January Wrap-Up & February TBR

One month of 2025 down, 11 to go. Not that I have any particular reason for the year to go by quickly. I'm more so looking forward to warmer weather than anything else. January wasn't a big month for me. I ate, I slept, and I wasn't as productive as I should have been. I also spent a lot of money on books and new furniture that's coming soon. Other than that, life hasn't been too crazy.

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 January

Kingdom of the Wicked: 4 stars (reread)

Kingdom of the Cursed: 4 stars

The Blood of Gods and Monsters: 4 stars

Kingdom of the Feared: 3 stars

I read four books in January, which, once again, isn't a ton, but, three of them have been on my physical TBR for a couple of years now, so that is good progress. Yes, that's right. I finally read the entire Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy by Kerri Maniscalco. I think the first book is still my favorite in the series. Book two starts out good, but goes a little wonky towards the end, and book three is like a fever dream. I love the demony vibes of Kingdom of the Feared, but, honestly, it made very little sense. I also read one ebook, The Blood of Gods and Monsters by Lucinda Dark. It's the third book in the Mortal Gods series. I enjoyed this one. I'm reading the series to prep for ApollyCon, so now I have to decide if I want to buy the books in physical form to get signed. I'm on the fence. I might have to decide when I get there.

Books Bought/Received in January

Will I ever stop buying more books than I can possibly ever read? Apparently not. In total, I bought 49 books in January and received 14 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were gifts or preorders/books ordered in prior months or free ebooks/review copies. Altogether, 38 of the books actually made their way to me in January, and the rest will come later.

The 14 books I received, were, like I mentioned, a mix of gifts, preordered books, ARCs, and ebooks. The gifts include paperback copies of Quicksilver by Callie Hart and Fireborne by Rosaria Mundo. Technically, I wasn't supposed to open these yet since they were for book club Christmas, but it got very delayed for reasons. I couldn't wait any longer, though, as I needed to make sure I didn't order things twice. I can pretend to be shocked though, right? I also got my Amalie Hutchins Arcane books 3-5 after they were originally returned to sender for a label issue. And my Owlcrate copies of The Songbird and the Heart of Stone and Six Scorched Roses, my panic order of Born of Blood and Ash Primal of Life hardcover edition from the JLA Shop, and my Waterstones preorder of Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon also arrived. For review, I received a NetGalley ARC of Arcana Academy by Elise Kova and physical ARCs of The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig and The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodson. And, for free Kindle ebooks, I downloaded Blood Laws by Lexi C. Foss and The Lost Siren by Raven Storm.

And here is where things go crazy. I bought sooooo much. A lot of which was book box special orders/ApollyCon preorders. Icky. The 24 books I bought and actually received in the month include An Ember in the Ashes 1, 2, and 4 (B&N); Cruel is the Light by Sophie Lark (Waterstones); Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (B&N); Lightfall by Ed Crocker (B&N); A Beautiful Darkness trilogy, Snow Likes Ashes, and Forever (Pango);  Sanctuary, The Blood Trials, The Discord of Gods, Lover Avenged, Conquer the Kingdom, Tear Down the Throne, Murtagh, A Sky Beyond the Storm, The Lost City of Faar, The Never War, and Archangel's Light (Book Outlet); and A Fire in the Flesh and A Light in the Flame (eBay).

For books that were either preorders or ones that didn't arrive until February, I have 25 of those. They include the French edition of A Soul of Ash and Blood (FNAC); the Flesh & Fire series 1-4 from Cover2Cover; the FairyLoot edition of Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi; Stacia Stark's ApollyCon set 1-4 of Kingdom of Lies; Melissa Roehrich's ApollyCon preorder for Lady of Darkness and Rain of Shadows and Endings; Bookish Box's edition of Jess Wisecup's Between Fear & Favor; Books for Days Crate edition of FBAA 1-5; the Serbian editions of FBAA 2-4; the FairyLoot Romantasy book, The Starlight Heir; the FairyLoot Adult book, Immortal; a B&N replacement copy, Code Name Cassandra; and the Iridescent Fairytale ApollyCon copy of FBAA.  

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, it's not overly impressive for January. 

I just stopped my watch of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as I was running out of decent episodes. Now the cast members are unrecognizable and I'm kind of over it. So, the new show to rewatch is House, M.D. I started from season four, as that's about when I stopped my rewatch last time. I hate the new cast members, so that's why I stopped. I'm not sure I'll keep going. The old dynamic was so much fun. The new characters are a little lame. That's pretty much all I can remember watching, sadly. January was a quiet month.

