free book review websites

How to Get Book Reviews (15 Places Free)

Whether you realize it or not, you likely use reviews in your day-to-day life. they can help you make decisions about the things you’re curious or unsure about. It’s why we listen to our friends when they recommend a movie, or why we scroll through Yelp before we try a new restaurant. Before you invest your hard-earned time and money, you want an idea of what you’re about to get yourself into. Book reviews are no different, and this is why the information we are covering here will help you find where to look.

Sure, you know your book is amazing, but what about everyone else? Readers are on the search for reliable and trustworthy people to review the books they may be interested in reading. Unfortunately, as the obviously biased author, they’re not interested in hearing from you. That means you need someone else (hint: you need a book reviewer!).

The fact is, book reviews are a necessity for every author looking for an unbiased opinion on their book baby. So, if you don’t think you need book reviews, think again. Book reviews boost the credibility of your book. Not to mention that reviews are a great way to bring in new readers through word of mouth.

Often, the success of your book will depend on the reviews you receive. Think about it: if your friends keep recommending the latest book, TV show, or movie, aren’t you more likely to check it out? That’s why you can’t afford to ignore the power of getting reviews for your book.

Table of Contents

How to Find Book Reviews

As much as we’d love for readers to come flocking to our books on their own, the reality is that usually, we have to spread the word ourselves in order to bring in new readers. Still, don’t stress too much about finding readers! In most cases, readers are more than happy to review your book and eager to read something new. If you scour the internet for reviewers, you will find that some of the best places to easily find book reviewers are on sites like Goodreads, Amazon, and different social media.

But here is a word of caution: most of the reviewers have stipulations when it comes to reviews so here are some dos and don’ts for you to be aware of:

Dos and Don’ts of Getting Book Reviews

There are a few rules when it comes to asking for and receiving book reviews. Think of these dos and don’ts as helpful guidelines that can make the process simpler for both the author and book reviewer.

Do understand the reviewer’s specifications. Learn what they accept and what does not interest them. This will save both you and the reviewer any future frustration.

Don’t waste their time. Reviewers are busy people, so get straight to the point in your query message. Don’t forget to share how your book can benefit them. Do send a free book copy. It’s a courtesy to send the book to your reviewer for free!

Don’t be unprofessional. It’s okay to be friendly, but remember not to overstep your bounds. Instead, include your full name and your website and social media links.

Do be considerate. Learn about the reviewer by reading their website or past reviews. If you want them to make time for you, it helps to know a little about them.

Don’t request that the reviewer purchase your book. This looks bad and inconsiderate to the reviewer, who is already taking the time to read your book.

Don’t assume a reviewer will accept your book based on a quick conversation on social media. They may have liked your Instagram or Twitter post, but that doesn’t mean they’re interested in your book.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to a promising relationship between author and book reviewer!

CLICK FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT OUR UPDATES

Where can i get book reviews.

A few years ago, I wrote an article, where I discuss the dos and don’ts of requesting reviews in more detail. Having written several reviews and sent many requests to reviewers, I know how hard it can be to get them.

As I worked on my first non-fiction, Book Reviews: Understanding the Psychology Behind Them and How to Get Readers to Leave a Review , I went deep to curate a list of legitimate ways to get book reviews (in the manuscript, you will get access to a bonus 200+ websites).

When researching the review outlets, I focused on places where indie publications have a voice—although this list may serve traditionally published books as well.

Some of these outlets may be familiar to you. Others may provide a broader perspective on how to approach reviews. The choices range from free editorial reviews to paid reviews and social media. Whatever the case, I hope this can be a starting point for you, indie authors, in different genres.

With that said, let’s get down to business.

Learn Ways to Get Book Reviews - KIDPRESSROOM

American Book Review

The American Book Review is a bimonthly publication that has been around for more than 30 years. It reviews disregarded works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from small presses. It gives strong emphasis to literary and cultural pieces. And although it critiques non-fiction pieces, it does not review self-help and how-to books. Here are ABR submission guidelines .

Booklife by Publishers Weekly

The “Booklife” is the section of Publishers Weekly dedicated to self-published authors. Submission is competitive because it evaluates submissions for traditional and self-published books following the same standards. Here are the Booklife submission guidelines .

Compulsive Reader

This is a must-check. The Compulsive Reader has been around the block since 2001 and counts on an extensive portfolio of prolific reviewers. For the most part, it emphasizes works of poetry and literary fiction but also features in-depth reviews on a variety of book genres and music. Here are Compulsive Reader submission guidelines .

Rain Taxi Review of Book

A quarterly print committed to championing high-quality literature, Rain Taxi Review of Books reviews work neglected by the main media, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction (except self-help, business), art, graphic novels, and on occasion, children, young adult, and audiobooks. This one is worth consideration. Here are RTRB submission guidelines .

Readers’ Favorite Book Review and Award Contest

Readers’ Favorite is another must-see resource. With more than 1,000 reviewers, it reviews published and unpublished books, ebooks, and other manuscripts in more than 100 genres. Once you submit your book, it is uploaded to a database where reviewers can choose what they want to read. There is no guarantee that all books will be picked for review, but for the author that needs a guarantee, it offers a service called “expedited review,” for a fee.

Authors also have a chance to participate in the book giveaway program and other neat and exclusive features from the site.

Furthermore, different from other services, Readers’ Favorite doesn’t give reviews below 4 and 5 stars. If reviewers read a book they feel is not worth an outstanding rate, they write a constructive note to the author. The idea is to help the author improve their craft, instead of bringing down the book.

Here are Readers’ Favorite submission guidelines .

The Los Angeles Review of Books

The Los Angeles Review of Books is a non-profit organization, with a mission to recreate a new concept of book reviews for the digital era. It welcomes any long-form of authoritative, captivating writing and accepts works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.

Here are LARB submission guidelines .

The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books is an independent literary magazine that has been around since 1963. Highly regarded for bringing a critical and substantial perspective of the arts, the journal counts on a diversified roster of writers, and it reviews books in multiple genres.

Here are the NYRB submission guidelines .

Celebrating art and authenticity, The Rumpus showcase reviews of the most diverse genres as well as essays, interviews, music, film, and comics. It also champions the work of unknown authors or those overlooked by the mainstream media.

Here are The Rumpus submission guidelines .

Barnes & Noble Review

The Barnes & Noble Review is an online magazine that evaluates works of fiction and non-fiction and gives voice to a wide range of essays, interviews, and other topics. Here is the B&N Review information .

Paid Review Sites

Kirkus reviews.

Kirkus Reviews has been around since 1933, and it is possibly one of the most regarded review services around. This magazine covers reviews from big houses to small presses and indie authors in all genres and gets millions of impressions a month on its website.

The best about Kirkus’ process is it gives the same attention, respect, and unbiased review regardless of which way you published your book. The reviews are done by professional reviewers and writers in diverse industries including librarians, journalists, and literature experts, among others.

Reviews get an extra boost when editors choose 40 of them to be featured in the bi-monthly issue of the magazine and one to the weekly email newsletter—potentially reaching more than 50,000 readers. All of this comes at a price, though. A standard picture book review (7–9 weeks) starts at $350, a standard review (7–9 weeks) in other genres costs $425- $575, and an express review (4–6 weeks) runs between $425-$725.

Here are Kirkus submission guidelines .

YourNewBooks

YourNewBooks is a book marketing website (a network site of Choosy Bookworm), providing a range of tools for authors. Among the services, it offers a popular reading and review program that abides by Amazon review standards. The books are reviewed by readers/subscribers of YourNewBooks.

Once you sign up, you choose between standard ($149) and premium services ($299)—the packages include advertisement space on YourNewBooks’s site and newsletter—and submit your ebook file. Depending on the package you choose, your book is submitted to a certain number of “interested readers,” who will leave their honest opinion about the material.

The program is so popular that some of the features are fully booked for months. It is worth checking out because some genres are more popular than others, so your book might have a better shot of getting a fast turnaround. Also, it accepts both published and pre-released books.

Here are the YNB submission guidelines .

Reading Deals

ReadingDeals is another popular book-promotions site, and it is operated by Book Marketing Tools. It offers a book-review service starting at $79 (Classic), going up to $129 (Featured). Both packages include promotion add-ons through social media and/or special placement. The books are reviewed by members of its Review Club, and reviews comply with Amazon and FCC guidelines.

Here are Reading Deals submission guidelines .

Enas Reviews

Enas Reviews offers a more affordable option for your review needs. For a maintenance and listing fee of $29.99, you will receive a thorough critique of 400-500 words written by professional writers. The site currently accepts all genres.

Here are Enas submission guidelines .

Additional Book Review Outlets (Free)

Looking for Amazon Top Reviewers is a smart way to get reviews for your book. Why? Because Amazon incentivizes reviewers who write quality, helpful reviews to customers—top reviewers receive special badges and Hall of Fame placement. The higher the rank, the better for the reviewer. And this will depend on the number of “upvotes” the reviewer receives. In other words, the more quality reviews they write, the higher the chances of upvoting.

When you go to the Amazon Top Reviewers page, you scroll through the list and look for the reviewers’ requirements. Many will have their information, including email or website, and what they review on the page. Although some only review products, many review books as well. As a side note, it is beneficial to focus on genre-specific reviewers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, get familiar with their requirements and reach out. Although it might be tiresome to navigate the list, you may find people who are sincerely interested in your genre who will become a fan and be willing to review your future releases.

Who doesn’t know Goodreads? This is might be one of the most obvious places.

According to Goodreads , its mission is “to help people find and share books they love.” In other words, it is almost a social network for books. There you find many readers, book lovers, and reviewers connecting with each other (and their favorite authors) and sharing their passion for books—through reviews, discussions, polls, and blogs.

Without mentioning that as an author, you not only have a platform to build relationships with readers and fellow writers but also receive plenty of tools to revamp your book marketing strategies .

Social Media

Social media is another powerful way to get book reviews because there are all types of readers interacting and discussing the latest on their readings or favorite authors.

I particularly find LinkedIn valuable to reach out to book reviewers and receive a quick response. Maybe because of the nature of the network (business-like), the probability of finding professional reviewers increases.

At the same time, you can be successful at finding reviewers in Facebook groups. There are groups where not only writers can promote their work, but there are also readers willing to give authors feedback. The more active groups you participate in, the better.

Twitter is another helpful source. If you go to the search toolbar and enter the hashtag for #bookreview or #bookreviewer, a list of entries will come up. You click on “people” and there you can find many to choose from, according to your genre.

The same principle you used on Twitter, you apply for Instagram. The difference is that on Instagram, you will have to click on each image that pops up in order to reach the user profile.

Tiktok has proved to be another useful choice not only for reviews but also for book marketing purposes. The hashtag # booktok is very popular among writers who want to market their books and bring visibility to their work.

Writing & Book Bloggers Sites

Reaching out to book bloggers and writing services is also an excellent way to get your book reviewed. Still, keep in mind that those people also receive a lot of requests and might have limitations with time (as happened to me). So follow their requirements closely and be patient with response time.

Mommabears Book Blog

This site focuses mostly on historical fiction, contemporary fiction, paranormal, dystopian, horror, thriller, steampunk, legends & mythology, and most fantasy.

Here are Mommabears submission guidelines .

XterraWeb Books & More

It accepts most genres except comic books, graphic novels, and textbooks.

Here are XterraWeb submission guidelines .

Bonus Book Review Website

Litpick book reviews.

LitPick is one of those hot book review sites I came to know and fell in love with. That is because the platform tries to get students involved with the literary world while improving their reading and writing skills.

As part of a mentoring program, students receive free copies of the books they want to read (middle grade, teen, and young adult) and write book reviews for free. Their work is evaluated by a staff of underwriters, who provide pupils with feedback. Once everything is set and done, the review is published on the website.

While in the beginning, LitPick used to review only kid lit, now it also reviews adult literature.

Isn’t it neat?

This is an excellent way for authors and publishers to get their books reviewed and out in the world through a wide unbiased audience—teachers and librarians also partake in the programs they offer.

LitPick Book Reviews offers packages ranging from $50-125, and some even include social media promotion. As an author of youth literature, it is so worth checking out.

Better yet, sign up to receive the newsletter and be the first to know about our updates .

Final thoughts on getting book reviews.

Please note that some of these places have distinct submission guidelines and given the high volume of requests, you might or might not get a response.

The silver lining is the selection is broad enough for every taste and some venues crave your craft.

What are your thoughts about this list? What other places do you usually get book reviews? Leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram .

There is no author description yet.

How to Write a Dazzling Blurb for Your Children’s Book

How to Use BookTok to Market Your Young Adult Novels

Self-Publish Children's Books - KIDPRESSROOM

How to Self-Publish Children’s Books Without Crushing Your Spirits (A Comprehensive Guide)

Find book review blogs, vlogs, and bookstagrams to promote your book

Reach the most popular book blogs

The book blog sites listed in our directory are vetted for quality: they are active, have clear review policies, and usually have a good following on social media. In fact, the ~1000 book blogs in our catalog have a cumulative following of over 1,000,000 readers . The most popular book review sites in our catalog have between 10,000 and 70,000 followers.

Many of these sites not only review books but also accept guest posts, do cover reveals, and participate in blog tours. While the top book blogs tend be YA book review blogs and romance book review blogs , we also feature less common genres like travel book review blogs , business book review blogs , comic book blogs , and paranormal book blogs .

Increase your response rates

Book promotion blogs are in demand because they provide a valuable service: free book reviews and book promotion. We surveyed ~500 book bloggers and learned that ~25% of book pitches they receive don ' t match their preferences. Some bloggers reported as high as 50%! Not only are book bloggers often getting irrelevant requests, but they are also busy. Book blogging is their spare-time hobby, not their job.

We have curated a large book blogger list so you have the necessary information at your fingertips to craft a personalized and relevant book pitch to book bloggers. These bloggers have opted-in to be in our directory , so they are expecting your email.

Here are some tips to optimize your response rates:

Address them by their first name. Bonus points if you also peruse their blog and find something in common to break the ice.
Mention how your book ' s genre fits into their reading preferences. For example, don ' t send your mystery novel to horror book review blogs . Send it to mystery book review blogs instead.
Provide them a format of your book that they will actually read.

Expedite your reviewer outreach...

Save time and let us handle the busy work of distributing your book to reviewers and following up.
Promote your book to bloggers you see here plus thousands more readers who enjoy writing reviews.
See more honest reviews appear on Amazon / Goodreads while you spend your time writing!

Save time with smart filters

Looking for the top YA book blogs ? Or perhaps you want to connect with Christian book bloggers ? Maybe you want to restrict your search to the best book blogs in the UK? We have you covered. You can start by searching our book blogger directory by genre to see the book blogs which review books in the genre you searched for.

You can further narrow down the search results based on whether the blog is currently open to review requests, is a free book review site, is an ebook blog, is open to self-published authors, and cross posts their book review on Amazon and Goodreads. Best of all, we keep every site ' s preferences up to date, so you can be confident that you are not missing out on potential leads.

We surveyed ~100 indie authors and publicists and learned that the average indie author spends between 6-24 hrs contacting book reviewers to review their book. Our search tool will reduce your time investment considerably, so you can win back your time and do what you do best — write! And best of all, it is free :)

What authors are saying...

Search our book reviewers list for free and find the most influential book reviewers for your book.

ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

Seen & Heard Barack Obama Releases His Summer Reading List

Tommy Orange Book Has Surprising Pub Date: 2114

Seen & Heard Tommy Orange Book Has Surprising Pub Date: 2114

Allison Williams To Star in ‘Regretting You’ Film

Book to Screen Allison Williams To Star in ‘Regretting You’ Film

Finalists for Science Book Prize Are Revealed

Awards Finalists for Science Book Prize Are Revealed

Jen Wang Takes Readers on a Wilderness Adventure

Our Take On This Week's Bestsellers

Our Verdict

Fiction ‘It Ends With Us’: A Romance Turns Dark

Jennifer Saunders To Star in ‘Magic Faraway Tree’

Children's Jennifer Saunders To Star in ‘Magic Faraway Tree’

Publication of Book With JD Vance Foreword Delayed

Nonfiction Publication of Book With JD Vance Foreword Delayed

FEATURED REVIEW

20 Books To Read Before Summer Ends
21 Books for a Spooky ‘Summerween’
20 Best Books To Read in August
20 Best August Books for Young Readers
20 New Books From Our Favorite Authors

Featured Book Reviews

New Releases

BILLIONAIRE, NERD, SAVIOR, KING Anupreeta Das

IN EXILE Sadiya Ansari

LIVING THE ASIAN CENTURY Kishore Mahbubani

ALL THE WAY GONE Joanna Schaffhausen

A BLOOD RED MORNING Mark Pryor

THE MURDERS IN GREAT DIDDLING Katarina Bivald

FLASH FLOOD Gabrielle Prendergast

ASH'S CABIN Jen Wang, Jen Wang

STAR BROTHER Maxine Rose Schur

HUM Helen Phillips

THE MERCY OF GODS James S.A. Corey

THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS P. Djèlí Clark

BIG WITCH ENERGY Molly Harper

THE BREAK-UP PACT Emma Lord

A WEREWOLF'S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A VAMPIRE

A WEREWOLF'S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A VAMPIRE Sarah Hawley

ENOLA'S BEST FRIEND Katie Kordesh, Katie Kordesh

PIZZA FOR BIRDS Bob Shea, Bob Shea

ALL FOOD IS GOOD FOOD Molli Jackson Ehlert, Fanny Liem

HOW TO LEAVE THE HOUSE Nathan Newman

MEDUSA OF THE ROSES Navid Sinaki

PEGGY Rebecca Godfrey, Leslie Jamison

KENT STATE Brian VanDeMark

THE BROTHERS KENNEY Adam Mitzner

BURN Peter Heller

RIP TIDE Colleen McKeegan

TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR HOPELESS CAUSE Benjamin Nathans

MINISTRY OF TRUTH Steve Benen

EAT YOUR HEART OUT VOL. 1 Terry Blas, Matty Newton, Lydia Anslow, Claudia Aguirre

RESCUE PARTY Gabe Fowler

MOOMIN ADVENTURES Tove Jansson, Lars Jansson, Tove Jansson, Lars Jansson

Didn’t find what you were looking for? OK, how about some

Tommy Orange Book Has Surprising Pub Date: 2114
Barack Obama Releases His Summer Reading List
Nancy Pelosi Talks Book on ‘PBS News Hour’

Jen Wang Takes Readers on a Wilderness Adventure
Ellen Atlanta Shows Readers Truth and Beauty
Two Artists Craft a Love Letter to the Dictionary

Take a Break From the Election: Read Fall Fiction
3 Literary Excursions in the City by the Bay
Lives of the Artists: 4 Picture-Book Biographies

Allison Williams To Star in ‘Regretting You’ Film
What Critics Say About ‘It Ends With Us’ Film
‘It Ends With Us’: A Romance Turns Dark

V (Formerly Eve Ensler) | Fully Booked Podcast
Deepti Kapoor | Fully Booked Podcast
Leigh Bardugo | Fully Booked Podcast

Episode 385: Caro De Robertis
Episode 384: Best August Books With Abi Daré
Episode 383: Kyle Lukoff

The Magazine: Kirkus Reviews

Featuring 358 reviews of fiction, nonfiction, children’s, and YA books; also in this issue: interviews with Lev Grossman, Ellen Atlanta, Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston, and Jen Wang; and more

The Kirkus Star

One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit.

The Kirkus Prize

The Kirkus Prize is among the richest literary awards in America, awarding $50,000 in three categories annually.

Great Books & News Curated For You

Be the first to read books news and see reviews, news and features in Kirkus Reviews . Get awesome content delivered to your inbox every week.

Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

The 13 Best Book Review Sites and Book Rating Sites

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Don't Accidentally Dox Yourself in Screenshots and Videos: How to Stay Safe

I tried getting my daily news from ai: here's why it doesn't work (yet), 5 ways generative ai is already ruining social media.

Nobody likes to spend money on a new book only to face that overwhelming feeling of disappointment when it doesn't live up to your expectations. The solution is to check out a few book review sites before you hit the shops. The greater the diversity of opinions you can gather, the more confidence you can have that you'll enjoy the title.

Which book review and book rating sites are worth considering? Here are the best ones.

1. Goodreads

Goodreads is arguably the leading online community for book lovers. If you want some inspiration for which novel or biography to read next, this is the book review site to visit.

There's an endless number of user-generated reading lists to explore, and Goodreads itself publishes dozens of "best of" lists across a number of categories. You can do a book search by plot or subject , or join book discussions and reading groups with thousands of members.

You can participate in the community by adding your own rankings to books you've read and leaving reviews for other people to check out. Occasionally, there are even bonus events like question and answer sessions with authors.

2. LibraryThing

LibraryThing is the self-proclaimed largest book club in the world. It has more than 2.3 million members and is one of the best social networking platforms for book lovers .

With a free account, you can add up to 200 books to your library and share them with other users. But it's in the other areas where LibraryThing can claim to be one of the best book review sites.

Naturally, there are ratings, user reviews, and tags. But be sure to click on the Zeitgeist tab at the top of the page. It contains masses of information, including the top books by rating, by the number of reviews, by authors, and loads more.

3. Book Riot

Book Riot is a blog. It publishes listicles on dozens of different topics, many of which review the best books in a certain genre. To give you an idea, some recent articles include Keeping Hoping Alive: 11 Thrilling YA Survival Stories and The Best Historical Fiction Books You’ve Never Heard Of .

Of course, there's also plenty of non-reading list content. If you have a general affinity for literature, Book Riot is definitely worth adding to the list of websites you browse every day.

Bookish is a site that all members of book clubs should know about. It helps you prep for your next meeting with discussion guides, book quizzes, and book games. There are even food and drink suggestions, as well as playlist recommendations.

But the site is more than just book club meetings. It also offers lots of editorial content. That comes in the form of author interviews, opinion essays, book reviews and recommendations, reading challenges, and giveaways.

Be sure to look at the Must-Reads section of the site regularly to get the latest book reviews. Also, it goes without saying that the people behind Bookish are book lovers, too. To get a glimpse of what they’re reading, check out their Staff Reads articles.

5. Booklist

Booklist is a print magazine that also offers an online portal. Trusted experts from the American Library Association write all the book reviews.

You can see snippets of reviews for different books. However, to read them in full, you will need to subscribe. An annual plan for this book review site costs $184.95 per year.

6. Fantasy Book Review

Fantasy Book Review should be high on the list for anyone who is a fan of fantasy works. The book review site publishes reviews for both children's books and adults' books.

It has a section on the top fantasy books of all time and a continually updated list of must-read books for each year. You can also search through the recommended books by sub-genres such as Sword and Sorcery, Parallel Worlds, and Epic Fantasy.

7. LoveReading

LoveReading is one of the most popular book review sites in the UK, but American audiences will find it to be equally useful.

The site is divided into fiction and non-fiction works. In each area, it publishes weekly staff picks, books of the month, debuts of the month, ebooks of the month, audiobooks of the month, and the nationwide bestsellers. Each book on every list has a full review that you can read for free.

Make sure you also check out their Highlights tab to get book reviews for selected titles of the month. In Collections , you'll also find themed reading lists such as World War One Literature and Green Reads .

Kirkus has been involved in producing book reviews since the 1930s. This book review site looks at the week's bestselling books, and provides lengthy critiques for each one.

As you'd expect, you'll also find dozens of "best of" lists and individual book reviews across many categories and genres.

And while you're on the site, make sure you click on the Kirkus Prize section. You can look at all the past winners and finalists, complete with the accompanying reviews of their books.

Although Reddit is a social media site, you can use it to get book reviews of famous books, or almost any other book for that matter! Reddit has a Subreddit, r/books, that is dedicated to book reviews and reading lists.

The subreddit has weekly scheduled threads about a particular topic or genre. Anyone can then chip in with their opinions about which books are recommendable. Several new threads are published every day, with people discussing their latest discovery with an accompanying book rating or review.

You'll also discover a weekly recommendation thread. Recent threads have included subjects such as Favorite Books About Climate Science , Literature of Indigenous Peoples , and Books Set in the Desert . There’s also a weekly What are you Reading? discussion and frequent AMAs.

For more social media-like platforms, check out these must-have apps for book lovers .

10. YouTube

YouTube is not the type of place that immediately springs to mind when you think of the best book review sites online.

Nonetheless, there are several engaging YouTube channels that frequently offer opinions on books they've read. You’ll easily find book reviews of famous books here.

Some of the most notable book review YouTube channels include Better Than Food: Book Reviews , Little Book Owl , PolandBananasBooks , and Rincey Reads .

Amazon is probably one of your go-to site when you want to buy something. If you don’t mind used copies, it’s also one of the best websites to buy second-hand books .

Now, to get book reviews, just search and click on a title, then scroll down to see the ratings and what others who have bought the book are saying. It’s a quick way to have an overview of the book’s rating. If you spot the words Look Inside above the book cover, it means you get to preview the first few pages of the book, too!

