Let's Go Round Again by Booster1 (PG-13)

Fandom: Buffy, Good Omens
Pairings/Characters: Anya, Aziraphale
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 734 for the original, 3,148 for the sequel
Author: Booster1
Website: Booster1 on Ff.net
Summary: Aziraphale's been hauled back to Heaven to help deal with the backlog of souls. His first case: Ms Anya Jenkins.
Why: I'm actually reccing both "Let's Go Round Again" and its sequel "Let's Go Round Again and Again and Again" because if you don't like the first, you definitely won't like the second, which stopped just short of pushing things too far for me, and probably will go a bit too far for some other people. The humor's kind of cracktastic in these, but I really like the idea of Aziraphale and Anya having this sort of face-off: Anya wants a good reincarnation, and Aziraphale wants Anya out of his hair. And then things just keep going wrong...The author shows a lot of creativity in the different reincarnations, and there are actually a lot more fandoms involved than the ones I've indicated, but figuring out where Anya's ended up now is part of the fun. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

Let's Go Round Again by Booster1
Let's Go Round Again and Again and Again by Booster1

Pro Bono by Puritybrown (NC-17)

Fandom: Firefly
Pairings/Characters: Zoë/Inara
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 2,561
Spoilers for: Serenity
Author: Puritybrown
Website: Whereof one can speak
Summary: Zoë says, "This is business, not personal."
Why: OK, so first of all, this story is hot. Second, I love the way that Puritybrown writes Zoë. The events of Serenity are recent, and seeing Zoë's emotions this way is a poignant reminder of what she had, what she lost, and what she still has. A beautiful story.

Pro Bono by Puritybrown

Mission Troublesome by Penelope-Z (PG-13)

Fandom: Naruto
Pairings/Characters: Shikamaru/Temari, Sasuke/Naruto
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 4,100
Author: Penelope-Z
Website: Penelope-Z on Ff.net
Summary: During a diplomatic mission to Suna, Naruto and Sasuke discovertheir hormones, the Kazekage discovers he is rather annoyed by thisdevelopment, Sai discovers dog curry and Shikamaru discovers he standsalone as the sole pillar of common sense, against the rest of theworld. While wearing Temari’s skirt.
Why: The summary pretty much says it all. Penelope-Z writes brilliant crack with one-liners that a lot of writers (like myself) would love to be able to produce. I laughed like crazy reading this. Definitely one of the best Naruto fics I've read recently.

Mission Troublesome by Penelope-Z

Coda to an Epilogue: Twenty Years Later, Or the Kids are All Right by Maya (PG)

Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings/Characters: Harry, Draco, Al, Scorpius, James, Rose
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 27,000
Spoilers for: DH
Author: Maya
Website: Sarah Rees Brennan - Into that world inverted
Summary: “I want to be absolutely clear on this,” Harry said. “You’re telling me that you lost my children in the sewers?”
Why: bibliokat actually brought this to my attention more than a month ago, but it's taken me this long to find the perfect time to read this. You see, I adore Maya's stories, and reading one of them is a huge treat. Once I start, the odds of being able to stop are always exceedingly low. They tend to disappear pretty fast that way, so I tease myself with them, resisting the urge to read until I just can't do it anymore. They are that good. And of course this one doesn't disappoint!

There are so many things to love about this story that I could spend forever going on about in an embarrassingly fangirlish fashion. However, the best thing for me was the way that Maya tied everything up so beautifully. I think this story story has given me the final closure I needed after the epilogue. I still don't like it, but my loathing is a distant thing now because without that epilogue, this story could not exist. Emotionally, this story is perfect, and even though it made me laugh a lot, it also made me think. It cleared up things that I wasn't even aware had bothered me before, like the treatment of the Slytherins and how they must have felt after everything was said and done. Like how Harry's doing with that whole parenting thing when he so obviously lacked a good example of just how to go about the whole thing. Like where Draco's wife when he's seeing Scorpius off to Hogwarts. There just aren't enough words to say how much I enjoyed this story.

Coda to an Epilogue: Twenty Years Later, Or the Kids are All Right by Maya