Reading Alley: A New Book Reviewing Site
I’ve received an email this morning containing an invitation to a new site called Reading Alley, so I headed over to check it out.
The site looks nice and clean with an easy layout and nagivation and I’ve already noticed a few book in the Mystery and Thriller genre that sound interesting. So I’ve decided to join, while at the same time went on learning more about the place.
I haven’t requested yet a book there, and I will amend this post with my experiences once that happens. However my first impressions of the site are quite positive.
Reading Alley founded by Stacy Martin opened June 5 with a bang: a Grand Opening celebration that includes not only free books to review, but also games, challenges and fun prizes to win, all available for the rest of the summer.
Of course, the first question I asked myself – and I suppose most book reviewers will have the same question as well – was: What is so different about Reading Alley compared to other popular and established book reviewer sites like Netgalley and Edelweiss, among others?
Honestly, I haven’t found any major differences. All the other sites have also free books that can be requested from the author/publisher. They already have a huge amount of books available, however given the fact that Reading Alley is still in infancy, it is not surprising, and I can see it grow fast.
Reading Alley’s statement on site mentions:
Reading Alley is a site catering to passionate book reviewers. We feature a variety of books from different genres and from both known and up-and-coming authors alike, at times before they even hit the shelves.
As a book reviewer at Reading Alley:
- You get the chance to read the latest books in the market for free.
- In exchange, all we ask is for you to submit your honest, unbiased review afterwards.
- You also get to enjoy and benefit from Reading Alley’s great rewards program.
These are equally true for the other reviewing sites as well.
One difference I did notice in my relatively short time there is that at Reading Alley a person doesn’t need to have a separate website (like Mystery Sequels) for reviewing books. It is more than enough if the reviews are given onsite, directly at Reading Alley, whereas both with Netgalley and Edelweiss a reviewer will have much more chances of being accepted when requesting books if they are already established bloggers with their own site, which is regularly updated.
Thus new reviewers might have more chances to start their journey at Reading Alley, while honing their skills and building up their online properties, before applying to the established sites.
In addition I had both Reading alley and Netgalley webapges open to check for same books at both places. I was pleasantly surprised that the books I randomly checked out at Reading Alley were not available on Netgalley, so there is a bit of variety between the sites at the moment as well.
All in all, I say welcome to Reading Alley to the family of book reviewing sites. Us readers and reviewers can’t get enough books, can’t say no to more books, so the more the merrier.
Related article: How to get free books to read and review
