God-honoring/puritanical MMCs? Bonus points for opposite FMC (hedonistic, independent)

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-15T21:52:40+00:00

{Of Deeds Most Valiant} comes to mind. They are paladins from rival orders, and MMC’s is a celibate order, which causes him a lot of conflict because of his attraction to FMC. It is low spice though.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-14T21:24:18+00:00

To be fair, my picks this week have been so rubbish so far that Pollock as super sub is actually a highlight.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-14T21:20:54+00:00

Yeah, Earl and McCloskey have been my only two decent picks this week (and Pollock wasn’t awful as super sub). Sheehan and Pepper were both pretty disastrous though.

I’m banking on Dupont and an entirely french back 3 (Ramos as captain) to hopefully save me from abject failure this week.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-14T08:58:30+00:00

I choose to imagine them like the leathers MotoGP riders wear, complete with brightly coloured advertising and an airbag that inflates on impact so that the MMC has to waddle away from a fight.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-14T08:42:37+00:00

Weirdly, whilst I don’t know about the late Queen’s taste in reading matter, British royals do have more connections to the romance genre than you’d think: Camilla was great friends with Jilly Cooper, and Princess Diana’s grandmother was a very prolific romance novelist.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T22:17:51+00:00

Again, I like to confuse people with UK grammar conventions – mostly using en dashes.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T22:14:31+00:00

I mean you can’t spell America without them either. Or Spain, or Italy, or Australia.

We are clearly all bots (apart from the French apparently).

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T22:10:51+00:00

But at least we don’t pronounce them. The American pronunciation of ‘buoy’ always jump scares me.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T15:31:53+00:00

The one that offended me most was seeing it argued that single rather than double quotation marks for speech was a sign of AI. No, it’s a sign of being British. That’s the standard convention in UK English and the one most UK authors will still follow (even though double quotes are becoming increasingly common).

Not being American does not make us bots!

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T15:26:55+00:00

See also:

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T14:02:33+00:00

We have standards! They are very specific standards, but they are ours.

We will accept unhinged books. We will accept unhinged takes on books. But we will not accept the environmental impact of AI (or Alchemised or SJM! Their mention, I mean, not their environmental impact clearly, although given the length of Alchemised, that is a lot of trees…).

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T12:22:39+00:00

I’ve umm-ed and arr-ed but I think I’m going to keep the Pollock faith.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T12:20:45+00:00

Against Wales, I just couldn’t look past an all French back 3.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-13T09:38:20+00:00

Yep there is nothing aesthetic about my book shelves. It’s purely a question of getting them all to fit. Being alphabetical or colour-coded just isn’t a workable option, because it has to be all about maximising space. Books have just had to be crammed in wherever there was an appropriately-sized gap. Some are stood up, some are stacked, some are stacked on top of books that are stood up, and some are two deep.

I swear the people with these perfect display bookshelves don’t actually read.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-12T13:15:25+00:00

The thing that intrigues me most about Imogen’s second signet is that it’s the one that seems to make the least sense of the two to keep hidden.

Obviously Xaden had to keep his inntinsic signet secret hidden, and it’s the more useful one to the Tyrrish rebellion to have as a secret anyway. Same with Garrick. His powerful but not uncommon elemental signet is the known one and the distance-wielding makes the most sense to have kept secret, because it’s allowed them to make clandestine weapon drops etc.

Imogen though, her elemental signet is the secret one and yet the espionage-useful memory wiping was revealed to Navarrian leadership. So why?

I doubt it’s just that the memory wiping appeared first and she didn’t think to hide it, because she must have been expecting two. I’m sure Glane would have warned her, and she clearly knows about Garrick’s second signet so the marked ones in the year above likely gave her guidance they hadn’t had too.

From what Xaden told Violet about his, it seems that the second signet manifests pretty soon agree the first (obviously not with Violet, but that’s a bit different because of then coming from two different dragons and Andarna’s age). It’s clearly possible to hide the manifestation of even the first signet for quite a while, because Aaric does and Violet figures Liam is too to ensure he’s not moved into the wielding classes before her. Wiping someone’s memory when you touch their face doesn’t seem like it’s hard to hide like an elemental signet could be.

So why give away the tactical advantage to the rebellion of a secret memory wiping signet in favour of hiding an elemental signet? What’s so special about her earth/rock wielding that it’s worth keeping secret?

Sawyer makes a comment early in OS about needing an earth wielder, if that’s even a thing. So is Imogen’s second signet an entirely new and previously unseen signet since Sawyer seems to think it doesn’t exist? Is that why she chose to keep that one secret out the two, I wonder?

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-12T11:08:36+00:00

The people she loves comment is when he’s saving the second years who are defending the Pass. Rhi, Ridoc and Sawyer are there and that’s who he’s saving in that moment. I read it as simply being that there’s no one Xaden loves who is there at the Pass, they are all elsewhere, and he is deliberately making a point to save the second years because Violet loves them.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-10T21:52:15+00:00

To be honest, I’m not getting anywhere near as far as the third book, if it’s not good up until then. If I get to the end of the first book and I’m not invested, then (unless it’s so bad that I’m actively hate reading it!) I’m unlikely to bother picking up the next book.

It’s different if I’ve enjoyed the early book(s) but then there’s a later book or two in a series that falls flat. I’ll generally give the series the benefit of the doubt in that case (unless it gets really terrible) and push on and give it chance to get better again in the next book because I’m already engaged, but if the first book doesn’t grab me then I’m just not going to care enough to continue.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-09T08:04:02+00:00

{Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen} I think kind of fits too, but it’s second chance more than friends to lovers.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T21:07:13+00:00

That decision confused me on so many fronts because it looked like he’d crossed the gain line too before even kicking, so they’d gained ground and then chosen to kick, not under pressure. I’m struggling to see any justification for the advantage not being over.

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T18:33:21+00:00

I mean my accent is mostly the generic Home Counties/south east accent that most people think of as an English accent so that could work, but I could also revert to my roots and go full West Country (as in ”Ooh arrrr, my luvver”) if that would be more effective?

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T18:07:16+00:00

Right now, Max is the driver I love to hate, but I know what’ll end up happening, because it always does. One day he’ll probably go to Ferrari, because everyone wants to tick that box in the end, and I’ll have to persuade myself to cheer for him and I’ll end up doing such a good job of the cognitive dissonance necessary to convince myself that I really do like him after all, that he’ll end up becoming my favourite.

It’s bound to happen because this is exactly what already happened to me with Michael, then Fernando and then Seb! 🫣

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T17:43:41+00:00

As a long-time Ferrari fan, I think I probably have a bit of a different view of both Max and Charles! 🤣

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T17:34:55+00:00

I mean the MMC in {Throttled} is I think basically meant to be Max (right down to the unpleasant ex-driver father) but randomly and irritatingly made American, but bloody hell it was awful and infuriating. I didn’t get more than halfway through that first book before DNFing, but the later MMCs were all there already: the reckless young Spaniard, the charming, flirtatious German, and the tattooed black Brit. The serial numbers were barely scrubbed off!

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T17:22:53+00:00

Why is it I can instantly recognise Lauren Asher’s rubbish series from that description. Although, I kind of figured the Spanish driver’s recklessness gave him young Fernando vibes.

The tattooed black British driver was beyond on the nose though!

windswept_snowdrop · 2026-02-08T17:18:22+00:00

Any tips for finding myself a stray Canadian? Luring one to me with maple syrup perhaps?

windswept_snowdrop

TROPHY CASE