Whumpy Book List

Hello and welcome to my first whumpy book list! I am a huge fan of books and I think they are even better when there is whump in them.

The books in this list are all ones that I have read and enjoyed. I have tried to include some of the whump tropes found in these books, but it has been a while since I read some of them and I can’t remember everything that happened in each book. If you can think of any tropes that I missed for any of these books, please let me know and I will add them.

I am also going to include a summary of the books (taken from goodreads) so this list post will get long.

If there are more books you would like to see, please let me know. I will collect books to make another list in the future.

List under the cut…

A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding #1) by Freya Marske

Summary:“Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.”

Whump tropes: Magic curses that cause (seemingly) sporadic increasing pain, sudden onset of magical powers, drowning, attack by waterfowl, threats of unlawful imprisonment…

Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle #1) by C.L. Polk

Summary:“Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.”

Whump tropes: Stalking, broken bones, threats/fears of (forced) magical binding, abusive family…

All for the Game Trilogy by Nora Sakavic

The Foxhole Court, The Raven King, andThe King’s Men

Summary:“Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He’s short, he’s fast, he’s got a ton of potential—and he’s the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.

Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn’t need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.

But Neil’s not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil’s new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can’t walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he’s finally found someone and something worth fighting for.”

Whump tropes: On the run, secret identity, drugging, torture, kidnapping, found family, protective coach and friends…

Warning: *These books (mostly in book two) include sexual assault and mention of attempted suicide. Neither are graphic, but they are present.*

Note:I love these books so much. I read them in December and I have not been able to get them out of my head.

Magic’s Pawn (Valdemar: The Last Herald-Mage #1) by Mercedes Lackey

Note:This is the first book in a trilogy, but I have only read the first one.

Summary:“Though Vanyel has been born with near-legendary abilities to work both Herald and Mage magic, he wants no part of such things. Nor does he seek a warrior’s path, wishing instead to become a Bard. Yet such talent as his if left untrained may prove a menace not only to Vanyel but to others as well. So he is sent to be fostered with his aunt, Savil, one of the famed Herald-Mages of Valdemar.

But, strong-willed and self-centered, Vanyel is a challenge which even Savil can not master alone. For soon he will become the focus of frightening forces, lending his raw magic to a spell that unleashes terrifying wyr-hunters on the land. And by the time Savil seeks the assistance of a Shin'a'in Adept, Vanyel’s wild talent may have already grown beyond anyone’s ability to contain, placing Vanyel, Savil, and Valdemar itself in desperate peril…”

Whump tropes: Uncaring family, sudden (and violent) onset of magic powers…

Warning: *This book includes scenes and talk of suicide and attempted suicide. This one is graphic. *

Villains by V.E. Schwab

ViciousandVengeful

Summary: “Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?”

Whump tropes: Electrocution… (this is one that I don’t remember in detail, sorry)

Obsidian Mountain Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

The Outstretched Shadow, To Light a Candle, andWhen Darkness Falls

Summary:“Kellen Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic-memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council.

Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? The three slim volumes woke Kellen to the wide world outside the City’s isolating walls. Their Magic was not dead, strangled by rules and regulations. It felt like a living thing, guided by the hearts and minds of those who practiced it and benefited from it.

Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City’s dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild Magic-and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side.”

Whump tropes: Terrible father, hunted, sick/wounded, learning to use new magic that is centered around give and take, threats of demons…

Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, andA Conjuring of Light

Summary:“Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.”

Whump tropes: Magic, “one of the last of his kind” situation, kidnapping, protective brothers, White London is creepy…

Note:I adore these books. I know that there are more whump tropes in these books, but I can’t think of them at the moment. Also, V.E. Schwab is the sweetest person and you should go read all of her books.

The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons #1) by Jenn Lyons

Note:The main character of this book is 15 when the book starts (and I can’t remember how much time passes over the span of these books).

Summary: “Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn’t what the storybooks promised.

Far from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family’s power plays and ambitions. He also discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin is not destined to save the empire.

He’s destined to destroy it.”

