Coral Awards 2021 (CLOSED)

Results - Historical Fiction

Winners

🥇First Place🥇 

The Duchess Cannot Sleep by Kehanni

🥈Second Place🥈 

Leeward by empiresofwater

🥉Third Place🥉

Old Soul Syndrome by Jagermeanshunter

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Scores

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1. Divergence: The Vampire Queen - MoonDahliaWrites

Title: 7/10
Cover: 9/10
Blurb: 5/10
Grammar: 13/15
Originality: 5/10
Writing Style: 13/15  
Plot: 10/15
Character Development: 8/10
Overall enjoyment: 4/5

Total: 74/100

Short review: chapters are VERY long. Chapter 2 is listed as taking 1 hour to read. That's far too long for Wattpad, which recommends no more than 3.5k per chapter. The sex scenes are the best part of the story. In non-sex parts, esp in the first 2 chapters, there are too many repetitions of the same information, only with different words and some extraneous scenes/action. Many modern words like "wow", "high thread count" "chemical cocktail of endorphins", "passing the buck" ruin the illusion of a historical setting at times. However, from chapter 3 onward, the story takes off and would a definite draw for vampire erotica fans.  

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2. The Duchess Cannot Sleep - Kehanni

Title: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Blurb: 5/10
Grammar: 15/15 
Originality: 8/10
Writing Style: 13/15
Plot: 13/15
Character Development: 7/10
Overall enjoyment: 3/5

Total: 84/100

Short review: The beginning is rather shaky, with a lot of info dumps. But around the beheading scene -- which is really very good -- the story begins to take off and the writing improves by bounds. The concept is good, but much of the dictatorial fantasy elements (non-aging is illegal, for example) rather gets in the way of the totally creepy story this could be. The "haunting the dead" and her constant rejection by Death/The Underworld is a great idea and very enjoyable.