#the ruin of a rake

[pretensesoup]

Queer books, day 19/30

I've had a day, children.

I feel like this is a weird choice, because it's book three in a series, and you don't have to have read the other ones, but it's odd to recommend book three. But here we are.

Julian Medlock is a guy who is 1/ good at math, 2/ good at business, and 3/ not great at most other things that require human interaction. He was born in India and has malaria. His sister, who regrettably does not get enough screen time in this book) asks him to help rehabilitate the image of her friend, Lord Courtenay, so that he'll be able to see his dead sister's son (now living with someone who dislikes Courtenay).

And Julian tries. He really does. It isn't his fault that people aren't very logical. It isn't his fault that Courtenay is kind of frustrating. It isn't his fault that he, well---that would be spoilers.

Julian is just really charmingly awkward. Courtenay is the kind of rogue who is a giant pile of marshmallow inside that romance literature is littered with, but here I appreciate him despite being a type. All the supporting characters are good. The overall problem is solved satisfyingly. It's gently humorous. There are some gentle allusions to British colonialism and British India and whatnot. It's set in 1817, so high regency. I don't know, what more do you want? It's great.

Key quote:

Julian felt about Courtenay’s looks the way radicals thought about money: that it was deeply unfair and problematic for one person to possess such a disproportionate share.

Warning for on-page sex. And, like, a lot of pining. 10/10, go read it.

#cat sebastian #the ruin of a rake #pride #lgbtq books #lgbtq fiction #queer books #queer romance #mm romance #thirty days of books

[geneseedraws]

Drew some more fanart, this time of Lord Courtenay and Julian Medlock of the wonderful book, The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian 💕💖

These characters are still living rent free in my head... Oh, my beautiful fluffy dressed Regency boys 🥺🥺💕 And Courtenay is my new book boyfriend. He was so fun, you all know I love a roughish scoundrel 🤭💕

#The Ruin of a Rake #cat sebastian #book fanart #bookblr #my art

[author-david-jimenez]

May I introduce you to the concept of

The uptight model citizen x The pleasure seeking hedonist

Such stories may come with quotes as

“You’re so pretty when you’re desperate.”

“Nobody has ever called me pretty. Or desperate.”

“You’ve been keeping terrible company, my dear.”

Or

“I’ve had it with this Medlock business. I’ll happily call you Courtenay if you like, but for God’s sake call me Julian. Now, are you going to let me tie you up or not?”

Now, of you find yourself interested in such a story I wholeheartedly recommend "The Ruin of a Rake" by Cat Sebastin

#ship #ship dynamics #the ruin of a rake #cat sebastian #booklr

[mynameisnowwyrm]

Since I am an out of sight out of mind person, here's a list of my favourite books before I forget

The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

#to be updated #summer sons #lee mandelo #the ruin of a rake #cat sebastian #favourite books

[the-final-sentence]

Courtenay grinned lazily back and got to his feet to stand by his beloved and enjoy the gift of this summer afternoon.

Cat Sebastian, from The Ruin of a Rake

#The Ruin of a Rake #Cat Sebastian

[aurorawest]

Reading update

Once again Cat Sebastian took characters I actively disliked/didn't care about from a previous novel and made me love them. This one was lovely and the twist totally took me by surprise, even though it shouldn't have. A+ Cat Sebastian please write more books (I have totally already preordered her next book).

Who would think a book about living through the AIDS epidemic in NYC in the 80s would be as funny as this book is? It will also tear your heart out and stomp on it. Highly recommended. This was a 5 star read. Also takes place partly in Minneapolis (and is by a Minnesotan author) so it gets bonus stars for that.

Another delightful entry into Roan Parrish's Garnet Run series. This one was the most lighthearted. My only problem with this series is that I kind of don't want the old characters showing up as much as they do. I never like them as much when they're just side characters.

Neal Stephenson...you might want to consider taking a break from writing. Parts 1 and 2 were pretty good - typical Stephenson, though I wouldn't say he's at his best in this one. The science is super interesting (I have no idea if it's realistic) and it's an interesting doomsday scenario. Part 3, on the other hand, was unnecessary and simplistic (Cold War in space! Noble Savage! White Savior!). It was such poor payoff for the first 2/3 of the book that I repeatedly wished he hadn't bothered at all—and that I hadn't bothered reading the book.

