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Review 5 of 5! Last one already? I'll be back! (By the way, I know it was supposed to be poetry reviews, but I saw that you wanted input on this... hope you don't mind!
Title & Description:
The title, obviously, fits perfectly, but the description is lacking as it focuses more on the background than telling the reader what to expect.
Idea & Storyline:
The storyline is simple and sweet, which opens up a million possibilities for how the story can progress! For a first chapter, that's a very good thing as it not only opens those possibilities to you, but also to the reader, making him/her want to know where this will go!
Dialogue & Narrative:
The narrative is well-written with only a few small hiccups in the flow (see below).
Emotion & Imagery:
While the reader can easily understand the characters' feelings, there is nothing that really stirs the reader's own emotions. Curiosity is present and well-stirred, but I was unsure of what I should be feeling; I was, of course, happy for the woman, but felt a bit detached from her. Naming her might improve that aspect. The imagery is simple and nonspecific, so that everything was easy to see. (Having loved WV for years, I had plenty of scenes flashing before my eyes!)
Typos & Suggestions:
Paragraph 2: a[ ]plenty
No space needed; aplenty is one word.
In the same paragraph, when describing the Knights, the description seemed to drag a bit and I stumbled... I think that a comma after 'jointed' and then, maybe, hyphenating the lost-his-lance-somewhere might help to attach all the words as separate descriptions attributed to the same knight?
Paragraph 5: what [it]
Here, I think that italicizing the word 'it' would improve the flow and help the words in the parenthesis fit in better...
Paragraph 9: he was [s] a silver[-]tongued
I think that the 's' is a little stray?
Hyphenating here would help link 'silver' to 'tongued' rather than it seeming like he was silver and tongued.
Paragraph 10: lift[ ]time
No need for space: lifetime
Paragraph 12: were, once[,] again,
I don't know that this comma is necessary as it seems to break up the flow a bit.
Paragraph 13: Daily calls [(sometimes hourly)]
I think that the phrase in the parentheses might be better suited before 'calls'?
Paragraph 14: one [She'd] been
I don't know if you capitalized the wrong word or accidentally pressed shift, but no need for capitalization here.
Paragraph 15: they [begin] the
The word 'begin' doesn't match the tense of the sentence. began.
which [will] follow[,] by several months[,] his
Tense change again with 'will' --would?
since 'by several months' is added detail and the sentence can stand alone without it, I think that separating it with commas would improve the flow, as well as the clarity, of this sentence.
Overall:
This is well-written and definitely captured my attention! I think that with a few small improvements, you could easily turn this into something spectacular! With it's amount of background information, though, i cannot help but think that, maybe, this might make a better prologue, allowing Chapter One to introduce the reader more to the Stone Cottage for which the book is named?? I really enjoyed it as is, though! I do hope that you'll continue it! I'm anxious to see where you can take this!!!!
,
Stephanie Grace
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