Take Your Time
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Take Your Time |
| Author(s): | Carrie |
| Date(s): | 1998-2000 |
| Length: | novel |
| Genre(s): | AU, Time Travel, Pre-canon |
| Fandom(s): | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | Take Your Time (Archived Link) |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Take Your Time is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel by Carrie.
The author's summary states, this is in answer to Jessica Nasca's challenge for a fic where Willow goes back in time and meets Angelus before he was vamped.
In this fic, Spike's plan to go back in time, kill Angelus and sire Drusilla requires a virgin to make the spell work. Spike kidnaps a teenage Willow and travels back in time with her. Unsurprisingly things don't go as Spike had originally planned. Willow and Spike are trapped in the past. This work pairs Willow/Spike and Willow/Angelus, but is PG-13 for all but one chapter.
In 2005, Take Your Time was awarded Best Willow Fic of all time in the Willowy Goodness Awards.[1]
Reviews and Reception
So, I normally would not be interested in a Willow/Angel(us) or Willow/Spike story. At all. But damn if this author doesn't make me entirely reconsider my stance on this, while writing an epic that *gasp* stays true to all the characters present. I know what you're thinking: a Willow/Angelus fic in character? But, dude, read it to understand. Angelus isn't suddenly a good vampire, and Willow never stops ringing true to the hesitant Wiccan we see on screen during the first few years of BtVS.
[...] The story is looooongg and plotty, and there's a sequel that is, I think, left abandoned. I still recommend reading it anyway, because I like how this story has repercussions and changes the 'verse.[2]
This is one of the fics that can, honestly, be attributed with sucking me into fandom in the first place. I started out loving Willow on the show, which lead to me becomming a Willow/Angel 'shipper and stumbling on this fic. Needless to say, if I wasn't hooked before reading this fic, I was after. (There's also an unfinished sequel that I have some fond, yet fuzzy memories of as well). [3]
Some of the best examples of Willow-shipper fic out there, the truly powerful romances, are the stories that develop Willow as her own character and endow her with rich, multi-layered interests beyond romance. Carrie's 'Take Your Time' is probably the best-known: it's romantic as all get-out, has some of the most tender and sensual interplay between Willow and Spike AND between Willow and Angel, yet Carrie also gives Willow plenty of interesting travels and opportunities for personal growth. [4]
Sequel - It's About Time
Carrie's sequel It's About Time remains incomplete. It came second place for best overall Willow fic in the 2002 Willowy Goodness Awards. [5], and second place for Best Alternative Universe in 2005[6] Carrie's series was named Best Series and Best Unfinished (WIP) in Round 2 of the SunnyD Awards[7]
Carrie's series was widely recced by fans despite it been incomplete.
Just like in "Take Your Time", the author takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride of action, adventure and an odd romance between Spike and Willow, while our favorite witch is still very much pining over Angelus/Angel. This future is just slightly skewed anough to intrigue without making the reader think too much. Loads to enjoy. I just wish there was more.[8]
As recently as 2016, fans were discussing her works and lamenting the lack of a resolution to this story.[9]
References
- ^ Willowy Goodness 2005 Winners, access March 2018.
- ^ Het reccers (2002, accessed March 2018)
- ^ MY TOP 5 ABSOLOUTE MUST READ OLD SCHOOL HET EPICS (2006, accessed March 2018)
- ^ Navigating Your Ship Through Stereotypes by Medea, accessed March 2018
- ^ Willowy Goodness Awards - 2002 Winners, accessed March 2018.
- ^ Willowy Goodness Awards - 2003 Winners, access March 2018
- ^ SunnyD Awards - Round 2 Winners archived link, accessed March 2018.
- ^ TOP FIVE CLASSIC SPILLOW FICS - INCOMPLETED (Oct 2007, accessed March 2018)
- ^ Long Shot but does anyone know this fanfic author? discussion on Reddit, Feb 2016, accessed March 2018