I've been reading fanfic since college and I'm fascinated by how it's burst into the mainstream/the influence it's having on romance as titles get llonger and steamier and trope-driven marketing seems to be everywhere. The trope graphics that I always see authors posting on Instagram are basically AO3 tags in cute graphic form! I'm not on TikTok for many a reason but I've been *loving* your dives into BookTok trends and culture.
thank you, Natalie! I read a ton of fanfiction too and I actually always say that romance trends start in fanfiction even before they move into indie pub and then bubble up into traditional publishing. It's so interesting!
Similarly to that BookTok-er I'll give my assessment as someone who has read everything in the realm of Solaria: Is the writing good? I've DNFed a TON of wannabe romantasy from KU and Zodiac is surprisingly not that bad given the self-pub origins; my biggest complaint was all of the Britishisms coming out of the mouths of the twins (who were raised in Chicago) but the dialogue and page by page writing was not bad enough to pull me out of the story. Is the plot good? I'd say they made it into the SJM uncanny valley: if you look too hard on a close read of the plot and lore plenty of it will fall apart, but it's fast-paced and fun enough to make me not want to look that hard. The character motivations are on the better end of writing that I've found in KU romantasy (don't get me started on the damn mess that is the Beasts of the Briar series). I really liked the long series with interwoven romantic arcs--by the end of the series I had upwards of five prominent couples that I was really invested in. You just have to be willing to put in the time on the front end.
For the spinoff series (both of which are reverse harem), Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac (the prequel) is better overall than ZA, and you get to see the characters pop up later in ZA. Darkmore Penitentiary was extremely meh for me, not essential. Contrary to all of the popular reading orders, I recommend starting with ZA and sticking with it through the end of book 6 or 7, then taking a break to read Ruthless Boys before jumping back to finish ZA. And definitely don't skip book 8.5 before you read 9.
THIS IS SO HELPFUL thank you. I'm still not totally sure I can get past the bully romance thing but I'll stick with it. Also reverse harem/why choose is definitely a topic I'm planning to explore here soon - the recent boom in popularity is very interesting to me.
Amazing! Definitely looking forward to an RH post. There's so much to explore! And there's a crossover topic with some queer (primarily MM) romances, as the cishet white woman gaze seems to be driving (most of) the RHs that feature queer relationships between MMCs as well as many MM monogamous romances that I've seen.
I downloaded a epub of Manacled a while ago, I think it’s time to read it soon! Interestingly, the sisters launched their own publishing company earlier this year.
I've been reading fanfic since college and I'm fascinated by how it's burst into the mainstream/the influence it's having on romance as titles get llonger and steamier and trope-driven marketing seems to be everywhere. The trope graphics that I always see authors posting on Instagram are basically AO3 tags in cute graphic form! I'm not on TikTok for many a reason but I've been *loving* your dives into BookTok trends and culture.
thank you, Natalie! I read a ton of fanfiction too and I actually always say that romance trends start in fanfiction even before they move into indie pub and then bubble up into traditional publishing. It's so interesting!
Similarly to that BookTok-er I'll give my assessment as someone who has read everything in the realm of Solaria: Is the writing good? I've DNFed a TON of wannabe romantasy from KU and Zodiac is surprisingly not that bad given the self-pub origins; my biggest complaint was all of the Britishisms coming out of the mouths of the twins (who were raised in Chicago) but the dialogue and page by page writing was not bad enough to pull me out of the story. Is the plot good? I'd say they made it into the SJM uncanny valley: if you look too hard on a close read of the plot and lore plenty of it will fall apart, but it's fast-paced and fun enough to make me not want to look that hard. The character motivations are on the better end of writing that I've found in KU romantasy (don't get me started on the damn mess that is the Beasts of the Briar series). I really liked the long series with interwoven romantic arcs--by the end of the series I had upwards of five prominent couples that I was really invested in. You just have to be willing to put in the time on the front end.
For the spinoff series (both of which are reverse harem), Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac (the prequel) is better overall than ZA, and you get to see the characters pop up later in ZA. Darkmore Penitentiary was extremely meh for me, not essential. Contrary to all of the popular reading orders, I recommend starting with ZA and sticking with it through the end of book 6 or 7, then taking a break to read Ruthless Boys before jumping back to finish ZA. And definitely don't skip book 8.5 before you read 9.
THIS IS SO HELPFUL thank you. I'm still not totally sure I can get past the bully romance thing but I'll stick with it. Also reverse harem/why choose is definitely a topic I'm planning to explore here soon - the recent boom in popularity is very interesting to me.
Amazing! Definitely looking forward to an RH post. There's so much to explore! And there's a crossover topic with some queer (primarily MM) romances, as the cishet white woman gaze seems to be driving (most of) the RHs that feature queer relationships between MMCs as well as many MM monogamous romances that I've seen.
You have fully convinced me that this series isn’t for me ~ thank you for that 😆 I am now very educated on it though, which I very much appreciate!
Thanks Katy! Happy to help :)
OMG, Brooklyn and Bailey could do a limited edition drink at Sip City with each book they recommend
yes, genius, multi-channel marketing
I downloaded a epub of Manacled a while ago, I think it’s time to read it soon! Interestingly, the sisters launched their own publishing company earlier this year.