The Last Dahlia ongoing The Last Dahlia AUTHOR: amber_rose 
LEAD: Suho
GENRE; SETTING: fantasy, romance; historical
CHAPTERS: 33, as of 19/12/2016
READER INFORMATION: Subscribers and Members Only  

All she wanted to do was be a free spiirit, travelling the world and living day by day, with the grass beneath her back and the sky above her head, but fate refused to let her do as she pleased.  In the course of her life, she would come to meet two men.  One of them was like the darkest of nights, a mystery that seemed impossible to unravel; the other was blazing like the sun, so astounding that it was impossible to get close.  Meeting the former would be her life's greatest mistake; meeting the latter would be her life's greatest blessing.  Yet as fate would have it, she met the wrong one first.

And that made all the difference.


She was
that wisp of a cloud that they wanted to hold in their hands,
that spark of a flame that would burn them to ashes,
that tip of an arrow that would pierce through their hearts;

yet for her
they would give up the world.

thoughts PLOT: Seolhwa, the feared Phoenix assassin who leaves a dahlia as her mark, freely roves and eats her way around the five kingdoms with her pet canary, Ember.  A trip to Daeyang in time for the tournament the king is hosting to select a champion worthy of the hand of his daughter Nayoung, the most beautiful woman of the five kingdoms, results in her meeting the White Scorpion (Suho) and a remarkably free-spirited guard for the prince of Gi who seems to have enemies after him (Baekhyun).  The slimy crown prince of Param is also sticking his thumbs into every pie he can lay his hands on, which unexpectedly leaves Seolhwa with quite a task on her hands.  While ensuring that Nayoung will get to marry the tournament competitor she wants to, Seolhwa discovers that Suho is up to something, and when she finds out what it is, she want to help.

The plot for this is largely light-hearted and fun, with some more sombre moments and interesting back-stories (complete with prophecies, birth secrets and the whole shebang – but while there are clichés, it's not quite as clichéd as you might think).  It's clearly been thought through, and while it does hang together, there were one or two twists that, in the way they were presented, felt completely out of the blue and consequently fitted a little awkwardly into the story.  Others you can pat yourself on the back for seeing coming, and yet more are less predict