#mention of affairs

[a-literal-toaster-wtf]

bbc ghosts fandom can we plsplspls pls talk about isabelle higham more pls. she was under the impression that the love of her life didn’t love her back and didn’t have the guts to tell her to her face, and then he died defending another woman’s honour in her own backyard. and then coerced into an unfulfilling courtship based on materialism and prestige rather than actual love while she was vulnerable. like that is so horrible and fucked up i have so much love for isabelle where are the isabelle fans where are they pls!!!!!!

[princeloww]

rivals plot summary (including content warnings)

What to expect from the new DT show, basically. Vague spoiler warning.

Tony Baddingham, DT's character, runs a British television company in the Cotswold area. He is a lord and, as you might guess, extremely rich. He tends to manipulate people and spend their money instead of his, so that when his ventures go wrong, other people are left scrambling to pick up their losses, while he's completely fine.

He has a long-lasting rivalry with the tory minister for sport, Rupert Campbell-Black. Rupert is extremely charming and athletic, and has a new mistress every week. He is divorced and does not see his two children very often. He's an athlete at heart, and adores his horses more than people --- but politics are a lot more stable than that.

The plot follows a very large cast of characters, which can be quite confusing at first. I had to go back and work out who Beattie Johnson was, for example, because I'd completely forgotten who she was and who she was involved with. There are lots of wives and husbands and mistresses and children, so it gets a bit complicated. Most of the characters are somehow linked to Corinium, Lord B (Tony Baddingham)'s TV company.

Tony hooks up with and employs an American director/writer, Cameron Cook. She moves to England to work at Corinium. Her arrival and bad attitude forms tension in the Coriunium workspace, and the tension furthers when Declan O'Hara, an Irish TV presenter and author, arrives at Corinium. He is a leftist (in contrast to the conservatives around him) and often discriminated against for being Irish. At times he is accused of having IRA links, mostly just to make him look bad. He and Tony's personalities clash, leading to a fall out at Corinium. Declan, in a drunken rage, quits his job and falls into a bit of a bad state.

Recovering from the publicity of his departure, Declan groups up with Rupert Campbell-Black and a few others (including Tony's brother, Basil Baddingham) to create a rival television company, Venturer, to challenge Corinium and Tony for the franchise.

There is a lot of romance and a LOT of subplots. Declan's daughter, Taggie O'Hara, is a dyslexic cook who struggles to find work due to her inability to read and write. She develops a crush on Rupert, who is considerably older. If I start talking about how much I despise their relationship, I will never stop. Taggie will probably be quite a main character in the show, I'm guessing. Declan also has a wife, Maud, who is a failed actress and spends all of his money.

Tony's wife, Monica, is very charitable and employs Taggie despite Declan and Tony's rivalry. She is aware that Tony is having an affair with Cameron Cook. An affair which, while Cameron is under his employment, becomes extremely toxic and abusive.

I'm sure the show will be rounded out a bit for modern audiences, but warnings wise (at least in the book), Rivals includes themes of sexual assault (particularly groping), misogyny, domestic abuse and much more. A big majority of the characters are rich and extremely corrupt. Tony, the baddie of the story, has some of the worst moments. There is a scene where he hits and throws a woman until she is bleeding, because she's 'betrayed' him. He also threatens to kill somebody. On a separate occasion, he tells a distraught SA victim not to tell anybody, because the attacker is somebody who he needs on his side, for money. There is also, obviously, given the kind of characters we follow, a lot of classism. Valerie Jones, for example, exists as a punching bag for a middle-class Northern woman who wants to be like the rich Southerners.

Tony might be the bad guy, but Rupert, who we're supposed to like, is also awful. He's Jilly Cooper's little golden boy, despite being horrible. I hate him so much but Jilly clearly loves him. He gropes eighteen-year-old girls and objectifies every single woman he speaks to.

Again, I'm sure a lot of this will be toned down, but watch with caution. The story has light moments and lots of romance, comedy and drama --- it just occasionally dips into dark themes. There will probably be lots of dinner parties, as every other scene is a giant social gathering. As much as I have issue with Jilly Cooper, she is absolutely excellent at writing large social scenes with dozens of different subplots combining.

