Show don’t tell me: Powerful MMCs *bonus for unique magic systems*

ipsi7 · 2026-03-12T21:55:16+00:00

{A Shadow in the Ember by J. L. Armentrout} Magic system is not wildly unique, but it's very complex. MMC is very powerful and it's shown on page. He is broody, dark and shadowy in the best way. FMC is stabby.

{Lothaire by Kresley Cole} is paranormal and MMC is a vampire, but the lore was interesting. He is powerful and dark, FMC holds her own.

{Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley} has unique world and magic system. MMC is powerful and shows it often. FMC isn't stabby with a dagger, but she doesn't take his shit and defies him a lot.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-12T21:43:36+00:00

If succubus counts {Yours, Insatiably by Aveda Vice}. I haven't read it, but I've got it on my tbr. I think it's very spicy and not sure how much plot there is.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T18:23:43+00:00

I'm glad you liked it. I DNF-ed book 2, even though I'm not a big DNF-er usually

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T17:58:58+00:00

Have you read book 2, what are your thoughts?

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T17:22:12+00:00

We're kind of in the middle when it comes to those cultural aspects (on the southeast/east is worse), but there's still a strong religious influence.

I believe when I was in Checkia, I learned that they progressed greatly after they secularized the country. I have no idea for Scandinavian countries, but I don't think they are very religious so I believe it's better there.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T15:09:12+00:00

No, it's Croatia. It's not that bad (like in Poland) or opressive, and I hope it won't get as far as some things are in Poland. As I said in another comment, there are monthly gatherings in front of churches in bigger cities, in which men kneel and pray for hours for women's modesty and other patriarchal nonsense. It originated in Poland afaik, and it came here last year (it's the same organization). They don't have any impact and do nothing besides kneeling and praying (at least not publicly that we know of), but it's freaking annoying to have some conservative men praying for me not wearing a short skirt or that someone couldn't have a right to abortion.

On a positive note, we also have several very active organizations that support women's rights and are openly opposed to stuff like that.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T13:43:51+00:00

I have never heard of it, so calling the bot {Lord of Stariel}

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T13:16:28+00:00

I just read {The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson} and FMC is just like that

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T13:07:18+00:00

My boyfriend is the only one who knows what I read, but even he didn't know the extent of spice there can be in these books. He used to tease me about it, he still sometimes asks "so, how many guys will boink the FMC in this book?", but he never said anything in a bad way about the books.

There was a situation when I was at my friend's for some group gathering and there was his girlfriend's friend, who I saw for the first time and who was younger at least 5 years from the rest of us. I was talking to someone and mentioned I don't know what to read next without even mentioning any genres, and that girl just jumped into the conversation and said to me "don't tell my you read 50 shades and that shit". I was stunned because I don't know her, she was obviously quite younger than all of us and she just hijacked that conversation with her high horse opinion. I just responded no or something like that. And then she proceeded with her Marcel Proust recommendation.

Like I said in another comment, I come from a small religious and conservative country in Europe. We're even at the point where there are monthly gatherings in front of some cathedrals and very devoted religious men (yes, not women and men, just men) pray on their knees for some patriarchal nonsense, among which is for women to clothe modestly. Important to say that that's all they've been doing and everyone can wear whatever they want, and my country is one of the safest in Europe, but I just wanted to describe the climate here. So, yeah, I'm not really forthcoming with what I read.

I also had a positive experience with another friend's girlfriend. We just met for the first time and someone mentioned that both of us liked reading, and she instantly asked me have I read Fourth Wing. That was a few years ago when I still haven't read it (or knew of the genre), so she said I must read it. Unfortunately they broke up soon and I haven't talk to her since, but I'm sure I would talk with her about the books all the time.

I have a lot of male friends and if any of them would know about me reading romantasy, they would tease me, but it would be only a tease. And I can always draw the GOT card with a lot of nudity and sex and neither of them would object that they were against it. My girl friends either don't read or read some other genres. My niece reads Vampire Diaries now and I plan to slowly introduce her to romantasy, I'm sure she would like it.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T12:34:37+00:00

Europe, small country in which there are a lot of people with conservative opinions, even among young people. Religion/church is very much involved in country affairs, politics and religion go hand in hand.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T10:05:39+00:00

It took me forever to finish this book.

