SCRIPTURIENT REVIEWS | OPEN

❄ FAUX HEARTS | ALEX ❄

Reviewed by: Iuminology

Book Title: Faux Hearts

Author's Name: gangstainheels247

Cover: 9/10 

The cover is quite cute. I love the little graphics on it, and the flowers underlining the title look amazing with the font. However, I think the girl in the center of the cover doesn't stand out as much. It looks like her white lab coat is too dim and highlighting the contrast of the white lab coat against the black background would make her pop much more!

Title: 10/10

Your title is really interesting and it really fits with the plot, especially since the main characters seem to pretend to hate each other. It's also super unique and really pulls me, as a reader, in!

Blurb/Description: 10/10 

The blurb is really interesting and the quote in the very beginner really hooks me in. I love how you provide enough details for me to know what I'm about to read, while also keeping enough of the plot hidden and leaving the reader with more questions on how things will turn out in the end.

Creativity and originality : 8/10 

I love how the story is set in a medical school and how it focuses a lot about grades, which adds an aspect of realism to the overall story. I especially loved how you played with the birds just watching Aariz after Selena slams the door on him. It really adds a lighthearted type of comedy while also revealing the tension in their relationship dynamic. However, the enemies to lovers trope is really cliche, especially when the two leads don't actually hate each other. Despite that, you put an original twist on the trope!

Plot and Flow: 10/20

Personally, I found the plot to be quite boring, despite how well written it was. The flow, in part, also contributed to this since it was really slow paced. I also am not the biggest fan of contemporary romances since I find them to be very slow paced which sometimes bores me. Personal biases aside, your plot was really good since there were many different aspects that you incorporated into your story, such as culture and character arcs. The flow of your story, while slow, also was well blended together and your writing was able to make it so that chapters and scenarios would effortlessly blend together.

Character Development: 9/10

I think your characters are amazing! I love how you focus on the different character dynamics and how the characters feel so real. It felt like I was reading a biography with how the characters felt like such real people. I also liked how you showed how parents affected Selena and Aariz's mental health and how the constant comparison and competition between the two contributed to each other's mental wellbeing. The way you wrote this and the way the characters acted in these scenes were so beautiful!

Writing style, Grammar, spellings, etc.: 6.5/10

Your writing style is super poetic and your use of imagery and figurative language really makes your story pop. I love how descriptive you are, painting such a vivid picture in my head. Despite the beautiful writing, there were some things that made it difficult for me to read. For example, there were too many adjectives in the sentence, "Tahreem scratches her waxed glistening moisturized arm with her coat sleeve rolled up." Waxed, glistening, and moisturized are too many adjectives that made the sentence hard to read at first. Instead, it would be better to just use one or two adjectives instead of three. There were also a few grammatical mistakes I spotted too that also made your story hard to read.

Overall: 62.5/100

Overall, your writing style was extremely beautiful! In all honesty, your writing and your characters were the only thing that kept me going as I was reading. I wasn't the biggest fan of the plot, however the genre isn't really something that I enjoy all too much. Generally I think your story is really good and well written!!

Tips – These are just friendly suggestions from one writer to another ~

I think you should go back through your story and figure out what scenes are necessary for the plot/character development and which are not. For example, telling the reader Selena's entire schedule is not necessary. Instead it would be better to show her living out her schedule slowly rather than making the schedule a big info-dump.