Time for the results! Without further ado, here they are for Mystery/Thriller! Thank you, Voyageavecmoi , for your hard work in these awards. Contestants, please check out their shout-out chapter—it has their username in the chapter title—if you haven't done so already. They deserve some appreciation :).

If you did not win, meaning you are not in this chapter, we will PM you ASAP with your results. If you do not receive your results, you were probably disqualified, but give us some time to send results.

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Genre Results

🌻Third Place🌻

Username - AmansRose
Book Title - A Deadly Game
Score - 87.5/100
Review -

A Deadly Game' is a unique blend of Alpha and Omega storyline with mystery. It included unique sensory details to bring that world to life, and the way the murder investigation is linked to our investigator, Zara's past is both intriguing and evocative of my concern for her. The chemistry between the characters is also well-portrayed.

When I judge, I believe it's important that all participants get helpful feedback, so I try to provide my reactions, point out what's working well, and offer suggestions to help improve different aspects of the story. If you have any questions about the review, reach out anytime to voyageavecmoi.

Title: It's an intriguing title and 'deadly' fits well with the mystery/thriller genre. It is a popular title on wattpad or variations of it without 'a', so it could be a little more original.

Blurb: The blurb introduces the characters well as well as their backgrounds. It sets up the premise of an Omega and Alpha working together to solve a case and implies it'll get personal which makes me eager to read the story. Some sections are a bit wordy (particularly Nate's section) and the final line didn't quite align with the sentence prior to it. It mentions 'One that can't be brought back to life' but one is referring back to a turn, not a character, so it doesn't quite make sense since turns don't live.

Cover: I like the colour scheme and the mix of roses, red and the woman tell me there may be an element of romance and death in the story. It's interesting that her eyes are covered too which seems symbolic. The butterflies are a nice touch considering the investigation details. I think the fonts could be larger to make the title and author name easier to read. I'm also not a big fan of the overwhite A and what comes after game as they overpower the title.

Plot: The story is quite gripping and I'm invested in both the case and the chemistry between Zara and Nate. There's a clear direction to the plot and enough details about the case to make it feel as significant as their growing relationship. The story is well paced for the most part with a few sections of world-building about the Alphas, Omega's and Beta's interrupting the flow during the scene in the office when Zara and Nate first meet. I'd recommend sprinkling in those details as they become relevant. One small aspect I wasn't sure if Nate would just disregard would be the rose. When she says it's not connected to the case, it seems unlikely that he'd believe that given where it was found and how experienced he is. It's clearly a sign of a killer revisiting a crime scene and Zara's strange reaction makes her suspect by association.

Originality: I enjoyed your take on the wolves that had evolved into humans but kept some of those wolf traits. The sensory descriptions you chose and used were effective at conveying that past association. Using this during a murder investigation gives the story a unique twist as well. I found the elements of the chemistry between Nate and Zara were unique, though I have seen the drawn to each other the day they met trope used a fair bit.

Grammar: There are grammar mistakes, though they don't detract too much from the story. The action tag punctuation is off in some places as is the capitalization of pronouns in dialogue tags after question marks. With an action tag that doesn't directly describe the way the character is speaking but still follows dialogue, it should be in its own sentence and separated with a period. With dialogue tags after ? or ! word processors love to capitalize the next word, but it should technically be in lowercase unless (it's a proper noun) because it's still part of the dialogue sentence. I also noticed a few spots where the tense slips into the present when the dominant narration is in the past simple.

Writing Style: There's a good variety of sensory descriptions used in the story and I like that they are also used to characterize or gives clues about the murder investigation. Scent is a dominant sense with wolves and you're utilizing it very well in the story. Overall your writing style is engaging and you're writing very well. I think you could really make your writing stand even more (in a great way) out if you tried these two things: You could try going a bit lighter on the telling. The first chapter is heavy with it as you explain the role of each character instead of showing it. The office chapter with descriptions of Alphas etc also breaks the scene to dive into telling world-building. It would be easy to build that information in as Zara thinks about Nate and his behaviour which you do a little later in the story making some of the telling information unnecessary. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for sections that are less connected to the scene, and see if you could integrate them into the scene action a bit more. My other suggestion is to review some of your longer sentences and phrases with an eye for key or glue words. They're common connecting words that while they're necessary in some spots, having an abundance can weigh down your sentences, which it noticeably does in some sections of your opening chapters. Here's an article with a bit more information and tips if you're interested: https://readable.com/blog/what-are-glue-words-and-how-do-they-affect-readability/

Characters: Zara and Nate are interesting characters that I could connect with fairly well. I appreciated that while there is a supporting cast and they are moderately developed, that the focus was on our two main characters and their dynamic. They are both similar in the sense that they are career-focused and don't usually succumb to the urges of their species. I appreciated that Zara was career-driven and bucking the stereotype of her group as well. I know enough about Zara and that she's repressing someone to be curious and invested in that storyline. Including the antagonists' POV also clearly reveals she is the motivating factor in these murders. I would have liked a bit more development for Nate in the six chapters I read. I have the basics like his job, success and disconnect from others but I wouldn't mind a bit more.

