One of our reading goals is working on our Netgalley feedback ratio. Eventually we want to get it to 80%. And to help motivate us we decided to do this new post every week. We pick three of our eARCs and based on the first line, paragraph, or page we decide which one we’ll read next. Let’s take a look at today’s picks for this week’s Netgalley Next!

City of Nightmares – Rebecca Schaeffer

Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.

Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.

Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that’s monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organization that may or may not be a cult.

But being a member of maybe-cult has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near.

My sister’s worst Nightmare was a giant, man-eating spider. I know because that’s what she turned into when went to sleep for the last time.

This is how you start a novel! I am intrigued right away, even without reading the synopsis I know I want to read this story. And I would love to just continue reading this one right away. I did actually read the synopsis, and that also convinces me that this is going to be a very interesting read, I for sure want to read it before it releases in January.

Divine Rivals

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever. Shadow and Bone meets Lore in this epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

Cold fog had settled over the depot like a burial shroud, and Iris Winnow thought the weather couldn’t have been better. She could hardly see the train through the gloam, but she could taste it in the evening air: metal and smoke and burning coal, all woven together with a trace of petrichor. The wooden platform was slick beneath her shoes, gleaming with rain puddles and piles of decaying leaves.

After that very exciting start to the previous book, this one falls a bit short haha. It’s not a bad start but it also doesn’t give me that much. I’m not immediately drawn to the story and to be honest, the writing style might not be to my taste. To be sure about that I would have to read some more though. The synopsis does sound interesting but this isn’t the first book I want to pick up.

Tell Me No Lies – Andrea Contos

Riverdale meets Gone Girl in a shocking thriller about two sisters whose bond is tested when one girl’s boyfriend goes missing… and her sister is the primary suspect.

Nora and Sophie Linden may be sisters, but they’re not friends. Not since the party last month. Not since the night Sophie’s boyfriend, Garrett, disappeared. Half the town thinks Garrett is dead, the other half believes he ran away, but Sophie knows something no one else does — Garrett left that party with Nora. And straight-A, Ivy-league-bound Nora had never been to a single party before that night.

Then Nora withdraws, barely coming home anymore, right when Sophie starts receiving messages from someone who claims to be Garrett, promising revenge — for what happened to him that night, and for the lies both girls told to the police about it.

With the sisters’ futures — and lives — in jeopardy, they’ll have to decide whether to trust each other again, or risk their secrets leading them to their graves.

This is my confession. Or as much of it as I can give. There are moments, and then moments built upon other moments, that no longer exist in my head. Spaces of time I can no longer fill with memories. Instead I’m left with blank spots that I tell myself are unimportant – small parts unneeded to recreate the whole.

This is another great start! I immediately want to keep on reading. What is going on, what are they confessing to? A falling out between sisters, revenge, secrets, I want to read it right away. This one releases tomorrow and isn’t super big so I’m very tempted to pick this one up next!

Usually I have a clear preference for one of the eARC’s but this time around I’m not sure! I’m really excited about City of Nightmares but Tell Me No Lies sounds great as well and since it releases tomorrow I’m debating picking that one up first. Come help me pick in the comments! Which one should I start first?