#best smut book on the app and best book of 2023

[griffinsboyfriend]

There’s only 4 chapters of DLS left!!!

[kingofbodyrolls]

Jungkook fic recs 2023

In honor of Jungkook’s birthday, I want to share my ultimate favorite Jungkook fanfictions, that I’ve read this year 💜I want to thank each and every writer on this list for creating such wonderful stories and art - you are truly amazing ✨ All the fics on this list hold a dear place in my heart 🥹

❗Most of these fics are smutty as hell, so minors dni.❗ 

If you read anything on this list and you like it, please leave a comment to the writer or reblog the original fic’s post 💜And if you want more fic recs you can follow me to stay updated 🙂

BTS fic rec index → May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep (💜)(knj) | Oct (pjm) | Nov (*) | Dec (ksj)(kth) |

Emoji meaning → angst = 🌩️, smut = 🥵, fluff = 🥰, comedy = 😂. 

⭐Two point Five: pt1, pt2, pt3 [series] by @bratkook // jjk x f.reader // handyman!jk, s2f2l // 🥵🥰

📝 Who would have thought booking a handyman from an app would lead to this. sure, you wish he’d mount you instead of just your television, but you could totally be friends. Right?

🗨️ This is also one of my all time favorites! 💎There is just something incredibly hot about handyman JK 🥵 It is so good, juicy, smutty and there’s comedy in it too! Please don’t be sleeping on this one.

⭐Caught Me by @jeongi // jjk x f.reader // roommate!au, e2l // 🥵😂

📝 You hate your temporary roommate, jungkook and it doesn’t help that he’s been catching you at the most inconvenient of times.

🗨️ This is a fucking MASTERPIECE 💖 I love the banter and comedy, how JK gets on readers nerves 😂 I love absolutely every fucking thing about this and don’t get me started on the smut 🔥🔥 🔥

⭐The Forgotten Spaces [completed series] by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // college!au, dancer!au + e2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 You’ve been dancing on the same dance crew since your teenage years, and you finally have an important role in it. It feels like life is taunting you when your rival comes back after disappearing for a year, ready to tease you every chance he gets. Will the teasing turn into more, or are you going to take him down with you?

🗨️ This is truly a masterpiece! The writing is perfection and the characters have so much soul, dimension, hurt and love. It is exceptional 👏🏾♥️ you just have to read this gem 💎

⭐McD*ckin by @jinned // jjk x f.reader // slice of life, fast food worker!jk, customer!reader, s2l // 🥵😂

📝 “So, if I’m so predictable,” you tease, running your finger along his clothed chest, “what am I going to do next?”

🗨️ I’d like to order a McChicken please 🙋🏾‍♀️🥵💦 this was funny, and actually made me laugh like a freak at some points 🤣 also the second hand embarrassment 😳🙈 It really cheered me up. I really liked the ordering menu when reader arrived 🙈🤭 also the ending, which was unexpected for me, but I quite liked it because it wasn’t “super happy and lovey dovey” like most of the stories I read, but still open 😊

⭐The Wedding Planners by @gukyi // jjk x f.reader // e2l, wedding!au // 🥰🥵🌩️

📝 Jeon Jungkook is three things: cocky, terrible, and your worst enemy. Then your best friend Hoseok gets engaged to the love of his life, and suddenly Jeon Jungkook is four things: cocky, terrible, your worst enemy, and the man you will be spending the next seven months with in order to plan your best friend’s wedding. And then, as if your life couldn’t get any shittier, you make the poor decision of sleeping with him on the first day of the job.

⭐In the Dark by @jksangelic // jjk x pjm x f.reader // threesome, f2l, mxm  // 🥵😂

📝 “I can’t get a signal on my phone, the car is dead, and I’m fairly certain we are out of matches.”

⭐Oh My God, They Were (Quarantined) Roommates 💯 by @ot7always // jjk x f.reader // college!au, roommates!au // 🥰🥵

📝 What do you do when you’re quarantined for months on end with Jeon Jungkook - S tier cuddler, workout robot, and thirst trap extraordinaire? Fuck him, you guess.

⭐Anpanman by @honeymoonjin // jjk x f.reader // bf2l // 🥵😂🥰

📝 Your best friend jungkook finally convinces you to seek therapy for your failing mental health. the only catch? the one therapist that’s within your price range is an alternative marriage counsellor, jung hoseok, and the only way jungkook managed to get you an appointment was by saying the two of you were married. will couples counselling actually be useful for your wellbeing, or will something that runs much deeper rise to the surface instead?

