Congratulations to the winners!

There will be three placement winners and two honorable mentions, so five overall winners.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know, though I am not tolerating disrespect or hate.

Please read your review all the way through before asking questions since I sometimes take a while to explain, so your question may be answered by the time I finish up the review.

Remember this is a mini awards, so it is not as detailed as my other awards, though I still put a lot of work into these reviews, so please be respectful. They're over 11k words, so they take a lot of time and effort😔.

Next: I am working on best characters, which is the final category.

Now that the contest is just about done, I am no longer allowing backouts.

3rd Place

I'll Protect You, Maknae by SSears90

Review:

The duo being judged here is Taekook, for probably obvious reasons (definitely not because they're the main characters and their name is in the title of the book 😱😱😱), but there is another side to the story with the rest of the BTS members, too, though I will be focusing on the Taekook dynamic for this review.

Taekook are an engaging duo throughout the story, going through many interesting and oftentimes realistic emotions that make it hard to read at times (in a good way). Jungkook takes on the role of scared younger boy, almost child-like at times with the way he reacts to what's happening to them, and what's happening to them is certainly a tragedy, so it makes sense that he would almost revert to a child-like state and become co-dependent on Taehyung. When he makes Taehyung upset, he gets upset with himself and mentally asks himself things like Is hyung really mad at me?, making for an interesting Jungkook character that made me intrigued to read more of their dynamic and how Jungkook's personality would impact Tae's.

On the other side of things, Taehyung is the older, calmer hyung who is taking care of Jungkook and putting on a strong front to try and keep Jungkook calm. Even when it hurts, Taehyung is keeping on a strong front, trying his best not to show Jungkook tears, and often only crying when Jungkook isn't paying attention. He does his best to shield Jungkook from the deep state of his fear, taking on the responsibility of older brother, something that is far from easy to do in a situation like this, where Taehyung is expected to have the answers due to him being the older of the two. The truth is, neither of them can do anything about the situation, and it leads to Taehyung having an inner conflict and feeling useless for not being able to figure things out like the older brother "should."

That leads me to the duo themselves, though I wanted to focus on them as individuals first since their individual characters heavily impact their duoship as well. As a duo, I think they work well together, working as a platonic, brotherly bond where the two have to figure their way out of a terrible situation. Taehyung's facade compared to Jungkook's panic makes for an engaging time reading about their interactions, and it leaves readers wanting to see more of how they're going to solve their problems when they have such vastly different reactions but still care about each other deeply.

The last thing I'll mention before moving into critiques is how I liked that they got mad at each other and lashed out at each other throughout the story due to the stress. It's a normal trauma response, and to see them at odds here and there when they were the only people they could rely on was something that I think will tug on many readers' heartstrings. They of course end up sticking through it through thick and thin, but that doesn't change how much tension arises throughout because of their high emotional states.

Critique-wise, the main thing I would say is to ensure that every line spoken by a new person is given its own space to breathe since there were many times throughout the story where lines spoken by different people would be placed in the same paragraph, which got confusing to read and could take away from the emotion of the moment. I'm pretty sure you don't do this in your more recent works, though since it's present in this one, I do have to mention it, especially when it can take away from the emotion in the scene. So, to summarize, I just suggest making sure every line spoken by a new person is separated unless there's some specific goal in mind you have for putting the lines together, such as showing the characters are speaking over each other/at the same time or something of the sort. But otherwise, I would recommend making sure the new lines spoken by new people are separate.

The second and final thing is something I believe I've mentioned in past reviews, though be careful with overdoing it with certain emotions and expressions of emotions, like screaming. There is a lot of screaming throughout the narrative, and a lot of it is understandable considering the circumstances, though consider being more diverse with the emotions. Like I enjoyed Jungkook getting a panic attack in chapter 9. Okay, wow Raven, chill: no, I don't mean I enjoyed Jungkook getting a panic attack, I mean I enjoyed it from a character building perspective. Wow, I sounded psychopathic, but let's ignore that! Anywhozzles, before I dig myself in a deeper hole, let's just end this here by saying consider diversifying emotions more here and there and using less of certain displays of emotions like screaming since overusing them can take away their future impact and begin to unengage the reader. I hope that makes sense.

Overall, the Taekook duo in I'll Protect You, Maknae was entertaining to read about, and pls don't take that in a psychopathic way. I'm just now realizing how crazy I must sound in all these reviews, praising all the dark moments- okay y'know what I'll shut up now. Anywho, so as I was saying before I interrupted myself, I think the Taekook duo work well and bounce off each other in an interesting manner with realistic depictions of trauma that make for an engaging read. The emotions could be diversified at times to give that extra bit of emotional depth, but it's otherwise an engaging read that I enjoyed.

2nd Place

Their Connected Worlds by _reichii

Review:

Their Connected Worlds is a short story compilation (loosely connected) following Eujae and Poll, a couple from the author's previous novel, Their Parallel Universe. Therefore this is a compilation for those who enjoyed that book, and I have read that book before, so I do have the advantage of knowing the story. It is a bl relationship, and each short has different loose plotlines running through them. Some are just fluffy, some are on the spicer side, some are a mix of both, etc. So, with that mini synopsis out of the way (I always try to give small summaries so writers can see how someone else would describe your story), let's jump right into the review.

This is a cute, short story that I honestly don't have too much in-depth to say about other than I thought it was wholesome and fun to read. Eujae and Poll have a very wholesome relationship, and I love how they treat each other with so much respect. They listen to each other's problems sincerely and genuinely care about one another, and they ask each other for their opinions on choices. I know this may sound like a silly thing to praise, but I always appreciate it when characters value another character's opinion. It's an underrated aspect of character dynamic building where the characters trust one another with asking for advice, and I like that side of it where, for example, in the first chapter, they talk out their feelings and work through the problem together with each other's voices being heard equally, and I appreciated that.

As individuals, they're pretty fun characters to read about as well, and since them as individuals greatly impact the duo they have going on, it's important to talk about that, too. I like how Eujae gets really flirty in the second intoxication chapter, and how flirty Eujae is overall. They both have clear personalities that lead to them bouncing off each other really well. I like how Poll tends to be the one more on the shy side, which led to many funny moments, particularly in the same chapter I mentioned before, Intoxication 2.

