Twenty-two-year-old Emilia Harris has her life figured out. She has a loving boyfriend, a carefully mapped-out future, and a one-year digital media internship in London before returning home to Boston to build the life they've planned together.

Then she meets Adrien.

Her spontaneous, foul-mouthed British flatmate is everything Emilia isn't, and their unlikely friendship introduces her to a terrifying possibility: she might want something different from the life she's spent years planning.

Funny, steamy, and emotionally messy, Emilia Emilia explores desire, infidelity, friendship, and what happens when the person you're becoming wants a different future than the one you planned.

Content Warnings: Explicit sexual content (open-door scenes), infidelity, emotional betrayal, strong language, alcohol consumption and intoxication, relationship conflict, and emotionally intense breakup scenes.

Looking for: 

• human feedback from people who enjoy the contemporary romance genre.
• reader reactions, character arc and voice, romance and spice, pacing
• I am not in need of line editing at this time
• 2-6 week turnaround

I am open to swaps with other authors in similar genres and themes

Witch Hunt is a genre fiction novel focused on the magical realism and mystery genres with light world-building elements. It is currently a standalone story.

The manuscript utilizes a unique style and formatting that breaks some traditional writing "rules" on perspective switching. Limiting beta request to the opening of the novel, with the option to continue, if wanted.

Prologue + Chapter 1 Length: 11,000 words, complete.

Victor Poe is a walking cliche - a jaded, lonely private detective who specializes in finding and catching cheating spouses. One case is about to challenge everything he knows about the world and himself - a frantic call about a missing child, supposedly abducted by a witch.

Content warnings: Violence, profanity, sexual references.

Looking for 2+ beta readers willing to read the Prologue and Chapter 1 with the option to continue if they'd like. Novel Length: 104,000 words, complete.

Open to swap with similar length.

*Please DM if interested*

Touched, adult dark contemporary fantasy / supernatural horror / dark romantic elements.

Length: 97,000 words, complete.

Emma discovers that she possesses the power to relieve the agony of the tormented man that frequents the coffee shop where she works. But others like him discover what she can do, and want a piece of the pie. 

Content warnings: Coercion, intimidation, violence, harassment, sexual violence, swearing, drug/alcohol use, and bullying.

Looking for three beta readers willing to take on the entire novel. Not available for swaps.

*Please DM if interested*

I just did a manuscript swap with another writer and needed to vent a bit.

In my notes, I explicitly asked for story level feedback: pacing, reader reactions, what works, what doesn't, plot confusion, etc. I explicitly asked NOT to have line edits or proofreading done.

I open the gdoc today, and 100% of the comments are grammatical corrections with about 90% of them being to my Southern characters' dialogue. Things like changing "we been" to "we've been" and “‘round” to “around” and getting rid of all their natural dialect until they sound like textbook robots.

The worst part is I spent hours reading theirs, leaving detailed notes on pacing, characters, and genuine reader reactions. Opening mine to find nothing but unwanted proofreading was just deflating.

Thankfully we only swapped a partial chunk, so I haven't read their whole book yet. I'm definitely not finishing theirs now. Part of me wants to do a heavy proofread on the rest of their draft just to be petty, but I'll behave.

Has anyone else had a swap fall completely like this? How do you handle putting in real effort only to get the exact opposite of what you asked for?

Hi, I'm currently asking for Beta readers for my Dark Romance Known in the Dark

Tropes include: - brother’s best friend - masked identities - secret private club - morally grey / possessive MMC - he falls first - explicit open-door spice - romantic suspense

Tagline: In the dark, they could be anyone. The problem was, they already knew each other.

**A little taste:**

“We don’t have to go in.”

“I didn’t say no.”

“And I didn’t hear yes.”

Something inside my chest tightened. Not fear. Something much more dangerous. I looked at him properly. At the black mask. Dark eyes. The man whose real name I didn’t know. The man who knew nothing about me except the things I’d chosen to tell him.

“What do you want?” he asked.

I almost laughed. Not because it was funny. Because nobody had asked me that in a very long time.

Ideally the readers would enjoy dark romance. If you're interested send me a dm and we can chat about the manuscript and what I'm searching for in a beta.

I'm open to swaps with other authors on similar size books in similar genres

Hi! I’m looking for beta readers for my completed science-fiction novel, When the Ships Came Down, currently about 78,000 words.

The novel is presented as an oral history compiled fifty years after the Contact War, when an extraterrestrial invasion devastated Earth and permanently altered humanity and its place in the universe. The story is told through interviews, journals, government transcripts, military accounts, and survivor testimony from around the world.