February TBR

It's a new month in the new year, but there are a couple of books still holding on from my 2024 TBR. I still need to read Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu and The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe for review. Now, I have to add The Raven Scholar, The Knight and the Moth, and Arcana Academy to that list as well. I need to stop requesting books for review. Lol. I also need to read Worthy of Fate by A.N. Caudle to decide if I want to purchase her special edition for ApollyCon. I'm about 10% in right now, and it's looking like a no so far.

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Okay, well, that's the month of January, plus some February 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 French-Serbian 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, the first week of February has come and gone. We're so close to spring. I can't wait for the warmth and sunshine. But I'm not looking forward to the bugs and potential allergies. This week has been pretty chill. I'm finally getting some book-organizing-related tasks completed. I've cleared out two bins of books. Now, I only have two left. I just have to find space for them on my shelves, which takes time. But, I'll make significant progress this weekend, since next weekend I'm getting furniture delivered, and I want my house to look decent when it arrives. That means no books stacked on kitchen counters or in bins on my floor.

 

Now, on to this week's haul. First up, I have books two through four of the Blood and Ash series. These are the Serbian editions, though. I had to have a fellow FBAA collector help me out for these, as the website wouldn't let me check out with my payment info. And thankfully, these ones made it to my house no problem, unlike when I bought the first book and it traveled back and forth across the Atlantic a couple of times over a solid three-month period. 

 

 

 

And next, I have the French part of the haul. The collector's edition hardcover of A Soul of Ash and Blood released this month. And it only took FNAC three days to deliver it to me. They're always so incredibly fast. I honestly don't understand how they can be so fast while Barnes & Noble is so freakin' slow. I just want my preorder less than five days after it releases. Why is that so hard?

 

 

 

Next up, I have the FairyLoot edition of Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan. This was the January Adult book of the month, I believe. It's pretty, but I think I prefer the Waterstones design, as it matches the aesthetic of her other UK covers and the previous FairyLoot designs a bit more. I'll have to read this one to decide if I'd rather have the Waterstones copy. It's sold out, so it'll be a secondhand buy, if I do. 

 

And here we have an order I'd been debating making for a while now. It's L.J. Andrews's Ever King series, which recently got picked up by a U.S. publisher right before the fourth book releases. I hate that, especially because I really liked the original indie cover designs. Something about them is just very calming and cool. The new designs look a little amateurish. They're basically just solid background recolorings in garishly bright colors. I have the Arcane set for the first two books, which was kind of meh, so I decided to just splurge and buy the indie paperbacks to get signed at ApollyCon, even though I know I won't ever have a full matching set. Oh, and I got these online from Walmart, since I had a gift card.

 

 

This is the last of the physical copies. As you can see, I've had a rough time trying to obtain a decent copy of Code Name Cassandra by Meg Cabot. My third copy arrived today from B&N. It looks okay when compared to the second copy that arrived, which came in a mailer with sticky insides that ripped off sections of the cover. The back of the third copy, the replacement, was ripped off a bit too. I seriously need them to stop using those freaking mailers, but at least it's not the front. The first copy I got was from Amazon, and it just looked like it was used copy, not brand new. So yeah, that was not a fun time. But, I think I only have one more copy to obtain in the series, Safe House. I have it in the wrong size right now, and it's very difficult to find it in the mass market paperback edition in decent condition. Ugh.

 

Excuse the terrible photo quality for these, but they arrived after I'd already prepped my haul post. I guess my packages now arrive mid-day versus late at night. I don't understand the post office. They seem to just make up their routes willy-nilly every couple of weeks. But anyway, my preorder of TJ Klune's The Bones Beneath My Skin B&N edition arrived as well as two books I ordered from B&N to replace copies I had sold. Those are Moonlight and Dark of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne. I also bought a copy of the U.S. Constitution because, with how things are going right now, I figured it'd be handy to have.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. I downloaded a Kindle copy of Vela Roth's Blood Tribute because it was free, and then I randomly decided to download a Kindle Unlimited copy of Hailey Turner's Resurrection Reprise. I started reading it, and I'm not entirely sure why, as it's a spinoff book from another long series that I started and don't really think I'll ever finish. I just wanted a good vampire MM story. However, I got about 15% into this one, and I don't think I'll like it. I'm not really a fan of the detective urban fantasy stories that focus too much on the case and not enough on the romance. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Final Books of January 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 finally February! OMG! One month closer to sunshine and warmth! Woohoo! Other than waiting for spring, I haven't been up to much since last week. Just working, eating, sleeping, etc. I've also been planning for ApollyCon, which has gotten really expensive. I've bought so many books in January. It's very upsetting to my bank account. Very, very upsetting. I need authors and book boxes to stop dropping so many special editions.

