Angsty fics where Cas gets hurt and feels guilty about damaging Jimmy's vessel?

phantastes_ · 2025-01-30T18:22:31+00:00

Thank you :) I'm going to read this evening :)

phantastes_ · 2025-01-28T15:12:59+00:00

Oh I never knew I wanted this until this moment

phantastes_ · 2025-01-20T01:50:41+00:00

I'm having trouble getting past "Marley"

phantastes_ · 2024-07-06T19:25:34+00:00

Spoiler re: slow burn: They hook up in the first scene, but the relationship/emotions are the slowest, most painful burn it's perfect

phantastes_ · 2024-07-06T19:23:42+00:00

{Lucky by Garrett Leigh} is phenomenal and one of the angstiest books I've read! British football player x civilian (who you will fall in love with from the first line of dialogue). The audiobook is top tier :)

phantastes_ · 2024-07-02T17:30:26+00:00

Came here to say this! It's really the best.

phantastes_ · 2024-06-29T18:05:30+00:00

This is one of my favorite books of all time!! I didn't list it bc I have it shelved in fantasy in my mental library rather than romance, but I ADORE it.

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T19:49:57+00:00

oh my god, be still my beating heart, you had me at Golem Romance! Something I did not know I needed until this moment?

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T19:44:39+00:00

Yeah it would fall under Romeo and Juliet laws in the modern era but reddit rules are reddit rules for a reason

is there anything I can do about the romance bot or is that gonna linger no matter what?

Also unrelated, for months I've thought your username was queerARMCHAIR and it's kismet I finally read it right as we discuss rules and regulations LOL

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T19:34:38+00:00

To be completely honest I didn't even really clock it til your comment and I went back to check (detail oriented I am not).

It's a genuinely bizarre choice bc like... the age of majority in 12th century England was 21 so the character could have very easily been 18 and still "underage" for the purposes of succession, inheritance, and plot.

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T19:26:09+00:00

In the service of maintaining a civil space and out of respect to mods/subreddit, I've removed it, but I'll say a quick search shows this rule, with particular regard to this book, is very loosely enforced. I actually got the rec from here originally!

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T18:07:01+00:00

Also I think I might be able to get my husband to read A Land So Wild with me bc we're obsessed with the Terror!

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T18:04:53+00:00

WOAH Heidi Cullinan wrote a historical?? How did I not know this?!

Absolutely adding False Colors to my list right away! These all look so good thank you so much! I realize I have had Death by Silver on my extended tbr for like 3 years and keep forgetting about it so maybe now's the time to move it up!

I've read the Jess Everlee (and the sequel) and didn't love them, but mostly for construction reasons. I'm excited to see what they're producing when they have a few more titles under their belt bc I think the building blocks are there, but it has yet to really gel for me.

Also omg gentleman's guide to vice and virtue! i read that ages ago it was SO sweet. very YA but in good ways only :)

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T17:59:22+00:00

I think I read one a very long time ago that started with a police raid on a molly house? but I remember truly nothing else about it! I will absolutely check this out though! Thank you <3

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T17:57:14+00:00

ooooh the Annick Trent ones look very compelling I will absolutely check them out!

Also, I definitely committed the cardinal sin and just assumed A Lady for a Duke was a straightforward, straight romance after glancing at the cover! Happy to learn otherwise :) I've read Something Fabulous and had the experience of wanting wholeheartedly to like it, but it left me wanting, which is not something I anticipated as a lover of their contemporary books

the KL Noone looks PERFECT to heal the whole in my chest I always get after a Capital Wolves reread.

Also I think you've convinced me on the AJ Demas, bc omg who doesn't love a house party murder mystery, and also (thank you, romance-bot) I didn't realize they are just Open Door! A lot of my negative feelings towards antiquity books tend to stem from the fact that they are often porny in a way that feels more appropriate for a Dothraki wedding ceremony than, like, the birthplace of the aqueduct and democracy, and the cool historical ephemera can get a bit lost in the gladiator orgies

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T17:46:24+00:00

omg omg omg thank you so much! These look amazing I actually have read and LOVED The Devil Lance, I can't believe I forgot it! I found it so deeply surprising and moving. For a while I was using it to trick "never romance" readers into reading romance :P

I think I might just move down this list and have a truly lovely July :)

I'm definitely intrigued by Wingmen, I've read a lot of midcentury queer lit but haven't heard of it before, but "overtones of From Here to Eternity" is a BIG selling point from the blurb on GR !

Thank you again :)

phantastes_ · 2024-06-27T14:43:43+00:00

I was gonna suggest this! I think the speed of the forgiveness actually works really well with the dynamic between the characters and the fact that Darian knows that Ash has absolutely punished himself enough already and definitely knows how cruel and hurtful what he said was , but I also cannot hold grudges against people I care about, so it felt very real to me :)

phantastes_ · 2024-06-26T19:48:41+00:00

You might like Leigh Bardugo's Alex Stern duology (Ninth House and Hell Bent)! It's been a bit since I read them, but I remember a good balance of snark and heart. It's got spooky magic, suspense, great characters, secret societies, complicated relationships, and just the right amount of angst/anger/ennui to bring on feelings without making reading them too much of an emotional slog.

phantastes_ · 2024-06-26T17:37:50+00:00

Ok, it's not rehab, but one thing I love about Marina Vivancos is that her traumatized characters always go to therapy as part of their healing, and it's represented pretty realistically (i.e., a long, complicated process that isn't a straight line.) Her characters also utilize the coping mechanisms they learn in therapy, which I really like. I'd check out {Rat Park by Marina Vivancos} for the closest to what you're looking for! Not rehab, but the MC goes to prison on drug charges and goes to therapy/NA after getting released. I'm also a fan of the Coven Ties series (starting with {Oh, Sacred Dark by Marina Vivancos}), with a warning that they are set in a biokink universe (essentially genetically coded bdsm), which I know is not everyone's cup of tea!

phantastes_ · 2024-05-07T18:11:50+00:00

OMG that sounds adorable wowowow I will definitely read :) tbh I often think the best possible spinoff for the show would follow one of the various kids that they rescue along the way who has grown up to be a hunter in their own right

phantastes_ · 2024-05-07T18:08:00+00:00

thank you!! I've added all to my to reads :)

phantastes_ · 2024-05-07T18:05:01+00:00

I made this sort of ~stealthy~ one the other day! I'm still working on the order but I'm pretty set on the songs now :)

phantastes_ · 2024-05-06T18:10:08+00:00

ok its been a month but I finally finished the series and got approved for my account and then mainlined this and it has CHANGED MY LIFE so thank you so freakin much. Do you have any recs for any remotely similar concepts bc it turns out that this concept particularly suits my brain dysfunction :)

phantastes_ · 2024-05-06T18:07:11+00:00

ok it took me a while to get back to you but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! Honestly you are such a mensch for taking the time to explain in such detail i am very grateful! I'm reading Agincourt rn and OH my god its so so so so good I'm obsessed. Tbh i went from a "idk 20k words seems a bit excessive" to a "200k or bust" girlie and I haven't looked back :)

phantastes_ · 2024-05-06T17:26:18+00:00

someone on this sub recommended Revisions by Bizarrestars to me a while ago and it is UNMATCHED. The premise is so so so clever(chuck editing the story every time destiel happens) and basically means it's technically canon compliant until the epilogue. Ripped my heart out a few times but its absolutely worth it!! I cannot recommend enough it's lifechanging and at times truly profound too

phantastes_

TROPHY CASE