| Title | : | How to Win Friends and Influence People |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 1546 |
| Publication | : | Published June 15, 2017 |
After the war, Hermione discovered she liked to break things; bones, specifically. Similarly, Draco, whose life had crumbled to rubble, became fascinated with explosives. Dramione, post-war, espionage AU.
How to Win Friends and Influence People Reviews
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I’ve never been so conflicted in my life. On the one hand this was amazing, on the other it’s one of the most tedious things I’ve ever read. It took me months of perseverance to get through. Dramione this is not. Does it have Dramione? Yes. It also has every other fucker under the sun it a constant conveyor belt of POVs no one asked for. The plot is both incredible and monotonous - it’s so god damn clever but arrogantly so and to the point you just have to admit you don’t know what’s happening anymore. It becomes so dull so often, but then it’ll lure you back in with scenes that’ll have you crippled over laughing so hard you see stars. Everyone is damaged goods, the Dramione is so toxic, there’s about 25 people too many. But Charlie and Pansy? Sinfully delicious. NottPott? Devastatingly sweet. In a wild turn of events after 95% of wanting it to just be over and not connecting with everyone I cried at multiple points when storylines were coming to an end. It’s awful, it’s beautiful, I wish it never ended and I hope I never read it again.
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Olivie Blake where have u been all my life, i swear when i found out she wrote ff i was scared of reading her actual novel which has been on my tbr for months! But her writing, storyline, characters and pairs. This women has done it all to perfection i could not put this down and i absolutly loved all the different pairings and aghhh the banter, the humor. Srsly wow!!!! Thank u for existing i honestly want to go through all her ff backlist and her actual novel, so wish me luck.
“I said that stupid thing about you doing my eulogy," he offered tangentially, "because I no longer see a version of my life that doesn't have you in it. I really don't know if that's love," he added, shaking his head. "I honestly don't. I'm pretty sure feelings aren't something I'm good at, and it's nothing I can really diagnose, but I know that in every possible outcome of my life, you're there. Not just there - you're it, actually. And I just - " A pause. "I don't see any way around it, so." A sigh. "I don't know what that means, exactly, but I know that's the truth. That's all of it.”
“You don't have to push me away," she told him. "Okay? I won't leave," she promised. "I'm not going to leave you.”
“I never lied to you," Cad reminded her, reaching out to tuck a curl behind her ear. "Not once, Daphne, and I won't - not ever!”
“I shouldn't have left her," he said.
"I shouldn't have left him," she agreed.
They turned, exchanging a glance.
"We have to go back, don't we?" Draco asked, and Mel smiled.
"Our heroes need us," she replied.”
Fav ff:
1. The debt of time
2. Manacled
3. Bring him to his knees
4. An unexpected Malfoy
5. Tip of my tongue
6. Measure of a man
7. Breath mints/Battle scars
8. Happy pills
9. How to win friends and influence people
10. A second look -
Cuando ya todo te vale pitos y acabas poniendo tu fanfiction leído en goodreads. (Bueno, no lo pongo todo, sólo lo novel-lenght, pero no leí 400K PALABRAS PARA QUE NO CUENTEN).
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This story (available on FFN and AO3) is 400k words and I read it almost straight through. It's amazing. AMAZING. Olivie has a magical way of making you fall in love with every. freaking. character in a MASSIVE cast regardless of role as hero, anti-hero, villain, or clinically insane French cousin.
A bit of a synopsis:
While the story is largely touted as a Dramione (Harry Potter fan fiction with a Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger romance), the attention given to the rest of the cast makes it impossible to say that it's "just" a Dramione. The list of POV characters alone stands at 22+ (seriously, 400k words), and maybe two feel a bit flat. And that's a pretty big 'maybe'.
Honestly, this is in my top 3 favorite fan fictions, and might very well be my all-time favorite. If you love Harry Potter, you want to see an ensemble cast done right, and you want to die laughing (this is the debut of Hortense and Thibaut Malfoy after all), this is the story to read.