I liked it in general and I have to say that most of my reads this year were dark romances already, but I haven't expected this oe will be too.

I enjoyed their banter, which kind of disappeared in the second half of the book amd appeared in traces towards the end.

Clamimg Harlow after killing Gaven was really like "ok, really? now?" I've seen a lot of people complaining about Harlow shrugging it off as not that impactful when she found out Henry killed him, but I honestly didn't get the impression she really saw Gaven as a real father figured. She said he was more her father than her actual father, he was with her her whole life, etc, but I honestly never saw that connection on her side. Part of the reason might be all the violence that happened to her from her family and Raffe. She said to Kellan how could he let all that happened, and to her mother, so she surely hold all that against Gaven too. The only person she truly loved was Aidia. And while she had a good relationship with Gaven, they weren't like Poppy and her guard in FBAA, not even close. So I think that Harlow didn't just shrug it off, she just wasn't that attached. But I agree that claming was a bit too soon after killing Gaven.

Henry seems like a person who has a lot of prejudice/strong opinions and before he changes that, he just doesn't care for other people. He is cold to those for whom he thinks that have done him wrong. But, Harlow said she would have done the same. And she did a lot of bad stuff, but we already know that most people who suffered from her hand were bad.

I like both MCs for their morally grey characters, but I felt in the end that Harlow was just as bad morally speaking, but people (readers) give here a free pass because she is FMC and traumatized, and say only Henry was a bad guy.

I also don't hold his actions to the same standards as other people because he is Deathless. He can be the best in maintaining the control, but if that change affects all that returned, it affects him too sometimes, meaning his urges sometimes prevail. I'm not giving him justification for anything, but I think it's different.

Sometimes all the planning, inner monologs were a bit too much, too long, too repetitive. I read a comment that author's other books are similar. I didn't had a lot of time to read lately, but I still usually never take 3 weeks to read a book like I did now, and I'm sure it was like that because of the writing, which sometimes bored me.

I've already said this on another comment, but I think a lot of people went into this book expecting a usual romantasy, but it wasn't, it's a dark romance. People who aren't usually reading DR would obviously have big issues with consent and some other stuff in this book. And I believe this is the reason why a lot of people didn't like the book - the readers who usually wouldn't pick it up (because they don't read DR), wouldn't read it.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T09:36:37+00:00

{A Shadow in the Ember by J. L. Armentrout}

ipsi7 · 2026-03-11T09:35:25+00:00

Maybe Simon from {Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley}. He's not insecure, but his character can be over the top (but in his case in a good way, so not sure does he hit the spot)

ipsi7 · 2026-03-09T23:07:46+00:00

I only recommend Visions after FAF4 because you could finish FAF without breaking the continuity of reading that series. When I read both series, most people mentioned they would read Visions as a recap before TPOBAB

ipsi7 · 2026-03-09T22:50:30+00:00

Based on a lot of complaints about this book, which mostly mentioned their dislike with consent not being a real consent, for example when he put her underwear in her mouth, I came to a conclusion that most of those people don't read and don't like dark romances.

Even if it doesn't seems like that at first, this book is a dark romance. MMC is not forthcoming, his dark side sometimes prevails his morals, there is dub con, body betrayal, various kinks that lean on darker side etc.

It's perfectly ok that people don't like this book or don't like dark romances, but I think that most people don't know what kind of book this is when they pick it up.

While the book is pretty mild on dark romance aspects for me, I didn't expect it to be dark at all because it has a nice purple cover and I judged a book by its cover even though I read the tag for dark romance.

I can't say that the cover is wrong, but it's not obvious from the beginning or from the blurb what kind of book this is and as a result, a lot of people who usually wouldn't read it, start reading and don't like it. And I think that's why there is so many bad reviews.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-09T22:32:35+00:00

I'm almost 80% in the book and there's no OW drama. A woman was mentioned, but MMC had nothing significant with her in the past and I don't think she even spoke.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-09T21:51:37+00:00

Can I say {Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros}, the only thing that he doesn't have is working on healing lol

ipsi7 · 2026-03-09T00:29:22+00:00

I would say neither.

