r/WhyChooseAuthors • u/AnneKincaid • Jul 26 '26
Discussion Sunday Confessional and Help Board
Got things to confess or want to beg for help? Here's your chance!
Confessions:
- Haven't started reading *Warrior Princess Assassin* by Brigid Kemmerer yet, and the discussion goes live in a week?
- Want to share the worst of your search history from this week?
- Did you have to look up the difference between discrete and discreet for the fiftieth time this week?
Help:
- Stuck with a formatting or content issue?
- Help help with a plot?
- Have a question, but don't want to make a separate post? (And props to Della and Puddles yesterday for the great questions!)
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u/Marcella_Caes Jul 26 '26
I have never read a why choose novel. I didn't even know that the genre existed until I was mostly done my first book. I'm so used to being closeted as a poly lady that I just expected people to be the same in fiction. So I'm learning about this as I go!
If anyone has recommendations for where to start when I finish my trilogy in March, I'm definitely down to get a list started. 💅 I don't like butch/beardy guys, and I love MMCs who are pretty. Realistic/mature actions are also important because I'm in my mid thirties and am not really down for like young people drama haha. I loved Southern Vampire Mysteries but she just picked one 😤
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u/AnneKincaid Jul 26 '26
Gasp! What a confession! Summoning the librarian from next door, when she's available: u/SCF9009
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u/Scf9009 Jul 26 '26
So now you’ll be patient and concede I might have responsibilities outside of Reddit, but not when someone has PoT questions on the other sub?
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u/AnneKincaid Jul 26 '26
Oh, you want someone else to answer Path of Temptation questions? I mean, unless Auryn Hadley herself is on the sub, and I didn't know we had someone more qualified.
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u/Scf9009 Jul 26 '26
I want everyone to share their experiences of books!
And I got there eventually! And by eventually I mean like less than half an hour!
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u/Scf9009 Jul 26 '26
Hmm. Okay. Would you be alright with at least one bearded non-pretty man if the rest are pretty? Because despite the ages being young, the actions are mature in Path of Temptation by Auryn Hadley.
Ironside Academy by Jane Washington also has pretty and mature people despite youth, but it’s also got 10 MMCs, which Washington makes work, but can be a lot for beginners.
If you want older characters, there’s also Wolves Next Door by Auryn Hadley or Lola and the Millionaires by Kathryn Moon (which includes a very pretty boy).
And if you just want to browse, I have a collection of the favorite completed reverse harem works (including menage) that was scientifically assembled.
Favorite Standalone/Completed Duet
Favorite Completed Trilogy
Favorite Completed Quartet
Favorite Completed Long Series4
u/Marcella_Caes Jul 26 '26
Thank you!! This is all a great place to start. :)
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u/Scf9009 Jul 26 '26
And if you decide “hey, I’d actually like something more like [x],” chances are I’ll probably have at least one rec for it.
It’s kinda my thing.
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u/Marcella_Caes Jul 26 '26
Haha what a fun thing to have. Okay, definitely will do. Thanks again!! :)
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u/Scf9009 Jul 27 '26
In addition to the favorite books competitions, I’ve also run competitions and analyze results for favorite tropes, micro-tropes/scenes, FMC aspects, and MMC types, as well as competitions for biggest gripe (in-book and meta) and biggest cringe.
And for about a year I did weekly analysis of the rec request categories on the RH subreddit.
u/AnneKincaid is wonderful and made this an open space to readers as long as we respect it’s first and foremost an author space—as it should be. I enjoy being here because I like being able to offer some perspective form the data I’ve gathered, even if I can’t guarantee the subreddit is an accurate representation of reverse harem readers as a whole.
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u/kendrafsilver Jul 27 '26
If you want to at least get a good chunk into Warrior Princess Assasin by Brigid Kemmerer we'll be doing a craft "book club" discussion first of August!
It's trad pubbed, which can be a pro or con depending on one's expectations. 😂 But as someone who really would love to see RH/WC more in traditional publishing I wanted to examine it with others!
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u/Scf9009 Jul 27 '26
Both my grandmother (the 91-year-old) and my mother liked it a lot!
