#oh and it goes without saying that her brother and eddie are pals too

[rose-n-gunses]

Thinking about Chrissy who finally gets out of her parents' house and goes off to college but didn't realize how much she would miss her brother when she did.

He's the only other person who knows what it's like to be in that house and he's always been her ride or die. They played together when they were little and he stuck by her when she broke up with Jason and lost all of her "friends" and always wanted to hang out with her when nobody else would. He always looked up to her and made sure she knew she was worth it and loved and as he got bigger he'd stand up for her to anyone who gave her trouble.

She lets him come stay with her at school sometimes and she drives him around the city and they hang out like they used to because even though she's got good friends now he's still her baby brother and her best friend and she loves him

[yourprayer]

losers club at christmas hcs

for @kaspdrak <3 

join my 100 celebration!!!

- gonna say this right out the gates bc when its not acknowledged.... im angry

- stan celebrates Hanukkah and the other losers all give him extra presents for it

-  also they love to hear abt hanukkah traditions from stan?? like some of their early days in december are spent sitting around stan’s fireplace drinking cider and listening to him just.. explain the whole holiday & its history 

- stan is very very proud of his heritage and loves that his friends are super respectful and don’t force alternate customs on him (but he most certainly gives them all presents bc he LOVES HIS FRIENDS)

- the losers always have a post-christmas party where they exchange gifts bc they’re all stuck with their families on the actual holidays

- but pre-holidays??? early december??? first snow??? these kids are unstoppable

- im talkin snow men, im talkin sledding down main street, im talkin christmas light competitions

- richie and bill may or may not have blocked off an entire coldesac to build forts for their epic five hour snowball fight

- eddie is obsessed with having the best decorations. this motherfucker will kill to have the best lights on the block

- him and mike team up bc mike is super fast & organized as he staples lights on the roof how?? 

- mike’s family doesn’t really like decorating but they are all for mike helping the others out (and his grandpa actually has a great time when mike takes him on a tour of all the loser’s houses he helped decorate)

- the loser’s driving around in ben’s mom’s car touring christmas lights that are set to radio stations

- eddie’s mom is adamant he Will Get Hypothermia so she bundles him in so many layers he looks like the little brother from christmas story

- which richie talks about for months

- the losers watching christmas story in bills living room 

- “you know im really glad we don’t believe in santa. this guy is fucking creepy”

- “you’re just jealous”

- “jealous of what richie? i get more presents on more days and there aren’t fat angry strangers breaking into my house”

- ben burns everyone mix cds for their presents with songs he thinks they will love

- he has impeccable taste and everyone thinks their mix cds are the bomb

- beverly is the QUEEN of winter fashion

- truly the master of ugly christmas sweaters

- her only competition? eddie, who wears them not to be ironic but because mrs. k makes him

- richie does not know how to dress for the season and is always this close to frostbite & doesn’t even notice

- like this bitch still wears his ratty ass converse in two feet of snow

- bev loves to make everyone pancakes in the mornings after sleepovers, and during christmas time she starts making festive shapes

- ben gets really hype and starts giving her new ideas, like mixing in red and green food coloring

- bill’s bike gets fucked up in the snow quite a few times which gives mike a good excuse to stay over and help fix silver and also hang out with his best fucking friend

- their post-christmas parties are always when parents are out doing after-christmas shopping and last minute family visits so they’re usually unattended

- when they’re seniors richie brings spiked egg nog and they all get trashed in bill’s garage

- christmas crackers with the paper crowns inside (don’t think about how cute richie thinks eddie is in his paper crown)

- everyone gets each other presents bc what kind of friends don’t get each and every one of their pals a damn present

- some of them can’t really afford to go out and buy too many things, but they all regift well (bill’s extended family don’t know him too well so they usually give him random crap, but sometimes he gets something that he thinks his friend will love and saves it for their party)

- bev makes handmade jewelry for the boys every year (they’re all decked out in woven bracelets that will last till they die)

- we’ve already talked about bens cds but i just wanna mention them again bc ben makes the best cds fight me

- mike usually puts together a basket of homemade things from the farm for each of them (bread he baked, jam his grandmother made, wool socks)

- eddie usually gets to shop with his allowance so he gets them each something practical but special

- richie usually doesn’t have any money to get gifts with but he always makes sure to make them all super heartfelt & hilarious cards (which include horrible puns, terrible drawings, and sappy as hell love notes) 

