[SHORT REVIEWS] #14

The list of latest finds were mostly flops and I basically started them and then something happened (mainly with the characters' portrayal) along the way and I'm not into finishing.

Okay, let's begin.

代替姐姐嫁入豪门后 by 春风榴火

(mtl: After marrying the wealthy family instead of my sister)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Bai Yin was sent to the countryside by her father when she was seven, her mother couldn't live through betrayal of her husband and having an illegitimate daughter older than her own, she took her own life and Bai Yin witnessed it. Listening to his mistress her father sent her away. But now when they wanted to unite with the Qin family, the illegitimate daughter refused because of her stardom dreams, thus Bai Yin is taken back from the countryside to marry instead of her half-sister and in return the Su family will provide money to save her grandmother. Everyone thought that she is a rustic bumpkin, but actually Bai Yin was beautiful and full of charm. She came back with one goal. Revenge.

Status: dnf

Portrayal in this one is quite messed up and the setting and reasoning is really beyond. I may have never seen such long comments under the novel that marvel how old-fashioned and bad this is. And the only thought that crossed my mind while reading - Bai Yin is such a bitch.

Bai Yin lived with her grandma who is a master of embroidery, she is her maternal grandma. When her grandma was popular in the world, she actually lived a good life, but the death of her daughter made her cry her eyes out and she actually damaged her eyes. Her sons were too good at wasting money and now they lived in dire straits. How she taught Bai Yin embroidery is a secret, because it is said that she is basically half-blind. So they were having a hard life and I can understand why she wanted the revenge, since she witnessed her mother's death, but the ones at fault lived a happy life. And she even saw the illegitimate daughter on TV. But actually Bai Yin had talents like dancing and she also embroidered on a good level, she is quite good and could achieve success. She is described as very hard-working, although oblivious to world and even her own body (again, all because her grandma supposedly didn't care of her). So I don't understand why she was stuck with the idea of revenge from this angle and how she managed to continue to live a hard life with so many skills. Instead she agreed to the money transaction, but mostly it also involved marrying into wealthy, yet a marriage without love and also she managed to piss her future husband who also wanted to pay her back, like why would you risk it girl, your mother wouldn't like seeing you putting your body and well-being on the line. But she loved ML when she was young, he was also her first man, but author wrote him calling other girl's name when he was drunk and they had sex (this part according to comments was never explained). So her idea was not to ask who this A Yan was, but to pretend that she is a scheming bitch who plotted against him. Stupidest idea ever. And he lived with this notion about her for years. And even later when he helped her escape embarrassment during wedding and stepped into this trap she created, she really relied that he won't leave her to this second master of the Qin family who is so unworthy, but she still didn't step down or showed sincerity, this bitch actually said that she deserves it. Lol, I'm angry at her, fuck her, I'm dropping this, I feel sorry for ML who has such bad love and stupid author with no brains. It's so bad to know their marriage started because she used him for revenge. And she always talks how she loves him and wants to possess him, but she never said a word about wanting to erase the first love and become his new love instead. That would be powerful of her. Anyway, the content also does not correspond to the official summary on JJ, I felt so messed up about it and could agree that it felt weird. Why it has such high ranking, it totally doesn't deserve it. Hearing comments it's another novel when ML does many things, while FL is so heartless after that one night. We did not vibe with this one, so I put it down for good.

你是不是想赖账 by 图样先森

(mtl: Are you going to default on your payment?)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Sheng Ning is approached by a great CEO Wen Yan for her to help him persuade her sister to stop dating his brother. What a twister. Wen Yan's brother showed his rebellious side when he said that he will marry his girlfriend from a much poorer background. Wen Yan wanted to prevent this relationship, so he approached Sheng Ning to become partners in crime and break this pair of lovers. But instead they became a pair themselves.

Status: dnf

The official summary doesn't show you or explain to you that her sister is a gold digger who could dumb her bf at any second and her boyfriend was not much better, they are like two Kings of the Sea meeting each other.

Maybe I'm so outdated, but morally speaking, Shen Ning knew her sister dated men and actually those with better backgrounds for the sake of vanity, even if she acted cute with her sister, but Shen Ning did not comment on that. More than that, when she was approached she could have easily said - okay, but instead she offered an exchange, she will exchange a house for breaking her sister apart. I think she desrved to be cheated by ML when he brought the contract. Her sister was on this scheme too at first and later they switched to other things. Tbh it felt so random and both sister have questionable morals to me, because of that cheating of the house and fully knowing what your sister is doing and basically condoning it. Anyway, weird portrayal, randomest story, did not like it and left it like that. These days it's like a curse, I read like 10 chapters and judge the novel in this period and they all feel like having problems with female characters or the plot is simply random.

