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In this shop, I offer you helpful advice and outlook on your book, all while commenting and voting! I try my best to read everything in your story, and provide as helpful outlooks on...
Sure to make your heart swell, until it shatters. Kulin delivers Shattered Hearts with artful writing that stays true to grief, pain, and love.
Opening Comments:
Hello! Sorry if it's late, like, really late. I don't really have anything to say for myself other than Reading Burnout is real and has been beating me up since I don't know when. Also that I had to write my reviews on my laptop now because my Google Docs doesn't work on the phone and usually, I could just read and review through my phone anywhere and anytime. Other than that though, thank you for letting me review another book of yours! It is an honor. Again, sorry for the very late review and I hope you understand. Enjoy the review!
Don't feel shy; add inline comments if you have any inquiries, reactions, or PM me if you have anything you can't understand in my review.
First Impressions:
The Cover is absolutely beautiful. I really like the faded red silhouettes and the cracks running through the cover. It's just really beautiful and fits the book nicely. The fonts are good, and the color scheme is pleasant and consistent through the cover.
Update: I see you've changed the cover. I don't really like this new one. The setting of Shattered Hearts isn't at the beach. Sure the ending scene is the beach, but it isn't the whole setting of the book. The bright fonts and seashells also don't go well with the story at all; it gives off a warm sunny feeling (which we do get at the middle part of the story), but the whole theme of the book is grief, and how much the human heart can be shattered yet pieced back together again. The book is more sentimental than the fun, colorful cover now. The old cover captured the feelings more in my opinion.
The Title is good too, I have nothing against it.
The Description is nice, it paints a clear picture of what your book is going to be about. However, it builds too much of a tension that the book itself couldn't hold up to. I will be talking more about this in the plot part of the review, as the description isn't the problem here at all.
Although upon closer inspection, there are some things you need to be less vague of. I'm going to put up a screenshot of the description here so we can see what we're dealing with.
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Sorry for the unedited screenshot; I don't know how to edit pictures on my laptop.
Anyway! Here we can see I highlighted 'Sa ilang taon', that's because I think specifying how many years it has been will make it more shocking. I don't remember the exact number of years you've provided in the book, but I do remember being shocked at how long that time was and it created a sort of empathic impact on the readers. Adding that fact here would be a good move.
Also, 'sa panibagong lugar' can just be 'Santa Clara'. It isn't much but I think adding this detail would make the description sound more concrete and would create an impression that the story knows where it's going, which would be more explored in the plot section of this critique.
