#luke bateman

[truckman816]

Luke Bateman

[dgct2]

Perfection! Please listen to Luke Bateman's review of Heated Rivalry. He gets it! He gets why we love it. It is so much more than just spice. It is an emotional journey.

Sold to me as a spicy MM romance, but actually this was just a wonderful love story that explored the awkward transition from lust to commitment. While also being a powerful narrative about the barriers still facing gay men in our world—especially in professional sports.

Series Review

[nonethelessinterested]

[finelytaylored]

a retired nrl player talking about heated rivalry and homophobia in men’s sports was NOT on my bingo card but hell yeah

[burlybearsandbeefybros]

[bxriles]

about the Luke Bateman book deal, I really hope he doesn't write like...misogynistic stuff in his books. Don't want to see a 'not like other girls' FMC who hates other women, don't want to see an abusive LI who's seen as better than other cis men because all the others are characterised as misogynistic rapists...hoping he just writes good fantasy. He's been given a book deal, so he needs to use it well.

Jesus I hate tumblr idk why I didn't see this. Sorry for the terribly late response! I swear Tumblr always eats my asks.

But yes, I agree. My only thing is that IF he does write a FMC who "isn't like other girls" or IF he writes a MMC who is abusive but gets away with it because he's hot and has a tragic backstory, then I better not see the booktok/romantasy people frothing at the mouth and condemning him for it unless they also start condemning their beloved romantasy darlings like SJM and Rebecca Yarros and whoever tf has written their latest smutty favorite. This got ranty, so more below the cut.

If he writes the biggest pick-me who isn't like other girls and who is antagonistic towards other women, I do not want to see this fake ass performative outrage. If people can love Aelin/Celaena despite how she treated characters like Lysandra and Kaltain in the earlier books, then they don't get to act scandalized. If people can ADORE Feyre Archeron despite her being a massive "not like other girls" type who goes around wearing wings of Illyrian females so she and her husband can fuck in the sky despite those wings being a metaphor for female genital mutilation, and despite her choice to leave hundreds/thousands of women suffering from abuse and violence in Illyria and the Hewn City, then they don't get pretend to be outraged if Bateman writes a "not like other girls" FMC who hates other women. They don't. Not while they praise characters like Aelin and Feyre.

That's my only caveat. Otherwise, I hope he writes a damn good fantasy book and I hope he doesn't use AI to do it for him. I'm not very optimistic on that second point given how fast his timeline is (only 2 years), but I'd love to be proven wrong. He's lucky enough to be handed a book deal without having done the work of first writing a manuscript, so let's hope he can use his privilege for the best.

[bobirwin22]

[truckman816]

Luke Bateman