by Dusty (link)
Genre slash/cest, drama, angst
Pairings Taylor/OMC, Zac/OMC, Zaylor
Length 48 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
Although Along For The Ride ends in a bit of a trite way–the revelation that the story has been Taylor’s novel documenting the events–Dusty handles the transition to Zac narrating the sequel well. He’s a confusing character, so I’m glad to see a story from his point of view.
Hitting The Blacktop begins quite a bit of exposition, which isn’t such a bad thing, but the plot does seem to move slowly for quite a while. Even though a few big things happen in the early chapters, those chapters are short enough that it all seems to take a long time to build up steam. It’s similar to the first story in that respect, and in how there’s one big event about halfway through that changes everything.
Unlike Along For The Ride, however, there’s a lot of external conflict here, and until that halfway point, it seems to drive the story. After that, the characters–or, at least, Taylor and Zac–are forced to re-confront all the internal conflict that got them where they are now. It’s that unresolved internal conflict that drives the second half of the story, which is easily the more interesting half. Just because the conflict is internal doesn’t mean it’s boring; I actually find that more interesting than random tragedies being thrown at the characters.
The ending is a bit rushed, if you ask me. I can’t see Hitting The Blacktop playing out any other way, but after everything, the ultimate conclusion of it all could have been drawn out a bit more and not given the summary treatment that the opening got. With some editing and a little more work with pacing, though, Dusty would have an even better story than the one preceding it.
Review by Bethany (website)