Also it was almost 900 pages long.

I didn't LOVE love the first book in this series, but you know, it was good enough for me to pick up the sequel. I was actually enjoying this one more, but it fell apart for me during The Break Up. One of the main characters is basically allowed to get away with his bullshit because...I don't know, he's just Like That. It irritated me.

Despite the printing error, I was able to read this book. I love this series and am sad it's over. If you want a good space opera with a friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again, I highly recommend this one. It's also Very Gay! Plus great female characters.

This is a queer military series so if that's not your thing, you won't like this book haha. So far it's followed two guys serving on a submarine. It's pretty typical Annabeth Albert, and tbh the military stuff is pretty secondary (and in this one there is 0 time spent on a sub). This one has a single dad as the love interest, and while I'm always pretty eh about romances involving children, Albert does it pretty well.

Man was this one heavier than I thought it was going to be. Milo and Marcus both come from very conservative families and meet at Bible camp, where they room together and fall for each other, though neither of them acts on it. Milo decides he's going to tell Marcus how he feels, only for Marcus to disappear from camp. Three years later...Marcus moves to Daytona Beach and starts at Milo's high school! There is a lot of internalized homophobia in this one and a lot of Milo struggling with what he's been taught in church and by his parents, and at times it got hard to read. It was really good, though.

This is one that I kept almost buying because it's pretty, but then I'd read the summary (again) and think, eh. I ended up picking up a used copy at my local indie bookstore, and...eh. Definitely not a bad book. I loved the world, and I really like Lexos. Rhea was...not great. I realized after reading this that I really don't care for the current popular trope of the Unhinged Woman Who Doesn't Know What She Stands For. Like, she's got this thing that's ostensibly driving her, but that thing gets taken away, and now she's empty. I don't know that I've ever seen it pulled off in a way where I didn't go at the end, "Oh, so she actually was just a super flat character all along?" I was trying to think of examples of male characters who fit this trope. I'm sure they're out there but I couldn't think of any. Anyway, I'll probably read the sequel, because the world really was cool, and Lexos is poor little meow meow material (spent his whole life trying to earn his father's love and respect, never could).

Oh man this book was great. The first one had some horror elements, but this one was straight up horror for large portions of the book. Like, action-horror—think Army of Darkness. I love all the characters so much. The bond between Rune and Brand is *chef's kiss*. Male friendship done beautifully.

KJ Charles is like Cat Sebastian in that no one does historical romance like she does. I confirmed once more that I love the interwar period, especially when one of the mains is a Wounded Veteran of WWI. This book actually reminded me of Cat Sebastian's Hither, Page (which is post WWII) which I love, so I was pretty primed to also love this. I'd love to see the further adventures of Archie and Daniel, but considering it was written in 2015, I'm not sure that's going to happen.

I liked this book, but also the dialogue got very annoying at times. Is this how The Kids talk these days? Also rolled my eyes hard at the section devoted to the author getting up on his soapbox to share how he feels Call Me By Your Name is really problematic. But overall I enjoyed it, and the bi rep was top tier, as was the yearning.

Okay so while I enjoyed this book well enough, it would have been half the length if Pons had cut out all of the 'I've never felt so connected to another person in my life' paragraphs. I swear, the main character was constantly connecting with his boyfriend in a way he never had with anyone else ever. The book was very much about Will, but there was some heavy stuff introduced about Graham that I didn't think was really given the due it deserved. But it was a sweet love story, and a story about healing. Also I didn't see the twist coming.

So coincidentally, Call Me By Your Name was right there in my TBR pile as I was reading This is Why They Hate Us. I liked it a lot, though the weird racist interlude really threw me and I can't figure out what the metaphor was or what Acimen was trying to say.

Fam, I am finally reading Dark Rise. It is not gay yet, but I'm only up to page 100. I really didn't know what it was about and only picked it up because Pacat wrote it, so the plot has surprised me so far. Very different from Captive Prince.

