by Shawna (link)
Genre het, romance, comedy
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/Kate
Length 29 chapters
Status Completed (first in a series)
Romcoms are a genre I tend to judge harshly, because they’re a dime a dozen in hanfic and not one of my favorites, in or out of hanfic. At first blush, I wasn’t impressed by Dreamgirl, but by the second chapter I was at least enjoying the Hanson side of it.
The story alternates by chapter between Hannah and Isaac’s points of view, and while Hannah isn’t exactly a Mary Sue, I find Ike’s narration more engaging and witty. The characters in his life, even those I wasn’t already familiar with, are better developed and easier for me to care about than any of Hannah’s large extended family–or even Hannah herself. Not being able to care about the female protagonist is a big strike against a story.
She does grow on me a bit over time, although her family doesn’t, but the story remains free of most major drama or plot developments beyond the natural progression of Hannah and Ike’s relationship. The sideplot that deals with Zac and Kate’s rocky relationship is actually a bit more interesting to me, but Shawna couldn’t have telegraphed a future relationship between him and Lexie–an employee of 3CG–any louder than she did, and it gets a bit annoying.
Annoying is a pretty good word for this story. Between the sometimes witty, sometimes tryhard dialogue, Taylor being a bit of a caricature of himself and the constant mentions of Hanson’s teenie fans, there’s a lot here than makes me roll my eyes. Still, Dreamgirl isn’t all bad. What does happen is well plotted and paced, and when Shawna nails her attempts at comedy, she really nails it. The fact that the story begins and ends with a wedding should be cheesy, but it actually works… and leaves me wondering where the sequel is going.
Review by Bethany (website)