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Sacrifices Worth Making
Eighteen-year-old Shane Larson has just two goals in mind when he moves from his hometown of Telluride, Colorado, to nearby Denver: surviving his freshman year of college and gearing up for a return to competition as a professional snowboarder and skateboarder. An injury has kept him sidelined from both sports for nearly a year, but now, fully recovered, he’s anxious to get back on the slopes at the start of the winter season. Public interest is great, not just because of his past successes but also because he remains the only openly gay athlete in either sport. He’s used to being talked about, and he’s used to being stared at.
But when he catches fellow student Nathan Pearce staring at him on the first day of classes, it’s for an entirely different reason. Nathan doesn’t know anything about Shane; all he knows is that he wants to change that, because he’s far from home and could use a friend. Shane could, too, but he’s fresh off a painful breakup, with no interest in dating again anytime soon. Luckily, that’s okay with Nathan— he wants a [best] friend more than a boyfriend, anyway…
This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.
Dear Author,
I think I might be in love. No. I am in love with that man beside me. And I’m pretty sure he’s in love with me. Don’t think he’d have moved across country with me, if he wasn’t. So, we’re in love. And it’s great. Really.
Except the sex…
Don’t get me wrong, the sex is damn awesome. The things that man can do with his tongue… But I can’t help but feel that he misses it, that whole shoving his cock into some dude’s ass, thing. And we— I— tried. God knows I tried. I thought maybe it would get better… that I would get better. So we switched positions, we tried toys, watched more porn than was probably healthy… but it never stopped feeling wrong. I hated feeling that wrong when he was looking at me like I was everything.
So I told him the truth. And we stopped.
He still looked at me like I was everything— except I didn’t feel like I was lying when I looked back.
But there’s some part of me that wonders if he still wants it. Or, gods, if he needs it. ’Cause I can’t be that for him, and that kills me. What do I do if the man I love needs something I can never give him?
Photo Description:
Sunlight streams through an open bedroom window, illuminating two young men. One, seated on the floor with his back against the side of the bed, sports short brown hair and a trimmed beard. The other, lying horizontally across the top of the bed, has short black hair and a smooth face. The back of his neck and head rest against his partner’s shoulder and chest, respectively. Eyes closed, they both look perfectly content.
This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.
But when he catches fellow student Nathan Pearce staring at him on the first day of classes, it’s for an entirely different reason. Nathan doesn’t know anything about Shane; all he knows is that he wants to change that, because he’s far from home and could use a friend. Shane could, too, but he’s fresh off a painful breakup, with no interest in dating again anytime soon. Luckily, that’s okay with Nathan— he wants a [best] friend more than a boyfriend, anyway…
This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.
Dear Author,
I think I might be in love. No. I am in love with that man beside me. And I’m pretty sure he’s in love with me. Don’t think he’d have moved across country with me, if he wasn’t. So, we’re in love. And it’s great. Really.
Except the sex…
Don’t get me wrong, the sex is damn awesome. The things that man can do with his tongue… But I can’t help but feel that he misses it, that whole shoving his cock into some dude’s ass, thing. And we— I— tried. God knows I tried. I thought maybe it would get better… that I would get better. So we switched positions, we tried toys, watched more porn than was probably healthy… but it never stopped feeling wrong. I hated feeling that wrong when he was looking at me like I was everything.
So I told him the truth. And we stopped.
He still looked at me like I was everything— except I didn’t feel like I was lying when I looked back.
But there’s some part of me that wonders if he still wants it. Or, gods, if he needs it. ’Cause I can’t be that for him, and that kills me. What do I do if the man I love needs something I can never give him?
Photo Description:
Sunlight streams through an open bedroom window, illuminating two young men. One, seated on the floor with his back against the side of the bed, sports short brown hair and a trimmed beard. The other, lying horizontally across the top of the bed, has short black hair and a smooth face. The back of his neck and head rest against his partner’s shoulder and chest, respectively. Eyes closed, they both look perfectly content.
This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.
394 pages, ebook
First published November 8, 2015
57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 12, 2015
This was an enjoyable friends to lovers story with likable characters, but it required a lot of skimming on my part. It took YEARS from them meeting to become lovers so they could get to the issue demanded by the prompt. I skipped at least a third of the story because it went into great detail about sports, something I found uninteresting and irrelevant. Do I even want to know what a "goofy" foot is, or how to attach wheels to a skateboard, or the exact routine of a snowboarding set?
The internal dialog of the MC could go on for pages too, and I tuned out after a few sentences. Of course the sex, when they finally got to it, was little different than any other gay male sex scene you've ever read (except as dictated by the prompt). I loved the interaction between Shane and Nathan, but even that became somewhat repetitive and tedious by the end.
