#Advanced Reader Copy Review

[flaviathebibliophile]

Reasonable Adults by Robin Lefler (ARC Review)

Title: Reasonable Adults Author: Robin Lefler Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance Publisher: HarperAvenue Date published: December 13, 2022 This post is sponsored. A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review. Everything has fallen apart for Kate Rigsby: she is freshly single—separated from an ex she never…

[author-a-holmes]

One thing? I completed an ARC review for an author whose works I love.

It's the 4th book in the series and I've been ARC reviewing for them since their debut. I didn't think I've have time this month, and his release date is December 4th, so I was happy I got to it early for him.

Managed to write my review, and have it scheduled to go out on Dec 1st on all my socials. Posted it to Goodreads, since that's the only place the book is up for review right now, and I'll copy/paste that review on all the other store/review platforms at the end of the month after Nano is finished.

you! the person reading this! please tell me one good thing that happened to you today

[theinyshlobster]

hot singles in your area by jordan shiveley [review]

read from august 14th - august 15th

review:

thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this in return for my honest review! ❤️

the book follows two main characters - noah, an everyday joe who has unknowingly been employed at an eldrich horror-esque newspaper company; and malachia, who works for the congregation, who finds her entire city of silence empty. the story follows these two trying to figure out what in the heck is happening around them. 

now i would like to preface that i really dont enjoy giving low ratings to indie books, but i cant lie and say i enjoyed this more than i did. i would also like to preface i am a vibe-rater first and foremost, but even though the vibe of this book was great, i did find there to be quite a few issues holding me back from enjoying it more.

i want to start with the positives of this book. firstly, did not expect lgbt+ rep going into this! i am always a sucker for rep, even if it is incredibly inconsequential. i enjoyed that in the world shiveley created, gender & attraction doesnt matter when you’re working a job of lovecraftian horror. i love when in horror/fantasy being queer is not an issue at all. 

i also am a sucker for mixed media in books!!!! the random newspapers at first were just pretty to look at & i skipped them, but then i realised “hey i want to read these” and they were cool! also i have no idea why my brain originally decided they were just for aesthetic and had nothing to do with the plot. why did i decide that. i found the mini-stories(?) in the newspapers super intriguing, especially moss-girl. wouldve loved to know what happened to her though </3. the fact the newspapers, although they could stand on their own, tied into the overall story by showing us what type of company printed matter is, letting us get freaked out before noah is even aware of who he’s working for. 

speaking of noah, god was he funny! honestly he carried this book. his humour was honestly the biggest thing that kept me intrigued. instantly in the first chapter with his likeability, his “everyman” characterisation and his wit i was sold on him. this kind of faded with time, but i cant lie and say simply because of how great a character noah was, i thought this would be a 4-star book. 

and now i have to discuss why it wasnt… and the main reason is malachia. i had absolutely no idea what was going on with her plot. i dont mind when a book introduces concepts unique to this world, but when concepts such as the “mansion of silence” and the “third silence movement” and the “congregation”... i mean hey if its shown not told that works! i promise im not that dumb needed things spelled out that explicitly. but there was no showing or telling. i could not piece together what was happening until i was like >85% finished this which does not make for an enjoyable reading experience! and i only had this issue with malachia’s chapters. noah works as he also has no idea what is going on like the reader, but with everything weird occurring being pretty normal for malachia, it felt like i, as the reader, was left behind in terms of background information.

also malachia was essentially a noncharacter. that might be because i had actually no idea what she was yapping about 95% of the time… because it was all context that was missing. idk when i was reading her chapters my heart was not in it, i was waiting to get back to noah’s fresh hell.

i think that is the book’s fundamental issue. it does not explain its unique concepts. gun to my head i could not summarise this book without a guide. not because i wasnt concentrating, but because i was incredibly confused. im so serious i cannot tell you what malachia was doing this entire story. like i can TELL you, but what was her goal? anything beyond surface level, i cannot tell you a single thing. noah’s story was a bit easier to grasp, but at some points i was still lost. honestly though with noah’s story i found it easier to just be along for the ride because he was so bewildered with what was occurring, as was i. malachia seemed like it was just another monday for her, which meant i felt like i was being dragged through the entire story with new concepts being added when i had just figured out what the city of silence or congregation actually was. i think the actual story of this world defo needd more fleshing out.

the other major drawback of this story is that it feels like it doesnt know what its trying to do. at some points it felt like weird horror, other times it felt like dark fantasy, and at other times it felt like a magical realism x horror novel. this book kind of reminded me of piranesi in a way, with the reader also having no idea whats going on but is along for the ride. noah is also kind of like the titular piranesi, in that they are both silly goofballs which make the book great. but the plot in this novel kept pulling me in so many different directions, and in <200 pages, we dont have time to be doing this much. 

i think this book’s fatal flaw is not having more pages. i think if there were more pages, a lot of the “issues” i had whilst reading this would have been resolved. i still had a good time, and i can definitely say this book is unlike anything i’ve ever read before! sadly i do think its hiccups are too prominent for me to have overlooked whilst reading this, and as they negatively affected my enjoyment, i cant look past them.

