ARCs - NetGalley and BookishFirst

In the past month or so, I've really gotten involved with two great sites for book lovers. Both give you the opportunity to get free copies of books to read and review before they're published.

The first is NetGalley. NetGalley gives reviewers (that's me!), booksellers, librarians, educators and media the opportunity to browse books by category or publisher and request digital copies for review. NetGalley supports all reading devices, and it's super easy to have books emailed to your Kindle account (my personal preference) or be delivered electronically in a number of other ways. The expectation is that you then review the book and share said reviews with friends, family, social networks, etc. They also allow you to vote on whether or not you like the covers of all the books they host (thumbs up or thumbs down). NetGalley is free to join and super easy to navigate. There's a convenient "Your Shelf" section where you can see books ready for you to download and start reading, and books you've already retrieved that are awaiting your feedback, books you've sent feedback on, and books you've requested that are either pending approval or denied.

The only thing I don't love about NetGalley is I get rejected for way more books than I request, so I tend to go on requesting binges and all of a sudden have six approvals come through all at once, and then I'm trying to power read through them all so they're not back logged. I've developed a system now where I organize my NetGalley and BookishFirst books pending reviews by publish date, so I can be sure to at the very least read and review before their publish date. You'll see some of those reviews here soon, and I'll take each review with where I received the ARC from.

Which leads me into my other new favorite book site, BookishFirst. BookishFirst is also free to join (bonus!) and is a new site that's only been active for a little over a month. Every Monday they post a handful of upcoming releases and give readers the opportunity to read the first few chapters and get a sneak peek by reading what they call a "First Look." Readers can then write a short blurb giving their first impression of the book, at which point they can opt to be entered into a raffle to win a free ARC copy of the book. There is a raffle every Tuesday to draw winners for the books posted the previously Monday, so you basically have eight days to check out the new books for the week and read any first looks and post any first impressions.

According to BookishFirst's website, some books are available in multiple formats (print or ebook), but I've only seen print books thus far. You also earn points for each First Impression you post, as well as for posting reviews, sharing reviews to various sites, and for sharing a review to Amazon on the day of release. These points add up to let you basically purchase a book posted for that week rather than entering the first impressions raffle and leaving it up to chance. I have to say that, at least so far, your odds are pretty good for getting a free ARC of the books you enter into; so far I've entered four raffles and won all four books I entered. I imagine that success ratio will go down as more people discover this great site and start getting in on these raffles.

So there you have it! I'll make posting ARC reviews a priority on this site, but will also post reviews for other books I'm buying and checking out from the library. Some of them will be new releases, but there will also be a healthy mix of books that have been around for a while in there.

Do you have a favorite book site? Let me know in the comments!

Book Review: The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle

Book Review: The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle

I'm going to post a few reviews really rapid-fire for a few days because there are several I read ARCs for recently that have just released or are releasing with the next week, and I want to be sure to share about them while they're still top of mind for me!!

My Rating: 4 Stars

Expected publication November 14th 2017 by Tachyon Publications

Summary: An odd couple patrols a county full of mythological beasts and ornery locals. A familiar youngster from the world of The Last Unicorn is gifted in magic but terrible at spell-casting. A seemingly incorruptible judge meets his match in a mysterious thief who steals his heart. Two old friends discover that the Overneath goes anywhere, including locations better left unvisited.

Lyrical, witty, and insightful, The Overneath is Peter S. Beagle's much-anticipated return to the short form. In these uniquely beautiful and wholly original tales, with new and uncollected work, Beagle once again proves himself a master of the imagination.
(from Goodreads)

Review: J'adore. An incredible collection of short stories with viewpoints and flavors from all over the globe. I don't normally care very much for short story collections, and this one had its share of stories I absolutely loved and other that I slogged through waiting for them to be over (like most short story collections inevitably do.)

