Forum: Story Recommendations

Hi everyone.

I just finished reading book 1 through 10 of AWLL. It was a great series, but it was filled with too much drama for my own personal taste. It would have been absolutely perfect for me if the protagonist got together with the girl he'd end up with in the first couple of books, and gone steady with her throughout the series. I like the slow pace, the dialogue, the setting of just everyday life, I like the conflict with his mother and brother, I liked basically everything except the romantic relations. It was too much drama in those parts for me, and too much "who's he going to end up with?". Alot of people like the tension of the unknown, I prefer stories where the protagonists and love interests are established early on. Something like in Beth, Runaway Train or some of Jay's other works, Ryan Sylander's books, Thunder and Lightening, etc etc.

So basically imagine AWLL, but most of the relationship drama is over and done with after the beginning, and the tension and drama for the rest of the book(s) comes from other aspects of life. It doesn't have to be a coming of age story, but I'd like something contemporary, so no western, fantasy/sci-fi etc though I could go for some urban fantasy or sci-fi so long it's not over the top.

To be honest I only read the first 3 stories in "Beth" and I don't recall them being particularly dramatic. I haven't read 4,5 and 6 because I just lost interest, found something else to read and have never gotten back to it. So it's possible that 4,5 or 6 has that drama, or that I'm just not remembering it from 1, 2 and 3, and from what I recall it didn't seem like it was heading into something like that either so I figured it was a decent example. Sad to see that it devolved into more drama.

That first paragraph would make a good review.

I recall a story with a high school couple who fall in love. The girl's parents build an apartment (over the garage?) for them to live in while they finish school. I don't remember much detail, but I don't recall relationship drama. Maybe someone with a better memory than mine recalls the name/more detail.