by Julie T. (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/OFC
Length 31 chapters
Status Completed (first in the Ten Years Trilogy)
The listed chapter count for this story is a bit misleading; Julie T. (also known as Motherbird) was one of those authors who posted several short chapters on a single page, all adding up to only about the length of one “normal” chapter. It’s a stylistic choice I don’t care for, but it does make for quick reading.
The writing is a little sloppy in a few other ways, as well. Julie slips tenses and perspectives a few times, and her punctuation isn’t the best. All of that makes it a little difficult to really get into the story, despite how interesting and different a story focused on Isaac at the beginning of the boys’ career seems.
Julie does have some genuinely good and unique ideas, but they get a bit muddled in the bad writing and take too long to pay off. Plus, a lot of the drama centers around Ike’s shyness, which keeps him from learning the truth about his new neighbor. His assumptions about her are nearly all false, and the reality is just on the verge of too dramatic to be believed. That sort of miscommunication is far from my favorite plot device, and I wish Julie had explored just why Isaac is so shy that he has to resort to practically stalking Kate (hence the title–he’s the obsessive one) and the connection the two finally feel when they realize they can relate to each other about feeling older than they are. I hope these ideas will explored more in the sequels…
Review by Bethany (website)