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have an ARC that showed up from Orbit. I had requested The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig a month or so ago. I've heard good things about Rachel Gillig's other duology, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Plus the cover is very pretty. I also forgot to share last week that I received a Pango used books order that included Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. There were a few other books in this order, but I'm not sure I'm going to keep them. They're not in very good shape, unfortunately. I really need to demand photos of all angles of books from now on. Sigh. 

 

 

 

And next, I have an order I should have made years ago. For some reason, it hit me about a week ago that these covers of Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series would be going out of print in hardcover, so I had to order them before then. Unfortunately, book three was already gone, so I'll have to order that one from a used retailer. Ugh. But, I'm glad I finally have these. I've been putting off reading this series for some weird reason, even though I think I'll love it. Now's my chance. I'll probably wait to buy book three until I finish book one though, just in case I don't like the series.

 

 

 

And for the last of the physical books, I have the Waterstones edition of Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark. I preordered it because it was pretty, and I have no self-control, obviously. My preorder of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros arrived as well. Like most copies that have shipped out, mine managed to get a bit warped. I don't care as much as some people, since this isn't a series I collect editions of, but I really wish Red Tower would stop rushing their books and take their time so there are fewer production issues.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. Worthy of Fate by A.N. Caudle is a Kindle Unlimited book that I downloaded because the author is going to ApollyCon. I downloaded a free copy of The Lost Siren by Raven Storm on Kindle as well. No idea if it's any good, but it was free, and I like free books. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Giant Haul 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.

Alright, I'm back with another haul. This one is for two weeks' worth of books. I ended up taking Friday off last week and running around, so I wasn't able to prep my Saturday haul like I usually do. Therefore, you get a ton of books shared today. And unfortunately for me, that means a lot more photos and paragraphs to deal with. Boooo. But new books are always fun.

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have something that should have arrived like a month ago. The Arcane Amelia Hutchins add-ons got all the way to my local post office before they were returned to sender. I guess something was wrong with a lot of the address labels because people were complaining in the Facebook group about it as well. So yeah, it went back to sender and finally got to me. Now, I haven't even read these, but I ordered the add-ons because look at them. They're so pretty. 

 

 

And this part of the haul is one reason why I don't order from Book Outlet anymore. That's right. I made a Book Outlet order after years of not even looking at their website. I was bored one day and decided to peruse, and they had some great stuff. They had quite a few books I needed for ApollyCon too, like The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport, Tear Down the Throne and Conquer the Kingdom by Jennifer Estep, Archange's Light by Nalini Singh, and even a J.R. Ward book that I've read and probably won't take to the signing, but it's still nice to have, Lover Avenged. I also got The Discord of the Gods by Jenn Lyons, which means I only have one more book in this series to get before I can binge the whole thing. Now, the problem lies with the two D.J. MacHale Pendragon books I ordered and two other books. The Pendragon books were supposed to be the old character covers, not these. And then two other books I ordered, A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir and Murtagh by Christopher Paolini, were so dirty and damaged that there's no way I could keep them. I emailed Book Outlet, and got a refund for the damaged ones. (I also forgot to include Sanctuary by Meg Cabot in this picture. Oops).

 

 

Next, I have my Owlcrate copies of The Songbird and the Heart of Stone and Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent. Carissa just released her ApollyCon preorder, which is a character art set of exclusive dust jackets, and apparently the dust jackets will fit on the Owlcrate versions. That's really nice as I was considering getting rid of the Owlcrate editions since the FairyLoot ones are a lot prettier. Now, I have an excuse to keep these. Haha.

 

 

Here I have more JLA stuff. Surprise, surprise. I ordered an extra edition of the Primal of Life Born of Blood and Ash from the JLA Shop whenever my original order was potentially lost. That just arrived. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. My FBAA shelves are getting dangerously full. The A Fire in the Flesh copy was from eBay and will be used for my extra dust jacket sets. I still need a few more of the Flesh and Fire series to complete all my dust jacket purchases. Ugh. One day at a time though. I can't buy them all at once.

