#amber clement

[lakecountylibrary]

Debut Book Rec: Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement

Fortune's Kiss is a young adult debut novel by Northwest Indiana author Amber Clement. The captivating story, heavy in Mexican influences, unapologetically leaves readers holding their breath at every deadly twist and turn.

Publisher's summary:

Are you willing to risk everything for a chance to be kissed by fortune? Drink and let your soul be measured. The legendary Fortune’s Kiss has returned to Ciudad Milagro for the first time in ten years. The magical gambling house shows up twice a year in a new city during the solstices to lure those worthy enough to wager their souls for wealth, the realization of their greatest desires, and even immortality. Known by many names throughout the years, it returns to Milagro as El Beso de la Fortuna . . . and the game is Lotería. And best friends Mayté Robles and Lorena (Lo) de León are determined to change their lives, escape the dangerous men who threaten them, and gain riches. Mayté, the sole daughter of the disgraced Robles family, wishes to leave her family and become a successful painter, while Lo suffers at the hands of her powerful and abusive father and seeks to find her mother, who escaped to Fortune’s Kiss years ago but never returned. When Fortune’s Kiss finally returns to their city, the pair follow on their childhood blood pact to enter the gaming salon. But once inside, Mayté and Lo quickly realize that beneath the marvelous glamour, the salon is hiding dangerous secrets and the house always wins. And the game of Lotería is not the children’s game they grew up playing—it is a deadly lottery of chance.

As of this post Fortune's Kiss not officially out yet - but we already have a couple copies on order, so you can place your hold here and be first in line when it hits our shelves.

See more of Rachel's recs

Editor's note: The publishers kindly provided the library an ARC of this one - it'll hit shelves November 12. This recommendation is made based on the merits of the book and not on any relationship with the author or publisher. The library's decision to purchase Fortune's Kiss has been made by a separate department in accordance with our collection development policy and has not been influenced by individual staff preference.

[metaforadohomeminvisivel]

[jmunneytumbler]

How Dreamworthy is 'Dream Scenario'?

How Dreamworthy is 'Dream Scenario'?

What a dreamboat! (CREDIT: Jan Thijs/A24) Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Lily Bird, Jessica Clement, David Klein, Cara Volchoff, Noah Centineo, Nicholas Braun, Amber Midthunder, Lily Gao Director: Kristoffer Borgli Running Time: 100 Minutes Rating: R for Dream Slaughter and Awkward Encounters Release Date: November…

[mitsuhotecoolwithit]

“This is a conversation about time.” “A delusion starts like any other idea.” A human or a butterfly?! In all probability, she's flirting with me. 🤔🤨💯

“What about the culture, the heritage?!”

Refusal across the board. That's three times you refused.

... song because to be really honest, we were sick of it.

“Prove it.” 😅🤣😂😉🥰😍😘😎💯

What’s the last thing you remember? I remember trees, and … dancing?

[genevieveetguy]

. Have you been dreaming about me?

Dream Scenario, Kristoffer Borgli (2023)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💖 Sapphic Books Coming Out October 2024

🩷 Good afternoon, bookish bats. By now, you know that sweet, sapphic romance books have a special place in my heart. Here are only a few of the amazing sapphic books hitting shelves in October 2024.

💖 Which ones are you adding to your TBR?

Contemporary 💖 Stand Up! - Tori Sharp 💖 I'll Be Gone for Christmas - Georgia K. Boone 💖 Haunt Your Heart Out - Amber Roberts 💖 Most Wonderful - Georgia Clark 💖 Make the Season Bright - Ashley Herring Blake 💖 Make My Wish Come True - Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick 💖 How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? - Anna Montague 💖 Turning Twelve - Kathryn Ormsbee & Molly Brooks 💖 Sweet Home Alabarden Park - T.J. O'Shea 💖 Lucy, Uncensored - Mel Hammond & Teghan Hammond 💖 New Horizons - Shia Woods 💖 Writ of Love - Cassidy Crane 💖 What It Meant to Survive - Mala Kumar

