If The Walls Were Too Thin

If The Walls Were Too Thin

By downjune

Summary: "I'm seeing another life," he said, "when I go to sleep."
Couple: Harry Potter x Cedric Diggory
Rating: R

 Read on livejournal.com and remember to give downjune some love!

Harry and Cedric are probably my favorite couple in the Harry Potter fandom and, as such, it's incredibly difficult to find good fanfiction for the pairing. I came across If The Walls Were Too Thin by downjune on the livejournal community, twoseekers (which is a Harry Potter community dedicated solely to Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory), and I immediately bookmarked the story for later reading.

I finally got the time to read it today (while cooking dinner because I'm multi-talented like that) and literally got caught in fangirl mode for awhile. I still internally squeeing over how amazing this story is and, honestly, I don't know if I'll stop any time soon.

If The Walls Were Too Thin opens up in an AU/canon verse where Cedric didn't survive the last task of the Triwizarding Tournament, but not everything happened like it did in the canon verse. Harry's twenty-one and has a job at the Ministry (I want to say he's an Auror or Auror in Training, but I can't be sure—actually, the job at the Ministry is just an assumption, don't take my word on it), he's also having these strange dreams.

No, no, not the strange dreams from the canon either. They're strange dreams about Cedric, more specifically the life Harry would've shared with Cedric had he survived that night. The more Harry has these dreams, the more he wants them to be real and the more they start appearing to be real—especially after Cedric realizes that dream!Harry isn't his Harry.

The buildup was nice and well paced throughout, seamlessly switching back and forth between Harry's realities until he finally wakes up where he's meant to be. The writing was wonderful, even with the few typos scattered throughout the story (these typos, though, are easily ignored) and it's even ended with a promise of a companion piece written in Cedric's POV. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for that.

    - Recc-er Starry Out! ♥

Homophobe

Homophobe

By YouarenotMe

Summary: Mike is a driven young man, hard working, and eager to please his father. But Mike Newton has a secret...perhaps he has a few. In small town like Forks, Mike feels alone and desperately wants a break in his routine.

Rated: M

Couple(s): Mike/Eric, Mike/Edward, Jasper/Mike, Jasper/Mike/Edward

 I'll be straight up about when I first saw the buzz for this fic on twitter; I ignored it. Why? Easy, his name is Mike Newton and I do not like him. I don't like him, but do harbor a soft spot for Edward and Mike…in that order. Edward and Mike, Edward/Mike, as in Edward fucking the fuck out of Mike. But, Homophobe, is not EdwardMike. It's MikeEdward. Now, now, now. I know what you're thinking; "Silly Starry!! Where's the issue in Mike being dominate over Edward?"

*pauses* Do you hear yourself. Mike. Mike fucking Newton screwing Edward who's a vampire Cullen. My brain just exploded, but you know what? I read the story anyway. Cause that soft spot, remember? That and I promised myself I'd branch out more in the fandom…though I still haven't branched out into Jaspard and Carlward, one step at a time, right? Anyway…

I started reading it and YouarenotMe blew me away with Mike's characterization. He was more than just that 2D teenage boy that lusted after Bella that Stephanie Meyer mass produced throughout The Twilight Saga. He had layers. He had goals and dreams, issues and problems, and secrets. He had those too. He was like any other teenage boy I knew while I was a teenager myself, which made me connect because it felt like I knew him.

I had goals and dreams, issues and problems, and secrets. I had those too, we all had those and that's why YouarenotMe wins this round for making Mike Newton into a human being. It was the characterization that pulled me in, but it was the trails Mike faced and how he dealt with them that kept me reading.

It's a given that he's go issues, it wouldn't be a story without come conflict. The biggest conflict present in the story, I think, is Mike vs. himself. He's denying who he is while trying to be what everyone wants him to be. It's sad, but so realistic. You can't help but to feel sorry for him and really applaud him when he does something for himself, even when it's getting head from Eric and then turning into an epic asshole who isn't gay.

