by Montana (link)
Genre het, romance
Pairings Taylor/OFC
Length 30 chapters
Status Completed
The introduction for this story rather defensively states that Montana isn’t one for prologues, and so the story just… begins. She’s not wrong. I don’t think either way — a prologue or in medias res — is objectively better. They both serve different purposes for different stories. The harsh switch, within just a few paragraphs, from first person to third, however, serves no purpose whatsoever.
Montana certainly wasn’t kidding when she said the story just begins. By the end of the first chapter, we’ve heard a loving description of Taylor’s beauty and Taylor himself is making (at least in his own mind) declarations of love. It’s pretty easy to see that this is heading into typical romance story territory.
Perhaps it’s not quite so typical for 1998, though. By the third chapter, things are getting rather explicitly sexual. I was prepared for that, thanks to Montana’s warning, but I can imagine it being quite controversial back in the day. I’m not quite sure what I would have thought if I had read Blond Over Blue at the tender age of 11. I imagine it would have been very different from what I think of it today, though.
Blond Over Blue is one of those stories that sort of frustrates me because I can see how it could be so much better than what it is. The random point of view changes continue throughout, the grammar and syntax are often questionable, and there are occasionally mile long paragraphs. The plot itself isn’t inherently flawed, though, despite somewhat of a Mary Sue leading lady. It reminds me of The Notebook, in a way, so I can’t dislike it entirely. A more nuanced take on this story by an author with a better grasp on the basic mechanics of writing could have yielded something really great. As it is, it alternates wildly between great, okay and kind of awful.
Review by Bethany (website)