Stacking the Shelves: The Library Sale 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.

Happy Thanksgiving week! It's been a rough couple of weeks, so I'm really glad to have had a long weekend off work. But of course, my car battery died, so I had to deal with that yesterday. Super fun. And even more money spent on things I didn't want to spend money on because I've spent too much money on books in November. It's honestly disgusting how much I've spent. I do not want to do my monthly wrap-up calculations. They'll mortify me.

 

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have a surprise purchase. I found out last Friday night that my local library was doing their annual Friends of the Library book sale. So, I went early Saturday morning before going to the gym, and I managed to find two books when most of the stock had been picked over for anything I would consider worthwhile. I nabbed two out-of-print hardcovers from D.J. MacHale's Pendragon series. I loved this series as a kid, and I'm currently despairing over how old my current copies are, so I picked these up. They're not in the greatest of shape, but I figure if I need to get rid of my old copies, these will be decent replacements.

 

Next up, I have part one of like four orders I made from Jennifer L. Armentrout's holiday shop sale. I'm actually kind of low-key upset that JLA decided to drop a ton of special editions in like a three-week span. My wallet cannot handle all this. Would it have killed her to spread the releases out just a bit? But, I can't complain about one of them. You'll see that order soon. It's glorious. This order on the other hand, is for the hardcover set of her Wicked trilogy, and while they're pretty, they are a bit...cheap. Definitely indie-level quality. The dustjackets are just a tad off-center, which irritates me on a personal level. I can't decide if I should try to fix them or just leave them alone in case I make it worse somehow. These did sell out though, so I'm glad I was able to buy them before that happened.

 

And of course, right as I was finished with this blog post, a stack of delivery orders arrived. One was a gift for Christmas, and the others, I'm not sure that I'll keep yet, so I'm only sharing my Barnes & Noble preorders for Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas and The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent. I really need to read both of these ASAP. I really want to, but I've been in such a slump lately.

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited. I got the second book in the Mortal Gods series, A Reign of Storm and Madness by Lucinda Dark, after finishing book one a week or so ago. Lucinda is an ApollyCon author, so I'd like to finish the series and decide if I want to purchase it and get it signed. I'm currently undecided right now. I also downloaded Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson for a similar reason. Prettygal Pins is selling some tarot character cards for this one at ApollyCon, so I figured I should read it to see if I want the set. And A Tale of Whispers and Rogues by Jordan Lee is just a random download that sounded like it could be a decent read.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Gorgeous 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 strongly debated not posting this week and just letting the books pile up, but I realized that would potentially be completely unmanageable. I already have way too many in this post, and I think there are at least two orders coming next week. I have no idea why the last of the year is now suddenly the time for all the orders to ship and for all the preorder sales to start. Like, give me some time to recuperate, please!

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have the prettiest editions I've received since I got Illumicrate's Reaper duology earlier this year. This is FairyLoot's Crowns of Nyaxia set, and IT. IS. GORGEOUS! I haven't even read this series yet, but I preordered these because of how beautiful they are. I know my picture doesn't do them justice, so go look at some of the tagged FairyLoot photos on Instagram. To me, this is a special edition set done right from FairyLoot. I haven't been this impressed in a while.

Next up, I have a couple of Barnes & Noble preorders that arrived. The first is the final book in J.S. Dewes's The Divide series, The Relentless Legion. It's been so long since the second book released, so I'm not sure how this one will hit. I do know it'll probably be a while before I get to it. I haven't been very drawn to epic sci-fi at the moment. My copy of The Traitor Queen paperback edition arrived today as well. I actually canceled the other traditionally-published reissue paperbacks of this series because I bought the Arcane set today. I wish I could have canceled this, but it had already shipped by the time I decided to buy the Arcane set. At least it wasn't expensive.

 

Next is my FairyLoot Romantasy November book, A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan. While I loved Sophie Jordan's Firelight trilogy back in the day, I wasn't sold on her writing a "prequel" book set in the same world. But, when FairyLoot announced they were doing an edition, I decided to give it a try. The cover redesign is a bit underwhelming, but the naked book looks great! It's orange and scaly!

