寻觅你最明媚的四月天

Two recs:

1. For Regency that is not Heyer, this was pretty enjoyable.

Knaves' Wager by Loretta Chase
Lilith Davenant, has ample reason to detest Julian Wyndhurst, Marquess of Brandon: he's exactly the kind of man who hastened the demise of her profligate husband, and the debt he owed to Julian has forced her to an engagement with a wealthy suitor for the sake of supporting her beloved nieces and nephews. Besides that, Lord Julian somehow manages to ignite disturbing...feelings...she's never felt before! Lord Julian used his considerable skills and cunning in the war against Napoleon. Now he's obliged to use the same talents to save his young cousin from a disastrous marriage to a scheming mistress — who makes him a wager: If Julian can seduce the famously icy Lady Lilith Davenant, the lady will release his cousin from the engagement. But very quickly, Julian discovers Lilith's hidden warmth, kindness and humor. Will he be able to prove his heart to her before she learns of his recklessly shameless wager?

A bit the traditional storyline of "older, prudish, never known true passion woman" and "devilish, good for nothing, seductive but never known true love rake" butting heads and eventually (inevitably) falling in love, but the story has some highlights. Lilith's niece, Cecily, is a treasure, and one of my favorite parts of the book. Reminded me a bit of a Heyer heroine. Women have a surprisingly diverse range in the book, from Lilith and Cecily to their companion Emma and the ~schemeing French mistress~. Cecily has great girl friends! The scheming mistress is actually portrayed fairly sympathetically -- in that she has her own reasons for what she does and you almost can't fault her for them. If anyone's held responsible for the circumstances (the wager, the manipulation), it's her fool of a lover and Julian's pride. Lord Julian has a (frankly surprising) attitude towards society's treatment of women, possibly enlightened due to his acquaintance with Lilith.

The backstory for the characters and current plot is a bit thin, but the present storyline was fairly enjoyable anyway. I sort of enjoyed Lilith's icy "all quiver before me" reputation...but of course it was emblematic of her repressing feelings and never having truly experienced love or passion so meh. And of course the first dark handsome sexy stranger she encounters in the book was destined to be the guy she ends up with, but at least her reactions toward Julian were written believably. Good tension, sexual and otherwise. No full on sexy escapades, which I actually appreciate in my regency romances. It throws me a bit, I have to admit.

Really the cast of characters made this more fun, and the occasional chapter/segment from other POVs. Lord Julian's dumb but well meaning cousin is really a treat. So dumb. So well meaning.

Not quite Heyer-esque in the tangle of plot and characters, but approaching that, and fairly enjoyable for something that is similar. All too often when it strives for similarity and falls short, I'm more disenchanted and disappointed than not, so this was an enjoyable deviation.

2. A unicorn in the wild: 52,000+ word pretend boyfriends TOP/GD fic?!

The Great Pretender by Ruinwyn
TOP/GD, NC-17, 52,257 words
Seunghyun pretends to be Jiyong’s boyfriend. At least, he thinks he’s pretending.

So first of all: I can't believe this exists! Kpop fic over 10k is so rare! GTOP is so rare! It has pretend boyfriends, which is one of my favorite tropes of all time and one which I will never tire of. Amazing. Please be good, I thought fervently.

It's not bad. It's quite readable. And, yep, I will never get tired of pretend dating/fake boyfriends as a plot device. There was reasonable characterization I would buy -- the GTOP interactions were good and I liked that they had club friends outside of Big Bang because, let's be honest, the Taeyang and Daesung don't really do that scene much, and Seungri has his own friends. I really liked the cute side of Jiyong -- it's the side you really see off-stage in variety shows where he's constantly enveloped in fits of giggles. I liked TOP being hot but lazy, prone to being late, both pleased and embarrassed when girls are constantly flocking to him confessing that he's their favorite.

That said, there were a few things I wished had been different: a little more of Jiyong's stage persona making an appearance, more of his interest in bizarre fashion and high price labels, better GDYB relations, more Daesung (does he have any speaking lines?), and the correction of a couple homophone typos. But what really gave me pause were all the Western references in the fic: the party games, the music, the movies. I get that Korea, and these dudes in particular, are probably pretty Westernized, but I just have a hard time imagining TOP listening to Pink Floyd while moping, given that is almost 100% not what he associates with brooding over relationships, growing up the way he did. Blockbuster movies from Hollywood? Yeah, totally buy it. Spin the Bottle, even forgiven as a plot device? Ehhh...

But if you can swallow a few misfired cultural references, overall it's a really enjoyable pretend boyfriends fic with pining and jealousy and gradual realizations, and highlights the great GTOP friendship. Also it's hot -- but I'll be honest with you, sometimes my eyes just glaze over extended sex scenes when it's meant to be the "payoff" to 10 chapters of pining rather than when it's integral to the character or plot development.

Overall: would read again! 52k GD/TOP pretend boyfriends fic? My life needed it.