- bill usually regifts or buys them nice things he finds at the mall. honestly psychic with gifts. inventor of the phrase “i saw this and thought of you”

- stan always gets them books. the first party they had he had no idea what to get them because he didn’t know everyone perfectly, so he gave them all old books from his library. they actually played well so every year since he scours used book stores year round to find the perfect book to give

- sometimes they’re joke books (he once gave richie an entire yiddish dictionary because he was being a dick about potato pancakes. richie still uses it regularly)

- speaking of joke gifts, you bet these mother fuckers do a white elephant every year

- bill usually plays nice and puts a good present in, knowing everyone else is going to be savage as fuck

- ben is sometimes kind with his too, putting in something benign like a five dollar bill in a really oversized box. sure it’s a dick to open, but at least he didn’t put underwear in it like richie did one year

- bev and richie are the meanest when it comes to white elephant presents

- like whoever goes the first few rounds avoids the packages richie and bev put in like the plague

- eddie tries to be devious but is actually really bad at coming up with clever shitty presents 

- mike and stan are the kings of putting in the most random crap

- like honestly stan just saves weird shit from his room purges and uses that to confuse the rest of the group

- mike is always a really good sport about getting the crappy presents

- eddie is not

- especially if he gets stuck with whatever richie put in

- “RICHIE I SWEAR TO GOD IF I GET STUCK WITH YOUR USED DEODORANT AGAIN THIS YEAR-”

- “eds, you can’t get gifted something you already have! it’s my toothbrush this time!”

- “e-e-eddie! quit throwing sh-shoes in my house!!”

- ben and bev falling asleep on bills couch at the end of the night in coordinating christmas sweaters bev found

- each of the couples getting each other a small extra present bc they’re in Love

- all of them feeling bad about mike being ‘left out’ so they get him something too

-so mike ends up with dozens of presents at the end of the night and extreme confusion

-but man is he feeling the love

- richie having mistletoe on a stick and holding it over eddies head about every fifteen minutes

- “oh shit eds! we’re under it again! how does this keep happening?!”

- “richie. you’re controlling it.”

- “oh no im sorry i cant hear you over the sound of me being compelled by this unbreakable christmas law”

-”riCHARD”

- bill warning all his friends to avoid his mothers terrible fruitcake

- stan eating it and loving it anyways

- “y-you can eat her f-f-fruitcake without barfing? i kn-knew we were meant to b-b-be”

- the losers at christmas ok

[marisa-writes]

My pals Natasha @wokeuptired and Naureen @wildestdreamsfics tagged me to share the nine best books I read this year. Straight up: all I read this year was romance, something I hadn’t done in many years. But after picking up K.M. Jackson’s To Me I Wed off the shelf at my local Target this summer and falling head over heels for Lily and Vin, I began discussing romance novels with my good friend RJ @boricuamermaid / @madminniefics. Turned out RJ was well-aquainted with the genre and opened my world up to some new books by authors who are women of color that write about people of color, and since the representation of POC in fiction is a passion of mine, I was over the moon about this discovery.

Below the cut, you’ll find my long-winded descriptions for each of the novels pictured (nothing too spoilery, I just…suck at writing quick little blurbs). If romance is your thing and you end up deciding to check any of these out, drop me a line once you’re finished so we can discuss!

I’m not going to tag anyone because I don’t know who hasn’t been tagged at this point, but if you’ve read books this year and you want to share, do it and tag me so I can see!

To Me I Wed by K.M. Jackson - aside from RJ, I have this book to thank for sending me plummeting back into the world of romance novels. I was at Target when I spied this book on the shelf, and after reading the description, I was intrigued. To Me I Wed is the second book in K.M. Jackson’s ‘Unconventional Brides’ series, but it was the first of the series that I read, which might contribute to why it’s my favorite. It centers around Lily Perry, an event planner who, after watching her many sisters take the plunge, reads an article about a woman who decides to marry herself, and Lily thinks it’s a splendid idea. She’s a successful woman; why should she wait for a man to define her happiness? Vincent “Vin” Caro, however, the handsome chef and restaurant owner who Lily shared a memorable series of kisses with on the beach a year prior, thinks it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard when Lily asks to use his restaurant as her venue - especially considering he hasn’t quite let go of that time on the beach, and to be honest, neither has Lily. Between Vin and Lily’s undeniable chemistry, Vin’s grief and Lily’s stubbornness, and Lily’s unforgettable grandmother, Mama Dee, I loved this book from start to finish and have read it since the first time I picked it up this summer, oh…three times now, I think?

