#cherryreads

For @gothyringwald’s brilliant  Harringrove Feedback Fest 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ORGANISING!) 

#1 Boss by @flippyspoon

(It has ERICA! Being amazing and sorting things out for Billy like the boss she is! Oh it’s funny and sweet and there’s BABYSITTER’S CLUB references! Utterly brilliant!)

A Clean Run by @mourntheantagonist

(Autocross rally car driving Billy. I LOVE that Billy has this whole other life that’s JUST his, and how he wants to introduce Steve to it. The perfect blend of fun, romance and (of course) a little hit of angst along the way!)

Baby, can you see through the tears? by @pretty-bratty

(Delicious BDSM fun, with a brilliantly bratty Steve and a Billy who knows when to give firmness and when he needs softness.

Billy Hargrove’s Exploration of Beauty (series) by @mourntheantagonist 

(Billy learning that he can be pretty and WANT to be pretty and Steve being so so good at helping him with it all. An utterly stunning series. I LOVE the chapters where we see Billy through other people’s eyes too, and see his found family growing, person by person🥰)

Billy Hargrove Needs A Nap by lilpeas

(Stunning. Touch starved Billy getting the sleep and the care and the love he needs. I can never look at cherry tomatoes without grinning now!)

Bruises on Both my Knees (For You) by @bentnotbroken1fanfiction

(Utterly delicious BDSM fic with SO MUCH heart)

Cherry by @lazybakerart 

(There aren’t enough words of praise for how much I adore this fic. The feelings it gives me, STILL gives me after multiple rereads. Love it. So much.)

Goodnight, Moon by @flippyspoon

(Billy and Steve solving their sleeping issues by sleeping with each other is a top tier trope AND it’s written by Flip- WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE? It’s cute and fluffy and soft and absolutely delightful.)

How Near You Stand To Me by @boudoirwriter

(Oh this is dark and delicious and the ANGST and the pain of both Billy and Steve is glorious. Heed the tags, because it does go to some dark places, but I am salivating with every update (one came out while I was at work and I holed up in the bathroom for half of my lunch break because I couldn’t wait to read it!))

lamp-bright rind by @nagdabbit

(Chef!Billy teaching Steve how to cook! Another one of those which has lodged into my heart (and I do think of it whenever I sharpen my knives!). Billy has the perfect amount of edge and attitude (but he’s so soft for Steve!) while Steve just can’t see how good and capable he actually is. Love it so much!)

night of the fuzzballs by @gothyringwald

(Gremlins-y critter horror that is SO DAMN delightful! I can see and hear this one so vividly, it feels EXACTLY like a Stranger Things Halloween Special episode!)

The Last Time In Hawkins by @callieb

(A gorgeously protective, brave Billy and the future he deserves. Beautiful writing.)

these arms of mine by @gothyringwald

(Billy and Steve and their own, very them prom night. So utterly perfectly romantic and OH I get tingles every time I reread it!)

Shaped Like Home by @kingsandsaints

(CHUBBY Steve! And such perfect dialogue and cooking lessons (I STILL think of ‘dusty boys’ whenever I use ground herbs!) and the hurt and angst that hits JUST right before we get some gorgeous comfort too. LOVE IT.)

Shelter (See Me Through) by @gypsymishka

(Hopper taking Billy in is trope I go WILD for, and it’s done SO WELL here. Billy’s pain and everything he’s suffered breaks my heart, but there is a strong undercurrent of love from Steve and Hop, and a real hope that things will get better for him soon.)

Switch Your Partner Round and Round by @platypanthewriter

(Body switching fun with some laugh out loud moments (And also some ‘my heart is breaking for both these boys’ moments too!) Pan writes with such a brilliantly engaging style and has so many wonderful ideas that I could rec SO MUCH of their stuff, so start with this and then check out the rest!)

Take Me Home Tonight by @prettyboyporter

(TEACHER FIC!! Yes!! Steve and Billy meeting again as teachers and getting to have the fun, cute friendship and relationship that they deserve, but still with that hint of high school rivalry! SUCH wonderful writing (because of COURSE! It’s Tee!) and oh some HOT HOT HOT moments too!)

