by Stephanie (link)
Genre het, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length prologue, 37 chapters
Status Completed (second story in The Cleo Trilogy)
I’ll admit, I didn’t have any strong feelings about the first story in this trilogy. I understood why others liked it, but nothing about it, aside from a few strong emotional moments, really stood out to me. For that reason, I doubt the sequel will do much for me, but you never know. Stephanie wrote the series over a long period of time, which I hope will mean that it improves, as writing often does over time.
From the start, I don’t see a huge change between the first story and this one. Cleo is still a strange mixture of stubbornness and witty narration, and the boys are still giant brats. The story’s biggest saving grace is Diana’s wonderful, sarcastic but nurturing personality. The addition of a stubborn, “evil” love interest for Zac doesn’t hurt, either.
As for Stephanie’s writing, I can’t see a huge improvement, although there are some turns of phrase that I really love. At times, she relies a little too heavily on dream sequences and flashbacks. The flashbacks mostly serve a purpose, but the dreams sometimes don’t. A lot of the story’s drama comes from Cleo dealing with her past, but there are a few new and interesting plot twists, such as the fans’ reaction to Cleo and Zac’s not-quite-relationship with the new babysitter, that I find more interesting than Cleo’s tragic past.
That said, the story drops most of those interesting elements and storylines in favor of the same old back and forth, juvenile drama. Nothing gets resolved until the very last chapters, and even then, I feel like several plot threads have been left hanging. Of course, there is still one more (unfinished) story. I still haven’t formed much of an attachment to the characters, though, but I’ll be interested to see what–if anything–Stephanie does with those dangling threads.
Review by Bethany (website)