Stacking the Shelves: The Zodiac 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.

Long time no see, everyone. It's been a while since I've posted. Work has been crazy, and on top of that, I've been binge reading a certain series that has taken over my life. You'll find out what it is in a bit. I've also collected quite a stash of NetGalley review copies this month. So yeah, this is going to be a long haul.

I'm starting with the book that everyone and their brother has bought: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas. I got the BAM edition which took forever to get to me. I'm hoping to have it read by Sunday, but I just don't know if I'll have it read by then. I have a lot going on. I seriously wish it had arrived last week like it was supposed to. Urgh. In addition to CC2, I received the pre-order swag for Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan. I also bought JLA's The Return from my local used bookstore.

The binge is real. I've been devouring the Zodiac Academy series, so I downloaded books two through six via a free trial of Kindle Unlimited. I have to read the entire series in 30 days if I don't want to pay for any of the books. I only have one more left, so I think I'll be fine. Haha. But that wait for the last book in the series, which isn't out until December, is going to absolutely kill me. I'm going to have a major book hangover.

Next, I have some NetGalley review ARCs. Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros and Heat Wave by TJ Klune. I've read the first two books in Klune's The Extraordinaries trilogy, so I'm excited to pick up the last book. It's a very cute superhero series. As for Bone Weaver, I don't know a ton about it, but the synopsis sounded good.

Oh, would you look at that. More NetGalley ARCs. Here I have A Taste of Iron and Gold by Alexandra Rowland and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. Thankfully, I have until the summer to read most of these, so I can space all of them out. But yeesh. I'm getting approved for so much lately. I never would have thought this would happen. I used to get turned down for review copies all the time, and while I still get a rejection here and there, I've found that I get more acceptances than rejections lately. I wonder if it has to do with me requesting more adult sci-fi and fantasy titles versus young adult ones...?

And finally, I have my January FairyLoot box, which, in typical FairyLoot fashion, was late. Also in typical FairyLoot fashion, I am not super impressed with the box. While I am actually excited to read the book, the cover and edges are just kind of blah. I knew the UK cover wasn't as pretty as the US one, but still... It's boring. As for the items, they're junk. Pure and utter junk. Even this month's tarot cards, which are for RED RISING, one of my favorites, are meh. The art style is not for me. Honestly, I can't wait for FairyLoot to do a book-only option. I really don't want this extra crap in my life anymore.

What books have you bought/received lately?

A 2022 Winter Unhaul

At the end of each year for the past couple of years, I've made a deal with myself. I have to get rid of books based on how many I read and buy every year. For example, in 2021, I bought 89 books, but I only read 66. Therefore, I had to get rid of 23 books to make room for the new ones and clear my shelves of titles that I'd never read again. So, I wanted to share this year's round of victims with you.

I took 26 books to my local used bookstore to trade for store credit. Of the 26, the bookstore took 23. Woohoo! I don't think they've ever taken that many at a time before. I'm usually stuck with at least ten or so books that I can't get rid of. (*Stares at the bin of leftover books I still have from 2020 that I need to sell/donate/something.*) But this year, the only ones pictured above that the bookstore didn't take were Beautiful Disaster, We'll Always Have Summer, and The Distance Between Us.

If you recognize the spines here, you'll notice that most of the books I decided to get rid of were contemporary YA romances. I just realized I've outgrown the contemporary YA genre, and I don't think I'll re-read these, even though I enjoyed most of them. I simply don't care about prom, college applications, and the like anymore when I'm working 40 hours a week to pay rent. But anyway, the YA and adult contemporary titles include When Dimple Met Rishi; From Twinkle, With Love; Pushing the Limits; Dare You To; Take Me On; Let's Talk About Love; The Summer I Turned Pretty; It's Not Summer Without You; and Conventionally Yours. The Katie McGarry Pushing the Limits books were hard to get rid of, as Take Me On was signed, but I can't justify keeping them when I know I'll never read them again.

