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whumpdoyoumean · 2 years

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Whumptober #21

xxx famous last words

He’s got to get the knife out, he knows that. Come on Nathan, he scolds himself. Move, damn you! A single, quick movement could do it. Would do it, except that the damn thing is silver. He knew as soon as he saw the blade, and not just because of the unmistakable shine. He’d felt the wolf that had been rearing only a moment before suddenly withdraw, as if hoping to hide.

Not that it did the wolf any good.

The assailant was small and light and lightning fast. Nathan had barely been able to avoid getting stabbed in the heart. He wonders briefly if that wouldn’t’ve been a better fate. That, at least, would have been over quickly.

No. He shakes the thought quickly from his mind. It would mean leaving Vlad, and he’s long since decided that that’s something he’ll never do. Not while he can help it. Someone will have noticed his absence by now, or Vlad will come to bed and find him here…Who is he kidding. It isn’t unusual for Nathan to excuse himself from a party early, no more unusual than it is for Vlad to stay up to see the last guest out.

It’ll be hours, he realizes grimly. He tries again to lift his arm (the right one; the would-be assassin at least had the decency not to stab him in his good shoulder), but the silver is doing a thorough job. He strains for a moment, gasping in pain and frustration when he barely manages to move his fingers. And that’s when it dawns on him, fully, that there is nothing he can do except wait. Wait, and hang on with every ounce of strength he has left.

He’s lost a lot of blood. It’s soaked through his shirt and through the jacket Vlad had picked out for him. He can feel it continuing to flow, can feel the warmth of it. It’s the only thing about him that is warm, now that he thinks about it. The rest of him is freezing. The knife is like a shard of ice, leeching the heat from him the rest of his body. It’s a wildly unpleasant sensation.

Nothing living, he thinks, should be this cold.

He wonders, vaguely, if this is how Vlad feels all the time.

A sharp jolt of pain pulls him violently from his thoughts, making him gasp, which, in turn, makes him cough harshly. His mouth fills with the taste of copper, and he feels a bit of blood dribble down his chin.

Damn.

The confusion and shock at the attack are beginning to fade. Fear is creeping in. What if it happens again? The idea of going so long without the wolf again makes his insides go even colder than they already were. And what if, this time, it doesn’t come back? After everything, the loss seems unimaginable, and the heavy ache of grief settles into Nathan’s pounding heart. He feels a tear roll down his cheek and if he had the strength, he would sob.

He’s grateful, at least, that he won’t be alone this time. Assuming…assuming he makes it out of this.

A shiver runs down his spine, and then another. He doesn’t remember a lot of the details of when he got shot, but he remembers this feeling. This horrible combination of helplessness and dread, and pain radiating from his wounded shoulder even as his fingers and toes begin to tingle. His body reminding him loudly, agonizingly, that he’s alive while whispering to him that he’s dying.

Gods, he’s dying.

He blinks, and his heavy eyelids are so heavy. He’s tempted to just let them stay shut.

But he’s not dead yet.

So he pries them apart, raises his chin from where it’s dipped toward his chest, and tries to ignore the shivering and the dizzying smell of his own blood.

He almost doesn’t believe it when the door bursts open and a beautifully familiar figure comes bursting in, the vampire’s presence instantly igniting the hint of a spark in the iciness at Nathan’s center.

“Vlad?” he whispers, grateful that the silver hasn’t totally paralyzed his voice. “It’s still early.”

“Oh my gods, Nathan!”

Nathan lifts the corners of his mouth in an exhausted smile as Vlad crashes to his knees next to him, relishing the sensation of the vampire’s hands on his face, only a little bit concerned at the fact that they don’t feel nearly so cold as they usually do.

“We need to get you lying down,” Vlad says with thinly veiled urgency.

For all the love Nathan has for the vampire’s touch, there is, in equal measure, hatred for the taut concern in his voice and etched into his features. He’s imagining reaching up and running one thumb over the worry lines on Vlad’s forehead when the vampire takes hold of his upper arms and leans him forward ever so gently. Nathan can’t stop a hiss escaping him.

