I read a lengthy anonymous review book this month, so my other reading was a bit sparse!
Fiction:
A Dream Defiant by Susanna Fraser is a short historical romance that I’ve been meaning to read for literally years. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it features a black British soldier, Elijah, and a white cook, Rose, whose husband is killed unexpectedly. Of course Elijah has long harbored a crush on Rose, and of course Rose admires Elijah, because there is not a lot of wordcount in this story. I liked the thoughtful resolution in which they return to England and figure out how they’re going to fit into the village where she was born, and with her dead husband’s family.
Fanfiction:
How to Be a Superhero by turningterrific used the recent James Bond movies as canon for a lighthearted Bond/Q romance that involves World of Warcraft and Q’s small nephew. It was really sweet, which I did not expect from the previous couple of times I’d stuck my toe into this fandom, via a friend’s recommendations.
Laid Bare by sixbeforelunch is a Star Trek: the Next Generation story focusing on Counselor Troi, as she tries to figure out a mental issue that is plaguing the ship’s Vulcan population. I enjoyed this a lot, both the mystery itself and how the daily business of a ship’s counselor was described. TW for Original Character death and child endangerment.
Something Like This by emmagrant01 is an epic Check Please! novel with excellent original characters and a couple of romances and parental relationships and hockey. Star NHL rookie Jack Zimmerman’s anxiety is realistically treated in the way it affects his hockey, his feelings for his college friend Eric Bittle, and everything else. Highly recommended.
If you have never read the comic, here is the link: Check Please! It’s a fun and easy read. Plus there is a lot of good fanfiction.
The Kinder Thing by stele3 is a Captain America and Bucky plotty slash story with a twist I had not seen before! Ever! It involves time travel, and post-Endgame Cap with nineteen-year-old Bucky. I will not spoil it further, because I found the twists delightful.
The Violet Hour by breathedout is a Sherlock slash casefic AU set in the 1920s. Holmes and Watson meet several members of the Bloomsbury crowd including Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, and Vanessa Bell. Watson’s war was of course World War One. I would happily read more set in this world.
