When I first checked out the Master Fic list here I immediately dismissed Cheaterward 'cause though I can enjoy angst, I don't want to read about cheating between B/E. I know...it happens in "real life" quite a bit, but so do a lot of things I prefer not to wallow in. I blame Lola Pops for my current dilemma. Summer of Salt is one of my all time favorite fics. I've re-read it twice and the waterworks flow in certain parts every time. I love the Bella in it but it is her Edward that so moves me. His choices were almost default ones because he didn't know himself or really what love was. The work he did on himself and his desperation to make Bella understand what he'd learned about himself and his feelings for her were so beautifully done. It was growth, maturity and redemption for both of them and sooo satisfying.
I wouldn't classify SoS as a "cheater fic" but I find myself a little open to them because I loved that story so much but it's like going for the cookie right out of the oven. 9 out of 10 times your fingers get burnt. It seems so many are brutal betrayals in marriage (almost always on Edward's part) and so heavy on the angst. As a reader there is so little satisfaction and I'm a glass half full kinda girl. It's just so much easier to tear things down than to build them back up...in fic and real life. I don't fault the authors of course--after all, I'm the one choosing to read. But I do need to disappear from some stories and think I should probably stay away from those fics. I just hate to think I would have missed Summer of Salt with that rule.
Does anyone else sit in front of the computer and lecture themselves about the self-torture of reading certain kinds of fics? What are your hard lines in fic reading? Have you surprised yourself with a certain story?
My recs:
Summer of Salt
The heat wave lingers. Sweet, savory and slick. Jasper, Rose and I wade through the humid days, content in our relative isolation. We spend June through August at our family lake property, and this summer is like any other. Until it's not.
Twilight - Rated: M - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 26 - Words: 90,754 - Reviews: 3974 - Updated: 7-5-10 - Published: 12-18-09 - Bella & Edward - Complete
Unplanned Perfection
Bella and Alice were best friends, which made Bella the only girl off limits to Alice's brother Edward. When a party the summer after graduation gets out of control, Bella's world is turned upside down. "He doesn't know. I don't want him to." LANG/LEMONS
Twilight - Rated: M - English - Angst/Hurt/Comfort - Chapters: 42 - Words: 434,427 - Reviews: 11997 - Updated: 9-25-11 - Published: 8-11-10 - Bella & Edward - Complete
WIP Love this!--Original, Intelligent, Interesting and the best OC in Tony
Resent
There is no death certificate for Isabella Swan. Nor are there any official records of the existence of her children...but since when has a piece of paper meant anything when it comes to creatures of the night? After all, just because something has never been documented doesn't mean it cannot exist...
Embittered by the desperate state his father left him, his mother, and his sister in five years prior, Tony Swan yearns for purpose; an opportunity to let out who he truly is. No more lies. No more veils. He won't have to wait long-as his sister grows normally, he inches closer and closer to adulthood, mind and body rapidly maturing despite the few years he has walked this Earth. And yet, throughout all this, one key fact remains forgotten by the young hybrid: fate's plan is never simple.
And in a world where monsters of human and marble flesh exist, how can it be?
Anything by:
CaraNo
Nolebucgrl