May New Releases + Giveaway

It’s a new 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 May 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 May release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

April New Releases + Giveaway

It’s a new 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 April 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 April release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

Reader’s Choice Week Spring 2025 Winners

The good news is we got snow. The bad news is it’s the heavy wet kind and we are supposed to get 15 hours straight freezing rain tomorrow so the possibility of power outages are still being predicted…..but at least I can post the winners today! Woohoo! Only, before we get to that I do love a wee bit of bibliophile nerdiness. 🙂

BOOK NERDY STATS! Do you ever wonder what the most requested book in each category is? What? You say that’s just me? Well, I’m going to share anyway. So here are the popular books per genre day.

And now it’s time to move into the part of this post you will be most interested in (and I thank you for indulging in my bibliophile nerdiness!)

READER’S CHOICE WEEK SPRING 2025 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!

That right there is my dream house, complete with turrets. (I would have a multi-floor library in one with a circular staircase and balconies!) I love the mystery created by the shadowed foreground and the curlicue border frames it all perfectly!

Such a clever idea to have the scenery reflected in the camera lens! Unique and eye-catching!

Those eyes! ‘Nuf said. 🙂

Usually I don’t go for the close up of the hero on the cover image so I’m gobsmacked that I couldn’t pick between these two. Absolute cover love draw! I like the way this cover tells a story, gives us so many clues as to what I’ll find inside. And I’m drawn to that diagonal image split between the hero and the heroine. Plus the balance of colour – light and dark – are so pleasing to the eye.

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 55.

That’s another RC wrap up. I’ll send winners an email stating their book win, publication date and requesting contact info so that I’ll have everything ready for release day. Then I’ll email you once again once the book has been ordered. Oh — and if you didn’t include your email in your comment it’s up to you to contact me.

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Spring 2025 Edition – Goal Reviews

Now on to our Goal Review Giveaway:

Quarterly reading goal reviews have become a Best Reads Blog tradition. 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 June 2025. Currently published books will be ordered this coming week for winners, otherwise it will be an IOU for a title releasing later.

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

Now, here are some of my reading goal highlights — it’s a bit of a topsy turvy start. Did well in some ways and totally bombed in others.

Overall not too bad but I’m fine tuning some of my goals for the second quarter of 2025. This is what I’m going to concentrate on:

  • More Indie Books!
  • Look for Diversity in authors, characters, settings
  • Pick 5 Read to Zero authors and start working on catching up on their books. Totally bombed on this goal in the first quarter!
  • Target series to complete.

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.

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Spring 2025 Edition – Mystery/Suspense Fiction

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

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

March New Releases + Giveaway

It’s a new 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 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 March release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

February New Releases + Giveaway

HELLO FEBRUARY!

It’s a new 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 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 February release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

Reader’s Choice Week Winter 2025 Winners

Thanks everyone for starting the New Year off right! There’s nothing better than sharing the anticipatory delight of New Releases with fellow readers. So many books, so little time, and that’s okay ’cause we’ll never get bored, right? And now it’s time for…

BOOK NERDY STATS (ha, I bet you thought I’d start listing the winners.) Before we get to all that fun stuff, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the popular picks of the week — as far as genre days went anyway. Here they are:

And now it’s time to move into the part of this post you will be most interested in (and I thank you for indulging in my bibliophile neediness!)

READER’S CHOICE WEEK – WINTER 2025 EDITION – 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!

I love all things Irish so this cover calls to me from the rolling hills to all the shades of green and, of course, the red hair (a bit cliche, but still.)

Eye-catching with all those pops of colour and I love the whimsical vibe. Very different from any other cover out there so it really stands out. Plus – light house! How can I resist?!

I might have been drawn to this cover due to all the news coverage of the L.A. fires right now but I also appreciate that it’s the fire marshal heroine heading into danger. I think the cover captures the tension and desperation that is undoubtedly part of the story.

Definitely attracted to the cozy mystery vibes depicted on this cover. And I love Fannie’s wide-eyed shock. The magnifying glass is a nice Sherlockonian touch. This just looks fun and makes me want to dive right into the story.

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 42.

That’s another RC wrap up. I’ll send winners an email stating their book win, publication date and requesting contact info so that I’ll have everything ready for release day. Then I’ll email you once again once the book has been ordered. Oh — and if you didn’t include your email in your comment it’s up to you to contact me.

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK:

Please remember to check +Giveaway in the title and note the book editions available for each giveaway as they will vary.