User:Matt620

I like editing things and making things look nice.

Stories I liked
The Crown and the Flame (All books) - Exciting pacing, great characters, and the portrait asethetic had this oil painting-esque quality that brought out it's fantastical charm.

Most Wanted - Great plotline and constant high stakes action. Both characters felt distinct and were incredible reads.

Hero - I did feel like I was in a comic book, the art style worked here. And the characters were kinda fun with their different abilities.

It Lives (Both books) - Fond of them both. High stakes, lots of fun. It Lives Beneath was slightly better because it felt more like a team effort than It Lives in the Woods, but the first one allowed multiple deaths which brought out more emotions.

Veil of Secrets - An enjoyable mystery with great action scenes and a real sense of discovery. Plus had some of the most likable characters in the series.

America's Most Eligible 1 - Loved the cast, took a second to figure out the mechanics of it, but it really brought out a competitive edge and made me want to win. And the cast were a lovable cast of rogues.

Bloodbound 2 and 3 - Ramping up the action and excitement while playing down the romance was definitely the right choice. Also liked the plotline built in the for the Main Character with the whole Bloodkeeper thing, she felt more connected to the world and not some random schmuck.

Desire and Decorum (All books) - TBH, I went into this not thinking I'd like it, but it's charm, authentic nature, and likable characters won me over. Book 2 was the strongest overall, but the others are good too. Fantastic cast of characters with just the right touch of mystery.

Big Sky Country (Both books) - A bit of a cliche, but charmingly acted and the style felt refreshing from the more urban looks of the other Choices books. Also had a well made supporting cast.

The Elementalists (Both books) - An easy to pick up mythos and collectibles focused around success made it well acted and wonderful. The holiday special was good, and I'm usually not fans of them.

The Heist: Monaco - Fun premise with a lot of enjoyment and hilarious characters with interesting backstories.

Open Heart - Wonderful characters, immersive in the setting without being overmuch and well written romantic scenes.

Nightbound - A fantastic mythos with lots of action and intrigue, a properly written tragic villain, and a real sense of emotion between father and child.

Platinum - The struggles of the main character felt realistic, she felt like a newcomer to an industry and had to work for her stardom. And the songs had an earwormy quality. Supporting cast was also very well written.

High School Story: Class Act 3 - Giving the player a book-wide goal that could be improved made the smaller scale of the story feel more engaging, and the asthetic felt unique. The struggles of high school students felt very well acted.

The Royal Masquerade - Engaging plot with a likable main character, a slight touch of mysticism, refreshingly honest villain, and authentic to its style without being overblown and pretentious.

Stories that were okay
Rules of Engagement (All books) - Eh, started out all right, but the drama got old and the supporting cast was particularly aggravating.

Endless Summer (All books) - The story was fine, actually pretty good. But I could not get behind the weird art style, and it was really a diamond sink.

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor - Too short to really get anything out of it, one way or the other.

The Royal Romance and the Royal Heir (All books) - Enjoyed it's more political coup nature, but still far too much of a focus on romance and weddings. 3 was the best by far.

High School Story (All books, and Class Act 1 and 2) - Lower stakes made it less interesting, but the characters were all right and I could understand it for the high school setting. Class Act had a great idea with the twin sibling that made for great storytelling, but it felt squandered.

Red Carpet Diaries 1 and 3 - A little too unbelievable with going to a high paid actress right away, but a lot of the earlier scenes had charm. 3 was all right, but the constant overt fascination every villain seems to have with the main character felt very Mary Sue.

Perfect Match - Started out all right, but I saw the twists coming. Perfect Match 2 upped the main cast greatly with great character interaction, and the ability to play as a complete nymphomaniac, but a lot of the supporting cast like Khaan and Winona were pretentious and I felt forced to like them.

Bloodbound 1 - A bit cliche in the beginning, but established its mythos and found its footing to be great by the end.

America's Most Eligible 2 and 3 - Not a bad idea, and decent new characters, but the rehashed plot of being run by a bad showrunner made it get really old really fast. The 3rd story does make me want to play it, but without the first two stories, it would've been bad.

Across the Void - Great looking characters, and the collectibles felt useful, but it takes more than pleasant designs. The plot should've had more focus on the war and less on the cruise liner.

A Courtesan of Rome - As a history buff, I liked the setting, but it was too overmuch, too many uses of Latin words made this feel more forced than anything else.

Ride or Die - The marketing person for this should've been fired. If it wasn't called a romance and focused more on cars and unintentionally getting involved with crooks, it would've been better.

Passport to Romance - I hated the whole petty criminal aspect of the story, but it started out pretty good and the female characters were fun.

Sunkissed - A decent idea that got sidelined for boring family drama and overacted personal matters rather than some larger goal. Had some fun moments with the LIs acting as friends and some cool circumstances, but that was it. The collectibles were also fairly disappointing.

Bachelorette Party - I liked this more as it went on. I think because it was so different from the other stories, it should've been released all at once. Has great supporting characters with Courtney and Reed.

Save the Date - Really started off badly with the main character being an unhinged lunatic. But the weddings themselves were quite charming and it felt like the main character learned from her mistakes.

Baby Bump - Just like Ride or Die, marketed very poorly. It would've been a lot better if the story introduced the main character as a business woman revitalizing the small town and the pregnancy happened later. The asethetic itself is fine, and the sister is an enjoyable character.

Stories I hated
The Freshman (and all subsequent chapters) - I'm willing to excuse a lot in exchange for early installment weirdness, but this story was just dull and duller with melodrama and boring behavior.

#LoveHacks - A group of people that were either pretentious (Horatio, Leah), obnoxious (Cole), whiny (Mark, Brooke), or all three (MC, Sareena). Ultimately an ending that gave me nothing and diamond choices that felt irrelevant. Not a single character in that story was remotely likable.

Red Carpet Diaries 2 - A desperate attempt at being topical ruined some great ideas. And it was relentless boring about it the whole time. Plus, the movie being made felt pretentious.

Home for the Holidays - The hate this book receives is overblown, but not undeserved. Dull cliche plotline with only the charm of the mother and pilot romance plot to save it.

Wishful Thinking - A ridiculously cliched plot with an unsatisfying ending, totally wrecked redemption arc for the early stage villain character, and cliched villains made this completely unsatisfying.

Mother of the Year - Whiny unlikable main character who is, dare I say it, a bad mother. Whom I'm forced to play and get along with. It's a shame when the supposedly unlikable ex-husband and his young girlfriend would be better off raising the kid. Love interests are boring and side characters are obnoxious. Completely forced villain redemption arc, and the end of the book proved the MC was nothing more than a gold-digger.

Things I'd like to see

 * A sequel to Most Wanted.
 * A sequel to Hero.
 * A sequel to Nightbound.
 * A post-apocalyptic setting a la Fallout or Wasteland.
 * Mystery and suspense novels
 * An adventure novel a la Indiana Jones
 * Buddy cop drama where I have to solve a crime to save my bestie.

Things I don't want to see

 * Stories that are gender-locked without good reason. Bloodbound paid lip service to it in Chapter 2, but the later stories have no excuse
 * Shilled characters. When characters tell me how good someone else is without those traits being on display (or a good reason for someone to say things otherwise). These are characters like: Blaire Hall (bad businesswoman but everyone tells me she's good and fires people when they do things she tells them too, excuses theft); Winona Johnson (told she's a great journalist, actually isn't and springs surprises for ratings, as well as letting her guests get attacked); Emerald (pretentious eco-warrior full of herself)
 * Negative shilled characters. When I'm constantly told by others how bad someone is for no reason than to make me the reader feel that way.