⭐The Boy with Galaxies in His Eyes by @oddinary4bts // jjk x reader // idol!au + fwb2l // 🌩️🥵🥰

📝 You had never thought the night sky could be found in someone’s eyes. That is, until you met Jeon Jungkook and his gravity pulled you in. Will he crush you with the galaxies in his eyes, or will you learn to explore his worlds and make them yours?

🗨️ It is a long one, but damn is it worth it! It will take you for the very best rollercoaster ride of your life. So if you haven’t read this yet, what are you honestly doing with your life? 

Borahae and happy birthday Kookie 💜 🥳 🎂 

[cadybear420]

My thoughts on the 2023 Choices releases so far

I don't usually do this but fuck it. If I feel like it I'll do one for 2022 since I was active that year. Not for 2021 though, since I was still very new to the app starting in that year. I am currently working on a masterlist for all Choices books though.

Some of these books, I have not fully read or caught up with yet, but I'm still providing my opinion on what I anticipate for them.

Guinevere

Haven't started yet, but I heard it's really good. It doesn't seem like something I'll consider one of the bests, but who knows, it might surprise me.

Surrender 2

This one really cemented the Surrender series as the worst Choices stories ever of all time to me. All it does is hammer down how much worse Reagan is than Pat. They infantilize MC and are incredibly controlling to the point where they enforce BDSM outside of the bedroom and then straight up say "when a woman agrees to be my sub, she agrees to obey".

MC does leave them over this, thank God, but unfortunately her self-respect is very short lived. She seems completely unfazed when Reagan literally tracks her down on her getaway trip, and even proposes to them barely even a day after they talk things out (and keep in mind, that talk only happened because Reagan tracked down MC).

God this series was such a waste of potential.

Kiss of Death

I'm only in the middle of Ch1, but I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about this one. On one hand, there are options for MC to be more badass and proactive. But on the other hand, a lot of characters infantilize MC and she does get forced into a damsel in distress position often.

With other trashy smut books, I at least kind of know what to expect. But with this one, it's a very mixed bag.

Getaway Girls

I've only played Chapter 1, but so far it seems pretty fun and chill and I'm looking forward to playing it.

Roommates With Benefits

The first chapter wanted my MC to lap-dance on the LI. I think by that point, we already knew the cliched gender-normative smut romance we were in for.

But with that in mind, there wasn't anything that severely pissed me off about this book like there was about books like Surrender 2 and FCL. Well, besides the LI constantly calling MC "baby bird", but even that is relatively minor compared to the problems of books like Surrender 2 and FCL.

Overall, it's a pretty mid-level story.

First Comes Love

Awful awful awful. MC is a FemCeL. The story wants us to root against Rebecca despite that she did literally nothing wrong. Even when we choose to be nicer to Rebecca, it's all meaningless and they clearly want it to be fake kindness. MC basically gets rewarded for her behavior in the end as she ends up with the Blake.

I know MCs don't need to be goody-two-shoes all the time but if they're gonna be shitty or morally grey, at least give it more nuance. Have some self-awareness of some sort.

Overall, easily my number 2 worst Choices story ever.

The Duchess Affair

I haven't even started it yet and thus I'm mainly going off secondhand spoilers. But this is the one affair story where I'm actually more sympathetic to the affair. It's like, the 1800s. MC was married off into a loveless marriage with an abusive prick, which was common for women at the time. Those women, especially if they were sapphic, did not have a lot of options in those days.

It's also kind of nice that, as easily as this one could have been male-coded (and they do kind of end up doing that in the last few chapters), it actually makes even more sense with a female LI. Not only with the forbidden romance being spicier because 1800s sapphism, but a male tutor for a married woman would not be nearly as believable as a female tutor. I mean, I find most GOC-LI books to be better when played as anything other than wlm, but here the male LI situation goes from bland to straight up not even believable, so yeah.

But it's really hard to take it seriously when Nat is an entitled prick and they have bullshit such as MC watching deers mating or getting off from horseback riding. Just like MTFL, its sexual tone seems very out-of-place for the kind of story they want to tell. I swear to God they had to have hired some Brickleberry writers for that mating scene.

Crimes of Passion 2

Haven't started yet but I feel like it might be alright. The first one was mostly slightly above-lukewarm to me outside of MC, Trystan, and their dynamic. But from what I heard, this one is pretty solid too.

Kindred

Haven't started it yet, I feel like it'll be one that I'll end up being pretty fond of.

Blades 2

Haven't started yet but I'm a little worried about it. I really want my shamelessly-RoleReversal Imtura x m!MC moments, but from what I heard... it feels very disconnected from the first book, to say the least.