Another thing I enjoyed is how the few spicy scenes were there for a clear purpose, like they were built up to over time with the intoxication chapters, and the two lovers communicated their feelings and boundaries. If anything, it almost felt educational for anyone who isn't experienced with the naughty naughty and isn't sure how to go about it, but the #1 thing to know is comfort, which this story tackled through their respectful relationship. It's rare I see books with naughty naughty where it actually has a purpose, so I'm glad it served one here and wasn't just there for sake of being there. It's a small thing, but it increased my enjoyment of Eujae and Poll's journey as a couple.

So I'd say the two of them make a pretty good match! Individually, they have their own personalities that are clear through their actions and words, and their dialogue is written in a way that's easy to understand and fun to read. It's a feel-good story that deals with some deeper topics at times but tends to keep the mood light, which I think works well for the duo here. So, good job!

Critique-wise, my main and probably only thing would be about dialogue tags. They aren't big deals, but they do impact the emotion of dialogue and the immersion, so they do impact the duo here. The main thing is be careful about putting too much emotion on the tags. By that I mean, sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, you'll overuse tags to the point where it'll only be two people talking but almost every line has a tag. It just got a bit repetitive at times, especially since many of the tags are written in the same way, like *insert description of action here* as he answers/asks/says/etc., "Dialogue." So that's why I'd recommend tweaking it a bit so the tags are more spread out instead of bundled together, that way the tags don't get repetitive. Like I said, this doesn't happen always, but it did get noticeable the more I read.

Overall, Eujae and Poll are a great duo, and they'll make you feel like you're having a fun time while reading the story. The narrative addresses the hardships of relationships without going too dark, and Eujae and Poll reflect those hardships well. As individuals, they have clear personalities that are entertaining to read, and together, they're a cute couple. I just had a minor critique about the dialogue tags, but I otherwise thought the duo worked really well!

1st Place

But Then I Fell In Love by jahools

Review:

I've read this story before and enjoyed it, and upon rereading it, I enjoyed it just as much as last time. But Then I Fell In Love tells a compelling tale of a realistic ab/sive relationship and the real impacts of it through the lens of Yoongi, the protagonist who is the victim of Chul, an ab/ser. Yoongi goes through many realistic emotions that make him feel layered and complex. He goes through denial, self-blame, anger where he lashes out at loved ones, etc., all as a result of what he's endured, and you don't shy away from how ugly suffering can get, which makes this such an interesting piece.

All of that leads into the chosen duo to review for this story: Namjoon and Yoongi. Who they are as individuals impacts their duo, so that's why I wanted to focus on the realism and Yoongi's trauma in the intro paragraph. The Namgi dynamic becomes far more prominent later in the story, like in the second half, when they move in together, and Namjoon starts going to therapy sessions with Yoongi along with staying by his side during the trial and police investigations. I liked that the focus of the narrative is on Yoongi since it really is about his mental health and what he endured, but there's still room to give Namjoon and others personality traits that shine through, even when the focus is on Yoongi and pretty much everything within the story revolves around Yoongi. Like Namjoon still works and has to think outside the box to... y'know, not get fired. Kinda important. So it's nice to see his intelligence and emotional maturity, but at the same time, he can want to help so much that he gets a little pushy, like in the beginning when he rushes off after Jimin tells him what happened with Chul to go confront Chul, and he has to hold himself back from barging in, leading to an intense inner struggle for him.

It's nice to see the characters react in such different ways, with Jimin being so unsure of himself while others, like Jungkook, are more experienced and tend to have more rational and calm responses to what's going on. But going back to the Namgi duo in particular, their duo shines, like I said before, much more prominently later in the story, after they move back in together, and once there, Namjoon really shows his caring side, and he is like a leader where he initiates plans and, again like I said earlier, thinks outside the box by doing things like inviting Jungkook over to try and get Yoongi a little more comfortable while he's gone at work. So I liked how his traits really impacted the duo. And he's still flawed, too, like in chapter 15 when he gets a bit frustrated with Yoongi and accidentally raises his voice. Of course it's beyond tough what Yoongi is going through, but it's tough on Namjoon, too. He's taking care of Yoongi, and the emotional toll it takes on Namjoon watching his friend be in such a depressing state isn't easy to go through, and I'm glad that side was acknowledged, too, since it's an important part of the mental health journey present throughout the narrative.

Together, Yoongi and Namjoon made for a comforting duo. Yoongi needed help, and Namjoon was there every step of the way. Yoongi was written very realistically, and that made for a more impactful duo as a result because they have a real friendship. They have real conversations and human moments that make them really unattractive and unlikeable at times, but that's exactly why it's so engaging to read. It makes them people, and reading about these real life situations is very eye-opening. Their duo is educational, I would say, in the sense that it raises awareness about these topics and raises awareness in a tasteful, mature manner, so I overall think you did a great job with this dynamic duo, and I enjoyed reading about them.

Critique-wise, the only minor thing is I felt there could have been more description here and there to help slow it down when in tense moments. I did enjoy that moment in chapter 15 when Namjoon snapped a bit at Yoongi by interrupting him, though it could have been nice to get some description in between since it goes from him sharply interrupting Yoongi to apologizing within a flash with little time for the readers and Namjoon himself to reflect on that. So just a little more here and there (really sparingly since I still think you're in a good spot regardless) could have been beneficial to help amplify the emotions, but I otherwise don't have any critiques for Namjoon and Yoongi.

Overall, the Yoongi and Namjoon duo here are pretty solid and do a good job elevating the narrative, showing a wholesome side that is far from the stereotypical portrayal of male friendships while also keeping that realistic approach where I believe this relationship is one that would happen in real life. Of course, it's fiction, and I'm not expecting it to be totally 100% realistic, but it's always a nice touch to see those kinds of things. It makes the story feel more real when you put in that extra effort, and I just wanted to appreciate that. All in all, the duo is very solid here!

Honorable Mention

My Guardian Angel by thedevilstwin100

Review:

My Guardian Angel is a dark story that features some triggering topics, and it follows the main character, June, on her personal journey after she's assigned a bodyguard, Jasper, by her protective father. However, not all is as it seems as the mystery surrounding the dark acts are revealed, and June is torn between love and hatred, both for herself and the ones around her.

