The Gauntlet: Results and Reviews

More to Life by Voyageavecmoi

Final Total: 6 (we're opening the book and starting to read...)

Reader 1:

Cover: 3.5/4 You've gone through a bunch of covers between the last time you entered this and today, haven't you? I've seen a few of them, and they've been improving each time! This one has an exotic, summery feel with very pleasing colours. The yellow umbrella is an especially nice, eye-pleasing colour. The presence of a hip-looking woman and the pink letters & font give us the clear notion it's a chicklit story, which will appeal to those readers looking for exactly that. All the colours are harmonious. Excellent advertising! 

The only thing I'm taking a half a point off for is the placement of the letters. The More To and Life are too far apart and look almost like they don't go together. A part needs raised, or lowered. If you work on Canva, that's the line height tool.  Other than that -- great! 

Title: 1.5/2  Works for me just fine. 

Blurb: 3/4

The idea of expressing the characters' situation through Thai food is a nicely original idea, but the phrasing makes it a little difficult to actually follow what you mean at times. For example:"Start with Maria's Som Tam, a sweet dish with a spicy kick." (this is good) Unsure if she can salvage her broken relationship .., okay, who is she? The Som Tam? To avoid confusion, you might like to use Maria's name here. "Maria is unsure if she can salvage her broken relationship..." That immediately shows us you are talking about the person now, and not the dish anymore. The same thing for the rest of them. Try to make a clear differentiation between the food and the person -- especially for those readers how have no clue about Thai food. The final paragraph comes back to Maria, indicating that she's more of the focal point of the story than the others. But how you have it, it seems a bit tacked on, like a shirt tail that's not quite tucked in.

Total: 8 (I'm interested in opening the book)

Reader 2:

Cover: 3/4 Just one small note: you don't need the mostly transparent blue layer behind the title, IMHO. It creates a false horizon and chops off your subject's head, while cooling down the overall image. Maybe find a color for the font that pops against the gold of the sunset on the water, and you'll be fine. But otherwise, the brush script and the color scheme are great, and the lines are nice. It's genre appropriate, eye-catching, and related to the story. Nice job.

Title: 2/2 Still as good as last time.

Blurb: 1/4 Not as good as last time, I think. I like the 'restaurant' motif, it goes well with the story itself, but there are two things to work on. 1.) try to make it clear that you've switched from talking about Maria's food to Maria herself, or that Tom Kha Soup isn't a person. Mitch's Penang Curry could also be what found paradise in Thailand.

2.) This sounds weird, coming after #1, but try to make the relationship between the food and the characters more obvious. Right now, there's food, and people. Blap. Separate things. So what is the food for? Are the people like the food? What does the food have to do with the people? Is it being served at a restaurant they frequent? Do they work there? Does Mitch? Sunshine Café sounds great, but where is it? (I know it's Thailand, but it might be good to make it official.)

The idea is fine. I'm just not sure what it's trying to do, yet, and it's getting in the way of the basic info in the blurb.

Total: 6/10  (I'm interested in opening the book.)

Reader 3:

Cover: 2/4 It could use a little work. As it is, it reminds me of something I'd find hidden in the back of a closet of a holiday rental, forgotten by the previous occupant - a rather old romance. I think it's combination of the very muted colours, and the disjointed faux-handwriting font. In your blurb, food is taking main stage, and if you want to keep with that, try to have your cover reflect the vibrant flavours you described. Thai food is also really pretty and colourful, and I feel this doesn't show here.

My biggest problem with it is the font you used for the title. While there is nothing wrong with the font per-se, the spaces between letters look very unnatural. There are several ways of avoiding that, depending on the program you used to create this - let me know if you need more info on that. Also, as mentioned above, the colour of the font is a bit too muted, and it doesn't' really stand out. The word "Life" could use to be higher up, more away from the authors name, it all looks a little too crammed together.

Title: 1/2 A bit generic, but it does the job.

Blurb: 1/4

Well... I can understand what you are trying to do here, but I'm sorry to say it didn't work for me.

The mix between menu items and story information is confusing. I had to re-read this a few times to figure out what you are getting at, and instead of making me want to read the book, it just made me hungry, unfortunately.

To be more specific: in the second paragraph, when you talk about Maria's Som Tam and then move onto her being unsure about her relationship, it sounds like it is the Som Tam that has run off to Thailand. But that itself is an easy fix. The issue is that you keep alternating between the dishes and the people who cook them, but the information on the characters is vague at best.

In the following paragraph you mention "Our Tom Kha", which is the soup - who is talking? I am guessing this is meant to be read as a menu - but then you wouldn't have information about poor Tom and his heartbreak. Unless this is a very strange cafe indeed.

If I might, I'd advise you to start from scratch. Tell your readers more about the characters, and then tell us about the cafe. It is good to have a backdrop of food, especially when that food is Thai and sounds mouth-watering, but the plot and characters need to be there first and foremost. As it is, I feel like I'm getting myself into a rather hippy cookbook, which will tell me way too personal information about its writers, rather than what I assume is meant to be a romance?

Total: 4 (I've put the book back on the shelf)