[duckprintspress]

Become an Advance Reader for Duck Prints Press!

Reviews are essential for showing prospective readers that we’re publishing awesome books that they want to buy and read. We’re looking to recruit an active group of people who post reviews of our work, and to do that we need your help! For the first time, we’re offering Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of one of our projects: Aether Beyond the Binary, our most recent anthology, featuring 17 stories of characters outside the gender binary exploring modern-esque aetherpunk worlds.

How it works: You see this post. You think, oh, I love reading! I love leaving reviews! I want to join the Duck Prints Press Reviewer Program! Then, you go and read the rules for our Reviewer Program. And, if everything there sounds like something you can do, you fill out the form, and – we’ll be in touch! Even better: this program isn’t only for Aether Beyond the Binary, and isn’t only for “advance” titles. Our reviewers are encouraged to claim titles that are currently released, too, to help build up a robust collection of reviews of Duck Prints Press titles!

Requirements:

You must be over 18 years old.

You must be prepared to post reviews on Goodreads and/or Storygraph.

You must also post the review on the appropriate listing on the Duck Prints Press webstore (for advance titles, you’ll have to wait ’til we list them there).

Upon acceptance to the program, you must join the Duck Prints Press Book Lover’s Server.

Reviews must be at least 100 words long must and engage with the actual content of the work being reviewed.

Reviews must be left within 6 months of claiming a title, or you will be removed from the program.

What isn’t Required:

That the reviews be positive. Reviews are for readers. We require that reviews be honest to your own experience of the work, not that they be glowing.

That you post the reviews to social media. Doing so is definitely a bonus, but you don’t have to.

That you associate yourself publicly with the review-leaving (beyond using a valid Goodreads and/or Storygraph account). As in, you don’t have to say, “I, (your name here), reviewed this book” or link your book website accounts with your existing social media presence or anything like that, nor do we request any demographic information beyond confirmation of your age.

That you purchase anything. Absolutely no purchase necessary!

What You Get:

A e-book copy (ePub and/or PDF) of the work you’re reviewing. We do not provide physical ARCs.

After you post your first review, you’ll get a coupon for 10% off a purchase from the Duck Prints Press webstore!

For every ten reviews you post, you can claim a freebie sticker from among our sticker offerings, if you want. (You’ll have to provide a snail mail address to get this, of course.)

A community of fun book-lovers to hang out with! (You can get that even without joining the ARC program, though – our Book Lover’s Discord is open to everyone.)

We’re accepting applicants for claiming Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs through April 10th, 2024. On the 11th, we’ll randomly select 25 of applicants to receive ARC copies of Aether Beyond the Binary. Everyone else will still be entirely welcome in the program and invited to start with a different, back-catalog book or story to review. We’ll make another pool of Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs available in May.

So… those are the basics. Interested? Go read the full rules, then apply to be a Duck Prints Press ARC reader TODAY!

[lenialenient]

AMBROSIA ARCS, BABY

It's now just a bit over a month until AMBROSIA is unleashed upon the world, and - that's right - this time I'm doing an ARC campaign about my upcoming book.

What is an ARC?

An Advanced Reader Copy (or Advanced Review Copy) is an early-access copy of a book that is distributed to a limited pool of readers for free - with the hope that those readers will then go and post an honest review on Goodreads/Amazon/somebody's blog about it. Especially for indie publications like this one, early reviews can help out a ton with getting some traction and not being swept away by the endless online depths.

About AMBROSIA

AMBROSIA is a lesbian psychological-horror girlgroup novel - that's right.

It follows a semi-reliable narrator through seven years of management-dictated shower times, dystopian celebrity training programs, and performance-enhancing drugs as she loses herself in her big diva persona of Ambrosia. Eventually, of course, a life in service of being looked at translates into the urge to a) shave your head and b) claw out eyes. Ill-advised affairs with beloved and behated group-mates included.

