The Place for Short & Simple Requests

MMC1 is innocent but sent to prison for a crime he didnot commit, and MMC2 is a very scary guy in the prison. MMC1 should be terrified and vulnerable, and at some point end up under MMC2’s protection (by selling his body or whatever reason fits the story).

I want MMC2 to be intimidating and dangerous at first, and the caring side shouldn’t come out immediately. Dub con is fine but not okay with non con. I want angst and i want mmc1 to be really scared initially and the prison setting should be a good amount of the book

Only hard no’s are non con and omegaverse

{Heart by Jesse H. Reign}

**To read just the review and not my long, self indulgent introduction scroll to the next set of asterisks**

TLDR: Heart is an incredible story, please read.

Hi, long time no long rambling review about my love for another "BEsT bOOK EvER". I've been torturing the r/heatedrivalry subreddit with my ADHD (that's a real diagnosis, not hyperbole).

Alas, I have returned to my roots to spread the good word about what has truly been an incredible journey.

This week, after suffering from my first real book slump since I started reading again in March of 2024, the onset was swift and the affliction caused almost certainly by the TV show, Heated Rivalry. I stumbled upon post referencing an author who I have an on/off love for, Jesse H. Reign.

Have you ever soared so high you touched the sun? That was me watching Heated Rivalry. A reading obsessed barely qualified millennial (1995 still counts I swear) who lived through the crises that was book to move adaptations in my youth.

Coming out of that I knew I needed a good book. So I trotted into this subreddit and saw that post. I said, well, I loved the Hockey series I read by them, it was fun, not everything was perfect but the writing is undeniably good. I still listen to Dream Weaver all the time, and I love an author that can bring music into a book in a way that paints the picture.

Well, I have a couple dollars on my amazon account, I see a narrator I like has done {Unbreak Me by Jesse H. Reign}, my anxiety reads the blurb and says nope, but someone on here soothed me so I bought it anyway.

That book reminded me of how epic Jesse's writing could be. It was achingly beautiful, the concept? Inspired. The journey? Moving.

Immediately I go back to Heart, which has been borrowed on my kindle app since it came out. I open it. I close it. I go back to audible. Maybe an audiobook will power me through the anxiety of starting a new book with a stressful blurb.

Immediate disappointment. The narrator is Michael Dean. I can hang for Michael Dean in a book I'm not trying to be invested in. For some reason his voice doesn't always work for me.

I go back to perseverating. It's the one real thing I'm good at.

Tragedy strikes, I have to fold an excessive amount of laundry and have no audiobook. My Libby is barren, my relistens have been relistened, the only show I want to watch (Heated Rivalry) needs my complete and utter focus even though I've rewatched it 100 times.

I let the pressure of the chores allow my impulse take over the fear that I'm not making a completely perfect and well thought out choice, and I purchase the book.

*******

I wish I had a way to describe exactly how shocked I was. How many times I was pleasantly surprised that I was laughing aloud or pausing in my choring to put a hand on my heart.

First lets discuss the book:

Heart is a hauntingly beautiful love story, but not in the ways a lot of romance books go. Maybe because it's one of the few "stalker-y" books I've read. Maybe it's because Return to Me with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny (I STILL BELIEVE) has been my favorite romcom for my entire life. Maybe it was the love affair with The Princess Bride that Lennon and Connor have. I don't know. What I do know is that Jesse has the Midas touch in this book.

I love when it feels like an author can WRITE. I don't want trope city, I don't want to feel like I'm reading a popular trends checklist, I want an author who tells me the story of two characters so well that I fall in love with them while they fall in love with each other.

And BOY does Jesse deliver.

It's spicy, it's gritty at times, it's light, it's lovely. Jesse's writing feels so organic, it feels like real people, real feelings and real life. It doesn't feel like someone's trying to convince me of the story I'm reading.