#cs pacat #dark rise #cat sebastian #the ruin of a rake #after francesco #brian malloy #the rivals of casper road #roan parrish #seveneves #neal stephenson #american fairytale #adriana herrera #vows of empire #emily skrutskie #sink or swim #annabeth albert #milo and marcus at the end of the world #kevin christopher snipes #in a garden burning gold #rory power #the hanged man #kd edwards #think of england #kj charles #this is why they hate us #aaron h aceves #you & i rewritten #chip pons #call me by your name #andre aciman

[bookbaran]

I feel like Elinor was unfair to Julian at the end of The Ruin of a Rake. I mean, Julian isn't perfect and he was harsh about Courtney, but not wanting your sister to cheat on her spouse with a famous rake is not the same as starting a sweet little romance between two available partners with that same rake. And not only is she unfair to Julian, but her shouting about it nearly outs him at a time when that could get him killed.

#The Ruin of a rake

[pansen1802]

Rake before and after ascendency;

Young Rake and Slichas, Silchas maybe three or four years younger than Rake.

#malazan book of the fallen #Anomander Rake #Silchas Ruin

[crimeronan]

i'm still fucking thinking about faulkner silt verses i haven't stopped all day. i just keep intermittently replaying parts of the ep and working my way thru the transcript. just now i was trying to explain to rafi how elated i was about everything that went down during this ep and rafi, horrified, was like "BUT I - I DON'T WANT HIM TO BE SUICIDAL????" and i was like "rafi. listen to me. i cannot express enough how much the suicide attempt was POSITIVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT."

#SOMETIMES A CHARACTER HAS TO GIVE UP DIE A THOUSAND TIMES FALL TO RUIN AND ROT TO MOVE FORWARS #IT'S SO GOOD #ME HOLDING HIM DOWN IN THE MUD LIKE THE CAIRN MAIDEN: STOP STRUGGLING AND GIVE UP YOU STUBBORN STUPID PRIDEFUL MOTHERFUCKER #faulkner makes me feel several of my most unhinged adam emotions except like. tenfold. #kid i want to bury you in the mud and drown you and drag you up coughing and spluttering to make your sorry ass live #SHAKING HIM AROUND IN MY MOUTH LIKE A FUCKING TERRIERRRR #MY MISERABLE-ASS IDIOT MANIPULATIVE SNAKE DUMBASS-WALKING-INTO-RAKES FAITHLESS PREACHER SON BOY WHO I WANT TO MURDER #the silt verses #the silt verses spoilers #suicide #faulkner

[marble-trees]

This rake I’ve drawn has completely consumed my attention and I couldn’t focus on drawing anymore after it

#but more will come #my stuff #cursed images series #slenderverse #everymanhybrid #emh #the rake #habit emh #jeff emh #jessa emh #Habit has arrived to ruin everything #shitpost #no context yet but I genuinely want that Lizard Man hat so bad- #flag requests/requests are still open!!

[britneyshakespeare]

not until i started reading restoration and post-restoration plays written by women like aphra behn and susanna centlivre did i fully understand romantic comedy on another level. the male love interests are just built better. like as much as i love a midsummer night's dream, if i were hermia i would never risk death or a forced life in a nunnery for lysander. no. hell no. he's just ken. but if i were miranda would i risk my thirty-thousand-pound inheritance to elope with sir george airy? if i were leticia would i contemplate leaving behind my country and my hated old husband i was tricked into marrying the second i learn that belmour is still alive, to live with his banished ass in exile? hm. let me thin—yes.

#text post #tales from diana #aphra behn #susanna centlivre #the busybody #the lucky chance #i think i enjoyed the men and the relationships in the lucky chance moreso than i did in the rover or the feigned courtesans #(the other two behn plays i've read so far) #i loved her characterizations of the women in both plays of course but i didn't quite feel myself in their situations #it was also quite more reliant on the same character archetypes #the modest one ends up with the selfless lovesick hero and the more innocent libertine one ends up w a reformed dashing rake. #and i'm ok w that right? like those tropes make sense. the plots and the witty dialogue are still enjoyable #but i find the lucky chance really upped the stake of the melodrama as well as the foils between the two main couples were more complex #you have one very melodramatic honest couple (leticia and belmour) who narrowly escape ruinous disaster #and then lawfully make their love official (most luckily BEFORE leticia has slept w fainwould and consummated the marriage) #and then you have the much more complicated and comical relationship between mr. gayman and julia fulbank #lady fulbank's marriage is done and done. no averting it. but she unabashedly carries a torch for him #she admits as much to her husband that she still loves him and she doesn't really care who knows #but she wants to be honorable to her marriage bc that's the lot she's chosen in life—his material comfort #and she does use that to the benefit of gayman when he's in financial ruin. #but her two stupid men. her lover and her husband. more or less work together to make her work against her own honorable wishes #she's compromised. and she SORT of gets what she really wants. she willfully foreswears the bed of her gross husband forever #and it's ambiguous whether or not she chooses to cuck him for gayman while he's still alive or what #very interesting ambiguous ending and i've never seen another character quite like lady fulbank in literature from that time #the lucky chance is worthy of far more study and interest than it's received. it's so funny and incredibly challenging #also. men don't hide in treasure chests enough anymore #more plots where men hide in treasure chests. thank you cymbeline by shakespeare and the lucky chance by behn. you guys got it