You can apply for an AMBROSIA ARC via THIS FORM! You'll probably get it, unless you tell me that you hate reading or hate me specifically in it.

You can also learn more about AMBROSIA here or read the first three chapters here, if you are so inclined!

[leechjuice]

looking for an intimate, bloody lesbian horromance to sink your eager teeth into this summer?

e-ARC applications for my debut novel, IN THE END, YOU KILL US BOTH are now OPEN, and will remain open until JULY 19TH.

full synopsis + cws can be found on the application page! due to graphic content, please do not apply to receive an e-ARC if you are under eighteen years old!

click here to apply!

[bibliomars]

'Queer as Folklore' by Sacha Coward

With a clever title and an engaging tone of voice, queer historian Sacha Coward expertly intertwines ancient folklore with contemporary pop culture, creating a web of associations that will resonate with most contemporary queer people in Western countries. From mermaids to aliens, new and old legends come together to explore why queer people seem to have an innate tendency to be drawn to the fantastical from a young age. Although this book is heavily written through a Western lens, other folklore is mentioned and explored with respect for the cultures they belong to, taking the reader on a breathtaking journey through time, places, and myths.

Coward is a talented writer and meticulous historian, and that shines through his work. With each word he writes, the reader is both transported in time and invited into an ongoing conversation with the author. Reading this book feels like being in that one fun class you look forward to every week, with the engaging teacher who values input and talks about history as though it's a story, giving flesh and voice to ancient humans and making them feel so much closer to us. I had the pleasure of attending the ‘Queer as Folklore’ book release event in London, which really solidified my review of the book. It was an enriching experience, and hearing the voices of other queer people, researchers, and storytellers building up momentum to the main conversation culminated in a memorable and well-spent evening.

This is a book I highly recommend to lovers of history and the fantastical, or to anyone who fancies an engaging and fun non-fiction read to get them out of a reading slump!

Thank you Unbound for providing an ARC for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[eggcatsreads]

If you, like me, saw this book and was like "wow that looks cute and like a fun read" and pre-ordered it I'm telling you RIGHT NOW cancel that shit. I did. Trust me.

I got an ARC of this and the writing in this book is the most godawful thing I've ever subjected myself to. I got 16% in and had to stop because I don't hate myself enough to keep reading.

Everything is written like it's in a competition to win a slot in a "Family Guy Funny Moments" video, and when it's not doing this the book is telling you what's going on as opposed to actually writing it.

My review on Goodreads.

Trust me. Save the money and your sanity. If you see this book in the wild take the time to read the first chapter and I guarantee you will decide to spend your money elsewhere.

[turnthepagepub]

Turn the Page Publishing is looking for ARC readers and reviewers!

We're building our ARC readers list, and we only have two requirements:

Must love romance, and

Must post reviews to all the major retail and review sites (Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, etc.)

So if you love reading romance and sharing your thoughts with fellow readers, email us at info@TurnThePagePub.com with "I'm a Reviewer!" in the subject line. Include a little bit about yourself, plus your preferred romance subgenres (contemporary, historical, paranormal, etc.), and any triggers you'd prefer to avoid.

We can't wait to hear from you! ₊˚⊹♡

[scifrey]

Okay, so remember how I've been Ded Of Editing this last year and just absolutely consumed by bookish stuff?

The bookish stuff is now out in the world.

TIME AND TIDE

Releases November 2024.

Exciting news: the eGalley is up on NetGalley and Edelweiss! This means, with the promise of an honest review, you could potentially read the book right now. However, if you're not interested in an ARC, you can preorder your Copy Here.

*

Historical fiction with a touch of time travel, for fans of Diana Gabaldon, Alexis Hall, and Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits series, where a modern bisexual woman is thrown into Regency England and must figure out how to survive, while she falls in love with a woman who will become a famous author.

Just a twenty-first century gal with nineteenth-century problems…

When Sam’s plane crashes catastrophically over the Atlantic, it defies all odds for Sam to be the sole survivor. But it seems impossible that she’s rescued by a warship in 1805. With a dashing sea captain as her guide, she begins to find her footing in a world she’d only seen in movies.

Then Sam is betrayed. At the mercy of the men and morals of the time, and without the means to survive on her own, she’s left with no choice but to throw herself on the charity of the captain's sisters. She resigns herself to a quiet life of forever hiding her true self. What she doesn't expect is that her new landlady is Margaret Goodenough—the world-famous author whose yet-to-be-completed novel will contain the first lesbian kiss in the history of British Literature, and a clever woman. Clever enough to know her new companion has a secret.