For my Dramione shippers, the tropes employed are -
Olivie Blake is clearly a very talented writer, and at first I was totally sucked into the hilarious banter and clever plot. But then the book became a little bit too clever — all of the characters had the same sense of humor, the plot felt convoluted, and the last third became a total slog. A strong start and ultimately disappointing execution.
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Somehow I ended up hating this quite ferociously. Can a character finish up a sentence once in a while without being interrupted? Not everything is a forceful banter, something in the story should be happening as well. Also Hermione was too OOC for my taste.
In short, too long and too convoluted. -
I really liked the style, the plottwists, the dynamics between the characters and the storyline was also great and absorbing. But there were simply too many side characters. I know they where included in the storyline but it felt crowded and therefore too long.
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Olivie just gets the characters and has this amazing imagination to use them in perfect AUs within the wizarding world.
This is an example of just that. -
The way the plot is connected and every single detail comes to work together is perfection although the point of views shifting to the most randomest of characters was unwanted and made the reading tedious.
I never imagined I would be shipping Pansy and Percy Weasley of all people but the chemistry. 🤌🏻 Dramione served with their enemies to lovers trope. And the whole spin on the Peverell brothers was amazing. -
This was funny and cute. Not super fluffy, in my opinion, but i really enjoyed it nonetheless
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This is a chaotic monster of a fic, and I absolutely loved it.
The ships? loved them all.
the plot? unpredictable.
the tension? immaculate.
the jokes? niche but if it's your niche, absolutely hilarious.
Forced proximity
All the POVs (like seriously, all of them)
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Quotes (beware potential spoilers)
"Oh please, I'm an unparalleled delight"
"You are an unparalleled bag of dicks"
"I think I'd die before sexing you, Malfoy."
"I think you'd die during, Granger, which is frankly, very tempting"
"Why shouldn't I be able to go places with other men?"
"The goddamn patriarchy, that's why"
"Of course you would say that, what are you, a Virgo?"
"She fully is"
"It's these fucking heroes. They don't always know what they're doing, but its not their fault. They're just irreversibly fucked, and they can't help it. They're idiots. They saved the world, and in return, the world never taught them a lesson on how to not be shitty idiots. And they just keep trying to save it, stupidly, over and over again, because that's all they know how to do. They see something they love, they want to save it. Like idiots."
"Stop being nice to me"
"Your hair is stupid." he replied. She nodded, satisfied.
"if you find yourself a damsel in distress, then I assure you, you are capable of rescuing yourself. You don't need me to do it for you."
"I think I could have gone decades exactly as I was, never changing at all, until the day you came back into my life."
"Clearly you are le tiiiiiiired"
"I know you want to be impervious to everything that's happened to you - I get it, I do. But for the record, you don't have to be over shit, Granger. Be as fucked up as you want, I can take it"
"We used to do a lot of drugs. We do now, but we used to, too." (Yes this is originally Mitch Hedberg)
"I think I could have done ten thousand lifetimes and still wanted one more. But I also think that one lifetime with you will suffice. If you're up for it." -
This was a perfect book i have absolutely no complaints
dramione x mystery x a found family of criminals x and probably too many murders?? sign me up
This was absolutely hilarious and so heartwarming
also some quotes i liked;
"Of course you would say that," Nico muttered. "What are you, a Virgo?"
"She fully is," Draco confirmed, and Hermione elbowed him sharply, shaking her head.”
“Stop being nice to me," she whispered.
"Your hair is stupid," he replied.
She nodded, satisfied.
"Better," she murmured, letting him pat the top of her head.”
“Say I take up too much of the bathroom, then," she suggested instead. "All my hair potions are everywhere, all the time, without fail - "
"Impossible," Draco said. "First of all, I know a spell for that. Total space saver. Secondly, I snuck some of your hair potions in New York and they make the strands so soft. We can share."
“because I no longer see a version of my life that doesn't have you in it. I really don't know if that's love," he added, shaking his head.
“Ah, yes, apologies, this is my first murder," Percy assured her. "I'm a bit fuzzy on the proceedings, but I'll do a bit of research and then we can reconvene.”