I wish you all the best with your writing and hope this review was helpful.

🌻Second Place🌻

Username - m_writes_45
Book Title - The Housewife's Secret
Score - 90.75/100
Review -

The Housewife's Secret is an intriguing mystery with interesting characters, some of whom are morally gray. It opens on a strong emotionally gripping situation where an overwhelmed mother's inaction changes their family forever. The contrasts between the character's experiences and worldviews provide two very different perspectives on the town and each other's situations. There are great clues sprinkled in to speculate on how the estranged characters' lives are connected.

The title intriguing and gives a clue as to one of the character's backgrounds. It fits either a mystery or a romance book.

The blurb piques my interest in the potential conflict in the story is included. It fits well with the mystery genre. My suggestions for improvement are to be a bit more specific with 'tragedy' in the opening line unless it's meant to be revealed later in the plot. I also am unsure what role Heather will play in the story or what her character arc will be like because the final line applies more to Alice (assuming 'her family' refers to Alice). Since the blurb opens with Heather, it would be good to have a hint at the conflict that she'll have to face and overcome

Cover: I enjoy the simplicity of it and assume the flowers will be significant to the plot. The tagline works well. I think it would be more effective to have 'housewife' or 'Secret' in larger font instead of 'the' as otherwise it's the smallest font on the cover which shouldn't be the case for the title. If you could enlarge it and the author name, it would be easier to catch a reader's eye.

Plot: The opening chapter presents an intriguing antihero who is either so overwhelmed or unattached to her child that she lets a stranger carry off her baby. I'm assuming that the baby is probably in the town that Heather just moved to and possibly one of the characters featured in the next five chapters. It's clear that Heather and Alice's goals are contrasting as Heather wants to shut out the world and Alice is convinced her friendliness will change the woman. It sets up an interesting conflict between the two women. The mention of Sarah being Heather's daughter also essentially confirms that Heather is likely the mother who wanders off in the opening and I suspect that Alice's birth happening when her father was away leaves it open for her to be the snatched daughter. It does seem a little early to be able to string a lot of those clues together, and I'm left wondering what other twists there will be since Heather's main goal is to melt into the background.

Originality: The idea of estranged sisters is not new, but having the mother full-aware of the kidnapping and not acting to stop it is interesting as is the fact that we're likely now experiencing the world from her eyes. Her relationship with her remaining daughter seems to have recovered though the questionable husband makes me wonder what impact witnessing her mother abandon a child had on her sense of security. The little details like that make the story and characters unique. Overall the grammar is fairly strong. There were a few instances where the punctuation for the action tags was misused. After an action tag where there's a character action that's not directly describing the way the dialogue is spoken, you'll want to close the dialogue with a period and put the action tag in its own sentence. There were also some missing apostrophes in possessive words and a missing comma or two before dialogue tags.

Writing Style: Overall the writing style is fairly strong and draws me into the story. The descriptions used are unique and help with characterization as well such as the way Heather views this town which seems quaint minus its stuck-up citizens. Contrasts are used well to create distance between Heather and Alice. My suggestion is to try and show more of the character's back story through dialogue or other means instead of telling a fair bit of it in the same paragraph like what's done with Cecilia. There were a few transitions in the story like the flip from Alice reflecting on her pregnancy to Dora's boyfriend that I thought could have been a bit smoother to avoid confusion.

Characters: Alice and Heather's differences are clearly depicted through their lifestyle preferences. The former is splashy and image-conscious while believing she has the power to improve other people's lives with a bit of cheer while Heather's a bit more of a cynical realist who's been burned enough times not to be optimistic. They both have families in different stages which makes them feel more developed and authentic, where Alice takes care of hers, Heather is more so taken care of or watched by Sarah. Both characters have their flaws and have a lot of room to grow throughout the story. If Heather is the woman from the opening, I'd love to know more about her relationship with her late husband and how they got through their child vanishing or being given up or if he was in the picture at that point. Most of the characterization is well integrated. There were few sections where the scene pacing slowed to tell some of the backstories instead of show it.

