Haven of my Soul

Fanfiction
Title:	Haven of my Soul
Author(s):	Romslinger
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Haven of my Soul on AO3 (locked to registered users)
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Haven of my Soul is a Sentinel story by Romslinger.

Reactions and Reviews

Jim, doing voluntary work at a soup kitchen, finds himself interested in one of the men patronising it. The man is amnesiac. Then Jim - who is supposed be on desk duty because he is having problems with his senses - is called to a murder. The dead girl's roommate is the amnesiac, a man known only as 'The Professor'. This is a story of two strangers getting to know one another, well developed, cleverly constructed, and with a link to a series episode. Emotionally it's a very satisfying.

(Normally there aren't going to be so many of these at one time, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm working my way through my possible recs folder and if I end up not reccing something from there I feel like I should explain why.)

You know, I might've recced Haven of My Soul if I hadn't first read the brilliant Harbor of My Heart (also by Romslinger). Both are homeless!fic, which is one of my biggest kinks, and Harbor of My Heart is also full of gritty details about street life, intriguing OCs, tantalizing h/c, and about a bazillion trust issues. Haven of My Soul, on the other hand, feels like a watered down version of a homeless!fic. Rather than go into the details of street life, you have generalities (Blair has 'odd jobs' and conveniently has an apartment with someone who he met when 'men were trying to hurt him') that don't have nearly as much impact. The trust issues that were so satisfying in Harbor of My Heart are almost entirely absent here: the second time Jim and Blair meet, Jim offers to let Blair stay with him and Blair only puts up a token resistance. By the next morning, they're officially (and openly) in lust with each other and even Simon doesn't put up too much guff. Even the mystery didn't quite hold my interest, possibly because I wasn't nearly as invested in Gypsy as I was in Jim's two stray kids from Harbor of My Heart.

All that said, it is still homeless!fic, and like all of Romslinger's stories, it is entertaining and well-written. It just didn't grab me and hold me the same way that Harbor of My Heart did, and in the end, that's why I can't rec it.