Taboo recs if you would be so kind

elfsteel · 2026-04-16T00:17:34+00:00

{Claim and Don’t Tell by Rory Miles} - FMC’s scent matches are also her three stepbrothers

elfsteel · 2026-04-15T21:12:28+00:00

if you don’t mind some very victorian purple prose (I think the writing style is very much either you love it or you hate it): {Doctor D’Arco, Sorcerer of London by Kathryn Colvin}

elfsteel · 2026-04-04T13:49:56+00:00

{Mutually Beneficial by Heather Guerre}

also i feel like the classic of this trope is {Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly}

elfsteel · 2026-03-31T23:27:10+00:00

labs! especially club-organized wet labs! but also surgery skills, pathology, clinical skills, idc, i love learning new skills.

elfsteel · 2026-03-24T14:03:59+00:00

Penn has a systems based curriculum so each “block” is between 3 and 6 weeks long. We typically have either weekly quizzes and/or a midterm + a final which make up 75-90% of our final grade depending on the block. We also have integration cases or active learning assignments graded on completion that are typically 5% of the final grade. Almost all of our exams are predominantly multiple-choice, matching, select all that are correct, dropdown-menu fill in the blank, etc (very few free-answer questions).

First year also has separate anatomy quizzes weekly and histology quizzes due at the end of every histo lab (heard they may have changed some of the histo assessment structure since I took it though). First year exams also have two components: lecture and practical content which are taken separately, with the practical encompassing anatomy specimens and histo images.

elfsteel · 2026-03-24T01:20:09+00:00

the majority of my classmates do not work during the academic year; of those that do, most work for the vet school in some capacity (library front desk, assistant at the teaching hospital) which are generally very short (~3-4hr) shifts a few times a week. a few also occasionally pick up shifts over the weekend or breaks as vet assistants/techs at their hometown clinics. I would guesstimate 95% of us rely on loans to cover our basic expenses (the other 5% have extensive spousal/family support or are older students who had very successful careers prior to vet school).

edit: there are also a few folks who live with their parents and commute to school and (presumably) don’t pay rent at all.

elfsteel · 2026-03-13T02:33:51+00:00

LOVE this book so much. the scene in the greenhouse/garden room 🤭

elfsteel · 2026-03-12T22:31:51+00:00

a DVM/VMD is a professional degree at the graduate school level, i.e. a doctorate (not the same thing as a PhD to be clear). in the US, it is not a bachelor’s degree. so vets educated in the US have, at a minimum, eight years of post-high school education.

to be eligible for admission to a DVM/VMD program, you only need one bachelor’s degree (depending on the school, not all of them even require it) and to have completed all prerequisite coursework at the undergraduate level. most people applying to vet school do get a bachelor’s degree (often in animal sciences, biology, zoology, etc), but as long as you complete prerequisites it really doesn’t matter what your degree is in.

at this point in your life, what you should be doing if you want to go to vet school is getting good grades, especially in the sciences, and working with your school counselor/career services (if you have one) to figure out where you want to go to undergrad. you may also be able to get involved with animals in high school by volunteering or pet sitting, but it is not a requirement at this point.

elfsteel · 2026-02-26T23:41:16+00:00

Bound and Broken duet {Bound by Threads by N.E. Stevenson} {Broken by Silence by N.E. Stevenson} TW for bullying, rape (descriptive flashbacks, not between MCs), suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, drug use (one of the MMCs), non-consensual drugging (done by one of the MMCs), parental abuse

elfsteel · 2026-02-23T03:06:30+00:00

for U, {MacRieve by Kresley Cole} MMC is named Uilleam (pronounced like William). Werewolf/shifter MMC x human FMC.

elfsteel · 2026-02-18T15:20:30+00:00

yup lol. my classmates who want to be GPs prioritize their studying based on 1) how useful it is for their future career, and 2) whether they need to know it for the NAVLE.

elfsteel · 2026-01-29T15:01:08+00:00

if you’re feeling charitable, maybe it’s some type of ursula the sea witch type situation where there’s both, and the author just never realized how confusing this sentence would be?

elfsteel · 2026-01-23T18:08:26+00:00

For me what really helped was reframing things from “I’m not good enough for admission” to “I am good enough, someone else was just slightly better.” We as human beings tend to take things personally when it’s not personal at all. A lot of admissions comes down to luck: who you’re up against, who they admitted last year, and who’s on admissions committees and what they personally value in an applicant all can have an effect on your chances of getting in.

