Review: Great debut for Sydney Lane
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2013
Books revolving around love triangles are simultaneously the most fascinating and frustrating stories to read, and Sydney Lane's debut novel, Choices, is no exception. Fans of Metamorphosis by Erin Noelle and Taking Chances by Molly McAdams will delight in the hot manwich in which protagonist Quincy Priest unwittingly finds herself stuck in the middle. The constant tension - sexual or otherwise - surrounding Quincy and her two love interests, Brody and Declan, is stressful to say the least, with all the keeping of secrets and sneaking around. I couldn't help but race through the book, anxious to learn which of the guys Sydney chooses.Choices is the story of a small-town girl setting her first taste of freedom in college. After spending her life trying to be perfect and being overshadowed by her bipolar sister, Quincy wants to reinvent herself. What better way to do that then to become the object of not one, but two boys' affections. Like the heroines of Metamorphosis and Taking Chances, Quincy has zero experience with guys and is incredibly insecure, yet somehow finds herself torn between the quintessential bad boy, Brody, and the all-around good guy, Declan. Depending on which of the love interests Sydney was interacting with, I flitted back and forth between wanting to snap at her to stop stringing the two guys along, and then being sympathetic about how she's come to view herself in such a negative light, which contributes to her dilemma. I felt as though I was always on the edge, waiting for slowly simmering tension to boil over in a dramatic fashion.While I enjoyed reading Choices from Quincy's perspective, I feel the book would've benefitted from narratives by Declan and Brody. There are many instances where I would've loved to know the thoughts of either guy. It's not the fact that they aren't open with their feelings, but I wanted to know the reasoning behind the feelings they both professed to have for Quincy, especially when she doesn't have the greatest opinion of herself. With the recent trend of dual perspectives in books, I've become accustomed to learning the thoughts and motivations of both the male and female protagonists and I would've liked to be clued in a bit more about how exactly Quincy manages to capture the attentions of Brody and Declan with seemingly little effort on her part.As the story progresses, it becomes more difficult to forgive Quincy for her inability to choose between Brody and Declan. I empathized with the two guys, who are left to stand by while Quincy deals with the outside forces converging on her life, particularly because I had a clear choice as to who I ultimately wanted her to end up with. All of the worrying and nail biting I endured while reading Choices was forgotten the second I learned the identity of Quincy's choice, which is teased in the book's prologue. The epilogue is perhaps my favorite part of the book, if only because the mystery has been solved and I was finally free to appreciate Quincy's decision.