#I love the lovers trope BUT yearning rivals is better imo

[dolceminerva97]

BrArg Week 2020 Day 7: Wedding

|| Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 || Day 5 || Day 6 || Day 7 ||

Oh my God Tina, the one time Xavier is *actually* focused and being productive and you start DAYDREAMING

Ah, the tragedy of being a Republic. You can’t marry your favourite country no matter how much you like each other. At least you can always say ‘I do’ in your imagination...

We’ve reached the end of the week and I’m so happy I could draw all seven entries! I’m really grateful for the wonderful support and positivity you have given me. It made all the effort and time I invested on this worth it ♥♥

To conclude the week, I’ll leave with a few words on “why BrArg”?

(note that this applies to my ocs specifically)

 BrArg is the perfect example of the trope “from enemies, to rivals, to lovers”, tagged with mutual pining, slow burn, sexual tension, 97 chapters until they finally give in to their feelings and it’s beautifully satisfying.

But most importantly:

The reciprocity.

The most crucial factor that makes this couple feel so good is that their feelings are reciprocated. 

This is incredibly important for Agustina, because all her life, she has suffered from loving men that couldn’t give her what she wanted: priority.

Agustina is VERY emotionally oriented, she yearns to love and to be loved, and this senseless need to be in love at all times has led her to have unfortunate unrequited crushes and unhealthy relationships, where she always tried to give her heart and got nothing, or very little, in return. Living like this emotionally scarred her, to the point of feeling that she didn’t deserve to experience love. 

And then she found it in the boy whom she always quarrelled with. She would have never imagined he was gonna be the one. As an ‘emotional character arc’, it feels so good to see that my poor baby girl finally ended up in a loving, healthy relationship (as healthy as country relationships can be, I guess) after living an entire life with crumbs of attention.

(As for Xavier, I have to admit I can’t think of previous loves and crushes for him, because most of the important relationships he had were with other male countries, and I can’t genuinely imagine him having naive crushes on other men. His emotional past is still a mystery to me).

Their affection comes from a place of maturity and understanding, because it overcame a long history of rivalry and distrust. They WORKED to like each other. They overcame their pride, prejudices and individuality to find a common goal; they understood, finally, that they were meant to build each other up instead of tearing each other down.

They are very similar yet very different: they were both born from european colonialism, they had to deal with huge territories, with ambition, power and pride in conflictive dynamics with the imperialistic powers that controlled them. They share latin/iberian heritage, religion and general values of western culture. They have shared trauma of the wars they went in together. They lived through the massive, culture-changing influxes of immigration, they each had their own populist leaders and right wing dictatorships, and the list goes on.

And yet, all these similarities played out so uniquely in each one’s lives that they have very different experiences, which makes it more interesting, imo. They’re not too different to end up in a culture clash, but they’re different enough to be intrigued by each other. LOL I said different like four times already 

None of this means that their current relationship is flawless, or completely wholesome. That’s far from the truth— they still have their quarrels and hot headed disagreements, there are still struggles to cooperate when they want different things and end up taking individualistic paths, even their football rivalry can get spicy sometimes. But none of these tensions are significant enough to break the strong bond they’ve built over the years. They know they have changed for the better, and they’re not turning back.

TL;DR: Brazil and Argentina are very hot & sexy together. join my brarg cult.

#aph argentina #aph brazil #brarg #brargweek #aph oc #my art

[aconstantache]

MY FAVOURITE ROMANCE NOVELS OF 2020

HM: The Minute I Saw You by Paige Toon; Fair As A Star by Mimi Matthews; You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle 

10. Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - loved, loved, loved these MCs. They were both so well-realised and multi-faceted. Zafir may be one of my favourite heroes ever and the depiction of a South Asian family here is also an all-time fave?? No boring, tired, sad diaspora vibes? No overused tropes re: Muslims? MIRACULOUS. So Zaf is a romance novel-reading lover of love and Dani is Not About Relationships. Unstoppable force meets immovable object etc etc.

