Stacking the Shelves: The Post-Xmas 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.

Wow. It's almost 2024. That's insane. I feel like the end of the year just flew by. And now onto a new year that I'm not super excited for due to world events. But, ignoring all that, I am excited to start a new year of reading. Right now, I'm trying to shove in all the short books that I can to reach 100 books read in 2023, so I can't wait to just read whatever I want once January hits.

Now, onto books. I had some orders that I picked up at my parents' house while I was there for the holidays. They were mostly preorders from FairyLoot, but there was also the Waterstones edition of Gold by Raven Kennedy. The FairyLoot copies included The Midnight Kingdom by Tara Sim and Fall of Ruin and Wrath by JLA.

Onto the Christmas gifts. Most of them were from my parents. In fact, the only one that wasn't was a metal wall poster my sister got me that has a magical book/castle thing on it. It's pretty. I'm still not sure where I'm going to hang it though. From my parents, I got a fake plant for my house, a small black bookcase, sheets, a gray blanket, a vaccuum, pillows, and a Visa gift card. For bookish stuff, I got Insatiable by Meg Cabot, the newer editions of FBAA and TCOGB, a Solis map blanket and a Delano crispy marshmallow sticker from the JLA Shop, and a Bookish Box FBAA dagger. 

 

There was a Stuff Your Kindle Day earlier this week, so I got a lot of free ebooks. A lot. Those included With Shield and Ink and Book by Casey L. Bond, Queen of Roses by Briar Boleyn, A Pack of Storms and Stars by Olivia Wildenstein, The Hollow Gods by AJ Varna, Of Mist and Shadow by Jenna Wolfhart, Blood of Desiderium by Ali Stuebbe, Shadow and Moonlight by Luna Laurier, Living Legend by Allie Shante, Helfyre by Mariel Pomeroy, and Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu.

And finally, the ebooks I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited this week. I got King of Death by Lily Mayne, Knock Knock by Nordika Night, and Prince and Betrothed by Tavia Lark. All of them are sequels to series I've been reading over the past year. I'm currently reading one of them, finished one, and haven't even started another one.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Xmas Eve Eve 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.

It's the pre-Christmas book haul. But I have to admit, it's hard to celebrate this year with everything going on in Palestine. It hurts knowing that while I'm celebrating with my family, their own families are being destroyed. I hope our leaders can get a spine over the holidays and end this madness. 20,000 people dead due to greed and hate. It's awful. #CeasefireNow

The only physical item I got this week was my A Soul of Ash and Blood dustjacket from ImaginesBookShop. This took so long to ship out. I think I ordered it back in August? I can't even remember now, it's been that long. But, now that I have it, I have to figure out how I'm going to rearrange my shelves to fit this one in with the other FBAA editions.

And finally, the only ebook I have is a tiny novella in the Kin & Kine series by H.G. Birde. Riverbanks is only 34 pages, and I decided to download it from the author's newsletter when I began panicking about how I was five books away from reaching 100 books read on Goodreads. My goal each year is only 30 books, but I'm so close to 100 that it'll be awful if I can't reach it. After reading Riverbanks, I'm at 96 books read. I can make it! Hopefully...

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: Another JLA 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.

Well, I'm back. It's been a while. I actually didn't get any physical books last week. Therefore, I decided not to write an StS and just save all the ebooks I got for this post, but I'll get into that in a bit. As for life in general, nothing crazy is going on. I had book club for the first time since our Iceland trip, so that was fun, and I went to visit my parents last weekend.

Now, onto books. My order for the French edition of A Shadow in the Ember came in this week. I was actually surprised it arrived in so quickly. I ordered via Amazon.fr, and I think it came in less than two weeks. Normally international orders take FOREVER. My preorder incentives for A Fire in the Flesh also arrived at my parents' house, so I was able to pick those up when I visited.

I ended up having to make a $40 Barnes & Noble purchase to get free shipping for a Christmas present I ordered, so I threw in a JLA book that I don't own yet. Obsession is the adult spinoff/companion book to her Lux series. I haven't read it yet, but I might do that soon. I need some quick reads to get me to 100 books by the end of the year, and JLA's non-FBAA books are usually pretty fast reads.

And finally, the ebooks. All of these except Violent Secret by Ariana Nash are Kindle Unlimited downloads. I purchased Violent Secret using some Amazon credits. The other KU books include Gold by Raven Kennedy, Villain and the Geek by L.C. Davis, God of Fury by Rina Kent, Until You by Briar Prescott, One by Paulina Ian-Kane, Blurred Lines by Andi Jaxon, and Danger Zone by Brooke Blaine and Ella Frank. Can you tell I was downloading a lot of stuff to try to get out of a reading slump?

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

November Wrap-Up & December TBR

Well, November was the worst reading month of 2023. Yikes. But there were reasons for that. One, was the slump. I just wasn't feeling any of the books I was being forced to read due to my own obligations (e.g., book club, review books, etc.). I also was addicted to TikTok, and current events also make it difficult to focus on reading. #CeasefireNow. Oh, and I ended up getting COVID during Thanksgiving, which meant for two weeks it was hard to focus on anything but trying to breathe through the congestion. Lol.

