Reverie Reviews

review #61.S3: My Summer of Untold Truths

My Summer of Untold Truths

Author: @Danielle_Jayde
Reviewer: CoffeeAndSilverInk

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SYNOPSIS

16 year old Taylor wants this summer to be different. She doesn't want to live her life in her little bubble anymore and wants to live her life like she thinks a teenager should. Her neighbour, Brianna, introduces Taylor to her friend group. (Which kind of has a bad reputation in their town) As she's beginning to make summer memories, she meets a guy.

Ezra is two years older then Taylor and he's incredibly hot. He's kind (to her) and seems to be the guy who checks all the boxes, but he has a bad reputation in their small town. She knows she shouldn't fall for him, but her feelings completely disagree. As they get to know each other, Taylor thinks that maybe his bad reputation has been mistaken.
Until she doesn't.

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Note: The following review is written by someone with no real writing credentials (uni degrees and anything of sorts), only the experience of many years within the wattpadian writing world and having written over 50 reviews in the past 3 years. Please note that reviews are subjective and not law, that they're opinions and should be taken with a pinch of salt. If the following review in any way offends you, please note that that is not the goal and it is one person's view of your story. You are entitled to agree or disagree with the raised points. If you are hurt and need to leave hate comments to feel validated, please don't. The reviewer doesn't care.

Title and Cover:
The title is good, catchy and makes sense to the story. There haven't been any "untold truths" so far, but this part of the title insinuates that at some point there will be secrets to uncover.
The cover is plain and works well, but the title blends with the background picture due to the pale colours and lack of contrast. To highlight the title I suggest trying a bold font.

Blurb:
The blurb could be much better than it is. It is repetitive, lacks proper punctuation and contradicts the story.

Somewhere in the earlier chapters it is said that Taylor is sixteen and Ezra is seventeen, and the blurb contradicts this. Also, when writing numbers, write the words instead of the numbers.
Creating a blurb has some simple steps such as introducing the main characters, the main conflict, and spiking the reades' interest. These steps are there, but they could be developed further.

Plot/Flow:
The story flows nicely and each chapter helps build characterization and broaden the readers' knowledge of each character through each scene. Although some characters are more explored than others. I'll go back to that in Characterization.

Although it's an easy read, the chapter size is extremely inconsistent. Chapters vary between 8 to 29 minutes long. I'm going to guess and say a 29 minute chapter consists of 6K words. Readers' are more likely to read all those 6K words if they are split in more chapters, while opening a chapter and seeing it's that long can become fastidious. This is a number me and other writers have agreed on when it comes to length, so I'd aim for 2-3K words per chapter.

The opening paragraph, and overall opening scene, is not particularly interesting. It's mundane and doesn't bring anything new plotwise. It's only when Bri arrives that the story starts. I think that scene can be completely cut out.

The premise of the story is that Taylor wants to have a summer that is typical for a teenager and have something to tell her kids about. That's a pretty good premise and is properly shown through Taylor's narration. The reason why she feels the need to get out of her shell could be further explained. She says she's not bored of her own summer routine, so why is it that she suddenly wants to change?