Bye Bye NetGalley

I did something a little impulsive. I closed my NetGalley account.

Now, for those of you who don't know, NetGalley is a way for "professional readers such as booksellers, educators, librarians, media professionals and reviewers" (this includes bloggers/vloggers) to get access to electronic ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of upcoming titles in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Now, I had been using it for several years and I did enjoy using it. It helped to share the hype of upcoming titles and share my love for reading. But, within a space of 12 hours (I kid you not), I went from “Wow, NetGalley is overwhelming me lately” to deciding to delete my NetGalley account to actually hitting that “Delete Account” button. 

I can't even explain how I got on the idea to close the account, nor why I thought it was such a great idea for my blog (seeing as I suspect the Pewter Wolf Reads blog is in its death throes...), but it's done and, weirdly, I feel oddly ok with doing it. Reading should be fun and a pleasure (something I say all the time on my blog and on ly socials and yet, rarely follow through on!)

Having a % ratio of what is acceptable for NetGalley Approval rating (80%, in case you are curious) hanging over my head felt like an impossible target to hit as, remember, my Amazon account was hacked/deleted several years back which wiped out my entire kindle catalogue. All my ebooks and most of my Audible audiobooks I got back after causing a huge fuss to Amazon one Easter weekend (yes, this happened on Easter Saturday, folks), but all my eProofs were gone.

Plus, I noticed I would hit that "Request" button and go "If I get approved, when will I read it as my TBR is long" and then I would worry about being a bad reader.

So, removing this from my anxious mind can only be a good thing, right?

Expect an hour or two later, I went "Wait, what about the downloads on my kindle/iPhone? What do I do with them? What is the etiquette here? Do I delete them all or keep/read? If I do that, is it stealing?". So, off to Google I go and … nothing. Yes, people delete their NetGalley/Edelweiss/etc accounts but there is no rules about what to do with your eProofs/Audiobooks. So, am having a think on this front and get back to you on that front. 

Now, I am not quitting blogging yet so I could keep these, but I am slowly winding down the blog (I will write a post once I know when the blog will be put to bed - but not yet). I want a little more freedom over what I read and I want to showcase books am excited to read (and with my reading taste changing from when I first started blogging to now. Hell, my reading tastes have changed in the past 18 months!). This means I might have to get a Kindle Unlimited account so I can read more indie authors/queer romances so this is a genre I want to read. 

So, yeah, I am no longer using NetGalley. Maybe the TBR piles will be thankful for it… Highly unlikely, but we shall see…

NetGalley Review - The Decagon House Murders

I’m not sure, at the time of writing this, if this is going to be a post for one eProof I got from publishers via NetGalley or two. So, excuse me while I ramble and I can figure out. 

Let’s start with this Japanese crime classic, shall we? 

Title and Author: The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (Translated by Ho-Ling Wong)
Publisher: Pushkin Veritago

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction, though listened to audiobook via Audible Plus

Buy From (Affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org

In this Japanese cult classic (a loving nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None), the island of Tsunojima is the setting for strange, unsolved murders. So when a group of students from K-University Mystery Club go there for their annual trip, they think it will be great inspiration for the crime fiction magazine.

But when one of their member is murdered, the others realise that they are trapped on the island with no way to escape or call for help. And the murderer has made it clear to them that all of them won’t survive by the end of the trap. 

At the same time, back on the main land, poison pen letters have been sent, accusing the receivers of the tragic death of a young woman who died of alcohol poisoning. But how is that connected to the terror that’s unfolding on the island?

NetGalley November 2024

I am very behind on my eProof and audiobooks (hell, I am behind on reading and blogging in general!), but I wanted to try and get some of my NetGalley reads under some control. I mean, last year, I lost loads of my proofs on my kindle due to either my Amazon account being deleted or hacked so the whole 80% ratio is never going to happen. 

But I do wanna try and get some control and tackle some of my audiobooks via NetGalley. So, this isn’t a “Here’s what am going to read over the month”, but I wanted to touch base, say hi, chat about my reading plans for the next few weeks and hold myself to account. 

So, what am I going to do? I am going to try and listen to several of my NetGalley audiobooks over the next month or so (I have a vague idea what the next 3 audiobooks I want to tackle/am in the mood for), try and backtrack over some proofs and, over December, try and continue this plan but allowing self to be flexible and have a lot of fun on rereads and relistens (maybe even make a plans of those relistens I wanted to do this year, but kept putting off. Yes, The Diviners by Libba Bray, I do mean you). 