There's also a weird theme of characters describing 14-year-olds (specifically 14-year-olds) in weird predatory ways. It's weird though, because a strange amount of characters do it -- to the degree where I think it's just Jilly Cooper describing them weirdly. She acts as though being a teenage girl is a woman's prime and that she is wasted after that. She has also gone on the record to state that she hates feminists. I'm not a giant fan, frankly.

On a lighter note, if you want to tell who's supposed to be a good guy, just remember that the good guys always quote poetry and like animals.

Despite its many flaws and dark themes, Rivals really is an interesting read. Jilly Cooper says the weirdest, most fucked up things ("she's like a little sister", thinks Rupert, right after staring at the 18-yo's ass) but the story really supports itself. It's interesting, gossipy, raunchy and very well written. Cooper is an expert at big scenes, and works so well with the giant ensemble cast. I disagree with a lot of things she says, but I think the show will be really good. I'm super excited and can't wait to watch it. There's a particular scene with David's character that I'm looking forward to; while in the book it was a bit scary, because we know how Jilly is with teenagers, there's a scene where Tony drives Declan(his enemy)'s daughter home, and is actually very nice to her before realising who she is. I think DT will do this scene a lot better, and it might actually be a bit endearing. Idk, I don't wanna jinx it, but I think it has potential to be a sweet scene, with the charm DT typically brings to these roles.

If anyone has any plot-related questions, or about David's character or anything, please feel free to ask! I'm more than happy to ramble about this book, because I do really like it. I see and dislike its flaws, but personally I am able to look past them and appreciate the story and characters. They're all horrible people, but let's be honest. They're politicians and rich, tory lords in the 1980s. They were always going to be horrible. You can like something that contains problematic characters without necessarily, immediately condoning and agreeing with those things. People online and especially on places like TikTok seem to struggle with this concept, but I'm a firm believer in media literacy and accepting flaws. You can like something that is bad. You can like villains. It's fine.

Declan is my favourite btw. Live laugh love Declan O'Hara

[appleinfesting]

tumblr scares me

drops art and runs 5 miles

kist is all i think about now, i want them happy and at eachothers throats right flipping neow

[chaos0pikachu]

the chekhov's gun of this show is actually when is Tonkla gonna get fucked raw like he's been asking who's willing to step up to give the dick he deserves

[sofipitch]

The Saint of patience rolls his own cigarettes. He rolls cigarettes with paper in an empire where paper is a rare commodity, all recycled, because there are no more fucking trees. And he smokes them

[rueclfer]

well looks like im never leaving california! if any of u guys need reproductive healthcare i will house all of you im not even playing

[gideonnavsenormousbiceps]

Been rereading sunshine court and I want to know what the fuck is going on with Jeremy and his family. how did he destroy the family. What does "end the way you started" mean. Why does he argue with his older brother and what the actual fuck is up between him and the stepfather and him and the step grandfather. WHAT HAPPENED AT THAT FALL BANQUET. also was there a fifth knox sibling that died somehow? really hoping we learn more about Jeremy's family and his whole thing in the second book because I'm dying to know. I'm very intrigued. Given how much he seems to hate his stepfather and his stepgrandfather I think maybe the fall banquet has something to do with either the end of his parent's marriage or maybe it's something specifically that Jeremy did? With how his sister said "end the same way you began" it seems like she means his freshman year banquet, and I wonder what could've happened with him just starting out at USC unless it had something to do with his family? Idk but I also suspect that his family (maybe just certain family members) has an issue with Jeremy being gay mostly based on a whisper of subtext and lots of conjecture. anyways lots to think about until tsc2 and boy will I be thinking about it

[fallenclan]

tell us the kitty affair sins

well the first one you know about, Cedarberry "cheated" on Eris with Skyfrost (later changed to surrogacy) but the first one was actually Wormshade cheating on Flyspots with Hailcrash, which. Not necessarily a weird age gap but since he was cheating on his husband with his husband's Aunt? it was weird to me and I didn't like it. so yeah originally Cherrystar and Hopethistle were Wormshade's kits

[thelampisaflashlight]

