The Paris Awards 2024

LGBTQ winners!

                💎FIRST PLACE💎

SHACKLED IN SIN by @Vinculi

Title: 3.5/5
Cover: 7/10
Blurb: 10/10
World building: 8/10
Character Emotion: 9/10
Plot and details: 16/20
Writing Style: 20/20
Grammar and Spelling: 9.5/10
Enjoyment: 4/5
Total: 87/100

FEEDBACK:
In your cover, I liked your dark color scheme, hinting at the book. The image does that too which hints to the time period and plot. The fonts are nice and put together but I would suggest making the title and authors name larger since right now I feel like it's leaving a blank space on top. I feel like your title matches the book and plot well too, but adding ‘the lords prisoner’ makes it feel quite long. The only thing about the cover though, is I feel like it doesn’t show the ‘LGBTQ’ genre (since that’s where you applied the book) enough. Your blurb is flawless in my opinion. You added intrigue, made it a right length that leaves enough to the imagination that it makes the reader want to open this book up, while still giving fundamental information about it. The vocabulary used was diverse but you didn’t use too many adjectives to make it seem more eloquent to the point where it's incoherent like some authors do. And splitting it into three paragraphs: context, plot and intrigue was a great idea. The rhetorical questions at the end were the perfect touch to end the chapter. Now onto the content of the book. I love your writing style, you include a variety of figures of speech, you find a great balance between dialogue and descriptions and you set the scene and context well. The way you write is not overwhelming and is always clear what you mean, never confusing. Although, about the plot. I like the way you set him as a murderer and the whole ‘he was forced to do this to survive’ plot line, but this prostitute plot line isn’t my favourite and I would have liked for there to be more in terms of plot. Nevertheless, it was well set and executed and I know how many people enjoy these types of plots, and the multiple trigger warnings were very thoughtful of you. Barely any spelling/grammar/punctuation mistakes that I could find which was impressive. I read one of your comments stating how sad it was that he likes praise only because he found something he excels at and it got me thinking and I agree, you managed to give your characters personalities without explicitly saying many details which makes your characters seem more lively and manages to make the reader connect to them more. I liked that you showed his dissatisfaction with himself and his murderous sort of psychotic thoughts. It leaves too wonder if he actually did kill someone, I liked how you never explicitly confirmed nor denied it. And murder might be a possible plot line for Theo to pursue which would be interesting.

                💎SECOND PLACE💎

WICKED SUMMER GAMES by @qquinkoffee

Title: 4.5/5
Cover: 6/10
Blurb: 7/10
World building: 5/10
Character Emotion: 7/10
Plot and details: 14/20
Writing Style: 15/20
Grammar and Spelling: 9/10
Enjoyment: 4/5
Total: 71.5/100

FEEDBACK:
So first of all, although I like your cover, there can be many improvements. I like how the image you chose portrays the genre (a bxb romance) but still is aesthetically pleasing. Although I like the sunset yellow colour you used for your font, the text is not aligned in the middle as can be seen by how the word ‘summer’ touches the border on one side but not the other and how close the word wicked is to one side but not the other. Your title and cover give off the beach vibes of your book.

Your blurb is nice and mysterious. I like the length, long enough to get intrigued but not long enough to have too many details and ruin the ending. Something I particularly liked was how you didn’t mention Axel in the blurb, just Luke, pushing the focus on him. But that also had its drawbacks as I will later explain. About the actual content of the book, I like how you used the 1st person to encompass the main character's personality completely and how we really got to know him. I also like how mysterious you were about Jamie in that first chapter, inviting the reader to continue on. But, since you do not mention the love interests name in the blurb (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and only Jamie was mentioned in that first chapter, for a second there I thought Jamie was the love interest. Luckily in the second chapter you introduced Axel, but maybe to avoid such confusion, it could be better to join chapter 1 and 2. Since, usually we introduce the plot in the first chapter, not the second. But overall, you did a good job with hooking the reader. Although, more details about where he is and physical descriptions throughout the book could have been nicer. I also think the chapters are too short, these small chapters cause the reader to halt their reading, making the story feel choppier. Your spelling, punctuation and grammar were almost flawless, congratulations. I overall enjoyed your book.