My first ARC! (sort of...?)

Just before I start my post, a teensy digression...
OMG! You have no idea how happy I was when the Blogger sign-in screen actually came up when I typed in the url today! Because, you see, for the past FOUR days (okay, that really doesn't sound like very long but it FELT like a LOT longer) I have been majorly frustrated because everytime I tried to get onto Blogger I was greeted very rudely with a 'Problem Loading Page' blah blah blah. Needless to say, I have NOT been happy. But now I am because Blogger's working again, and the world has righted itself, and everything is just tickety-boo!
Okay, digression over. So...


It's always really exciting when you get a new book, right? I always get so excited when I get a new book. Now, it's doubly exciting if the new book in question was sent to you by a publisher (!) and triply exciting if the book hasn't even been published yet! And, if it's the very first time that you have received a new book for review in the post? Well, then that makes it quadruply exciting!


So, you can imagine how excited I was when I received a lovely book-shaped package in the post the other day - as soon as I caught sight of the postman heading up our driveway through the window, I leapt up and opened the door before he even reached it. I could barely contain myself as I eagerly scrambled to open the parcel and then - ah! There it was! - in my hands I was holding my very first (sort of) ARC!


Now, I guess you might be wondering why I'm calling it a 'sort of' ARC, and that would be because I'm not really sure whether if it actually counts as an ARC. I know that ARC stands for Advance Reader Copy (or something along those lines) and the book I received was an advance copy (it's due to be published in May) but I was under the impression that ARCs were specially-printed copies just to be sent out for review, not finished copies, and the book I have definitely looks like a finished copy. So, really, my question is: if you get sent a copy of a book in advance for review, but it's a finished copy, is it classified as an ARC? I don't know, I'm just curious, really. Anybody - please feel free to enlighten me and share your thoughts regarding this question in the comments section below.


Anyway, either way, it was still very exciting for me to receive a hard copy of a book for review for the very first time! The book, by the way, was Adorkable by Sarra Manning, which is coming out on 24th May. You can see the Adorkable cover (which is actually totes adorable!) and a summary of the book on Sarra's website here. I have already read Adorkable and LOVED it, so sometime in the near future there will be a review up here!


I was going include a bit about ATOMICS in this post because that is how I got a copy of Adorkable but this has gone on longer than I thought it would, so I will do a short separate post about ATOMICS a little later on this evening...or maybe tomorrow morning, because I am planning on watching The Voice. Or I could watch TV and blog at the same time...but we'll have to see whether or not my brain can cope with that! :)