"they're All Just Survivors"

“I think,” he said eventually, so faintly that it seemed like his mind was elsewhere, “you do yourself a disservice by refusing to hope."

The Off Limits Rule (It Happened in Nashville, #1) REVIEW

I am aware that the author tried and poured her blood sweat and tears into this novel so I will TRY to tone it down (that's a lie. I won't tone it down), but if you loved this book, or if you are the author themself, then you should probably stop reading here because this is about to get toxic.

------------ WHOEVER and I repeat WHOEVER recommended me this crap on tiktok needs help (and maybe also therapy but don't we all). Go read The Spanish Love Deception. Go read The Cheat Sheet. Go read LITERALLY anything by Elle Kennedy. For gods sake even Emily Henry is better than this (and that's saying a lot because I gave It Happened One Summer 1 star. This is LOWER than one star, GoodReads, please add ZERO stars because SOME BOOKS DO NOT even deserve 1 star) DONT waste your time on this crap when other authors are doing it sm better smh. I swear to god this is the SHALLOWEST. CRINGEST. MOST ANNOYING AND UNREALISTIC BOOK IVE EVER READ IN THE HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE and that's saying a lot because I spent this YEAR reading NOTHING BUT contempt and romcoms and bad smut and okay fine maybe also a lot of mafia crap but you get my point. The MC was annoying as fuck. Like ma'am you have a child, you don't get to act like a brat all day. I get that you're like 23 and supposed to have fun but you decided to be a mother so ACT like it. Throughout the whole book, Lucy acted like a spoiled teenager with a problem with everything. I feel so sorry for her child for having her as a mom. And having the child was totally unnecessary. Mentions of him were so random and convenient. And SOMEHOW despite being unemployed, Lucy can hire a baby sitter (which she said was expensive as fuck) and can sent the child to daycare (which she ALSO said was expensive as fuck) so like ???? Poor child is being used as the most plot device-y plot device. And Lucy was already annoying as fuck (description in caps to show that Lucy's cute 'n perky just makes me wanna punch her 🙂) but FINE she's a stereotypical WOMEN (more like immature pre teen but we'll stick to what the book says) she gets to be happy and perky and think in all caps. But the GUY jesus christ the GUY he's literally the girl but without the caps 🤦‍♀️ So like perky happy guy goes: ima flirt because OH YAY that's what guys do! But OH NO! She's off limits! HEY HER BROTHERRRRRRR 'n my ROOMIE! Ima date your sis. You mad? Dat's fine cuz TRUE LOVE!!! YAY *confetti confetti* *someone pukes* HOW did people manage to stomach this and even give it five stars???? And the dialogue. OH GOD, the dialogue was so cringy I almost cried from second-hand embarrassment.

“You two do seem pretty different. And you definitely look nothing alike.” Why did I add that last part? Her nose crinkles again with an uncomfortable smile. “Well, most people think he’s pretty hot, so I don’t quite know how to take that.”  I squint one eye. “Are you fishing for a compliment? Trying to get me to flirt with you again?” Her smile drops, and now she has owl eyes. The blush is back. “What? No! I was just saying a fact, not at all fishing. I don’t even really like compliments because I never know what to do with them, and—” ”

Sweetie, stop before you embarrass yourself. (New Flash: they didn't listen) And OWL EYES. OWL FUCKING EYES. STAWP. And all the descriptions. I can't even-- “I step back, pressing myself fully against the scratchy concrete side so I don’t accidentally jump the man stopping a mere three inches away. He smiles down at me and then raises both hands to cup my face. IT’S REALLY HAPPENING?! That’s my uterus screaming this time, and I really hope he can’t hear it. It sounds like a desperate old hag.” Um what? This was literally a random page. Now imagine near 300 pages of THIS. I don't even know what to say.

