Stacking the Shelves: The Daemon 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 had a work fundraising event last weekend, so that was fun... Not. My body simply is not used to staying up until midnight anymore without having a nap or two to keep me going. However, other than that, not a lot has gone on. Currently, I'm at my parents' house for the holiday weekend. So yay! Three days off!.

I bought a ton of stuff in the past week. It's ridiculous. I seriously hope this month and last month are just a fluke, because holy cow, I cannot keep dropping dollars like this if I want to save for any sort of retirement in the future. But anyway, let's talk about what my hard-earned dollars bought. Really, the only thing that was actually bought and delivered this week was Oblivion by JLA. I saw this on Amazon for $9 and jumped on it. I also put a hold in my library for Amanda Bouchet's Heart on Fire, the third book in the Kingmaker series. I already preordered the new paperback edition, but it was taking too long, so I got the library copy. And then, finally, my FBAA Book Beau preorder came in. Now, I don't really like these things, simply because I don't find them all that useful for my lifestryle. However, buying it was the only way to get this Poppy & Cas art. I guess I'll just stuff it full of all the FBAA prints I have that I haven't had the money or time to put up yet.

I also got three Kindle books this week. Between Ink and Shadows and Frey by Melissa Wright were both free, so I bought those. I could've sworn I already had BIAS, but I guess not. And then, my library ebook hold on King of Battle and Blood came in. I really need to get to this one soon, as Scarlett St. Claire is an ApollyCon author, and I haven't read any of her books yet. Eek.

What books have you bought/received lately?

A 2022 Summer Unhaul

So, I have yet another unhaul for you. I have just been killing it with getting rid of older/unwanted books over the past five months. I guess it's because I know that if I want to keep collecting titles I really love, I have got to get rid of some that I either don't feel anything for anymore or just feel meh about in general. And while I'm always sad to say bye-bye to books, I can't feasibly keep all of them. Plus, some can go to people who might really want them. And, since I do take all of mine to trade at local used bookstores, I know they'll eventually get into the hands of someone who loves reading.

Now, just a heads up, I didn't get rid of all of these. The used bookstore wouldn't take about 20 of them. You'll see which ones I still have at the bottom of this post. I plan to take those titles to another used bookstore sometime in the near future. Also, funny story, I ended up trading the titles I did get rid of for cash. It came out to a little over $30. Well, I ended up going to the mall immediately afterwards and spent half of it on cookies at Mrs. Fields. It made me laugh that I blew my book money on desserts.

So here I have a mix of stuff, most of which I've read. The Wolf and Spoiler Alert are the only ones I haven't read. Spoiler Alert because I bought it after GoT ended so horribly and it was a fanfiction ode to that series. However, it's about a character/actor like Jamie Lannister, who is one of my least favorite's on the show. So I just don't think I'll ever pick it up. I also got rid of my The Mortal Instruments paperbacks of books 1-3, as I have the newer paperbacks. I also have prettier copies of the three Yasmine Galenorn books pictured, so I got rid of the old ones. And then I also got rid of The Ex Hex, Under the Whispering Door, and Carve the Mark.

Next up, I have some YA SFF. I was able to get rid of The Darkest Minds trilogy, Their Fractured Light, This Shattered World, The Silver Kiss, and the Something Strange & Deadly trilogy. The only ones I haven't read are In the Afterlight and the last two books in the SS&D series. The other ones pictured were titles the store wouldn't take.

 

I was able to get rid of quite a few titles in this photo, including Defy, Lady Thief, Lion Heart, the Divergent series, Slayer, Afterworlds, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It pained me to get rid of the Divergent series and the Scarlet books, but I just knew I'll never read them again. And, they're only taking up space on my already crowded shelves, especially with how big the Divergent books are. Those things are thick. Plus, Allegiant was a big yikes. I did like Four, though.

