Siobhan’s Reviews > Selling Sunset > Status Update

HA! In the UK, White Lightning is a very cheap cider that drunks and beggars stereotypically drink. It being anything else tickles me.

Wouldn’t you want your reader to get so emotionally involved in your manuscript that they cry? I want my book to make people laugh and cry!

Not being funny, but why is she so heartbroken? It all seemed pretty physical, they barely let their guards down with each other, and he was downright cruel in their argument. I’m not rooting for Ben and Piper as a couple, and if she was so heartbroken, why was she already back on dating sites? Make it make sense!

We were doing well until page 300, but now it feels meandering. Like it devolved into PWP for a few pages, then the set up for the break apart has been laborious. And now Pete’s had a personality transplant and Piper believes everyone at face value without having a conversation with Ben and they’re both being immature about their feelings. The first 3.5 of this story are 5 stars, but now, we’re losing stars

Oh no, this story was going so well and now they can’t be together because they’re both overthinking and not communicating and I loathe a forced miscommunication trope so much. It’s going to drag the story down for me.

Oh it's the first mention of Maisie in ages! I wanted to see her reaction to Piper and Ben, but it's just a hair tutorial off-page. That's a shame, because that gave more tension than "they've both been hurt in former romances and by overbearing parents" which we have repeating a fair bit by now.

It wasn’t the first time Piper spoke that meeting, she repeated “Raleigh?” A few paragraphs before

Calling it a shifter is cute. In the UK, it’s a gear stick

Hmmm, “I can’t justify a grooming plot” depends on the narrative behind it. A romance? Ick. Contemporary with a narrative pointing out the problematic elements of said plot? Workable, and highly emotive and relatable