NetGalley Check-in – January 2025

Going into January, I’d like to share where I am up to with my NetGalley ARCs. I continue to try to keep the number of ARCs that I have sitting on my shelf to a minimum so I don’t get overwhelmed, only requesting or downloading books that I know I definitely want to read.

What’s on my shelf?

I only have two ARCs on my shelf at the moment, both set to be published in the first half of the year.

Boy with Wings by Mark Mustian

Expected publication date: 15th March 2025

What does it mean to be different? From Mark Mustian, founder of the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music and award-winning author of the international bestseller “The Gendarme,” comes the new Southern gothic novel, “Boy With Wings” (March 15, 2025, Koehler Books).

About the book: Johnny Cruel is born with strange appendages on his back, frightening his neighbors and leaving him struggling to find a home. Johnny ends up in a “freak show” traveling the 1930s South, where he bares his back to onlookers who come to gape and fawn. Is he a horror or an angel? Should he hide himself to live his life?

As Johnny comes to grips with his uniqueness, he embarks on a journey of love and finds the miracles that give our lives meaning. Mustian’s thrilling and emotional story of self-discovery is perfect for book clubs and fans of historical fiction.

It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

Expected publication date: 29th May 2025

From the USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.

Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie.

Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as “Poor Janey Jakes,” the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America’s fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.

Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years.

Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane’s idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?

Feedback ratio: 79%

I tend not to review the books where I have nothing nice or constructive to say. I hate the idea that I might ruin the book for someone else so I only post feedback for books that I feel are 3 stars or above.

Requests:

I have two pending requests that I’m pretty certain I won’t get, which is a shame, but I’ll just have to read them when they are published.

What’s on your NetGalley shelf? Which ARCs are you excited to read? Is there anything coming up that you’re hoping to receive?