#dorina basarab

[revvethasmythh]

like, I get why people don't like edgelord style characters and find them exhausting, i really do. but I was raised by a style of book that exclusively features edgelord protagonists that intentionally bars them from experiencing a single moment of dignity in their entire lives, and I think that explains why I love them, actually

[imaginethosedragons]

If you like Urban Fantasy books, please please read the Dorina Basarab series by Karen Chance starting with Midnight's Daughter! The series is sooo good. Karen Chance is an exceptionally strong writer, and I honestly feel like the quality of her writing is leagues above a lot of urban fantasy books out nowadays, yet it does not get the hype that it deserves! The relationships and character development are absolutely excellent!

[urbanfantasies]

"Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed."

- Dorina Basarab in Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance

[dantes-hotel-and-casino]

Cassie Cin is starting now!!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3343776113?pwd=NVFHS3hVNnhxdUpvMjRzTHFLYmY0QT09

Meeting ID: 334 377 6113

Passcode: cassiep

[bloody-witch21]

Henry Cavill with long hair is Louis-Cesare i need an actress for Dory

[overlycaffeinatedwarmage]

In case you missed it :( But there is hope at least.  Stop by KC’s Facebook page and show her some love!

[cherrycoveredpythia]

This is the first episode in the Dory books that has made me laugh out loud. 

From Death’s Mistress, p. 225. 

[pritkinspalemoons]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dorina Basarab Series - Karen Chance, The Kissing Booth (2018) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Dorina Basarab/Louis-Cesare de Bourbon Characters: Dorina Basarab, Louis-Cesare de Bourbon, Radu Basarab Additional Tags: Humor Summary:

A silly fic born from watching The Kissing Booth together. The movie that pushed us to drink. Our favorite characters are now teenagers confronting body changes, hormonal interest in each other, death of a loved one, and eventual uncomfortable montages.

  Unfortunately, for plot reasons, he did not make sure his pants fit his impressive rack---yes, rack. Draw what conclusions you will. It will still make sense more than this movie did--and the lucky pants that got to touch LC’s naughty areas died in bliss.

[solounafangirl]

Entender a otra persona hace que sea mucho más difícil juzgarla.

[redorblue]

Mircea and family loyalty

(spoilers for Shadow’s Bane)

I already mentioned in my general review of Shadow’s Bane that this book contains my least favourite Mircea scene in both the Cassie and the Dory books. It’s the one after the fight at the Consul’s palace, where he tries to talk Dory into banishing Dorina again, permanently this time. For Dory, this scene serves as a catalyst on her way to understanding how Dorina must have felt all these years, finally making her see that Dorina has never, in fact, hated her or been the bloodthirsty monster that Dory made her out to be. Looking at it from the perspective of someone who’d love to see Dory and Dorina bonding, this sudden burst of protectiveness from Dory for her twin is heartwarming. For someone who loves Mircea and wants to see him on the right side of an argument (as defined by the story, and also ethics), this scene made me cringe more than any other so far. He has been shitty towards other characters before, but all his questionable actions came from his deep sense of loyalty for a specific group of people - his blood family, his vamp family, maybe the Senate - and were sometimes fueled by incomplete information. In this case, however, it seems to me that he has all the facts (maybe even more so than Dory because he has more experience with vamp nature and knows how bad the situation was before he put up the wall) and he still wants to take action against Dorina, who is his daughter just as much as Dory is, and who therefore belongs to his innermost circle of people for whom he feels responsible and whom he owes loyalty. Why?

As I see it, there are two reasons. First of all, Mircea harbours a deep hatred for his vampire nature. It’s pretty obvious in his little speech during his and Dory’s discussion in chapter 49:

“We vampires have no choice but to blend our two natures, to come to equilibrium or to go mad - and some do. Unable to reconcile the monstrous part of themselves that every human has, but that every human does not have to feed. We cannot hide from what we are; we have to prey on others to survive. But we cannot give in to it utterly, or we risk becoming the monsters we are so often thought to be. It is a constant balancing act and there are times - oh, yes, there are times - when we would love to banish one part or the other.”

