Stacking the Shelves: The Harbinger 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.

This week has been fairly quiet for everyday life, but, Taylor Swift came out with four more songs, so the week of theorizing ahead of time and then listening to the songs on Friday made it an interesting five days at least. I will say, the songs aren't what I expected. There are also only four of them, so I've heard them so many times now that they're getting repetitive. I need a break. Lol.

 

As for the books I received this week, The Inked Pages' editions of Blood & Ash books three and four arrived. I was wondering what this was when I looked on Informed Delivery. I didn't receive any tracking emails for it or have any clue that it was shipping. I don't really like that, but I'm glad it made it to me safely. I do really like these editions, though, with the minor exception of the gold foiling that's all over them. I think Inked Pages could have toned that down just a bit. The prints are a nice addition to the box too. Very pretty.

 

 

 

Up next, I have my Barnes & Noble preorder of Harbinger by Geneva Lee. I'm really excited for this one. I doubt I get to it for a while, but it sounded good when I first read a snippet of the synopsis. I don't really remember what it's about now, but at the time, I thought it sounded great. Also, my copy arrived fairly dinged up. I thought about asking for a replacement, but I just didn't want to go through the effort of returning it. I think I'll just read it first then decide if it's worth it to purchase a better copy. I might try to get it on Book Outlet or when B&N has their sales.

 

 

 

 And finally, I have a preorder incentive for Jasmine Mas' The Emperor's Enemy. I was really looking forward to this one. That artwork on the print is amazing! I need to get to this book soon because it sounds so good, but that the same time, who knows when book two will be out. I've definitely become one of those people who prefers to binge my series now. I think it's because there are so many books releasing now versus five years ago when it was easier to remember storylines because you got 1-2 good releases a month, whereas today it's more like 10-15. That's a conversation for another day/post, though. Oh, and I did want to mention that I received the Target edition of Raven Kennedy's The Sweetest Fiend, but it arrived destroyed, so I have a replacement on the way. I'm crossing my fingers it's not damaged.

 

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

Upcoming Release: A Crown of Ruin Novella (Deluxe Paperback) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Blue Box Press is thrilled to announce that A Crown of Ruin: A Blood and Ash Special Edition Novella Paperback from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout is coming November 10th, and it is available for preorder now!

 

A Crown of Ruin

Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication Date: November 10, 2026

Paperback (limited edition with deluxe edges), 224 pages, Blue Box Press

Genres: Adult, Romantasy

Amazon | B&N | Indigo | Target | Walmart

 

When everything falls apart, the truth of who they are is revealed.

 

Poppy has fallen into stasis, her body broken and power spent, carried beyond the mortal realm. While she lies suspended in dreams, Casteel faces a world without her-raw, wrathful, and altered in ways he doesn't yet understand.

 

Left to steady a kingdom trembling under the weight of loss, Kieran shoulders what he cannot say aloud, even as the fractures between gods, mortals, and fate widen around him.

 

In the days that follow, grief becomes a guide, loyalty a burden, and love the only thing holding the realms together.

 

 These are the pieces that fill the silence. The moments of wrath, ruin, resolve, and the spark of what must come next. A Crown of Ruin reveals the unseen moments of love, loss, and change between The Primal of Blood and Bone and The Throne of Bone and Ash-now available in a beautiful print edition featuring designed edges and special bonus content, including excerpts from other books in the universe, original artwork, and a candid Q&A with Jennifer L. Armentrout.

My Thoughts

I read this novella as a free ebook download in January. It's still available for free, if you're interested, but it's coming out in a deluxe paperback edition with sprayed edges. It looks so pretty! And the bonus content has me very intrigued! I can't wait to add this to my Blood & Ash collection! I may even do a reread with a full review. I've thought a lot about this novella over the past nine months. It's really stuck with me, along with that TPOBAB ending. That was brutal!

Stacking the Shelves: The Broken Dove 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.

We're almost to the middle of July already. Holy cow! The first few months of the year felt like they were crawling by, but now, everything is flying by. I'm planning on taking a staycation soon too, and I'm so excited for it. Life has been insane and I need some time to relax, clean my house, and just be a human being again, not a computer for eight hours a day.

