The History of Now by Chicklette

Official Description:

Life is a song, and love is the music. An FBG fic for Bookjunkie1975. Bella and Jasper, no Alice, no Edward.

Word Count: 22,245

Something In Her Style

I’ve had the pleasure of being a reader, fan, beta, and most importantly, friend of Chicklette’s for a while now, and I’m thrilled to be allowed to give this review for her latest, The History of Now. It was Chicklette’s Get Me to You, that made me fall in love with Jella, and this new story solidifies that love

In GMTY, Chicklette brought the ferocity and drama of high school to the fore, and gave us fully realized, if no longer idealized, adaptations of the canon players in Twilight. In The History of Now, Chicklette gives us the grown up versions of who these people can be. They are young, albeit not teenagers, and are still making their way, finding themselves and their places in the world, but this story is all about Jasper and Bella—the rest of the crew are just along for the ride, although they provide quiet support.

Conveyed entirely in Jasper’s voice, The History of Now, covers several years, and is by turns fun, heartbreaking, bittersweet, and beautiful. Chicklette’s writing is, in a word, gorgeous. She infuses the simplest scenes, the most elemental moments with a quiet gravitas, and a deep understanding of the people that populate them. When Jasper finds himself drawn to Bella at the beginning, we’re swept up in the beauty he sees, the need he feels, the as yet elusive and unknown love that is blooming.

I want to unbutton her shirt, see her bare in this soft, dawning light. I want to look at her, take her in, so that maybe someday I can spin her back out, write her into words, into song, so that the whole world can see how she shines.

In this story Jasper is in a band with Peter, Charlotte, Emmett and Riley. Bella doesn’t date musicians and when they first meet, Jasper isn’t even impressed by her. Of course, a single night can change everything, and in this case it changes the course of their lives. Yet, one of the things I adore about this story is that both Jasper and Bella become successful adults, without each other. There is no co-dependent relationship here, although there is fallout, but more importantly, there is love, need, a sense of purpose and place in the world.

That night, we go to her place and there in her bed, with the smell of clean linen all around me, we make love. It’s desperate and slow, it’s urgent and gentle. When I come with my face in the crook of her neck, and she clutches me tight with her small hands, the canted world becomes right.

The History of Now is where present and past collide, where dreams come true, and in Chicklette’s hands it’s simply beautiful. Go, read it, and when you do, put on Abbey Road and think to yourself, here comes the sun, because baby? It’s all right.

(Something and Here Comes the Sun are both off the Beatle’s Abbey Road album)

I really loved this story. The History of Now, is a great insight on how love and music can easily combine together; and how it can be all encompassing to those who experience it. The story enraptured me from the very beginning, successfully stealing my breath away.

First with the way Jaspers annoyance at the brisk woman he saw before him quickly melted into something else as he saved her from that man in the café to the all consuming lust-confusion he experienced when they were both trapped on the roof. I enjoy how the story unfolds and develops their relationship, making it seem like the happiness would never end yet always subtly hinting at a soon to be change, when she isn’t straight out telling us this story will be taking a different route like she does at the end of chapter two,

“Years from now, I’ll look back on this moment with the kind of clarity that only distance brings, and I’ll understand that this is the moment when everything changed.

This is the moment that I lost her.”

There are other instances where she points out how their relationship will obviously not work with Bella being in one spot constantly while he is on tour to her being accepted into a university that changes the course of their relationship.

Chapter four is a great change; it’s expected yet at the same time unexpected. It seems that Jasper has taken the same route all rock stars at one point take, that life down the hard road where drugs, sex and liquor is all that matters, and it appears as if there is no hope for him. Oh but wait, when Jasper tries to escape from the life he seems to feel trapped in and find clarity who is it that he runs into except our sweet little Bella?

“”What’cha got there, little girl?”

And there it is. Her teeth grab onto her lower lip and then she turns and squints up at me. I get caught up in her warm, brown eyes and then she’s smiling, and then she’s hugging me.

“Holy hell! Jasper Whitlock, what are you doing here?”

I shrug and give her a squeeze, then pull away to really look at her. She’s the same, but she’s different. She’s…grown. Not taller, but she looks more like a woman and less like a girl.”

It almost seems as if its fate, finally Jasper’s twisted little path will right itself out! Oh but no, this isn’t so. While yes Jasper does have his ‘coming to Jesus’ moment and cleans up his act it does not seem to be written in the stars for these two lovers. For he returns back to his band and she to her school of art. It seems Chicklette officially crushed our hopes with this in the following chapters as we watch Jasper try and let go of something it seems was never his as Bella seems to move on happily with her life.

Yet, then there is yet another twist, Jasper finally starts writing his own music. Didn’t Bella pester him about this in the very beginning? It seems now that not only has he finally found the words and melody he needs but that he is ready to take that giant step and play for his fans, to be accepted by everyone except in his eyes, not by the one he wants to hear the music most. As far as he knows, the one he wrote the music for isn’t really listening, but oh, she is.

And thus we see that there may be hope for these two love birds as Jasper and Bella practically fall into each other’s arms after the show, after Jasper’s return to the hotel. And even with their uncertain future they both seem very content to just make it work for being away from each other was not working. The last sentence gives off this hope that even if everything else falls apart around them they will both be happy with just each other, which leaves the reader with a happy sense of peace of mind (: Knowing that everything will be just fine,

“I have a show tomorrow night – a small place not far from the house, but it’s sold out. I don’t know what they’re going to want from me. It’s just me and my guitar, me and my words. I hope that they’ll love it, that they’ll still love me, but even if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. She loves me, and that’s all I need.”

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of Bella x Jasper fics, but I was surprised by how much I really liked The History of Now by Chicklette. I was immediately impressed with the way she brings the reader in, as if we are just joining in on an adventure in progress. The characters are well-developed, and I got sucked into the first chapter feeling like I’d just started watching a really great TV show mid-season, and I immediately in on everything I’d missed.

At first, Jasper doesn’t like Bella at all:

“I’m ready to tear this bitch apart. From the minute we walked in she treated us like we were scum, and I’ve about had my fill. Who is she to look down on us? She doesn’t even know us.”

I’m always interested to see how a love-hate plot develops, and this author truly does it with style. By the end of the first chapter, they’ve already spent an evening trapped on a roof together, their simple connection reminding me of the sweet excitement of high school summer love.

“I dip my mouth back to her neck again, and kiss. And then again. And then again. I kiss the warm and smooth of her until I feel her start to arch in my arms, pressing her ass into my hips and pressing her head back, into my shoulder. I want to unbutton her shirt, see her bare in this soft, dawning light. I want to look at her, take her in, so that maybe someday I can spin her back out, write her into words, into song, so that the whole world can see how she shines.”

By the second chapter, Jasper and Bella are building a slow simmering heat to a relationship filled with promise, until things start to go sour with their own budding careers taking off. And if I hadn’t already been taken in by Chicklette’s ability to create depth with her characters in plot in such a short time, it was her way with words that kept me in love with this fic. She has such a poetic style, shining through even in her citrus:

“And it’s not long before her fingers are in my hair, and I almost don’t notice because I am so consumed by this girl. This small girl who lays herself open to me, and hides behind nothing. This girl who rushes forward because she’s trying to catch up to me, and she doesn’t even know that I’m standing still, waiting.”

The entire story itself, complete in just four chapters, feels like a love story told in song. Through its ups and downs, choruses, bridges and codas, Chicklette weaves a tale that is well worth reading.

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