“But Drew’s warning springs back to my mind like that annoying whack-a-mole game where it keeps popping its head up and you can never hit it with the hammer. If I give in to my temptation and kiss Cooper, it would mean something to me—a big something. I’m already having to treat my heart like a cartoon and grab it by the back of its shirt, holding it in place while it tries to run away from me. ”

A heart cartoon you say??? And a whack a mole??? Are you trying to be cute here??? Because I regret to inform you that you're failing. MISERABLY. I have 300 more pages of this 😭. How is it that JK Rowling didn't get published for like a year but THIS is out here? From acknowledgments:

“Thank you to my lovely editors! Caitlin and Jenn! AH—I’m so lucky to have such brilliant women working on my book and taking great care of it. Thanks for helping me feel good about sending this thing out in the world!”

EDITORS TELL THE DAMN AUTHOR HER BOOK IS CRAP INSTEAD OF "MAKING HER FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT" save her the embarrassment jesus christ. 😭 And TWO editors. NORMAL AUTHORS have ONE editor. How can THREE brains still manage to not FIX this.

do you blame shakespeare for any of it? i blame him for all of it.

i think that we're too busy talking about how "problematic" it is that Rhys didnt tell Feyre her baby could kill her that we don't appreciate how gut wrenching the scene where Feyre almost dies is. Like look at these quotes:

“But Rhys was crying, and tears began pouring down Mor’s face as she gazed at the silent babe in her arms. And then Madja swore, and Rhys— Rhys began screaming.”

“Rhys began shaking his head, his power a palpable, rising wave that could destroy them all, destroy the world if it meant Feyre was no longer in it, even if he only had seconds to live beyond her”

HE LOVES HER SO MUCH. the most powerful high lord started screaming and crying and about to destroy the world because his mate and child was going die and I simply cannot handle this amount of angst (jokes sjm pls give me more angst)

y'all its 10:55 and I have finals tmr and I haven't started studying uh yea no problem at all everything's fine probably shouldn't be on tumblr but why am i here

im not even gonna-- im just gonna say my mouth was open the entire time i was reading this and i cant deal with anymore of this sjmmmmm 💀

HOSAB Spoilers

While I'm reluctant to make too many claims about what House of Sky and Breath might tell us about upcoming books in the ACOTAR series, I think it does make one thing clear: Azriel's book is next.

Let's start with the obvious. Azriel is the one who finds Bryce (HOSAB, 793), and he's the one who wields Truth Teller, the twin weapon to the Starsword (HOSAB, 796).

Anyone who could winnow or fly could have found Bryce at the end of HOSAB. We would have recognized Cassian about as quickly as Azriel, and can you imagine if Feyre had be the one to find her? I don't think that with this moment, SJM was going for the fan screams. I think she was foreshadowing, and I think it's likely that Azriel was uniquely able to detect Bryce's presence, which could have enormous implications.

I know that Nesta will likely be an important character in this arc because of her ability to locate objects Made by the Cauldron, but it's notable that she isn't highlighted in the final chapter of HOSAB. Her powers will come into play, but perhaps they're not central.

Moving on to Truth Teller, we know from House of Earth and Blood that the Starsword needs to be reunited with its twin knife (HOEAB, 458) in order to reunite the Fae. This might mean the meeting at the end of HOSAB, or it could mean more, particularly if Bryce needs to take Truth Teller back with her to Midgard. It could mean that Azriel has to travel with Bryce, or it could mean that Bryce just needs to take the knife with her. If she takes the knife, though, she will likely need to bring it back... especially since it's Azriel's, and this is a character who sleeps with a dagger under his pillow. Either way, this involvement is going to have some impact on his arc. At minimum, Azriel somehow got this very special blade in his possession. It marks him in some way. But it could mean even more.

