Top Ten Tuesday #422

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I haven’t been up to much, I had a very busy week of work last week with a couple of extra shifts on top of my regular ones so that was mostly what kept me busy. However I did go to the bimonthly Tapas and Conversation Night at Battersea Spanish again on Friday and that was as always really fun, I met a really great bunch of people there and we stayed chatting (in English, not Spanish once the event was over!) for quite a while after the official end of the conversation night, so hopefully I’ll get to see them again at another conversation night in the future because I had a lot of fun.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. I’m going for a different topic again this week as the regular topic is the inverse of what we did last week: Things That Make Me Instantly Not Want To Read A Book, and once again, that hasn’t really changed for me since we last did that topic, the things I didn’t like then, I still don’t like now! So instead of that, I’m going to do a topic I saw on Cindy’s Book Corner a couple of weeks back and share 10 Netgalley Rejections That Crushed Me. I stopped using Netgalley a couple of years ago because I found the stress of trying and constantly failing to read books before their publication date overrode any pleasure I got from getting them to read in advance, but when I did use Netgalley, I requested a lot of books. My acceptance rate was actually pretty high (hence the stress!) but there were still those books that I desperately wanted to get accepted to read and then got declined for. I’ll be sharing some of those today, as well as if I have actually read said book yet! So here we go:

1. Crossfire-Malorie Blackman

I was a huge Noughts and Crosses fan in my youth, I remember racing through all four books as a teenager and I’m pretty sure I reread them at least a couple of times, my original copies of the books are certainly quite battered! So naturally when it was announced that there was going to be a fifth book in the series, over a decade after the last book was published, I was super excited for it, and immediately requested it on Netgalley. Naturally, I was pretty crushed when my request got declined given that it was a series continuation of such a beloved childhood series for me.

Have I read it yet: Yes! I read this one in January of 2020 (so given it was a book I was so excited about I wanted to read it early and I bought it at YALC in July of 2019, I did wait a while!) It was actually a bit of a let down for me, I did enjoy it but not as much as I hoped, as much as I enjoyed catching up with Sephy and Callie Rose and seeing how their world had changed in the years since Double Cross, I wasn’t a big fan of new protagonists Libby and Troy. It left off on a pretty big cliff-hanger and I’ve been meaning to read the final book in the series, Endgame for ages, but I still haven’t yet!

2. Legendary-Stephanie Garber

Ah this one really stung! I got accepted for Caraval on Netgalley the year before and I absolutely loved that one, it was one of my favourite books of 2017, so I was really desperate to get my hands on Legendary and see what happened to Scarlett and Tella next. Sadly despite Hodder accepting me for Caraval, it just wasn’t to be for Legendary and I had to wait like everyone else.

Have I Read It Yet: Yes! This was one of my favourite books of 2018 and my favourite book in the Caraval trilogy. I loved Tella so much, I enjoyed her narration more than Scarlett’s and liked her as a character more and it was such a captivating mystery with so many twists and turns throughout. I was dying to get my hands on Finale after turning the last page!

3. Not Even Bones-Rebecca Schaeffer

This one definitely stung because it was a book that sounded so up my street, one of the comp titles was a VE Schwab book, This Savage Song, and though that particular VE Schwab book is not my favourite, any comparison to VE Schwab is bound to have me at least somewhat intrigued. It also promised to be dark and packed with morally grey characters which is always something I want to read. I think I got rejected for this one because it wasn’t published in the UK so I was requesting to the US publisher and I don’t think they could grant requests from outside the US which was understandable but did sting a little!

Have I Read It: Yes! Despite my excitement for it when it initially released, I actually didn’t read it until the summer of 2020 (isn’t it always the way?!) but I had a great time reading it. I loved how dark it was, I loved the characters and that they were all varying degrees of villain and it was generally a fast paced, fun time. I actually ordered the second book as soon as I was done with this one and still have yet to read it! Hopefully soon!

4. Where Dreams Descend-Janella Angeles

I was so desperate to read this one because a) one of the comparison titles for the book was Moulin Rouge! aka my favourite film EVER and there’s nothing that could make me jump on a book so quickly as that comparison, b) I love circus stories in all their guises and c) I’m always up for magic competitions. Naturally as soon as it was available on Netgalley, I requested it, but just like Not Even Bones, Where Dreams Descend never got a UK publisher and the US publisher wouldn’t approve requests from outside the US, so my dreams (pun not intended) were shattered.

Have I Read It Yet: Surprisingly no! I did try and read it in early 2021 but I was in a massive reading slump at the beginning of that year and just couldn’t get into anything I was reading, so I ended up putting it down. I would like to go back to it when I’m in a better mood for it though.

5. The Boy Who Steals Houses-CG Drews

CG (aka PaperFury) has always been one of my favourite bloggers, and I got her 2018 release A Thousand Perfect Notes through Netgalley in 2018. Naturally, I wanted to support her, so I requested her second book, The Boy Who Steals Houses in 2019, thinking that it was fairly likely I’d get approved for it, given that I’d reviewed her first book and if anything my stats were better in 2019 than they were in 2018. Alas, I was punished for my arrogance as my request was not approved. This is one of those ones where I’m honestly still not sure why, as the publisher was a UK one and I had reviewed for them before, but ah well, Netgalley can be a fickle beast.

Have I Read It Yet: No! If there was an audiobook for this available then I might have read it already, but it doesn’t have one. Honestly, my interest in this one has somewhat dwindled since I first requested it, I’m not really a contemporary reader and I largely wanted to read it because CG Drews was the author so I’m not sure if I ever will read this one or not. Her 2024 release Skeleton Boys though does sound very up my street so I think I probably will read that.

