First of the Month

Fanfiction
Title:	First of the Month
Author(s):	Anna S
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
Relationship(s):
External Links:	First of the Month on AO3
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First of the Month is a Jim/Blair story by Anna S.

Reactions and Reviews

2000

Anna's still on a roll. Her newest, First of the Month, has kicked off a nearly month-long thread on Prospect_L. Is this a less flattering, but still totally valid characterization of Blair, or just as a/u as the usual Blair-as-rent-boy fantasies? There are votes on both sides, but Anna's done her homework -- invalidate this Blair, and you may have to invalidate first and second season, too.

It's official: Anna S. is my new favorite Sentinel writer. This story rocks from beginning to end. Blair decides to work out the rent he owes Jim in trade. I have new appreciation for the term "rent boy" now. I love Blair POV stories, and this one explores a side of Blair that you rarely see in TS fic. He's manipulative and completely honest with himself about it. I like this not-so-innocent Blair going after what he wants with relish.

As already recommended everywhere else. First of the Month is dynamite, and a very damn clever story with layers to burn--a story I recommend you really get involved with.

And hmm...Out of context, the story's title looks rather ominous, and makes me think of bill collectors or women with PMS. In context, though, it evokes the most delicious images of Jim and Blair dancing around the beginnings of a relationship, which they do here in a story where a decidedly horny Blair suggests a sexy way to make the month's rent. I realize the 'dancing' is a cliche, but I'm stuck for another word to describe that unstable giving a little/taking a little flirting/bond-forming thang they were doing throughout the story. Whatever it was, it gave the story a wonderful grittiness. Instead of a twu-luv Cinderella and Prince Charming (ever notice how that abbreviates to PC?) narrative, her fic's got this rough reality to it because Jim and Blair never meet easily, and their relationship's that much more interesting for it because while you can predict the actions of a charming PC hero, you never know what a bad boy will do--and that's Blair here. Oh, he's charming, but edgy and slutty, and that made every word between the two of them steamy and wet--did I mention it was delicious? The whole thing flowed, too, had a perfect cadence that wasn't just the believability of voice, and the conjuction of fic and canon. Her sentences had rhythm (More dancing cliches! Run!). Going back for another look, I think that comes from the syntactical timing: she'd string clauses, then jerk short for the punchline. Here's a bit: "More worrisome was the possibility that Jim would follow up with her--he is a cop, after all, and apt to scent a trail of deceit with his well-tuned nose. He never checked up on any of my stories, though. Funny thing." Anna underline the final line with its brevity, making a reader stop, too, and think about the implications of Jim's refusal to check Blair's rent-boy lies. Love that. It all made for a lovely read in a fandom that doesn't usually grab me. NC-17.

2001

[It] had lots of people saying, "Blair wouldn't act/think/talk like that." It took me a second read through for me to really get a handle on that Blair and how he works in her universe. But, I liked it. It made me think, it stretched the boundaries of his character (in an interesting and non-infantalized way) and I read it more than once. And lately, doing more than deleting stories when I see who wrote them or after reading the first two paragraphs, doesn't happen very often. It won't be my all time TS favorite, but it was so refreshing to see someone really take a walk into the different.