Hawthorne & Vine Reviews

[yanareadsdramione]

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons by ChaosAndCrumpets

Word count: 47k / 13 chapters

Genre: Romance, humour, fake/pretend relationship, unplanned pregnancy

Summary: Pregnant woman loves to make pros and cons lists whilst secretly pregnant. Baby daddy finds out and is adamant to be part of their lives and they embark on a fake relationship whilst waiting for the love of his life to catch up with him.

Initial Thoughts: I was immediately hooked from chapter one and was initially super sad when the author indicated that the fic would originally only be five chapters long. I was excitedly thrilled as the chapter count kept growing. 

I am such a sucker for a devoted Draco and a stubborn, oblivious Hermione. 

Setting: The majority of Pros and Cons takes place in Hermione’s office and residence. The reader is introduced to their working relationship and you can feel Hermione’s workaholic tendencies.

Hermione Characterisation: This is very much a Hermione-centric fic. I love the snark, the dialogue and her internal dialogue. ChaosandCrumpets is phenomenal with their writing in portraying Hermione’s stubbornness, drive and god, I just loved Hermione’s impatience. I cannot stress how much I loved her lists.

Draco Characterisation: I love it when Draco is portrayed as this redeemed, dependable man who puts Hermione first. It is always a bonus when he is incredibly stoic and caring and just ughh. At first, I thought he was a little emotionally stunted but you can see the hints of his deep devotion for Hermione. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: I wish we had more time with them. I wish we got to experience more of Hermione’s pregnancy, and see more of them as a couple. 

Rating: 4/5.

Similar Works: If you enjoyed a caring Draco, you may want to check out In These Silent Days by HeyJude19, Anywhere by Alexandra Emerson. I haven’t really found much fics similar to this fic apart from The Politician’s Wife by pir8fancier. 

[yanareadsdramione]

Isolation

Isolation by bexchan

Word count: 264k words / 49 chapters

Genre: Romance, war, Hogwarts Seventh Year; forced proximity/cohabitation

Summary:  “Post HBP. Ron and Harry are Horcrux hunting and Hermione has been left at Hogwarts to help the Order make it safe for the other students. Draco is forced by Snape to stay in Hogwarts for his own protection, but he can't leave the room he is given; Granger's room. Hermione is the only student trusted with this information, so her and Malfoy share the small space, and Draco tries to avoid insanity as he becomes increasingly isolated with only the Mudblood for company. Something's going to give...”

Initial Thoughts: Hello all, first and foremost, this fic has a special place in my heart. This fic was the one that started it all for me, the one that dragged me down the Dramione Rabbit Hole that I have yet to stop falling for. I was traditionally always a Drinny fan and then I took a ten year hiatus from reading fandom, and then one day during a long, long, depressing lockdown period, I googled “top recommended Dramione fics” and then... here we are.

I have to admit, I haven’t re-read this fic in its entirety since March 2020, but this fic definitely evoked a lot of emotions for me. I started this fic, I think around midnight on a weeknight, and I believe I finished it within two days! I simply could not put it down.

Setting: The majority of Isolation takes place in Hermione’s room. The closed proximity allows for us readers to experience Hermione and Draco’s thoughts and feelings. You can feel Draco’s claustrophobia and growing frustration. The other setting of the fic takes place in a safe house where Draco is desperate to get back to Hermione.

Draco Characterisation: Draco starts off as an absolute asshole at the beginning, and I hated him. Bex Chan completely crushes it with her depiction of Draco Malfoy perfectly and quite frankly, it was really heart-warming and angsty to read his character development and how he overcomes his prejudices and shitty behaviour through living with Hermione. He is bitter, he is hateful, and he is confused and hot and cold with Hermione. He treats her like shit, but he can’t help but grow attached to her. This is very much a redemption arc and Draco-centric fic because he was always a little shit during books 1-5, and you really do feel for him in HBP, and we watch him grow and evolve as a person and Bex Chan was fantastic with depicting his inner turmoil, frustration and feelings, she stayed true to his character so he did not seem too OOC.

Hermione Characterisation: Hermione is my favourite character in the series. She has always and will always be my favourite. Bex Chan beautifully writes Hermione as an adolescent teenager who has never been in a relationship before and is just coming in touch with her femininity. She is insecure and headstrong and wears her heart on her sleeve, and has a heart of gold despite all the hardship she has been through.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Isolation was truly an amazing read. I do love that their love was not instant, and I enjoyed that it took them several chapters before they could even tolerate each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the hate sex and the “catch feelings” and “enemies to lovers” theme. This, my friends, was the fic that convinced me that Dramione works.

You can feel Draco and Hermione’s separation anxiety, you can see their acceptance of their feelings for each other, and it is all believable.