The duo being judged here is Jasper and June, the two J's. So we'll look at them individually before going into the dynamic since them as individuals is just as important as them as a duo. I'll start with June because I liked her a lot. She's definitely not the average female character, and I really enjoyed how you toyed with our expectations and made June a lot different. She has a very clear personality and voice in her POV. Her POV is individual to her, and it always feels in-character for her. Her thoughts are really fun to read, and I enjoy how she's very relatable. 16-25 year old women are definitely going to relate heavily to her inner thoughts. I mean, I'm in my 20s and related, so maybe I'm just projecting, but anywho. That aside, I still enjoyed June's character and how funky she was. Same applies to Jasper, though I did personally like June more, so that's why I focused on her. Jasper was her bodyguard who wasn't all stoic and serious, which was interesting since a lot of bodyguard fics tend to have the man be all stoic and cold and serious, but he enjoyed playing little pranks on her and teasing her, which I thought was fun.

At first, I wasn't sure how to feel about the age gap. I don't mind age gap relationships at all, it was more that June was so young when they met, but I'm happy with your decision to have there not be any sexual stuff and it's more of an emotional connection. If anything, to me I almost viewed it as a soul bond more than even romance, where they needed each other in a different kind of way, and I actually enjoyed that a lot. It was an interesting twist on relationships, so I enjoyed that aspect of it.

Another thing I liked was how they worked together, and how June's inner turmoil and conflicting emotions impacted her relationship with Jasper as the story unfolded and she grew up. But I also like how the Sirius joke was a recurring thing throughout the text, showing that while June did go through changes with Jasper by her side, they still had things that continued from the beginning all the way to the end, and I love it when authors have those kinds of throughlines.

The last thing I'll mention before moving into critiques is the general duo of June and Jasper and how they started off not exactly liking each other, but they weren't at each other's throats either. June was understandably upset about needing to be watched 24/7, even in her own bedroom, so there was a justifiable reason why they started off on the wrong foot, and I appreciate that Jasper ended up acknowledging this and apologizing. It's a small thing, I know, but a lot of these kinds of stories will have the fl and ml be at odds for no real reason other than it'd be hotter that way, so I appreciate that you gave them a genuine reason to clash.

Critique-wise, I don't have too much aside from the dialogue tags being incorrect. It's not a huge deal, but it does impact the duo since the dialogue is a big part of the character building here. There are errors sprinkled throughout, so it's not just at the beginning, and I'll try to use examples from a bit later since I know you said in your opening a/n that the beginning chaps had more errors. So, from chapter 15, there are lines like this: I nodded, "I never thought..." and "I agree," I said slowly, "So you've been...". I'll use those two as examples and explain what I mean below.

For dialogue tags, I would recommend not using actions like nodded, smiled, shrugged, etc. since they're a bit unnatural. This is because dialogue tags are called just that: dialogue tags, not people tags, so it can almost imply that the words are the thing doing the nodding/smiling/shrugging/etc., if that makes sense. So the simple fix could be: I nodded. "I never thought...". Really simple and still keeps the nod, just doesn't make it a tag now that there's no comma. We already know the "I" is speaking because the action is in front of the dialogue and is the subject, so we know without you needing to make it a tag, if that makes sense.

For the second one, when you're continuing dialogue using a comma, the second part of the sentence should be lowercase unless it's a proper noun. That means the "so" would be lowercase, though in this case, I would recommend using a period/full stop since the "I agree" and the "So you've been..." are two separate sentences. It would end up looking like this: "I agree," I said slowly. "So you've been...". Or if you choose to keep the comma: "I agree," I said slowly, "so you've been...". These tag errors are not a big deal, but they did impact the flow of dialogue, which is important for character building. I hope that makes sense!

The beginning chapters could also use some smoothening out in terms of grammar and flow, but you already acknowledged that, so I won't talk your ear off about something you already know and said, though it does still factor in a little bit since that is the character introduction segment of the story, but I'm not going to factor it in too much other than to just mention it.

Overall, the June and Jasper duo was entertaining to read about, and I don't mean that in a psychopathic way since this story certainly got very, very dark at points, but I think you know what I mean when I say "entertaining." June was a great character, and she bounced off of Jasper well, and I enjoyed seeing how they developed over the course of the narrative. I had minor critiques for the beginning segments and the dialogue tags, but I otherwise thought the two J's were great!

Honorable Mention

Strawberry shaped Love by ipsitalali

Review:

Let's just jump right into it without beating around the bush: this story is a lot of fun. You kind of have to be a miserable person to not at least find some enjoyment in this story. The writing style is a whole bundle of fun, with the first chapter starting off with every single person's thoughts during Valentine's Day. Aurora is so unbelievably whacky, and the first chapter is written with so much style and flair that I laughed and felt like I almost had to click the next chapter button so I could see more of what you'd come up with, and a lot of that is thanks to Aurora and Tobias, the duo I will be looking at for this review. So, you're off to a good start, to say the least!

Now let's look at Aurora and Tobias as individuals. Starting with Aurora, as I said before, I enjoy her whackyness. She is, quite literally, not like the other girls, but not in a way that makes me want to cringe or anything like that. She's a unique female character where she's full of personality, and said personality is shown very clearly through her dialogue, actions, and choices. With her being a CEO and single, it would have been very, very easy to go down the stereotypical "girl boss" female character archetype that's become very overdone in the 2020 era, so I'm glad you took her in a more unique direction where she's still strong and independent, but she has a lot more personality to her than just that, making for an entertaining read, especially when she clashes with Tobias.

Which leads me to Tobias: yet another fun character who is far from the stereotypical stoic strong man despite him being a cop. Again, you easily could have made him a stereotypical stoic dude considering his background, but you gave him more flair. He's intelligent and observant, and also not scared to admit things, like him admitting to having breakdowns over him thinking he was the only one who could see the hearts during the first chapter. It's an admirable trait of his, and I like how he enjoys Aurora's company and is kind to her while also not making his entire character about her. That's another thing that can make male characters unenjoyable: when their entire personality revolves around the female lead. But Tobias doesn't have that problem. He has his own clear personality that's prominent from as early as chapter 1, and he has his own goals and motivations in life that propel him forward, so you did a good job making them clear, unique characters.