Free-floating through fandom, I've been reading BL manga lately and I promised I'd make some recs, so this is a rec post! Those marked with * are WIPs. :( They will be the death of me.

My favorite BL series tend to fall into two broad categories: (1) gradual development of relationship skewing towards realistic portrayal of genuine trust and affection or (2) ridiculous hilarious completely divorced from reality stories that hit all my id kinks :D Then, of course, the ones that fall in-between.

( I have recs for all three categories and lots of babbling. )

Check some out if you have time? Rec me some of your favorites? Everything ends in question marks??? The proper way to mourn MU is through sharing, obviously, because sharing is caring.

(01) So...not so much on trusting New Zealand sites anymore. The host site for my travel blog has apparently been suspended? I think I may have lost all of my 35 posts...those insightful, thoughtful posts! Some with pictures even. :( ETA: Blog back up! Thank goodness, NZ.

(02) In other news: I have a recs journal! compartmental for my personal biased recs of fic, songs, books, dramas, etc. Updated whenever I feel like reccing. (Though I suppose I should add the disclaiemr that most of the fic I'll be reccing will be, surprise surprise, Super Junior.) There are a few things up there right now and I should be adding some others fairly soon. So take a look, feel free to friend or bookmark or totally ignore at your leisure.

(Will still be posting to bulchibyung - though many of the fic recs may well just be crossposted.)

(03) So really the main thrust of this post is that I was reading an amazing fic last night, full of amazing characterization and relationship development and depth of feeling, and generally made of amazing - and in the end, I thought of this fic, and that is what broke me.

Not because the first fic wasn't amazing (it was), but because there is something particularly special about Kihae for me.

( And because Mei likes to meta and talk too much, she thought she'd try to analyze or summarize it. Feel free to ignore for heavily biased shipping bias. )



CRYING SO THIS IS LIKE A THREE PAGE ESSAY ON WHY MEI IS CRAZY (FOR KIHAE). Oh god, I never wanted to be this kind of fangirl alksdjfld. I promise, promise, I'm not really. It's not so much them that makes me love them (though...in a way it is), it's just the way their love story would work.

OTL Please let me know if you see the distinction I'm trying to make. In this incoherent rambling.

Happy birthday, Sungmin~! ♥

This is my STAR KING REC POST:

Star King is a Korean television show kind of like America's Got Talent--it showcases random people with random talents, often kids or groups. It's ten times funnier than the US version because the Korean audiences react and Korean television has a tendency of bringing celebrities onto the show to serve as audience and to interact with competitors. Super Junior, for example. It makes for some hilarious moments, if only to watch the celebrities' reactions to these talents. Oh, there's another way it differs from America's Got Talent--most of the people on the show? Have talent. They don't make the audition cut otherwise, unlike in the US where you get weird old men doing yoga or weird ladies trying to talk to birds. Star King is one of the best shows in Korea because I can watch it without having to understand much Korean at all, wahaha. Also, it's hosted by Kang Ho Dong, whom I love, because he is incredibly funny and also host to Yashimmanman, another of my favorite shows.

This show is pretty much Made of Awesome. Korean audiences have the best reactions. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS.

( Recs under cut. )

Now for the obligatory fic recs:

( 10 SuJu fic recs under here. )

I also wrote 10 new drabbles here. Covering the following fandoms: Super Junior, Death Note, PoT, Ouran, Hikago, Legal Drug, Naruto, and Good Omens.

Whew! What a round-up. Good start to 2008, I think. :D Also, I'm kind of thinking of making a "Director's Cut" of my huge KangTeuk fic, just so I can talk about it and meta and random stuff. Is anyone interested? Does it matter? I will probably do it for my own entertainment, hah.

Every few months, I realize I've accumulated way too much crap I want to share and fangirl with people, so I make a giant rec post. This is everything (I've remembered) since the last post in July! (Well, technically, there were two. There was the pre-DH release multi-fandom rec post and the post-DH fic and meta rec post.)

This time around:
07 Big Bang
10 Harry Potter
01 Heroes
02 JE
01 Naruto
34 Super Junior
01 Supernatural
03 Miscellaneous
59 TOTAL

...over which half are SuJu. ::facedesk:: WELL, IT'S MY NEW THING. I-I AM EASILY DISTRACTED BY THE (YEARS OF) SHINY. Don't judge me. D: I have a lot to catch up on.

( BIG BANG: i'm so sorry but i love you )

( HARRY POTTER: and slytherin loved those of great ambition )

( HEROES: i can't wait another minute )

( JE: she said never look back )

( NARUTO: i just wanna be with you now )

( SUPER JUNIOR: when i see you, my heart skips a beat )

( SUPERNATURAL: love is the greatest thing )

( MISCELLANEOUS: is there anyone out there, 'cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe )

Note: I will still fail at comments because I should be writing an essay about Burma/Myanmar (fuckfuckfuckityfuck), but, um. Please enjoy these! :D