172. Out of this World - Mod. L.N.

[E.M.]

The review group is the most successful group for peer reviews on goodreads. It hosts non-reciprocal reading/review rounds of ten authors with a variety of themes and genres, as well as ‘general’ rounds where any book is permitted, from non-fiction, to horror. When a round has ‘now forming’ in the title, there are places available, you can sign up. If it doesn’t, it’s full – look for another round.
The new amazon rules state that authors/publishers are no longer allowed to specifically supply published books in return for reviews on amazon. To comply with this new rule, we no longer insist members review on amazon. However, we are all in the same situation, we want reviews.
When sorting out groups, I prioritise those members who have fully participated in previous groups and don’t have multiple review connections with the other participants.

This is an 'Out of this World' round
Fiction books classified as sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, paranormal.

If you are only willing to review your own preferred genre, make sure you join a genre round. Allocation is entirely random and there will NOT be any rearranging of the listing to accommodate personal preference. The ONLY circumstance in which you may duck out of giving a review is if YOU provide a stand-in reviewer.
Let’s be honest here – we don’t all like the same things but we all want reviews. The only way this group can function is if we trust each other to behave honourably. And it IS perfectly possible to give a fair-minded review of a text that does not coincide with our normal choice of reading matter. If you need a few hints/tips, please see this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Now for the boring stuff, but please read it, it saves a lot of time if everyone is on the same wavelength.
Before signing up below with your goodreads author and goodreads book link in the thread below, please ensure that:
1. You have enough time to read and review 4 books within the time allowed.

2. Your book is currently available for sale on amazon (not pre-order) and it complies with the individual round theme, if there is one.

3. Your book is fit to be reviewed. If it is not, due to editing or other issues, you risk poor reviews. This is your problem, not that of the reviewers or the groups. For a small fee, the group admin will look at the first few pages of your book to advise. The number one error new authors make is not having their book beta read and edited, by non-family members.

4. You can submit reviews to goodreads, amazon.com and amazon.uk. Amazon has recently changed their criteria for reviewers to allow only those people who have spent $50 on amazon. If you are unsure about your amazon reviewer status, try posting a ‘test’ review before signing up.

5. You can provide (and accept) at least PDF files. Many authors can also provide mobi and epub files. You are not expected or required to buy the books you are allocated to review. Some authors borrow books via KU and others provide smashwords coupons. This is their choice. International Copyright laws apply. You cannot sell, or give away material you have received without the author’s express permission.

6. It is up to individuals what disclaimers they place in a review concerning receiving a book in exchange for a review. Note: reviews that state you received a copy ‘IN RETURN’ for a review will probably be removed/not allowed by amazon.com. ‘I received a free copy from the author without an obligation to review’ would be more acceptable if you feel the need to add a disclaimer.

7. You have completed your reading if you are currently in another review round in this group. You can be involved in the ‘one for one’ list whilst you are in a round.

8. You have an author profile set up before you join.

9. Your goodreads profile allows people to message you, i.e. your profile is not set to private.

10. You declare any relationship you have with another member in the round. Amazon will not allow reviews from the same household on the same book or if you are an editor, relative or close friend of another member.

11. You agree that your reviews will be unbiased and honest, whatever the star rating, and you will try to avoid ‘spoilers’. i.e. giving away the finale of a book.

12. You will not ask a fellow author to change a review of your book because you don’t agree with it. If you think you have a legitimate concern, talk to the mod of your round, NOT the other author. Personal attacks, or pressurising other members WILL NOT BE TOLERATED and will result in you being blacklisted.

13. The new amazon.com review guidelines do not allow for free books to be supplied in return for reviews. Therefore, you are not obliged to review on amazon, just on goodreads. We all want reviews, its why we joined the group. It is bad taste to expect other people to review your book and then not do the same for other people in the group. People that DNF and/or don’t post reviews will find it difficult to get into a subsequent group.

14. Your goodreads details and the rounds you participate in will be recorded by the admin mod on a database. We do not retain details of email addresses etc.

The founding principle of the group is honest, non-reciprocal reviews, so please help maintain the integrity of the group by letting me know as you sign up if you have been reviewed by, or have reviewed another author in the group. Usually places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
I will do my best to fit everyone into the group they request, but occasionally, particularly in the case of our more prolific good standing members, I may have to decline a member request to fit the maximum number of people into a particular round. I will always endeavour to start another round as soon as possible with that member in mind.
It is permissible to review an author more than once if a different book is available.
If you need anything clarified please ask, either by goodreads personal message to me or on the thread below, before signing up. It’s a pain to have to keep rearranging the list because people haven’t read the above.