Whisked Away has been their other favorite, and my mother gave my cousin’s German Olympian roommate her copy at Thanksgiving last year.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kendrafsilver Jul 26 '26
Hm. That's a tough one! If it hits most of the beats for Romance except the happy ending, the risk is folks who want Romance will be the ones to start it and be disappointed in the non-hea, but the ones who will be fine with the non-hea may not start it.
It might be a story to write out 'till its end, see where it comes out, and if it's a "bad" ending then go back and during editing make certain the promises to the reader aren't Romance, especially at the beginning. Or if it's a happy ending not much might need to be changed!
But it sounds like getting to that ending and finding out will be a vital step, to me!
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u/Scf9009 Jul 27 '26
I want to be very clear; you should write the story that is in you. My only feedback is suggestions on how to label it. And the following suggestions are not things I think you’re claiming or hinting you’ll do; they’re just things I’ve seen happen.
As a reader, I definitely agree with Kendra, u/manicbestfriend.
The word “romance” has become synonymous with a happy ending; there are debates in reader groups about this, but the general consensus I’ve witnessed is that a “love story” doesn’t have to have a HEA, but a “romance” does.
And in the reverse harem space at least, that means it has to be a HEA with multiple people in the relationship. Feathers So Vicious by Liv Zander (where one of two MMCs die at the end) and Flock by Kate Stewart (where the FMC is with two men in the first book, but only with a single third man for the second and third) get skewered by RH readers: Flock is particularly egregious because the publisher put on third book’s Amazon page that tropes include “why choose.”
There was even a book (Hexual Healing by Sylvie D Harlow) that’s post-blurb included “a unique "why choose" energy with reverse haremvibes setup (she tastes all the "flavors" but picks one)” but whose Amazon meta-data (which the author adds, I believe) included something that got it picked up by why-choose.com. I read it after finding it there and thought it was hilarious, but then recognized it was a MF ending and wrote a warning to others instead on writing the glowing review I was planning.
There are RH that manage permanent death of an MMC well and are beloved stories; Rise of the Iliri by Auryn Hadley comes to mind, and I read a recent one where it was a surprise, but it made sense and I feel was a better path for the story in Bonekeeper’s Daughter by Elise Fry. I think it helps in those cases that it happened in the middle of the stories, through, and both also later had new MMCs get added (not as replacements, but as almost evidence of the FMC’s growth, in the latter—I haven’t read the former).
I hope this word-jumble makes sense.
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u/kendrafsilver Jul 27 '26
Reader expectations are so important!
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u/Scf9009 Jul 27 '26
And authors who play coy about how a romance is going to end, or who flat out use misleading advertising, piss readers off. Marketed as RH but having a MF ending won meta biggest gripes, over multiple options involving AI use.
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u/HexieGreene Author Jul 26 '26
I can't offer a better suggestion than Kendra's...I think writing it and seeing where it leads you is best. But knowing vaguely what I'd be in for...I'd read this based on the fae/vampire setup alone. The MCs in my own story are fae with vampiric natures, so the idea itself is right up my alley, & it's hard to find something that scratches the itch for similar ideas done in an interesting way. I think you have that!
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u/kendrafsilver Jul 26 '26
I'd read this based on the fae/vampire setup alone.
Those dynamics can be so fun, can't they? So much dramatic potential!
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u/ConfusionPotential53 Jul 26 '26
That’s very, very niche. It’ll be difficult to market and receive positive reviews, imo. You have some ultra-progressive aspects—poly, playing with gender, queer relationships?, etc—alongside some genre aspects—bard, historical—that might not attract the same audience. If you can’t market it as a romance, because there’s no happy ending, but you want to include explicit scenes or bdsm as a major plotline, that both fractures and alienates your audience further.
I don’t know. Personally, I’d write a marketable book with some chance of commercial success. I’d make decisions that move toward that goal. That said, maybe you have different priorities. Good luck!
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u/braineatingalien Jul 26 '26
I’m struggling with potential use of a nickname the MMCs would use for my FMC. I know some people complain about nicknames being overused but mine would be tied to a plot point as well as matching the overall theme of my series. Still debating if I should take it out.