I wish you all the best with your writing and hope this review was helpful.

🌻First Place🌻

Username - emmaeverafter
Book Title - Guided
Score - 96.5/100
Review -

Guided is a brilliant mystery that is very hard to put down. The characterization of Macey, a young guiding leader who is present for one of her guide's deaths is expertly done through nuanced yet well-selected details that develop her guilt and grief. The story captures the complexity and subtleties of family expectations, drama, loss, and change in a very realistic way. Well-placed clues develop a shifting perspective of Lexie, the young victim as what caused her untimely death.

Title: I like that the title conveys that she's a guide leader, and it's a nice play on words when Macey clearly hasn't been able to guide these girls to safety. I think with the right cover it would be quite effective. As it is, it also seems like Macey could be the one guided by a mentor or a significant other on a personal journey.

Blurb: The blurb conveys the tension in the story, the girl guide going missing and dying which is intriguing as well as the consequences. It seems to contradict itself between the first and second paragraphs. Her parents' divorce and how it changes her to act nearly invisible wouldn't fall under my definition of 'perfect'. To me, that seems like a stressful situation and 'under control' shows that she is surviving and not thriving. My recommendations to improve the blurb are: first, do you need the section about the divorce in the blurb? If you do, then I'd recommend adding an extra line that shows the perfection of her life or at least some of its positive qualities that the young girl's death will disrupt. I'd also recommend moving the rules one sentence down, so it reads smother (i.e. she lives by these rules and then you list them).

Cover: I see you're going for a sleepover theme. I like that the title is the largest and clear to read. The author's name is a bit small which makes what I think is an @ symbol look like an extra letter. My main suggestion to improve the cover is to find an image that suggests mystery because I would mistake this book for teen fiction or new adult fiction and likely wouldn't pick it up if I were looking for a mystery book which would be a real shame. Maybe something with red to suggest death or blood or girl guides or a spooky-looking summer camp would fit better as an image.

Plot: I'm very drawn into the story, and I love the mix of ambiguity about Lexie's death and suggestion of who might be at fault. It makes it hard to predict while still suggesting things that could have led to her death like the group of mean-girl friends potentially bullying her to it or negligence on Macey's part or maybe even family involvement. Macey is a people pleaser who is overly forgiving so it's hard to say if her guilt is over a real event that transpired or something she felt she could have done to prevent an unfortunate situation. The pacing works well as the past and present allow us to know both Macey and Lexie before and after the event. I didn't notice any plot holes and the story seems to be moving at a good pace to allow the reader to create theories and to get to know the characters.

Originality: I haven't read a story like this in the past involving girl guiding and a suspicious death so there's a lot of uniqueness there. The mean-girl aspect isn't new, but it comes through in a unique way with the specific details used to show the subtle ways of belittling others to create a following. The characters even introduced briefly stand out with their own personalities. I found the use of an arranged marriage to convey Soraya's background a bit cliché, but it does work to convey a distinction to her character.

Grammatically the story is very well-edited with little to no punctuation, tense or other issues that I picked up on.

The writing style is very captivating. Showing over telling is done to a high degree to lead to excellent character development. The scenes have the right level of descriptions and the ones chosen are unique, also serving to characterize Macey as she describes them or the other characters include it in their dialogue. My only nitpick came at the second line of chapter one with the rings. It pulled me out of the story because I was trying to figure out what was meant, and it's best to avoid doing that so early in the story. Otherwise, excellently done!

The characterization is another strength of this story and it's impressively done. Without slipping into telling, it's conveyed that Macey is image-conscious through the way she sees the world, the thoughts she has about eating the bourbon or the way she describes Lexi's family or reflection. It shows she's been brought up on diet culture and experienced enough judgement about her body to internalize it. The minor characters are well distinguished as well, her judgmental, promiscuous mom, her rebel sister, her absent equally judgemental popular absentee boyfriend, even her friends and Lexi's who appear briefly in the story are easy to tell apart. You certainly have a gift when it comes to subtly adding nuance to your characters. I also enjoyed how Lexi's personality shifted depending on what details Macey reveals. At first, I had her pegged as an attention-seeking mean girl, but as we see the before chapters, it's clear that she's been mistreated and that craving for attention comes from others and seeking to be included which makes her a more sympathetic character than when she was first presented. It's interesting how Macey's grief has warped her memories and impressions of Lexi and only showing the reader a flicker at a time is a very effective way to build suspense and misdirect the reader so the story outcome is more of a surprise.

I wish you all the best with your writing and hope this review was helpful.

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Congratulations to all of the winners! You will receive your prizes once the awards are over :).