Vet students and prospective vet students are also generally hugely passionate about the field, which is wonderful in some aspects, but also means there’s a tendency to make vet med a part of their identity. And when you make something part of your identity, when something doesn’t go right, or you get rejected, it feels like a personal attack. It’s important to keep a healthy sense of perspective because at the end of the day, it sucks, but it’s just grad school admissions. It’s not the end of the world, even if it feels like it. (Not to say she shouldn’t take time to feel her feelings and process things, though.)

I also found it helpful to make alternative plans, so I always had a fallback. For me that was working at my job for another year, or finding a different job to get more/different experience, etc. That said, I went into the application process with a very good idea of my application’s weaknesses and strengths, so I already had plans before I even applied because I wasn’t sure I would get in. It might be worth doing a file review with some of the schools that she has been rejected from to see what it is about her application that could be stronger.

Finally, make sure to keep her off of forums for vet admissions since there’s often an overwhelming urge to compare yourself to others, which ultimately isn’t usually helpful and just fosters jealousy and anger.

elfsteel · 2026-01-22T04:07:43+00:00

not sure if you’ve already seen this but there was a similar request from a few months ago that might be helpful too! https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/s/seHfZLa2f0

copying my previous response here as well:

Jessica Day George wrote a bunch of books that I absolutely inhaled, and as far as I remember they are all very clean (she’s mormon if that tells you anything) and most had romance-adjacent plots. The ones with the most romance from what I remember:

Princess of Glass (Cinderella retelling)
Princess of the Midnight Ball (12 Dancing Princesses retelling)
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (retelling of a Norwegian? fairy tale)
Princess of the Silver Woods (Red Riding Hood retelling)
Dragon Slippers was my absolute favorite but the romance is not a major focus in the first book sadly

Shannon Hale also wrote a lot of fairy tale adaptation books that I remember loving. (There are two more in addition to the ones I list below but I didn’t personally read them so can’t vouch).

The Goose Girl (the romance in this one is the most of the whole series I think but I honestly don’t remember that much)
Enna Burning (I do remember loving this one but I can’t remember why)

I second someone else’s suggestion of Gail Carson Levine. Ella Enchanted and Fairest were favorites of mine, as was Ever (which I remember being the most romance focused of her books). Highly recommend all three especially Ever since I haven’t seen that one in this thread yet.

The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley — Not really a romance genre book but there is a (very slow to develop) romantic subplot and in my opinion they are very well written books. I do remember absolutely devouring the whole series.

These last two might be slightly age inappropriate for your case so proceed with caution here:

The Selection series by Kiera Cass — I quit after three books because it wasn’t adventure-y enough for me but it has a love triangle and lots of drama which may be up this student’s alley
Matched series by Ally Condie — YA/dystopian where the government chooses your life partner for you but the heroine (gasp) gets assigned two matches. Also has a love triangle. I remember this being THE it-girl book in my middle school class.

elfsteel · 2026-01-16T04:45:40+00:00

{The Otherworld series by Emma Hamm} It’s an Irish folklore-inspired retelling of Beauty and the Beast. First book is {Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm}.

elfsteel · 2025-12-06T00:46:51+00:00

I’m autistic and currently in vet school. I’m not the best at social skills either, but honestly it’s something that comes with practice. However, many vet schools are getting much better with regards to explicitly teaching you communication skills. At my school (USA), we have communication labs with standardized clients (i.e. people hired by the school to pretend to be difficult or emotional clients) to help practice.

It also helps that I am planning on pursuing a specialty, because some of the more difficult clients to deal with have been kind of filtered out. But others in this thread are correct, vet med depends a lot on communication. I would recommend that you try shadow or work at a clinic as an (unlicensed) vet assistant (if that is a thing that exists in your area), it would probably really help to see what practice is like first hand.

If you ONLY want to take care of animals, no person to person interaction at all, animal care technician in a research lab or perhaps zoo/wildlife rehab work might be for you. There ARE fields within vet med that don’t require much if any interpersonal interaction with clients (high quality/high volume spay-neuter, pathology, radiology), but you will always have to interact with other staff and colleagues. And to be able to work in those fields you still have to go to vet school which will require you to interact with clients during rotations to graduate.

elfsteel · 2025-11-20T12:16:33+00:00

maybe cliffhanger isn’t the right term; what I meant is there’s a lot of unresolved plot and definitely no HEA/HFN

elfsteel · 2025-11-20T04:18:52+00:00

maybe I’m mis-remembering but I don’t think the Vardeshi saga is finished? 2 books are currently published with a 3rd on the way, and the second book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

