First and foremost, I would just like to preface this review by clarifying that I am not particularly versed with Wolf and/or Hybrid aus. I thought ABO was an umbrella term, so I didn't realize I might have not been clear on the description. Nonetheless I felt like this was a nice learning opportunity for me to be informed with variations of genres. I realize Puppy Love's genre could also fall in the category of romantic tropes that revolves around certain relationship dynamics of hybrid people, which happens to be included in the reading exceptions as well. But again, I guess that may just be something that's gotten lost in translation. Not to worry though since I am still willing to read and review. I am also not here to review technical elements in writing such as grammar, which I have mentioned in the Service Expectations portion of the Foreword. I just wanted to be transparent with that. Still, I gave it my best. Anyway here is the rest of the review!

This portion is judged by the overall impression the fic is able to evoke at first encounter.

The title Puppy Love, although generic and simplistic at face value, did tie perfectly to the plot and theme of the story. I would say it is not necessarily engaging, and sometimes underwhelming titles will only drive stories into oblivion if the storyline isn't able to support it, for example, if the plot itself or its execution aren't able to bring anything new to the table. The description and foreword are simple in appearance, the summary concise and straight to the point, although it can be a bit misleading. The phrasing "secrets of her own" made it seem like Marianne, the FMC, is the one hiding secrets, but we will find out later on that this isn't the case. It didn't serve any purpose at all, and appeared to be just the wrong choice of wording in general and not part of the storytelling.

This part talks about the general point of the story, from the plot, to the setting and world-building, as well as the genres and themes that the author has chosen to tackle.

Personally, since I have no clue what the world-building is in AUs such as Puppy Love, I have no idea how things work. My initial reaction is that, everything had been already established, but why they have been established in a certain way, I have no idea, so in that sense, the universe is not explained well. But since this is included in the description of TgRS, which I guess is the part that's lost in translation, I would say that I can only judge the concept based solely on the fact that the Hybrid AU is already set. There is no explanation on how things work. The pack lifestyle and relationship dynamics already have their set ways of being, but they have no depth in the sense that people outside of this world (such as myself) have no means to understand the concept, which I guess is not the intention anyway. And coming in with that perspective, the plot itself isn't able to capture my attention and I didn't feel particularly invested in it.

With AUs with genres like this, the most vital points in creating an alternate universe, such as the reason for why things are the way they are and how they've come to be are almost always never explained. Of course since this is already a well-established universe and genre, the origins have already been lost in the sea of each and every iteration. Although, in hindsight, that would be the perfect challenge for writers to test their skills. How they interpret a popular trope and put their own spin to it will set them apart from everyone else that's already doing the same thing. Seeing how everything in the story is easily accepted by the characters (specifically when Yeolie had transformed and especially when it was Sandra that had seen him), could easily be explained by the preexistence of the concept itself, but with regards to the uniqueness in the way it was handled by Puppy Love specifically, it fell flat.

I have read Speculative Fiction genres where elements in the plot aren't explained on purpose, because the point is to "speculate" that the things in the story just are. But in their cases, they almost always have a reason for being. If you take that example and apply it to Hybrid AUs, it would look more like this, at least, in my interpretation: A dog transforms into a human. His owner would not act confused, because it is already a universal fact. What would more likely happen is that there has to be a reason for that transformation, in like a metaphorical sense, if you get what I mean. Say, a way to explain cruelty against animals or discrimination based on prejudices, to name a few things. My thing is that there are almost never a metaphorical reason or an overarching existential purpose in these types of AUs, because again, it is established already and it had been established the way that it is for a reason, and I am aware of that. But looking at it from my lens, I do tend to dig a little deeper and with the way this universe is set, virtually nothing else of value is imparted by the story. It is fluff genre, but we can always maximize lightness to add value to conversations where heavy and controversial things cannot infiltrate.

To give a more compelling and a more elaborate example on that, a book I have read recently under the Speculative Fiction genre, called Salamanca, tells a story about a woman so beautiful that on the day of her twelfth birthday, her immaculate and otherworldly beauty had turned the walls of her entire house into glass. The story then on expanded on this phenomena, and gave that unlikely thing a reason for happening, for existing, but not in a cause and effect way, but in a Butterfly Effect kind of way, which is both beautiful and necessary, meeting the balance between want and need. In the end, the reader walks away with something valuable, a lesson learned, or a new perspective, after having encountered such work piece.

This criteria judges the way characters are developed, how effective their arcs have been in terms of fleshing them out, and how convincing the parts they've played in the story.

I won't be talking about them one by one, since there are a lot of characters. I would just separate them in three categories: the main characters, the supporting characters (who are on the side of the leads), and the antagonists (who are, obviously, on the opposite side of the narrative).

We follow Marianne, Luhan, and Chanyeol, and I would say, they are the makings of the typical fluff story leads. The one who is innocent and kind, the one who is brave and kind, and the one who is brave and self-sacrificial. Basically they are predictable. Cliches can be fun to work with as a writer, and readers definitely enjoy reading them, that's why they're cliches. It's because they are popular. But the main leads are set out to be flat, driven by the convenience the narrative provides. Things almost always never go wrong, and when they do they don't go all the way wrong for us to be able to see the characters struggle or make tough decisions. This only ever happens with Luhan, but even with his part of the story, he is not doing anything different. He is expecting things wouldn't go right by him, so he doesn't make an effort to change that. He submits to his fate, but not in a good way. It looks like he is always running away from the good things that could happen to him, because the narrative needs him to, because otherwise, things wouldn't go as planned for Marianne and Chanyeol.

With the other two, I notice a few things that may or may not be me just looking too deeply into things. Chanyeo