CLN's Seasonal Reviews (CLOSED)

Leeward [Regency MxM]- by - empiresofwater

Reviewer: chaotic_naturx

BEFORE READING

First off, I would like to say that I am utterly in love with the Historical Fiction genre. Now, with that in mind, I'm gonna look at the cover now!

Alright, officially hooked! By the cover, I know it takes place on a boat in the sea and something tragic probably happens (maybe a storm/shipwreck based on the title!), based on the subtitle. To the blurb to hopefully find out!

Ooo! Amazing! I love the blurb! It's pretty much flawless. You might have given off a bit more information than I would have liked though, but I still love it and I'm still uber excited to get on with this thing finally! WAHOO!

WHILE READING

Author's Note + Glossary

You have no idea how much respect I have for history buffs. LOVE them! I am also one! I mainly specialize in land wars and weaponry, but I know jackshit about boats and pirates lmao. So, thank you very much for the history lesson and glossary! I will now probably have more of an understanding of the story and I will, therefore, be able to be more engaged, so that's amazing!!!

I feel like I learned so much. Wow...

1: The Devil's Mass (1798)

Woah! What a nice, action-y beginning to this (obviously) amazing story! SO MUCH LOVE! Even though there was a lot of confusion racking my brain, the glossary and history lesson did help me, so bravo to moi! I'm pretty sure this is one of the sea battles in the French Revolution War, correct? Assuming that is true, mid-battle is the perfect way to begin a story centered on war and ships! Great job!

Your writing style is absolutely impeccable! Love it! The ending was so beautiful that I just had to read over it twice more! Amazing!

There were only a few grammar mistakes, including comma errors and hyphens that should be dashed, but these are easily fixable! You don't even need an editor to fix them up! Good job and keep up the great work!

2: Aureate

Great start of a time skip! I learned some personal things about characters and some possibly important-to-the-plot things and that's exactly what a second chapter needs! Your writing style is lovely, as usual, but there's one thing that kind of ruins the flow. There are sooooo many hyphens (which should be dashed) that separate a sentence fragment from the main sentence right in the middle or at the end. This is getting very, very close to repetition, so make sure to watch out for that! Again, there are some comma mistakes, so fix those! All in all, AMAZING!!!!

3: English Harbour

So, in all honesty, this is your best chapter so far. I think this is because I learned a bit more about Nightingale (cough Louisa was kinda random lmao cough) and it is the point of no return. He's going on this mission and he can't stop it. No one can. And, another good aspect of this chapter is that there were barely any mistakes. You just gotta keep looking out for comma mistakes and hyphens. Once they're fixed, you're gold! This chapter was, overall, super entertaining, very informative, and extremely engaging, so good job! Now, I will continue to the next chapter!

4. The Scylla

Okay, I'm going to say something I should've said after reading the first chapter...and the second...and the third...Your descriptions are just amazing, so amazing that I have no other words on the matter (dunno if this is counted as lazy reviewing, but it is the truth so eh lmao)!

But, of course, your two weaknesses still exist in this chapter. You really gotta work on your commas and hyphens. But, there are a couple more mistakes in this one other than the usual. In one instance, you put "35" when you should spell it out like "thirty-nine." Any number that can be spelled with two words or less must be spelled out unless it is a scientific/mathematical percentage. The other error was an added word that doesn't make any sense at all in the English grammar world. In one of your sentences during Nightingale's conversation with Courtney at the end, you wrote, "He was stood..." when it should be, "He stood..." No "was" is needed!

Once again, you did an amazing job, so let's continue to the fifth and final chapter of this review!

5: Survivors

LOVE! That's all I have to say...Buh-byeeeee!!!

Jk, jk! I really did love absolutely everything about this chapter, but there were still some errors, including the usuals (commas and hyphens) and a quotation error. In one of your quotation dialogues, there are multiple paragraphs and you only have the beginning and ending quotation marks when it should look like this:

"I....able.

"It....enemy.

"Captain....first."

And that's that for the grammar I'm pretty sure! Good job with that! I love seeing your progression in improving your skills. LOVE it! I also really want to compliment your steady pacing. It's absolutely perfect for a story about ships sailing on the sea! Amazing job!

AFTER READING

There is no way in hell that I won't read the rest of this book. It's way too good for that! Plus, I'm kind of obsessed with your writing style now, so you may have to teach me some of your techniques! ;)

I'm going to relist some of the things you have to change/I recommend you change just so you can remember easier.

repetition of hyphens that should be dashes

various comma errors

multiple-paragraph quotations

displaced/missing/added words

spelling out numbers

just read over all your chapters to check for anything else

All of this can be done without an editor, but, if you feel you need one, please go on to the editing shop on this account and request that Leeward be edited! After that, it will be spick-and-span! I wish you all the luck in the future!