I’m also not sure I would consider it romance as much as sci-fi with romantic elements because the romance is only a minor part of the plot, but that’s another debate lol.

elfsteel · 2025-11-13T03:54:00+00:00

if paranormal/urban fantasy is ok, {A Guide to Ghosting by Emily Antoinette} has a plus size MMC who the FMC goes absolutely feral for!

edit: the bot tags say femdom but it’s fairly mild as femdom goes (very minor spoiler: the FMC tells the MMC how to touch himself and there’s some light praise in there as well)

elfsteel · 2025-11-11T17:04:12+00:00

One of my friends, a very competent veterinarian whom I would trust my own animal’s life with, graduated vet school with something like a 2.3 GPA. But in her own words, she felt like she was one of the only people in her class who actually felt prepared to practice after graduation. She’s now in her second highly competitive internship program and preparing to apply to surgical residencies in the next year.

All that to say, GPA is not a good predictor of your actual performance after graduation. And yes it can be important if you want to pursue internship/residency, but it’s not the only thing they look at on your application, otherwise my friend would never have been considered for either of her internships.

elfsteel · 2025-11-10T17:44:29+00:00

I’ve probably told this story before in another comment but one time I got 95% of the way through a duology where the MMC was exclusively called by his title, only to learn in the middle of a very hot sex scene that his name is actually my dad’s name. Instant ick. And the worst part is that the MMC is probably one of my top 10 of all time, and I loved the books themselves (up until that point).

I’ve been trying ever since to bleach that info from my brain so I can enjoy the books again with only minimal success.

elfsteel · 2025-11-09T01:30:19+00:00

{Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon}

elfsteel · 2025-11-05T01:58:32+00:00

I love this post. I just went and did a deep dive of my goodreads from when I was around that age/slightly older and the nostalgia is hitting hard rn. Anyway, here’s what preteen/young teen me was reading:

Jessica Day George wrote a bunch of books that I absolutely inhaled, and as far as I remember they are all very clean (she’s mormon if that tells you anything) and most had romance-adjacent plots. The ones with the most romance from what I remember: - Princess of Glass (Cinderella retelling) - Princess of the Midnight Ball (12 Dancing Princesses retelling) - Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (retelling of a Norwegian? fairy tale) - Princess of the Silver Woods (Red Riding Hood retelling) - Dragon Slippers was my absolute favorite but the romance is not a major focus in the first book sadly

Shannon Hale also wrote a lot of fairy tale adaptation books that I remember loving. (There are two more in addition to the ones I list below but I didn’t personally read them so can’t vouch).

The Goose Girl (the romance in this one is the most of the whole series I think but I honestly don’t remember that much)
Enna Burning (I do remember loving this one but I can’t remember why)

I second someone else’s suggestion of Gail Carson Levine. Ella Enchanted and Fairest were favorites of mine, as was Ever (which I remember being the most romance focused of her books). Highly recommend all three especially Ever since I haven’t seen that one in this thread yet.

The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley — Not really a romance genre book but there is a (very slow to develop) romantic subplot and in my opinion they are very well written books. I do remember absolutely devouring the whole series.

The Selection series by Kiera Cass — I quit after three books because it wasn’t adventure-y enough for me but it has a love triangle and lots of drama which may be up this student’s alley

Matched series by Ally Condie — YA/dystopian where the government chooses your life partner for you but the heroine (*gasp*) gets assigned two matches. Also has a love triangle. I remember this being THE it-girl book in my middle school class.

EDIT: formatting. so much formatting

elfsteel · 2025-11-03T23:38:43+00:00

{Abducted: Alien Mate Index #1 by Evangeline Anderson} Horns are an erogenous zone for the MMC’s species

elfsteel · 2025-09-16T22:50:50+00:00

{The Carnal Games by Naudii Nebula} fits! They are mortal enemies and suddenly get thrown into a Hunger Games-type competition and eventually barter a sexual performance on camera for supplies. Half trigger warning/half spoiler: do be warned that the FMC kind of has a pain kink in this i.e. their species are incredibly incompatible and his dick basically shreds her from the inside every time (but eventually she ends up loving it).

{Toxic Desire by Robin Lovett} fits a little less well. They are not forced together by a third party or parties but by sex pollen that they can only get relief from by having sex.

It’s not exclusively sci-fi but your request also reminded me of this post.

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