User blog:General Khor/Why Foreign Affairs Failed

Hello and welcome to another review blog by General Khor, and today, we're going to talk about another great series that came to an abrupt end. That series, is of course, well... I'm not even sure if I want to call it by its official title, in fact I have a nickname for this series that better describes it.

So, Foreign Affairs, hyped as one of the best books of 2020 (even though it came out at the literal end of the year), is supposed to be a great political drama, and at first glance, it sounds really exciting, and fans have really great hopes for a second book to be made. However, before the release of the finale, PB confirmed that the series would end with just that one book. When the news came out, needless to say, many fans were furious, especially since we haven't had a gender of choice series in months. As for me, I was perplexed, and the only question on my mind was, why?

Just before the book ended, I started it, and after finishing it, I wasn't surprised anymore that FA wasn't serialised. This is because, let's just say, I found most, if not all, the faults identified by players. Now, if this sounds familiar, then you must have read my Nightbound review blog, but I'm not just here to bash this book, after all there are some good points about it, and I'll be discussing those as well. But before I start my review, I'll first give my rating for this book, which is...

EXCITING!

Yes, that's right. I know some players' reviews are sort of bad, but I still think this is a very exciting book with a lot of potential to be serialised, like NB. Yet, the flaws I'm going to mention in this blog are what caused the series to take a big hit. I'll be focusing on the main ones that proved to be fatal for the series. But before that, let's talk about the good points, shall we?

What's Good About This Book
So, the points I'm going to mention here are what saved this book from falling into the lacklusture or even the mediocre category. First, who doesn't like a book about politics? After all, when you're a politician, or in this case, a politician's child, every decision you make comes with consequences. Besides, the idea of navigating scandals is also what drew many players to this book and it turns out, we have to keep escaping the paparazzi, so we did in fact get some drama. Also, the fact that the scandal turns out to be part of a scheme to get us into trouble with our president mom is another big plus point.

Then there are the characters, who have a wide range of personalities and are well developed: Blaine is a rebel, Ayna is cheerful and kind, Tatum is serious and professional, Dionne is sweet and caring, Peter is shy, Alexei is proud, and President Mom is determined, so determined that she cares for her campaign more than us. In other words, she's politician first, parent second, but in the end, she does care about us, especially after we got attacked. The many different personalities and great character development are yet more big reasons fans are captivated by the series.

The Fatal Flaws
Now let's talk about the main errors that killed this series.

The Plot
"Promising one thing but delivering something else is never good."

- Andisimon

While the story has a great premise, the plot turned out to be the biggest, most obvious mistake PB has made. Why? Well, for starters, there isn't much politics in this book despite being marketed as a political thriller, I mean bonding with classmates and participating in school sponsored activities aren't exactly political stuff, right? Yes, there is some political networking in Chapters 4, 8 and 14, but that's it. Also, given that we got involved in a sex scandal, and add that to the fact that most of the time we're just bonding with LIs and friends, this makes this book less of a political drama, and more of a romantic drama with political elements. In addition, many fans are off-put by the showmance part, although I don't really have an issue with that.

And of course, it's hard to deny that the ending is sort of abrupt, because it looked like they had planned a sequel, but then they cancelled those plans. I mean, the Winston reveal is the main factor fans think the ending came all of a sudden, and I think even if they had planned to make this a solo book, they could have made several more chapters where we investigate and expose Winston, not to mention the election, in fact I expected the story to end with us knowing if Mom got reelected or not. Speaking of the election, since the peace summit is so important for Mom's campaign, I was hoping it could fail if we didn't have enough diplomacy stars, and Mom would be unseated in the end, but no, even if we didn't manage to get any signatures at all, we still win no matter what, which is another reason the ending is blasted by many fans.

However, the most glaring piece of evidence that FA was originally planned to be serialised is the part where we choose who we want to end up with: "Your choice here will be locked in as your primary love interest." Notice the word primary, which technically means we could still romance other LIs. If this was planned as a solo book, it would have said final love interest. All these factors are what made the ending the biggest source of criticism for this book, but this wouldn't have happened had the story focused more on politics than on romance.

The Love Interests
Another factor that resulted in the series' downfall is how the LIs are treated, including screen time and the number of unique scenes each LI has.

Blaine
From the start, I could already see that s/he is meant to be the Romeo to our Juliet, or the Juliet to our Romeo. Yes, the political-sounding title of this book actually refers to us having an affair with a foreigner, and that foreigner happens to be from a country which is enemies with ours, so my nickname for this book is... Romeo and Juliet in the School of Politics. Fitting, right? Not only did s/he get the most screen time, if we don't pursue him/her, the story doesn't feel so political. The most glaring piece of evidence however, is that the only way to get 5 stars with Ardona is to have Blaine as your LI. While it seems impossible to get 5 stars with everyone, the last point alone is enough to prove that Blaine is a forced LI.

Ayna
Not only did she get the least screen time and unique scenes, it seems the game wants players to hate her by having her betray us. I mean, they could have anyone betray us, for example a classmate from a country that has ties with Ardona but not Rutherland, but they had to choose Ayna. Sorry PB, you can't sway me, and you shoving an LI I don't want into my face doesn't sit well with me. Team Ayna all the way!

Tatum
He may have just as many unique scenes as Blaine, but as mentioned above, not romancing Blaine makes the story feel not so political. Besides, he keeps acting professional and serious, and finding excuses to not actually bond with us, which reduces the value we get from romancing him. No matter what, he's still going to be my female MC's LI because, as I said, I don't respond well to having an LI I don't want being shoved into my face.

What I Expected for a Political Story
As we all know, the book premiered not long after the US general election ended, so who wouldn't expect a book about that (I don't mean the real life election of course, but a US presidential election)? In fact, when PB first announced plans for a political story, I immediately thought: can't wait to run for president! So, I pictured us running as a senator, with our best friend as running mate. Not only can we choose our gender, but that of our running mate too. We'll be up against a terrible governor hated by the people of his/her state (his/her gender is the opposite of ours), with a conniving senator as running mate (whose gender is the opposite of our running mate), so it will be a man VS a woman for president and VP. As for LIs, there will be a choice of 2 men and 2 women. Of course there will be a scandal, but it doesn't have to be a love scandal, and other political drama such as an assassination attempt on us, not to mention I expected hearing tunes such as the national anthem and Hail to the Chief being played during the story. While I don't see this book being serialised as well, but it would have been longer. And WAY better!

Conclusion
In a nutshell, has PB not learned from the mistakes in NB? These two books share one similarity: they didn't deliver what the premise promised, which is the main reason they ended up as solo books. Overall, FA is still a decent scoop of ice cream though, and it's a book I'll replay someday.

So what are your thoughts on FA? Let me know in the comments. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.