#this divorce arc they're on needs to like hurry up | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fumifooms · 4 months

Text

Marchil crumbs Part 4

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 3 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

Broskis remember when while madly blushing Chilchuck said he’d introduce his family to Marcille, and she madly blushed back thinking she really really wanted to meet them. Marchil W today

Dreams do come true girl!!

The full double page spread has the rest of the Laios party at the table too but i think having the whole picture distracts from the one just this section tells. Marcille is so happy to finally meet them!! Flushing with joy and awe! And chilchuck flushing right back with self-consciousness!!! Desperately trying to keep it casual. Tsundere man probably going "Ok so... This is Marcille my ex-coworker, and here are my daughters... She was really looking forward to meeting you guys but don’t read too much into it girls". The daughters being all dressed up and Puckpatti even bringing flowers and correcting Meijack hehe <3 I know it's because they're at the castle but omg, meeting the extended family energy. You knowww Marcille is gonna ask them so many questions, and try and get to know them…

Also I have remembered TODAY that Marcille has a stepdad… She prob has so many thoughts on being a stepmom then. Leaving it open as to what that could mean for marchil. She certainly acts enthusiastic about families and kids so doesn’t seem like there’s a complex there at least~

How it all started… Not very shippy I just think it’s funny and easy to miss. Her curiosity is PIQUED and what she thought she knew about Chilchuck is shattered. The bicorn chapter is really not long after this one so she must have thought so hard about how his home dynamic was like if she cooked up that ‘if I was Chilchuck’s wife’ rp so soon after & so effortlessly

Hm, you know how snooping into ppl’s personal lives is Marcille’s thing?? Isn’t that like… Not that true outside of Chilchuck though? Like, she never asked about Senshi’s backstory or really asked much of Laios either. We do see her asking their types in romance for example, but from remembrance that’s sort of where it ends. So she concentrates her focus on the nut toughest to crack, the most private and mysterious party member huh (no not Senshi obviously, Chilchuck!!)… Little ‘puzzle to crack’ guy, ‘resistant to being known deeper’ guy. I’m not over how she was salty that he opened up to Senshi more than with her lol

I think I’ve talked about it in the previous crumbs part but I think the bircorn chapter truly is the marchil chapter, and I wanna point out how Chilchuck reallyyyy fell from her esteem because "he cheated on his wife", leading to her being snippy with him during the chapter, BUT when push comes to shove she still hurried to his aid and worried for him and all. This might sound surprising, but I really like this! I think it’s great that Marcille wouldn’t coddle him if he fucked up and showed him a taste of consequences™️, but also not dropping him fully y’know, sticking through thick and thin even if she would not let shit fly. Seems like a healthy sort of devotion or companionship to me! Also her arc through the manga with Chilchuck is warping who he really is with idealization or preconceived notions mostly with his age and whatnot, so this feels like an important turning point of assessing him coldly as an adult who is not innocent at all… Before going right back to seeing him favorably and idealizing him as a great virtuous husband heh. It’s ok he’s harsh on himself he needs at least one person that believes in him hardcore let’s go <3 I’m going into really debatable grounds about morality and healthy vs unhealthy behavior lmao but yeah!! He recovered in her esteem, but she will not just give up on and leave behind this cringefail ass of a man even if he digs his hole so deep and so hard. He already got divorced once his partner would need some… Strong determination~ More on that right away

Which, what is this "I don’t want to look incompetent and I’ll even claim I’ve done things that make me look terrible to avoid it" because uuuuh, they both do it

Let's finally dig into the shapeshifters chapter! Lots of fun stuff to observe in there. Let's start with Marcille's side. There’s how, of course, Chilchuck's shapeshifter of her has her with sparkly hair with detailled shading, and how the reason she got eleminated was because of the spells in her spellbook don't match at all; Which means that personality wise, she was pretty convincing! We don't see just how well Chilchuck's vision of her match though since it didn't get much far. As we see with Laios’ shapeshifter clones, having an accurate shapeshifter is harder than one could think!

Easier to miss and more interesting though!! "It seems like Marcille B has awfully weak determination hmmm" implying Chilchuck thinks Marcille has a strong will. I think it’s especially telling when hand in hand with Chilchuck in an early chapter going "Oops not good I missed [that taking dead Kabru’s party’s wet food wasn’t the best moral decision], that’s Marcille for you." and such, where it seems like Chil sees her as someone who has strong convictions and admires/relies on her for it in some ways.

Funnily enough Chilchuck’s not the only one being flattering about the other's hair, because Marcille's shapeshifter of him's hair is... Fluffier? Throughout the whole chapter too so not just a one-off or a coincidence. Tempting to pat and carress perhaps? It's confirmed to be her shapeshifter of him with the page about it in the adventurer's bible, and it's the one that gets the furthest in the elimination! The lockpicking tools are, surprisingly, convincing enough, and the attitude is also convincing if not for the true Chilchuck being "nastier" lmao. It's idealization due to the fact she has a hard time stopping thinking of him as young, but in a way she both knows him well enough to be very convincing and idealizes him as being nicer than he actually is, not the worst I’ll take it. "Our Chilchuck is a lot nicer! 🥰" help

Have some more of Marcille praising Chilchuck

Defending her honor part 2

Ok now look at the Nightmares extra… Chilchuck would watch her series with her!! He enjoys her type of stories!! They’re on the same page even about plot points and the emotions each scenes inspire!! They would chat during watch parties!! Also this is something Marcille conjured up in her dreams so like, tbh very impressive. Chilchuck enjoying Marcille’s dream fiction isn’t something I ever expected but it sure happened

This is what a movie date would look like

I now declare lasagna the marchil dish. Seriously though I’m so curious as to what else Chilchuck’s pastas could be here. She’s fantasy italian it works out

What is that look Chilchuck… Is this life advice, love advice or what. Like it’s not just me he’s being a little suggestive right, he’s drawing a comparison to womanizers right- Okok so you, Chilchuck, say exactly what reward you want, so that makes you trustworthy ok got it. Lesson learned and she respects his professional boundaries & reassures him so he doesn’t feel as self-conscious/judged from then on.