6. Evermore-Sara Holland

I really enjoyed Everless when I read that one in 2018, and so the sequel went straight onto my TBR pile. However despite the fact that I was approved for Everless by the same publisher (the author’s UK based publisher), when I requested Evermore, I was rejected for it. I remember being quite miffed at the time because I thought since I was approved for the first book, that it would be fairly likely I would get an approval for the second book but alas that is not how Netgalley always works.

Have I Read It Yet: No! According to my review, I was very excited for the sequel when I finished the first book and I said I really needed the second book after the way the first book ended (I now cannot for the life of me remember how it ended!). However after not being approved by Netgalley, I didn’t want to get the paperback copy when I didn’t have the first book, and I didn’t want to download the e-book because I generally don’t much like reading off a screen, I did for Netgalley but I wasn’t going to pay to read a book in a format that wasn’t my favourite. I didn’t have Audible at the time or any other audiobook service, so there basically wasn’t any option for me that would work. I do have Audible now, so I could read the audiobook, but at this point, I’ve basically lost all interest: I can’t remember what happened in the first book and I don’t really read YA Fantasy much anymore, so I think we’ll mark this one as one I did want to read in the past but not longer have any interest in.

7. Reign of The Fallen-Sarah Glenn Marsh

I was first drawn to this one by the cover, the juxtaposition of the pink with the skull was very intriguing to me and I love the shade of pink, that really pale pink is not something you usually get on book covers. Looking into it a bit more made it appeal to me even more, the main character is a necromancer, love a bit of necromancy and the whole book revolves around fighting zombie-like reanimated corpses. What’s not love? Sadly, Netgalley decided that my request for this book was not to be, I think again because it wasn’t published in the UK and the US publisher wouldn’t grant requests from readers outside the US (again I know it’s not up to them and it’s to do with licensing and everything, so no hard feelings).

Have I Read It Yet?: Yes! I read this one at the end of 2018. It actually ended up being slightly underwhelming for me (which had me wishing I had been approved on Netgalley rather than buying a £15 hardback!), I loved the idea and the concept but I didn’t feel it was executed all that well. I said in my review that I thought I’d read the sequel, but I haven’t yet and honestly I don’t think I’m going to, I’ve lost interest in continuing this duology.

8. Mask of Shadows-Linsey Miller

I’m always a sucker for stories about thieves so when I saw that Mask of Shadows was about a gender-fluid thief auditioning to be an assassin for the queen, it sounded right up my street. Thieves, assassins, competition, all things I love. So I requested it from Netgalley but once again it wasn’t something that was being published in the UK and the US publisher wouldn’t grant non-US reader requests. You’d think by this point I would have learned, but I was ever hopeful!

Have I Read It Yet? No. Honestly, since 2017 my interest in it has kind of waned, I think just as a natural consequence of reading less YA these days, I tend not to seek out those stories as much and I think I just got burned out on YA fantasy, so I tend to be pickier with those these days. I’m not saying I’ll never read this, but it’s not top of my TBR anymore.

9. Lore-Alexandra Bracken

I love anything Greek mythology related so when this was announced and it was described as Greek mythology meets The Hunger Games, it immediately sounded right up my street so I requested it. I’m not quite sure why I got declined this one, because it was published in the UK and I had a relatively good ratio at the time I requested it, but again Netgalley will Netgalley.

Have I Read This Yet? Yes! I read this one in 2021, and I have to say I was somewhat disappointed by it. The premise was really inventive, but it just didn’t live up to it. It managed to somehow be both too slow paced and too fast at the same time (a rare feat!) and I found the plot and worldbuilding very muddled and confused throughout. There were so many characters that I just couldn’t keep track, none of them felt very developed and the level of violent misogyny was just too much for me. I feel like if this one had been a duology and had a bit more time to flesh out the characters, it might have been a bit better because the idea definitely had potential but the execution was just a let down.

10. Wintersong-S. Jae Jones

I requested this one in 2017, largely off the beautiful cover, but also because it sounded unique and different. So I requested it from Netgalley, but I guess at the time it wasn’t being published in the UK, and the US publisher rejected me (though the book was later published in the UK).

Have I Read It Yet? Yes, I did and I hated it! I don’t usually say that about books, but I just could not follow what was going on in this story at all. It was a cool idea and everything but I spent 500 pages absolutely baffled by what was going on. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the Netgalley rejection as a sign, and just given up on this book or at least DNF’ed it because it did feel like 500 pages wasted and that the time could have been better spent reading a book I enjoyed.

So there we go, some of the Netgalley rejections that have crushed me over the years. Honestly, I was quite surprised by how much of a mixed bag the ones I read ended up being, a lot were either disappointing because I expected too much of them (Crossfire, Lore, Reign of The Fallen), or I just didn’t enjoy at all (Wintersong). Of the ones I’ve read only Legendary and Not Even Bones really lived up to my expectations in terms of both enjoyment and quality, and quite a lot of the ones I haven’t read, I’m no longer interested in. I think that probably just goes to show how much my reading tastes have changed in the last five years or so, but it is interesting to look back on requests I was so invested in at the time and realise that I’m not really invested in those books anymore. Are you on Netgalley? Any requests you can remember being really disappointed in not getting? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next Tuesday for another Top Ten Tuesday, the topic is Books or Covers That Look/Feel Like Summer but I’ve done both those topics before and honestly I don’t think I could come up with anything more for either of them (I’ve done the Summery Book Covers topic twice, and the last time was only last year!). So I will yet again be going rogue and whilst I was looking through my old posts to check if I’d done this topic before (I’ve done so many by this point that I do have to check to make sure so that I don’t accidentally do the same list twice!), I saw the 10 Random Quotes From My TBR post that I did last year and remembered that one being super fun to do, so I’m going to do it again for you next week. One of these days I will stop being a rebel and do the actual topic again, but next week isn’t the time!