Stacking the Shelves: The Shopping Trip 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 officially the holiday weekend for me. Huzzah! I'm so ready to be off for multiple days. It's going to be swell. Now, I haven't done as much preparation in terms of cleaning and organizing than I'd like, but there's no more time, so what's done is done at this point. At least all my holiday shopping is complete now. That's all that matters.

But on to the books. First up, I have a mix of spontaneous buys from various sources. I made an Amazon order a couple of weeks ago for some reason I don't remember now. I know I bought Full Moon and Shadow of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne to replace the versions I had that were older that I'd just recently sold. I'd also bought the third book (Amazon didn't have a new copy of the first for sale), and it arrived smashed and wet, since it was shipped with a giant box of DampRids that I'd also ordered from Amazon in a separate order. I'm all for Amazon saving time/money by shipping things together, but those two things just do not mix. Crossing Acheron by H.G. Birde was also in that original Amazon order, and What Lurks Between the Fates by Harper L. Woods character cover edition also arrived. My sister and I had a spontaneous shopping trip this past Saturday where I bought The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson from Target and Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast and The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle from Barnes & Noble. It was the first time I'd been to a large bookstore since July. It felt so good to be back among the shelves.

 

 

Next up, I have another kind of spontaneous order. I'd ordered a copy of Alienated by Melissa Landers off of Amazon, but it turned out to be a used edition, so that got quickly returned. I loathe Amazon for offering used copies without clear info about where it's coming from. Grr... Anyway, so I went on PangoBooks to see what copies they had available. Oh, and I was replacing my hardcover copy because I'd spilled something on it during all my organizing. While I was making that order, I decided to throw in a few other books from the same seller. Those include another copy of A Shadow in the Ember by JLA, Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins, and Goddess by Josephine Angelini, which I actually didn't need but I couldn't cancel it from the order and it was only $2 anyway.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Ivy Asher 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, Christmas vacation is getting closer and closer, and boy am I read for it. Do I know how many days I plan to take off yet? Absolutely not. But I'm just ready to not be at work. Thanksgiving was not nearly enough. Also, I need 2024 to be over so I can start fresh. I spent a lot of money in 2024, along with having a very stressful work life and an unorganized/messy house. I want 2025 to be here so it can be closer to nice spring weather and a good spring cleaning. Cleaning in the dark, dreary days of winter just isn't the same.

But on to the books. First up, I have my Arcane subscription books. They include Into the Woods by Ivy Asher and Ann Denton and The Osseous Chronicles bindup by Ivy Asher. They're both pretty. I've never read an Ivy Asher book before, though, so we'll see if I like her writing style. I have a feeling the Into the Woods book likely won't be for me, since it's a fairytale retelling, but I might try it one day anyway.

 

 

Next up, I have my replacements for the last two books in Jennifer L. Armentrout's Titan series, The Prophecy and The Struggle. My original orders came damaged, so the JLA Shop submitted a UPS claim and sent me new editions. Now, I need to figure out what to do with the first set I got. Do I keep them and display them or do I get rid of them to reimburse some of the crazy spending I've been doing lately. (And by reimburse I mean throwing them in my book unhaul stacks where I sell like 30 books for $1 each. I don't sell damaged books for profit.) Keeping and displaying them will likely be the winner, though.

 

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded. Both are Kindle books. Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy is a Kindle Unlimited book I downloaded because I'm in a major reading slump and I'm trying to pick up anything and everything to get out of it. It isn't working. I also got The Witch Queen of Halloween by Kresley Cole on Kindle using some credit that was going to expire in early January. I love Kresley's Immortals After Dark series, but I've been putting off reading this one since I know it takes quite a bit of time for the sequels to come out. It's hard to wait for the next books once I immerse myself back into the world.

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

A 2024 Holiday Unhaul

I've been trying to organize my books for the past six months, which has meant discovering that some of my childhood books look a little disheveled. So, I've been going through them and either keeping them or storing them in a corner until I can decide if I want to keep the edition I have or replace them with a new version. This has resulted in books being everywhere in my house and me mentally and physically freezing whenever it comes to making actual progress on this endeavor. It's been a nightmare. However, I've moved past my deer-in-the-headlights phase, and I am now, slowly, but surely, making steady progress in organizing and prettifying my library. I have a long way to go, and it likely won't be resolved for another few months, but it's way better than it used to be.

Anywho, here's an unhaul featuring some books that I just need to get new copies of and/or I decided to let go of because I don't need them anymore.