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins - I didn’t think I’d really be interested in historical romance, but the premise behind this book intrigued me so much, I had to give it a read. In Forbidden, Eddy Carmichael sets off to achieve her dream of opening her own restaurant, but her plans are thwarted when she’s robbed and abandoned in the middle of a desert. Fortune finds her when she’s rescued by Rhine Fontaine, a successful saloon owner whose African descent is masked by his fair skin, and he lives his life passing as a White man. This, of course, has suited Rhine just fine since leaving behind a past he’d rather not relive, but when Eddy comes into the picture, he begins to think that being truthful about who he is might be more than worth the risk.

Take the Lead by Alexis Daria - Along the vein of Dancing with the Stars, Take the Lead centers around a celebrity-meets-professional dance competition show called The Dance Off. Gina Morales is one of the series’ professional dancers, and in her fifth season with the show, she gets paired up with Stone Nielson, an Alaskan survivalist from a reality television show called Living Wild. For such a large and gruff man, Stone is quiet and reserved, but Gina is determined to turn the season into a win - despite the series’ determination to push Stone and Gina into the narrative of the season’s showmance. While faking a romance for the cameras is sure to help them with the votes, it goes against everything Gina stands for. She’s determined to win on her terms without compromising her integrity, but when Stone turns out to be more than he seems, and that old pesky thing called chemistry gets in the way, well…things get complicated.

Love On My Mind by Tracey Livesay - I read the third book in this series, Love Will Always Remember, first before realizing it was the third book in a series and backtracking to Love On My Mind, which is the first novel. In Love on My Mind, Chelsea Grant, a PR rep, is assigned to revamp the image of a reluctant tech mogul named Adam Bennett after the disaster that was his last press conference for his company, Computronix. With the announcement of Adam’s latest life-changing tech gadget on the horizon, Chelsea is hired by Computronix’s COO, Michael Black, to prepare Adam for the next press conference, but Adam’s reluctance to be “changed” by a PR rep means that Chelsea has to find a way to work herself into his life and offer him assistance without clueing him in to her profession. This, of course, presents a challenge as the pair of them grow closer and Chelsea learns more about Adam and why he is the way he is…and withholding the truth behind her sudden appearance in his life becomes harder and harder to do as it threatens to unravel everything building between them. Now, romance novels are quite well-known for their steamy sex scenes, and there’s a scene in this book between Adam and Chelsea…with windows…and…I had to text RJ and screech about it. We’re still collectively screeching about it. So. Good.

Vivid by Beverly Jenkins - after reading several of her novels this summer, I can say with great certainty that I have grown to enjoy historical romance more than I anticipated thanks to Beverly Jenkins. In Vivid, Grayson Grove mayor Nate Grayson is in for a shock when the town’s new doctor, Dr. V. Lancaster, shows up and is to his great surprise, Dr. Viveca Lancaster - a woman. Nate is stubborn and set in his thinking that men are the most fit to be doctors, and Vivid’s femininity goes against everything he believes about one’s capability to carry out the duties required. Vivid, however, well-educated and entirely fit for the position, is full of spirit and determination and has her heart set on changing Nate’s mind as well as the mind of every backwards-thinking citizen in Grayson Grove as she works to prove herself worthy of being their physician despite their misconceptions about her gender.

Along Came Love by Tracey Livesay - the second in its series, Along Came Love focuses on India Shaw, the foster sister and best friend of Chelsea Grant from Love On My Mind. Indi lands herself in jail after a stupid decision goes south and the only person she can call on for help is Michael Black, COO of Computronix and best friend to Chelsea’s beau and reigning tech mogul, Adam Bennett. The thing is, Mike’s kind of the last person Indi wants to call, considering there was a little weekend fling that happened between them and she sort of dipped out on him. Oh, yeah, and she’s pregnant with his child. As Mike learns of Indi’s pregnancy, he fights to keep her in his life while she contemplates what to do next - their unexpected reunion shaking up Mike’s long-term goals as well as Indi’s short-term ones as it becomes quite apparent to the two of them that despite how wrong they might seem for each other, the chemistry that drummed up that weekend fling hasn’t gone away, not even a little bit. Like with Love On My Mind, there was a scene in this book that just about did me in, and RJ and I are still screeching about that one, too.

