Alrighty, I’m super excited to talk about my first multi-chapter feature! Because, let’s face the truth, it’s a lot easier to write a oneshot and press the completed button than it is to write a multi-chap story of any length. With that in mind, until you get with the writing and posting, the ratio will continue to be a 3 oneshot to 1 MC rotation.
Tangent aside, let’s get to the reason you’re reading this segment, the recommendation. Oh and as always, since I can’t seem to do a rec without talking about what has happened, MINOR SPOILER ALERT!!!
Summary: Edward never came back. But that's okay, because Bella Swan is doing fine. Her life has been vampire free for four years and, while she'll admit that it was rough at first, she's content with her new life. That is, until a certain vampire casually walks back into her life. Can Bella accept the lessons that life is trying to teach her? Or is her future doomed to be dictated by her past?
This story is another alternative to New Moon Jasper/Bella pairing, but before you roll your eyes, believe me when I say, it’s different. Bella has moved away from Forks, and is currently attending university. She even shares an apartment with two friends- Danny and Chrissy who are wonderful original characters. They are supportive and know when to push Bella and just what she needs when she’s having a difficult day.
Bella also has a job, at a cafe by day turned bar by night place called Down Dog’s. It’s while Bella is taking the trash out during a shift that she see someone suspicious walking down the alley. Of course, Bella is curious by nature and follows the stranger. This is where she encounters Jasper, re-eyed and with some anger issues, holding the stranger Bella had followed by the neck.
What kind of issues? Bella issues. You see, he blames her for all that is bad in his life. But Bella isn’t going to let Jasper just put his problems on her, quite the opposite, she turns the blame around on Jasper, citing him as the reason for her abandonment after the fated birthday.
This story is another alternative to New Moon Jasper/Bella pairing, but before you roll your eyes, believe me when I say, it’s different. Bella has moved away from Forks, and is currently attending university. She even shares an apartment with two friends- Danny and Chrissy who are wonderful original characters. They are supportive and know when to push Bella and just what she needs when she’s having a difficult day.
Bella also has a job, at a cafe by day turned bar by night place called Down Dog’s. It’s while Bella is taking the trash out during a shift that she see someone suspicious walking down the alley. Of course, Bella is curious by nature and follows the stranger. This is where she encounters Jasper, re-eyed and with some anger issues, holding the stranger Bella had followed by the neck.
What kind of issues? Bella issues. You see, he blames her for all that is bad in his life. But Bella isn’t going to let Jasper just put his problems on her, quite the opposite, she turns the blame around on Jasper, citing him as the reason for her abandonment after the fated birthday.
“Enlighten you?” Jasper’s tone sounded incredulous as he turned away from the young man and faced Bella completely, “Enlighten you? You cannot be enlightened. You are the source of my goddamn problems, the beginning of the fucking end.”
“That’s a little harsh considering you’re the reason why I was abandoned in Forks,” Bella said immediately. The old anger filled her swiftly and completely; it’s reappearance heralded the end of her sanity.
After they play the blame-game for a little while and argue heatedly, Jasper is thisclose to losing his composure and killing Bella when he stalks off. Bella, the stubborn sass that she is, calls him out on his repeat performance of abandonment and the yellow stripe painted on his back.
did a little chair dance when Bella yells at Jasper’s retreating form, it might have even involved a fist pump. She managed to tell him exactly what I had originally though of the Cullens when they left her in New Moon.
Bella then returns to work and tries to continue with her shift and life. Except once she’s home and winding down, she can’t stop thinking about Jasper. She is annoyed and angry with him, but hopes she will be able to just push it out of her mind and continue with things as normal.
That doesn’t happen, naturally. Jasper makes a sly appearance in one of her classes the next day, where again, Bella pisses him off and Jasper makes a third exit from her life. However, he can’t seem to make up his mind because he later shows up at her work. Their arguing continues, until finally, Bella has had enough and provokes Jasper just a little to far resulting in a loss of control.
And then there was pain, a sharp and terrible pain in the side of her neck. She knew exactly what it was but somehow, she was more shocked than afraid. There had been a day when she had planned for this outcome, when she had wanted a vampire to sink his razor sharp teeth into her skin, to plant his venom into her body, but now that it was happening all she could think about was how much it hurt.
Of course something happens to stop Jasper and he pushes venom into her, but he had taken a lot of blood from Bella and he is uncertain if she’ll make it through the change.
There is a lot of excitement in this story, AlexisDanaan gives us a newborn Bella who isn’t so quick to forget and makes Jasper work for forgiveness as they build a precarious companionship of sorts. And, because they don’t have enough issues on their own, the rest of the Cullens make an appearance that threatens to destroy the tenuous bonds Bella and Jasper have managed to forge.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Lessons Unexpected” and did so rather quickly, a matter of days actually. Piece of advice: when reading, don’t gobble up the chapters like I did, savour them, spread it out to lengthen the journey and be sure to leave reviews. Lots and lots of reviews, because that’s the only payment we authors receive, but they are a delightful compensation for all the hard work that goes into completing a story as exciting and entertaining as this one.
See ya next week!