Okay, so these books were extremely difficult to photograph. The glare! Ugh! These are actually the reverse dustjackets for The Bookish Box editions of the Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. Unfortunately, they don't have the titles on them, but this artwork is very cool and the foiling is nice. I was wondering why I bought them when I saw the original covers in person, and then the reverse dustjackets answered that question for me.

 

And lastly, I have a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have ordered but did anyway. Scorched was a B&N preorder that just arrived today. This is kind of the same situation as The Traitor Queen. JLA announced a hardcover version that will be sold in her shop, so I should've canceled the paperback. It was just too late by then. It had already shipped, and I don't have a B&N within 60 miles of me. The other two books were from Pango and Mercari. I'd kept an eye on the A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire FairyLoot edition that had been on sale for a few months because I have extras of the other two in the series, so I thought, if this copy gets below $19, I'll buy it. (Mercari's fees are ridiculous, otherwise I would have bought it earlier.) The copy is a bit damaged on the back few pages, but that's why I got it so cheap. A Light in the Flame was the Pango buy, and it was just a cheapish copy I needed for my many dustjacket sets. However, I should have held off. I've spent waaaaay too much money on books this month. Like BEYOND what I've ever spent before. I will be selling some special edition sets to make up for my financial irresponsibility.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Buffy 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.

Work is really exhausting me. I am not an accountant, and suddenly, I'm having to do accounting things. Plus, continue my writing job. Blugh! If I could just fast-forward through the rest of 2024, that'd be great. I'm so stressed right now. It's actually affecting my daily life. I'm so mentally exhausted that it's hard to go to the gym or even read. I hate it. I hope it gets better soon. Otherwise, I'll just be stuck in this purgatory until January.

On to happier topics: this week's haul. First up, I have my FairyLoot editions of the last three books in the Vampire Academy series. I'm still not overly enthusiastic about these editions, but they are fun. I think it's the front dustjackets that just seem too meh to me. I like the reversible art, but they don't have the titles on them, so it's weird to use those instead. I don't know. I may not end up keeping these down the line, but for now, I have them.

Next up, I have the Arcane editions of Lady of Darkness and Lady of Shadows by Melissa Roerich. These editions are just okay. I'm interested in the books because the author is going to ApollyCon, but I think I'll purchase the paperback version to get signed instead. I'm not a fan of all the foiling on this one. I like simplistic foiling, not whatever this is. The naked book is pretty though. So there's that.

More books! My FairyLoot October Romantasy book came in. It's The Coven by Harper L. Woods. It's not a book I would've bought a physical copy of on my own, as dark academia isn't really something I gravitate towards, especially with professor love interests, but I figured FairyLoot would make a pretty edition so it'd be worth trying out. And I was right. The art is very pretty. My Barnes & Noble preorder of the Onyx hardcover by Jennifer L. Armentrout also arrived. And I also had an Amazon order of two of the Mediator books arrive. I'm thinking about replacing my current mass market paperbacks since they're so old, so I went ahead and got these while they were available. These books are getting harder to find online. Yikes.

And lastly for the physical stuff, I have another Amazon order that actually arrived with the two Mediator books. I didn't know Amazon could combine separate orders like that, but honestly, I'm not complaining. Yay for saving the trees. But yeah, my three Buffy Funko Pops arrived. There's Spike, Buffy, and Angel. And there's another B&N exclusive Spike that I need to get my hands on. I've been waiting for it to be available online, and I haven't seen it there. Boo.

 

As for the ebooks, I have two this week. One is The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch, which was a Kindle Unlimited download, and the other is Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth, which is a library Libby book that I really need to start reading before time runs out. I got this one because Illumicrate has a special edition for sale that I'm tentatively interested in. I just need to determine if the book is worth the price first. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Dirty Dustjackets 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, it's been... a week. Work is so stressful lately. Ugh. I want it to stop. Other than that, things have been pretty good. A couple of household machine malfunctions have put a wrench in my life, but not anything too terrible. And thankfully, one of them is covered by my landlord. The other one, I need to potentially make a repair appointment for, which will be icky, but doable.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have the October FairyLoot Adult book, Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy. I just read a review copy of this. Check out my review here. And it was great! I also really like the FairyLoot edition too. It's similar to the regular cover, but the inside artwork is very pretty. I'm honestly not sure if I want to use the reverse dustjacket art or keep it as is. Decisions, decisions.

