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Review: Love Beyond the Stage Lights

Author: TaeTaeGinger

Title:

The work is aptly titled 'Love Beyond the Stage Lights' perhaps against the backdrop of it being a love-story where Taehyung is caught between being 'V' and being 'Kim Taehyung', between his being as a solo artist and being a part of a seven member band.

Cover:
It's a beautiful cover, very well designed by the author.

Blurb:
The blurb more or less conveys the forbidden love between the two leads. I feel that it describes well enough what the story has to offer.

Graphics:
The pattern of the graphics is similar in all the chapters. The chapters have carefully chosen pictures of Taehyung (till Chapter 15, at least), which are a blessing to the eyes.

Plot:

💜💜💜💜(4/7)

This work is a love-story of Aera and Taehyung that blooms as their paths continue to cross and you realize that they are meant to be together. The author describes the daily life of a visually challenged painter Aera and a k-pop star Kim Taehyung aka V and their struggles, their challenges, the fate bringing them together, and their artistic expressions.

Writing style:

💜💜💜💜💜(5/7)

The writing style is dominantly crafty and is rampant with the usage of poetic devices. This book wasn't an easy read for me. You will definitely love this book if you are fond of an ornamental writing style.

I also felt that somehow the chapters seem more or less the same and certain conversations seem languid. For example, the description about BTS, ARMY, certain exchanges between Lara and Aera, Lara and Dong, etc. I would like to have the author's viewpoint on it that if these portions are edited then perhaps the story would be more focused.

Grammar and Vocabulary:

💜💜💜💜💜💜(6/7)

The vocabulary of this author is on point! Certain words are beautifully strung together in beautiful sentences throughout the story, for example, the introductory chapter has a beautiful song like poem and vocabulary is observed till Chapter 15 as well.

There are, however, certain issues such as, 'it's' and 'its' has been interchangeably used and the tense change withing a sentence. In one chapter, the sentence written from Taehyung's point of view, goes like, "...I turned my glittering eyes.." (I missed where I actually read it, couldn't find it later), I feel that he wouldn't use the word 'glittering' in his own point of view.

General Flow of the book:

💜💜💜💜💜 (5/7)

The language of the book is highly ornamental. The writing is heavy on all kinds of poetic devices such as personification, elaborate use of simile, double adjectives in a single sentence; which caused me more than a double take in order to grasp its meaning, such as: "Chapter 1, when Aera's phone rings, "....it's melodic ringtone yet another tranquil rustle..". The title of Chapter 4: "Unseen love of Tenor", I would be pleased to have the author simplify it for me, please.

The general flow of the book gets broken as the tense changes within the sentence, which just disturbs the rhythm and balance of the sentence, for me. For example, the opening paragraph, "...my hands hastily reached for the alarm, it's piercing noise tearing the anonymous quietness of the room..."

In further chapters, the tense follows the such same pattern. The book was a demanding one, it took me more time to read this one as this wasn't an easy read at all.

Main Characters:
💜💜💜💜 (4/7)

Aera as the female protagonist and from whose point-of-view the story often progresses, is a too-good-to-be true character who doesn't have any greys, rather it is just whites, as far as her character till Chapter 15 goes. Kim Taehyung as a member of a boy-band and as an artist who wants to explore his individuality has been granted a depth beyond how we as ARMYs typically know him.

The exchanges between Taehyung and Aera can be described as cute, typical kdrama like exchanges and you find yourself waiting for the confession. In Chapter 2, where Taehyung sees Aera for the first time, her beauty is described in a beautiful way, like I mentioned that she is a character too good to be true, but here, the author deserves to be lauded for the way they describe her looks. The sentence that I loved from here was, "Tiny wrinkles crinkled at the corners of her eyes, hinting at unspoken laughter..." Beautiful!

Chapter 13, the last line was high on cuteness and was just effortlessly cute! Kudos!

I have another complain from the author, of naming the female lead: Aera!

I feel that this name has been so much overused in fan-fictions that honestly, I find myself more interested in the story if the protagonist's name isn't Aera.

Side Characters/ Second Lead:

Aera's best friend, Lara is the second main character in the book. She depicts, what could be a normal ARMY. The way she stands for BTS (Chapter 8), the way they are her safe space perhaps symbolizes a lot of us ARMYs. Lara is the kind of friend that everyone deserves and need in their lives.

Overall enjoyment:

💜💜💜💜(4/7)

You will find it a good read if you love fairy-tale like romances, the semi-fictitious world that the author has created will keep you hooked to the story. Like I mentioned above, if you are fond of an ornamental writing style then this book is for you.

Having said this, the work becomes too descriptive at times and I felt the urge to skip to Tae-Aera moments.

Though I agree that the author deserves to be lauded for not just writing out a script for Tae and Aera, but has tried well to give depth and grounding to this story by descriptions of the cafe, Aera's apartment, her back story, her studio, Taehyung's apartment, conversations with Bang PD, conversations among the Tannies, to name a few.

A particular chapter:
💜💜💜💜💜💜 (6/7)

My favorite chapter has to be Chapter 10: Brushstrokes on a Beating Heart, before anything else, I would love to know the author's view point on the title of the chapter.

The chapter beautifully takes you through raw emotions, the sweet gentle moments of a new springing love, of an unsaid confession that's still deeply buried in the heart yet having an obvious presence in the room, in the eyes, in the gentle warmth that you feel when a beloved person is in the same room. Honestly, I found this one more intimate than the chapter 14 and chapter 15.

The cute awkward interactions, the bubbling emotions, the gentle intimacy, the comfort that they share with each other, the unsaid emotions and all this sprung together in beautiful sentences.