Next is a trio from 梦筱二

先婚后爱 (Marriage first, love later)

暗恋你的第七年 (Seventh year of secretly loving you)

你若南风 (If you are the south wind)

First two can be found on NU. They all come from inter-connected universe and basically all couples know each other and appear as characters in other novels, but as per usual not much.

I stumbled across Marriage first, love later. It is a pretty decent novel with two career-oriented adult people who enter the marriage through blind date and decided to treat each other well. What was truly a good part is that they truly communicated within this marriage instead of a pile of misunderstandings being written about them. Even if they had conflicts, the talked it through and solved it like champs. I thought it was decent. But nothing to swoon me. I completed it, but was not interested in continuing the next two novels I bookmarked from the same universe.

Seventh year of secretly loving you tell a story of Luo Qi whose successful fiance cheated on her right before the wedding and she is approached by her boss who offers to try it with him, because he loved her these years. I didn't bother to read it actually after the feeling the first novel got me was "you won't miss anything, if you won't read it" kind of vibe. Also, there was a comment that explained how many things that happened in the novel would nto happen in real life.

If you are the south wind is still an on-going novel. Tbh have no idea why you need to write about every couple. But it picks up a story about one of MLs friends from the first book, Jiang Sizun, who is in love with the girl, Xu Zhiyi, who was chased by his good friend, Qi Zhengchen. And you know that when your friend chases someone, as a good brother you don't chase the same person. But from the first book we know they end up together (?), because this good friend eventually married a secondary character from the first book, they were a pair of people who had their first unforgettable love and thought it would be fine if they get married. Btw, hated that character.. Zhong or Zhang Yanyue, she was a bitch. Why author wrote extras about her is beyond me.

结婚而已 by 蒋牧童

(mtl: Just got married)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Cheng Li found out that her boyfriend lives a double life, while he's dating her, he also pays attention to a wealthy lady. Cheng Li can't say she has a decent background, but her professional prospects are great. Yet her scumbag boyfriend told her to be realistic, he is dating a woman who will save him years of work.  While she was asked to be realistic she decided to be and asked the neighbor's grandson for a blind date.

Rong Qi was a classmate, but mainly Cheng Li remembers his grandmother a lot. Now he is an upstart and is eyed by many people, but fate decided to bind these two together in a series of events and they got married. Rong Qi was secretly happy, because Cheng Li is someone he had a crush on.

Status: dnf

Don't understand the portrayal of FL. Like she is sitting there without spouting a word that her ex cheated on her, giving him "face". Like why? Do you have feelings? No. Why would you let oyhers pity you instead of telling everyone what that scum did. She could be smarter about it, like jokingly explain the cause and effect and put pressure on him that he won't use his position to block their company's way. Instead she was just dumb. Later she meets Rong Qi several times and his grandma moves closer, later they decided on a blind date, but due to her care for his grandma the speed of their getting married picked up a lot. Although it is described like she was concentrated on studying a lot, I don't get why he chickened out and did not confess later on. Anyway, the beginning made me skip it and add this novel in a pile that drove me into a slump with romantic novels. Like what is wrong with FL portrayal, why everyone is having something about them.

他的女主角 by 雪满山岗

(mtl: His heroine)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Jiang Wenqi married Xu Chuyun to deal with his family. Xu Chuyun married Jiang Wenqi to deal with her past. They saw each other only few times in a year after marriage, but now that the Jiang family was interested in his partner, Xu Chuyun is asked to move in with Jiang Wenqi before the family dinner. And Xu Chuyun is also in the dilemma, she always tried to keep her feathers clean, but her dream of acting after finishing school feels so far away now. She is in a dilemma if she wants to use some of her husband's connections to give her a little boost.

You can guess that from the time they decided to move in together things start to heat up. Despite the family situation where Jiang Wenqi has this unbearable sister (who knows if she's biological) Qin Siwan, who acts like a psycho and princess, the rest feels quite okay. There is also a promise some chase after his wife.

I don't know, lately there is no surprise in these novels where they stick to one thing only.

The only danmei I started I finished in a day - Feudal superstition harmed me! - and I wrote a separate post for it. Is it the power of danmei or what. Before that the only bangers I found were all danmei.

But after such fail after fail in search, I decided to conentrate on The Pile. Actually I collected few books of some popular books and already started one, which is Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. I've watched multiple YT videos with book reviews to screen different genres in recommended ones and trashy ones that are trashy, but I might like them. Let's see how it goes.