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Night Triumphant and the Stars Eternal

🎨 art by odetooatmilk

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You know your daddy's hooooome 🧎‍♀️😍

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LET’S GOOOOO

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Kingdom of the Cursed mini-review … 4.75/5 ⭐️

Slow pacing, but this one focused on the actual Kingdom of the Wicked so it took its time showing the world, its occupants, and its various places of interest.

Then we got the budding romance between our main characters and even more twists to the plot. I honestly had no idea who was responsible for what for like 90% of the book.

Though I loved the introduction to the world and all the sweet scenes, I did feel the pacing was just a pinch too slow for my liking. Like damn. I mean I love a slow-burn romance as much as anyone else, but the overall plot was just slower than I would have liked. Just a tad.

ALSO ARE YOU JOKING WITH THAT ENDING?? IT CUT OFF THERE??? RUDE

(I may raise the rating later once I forgive that KNIFE cut of an ending)

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Mini review for Kingdom of the Wicked… 5/5 ⭐️

Yeah, babe, it’s a 5 from me.

Was Emilia annoyingly ignorant and rash? Yes. But her character is consumed by… *drumroll* … you got it? WRATH. So it makes sense her vengeance is her primary driving force and all her other cunning is mostly left at the front door.

And Wrath? This demon got me wrapped around his finger like hoooo boy. I may have taken that blood oath a little too quickly if offered from him. Oops. He is delectably devious.

I had a blast reading this and absolutely LOVE this world and its characters. I am so ready for book 2.

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Kingdom of the Wicked, in a few sentences:

Wrath: Absolutely do NOT do this if you value your lif—

Emilia: Fuck you, asshole! You can’t tell me what to do!

*a few moments later*

Emilia: OH SHIT—FUCK!!!

(I am enjoying the hell out of it though)

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Mini review for Starlight, Angels of Elysium #3… 3.5/5⭐️

Uhhh yeah not as good as the previous one.

The love story was great (I kind of like the whole reincarnated love thing so long as we start with the first pair) and the old characters were great too.

What bored me to tears was the main plot aka the whole secret agent/spies rescue mission they had going on. I almost DNF’d this a few times because I had zero interest in any of it. Uck. Spent way too much time on that.

But, like its predecessors, the lore/worldbuilding around Elysium is always cool. And super unique to most of what I have seen in this genre.

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Mini review for Celestial, Angels of Elysium #2… 4.25/5 ⭐️

Oh this was sooo much better than Feather. Sooo much better. The writing improved, the romance improved, everything improved.

As always, I love the world-building and lore from this universe and I love how easily it integrates in with modern society and technology.

I had a great time and will definitely be continuing.

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Mini Review for Ghost Walk … 4/5⭐️

Aww I liked this!

Was it corny? Yes. Was it cringey? At times, yes. Did I have to suspend my disbelief for most of it? Yes. But it was charming, sweet and so zany it was a blast. I could hardly put it down and that is when I know I am having a good time.

Also, I would clarify that this a romance first and then a paranormal fantasy book all in one.

There’s the MMC who is a ghost of a pirate/American man from the 18th century who had been accused of serial murders and was executed for it. The FMC (former crime scene investigator) is trying to help clear his name, after they both discover she is the only one who can see and hear him in modern times. Oh and she comes from a long line of fanatical spell-casters and has an uncanny knack for time travel. And she and her Jamie Fraser-inspired man candy get down to ghostly business to try to find the real murderer from 200 years ago.

It gets wild.

Some time travel shenanigans occur.

Some odd ghostly fornication may or may not occur.

Who knows? Maybe you should find out.

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Mini review for the Ballad of Never After… 4.5/5⭐️

Cute but messy.

This is definitely romance first and fantasy second. I feel like the first 66% of the book is half plot half side quest MESS and trying to navigate through the tide of what’s actual plot vs what isn’t could get tiresome. I feel like the story was trying so hard to be whimsical that it often backfired and made some very convoluted plot decisions that always had a “just wait and see” element to it. It felt chaotically sporadic and often frustrating at times.

