Gemstone Reviews [Closed for Catch up]

Review #29-Where Seagulls Fly

Disclaimer—This is the first featured story I've ever reviewed. I feel honoured for being chosen to complete this wonderful task.

Title: Where Seagulls Fly

Author: mittasw

Genre: General Fiction/Romance

Rating: PG-13

# of Chapters: 43 (Complete) 

# of chapters I read: 3

Summary/Blurb:

[WATTPAD FEATURED STORY]

K-drama meets modern day Elinor Dashwood

An unwilling heiress gives up her dream to please her biological father and proposes a contract marriage to save the man she loves. Is she capable of living a lie knowing his heart belongs to another?

Engaged to be married to the beautiful spokesmodel of Park Resorts, Min Jun's life appears to be mapped out nicely until fate decides to shake it up. Betrayed and in debt, will he trade his future happiness for short-term gains. Or will he lose everything he has come to cherish and love?

Review:

Cover:

When I first read the title, I expected to have a sea setting on the cover. This looks more like a lake, but it could just be the angle from which the picture was taken from (not all beaches are sandy).

I like how you have the protagonist on the cover and looking up on the seagulls (hopefully they don't drop a nasty surprise on her head), I guess it's symbolic in the fact that birds have always represented freedom, whilst the main character is bound by an unwanted marriage. Besides the bird, the rural setting also represents escapism. It's not uncommon for someone who lives in the big city to also have a house somewhere in the countryside—it's a place where you can get away from your problems and sort of be at peace for a while, before getting back into the grind.

At least, that's the way I've interpreted this, I could be reading into it too much, but these are the messages that are conveyed to me.

The only issue I have with this is the fact that the image looks over-sharpened (which also caused those two rectangles on the trees in the background). I think you were trying to place emphasis on the distinction between the different objects on the cover, but that aspect of it looks a little odd.

Overall—Nice!

Blurb:

"K-drama meets modern day Elinor Dashwood."

Anyone who has watched Korean dramas knows that dramas from the Western world cannot even remotely compare to these bad bitches. K-dramas are one of the most intense, emotionally damaging things you'll ever watch in your life—especially when it comes to romantic series. You'll spend half of your time crying, 100% guaranteed. Judging from the rest of the blurb, I can tell that this fits your story perfectly, I can already tell that there will be a lot of lying and deception when it comes to matters of the heart. Bring it.

The blurb contains your typical love triangle (one girl between two men), but I'm hoping that it won't be the kind where the female protagonist is an air-head and gives up her first lover to be with the one in the contracted marriage. In a few words, I'm hoping that she won't just "accept" her situation. Where would the fun be in that?

It's also unclear what dream she's giving up? I have no idea at this point what her aspirations are (is she the spokesmodel of Park Resorts?), so her giving up a 'dream' is meaningless to me. In the beginning, I assumed that she was giving up the love of her life to appease her father, but then I realise that the love of her life is actually Min Jun, the guy who's broke and needs to be saved??