Fandom: The Sentinel
Title: If You Could Read My Mind by TerriJo
Pairing: Jim/Carolyn
Author on LJ: None as Far as I know
Author Website: Storm Warnings
Why this must be read:

Carolyn, Jim's ex-wife, is the forgotten character of Season 1. She was written out fairly quickly - sent off to run the Forensics Department of the San Francisco PD - so we didn't get to see much of her but what we did see, was a professional woman who found herself faced with watching Jim befriend a crazy anthropologist who, in a few short weeks, probably knew him as well as she had during the course of their entire marriage. It was quite clear though, she still cared very much for Jim and he for her.

In this story, Carolyn is back in town for a visit immediately following the events of the series finale "The Sentinel By Blair Sandburg" and Teej (as she's known in TS) gives us a very touching look at where they are now. Shows us the differences in Jim as from what Carolyn remembers and what she sees now. There's a lovely emotion to this story that can be termed, on the surface, as nostalgia but is so very much more. This story gives Carolyn, and her relationship to and with Jim the treatement, she deserves

If You Could Read My Mind by Terrijo

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Author's homepage: Armchair Slash
bookshop

Why this must be read:
Taking a slight turn for the darker in the recs, Aja's story is a sketch of Hogwarts in wartime. She very skillfully evokes a constant atmosphere of fear and dread, an oppressive claustrophobia as the students can only wait and watch for news from the outside. The story is very much about coping, about how you get through the day when you know the next one might be worse; here, Draco inadvertently becomes one of those mechanisms, an inscrutable comfort to the other students.

Aja's Harry is spot-on, the direct heir of Harry from Order of the Phoenix. Another strength of the story is that its Harry/Draco is delicate - it doesn't beat you about the head with Their One True Love, but really treats them as individuals.

One small caveat lector - Aja's Draco does depart somewhat from canon Draco, in that he is more than just a sneering bully. I tend to prefer my Draco with facets over Draco without, but YMMV.

The Reader

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: none
author's website: Ink Stigmata
author on LJ: monkeycrackmary

Why this must be read:
"Faded Laughter" has the double benefit of being both a sad and poignant post-OotP story, and a strong Ginny story. It's a short and (superficially) simple piece, so there's not much I can say about it without giving away too much, but suffice to say it encompasses lost innocence and lost chances.

Bring a hanky for this one.

Faded Laughter Against Her Ear

Fandom: Big Wolf on Campus
Pairing: Merton/Tommy
Author on LJ: carolinecrane
Author Website: Desiderium Caritas
Why this must be read:

Seeing as this is my last week rec’ing Big Wolf on Campus, and Caroline Crane is *the* author to read in said fandom, I figured you could all handle a few more mentions of her Merton/Tommy fics.

“Kissing Tommy Dawkins” was almost the first fic I chose to rec this month, as it was the first BWoC fic that I read with didn’t make me cringe. This fic is good, sweet and awkward and just the way I like my boys.

"I know you didn't mean anything, Merton," he said, and if I didn't know better I'd think he sounded a little disappointed. It didn't make any sense that he'd be disappointed that I wasn't deliberately snooping, though, so I pushed the thought aside and focused on trying to figure out what was bothering him. "It's just weird, finding out that somebody else has been poking around in my head."

"Tommy, it's just me."

"Not just you. Especially you."

This story takes place after the season three episode Being Tommy Dawkins, but you can figure out what’s going on without having seen the show.

Kissing Tommy Dawkins

Fandom: Big Wolf on Campus
Pairing: Merton/Tommy
Author on LJ: carolinecrane
Author Website: Desiderium Caritas
Why this must be read:

Caroline Crane has an entire set of unrelated fics where Tommy and Merton get together while watching slashy movies. In this particular fic, The Lost Boys helps lead to something than both Coreys combined.

