#fic reviews

[tangerinepiee]

Love and deepspace fic recs

LADS multi character (seperate) Xavier Zayne Rafayel Sylus Caleb

[ellabscrush]

bia’s favorite fics / drabbles . ₊౨ৎ

warning; some of these are wholesome.. but not all ifykyk

» off to the races by angvlita - two parts

SO GOOD!! correct me if i’m wrong; but it’s so gossip girl coded but ellabs. i love their writing style as well so it’s just very easy to read & clean, if that makes sense lols.

» sidelines by williamssgirl - on going

bruhh i love fics that has a reader spends time at a summer house w two childhood bsfs storyline. and this is ellabs?? question mark?? anyways. i still am so intrigued w how this story is going either way & i can’t wait for more.

» all mine by snowyvee - on going

i actually started this last night and i’m on chapter four (latest release) i love angst and college drama stories so this definitely has it.. maybe i cried??

» coffee beans by reclinepilled

100% recommend for any barista ellie stans. the most wholesome thing i’ve read and so real because i would imagine this is how ellie & jesse would act like irl lmaoo.

» birthday girl ellabs x reader by lynnielovestlou

another ellabs smut bc why not. y’all know me by now hehe.

» the perfect fit by atomicami

OMLL. SO HOT. SO HOT. i think i’ve read this 5 times because the way they described abby in this is so perfect. i would’ve never thought about model abby and i’m so glad this storyline exists.

» one of your girls by lovelettersfromluna - two parts?

this is so- omg. i love cam girl ellie so much and ohh the writing is so good. ik i say this alot but this is one of my favs fics and the best thing is that there is another part LMAO.

more coming…

[mpreg-movement]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51156817

10/10. mpreg

[ren-rambles-often]

"Love, or Something Ignites" might just be the best goyuu fic ever!!! let me explain!!! (Thoughts and Review)

Some quick context but cuz this review was already going to be pretty long without my flashback sequence so pls scroll down to the red text if you don't want to hear my history of opinions with JJK and its ships.

I've been deep in the goyuu tag since the beginning of the year, which I found kind of strange at first since I watched S1 way back in 2022 and did not give much of af about the whole show.

I kicked my feet a bit at SukuFushi,  tried to like it more, and even searched out a couple of fics but they just weren't giving AT ALL.

At the start of 2023 I watched jjk 0 and I was kinda hyped to get back into the show, but my shipping heart still ached for something to latch onto so I went on AO3 and picked up the first fic I found. Surprise, surprise, it was a goyuu fic featuring role reversal. I wouldn't say I liked it but it did tickle something in my brain I would have explored if I wasn't neck deep in my bakudeku era at the time.

Then S2 happened and it all just sorta clicked for me. Before then I'd mainly been a SukuIta believer, I didn't frequent their fics but I DID gobble up their twincest doujins like I was starved when I had the time. 2nd cour of S2 coming out practically sealed Goyuu for me, I'd always felt there was a bit of something I saw between them but Yuuji screaming out for Gojo in that last frame...just...*chef's kiss*

I didn't go back to rewatch S1 where a majority of their reactions were like some diehard fans would but the clips and screencaps I've come across now and again are enough to solidify for me that yes! They are made for each other!! (Hope the wrong stsg fans don't find this ◉‿◉)

I'd really love to go on and on about their dynamic but this was supposed to be about my February fic of the month, "Love, or Something Ignites" by lainebee.

Like I said, I've been deep in the tags and the only others I think that come close to this one are "No Sanctuary" by eddie01 and both world's sequels.

Now I'm not saying there aren't other good ones, like I'm just halfway through the hundred and something AO3 pages of their ship tag, so there's a lot I've yet to see. Still, this is a sorta subjective review and I just hope to spread the word of this masterpiece and maybe meet others who've read it so we can fan together in the comments.

(Now that's all out of the way, there will be mild spoilers and also warnings for; omegaverse, mpreg, and voyeurism so let's hop to it (✿^‿^)

The fic is set in a historical Japan au where Yuuji and Sukuna are brothers, with Sukuna being much older and ruling over a kingdom in the south. Thing is, he's constantly at war with the Gojo clan cuz these two mfs are just built like that in every verse. Shit happens and they come to a truce and as a sign of goodwill Sukuna offers Yuuji, his recently presented omega brother, as a gift (I honestly thought Yuuji was like 16 or 17 but he's 19 so like whatever idc (╥﹏╥)

"So what's the problem?" you might ask, well aside from the obvious marriage of convenience plot, Gojo doesn't give a fuck, he's still hung up on Geto (kinda tho, it's complicated but they aren't in love) and he's pretty much intended to go through it for show.

But that's not the end; not only do our boys have no feelings for each other and have never even met, but THING IS... Sukuna has demanded a public consummation cuz he's a bastard like that and we love him for it. Worry not there's no fucking on a stage for everyone to watch...just fucking in a 'room' for a handful of witnesses to watch from behind those dresser screen things (vocab not working lol).

