This was an awesome package of multiple book samples but unfortunately I wasn’t interested in any of the titles.

This sampler pack has been SO helpful in beefing up my TBR ;) I will be following this publisher for future sampler packs. It's a great way to keep ahead of the game and have a little knowledge of what's coming out ahead of time! I'm most looking forward to Sunbearer Trials. After Love has Been on my TBR and I just got approved right after getting this sampler, so yay! Thank you so much for this.

A great preview of some exciting upcoming titles!! While I didn’t read every preview, I appreciated this bundle and will definitely be returning to it in the future.

Thank you for publishing the Fierce Reads Fall 2022 Digital Sampler! Fall always means so many great, new books and these samplers make a huge difference in figuring out what books might work well for my creative writing classes.

All the books for the 2022 Fall lineup look interesting and I hope I will be able to get an arc or read them when they become published.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to get a glimpse into some of the Fall 2022 releases from Fierce Reads. These samplers always help me figure out what books to keep an eye on for the upcoming season, and which ones I'm less likely to enjoy. I'm likely to pick up Princess of Souls, The Sunbearer Trials, and Self-Made Boys. I was a little disappointed that my file was missing the excerpt for Stolen City though. Overall, I'm glad that I was able to read through this and see what Fierce Reads will have to offer this Fall!

My Thoughts:
Fierce Reads is a digital teaser/sampler that comes out from the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. If I were to be training for a job, I would want to be an editor or book pusher for Macmillan or Levine Querido. They make diversifying bookshelves and finding new voices as a classroom teacher easy and exciting.

From this Fierce Reads, I have the following on my TBR list:


Welcome to The Sunbearer Trials, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes, in this electric new Mexican-inspired fantasy from Aiden Thomas, the New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.

“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just a Jade. I’m not a real hero.”


Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartache in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series.



















A dazzling new fantasy from New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, Strike the Zither is a powerful, inventive, and sweeping fantasy that reimagines the Chinese classic tale of the Three Kingdoms.

I love the idea of a sample collection of upcoming books!

We Deserve Monuments was already on my TBG list. I can’t wait to read that one. But now I think I am most excited for The Sunbearer Trials. I want to read more of this now! Stolen City and Strike the Zither also have really piqued my interest!

Fly Fest:
The first chapter throws us right into the story as the main character finds herself stranded on an island after a cancelled music festival, along with the other festival attendees. This chapter did a great job of showing the setting and introducing the main conflict, and I'd be curious which direction it goes.

Sunbearer Trials:
This concept sounds awesome. Ritual sacrifices to the Sun via trials, but in the modern age, so everything is a competition and is broadcast. I'll be looking into this one for sure. It seems like it could end up having some Hunger Games-esque vibes.

Self-made Boys:
Yay, Great Gatsby is in public domain! This was my first time reading anything that's taken advantage of that. This seems like a mostly straightforward retelling of Gatsby but with some racial and LGBT themes. The chapter sampler was short, but I can already tell that Daisy is characterized perfectly.

Stolen City:
Wasn't included in the sampler.

After Love:
Looks like this will be a fun YA Urban fantasy. Very intriguing start- interested to see where it goes. It looks like this plays around with timelines a bit, but it wasn't clear from the sampler whether that was just in the prologue or if the main chapters also alternate. Chapter 1 was a little jarring after reading the prologue, so hopefully any additional transitions aren't as jarring

Princess of Souls:
Interesting start to what looks like a enemies-to-lovers YA fantasy. I'll definitely be checking this out. We only got a glimpse of this world in the sampler chapters, but I'm very interested in the world-building here

We are the scribes:
It appears as though the main character gets some special paranormal written connection with a slave named Harriet. I'd be interested in reading this, as I'm not sure which direction it will go in, but the premise is intriguing.

Strike the Zither
This was the only one in the group that I'd heard of before, so I was very interested in reading the chapter sampler. However, after reading it, I'm not sure if this is a book I would enjoy. I didn't really connect with the writing style and it seems like it might be more violent and action-heavy than I like. Definitely could see a lot of people enjoying this though

We Deserve Monuments
Always have a soft spot for books about teens who move to a new town, and this looks promising from the sampler. I instantly got a good feel of the characters and the setting in a small southern town.

House of Yesterday
OwnVoices story with a potential magical realism / mysticism slant. This chapter sampler felt shorter than the others, so I didn't really get a good sense of the story, but it did seem interesting

I don't really know hot to give feedback on a sampler? But I am SO stoked for pretty much every title listed in here. I basically added all of them to by TBR!

Again. More books added to my TBR list! I have more of these to read, I’m so addicted to these. So many great books

I've never read a sampler before, so this was a very fun experience. My to-read list has grown significantly now as I liked most of these samples. Can't wait to check the full books out soon.

Fierce Reads has some fantastic titles coming this fall! I really enjoyed reading through this sampler and out of the ten books, I found myself getting sucked into quite a few. Afterlove, We are the Scribes, and We Deserve Monuments were all stand-outs for me in this.

I'm excited to look up more about each book! I wish that there had been a small description for each one, since I didn't know if I was getting into a contemporary, fantasy, or another genre just by the titles and covers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Fierce Reads for providing this sampler!

Thank you to Macmillan for providing this Fall 2022 sampler for advance reading. I loved reading through the ten featured titles. I am particularly excited for Joan He's STRIKE THE ZITHER and WE DESERVE MONUMENTS by Jas Hammonds. Overall a diverse selection of titles and will definitely be looking for other samplers in the future.

i saw a few of my most anticipated releases of fall on the cover and decided to read this sampler!

along with anticipated releases, i found a few books i had heard the name of but didn’t know much about + a few i had not even heard of, here are my small & short reviews of each one!