[gayvampyr]

no one likes “proof or it didn’t happen” people but some of y’all will act like someone asking for literally any shred of evidence to support a claim means they’re evil and taking the other side or some shit and it’s stupid

#sorry if this is incoherent #but y’all are annoying #like yeah if you call someone lesbophobic i want proof #if you call someone racist i want proof #if you call someone anything that isn’t just your personal opinion i want some fuckin evidence #because people on the internet have a bad habit of trying to get others to take their side so they make up all sorts of shit to settle some #personal vendetta #even if it means raking some random persons name through the mud #over some unfounded allegation #and this idea that you’re either with someone or against them and questioning allegations means taking the other side has led to a culture #where no one speaks up or questions why we’re gathering pitchforks out of fear of being the next pariah #like i want more information not because i want to defend the person in question and not because i don’t think bigotry isn’t a big deal #it’s because if these accusations came from baseless mudslinging i want to know because i don’t want to be the kind of person who attacks or #commits libel with the masses without an ounce of thought for myself #and i also want to distance myself from people who ruin peoples lives as pastime or as a way to justify their own personal feelings toward #a person #it is far too easy to turn ‘i don’t like this person’ into ‘this person is a pedophile’ or something on the internet #so sorry for not just taking your word for it #‘just trust me bro’ is not a good defense

[readtilyoudie]

Whether she wanted to or not, Eleanor would tell him what the devil was going on. After all, what good was being trained in the art of war if one couldn’t shamelessly exploit it on one’s family?

Ruined by a Rake (All's Fair in Love, #1) by Erin Knightley

#book quote #ruined by a rake #erin knightley #all's fair in love #historical romance #romance #quote #quotes #booklr #bookblr

[ckygetsjobs]

know dico hated mtv but viva la bam was seriously one of the biggest slays he’s done…

#Slay is used ironically #wish there was a show about him that was ACTUALLY good #like it’s so disappointing that they ruined his show I’m still pissed about that #Especially since lendon AND rake were in it #And everyone knows how I feel about lendon #it was him and HIS friends #Having fun #mtv always wants to ruin his slays #Like he stole viva la bam #It’s his humor

[poptartmochi]

i don't mind doing the heavy lifting wrt Adult Things ie insurance, house closing, storage, etc etc. what bugs me is that most times, my mom is pretty unwilling to help when I run into a wall and don't know what to do

#vent cw #what if i was evil and signed us up for super expensive dental insurance #i won't but. ugh #like i don't mind filling out applications + getting quotes because it's tedious and i'm faster at it #and my mom is going through things as it is. BUT it is difficult to not get a little sour when i'm raking my head trying to understand #deductible stuff and she's watching a cop show super loudly in the next room over all day long! #it's always like this. we all need insurance we ALL need to clear out the storage but in the end it's always me who has to figure it out by #myself >:( why! i don't want to think about this stuff either but fuck me someone has to do it you know T_T #i've asked her to look into this at least 3 times today and every time i go out of my room she's watching cop shows on tv #like...... PLEASE!!! T___T HELP ME!! crikey #for the most part it's fine but when things like this happen i feel so insignificant. like. lol figure it out <3 #and it'd be one shitty thing if i was just trying to figure out insurance for me and you didn't care to help #but this is literally YOUR insurance!!! i could put you in financial ruin so easily doing this but that is an intrusive thought. obvi i #won't but hhhhh. why can't you support me in this T_T

[aurorawest]

I love Cat Sebastian so much.

(The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian)

#the ruin of a rake #cat sebastian #reading tag