Apr. 26th, 2016

skygiants: C-ko the shadow girl from Revolutionary Girl Utena in prince drag (someday my prince will come)
Apparently Anna Cowan's Untamed was Controversial in the Romance Novel Community, and to be honest the plot was total nonsense but I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed the hell and a half out of it.

Untamed's hero is the Cold, Emotionally Tortured Bisexual Duke of Darlington, who has a lot of very public affairs, a harem of hot boys living in his house, and a death-wish. The heroine is impoverished, awkward, plain but extremely well-muscled Kit, currently living with her beautiful baby sister Lydia. Lydia has married a wealthy husband who loves Lydia very much but is big and shouty and regrettably triggers Kit and Lydia into remembering their abusive father; therefore, Lydia is avoiding her husband and banging Darlington. Kit has never met Darlington but thinks he is the worst in all ways. They meet, of course, when Darlington is at a party disguised as someone else.

DARLINGTON: So ... I heard Darlington was a MONSTER. Like, pure evil. Pure evil with an 8-pack.
KIT: lol as if. I heard Darlington was the worst in all ways but, like, stupid ways, you know? Very stupid ways.
DARLINGTON: I find you strangely intriguing.
KIT: Anyway, can't wait to meet Darlington and tell him to stop banging my sister or --
DARLINGTON: Or what? I mean, he's a duke and you're an impoverished young woman, so ...
KIT: -- OR ELSE, is what. I have muscles.
DARLINGTON: Hell yeah you do. *__*

But then Kit accidentally wanders in on Darlington seducing the party's hostess while secretly being not into it at all.

KIT: ...wow. WOW. Nobody should be pretending to be really into having sex with someone when they're not into it at all, it is offensive to everyone involved, that's gross and I'm DISGUSTED.
THE NEWSPAPERS: Darlington seduced the lady of the house, news at 11!
KIT: Also, whoa, that cute guy I was flirting with was Darlington? GROSS.

So Kit marches off to find Darlington and make him promise he'll lay off her baby sister!

DARLINGTON: Sure! I will leave town and leave your sister alone! .... if you take me back to the country with you and let me just like follow you around for a few months.
KIT: That seems like a weird, kind of contrived request.
DARLINGTON: Well, I'm a weird, kind of contrived sort of guy, as you may have noticed.
KIT: Uh, how you gonna work that without destroying my reputation? As you may have noticed, we are kind of sort of technically in something that might resemble the Regency era.
DARLINGTON: Because I'm gonna disguise myself as my beautiful cousin LADY ROSE and just spend the next couple months cross-dressed and fluttering around the countryside in beautiful gowns while leaning on your sexy, well-muscled arms!
KIT: ..... ............ ......................
DARLINGTON: Also I'm afraid of the dark so I'm going to have to sleep in your room with you like besties, is that cool?
KIT: NO IT'S NOT COOL, IT'S NOT COOL AT ALL
DARLINGTON: Too late, I already said I wanted to in front of your mom and brother Tom, who think I'm your beautiful BFF, and you can't turn me down without making it weird!
KIT: oh my god, I hate you so much.
DARLINGTON: Is it because I'm so hot and delicate and you're worried about accidentally compelling me into having sex with you when I'm not really into it?
KIT: A LITTLE.

So Kit and Darlington spend a couple of months as roommies in the country, negotiating their power dynamics and various complex emotional issues resulting from abusive-parent backstories while Kit flexes her protective instincts and Darlington gets weak at the knees about Kit's strength and power and ability to coolly chop wood and butcher a pig, all very much in the constant-emotional-shattered-glass-mixed-with-points-of-high-hilarity vein of Authors Formatively Inspired By Dorothy Dunnett. However, Expandthis summary gets spoilery here )

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