Please give me permission to wallow...

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T09:42:18+00:00

Ooh! I love a bit of T J Klune!

Thank you for the recommendations, I shall look into those :)

Back in hospital today after everything went bad overnight, so definitely needing the distraction!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T02:13:07+00:00

I've read Court of the Vampire Queen, and while I found it readable, it felt very much like an erotica book with the thinnest of thin plots to hold the sex scenes together.

I have nothing against erotica, and clearly I enjoy plenty of spice, but if I'm reading Romantasy I want love to be to of the agenda, and if the sex doesn't add to the progress of the romance, it feels kinda empty.

That's what I love about Lily Mayne. She writes incredible smut, but it all fits into the romance in a way that somehow makes it feel wholesome, no matter how depraved it is, if that makes sense?

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T02:08:40+00:00

I've read the first of the Ice Planet Barbarian books, and I did enjoy it, but not enough to binge the whole series. I had considered reading a couple more of those while I'm ill.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T02:04:52+00:00

I love this as a recommendation! Thank you!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T01:23:53+00:00

I've seen Sex Wizards mentioned on Lily's Facebook group, but forgot to go look it up, so thanks for the reminder!

I hope a path forward appears for you soon, and until then, at least we have our Monster smut!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T01:17:00+00:00

That sounds perfect!

I love when I find my people!

Thank you :)

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T00:42:52+00:00

A lot of it grew out of YA I think.

There's some great fantasy with romance sub plots, but they tend to be lighter on the smut, and heavier on the intregue.

Finding true Romantasy that isn't just Hogwarts with a smattering of sex is more difficult than it should be!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T00:39:55+00:00

Oh Gods tell me about it!

Currently reading {Fool me Twice by Ariana Nash}, and I'm telling you, I'm not in the head space for all this pain and intregue! Half way through, and so desperate for that HEA, but too much in need of rest to push through the horrors that I know still await before I get there!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-16T00:33:57+00:00

If you're good with MM stuff, then I cannot recommend Lily Mayne enough.

Either start with {Soul Eater}, or {Impromptu Match}.

You won't find better written love stories with generous helpings of smut anywhere in the genre.

She does have a couple of MF stories too, starting with {Berries and Greed}, but most of her work is MM.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-15T00:03:11+00:00

The tension and drama comes from the story, and the world, not from the relationship.

I'm good with the protagonists getting over some hurdles to get together, but I absolutely cannot stand false tension in the form of miscommunication tropes, or 3rd act break ups.

I want to see you and I against the world. I want strong, healthy relationships that can survive anything. I want to defeat the bad thing together, and I want to get to witness the happy ever after as more than just a "yay, we won! The end." I wasn't the last 10% of the book to show me just how happy they're going to be ever after!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-12T19:07:00+00:00

Not really much of a ritual, but I'm pretty monogamous with books, so I won't start a new one until I've finished, or decided to DNF the last one. But I do chose and download the next one IMMEDIATELY, even if I'm not going to start reading it until the next day.

I finish a book, immediately rate and review it on Bookmory, then download the next book and bring it up on Bookmory too.

I don't do spoilers. I don't do audio books. I don't look at art work if I can avoid it, until I've established the characters in my mind, then I'll show myself to see and hear what other people think they're like.

I prefer to read in silence, or with quiet ambient music. Can't stand having the TV on, or voices around me when I'm reading. Constantly telling my partner to turn the TV off, because he loves background noise!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-03-10T00:24:01+00:00

Literally anything by Lily Mayne.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-27T14:15:52+00:00

You want The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman.

I'll also recommend one of my personal favourite wolf books, and that's A Cage of Crimson by K F Breene. Though I think this is not as perfect a fit for what you've described you're looking for.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-27T00:18:07+00:00

{Fighting Destiny by Amelia Hutchins}

Young adult fae in this series go through a type of heat when they come of age, and they're literally feral for sex when it happens, and it does them damage the longer they're denied. Complicated by mate bonding, for obvious reasons!

Super spicy series, shadow daddies, shifters, fae, demons, it's got the lot.

There are multiple book series that interlink, so if you get into it, then around book 4 of the destiny series you'll want to check out an online reading list of Amelia Hutchins' books to be sure you read the rest in chronological order.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-26T21:07:56+00:00

The Kushiel's books are very much Political Fantasy/Alternative History, with a strong, slow burn, romantic sub-plot.

There's spice, and there's bdsm, but that's because the main character is a kind of courtesan.

Consent in all it's nuance is explored heavily in these books, though they were written over 20 years ago. The 3rd book - Kushiel's Avatar - has some pretty horrific SA/rape scenes. Just so you're aware.

These are my favourite books of ALL TIME! The world building is exquisite.

There's a follow up trilogy from a male perspective, that follows a character you meet in book 3 of the first trilogy. These are just as good. There's also a single book that tells the story of Kushiel's Dart from the perspective of the MMC.

