In My Opinion

The Duke's Secrets: Christmas Special 2023 by J_Lunar

Source: ELGANZA, INC. | AWARDS by TheCieloCommunity
Category: Short Stories
Mature: N (sexual references)
LGBTQIAP+: L (side character)
Status: Complete
Special note (judging): I had five books in this category, and the other judges (BANGTANHOLIC_FICS and Lunatic_Twilight) had five books each.
Result: 77/100

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Rubric:
- Title: 5
- Book cover: 5
- Description (blurb): 5
- Plot & storytelling: 15
- Character development: 10
- Writing style: 10
- Grammar: 10
- Originality & creativity: 10
- Emotional impact: 10
- Pacing & structure: 5
- Accuracy (if non-fiction): 5
- Overall enjoyment & engagement: 10
Total: 100

Result: 77/100

Title: 5/5

Yay! A Christmas story! 'Tis the season, after all. And this title has the feel of a dramatic novel or a children's story, in my opinion, so perfect for this book. Assuming the "children" tag means this is supposed to be a children's book, that is.

Cover: 3/5

I like the imagery of this cover, but the text doesn't blend well with it. Silver and blue would probably work better with the color scheme than pink and red, and I think a cursive font might look nicer than the plain print. Also, your name is misspelled. Oops!

Blurb: 4/5

Overall, this is a good blurb, but there are a few areas of awkward phrasing that I think could be smoother. In the second sentence, I think there should be commas after "moments" and "children," and adding "too" after "herself" would complete the phrase "not just _____, but _____, too." Then, in the last sentence, "they culminate" doesn't lead naturally from "Navigating" in the first part of the sentence, so I'd change that to "culminates" (and cut the comma that comes before it). My last suggestion is regarding the hyphen. Adding spaces on either side of it ( - ) would make it look less like an odd hyphenated word. I'm guessing you put it in as an em dash, since you use those later in the story, but Wattpad has this nasty habit of changing em dashes to regular hyphens at the most inopportune moments.