The Sun is Up, The Sky is Blue by @prettyboyporter

For @gothyringwald‘s  Harringrove Feedback Fest

Starting with @aspartaeme MY BELOVED ghost bat Queen of Darkness who is probably dancing around in a meadow going full Kate Bush right now. She is one of those writers who is SO SO good that you wanna be jealous, but then you talk to them and realise how damn lovely they are and you just want MORE of what they have to offer- scraps of dialogue written on a Post-It; hints of a plot tapped out at 3am; the vaguest idea for an AU. EVERYTHING IS GOLD. But...let’s try and pick just a few. FIRST of all, I’m going to annoy her angsty heart entirely by reccing her fluffy bring your arms around me (fast) which has love notes and sick!fic moments and one of the best Robins I have ever read on top of a gloriously real and natural feeling Harringrove romance. Perfection. Then orange juice which has X-Files and 90s Steve being a priss and hot hot sex and a surprisingly sweet Billy and I CAN’T give too much away because you just need to lose yourself in this and feel it around you. And finally everything you own (in a little black case). It’s short but GOD there is so much packed in here. It hurts and then it heals and I read it with a song buzzing round my head and a warmth inside me and I want to cry with the depth of the feelings it leaves behind.  Like, this is not even 1.5k but she’s got into Billy and his depths and laid him out with everything exposed. Beautiful.

I could easily rec EVERYTHING by @passivenovember Every single line she writes has me either gasping with how beautiful it is or giggling at how perfectly she’s captured Billy or Steve’s dialogue, and that’s BEFORE I even get started on how brilliantly she writes kid!fic which is my ultimate weakness. Oh I will yell FOREVER about how good Jaz’s fics are because she shines so brightly and deserves to have everyone see how amazing she is! BUT, for this, I’m gonna narrow it down to: One that broke my heart (Super Dark Times), One that fixed it back up (I Know Why the Bird Takes Flight), and One where she does something so clever with the style and grammar that I find a new thing to be amazed by every time I reread it (Friend for the End of the World) AND her April prompts (Wildflower) ESPECIALLY anything with Dawn and Joey! Like I said, she can turn her hand to pretty much any theme and whip up something utterly divine.

Next up is @ihni who is an absolute quadruple threat of a skilled author, a brilliant artist, a dream of a commenter and the most lovely friend you could ever want (with a superb taste in candy!) It seems like too much goodness for one person, but Ihni is just THAT brilliant! Again, ANYTHING of hers is a delight and you will not be disappointed, but I’ll try and pick my absolute favourites! I think my heart will forever be stolen by the way she interpreted the Cocktober prompts and gave us A cock named Phil . I still think of him now, causing chaos! This is one of those fics that never fails to cheer me up, and the sweetness of Steve and Billy’s relationship shines through in every single chapter! And then there’s Of Cats and Men which has such a perfectly natural Harringrove build-up with a slightly mean Steve and a Billy showing his soft side and KITTENS. It’s another one of those I revisit regularly, and it’s full of scenes which have lodged themselves into my heart with sharp kitten claws and will never let go. And OH, how can I NOT rec Five times that someone gave Billy the shovel talk ? Such a heartwrenching fic which started off making me grin and then turned into the most perfect blend of Billy centric hurt/comfort. I STILL remember the pain of this one vividly, and the way I had to stop and pace the room for a bit before reading on, because the hurt was just THAT good.

I have to rec @heck-in-a-handbasket who bowls me over with everything she writes, especially the Pretty Woman AU Take Me Home Tonight which did that thing where it worms into your heart and soul and brain and just never lets go, so you spend whole nights thinking of scenes from it and feeling your heart break and go all fuzzy all over again. Plus it’s HOT. So damn hot. And there’s a Part Two! From Billy’s POV! Like I wasn’t broken ENOUGH! AND as if that amount of talent wasn’t enough, Heck also wrote Little Red Corvette containing one of my ultimate favourite Harringrove tropes which is ‘Billy getting some good adult role models’. But yes. Prepare for your heart to utterly break, once again, over Billy Hargrove and his trauma.  But. Again. ANYTHING. ANYTHING Heck has written is bound to be golden.

IT IS NOT OKAY. (spoilers for the fault in our stars)