State of the ARC is a monthly meme temporarily hosted by Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken meant to motivate you to finish up your long overdue ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copies). This is its original intention, while some bloggers have tweaked it a bit for their own purposes, such as just keeping ARCs in order by due dates. Or you can just be a hot mess like me who sometimes misses publishing dates (or ignores them altogether) and needs a way to stay organized on what has been read, reviewed, or is still begging for attention. Thank you to Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books for coming up with this super helpful monthly meme.
I finished April with 17 ARCs left to be read.
This seems to be the running theme for me in 2023, but (and this should be to no one’s surprise at this point), I didn’t make as much progress as I wanted to during May. A lot of things came up, and I had a hard time focusing on reading. Audiobooks made up a bunch of my reading this month, but I did manage to read a decent number of ARCs. If only I could stop requesting ARCs, then my ratio would actually be going up instead of hovering around 94%.
I got approved for 9 new books in May:
- Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T. Matthews
- Hex and the City by Kate Johnson
- Painted Devils by Margaret Owen
- Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
- War by Laura Thalassa
- Jade Shards by Fonda Lee
- Famine by Laura Thalassa
- Death by Laura Thalassa
- Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
These are the ARCs that I read and reviewed, with links to my reviews:
- What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman — see my review here.
- Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T. Matthews — see my review here.
- Zero Days by Ruth Ware — see my review here.
- Jews in the Garden by Judy Rakowsky — see my review here.
- Painted Devils by Margaret Owen — see my review here.
- Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok — see my review here.
- House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig — see my review here.
- Jade Shards by Fonda Lee — see my review here.
- Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant by Darci Hannah — see my review here.
Here are the ARCs I still have to read:
- The Déjà Glitch by Holly James
- Someone Just Like You by Meredith Schorr
- Don’t Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
- The Book of Witches by Jonathan Strahan
- Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
- The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
- Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
- Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
- War by Laura Thalassa
- Famine by Laura Thalassa
- Death by Laura Thalassa
- The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer
- Hex and the City by Kate Johnson
- A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
- The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
- A Box of Magick by Jamie Della
- Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Which ARCs are you excited about this month? Have you read any of the ones on my list?
Categories: State of the ARC
Leah's Books 
Seeing other people’s ARC lists always makes me feel better about mine. My May TBR was almost exclusively ARCs and ALCs (I usually don’t even create TBR lists because I rarely stick to them but I guess I felt inspired this month) and I managed to read exactly one of them! But something must’ve been in the air because I got approved for quite a few anticipated releases! Painted Devils is also on my list, I really want to reread Little Thieves before jumping into that one. Otherwise, I am incredibly excited to read The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu, it’s a 5-star prediction for me!
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I also read almost exclusively ARCs and ALCs in May, and apparently June is going to be the same. I hope you love the releases you got approved for!
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I was also approved for Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands! However, I haven’t read the first one yet so until it becomes available at my local library, it is going to be a while for me to check it off my TBR.
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Awesome! I loved the first book – hopefully it’s available soon and you love it as much as I did!
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