J2 Rec

[twasadark]

A couple of weeks ago my lovely flisty juice817 posted about the publication of her novel Winner Takes All, a well written, steamy, completely delicious m/m fic.  Since reading that I've been looking for original m/m to enjoy and let me tell you, it's not easy to find.  I finally decided just to delve into the countless pages worth of J2 AU fic that's out there, since in my mind it's pretty much original fic with Jared and Jensen playing the roles of original characters ... sort of like they are playing movie roles.  Anyhow, I just read the following and it's just incredible.

Ashes of the Moon by corbyinoz   Rating: NC17; Word count: 42,000.  One of last year's Big Bangs, this story is vivid and heartbreaking and all around gripping.  Well written and just the right length, you will truly feel like you've been on a journey after you've read it.  The contradictions that is Africa - beautiful and tragic - shine through.  This is a dark story with the silver lining of love and sacrifice to make it an all around satisfying read.
Author's summary: Jared Padalecki, an inexperienced and uncertain young man, is sent to Kibilisa, Africa, to work for his church. Less than a month later the country is torn apart by civil war. Alone in charge of a group of children, he despairs of surviving – until he meets a mysterious man named Jensen Ackles who seems to know the country and the language. Their journey together will bring them terror, pain, horror and the deepest grief; but also friendship, self-sacrifice, love and redemption.

Comments

[cantarina]

I've heard really amazing things about this story, but haven't gotten to reading it yet. Thanks for the reminder.

Enjoy the field of J2 AU! There's such stunning work out there and some truly fantastic world-building in some cases. (I'm a sucker for good world building, every time.)

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it!

And I adore world building as well. Any chance you have a delicious account with stories you rec? I usually find fics by trolling recs ...

[cantarina]

I do now! I've been meaning to dump my bookmarks into a delicious account, so this was a good excuse. You should be able to filter it to just AU fic, which are the overwhelming majority anyway (definitely my preference). They're here.

I like aldehyde's recs as well.

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

OMG!! Thank you SO much!! I'm totally bookmarking this to come back to again and again. YAY!!

[cantarina]

You're very welcome! There's so much good stuff out there that I just wish there was time to read it all!

There are some awesome recs thanks to last fall's Amplirecathon too. I found quite a lot of good stories through that. (Also: pretty much anything juice817 reads.)

[standing-fic.livejournal.com]

found this via the newsletter; honey. read it. drop everything and read it. it's absolutely incredible; the relationship corby establishes will break your brain, it's so good.

i screamed in the car and had to pull over while reading it at a stoplight on my blackberry. there aren't enough words to explain it's greatness!

[cantarina]

So that was pretty fantastic. I kept having to pause in my reading just to react. Thanks for the push!

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it! It's so amazing to find awesome writing, isn't it?