Your group moderator will be:
L.N. Denison

Member Links
1. L.N. Denison
2. Gloria Piper
3. C.E. Johnson
4. Caleb Abel
5. Lucretia Stanhope
6. Stacie Eirich
7. Sara Crawford
8. Jeanette O'Hagan
9. Benedict Holmes
10. Brin Murray

Book Links
1. Only the Few
2. Grounded: A Dragon's Tale
3. Bluestone
4. Tales of the Renegade: The Golden Strawberry
5. Blessedly Bound
6. Bear Kingdom & The Golden Sword
7. We Own the Sky
8. Akrad's Children
9. Man In The Moon: The Thrilling Autobiography of Legendary War Criminal, John Detweiler Van Saks
10. Children of the Furnace

[L.N.]

I would like to add my name to the hat with Only the Few. Here are my links:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Thanks E.M =D!

[E.M.]

Happy to help :)

[Gloria]

Hi,
Count me in, please. While I am entering Grounded, a Dragon's Tale for review, I have other books available that are suitable for this list.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

[E.M.]

You are counted in, Gloria! :)

Please do check back as the list grows to let me know if you have any clashes.

[C.E.]

I would like to enter with Bluestone - The Ammolite Adventures. No conflicts so far. Thanks

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[E.M.]

You are entered C.E. :)

[Lucretia]

Can I join with Blessedly Bound? C.E. has read it, but I have other books they can read. I have posted all reviews for my other rounds, read, and understand the rules.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

[E.M.]

You are joined Lucretia! :)

[L.N.]

None of the authors below me have read my stuff. I don't think....Gloria's name rings a bell. I will have to check.

[Brin]

I would like to join if possible.
Children of the Furnace
Brin Murray
I've read Only The Few, LN Denison

[Lucretia]

I've read Children of the Furnace.

[E.M.]

So far it is possible Brin, consider yourself joined!

[Brin]

I've only just noticed there is another round, 170 also forming. I thought I might swap to that. It seems to be a bit further along... so long as I can do that one. If I can, I'll withdraw from this one, if that's okay??

[E.M.]

Sorry, Brin, you don't fit there as I have reviewed you and you have no other book I can read and I am already placed in the one possible spot to avoid another individual with that same issue.

[Brin]

No worries, I'll stick to this round then

[Stacie]

I’d like to participate with my new children’s fantasy novel: Bear Kingdom & The Golden Sword.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I’ve just completed my fourth review for Group 168, and see no conflicts here, so should be ok to join. :-)

Thanks,

Stacie

[Lucretia]

I have read Stacie, but not this part. Look forward to it. <3

[E.M.]

You are now participating Stacie!

[Caleb]

Hi! I've never done this before, so please have patience with me.

I don't see where the start and end dates are? What is the time frame we'll have to read the 4 books? I had checked the main list for some sort of master rules and couldn't find anything like that.

Additionally, if I co-wrote my book with someone, is it possible that he and I could be assigned 4 books to review between the two of us? He could do two and I could do two? How might that work?

Here's our book. It is Middle Grade fantasy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Thank you for your help!

[E.M.]

I've added you in, Caleb.

To answer your questions - you will have 12 weeks (3 weeks per book) to read the four books assigned to you. If you and your co-author each wish to read and review two of the four books, that is fine as long as you both can post to Goodreads, Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Hope that helps you :)

[Caleb]

Thank you very much! You've definitely answered my questions. Given the amount of time is more than I expected (I was worried it would be a week per book or something much faster which would have been very difficult), I'm speaking with my co-author about joining separately.

If he did, would he need to join a separate group? If he joined this same one, every other person in this circle would end up reading our book.

Also it's no big deal as it's a common mistake, but my last name is spelled Abel, like Cain & Abel. You had spelled it Able in the list, which I'm very thankful to be added to at all.

[E.M.]

Ooops sorry - corrected that Caleb.

You can't both join the same round unless you are sharing the reading.

[L.N.]

Brin has already read Only the Few.

[Caleb]

Thanks, E.M.! I figured that was probably the case. I should be able to do all 4 since there's ample time.

[Sara]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the group, but I would like to add my book to this round! It's called We Own the Sky

Thanks so much! I'm excited to get reading!

[C.E.]

I reviewed Stacie's Tiger Kingdom, but not this one

[S.D.]