Fantasy 💖 Metal from Heave - August Clarke 💖 Whispers Most Foul - Emma MacDonald 💖 Fang Fiction - Kate Stayman-London 💖 House of Frank - Kay Synclaire 💖 The Ghostwing's Lie - Rebecca Mix 💖 This Dark Paradise - Erin Luken 💖 Chai Jinxed - Emi Pinto 💖 The Bloodless Princes - Charlotte Bond 💖 Skysong - C.A. Wright 💖 The Forbidden Book - Sacha Lamb 💖 Until We Shatter - Kate Dylan 💖 Witchwood - Kalyn Josephson

Paranormal/Horror 💖 Haunting Melody - Chloe Spencer 💖 All the Hearts You Eat - Hailey Piper 💖 The Bloodred Moon - H. Noah 💖 Strange Beasts - Susan J. Morris 💖 Feast While You Can - Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta

Historical 💖 Women's Hotel - Daniel M. Lavery 💖 I Shall Never Fall in Love - Hari Conner 💖 Outlaw Hearts - Lori G. Matthews

Mystery/Thriller 💖 Staying the Course - Rebecca K Jones 💖 Long Time Gone - Hannah Martian 💖 Johnny-Boy - A. F. Carter 💖 This Ends Now - T.M. Payne

Sci-Fi 💖 On Vicious Worlds - Bethany Jacobs 💖 Sargassa - Sophie Burnham 💖 Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots

[junemermaid]

[several sentences sunday; NiF fic snippet]

*bangs pots and pans* hello new fandom I am working on fic, is anyone still around in here

anyway! please have an excerpt feat. Nihuang and Jingyan having The Worst Day of Their Lives, because I sure know where to start with fic! (in my defense, has anyone in history come through that ending and immediately not started thinking how to make it better/worse/different).

this is tentatively titled flowers in dreamland weather and will eventually involve an ot3 of the obvious suspects.

Nihuang's clothes had acquired a layer of grime by the time she reached the top level of the old watchtower. There, framed in a narrow window by the amber light of dusk, was Jingyan. He still wore a plain gold hair clasp and a pair of tooled leather bracers over his sleeves. Dust spattered his robes, as if he'd got off his horse and been whisked straight into Wuying Hall. His face was set with grief that nearly made Nihuang avert her gaze. She knew mourning: her grandfather, slipped away in the clement hours of the night. A tiny, delicate sister, cradled in her father's palms as her mother wailed at her loss. The men in her father's troops, taken by spear or arrow or sickness on the march. She'd never known sorrow of the kind that seized her when her mother read aloud the letter of summons. The traitor Lin Xie and his household. The rest was a dark haze she'd been swimming in for days. Jingyan radiated that same gutting agony like a brazier piled too high. If she touched him, he would scorch her. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to flee. She'd intruded upon something beyond private, a pain that clove to the soul. He is gone he is gone he is gone. It could still swash over her without warning, in a giant wrecking rush. Nihuang dipped into a salute, as if they'd chanced upon each other in court instead of this childhood haunt. Courtesy settled untidily over her indecision. "Your Highness. Forgive the intrusion." "Don't," Jingyan stammered. "Please don't." She withdrew an awkward step. Prince Jing should not entreat her for anything. Her friend Xiao Jingyan might, but in the ruined rasp of his voice, even that was wrong.

tbc

(obligatory @theotherjax and @annundriel, this is what you get for listening to me rant about this show 💕)

[iamthepulta]

Ailsa's not-closest-friend, but not-hated-enemy is from one of the business families throughout Barllony. As first-born of their family, the business would fall to her, but she had little interest in oil and perfume. With a few well-yanked strings and a fierce passion for the royal family, Ailsa's not-enemy landed in training for the Order of Sol, where Ailsa met her.

It's odd for amber stones to be in the same location, especially for children born in different order of birth, but not uncommon. For Ailsa, it was just another reminder that she was about as much use as a knight. So if she could be a better knight, that'd be worth something, wouldn't it?

But it never quite fit. She was never quite good at it. Ailsa's faith to the Sun was unwavering, but every time her father gifted the Rays in the yearly ceremony, or performed the proper rites. She felt the disconnect to his role weigh on her.

