Stacking the Shelves: The Maiden 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 hectic as a book collector. I feel like I've been checking messages all week trying to arrange a trade for a special edition. But at least that experience is kind of fun. I'd rather be busy negotiating books than doing adult things. Working, cleaning, and cooking are just not as thrilling. Now, you won't see the trade results for a bit, but I am excited for when the books do come in. It'll be magical, and I bet you have no clue what the titles are. XD

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have a bunch of new releases. I had preordered Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling and Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent from Barnes & Noble. I also ordered the French edition of A Light in the Flame by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I ordered it from a site called FNAC, and it was delivered in like three days. I've never had an international company be so fast before. My Walmart exclusive edition of Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy also arrived. It arrived in an open ravioli-type package, but surprisingly, the book was fine. That same day, I also got Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy from Orbit for review. I'm very excited for this one, and I hope to get to it in the next couple of weeks.

 

Next up, I have the Juniper set of the FBAA series. These have Poppy as the Maiden on the dustjacket spines. While this isn't my favorite design, seeing them in person has made me appreciate them much more. They're still waaaaaaay overpriced though, especially since the books themselves are the regular editions. The only thing different is the dustjackets. I bought this set on Mercari, so the resale prices were like $50 cheaper than the regular price. They are a little dinged on the corners, but nothing too terrible. They also came with the books, so I figured the cheaper price point was worth any risk that buying secondhand might have had. Now, I have to figure out what I'm going to do about the Flesh & Fire set that was just announced. I think I'm just going to get the dustjackets for those and slowly collect my own used/cheap copies of the books to put the jackets on.

And lastly, I have one lonely ebook. It's the Kindle Unlimited version of Goldfinch. I actually just started this one, and I'm sad that soon the Plated Prisoner series will be over. Although it's bittersweet, I definitely think it's time. The series grew so much over the years, and I know the author had some rough periods trying to get everything finished. It'll be good to see what new projects she works on now that this series is complete. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The JLA Insanity 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 pretty successful in getting me on track. I've completed two two-mile runs this week so far. And hopefully by the time this post goes live, I'll have one more under my belt. Or at least a singular mile. I would've had more but Monday was a kind of meh workout. But as for the rest of my life, it's been pretty quiet, just work, sleep, eat, repeat.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have the Bookish Box editions of the Flesh & Fire series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. You'll notice that every physical book in this haul is by JLA. It's quite interesting how nothing else arrived from other authors when I know for a fact that two other preorders shipped out recently. I've been very excited for these, though, so I'm okay that nothing else arrived. Honestly, the art on these is better than the FBAA editions, in my opinion, which is a bit sad because I like FBAA more. Oh well, I have plenty of other pretty FBAA copies. It's about time the F&F series got some nice book box editions.

 

Next up, I have the first two books in the Titan series by JLA. These were created and sold by the JLA Shop. They were honestly just kind of sprung on us. One day the shop announced they were coming and less than a week later, they were for sale. Then, they shipped out like one or two days later. Craziness. While I do think these books are pretty, and I'm happy to have them, I do think the slipcases they came in are kind of pointless, as the artwork on each is the same as each individual naked hardcover book. These editions could have been $20 cheaper without those slipcases.

 

And for the last physical book, I have the last edition in the Bloom Books redesign of the Covenant series. These things all shipped out so fast. I can't believe all of them are in my possession already. In comparison, the new Lux hardcover editions are coming out like six months apart. Those are also uglier, in my opinion. I've seen some UK Lux editions with similar covers to these Covenant ones, and I think I'm going to go for those. I'm really meh about these new Lux hardcovers.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. All of these except one are Kindle Unlimited downloads. Brutal Titan by E.V. Olsen was a random download. I didn't even realize it was free on Kindle until I noticed it didn't have the KU logo on my app. The other books I got from KU included Pucking Around by Emily Rath, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas, Bite of Justice by R.L. Caulder, and The Veiled Kingdom by Holly Renee. Three of these are ApollyCon authors, and Blood of Hercules has just been getting a lot of hype lately so I was curious. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Sus Etsy Listing 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, I'm trying to get back into a regular routine. Work, gym, sleep versus just work and sleep. I'm also still trying to finish some organization projects around my house. The good news is, I think I have the motivation to really make a pretty decent dent in it this weekend. Fingers crossed that motivation keeps up. I would have done a lot of it last weekend, but I ended up visiting my parents' house instead.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have my physical books for the month. I have a pretty decent stack here. My FairyLoot edition of When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker arrived, along with two preorders from Barnes & Noble: The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen and Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune. I also ordered the Ukraine edition of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire last month, and it arrived this week. I actually ordered it on a suspicious Etsy listing, so I wasn't sure if it would show up. It did, though, and I'm super grateful to have this method for future releases. For some reason, my bank does not like international purchases from Ukraine, so it was a whole ordeal trying to order from the bookseller last year. This is much easier.