It begins as a first-contact/invasion story, but eventually expands beyond the war itself into the aftermath: reconstruction, humanity’s relationship with other civilizations, and what kind of future can emerge after the old world has been destroyed.

The tone is generally serious and grounded, with a mixture of military science fiction, disaster fiction, first contact, speculative history, with messages of optimism for uncertain times and meditations on humanity’s future.

Content warnings: Large-scale warfare, mass death, starvation, societal collapse, violence, descriptions of human remains, and some discussion of suicide.

What I'm looking for

I'm primarily interested in big-picture beta-reader feedback rather than proofreading or line editing. Please feel completely free to be critical—I would much rather know something isn't working now than after publication.

In particular, I'd love to know:

• Where did you start losing interest or feel tempted to skim? If possible, mark the exact chapter or passage where it happened.
• Where did you feel confused or need more explanation?
• Where did I explain too much? Were there places where you understood the point and wished the book would move on?
• Are there any chapters, scenes, characters, ideas, or passages you think I should simply "kill"? I'm open to cutting material that isn't earning its place.
• Which chapters or scenes were the strongest?
• Which were the weakest?
• Did the different narrators feel like distinct people, or did too many of them sound alike?
• Did the transitions from invasion → war → reconstruction → humanity's postwar future feel natural, or did the novel ever feel like it had turned into a different book?
• Were there moments where you wanted more character/emotional material and less history/worldbuilding?
• Did any scene feel repetitive because an earlier chapter had already accomplished essentially the same thing?
• Which characters or stories stayed with you after reading?
• Did the ending feel earned and satisfying?
• Most importantly: if you had bought this book rather than agreeing to beta read it, would you have finished it? If not, where would you have stopped?

You definitely don't need to answer every question. Even a handful of detailed reactions would be extremely useful.

I'm interested in uncensored reactions while reading—things like "I got bored here," "I didn't believe this," "I wanted to know more about this person," or "this chapter should be half as long." Don't worry about hurting my feelings.

Timeline: I'm flexible, but ideally I'd like feedback within 3–5 weeks.

Critique swap: Not available at this time due to wedding/honeymoon

If you're interested, comment or send me a message and I can share the manuscript.

Hey everyone! I’m looking for beta readers for my paranormal novel. Activity writing on chapter 10 and want a idea of its readability from potential readers who aren't bias. My main questions are, do you find the characters likable & would you keep reading?

Here’s the working blurb I have so far:

The Paranormal Inquisition Club of the University of New Mexico has three members. The president—Noelle, a straight-laced medium; her scaredy-cat friend Jolie; and the mean-girl Madison, who wants to be anywhere else. Will these three girls set their difference aside when they discover their true destiny?

Read Paranormal Inquisiton club: Realm of spirits to find out.

Please DM me for a copy of my manuscript so far if interested!

Title: The Empty Chair

Genre: M/M college romance - Harvard, first-gen ex-LDS student, out but trying to stay invisible + junior QB legacy golden boy. Slow-burn hurt/comfort, bi awakening with one darker stretch.

Length: 76k complete, posting 10k sample (Ch 1-4) to start, full 76k if you want to continue.

Premise: Kirk Langdon survived freshman year at Harvard by staying invisible - back row, hoodie up, keep your distance. Three weeks into sophomore fall, he makes the mistake of making eye contact with Lukas Vanderbilt - junior quarterback, legacy, golden boy who owns every room he walks into. Kirk hates him on principle. Or tells himself he does.

Content note: First 4 chapters are low angst - no assault, no explicit sex. Full book does contain: attempted SA - no graphic sexual detail but extended struggle and aftermath, homophobic slurs during assault.

Not dark romance - romance is tender and consent-forward, plot gets dark for a stretch.

Looking for 2-3 readers who love college/New Adult MM romance for big picture notes in 1-2 weeks.

What I need on the 4 chapters - big picture over line edits:

• After Ch 1 - would you keep reading? What hooked or lost you?

• Does Lukas feel like more than a golden boy quarterback stereotype?

• Do Kirk and Lukas sound like two different people in Ch 3?

• I use internal italics for intrusive thoughts - did it work or feel distracting? Too much / too little?

• Where did you get bored or skim?

• After Ch 4 - would you request the full 76k? What would make you say yes / no? Are you rooting for them as a couple yet?

Format / timeline: On BetaBooks - 4 chapters uploaded now, I will unlock full 76k if you want to continue. Can also share Google Doc with Suggesting on or Word doc. 2-3 weeks for sample is great. Happy to swap for MM / college / sports / hurt-comfort.

DM for link.