Regardless of the praises or criticisms you have heard from other book review sites, reading a sample is the most direct way to help you gauge the content’s potential and see whether the author’s writing style suits your tastes.

12. StoryGraph

StoryGraph is another good book review site that's worth checking out. The book rating is determined by the site's large community of readers. Key in the title of a book you're interested in and click on it in StoryGraph's search results to have an overall view of its rating.

Each book review provides information on the moods and pacing of the story. It also indicates whether the tale is plot or character-driven, what readers feel about the extent of character development, how lovable the characters generally are, and the diversity of the cast.

13. London Review of Books

The London Review of Books is a magazine that covers a range of subjects such as culture, literature, and philosophy. Part of its content includes amazingly detailed book reviews. If you feel that most modern book reviews are too brief for your liking, the London Review of Books should suit you best.

You'll gain insight into the flow and themes of the story, as well as a more thorough picture of the events taking place in the book.

Read Book Reviews Before You Buy

The book review sites we've discussed will appeal to different types of readers. Some people will be more comfortable with the easy-to-interpret book rating systems; others will prefer extensive reviews written by experienced professionals.

Although it’s easy to be tempted by a gorgeous book cover, it’s always best to have a quick look at the book reviews before actually buying a copy. This way, you can save your money and spend it on the books that you’ll be proud to display on your shelves for a long time. And check out recommendations, as well, to help you find what's worth reading.

Entertainment
Book Reviews

Independent Book Review

A Celebration of Indie Press and Self-Published Books

30+ Top-Notch Book Review Sites for Readers & Writers

Here are 30+ top-notch book review sites for booksellers, librarians, readers, & writers. Learn more about 30 bookish companies helping spread the word about the best & latest books.

Top-Notch Book Review Sites for Readers & Writers

Book reviews are for all of us.

Readers need to know whether books with the best covers are worth the time they’re about to put into it. They find it helpful (and fun!) to check out reviews after reading the books, too, so they can see what other real-life humans had to say about it.

Authors & publishers need to get book reviews to build buzz and credibility for their product. Librarians & booksellers need to hear from trusted sources that the book they are about to buy for their collection has the capability to get picked up & to satisfy.

Book review sites have transformed the book-recommending landscape.

We can write reviews on product pages, on social media apps, and some of us, for publications that have been around since before the internet. Book reviewing has changed. But maybe it also hasn’t.

What kind of book review sites are you looking for? Chances are, this list has you covered.

Here are 30+ book review sites to read, write, and bookmark.

1. Independent Book Review

Does this logo look familiar? (Hint: You’re sitting on it).

IBR, the website you’re on RIGHT NOW, is all about indie books . There are so many books in the world right now, but if you feel like you keep seeing the same ones recommended over and over, start reading indie!

Independent presses & self-published authors are doing some incredible work right now. IBR reviews books, curates lists, does indie bookstore round-ups, and uses starred reviews & best-of-the-year lists to show which books are going to blow your mind.

2. Book Marks

Lit Hub rules. You already knew this.

But do you know about Book Marks? They’re a branch of the Lit Hub network, and they are an excellent way for booksellers and librarians to get shorter recaps from multiple sources and voices.

Their staff peruses book review sites and shares pull-quotes from them in book lists & more. By reading all of these sites, they can give the book a rating based on the average: “Rave, Positive, Mixed, or Pan.”

My favorite book-buying platform, Bookshop , uses Book Marks’ scale for their books’ ratings, and I love getting access to that.

3. Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly has been around since 1872. By now, they’re a review churning machine. They cover so much of the book industry in so many different ways, reviewing nearly 9,000 books per year and providing publication announcements, agency announcements, industry job listings , bestseller lists, industry stats, a self-publishing partner, and more.

4. Kirkus Reviews

Another one that’s been around since before the internet! 1933 to be exact. Kirkus is a widely recognized publication that book buyers & librarians follow carefully. I dare you to find a bookstore or library that doesn’t have multiple books with Kirkus Reviews plastered on their front and back covers.

5. Booklist

The American Library Association runs Booklist , a platform dedicated to helping libraries, educators, and booksellers choose books. They’ve got a magazine (since 1905!), book reviews, lists, awards, and one of my favorite bookish podcasts out there: Shelf Care .

6. Library Journal & School Library Journal

As you might be able to guess, Library Journal & School Library Journal focus on librarians too! They review a ton of books, and they write often about library-related news, collection management, technology, programs, and more. If you’re an author hoping to land your book in libraries, these are essential targets.

7. BookPage

You may have seen BookPage in your local library or bookstore. Some shops provide it for free so that patrons can look through it to find which books to buy in-store. Their website is clean and intriguing and always full of the most up-to-date releases and bestsellers.

Speaking of libraries! Have you seen our gifts for librarians ?

8. Foreword

Foreword is such an enthusiastic and dedicated champion of indie books, and they’ve been doing it since the 90s! I love how much attention university presses get here too. Their reviews are well-written & thorough, in both print & digital, and I always find something to speed-purchase once the Foreword Indie winners come out.

9. LoveReading

LoveReading is a top book-recommendation website in the UK. They’ve got starred reviews, lists, staff picks, a LitFest , eBooks, and they even donate 25% of the cover price of their books to schools of your choice. It’s reader-friendly and apparent how much they appreciate the wonder of books.

10. Washington Independent Review of Books

What’s not to love about The Independent?

Back in 2011, a group of writers & editors were frustrated by newspapers dropping book review sections and decided to do something about it. The Washington Independent Review of Books is quite a lovely something! This nonprofit posts every day: from reviews to interviews to essays and podcasts. They host events too!

11. Book Riot

Try being a reader and not finding something you love on Book Riot. Book lists, podcasts, personalized recommendations, newsletters, book deals—this site is a haven.

It doesn’t post solo book reviews like other sites, but they do share mini-reviews in book lists and talk about reading in unique & passionate ways. The Book Riot Podcast is such a winner too! I love listening to Jeff & Rebecca laugh about the latest in books & reading.

12. Electric Lit

From novel excerpts to original short fiction & poetry, they might not only be a book review site, but they do offer a lot in the world of book recommendations. Their Recommended Reading lit mag features unique staff picks and short, insightful book reviews.

13. The Millions

The writing in The Millions is something to behold. They are an artful source for all things book reviews & recommendations. They write stunning essays about books & reading and long reviews of new and old books. They’ve got some of my favorite Most Anticip ated lists too.

What are the biggest benefits of reading ? 🧐

14. Bookforum

Did you hear? Bookforum is back ! This book review magazine announced in December 2022 that they were closing, and my heart sank a little bit. This company means so much to the publishing industry and has for 20+ years, so when I saw (last week!) that they are returning, I did more than a few jumps for joy.

Welcome back, Bookforum! Can’t wait to see what you’ve got coming for us in book world coverage.

BOMB is in it for the art. Art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. There are reviews and interviews, and the literature section is a real delight. The reviews are like poignant essays, and the author interviews are in-depth and feature some fascinating minds.

16. The Asian Review of Books

The only dedicated pan-Asian book review publication! It’s widely cited and features some of the best in Asian books and art, so booksellers and librarians have a source to trust to stock their collections with high-quality pan-Asian lit.

Have you seen our gifts for book lovers yet?

17. Chicago Review of Books

I love so much of what Chicago Review of Books does. They have a clean & sleek design that features some of the buzziest books as well as plenty of hidden gems from our favorite indie presses. I’m a particularly big fan of the spotlight they put on books in translation .

18. Rain Taxi

I love Rain Taxi ’s style! They champion unique books, publish their own fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and put a real emphasis on art for their magazine covers . It’s a beautiful print magazine to subscribe to, but they also share free online editions & digital archives. They even run the Rain Taxi Reading Series & Twin Cities Book Festival if you’re a real-lifer in Minnesota!

19. The Rumpus

Oh, The Rumpus ! This mostly volunteer-run online magazine publishes reviews, interviews, essays, fiction, and poetry. The reviews are in-depth and personal and heart-melting, and in addition to the site, they’ve got cool perks like the Poetry Book Club and Letters in the Mail . The book club is where you get a pre-release book and meet the poet via Slack with other club members at the end of the month, and Letters in the Mail are actual postcards sent in the mail to you twice a month from your favorite authors.

20. Book Reporter

Book reporter is a book review site where readers and writers click.

The selection in Book Reporter is carefully curated & enticing: hot new releases, forthcoming books, major presses, & indies. And there are plenty of unique ways to learn about them, like video interviews and monthly lists & picks. It launched in 1996 and is in The Book Report Network, which includes Reading Group Guides , a super useful resource for book clubs.

21. BookTrib .

BookTrib does such a great job of making their site browsable. The different ways you can enjoy what they offer—from book lists to giveaways to ebook deals —are difficult to keep your purchase finger off of.

23. Lit Reactor

Writers & readers—where bookish people meet! LitReactor’s book reviews are in the magazine portion of their website, and they’ve got plenty of them! Reviews, interviews, lists, introspectives, writing tips, and reading discussions. I’ve found some really unique content on Lit Reactor, like this ranking of literary parents . The website is a haven for writers especially, as there are workshops, writing blog posts, and even a forum to participate in.

24. Crime Fiction Lover

Dark alleys. Stray bullets. Hard-boiled detectives. Runaway thrills. If you’re a mystery-thriller reader, you’ve got to know about Crime Fiction Lover. They’ve got a passionate group of readers and writers talking about the best books in the genre and the ones that are soon to come out too.

25. SF Book Reviews

Speculative fiction fans unite! SF Book Reviews has been reviewing sci-fi and fantasy books since 1999, and while they’re a relatively small staff, they publish regularly, feature books of the month, and work wonders for their fantastical community.

26. Historical Novel Society

For all you historical fiction fans out there, the Historical Novel Society has reviewed more than 20,000 books in its twenty years. This one works like a membership for “writers and readers who love exploring the past.” You get a quarterly print magazine as a member, and if you’re a writer, you can join critique groups and ask for book reviews.

27. The Poetry Question

The Poetry Question writes about poetry published by indie presses and indie authors. They are a small passionate team dedicated to showing the world why indie presses continue to be a leading source for award-winning poetry.

28. Goodreads

Did you know that there are over 125 million members on Goodreads? When users review books, they can have conversations with fellow readers and follow reviewers too. If you’re looking for the biggest community, there’s no doubt Goodreads is the one. I like using sites like this because it helps you catalog books, one of my favorite ways to build a strong reading habit .

29. The Storygraph

A big community of active users that’s Amazon free! Come review books, use half & quarter stars (!), and complete reading challenges. You got this.

29. Bookwyrm

Bookwyrm is small (around 5,000 members at the time of this writing), but doesn’t that sound kind of nice? There are active members and a genuine collective goal in talking books. Grow with it. I think you’ll be comfy here. There are other communities within the Bookwyrm umbrella too, like Bookrastinating .

30. Reedsy Discovery

I hold a special place in my heart for book review sites dedicated to helping writers! I got into this business as a book marketer, and I experienced first-hand, through hundreds of books, how hard it was to get exposure & validation for small press and self-published authors.

Reedsy Discovery is a branch of Reedsy (the author resource company) that connects authors & reviewers so that people can read free books, sometimes receive tips for it, and authors can get more reviews in the process. Readers can choose from the latest books as well as the ones that are getting the best reviews.

31. Netgalley

Netgalley is a book review site for pre-released books. Reviewers sign up for a free account, request galleys from publishers and indie authors, and get to read them before they’re published so that they can leave reviews for the book, preferably on Amazon, Goodreads, or their blog. They also run Bookish , the editorial arm of Netgalley, which has book recommendations, interviews, and more.

32. Online Book Club

This review site combines a bunch of cool things! The 4-million member community gives me a lot of Goodreads vibes, especially with the Bookshelves app . But Online Book Club is a place for you to get eBook deals and talk about books in reviews and forums.

What are your favorite book review sites to follow? Let us know in the comments!

Thank you for reading “ Top-Notch Book Review Sites for Readers & Writers !” If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

Discover the Best Book Review Sites of 2024: Top 10 Picks

80 Enchanting Christmas Writing Prompts for Your Next Story

Your Guide to the Best eBook Readers in 2024

Top 10 Book Review Clubs of 2024 to Share Literary Insights
2024’s Top 10 Self-Help Books for Better Living
Writing Contests 2023: Cash Prizes, Free Entries, & More!
Top 10 Book Writing Apps of 2024: Free & Paid!
Top 10 Book Marketing Services of 2024: Features and Costs
10 Best Book Publishing Companies in 2024
What Is a Book Teaser and How to Write It: Tips and Examples
Audiobook vs. EBook vs. Paperback in 2024: (Pros & Cons)
Top 10 Book Writing Software, Websites, and Tools in 2024
How to Get a Literary Agent in 2024: The Complete Guide
An Easy Guide to the Best Fonts & Font Sizes for Your Book
Top 10 Book Promotion Services for 2024’s Authors
Alpha Readers: Where to Find Them and Alpha vs. Beta Readers
Author Branding 101: How to Build a Powerful Author Brand
How to Write a Book Report | Steps, Examples & Free Template
A Guide on How to Write a Book Synopsis: Steps and Examples
How to Write a Book Review (Meaning, Tips & Examples)
Book Title Generators: Top 10 Book Name Generators of 2024
50 Top Literary Agents in the USA for Authors in 2024
Building an Author Website: The Ultimate Guide with Examples
Top 10 Book Printing Services for Authors in 2024
10 Best Free Online Grammar Checkers: Features and Ratings
How to Write a Poem: Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Poetry
What Is a Poem? Poetry Definition, Elements, & Examples
2024’s 10 Best Paraphrasing Tools for All (Free & Paid)
Top 10 AI Detector Tools in 2024 (Free & Paid)
Top 10 Book Editing Software in 2024 (Free & Paid)
What Is an Adverb? Definition, Types, Differences & Examples
What Are Large Language Models and How They Work: Explained!
What Is an Adjective? Definition, Usage & Examples
Top 10 Hardcover Book Printing Services [2024 Update]
15 Types of Poems Everyone Should Know About
2024’s Top 10 Setting Generators to Create Unique Settings
Different Types of Characters in Stories That Steal the Show
Top 10 Screenplay & Scriptwriting Software (Free & Paid)
10 Best AI Text Generators of 2024: Pros, Cons, and Prices
Top 10 Must-Try Character Name Generators in 2024
How to Track Changes in Google Docs: A 7-Step Guide
10 Best AI Text Summarizers in 2024 (Free & Paid)
2024’s 10 Best Punctuation Checkers for Error-Free Text
Top 10 AI Humanizers of 2024 [Free & Paid Tools]
Top 10 AI Rewriters for Perfect Text in 2024 (Free & Paid)
10 Best Plot Generators for Powerful Storytelling in 2024
11 Best Story Structures for Writers (+ Examples!)
Writing Contests 2024: Cash Prizes & Free Entries!
Pre-Publishing Steps
Book Cover Design: An Introduction
What is a Book Copyright Page?
8 Pre-Publishing Steps to Self-Publish Your Book
7 Essential Elements of a Book Cover Design
How to Copyright Your Book in the US, UK, & India
How to Format a Book in 2024: 7 Tips for Print & EBooks
Beta Readers: Why You Should Know About Them in 2024
How to Publish a Book in 2024: A Beginners’ Guide
ISBN Guide 2024: What Is an ISBN and How to Get an ISBN
Self Publishing Guide
How to Hire a Book Editor in 5 Practical Steps
Self-Publishing Options for Writers
How to Promote Your Book Using a Goodreads Author Page
What Makes Typesetting a Pre-Publishing Essential for Every Author?
4 Online Publishing Platforms To Boost Your Readership
How to Find the Perfect Book Editor for Your Manuscript
Typesetting: An Introduction
Quick Guide to Novel Editing (with a Self-Editing Checklist)
Quick Guide to Book Editing [Complete Process & Standard Rates]
10 Best Self-Publishing Companies of 2024: Price & Royalties
What Is Amazon Self-Publishing? Pros, Cons & Key Insights
Manuscript Editing in 2024: Elevating Your Writing for Success
Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: 2024 Guide
How to Publish a Book on Amazon: 8 Easy Steps [2024 Update]
10 Best Book Cover Design Services of 2024: Price & Ratings
A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing a Book in 2024
Learn How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book in 2024
What are Print-on-Demand Books? Cost and Process in 2024
What Are the Standard Book Sizes for Publishing Your Book?
Top 10 EBook Conversion Services for 2024’s Authors
How to Copyright a Book in 2024 (Costs + Free Template)
How to Market Your Book on Amazon to Maximize Sales in 2024
Traditional Publishing
How to start your own online publishing company?
8 Tips To Write Appealing Query Letters
How to Write a Query Letter (Examples + Free Template)

Writing Tips

How to Create Depth in Characters
Starting Your Book With a Bang: Ways to Catch Readers’ Attention
How to Write a Powerful Plot in 12 Steps
Research for Fiction Writers: A Complete Guide
Short stories: Do’s and don’ts
How to Write Dialogue: 7 Rules, 5 Tips & 65 Examples
How to Write a Novel in Past Tense? 3 Steps & Examples
What Are Foil and Stock Characters? Easy Examples from Harry Potter
How To Write Better Letters In Your Novel
On Being Tense About Tense: What Verb Tense To Write Your Novel In
How To Create A Stellar Plot Outline
How to Punctuate Dialogue in Fiction
On Being Tense about Tense: Present Tense Narratives in Novels
The Essential Guide to Worldbuilding [from Book Editors]
What Is Point of View: 1st, 2nd & 3rd POV with Examples
How to Create Powerful Conflict in Your Story | Useful Examples
How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Write a Short Story: 6 Steps & Examples
How To Craft a Murder Mystery Story
How to Write a Novel: 8 Steps to Help You Start Writing
What Is a Stock Character? 150 Examples from 5 Genres
How to Write a Children’s Book: An Easy Step-by-Step Guide
Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey: Worksheet & Examples
Novel Outline: A Proven Blueprint [+ Free Template!]
Character Development: 7-Step Guide for Writers
Foil Character: Definition, History, & Examples
What Is NaNoWriMo? Top 7 Tips to Ace the Writing Marathon
What Is the Setting of a Story? Meaning + 7 Expert Tips
Theme of a Story | Meaning, Common Themes & Examples
5 Elements of a Short Story & 6 Stages of a Plot
What Is a Blurb? Meaning, Examples & 10 Expert Tips
What Is Show, Don’t Tell? (Meaning, Examples & 6 Tips)
How to Write a Book Summary: Example, Tips, & Bonus Section
How to Write a Book Description (Examples + Free Template)
10 Best Free AI Resume Builders to Create the Perfect CV
A Complete Guide on How to Use ChatGPT to Write a Resume
10 Best AI Writer Tools Every Writer Should Know About
15 Best ATS-Friendly ChatGPT Prompts for Resumes in 2024
How to Write a Book Title (15 Expert Tips + Examples)
The 10 Best AI Story Generators: Features, Usage & Benefits
100 Novel and Book Ideas to Start Your Book Writing Journey
Exploring Writing Styles: Meaning, Types, and Examples
Mastering Professional Email Writing: Steps, Tips & Examples
How to Write a Screenplay: Expert Tips, Steps, and Examples
Business Proposal Guide: How to Write, Examples and Template
Different Types of Resumes: Explained with Tips and Examples
How to Create a Memorable Protagonist (7 Expert Tips)
How to Write an Antagonist (Examples & 7 Expert Tips)

Writing for the Web: 7 Expert Tips for Web Content Writing

What are the Parts of a Sentence? An Easy-to-Learn Guide
How to Avoid AI Detection in 2024 (6 Proven Techniques!)
How to Avoid Plagiarism in 2024 (10 Effective Strategies!)
10 Best Spell Checkers of 2024: Features, Accuracy & Ranking
What Is Climax Of A Story & How To Craft A Gripping Climax
What Is a Subject of a Sentence? Meaning, Examples & Types
Object of a Sentence: Your Comprehensive Guide
First-person Point of View: What Is It and Examples
Second-person Point of View: What Is It and Examples

Still have questions? Leave a comment

Add Comment

Checklist: Dissertation Proposal

Enter your email id to get the downloadable right in your inbox!

Examples: Edited Papers

Need editing and proofreading services.

Tags: Fiction , Language , Novel

Stay tuned as we reveal the top book review sites for 2024! Whether you’re in the mood for a classic drama, a modern thriller, or an enlightening non-fiction, there’s a review site that can point you in the right direction.

We’ve also included the advantages of every book review site for readers and authors. So without wasting time, let’s get started!

Ensure your book gets the glowing reviews it deserves! Learn more

1. Goodreads

Goodreads stands out as a titan in the field of book review sites, especially in 2024. As the biggest community of readers, authors, and reviewers on the internet, you can find reviews for almost every book on Goodreads.

You can also join reading groups, catalog books, engage in discussions with fellow readers, and follow your favorite authors. Moreover, by integrating Goodreads with your Kindle account, you can track your reading progress, get personalized book recommendations, and write reviews that get posted on both Goodreads and Amazon automatically.

Subscription Fee: None

2. Kirkus Reviews

Present since 1933, Kirkus Reviews is one of the oldest book review websites that has earned a reputation for its authoritative and unbiased reviews. You can access quality book reviews for a variety of genres either on the website, by subscribing to the free weekly email newsletter, or by subscribing to the paid semi-monthly magazine.

The main advantages of Kirkus Reviews include access to “best of” lists across many categories and reviews about each book mentioned in the list. The only downside to Kirkus Reviews is the paid nature of the magazine, which can limit access to reviews of new bestsellers to only a few people.

Subscription Fee: Ranging from $49 to $179, based on the chosen duration of the subscription.

3. LibraryThing

LibraryThing, a book lover’s haven for cataloging books, is one of the best book review websites. It offers a robust platform for readers to explore reviews, rate books, and meticulously organize their collections by genre.

The charm of LibraryThing lies in its social features—you can connect with fellow readers, share your bookshelves, and exchange thoughts on your latest reads. It’s a cozy corner on the internet for those who take pleasure in tracking their reading journey and finding kindred spirits within the pages of their favorite genres.

Apart from these features, LibraryThing provides a feature for authors to create their own Author’s page. Besides this, LibraryThing provides readers the opportunity to meet with fellow readers and authors by releasing updates about local book events.

4. Book Riot

Book Riot is one of the most versatile book review sites where you can access fictional and non-fictional book reviews, articles, and essays about top books across different genres. In addition to this, you can access information about discount deals for e-books and printed books and purchase from a huge variety of book merchandise.

The one thing that sets Book Riot apart from other sites is access to podcasts, which you can listen to if you don’t feel like reading book reviews. The only downside to Book Riot is that the site’s format doesn’t provide the feel of a traditional book review experience.

Subscription Fee: $4.99/month for authors who subscribe to Book Riot Insiders for information about new releases.

5. LoveReading

LoveReading emerges as a cherished resource among book review sites, particularly for its UK-based but globally accessible content. As one of the top professional book review sites, it allows you to access ebook and audiobook reviews across multiple genres.

The advantages of LoveReading include access to books and debuts of the month, weekly staff picks, and yearly list features. The only downside to LoveReading is the limited availability of reviews about books published outside the UK.

Amazon is one of the top free book review sites in 2024. It allows readers to rate books using a 1–5 star scale and receive a verified purchase tag after they have purchased books, increasing the authenticity of their reviews. Additionally, readers can engage with each other by adding comments to other reviews and stand a chance to receive a higher ranking if their reviews are well-received by a larger audience.

7. Booklist

Booklist, a veteran publication by the American Library Association since 1905, has evolved into a premier online destination for book reviews. You can look at the reviews of many print and audiobooks from various genres on Booklist.

The benefits of using Booklist include access to webinars and a variety of newsletters like Read Alert, Booklandia, and more. The only downside to Booklist is that it doesn’t provide a space for reader interaction or discussion, which restricts the community aspect of the reading experience.

Subscription Fee: $184.95/year

8. Publishers Weekly

Dominating the publishing world since 1872, Publishers Weekly is one of the oldest children’s mystery and romance book review sites. Apart from book reviews, it provides access to news about upcoming books.

The advantages of Publishers Weekly are access to the latest industry news, stats, bestseller lists, and exciting podcasts about authors and contemporary books. The only downside to Publishers Weekly is that you need to pay a subscription fee to have complete access to the content present on this site.

Subscription Fee: $15/month

9. NetGalley

NetGalley is one of the top book review sites for authors and readers alike. Readers can view reviews, request advanced reader copies (ARCs), and write reviews about pre-released books by various authors. Also, readers can check out book reviews, recommendations, and the must-read section at Bookish, an editorially independent division of NetGalley.

The only downside to NetGalley is that it can be difficult to secure ARCs of highly anticipated books due to fierce competition among reviewers.

