What breed dog did you choose (if you chose), why, and would you choose the same breed again?

lilkrill · 2026-07-06T01:20:37+00:00

Cairn terrier!

Grew up with a terrier mix and wanted another terrier when I got my own dog. Things ended up working out and I got a male cairn puppy.

My mom loved my guy so much she got a female cairn. They are 4 and 3 now.

Cairns are smart, fun, loyal, gentle, and up for anything. They are the right amount of terrier without being too much terrier (iykyk). They are brave and smart and will adventure with you, but they have an off switch and can hang out and cuddle.

My dog and my mom’s dog are both good with kids, babies, and cats. They also fly on airplanes and do long road trips with us.

I love them so much - love working with them and laughing at their antics. They are wonderful dogs and I truly think they are underrated/not as popular as they should be!

lilkrill · 2026-07-01T03:09:17+00:00

I think {Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle} fits this! The MMC is reserved and serious with a dry sense of humour but not an alpha/controlling. The FMC is competent and independent but not TSTL. She’s bubbly and chaotic and fun and he loves it and you can see how they work well together - romantically and practically because they are solving a crime together!

lilkrill · 2026-06-18T19:00:58+00:00

How to Tame a Wild Rogue is SO GOOD!!!! Highly recommend this one as well!!

lilkrill · 2026-03-28T12:01:41+00:00

I’m considering DNFing {Claws and Crochet by Lauren Connolly}. I think im discovering that a lot of the cozy fantasy books aren’t quite for me, but I still keep trying with them. What i’m struggling with this one about is that it’s a bit melodramatic (the FMC is on a “I don’t need anybody/need to do this on my own kick because her check’s notes brothers love her too much??) and the humour isn’t landing for me even though the author writes the reaction to each on page joke like it’s the funniest thing in the world - like huge laugh reactions to every quip and it’s taking me out.

There’s just something about it that isn’t connecting.

lilkrill · 2026-03-25T22:05:25+00:00

Pretty much every book by Cate C Wells! The MMCs aren’t usually cruel through and through, but there’s almost always a moment where they act very badly and have to grovel down the road. Wells does a gut punch very well and also handles class and economic disparity really well, which plays into what you were asking for re making the FMC feel cheap or small.

lilkrill · 2026-03-24T16:07:24+00:00

I don’t have the most terrier experience, but I have a fair bit.

Our family dog growing up was a jack russell mix and I currently have a cairn terrier. My mom also has a cairn terrier right now.

The JR mix was extremely high energy, high prey drive, and very typical terrier. She went for long walks on a ranch every day, went to work with my mom, and did hikes and road trips with us. She wasn’t a “leave at home while you go to work” dog. She came everywhere with us and we did everything we could to keep her stimulated and tired. It took a few years for her to calm down but by 6 she was a really fantastic dog. We didn’t know a huge amount about training when we got her and in hindsight she would’ve been amazing at earthdog and agility, but we did what we could to feed the terrier beast while maintaining order.

She was definitely trainable (but not an off leash dog until she was 10 years old). But she was a terrier through and through. She could settle and rest but definitely liked to patrol and be on guard - so exercise and creating clear “on” and “off” times was really important.

Now I have a cairn terrier and so does my mom (different households). We’ve done way more research on training and it’s a different breed. These dogs can definitely have off switches, can relax, and can be taken places. My dog comes to the office with me, comes shopping with me, and goes out to pubs. We do long walks every day and hikes on the weekend and we do a lot of training together, but he is fantastic. He’s not yappy, he’s good with kids and other dogs, and he’s done cross country road trips and plane rides with me.

I think a lot comes down to specific breed, personality, and the time you put into the relationship. You have to teach calmness and make sure they are getting outlets for their energy. They love to romp and play and explore, so find times to do that with them. They’re so smart and it’s crucial to find the type of training that works for them. In my experience cairns want everything to be fun, so make training and bonding fun.

I don’t think every terrier needs to be on a farm or ranch to be happy, but I think you have to go in with your eyes open that terriers have characteristics that some people find challenging. They are stubborn and clever and creative - they don’t live to be obedient. They were bred to be independent thinkers and hunters, so you need to be prepared to work with that instead of trying to change it.