The fic is definitely kinda long and tho there are some slow-burn vibes a lot of it essentially takes place in ONE FUCKING DAY. My first assumptions going into this were, "pacing issues???" and "oh the author is going to either insta love them, make them fuck and spend the rest of the fic doing fluff, or they will fuck with some angst then spend the rest falling in love."

Color me surprised when yeah, they did fuck but that was one or two chapters from the last of about nine.

You expect this kind of shit to feel rushed as fuck but the writing is so fucking divine that you never feel like putting it down. There's always so much going on but time is never wasted dwelling on one subject for too long, it's fast, it's funny, and the characters and setting are constantly giving the energy you know and love from the original show but probably two times better.

One of the things I noticed a few GoYuu writers struggle with is accurately reflecting Gojo cuz he's actually an enigma and arguably one of the most complex characters in the show with a broad range of emotions. He doesn't particularly fit one kind of vibe whereas for everyone else you can pick one or something close to it. Gojo on the other hand goes from one end of the spectrum to the other pretty quickly and that's super hard to capture and explore, especially when it comes to the shorter smutty fics (Not complaining too much tho, I live for the E rating.)

I love the direction the author chose to go with him, and it feels so true to his character, his immature but his teasing doesn't feel over the top or come off as exaggerated. His status as the strongest is just told but shown to us with the way he behaves and I like that we get instances of him getting work done despite knowing he's a rebel. It reminds us that yeah, he's working to make the clan the way he wants but he's just going along with what he has to in true Gojo fashion.

Yuuji, is totally something else, it's implied that he actually killed people...and I don't think we got a paragraph of him feeling guilt over it but that's somewhere toward the end so forget it. Yuuji is the absolute sweetest here and I adore every scene he's in along with how bratty he tends to be with Gojo. It's not frequent and most of the time he's pretty respectful but when he's not...Yeah. His inner thoughts and his conversations with most of the other characters really bring life to the story and you literally feel you're right there with him through it all.

Then there's the smut...oh. my. fucking. GOD. It's absolutely delicious. If you were iffy about it being omegaverse, I beg you to actually consider it cuz all probably more than four thousand words of it are fucking precious.

I had no idea I'd be into sex with some commentary when I began reading but the conversation from the characters picked was spot on and even added to the spicyness.

My favorite part is when Yuuji moans like a fucking pornstar and the zenin guy (forgot his disgusting ass name) goes "The boy is a whore."

Like boohoo bitch just say you wish you were getting all that, I wish I was (╥﹏╥)

If you're still iffy about the Omegaverse trust me it's not that big of a deal, the focus is mainly on Gojo and Yuuji trying to find some mutual ground to get on so the consummation isn't fucking awkward but by talking, joking, and getting to know each other something even more starts to blossom.

There are definitely traces of insta love but I personally see it as a weird mixture of attraction and possessiveness but this book is just like the prelude to the main course which is the second part in the series which I'm not done with yet but fucking hell...all the intrigue and tension that you will find in Love, or Something Ignites, gets doubled with more angst and mystery in the second fic, along with goyuu being stupid as well as stupidly in love.

So give it a try, and if you have, let me know what you think. I'd usually say where the tiny flaws are but for this book there are none...unless you count Yuta being Maki's mate instead of Rika's but that's my personal hill to die on. Let me know if there's a fic you want me to write about and I'll maybe get to it

Well, that's all from me today, it's 3 am and I'm fucking exhausted.

[cressthebest]

“Art Heist, Baby!” my thoughts

Chapter 1 thoughts

1. IS JAMES NOT ALREADY FRIENDS WITH SIRIUS????

i just assumed that in any universe, james and sirius were best friends. and i’m sure they will be, but starting by the fic without that was HEARTBREAKING

2. James loving regulus’s french accent and already being a simp. jesus he’s pathetic.

3. ✨✨coffee shop remus✨✨

chapter 2 thoughts:

1. remus telling james he’s going to be murdered is so real. (and the free coffee cause he’s gonna die 😭😭)

2. “of course he was named after a star, he was ethereal” JAMES IS ALREADY IN LOVE WITH REGULUS. i love them so much

3. james has a gun to his goddamn head and still is waxing poetic about how pretty regulus looks. i need me a simp of a man like that.

4. i’m really worried about remus now. not about his safety, but i’m worried he will have a lack of a role in the story. and i love him, so he needs to be in this story more, i’m praying.

chapter 3 thoughts:

1. okay, i’m less worried about remus. remus is going on holiday too for a bit, so of course they’re in the heist together. this is a good day. a very good day for me.

2. james wants to tell remus about the jet but can’t 😭😭. they’re best friends your honor

3. LITERALLY SOBBING!!! REMUS IS HERE. MY BABIES!!!! REMUS LOML IS PART OF THE HEIST. HES SO SNARKY ABOUT IT TOOO PLSSSSS <33333

4. all of them are perfect for their jobs. lily and mary being artists and conservators is literally so them 😭😭. and peter being a doctor works so well!! just everyone’s jobs!! ♥️♥️♥️.

5. ☹️ where is sirius black?? he’ll be around soon tho, i see his name in the tags.

