2024 Summer Unhaul Part Three

I have added more books to the summer unhaul. And these books are already gone, so there's no turning back now. It was 36 total books that I sold for a measly $20 on Facebook Marketplace. But, like I've been saying, it's more about getting them out of my house and getting a little bit of money out of them than keeping them around to gather dust while waiting to get decent prices. So yeah, here's part three of the summer 2024 unhaul.

The thing about most of the books in this picture is that they've been living at my parents' house in a stagnant room or traveling around with me to various apartments or bought from a used bookstore, so they just got kind of old over time. I decided it'd be better to buy new copies for the ones I want to replace than to keep older copies that have potential to get real icky mingling on my shelves with the nicer books. So some of the older copies include The 5th Wave and The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey, Child of a Mad God and Reckoning of a Fallen God by R.A. Salvatore, Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead (this was a pretty yellowed book from a used bookstore, so I'd like to get a nicer version someday), The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ghost Beach by R.L. Stine, Call of the Wild and White Fang bindup by Jack London, and Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning (this was a beat up copy I got from a used bookstore. I already have the ebook, so it seemed silly to keep this).

 

Ones that kind of got older that weren't in terrible shape, but I might get new copies of anyway include the Crown of Shards trilogy by Jennifer Estep and the Avalon High: Coronation graphic novels by Meg Cabot. I also got rid of two more recent additions that I read a couple of months ago: We Could Be So Good ARC and We Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. These were decent reads, I just didn't want to keep them, especially since the first book was an ARC, not a finished copy. I'll probably just read any sequels via ebook from now on. And then I got rid of a Buffy TV show coffee table book. It's cute, but kind of pointless to own. I also got rid of another ApollyCon freebie. I think the author's name was Mallory...? It's such a thin book and the author's name isn't on the spine, so I don't know for sure. 

 

Next up, I have more in that "they were getting old and icky, so I want to replace them" category. My Narnia boxset, with a few extra copies, and my copies of The Great Tree of Avalon trilogy by T.A. Barron. I've had these since I was a kid, and they just smelled old and had yellowing pages. I'll replace them, for sure. I'm just not sure when. I also threw in some goodies with the sale. A lot of extra book box prints, pins, trinket dishes, this Monsters of Verity puzzle. I got a lot of random crap out of my house. Woohoo!

This is the last stack from the sale. It's FairyLoot editions that aren't really worth much on the resale market. They include Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria, The Bright and the Pale by Jessica Rubinkowski, Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar, and Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen. I read The Bright and the Pale a year or so ago, and it was fine. Nothing special, just another YA fantasy. The artwork in the edition was gorgeous, though. I just couldn't justify keeping it when I don't have book two of the FairyLoot edition and don't care enough to acquire it. I also have the Owlcrate versions of Violet Made of Thorns and Star Daughter, and I kept those instead of the FairyLoot copies.

  Okay, well, that's all. I believe that's the end of the unhauls for the next few months at least. I might have more in the fall/winter months. We shall see...

***

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Retail Therapy 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.

Man, it's been a rough week. I have a deadline Friday, so work has been awful. And then this past weekend I find out that there's not one but two special super limited PR ARC editions of the new JLA book, Born of Blood and Ash, and honestly, I'm devastated. I never thought JLA or her team would do this to the fans. She always sells her special editions later on on her shop. There's no way in heck I'll be able to get my hands on either of the copies, and it seriously sucks as a long-time fan and collector. It's actually kind of made me feel sick. Weird, I  know, but collecting her books is my major hobby.

In more positive news, I have some books to share. I've been buying a lot to give myself some retail therapy. I've actually been ordering way too much and have a couple of things to order this weekend that are going to cost sooo much. I bought the new edition of the first Zodiac Academy book from Walmart on a whim, and my preorder of Deity by JLA arrived from Barnes & Noble. The monthly FairyLoot book, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, arrived. I can't remember if it's the Romantasy or Adult sub book. I also got my FairyLoot preorder of The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten. And happily, The Bookish Box restocked their extras of Untamed by Lillian T. James, and I was able to get a copy after like eight months of looking for one on the resale market that wasn't being sold with the first book, which I already have. 

