Thank you for the opportunity to read snippets from the Fall Release books. It's quite a diverse collection, pulling from settings all over the globe. Although none of these selections engaged my interest enough to purchase the individual books when they are released, I wish these debut authors well.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to review this Sampler in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting mix of genres are included in this Fall 2020 Debut Fiction Sampler of nine fiction books by debut authors. I’m looking forward to checking a few out that were intriguing from the sampler - The Push by Ashley Audrain, The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn, and Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Memmie. Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to sample the works of these debut authors.

Love the sneak peek of new books coming out. Great!

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

Each of the stories had it's own characteristics and charm, however known of them fully grabbed me and compelled me the seek out the whole book.

I am elated to see what will be published this fall. Each one of the books sampled sounds interesting, engaging, and well written. I look forward to purchasing a few.

I absolutely adore discovering what's upcoming with my favourite authors and favourite genres. Love the early sneak peeks!

I love books about books, so I really enjoyed the Fall 2020 Debut Fiction Sampler, compiled by various authors. This book is a collection of excerpts and information about upcoming novels, and it's a great way to find new titles on your TBR (to-be-read) list. After browsing through some of these cliffhangers, I'm adding to my wishlist on Amazon.com.

Highly recommended.

In this sampler, my favorites were “Nights When Nothing Happened” by Simon Han and “Fifty Words for Rain” by Asha Lemmie. They’re each well out of my comfort zone, which is why I love these samplers so much. They make me read past the blurb on the back and really get me excited for books to come.

I always enjoy reading these catalogues. I get a lot of good ideas what to read next and what I don't want to read. I find a lot of new authors too that I am interested in.

Thank you so much for this fall sampler I love reading a few chapters of a book getting to know what is coming out in the future Although some of them were just to short I now what I will be looking for when shopping and going to the library
Thanks again

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this sampler! I'm thrilled by the diversity represented here, and I'm excited for these fall releases. I'm especially looking forward to The Mermaid from Jeju and Fifty Words for Rain. I've already read The Space Between Worlds, which I thought was a fantastic debut!

A very informative review of new fall appearing novels. Decided on a lot to add to my novels To Be Read list. I would like one of these books to come out each season.

Thank you for the 2020 Debut Fiction Sampler. I read a good portion of each title, but did not find any of them to my taste, in particular. The first story was the most intrigtuing to me (I love an unreliable narrator), but the plot lines were ultimately too confusing and I gave up (as readers are wont to do). Fiction Samplers area. great way to find new readers and new books. Although this one was not ideal for me as a reader, I will continue to seek them out to find new voices in the future. Thank you for the ARC.

Thankyou to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was a great insight to some upcoming books. However, I thought it would be more of a preview of more than a few books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read these samplers!

This was different from the other samplers I've been trying in that there's no cover copy, so it was an interesting game to play of how much I could tell about the book from the cover and the first few chapters.

I was leery when we started out with THE PUSH by Ashley Audrain, because I read the sample as part of BUZZ BOOKS and I found it immensely unsettling and just absolutely something I needed to avoid for my own mental wellbeing.

Thankfully, the rest of the samples went much better!

NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS by Keisha Bush
Cover: simple design, earth tones palette, a can with a label picturing two small boys supporting each other as they walk
Excerpt: Ibrahimah is a young boy who with his cousin Etienne is part of a gang of beggar boys on the streets of Dakar, Senegal. In the first scenes we get some magical realism, as a bird and a lion both approach Ibrahimah and seem drawn to him, but this does not come back as the rest of the excerpt focuses on the begging and the nightly count out of money to their gang boss Ahmed.
(I very much appreciated that this was set in Africa with very little excess exposition for dumb Americans like me, so I am very sorry if any of the above isn't quite right!)
Would I Read It: maybe, if the supernatural connection to animals becomes a major element

BESTIARY by K-Ming Chang
Cover: woman in tiger stripe dress with a tail. a few objects scattered about, bones, letters, and a red feather that's fallen off a large bird flying away. I have no idea what this is signaling -- is it all metaphors or do we actually have some kind of shifter?
Excerpt: The narrator is telling a story to her 10-year old daughter, about how her family moved to a new place with almost nothing but some gold her father had swallowed, and then buried once he...retrieved it. And then he forgot where it was buried, which was inconvenient because that was their only source of money.
Would I Read It: maybe. I'm not quite sure what it is about, whether the whole thing is about the narrator's childhood or if this is just a prologue, but the drama of the missing gold and desperate search had me engaged

