withquotesplease

[sharowolet]

🐰🐰

[looorien]

Sun and Moon

[looorien]

WangXian

[ghost-kings-court-jester]

I know he can turn it off and on but there’s still something so funny to me about the idea of Hua Cheng, the walking wind chime, getting jump scared by his stealth lord of a husband. Like Xie Lian is just built to sneak up on him. Cause not only does Hua Cheng have a giant blind spot, Xie Lian’s short king status also puts him outta Hua Cheng’s direct eye-line and he’s been a martial artist since he was like 5. He is now 800, and some change. Like, I know he is silent, and I truly wonder how long it takes Hua Cheng to wonder if he should also decorate his Dianxia in bells so he doesn’t scream and embarrass himself because he keeps getting jump-scared by him.

[bubulle-sama]

“..Hn…I am not..” II Mo dao zu shi II Wangxian II Commission are open  

(If you haven’t read it yet, go read the book ! It is amazing)  

[tgcffuckyeah]

Heaven Official’s Blessing - CD Audio Drama

[dualemblems]

New Wangxian official art from MAGIC MART X MDZS collab (they look so beautiful as always 💙♥️)

[sunflower-galaxy-star]

married

[sunflower-galaxy-star]

stolen kiss

[sunderwight]

Imagine you're Lan Xichen. You've spent the past decade+ worrying about your younger brother who, according to your own perspective on things, fell wildly in love with an evil heretic cultivator, kinda betrayed your sect for him, got punished within an inch of his life by your elders, and spent subsequent years in mourning when said evil heretic cultivator got killed.

You're starting to think that your brother is never going to get over this, is always going to be holding onto a certain amount of grief and anger and lonesome distance.

But then one day, he brings another guy home! And, yes, this guy is not perfect either. He's also a heretic cultivator and a notorious lunatic, who is in a bad position with your own situationship. But! Maybe Wangji is finally starting to move on? Even if his bad taste persists, this one is at least more manageable. How fortuitous that your stubborn, obsessive brother should finally find a new yeah no that's Wei Wuxian, isn't it?

It's just Wei Wuxian again.

[withquotesplease]

Literally just read a fic where Lan Qiren basically says the same thing. Maybe Wangji has moved on. It's not Wei Wuxian but he's happy.

Wait, but if he's happy... it must be Wei Wuxian.

Shout out to Auspicious Agony!

Such a lovely story.

[lena-point]

[shadysideshit]

Started reading Mo Dau Zu Shi and wwx literally will not shut up about how beautiful lwj is

[wangxianficrecs]

Under the Silver Moonlight by Aurora_Strands

Under the Silver Moonlight

by Aurora_Strands

M, WIP, 194k, Wangxian

Summary: Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened, unable to look away. “Who is that?” he whispered to Nie Huaisang. “That is Lan Wangji, Second Young Master of the Lan Sect.” Wei Wuxian was enchanted. Not in the fleeting way one admired a pretty face. It was much deeper than that, like a spell cast without words. Lan Wangji moved with the grace of winter moonlight. Wei Wuxian felt as though he had wandered into sacred ground unprepared. His laughter, so easily summoned, caught somewhere in his throat. Even his restless hands stilled. The plot begins 17 years after Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan fell at Wen Ruohan’s hands, when WWX and JC were only a year old. Before his death, Jiang Fengmian entrusted his sect and his children to Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze. Cangse Sanren's role as the Jiang Acting Sect Leader creates a new chain of events. Alliances shift. Fates change. Wei Wuxian still grows up a genius, but also loved and self-aware. The war with the Wen clan still comes. But this time, the pieces on the board are different. This is a political intrigue, but at its heart it is a love story between a love-struck Wei Wuxian and duty-bound Lan Wangji. Kay's comments: Everyone in this story is constantly playing 4D chess. The twists and turns are wild and always hit me in the face and I'm absolutely loving it. I also love Wei Wuxian falling first and his and Lan Wangji's relationship in this story is such a mess, but they are working through it! Also kind of messy is Wei Wuxian's relationship with his mother and I'm curious to see where this leads... Excerpt:“Lan Zhan,” he began, voice trembling slightly, “I know this is not what you would expect to hear from me, and it is sudden, but… I am just going to say it, okay?” He took a deep breath and said, “Lan Zhan, I would like to court you.” Seeing the flicker of confusion in Lan Wangji’s eyes, Wei Wuxian hurried to clarify. “To marry, that is!” He doubled down, cheeks flushing. “With your elders’ permission, of course. I would have my parents send a formal courtship letter. I like you, Lan Zhan, I have since the moment I first saw you, and I would like to know if you feel anything for me.” Lan Wangji froze, motionless, for a long moment. Then, after an agonizing pause, he spoke just one word. “No.”

pov multiple, canon divergence, cangse sanren and wei changze live, dead jiang fengmian and yu ziyuan, love at first sight, angst with a happy ending, political intrique, sunshot campaign, arranged marriage, developing relationship, twin prides of yunmeng dynamics, bamf wei wuxian, genius wei wuxian, inventor wei wuxian, getting back together, lan qiren redemption, cultivation sect politics, top lan wangji/bottom wei wuxian, sect leader lan wangji, bamf jiang yanli, sect leader jiang cheng

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[indanmei]

Yep… still addicted. Damn ^^

[annoyinglandmagazine]

As a massive proponent for more focus on familial relationships in media I am getting fed by MDZS and the Untamed. You’ve got Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, one of the most tragic depictions of two brothers with a complex but strong bond disintegrating into resentment that I have ever seen, of fraternal jealousy and insecurity as a consequence of both being parented badly but in very different ways. Jiang Yanli haunting the narrative.

Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang and the parentification that ends up hurting both them, all that rage that comes from that pressure and need to protect, that vicious loyalty being a given despite it all. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen having a good but somehow distant relationship that isn’t quite what it ought to be despite the fact they clearly care immensely for each other. Wen Qing and Wen Ning and the doomed nature of it all.

Jin Ling is terrified of his uncle, who’s notoriously short tempered and regularly threatens to break his legs, but is shocked at the notion that he’d ever have struck him because he hasn’t, not once. Wei Wuxian teaching him how to fight bullies and worrying that he doesn’t have friends, after knowing him a few months and getting into physical fights with him most of the times they’ve interacted.

Lan Sizhui. I’m not even getting into it right now but holy fuck.

The love. There’s so much love and they don’t all know it, or want it, but it’s integral to understanding the story that you know it’s always there. This might be fundamentally a romance but it feels like it was written with families very much front and centre and it is breaking my heart.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Taste the Love by Fay Stetz-Waters and Karelia Stetz-Waters

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.25/5 Pub Date: July 15th

Premise:

Chefs Kia and Sullivan are reunited years after one culinary school kiss-turned-ghosting. They have their eye on the same plot of land that a big fast food corporation wants to develop, and decide a marriage of convenience is the best way to stop them.

My review:

I don't see "the one that got away" romances done enough— there's less baggage involved than a true second-chance romance, but there's always that niggling sense of "what if...?" running through the character's heads, accompanied by a whole lot of questionably-requited love. And Sullivan and Kia left things off in a BIG way— after a victory kiss at their elite culinary school graduation onstage then BASICALLY ghosting each other, they don't expect to run into one another at a neighborhood board meeting to decide the future of a local green space both Kia and Sullivan have a vested interest in. But when a big corporation swoops in to make a last minute bid, the only way they can stop it is if Kia and Sullivan enter into a marriage of convenience and use Sullivan's legacy homeowner status and Kia's investor money to buy them out.

It's an interesting set-up on an intersectional level: the white chef who preaches sustainability and dislikes food trucks for their not-so-green footprint teaming up with food truck chef who is trying to create a space for diverse cuisines and fight back against gentrification taking away small business retail spaces.... against a big corporation that has the power and capital to outbid both of them, and then turn it into a fast food joint.

And on a romance level, there's this perfect amount of PINING and LONGING even as the two women marry, because it is... meant to be convenient, nothing more at first. Both Sullivan and Kia initially place the other on a pedestal because they never truly got a chance to know each other the first time around because of their culinary school rivalry. But now their forced proximity in order to sell their marriage means they get to see all the hidden sides of one another. Sullivan is stern and serious and competence porn personified— and Kia DEFINITELY thinks so. Kia is equally talented but doesn't take herself as seriously— she's bright and bubbly and the only chef character I've ever read or watched on television who can get away with the monstrosity that is tursnicken (figure it out).

The sex:

The sex is hot, playful, and honestly *quite* creative— who knew the best option for a sexually-frustrated gal with her fake wife in the next room was muffling her vibrator with a pillow and going to town? Kia didn't... until she did lol.

Overall:

For two chefs that were rivals and seem to have very different approaches towards cooking, what I loved is how Kia and Sullivan lift each other up while never letting go of their old competitive spirit and desire to keep doing better. They always respected one another and the way that transitioned to affection and love was a delight to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the advanced copy.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Missed Connection by Tia Williams

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: June 9th

My review:

There are lots of books out there being marketed as romcoms, but reading The Missed Connection might be the closest I've ever felt to watching an old 90s or early 2000s romcom on the big screen. For one, the set up is just as zany: Sasha meets a hot Italian mystery guy on a flight, and ends up accidentally emails her entire casting agency for help finding him— but that's not enough for Sasha. She decides to ask Wes, the ex-private detective who helped her with her stalker situation some years ago, to help find the mystery man too.

Which is a pretty awkward set-up! Sasha and Wes definitely had Something there, even though their paths collided years ago at a pretty rough point for both of them: Sasha was dealing with a stalker and still experiences symptoms of PTSD, and Wes was suffering from career burnout. Their reunion brings back a lot of those very mixed emotions, but Wes agrees to take her case.

In classic romcom fashion where there's two love interests, we get an healthy dose of jealousy from Wes— which veers into morally dubious territory more than once, but I thought Tia Williams did a really good job of writing a hero who is flawed but he's just So Down Bad for the heroine that you can't help but root for him. Because romance genuinely does feel like one of the last genres... last kinds of media, perhaps, where it's okay to be openly passionate and obsessed, I'll always root for characters like this, rather than conflate it with real life expectations and call this behavior *cringe* or *toxic*.

The sex:

Okay but the way Sasha kinda uses Wes for sex is actually HYSTERICAL, even though *I know* time #1 was supposed to be a *tense emotional moment* (some tragical flashback thigh-riding). Time #2 though... WOW. Who knew trying to get off to a guy's voice without... him realizing she's doing it could be so hot? I did laugh.

To be clear, there are more times than time #1 and 2, but honestly those live in my head rent-free.

Overall:

If you're looking for the perfect old-school romcom-feeling romance, complete with the classic nyc backdrop, this is your book! I'd highly recommend as a summer or beach read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced copy.