by Shannon (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/Kate
Length 22 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed (with sequel)
While stories titled after Hanson songs can be a bit cheesy, Shannon goes all in with Love Song, even naming the main character after the girl in the song, and it very nearly works.
Mary and Isaac, unsurprisingly, dated when they were teenagers, but it didn’t work out for reasons that Mary is loathe to discuss. That secret dangles over our heads for a few chapters, with Shannon even coyly having Mary and Taylor discuss it in between chapters so that the readers are still left hanging. It’s not a bad plot device, and never really becomes annoying. It also isn’t terribly surprising when it is eventually revealed, and it’s a refreshing change from how that sort of plot is usually handled in hanfics.
Also unsurprisingly, Mary and Isaac get back together shortly after finally discussing their big secret, and the remaining chapters deal with Mary meeting his family all over again and becoming a part of his life again, with little to no drama. Her family’s disapproval of the relationship is only briefly mentioned, so I hope it becomes more of a plot point in the second story.
While Shannon’s chapters are short and she does have trouble sticking to one tense at times, her writing is solid enough to sustain at least this length of a story. With just a bit of editing, such as making sure the flashback scenes are set apart from the rest of the text and lengthening the chapters, Love Song could be a sweet, if at times cheesy, little story. The sequel will, I hope, improve upon it.
Review by Bethany (website)