Who would he choose in the end?  

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I categorised this story as Drama instead of just Romance because I believe there would be more stuff than just plain romance. Though for 14 chapters, we will get to read about kidnapping plots, business rivalries, hatred and betrayal, 90% of the story at this moment centres around the triangular love between Anne, Louis and Jessica. A bit restrictive and some might argue that this story is saying too little, but the truth is I would have preferred that this story is pure romance because in the end, it's the (not really) love story which I like, however typical it may have been.

It is interesting to note that indifferent men are very attractive, and rich cool indifferent men are a catch. You will feel a certain attraction for such men, because first of all, you would want to tame him and second of all, you would want to be his one and only woman. I find Louis in this story a very attractive man because he possesses this indifference aurain him, which is very hard for me to explain. For example, let's look at the way he treats his wife.

First chapter we get to know how "cool" this guy is. He receives a perfumed letter, and it is unsigned. He immediately calls a florist and then he goest home. Now at this point of the story we would think he was probabaly buying flowers for his wife who probably sent him that unsigned letter but wait...

“Louis? Home so early?”  

Louis:  Why not? You’re waiting for another man, aren’t you?  

Jessica then ran down the stairs, a big smile on her face as she was so immensely happy to see Louis back so early.    

Ahhhh, surprise surprise, the letter was not from his wife as we later know in Chapter 2, it was from his long time mistress, Anne. Then of course we would find out that Anne is not your typical dumb mistress. She is actually caring (orphanage mannnn, can't beat that in caring department), loving (she really doesn't care for status and just feels happy with Louis by his side) and she genuinely feels guilty for being a mistress (when they saw Jessica looking at them, their hands entwined, Anne was the first to withdrew her hand from Louis' grip and looked away in shame). They had known each other since she was barely 14 and he was barely 16. They had lived together and he was once poor but he supported her studies. But somehow something happened in between and he ended up marrying Jessica, a rich girl who owned a company which Louis managed and Anne became his mistress, willingly.

The beauty of this story is there is no characterisation at all. I just imagined the main characters being the actors that the authors chose for their respective roles and voila! You could almost imagine all their expressions, from happy to painful. I find that the authors are very successful in this point, but showing us very little but telling us so much more. Sometimes you might miss the minute details but if you read them carefully, you would have found out what I wrote above.

Now my question is of course if Louis loved Anne so much, why in the world he married Jessica? We know she is a rich woman, because they live in a mansion and Louis runs HER company, a company she has a lot of shares in. Perhaps for money? Maybe not because in Chapter 1 in the slow dance scene, they loved each. However later into the chapter we were told by Stephen, Jessica's brother and Jessica herself that he once hurt her beyond words, where she came home one day and saw him on the bed with a prostitute (NO, NOT ANNE), she left but then she came back and hugged him, even when he agreed to a divorce. Something got to do with his parents and his past that we as readers have yet to find out.

I tell you, this man, this Louis in real life would be a very shrew man who knows his way with women well. Even when Jessica saw him with Anne and he quietly came home and packed his things and left, we don't get Jessica getting hysterical. She was numbed with pain (that was how much she loved him), he apologised and he left.

At this juncture I was thinking I could hate this man, but I can't. Because he has a certain charm, albeit a dangerous charm that you could understand why 2 women loved him as much as they did. Of course the question always remains, who does he love? Everybody thinks that he loves both women, even Stephen thought so too. We can't say he doesn't love Jessica because he gets really jealous when he sees her with her ex-paramour, Gallen. And he feels guilty when he thought about Anne and Jessica. So I would say he has feelings for Jessica. But my money is with Anne as being the woman that he truly loves. Childhood sweetheart and many many times in this story we get to read things like how much he loved her, how much he was afraid of losing her. I just have this feeling that the authors will probably write that Anne once had a heart disease or something and almost died, because every time they were in the car and Louis would look over a sleeping Anne, he seemed scared, troubled. Could that be the reason why he loved her so? Because he almost lost her? Interesting stuff I shall say. And many times in this story we get to see how Louis was at ease with Anne, he even took  her to a business trip in Australia whilst poor wife stayed at home, waiting for him. Of course Gigi, Louis and Jess' daughter might be a hindrance to Anne and Louis' relationship, because after all Jess gave him a daughter whom he truly loved. But yet maybe not. Even with a daughter and a fortune and 3 and a half years of marriage on her side, Jess lost Louis in the end, when he silently left. Of course the author may have wrote it that way, to show his guilt towards what happened but wouldn't it be more interesting if Louis actually took the opportunity to leave her because years before he didn't know how to tell her? One telling tale that perhaps Louis married Jess for a very sinister reason would be ...