Slowly, with help from Edward and Jasper, he begins to accept who he is and starts to deal with the fact that he gets hard for other men. Things come to a head when he comes out to his father and, well, he's got no choice but to turn tail and run after that.

And, trust me, once you read and see how his Dad is…you'll understand why.

Even after he's came out to his father, he still struggles with the fact that he's gay. The only time, I think, he isn't struggling with who he is is when he's with Edward and Jasper. It's obvious, painfully obvious in fact, how Edward and Jasper feel about Mike. Though, I'll admit that I sometimes wonder if Jasper's feelings are as powerful as Edward's towards Mike.

Then, of course, we've got Mike's feelings towards them. He feels something for them, yes, but he's struggling with the feelings he's realizing he has for Eric. In the end, he realizes that his feelings for Eric are…

…ha, ha, ha. You didn't think I was going to tell you, did you? If you want to know, I'll guess you'll just have to read, won't you?

Please keep in mind that Homophobe is an ongoing story. With that said, expect more reviews from me concerning up-coming chapters. Why? Because I can.

You can read Homophobe here at fanfiction.net. Remember to give YouarenotMe some love if you read the story!

EDIT: Remember those updates that I mentioned, well, one happened before I was able to post this review so I'll jot down my thoughts before I post this puppy!

First off, I've got to say, kudos to Mike for standing up to his dad. It was fan-fucking-tastic and made me fangirl hardcore. It seems like the issues with his father have finally come to pass and now he can focus on the rest.

More of his relationship with Edward and Jasper are revealed and we learn that he doesn't, in fact, feel the same for Jasper and Edward as they feel towards him. Well, I should say he doesn't feel for Edward as Edward feels for him. Which, I have to admit, is sad.

This chapter, however, left me wondering about Eric and Mike. It's obvious, by now, how Mike feels about Eric and I'm curious as to whether or not something will happen between them and if it does how it will pan out once Mike leaves for college.

This story is, really, wrapping up beautifully and I can't wait to see things come to fruition.

Love Undercover

Banner made by SlashyDrunkard

Summary: Jacob Black is a detective with a bad habit of falling for the suspects he believes to be innocent. This is a series with self-contained chapters that are sometimes unrelated to one another.
Rated: M
Couple(s): Pairings are multiple (though they all contain Jacob Black)

You can read Love Undercover on both livejournal and fanfiction.net, but either way you go remember to give Slashy some love!

______________________________

Our inaugural post in The Recc-ers' Cafe will be a joint reading by Avari and Starry. Their selected reading project (picked out by Starry and shoved down Avari's throat) is Love Undercover by SlashyDrunkard. Avari and I will be doing these joint projects once a month (probably, possibly twice this month) and posting them on Saturdays (except this time). So keep an eye out for them in addition to our individual reccomendations and reviews, and maybe some guest recc-er chicks!

We'll kick this sucker off with me and I'd like it to be known that I have a soft/hard spot for EmmettJacob, even more so when Jacob tops Emmett...but, more on that later. ;) I'll admit that I'll read just about any damned thing Slashy'll write. I've been following his fanfiction for awhile. I'm a massive fan. I know this, he knows this, Avari knows this...and now you do too.

I've read EmmettJacob before (note that Emmett is before Jacob) and, I have to say, it's a guilty pleasure of mine whenever I decided to step away from EdwardJacob or, in most cases, I can't fucking find a good fanfiction with the couple...Jakeward, I mean. Love Undercover (Chapter 1: Emmett) was a delightful surprise in between livejournal's massive fuck ups and my oftentimes rageful fangirl...rage? (Hey, I'm going through Jakeward withdrawls here, sue me).

I'll be honest and say that I nearly passed Love Undercover up because I have issues reading stories where Jacob's with someone else, but for some reason I can handle Jacob fucking other people more easily than I can Edward doing the same. So, *shrugs*. I guess you can say that I'm down with Jacob being a manwhore and fucking multiple dudes...though, I'll tell you right now (you readers and Slashy), Jacob and Carlisle together squicks the fuck out of me. But for Slashy, I'd try anything once, maybe twice if he completely blows my mind...which he's good at doing.

