Category: Reader’s Choice

Spring is in the air and we all know that mean’s an avid reader’s fancy turns to New Releases!!!! Eeeeeppp!!! Time to once again display your ninja librarian-type skills and uncover the literary gems on the horizon because it’s…

READERS CHOICE WEEK

Here’s how this week’s giveaways work: You recommend a CHRISTIAN FICTION genre specific titles with release dates in April, May or June 2024 (up to three suggestions per genre day) and you have a chance to win one of your recommendations! BUT it’s a little more complicated than that so be sure to read ALL the details before entering.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These giveaways are available in paperback or ebook format to US and Canadian readers. Ebooks available internationally if you have a .com kindle account (US Amazon)

IT’S GENERAL CHRISTIAN FICTION GIVEAWAY DAY!

To be entered in the draw just leave a comment (or 3) below, including the title(s) of the book(s) in the General Christian Fiction genre you would like to win.

General Christian Fiction — a full length story or novella or collection of novellas. Any genre and titles can include previous selections you made on other days this week as well as specific genres not covered yet such as Women’s Fiction, Speculative, YA, Middle Grade etc.

How does it work?

Easy peasy! Make recommendations in the comment section and if you win, you win the book you suggested.

BUT YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES!

• Publication date must be April, May or June 2024

• Each day is genre specific, so only submit titles from that genre

• Christian Fiction books only please!

• You can offer up to three suggestions per genre day BUT they need to be made in 3 separate comments (easier for me to keep track of)

• No email entries this time round since comments are working on WP

OF SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMENTED ON THIS BLOG BEFORE, YOUR FIRST COMMENT WON’T APPEAR UNTIL I APPROVE IT. AFTER THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL POST AUTOMATICALLY. 

• Entrants must submit their own selections (no piggybacking on someone else’s log in.)

• It’s helpful to include your email (using AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers) but you only need to add it to one of your comments per day. If you choose not to include your email, then it’s up to you to contact me if you are a winner.

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday March 30, 2024

Spring is in the air and we all know that mean’s an avid reader’s fancy turns to New Releases!!!! Eeeeeppp!!! Time to once again display your ninja librarian-type skills and uncover the literary gems on the horizon because it’s…

READERS CHOICE WEEK

Here’s how this week’s giveaways work: You recommend a CHRISTIAN FICTION genre specific titles with release dates in April, May or June 2024 (up to three suggestions per genre day) and you have a chance to win one of your recommendations! BUT it’s a little more complicated than that so be sure to read ALL the details before entering.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These giveaways are available in paperback or ebook format to US and Canadian readers. Ebooks available internationally if you have a .com kindle account (US Amazon)

IT’S AMISH FICTION GIVEAWAY DAY!

To be entered in the draw just leave a comment (or 3) below, including the title(s) of the book(s) in the Amish Fiction genre you would like to win.

Amish Fiction — a full length story or novella or collection of novellas where the hero or heroine (or both) are Amish OR the story has significant Amish involvement through secondary characters and an Amish community. Can be set in any time period before 1980. May cross genres such as YA, Suspense, Amish etc, and may include dual timelines.

How does it work?

Easy peasy! Make recommendations in the comment section and if you win, you win the book you suggested.

BUT YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES!

• Publication date must be April, May or June 2024

• Each day is genre specific, so only submit titles from that genre

• Christian Fiction books only please!

• You can offer up to three suggestions per genre day BUT they need to be made in 3 separate comments (easier for me to keep track of)

• No email entries this time round since comments are working on WP

OF SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMENTED ON THIS BLOG BEFORE, YOUR FIRST COMMENT WON’T APPEAR UNTIL I APPROVE IT. AFTER THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL POST AUTOMATICALLY. 

• Entrants must submit their own selections (no piggybacking on someone else’s log in.)

• It’s helpful to include your email (using AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers) but you only need to add it to one of your comments per day. If you choose not to include your email, then it’s up to you to contact me if you are a winner.

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday March 30, 2024

Spring is in the air and we all know that mean’s an avid reader’s fancy turns to New Releases!!!! Eeeeeppp!!! Time to once again display your ninja librarian-type skills and uncover the literary gems on the horizon because it’s…

READERS CHOICE WEEK

Here’s how this week’s giveaways work: You recommend a CHRISTIAN FICTION genre specific titles with release dates in April, May or June 2024 (up to three suggestions per genre day) and you have a chance to win one of your recommendations! BUT it’s a little more complicated than that so be sure to read ALL the details before entering.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These giveaways are available in paperback or ebook format to US and Canadian readers. Ebooks available internationally if you have a .com kindle account (US Amazon)

IT’S MYSTERY / SUSPENSE GIVEAWAY DAY!