Woke up at 2am to ask the DM what he thought about burning amber to their bodies as a sort of catechism-esque religious ceremony in the culture Ailsa comes from which worships the sun. And his response in the morning was "What the..." Which I get. I know my only worldbuilding strength is esoteric industry and its affects on culture. But that's so sick omg. When you turn 12, every child has an amber stone pressed to their ffkn body symbolizing their relationship to the sun? Then you have a whole industry around 'good amber' and rich people having lighter colors, and the texture of the stone represents industry or quality. And people with overlapping locations are thought to be close as siblings- sooo much to unpack there.

Also can we just think about an amber-themed Sun worshipping jihad for a minute? Rotating in my mind like a ball of fire. DM I'm begging u the implications it's only 7am

[that-dumbass-rabbit]

Updated list of names! These are by far the best names in my opinion. Use em for whatever idc. They're divided into names for humans and for rabbits but you can use em for like, idk, a lamp too im not gonna stop you. Anyways it's a long post sorry-not-sorry

Names for people

Ada

Alice

Amber

Avalon

Bennet

Blythe

Cecil

Clement

Cornelia

Cyrus/cyril

Darcy

Enid

Ethel

Finnegan/Finn

Fletcher

Florence

Gladys

Hilda

Iris

Irma

Kiara

Lenore

Lucinda

Maple

Mitzi

Olivia

Oswald

Otis

Poppy

Seraphina

Spencer

Sylvia

Wexel

Winifred

Wyatt

Names for rabbits

Amber

Apollo

Archer

Bandit

Boomerang

Bramble

Buttons

Buzz

Casper

Cheddar

Comet

Crypt

Cupid

Dasher

Dolly

Domino

Dream

Elvis

Fish

Gadget

Ghost

Honey

Jazz

Klondike

Lucky

Marble

Mim

Noodles

Nudge

Ooma

Patches

Parker

Peanut

Pepper

Pinkie

Pluto

Prince

Pesto

River

Rocket

Rhyme

Sparks

Spike

Spirit

Spoon

Sunday

Thimble

Vanny

Waldo

Wisp

Zero

[lexreadsdiversely]

🧛 October Reading Wrap up 🎃

Books:

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio - finished 10/1

The City We Became by NK Jemisin - reread, finished 10/3

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck - finished 10/11

Short Stories:

Parthenogenesis by Stephen Graham Jones - finished 10/2

Fruiting Bodies by Kemi Ashing-Giwa - finished 10/2

Don't Look by Amber Reinke - finished 10/5

In the Marrow by Amber Reinke - finished 10/7

That Was Radio Clash by Charles le Lint - finished 10/6

What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo - finished 10/7

Second Variety by Phillip k. Dick

Started (will probably carry over into November):

Clap Back - Nalo Hopkinson

Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast (Machine Mandate Series #2) - Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Feast While You Can - Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

It Eats Us from the Inside - Antonija Meznaric

DNF'd:

In Lupus Fabula by Briar Ripley Page

My Carmilla - Anita Zara (soft dnf; I might pick it up when I have more patience for the slow pacing)

If you have any questions/want to know my opinions on these books, feel free to ask! I tried to give each a rating at first but it was stressing me out, so I didn't rate any of them in this post.

[townsenddecades]

1308 – Day 4 – Praaven Castle

Robert has been Sir Silas’ page for a year now, and at this point, he has managed to settle in. He even likes some of the work and lessons. Even the fighting is more fun than he anticipated. Working on the farm has given him strength enough, if not exactly finesse.

Which does not mean that he doesn’t feel stupid when the men-at-arms shake their heads at his difficulty with reading and writing or lack of expertise in etiquette. Part of him wants to fail, just to spite them, but his mother is hoping for so much for him. He can’t bear to disappoint her.

One day, towards the end of the year, Sir Silas tells him that he will be accompanying him to meet the Lady of the castle. He stares at him in bewilderment.

“But you said it would be uncourteous to the Countess to take me there!”

“So I did, and so I believed. But Lady Petersmarch has asked me to take you along.”

“She wants to see me?”

