Book: Quarter Life Crisis
Author: Writix22
Reviewer: oraclesighter
Chapters read: 19

Title: 5/5
Intriguing title. It’s attention grabbing. Unique, yet simple. What can I say, it makes sense for the story!

Cover: 5/5
I absolutely loved the sleek, minimalistic-like artwork. The color palette is visually pleasing and the text font looks gorgeous around the rest of the figures. And we’ve got what I assume are the two main characters of the story standing before us. It’s well done. There are no messy lines, nor confusing elements concerning the artwork. Overall, it’s an attractive cover.

Blurb: 4/5
Starting off with the Cupid line, it was very creative and a great way to hook the readers in. It’s a perfect metaphor for describing Karishma and Rishabh’s situationship. It also mentions their parents' insight, which intrigued me to see how the pair would face them after falling for each other.

Continuing onward, you describe the idea clearly and elaborately, without spoiling or revealing too much.
Along with the way you wrote your blurb, the story premise is incredibly irresistible and attention-grabbing to me. I was curious to see how the events would unfold throughout the story and how the characters would handle them as they began their love journey, despite the issues they faced.
I love the dynamic the characters are mentioned to have with each other here. As well as how you delivered both of their insights, not just the pov character’s insight (Karishma).
We get to take a peek at each of their situations and backstories, as well as how their relationship evolves from disliking each other to gradually falling for one another.

I like the hook you set by the end, as well. It manages to set the tone for the story, including stirring interest and curiosity in readers. It reminds the reader to read on to find out more.

One thing I wish you could have done was to shorten it up a bit. It seemed to be a bit longer than it could have been. Slightly over-detailed.

I think that the dialogue/inner monologue of Karishma wasn’t necessary in this case, since mentioning that “She was the queen of the world of What-ifs” already gives us the idea of the following questions she asks afterward.

And, personally, neither of the questions Karishma states really awakens any curiosity within me. It doesn’t add anything new to the blurb, it just confirms the previous paragraph and only lengthens the description.

Plot: 20/20
It’s an engaging and entertaining plot, clear to understand and moves fast. There are numerous obstacles that Karishma and Rishabh have to overcome to get together, such as their parents, insecurities, current or past situations in their lives, etc.

The scenes you’ve established are creative and amusing to read through. The first chapters’ scenes were outstandingly well-planned and well-written. You know exactly where to start the story, which scenes to include, and how to stir excitement and anticipation for the reader. Continuing through the chapters, I genuinely found myself very intrigued in the story and the characters.

I also love how this is an opposites-attract story, but with your own unique touch and the drama with the parents, making it a forbidden romance at the same time.

The setting you’ve chosen for your story is interesting as well, as you placed the story in Bangalore and gave the readers a little taste of their culture through dialogue and descriptions.
As well as how every scene seems to have something going on in it, there’s always a conflict or a reason to keep on reading, whether it is for the sake of answering a question or because of an exciting incident that leads to another exciting incident.

However, I think that you could have made your conflict a bit more unpredictable, raised more stakes by adding unexpected plot twists or a complication. Since this story is still ongoing and doesn’t have all chapters posted, I don’t know the full story and how this will end, so take the following suggestion with a grain of salt.

But I feel like you could have taken the opportunity to really amp up the drama, take your conflict to the next level.
For example, you could have introduced new threats to their relationship, such as a rival, or a secret that becomes an even harder obstacle to overcome for them to get together.
I do think that in chapter 13, Rishabh had some sort of secret that he was hiding, perhaps a condition or an illness that could be getting in the way of their relationship and probabilities of getting together, since Rishabh fears the worst may strike them at the least expected moment (if you get what I mean).

I’d recommend to stress this more, put more emphasis on his condition. Really exploit the power you have over the conflicts in your story.

Have it interrupt him at various moments throughout the story, have it gradually get worse. Make it become a huge distraction, have something happen that leaves uncertainty in the reader. Something that the reader wants to hold onto, that they just NEED to find out what happens next.

That’s one of the many examples you could take to strengthen the plot and conflict.

But then again, do take this with a grain of salt since I do not fully know where this story will lead to until it becomes completed.

Mechanics: 20/20
Oh, wow. I don't even know where to start here. First of all, your writing style is so much more than outstanding ever could be. I love how clear and straightforward it is. There are no unnecessary fillers or extra words cramped in, no confusing word-choices, nor grammatical errors. There was not a single time I had to stop to re-read a sentence because of confusing structure, rather I breezed through the lines just perfectly without any complications whatsoever.

You have good sentence structure, you know when to use a specific word for a specific action, your descriptions are just the perfect length — and I love how you manage to describe locations and surroundings through dialogue or having the characters interact with them. That’s why there were no awkward halts or moments that slowed the pacing down, but instead, you managed to create an engaging way to show exposition through simple and short descriptions or interactions.

There were only a few times where you made a few misspellings (but very rare, they weren’t many), which I assume must have been from writing too fast or just not noticing them while completing your editing rounds.
Aside from that, reading your writing was like a breath of fresh air to me. I can easily tell that you’ve got knowledge and skill in the writing craft.

Keep it up. With a skill like this, you can go many places in life.

Hook: 10/10
After reading the blurb for your story, I was already intrigued to find out more. The first chapter was incredibly interesting to read. It sparked curiosity in me to see who this neighbor was, how he would be like the moment they met, and how it would eventually happen.

How was he going to react to Karishma cutting the cables from his music system? How was he going to be like, personality-wise? How was all of this going to unfold?
And since it was pretty obvious to know that this was going to be Rishabh, it was exciting to see their first interaction and how it would play out, then lead onto them gradually becoming closer. Hook has been well established, kudos.

Word choice and author’s voice: 10/10
You integrate humor and wittiness into your writing incredibly well, successfully earning a few laughs out of me from the many jokes and quirky word choices that took place. Your voice shines immensely bright here, tinting each word with uniqueness and a strong eloquence. As I said before, your writing is outstanding.

Characters and character development: 10/10
Your characterization is one of the strongest aspects of your plot. Both Karishma and Rishabh are realistic and complex characters who have different personalities, backgrounds, goals, and conflicts. They feel like real people when I read about them, whether it’s in dialogue or behavior. I can barely tell that they’re fictional characters.

Although Rishabh’s actions were a bit questionable to me throughout the story, I can see how there are some men that may act like this in real life. Eitherway, it fits the storyline.

Overall enjoyment: 10/10
This was a fun read. I genuinely felt excitement and curiosity in numerous scenes, including the urge to find out more and continue reading. Interesting characters, well-developed plot.
I’d definitely recommend this story to readers who are looking for Contemporary Romance novels.

Total: 94/100

─⁠──⁠──⁠──⁠─ ⋄ ☾∘☽ ⋄ ─⁠──⁠──⁠──⁠─

Thank you for requesting a review from us. Do let us know what you think so that we can improve to better provide for authors like you.