10. Fantasy Book Review

This site includes various categories for book reviews such as urban fantasy, high/epic fantasy, dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction, magic users, and heroic/ sword and sorcery, etc. Depending on the category, book reviews for the best fantasy books are added to the website. With this, the site also provides readers with a list of the top 100 fantasy books of all time, recommendations of fantasy series, and interviews with fantasy authors.

Check out the top ten book review sites mentioned above to find your next best read, and let these curated sites lead you to memorable stories and transformative literary adventures. If you need help to create perfect book reviews or refine your book, consider our professional editing and proofreading services for assistance.

Here are some other articles you might find useful:

How to Publish a Book in 8 Steps: A Beginners’ Guide
The 10 Best Self-Help Books in 2023
10 Best ESL Books for Students & Language Learners
Top 10 EBook Creator Tools in 2024: Free & Paid

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best book review sites, how to get book reviews on review sites, what book review sites accept submissions.

Found this article helpful?

Your vs. You’re: When to Use Your and You’re

Your organization needs a technical editor: here’s why.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get carefully curated resources about writing, editing, and publishing in the comfort of your inbox.

How to Copyright Your Book?

If you’ve thought about copyrighting your book, you’re on the right path.

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Fiction Writing Tips
Dissertation Writing Guide
Essay Writing Guide
Academic Writing and Publishing
Citation and Referencing
Partner with us
Annual report
Website content
Marketing material
Job Applicant
Cover letter
Resource Center
Case studies

Library of Congress
Research Guides
Main Reading Room

Finding Book Reviews Online

Sources for general book reviews.

Introduction

General Inquiries : Ask a Librarian

Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.

Chat with a librarian , Monday through Friday, 12-4pm Eastern Time (except Federal Holidays).

Before you start your search you should know the title and author of the book being reviewed. The date of publication will sometimes also be required. Some databases offer a search option to limit search results to book reviews. Where not present, adding a keyword search that includes the phrase "book review" should help. Reviews of popular books are typically published close to their publication dates; find them via book-related websites and indexes that cover general interest periodicals. Reviews of scholarly books may take months to appear in scholarly journals. For more databases that cover scholarly journals, visit the Library of Congress E-Resources Online Catalog .

Free Web Resources
Book Review Databases
Selected General Databases
Historical Book Review Databases

Free contemporary book reviews are widely available on the web. The sources listed below are some of the most common places to find them.

Amazon.com External Amazon.com offers book reviews of many of the book titles it sells. Some reviews are by professionals; many are by readers. Find a book and scroll down its entry to read the reviews, where present. For balance, try a variety of positive and negative reviews.
Barnes & Noble External Barnes and Noble includes professional book reviews with the descriptions of many of the books it sells.
Complete Review External The Complete Review contains a selected listing of old and new book titles with reviews and links to more reviews.
GoodReads Reviews External GoodReads offers millions of book reviews contributed by its community members which include librarians, journalists, and many other readers.
Kirkus Reviews External Kirkus Reviews includes reviews new and forthcoming fiction, non-fiction and Young Adult (YA) books. Kirkus also has a print magazine available by subscription.
Library Journal Reviews+ External Library Journal reviews books on a wide array of popular and scholarly topics expected to interest a broad spectrum of libraries. Reviews from the most recent 24 months are free online.
LibraryThing Reviews External LibraryThing Reviews are written by members of the LibraryThing community of readers and book collectors. Reviews are grouped in various ways, including by genre or may be searched by author or title.
New York Times Book Review (free selections) External A free collection of book reviews published in The New York Times since 1981. A more extensive paid subscription database is also available.
School Library Journal Reviews+ External Features reviews from School Library Journal from the most recent twenty-four months. Browse by genre, grade level, award winners and other criteria.

Subscription databases are great sources for current and recent book reviews. Many also include historical coverage.

Children's Literature Review, Vols 1-216

These more general subscription databases cover a wide array of periodicals which include book reviews. Using the phrase "book review" in your search can be effective if no check-box option for book reviews is available in the database's search function.

Some researchers seek reviews that are decades or even centuries old, for example, to see how a book written in the 19th Century was reviewed when it was first released. This listing includes general and book review resources. For the general sources, be sure to Include the phrase "book review" in your search if no check-box option for book reviews is available.

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (Series 1 and Series 2)
American Business: Agricultural Newspapers
American Business: Mercantile Newspapers
American Gazettes: Newspapers of Record
American Politics: Campaign Newspapers
American Religion: Denominational Newspapers
Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876: From Colonies to Nation
Early American Newspapers, Series 2, 1758-1900: The New Republic
Early American Newspapers, Series 3, 1783-1922: From Farm to City
Early American Newspapers, Series 4, 1756-1922: The Rise of Industry
Early American Newspapers, Series 5, 1777-1922: An Emerging World Power
Early American Newspapers, Series 6, 1741-1922: Compromise and Disunion
Early American Newspapers, Series 7: 1773-1922: Reform and Retrenchment
Early American Newspapers, Series 8, 1844-1922: A Nation in Transition
Early American Newspapers, Series 9, 1832-1922: Protest and Prosperity
Early American Newspapers, Series 11, 1803-1899: From Agrarian Republic to World Power
Early American Newspapers, Series 12, 1821-1900: The Specialized Press
Early American Newspapers, Series 13, 1803-1916: The American West
Early American Newspapers, Series 14, 1807-1880: The Expansion of Urban America
Early American Newspapers, Series 15, 1822-1879: Immigrant Communities
Early American Newspapers, Series 16, 1800-1877: Industry and the Environment
Early American Newspapers Series 17, 1844-1922: American Heartland
Early American Newspapers, Series 18, 1825-1879: Racial Awakening in the Northeast

C19 Index draws on the strength of established indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue (NSTC), The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index, Periodicals Index Online and the Cumulative Index to Niles' Register 18111849 to create integrated bibliographic coverage of over 1.7 million books and official publications, 70,000 archival collections and 20.9 million articles published in over 2,500 journals, magazines and newspapers. C19 Index now provides integrated access to 13 bibliographic indexes, including more than three million records from British Periodicals Collections I and II, together with the expanded online edition of the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism (DNCJ).

<< Previous: Introduction
Last Updated: May 31, 2024 8:50 AM
URL: https://guides.loc.gov/finding-book-reviews

Craft and Criticism
Fiction and Poetry
News and Culture
Lit Hub Radio
Reading Lists

Literary Criticism
Craft and Advice
In Conversation
On Translation
Short Story
From the Novel
Bookstores and Libraries
Film and TV
Art and Photography
Freeman’s
The Virtual Book Channel
Behind the Mic
Beyond the Page
The Cosmic Library
The Critic and Her Publics
Emergence Magazine
Fiction/Non/Fiction
First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
The History of Literature
I’m a Writer But
Lit Century
Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
Write-minded
The Best of the Decade
Best Reviewed Books
BookMarks Daily Giveaway
The Daily Thrill
CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

A Literary Road Trip Across America

Where to go and what to read there, how fanny and robert louis stevenson defied victorian relationship conventions, camille peri on the creative and romantic partnership of a 19th-century literary power couple, pride, prejudice, sex, and drugs: how jane austen helped me write a profane novel, sarah seltzer on crafting round characters, austen’s literary bad behavior, and being a janeite, making space for palestinian happiness, nabil echchaibi on finding joy amidst the crush of occupation, boccaccio’s modern life: what the decameron reveals about contemporary anxiety, ed simon considers the act of storytelling as a means of preserving our humor and humanity in tumultuous times, a century of james baldwin, celebrating 100 years of a great american mind, the literary film & tv you need to stream in august, netflix and air conditioning, pocket universes, and a villainess to root for: august’s best sci-fi and fantasy books, stack your summer with new reads from nalo hopkinson, madeline ashby, beth revis, and more, the 17 best book covers of july, it’s hot book summer, did you know that poetry used to be an actual olympic sport, and the first openly gay olympic medalist was a poet, the new york times’ “best books of the century” list was an unforgivable erasure of african literature, ainehi edoro-glines on the inherent racism of reproducing the euro-american view of literature, on the simple prophecy of octavia butler’s parable of the sower, roz dineen on the book everyone should read now, jd vance is the toxic byproduct of america’s obsession with bootstrap narratives, alissa quart on the art of the deal of the hillbilly, what the new york times missed: 71 more of the best books of the 21st century, a non-boring list, crooked parallels: on alice munro, andrea skinner, and my mother’s failure to protect me, for jonny diamond the separation of the art from the artist isn’t the question, lit hub’s most anticipated books of 2024, part two, 193 books to read in the second half of the year, a deal with the devil: what the age-old faustian bargain reveals about the modern world, ed simon on "the most important story ever told," that of humanity's transactional relationship with evil, our 21 most-anticipated sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books for the rest of 2024, books for the witches, spacefarers, and ghouls among us, “it’s harder for me to talk about them.” percival everett on the paintings he makes, j.c. gabel talks to the acclaimed novelist and poet about his latest art exhibition, the ultimate summer 2024 reading list, or, beach book bingo, 18 new novels you need to read this summer, more light, more books, remembering paul auster, here’s your 2024 literary film & tv preview, 53 shows and movies to stream and see this year, lit hub’s most anticipated books of 2024, 230 books we’re looking forward to reading this year, 24 sci-fi and fantasy books to look forward to in 2024, exciting new series’ and standalones from kelly link, lev grossman, sofia samatar, james s.a. corey, and more, we need your help: support lit hub, become a member, you get editors’ personalized book recs, an ad-free reading experience, and the joan didion tote bag, words of no syllables: how animals bond with their human caretakers.

Rosamund Young on Caring for Cows, Sheep and Other Four-Legged Friends

The Moment When a Brain Surgeon Sees the Most Terrifying Diagnosis in Medicine

Theodore H. Schwartz Shares the Story of a Patient with GBM, the Supervillain of Malignant Tumors

“A Countrified Rumpelstiltskin.” On the Visceral, Versatile Stories of Brad Watson

Snowden Wright Digs Into the “Exploded View” of Watson’s Work

How the Prospect of Publishing Can Paralyze the Writing Process

Sofia Samatar on Balancing Self-Compartmentalization With the Joy of Creation

Imagining Home: On Family, Place and Inheritance in South Asia and North America

Sadiya Ansari Considers the Impact and Legacy of Displacement After Partition

Suyi Davies Okungbowa & Brenda Peynado on Futures Bleak and Hopeful

Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre S04E02

August 14, 2024

“ The literary life of material infrastructures”
Anne Carson on Parkinson’s, handwriting, and concentration
Conservative indie publishing isn’t the moneymaker the Daily Wire anticipated

to the Lithub Daily

Support lit hub..

Lit hub Radio

News, Notes, Talk

Daily Fiction

The Hypocrite

From the hypocrite.

Mina’s Matchbox

From mina's matchbox.

The Avian Hourglass

From the avian hourglass.

Scheherazade Was a Liar, Too: How Secrets Can Fuel Creative and Personal Exploration

How Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins Changed the Face of Publishing

Lit hub asks: 5 authors, 7 questions, no wrong answers.

Featuring Danzy Senna, Kristopher Jansma, Rosie Schaap and More

Acamea Deadwiler on Rescuing the Little Girl Inside Her

Uncle Tom’s Cabin ">Art Imitates Testimony: On the Real-Life Inspiration For Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Best Reviewed Books of the Week

5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week

The Trope of the “Crazy” Female Protagonist

Oh Mother! Mothers in Horror and the Horror They Represent

RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Biggest New Books

Non-Fiction

All Categories
First Readers Club Daily Giveaway
How It Works

Member Login
Library Patron Login
Get a Free Issue of our Ezine! Claim

It's the year 1087, and the Adriatic port city of Bari, Italy—like much of the rest of Europe—has been overrun by a pox outbreak. In the absence of medical knowledge, the people, fearful ...

Beyond the Book

Stolen Relics

M.T. Anderson's novel Nicked is based on a real-life relic theft occuring when, in 1087, an expedition from Bari, Italy, traveled to Myra, in present-day Turkey, to steal the bones of St. Nicholas...

The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl

Bart Yates, who has also written under the name Noah Bly, is the author of several previous novels, including Leave Myself Behind , winner of a 2004 Alex Award. First Impressions readers adored The ...

The 1926 Bingham, Utah Avalanche

The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates is written as a series of vignettes based on twelve days in the life of the main character, which include personal moments and ...

Our Beautiful Darkness

The slight narrative of the poet Ondjaki's new graphic novel, Our Beautiful Darkness , consists of a single conversation between two unnamed teenagers in 1990s Luanda, the capital of Angola. Plunged ...

Graphic Novels in Translation

Our Beautiful Darkness by Ondjaki has been translated into English from the original Portuguese by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. The process of translating a graphic novel differs somewhat from that of a more ...

The God of the Woods

Bestselling author Liz Moore's latest novel, The God of the Woods , begins with a disappearance. On a summer morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks, camp counselor Louise realizes that ...

History of the Summer Camp

Liz Moore's mystery The God of the Woods begins with the disappearance of a girl from fictional Camp Emerson, a summer camp for children in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. For many ...

After the conquest of port city Timbuktu by the king of Yorùbáland, nineteen-year-old Òdòdó is kidnapped from her mother, Okόbí, and their blacksmiths' guild to &#...

The Thunderous Òrìṣà Ṣàngó

Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi repeatedly draws from mythology surrounding the Òrìṣà pantheon of deities from the Yorùbá religion, which is still practiced throughout ...

The Missing Thread

The fabric of ancient history is stitched heavily with stories of dramatic politics, conquest, and war, all with men firmly at the center of action. But women played just as vital and central a role ...

The Classics Discipline

When you hear the word "classics," what jumps to mind? Literature over the centuries? Famous authors? For people entering university to study "classics," it means something quite ...

Join BookBrowse

For a year of great reading about exceptional books!

Genres & Themes

Read-alikes, young adults, members recommend.

Everything We Never Knew by Julianne Hough

A dazzling, heartwarming novel from Emmy winner Julianne Hough and Rule author Ellen Goodlett.

The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao

A love story set against India's political turmoil, where two young people defy social barriers.

The Book Club

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen An investigation into a girl's disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense.

Featured Book Club

New In Paperback

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win...

Reading Guides

Who Said...

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

See who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Appeals court delivers a mixed decision in Iowa book banning case
Advocates react to Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries: ‘It’s a tragedy’
Biographies
Author Read-Alikes
Name Pronunication Guide
The Hugo Awards: A Short History
6 Inspiring Books About the Olympics and Its Athletes

Your guide to exceptional books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

Free Weekly Newsletters

Discover what's happening in the world of books: reviews, previews, interviews, giveaways, and more plus when you subscribe, we'll send you a free issue of our member's only ezine..

Spam Free : Your email is never shared with anyone; opt out any time.

Kindlepreneur

Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Book Marketing / How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

You probably don’t have to be convinced of the importance of getting free book reviews as well as Kindle reviews.

However, how does a new author get those crucial Kindle book reviews or editorial reviews that will help to drive up sales ?

Most resources rely on tactics that require already existing fan base, elaborate platforms, and major connections.

That’s all fine and dandy…if you have those resources at your disposal or are willing to trade in your friendship for a favor.

But what about the rest of us?

The ones who don’t have raving fans ready to drop reviews on request. Or those of us without a giant email list, social media following , and oodles of friends that we ‘want’ to send our books to?

Despair not my friends, because in this guide on how to get book reviews, I’ll show you how you can legally, and legitimately get those reviews, even if you’re a brand new author.

In This Article I Will Show You:

A proven step-by-step method on how to get your book reviewed for free
Tactics to getting high conversions and good grades on book reviews
A time-saving method to expedite your book review process
Amazon’s rules regarding book reviews – the REAL rules

And yes, as you’ll see at the end of this article, each step is fully compliant with the up-to-date Amazon rules for getting book reviews.

1. Create Special Links to Go Straight to Your Review
2. Design a Book Review Ask in Your Book
3. Free Book Review Sites
How to Build a Giveaway

5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

6. Reminder in Your Auto Responder System
7. Relaunch Your Book
Editorial Reviews vs Amazon Reviews
Amazon’s Rules on Book Reviews
Some Legit Paid Ways to Speed Up The Process

Also, while I’m writing this with the new author in mind, it’s totally applicable to all authors…even the pros. Finally, please be aware that I did use some affiliate links in this article. Those links did not sway my thoughts on the article, nor does it affect your pricing. It's just a little something that goes towards my coffee fund to keep me writing.

One mistake many authors make is when they request for someone to give their book a review, they just send the person a link to their book, making the person click around till they finally get to the review page where they can write the review…yeesh, that’s a lot of steps!

Because of this, readers will more than likely not follow through. I know I haven’t in the past.

However, what if there was one special link you could send them that would take them straight to the review of your book? All they’d have to do is click, and they start writing the review.

Well, you can and here’s how:

Step 1. Depending on the format you want the review to be directed to, either find your ASIN for the eBook, or the ISBN -10 for the book (NOT ISBN-13), or the ASIN for the Audiobook.

Step 2. Take the following link, and add your number from step 1: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin= + (ASIN or ISBN 10)

Step 3 . The above link is only to the US market. If you want a different market, you need to just change out the “.com” to the appropriate one like “.de” for german, or “.co.uk”, and so on. However, be sure to check that country's ASIN or ISBN-10 for that same book…because sometimes it will be different – although this is mainly for published books and usually isn't the case for self-published books. But just check – you don't want your links to not work.

Example of What The Result Should Look Like : US: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B0041JKFJW UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/create-review?&asin=B004H4XAXO DE: https://www.amazon.de/review/create-review?&asin=0765365278 etc…

As you can see, that will take you directly to The Way of Kings Audiobook review, since I used the ASIN for the audiobook. (PS: I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson, and will be meeting him in a couple of months to discuss book marketing …fan boy scream).

Now, any time you request a review in an email, message, or whatever, send them that special link to your book. That way, all they have to do is click the link and type the review. You’ll have a much higher chance that they’ll follow through and leave the review.

Caution: Your Link Not Working? First, if your link isn't working, just remember that Amazon won't allow you to leave a review for your own book. So, have someone else try your link. Also remember that in order to leave a review, someone needs to have made $50 purchase on Amazon that year.

Also, for the rest of the steps below, make sure you use this link when necessary. That’s why it is the first point in this list.

This may sound crazy but when you ask for a review after your book is done, you’ll not only increase the number of reviews, but also improve your review grade.

When I did this one simple addition to one of my books, I saw the conversion rate of book purchases to reviews left increase by 3x and has stayed that way since.

You see, we authors know how important a review is. But we forget that readers don’t always understand this and need more coaxing to take the little bit of extra effort to write a book review. Therefore, just by asking, you’ll see much higher conversions.

But that’s not all. There are actually some tactics to this section that can and will improve the number of book reviews you get, as well as the review grade.

When creating the ask, it is best to do the following:

Humanize Yourself : Find ways to remind the reader that you are actually a human with emotions and feelings. Remind them of how hard it was to put this book together. By doing this, they’ll be more likely to leave ‘you’ a review. Extra bonus tip: I sometimes like to post a candid non professional or staged picture of me with my family in this section because it really goes a long way to getting to know me, and feel more personal.

Impress Upon Them the Importance of the Review : Like I mentioned above, readers don’t fully understand the importance of a review. Therefore, remind them how they help you as an author and your book.

Tell Them You’ll Read the Book Review : When readers think that you’ll read and take to heart their review, two things will happen: they’ll feel more obligated to leave one since you’re depending on them, and their review grade will probably improve since they’ll know you, the human, will actually read it. We’ve all been there where we have a bunch of gusto against sometime, but the moment they’re there, we soften our tone. Same thing with reviews. I assure you, most criticism will become more constructive in nature when they know you’ll be there to read it.

Below is an example that Ken Lozito did with his absolutely incredible book series “ First Colony .”

I can’t show it all, but ultimately Ken told the story of the sacrifice he made to become an author and some inside information about his life, and struggles to get that series out.

He did all three of the things listed above without sounding cheesy or coming across as begging. It’s a fine art!

Needless to say, I had listened to 7 of the books in that series, but on the 7th one where he put this in his audiobook, it legitimately made me not only give the 5 stars at the end, but take the time to write a well-thought-out review. I felt like it was the least I could do.

So, as you can see, there needs to be a fine balance of asking without overstepping. But when done right, you’ll see more reviews come through with better grades for every reader you get.

Best Book Marketing Software

Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain key insight to the market. Help your book now

There are websites out there where some fans of a genre or subject loves to read books and leave reviews. Many of them have different reasons for this, but overall, they can be beneficial.

Be advised though, most of the review sites out there will read your book and make a review on their website, but that it won’t be an Amazon review (see below to read more about Amazon reviews vs Editorial Reviews). Even without the Amazon review, a book review site’s review can still be a powerful editorial review. Imagine being able to put in your editorial review for your scifi book, a glowing acknowledgment from TopSciFiBooks.com . Just the domain alone will carry anyone to better belief in your book, then some person or author name they've never heard of.

Here are some of my favorites free book review sites:

Love Books Group : Reviews books on their site is a easy process to submit. Affaire de Coeur : A bi-monthly magazine that publishes reviews in historical, contemporary, paranormal, erotica, YA, and nonfiction primarily. Book Page : Must send an ARC 3 months prior to publication date The Kindle Book Review : Offers a list of reviews to contact individually based on preferred genres. Compulsive Reader : Mainly focuses on literary fiction and poetry, they also review music CDs and other interesting things. Crime Fiction Lover : Recommends sending a Press Release (***) and a bit hard to get into. Book Smugglers : a highly read book blog that likes to focus on Horror, Urban Fantasy, SciFi, and YA. Crime Scene Reviews : Reviews Crime and Mystery novels SF Book : Started in 1996, SF books offers a list of Scifi Book reviewers you can contact individually Fantasy Book Critics : Lists a bunch of legit book review sites, as well as offers their own in the Fantasy realm Top Sci Fi Books : This website lists the best scifi and fantasy books based on certain subgenres. They have a sweet spot though for self published authors. Barnes & Noble Review : An incredible name for a Editorial Review, however, they require you to physically mail a copy and a cover letter in for consideration.

If you’d like to see more niche-specific examples, Reedsy has done an AMAZING job of curating a list of book review websites , their requirements and even how much traffic each site potentially gets. However, do note, many sites on that list aren’t always free.

You can check out that list here: https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/

I also wanted to mention StoryOrigin . When you use StoryOrigin, not only do you join a community of other authors, you basically have all the not-so-fun back end of things taken care of by using them. They help you build your email list, find reviewers, deliver lead magnets and more. Be sure to check them out!

4. A Giveaway Contest that is Legal!!!

In truth, I almost didn’t include this one. Not because it breaks any rules, but because you need to ABSOLUTELY follow my steps in order to stay compliant with Amazon.

But when done right, this tactic is extremely killer!

What you do is create a giveaway contest. In this contest, if they click the link that points to your book’s review page (see special link discussed above), they are automatically entered into the contest. That's it.

This works because, when they click the link, many readers will decide to leave a review since they are already there. This is compliant in Amazon’s eyes because they are entered in the contest by just clicking the link, not by submitting a review. Therefore, the review is not incentivized. You can see an example below on how to word this for best optimization as well as staying compliant.

Step 1 : Build a giveaway Step 2 : Make it clear that to enter the giveaway, they just need to click the link that points to your book’s review page (see #1 above) Step 3 : And that’s it.

There are two ways to build a giveaway:

1. Use Your Email System : You can send out an email blast to your readers with the instructions on how to do this. With most email systems like ConvertKit , you can mark which subscribers clicked on the link in the email. Then when the time is up, you can select from there.

2. Use KingSumo : This is a paid app that is around $49 for life, but it makes creating contests SUPER simple. Furthermore, it handles the legality issues on contests, and you can post links to the contest on Social Media, email, or even embed it on your website. You can check it out here .

Using a launch team or Beta Readers and sending Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) is an important tactic that help with your book’s overall launch by ensuring you have good reviews on day-one of the launch. If you’re unfamiliar with that, then check out this article here .

But the short and simple to this tactic is that prior to launching your book, you send ARCs to people who will hopefully read the book, and or be prepared to leave a review upon your book's launch.

However, working with lots of authors, it’s become apparent that most DO NOT do ARC reviews as effectively or efficiently as they should, creating a super low conversion rate of beta readers who leave a review. Most times, this tactic sounds promising but is actually a complete let down.

Well, not if you do the following extra saucy tips, which will ENSURE you get more reviews out of it:

1. Stop sending mass emails to all Beta Readers : If you really want people to take action, ensure you talk to them personally. Send each beta reader a personal email asking him or her to take certain actions. They’ll feel more obligated to act when you are specifically emailing them and counting on their review. Whereas when it's obviously a mass email, many will inherently think that it's fine and you won't notice if they don't.

