This story is about Intan, a florist that is working at Harris' engagement reception, that was forced to be the replacement of a runaway fiancee at the said reception. Their tale focuses on their understanding to one another towards their upcoming marriage, due to their differences in background, family, and lifestyle. Along the path, they're challenged by kekacauan daripada ibu mentua yang tidak merestui, serta obsesi seorang bekas 'bakal tunang'. It's a simple romcom love story between two people that others might labeled as 'tidak sekufu'.
— this review might contains spoiler —
• The story was sweet due to their effort to make their relationship work. I genuinely love the kampung scenes and how peaceful it seems and the environment are, since I also live at a similar environment, it really hits home personally. Harris as a character (minus his panas baran tho) is what most people might dream to have as a marriage partner, just an extremely caring person, and his backups for Intan whenever a conflict happen, his care and daily cooks on their marriage life, his fast to detect emotional changes of his wife, etc etc, it was waaay too good to be true. Their communications was also very nice to see and how well they convey their feelings to one another. It's a comfy book to read, but there are things that held me back to like this book as much as others.
• I understand this is an older book, and some things really do age poorly. The 'colorist' element from the story bother me badly. I don't mind mentions of skin colour to describe the characters better. But the constant highlights over FL skin colour being darker translates to her being 'ugly' and ML lighter skin colour being lighter means FL isn't suitable for him is sooo weird. The Uganda joke for the sake of insult-joke left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Skin colour doesn't mean anything, and it shouldn't be made as a 'personality' of someone. In addition, even so when a person likes someone due to their skin colour, I couldn't find it romantic at all, yes he likes her skin colour, but the fact that he highlighted it as his type feels so weird and almost fetishising. Let me say this directly, it doesn't feel good at all when all another person can see about you is about your skin colour, whether it's 'good' or 'bad' it doesn't feel good.
• The main story plot started immediately which makes me taken aback. No characters introduction, not even about the main character, nothing, I was just as clueless as the characters of the book, where they literally doesn't know one another. Due to this, I really doesn't know how to feel about the characters or engaged much with their personality or behaviour. It was ngejut, tiba tiba. And despite how highly annoyed and awful the FL felt during their 'express' engagement and towards the ML and his family, her sudden acceptance towards soon after (yes, without any explanation) we're quite questionable. I just wanted to understand these characters, but I had a hard time understanding them.
• I genuinely love how honest the MCs were towards each other on the story in term of their conflicts and issues. But, the repeatitive self conflicts, and assumptions, then the same assurance answers being told again and again, then the FL went back to being sceptical on repeat was quite draggy and bore me. The same with the conflicts with the antagonist(s). I wouldn't mind if they always attack the FL / the couple couple, but their dialogues of threat were the exact same thing over and over again as if there's no other issue or progression at all in their evil plan.
• Misunderstanding trope is fine tbh, but the lack of explanation why they acts so agressive in their minds almost most of the time did confuses me. Intan's prejudice and misconception mindset towards the ML were way over the top and way too much most of the time. It almost feels like the bad stuff she's thinking that she thought what the ML might be thinking, might actually be her own awful perception. Overthinking is normal, tapi sikda ribut sikda petir, she kept on having negative thoughts about ML every second both of them breathes. It bothers me.
• I can see that the novel is trying to keep it halal between the two MCs and put in islamic values in between their relationship pre marriage, but it bothers me greatly over how they kept on touching one another (nangis berpelukan, held hands, touches over clothes, etc), had naughty thoughts and even voiced it out constantly, as well as threatening one another by saying they'll "kiss them" or "hug them" if they don't do something the other person wanted. My brain was confused over the entire thing. I found it hilarious since Intan pandang serong over what Mak Long's son did with his fiance, but she literally did the same thing.
• Initially I thought Harris' characteristic is quite lovely and honest, like I said, too good to be true, but damn, after the entire argument and fights with the antagonist, I immediately changed my mind. It's fine if someone was angry and changes their personality drastically, BUT HE HIT / SLAP ANOTHER LADY and PULLED HER HAIR. Apa benda batas bukan muhrim they kept on preaching about in the first place, and I cannot condone abusive behaviour like that. And his death wishes towards somebody else? I don't like that for a bit.
• Writing style was okay, but due to how it 'tells' direct and doesn't 'show', everything felt way too linear. — One thing that really bothers me through and through is probably the usage of tanda seru in the dialogues, like 1/3 of the dialogue uses it, I feel like the characters were screaming all of the time and I doesn't get that. Even when the line highlighted that 'he says slowly / calmly', but somehow the dialogue uses tanda seru instead which confuses my brain. — I could see that the story is a romcom, but I personally I couldn't really find the funny elements as it wasn't my type of humor. The joke in the book is more towards loyar buruk that not alot of people might actually understands it. — I'd say this book is quite cliché, there wasn't much going on to tell the truth, the plot only mainly focuses on the repeating conflicts serang bertekak menyerang sesama diri antara the mother in law and the past ex-almost fiancee with Intan. Personally I believe 1/3 of the story could be cut off and the plot progression would work just fine.
Well it's an okay story, enjoyed it a bit, just overall, wasn't my cup of tea.