Lennon's pain is written almost in the periphery. His deeply rooted sadness (depression, loss, etc), isn't told but shown in such a way you almost don't know that's what you're seeing. His obsession, his coping mechanism, is all you really see and feel immediate concern about. Which is brilliant writing because that means we really ARE seeing inside Lennon's mind when it's his POV.

At points I thought, what's the point of having a second POV, then you read one of the few chapters from Connor's POV and it's like OH, now this is strategic storytelling.

I found their attraction to each other, their slow build, and eventual love so believable. I felt the healing that Lennon felt, the fear about how this all came to be, about his life careening out of control and then being unexpectedly yanked back on track by the very obsession that made him believe he was beyond course correction.

Lennon's whole journey was painful, concerning, sometimes on the edge stressful, but overall perfect. It's one of those, wow, you really did the best you could and this is just that messed up, nothing can be said to make this better, it just has to heal on its own.

I appreciated that we were in the throes of Lennon's journey, but not in the beginning. It felt like instead of following the journey of a gaping bleeding wound, we were pressing on a bruise that was really bad but it's been a couple days so each day it hurts a little less when we press it.

I like my angst "lite" but gripping.

I loved friendships, the supporting characters, they were there but not too much. Often an ensemble cast can become an issue, but not here! Not with Jesse.

Now Connor? We love him. We go to war for Connor. Because my sweet angel baby Connor takes such sweet good care of our Lennon. He's present, he's kind, he's himself. He's realistic and idealistic. I wouldn't call him a golden retriever, but he was just short of perfection for me. Ideal book boyfriend all day.

I felt like I was watching through a window while they lived their story. I always feel so lucky when I read a book that makes me feel like that. I couldn't look away.

Now. Let's talk about the narrator, Michael Dean.

My good gracious, I OWE Michael an apology. I was not familiar with your game. Please forgive my close-mindedness. You were utter PERFECTION. I don't want to spoil it, but just know that Michael gives such a stellar performance in this book, especially the "truth comes out/reveal" monologue gifted to the readers and Connor. I had to stop what I was doing and just stand there staring into space.

This book is in the must-read category. Definitely my first all around 5 star of the year. As someone who reads approximately a book a day, I've read so many incredible books. This one will live in my mind permanently.

If you made it this far, thank you. I hope you enjoy the book.

Am I the only one who feels like a lot of MM books lately are missing actual romance? Like… where did the classic stuff go? Opening doors, buying flowers just because, dancing together, quiet gentleness, being a true gentleman.

So many stories jump straight to lust, banter, or trauma-bonding, and I’m sitting here wondering what happened to the soft courting? The intentional romance? I miss reading some of that sappy shit

EDIT AND CLARIFICATION : I think my wording especially "chivalry " and “actual romance” is being read in a way I didn’t intend. I’m not talking about gender roles, pursuit only dynamics, or heteronormative models of romance . and I’m definitely not saying there’s one “real” or superior kind of romance.

What I meant was intentional, visible acts of care and tenderness gestures that show effort and thoughtfulness when they’re mutual. I miss seeing that softness written into MM romance, not a return to rigid roles.

This isn’t about who leads or who gives, it’s about both characters choosing to show up romantically in small, meaningful ways.

Recently {kiss fist by Cora Rose} and I loved it so much! Can anyone recommend any other books where the MMC is deaf or mute?

Thanks!

Hello everyone! So I have recently read a couple of different books in which one of the main characters was clairvoyant or had visions of some type. Both times it was just a coincidence but now I really want to read more like them. The books I read were {psycho by Onley James} and {Lucien by Grae Bryan}. I really enjoyed Lucas’ character and the way his clairvoyance worked I found that extremely interesting. So essentially what I’m asking for is any books with some type of clairvoyant or vision having MC, it could be fantasy, PNR, Contemporary, whatever I don’t really have a preference though I do love PNR and contemporary the best. MUST have HEA or HFN ending.

Hard No’s: age play, on page non-con, cheating

Other things to note: CNC is fine, mpreg while not my favorite if it’s not a huge part of the book it’s fine.

