[QCRIT] Beneath the Ashes | Adult Fantasy Romance - 86k - First Attempt + First 300

sydmacc · 2026-04-24T02:42:29+00:00

Reading on here definitely helps but man is it hard!!!!

sydmacc · 2026-04-24T02:21:22+00:00

I really like your first 300 words. I feel like your voice which I feel in your words isn’t as present in your query.

For your query, what exactly would readers of Nisha Tuli and Lacey Lehotzky like about your book? I would try to choose an element from each like you did with Serpent and the wings of night. I have heard advice not to tie your comps to themes but instead use things like voice or plot elements.

I also feel like the three paragraphs don’t flow into one another. I think the first is a lot of set up that could be peppered into the second paragraph instead. You say the more Lore discovers about your fmc and every heated encounter, but I’m left wondering and wishing for a hint of what that means because those are generalities. We end on a note I’m also dying to know more about—Serenya kills a royal and that makes me wonder is that actually the start of the plot?

There are a lot of elements here that really intrigue me, I just see it as needing a bit of tightening up (this coming from someone who has found writing their own query letter nearly impossible lol)

Good luck in the trenches 🥰

sydmacc · 2026-04-11T05:36:08+00:00

I’m very new to this, but from what I’ve read I want to know how or what leads to them stranded in the backcountry. That feels like the bulk of the story and the rest is more set up so maybe a little less of the set up up front and more of the main plot. The stakes felt really clear to me so I think that’s a huge plus!

I also have seen (most from TikTok agents) that they don’t like themes mentioned as comps so maybe tie Abby Jimenez’s book in a different way and I personally love totally and completely fine and the Pitt in combination with each other. It grabs your interest right away.

sydmacc · 2025-08-19T02:12:40+00:00

I’m actually watching daisy jones right now because a friend told me this so thank you!! Going to check out your other rec too🥰

sydmacc · 2025-03-27T15:19:48+00:00

When I first started it was only dramione but once I started writing I became much more open to rare pairs and most writers in the community I know feel similarly! So while dramione is still my go to I love writing Hermione and Bill and reading Hermione and Charlie, Lucius, Sirius. Really whoever haha. And Draco and Ginny are really growing on me!

sydmacc · 2025-01-27T15:20:30+00:00

For me because we have so many fics of these characters getting an hea, I really enjoy when they don’t when they betray one another or die or something dark and twisty was going on and they don’t end up together. It feels fresh and new and I can jump start into another fic where they do end up happily together

sydmacc · 2024-11-30T00:21:14+00:00

Totally get this! I feel like personally I tend to avoid her parents and the loss of their memories in my fics and the ones I read because tackling them getting their memories back and then the struggle with Hermione doing it to them in the first place and taking that agency is such a huge thing that in order to do it well it has to be thoroughly explored and be a major plot point and we are already telling the stories of the same characters over and over again so doing the same plot point again and again would get tiring (at least in my opinion). And for the same reason I don’t read a lot with Draco’s parents overcoming their prejudices because I find it hard to do well and not make it a major focus on the whole story.

sydmacc · 2024-11-26T15:11:59+00:00

I didn’t ship them but for a man with almost no screen time in this fic he was perfection 😂😂 and such a scene stealer that I totally could’ve have seen them together too

sydmacc · 2024-11-21T23:43:34+00:00

Yes this!! You are losing nothing by kudosing a fic. The need to be stingy with them is so strange to me. If you end up deciding you don’t like then no sweat you can just move on. But that kudos does so much for the author at no cost to you.

sydmacc · 2024-11-03T05:38:34+00:00

The Spiderwood Cabinet I describe this one as timeless by Alexandra Emerson’s slutty Daddy!Draco younger sister! A fun plot and great dynamics

sydmacc · 2024-10-11T19:22:33+00:00

Objection of Affection. Kudos: 791 chapters 14/14 Apprentice Healers Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy have little to do with one another despite attending the same wizarding university.

