Would You BUY or PASS? Snow White Lies by Sarah J Pepper #FridayFiveChallenge #YA

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Here is my contribution for this week:

I didn’t have to type anything into the search bar on Amazon to find a Friday Five book this week, it was the power of Twitter that influenced my choice.  Rosie Amber retweeted a book link earlier in the week and within the tweet was a reasonably sized image of the cover art.  I was hooked in straight away and clicked through to discover more (after retweeting!).  This is the book I spotted:

Snow White Lies by Sarah J Pepper

Blurb:

“Evil poisons everyone. Period. Our mouths water when we sink our teeth into what we have always craved. Surrendering to our desires by biting off a delectable piece of the forbidden fruit is nothing more than a meager confession: Poison tastes sinfully sweet,”—Confessions of the Big Apple Debutante, by blogger Miss Snow White.

My Analysis:

Cover – Love it!  The cover is so eye-catching and even before reading the book title we can guess at the genre and fairy tale storyline.

The book blurb – I thought the blurb was disappointing.  It doesn’t tell me anything about the characters or storyline. It’s listed under the Teen & Young Adult category on Amazon, but this isn’t evident from the information given.  Is it tongue in cheek story, a blog-to-book, or fiction? 

The Stats – There are 315 pages, and the Kindle price is £1.99 (also available in paperback).  It is NOT enrolled on Kindle Unlimited.  There are 3 reviews on Amazon.co.uk, all of them five stars and all from book reviewers (none are a verified purchase). The same 3 reviews appear on Amazon.com.  Here is an example of a five-star review:

I am a massive fan of books that take the fairy tales we all (think) we know and love, and just turn them inside out and on their head!! I certainly wasn’t disappointed with Snow White Lies, for a start before you even get to the book the cover is just gorgeous and draws you in. The story itself is a dark and twisting tale with elements and characters of the Snow White fairy tale, there’s the 7, but not as we know them & I think that is an absolutely inspired idea. This is definitely a roller coaster of a book, that takes you through many emotions, well thought out plot lines and characters with glimpses of their past which gives them a deep element. I really can’t wait to read the next book in the series and urge you to buy this book (and the rest of the series), you won’t be disappointed! 🙂

BUY or PASS? – I swayed towards a buy because of the cover but then I floundered slightly at the blurb.  It was looking like a pass, but then the reviews show such high praise that I was once again tempted to buy.  I’m a sucker for fantasy, for YA, and for fairy tales, so I’m going to risk it.  It’s a BUY from me.

The Last Challenge – buy your copy.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Take a look at who else has taken part in the Friday Five Challenge:

Rosie looks at a crime novel.

Cathy searches for a kitchen but uncovers a ghostly tale.

Liz takes a peek through the shutters to discover a collection of short stories.

The original idea for the Friday Five Challenge comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumbnails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they 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?

The 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 of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)