Hello bookish friends. Happy Tuesday to you and a very happy Halloween! 🎃👻 I hope you’re treating yourself to a scary read in the warm this evening rather than braving the late October chill trick or treating. I know I certainly will be at home with a good book! 😂

I can’t believe it’s nearly here. How is it 1st November tomorrow? I have NO idea. But it being 1st of November means I have some very exciting news… 

#R3COMM3ND3D STARTS TOMORROW!

I am so excited to be hosting the seventh year of #R3COMM3ND3D and it starts tomorrow. Read on to find out more including what #R3COMM3ND3D actually is if you’re new to the blog…

#R3COMM3ND3D is where I ask book bloggers, bookstagrammers and published authors to recommend three ‘must read’ books the rest of us should really make a point of picking up. Three titles you love and want to shout about. They don’t have to be your top three books of the year – just three books that have knocked your socks off and you think others will enjoy. Any author, any genre, traditionally, indie or self-published.

Sounds easy, right?

Of course, there’s a catch! Only one, mind you. The three books you select must have been published in 2023 and I will check! There are a few other teeny tiny rules such as reissues and special editions don’t count, authors CAN’T recommend their own books etc, but we’ll gloss over that for now…

The feature will run from 1st November until 30th November. I changed things up last year and only ran #R3C during November (in previous years it was November, December and sometimes January as well!). It was a bit of an experiment but it seemed to work. I’m still undecided about future years but for 2023 #R3COMM3ND3D will be here for the month of November only. I also had an early deadline last year which I am not going to have in 2023. The form will either close when I have had thirty responses or on 29th November. 

If you’re celebrating a special promotion or an anniversary/blogiversary in November, or if you’re publishing a new book, I’m more than happy to schedule your #R3COMM3ND3D post for a specific date. And if you’re a published author, I always include information about your latest book in the post too (here’s an example).

Tempted? Go on, it’s so much fun! If you would like to take part then all you need to do is fill in the form below with as much information as possible. Really sell the books to us, make us want to read them too.

A final plea before I sign off. Please, please, please, please check the publication date of all formats on all three of your books before submitting your form. Often the hardback, audio and digital editions are published a full year before the paperback makes an appearance. I truly love #R3COMM3ND3D and I can’t imagine not running it on the blog, but it takes a long time to set each post up. If I then have to contact people and ask them to change one or more of their books, it takes even longer. I hope you understand why I’m asking you to be 100% sure.

I know the embedded form doesn’t work for everyone so if that’s you, here’s a helpful link (which shouldn’t cause any problems): https://forms.gle/LZLFgAkziALj87BPA

I am super excited about this year’s #R3C and I can’t wait to see what you pick!