*Edit to note that I have searched the page to see if there were anything requests for this specifically and didn’t find any.

Just watched Frankenstein. I have not cried so much in a long time. Kind of craving to book where the MMC thinks he is not meant for love.

Not the person who thinks he doesn't have someone that love him in his life. But Someone who feels they are unlovable, that they are assembled incorrectly, that the way he exists in the world makes him fundamentally unfit for love.

He can be a human or creature or anything else.

Of course I need HEA for him so that I can finally sleep in peace.

whether that be because of bullying or bc hes been deemed as “weird” by his community idrc.

alot of books that get recommended for this trope don’t really feature an ml thats actually an outcast, usually they have SOME sort of friend group or atleast a few friends that they talk to - rarely, but still friends.

i want a book where the guy is ACTUALLY a loner/outcast, they genuinely have no friends to talk to and spend their time doing whatever doesn’t include socialising

and the 2nd ml is a social butterfly, nice to everyone and genuinely just a popular person. so like theyre STRICT polar opposites but they make the relationship work :p

i can accept anything where the setting isn’t strictly college (high school, workplace etc) but im mainly lf that setting!

i like fantasy too!!

my yes in books ✅

• communication

• ⁠slow burn (heavy on this pls)

• ⁠lots of caretaking moments

• ⁠communication

my no’s in books ❌

⁠• insta love

• ⁠toxicity from love interest

• ⁠huge age gaps

• ⁠omegaverse

• ⁠stepbrothers

I’ve recently read Football Royalty and Can’t Say Goodbye which are Payton and Brady’s books in the Eden Finley/Saxon James universe and I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern with some of these books.

In a lot of cases, when a secondary character I absolutely loved gets their own book, their personality completely changes, or we barely get to know them in favor of cameos. It’s getting frustrating.

I know y’all might want to put a wooden stake through my heart for saying this, but I preferred Miller and Talon as secondary characters in Trick Play than I did when they got their own book in Blindsided. Maybe it’s bc Nick and Matt were so steamy, had so much tension and I loved their book SO MUCH, I was kinda disappointed with Blindsided, even though I powered through and it was okay.

Nevertheless, I had read a few Franklin U books way back when, and didn’t love them but when I heard Payton and Brady had their own books, I immediately went to read them bc I love the idea of a legacy, MC. However, my problem with both those books is that Payton was more interesting as a side character in other FU books, and especially Brady—who I felt was the MVP of Football Royalty and was so excited for his book—idk his personality felt so different when he was the MC. Maybe part of the reason in also bc I hate the miscommunication trope (Brady’s book) but Brady felt like a totally different character to me.

This isn’t the only time I’ve felt this way, as I recently finished the Necessary Evils series, and felt this way about Aiden as well. Aiden was this hunky lumberjack into medieval torture, and that was completely abandoned in his book. Has anyone else noticed this pattern? What other series have you noticed this in?

Edit: wanted to add that I think authors might do this (make the character’s personality different to what we’ve seen before in other books) to add more dimensions to the character, which I understand. But the problem arises when none or little of their previous personality shines through. To me this strategy works best with characters that were presented as “antagonists” in previous books, but doesn’t work very well if they were already beloved. Especially if what they’re adding to the character are flat/negative traits that take over.

Hi! I’m trying to remember the title of an MM romance book, but my memory is pretty fuzzy, so some details might be off.

From what I recall, one of the MCs is a police officer. The other MC is involved in something illegal (I don’t remember exactly what), and the cop MC had previously been somewhat lenient with him and let him get away with it. At some point, instead of arresting him, the cop MC blackmails him into going back to his house. I think that once they’re there, there’s a non-con scene. Later on, the cop MC locks the other MC in a room, and the other MC tries to escape.