Now, is this going to be easy? No, as I am a mood reader and so, my mood will be affect by outside events (this past week was hard as WTF world?!), but am going to try and continue to have fun and push self to discover new stories and chat about them on my socials/on here (though, be warned, I am going to quit Twitter before the year is out!). 

So, here we go! Let’s try and get a wiggle on NetGalley and look forward to a calm rest of November/December (which I sense won’t happen, but deep breaths). 

Oh, do you guys wanna see my NetGalley audiobooks that are on my phone? 

DNFing Juliette Willoughby

It feels like I am always talking about quitting reads/audiobooks lately. Mainly because I had a huge DNF (Did Not Finish) blitz over the summer. And it looks like I haven't stopped going "F*** this!" just yet.

This time, it's The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd. In theory, this is right up my street. A murder mystery, set in the art world and university, but told in three different timelines (one of which is the artist of a mysterious missing painting). And yet, at 44% and me audiobooking this over the course of several weeks, I decided to cut my losses.

Why, I hear you ask? Because of two reasons.

Audiobook Review - The Last Murder at the End of the World

I’m gonna be honest with you: I have no idea how this got on my radar. It just appeared one day and, after picking it up and down several times, I went “Sod it!” and bought the audiobook. And what I got was something I wasn’t expecting (something I now discover the author does with every book he’s released). 

Title and Author: The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Publisher: Raven Books & Bloomsbury
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

The world is ravaged by a fog that will kill all in its path. The only safe place is a small Greece island where 122 villagers and 3 scientists live, where all live in harmony, all overseen by ABI, an artificial intelligence who keeps the security fields up and the fog at bay. 

But one morning, the island wakes up to one of the scientists is brutally stabbed, which triggers the security fields to lower, meaning that the fog will be on the island within 92 hours. 

What makes the situation worse is that ABI has wiped everyone’s memories so no one can remember what happened the previous night, and even they don’t know what happened or who gave the order to erase the night’s events. 

Meaning someone on the island is a killer and they don’t even know it. And the only way to put the security fields back up is to find the killer and figure out what happened last night…

Audiobook Reread - A Discovery of Witches

I am going to be honest: this was meant to be one of the series I wanted to reread this year. And I wanted to do it before the release of the newest installation of the All Souls world, The Black Bird Oracle, which is coming out in mid-July. Now, I don’t think I’m going to be able to binge-reread the rest of the All Souls trilogy (Shadow of Night and Book of Life) as well as the companion novel, Time’s Convert, before it’s release. 

But I am going to try and reread (all via audio) before the end of the year. I do think I am going to attempt Time’s Convert next month (I read this originally and was very middle of the road about it, but I got the audiobook on sale so am doing to attempt it this way as see if my opinion changes as I really like the leads in this). 

Anyway, like I said, I really wanted to reread this, which means I needed to start from the beginning. 

Title and Author: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Publisher: Headline

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook Bought

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Diana Bishop is a scholar and descendant of a line of powerful witches, though she tries very hard not to use her magic. When she discovered a strange manuscript at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, she returns it to its archives due to the strange enchantments around it. But this manuscript - Ashmole 782 - was thought long lost and deeply enchanted and now, vampires, witches and daemons, are coming to Oxford, watching Diana. In the hopes she recalls it. 

For this book has its own secrets and it looks like Diana is right in the middle of it…

eProof Review - Missing White Woman

Sometimes, you crave a book as soon as you seen the cover online. It’s almost a physical reaction. This is what happened when I saw Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett. I saw someone tweet about it with the UK cover and I became obsessed with it. I mean, LOOK AT IT! And 24 hours later, it appeared on NetGalley so, of course, I had to request and hope that I would be approved. 

Which I was (hooray!) and once I finished Kate Atkinson’s Normal Rules Don’t Apply, I jumped straight into this. 

Title and Author: Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett

Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

It was meant to be a romantic getaway in New York City. Just Breanna and her new boyfriend, Ty. They hired out an airbnb four-story house with a beautiful view of the skyline. Until Bree wakes up one morning to discover a dead woman in her foyer and Ty’s missing. Is the dead woman Janelle Becker, a recently missing dog walker that the media is reporting on and social media is a buzz over? 