As the two women grow ever closer, Sam must tread the tenuous line between finding her own happiness in a place where she doesn’t think she’ll ever fit in, and possibly (accidentally) changing the course of history.

[hangfiretales]

💙 ARCs for Rare Birds are available! 💙

Before the book's print and eBook release in July, I'm giving away some advance copies. Check my pinned post for full info about the book, including the blurb and presale links.

How does it work?

Comment on this post with a blue heart and at the end of the month (April 2024) ten readers will be chosen at random. I'll DM you with the link for Booksirens where you'll be able to safely download your eBook ARC (advance reader copy) and can later leave a review if you want to.

Is the review required?

Nope! For a start, many book review sites discourage paid reviews. But mostly I don't think reviews should be a chore or obligation. If you're in the mood to tell the world how you felt about the book, please do so! Your absolute honesty is highly valued. But otherwise this is just a free copy.

Is an ARC the real actual book?

Yes - it's the final version of Rare Birds. But just in case there's any last-minute typos to tweak, publishers usually reserve the right to make changes in the final *final* copy.

I can't wait to see what you think of it 💙

[flaviathebibliophile]

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola (ARC Review)

Title: Honey & Spice Author: Bolu Babalola Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance Publisher: William Morrow Date published: July 5, 2022 This post is sponsored. A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review. Sweet like plantain, hot like pepper. They taste the best when together… Sharp-tongued (and secretly…

[elliepassmore]

The Afterdark review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: dual POV, dark academia, sapphic reads, fantasy horror

Big thanks to Netgalley, Tundra Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was immediately intriguing and I flew through it wanting to figure out how things would play out. I was especially intrigued by Evie, who is more complex than the summary makes it appear.

There are a lot of creepy things going on at Northcroft, from the bizarrely strict curfew to the secret society. The curfew is related to the woods, which we get a hint of almost immediately. As soon as the curfew bell tolls, the windows across campus get shuttered to prevent students from seeing the change from the normal woods to the Afterdark, an alternate, monstrous version of the woods. When the Afterdark descends, the woods stretch and become strange, with unnatural creatures walking among the trees.

Related, the secret society, the Gravesmen, is comprised of founding families, i.e., descendants of the people who created the school and first discovered the Afterdark. The Gravesmen are notorious for letting people rise to positions of power and giving them untold influence. Naturally, things get weird with them and there's a lot of rituals and secrets they keep surrounding the woods and the Afterdark, not all of them benign.

Evie has lived her whole life tormented by her twin, Ada. Ada is cruel and does monstrous things for fun, seeming to give into every dark impulse that Evie does her best to ignore. After Ada dies and Evie is sent to Northcroft in her steed, Evie finds those dark impulses waking up more and more, drawn to the school's mystery and especially to the woods surrounding the campus. Evie really grapples with trying to figure out what's really going on at the school, which at first boils down to puzzling out the weird goings-on, but later becomes about her identity and connection to the school and woods. I liked Evie and definitely sympathized with her throughout the book.

Holland is used to Northcroft and it's weird creepiness. Despite her best friend vanishing in the woods for a few days and coming back different, she's never been particularly interested in finding out why the school is so weird, and so particular. But Holland feels a thread connecting her and Evie, and as Evie dives deeper into things, Holland does as well. While Evie looks into the woods for answers, Holland looks to Northcroft's secret society. Holland definitely makes some questionable decisions over the course of this book. Evie might be the one with the dark impulses, but Holland has her own ways of manipulating things that never really gets addressed.

Evie and Holland are interested in each other from the get-go. It's an odd kind of interest from both sides and the two are quick to light each other's fires. The romance is a little weird though considering there are multiple forces (both internal to them and external) conspiring to keep them apart, so there are gaps where they're separated and/or mad at each other, but then they get back together like nothing happened.

Holland's best friend, Beth, dislikes Evie from the get-go. She's antagonistic toward her, and at first it appears related to her anxieties about the woods, but as the book progresses it becomes clear there's more to the story. Beth is protective of Holland to the point of obsessiveness, and her bizarreness adds to the creepy atmosphere of Northcroft. Of course, it doesn't help that Beth's previous best friend went missing in the woods and then Beth herself vanished into them for a couple of days. She was catatonic for the first week after coming back and, according to Holland, was never the same afterward.

Leta is Evie's roommate and ends up being the more normal of the bunch. She's aware of Northcroft's weirdness (it's impossible not to be), but isn't particularly interested in learning more about it. She goes to classes, has her friends, and that's that. I liked Leta and definitely wish I saw more of her in the book, especially since she and Evie seemed to become close.

