This story is steadily turning into shit. I liked it (quite a bit) as a guilty pleasure at first, with Harry finally being agreeable, Hermione being portrayed as an annoying bitch just like in canon, and Dumbledore being more open about what I like to think happened in canon (theory: he could take Harry out of the Tournament, but only if he was 100% sure Harry didn't enter himself and he wasn't quite willing to take that risk, whatever the risk was).

But then you have Ron working with Malfoy. As if that would ever happen for 14 year old versions of those two. Fuck no.

Another ridiculous thing I disliked was Katie Bell being a giant dick about Harry stopping her from going postal. The worst part of it was that it only happened because the author needed Harry and Fleur to go together.

And the last few chapters have it turning into a bad comedy of misunderstandings portrayed by "he said, she said" scenes, except it's "she thought, he thought". I guess the only positive thing I can find about the last few updates is that I learned the phrase "race to an airport" when Taure called it.

I'm not treating this post as a real review, so I'll not put a rating. I still believe the story has potential to be a good guilty pleasure.

 

Harry's "Tom Riddle" smile thing makes me laugh every time It reminds me of Zoolander's named facial expressions. Any day now Harry's going to pull out Magnum.

 

Lol, that's exactly my thoughts when people have scheming Slytherins standing in groups in dark corners, their lips fixed in a perpetual smirk.

 

I'm going to rate this 4/5. True, it has several badly executed clichés, but I feel the rest of the story balances them out nicely. It has already made some potentially interesting changes to canon, which promise to have interesting ripple effects. The update frequency is phenomenal, which bumps it up to 4 overall. I'll be honest, I'm over the moon that a long H/F story popped into existence out of nowhere, and while the story so far is nothing really special, that can (and I hope will) change with time.

 

So...I've read this story. The clichés don't really bother me that much -- I've seen stories that do them much worse -- and clichés can be interesting if given a unique twist. Unfortunately, this story just lacks the necessary tension to make it interesting.

Sure, the whole H/F pairing does work with the independent!Harry territory the story is in, but there's a bit too much unnecessary drama to it that just...bores me. Perhaps it's realistic given that these are teenagers, but that doesn't make it more interesting for me.

The whole Ron-Malfoy alliance against Harry would have been better if we'd seen a realistic progression on how Ron ended up there. Canon!Ron hated Malfoy as much as this Ron seems to hate Harry, so there's a pretty big dissonance when reading this. It feels very OOC indeed.

Everything else seems to be going the usual well-tread 4th year outline, with the tasks being the same. Right now I have no doubt that Harry will end up facing Voldemort in the graveyard as always. That might not end up being the case, of course, but it certainly looks like it. And unfortunately that takes what little tension there is out of the story too. But I guess that's the danger of fan fiction; if you tread familiar ground, there's no fear that you end up somewhere completely different, even if you do not step exactly into the footsteps left behind by canon.

The update speed of the author is quite admirable, though.

So...3/5.

 

I think I understand the problem that's been growing for the last few chapters: the story is guiding the characters - the characters are not guiding the story.

 

That's... an interesting reason for bumping ratings, I suppose. I mean, getting fed shit more often doesn't sound like something anyone would like.

Anyway, having read it, I mostly agree with the consensus here. It's readable.
There are -plenty of- clichés, the writing is unpolished, the plot is paper-thin, the characterization amateurish, but it managed to keep me interested. Enough to read all the current chapters.

It's... perfectly average. 2.5/5

 

Alright, so like, 3/5.

I want to like this, but the characterizations are so off that it's hard. It's like, not a problem of certain characters being a way - tbh you can have a handful of flat characters as plot devices (i.e. hermione) but there needs to be consistency or at least direction in characterization and that's something this fic lacks.

Meanwhile, damn is this a guiltzy guiltzy pleazour.

 

See the update rate has had the opposite affect for me. If you're going to do daily updates than write the whole damn story then post as you wish. Right now what we're getting is some decent ideas that aren't fleshed out. Also, I'm not sure the author has a solid outline for this story, there have been multiple A/N's asking for feedback on how he should take the story.

 

Story updated. Worries about canon rehash are approaching their test: the next chapter will reveal if this story is going to just be canon with a more talented, dickwad Harry.

 

I never really liked "canon rehash" stories. Too damn boring.

 

Just started reading this and I've got to agree with most of the ratings so far. Mildly entertaining, very readable, several parts that are just outright bad, some parts that are clichéd.