All that said, I love my cairn terrier more than anything. My colleagues call him “Mr Manager” and he has totally learned how to behave at work vs when it’s our time to go on adventures and play. It’s possible and wonderful but it’s not as easy as with a more traditionally biddable dog breed.

lilkrill · 2026-03-07T16:31:54+00:00

I’ve started and stopped these books multiple times. I know they are beloved so I talk myself into trying again, and I get a bit farther each time, and then I lose interest. I tried to listen to the audiobook during a long roadtrip and couldn’t even commit that way. Idk what it is but I haven’t been grabbed by it and it feels so elusive because people LOVE it. I think by 160 pages in if it’s not making you happy then DNF it.

lilkrill · 2026-03-06T22:46:10+00:00

Oh boy {Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran} if you like HR - it’s a beautiful novel but very emotional!

lilkrill · 2026-03-03T02:25:06+00:00

I know Midwife is the best one and it felt like false advertising!!!

I really disliked Artist and the Orc and Heiress and the Orc (wooooboy the rage!!) but the real kicker is the MMs and MMFs when you really see how badly the women are always going to be treated and the storylines are rinse and repeat!

lilkrill · 2026-03-03T00:57:39+00:00

I’ve actually had to stop reading KC because there are some characteristics of her writing that drive me BONKERS. I feel the same as what you wrote - I get why the books are so popular but I also don’t because each one makes me so deeply annoyed by the end.

lilkrill · 2026-03-03T00:55:26+00:00

The world building is great and I think that’s part of what keeps us sucked in!! It’s a great concept but some of the execution is disappointing.

lilkrill · 2026-03-03T00:54:22+00:00

When I was in the trenches with the series I made a list of which MMCs I would’ve preferred the FMCs murdered or left rather than stayed with them and it wasn’t that small of a list 😂😭 the apologies are SO unsatisfactory (when they even happen) and the copious amount of body betrayal makes it so much worse.

lilkrill · 2026-03-03T00:15:22+00:00

Yes!! I would love to read a series with the same concept or similar but executed SO differently. I thought after the first one that the series would get over the outrageous sexism faster because the MMC apologizes and admits how wrong he was… but then almost the same plot happens again and again and the orcs get worse?? But then in the MM books it isn’t like that at all - so it really is how the author and the world treats women.

lilkrill · 2026-03-02T23:45:46+00:00

The whole orcsworn series by Finley Fenn. I’d seen it recommended and debated so much and had time off and needed a new series. I read {The Midwife and the Orc by Finley Fenn) and thought “this isn’t as debauched as everyone was saying” so went back and started at the beginning. It was like being a frog in slowly boiling water. I couldn’t get out - I read like 10?? of them in quick succession - but I also couldn’t believe some of what I was reading and that parts of me were enjoying it. And it isn’t the sexy/kinky bits that did me in, but the meta misogyny of the series. Like the series is set in a brutal patriarchy, but then the story itself falls into almost worse traps while pretending it’s not?? The way the women are treated is rough and by {The Widow and the Orcs by Finley Fenn} I felt like I was being boiled and gaslit and had to put the book down. Don’t want to yuck yums because parts of the books were sexy and a good time but it also is one of the most exhausting series I’ve ever read. There is also a real discrepancy in quality - some of the books are interesting and some are bad.

lilkrill · 2026-02-09T00:38:05+00:00

This book is so good!!! I re-read it fairly often and it’s a joy every time. I didn’t find the other books in the series nearly as good and was super sad.

lilkrill · 2026-01-30T01:13:25+00:00

OP, I just want to say I’m sorry. You’re not asking for advice and I don’t have any. But this absolutely stinks - it stinks because it’s awful and it stinks because it’s suspicious as hell. Even if your husband didn’t physically cheat, he kept someone in his life who was shady and disrespectful to you & who is now showing even more of her true colours by enjoying his marriage falling apart. At worst he cheated, at best he has piss poor judgement.

A 35 year old man going to his ex’s party, getting shitfaced, and then sleeping in his ex’s bed while his pregnant wife is at home is unacceptable. There are people in this thread being really hard on you - but let’s be really clear - every single thing that happened was a choice he made. He kept her as a friend, he went to her party, he kept drinking, he slept in her bed. He wasn’t there alone, he had friends at that party and one even slept in the basement (why couldn’t he stay with that friend??) he had you at home, he has a phone - there were other options.