I did enjoy some local color that was added. I plan to check out the Denver ice cream shop next time I'm there. Some of the secondary characters were enjoyable, such as Shane's parents, but others were barely fleshed out. I completely forgot who Zane was when he was mentioned in the epilogue. The band references were wasted on me as I had only heard of a few.
So yes I'd read more about these two in their next adventure, as long as it is pared down a bit.
Oh yeah, this is one of the very few stories here with absolutely no typos or errors that I caught.
The internal dialog of the MC could go on for pages too, and I tuned out after a few sentences. Of course the sex, when they finally got to it, was little different than any other gay male sex scene you've ever read (except as dictated by the prompt). I loved the interaction between Shane and Nathan, but even that became somewhat repetitive and tedious by the end.
I did enjoy some local color that was added. I plan to check out the Denver ice cream shop next time I'm there. Some of the secondary characters were enjoyable, such as Shane's parents, but others were barely fleshed out. I completely forgot who Zane was when he was mentioned in the epilogue. The band references were wasted on me as I had only heard of a few.
So yes I'd read more about these two in their next adventure, as long as it is pared down a bit.
Oh yeah, this is one of the very few stories here with absolutely no typos or errors that I caught.
May 5, 2016
2.75 stars
Nice friends to Lovers story but it felt that this story was just way too long .
Nice friends to Lovers story but it felt that this story was just way too long .
November 9, 2015
4.5 stars, and it only losses .5 of a star because of my own personal tastes, but that's what the prompt called for!
Proffer this one- I should really reread it now it's all done!
Proffer this one- I should really reread it now it's all done!
August 7, 2016
First off I have to thank Mike for writing this story. I was worried when I submitted the prompt that people were gonna be a bit put off by the whole concept, and the way you were so excited to write this made me really happy. Also, so so so so soooo sorry about taking so long to read this. I know it has almost been a year. :((((
While I must admit that snowboarding isn't something I'm all that interested in, I did find that I liked learning about the sport. And any sport that takes place in the cold is alright by me. There were also times where I certainly wanted Shane and Nate to finally figure shit out, but watching their friendship and relationship grow was fun too.
And I am once again thankful that Mike took my prompt to heart in regards to the whole anal sex issue. For something that is supposedly not all that uncommon in gay culture, it certainly doesn't transfer over into the m/m genre all that often (unless it is used as a one-off reassurance that "no, love, of course we don't need to fuck"...but then they of course do). I loved that Mike captured Shane's struggles, as well as Nate's love and acceptance.
Thanks for taking care of my guys, Mike. It was a lovely story.
While I must admit that snowboarding isn't something I'm all that interested in, I did find that I liked learning about the sport. And any sport that takes place in the cold is alright by me. There were also times where I certainly wanted Shane and Nate to finally figure shit out, but watching their friendship and relationship grow was fun too.
And I am once again thankful that Mike took my prompt to heart in regards to the whole anal sex issue. For something that is supposedly not all that uncommon in gay culture, it certainly doesn't transfer over into the m/m genre all that often (unless it is used as a one-off reassurance that "no, love, of course we don't need to fuck"...but then they of course do). I loved that Mike captured Shane's struggles, as well as Nate's love and acceptance.
Thanks for taking care of my guys, Mike. It was a lovely story.
December 27, 2015
This was the first book I've read by this author, and I was impressed. I really enjoyed the story, and liked the MC's a lot. I enjoyed the slow building relationship, how the friendship was really established before the relationship developed further. Other's have stated that it was too involved with the sports theme, but I had no real problems with it, but that might have to do with a lot of my friends being involved in the professional snowboarding scene.
The story does kind-of meander a little bit, but I enjoyed it has a whole.
The story does kind-of meander a little bit, but I enjoyed it has a whole.
December 6, 2015
The characters spent the first two-thirds having a story line, but no sex, and the last third having sex, but no story line.
And all the exciting things were only summarized after the fact; we'd learn they were going to a concert, and then the MC would tell us how it was a week later.
And all the exciting things were only summarized after the fact; we'd learn they were going to a concert, and then the MC would tell us how it was a week later.
Want to read
November 7, 2015143,773 words.
Is this the longest DRitC story so far? I lost count. :D
Is this the longest DRitC story so far? I lost count. :D
December 31, 2015
Awesome story! Loved it to bits and pieces, when I've beta read it. I'm so very happy it's posted. I'm going to re-read it ASAP!
Edit: Re-read - 15 November 2015. Loved it even more <3
Edit: Re-read - 15 November 2015. Loved it even more <3
August 24, 2018
Deep sigh.I feel obligated to start with this:
Dear writer:
As a spaniard, I am sorry to inform you that El Día de los Muertos is, in fact, entirely NOT a thing in Spain. It is possible that you were thinking about Mexico. Completely different places.