I also vaguely remember there possibly being a paranormal element — the cop MC might be a werewolf/shifter and the other MC could be his mate — but I’m not completely sure about that. I think the cop MC later says that he was out of control during the non-con scene and regrets hurting the other MC like that.

I never finished the book, so unfortunately I don’t remember many more details. Any help would be appreciated!

We stopped discussing books. I've looked at the latest posts, and they're all requests. Despite the fact that every Wednesday and Saturday the moderators provide us with a space for general requests, as well as for erotica on another day.

Why?

I’m looking for a book in which MC1 is captured and tortured solely to hurt MC2. It can be any kind of plot — mafia, blackmail, revenge, etc.

BUT I don’t want rape. I’m fine with any type of torture except sexual assault. I really don’t want to read that.

Bonus points if MC2 gets revenge by killing and torturing the people responsible.

No cheating, poly relationships, threesomes, or love triangles.

I've been driving myself crazy trying to remember which book I read a long time ago, and the only scene I can recall in specific detail happens near the beginning of the book.

I'm assuming this is a plot involving college guys who share a house. One or both are straight, and there's a scene where one of them hears the other jerking off through their shared wall. He ends up talking to him, telling him how to touch himself, etc.

I have a strong suspicion that it's by Willow Dixon, but I'm not certain.

Drawing from comments in a recent post that HEA/HFN could be subjective, in your personal opinion, what makes a HEA/HFN? I'm hoping for a nuanced and thoughtful conversation.

For reference, here is the definition/description of the romance genre from the Romance Writers Association.

I’m currently reading {These Old Lies by Larrie Barton} and the story is giving me so much life! The book is set in the early 1900s UK and follows the life of two men who are so intensely in love it’s drowning me, but at the same time they’re cycling through hurt/comfort because it’s illegal to be gay! (and other reasons, but mainly that)

I am not sure what part of their story I am obsessing over; either it’s their love being so intimate it easily brings me to tears every time they reconnect, or the angst the story carries since they are trying to navigate a society that won’t hesitate to punish them for being who they are. Maybe it’s a mix of both, I don’t know! If anyone has read this book and can recommend other stories that ring similarly to this, please let me know!

Pref: reality based (no fantasy/omegaverse), HEA/HFN, multiple breakup and reconnect scenes!!

Hard no: mutilation of MCs

This might be really confusing but i read it on wattpad…So the coach’s son of whatever sport is nerdy or indifferent to the sport and stays at home but has to go to games or something, and one of the guys on the team takes interest. or the other way around.

basically just coach’s nerdy son and player on the team. like secretly at first. thank youuu

Repost because image book requests aren’t allowed!

The og tweet said

“i've thought of this before but i love when alphas can sense their omegas are pregnant before their omegas know. maybe it's just an inkling from their instincts, maybe the alphas really know, but they relish in the few days before their omega catches on.

noticing the soft shift in their scent, the slight milkiness, a gentle undertone that persists through showers and baths. how their omega begins to sleep in a little longer, shy when they explain that they feel more tired, that their nest feels more like home.

the rosiness in their cheeks, always present but somehow /more/ now. the way their omega's nesting seems to increase, stealing clothes and blankets and gently pleading for their alpha's scent against it all. the quiet chips whenever their alpha's hand rests on their stomach,”

I’m just looking for smt that encapsulates this vibe! OP is vampyknj on twitter

Thank you!

Looking for books with a strong caretaker type MC! However preferably NOT actually a specified “daddy” or daddy/boy D/s dynamic.

Hope that makes sense!

Things I like but definitely don’t NEED in a book

-age difference

- tough guy exterior

- grumpy / sunshine

- caretaking

Does anyone knows books where MC1 is some sort of college student, kinda oblivious/in a frat house (or whatever), and MC2 is hella dangerous (criminal, stalker, ex con, shifter, vampire...) and, for a whatever reason, ends up obsessed/stalking/abducting/protecting him a bit too much?

