Forum: Story Recommendations

You are correct, I don't want the main character's relationships to go smoothly without any turmoil. Unfortunately Stupid Boy suffers from having a character who is too perfect in his football career and somehow one of his "girlfriends" is a perfect publicist at 16. I stopped reading at that point. I expect the characters to have flaws and not be perfect lovers at 15 years old able to bed anyone they desire. I did like the MC's relationship with his best friend.

I really liked the defenceman story but stopped reading it when I saw that it was one of three and the third story was unfinished and unlikely to ever be completed. I hate not knowing the end of a story.

Thank you, I paid for premium this month. Decided I was spending too much time here to not support the site at least every once in awhile.

Thank you!

I am excited by your list as I have read Jay Cantrell's "Brock Miller" series and am more than half way through Aroslav's Jacob Hopkins series. If the rest of these are similar then I will be happily reading for awhile.

I will take a look. Thank you!

Thank you!
I've read Argon's clearwater universe but not the Carter as I am not a huge fan of historical fiction.

I will take a look at Tedbiker, feel like I might have read something by him.

I've read a lot of Jay Cantrell, basically everything you listed. I am frustrated that the third book in the Regan Riley and Andy Drayton series doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

I will take a look at the QHML1 stories you recommended.

Everyone is waiting (more-or-less patiently) for book 3 or Regan & Andy. Jay has has an unusually bad few years & posted somewhere in these forums that he was starting to write again.

I am very sympathetic about someone having a bad year or several, I've had bad years or three myself. However, he last posted on Patreon and his blog (last time I looked) in December of 2020. If he was planning to come back it would be best to communicate effectively on a consistent basis.

LOL, Yeah. I am leery of anything that is ongoing since it seems authors will disappear. Jay Cantrell hasn't been around since December of last year. I can only hope he returns to writing.

There are long completed stories that I skim through because the stories follow the same format of telling day to day activities without a lot of variation.

The sweet spot is a story with a few chapters (~20) that is only one book.

Since chapters vary in length, what would be the sweet spot for you in terms of total number of words?

50,000 to 200,000 is my sweet spot. The Clearwater Universe stories are 40k to 100k, rarely I will read more than 200k like the Jay Cantrell stories Learning Curve or Flawed Diamond or Aroslav's Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins. But I have to be really invested in the characters.

Thanks!

Since chapters vary in length, what would be the sweet spot for you in terms of total number of words?

Two of the longest chapters I am aware of are over 111,000 words each. One is a 'single chapter' story that is part of a series, while the other one is part of a much longer story.

I think what I am trying to avoid is the inevitability of the relationships in these stories. I want to see stories where there is a genuine uncertainty as to whether two characters end up together. Where they have to overcome problems that break them up for longer than a paragraph or chapter.

Dance of a Lifetime I gave up on shortly after the swinging/swapping scene. I didn't have a problem with that scene but more how it didn't seem to fit the male MC at all. He gets upset for a couple paragraphs and then it's done. It felt like a sex scene for the sake of a sex scene instead of building up to it.

Thank you, unfortunately it looks like the author never completed the series and I hate not knowing the end.

I'm enjoying your VoaT overall, don't really like Jasmine but that's because I found Steve's relationships with Candace and Nancy had more depth of emotion. I was really caught up in the turmoil of Candace's decisions and the bittersweet end to the relationship with Nancy. The situation with Jasmine feels like a way to get Steve to fuck a lot of girls. It doesn't come off as being as emotional a relationship, especially with how quickly they both professed their love to each other. For an older man in a young man's body Steve really falls in love fast.

Not necessarily looking for stories with a lot of turmoil but rather looking for relationships where there is miscommunication, hurt feelings, a need to make up for those things, and then breakups that are mutual or sometimes completely one sided, even cheating perhaps. I just get tired of how smoothly everything goes in a lot of these stories. So many have a perfect main character who never does anything wrong, the wrong is always done to them.

Yes, Author is Rev. Cotton Mather, titles are Playing the Game, Playing to Win: Playing the Game II and The Competitive Edge: Playing the Game III.

So emotional turmoil, relationships end, hearts are broken? It's not wall to wall sex?

Correct. I tried to make the sex scenes an integral part of the overall arc of the story. I think I mostly succeeded.

RCM

Sounds good, there are some stories where the chapters are just sex and some people don't write them well. Not that I've ever attempted to write one. LOL

Finished your series, happy to see the MC get the girl. Where's your next epic story of love, heartbreak, and loss? I want more!