#Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Murderbot Diaries series (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, and other stories) by Martha Wells

Endorsement from submitter: "Asexual and agender main character. In later books side characters are revealed to be in poly relationship."

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Science fiction, novella, series, adult

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[mothman-etd]

Made a Hunger Pangs community, who wants an invite? I haven't even asked Joy to join yet >,>

[raspbrrytea]

I finally got around to reading Hunger Pangs by @thebibliosphere and I couldn’t not make fanart!

[throuple-tournament]

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula created by @thebibliosphere.

Description provided by @powerpolyculeshowdown.

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula: For most of the book it's about two of the characters' romance (Vlad and Nathan) and Ursula meets them closer to the end. Their relationship, I think, is supposed to be continued in the next book. They all kiss each other and it's clear from the book that they like each other, and are all open to polyamory.

Description provided by @powerpolyculeshowdown.

Zagreus and Megaera are exes, while Zagreus and Thanatos have very obvious romantic feelings for each other. As part of the story, you can romance both of them at the same time, and it is made clear that neither of them minds it. There's also a scene implying Meg and Than had something in the past.

Description provided by @leverage-ot3.

leverage ot3 description: three good robinhood-esque criminals that fuck over corporations and give back to the people that were hurt by them. ultra competent. hardison is a geeky hacker, eliot is a grumpy hitter, and parker is the best thief in the world (also canon autistic). eliot ended the og series saying that he would protect the other two till his dying day (directly after their parent figures got engaged. marriage proposal who?)

[nerdvanauniverse]

@thebibliosphere I'm finally reading Hunger Pangs and I when I just read the line "the new streets and buildings imposing themselves onto the landscape with a rigid perpendicularity that spoke of an architect involved in a protracted love affair with their slide ruler", it was like reading a Pratchett book.

As in I read it, laughed at that image, read a few more sentences, then went, "wait. That was a PUN".

[fantasticwhovian]

@thebibliosphere I know life has been hard on you lately, and though I'm not much of an artist, I still wanted to do something to help cheer you up. I hope this makes your day a little brighter.

[hello-copter]

I've just finished reading Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites (Fluff and Fangs edition), and it was sososo good! Highly recommend

[queer-book-character-tournament]

*it’s the finals for tournament 2 but don’t forget the winner has to face the tournament 1 winner

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Nathaniel J. Northland- Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

Lady Ursula- Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

Wei Wuxian- Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

[onyxbird]

I decided to re-"read" @thebibliosphere's Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites via audiobook this time, but I can never just listen to something for long without something to do with my hands and I am also working on a Stardew Valley replay to try version 1.6, so I decided to see if SV on mute was low-enough story bandwidth to be compatible with an audiobook.

The good news: For me, mostly yes. Paused the audiobook occasionally when a cutscene or something required more story-focus than usual gameplay, but otherwise worked great and I finished the book and significantly advanced my game.

The bad news: I am now consumed by visions of Hunger Pangs/Stardew Valley crossover pixel art, to the point of actually looking into how to use modding tools to extract the stock sprites to use as a basis. 😔🤦 Send help.

"Ah, the new farmer werewolf we've all been expecting… and whose arrival has sparked many a conversation!"

(Note: I am aware that simple swapping out of sprites is reportedly a fairly entry-level mod, but my vision wouldn't work without substantial modification of the layout/setting, etc., and doesn't really fit actual gameplay. I just think it would be neat...)

[doyouknowthisdisabledcharacter]

Do You Know This Disabled Character?

Nathan J. Northland is Hard of Hearing and has a permanently injured arm.

Edit- from Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

[evienchantress]

Had a good friend turn me onto the Hunger Pangs novel and lemme tell y'all, dang is it SO good👏. Had to sketch out these three (a bit also based on the modern aus that @thebibliosphere's posted as well, I just love this trio!). Super excited for more content in Joy's wonderful world, def gonna do more beats of the drama that happens cause the boys are dramatic and that's my JAM👏

[godzilla-reads]

Guess who got their copy of Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by @thebibliosphere .

[thebibliosphere]

Apropos of nothing and certainly not the muffled screaming you can hear coming from my inbox, I love the psychic damage my fellow Scottish people take when they realize there's a Jimmy Krankie* reference in Hunger Pangs. It makes them so fucking angry.

Everyone else thinks Nathan and Riya are having a nice bit of banter at the dance, and anyone who went to see a pantomime at the King's Theatre in Glasgow circa the 1990s onward is being dealt immeasurable psychic damage. 😂

--- *Technically, The Krankies borrowed it from Francie and Josie, but unless you were weaned on that era of Scottish comedy like I was (my dad knew both Rikki and Jack through his uncle), you're probably too young to know who that is. Fuck, some of you are probably too young to know who The Krankies are, and God, I wish that was me.

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

reason: Tumblr's favorite bisexual disabled polycule

[throuple-tournament]

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula created by @thebibliosphere.

Description provided by @wanderingandfound.

Trevor: the born and bred monster slayer, whose noble family was all killed by a village mob when he was a child, and he is the lone survivor of that massacre. Alucard: the half-vampire son of Dracula who lived a very happy life until the church killed his human mom and his vampire dad went mad from grief. And Sypha: the magician from a travelling people known as Speakers who have a prophecy that basically says the three of them are to team up to kill Dracula.