“Are you alright?” Vlad asks immediately, though he doesn’t stop moving. Nathan nods. “Good. Leaning back now…”

One of Vlad’s hands moves to the back of Nathan’s neck and starts to ease him backward. This time Nathan has to grind his teeth against the jolts of pain that shoot out from his shoulder, and is barely able to keep himself from crying out. His breath is coming in little bursts by the time he’s laying on his back, and Vlad’s face is all scrunched up with guilt.

“Breathe, Nathan,” he soothes, tugging the midnight blue jabot from around his neck with nimble fingers. “I’m going to get that silver out of you. But I’m afraid it’s going to hurt.”

Nathan doesn’t have the energy to respond. That should probably scare him, but it doesn’t; he’s just happy that Vlad is here.

Vlad’s hands move away from his face--one presses carefully against Nathan’s shoulder, two fingers on either side of the blade. The other hovers near the knife handle.

“Deep breath, sweetheart,” he says.

Sweetheart, Nathan thinks, and then the world turns dark crimson with blinding pain.

He screams.

xxx

Vlad throws the silver knife aside and pulls the jabot from around his neck, pressing it against the wound in Nathan’s shoulder in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of fresh blood. The smell is overwhelming. The last time he was around anything close this amount of the stuff was the night he sent Elizabeth away.

Looking at the red pool on the floor, he’s fairly sure Nathan has lost more than a gobletful.

“What is going on in h--oh, my gods! Captain!”

Vlad looks over his shoulder to see his sister standing in the doorway, one hand over her mouth, the other bracing herself in the doorway.

“Riya--”

“I heard a shout, I-I--”

“Riya!” Vlad says firmly, and she pulls her gaze from the wounded werewolf on the floor, lifting her wide eyes to meet Vlad’s. “I need you to fetch Doctor Allan. Tell him Captain Northland has been stabbed with a silver knife, and that he’s losing a great deal of blood, and that we need him here, now.”

“H-here?” Riya’s voice is small, and it’s plain that she’s in a state of shock. Vlad can practically hear her mind racing. “In-in the castle? People will see--”

“I will deal with that, but right now my main concern is saving Nathan’s life!” His voice cracks at the end, his emotions betraying him, and it seems to shake Riya somewhat from her stupor. Enough for her expression to change to one of determination and she nods.

“I’ll take the coach, shall I? That would be much faster, a little conspicuous, but--”

“Riya, go,” Vlad interrupts, knowing that his sister will only continue to talk herself into a tizzy if she’s not redirected.

She nods again and disappears into the hallway. Vlad doesn’t hear her footfall; she must be using shadows, then. Good.

Vlad turns his attention back to the werewolf and his heart (the damned thing) clenches in his chest. Nathan had passed out after that soul-shaking scream. His slack face is devoid of almost any color, and it reminds Vlad all too much of how he’d looked before Doctor Allan removed the last remnants of silver from his shoulder. The wadded-up silk beneath Vlad’s hands is soaked through, but the bleeding does seem to have slowed.

“Nathan?” Vlad’s voice gets caught in his throat, and he realizes with dismay that he’s afraid. A very special strain of fear that is tied, intrinsically, to love, which only serves to make it that much scarier. He reaches one bloodied hand up to touch the werewolf’s too-pale cheek, wincing when he marks the ashen skin with scarlet. “Can you hear me?”

He’s not sure exactly how this works; he’d hoped that by removing the knife--the silver--that Nathan’s werewolf healing would kick in, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Nathan?” he says again.

Nathan’s eyes move beneath the lids, and then they open. “I hear you,” he mutters.

Vlad lets out a sigh of relief, leaning forward so his forehead is touching Nathan’s. He stays there a second before he pulls away, moving his hand back to join the other one in keeping pressure on the wound. “You’re very lucky I decided to come and beg you for a dance.”

The corners of Nathan’s mouth lift up into a smile that’s tired, but no less wolfish for it. “Beg, hmm?”

Vlad tries to smile back, but it’s hard when he’s so full of worry. He looks down at his hands and tries to ignore the blood on them. “I hardly think now is the appropriate time for…that.”

“They didn’t say anything.”

“What?” Vlad looks up, alarmed at the sudden change of subject, worried that the blood loss or the exposure to silver might be causing delirium.