Horatiu even calls him out on it directly in chapter 27, accusing Mircea of not being able to accept what he is because his turning into a vampire indirectly lead to Elena’s death and Dory/Dorina’s abandonment (as a side not, I’ll be using the name Doryna when talking about the two of them because this whole backslash thing is too awkward). This self-blaming is, of course, a natural reaction after going through a traumatic incident which he really couldn’t have influenced at the time, but just because it comes from the emotional side of the brain rather than the rational one doesn’t mean that it feels less true.

Mircea’s attitude towards vampirism is radically different from that of other vamps: instead of seeing it as a blessing, a higher state of being, a superior race, he treats it as a sickness, a curse that is threatening to corrupt his positive character traits by forcing him to satisfy his negative ones. Which, again, makes sense considering how he came to be a vampire in the first place, but it leads him to automatically associate being human with moral (if not physical) superiority. So when confronted with Doryna’s life-threatening fits, which are clearly the results of Dorina straining against the constraints of sharing a body with Dory, he automatically sides with Dory, whom he pictures as what Doryna should have been were it not for his “illness”. Dorina, however, is the direct result of said illness, which not only violently upended his entire life, but is now threatening to take away the “better” part of his daughter, too.

I don’t think that he doesn’t love Dorina - there are a few scenes where he’s quite affectionate with her, and anyways it’s hard to compare this to how he behaves with Dory because all the memories that we have as evidence come from Dorina - but when he’s faced with the choice of saving one of them at the expense of the other or risking both of them dying, his instinct tells him to choose Dory. The fact that it’s the only pragmatic choice, the only one with any chance of helping Doryna, may have influenced his decision, too, but I’m pretty sure that his own issues with his condition played a big part in his decision to separate his daughter’s two natures.

Skip forward 500 years, and he’s faced with a very similar problem: putting Dorina back in her cell, or risking her taking over their body entirely, which would lead to Dory not being imprisoned, but killed. His old biases against Dorina, fueled by his resentment towards vampirism, are still very much there, as evidenced by the speech I quoted above where he calls it his monstrous side. Add to that that he had 500 years to get to know Dory (however fraught their relationship might be) and hear accounts of what Dorina is capable of when she slips her leash, and it’s not surprising that he sides with the more human version of his daughter yet again. He doesn’t want to kill Dorina any more than he did back then - fortunately, although I guess that would have been an option now, too - but if he has to pick one of them, it’s sure as hell going to be Dory. His loyalties are clearly split here, but for the above-mentioned reasons Dory ranks higher on his list of priorities than Dorina does, and one of them dying is a lot worse than one of them being imprisoned, so he’s going to throw his full weight into protecting Dory, even though doing so comes at the expense of significantly reducing Dorina’s quality of life (on a sidenote, this is an explanation for a good part of the incidents when he’s a prick towards Cassie. It’s not that she’s not important to him; only that other people rank higher among his personal priorities than she does).

Second, Mircea really isn’t the type to just fly by the seat of his pants. At some point in Shadow’s Bane, Dory points out that he always has plans A through E in place before he attempts to do anything, and he hates not being in control of events. This is probably as much due to personality as to life experiences: He was brought up to be a leader, the one in charge who’s responsible for the people around him, and the one time he wasn’t in control, everything went to hell around him - something he’s been trying to turn around ever since, as evidenced by his obsession with bringing Elena back to life and basically turning back the clock as much as is reasonably possible.

