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Song to Sing

by Amanda W. (link)

Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/Kate, Zac/OFC
Length prologue and 12 chapters
Status Unfinished (second in a series)

Although I actually liked Amanda’s concept for the story that comes before this one, Collide, I wasn’t entirely impressed by her execution. I’m not expecting this story to be more than some dramatic but unnecessary continuation, but perhaps Amanda will surprise me.

The biggest drama, hinted at in the summary, takes place in the very first chapter. There’s no build up, no anticipation, just their world crashing down on them suddenly. From there, Amanda resumes the same practically breakneck speed that made it so hard for me to connect to the story the first time around. At least in Song to Sing the chapters and paragraphs are (mostly) longer, and there are moments when the dialogue feels very real and helps me to come closer to connecting to the characters and the story. The switches in point of view, especially the switches to Taylor, stand in the way of that because of their abruptness, but this story gets much closer to succeeding in dredging up emotions in me than its predecessor did.

Once again, I’m not surprised by the twist that Amanda throws in, one that I felt was hinted at in Collide but never fully realized. Still, it creates drama that keeps the story from being all about Olivia’s mental health, a topic that I know Amanda enjoys writing, but which can really bog a story down and be depressing. The second twist, if it can be called that, seems to completely contradict something that was mentioned in the first story, and just leaves me confused and completely thrown out of the story — so much so that I had go back and reread to make sure that it did not, in fact, contradict the first story. The third twist brings me back to the land of unsurprised, and even though the story doesn’t actually end, the place where it stops is a decent enough ending for what is a pretty scattered story.

Review by Bethany (website)