Official Description: High School Fictional. No one sends Bella into a tailspin quite like Edward Cullen… but can she make him hers? The ups and downs and all arounds.
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“Attraction’s random and it’s fickle. I mean, we can’t help who we’re attracted to. If we could, we’d make smarter choices, using our heads and not our hearts. We also don’t choose when it happens. The only certainty is that it will happen, at one point or another.”
The truth of this opening quote from Starry Eyed Inside spoke to me. I was suddenly fourteen again and reflecting back to a time when the smallest of acts felt grand and you were either on cloud nine or sunk into a melodramatic abyss. This story captures those moments and how carefree those days really were when responsibilities were few and emotions ran high.
The author, Rochelle Allison, will have you believe that this story is about infatuation. She even defines it for us at the beginning: a foolish and usually extravagant passion or love or admiration, temporary love of an adolescent. With words like passion on our minds, we’re set up to feel the intensity of that first crush along with Bella when she sees Edward for the first time. They’re at a concert, his girlfriend by his side and she’s irrevocably (yeah, I said irrevocably) changed forever. I say forever because I know we never forget our first puppy love, infatuation, or whatever you want to call it. We carry those special feelings like a treasure buried deep in our heart for the rest of our lives.
Written from Bella’s perspective, thus far, her ‘infatuation’ doesn’t feel like one. She’s cool even when she doesn’t feel it, anything to save ‘face’ as we would have said back then. Her inner turmoil is kept carefully contained though her heart and head inwardly battle over this crush from the beginning.
“My heart was a fickle bitch, betraying me over and over again.”
This Bella is realistic, accepting Edward as he is, leaving him in that ‘crush’ category, admiring him from afar, but daydreaming of more. She loyally bides her time watching him with other girls, secretly wishing she was in their shoes. Fortunately, there are plenty of situations that place Bella and Edward together, some awkward, but always real and memorable.
“One move brought him from my side to in front of me, sliding his body between my legs. My heart stopped. Time stood still.”
Ro’s Edward is the younger version of all the Edwards we love. He’s good-looking, observant, sensitive, and cocky. He’s perfect for a first crush. He’s a year older and seems very aware of her presence though he often plays it off. A lot of their encounters are brief, but meaningful, building on a relationship before they know there is one. I’ll happily admit that their first kiss captured my heart. His experience mixed with her innocence causes unfamiliar feelings to emerge in her.
“My body wanting him in ways my brain wasn’t even aware of just yet.”
There is still so much to look forward to from this story. My wish list: a first date, a first argument, a first heartbreak, their first make-up, and their first time…it is rated M. There are so many firsts at that age that help shape the adults we become and we get to relive those firsts through Bella and Edward, I hope.
This story is adorable, but it has gravity and shouldn’t be discounted because of the characters youth. Starry Eyed Inside is well written, will warm your heart, and most definitely is worth a read.
Rochelle has this way of telling stories that just… draws you in. Everything she writes is wonderful, and Starry Eyed Inside is no different. Every chapter of this story makes me nostalgic, makes me think of the past, and sometimes I sit in front of my computer thinking ‘dude, is she actually in my brain?’
Bella is a high school freshman, with a wicked crush on the popular kid from another school. Bet you can’t guess who that is…
I made the mistake of looking up when I should have been looking down, or to the left – or anywhere else – and saw his face and that was it.
Squashed like a bug on the highway of love.
We’ve all heard of love at first sight. Yeah, that’s lust. But when you’re fourteen and starry-eyed innocent, it’s love. The world spins faster, leaving you dizzy and desperate. When I think about that day I remember the feeling of my stomach falling out from under me, and how I’d never, ever felt anything like it.
He barely saw me but I sure saw him.
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Don’t we all have that boy, the one who captured our hearts at a young age, and gave us just enough to make us believe in our past? The ground was always shaky, because we were young and at that point in our lives, we didn’t yet understand things that only a broken heart can teach you.
My dad used to show me the constellations when I was little. I scanned the sky, searching for the ones I knew. Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt, Edward’s face…
Edward’s face upside-down, actually.
Panic. Confusion. What kind of beer did Brody buy?
I blinked twice, but no –Edward was really standing there, his clear green eyes ensnaring me as I stared wordlessly back.
“Bella?”
How the heck does he know my name?
Gah! I’m on board for the butterflies, the heartache and looking forward to finding out what the future holds for these kids.
Join me in the nostalgia, we can put on some Luniz, gather around and giggle over cute boys!!
I was happy to see Starry Eyed Inside by Rochelle Allison on the list of recs for this week. I generally really like her writing. Well, more than that, I like the feel of her writing. Rochelle has this talent for setting a very particular mood with her words from the get-go, and so I knew I’d enjoy Starry Eyed Inside.
In this case, the mood is wistful. This is a fic set in high school, and it’s love at first sight when Bella gets her first glimpse of Edward.
Tall, lanky and lean. Skin somehow both creamy and gold. Hair messy and awesome and weird, like it didn’t know what color it wanted to be: sunsets or pennies.
I made the mistake of looking up when I should have been looking down, or to the left –or anywhere else – and saw his face and that was it.
Squashed like a bug on the highway of love.
We’ve all heard of love at first sight. Yeah, that’s lust. But when you’re fourteen and starry-eyed innocent, it’s love. The world spins faster, leaving you dizzy and desperate. When I think about that day I remember the feeling of my stomach falling out from under me, and how I’d never, ever felt anything like it.
Rochelle recreates that feeling – you know the one, that first crush when you were a kid… the one where every time that guy or girl looked at you, you felt like your heart might pound out of your chest and your world might end. I certainly had my fair share of those at 14, just like Bella.
There’s an absolutely hilarious scene of Bella and her friends smoking a joint for the first time, illustrating the huge cultural gap between my generation and today’s generation – using YouTube to find out how to roll a joint? Dude, we were on our own.
I love the use of Eleazar as Alice’s brother and her Latino heritage – she’s Maria Alice Pena. That’s something fairly unique, so I appreciate that. Starry Eyed Inside is a fic full of firsts, and I highly recommend it… without a doubt, you’ll be remembering your own firsts as you read!
I knew after reading several of this authors stories that I had to start this one. This is a high school fic, but in my opinion, it is nothing like any I have ever read. I immediately fell in love with this Bella. The way she reacts when she is anywhere near Edward is, lets face it, pretty much the way any of us would act.
Just seeing him made my mouth go dry… my heart pound… my stomach clamp up.
or how about this
Edward took a hit and passed the joint back to Emmett. He started rubbing his hands up and down my legs.
Okay, okay. He’s just drunk. He probably won’t even remember tomorrow. The pathetic part was I’d take whatever I could get. This was heaven.
This story just brings me back to the simple days, of being young, of crushing on someone and the emotions and thoughts that went along with it.
Do you know that song Magic by B.O.B. and Rivers Cuomo? I’ve got the magic in me, Everytime I touch that track it turns into gold… That’s how I feel about Rochelle Allison. Every fic she touches turns to gold.
What can I say about Starry Eyed Inside that you don’t already know? Just telling you that Ro is the author lets you know that it’ll be fucking awesome. Should I tell you that Edward is a mysterious surfer? A soccer player (swoon)? They shotgun? There could be lockersecks?
There’s no guarantee about the last part, but it is a fic set in high school–so it’s possible. Self-consciousness, that fluttery feeling you get when he looks at you, the way you felt, standing there with your friends, Ro just gets it:
I wondered where Edward was, if he was here alone.
I didn’t have to wait long.
When we returned to the rec room he’d joined the game. My heart slammed in my chest, the result of seeing the one person I wanted to see right when I didn’t think I’d be seeing him. Rose and I went back to our spot on the wall, whispering comments to one another, checking our phones for messages.
The art of looking occupied.
Alice showed up eventually, trailing behind Eleazar and two of his friends. Her eyes lit up when she saw us and she slid on over.
“What are you guys doing? Did I miss anything?”
“Not really,” Rose said quietly, her eyes flickering toward the pool table. “We’re just…”
“Watching,” I whispered, my heart fluttering when Edward leaned over the table. His shirt rode up with the movement, making the waistband of his boxers peek above his jeans.
The game went on for awhile, and bit by bit I felt myself relax. Sometimes Edward would glance around, and once he looked at me for a second. I imagined being hooked up to one of those heart rate machines at the hospital, and how the neon green line would spike every time he moved.
He’d look at me, and it would go off the freaking charts.
This is one of my favorite stories by one of my favorite authors, and I really hope that you will check it out.
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