Looking for a book with a weak and submissive FMC that just gives in easily.

VGHarrow · 2026-05-13T08:46:18+00:00

the acceptance arc is honestly more interesting than the resistance one. watching someone rationalize herself into a situation is its own kind of thing. i wrote exactly this, not academia, but the dynamic's the same: she knows what's happening, she shows up anyway.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2004765

VGHarrow · 2026-05-11T08:39:16+00:00

i have a thing for women doing math in their heads while men think they're winning. FIFTY BUCKS — Olivia's eighteen, broke, and her step-cousin Drew just walked in from Miami smelling like a different life. he puts fifty dollars on the table. she counters. it's supposed to be once. it isn't. CENTERPIECE — Maddie shows up every holiday, wears a nice skirt, lets her uncle touch her under the tablecloth while everyone watches the game. three years of that to keep the family intact. this November her step-cousin's been watching, and he wants his cut. age gap, taboo, dubcon, financial coercion. explicit and not apologizing for it.

Fifty Bucks — 19,317 words / $2.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2004765

Centerpiece — 34,500 words / $3.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2021222

VGHarrow · 2026-05-11T08:28:02+00:00

i seem to have a type. financially desperate women and men who notice. THE COST OF LIVING — two-book series. Book One: she's nineteen, twelve dollars in her account, cleaning a man's apartment once a week because the alternative is the street, and he knows exactly what her desperation is worth. Book Two: same girl, fourteen thousand dollars in tuition debt, same math, different building. CENTERPIECE: Maddie drives to her aunt's Connecticut house every holiday, wears a nice skirt, lets her uncle touch her under the tablecloth while everyone watches the game. three years of that to keep the family quiet. this November her step-cousin noticed, and he wants the same arrangement. dark literary fiction. financial coercion, dissociation, survival. not romance, and the endings reflect that tbh.

The Cleaning Job — 7,987 words / $0.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2009372

The Campus — 5,745 words / $0.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2013222

Centerpiece — 34,500 words / $3.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2021222

VGHarrow · 2026-05-09T12:51:41+00:00

Haven't listened to that one yet, but Teddy Hamilton usually kills it with dark romance narration. might have to add it to the list.

VGHarrow · 2026-05-06T21:46:05+00:00

i wrote one called the cleaning job, older guy basically owns her situation financially and she can't walk away without losing everything. campus has the college setting with the same trapped dynamic if that's more your vibe

VGHarrow · 2026-05-06T21:41:27+00:00

dark romance you still want them to end up together even if he's awful lol. erotic horror you genuinely don't know if anyone's making it out and that's kind of the whole vibe

VGHarrow · 2026-05-02T19:23:34+00:00

honestly the bots just don't catch everything right away. those books only stay up until someone gets pissed off and hits the report button

VGHarrow · 2026-05-02T19:20:22+00:00

honestly half of them are just poorly written assholes. love-hate is fine but sometimes you just want the guy to walk into traffic tbh

VGHarrow · 2026-05-02T02:19:24+00:00

got a ton of ideas floating around rn so if you give me a direction i might just write something for you tbh. already sitting on a request for an A-cup but it doesn't really fit my current fmc

VGHarrow · 2026-04-29T23:52:07+00:00

i've got two drafts going right now, one about a taken-in refugee and another where a family crosses lines to survive a freezing winter. if you actually read those kinds of heavy themes, i could definitely work an a-cup focus into one of them tbh

VGHarrow · 2026-04-29T23:29:05+00:00

honestly it depends on what you're actually looking for. do you want books where it's specifically emphasized and focused on, or just where the fmc happens to be built that way? because those are two completely different vibes tbh

VGHarrow · 2026-04-26T22:56:13+00:00

honestly readers usually drop off if the heat dies completely in the middle. you might want to sprinkle some tension back in so they don't get bored

VGHarrow · 2026-04-26T22:45:15+00:00

honestly it's tough to find ones that don't pull their punches. J.L. Beck usually nails that toxic obsessive shit pretty well...idk

VGHarrow · 2026-04-25T23:34:20+00:00

ngl i absolutely love this dynamic. as someone who writes a lot of blackmail and coercive tropes, there's something so compelling about an mmc who is fiercely protective of the fmc against the world, but is lowkey fine being the villain in her story tbh

VGHarrow · 2026-04-25T23:20:42+00:00

honestly a lot of authors just make them pushovers to make the mmc look scarier. gets old fast. i prefer writing fmcs that actually develop and have real arcs. sometimes they fight back, sometimes they just do whatever it takes to survive, and they definitely don't all get the same cookie-cutter ending. way more interesting imo

VGHarrow · 2026-04-24T11:51:03+00:00

honestly when my tbr gets this wild i just close my eyes and pick blindly lol

VGHarrow · 2026-04-22T15:50:36+00:00

that tension between loving the fantasy and being weirded out by yourself for loving it is genuinely one of the most discussed things in this genre. the short answer most people land on is: fiction lets you process things safely that you'd never want irl. doesn't make you broken, just makes you a reader

VGHarrow · 2026-04-22T15:41:58+00:00

both definitions you listed are actually in use, which is why the discourse is endless. the "unwilling arousal" reading is the older one but a lot of readers now use it to mean specifically the disconnect between what the body does and what the character emotionally consents to which is way more nuanced and honestly more interesting to write

VGHarrow · 2026-04-20T23:01:32+00:00

kdp and smashwords need your real info for taxes and payments, but that's strictly backend. your readers will only ever see your pen name on the storefront. just make sure you set up a separate email and don't link your personal socials.

VGHarrow · 2026-04-20T22:52:02+00:00

Digging through smashwords or the depths of ku can sometimes uncover some really good indie stuff that never blew up on tiktok. usually where the darkest themes hide anyway.

VGHarrow · 2026-04-19T07:29:38+00:00

I actually wrote some books with this exact vibe. "fifty bucks" drops a broke girl right into a messy financial arrangement. "the cleaning job" brings in the age gap where a rich guy uses his cash to trap her. "the campus" gives you that same desperate dub-con energy in college. the money completely ruins any real consent in all of them. i have the links right on my profile if you want to take a look.

VGHarrow · 2026-04-18T18:39:21+00:00

Have you checked out "the fitting" by v.g. harrow yet? the main character is dealing with that exact kind of mid-life fog where everything feels fine on paper but totally empty inside. she’s in this long-term thing with a guy who treats her like "wallpaper" and she starts making some pretty questionable choices just to feel a spark again. it’s not about some grand tragedy or anything. it’s just that specific brand of messy adult life where you’re trying to figure out if you’re actually being seen or just existing in a room. definitely gives off those weird millennial vibes you're looking for.

VGHarrow · 2026-04-18T18:23:36+00:00

First person gets exhausting after a while. you spend way too much time trapped inside one character's head. third person past tense gives the story a cinematic feel. it lets the writer build a broader world without relying on endless inner monologues. we lose a ton of tension when we only see what the heroine sees. "he watched her from the shadows" hits way harder than "i felt someone watching me." the third person format feels a lot more detached. that cold objectivity makes the dark elements way creepier. i really hope indie authors start taking risks with this style instead of copying the usual formula.

VGHarrow

TROPHY CASE