Sir Silas lifts a brow. “Do I need to repeat myself, lad? Make yourself ready.”

And so he does, fear and confusion quickly turning into annoyance at the feelings. He has no desire to be belittled by some high-and-mighty noble lady, as he has been by so many of the servants who know, of course, that he is the bastard of their former employer. He follows Sir Silas up the tall stone stairs to the entrance of the castle and comes upon one of the loveliest women he has ever laid eyes on. He had seen the Countess before, but never this close.

She is dressed in a silk gown of darkest blue – blue and gold being the Dudley family’s colours – and a long veil that covers most of her strawberry-blond hair. Her big, amber eyes seek him out immediately, or at least that is his impression before he bows deeply, as Sir Silas has instructed him.

“My lady.”

“You may rise, young page. So, Sir Silas, this is the boy that's been serving you?”

“It is, my lady. Robert Townsend.”

“You do look remarkably alike to my late husband, Robert. But I’m sure enough people have told you that already. You come from one of the farms outside the city, is that so?”

He struggles to keep his composure but manages to nod. “Yes, my lady. We live near Tovar.”

“We?”

“My parents, my siblings and I.”

“Ah. Well, I hope you’ve settled in well. Now then, Sir Silas, about your report.”

Unbeknownst to the all of them, they are being watched. Three curious heads peak over the railing of an upstairs gallery, the high, echoing walls making it easy to catch what is being said below. Two of the children have the same red-gold hair as the Countess, while the eldest’s hair is pitch black.

Ralph Dudley Jr., eleventh Earl of Petersmarch, turns to his siblings and motions them to follow him into a nearby bedroom, so their conversation won’t be overheard.

“So that’s our brother”, Elizabeth says.

“He’s not our brother, stupid”, Clement interjects immediately. “He’s just father’s bastard.”

Elizabeth raises a brow, in a manner very similar to her mother. “I believe a sibling is customarily someone with whom one shares at least one parent, brother.”

“Yes, but bastards don’t count.”

Ralph clears his throat. “He is a bastard that is currently training to be a knight, though, so we can’t exactly ignore that he’s here. Although mother has done a good job of doing so in the past year. I wonder what’s changed.”

“Doesn’t Your Lordship have all the information he could ever want?”, Clement teases, but his elder brother only rolls his eyes.

“I’ll take the reins soon enough, you’ll see.”

“We should introduce herself, now that he’s here”, Elizabeth puts in, to end the quarrel before it can start. She doesn’t have time for her brothers’ useless squabbles. “I at least am curious to meet him. A peasant brother, can you imagine!”

“Yes, let’s”, Ralph agrees. “Who knows, maybe he’ll prove useful to have around.”

So down the stairs they go. They don’t sneak – Ralph doesn’t feel he has to sneak, he is the Earl and this is his castle, after all – and peer around the corner. Their mother and Sir Silas have moved on into the banquet room to have their discussion, but their half-brother is standing near the door, trying to be subtle in gawking at the rich interior. Ralph assumes he has never been in a place like this. He has grown up in some peasant hut, after all, and the guard hall is rather sparse.

“Pssst”, he hisses, and motions the boy over when that catches his attention. Robert looks towards the Countess and Sir Silas briefly, sees that they are deep in conversation, and sneaks over into the side room the three noble children retreat into.

And then they stare at each other, before the peasant boy bows stiffly.

“Lord Petersmarch, I presume?”

“You presume correctly”, Ralph answers, with just as much dignity. “And these are my sister Lady Elizabeth and my brother Clement.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you”, Elizabeth says kindly. Clement just nods, though more in greeting than to echo his sister’s sentiment. “We were so curious to meet you! It seemed strange to have another child of our father’s living so close yet never to interact with them.”

“We would have sooner, but our duties have kept us away”, Ralph, who doesn’t want to admit that he has bowed to his mother’s wishes on the matter, adds a little pompously. “But we couldn’t let the opportunity pass by now that you’re here.”

“Is it true that you grew up on a farm?”, Elizabeth asks immediately, not especially tactfully, but she is only nine years old.

