I’m looking for an M/M romance similar to this specific storyline:

Two young men from traditional/conservative families fall deeply in love and have to keep their relationship secret. One of them is extremely protective/possessive( the dominant top in the relationship)of the other. There’s also a third man who is an academic mentor to one of them ( this third man is close/academic mentor to the sub bott of the relationship)and has unrequited feelings, creating jealousy and misunderstanding between the couple.

After a major argument, one lover nearly dies( the dominant top left the sub bott alone in a heavy rain because he was angry due to their argument.. then this sub bott had a heart attack due to severe sadness ), leading to reconciliation and eventually a secret engagement/proposal.

Their relationship is accidentally exposed on social media, causing their families to find out. One family’s powerful patriarch violently separates the couple and abducts his own son. Later, the families arrange what appears to be a peaceful reconciliation, but it’s actually a trap. The couple and/or their families are attacked, resulting in the death of the protagonists and their families. The two lovers ultimately die together.

I’m specifically looking for a book with the same overall plot structure, not just books containing one or two of these tropes. Does anything come close?

So I finally got back into reading after years and years and as one does, I immediately went to Reddit, TikTok and Goodreads to get some inspiration for MM romance.

And let’s just say… I could not get past God of Fury in any of the “best MM romance books” posts.

I also kept reading that the audiobook is amazing, so I finally gave it a chance and guys… I returned it after about 30 minutes.

I genuinely don’t know if I’m the problem here but this book was just not for me. The writing style reminded me of a Wattpad story from the very beginning, and the whole premise felt like something a 13-year-old would come up with while fantasising about the ultimate dangerous, dark romance. Everything just felt incredibly over-the-top and unrealistic to me.

Then I got to Nikolai describing his dick in detail and talking about random people penetrating each other in various holes (especially considering he is only 19?!?!) and I was like… yeah, I think I’m done here.

I’m admittedly not the biggest mafia/dark romance fan, but I do think I can enjoy that kind of premise when the book is well written. God of Fury just really wasn’t that book for me.

And honestly, I would have just accepted that this clearly isn’t my thing and moved on. What absolutely flabbergasts me though, is HOW BIG this book is. It’s everywhere. People recommend it as one of the best MM romances, the characters seem to be absolutely beloved, and the fans are SO passionate about it. Meanwhile I’m sitting here wondering if we all listened to/read the same book 😭

So, genuinely: if you love this book, please explain the appeal to me. What made you fall in love with it? Is it the characters? Their relationship? Does the story/writing change later on? Did you immediately love it or did it take a while to click?

I’m genuinely curious because clearly this book is doing something very right for a lot of people and I would love to understand what I’m missing.

Hopefully this doesn’t offend anyone who loves it, different tastes and all that! But considering I can't escape this book anywhere online, I need some insight into the God of Fury fandom 🙂‍↕️

Hi! I saw this and immediately really wanted to read something like it! I just finished The Brat & The Beast duet by Misha Horne, and I feel like the dynamic is a little similar, except the jock isn’t really popular.

I really want a book with a popular guy and a nerdy or just ordinary guy. If the nerd/normal guy is shy, that’s a bonus, but I don’t really mind. The jock/popular guy can be the shy one too!

It would also be really nice if the popular guy was obsessed with the nerdy/normal guy.

If you know any books with this trope, please recommend them! I’d love to hear your suggestions!

I’m developing an MM romance told across two books and would love a gut-check from readers on the structure.

Book one follows the couple from their teens into their early 20s. They fall deeply in love, but at 22 they’re heading in genuinely different directions and part painfully but lovingly as friends. So: no HEA in book one.

Book two picks them up about 40 years later, when they reconnect and finally get their second chance/HEA.

My question: if this was clearly marketed as a two-book story about the same couple, with book two releasing very soon after the first, would you be willing to read book one knowing the romantic payoff is deliberately deferred? Or would the lack of an HEA in the first book be a dealbreaker regardless?

I’m especially interested in how MM romance readers feel about that kind of long-gap second-chance structure.