THE MERMAID FROM JEJU by Sumi Hahn
Cover: a woman in the water and planes overhead. I'm guessing this is a WWII historical, because they're everywhere
Excerpt: A woman is eating dinner with her family when an embolism gets the best of her. We then flash back to the woman's childhood as a pearl fisher.
Would I Read It: starting out a book with a sudden death is a VERY, VERY hard sell for me, too upsetting

NIGHTS WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED by Simon Han
Cover: looking up through trees to a starry night
Excerpt: 11-year-old Jack, who was adopted from China, helps watch out for his 5-year-old sister Annabel when she sleep walks
Would I Read It: the title was a little too apt, not enough happened to pique my interest

THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS by Micaiah Johnson
Cover: woohoo, genre fiction! very striking and beautiful sci fi cover, vertical design of two sideways landscapes, one a warm-paletted desert city and the other a cool-toned tech city
Excerpt: The multiverse has been discovered, with 380 known Earths. Our narrator Cara journeys to them and collects data from population and temperatures to stock prices. Cynically, she knows she is only valuable because she was born into such desperate circumstances that in all but 8 of the Earths, she has died early so that her current self is able to visit without disrupting the universe.
Would I Read It: yes! this was fascinating world-building (although I'm confused about why there aren't infinite Earths, haha) and you really feel for Cara because she is so aware of her unfortunate circumstances

NIGHT IN TEHRAN by Philip Kaplan
Cover: forefront is a man's silhouette, background is a cityscape with intricate pattern overlaid. action thriller genre cues
Excerpt: In Paris, David Weiseman is preparing to travel to Iran and assassinate the Shah?
Would I Read It: political thrillers aren't really my style, and I had absolutely no idea what was happening

FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN by Asha Lemmie
Cover: so pretty! a cherry tree drawn in broad brush strokes, with gray diagonal slashes all across the cover for the rain
Excerpt: Noriko Kamiza has grown up with an emotionally forbidding mother. At 8 she is abandoned at her grandparents' mansion, but they unfortunately also turn out to be abusive and banish her to the attic.
Would I Read It: I think so -- it's hard not to feel for this little girl with lines like "So far, in eight years of life, Nori had a collection of twelve ribbons, one for each time she'd been able to make her mother happy," though I'll need to read the cover copy to see if things get better or just stay bleak

FORTUNE FAVORS THE DEAD by Stephen Spotswood
Cover: noir! illustration with two VERY different women in a nighttime scene
Excerpt: Willowjean "Will" Parker comes from circus people but has found a job as a nighttime guard. One night Lillian Pentecost comes to confront her boss and Will helps her out of a sticky situation
Would I Read It: I think so, though I'm not sure what will happen now, as this seems very much like a prologue to the further adventures of Lillian and Will

I'm very happy with this collection, as it has a good variety of offerings (though 3 of 9 are narrated by children, is this...a common trope of adult novels?). I am definitely interested in THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, and potentially interested in NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS, BESTIARY, FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN, and FORTUNE FAVORS THE DEAD. 5/9 is a pretty good ratio based on my experience with these kinds of miscellaneous samplers!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love this opportunity to read excerpts of new works from cutting edge authors to help determine my upcoming reading experiences. It is a privilege!

Wholly Entertaining Tasters.....
Covering debut fiction releases for Autumn. Sampler format, wholly entertaining tasters of nine new novels (listed already by publisher). Always welcome, always entertaining and always useful. Many thanks!

Great sampler. I always enjoy seeing these types of catalogs, especially a catalogue that shows upcoming literary fiction and mystery/thriller fall and summer releases.

Always love these samplers. It's awesome to read samples and get some idea of what I will want to look for upcoming. The Mermaid of Jeju by Sumi Hahn is absolutely on my TBR list. Wow sounds amazing
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to read the upcoming samples.

I found several books to add to my TBR list from this collection. In particular I am curious about The Space Between Worlds, Fifty Words for Rain, Nights When Nothing Happened, The Mermaid from Jeju, and The Push. Thank you for the opportunity!