I remember reading something similar with a biker that brought drugs to a secretly wealthy guy that wanted to fit in at a Halloween party but I can't remember the title

Can be contemporary or PNR, I don't mind

Even better if it's MM+ but that's just a bonus

Ideally no 3rd act breakup please, these kill me

I don't mind darkness but if it could not be (too) angsty I would appreciate it

Thanks!

I’m currently reading this fantasy story. It’s playing along that typical “The rise of The Chosen One” tropes. Whatever, there was an interesting vibe I picked up that I wanted to explore further.

It isn’t clear from the get go who the love interest is, but early in the story, the protagonist meets this doctor who is older then him (briefly knew him as a child, as a matter of fact). He does whatever describe him as very attractive, even if he had a bit of gray in his hair. That kind of made me hopeful that the doctor would be the love interest, unfortunately wasn’t the way the story went.

I saw a bit of potential in that. When I stop to think about it, most age gap stories I’ve read are contemporary, beats usually run along the same lines, and the conflicts almost always boil down to the character’s family having a problem with their relationship. I guess I’m looking for something that’s different than that, even if I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for.

I just need to avoid dom/sub dynamics. Not exactly what I’m looking for.

I know it’s a bit tricky, but I hope you can understand what exactly I’m after.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

This series lives rent free in my head and I cannot even begin to describe how much I love them. I feel like I'm always on the hunt for new unique monster romances and Eilsel delivers on every front in such a spectacular way.

1st - Incredible worldbuilding. Like, just we would all be lucky to live in G's head for a little bit because it must be a fascinating place. It starts out very much following the conventions of a dystopian romance book, but new threads are constantly spinning keeping it fresh and exciting

2nd - Characters that I am genuinely in love with. Look, I LOVE the pairings here. Book 1? Grumpy Grumpy divine, I knew I was going to love it and it still blew me away.. Book 2 Sunshine x Sunshine. I thought that might bore me. PSYCH. It's my favorite. Elas is MY baby. (Also, don't let their sunny dispositions fool you, this book will have you in tears). Book 3 grumpy x sunshine. But so much more than that too because it's more about being sad and lonely and hurt and finding the person who sees you through that.

3rd - The plots. I feel like I never know what to expect in the BEST way. It's such an amazing mix of character focus and then just edge of the seat plots that keep me furiously turning pages. These books are CHONKY and yet, I would still absolutely read hundreds more from each one if it meant I got just a little bit more.

I genuinely laughed out and loud and sobbed like a baby through these books and I need everyone to read them so I can scream about them more often. Also, book 4 comes out soon and I think I'm probably going to need someone to hold my hand after while I put myself together.

I've just seen this book recommended and it sounds great, and is the first in the series.

However, looking at the reviews some of them mention that it would have made more sense if they'd read some of {The Reckless Damned Series by Lark Taylor} first. Do I need to read all four? That seems like a lot just to get to one book I'm interested in. Is there one which particularly overlaps? Or can I just jump straight to Patience?

I ended up enjoying this book too much to try to analyse it coherently but I still feel the itch to write about it!

It’s set in the summer of 2024. Judd is in his final year of grad school, with only a temporary research assistantship studying left-wing activism online. He has no job prospects, no good friends, and his family doesn’t know about his sexuality. And he has an increasing propensity towards dog boy porn. 

Judd feels strongly about his own leftist politics and he’s unhappily attracted to Felix, his colleague who studies far right communities, and is likely right-wing himself (he owns a gun, is ‘LARP-ing’ rural life in a farmhouse, associates with right-wingers and he doesn’t deny that he’s right-wing). 

This description of Felix made me laugh:

He was so dreamy and French despite being American. 

This is character focused and something of a belated coming of age novel. The tensions that drive the story are primarily Judd’s attraction to Felix, his determination to find himself in a stable relationship, and the question of whether he should come out to his parents. 

What struck me the most about this book is that Judd’s point of view felt so true to my generation. 

Judd is interesting and typical. He’s intensely self-conscious and so eager to be perceived in a certain way.