Together, Aurora and Tobias work well as our primary dynamic duo. They bounce off each other well, often bantering and arguing about what to do, but not arguing in an overly aggressive way or anything like that. But duos are more than just banter, though it is always nice to see them bouncing off of one another like they're besties cause, let's be honest, we always banter with our besties. Moving away from the banter, though, I like how they have an emotional connection where they care for one another, particularly Tobias caring for Aurora and making her feel seen and heard, often complimenting her, too. They acknowledge how, in the beginning, they don't know a lot about each other despite their fast relationship progress, and it leads to cute scenes where they get to know each other... all while in the midst of chaos and trying to figure out how the heck they got on a cruise of all things. So I think the plot aids them in that sense, giving them more material to work with in terms of their emotional bond and their banter.

Critique-wise, the main things I have to say are grammar and being a little over-the-top with the style at time, such as the excessive all caps in chapter 2 or the stuttering in thoughts. Now, with that being said, I actually do like it being over-the-top at times, but in bite-sized chunks, if that makes sense. Like I don't mind Aurora being so over-the-top aggressive in chapter 1 and actually found a lot of humor in it, thinking it added to the charm. So that kind of stuff I think works and makes the story pretty fun. But other things, like the excessive all caps in certain chapters, got a little much and could have been toned down. For the all caps in particular, I would recommend very sparingly using them if at all, like for one or two words for emphasis, simply because it can be hard on the eyes to read excessive all caps, and it slows reading speed due to our eyes not being used to reading that. As for other things, like the stuttering in thoughts that happened here and there, I strongly suggest avoiding doing that. There are exceptions to everything in writing, so I'm not saying it can never work, I just advise against it since we don't stutter in our thoughts, so reading stuttering in thoughts is really unnatural and can even be confusing at times.

Grammatically, there are some errors throughout, though grammar doesn't matter too much for this category, so it's not a big deal but still something I'll mention since it's important for story flow. The main thing I'll focus on is dialogue tags since that's the only real grammar error that impacts the duo (as dialogue is important for how we perceive characters). Dialogue tags are done incorrectly and are done in a few different ways. Sometimes they're done in these two ways:

"I'll take that" He said.

"I'm fine." I said.

Those are just two random examples and not anything directly from the text, I'm just using them as a way to show that you often end dialogue with a period/full stop and/or capitalize the tag when it's not a proper noun (in this case, "he"). Here are the corrected forms:

"I'll take that," he said.

"I'm fine," I said.

When using dialogue tags, you can end the dialogue in anything other than a period/full stop, so there should never be a period/full stop at the end of dialogue if you have a tag coming after it. That's why I correct the "I'm fine" to have a comma. That being said, dialogue always needs end punctuation to indicate it's going to be over, so that's why you need the comma at the end (or exclamation mark or question mark, really anything that isn't a period/full stop). As for capitalization, the I is fine capitalized because it is a proper noun, but the "he" is not, so it needs to be lower case. Dialogue tags should always be lowercase unless they are a proper noun, like the I. Even when you end dialogue with ? or !, the tag still needs to be lowercase. Example: "Are you okay?" he asked. NOT: "Are you okay?" He asked. I hope that makes sense!

Dialogue tags were the main error I noticed, though the other grammar was pretty good, particularly from chapter 3 onward, so I'll just leave it at the dialogue tags since that's the only thing that really impacts this category.

Overall, Tobias and Aurora work not only as individuals but as a dynamic duo. They both have such clear personalities that's shown more and more as the story progresses, and this story as a whole is just a lot of fun you'd kinda have to be miserable to not find even a little bit of entertainment from. There could be some tweaks to toning down the over-the-topness at times, same with tweaks to the tags, but it's overall an entertaining read with a strong primary duo propelling the story forward.

ALL REVIEWS:

ME IN YOU by Theinfinitesea

Review:

ME IN YOU is a Yoonmin story, though there are other elements present in the story, such as Taekook and Vmin, and their duos are the core of the narrative.

To start, I thought the setting was really great, taking place in India and exploring India. Like the part where Jungkook and his friends explored and got to see all the different pieces of culture was so intriguing. I love seeing different locations, and unfortunately, I find it's rare for BTS fanfics to go to India, and I wish more would, so I'm glad you did! That was an element I enjoyed very much!

Since Yoonmin didn't come into play until far later, I'm going to focus a bit more on Vmin and Taekook here since they're the primary duos for the first chunk of the story. Something I really liked along with the exploring India scene was the scene in chapter 4, where Taekook have a really cute, comforting moment that made me smile and get to know them more as individuals. That was a great moment that stuck out to me so much that I wrote it in my notes while reading!

The last thing I want to mention before moving into critiques is I liked the bickering between the core duos. I really love to see that kind of chemistry, and considering this is the best duo category that's heavily judged based on how well the duo, well, duos, that's a very good thing. I found it fun to read about their adventures and how they poked fun at one another a lot. It was very similar to their real life counterparts, and while fanfics absolutely do not have to follow irl at all, it's nice to see elements of their real lives sprinkled in, so I enjoyed that bickering a lot.

Moving into critiques, the main one I have is script format dialogue and how I would advise against using it. Script format dialogue is when your dialogue is formatted like this:

Jimin: Hi

Instead of in book format, or this: "Hi," Jimin said.

I bring this up since it's essential for how readers perceive your characters. Dialogue is one of the major parts of character development and how we're able to pick up on their traits and personalities. Script format dialogue is heavily advised against because it doesn't do a good job showing character emotion. The point of scripts is to be to-the-point and more on the blander side. So that means the dialogue isn't as exciting as it could be, and also a bit distracting since we're used to reading in book format, not script format. Scripts aren't really meant to be read casually, they're meant to be performed, so that's why I advise against using script format for dialogue and instead using book format. If you want to experiment with scripts, I encourage that! I think scripts are great! The issue is that this is a book-script hybrid where you have the dialogue of a script but everything else is more book-like, so I'd suggest either going to book dialogue or going all the way and making a script, if that makes sense.

Another thing is consider adding more descriptions throughout. Descriptions for character emotions, locations, physical appearances, etc. I say this because they're really important for readers to be able to understand what's going on, and it also adds another important layer. For example, the vast majority of human communication is nonverbal, so more descriptions of body language, facial expressions, actions, etc. gives another huge layer since we engage in so much nonverbal communication. It's a really important part to understanding character conversations and thus an essential part to building character relationships and duos.