After all, Bryce has to travel through worlds sometime in the course of the next book, whether to Hel, Midgard, or back to another planet. What we don't know is whether she will go there alone. While any ACOTAR character who can winnow seems like a potential candidate for traveling with Bryce, assuming that that power can link up with the Horn, Azriel seems the likeliest because, as Nesta and Cassian point out in ACOSF, his ability to winnow is different from that of the other characters:

"Illyrians do possess magic on one night a year, though: the night before the Blood Rite, when the war-band leaders can winnow the drugged novices into the wilds. Don't even ask me why that is. No one knows." "Azriel can winnow all the time, though." "Az is different. In a lot of ways." His tone didn't invite further questioning. (ACOSF, 191)

Is it possible that his unique method of winnowing, which, based on ACOMAF (240) and ACOSF (349), seems to be tied to being a shadowsinger rather than the usual winnowing power in Prythian, could make him an ideal candidate to travel with Bryce, with her connection to the Avallen fae?

In terms of knowledge and motivation, there are only a few characters in ACOTAR who seem particularly interested in other worlds: Rhys, Amren, Merrill, Gwyn, and Azriel. Cassian points out Rhys' and Azriel's interest early on in ACOSF (37), Amren has a vested interest and firsthand knowledge of other worlds, and Gwyn is helping Merrill research her theories of other worlds (154). I think it's reasonable to assume that these characters are going to be important during the Bryce-in-Prythian arc.

Incidentally, I also think that this is another subtle hint that Azriel and Gwyn are going to be drawn together more in the next ACOTAR books... but let's assume that happens in ACOTAR5, not in what I think will be Bryce's relatively short stint in Prythian.

Finally, in ACOSF, we see Azriel's "shadows curled around him, snakes ready to strike" (101). In HOSAB, SJM describe's Ruhn's shadows in a similar fashion, writing that, "His shadows swirled up his left arm like twining snakes" (57). Not only are their powers similar (though Azriel's abilities are more like Cormac's with the shadows + winnowing and no daemati abilities), but SJM uses the same metaphor to describe them. She wants us to see this.

While Bryce directly compares Ruhn and Rhys, we know that Rhys' arc in ACOTAR is more or less complete. He also has the bargain with Feyre that leaves him vulnerable, making him a bad candidate to go to other worlds or lead an army. Azriel, meanwhile, feels more disconnected from the Inner Circle (see: his bonus chapter in ACOSF; there are no page numbers, alas!) and, as spymaster and Carynthian, is able to gather information while being an active warrior. There are a lot of possibilities for what he could do! Even if it's just passing along information while he hands Bryce Truth Teller.

In terms of other similarities, this is how Bryce describes Azriel's wings: "Great, black wings. A demon's wings." (793) This evokes Hunt's description of Apollion's wings: "Wings rustled nearby -- not the soft feathers of his wings, but something leathery. Dry." (237)

We know that Bryce needs to go to Hel, and we know now that Hel is not a literal hell but rather another world (758). The comparison between Apollion's wings and Azriel's/the Illyrian's isn't an accident. Since we are likely going to see Hel in CC3, this similarity is likely to be important.

Given all the mysteries that swirl around Azriel, his possession of Truth Teller, his interest in other worlds, and his connections to some pivotal characters in HOSAB, it seems really likely that CC3 is going to set up his arc in ACOTAR5. As SJM once said... it seems pretty obvious.

Won't You Run Away With Me Chapter 1

ITS ABOUT HELION AND LOA!!! IM EXCITED FOR MYSELF

tw: noncon (not graphic)

short chapter, 1K words

Summary: Based on Helion's conversation with the IC in ACOWAR, what happened between Helion and Lady of the Autumn court (because ms sarah janet maas takes two years to finish a book and I cannot wait for her big reveal and no one wrote a fic on this so i'm doing it)

Read on AO3

CHAPTER 1: BEFORE THE WAR

“I heard her family wanted internal ties to power, and that they didn’t give her a choice before they sold her to Beron.” - Helion to Mor, ACOWAR

The fire in her blood is her damnation, for she was about to become the Lady of Autumn, the pretty, silent wife to Beron Vanserra.

There was no choice in the matter really, her father needed the political alliance that came from selling his youngest daughter to the cruel High Lord of Autumn. No matter that she was just 20- a child, barely past her first bleed- and Beron was nearly a century old. And war… war was looming, and her parents certainly couldn’t afford for their alliances with the High Lord to drift. She begged her family for more time, to wait just a few years.

