J's Reviews [closed to catch up]

#18: Breaking Up Backwards

First Impressions

The cover is bright and interesting. It shows a couple standing back to back which works well with the title and gives the reader a romance feel.
The summary isn't bad, but I feel there is a lot of unnecessary information such as what university one of the main characters is studying at. However, it isn't badly written at all. It tells enough about the story without spoiling the plot for your readers

Prologue

Now I'm not a huge fan of prologues as most of them just aren't needed in some stories. Some often find themselves reading like a chapter instead of a prologue which should be shorter and contain something that is needed for the story to work. This prologue however is in a whole league of its own. It doesn't read like a prologue and also doesn't read like a chapter. To me, this prologue actually reads like a summary and in my honest opinion, it isn't really needed.

Chapter 1: About Today

Ok, well this is an interesting if unique start. I can't say I've ever seen a story start with the inclusion of the characters glasses prescription and I'm not quite sure mentioning that is necessary. The character of Greg however is coming across as rather random as we don't know anything about him at the moment.
I am a little bit confused about the way this is written. It is third person limited but with more than one character situation being shown during the chapter. I think this will be much better if it was one character situation per chapter.

I think this chapter was a really nice length. It wasn't too long and it wasn't too short. Although I like the fact it is set in the present day, with Instagram and social media being mentioned, I can't help wondering whether it would have been better for the story if you made up your own photo sharing app as using Instagram could date the story.

Chapter 2: This Feeling

I'm a little bit confused as to where in the world this story has been set as no setting has been mentioned so far. Again the issue with dating the story is also present here. Unfortunately if you mention real life things such as films and websites/apps, it can date the story. Think about it this way, if someone picks up the book in say ten years time, maybe (hopefully) social media may have died which will make your reader know that it was written before that. I really like the length of these chapters but feel it might be better if each part was in a different chapter and perhaps a little longer. As a whole chapter they are a nice length, but when you split them in half (Tim's part and Josie's part) each individual part is a little short and this one in particular is lacking in something. I feel that the only thing that happens in chapter two is that the two characters meet and we are introduced to Greg. But that is it. To be honest, it's small talk in class.

Conclusion

Although I feel this story isn't really a genre I would usually read, it is very well written, however,I feel it needs work. The chapters are a lovely length but like I said earlier, the individual parts are rather short for my liking. There is a lot more detail you could add in these chapters and although I planned on reading more, I have decided to stop reading after chapter two.

Recommendations

What I think would really help you is if you joined a read for read book club or a writing community to gain reads and important feedback on your work. If you would like me to recommend a few clubs to you then please comment below.