The Black List Review

The Black List Review

Here is more of the written portion of the evaluation from Blacklist.

Strengths

This manuscript seamlessly weaves the action, adventure, and mystery of ENOLA HOLMES with the courtship and romance of BRIDGERTON in a way that’s compelling, page-turning, and very fun to read. It’s exceptionally paced and, thus far, each scene builds on the last in a way that makes it hard to put down. Eleanor is a fantastic main character who has a clear voice and well-developed personality that makes her completely unique from everyone else in the story. As a secondary character, Libby is also well developed, as her history–her injury, etc–gets revealed in really organic ways. Having Giles as an additional POV was unexpected but ends up perfectly complementing Eleanor’s narration and giving readers a well-rounded sense of what’s going on. The manuscript’s dialogue is well written and, combined with the descriptions of the setting and period, create a totally three-dimensional world that’s easy and vivid to picture and read.

Prospects

This manuscript has a ton of market potential. As mentioned, it has the action, adventure, and mystery of the ENOLA HOLMES movie (though it’s not YA, like the books on which the movie is based) with the courting and romance of the BRIDGERTON series by Julia Quinn, which is a fun and unique combination that will have people eagerly turning the page. Eleanor also has hints of the main character from A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER by Julia Seales. As well, all of these titles have large, built-in audiences that could find THE RELUCTANT COUNTESS very compelling. The manuscript could benefit from leaning into the mystery plot line more in the beginning and throughout to help differentiat e it from other period romances and make it more commercial and marketable.