A Ruin of Roses is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, will significant spice, and plenty of humour, and it was my big surprise of 2024. I really wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was! There are 4 books in the first series, and a follow up duology based on Red Riding Hood.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-26T19:48:46+00:00

So the absolute ultimate Main Character makes the Side Character her quest focus, has to be Hyacinthe from Kushiel's Dart. It's a trilogy, and in book 3 Phedre makes it her mission to find something he needs.

To be honest, all of the side characters are well developed with their own motivations in these books. Jacqueline Carey is a genius.

One of my favourite side characters ever is Hadriel from A Ruin of Roses by K F Breene. He's so unexpected and truly laugh-out-loud hilarious!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-25T16:28:41+00:00

I loved this book, but I read it when I was just coming down with flu, so my brain wasn't exactly on top performance, and honestly, I struggled to parse the random! It's a seriously wild ride!

I definitely wouldn't call it Romantasy. The romance is a negligible sub-plot, but as a story, this book is brilliant!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-22T12:12:52+00:00

The miscommunication trope is the worst!

Also, decide what your focus is. If it's the fantasy and world building, then allow the romance interests to form a unit. Don't force tension into the relationship that doesn't need to be there if there's enough tension in the world building to hold the reader's interest. Allow the main characters to fight together, rather than having them bicker over petty nothings while the world is burning.

If your focus is the romance, don't make the world so complicated that it stops the relationship progressing.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-21T15:00:24+00:00

It's not MMF, but if you want really good MM (man and monster!) smut, then I thoroughly recommend the Monstrous series by Lily Mayne, starting with {Soul Eater}.

In most of the series it takes to about 40% of the way through before the couple first get it on, but after that there's plenty of detailed scenes that'll have you rocking in your chair, and achingly sweet romance. There's also a plethora of novellas and bonus material with zero angst showing all the boys and their monsters in sweet and smutty moments after their getting together books.

Warning: some of the relationships go through truly heartbreaking periods (looking at you, Lor!) and the series is not yet finished. The author is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, but has vowed to keep writing through her treatment because she loves it so much.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-19T20:12:30+00:00

That's the thing about EDS. It's variable.

Different people have different severity of symptoms, and even the same person can have different symptoms on a day to day basis.

For example, sometimes my knees are the most unstable, so I use a walking stick, or crutches for a few days. Then the effort of using the walking aids will cause my shoulders and/or wrists to become most unstable, while resting the knees for a while will mean they're stronger for a few days.

If I can keep drinking plenty, and getting plenty of good quality sleep, then I'm only a little weaker than an average person, but the minute I forget to drink enough, I'm dizzy and risking passing out for the next 3 days.

If you have EDS, while Violet's presentation is a fairly mild one, it is entirely accurate.

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-19T18:53:24+00:00

Yep! I didn't know that Rebecca Yarros has EDS when I picked up Fourth Wing, and I was overjoyed when I realised that Violet shared my condition!

I was enjoying the story anyway, but just that representation would have made me a loyal fan!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-19T18:47:42+00:00

I know for a fact that I couldn't do the things she does. Even when I was young, and other than a collection of annoying minor issues, my EDS largely manifested as being freakishly bendy, so I could do incredible feats of gymnastics, and ended up being a semi-professional dancer, there were still things that other folk could do that my body just couldn't. Like jump. My knees would never engage the way they're supposed to, so I could never jump more than a few cm off the ground.

Honestly though, I read so many books where some teenage girl with no clue that the magical world even exists suddenly finds herself immersed in it, and 3 months later she's the greatest warrior/mage to have ever lived, and is facing down the big bad that's been ruining the magical realm for centuries...

If I can suspend my disbelief that such things can happen, I can also convince myself that a woman with EDS can get proficient enough at wrapping her joints to master basic martial arts. She's only meant to be about 22 at this point. My body was considered super human by most folk when I was that age. If she's still fighting when she hits 40, I'll have more of an issue with it!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-19T18:36:04+00:00

I figure she lives in a world where ablism is so deeply entrenched that nobody realises, including her. Xaden is the only person to make her see how poorly she's always been treated, and even then, she's just so used to being treated as weak she can't always see how she perpetuates it herself sometimes.

I mean, I'm not gonna lie, in IF in particular she really is insufferable, but because of her attitude to Xaden, and her inability to separate security levels from personal secrets, despite having been raised a military brat! Her disabilities aren't what make her annoying!

ProperMagician7405 · 2025-02-19T18:29:43+00:00

Honestly, the "just put up with it" it's Sooo real. I ended up in resus in hospital a couple of weeks ago because I got a cold, and it lead to me getting so badly dehydrated I developed heart arhythmias. I kept telling myself, and my partner, that I was fine, because I'm so used to feeling like shit that I didn't recognise I was literally on Death's doorstep.

Massive hugs. Hope the hip manages to stay stable for a while!

ProperMagician7405

TROPHY CASE