by Shelby (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 26 installments
Status Unfinished
Sometimes I go into stories completely blind. I get the idea that this is a het story, but other than that, I don’t know what to expect at all. The main character, evidently, is a songwriter, which I find a little off-putting in how cliche it has the potential to be, but I’m willing to keep an open mind and keep reading.
The first chapter introduces Zac’s character, who is introspective and different from the Zac I imagine at age sixteen. The writing is strong, though, and his character is very distinct from Delia’s, even though the story’s narration is split between them, Taylor, Jess and Nicole. The writing, particularly the dialogue, is a bit stilted at times, but overall good.
There’s a sense of foreboding throughout the first several installments. At times, Shelby smacks you over the head with her foreshadowing, and it gets a little annoying. It’s hard to focus on the present when you’ve already been told something bad is coming in the future.
If They Knew is the definition of a slow burn. Since it’s unfinished, so is a lot of the drama. At the very least, the love triangle seems to have worked itself out at the point where Shelby stopped writing, and that’s enough to give the story a somewhat satisfying ending. The rest of the drama is left on more uncertain grounds, though. Throughout, the writing remains fairly stilted and Shelby occasionally misuses certain words, but overall it’s still fairly strong writing. It’s enough to get an emotional response out of me, anyway, and that says a lot about how good a story is, if you ask me.
Review by Bethany (website)