Felicity Reviews

Review by Kit: You said Forever and Always 📗

Reviewer: KitZimmerman

Book: You said Forever and Always by lostlovefairy

Book Title: 4/5

Although the title seems to align with current trends using second or first-person pronouns followed by quippish action phrases, it stood out enough in how it belies sadness and remorse, which I found thematic with the cover and blurb and ultimately held my interest. My only real point of critique concerns the lowercase "s" in "said" on the Wattpad text version of the title field, which should be capitalized according to title case capitalization standards.

Book Cover: 5/5

The book cover was eye-catching, creative, and relevantly nuanced where the story is concerned. It seemed like time and careful thought went into its consideration, which I appreciated.

Summary: 3/5

The blurb is there, but it doesn't allow readers to question it or become as interested as they could be. Points in favor of the blurb's brevity, but that's also where it falls a bit flat. Summarizing the conflicts of the central characters while providing hints of what's to come is an effective strategy in hooking potential readers, but not through overuse of rhetorical questions or dialogue excerpts—especially ones that give away potential plot points (e.g., "I love you, Zayne").

Grammar & Punctuation: 4/5

There weren't many overt mistakes, which made the story flow well. The predominant thing I noticed was in the case of numerals instead of words, and I would advise some revision. Numeral usage in prose requires readers to make mental shifts that can be jarring, whereas spelling out numbers smooths out those transitions in thought to better track logic flow.

Character Building: 3/5

The character building was good but could have been better, at least in the sense that although a lasting impression was made, it wasn't necessarily for the better—a point which I'll elaborate on in the Reader Engagement section.

Writing Style: 1/5

The strongest aspect of the writing style was its focus on character action and emotion, but that was ultimately the extent of its exploration. To have a style is to have a voice with distinguishable modes of expression. In that sense, I see a lot of potential, especially where imagery is involved, beyond the basics of movement and dialogue.

Plot Originality: 1/5

While an initial plot point is established early on (Naina marrying Zayne), there is very little trajectory from that point on, inhibiting its ability to expand beyond the trope. There are a lot of conversations and heightened emotions, but nothing really happens—there are no major events connecting the story to pull it along. 

In summary, the narrative seems to mimic real-life "what ifs" of character reactions to a proposed scenario, and I think that's where it needs some developmental editing. Even in literary fiction, readers often walk away with some level of insight after experiencing "life" through fictional characters. 

Arguably, genre fiction can accomplish this as well, but we see either growth or declination of a character's development over the course of recognizable story beats to keep readers engaged. 

Narratives lacking those story beats typically have markers I noticed throughout my read (and rereading, in some instances)—markers such as chapters ending on notes irrelevant to the overall story that build false tension, recycled scenes, and continuous cycles of internal and external conflict without any clear micro-resolutions leading up to a final, culminating one, to name but a few.