Description provided by @powerpolyculeshowdown.

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula: For most of the book it's about two of the characters' romance (Vlad and Nathan) and Ursula meets them closer to the end. Their relationship, I think, is supposed to be continued in the next book. They all kiss each other and it's clear from the book that they like each other, and are all open to polyamory.

[joydemorra]

Do you ever start something as a joke and lose complete control over your life?

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more... [read the full blurb here]

What is Hunger Pangs?

Hunger Pangs, often shortened to “Phangs” by the self-proclaimed phangdom, is my debut romance novel, published in Nov 2020, featuring a deaf, disabled werewolf, a neurodivergent, mad scientist vampire, and an all-powerful enchantress who is the last of her kind.

It is the first book in a slow-burn, polyamorous gaslamp fantasy romance series focusing on the relationship(s) and antics of the three main characters, Nathan Northland, Vlad Blutstein, and Lady Ursula, as they work to save the world they love from imminent magical and ecological disaster.

The first book primarily focuses on the relationship between Nathan and Vlad, with Ursula heavily alluded to in the next book (Pride and Folly) via some shameless flirting and stolen, impulsive kisses.

No love triangles here. Just three highly competent, world-saving bisexuals sharing the same brain cell the closer they get to each other.

There are two editions of the novel. The Flirting with Fangs edition depicts on-page sexual acts, and the Fluff and Fangs edition which uses alternative scenes/fade-to-black scenes for those who prefer not to read depictions of sex. You can read more about why I decided to do this here.

How Did Phangs come to be?

Like most things on my blog, the original concept began as a joke. My friend and enabler, @jeneelestrange, and I were talking about our least favorite tropes in romance/erotica, including but not limited to toxic “alpha” werewolves, brooding stalker vampire boyfriends, and the absolute profound bullshit that is the Conflicted Love Triangle and Bury Your Gays.

Eventually, it culminated in this post:

(source)

It was meant to be a joke. I really cannot emphasize this enough. It was meant to be a shitpost between friends.

A throwaway ADHD impulse.

Tumblr, however, wanted more of these posts, and like a swarming mass of drift-compatible rats in a trench coat, grabbed hold of my lack of impulse control and Ratatouille'd me into becoming an international bestselling author, and, well, here we are.

I also started writing the series while dying, which I highly do not recommend as a functional creative process.

Absolutely do not start a 500k five-part novel series about love and hope while dying from an undiagnosed genetic disorder. Or if you do, make sure you actually die so you don't have to edit the damn thing. (I am mostly kidding.)

What are the themes/tropes/character dynamics of the book?

In the simplest of terms, Phangs is a queer-polyamorous-paranormal-satirical-romance series featuring vampires, werewolves, and all other manner of creatures that go bump in the night.

It is set in a pseudo-regency meets fake-Victorian Gaslamp Fantasy world, complete with gothic castles, enchanted forests, and just a smidge of industrial coal dust.

Style-wise, Phangs has been described by readers as "like reading the queer, goth love child of Terry Pratchett meets Jane Austen," and I've never been more proud of anything in my life.

If Game of Thrones ascribes to the idea that the night is dark and full of terrors, Phangs is the monster-fucker politely sidling up to them at the bar and asking if they can buy them a drink.

It is also primarily a love letter to fandom, which has led some people to believe it’s fanfiction with the serial labels filed off. But as the person who spent five years agonizing over the world-building, I can assure you this is all very much the product of my weird little ADHD brain picking up tropes, shaking them upside down, and running off with whatever fun and interesting things shake loose.

As already stated, the first book, True Love Bites, focuses primarily on the relationship between Captain Nathaniel J. Northland and Viscount Vlad Blutstein.

The first part of the book primarily focuses on Nathan coming home injured from war and trying to find his place in the world as newly deaf and disabled -- something which alienates him from his werewolf family, who don't know what to do with an injury that can't be mended by a full moon.

While working on the island of Eyrie, he encounters Viscount Blutstein -- Vlad-- a neurodivergent, mad scientist dandy vampire with an enthusiasm for demonic botany and a streak of unfailing kindness as broad and expansive as the sky.

It's not so much love at first sight for the pair as instantaneous lust hampered by the restrictions of polite 1880 society and old ingrained prejudices that make them think the other couldn't possibly be interested in them that way. They're just misreading all those heartfelt stares and sexually charged chess games.

(The love is requited, your honor, they're just idiots.)

Both characters are explicitly queer/mspec, as is Ursula, who drops into their world like a magical atom bomb going off, but not before she spends her own parts of the book desperately trying to figure out what manner of dark entity is killing the magical shrines around the world that keep the world alive.

Thematically, the series touches on many things, but the book’s overriding theme is love. Romantically, of course, and love between families, both found or otherwise. But also love as an act of courage. As a choice. An act of defiance in dark and troubling times, and what it means to be loved and belong even though you’re different.

Especially when you’re different.

And I really fucking hope you enjoy it.

To read the full synopsis and check out the heat ratings, buy links and content tags, go to www.joydemorra.com