by Abby Young and Charlotte (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Taylor/OFC, Zac/Kate, Zac/OFC
Length 67 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed (with prequel, sequel and unfinished spin-off)
Ten Years and Muses is a story I chose to read because of how popular it seems to be, it has some what of a following that you’d find in a MON era story and after reading this I can see why. Because it has so many MON era cliches and basically the story is all one big cliche in the end.
It may be the cliches that make it so popular but it is also the cliches that kind of overkill it at times too. I guess I should really start with what I don’t like about the story before going with what I do. I wasn’t much of a fan of the fact that Drew and Mel both seem like self inserts of the authors nor do I like how Mel seems to be slight Mary Sue and slight Wonder Woman in the fact that she holds way too many titles. An ex-cop, A writer for the Times, also helps with 3CG and music related stuff…and even briefly does some singing. I half wish they would have given Mel just one thing and stuck with it cause all of the others just seemed a bit too much and like Mel was just supposed to be this perfect little person in spit of her flaws.
I also really wasn’t a huge fan of the dropped story lines with Drew’s supposed psychic feelings not to mention Mel’s gay best friend who just seems to go off and is never seen again. The other major issue I had was timeline mess ups. By titling the story as Ten Years and Muses and setting it in 2013 it really gives the story a concrete timeline. Mel and Taylor broke up in 2002 and meet again in 2013, something that could make sense if he wasn’t with Natalie whom I get the gist he met in 2002 when it’s well known that they met in 2000 so it really just throws the whole story off and maybe it would have been better for the authors just to have made this whole thing an Alternate Universe and not a mix of AU and Canon.
But besides all of what I didn’t like it really did have some strong points too, like how well every character had chemistry with each other and it had a lot of amazing lines. Madden and Olivia are both good at writing some amazing lines and jokes and funny situations. Though to be honest I don’t know how much either of them wrote of this story but by the end it was purely just Madden who wrote it so I guess she deserves more credit here for most of the stuff that happens after a certain point and even without a coauthor her writing is just as strong and good.
I also liked how well Mel and Drew clicked as friends as compared to their relationship with the other characters.
The twist with Natalie was probably also a really good point of the story as I didn’t see it coming and I think it was taken care of nicely, though I really wasn’t a fan of what happened with Natalie and one of the OMC’s at the high school reunion. I’m just not a huge fan of almost rape scenes and I kind of wish Madden had put a trigger warning on that chapter because some innocent person who has issues with rape scenes or almost rape scenes could end up having a panic attack or something and that wouldn’t be good.
I may also be just a bit disappointed that Drew didn’t end up with Zac in the end but I kind of loved the fake out of the epilogue in which it seemed like she was going to marry Zac but instead she was marrying Gerard and it was a sweet gesture that Zac was able to give her away after everything.
In the end the story did come full circle so I’m kind of interested to see what a sequel holds as I feel this could have stood alone without one.
But to end this review if you are a fan of cliches and well written lines as well as some really hot smut then I’d suggest this story and all in all I’d give it three out of five stars if this were a book review.
Review by Elizabeth (tumblr)