Challenge 80: Yuletide 2011 | The Sun Always Shines in Sweet Valley by nic

[luxken27]

Fandom Category: Sweet Valley High
Pairing: Lila Fowler/Bruce Patman
Fic Title: The Sun Always Shines in Sweet Valley
Author: nic
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/297470
Rating/Warning(s): T (none)
Genre: Angst
WIP?: No - 4,592 words (oneshot)

Why This Must Be Read: Because there isn't enough SVH fanfic in this world. Because the author took my humble request for awesome Lila fic and totally knocked it out of the park. This is classic Sweet Valley at its finest, taking a glance at post-high school Lila Fowler as she drifts through a restless summer without her best friends, looking for the perfect distraction ~ only to find it in the form of Bruce Patman, who makes her an offer she can't refuse.

Challenge 80: Yuletide 2011 - how we spin (and spin) by anonymous (G)

[slr2moons.livejournal.com]

Fandom Category: The Cutting Edge
Pairing: Kate Moseley/Douglas Dorsey
Fic Title: how we spin (and spin)
Author: anonymous
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2011/works/301274
Rating/Warning(s): G
Genre: Romance
WIP?: No, oneshot at 2,428 words

Why This Must Be Read: This was one of my favorite movies as a teenager, and I was so happy to revisit Kate and Doug during my Yuletide reading. This fic is a lovely series of vignettes featuring the couple and how they try to be together off the ice. Kate is prickly, Doug is adorkable in love, and they go bowling. Kate in a bowling alley. Priceless. ^^

Challenge 80: Yuletide 2011 | I Move in Circles Round You by Lady Anne Boleyn

[luxken27]

Fandom Category: Instant Star
Pairing: Jude Harrison/Tommy Quincy
Fic Title: I Move in Circles Round You
Author: Lady Anne Boleyn
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/300044
Rating/Warning(s): T (none)
Genre: Drama/Romance
WIP?: No - 7,935 words (oneshot)

Why This Must Be Read: "He can hear her smiling, and he thinks about how loving someone is like being blind. When you can't see them anymore, you learn to tell everything you need to know just from the sound of their voice."

This is one of the most amazing fanfics I've ever read, period. I'm a sucker for solid OTPs and reading about musicians doing what they do best, and this fic is full of both. Even better, the author has taken a much-reviled and cut-too-short series finale and shaped it into something beautiful.

Jude Harrison and Tommy Quincy have been in each others' orbits for five years, but they've never quite been able to get it together, and both be in a good place at the same time. The series ends on this sour note, and here we see what happens after - they fight, they separate, their work through their personal pain and sorrow and grow, as individuals and, eventually, as a couple. Both artists complete separate solo albums over the course of the story, and we see how their interactions inspire them both in unexpected ways.

The author goes the extra mile, sprinkling in bits of articles, Twitter battles, and late-night text conversations between the scenes, which fill in the cracks and round out the story, adding to the sense of isolation the characters feel as they struggle through their forced separation. It makes their reconnection all the sweeter, and brings them full circle, from raw anger and resentment to a new, quieter, more mature kind of love.

I could probably write more words than the author did in praise of this story ~ it's *that* amazingly good =)