“What?" Hermione squawked, leaning over to glare at him. "You're using me as bait? That's completely sexist! I'm the one with hand-to-hand combat skills, and - "
"I definitely didn't mean you, sugartits," Theo cut in, rolling his eyes. "No offense, but you're not exactly a world-class seductress. Potter's the bait," he clarified airily, taking another loud, disruptive sip.
"What?" Harry and Hermione demanded in unison, just before he could have sworn she whispered "why aren't I the bait?" to herself, frowning slightly at her lap. -
I’m more than half way through the story and I need to vent somewhere. I’ll delete or alter it according to my later thoughts (if they happen to change).
For the love of god the premise is juicy. I love a sarcastic and snarky and frankly kinda broken Draco. I love the depth of the multiple plot lines happening. I LOVE PANSY AND PERCY (ugh.). I even love the myriad OCs that somehow end up fitting into the world perfectly.
What I don’t love however, is the amount of telling before showing. What I mean by that is that (and I’ve also concluded that this is my personal taste and not a necessary issue of writing whatsoever) I’d wholeheartedly prefer a one person POV throughout the whole story, watching Dramione get dragged along the mystery. I’d even be okay if the POV went around 4 or even 5 people max. I don’t need to be inside every side characters head. I don’t need to know about Umbridge’s backstory or even Mel’s and Daisy’s. I’d love a spin-off where all those stories are collected maybe but not in the main plot.
Lastly the humour was a bit run-through in my opinion which I DID NOT HATE. It made for a lighter tone but I would appreciate maybe some differences between the characters or some awkward moments where banter isn’t the main aim. I want awkward silences and jokes that fall flat to both the characters AND the viewers because Theo’s sense of humour is so completely his own (ex.)
Considering maybe skipping some povs that seem wholely uninteresting to me but uuuugh I feel like I’d be betraying the story the author AND myself <\3 -
esse aqui a olivie blake se superou! tem um vai e volta que você as vezes fica puta da vida e as vezes da vontade de pular de uma ponte de tão bom mas ai ela vai e muda o POV do personagem e você que se foda :) mas fora isso gostei muito do relacionamento deles porém senti falta de algumas circunstâncias que ocorreram nos primeiros capítulos que me FEZ mesmo ter vontade de ler essa fic!!!
AMEI os ships que vieram nesse aqui: blaise e padma (ou parvati?), pansy com um dos irmãos lá muito muito bom amei
inclusive: os velhotes desse livro vai td pra casa do caralho INSUPORTÁVEIS não tinham nada pra fazer e ficaram atazanando o povo por milhares de anos pelo amor de deus bando de desocupado
essa é minha review parabens olivie blake -
Well, this was a fun one, but it was probably too long.
If you're looking for smutty Dramione, you should probably look elsewhere. However, if you want a really complex and creative plot with some Dramione sprinkled in, this one might be worth your time.
Dramione is definitely not a canonical ship, but it is somehow the most canonical ship in this universe. All of the other ones could probably be best described as crack ships, and yet, I found myself
understanding and thinking that each one of them worked by the end. Am I a NottPotter? Maybe????
Also, there were SO MANY PLACES with fandom injokes that made me completely crack up. So Blake definitely gets her audience.
Worst part of this: Literally zero Ginny whatsoever. -
Alright it’s no secret that Olivie is a great writer. I’m always just in awe of her BRAIN. Like HOW does she come up with all of this??? This fic is no different in quality than her other fics, HOWEVER you REALLY need patience to FULLY enjoy this fic. I daresay, it may even suffer from TOO much clever twists and turns to the point that it gets a little exhausting by the end. The first half, the multiple POVs were fun and I enjoyed them but i found myself skipping around towards the end cause it was tooo long in my opinion. I loved Draco and Hermione in this though. Especially when they were secretly pining for each other. I’d say if you’re even in the mood (and have the patience) for a long complex we’ll written story give this a shot.