As for sci-fi/fantasy, I mostly have some YA titles that, again, I don't think I'll ever re-read since most of them were three-stars. The books include Wicked Saints (never read), Fairest, Reboot, Rebel, two mass market Supernatural show tie-in books (never read), These Feathered Flames (never read), The Girl the Sea Gave Back, Sweet Venom, Sweet Shadows, Sweet Legacy, Find Me Their Bones, Bring Me Their Hearts, and Stormdancer (never read). I would've kept the Bring Me Their Hearts books, but the publisher changed the covers. I didn't want to keep books that didn't match. I still want to check out book three from the library to finish up the series one day.

I plan on hitting up another local used bookstore to see if they'll take the leftover books I have. If they won't, I'll probably end up just donating the rest. But I'll share some pics once things are actually gone. I also have around half a dozen books I might get rid of from my 2022 reads so far. I've been making my way through my TBR backlist, and since most of them are older titles, I'm not super into the writing styles. I may save those for a summer unhaul, though, to give me more time to think over whether I really want to get rid of them.

***

Have you unhauled any books recently? Let me know in the comments below!

Review: Rise of the Mages by Scott Drakeford

Rise of the Mages

Scott Drakeford

(Unnamed trilogy #1)
Publication Date: February 8, 2022

Hardcover, 400 pages, Tor

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

Scott Drakeford's epic fantasy debut, Rise of the Mages combines gripping, personal vengeance with compelling characters for an action packed first book in a trilogy.

Emrael Ire wants nothing more than to test to be a weapons master. His final exam will be a bloody insurrection, staged by corrupt nobles and priests, that enslaves his brother.

With the aid of his War Master tutor, herself an undercover mage, Emrael discovers his own latent and powerful talents.

To rescue his brother, Emrael must embrace not only his abilities as a warrior but also his place as last of the ancient Mage Kings—for the Fallen God has returned. And he is hungry.

All the better.

My Review

I'm just going to straight up say that if you like fight scenes in fantasy stories, then this is the book for you. The action never stops. It also has a similar vibe to The Name of the Wind, especially in the beginning, as well as more old school fantasy series, such as Goodkind's Sword of Truth or even Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. Rise of the Mages, like those titles, is the story of a boy with mysterious gifts fighting against evil while trying not to let the power consume him.

In Rise of the Mages, we're following Emrael, who is training to become a weapons master but keeps falling short. However, when his city gets attacked during his final exam, all he wants to do is save his brother. Even if that means unlocking something that was hidden inside him. Something that could get him killed. 

While I do think this book is perfect for readers who are nostalgic for that classic fantasy style, it did take a bit of time to get used to the dialogue. Some of the paragraphs were a little more formal than you'd expect, with long, what I like to call "mini-speeches" given by the main character or the side characters. It's not bad, it just takes a while to get used to.

Also, Emrael starts off as a rather average student. He's not the best fighter, but he's not the worst. And he has to work for his place in his school. However, he gets to be the leader of his ragtag group of friends very quickly for some reason. I guess because his mentor didn't ever step up and other people blindly decided to follow the young man who has never led anything in his life? It was a little odd, but nothing that overly detracted from the plot. Now, something that did detract from the plot was the violence. While I am not averse to violence in my fantasy stories, this one just Would. Not. Stop. At one point it was chapter after chapter of characters getting stabbed, burned alive, impaled, thrown into walls, etc. Only for our heroes to also be punched, kicked, stabbed, etc. Over and over and over again. Thank goodness the protagonists had a magical healing method or otherwise... Yikes.

Because of the constant insertion of fight scenes and the protagonist's anti-hero methods, I couldn't rate Rise of the Mages as high as I'd hoped. It's not a bad story by any means, I just think that if some of those fight scenes had turned into world-building scenes or character-driven scenes instead of slashing and hacking, a better story could have been made. I'm more of a character-driven-story kind of reader, so it's totally a personal preference. I will say that despite my negative reaction towards the end of the book (after getting bogged down in battle after battle), I was still intrigued with how the events were unfolding. I don't think I'll read the sequel to this one, but I may pick up Drakeford's future books. I think he has potential, and this debut will definitely appeal to a lot of swords and sorcery readers.