As for the books I received this week, I have more than I thought I would. My Ink Pages editions of From Blood and Ash and Kingdom of Flesh and Fire arrived. They're very pretty. I have no idea where I'll put them, but they're pretty, and that's all that matters. I'll figure out the rest later. I also just went through and organized my FBAA artwork, now I have to open it all back up to put these new pieces away. Some may make the shelves though, like that Poppy bow print. I love that one.

 

 

Next up, I have a book I didn't intend to get. I signed up for Allurial to get the Dhampira book last month, but I didn't want it to renew for July. I guess my renewal date is at the end of June, not the beginning of July like I thought, so I ended up having to pick out of their three options. I chose The Mortal Trials by Megan Shunmugam as one of the other titles didn't interest me and the third is a FairyLoot pick so I didn't need two copies. I also received my FairyLoot edition of Broken Dove by Dani Francis. While I'm still kind of bummed that the color palette of the cover is so similar to book one, it is a nice design and I plan to read the book soonish. Hopefully.

 

 

Here, I have two Barnes & Noble preorders: The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley and Tempting Venom by Rina Kent. I also have a Blackwells preorder of What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller for the UK paperback. Now, I'm hoping the UK hardcover of the sequel/spinoff book will match the first book's UK cover and not this one, but I'm not sure at this point and I'm honestly too afraid to ask. I don't love this paperback cover. It's not terrible, but I'm definitely glad the US version is completely different. Out of all of the books hauled today, I have read four of the seven, which does make me happy. I really need to stop buying so much. My ban was a 100% failure, so I'm not sure what'll happen from here on out. My self-control is nonexistent.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Second Set 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.

This week was so much better than the previous 4-6 weeks. I feel like I can breathe again. Now, the only problem is how freakin' hot it is. That's slowing me down in terms of working out and just wanting to do things in general. Air conditioning is essential right now. I'm still not reading as much, though. I was in a bit of a slump. However, I think I'm on the other side of it. Thank goodness. I hate staring at all of my books and not feeling like picking up a single one.

As for the books I received this week, it was a pretty decent haul. I did something spontaneous and ordered the Allurial edition of Dhampira by Amy Pennza. It was one of their three-book monthly options and first-time subscribers could get the book and a hat for only $9.99. So, I did it. How does this impact my book-buying ban, you ask? Well, I'm choosing to believe it doesn't because I already read this book prior to purchasing an extra copy (regular edition to come soon). Also, it's technically a special edition, and I don't limit myself with those since they can go out of stock quickly and secondhand markets are terrible sometimes. Also also, it was only $10. That's pretty cheap for a hardcover.

 

 

 

Here, I have a second set of the 2026 JLA ApollyCon exclusive Blood and Ash books, From Blood and Ash and The War of Two Queens. I didn't get an official event ticket until very, very late, so I didn't expect to get a set at the actual event. Therefore, I had preordered these books online to be shipped to me. But I did end up getting a ticket. Unfortunately, JLA's online shop (now called the ApollyCon shop, I believe), doesn't do cancellations, so now I just have duplicates. I might sell these later or I might keep them. Idk. Oh, and yes, my ApollyCon wrap up post is still coming. It's just taking a long time due to work and mental health ickiness. (I'm fine now. May was just pretty bleak.)

 

Next, I have a FairyLoot preorder. It's The Last Wish of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson. I haven't read the first book in this series yet, but I ordered book two, just in case. I actually did start the first one, but I got a chapter in and didn't continue. At the time, there was a lot going on. I was prepping for ApollyCon and work was hectic (not May hectic, but hectic, nonetheless). I'm still unsure about this series overall, though. It doesn't call to me. If anyone's read them before and can give me comp titles, that'd be great. I want to figure out what I'm in for. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Thanksgiving 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.

Wow. December is nigh. The end of 2025 is here. The world is looking up compared to the sad girl autumn that happened in September and October. Although, who knows what craziness we have in store for us in 2026. Yikes. You may have noticed I didn't post last week. Well, that's because I was ill. Like snot and fever ill. It was gross and a lot of sleep was had. But, this week has been much better, so hopefully, I can catch up on all of my posts and reading with a long Thanksgiving weekend.

As for books, first up, I have my stack of random titles from various places. Two of the books, Hollow by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti and The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty deluxe edition, were Barnes & Noble preorders. To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast was the November Romantasy FairyLoot book, and the last title is Ruthless Fae, also by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. It's the latest installment in the authors' luxe editions of their Zodiac Academy series.