• "The Green-Eyed Boy" It's funny because I had just recently been talking to someone about examples of the second person narrative. This is a lovely story about Schmendrick the Magician (whom you may remember from The Last Unicorn) and his origins. As a child, I loved Schmendrick in the movie of The Last Unicorn, and I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't actually read the book. Reading about Schmendrick in this short story made me resolve to read The Last Unicorn, and soon. 5 bright, shiny stars full of childhood wonder.
• "The Story of Kao Yu" Set in China and featuring the Chinese unicorn, the chi-lin. This short story read like some of my favorite fairy tales, and makes me wonder if this is entirely out of Beagle's head, or based on a Chinese fable? I give this story 4 imperial stars.
• "My Son Heydari and the Karkadann" Set in Persia, this story features the Karkadann, the Arabian unicorn that is "powerful, pitilessly aggressive, and ugly as fried sin" (or so writes Peter S. Beagle). Another second person narrative, this story is told from the point of view of the father of the (for lack of a better term) hero of the story, Heydari. I didn't care much for this story, 2 stinky Karkadann stars.
• "The Queen Who Could Not Walk" Loved this story, it touched my heart in a number of ways. What the heck is up with their system of governance though?! Reads like a traditional, classic fairy tale with characters known only as the beggar woman, the queen, the king, and the servant. The ending was one of those bitter sweet ones that just hit you right in the feels. 5 sweetly sad stars.
• "Trinity County, CA: You'll Want to Come Again and We'll Be Glad to See You!" Set in an alternate modern-day California where drug traffickers use dragons to protect their labs, as well as trafficking illegally in dragons themselves. Gruber works as a county D Patrol (dragon patrol) officer and Connie is intern on her first day on the job. I loved this story, and would happily read a full novel set in this world; preferably about Connie and Gruber, but about another set of characters as well. 5 fire-proof stars.
• "The Way It Works Out and All" Didn't care for this one as much, it was jumbly and confusing - Which, to be fair, I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be. 2 stars.
• "Kaskia" …Not sure what I just read, but I think I liked it?? 4-ish stars?
• "Schmendrick Alone" YAY SCHMENDRICK! All the Schmendrick, all the time! I just want to hug him up and tell him it will all be okay. 5 stars with tears in their eyes.
• "Great-Grandmother in the Cellar" Amazing story. That's all I can say. 5 bones… I mean stars.
• "Underbridge" As a lover of children's books, I loved this story. Super uncomfortable, but loved it. Because trolls, man. TROLLS. 5 stone stars.
• "The Very Nasty Aquarium" I love the note in the preface that "This one began as an intriguing title, with absolutely no story to go with it." Way to come up with a killer story, Mr. Beagle. Just wow. Loved this, and I want to be Mrs. Bascomb when I grow up, but I will probably end up being Mrs. Lopsided. 5 sinister stars.
• "Music, When Soft Voices Die" Found myself skimming this one just to get to the end. Not sure if the story itself wasn't for me, of if I'm just growing tired of short stories. Angelos did remind me the teensiest bit of Schmendrick in his bumbling, well-meaning way, but I can still only give this story 1 skimming star.
• "Olfert Dapper's Day" Read the first couple pages of this and didn't even skim the rest. It just did not capture my attention.


*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Rejected :(

I've been an avid reader since kindergarten, when I would spend free play time learning to read with our class aid, Mrs. Johnson, instead of playing house or building with blocks with the other kids. (OK, yes, I've always been a bit of a nerd and an outcast.) In the past few years, I've started tracking books I've read on Goodreads, which is a TOTAL lifesaver. Now when I pick up a book and read the blurb, or run across a cover that looks interesting while browsing the Web, I can pop into my Goodreads account, plug in the title and author, and mark it as "To Be Read." I can also easily see if I've already read a book and have forgotten (which happens more often than you might think, unless you're a reader too!)

Recently I've started participating in some cool sites that give readers advanced reader copies (or ARCs for the uninitiated) to read in exchange for an honest review. The result is that I'm posting more reviews on Goodreads, rather than just rating my reads 1-5 stars. Still, sometimes I get rejected when requesting to view a book because I "only" review on Goodreads/Amazon and don't have a "real" blog and, thus, following. I also recently applied with Avon/Harper Voyager/HarperCollins Publishers to be one of their "Avon Addicts." Sadly, today I received a rejection notice from Avon letting me know I wasn't selected.

The upside of this is that I decided to get serious about starting a blog, with the main purpose being to review books, as well as talk about some cool bookish sites (including the sites I'm getting these ARC's from, which I'll talk about in an upcoming post soon!) I'm hoping I can get this blog off the ground, build a bit of a following, connect with other book lovers, and maybe be reconsidered next time Avon recruits a new batch of Addicts. ;)

I read mostly romance, with a focus on Regency Romance and Contemporary Romance, and a specific love of Christmas romances. It's that time of year again for Christmas romance!! I also read a fair amount of Fantasy, some Sci-Fi and YA, and just about every fairy tale retelling or story based on a fairy tale I can get my hands on. I'm always looking for new recommendations, so if you know of a book I simply MUST read, let me know in the comments!