Professional Beta Reader Wanted — Small-Town Hockey Romance Novella (Clean/Sweet, 18-20k words)

Beta Reader Needed — Sweet Small-Town Hockey Romance Novella (20k–21k words)

Job Description

I'm looking for an experienced beta reader who reads sweet or clean contemporary romance to go through my completed novella and give me honest, detailed feedback before I publish.

The manuscript was drafted with AI assistance and has already been through a full self-edit, copyedit, and continuity pass on my end. What I need now is a real reader's perspective — someone to tell me if the story actually lands emotionally, feels natural on the page, and delivers what romance readers expect from this genre. This isn't a line edit or proofread; I'm looking for developmental, reader-level feedback.

Book Details

Title: The Wrong Cottage: A Pittsburgh Titans Novella

Genre: Sweet / clean contemporary small-town romance (hockey romance)

Heat level: Closed-door — 1–2 out of 5. No explicit content.

Word count: Approximately 20,000–21,000 words (15 chapters plus an epilogue)

Ending: Guaranteed HEA, no cliffhangers, no love triangles

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, mistaken identity, he-falls-first, only one bed

This novella is the first in a planned series, so I'm also curious whether the story makes readers want to keep following the world and the characters introduced for future books.

What I'm Looking For

A written feedback report covering (I'll provide a short template so this is easy to fill out):

Overall story impression

Plot holes or confusing sections

Character believability

Emotional engagement

Pacing

Voice and tone consistency

Repetitive phrasing or AI-style writing patterns

Alignment with sweet romance reader expectations

Inline comments left directly in the manuscript (Google Docs or Word preferred), flagging:

Confusing scenes

Dialogue that feels unnatural

Repetition

Timeline issues

Emotional flatness

Areas that need strengthening

To Apply, Please Include

Your experience reading or reviewing sweet/clean contemporary romance

A sample of a beta report you've written before, if you have one

Your estimated turnaround time

Your rate for a manuscript this length

Budget

This is a fixed-price project. Given the short length (roughly a two-hour read), I'm budgeting $40–$50 for this beta read.