2. Track Your Readers : I actually develop a spreadsheet listing each beta reader or launch team member, when I last talked with them last, if they've left a review and any other notes. It’s important to keep track of them and that way no one slips through the cracks. You can also use a plugin like ReaderScout to know exactly when someone has left a review.

3. Have Them Notify You When It’s Dropped : Tell your beta readers or launch team members that once they’ve dropped the review, to let you know so you can read it. It isn’t just the expectation that you’re specifically waiting for their review, but also that you really want to know what they thought. Make it clear that it would mean the world to you. With this, they’ll feel as though you truly care and are waiting on them.

4. Remind them They Don’t have to Read All Of It : The biggest hang-up I get from Beta Readers is that they couldn’t finish the book in time and will leave one “later” (which they never do). However, remind them that they do not have to finish the book in order to leave a review, and that they can always change the review once they’ve finished it if they’d like. They can instead talk about what they’ve read so far, or even your legitimacy on the subject or genre. This way, there is not excuse to not leaving a review.

If you employ these four tactics to beta readers or launch teams, you’ll absolutely double your conversion rates of reviews left.

Formatting Has Never Been Easier

Write and format professional books with ease. Never before has creating formatted books been easier.

If you have an email list, then make sure to use your auto responder to help with your reviews.

Think about it…

If they signed up for your email list, then it means that they read your book and liked it. However, it definitely does not mean they left a review.

Therefore, set in your auto responder an email that specifically uses the tactics of 1 and 2 above to convince them to leave a review. This will help increase your book’s review frequency, its grade, and even help with your email system. Furthermore, employing #2 above, in the email, you'll build a stronger author brand and connection with your readers.

There are a couple of different ways to relaunch your book, and things to think about when doing so. However, let's discuss why this really helps with your book reviews and should be considered.

Amazon loves new books: I call this the Amazon honeymoon period. I don't have any empirical data to prove this, but through years of working with books, when a book is launched, Amazon gives preferential treatment to new books.
Use a new launch team: Perhaps you didn't effectively use your launch team or beta readers as well as we discussed in step 5. Well, by relaunching, you can. So, employ those steps and see real good come from it.
Update some information: Look at your book as it is, and ask if there is something you can do to improve it. Perhaps you've seen some comments brought up in the reviews? Or you know there is a section you should add? These changes will help improve your book's review grades.

We all know what Amazon reviews are. But do you fully understand what a Amazon Editorial Review is?

On Amazon, there is a section on your book's sales page where you can enter “Editorial Reviews” through you Author Central Account (here is how to setup one if you haven't already). In the editorial review, you can put just about anything here.

It could be from what a website said about your book, a news paper, a verbal recommendation, etc. The point is, you can use what people say outside of Amazon, here. As we showed from a heat map study, readers pay attention to the section. So, therefore, use the tactics listed above in order build a persuasive Editorial Review section for your book.

However, these are NOT Amazon reviews. Amazon reviews are where someone went to Amazon and left a review for your book itself.

There is a little bit of confusion when it comes to giving a free book and asking for reviews. In truth, Amazon was a little confusing about how they look at this.

However, I went through all of Amazon's user agreements, FAQ's and even their own memo's so as to give you a definitive answer of:

YES, you can give a free copy of your book in advance for a review.

But there are some caveats and nuisances to this statement. So, check out the video below and learn all about Amazon's Book Review policy and ensure you are continually operating in Amazon's good graces.

So, here is a list what you can’t do:

1. Pay or Incentive Someone to Leave a Review in any way: This is different from the giveaway because they entered the giveaway by clicking the link and not by leaving a review

2. Offering a free gift if they review

3. Offering to refund the author their money for the review

You can give the book for free to them as an ARC. But you can't cover their costs. While they are both essentially “free,” the second one requires a review in order to make it free, thus incentivizing the review.

The same can be said about offering to send a Amazon gift card to cover the book

4. Swapping reviews with another author

I repeat, you cannot pay or incentive someone in any way to leave a review. But you can pay to promote your book to readers who are likely to leave reviews .

Self-Publishing Review is one example of a service that sells email list promotions designed to result in more sales and more unbiased reviews. If you're looking for opportunities, that could be worth looking into. Use the code KINDLEPRENEUR5 to save 5% on anything from their site.

ReaderScout is another tool I highly recommend for authors who want to track all of the reviews that come in. This makes it much easier for you to know when your ARC readers, for example, have actually left their review. ReaderScout is a completely FREE Chrome plugin and reviews aren't the only thing it tracks. Check it out here.

Now, Let's Go Get Those Book Reviews

No matter which route you’ll go, there’s no easier way to get the initial reviews, especially if you’re an unknown author. An additional benefit of this approach is that you’ll get to speak with your readers directly, thus getting valuable feedback and building new relationships.

I hope you enjoyed this guide on how to get free book reviews. It seems pretty straightforward, but can be a little time-consuming…but as most authors will tell you, getting your book reviewed can be a powerful metric that should have a positive effect on your Kindle sales.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

How to write a book description that captivates readers (and sell books), how to change your kindle keywords and why you should, how to become an organized author, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

208 thoughts on “ How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging ”

Hi Dave, Am I missing a step or is adding the review link to your e-book something you can only do after book release? In order to use the link you need an ASIN. My plan was to hit publish for my paperback and hope after doing so I would see the ASIN to add the completed book review link – so that I could then hit the publish button on my e-book. Is this even possible or should I be patient and add the link at a later date? Thanks in advance!

For this, if you do a pre-order, you can get it preemptively.

I was wondering if you have any suggestions for getting reviews on low or no content books as they are not generally available on Kindle.

Well, that’s one reason why making a ebook version can be helpful for those books (if you get the formatting down). If not though, then I guess that is a bit of a game changer on what one can do. Limitations being physical books and all.

Hi, Dave, Thanks so much for all of these tips. Some excellent ideas!

Per the giveaway, do you find that people leave reviews if they haven’t yet read the book? And if they decide to do a quick star rating rather than a written review, does that still carry any weight with potential readers?

Thanks for your response.

I’ve seen some come in where it looked as though they hadn’t read it. So it definitely happens.

Hi Dave, thank you for the valuable information’s, just a question please

In the way the person has to write a review for entering in contest giveaway, how’s can be the next step to send to the winner his copy paperback as promise ?

Using a program like the one discussed in the article, it will handle selecting the winner. Then contact them, get their mailing address and send them the prize.

Comments are closed.

Join the community

Join 111,585 other authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them make more money selling books.

The 21 Best Places to Find Free Books Online

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Monday, Apr 20

The 21 best places to find free books online.

If you’re anything like us, you go through books fast . Sometimes it seems like an addiction you can’t keep up with — and if there’s one thing any bookworm can tell you, it’s that this habit can quickly get expensive.

Luckily, the savvy reader knows there are plenty of places online to legally download books without spending a single penny. In this post, we’re giving you 21 of the best places to find free books online, so that you can satisfy even the most debilitating of book addictions, guilt-free.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great books out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized book recommendation 😉

Which book should you read next?

Discover the perfect book for you. Takes 30 seconds!

1. Project Gutenberg

2. The Online Books Page

If that’s not enough books for you, The Online Books Page , hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, boasts a staggering list of over three million free ebooks! Unlike Project Gutenberg, they don’t actually host any of the books themselves, instead providing links to where you can download them. And their website does look like something straight out of 1996. Still, when we’re talking about this many ebooks at our fingertips, can we really complain? This is a great source for classics and obscure titles that offer deep dives into arcane topics, though some newer books can also appear.

3. Kindle Store

4. Smashwords

Like Amazon, Smashwords has a page where you can easily see all the books authors have chosen to give away for free . With the ability to browse by categories such as “newest,” “bestseller,” and “highest-rated,” as well as filtering by the book’s length and genre, this is an easy way to instantly find free books. (Just remember to re-select the “free” category at the top if you choose to browse by genre!) The best part? Most stories are available in a wide range of file formats, and you don’t even need an account to download them.

6. Robin Reads

A book promotion service in the vein of BookBub, Robin Reads is another great way to stay in-the-know on all the hottest new titles and discounts. With everything from romance to horror to nonfiction, there’s sure to be something interesting in nearly all of their daily emails.

7. eReader News Today

8. FreeBooksy

Most of the other book promotion services focus on both free and discounted books, but FreeBooksy is the biggest site that’s dedicated solely to ebooks you don’t have to pay for. Unlike some of its competitors, it seeks out deals from all the major retailers, so even if you’re totally loyal to Kobo or Nook, you’re bound to find some great books gratis . (Can you tell we’re desperately trying not to use the word “free” too much?)

9. Manybooks

10. Goodreads Free Shelves

Sometimes the easiest way to find free books is to crowdsource for them, and Goodreads shelves make this process easy. Browsing by shelf collects all the books that users put in shelves of the same name, and you can easily find shelves marked as “ free-ebooks ,” “ free-ebook ,” “ free ” and more. Now, because this is dependent on users marking ebooks themselves, it is possible that some of the books were shelved during a period when a book was once being given away free and now comes with a heavier sticker price. They may also shelve books in the public domain that you can find through sites such as Project Gutenberg, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll find these for free if you follow the link to them on Amazon. Still, it’s a rich resource that may easily give you titles you don’t find on other sites, so it’s definitely worth a look.

11. Reedsy Discovery

Love indie books and want to read them for free, before anyone else does? That's exactly what you get if you sign up to become a Reedsy Discovery reviewer , as indie authors provide free ebooks in exchange for an honest review. Simply take notes of your thoughts as you read, and use them to write up a coherent review when you've finished reading. You'll be helping out the author as well as would-be readers, while getting a free read! Writing book reviews can also be an excellent way to break into the publishing industry if you're at the start of your career, but most of all they're great fun to write and read alike.

12. Riveted by Simon Teen

13. Harlequin Online Reads

The leading publisher of romance novels, Harlequin’s website also offers a huge collection of serialized stories from some of their best authors — for free. New chapters are posted every week, or you can browse a massive back catalogue of completed works. With filters such as “Fall in Love,” “Walk on the Dark Side,” and “Take a Trip Down the Aisle,” plus the ability to show titles based on how much time you have to read at the moment (yes, really!), this collection is sure let you zero in on the exact romance fix you’re craving.

14. Tor.com

15. Libby / OverDrive

In the wise words of Arthur the Aardvark, “Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card!” So it is with Libby , the new app by OverDrive. OverDrive allows libraries to purchase ebooks for lending out to their patrons. Each “copy” of the ebook can only be checked out by one patron at a time. Loan lengths and the total number of titles you can have at once varies by library. Books may be checked out and downloaded directly through Libby, or downloaded for reading via Kindle. Because only one person can check out each copy at a time, though, there are often hold lists on popular titles — sometimes significant ones — so be sure to keep an eye on that when you’re picking your next read. However, the catalogue available to each library is quite extensive, and if there’s ever a title your library hasn’t purchased yet, there’s an easy button to request it right in the app.

17. Wattpad

Lovers of fanfic have long been familiar with sites where users can upload stories one chapter at a time, but Wattpad brings that idea to life in the original fiction world — with a few additional benefits as well. Started in 2006, Wattpad is perfect if you’re looking for a wide range of diverse voices and unconventional stories that might get overlooked by big publishers. Chock-full of talented writers and enthusiastic readers, it’s a community unlike anything else in the reading landscape. Leave comments, follow your favorite authors, and upvote the stories you love. With the free app, you can even keep up with all the best stories right from your phone.

18. PaperBack Swap

19. Open Culture

In Open Culture’s own words, they scour the internet for the “audio books you need, the language lessons and educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.” As a curator of free online learning resources , this sounds great to us! Their audiobook selection is top-notch as well, including some surprisingly high-profile narrators . ( The Wizard of Oz as read by Tituss Burgess? Where do they even find these treasures?)

20. LibriVox

21. Storynory

Lastly, in all the rush to find free books, let’s not forget about the littlest readers among us! Storynory offers free audiobooks for kids, featuring everything from classics to brand-new originals exclusive to the Storynory site. While not as extensive a collection as some of the sites on our list, the stories are charming and offer a welcome distraction when someone just won’t settle down.

Still can't get enough books? Check out our list of the 115 Best Books of All Time . Or why not get paid to read, by applying to some of the legitimate sites that pay reviewers ?

Continue reading

45 Best History Books of All Time

If the mere mention of ‘history books’ is enough to conjure up memories of fighting back yawns in your middle school classroom, then chances are you haven’t been looking in the right places. But fear not — this list is here to bring you some of the most well-researched, entert...

25 Best Bookshelves Money Can Buy

Sit back and browse some of the best bookshelves money can buy! Whether you wish to flaunt your bold personality at work or add a rustic flair to your home, you’ll surely find your ideal bookshelf here.

The 20 Best Haruki Murakami Books, Ranked

Haruki Murakami is known for his surrealist writing. Here are the best Haruki Murakami books that will show you just how fantastic his works are.

Heard about Reedsy Discovery?

Trust real people, not robots, to give you book recommendations.

Or sign up with an

Or sign up with your social account

Submit your book
Reviewer directory

Discovery | Reviewer | Version C | 2024-01

Want to be a book reviewer?

Review new books and start building your portfolio.

Get a Free Review of Your Book
Enter our Book Award Contest
Helpful Articles and Writing Services
Are you a Publisher, Agent or Publicist?
Five Star and Award Stickers
Find a Great Book to Read
Win 100+ Kindle Books
Get Free Books
Are you a School, Library or Charity?
Become a Reviewer
Become an Affiliate
Become a Partner
Award Winners
Non-Fiction

REQUEST A BOOK REVIEW

We review manuscripts, published and unpublished books, eBooks, audiobooks, poetry books, comic books, graphic novels and short stories. Your review will be posted on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. In addition, our reviewers often post reviews to their blogs and social media sites. Your review will also be indexed by search engines like Google, which recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating, just like Amazon and Goodreads.

All 5-star reviews receive a FREE "Five Star" digital seal for your website and a high-resolution version for your book cover. Our seal can be seen on book covers from indie authors to iconic publishers like Simon & Schuster. All reviews come with a Readers' Favorite Review Page and a host of free features to help you promote your book and your new review.

Unsolicited testimonial from Nicky VanValkenburgh, self-published author

As a result of my Readers' Favorite Review Page, a journalist invited me to do a radio interview, which led to many other radio shows! Now I am networking and selling more books than I ever imagined! Thanks so much!

All book review features are FREE

Review Page with features to get your book noticed.
Review listed in the Readers’ Favorite app for readers.
Review posted to popular websites and search engines.
Review announced to 500k libraries, bookstores, schools.
Donate books with our Book Donation program.
Get more reviews with our Review Exchange program.
Get more reviews and fans with our Free Book program.
Get help and share information in our Author Forum.
Get advertising & fans with our Monthly Book Giveaway.

TRUSTED BOOK REVIEWS

Readers' Favorite has been awarded the Association of Independent Authors Honoring Excellence award, which recognizes businesses and organizations that offer exceptional products and services for independent authors.

Readers' Favorite is the fastest growing book review and award contest site on the Internet. We have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and are very proud to be fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.

Readers’ Favorite's book reviews and book awards have been accepted into the CLCD, a world leader in the collection of professional reviews and awards data, providing our authors with free exposure to a huge variety of literary professionals, libraries, schools, publishers and book sellers. Some restrictions apply.

Readers' Favorite is a proud member of the National Book Critics Circle, Founded in April, 1974, which honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature.

On behalf of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and especially on behalf of the children and their families, we want to thank Readers' Favorite and its authors for your kindness and generosity.

BOOK REVIEW OPTIONS

Free, express and multiple review options.

Reviews are so important for authors, not only to assist them with advertising but to give the author valuable feedback on their work. Readers' Favorite was founded to help authors acquire these quality reviews. We provide several review options; all come with a Readers' Favorite review page and all the features listed below in the BOOK REVIEW FEATURES section. Our reviewers are avid readers who will select your book for review the same way they would if they were purchasing it from a bookstore so you can be sure you will receive a fair, honest review from someone interested in your book.

Free Book Review

By far, most of what we do is provide free book reviews to authors. In fact, we provide hundreds and even thousands of free reviews each month to authors from all over the world, from independent authors to best sellers and celebrities. However, even with over 1,500 reviewers we are not able to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for free reviews.

Although we cannot guarantee that all books will receive a review, more than half of the books submitted for a free review will receive one within three (3) months. Some books are reviewed in less than a week while others are never selected for review. As a company, we play no part in the time it takes for a book to receive a review because we do not assign books to reviewers; they select them from a detailed list. Reviewers search through the genres they are interested in, read your description, look at your cover, and can even read a portion of your book to ensure it is something they are interested in reading. We designed this process to mimic that of a bookstore to ensure you get a reader who represents your core audience.

If you are interested in a guaranteed review, getting your review back more quickly or would like multiple reviews of your book, please look at our Express and Express Package options using the tabs above. Although many review companies charge hundreds of dollars for a single expedited review, our Express Reviews start at just $59 and include a Mini-Critique and free advertising. At Readers' Favorite, we are trying our best to give authors more bang for their buck.

2 Week Express Review + EXTRAS - $59

Only about 65 percent of free review requests are selected for review within 3 months. Many can take longer or not receive a review at all. An Express Review guarantees your book will be reviewed in 2 weeks.

In addition to all the regular free features our reviews come with, our Express Reviews also include a Mini-Critique completed by your reviewer with ratings on 5 key areas of your book and free advertising of your new review in our Featured Book rotator, which directs interested visitors to your Readers' Favorite Review Page.

Guaranteed review completed in 2 weeks.*

Mini-critique of your book that provides ratings on 5 key areas: appearance, plot, development, formatting and marketability.

One month of advertising in our Featured Book rotator , which is seen by thousands of daily visitors, including agents, publishers, publicists, bloggers, journalists and regular readers.

* Paying for an Express Review only affects the turnaround speed of your review(s) and in no way impacts the quality or rating. Your book must be available on Amazon (your book does not need to be on Amazon now to be reviewed, we just have to wait until it is on Amazon before we can post your review publicly) and receive at least 4 stars (on at least one review for multiple Express Review Packages) to have your review posted on our site and to be put in our Featured Book rotator. Additional review time may be necessary for books over 350 pages.

3 Express Reviews + EXTRAS - $129

In addition to all the features of our Free and Express Reviews, our Review Packages provide multiple reviews of your book for a true consensus on its quality, as well as special discounts for our International Book Awards Contest. All of your reviews are performed by reviewers who select your book the same way they would from a bookstore and are completed in 2-3 weeks.

3 Guaranteed reviews completed in 2-3 weeks.*

3 Mini-critiques of your book that provide ratings on 5 key areas: appearance, plot, development, formatting and marketability.

3 months of advertising in our Featured Book rotator , which is seen by thousands of daily visitors, including agents, publishers, publicists, bloggers, journalists and regular readers.

BONUS: Enter our Award Contest and you can select 1 extra category for your book to compete in for FREE ($65 value).

5 Express Reviews + EXTRAS - $199

In addition to all the features of our Free and Express Reviews, our Review Packages provide multiple reviews of your book for a true consensus on its quality as well as special discounts for our International Book Awards Contest. All of your reviews are performed by reviewers who select your book the same way they would from a bookstore and are completed in 2-3 weeks.

5 Guaranteed reviews completed in 2-3 weeks.*

5 Mini-critiques of your book that provide ratings on 5 key areas: appearance, plot, development, formatting and marketability.

5 months of advertising in our Featured Book rotator , which is seen by thousands of daily visitors, including agents, publishers, publicists, bloggers, journalists and regular readers.

BONUS: Enter our Award Contest and you can select 2 extra categories for your book to compete in for FREE ($130 value).

Featured Book Rotator

Our Featured Book rotator is on our home page and at the top left of every page on our site that is designated for readers (which means it will appear on 99% of the pages on our site) and rotates randomly through all our Featured Books. When a book cover is clicked, it will take the visitor to the book's Readers' Favorite review page.

It is positioned to attract the attention of our thousands of daily visitors, who are looking to find a good book to read. We are also frequented by agents, publishers, publicists, and journalists who want to view reviews we have done for their authors, to submit new review requests, or to see our newest award-winning authors.

We do not sell this advertising space, it is provided as a perk for purchasing our Express Review and Writing services to help authors promote their book. By not selling the space we keep the number of images down, which provides those in the rotator more screen time.

BOOK REVIEW FEATURES

We only post 4 and 5 star reviews.

We use a standard 5 star rating system and only post reviews we have awarded a 4 or 5-star rating. Our goal is to help authors with positive advertising for their books and to provide insightful reviews to help readers find the perfect book by a new or established author.

If you receive a poor review our reviewer will point out any issues with your story to help you make it better. Once you have revised it, we will be happy to review it again for free. We were the first review company to not post negative reviews and are proud to have been a part of making it an industry standard.

You may use as much or as little of our review as you wish. We write at least 250 words to provide you with plenty of material to pick quotes from. You will have a simple link to your Review Page featuring your book title like this one for actor/comedian and now award-winning author Jim Carrey, https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/how-roland-rolls . This link is not only user friendly, but it dramatically increases the searchability of your book title and review in search engines.

Your review will be posted on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Your review will be indexed by search engines like Google, which recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating just like reviews from Amazon and Goodreads. You can see an example with David Baldacci's book, Hell's Corner .

Review Page to display your review

Jim Carrey Book Review, How Roland Rolls

Your Review Page will display your book cover and have an Amazon purchase link as well as optional links like to your Book Trailer on YouTube, your Website, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest pages. You can also add your biography and photo to your review. Our photo upload system will automatically resize your uploaded picture and maintain its aspect ratio so it looks as great as you do.

At the bottom of your Review Page, there is a section where visitors can post their own reviews/comments about your book using our comment system and/or Facebook's comment system. You can also use this section to post all your other reviews for your book so they are all on one central review page.

Your Review Page also includes a Social Networking bar so you and your visitors can post your review to Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as Tweet it or Pin it to Pinterest. These buttons are automatically populated with your book cover and review so when people use the links all your review information is there and ready to be advertised.

Inclusion in the CLCD literature database (some restrictions apply)

The CLCD (Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database) houses the world’s largest collection of professional reviews and awards data for Children’s and YA titles. They are the leading resource for independent information about Children’s and YA titles and are used by countless literary professionals and thousands of institutions ranging from universities and colleges to public and K-12 libraries.

Readers’ Favorite's book reviews and book awards have been accepted into this database, which provides our authors with exposure to thousands of library professionals, educators and students as well as a large number of publishers and book sellers. If you have a Children's or YA book and receive a Readers' Favorite 4 or 5 star review, and your book is available on Amazon (now or in the future), your book and review will be listed in the CLCD database. There is nothing you need to do.

If you win any Readers' Favorite award level in our Annual Book Award Contest, your listing in the CLCD will be automatically updated to display your award, setting your book apart to the countless literary professionals who use the database.

PLEASE NOTE: currently this feature is only available to Children's and YA titles. However, we are working to expand this opportunity to all our genres through other databases. When this happens, all qualifying reviews in our database will be submitted.

NEW - Get more reviews with our Review Exchange and Free Book programs

Our Review Exchange program allows authors to obtain more reviews and exposure by getting a review of their book in exchange for a review of another author’s book.

NEW - Our Free Book program allows authors to obtain more reviews and exposure by providing a regular reader with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review.

Your participation in both programs is enabled by default, but you can disable either of them at any time from your Author’s Area. When enabled, our Review Exchange and/or Free Book button will appear next to your book everywhere on our site, including on your Review Page. The Review Exchange button lets other authors know you will consider reading and providing an honest review of their book in exchange for them doing the same for your book, and the Free Book button will let readers know that you will consider providing them with a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review.

There is a Contact link on your Review Page whereby authors and readers can send you a message about their interest in either of these programs. You can use this same method to contact other authors about exchanging reviews with them. The Contact link is also available to agents, publishers, publicists, journalists and other visitors who want to contact you. The system allows people to email you without revealing your email address to maintain your privacy.

Give to schools and charities with our Book Donation program

Monthly Book Giveaway Program

As discussed in our Review Exchange and Book Donation sections, one of the best ways to get new readers and reviews is to give away some copies of your book. To that end, we have created the Readers' Favorite Monthly Book Giveaway . If your book is on Kindle you can create a Kindle Gift for your book. When you do, it will generate a Gift Claim Code that you will enter in your Readers' Favorite Author Area. Your book will then show up on our Monthly Book Giveaway page; it's that easy!

Our giveaway receives premium advertising placement on the left side of every page of our site used by visitors and readers. This ensures that it will be seen by the countless readers, authors, agents, publishers and journalists who visit our site, driving quality readers to the Monthly Book Giveaway page and providing you with great advertising for your book!

If they are interested in your book, they will select it as one they would like to win. They can choose as many as they like. At the end of the month we will pick one winner who will get all the books they selected. We will email them your Kindle Gift Claim Code so they can get their free copy of your book, then we will email you so you can submit another Gift Claim Code if you would like to keep your book on the giveaway page.