All in all, ME IN YOU has an interesting dynamic between its main duos, with the main three being Yoonmin, Taekook, and Vmin. There are some cool, entertaining moments and good bickering that make this story a nice read. I had some recommendations to the presentation but otherwise liked it.

Surreal Soulmates by dwarkaratna

Review:

Surreal Soulmate follows Parth and Poorna through their married life, starting with Parth proposing and showing his vulnerabilities to her, including his feelings about his accident that left him physically and emotionally scarred. It is a journey that focuses on love and soulmates.

To start with the things I really liked about it, I liked Poorna and thought she made for a good female lead. She's exactly the kind of female character that I've been wanting to see more of nowadays. She's smart and mentally/emotionally strong while also possessing an air of femininity to her that I loved to read about. I like the backstory for how she came into Parth's life and also how she interacts with Parth's family.

Another thing I enjoyed was how Parth, the male lead, was involved in an accident that left him temporarily disabled. I'm glad to see the representation of health issues addressed in this story, and I also like how it impacts Parth and Poorna's relationship since it deeply ties to how the two speak to one another and how Parth goes about his life, so I'm glad that you included the representation while also making it relevant to the plot and characters in a meaningful way.

The last thing I'll mention before moving into critiques is I enjoyed the entire premise of the story and Parth and Poorna. I liked the idea of soulmates presented here and how love can triumph over hardships. The ending tied up the relationship well and did a good job concluding the story as a whole, so overall, good job with that.

The main critique I have is a consistent critique I've had about grammar since a good 10+ sentences per chapter are really difficult to understand due to missing words (like articles; you frequently forget a, an, and the), contradictory sentences, and general errors, like punctuation. For example, from chapter 1, "She wasn't about to go to kitchen on her first day." You need a "the" in front of "kitchen," so "the kitchen." This applies to many words throughout the chapter, like "She was staring at minimal amount of bangles on her wrist." For starters, you used "minimal amount" in the sentence prior to that, so consider diversifying the word choice and changing that. Secondly, bangles needs an article, so consider this alternative: "She stared at the few bangles on her wrist." It's a bit shorter, a bit more active (I changed she was staring to she stared to make it more active), and it includes the "the" article for bangles.

The reason I bring up grammar despite this being not a category with grammar as the focus is because it impacts our understanding of the duo here. It can lead to many misconceptions about what you're trying to say about Parth and Poorna. When the sentences are hard to understand and takes several rereads to get them, they can be detrimental to the overall pacing and presentation of the duo. So that's why I recommend using Grammarly, QuillBot, and/or ProWritingAid as grammar checkers to help with the fluidity of your sentences.

The other critique I have may be related to the grammar, though I am not sure. There are some contradictions within the text that makes it hard to follow at times. For example, consider slowing down in the beginning more and showing more of Parth's apparent disinterest in conversations since the text says he was "showing interest for the first time," but everything we're told about him prior to that is that he adores Poorna, and he seems pretty interested in her, even when he's sad from his accident, so maybe "interest" isn't the right word but rather a happy emotion, or maybe if interest really is what you meant, then consider showing that a bit more by having Parth give shorter answers, brush her off more, be more disinterested with his body language, etc., cause in the conversation we saw in the second chapter, he seemed fine. A little cold at most, but he still seemed interested. So consider slowing down and showing more of that disinterest.

Another contradiction is chapter 4 with the doctor. The doctor says "Congratulations! You have progressed a lot, Parth!" the doctor told with a satisfactory smile. And then, one paragraph later, the doctor says "I have expected more progress yet it's fine." I don't really think this is realistic, and it's also contradictory to the doctor being so satisfied by Parth's progress just one paragraph prior. I was in a wheelchair, and I'm disabled. I've had a couple surgeries and will have more. Progress is an up and down road, and I really don't think a doctor would say they expected more progress like that to someone recovering from a major accident. I feel it's more realistic to ask Parth about how he feels about his progress. I know it's different for everyone and every doctor, though I just feel it's more realistic for the doctor to approach the psychological factor more gently rather than saying "There's something holding you back." But again, that's just my experience with my recoveries, so that's just my thoughts. However, my objective focus is more on the contradiction with the doctor going from really satisfied to suddenly no longer satisfied, so consider toning down that moment and keeping it more consistent with what the doctor really thinks.

Overall, Surreal Soulmate does an effective job showing the reader its main duo of Parth and Poorna. It could use some polish to its grammar/overall SPAG, and it could use some tightening to make sure nothing seems contradictory, but it's overall a good read with interesting things going on within the storyline and character relationships.

Midnight Chronicles by Seong_Grace

Review:

The main duo I'll be looking at here are Jimin and Jungkook, or Jikook for short, though I will consider Taehyung and Y/n as well as Y/n with Jikook as well, but I'm choosing to focus on Jikook since they were the duo that got the most spotlight, and Y/n and Taehyung are romantic while this category is more for platonic duos.

So I'll start with the smaller two duos and then get into Jikook since they're my focus. I'll be very brief with Y/n and Taehyung since they're romantic: I like how you set up a feeling of "Something's wrong" very early on in the story through the Taehyung and Y/n dynamic. Taehyung is definitely a walking red flag that makes the readers question if something is going to go wrong, and I like how you set that up through their duo. As for Y/n with Jikook, it's a bit hard to judge since she spent most of the story at odds with them, not that that's a bad thing, it just means that it makes it a bit hard to judge them, though even with that aside, I still liked the concept behind them being childhood best friends who are protective over each other. It's a nice concept, and when paired with the mystery surrounding Taehyung, it leads to interesting tensions.

Moving into Jikook now, they were the primary focus and had a lot of scenes dedicated to them. There were a few things I liked about the Jikook characters throughout the narrative. Now I know I'm biased toward Jimin, but let's start with him anyway. I naturally lean toward Jimin cause I adore him, but I did like how he had an air of flirtyness to him in the beginning, and I like how it starts with Jikook. I think they were introduced well.

I'm sure you're sensing a theme by now: I think your character introductions are entertaining/fun to read about. I enjoyed reading the opening with Y/n getting ready and then Jikook being there and being as Jikook as ever, and then that transitioned to an engaging character introduction for Taehyung, so I thought that was a lot of fun to read, and I was never bored not only throughout the introduction, but throughout the entire story.