Aeon, watching the water and earth ghouls playing around by the lake: "Mister Aether, what are they doing?" Aether, carrying a pair of folding chairs: "It's just Aether." -looks over- "Ohhh, they're at it again." Aeon: "At what?" Aether: "LARPing. Live Action Role Playing." -sits down- "They have, like, an ongoing narrative and shit, and it's a whole thing, because they decided they were warring kingdoms..." Aeon: "Ohh..." Aether, cracking open a beer: "As I remember it, Delta is a wizard, Mist and Rain are knights of he realm, and Dew is Prince Dewcifer, heir to the throne of... Something." Aeon: "You forgot the name?" Aether, handing Aeon a beer: "No, that's just what they named their kingdom." Aeon, sipping his drink, makes a face: "...Oh." Aether:"Then you have Ivy and Pebble, they're the rulers of Oaks Grove, fey creatures who are at war with Something, because, and this is the funny part, Prince Mountainous Rangeous of Oaks Grove, Mountain, got kidnapped by Prince Dewcifer." Aeon: "...Dew kidnapped Mountain?" Aether: "They got a bit too into character during a scene and went off to hook up in the woods." Aeon, nodding: "This all tracks so far somehow." Aether: "The other big drama is that-" Rain, walking over, waving at them: "Aether, can we borrow your protégé? We need someone to play the affair baby and Aeon looks the most like Dew and me." Aeon, jumping up: -looks back at Aether- Aether, waves him off: "Be sure to stage whisper, I don't wanna miss the plot."

[crookedfivefingers]

3.13 | ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀꜱ�� ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ʟᴏʀᴅꜱ

link to the post I accidentally wound up prattling endlessly about in the tags 💀

[thefriendoforatioisdead]

I think in terms of timeline, it would not be impossible to believe that Kris and Karn are at the hotel at the same time as Wan and Pleng

Which means this hotel is witnessing a very high level of sapphic activity

[poksmimi]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐒 !

CHAPTER one

“ THE WEDDING and GARDENS “

contains; pedophila, forced marriage, age gap(30yrs), angst, weirdo behaviour, bad parenting(?), creep!oc

notes; first chapter, you get married and you meet three characters!

your hands grip at the hem of your clothing, your father stood next to you. He smiles down at you, you can't help but smile back. You let out a soft cough as you enter the palace, there stood a tall man, he had a beard and a big beautiful crown on his head. “Hello, King Lewis” Your father bowed, you straighten your back before doing a cursty. You glance up at him, he had a smile on his face. You get up and he looks at you before clapping his hands together, “what is your name?” He speaks, you smile and say your name. “That is a wonderful name, I hope that you enjoy your time here.” He says, you nod your head and your father grins and side-hugs you. “Unfortunately, I have no children, so you must play by yourself. Hope that won't be a problem.” You smile. “It's okay, Lord Lewis! I have always been a lonely kid!” You say, your father chuckles, nervously. “My dear,” he pats your shoulders. “Their my only child, that's what they meant by lonely.” Your father says, King Lewis laughs.

You walk around the palace, you see an garden. You gasp and he notices. “See the garden? Want to go check it out, darling?” You ignore the last part as you nod your head, your father sighs as he watcjes you being lead by Lewis, he soon follows behind. “Woah!” You say, seeing all the unique plants, roses and fruit brushes! “The servants take care of this, my wife enjoyed it very much.” He says, you see a beautiful, white rose. “I think this rose, matches you.” He says, you tilt your head. “It looks pretty like you, so pure and innocent..” He mutters the last part, you smile and your father gasps. “Gah?!” The king laughs. “Oh my goodness, Harry! Do becareful, that's a Venus trap!” He laughs. You blink your eyes and next thing you know, your at a large table, food inform of you, your father sits next to the king as you sit a few seats away.