So it’s understandable, if not exactly commendable, that he’s become a bit of a control freak over the years, which sometimes leads him to rush into things prematurely as soon as an opportunity takes shape instead of waiting how things play out and collecting more information. This is exactly what happens here: he’s painfully aware of a problem - the possibility of Dory dying - and as soon as a possible solution presents itself, he pounces on it, because he’s the one who is supposed to fix things. Especially to keep people from dying, and especially to keep his daughter from dying, whom he has forsaken before (not really, but in his mind) and who is his last living connection to Elena. It may be a risk, but no one has ever accused Mircea of not being decisive enough, and judging from the information he’s got, it would be a much bigger risk to wait and see if Dorina - monstrous Dorina, mad Dorina - might take pity on Dory, the daughter he should have had. Which is too much of a gamble for someone like him, especially when the stakes are this high and the drawbacks at least bearable, and a lot less final than the alternative. Just as 500 years earlier, he picks what he thinks is the least bad option.

Unlike 500 years earlier, however, his daughter gets a say in the decision. It’s this confrontation that makes it clear to Dory that Dorina is, in fact, not the monster everyone (including herself) made her out to be, but someone worth protecting. And as much as I love Mircea and understand his reasoning regarding this dilemma, in this case I’m very glad that he didn’t get his way and that he got proven wrong by the narrative. It doesn’t mean that his actions were necessarily a mistake when Doryna was a child; but it does mean that you can’t always fall back on previous decisions when faced with new situations. It does mean that you have to learn from past experiences. And in this scene, Dory rises up to do just that.

[imaginethosedragons]

The Dorina Basarab series does not get the hype it deserves and I will die on that hill.

[emberfaye]

Nothing like getting your fave author's newest book on the day it's released!

[dantes-hotel-and-casino]

Working on Cassie Con, and we are now ready to start scheduling. This link will help us find the most common times for availability. Please fill it out! https://www.when2meet.com/?9539762-OP6lh

[itutchedthebutt]

[overlycaffeinatedwarmage]

So four of us were at MegaCon last weekend and we had a chance to talk KC’s ear off.  We also had a chance to listen to her a bit.  I, of course, took notes.  Here’s what I got.  Please feel free to ask questions about anything I have.  I will flesh out what I can!

Panel notes:

None of her characters are based on real people that she knows. Too much bad shit happens to them. An element of her work that she’s proud of: she uses her history degree with her writing. Favorite mythologies to write are about gods (didn’t mention one particular cultural pantheon). Lots of cross over with various mythologies throughout the world. Makes sense since people travel and talk. Many of the giddy traits cross over, some of the gods are identical across cultures too.

Mythology has everything that Urban Fantasy has in it, romance, heroes, monsters, etc. Really UF is a retelling of the old stories in a modern way. We even have similar stories across stories, just like they did. God in a jar mythology is a common theme (Artemis is in a jar right now dajuan note).

World building: Write what you need for first book, world building wise, never enough pages for world building per book. Don't do all at once. Too much, leave some for future books. Your editor will always tell you to cut it down anyway. You need to know the world and back story even if audience doesn't yet. Audience will know if you contradict something and they will tell you. But don’t box yourself in, don’t let others write your rules, break them if you need to.

Writing is a you learn as you go craft. When you read your old stuff, think to yourself "look how far I’ve come!" rather than cringe at it. You aren't perfect. Enjoy what you are now and learn from it and grow from it. Work on the story, that’s what people care about more than the grammar and perfect characters, those are important but secondary to the story itself.

She knows the major beats of story now, but not all the details yet. Mystery authors are her favorites (Agatha Christie was mentioned several times). Liked mischievous gods, assholes, they more fun. If they are good, watch out! (Daj note, I got big HINT vibes here! Artemis isn't as altruistic as she seems maybe?? Personally, I've been wondering about her for a while. There is definitely more going on with her.)

Stay in genre but make it new, fresh spin: take new things, Pythia, new abilities. Hard to make vampire different, same with witch. Pick new creature to explore. Go back to original myths Bonicon: ox type thing, napalm from butt (need to look up name, I am 100% sure I either misheard or misspelled it). Must do some digging to find new stuff.

