Hey guys, it’s Amy! Since I am a Book reviewer, I have access to ARCs from Netgalley. Which is… Basically the coolest thing ever. I can request them, and presto! There they are! (Well, I don’t always get them, because….) I have the worst rating ever. How can I say that? I’ve given zero feedback on the books I’ve gotten from Netgalley. (This is especially important for reviewers on Netgalley, because it makes you look good, so more publishers will let you have copies of things, and it’s an endless cycle of give and take goodness.) Now, I’m not intentionally scamming them! Most of the books I have from Netgalley (not even that many) I wasn’t able to find my copy of for the longest time (but I’ve got them figured out now), and two of them were Buzz Books! Whiiiiich is basically a book of excerpts of coming-up books. Which of course sound amazing. And Buzz Books count as books toward my 0% feedback score. So let’s just talk about them a bit, shall we?

• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is a story about loss and grief. Essentially, the main character’s friend dies in a drowning accident, and she refuses to accept it. Her friend could swim well, and they were young, and it just doesn’t make sense- it’s impossible. She can’t have drowned. So when she sees a jellyfish exhibit, explaining how many jellyfish stings cause death or injury and are presumed to be other things, she grabs onto the idea, and becomes determined to prove that her friend died from a jellyfish sting instead of drowning. Wow. This book has a lot of baggage. I started reading this book, and I was immediately sucked in by the intriguing writing, pulled all the way to the last page. It’s so interesting and amazing, and thankfully, my library has it! Woohoo!
• The Game of Lives by James Dashner is the third book in the Eye of Minds series. This is also the reason I wasn’t comfortable reading the excerpt. I wouldn’t want to spoil the first one for myself, especially as I’m considering reading it sometime! (Hopefully soon, as I’ve been borrowing a copy from a friend forEVER.)
• These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly is a historical fiction mystery. Jo follows society’s rules, but only just barely. She doesn’t believe girls should be forced to marry and men allowed to do whatever they like. She’s in the middle of trying to share a daring story when she is told that her father has died. He was simply cleaning a revolver and it went off…. Or at least, that’s what she’s been told. Oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH. The prologue was simply so intense…. And I immediately felt for Jo, who automatically assumes (wrongly) that her friends’ father has died, as he has been in ill health, not realizing that it could be her own. OH BOY. I need this one too. *help*
• Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood is a science fiction/fantasy with three royal houses. They each have multiple planets. Asa is the youngest daughter in the house of Fane, and she is struggling to find her place within the family, and still help with the immense problems they have. First it was fuel. They had to intentionally destroy multiple planets to harvest their fuel. Then it was the blight. With the new energy system came contamination, infecting food and people, and making travel impossible. It wiped out one of Fane’s most important planets- the one that grew 50-75% of their food. Either her older sister, Emmie, is married off to some other heir, or they starve. And on top of that, her other sister Wren, who is the heir, is dying, and it’s Asa’s fault. With the whole world falling apart- not to mention so many others just like it- Asa has to find a way to save her people. By the time she figures it out, it might just be too late. These are some AMAZING picks (for whoever picked these excerpts)! The writing is amazing, and the story just jumped right in. In my explanation, it sounds massively confusing, but the author does a fantastic job of laying it all out in a way that makes sense and can be remembered well.  I can’t wait to read the rest of this one!
• The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle has so many coincidences. So many accidents. So many mistakes. But are they all really so innocent? Cara has to find out on her own what is happening to her family- before something irreversible happens. Um, I have to tell you I didn’t actually read this excerpt. DON’T WORRY, I didn’t cheat! I’ve actually already read this book. And it was really interesting. And it doesn’t appear that I wrote a review on it? What is wrong with me? Oh well, this is what I had written in Goodreads (see, I really did read it!):

AHHHH it was just… SO good. I know a lot of people did not enjoy this one, but I loved the way everything came together in a haphazard manner. There were a lot of unspokens in this book, a lot of having to simply ASSUME events, and I loved every minute of it. I am, of course, now in a reading slump. Boo.

• Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski is set on an island where sunrise isn’t every 24 hours- it’s 28 years. The sun is quickly sinking, and night is coming soon. Everyone on Bliss will have to evacuate for 14 years until it’s safe to come back. Malin and Line are climbing by the water when they notice the tide changing and the ice forming. It’s only a matter of time before everything freezes, and it won’t thaw for another 14 years. Well, this was unexpected! Apparently, it’s actually on my TBR already (oh, the strange things that happen when your TBR is over 650 books….), and I can see why! This excerpt was actually pretty short compared to the other ones, but it definitely captured my interest!
• Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman is, essentially, Alexander the Great. And I basically know nothing about it. Except running with gazelles is cool. I’d have to read more to figure this one out!
• What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler is actually a contemporary (isn’t that a nice change!) that starts with a wild party with lots of alcohol, basketball boys, and more than likely some other things as well. The next day, Kate is a bit hungover, but she left the party early, so she has no idea what happened. Her friend Stacey isn’t at school, and Kate and some other girls speculate about why not. But when Kate sees a picture of Stacey later on at the party, she has to wonder- what really happened there? Hmmmm, this sounds really interesting. It looks to me like something happened with the boys, but I can’t be sure. It’s interesting to see Kate’s perspective, because she doesn’t really know Stacey as well as she used to.

Alriiiiiight, so this is a tad longer than I expected. I’m looking at the word count, and I think I’ll stop here, because I don’t want to bore you guys! I totally didn’t realize how long it would be, but that’s okay! I’m really enjoying giving these mini-reviews/basically summaries of the excerpts, so I think I’ll try to do one a week until I can get all the way through with all of the excerpts in both Buzz Books. I hope you guys enjoyed this! Please let me know your thoughts, as I’ll definitely try to do it more often if you do, and I won’t if you don’t!

Have you guys read any of these books? Plan to? What were your thoughts? Do you like Netgalley? Have you ever seen these Buzz Books? Again, please let me know what you thought down in the comments; I’d love to hear it! Toodles!