The Sword of Stone by CCRoyal.

This review is all subjective and was given based on my own personal preferences and opinions, as well as my general outlook on certain things and ideas presented. None of this is set in stone (see what I did there.)

OVERVIEW

TO THE POINT: Boring. Wordy. Lengthy, epic and high fantasy-esque, complex plot, WoW and other feels, not my taste, too much.

MORE DETAILED: 

I am a general believer of constructing fantasy worlds and world building, however, as I've seen in other Wattpad novels, when world building becomes too much?  I jet.

Overall I think I've just been overwhelmed at the length of the first chapter, at a whopping 41 minutes! And although you explained the reason behind it, I don't think that readers, especially if they're on mobile, would be keen on sitting through a whopping 77 pages by Wattpad's definition. 

The line that I draw is a good 25-30 pages. Most times my chapters stay below 25 pages. 

But 77? You need to split that up not in half,  but into thirds. 

And to add to that, the chapter at the very beginning of the novel which you said was mandatory dumped all of this information on the history of the gods and King Haeron and the Celestial Court and the Celestial Gods and the seven elements in accordance with the seven kingdoms and the seven gods and an extensive pronunciation guide to these complex, albeit unique names?

The mere fact that that entire sentence in itself is so long is a clear indicator. 

While I understand that these are all  important to the plot of the story, having all of this extensive world building is just goading to me, it's burdening, it's unnecessary and it's too extensive. 

In fact, if I'm honest with everyone here, I don't even like The Lord of the Rings. 

I've read the first book in the series, The Fellowship of the Ring, and I didn't get past half of it. I understand the whole point of Tolkien creating such a vast and expansive universe for his different languages and such but personally I think it's too much, more flashy than anything, and half the time I was reading I was interrupted by insights to culture and pausing the narrative for snippets of lore. 

ok.

Overall, this is just personal preference, but the Sword of Stone is not my cup of tea, as are similar books on Wattpad that I've seen in the HOT section. 

I want narrative, I want submersion, and while reading the novel, while it had good prose and interesting insights, great characters and action, everything all seemed dead. It's lacking. 

I expound below.

FULL REVIEW

I review with the following criteria.

COVER:

STORY CONCEPT:

GRAMMAR:

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

WRITING STYLE:

PACING/ORGANISATION:

IF IT WAS ENJOYABLE!

for a final score out of 35.

After, I multiply it by a 100 and give it an overall rating.

COVER: 2/5

The girl on the cover holding her sword is very convicting, but the text with the title of the novel is barely visible, has NOTHING to do with fantasy, can barely extricate itself from the page and has zero life. 

Quite like how I felt while reading the novel. 

Keep in mind that while I began TSoS late into the morning, after napping and getting back at it again I still felt the same amount of tiring exhaust.  

It felt akin to reading a literary novel for a class and fighting your boredom and internal anguish. 

(usually I cure this with spasms, foaming at the mouth and head butting the table or any solid object I can bash my frontal lobe into—but there are different coping mechanisms).

Here's what I found as examples of splendid covers that would draw me in, here on good ole Wattpad.

Can I just say how beautiful this cover is heroesandcons? The boy in the background is breathtaking. I'm planning on giving your novel a read, Mysty-Nyx. 

Back on track, use bright colours, that will grip and compel any reader passing your novel to give it a try. It needs to scream: "HEY! I'M RIGHT HERE YOU PIECE OF-" for the reader to see it because you're competing with all the other novels with just as much potential in the lineup.

STORY CONCEPT: 3.75/5

I like the concept. It does seem hefty and epic. But again, I just felt so overwhelmed  with everything it's turned me off from the novel. This is my opinion, but I'm a firm believer of too much of a good thing, isn't such a good thing. 

GRAMMAR: 3.75/5

There were a few slip ups in grammar and basic Concord, but other than that the grammar was a-okay. 👌.

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 3/5

The characters are very promising, I particularly like Cedric and I guess Orlana will grow on me. 

I've grown particularly tired of femme-fatale, badass, orphan assassin stories now, however, so nothing about her piqued my interest despite slight variances. 

Her mentor, Lavi, is cryptic. He's also boring. Nothing strikes me about him. 

Overall the entire novel is boring. Nothing about it strikes me. 

I think you need to focus more on immersing and interacting with your readers. 

The novel seems very professional, and could easily be regarded as such from what I've read, but it's tedious, banal and lacks life. At least in my personal opinion. 

In fact, it's almost too perfect. The prose is very good, the vocabulary is extensive, few repetition, diverse sentence structures. 

Yet it still lacks life or any interest on my part. 

Again, I recommend you apply for other reviews to get more opinions and widen your scope. 

WRITING STYLE: 5/5

This is probably one of the most perfect writing styles I've seen, and while it lacks a distinct tone (I'm not sure boredom counts) it did have all the features that tell me it's well developed and has a lot of maturity. 

It still lacks life  or anything captivating enough to keep my interest. 

PACING/ORGANISATION: 2.5/5

The pacing was fine, but the organisation? 

TOO LONG. 

WAS IT ENJOYABLE? 1.75/5

I didn't like reading it. Period. It was straining on the eyes and it was too heavy. 

Simple.

TOTAL SCORE: 21.75

OVERALL RATING: 6.2

UP NEXT:

Wherefore Art Thou: Heroes by _Sinnamon_Roll_.

as this was done prematurely I will complete the reviews due BEFORE WAT:H as this chapter is numbered 24. when there are not numbers leading up to 24. In short, your review won't be up immediately, SinnamonRoll becuase there are stories before TSoS.