A Black woman stranded in a strange city, Bree is scared. A black person involved in the white person’s disappearance/murder isn’t a good look. And she knows how the Police sees her. And until she can find Ty, the only person who can help her is an ex-best friend, a lawyer who Bree shares a complicated history with. 

But as the Police and the social media mob close in, Bree realises that the only way to stay out of jail is to discover what happened that night. But is she going to like what she finds…?

eProof Review - When Among Crows

As I said in my Queen Macbeth post, I was holding that shorter stories will give my reading the kick up the backside it needed after March’s reading slowdown/slump and the disappointing reads over the Easter break.

So you would be surprised to hear that I decided to read this novella.

Let me explain: I fell in the love with the cover when it came into my Twitter timeline and I was deeply considering buying it, so when I saw it on NetGalley, I requested it but I had my doubts that I would be approved as my stats on NetGalley haven’t been great since the great Amazon Easter Hack/Deleting of 2023 (no idea if someone tried to hack my Amazon account or if Amazon tried to delete my account by accident but, due to this, I lost ALL MY EPROOFS ON MY KINDLE!). Now, imagine my surprise when I found out I was approved and, after reading The Brothers by Kimberley Chambers and feeling so underwhelmed by it, I decided to read this instead of the reads I had planned (The Escape Room by LD Smithson, Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett &/or The Company by J.M. Varese).

Title and Author: When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Publisher: Titan Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In modern day Chicago, Polish folklore is alive. Monsters feast on human emotion, knights split their souls to make their weapons and witches always take more than what they give.

Pain brings Dymitr and Ala together. Dymitr’s pain is the monsters he and the other Knights of the Holy Order slay and split his soul into two to create his sword from his own spine, while Ala’s is the family curse she has inherited to see visions of the horrors that the Holy Order committed.

One fateful night, the two meet and agree a bargain: if Ala can help find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. In exchange, Dymitr will give her an enchanted flower that might cure her.

But Ala doesn’t know who Dymitr is and what he truly wants and with less than 24 hours before the flower dies, killing her hopes of the curse being broken, the two need to move fast. But others want the flower and Baba Jaga’s location and they aren’t afraid to hurt and kill to get them… 

Audiobook Review - Queen Macbeth

After the reading slump Of March and the “meh”ness of reading Kimberley Chambers The Brothers and rereading Garth Nix’s Terciel and Elinor, I wanted to hit April with something different. Something with not only more punch and stories I can run to you guys at and go “Guys! Can I chew your ear off over this?!”

And, maybe even, tackle the books and ebooks that lovely publishers send me for review. 

So when this little novella of an audiobook came to my attention on NetGalley, I thought “Maybe something short will help me get out of my head and out of my funk.” (Plus, the cover looks awesome, doesn’t it?)

Title and Author: Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid

Publisher: Birlinn General & W.F. Hopes Ltd

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by audiobook publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

A thousand years ago in the Scottish landscape, a woman with her three female companions - a healer, a weaver and a seer - are on the run. Men are hunting her down, as she is the only one who stands in the way between them and the violent ambition for power. She is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king named Macbeth. 

History might have written her as a murderer conspirator to her husbands, but here, she is a woman who has loved and lost, and this might cost her everything… 

eProof Review - Rough Justice

The last few months of reading for me has been all over the place. I know I have blogged my reading earlier this month of Evil Under The Sun and Bedknobs and Broomsticks earlier this month, then me DNFing The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore & The Doctor’s Mistress by Daniel Hurst and then reading the platter-cleanse reading Tristan and Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights by James Persichetti & L.S. Biehler. Maybe I am being more brutal with reading things that make me happy and if it’s not, bye bye or maybe I’m struggling and I need a better balance (maybe I need to do a book cult). 

That’s tomorrow’s challenge, me thinks. After Apple Fitness+ yoga… 

But let’s change the subject. Completely. With something a little different. 

Title and Author: Rough Justice by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC

Publisher: Transworld

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org/

Old Bailey judge Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC talks the reader through four very different cases, each looking at the women in the dock and wonders how easy it is for any one of us to be in a court, whether that be a member of the jury, a witness or the person on trial. And, as she looks into these four cases, she discovers horrifying similarities between now and possible miscarriages of justice from years ago and wonders if the law has changed and how the law affects the marginalised and the easily exploited?

eProof Review - The Mystery Guest

Oh boy, where do I start with The Mystery Guest? I liked the first outing with Molly, The Maid, but when I discovered that there was going to be a sequel, I was very hesitant over the announcement. To me, The Maid felt really good and fairly solid as a stand-alone and, because of this, I couldn’t see how the sequel would work.

