BBNYA 2021: Round One

Another year, another Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award. The signups closed a few months ago and the panellists received the excerpts for the first round a few weeks ago. June 14th is our deadline to send in our feedback. Like the previous year, we were given a long (loooong) list of all the entrants and we could select which ones we wanted to read and which ones we didn’t. In my little group, we already had readers of different genres and the organisation made sure every book will have more than ten scores. I won’t talk about the actual scoring system though, but every book gets an honest chance amongst our diverse panel.

The entries this year vary widely in genre and even age group. I think we have more middle grade books this year too and I’m really excited about that. I’m sure there is something for everyone. Last year, the finalists also varied widely, so I don’t think you have an advantage if your book falls into a specific genre. I know most of the panellist already read widely, but this is a great opportunity for both readers and authors to connect.

Since I’m not a thriller/crime reader, I’ve signed off from all the books in those genres, save for one which had a paranormal theme. Those I really enjoy. But out of all the excerpts I read, there were only I few I didn’t warm up to. I won’t mind reading more for any of them. Now comes the hard part, not just for the authors, but also for the panellists. We have to wait until the next round before we know which books made it through and if our favourites are among them. Last year, I was sad to see a few that I rated very high didn’t make it through, but they’re still on my TBR to read later.

A big thank you to the whole team of BBNYA for doing all the work, and kudos to all the authors who submitted a book. May the odds ever be in your favour.