To be entered in the draw just leave a comment (or 3) below, including the title(s) of the book(s) in the Mystery / Suspense genre you would like to win.

Mystery / Suspense Fiction — a full length story or novella or collection of novellas where mystery is an important part of the plot. The hero or heroine (or both) are often in peril (more so in suspense.) Can be set in any time period and cross genres such as YA, Amish, dual timeline etc.

How does it work?

Easy peasy! Make recommendations in the comment section and if you win, you win the book you suggested.

BUT YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES!

• Publication date must be April, May or June 2024

• Each day is genre specific, so only submit titles from that genre

• Christian Fiction books only please!

• You can offer up to three suggestions per genre day BUT they need to be made in 3 separate comments (easier for me to keep track of)

• No email entries this time round since comments are working on WP

OF SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMENTED ON THIS BLOG BEFORE, YOUR FIRST COMMENT WON’T APPEAR UNTIL I APPROVE IT. AFTER THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL POST AUTOMATICALLY. 

• Entrants must submit their own selections (no piggybacking on someone else’s log in.)

• It’s helpful to include your email (using AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers) but you only need to add it to one of your comments per day. If you choose not to include your email, then it’s up to you to contact me if you are a winner.

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday March 30, 2024

Spring is in the air and we all know that mean’s an avid reader’s fancy turns to New Releases!!!! Eeeeeppp!!! Time to once again display your ninja librarian-type skills and uncover the literary gems on the horizon because it’s…

READERS CHOICE WEEK

Here’s how this week’s giveaways work: You recommend a CHRISTIAN FICTION genre specific titles with release dates in April, May or June 2024 (up to three suggestions per genre day) and you have a chance to win one of your recommendations! BUT it’s a little more complicated than that so be sure to read ALL the details before entering.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These giveaways are available in paperback or ebook format to US and Canadian readers. Ebooks available internationally if you have a .com kindle account (US Amazon)

IT’S CONTEMPORARY FICTION GIVEAWAY DAY!

To be entered in the draw just leave a comment (or 3) below, including the title(s) of the book(s) in the Contemporary Fiction genre you would like to win.

Contemporary Fiction — a full length story or novella or collection of novellas set in any time period after 1980. May cross genres such as YA, Suspense, Amish etc, and may include dual timelines.

How does it work?

Easy peasy! Make recommendations in the comment section and if you win, you win the book you suggested.

BUT YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES!

• Publication date must be April, May or June 2024

• Each day is genre specific, so only submit titles from that genre

• Christian Fiction books only please!

• You can offer up to three suggestions per genre day BUT they need to be made in 3 separate comments (easier for me to keep track of)

• No email entries this time round since comments are working on WP

OF SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMENTED ON THIS BLOG BEFORE, YOUR FIRST COMMENT WON’T APPEAR UNTIL I APPROVE IT. AFTER THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL POST AUTOMATICALLY. 

• Entrants must submit their own selections (no piggybacking on someone else’s log in.)

• It’s helpful to include your email (using AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers) but you only need to add it to one of your comments per day. If you choose not to include your email, then it’s up to you to contact me if you are a winner.

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday March 30, 2024

(You can enter any of the giveaways up until noon March 30. Winners will be announced later that afternoon)

Spring is in the air and we all know that mean’s an avid reader’s fancy turns to New Releases!!!! Eeeeeppp!!! Time to once again display your ninja librarian-type skills and uncover the literary gems on the horizon because it’s…

READERS CHOICE WEEK

Here’s how this week’s giveaways work: You recommend a CHRISTIAN FICTION genre specific titles with release dates in April, May or June 2024 (up to three suggestions per genre day) and you have a chance to win one of your recommendations! BUT it’s a little more complicated than that so be sure to read ALL the details before entering.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These giveaways are available in paperback or ebook format to US and Canadian readers. Ebooks available internationally if you have a .com kindle account (US Amazon)

IT’S HISTORICAL ROMANCE / FICTION GIVEAWAY DAY!

To be entered in the draw just leave a comment (or 3) below, including the title(s) of the book(s) in the Historical Romance / Fiction genre you would like to win.

Historical Romance / Fiction — a full length story or novella or collection of novellas set in any time period before 1980. May cross genres such as YA, Suspense, Amish etc, and may include dual timelines.

How does it work?

Easy peasy! Make recommendations in the comment section and if you win, you win the book you suggested.

BUT YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES!