“I have a question, Harry.” Your father looks at the king. “Yes, my lord?” He says, taking a sip of wine, the wine says ‘The Dawn Winery, Ragnvindr.’ Your father tilts his head. “your child, seems like a good kid.” He says. “Thank you, my lord.” He says in a confused tone. “I remember you mentioning something about needing more money and I have a proposal.” He takes a sip of wine, you grab a knife and cut into the steak. “Yes…?” You feel a gaze so you look up and smile, then look back down. The inside of the steak looks nice and it looks juicy. “I desire to marry your child.” The words don't reach you as your father falls silent. He looks at you. “My l-lord…it's just a child, and-” a finger stops him form speaking. “Harry, you know what to do.” He says, your father bottom lip trembles and he sighs, nodding his head. “What..” your shocked face breaks his heart as you look at him in confusion, he can feel his heart breaking. It hurts him so much, his sweet child. “I love you, my dear. This will help dad, okay?” He says, holding your face in his hands. You nod your head, slowly. This will help him out, you have to do it. “Can I go home with you atleast?” You ask. He shake ships head no, he gives you one last kiss. He bows to the king, the king smiles and turns to you, the smile not leaving his face.

“What.” A voice says. “That's a child, Lewis” another voice says. “That is taboo, my lord!” A other voice says. “I know and I don't care.” He says, the people galre at him as they look in confusion, shock and disgusted. The king gets up and leaves, it's a shock. Marrying a child, that was bad enough.

Not even two days later, you’re dressed in all white. Your fingers play with eachother, as the maids rush around. Dressing you up, it was your wedding after all. It was all too much for you, you smiled when you remember that you will see your dad! After some moments, you can hear people talking, there was a big door. An old butler walks with you, hooking a arm with you. You gulp and close your eyes, walking slowly as whispers are heard. Your eyes land on him, you gulp, your hands feel sweaty. The man lets you go as you stand in front of the king, dressed in white. His hands reach yours and you turn your gaze to the crowd. You don't know anyone there, maybe some but most importantly you don't see your father. Your heart hurts, a harsh squeeze makes you flinch and you nod your head. "Their just shy, they mean I do." That was it, sealing your fate and future with him. So much happens, walking side by side, lights and a party. You finally got away, going to the place which felt safe for you, the garden. You close your eyes and remember hearing a voice, it sounds like your best friend, Kazuha. There's no way, that he is here. You hug your knees to your chest, closing your eyes. You want him to be with you. Tears form in your eyes and you hear a voice. "Your the king's spouse? What are you doing here?" A boy with indigo hair, his hair is long. Reaching up to his back and he has soft eyes. "Leave me alone.." you speak out, hiding your face. "Sorry, I am just worried." He says and you blink and shake your head. "A-ah it's fine, I shouldn't get mad at you.... My name is yourname." You introduce yourself, he smiles softly and introduces himself as.....

[long-claw]

minor fire and blood spoilers:

ik fire and blood is meant to be ambiguous at points but there's no way people actually believe daemon didn't have an affair with nettles just because "he treated her like a daughter" considering this is the same man that had an affair with his teenage niece. they were having fucking baths together like come on 😭

daemon saw himself as her father- HE MARRIED. HIS NIECE.

[lotstradamus]

best KJ Charles novels? I have a bunch of long flights coming up…

best standalones:

Think of England - mystery! intrigue! it's safer to be caught in flagrante delicto by one's hosts than to be caught spying, so take your trousers off, my good sir!

Band Sinister - a series of unfortunate events introduces country virgin and landed scoundrel. NO MURDER AT ALL in this one. lowest stakes KJC novel by far (if you don't care about A Lady's Reputation!).

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting - fortune hunter gets sniffed out by his mark's uncle, loses fantastically to him at cards, offers to pay in kind. this one is just. so. horny.

best series:

The Doomsday Books (2 books) - these are so fun. smugglers, hidden treasure, Kent accents, beetles?!, terrible relatives, romance, murder, etc. all that good KJC shit.

The Will Darling Adventures (3 books) - post-war secret society shenanigans, ft. current bookseller, previous vicious killer in the trenches. splashes of PTSD, Bright Young Things, gangsters, the secret service, communists, sidecars. truly rip-roaring. and the sex scenes are top notch.

[hanzajesthanza]

the new witcher novel is going to be mid as fuck. and you know what. i’m so ready for it

[princehendir]

Imagine you're some Inquisition lackey and the Inquisitor, an already famous decorated war hero and ender of the 5th Blight, looks you dead in the eyes and starts confidently pronouncing the x in Val Royeaux. I'd lose my mind.