And I'm surprised that they're giving it a third book, what with their nowadays attitudes towards the series that actually have effort put into them.

The Billionaire's Baby

It's literally just TNA but with a surrogate MC instead of a nanny MC. The only thing that surprised me is that Joss wasn't the one Daphne was cheating on the LI with.

As if it wasn't already obvious from the Jenny/Aditya subplot in TNA 3, this book makes it SUPER obvious that PB would have had an accidental pregnancy plot in TNA Book 1 if Sam wasn't GOC. And I can easily say that if this book's LI wasn't GOC, they'd probably have had MC have an accidental pregnancy rather than the surrogacy plot.

This one gets a lot of hate, but I personally think it's not worth my anger because it's just... derivative in every way possible. It's perhaps the most soulless of PB's stories yet. Cheating, pregnancy, AND romancing a billionaire? Really? Pretty sure every other app that panders to Facebook Karen Moms has already done that story dozens of times.

Dirty Little Secrets

I'm a bit behind on this one now, but so far I do think it's one of the better releases of the year. It's a fun balance between spicy murder mystery and campy smut, and I like that it kind of knows what it is a bit more rather than books like TNA and TBB that force you to take them seriously.

It's definitely still one of those books where the mlw, wlw, and mlm routes are far more engaging and spicy than the probably-originally-intended wlm route where it's very been-there-done-that, but hey, I'm certainly enjoying the hell out of the mlw route.

Also, some of the male MC outfits are a little bit of a step up from the usual premium m!MC outfit we get where it's just something completely basic. Some of them definitely still feel very safe compared to their f!counterparts, but there's progress.

Alpha

Haven't started yet, but I'm looking forward to it. About time we got a werewolf book that's GOC. I'm sad we don't get to be the Alpha but at least I can make the route mlw.

Ship of Dreams

Haven't started yet, I don't have a lot of expectations for it.

The Cursed Heart 2

I want to bone Jack. I want him to sit on my face. I want him to flatten my pelvis as he rides my strap. Omnomnomnom sexy guy in crop top aahbhahghgahrbharhagrhahbrhgrbarkbarkabgrakagarkabrakarkrbark

[aotvfilm]

Hiya Holiday Pal here!! No, you need sleep and rest, it's a busy time of the year innit! :D

AKLJDFLKJSDF I'm sorry that made me laugh so hard, just the way you said it. Nothing wrong with hating cooking! That's very sweet of your partner! Aw, how lovely that they asked for money, and the other for legos, and wow, that's fantastic! There are so many good kids books out there! I will be exchanging gifts, mostly things such as calenders and soap and books, since all of my family is just my grandmother, uncle, mother and twin brother, and our doggy! So it's going to be super exciting to see the dog with a three foot piece of rawhide made from buffalo! LOL ! Also getting them items such as soap, lotion, calendars, and ornaments, and books! Not too exciting but I hope they enjoy them!

Escapade is so good! It's fantastic! Oh my gosh I have so many. For now I'll send two. I read Lightning Strikes Twice last night, very well written, a bit too much smut for me though. I'd say two recs I have are Sodalite and Aventurine ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/21931873) and the domestic monsters series (https://archiveofourown.org/series/167063) hopefully you'll enjoy them! Important question, do you read Escapade with the playlist playing or do you read it silently?

It really is intense that it's almost 2023. OH I HAVE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THE TOUR !!! WHAT WERE THEY ALL LIKE, WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE SONGS? No, no no one is judging you for running a Larrie instagram, I think it's spectacular!

Well you seem really wonderful and great yourself friend <3

Okay, yeah, the Witcher-- I've only watched S1-- not even S2, so I can't recommend S2 in good faith, and have heard it's not that good. I've written 35 for that fandom! I have not been able to write any Larry as of yet, espc with graduate school apps picking up rn, but I can't wait to!

Absolutely okay to have that fear, but I encourage you once more; you are more capable and a better writer than you think. Try a prompt, try a little drabble, see how it feels. You don't have to post it you know?

Hopefully this week is going better, so sorry about not replying very quickly. Sending you all the love <3

Holiday Palllll <3

Hi Holiday Pal <3

I love that you also get your dog something for the holidays! I do the same with my pets. Your gifts sound wonderful!

Yes Escapade was SOOO good! I read it a really long time ago so it was nice to reread. I read with the playlist on! How about you? Usually I have my headphones on while I'm reading fics so I appreciate when an author includes a playlist. I'll definitely check those fics out! One of the last fics I read that I really enjoyed was The Finish Line (Is A Good Place For Us To Start) https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136964/chapters/2298990 it was slow burn but at a perfect pace.