While there wasn't too much banter between Jikook throughout, I did enjoy the banter that was there, and I particularly liked the moment when their car went bye bye and Jungkook was all pouty about it while Jimin and Y/n were trying to get a little serious about it. So when it comes to my overall thoughts on the Jikook dynamic, I thought they were fun to read about, and I enjoyed seeing their journey throughout the short.

When it comes to critiques, my main critique is that it feels like Jikook don't have much character outside of being Y/n's childhood, overprotective friends. Pretty much every conversation they have in the story is about her, and they don't show much in the way of personality outside her. They're temperamental, sure, but that's again because of Y/n. The only solid personality trait I was able to really define was flirtyness from Jimin, though even that is short-lived and mostly only visible in the first chapter and then not present much afterwards. So my suggestion would be to have more solid personality traits for the two of them that are present throughout the story. You don't need to overdo it, but for example, maybe have Jimin's flirtyness persist throughout the entire story instead of just in brief glimpses mostly in the beginning. He doesn't need to be flirting 24/7 or even in every chapter, but a little more often so we can see more of his personality outside of anger and talking about Y/n, if that makes sense. The same applies to Jungkook. I was happy when he mentioned his favorite car later in the story and was hoping to learn more about him and the things he enjoys and doesn't enjoy, though that was mostly a one-off moment. A good moment, though—I liked how you made him disgruntled about the car's condition since he loves the car. So that's what I mean. More moments where we learn small things about the characters and see more of their personality could be beneficial.

Another example of how you could do this could be to slow down when we're in the woods. That's the main part of the story, but it doesn't happen until over halfway into the book and is over pretty quickly, and one of those chapters is dedicated to Taehyung's POV and his side of the story, so we don't spend much time in the woods with Jikook and Y/n. It could be interesting to see them have to survive a little longer and talk to each other outside of escaping and Y/n since those are the two main conversations present throughout the entire book. You don't need to add a lot, just a bit here and there to help flesh out the characters more, and also flesh them out together by showing us more of their dynamic outside of arguing, since that makes up a lot of their dynamics. I hope that makes sense.

The second critique is that the frequent spelling and grammar errors made it hard to understand the text at times. There were multiple moments every chapter where I had to reread sentences since I didn't fully understand what was going on due to the errors. It doesn't impact this category too much, so it's not going to factor into the placement too too much, but it still does factor in a bit since it impacts how readers digest the duo. There are frequent typos throughout, like alcohol is consistently spelled incorrectly for the first few chapters but is later corrected. Another error that was the most distracting for me was the dialogue tags being placed below the dialogue instead of next to it. When you have dialogue tags, make sure they're next to the dialogue instead of below, otherwise it can lead to confusion since readers are used to reading the tags next to the dialogue, not below. By that I mean, you right them like this:

"Hi."

Taehyung said.

It should be: "Hi," Taehyung said.

So that was the error I personally found most distracting, and since dialogue is really important to character, that's why I focused on it instead of the other stuff. For general grammar errors, there are a few things you can do to improve the grammar in the future. For starters, consider using a grammar checker like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and/or QuillBot to help with general grammar. While they aren't perfect, they can help with the spelling errors. I've noticed that Grammarly tends to be better at punctuation than the other two, QuillBot is the most aggressive of the three (and tends to make more errors as a result, but it's still useful for things like spelling), and ProWritingAid is best at identifying when you're repeating too many words and can keep your word choice fresh. That's just what I noticed from using them over the years, but really it comes down to personal preference and which one you'd prefer using, if any. I'm sure there are other grammar checkers out there, those are just the big three I know and have a lot of experience with.

Another way to improve overall general grammar and spelling is to read online writing guides, such as the Grammarly blog that goes over a lot of grammar rules. Even though I literally have an English degree, I've learned more about English and writing on YouTube and the internet than in college, so I'd definitely recommend watching YouTube videos and researching on Google for writing guides.

The last general suggestion I have is to consider reading your story out loud and/or plugging it into a text-to-speech (TTS) generator to have it read back to you. You'll notice a lot more errors reading out loud than you do reading in your head. Nowadays, I personally don't even use grammar checkers anymore and instead just plug my text into a TTS generator to have it read back to me. I find it's a lot more effective, and I catch more errors than ever thanks to it. If you Google TTS generator, a billion will pop up, so that's how you can find them if you're interested in that.

You can use one of those suggestions, all of them, none of them, whichever you think will work best for you, but I hope seeing the options at least helps a little bit! Everyone has different ways of going about grammar, so it's really up to what you think will help you most. I hope all I just said made sense.

Overall, there are strong duos throughout Midnight Chronicles. Taehyung's character is interesting how he was set up with an air of mystery around him that eventually led into the finale where there's a lot going on and the readers are trying to piece things together, which made for an entertaining read. It could use some tweaks to make the Jikook personalities more prominent and the grammar more fluid, but I otherwise thought the story was entertaining.

DOCTOR X GANGSTER by midnight_breezee

Review:

The duo requested for me to review was Sri and Jungkook. I was also requested to specifically judge certain chapters, though I read more than just those chapters because the chapters requested I did not feel give me a large enough sample size to properly judge, therefore I will be judging from a variety of chapters. I actually read most of the story despite this being a mini awards, so I believe I have a large enough sample size, haha.

Let's start immediately by looking at the Sri and Jungkook duo. Sri and Jungkook are very close as they are besties/siblings, and Jungkook is her right-hand. There aren't too many scenes of them alone together throughout the novel, and I believe only two scenes of them alone together throughout chapters 1 through 17, which is almost halfway through the story, which makes it a bit difficult to judge this, though I will try my best. It is around the chapter 19 mark that the S and Jungkook duo become more prominent, but since Jungkook seems to be the tritagonist, I will be judging based on the whole thing.

Jungkook as an individual caught my eye. I may make my jokes and things like that when I read and review BTS fanfics, but I really don't tend to have bias toward the members just because they're BTS, and I view them as individual characters, not as BTS. So when I say Jungkook caught my eye, I really do mean that, and I don't mean it in the sense that "He's Jeon Jungkook, of course I like him!" I mean that he intrigued me when Taehyung kissed Sri and he wasn't all angry about it, which tends to be the stereotypical response. Jimin had that angry response while Jungkook didn't, which I appreciated. It was a twist on what you'd expect from a mafia Jungkook, and I enjoyed that. That may be a small thing to point out, but it leads to my next point that's a bit larger, which is...