Title and Author: The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Publisher: HarperCollins

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Set around four years after the events of The Maid, Molly is now Head Maid at the Regency Hotel and the hotel is about to open its new Tearoom with a reclusive author doing a press conference. But when the author falls dead before he could announce his news, Molly finds her trying to figure out what is happening at the hotel.

eProof Review - Ink Blood Sister Scribe

One of my bookish resolution of 2024 is to try and get my eProof backlog under control. I do have a lot of books and audiobooks gifted to me very kindly by publishers and authors, and I would like to try and tackle this backlog.

One of the titles that have been on my backlog radar is Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, It’s one of those titles that tickled my fancy for quite a while, but, for one reason or another, I’ve kept putting it off. But, with everything that has happened to my reading over the past few months, I decided to audiobook this from my local library and hope I will fly through it.

Title and Author: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Publisher: Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction & library audiobook.

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In this fantasy thriller debut, we follow estranged sisters Joanna and Esther. Joanna lives alone in Vermont, the sole protector of a collection of rare magical books. One of these books killed their father.

Esther moves every few months. Different country, different jobs, staying no longer than a year, desperate to avoid the magic that her father and stepmother warned her about. But she’s found love on a research base in Antarctica and she wants to stay… then she discovers blood on the mirrors and she knows someone on the base is using blood magic and they are coming after her and her sister’s collection.

Esther and Joanna are in danger. But from who and where? And how is this connected to a young man in London who's uncle won’t let him out of his sight?

eProof Review - The Butcher Of The Forest

Happy First Read of 2024! Fingers crossed all your have been fun and great. 

Mine? Not so much. You’ll see why in the moment in gif form and for that, I do apologise. 

Anyway, let me get all the details for you and we can get this party started!

Title and Author: The Butcher Of The Forest by Premee Mohamed

Publisher: Titan Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In the dark, fairytale-like novella, a ruthless Tyrant forces an ordinary woman into an enchanted forest to retrieve his two missing children. The enchanted forest is full of dark things and won’t let the heirs go easily. And the woman isn’t as ordinary as she’s the only person known to have gone into the forest and to have come out again, all to save a child. 

If the woman fails, all she lives will be destroyed. So, she must step carefully as one misstep could be the end of everything…

NetGalley November 2023 - The Christmas Appeal

My first NetGalley November Read! And I’m putting it up now as I will be away from my iPad next week and the NetGalley proofs I am reading/audiobook are a tad chunky so it will take me some time on them. But I wanted to kick this month off properly by attacking one of my most recent - The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett. 

Actually, this was a Wish Granted on NetGalley. I clicked on this on a whim, not thinking I would have my wish granted. I just liked the sound of it. Hang on, before I go into this, let me give you some details and we can begin. 

Title and Author: The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

Publisher: Viper Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

The Fairway Players of Lower Lockwood are back, getting themselves involved in another murder mystery (haven’t they not learned from Janice Hallett debut, The Appeal?). This time, the cutthroat of amateur dramatics are busy rehearsing for the Christmas panto, Jack and the Beanstalk. Expect, not everyone is feeling the good cheer. The fake smiles and catty, pettiness is out in force. The beanstalk might be full of asbestos and, of course, there’s the matter of the dead Santa… 

Lawyers Femi and Charlotte are reading the emails, the WhatsApp, the Police reports to find out the truth.

Audiobook Review - The Wife In The Photo

Hey Siri, please play “No Body, No Crime” by Taylor Swift.

Right, now we’ve got the right back music, let’s talk about The Wife In The Photo by Emily Shanter, shall we?

Title and Author: The Wife in the Photo by Emily Shiner

Publisher: Bookoutrue Audio

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook gifted by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Evan Warner needs help. He and his daughter, Jessica, are struggling to cope after the death of his wife, Lola, and the house has become too much. He needs a housekeeper. Someone to take the pressure off for a while. So, when his PA at work mentions Ariel, someone from her church who would be perfect as his temporary housekeeper, he jumps at the chance.