 

Up next, I have an extra copy of A Fire in the Flesh I bought since there are two dust jacket sets releasing soon for the series. It's time to start buying more used copies of the books so I can display all of the pretty artwork. At least the ASITE series is shorter than FBAA, so it'll be a wee bit less expensive.

 

And for the last of the physical stuff, I have my Ned Stark on the Iron Throne Funko Pop that I bought on a whim since it was only $17 on B&N. I also ordered the Rhaenyra Targaryen and Syrax Pop. I've been wanting it since it first released, but I put off buying it. Now that another House of the Dragon Pop went out of stock, I decided I shouldn't wait anymore.

As for ebooks, I have three I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited. They're all part of Lily Mayne's Monstrous series, which I started last year. There's Wyn, Lor, and a short story collection. I'm actually almost finished with Wyn, and it's surprising how easy it was to pop right back into this world. I honestly think I needed a familiar series to read while my life has been so icky. It was comforting in a way. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Replacement 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 skipped a week or two of Stacking the Shelves posts. Why? Because life has been utter chaos. I have a major deadline next week, and I'm wondering how in the world it'll get done; my place looks like a complete disaster; my sister is visiting this weekend, so I have to spend time with family instead of clean; and I hurt my back organizing and cleaning. So it's safe to say, July has not been my favorite month of 2024 so far. The good news is, I got some pretty decent bookish mail. Though I have had to return a bunch of books because Amazon is awful at shipping.

Up first is this large stack of books. My Barnes & Noble preorders of The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons and Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi arrived. I didn't realize Masquerade would be so small. Hopefully that doesn't affect the story at all, because it sounded really good. My preorder of the FairyLoot edition of The Curse of Sins by Kate Dramis also arrived. It's a chunker. And here's where things get a little crazy. I got a free Prime subscription for the month, so I made an Amazon order for the three Dark Elements books in the jewel-looking covers, along with the second book in the Darkmore Penitentiary series, Alpha Wolf. Now, I already own the jewel covers, but they're going out of print, and I was thinking about replacing my current ones with some newer ones, as mine are kind of older and they've moved around a lot. Well, Amazon sent two batches of bad versions. They were either damaged or unmatching (slick cover versus matte). So, I decided to just order them from B&N instead. And guess what? They arrived in great condition. So, needless to say, I'll once again only be ordering from Amazon for cheap deals or indie books. Speaking of cheap deals, I got an extra copy of FORAW for $10 on Amazon to use for my Dirty Diction dust jacket. Oh, and the extra copy of Alpha Wolf is because the first arrived in a wet mailer and the book was a bit wavy, so I asked for a replacement. I didn't have to return the original, though. I'm giving the extra to a friend. 

 

Up next, I have the second Dark Elements book. This was the one that arrived from Amazon with a slick cover, so I ordered it from B&N for a matte version. I also ordered the new covers of the Captive Prince sequels from B&N. Unfortunately, though, book two didn't come with the new cover, so now I have to return it. Ugh. I hate having to return things when it's not your fault they sent you the wrong item. It's kind of a waste of my time and money.

 

I honestly forgot this thing was coming. It's a replacement dust jacket for the Arcane Society edition of Ashes of Chaos by Amelia Hutchins. The original was missing the author's name, I believe. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't seen someone mention it on Facebook. This was a subscription set from Arcane, so it wasn't a set I ordered myself. I usually pay more attention to those types of preorders.

 

This is a poorly photographed Zodiac Academy shirt that I bought off of Etsy. It's an amazing quote from Seth, and I can't wait to wear this shirt to ApollyCon next year. I feel like that's the only place I can wear my bookish shirts anymore. I don't typically wear them to the gym because I don't want them to get sweat stains or something. But yeah, I'm excited for this one. And it's navy blue instead of black! I'm glad to be adding to my small colored shirt collection. Ha ha.

