Hi all! I'll be your Merlin reccer this month. I plan to rec three types of stories: 1. Those I read over and over again, 2. Those I have my own head canon for (because I want to stay in the world longer!), and 3. Those my husband and brother enjoy when we listen to podfic in the car.

Fandom: MERLIN
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Length: 66K
Author on LJ: myashke
Author Website: Author on AO3
Why this must be read:

I love to read this fic again and again. It has most everything I want from a Merlin fic. Adventure, Destiny, Merlin LOVES Arthur. Oh, but the angst! Can Arthur love Merlin? Is Merlin good enough? What about his magic? Can there be a happy ending between a prince and a servant?

Author summary: Arthur sets out to complete the Rites of Ascension alone and unaided, but, as he and Merlin discover, he was never meant to succeed alone.

Ascension

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Frannie Vecchio/Irene Zuko, Ray Vecchio/Irene Zuko
Length: 4800 words
Author on LJ: hth_the_first
Author Website: AO3 page
Why this must be read: This fic proves that you can be in due South for years and years and still discover unread gems. Because I just discovered this the other day, and wow. I feel so much love for both Frannie and Irene here. I usually don't quote when I rec, but this time I think it may be the most effective way:

...why was it always the sisters and the daughters that got hurt and hurt bad when some goddamned man in this neighborhood had to prove his macho? And the bright-eyed, bright-feathered, fragile-fierce girls, girls like Frannie Vecchio, didn't have a basketball court to go to, didn't have any safe, pure way to sweat out the pain and trample it into the dead concrete and leave it there. They were supposed to go to church or get jobs waiting tables or working perfume counters, and be good, and stay down, and God help them if they wanted to wear black lace and talk fast in shrill voices and fuck until they blacked out.

Better Than Ice Cream

Fandom: GRIMM
Pairing: Nick/Monroe
Length: 24,054 words
Author on LJ: guanin
Author Website: Masterlist on LJ, AO3
Why this must be read:

Author's Summary: Just when Nick's life is changing, Monroe is attacked by a Grimm, drawing them irrevocably together.

Canon only brings a second Grimm to the storyline on the very last episode of Grimm in Season 1 (which I hope fervently gets explored like crazy next season!). It's canon that Nick is, as aunt Marie puts it, "among the last" of the Grimms, but physically seeing how our moderate Nick would interact with a hard-lined, Marie-like Grimm is just a fascinating idea. We get to see that hard-line Grimm in this wonderful story. Nick and Monroe fight for survival (at least on Monroe's part) when such comes to Portland. Nick buts heads with this hard-assed woman and Monroe just tries to survive the encounter.

Nick and Monroe get together over injury recovery (so there's the ever popular h/c quotient!). This is also a fic that delves into Monroe's not-so-reformed past. It's only hinted at in canon that he wasn't always reformed but never anything explicit. Not so here! We get names of his past victims, histories, and really get our eyes opened to the Blutbad within. It's pretty fascinating, actually, to see this much depth to the Monroe character.

So, a wonderfully written Monroe/Nick get-together, Grimm-on-Grimm interaction, a suspenseful survival story, and introspective character study. Everything a Grimm fangirl/boy can ask for. :)

Surrender

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
Pairing: Buffy/Spike with past Buffy/Angel and Spike/Illyria
Length: ~5k
Rating: R
Author on LJ: anaross
Author Website: Fics in Memories List
Why this must be read: This story is a wonderful exploration of Spike's character. Yes, this is a babyfic but it is so much more than that. Anaross portrays a Spike/Angel friendship that is believable and civil and captures the heartache of renewing the Buffy/Spike relationship, especially with the added dynamic of Spike's new daughter, whose mother is Illyria. 

Not to mention Anaross uses my most favourite literary technique of all time effectively-- allegory. 



Baby Blue

Fandom: SKINS
Pairing: Mini/Franky (gen 3)
Length: 7,300 words
Author on LJ: interpol_ice
Author Website: (fanfic tag) 
Why this must be read: And here be more femslash. This fic is - in my humble opinion - quite simply, how it should have gone post-season five. It's everything the show could have made the relationship, told in short glimpses, sparse prose, and lovely imagery. There's a quiet, languid feel to the storytelling that fits in with the atmosphere of season five much better, in my opinion, than the loud, intense drama of season six.

It deals with their issues, individual and shared, without blowing them up to extreme proportions, and they learn to get along through the constant push and pull of their contrasting personalities. Best of all, it's told through the ever-observant eyes of a quiet, clever S5!Franky, who is believably quite enamored with Mini, the same way Mini obviously is with her at the end of season five, and weaves their differing but complimentary appreciations for one another expertly.

( Excerpt )

Golden