“The…the person who did this.” His words are starting to run together. “Didn’t--didn’ say why.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Vlad says. There’s a darkness rising in him. He’d been so focused on the state of Nathan that he hadn’t really considered what had put him into that state. Or rather, who. He’d like very much to find out, though, once Nathan is out of danger. For now, he returns his attention to what matters right now. “Doctor Allan is on his way. He’ll get you sorted out; you’ll be back to causing trouble soon enough.”

Nathan hums. His blue eyes look glassy, almost lost, staring up past Vlad at nothing in particular. “‘m a bit…tired for trouble, I think…”

“No,” Vlad says urgently as Nathan’s lashes flutter, eyes rolling. “No, no! Nathan, stay awake. Stay awake, please, Nathan. We’ve only just found each other, I can’t lose you already.” He feels tears prick at his eyes, hot and stinging. He hadn’t dared hope for a lifetime with Nathan, but now that he’s faced with the very real and imminent possibility of losing him, Vlad realizes that it’s what he wants.

“Stay with me, love.”

xxx

Nathan wakes up with a cry, bolting upright and immediately regretting the action when it sends sharp pain through his left side. He grimaces, reaching for his shoulder only to have familiar cold fingers gently grab his wrist.

“You’ll ruin your stitches,” Vlad chides, brow furrowed. He looks up at Nathan and his expression softens significantly. “Are you alright?”

Nathan nods, leaning back into the pile of pillows, heart hammering. “Yeah. Just…just a bad dream.” For a moment, his mind flashes back to the nightmare--the memory, really--lying there on the battlefield. He shakes his head, trying instead to focus on the pleasant lightness of Vlad’s touch. “I’m alright.”

The vampire doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t argue, either. He takes Nathan’s right arm in both hands and turns it over tsking in disapproval. “Look what you’ve done! Pulled the needle right out of your arm. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, the bottle was almost empty anyway.”

Nathan blinks in confusion. Maybe his head is still foggy from sleep, but almost nothing Vlad just said made any sense to him. “Pardon?”

Vlad’s eyes flick up to Nathan’s. “Do you remember what happened the night of the party?”

The image of the cloaked figure driving a silver knife into his shoulder flashes in Nathan’s mind and he suppresses a shiver. “Hard to forget.”

“Well, you lost a--a rather alarming amount of blood. Doctor Allan had to do a transfusion.”

Nathan isn’t sure he likes the sound of that. “A trans--what?”

“A transfusion,” Vlad repeats gently. He nods toward a clear glass jar on a pole that has a tube leading away from it. “The volume of blood in your body was dangerously low. It was putting a strain on your heart. So Doctor Allan administered a mixture of water and salt, putting it directly in your vein to--Nathan? Are you alright? You’re looking a bit pale.”

“I’m--I’m fine,” Nathan says, swallowing the bile that’s threatening to rise. “I think I just…I didn’t realize how bad it was. How long was I…”

“It’s been nearly five days.”

Nathan pushes his head back against the pillows. “Gods.” The room is starting to spin, and he squeezes his eyes shut in an effort to make it stop.

“Here.” He feels Vlad hand cup the back of his head, and a cup is pressed to his lips. “Drink this.”

Nathan takes a sip and makes a face, popping one eye open. “What is it?”

“Tea. A mixture of Taraxacum officinale and Urtica dioica.” Nathan stares blankly and Vlad gives him a small smile, apologetic and a little shy. “Sorry. It’s, erm, dandelion and nettle. It’ll help get your strength up. Drink it.”

Nathan takes the cup from Vlad’s hands with a thanks and drains it in one go, eager to get it over with. Vlad takes the empty cup and sets it down on the trunk at the end of the bed.

“How’s the pain?” he asks.

Nathan shifts his attention to his shoulder, giving it an experimental wiggle that immediately makes him groan. Vlad’s brow pinches.

“That bad? Do you want me to get you something for the pain?”

“Oh, no.” Nathan shakes his head, remembering all too well the after effects of whatever they’d given him before the surgery. “No, thank you. I’ll be fine. I’m getting sleepy, anyway. But d’you…Do you think maybe you could just come and lie down with me for a bit? Until I fall back asleep?”

He pats the empty space on the bed to the right of him and watches with contentment as the worry that’s been present on Vlad’s face since he woke up melts away, just a little.

“Yes, I can do that.”

He crawls onto the bed and Nathan lifts his good arm so that the vampire can huddle against him, draping his arm around Vlad’s shoulders while Vlad nuzzles his head against his chest.