If your book was not chosen, it will remain on the giveaway page until someone wins it. If readers who were interested in your book do not win, they may still be interested enough to purchase a copy! If someone does win your book, it will count as an Amazon verified purchase and a verified review if they post a review on your Amazon page, which is what we ask them to do.

In addition, you will get a special link that will take people to the Giveaway page and display your book right at the top so they can easily find and select it. This is a great marketing tool to introduce readers to your book while giving them a chance to win a copy.

Although this is a free Readers' Favorite feature, you will still need to purchase a copy of your book from Amazon to give it as a gift. We hope that the advertising you receive from being on the giveaway page, which includes new readers discovering your book, winning a copy, reading it and hopefully reviewing it on Amazon, will be enough compensation to consider this a good way to help promote your book.

You will be able to activate this free feature from your Author Area as soon as your review is complete. And if you see books you like in the Giveaway you can enter to win as well.

Get help in our Author Forum

Our Author Forum is a community of authors providing support for one another. It is a positive environment where you will find plenty of marketing strategies and advice, as well as tips on honing your craft. It is custom made to be easy to use and features your picture, book cover, and a personal signature with all your posts.

Just as Readers' Favorite does not post negative reviews to maintain a positive atmosphere for authors and readers, we do not allow negative posts about people, services or companies in our Forum. Instead, authors are encouraged to focus on the positive and offer advice on where to go instead of where not to go and what services to use, instead of what not use.

To thank our authors for posting helpful information, we choose 1 author each month who has contributed to the Forum and award them with a prize. Winners can choose a 5 Express Review package ($199 value) or a free entry into our Annual Book Award Contest with up to 4 categories ($284 value). The Author Forum is completely free, like all our Review Features, and you will have access to it as soon as you submit your book for review or enter our Annual Book Award Contest.

Press Release about your review or award

Although we do offer a fee based, discounted Press Release service to all our authors who receive a 4 or 5-star review or whom place in our annual contest, we also provide a complete press release for you to use free of charge. It is properly formatted to industry standards and contains all pertinent and required information, including your review or contest placement. You can simply copy the press release and paste it to all your social media sites, website, blog, etc. or you can use it at another press release service of your choice. It is completely free and will be available in your Author Area as soon as your review is complete.

Review announced to 500,000 libraries, bookstores, and schools across America

Each month we announce the reviews we completed that month to 115,000 libraries, 85,000 bookstores and 300,000 schools (elementary through high school) nationwide. We use a white-listed email company that professionally maintains these lists to ensure they are current and accurate. This powerful mailing can not only lead to sales and recognition, but schools and libraries can request donation copies from your Review Page for even more exposure and reviews.

One of the reasons we receive such a good response from this mailing is because we have a Book Donation program that allows these nonprofit organizations to request free books from our authors, which makes our monthly mailing a free resource for great new books! The smaller book stores on our list are always looking for fresh new books to liven up their shelves, and often contact authors about stocking their books. But this mailing doesn’t just help you for the one month you are in it, the email reminds the recipient that most of our authors participate in our Book Donation program and encourages them to look through our website for more books they may be interested in.

Although this service can normally cost hundreds of dollars, we are offering it free of charge with your review. It does not matter which of our review services you use (free or Express), you just need to receive a 4 or 5-star review. Once we have created a Review Page for you on our site you will be scheduled for the following month’s announcement email. There is nothing you need to do or pay, it is all automatic and free.

Due to the large volume of reviews we do each month, it is not possible to list each new book in the email, instead we list the genre your book can be found in. The recipient can use the link to view all the new books in the genres they are interested in. All our genre categories list the newest books first, to make it easier for regular visitors to our site looking for new books. To visit our genre lists, just click any of the genres under the search bar at the top of any page on our website.

BOOK REVIEW FAQS

What can be submitted for review.

We review manuscripts, published and unpublished books, eBooks, audiobooks, poetry books, comic books, graphic novels, and short stories. Your work must be complete, written in English, and fit into one of our 150+ genre categories. You can submit a book with AI-generated material, but you must let us know in the Book Description box on our form what portion of your book is AI-generated. Currently we do not accept erotica books that are mostly sex with no substantial plot.

If you receive a review of 4 stars or more and your work is currently available for purchase on Amazon (your book does not need to be on Amazon now to get your review, we just have to wait until it is before we can post your review publicly), we will post your review on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Your book must currently be on those sites for us to post your review.

You can submit your book to us in the following formats in order of preference: PDF, Kindle (MOBI), Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX), RTF, and ePUB. If you have a different file format like Open Office or Word Perfect, or you have any trouble attaching your book to our Review Request form, just complete the form without attaching your book and your confirmation email will have instructions on how to easily send us your book file.

How to submit a sequel for review

If you are entering a sequel that is not standalone, where you need the reader to have some information from the previous book(s), then please add a short synopsis of your previous book(s) to the beginning of the Book Description field of our Review Request form below. If there is not enough room, add the synopsis to the first page of your book file.

If you would like the same reviewer(s) to review your entire series, please submit the first book in the series and if you like the review and reviewer, then you can submit the next book and contact us (click the Contact menu at the top of our website) and let us know you would like the same reviewer. Although we do not assign books to reviewers, they always enjoy reading books by authors they have reviewed for before, especially a series.

Who are your reviewers?

We have over 1,500 reviewers who are as varied as the stories they read. They are not literary experts but regular readers with a passion for reading and helping new and established authors with honest reviews of their work. When you submit the Review Request form below, it is sent to all our reviewers for selection. We do not assign reviews, we provide our reviewers with detailed information about your book so they can choose stories they are interested in.

This process is designed to closely mimic the purchasing process at a bookstore, providing you with a quality, honest and genuine review from exactly the type of person who would have normally purchased your book.

Ratings are given on a 5-star scale:

5 STARS – Excellent: I loved this book. 4 STARS – Good: I enjoyed this book.

If a book receives less than 4 stars no official review is given. Instead, the reviewer will write constructive criticism to let the author know what problems they had with the book and offer any suggestions they may have to improve it. This will be about the size of a regular review and will be sent to the author privately; it will not be posted publicly. We are here to help authors, not hurt them.

Although we as a company do not interfere with what rating a reviewer gives a book, as the rating must be what the reviewer feels is appropriate, we do monitor the average ratings of our reviewers to ensure they are being fair and honest about their ratings to maintain the integrity of our reviews.

When you receive a review from Readers' Favorite, the first line of the review indicates who your reviewer was so you can look them up on our About Us page. Knowing the type of person who provided your review can help you understand the potential demographics of readers who will enjoy your book. This also benefits the reviewer by giving them proper credit and recognition for their work and time.

Because it is critical that reviewers provide quality reviews, we invite you to Review your Reviewer. When your review is complete, you will be able to login to your Author's Area and rate your reviewer on a 5-star scale and provide a short review, just as they did for you. Your feedback is presented to the reviewer to help them improve their skills, the same way book reviews help authors improve theirs. The information is also passed to the Readers' Favorite staff to help us ensure the quality of our reviewers and reviews. If you would like to join the Readers' Favorite Team, please fill out our Reviewer Application .

How long does it take for a review?

By far, most of what we do is provide free book reviews to authors. In fact, we provide hundreds of free reviews each month to authors from all over the world from independent authors to best-sellers and celebrities. However, even with over 1,000 reviewers we are not able to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for free reviews.

Although we cannot guarantee that all books will receive a review, more than half of the books submitted for a free review will receive one within 3 months. Some books are reviewed in less than a week while others are never selected for review. As a company we play no part in the time it takes for a book to receive a review because we do not assign books to reviewers; they select them from a detailed list. Reviewers search through the genres they are interested in, read your description, look at your cover, and can even read a portion of your book to ensure it is something they are interested in reading. We designed this process to mimic that of a book store to ensure you get a reader who represents your core audience.

Book security

When a book is submitted to us for review or our contest, all our reviewers/judges will be able to see the book details you provided to help them choose your book, but they must select your book for review/judging before they will have access to your book file. Once your book is selected it is removed from the list and the only people who have access to it from that point on are the reviewer/judge and select admin staff. Once the book file is no longer needed it is deleted from our system.

We have done hundreds of thousands of reviews since we launched in 2009 and are used by all the big publishers and have never had an issue with piracy. All our reviewers are vetted and provide a government-issued ID so we can verify their identity and so we can cooperate with law enforcement should there ever be an issue with an author's book. We also have a litany of systems in place to track and monitor our books to ensure their security.

Generally, authors have nothing to fear when submitting their books to reputable review companies because their books are not of interest to pirates yet. Pirates do not need to work for a review company to steal book files. They can buy the Kindle version of the bestselling book on Amazon and use common DRM cracking software to copy it in 10 minutes or they could simply buy the paperback version and use a standard OCR scanner to scan each page and have a PDF in about an hour.

Using these methods, they can steal and sell James Patterson's new book or all the Harry Potter books, the choices are unlimited. With review companies, almost all the books are unknown or not even publish-ready yet. And it's not about quality, they don’t care how good your book is, they just want something they can sell, which means books that are at the top of Amazon’s sales lists because those are books people are currently talking about and searching for.

However, if you would feel better securing your book file a bit, there are a couple of things you can do: you can add a watermark to your pages, just please be sure it is light enough not to interfere with the reader’s ability to clearly see the text. You can also password protect your PDF, just be sure to provide us with the password in our Book Description box when you submit it to us so the reader can access it.

Welcome to Open Library

Read Free Library Books Online

Millions of books available through Controlled Digital Lending

Set a Yearly Reading Goal

Learn how to set a yearly reading goal and track what you read

Keep Track of your Favorite Books

Organize your Books using Lists & the Reading Log

Try the virtual Library Explorer

Digital shelves organized like a physical library

Try Fulltext Search

Find matching results within the text of millions of books

Be an Open Librarian

Dozens of ways you can help improve the library

Volunteer at Open Library

Discover opportunities to improve the library

Send us feedback

Your feedback will help us improve these cards

Trending Books

El hombre mas rico de Babilonia by George Hill

Preview Book

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [12 stories] by Arthur Conan Doyle

Classic Books

The passing of the third floor back by Jerome Klapka Jerome

Books We Love

Recently Returned

Living with the Kennedys by Marcia Chellis

Authors Alliance & MIT Press

Beyond Natural Selection (Bradford Books) by Robert Wesson

Browse by Subject

110,638 Books

Science Fiction

18,983 Books

12,513 Books

Biographies

24,294 Books

9,181 Books

19,821 Books

29,521 Books

53,843 Books

2,125,163 Books

51,837 Books

138,566 Books

Mystery and Detective Stories

15,861 Books

2,551 Books

72,745 Books

86,659 Books

Around the Library

Here's what's happened over the last 28 days. More recent changes .

About the Project

Open library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. more.

Just like Wikipedia, you can contribute new information or corrections to the catalog. You can browse by subjects , authors or lists members have created. If you love books, why not help build a library?

Latest Blog Posts

Improving Open Library’s Translation Pipeline - July 30, 2024
Follow each other on Open Library - July 5, 2024
Let Readers Read - June 17, 2024

30 Day Kindle Blueprint
KDP: Quickstart Guide
Quickstart Trainings
Latest Posts
Latest Trainings
Dedicated Trainings
New Shelves Books
Guest Trainers
Authorpreneur Mastery
Author Quick Course
Expert Media
Paint by Numbers
Special Reports

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

How To Get Free Book Reviews

If you’ve been reading these special reports for a while, it’s no news to you that book reviews are an important part of getting your books noticed, read, and sold. That’s easy to understand. The hard part is getting those reviews in the first place.

One of the things that makes this hard is the difference between your existing fan base, and the number of readers necessary to get a large number of reviews for your books. For people who are already famous (or even just popular among their friends on Facebook and Instagram), it’s a piece of cake…but that leaves the rest of us out in the cold.

How do we get our books reviewed without paying hundreds (or thousands) for book review and distribution services?

How do we make sure the people who say they’ll review our books actually leave reviews, and rate our books well?

What does Amazon expect for a valid review, and how do we avoid running afoul of their expectations?

We’re glad you asked. Let’s start with:

Amazon Review Rules

Once upon a time, anybody could leave a review on Amazon. You could. Your partner could. Your three best buddies and your kids could. So could anybody you paid five bucks to leave a great review, or anybody you gave a free book to under the condition they left a good review even if they didn’t read it.

About four years ago, Amazon put a stop to this, big time. They don’t allow reviews by your friends and family, nor do they allow reviews in exchange for any kind of payment or gift — including receiving a free book. According to Amazon’s most recent rules and guidelines about reviews:

You may not pay anybody to leave a review. You may give a gift, or entry into a giveaway, for people who leave a review because they enter the giveaway instead of receiving payment.
You may not offer a free gift if they review your book. You may offer a free gift for joining your mailing list, beta team, or similar group, then ask members of that group later to leave a review.
You may not refund the reviewer’s purchase price for your book, or give them a free book, for leaving a review. You may give them a free Advance Reader Copy of the book and ask them to leave a review if they want to.
You may not swap reviews with another author, or as part of a review and promotion circle. You may ask author friends to review your books, and review your author friends’ books as you see fit.
You may not have your close friends and family review your books. You may ask people to review books in general, or even your books in particular, as a general and informal request.

As you can see, the rules are specific and the line between them a little hard to gauge. Also, Amazon is vigorous in enforcing and investigating potential review violations. If they catch you cheating, the consequences range between deleting the review, to removing the book, to blocking your entire account.

It’s best to play it safe with Amazon review rules, so stick to the ideas we mention in the rest of this article.

Editorial Reviews vs. Amazon Reviews

Amazon carries two different kinds of reviews associated with each book.

Editorial reviews get entered in your Author Central Account by you. You pull them from online book reviews, editorial comments, or things people say to you privately. Amazon then inserts them in your book description, the same way a publisher might put a quote from a rave review on a cover.

Amazon reviews get entered by readers, who take the time to give a star rating and maybe a description of why they liked or disliked the book. Amazon then automatically positions them near the bottom of your book description, and uses both the number and the rating as part of its search algorithm.

Each kind of review serves a different purpose. An Amazon review can help convince potential readers to buy your book, but is even more important for your book’s performance in its search rank. An editorial review shows up in your book’s description and has a more direct role in helping a viewer decide to give your book a try.

This article deals with Amazon reviews. Editorial reviews can also be helpful, but they’re less mysterious. You put them in yourself after soliciting rave statements, or finding kind words in Amazon reviews left by strangers. Amazon reviews are a trickier proposition. To get them, we’ll focus on three major sources:

Free online services to get lots of reviews
Techniques you can use to get reviews from friends, acquaintances and strangers
Leveraging Amazon top reviewers

Free Services to Get Book Reviews

A variety of websites make their business model out of becoming a hub for fans of a genre (or reading in general) to read and review various books. If you put your book on these services, it will attract a lot of eyes. Some of them will leave reviews on Amazon. Others will leave reviews on the site (which still builds traction for your book). Some ask you to leave a free or discounted copy for review. Others put your book up for easy sale and download.

Which is right for you depends on your exact needs and writing situation. For example, an author with a long series benefits lots from leaving a free copy for review on the site, while a first-time author wants to focus on sites that pay for the book and get a review directly on Amazon.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Affaire de Coeur – a bi-monthly newsletter that publishes reviews for historical fiction, contemporary fiction, paranormal fiction, erotica. YA/MG, and nonfiction
Book Hookup – a genre fiction site for paranormal, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, historical fiction, romance, YA/MG, and New adult. They have a high barrier for entry, but lots of power
Book Page – general fiction for most genres, with a 3-month lead time for ARCs
Book Smugglers – lots of readers for his horror, science fiction, YA/MG, and science fiction blog
Compulsive Reader – for literary fiction and poetry
Crime Fiction Lover – exactly what it sounds like. High barrier for entry, but many readers if you get in.
Crime Scene Reviews – also exactly what it sounds like
Fantasy Book Critics – exactly what it sounds like, plus links to lots of other sites for fantasy writers
Kindle Book Review – a meta-site that lists lots of reviewers you can contact individually, listed by genre
Love Books Group – easy submission process, covers all genres. We recommend starting here first.
SF Book – another meta-site with a list of reviewers you can contact
Top Sci-Fi Books – exactly what it sounds like, with a preference for self-published writers

Bear in mind that this is a list of twelve out of hundreds of book review sites in the world. Pick the best from this list, then google “sites like (the site you chose from this list)” to get even more.

You can also find paid sites that distribute your book for review and promotion, but that’s a different subject we’ll tackle in a different report.

Easy Techniques to Increase Your Book Reviews

Beyond the sites dedicated to finding reviewers for you, you can also do a lot of work yourself to get individuals you know to review your book. Here’s a handful of reliable techniques:

Create Special Review Links

Leaving reviews takes work and steps. The smaller the number of steps it takes to leave a review, the more people will go ahead and leave one. That’s why it helps to navigate in your book page all the way to the point where somebody can click the stars and write a review.

Copy and paste it from there, then leave that link on your social media, in the backs of your book, and anywhere else you think is appropriate. This minimizes the steps a potential reviewer must take, and maximizes the number of people who leave a review.

Hold a Giveaway or Contest

We talk about the details of these in this report , and this one , (and will actually touch on it again in a couple of weeks over here ). The bottom line is to hold an event that includes leaving reviews as part of participation. Be sure that leaving a negative review gives just as much credit as leaving a positive review, and that entering the giveaway does not require leaving reviews.

You can also do the giveaway in a manner that collects emails, then send emails later asking for reviews. This makes the whole thing a little less direct quid pro quo. Either way, it can net a surprising number of reviews overall.

Put a Review Ask In Your Books

We’ve written about this before, but three things to remember:

Just do it already. We’re consistently amazed how many people know they should be doing this, but who keep not doing this. It will take you one day to make the changes and upload them to KDP. Get on with it already.
Write a personal note telling people about yourself and talking about how much a review helps you.
Promise that you’ll read all the reviews. This puts some subtle pressure to be one of the people you read, and also helps the reader feel like they’re part of your team

Set Up an ARC Team

Develop a team of 20-25 fans who are willing to read your advance copy and leave a review. Pull them from your superfans (see below), your writing group, and other populations willing to go the extra mile. About three months before launch day, send them your book individually (not as a mass email), and check in with them once a month until launch. Remind them they don’t have to finish the book to leave an honest, compelling review.

This is very close to the edge of Amazon’s rules, but so far they have explicitly allowed it. ARC teams are a common practice in traditional publishing, so our guess is Amazon is allowing this for self-published authors, too, even though outside of this context most of what it entails is against their general guidelines.

Track Your Superfans

You have superfans. You even have superfans who aren’t your mom. Set up a spreadsheet where you keep track of them, and also of how you make contact now and again to encourage their superfandom.

Think about the authors you love and admire. How much would it make your day to get a happy birthday wish, or a free ebook for no particular reason, or just for them to share a post you made on Instagram? That’s how your superfans feel about you.

If you track them and nurture those relationships, it’s easy to activate them once a quarter to review any books they haven’t already.

Leveraging Amazon Top Reviewers

Top Amazon Reviewers are people with a track record of on-point, trusted reviews that get a lot of those thumbs-up “did you find this review helpful” tags. Amazon gives them more juice when tracking book algorithms, and some people give their word more credit than a random reviewer.

Getting in touch with a top reviewer who likes your genre is a bit of a process, but can be super-powerful if you make it happen.

Start by finding the Top Reviewers who are active in your genre. You can streamline this by checking the reviews of the titles you used in your keyword and category research.
Navigate to those reviewer profiles. Amazon no longer includes their email addresses, but you can find their social media information near the bottom of the left-hand column. (Pro Tip: You can save yourself literally hours of work by using the Book Review Rocket to determine which profiles have contact information for you!)
Contact the reviewer and ask if they’d be interested in reviewing your book.

Most Top Reviewers get several review requests every day. The good news is they’re used to it, so it’s not like you’re asking for a big favor. The bad news is you have to make a compelling request to bubble up to the top of their attention.

The even better news is, if they love your book, it will be easy to get them to review more books on your list. Just like any other relationship, if you grow it with favors, attention, and the occasional kind word, it will work better for you in the long run.

It’s That Simple…But Maybe Not That Easy

At the end of the day, getting more reviews is a matter of asking as many people as possible to leave reviews, in as efficient a way as you can find. That’s a pretty simple prospect. The trick is to do it consistently enough to get a regular stream of reviews flowing into your Amazon presence.

I recommend doing one thing each week from start to finish. At the end of a year, you’ll have committed 50 acts of review marketing, each of which will glean you a review or two. How would you like to start next year with 50 extra Amazon reviews working for you full-time?

Image by Mohamed Hassan .

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Lost your password?

7 Book Review Sites That Put Your Book in Front of Readers

May 13, 2021 | Book Marketing | 10 comments

Now that you finally published your book , it’s time to gather book reviews. With so many options to promote your book and get it in front of readers, it’s hard to choose which one(s) will help sell this book and the ones that follow. Book review sites are one way to use your advertising dollars to promote reviews and, potentially, book sales.

Why are book reviews so important?

Book reviews are the social proof for your book. It lets other readers know your book is worthy of their time and money. Just like you wouldn’t go to a restaurant without reviews, most readers, unless they know you, have seen you, or a friend recommends your book, won’t pick up your book without reviews. Your first goal is to get to 25 reviews as quickly as possible. Once you reach that goal, keep pushing for more. There is no such thing as too many reviews.

When should you spend money on book review sites?

When you have a small email list or small following on social media and can’t generate the number of desired book reviews organically, you may consider turning to book review sites. It is against Amazon rules to have your mother and friends stuff your book page with reviews. So, it may be advantageous to engage readers out of your own ecosystem.

What to expect from book review sites

The most important thing to understand about engaging with book review sites is that you aren’t paying for reviews. You are paying to have your book in front of readers who may select your book and leave a review. Readers are under no obligation to leave a review, although most will, and they are under no obligation to leave a positive review.

Most reviewers sign up for the sites’ free and nearly free ebooks email list and/or social media feeds. They choose books in genres they like or will go off their normal reading patterns and choose something new because there is little to no risk if the book is free or cheap.

Who can expect the greatest return?

Not all books are created equal. Genre fiction (romance, mystery, etc.) will get consumed at a ravenous rate compared to nonfiction. You increase your chance of success with review sites using the same elements as you will selling them: a professional cover, an engaging description, and a well-written, well-edited book. Make sure you put your best book forward to entice readers.

Why give away your book?

Why would you give away your book for free? Isn’t the point to make money? Long-term, the goal is to generate income. In the short term, it may be more advantageous to expose your book to more readers and build a following. More reviews or more Amazon (or another platform) traffic may mean higher sales after you’ve run your book review promotion. Especially if you have more than one book, book review promotions can help with sales of all of your books. Your goal is to turn readers into fans. Giving your book away is one way to start.

Book review sites

The style, competition, and offerings vary from site to site. While there are free review sites available, the ones listed here are all paid sites. Except for Book Marketing Tools, all are run out of their own site using their list of reviewers. You can also sign up to become a reviewer and receive free and discounted book offers. You’ll help other authors and read some great books!

Most free book review sites won’t evaluate your book. Their Twitter lists may not be vetted either. This is one instance that you get what you pay for. Read the details of each program to understand what you are getting.

Book Marketing Tools

Book Marketing Tools has been around for a number of years, giving sound book marketing advice to its readers. More recently, they built a tool to easily add your information once and use it to be listed on 31+ free book promotion sites. While it isn’t a book review platform in itself, it does ease your efforts. And, of course, time is money. At the time of this blog post, it cost $29 to access this feature.

Readers Favorite

Readers Favorite offers free and paid book review opportunities. According to their site, 50% of the books listed for free receive a review within 3 months. For guaranteed, expedited reviews, there are three options for one, three, and five reviews. Readers Favorite only publishes four- and five-star reviews and with enough depth to allow you to pull out several shorter quotes for use on social media and other avenues. Their pricing model includes free, $59, $129, and $199 offerings.

Reedsy Discovery

With Reedsy Discovery , you first pick your launch date and are matched with readers who give reviews in your category. You receive a book landing page and are added to their Discovery feed. The best books get featured in their catalog. For $50, you are eligible for one review. If your book is not reviewed, you can resubmit it three times at no charge. They require that you submit your book within six months of publication and must submit a copy of your ebook and front cover.

NetGalley is a way to reach a growing community of influential readers (media, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, and educators) who can read, review and recommend your book(s). You can enroll in 3-6 month packages individually or through partners like Books Go Social (below) or Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for $199-$399 (partner prices). Reviewers request pre-publication digital copies of your book and publish reviews to their profile and to share with their audiences.

Book Raid is another high-quality book review site. The benefit to promoting your title with this site, besides its popularity with readers, is that you only pay per click on your book, and your maximum spend is capped at $60. While they don’t take everyone, they do have a few requirements including minimum page count, recently discounted or free, and not promoted on their site within the last eight weeks, among other things.