 

 

Next, I have a lot of JLA. My German Mondlicht editions of the Flesh & Fire series arrived. They're very colorful. I also received my Indigo order of The Primal of Blood and Bone, which I had to go through a Facebook book-hunting group to acquire. Thanks, Trump. Grr. I also received my character editions of TPOBAB that JLA sold in her shop. Unfortunately, the Kieran copy has been returned, as it was damaged, so a replacement should be coming at some point. And yes, there's more stuff, because I did order the Juniper Books dust jacket for TPOBAB and a beautiful, but expensive pin of Poppy and Casteel from Celestial Faerie Trove. It's gorgeous! I also ordered the Sera and Nyktos one, but it'll be a while before that gets here.

 

 

 

And finally for the JLA goodies, I have my order of the Faery and Dragon Prints FBAA box. I originally wanted to make this order because it was supposed to come with the Spanish edition of the book and the goodies, but that ended up not happening. The goodies are still cute though. However, the character cards are probably the only item I'll actually display/use regularly. I'm not a big fan of overlays, and the booksleeve will likely only be used if I move or if I need it for a book convention. 

 

 

 

The very last items I have to share aren't books, and technically, I didn't even know I was going to get them. I was making a Walmart order that I was going to have to pay $10 in shipping for, so, of course, I had to add items to my cart in order to get free shipping. I didn't trust Walmart to send me a book in the mail, so I just ordered a couple of DVDs that were fairly cheap. The first is The Interview with the Vampire season one and the other is The Interview with the Vampire Tom Cruise movie. I watched IWTV last month, became obsessed with it, and have realized I've never seen the film all the way through. Though I know Kirsten Dunst acts her butt off in that movie from what I do remember. Eventually, I'm going to buy the books too, but I'll save that for a 2026 expense. Maybe I'll get some holiday gift cards for those. That'd be nice.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Blood and Ash Set 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.

The year is almost over. Thank god. We're closer every day to having sanity back. Hopefully. But now that it's autumn, it's darker out, which means I get in bed by 7 p.m. Lol. I haven't been reading much because I've been stuck in my Interview with the Vampire obsession, but I did get a bunch of books. And, of course, there are more books on the way.

As for books I actually received this week, two Jennifer L. Armentrout Books for Days Crate sets arrived. One of them was the much-anticipated Blood and Ash set. These are sooooo pretty. I'm not a huge fan of the plain red background, but the artwork is so gorgeous. I also got an acrylic Poppy/Cas/Kieran add-on standee in my order, along with an art print, sticker, and a few overlays. Oh, and my preorders of the FBAA coloring book also came in. I got two copies. One to color and one to collect.

 

 

The other Books for Days Crate set is the last two books in the Lux series/Lux spinoff. It's Oblivion and Obsession. I haven't read either of these yet. I think I'll do a whole reread of the series when/if the last book in the Origin series is released. Now, I do like the covers for this particular set, but I still haven't found a special edition Lux set that blows me away. Maybe FairyLoot will do editions one day. Not that I need to spend more money on these books.

 

 

 

And finally, I received my preorders of three different books from very different places. The first is The Strength of the Few by James Islington, which I received from Barnes & Noble. Next, is Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff, which I ordered from Blackwells, and then, I finally received my Origins Zodiac Academy novella special edition from the authors' company. It had been delayed for months, so it's weird to finally have it in my hands.

 

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

Review: The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Primal of Blood and Bone

Jennifer L. Armentrout

(Blood & Ash #6)

Publication Date: September 23, 2025

Hardcover, 1,288 pages, Blue Box Press

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Goodreads

 

In the shadows and flames, Primals will fall…

 

And from the blood and ash, new gods will rise.

 

 What was dreamt.

 

Poppy was never meant to awaken, and the consequences are devastating and far-reaching, stirring ancient powers from their slumber and transforming Casteel and Kieran in ways even the Fates couldn’t have foreseen. But what that means is the least of their concerns. For now.

 

What was foreseen.

 

The Blood Crown has fallen, but what has risen is a far greater danger than they’ve ever faced. From flesh and fire, the Great Conspirator has returned to the mortal realm, and he wants only one thing. They must stop the true Primal of Death before he regains his strength, and it won’t be easy. Even weakened, his influence is undeniable. His power, unthinkable. 