Rating: 4.5/5. I definitely recommend this to any Harry Potter fans. For me, I personally believed it was an excellent introduction to Dramione.

Similar Works: If you enjoyed Isolation, you may also like The Auction by Lovesbitca8, A Season for Setting Fires by mightbewriting, Manacled by SenLinYu, Entanglement by blankfish, From Wiltshire, With Love by MistressLynn, Looking Glass by Kyonomiko,

[yanareadsdramione]

My Author Recommendations

Here is a list of my favourite authors who have managed to capture my heart and soul, and deprived me of sleep. They have given me shit-eating grins and reduced me into a snotty-faced crying mess.

Rules

Author must have written more than one work.

I must love more than one work.

I must have re-read their work more than three times and can pinpoint and clarify why I love the author immediately.

I must love their writing style and will not skip ahead or cringe.

I must be able to dissect and write a thesis on their work.

I must have lost sleep from their work

The work must be memorable to me and have a lasting effort on me.

Drabbles on twitter unfortunately do not count (otherwise, the list of authors would scroll on forever)

In alphabetical order:

AdAsttra

alexandra_emerson

ambpersand

galfoy

HeyJude19

Ikorous

inadaze22

In_Dreams

its_banannaz

LovesBitca8

niffizzle

mighbewriting

Misdemeanor1331

MistressLynn

musyc

olivieblake

Onyx_and_Elm

raven_maiden

rizzlewrites

sweetestsorrows (katschako)

ThebeMoon

viridianatnight

I am sure that there are plenty of authors out there that are yet to be discovered by me. My Marked for Later list is more than 13 pages long.

[yanareadsdramione]

Current WIPs that I love

In alphabetical order, here are my fave WIPs

And She Was Golden by @justalonelywriter

Anywhere by @alexandra-emerson

Benefits With Friends by @indreamsink

Ceremonials by @heyjude19-writing

Damn Your Love, Damn Your Lies by @adasttrawrites

Don't Look Back by Onyx_and_Elm

Entanglement by @blankfishxx

Need Your Demons by ThedreamerandTheDance

Let The Dark In by @senlinyu

Silver & Golden by @silver-strands

This Bitter Earth by @ikorous

[yanareadsdramione]

God-tier Dramione Masterpieces (Completed)

The last twelve months have been absolutely life changing. I have binged more Dramione than I have read anything in the past five years. Being in lockdown for three months exposed me to countless sleepless nights where I inhaled as much as I could. 

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE MULTI-CHAPTER FICS AND ARE COMPLETED. I will be separately posting a list of WIPs that I highly recommend obsess over.

I am currently slowing down but these are my top rated fics in alphabetical order:

A Season For Setting Fires by @mightbewriting (31 chapters, 95,640 words)

A Second Look by @riverwriter (30 chapters, 127,243 words)

Apple Pies and Other Amends by @thudsonwrites (29 chapters, 76,720 words)

Bring Him to His Knees by @willhavetheirtrinkets (31 chapters, 246,526 words)

Clean and MARKED by @olivieblake (70 chapters, 297,160 words)

Contradictions by @ambpersand (16 chapters, 173,800 words)

Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love by @isthisselfcare (36 chapters, 199,695 words)

Edge by @phantonymfanfic (9 chapters, 47,798 words)

From Wiltshire, With Love by @mistresslynndramione (86 chapters, 355,053 words)

Isolation by @bex-chan-blog (49 chapters, 264,105 words)

Looking Glass by @kyonomiko (29 chapters, 99,226 words)

Love In A Time Of The Zombie Apocalypse by @rizzlewrites (84 chapters, 355,727 words).

Manacled by @senlinyu (77 chapters. 370,515 words)

Measure Of A Man by @inadaze22 (42 chapters, 604,748 words)

Mine & Ours by @its-banannaz (3 chapters, 7,889 words).

On the Nature of Daylight by @ikorous (27 chapters, 234,689 words)

Remain Nameless by @heyjude19-writing (51 chapters, 312,285 words).

Timeless by @alexandra-emerson (50 chapters, 324,528 words).

The Auction by @lovesbitca8 (41 chapters, 325,702 words).

The Darkwood Wand by @thebemoon (69 chapters, 201,107 words)

The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy by @batmansymbol (33 chapters, 296,116 words)

The Gloriana Set by @thebemoon (81 chapters, 271,830 words)

The World of Wait and Hope by @mightbewriting (71 chapters, 389,065 words).

There are others that came very close. But these completed fics have a very special place in my heart. I am aware that The Fallout by Sage/everydaysthursday is highly rated and recommended. I have yet to read it but will be reading it in June.

I also almost do not read fics on FF.net anymore. I know there are some really fantastic fics that are not available on AO3, and I will get to them one day.