Removed my signup here, before it was tacked on, to get the other group going (as they needed one). If that is all hunky-dory.

[E.M.]

Added you Sara!

[Sara]

E.M. wrote: "Added you Sara!"

Thanks so much!

[Jeanette]

If there are still places available - I'd love to join in with Akrad's Children
Lucretia has already reviewed it, but otherwise I see no conflicts :)

[E.M.]

I have joined you, Jeanette - you will need to offer Lucretia a different book to read though.

[Jeanette]

No worries. For Lucretia - Heart of the Mountain

[Jaci]

Hi E.M.

I would love to take the last spot but as I look at the order I don't think it will work as Lucretia has already read my book. Let me know and if it doesn't work I will jump into another round at some point. Thanks!

[E.M.]

Sadly I can't fit you in Jaci as you only have the one book and the one place which would enable you to avoid Lucretia is already taken by someone with exactly the same issue. You could look at joining the General round if you wanted though.

[Jaci]

That is what I thought. No problem E.M. Thanks anyway - I'll jump in on another round in the future!

[Benedict]

Hello, fellows.
If the spot is still open, I would like to throw my own hat into the ring.
My links are:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
and on Amazon:
https://tinyurl.com/y8uhn9gx
This entire group is a brilliant idea. Wish I had thought of it.
-Bennet

[E.M.]

Your hat is in the ring, Benedict, and that fills the group. :)

I will leave it all pending until tomorrow so everyone has a final chance to sing out if they have reviewed any of the four people in the list above them - the list wraps around so 7,8,9,10 are all 'above' 1.

[Jeanette]

Lucretia has reviewed Akrad’s Children. Otherwise I’m fine.

[Lucretia]

Jeanette wrote: "Lucretia has reviewed Akrad’s Children. Otherwise I’m fine."

Jeanette, you said in another comment that you wanted me to read Heart of the Mountain for this round, is that still the case?

[E.M.]

OK - here we go!

START DATE: 23-Jan-18

END DATE: 17-Apr-18

Round 1 – post your review by 13-Feb-18
Round 2 – post your review by 06-Mar-18
Round 3 – post your review by 27-Mar-18
Round 4 – post your review by 17-Apr-18

As AUTHORS you send your book file to:

172-01__L.N. Denison
Brin Murray for round 1
Benedict Holmes for round 2
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 3
Sara Crawford for round 4

172-02__Gloria Piper
L.N. Denison for round 1
Brin Murray for round 2
Benedict Holmes for round 3
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 4

172-03__C.E. Johnson
Gloria Piper for round 1
L.N. Denison for round 2
Brin Murray for round 3
Benedict Holmes for round 4

172-04__Caleb Abel
C.E. Johnson for round 1
Gloria Piper for round 2
L.N. Denison for round 3
Brin Murray for round 4

172-05__Lucretia Stanhope
Caleb Abel for round 1
C.E. Johnson for round 2
Gloria Piper for round 3
L.N. Denison for round 4

172-06__ Stacie Eirich
Lucretia Stanhope for round 1
Caleb Abel for round 2
C.E. Johnson for round 3
Gloria Piper for round 4

172-07__ Sara Crawford
Stacie Eirich for round 1
Lucretia Stanhope for round 2
Caleb Abel for round 3
C.E. Johnson for round 4

172-08__ Jeanette O'Hagan
Sara Crawford for round 1
Stacie Eirich for round 2
Lucretia Stanhope for round 3
Caleb Abel for round 4

172-09__ Benedict Holmes
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 1
Sara Crawford for round 2
Stacie Eirich for round 3
Lucretia Stanhope for round 4

172-10__ Brin Murray
Benedict Holmes for round 1
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 2
Sara Crawford for round 3
Stacie Eirich for round 4

As REVIEWERS you will receive books for review from:

172-01__L.N. Denison
Gloria Piper for round 1
C.E. Johnson for round 2
Caleb Abel for round 3
Lucretia Stanhope for round 4

172-02__Gloria Piper
C.E. Johnson for round 1
Caleb Abel for round 2
Lucretia Stanhope for round 3
Stacie Eirich for round 4

172-03__C.E. Johnson
Caleb Abel for round 1
Lucretia Stanhope for round 2
Stacie Eirich for round 3
Sara Crawford for round 4

172-04__Caleb Abel
Lucretia Stanhope for round 1
Stacie Eirich for round 2
Sara Crawford for round 3
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 4