 

First up, Blood and Chocolate, Untamed, and three books in the Inheritance Cycle, including Eragon (other two not pictured), are the books I'd like to find nicer versions of eventually, so I sold these. I actually sold all the ones that are pictured here. I just did a whole lot for $30. Eventually, I'd also maybe like to get a new edition of The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith, but it's not a priority. I didn't really love that series like I enjoyed the Secret Circle and the Night World books. And, while I'm sad to get rid of the first book in the Ever-Expanding Universe trilogy, Mothership, simply because I really like the cover and it's out of print now, the story was just cute. It wasn't anything I see myself rereading soon. I need to learn to let things go. 

 

 

Speaking of letting things go, I got rid of An Enchantment of Ravens because I just didn't like it compared to Sorcery of Thorns. I also got rid of Fireblood because I read the first book ages ago, and, while I really liked it, it's been years since I read book one and I have no idea if I'll ever get to the sequel. I own the first version as an e-ARC too. I don't have a physical copy of Frostblood, so I'll just borrow the ebook of Fireblood if I decide to finish the series one day. I sold a duplicate copy of Oblivion as well. And, for the books that I plan to replace, I will be getting new editions of the entire Heir Chronicles books, including The Dragon Heir, and the four books in the Dark Guardian series. Actually, replacements for some of those are on their way. I'm hoping they get here in one piece. Amazon packaging is stupid lately. 

 

And finally, I have a stack of books that I don't plan to replace. They include the FairyLoot paperback of of Twin Crowns (I have the hardcover, so I don't need this one), Fortuna Sworn (I read it and didn't like it), Legend of the White Snake (read it recently, and it was fun/okay but it's about snake shifters and the ending was rushed), Wings of Ebony (it has poor reviews and it doesn't interest me anymore), Dark Rise (I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped), and a damaged duplicate FairyLoot edition of Fire Study.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Godly 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.

Well, we are officially in the month of Christmas, and I am almost ready. I only have one person left to buy for, and my plan is to do that this weekend. Then, after that, I desperately need to save money. I've spent way too much over the last two months. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't stop. Ugh. I need to make a monthly spending budget apparently. #lame

 

With that in mind, on to this week's haul. First up, I wanted to share my Prettygal Pin Zodiac Academy add-on card set. Now, normally, I share the books first, but this was such a pretty picture, and the book photos I took are not nearly as gorgeous, so you get the character cards first. While I like the Zodiac Academy set, I do think it's a bit weird how they all look like Greek gods instead of wearing clothing from the book. It's really the only set that has this problem. I guess because it was the first one created.

Next up, I have part one of two (I think) Amazon book orders. Now, I hadn't planned on making this order, but the Zodiac Academy authors, Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, announced they were bringing back Foxy Tales, a novella bindup, for the month of December with a matching series cover. So, I grabbed it, and of course I added some other things to my cart along the way, including a $10 copy of Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, which I've been wanting to read.

And now here is a bit of Amazon order part #1 and #2. I got the first four books in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini for like $44. In hardcover! I was shocked. My copies were older, including one from a used library sale, so I decided to just replace them. Same for Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins, and various Meg Cabot books. You'll probably notice a theme of me unhauling older editions of my books and replacing them with newer ones.

 

Here we have another order I should not have made but did anyway. Madlen Designs created a set of dust jackets for the first three books in the FBAA series a couple of years ago. I didn't order them back then because I wasn't collecting (almost) every edition like I am now. So, when I tracked these down on Mercari, I had to jump on them. They're pretty hard to find nowadays for a decent price. I think I only have one more U.S. dust jacket set left to track down. There are a few international ones I'd also like to have, but we'll see if that ever happens.

 

This is my replacement dust jacket for my Acrylipics FBAA edition. My original copy had a wonky cover with the spine title font split between the front cover and the edge of the spine. It was odd, especially considering the reverse artwork was aligned perfectly. And what's also odd is that Acrylipics sent two dust jackets. I guess I'll give one to a friend or frame it or something. I do plan on using one for the reverse art, but that still leaves me with an extra dust jacket that I don't need.

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded. One is from Kindle Unlimited, and the other was a holiday deal purchase. The Blood of Gods and Monsters by Lucinda Dark is the KU book. It's the third book in a series I'm currently making my way through. Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright is a book I've been curious about for a while, but my library hold keeps coming in at inconvenient times. So, when the publisher posted that the book was on a $2.99 deal, I went ahead and bought it..

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

November Wrap-Up & December TBR

This past month has been extremely stressful work-wise. It slowed down a bit towards Thanksgiving. Thank goodness. But I expect things will get hectic again very soon. The good news is I'm reading again because I'm not as stressed out as I was at the beginning of November. I have a whole list of books I want to get to. It's just making it to the weekend so I can actually read them.

