by Rebekah (link)
Genre het, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/Kate, Zac/OFC
Length prologue, 10 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
I somehow managed to miss this story the first time around, but a reader once confused part of its plot with one of my own stories. For whatever reason, stories where Zac has an affair are a dime a dozen. As it’s one of my favorite tropes — I’ve written it twice — I’m more than a little curious to see how Rebekah handles it, although I have faith in her.
Although I’m often not a fan of introspective, exposition-filled prologues, Rebekah does an exceptional job with this one. It perfectly creates the suspense for the rest of the story, leaving me wondering just what this rubicon moment for Zac was. Just as he said, the defining moment was a small decision, but it set in motion a snowball effect that changed his entire life.
People often complain that the females in hanfic always have tragic back stories. Although Raleigh’s is revealed early on and is part of what draws Zac to her, it’s his family’s history that’s maybe even more intriguing, and serves to balance things out so that it isn’t just a story of a Hanson falling for a broken little girl. I like that balance.
No one in this story is perfect, not even the narrator, which is something difficult for an author to pull off. Although I rooted for a happy ending, I can see why one just wasn’t really in the cards. Rubicon covers a lot of ground, sometimes a little too quickly, but its ten lengthy chapters are still deeply moving. If I have any complaints at all, it’s that the dialogue, while often incredibly snappy, is sometimes confusing and I can’t quite tell who is speaking. On the whole, though, that’s a very minor issue for such an engaging story.
Review by Bethany (website)