 

Has come to be.

 

 While the future of the realms rests upon them, they won’t stand alone. The gods have awakened—each harboring their own blood-soaked secrets. But they must navigate an unbalanced realm, where every choice—past and present—has the potential to not only undo everything they’ve fought for but also destroy the very bonds that have Joined them together.

 

For the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death and Destruction has risen.

My Review

The penultimate Blood & Ash book. I was not prepared for it at all. So many revelations and crazy things happening. It was chaos. In both good and bad ways. My emotions were all over the place, and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself when I finished reading. It took me two days to feel in any way normal about this book. I also kept a giant list of questions for JLA in my notes app. She has a lot to answer for after The Primal of Blood and Bone.

This book picks up right where A Soul of Ash and Blood left off. Poppy is in stasis, and Cas and Kieran are trying to keep things together. Well, Kieran is. Cas is a mess throughout the entire story. He's got a lot going on, so I get it. BUT! Treating my sweet baby Kieran poorly is unacceptable! UNACCEPTABLE! Truthfully, both Poppy and Cas treated him poorly, and I was very upset at both of them. Shame on them. I hope he gets an apology in the final book.

  TPOBAB reminded me a lot of The Crown of Gilded Bones, book three in the series, which wasn't my favorite installment, as it mostly consisted of long conversations full of info-dumping. TPOBAB also had conversations about events that happened in the Flesh & Fire series that we as readers already know about, so some of the dialogue just got a bit slow, and it was a lot. There honestly weren't very many scenes that weren't just lengthy conversations. There was one particular conversation that was repeated three times! Once to Poppy, once to Cas, and once to Kieran! The original conversation could have happened with all three major characters present to save valuable page time. I mean, come on! There's only one book left after this! Please give us more domestic trio scenes before its too late!

But, if you take out all of that, the book itself is solid. I definitely had to give it some time to marinate though. I think, trying to binge read it isn't a good idea. You'll burn out quickly. Read it slowly over a week or two, and maybe have the audio book going in the background, if you're an audio reader. I think it'll have more impact that way, especially with the twists. I am happy to say that I managed to guess the ending of the book based on context clues. I can't normally follow all of JLA's Blood & Ash prophecy-related plots, but I got this one. Gold star for me! Now, did I like where we left off? No. That was evil, JLA.

 Overall, as I've had time to reflect on TPOBAB, I've grown to appreciate it more. I think it's setting up for an insane last book, and I can't wait to see more of Kieran, Cas, Poppy, and Kieran. And, did I say more Kieran already? I really don't want this series to end, though. I'm scared. The spinoffs just won't be the same without our main trio.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Primal of Blood and Bone 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've been in recovery mode from my trip, so there's not much to say about life. I came back from D.C. last Friday, and I feel like my butt was kicked. I haven't gone to the gym in like two weeks, and I'm all meh. But, I think I'll be back to normal by this weekend. In the meantime, let's talk about books.

Obviously, it was The Primal of Blood and Bone release week last week, so my crazy amount of preorders came in. I preordered two Target editions because I thought if one came damaged, it would be good to have the extra, since I don't have a Target near me. Both came in fine condition, though. My Walmart edition kind of came with a small dent on the dust jacket, so I went to the store to trade for a new one. That was a whole process. Like all of the editions there weren't in the best condition. I had to take a dust jacket off of one book and put it on another to get the best sprayed edges. Ugh. I also went to the Fairfax, VA, Barnes & Noble signing event, so one of the B&N editions is from there. The other two copies are preorders from B&N that include one regular hardcover and one B&N edition. The B&N edition came beat up to holy heck, so a replacement is being sent. I get to keep the damaged one, so I'll use it for any extra dust jacket sets that come out. The regular hardback also came kind of damaged, but I only got a 20% refund for it, since the dust jacket was just crunched in the corner. I have another regular edition coming soon from one of the bookstores JLA did a signing for, so I'll include that. It may even be coming before this haul goes live. So, if you see it in this post, then you'll know it did. 

 

 

 

 

Up next, I have some TPOBAB goodies. (Ignore the B&N copy, I included that in the above pic too.) I received the spoiler card for TPOBAB JLA Shop box. Mine was missing in my box that I got a couple of weeks ago, so the JLA Shop was nice enough to send me one of their extras. My preorder incentive bookmark and temporary tattoo also arrived from the publisher, and you can see the swag that came with the B&N Fairfax event. There were character cards, a bookmark, and a small tote bag.