Jewel by Beverly Jenkins - Jewel returns readers to Grayson Grove, this time to focus on Eli Grayson, cousin of Nate Grayson from Vivid. Still feeling the sting that has come from the closing of his newspaper, Eli is thrilled when he learns of a man who wants to help him revive it - that is, until he learns there’s a catch: this man offering his help only invests his time and money into men who are married. Eli is…friendly with women, you could say, having earned himself the title of “The Colored Casanova of Cass County,” but a married man he is not. So in order to gain the man’s trust, he begs a favor from townswoman Jewel Crowley - he asks her to pretend to be his wife, just long enough to gain approval and financial backing for his newspaper. Of course, when do these things ever go as planned? Suddenly, Eli and Jewel are swept into a marriage of convenience (or is it?) and there’s also some mystery and murder to be found as someone from Eli’s past breezes back into town, bringing a world of trouble with them. I couldn’t put this one down.

Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai - this novel is the second in Alisha Rai’s ‘Forbidden Hearts’ series, and while the first novel did a great job of setting up the mystery and intrigue regarding the Chandler and Kane families and the hearty history surrounding their once-joined venture, a successful grocery store chain called C&O, the second book pulls readers in deeper as it sets its sights on Jackson Kane and Sadia Ahmed. Chased away by the accusatory eyes of a town convinced that he set the flagship C&O store ablaze in a fit of rage, Jackson warily returns to town to check on his recently-returned twin sister, Livvy. And…well, he also sticks around long enough to look in on Sadia, his childhood best friend, who he’s been in love with since they were young. Sadia, who is a single mother now to Jackson’s nephew, Kareem. Sadia, who is the widow of Jackson’s older brother, Paul. Jackson’s unexpected return stirs up many feelings for Sadia, especially considering she’s been sending him email messages for years and he’s never responded to a single one. But Jackson harbors culinary skills beyond her wildest dreams and his family’s diner that’s been left under her care is in desperate need of a new chef, so when he offers to help her out until she finds a replacement, she reluctantly agrees. There are more Chandler/Kane secrets to uncover in the second novel - like the truth behind that fire set at the flagship C&O - as well as a story of reconnection between two people who always should’ve been more than friends, and I really enjoyed it. 

Breathless by Beverly Jenkins - all right, so nearly half of the books in my top nine are written by Beverly Jenkins, and I have absolutely no regrets. The woman has been writing romance novels for over twenty years and she’s good at it. Those are just the facts. Breathless takes place some time after Forbidden and centers around Rhine and Eddy’s eldest niece, Portia Carmichael. Portia’s making a life for herself as manager of the hotel her aunt and uncle now own in Arizona, and unlike her sister Regan, she has no plans to marry, determined to open her own bookkeeping business one day. So instead of being courted, she spends her time dodging her many suitors until Kenton Randolph, an old friend of Rhine’s, comes blowing through town. Portia’s never been too keen on men, her mother’s history with them leaving her with a sour taste in her mouth, but with the reappearance of Kent in her life and his promises of passion, there’s a good chance she might end up changing her mind.

All of these books are available to read through both iBooks and Kindle, if you’re interested. Happy reading, my friends!

[anythingstephenking]

The House of The Setting Sun

There is a house // In Wisconsin // they call the…. Black House // A serial killer lives there // oh and also it’s a portal to Mid-World.

Ok, doesn’t really roll off the tongue. But after getting somewhat tired of miscellaneous Dark Tower references in mostly unrelated novels, we’re back to being squarely Dark-Tower-Adjacent in Black House, the much awaited sequel to one of my most prized reads so far, The Talisman.

I could. not. wait. to read this. I devoured The Talisman in two days, and humbly equated it to Harry Potter levels in my write-up. It was that good. I may revisit The Talisman again before I finish this project, because the details are muddled in my mind and I miss it so very much.

Well I suppose that’s a lot of pressure to put on a sequel, and I should have realized I’d end up dissatisfied and scratching my head. Because Black House is sadly, not The Talisman.

It took me 2 months to plow through the 600+ pages. 1.5 of those months were getting through the first 200 pages; I finished up the last 400 or so over the last few days. We’ll get to the why in a bit.