Robert stiffens, but nods. “It is. I’ve lived there with my parents until Sir Silas kindly took me on as his page.”

“With you parents?”, Ralph asks, with his emphasise on the s.

“My mother and her husband. The man that raised me.”

Clement scoffs, but Elizabeth smiles kindly. “I’m sure it would be hard not to see your mother’s husband as a father. I’m sure it must be nice to…to still have one. I at least miss our father a lot.”

They talk some more, but it remains awkward, and gets more so when the Countess and Sir Silas walk into their hideout, having obviously noticed that Robert has gone missing. Both look disapproving, so Ralph quickly puffs out his chest and looks square at them.

“We were curious to talk to Sir Silas’ protegee, Mother, and it didn’t seem like he was involved in your conversation, so we didn’t think it would do any harm to steal him away.”

“Did you, now?” She studies all of them. “As an Earl you should know that it isn’t right to interrupt other peoples talks by ferreting away participants, Ralph. And any good page stays until he is dismissed.”

Robert swallows with an effort. “I beg your pardon, Lady Petersmarch, Sir Silas. I fear I wasn’t certain whether a summons from my liege overrides my duty to my knight.”

Sir Silas chuckles, and quickly hides it in a cough when the Countess shoots him a disapproving glance. She then turns to Robert. “A valid point, I confess. Still, stealing away is never a sign of a good conscience, is it?”

He just lowers his head at that, although, it must be said, mostly to hide his face.

“But it was interesting to get to know him, Mother”, Lady Elizabeth interjects.

“I’m sure it was, my dear. And I’m sure there’ll be other opportunities, seeing as he’ll stay on here for the time being.”

Robert doesn’t know whether to take this as an invitation or a challenge. 

Prev: 1308, Day 3 <--> Next: 1308, Day 4, Part 2

[breedaboyd]

Smells — What do the different Boyds smell like?

Billy: Wears a cologne with notes of coriander, Italian lemon and oranges but this tends to be drowned out by the constant smell of chlorine that clings to his skin, not that he minds particularly.

Cap Hatfield: Cologne isn't really a thing so you're just left with his natural scent. He tends to smell mainly of sweet tobacco, whiskey, sawdust (particularly from sugar maple and hickory) and gunpowder. Despite not being able to do much in terms of his scent, he smells incredible, especially when he's been working all day and he's all sweaty and musky.

Cary James: Cary loves his colognes and his perfumes so he can smell vastly different from day to day. That being said, his favourite is a more feminine scent with jasmine, rose and vanilla. You can tell when he's been in a room as he tends to leave a lingering scent behind.

Clement Mansell: Though he may look like a filthy rat man, Clem smells surprisingly good. Although it might be overwhelmed by cigarette smoke most of the time, up close and personal, he smells of honey, sweet bourbon and roses. And he tastes just as good.

Corinthian: Corin — and, by extension, the inside of his car — smells of amber, cashmere wood and grapefruit. Obviously, this is undercut by the scent of leather from the leather upholstery of his car and sometimes the acrid smell of blood.

Don Pierce: Don is not much for things like colognes or anything like that. He's the kind of guy that would walk into a drug store, pick up the first bottle he found and use that, doesn't matter if it smells good. Fortunately for him though, it does smell good, with elements of orange blossom, white cedar and musk. It pairs especially well with the scent of gunmetal.

Eli Klaber: Voller (or Stephan) once got Klaber a bottle of cologne for his birthday and he's never stopped using it. With notes of cypress, eucalyptus and fresh ginger, his scent is made entirely his with the added smells of steel, gunpowder and WD-40.

John McBride: Leather, oak moss, dirt, antiseptic and blood. John tries his best to smell good but, given his specialty in pathology (and part-time werewolf slaying), he regularly struggles to stay on top of it.

Mo Lundy: Doesn't really care about those kinds of things as they seem quite superficial to him. Generally, he tends to smell of fresh water, cheap soap and a kind of warm, homey musk. It's simple but it's all him and he still manages to smell really good.

Quinn McKenna: His wife did get him a bottle of cologne once but that got used less and less as they drifted apart. Now he tends to smell of cheap deodorant, sweat and gunmetal (unless he's going to an event that requires his full-dress uniform).

