So there’s no snappy opening. Sorry. Spent my day making plans. What?! Plans, you say? You’ll see. J

“A Chance Encounter” by erinbatt

No, I am not rec’ing this story just because I’m e-friends with Erin. In fact, her story has been unfairly pushed back several times simply because I didn’t want to treat it special or anything, so…sorry about that, Erin. But, at long last, here it is, “A Chance Encounter”. You all know I’m pretty harsh on alternate universe stories. You have to bring something really fresh to the table to hold my interest. ACE delivers, especially in its characters. It’s a spinoff of New Moon in which Laurent couldn’t quite control himself in the meadow and the wolves were a smidge too late, but not *too* too late. Jacob carries the bitten Bella off, she changes into a vampire and is essentially abandoned, left in her new life all alone. And of course, being Bella, she really believed Edward in the forest, so she doesn’t search for the Cullens. Instead she takes up the life of a nomad, and nearly fifty years later, she has, well…a chance encounter. I think you can see the basic plot, yes? Bella’s shield has some intriguing properties which allow her a unique perspective on Edward. When she learns that he had a relationship with Tanya after he left her in Forks, Bella flips out, justly calls out the Cullens for abandoning her and allowing Edward to abandon her, and then she runs. And so begins the action. Edward still can’t hear her mind, so he has to try tracking her, and we all know Edward isn’t much of a tracker. So he turns to the Volturi for help, and here the story really gets interesting. Of course Aro is interested in Bella for her gifts, but it’s Demetri that really sticks out. This is a great Demetri. In turns frustrating, helpful and heartbreaking, the tenuous friendship that grows between he and Edward is actually more interesting than Edward and Bella at this point. I’m cheering as hard for Demetri to find some happiness as I am for Edward to find Bella. Also, ACE has one of the greatest AU original characters I’ve ever seen in Lethia, a nomad in the Brazilian rainforest with a scary and powerful gift. She only comes in for one chapter but geez is she effective. Forget Jane. Lethia is easily the most frightening vampire in the Twilight universe. Between Edward chasing Bella all over the world, determined to beg for forgiveness, and Demetri and Lethia, ACE is an intriguing and inventive AU, well worth a read.

“Angel Eyes” by RaeCullen

This is one of those stories that had been popping up in my searches for new fics for a while and then one day I caved and read it. And when I told Bestie about it she went, “Really?” and I said, “Yes, really.” “Angel Eyes” is the story of typical college guy Edward falling for a not so typical Bella. Popular frat boy Edward hears a laugh in a coffee shop and is captivated by the pretty girl it belongs to, but he doesn’t introduce himself. Then he sees her in the park one day, and he begins keeping an eye out for the pretty girl with the melodic laugh. He notices her talking to his frat brother, Emmett, so of course he asks Emmett for an introduction. Emmett totally shuts him down. Despite Emmett’s warnings, Edward approaches her one day in the park, and that’s when he realizes that Bella is blind. This is a pretty light-hearted story, but it deals with the issue of blindness in a realistic way. Bella has been overprotected her whole life, but she is capable of living her own life. Her conflicts with Emmett are exactly the sort of things you would expect an older brother to do for and about a younger sister he sees as unbearably vulnerable. And Edward’s initial reaction is probably pretty typical too–he’s shocked and unsure if he wants a relationship with a “blind girl”. But of course, it’s Bella, so he pursues her anyway. His thoughts on their first date are interesting. He goes from mildly embarrassed that Bella uses her cane to angry that everyone stares at her to annoyed to realize even if she wasn’t blind they’d stare anyway because she’s beautiful. Overall this is a sweet story with no heavy angst, but Edward does have a prickly relationship with an overbearing Carlisle, so the potential for drama exists. Also, there’s much allusion to some kind of incident during Edward’s freshman year–the reason Carlisle is so controlling now. Edward is probably right to be nervous about introducing Bella to Carlisle–he seems like the kind of psycho-planning father who has his son’s wife all picked out. “Angel Eyes” is right at the cusp of the interesting stuff happening, so get caught up and give RaeCullen some love for this sweet, endearing story.

Even more FF goodies over on KStew411′s page! Seriously, there are some AMAZING ones in that list you can’t miss!