by LindsayMurray
I loved this beautifully written story! Your a dream author.
Johnny
Stunning. What an achievement. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing talent.
Whew!
Lit readers very rarely wrong...this well worth it's score.
Wrote that note before I read this-really glad I ducked back
easy 5/fave/place in Best Ever folder
dewitt
You are an excellent writer. You have a great feel for plot, placing and emotional buy-in. I did think the ending was a little clumsy, in that it hinted at a emotional conclusion. Even so, I liked what you decided to do with it. Please tell me you're published and have seen success from your talent?
So sweet! Reminded me of high school and cute nerdy youth. Love every part of it.
Excellent story; wonderful play on emotions, desires, and with a sweetness that felt real real. I often read here to enjoy some hot sex, but I didn’t miss the explicit sex and got wrapped up in your story. Thanks for writing.
Turns out I had read this almost a year ago. A very nice romantic story, each worried about embarrassment at confronting each other, so many wasted years avoiding each other. It was like reading it the first time. I don't know why but some stories I remember right away when start reading them again others I don't. Still a good story.
Great story. And great writing too! Thanks for sharing.
5 stars, absolutely.
one of the best stories i've read on this site. reminds me of the best baked muffin cake :#
One of the best stories I've read here in a long time. One can feel immediately the hope and the fear, the passion and the reluctance, the anger and the joy of your two characters as each one grows, the growth being fed by love for the other, altough neither wants to admit it.
Very well written, rooting for the two of them to get together but that was a messy curved ball you threw in when Tilly's story showed them separating.
5 ⛤
Sensual, touching, with very deep and ongoing feelings that should have never been hidden away, and a beautiful Love story enduring timeless emotions until; Lost And Found !!!!!!!
We shared your words together while taking moments looking deeply into each others eyes with the knowing sparkle and glow of our years of Love.
Thank you for sharing your heartfelt words with our hearts.
S&JW
Very well done. The depth of emotion, the character development of the two MCs, you nailed it! I may have an addition to my list of favorite authors… 5*
Love, love, love it. Like watching a tennis match, volley and serve. Learning each other through their creation. Hoping it didn't end like her first book. Spurring each other to greater heights. Thank you so much.
LMJ
OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS STORY!
Thank you thank you thank you Monthly contest announcement for showing this story to me. And thank you LindsayMurray for writing it. I was hanging on every word from the start! It was so full of believable emotion. I definitely cried a tiny bit.
This was a lot of fun. Such an enjoyable journey for these two. So glad they wound up in the "Found" category.
Five stars and thank you for your efforts.
I needed to wipe the tears from my eyes before I could write this comment. I loved your story. My only complaint is that I could only give it 5 stars, it deserves many, many more. I've just started writing after spending a lifetime doing other work and your talent is well worth studying, even though I have no hope of approaching your skill. Thank you for writing, you have the gift and a "magic" of your own.
Every so often I uncover a real gem on this site. You are a fine storyteller, and the ending was superb. Thank you for sharing your talent with others. Please keep writing and posting!
hi! this is my very first time leaving a comment. God! This was a masterpiece. It wasn’t just lust -like that. It was romantic, dreamy and yet real! I always love a hate turned to love relationship. This was PERFECT! I wanted more. I didn’t want it to end. The best story I have ever read here. You should consider lengthening this and make a novel.
I just love this story, it just makes me smile. It is one of the gems that draws the reader again and again. Thank you for sharing your story and talent.
DP
Why were the boys abusing Tilly’s dad? (…we kept pushing her father) Several minor errors that could easily be fixed, but generally well written. The story line is unusual and engaging.
Fife Stars - would even give six!
Seems you know quite a bit about drawing and painting. Would love to see the picture with the two hands.
Love it. I've read it twice and will be back. Engaging, emotionally rich, sexy.
LMJ
Wow. Um.... I want to be clever but.. just wow.
I wish I could forget this story and find it and read it again. Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell in a star crossed love affair set adjacent to my home town.
Thank you!
Beautiful romantic spicy story beautiful characters and the romance is beautiful
Took the entire day to read it between work, life and travelling bit so worth it. Just loved the whole thing, ended up wanting a second part .. hint hint
So good, the tears!
