Love & War completed
Love & War AUTHOR: amber_rose 
LEAD: Kai
GENRE; SETTING: drama, romance, (modern) historical; military
CHAPTERS: 85
READER INFORMATION: None, although the author has said that some chapters may be rated [M] and there have been one or two scenes of a sensitive nature, though nothing graphic as of yet  

"He's the devil in disguise."

That was the kind of man that everyone thought he was. Thousands of lives had been ended in his hands, families torn apart, homes consumed by flames – they feared him, they hated him, and they wanted him dead.

"He has no weaknesses."

That was what they told her when they sent her to his side. Her mission? To uncover a single crack beneath the seemingly perfect façade of the devil, so that they could deal him the critical blow.

She thought she had prepared herself for everything that was to be expected.

She didn't expect him.

thoughts PLOT: The author updates this almost as consistently as I used to update TBBC. It's wonderful. If you want a story to read that has quick updates, then go no further than this one.

It's set in Korea in the 1950s, with Jongin as a major general, and the main character, So Eun, is tasked with worming her way towards him so that she can... well, she has a kind of dual mission to skim information off him and kill him (it's not exactly made clear which one she's supposed to be prioritising, which leaves her motivations in limbo). It's a classic forbidden love set up with the added tension of a betrayed love, and like many people, I have a huge weakness for well done ones.

Much as I love the notion of the plot, the setting isn't as strong as it could be. There were a couple of inconsistencies, like So Eun being given a three-'til-seven job and yet she's there working at two when she also has university (and thus able to foil a murder plot), but I suppose my main issue is with the lack of research both done on the Korean War and on military spies. The author does apologise for not being an expert on the Korean War – and I wouldn't necessarily expect it to follow military campaigns to the last micrometre, etc. – but it's not hard to research that kind of thing (it's certainly much easier than researching specific medical injuries), and if you're not going to bother with the research for a historical au, then in fanfiction you have the option of making it a military au inspired by a particular time period, which in this case would have solved the problem (especially as most other things in this fic are sound). There's too much retrospective sentiment put into it and the way that people see the divisions – and what historians tend to call "shadow" wars, or, the movements and actions of spies, feels a bit weak, which I find a shame because other than the military/spy stuff, I really like this story. (Well, I really like military and spy stuff too – this one just didn't quite do it on that front for me.)

Now, I will admit I have an absolute obsession with this kind of stuff (which might be why I'm getting antsy about it), and I wouldn't expect everybody to, but there is an absolute wealth of information on spies around especially since all the WWII stuff is now becoming declassified, and considering that's almost contemporary with the Korean War, a lot of