by Abby Young (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/Kate
Length prologue, 43 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
Love triangles are a staple of chick lit and especially of hanfic. Usually in hanfic, the triangle involves Taylor and Zac, but Madden flips the script a bit by casting Taylor and Isaac as the love interests in Panic In The Streets.
That’s only the beginning of the changes Madden has made not just to the love triangle trope but to the characters themselves. Picturing Isaac as a womanizer isn’t that much of a stretch, although this character’s actions and the reasons behind them involve quite a bit of creative license. Speaking of creative license, I can hardly buy Taylor as the shy one at all. He might be a lovable character, but he isn’t the Taylor I know.
Perhaps because I could see Isaac’s inner thoughts, I had trouble relating to Winn and finding his behavior very romantic. Even if he wasn’t the Taylor I know and love, and even if he did stupidly keep his feelings to himself for far too long, I definitely found myself rooting for him. The love triangle plot is usually fairly predictable, but Madden took this story down a few unexpected roads and managed to ratchet up the drama to just the right level.
I don’t mind a love triangle, and I love a good best-friends-becoming-more story, so there’s a lot in Panic In The Streets for me to like. If you like those things too, and like your chick lit with plenty of drama but a little more down-to-earth than total wish fulfillment (but still plenty of steamy sex scenes), I think you’ll like this one, too.
Review by Bethany (website)