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sheafrotherdon for betaing. 
This is a trilogy of historical m/m romances by KJ Charles, the queen of the genre. Now, anything penned by KJ Charles is a cut above anyone else's, imho, so if you haven't read anything of hers, you totally should. Characterisation, plot, intrigue, smut, excellent writing, her books have it all. The Will Darling Adventures are set in London in the 1920s. It's a spy/action series with an amazing love story at its heart, where the conflict is absolutely real and the characters have an emotional growth arc across the three books. It's the most satisfying kind of romance. You will fall in love with the two MCs, it's impossible not to. Once you've finished the books you'll be left wanting more, so here's some fic to tide you over. These are all Kim/Will, with a touch of DS/Archie, and won't make much sense unless you've read the books, I'm afraid. Btw, the audiobook version of the books, narrated by Cornell Collins, is just sublime.
the world is but a word. 1.6K words. Will was speaking with a customer when Sir Archibald Curtis walked into his bookshop. A lovely little vignette. Podfic availbale, though I haven't listened to it yet.
scrape out what's left (at the end of the year). 2.2K words. The drive to Holmclere was uneventful, leisurely, and most importantly: not completely overshadowed by one or both of them being framed for murder. At least it had that going for it. Lovely epilogue for the whole seriesscrape out what's left (at the end of the year).
one shade the more. 3.9K words.Perfect Will and Kim voice, their banter kills me.
The Pitt
detect my sudden existence on your sonar by Lirazel . 25K words Mel/Frank. Mel thought everything would get easier when he came back. Instead, it's a new kind of torture. This fic is, to me, the definitive take on Mel's POV. I'm not on the spectrum, I've little experience with people who are, so I may as well be talking out of my arse, but reading this story is just such an immersive experience, ti does such an excellent job of sucking you in and making you feel like you're living it all as Mel would. And the pining is exquisite. So good it's almost unbearable. Gah.
sheafrotherdon for betaing.
So, today was my day off and I watched the first three episodes of the Heated Rivalry tv series just because I've seen some gifs around Tumblr. I read the whole Game Changers series years ago, I'm a big m/m romance reader, unsurprisingly, and I enjoy a good sports romance tremendously. I am Italian, I know nothing about hockey and this has not prevented from enjoying the hell out of a fair bit of m/m hockey romance and fanfic.
Wild Ice by makeit_takeit. 46K words. Men's Hockey RPF, Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick. As with all hockey RPF, I have no idea what these two guys look like or even what team they played for, but it's all irrelevant. This is an AU where one of the two is himself, I guess, retired after hockey, while the other is not a hockey player. This is just such a gorgeous love story, with, complex layered characterisation and the natural beauty of Canadian winter landscape as its backdrop. It's a sort of grump/sunshine pairing, I guess. The tags give you a good idea of what to expect.
Front Runner by makeit_takeit. 60K words. Men's Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin. This is another AU, a high school one, where the characters play football in Texas. Picture Friday Night lights only gayer? :D This is another great story. Again, I know nothing about American football, but I'm a sucker for coming-of-age story mixed in with romance. And this has such a strong sense of place, which makes it all the better. Not that I know the first thing about Texas high school football culture, but I am a big fan of Friday Night Lights, trust me when I say I didn't throw the comparison lightly.
and i spit out the seed by linearity. Heated Rivalry AU, of the canon divergence kind. Basically Ilya and Shane get outed much earlier than in canon. Amazing characterisation and dialogue.
The Pitt
Since we're talking sports romance, I cannot help but reccing the best sports AU in this fandom: Love Game by homespun. Mel/Frank, ofc, still a WIP but it's going to be complete soon, in, like, a 4 days? And I can already tell this is going to be an all-time favourite. Ah, it's a tennis pro AU. And it's P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
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artbykristele. Fun portrait of Xena and Gabi in a fighting pose. rennerei. Legs around waist! Smooches! Aiaiaiaiaiii![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
celebrity20in20 round with Wu Lei. This is round 18. I hope you like 'em.
Do I really need to sum up a show about Sherlock Holmes? I'm pretty sure anyone would be familiar with the premises, this particular iteration from the early 2010s aired on the BBC, had Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as the two leads and was set in contemporary London.
While I re-watched the pilot countless times (fun fact, there was a time when I taught English as a Foreign Language to highly motivated adults, and one of my teaching modules was built entirely around the Sherlock pilot and it always went down a treat) the whole series is definitely flawed. The fandom predictably went nuts for the inevitable m/m pairing but I've read all sorts of fic, and even the gen ones or the casefiles (and the crossover/fusions) were a lot of fun.
It's Not the Violin by copperbadge. Gen but platonic love? 3.8K words. <7i>Somewhere between Alejandro and the fistfight, John Watson became someone Sherlock Holmes would kill for. I liked this one so much it was part of that Sherlock-inspired teaching module, using
FayJay's excellent podfic.
Green Grow the Rushes, O! by@AJHall.ao3. This is technically a casefile but the character bits are more important than the case. And it's so perfectly British and witty. The humour. Btw, you should read anything AJHall has ever written, she was so talented.
The Case of the Unwelcome Owl by FayJay. 7.1 K words. Gen. Crossover with Harry Potter. This is so much fun. Perfect blending of the two worlds.
"So," said John, feeling out of his depth once again. "An owl." It was the same mild, politely curious tone of voice with which he had previously found himself uttering such things as: "So – three bags of frozen AB negative," and "So – a selection of human ears."
"Goodness, John, with deductive prowess like that you'll soon be putting me in the shade," Sherlock said tartly. "Can't sneak anything past you, can we?" FayJay also podficced her own story, and thank God she did. How can one single person be so talented?!?
If you need to read only one fic, this should be it: The Least of All Possible Mistakes by@rageprufrock.ao3 If ever a people deserved tasering, it’s Holmeses. It's a freaking novel (almost 120K words), and it's the whole series written from the point of view of a genderswapped Instpector Lestrade, George. I inevitably picture her as an older, British version of George from Dead Like Me and it works. Technically it's Lestrade/Mycroft but there's John/Sherlock too. But it's not a shippy fic. It's a love letter to London written by someone who doesn't live there but clearly loves it. It's also the story of a woman in the police force. It's amazing. It can be read if you don't know the canon. GO READ IT! or better yet, listen to Lazulus's amazing podfic, another all time favourite of mine.
The Pitt
you need it shouted by oonabashed Mel/Langfdon, explicit, 5.8K words. Mel King isn't used to being the impatient one in her relationships. This was one of the first explicit, smutty fics I've read for this pairing and I still think it's one of the hottest and with the best Mel characterisation. Many authors write Mel as sexually inexperienced or even a virgin, and foten do a fantastic job of it, it's a dynamic that plays beautifully with fanon Frank, but to me the depiction in this fic sounds more plausible. Also, I think this fic is a bit of a hidden gem among the many, many, great stories for this pairing and it's criminally underrated. It needs more hits and kudso, people!
cheerful