-

“I’ll find another High Lord to marry,” she had pleaded on her knees, hot tears spilling down her cheeks. Her father sneered, the room heating with his rage. “What do you know about alliances? To be married to Beron Vanserra, what more could a female like you want?” She flinched. What more could a girl like you want. Love! She wanted to scream. I want to marry the male I love! But what did she know? Her sisters, watching behind a half closed door, looked at her with eyes full of pity and knowing. Knowing, for the male she had met at the equinox ball who had charmed her with his warm smile and bright eyes. The son of the High Lord of the Day Court. Helion Spellcleaver. Her father barely gave his weeping daughter another look before winnowing out of the room. He did not notice the crumpled letter she held in her hands and the unfamiliar necklace hidden beneath her dress. He did not wait for her to reveal the male that has been courting her for almost a year. She threw the letter into the fireplace and weeped. The fire eagerly swallowed up the letter. A declaration of love, a promise turned into ash. - The wedding is a relatively quiet ceremony with just Beron’s most important lords. The commoners would hear of this later, through an official proclamation. It was a relief that no one else would witness her humiliation, though she supposed no one really cared who she was as long as she kept Beron happy.

That was her job now, to keep a high lord happy. To look pretty, have a few children and pray and hope the lord would not tire of her too soon. She supposed there were worst things in the world. Beron’s servants were silent as they prepared her for the wedding, they kept their eyes down, deft hands dressing her without so much as an extra glance for the female marrying their high lord. Perhaps they were glad that with her as Beron’s wife, he would be otherwise occupied, in the bedroom at least.

She was not oblivious to Beron’s temper and the commoners’-- and rest of the court for that matter-- contempt toward Beron. For good reason too, she had heard of how he treated his servant, and how he ensured that people who spoke against him promptly disappeared. The few times she had gone to the countryside were even worse- though she secretly agreed that the farmers’ outright hatred for the lord was justified- they were paid barely more than what it took them to buy their crops, while Beron and other lords in the capital were drowning in finery and wasting the food that should’ve gone to the hungry people.

She was also under no illusion that the lord would grow to feel even an inkling of love for her, knew that she was nothing but a prized breeding mare. She wanted to ask the servant girls how they survived, how she could survive. But as the servants finished putting her hair into twist on her head, the words stuck in her throat. She gave them a thankful nod, and looked in the mirror. She did not recognize who stared back. She was led out by an armed sentry, as she looked back at the servant girls, she was surprised to find that there were tears brimming in their eyes. The girls caught her staring and promptly looked down, expressionless once again. She wondered whether someday she would look like that too.

Suddenly, she couldn’t help but wish that a certain amber eyed male would come a save her.

- She did not remember what happened exactly during the ceremony other than the murmured thanks to the halfhearted congratulations thrown her way. She had been lost in a crowd of lords trying to gain Beron’s favor, the dress making it her for her to disappear back into her room.

Her room.

She did not share a room with the lord, even now that they’re married. Beron had barely spared her a second glance after the crowds had dispersed. He winnowed away to cauldron knows where, as if he could barely stand the sight of her. It was a sentry who saw her confused expression and led her to her room, then told her that Beron would seek her out when he wished. Or she would be summoned to the High Lord’s quarters.

To be summoned like a dog. She almost let slip. But the sentry did not deserve her anger. So she simply nodded her thanks and went into her room.

-- The first night was the hardest. Beron had, in fact, seeked her out. She did not make a sound as Beron made her undress. She did not let out the tears that threatened to spill out. She did not let herself feel what was happening. But it was afterward when the door slammed shut and she was left alone in that cold, unfamiliar bed that she realized, truly realized, that this was her life now. She was the High Lord’s possession, his to treat however he wished.

And there was not one damn thing she could do about it.

star do you like dem

she drew a little star in the air for “you drew stars around my scars” but being an obsessed fan means i know that’s actually not how she draws her stars