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.

***

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.

***

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Purple ARC 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.

Snow and ice. Ice and snow. That's all there is anymore. I'm ready for the sun to come back. Please, universe. Other than bad weather, things have been fairly quiet. I've just been working, reading, and killing time on my phone until I can walk outside without putting on 50 layers of clothes. Can you tell I'm bitter about all the snow? Normally, it wouldn't be so bad, but I have things I want to do that the weather is really putting a major damper on. I have a spring cleaning itch and fresh air and open windows are a must.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I got an ARC of a book I requested from Orbit. (Thank you, Orbit!) It's The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. It's a pretty thick book. I can't remember what exactly called to me to want to be on the ARC list for this book, but I'm glad I did. It's purple. Ha ha. But it's also a brick of a book. Like 700 pages. Thankfully, the release date isn't until April, so I have some time.

 

 

 

Next up, I haves something I technically received last year, but didn't open until January. My book club friends did a Christmas book gift exchange, but because of crazy life events, we didn't open them together. Technically, we're not supposed to open them yet, but I needed to know what was in there so I could make other online purchases. Don't tell my friends. Lol. I got Fireborne by Rosaria Munda and Quicksilver by Callie Hart. Both of which I'm very excited for.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Missing Mail 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 pretty quiet week. There's been work and the gym and celebrating the New Year in bed reading a book, just how I like it. I don't really have any major goals for 2025, but I do plan to put out my 2024 recap, and maybe, if I feel like it, I'll list some 2025 goals. There aren't many, but I would like to read more of my physical TBR. That and organizing my shelves are the only two "big" goals.

 

So on to this week's haul. First up, I finally have my Primal of Life and Death editions of Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. These things were stuck in post office purgatory for like two weeks. I had to file a missing mail search, and I was worried I'd never get them, especially since the JLA Shop wouldn't replace them. I'd only get a refund. Thankfully, after weeks of anxiety, they were finally shipped to me. Now, I just need to locate a Primal of Death ARC version and my Primal collection is complete.

 

  

 

Next up, I have a Barnes & Noble order I made since they were having a 50% off sale on select hardcovers. I wouldn't have made the order, but there were two books I needed, so I thought why not get them for cheap. Those books were Light Bringer by Pierce Brown and Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, the traditionally-published version, by Carissa Broadbent. And then I saw A Bloom in Winter by J.R. Ward and The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang and I decided to buy those too. There were a couple of others on sale, but I was good and only bought these.

 

 

 
And lastly, I have my FairyLoot December Romantasy book. I've been looking forward to this one. It's Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu, and it's very pretty. The author is going to be at ApollyCon, so I'd like to read this one soon. Maybe even this month if I can get through my current reads. Then, if I like it, I may end up buying the UK hardcover to get signed at the event, since this edition is already signed. But that's only if I love it. I can't keep buying multiple editions of books if I haven't read and loved them. I need to stop doing that.

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

December Wrap-Up & January TBR

It is officially 2025. Wow. I feel like the first half of the year went by rather slow, but ever since August, things have just flown by. Hopefully, things slow down again. I need more time in my life with ApollyCon coming up. Plus, I'm hoping to get my shelves finished by June of this year. It's taken me way longer to get them done than I'd like, mostly because I kept freezing in overwhelmed fear, but I'm making progress now, so I think June is a good deadline for it to be complete. This includes me potentially buying a couple more Billy bookcases too, so it's not just organizing stuff. I need to make sure I have the money and a rental contract renewed before I can finish my library. But anyway... December was good. The holidays were nice and relaxing with too much food, as always. And I got some cool stuff, some of which you've already seen and will see again in this post.

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 December

A Reign of Storm and Madness: 4 stars

Axes & O's: 3 stars

Kestrel: 4 stars

Bride: 4 stars

Heartless Hunter: 3.5 stars

I read five books in December, which isn't a lot, but I honestly thought I'd only read four, so I'm happy with five. I was in a bit of a slump throughout November and the start of December, and I'm just now getting back into reading. I'm even reading my TBR! Two of the books I read, Bride by Ali Hazelwood and Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli were physical books that I bought this year. I'm so happy I read more than just Kindle Unlimited titles. Though, I do have three of those: A Reign of Storm and Madness by Lucinda Dark, Axes & O's by Kayla Grosse, and Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy.