 And next, we have the reason my back hurts. I ordered some shelves to temporarily hold my books while I organize the books in my other rooms. These shelves are sitting in my dining room/kitchen area right now. I don't particularly like having them there, but I got tired of having boxes of books on my floors. Of course, before I could put all the books on the shelves, I ended up tweaking my back, so this is as much progress as I've made. At this rate, it'll be summer of 2025 before all this gets done. Sigh. Eventually, though, there won't be any books on these shelves, or at least, only coffee-table type books. They will hopefully just hold fake plants, photos, knick-knacks, and kitchen-related stuff in the future.

And finally, I have the ebooks. While I have Kindle Unlimited, I downloaded Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole, Daywalkers by Emilia Mondragon, Bound by Shadows by Vera Winters, Silk & Sand by Katherine Diane, Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, and The Silent Prince by L. Eveland. I also got a couple of free Kindle books, including Shield & Sorrow by J.E. Ridge and A Dance with a Fae Prince by Elise Kova.

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

2024 Summer Unhaul Part Two

I got rid of more books. And good lord is it the most bittersweet thing ever. I love books, and I wish I could keep all of them, but it just comes down to space and effort. If I ever move again, I don't want to haul around books that I don't care as much about. I also can't maintain all of them. Dusting, checking to make sure they're okay, etc. It's all just a lot. So I'm cutting back on my collection, and I plan to read books via ebook or the library before I purchase them as much as I can. Especially until I can get all of my shelves organized, which is looking like it won't be done until winter at this rate. I'm very slow and lazy. Sigh.

 

Anywho, here's Part Two of a gigantic unhaul. It's 73 books in total that I either sold for $25 through Facebook Marketplace or am giving away to my sister. The sold books have a low price because these weren't in the greatest of conditions. Plus, I just really didn't care by this point and wanted to sell as many as possible to get them out of my hair.

So here is the first part of the second unhaul. It's 23 books. Starting with the larger tomes, I got rid of seven books in The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess not pictured and wasn't sold in this sale, but it is gone). They were just older, and I didn't want to keep them anymore now that I have the paperbacks. The hardcover Harry Potter 3-5 books have pretty much the same reasoning, along with The Host by Stephanie Meyer paperback. I'd also like to get a nicer edition of this some day. King of Scars was a terrible book, so I got rid of that and Rule of Wolves (not pictured, and neither were sold in this sale). As for The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton, City of Lies by Sam Hawke, and the Dust Lands trilogy by Moira Young, I've just had them for too long and I haven't read them, so buh-bye. Prom Nights from Hell, the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking, and Catch a Mate and Red Handed by Gena Showalter are more older books that I either don't want anymore/need to get new versions of because the old copies are kind of icky looking. 

 

Next up, I have 41 books that are either books I've read that I just don't want anymore or ones I haven't read and likely never will. The ones I've read include 11+ books in the Bailey School Kids series (which was sad to get rid of, but they're old and just collecting dust on my shelves. I'm not going to have kids or reread them, so they're just pointless here); Last Kiss Goodnight by Gena Showalter; Runebinder by Alex R. Kahler; Promise of Shadows by Justine Ireland; A Dark Divine trilogy by Bree Despain; The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (only one is pictured and counted in this unhaul, but I'll likely be getting rid of the other two as well because I got them used and I'd like to get nicer copies); Everless by Sara Holland (signed and personalized, sadly, but I don't remember much about this book); Vampire Mine by Kerrelyn Sparks; Winter's Orbit ARC by Everina Maxwell; Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (old, I'll try to get a new copy one day); Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine (same); Unraveling and Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris (enjoyed these back in the day, but it's time to let go); The Pleasure Slave by Gena Showalter (I don't remember anything about this, and I'm only keeping select Gena books now); A Deal with the Elf King Bookish Box edition by Elise Kova (I would've sold this for more money, but I forgot it was in the photo. Oops.); Pivot Point and Split Second by Kasie West; Tempest, Vortex, and Timestorm by Julie Cross (another sad one, but it's time).