“You’re warmer,” Vlad murmurs against him. “You were so cold that night. It frightened me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What the blazes are you sorry for?”

“I don’t ever want to frighten you.”

“Yes, well, that’s a part of love, I’m afraid.”

Love. Nathan’s heart soars, the word echoing around in his mind until he drifts off into a peaceful slumber.

xxx

#whumptober2022 #no.21 #famous last words #coughing up blood #hunger pangs #blood #stabbed #nathaniel northland #vlad blutstein #nathan x vlad #whumptober #my writing #my fic #whump

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thesporkidentity · 5 months

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so i have some degree of face-blindness, i can still identify faces but it takes a lot of exposure and effort and i usually shortcut by choosing one most distinguishing feature to memorize. but that does come with the pitfall that clark kent would fool me with his disguise, zoe deschanel might as well have been a completely different person when she cut her bangs, and i have been flabbergasted by the reveal of a character in only a half-mask because it covered his eyebrows

which means that, generally, i just don't really picture characters in my head at all when reading. it's just like, a body and a head, some hair and then the face is just that weird effect from i think doctor who where it's like omg their face got stolen and now it's just a fleshy blur??? but once in a blue moon my brain will, completely unprompted, be like "i know exactly who this is. vlad hungerpangs looks like gong jun" and i'm like why? and it's like

and i'm like yeah damn okay i guess he is. brain still has no idea what nathan or ursula look like as real people but it is decided on that one which makes for a very strange and lopsided mental imagining of scenes

#look i know vlad has a last name and i definitely didn't forget it nope no sir not me #i am shamed but oh well #ETA: BLUTSTEIN!#phangs

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werewolfpdfs · 2 years

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He’s a 10 but he couldn’t get his motion for a designated space for his workers to organize through parliament

#vlad my best friend vlad blutstein #phangs

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throuple-tournament · 2 months

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Nathan/Vlad/Ursula created by @thebibliosphere.

Description provided by @wanderingandfound.

Trevor: the born and bred monster slayer, whose noble family was all killed by a village mob when he was a child, and he is the lone survivor of that massacre. Alucard: the half-vampire son of Dracula who lived a very happy life until the church killed his human mom and his vampire dad went mad from grief. And Sypha: the magician from a travelling people known as Speakers who have a prophecy that basically says the three of them are to team up to kill Dracula.

Description provided by @powerpolyculeshowdown.

Nathan/Vlad/Ursula: For most of the book it's about two of the characters' romance (Vlad and Nathan) and Ursula meets them closer to the end. Their relationship, I think, is supposed to be continued in the next book. They all kiss each other and it's clear from the book that they like each other, and are all open to polyamory.

#throuple #tournament #polls #castlevania #trevor belmont #sypha belnades #alucard tepes #adrian ţepeş #hunger pangs: true love bites #joy demorra #captain nathaniel j northland #captain nathan #nathaniel j northland #captain nathaniel northland #viscount vlad blutstein #vlad blutstein #lady ursula

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joydemorra · 1 month

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Do you ever start something as a joke and lose complete control over your life?

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more... [read the full blurb here]

What is Hunger Pangs?

Hunger Pangs, often shortened to “Phangs” by the self-proclaimed phangdom, is my debut romance novel, published in Nov 2020, featuring a deaf, disabled werewolf, a neurodivergent, mad scientist vampire, and an all-powerful enchantress who is the last of her kind.

It is the first book in a slow-burn, polyamorous gaslamp fantasy romance series focusing on the relationship(s) and antics of the three main characters, Nathan Northland, Vlad Blutstein, and Lady Ursula, as they work to save the world they love from imminent magical and ecological disaster.

The first book primarily focuses on the relationship between Nathan and Vlad, with Ursula heavily alluded to in the next book (Pride and Folly) via some shameless flirting and stolen, impulsive kisses.

No love triangles here. Just three highly competent, world-saving bisexuals sharing the same brain cell the closer they get to each other.

There are two editions of the novel. The Flirting with Fangs edition depicts on-page sexual acts, and the Fluff and Fangs edition which uses alternative scenes/fade-to-black scenes for those who prefer not to read depictions of sex. You can read more about why I decided to do this here.

How Did Phangs come to be?

