1: A Beautiful Mess by Ken Randall There's no way we could ignore this one. The revised, less-fanservicey version of "Charlotte's Movie," this novel displays Ken Randall's mastery of tone: you may not believe the circumstances of Charlotte's blessed, daughter-of-successful-pornstars life, but you won't doubt the voice of the narrator.
2: Doing it all Over by Al Steiner I've written at length about how I think every story, even the ones here, should be about something more than just escapism. So how could I be nominating the originator of the Do-Over subgenre? The answer is, because this story is about something. Like any good work of fiction, it uses its genre to craft compelling dilemmas and ask thought-provoking questions. It's a story that doesn't have time to waste on escapism... Which makes it all the more engrossing.
3: Heart Ball by Uther Pendragon A slow, honest build of tension as a teenage couple move towards losing their virginities to each other. Uther Pendragon has never been considered one of the giants of the online-erotica scene, which I think is a huge disservice to him; he is unmatched at capturing both the thrill and the tension of new love.
4: Heroes by Don Lockwood Don and I have had friendly disagreements over the years about tone and pacing, but it's he, more than anyone else, who got me into the world of erotica. And when he is on point, he is on point. I know he'd consider Dance of a Lifetime, or maybe (what he completed of) Rewind, to be his life's work, but in my opinion, it's this.
5: In Her Genes by Argon Everyone has had the "normal person meets celebrity" fantasy. What separates Argon's take from the rest are the layers of depth added on top. It's a story that feels real and genuine, a fairy tale that intersected reality but somehow emerged unscathed on the other side. While it is part of one of Argon's larger universes, you do not need to have read the rest of them to understand it. (I certainly haven't.)
6: Love At First Sight by Jeremy Spencer My first stories here were about a lost love. Unbeknownst to me, Jeremy Spencer had already written it, but better.
7: Love is Blind by AnonSky When I first started reading erotic fiction, this was one of my favorites. I can't, in good conscience, claim it to be one of the outstanding works here, but none of my stories would be here if not for AnonSky, and respect must be paid.
8: Playing To Win: Playing The Game II by Rev. Cotton Mather It doesn't let me nominate the entire trilogy, so here's the best portion of it. This is one of exactly two stories on this site I've thought of sharing with my wife -- and not as a bedroom tease, but as literature.
9: Runaway Train by Jay Cantrell Jay Cantrell came out of nowhere a few years ago and started delivering some incredible fiction. His work can be a bit formulaic, because he's found the ur-story that really matters to him; but he tells his variations with such honesty and vividness that they're impossible to put down. Mr. Cantrell has seen it all and is now here to report on it, and we are the luckier for his efforts.
10: Six-Months Turnaround by Morgan Pushing realism in my fiction has always been a bit of a rocky road, because erotica is rooted in escapism... and this story does escapism really well. It's about a brilliant CEO who faces down financial crises, pilots his company to unprecedented success, and romances the attractive young owner. I don't think Morgan will be insulted if I claim that it's not high literature, because he was clearly aiming for something more like comfort food. And dang if he didn't succeed.
11: A Stitch In Time by Marsh Alien You know all those stories where the hero gets to go back in time and do it all over again? This is the opposite. 14-year-old Patrick Sterling wishes that he could skip straight to being a senior in high school... And, when he gets his wish, has to figure out how to cope with the thoughtless mistakes he made in the meantime. Marsh Alien creates that most basic and yet most compelling of protagonists: the one who did wrong before and needs to learn to do better.
12: Summer Storms by Nick Scipio Nick Scipio is the finest erotic writer on the internet, period. And -- at least until Book 5 of his seminal series is complete -- this is his best work.