But Ariel isn’t who she says she is. She knows that Lola’s death wasn’t a tragic accident. She’s positive that Evan killed Lola. And she’s going to prove it…

Another DNF Post

I doin’t often chat about quitting reads on here. I think I am more open about quitting reads or knowing when books aren’t for me, but there is a bit of a guilt and (dare I say it?) shame about quitting a book or an audiobook. I mean, before I started book blogging, I used to quit reads left, right and centre. I had no shame or guilt over it. It might be my mood at the time, the writing, the story, an element or plot twist that didn’t work. There are hundreds of reasons why we as readers quit books or audiobooks. And that’s ok. 

However, when I started book blogging, I felt this guilt over quitting reads and I spent many years reading every books I started and reviewing them. Even if I didn’t like them. 

Now, am more ok with quittting/DNFing. Same goes with writing up my thoughts on every book (I chat about them on social media) on here. But two books I have tried just didn’t work and I wanted to chat about them because these are big deal books. Books I should love but nope, they just didn’t work.

Mini-Review Time!

I thought I would have got these both finished in August. I didn’t. I finished the first on the 2nd September and the other the following day, on the 3rd. And they are so far removed from each other, I felt that it should be fun to put them in a same blog post (not sure why). 

The first is Spiced Kisses by Charlie Novak, an MM low angst romance set in the lead up for Christmas and the other is The Doctor’s Widow by Daniel Hurst, sequel to The Doctor’s Wife, a domestic thriller. 

Spiced Kissses is the third book in the Kiss Me series (I haven’t read either the first or second book in this series, Strawberry Kisses and Summer Kisses - will add these to my Kindle wish list) but we follow Ben and Ianto. Ben is co-owner of the Pear Tree pub and is just trying to get through the upcoming hell known as Christmas. But when he breaks his collarbone at rugby, he finds himself spending time with Ianto, who feels guilty for the accident. Unbeknownst to either of them, they have a crush on each other… will Christmas bring this grumpy Yorkshire men and Christmas-loving Welshman together?

In The Doctor’s Widow, we pick up the story several months after the events of The Doctor’s Wife. Fern has gotten away with it. Away with murdering her adulterous husband, framing his mistress for his murder and killing the mistress’s husband to keep the truth from coming out. She just wants to put the past behind her and move on with her life. A new life with Roger, a man she is falling for. But Roger isn’t who she think he is. In fact, Roger isn’t Roger at all… 

The Doctor’s Widow was gifted by the UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, FYI. 

eProof Review - Open Throat

I have no idea how am going to write this write-up for Open Throat by Henry Hoke. It’s one of those books that I only came across because I saw a tweet on Twitter - sorry, X (let’s not get into my thoughts over this AWFUL rebranding) - and I went “what is this weirdness?!” 

Title and Author: Open Throat by Henry Hoke

Publisher: Picador

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

A mountain lion roams the drought-ridden hills of Hollywood. He is hungry but watches and protects the humans at their homeless encampment. But when he is forced to leave them, he finds himself in the heart of LA, he begins to wonder: whether he wants to eat one or be one?

Audiobook Review - The Housekeepers

One of my favourite podcasts, All About Agatha, have a saying as they read and review each Agatha Christie novel: never underestimate the help. And this couldn't be more true for The Housekeepers by Alex Hay. 

Title and Author: The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

Publisher: Headline

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof and Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

When housekeeper, Mrs King, is dismissed from her role at a luscious house in Mayfair, she has a plan. A plot that has been brewing for quite some time. She plans to pull off one of the biggest heist from her former employer. And she knows who she can call on to pull it off... 

A black-market queen, an actress, a seamstress, a former housekeeper. All have a reason for the heist to work. But can they pull it off while the Mistress of the house is planning to host the biggest ball of the season?

eBook Review - HappyHead

I've been sitting on this review for a while as I'm not sure how to write it. Even now, I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about this, but I wanted to show you guys that I have read this. 

The backstory to this is the same as some of my other reads of late: I originally had an eProof from the lovely publisher via NetGalley. However, over Easter weekend, my Amazon was hacked/deleted, all my eProofs got wiped off my kindle. But, I saw this on sale for 99p, I bought it without a second thought, as this book intrigued me as soon as I first heard it. 

Title and Author: HappyHead by Josh Silver

Publisher: Rock The Boat

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought but I did have eProof via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org 

When Seb is offered a place at a radical retreat to tackle the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to do well. But he find himself being pulled to the mysterious Finn, Seb begins to realise that there's something deeply wrong with HappyHead as the tasks that are meant to be help their wellbeing become more and more disturbing...