Forum: Story Recommendations

Hi I'm looking for some stories where the any relationship drama turns out to not be so dramatic. As a rule of thumb, drama as a result of misunderstandings are fine (so long as they are cleared up), drama from mistakes are NOT fine.

This post will contain some spoilers from some of Jay Cantrell's stories, aswell as Dance of a Lifetime by Don Lockwood for examples and comparisons, so beware.

I think that Jay Cantrell does this well. For example, in Runaway Train, Travis reads some messages on Liz's phone where she's planning on hooking up with some celebrity. He then overhears her manager talking to her about how they've just been using him to help her image. He leaves and flies home. Turns out, it wasn't she, but her manager sending messages and she wasn't using him and she instantly chased after him and they made up.

That kind of drama I'm okay with. If it actually HAD been Liz who sent the messages planning to dump him and hook up with some other guy, then I'd not be okay with it.

In Unforgettable Weeks, Regan accept a dinner invitation from an old crush and lies to Andy about it (if I recall, was a while ago I read it). Anyhow, she insists that it wouldn't be a date, just a dinner between friends, but Andy is hurt by it. In the end Regan never went to the dinner, and the guy turns out to be a criminal.

That I was okay with, I wouldn't have been okay if Regan actually dumped Andy for her old crush.

In Learning Curves (was even longer since I read this, so might not remember the details right), there was a point during the summer where Phil was working all the time and neglecting Hailey. She went with her friends and some guys to a pool party. In the end, she spent her time in a modest bathing suit reading a book by the pool.

Compare this to Dance of a Lifetime where there's a similar situation when they just got to college and Warren was swamped in schoolwork. He neglected Sophia, an other guy showed interest in her so she dumped Warren for the other guy.

The situation in Learning Curves was fine, since while there was tension and you didn't know what was going to happen, in the end nothing did happen (I know they actually broke up for a while so it might not be the best example overall. I don't remember the reason why they did, if it was a misunderstanding, a mistake by either of them, or if they just took a break. But that particular scenario with the just reading by the pool rather than fool around with an other guy is the kind of drama I'm okay with.) I didn't like it in DoaL because something actually DID happen.

A couple of generic examples; A: A highschool protagonist goes to a party, gets drunk and cheats on his girlfriend.

B: A highschool protagonist goes to a party, gets drunk and has the chance to cheat on his girlfriend but in the end he doesn't.

Example A is a no go for me, while example B is fine.

A: Protagonists wife is working as a secretary for some bigshot who's been flirting alot with her. The two of them has to take a workrelated trip. The wife gives in, by blackmail to keep her job or something, or her own desire and sleeps with her boss.

B: Protagonists wife is working as a secretary for some bigshot who's been flirting alot with her. The two of them has to take a workrelated trip. The wife doesn't give in to any desire or blackmail. Maybe she lose her job because of it, and the story goes on from there or something.

I wouldn't like anything like example A, but example B would be fine.

So yeah, I want some stories where when something dramatic seems to happen relationshipswise, I can feel safe knowing that he won't cheat on her, she won't dump him for the handsome moviestar. That's the kind of "safe drama" I'm looking for. The longer stories the better, I read alot!

I think what you are looking for is fidelity. That's an old way of saying faithful.

Avoid the BTB and cheating stories, they already imply infidelity. If you are okay with forced or coerced infidelity which resolves itself while the couple stay together, I can think of a few. I can even think of some where the partner was a hidden (from the MC anyway) hypersexual, but the situation gets resolved.

IF you can't stand ANY level of infidelity, stick to the romances.

Ezzie B's Chaos universe starting with Rebecca Danced

Lady in Red has a situation with that element very early on in the story.

Ya the situation with the singer is there too, there's also the portion in the first book where she starts getting full of herself and blowing everyone off while talking to the actors about the movie too. So I guess there's 3 different safe/drama situations in there for you.

Romance and fidelity are my thing, so I'm hoping for more recommendations in this thread so I can find some new stories too!

Opus One sounds like it fits your bill. Drama, but the good kind you seek. Polygamy done nice yet fidelity.

Likewise the hook-pick-and-lens trilogy. Polygamy again, which is really Ryan Sylander's MO, but its done nice and with fidelity.

My own short stories are always about romance and fidelity, although often this isn't tested and there's not much drama. My short story Monsoon does have a threesome declined, though. Perhaps that's an SOL first?

Thanks for the recommendations, can't find any stories you've written though?

I've read Opus One, great story, and I've read the 2 first in HPL, been waiting for the last one to finish. Saw just now that it was finished a couple of days ago, so I'll give that a read!