[ SECRET POST #3571 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3571 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 20 secrets from Secret Submission Post #510.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://i.imgur.com/uOHiNT5.png

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand where you people are reading all of these fantastically well-written fics. What you're describing sounds like every fic I've ever read. And anyway, what do you expect from original M/M romance? (1) It's romance. The whole genre is cheesy and tropey. (2) It's probably written by fanfic authors trying to make a buck or two for their hard work because they don't get shit from fandom anymore.

[(Anonymous)]

...did fanfic authors ever really make money?

[(Anonymous)]

No, but they used to get comments.

[(Anonymous)]

From what little pro original het romance I've read, it does seem pretty cheesy and tropey, so I agree that there's no reason to assume pro original gay romance would be written to a higher standard.

[(Anonymous)]

THANK YOU.

I get so annoyed at how slashers look down their noses at "het romance" and then turn around and write the most sappy, cliched tripe imaginable. Granted, two cocks can make a lot of things more tolerable, but romance is romance is romance.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand how you've NOT read the amazing fic that is out there.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, I strongly recommend The Culling by Steven dos Santos. It's similar to The Hunger Games (if dystopia is your thing, I know you said no fantasy) and the main character is gay. There's also an important secondary character who's also gay and has a husband.

Hero by Perry Moore is good, too. It's about a kid who's the son of two superheroes (again not sure if that works for you)-- his mother disappeared and his father disgraced-- who starts hero training behind his dad's back. He's gay and struggles with how to come put to his dad (both as a hero in training and as gay), and... Idk my pitch for lost but I promise it's good.

I hope you find some good MLM fiction out there, OP! If you find anything good, rec it to us please!

[(Anonymous)]

I have to disagree: Hero is terrible. The main character clings to the idiot ball for most of the storyline. The writing style is flat. The book's portrayal of homophobia is completely OTT. Its League of superheroes consists of minutely tweaked DC superheroes (e.g. Dark Hero is Batman, Warrior Woman is Wonder Woman), which would be fine if Moore had engaged in any sort of commentary on those characters, but he didn't; he just filed off the serial numbers.

Moore had some very fine intentions in writing the book, but imo his execution sucked.

[bur]

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is As Meat Loves Salt, except it's super unpleasant in a literature kind of way. It's set during the English Civil War, and everything that can go wrong with our super flawed, violent, jealousy-fueled protagonist does go wrong. It's the kind of story where everything that happens is terribly inevitable and you turn the last page feeling exhausted.

[kallanda_lee]

It's funny, as I was looking at that book today.

[(Anonymous)]

It's a very good book--I recommend it if you're interested in the English Civil War and/or a nasty yet passionate m/m relationship--but it's definitely grim and disturbing.

[(Anonymous)]

The Foxhole Court. It's insanely well written and by the time it gets to the actual romance, you'll be in love with literally everything else, so it will be the cherry on top (.... eheheheheh cherry)

*claps* AUDIBLE RECS ARE MY JAM!!!

[dancinbutterfly]

Okay, so, River Jaymes writes these books that seem like they should be total ridiculous tropey trash but then boom, ahaha gotcha! Twisted the fucking trope on you! The Backup Boyfriend started as a "pretend boyfriend" trope story and then went hard right into feelings and issues and sexuality spectrum discussions and sex act versatility and omg it was great. I was legitimately shocked.

The sex in Roan Parrish's stuff is really Top/Bottom but I can look past it because she writes interactions and characterization and family drama really well. Like, I gave a lot of shits about the crap in the family of her two novels and I don't like 1st person POV.

Everything by Anna Zabo is fantastic. Her sex roles tend to be a little rigid in the D/s side of things but again, i tend to let that shit go because everything is so rich and interesting and fun and smart that I don't care about who fucks who. Her characters are culturally diverse and she writes business settings like businesses actually function not in a handwavy sort of magic of chit-chat and coffee all day. I love her, although Due Diligence was not my favorite.

I dont actually know if Hot Head by Damon Suede is actually good or not. I couldn't tell if it was good or Charlie David's reading of it was really good or both. Whichever it was, I was hit in the face with feelings. It was a "gay for you" best friends situation and there was definitely a nice freakout there but it wasn't too awkwardly written for me to feel tripped up by it.

And I saved the best for last - The Society of Gentlemen by KJ Charles. Politically and historically accurate m/m romantic fiction that slays. It's so good. It's so fucking fucking good. The reader is good. The stories are good. The universe it built is good. It's good. I just. Ugh. I learned more about English government and political history from this than I did from 20 years of university. I cannot recommend this series enough. It takes into account the importance of class to people of the time and doesnt hand wave it away just because we, the readers, dont like the idea anymore. Charles recognizes it, uses it, sometimes embraces it, sometimes doesn't acknowledge it and sometimes rebels against it - depending on the character and their relationship to class and power. But yeah. It's fucking great. The second one is my favorite. I may have to go relisten actually. Damn.

Re: *claps* AUDIBLE RECS ARE MY JAM!!!

[arcadiaego]

KL Charles is really good. :D

[feotakahari]

Future Lovers is pretty great: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/FutureLovers

[crossy_woad]

I had read and liked some of L.A. Witt's work, but when I went back and read this one I was surprisingly disappointed. I think the author has grown better since then? But sometimes stories really do feel tropey and the characters just don't connect with me (this can happen with any author btw).

I'm not really looking for deep when I read a romance (or listen to one!), just some characters I can enjoy and connect with, and a nice escape from life. :)

Some audiobooks I quite enjoyed:

Still, by Mary Calmes (people either really like or really don't like this one, though)

True Brit, by Con Riley (still listening to the audio, though I read it in print awhile ago)

Second Hand, by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton (pawn shop owner and cute, flustered guy discovering he's gay)

The Shearing Gun, by Renae Kaye (set in Australia!)

Here for You, Skylar M. Cates (such angst though)

Scrap Metal, by Harper Fox (very good, one of her best books)

A Reason to Believe, by Diana Copland (though this is really paranormal, to be honest - psychic detective solving murder)


Again, these are ones I personally enjoyed, that stand out to me as being pretty good or likable in some ways, and that I listened to in audiobook format. There are other books I found eminently forgettable, only read in ebook format, or just haven't gotten to yet.

[rivulet027]

I tend to really like Michael Thomas Ford's fiction. I never really got into E. Lynn Harris, but I liked his autobiography.

[(Anonymous)]

M/M books by Eli Easton may be good. I haven't read them, but I have enjoyed novels written by the same author under the name Jane Jensen, and enjoyed the computer games she designed even more.

http://elieaston.com/out/

[(Anonymous)]

I really enjoy the Cut & Run (https://www.goodreads.com/series/51811-cut-run) series by Abi Roux and Madeleine Urban, as well as the side-quel series Sidewinder (https://www.goodreads.com/series/109735-sidewinder) and the standalone book Warrior's Cross (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6782412-warrior-s-cross?ac=1&from_search=true). Warrior's Cross is especially good--it has one of those quiet, sort of mousy protagonists who doesn't come off as an annoying pushover. The writing in these is quality, and though they can be a bit tropey, they hit you in the emotions.

One of the first original M/M books I read was Damon Suede's Hot Head (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10506237-hot-head?ac=1&from_search=true), and I stand by it. You can tell it was written by a queer man instead of a woman, and the sex scenes are amazing.

A more recent series I enjoyed was Roan Parrish's Middle of Somewhere (https://www.goodreads.com/series/155691-middle-of-somewhere), and a new book just came out!

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=the_slash_pile&keyword=Fiction%20recs&filter=all

[(Anonymous)]

Check out Riptide Publishing.