Hey, Puppets!
Here to review ^^
So, you already have many, many nice reviews here so I won't bother going into much detail, I apologize.
But I will still give you my overall opinion on the plot and characters and whatever else I can think of. Now, starting with the introduction, I thought it was lacking. Nice description but it didn't have the strong pull, the grabber, the thing that catches your attention in a lasso and drags you towards the next sentence and so on. Slow opener, but it wasn't that bad. I do think, however, it could be worked upon. One more thing I'd like to mention about it is that you did quite the bit of info-dumping. You also jumped into the past and I found it quite difficult to keep pace with it. Be sure not to info dump and try not to confuse the readers right in the beginning with a bunch of facts. There is still plenty of time where you can explain things and slowly bring your character alive.
As we reach the core of your story, I find that you did a pretty nice job explaining the feelings that seemed to branch out between your characters here. You mentioned little things, small everyday matters that you would miss about your mother and told us exactly how much simple things matter. Anyway, without going much further into the story, I want to say, uh-oh. Haha, this is kinda like Taboo, if I think about it. Her boyfriend is going to be her step-brother if their parents get married, dun dun dun -enter forbidden romance- I've also read the second part of this and wow, don't you think this is going a little too fast? I mean, Cloud can't just move in already. Plus, he's a guy, wouldn't they allow for more family time. They just told them about their engagement, didn't they? Just a thought, I know you're trying to build a, "Holy penguins!" atmosphere here but maybe you could insert some family time before her father decides to move Cloud in with her in the condominium. On a side note, I like how his name is Cloud. I keep picturing Cloud from Final Fantasy and drool. =D I know...I'm pathetic.
As I already mentioned, I'm not really going to dig deep into this story but I will give a short comment on your punctuation. You might want to take a second to brush up on those little comma rules and such. It shouldn't be too hard but definitely something you might want to go back and re-check. Also, by the looks of things, it seems that English is not your first language? If that is so, I still think you've done quite a splendid job at writing this. I know how it is to write in different languages and it's quite difficult to pull off. Keep up the good work. ^^
Overall, I did enjoy this first chapter. But to be frankly honest with you, the first half the character was a pull, it had too much sadness and it dragged a little. If I were to suggest something, I think you could have written the beginning of the meeting between her and Cloud and entered a tiny bit of info regarding her mother and all. But if her mother still plays a heavy role in her life then you could always expand on that accordingly. In the end, still had a good time reading this. Nice chapter and your descriptions were different and fun to read.
Alright, I'll get your next one done as soon as I can.^^
Cheers,
~Shear
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