Name: Olivia reviewed A Bump in the Road to Love on Aug 09, 2009 12:05 am

Please let them come out.

Name: CourtneyFaith reviewed A Bump in the Road to Love on Mar 20, 2007 03:43 pm

~Poor Terry. That does look awful.~

Author's Response: He wouldn't be 'real' to me if he didn't get upset, so thank you for having a sympathetic heart!

Name: chihuahua reviewed A Bump in the Road to Love on Mar 07, 2007 09:35 am

Okay, I've got a lot of things to say, so listen up! First of all... oh wait, before I go all serious on you I wanna say 1 thing, you gotta add the quote from the princess bride where it's all like 'Life is pain, anyone who says otherwise is selling something'... or something like that. Anyway, seriousness, you messed up, you messed up, you messed up, you messed up, you messed up, and can I say it once more, you messed up. Your story is bloody brilliant, but the Blaize character isn't right. I'm hitting myself over the head for realising this now (actually, I realised it in the shower last night) but her character is all over the place. First you start out with how Zabini is just like a groupie w/ Draco, and then you're on to how they've been life long friends, and whatever happened to the Beatrice and Benedick thingie (benedict?)... And if Blaise normally wore very unrevealing stuff, and negative makeup and jewelry, then where'd her sense of style and all that old victorian jewelry come from? I guess your beta reader(s) was/were more concerned about Draco and Ginny to notice this (no offense to them or anything), just, in the future, work on it, the slightly smaller characters count first! (like the three different relationship thing you got going on there, keep it up!)

Author's Response: Thank you for telling me your thoughts. It gives me the chance to show why you are mistaken, you are mistaken, you are mistaken!

Unlike canon characters familiar to readers, Blaise's past and character is revealed, like those of 'real' people, as 'life' (the story) goes along.

She and Draco are friends, but not best friends at the beginning of the story. It's through Blaise's matchmaking that they draw closer and become best mates. They aren't Hufflepuffs. They don't do touchy-feely.

In chapter 2, when Luna says Blaise sounds like she's Draco's friend, Blaise says, "If by friend you mean I hang round Draco because he's smart and funny even though he can be a git, although I'm not a flunky like Crabbe or a love slave like Pansy, then alright, we're friends."

She's not portrayed as a groupie, and nowhere is it claimed that they're 'life long friends', either. In chapter 17, Blaise tells Terry, "Narcissa and Eddy became inseparable right before first-year, and we've spent holidays together ever since." In chapter 23, when Ginny finds a photo album, it has pictures "of Blaise and Draco doing holiday activities...skating, building snowmen, opening gifts, swimming, playing games, and all the other things children did on holidays." Their mothers became best friends so the families spent holidays together from first year (age 11!) on.

If anything, Blaise always wanted to be Draco's friend and was a better friend to him than he was to her. (she's the one who thought to cast the friendship spell) He used to keep people at a distance—that includes friends—until he became more open due to his growing feelings for Ginny.

As for how she knows about clothes and jewellery, just because Blaise previously chose to wear baggy robes and no jewellery, it didn't mean she was clueless. In chapter 2, she told Luna she had makeup and jewellery. She's a 'jeweller's child' as it says in ch 21, and her mother has bad taste in clothes, but she buys designer!

In chapter 11, Luna thinks 'Blaise had hid her emotional streak very well under an act of indifference and baggy robes, but now more than her figure was revealed.' It's thanks to Luna and Terry that Blaise came out of her shell. Luna was the catalyst. It's plainly stated at the beginning of chapter 3. Somehow, asking Luna for assistance in bringing Ginny and Draco together as a real life Beatrice and Benedick had gained the mellow Machiavelli's aid in changing Blaise's life too.

The 'Beatrice and Benedick' Shakespearean styled matchmaking was just that...Luna and Blaise matchmaking for Ginny and Draco. In Hamlet The play's the thing, but in this story the play isn't used to catch the conscience of the king. Much Ado is the reason Luna and Blaise partner up and become friends. It is the means to catch Draco and Ginny in cupid's net, and capture the interest of readers, so they'll read a story that isn't a re-telling of a play—it's a telling of a romance for three couples that spans 50 chapters, with Ginny and Draco centre stage.

Can you tell I'm passionate about the story and the characterisations? That they were carefully planned out? :D I hope you continue to read and enjoy the story, and that this chapter length reply clears up some misunderstandings!