Being on the same page and acting in perfect synchrony part 566

Looking out for the other part 307, featuring them panicking out of their minds lol (Chil is better at stress management it seems)

& Keeping the other in check part 255

I truly love how casually they treat dungeon lord Marcille. You may be under mind corruption magic and a boundless beacon of destruction at your whims right not but you’re still our cringefail Marcille and we need to look after you

Look at his smug-ass face at having successfully comforted and soothed her in the team effort

What’chu looking at loverboy. What’s up, is her face too close to you for your comfort?

Alright part 5 presumably NOT coming soon, i finally ran out of stuff to put on these hehe. Maybe the anime is gonna change that though

… And then the anime arrived and I already have stuff for a part 5. See you soon!!

part 5 is here broskis

#HAPPY DUNMESHI DAY #Aka Thorden tuesday #Chilchuck chewsday even #Thank u jojosbizarreventoreo for chilchuck chewsday i shall say it every day of my life #dungeon meshi #Spoilers #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #chilchuck tims #marcille donato #marchil #Shipping crumbs

80 notes · View notes

mermaidsirennikita · 4 months

Text

ARC REVIEW: The Duke's All That by Christina Britton

3.5/5. Releases 2/6/2024.

Vibes: "my wife is dead--OR IS SHE?", inconveniently talking parrots, there's only one bed, och aye

Working class guy turned unexpected duke Iain thought he was a widower... for thirteen years. Except oops, his wife, Seraphina, has been alive the whole time. And they're still legally married, whether they want to be or not. Ian isn't very happy with Seraphina, who he believes left him without remorse; and Seraphina isn't any happier with Iain, who she charges with his own betrayal. She's made a happy life for herself, and Iain could upend everything she loves; but there's still something between them, and even getting a divorce may not be enough to stop that.

Apparently, "I thought my spouse was dead" is on trend for 2024, and I'm not mad at it! This book was off to a great start with a reunion between Iain and Seraphina, both seriously pissed. And I do love their interplay, the hurt feelings and the snippiness and the remaining attraction. This is a solid book.

... Which makes it a little more disappointing that it's not everything it could've been. It's a pleasant read; I did like it; and I suspect that some of the people reading this would really like it. But I think it could've hurtled to a different level if there had been just a bit more stretching.

Quick Takes:

--This is the type of plot that does rely on chemistry to make the couple believably matched, and Iain and Seraphina do have that. There's more to their history than their (brief) time as a married couple, and that added to the sense of hurt feelings. They don't quite know each other--I mean, can you know someone after thirteen years of separation?--but they do still have feelings for each other, and that's rather delicious.

--Here's the thing, though. After this really arresting first meeting, you kind of go into this "hurry up and wait" thing. I get why Britton focused on Seraphina's relationships with her friends and her sisters. She's a girl's girl. I love female friendships in romance novels, especially historicals.

However, the focus on those relationships and Seraphina's life without Iain either needed to get cut down a good bit, or it needed to be shifted to another part of the book. For all that these two had a lot of chemistry, I didn't feel like they had enough time together in the first chunk of the novel, and that slowed the pacing significantly. Once we get to them one-on-one, I was kind of frustrated.

--Your mileage may vary on why there's so much confusion between Seraphina and Iain and what they both think of each other. I don't really mind miscommunication and secrets in romance, but I will admit that there is a lot happening here. On the other hand, I don't know that this kind of plot works without it.

That being said, there are a lot of external forces at play. Which again, may work for you. I felt like it was sort of... shoved in there to shift some of the blame off the two of them. I'd rather they both have to come to terms a bit more about being a little (or a lot) irrational. Because feelings!

--I did like how tough Seraphina was, and how willing she was to go to major lengths--including painful ones--to take care of herself and her sisters. It's rough at points, but I respected it, and it made her subsequent feelings and emotional walls more understandable.

Conversely, I found Iain to be a bit more "also ran" but still, he was a solid hero. I kind of would've liked him to be more of an asshole, to be honest. But that's kind of hard to pull off in the current market.

The Sex:

There are a few sex scenes, none of which are bad, but they're also not anything super explicit or super tame. Sort of flowery, but not super flowery, if that makes sense. I do think it could've happened a bit earlier in the book. Like I said, this is a slow burn.

Overall, I don't know that this book made me feel like I MUST read another Christina Britton novel anytime soon. But it was good, and I appreciated the places it went to. If you're into something that touches on the "dead spouse but not really" thing without going too far, check it out.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#romance novel blogging #arc reviews #netgalley #book recs #books #book reviews

2 notes · View notes