  What's pictured is what's left of my giant unhaul, and I'm hoping it'll all be gone within the next two weeks when I muster up the energy to go to the other used bookstore. And, while I do have a couple of books I plan on getting rid of that I only discovered after this unhaul, I don't think I'll be doing another giant unhaul anytime in the near future. After all, this stack had been accumulating for months. I've looked at my shelves multiple times since then, and I can't really pare it down anymore at the moment. Though, as I read more books on my physical TBR, I'm making sure I immediately toss ones I don't like/felt ambivalent about into my unhaul pile. So maybe it will grow by the time fall rolls around. Who knows...

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

Stacking the Shelves: The ApollyCon Prep 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.

Oh boy did I spend too much money this week. It's not good. Not good at all. And I still have a few things I'll need to pay for next week, so May is just going to be another expensive month. Ugh. It's all Illumicrate and Bookish Box's fault! If they hadn't put their FBAA sequel editions up for sale this month, it wouldn't be so bad. And on top of that, I'm prepping for ApollyCon, so I've been buying books I am 80% sure I'll enjoy in order to get them signed by the attending authors. My poor wallet needs a break.

Speaking of ApollyCon, here are three books by attending authors I impulse ordered off Amazon. I just finished A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet via a mass market edition I owned, and I really liked it, so I wanted to purchase the newer, prettier paperback version to get signed. That also meant I had to order all the sequels too; though, book three won't release until June. Boo... This is my May book club read, and I think two of us have already decided we want to go ahead and read the other books in the series as well. Next up is Savage Lands by Stacey Marie Brown. I've heard really good things, so it's  on my TBR list.

I also received my May Adult FairyLoot book earlier this week. Am I impressed with this edition? Not really. I'm not a die-hard fan of Holly Black's books. I've enjoyed some of them, and not others. However, I did order the Owlcrate edition of this one because it looked pretty cool. When I read it, I may decide to get rid of either the FairyLoot or Owlcrate copy or both, depending on if I like it or not..

I have one more ApollyCon author here. I downloaded Casey L. Bond's With Shield and Ink and Bone from Kindle Unlimited because she'll be there. I know she has a couple series out, but I think this one is a standalone, so I wanted to give it a try. I'm 11% in right now, and it's good. I do love Viking-esque stories, so I think it'll be fun. Another book I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited is Dark Night Golden Dawn by Allison Carr Waechter. This one has gotten a little buzz lately on Bookstagram, so I'm hoping to read it soon. (Same for every other book I've downloaded from KU and haven't read yet. Sigh.)

What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

The Stardust Thief

Chelsea Abdullah

(The Sandsea Trilogy #1)
Publication Date: May 17, 2022

Hardcover, 480 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, The Stardust Thief weaves the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.

My Review

The Stardust Thief is a mix of all the good vibes from the best desert fantasy stories, like The City of Brass, The Wrath and The Dawn, or Rebel of the Sands, combined with its own fun spin on the Aladdin and the lamp storyline we all know and love.

The Stardust Thief tells the story of three young misfits and one jinn going on the adventure of a lifetime. Well... kind of. The jinn has probably been through similar adventures before, but it's the adventure of a lifetime for the others. The primary point of view of the story is Loulie. She's the secretive merchant with a mysterious jinn companion, Qadir. She's also an illustrious relic seller with a talent that catches the sultan's eye. The other main character is Prince Mazen. I adored him. He's such a cinnamon roll. He's the youngest son of the sultan, and he's an awkward bean who gets into all kinds of trouble. Aisha is the final point of view. She's the deadly warrior type. At first, I wasn't sure what her POV was supposed to contribute to the plot, but things went all cray-cray for her and I was hooked. It's probably one of the few plotlines that I didn't see coming.

Yes, that's right, while I did really enjoy this book for the characters, I do have to admit that the plot was a tad predictable in terms of the overarching story. Mazen is just too naive. For a storyteller, he truly hasn't read enough tales about betrayal. Despite knowing these major plot points, I did not know how exactly our group of characters would get to their destination—the hidden jinn lamp. These were the surprise events in between the bigger, more obvious reveals that kept the story enjoyable. I will say though, that the action scenes could get a little confusing at times. I'm definitely going to have to do a re-read before book two releases, just to figure out what actually happened in those fast-paced scenes, especially the scenes in the middle of the book. I felt like I was missing something during those parts. But overall, this is the story of the journey to find the lamp, and The Stardust Thief delivered on that.