Occasionally the author manages to write some pretty good passages, though:

2.5/5 - a decent waste of time.

Edit: I liked how Harry was clued into the first task, something I haven't seen before.

Edit 2: Fleur's character is kind of jumping between a slow-burn love interest and a stereotypical fanfiction veela, the author is jumping between opposites. That's taking the advice of 'give your characters a flaw' and going too far. And going further.

Edit 3: I'm reasonably sure that the author hasn't talked to a single teenager in his entire life. This dialogue is ridiculous.

Edit 4: A nice relationship between Harry and Sirius, I like that.

Edit 5: Second task was fun. Nothing over the top, credible behavior on all sides, Harry intimidating the merepeople. I liked it. Well portrayed competitive spirit on Krum's part.

 

My biggest problem with this fic was the Ron/Hermione bashing. It was excessive. I kind of expected it after reading the first few words, but holy hell Ron degenerated into a massive idiot.

Other than that, it was an enjoyable read if you can stomach the technical mistakes and the cliché. What's refreshing, is that the author does not spend 10k words explaining how magical core work. They just mention it in passing and then, we're pretty much done with them ("You suffered magical exhaustion. Drink this and you'll be ready for class tomorrow.")

The story also has its moment like mentioned by Trig.

3/5

 

Rehash it is, and using the most absurdly convoluted and unbelievable plotlines to get there too.

I think I might be finished with the fic.

Seriously, that switching spell nonsense is so unbelievably dumb, only made worse by the ridiculous "enter Cedric twice under two different schools" idea. If you have access to the Goblet and ability to confound it, why not just enter Harry as canon? And the idea that Dumbledore wouldn't notice a switching spell being cast right in front of him is crazy. The cup being a Portkey is hard to believe in a universe where Pettigrew and Crouch Jr are dead, Moody is genuine and Barty Crouch Sr is also dead. And the way Bertha has been shoehorned into things with a different backstory to canon is just completely transparent author-dictated rearrangement to force a certain result no matter how much story events mean it shouldn't happen.

 

Gotta admit though, I haven't seen a cheerful Jorkins being Pettigrew's replacement before.

 

I was waiting for the Graveyard scene to decide on the rating for this. This is being a rehash with a maybe competent HP but since it is Harry/Fleur, I will give it 3/5.

Almost recommended level and can be guilty pleasure for some.

 

I was seriously in line with everyone's thoughts up until now: the unrealistic jump in power, the hidden super powered mentor with a bat cave, the rough hewn and forced plot, etc.

I get the feeling that the author has ideas in mind for where the story should be for the cool scenes, and that almost inevitably bodes poorly–I notice that in my own feeble attempts. That said (associating correlation and causation) the author seems somewhat receptive to criticism and has course corrected just a bit, to the story's benefit.

The last chapter though (35), barring all the mismatched plots that went into it, was pretty awesome.

Before, the only thing that kept me reading was the update speed. Now, I'm seriously hoping a good beta steps in and helps with a rewrite, because there's... well, not a diamond, but something in the rough.

3/5

 

Updated.

I liked both Harry and Dumbledore in this chapter. This story makes Dumbledore seem as if he's the manipulative cliche that's so common in fanfiction, but that does entirely hinge on Harry's really biased and cynical assumptions. Looking forward to see where the author is going with it.

Apart from that, I'm really enjoying the frequent updates. There is no noticeable drop in quality, although it obviously never was all that high to begin with. I would like to see what the author is capable of if he took his time, but oh well.

One thing I should note: Harry and Fleur cleared the air in this chapter. No false conflict because two characters don't talk to each other (which is a cheap route many authors take), instead they have a straight-up conversation. It's a neat conclusion. Harry is a bit too mature for his age, but I don't mind that. The lack of cringe-worthy exclamations from Harry does help.

For me this story has become a solid 3/5.

 

I skipped the last chapter I was going to quit the story all together, but this latest update got me interested again. This author seems to excel in making the story crap and then jumping back to 3/5 mildly interesting story.
I like the Harry Fleur interaction hopefully now that the romance has started we can finally start an AU worth following.

 

Well this has gone downhill in a flash. The last couple of chapters introduced SO MANY pieces of plain BAD WRITING... I won't even bother enumerating them. Just as I thought we'd get to the good stuff, the quality took a nosedive. Shameful.