Written Word Media

Written Word Media is another popular site hosting a variety of book promotion options. Among their offerings are Free Booksy for free books, Bargain Booksy for discounted books usually between $.99 and $2.99, Red Feather Romance, New Releases for books released within four months, and a Facebook/Instagram ad option called Reader Reach. Their tiered pricing levels the field with more popular genres promoted for a higher cost. Your book gets the attention it deserves with a growing reader list of well over 300,000 to date.

Books Go Social

Books Go Social offers a variety of book review opportunities as well as ad programs through Facebook and Amazon. Their package pricing varies depending on the service, and many packages offer tiered pricing options. They offer launch packages with ads, a book trailer, cover, description, and subtitle reviews, tweets, and email placements to their legions of followers, along with NetGalley membership. They also offer 4-8 week memberships to boost book sales and reviews. Packages start at $99.

BookBub earns its title as the coveted spot for book marketing. Books are vetted, and authors compete for featured deals due to the prestige and effect on sales that accompany it. There are many factors in getting your book accepted or denied. Some of those are required, like page count (differs between categories), or not discounted enough or already discounted within a month. You must offer at least a 50% discount on your ebook, preferably at a price between $.99-1.99. Most others are subjective. You are competing with other books. A great cover and description, wide distribution, well-edited, and plenty of reviews put you in the running. While they don’t have a requirement for the number of reviews, it is clear that under 25 positive reviews won’t cut it.

BookBub’s pricing reflects the high demand for the service. Costs for the Featured Deal vary by the popularity of the book category and the price you charge for the book. At the time of this writing, a featured deal could be as low as $92 or as high as $3066. Pricing changes regularly based on several factors. Here is more information about boosting your chances to get a BookBub featured deal.

Ok. That’s eight but who’s counting?

These are just a few of the book review sites available. As with many advertising programs, success will vary based on the platform and its ability to connect your book with the right readers. Once the promotion ends, use your online presence to turn readers into fans. They will be poised and ready for your next book or another product or service.

Do you need help navigating the book marketing path? Find your guide here .

10 Comments

But these reviews are not verified purchases–so does Amazon still use them in the rankings?

Thanks for your comment. Amazon uses purchases in their rankings and not reviews. They will post reviews, although some are removed if they think they aren’t actually readers.

This comment makes me very hesitant to use most of these sites which do not provide verified reviews.

Hi Regina, If reviewers are receiving their books from Amazon, they are verified. However, you can have reviews that aren’t verified that are still valid reviews wherever they purchased or received the book.

HOPE TO START A NEW CHAPTER IN MY LIFE

We’re always writing new chapters. That’s what makes life exciting!

What do you think of pubby book review site?

Betsy, I’ve heard that Amazon has been rejecting many of the reviews generated from that site. Amazon’s review policy disallows reciprocal reviews and that seems to happen a lot on the Pubby site, according to some anecdotal evidence.

I found a $49 lifetime deal on BookMuffin, which works in a similar way to Pubby but is smaller. I think it is worthwhile is it doesn’t matter if it takes a week or more for people to review my books because I am not paying a monthly fee.

BookMuffin sounds interesting. Any others not listed above that you recommend? Pubby is not for me as I learned from experience; don’t go there. It’s way overpriced and it takes much time to get in touch with a person; it’s all botted out and the bots just aren’t up for the job ad nauseam.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Email Marketing for Writers - Happy Self-Publisher - […] and build enthusiasts and evangelists. Your list will likely become your first readers, first reviewers, and first to recommend…
Build Credibility Through Writing - Happy Self-Publisher - […] are a few ways to build credibility. Customer reviews and referrals are powerful drivers of sales in your business.…
Write a Book Description that Sells - Happy Self-Publisher - […] blogs (guest blogs), and interviews. You can also use it to pre-sell books and garner pre-launch book reviews. As…
How to price your self-published book - Happy Self-Publisher - […] Life, or other publishing back office, you can change the price at any time. You may do so for…
How to Get More Book Reviews - Happy Self-Publisher - […] Book review sites are a form of advertising specifically designed to encourage new readers to find and experience your…

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Click on any of the links below for free guides, worksheets, and information to make writing and publishing your book easier, faster, and better.

Get started with the FREE QuickStart Publishing Guide!

Make a plan for success! Get your FREE Author Platform Success Plan!

Affiliate Offers

The following are offers I think you might like (because they are things that I like). If you sign up for any of these, I make a few pennies to a few dollars. I thought you should know.

Find the best keywords to sell more books

Self-Publish with IngramSpark

Get Kindle Unlimited – Read more, write better – 1 month free

Designing Your Book Launch Email Strategy
Writing Subplots: What, Why, and How
3 Cornerstones of Character Development
Exploring the History of the Mystery Genre
Designing a Fantasy World

Privacy Overview

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Grab your FREE QuickStart Publishing Guide!

Get valuable information to confidently navigate the publishing process PLUS a publishing checklist to keep you on track to becoming a successful author.

Get the Guide!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Top 5 Book Review Sites Every Author Should Submit To

Written By Write With Light Publications, LLC

0 comment(s), october 13, 2021, don’t rush your book.

We can’t say it enough and yet we see it happen all the time.

When on the verge of publishing a book, we see one big mistake happen, especially if the author is rushing the publication process of their book.

Many times, we see them write, edit and then publish, giving no time or space to properly market or get the word out about their book.

So how is a reader supposed to find your book if it’s not even out there yet? How will they see it without proper awareness?

Authors who self-publish for the first time (usually) are missing a crucial piece to the publishing process: Submitting their book to book review sites.

Why Do I Need to Submit My Books for Review?

Submitting your book to review to a good review source can help you leverage your book before it’s even launched.

Having people review your book from these five book review sites we are talking about later, even if the reviews are positive or negative, can be powerful.

There are a few reasons all authors should be submitting their book for review.

You can gain quality reviews
Create awareness for your book
Book reviewers could possibly share your work with others (word of mouth marketing)
Can influence readers to pre-order your book
It’s free marketing!

Although sharing your work with others to get their opinion on your book is daunting, it’s still a necessary step to take before you even publish. Don’t forget this crucial step in the publishing and promotion process if you don’t want to sabotage your book .

How Long Does the Review Process Take?

The review copy process can take some time, which is probably why a lot of people skip the process. But if you want a good quality review from a quality source, you need to take the time to fit a book review process into your book publishing timeline.

The review copy process can take anywhere from 3-4 months. So why is that?

A majority of book reviewers and credible book review sites require at least 3-4 months after submission and before launch to review your book.

Reviewers get a lot of inquiries and a lot of books, some of which they give to two different readers for review. If they choose your book for review you need to give them 3-4 months to review it.

The downside is, you just have to be patient.

When Should I Submit My Books For Review?

If you’re finished writing your book, we highly recommend getting it edited by a professional before handing it off to reviewers.

Before you even submit your books for review, edit your book. Period.

Even if you have an amazing cover with a captivating synopsis, it will mean nothing if you send a book in with a wealth of mistakes roaming freely.

Reviewers will not read through your book if there are mistakes. Only send your book out for review when it is 100% ready.

Who Should I Be Submitting Books to For Review?

If you do decide to work this book review timeframe into your schedule, there are five sites you can get started with, some of which are free and some of which are paid.

So the top 5 book review sites you absolutely should at least consider,

Publisher’s Weekly
Write With Light Publications

We’ll explain all of them and their benefits below!

It’s also important to keep in mind that there are multiple other avenues for getting book reviews including having bookstagrammers on Instagram review your work, or sending it out to other smaller publications that would fit your niche.

For now, we’ll just cover some of the essential sites that will give you actual reviews without you having to ask freelance book reviewers.

Kirkus (Paid)

Kirkus has been around since 1933 and was founded by Virginia Kirkus. Back then, she realized there was a need for book reviews not backed by the publisher themselves. Seeing this need, she started a business that would give writers the book reviews they need while also allowing American booksellers to buy products backed by unbiased opinions.

As far as book review sites go, Kirkus is one of the most prestigious and trusted book reviewers in the business and offers an unbiased assessment of your book—which could be negative or positive. But their outstanding reviews come at a price. That being said, the review is worth it to many.

Here are some of the prices for Kirkus Reviews:

Traditional Reviews: Costs $425 for a 250-word review.
Expanded Reviews: Costs $525 for a 500-word review.
Picture Book Reviews: Cost $350 for a 200-word review.

All of the reviews are turned around in 7-9 weeks but can be expedited for an additional fee. After receiving your review, you can add some of the best quotes to your product listings on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites to help promote the book.

You also have the option to publish your review on Kirkus if you like what they have to say. If you do choose to publish it, Kirkus may consider your review for publication in their magazine which reaches 50,000 users.

If you’re ready to get your book reviewed, visit Kirkus to get started .

Booklife (Paid)

To receive another guaranteed book review for a price, you can also choose Booklife .

Booklife is an extension of the popular site, Publisher’s Weekly, and provides publishing advice and assistance to find authors.

Booklife is usually great for indie authors who need a great review from a reputable source. It is also slightly less in cost than Kirkus.

A Booklife review costs $399 for 300 words.

Authors will get their review back in an estimated 4-6 weeks. The one downside of submitting for review with Booklife is there is a word count limit. Only books 100,000 words are less can be considered for a review.

The upside is the review with be featured on Booklife’s website and Publisher Weekly’s website. To learn more about the submission guidelines and get reviewed, visit Booklife’s Review FAQs page .

Reedsy (Paid)

Probably one of our favorite places to get books reviewed is Reedsy .

We love this site because it is so affordable and you get an honest book review from a professional book reviewer. See a Reedsy book review for one of our authors!

Like Booklife and Kirkus, you will get a quality book review but at a much lower price and it is guaranteed. Reedsy can also be synced with Goodreads, which allows your reviewer to publish their review before the book even launches.

Authors who choose to get their books reviewed with Reedsy will spend only $50 per book for a lengthy review from a frequent book reviewer.

The great thing is, your book is available to be reviewed by anyone who is interested. Additionally, you can contact the reviewers to ask them to review your book

On Reedsy, your book can only be reviewed once, although, we really wish they would allow more, especially if other reviewers want to take a peek.

Publisher’s Weekly (Free)

Like we mentioned earlier, Publisher’s Weekly is associated with Booklife, which is a paid review service.

Publisher’s Weekly, however, is a free review service , which will bring a smile to most indie authors who are on a tight budget with marketing.

The one downside of submitting a book review to Publisher’s Weekly is your review is not guaranteed. Publisher’s Weekly reviewers take a very slim amount of submissions for review, which means they take the elite when it comes to books.

If your book is chosen for review by Publisher’s Weekly, you’ve probably got yourself a great book. Although there is no guarantee for a book review, it’s worth submitting anyways.

To get your book reviewed with Publisher’s Weekly, check out their submission guidelines .

Write With Light Publications (Free)

We know we have a long ways to go to be as great and revered as websites like Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus. But hey! We all have to start somewhere!

At Write With Light Publications, we have a deep desire to help indie authors get their books out there in the world. One of the best ways to do that is to read your book and give you a quality review.

Our reviews are completely free to you as long as you follow our strict guidelines.

To learn more about our book reviews, check out our submission guidelines !

New More Publishing Help?

Write With Light Publications offers a variety of publishing services that are intended to support indie authors with their self-publishing endeavors.

If you’re feeling lost with marketing, publishing, or even creating your book, consider getting some assistance from us!

You can see more about our services here .

Publishing Services at Write With Light Publications, LLC

7 Ways to Sabotage Self Publishing A Book

Jan 12, 2022

Are you thinking about self-publishing a book this year? Are you wondering how much does it cost to self-publish a...

Which Book Publishing Platform Should I Use to Self-Publish?

Sep 15, 2021

So you've written your book, or started writing your book even. What now? No matter what part of your writing journey...

Should I Use Cream Paper or White Paper For My Book?

Aug 7, 2021

So you're about to publish your book and you're getting all your details together with the printing service of your...

43 Places to Get Free Books in Exchange for Reviews (Get Physical Books Sent to Your Home!)

by Lauren Bennett - Verified & Updated January 16, 2024 (This post may contain affiliate links.)

Here's a list of publishers and sites that give you free books in exchange for your honest review...

Whether it’s a fast-paced thriller or a historical drama, reading a book is a great way to spend your downtime.

If you love books, and also enjoy giving your opinion on the titles you read, then you might have thought about becoming a book reviewer .

Online, there are tons of places where you can get your hands on free books – and all you need to do in return is share your honest opinion.

We did a post a while back on sites that pay you to read books.

In this post, we’ve listed tons of places online where you can find free books for review.

Table of Contents

Who can get free books for review?

Online, anyone can get books, both physical books, and e-books, for free to review.

For many of the places we list below, you just need to have an account on a website like Amazon or Goodreads in order to participate.

Some opportunities, however, are only available to people who have a blog.

In this case, the author requires you to post the review on your blog.

Below, we’ve split book review opportunities up into ones available to regular readers (non-bloggers) and ones that are solely aimed at bloggers.

So, you can choose the websites that best suit you.

Get Free Books for Reviews on Third-Party Sites (Amazon, Good Reads, etc.)

If you just love books and have an account on a website like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Goodreads, then check out the websites below.

These websites send out free copies of eBooks and physical books to readers who are willing to post reviews.

1. NetGalley

Official site : https://www.netgalley.com/

NetGalley is a website that allows authors to provide readers with pre-release copies of their books to review.

It’s a hugely popular website, which has been around since 2008.

2. Story Cartel

Official site: https://storycartel.com/

Another website that’s definitely worth checking out is Story Cartel.

How it works is simple:

The website offers a selection of free books that you can get in exchange for a review.

Just post your review on a platform, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, or your blog, and you can read a new title for free.

You don’t have to be a blogger – so anyone can take advantage of this opportunity.

3. LibraryThing

Official site: https://www.librarything.com/more/freebooks

LibraryThing is a great website for authors and readers alike.

It’s basically an online catalog of books.

The platform also provides readers with free books if they will provide a review in return.

Through LibraryThing, publishers provide advance copies of books to review – this means that you get access to up-and-coming books.

There’s a great selection of books to choose from – you can view the list of available review titles here .

Next to each book title it tells you how many review copies are available and how many members have requested it.

4. Any Subject Books

Official site: http://www.anysubject.com/book-reviewers-wanted

Any Subject Books provides book publishing services for independent authors, like advertising, editing, book trailers and reviews.

And, it’s looking for readers to provide these book reviews.

The reviews you create for the site need to be honest, fair, objective and analytical.

Here’s how it works:

The website sends you an invitation when it has a book that it wants you to review. This book will be in a genre that you’re familiar with. The invitation will include a short synopsis of the title.
You can choose whether you want to accept. If you do, then you have to create a review.

That’s all!

You can post the reviews you write on your blog or on a site like Goodreads or Amazon.

The website has a review form that you use when creating your review.

This form helps the website to better standardize its reviews and to minimize subjectivity and maximize objectivity.

What’s interesting about Any Subject Books is that it not only provides you with free review copies but also pays you.

The company does not state how much it pays authors. But, it does state that it pays on a specific book basis.

And, how much you get paid depends on a number of factors, such as word count.

You have to be approved before you can start reviewing.

Once you’ve sent in your application, the website will assess it. Then, it will let you know whether or not you’ve been accepted onto its list of approved reviewers. It will also let you know what the work entails and how much you will be paid.

5. NewPages

Official site: https://www.newpages.com/faq/reviewer-guidelines

NewPages is a resource website providing news, information, guides and more to readers, writers, publishers, teachers , and students .

The website also gives readers the chance to get their hands on some free books, in return for reviews.

If you want to be a reviewer on the site, then you have to send in a sample review.

It can be a review of any recent book or periodical, which the website suggests should be from an independent press – you can also provide a URL link to your review if it’s published online.

You also need to provide a statement on what you’d like to review.

The website looks for honest reviews that don’t use overly-complicated language.

6. Springer

Official site: https://www.springer.com/gp/reviewers/write-a-review—get-the-book-for-free/3944

If you’re a bookworm and don’t mind sharing your opinion about the books you read, then take a look at Springer.

Sign up by visiting the website, using the link above.
Browse through books on the website and select the one you want to review.

You can find books for review through book product pages on the website.

Once you find a book that you want to review, check the “Services for this Book” section on the product page. If it says “Access an Online Book Review Copy”, this means that the book is immediately available for review.

Click on the access button. You’ll be able to read the book using the Online-Reader.

In the My Springer area, go to Online Book Review Copies, and click on “Show All” to access the personal book reviewer page. Look for the book you want to review in your reviewer list. Upload your review.

You only get access to an online copy of the book for six months. This is, of course, plenty of time to read the book, but if you want to keep the book, then it’s not ideal.

If you provide a published review on one of the following platforms, however, then you receive a free physical copy of the book as a thank you:

Specialty Journal or online media
International magazine or newspaper.

7. Readers’ Favorite

Official site: https://readersfavorite.com/reviewer-application.htm

Readers’ Favorite is an interesting website in that it offers books from both indie authors, and authors from well-known publishing houses, like Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House.

So, you really can find a diverse selection of titles to review there.

For this one, you do need to have good writing skills, as the website is looking for more professional reviews.

But, there are plenty of platforms on this list looking for regular reviews. So don’t worry if you feel like your writing skills aren’t up to the site’s standards – just check out another platform.

Login and view a list of books available for review, from 140+ genres. On the website, you can choose from more than two thousand books at any time –these are digital versions, rather than physical books.
Choose a book and download it.
Then, read it and write your review. You have about three weeks to complete the review – the site provides you with an online form to post it on.
Readers’ Favorite will then upload your review to various platforms, like Google Books, Barnes & Noble, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+, as well as on its own website. The author of the book can also post your review on their Amazon Page, in the Editorial reviews section.

The website sends you emails daily, covering what new books have become available on the platform, which is super convenient.

And, what’s also convenient about the website is that if you decide you no longer want to review a book that you’ve chosen, then you can just remove it from your list, and choose a different title.

What’s great about this website is that it doesn’t just give you a book to read for free. It also pays you a small amount per review, and enters you into a $100 monthly giveaway.

8. Xpresso Book Tours

Official site: http://xpressobooktours.com/category/review-opportunity/

Xpresso Book Tours is a book tour company (more on those below.)

And, in addition to tour host opportunities, it offers review opportunities to bloggers and regular readers. To participate, you just need to have an account on a retail platform like Amazon, or a social media platform like Facebook.

Visit the link above to view current review opportunities.

When you find a book on the list that you like, simply click on the read more button.

This takes you to a new page, where you can read a synopsis of the book.

Underneath that is the “Available for Request” section, where you can view review instructions and details, such as the date that the review is due.

If you decide you want to review the book, then just click on the “Request a review copy here!” button.

This will take you to a new page that includes a form.

You just have to enter a couple of simple details, like your name, email address and where you intend to publish your review.

9. Lola’s Book Tours

Official site: http://www.lolasblogtours.net/current-and-open-tours/#openreviewopps

Lola’s Book Tours is actually a book tour company – see the “What is a Book Tour Section Below.”

It provides readers with review opportunities.

Essentially, you request a review copy from the company. Then, you read the book, write a review of it and post it on your blog, if you have one, or on Goodreads or Amazon.

The website states that it’s better if you post it on more than one platform.

10. Fresh Fiction

Official site: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKI2M5i3zpxbVMGA1ZiQMdhyKxtGXqTcuinRCarATTUXFWEA/viewform

Fresh Fiction is a website focused on mystery, thrillers, romance, suspense, fantasy and science fiction genres.

And, it’s looking for reviewers.

The site doesn’t assign reviews to you. So, you get to choose the books you review. This is ideal as it means that you can select books that you’re actually interested in reading.

You can also choose how many you want to review.

So, this really is a flexible book review opportunity.

This site offers both physical and digital copies of books.

Once you’ve written your review, it’s posted on the Fresh Fiction website.

11. Pump Up your Book

Official site: http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/amazon-review-campaign-reviewers-sign-up/

This is another website that gives readers free review copies of books.

You don’t need to have a blog, but you will need to post your review on a platform like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Goodreads.

12. Enchanted Book Promotions

Official site: http://www.enchantedbookpromotions.com/for-review/

Enchanted Book Promotions is a company that offers virtual book tours and marketing services to authors and publishers.

And, one of the ways that it promotes authors is by garnering reviews for their work.

Authors can have their books featured on the website’s “For Review” page.

And, of course, the website needs readers to review those titles.

You can post your review on your blog, if you have one, or on a platform like Amazon or Goodreads.

You have a month to read the book and write your review.

If you’re interested in writing reviews for the site, then simply fill out the form at the bottom of the page that we linked to above.

13. Juniper Grove Book Solutions

Official site: http://junipergrovebooksolutions.com/review-library/

Juniper Grove Book Solutions is a website that provides authors with book reviews.

And, it works with readers to create these reviews.

When you sign up for the site, you can request a review copy from an author.

Your review must be honest and if you must be critical, then it must be in a constructive way.

With this platform, you have six weeks to complete the review.

Once you’ve created your review, you need to post it on a website like, your blog, Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or Booklikes.

14. RABT Book Tours & PR

Official site: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHG9vwT_ukyLs6TIcziCWjIOd5dPxHwOZr4TT9Isp04MROHg/viewform

As its name implies, RABT Book Tours & PR is a company that offers book tours and PR services to authors.

And, it also offers a review service.

You can visit the review library page to view available opportunities. If you see a book you’re interested in on there, then just click on the cover and you’ll be taken to a new page.

This page includes a form where you can sign up to review that particular title.

Or you can join the site’s review team and receive invites about all review opportunities.

To join the site’s review team, fill out the form that we linked to above

15. Horn Books

Official site: http://www.hbook.com/

Horn Books is a review website that focuses on children’s and young adult literature.

And, it occasionally hires people to create these reviews.

It doesn’t give many details as to how it compensates for these reviews.

But, it does give a few details on how to apply.

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for the site, then you can send in an application to:

The Horn Book, Inc.

300 The Fenway, Palace Road Building, Suite P-311

Boston, MA 02115.

It should include a cover letter, your resume, and relevant writing samples.

16. Book Browse

Official site: https://www.bookbrowse.com/join/index.cfm/fuseaction/page_1

Book Browse is a website that offers book recommendations, as well as reviews, reading guides, and author interviews.

It has a program called First Impressions , which allows readers to receive free books, in exchange for reviews.

As a member of the program, you get sent an advanced reading copy of a book.

You get offered books once per month – generally in the middle of the month.

Each book offer remains open for around five days.

You get to choose the books that you want to review too – which is definitely a plus!

Just check the box next to the title that you’re interested in, and then click “submit.”

If the platform accepts your request for a book, then it will let you know you’ll be receiving your copy soon.

You get around four weeks to read the book and post your review on BookBrowse.

With this website, members are allocated books.

When it comes to allocating books, BookBrowse gives priority to members that have not received a book in a while, over members who have recently received books.

It also gives priority to users who have reviewed previous titles quickly, over those who failed to review the book.

Generally, as a member of the website, you get about three to four times per year – although this isn’t guaranteed.

So, if you want a steadier stream of books to review, then you might want to check out another website.

Plus you also have to pay to become a member of the website. It’s $35 for an annual membership – so this isn’t a free opportunity, which is why it’s appearing at the bottom of this section.

Get Free Books for Posting Reviews on Your Blog

If you have a blog, then there are even more websites that will give you free books in return for a post on your blog.

As a blogger, you can help an author to increase the visibility of their work, and potentially bring them more sales.

This is why there are so many opportunities out there for bloggers.

What’s great about these sites is that some of them don’t require you to have a huge following.

For many of them, as long as you have an active blog, you can participate.

And, if you don’t already have a blog, then don’t worry.

Setting one up costs very little money – and there are even platforms out there where you can start a blog for free , like WordPress.com or Blogger.

So, let’s take a look at the best places that offer free books for bloggers, in return for reviews.

17. Blogging for Books

Official site: http://www.bloggingforbooks.com/

Blogging for Books is a website you should definitely check out if you have a blog.

It gives review copies to bloggers – for free!

There’s a great selection of books to choose from on there – including both fiction and non-fiction titles.

And, there are physical books and e-books available too.

What’s interesting is that you can participate in the program, even if you don’t live in the United States. But, the site can’t ship physical books outside of the US, so you will only receive e-Books if you live elsewhere.

Simply join the website, choose the book you want to review, and then post it on your blog.

Your blog doesn’t need to get a minimum amount of traffic in order to participate either – which means that if you’re a new or smaller blogger, then you can still get free books.

18. BookLook Bloggers

Official site: http://www.booklookbloggers.com/

If you have a blog and love books, then consider working with BookLook Bloggers.

Just browse through the website’s selection of books and it will send you a copy for free.

