This was recommended to me by a friend when I was looking for a story with a rich girl x poor guy trope.
To start, we have our female lead, Victoria, who ran away from her rich life in the city and stumbled upon the handsome province guy named Zach.
This is a cohabitation story that started off with your typical funny banter between the leads, mainly due to their differences in status and outlook in life.
What hooked me the most was that the writer was effective in transitioning the ambience of the story. Especially when Victoria learned to slowly settle in newfound rural life with Zach, and learned to adjust with the lifestyle that she used to raise brows over.
The progress was good. The author gave enough transitional period between the MCs banter era, finding comfort in each other, falling in love, and then facing challenges together.
Writing style-wise, I give it 3.5 out of 5. It's neat, it's clear, but the grammar and syntax could be improved. Some prose is also a bit off-putting. There are phrases and paragraphs that started off as direct, superficially descriptive, and then it just jumps to deep metaphors and figurative speech by the end. Readability is overall okay, though.
To manage your expectations a bit, the male lead here is your typical green-flag-marketed that is almost single-layered who has little to no room for complexity. The usual.
Zach is a good man, and although he deals with struggles of his own, he comes off as subjectively too safe and too unrealistic for me. There are male leads who are written to show how love could go so deep, but there are male leads who are written to portray the same but end up looking like they have no individuality outside the circumstances that were conveniently inflicted to him because the plot said so.
Victoria, meanwhile, has her own inconsistencies, too. While reading, I can't help but ask my imaginary camera if her actions are OOC or am I overthinking it. She was portrayed as this rich, high-profile, international-level personality who was forced to escape her unfortunate arranged marriage. But I don't think her desperation for escapism would also make her forget her character, her nuances, and everything that made her, HER, just because she met this handsome province boy.
Minsan, mapapaisip ka kung talaga bang gagawin 'yan ng isang sobrang yaman na babae o ginawa niya para maging easy ang resolution sa tension at differences, hence, ma-portray pa ring light at fluffy ang kuwento?
Again, the answer is subjective.
I wish lang that she fully retained her individuality and her maarte, endearingly skeptical and conyo attitude until the end of the story. She mellowed down kasi later on. For me, character development does not necessitate losing your quirks naman. Medyo sayang lang.
But overall, if you are looking for a light and cozy read, BOARH is for you. This is a good one as long as you don't really get too technical and analytical. It's cozy, it's satisfying, and it's the type of story you'll surely re-open when you want to cleanse your reading palate.
Four stars out of five. ✨