As for the world-building of the book, it was a fairly easy read to understand all of the places, people, and magics. It does feel like a crossover book, since the characters are young (early 20s) and the world isn't terribly complex. I could see both teens and adults loving this book. I'm also very interested to see how the author steps up the jinn element in the series' sequels, as we seemed to barely touch on the entire history and dynamics of their kind in book one. There's a lot of room to expand the world.

All in all, The Stardust Thief is a good time, despite my nit-picking. It has good world-building and good characters. So what it lacks in surprise plot arcs or descriptive action scenes, it makes up for with its charming protagonists and the exciting potential that's set up for future installments.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Divine Power 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.

Other than it being miserably hot, this week hasn't actually been that bad. Nothing too exciting has happened, but I've had a fairly nice time overall. I do need to motivate myself to do a deep clean of my kitchen, but eh. That can wait until June. There's also been some fun book news over the past week or so, including the Illumicrate FBAA sequels, a reprint of the Bookish Box A Touch of Darkness books, and some other things I'm happy about (but my wallet sure isn't). For now, though, let's talk about books I have in my hands!

April's Adult FairyLoot book finally arrived this month. Thank goodness. I knew it was going to be The City of Dusk, and I was foaming at the mouth. I LOVED this book. Yes, I know a lot of people didn't, but I truly don't understand why. Maybe they were just expecting something different...? It was a really great fantasy story, in my opinion. I'm actually going to buy the UK regular hardcover copy too, since the US is only publishing a paperback edition and I want the normal cover on my shelves. And, in addition to that pretty book, A Cruel and Fated Light by Ashley Shuttleworth showed up early. It was a preorder from Barnes & Noble.

Next up are two whim purchases. I had a dentist appointment this week, and after the dentist, I decided to visit my favorite used bookstore. Yes, it's the same one I visited last week. Don't judge me. Anyway, I went ahead and picked up Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead and Shadow's Seduction by Kresley Cole. I've been in a paranormal romance/urban fantasy kind of mood, hence the Succubus Blues selection. As for SS, I reread it every year via ebook, so I couldn't pass up this nice print copy for my Kresley Cole collection after I nabbed A Hunger Like No Other last week.

After finishing the five main books in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, I downloaded the Night novella. It's super short, so I've already read it. And it was fun. I do love me some Leon. He's the best. Then, on Kindle Unlimited, I downloaded a copy of Broken Bonds by J. Bree, since she'll be at Apollycon this year and I've heard good things about this series. I think Bookish Box is going to do a special edition set too, so I want to read it before I miss out on another one of their preorders.

And lastly, what would a Stacking the Shelves be without some FBAA fan art? I have a Reaver print and a more risque print of the main trio. I also bought a t-shirt version of the sweater I purchased a few weeks ago. I want to wear the shirt to Apollycon, and the sweater is way too warm for July. The Etsy shop recently came out with a shirt version, so I jumped on it.

What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The April 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.

Not a lot going on on this week. It's just been rainy and gross here, which means I haven't been working out as much as I should. But next week is supposed to be better weather-wise, so that's good. As for books, I have a decent amount to haul. And one of the books, I'm really excited about!

I finished book three of the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series, the prequel/spinoff to Zodiac Academy, so I decided to go ahead and dive into Warrior Fae, the last book in the series, on Kindle Unlimited. It's very, very long. Almost 1,000 pages. So it's going to take a while, which isn't good, because I need to get to some Apollycon reads before mid-July as well as some review books. Hopefully this one won't take me too much time to get through.

I'd resigned myself to not being able to collect the Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark books in their original covers. And truly, there are only a few I want physical copies of. My ebook versions are fine for the most part. However, when I found A Hunger Like No Other for super cheap at my local used bookstore, I jumped on it. This book is worth a lot of money, not that I'm going to get rid of it anytime soon. But I'm happy to have this unicorn in my collection. Oh, and I also found a better copy of Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn. Now, I can unhaul my beat up copy for this prettier version.