 

 

 

My next order was a pin from the Etsy shop Angelaanimates. It was a random purchase since the pins were going out of stock soon. I couldn't miss out. There are a couple of other pins that I'd like to purchase on Etsy and other shops, but I've spent so much on books lately that I need to hold off on swag.

 

 

Here, I have a copy of Lightfall by Ed Crocker. This one sounded pretty good, so I preordered it. It's a fantasy with vampires, werewolves, and all the wonderful paranormal creatures. I hope I love it. It's also not very long, so I think it'll be a nice quick read. 

 

 

My final physical book is the FairyLoot edition of A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon. I have the Waterstones edition of this too, so I need to decide which set I want to keep once I read the duology. Or at least, I think it's a duology... I haven't paid much attention to this series beyond some people really liking it and some people really not.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. Blood Laws by Lexi C. Foss is a free Kindle book that I downloaded because I was thinking about getting rid of my paperback edition that I got from ApollyCon a while back. But, I think I'm keeping it for now. A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness by Lucinda Dark is a Kindle Unlimited download. The Arcana Academy book by Elise Kova is a NetGalley ARC. I wasn't planning on requesting it, but the publisher/NetGalley actually reached out and said I could have a copy, so why not? 

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

My 2024 Wrap-Up

Yeesh! 2024 is over! I didn't do anything too crazy this year. It was pretty quiet compared to last year when I moved, went to Iceland, and went to ApollyCon. This past year, I just volunteered at ApollyCon. While I plan to actually be an attendee of ApollyCon in 2025, I'm hoping to do a few new fun adventures. I have no idea what those will be, but I'm keeping myself open to opportunities. But, before I get into the future, I need to discuss the past. Specifically, all of the books and book-related stats associated with my 2024 reading goal.

Books Read in 2024

This year, I read 46 books. That's not as many as last year's 101, unfortunately. Nor is it even close to that number. However, it is above the 30 books I usually set my Goodreads goal at. I don't like pressuring myself, so 30 is a reasonable amount to reach if I'm in a reading slump, much like I was this year. I do hope 2025 is a better reading year. It's already proven pretty fruitful in just the first 10 days, thankfully.

I'm not going to list out every single book I read in 2024, but I do have some fun stats to share.

In 2024, I read:

📚 19 fantasy books
📚 18 paranormal/urban fantasy books
📚 1 sci-fi
📚 8 contemporary

📚 3 young adult
📚 43 new adult/adult

📚 20 physical copies bought/received
📚 1 bought ebook
📚 1 e-ARC
📚 24 Kindle Unlimited ebooks

📚 7 books owned pre-2024
📚  20 books acquired in 2024 (not counting KU)
📚 1 reread

📚 Finished reading 3 series that I started pre-2024.
📚 Started 20 new series in 2024 (one of which I don't plan on continuing).
📚 Started 11 series in 2024 and caught up with the series in 2024.
📚 Started and finished 2 series in 2024.

📚 My highest rated books at 4.5 stars: Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Alpha Wolf and Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti.
📚 My lowest rated books at 2 stars: Fortuna Sworn by K.J. Sutton.

Books Bought in 2024

In total, I bought 290 books in 2024. This came out to over $8,000. Sweet baby Jesus! That's double the amount of last year. Oof. I can't even fully blame ApollyCon this year since I was just a volunteer and I limited my purchases. Oh, and those special editions are killing me. I'm not even reading them, so I'm planning to do a pretty big unhaul for some soon. I've actually done multiple unhauls throughout 2024, but it doesn't make up for the crazy amount I've spent. This amount doesn't even include my monthly Kindle Unlimited subscription. I also didn't think my swag spending was that bad, either, as I had a few months with pretty low amounts, some were even $0. But it still added up to almost $2,000. Though, that was heavily influenced by the ApollyCon tickets I bought, some of which, I've already sold. 

I typically make rules for myself in these posts to not buy so much, but I never stick to them, so what's the point. Lol. I do plan to slow down quite a bit, especially since I'm pretty caught up on my FBAA collection, so, if things don't drop, I'll already save like $1,000. But, I already know of one set that's going on sale this month. So... Yeah. Anything less than what I spent in 2024 will be great. That's all I'm going to say. I do want to clarify though, that a majority of the books I bought were duplicates. Not that that makes it any better. But, only 96 2024 purchases are left unread on my TBR. However, the bad news is, none of these numbers include the books I received as gifts, for review, etc. I fully recognize that I have a problem and I need to slow waaaay down. It has to slow down this year. IT HAS TO.

