After (almost) a week of suggestions and feedback, it's officially time for the first-ever post of . . .

In this, our inaugural posting, we are tackling the weird and wacky world of adults in a theme simply called "Grown Ups."

All of the stories featured below have point of view characters or protagonists aged 19 or older, and as is the premise for Ready Reads, every story is complete on BCTS!

So, without further adieu, let's get into our reader-submitted suggestions!

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Vengeance and Beyond, by Daphne Xu
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book-page/65951/vengeance-and...

One part sci-fi time travel, one part murder mystery. Trigger warning: there is some violence against women in this story, so be careful of that going in.

Going There and Back Again, by Thliwent
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/47672/going-there-and...

What?! More time travel? This isn't this week's theme! But, hey, it's what we got suggested, so it's what we're going with! Lots of tension and drama in this one, peeps.

Not Just a Fan, by Elrod
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/49024/not-just-fan

It was inevitable that Elrod would turn up in these lists, given their history in the genre. Like most of Elrod's stuff there's a somewhat more adult slant to this one, but they wouldn't be so popular if they couldn't turn a phrase, and the writing here is as solid as anything else they've written.

Sacrificial Life Extension Project, by Casey Brooke
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/77151/sacrificial-lif...

Body swaps and romance, all with a bit of sci fi thrown in too (again!) A very cute story for anyone in the right frame of mind, and with the holiday season approaching it's even more appropriate.

Natural Affection, by Cassy Bee
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/69968/natural-affection

More sci fi. This seems to be an unofficial theme running through this week's suggestions: are you sure this wasn't planned? In this tale life is an MMO, so if you're unfamiliar with a lot of the constraints of social sims and other such games some of this one might go over your head. That said, it looks like there's a lot of love for this one out there, so give it a look and see if it's to your tastes!

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Well, there's our five big entries for this week! But wait, there's more to read if you're interested!

Also suggested by readers:

Felicity Finds Family by Sasha Nexus
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/43791/felicity-finds-family

I didn't have time to read all the suggested entries before this week's post, and Sasha's story is based in a universe I'm not familiar with either. As such, without knowing if it could stand on its own without knowledge of the rest of the universe to back it, I didn't feel comfortable making it part of the core recommended list.

Rescue, by Dorothy Colleen
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/66945/rescue

Dot is a great writer and outstanding member of the community, and she certainly deserves to be featured here. That said, this story is a bit on the short side for what I'm looking for as core recommendations for Ready Reads, thus gets a mention here instead.

Linked by Love, by Dustin Carter
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/40070/linked-love

Anyone familiar with Dustin's work knows that you're usually going to be in for fun, likeable characters and positive feels in the end. This story is no exception. Much like Rescue, it gets an honorable mention due to length: it's a bit short, but worth the time spent to read it.

Out of the Closet, by Bru
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/61637/out-closet

Bru's flash fiction almost always comes with either a shaggy dog or a groan, sometimes both. This super-short tale is cute and fun, and is another "if only it were another 1k words" entry in our list of honorables.

We Who Are About to Lunch, by Erin Halfelven
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/6004/we-who-are-about...

This cute little snippet is right in line with Erin's other work: fun, creative, and should leave any reader smiling at the end. Included here due, yet again, to length more than anything else.

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And what, you may ask, does the future hold for Ready Reads? Well, I'm glad you DID ask, easily impressionable reader! The answer is another week and another theme, and that theme is . . .

READY READS: FANTASTIC GADGETS

We had a lot of science fiction themes running in this week's entries, so why not play into that? This time around it's all about the crazy and wonderful world of mad science and alien tech, and so long as your suggestions include one or both of those, you're good!

As with Grown Ups, suggestions for stories to include should be made via PM here on BCTS. If your suggestion doesn't get featured, don't fret: I'll be trying to keep these lists to 5-10 stories each, and I'll be trying not to include the same authors over and over again every time, so your entry might have missed the cut simply due to those reasons.

Lastly, we have one more point of business to consider: the theme for the week AFTER next!

I'm going to give you three options of theme to choose from, each linked to one of the post upvote options at the bottom of the blog page. Choose either Like, Love, or Thank depending on which theme you would like to see next!

Like: "Tweens." Stories about characters ages 10-13. Ideally the entire story should fall within this age range, though consideration would be given to characters who start or end slightly outside those bounds.

Love: "Dressed to Impress." Stories about crossdressers, with no actual physical transition sought or implied for the main character.

Thank: "Cheerleaders." Rather self-explanatory, really: the main character should be a cheerleader, either as an activity or costume.

Thanks again for taking time to join me on this, and I'm already looking forward to our next exciting entry of Ready Reads!