All Comments on 'Starting Over'

A stripping slut who wears bikinis at hotel pools is not pastor's wife material. Considering he married such, kinda puts into question whether he can lead his flock according principles of the faith.

Had the MC been been something other than a pastor, this would have been a good story. As it stands, it's at best three stars.

a little kinky at times for a preachers wives

Got bored, wandered off.

Was there a story here? I mean an erotic story? It read more like a book report.

Almost demands a sequel from the familys point. I think the ex ended up with regrets and problems. Her repeated die on this hill brinksmanship worked nowhere else. The kids have a little sister, have they met her and their stepmother? There is a story with the one daughter.

That was a very weird story. Kept me reading, though. And isn’t that the point?

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4 ****

I don't understand the reference to having their daughter wear a very tiny bikini and wear her mothers stripper shoes. Is this grooming their daughter to become a stripper like the mother?

Also, nice story and yes, people can change, but the way you wrote that Lou loved showing off in strip clubs I find it strange and hard to believe that the life of a ministers wife would be fulfilling. Striping for just her husband in the basement wouldn't fill that void she had from a room full of strange men lusting after her body.

Projecting futures ? Are you a broker ? Lol This story was unlike any I’ve read before and the uniqueness is so refreshing , and it was very well written and flowed along effortlessly. It was a five star story in my humble opinion ! Great job !

Well written.

But there are red flags on this story.

Stephanie might get the wrong idea that it is OK to be lustful (and fornicator) and still be a Christian, stripper pole, small bikinis, exotic dances are red flags. Many a Christian family who try to be "progressive" fall into this pit trap. One good example, Katy Perry. Enuff said.

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Just because you're not a pastor anymore doesn't mean you stop being a Christian. Think of the apostles, they didn't undergo seminary but never stopped being a believer.

Quirky but enjoyable. Thanks for the story

Nice start but ends as a wandering story with loose ends. Ultimately Blase.

Feckless.

Seems improbable, but cute. I doubt many churches would approve of the pastor's wife stripping or teaching it.

Interesting take on "Vicars and Tarts"

Very nicely written story about the ups and downs in the life of a clergy man. I loved it. It was different. Not too short, not too long, not too farfetched in the situations. My only disagreement is that by 2030 there won't be any long-haul drivers if the prices of gasoline and gas oil keep the current trend. Writing about long-haul drivers would just be writing about nostalgic times as a fantasy. Thanks for the story.

fun to read, but hard to believe that there were no problems with the tiny bikinis at church conferences

Modest dress is a biblical directive. Causing someone else to sin is worthy of a curse from God. If Lou is as luscious as written, prancing around in a string bikini is going to arouse lust in most heterosexual men. And encouraging poor Stephanie to do the same is just short of child abuse.

A little dry and unemotional. Also way too preachy. Unappealing. The preacher part was a bad idea for a porn site.

Weird story, needed more detail on what went wrong with the wife. Hung in there until you put a tiny bikini and stripper heels on the daughter. That one seemed to just come out of nowhere and had nothing to do with earlier or later in the story. All in all, too weird for me.

Well, that was an interesting and different story. I enjoyed it.

I don't want to do it, but I can't find too much wrong with it - 5* (Would have been nice to know how his other children reacted to their new sister, but not worth a deduct.)

That's one crazy story. But then, this is a site with stories where men like to watch their wives have sex with other men. So, pretty mild comparatively.

Still, a unique and creative twist on Good Guy Marries Hooker With Heart of Gold.

Not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Actually pretty good.

Not a bad story at all. Don’t know if it was properly a Loving Wives tale

More Exhibitionism and Voyeur category story.

But thanks for it 4/5

That was a really fun story to read. Thank you so much for sharing it.

So what happened to the ex?

I liked it just needs more chapters

"At the end of five years" - He has to wait five years before he's allowed to prove that the divorce wasn't his fault?

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Pastors' wives are usually also active in the church, and should be well aware of the kind of schedules they keep. Also, with the church and the parsonage so close, she certainly know where he is! Also, aren't meetings often held in the parsonage?

