Reader’s Choice Week Autumn 2025 Winners

Thanks for joining me for another week full of anticipatory bookish delights! My wishlist is plumped up and I might have placed a few preorders already! Am I the only one who noticed how many books are being released in October? Must be the ‘it’ month for book releases before Christmas.

Now it’s time to indulge my inner stats nerd (who knew she was lurking inside of me for all these years?!) I tallied all the books mentioned on the 4 specific genre days and came up with the popular pick for each one and here they are:

AND NOW FOR THE REST OF THE READER’S CHOICE WEEK WINNERS!

But wait, it’s not over yet. The Vanity category has become a blog tradition. It’s where a book is actually judged by its cover and I choose my favourite cover art per genre and then draw from a pool of readers who requested that title. Here are COVER LOVE winners!

Eyecatching. Campy. Playful. Nostalgic.

Striking contrasts. That pop of red! The softer details fading into the background. There’s more to see the more you look.

Love the warm tones, autumn leaves, the turquoise bookmobile. Plus…bookmobile…eeeeepppp!!!!!

Simple but so atmospheric!

WAIT! Don’t go away ’cause we’re not through yet. We have another Reader’s Choice tradition of picking a random number which becomes a ‘just because giveaway’ on the genre specific days. If that doesn’t make sense, all you need to know is that it means more book giveaways. Woohoo! This time the number is 70.

And that finishes off another Reader’s Choice Week. Thanks for participating and sharing your love of books!

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK:

Christy Award Finalists – Yes, it’s that time again. The Christy Award Finalists have been announced and we’re going to check them out by category every Monday. This week it’s Contemporary Fiction.

Hello October! Timely, since we have our lists handy after this week’s rush and lots of books to choose from. This giveaway is for October 2025 Christian Fiction releases. Only one title suggestion though, not the RCW three!

Reader’s Choice Week Giveaway – Autumn 2025 Edition – Goal Review

Quarterly reading goal reviews have become a Best Reads Blog tradition and I can’t believe we’ve reached the last quarter already! Where does the time go, I wonder? Hours spent reading I’m guessing. 🙂

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 to December 2025. Currently published books will be ordered this coming week for winners, otherwise it will be an IOU for a title releasing later.

WINNER’S CHOICE OF PAPERBACK OR EBOOK FOR US AND CANADIAN ENTRIES. EBOOKS ONLY FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS WHO HAVE A US KINDLE ACCOUNT.

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

Here we go! Time to face up to what’s been working and what hasn’t when it comes to my goals this year.

Overall, I’ve done fairly well on my goals so far…with a few exceptions. I did manage to increase the number of indie books by a wee bit this past quarter, still aiming for more though.

And my Read to Zero Authors! Oy! I read one Hannah Linder, have Garden of the Midnights on hold at my library so that just leaves two books left (counting her new release in November.) Surely I can manage that by the end of the year! I got sidetracked with Irene Hannon when I decided to reread the whole Hope Harbor series which means I’ve only read two of her Encore edition books so far. Think I still have twelve books to go! I’ve almost given up on Sarah M Eden. Too many books to read before the end of the year. I think she’s going to become a five year plan! I did read The Best-Kept Secret (Huntresses #3) so at least I’m working on it! And I went and added two more authors to the list – Annah Conwell (7 books left) and Gracie Ruth Mitchell (11 books left) because…well…just because! 🙂

Alas, my attempt to focus on completing series has been surpassed by my compulsion to start new series so….that’s a goal well and truly failed. 😦

Okay, that’s enough nerdy stats stuff. Let’s get on with the giveaway!

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 ON

Saturday September 27 2025

AND WINNER ANNOUNCED ON 

Sunday September 28 2025

(You can enter any of the giveaways up until noon EST on Saturday September 27. Winners will be announced on Sunday September 28 which is a bit of a switch from previous RCWs. It’s just to give me a little more time to do all the tallying and setting up the blog post.). 

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2025 Edition – General Christian Fiction Edition

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2025 – Mystery/Suspense Fiction

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2025 Edition – Contemporary Fiction

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2025 Edition – Historical Fiction

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2025 Edition -Christmas Fiction

Conversations with Kav – the Christmas Books that Got Away + Giveaway

It’s not too early for Christmas books, right? I’ve even had my first hot cocoa of the season already so it must be time! And there are so many Christmas books I missed out on last year and the year before and the year before that and…

So, I thought it would be fun to find out what Christmas books slipped past you in years gone by. Or are you even a Christmas fiction reader at all? And, if you are, how early in the season do you start reading Christmas stories?

I can read Christmas books any time of the year. Like, if I’m working my way through a cozy mystery series and a holiday book comes up I’ll happily read it even if it’s April. But I seriously start craving Christmas fiction once the weather starts getting cooler, so, mid September up here. And then I’ll read them all the way through to Christmas. I know that sounds way too early for some, but I want to give enough time for Christmas book giveaways to reach winners in time to be enjoyed during the holiday season. BUT it’s highly unlikely that I’ll read a Christmas book in January or February…I’ve reached my saturation point by then and I need a break! 🙂

Share your thoughts about Christmas reading in a comment and include the title of a CHRISTIAN FICTION or CLOSED DOOR Christmas book that has evaded you so far that you would like to win. Books must already be published. If your name is drawn, then you will be one Christmas book closer to your Season’s Readings goals!

Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday September 20 2025.

Hello September – New Release Giveaway

HELLO SEPTEMBER!

Can you believe summer is coming to a close? Our weather is finally cooler and I even had my first cup of hot cocoa this morning. And, of course, that led to dreaming about cozying up with a book which led me to realize it’s time for another ‘Hello new month, what releases are in store for me?’ post. So here we go!

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 September 2025 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 September release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

Conversations With Kav – Net Galley query, Hello August + Giveaway

First: the Net Galley Question:

I’m pretty new to Net Galley but I know that we’re supposed to read and review fairly quickly. At least 80% feedback being the goal. I’m always about 98% or more because, a) I’m a keener and b) I only review audio books in the Christian Fiction and Cozy Mystery genres. So, up until this summer it was easy to keep on top of things. Easy for me to listen and review efficiently. Usually the only lag time was because I had to wait for an opening for a blog post so it might be two weeks from the time I downloaded the book and then posted my reviews.

BUT everything changed the last week in July when I got approved for 10 books in quick succession. Ack, the organized bookish nerd in me had a mild panic attack. I don’t know which is more anxiety inducing – looking at my ‘start reading’ list or my ‘give feedback’ list. And some of the books don’t even release until October! So, I have questions, and you NG experts will hopefully have answers.

  1. How soon are you supposed to review books with release dates several months away? Review immediately where you can and add online retailer reviews on the release date? Or do you wait until closer to the release date? You can tell from last week and this coming week that I opted to review right away because…that ominous ‘start reading’ list had me hyperventilating! 🙂
  2. How promptly do you read and review Net Galley books? I tend to read them within a week but with ten books approved in two days that just wasn’t possible so I’m kinda panicking.

Which brings me to the reason we’re celebrating ‘Hello August’ on a Sunday. Literally every book I review this week (except for our Carol Awards day) is a Net Galley book. And I’ll still have two books left to carry over into the following week! Ack! So I decided to squeeze in our ‘Hello August’ here…I mean, it’s kinda conversational since we’ll be talking about what new releases we’re most excited about, right? For me it’s ‘Final Approach’ by Lynette Eason. I have that one preordered on Audible. Eeeppp! So excited! Anyway…

It’s Time for Hello August!

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 August 2025 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 July release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.