 

 

 

And here, I have the French edition of Visions of Flesh and Blood by JLA. I've been kind of reluctant to buy the French hardcover editions of this series, just because they typically aren't that different from the regular hardcovers. They just have colored endpapers, for the most part. But, the publisher went all out for Visions. It has sprayed edges, a ribbon bookmark, and a leathery/diary-type feel to the naked hardback. So, I got it. We'll see if I keep collecting the rest, though. I'm running out of room on my shelves.

 

And here we have some things that just arrived via Barnes & Noble. I preordered Bitter Burn by Sierra Simone as soon as it was announced. So I'll probably end up picking this one up fairly soon. I also preordered Bitten by Jordan Stephanie Gray. I love the color and design for the cover. My copy came with a small ouchie on the front, though. It's not anything I could get a refund for. It's just an annoying dent dot. I don't even know how it happened. I don't think it'll be super noticeable when it's on my shelf, at least. (Note: These two books arrived in October, along with the Mediator ones mentioned below, so they won't be listed as books bought in September in my upcoming September wrap-up post, in case there's any confusion.) 

 

 

 

And, miraculously, I have books that aren't JLA-related. My September Illumicrate book, The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino, was delivered right before my trip, and my B&N preorder of What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller arrived while I was gone. My sister picked it up for me so the packages didn't sit on my porch for two days. She had to do the same for all the TPOBAB editions that arrived while I was away. Oops. And my FairyLoot September YA book, Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan and my preorder of A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen were also delivered to my parents' house, so I took those home after my trip.

 

 

 

Next, I have something that I kept forgetting I even ordered. I bought them on somewhat of a whim. Kind of. I'd been looking at the UK Mediator books for a long time, as I have been trying to purchase newer printings of the US mass market copies with eh luck. I'm still missing two. (To be fair, I do already have a set in their original printing, but they're very old, so I'd like newer versions.) Last month, I got tired of not having these, so I just decided, "Screw it. I'm buying them." Despite knowing how much money I was going to be spending on all the books and bookish things going on in September. But, I do really like these. They're very pretty.

 

And finally, for ebooks, I have Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland. I downloaded it off of Kindle Unlimited after finishing the first book, Five Broken Blades. I enjoyed book one, but I'm not sure if I want to purchase the remaining two books. So, since they're on KU, I'm going to read them first, then decide. If I want to buy them later, I can do it when B&N has one of their online hardcover sales. 

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Stuffed Cat 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'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Just in time for the world to fall apart. Lol. Not really. It just feels like it most days. It's so weird to blog about books when there are awful things happening day after day. But, I've got to keep my sanity somehow, so books have been assigned that task. As for my actual life and not just my doomscrolling life, it's pretty much the same. I'm getting back into my regular workout schedule, and it feels good. Now, I've just got to keep it up.

As for books I got this week, there's actually only one physical edition. It's House of Bane and Blood by Alexis L. Menard. This was a Barnes & Noble preorder. I'd heard great things about the self-published version, so I decided to preorder the traditionally-published paperback. I'm hoping to read it before the sequel officially releases, so I can decide if I want to preorder book two as well. 

 

 

Up next, I have my JLA Shop The Primal of Blood and Bone box. This basically was just a goodie box JLA sold to coincide with the TPOBAB release this month. Honestly, I was surprised it was shipped out so early. I expected it to come around the 23rd, but I'm happy it's here now. I'd rather it come when I'm not getting ready for a trip. The box came with a pretty blanket, Cas's crown, a signed bookplate, an art print with the blanket art, a stuffed cave cat (if you know, you know), and an acrylic standee of Poppy, Cas, and Kieran. The whole box makes me even more excited for TPOBAB. Gah!

 

As for ebooks, I have one this week. It's Kresley Cole's Shadow's Heart. I've been putting off buying this because I couldn't decide if I wanted the paperback or ebook, but I had some Kindle credit that was expiring, and I couldn't decide on what else I wanted to purchase, so I panic-bought Shadow's Heart. Will I probably get the paperback eventually? Maybe. But at least now I can read the book whenever I want.

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