Forum: Story Recommendations

How do you read this, no seriously i want to know. I tried giving it multiple chances and just cant get into it. I'm totally ok with the NTR/Cheating in the first 3 chapters but how and the hell does Jeff accept it just like that? Like what in the actual fuck, Does he not have any respect for himself and let his family walk all over him? Is this a novel for sadist?

Please inform me why people like this. Does he eventually drop the cheating ho?

Just trying to understand why this novel is such a big deal cause i sure as hell can't figure it out.

It's because he knows why his family is acting differently and because of that influence, he knows they had no choice to do what was described early on.

In short, no he does not drop them. It's one of the first left turns you don't see coming but later is a main factor of the entire story.

Don't give up on it. It does tend to flow through a lot of storylines but it is worth it in the end. That's my opinion anyways. But he does get revenge on the assholes screwing his wife and daughter. That part is a little bit of revenge.

yeah i can't do it, got up to the chapter were his daughter had to tell him what to do lol. can't handle such a beta mc.

I haven't read it for a long time (It was still winter after years of posting) but what I remember, the whole story changed once the family moved to their mountain home.

Like many have said, there was a reason (I found the reason kind of cheap though) to why his wife and Arlene was so susceptible to the other guy (has been a while since I read it, don't really remember names). Once he understands why, he finds some peace with it. Up until then as far as I remember, he was having problems accepting it and more or less having some form of ptsd about it. In the beginning, he is considering divorce etc but when it comes down to it, he just doesn't want to give up on his family.

The problem I had with Arlene & Jeff that made me stop reading after the second book was that it became much more 'clan focused' rather than 'family focused' that it was in the beginning. Suddenly, instead of being about Jeffs family, you get entire chapters and POVs from side characters and people I would barely even consider side characters, such as some random construction worker. I wouldn't mind the whole clan development so much if it just had kept the POV on Jeff and his part in it, since from the beginning the story was about Jeff and his family.

Also, like Sunkuwan said, you get about 30 chapters of a new girls introduction. I remember really liking one character and was really disappointed when she married a side character instead, after I spent hours reading her story and getting to know her.

It's just my personal opinion, but I would have prefered it if they kept the side characters harem-building and sex life off screen and just give the side characters girls a short introduction from Jeffs POV when they meet and leave it at that. Just say something like "Jeff, this is X, we met her at Y, she does Z for a living." I really don't need to spend a fourth of one book learning the life history of a side characters love interest. Keep the long introductions and deep characters for the main character that you have related to from the start and actually care about, you know?

Unless you enjoy endless serials like the old Sunday comic strips, e.g., Dick Tracy or The Phantom, this story may not work for you. I think it works for me because I've been been reading it just that way, one chapter, once a week.

It took me at least six goes to get past the first 6-10 chapters then I binge read the next 400 not realizing it was a serial.

There is an enjoyable read once you get past the beginning unless you expect an ending any time soon

I gave up on this story years ago, and I regret it took me so long.

I would not recommend this to anyone, except possibly a wedding planner or a masochist.

I stopped reading this story long ago, when it turned into repetititititititive harem building.

I agree with you cf..I've tried several times also and can't hack it

I had a hard time getting into the story as well. That he didn't leave his wife for being blackmailed wasn't THAT hard to accept. She was after all, blackmailed, even if she found it sexually stimulating. On the other hand, I'd lose all respect for Jeff if he just gave up on a 20+(?) years relationship without trying to salvage it, because his wife climaxed being blackmailed. Long marriages have survived way worse things than one party being blackmailed into sex.. The way he struggles coming to terms with it, and eventually accepting it, seemed fairly reasonable to me. Especially since the reason why she was so easily sexually stimulated was modifications Jeff himself had done to her body, so it was even harder to blame her.

That said, the scenario could have been done better, but I found it at the very least, acceptable.

I thought the first 2 books were pretty good, but Christ, the 3rd book is so.. stagnated(?). First book was 26 chapters, a little short in my opinion, second book was more to my liking at 100 chapters.

Then you have the 3rd book that for some unexplainable reason is at 576 chapters with no sign of an ending. And as you've seen in this thread, many people calls the story out for being repetetive, and it's in the 3rd book most of that takes place. It could have, and probably should have, been edited down to tell a story in ~100 chapters, without missing out anything important and then moved on to a book 4.
As it is now, it feels like it's being written without a clear road map, thus it's filled with padding and repetetive scenarios.

I agree with the poster above who liken A&J to the Prince Valiant illustrated saga.