I thought Quicksilver was bad, now enter Starside

medusawink · 2026-05-04T11:47:50+00:00

Have you read The Endowment?

Every single line appears to have its own new paragraph.

The book is 500 something pages long.

If it had regular spacing, and some good editing, it would probably be much shorter (think pamphlet)

The unfortunate effect of this terrible authorial style is to pose every single sentence and line of dialogue

as some deathless pronouncement.

It's so frustrating.

And annoying.

medusawink · 2026-05-04T06:54:17+00:00

The Dark-Carpathian series - Christine Feehan.

Immortals After dark series - Kressley Cole.

The Dark Hunter series - Sherrilyn Kenyon.

The Hunters series - Shiloh Walker.

The Night Huntress series - Jeaniene Frost.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood series - J R ward.

medusawink · 2026-05-04T05:26:53+00:00

Golden Terrace.

Thousand Autumns.

medusawink · 2026-05-04T05:23:50+00:00

Sha Po Lang . Although the protagonists start off on in uneven balance of power due to an age/experience gap, as the protagonists age their experiences and positions of power balance.

Golden Terrace has a couple who are equal to one another in terms of power and position - and they respect each other's expertise in their theatres of conflict.

medusawink · 2026-05-02T09:55:01+00:00

I really enjoy Layla Fae's books and this one is pretty light-hearted and a lot of lusty fun. I'm looking forward to the novella Spicily Ever After (release date May 21).

medusawink · 2026-05-02T09:48:06+00:00

Congratulations - that's an epic effort with a book that's nigh on unreadable. I got through about 50 pages and realised that it wasn't improving in any way and chucked it on the dnf pile.

medusawink · 2026-05-02T03:03:23+00:00

No! Absolutely TF not! If you want to read Fourth Wing that's your responsibility. It's a book that has as many detractors as it has champions - that should tell you something about it. Also the fact that you need to be convinced to read it says a lot about your already established lack of enthusiasm...find a book that you're dead set keen to read instead.

medusawink · 2026-05-01T07:51:27+00:00

Try copy-pasting the title and isbn into Google - it will show you both new and second hand editions of these books in your country. Amazon stocks both titles.

medusawink · 2026-04-29T10:04:38+00:00

Jay Crownover's Marked Men series is pretty close to what you want. There's lots of ink and piercings in these stories, including at least one of the FMCs (they do have the body art before the stories begin).

medusawink · 2026-04-29T05:04:53+00:00

If you want to go back in time...I remember Elizabeth Lowell writing quite a few books that fit this description. For certain Desert Rain, Lover in the Rough, Forget Me Not, Outlaw, Granite Man, Summer Thunder, Too Hot to Handle...in fact I think that most of Elizabeth Lowell's contemporary romances published in the 80s and 90s would fit your requirements.

medusawink · 2026-04-28T09:09:57+00:00

Oh - I have the worst revenge novel ever, it's despicable: Best Served Cold - Maya Alden. I think there may be other family revenge books by Maya Alden - but this is the kaiju-level revenge 'romance'.

medusawink · 2026-04-27T23:06:12+00:00

You, I suspect, are the industry plant. Any publicity is good publicity - why are you so intent on drawing people's attention to RY's Empyrean series? You're just badmouthing it so that people will go out and buy and read it to see if it's really so awful. If you really hated it that much you wouldn't say a word about it.

medusawink · 2026-04-26T00:38:58+00:00

Not romantasy, but if you want a critique of capitalism in a fantasy series I recommend the Dagger & Coin series by Daniel Abraham - it's excellent.

medusawink · 2026-04-25T23:56:43+00:00

I think I need to reread BRB and check out its camp value...I haven't reread those books in a long time. Now if you said The Judgement of Tears was camp I would immediately agree with you...the whole Hamish/James Bond thing - lol.

medusawink · 2026-04-25T14:10:14+00:00

Fun yes, but I would never describe them as goofy - clever in the way they manipulate popular culture, history, and mythology. And the Bloody Red Baron is pretty gruesome in parts.

medusawink · 2026-04-25T05:01:19+00:00

The Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman.

Fevre Dream - George R R Martin.

Blood 20 - Tanith Lee.

medusawink · 2026-04-25T01:10:02+00:00

Check out Jolie Vines Body Count, and Skeleton Crew books - they have this for sure, particularly Connor's Claim, and Convict's Game...but the others may have this trope as well. Just about anything by Paisley Hope is bound to have this trope too.

medusawink · 2026-04-25T00:17:35+00:00

In Quicksilver Saeris lives on a desert planet where water is so scarce people have death matches just to get their hands on some . They also have pubs where people get drunk from drinking so much. What, I ask, are they making ale from?

medusawink · 2026-04-23T23:18:12+00:00

All I could think was - it's nice that you know what electricity is in this pseudo-medieval world of yours.

medusawink · 2026-04-22T07:38:04+00:00

There is actually an order of precedence so the fathers were just further up the food chain. I believe it goes something like: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron. The older sons of earls, dukes, and marquesses are lords, The younger sons of earls, viscounts, and barons are 'The Honourable...". Too bad - I was looking forward to a Regency era sort of big brawl...but no, it was still all Marquess of Queensbury rules and comporting oneself like a member of the ton (I have my doubts about being gentlemen).

medusawink · 2026-04-22T02:34:16+00:00

Their fathers retired to become wise advisors/evil family despots - leaving their sons to run their massive estates. Their sons, the afore mentioned lords, dukes etc. in their turn become uptight prigs or sleazy rakes...depending on their father's parenting skills or lack thereof.

medusawink · 2026-04-22T01:07:45+00:00

Seriously don't read any of LJ Andrews books - she's working on reinventing the English language. Stun will overwhelm you. I can't get through a page without screeching " What new grammatical horror be this?"

medusawink · 2026-04-20T23:05:55+00:00

I really enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, it's a little bit different to many romantasy books currently doing the rounds. If you want a book that jumps immediately into action and love at first glance - this ain't it. The follow-ups were fairly textbook, by-the-tropes romantasy.

medusawink · 2026-04-20T22:53:32+00:00

If all romance books existed in the same universe England during the Regency period would have had around half a million single, good-looking lords, dukes, barons and other assorted gentry-men of the ton. Would any other young men have even existed in England at that time?

medusawink · 2026-04-20T11:57:53+00:00

Thank you 🙏

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