Louis: Of course not. Jessica, can you come to Hung Sam this coming Tuesday? We have to discuss some business matters with the other shareholders. 

Jessica: Why? You can decide for me. 

Louis: No, every shareholder has to be there for this important meeting. I've decided to cooperate with Andy and I need the agreement of at least 60 percent of the shareholders. 

Jessica: It's been so long since I last kept an eye on the company so I don't really know what's going on anymore. Tomorrow, I'll just transfer all the shares I have in hand to your name so that you can make a decision for me. 

Louis (seeming a little awkward with the idea): I don't think it's a good idea…

Jessica (her eyes serious): Louis, I trust you. 

Louis just smiled. 

Jessica (smiling back at him): Ok, I'm tired now. I'll sleep a bit, just wake me up when we get home.

Louis: Okay.

Jessica closed her eyes and soon fell asleep. 

At a red light, Louis stopped the car but he dared not look at Jessica as she slept. He took a deep breath as he looked out the window, suddenly feeling so utterly disgusted with himself. 

Ahhh, the plot thickens. Why did he feel disgusted? Probably because he married her for the shares and the money and now that he got full control he hated himself? Could it be that when he married her he didn't love her but learned to love her all these years which was only 3 and a half years? OR MAYBE he felt disgusted with himself because she was so trusting and he was actually betraying her with having an affair with Anne? It would be up to the authors on how they would want to further develop on this point.

I have mentioned the story is mostly about typical love story and true, it is. But I find this story very interesting not because of the love story itself (which I have said is typical and I could predict the ending unless somebody dies), but the way this story was written. 

The dialogues are lively and very realistic, the chapters neatly categorised though a tad too long for each chapter and though the authors did not write it like a story but wrote it like a script (with a few description of emotions), I could feel the emotion part of the characters. I really do not know how the authors could reach me that way since I detest script based story but they did, and successfully if I may add. Though the dialogues are not perfect, I feel the authors did well. What is not realistic though are the talks about business and the kidnapping plot, and I do remember there was a kidnapping plot which was confusing, too brief and poorly handled. Or maybe it was not a kidnapping plot? I can't really remember because I read the first part weeks ago and then I continued there on. If they intend to have a villain, I can't see one yet. Maybe later we will get to read about a business rival, how Louis get really hurt, how Anne or Jess or Gigi was used to threaten him, how he ran to whoever that was almost hurt and promise love forever, how he rebuilt his business or perhaps how he schemed his way to more money or maybe....well..a whole lot more of possibilities. The truth is if the authors went that way, I would prefer to stop at Chapter 14 before the story becomes way too typical and predictable. The main motto of a story is consistency and the other main motto would be focus. Have a focus and remain consistency and don't do everything too long or dramatic or overblown, this story could make a pretty interesting TV series. Of course I would pray that the authors will not try to give justifications for a certain character's actions. 

For example, just assume Jess got hurt in an accident or something. Louis rushes to her and she goes into a coma with which he stood by her, waiting for her to wake up whilst Anne, poor Anne waits at home for a man who will run back to his wife. OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

I certainly hope not because that would be typical. Very typical. I have yet to read anything that surprises me, so I hope the authors might make a special effort to write a not so typical romance-drama story, and instead of giving an out of this world ending, why not a "quiet" ending. How quiet depends on the author's style.

Which leads me to the next point. The authors style. Sadly, I have to admit I can't see a clear cut style. The authors have yet to have their own distinctive storytelling of their own, because I read a few similar stories at Winglin and they're all the same, told the same way, wrote the same way, narrated the same way. But Liliane & Poppy have an edge over the others. Their power of description may not be much but like I said, I somehow felt for their characters and this story will have you imagining the actors speaking the lines because the success of this story is one great thing; the way the dialogues were arranged which was rather different. I can't pin point exactly what and where and how, but if you just read this story you would know what I mean. 

