17 entries? Boggles the mind. AND I have only EIGHT STORIES LEFT. I might yet get to finish them before the new ones come out!

On Edge by T.C. Blue: A really, really interesting take on a high-school/college frenemies story. I can’t…I don’t think there’s anything I can say without spoiling it, but damn it was unexpected and awesome.

Cataclysmic Evolution by Alicia Nordwell: This one pretty much pegged every sci-fi genre ever in one fic (minus wars, I suppose). It was definitely a journey tale, rather than a plot one (it’s not where you go, it’s about the journey). I enjoyed it, but the end I believe the best way to describe it is to say that I bought the end, but I did not pay very much for it. Which was on the sad sad side of things, because the science up until then had been pretty damn sound. The romance was sweet, though, and the science aspect of it intriguing at first.

Jagged Rock by Willow Scarlett: This started as a college/band fic, then turned into a college/band fic, that starts with high school flashbacks. And then morphed into a college/band fic that was actually a high school fic, with werewolves. And even then I wasn’t opposed to it, but there were lots of weird little things (does Minnesota have mountains? Has the author ever actually taken a picture? Would anyone really hug a wild wolf on a first date? Even if they didn’t know it was a date, and the other guy said it was okay?) that built up and up until I realized I could go read something better.

See You Smile by Dawn Sister: So, you know those high-school romance fics, the ones that are written in first-person, with a narrator best described as a fluff-headed imbecile? Where the narrator coos, squees, salivates over hot guys, has few to no redeeming traits, and will unexpectedly wander into talking about chickens taking over the world? This seemed to be one of those fics. Except the narrator was supposed to be FORTY-FIVE YEARS OLD. Yeah. So. I got about 3% of the way through that.

Where Willows Won’t Grow by Lia Black: This was almost a random and fun sci-fi fuck-fest (don’t you love those?), but with a bit too much rape and horrible things to make it a truly guilt-free sci-porn experience. BUT, it was really good. Satisfying. I don’t know if anyone else has a similar experience, but sometimes, when I read stories about the horrible, horrible aspects of human nature (well…usually it’s non-human demons/aliens/whateverians representing human nature allegorically), I leave them with a surprising hope and love for humanity. I don’t quite understand it (“Sure every character in this book was raped horribly, but aren’t humans wonderful?”), but this was one of those stories. So it’s not a light anything, but it’s also curiously uplifting in its darkness.