I really enjoyed this! The very flawed, yet extremely likable Taylor was fun to get to know. I love how his story unfolded, and we got to know more and more about him every couple of chapters. He'd just be shallow, shallow, selfish, scared, shallow, and then revealing. He'd tell about something from his past, express insecurities and fears, and then just be so fucking ADORABLE, he was impossible not to love. The backgrounds here added so much depth and interest, with the hospital environment and your obvious knowledge on the subject; and Taylor's memories; his twin's house and family and pot smoking; the secondary characters like Miles and Emma; the relationship with Dad and Chris...it was multi-layered and complex and dimensional. I also enjoyed how everything was from Taylor's viewpoint - we never got to learn anything about anyone that he didn't share or know about himself. Chris was an enigma until the last two chapters. We never learn about his prison time, how he felt about murdering his father, his pains and fears, or how he even felt about Taylor unless it was something the main character shared with us. And Taylor's flawed character was so shallow, the readers don't get more than hints of the depths of other people, simply because he himself didn't see any depth. But readers knew it was there, simply by the slight reveals from the viewpoint of a self-centered and insecure main character. The long chapters allowed the reader to really dive into this world, to be taken into Taylor's musings and feel part of the environment and emotions, knowing that the chapters weren't going to end quickly. Taylor's complete change of heart did happen rather quickly, although sometimes paradigm shifts can happen that way. It was time for him to grow up, to stop being so selfishly involved with his fears and insecurities and mature a bit, but it all happened in just a matter of hours, so that was a bit quick, I think. However, it was obviously like a domino effect for him, and all he needed was the first one to be knocked over. I certainly didn't want more chapters dragging out his internal struggles, but maybe there could have been one more buffer chapter showing a few steps forward, a step or two back kind of thing before the epilogue. Jumping forward five years wasn't terribly jarring for the last chapter, but all the changes were pretty extreme. It seems the last chapter could have been it's own mini-story, since so much happened. But you gave us Taylor so whole-heartedly in this story that your readers could envision the last five years quite easily. But that also made me want more - I wanted to see his reactions to getting a house and a puppy, to watch his relationship with Chris repair and deepen, to see him become friends with the future mother of his children. But at least we glimpsed it all, and even saw some of his old insecurities flaring up, with finding out that he was the father of Lucy. But we also missed any interactions with him and his brother through this whole time, and their dynamic was quite interesting. Again, I enjoyed this and I really appreciate your time and dedication to creating this world and sharing it with people for free. Thank you for completing it, too, as so many good stories are left unfinished. Lovely writing!

This entire story has completely blown my mind. I absolutely love your writing style, your characters are superb. You're one in seven billion! Please, never stop writing.

Amazing story. You almost lost me when I was worried there wouldn't be a happy ending, but it was too good to let go. Your writing flies well and feels natural. Wonderful job. Xoxo Robin

I absolutely loved reading this. As a non overly emotional person, I have to confess that it did make me cry (multiple times); That was the first sign of good writing and a well thought out plot. I feel that the characters' personal growth was paced perfectly and realistically, so congratulation a on being one of the few gay fiction authors on this site capable of doing so. Awesome job, you should be proud of your work.

I really loved reading this! Of course there were times when Taylor was infuriating, but something about him makes him impossible to dislike! I felt all of his emotions, especially his sadness about the wedding. You are so good at fleshing out your characters and expressing their feelings in words. I'm going back to reread More Beautiful Than Me!

Your chapter titles gave me CHILLS. (Though I admit that I was bad and flipped to the end all the way at chapter three. You made me do it, though!)

I mean, wow. I kind of hate Taylor and it's really really really hard to make me care about a story (much less a character) that I dislike so much, but I seriously could not stop rooting for him. He broke my heart so many times because he's just hurting so badly, even if I wanted to shake him at the same time because he's so damn selfish. He really loves the people around him but he really can't see them without thinking about himself first and I just hate him and love him and, yeah, REALLY well done. I love how everyone always responds in a reasonable way to him and how well fleshed out they are. This was just really really great.

You were right, the last part was just pure fluff. A sweet end for a story full of angst and reflection. I really liked so much drama, but yeah, more angst. But with a very happy end for all characters!

awwwwwwww, so cute ! Sorry for disappearing on you for such a long time but I was just so busy. And when I wasn't, I was procastinating because I like this story so much I didn't want it to ever end. But since we're supposed to all die today (hahaha sarcasm), I wanted to know how the story ends.
I'm glad Taylor and Chris went back together and are very happy. It was very angsty for a while so I had some doubts but here, happy ending :D You kept your promise to keep this story short (with very long chapters hihihi but I'll never complain about that). I'll try to read your new fic between sessions of stuffing my face. Hope everything's fine on your side of the world. Take care

I love how Taylor says, "And some things happened with my brother which we promised to never talk about," because he's totally giving it all away! Even though he wasn't supposed to talk about it. Or was that just he wasn't supposed to mention it to Ryan? I got a little queasy when he was describing in detail how he tried to kill himself, but willed myself through it! Hopefully there's not a lot of that here, or I might have a hard time reading this and it'll take longer than expected. But yay, I'm excited! Taylor was always one of my favorite (if not #1 favorite) characters and I'm excited to see things from his perspective now.

This was a perfect epilogue. It made me very happy after all the heart ache. I like that Emma was happy, that Ryan was okay and had another kid! Completely wonderful story. I think their whole relationship was beautifully written and very real. I shall look forward to reading the new one you have up.

Sukix

I got my chapters mixed up in my pm to you, sorry:P

I get Taylor's whole fear of loosing control thing, but I guess I still find his sex fear a little inscrutable- that's not a criticism btw, it just makes me wonder is all.

The part when Chris says he only broke up with Taylor when they were younger because he was scared, just made me love him all the more, what a sweetheart!

So many good feelings with this chapter:) I have loved this story so so much, and I'm so sad to have got to the end (almost). Stories that affect you are the ones you remember for always and this is definitely one of those, so kudos and thank you.

Sukix

I love Chris so much, he is such a lovely, sweet character. A very true character. The whole thing of Taylor not being able to ever go after Chris, to say what he feels because he's too scared, and Chris coming out of the house after him, because even though he's scared he does it anyway, that really touches me.
I like that this is not easy for them.

Sukix

This chapter made me really, really happy (in cathartic kind of way too). I'm happy Taylor seems to be letting go in a sense (of himself). I've been waiting for so long for him to go find Chris, so this feels great that he's actually doing it. And I love the 'there is no fear in love' thing.

Sukix

I'm so glad Emma stood up to Taylor! And that he has realised he needs to go get Chris! Now for my only bit of concrit in twenty chapters ;P Okay, now this isn't a big thing it just struck me a little- I don't actually think he needed the letter to push him over to realise that their realtionship didn't need to be over, I think that seemed a little bit of a forced conclusion as it's been building up for quite a while, and if he just slowly came to the realisation it would have worked fine too. I guess I was also waiting for one of his friends or Ryan to ask him why, if he couldn't get over Chris, he didn't want to go find him and give it another go.

This story is occupying my brain at the moment, I wish I had two or so free hours so I could just finish it, I NEED to know what happens!

Sukix

Oh that text Ryan sent saying I love you, I was in tears too! I feel so emotionally involved in this story. I'm desperate for Taylor to get his act together and go get Chris. I want to shake him:P And I can't stand how Taylor treats poor Emma, it gives me such mixed feelings, it's amazingly hard to get that right with a character, but you have. It's really superb.

Sukix