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

Legend of the White Snake: 3 stars

Bloodguard: 4 stars

A Sword of Shadow and Deceit: 4 stars

I only read three books in November. This is like the third month that that's happened. It sucks. I need to get back into reading. The books I own sound so good, but for some reason, reading has been giving me such anxiety lately. I think it's that relaxing when I could be doing something else like cleaning or exercising is messing with my head. I need to stop that. Reading is joy, and joy is health. The other tasks will be completed in due time. But anyway, two of the three books I read were physical copies. Kind of. And both of them were 2024 releases, so I didn't read any books from my pre-2024 TBR. Lame. Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee was my first read of November. It was fun, but I think I'm going to get rid of the book. It wasn't what I'd hoped for. Bloodguard by Cecy Robson also wasn't what I hoped for, but it was still a good time with decent worldbuilding, so I'm keeping it. Now, technically, I ended up finishing Bloodguard as an ebook because I visited my parents' house and didn't bring my physical copy with me, but I read most of it via the hardback. And lastly, I have a Kindle Unlimited ebook, A Sword of Shadow and Deceit by Lucinda Dark, an ApollyCon author. I just finished book two today and started book three, so that should tell you if I like the series or not.

Books Bought/Received in November

Well, this is just disastrous. I spent more money in November than I ever have before on books. And it wasn't by a small margin. Now, there is a pretty good place to lay the blame, so I'll explain that in a bit, but just know that this is insane... In total, I bought 48 books in November and received 22 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were preorders/books ordered in prior months. Altogether, 41 of the books actually made their way to me in November, and 29 were just preorders.

The 22 books I received, were primarily subscription box orders and B&N orders from the end of October that arrived in early November. I guess FairyLoot, Bookish Box, and Arcane conspired to send all of my preorders/sub books at once, because whew. It's a lot. From FairyLoot, my October subs arrived, The Coven by Harper L. Woods and Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy, along with the Crowns of Nyaxia duology by Carissa Broadbent and the last three books in the Vampire Academy trilogy by Richelle Mead. From Bookish Box, my Daevabad trilogy preorder arrived, and from Arcane, the first two books in Melissa Roerich's Lady of Darkness series arrived. In October, I'd also ordered a copy of A Light in the Flame from Pango and the first five books in the Blood & Ash series from Mercari to use for my extra dustjacket sets. From B&N, I had two A Shadow in the Ember B&N exclusive copies arrive as well as Rachel Gillig's One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns B&N exclusive editions.

This is where it gets ugly again. I bought sooooo much. However, the major bill won't come until we get to the preorders. My regular orders that were bought in November and arrived in the month of November include six books from B&N: Scorched and Onyx by JLA, The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen, The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes, Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas, and The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent. It also includes the November FairyLoot Romantasy book, A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan; the Wicked trilogy and the last two books in the Titan series from the JLA Shop; the last two books in the Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale from a Friends of the Library sale; a copy of A Light in the Flame from Pango; a FairyLoot edition of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire from Mercari; and two books in Meg Cabot's Mediator series and one from her 1-800-Where-R-You series from Amazon. I might end up returning the 1-800 book due to it being regular paperback size and not mass market size. That's why it's not pictured.

 My preorders for the month/books that haven't arrived yet include 29 titles. That's right, this is the part that destroyed my bank account. And the main culprit is the Zodiac Academy Luxe edition set that the authors, Susanne Valenti and Caroline Peckham were selling. It's all 14 books in the series, but the entire cost for the set was almost $800. Yikes! If those hadn't been included, my book total would not have been nearly as bad. However, there were a few other special edition preorders that contributed to the high budget. Those 12 other special edition preorders include FairyLoot's edition of Serpent Sea by Maya Ibrahim, Books for Days Crate's Covenant set for books 1-5, Arcane Society's Bridge Kingdom set for books 1-4, and LitHaven's Spark of the Everflame set for books 1-2. I also have one Amazon regular book and one JLA Shop order for two books that should arrive in the coming days. Oh, and technically, I'm on a payment plan for the Arcane and Books for Days editions, but I never know how to really count those, so I usually just put them in the month I ordered them.  

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, I changed things up a bit, but not by much.

That's right. I'm still on my Law & Order: Special Victims Unit binge. I usually only watch it when I'm eating or when I have it on in the background as I'm typing. But I also managed to watch a couple of other things. Those include Hidden Figures, the 1960's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the two Christmas Chronicles Netflix films, and the Hot Frosty Netflix movie about the snowman that turns into a real guy. I watched the Christmas movies with my parents, well, really my mom. My dad was asleep or doing other things while they were playing. Most of the films were rewatches except Hidden Figures and Hot Frosty. I'd never seen those before.

December TBR

The TBR has changed very little, so I'm going to use the same picture from last month, even though I've already read Bloodguard. Overall, I 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. 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 Fear the Flames is a mood read that can be replaced by whatever else I throw in to try to reach 50 books read in December. I'm at 42 right now, so I think I can make it.

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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!