fluffyllama | Entries tagged with recs

Horribly lurgied, but sniffling in to try to get these up, even if much later than I'd like.

First of all, a non-HP fic rec:

The Path of Wolves, by

trobadora. Little Red Riding Hood/female Big Bad Wolf, mature rating.
As soon as

trobadora mentioned this prompt to me I started looking forward to the fic. I love this take on the fairy tale, from the spooky beginning (see, perfect thing to read tonight!) to Grandmother, to Lou, the mysterious stranger in the village/Big Bad Wolf that I'd run off into the woods with any day - it's not just you, Little Red *g*. Wonderful <3

Over in HP land,

minerva_fest continued (and finished, wah) as strongly as it started - I recommend checking everything out as it's all well worth it. Reccing everything individually isn't terribly helpful, though, so I'm forcing myself to stick with my favourites. I hope I didn't miss anything, I will check back later since my brain is all over the place, but I'm not sure what time the reveals will go up.

ART: The Headmistress's Portrait, Minerva, G.
Perfectly done and full of character. Just exactly what you want for a portrait of Minerva!

ART: A well-earned break Minerva, Pomona, Hooch and Poppy, G
There's something very cheering about this little scene with four witches, their newspaper, a cat and a roaring fire. I'm still smiling despite the lurgy :)

FIC: A Witch Indeed, Minerva and Hermione, PG
A lovely story of Minerva visiting Hermione's family to inform them of her place at Hogwarts. Completely engrossing from start to finish.

FIC: Sense and Persuasion Minerva, Poppy and others, PG
Completely delightful Austen-ed up witches. I could read this forever.

FIC: Parting Gift, Minerva/Millicent Bagnold, Elphinstone, PG-13
Lovely characterful writing with some great ideas to make sense of Minerva's back story - and certainly make it a whole lot more interesting. Loved this.

banner by

capitu

I'd better start with

hp_drizzle since the reveals are coming up first:

FIC: In the arms of an ocean, Sirius/James, PG-13 but by no means harmless.
This starts out dreamy and hazy before descending into madness. I love this pairing, but considering the huge potential for it I don't think I've read many on the dark side. I love it to bits.

ART: Shower, Snape/Black, G.
Yeah, this is my life on a daily basis (times two)! Lots of fun in a pic, though.

ART: The Lightning Strike, Charlie/Draco, G.
Not my pairing, but definitely my kind of weather. Gorgeous colours.

I was pleased to see

minerva_fest posting at a time when I have chance to read and rec.

ART: Minerva's Day Out, Minerva/mystery person, R.
Every one of these is perfect. Seriously, unless you can't stand to see Minerva on your screen for some reason, check this one out. Just lovely.

ART: Moonlight Meeting, Minerva, Crookshanks, Sirius, G.
Hmm, a suspiciously familiar style! This time Sirius in human form, but Minerva as a cat. Along with Crookshanks I love their stripiness and the setting is beautifully done too.

FIC: Twist me and turn me, Minerva, PG.
A short fic that managed to surprise me at the end. I'm quite fascinated by the idea of what happens here, and Minerva is fabulous, of course.

rs_games has also started posting. I haven't had chance to read many yet, but one summary grabbed me by the throat and I'm so glad it did.

FIC: Any other night, Sirius/Remus, R.
Oh my god. It's another one with a darker look at a pairing that, in this case, is even more rarely explored that way. A great part of that is Sirius's insanity, which yes, is a thing I love to see. But it's so much more than that. It's also sweet, it's funny, and it's dark. It's set in two entirely different places and times, with the moon tying it all together.

I'm not remotely doing it justice, because my feelings about this story can't quite turn themselves into words. Sigh. It's been a few hours and I'm still having trouble thinking about anything else - not because of the pairing or anything shippy, but because of the writing.

Anyway, hurray for getting a Rectober post done for the first week! If you want to join in click on the thingy at the top *waves vaguely*.

Oh, and I put some of my rarer pairing fics in for the remix, so you all need to as well now.

I enjoyed way too many of the TW Holidays fics to rec them all, as the amount of happy comments I left everywhere no doubt shows, but I've picked out some more that I remember being particularly fond of. I still have some left to read, but hopefully I will get to those before the reveal too.

Support Systems Derek/Stiles but the parents are the stars of this one.
The Sheriff, Melissa and Chris bonding over the supernatural-related antics of their kids is fabulous, especially the wine and cheesecake deal.

never seen a man with so much dimension Lydia, Derek/Stiles (General)
Princess Lydia is definitely the star here, even with Derek as a grumpy dragon and Stiles as a misguided Prince trying to rescue someone who doesn't need it. A fusion with something you don't need to know anything about, this is wonderfully funny and charming, and the only way it could be better is if there were a few capital letters in the title. (Grumpy dragons have nothing on me :D)

Maybe, In the Future Derek/Chris (Mature)
Dubious consent via sex pollen, in a nicely structured fic with some great lines. The Chris dialogue in particular is spot on. I'm especially impressed because I looked at writing this pairing for my own recipient in one of the TW fests and it's a tough proposition.

