Stacking the Shelves: The February FairyLoot Edition

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

I preordered two very expensive things this week. One was the Illumicrate edition and box for From Blood and Ash, and the other was the FairyLoot special edition set of the Blood and Ash series books 1-3. My wallet is hurting. And unfortunately, these won't ship until June/July. BUT, a couple of other goodies arrived this week that I'm pretty excited about.

My alternate StarsThatDream dustjacket for ACOSF came in the mail, and I immediately put it on my book. I'm so excited to have a matching cover. However, I will say that the spine for this one isn't quite as good as I wanted it to be. I'm thinking about printing another matching edition I've seen that's available for free and seeing if I like that spine more. But this cover is simply amazing. Oh, and my pre-order of A Trial of Sorcerers also arrived. It has such a beautiful cover. I hope the inside is just as pretty.



FairyLoot time! February's FairyLoot is unique in that this is the first time I've actually really enjoyed the items and not cared very much (if at all) about the book. I think I enjoyed every single item, even the pin. Although the pin isn't of a fandom I love and pins in general aren't my thing, the quote is fantastic. Same idea for the tarot cards that are gorgeous! And those moon fairy lights are AMAZING! I wish I had more/longer sets for my shelves.

The Red Rising pillowcase kind of matches the last pillowcase we got for Crescent City, so I'm excited to have my own place at some point to use both of them. And I can always use the silverware and silverware case for lunches when I get a job where I don't work from home 95% of the time. The candle smells good as well, but I still have two others I haven't used yet. One day I'll actually burn them... However, as I said, the book, This Golden Flame, isn't something I would pick up for myself, so it may just sit on my shelf for a while, as I don't know how desirable it is in sell groups.

What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

Find Me Their Bones

Sara Wolf

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

Hardcover, 400 pages, Entangled Teen

Genres: YA, Fantasy

Goodreads

No one can save her. In order to protect Prince Lucien d’Malvane’s heart, Zera had to betray him. Now, he hates the sight of her. Trapped in Cavanos as a prisoner of the king, she awaits the inevitable moment her witch severs their magical connection and finally ends her life. 

 

But fate isn't ready to give her up just yet. 

 

With freedom coming from the most unlikely of sources, Zera is given a second chance at life as a Heartless. But it comes with a terrible price. As the king mobilizes his army to march against the witches, Zera must tame an elusive and deadly valkerax trapped in the tunnels underneath the city if she wants to regain her humanity. 

 

Winning over a bloodthirsty valkerax? Hard. Winning back her friends before war breaks out? A little harder. 

 

But a Heartless winning back Prince Lucien’s heart? 

 

The hardest thing she’s ever done.

My Review

I picked up book two in this series expecting to have a fun time, and fun is totally what I got. More witches, cat creatures, and heartless. Oh my.

Though this second installment was a little slow to start, with no action scenes for awhile, there was a twist that I was very much hoping would come to fruition towards the end that makes me very excited to finally get my hands on the sequel. I also still love the witch spin, though I wish there were more witches throughout the book, just so I could see their powers. (But that's just the witch-lover in me.)

As for the characters, Zera is a little more reserved in Find Me Their Bones, which makes sense after the events that happened in book one. She's hesitant to make waves. I also appreciated how much she wanted to protect her friends from herself. Lucien, the love interest, is still trying to save everyone and doing some not-so-good things to make that happen. And thankfully, the bad guy from book one turned into a more complex and less-stereotypical bad guy in book two that made you wonder what decisions were right and which were wrong.

While I wish this book had a little bit more action, the plot was still interesting. However, a good chunk is just Zera trying to teach something to a mysterious creature. And, though the creature played a part in the ultimate events of this sequel, I feel like the conversations between the two got a little repetitive. Everything else was fairly fast-paced and easy-to-read, and all in all, Find Me Their Bones is a good sequel to a good YA fantasy series. It's simply a lighter fantasy book to devour between larger tomes.

Stacking the Shelves: The Pin Pusher Edition

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

I didn't receive any books this week; however, I did buy a couple that just haven't arrived yet. One should be here soon, while the other won't get here until April/May. Also as no one (a.k.a. everyone) predicted, I bought more From Blood and Ash fan art. The obsession is too real.

I got another set of FBAA character portraits. Plus, my first venture into character pins! I don't really like pins in general, but Sallteas are amazing! She has more for Serpent & Dove, which I might buy once I read the book. And, I think I'll end up getting almost every set she creates. The price may destroy my wallet, but they're so pretty and a collection would look amazing!

What books have you bought/received lately?

February Wrap-Up & March TBR

February is complete. Wow. Three months into 2021, and things are still iffy and icky. But at least I'm reading still. No more slumps for me. Woot! Woot!

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in February

The Gilded Ones: 3.5 stars
A Court of Mist and Fury: 3 stars
Find Me Their Bones: 4 stars
A Court of Wings and Ruin: 4 stars
A Court of Frost and Starlight: 4 stars
A Court of Silver Flames: 4 stars
From Blood & Ash: re-read (not pictured)

I read seven books in February. One was an ebook and a re-read, while the others were all physical copies. In preparation for the release of ACOSF, I read the ACOTAR series books 2-3.5 for the first time. And as I suspected based on Sarah's live interviews, fan art, etc., I loved the side characters and found the main characters to be so very meh. And Nessian is my OTP, though I did find myself slightly disappointed in ACOSF. I don't think I'll do full reviews for the series, because my views are fairly controversial and I'm already backed up on reviews. I'll just write mini Goodreads reviews, if you're interested. Other than those, I read The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna, Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf, and did my re-read of From Blood And Ash by JLA in preparation for book three's release and my book club meeting in early March.

Books Bought/Received in February

I bought nine books this month and received one I bought last month, which was the January FairyLoot book. The January FairyLoot book is Lore, the book with the snake on the spine pictured above. My February FairyLoot book hasn't arrived yet, but it is technically one of the nine I purchased this month. In addition to FairyLoot books, I bought Wings of Ebony and A Dark and Hollow Star online via Semicolon. I bought ACOWAR via Mercari because I wanted the old cover, and I purchased ACOSF via Amazon and got it for like $13! I also bought Rogue and Alpha by Rachel Vincent and Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning at a used bookstore. Oh, and the ninth book I purchased was a preorder of the UK edition of Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff.

Currently Obsessed With

Well, there were zero obsessions this month outside of reading. I'm not even watching anything major right now. Yikes. Does re-watching Sister, Sister on Netflix count?
 

So I'm kind of keeping up with CW's Walker, as my mom wants to buddy watch. However, it's mostly background noise for me. I also finished rewatching The Boys with my mom, and I'm watching WandaVision with my dad. However, I think WandaVision would've been better off dropping all of its episodes at once versus the weekly drop format. The mystery is getting old now. Welp, that's it. February 2021 was not a good month for movies/TV.

Currently Reading/March TBR

The only books I have to read this month are The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes and my re-read of AKOFAF for my March book club meeting. Otherwise, I just have some books I really want to get to, like A Dark and Hollow Star and Master of One. Oh, and I forgot to put Winterspell in the photo, but I'm currently reading it, and I'd like to finish it before winter is officially over.

***

Okay, well, that’s the month of February, plus some March sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!