Then, all you need to do is create a review of it – this review must be at least 200 words.

Once you’ve written the review, and have uploaded it to your blog, you need to login to your BookLook Bloggers account and provide a link to it.

After that, you can request another book.

You must complete your review within 90 days of the initial request.

And, you must also remain active on the platform in order to be eligible for future review opportunities.

So, once you’ve reviewed a title, you must request another book within 90 days, otherwise, your account will be deactivated.

It’s a pretty great website for finding a stream of book review opportunities for bloggers.

Unlike some of the other platforms in this section, BookLook Bloggers does have a few requirements for bloggers.

To get books for review through the site, you:

Must have an active blog.
Post content at least once per week.
Have at least 30 followers or subscribers.

These criteria aren’t too stringent and you don’t need a huge following.

19. Online Book Club

Official site: https://onlinebookclub.org/free-books-for-reviews.php

Online Book Club is a well-known website aimed at readers.

The website launched more than 10 years ago and features over 300,000 members.

Online Book Club will give you a free book in exchange for a review.

But, that’s not all.

This website also pays.

For each review that you do, you earn between $5 and $60.

You can view a selection of books and choose the one that you’re interested in.
The site gives you the book for free, and then you need to write a review.
Once you’ve completed your first approved review, then you become eligible to complete paid reviews as well.

This is a pretty good opportunity.

Be a Blog Tour Host

With the opportunities above, you basically select a book that you want to review and then post it on your blog and that’s all.

But, there are also book tour companies that hire bloggers as tour hosts to provide reviews.

These are often called blog tours or online book tours.

Here’s a quick look at what these companies do…

What’s a blog tour?

Basically, a blog tour is like a traditional book tour, where rather than going from bookstore to bookstore making stops, the author goes from blog to blog.

So, the stops are all virtual.

The author’s work gets exposed to a wide audience that might want to read their book.

Blog tour companies exist as a means to help authors, especially those who are self-published, to advertise their work.

Since any writer with a book can simply publish their own work – through Kindle or another similar platform authors don’t need to get an agent and a traditional publishing house to get their work published.

This is great for aspiring authors, as it means that they can get work that might have previously been rejected by a traditional publishing house, out there in front of readers.

But, while self-publishing has certainly opened up a wealth of opportunities to authors, it does come with a downside.

While traditional publishers will market an author’s work, with one of the main ways being a book tour, self-published authors don’t get this type of assistance with marketing their work.

But, now, online book tours are becoming a great advertising avenue for self-published authors (and some traditionally published authors too!)

There are tons of companies online that offer blog tours to authors. And, these companies require bloggers to host some of the stops on these tours.

As a tour host, you can provide the author with reviews.

Here are a few tour companies that hire bloggers to host tours:

20. TLC Book Tours

Official site: https://tlcbooktours.com/be-a-tour-host/

One of the most well-known book tour companies out there is TLC Book Tours.

As one of TLC Book Tours’ hosts, you get a free book from one of its touring authors.

All you need to do is post a review about it at a date scheduled in advance for the author to stop by your blog.

Aside from reviews, the site’s touring authors are available for guest posts, question and answer sessions, interviews and even book giveaways on your blog.

So, if you’re looking to grow your blog content as well as get your hands on some free books, then this is definitely the opportunity for you.

21. Rock Star Tours

Official site: http://www.rockstarbooktours.com/p/tour-hosts.html

Another popular book tour company is Rock Star Tours.

And, you could become one of its tour hosts.

You create review posts for the company’s touring authors.

Tour hosts for the company create a range of different post types, like review posts, and giveaway posts.

You will be given a tour stop date and a review copy.

22. IndieBRAG

Official site: https://www.bragmedallion.com/become-a-reader/

IndieBRAG (the “BRAG” portion of the name is an acronym for Book Readers Appreciation Group) offers review opportunities to everyday readers.

As a part of the program, you tell the company a little about yourself and what types of books you enjoy reading.

Then, the company provides you with e-books for free!

All you need to do is provide your honest feedback in return.

There are a couple of requirements with this one – to apply, you must :

Be at least 18 years old.
Have graduated from high school.
Have an eBook reader or be able to download eBooks on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

Once you apply to the program, the company will let you know whether you’ve been accepted within two weeks.

23. Bewitching Book Tours

Official site: http://www.bewitchingbooktours.com/tour-hosts.html

Bewitching Book Tours is another company that offers virtual book tours to authors.

And, you can apply to be one of its tour hosts, and create reviews for touring authors.

When you apply to be a host, you can choose which genres that you’re interested in from a large list that contains everything from Urban Fantasy to Horror.

24. Sage’s Blog Tours

Official site: https://www.sagesblogtours.com/become-a-tour-host.html

Sage’s Blog Tour is a company that provides a wide range of pre-press and promotion services to authors in all genres.

It’s looking for honest, but tactful reviews from its tour hosts.

And you need to:

Have good communication skills and respond to emails.
Publish your posts by 10 a.m. EST.
Ensure all of the links you post are clickable.
Repost your review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

If you rate a book under three stars, then don’t post the review until after the tour is over.

Send a link once you’ve published the review on your blog.

You can find the application form for tour hosts on the page that we linked to above.

Once you’ve applied to be a tour host, the company will contact you when a tour arises that suits you and your blog.

25. iRead Book Tours

Official site: https://www.ireadbooktours.com/become-a-tour-host.html

iRead Book Tours is a company that provides online book marketing and publicity.

The company hires tour hosts.

When you work as one of the website’s tour hosts, you get free books that you will need to review. It should express your honest opinion about the book.

Like many book tour companies, iRead Book Tours sometimes requires a book spotlight, interview or guest post, rather than a review.

As a tour host you must:

Be reliable.
Have a blog that’s at least six months old.
Be able to receive email requests to participate in book tours.

Once you have been asked to participate in a tour, you’ll need to post your review on the date that you are scheduled to participate.

Your review should be at least 150 words.

And, preferably, you should also post it on platforms, like Amazon and Goodreads.

Plus, there’s the opportunity to earn yourself some Amazon Gift Cards .

Overall, this is a good opportunity for book bloggers.

26. YA Bound Book Tours

Official site: http://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.com/p/become-tour-host.html

Become a tour host for YA Bound Book Tours and get your hands on review copies.

All you need to do to join is fill out a simple sign up form.

Blog tour opportunities are also listed on the website’s homepage.

The homepage is also updated frequently with upcoming tours that you can apply to join.

So make sure you check that out.

27. Goddess Fish Promotions

Official site: http://www.goddessfish.com/services/virtual-book-tours/#becometourpartner

Goddess Fish Promotions is another tour company offering authors publicity.

According to the website, it has more than fifteen years of combined experience in publishing and promotion.

The company hires bloggers to be virtual tour partners.

As a tour partner, you write reviews and create other content for authors.

You can view tours that have openings available and ones that require reviews on the homepage.

Aside from getting the opportunity to review books, you also get the chance to win $100 or more in Amazon Gift Cards.

28. Promotional Book Tours

Official site: https://www.promotionalbooktours.com/be-a-tour-host/

Promotional Book Tours is another online book tour company.

It offers a wide array of services to authors, such as writing and distributing press releases, and of course scheduling book tours, which include reviews.

You can sign up to be a tour host, and get free books in return for writing reviews on your blog.

Your blog must be at least six months old to qualify for the program, and you’ll need to let the website know how many followers/subscribers you have on your blog, your email list and across various other platforms.

You also need to provide information about your profiles on Amazon and Goodreads.

So, it’s likely that you’ll need to have some sort of following to take part, meaning this might not be the best opportunity for bloggers who are just starting out.

29. North Star Book Tours

Official site: http://northstarbooktours.blogspot.com/p/becoming-tour-host.html

North Star Book Tours offers blog tours to authors, mainly in the Young Adult Fiction genre.

Tours include guest posts, interviews, top ten lists and, of course, review posts.

You can sign up as one of the site’s tours hosts, and get access to review copies of books – for free!

The review copy is in a digital format, such as PDF, Mobi or EPUB.

There is no minimum follower count required to participate – so this one is great if you’re just starting out as a blogger.

30. Prism Book Tours

Official site: http://prismbooktours.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/sign-up-to-be-tour-host.html?target=_blank

Prism Book Tours is a company that offers virtual book tours with a creative spin.

The service is designed primarily for authors of fantasy, romance and science fiction books.

Each tour stop includes content, like excerpts, guest posts, interviews, or a review post.

You provide review posts for the company’s touring authors.

To get your review included in the tour, you must give the book a rating of at least three stars.

Generally, the review copy that you receive will be an eBook.

Aside from working with tour hosts, who need to have a blog, there are occasionally review opportunities available that aren’t part of a tour.

And, non-bloggers can write these reviews as well. So if you don’t have a blog, fill out this form .

31. Book Review Tours

Official site: http://www.b00kr3vi3ws.in/p/become-tour-host.html

With Book Review Tours, you can get a free copy of a book in return for publishing a review of it on your blog.

In order to appear on the book tour, your review must give the book at least three stars.

And, as with all book tours, you need to post the review on the date scheduled.

The website also prefers that you also post your reviews to as many other websites as possible.

Once you’ve signed up to be a tour host, you’ll get emails from the company that announces upcoming tours to participate in.

32. Happy Lil Book Nook

Official site: http://www.happylilbooknook.com/2016/04/25/blog-tour-host-sign-up/

Happy Lil Book is a book-focused blog, which also offers a blog tour service and author promotions.

You can sign up to be a tour host and get free books in exchange.

You will need to have a book focused:

YouTube Channel
Instagram account.

With this website, you can receive either a physical book or an eBook, depending on the tour.

33. YA Reads Book Tours

Official site: http://blogtours.yareads.com/tour-hosts/

YA Reads Book Tours is a company offering promotional services to Young Adult fiction authors.

Through this platform, you can get free books in exchange for providing a review.

The review must be published on a specific date – since it will be part of a book tour.

The schedule for each tour is finalized two weeks before the tour starts.

If you want your review to be included in the tour, then you must give the book that you review at least a 3-star rating – otherwise, you’ll be sent a promo post to publish instead.

The website states that a certain number of followers isn’t required to be a tour host. But, it does say that often, it does favor bloggers who have been blogging for a longer period or who have a large number of followers.

34. Rachel’s Random Resources

Official site: https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com/become-a-blog-tour-host

Rachel’s Random Resources is another website that offers blog tours to authors.

And, if you have a book blog, and are happy to share reviews on it, then you could get free books in return as a tour host for the website.

When you sign up for the website, you provide details about yourself and what types of genres you like.

Then, the site will contact you when books become available that match your interests.

You will need to post your review on the date agreed.

And, ideally, you should post your it on websites like Amazon and Goodreads as well.

As with many book tour companies, Rachel’s Random Resources prefers positive reviews.

35. Royal Book Tours

Official site: https://royalsocialmedia.com/blog-tours/tour-hosts/

Digital media agency Royal Social Media is looking for bloggers to be tour hosts.

As a tour host for Royal Book Tours, you post reviews of books from the site’s touring authors on a specific date.

Again, reviews need to be 3 stars or more in order to appear on the tour.

Ideally, you’ll need to post your review on other platforms too, like Amazon and Goodreads.

While the website does not require a certain number of followers or visitors to be a tour host, it does give priority to blogs that are active and have been around for a couple of months.

You can choose which genres you want to review, which is always a plus!

36. Fable’s Library

Official site: https://fableslibrary1.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/book-nook-blog-tour-host-sign-ups/

This is another opportunity designed for book bloggers.

You receive a copy of a book and post a review of it on your blog – it’s simple.

But, with this website, one book is sent from blogger to blogger.

And, it is the blogger who is responsible for sending the book to the next person.

This means that you don’t get to keep the book once you’ve read it and you have the hassle of shipping it to the next person.

If you don’t mind that, then this could be a good opportunity, otherwise, skip it!

And, Don’t Forget to Check Out Forums!

Above, we’ve listed a huge selection of websites offering free books for review – but there’s also another place that can be surprisingly good for finding review opportunities – forums.

On forums, many authors publish posts requesting reviews.

And in return for these reviews, the author will provide you with a copy of their book for free.

Here are two places that you should check out.

37. Goodreads

Official site: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1040736-free-books-for-possible-reviews

If you’re an avid reader, then you’ve probably visited, or at least heard about Goodreads.

It’s a hugely popular website that features a huge database of books, and reviews – basically it’s a great place to find reading recommendations.

But, that’s not all – it’s also a place where authors can get more people to read their books.

Goodreads has a forum where authors can post review requests from readers, in exchange for a free book.

It’s a great place to find books from up-and-coming authors and established authors who you might not have heard about before.

So, take a look at the forum here:

Okay, so aside from Goodreads, another really great discussion website for finding free books is Reddit.

You might not necessarily think it, but you can actually find tons of review opportunities on the platform, from apps and movies to product testing and more.

There are a few different threads that are worth checking out.

But, the best one is called Review Circle.

It’s a thread where authors can offer their books for free to readers, in exchange for reviews.

Check out the Review Circle thread here:

Official subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/reviewcircle/

On there, you can find everything from Sci-Fi to Romance novels.

There are also non-fiction books posted on there as well.

So visit that Reddit page for review opportunities.

There’s another discussion group on there called Read My Book.

This group is mainly designed for authors to post links to their books on Amazon.

But, occasionally, there’s a free book offered on there, in exchange for a review.

So, it’s worth checking out the page from time to time:

Official subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/readmybook/

Another thread on Reddit, which is similar to the one above, is called Book Downloads.

On this thread, authors can offer links to free books on Amazon and other platforms.

Occasionally, there are review requests posted on there, so check it out here:

Official subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/bookdownloads/

Places to Get Free Christian Books for Review

Okay, so above we’ve listed tons of places where you can find free books for review.

In this section, we’ve added a few more places – but these are Christian focused publishers and websites that give you free Christian books in exchange for your review.

So, if those types of books don’t interest you, then just skip over this section!

39. Bethany House Blogger Review Program

Official site: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/bethanyhouse/bookreviewers

If you’re a blogger, then check out the Bethany House Blogger Review Program.

It’s run by Bethany House Publishers, which publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction books.

This program gives you free review copies if you’re willing to provide an honest review in return. It must be at least 75 words long.

You can request one title to review each month.

40. Tyndale Blog Network

Official site: http://www.tyndaleblognetwork.com/

The Tyndale Blog Network focuses on “literature consistent with biblical principles.”

As part of the program, you can select the book you want from a list of available titles.

Then, the site sends you a free book and you post the review on your blog or on a retail website, like Amazon.

41. Civitas Press

Official site: http://civitaspress.com/the-civitas-book-review-program/

Civitas Press focuses on “publishing inspiring and redemptive ideas.”

Many of its books are focused on spirituality and religion, with a particular emphasis on Christianity. But, it does also publish books in other categories, like self-help, sociology and family and relationships.

It has a book review program, which gives you free books if you’ll write a review in exchange and post it on your blog or on Amazon.

42. Moody Publishers Newsroom

Official site: http://mpnewsroom.com/content/blogger-review-program

Moody Publishers is a Christian publishing house.

And, through the Moody Publishers Blogger Review Program, you can get free copies of books.

Choose a book you want to review, and the company will send it you for free, by USPS Media Mail. Then all you need to do is write and submit your review.

43. Cross Focused Reviews

Official site: http://crossfocusedreviews.com/

Cross Focused Reviews is a review website, focused on Christian books.

And, you can become one of the site’s reviewers.

The company has a mailing list that you can join, which it uses to provide details on the latest book review opportunities. You can sign up for the books that interest you.

Then, you’ll need to create a book review that’s 300 words.

You have to post the review on your blog, and on at least one retail site, like Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, there are so many places online where you can get free books for review.

This is such a good way to build up your library, if you’re an avid reader and to get more content for your blog if you’re a blogger.

Either way – these opportunities are definitely worth taking advantage of.

After all, who doesn’t want to get their hands on some books without having to spend a penny!

Get $5 Sign Up Bonus Now!

You might need to update this post because many pages are gone and only a few still work. :)

Share your thoughts Cancel reply

More resources.

Start a Profitable Vending Machine Business in 10 Steps! (Crack the Vending Code!)

A vending machine business is a great option if you want to start your own business. In 2019, the global vending machine market size was valued at ... - Continue -

Recycling Cardboard Boxes for Money: 9 Sites That Pay Cash!

Who would have thought that you could profit from recycling used cardboard boxes? You don’t even have to invest any money, just your time. All ... - Continue -

100 Best Places to Find Free Books Online for Thrifty Bookworms (2024)

How much did you pay last time you bought a book? Books are expensive! And doesn't it seem like every time you go to buy a new book, the prices ... - Continue -

Get the Book

Connect with MP

Proud supporter of:.

Supported by

editors’ choice

6 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Share full article

Longtime readers of The New York Times may recognize the name Margalit Fox from the byline of some of our most memorable obituaries . But Fox (who worked at the Book Review before she started reporting on dead people, and who retired from The Times in 2018) has also written five books, on topics ranging from linguistics to true crime ; her latest, “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum,” explains how a 19th-century Jewish immigrant worked her way up from street peddler to mastermind of a vast criminal enterprise that made her one of America’s first mob bosses. That’s one of our recommended books this week. Maybe read it with Dan Slater’s “The Incorruptibles,” which takes the story of Jewish organized crime in New York into the 20th century?

Also up: a surprisingly fascinating look at the science of keeping things cold, and new novels from Lev Grossman, Claire Lombardo and Liz Moore. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

FROSTBITE: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves Nicola Twilley

In this absorbing exploration of the vast network of refrigerated trucks, rail cars and shipping containers that bring us bananas and avocados all year round, Twilley illuminates the impact on our food as well as the colorful characters who keep the system going.

“Engrossing. … Combines lucid history, science and a thoughtful consideration of how daily life today is both dependent on and deformed by this matrix of artificial cold.”

From Sallie Tisdale’s review

Penguin Press | $30

THE BRIGHT SWORD: A Novel of King Arthur Lev Grossman

Grossman’s latest is a winning dive into the world of King Arthur. The novel follows a knight who dreams of joining the Round Table, but when he arrives, the king is dead. Disappointed but not defeated, he embarks on a quest with the remaining knights to figure out the future of Camelot.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

Want all of The Times? Subscribe .

SwifDoo PDF

Efficient PDF Toolkit for Windows

OCR PDFs to make scans searchable and editable;
Unleash PDF creativity on iOS and Android effortlessly;
Translate PDF accurately to break down language barriers

Table of content

Share this article.

1. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg website to read online books free without downloading

Project Gutenberg is an online digital library that offers ebooks in varied genres. Users may rely on these free book reading websites to find more than 60,000 books in literature and classics. The famous website hosts some of the finest books from the 70s for students. Users may read online books for free without downloading them. The platform negates account registration or payment. Project Gutenberg also lets you download ebooks in ePub and PDF format.

Enables an easy interface to read any book for free
It offers an audiobook feature as well
Offers enhanced category filter for easy access
Focus on providing classic books with a limited genre.

2. Open Library

Open Library website to read online books free without downloading

Open Library is a dedicated project run by the Internet Archive to offer access to over 3,00,00 public domain ebooks and out-of-print books. The project hosts millions of books that have ever been published in a well-defined catalog. Open Library is one web page for every book that has ever been published. The website hosts a user-friendly interface to read free books online without downloading. The website is a fantastic platform where best to read books online for free. The websites host public domain books and offer a way to borrow books.

Let you read entire books online for free without downloading and download the PDF versions of the books in PDF, ePub, and plain text
Offers an enhanced search bar
Let you keep track of your favorite ebooks
Limited access to new releases and best sellers

3. Manybooks

ManyBooks website to read online books free without downloading

Manybooks is a well-updated and well-organized platform to access more than 50,000 free books to read online in genres such as romance, vampire horror, and more without downloading them. The website includes easy navigation to scroll down to trending books quickly. The website also has a section for book deals and the editor's choice. How to read books online for free on Manybooks? Get to the website and search for the book by title or author to access free online books to read for adults and children without downloading. However, users may also download ebooks from the website.

Offers a vast collection of books in more than 45 languages
Let you enjoy a customized reading experience with varied font sizes
It provides a feature to jump through the pages
Hosts several pop-up ads

4. ReadAnyBook

ReadAnyBook website to read online books free without downloading

ReadAnyBook is a free ebook reading website that lets you access books with ratings and reviews. The website enables you to explore some of the finest works in more than 19 genres, including classic literature and contemporary work. The website hosts thousands of books for its readers. The platform allows new books to be added in just a few steps. However, the website also goes with frequent updates to remove ebooks. ReadAnyBook lets you read free books online without downloading them for adults. The site is also one of the best PDF book downloaders , where you can also download ebooks in PDF, and some other formats.

Websites host thousands of books you can read online for free without downloading
It lets you enjoy an enhanced reading experience with a full-screen view
Offers enhanced flip page feature to fit well on varied screens
Downloading ebooks is challenging

5. allnovel.net

allnovel.net website to read online books free without downloading

Are you looking for finely sorted online book reading websites? Enjoy a wide range of novels and stories on allnovel.net. The website offers exciting romance, fantasy, and science fiction novels. Allnovel.net is a dedicated novel website that provides a great way to read free online books without downloading them. The website also offers frequent updates on new-release novels. Wondering how to read your favorite books online for free without downloading from allnovel.net? Users must search for their favorite novel on the website and click the book title to read a novel. However, users may also save a book with the available download option in PDF.

Let you easily navigate within chapters of novels
Enables accessible features to change text size and background color
Offers features for user reviews, recommendations, and ratings
Pop-up ads are irritating

6. Classicly

Classicly website to read online books free without downloading

Calssicly is a famous name among ebook readers. The website hosts thousands of books in various genres and is renowned for its free books from the public domain. The website provides the method to read a book online for free without downloading. The website offers a user-friendly HTML 5 reading environment for easy reading. Calssicly is the best websites to read books online for free without downloading. However, it also provides an easy way to access books in PDF, Kindle, and several other formats to read on various devices, including PCs, laptops, and tablets.

Offers five different font size choices
It lets you flip, scroll, or swipe through pages
Support TOC navigation and allow you to go to any page feature.
Limits collection to classic literature

7. FlipHTML5

FlipHTML5 website to read online books free without downloading

Are you looking for a fantastic flipbook collection? Check out some of the amazing flipbooks and interactive publications on FlipHTML5. It is a free book reading site offering over 5 million digital publications. The website hosts interactive magazines, ebooks, brochures, catalogs, storybooks, comics, and other free publications. The website lets users upload and create their flipbooks. FlipHTML5 is a digital publication platform that allows you to read books online for free with no need to download them.

Users may also get the collection in PDF, Zip, Epub, HTML, and image formats when needed. However, the download is restricted to only public domain collections.

Offers templates and background for customization
Let you publish flipbooks with cloud and SEO tools integration
Offers mobile compatibility to view content at ease
Users may only download publicly accessible FlipHTML5 collection.

6 Best Free PDF Magazine Download Sites in 2024

Explore the best six free PDF magazine download sites in 2024. You can download magazine PDFs for free and enjoy a wide range of publications.

8. OpenStax

OpenStax website to read online books free without downloading

OpenStax is a free online platform that lets you read free books online without downloading for students. The website offers access to licensed textbooks and educational content, and it hosts more than 30 peer-reviewed textbooks on various subjects such as mathematics, science, economics, and the humanities. It is a user-friendly platform where you can read books online for free without signing up. The open license website allows scholars to easily modify, adapt, and share content. These books are available in PDF, ePub, and HTML format.

The website offers the best material for both teachers and students
Let you easily print academic content for note-taking
Offers enhanced screen reading capabilities to adjust text size
Includes pop-up ads for free online reading

Top 12 Free Textbook Websites to Explore PDF Books World

The top 12 textbook websites provide free access to millions of PDF books for students and academic scholars for a harmonious reading experience.

Bookbot website to read online books free without downloading

Bookbot is a digital app that offers an interactive reading experience for kids. The platform is designed to provide fantastic learning with its reading assistance. The website includes the most extensive library of free to read online books without downloading. The website also offers a book management tool that helps monitor kids' reading progress. The website includes varied details about every book, including recommendations, summaries, reviews, etc. Bookbot is a website where to read books online for free without downloading for kids.

Let you set goals and monitor your kid's reading progress
Offers reading lists tool to track and manage books to read
Provides an easy integrated aloud feature
Lacks advanced features to scroll through pages

Best Free Book Reader to Enhance Your Reading and Annotating Experience

The professional websites mentioned in this article let you read books without downloading them online for free with a stable internet connection. Users may also use these websites to download favorite books in multiple formats and access them on different devices. However, reading is fun only with good annotation and editing tools. Use a reliable PDF reader and annotator to edit downloaded PDFs. Swifdoo PDF is an advanced PDF manager and editor that lets you enjoy an improved reading experience.

