#bernadette cavendish

[lwaaddict]

LWA ZOMBIE AU INCOMING!!!

[onhirel]

All the World a Stage ch. 19

Mrs. Cooper the librarian suddenly remembers something very important about the young Annabel Crème and calls the Cavendish Manor to relay the information. Upon finally having a real lead, Diana and Akko make all haste to go to where Annabel just might be, both of them ready to end it all. But are they ready for what Yz has in store for them?

Found on AO3, 8911 words. Co-written with @ameliamircalla

[drabonix]

Diana´s Birthday

[lauraluna98]

Happy mothers day

Reposting an old art for this so important day with my favourite mothers

[vinzul]

Part 13/?

You gonna like this one i think. It's one of my fave moments so far :B THEY GAY YOUR HONOUR 👏🏼👏🏼

Flats and countless hours of patience by @almoris

kofi

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[achoirnevercomplete]

Diana mom thoughts?

bernadette is amazing we love her in this house

[dailydianakko]

Chariot after posthumously marrying Diana’s mom

[thecosmosproject]

We have even more reason for trigger to continue lwa 😿

OMGBABYBABYABYB

OH MYGODOMHMYGDO CHAT ARE YOU SEEING THIS

BABY DIANA CANON

and bernadette!!

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Duke I Tempted. By Scarlett Peckham. NYLA Publishing, 2018.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Series: Secrets of Charlotte Street #1

Summary: Having overcome financial ruin and redeemed his family name to become the most legendary investor in London, the Duke of Westmead needs to secure his holdings by producing an heir. Which means he must find a wife who won’t discover his secret craving to spend his nights on his knees—or make demands on his long scarred-over heart.

Poppy Cavendish is not that type of woman. An ambitious self-taught botanist designing the garden ballroom in which Westmead plans to woo a bride, Poppy has struggled against convention all her life to secure her hard-won independence. She wants the capital to expand her exotic nursery business—not a husband.

But there is something so compelling about Westmead, with his starchy bearing and impossibly kind eyes—that when an accidental scandal makes marriage to the duke the only means to save her nursery, Poppy worries she wants more than the title he is offering. The arrangement is meant to be just business. A greenhouse for an heir. But Poppy yearns to unravel her husband’s secrets—and to tempt the duke to risk his heart.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: BDSM, death of wife and child, allusion to rape, arson, explicit sexual content, use of abortifacients

OVERVIEW: I enjoyed The Rakess when I read it however long ago, so I figured I'd explore some of Peckham's other works and see if I've found a new favorite author. While there were some things I liked about this book, I ultimately struggled with the plot structure and pacing of the story. Parts seemed to move too fast and halfway through, the plot changes gears so abruptly that it felt like the first half was meaningless. So while I want to read more from Peckham in the future, this book unfortunately only gets 2 stars from me.

WRITING: Peckham's writing is about what you might expect from the romance genre, and I mean that in a good way. It's easy to follow and does a fairly good job balancing showing and telling. I also think it explores character thoughts in a way that feels natural.

However, I do think that it has a tendency to move quite fast. In some instances, the quick pace works well and gets me, as a reader, excited about the story. Other times, though, the pace made me feel as if we were blowing through things without giving weight to them, and the story felt more hollow as a result.

PLOT: The non-romance plot of this book follows Poppy Cavendish, a botanist who wants to preserve her independence by launching a successful business selling exotic plants. Poppy is roped into decorating for the Duke of Westmeade's ball - an event which will hopefully see Westmeade select a bride. But when Poppy and the Duke develop feelings for one another, their attraction threatens everything Poppy holds dear.

This plot was a little disorienting for a number of reasons. For one, the pace seemed to move too fast at times. Scenes that felt like they should have lasted longer or delved more deeply into character interiority were cut short, and while some people might enjoy the quick pace, I wish more time had been devoted to fully exploring themes.

Second, this book shifts abruptly from a slow burn, boss and secretary style romance to a marriage of convenience plot halfway through. While I think the first half did a fine job building up the relationship and setting the stakes, the second half felt tedious. The stakes surrounding Poppy and her nursery fall away, so all we have left is this back and forth where the two protagonists decide to avoid each other, only to cave and have sex. Rinse and repeat. Also, because the shift was abrupt, it almost felt like we were starting over and that all the emotional intimacy that happened in the first half didn't matter.