Books Bought/Received in December

Well, this is a lot. I honestly didn't think I had this much in December, but the books just kept coming. I think a lot of them were preorders and gifts, so it's not as bad as it looks... right? In total, I bought 31 books in December and received 22 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were gifts/preorders/books ordered in prior months. Altogether, 51 of the books actually made their way to me in December, and two are on their way.

The 22 books I received, were primarily subscription box preorders, free ebooks, and Christmas gifts. The Christmas gifts included The Eras Tour book and Emily Henry's Book Lovers from my sisters and the five books in the Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima, the first two books in the Powerless series by Lauren Roberts, and a copy of From Blood and Ash from my parents. The book box preorders included Into the Woods and The Osseous Chronicles by Ivy Asher and Serpent Sea by Maiya Ibrahim. I also got replacements for my banged up editions of The Prophecy and The Struggle by JLA from the JLA Shop, and my two BOBAA Primal editions finally arrived after weeks of going missing. My order from Harper L. Woods for What Lurks Between the Stars arrived. I also got Code Name Cassandra by Meg Cabot (not pictured) for free, as I was going to return it since it was old looking, but Amazon told me to keep it, so I guess I will until I find a better copy somewhere. And for the Stuff Your Kindle Day, I got Blood and Brujas by Mikayla D. Hornedo, The Fae King's Assassin by Alisha Kapheke, and On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn.

This is where it gets ugly again. I bought too much. From Amazon, I decided to just binge buy, and I got Sanctuary, Missing You, and Haunted by Meg Cabot; Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli; Crossing Acheron by H.G. Birde; Full Moon and Shadow of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne; the Inheritance Cycle 1-4 by Christopher Paolini; and Foxy Tales by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. For book boxes, I got Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu and The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson from FairyLoot subscriptions. From Waterstones, I ordered the anniversary edition of Red Rising by Pierce Brown and A Moonsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon.

I have to break this up into a new paragraph or it'd be the longest paragraph ever. So, next, I have a Barnes & Noble online order I made for their 50% hardcover sale. Those include four books: Light Bringer by Pierce Brown, The Emperor and the Endless Palace, A Bloom in Winter by J.R. Ward, and Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent. While visiting B&N, I bought Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast and The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle. I also bought The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson from Target. From PangoBooks, I bought Alienated by Melissa Landers, Goddess by Josephine Angelini, ASITE, and Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins. For ebooks, I bought The Witch Queen of Halloween by Kresley Cole and Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright. And finally, I had a couple of payments on a couple of book sets, but I don't really count those with my numbers, as I already included them in previous wrap-ups. Oh, and for books I ordered that are still on their way, I got a second Primal of Life BOBAA editions, because I thought my original order wouldn't arrive and I was worried, and I bought a cheap A Light in the Flame from eBay that should arrive soon.  

Currently Obsessed With

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

I'm still watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit when I'm eating or when I have it on in the background as I'm typing, but I'm running out of good episodes, so I'll likely switch to something else soon. No idea what that'll be. I did watch the first season of Yellowjackets on Netflix, and I really want to watch season two, but it's not on there yet. I may end up getting a Showtime subscription closer to when season three starts releasing, so I can watch both seasons back-to-back. I also watched the most recent season of The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime. Other than that, there were a couple of Christmas movies watched and one family movie I rewatched on my own. That was Beethoven. The Christmas movies were Christmas Vacation, parts of The Santa Clause 2 and Home Alone, and Red One on Amazon Prime. The holiday movies were ones I watched with my family.

January TBR

It's a new year, but the TBR hasn't changed much. I still need to read Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu and The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe for review. I'm just now finally getting back into enjoying reading, so hopefully I can get to these two soon, once I'm not at risk of falling back into an icky reading slump. I also have the urge to reread Kingdom of the Wicked so I can read the sequels, and I want to finish The Blood of Gods and Monsters by Lucinda Dark on KU.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of December, plus some January sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!