J's Reviews [closed to catch up]

#19: The Wretched Queen

First Impressions

The Cover is bright and eye-catching, however, I don't feel it's really that unique. I've seen so many covers like this before. It's a good cover, don't get me wrong, but what makes it different from similar covers? What makes it unique?

The Summary is interesting, with a vampire feel to it. To me, as someone who has spent many years writing vampire novels, it looks like it is possibly a new take on the genre.

First page I come to when starting to read this book is a character introduction page. I'm not sure if you've read any of my reviews before, but these are something I feel are completely unnecessary. I am an old fashioned writer and an old fashioned reader. People have been telling stories for centuries before photography was even invented. They used words to show their audience the story by using enough description. Nowadays a lot of writers, especially on sites like Wattpad, shove photographs in the book and think that is good enough instead of properly describing the characters and the scenes. Photos are fine for your references, but I don't think they are really needed in a book. The fact that a lot of readers, myself included, will just skip these pages, makes me think they aren't as important as you may think.

Chapter one: Rancorous Wretch
After skipping the character introduction page I come to the first chapter. The first sentence of this chapter is worded in a very weird way which makes it difficult to read. Although this is an interesting paragraph, I don't feel the first line has a strong enough book to make the reader want to keep reading. As I read through this book I can see Vampires are mentioned, but I will add that not all vampires are made from being bitten. Like I have said earlier, I am not a fan of people putting photographs in books and the one you have posted in the first chapter of the night sky even contains a watermark meaning you shouldn't use it. I can not understand why you could have used it for your reference to help you describe the night sky in words. It's much better than including a picture and will even help you grow as a writer.

Unfortunately as I continue to read through this I am beginning to find the photographs annoying and distracting. Not only do I think it would be better if you were to describe the characters and the scenes instead of adding photographs to it, I think five images, not including the collage in the image box, is probably four too many.

Conclusion
I originally planned to read at least two or maybe even three chapters, but unfortunately I found the images to be too annoying. It is much better to describe the scenes instead of putting pictures in it. My advice to you is to get rid of them and the character introduction page as neither of these are necessary. I think a writing community would be able to help you learn how to improve your story through words instead of pictures. I will happily recommend one to you if you would like.