In My Opinion

Rocky Rivers by Wingsandpens

Full title: Rocky Rivers by Wingsandpens
Source: Review Shop by TheBlossomCommunity_
Genre: Teen fiction
Mature: Y (alcohol, blood, bullying, cheating, child abuse, domestic abuse, drugs, physical assault, semi-explicit sexual content, slut shaming, smoking, strong profanity, underage drinking, violence)
Status: Ongoing
First impressions: 35/40
Digging deeper: 87/100
Final thoughts: Complete

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*****

First impressions total: 35/40

Title: 10/10
I suspect this title will make more sense after I read the book, but even though I don't understand its meaning right now, I like it. Actually, my first thought when I saw this title was that it may be a name, but seeing as it's not listed in the blurb, I'm going with "rocky" probably means something like a "rocky relationship," and "rivers" may have something to do with Lakeside High or a winding journey. Whatever the case, the ambiguity can provoke different thoughts from other readers and work in your favor, because regardless of what anybody thinks, they have to read the book to discover the intended meaning.

Blurb/synopsis: 10/10
Okay, first of all, here's your gold star for achieving the extremely rare perfect score in this category. I couldn't find any SPAG errors that weren't a stylistic choice, and you've introduced the characters, setting, and plot in three short paragraphs. Boy, girl, conflict, attraction, go! If there's anything I could add or suggest for this, you could consider ending the last sentence with an ellipsis (...) to create a trailing effect that leads the reader to start the story, or add a short, dramatic question to increase reader curiosity for a similar effect. But great blurb, and it's time for me to get into the story.

Cover: 8/10
The cover is a little plain for me, but I don't think you have to add much to fix that. The image is good; your font style, size, color, and placement are all good; it just needs a little something. And without having read the book, I'm not sure what that is yet. Maybe a frame? Not a full frame, just something in the corners. I don't think a full frame would look good. Or play with the background? Maybe just jazzing that up would do it. I'll have to come back to this after I read, but those are my initial thoughts.

First chapter (and everything that came before it): 7/10
Introduction: Ooh! Ooh! You have what I was thinking about in the blurb right here! The last paragraph of the summary here has the thought-provoking questions that stir reader curiosity I suggested. I would rework it a bit so the strongest question (the first one and second sentence) goes last. The order I think would work best (numbering each sentence from 1 to 4) is 1 → 4 → 3 → 2. And, of course, you can't just copy and paste the sentences as is that way, but I think that content order would lead the reader into the story best.

As far as the rest of the content in this chapter, I love how concise and clean it is. Clean in appearance, I mean. It looks professional. A lot of introductions and author's notes are really messy, like a scribbled note in the front of a notebook, very informal and very unprofessional. And that can be okay, depending upon the intended audience, but I prefer this polished look and feel.

Chapter one: Well. Starting us off right in the drama. So, the first thing I'm going to say is the age of consent on Wattpad is 18+. I don't know the ages of the characters yet, and I don't see anything wrong in this chapter specifically, but I just wanted to give you that heads up in case a sexual relationship is on the horizon for Atlas and Calista. If they're under 18, you can allude to it, but not show it.