Integrity and Borders by hotaznspice

Review by exoticbabylove

Reviewed with thirty-two chapters.

Title:

The title upon first look was strange, well integrity and borders are clashing themes in my opinion, so it made me curious as to how integrity and borders will soon develop and form a connection in the story. It looked weird but to be honest, it didn't manage to catch my attention. Personally, one way to catch a reader's attention with the title is to add adjectives to 'brighten' up the title and to make me look more noticeable. The word choices for your title are very dull and clashes, so it didn't create the wow effect. However, after finishing the whole fanfic, I was impressed by the sudden realisation of the title, it gave me goosebumps. It totally made sense, where Joohyun insisted on not taking the path of conducting dirty business like most business-men. As for borders, I’m sure how the groups are divided with such clarity, the chinese members followed Kris while the korean members worked under Suho, they weren’t connected which suggests the ‘borders’ theme. I’m astonished by the wonderful meaning behind the title. Impressive!

Language & Writing Style:

There wasn’t a major problem with your language but some occasional errors here and there. As for your writing style, personally I found that there was too much dialogue in the story. It was essential to show what the conflict was and how the characters reacted but something was lacking without actual descriptions. I wanted to read about your personal descriptions about the scene, descriptions could be found but it wasn’t enough for someone like me. I loved reading vivid and detailed descriptions but somehow in this fic, the dialogues overshadowed the descriptions. Your vocabulary and writing of descriptions didn’t get to shine. I would recommend adding more details to brighten up the fanfic instead of having so much dialogues. It would be great if you can balance the two. Some chapters had no description; only dialogue so it was quite heavy for me. However, in chapter 27, the chapter on Krystal and Jongdae’s wedding, I was lost when there was no point of view stated in the story, it was Joohyun’s POV initially but after that, there was a dot and the story continues with another person’s POV. So, you have to be clear in future.

Plot & Originality:

I liked the genres of politics and business as they were different and unique from other stories. I was shocked when I started reading the fanfic, as initially like what you have mentioned, the beginning was quite draggy. I was wondering when the drama was going to start since the first two chapters didn’t appeal to me. However, what made me change my mind was Chapter Four and Five, because the introduction and development of Suho as a character and how he and Jongdae were cousins were amazing. What was even better was when you introduced the conflict where the cousins were going to do something about Joohyun, which was very impressive. I’m amazed at how you managed to plan your character conflicts with good story flow as every plot twist came out at the right time. It wasn’t too rushed or too draggy. Great! The clarity of details are well-developed and explained, so it was interesting to read. I was astonished when you managed to write details on business, opinions about how Siwon told Joohyun about his business advices and how they planned to sell the condos and the stock rates. It sounded like you have done a good amount of research to be able to write with such clarity. Good job!

I was skeptical as to whether Suho proposed to Joohyun with a motive or if he really was in love with her. The argument between Jongdae and Suho was unpredictable since they sounded like they had a close relationship; who knows how and why since they only got to know each other recently. I was caught off guard and amazed about why they had an argument, it seems like their relationship isn’t as good as we thought it would be. And I didn’t know who to side with, both Jongdae and Suho sounded reasonable but as soon as Joohyun stepped into the room, I started siding Joohyun since both guys' motives sounded pretty suspicious as it wasn’t clear. I was definitely excited when Suho said that Jongdae still had feelings for Joohyun but at the same time, I found that it was distrustful of Suho to ask Kyungsoo to stalk Jongdae since Suho sounded like he trusted Jongdae a lot and that his cousin was so important. I guess Suho isn’t as simple as he looks. Interesting