Let’s start at the beginning. Jack Sawyer, our hero who saved his mom and the world to boot on an epic journey 17 years ago is now all growns up and a successful detective. He remembers nothing of his past adventures, but his connection with the talisman is a large contributing factor of his success. Touch a magical orb once when you’re 12, blessed forever - that’s how the saying goes! He retires at 31, as one does (sigh), and moves to small town Wisconsin to settle down in an old farmhouse. Dude is LITERALLY living my dream.

But turns out there’s a serial killer on the loose, operating in that same small town (what are the chances, amirite?) and Jack’s pulled in to help solve the case. This guy is killing AND eating children, so like, kinda hard to kick back with a glass of wine and ignore all that I suppose.

If I had known that Black House would be more of a serial killer cat and mouse than a journey back to The Territories, I may have been more prepared. But I wanted another epic quest, and there are no quests to be seen for miles here.

The problem is that the language here is so fraught and overworked. One book review I read claimed that King and Straub appear as two divas on stage, striving to out warble each other and ending up looking like morons. Ok, well I added the “morons” part, most book critics wouldn’t use the word moron. But they did say divas, and I wholeheartedly agree. Where The Talisman wove their writing styles together seamlessly, Black House is like a ham-fisted ham sandwich (TM - me).

I can pretty clearly guess what passages are Kings and which are Straubs, or at least I decided all the stuff I didn’t like was Straub to feel better about the whole situation. The first section of the novel, called “Welcome to Coulee Country” is over a hundred pages of us flying alongside a crow, popping in and out of locations that may matter later but does little in orientating you to anything other than too many words to describe things.

Exhibit A:

“We enter. Mild sunlight filtering in through gaps in the eastern wall and the battered roof paints luminous streaks across the gritty floor. Feathers, dust, eddy and stir over animal tracks and the dim impressions left by many long-gone shoes. Threadbare army-surplus blankets speckled with mold lie crumpled against the wall to our left; a few feet away discarded beer cans and flattened cigarette ends surround a kerosene-burning hurricane lamp with cracked glass housing.”

It keeps going like that for what seems to be about 5 years until we get to the fact theirs a dead child there and her foot’s gone cause some monster fucking ate it. It’s 100 pages of adjectives to get to the crux of it all - there’s a bad guy on the loose and Jack Sawyer is gunna do something about it. Black House kicked around the best seller list for a long time back in 2001, but my guess is that only the most loyal / dark tower nerds made in through the first few chapters.

The book does pick up steam about halfway through once the true purpose comes to life; one of the boys, Ty Marshall, was taken by the serial killer, not for a midday snack but for a higher purpose. He’s a “breaker” and is being carted off to The Crimson King to assist in his evil plans of breaking the beams and ruining not only his world, but all worlds.

And thus we have our purpose - save Ty, save the world. We do get a wonderful cast of accompanying characters, including a handful of college educated bikers, a blind radio DJ, a somewhat bumbling chief of police, a helpful colony of bees and of course Jack.

If The Talisman was an epic coming-of-age tale of adventure and intrigue, I suppose this could be its grown up, darker older brother. Serial killers that eat kids can hardly be considered anything other than super dark. While we dance around who the killer might be (for a loooooong time) we inch towards answers that won’t come until Jack remembers (with some help from his pal Speedy). Un-satisfyingly, we’re told not to care about who the killer is, but why is Ty important, so like WHY HAVE WE BEEN ON THE HUNT FOR HIM FOR HALF THIS BOOK. Sigh.

So, we do get back to The Territories (on page 426, but who’s counting?) which is about the point where the story should have started. We get what we’ve anxiously been waiting for - not a quest per-se but a high-risk rescue mission with a (mostly) satisfying King Konclusion of “Good Guys Win.”

While the story is firmly planted in King’s mythos, it feels rude to pin the bad stuff on Straub because it’s not his universe, but I’m going to anyway because I can and that’s the end of it.

King and Straub promised a trilogy, so there may still be more to come. There were 17 years between the two, which would have put the third on our bookshelves last year. Will keep holding onto the dream.

7/10

First Line: Right here and now, as an old friend used to say, we are in the fluid present, where clear-sightedness never guarantees perfect vision. Last Line: “My heart, my life and my love: welcome back.”

Adaptations:

None - thank goodness. Word on the street is that The Talisman may see the light of day, but I’ll #believeitwheniseeit.

Will leave this here, posted without comment.