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A review by mayankamal18
The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to be in Love by Tui
3.0
Mixed emotions; do I want to give it two stars or four stars?
Let's lay the facts nice and simple:
The plot is exactly my cup of tea. The sequence of events is -mwah, chef's kiss.
Bu-u-u-ut, the character growth falls short and that's the stories most fatal flaw.
Honestly these bl writers (romance writers in general to be more accurate) need to take courses on healthy non-toxic relationships, maybe get a minor in consent, and some good old elementary lessons about blatant racist depictions, but if you turn the other cheek (and pretend that Violet and Alice's story line never existed, or create a completely different background about them and convince yourself that that's cannon) then everything's fine.
I don't know what it is, but something is missing, and I don't know how to explain it. Like I'm so convinced that minor tweaks to the story are enough to raise it up to 5 stars.
-Rewrite all the 18+ scenes to be consensual
-Make Du Ze more talkative to create a semblance of chemistry between the two main characters and make us believe they have a reason to fall in love.
-Give Xiu a redemption arc? Maybe change a bit of his defining characteristic traits? Show us a real change in the paranoid insecure child we met at the beginning of the story? Make us want to root for him and not feel that Du Ze is an idiot for always supporting him?
I don't know these are a few suggestions off the top of my head. This isn't saying I didn't enjoy the story, because I did. I just wish the editor or author or someone realized that some very obvious things like (alice and violet being sisters) or the elves "blackening" or the dragon cave scene should be plainly omitted.
Let's lay the facts nice and simple:
The plot is exactly my cup of tea. The sequence of events is -mwah, chef's kiss.
Bu-u-u-ut, the character growth falls short and that's the stories most fatal flaw.
Honestly these bl writers (romance writers in general to be more accurate) need to take courses on healthy non-toxic relationships, maybe get a minor in consent, and some good old elementary lessons about blatant racist depictions, but if you turn the other cheek (and pretend that Violet and Alice's story line never existed, or create a completely different background about them and convince yourself that that's cannon) then everything's fine.
I don't know what it is, but something is missing, and I don't know how to explain it. Like I'm so convinced that minor tweaks to the story are enough to raise it up to 5 stars.
-Rewrite all the 18+ scenes to be consensual
-Make Du Ze more talkative to create a semblance of chemistry between the two main characters and make us believe they have a reason to fall in love.
-Give Xiu a redemption arc? Maybe change a bit of his defining characteristic traits? Show us a real change in the paranoid insecure child we met at the beginning of the story? Make us want to root for him and not feel that Du Ze is an idiot for always supporting him?
I don't know these are a few suggestions off the top of my head. This isn't saying I didn't enjoy the story, because I did. I just wish the editor or author or someone realized that some very obvious things like (alice and violet being sisters) or the elves "blackening" or the dragon cave scene should be plainly omitted.