If the samples in here are anything to go by, 2021 is looking like an awesome year for books! I’m hyped for all of these, and cannot wait to get my hands on them when they officially release!

A fabulous collection of extracts from the upcoming winter 2021 releases at Fierce Reads. This has really helped me planning purchases for the next part of the year.

Interesting collection of books.
Great way to read a sample of a book before committing to reading the whole book.
Brilliant way of trying out an author or genre new to you as a reader.

Can I just say EVERY single one of these is on my want to read list? I was lucky to receive some of these as early reader copies and I CANNOT wait to devour them. Fierce Reads just amazes me with every title they release!

What I love about samplers is finding stories that didn’t initially catch my attention with the cover or summary, but won me over with impressive writing. The standouts for me were The Mirror Season, The Awakening of Malcolm X, Firekeeper’s Daughter, The Forest of Stolen Girls, City of Spells and We Free the Stars.

This title gave me an error every time I tried to load it in my kindle app, so I was unable to read it.

I really enjoyed this sampler and it gave me a lot of good ideas of things I need to read in 2021! Thanks for for the samples of these books!

Found a few great new titles to read through this sampler - especially excited about Lost in the Never Woods, What Big Teeth, and The Forest of Stolen Girls,

One comment -- the division between books was weird on the Kindle. There was not a title page before each excerpt so I had to flip back to the ToC to see what I was reading next (not a big deal, but thought I'd mention it).

Thank you for this!

This Sampler has me hyped for SO MANY BOOKS, especially Lost in the Never Woods (Peter Pan retelling? YES PLEASE) & What Big Teeth! I'm already planning on pre-ordering those ASAP.

A great sampler and looking forward to seeing new releases in 2021! I'm especially excited for Lost in the Never Woods and Firekeeper's Daughter!

What a wonderful line-up Fierce Reads has coming this winter!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for these advanced samples. I can't wait to read the full books!!

I was incredibly disappointed in this sampler. I didn’t expect much because it is a sampler, but since it’s made to be a preview, I expected the format to make more sense. I’ve gotten samplers from NetGalley before and really liked how they were laid out. But this one was so confusing. I expected brief descriptions or synopses with each book, sections for each book so I could easily hop around, and links to the galleys to request them to read. Instead, everything was a horrible jumble. I didn’t know which previous was which, especially since they weren’t separated by titles, and it just went directly from one preview to the next. I love Fierce Reads and there are books in the preview I’m excited about because I had previously heard of them. But this sampler itself was horrid.

Fierce Reads has set the bar high with their 2021 reads, and this sampler proves it. The two excerpts that most drew me in were Lost in the Never Wood, and The Mirror Season. They both started strong and I'm looking forward to being able to read the full books.

Thank you to Fierce Reads for this sampler!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this preview. These are some great samples, I can't wait to read these books!

My interest is officially piqued! While I didn't read all the samplers because I haven't read the first books in those series, but of the excerpts I did read, I really liked them! I especially loved The Forest of Lost Girls and Lost in the Never Woods. The other books were fine, but not my cup of tea per se. However, just because I didn't love them doesn't say anything about their quality!

This was a fun sampler to read to get excited for so many different releases coming out this year!!
Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas (fantasy) This Peter Pan reimagining sounds really fun, especially since it'll be more of a modern take. I'm really interested in this one and want to know so bad where it's going. can't wait to read it!! 5/5
What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo (fantasy) This debut seems like an interesting and different werewolf story. There are so many questions being asked at the beginning and I really want all of the answers! 4/5
The Half Orphan's Handbook by Joan F Smith (contemporary) Trigger warning for discussion of suicide. This one seems really sad and a little too relatable for me. The descriptions of grief are spot on and this seems like it will be a very good story of healing. 4/5
The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore (contemporary) Trigger warning for this one as it involves sexual assault on both a male and female, not details though, at least at the beginning. The girl had a special power inherited from her bisabuela that she loses after her assault, which I found to be very interesting. This seems like it'll be a story for dealing with trauma and revery. Definitely one I want to check out! 5/5
Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink (historical) The beginning of this story covers the days leading up to the Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa and the rest of the story looks to continue on through the days of it as well. This looks like it will be pretty powerful read and probably pretty heartbreaking, but definitely a story that everyone should read! 4/5
The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D Jackson (historical) A narrative account of Malcolm X's years in prison as a young man, this will definitely be a powerful read. In just the first few chapters, you witness the injustice taking place again Black men specifically, and how much worse it is in the prisons. Very well written, it felt like reading a biography. 4/5
The Forest of Stolen Girls by Jane Hur (historical) A historical thriller set in the 1400's in Korea, a young woman disguises herself as a man to find out what happened to her detective father and solve the mystery of who's killing girl in the forests on the island of her childhood. Definitely an interesting concept and I'm very intrigued. 4/5
The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley (thriller) This debut doesn't read as a thriller at first, the first few chapters read more as contemporary, but it turns into a 'rooting out corruption' type story as you go. I'm actually more interested in this one by reading the first few chapters than I would have been just reading the description. The Native American representation is not something I see a lot of and I'm happy to see that. Definitely interested in reading this one. 5/5
The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (thriller) This thriller, set at a NYC prep school felt very "Pretty Little Liars" to me. The narrator is the nerdy girl/new kid/ teacher's daughter at this very preppy school for rich kids, so she already is an odd one out. Some of the rich kids have been pranked pretty severely, which is what reminded me of "Pretty Little Liars," as a way of 'teaching them a lesson it seems. Pretty interested in this one. 4/5
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson (thriller) Trigger warning for suicide. This one starts pretty dark with a teen finding his mother dead and, with his father in prison for murder, now having to find a way to support him and his younger brother without Child Service's finding out and taking his brother away. He meets a new girl at school (who is narrating the first few paragraphs of each chapter) and it seems there story is going to pretty intense. I'm definitely interested in this one to see where it goes. 5/5
All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace (sequel) I couldn't read this one because I still haven't read the first one, but this is a series I want to read!
Cty of Spells by Alexandria Christo (sequel) I couldn't read this one because I still haven't read the first one, but this is a series I want to read!
We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (sequel) I couldn't read this one because I still haven't read the first one, but this is a series I want to read!

I love these samplers! They are such a great first look at new titles being released this winter! I think I'm most excited for Lost in the Never Woods and What Big Teeth!

A nice little sampler for what's to come. A few of these books I'd already planned on reading, but others I was on the fence of, and this gave me a better idea for the style of writing and the tone of the story. Others were sequels to books I hadn't read, so I don't have too much of an opinion on them, but at least one of them intrigued me (looking at you, We Free the Stars)

Standouts:
- The Mirror Season
- The Forest of Stolen Girls
- Firekeeper's Daughter
- What Beauty There Is

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with this sampler in return for my honest opinion.

I love checking out these samplers to get a feel for what will be coming up in the near future. There are so many great books in this sampler, it's hard to know where to begin! I am especially interested in The Mary Shelley Club, Firekeeper's Daughter, and the Awakening of Malcolm X, but I have added all of them to my TBR list. A few books, such as We Free the Stars and The Forest of Stolen Girls are out of my usual genres, but thanks to the sampler, I will be on the look out for them.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read these samplers! The only ones I couldn’t read were the sequels because I haven’t read the first books yet. I’m really excited for the fantasy books, however, because that is my favorite genre to read. Once again thank you for this opportunity.