#F!nat pippin

[masked-alien-lesbian]

My god those thighs....

[zhoras-bitch]

They ARE giving a couple who are getting married 2 months into the relationship because they are soooo in love, when literally everyone around them sees how bad of and idea it is and is already betting on the divorce date.

The Duchess Affair expects me to believe that Nat wouldn’t get bored within his first few months of marriage to MC and go back to weaseling his way into the beds of the neglected and horny women of high society? Ok

[vivalgi]

☝I'm getting tired of PB using the same 2-3 blonde hairstyles for male MCs. It feels like we haven't gotten anything new in ages. Besides, that particular long blonde hair clearly wasn't made for that body type as it looks very misplaced.

Like... come on, PB! I know you're poor af right now but you have a huge f@©king back catalogue with 7 f@©king years worth of assets. Put it to good use and stop recycling the same couple hairstyles (and faces) ffs! Below are some examples I've put together:

(the last one is a recolored Nat Pippin's (TDA) hair to show there's more possibilities with a few quick tweaks)

[cadybear420]

And it's always the same dynamic of m/f couple every time. It's always "ohhh look at this big strong muscular man sweeping the beautiful woman off her feet and making her feel sexy".

It's so pandering to the straight female crowd and PB's stereotyped view of what they think straight women want. But it begs the question: do the straight female players actually like these covers? Do they like seeing the exact same shit every damn time? Cause as a formerly-straight-now-questioning-but-still-very-wlm-leaning woman, I sure as fuck don't. And I wouldn't be surprised if other wlm out there, even those who love these kinds of dynamics, are getting tired of this shit.

I've said this in another post and I'll say it again: if PB is primarily gonna make trashy sexy romance covers all the time now, at least vary it up a little. Make some that are mlm, or wlw, or role-reversed m/f (because you know PB hates role reversed couples too). Why not have the UT loading screen be male MC sitting in male Kit's lap kissing him? Why not have the TDA cover be female Nat Pippin embracing and caressing the MC? Why not have the ID cover be female Cas and Female Gabe embracing and protecting a male MC? Christ sake.

I really don't get the argument that that kind of representation "won't sell well". By this point, the game has a lot more variety in their playerbase than just allocishet women who like gender-conforming romance. Making a greater variety of covers in 2023 should, by logic, attract more players to the game. And if it puts off any players who are too sensitive to handle other kinds of representation on the covers, who the fuck cares? Not everything is about you, and nothing's being taken away from you anyways cause you still get to play as a wlm couple in every single book.

But instead PB insists on playing it safe, as they always do.

With PB’s adult romance book covers continuing to step further into the bodice ripper cover aesthetic, I think it’s worth questioning who it is that’s appearing on these kinds of covers and why that is.

Heterosexual couples. They’re all heterosexual couples.

The first inkling of this post came when the Alpha cover was leaked, showcasing a truly breathtaking unwillingness to do almost anything to distinguish itself from Choices’ other werewolf romance, Wolf Bride.

My first thought on seeing the Alpha cover was, why? Why would you use a practically identical composition as your other omegaverse book? Why wouldn’t you want to give this book its own identity? Does it have its own identity? Are the two books connected narratively? Because as far as we know, no, they’re not.

And then I truly thought about what an obvious missed opportunity this was. Why didn’t they make the obvious decision to distinguish this book by making it a gay cover? Alpha is confirmed to be a gender of choice book, and making it a gay cover would kind nod to the fact that a truly significant portion of the omegaverse sub-genre of fiction is dedicated to male x male pairings.

Later, I was thinking about how I’d really want to see one of these bodice ripper style covers with an m/m pairing, and I remembered that Choices only has a single gay cover with Foreign Affairs, and it is the picture of chaste. At that point it hit me—probably not for the first time—that none of these adult romance covers have been queer.

PB giving pittance to the mlm audience is honestly expected at this point, but it is genuinely weird that we haven’t gotten a lesbian cover in what, years? And that’s not even just for these adult romance covers. But if we’re talking adult covers; while only some of them have been GoC and so had the feasible option for a gay cover, all of them had the ability to play as a female MC, and all of them had a female love interest optional. They have had every opportunity to do at least one. Why have none of the bodice ripper style covers been queer?

