u/Marcella_Caes

Looking for light to moderate beta reading of this book. Interested in pacing feedback and questions I don't answer well. Happy to do a swap with people with similar tags.

Synopsis:

Em Dubois, 35, likes to think of herself as rational. Embarrassing breakups, unstable employment, existential dread? All survivable with enough compartmentalization and panicked decision-making.

That is, until she’s pulled into the orbit of Vael and Serith, two ancient godlike entities hiding behind human smiles. Their deeply codependent relationship has shaped humanity through violence, manipulation, and fear for millennia. Em soon finds herself caught in the center of a slow-burn MMF/why-choose relationship none of them expected.

For readers who enjoy queer character-driven romance, MMF/why-choose dynamics, found family, morally messy relationships, and happily-ever-afters earned the hard way.

Tags

• Dark romantasy
• Power imbalance
• Why choose
• Morally gray characters
• Slow-burn tension
• Angst
• Found family
• Friends to lovers
• MMW pairing/throuple
• MW romance
• MM romance
• Polyamory/ENM
• Queer representation
• Ancient beings/Immortality
• Complex characters
• Identity
• Touch her and die

Excerpt:

She opens the bedroom door to two flinching figures, the one who's not Liam diving under the covers. Her stomach sinks. Unfortunately, conclusion jumping would’ve been a perfectly fine form of exercise here.

There's an annoying ringing in her ears.

“Em!” he gasps. “What are you doing here?” He tugs at the blanket again like he's ashamed of his nipples. It's too late; she's seen them.

“I… This is my bedroom.” She shrugs, gesturing around lamely.

Okay, so I've seen a lot of back and forth about this. I've read all of the recent threads I could find, and it seems pretty mixed, leaning towards mostly indents for fiction. Personally, I prefer blocks over indents, but I'm fine to go with the norm if indents are the standard.

HOWEVER.

When I have a series of short dialogue exchanges, as below, I feel like it looks fine in block formatting but horrible with indents. Is that normal?

If so, how do I stop it from looking so bad? I'm using Atticus (regret) so only can choose between ALL indented or ALL line breaks.

Might switch to another epub builder.

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In her case, though, she chucks the grapes on the counter, turns tail, and rushes to her bedroom to hide.

“Em—what?” he calls after her in concern.

Fuck, how do I even explain this?

“I’m—I’m going to need a minute,” she confesses.

“Is everything okay?” he asks, approaching the door. She can hear the concern in his voice.

“No, it’s... You just look really different,” she confesses, covering her face as she leans against the door. There’s a pregnant pause.

“I do?” he asks in surprise. She catches a hint of amusement.

“I’m a little weird… like that…” she trails off.

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