Here's litterally all the research you needed to do on the matter, along with some info that might be useful to you for future reference. Please, do check it out.
Now with that out of the way, let's get to the review.
I'm all for slow burn friends to lovers, I really am. My problem here is that this doesn't feel like a slow burning romance; it feels like years (65% of the story) of pure, unadultered friendship without a single straying thought that might sugest otherwise, which one day suddenly turns into something romantic () but still chaste because they want to take things slow, and after a few weeks of that, one day suddenly turns into a quite unbelievable sex marathon where they must have sex a promedium of about seven times a day because they can't keep their hands off each other. I got whiplash.
The two main characters themselves and their personalities are well depeloped enough. There are virtually no secondary characters. They do have friends, we know they exist, but they are faceless voiceless shadows in the background. They have parents, and they are fortunate enough to even have some actual dialogue, but it's only a couple of polite conversations.
This is mostly due to a whole lot of telling and no showing, not usually the best choice in storytelling, in my opinion.
Besides the relationship, the biggest subplot is Shane's carrer as professional snowboarder. I usually have no problem with sports being prominent in books, but in this case it got way too technical at some points, I had to skip paragraphs because I couldn't understand anything, it was all gibberish to me. Besides that, Shane is pretty much perfect at what he does, the very best of the very best, capable of miracles no one else can do... it gets boring.
I think the prompt was followed and dealt with perfectly, when we finally got to it.
This was far too long, it was kind of entertaining, but nothing great.
"Spain, where the Day of the Dead was a pretty big deal."
Dear writer:
As a spaniard, I am sorry to inform you that El Día de los Muertos is, in fact, entirely NOT a thing in Spain. It is possible that you were thinking about Mexico. Completely different places.
Here's litterally all the research you needed to do on the matter, along with some info that might be useful to you for future reference. Please, do check it out.
Now with that out of the way, let's get to the review.
I'm all for slow burn friends to lovers, I really am. My problem here is that this doesn't feel like a slow burning romance; it feels like years (65% of the story) of pure, unadultered friendship without a single straying thought that might sugest otherwise, which one day suddenly turns into something romantic () but still chaste because they want to take things slow, and after a few weeks of that, one day suddenly turns into a quite unbelievable sex marathon where they must have sex a promedium of about seven times a day because they can't keep their hands off each other. I got whiplash.
The two main characters themselves and their personalities are well depeloped enough. There are virtually no secondary characters. They do have friends, we know they exist, but they are faceless voiceless shadows in the background. They have parents, and they are fortunate enough to even have some actual dialogue, but it's only a couple of polite conversations.
This is mostly due to a whole lot of telling and no showing, not usually the best choice in storytelling, in my opinion.
Besides the relationship, the biggest subplot is Shane's carrer as professional snowboarder. I usually have no problem with sports being prominent in books, but in this case it got way too technical at some points, I had to skip paragraphs because I couldn't understand anything, it was all gibberish to me. Besides that, Shane is pretty much perfect at what he does, the very best of the very best, capable of miracles no one else can do... it gets boring.
I think the prompt was followed and dealt with perfectly, when we finally got to it.
This was far too long, it was kind of entertaining, but nothing great.
February 8, 2018
I enjoyed the college years and epilogue. During the Breckenridge section, I became ill reading about all of the cum being swallowed. Too much of anything makes me ill, even ice cream. And speaking of ice cream, wouldn't habanero ice cream on any body part be painfully hot?
February 15, 2017
So much detail on snowboarding and skateboarding. The actual relationship was very brief and the resolution was quick. It felt forced and hurried. The smexy was good, though!
February 7, 2016
I was really conflicted when rating this book. It almost got 4 starts, until I started thinking about how much of it I ended up skimming. There is a lot of focus on the sports, which is usually fine, but this went a little too far and I ended up skimming a lot. I also skimmed through a lot of the second half of the book when it basically became almost 100% sex. Don't get me wrong, most of it was hot, but after reading such an amazing and emotional story about them, so much sex was unexpected and kinda felt like an injustice to their love story.
Also, just so others aren't surprised, the prompt doesn't come into play until really late in the book. The beginning really is amazing and I fell in love with Nathan and Shane pretty quickly, so I think it's worth waiting for, but it was a little surprising.
Overall, pretty great friends-to-lovers story, with a lot of the predictable nonsense, but also some cute unexpected things that made it even better.
Also, just so others aren't surprised, the prompt doesn't come into play until really late in the book. The beginning really is amazing and I fell in love with Nathan and Shane pretty quickly, so I think it's worth waiting for, but it was a little surprising.
Overall, pretty great friends-to-lovers story, with a lot of the predictable nonsense, but also some cute unexpected things that made it even better.
September 16, 2016
This book started out great. I loved the speed that it moved and that it didn’t focus on one event so long that you got tired of details. I also liked that both Nathan and Shane started out as friends and that you got to follow them through over three years of friendship.
