Another Small 2024 Holiday Unhaul

Surprise! Another 2024 unhaul post! I actually didn't plan on this one. I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed and decided to make a decision to get rid of a set I've had since I was in junior high. Wow. It's a sad day, but a necessary day. I can't keep everything anymore, as much as I wish that wasn't the case.

I'll start with the easy one first. I thought I'd gotten rid of Inheritance, the fourth book in Christopher Paolini's series, a few months ago. It turns out, I still had it. So, I asked the person who bought my other Eragon copies if they'd like this one as well as the four Megan Whalen Turner books. They did. Woo for getting rid of stuff! But, it was sad to let go of the Queen's Thief series. I loved the books as a kid, but I'm older now. I'll never finish the series. I think there are two more books out now, and I didn't even enjoy the fourth book anyway. It was time to let it go. And, if I regret my choice, I can always buy the prettier UK paperback covers. Though I will miss these original out-of-print covers. They're nostalgic. Also, don't mind that I took this picture on my washing machine. I was too lazy to move them into another room. 

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

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!

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?