#ARCAugust 2020|| The ARCs Strike Back

Posted August 3, 2020 by Sammie in arc, readathon, reading challenge, TBR / 23 Comments

If we’re honest, I think most bookwyrms have long ago realized that the thing that’s most likely to do them in is their TBR.

It seems only fitting, I suppose, given the amount of time we’ve spent avoiding it, adding to its woe, and simply pretending it wasn’t that angry and a few more books wouldn’t hurt.

So that’s obviously how we got here. Now what are we going to do about it? Other than curl up in the fetal position in a corner and beg for our sanity.

ARC August is hosted by Octavia and Shelly @ Read. Sleep. Repeat. and is an annual readathon that takes place from August 1 – 31.

There are no formal sign-ups this year, but here are the rules, in case you’re too lazy to click the very nice link I went out of my way to provide you. It’s all right, I get it. If we don’t have to wear pants anymore, we shouldn’t have to click all these random links for information, either. I hear you.

The Rules:

  1. The challenge lasts all August long, regardless of time zones.
  2. Any Advance Review Copy counts, digital or physical.
  3. You do not have to be a blogger to join. Librarians and booksellers are most definitely welcome, as well as any other profession that would give you access to ARCs.
  4. This is a low-stakes challenge, your TBR and goals are entirely up to you.
  5. The ARCs do not have to be upcoming releases, old ARCs are totally acceptable.
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My Statistics

Current ARC Status: *internal screaming*

NetGalley: 201 Approved  |  96 Feedback Sent (48%)

Edelweiss: 14 outstanding

Overdue ARCs:

NetGalley: 49

Edelweiss: 10

Upcoming ARCs:

NetGalley: 56

Edelweiss: 4

As I’m sure you can see, I have my work cut out for me. All of it. It needs to cut it out. Also, in my defense, some of the “outstanding” ARCs on NetGalley are backlist books that I received ARCs for recently, but I still counted them as outstanding anyway. So it’s not quite as bad as it seems. It’s still pretty bad, though.

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#ARCAugust 2020

Goals:

  • Read 15 ARCs this month.
  • Increase my NetGalley ratio to over 51% (you know, so I’m mostly winning)

Outstanding ARCs Possibility Pile:

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires     The Time of Green Magic     The Bone Ships     The Deep     The Only Good Indians    


The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires: A group of “harmless women” in the book club take on the local vampire in an attempt to oust him from their community.

The Time of Green Magic: New step-siblings find their new house might be more than they bargained for when strange things start to happen, like the appearance of a spotted-cat thing.

The Bone Ships: The first dragon in centuries has been spotted, and humans see their chance to use it to their advantage to win the ongoing war.

The Deep: Something is haunting the Titanic. Enough said.

The Only Good Indians: Four American Indians are haunted by something they did in their past, and now an entity is bent on revenge.

A Peculiar Peril     The Shadows     The Princess Will Save You     The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez     Deal with the Devil    


A Peculiar Peril: I dunno, but there’s magic and Aleister Crowley, and I don’t see how this could go wrong.

The Shadows: I will always show up for Alex North horror thrillers, okay? That’s just how it is.

The Princess Will Save You: Raised as a warrior, Princess Amarande refuses to marry for politics, and when her beloved, a stable boy, is kidnapped, she sets out to save him.

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez: Nestor Lopez, a Cuban American, learns he can talk to animals, just as the animals around his home start disappearing, and he has to get to the bottom of the vanishings.

Deal with the Devil: MERCENARY LIBRARIANS. I rest my case.

Upcoming ARCs Possibility Pile:

Cemetery Boys     Shielded     Harrow the Ninth     Paola Santiago and the River of Tears     How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It    


Cemetery Boys: Latinx teen tries to summon the ghost of his cousin. Summons a loud-mouthed, annoying bad boy instead. Proceeds to fall in love with him anyway (I assume).

Shielded: Jenna says “nah thanks” to an arranged marriage and decides to save the kingdom her own way.

Harrow the Ninth: Harrow gets on with being her bad necromancer self amidst all sorts of dangers, including potential death, like she does.

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears: Logical Paola Santiago relies on science, rather than superstition like her mother, to explain her world … until her best friend goes missing and all signs point to the legend of La Llorona.

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It: Notker apparently somehow weasels his way into ruling a kingdom? I don’t care, I’m taking notes.

Once Upon a Unicorn     Ink & Sigil     The Faithless Hawk     May Day     The Black Sky    


Once Upon a Unicorn: A whimsical-sounding adventure where two semi-hopeless unicorns have to team up to save their world from Jack o’ the Hunt.

Ink & Sigil: Al is cursed and unable to use his voice, which is a problem. Oh, there’s also this thing where his apprentices keep turning up dead, too. So Al decides to investigate the murders.

The Faithless Hawk

May Day: Vampire detective has to team up with the vampire she hates to solve a murder.

The Black Sky: Post-apocalyptic Mahattan where one man has to prevent humanity’s extinction.

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Stay Fierce, Sammie

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23 responses to “#ARCAugust 2020|| The ARCs Strike Back

    • I try not to look at my NetGalley numbers, because it’s a little depressing. xD I need to work on it haha.

      Yeees, those are three I’m really looking forward to and definitely want to try to get to this month! We’ll see if it actually happens or not haha.

  1. Good luck with your ARCs! I’m looking forward to reading a few of these (eventually) but since I don’t do ARCs much at all anymore, I have no pressure to get to any of them. I hope you can manage to read enough to keep your TBR beast happy!
    Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Hot August LinkityMy Profile

    • Ha, because you’re clearly the smart one around here! xD I just can’t help myself when it comes to ARCs. (If it’s not … can I come live with you? I’ll sleep in the basement or crawl space or something haha. Consider it a reader protection program.)

    • Huh. I guess I DO have a lot of outstanding creepy books. I hadn’t even noticed that. xD I’m definitely feeling the creepy books more recently, too! I don’t know what it is about fall that makes me love being terrified of my own shadow, but that’s how it is.

    • Thanks! I hope to be able to get to those soon, since I’ve been looking forward to them. I just need, like, 50-hour days, please. xD

  2. Y’know, sometimes I’m really glad that I don’t have access to all the books on NetGalley (due to my location) as everyone else because I’d end up in big huge massive trouble with my inability to stop requesting reads and then… procrastinating forever instead of actually reading the books 😂 I mean, I’m still sad I can’t access all the books but still… It’s probably better for me? Hahaha BUT I DIGRESS. You definitely got this! I have two of these on my TBR as well and I can’t wait to get to them. If you want to buddy read with the worst buddy reader you’ve probably ever had, let me know 😉 LOL
    Dini @ dinipandareads recently posted…Review: Always Only You by Chloe LieseMy Profile

    • Yeeeah, self-control is haaard. True story. xD Requesting is so easy, but the follow-through is so time consuming lol.

      I ALWAYS want to buddy read. Which ones do you have?

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