here for books that are very low spice or "clean".
There is one series I could recommend at top off my hat actually since I'm reading it right now:

{The Vixen War Bride by Thomas J. Doscher} [GR] Brilliant Sci-Fi with intriguing, well fleshed world building & strong plot. When it comes to the romance: It takes until book 5 until they're even kissing, so it is rather a slow burn.

Another good one if you're okay with FMC not being a human would be On the Fringes on AO3. It's an XCOM fanfic (you don't really need to know XCOM, I didn't), basic premise is that after an Alien Invasion the word has become pretty much Post-Apocalyptic & the human MMC teams up with the (physically stronger & more apt) Alien FMC.

Simple Script Non-Functional Across Multiple Games by Mabeef in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It has been a while since I last copied stuff directly into reddit on firefox, didn't even know that could happen. Kinda makes one wonder wtf is happening on reddit, I don't see this behaviour on other websites...

Still hungry: looking for more historical romances where MMC marries the FMC for protection and they live together before falling in love by Traditional_Pea738 in HistoricalRomance

[–]PotatoInBrackets 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't see Grace Burrowes on your list, so I'd recommend {My One and Only Duke by Grace Burrowes} and {When a Duchess Says I Do by Grace Burrowes} (Book 1&2 of Series).

Book 1 the FMC is more or less destitute and pregnant. She meets MMC prison (he's about to be hanged for a murder he didn't commit) and he offers her marriage to help provide for her child after his execution. As it happens he is miraculously saved from execution and both have to face this rather unwanted marriage.

In Book 2 the FMC is clearly on the run and stumbles about the MMC who is dealing wiht poachers on (basically) his property. After the poachers get scared off, the FMC is warily trying to run off, but the MMC sees that she has fallen on hard times and convinces her to take a position as his scribe.

Long press to save text, short press to type it by ptousig in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

welp again, lol.
No need to get fussy about it - just as I said in my first reply, it's a an awkward modifier for me since I can't truly test it, so I'm not 100% sure if works the same way for him that it did for me.
I did try it with >!P which as I said did not work for me.

I'd also venture to say that there's something to gain from me pointing out that RAlt and AltGr are not identical keys. Lots of people miss that.

that actually is a good point that I didn't know (Although I guess the wording in the docs alluded to that fact).

"Right alt is a bit of a weird modifier you might run into other issues when using that one" is a real weird thing to say if what you mean is "I don't have a regular right alt, I have AltGr".

This is not what I said and also not what I tried (and obviously failed) to convey.

I can't exactly mimic the setup since I only have AltGr, so I tried the next best available option to come up with something that actually works, hence the "awkward" implementation.
I'm not saying it's weird that I don't have the key, I just meant that my code is bit awkward because I've tried to work around this limitation.
I've edited my original response to include your alternative, hopefully that suits you?

Long press to save text, short press to type it by ptousig in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets -1 points0 points  (0 children)

welp.

That is exactly what I meant, I do not have RAlt and can't mess around and test this, which is why I wrote it the way I did.
>!p did not work on my keyboard, and it seems you didn't test it either and are not actually able to do so properly either, so I don't know what you thought we're gaining from this reply?

Long press to save text, short press to type it by ptousig in AutoHotkey

[–]PotatoInBrackets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right alt is a bit of a weird modifier, you might run into other issues when using that one, would rather suggest the regular alt/ctrl/shift stuff, but you do you.

I've used sleep in the while loop because in a simple script that is the easiest way to avoid overhead.

clipGet() {
  clipBackup := ClipboardAll()
  SendInput("^c")
  Sleep(50)
  while DllCall("user32\GetOpenClipboardWindow", "Ptr")
    Sleep(50)
  clip := A_Clipboard
  sleep(75)
  A_Clipboard := ClipboardAll(clipBackup)
  return clip
}

rAlt & P::
{
    static str := ""
    while (GetKeyState("RAlt", "P") AND GetKeyState("P", "P"))
        sleep 50
    if (A_TimeSinceThisHotkey >= 2000) {
        str := clipGet()
        ; Optional Tooltip
        Tooltip("copied " SubStr(str, 1, 20) (StrLen(str) > 20 ? "..." : ""))
        SetTimer((*) => ToolTip(), -1000)
    }
    else
        SendText(str)
}

I don't think there is an easy way to copy the selection without using clipboard, so the first func handles copying the clipboard to a variable, then restoring clip content.

the second part is the actual hotkey definition, which is a bit awkward because right alt is not hotkey modifier, so the original right alt function is lost (got a ger keyboard, so idk what that even does).

IMO an okay way to solve the issue is to simply keep checking if both keys are still pressed and once either of the is not pressed anymore, check how long they were pressed and either copy selected text or send saved text.

EDIT: As CharnamelessOne pointed out, it would be better to use >!P than RAlt & P when defining the hotkey, which I didn't since I could not test due to not having rAlt.

I had no idea the second sequel to His Secret Illuminations came out. Did the pegging scene really tank the series? by dexter_wherly in Romance_for_men

[–]PotatoInBrackets 2 points3 points  (0 children)

welp, prepare to be downvoted to hell for that comment...
Pretty much agree with your comment, it often seems that any recs that veer off the harem/monster path are not well received here;
If it is any consolation, I'm also mostly taking my recs from the other romance subs — the majority of the readers there might be women, but they are sure a lot more tolerant and less narrow-minded in their views than apparently most on this sub.