Read books online for free from the above top websites or download them to view books with SwifDoo PDF annotation capabilities.

Users may highlight, mark, add links, add text notes, and comment on books downloaded from book reader apps like SwifDoo PDF. The Swifdoo PDF offers numerous valuable tools for reading and editing PDF books.
Moreover, it also helps you enjoy a fantastic reading experience with different reading modes. The tool lets you move between books, change the layout, format text, and add images to the PDF.
SwifDoo PDF is a valuable tool for almost everyone. Teachers can use it to formulate study notes, and students can use it to annotate books to finish paperwork and assignments efficiently. The PDF software also converts PDFs to EPUB ebook formats.
Users may easily use SwifDoo PDF to read, view, manage, annotate, convert, merge, split, and compress PDF files.

SwifDoo PDF has separate apps for Android and iOS users.

The article includes a well-curate list of top-rated websites that provide thousands of online books to read for free in English or any language without downloading. Users may also rely on these platforms to easily download books as PDFs and read them anywhere and everywhere. Downloading and editing books from the best free eBook site should be easy with efficient SwifDoo PDF software. The advanced software supports varied tools to annotate and edit downloaded ebooks to ensure easy and efficient reading experiences.

Q：Can I legally read a book online for free?

Charlotte has been in the software industry for 8+ years. She works for AWZWARE now as a passionate writer. She is good at providing simple guides to use various video, office and entertainment software. Charlotte also recommends many other useful tools to make your work and life easier. A food lover too.

How to Change PDF from Portrait to Landscape with Ease

Remove Images from PDF Online & Offline | 4 Ways

How to Edit Resume in PDF Easily with 4 Free Methods

Online PDF Converter
SwifDoo PDF for iOS
SwifDoo PDF for Android
Edition Comparison
Convert PDF
ChatGPT & AI
SwifDoo 101
Free Ebooks
Release Notes
Refer a Friend
Privacy Policy
Refund Policy

German - Deutsch
French - Français
Chinese - 繁體中文
Korean - 한국어
Japanese - 日本語
Polish - Polski
Portuguese - Português
Spanish - Español

Reading Life

The 6 Best Websites for Romance Readers

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share by Email

by Katherine Major

Are you a romance reader looking for the perfect website?

Whether you’ve been an avid reader for decades, an on-and-off bookworm, or you’re juuuust getting into the wonderful world of the written word – one thing’s for sure: building that TBR list and finding good book recommendations can get a little overwhelming!

And it’s not just finding resources to build a juicy TBR list – finding a community to chat about your latest reads is such an amazing feeling, and can often lead to lifelong friendships.

Luckily, we now live in a day and age where websites and apps exist just for the purpose of book reviews, recommendations, and building strong communities for readers, titles, and authors!

But – where to find these websites? No worries – we’ve compiled a list of the best websites for romance readers to bookmark, so you can spend less time browsing and more time diving into that next book rec!

6 Websites for Romance Readers

How could we not start off with iconic Goodreads?! Goodreads is a fabulous resource for romance books.

The reviews are always real and raw, and readers looking for their next romantic read can browse through new releases by title and genre, most read books of the week, and pick through user-generated listicles based on their mood or preferred trope!

Harlequin Goodreads romance books is a bookmark any lover of love stories needs to have!

Storygraph is the perfect website for a visual illustration of what people are currently reading and what they’ve got on their TBR list!

Storygraph also gives a brief overview of the type of books any given profile enjoys reading! For example, on our Harlequin Storygraph publisher profile, our bio says the following:

“Mainly reads fiction books that are lighthearted, emotional, and funny. Typically chooses medium-paced books that are <300 pages long.”

Storygraph also helps connect you with other readers and is a perfect virtual online book club for romance readers!

They say knowledge is power, and with Leio, you’ll have more insight into your reading habits than ever before!

While our other top romance book websites focus on community and book recommendations, Leio hones in on your habits.

Available on Apple’s App Store, the Leio App features a simple and user-friendly interface that helps you time your reading sessions, reading progress, reading pace, and can even predict how long it may take you to finish a book!

Leio is a must for any data-driven bookworm!

Ever wanted a romance book tailored exactly to your preferences? Or maybe you loved one book and need others exactly like it? Romance.io is your goldmine.

Fun computer science fact: an .io in a domain means input/output, which is exactly what you get with this intelligent website!

Find your next read by mixing and matching over 150 tropes, spice levels, genres, and themes! The options get very specific – it’s a foolproof way to your next book hangover, and we mean that in the best possible way. Tap this link to try it for yourself right now! Prepare for your mind to be blown.

Input/output gloriousness aside, interested readers can dive into trending reading lists or browse titles by plot, theme, genre, topics, and more!

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Snark and sass abound on the SB-TB website – and we are eating it up!

Featured in USA Today , The New Yorker , The New York Times , The Washington Post , Metro: New York , Salon , and with a cool mention on TV Land’s Younger – Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has been making waves as the spot for “online wankage” (or, savvy readers looking to have real talk about the books they love and the books they hate for almost 20 years.

They’ve also got a pretty cool (and very active) podcast, which features interviews with authors and industry experts, throwbacks to old book reviews from the 90s, and a ton more “online wankage” to enjoy!

All About Romance

Community is everything to the folks at AAR!

Founded in 1996, All About Romance is the perfect spot to discuss your latest read in their Reddit-style Agora forum and browse unbiased reviews for all those books on your TBR list!

AAR also features a robust and thriving blog to pore over! Read interviews with experts and authors and dive into what people are currently watching and reading, discussion on book pricing, intellectual discussion on trope analysis, and so much more!

What’s Your Favorite Website For Romance Readers?

Which of these websites are you most excited to dive into? Let us know below!

Break Up or Make Up? The 6 Best Grovels in Romance Novels

Celebrate National Book Month With These 5 Fun Facts For Romance Bookworms

5 Must-Read Beach Romance Novels for the Perfect Summer

7 Charming Small Town Romance Books Perfect For Summer

DON'T MISS OUT!

Stay up to date on new books and get an exclusive coupon for 20% OFF your next purchase when you sign up to receive newsletters, special offers and other promotional emails from Harlequin.*

*Harlequin Enterprises ULC ( Harlequin.com ) is located at 22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, and sends informational and promotional emails on behalf of itself, Harlequin Sales Corporation and Harlequin Digital Sales Corporation. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time. Read Harlequin’s Privacy Policy here. No thanks.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge Review

Is ai really the future.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is one of the first laptops certified as “Copilot+ Ready” to hit the market. Essentially, this just means the laptop is ready for on-device AI workloads, and is strapped with a fancy new Snapdragon X Elite processor to help it get there. And while there are AI PCs on the way with AMD ‘Strix Point’ and later Intel ‘Lunar Lake’ processors , the Snapdragon X Elite chips were the first to be ready for the new Copilot+ program . But, as with any Windows PC running on ARM, there are some serious growing pains.

Beyond the chip that powers the thing, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a beautiful laptop. It’s razor thin, has an absolutely stunning AMOLED display, and a full-sized keyboard. This really could have gone down as one of the best laptops on the market, but the urge to be one of the first Copilot+ PCs holds it back from greatness.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Photos

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Design and Features

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an extremely thin laptop. Measuring just 0.48 inches thick, this is easily the thinnest 16-inch laptop I’ve ever used. However, even as thin as it is, it still has a wealth of ports, including a USB-A, microSD and a headphone jack. The Galaxy Book 4 Edge is also very light, weighing just 3.4lb, making it easy to carry on any commute.

The aluminum chassis is also robust for how thin it is. I didn’t experience any flex on the screen, and even when pressing down extra hard on the keyboard, it doesn’t crack, creak or give at all. It’s honestly incredible how durable this laptop feels with how thin it is.

However, a 16-inch laptop being so thin and so light is going to have some compromises. For the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, it has to be the speakers. The tinny and quiet speakers are mounted on the bottom of the laptop – always a bad sign – and produce sound with absolutely no low-end. That means if you want to listen to music or watch a movie on the admittedly gorgeous display, you’re going to get sound that’s reminiscent of a cheap smartphone from 2015.

Luckily, the AMOLED display makes up for this a bit. The model Samsung sent over for review has a 16-inch 120Hz AMOLED display at 2,880 x 1600. The display is rated at 500 nits of brightness, and can hit 120% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making for a bright and vibrant picture. It really is a shame that the speakers are so bad, because this display is awesome for watching movies or playing games – you’ll just want to wear headphones if you do it.

The keyboard is also incredible. Samsung uses the extra real estate of a 16-inch display to include a full-sized keyboard, complete with a numpad. That’s hard to find these days, especially since so many laptop manufacturers favor a slimmer aesthetic over these niche keys. But if you’re doing a lot of spreadsheet work, they’re a godsend, and make working a lot easier.

On the top right corner of the keyboard, you’ll find the power button and fingerprint reader. Logging into Windows with my fingerprint is extremely quick and accurate, and I haven’t really had to rely on entering my PIN in the two weeks I’ve spent with the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge. I would have liked the fingerprint reader to be a bit bigger, but that would likely have cut into the numpad a bit.

Replacing the right Ctrl button is the new Copilot+ key, which is a thing now on AI PCs. Pushing this button brings up the Copilot chat window. Love it or hate it, this is now a mainstay. However, with how close it is to the period key, I constantly found myself hitting it by accident, bringing up the robot when I was just trying to do some work. Having a key that brings up a whole application that you can accidentally hit when typing is such a pain, but that’s on Microsoft, not Samsung.

The touchpad is generally as good as Windows touchpads can get, but it is extremely large. That’s ordinarily a good thing, but the palm rejection isn’t the greatest. More than a few times when writing on the Galaxy Book Edge, I’ve accidentally clicked out of a window, or highlighted a word, due to my palm accidentally grazing the pad. When I’m not actively writing, though, it’s smooth and accurate, and gestures work like a charm. I just wish it would leave me alone when I’m just trying to get some work done.

Because the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is using what is essentially a mobile chip, the laptop has a fanless cooler design. But despite this, the Book 4 Edge doesn’t get too hot when I’m working on it, making it a comfortable little work laptop. Plus, it’s quiet, and you don’t have to put up with fan noise when you’re trying to concentrate.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is equipped with the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100, one of the new NPU-equipped CPUs at the center of the new Copilot+ “AI PC” craze. This processor is pretty fast for an ultra-portable chip, but it’s built on ARM (Advanced RISC Machine), which introduces some problems in Windows 11.

Most Windows 11 apps have been built with x86 and x64 processors in mind. In the past, that meant most Windows apps just wouldn’t run on an ARM chip. Compatibility is a lot better now, thanks to Windows Prism, a translation layer that essentially emulates an x86 processor when you’re using an ARM chip. It works surprisingly well, but performance takes a sizable hit, especially when you’re trying to do things like play PC games.

The issues with emulation are reflected in the benchmarks. The Snapdragon X Elite has a pretty capable GPU for its class, but it still only manages 2,126 points in 3DMark Time Spy. The Asus ROG Ally X scores 3,346 points. Given the Ally X is also using integrated graphics, and a much older chipset, that’s an extreme margin.

That’s not to mention that games like Forza Horizon 5 won’t even run on the Samsung Galaxy 4 Edge, despite coming with the Xbox app preinstalled. Even the games that will run don’t provide a great experience, with the laptop getting an average of only 34 fps in HItman 3.

To be fair, though, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge isn’t really a gaming laptop anyways, and is primarily built for office work and light AI. It does manage a respectable score of 6,799 points in the new Procyon Office benchmark, which is quite high for a laptop of this class. I’ve been using this laptop as my main work device for a couple of weeks, and I can say that it holds up when doing office work. Even when I have 50 tabs open, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge keeps up with me, thanks to the 16GB of RAM on the device.

I also noticed no difference in performance when working on battery power. Most Windows laptops will get a sizable performance boost when they’re plugged in, but the Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an office workhorse regardless of where your charger is.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Battery Life

Despite its issues, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge has phenomenal battery life, and can last multiple days without charging if you’re not pushing it super hard. In my time with this laptop, the only time I had a situation where I went to turn it on and was faced with a “charge me now” screen was when I turned it on after running a battery test on it.

To be clear, the benchmark we usually use to test battery life – the PCMark10 battery life test – would not run on this ARM-based laptop. However, I ran the Procyon Office battery test, and the laptop clocked an impressive 14 hours and 13 minutes of battery life. That is almost two full work days back-to-back before dying out.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is absolutely a laptop you can take with you to the office and not worry too much if you forget to pack a charger. Hell, it’ll even survive a transcontinental flight before the battery saver warning pops up. Combined with the gorgeous screen and luxurious chassis, this is an incredible laptop to travel with.

Is an AI PC Worth It?

For all the fanfare these new-fangled AI PCs have received, it’s still not super clear why they’re necessary. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is by all means a good laptop, but the AI features the laptop is sold on are little more than a gimmick. And not a very good one.

As mentioned earlier, you can hit the little Copilot key and bring up the Copilot AI, but you can do that on any Windows computer by just hitting Win+C. You’d think that the laptop specially designed for this would make this a smoother affair, but it’s just as fluid anywhere else – it’s not even run locally on the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

There’s a heaping of other little AI features, too. For instance, in paint, you can generate images from a text prompt, or even turn a little doodle into a more complete (I guess?) image. That’s neat and all, and good for a few minutes of entertainment, but it’s not something I’m going to use a week, month, or year from now.

Laptops sporting NPUs aren’t exactly new, either. Apple’s Macbooks have featured an NPU since 2020’s M1 chip, which helped with AI workloads to be sure, but the bigger win has been battery life and productivity performance. And that’s true for the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge, too. No matter how many little AI toys Samsung packs in the box, none of them compare to the battery life the laptop offers when doing the same boring work you do on your existing laptop.

There’s little reason, then, to upgrade to an AI PC just for the virtue of having an AI PC. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is just another Ultrabook. And because of the app compatibility woes that the ARM chip brings, it’s not even great at being an Ultrabook – and we’ve had those for years now.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a nice little 16-inch laptop, packed with a bright screen and a full-sized keyboard that’s comfortable to work on. However, because it’s packed with the Snapdragon X Elite chip, built on ARM, there are more than a few apps that either won’t work as well as a standard Windows laptop, or won’t work at all. This chip does bring some AI goodies along with it, but they feel gimmicky at best. However, if you want a lightweight work laptop with long battery life – and the apps you use aren’t hampered by the ARM emulation – you can get a lot of mileage out of the Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

More Reviews by Jacqueline Thomas

Ign recommends.

PlayStation Plus Game Catalog Additions for August 2024 Revealed

IMAGES

10 Best Free Book Review Websites
10 Best Free Book Review Websites
7 Book Review Sites That Put Your Book in Front of Readers
20 Best Book Website Templates 2023
10 Best Book Review Sites for Finding What to Read Next
20 Best Book Website Templates 2023

COMMENTS

How to Get Book Reviews (15 places free)
Learn how to find and request book reviews from various sources, including free editorial reviews, paid reviews, and social media. Discover 15 legitimate places to get book reviews for your indie or self-published book.
The Best Book Review Sites
It's a site for every kind of reader, with abundant ways to comment and interact. 2. LibraryThing. Review styles: star rating, recommendation, community reviews. This is the OG of all online book catalogues and discussion boards — take a look and you'll see that it's an oldie but a goodie.
The Best Book Blogs That Do Free Book Reviews
The most popular book review sites in our catalog have between 10,000 and 70,000 followers. Many of these sites not only review books but also accept guest posts, do cover reveals, and participate in blog tours. While the top book blogs tend be YA book review blogs and romance book review blogs, we also feature less common genres like travel ...
Kirkus Reviews
The Magazine: Kirkus Reviews. Featuring 358 reviews of fiction, nonfiction, children's, and YA books; also in this issue: interviews with Lev Grossman, Ellen Atlanta, Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston, and Jen Wang; and more. subscribe.
The 13 Best Book Review Sites and Book Rating Sites
Nonetheless, there are several engaging YouTube channels that frequently offer opinions on books they've read. You'll easily find book reviews of famous books here. Some of the most notable book review YouTube channels include Better Than Food: Book Reviews, Little Book Owl, PolandBananasBooks, and Rincey Reads .
30+ Top-Notch Book Review Sites for Readers & Writers
15. BOMB. BOMB is in it for the art. Art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. There are reviews and interviews, and the literature section is a real delight. The reviews are like poignant essays, and the author interviews are in-depth and feature some fascinating minds. BOMB.
Discover the Best Book Review Sites of 2024: Top 10 Picks
Also read: Top 10 Book Review Clubs of 2024 to Share Literary Insights. 6. Amazon. Amazon is one of the top free book review sites in 2024. It allows readers to rate books using a 1-5 star scale and receive a verified purchase tag after they have purchased books, increasing the authenticity of their reviews.
Finding Book Reviews Online
A free collection of book reviews published in The New York Times since 1981. A more extensive paid subscription database is also available. School Library Journal Reviews+ External. Features reviews from School Library Journal from the most recent twenty-four months. Browse by genre, grade level, award winners and other criteria.
Literary Hub
The New York Times' "Best Books of the Century" List Was an Unforgivable Erasure of African Literature ... You Get Editors' Personalized Book Recs, an Ad-Free Reading Experience, AND the Joan Didion Tote Bag. December 23, 2023. Read Full Story. The Latest. ... 5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week. August 8, 2024 By Book Marks. Genre ...
Book Marks: The book review aggregator Book Marks
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstor…. All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got Thi…. The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the E…. The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed…. The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Anc…. Autocracy, Inc.:
Goodreads
Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.". William W. Purkey. "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.". Dr. Seuss. "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.". Mae West.
BookBrowse: Your Guide to Exceptional Books
Discover books that entertain, engage, and enlighten. Reviews, excerpts, reading guides, reading lists, info for book clubs & more.
Readers' Favorite: Book Reviews and Award Contest
Free book reviews for your authors. We review published and unpublished (ARC and manuscripts) books in any of our 150+ genres. Reviews will be posted on our site, KOBO, Google Books, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. You can also post our review in Amazon's Editorial Reviews section. Reviews will be indexed by search engines like ...
How to Get Free Book Reviews without having a blog ...
Here are some of my favorites free book review sites: Love Books Group: Reviews books on their site is a easy process to submit. Affaire de Coeur: A bi-monthly magazine that publishes reviews in historical, contemporary, paranormal, erotica, YA, and nonfiction primarily. Book Page: Must send an ARC 3 months prior to publication date
The 21 Best Places to Find Free Books Online
Their Daily Book Deals span 20 genres and almost always feature at least one free book. 8. FreeBooksy. Most of the other book promotion services focus on both free and discounted books, but FreeBooksy is the biggest site that's dedicated solely to ebooks you don't have to pay for.
List of Book Review Blogs: Where to Find Free Book Reviews
Below is a list of book review blogs with links to their policies and the genres they review. Show entries. Website. Genres Accepted. The Kindle Book Review. Nonfiction, Thriller/Suspense, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Poetry, Humor. Jessica Map Reviews. Thrillers, Suspense, Crime Fiction, True Crime, Historical Fiction, Some YA genres ...
Book Reviews
Free Book Review. By far, most of what we do is provide free book reviews to authors. In fact, we provide hundreds and even thousands of free reviews each month to authors from all over the world, from independent authors to best sellers and celebrities. However, even with over 1,500 reviewers we are not able to keep up with the ever-increasing ...
Welcome to Open Library
Organize your Books using Lists & the Reading Log. Digital shelves organized like a physical library. Find matching results within the text of millions of books. Dozens of ways you can help improve the library. Discover opportunities to improve the library. Your feedback will help us improve these cards.
How To Get Free Book Reviews
You may notrefund the reviewer's purchase price for your book, or give them a free book, for leaving a review. You maygive them a free Advance Reader Copy of the book and ask them to leave a review if they want to. You may notswap reviews with another author, or as part of a review and promotion circle. You mayask author friends to review ...
7 Book Review Sites That Put Your Book in Front of Readers
Readers Favorite. Readers Favorite offers free and paid book review opportunities. According to their site, 50% of the books listed for free receive a review within 3 months. For guaranteed, expedited reviews, there are three options for one, three, and five reviews.
5 Book Review Sites Every Author Should Submit To
Here are some of the prices for Kirkus Reviews: Traditional Reviews: Costs $425 for a 250-word review. Expanded Reviews: Costs $525 for a 500-word review. Picture Book Reviews: Cost $350 for a 200-word review. All of the reviews are turned around in 7-9 weeks but can be expedited for an additional fee. After receiving your review, you can add ...
Free Book Reviews
Learn how to get free book reviews on Amazon, GoodReads, and industry review journals from readers who have reviewed similar books. Avoid paying for book reviews and use tools like Book Review Targeter to find reviewers faster.
43 Places to Get Free Books in Exchange for Reviews (Get Physical Books
Get Free Books for Reviews on Third-Party Sites (Amazon, Good Reads, etc.) If you just love books and have an account on a website like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Goodreads, then check out the websites below. These websites send out free copies of eBooks and physical books to readers who are willing to post reviews. 1. NetGalley
6 New Books We Recommend This Week
100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review ...
Top 9 Websites to Read Online Books for Free without Downloading
8. OpenStax. OpenStax is a free online platform that lets you read free books online without downloading for students. The website offers access to licensed textbooks and educational content, and it hosts more than 30 peer-reviewed textbooks on various subjects such as mathematics, science, economics, and the humanities.
The 6 Best Websites for Romance Readers
Snark and sass abound on the SB-TB website - and we are eating it up! Featured in USA Today, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Metro: New York, Salon, and with a cool mention on TV Land's Younger - Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has been making waves as the spot for "online wankage" (or, savvy readers looking to have real talk about the books they love and the ...
Google Play Books & Audiobooks
Google Play Books is the one app you need to buy and enjoy ebooks, audiobooks, comics, and manga. Choose from millions of best selling ebooks, comics, manga, textbooks, and audiobooks. Download your book to read or listen on the go. When you're finished, find your next favorite from recommendations personalized just for you.
Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge Review
Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge - Design and Features. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an extremely thin laptop. Measuring just 0.48 inches thick, this is easily the thinnest 16-inch laptop I've ...

How to Get Book Reviews (15 Places Free)

How to Find Book Reviews

Dos and Don’ts of Getting Book Reviews

CLICK FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT OUR UPDATES

You may also like: How to Self-Publish Children’s Books Without Crushing Your Spirits (A Comprehensive Guide)

American Book Review

Booklife by Publishers Weekly

Compulsive Reader

Rain Taxi Review of Book

Readers’ Favorite Book Review and Award Contest

The Los Angeles Review of Books

The New York Review of Books

Barnes & Noble Review

Paid Review Sites

YourNewBooks

Reading Deals

Enas Reviews

Additional Book Review Outlets (Free)

Social Media

Writing & Book Bloggers Sites

Mommabears Book Blog

XterraWeb Books & More

Bonus Book Review Website

Better yet, sign up to receive the newsletter and be the first to know about our updates .

What are your thoughts about this list? What other places do you usually get book reviews? Leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram .

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

How to Write a Dazzling Blurb for Your Children’s Book

How to Use BookTok to Market Your Young Adult Novels

How to Self-Publish Children’s Books Without Crushing Your Spirits (A Comprehensive Guide)

Find book review blogs, vlogs, and bookstagrams to promote your book

Reach the most popular book blogs

Increase your response rates

Expedite your reviewer outreach...

Save time with smart filters

What authors are saying...

Search our book reviewers list for free and find the most influential book reviewers for your book.

Our Take On This Week's Bestsellers

Featured Book Reviews

New Releases

Didn’t find what you were looking for? OK, how about some

Great Books & News Curated For You

Please select an existing bookshelf

Please sign up to continue.

Almost there!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

The 13 Best Book Review Sites and Book Rating Sites

Don't Accidentally Dox Yourself in Screenshots and Videos: How to Stay Safe

1. Goodreads

2. LibraryThing

3. Book Riot

5. Booklist

6. Fantasy Book Review

7. LoveReading

10. YouTube

12. StoryGraph

13. London Review of Books

Read Book Reviews Before You Buy

30+ Top-Notch Book Review Sites for Readers & Writers

Book reviews are for all of us.

Here are 30+ book review sites to read, write, and bookmark.

Speaking of libraries! Have you seen our gifts for librarians ?

What are the biggest benefits of reading ? 🧐

Have you seen our gifts for book lovers yet?

What are your favorite book review sites to follow? Let us know in the comments!

Share this:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Discover the Best Book Review Sites of 2024: Top 10 Picks

Your Guide to the Best eBook Readers in 2024

Writing Tips

Writing for the Web: 7 Expert Tips for Web Content Writing

Checklist: Dissertation Proposal

Examples: Edited Papers

1. Goodreads

2. Kirkus Reviews

3. LibraryThing

4. Book Riot

5. LoveReading

7. Booklist

8. Publishers Weekly

9. NetGalley