Steve Murphy: Steve takes pride in his appearance and part of that is how he smells. His favourite cologne has notes of bergamot, cardamom and lavender but, all that being said, in the Columbian sun and with how much he smokes, the cologne is usually overwhelmed by cigarette smoke and sweat, leaving the cologne as an afterthought on his skin.

[utilitycaster]

In the Locked Tomb series, the villain of the first book ends up being Cytherea, Lyctor of the Seventh House. She, like most lyctors, epitomizes her house. The Seventh House serves to celebrate the beauty found in death and decay: "They draw out moments of beauty, preserving people, places, and times in amber for later dissection and delectation."[1] Cytherea is herself nigh-immortal, as a lyctor, and also eternally dying of a terminal illness. Her plan is to eliminate the heirs of the houses to prevent there ever being other lyctors, destroy the Emperor (and Empire), and in doing so, be destroyed herself.

She succeeds only in her final goal. The Seventh House's predilection for those preserved-amber moments is its undoing, as its heir is slaughtered by its lyctor, and its lyctor driven to seek death because of her unending pain, but unable to do even that with peace and dignity, as ending her life means ending what remains of her cavalier, who, by the nature of the lyctor process, must be an eternal sacrifice.

Given the author's background in fandom (particularly fanfiction) and internet culture[2][3] and the many references to that both textually and metatextually within the series, it is not out of line to assume that the Empire, constructed in-universe in our near future and stagnated for ten thousand years at the start of the series contains commentary for, among many other things, fandom itself. The plight of Cytherea explores the fallacies inherent in a number of common trends in fanon.

Cytherea explores, as do all the original lyctors, the trope of lifespan angst. In Harrow the Ninth, we learn that the requirement of cavalier sacrifice is a profound source of guilt for the necromancers who experience it, even millennia later. It is then revealed that the sacrifice was always avoidable. By the end of Nona the Ninth, only one "imperfect" lyctor remains of the seven there have been, and she is newly ascended within the past few months, underscoring the unsustainable nature of this trope.

Cytherea, and the Seventh House's philosophy, can also be interpreted as a critique of "woobification", of angst for the sake of angst, and of the prioritization of the aesthetic with no consideration of consequence. It is precisely Cytherea's combination of incredible power and endless pain without respite that destabilizes her utterly. The preservation of that which is by its nature ephemeral is itself her destruction - and deconstruction. The attempt to create something from a mortal being that must simultaneously embody fleeting beauty, saintly tragedy, and near godlike power, and which must exist in this state, as a public figure, for eternity, ultimately becomes, not once, but twice, a vehicle through which corruption, failure, and ruin enters what was meant to be a sanctuary.

In the Critical Role fandom, the ultimately impossible ideals imposed upon Cytherea which lead to her downfall are reflected in the similarly impossible expectations some fans have regarding the characters played by the women of the cast (and, in extreme cases, those women themselves), most notably those of Marisha Ray. In this essay I will

Rocket, Stubby the. "Find Your Necromancy Family Among the Houses of Gideon The Ninth". Tor.com. Written Sep 20 2019, Accessed Dec 9 2022.

Grady, Constance. "How Gideon the Ninth author Tamsyn Muir queers the space opera". Vox.com. Written Feb 5 2021, Accessed Dec 9 2022.

Clements, Mikaela. "The Butch Lesbian Sci-Fi Aesthetic: A Conversation With Tamsyn Muir". Los Angeles Review of Books. Written Oct 1 2020, Accessed Dec 9 2022.

[odoroussavourssweet]

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely

Nose: Laurent le Guernec and Clement Gavarry

notes: lavender, martini, bergamot, mandarin, rosewood; patchouli, orchid, narcissus; musk, woodsy notes, cedar, amber

Lovely opens with bug-spray-sharp, abstractly floral “perfuminess”, exactly like a cheap body spray I doused myself in as a tween. I like it. It’s graceful, airy, uncompromisingly astringent. A little like witch hazel extract. An ethereal sprite perfume.

short-lived (4-5 hours) and very simple. stays light and floaty throughout.