It goes without saying that the first thing, the very first fucking thing that I noticed about this story was the fact that Jacob topped over Emmett. Now, I don't know about you, but that's hella hot. I've never ran across that pairing before because Emmett's just this hunk of macho man juice that could top a fucking African lion if he wanted to and the fucking cat would LOVE it and BEG for more!!

Okay, so I might be exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.

I love, love, love how Slashy kept to the canon descriptions of both characters; both physically and personality wise. It makes it seem all the more realistic and mind blowing because, damnit, Jacob fucking Black is topping Emmett and he's such an in his character bottom that it's magical. Who wouldn't love that?

Before I close this bad boy down and hand the mic over to Avari, let me get in one last fangirl session over the fact that Jacob isn't the perfect lover in this. He isn't super awesome at giving head and he's comfortable enough with himself to admit this and overcome it in other ways. I've got to stand up and applaud this because that's what good fanfiction is all about. It made me squee nearly as much as the 'Cullen case'--now to figure out which Cullen! (EDIT: This has been spoiled to me, but I shall not give the information :P)

And, now, on to Avari!!

Who can go wrong with starting a story that describes the steamy dirtiness of sex? SlashyD certainly doesn't. The first chapter of "Love Undercover" is...in a word...delicious. I really enjoyed the comparison of Jacob & Emmett in their everyday lives vs. what they look like at this current moment, caught in a moment of passion. An even better fact is that SlashyD drug out the particular diritiness of sex; starting with the fucking and then moving on to foreplay, it was an interesting way of doing things. And! The fact that Jacob has faults during sex! Not eveyone can do every little trick in the book. Love the fact that Jacob can't deep throat. The ending of the chapter comes across as a little abrupt but giving the events that are happening it translates well. Overall? I'm hungry for more.

Welcome to The Recc-ers' Café!

           We're your one stop shop for yummilicious slash fanfiction in a variety of fandoms, genres, and ratings. We'll read'um, recc'um/review'um, post'um for your viewing and reading pleasure! The recc-ers consist of two slash fangirls avari_maethor and starry_nights88 (the links lead to our livejournal.com pages), together we form the fanfiction recommendation team (avari_nights) that runs The Recc-ers' Café.

            Below is a little background information on your two recc-er chicks. This'll, hopefully, give you a little heads up on what sort of stories to expect reviews and recommendations on—up first is the ever amazing Avari!!

            Recc-er Avari is a nearly 24 year old chick who just, well, loves fanfiction. When she's not reading it, she's most definitely writing it, and if it were possible she'd probably be breathing it (she tried…didn't work out very well). Avari is currently involved with the Twilight fandom, but can also be found playing around in Harry Potter, Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Mortal Instruments. Her past fandoms are…way too numerous to name, but a major hugely epic one was Lord of the Rings. Avari can and will rec anything and everything she thinks is worth reading, and you will see all different kinds of fandoms from her. Fun times will be had! That's a promise!

            After Avari (both alphabetically and age-wise), you have Recc-er Starry. She's 23, obviously female, and a lean, mean, reading machine!! But, not really. When she isn't reading fanfiction (or an actual book recommended to her), she's most definitely writing it. Starry can be found in the Twilight fandom, though it's actually rare that she reads a Twilight fanfiction (and this is because all the Jakeward has dried up; Gr!! *sadface*). Recently she's gotten into Merlin fanfiction and has been reading the hell out of Arthur/Merlin fanfiction. Starry's also into, but in a much smaller degree, Harry Potter and The Mortal Instruments. She also recs a lot of fanfiction in her fanfiction journal (starrycreations) on livejournal.com and tweets about fanfiction on twitter (@starrycreations).

            We both hope you'll find this blog fun, informative, and well…fun! Cause we're all about fun tiems, good reviews, and damned good fanfiction!