Multifandom Het Recs

Ah, here is the last of my special recs for August.  I apologize for the lateness and cut it down to 21 but tried to keep a variety of fandoms and ships at least.  I'm glad I got to share some of my favorites!

Fandom Category: Downton Abbey
Pairing: Mary Crawley/Matthew Crawley
Fic Title: You & Me of the 10,000 Wars
Author: allthingsholy
Link: http://allthingsholy.livejournal.com/158762.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG-13 (R in later chapters)
Genre: Drama, Romance
WIP?: Yes

Special Rec: 16/21

Why This Must Be Read: This is a modern AU where Downton Abbey becomes Downton Industries.  There are only two chapters thus far (out of a projected four), but I’m already completely taken by this author’s absolutely brilliant characterization of Mary -- a woman who can play the part of the perfect, proper eldest daughter to the tee when needed but also rejects the role, a woman who in one sense loves the glamour of the lifestyle she leads even as she cannot bear its superficiality.  Everyone else is also thoughtfully portrayed, and the writer has creatively and smoothly adapted Downton Abbey to the 21^st century.

I apologize that I have been so terrible at staggering these fics. :/ I have them all compiled, and will be sure to get them all out this last week of August. 

Fandom Category: A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones
Pairing: Brienne of Tarth/Jamie Lannister
Fic Title: lions for lambs
Author: honey_wheeler
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/260669
Rating/Warning(s): M; explicit sex; spoilers through A Storm of Swords
Genre: Romance, Smut
WIP?: No

Special Rec: 11/21

Why This Must Be Read: This is an absolutely brilliant and thoughtful characterization of Jaime and the way he sees Brienne.  Love and lust, affection and desire all mix together perfectly in this fic.

There is no yielding here, no soft surrender. She loves like she fights: fiercely, deliberately, whole-heartedly. She shares none of Cersei’s womanly affectations, none of her prettiness. Brienne grunts where Cersei would have moaned, hisses where Cersei would have sighed.

Fandom Category: That ‘70s Show
Pairing: Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde
Fic Title: Outside Looking In
Author: rebeldivaluv
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2674709/1/Outside_Looking_In
Rating/Warning(s): T
Genre: Romance, Humor
WIP?: Yes

Special Rec: 6/21

Why This Must Be Read: There are plenty of fanfics out there that deal with the mess that was made of Jackie and Hyde in Season 8 with the whole stripper-marriage fiasco, but this is definitely one of the best, and is creatively and thoughtfully done through interconnected vignettes told from the POV of all our favorite characters.  Humorous and heartwarming by turns, you’ll want to read it alone for what is easily one of the best-written (if not the best) Jackie/Hyde weddings -- which is told in a highly amusing yet surprisingly touching manner through the eyes of Eric of all people.

Fandom Category: The Black Donnellys
Pairing: Jenny Reilly/Tommy Donnelly
Fic Title: Hold Their Heads Heavy
Author: bittersweet_99
Link: http://donnellysfic.livejournal.com/10626.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG-13
Genre: Angst
WIP?: No; One-Shot

Special Rec: 2/21

Why This Must Be Read: Short but compelling; each sentence packs a punch and captures the darkness and heaviness of the show and this relationship wonderfully.

She knows he's been dead for longer than anyone will say, and the knowledge that it could have been Tommy's hands, his arms, working to stuff him in the oil drum gnaws at her, waking her up at night. It wasn't Tommy, but it makes no difference all the same. The point is it could've been him, and now it is.

Fandom Category: The Black Donnellys
Pairing: Jenny Reilly/Tommy Donnelly
Fic Title: white knuckled (singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart)
Author: falseeeyelashes
Link: http://falseeeyelashes.livejournal.com/64580.html
Rating/Warning(s): Hard R / explicit violence and sex
Genre: Angst
WIP?: No; One-Shot

Special Rec: 3/21

Why This Must Be Read: Gorgeous in a harsh, rough, and unforgiving kind of way.  It’s love, hate, lust, violence, sex, passion, and murder presented in a hard-hitting, fragmented work of utter genius.

Once there was a time when Jenny Reilly was called the reigning bad influence in Tommy Donnelly’s life.

(Read: Catholic school and rosary prayers and stolen pints of beer with someone else’s name on them. Read: long, long legs wrapped around his lean, skinny body – first kisses with too much tongue and learning in quick, shaky gasps what it feels like when it’s someone else’s hand that’s making you come).

The nice thing about history is all that room for editing and modification – again and again and again, until, there: it sounds just about right.