by Cyndi and Kate (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 34 chapters
Status Completed (with sequel)
The summary for this story makes it look like a fairly typical chick lit sort of story. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I will admit it isn’t my favorite genre. The reviews are good, though, so I’m hopeful that Cyndi and Kate can take a fairly blah premise and make a good story out of it.
I’m immediately struck by the shortness of the chapters and even the paragraphs. That seems to improve as the story goes on, but it’s also peppered with Australian-isms that are a bit hard to ignore. I know it’s difficult to erase those things from your writing, but it still throws me a bit. I’m also struck by how cynical the narrator, Akira, is. The sudden switch to Zac’s point of view, both in first and third oddly, doesn’t really help much; it’s just jarring.
After a while, the switches in point of view start to work. I like a story where both characters, not just the original female ones, have drama to work through. Zac’s mostly revolves around Taylor’s divorce and custody battle, but it’s still something and it gives his character a little something to keep him from being entirely flat. Akira, however, continues to be fairly cynical and hard to relate to. The title is highly appropriate, obviously.
In fact, the title is very appropriate. Not only does Zac give Akira a mix cd with that title, but it seems to me that each chapter at least attempts to follow the plot of the song it takes its title from. I’m not certain about that; maybe the chapters came first and then the musical titles. Either way, there was some care taken with the chapter titles and the story’s theme. If the chapters were a bit longer and didn’t skip over some of the more emotional portions of the tale, Soundtrack For A Cynical Mind would be a very good read.
Review by Bethany (website)