Book Review Policy

Currently, Mystery Sequels accepts book review requests, however, it is on a case by case basis. It depends on my current review backlog at the time of your asking. So send me an email and we’ll see.

Most books reviewed on Mystery Sequels have been purchased by me. If I accept books for review, they will be listed in the genres below. In both cases my reviews are unbiased, and I will never accept payment or gifts in exchange for reviews.

Mystery Sequels does not publish negative reviews, which means that probably not all books sent me to for a review will be actually reviewed on the site.  With books being so cheap, I have no problems purchasing the ones I intend to read, so offering me a book will in no shape or form bind me to review it or to give a “glowing” review unless I actually feel that the glowing review is warranted. If I didn’t like the book enough to finish it, I will not publish the review.

Before asking for a review, please read my post titled Why I no longer give star ratings to the reviews on my site. That will explain why you will not find a rating system on Mystery Sequels.

If you’d like for me to review your book, please make sure it falls under the genres mentioned below.

Genres I review:

• Detective mystery
• Thriller
• Romantic suspense
• Paranormal mystery
• Private eye mystery
• YA mystery that is cozy in any way
• True crime
• and generally, anything that involves solving a hardcore mystery

Genres I absolutely do not review

• Cozy mystery
• Contemporary romance
• Chick lit
• Adult spicy romance
• Religious/spiritual
• Biography/autobiography

If your book falls into a genre that I haven’t mentioned above and you think I should review it, contact me to discuss further.

Details

• The book should be preferably part of a mystery series, however, I do review standalone novels as well if I like what I see from the blurb/book cover
• I accept eBooks in the following formats: ePub, Mobi (Kindle format) and pdf. I can read other formats as well as long as the iPad has an app that allows me to open the book to read.
• I don’t post negative reviews (or reviews where I’d award 3 stars or less), so if I don’t like a book, most probably I won’t finish it, in which case it won’t be reviewed on Mystery Sequels. Thus the lowest rating you’ll ever see in any of my published reviews  is 3.5 stars (which is not bad, but kind of ‘meh’). Since I no longer give a star rating in my reviews, I can review also book that I didn’t especially like (which I still managed to read cover to cover). My book review will reflect how I felt about it.
• If the book I’m reviewing has been given by the publisher (or author) to review, I will mention this in my post under Source: Review copy. Otherwise, it means I bought the book.
• I will do my best to finish reviewing the book close to the publication date if it is a recently published novel.
• All the reviews are from my own point of view and I sincerely express anything that the book made me feel or think about it without being rude, obnoxious or demeaning to the author.
• I am open to posting book giveaways, virtual blog tours and book cover reveals, although they are not the focus of the site.  I no longer take part in book tours, cover reveals or book giveaways.
• Since I am an Amazon affiliate partner, the book cover in the review will have a link to the Amazon page for the book. This will help me pay for the  the domain and hosting costs for the site.

How to send in your review

• To request a book review please contact me through the Contact page on this site (or send me an email directly to marika@mysterysequels.com). You might also send me an email to my personal Gmail email address if you already have it.
• In your email let me know the book title, author and the format you want to send me. Any links about the book (Amazon, Goodread, author website, etc) are appreciated. If I like what I see, I will reply to your email shortly with a request for the book.
• Please do not send me requests through Facebook or Twitter as it might be missed (too much interaction on the social media sites). Instead, follow the instructions above on sending me the request for a review through email.

If I have read the book and liked it, then I will review it, in which case I will send you a link to read it (if I got the book from Netgalley, Edelweiss, etc, I will follow the proper protocol for posting the review).

Any books reviewed will also be shared on the social media: tweeted from the @mysterysequels account, shared on Facebook, posted on Google + and Goodreads, and book cover pictures posted on Pinterest with a link back to the review.

If you found the review useful, don’t forget to share it on the various social media sites as well (easy sharing buttons are just below the posts). This increases the visibility for the review, hence the author name and book title will reach a wider audience. The more people see the review, the better known the author will become through the power of social media.

If your book is not reviewed on Mystery Sequels

If you haven’t heard back from me in a timely manner, there are two main reasons for it:

1. I still have several books to read before I get to reading yours

2. The book didn’t grab me enough to finish it, in which case I won’t be able to review it. I will not send you back an email saying that I will not review your book. For a list of “Did Not Finish books”, please check out my Goodreads shelf here.