Like most things on my blog, the original concept began as a joke. My friend and enabler, @jeneelestrange, and I were talking about our least favorite tropes in romance/erotica, including but not limited to toxic “alpha” werewolves, brooding stalker vampire boyfriends, and the absolute profound bullshit that is the Conflicted Love Triangle and Bury Your Gays.

Eventually, it culminated in this post:

(source)

It was meant to be a joke. I really cannot emphasize this enough. It was meant to be a shitpost between friends.

A throwaway ADHD impulse.

Tumblr, however, wanted more of these posts, and like a swarming mass of drift-compatible rats in a trench coat, grabbed hold of my lack of impulse control and Ratatouille'd me into becoming an international bestselling author, and, well, here we are.

I also started writing the series while dying, which I highly do not recommend as a functional creative process.

Absolutely do not start a 500k five-part novel series about love and hope while dying from an undiagnosed genetic disorder. Or if you do, make sure you actually die so you don't have to edit the damn thing. (I am mostly kidding.)

What are the themes/tropes/character dynamics of the book?

In the simplest of terms, Phangs is a queer-polyamorous-paranormal-satirical-romance series featuring vampires, werewolves, and all other manner of creatures that go bump in the night.

It is set in a pseudo-regency meets fake-Victorian Gaslamp Fantasy world, complete with gothic castles, enchanted forests, and just a smidge of industrial coal dust.

Style-wise, Phangs has been described by readers as "like reading the queer, goth love child of Terry Pratchett meets Jane Austen," and I've never been more proud of anything in my life.

If Game of Thrones ascribes to the idea that the night is dark and full of terrors, Phangs is the monster-fucker politely sidling up to them at the bar and asking if they can buy them a drink.

It is also primarily a love letter to fandom, which has led some people to believe it’s fanfiction with the serial labels filed off. But as the person who spent five years agonizing over the world-building, I can assure you this is all very much the product of my weird little ADHD brain picking up tropes, shaking them upside down, and running off with whatever fun and interesting things shake loose.

As already stated, the first book, True Love Bites, focuses primarily on the relationship between Captain Nathaniel J. Northland and Viscount Vlad Blutstein.

The first part of the book primarily focuses on Nathan coming home injured from war and trying to find his place in the world as newly deaf and disabled -- something which alienates him from his werewolf family, who don't know what to do with an injury that can't be mended by a full moon.

While working on the island of Eyrie, he encounters Viscount Blutstein -- Vlad-- a neurodivergent, mad scientist dandy vampire with an enthusiasm for demonic botany and a streak of unfailing kindness as broad and expansive as the sky.

It's not so much love at first sight for the pair as instantaneous lust hampered by the restrictions of polite 1880 society and old ingrained prejudices that make them think the other couldn't possibly be interested in them that way. They're just misreading all those heartfelt stares and sexually charged chess games.

(The love is requited, your honor, they're just idiots.)

Both characters are explicitly queer/mspec, as is Ursula, who drops into their world like a magical atom bomb going off, but not before she spends her own parts of the book desperately trying to figure out what manner of dark entity is killing the magical shrines around the world that keep the world alive.

Thematically, the series touches on many things, but the book’s overriding theme is love. Romantically, of course, and love between families, both found or otherwise. But also love as an act of courage. As a choice. An act of defiance in dark and troubling times, and what it means to be loved and belong even though you’re different.

Especially when you’re different.

And I really fucking hope you enjoy it.

To read the full synopsis and check out the heat ratings, buy links and content tags, go to www.joydemorra.com

#hunger pangs: true love bites #info post #Hunger Pangs master post

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generouslyandrogynousdragon · 1 year

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From the poll:

Even 6 hours after SPNblr was summoned, Vlathula are holding strong, this is honestly amazing given how much of a clean sweep Joy (and admittedly, I) thought it would be.

Mad props to both sides, although I now realise the funniest ending would be a tie.

Also, whoever wins, I may put them up against Cecil/Carlos from WtNV, because y'all have said this is the Destiel website, but if the sexyman contest proved anything, it's that it's also the Night Vale website.

(And to the small minority who have been harassing Joy over this: knock that off, I told y'all to be nice in my notes but that didn't mean go be mean in someone's inbox. Just glad I switched anon asks off and forgot about it until this started. Let's keep this civilised, okay?)

