#rec 117

Rec #117

This is a story about a neurodivergent-coded young adult female protagonist with a tragic backstory entering a new workplace! She faces discrimination from her peers, having to win them over with her plucky attitude and problem-solving skills!

The secondary main character is a hot older man with scars. He becomes her mentor, and he's distant at first but slowly warms up to her. Eventually it's revealed that his scars are connected to her tragic backstory, and their age-gap slow-burn relationship grows even deeper from there!

The setting is modern-day, the story incorporates social media and the hip new lingo. The author even has a connection to Tumblr! It's educational, too, the author consulted an expert on keeping things realistic!

Rec #118

Think classic stories are boring? What if it had someone who died and Came Back Wrong? What if it had a diverse found family that COMMITS CRIMES TOGETHER?? Doomed love? An evil machine?? Flirtatious duels between men who desperately need therapy??? Women that do magic and fight mercenaries???? What if it had a story of rivals to lovers…. to RIVALS TO LOVERS AGAIN?????

In this boundary-pushing retelling of a classic, the author removes all the boooring historical satire and unnecessary descriptions-- putting the #GirlBoss protagonist at the front of things. As she should be.

It's got action, political intrigue, AND of course, lots of romance!!! :D Fake dating, mistaken identity, AND a love triangle (between a criminal mastermind and a bloodthirsty noble)! Do either of them have secret tragic pasts?? Will there be villain redemption?? You'll have to read to find out for sure, but know the answer is probably yes ;)

Yes! 118 is in the finals! I'm taking that as evidence that if the luck of the draw were different, 117 could have gone the distance.

I hope 118 wins, I'm rooting for you!

I hope more people do check out Dinosaur Sanctuary! It's one of the my favorite manga going right now, and I think it's underrated! The dinosaur art is fantastic and makes them look very cute. Not in a chibi way, but in the same way relaxed and happy lions and elephants are cute at the zoo. And the consulting paleontologist does these huge blocks of text after every chapter explaining the dinosaur behavior in that chapter.

I attribute that to the fact I actually submitted it for the first tournament but I was too obvious about some of the details, so I went over it a few times to make it more vague this time around. I'm glad with how it turned out, but a little disappointed that it looks like it's going to lose in round 1.

But, 118 is a really strong submission, too, so it's just the luck of the draw. I think 117 could have gone the distance if it wasn't up against 118 in the first round.