I had a harder time reading the last half of the book.
My favorite parts of the book were the snowboarding contests. I like how they were handled. They weren’t explained in huge detail, but they took place and were exciting to read. I also liked the camaraderie between the contestants.
Overall, I had fun reading this. There were things I didn’t like, but I would give the author another chance with another book. I would even reread this one. I would just skip some of my least favorite parts.
I had a harder time reading the last half of the book.
My favorite parts of the book were the snowboarding contests. I like how they were handled. They weren’t explained in huge detail, but they took place and were exciting to read. I also liked the camaraderie between the contestants.
Overall, I had fun reading this. There were things I didn’t like, but I would give the author another chance with another book. I would even reread this one. I would just skip some of my least favorite parts.
May 7, 2016
Nice friends to lovers story. I am glad I was directed to this story. I would like to read more by this author - although I don't know how I'll find his work in the future.
One fantasy aspect - maybe snowboarding/skate boarding is different from other sports at the elite level. Elite athletes in every other sport I know about do not trundle about at university, studying full time, eating pizza and drinking beer and having a careless diet eating "take-out" all the time. And gearing up for world level competition over a whole two or three weeks. Usually the whole training regimen is worked out a year ahead, carefully arranged around competition dates. This kept pulling me out of a story I was otherwise enjoying very much.
Maybe snowboarding is different? Please correct me if I have it wrong, and I will change this review.
One fantasy aspect - maybe snowboarding/skate boarding is different from other sports at the elite level. Elite athletes in every other sport I know about do not trundle about at university, studying full time, eating pizza and drinking beer and having a careless diet eating "take-out" all the time. And gearing up for world level competition over a whole two or three weeks. Usually the whole training regimen is worked out a year ahead, carefully arranged around competition dates. This kept pulling me out of a story I was otherwise enjoying very much.
Maybe snowboarding is different? Please correct me if I have it wrong, and I will change this review.
September 12, 2016
OK, I will admit that I give almost all of the DRitC stories 4-stars. A few will get 5-stars and even few will get 3-stars... but I appreciate the time, soul searching and heads thumping on desks that goes into getting these stories written, ready to publish and then out to us readers that can never get enough of them! *grin*
Now to the review part:
Snowboarding? I think I watched it few a few minutes on a sports channel once... but, let me tell you... this story was much more interesting than watching it on TV! ;D
Shane and Nathan's story covers a lot of ground (with some unusual bits of lesser known knowledge and trivia thrown in for fun) and, yes, it may have taken a while for me to get where it was going... but I got there and enjoyed the trip... so that makes it a Good Read!!! :D
Now to the review part:
Snowboarding? I think I watched it few a few minutes on a sports channel once... but, let me tell you... this story was much more interesting than watching it on TV! ;D
Shane and Nathan's story covers a lot of ground (with some unusual bits of lesser known knowledge and trivia thrown in for fun) and, yes, it may have taken a while for me to get where it was going... but I got there and enjoyed the trip... so that makes it a Good Read!!! :D
Want to read
January 10, 2016
Offered for FREE from the M/M Romance Group's Love Is An Open Road event. Thank you too all the amazing authors who participated!
Great pic for a friends-to-lovers story. From reviews it looks decent but too long, they take years for them to transition to a romance.
April 18, 2016
Este libro es muy largo, 360 páginas eran muchas para lo que te tienen que contar.
Al principio es interesante lo del snowboard y la amistad entre los dos protagonistas. Pasas 60% o más del libro así hasta que por fin son pareja y se pasan el resto del libro tol día teniendo sexo sin hacer más. Ni mucho ni tampoco XD
Al principio es interesante lo del snowboard y la amistad entre los dos protagonistas. Pasas 60% o más del libro así hasta que por fin son pareja y se pasan el resto del libro tol día teniendo sexo sin hacer más. Ni mucho ni tampoco XD
August 17, 2016
2.5 stars rounded up.
I liked the guys and their friendship. I like slowburn but that was too slow. Too much about snowboarding tbh. I also didn't think that it did the prompt that well. Yes the story gets there but very late and not that deep.
Still an enjoyable read and extra thumbs up for that effort for a free read.
I liked the guys and their friendship. I like slowburn but that was too slow. Too much about snowboarding tbh. I also didn't think that it did the prompt that well. Yes the story gets there but very late and not that deep.
Still an enjoyable read and extra thumbs up for that effort for a free read.
on-hold-for-a-rainy-day
November 30, 2015Okay, so I'm very intrigued by Dear Author message, and, based on the first 15%, both writing and characters here are good. Solid. Just not... all that exciting, you know. So I'll return to this story some other time when I won't have so many books I can't wait to read on my tbr.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews