Book Review Requests

Thank you for being patient while I’ve been on hiatus. While I am now opening myself up to book reviews again, I have realised I cannot read as many books as I would like! I believe I can only manage two reviews a month. With that in mind, I cannot respond to every request, and I may even be late with some scheduled reviews as unforeseen busy-ness crops up from time to time. So I’ll keep my submissions open, but I may not get to yours in the near future. All I can promise is that I’ll do my best.

So I’ve decided to put my reviewing powers to good use.

Attention Indie Authors – I will review your books!

My reviews will be honest and my own opinion. I can’t guarantee I will enjoy reading your book, but I will always try to be fair and courteous. I also cannot provide an estimated date for when I’ll review your book because I still was to read for pleasure, but it won’t be an unreasonable time-frame (unless I get swamped, then I’ll give you a heads up and I’ll play it by ear). I should mention that I… don’t always reply to everyone. I want to, and then I see the number of unread emails sitting in my inbox and I crumple. I am sorry. As a basic rule of thumb if you haven’t heard back from me in two weeks, I am probably not interested.

I will post your review on my blog, amazon and goodreads, as well as where-ever else you would like me to place it (let me know where your book is sold, and I’ll endeavour to post there too).

So drop me an email at nogaku89@gmail.com and I’ll let you know if yours is the sort of book I might like, which you’ll probably want to know before you send it over. Otherwise, please see below for a general guide. Please note, I prefer EPUB copies.

YES, THIS INCLUDES COMIC AND MANGA BOOKS!

Fiction:

I do prefer a light-hearted tone to the serious and depressive, but only as a general rule. There are exceptions.

Genres I am most interested in:

Fantasy: Urban, Paranormal, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Fairy Tales

Light sci-fi

Adventure (especially lost treasure/relic/kingdom stuff)

Cozy Mystery

Historical Mystery (love detective work pre-forensics)

Children’s fiction (primary years, middle years, young adult). Pretty much all subgenres.

Horror (especially hauntings and creepy things)

Genres I am somewhat interested in:

Romance: all varieties except the BDSM, erotica and menage a trois (never tried them, never will). Just to be clear, I much prefer romance books where there are other things going on to support the main romance story (ie self-discovery, a mystery, family drama, just something). If it’s solely romance, I will probably get a bit bored.

Mystery/Thriller/Spy

Drama/Family

High fantasy

Historical

Heavy sci-fi

Genres I am not interested in and probably will not like:

Tear-jerkers. I cry enough in real life.

When I say ‘tearjerkers’, I mean books that are designed to make you cry. I don’t mind dark and depressive in the right circumstances. If you are uncertain whether your book fits this, send it to me anyway. You never know.

Porn

That’s not to say I don’t read books that have sex scenes – I do. I just don’t like books that ONLY have sex in them, or where the plot is just there to create more sex-scenarios. Call me a prude, but I’m not fussed on porn. Sorry.

This includes the aforementioned erotica, etc genres. No Fifty Shades for me, thanks.

Things that tick me off

Getting the science wrong when it’s meant to be right. Diamonds are not formed from coal. I’m not fussed if the story is good despite the bad science or if the science is meant to be bad, but if you’re trying to pass off the science as a serious idea and I know it’s wrong, then you have a problem. I am a geologist  and we are “the Kardashians of science”. If I know it’s wrong, you’re going to have a lot of angry Sheldons coming after you.

Non-Fiction

I have never review a non-fiction book before, but I’m willing to give it a go. Not real keen on textbooks, but I have a reasonable interest in cookbooks, history books, books on mythology and religion, the sciences, travel and photography. Just send me an email and I’ll let you know if I can review it or not.

Something I would like to point out

I am an indie author myself, so while you’re here, could you check out my book in case you’d be interested in reviewing it? Obviously this is not a tit for tat. If I accept your book for review I have no expectation and you have no obligation for you to do the same for my book. But on the off chance that you read new adult, paranormal or urban fantasy, I would appreciate your consideration. Thanks!