My Summer of Untold Truths

Author: @Danielle_Jayde
Reviewer: CoffeeAndSilverInk

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SYNOPSIS

16 year old Taylor wants this summer to be different. She doesn't want to live her life in her little bubble anymore and wants to live her life like she thinks a teenager should. Her neighbour, Brianna, introduces Taylor to her friend group. (Which kind of has a bad reputation in their town) As she's beginning to make summer memories, she meets a guy.

Ezra is two years older then Taylor and he's incredibly hot. He's kind (to her) and seems to be the guy who checks all the boxes, but he has a bad reputation in their small town. She knows she shouldn't fall for him, but her feelings completely disagree. As they get to know each other, Taylor thinks that maybe his bad reputation has been mistaken.
Until she doesn't.

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Note: The following review is written by someone with no real writing credentials (uni degrees and anything of sorts), only the experience of many years within the wattpadian writing world and having written over 50 reviews in the past 3 years. Please note that reviews are subjective and not law, that they're opinions and should be taken with a pinch of salt. If the following review in any way offends you, please note that that is not the goal and it is one person's view of your story. You are entitled to agree or disagree with the raised points. If you are hurt and need to leave hate comments to feel validated, please don't. The reviewer doesn't care.

Title and Cover:
The title is good, catchy and makes sense to the story. There haven't been any "untold truths" so far, but this part of the title insinuates that at some point there will be secrets to uncover.
The cover is plain and works well, but the title blends with the background picture due to the pale colours and lack of contrast. To highlight the title I suggest trying a bold font.

Blurb:
The blurb could be much better than it is. It is repetitive, lacks proper punctuation and contradicts the story.

Somewhere in the earlier chapters it is said that Taylor is sixteen and Ezra is seventeen, and the blurb contradicts this. Also, when writing numbers, write the words instead of the numbers.
Creating a blurb has some simple steps such as introducing the main characters, the main conflict, and spiking the reades' interest. These steps are there, but they could be developed further.

Plot/Flow:
The story flows nicely and each chapter helps build characterization and broaden the readers' knowledge of each character through each scene. Although some characters are more explored than others. I'll go back to that in Characterization.

Although it's an easy read, the chapter size is extremely inconsistent. Chapters vary between 8 to 29 minutes long. I'm going to guess and say a 29 minute chapter consists of 6K words. Readers' are more likely to read all those 6K words if they are split in more chapters, while opening a chapter and seeing it's that long can become fastidious. This is a number me and other writers have agreed on when it comes to length, so I'd aim for 2-3K words per chapter.

The opening paragraph, and overall opening scene, is not particularly interesting. It's mundane and doesn't bring anything new plotwise. It's only when Bri arrives that the story starts. I think that scene can be completely cut out.

The premise of the story is that Taylor wants to have a summer that is typical for a teenager and have something to tell her kids about. That's a pretty good premise and is properly shown through Taylor's narration. The reason why she feels the need to get out of her shell could be further explained. She says she's not bored of her own summer routine, so why is it that she suddenly wants to change?

As the story progresses, Taylor meets Ezra and is immediately infatuated by him. Both of them are very "teenagers in love" and we can see that through their cute interactions. She is into him after one look, and he is also not so subtly into her. It's fast, but it works given they're teens and they have chemistry.

The main conflict of the story seems to be the fact that Bri's gang has a bad reputation, and later Ezra will prove he is the same despite his opposite behaviour. From the beginning it's stated several times how they are a bad crew, but the text doesn't seem to support those statements. Yes, they climbed containers, but besides that, why are they such a bad crew? This is something I hope to see more supported in later chapters.

Overall, the plot is good and definitely an interesting read. It's original despite being inspired by Outerbanks and After (I don't see the resemblance that much to be honest). I think it feels more like a small town romance, sweet and pulls you in through the main character's relationship.

Descriptions:
For the most part, the descriptions are good, well placed, don't info dump, and overall nice to read. Some of them could be more smooth, for instance the action sequences. Some actions, namely the routines, are over described and come off as mechanical. There's no need to describe every action of something that is mundane.

The detailed skincare routine description reminds me of early 2010's Wattpad books where the main character described every step of her makeup routine before heading to school.

Characterization:
Many characters are introduced at once, which can cause confusion short and long term. There are no impactful encounters with most secondary characters, therefore it is hard to know who is who. I suggest having a small interaction between Taylor and each of the secondary characters so the readers know who they are, or having a smaller cast.

The characterization for the more important characters is solid and each of those characters is easy to remember. Most of them are fun characters to read about.

Taylor is an interesting character. Her goal for the summer is to make memories and she dived into it completely. She has several traits that make her more interesting, such as the summer playlist memory ideology. I'm quite curious to see what the character development aims towards in her case.

Ezra is a harder one. We only ever see him in the positive light of Taylor's eyes, and so far he has only been nice and fun when with her. He says he has family issues and can become violent, and I hope that is well-explored through the rest of the story.

Bri is not a good friend and that becomes evident in later chapters. Although she is portrayed in a more negative light since the beginning, I think it could be more explicit through actions. We know they're not close friends, and Bri's purpose is to bring Taylor out of her shell. I believe her character will be interesting in the long run, specifically when it comes to motivations.

Camilla is the best friend, a sweet soul, easy to like character. But if she's the best friend, why did Taylor take so long to mention her? I understand introducing characters only when they show up, but being the best friend, I expected Taylor to make even a small mention when explaining about Bri and Alyssa.

Writing:
The writing is good and easy to read. It flows nicely, except for the most mechanical descriptions, and is quite enjoyable. The verbal tenses and writing are consistent. That said, there are a few things that can enhance it.

For starters, let's erase unnecessary adverbs (if their meaning is already implied, they can be cut off). Dialogue quotes MUST be separated (avoid having more than one person talking in each paragraph). There are a few one-liner paragraphs that can condense more information. There are some grammatical and spelling errors that become more frequent as the story progresses. Quotation rules are followed, however, more often than not a question is made without a question mark. Some words and names that should be capitalised are not.

The narration feels very close to Taylor. The use of expressions like "Kind of" and "Honestly" are included in narration and not only in dialogue, which I find surprising, but gives it a nice touch. It extends Taylor's character and helps with her characterization.

Overall enjoyment:
I'd like to point out any dancer would tell you dance is a sport, and any non-dancer would tell you it isn't. It's that one neglected sport everyone discards.

I had this nostalgic feeling reading this book, as the plot reminded me of wattpad romance classics. I think it's a good read that has potential to become a lot better if the structure issues mentioned previously are addressed. It's enjoyable as it is, but such issues can become annoying in the long run.
Overall, I had a lot of fun reading it and I really liked the scenes between Taylor and Ezra.
Good luck with your future projects and thank you for choosing me as your reviewer.