**lord of the fly fest by goldy moldavsky, 30 august 2022**

first of all, i really enjoyed the writing style in this one, it was fun! the story so far is about a group of people who bought a promising holiday on a remote island. however, they quickly discover that they aren’t getting what they were looking for. the plot seems like it could get quite interesting and i wanted to continue reading to find out what happens next. i hadn’t heard of this before so i’ll be adding it to my tbr!

**the sunbearer trials by aiden thomas, 6 september 2022**

this was already one of my most anticipated releases of the year so i was quite excited that i got to read the first few chapters early! this was also pitched as percy jackson meets the hunger games and it seems to be true so far! in this book, we seem to be in a world inspired and built around mexican gods and godesses, where their children, the semidioses, have to compete in the sunbearer trials that take place every 10 years. i was very interested in the story. the two chapters were unfortunately very short and i want to read the rest immediatelyy!

**self-made boys: a great gatsby remix by anna-marie mclemore, 6 september 2022**

another one i was already excited for despite not having read the original classic or knowing anything about it! the few chapters in the sampler were good but i didnt feel as interested to continue as i did in the previous books. this one is about nicolás who moves to new york, close to his cousin daisy, but he finds that she has changed a lot since they both last saw each other. i dont how the rest of the story will go but i do still want to get to it soon!

**stolen city by elisa a. bonnin, 20 september 2022**

another one i already had my eye on! to be honest, i was very confused through most of the sample chapters but i had just started to make sense of it when it was ending. the world in this story is qute interesting, its set in a city that has grown vertically and where magic is banned. i want to find out whats going on so ill probably read this as soon as it is released!

**afterlove by tanya byrne, 27 september 2022**

i already had this one on my tbr since it has been released before in 2021, sadly i havent been able to get to it yet. the sampler made me want to read it right now though! i really liked the writing style and it had a very intriguing start. cant wait to continue!

**princess of souls by alexandra christo, 11 october 2022**

ive only read *to kill a kingdom* by alexandra christo and to be honest, i didnt like it much, so i was interested to see what her new book was like, especially since i hadnt heard much about it anywhere. i dont know if it was because i was skeptical since i had not enjoyed her previous works, but this was not much different for me. i can already tell i would hate one of the main characters, selestra. after only two chapters from her pov, i already found her quite annoying. the last chapter in the sampler was from nox’s pov, which i did like more. still, i dont think this book is for me despite having an interesting concept.

**we are the scribes by randi pink, 18 october 2022**

i hadnt heard of this one before but the cover is so pretty (as is the case with most of the books in the sampler!) so i was excited to try it out. it was pretty interesting so i will be adding it to my tbr and hopefully reading the whole book soon!

**strike the zither by joan he, 25 october 2022**

okk so this is easily my MOST anticipated release of the whole year, its at the top of the list. i read another book from joan he, *the ones we’re meant to find,* which became my favorite of the year, as well as one of my all-time fave books. (i did really love her debut book *descendant of the crane* as well!) ive been so excited for this one ever since the deal announcement and cant wait till the release date. thankfully, i had the first chapter to read before then! inspired by the chinese classic *the romance of the three kingdoms*—which i will hopefully get to read before *strike the zither* releases!—this book follows zephyr, a character i already love from the first chapter. while the writing style was quite different from her latest book, i absolutely loved it. i think i am going to love this just as much as i do her other books! the first things ill be doing on october 25 is probably reading this book ahahah.

**we deserve monuments by jas hammonds, 29 november 2022**

this was one of those i had only heard the name of and knew nothing about. its about a girl who has to temporarily move to her moms hometown because of her grandmother’s cancer. the second chapter was a little confusing but very interesting—im sure it will start to make sense as you contniue the book though! will definitely be adding to my tbr!

**house of yesterday by deeba zargarpur, 29 november 2022**

i hadnt heard much about this one either! its about a girl who is helping her mom with her house-flipping business while taking photos. she has a grandmother who seems to forget who her daughter and granddaughter are every few minutes. when she goes to a new house in order to take pictures of it, she feels like something is off, and there definitely is something going on in the house. i liked the sampler and added the book to my reading list!

i find that beginnings of stories are quite hard to write and its an amazing thing to be able to pull readers in with just the first few—or even just the first—chapters.

overall, it looks like fierce reads has a great line-up for the fall season, most of which i am very excited to read the full book of when they are released.

Overall this sampler was amazing! This sampler gave a glimpse at a total of 10 books. My personal favorite glimpses were of the Sunbearer Trials, Princess of Souls and Self-made Boys. I however was not a fan of Afterlove and Lord of the Flynest if the book was similar to the chapters I would likely DNF the book.

I enjoy reading the sample book guide from Fierce Reads to get a sneak peak of upcoming book releases. I usually find a few books from every release that I am interested in reading the full book. With this latest release there were some interesting samples of upcoming releases that are a variety of YA genres. There were a couple books this release that piqued my interest and I look forward to the full release.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This sampler provided an amazing and interesting choice of stories that were very interesting and intriguing. Can't wait for these to be released!

I am so excited about every single book in this sampler. I originally got it for the Self-Made Boys and The Sunbearer Trials chapters (those are easily some of my most anticipated books), but I genuinely enjoyed all of the sections. This is making me so excited about the coming months in regards to book releases, and I will definitely be investing in some of these books. Great sampler!

Great sampler of much anticipated books coming this fall! I'm excited for a couple of these and the sneak peeks have me even more excited!