Next up, I have more FBAA series copies. I impulsively bought the FBAA series off of Mercari, so I could use it for a dustjacket set that will potentially be releasing at some point. (Hurry up, A Touch of Magic Designs! You've been teasing this for like three years!) There was also a used copy of A Light in the Flame on PangoBooks for $9. With shipping and tax it was a little bit more than that, but still much cheaper than a new hardcover. And I definitely needed it. I actually need two more copies of ALITF for all the dustjacket sets I have. Ugh. ALITF and A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire are the hardest copies to find used at a decent price for some reason.

Speaking of dustjacket sets. Here's why I need one of the other ALITF copies. My Dirty Diction Flesh and Fire dustjacket set came in, and they're lovely. The scenery on the backs is my favorite part. I hope DD does an FBAA set sometime. Not super soon, but maybe like end of 2025, beginning of 2026. My wallet needs a break from buying all these extra copies and dustjackets. Please.

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

October Wrap-Up & November TBR

I am too tired to really do a meaningful introduction to this wrap-up, so you get me babbling for a while. This week has been crazy with major work deadlines, so my personal life kind of went non-existent for a couple of weeks. No good gym workouts, no reading. But! I did manage to do a cleaning/organizing task I'd been putting off for so long. Yay!

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 October

Tryggred by the Orc: 4 stars (ebook)

Fortuna Sworn: 2 stars

Goldfinch: 4 stars

Sorcery and Small Magics: 4 (my review)

I only read four books in October, and they were all read in the first two weeks of the month too. The last two weeks were just too crazy at work, so I had to watch mind-numbing videos on my phone to clear my head. But, hopefully now that the deadlines are done, reading can commence once again. As for the books I read, two of them were Kindle Unlimited reads: Tryggred by the Orc by Finley Fenn and Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy. However, Goldfinch I technically own copies of, so that counts as a physical book I checked off my list. Lol. Then I slogged through Fortuna Sworn for book club. Ugh. It was just not my vibe. I also read Sorcery and Small Magics for review, and I really enjoyed it. Both of those two books were physical copies, so yay! Knocking books of my physical TBR one at a time.

Books Bought/Received in October

Well, here's the icky math part of the post. Gosh. I don't even want to know the damage this has done me. I'm for sure going to have to sell some books because this is nuts. I bought a total of 42 books in October and received 14 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were preorders/books ordered in September. Altogether, 30 of the books actually made their way to me in October.

For the 14 books I received, they were all preorders or orders that just didn't get delivered until this month. They include the Waterstones editions of Goldfinch, the FairyLoot edition of The Half King by Melissa Landers, the LitHaven editions of King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Claire and The Book of Azrael by Amber Nicole, Arcane's The Ever Seas duology, the Spanish editions of the first three books in the FBAA series, and the five books in the Acrylipics FBAA set.

This is where it gets unbelievably ugly. I bought sooooo much. As for the 16 books I bought that I actually received in October, those consisted primarily of my 14 Barnes & Noble preorders/orders: Bloodguard by Cecy Robson, The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen, Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee, Never Keep by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, Frigid by JLA, World After and End of Days by Susan Ee, Swordcrossed by Freya Marske, When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker, Stone Cold Touch by JLA, and The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C. Penaranda. Three others were from trades. Those included Arcane ApollyCon editions of The Crown of Oaths and Curses by J. Bree and FBAA and the Primal of Life BOBAA edition. And then I have two Pango purchases: Oblivion by JLA, which isn't in the greatest shape, so I'm likely going to get rid of it, and Bride by Ali Hazelwood, the Target edition.

 My preorders for the month/books that haven't arrived yet is where things get out of control. The list includes 27 books. Yikes. The preorders consist of the Arcane editions of FBAA 1-5, the ApollyCon Books for Days Crate preorder for A Shadow in the Ember and Kingdom of Crowns and Daggers, the two Arcane sub books for the month, the Bookish Box Lux editions books 1-2, two Owlcrate Carissa Broadbent books, and the author lux edition of Zodiac Academy book one. The remaining books are just ones that will arrive soon, if they haven't already. They include the FairyLoot Adult and Romantasy sub books, my B&N signed and unsigned editions of ASITE, a Pango used copy of ALITF, the B&N editions of Rachel Gillig's Shepherd's King duology, used Mercari copies of FBAA 1-5 for new dustjackets, and Harper L. Wood's special paperback edition of What Lurks Between the Fates.  