Add some realism, how do the characters get money? Stuff like that (ie early Cassie and Billy cheating casinos) Mystery, how keep threat level up? Kill someone else! World expansion: story or character come first? It depends All characters must have an arc. Even supporting characters, must change or not believable. Five characters in a scene, all should have a distinct voice. A friend should be able to tell which character said a line a dialogue Character best friend? Rosier, she would hang out with him (we cheered, loudly).

Personal discussion:

Mircea always a rogue. No one should be surprised by his shit in RtS. It was telegraphed all the way back in TtD.

Cassie is an extrovert who had to learn to be introvert by upbringing. She is learning to let people in now.

Cassie has a woman’s strength, is girly and ok with it. Meant to be a character many women could relate to.

Dory by herself would be boring(?) Dorina is what makes her unique or interesting. She would be more cookie cutter character without Dorina.

KC doesn’t want to write cookie cutter characters or stories.

There are so many characters out there for all types of men (strong, weak, nerdy, whatever) but not all types of women. Cassie is an “everywoman" character that every woman could see an aspect of themselves in. Because think about it, if shit were to hit the fan what would you do? Go out guns blazing or hide behind the sofa? Probably hide behind the sofa.

There was a lot of Tolkien talk about the three whole female characters in those books. I’m a little foggy here because Tolkien is not my thing, (I had to ask who everyone was to be sure I understood, yes I was a little embarrassed). One character was the prize for the king, one was a warrior woman or essentially a “man with boobs," and one was actually a woman with her own agency. There have to be more roles for women in fantasy than this. We deserve better. There is nothing wrong with the warrior woman, but that’s not all woman and many can't see themselves like that. (Daj note I can't see myself in the warrior women and I'm stronger than the average woman. Strength, power is not my strength.  I’m excited to see a wider variety of role models for young women.)

There are at least 3 more books after BtT. Big stuff is coming! No, we didn’t ask what!

KC does not write romances! This has been said before but needs to be reiterated. She writes about people and people have romance, sex, friends, enemies, etc so of course there would be elements of that in the books. Otherwise the characters would not be believable. She does write damn good stories and characters though. All of her characters have arcs, they change because real people change. The bigger the character the bigger the arc. Smaller or side characters have arcs too, though, they just have smaller ones.

There are some obvious hints in books as to what is coming that we are all missing. (No, we didn’t ask what they were. We did our best not to blatantly ask for spoilers. There were things that we would say that she'd just smile at, but I'm not saying what. I'm doing *my* damnedest not to spoil people as well.) People will sometimes pick up the smallest of hints she thinks they will miss though.

Yes, Mircea has a foot fetish. Why not? It's mild as fetishes go really. (We had a good giggle about that.) Again, it's a thing that makes him real. Rian chose Casanova for a reason and it's a BIG reason. If you catch my drift ;) (More giggles and an embarrassing amount of discussion was spent here.)

Rosier speech "fake it, everyone else is too" has gotten her through a lot (daj note, me too. It’s my favorite speech in the series, I give and get it often.)

Again, any errors are mine. I do not speak for Karen Chance so do not hold her to anything that I have written here. Most of this is cobbled together from notes and exhausted, overexcited memory.  She is free to correct me on any errors that I have made, and I sincerely apologize for making them and potentially speaking out of turn. She was an absolute blast to chat with and I am honored to have been given the opportunity to spend a few hours with her this weekend. I will forever claim that she is one of the kindest authors and people that I have met. I know a lot of wicked cool people, so I don't give that praise lightly. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll will try to answer what I can. If my roomies have anything to add, please feel free! @emberfaye @pritkinspalemoons @annalane

[solembum7]

What if...

at some point the consul orders Marlowe and Louis-Cesare to kill Mircea? 😲 I imagine Dory to be in the fight and Cassie coercing Pritkin to help save Mircea! OMG what a fight this would be! The little crazy bitch inside my head really wants to see this happening!