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"our denomination did not allow a divorced man to be a pastor." - I don't know what denomination this is, and I'm FAR from an expert, but was under the impression that most Protestant congregations choose their own pastor, and don't HAVE to follow the dictates of the denomination.

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"My one daughter" - Later you say "younger daughter," so earlier did you mean, "One of my daughters?"

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"One daughter is angry with me because she thinks I should have let her mother have the dog." - This ignores their entire marital history.

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Got too narration heavy when Lou joined him.

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With the cashed check the boss can't LEGALLY come after her, but the way he came after her before wasn't legal anyway, so I wouldn't feel safe.

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"I would hate to mess it up because I'm the type of guy who would rape my wife or is unable to satisfy her." - He's not stupid, he knows that's not true.

Good story. 5/5!!

Gave up on page one when it became clear this writer was giving us the usual whiny male making a woman out to be a domineering over the top shrew.

Good God (and yes you fake Christians always tossing Church into stories is getting excessively tedious) could you "authors" just stop with the perfect husband and insanely over the top bitchy wives? Its lazy assed writing, adds nothing new to LW, it tends to be what those who arent easily impressed "by the numbers", "cliched" etc etc etc.

got lost after the middle...

Improbable but still possible. A fun read with a happy ending. It does need more explanation as to what turned Babs into such a bitch, though.

boring

That’s not the kind of classes that an English major takes. You could get a class list for an English degree by looking at the Internet. It will take you about two minutes. Also, why say the city where the trucking company was? Why not just pick a city? Kansas City. Denver. Chicago. It’s easy and it makes the story seem more realistic.

Only issue I find is that he has no relation to his other children and that is never resolved in the story.

It was a weird little story in spots. I read through twice, and it seems like his kid was stripping as well as his wife at one point, but then needed to be put down for a nap? She would wear her mothers swimwear and heels to the pool? IDK it seems odd...maybe a bit of editing of the last few paragraphs could clear it up. Lastly, the idea of not giving the town a name is odd as previous commenters have mentioned

Martyr, you're misreading. The child remained down for her nap while her mother stripped for the MC, then he took his wife to the bedroom to show his appreciation. Stephanie was much older when she traveled with her parents and wore her mother's bikini. It doesn't say how much older, but there's no indication of her being underage or anything.

I loved it.

Thankfully many and hopefully most of the younger generations

don't know the controlled childhood hinted at here.

The writer here doesn't judge.

There is no need for that.

But he gives us a MC facing the need to update the values

learnt in his childhood.

We see the conflict in that updating

through all his thoughts on sin.

And to speed things up

an exhibitionist enters the picture.

Brilliant!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this colorful story.

Top ratings from me.

Why didn't he tell the children from his first marriage he had got married again and they had a new sister.Up to meeting Lou he was in contact with two of them,so what happened ?

Don't accept it was six months before Lou told him she needed shagging.Where could they store all their clothes in his truck.?Up to meeting Lou he was in contact with two of his children,so why didn't he tell them he was getting married again and invite them.?Also why did he not tell them they had a sister.?

When it comes to the actual bones of the story, the actions that took place and the sequence of events, it was a good story, really. It's nice to see a tale about a man who could craft an entirely new life for himself after basically living a previous one already. Man meets girl, man has kids, kids grow up, girl divorces man, man gets new line of work, man meets new girl, man and new girl make a life together, yay! It's a winning formula. That isn't the problem.

The problem, as I stated, is in the pacing and the lack of information. Or, perhaps, in the fact that the emphasis was placed on the wrong plot threads raising expectations that were never fully realized.

For example, the first problem crops up during the end of his first marriage phase. A LOT of emphasis was placed upon how his wife behaved and how he got jerked around by her selfishness and her refusal to compromise. One naturally expects there to be a climax of a sort regarding this plot thread. Instead we're given a lengthy explanation about the process of getting a divorce as a pastor with an active congregation and what the penalties are for it. While interesting from a technical standpoint, it's not what one is generally expecting from the facts emphasized by the story. Why was Babs so selfish and controlling? Why did she decide she didn't like sex anymore? Why was she so close to their children where he wasn't? Why did she push him so hard to do things he couldn't? We can extrapolate our own conclusions from her behavior but it's not the same as having a scene in the story where it's illustrated through a confrontation of some kind. That's... confusing story telling, honestly.