How It Works Scott/Allison/Isaac (Mature).
Nice comfortable-feeling threesome development, from all POVs. Hiding and whispers and surprise kisses, yum. I love these three together.

Rise, Rise (Shake me with your love) Melissa/Sheriff, Stiles/Danny (Mature)
Great Melissa POV and a nice way of dealing with the 'sex pollen' scenario.

Pretty Much Normal Derek/Stiles (rated Teen at AO3)
I'm not a fan of 'Derek gets therapy' in general but it works really well here. The author managed to surprise me with the direction it took, so this one stuck in my mind. A good read.

It's Shake 'n Bake, and I Helped! Derek/Stiles with lots of Lydia and some Jackson (yay). Mature.
Er. Not quite threesome, not quite mpreg, bodyswap and utter madness. It's also a hell of a fun read :D

Reveals are tomorrow and I'm looking forward to thanking the author of my gift (still gleeful! and just a prod there for those who haven't seen the shiny Chris/Stiles yet*) Anyway, I'll try to post more recs before it happens, but I wanted to do an under-appreciated recs list first. These all deserve a lot more readers than they seem to have had so far.

These first two have apparently been overlooked in favour of sparkly festive fics and easier (or any) pairings, but if your tastes run a bit darker give them a try!

Once More With Feeling Peter and Lydia (Mature for horror, death etc.)
Wow. Sparse and horrifying, with obsessive psycho Peter and Lydia who still knows more than he does. ( Spoilery )

An Unwelcome Friend/Something She Has to Do Peter/Lydia (Mature)
I'm not sure why this has two titles (or is it just two lines from a song? I don't know the song, so *shrug*) but I am sure it's a crime how little attention this fic has had. It's a great, creepy read and Lydia (mostly) gets the better of Peter, or at least makes him suffer. Much as I love Peter, he deserves everything he has coming.

And strangely, these also feature Lydia – is everyone just off her at the moment? It's very odd. Gen to gen-ish and much lighter.

An CaoineadhLydia gen
Great look at Lydia working out what she is for herself in a few missing scenes.

An Average Wednesday Night Lydia/Allison (though I'd call it Lydia & Allison with a hint of more)
Lovely interaction, some great lines, and I love Lydia's view of Allison.

And one where the Lydia pairing isn't the focus, but it is there.

Scenes from a Resurrection Talia Hale, Lydia/Allison.
This is great in itself, but I have particular love for it due to the discussion Talia has with Scott about wolves in the wild. It's the projection of human values/assumptions onto animals that stops me watching wildlife programmes, it drives me beyond insane, and I love how this questions how true the acknowledged rules etc are for werewolves too.

(* And can I just say here, that leaving a comment just asking 'is there going to be a part two?' on a 25k fic someone wrote for an exchange may be the rudest behaviour I've seen yet in one of this year's fests. Ugh. They need a slap.)

Peter/Stiles fic full of delicious wrongness is my happy place right now. Among many others, because there is so much pretty and angst on Teen Wolf that I am happily rolling about in many, many different flavours of fic. Mmmmm.

Anyway! This is a rec for Peter and Stiles with just the dynamic that makes them so fun to play with. Gah, creepy and smutty, and just perfect.

Playtime Interrupted by

marguerite_26. Peter/Stiles, nc-17. Read the warnings, which include non-con. Also here on AO3 if you prefer.

If you already have a taste for Peter fic or that fic creates one (it should!) then you can find some more recs for this pairing and others in this post by

otta_ff. I haven't read them all yet, but there's at least one I recced from

tw_holidays on there, and the others I've read are fabulous too.

Today is the last day to sign up for this year's HP Beholder fest! Those less loved characters need you, so go and check out the fest details here and then sign up here.

I've been playing over at Full Moon Ficlet, and there's been some great stuff posted for the challenges so far.

tryslora in particular did a five parter for the 'photographs' prompt that is now posted in full on AO3. It's Lydia POV, with canon pairings mentioned as well as a couple of others. It includes some sad stuff, so check the tags/warnings, but it's well worth a read if you can cope with that. It's just gorgeous.

Our Days Are Yours

I woke up to see I'd been tagged on stop_drop_howl, and more Peter/Stiles seems to be happening, though with added smut this time, yay.

For the last few days I've been editing my podbang recording, and during the whole process I've sorted out some of the issues I had last time I started making podfics. Even my voice holds out longer now, I don't sound hoarse after two minutes. That was so annoying. So yes, this means the other ones I made a start on AGES ago will be finished soon! First of all though, I have to submit this file as it stands tomorrow, which is fully recorded with a main edit done. Then I'll be checking through for mistakes etc. -- I've already found one part where I mixed up names, and there are a couple of bits where I'd like to replace a small section to improve it.