Jungkook overall had the most interesting arc, I'd say. I liked how he started to feel down about himself (okay, that makes me sound psychopathic; I don't mean I like seeing him suffer, but I think you get what I mean, haha) and actively tried to do something about it. I liked how he was an active character who took control in his own way without overdoing it, going about his life in a way that makes him feel more human and realistic. It's fiction, so I'm not expecting like a 1-to-1 of real life or anything like that, but when characters go through these fundamentally human and realistic struggles—in Jungkook's case, severe self-doubt fueled by a mistake—it makes it easier to relate to them. So him as an individual is cool to see.

And all of that ties into the Sri and Jungkook duo as a whole. Since they're two characters coming together to form one duo, their individual characters are just as important as them as a duo, so now that we've established that I liked Jungkook, let's talk about Sri and Jungkook together. Like I mentioned before, I liked how Jungkook was protective but not to the point where he descended into the stereotypical Jungkook mafia trope where he got overly angry and possessive and things like that. If I had a dollar for every time I saw an angry mafia Jungkook, I'd be able to pay off my student loans (they're over $100k.), so it was refreshing to see him break free from those stereotypes and be more of his own individual that bonded with Sri over their love of victory and wanting to protect one another. The overall concept for them—siblings who genuinely cared for and respected each other—was nice to see in this style of mafia narrative.

I also like the concept of them fighting together. I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for sibling-esque fight scenes and things like that, so I like the concept of them fighting together, which happened in the chapters requested for me to take a look at (35 and 36). Since they were requested, I wanted to bring them up to let you know that I did read them and thought they were entertaining, and I just wanted you to know my thoughts on them!

Critique-wise, I would say that the thing I liked about Jungkook was opposite for Sri, where she tended to be the stereotypical mafia woman. That's not inherently a bad thing, though it did lead to many moments where she was over-the-top, like when she rejected the man by saying "When cows start climbing trees" and everyone went oooh and were amused by her saying that. That felt like a really, really forced moment to make Sri look cool, and many of Sri's cool moments came off that way. Though the main thing is her personality began to get repetitive since, for almost half of the story, she's described in the same way: exuding confidence. There were times there were multiple times in a single chapter she was described that way, which got stale really quickly. It was to the point where even characters who have no reason to compliment her, like Hoseok, were saying that she has an "air of confidence" to her in a complimentary way, meaning she's almost always described as confident, but I don't want to know just that about her. I want to know more about her personality. I'll explain more below.

It's said in her character introduction that she likes nature and flowers, but I honestly completely forgot about that until I went back to reread (I reread parts of stories before I review them so I know I'm getting all the plot info correct) since it wasn't much of a focus for her. It didn't need to be mentioned in every chapter, but it could have been nice to see more of it earlier on in the story. I feel like most of Sri's character is pushed until after chapter 17, when she starts questioning things because of Taehyung, which is two hours into the story, almost halfway through it by chapter count. I'm not saying it needed to be 100% character-focused, but consider sprinkling more details throughout so the characters feel more alive. For example, when Taehyung is wandering around in the early parts of the story (chaps 4-5), maybe involve flowers more, and then later reveal, when Sri's awake and everything, that it's Sri's favorite flower. Add more personality to the environment, is what I'm saying. So, for example, maybe the interior design is all centered around her favorite flower, or Jungkook has her favorite flower in his office since they're so close that he wants to carry her around with him.

The place they're staying in is a pretty standard home I would expect from a mafia story, so feel free to give it more personality for the characters. Give it more flowers, more nature. The same applies to Jungkook. His character intro says he likes working out. Maybe he has workout equipment scattered around his office, or a grip strength trainer he uses here and there (i.e., when he's talking with Taehyung in chapter 5) (another example: maybe when he starts feeling down in the chapter 17-19 range, he obsessively begins working out to the point of almost passing out due to him being injured to try and take away from the mental anguish he's going through, thus showing his workout side while also pushing his character forward in a meaningful way). He has files scattered around his office, so clearly he's not that organized, so it's believable that he'd have workout equipment out, if that's the route you want to take it. Even Jungkook could use more personality, as much as I did enjoy him, because a lot times we're told their personality through the introduction, but the personality traits and things they like/dislike aren't too prominent throughout the narrative, if that makes sense.

So, to summarize, the duo between Sri and Jungkook work for the narrative and your overall goal with it, and I think that's good. I enjoyed how Jungkook subverted expectations and broke away from the typical mafia Jungkook stereotypes with his demeanor. All I recommend is some tweaking to how the personalities are displayed by sprinkling in more details about them throughout in more subtle ways, such as implementing more details to the environments that reflect the characters, or having them implement more habits (i.e., the grip trainer idea I mentioned before) to help flesh them out more, or anything else like that that could establish their characters a little earlier so readers aren't reading for hours before we really start to see the depths of their characters. I hope that makes sense!

Thought We Built A Dynasty by Yoonkeeri

Review:

The duo to be judged here are Yoongi and Jin, who are a romantic duo. There are some side characters—like Jungkook, Taehyung, Namjoon, and eventually Jimin at the end—but the primary focus is (rightfully) on Yoongi and Jin, so we'll just stick with Yoonjin for short since I'm too lazy to type out the names (I say as though I don't write reviews longer than my college essays).

But anywho, that aside, let's jump into my review, starting with a basic plot synopsis before getting into the core duo.

The narrative follows a terminally ill Yoongi (stomach cancer) as he lives out his final days with Jin, going through different treatments with Namjoon and Taehyung (both doctors) to extend his time but not save him. He ultimately succumbs to his fate only for Park Jimin, an angel, to come and reverse it through Jin's willingness.

Yoongi and Jin are the duo in the story, and while I consider this category more for platonic duos than romantic duos, they still work here, so let's take a looksie. The Yoonjin duo present throughout makes for a solid tale about cancer and the stress of the medical industry. Yoongi embodies that stress by questioning if he is going to die, not wanting to die, and having his own little traits, such as his sketchbook, that make him wanting to cling to life more meaningful. Jin is his caretaker and lover during this, and Jungkook is in the background for a bit of this, adding another layer to the dynamic where sometimes they talk and banter with Jungkook, too.