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BIG cast of characters, POV is constantly jumping between and introducing new voices to the story. Unfortunately, this also means Dramione is sharing a lot of pages with other, imo, less exciting plots. Really enjoy the cadence, story telling, and romance but wish immensely that we got more if not only Dramione time. So many superfluous revenge plots that I don’t really want to read through. Just let me ride it out with Draco/Hermione. Absolutely love to see the Pansy and Percy pairing! It should be canon they go together so so well. Would give a higher rating if focused on dramione amazing writing, storytelling and all other things were tip top but I don’t want to read anymore about anyone else. Sigh :-(
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This, this was genius! Everything about this story was pretty perfect. It was another long read to commit to, and there was a lot going on with a lot of characters but that was a lot of the appeal to the story for me. At times, I genuinely forgot that it was a Dramione story and it was certainly some of the appeal of the fic. Most of the time I was hooked on the political intrigue of the story that I was forgetting the relationship elements!
There was also a lot of other relationship plot lines happening as well that made it so interesting too! All of the characters were amazing and the writing style was amazing. This generally felt like a fully fleshed out novel :) -
This is NOT a romance book!
I was under the impression of it being a full on adventurous romance story, but it’s actually very adventurous,mysterious, humorous, with a dash of romance! This book took me a loooooonggg time to finish! There were parts that made me no want to keep reading because I was bored, or lost. however, the parts that had me not put the book down for hours at a time made it WORTH IT. The plot, the characters, the overall humor was delicious. It had me hooked and we all love an enemies to lovers (especially DRAMIONE)!!! One day I will definitely reread it, but it took me forever to finish so bye for now! -
Dramione
I don't love a buff Hermione. Just don't.
The story is good enough. I don know what to expect and its keeping my attention. Not very deep because iIcant believe that she's a buff fighter, especially against men twice her size.
There's some interesting banter. I like how Harry responds to their bickering. I wasn't expecting a fake dating trope.
The Daphne storyline slowed the story to a crawl. I'm sure it will continue later. Now Marcus gets a chapter? This might seriously lose my attention.
There's a lot of time repeating too, to get multiple perspectives. mmmm. Losing interest. 13% dnf. -
4.25 stars. Why not a 5? Despite the craftsmanship and skill that went into writing this fic (and let me tell you, all writers can learn from olivieblake's brilliant writing), there was a sense of... blasé? apathy? that infected the story. Maybe bc of the third-person omniscient type of POV. I was in awe the entire time I was reading it, but I was also simultaneously indifferent to the characters.
I loved the banter (LOVED), but sometimes it was too much. Also, the smut was very tame. And there were SO MANY PERSPECTIVES.
Eh. Still enjoyed it.
Happy reading, Goodreads fiends. -
Wow wow wow. This book was magical, I loved the plot to this book and how there were so many different characters and the love that bloomed along the way. The story of the 3 brothers was captivating. I loved every bit of it. It was funny, it was heartfelt. I loved Percy and pansy in this one as well. I had never once found Percy attractive but he was written so well and so perfect for her.
All the characters were written so well and this book had everything. -
Honestly not my favorite from Olivie, and I'm like a hard-core Olivie fan so that might be saying something. I really enjoyed the push pull of Draco/Hermione but in this instance I found that the Peverells and the other new comers more frustrated me to have to read their bits. Glad I persisted but also would've liked more Draco/Hermione and more emotional payoff at the end
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The author has cast a very wide net of plot lines which in my opinion has made it hard to keep up with everything and made each of them a little bleaker, less colorful then it could really be. But I really enjoyed the story of Perevell brothers - I have not seen this idea anywhere else.
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This was such an entertaining read!
The comedy was perfect in all the hilarious conversations and the side-characters proved their worth in the end. Though they stole a bit from the main story of Dramione. And well done on making fun of the fandom like that but still embracing it! -
4.5 stars.
I know this is stupid but my biggest irk with this fic is that the smut was fade to black. Like EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! And sure, it’s fine but it was a major tease and I definitely didn’t expect it. But whatever. Twas good and I enjoyed the ride. My faith in Olivie is slightly restored. -
I want Olivie Blake to write something without 28403927 different characters because she can really weave a story, and I think that gets forgotten when you're reading from a new character every 2 pages.
So close to DNF so many times, but glad I got there in the end.
