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Collide

by Amanda W. (link)

Genre het, romance
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/OFC
Length 10 chapters
Status Completed (with unfinished sequel)

Although I haven’t read a lot of Amanda’s writing, I know that she tends to write slash and cest. The fact that this story is actually het makes it stand out, and I’m curious to see what she does with something that I assume is a bit outside her comfort zone. The fact that it was written for the Genre Challenge only puts it more outside her comfort zone, and I know all to well how hard it can be to write what you want under the constraints of a challenge.

With the first chapter, Amanda does three things I don’t like — very quick point of view changes, very short sentences and paragraphs, and a very short chapter. It all comes across as very, very abrupt, which is never fun to read. She also relies on some cheesy epithets and other cliche phrases found in so many bad fics.

The chapters don’t get any longer as the story progresses, which makes the quick moving plot hard to follow. It’s no surprise to me at all, thanks to a few huge clues (including the summary), that Zac’s slightly mysterious blonde girlfriend Olivia is the same girl who wears a wig as the front woman of Hanson’s opening act. His relationship with her progresses insanely fast, culminating in a sex scene after he confesses to why his relationship with Kate ended (a baby that wasn’t his), followed by a hasty breakup and an even hastier reconciliation.

It’s all pretty much par for the course in any het romance, and I have to wonder if Amanda wasn’t trying to pander to her audience a bit too much. The whole thing ends in a hasty (are you detecting a theme here?) proposal and the not at all surprising revelation that Zac and Olivia are going to have a baby. What a sequel to this can possibly hold, I have no clue, but I’m not excited to find out. Amanda could have done so much more with the “split personality” plot, but Collide doesn’t even come close to living up to such a unique, if cheesy, concept.

Review by Bethany (website)