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, I watched something new in October!

Well, technically it's not entirely new. I watched previous seasons of the show before, but the third season released. That counts as new then, right? Anyway, the third season of Heartstopper came out, and I watched it all. Other than that, I'm mostly watching Law & Order: SVU and the Eras Tour livestreams on weekends. I did watch Hocus Pocus with my sister. She came over to have a Halloween movie night with brownies and pizza about two weeks before Halloween actually happened. Ha ha.

November TBR

I didn't read like half the books on my TBR, so, surprise, surprise, there are a lot of repeats. I still need to finish The Prince's Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner and Salt in the Wound by Sierra Simone. I started these a couple of months ago and never picked them back up even though I want to finish them. Ugh. I also need to read and review The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe and Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, which has been on my to-review list for months now. Oops. And then I added Fear the Flames as an ApollyCon read and Bloodguard as a book club pick. And I'm currently reading Lucinda Dark's A Sword of Shadow and Deceit on Kindle Unlimited.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of October, plus some November 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 Holy Grail 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 been a busy week. Work has really sucked. Stupid deadlines. But, the major ones are over now, so my anxiety has settled down a bit. Hopefully, that means I can read more over the next few days. I was really feeling the brain fog this week. But, some amazing stuff arrived, and I can't believe my life right now. Gah!

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have something I never thought I'd be able to get my hands on. Ever. Somehow, someway, I managed to trade my Red Rising FairyLoot set for the super limited paperback Primal of Life Born of Blood and Ash book. How?! I don't even know. The day JLA hinted that maybe something was coming to the JLA Shop with these covers (details still to come, but it looks like fancy-edge hardcovers), someone commented on my ISO Facebook post wanting to trade. I was wary at first because I didn't want to give away my life savings, and I figured someone was just reaching out because they saw the JLA announcement, and they were trying to get their money's worth while they still could. But no. It was just a Red Rising fan who wanted that set more than she wanted to keep a BOBAA ARC. So I got it! My holy grail! EEEEK! Now, I just have to get my hands on the Primal of Death version somehow. Sigh.

Next up, I have another exciting book, Bloodguard by Cecy Robson. I've only had this book preordered for like two years. I'm glad it actually got released. It kept getting pushed back over and over again. This one always excited me because it's a gladiator-esque romantasy with a male POV and the cover reminds me of Red Queen. I can't wait to read it. I also received my Barnes & Noble preorder of the new cover of Frigid by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It has blue sprayed edges. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of sprayed edges on paperbacks. It doesn't look bad, but they don't really do anything for me aesthetic-wise. My FairyLoot September Romantasy book finally reached me too. It was delivered to my parents' house not very long ago. I guess the book, The Half King by Melissa Landers, got delayed for US customers.

 

 

Oh look, another B&N set of preorders arrived right as I was typing this up. Of course. Man, October releases have been insane. I can't wait for things to calm down book-buying-wise now that it's late fall/almost winter. Though book boxes don't seem to have the same schedule as regular publishing companies because Books for Days Crate is just determined to steal my money. But anyway, the Rachal Gillig B&N exclusive The Shepherd King duology set arrived today. I still haven't read my FairyLoot copy of book one, but book two sold out and I didn't buy it, so this was the next-best thing. My friend told me she really liked this duology. So I invested. It takes very little arm-twisting for me to buy books, though. Lol. The B&N exclusive A Shadow in the Ember also arrived. It's not a terrible copy, but it seems like the spine is a little loose and the dustjacket is just a tad off. I have another signed copy coming, so I don't really have to worry about it too much. I just hope the other one is packaged well.

And lastly, I have the Juniper Flesh & Fire series dustjackets. These things are stupid expensive. But, thankfully, Juniper was having a sale, so I just grabbed them to get it over with. Boy oh boy, do I need to stop doing that. October was an extremely expensive book month. I'm very scared to do my monthly spending roundup. Yikes. But anyway, I got the five dustjackets for each book in the series and the compendium, Visions of Flesh and Blood. I didn't take a picture of them all, though, because, besides the spines, they all pretty much look the same, as you can see. 

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