Zian's Reviews | CFCU

1 | The Black Scales of Spitfyre

Author: lavendareyes

Book: The Black Scales of Spitfyre

Chapters read: 1-5

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TITLE (6/10)

I'm on the fence about the title. Now, here's the thing—it's good to be specific and to the point about what the book is centered around, which in this case is the dragon Spitfyre, but there's also the fact that the readers have no idea who Spitfyre is. That's because the dragon is your creation. Including specificity in a title where a made-up term from the novel is included should almost always be avoided simply because it becomes quite difficult to clue the readers in on what they can expect inside the book. I'm also not sure what significance 'black scales' hold in the story because I've not reviewed that far yet, though I'd highly suggest getting the title to focus on something that is integral to the plot and also doesn't get too specific with its wordage. However, I will say that the title fits the genre of the book, so you've done a good job with that.

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COVER (8/10)

Since I'm not a professional graphic designer, I will only give my views as a reader. The cover is beautifully made—the dagger/sword, the title, the color scheme—all of them are in line with the tone and themes of the book, and at a glance, I can easily make out that it's been crafted by a professional designer. But on a critical level, I'll make two suggestions. Since you yourself are a graphic designer, you're free to incorporate them or discard them as you see fit.

The first is the dragon in the background. I had to strain my vision in order to make out what was there in the background. It's not a major issue, but because a dragon(s) is an integral part of your story, it's worth considering increasing the brightness of the background to make it stand out more. Second is the placement of the author's name. While I do not necessarily think it's wrongly placed, it'd be much easier on the eyes if the author's name were a bit further away from the word 'Spitfyre' and were emboldened more. Other than that, the cover is absolutely stunning, and I have nothing to suggest.

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BLURB (6.5/10)

As soon as I read the first line of the blurb, I spotted a grammatical error, which can be a big turn-off for many readers. Let's see. The first line of your blurb is:

"HE IS A THREAT, A POWERFUL WEAPON; BUT MOST OF ALL, A KEY TO THE END OF WARS."

There are two issues here. One, it should be "He is a threat and a powerful weapon..." because a comma indicates the separation of things when more than two objects are considered. Second, the semi-colon before 'but' should be replaced by a comma. A semi-colon is used to separate two independent clauses and is not followed by conjunctions such as 'and' 'but' 'or' and/or 'nor'.

Moving on, there's a lot of information crammed into single sentences without giving readers enough room to breathe. So, I will include my suggested blurb below. It's not going to be good by any means, but you'll have an idea of how the blurb looks after being tweaked.

A twist of fate shatters Sol's illusion of a safe world when he is charged with treason against the King. Unbeknown to his true identity, he is driven out of his homeland and faced by a rampant beast fiercer than anything he has ever known. To escape the assassins breathing down his neck on land, he is forced to travel overseas and seek refuge from the Queen of Ourek.