Suitable Substitute

by Steven W. Mathison

Bobby McRay is a loner. Not by choice, perhaps, but it suits him. It suits him because it allows him to pursue goals no other High School student would think of pursuing. He is, by and large, satisfied with his life. He is an honor student in High School, a swimmer, a distance runner, an honors College student, and, thanks to his mother, an incredibly talented dancer. He is a perfectionist, always pushing himself to succeed whether intellectually, physically or emotionally. There are no girls in his life, but that is not a handicap to Bobby’s way of thinking. He literally has no time for relationships. His life is good by his standards. He is content... and then Hailey and Allison decide they want to experience Bobby. Their lives revolve around the pursuit of experience - experiencing new and different males until they tire of them. They have selected Bobby as their next achievement, and they will do everything in their power to conquer him. Their plans, like those of the best laid of mice and men, bitch slap them.

This is a story solely intended for those 18+. It contains prolific and graphic acts of a sexual nature leaving no stone unturned, foul language, F-bombs out the kazoo, betrayal, cheating, cuckolding, humiliation, revenge, reckless stupidity, young love, true love, and, of course, some violence. There is also a tasty recipe, or two.

593 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 19, 2022

Reviews

[Steve Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5 stars

This author has some of the weirdest stories I have ever read. They are very interesting but completely unbelievable. Not just with what happens but how the characters act. As I read this story I am thinking to myself "nobody would ever act like that" or " that situation would never happen". Normally this upsets me when I am reading a book. I tend to read 98% fantasy. That means that almost everything I read is about something that isn't possible, so why would I be upset if people didn't act as I feel that should? I guess it is because I am going into the story knowing that there are things that I will have to take on faith. I know magic doesn't exist but in the context of the story I need to believe in magic in order for the story to work. Having a character act in a way that I feel is disingenuous to the story or how anyone in the world would act, takes me out of that mindframe of faith. If I can't believe how the characters are acting, how can I immerse myself in the story and live it. I tend to put myself in the MCs place and the more I think the MC is doing something I would do, or more to the point, what I would do if I had the life the author has presented to me, the more involved I am in the story. Having something happen that is so outside the bounds of believable with a character's actions is a real turn off for me. For some reason even though every character in this book was written in a way that I felt was unbelievable, I wasn't irritated. I treated it like a thought experiment. I went into it with the notion that nothing like this would actually happen the way it was described. With that framework in mind I would then ask myself what I would do IF it happened anyway.

Here are some of the major things that were unbelievable. Bobby. He is a 17 year old who is a master dancer. Master swimmer. Super hot, great body. Really intelligent, taking college courses at the same time he is also doing high school work as a junior. He is able to split his attention so much that he is able to do 2 different homework assignments at the same time. He can also type 130 words a minute. Cooks all the meals for his family. This guy who so amazing is shunned by everyone at school and nobody will talk to him. This guy?!? Nope that doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, 2 girls find out about how amazing he is and want to get with him. They are best friends Hailey and Allision. They do everything together. They find out how great a dancer he is and beg him to teach them. They get into a relationship. All 3 of them. It is mainly Hailey's idea but Allison wants him as well. He is leary because he doesn't think things work this way. They are persistent and tell him how much they want him. How much they love him. After they get him though they continue with their plan. They got with him for the experience. They want to experience as many things as possible. Now that they had him they want to move on to other experiences. They know he is the best thing that ever happened to them though and they don't want to lose him. It doesn't matter. They stick to the plan and start cheating on him. Not just a little. They go out and have a week long orgy where they did every sexual act known to man. They had gang bangs, group sex, orgies, double team, triple team. They had sex with 25 men in a row and at least a 100 times over that week. They even made Bobby eat them out after being with other guys. But, they still say how much they love Bobby. He is the only one for them. They can't wait for him to come back to them AFTER they have their fun. Every single girl in this book acted this way. Not as bad as Hailey and Allison but every girl seemed to have done at least 1 or 2 orgies at one time or another. That isn't real. That would never happen. There is a slight possibility that one woman would do this but everyone in school? Yeah, no.

I read this book in a weird way. The opening is Bobby in a bar after being in the military and not being happy meeting with the woman that walks into the bar. Hailey. Then the story starts. I read straight through up until the part about them cheating on him and having the week long gangbang. I asked myself if I really wanted to read this. I decided to skip to the end and read the last couple of chapters. Then I skipped back a little more and read the 3 previous chapters before what I had just read. Then I did that again. Then I went back to the bookmark I left and continued where I initially left off. This might of been a better way to read this story. There are some time jumps anyway so it wasn't as jarring for me when they came because I was expecting them. Things were told in a flashback style in the end and when I went back to the beginning to see how it was initially explained I was surprised that it wasn't.

Despite everything being completely unbelievable I keep coming back to this author's work. There are passages that he writes that really hit home that I think are fantastic. Little pieces of wisdom in this otherwise nonsensical story. There are strong emotions mixed in with the other craziness.

[Christian K Bzdak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the author’s best

For having no editor, pretty impressive writing (especially given the length). Very few errors and the story is entertaining.

My biggest issues with the book
1) Very derivative of “Life Needs an Instruction Manual” and “Homecoming”. Characters and even some of the story is too close to prior works by the author.
2) Hailey and Allison don’t work in the long run. Their poor choice is easily explainable and understood due to their naïveté early on. But it persists far too long. It is too much of a stretch to think they still believe their actions could still achieve their hope after the evidence keeps mounting that it is having the exact opposite effect.
3) Gloria’s part in the end of the book would have been better given to Allison and remove Gloria completely from the post-high school time. It would have fit with Allison’s guilt and needing to make amends and Gloria was too erratic.

[Philippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full-length novel...at last!

Ok, this one has it all: love, passion, joy, hate, jealousy, anguish, zaniness, craziness (not the same as zaniness), drama, loss, glorious victories and bottomless failures. It has more twists than a Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock episode and is just a much fun. (I'm thinking of A Scandal in Belgravia). The author has done a masterful job: This to me is his "Journeyman's Piece" to qualify as a master of the trade.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic book

One of the top 2 or 3 I have ever read on my kindle, very intriguing story and great ending. You will love this.

[Eduard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived the story.

This story grabbed me by the heart and made me cry with joy, what a good lifestory, naked but truthfull and believable, wow!

[Charles N · Rating 5 out of 5]

well done

Very good story, had to finish in one sitting, loved his characters. Well thought out, we’ll develop characters lots of surprises

[HAI GIACOMETTI · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing story

Good fleshing out of the basic infidelity trope. Great characters that developed. I was invested in each one through the whole story.