by Miss Dodger Blue (link)
Genre het, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 40 chapters
Status Completed (with sequel)
I was immediately put off by the basic premise of this story. Frankly, I expected more creativity and less Mary Sue from a story from this era. Imagine my disappointment to find that the story begins with a very young protagonist, Trish, meeting the Hansons when she moves in next door.
The story skips forward a few years, giving a few glimpses of their growing friendship, and building up her character. She’s best friends with all three boys, of course, but especially Taylor, who seems to love her more than he loves any of his girlfriends. She’s just that special, I guess. Soon, Zac begins to show feelings for her, too. Like I said — she’s just that special.
There’s a reason this sort of plot has been written so many times. The idea of having two, even three, Hansons chasing after you? It just gets most of us right in our inner teenybopper hearts. The problem is doing this sort of plot well. Any stale old plot can be made new if the characters are good enough, and I’m afraid these just weren’t. With a few exceptions, mostly on Zac’s part, I found that I just couldn’t relate to any of them. Their emotions didn’t ring true, and that made it really hard to care what happened to them.
The ending was hardly an ending at all, but that came as no surprise, since I already knew there was a sequel. A good series (or two-part story) should fit together like pieces of a puzzle, but each piece should also be able to stand on its own. Given the near complete lack of resolution, I can’t say that this one really stands up without its second part.
Even after the last chapter, I wasn’t sure how I felt about Miss Dodger Blue’s execution. There was something that I liked about it, but I can’t quite put my finger on what. Was it the handful of humorous scenes, such as Taylor wearing a hot pink bra? Was it the surprising emotional depth of one or two scenes? I don’t know. I’m not on the edge of my seat for the next story, but I’m also not slamming my laptop shut and wishing I’d never read the first. Mostly, I just feel apathetic about Oklahoma Living. But I suppose there are worse ways to feel.
Review by Bethany (website)