April's FairyLoot box took forever to arrive, and I'm not sure why. It seems like UPS and FairyLoot's warehouse are having a lot of shipping issues lately. But anyway, here it is. The April box. I'm not overly impressed with anything, but nothing is terrible. I will say I'm excited for The Night Circus item because I can give it to my sister as a present. Haha. But yeah, nothing is wowing me, though I will get some use out of the basket and maybe the fairy lights. And of course, I plan to read the books.

What books have you bought/received lately?

April Wrap-Up & May TBR

Well, April started out as a good reading month, but towards the end, it kind of fell flat. While I did read a lot, I've been in a slump since the last title I read, so I hope that ends soon. I've been slowly making my way through a few titles right now, but I think I'm just going to have to let the slump run its course and maybe watch some TV or something instead.

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 April

The Stardust Thief: 4 stars (ARC, review to come)
So This is Ever After: 4 stars
Dark Fae: 3.5 stars (ebook)
Savage Fae: 4 stars (ebook)

Vicious Fae: 3 stars (ebook)

Vows of Empire: 3 stars (NetGalley ARC, review to come)

Complicated Hearts Pt. 1: 3 stars (ebook)

Complicated Hearts Pt. 2: 3 stars (ebook)

Icebreaker: 4 stars (ebook)

Midnight Sun: 3.5 stars

I read ten books in April, half of which were ebooks I borrowed from Kindle Unlimited. Those titles include Dark Fae, Savage Fae, and Vicious Fae by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti as well as the Complicated Hearts duet by Ashley Jade. I also borrowed and read two library books: So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens and Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei. I read two ARCs, one of which was a physical copy sent to me by the publisher—The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah—and the other was a NetGalley copy, Vows of Empire by Emily Skrutskie. My reviews for these two will be up soon. And lastly, the only physical book I read that was one I've owned since 2020 is Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer. It was April's book club pick.

Books Bought/Received in April

This month is a little different when it comes to book hauling. I actually only received one physical book, FairyLoot's copy of The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake from their new adult subscription. It was technically March's book, but, of course, FairyLoot was late. Again. As for ebooks, I bought two: Nightingale, an anthology with a variety of author stories, and A Court of Bitter Thorns by Kay L. Moody. So I got three books total this month, not counting all the KU books I borrowed. BUT, I did preorder quite a few different books. The ones that charged me this month include two FairyLoot preorders, one for April's adult book and the other for The Blood Traitor, and the others were May's LitJoy Crate book and Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter books, which was a very expensive order so I hope it's worth it. I haven't read a lot of Brandon Sanderson stuff, though I'm hoping to get into his high fantasy stories some day.

Currently Obsessed With

I haven't been watching a ton of shows right now. I'm still chugging my way through Modern Family on Hulu, but it's a slow process. I'm on season nine and it's getting really repetitive. I'm hoping to finish the show in May, though.

Other than Modern Family, I decided to watch New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn Parts I and II after I finished Midnight Sun. I really kind of wanted to do a re-read of the books starting with New Moon, but my copies are at my parents' house. So I had to settle for just re-watching the movies. I'm still hoping Meyer writes either a Leah book or a Rosalie/Emmett book.

April TBR

Ugh. You'll see a lot of repeats on this TBR. I'm super behind on reading stuff for Apollycon as well as NetGalley titles. Plus, there are some things I just want to read for me, like A Storm of Swords (I'm behind on my year-long read), The Atlas Six, An Ember in the Ashes, and The Dragon Republic. For Apollycon, I still need to read Defy the Night, which I'm about fifty pages into right now, and A Promise of Fire. I also have Rhapsodic, Savage Lands, and King of Battle and Blood that I'm hoping to read before the event, and I'd like to finish up the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series. I'm currently reading Broken Fae right now. For review, I need to get to A Strange & Stubborn Endurance and A Taste of Gold and Iron. It's a long list. I think I'll get to maybe five of them. *Sigh*

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