Welcome to Gioia Recs!
This blog is a personal listing of the novels and fanfiction which Gioia recs (recommends), with the fanfic predominantly based in the Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Pride & Prejudice and Roswell fandoms. This is primarily a list of recommendations, not reviews.
Please do not take offense at the omission of any fanfics or novels you know to be exceptional, as this is an ongoing, non-inclusive list based on my personal preferences. The exclusion of a particular story likely means that I either haven’t read it, I forgot to make note of my observations at the time that I read it, it is still a work-in-progress, or it wasn’t “fluffy” enough to suit my angst-phobic preferences.
I am slowly transferring over the hundreds of recs which I’ve logged over the years. My Pride & Prejudice recs are nearly all over here now under the P&P tag. However, it will likely take me months to transfer the rest of my multi-fandom recommendations. Until then, the bulk of my Doctor Who recs can be found HERE and HERE, and the majority of my Harry Potter recs can be found HERE and HERE. I do not have my Roswell favorites documented, but a few of my favorites from the Polar (Michael/Liz) site are HERE. (See the “FYI” and “Links” options in the above menu bar for more Roswell resources.)
Finally, big thanks go to two sites:
1) Know-It-Alls, the Harry Potter fanfiction rec site from which I have swiped nearly all of my ideas for the structure of this site. In my admittedly biased opinion as a staff member, KIA‘s far more extensive listing should be your first stop for Harry Potter fanfiction recommendations of any ship or genre.
2) The Jane Austen Fanfiction (JAFF) Index, a wonderful archive which lists nearly every fanfic in the Jane Austen fandom. From this site I have borrowed many of the tags I use for my P&P recs. This is a must-see site for any fan of Austen-based fanfic. The site requires a password which varies depending on your age group, as the mature-rated fics are not visible if you log-in with a password from a teen-friendly site such as dwiggie.com. To obtain the password, I suggest you google for it and then choose from the appropriate site for your age-group.
Gioia
Gioia Recs... 
Hi Gioia, Can you e-mail me at quailcreekpub@hotmail.com. I have a favor to ask. Thanks. Mary
Hi Gioia,
I just wanted to let you know that the permanent links for It Started With a Kiss (http://www.dwiggie.com/derby/bethw.htm) and The Confident Mr. Darcy (http://www.dwiggie.com/derby/bethw2.htm) are up on Dwiggie.
Thank you again for your recs of my stories. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts.
Thanks,
BethW
Thank you very much for taking the time to alert me, BethW! I sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness! I’ve updated the recs accordingly. Of course, now I’m also mid-way through a re-read of “The Confident Mr. Darcy.” Your stories seem to be rather addictive! 😉
Hi. Wow. First, I’d like to say that this is a wonderful blog. Your reviews are informational and colorful. I am definitely going to read some of these stories. I am currently in the process of writing two Harry Potter fanfictions. I’d love for you to read them and tell me what you think.
Thanks!
-littleonionwrites
Thank you very much for your kind words! I sincerely appreciate your compliments. Looks like you’re getting off to a great start with your stories! You’ve got some great plot ideas. Best of luck to you, and keep up the great work!
And thank you for checking out my blog! 🙂
Hi Gioia,
I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award! I think your blog is really unique, because I’ve never seen a blog that reviews fanfics! It’s pretty dang awesome!
If you’d like to accept, check out the following link:
Have an awesome day!
Thank you so much for your kindness! I’m headed over to your blog. *Hugs*
I’m actually hoping you can help me find a story that has been driving me crazy. I can’t for the life of me remember which P&P story this is. PuhPuhPuh Please help me! lol This story actually has a mean Georgiana. The Bennets are vacationing in Ramsgate because Jane is sick. Elizabeth stops Georgiana from leaving with Wickham. Somehow Elizabeth is thought to be compromised by Darcy so he agrees to marry her – although very reluctantly.
Any ideas which story this is?!
Oh, that is definitely familiar! Have you done a search at JAFFIndex.com for stories under the categories “Georgiana Darcy as a brat,” or “First meeting at Ramsgate instead of Meryton,” or under “Forced/Arranged marriage”? At a glance, “Being Mrs. Darcy” by Lucy S might fit your description.
Sadly, I am the absolute worst at connecting plots with their story’s title and author. (That’s actually why I first began keeping my story rec lists years ago, lol.) Probably the best suggestion I can therefore offer is to try the “Looking for a story thread” at DarcyAndLizzy.com or Here at AHA.
When you find the story — as I am sure you will 🙂 — would you mind leaving a reply here with the story’s name, author and location? So sorry I can’t provide better assistance!
