My Rules
by T. L. Swan · Montlake · 2024
A dual-first-person-present contemporary that engineers attachment by routing a reformed-player fantasy through a deal-and-rules conceit, alternating two narrators so the reader watches one fall first while the heroine narrates her own resistance. Anticipation is stretched through extended foreplay scenes and a denied-consummation tease before the payoffs land.
Engineered signals
Six estimated signals for how hard this title works the immersion engine, each scored on the same 0–100 scale so books compare directly. Directional, not exact — see the methodology below.
What this book is tagged
The full tag set, grouped by dimension. Heat & Kink and Content Warnings are the explicit signals — surfaced, not buried in a flat trope list.
Genre & Setting
Structure & POV
Relationship Tropes
Hero Archetypes
Heroine Archetypes
Heat & Kink
Content Warnings
Pairing & Orientation
Location
Estimated. These charts visualize the engineered signals — arc shape, trope weights, and the 0–100 profile are analytical estimates from automated text sampling, directional rather than exact.
Share of page-time spent on buildup and tension rather than payoff. High values mean the book sells the wait, not the moment.
How strongly the narration collapses the gap between reader and protagonist, peaking with first-person, reader-insert voice.
The "book boyfriend" pull: how hard the text works to form a one-sided attachment to a love interest.
Cliffhanger and serial-loop intensity — the compulsion to start the next chapter or installment.
How steeply intensity ramps across the arc. A steep slope is the tolerance signal: each payoff has to outdo the last.
Query the text itself
Beyond the scores: select a pre-determined query to read real keyword-in-context excerpts from the book’s text, located across its arc. Counts are first-pass lexical-pattern matches across the full text, refined as the analysis matures.
Excerpts are short keyword-in-context fragments from My Rules by T. L. Swan (2024), quoted for research and commentary under fair use — a bounded window around each match, not continuous text.
Acts
Anatomy
Dynamics & Kink
Buildup
Kissing
169 matches · showing 6
| Ch. | Page | Matched fragment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | … this has to stop. Rebecca “Everything all right over here, ladies?” Ronald smiles as he bends down and kisses Taryn’s cheek. “Perfect, Ronny.” She beams up at him. “Let me know if anyone gives you any trouble, … |
| 1 | 8 | … glancing down at my drink. Whoa, these margaritas have some punch. I’m feeling tipsy. “Ladies.” Oliver bends and kisses Chloe’s cheek. “Look how beautiful you are.” He smiles as he tilts her chin. Swoon . . . … |
| 2 | 12 | … does not make me a douchebag.” He fakes a smile. “Although dating one does make you stupid.” He kisses my cheek. “Good night, Rebecca.” He turns and walks out through the front doors, and I watch him … |
| 2 | 12 | … something here between us. I feel giddy. He leans over and takes my face in his hands. His lips brush over mine as he kisses me softly. Oh . . . His tongue slides against mine, and … |
| 2 | 13 | … deep, hot bath is cathartic and a simple pleasure that I’ve become addicted to. After my dreamy first kiss with Michael tonight, I’m floating on air. My mind keeps going over and over it, the way he … |
| 2 | 17 | … self-centered to worry about making anyone wait for him. “There you are.” He smiles calmly before bending to kiss my cheek in greeting. I turn my head. “Don’t kiss me, and you’re late.” “Apologies.” He sits down … |
Where the content lands
Not just how much, but where. Each content category is mapped across the chapter arc — buildup spread thin, explicit acts concentrated at the payoff chapters.
Acts
Anatomy
Dynamics & Kink
Buildup
How explicit is this, really?
A single title means little in isolation. Set against the indexed catalog, the scale of this book's explicit content becomes legible.
More explicit than 51% of the indexed catalog · #74 of 180 · 1.7 scenes / 100 pp
How these metrics are derived
The book is a real published work; the signals below are produced by sampling its text and scoring each on a common 0–100 scale, so titles can be compared on the same axes.
Estimated. Every signal on this page is an analytical estimate from automated text sampling — directional, not an exact measurement — and the arc curves are illustrative shapes, not chapter-by-chapter readings.
- Anticipation Ratio
- Share of page-time spent on buildup and tension rather than payoff. High values mean the book sells the wait, not the moment.
- Explicit Density
- Explicit scenes per 100 pages — how concentrated the payoff is across the length of the book.
- POV Immersion
- How strongly the narration collapses the gap between reader and protagonist, peaking with first-person, reader-insert voice.
- Parasocial Index
- The "book boyfriend" pull: how hard the text works to form a one-sided attachment to a love interest.
- Serialization
- Cliffhanger and serial-loop intensity — the compulsion to start the next chapter or installment.
- Escalation Slope
- How steeply intensity ramps across the arc. A steep slope is the tolerance signal: each payoff has to outdo the last.