 

Now, I also got rid of a signed ARC of Boundless by Cynthia Hand, just because I don't keep ARCs that look identical to their final copies. And there are eight books I got rid of that I haven't read yet: The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Legacy of Kings ARC by Eleanor Herman, The Young Elites and The Rose Society by Marie Lu, Reign the Earth by A.C. Gaughen, The Way of Shadows and The Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks; and Book of Night by Holly Black Owlcrate edition (have two copies and I haven't heard great things, so I likely don't even need the other one I have).

This is a stack of books that's going to my sister. There are nine book in total. They're not gone yet, but they will be in a couple of weeks. The stack includes three of the illustrated Harry Potter books, an HP Creatures Vault book, The Wizard of Oz kids edition, and the DC character book UK editions. I have Superman: Dawnbreaker, Wonder Woman: Warbringer, Catwoman: Soulstealer, and Batman: Nightwalker. I think I'll ask for the DC books back if my sister ever gets rid of them, but I still haven't read them yet, so I figured I'd pass them along for now.

  Okay, well, that's all. I'll probably have another smaller unhaul again before the summer is over. Maybe even in the next couple of weeks. I'm also planning to get rid of some FairyLoot books too, and that's a strenuous process of packing and shipping, so... Yay.

***

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

June Wrap-Up & July TBR

Well, we're now halfway done with 2024. Wow. It's gone by terribly fast. And I feel like I  need a full month off work to get my life together. Please, I beg! Ugh. But anyway, I don't think anything super exciting happened this month. I'm basically just reorganizing and selling books, so my place is a disaster right now. And it'll probably stay that way for the next few months. I don't know what I was thinking starting up this project. Current me is very upset at past me.

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 June

Iron Flame: 4 stars

Honey Cut: 3 stars

Of Sand and Silk: 3.5 stars

A Knife and a Blade: 3.5 stars

I only read four books in June, and they were a mix of physical books and ebooks. The first read of the month was Iron Flame, which is the only book I read that I acquired pre-2024. I also read Honey Cut by Sierra Simone in a single night, staying up way too late to do so. It's also a physical copy. It was actually delivered a couple weeks earlier than its release date. After that, I read two ebooks, Of Sand and Silk Claire Butler and A Knife and a Blade by Adelaide Blaike.

Books Bought/Received in June

Now it's once again time for the dreaded "How much damage can I do to my bank account in a single month?" section. Altogether, I bought 20 books in the month of June, and of those, I received 11 of them. I also received 33 other books (i.e., preorders, gifts, free ebooks, etc.), of which 25 were free ebooks. That's a total of 43 books I actually physically received in the month altogether.

I'm gonna start with the seven physical books I received in the month, which means I didn't pay for them in June. They were paid for in May or earlier or they were gifts/freebies. For the preorders that arrived this month, I got my Owlcrate copy of The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent, my German Chest of Fandoms edition of A Soul of Ash and Blood by JLA, and my ApollyCon editions of A Fire in the Flesh (second copy) and The Crown of Gilded Bones. My replacement copy of Stone Cold Touch and my B&N preorders of Honey Cut and The Dawn of the Cursed Queen by Amber Nicole also arrived in June.