So, as far as I see it, here's a list of several issues that were brought up and pretty much never resolved or weren't brought up at all and really should have been:

- Why was Babs such a control freak (and other unanswered questions regarding her)?

- Why was there a lack of closeness between a man who is obviously warm, caring, and thoughtful and his children?

- Why was the age issue never addressed? After graduating from seminary college, interim pastoring, waiting to get his own congregation, meeting Babs, dating for a year and a half before marrying, being married to Babs for 20 years, and waiting another 2 1/2 years to marry Lou, Steve must have been at least 49 and change by the time he met Lou (who was either still in college or just graduated, hence about 21ish), and 52 by the time he became a father again. That's best case scenario. Most pastors have to be associate pastors for a long time before being given a congregation, depending on the denomination. Sure, age gap relationships have been done before and I don't personally have anything against Spring - Fall romances, but it should have come up SOMEwhere. He talks about them walking around resort pools in thongs like they're a 20s power couple drawing admiring glances from all.

- Why was such an emphasis given to Lou's exhibitionism only to ignore it later on? She spent 18 years as a pastor's wife and the kink didn't cause any issues?

- What happened to Babs and her other relationships?

- What happened to Steve's older kids? Did they meet Lou? Did they meet their much younger sister? Did they ever talk to Steve about how crazy their mom is? How did they feel about his new life and family? How did they feel about the break up of their original family?

All of these questions and issues occurred to me as I was reading and I felt frustrated that none of them were ever addressed to satisfaction.

So, yes, it was a nice story in theory. I liked the theme of the pastor going through a metamorphosis later in life. I liked the tale of the preacher and the stripper and the twist that there were really no sins for him to redeem. I liked the characters of Steve and Lou and empathized with them. Sadly, it was all wrapped up in a narrative that just never really picked up altitude and became anti-climactic. This author has a rather large library of stories and this is the first I've read. Unfortunately, given the way it was written, I'm not sure I'll be checking out many more. Hopefully this comment will be taken in the most constructive way, as that's how it's meant.

Liked the story, but like Quintius stated below, there were too many holes left at the end.

Mfj

Except for the striper part I drove with a guy that picked his wife out of a ditch along I 80 in 1971. I met them in 1994 and in 1998 when our company was sold, they were given a new Peterbilt as part of their severen package. I don't know what happened after that, but I do know money was not a problem. Both were drivers sometimes they drove team, sometimes, not. They were married when I knew them.

I drove over the road in the mid 90s and knew a guy that took in a foundling in Detroit. She stay with him until their second child was born by then they had a house in Missour. No one gave them a snowball chance in hell. But only time will tell..i

I can see that you put a lot of thought into this but for me the way you write is off putting, the religion in it isn’t my thing but I can see you have some knowledge of such things and good for you,

I connected on a emotional level with the MC and the story. Since both of my children, asano was 17 and a daughter that was 15 at the time of the divorce took my soon to be slot. Ex wifeside. Even though I told both of them that I had an exhaustive 8 page private investigators report with pictures, which of course, I wouldn't show them. Both kids denied the fact that their mother hadippopotami on and off for the last five years of our marriage. Luckily, I listened to my father and my grandfather. When I set up my private consulting firm which did a lot of business with our family firm, and I had a couple of business trust in place which protected our family home, which was in my name, and the trust aim only 2 years before we even got married. So my wife or I should say ex. Wife only received 15% of our conjoined assets. 3 months after the divorce was finalized. I actually sold the company and sold my interest in our family's company, And walked away with a nice big pile of cash. Eventually, I ended up in Florida, where I had business associates who talked me into going in with them on a business venture and it's Florida, where I'm still living retired now. At 64 2 years after the divorce, and approximately 9 months after our company in Florida was doing good business. I met my second wife-to-be and we've been happily married ever since.. Lost track with the 2X kids long time ago. Have no idea if there's still alive or if I even have a grand kid's. Good riddance I say because blood is not always thicker than water.