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230 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
It's really been awhile since a novel was this life changing. I started this novel thinking it was going to be a quick read, since it was a standalone, however, I realised something was off as I got near the end of the novel, it didn't seem like the ending at all! A quick google run proved me right and it turns out, this 300+ pages was less than 10% of the full novel. It was then that I started my binging days. The female lead is truly someone I aspire to be, she is so level-headed, she completely voids herself off any emotions because it never did her any good throughout her life. She is very scarred, she grew in a very toxic environment and hence covered herself with thorns to protect herself. She never places anything before her career, because she knew that at the end of the day, only you can truly keep yourself protected. That is until, the MMC finally decided to really stop waiting and finally pursue her, after keeping the love towards her to himself for the last 11 years. He was truly the entire forest, not just a flag, literally, the greenest forest anywhere. He tries to understand her past, her traumas, and used all his might to start plucking out her thorns after he made her feel that she is well loved and safe. His brought up was way worse than the FMC but to him, the FMC was his only light throughout his childhood and even when he had nothing, he wanted to use all that the could to protect the only light that shone upon him. The most wholesome part of this novel was both leads rescuing each out other out of the dark trenches from their past, and growing to be better individuals together. It was truly heartwarming to see how the FMC finally accepted him and wow when she started standing up for him etc. It was just too HOT. The MMC does everything he can to portray his love towards the FMC, and his respect towards women.
Hats off to the author who managed to come up with so many different tropes and plot lines for so many couples in this story. I felt like I was in their world for the past week and I was really really happy then. The whole MMC's friend group ended up to be hopeless romantics after they have found their ones, and their wives? ended up besties together AHAHHA. It just goes to show that people who are inherently the same would attract people with similar qualities and I think that's just something really highlighted in this novel. I think I grew so much just from this week, through actually 'living' through the scenes and plot of this story, it really does feel hat I have matured much more as a person. I have gained so much more perspective and for that, I think I picked up this book right at the time where I needed the most.
This book taught me so much about looking this from a bird's eye view, having full perspective of a plan, weighing all options, possibilities and variables before executing it, and of course, so so much about how love could be if two people really tried. It really reminded me of the days I was binging web novels during my early high school days, where I was practically only scrolling chapters after chapters for the whole day, good times. This will definitely be very very hard to top.