I also got 25 free ebooks during the Stuff Your Kindle event. Those included: Shadow Kissed by Rebecca L. Garcia, Bewitched by Laura Thalassa, The Ever King by L.J. Andrews, Bite of Loyalty by R.L. Caulder, Chosen by Villains by Eva Chase, The Dagger and the Forbidden Heir by Emilia Jae, Academy of Protectors by Gray Holdborn, House of Striking Oaths by Olivia Wildenstein, The Dragon's Gift by Jasmine Walt, Crown of Earth and Sky by Emberly Ash, Night Elves of Ardani by Nina K. Westra, Stroke the Flame by Elizabeth Briggs, City of Thorns by C.N. Crawford, Amethyst Dragon by Eileen Mueller, Burning by Tamar Sloan, Brutal Titan by E.V. Olsen, Dragonrider by S. Rodman, Death Eternal by Richard Amos, The Omega Problem Part One by Elizabeth Dunlap, From Frost to Flame by Viola Vines, The Silence Lies by Sophie Dyer, Forbidden Magic by Anya J. Cosgrove, Lantern by Charlie Godwyne, Bad Boy by Joe Satoria, and A Knife and a Blade.

 As for the 20 books I actually bought in June, there are a lot, but most of them are books I've already read, so that's nice. There were 11 books I bought AND received in June. From Barnes & Noble online, I'd ordered the new White Hot Kiss paperback and books one, seven, and eight in the Zodiac Academy series, along with the novella bindup Live and Let Lionel. At the physical B&N store, I purchased the new cover of the Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. Then from PangoBooks, I ordered another ZA novella, Origins of an Academy Bully; ZA book two; and books one and three in the Darkmore Penitentiary series, a ZA spinoff. And lastly, Nectar of the Wicked by Ella Fields was the June FairyLoot Romantasy book. I also preordered nine books that will arrive in future months. Those include my FairyLoot editions of The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten and The Curse of Sins by Kate Dramis, my B&N order of Pure by JLA, a downpayment on the Owlcrate Romantasy sub, the June Arcane sub books, and three Arcane add-ons by Amelia Hutchins, which I did a payment plan for, so I guess technically I would've only paid for one book, but eh. I don't like that math. 

Currently Obsessed With

I haven't been watching much lately. Honestly, there's been a lot of TikTok scrolling. But I have been watching...

The new episodes of House of the Dragon season two. There have only been a few episodes out by this point, so I can't really tell for sure, but the season seems a little eh to me. There are good parts and there are bad parts in terms of quality. But, there are dragons, so the vibes are always immaculate. I also rewatched 2-4 of the Shrek movies, and I might watch the Puss in Boots films next. Oh, and I finished Bridgerton season three, which was kind of disappointing. It just seemed off compared to previous seasons.

July TBR

I'm writing this post a couple of days early, so June hasn't ended yet. But I left Charm off of this list specifically because I am hoping I finished it by now. I only have 50 pages left, so it better be done, Future Me! I don't want to see that book on my TBR ever again. Of course, the other two major repeats are Visions of Flesh and Blood and Dragon Rider. One day, I'll read both of them. I'm halfway through Visions, so I'm hoping that'll be soon. As for Evocation by S.T. Gibson, I started this one and got distracted, so we'll see if I pick it back up soon. I'm not in any hurry. Now, the ones I really want to read are The Prince's Poisoned Vow, another repeat, because it sounds really good, and the Darkmore Penitentiary series. The last Darkmore book releases at the end of July, so I want to binge the entire thing.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of June, plus some July 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 I Need to Buy Fewer Books 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 July. Wow. It was also a national holiday on Thursday. Did I do anything fun for the 4th of July? Nope. Just worked. Hurrah. I have a deadline coming up, so this entire month is going to be stressful. I doubt I get a lot of reading done. Or, if I do read a lot, it'll be because I did something bad... You'll see what I mean.

As for books I added to my shelves this week, I have two, both of which are JLA books, of course. I have the new edition of Obsidian, which I forgot I'd preordered. I also didn't know it had been delivered until I saw it on my doorstep the next morning. I guess you don't get shipping emails after you cancel your Prime membership. Lol. My preorder of the new edition of Pure also arrived from Barnes & Noble.