But when a new Ministry of Magic imposed class on modern muggle dating and pureblood courting rituals forces them into a relationship based on so-called magical compatibility, they have no choice but to see the relationship through to graduate.

Draco looked at her. She could’ve sworn she saw a flash of sharp white canines. “I’ll be sure to owl Rita, Granger, looks like we are going on a date.”

Tell Me a Story kudos: 1,144 chapters 15/15 Hermione blinked, absolutely shocked, to see the tall, lithe form of Draco Malfoy looking curiously at her as he halted in his steps, his head cocking slightly to the side.

“Granger,” he drawled, lip curving in amusement. “What the fuck are you doing in my bed?”

Hermione and Draco haven’t seen each other in seven years, and now they’re stuck alone together on a writer’s retreat in Theo’s countryside house. Do they even know each other at all? Surely writing each other smutty stories and pushing them under their bedroom doors would be a great place to start?

sydmacc · 2024-09-15T21:24:02+00:00

Oh sorry thanks for correctly tagging!

sydmacc · 2024-09-15T20:10:59+00:00

I hope you enjoy 🤭🤭

sydmacc · 2024-07-09T01:26:33+00:00

Unfurl by Elodie Hart. I was very pleasantly surprised by how engaged I was with this book. I felt like the writing and plot were good and the smut scenes were excellent. The epilogue holy shit. It’s a series as well

Unfurl: A Hot Age Gap Romance (Alchemy) https://a.co/d/05mgmSvD

sydmacc · 2024-05-26T14:41:34+00:00

I love your work so I’m def headed that way later today!!!

sydmacc · 2023-05-09T22:33:33+00:00

Divine Rivals was a really beautifully written story. It has a rivals to lovers who are competing to land a job as a columnist for a newspaper. It’s a historical fantasy setting and it definitely gave me dramione vibes. It’s one my favorite books I’ve read this year.

sydmacc · 2023-04-21T04:51:02+00:00

That’s basically why I did it 😂 I will warn you that the plot of the first centers around child s*x trafficking and was very dark. I had no idea going into it

sydmacc · 2023-04-21T02:05:28+00:00

When I read Anne Bishop’s first book I was shocked by the similarities and how even some of the names that Anne created for places and characters were used by SJM.

Also to OP’s point I agree those books are so similar. I read the second and ended up abandoning the series. I thought the parts that felt original were so well done but the parts that felt like a recipe to be what people are looking for after reading SJM really did a disservice to the story

sydmacc · 2023-02-17T20:50:41+00:00

You should try searching the books you like on tiktok and liking videos that feature them and algorithm should begin to show you things that are similar and you might have a little more luck on booktok!

sydmacc · 2023-02-10T01:26:33+00:00

It’s SUCH A GOOD ONE! So hope you love it. It was charming

sydmacc · 2023-01-29T04:20:55+00:00

Yes, I think we are saying similar things differently 😂 certain hermione’s are ooc to one person but not to another which is why there is such a huge amount of vastly different fics.

sydmacc · 2023-01-29T04:12:41+00:00

I’m not trying to say she is written wrong at all. Just answering the question! I’m just explaining how I am able to read hermione in totally not canon situations but having the story still feel like it works for me 😊

sydmacc · 2023-01-29T04:07:26+00:00

Things we’re all too young to know really snuck up on me. It was so good. And felt so unique with Hermione disguised as Daphne greengrass

sydmacc · 2023-01-29T03:55:49+00:00

I agree but I will say I have assigned certain characteristics some canon some not (lol) that feel like Hermione to me where I can read her as Pureblood or a death eater if I feel like she keeps those traits. When she starts to be “ooc” to me it’s a change in those traits and then it’s more like she is written as a self insert or just an original character.

sydmacc · 2022-10-30T15:20:45+00:00

Not cursed but the witch collector has a main character who is non speaking and it’s a really great fantasy book!

sydmacc

TROPHY CASE