As a side note, I wasn't a fan of the subplots featuring Bernadette and Tom. Poppy has memories of the sexual assault of her old nurse, Bernadette, and when the book reveals what really happened to her, I found it way too coincidental and convenient. I would rather see the SA omitted and have Archer grapple with his feelings instead.

Tom and his plot was more annoying than anything, and given all that's already happening in the novel, he really didn't add much to the overall plot.

ROMANCE: To be honest, I enjoyed the development of the romance in the first half more than in the second. In the first half, it really felt like Poppy and Archer were building up emotional intimacy, and I liked the way they emotionally enriched each other's lives.

CHARACTERS: Poppy, our heroine, was admirable in the first half of the book for her dedication to her plants and her desire for independence. I liked her business-driven mind and the comfort she found in her nursery, and I think the plot did a good job in the first half of setting up the stakes. In the second half, however, I found Poppy to be wishy-washy, self-centered, and petty. As soon as she marries the Duke, her business with the plants is secure, so there's nothing left for her to do but provoke her husband and then ignore him, demand to know his secrets and then assume he only sees her as a brood mare. It grew tiring, and by the end, I wasn't convinced that Archer deserved her.

Archer, our hero, was a little more likable in that he always seemed to treat Poppy with respect and bent over backwards to make her happy. While he occasionally withholds affection from her, his reasons seem more understandable than Poppy's, so I was a little more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. I do wish, however, that Peckham had explored his backstory a little better. We learn that Archer had a wife and child who died more than ten years ago, and while this is painful, I was genuinely intrigued by the concept of finding a second love.

Tom, Poppy's one-time friend turned jilted lover, was annoying. Peckham did no work to show that he and Poppy were once friends; she didn't really have complicated feelings about him, and we don't feel hurt when he tries to push his will on her. I also think he conveniently pops in whenever the plot needs more drama. Honestly, he wasn't needed.

Constance, Archer's sister, is a nice contrast to her brother, and even though she's a bit more concerned with spending money on finery, I did like her.

The second half, however, was rather tedious because the main barrier to the couple falling in love was their own stubbornness and refusal to communicate. While I understand their reasons for wanting a marriage of convenience, in terms of storytelling, it feels like we went backwards, erasing the significance of the emotional bonding in part 1 so that we can inject more angst into the plot.

I also am not quite sure if BDSM is shown in the best light. Archer likes to see a dominatrix who hits him with a cane, and he treats his sexual appetites as something to hide. I can understand this to some extent, given the underground nature of BDSM at the time. Where it gets fuzzy for me is the tentative connection between BDSM and Archer's trauma. Peckham never states that Archer's kinks result from his trauma, but he does seem to discover or indulge in them as a way to cope with trauma. I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to say if this is a positive portrayal or not, but I thought I'd bring it up just in case.

TL;DR: The Duke I Tempted starts out well, but quickly becomes cyclical and tedious in the second half of the plot. Characters that begin as complex and likeable turn petty and frustrating, and by the end, I wasn't sure if the main couple should be together.

[kaban-bang]

Feliz Día de Muertos!

[marth-98]

I M A G I N E

[5irefly]

idk why is hit me to draw a mom and baby maybe just draw something soft? so its Bernadette and Diana Cavendish. Baby Diana was huuuge and had really wild curly hair (still do cause why not headcanon) 

[onhirel]

The Song Between Us ch. 8

A group of opportunistic thugs see fit to kidnap what appears to be the daughter of a minor noble family, or perhaps a well to do merchant.

A shame, really. They should have done their research. Had they known who this half-elf was, they wouldn't have ever gone anywhere near her...

Found on AO3, 2993 words

Day 7: Free Day

@dianakko-week

[lauraluna98]

It's midnight on Ireland that means it's already day 14

Which is Laura Mclaren birthday, she's gonna be 51 today

So I made this cute drawing of Laura and Bernadette having their moment when they were at Luna Nova

[aryajudicator]

Trigger was too scared to give us AliveBernie™

[theshinyrod]

i really want to pretend Bernadette didnt die of some mysterious disease right, and she sick yes, but healing. (cause i wanna write bout her n shit)

Like Diana soft side comes out around her mom and a total mamas girl. (a bit spoiled too)

Also Bernadette doesn't care for hiding her Scottish accent like Daryl and Diana accent loosens up at home where shes more comfortable and around her family.