LMAO yes

Soooo.....Brave the Tempest appreciation week?

Ok so I know @thepythiancourt has been very inactive lately, but I want to put something together for Brave the Tempest like we’ve had with the other books, including an appreciation week and a superlative poll. If I did this would anyone participate? Our last few events had so little participation that it made the work we put into it feel sort of...pointless? I want to do this, but not if there are only like 2 people (including me) participating. Let me know if you’re interested!

Casskin in “Brave the Tempest”

These are preliminary thoughts but I’m shook inside because Karen Chance wrote a FUCKING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP. 

They care about each others’ well-being, including the nitty-gritty like “you need to sleep more than you need sex” and “I bet you are hungry so I found you some tasty dinner.”

They laugh while they’re having sex.

They divide and conquer when it comes to important tasks. 

They can talk to each other about anything. 

They respect each others’ boundaries.

Cassie and Pritkin spend so much time fretting about whether they are good enough, and Cassie feels she is deeply emotionally broken, but they already have a FUCKING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP and IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER. 

I’m so happy because sci-fi/fantasy (and romance in general) is filled with twisted and borderline-abusive relationships, like the one we see between Cassie and Mircea. I’m so happy that this fledgling relationship between Cassie and Pritkin has such a strong and nurturing foundation. 

It was honestly SO important for me that she reaffirmed that Pritkin was the one person she could talk to about ANYTHING. It had always been my favorite thing about their relationship, and that moment in tts when she flat out told him is one of the peak most gut-wrenching and emotional of the series. The fact that this remains true, and that she realizes that she has her confidant (as well as love) back again, makes me absurdly happy.

I have some minor quibbles (anyone else feeling extremely recap weary?) but overall I found BtT to be a pretty damn good showing. I’m in my feelings and I just want to read all the casskin and rheaco fic 😩

I just finished it last night! The excessive recap was my quibble… yeesh I ended up doing a lot of skimming! 

But otherwise, yes. My heart is full. 

I’m going to need to do a couple re-reads before I can fully process. 

I also did a lot of skimming. I don’t know if an editor is encouraging her to put so many recaps in in order to appeal to/assist new readers (which, I mean, what kind of psychopath picks up the 9th book in a series to start with), or if it’s something KC feels she needs to do, but at the end of the day it is an editor’s responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen, and her editors at Penguin are failing her (like they’ve failed her with marketing and ad copy and cover design and everything else). I was a little confused about the mechanics of the chimera stuff, but that’s an even more minor quibble.

But otherwise it’s one of the strongest installments in the series. It felt better paced than the last couple of books, with less wheel-spinning time, and more focused. Aside from the excessive recaps there wasn’t an ounce of fat that needed trimming imo. I need a reread too, but for now I’m feeling all the warm and fuzzies.

Cassie Palmer on the cover of CRYSTAL GAZING

Also known as ‘Tasia has too much time on her hands’

I’m making small edits to and reposting all my fic prompts from here onto ao3, in case you want to see them there.

They’re all posted, in their (hopefully improved) edited versions! You can find them here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rageycakes/works?fandom_id=998880

Anyone else notice how pritkin seems to be the most turned on by cassie when she’s being bossy and aggressive?? I know a bottom when I see one

I was what I was supposed to be.

Caleb Carter, Curse the Dawn

Cassie Palmer, Claimed by Shadow

“You’ll be in trouble when Mircea finds out you gave this to me.” “Probably.” I looked up. “And?” Marco stuck the cigar between his teeth and grinned at me.  And then mussed my hair.