#the forbidden romance!!! pretending they aren't developing feelings!!!!

[praetorqueenreyna]

Ooh, when your lips undress me Hooked on your tongue Ooh, love, your kiss is deadly Don't stop

For Tamlin Week Day 1: Forbidden. Before they became High Lords, Tamlin and Rhysand absolutely had a friends-with-benefits forbidden romance going on, and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

@tamlinweek2023

[walkerismychoice]

Upon hearing about new choices books coming out, I was shamelessly optimistic about Wolf Bride and not so excited about the concept of Foreign Affairs, but oh how my opinion has changed. My verdict isn't in yet on Wolf Bride, but that's the subject of another post. However, I am absolutely loving Foreign affairs so far.

My interest was piqued a bit more after learning about the option for they/them pronouns and having a cover with both a male MC and LI. I decided at that point to go for a male MC in hopes this would be the book to do things right. I know it's still early and there's already some room for improvement (such as including more ambiguous body types and clothing options), but so far I'm not disappointed.

When these stories with gender customization are written, it's often with a default female MC and male LI in mind. Sources tell me that is the case for this as well, but thus far I wouldn't know it. Reading from the perspective of a male MC brings a different dynamic to the relationships that I'm living for.

So first there's Blaine, the one we aren't supposed to like. The forbidden romance trope is a favorite of mine but them both being male (I did chose the neutral pronouns to show Pixelberry there is a market for this but I playing/thinking as if my character identifies as male) reads differently and gives an added edge to a rivals to lovers story. Even though they aren't supposed to like each other, my MC clearly sucks at pretending and both their jabs at each other and their flirty banter are working for me:

And then Tatum. Normally the childhood friends to lovers thing bores me, but this feels different. Again I wonder if it reads differently with the male/male dynamic. Taylor is closed off and angsty which often draws me to a LI because I love being able to peel back the layers as the relationship develops. But them both being male leads me to wonder if some of the angst between them is because of that. Were one or both of them not out when they were younger? Would certain people not have approved of their relationship? Obviously this is reading between the lines on my part as this angle doesn't work with a female MC, but depending on how much backstory we get, you can fill in your own blanks and add more depth to these characters and their relationships. Whatever the case it seems Tatum is holding back and I'm intrigued to know his reasons:

Ayna seems like she could be a solid LI too, but my MC won't be pursuing her romantically.

So basically this book has me excited enough to not only make posts about Choices again but to write a whole ass essay, lol. I hope future chapters can live up to my expectations.