by Jenn (link)
Genre het, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC
Length 15 chapters
Status Completed
Sometimes, all you need is a sweet little bit of teenage chick lit. It’s certainly a genre hanfic has specialized in over the years, and Harmony falls perfectly into that category.
Jenn’s story is narrated by Melody, who finds herself working an internship at Harmony Records, a small studio that is lucky enough to land a contract with none other than Hanson. Although we learn that Melody is a Hanson fan and a very musical person herself, her character is still oddly blank for a first person narrator. Even by the end of the story, I don’t feel that I’ve gotten to know her very well.
I’m also a little unsure about the studio’s owner, an older man who seems manic at times and awkwardly confesses to a crush on Melody after she runs off to be with Isaac in spite of her boss forbidding her to do so. Even then, none of these characters feel quite real, and I just don’t know how I feel about them or for them.
Some of this, I think, can be attributed to Jenn’s tendency to skip ahead in time and only summarize what should be important events. Still, her writing is quite solid. It has a good sense of atmosphere that is just a bit nostalgic now, but not enough to feel stuck in its time. With a some more fleshing out of ideas and turning characters into more than sketches, a story like Harmony (or anything else Jenn chose to write) could be really good.
Review by Bethany (website)