He’s an out of work, washed up, child celebrity and she’s a post-graduate student hunting for a career.

Their budget is 1.8 million galleons.


Sorry, couldn’t resist. Looks interesting and it’s Harry/Daphne, so I’ll give it a read. I’ll put a review here when I’m done.

 

Hey @Giovanni perhaps there are chapters about cutting tiles?

Anyway, will try this out!

 

It's nice.

The writing can be stiff at times and the dialogue feels somewhat inconsistent, and the story can be wildly unfocused and unstructured but it was an easy and entertaining read. The plot is mundane yet interesting and the characters and their relationships are fun to read about.

Spoiler

There is some oddities though. The authors use of rape as back story for multiple characters is already a bit cliché, but the narrative does nothing to give any sort of weight to such tragedy. The characters show regret and sadness for a couple of lines and then immediately move on. I found it a bit strange.

Another strange thing is Harry's infatuation with Narcissa. This has already been explained a bit through the whole family magic stuff and therefore could be resolved down the line but I think it's super wierd and unnecessary for now.

3/5

 

okay this got me. i've been in a slice of life craze for over a year now and this is so very pleasant to read. easily 4/5 maybe higher depending on how it turns out, haven't finished yet and i absolutely adore it

 

I am still on it, but will update. The style of writing appeals to me greatly. The setting recalls a bit of Sherlock Holmes to me, though I couldn't pin-point on why. Perhaps it's the general air of private eye that Harry has going about, which I like much better than the business portion,

Spoiler

which just seems as a way to have Harry be competent in dealing with the Greengrass problems so that he can get Daphne back into his life

. But eh, even that part is done well enough to deserve a pass. Though the interactions are a bit stiff so far, as @Meerkats said, everybody seems to be slightly punch-drunk in their emotional reactions, like there's some kind of lag or discrepancy going on between what happens and the expected (severity/timing of) reactions.
The bit with family magics, an excellent use and a hint of extra mystery surrounding family portraits beyond simply spying/advice, I really enjoyed though.

EDIT: As I am getting more along into it, the problems with the writing and the story start becoming more obvious. Sentences drag on and the sexism inherent in the writing is rather off-putting. I think what makes it worse is that the author seems to genuinely believe he is disparaging sexist views, but his "corrected" views reek of ignorant benevolent sexism. The evo-psych crap that's included there is just as laughable, as well.

Based on those personal preferences, I give the story a 3/5

 

Interesting

 

I am genuinely baffled by how this is in the library. This story is... staid, boring, and without conflict. The only thing going for it is it has a bunch of English being English about English things.

It's got a couple of interesting ideas, such as a bunch of people living isolated from everyone up in the Alps since Roman times (and that's hardly a spoiler so I'm not enclosing it) and some description of the magical economy. But then you remember the rest of the story. It was a slog getting through it. The characters... exist. They all seem to occupy the same, calm, high on weed mind frame. No one has any emotions except slightly prim and proper, and really prim and proper. The ones who don't are bad guys, and they don't matter because they have no power in the story.

Harry uses the Elder Wand at one point in the story. I yawned. He gets married. Okay. He "confronts" someone important. I put that in inverted commas because the confrontation happened over tea and crumpets. The big bad talks politely with Harry and declines coffee in his office. Ron and Hermione aren't even explained away. They're just not there. Pansy is his best friend. Morag MacDougal is given disproportionate screen time despite not doing anything.

This isn't slice of life, this is slice of boredom. Harry developing property is probably one half of a percent of this story. The rest of it is the Potters and Blacks having obscene wealth, Harry having no confrontations ever, and some weird kind of sexism which pops up here and there. I don't know what to make of this story except to call it a mediocre effort, albeit well-written.

2/5. 1/5 for the plot and 4/5 for the writing.