*Note: I received a NetGalley ARC of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Ooo-La-La 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've been getting my days mixed up lately. I could have sworn I'd already written this post. *sigh* I really need March to get here soon. I think all the work stress from my big projects is messing with my mind. But anyway, I got a book and some goodies this week/last week.

Silk Fire by Zabe Ellor is one of my most anticipated 2022 releases by a new-to-me author. I don't know a whole lot about it other than it's a sci-fi/fantasy with a polyamorous relationship. So I am all in. I'll be picking it up and reviewing it closer to its summer release date. Though, I might give in and read it way too early.

Up next, I have an order I made from Stacia Reveries's Etsy shop. She has a bunch of new FBAA art, so I got some prints of Kieran and Cas and some other goodies. The print in the bottom right-hand corner of Kieran and Casteel's abs is from Prettygal Pins. I had to work hard to get this print, as it was from a Patreon-only sale. Thankfully, it's now in my possession, and I don't regret the grovelling I had to do!

What books have you bought/received lately?

January Wrap-Up & February TBR

January 2022 is over! Yeesh. That seemed to go on and on. Now, we can get to the better months, and we're almost through the winter months. Thank goodness. Other than the month that seemed to never end, things at work aren't great. I think I've reached a level of work/life burnout I never have before. It's been awful. Thankfully, though, I have books to talk about! And I read so many! It's great.

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 January

The Ex Hex: 3 stars
Carve the Mark: 3 stars
The City of Dusk: 4 stars (ebook; review to come)
Legendary: 3 stars 

Finale: 3 stars

Under the Whispering Door: 3.5 stars

Six Crimson Cranes: 3.5 stars

Rise of the Mages: 2.5-3 stars (ebook; review to come)

I read eight books in January. Two were NetGalley eARCs: The City of Dusk by Tara Sim (a new favorite/obsession) and Rise of the Mages by Scott Drakeford. My reviews for both will be up on their respective release dates, March 22 and February 8. As for physical books, I read The Ex Hex by Rachel Hawkins, Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, Legendary and Finale by Stephanie Garber, Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune, and Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. And guess what?! All of these physical books are ones I owned pre-2022! Three are even pre-2020 books! However, I do think, since I'm reading my backlist TBR books, I'm not quite getting the quality 4-5 stars I'm hoping for.

Books Bought/Received in January

I have a smaller number of books to haul this month. Thankfully. In total, I bought six books in January, five of which were physical books, and one was an ebook. The physical books include two B&N online orders of Bound by Firelight and A Marvellous Light, and three from my local used bookstore: Half-Blood, Apollyon, and Fall With Me. I bought Munro by Kresley Cole on Kindle as well. Of these, I've already read four of the six, so that's a plus too. I'm barely adding to my TBR. I forgot to add that I also received Rise of the Mages and Silk Fire by Zabe Ellor via NetGalley.

Currently Obsessed With

Lots to talk about TV-wise this month. I've been watching a lot of backlist TV shows, just like I've been reading a lot of backlist books, so I'm getting caught up on some finished series.

The show I binged throughout the first part of the month was Superstore. I finished all six seasons. After that, I started Modern Family. I think I like Superstore more, but they're both fun. Also, I finished season six of The Expanse. The series finale. It was so depressing. Not the episode; it was fine. I just don't like that there won't be any more episodes ever again. *sobs*

February TBR

February has a certain TBR theme to it. I decided to try to do some pinks, reds, and whites in honor of the lovey-dovey holiday. Do I think I'll get to all of these? Nope. But it could be fun to read them. I'm currently in the middle of Legendborn, and I think after it, I'll read Once Upon a Broken Heart, since it will decide whether or not I keep the Caraval books I own. I'm still kind of meh on the trilogy overall. Oh, and I'm trying to read Munro, and then Crescent City #2, House of Sky and Breath, releases February 15. That's the February book club pick, so I have to read it.

***

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