I've asked the mods whether we can name the fic we've recorded as I'm not clear whether I can or not before they're posted, but it's a modern AU Merlin/Arthur (after Merlin/Gwaine) and includes some infidelity. I don't think there are any other likely squicks in there, but if you're up to a beta-type listen, even if it's just for part of it (it's a 42k word fic, I don't expect anyone to beta listen to the whole thing), let me know! At this point I'm so tired of the sound of my own voice it's untrue *g* The posting date is Feb 14th, so all editing needs to be finished in time for then, obviously.

ETA: Oh, and twrarepairs! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

I want to get all these posted before the reveal, so I'm not going to give much description for these, but read! (As well as checking out the collection, because I haven't had chance to read them all yet either.) ETA: I've added another couple since posting as AO3 seems to be down at the moment so I can't finish part 2. ETA 2: Now with reveals!

Rough Skies (Merlin/Arthur, NC-17, 40k words) by rotrude
Pilots!

Every Cloud (Merlin/Arthur, R, 13k words) by cassie_black12
Arthur the arsey chef! And Morgana is there being awesome, which pretty much guarantees love from me.

This Dance of Days (Merlin/Arthur, rated 'mature' by author, 8k words) by kianspo
I'm really not a great fan of weddings or fluffiness, but this has plenty of other stuff going on. It also has my other favourite thing ever (after an awesome Morgana), which is one of the (modern versions of, obviously) knights calling Arthur 'Princess'. I don't even know why, but I feel like I need a whole recs list just for that.

The Letter Q (Merlin/Arthur, NC-17, 12k words) by herbeautifullie
One of my unexpected favourites of the fest, as the summary didn't really draw me in to start with.

As Long As We Are (Merlin/Arthur, PG-13 or so) by lady_ragnell.
Because I maybe have a thing about people collecting strays.

Lying in Wait (Merlin/Arthur, NC-17, 3k words) by sorrylatenew
Canon era, pretend-somnophilia that turns into more... yeah, lots of marvellous things in one place here. Phew.

Art

Steal Some Covers, Share Some Skin (Merlin/Arthur, no idea if it's work safe as it would have been fine in my office, but go with not to be cautious.) by alby_mangroves

Are we doing this? (Merlin/Arthur/Gwaine, R - NWS) by alby_mangroves

More coming up before the reveal if I can!

Sorry for the lack of description, but the headers give a good idea of the content, and the reveal could be any time, so I'm rushing. These are just some favourites that stuck with me, and there are lots more worth reading, so check them out if you haven't already at Lewis Challenge!

In vain the am'rous flute and soft guitar (Lewis/Hathaway, R) by garonne

The Evil That Men Do (Pre-Lewis/Hathaway, but can be read as friendship easily enough, still rated R for content by author) by kat_lair

through the years we all will stay together (Lewis/Hathaway, rated T by author) by seren_bach

Governor for a day (Lewis/Hathaway, PG) by cactusonastair

Six Days to Christmas (Lewis/Hathaway, PG) by dracofiend

I haven't read everything from

tw_holidays yet, though I hope to get to most of them before the reveals. I hope I haven't missed any, but I may have had a couple of glasses of Bailey's, so I should probably check them over later...

( tw_holidays recs )

I wrote a pinch hit for the fest, and had lots of fun with it. I think there's one more day of posting to come, but I'm not entirely sure when the reveal is without checking.

Happy new year, all!

I have quite a long list of recs from the Christmas fests I've been reading (and in some cases taking part in), but LJ seems a bit wobbly, so let's get these important ones done first! I've received some amazing gifts, as always ♥

A Kindness (Lewis/Hathaway, PG)
I thought my mystery writer was going to break my heart with this one, but it's so beautifully written I couldn't have complained even if that had happened :-) It has very plausible doubts and hesitation on the part of Lewis, and is a gorgeous read. As I saw another poster say, you have to rec this entire fandom, really, because it's fabulous.

The Powerless Prince (Merlin/Arthur, Mature rating on AO3) Wow, it kills me to even think of the amount of work my lovely mystery writer put into this. I'm not familiar with Legend of the Seeker or Tangled, so I can absolutely say you don't need to be either to read this. I spent several enjoyable hours with this story, many of them wishing I had the author's ability to build a plot!

After Hours (Sirius/Rosmerta, NC-17) It's not a secret that I don't read much het in HP, but there are some pairings that work well for me, and this is definitely one of them. This mystery writer gave me something I hadn't considered, but absolutely adored. Sirius isn't the inexperienced kid being educated by the worldly older woman here -- he knows what he's doing, and what he wants, but without seeming older than he is. He's just confident, and that's a wonderful thing to read. Delicious *sigh*

Thank you to all of you for my fabulous gifts!