✨The Crown and the Flame✨

Welcome to The Crown and the Flame Book One Book Club!

This Book Club is open to ANYONE and EVERYONE. You can participate as much or as little as you want. We will play a new chapter every Saturday, beginning April 12. However, late entries are more than welcome if you are unable to play on time.

[Learn more about how to participate here]

Endings are Hard. But so are Beginnings.

Hi all!

I'm Lil. I'm showing up on tumblr under my own name for once because I was one of the writers for Blades of Light & Shadow 2 and 3 as well as being the designated lorekeeper. (I also worked on Cursed Heart 2 (and was the facial reference for the Fae version of Longclaw, hence the icon), as well as Kiss of Death and Murder at Homecoming, and I was the lead writer on Villainous Valentines and the Blades Tabletop Guide.

I was one of the many people who were laid off by Pixelberry when the Cursed Heart team was dissolved over a year ago now. But my final contribution to PB canon, Blades of Light and Shadow 3, officially finishes its wide release today. The layoff was traumatic for a lot of reasons, but it did offer me the strange silver lining of getting to be on both the brainstorm team for Blades 3 and being the person who wrote the initial drafts of the book. I was not the book lead, to be clear, but I'm honored to have gotten to work for Emi and to have been gifted the absolute privilege to act as an archaeologist in the world of Morella and beyond in Blades 2 & 3. I especially loved writing the lore tablets and found objects like Nifara's letter, Kade and Tyril's poetry and songs (and Kade and Bakshi in general, my beautiful bards), the Old Gods, Mal and Tyril's romance routes, and both Mal and Raine's mental health journeys.

Since I wasn't the lead, not everything I wrote made it in, and there's some stuff that even ended up on my own personal cutting room floor for Blades 3 (mostly due to length). I got nostalgic over the weekend, and found a longer version of one of Tyril's poems that I thought y'all might like to see, so I've included it below as thanks for everything y'all have given the Blades team. You are what made the sequels happen, especially Blades 3.

Because I figure you might be looking for more stuff like Blades now that we've come to what I dearly hope is a bittersweet but satisfying end, I did want to shout out the art I was consuming when we were working on Blades 3:

Anyway. The poetry is below the cut (please be nice. Tyril is a baby writer.) and I'm feeling some kind of way so if you have lore questions (or questions in general), feel free to drop 'em in my inbox and I can try to answer them. They'll be non canon answers and I can't talk about PB's internal processes in detail, obvi, but I did hang around with the fire with Kade a fair time so I know a thing or two. (And if you like any of my recommendations, I'm always up for chatting about them!) P.S. Don't worry about me. I actually work at Chapters now, and my first book was high fantasy as well (primarily Norse and Celtic mythology). I'm also working on a new indie game with some other Pixelberry layoff casualties including some incredible artists, the head writer of the Cursed Heart, The Crown and the Flame, and It Lives series. (They are the same person can you imagine???), and the writer who gave us that scene at Joaquin's apartment in LoA2. (You know the one.) We hope to be able to tell y'all more about it soon.

Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. It has truly an honor and a privilege to work for these characters. And for you.

The end of Blades III marks the conclusion of an epic five-year journey! A quest that took us from the small town of Riverbend, across Morella, to the Shadow Realm, and to the Afterlife. Along with the unforgettable locations, we met the most incredible cast of characters that became our friends, lovers, and maybe even our spouse (determinant). So before I close out the Blades III book club I wanted to host a few more end of series polls! If you have a poll you'd like to see, please reach out, I'd be happy to add it.

Still with it btw

One last Blades day with y’all

From day one 💗

Shoutout to the human Mal-romancing girlies, because I'm just thinking about how he went from fantasizing (and lying) about seducing contessas to being loved by a princess for real

Actually y'all are mad greedy like wasn't it enough to have the Tangled fairytale y'all still had to sweep everywhere else too huh 😭

Some of y’all only romance the white male LI’s and it shows

Let’s see my history.

The Freshman: first time through I went for James (not white). He was sexy and interesting, but thennn they changed his face and he became a huge nerd/dork instead of mysterious like he was at first. Ended up ditching him for Zig (looks white… except he’s Latino so he ain’t really white)😰 My MC was the medium skinned one and in my headcannon she’s Latina

Verdict: not-white, Zig is latino

TCATF: I got Dom and Kenna together (white, though Raydan (he don’t look that white but he ain’t black) was quite tempting…

Verdict: white, Dominic

#lovehacks: Chose Ben. He kinda looks Asian to me but idk? Anyway my MC was the black one with the red hair.

