All Comments on 'The Waif and the Stray'

"Willing the bird to stop beating its wings, to stop taking up so much room inside me. "

Fine

This surely has to be the best story I have EVER read on Literotica...you are brilliant!

Thank you for such nice comments - had made my day, that has.

Well done!

into the lives of two, filling them in and making them unique, original, and compelling characters. You capture the voice of a character to narrate the tale,

Thank you for sharing your incredible talent.

Been reading for 60+ years, this is as good as anything I have ever read.

Hope you continue, and if you ever feel the need to go to another site, or hopefully a publisher, that you let your Literotica fans know how to follow you.

Missive

Exellent absolutely exellent

This is the best thing I’ve read this year. It sounds like a cliche but your work doesn’t belong on this site, but I’m so glad it was so I could read it. This was amazing!

Great stuff. Love the little bird inside her, worrying about her losing control, accepting trust after so much has happened to her, it added another notch to the emotion. Really great writing.

I'm torn between being satisfied with this ending, needing an epilogue or desiring a continued story of the two and extended gypsy family. Highly erotic and arousing without the overly graphic sex that most Lit stories have. Well done and a great pleasure to read...with gratitude.

Thank you Sara

Thank you it's a wonderful story! True romantic! A sequel would be awesome! Please don't stop writing! I wanted to login so this wouldn't be anonymous but it's not working.

You've written one of the best love stories I've read. And your sex scenes are filled with tenderness and love, very well written.

I loved the way he insisted on verbal consent. I suspect in her past, she wasn't ever asked what or if she wanted. Maybe it was always for the man's pleasure, not hers. That was what I was taught way back then, when guys thought no meant yes.

I adore the glimpses into other cultures, the travelers, the fosters, the flatmates, and those on the street. I get a kick out of the unfamiliar slang: knackered, going to the tip, me Nan, etc. I enjoy the challenge of discovering the meaning through context. Not everything needs to be explicit; leaving more to the reader's imagination pulls them into deeper involvement.

Selfishly, I crave participation in the celebration of Louisa's birthday with Jude's family. I'll bet the culture shock will be explosive. Can Lou's shadowy demons tolerate full-immersion in the communal travelers ethnicity without triggering her flight?Thank goodness Jude's mother seems more accepting, less insular than most. Hopefully, most of the rest will at least be kind.

Gratefully,

Nthusiastic

(For some reason the system isn't allowing me to log in right now.)

Love this story, and Judes' persistance to win her over. Five Stars! Now, maybe another story for when she meets the family? Could be Halirious and overwhelming for her.

I was feeling especially down and dark yesterday, and this story helped get me through it. The tenderness and build up between the two was perfect. Excellent love story.

GREAT storytelling. Great characterizations. Just enough info but not to too much about each character. Part 2?

This has well written sex scenes and is a lovely romance, but it’s real strengths are the characters and the way their stories are revealed through bits and pieces in conversations. You could be (may be you already are) a very good novelist.

This story should carry a warning it is so addictive. The writing is truly wonderful, remarkably well crafted and if the the character "Sam" has been created without the author having experienced a similar upbringing it further emphasises the true skill of an amazing author.

Whether it ends here or continues it stands as a fine example of creative writing. Thank you Sara.

really, just amazing. I almost never read stories this long on lit, but like some others I got drawn in and couldn't stop. This is great prose with essentially zero typos or grammatical errors. If I HAD to find a fault, it would be that some British idioms don't translate well into American English. However, even those were usually understandable in context. There's good reason why I've 'favorited' you as an author.

You are so good at setting up and continuing the real push-pull of people warming to each other, falling in love. This has the meat of good romance writing, the sex fine, but almost superfluous. A puzzle for me: Why is frustration, misunderstanding, and potential rejection so sexy? The formula seems so transparent: Take to people who are clearly perfect for each other, and have them keep doubting whether the other one cares. Fighting the surrender. Fearing what feels so good. Not wanting the love that one wants so desperately. Sure that what was just so profound is fleeting and illusory. More than sexy eyes or abs with treasure trails, this seems to be the ultimate turnon for most women and certain men. ???