Yoongi and Jin as a duo I think work well since they both deal with the stress together in their own ways. While it's not a long story so it doesn't delve too deep into it, there are still some interesting factors to consider that I thought were good, such as Jin's dream of their first meeting and how their first meeting becomes like Jin's hyper fixation throughout the story. It's what he wants to return to more than anything, even though it means resetting their entire relationship. He just wants to go back to them being young, maybe even naive, and in love, and I thought that was an interesting background for Jin's mental state throughout the narrative.

Another thing is I enjoyed how they bonded over Jin's career and the whole Thought We Built A Dynasty show. I thought it was cool to see the two elements interacting where Jin had a career and money while Yoongi felt bad about it and didn't want to make Jin feel like Yoongi was using Jin for money. It also meant that they were both artists, with Jin's art being acting and Yoongi's drawing, which I thought was a nice touch. A small thing, sure, but it meant they had a deeper bond where they understood each other's interests on a deeper level. I don't mind opposites attract, but I must say I enjoy it when the leads have a lot in common like they do here.

The final thing I'll say before moving into critiques is I enjoyed the choice to keep this focused on Jin and Yoongi. When you're a BTS fanfic writer, it's easy to think "I need all the BTS members to be involved and have major roles," but no, they don't have to. It's fiction, so I appreciated that, while BTS did play a part, the focus remained on Yoonjin, but particularly Jin and how his mental state deteriorated over the course of the short. That may seem like a small thing to praise, but too often do I see fics shove too many characters in for sake of shoving them in, particularly in BTS fanfics, so I wanted to take a moment to appreciate that you didn't do that and you instead kept it limited, therefore keeping the pacing up instead of dragging it unnecessarily to develop other characters.

When it comes to critiques, my main critique is to be careful with how tone and emotion are presented throughout the narrative. For example, through dialogue. The dialogue is okay, it's just that there is an overuse of ellipses (...) present throughout. When it comes to punctuation like exclamation marks or ellipses, be careful with overusing them since they can make the dialogue stale or repetitive. There are a lot of ellipses present in the emotional scenes, which artificially slows down the dialogue and therefore takes emotion away from the moment. I'm not saying don't use ellipses; they're fine to use, as all punctuation is. My suggestion is more be careful with overusing them since there were times you'd use 5+ ellipses almost in a row, and there were times more dialogue had ellipses than there was dialogue without ellipses (i.e., there was a major overuse of ellipses in chapter 7). So that's my main recommendation: consider using less ellipses in future emotional scenes you write and instead focus more on showing over telling.

Which leads to my next point: be careful with overusing telling over showing. Since the core relationship revolves around emotion and the cancer, it's important for the emotion to be strong, hence why the ellipses was my main critique. Ellipses are telling over showing, so are other things like stutters and lines where we're told exactly what the intention is supposed to be, or exactly what their emotions are, or even the italics you often use to highlight lines that aren't character thoughts since you're explicitly telling the audience (by using italics) to pay more attention to those lines instead of trusting them to pick up on how those lines are important. And, to be clear, there's nothing inherently wrong with telling over showing. In fact, sometimes telling is even needed. Every story requires telling, even if it's just to a tiny amount, so I'm not saying you should only ever show over tell. No, of course not. You need telling, and it can sometimes be an effective tool. My point is more to be careful with overusing it since overusing it can make the emotions not feel as well-rounded as you intend them to be, if that makes sense. So that's why, for future stories, I would recommend considering downsizing on things like ellipses, stuttering (you can show stuttering without needing to do letter stutters like h-hi; you can show it through things like "his voice trembled," "he struggled to get the words out," and other things like that to show the struggle with speech instead of telling it through the letter stuttering), the italics emphasizing certain lines for sake of emphasis (this is fine to do here and there, though it happens very frequently throughout the text), etc.

The final critique I have is a nitpick more than anything, though it does relate to the emotions: I wasn't a big fan of the choice to have a giant gap between the last few paragraphs/sentences and the final sentence of the chapter. Like there's the very last sentence a good long scroll from the previous stuff. Maybe it looks better on phone, but on laptop, it's a little frustrating to have to scroll all the way down just for one sentence. It takes away emotion from the moment and breaks my immersion within the story since now I have to scroll a lot just to see the last line before clicking to the next part. It's a small thing and not a big deal, therefore not something I want to focus on, but it did impact my immersion of the emotions in the book, and seeing as those emotions are the core of the Yoonjin duo, that's why I wanted to discuss it.

This doesn't impact your placement and it's more of a personal suggestion from me to you (since it doesn't impact the duo, it won't impact your standing in this category), but in chapter 8, the a/n in the middle of the chapter about the sketchbook being yours really took me out of the moment, and I would recommend moving it to the end of the chapter instead of right under the picture. Seeing "It's my sketchbook lol" during the middle of an emotional scene, right after Yoongi dies in Jin's arms, was like tonal whiplash, which means we're going from really sad to now a completely different emotion (humor) without any transition or proper build up to justify that emotion being there. So it was a little emotionally jarring to go from really depressed to a sudden lol and a/n, which is why I recommend moving it to the end of the chapter. But again, that doesn't impact your standing at all since this is the best duo category, which is unrelated to what I just said, but I still thought I would bring it up since it did majorly take me out of the narrative there. Same with the other a/n in the middle of the chapter with you saying you drew the art right under the pic. That kind of stuff can be saved for the end, that way you can still let your readers know that without breaking their immersion. In simpler words: it was hard for me to enjoy the chapter since my immersion kept getting broken, especially when it's something like "I drew it" in the a/n and then "Yoongi was always a great artist" right after that, which pulls me back and forth from the fiction and the real world. I hope that makes sense.

Overall, Thought We Built A Dynasty is a short story that aims to bring the reader on an emotional journey, dealing with themes of terminal illness and the impacts of it along with dreams and how they can propel someone forward in life. The primary duo is Yoongi and Jin, and their duo effectively establishes their love and the premise of the narrative. It could use some tweaks to the telling over showing and tone, but it otherwise tells a solid tale about cancer and its impacts on relationships.

This was very close to getting an honorable mention, so I will leave some votes on the story to appreciate your hard work.