January Kindle First | Kindle First #3

Hello lovelies! It’s 2016!

I hope that you all enjoyed the festivities in whatever way you celebrated them and are ready for the new year ahead. I’ve taken a little break over the holidays so far but hopefully this has not affected my posting frequency too much.

There’s so much going on that I want to write about! One step at a time.

Here’s the Kindle First choices for January! What a selection this month:

Mystery

Contemporary Fiction

Action Adventure

Fantasy

Literary Fiction

Literary Fantasy

Please note: Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow these Kindle First books when they are officially released on 1 Feb. 2016.

First Impressions

Aside from reading the synopses and the editors notes, along with the reviews of the readers that are ahead of me, I take a look at the covers. I love book cover designs and how they correlate to the actual text. I think that you can tell a lot about what you are going to read and the mood and context of the story from the cover.

The first cover that sticks out for me is that of The Oddfits. Both the title and the graphics, as well as the objects included are appealing to me and I’m intrigued enough to shortlist this title. Captain Riley, Moonlit Garden and Becoming Marta are all translated texts and I’m biased but I also love anything translated. I feel as though I am hearing the native language of the author and sometimes, the clunkier the translation, the more endearing the story for me. (I know…I’m strange) BUT, I can’t shortlist all of them! Finally, I like the eye-catching colours and simplicity of Harmony Black’s cover. The lone androgynous figure is interesting enough to make me want to find out what their story is. This is all just superficial though and I must also consider the synopses!

Digging (a little!) Deeper

The Oddfits features the story of eight-year-old Murgatroyd Floyd (what a name!) who doesn’t fit into Singaporean life at home or at school, not just because of his strange appearance, but also because of his unusual ability. I’m not sure whether this is too fantastical for me as I’d usually go for a good crime or modern piece as a default position, but I’ll keep this on the list for now.

Becoming  Marta sounds like a beautiful coming- of- age/ discovery-of -self novel for a 20-something. (too many dashes in one sentence! Grammar police stand down!) It is the story of wealthy and well-connected Marta who seeks to cut family ties and learn the truth of her heritage and family secrets. I’m not sure if this is something that I would enjoy as I usually have to be in a certain mood to read this kind of thing so I will pass on this one this month!

On reading about The Moonlit Garden, Wow is all I can say. The blend of music and historical fiction seems like an unusual choice for me but I will keep in on my shortlist as potentially something different for me to read. It follows the delivery of an old violin and the journey and lives of the people who played it in the past. The appeal for me is also that it is set in several countries so will feel and read (I hope) like a bit of a travel journal for me!

So Harmony is a woman and a sort of FBI agent. Interesting. I think that the fact that one of her targets is called the Bogeyman is appealing to me. Is this tongue-in-cheek? I can’t quite tell. It feels (from the reviews) a little Stephen King-ish.

This has been the hardest choice of the Kindle First selections so far but my January choice winner is…

January Winner: Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer

Downloading in 3…2…1…

Review to come as soon as I finish!

What’s your choice this month? What would you have chosen?

*All cover photos are linked to and credited to the Amazon website*