Book Review Mini-Critique
Below you will find ratings (scale of 1-5) with descriptions for the major parts of your book followed by your Readers’ Favorite review. Although these are general ratings we hope they will give you an insight into how others may view the different components of your book.
These are the opinions of your reviewer, and although your reviewer is not an expert literary critic or professional editor, they are at the very least, an avid reader of books just like yours.
Book Details:
Title: Phone Life
Subtitle: A Career Tale from Lifestyle Learning® Publishing
Author: Paris Gamble
Genre: Young Adult – General
Appearance: 3
The appearance of a book can make a significant impact on the experience of a reader, whose enjoyment is often enhanced by an enticing cover, an intriguing table of contents, interesting chapter headings, and when possible, eye-catching illustrations.
Plot: 4
The characters of a book should be well defined with strengths and flaws, and while they do not have to be likable, the reader does have to be able to form a connection with them. The tone should be consistent, the theme should be clear, and the plot should be original or told from a unique perspective. For informative books–those without plot and characters–this rating refers primarily to your concept and how well you presented it.
Development: 4
Development refers to how effectively you told your story or discussed your topic. The dialogue should be realistic, the descriptions should be vivid, and the material should be concise and coherent. Organization is also a key factor, especially for informative books–those without plot and characters. The order in which you tell your story or explain your topic and how smoothly it flows can have a huge impact on the reader’s understanding and enjoyment of the material.
Formatting: 3
Formatting is the single most overlooked area by independent authors. The way in which you describe scenes, display dialogue, and shift point of view can make or break your story. In addition, excessive grammatical errors and typos can give your book an amateurish feel and even put off readers completely.
Marketability: 4
Marketability refers to how effectively you wrote your book for your target audience. Authors may include content that is above or below the understanding of their target reader, or include concepts, opinions or language that can accidentally confuse or alienate some readers. Although by its nature this rating is very subjective, a very low rating here and poor reviews may indicate an issue with your book in this area.
Overall Opinion: 3
The overall starred rating takes into account all these elements and describes the overall reading experience of your reviewer. This is the official Readers’ Favorite review rating for your book.
Book Review:
Reviewed by Deepak Menon for Readers’ Favorite
The book begins with the now happily married and prosperous 30-year-old David and Carlie being interviewed by a young inexperienced journalist. His simple question “How did you meet?” leads to a flashback going back 20 years to the time when David and Carlie met in junior high school. The author then attempts to unravel the workings of the minds of two very young innocent people, who are too shy to reveal their attraction to each other, and face the inevitable heartache, upsets and despair that follow.
Paris Gamble introduces an obsessive practical joker ‘Lee’ and a string of ‘gags’ to enliven the rather listless and unadventurous romance of the hero and heroine. The story ends with an implausible ‘made it big’ scene, leaving the reader to guess the finer details. And yes, there is a final stereotyped gag too. There is no cover, the formatting of the book is ordinary, and there is an inordinate use of punctuation marks like the comma and the dash, often stemming the natural flow of the narrative. There are some typos.
The final chapters seem to have been hurriedly written. The author has attempted to let the book serve as an advisory guide to young students by inserting two additional chapters which are unrelated to the context of the story which is a romance. Paris Gamble has certainly kept the story very clean and true, and taken care to instill character among in the target group of teenagers in this changing world, where ethics are often left by the wayside.