Up next, I have two ebooks to share. I got Eva Chase's Royals of Villain Academy, which I believe is a series name and not an individual title name, for free on Kindle. It's books one through four in the series. The author is going to be at ApollyCon, so I figured I'd give her books a try. I also downloaded Kindle Unlimited again and got A Whisper and a Breath by Adelaide Blake. I don't like Amazon, but I really need to stop buying so many books until I get my shelves under control and organized, so I figure KU will keep the temptation down. Also, I read the first book in the Riehse Eshan series, and I figured it would be cheaper to download KU for a month than to buy each sequel individually on Kindle.

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

2024 Summer Unhaul: Part One

I've had to get rid of a lot of books lately. I was unpacking a bunch of them after moving them back from my parents' house, and, even though I enjoyed a lot of these, I couldn't see myself keeping them when I know I won't reread them or, for some of them, even read them in the first place. I'm getting older, and maintaining a large library of books is difficult, especially if I have to move again. So I've decided that I'm only going to keep books I really want. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm terrible about having a "cleanse the shelves" summer only to start hoarding a few months later. It's really difficult now that I don't live in a city with a nice library system like my previous city had. It's easier to buy books instead. But, I've been pretty good lately. At least since I've made the decision to read books from the library or via ebook before I purchase the physical copy (with exceptions to authors I know I'll enjoy and book subs). I've only ordered things that I've already read and/or authors I've already read and enjoyed.

Now, I managed to sell these in two different ways. The first was going to a used bookstore in my old city and selling about 20 of them for only $20. I used that cash to immediately buy a book at Barnes & Noble, so that wasn't super profitable, especially since the bookstore was a two-hour drive one-way and I took off work to drive there on a Monday when they were accepting books for cash. Also, funny story, I ended up going to the mall immediately afterwards and spent money on a cookie at Mrs. Fields, which apparently is what I did after my last 2022 unhaul. It made me laugh that I essentially did the same thing twice. The second method of selling the books was through Facebook Marketplace for a grand total of $25 for the remaining books. I just wanted them out of my house by that point.

 

Anywho, here's Part One of a gigantic unhaul. It's 83 books in total that I sold for $45. The low price kind of works out, though, since ARCs aren't really sellable and I got a lot of the others free or used. So I didn't lose too much money.

So here is the largest part of the first unhaul. This is 62 books. I'm going to break down the reasons I'm getting rid of these into four categories: books I won't/don't want to read, books I've read and won't reread, books I have duplicates of, and childhood books I just don't need anymore, which is kind of a sad category, but I can't keep everything and some other kid may enjoy it more now. 

 

Books I won't/don't want to read: The Princess Bride (love the movie, probably won't ever read the book); The Last Wolf by Maria Vale (got for free at ApollyCon one year, likely won't read); The Dragon's Bride and Wicked Beauty ARC by Katee Robert (more ApollyCon freebies); Magical Midlife Madness by K.F. Breene (has meh reviews and was an ApollyCon freebie); Saved by Wolves by Eva Chase (an ApollyCon freebie that looked good, but it's a spinoff book and I don't have the first series); Songbird by Victoria Woods (ApollyCon freebie); After by Anna Todd (it's Harry Styles fanfic. I wish I hadn't brought it back from ApollyCon); The Wicked Deep by Erin Ernshaw (had this one for years, tried to read it and never finished); Middlegame by Seanan McGuire (got this one back when I worked at Tor, just doesn't sound great to me anymore, and I can read it from the library if I change my mind); Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan Illumicrate edition (another ApollyCon freebie); A Queen in Hiding, A Broken Queen, and The Queen of Raiders by Sarah Kozloff (tried to read the first book a couple of years ago and it was kind of dry); Ship of Smoke and Steel (I've had this one since my Tor days too. I can read it from the library if I ever want to); A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik Owlcrate edition (it's kind of ugly); Valiant Dust by Richard Baker (got this one when I was back in my adult sci-fi show phase and I was working at Tor); The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King (I do want copies of these, I think, but I'll wait until some nicer editions come out or I'll just read it from the library. I've had these for years and never read them); Breakaway by Grace Reilly (ApollyCon freebie); An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan (a FairyLoot YA box freebie I don't plan to ever read); The Traitor's Kiss and The Traitor's Ruin by Erin Beaty (had for years, likely won't ever read); Ever the Brave by Erin Summerill (read book one years ago, never got around to the sequel and don't plan to any time soon); The Defiant by Lesley Livingston (same as Ever the Brave); My Lucky 13 by Piper Rayne (ApollyCon freebie, not interested in MF hockey romance); and The Origin by Lexi C. Foss (ApollyCon freebie). There's another ApollyCon freebie in there that's super thin, and I don't remember the title of it.