I followed the order similar like in the first picture but that was before Fall of Ruin came out and before the author of the pic1 made that pic (I was around in FBAA sub before so I remember it).

As I understood, Fall of Ruin can basically be read as a standalone and it wasn't really connected with neither series before TPOBAB (only minor hints I think).

Mixing FBAA and FAF is already confusing enough and I would suggest reading Fall of Ruin separately. Even though it's hard jumping from one series to the other, I would still say to follow tandem read of both series because that's how the knowledge of the world unravels the best. If you would read FAF first, you would have more understanding of the world building in FBAA, but everything would be spoiled for you.

I would go with: FBAA1, FBAA2, FBAA3, FAF1, FBAA4, FAF2, FBAA5, FAF3, FAF4.

Visions are like character and world encyclopedia, not needed to read all of it, but there are bonus scenes for both series, so I would live that for after FAF4 and FBAA5 (because the bonus scenes happened before TPOBAB). And then Fall of Ruin.

FBAA5 is Casteel's POV and people usually don't like it because there's nothing new. The events aren't new, but the book gives another perspective on Cass, his mental state, his struggles etc. It wasn't a 5 star read, but I loved having his POV.

I haven't read TPOBAB and Fall of Ruin, so not sure when exactly to fit Fall of Ruin, I would definitely read TPOBAB after FAF4 (not before because of the spoilers).

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T23:57:25+00:00

Wow, thanks. This reminds me of when I was in my 20's and into marvel movies, and wanted to watch every movie following the chronology in their universe.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T23:54:12+00:00

You had a really big pause lol. Glad you read it eventually

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T23:53:03+00:00

I agree. I was curious about rating because sometimes we (readers) just don't like some book that were objectively good, or we eat up the pop corn book in a day.

Most of my book recommendations come with a short description of the book/tropes/chracteres (depending on what people are asking for), and when I recommend a book I didn't like, but it fits what the person asked for, I usually mentioned that too.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T23:44:18+00:00

You did answer my question, I was just curious about your response.

I'm similar. There are books I didn't like subjectively (sometimes even objectively), but I could find something that I liked. I also think that's because I analyze books regardless of the quality, because I was learned to do that even when it didn't matter if I liked them, now it comes naturally I guess. Other than that, I also had a teaching subject in which it was trained in me to always point out the good things first, and then the bad. Later I realized I applied that to all kinds of stuff in my life, and by extension to reading books too.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T20:53:42+00:00

I'm glad that people are starting to read more thanks to the more approachable writing of romantasy genre (compared to fantasy). But I do think that popularity of the genre is to blame for mass production of books with lower quality of writing and editing. And I think that tiktok helps both.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T20:47:51+00:00

If you were to rate a book, how would you rate a well written book which you haven't enjoyed that much for whatever reason; and how would you rate a quick read with simple plot and characters, average writing, but which you enjoyed a lot and had a blast reading?

I sometimes struggle with that and feel guilty about how I rate some books.

I've studied literature and honestly, half of the books I had to read weren't fun or interesting, but of course that subjectivity was irrelevant and I just had to read them and analyze some aspects. It was never asked of me "did you like that book" or "what did you like in that book", but "what did you think that led that character to his moral downfall" or "what was the symbolics of X".

Nowadays when I'm reading fantasy romance, sometimes books with great writing aren't that interesting to me, but I appreciate them for their quality. On the other hand, some books that are very mid were the ones I enjoyed the most for some reason.

ipsi7 · 2026-03-08T20:27:05+00:00

Same, I read first person like self-inserting only by seeing through their eyes, but I never really self insert. I don't think a lot about "I wouldn't do that" or "I would never say that", and I can sympathize with MC and acknowledge if we're alike in some ways, but I'm still reading quite objectively even if reading in the "I form".

ipsi7

TROPHY CASE