Whump tropes: Abusive family, attempted kidnapping, hunted, murder, hiding out on an island…

That is all for this list. Thanks for reading. I hope this list helped you find a new book to read. :)

Another note: I know that the whump community loves The Lies of Locke Lamora, but that book and I are fighting and I do not want to include it on my lists.

Robin & Edwin

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

WIP; Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey from A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Here, once again, to complain about an audiobook. I seriously have to get this off my chest so I can let it go.

The audiobook version of A Marvellous Light?

Skip it. Seriously.

David Thorpe is an accomplished narrator, but yikes. This is the least sexy romance novel I have ever, ever heard. He’s reading it exactly like a mainstream mystery novel–not surprising, since that’s what Thorpe specializes in– and it is NOT working for the fantasy setting, or for the romance that’s supposed to be building. The voice he’s using for Robert Blyth is deeply unappealing. I’m trying to imagine any sexy scenes I know are coming later in the story, and I’m actually literally cringing. I have to DNF the audio two hours in.

I think this is probably a very good book. I’ll try it again in print. I rarely think an audiobook narration is so bad that it’s ruining the story, but… Don’t listen to this one.

Hope everyone’s weekend is going well.

XOXO, Earnest

The other day I woke up in the middle of the night realizing I could have posted the art I made for @fahye’s excellent book “A Marvellous Light” anytime in the last two weeks. ANYTIME??

Anyway, I love Edwin and Robin, I really liked making this, and it’s a shame for all of you that Tumblr hates NSFW because this is a cropped version of the full pic :)

books I’ve read in 2022 no. 049

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

“And he paused, in the space between inhalation and exhalation, and invited the magic in.”

robbsredwedding:

whimsicaldragonette:

ARC Review: A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Preorder

Add to Goodreads

Publishing: November 2, 2021

Synopsis:

Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it–not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles–and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

My Review:

★★★★★

I loved this! It reminds me in a lot of ways of KJ Charles’ The Magpie Lord series, but with a completely different relationship dynamic.

I saw other reviews that described this as ‘like top tier fanfiction'and 'a himbo and a librarian’ and really I don’t think I can top that. Because this is those things, and more.

You know how sometimes a story has that indefinable characteristic that just makes you go “ooooooh this is gonna be good!” as soon as you start reading? That’s what happened here. I picked it up because it sounded good; I read it in a day because it was excellent and sucked me into the world completely. Also the writing is just gorgeous.

I love how Freya Marske took the 'secret society of magicians’ trope and flipped it on its head. Robin has spent his whole life knowing nothing about magic. Then he finds out the dead-end civil service job he’s been shuffled into is actually a magical liaison job that includes daily reports to the Prime Minister. Then he’s accosted in the street and cursed over a missing object he knows nothing about… And things spiral from there. Edwin has always been the weakest magician of his family, forced to use actual string for his cradling as a crutch, bullied and laughed at and retreating into books his whole life, and now he’s stuck with a liaison who is cheerfully oblivious to what the actual duties of his job are and comes across as a dumb jock. It doesn’t seem like a promising start to a relationship, but it certainly is delightful.

Ooh, and the cradling! First, a magic system built on cat’s cradle is unique and genius. It made for such a visual experience of spellcasting, with the fluid (or clumsy) movement of fingers through positions, and a shimmering or color change of the air between the fingers. Having Edwin be forced to use an actual string (the horror!) was also great.

But the inventive magic system doesn’t stop there! Later they encounter a secret magic system developed by girls who were shut out of the traditional magic world, this time based on liminal spaces. And that is genius, really. Because liminal spaces are magic, and it makes perfect sense that one would be more open to magic while in one.

The slow-burn relationship was lovely and I look forward to more adventures of Edwin and Robin in the future, as the ending sets them up for this perfectly.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing an e-arc for review

Favorite Quotes:

The only other woman was Trudie Davenport, the sharp-featured brunette with a da Vinci nose and an actress’s high laugh, who even on ten seconds acquaintance gave off the air of a marble set loose in a bowl – always trying to return herself to the centre of things.