There was just something about Merton: whether it was his unwavering loyalty, his enthusiasm for just about every weird thing that happened to Tommy, or just the fact that he had an amazing smile and the bluest eyes Tommy had ever seen he couldn't say. All he knew was that he'd spent the past few months wondering what it would be like to kiss his best friend, and if there was a God who looked over werewolves and hormonal teenagers he was going to find out.

Also? The moment right after the first kiss makes me snicker.

Slash Factor

Fandom: Big Wolf on Campus
Pairing: Merton/Tommy
Author on LJ: carolinecrane
Author Website: Desiderium Caritas
Why this must be read:

So, at the end of the series, Merton surprises Tommy by showing up at State to continue their (slashy) adventures (with the added bonus of a shared dorm room). Caroline Crane, bless her, takes this opportunity most kindly provided by TPTB to write a first time story wherein Tommy likes silk a lot, and likes Merton even more.

And then, she spins a series out of it.

Silk
Silk II
Silk III
Silk IV
Silk V
Silk VI

Fandom: Blakes 7
Pairing: Avon/Blake, Jenna/Cally, but nothing explicit
Author on LJ executrix
Author Website: No
Why this must be read:

Next week looks like being busy, so this is me signing off for the month with one more ExecRec, and one of the most likeable of her stories.

Well now, there's a plot. It has something to do with taking advantage of a festival to burgle a bank vault and find incriminating papers about a politician whom the freedom fighter Avalon wants to topple. But let's be frank, this is all a transparent excuse to put Our Heroes in a "Strictly Ballroom" universe and some fancy gear and get them waltzing, tangoing and what all. (If there's an explanation of why the competition demands same-sex couples, I don't recall it, but then I wasn't really looking for one.) Of course, even in this situation Blake and Avon manage to make a dominance game out of it. To fully appreciate the excerpt, you might need to know that in the canon episode "Duel", when Blake plans a dangerous manoeuvre, the following dialogue ensues:
BLAKE Have you got any better ideas?
AVON As a matter of fact, no I haven't.
BLAKE Does that mean you agree?
AVON Do I have a choice?
BLAKE Yes.
AVON Then I agree


And because the ship, under attack, has just lurched alarmingly, they happen to be in each other's arms while saying most of this...
( excerpt )

Perhaps-Perhaps-Perhaps

Fandom: The Sentinel
Title: Coming Up For Air
Pairing: None
Author On LJ: Not as far as I know
Author Website: Delilah's Den
Why This Must Be Read:

A popular vein among Sentinel alternate universes is what if Jim and Blair hadn't met when they did. It's an easy concept to come up with but a surprisingly difficult one to execute. Many writers have tried it but only a few stand out. Delilah's story is just such a story. Told from Blair's point of view, it gives us a heart breaking look at a James Ellison whose Sentinel abilities were misdiagnosed...as Autism.

Coming Up For Air

Fandom: Big Wolf on Campus
Pairing: Merton/Tommy
Author on LJ: jenoofer
Author Website: Subdued
Why this must be read:

As much as I love Big Wolf for it’s goofy plots and silly humour, the show created the potential for real, painful issues though it never really addressed them. This story addresses some of the issues that are only brushed upon in canon: Tommy’s popularity, and Merton’s uneasiness with his place in Tommy’s life.

"You think I want to be in a room full of people who hate me?" It ought to sound melancholy, or at least furious, given that no one ever gets it, no matter how obvious it should be. Instead, it sounds flat, like he's been saying it over and over all day. Feels like he has, almost. Hasn't actually said it out loud. Hasn't exactly said it to himself either.

Because sometimes he does. Want to be in a room full of people, that is, even if they do all hate him, because surely anything is better than being alone. Only he ends up choosing 'alone', because it's easier. No one can actually tell him that everyone in the room hates him.

It's a stupid conflict, and one he can never win, because either way, he gets hurt. It's just easier if no can see him hurting.

Tommy sees him, though, and Tommy's too stubborn to let it go.

Shimmer