• Publication date must be April, May or June 2024

• Each day is genre specific, so only submit titles from that genre

• Christian Fiction books only please!

• You can offer up to three suggestions per genre day BUT they need to be made in 3 separate comments (easier for me to keep track of)

• No email entries this time round since comments are working on WP

OF SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMENTED ON THIS BLOG BEFORE, YOUR FIRST COMMENT WON’T APPEAR UNTIL I APPROVE IT. AFTER THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL POST AUTOMATICALLY. 

• Entrants must submit their own selections (no piggybacking on someone else’s log in.)

• It’s helpful to include your email (using AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers) but you only need to add it to one of your comments per day. If you choose not to include your email, then it’s up to you to contact me if you are a winner.

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday March 30, 2024

(You can enter any of the giveaways up until noon March 30. Winners will be announced later that afternoon)

It’s a Best Reads blog tradition! Celebrating the month’s new releases the first week of each month.

Because I recently discovered that a book’s success or failure is often determined by first month sales! (Though I bet preorders play into that as well.) Publishing houses look at those stats to determine whether they’ll add on to a series or accept the author’s next manuscript! All that literary goodness hanging in the balance but for a month’s worth of sales! (This was a cozy mystery author, but I imagine all traditional publishers use the same ‘system’.) So, I thought I should do my wee little bit to promote Christian Fiction.

By hosting a special “Hello — insert month” giveaway. It’s easy to play along. You just have to choose ONE of the March 2024 new releases on your TBR wishlist (must be Christian Fiction) and mention the title in a comment below (or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca.) If your name is drawn, that January release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE TO:

ebook for anyone anywhere who has an Amazon.com kindle account

US – paperback or ebook copy — winner’s choice

Canada -paperback or ebook (in form of an Amazon gift card) or audible.ca audio book (if available) – winner’s choice

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday March 2 2024.

It’s a Best Reads blog tradition! Celebrating the month’s new releases the first week of each month.

Because I recently discovered that a book’s success or failure is often determined by first month sales! (Though I bet preorders play into that as well.) Publishing houses look at those stats to determine whether they’ll add on to a series or accept the author’s next manuscript! All that literary goodness hanging in the balance but for a month’s worth of sales! (This was a cozy mystery author, but I imagine all traditional publishers use the same ‘system’.) So, I thought I should do my wee little bit to promote Christian Fiction.

By hosting a special “Hello — insert month” giveaway. It’s easy to play along. You just have to choose ONE of the February 2024 new releases on your TBR wishlist (must be Christian Fiction) and mention the title in a comment below (or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca.) If your name is drawn, that January release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE TO:

ebook for anyone anywhere who has an Amazon.com kindle account

US – paperback or ebook copy — winner’s choice

Canada -paperback or ebook (in form of an Amazon gift card) or audible.ca audio book (if available) – winner’s choice

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday February 3 2024.

I do so love the start of a New Year. I always feel ridiculously optimistic when January 1st rolls around. Everything I didn’t get done in the old year will definitely be accomplished in the new one! And everything will be bigger and better and…well…It’s like Anne Shirley’s (Anne of Green Gables) astute observation: “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” Only it applies to an entire year!!!! And my bibliophile heart overflows with readerly bliss at thought of a fresh year full of book-oriented challenges and goals. Here are mine:

2024 Reading Goals

• Continue to seek out more Indie books

• Hunt down some Debuts and read them!

• Introduce myself to even more new-to-me authors

• Diversify my reading

• Target a few authors each quarter and read at least one book from their backlist

• Enjoy getting acquainted with old friends — re-read!

• Allow myself to be influenced by social media (book tube & instagram) for one book a month

• Maybe read out of my comfort zone occasionally? But only 5 times the whole year! (she adds hastily, cowering behind her TBR pile)

• Concentrate on an evolving SAS list. That’s Serious About Series. 24 new-to-me series, catch up on 24 series I’m in the process of reading and keeping current with 24 series I’m up-to-date with.

• Keep stats and track my fictional travels.

Those are my official goals but I also want to pick up my instagram (bookstagram) again — both following and creating content. I got stymied when I started it early in 2023 because I read so much I couldn’t figure out how to do the monthly screenshots etc. and I got discouraged. But, hey, I’ve conquered bar graphs so….

I also reactivated my Net Galley account now that they offer (sparingly) audio books. We’ll see if anything comes of that.

Oh — and I still want to wrangle this unwieldy site into some sort of order…time got away from me while I was recuperating from the flu. (in other words, I was too busy reading.)

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Now, what’s a little goal sharing without giveaways?! Today it’s easy peasy! We already shared goals yesterday so today let’s just talk about the books that got away from us last year.