As the plot progresses, things get more dangerous for everyone, and the whole group gets roped into a situation that goes from bad to worse. The layers to the mystery converge and overlap in interesting ways and I enjoyed trying to figure out where things would lead. There were definitely some surprises in there, but there were also parts that I found a bit predictable.

Overall I enjoyed this dark, sapphic read and think it would be a perfect October read or a good read if you're in the mood for something spooky.

[rynreads91]

absolution by jeff vandermeer review

I want to thank @fsgbooks and NetGalley for the ARC of Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer to read before it's released!

I rated this five stars, and honestly, it's almost a six star read for me. But jesus, Lowry, what the actual fuck? (Spoilers below)

I loved Old Jim's POV. I loved his heartbreak and how angry he was at the replacement Cass, who he does come to love. I loved Cass, too, or the fake one anyway, for not really pushing Jim to love her but just to work with her. Just to adhere to their mission from Central. Fuck Jack and Jackie, though, like jesus christ. I loved his thoughts on the OG expedition of biologists into the Forgotten Coast/Dead Town. I loved the descriptions of everything; as usual, VanderMeer has a way with words.

And then...then we get to Lowry. And fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. I???? Hate this guy. Hated him with every fiber of my being, but for some reason, kept hearing my friend Brandon's voice in my head as I read his POV. And I love my friend Brandon, he's like a brother to me. I...the cannibalism...I read that section at like midnight and was so incredibly grossed out, but not grossed out enough to put it down and finish it later. It just kind of spurred me on.

I was SO GLAD to see Karen/Cass back at the end and then she kills Lowry which I was like "THANK FUCK". But it was so good. I enjoyed this. It felt like an ending to the series. So. If you liked the first three, I think you might enjoy this one. It might not be a five star for you, might not even be a four star, but I think it sheds light on the before times, on the early Southern Reach, and that was interesting to me.

[menagerie-of-monsters]

Art by Vamorii

Stolen from the mortal world by the fae, the last thing I expect is a crown. Enslaved at a mine and with no hope of escape, my life is a grim exercise in survival until the magic of the Court chooses an unexpected ruler: Me. But becoming queen is more than revels and gowns. It puts me in the crosshairs of every vicious member of the fae nobility—and in the bedroom of a gorgeous, winged fae with the power to rewrite the landscape and slaughter armies. His every emotion thrums through my veins: Pain. Joy. Pleasure. The Court's chosen king is too dangerous for casual touch, a man burdened by strange magic and rejected by his own goddess. The link between us binds us, heart and soul. He courts me with gems and flowers. His eyes follow me and his desire heats my blood. Yet he refuses to take the throne. With the Court on the verge of falling apart, threatened by a vengeful goddess and scheming nobles, he holds back, certain that he'll do more harm than good. But if he truly wants me, he's going to have to claim me as the man I know he can be: my king.

[atthelibrarywithmegan]

Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi | Book 3 of 2025

I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, and Inklore for providing me with copy.

While I did enjoy this book, and will be reading the third book when it comes out, I did have a few issues with it. Some of the pacing felt quite off, particularly the intimate scenes. There were three scenes, all relatively mild to me (think mostly fade to black/some on page); but each one felt ill timed. All three came after something big and distressing had happened, or was supposed to happen. I actually found myself trying to read them as quickly as possible so I could get back to the rest of the story. I also wish that it had been a longer book. Faebound was well over 300 pages, and this sat at just under 300 (at least on the eARC). I feel like there could have been a lot more explanation to certain things or things could have just been fleshed out a bit more. All of that being said, I am curious to see where book three takes us. Now, all of that aside, I did enjoy the story!

You begin by following Yeeran back to the Waning Tribe where she hopes to deliver news that will help the fae, elves, and the Forever War. She comes across our new, slightly mysterious, character, Alder, one of the Nomads (wandering elves) who may be who they've been looking for all along. Lettle and Golan end up topside, searching for secrets that may uncover the answers to the curse. Rayan and Furi try to search out the threat that has infiltrated the royal court, as well as a deep betrayal. Mind you, all of this is going on while trying to navigate their own romantic relationships, new places in court, and their relationship with the Lightless.

I personally really enjoy the queer normativity of this world. There's even a character guide in the back providing pronouns and little blurbs about each person.

Some bits of this were quite predictable, but I still found it enjoyable enough to finish the book. Overall, decent enough book and I'll continue with the series.