Oh the tour was so great! They opened with Midnight Memories and hearing Rock Me live was an experience. I was so fucking young though omg and my mom went with me. I also cried when they came out and I saw Louis for the first time. What is your favorite 1D album?? I'd do anything to go back in time and go to OTRA.

Also my instagram name was elounotachance. Tell me that isn't great

Wow 35 fics! That's impressive. I'm definitely going to try writing some more because I do think I could produce a coherent fic, I just give up on projects easily :(

What are you going to grad school for? I'm graduating from undergrad in march and I may go back to grad school in a few years. Definitely need a break from school right now though! Best of luck with your applications! xx

Talk soon friend x

[cadybear420]

My problem with most genderlocked books is that they're pointlessly genderlocked. Something like ACOR or TDA, I can understand being genderlocked. But RWB, FCL, BB, WEH, ROD, Witness? You could have easily made them GOC and the stories would likely still work. It'd just cost PB a bit of extra money and effort to incorporate new assets.

We've had so many genderlocked releases in 2023. Only 5 of them were GOC, only two of which were original stories (as opposed to sequels). And of the ones that were genderlocked, how many of them actually needed to be genderlocked? TDA, SOD, and maybe Kindred?

Early days PB wasn't immune to pointless genderlocking either but at least it was less frequent? Oh, and also the fact that almost all of the GOC releases of 2022, starting with COP, brought in they/them pronoun options as well as the option to choose pronouns separately from body-type. Well, not only did we not get that due to the drought of GOC in 2023, but the new GOC releases we did get didn't even offer that option. So there's a very blatant downgrade in effort going on.

Thinly-veiled TERFs constantly paint the pro-GOC people as just "selfish cishet men" who not only don't care about the lack of rep for women, but also lack of rep for queer players. Which is some bullshit, most of the people I've seen advocate for GOC options are queer players, usually mlm!

Many people say Choices is the best VN app for queer players as of now, and seeing as it's the only VN app that has regular m!MC options and f!LI options (while many others tend to have like 99% genderlocked female MC and wlm only romances)... yeah. It's kind of gross to paint the pro-GOC people as not truly being progressive when not only most of them are progressive, but the GOC options have done more good for the stories than harm. We have the options to play the frequent male-LI romance routes as mlm. And without GOC, we certainly wouldn't have gotten those enby MC options in 2022.

Whine about "cishet men invading women's spaces" (which is another phrase that rings way too similar to common TERF rhetoric) all you want, but you can't really exclude them without also excluding mlm players, enby players, and more. Unless you just make all the LI options male and exclude wlw players.

Not that excluding cishet men is a good idea anyways, YA flowery romance genres are CONSTANTLY stereotyped as being "for women". Men never get fantasy stories about them being rescued by a heroic and charming love interest, because they're expected to be the heroic ones and save the women!

While I certainly would love more variety in the romance dynamics PB puts out in single LI stories (being a GNC wlm after all), is this the hill y'all wanna die on? You really want to die on the hill of excluding men from fantasies about romancing people stronger/more powerful than us? People talk about how women are often excluded from video games but we all know damn well that's in regards to the action and adventure genres, not the romance-based VN genres. Also an obligatory "fuck you and STFU" to the crybabies who complain about a GOC MC being "female coded" just because they giggled or because they had an umbrella held for them. Then again at least these guys are actually more open about being gender essentialists.

Obviously I'm not saying PB has always been great at representing queer players and etc. We've gotten some improvements such as in mlm and wlw smut scenes. But my point is, there are some damn good reasons PB had more respect and profits back when they had more GOC books, and it shows.

Making so many genderlocked books, especially with most of them being pointlessly genderlocked, is one of many microcosms of PB's drop in effort along with stuff like nearly every new release being a single-LI smut book. Seriously, what's the last non-sequel story we had that wasn't a "17+ sexy", Kindred? It's getting to the point where a lot of us are only keeping the app around because of the older stories.

When I really think about it, it does come off as rather TERFy when people preach that it's bad to want more GOC stories because "this is one of the few video games where we play as female locked characters, let women have this one thing". Yeah when they say "women" you KNOW they only mean allo cis gender-conforming women, most likely white and straight too.

You're gonna root against male MC options for the sake of "muh few female locked MCs", but we all know damn well you're not gonna root for trans MC options or GNC appearance/romance options for the female-locked MCs. Or any other sort of variety in the options or portrayal of these female MCs that doesn't try to pander to Facebook Karen Moms.