Beat Reviews

Chapter 13: Her Familiar Stranger

Welcome back to Beat Reviews!

Today we have a nice book... I am not one for erotica, even if I am older than 18 years old, but I see that this book is good. But could be improved, in a way that is innovative and makes the story flow better.

I am not used to erotica, so I needed to find the right moment to do this, and that's not easy. Still, it was enjoyable as a romance. In my humble opinion, a bit forced, but well that's opinion because the taste can differ from person to person.

But that's for later, because now we will start with this story review. Which is the second of the two that Calista_Rosch has requested, and so we will see this review in depth.

-Book name: Her Familiar Stranger

-Author name: Calista_Rosch 

-Summary:

Ceylan Aslan has had a crush on her brother Baris's best friend, Liam Chase, since she was a teenager. And now, the CFO of her family company, two past relationships, she has never had the pleasure of experiencing real sexual satisfaction. With the push from her best friend, Savannah, she signs up for a one-time sexual experience with a stranger at the famous club Voluntas Tua.

Billionaire Liam Chase knows Ceylan Aslan is strictly off-limits. But hot-blooded lust wins when the two share a scorching one-night stand at the famous Voluntas Tua. She is everything he had been looking for in a woman. One night will never be enough. And so he pursues her with his Voluntas Tua alias by night and as Liam Chase by day.

-Score:

PLOT: 10 out of 30 marks.

WORLD BUILDING: 15 marks out of 30 marks.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 15 marks out of 30 marks.

GRAMMAR: 10 marks out of 10 marks.

TOTAL: PLOT+WORLD BUILDING+CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT+GRAMMAR= 50 Marks out of 100 marks.

-Verdict:

This book is good, and enjoyable, yes. But to be honest, this book has a weird situation going on. Kinda hard to point options to improve when the book itself has a massive world building issue that ends up affecting the plot and the character development, making the romance way more rocky than one could expect.

The book has potential for a 70, as far as I have seen, but it needs more work on the world building and then options to improve even more the book.
Also, let's be fair, the plot did start in a rocky way, which does get the people more lost than immersed in the book.

But let's face it, the book has recently started in my opinion. It isn't so far to be able to say things and put high scores without rethinking it at least thrice. But to be fair, it's better than some Wattys winners I have seen.

Plot:

The plot in this occasion started right directly to the action, yes. It is a legit way to do it, but in this case doesn't help much. You could have worked it up better from a different angle, like introducing the city where the action happens, the company of Liam, Liam's life, Ceylan's background.

Sometimes going right into the place where it happens can lead to some misunderstandings, and also since this is romance... I am checking the start of the romance, and it is a bit rocky, but that's why you could talk it at first from an outside view and an introduction of both MCs without running inside the action or the Voluntas Tua part.

World building:

In this case, it's not bad. But the thing here is that you could use it as a groundwork first to introduce the main characters, it would be far more efficient, and you should do something that made sure that the people didn't get lost in the Voluntas Tua alias for the action time.

As another way to improve this part, in the start or whenever you want (putting this at the start is the best option that I see), you can do a bit of work in the country where they are, which era (to ensure that it is in the present era), and how things are different.

Also showing how exactly Voluntas Tua work (like showing an ID or something with your Voluntas Tua alias) would be the cherry on top of the cake, making it feel more realistic.

Character Development:

This part was a bit rocky with certain parts, specially with Chase's choices. If you are interested in making a girl want to be with you, you don't just steal their necklace or other things. Because realistically speaking, if that happens the person will report it to the place, you can be sure that you will get banned for stealing.

But all in all, it is acceptable, and it is interesting. But you could work it around differently, like Vintage (Chase) telling Ava (Ceylan) to meet again in Voluntas Tua. Specially if he is sure that she enjoyed it, and be more intuitive and persuasive, which he has shown that he can be without taking things.

Afterword:

This book has potential to be awesome, I did enjoy reading it. But it has some incredible chances to improve, as it has only started, and the ideas I put here can be followed or not. As always, I don't give the exact way to improve the book, but chances. Because everyone has their style of doing things and writing.

But I do hope that this works for aiding you with your stories.

Next book:

Well, next book is Bouquet, from Harponeel. Let's be fair, probably this book will receive less score than I'd want to give it because it does not fit the review style. But as far as I have seen, it's a wonderful book.

So see you next time!

With the amount of books I have on the to-do list, you can be sure that at least 4 chapters this month will fall for the review book. Since per every two books I do, I am open to update one weekly (mainly because the batch is stable, and so when I can't do a review, I have a batch ready).

That said, it's not the first time that facing tech issues or surprise IRL stuff has made me unable to release chapters (RABP last week was the case of that, but well, this week I will try to have everything under control: Probably it will blow up in smoke once again, but at least I will try to have it under control).

So yeah, this author note was for letting the authors and the fans of this review book rejoice for the fact that I am becoming somewhat popular in the review area.

See you next time!