GuestFicRec: Mad for Something Stable

Iadorepugs
A Stable Romance
M/R AU Human
15 Chapters, 64,484 Words
08/09/2009 - WIP
[ FFN ] [ Twilighted ]

Edward is a horse trainer in dressage. Bella becomes his working student. Will they each see that what they need can be found in the other?

PeaceLoveTwilight's

Let me get one thing straight. I don’t like horses. At least, I’m not the kind of girl people call a “horse-freak.” I have never been interested in horses, not even in kindergarten, and when I see people reading books about horses it makes me laugh. I am clearly not a horse person.


However, when I first started reading the story, I did not realize that A Stable Romance is, in fact, of a horsey nature. Don’t panic, horse-haters! This story wove horses into its plot so well that it has actually made me quite interested in horses. I would have thought previously that this was impossible, but not so. In fact, I fell in love with this story the same way I fell in love with Twilight. I never thought I would ever like a book about vampires, but we all know that I fell head over heels for the novel. The same thing happened with A Stable Romance.

Iadorepugs’ romantic tale is All-Human. It takes place immediately after Bella has graduated from college. Alice is Bella’s best friend, of course, and Edward is Alice’s older brother. Bella is evidently not clumsy in the story, and for some inexplicable reason dreams of someday becoming a well-known dressage trainer and/or rider.

Edward is the lofty, renowned young dressage rider and trainer. He is quickly introduced to Bella, who eventually manages to impress him with her skills working with horses, and obtains a working student job from him.

Iadorepugs is artful in her measured release of Edward’s aloofness toward Bella as he slowly realizes his feelings for her. She weaves humor and song into the story anywhere she can. (Bella sings and dances to Love Game by Lady Gaga while baking muffins in her kitchen, saying, “Any song that talks about wanting to ride a guy’s disco stick made me happy, I couldn’t help it.”) These whimsical moments lighten up Edward’s forceful attempts to shake his head of romantic thoughts, along with Bella’s stress in continuing to impress him.


The characterization is near perfect; aside from the absence of Bella’s klutziness, Edward’s mood swings and perfectionism are exactly as I would imagine them. Bella’s shy reluctance and inability to realize her own beauty are as if written by Stephenie herself. Iadorepugs does not simply characterize Alice by her love for shopping as lazy authors often do; instead Alice is characterized by her true support and love for Bella as her “sister”. Even without her vampire powers, Alice has a keen instinct and it is hinted that she knows almost immediately about Bella and Edward’s feelings for each other.

The author is clearly passionate about horses and dressage herself. She has a thorough knowledge of everything she is describing in A Stable Romance; even taking the time to put up links to sites where readers can learn more about the content and understand the story more completely, as well as links to photos of what she was thinking of when she described what Bella was wearing in different parts of the story, and a picture of how she imagines Edward’s stables. Her knowledge certainly enriches the story and you can tell she is enjoying herself throughout the writing of the story.

The main reason I do not have a problem with myself actually liking a story about horses is that, central as it is, the horse theme merely serves as a platform for Bella and Edward’s budding romance. Silly as it may sound, the basic plot is almost the same as Stephenie’s original Twilight plot; Bella falls for Edward, an unattainable man who somehow mutually falls for her, shy and ordinary as she may be. It’s a story that reminds us, in a fresh and interesting way, why we fell in love with Twilight in the first place.

And if you still have a problem with the horses…I have just three words for you that are sure to bring you running to A Stable Romance, if nothing else: Edward. In. Breeches.

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PeaceLoveTwilight can be found at her blog, Peace. Love. Twilight!, on Twilighted as PeaceLoveTwilight, or on FanFiction.net as CedwardPattinsonian. She is currently working on her stories “Acceptance”, “Reservation for Ten” (a collaborative work) , and “Delusion & Devotion”. When she is not writing, e-mailing, blogging, reading, eating, or sleeping, she is…well, not really doing anything!