Brutally Honest Reviews™

Rum Cider (N)

NOTE: Gonna get this done in one sitting since I slacked off and avoided it like the plague to watch Solaris and honestly, anything else but it--it's not even like I have something against the book or historical-fic either, I'm just a rat! Whoo!

Word Count: 2602

Title: Rum Cider

Genre: Historical Fiction/Semi-Romance

Blurb:

On December 31, 1950, a man and woman meet at a New Years party. The woman a script writer, and the man, a cover author for ghost writers. Over cups of rum cider, they form a deal. The woman will write the scripts, and the man will sell them.

Together, the pair just might take on Hollywood.

Status: Ongoing

~

Starting Points: 30

Cover: Eh. It isn't that bad...but it could have been better if the image appeared more clear (or maybe looked like a purposely grainy, old picture--resembles more of a low-quality photo) and the text didn't look as horrendous as it does. (-3)

Title: I like it! Reminds me of a time that has passed and feels welcoming. 

Summary: There's a minor grammatical error in the second sentence: The woman[,] a scriptwriter...

-Other than that it's simple and fits the overall vibe I'm getting from this book. If I wanted to be really nitpicky about it, maybe the lack of character names can be an issue, depending on who you ask. Nonetheless, no points lost.

Plot: The old Hollywood story but told by a modern writer. Seems super Oscar-baity to me. 

Opening thoughts:

-So, there's a preface and the note before it begins actually made me chuckle. HUH. Must be something that I relate to. Wink wink. Anyways, the rest of this little hooha looks like if a millennial Googled mid-twentieth century slang and churned this up. The writer says it has nothing to do with the story anymore, but if the rest of the book is like that, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do appreciate the effort in trying to emulate that era though. Moving on.

*Checks chapter one's run time*

*Sighs*

*Makes some black tea (berry trifle to be exact)* 

-It's fourteen minutes long guys. (-14) 

-Just kidding! Hehe. (+9)

-The opening line to chapter one is a poor start to a chapter that I'm already loathing to continue because of its length (it's psychological, okay). 

-For the sake of readers' visuals, I'll provide an excerpt: 

-"I'm very sorry, Miss Carter, but your story just isn't what we're looking for!" The producer, Mr. Hansen, quoted for about the hundredth time in five minutes.

-For starters, the syntax of both sentences are off. Secondly, why is "Mr. Hansen" screaming? He needs to calm down. In fact, I doubt that he would be enthusiastic about this at all. I'm pretty sure he denies the scripts of amateur screenwriters all the time since he has the position to do so. Unless this dialogue is telling the readers that the character has set her sights low and is offering up her script to the people at the bottom of the barrel in Hollywood because she's that desperate to make money, and even they won't hire her?--this doesn't work. However, in the off-chance that is the point, this makes for an interesting start, but I kind of doubt that was the choice here. (-2)