[mixergiltron]

Happy National Rum Day!

It's August 16th,which is National Rum Day. So instead of posting recipes,I'm going to just talk a little about rum.

First some basics. There are two main branches of rum;rum and rhum agricole. Rum is made from sugar cane that has been processed into molasses,while agricole is made directly from sugar cane that has been pressed. If you see the word 'rhum' with an H,it's usually agricole,but not always. Sometimes they add the H to be fancy or for tradition. Agricole tends to have a super funky 'grassy' taste that is much stronger than regular rum. It's not to everyone's liking,but I do like it in certain cocktails. There are also rums that are made from things like sugar beets,but they all pretty much suck. Stick to cane rum/rhum and you won't go wrong. After this,there are numerous sub-categories. The thing is,some rums blur the lines between the categories,and some categories are kinda made up,so I'm just going to do a basic run down instead of dragging you down a rabbit hole.

White rum,also called light rum or silver rum,can be clear(which requires filtering) or have just a bit of goldish tint. It's light tasting and in Tiki drinks is usually mixed with other spirits or several ingredients. It works well in daiquiris. My preferred light rums are Bacardi Superior(my Kraft MacNCheese rum),Plantation 3 Star,and Probitas.

Gold rum,sometimes called amber rum,is a gold or amber color. It splits the difference between light and dark rums in terms of how heavy the flavor and funk are. I like Bacardi Reserva Ocho and Gran Reserva Diez,which are their 8 and 10yr aged rums.

Dark rum is the most commonly used in Tiki drinks,and can go from a dark amber to brown to almost black. It's got a lot of flavor and can have some serious funk. My favs are Appleton Signature/8yr/12yr,Plantation Original Dark,English Harbor,and Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva. I'm also a fan of Coruba,which many people consider a black rum.

Black rum is not really a category of rum,it's sort of a created term for really dark rum. It's heavy and funky and generally mixed instead of sipped. As I like funky rums,I am a fan. While I consider Coruba to be a dark rum,many consider it to be a black rum. I'm also a fan of Hamilton Pot Still Black,which is my go-to black rum. I'm also a fan of Cruzan Black Strap,which is a very molasses forward rum that many consider to be its own category.

Spiced rum,as the name suggests,has spices in it for extra flavoring. It can be light,gold,dark,or black. I'm a fan of Sugar Island(sadly no longer made) and Siesta Key. I also like Kraken Dark Label,which has a vanilla profile that mixes well with soda(I like it,but have never used it in a cocktail).

Demerara rum is only made in Guyana,although there are some rums called Demerara that are blended. The best way to describe it is that it is to rum what stout is to beer. Thick and funky with some sweetness. I'm a big fan of Lemon Hart Original and 151(my go-to 151),as well as Pussers Gunpowder.

Navy rum is 114 proof rum. It had to be this proof so that if the casks leaked,it wouldn't ruin the gunpowder it was stored with. I like Pussers,Hamilton Navy Grog Blend,and Smith & Cross.

Overproof rums are pretty much anything stronger than Navy rum. My favs are Hamilton Beachbum Zombie Blend,Wray & Nephew,and Plantation OFTD. And of course Lemon Hart 151.

There are also flavored rums,which can be any kind of rum with flavors added. I like Shipwreck and Siesta Key coconut,and Plantation Stiggins pineapple.

Finally,for agricole I like Duquesne Rhum Blanc for light,Rhum Barbancourt 8yr for dark,and Clement Rhum Vieux VSOP for gold.

Well,that's enough of a text wall,I think I pretty much covered all you really need to know. Stick with my suggestions,and you won't go wrong.

Cheers!

[jmasca-art]

COVER REVEAL for Amber Clement’s upcoming novel “𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕦𝕟𝕖’𝕤 𝕂𝕚𝕤𝕤”!!

I had so much fun creating this cover and a big thank you to Marcie Lawrence for thinking of me for this project.

The magical gambling house is on its way. Doors open November 12th. Are you willing to risk everything for a chance to be kissed by fortune?

Client: Union Square and Co