This award by iloveboba1stacct was the second one I signed up to judge, and it was a mess. When I applied, the host asked how many books I could read in a certain time period. I replied it depended on how much I had to read, and then nothing. Radio silence. Until a participant tagged me in the award book on the day when the host stated they were posting results.

It turned out I had two categories assigned to me, so then I was scrambling to judge them both that day. I had no rubric for one category, and the host didn't respond to my inquiry, so I did the best I could with what I came up with on the fly and emailed them the results—which they did not post that day. And the next day, another judge sent me the rubric I'd never received, so I had to re-score that category and send the updated scores to the host.

And then...nothing. Again. The host never replied to any of my emails, posts on their message board, or comments in their book. And they didn't post any results. I ended up posting my scores and feedback during that time, because I didn't know if/when the results would get posted. And then a month later, they finally posted the scores and feedback for the two categories I judged, but they did not include my results for one category. They'd told the other judge to do those books. When I questioned them about this, they stated they never received those results from me—even though I sent both sets of results in the same emails, and they posted my stuff for the other category. They asked me to resend those results and told me they would post them in the book. I did, and they never posted them.

So, I washed my hands of the whole thing. I don't know if the award ever finished, or if it died, or what. I didn't even look at it again until I was preparing this chapter, when I looked it up so I could list placements for the two categories I judged. And then I found out the host posted the feedback and scores, but did not rank them, so I had to jot down every book and every score to figure it out myself. And, of course, the category that got judged twice was...weird. I'm ignoring the other judge's scores and listing my scores for that, along with placement based on my scores.

For "Best Cover," we didn't have to read any of the books. For "Best Male Lead," we had to read five to ten chapters.

Anyway, links to reviews are in the inline comments, and don't forget to grab your participation and judging stickers from their chapters.

Best Cover:

1. Love Beyond the Stage Lights by TaeTaeGinger (100/100) 🥇

2. Love Ends All by k00kiesandch0c0lates (97/100) 🥈

3. Shadow by lily_wanders (97/100) 🥈

4. Everybody Hates Grey by axelle_grace14 (88/100)

5. Echoes of Euphoria by Etaereal3012 (60/100)

Best Male Lead:

1. You Have No Idea by _RulerOfHearts_ (43/50) 🥉

2. Artemis' Devotion by Harshywrites05 (28/50)

*****

01/11/2025: Did you see the first repeat offender? Echoes of Euphoria is entered in Fanfiction, too, and I'm actually reading and reviewing it right now. 😊