Rosie Amber’s Friday Five Challenge, involves taking only five minutes to choose a book cover which appeals instantly. So take a few minutes, pour yourself a coffee…..and have a browse.
In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
I put rain into the search on Amazon for this week’s challenge because, yet again, it’s raining. After scrolling through several pages this cover stood out.
The book description reads..
Devon Sanders, a private investigator known for his efficiency and discretion, has no interest in getting involved with the paranormal community. Unfortunately for him, the paranormal community does have an interest in him, or at least in his secret. Devon is exceptional in solving cases using his uncanny intuition. When Devon uncovers a violent murder, he knows it is not a natural crime. In order to solve this case and expose the murderer, he will have to go undercover as a wizard in the paranormal university, Quintessence. He soon discovers that his talent has more to do with supernatural forces than he ever knew. Magic is elemental.
Price: £2.53/$3.99 for a Kindle copy, £9.51 for a paperback.
Pages: 286
So far, so good. The book was released in June this year but there aren’t any reviews on Amazon UK as yet (there are 3 five star ones on Goodreads.) The reviews on Amazon US are encouraging and although I haven’t heard of this author it seems she’s quite established, with several previous books, and has a following. There are 16 reviews coming in at 4.9 out of 5 stars, one reviewer described the book as a ‘spiritual thriller’ and another as ‘spinning a magical world that is breathtakingly creative’. The reviews I checked seemed authentic and several had reviewed the author’s book previously.
The cover reflects the subject matter very well, mysterious and dark, and I like the blue lettering. Paranormal storylines are always a hook for me, and there seems to be a sense of humour running through the story as well. It’s the first of a series too and I enjoy following characters when get invested in them.
BUY or PASS? ~ I’d BUY. Based on what I’ve been able to read and the kindle price, this is definitely worth a BUY for me. Which I’ve done, although I’m not sure when I’m going to get to the books I’ve added since the challenge began!
If you’d like to enter next week’s challenge, and the more the merrier, check out Rosie’s blog to read about the Friday Five Challenge.
More Friday Five Challenge choices..
Rosie found a chick lit set in New York
Terry’s on the cabaret circuit
Shelley chose tips on money management
Liz fancied a bit of time traveling
Barb is on the snark trail
betweenthelinesbookblog.com 
Ha ha – yes, I too have several FFC books on my to-read list!!! This is not my cup of tea as I’m not into paranormal and wizards and stuff (I even had limited interest in Harry Potter), but a good reception to previous books by the same author is always a good recommendation, for sure – it’s how we get our new ones bought! 🙂
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The book cover is very dark and mystical, the book description began to remind me of “Fallen On Good Times” by Rewan Tremethick he had an investigator who would rather not get involved with the paranormal world. I winced a little at the paranormal University mention here, I always get drawn back to Harry Potter when I read about magical schools and end up comparing them as I read. I’m dithering over a decision for this, it’s a little high in the price bracket for less than 300 pages and although I like paranormal, I’m going to pass this week – too many reminders of others books in the description that I really liked might mean I was disappointed in this read.
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Yes, I had those thoughts too..we’ll see 🙂
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Re what Rosie said – oh yes, I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t think anyone will ever be able to ‘do’ a paranormal school/college without it being compared unfavourably to Hogwarts – JK kind of had the last word in that!
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The blurb is great, but just like Rosie, I stopped at the ‘wizard paranormal university’ bit. It was a BUY up to that point. I like the cover.
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Reblogged this on Barrow Blogs: and commented:
Sounds good for those who like this genre.
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Thank you 🙂
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You’re welcome, Cathy. Not my cup of tea but the writing sounded good
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I will await your review, Cathy, before putting it on my To Read list. The cover picture is excellent.
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Goodness knows when I’ll get to it but I’ll be interested to see what it’s like.
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Really liked the cover but it would have to be a no on the paranormal, magical stuff for me, sorry.
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That’s ok, I know it’s not everyone’s choice 🙂
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A pass from me. I like the cover, like private investigators stories but not the wizardry and paranormal bits.
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Sounds like just my kind of book. I love time travel and wizards and… oh, heck it’s a BUY!
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Haha, I know….the TBR! Well there’s one thing for sure, we won’t be short of reading matter for a (long) while.
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Love the cover, but I’d pass on the story.
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