I've just got round to finishing Dark Heir and have been reading the discussions but I've not seen anyone mention this - did the Elder Steward (and by extension, Grace) know that Will is the Dark King?

The way she phrased things and the way she acted made me feel that she did, and that she told Grace because Grace has also been very shifty and mysterious so far. She also mentioned something about how the attack on the Hall wasn't their darkest hour (from Dark Rise):

“I thought in their darkest hour the king was supposed to appear. Isn’t that what Stewards believe?” said Violet bitterly. “That they’ll call for the King, and the King will answer?” Grace was looking back at her strangely,

How does she do it? The world building is yet another area I find exemplary. Very rarely will you get paragraphs, or even sentences, of exposition, yet the world is so rich and detailed. How?!

The scenes, cases, and so forth are very carefully set up to allow us to see as much of the world as possible through the characters' eyes, and it's often their opinions that tell us more about the world than simple descriptions of the thing itself. Fresh, unprocessed food being a luxury. Legally mandated contraception being a norm. A big part of the grimness of the world is just how normal things like lifelong corporate contracts and "security files" are, and this style of worldbuilding is excellent

Coming from books with sex scenes that are either fade to black or lengthy blow-by-blows, the ones in TA are so different. They're exemplary! The descriptions are minimal — no straining cocks or breathless moans or anything — yet it somehow still feels very explicit. They also don't follow the usual formula of stepping through all the actions/reactions of each character in that hyper focused way. There's a very meaningful level of focus that's used when constructing the scenes, which means that large chunks of action may be experienced by the reader in just a sentence, or skipped entirely if not deemed important enough. This feels almost sacrilegious for a sex scene yet I find myself using

So it's probably past time I did a review for this series given that I rec it everywhere*, but it's just so damn difficult to cover everything I want to say! So bear with me a bit.

One of the things that seems to confuse people most is what the series is actually about, so I'll start there.

The author, Manna Francis, has said that she is fascinated by the idea of the "minions of baddies". Her example: the Stormtroopers. They don't appear to be inherently bad individuals. Do they know they're working for an evil Federation? Do they not care? What do they do in their free time? Do they find love and have happy family lives in the background? This, I think, is the premise of The Administrati

For my first full read through I posted my week-by-week thoughts to r/MM_RomanceBooks. I've collated them below.

• Week 1: Mind Fuck, Unlucky Break

• Week 2: Quid Pro Quo - Mirror Mirror

• Week 3: Game, Set - Wait For It

• Week 4: Caged - Sunday

• Week 5: Paws For Thought, First Against The Wall

• [Week 6: Family Values - Prodigal](https://ww

This was the point at which I lost all sense of objectivity for these characters.

Fucking. Carnac.

Just when Toreth and Warwick are making a bit of sweet, sweet progress, this bastard comes and fucks them over. I still get anxiety thinking at how close he got to succeeding. Jesus.

This is one of my favourites, but I can't reread it too much for fear of sending myself to an early grave.

Also late realisations:

• Jean-Baptiste Carnac is from France. Toreth and Warwick are English. French vs English!
• Carnac/Warwick/Toreth are in a screwed up love triangle. A LOVE TRIANGLE.

Words cannot describe how awed I am by this series. I've known about The Administration for a long time but only decided to try it again last year and wow, it completely took over my life and I'm still not over it now. I really regret not trying it again years ago when it was at peak popularity because I would've had more people to discuss it with back then!

It's so, so rare for me to find an M/M that excels on so many levels. The genre bending of dystopia, mystery, and romance is amazing. The characterisations are pitch perfect. The world building, from the family units to the god-like corporate entities, all make sense in a way that I never knew I needed. The suppositions to the readers

The format of The Administration series can be a bit confusing for newcomers so I decided to write this guide to put all my explanations and suggestions in one place. Of course, there's no reason why you can't just pick up book 1 (Mind Fuck) and go from there, but if you're looking for a bit more info before embarking on this rather long journey, then this post is for you. Also I'll assume that if you're on this page then you already (vaguely) know what the series is about and are interested in reading it.

Key points

• The series is made up of over 40 stories of varying le

A place for members of r/TheAdministration to chat with each other

This is my first year growing foxgloves and I saw this advice on the Sarah Raven website but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere else! Has anyone actually tried this? Do you cut it while the main spike is in flower or while it's still growing?

And yes I know they're poisonous, and I bought potted plants so expecting them to flower this year.

I guess this is a half discussion, half rec thread because I'll be checking out the responses.

So I'm currently reading The Administration and idly thinking that I may never find another series which makes me feel as much as this one does, and that made me wonder - what are everyone else's high impact books? Angst, humour, heart fluttering romance, or even that feeling of connection and solidarity you get when you've been well represented... I'd love to hear about any books that really got through to you personally!

I want to be able to decide for myself when the MCs fall in love, not be explicitly told it. I don't want to be led mindlessly on a journey, I want to be able to do some speculating and thinking of my own!

Bonus points if the reader knows before the MC(s) that they're in love/attracted to each other.

Posting this a day early so people can familiarise themselves with the format and spread the word to anyone interested.

Here's the plan: 

1. Try and stick to the suggested reading schedule. There's technically nothing enforcing this, but it may give us a better buddy read experience if we do!
2. Discuss chapters in the comment threads linked below. Keep these spoiler free for first timers (or use spoiler tags).
3. Outside of the discussion threads, anything goes in terms of discussions/spoilers (including later books).
4. Make sure you read the content warnings before you start! I'm not going to be doing any hand holding around this.

Let's see how this goes and we can adjust as need