In My Opinion

Fairytale by messycupid

Full title: Fairytale by messycupid
Source: Feedback request
Genre: Romcom
Subgenre: Drama
Mature: N (strong profanity)
Status: Ongoing
English usage: Indian, non-native
First impressions: 31/40
Digging deeper: 80/100
Final thoughts: pending

Clicking the "External Link" button below the "Continue to next part" button will take you straight to the book.

*****

First impressions total: 31/40

Title: 10/10
I love a good fairytale. Yes. Immediate yes. :)

Blurb/synopsis: 7/10
There are some grammar errors here, but overall, this is a good blurb. I like the short, sweet version at the top for the people who just click on the cover and glance at it to see if they'll read more, and I like the more fleshed-out version at the bottom. And, of course, the content warning. I always love those. It's so annoying to sit down to read and then find out this isn't something you can enjoy, whether that happens immediately, or a few chapters in.

Although I do enjoy your book. But back to the blurb. ;)

Okay, so, short version at the top. First sentence after the comma, it should be "lots" of food, and then a comma after "food" would be nice, but it's not necessary. Next sentence, things "don't" go as planned, no comma, and it feels repetitive to say "matchmaking interview" and "blind date." You could probably just say "go on a blind date," and cut the rest of the sentence. That's the most important thing here. It tells us her parents are meddling, which implies they have an expectation that a serious relationship will come from this, and it tells us she doesn't know who they're setting her up with. Next sentence, it's more common to say "little did she know," and you don't need the comma after it.

Moving on into the longer blurb, there are a few phrases in the first sentence that you should actually hyphenate: "top-rated," "well-known," and maybe "event-planning," but I'm not confident about that one. In the next sentence, this isn't necessary or anything, but I think it would be a nice touch to add a hyphen before "except men" to emphasize how strongly she feels on that subject. Instead of "aka" in the next sentence, I'd just put a comma after "school," and you don't need the comma after "life."

Next paragraph, you don't need the comma in the first sentence. Instead of "the both" in the next sentence, it should just be "them," and you really don't need that little section between commas there at all. We can already guess something triggers unexpected things to happen. So, I'd just say, "...between them, and she tries..." and continue the rest of the sentence as written. No comma in the next sentence, and I'd just cut "or will she break it" from the next sentence. It's implied that her choice is to go along with this or try to break it up.

Next line, no comma after "ride," although you could put a comma after "surprises," but that's not necessary. And this line is so true. I laugh multiple times throughout every chapter.

Cover: 7/10
I really like this, and I'm not usually a fan of this color scheme. But it works here. The black grass, the silhouette of the dancing couple, the sun (or moon) rising behind them - that's something I really, really like. It could be sunrise, or it could be sunset. I lean toward sunset, but either way. The soft glow of light emanating from the light source is perfect. And using the same yellow of the sun (or moon) for the text is also perfect. The placement, font choice, and text size for the title in the black background of the grass is fabulous.

The problem area for me is the text at the top. Your name should probably be smaller. Not too much smaller, but you want to draw the eye to the title first. And, generally, it does go that way. When I look at this cover, my eyes go to the couple first, then the title, then your name. Just a size or too smaller so it doesn't stand out quite so much, I think. It's an interesting choice to have your screen name below your real name. I don't think I've seen that before. That I would actually recommend bumping up a size or two so it's more visible. The line of text below that, though. I go back and forth about it. I feel like it's too long of a sentence, especially since it's too small to read easily. But if you bump the size up, it will distract too much from everything else. I would say try cutting it completely and see how that looks, but if the space it leaves on the cover feels too empty after you do that, I'd try condensing it down to a shorter sentence and bumping the font size up a notch or two.