—–

“Bel and Charlie surround themselves with people who are in love with them,” said Edwin. It didn’t sound like malice. It sounded like tired statement of fact. “They can’t stand not to be loved.”

—–

“I don’t want to intrude.”

“You’re not. You can’t It’s extremely irritating.” Edwin stepped close, very close indeed.

“What’s irritating?”

Edwin said, “Every time you touch me it’s exactly what I want.”

—–

“One doesn’t need to define the individual if the contract includes all of us.”

All of us. Every living magician in Great Britain. Flora Sutton’s words were the final piece; Edwin’s mind shook itself like a tablecloth and laid the solution out, flat and clear and horrifying. If every British magician truly was descended from the Three Families, then it defined them all on the bloodline level; even more horribly, it negated the need to rely on an individual’s consent, if you constructed the spell properly. A contract was consent, even if it was given on your behalf by your ancestors.

—–

Usually he’d have been tense enough to snap, standing this close to Walt, but his fear had washed out of him. He’d never outgrow it entirely – he’d grown up with it woven into his nerves, a spell cast on a sapling – but he also didn’t think it would ever return to the same extent.

—–

Robin gave him his hands back. Robin gave a grin of open affection and pure relief that brought the sunlight back into Edwin’s mouth for a fleeting moment.

—–

Something about that cracked Robin’s heart into pieces and rectified it with the next beat.

—–

“You,” said Robin. Every time it was easier. It was carving its own groove in his mouth. “I want you.”

—–

And he paused, in the space between inhalation and exhalation, and invited magic in.

—–

practicefortheheart:

I finished A Marvellous Light by @fahye​! And while I will draw Robin & Edwin later, I wanted to start with the ladies, because I really liked them and I hope to see more of them in the next book (KITTY IS EVERYTHING and I NEED more Maud and Addy interactions) - also I gave Addy a saree. I don’t think it’s in the book, but I felt like she would wear one. Also love the Edwardian fashion SO MUCH. 

fahye:

“Unbusheling. A revelation of magic.”

The first book in the Last Binding trilogy, A MARVELLOUS LIGHT is a queer historical fantasy set in an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts and conspiracies.

Coming 2nd November 2021 from TorDotCom Publishing

• Preorder it here!
• Add it on Goodreads here!
• See what some lovely people have said about it so far here!
• Get the first two chapters for free here!

CLOSE READING ROMANCE by Charlotte @romansdegare

Rough Textures and Small Enjoyments: Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light

I’m writing about this book after a recent re-read. One of the things I love about re-reading is that knowing where the plot is going can make you read differently at the beginning. Case in point: this time around, a passage in the third chapter jumped out at me: 

“Edwin ran his eyes twice more over the page and then when the words refused to line themselves up and be seen, replaced the sweep of his sight with that of a fingertip, finding pleasure in the tiny roughness of the paper. Edwin’s collection of small enjoyments was carefully cultivated. When he exhaled his worry he imagined it going up in the snap of the fire. He thought about the meticulous cogs of the Gatling’s clock, and the particular hazel of Sir Robert Blyth’s eyes. 

In the gaps between small things, Edwin could feel his quiescent magic like a single drop of blood in a bucket of water: more obvious than it deserved to be, given its volume. He could breathe into the knots in the back of his neck. And he could feel out the edges of the aching, yearning space in his life that no amount of quiet and no number of words had yet been able to fill.”

I’ve come to think of this passage as an interpretative key for the rest of the book. Not in the literal sense that the author inserted a few lines on page 26 to show readers how to read. Rather, this passage contains in microcosm things that make the writing remarkable across the whole book. There are powerful and slightly unsettling metaphors, descriptions that engage all the senses, and a fictional world so rich in detail that characters can draw on internal references to create metaphors. But even more than that, this passage describes the very feeling of reading itself. The writing of this book feels exactly as Edwin’s reading is described above: a carefully cultivated collection of small enjoyments. Writing textured enough I imagine myself closing my eyes and running a finger over it. So that’s what I’m looking at here: digging in and picking apart exactly how this book’s prose gets its layers and textures and movement.

This analysis was soooo goood!