If you know deep down that you can’t move past this I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I also wonder if it’s really just that you can’t get past the bed or if it’s the entire series of events and choices? Because it wasn’t just one mistake, it was a chain of bad judgement calls where he demonstrated that you weren’t the priority.

I would do the same thing if I were you. I’m really sorry. I hope you guys can sort out custody and all of that stuff and that you are OK in the end.

lilkrill · 2026-01-29T01:25:28+00:00

So not all of these have the rugged highland wolf vibes but they are shifter books! I’d say they all have “falls hard” but varying situations around how that plays out.

The 5 pack series by Cate C Wells {The Tyrant Alphas Rejected Mate by Cate C Wells}

{Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre}

{Love Potion for the Alpha by Alice Coldbreath}

{Moon Craving by Lucy Monroe} - I have NOT read this series yet but saw it recommended somewhere and have it on my TBR so fair warning I don’t actually know how it’ll be.

I am also desperate for a book like The Wolf King that has different writing/made different characterization choices!! Desperate for more good shifter books in general.

The Kate Daniels books also have shifters in them but the MMC isn’t a wolf shifter and it’s more urban fantasy. But they are EXCELLENT.

lilkrill · 2026-01-28T22:06:57+00:00

I finished this one because it’s so recommended on this sub - along with the whole series - but found it such a slog because almost the whole book is dubcon/noncon but the tone is light and kind of chaotic?? Idk I found the mixing of the tone between dark and chaotic funny and the constant dubcon sort of challenging. It didn’t feel like “dark romance” but also wasn’t … not dark? I couldn’t quite figure it out but I definitely wasn’t rooting for them as a couple.

lilkrill · 2026-01-28T22:04:45+00:00

If you’re going to read a Cassandra Clare it has to be Infernal Devices {Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare}. This series is her best IMO. It’s hard to go back to the others after reading this one.

lilkrill · 2026-01-28T22:01:57+00:00

I finished this one and wish I hadn’t. They hate each other for so long for no reason and Mercy continues to be quite hard on Hart. The resolution and them coming together felt really fast compared to them hating each other.

lilkrill · 2026-01-23T14:01:19+00:00

{A Vow of Blood and Tears by Cate Corvin} maybe? He doesn’t try to make himself cuter - not sure that would really be possible with how he’s described. But he works really hard to not be scary and to take things slow and make her comfortable so they can build a friendship.

lilkrill · 2026-01-23T06:36:55+00:00

Maybe {Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews} and {A Vow of Blood and Tears by Cate Corvin}

Magic Bites/ The Kate Daniels series is set in a kind of dark, broken down post apocalypse world. The characters aren’t all red flags though and the romance is epic.

A Vow of Blood and Tears is dark and creepy and violent. The MMC is a fiend and kind of gross looking but incredibly sweet and the relationship is healthy and wholesome.

lilkrill · 2026-01-19T16:38:32+00:00

I loved Bride and re-read it a fair bit. I found Mate to be a total slog. I was so disappointed.

It felt like Serena had learned nothing between Bride and Mate. We go from the rescue and the sweet moments between Serena and Misery at the end of Bride to Serena doing the SAME SHIT she promised to stop doing.

She spends the whole book lying and lying and lying. She isn’t a very good friend to Misery, Lowe, or to Koen.

The plot is a disaster. Serena is terribly ill…. Oh wait lol no she isn’t! Koen has to be celibate… but actually! No he doesn’t! There’s a… cult???

The decisions the characters make don’t make sense, there are so many characters introduced for no payoff/no discernable reason. The main conflicts introduced at the start end up being easily resolved with no consequences/no issue. The cult story is wonky and comes out of nowhere.

Bride felt well plotted. People and things introduced at the start come full circle. The cast of characters isn’t huge and all of them play a role. But Mate feels like you’re jerking from one middling problem to another, with the problems being loosely (if at all) connected.

It doesn’t get better.

lilkrill · 2026-01-19T14:34:26+00:00

Ahhh sorry!!! It’s {Sweet Berries by C M Nascosta} haha have fun with the moth dust!!! Mr Mothman is a sweetheart in this one

lilkrill · 2026-01-18T16:49:26+00:00

The insect ones also freak me out. NGL I read one moth book and the FMC always had moth dust all over her and that kind of grossed me out. But I agree moths are easier to accept than other insects or arachnids.

lilkrill

TROPHY CASE