How come the straight covers get to be this:

But the queer covers have only ever been this?

The obvious counter-argument to this is to say that the majority of Choices players are straight women and so they’re going to market their books with the straight female audience in mind.

And to that I say, I do not care. I truly, unequivocally do not care. Words cannot express how little I care about this argument, especially because there’s this, straight from PB via the Choices Insiders email in March this year:

So actually though, why no queer covers for their adult romance books? All I can say is that I do think it is in part influenced by the homophobic standard in media that queer desire isn’t marketable, and that image isn’t something they necessarily want to market themselves with. Not because PB themselves are homophobic, but perhaps because they don’t want the perception of a cover like that to potentially turn away their largely straight female audience. And that if true, to put it simply, is cowardice.

So, conclusions: With the growing number of Choices’ adult romance book covers using the bodice ripper aesthetic, the lack of any queer covers in this style—despite all opportunities to do so—leaves one with the impression that PB, intentionally or not; are both being informed by and feeding into the homophobic standard that queer desire is not something to be showcased or celebrated on the same level as heterosexual desire.

Basically, not only do PB need to start doing more queer covers; but they also need to start showing them being horny on their covers too.

It’s equality.

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Just some Georgian sapphic moments! ❤️ ⚢ ❤️

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Duchess Liraz (mc) x Natalie Pippin

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Well...you look like my next mistake 😍

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Lol, protect Francis at all costs! I'd encourage Mr. Bitmore's antics.

Thats my ride or die bestie right there!

[masked-alien-lesbian]

This all would have been very romantic and I would have been swooning if we already had sex before the fallout in the last chapter. But now it just feels like Nat is realizing, "hey, if I don't tell mc what she wants to hear, I'm not going to be able to get up under her skirts." It's very low stakes for Nat either way, tell mc you have feelings for her, remind her that your time with her is numbered and that you two should just enjoy what time you have left and leave with another notch on your bed post without any consequences 🙄. I hate to say this, and you won't hear this from me often but I think mc and the LI should have banged sooner.

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Oh god that face she made! It's almost as good as Annabelle Parsons puppy dog look!

[masked-alien-lesbian]

🥰🥰🥰

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Finally finished The Duchess Affair. I rate it a ehh/10

It started off a strong note, I liked the sapphic self discovery of mc and a f!Nat Pippin. The fact that not only is the affair forbidden because mc is married and the class differences that stand between them, they're both women, which makes it even more poignant. But then all the smut scenes kind of wore me down. It didn't feel like a true connection was built between the mc and the LI. It felt like the only thing keeping them interested in each other is the fact that it was forbidden.

I don't really mind smut, especially if it's written well, and it was written well in TDA, but the writers tend to have a hard time writing a smut book and balancing the smut with actual genuine connection between the characters. That balance can be hard to achieve with the usual 16 chapters. Which is why they tend to cut some of the smut out of the plot driven books so they can focus on plot, but since most smut books are 21 or so chapters, they really don't have an excuse. I know this complaint isn't new or original but I guess I want to reiterate that it's not the fact that it's a smut book that gets on my nerves, it's just that I feel most of pb writers are either not very good writers or are just lazy and only care about pleasing their readers that are really only here for the smut.

And then the whole fight between mc and Nat when mc was worried about saving her sister's reputation really irked me. When Nat saw how worried mc was she immediately proposition sex and then got mad when mc rejected her. Even choosing the more polite dialogue, Nat gets mad and storms off.

We get an apology but then immediately mc's husband discovers the affair and the duel takes place. The teary love confessions and heart wrending angst would have been much more powerful if there had been any connection or any substance to mc and Nat's relationship. Sure a lot of things Nat was saying was pretty and swoon worthy, but for the entire book Nat is so one dimensional with no real personality besides "her charming, mischievous smile" and her experienced worldly woman vibe, it made all the love confessions fall flat at the end.

I feel like if they had just took out the scene where mc and Nat watched the deer fucking and getting off riding on a horse and made the 2 scenes diamond scenes to just talk and connect, it would have made it a lot better. But then again watching animals mating isn't a kink of mine, so what do I know?