10 Best Book Blogs and Platforms to Follow
In the vast world of literature, book blogs and platforms serve as trusted guides, highlighting noteworthy new releases, hidden gems, and old favourites across genres. They provide a valuable service through thoughtful book reviews, author spotlights, thematic lists, and more. The diversity of quality content, ranging from interviews to reading challenges, engages readers and supports authors. Let’s explore some of the top book blogs and platforms that deserve a spot on every book lover’s radar.
Book Blogs
The Candid Cover
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Website: 🌐 candidcover.net
The Candid Cover, run by Olivia, is a young adult book blog offering reviews, news, giveaways, and reading challenges around YA lit. Its content and conversational tone appeal especially to teen readers.
Alongside hundreds of YA book reviews, The Candid Cover features regular posts on anticipated releases, reading lists, author profiles, bookish challenges for 2024, and bookish product giveaways.
Books and Ladders
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Website: 🌐 blog.booksandladders.co.uk
Jamie, the 30-something blogger behind Books and Ladders, nurtures her passion for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and history books through her blog. Alongside reviews, Jamie provides editing and marketing services for authors.
Books and Ladders offers paid beta reading, sensitivity reading, query letter editing, and social media marketing services.
What’s Better Than Books
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Website: 🌐 whatsbetterthanbooks.com
Run by a Canadian stay-at-home mom, What’s Better Than Books reviews contemporary romance, general fiction, mysteries, and thrillers with a style that helps everyday readers pick their next book.
Centered on well-crafted stories with unique characters and interesting plots, this blog’s reviews aim to recommend titles in a positive yet honest manner. The blogger selects books based on personal interest and rates them on a 10-point scale.
A Life in Books
Location: 🇬🇧 UK
Website: 🌐 alifeinbooks.co.uk
Susan Osborne, a former book editor enamoured by literary fiction, leverages her industry experience to critique the latest literary works by authors like Siri Hustvedt and Kate Atkinson.
Covering modern literary fiction with occasional nostalgic glances back at impactful 20th-century novels, A Life in Books emanates Susan’s refined yet relatable perspective on books.
Fictionophile
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Website: 🌐 fictionophile.com
Fictionophile founder Lynne rediscovered her passion for reading after retirement and started a blog to document her book reviews, hoping to likewise rekindle the same joy for others.
Focusing primarily on psychological thrillers, mysteries, and suspense novels, Fictionophile includes hundreds of reviews fueled by Lynne’s enthusiasm for sharing great book recommendations.
Vilma Iris
Location: 🇺🇸 USA
Website: 🌐 vilmairis.com
Vilma Iris Gonzalez is a marketer, book blogger, and working mom based in Texas. Alongside book reviews, Vilma Iris covers lifestyle topics from fashion to home decor.
Vilma Iris offers sponsored content and ads across social platforms, newsletters, and articles. Followers can also connect through the blog’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads.
Pages Unbound
Location: 🇺🇸 USA
Website: 🌐 pagesunbound.wordpress.com
Briana and Krysta, two young book editors, created Pages Unbound as a platform to evaluate books they believe teens would enjoy, especially imaginative classics and fantasy works.
Alongside traditional reviews of YA, classics, and more, this blog offers creative content like personality quizzes, reading challenges, giveaways, and discussions around favourite authors.
Spells and Spaceships
Location: 🇬🇧 UK
Website: 🌐 spellsandspaceships.home.blog
After stepping away from fantasy fiction in his youth, gamer Alex reignited his passion for imaginative worlds and started a book blog focused on sci-fi, fantasy, horror and history.
Spells and Spaceships allows Alex to document and share his love of genre fiction. The blog features reviews, author interviews, and personal posts as Alex engages with the book community.
Book Platforms
49thShelf
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Website: 🌐 49thshelf.com
49thShelf promotes Canadian literature with financial backing from Canadian Heritage and Ontario Creates. Readers can easily discover titles from bestselling novels to hidden gems.
49thShelf offers a searchable database of 135,000 Canadian titles along with tailored recommendations, exclusive author interviews, timely news, user-created book lists, and more.
Book Riot
Location: 🇺🇸 USA
Website: 🌐 bookriot.com
Book Riot serves over 3 million visitors per month as the largest independent bookish site in North America. It publishes inclusive, timely, and progressive content spanning genres. Alongside reviews and news articles, Book Riot produces podcasts, newsletters, and original reporting around the publishing world for a broad readership.
Book Riot actively cultivates diversity through hiring practices and editorial standards. Its team continually strives for improvement by examining industry and company statistics through an inclusive lens.
Booklist for All Ages & Genres
Secrets of the Tulip Sisters by Susan Mallery
“Secrets of the Tulip Sisters” is a story about Kelly, who grows tulips, and her life changes when her sister Olivia and a man named Griffith come back to town. They all have secrets, but they learn to get along and understand what being a family really means.
The Darkest Torment (Lords of the Underworld #12) by Gena Showalter
It is a book about Baden, who has a dark side and becomes very dangerous. He ends up with a woman named Katarina as his unintended wife during a tough situation. Katarina was forced to marry someone else to protect her family but gets taken by Baden instead. Even though they have a rocky start, Katarina finds a way to calm Baden down when he gets too angry. The story is about how they face big challenges together, with some magic and action involved, and how they help each other through tough times.
Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan
“Miracle on 5th Avenue” is a Christmas love story by Sarah Morgan. Eva, who loves Christmas, ends up looking after Lucas’s home during a snowstorm. Lucas is sad about his wife’s passing and doesn’t want company, but Eva’s happy nature starts to cheer him up. They are very different, but both are sad inside. Eva helps Lucas feel better and start writing again. They slowly start to like each other, finding out that love can happen even when you’re not looking for it. It’s a sweet story about finding love and happiness during the holiday season.
Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn
“Just Like Heaven” is a love story by Julia Quinn. It’s about Honoria and her brother’s best friend, Marcus. Honoria is known for being bad at playing the violin and not liking her old nickname. Marcus often hurts his ankle and says he doesn’t love Honoria. But after sharing lots of chocolate cake and going through tough times together, they realize they really love each other. It’s a fun and sweet book about finding love where you least expect it.
Debt-Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life by Gail Vaz-Oxlade
“Debt-Free Forever” by Gail Vaz-Oxlade is a book about how to handle your money better and get out of debt. Gail teaches you to be strict with your spending and gives a step-by-step plan to get rid of debt in three years. The book talks about making a budget, paying off debts quickly, changing bad money habits, and saving for the future. It includes helpful tools like charts and “Magic Jars” for managing money each week.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Series by Katie Cook
In this book for young readers, you’re invited to explore Ponyville, the enchanting home of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. However, something unusual is happening: many residents are behaving oddly. It’s now up to the Mane Six to uncover and resolve the mystery behind this strangeness before it escalates.