So, the rules for this giveaway are simple:

• You can enter this giveaway up to three times, each entry as a separate comment.

• Mention any CHRISTIAN FICTION novel that have already been released — so from January 5 2024 back to earlier years, and, if the random.org odds are in your favour, you’ll win one of those books!

• This offer is open to email entries as well.

Giveaway available to readers in the US and Canada — paperback or ebook — winner’s choice. Audible too for Canadians.

e-books only for International Readers who have an American Kindle account (Amazon.com).

Draw will be held and winner announced on

Saturday January 6 2024

Another Best Reads Blog tradition is quarterly reading goal reviews (only in this case, it’s an annual summary.) I’ll share my progress (or not!) here just for some fun, book nerdy stats and, if you’re so inclined you can share a goal or two in the comments. But no pressure – a goal can be as simple as ‘read a book.’

So, to enter this giveaway, just share anything goal related in the comments. Then, in the same comment, list a book that will help you reach your goal. So it looks like this:

“I want to catch up on some suspense series. Night Prey by Susan Sleeman.”

NOTE: BOOKS MUST BE CHRISTIAN FICTION

You can enter up to three times in three separate comments — and you can use the same goal or a different one each time, but a different title for each entry.

Books can be published any time up through the end of this year. Currently published books will be ordered this coming week for winners, otherwise it will be an IOU for a title releasing later in January, February or March 2023.

See? Easy Peasy. But if you’re still not clear, don’t be shy about asking questions.

My 2023 Reading Goals Summary:

519 Books read

Genres:

‘Other’ is a mix of YA, Middle Grade, Fantasy etc.

Book Formats: (‘books’ are print editions I got from places other than the library — rereads, gifts, review copies, purchases etc.)

Diversity was a huge goal of mine these past two years. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find settings outside the US in Christian Fiction. I have no idea why, because all the readers I know enjoy armchair traveling but, as the graph below illustrates, the majority of my fictional travel time was spent in the US.

‘Other’ represents Europe, Africa, Canada, Australia, Asia.

I set author goals as well. I’m pleased with the progress I made with reading indie books, but I really need to up my diverse author reads (this includes nationalities other than American as well as ethnicity.)

I had set a goal to play catch-up with specific authors’ backlists which kinda bombed so I’m going to modify that goal for this year. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how I do that. 🙂

The other goal I didn’t do well with was giving unloved tropes a second chance. All of 8 out of 519 books read fit that criteria. I’ve discovered that I can be stubborn in my dislikes so I think this is another goal that will have to be modified for this year. The tropes I reluctantly read (and ironically enjoyed!) were amnesia, serial killer, mean girl personified, billionaire and runaway bride (in case you were wondering.)

My other goals were to keep stats and track my armchair travels…which I did as you can see by my lovely graphs — tada — lots of emotional agony and headaches went into their creation. My brain still hurts. I could never have been a mathematician or a statistician!!!!

Phew! Now it’s your turn: Did you make reading goals this year? If so, how did it go? Share below and remember to include a book title that will help you achieve any kind of reading goal. You can enter three times in three separate comments using the same goal or different ones. What ever strikes your fancy. Just make sure each entry is for a different title.

DRAW WILL BE HELD AND WINNER ANNOUNCED ON

SATURDAY JANUARY 6 2024.

OFFER OPEN TO ANY READER WHO HAS A KINDLE .COM ACCOUNT FOR EBOOKS. OTHERWISE IT’S WINNER’S CHOICE OF PAPERBACK OR EBOOK FOR US AND CANADIAN ENTRIES.

It’s a Best Reads blog tradition! Celebrating the month’s new releases the first week of each month.

Because I recently discovered that a book’s success or failure is often determined by first month sales! (Though I bet preorders play into that as well.) Publishing houses look at those stats to determine whether they’ll add on to a series or accept the author’s next manuscript! All that literary goodness hanging in the balance but for a month’s worth of sales! (This was a cozy mystery author, but I imagine all traditional publishers use the same ‘system’.) So, I thought I should do my wee little bit to promote Christian Fiction.

By hosting a special “Hello — insert month” giveaway. It’s easy to play along. You just have to choose ONE of the January 2024 new releases on your TBR wishlist (must be Christian Fiction) and mention the title in a comment below (or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca.) If your name is drawn, that January release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE TO:

ebook for anyone anywhere who has an Amazon.com kindle account

US – paperback or ebook copy — winner’s choice

Canada -paperback or ebook (in form of an Amazon gift card) or audible.ca audio book (if available) – winner’s choice

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday January 6 2024.