Also, for those of you wondering what Vlathula is, Joy's pinned post and linked posts can explain it better than I can, but here goes: canon queer disabled polyamorous werewolf×vampire×[REDACTED] polycule, set in a steampunk gaslamp fantasy world described as "the queer goth lovechild of Terry Pratchett and Jane Austen" (actual quote from a reviewer).

#supernatural #hunger pangs: true love bites #destiel #vlathula #polls #dean winchester #castiel #vlad blutstein #nathaniel northland #lady ursula

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queer-book-character-tournament · 11 months

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Character, book, and author names under the cut

August Landry- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Vlad Blutstein- Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

Jamshid e-Pramukh- The Daevabad Trilogy/The City of Brass by Shannon Chakraborty

Jordan Hennessy (the original)- The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

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thebibliosphere · 6 months

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Okay, well, I was planning to build up some hype, but

🦇🎃HAPPY HALLOWEEN🎃🦇

Lorehaven Bound: A Hunger Pangs Short is now available on Amazon.

A train ride through the Nevrondian countryside should be a calming proposition, but for Ursula, it isn't. Her thoughts swirl, fixated on one thing... make that two things. Specifically Nathan Northland and Vlad Blutstein. It's not just because they are both breath-stealingly attractive—although to be fair, that doesn't hurt. It's because they surprised her, and Ursula is very rarely surprised.

Even more confounding is her reaction to them, particularly the vampire, Vlad. Just what is she supposed to do about these... feelings?

All Ursula knows is that she doesn't have time for emotions right now. Not when the fate of the world is at stake. She can deal with this later. First, she's got to figure out what story she's going to tell the sure-to-be-furious Alfbern. Then, she needs to catch up on all the sleep she missed before hitting the road again. Surely, she can do those things while being Lorehaven Bound.

This story is a 10,000-word character study/missing moment that takes place immediately after Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites. You will want to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled for the events in that book!

---

💖 Available now on Amazon

💖 Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and more... (links still populating.)

💖Payhip - my personal storefront 💖

Happy reading!

Okay, thanks, love you all, bye.

ID: A red book cover showing a feminine figure standing in front of a steam strain. The title reads Lorehaven Bound, A Hunger Pangs short by International Bestselling Author Joy Demorra. There is a glittery crystal next to the text, and gold decorative swirls adorn the corners.

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aurumacadicus · 5 months

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There are still a week left to read A Darker Shade of Magic, but we’re voting for our next book now so we have plenty of time to get it for the first day of reading on December eleventh! Book summaries are under the cut! Each new title is in bold for clarity.

If you’d like to join the book club, now or for the next book, feel free to send me an ask and I’ll give you the link to our Discord!

(We'll also be voting for our January book immediately after this poll ends because we're doing our first themed month: Author Debuts! Some of the choices are very new and we'll need time to source them, so we're voting on that one early!)

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn’t to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he’d never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn’t been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn’t been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that’s the problem.

Torn by their allegiances—to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves—the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless Lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl… Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg.

She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success – not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined – every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just Jade. I’m not a real hero.”

As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the evil Obsidian gods at bay. Ten semidioses between the ages of thirteen and eighteen are selected by Sol himself as the most worthy to compete in The Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all—they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body used to fuel the Sun Stones that will protect the people of Reino del Sol for the next ten years.

Teo, a 17-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of Quetzal, goddess of birds, has never worried about the Trials…or rather, he’s only worried for others. His best friend Niya—daughter of Tierra, the god of earth—is one of the strongest heroes of their generation and is much too likely to be chosen this year. He also can’t help but worry (reluctantly, and under protest) for Aurelio, a powerful Gold semidiós and Teo’s friend-turned-rival who is a shoo-in for the Trials. Teo wouldn’t mind taking Aurelio down a notch or two, but a one-in-ten chance of death is a bit too close for Teo’s taste.

But then, for the first time in over a century, Sol chooses a semidiós who isn’t a Gold. In fact, he chooses two: Xio, the 13-year-old child of Mala Suerte, god of bad luck, and…Teo. Now they must compete in five mysterious trials, against opponents who are both more powerful and better trained, for fame, glory, and their own survival.

#polls #book club #also you can vote even if you're not in book club i know you guys like clicking things lol

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