by Elle (link)
Genre het, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/OFC
Length 28 chapters
Status Completed (with in progress sequel)
Georgia Peach is something of a novelty, at least for hanfics written these days. With nearly twenty years of “canon” to choose from, the This Time Around era hasn’t been a popular setting since it was the current day. Although Elle plays a bit fast and loose with the canon details, this setting makes for a nice little teenage drama premise.
With a few diversions to Zac’s perspective, the story largely centers around the original female character, Georgia. She has a rather tragic backstory, but it remains in the past, providing only a little drama for the actual plot. Georgia herself is a funny, sassy character, and her relationship with Zac is inevitable given their immediate chemistry. Although the two don’t quite earn the comparison to Dally and Cherry, the allusion to The Outsiders is still fun and I wish Elle had done more with it. Still, Zac and Georgia’s progression from slow burn to first time is well paced and enjoyable to read.
It’s that first time that provides the last little bit of drama, but that’s all I’m going to say about that for fear of spoilers. The story ends on something of a twist and leaves things very, very open for a sequel–maybe a bit too open, but I trust that Elle will answer all of the questions she has left. While Georgia Peach does have a few odd inconsistencies, as well as some shifts in tense and point of view, Elle’s writing seems to become progressively better so that the end result is mostly positive. It’s just a bit more mature of a take on a plot that would feel right at home in the TTA era it’s set in, but the sequel promises to shake things up.
Review by Bethany (website)