9. Two Rogues Make A Right by Cat Sebastian - the ultimate in hurt/comfort decadence. Literally the entire plot is one person is really sick and the other person spends the entire rest of the book looking after them. LIKE, MAYBE THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT HAPPENS?  It takes a bit to get into it but also the sick one is kinda villainous and the one looking after him believes there’s good in him despite all evidence to the contrary. V good dynamic! 

8.  Wild At Heart by K.A. Tucker - I read and LOVED The Simple Wild last year and was so happy the author decided to write a sequel. I would read ALL the books about these two characters just living their life in this universe. I know Tucker is branching out and writing about other characters in the ‘verse and: eh. I only want to read about Calla riding snowmobiles and Jonah telling her how competent she is I’m sorry!!! Wild At Heart focuses less on romance and more on Calla getting used to Alaska but it’s still satisfying seeing them work out how to compromise and start a new life together. 

7. Beach Read by Emily Henry - I love when a romance novel has a lot of hype and it lives up to expectations (see The Roommate for the opposite, ugh that book was bad.) Honestly I get off just on the blurb of this book: he writes pretentious literary fiction! she’s a bestselling romance author! they help each other write and slowly fall in love at the same time! It also deals with slightly heavier themes and there is focus on a recent death and some other stuff which I know a few people struggled with but there’s plenty of humour and light-heartedness so it all works imo

6.  A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy - It is so rare for me to like every book in a Historical Romance series but Mia Vincy’s Longhope Abbey is 3/3 atm. I loved the first two (as mentioned last year) and this one is an A+ addition (ngl I have qualms about the fourth book but I think MV has won some trust at this point so.) We originally met these MCs in the first book when they were introduced as very happily married and devoted so rewinding to them being conflict-stricken and angst-ridden youths was great.

5. You Say It First by Katie Cotugno - So I simultaneously adored this and also found it irritating. This book focuses on ‘liberal’ Meg who has progressive values and is very involved in things like voter registration phonebanks. She ends up on the phone with Colby who is her age and struggling with his family’s lack of money, his dead-end job, etc and has no time to discuss how the electoral system could help him. From a political point this had the potential to be really interesting but I think it’s pretty mishandled by the author. I think she could have done a much better job at writing a character who has no faith in the political system for valid reaons but like, some of Colby’s opinions are just nonsensical? Also Meg often feels ‘liberal’ in a way that is twee and annoying and superficial. Why did I place this so high when I have such a list of complaints??? Despite all this, the relationship between Meg and Colby is so sweet and satisfying and well-built. Most it it takes place over the phone and I love that liminal space that exists just for the two of them. It managed to outweight my negatives!!!

4.  If We Were Us by K.L. Walther - I know people have had qualms with this book but I still loved it. The boarding school vibes; the friendships; the siblings. Quintessential YA things done well! Sage and Charlie are best friends and would be perfect together (valedictorian types) except Sage is far more into Charlie’s twin brother (v not valedictorian type) and Charlie isn’t into girls at all. Two good, satisfying romantic relationships found here folks!

3. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall - FAKE DATING EXCELLENCE. I think every year I need something new to fill this particular category and Boyfriend Material is a really stellar entry. That being said, I don’t think there’s much actual fake dating going on in this book apart from premise-wise but we move! Luc and Oliver have a good mix of awareness and conflict so you get the Good Stuff TM of them being together and sweet and wonderful while still having to wait for their climactic Get Together.

2. Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon - I’m obsessed with “I’ve hated you all along! Wait... have I?” narratives and it’s executed so perfectly here. Rowan and Neil are two massive nerds and competitive rivals who end up spending their last hours of school together. There is very little plot to this book - it is almost 100% relationship development and hangout time - which is almost always all I ever want from romance.

1. Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson - I read this all the way back in January (what a completely different time in the world!) so it’s a testament to how good it is that I still feel strongly enough about it to give it pride of first place. This is the kind of book - because it’s not reeeeally genre fiction - that seems destined for a sad or, at the very least, ambigious ending but (HA!) it provides a warm, wholly satisfying happily ever after. Anyway if you’re into second chances after decades and decades apart and people communicating through songs and yearning and never being able to Let Go - this is for you!

#romance novels #romance recs