Accidentally Marked the Top Alpha

Axton says:

Ughhhh this was great. I haven’t read a BL novel in a long long while so I was really itching for something sweet and romantic.

I’ll summarize a quick run down of the main couple dynamic:
– Verse relationship (neither were being referenced as being-god I hate these derogatory terms-a ‘top’ or ‘bottom’, ‘seme’ or ‘uke’. Both leads were mentioned by their names and not their assumed to be position all throughout the novel, which was a very pleasant surprise to me-most other BL novels treated their characters as seggsual fantasies rather than actual people. They also have quite a healthy dynamic in which either one loved being reciprocated by their own show of affection, rather than continuously only having one take the lead)
– Both leads are talented in their own fields, with both being comfortable wanting to learn from the other.
– Many many many kiss scenes, hand holding, hugging, etc. etc., with most of them initiated by a very clingy partner. The translator mentioned that some scenes were just flat-out cut from the story due to censorship concerns. This only happened twice, however, with 95% of their interactions being the innocent romantic side.
– That same clingy partner is very jealous prone, with anyone trying to be romantically close to the one he likes treated coldly by him. He, however, doesn’t actually do anything to prevent the one he likes from interacting with them, and keeps his obsession to his own thoughts. I honestly can understand this type of behavior. If you think about it while reading the story, this is his first love, well, both of their first loves. In his defense, he’s so inexperienced with all these new feelings he even resorted to reading trashy clickbait articles about “pursuing an alpha” just to try and get closer to his crush. For a first timer, he is doing an amazing job at handling all this. I admit he can get carried away, but gosh hes just so adorable.
– The story is a very long slow burn. I’m talking they still haven’t confessed halfway through the novel. It only happens at the near end. To me, I can stomache this wait, cause I love a proper build up more than a hurried acceptance.
– Both completely understand each other to be the same gender, alpha and alpha, and have never onced undermined their thoughts on the other to be less than that. I’m talking about thinking the other was acting like a beta, omega, sister-in-law, wife, or other derogatory terms associated with the opposite gender. No, this story to me completely understood the assignment! There’s never been one instance they failed to take advantage of their strengths as alphas of this world, whether for excusing themselves out of situations, or competing in talents. They have never shied away from their role as a same-segs couple throughout the story, and the rest of the other characters of this world has never seen them as anything else beneath their roles. (I constantly mention role because I’ve read an infuriating amount of BL novels where authors dont remember the characters setting! They constantly refer to their characters as being less than a man! You can have your own opinion on how offensive feminine terms can be to you, but to me its just derogatory to refer to a man using a feminine term or seggsual position! These are people! Real or fictional, please treat them as people! As men! And no, I’m not that sensitive to be triggered by the words “beautiful” or “cute” when referrin to a male, but more so the words “wife” and“sister-in-law”, which are predominantly used by hetero couples)

Ugh, sorry got a little heated there, but I would never leave a novel I loved a short review. They deserve my full thoughts and honesty.

Anyways, definitely would rate this novel a 9 dolphins out of 10 starfish experience. It lost a point due to the very noticeable TRANSLATION issue very prevalent in the middle to end PAID chapters. The sentence structure lost all meaning, with constant run-on sentences combined together into a paragraph, the POV being constantly messed up stating which name actually said what (the main couple suffered this greatly, as there were many moments both male leads said their own name in 3rd person or referred to themselves when saying/doing an action), and feeling as if the own story itself had short term memory loss when it referenced something that wasn’t mentioned before or done! I thankfully am experienced in reading through the gibberish due to having seen worse like for example machine translations with no english proofreading, so I was able to get through the story, but I definitely still suffered confusion and headaches trying to wrap my head around who said what and what happened during a chapter.

But since thats outside of the novel rating itself, I’d say one of my only criticisms is that it ended way too soon! Like come on! That ending was sweet and all, but god would I have loved a summary of the rest of their lives at least!

Bit of a spoiler: So they don’t end up making their relationship public at the end, which I don’t mind, but it really left the story end too abruptly after all the strong set-ups. The awards, the general fans pairing them constantly, the main villain facing an investigation, and whatnot, I was quite disappointed that I didn’t get my proper face slapping satisfaction! It, to me ended way too soon!