Daniel’s Reviews > but always in tandem > Status Update

Are you going to keep going? That's the end of the first book, and Georgie's story isn't finished, so it just — stops.

I think I probably will. I'm exhausted though, haven't been getting enough sleep, so I'll decide tomorrow. Looks like she's left Georgie hanging for a year now?

Possibly even longer...? When the pandemic hit, she ended up focusing on the feel-good stories, so lots of Impaired Judgment and It's a Setup got written, and Always in Tandem got put on the back shelf.

That's frustrating :(

So, Georgie's part felt a bit... flat? Like, too much time going by feeling like something big should happen, but nothing happening.

It didn't register with me that way at the time, but I see what you mean. That flatness was indicative of his internal state, and actually something big did happen to him — (view spoiler)[moving on (hide spoiler)] — but only part of his story is written, so who knows might be coming up next? (Unfortunately I know more than I want to about that, aaaaaaaagggh I hate being spoiled. 😡)

But it is just a WIP, after all. TF has commented on something she thinks she needs to improve/do differently when rewriting it for publication. I've wondered how the hell someone can write in serial form and have it hang together as well as her stuff usually does, so it was an interesting insight into her process.

I don't really buy that either of them is ever moving on, and like ok, sure (view spoiler)[ they've both got long term relationships with other people, but also, she's already said those end, (hide spoiler)] so... hehehehehe

And didn't she say somewhere her attempts to write hate sex have all failed?

What I am kind of amazed/horrified by is her apparent tendency to give out random future info and make it canon in a way that is almost certainly going to box her in and/or implies she's got entire the entire lifetimes of literally dozens and dozens of characters planned out already which just boggles the mind.

As for spoilers, the stories are so interconnected that it seems like there's no possible way you could come into this world and avoid spoilers even if you miraculously managed to read all of the stories in chronological order without once ever looking at the wiki or tumblr.

Some of her side stories have been rendered non-canon by later developments in the main stories. So that lends a kind of wild-card quality to future developments — like, things are expected to go one way but may actually not. That's what happened with Impaired Judgment — it was one of those intended hate sex stories, but it went its own merry way regardless.

It does boggle the mind, though. So many main characters and secondary characters and minor characters, interlinked and interacting, some of them being followed for 30 years or more...

Re these two guys, I just can't see (view spoiler)[it working out for them. She did a fantastic job of convincing me that they need to go their separate ways. Some broken things can't be fixed. That's just a fact. So if she DOES succeed in convincingly reuniting them, I'm going to be in awe. Which is a feeling I very much enjoy getting from books (hide spoiler)].

That's good to know. It's kind of hard for me to see any reason for this one to continue if that's not the plan. It's just random slice of life at that point. It could have stopped after Robbie's part. I actually think where it's paused right now (view spoiler)[ is actually almost a perfect end if the point's just Georgie's moved on. Robbie helping him limp out to finish the final game. Credit's roll. We get a roar, and little snippets throughout the credits that let us know they take the cup, Georgie retires w his shattered ankle/foot whatever. (hide spoiler)]

And yeah, I just can't imagine all that detail, I can't bring myself to care about those kinds of little pre-post story details from my own MCs, much less any secondaries.

I'm convinced (view spoiler)[she plans to give them an HEA, it's just that I'm not onboard with the prospect. But I'm intrigued at the possibility that she could win me over. It's gonna be a hard sell, but if she succeeds in converting me I will be very impressed. And will definitely enjoy the ride. (hide spoiler)] :)

👍 now I have to figure out what's next up, big pile on the short list

Good luck!