And while I do not get the crazy hype around Jacks himself, EvaJacks did have their cute moments especially towards the end. Standard two idiots in love being two idiots in love. I personally think Evangeline deserves better but I love her character and will cheer for her chosen love regardless.

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one of my favorite this american life segments of late is about the people who played orchestra pit for phantom of the opera on broadway and how, like, a sizeable majority of them had literally been playing the show since it opened in 1988 (on broadway. I know it opened in 86 on the west end, you random pedants, but I am specifically talking about broadway musicians) because their contracts stipulated that they'd have jobs throughout the show's entire run... but nobody anticipated that phantom would become the longest-running broadway show of all time.

and none of these people wanted to walk away from a guaranteed job, so very few of them ever quit. they just kept doing the same show eight nights a week... for twenty or thirty years... and by the time it finally closed last year most of these musicians (who had been working together for DECADES) hated each other and really really fucking loathed phantom. I can't stop thinking about it. it's indescribably hellish to imagine but also the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

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Feyre: You have nice eyes

Rhys: Thanks, your kids can have them too

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There also needs to be a button for “this is the 5000th time I’ve read your fic because I’m having a horrible day and this is the only thing in the world that always brings me happiness.”

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I sent my husband to get more yams after realizing the ones we just got have mold all over them now. (And I’m working so I can’t leave)

So he has been sending me yam pics for the past 2 hours. 💀

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How it feels after blocking someone because this is my page and I can do what I want 😘

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if you're trying to get into the head of your story's antagonist, try writing an "Am I the Asshole" reddit post from their perspective, explaining their problems and their plans for solving them. Let the voice and logic come through.

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It truly saddens me to see people JUSTIFY Rhysand drugging and Sa'ing her, as a Nurse I see so many young women being drugged and assaulted come in everyday and every day I see people saying, well they just touched you nothing else, he just made you take off your clothes, you went to the party on your own, He was trying to protect you, he had to do it for your own good,

My god If something like that happened to your daughter would you ignore it? would you side with a person who did stuff like Rhys?

These people are really vile, god I never knew coming here wouldn't be safe space but people would attack people like that.

Idk why I got this ask since I feel like I've made my interpretation of what happened UTM clear, but no problem, we can address it again.

I feel like when people "justify" Rhys's actions UTM they aren't saying "He was well within his rights to do everything he did UTM" it's more "Yes he did things that aren't really good but they came from a place of saving Feyre from a much much worse fate, and if you hear Feyre's perspective of the events, especially later on in ACOMAF, you can see that she agrees with Rhys that he did what had to be done to keep everyone as safe as possible, and that the things Rhys did UTM did not in any way, shape, or form leave a lasting negative impression on her", which I feel is a little bit obvious if you bother to actually read the books, but I digress.

Also, Rhys wasn't doing all this for his personal enjoyment. He says later on that finding Feyre in Tamlin's manor and later having her UTM had him quite feeling extremely frayed because he wanted to get her away to keep her safe. It's not like he wanted a lap dance so he drugged a defenseless girl to exploit her. I would argue it was the opposite.

Like yes, obviously, drugging someone so they have no memories and have them dance all night is a horrible thing to do, but if the choice is between that and them getting tortured within an inch of their life by someone who has a track record of being extremely cruel and the power to do what they want and genuinely hate the person at risk, you might unfortunately have to go with the lesser evil.

For example, imagine that I am walking on a sidewalk and I randomly push the person in front of me into the road. Obviously that's not a good thing to do. But what if I pushed them on the road because there had been a handyman on the side of the building and he dropped his hammer right where the person was about to pass. Me pushing that person onto the road is still bad, but given that the alternative was a hammer falling on their head and potentially killing them, the situation is a bit more understandable.

Also, it is important to remember that Rhys has spent 50 years wearing the mask of a cruel asshole who give zero fucks about anyone and is in a position where he doesn't really have room to do anything since the safety of the entire NC depends on him being able to keep Amarantha believing he is exactly who he is pretending to be.

So yes, his actions can be seen as morally ambiguous, but really, what else was he supposed to do? Stand beside Amarantha and give her pointers on where to cut Feyre?