Tuesday's Best 10-26-2010

Good morning, my lovelies. Hope you're enjoying the Fall weather, and that you're dry, and comfy. Aradi and I have found you a couple of stories that'll for sure leave you nice and...warm. ;-) Want to come find out what they are? Well, let's get started then, shall we? Don't forget your towels, Kleenex, and fresh panties.

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Before I get down to the srs bsns of fangirling my rec, I’d like to revisit some old business.  Please join me on a tangent.

Just in case you’re one of those people who prefer to read completed stories, or in case you missed the previous recs, I just wanted to mention a few fics that have completed since I recced them.  Now you truly have no excuse not to try them.

Raw and Rosy, by tuesdaymidnight, and Ready For You, by bmango, have both ended now.  Go forth and enjoy some completed E/J slash, if you haven’t already.  (Or enjoy them again.  We don’t judge here.)

Conversed also recently finished Twinned, which I squeed about here.  Conversed was merciful/evil and blessed/tortured us with a tasty/heartbreaking prologue to a new fic the same day Twinned ended.  (This is where we slide off our tangent and back to the real post.)

Seventeen Men is the sequel to Twinned and the storyline picks up immediately after the events in Twinned.  It’s a little different in that it’s all JPOV, all the time, but that’s a good thing.  Who doesn’t love Conversed’s Jasper?

I recommend this fic with a warning:  bring your big girl/boy/pansexual angstypants because this is no romp in the fluffmeadow.  I can’t even tell you who the pairing is, because I can’t see through the big pile of soggy tissues that resulted from the prologue and first three chapters.  Okay maybe I exaggerate a bit, but does Jasper pining for Edward (and vice versa, we hope) count as a pairing?  (Please, please say it does.)

Seventeen Men opens with Jasper leaving Forks, for all the stupidest, best reasons.

Uncle Whit didn't have to say a single word after that.

He judged silently, and I soaked it up.

I wanted to turn 'round and head on home so much. So fucking much. I told myself that it was only for the summer.

I could take it for a summer.

Y'all know it took me years and years before I made it back to Forks.

You see what I mean about the angstypants?  I think I scared the dog when I wailed “Nooooo....”

We do get snippets of life “back home,” but this story is Jasper’s.  (It better have a happy ending or I may die.)  Jasper is finally clueing in to the things we readers realized in the previous story.

Y'all know that shit was hard to look at without forgettin' how to breathe, and thinkin' back I wonder if that moment - that solitary second when he smiled and looked right at me - was when things started to change inside me. Suddenly, I knew I wanted to be the one to put that smile on his face every single fuckin' day. I tried to deny it. I reminded myself that I only got to know the boy because of his crushin' on Bella Swan. Y'all know I had plenty of people to crush on of my own, and I ain't never been one for gettin' tied down. But, damn. Just damn.

I wanted him for my own.

That sure sounds like the verge of a HEA, except for the glaring problem of Jasper leaving.  (Noooooo....)

Just like with Twinned, if you need your slash with a primary slashy pairing, and NC-17 action from that pairing, this may not completely satisfy you.  (Not that we’re judging you, you smut-lover.)  I can’t say what will or won’t happen.  I can only guess based on Twinned and what we’ve seen in the first three chapters, but you know, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything at all with Twinned because the plot and characterizations (and smut) were more than enough to keep my attention.

So go read Seventeen Men, but be sure you’ve read Twinned first.  I need more people to flail along with me at every update.  Please pass the tissues.

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Ah, the joys of getting a strictly-canon writer to come out of their comfort zone, and create a beautiful piece of slash. Taking Cues by araeo is just such a story, and I was given prime seats to enjoy this particular ride. I even got to do the cattle-prodding *winks*.  

Edward has had his eye on the boy - Riley - who’s recently moved into his building, but has been too nervous/shy to pluck up the courage to do anything about it. Every day, he sees him, and it seems like the interest isn’t just one-sided.

When he finally does make contact, things seem to be stuck in the ‘friend-zone’ for a long time. This might have something to do with the fact that Riley appears to have a girlfriend - Victoria. They become good friends in spite of that, though Edward still entertains many a fantasy about Riley.

And then he decides that enough is enough. He needs to get laid, and if Riley can get it from Victoria, he can get some from someone else. He zeros in on his prospective lay for the night, things get interesting.

"You're so on," she answered with a smile. The bartender's timing was perfect; and we were off to meet Riley. He looked surprised at who I had in tow, and if I wasn't mistaken, I thought he didn't look very pleased for a split-second.

Right, Masen...dream on.

"You up for some Cutthroat?" Riley asked, and I could tell the exact moment he decided to play along. After all, how many damn times had I done this for him and Victoria? He owed me. He grinned flirtatiously at my corseted friend, who stood just behind me and to the side.

"Perfect," she said. "I'll let one of you boys rack them." This last comment was delivered with a clever, sexy little smirk, like she knew something we didn't. Casually, she went to choose her cue, but I wasn't fooled. She knew what she was doing, and I had to admire her technique. It was confident, but relaxed to the point that she almost seemed not to care about the outcome. It was irresistibly attractive.

Since she'd made her selection, she leaned against a nearby high-top, sipping at her drink and watching the both of us. Riley was too busy eying her, so I set the beer aside and went to work setting up the game. My task put me very close to where he was standing, and when I had to lean in, he didn't back off.

I tossed him a smirk. "Don't help or anything." I shoved him in the shoulder as I walked by, and he stuck out his foot, almost managing to trip me. Smooth one, asshole. Fight like little boys in front of the woman you want to take home and fuck...with the very man you'd like to take home and fuck at the same time...

As I said, they get interesting. ;-) What happens next, you’ll have to read to find out. I’m still gunning for a continuation, because damn, if I don’t love the easy banter between Riley and Edward! So be sure to give her some love (and plenty of encouragement to stretch her slashy wings more often), and maybe we’ll see some more of these boys in future. 

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There you have it, folks. We hope you enjoyed this week's picks,  and that you'll be back next week to see what  Aradi and Captain Jezebel have in store for you. In the mean time, leave this week's authors some love. 

See you next week!