I think this might be “Being Mrs Darcy”, by Lucy S?
Thank you! That’s my guess, too! 🙂
Hi Gioia, I just read your review on Amazon of the poster/art print of “The Consultation” by Harry Anderson. It is available now. Best wishes. Robbie
Oh, that’s marvelous news! Thank you!
Hi Gioia,
I’m Laura Krueger, Editorial Manager and Coordinator of itcher magazine (http://itcher.com/mag).
itcher Magazine is an entertainment recommendations magazine, suggesting titles and artists focusing on the unknown, the underrated and the absolute musts across four categories: movies, books, music and games.
We’re in the process of adding new content to our magazine and are looking for book critics/writers with a good eye for book recommendations.
It would be a joy to have you provide some of your insights, we feel that your views and charisma would add such a wonderful touch to the energy, content and value of our magazine.
Please get back if interested so we can discuss it further.
Thank you very much, really looking forward to hearing from you!
Kind regards,
Laura Krueger
laura.krueger@itcher.com
Hey Gloria,
I see you don’t really seem to be active anymore, but I would like to take a moment to thank you for all of your hard work in the past. I’ve been through this entire site, and read dozens and dozens of stories,, which have provided me hours and hours of entertainment. I just thought I would give you a shout out, because I found your site very well organized, and very helpful in sorting out the wheat from the chaff.
I’m even writing my own fanfic now, and so I think to some extent I have you to thank.
Wade Hatler
Thank you so very much for your kind words, Wade! They mean a lot to me. I’m definitely still around however a lack of a laptop and my ailing hubby’s needs have conspired to keep me from updating here in awhile. But if you check the sidebar, there are links to my recommended novels and fics, particularly on AO3 and FFN. I’m quite active on the former, though my recs are much, much briefer there. I hope that helps provide you with more reading material!
With much gratitude,
Gioia
Thank, Gioia, for the review on The Last Master Outlaw. Plan to post part on DBCooper.com, then refer my readers back here. On your two negative points, happy to chat about them (Toll free # under “Contact”). And FYI, as one of seven happy children of a shrink and mom-author, I’m hyper-sensative about mental health issues — you’re the first to complain, so curious. Finally, are you an author yourself? Cheers, TJC
What a delight to hear from you, Mr. Colbert! I was up till 3am Thursday morning watching the first part of your History Channel special. I see you were able to elaborate therein on some of the very points I had wished there was room for you to explore in your book. I’m going to have to update my review to acknowledge that marvelous fact. How wonderful that you were able to tell this story through multiple mediums! I hope this ends up as a screenplay eventually, as it is just begging for a big screen release.
You may have already noticed that I softened some of my language in the review on Amazon after mulling it over some more today. I’ll be updating the text here, too, later. I wanted to make sure that it was clear that I wasn’t accusing you of sexism. That was clearly not remotely the case. It did bother me to see the tag of “mental-health” used, even though I agree that this is technically what is the problem. When we’re talking about PTSD and the way that trauma can impact one’s memory, I’m sure you and the other authors you mentioned were correct about the flight attendants. I just wish you could’ve avoided implicitly using that label, as I know it would’ve deeply hurt and humiliated me had I been in their shoes, particularly for a book as well-received as yours. However, I will concede that I am probably overly sensitive to this, as I’ve watched several people I love struggle not with their mental health *care* (in that, there are many wonderful resources available now), but with that mental health *label.* I detest the way even our modern society still attaches so much negativity to a diagnosis of mental illness.
If you wouldn’t mind shooting me an email (Gioiathepolar at yahoo), I’d be happy to chat about any of the above, as well as my other negative reaction. I’m rather difficult to reach by phone as I must usually keep the phone turned off due to my husband’s poor health.
I was very bothered by that second point. I understand that your negotiations needed to be quite firm. The fact that you absolutely did need to have that armed protection watching the entire scene from the parking lot should say quite a bit about why strong tactics were needed. (I was so relieved at that point in the book that you didn’t attempt to confront him without it!) However, the extent to which those tactics were implemented – the stick used in the carrot-and-stick approach – troubled me deeply. I certainly don’t think that Rackstraw’s feelings matter much here, nor that he deserved any respect. Dragging his family & their privacy into it, though, felt far over the line. Perhaps I’m attaching too much significance to what may have been just a small portion of the negotiations?
In regards to your question, no – I am not an author. I’ll leave that accomplishment to those like you who are clearly gifted! As my blathering here must show, I’m dreadful at conveying anything both concisely and clearly. Although I spent the first half of my college years as a Journalism major, my degree actually ended up being in Entertainment Management.