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Yet the group info page states that posting to this forum is only open to premium members?

The reader isn't stupid for mentioning it! I feel if a reader can't 'get' some aspect of the writing, I need to look at how I've expressed what I want to say. If it is just one reader, I might not do anything about it, but if several make the same point, no matter how precious that bit of writing is, I need to adjust it so that the readers CAN 'get' my meaning. Not to do so makes me, the writer, the stupid one.

Hi Amy, I've been looking through your back catalogue. Wow.

I assume you aren't looking for crits of the earlier pieces? I looked at your later work, and I think that for the Acts of Academia it would help to read the first book? I can't find it, is it here?

p.s. I like Mickey Spillane. I am sanguine about sanguinary, so it might suit. Or make my blood run.

I'm being stupid today.

Which reason did you mean, that my writing seemed suitable for that age group? I've been told recently that my adult stuff is better, but I wonder if that is just that I am writing better full stop. We'll see. I have a lot of emotion invested in this book and I determined to get it right.

group: I'm not sure what you mean by group? Can you expand for me?

I have cleaned out the library of middle grade and YA fantasy novels. I have read and read and they are all so different. Some spend time setting the scene, others plunge straight in. It is the same thing with adult SF and Fantasy. Nothing is the same, it all depends on the individual editor and what they are thinking is the right stuff for the moment. Not a bad idea to hit the book stores now

As for the demographic of who would love it as it is? yep, you have it on the nail. 40 something women (and men for that matter) who love fantasy. It was never specifically written for the MG age group, I was just told that my writing style (and the lack of sex and violence) would make it more suitable for that age group.

Sometimes, I wish I were still the innocent I was at the beginning of all this. A little knowledge is not only a dangerous thing, it is a bloody pain in the neck.

And all points south.

thanks for that review Amy, some comments inline and in my reply.  I will get to yours later today, and hope to speak more with you all.
To give you all some background, this is a piece I first started in NaNoWriMo a long time ago. It sat in a drawer for years, along with another NaNo offering, and then I decided that I really should do something with one or the other. It was an arbitrary decision, pretty much a toss of a coin. The Minx came head up.
So, I pantsed the first two-thirds of the novel then ran totally out of steam.
I have an agent friend (I have career history in publishing) and she and I pulled it apart to see what needed to happen to it. She decided at that point, 2015, that it had sufficient legs and she wished to take it on, but it needed a LOT of work.
So I sat and outlined the remainder. But it was much too long.
So I pulled a third of it out, the parts referring to other people's actions, and concentrated on Izzy's actions only. That third became the guts of book 2. Now it had much more shape, but I was still having trouble with the beginning. I tried several versions, but each time I took away the first chapter (the one you have now) the beta readers shrieked. So I left it in.
Now, I have had some 12 year old beta readers try it out, and they are deathly quiet. They were excited to read it, so schtumm means they don't get it. If I were 12 I would only want to give something positive back, if I didn't like, I would say nothing.
So I had a long Skype with agent, and she was horrified that I would give it up, she loved the last part of the book but agreed with me that it was weak at the beginning.
So here we are, back at the beginning, at the structure.
I am a natural pantser. I don't mind line-editing, but developmental editing and structure? My least successful parts, so the parts I need to learn most about I guess.

ah, that's good then. Yes, I check my review page regularly just in case I missed one. But to never read the replies? Why bother then?

I double checked yesterday that I had left replies to every single one of my reviews. Did you see I had missed one?

I don't have enough points yet I am reviewing as fast as I can, but I have to get some work done (and some writing!) as well. The short stories took fewer points so they've been published first.  I'm assuming that publishing to point groups makes that piece pay points as well?

The short stories are all open to this group, I think, but my novel is currently only available to a closed group Crucible. As I get more points (and as I redesign the entire WIP) I will make that available too.