First Impression:

Sealed With A Kiss is coming from a solid, established concept: The Bachelor and televised concepts of the like. From the very beginning, I know we can expect a happy ending – the girl ends up with the boy after they go through the usual obstacles: jealousy, betrayal, self-defiance and faith. It's formulaic. It's a calculated and established expectation built both by film and literature media.

Before I even begin reading the story, I want it to end on something unexpected. I want Melody to learn the importance of self-acceptance, or the value of family, or the gift of friendship. Basically, for me to finish this book and say it's a good, unique story, I want her to not end up with the handsome bachelor.

My entry into this book is met with the clear understanding that this book has been very well thought out. The author prepares me with reference material and established characters, and, I can rest assured, that there will be no questions left hanging.

If anything, my only fear is that the book will not be unique – that it will build upon clichés and not subvert them in order to tell a powerful story about womanhood. We all exist in a contemporary reality, unfortunately, and with that comes the need to tell powerful female narratives where the men are not the heroes. If Sealed With A Kiss can prove my fear wrong, and tell a story about womanhood and self worth, I will give it the highest commendation.

Do not misunderstand me, however: I realise that Sealed With A Kiss is a fanfiction. The duty of fanfiction is to be self-serving – to fulfil fantasies and desires that deliberately ignore the real, established narratives, and I can appreciate the story even if it doesn't tell a powerful story about femininity or self-worth. Sometimes we don't want to fight the big fight: we just want to cuddle with a cat and watch our OTP sail away into the sunset, and I can support that.

Overall Appearance:

The cover is muted and simple – a romance evidently, and I like the subtlety to of it. The name sounds a bit cliché, but in an almost poetic way. How many fantasies are sealed with a kiss? What power and magic do those first sparks of true love contain? Didn't Snow White wake from her dreadful slumber with the seal of a kiss? Didn't Aurora? Didn't Belle release Adam from his curse with the seal of the kiss, and didn't Eric and Ariel triumph that way?

What else can I say, really? Kisses are magical, and I expect that level of fantasy in this fanfiction. I wouldn't be remiss to point out my disappointment if the kiss didn't live up to its hype at this point.

The synopsis is... bland? It's a typical expectation of any romance – when they saw each other, it was love at first sight, but the drama, the fights, the jealousy! Will they find their happy ever after, or is the romance doomed to die?

It's a cliché hook, and any reader with any experience in romances will know that the hook is flaccid. Of course they'll end up together. Of course. This is specifically why I so fervently hope that they don't. I really want this story to be the outlier.

Establishment:

While I like how much the effort the author went through to populate the story with characters, I feel uncomfortable that they're all images of famous, beautiful celebrities. I have to remind myself that this a fanfiction, that we can dream.

I'm not a woman, but even I can say, "Oh, this is my fantasy – to be the beautiful girl who gets the handsome guy."

My problem with this is personal and manifold:

Primarily, from a critical point of view, images of celebrities do not establish character personalities. Any recognisable image I see associated with a name immediately makes me associate what I know of that celebrity to that character. You have a picture of a Kristen Stewart attached to the name of Riley, and immediately I think, "Oh, Riley's a young, fun-loving rebel who will be the best girl-friend in the group," but she's described as the oldest and is kind of a mean person. So, there's that.

Secondly, and I've mentioned this before – while it might work in film, a line-up of character is not an effective way to introduce characters. Maybe I really just am very not smart, but I can't remember who half the characters are.

Finally, and this is bit of a doozy here and my personal problem with the story (and the bachelor in general): This is a story targeted at young-ish girls, and I think it's very important to promote a positive, healthy and real female image. While the story is cute and I like the characters, I feel that it ultimately perpetuates objectifying women and presenting them as dolls – something I'll talk about again in just a few paragraphs.

Initial Reading:

This is difficult for me – maybe I'm not the right reviewer, or maybe I need to get my head on straight – but I have a love/hate relationship with Melody. She's too perfect, and good and kind and sweet and a great mother. I don't like the overwhelming introduction of emotion, though – the reader is new to the story, so ease them into it.

You will turn readers away with this kind of emotional tide – you immediately force the reader into an uncomfortable conversation, "Mama, why don't I have a daddy?", and we don't even know whether we want to care about Melody or Nova yet and then they start crying and it's all too much.

On the other hand, I like Melody and Nova, as characters existing in a real world. I like Melody talking to her friend and it all seems so natural and good and that is what makes me want to keep reading. The author has such a good command of scene direction and the dialogue and narration is balanced carefully. It's very easy to engage with, and I feel like everything that happens is the most natural course of events. Even with my personal vendetta against the concept, I am drawn into this easily-engageable narrative.

Plot and Theme:

Initially, we're introduced to Melody's life, which is important for establishing our journey with her. We want to get a sense of who she is and why we want to support her throughout the book. I think the first two narrative chapters (as opposed to the character profiles which I still disapprove of) are a great way to introduce us to the plot and what we can expect.

One side note: Melody says 'I love you' much too often, and that makes her a difficult character to empathise with, but it is a very minor detail.

Pretty soon we're thrown headfirst into The Bachelor, and it's actually a pretty lovely experience, as we get to meet the girls and see what they're like. Again, I don't think it's wise to introduce them all at once, but I've gone on about that enough.

It's sickeningly cute how Melody interacts with Tyler, and it feeds my inner starving romantic. I ship it so hard!

Overall, the plot progresses just a little faster than I am comfortable with, but so much that I can't keep up.

I won't talk about theme here, because the theme is an established, recognised one – The Bachelor. It's pretty much what one might expect, but I'm sad to say that I don't see a lot of the 'behind the scenes' action between the girls or filming team. This is a great opportunity to introduce themes of glamour and fame.

Writing and Characters:

The writing is, again, very good. It's easy to understand and I feel like the author has a pleasant balance between the action and the speech. I haven't noticed anything out of place, so that certainly is a job well done!

The characters all seem lovely and have great potential, but at the moment are presented as two-dimensional and unimpressive. They play very basic roles in Melody's narrative.

In the beginning the author mentions that some characters are important and others are not – while I respect the sentiment, I cannot, in good conscience, approve of it. To me, characters are holy and sacred, and I take the standpoint that if a character isn't a functioning creature in the narrative world, then don't torture them with a continued existence. Cut them out.

Overall Impression:

While I do find some things problematic, I feel that with a little tweaking this has potential to be a great fanfiction. I'm actually eager to read further.

My first suggestion would be to remove your reference material – the character portraits and Melody's dress in each chapter, the extra content at the end. There's no problem with this in general, but it does detract from the reading experience.

The book is a work in progress, and I strongly urge the author to consider some of my points. I would recommend it to anybody who likes a guilty little romance every once in a while, but not until some of my larger concerns are addressed. I fully believe the author has the capacity and command of writing to make something exceptionally great here.

Reviewed by: Rene