***

Okay, well, that’s the summary of 2024, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last year? If so, share in the comments!

My Top 10 Books of 2024

Another year over, which means another barrage of Top 10 lists for January. This list is for my top 10 reads of 2024. I read 46 books in 2024, and I'm hoping to do better numbers in 2025, but as long as I get over 50, I think I'll be fine.

Enough of the future talk though, let's take a look at the past. In this top 10 you'll notice a theme of fantasy/paranormal books. No contemporary allowed. Ha ha. Unlike last year, though, the top seven kind of fluctuate in terms of which one was better, simply based on my mood... So, let's get started.

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Bride by Ali Hazelwood

I kind of just threw this book in here, as it was between Bride and Pucking Around by Emily Rath. Bride won because I like the world-building more. The idea that vampires and werewolves have different types of blood with the age-old trope that they war with each other à la the Underwold film franchise just makes me glued in. And then the whole enemies-to-lovers trope on top of it is a nice bonus. It gave me major Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark vibes. But, the ending is very rushed and a bit of a letdown.

Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy

This was just a good time. I enjoyed the space murder adventures. It was kind of like a less dense version of The Expanse for its space-detective elements mixed with Law & Order: SVU, only make it gay. I had fun reading it, and it got me out of a pretty big slump. I think the sequel will be a good time too.

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

This is another one that was just fun. It was a nice, easy fantasy book to get sucked into at the beginning of the year. It doesn't hurt that I have a pretty FairyLoot edition now, either. Hee hee. Bjorn and Freya's dynamic made me want to throw things at the wall, but I also really enjoyed their interactions as well. It was a little weird that way.

The Last Sun and The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards

My first double pick, which might technically be cheating, but it's so hard to pick just one book in a series sometimes if you've read multiple throughout the year. This series gave me a Supernatural TV show vibe mixed with Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles series. And while book three didn't have quite the same kick, it was still enjoyable. Unfortunately, there was just too many mentions of the pandemic for my tastes. I don't want that in my fantasy/paranormal books. No thank you. Books one and two were top tier, though.

Gold & Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy

Man, I can't believe The Plated Prisoner series is over. There may be a spinoff one day, but it won't be the same. Although the characters in this series are great and there's some awesome world-building, there were elements in the final installments that were just off. Therefore, they couldn't be higher on my list. Like in book five when the beginning is just Auren being lost and book six when a confusing range of things happen way too quickly at the end with more of Auren being lost in the beginning. Still, it's one of the top romantasy series for a reason.

Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy

I had a good time reading this book. It actually helped me stay out of my reading slump at one point. This book is kind of a mix of Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series mixed with Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy. It has the vibe of a Victorian historical fiction with magic. It has a magical forest as well.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Number three being Iron Flame kind of shows that this list is just a mish-mash of four-star reads until we reach the top three. Not because I didn't enjoy Iron Flame, but because I read it so long ago in 2024 that I honestly remember very little about it other than liking it. I'm definitely going to have to get some sort of recap before the third book comes out because I can only recall the general plot points and nothing else.

Restless Stars by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

The last book in the Zodiac Academy series was extremely bitter sweet. And, when I first finished it, it was more bitter than sweet with too-long battle scenes and not enough character interactions. However, now that I've had some time to sit with it, I appreciate the ending a bit more than I first did. I really want to do a reread of the whole series at some point. Maybe once all the special editions are out so I can have all the bonus content and just binge it all.

Alpha Wolf & Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Yep, another Twisted Sisters book, or books, technically, made the Top Ten. While I read all four of the Darkmore Penitentiary books back-to-back, I enjoyed books two and three the most out of all of them. The characters had so much banter in these two books and the crazy events were off-the-wall hilarious and entertaining. It's like Prison Break with comedy and magical powers. I love it, and I'm sad it's over.

Born of Blood & Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Does this surprise anyone that a JLA book is my #1 book of the year? Well, it surprises me. I never thought a Flesh & Fire sequel would make it this high on my list. But, BOBAA was excellent. I really enjoyed myself reading this one. I think the world-building and the general build-up to Primal of Blood and Bone's plot points really just helped me love a majority of the book's events. Were there still some things I didn't like? Absolutely. Did that matter? Not really.

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Alright, there you have it. My top 10 reads of 2024. What 2024 reads were your favorite? Let me know in the comments.