by Nadine and Candice (link)
Genre het, drama/angst, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC
Length prologue, 19 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
Sometimes it’s really refreshing to go into a review totally blind. While I had seen this story around enough for the name to be very familiar — hence it ending up on my to read list — I didn’t really know anything about it. Was it popular? Well written? Worth my time? I can’t answer the first, the second is a no and I’m a little undecided on the last.
The prologue sets up an interesting premise — a girl who has completely lied and changed her identity to hide a secret that she didn’t even realize affected her boyfriend Taylor. The writing is a bit bland, and the spelling and grammar need some work, even ignoring differences in dialect. Also, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to relate to this character as a first person narrator. Morally gray characters are interesting, but this girl seems worse than that. It’s pretty obvious, then, where the title Unforgivable Sin comes from and I have to say, it’s pretty appropriate.
I’ve read several stories that use the plot device of a prologue set in the future, and a narrative that then catches up with the prologue. It doesn’t quite work here, though. The sloppy narrating is to blame for that; the first person narrator is sometimes privy to information she shouldn’t be, and on some occasions, the story switches to third person. I’m sure there are authors who can make those changes work, but I don’t care for them here at all.
I do think there’s a decent plot somewhere in Unforgivable Sin. It’s a bit contrived and the ending leaves a lot unresolved, but the basic plot could be full of the sort of soap opera drama that so many people enjoy. Unfortunately, I think the poor writing overshadows that. If the entire story had been in third person and the main character had been given more of a shot at redemption, it would have been a much different and much better story.
Review by Bethany (website)