[sweat-peas]

so the most recent fics I’ve read on my kindle are the first two parts of the time has come today series by teen_dean (@urne-buriall on tumblr I think). and these are so good. I’ll elaborate more in my fic review but I am excited to share the cover I developed for my kindle collection because I really enjoyed going through different iterations of this cover. I’m just posting the cover I landed on for now, but I think I will share some of the other iterations which include design choices that I cut and edited at length(in another post or reblog later).

Fic review, cover design notes and a small disclaimer under the page break:)

fic review: I’m not always one to love casefics, watching cases passively on screen is one thing, but I can’t always immerse myself in a case to keep interest. I’m more one for character dynamics and the dynamics here are so interesting and introspective and funny I can’t get enough.

When it comes to the characterizations the author really nails it too. They are so close to canon that when I inevitably dissociate from atmospheric chemistry seminars and start thinking about supernatural, I can’t remember if something happened in their fic or on screen. I love these characters and teen_dean obviously does too because they treat their characterization so carefully. The cover I designed references scenery and plot points related to the case part of the fic, but I wish I could have incorporated the deep and thoughtful character analysis that is part of this fic.

And the imagery, particularly the west coast imagery, is. so. good. Very rarely am ever I struck with the desire to draw imagery described in writing, but it struck me at multiple times throughout this. most noteably the cas in the orchard paragraph highlighted in one of my pics towards the end of young hearts (will it be my first castiel fan art??? I certainly hope so.) chef’s kiss.

I really thought I would take a break after finishing young hearts, but I wasn’t ready to not know what happened to teen dean and past-cas in the next fic so I’m reading the rules of have changed today now and I have no regrets.

some notes on the cover design: I’m not sure this translates to the end result, but the glowing text of the title/author/everything-else was meant to represent the flickering lights of neon signage you might see in a dive bar. The description of Schaffer’s bar at the beginning and end of the first part is rich and another example of really capturing the feeling of canon (which I should mention is something the author does really well through scenery too). I don’t think I necessarily got the colors right (I initially imagined a larger color palette), but I’m feeling pretty good about the glowing aspect of it. In a print book format, I’d like all of the red to be metallic embossed.

Its very faint, but I included the silhouette of a mountainscape with silhouettes of dark watchers watching in the background. I think you have to zoom in to see them though. So I included a zoomed in image of two of the dark watchers. See if you can spot the other two!!

The last thing I wanted to mention is that I know arimaspians are typically one-eyed (on their heads). I took a creative liberty and put an eye on the hand.

lastly, a disclaimer: I know that teen_dean already has a cover and print typeset for their fic on their page. I just wanted to add my creative twist on it for my kindle collection and wanted to share it with you all :’). I should say explicitly that this was not designed in communication with the fic author. I do not take any credit for the fic (credit to the story goes to the author and characters to the cw). if teen_dean comes across this I especially hope they enjoy it<3, but if for any reason you (teen_dean/urne-buriall) don’t want to be associated with this cover, please contact me and I will take this down.

[kauvvauk]

Hi Kenway,

Hope you’re having a great day! I just wanna drop by and say a few nice things on your previous work « Watch These Hands ». It’s so utterly inspiring and unforgettable like a good tale from an old friend, which makes me wonder how wonderful this writer would be & how much effort they have put into.

One thing of this fandom got me is that people rarely came to the realization that Aiden is a person who would need both friend moments and family/romantic connections. And I’m so happy you were the one to capture it. Well done.

Oh and you got my attention on ASL too since one of my fav food truck owners happens to be a nice lady with same issues. I was kinda nervous interacting with her since I wasn’t sure how to interact with her but I want to be polite so every time I just point out the food I want and leave silently. 🥹I know this ain’t much but your work enables me to see more from a new perspective. 🙏

Sorry for chatting so much and thanks for reading this. I wish the best of you.

I was honestly saving this message cause I received it on a very bad day and it made me feel a little lighter. Thank you so much for all your kind words and feedback, it means so much to me! I haven’t written much in years and don’t check my AO3 often so I never know if anything gets traction unless someone sends me a message or I get an email alert about kudos. 🥹 Folks often don’t realize how much characters like Aiden need care in all facets, especially when they carry themselves as gruff lone-wolf types who don’t need any help or support. (That’s the trauma, babe! Go talk to a loved one!) You know, for a long time I was writing a multi-chapter story based on “Watch These Hands” — then I ended up altering it significantly to turn it into a novel. I stopped writing that, too, and I’m not sure if I’ll go back to it — at least, not the way it is now. It would need a ton of rewriting. Anyway, I’m rambling. Thank you so very much.

I do want to say that, regarding your favorite food truck lady, it is always SO lovely to have people approach us Deaf folks accommodatingly and kindly. It honestly doesn’t happen much so when it does it’s like a breath of fresh air. If you found a way to pick up a few signs to communicate with her, I’m sure she would be overjoyed.

Have a wonderful day, and thank you so much again for brightening my day when you sent this message and every day since then that I’ve been holding onto it.

🤟🏼