 

Books I've read and won't reread: The Hotter You Burn, Can't Let Go, The Harder You Fall, and Can't Hardly Breathe by Gena Showalter (I like Gena's paranormal stuff, but I don't think I'm gonna collect her contemporaries anymore); A Court of Honey and Ash by Shannon Mayer and Kelly St. Clare (this was not a good book); A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen (was meh); Whatever Life Throws At You by Julie Cross (liked and kept this one because it was based on the KC Royals, but I'll never reread it); White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart by Holly Black (enjoyed back in the day, but I've moved on); Winterspell by Claire Legrand (was meh); Under the Never Sky, Through the Ever Night, and Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (it's a YA dystopian series I really enjoyed in high school, but I've grown out of YA dystopian now); Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerill (enjoyed back in the day, but never read the sequel and don't plan to); The Valiant by Lesley Livingston (same as Ever the Hunted); Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi (enjoyed the first book, but the second was bad. I'll probably read book three for my book club, but I'm reading a library copy); and Angel Burn and Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly (I may have been convinced to keep these ones if I'd had all three in the series, but I never ended up buying it, and I don't feel like tracking it down, so they might as well go).

 

Books I have duplicates of: Fall With Me and Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout, A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross (ApollyCon freebie), The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart (bought FL editions), and Sire by Jex Lane (this was a damaged copy that I got replaced).

 

Childhood books I just don't need anymore: The Secret Country, The Hidden Land, and The Whim of the Dragon by Pamela Dean (these were a lot like Narnia, and I did enjoy them a lot) and Fall of a Kingdom, Rise of a Hero, and Forging the Sword by Hilari Bell (also enjoyed these, but I'll never reread them. They don't have any magic or romance, and I'm a romance junkie now. They do have great worldbuilding, though).

Next up, I have 11 ARCs and UK copies. I just don't keep ARCs unless they're special for some reason. I have read The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes, The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem, Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman (signed), The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart, and The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O'Keefe. I haven't read Sherwood by Meagan Spooner, The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera, or Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier. I figure if I want to read them, I can get them from the library. I also got rid of my UK copies of Kristen White's And I Darken, Now I Rise, and Bright We Burn, because, boy, was the series mega disappointing.

This is a smaller group of eight books that I decided to get rid of after I'd already photographed the other two stacks. The only one I've read of these is A Darker Shade of Magic. I wasn't super impressed with it when I read it, but I got the series for free while working at Tor, so I figured I'd give it another chance, as that was the year of the great 2019 reading slump. But, I still haven't picked them up, and I figure I'll just borrow them from the library or buy the ebooks in the future. I don't really like the covers anyway. I also got rid of five books I haven't read yet and probably won't ever, or I'll read them from the library: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey (signed), Cold Iron by Miles Cameron, Talon by Julie Kagawa (I'd like to read this, but the copy I had was super old, so I'd like to find a better one maybe), and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor UK edition.

  What's pictured here is what I sold on FB Marketplace. The books from above that aren't pictured here were the ones the used bookstore took. I'm not looking through the pictures to see which ones went where, though. That's too much work. I will say that I added To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to this stack. It's another childhood book that I just didn't need to keep. (Note: I also sold Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars to the used bookstore, but it was in photos from Part Two, so you'll set it then.)

***

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