Verdict: white I guess? What race is Ben even, though MC is black

TRR: Liam. Narrative pushed me towards him. I also chose the standard(?) version that’s on the cover because it was on the cover, and he looks most like his siblings, though at first I found the Asian one most attractive.

Verdict: white

Endless Summer: started out with Sean. Got to book 3, hadn’t used any diamonds, and got soo bored of him because he was just so… good and not very interesting. Ended up restarting, going for Jake and spent looootsa diamonds. I was the African American MC.

Verdict: white, Jake, though MC is black

HSS: Went for Caleb. He was the cutest and narrative seemed to push me that way. Never restarted but kinda wish I’d have gone for Michael (kinda like in ES I went for Jake). But it has nothing to do with skin color, I just think they aren’t too interesting. I was the super white MC with blonde hair lol

Verdict: black, Caleb

HSS2: I’m going for Ajay. I was gonna go for Rory (I made him the black one bc I always want to make them black but then they smile and look like a horse. It’s not against black skin but the artists, why do you make them smile like that??? Anyway I was so happy black Rory was just really cute and I was gonna date him). But I found Rory boring and went for Ajay who I love. Ajay looks Indian to me? Is that right?

Verdict: non-white, Ajay is Indian (I looked up the name Ajay and found lots of Indian ppl with that name)

RCD: I went for Matt because well, idk I just did. I’m not crazy about any of those LIs to be honest, though.

Verdict: white, Matt

AME: I went for the “handsome stranger,” though I also messed around with the “beautiful contestant” lol. Again though, I didn’t get too invested in any relationships here. MC was the black one.

Verdict: white, that one dude, and MC is black

Perfect Match: Damien. He’s human and male and they’re cute together. Though I WAS a little seduced by Hayden sometimes… (he was the dark haired white one) but the whole robot human thing was too weird for me.

Verdict: white, Damien

Ilitw: meh I didn’t really like many people from the gang. Ended up dating Connor 😂 I didn’t remember him looking so weird when he came back in ILB

Verdict: white, Connor

Ilb: Danni! I’m playing as a dude this time ha so I went for Danni. She’s Latina so she ain’t really white, technically. MC was the Asian looking dude with blonde hair so he looks like a surfer lol

Verdict: Not-White, Danni is Latina

D&D: Sinclaire ❤️ He’s like my fav LI type, sweet and generous but rough on the outside. Also he’s the only LI you don’t have to spend diamonds on so there’s that… MC was the Asian one

Verdict: white, Sinclaire

Blood Bound: Adrian. Tried to go for Jax but found him dull. I can’t believe I wasted diamonds in that stupid scene where he cooks for you 😩 I have the sexy Adrian, with the middle tone skin. My MC was the Emma Watson lookalike.

Verdict: white, Adrian

Rules of Engagement: Who cares 😂 I went for Leo though.

Verdict: white; Leo

Home for the Holidays: WHO CARES?? 😂 I went for the boss dude tho. Can’t remember his name.

Verdict: white, what’s-his-face

BSC: I don’t care about this book and honestly I could go for Dallas or Sawyer at this point. I def find Dallas most attractive and like his personality, but he’s hardly there and there’s kind of a paywall… lame.

Verdict: undecided but probably black (for Dallas)

Elementalists: Haven’t decided. Probably gonna go for the Draco dude though because he seems most interesting to me. MC is the black one.

TL;DR The majority of the dudes I choose are white but it’s because of their personality and nothing against the color. I like having diverse MCs so I switch it up often. Let people date who they want, but folks, don’t be racist.

Oh and also, even if I do mostly date white dudes in the games (partially due to paywalls around non-white LIs and a higher number of white options) it’s just coincidence since I only choose off of personality. Also also, my husband’s black so I think that trumps a choose-your-own story app 😂

this is it we found the ultimate dumbass

Choices Heritage Post

same ship different fonts (im predictable)

falling back in love with a ship is so fun because it’s like oh that’s why i was deranged about those two. ok then.

OOH IT’S GIVING BLACK MIRROR HANG THE DJ

The Greek mythology book sounds super promising, I just hope they do their due research to do it justice

Happy 6th Birthday, Ride Or Die!

2016 releases

2017 releases

2018 releases

2019 releases

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2024 releases

choicenators will never not trot out the the most embarrassing misogynistic garbage about women reading smutty choices books. my god the woms are reading erotica. shall I fetch the fainting couch? should we call the pope?

the princess of light has drunkenly ordered another text to the princess of darkness