172-05__Lucretia Stanhope
Stacie Eirich for round 1
Sara Crawford for round 2
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 3
Benedict Holmes for round 4

172-06__ Stacie Eirich
Sara Crawford for round 1
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 2
Benedict Holmes for round 3
Brin Murray for round 4

172-07__ Sara Crawford
Jeanette O'Hagan for round 1
Benedict Holmes for round 2
Brin Murray for round 3
L.N. Denison for round 4

172-08__ Jeanette O'Hagan
Benedict Holmes for round 1
Brin Murray for round 2
L.N. Denison for round 3
Gloria Piper for round 4

172-09__ Benedict Holmes
Brin Murray for round 1
L.N. Denison for round 2
Gloria Piper for round 3
C.E. Johnson for round 4

172-10__ Brin Murray
L.N. Denison for round 1
Gloria Piper for round 2
C.E. Johnson for round 3
Caleb Abel for round 4


Please remember the commitment you are making to your fellow group members. If you pull out after the start date for any reason it is the other members who will be faced with the problem of finding a replacement, or missing out on reads/reviews, through no fault of their own. Please don’t ask the moderators to chase after replacements as we just don’t have the time.

It is the responsibility of the author to get their book to their readers in a format the reviewer can manage. Everyone must be able to provide and accept PDF. You may buy or borrow the books you are due to read if you wish, and I’m sure the author will appreciate the verified review, but IT IS NOT COMPULSORY. There are no set dates for the start of each round. You can each work at your own pace, within the limits of the round deadlines.

All reviews must be posted to GR. We also encourage members to post on amazon .com and .uk. When you have posted your reviews, please post the three links to your reviews, not the book page in this thread.
The mod of each round will record whether members have posted reviews on amazon and for the good of all, members who persistently fail to post reviews or DNF reviews to amazon, will find mods less than willing to add them to subsequent groups.

Postings to other sites are by agreement by both author and reviewer.

If I’ve missed something that results in you being asked to review someone who has already reviewed you, please let me know asap.

To exchange book files, my advice is to use PM to give email addresses to each other (save the chance of spammers getting your addies from this open forum). Happy reviewing, everyone :)

Please consider downloading one of my books and/or one of the round mod’s books as a thank you for all the hard work we put in for the group.

[E.M.]

Please read this especially if you are new to these review rounds.

Quick 'start-up' summary for anyone new who might be scratching their heads. You should PM the four people who will be reviewing you through their Goodreads author pages. Click on the down arrow beside the 'Follow Author' button under their picture and it opens a menu which will allow you to message them.

Ask what kind of file they would like or say you can only offer PDF, though unless a publisher uploaded it for you, you can always download a .mobi of your own book from Amazon.

Don't forget to ask where to send it so they can give you their email.

The four people who you are reviewing should be in touch with you in a similar way.

You can, of course, choose to buy any or all of the books instead, or read the books on KU, if you are a subscriber and the books are available there.

Please make sure you have exchanged ALL FOUR books - or have been assured by your reviewers they will buy your book or read it through KU - as soon as possible. Some people read fast and it can be very frustrating to have to wait a long time to get hold of a book you are committed to review.

Finally, if you have never posted to an Amazon site that is not your own, please read this post on how to do so.

[E.M.]

Now I hand you over to your Mod for the round - L.N. Denison!

[L.N.]

I''d like to.welcome you all to this reading round. All I ask is that you follow the guidelines, and have fun. If you do encounter any problems, I'll be a PM away. Happy reading

[Lucretia]

Thank you. I'll pick up all my assignments on kindle or KU, depending on what is available.

Looking forward to reading everyone.

[Jeanette]

Lucretia wrote: "Jeanette wrote: "Lucretia has reviewed Akrad’s Children. Otherwise I’m fine."

Jeanette, you said in another comment that you wanted me to read Heart of the Mountain for this round, is that still t..."

Hi Lucretia - yes Heart of the Mountain

Thanks.

[L.N.]

I have picked up all my books via KU, all bar one.

[L.N.]

Gloria... can you PM me, so I can give you my email to send a mobi file of your book. Thanks.

[Benedict]

Folks, am I missing anybody? I THINK I've reached out to everybody I need to, but it's been a busy day. Let me know if I need to send anyone my book - or if you need to send me yours.
I think I'm missing Gloria. Gloria, if you read this, could you PM me, as well? I would also be looking for a .mobi, if you have it.

[Lucretia]

Round one. Great to read you again Stacie.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3TA9PJ...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R20M4...