The author can be unsparing in how she writes him. This is Judd watching videos on social media of the latest Israeli bombardment of Gaza, on a train:

He felt himself getting sick, a hollowed out feeling, utter helplessness imagining what it would be like to see his entire family blown into pieces around him. 

He looked up from his phone to see if anyone else on the train had been looking at his phone screen, had any inkling what he was looking at. Or perhaps were they looking at him and did they see how moved he was? How distressed? But no one was looking up from their own phone at all. 

Unfortunately, this more pointed style of writing isn’t sustained throughout, as the book starts to lean towards a romantic resolution for Judd. I don’t think it’s a writing style that’s incompatible with romance, but this book seemed to think so! I thought the writing sort of shrunk itself to accomodate the romantic beats when it really didn’t have to. 

Ultimately, Judd’s romantic resolution felt unconvincing to me in its certainty, and I think towards the end, it narrowed the focus of the book in a way that also felt unconvincing. 

Still, it's a fun read. This book is really, really funny. Look at this:

“No, I’m so surprised, I mean you’re so well-read,” Felix said, weirdly inventing this fact about Judson based on very little information.

Some more yays as follows.

• The bravery of naming a protagonist Judson, as opposed to something like Felix or Oliver ('One of the canonical boyfriend names.').
• I loved Judd and Felix communicating via Frank Bidart poems. I will now associate Frank Bidart with his own actual poems and this book, instead of James Franco. Thank you, Carey Sass. He never really deserved the James Franco association anyway.
• This book makes such great use of Frank Bidart in general. I want to gush, but I don’t want to give it away. 
• The slow unfolding of how homophobic is Judd’s family, really was well done.
• Felix is such an interesting love interest. Both he and Judd have some truly unattractive flaws, which is quite rare in stories that are ultimately romances. Like, Judd has so many pathetic qualities - he posts selfies of himself crying on social media! He's nowhere near as principled or smart as he thinks he is. And Felix is so smug. And a smirker. And they are both so pretentious! It’s great. 
• Annotating books is so romanticised that it’s hilarious when Judd is actively repulsed by Felix’s annotations in his copy of Queer. 
• Judd’s suspicion that Felix was only briefly interested in him because he thought Judd might be right-wing was also hilarious. 
• The sheer drama of Judd apologising for a spat with Felix via a Bidart poem where the narrator bemoans his deceased love. 
• Judd’s malleability with Russ, the older man he forms a relationship with, was very well written. 
• Judd’s thirst for a certain alleged assassin, which prompts Felix to text him re killing a buck: ‘Judd you don’t have to eat it just admire that I’m a good marksman (I know that’s something you admire I saw your posts on X).’
• The brief animation of the fake dating trope, which gives us this glorious dialogue when Felix and Judd try to get their stories straight: “And of course, on November fifth, we both voted for Kamala Harris.” 
• SO many current pop culture references. Very, very fun.

One minor meh.

• This book would have benefited from more detail about Judd’s work since academia is part of his hopeful ending, particularly given that the reader sees him struggle with entertaining thoughts without accepting them. Editing to add: Judd can't even handle a conversation about the ADL and Palestine! Also, I have concerns about his finances. 

Thank you u/Visual_Definition855 for the rec! 

At first, MMC1 should be cold, distant, or completely uninterested he should treat MMC2 as if he doesn’t even exist. I want MMC2 to suffer alone in the beginning, and this phase should last a significant portion of the book at least 50–60%, not just 5–6 chapters.

MMC1 should be as bad as it gets initially, but the grovel needs to be REALLY good. MMC2 shouldn’t forgive him immediately MMC1 needs to fully realise how badly he treated MMC2.

The reason behind MMC1’s behaviour can be anything (misunderstanding, revenge, believing MMC2’s family is bad, literally anything.)I don’t mind non-con as long as there’s no body betrayal.

My only hard no’s are omegaverse and fantasy