I don't know much about artists and writers and muses (plural of muse?) but this is an all-time favorite.
Thank you!
This is really good. I love the framing of the artists exchanging their work.
Oh my god, that was such an amazing story. Happy and tinged with sadness and regret and so very very lovely. Amazing, amazing work. All the feels. Thank you so much for sharing.
Lovely romantic story. Glad I took the opportunity to read it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for posting.
So lovely and sweet. Then I looked at your contents page and I'm scared to read them.
Looks like I've just become a soft old get.
Your best and so much more deep than your other works. The character development vehicle is truly a work of prose worthy of a great story. The emotions that ticked the surface time and time again only to flower and galvanize the theme made this a great 5/5 tale. TFS...
Can't stay away. It's like a favorite shirt or a favorite meal or a favorite person. Comfort without being, cloying or sentimental or saccharine. I'll be bach.
LMJ
For a short one this was pretty cute. I usually really don't have a lot of love for the kind of story where two people like each other but take literal years to come to grips with it though. Maybe it's because I'm old enough now that I almost certainly have more years behind me than I have in front of me, but it causes me almost physical pain to read stories about people wasting some of the best years of their lives alone that could have been spent together just because they won't communicate with each other in an honest and straightforward manner. Still, even though this one was that to the hilt, I did like it.
Good luck with the Readers’ Choice award. This one has enough unique elements to make it stand out.
Truly a fairy tale, but thoroughly enjoyed the fantasy. The reader gets teased again and again, but it's fun. I saw that someone complained that it was too short, but dragging it out longer would have taken something away from the punch line. The author is in charge of the meal and the menu and I go with his/her muse. 5*
Hall of Fame worthy.
If you agree rate it a 5!
Even Overcritical gave it a five, pointing out the obvious reasons why he did so.
This is the best story I’ve read on this site. It builds so well and tantalizingly, the language is excellent, and the ending was solid (predictable, but how could it not be?)
This just grabbed me and pulled me through— I can’t believe I get to read it for free on an amateur site. I loved how they found each other again (and that he knew it was her all along! Brilliant.) The truth or dare concept worked so well. Fantastic story.
I loved it. It was funny, clever, extremely well written, real and brilliant. If not the best story I've read on this site, it is easily one of the top three and I can't remember which the other two would be.
Like, wow!
Nicely done.
Beautiful story. I would have expected them to get together sooner. This covered a long time.
I hope you've found your Red.
Sorry, but I can only do 3 stars on this one. The overall writing was good... But there was far too much angst between 2 people, who seemed afraid to just face their feelings. To me, it seems ridiculous that neither one had the fortitude to speak up years earlier. Of course then the story would have been one of those 750 word essays, I suppose. Thanks for your effort and the submission though. It was, all in all, entertaining.
What a fun story. Youthful inexperience, young adult desire, and romance. I loved how they matured in such an innocent fashion.
Thanks for sharing.
DP
The longer you put off reconnecting or reconciling the harder it is to make it a reality. Absolutely beautiful and relatable. 10 STARS
Best I've read on this site so far. The author could be a successful writer, if they aren't already.
For most of these stories on here, I end up skipping through them, skimming paragraphs, not really reading it, just looking for the good parts. And I was definitely looking for a tense but sexual story today.
But this one hooked me from the first paragraph. I hung on to Every Single Word. Excellent tension, great plot, great characters, five stars for sure.
If you work on the ending a little (because it was a tad obvious right at the end how they would reveal themselves), and if you cut out the sex part, this would make for a fantastic short story that can be published.
One of the best five stories I have read on here, you have a new fan. Exemplary work.
I read this quite a while ago and enjoyed it very much. Recently I’ve read more of your work and have come to respect the quality of your work. Reading this again allowed me to appreciate it on a different level. It was much more meaningful.
Cute. Five years is a lot longer than I'd go loving someone and doing nothing with them or anyone else, but it's a cute romance. I like it 😊.
Gosh this reminds me of a book I read in middle school called Flipped but this is more mature and more artful and nuanced. I mentally saw those paintings you described. Wow, just a wonderful way to write. Great job!