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 November

Court of Wanderers: 4.5 stars (NetGalley eARC, review to come)

Yep, I only read a single book in November. And it was at the beginning of the month. I literally finished it on November 1st in the wee hours of the a.m. Court of Wanderers by Rin Chupeco was a book I got for review via NetGalley. It would have been one of my most anticipated books of 2024 if I hadn't already read it for review. I devoured this sucker in a couple of days, I believe. It was amazing. I'm so sad the duology is over. I already have my review written, I just have to type it up, but it won't go live until the book actually releases in April. I will say though, this duology will make it to the number one spot on my best-reads-of-2023 list.

Books Bought/Received in November

Only reading one book didn't stop me from buying 14 more in November. Yikes. And of those 14, only five of them arrived within the month. The others were preorders. I also had five other books arrive that were paid for earlier in the year. So that's a grand total of 10 books that actually showed up to my house.

The 14 books I bought included nine preorders that haven't arrived yet. Those consists of my FairyLoot preorders of Fall of Ruin and Wrath and The Dark Elements trilogy by JLA and the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. I also preordered a special edition of From Blood and Ash from Fae & Flourish and the French edition of A Shadow in the Ember. For the books that I purchased that actually arrived in November, I got an ARC of Blood Passage by Heather Demetrios from Mercari; the FairyLoot November Adult book, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare; and three books from Barnes & Noble: Fangirl the 10th Anniversary Edition by Rainbow Rowell, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, and A Power Unbound by Freya Marske.

 I also received five books that I'd preordered earlier in 2023. My three copies of A Fire in the Flesh arrived, one from Indigo and two from B&N. One was the special B&N copy and the other was the regular hardcover. My FairyLoot copy of The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin came in, as well as the German Chest of Fandoms edition of A Light in the Flame (not pictured).

Currently Obsessed With

I haven't been watching a lot of stuff lately. It's mostly been a TikTok obsession. Plus, TikTok is very digestible when you're ill and can't really concentrate on anything else.

I honestly don't remember what all I watched in November. I know I've been rewatching The Office when I eat meals, like I always do. And I also rewatched The Wizard of Oz for the first time in probably five or so years. I did finish What We Do in the Shadows season five early on in the month. It wasn't my favorite season, sadly, but it had a few funny parts. It definitely could've been better. I also started a show on Netflix called Never Have I Ever. It's a high school comedy that I don't think I'll continue watching. It's just not grabbing my attention. I wanted something to entertain me while I was sick, but it didn't hit the mark.

December TBR

I need to read nine books in December (as of today) to reach 100 books read overall in 2023. So I'm sneaking in some short books to make sure I can reach my goal. Those include The River of Silver by S.A. Chakraborty; some Lily Mayne titles like A Monstrous Christmas in the Camp, which is also fitting for the holiday season; and Villain and the Geek by L.C. Davis. I also need to finish my NetGalley ARC of Calamity by Constance Fay and start my ARC of A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen. And finally, I'd like to finish Charm by Tracy Wolff. I'm only 200 pages into that one. It's taken 3+ months to get the stupid thing read.

***

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

Stacking the Shelves: The FBAA Cards 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.

Ugh. So, it's been a rough couple of weeks for me. Unlike most people who were celebrating the holiday, I ended up being alone on my couch because I was sick with COVID. Yuck. I'm still recovering even now. The congestion is unreal. But, thankfully, it's better than it was the previous week.

Now, onto books. I have been reading very little, especially since COVID kind of shot my concentration, but the book orders do keep rolling in. First up, I have my Barnes & Noble preorder of A Power Unbound by Freya Marske. I also have three FairyLoot orders: The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare (the November Adult book), and Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder. Fire Study is my replacement copy for the damaged one that came in originally. I'm also mad that The Scarlet Veil is taller than the original FairyLoot Serpent & Dove books. It's very irritating. I'm glad I got the regular hardcover too so my copies actually match.

 

Something I've been eagerly anticipating finally arrived this week. My Prettygalpins Jemlin FBAA tarot card deck arrived. And they are gorgeous!!! I think my favorites are Poppy, Vonetta, Isbeth, Kieran, Casteel, and Sera, though they all look awesome. Reaver is showing a lot of skin, though. Lol. 

 

And next, I have the replacement dustjacket for the FairyLoot edition of Kingdom of the Feared. I think I added myself to the list to get this replaced like a year ago at this point. It's insane how long this whole process has taken. But I'm glad it came in, as the spine does not match the previous two books in the series at all. I was supposed to get a replacement for A Dragon's Promise too, but it wasn't in the tube, and I've already emailed FairyLoot about other things, so I'm just not going to worry about it. I don't care enough, since I don't own the other duology by the author and it's just a matter of silver versus gold font.

 

I also almost forgot to share the A Touch of Magic Designs order I received. It arrived in a relatively timely manner, so I'd already taken a pic and put the Vampire Academy bakery pin on my pin banner. I was too sick to take the artwork out of the plastic sheets, so sorry about the mediocre photo. I ordered the two FBAA pieces. The Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac magnet and Fourth Wing piece were freebies.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?