Absolutely a great story. You are very tallented indeed.

I just finished this amazing story, and I had to write this before I lost the impact the emotions had on me. When I first started reading this story, I was interested, but I was a bit impatient to feel more attached to the characters. When they finally were obviously at the point of realization that the other was probably interested in them, I knew I wanted to finish reading the story. From there, I was enjoying it, but finding it kind of difficult to follow at times, what with all Lou’s conflicting emotions, put into abrupt sentences, plus the non-American idioms. At times I felt more like I was reading a poem (something I am not normally fond of).

But, from the middle of page 8 and on, WOW. I was so caught up in Louisa’s letting go of fear, her discovery of trust & love, and the way you made me feel it! Yes, the sex was good, but it not was the actions that were erotic, it was what she discovered through it. I kept stopping to dry my unexpected tears. And I still am, while writing this comment. I guess I am a lot more of a mushy old man than I realized. Thank you so much for teaching me that.

You had me at hello. I was deeply into your characters way before the sex came along. In fact I stopped reading your story for about a week before that happened, not trusting you to handle it in tune with your writing up to that point. Pretty stupid hu? You are obviously going to have a career out of this wonderful tallent. Hearty congratulations!

Longtom2

I'm overwhelmed at the time you've taken to make these comments, everyone. Thank you. This was probably the most difficult story for me to write, and it was therefore harder for me to judge if the balance of it was right or not, so all of your comments have helped me to 'see' it more clearly. I'll never say never to a sequel, but so far, I think Jude and Louisa need a little privacy to get used to each other and I don't want to pressurise them too much.... which just makes me sound like a lunatic who really thinks these characters are real, so I think I'll stop now! Sara.

Brilliant and vulnerable, thanks for another great story

So, so good. I will save time by saying I feel the same about everything Nthusiastic said (and I'm so glad they added their username so I can see what other stories or authors they love). Your sex scenes are wonderfully emotional but they're also just plain hot. Hottttttttt. What turns me on is reading about how much something affects someone sexually, not the dry mechanics of which thing is where. Sadly for me too many stories have the latter. Thank you for a wonderful tale that is also super sexy.

And more of the same. You are SO good. Thank you. Thank you. Such strong character development plus control of plot. Don't know where you learned to write so well but we could use a lot more with your skill.

The writing is wonderful with lovely images of the places and characters, tremendous empathy for them without creating mushy stereotypes. Another excellent story. Please don't change your style to suit a mid Atlantic audience. The speech is brilliantly in the idiom of the characters and diluting it would lose the atmosphere and the toughness of each individual's vulnerable position. It would be like diluting the language in LukasGrey's "Falling" series.

Wonderful story!

5

I'm coming to this story later than most people here, but it has your wonderful touch, as always. After looking through the comments, I was thinking about LargoKitt's question about formula: I think that you are so deft and delicate in your ability to present full characters, that your writing allows readers not only to become invested in the characters, but also to feel their vulnerabilities in ways that allow us to identity with them in our own insecurities and vulnerabilities. But you do it in a way that gives confidence that their vulnerabilities (our vulnerabilities) will not betray us or the characters. You present wonderfully full and human characters in writing that is captivating and, as I've said before, humane.

Superb writing. I agree with all the comments here that have been written so much better than I can. I hope you have extended into professional stories.

Thank you so much! I really do read every comment, and take them to heart, so thank you for making them. It took me quite a while to write Waif and Stray and I'm happy to hear that it has hit the mark for some of you. I try hard to write 'real' characters, so I'm glad that this comes through in the writing somewhat. Thanks again for making comments or just for reading.

Very real writing, warts and all characters, the uncertainty of people with tough lives and wonderful vocalisation, so much so I could hear the accents and saw the body language as I was reading. You are a perceptive writer Sara2000Z, thank you from SE UK.