by Renee Ducharme (link)
Genre het, romance, drama/angst, thriller
Pairings Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 116 chapters in 5 books
Status Unfinished
This is a long story. It is, technically, five books, although the fifth book is far from finished. Since they all bear the same title, I’m reading it all as one, but this review may still be quite long in order to cover all my thoughts about the four complete books.
The first book begins in a rather cliche manner, with Zac and his female best friend — who is of course quite talented and accomplished herself — rollerblading. In fact, it feels a lot like Renee was trying to include as many cliches as possible. I suppose in the early days of the fandom, we didn’t know the guys the way we do now; you either worked off the information given to you by the teenybopper mags or you made their characters up entirely. There’s a certain charm to all the cliches, somehow, in spite of the short chapters and less than polished writing.
As for the plot, it’s about as cliche as you would expect — Zac’s talented best friend gets a record deal with Mercury and begins to fall for Taylor. Even an older, experienced author would struggle to keep that from being a cheesy plot, and I feel confident in saying Renee was a very young author. The love triangle, the over-the-top backstory for Dacia, the random bits of fashion and pop culture shoehorned into every chapter… it’s all a bit too much for me. When the authors notes and random switches to journal entries from the main characters happened, I really had to force myself to keep reading. Luckily for you guys, I rarely stop reading a story once I begin.
Near the end of the first book, things turn a lot more dramatic. Again, it’s a plot that an older author could have pulled off, but I’m not so happy with the way Renee did it. And not surprisingly, Dacia is with Zac, not Taylor, by the end. The second book follows the same formula as the first — a lot of typical teenage drama, then a sudden “thriller” sort of plot near the end. The same goes for book three, although four sticks mostly with the drama. I won’t say Choices is entirely without potential, but Renee’s writing leaves a lot to be desired. I’d love to see a more nuanced take on a similar plot, with a very, very different ending.
Review by Bethany (website)