Now what I don't like about this story is the thousands of flashbacks, per rate one chapter about 1 to 2 flashbacks. Too many flashbacks which is important to reveal the characters' past but they serve nothing more than distraction because you won't get much info from flashbacks except for he was afraid of losing her, she cried, she saw this, she did that, he did that, they did what....descriptive with little value. I feel the authors could have reached the same results by incorporating the past into dialogues, by revealing bit by bit by what people said and keep us guessing what is the truth instead of having characters thinking about the past which is rather distracting to me.

And of course, as always the allocation of time for each character in this story like in all amateur stories are very poorly handled. Louis, Jessica and Anne are all well described (not by looks but by dialogues that reveal their emotional sides) but most characters are a waste of time in this story, like Cecilia, Stephen (he is nothing more than an object of conflicting moral and he represents that when he questions whether he should reveal the truth about his two timing brother in law to his sister, Jess), Nic, Gallen, Lawrence, Joyce...all lacked personality and is nothing more than walk ons "Colourfare" which is very distracting when what I want is Louis, Anne, and Jess. For a moment the focus were off and then the authors went back on track. If the authors were planning for something bigger for Louis then these characters would be useful to talk about but for 14 chapters, they had nothing much to do and with them I was losing my patience.

One more aspect that I did not like. I would have hoped for more intimate moments between Anne and Louis, but the authors I would assume are very young and is a bit reluctant to describe more about the bedroom action and just writes Louis going into a bathroom, waking up next morning half naked next to Anne or Jess. The flirtation scenes could be improved much much more, and the romance part which is lacking could have been injected much much more into the story. The first chapter's dance scene is ok but the lyrics to the song was a tedious read. Why I said we could feel for the characters is because of the dialogues, words said and actions done. But since this story is script based, I guess I can't ask for much in setting up a scene first and then go straight to the dialogues, which is what this story is lacking in some chapters.

By the way, I could certainly some fans would want Louis to choose Jessica, some might want Anne. The truth is I was hoping either Anne of Jessica would be a bit of a...ermm...bitch but both of them so darn nice! Difficult choice but my money would be on Anne. Nothing beats childhood love, more so one where there are decades of togetherness instead of one which has only 3 years of love, 4 years max. And I hope Louis would have more personality rather than feeling guilty and torn between two women all the time. Make it clear who he wants I guess is something I hope the authors will do and moreover, when we know he is clear who he loves it only means he is using somebody else. That would make the story pretty engaging instead of having him scratching his head as to who he really loves.

I do not know how long the authors intend to write for this story but I hope they keep it short and would not deviate to nonsensical out of this world drama or typical logics for character's actions. Give me something different and I would gladly read it until the end. 

Special Note : I didn't realise the authors sent me Chapter 15 and so I stopped at Chapter 14. One glance at Chapter 15 I found out the difference in age between Louis and Anne is 3 years, but I specifically remembered in one of the chapters the difference was two years, which was why I wrote Anne was 14 and Louis was 16 when they were together. Now we shall not dispute the fact that Louis may be a bit sick to fall in love with a girl barely out of childhood, but I hope the authors would make it clear the age difference and make it more clear when they separated and when they got back together. And I wonder how old are they now? Now that I thought about it, this story reveals none of their age at all but it really doesn't matter since a story could be timeless.

Funn's Recommendation
The author, Liliane sent me 3 posters, all of which I have used. You could see the animated one as the intro to her story in my site, the other is in all chapters and the third one is in the left hand frame at the top. I love all three rather imaginative posters though my favourite is the one in all the chapters, the one with the characters and a black background.

Now back to this story. Personally, I would recommend it. In fact this story is one of the Featured Story of The Storytellers. There is nothing exceptional about the storytelling or even the story but because the authors very intelligently gave us the right actors to portray the right characters and because the dialogues were pretty down to Earth, this is a very enjoyable story to read. Of course it has yet to end. It will depend on the authors to make it better, greater or more spectacular. My fear would be its long windedness or ridiculous plots but for 14 chapters, other than wasted space for useless and unimportant characters that served nothing more than to distract us from the typical triangular love story that probably could be more fact than fiction (hey, in real life I believe there are Anne, Jess and Louis amongst us which means we are sadists when it comes to love), I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Give it a try. It won't change your life but at least you might pass some time reading it.