 

I almost forgot to include this one. It wasn't sitting with the rest of my "new books" to wait for the weekly photoshoot. I found a cheap copy of If There's No Tomorrow by JLA on Mercari. It was in really good shape, so I went ahead and bought it. I wanted it to match my The Problem With Forever hardcover, so I couldn't just go for the paperback. I'm one book closer to owning all of JLA's backlist. I still have to get some of her adult contemporary romances and a couple of random YAs, but soon I'll be caught up. Then, I just have to read them. XD

And lastly, I have one ebook that I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited: Bite of Vengeance by R.L. Caulder. I'm conflicted with this series. The books are kind of just a cheesy paranormal why-choose vampire romance, but the covers are gorgeous, in my opinion. The author is going to be at ApollyCon, so I have to decide if I want to order the books or not. It's a tough call, and I doubt I make an official decision until closer to April. 

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

August Wrap-Up & September TBR

This wrap-up is a little behind. I've been staring at my computer screen all day for work looking at spreadsheets, so it was hard to do the same thing during my time off. But, I finally made myself do it. August was a pretty decent month. My birthday came and went. I took some days off. It was nice. I got quite a bit of household things done, but there's still a lot more to do. I hope I can get it all done in September, but it's more likely it'll roll over into October too.

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 August

Silver & Gold: 3 stars

Caged Wolf: 4 stars

Alpha Wolf: 4.5 stars

Feral Wolf: 4.5 stars

Wild Wolf: 4 stars

Born of Blood & Ash: 4.5 stars (my review)

Bite of Loyalty: 3 stars

I think this is my best reading month of the entire year. Both quality and quantity-wise! Huzzah! I read seven books this month. And although six of them were on Kindle Unlimited, I technically own four of the books in paperback. This means I got them off my physical TBR as well. Yay! So, in total, that's five physical books read. Unfortunately, though, none of these books were ones I owned prior to 2024. I'm still very behind on reading my pre-2024 unread books. Ugh. BUT, I had my first 4.5-star reads of the year! And there were three of them! Note: I rarely give out 5 stars these days. I reserve 5 stars for perfect books. Of which I've had very few lately.

Books Bought/Received in August

Here's where we get into the hard part. I dread doing it every month. Math is icky. I bought a total of 24 books in August and received seven that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were preorders/ordered in July or free ebooks. Altogether, 27 of the books actually made their way to me in August.

For the seven books I received, I got two free Nook ebooks: Creatures of the Dark and A Game of Vampires by Caroline Peckham. Well, technically they're novellas and the Creatures of the Dark is an anthology, but I downloaded it because Caroline had a story in it. The other five physical books I received were all orders that I'd paid for in earlier months that only just arrived in August. Those include The Witch Collector LitHaven edition by Charissa Weaks, The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song FairyLoot edition, and the Dutch editions of A Soul of Ash and Blood, A Light in the Flame, and A Fire in the Flesh.

As for the 20 books I bought that I received, those consisted of the August FairyLoot Romantasy book, Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen; the entire Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac five-book series in the new covers and Wild Wolf by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti; five editions of Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout (three B&N editions, one Indigo paperback, and one regular hardback); the new Apollyon edition; the old original covers of the Covenant series (novella included); and The Love Archives anthology with a JLA FBAA story included.

 My preorders for the month included the Arcane Lady of Darkness set (books one and two) by Melissa K. Roehrich, FairyLoot's August Adult sub book, and the Ukraine edition of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by JLA.  

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, I've only watched one thing.

Yep, that's right, I'm still watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. And I'm still hopping around from season to season. Part of me wants to watch the episodes in order, but then I find an episode that sounds boring or that I've already seen before and know I don't like, and I just decide to move on to the next episode/season. Other than that, I only rewatched half of E.T. with my sister on the very last day of August, so I won't finish it until September sometime.

September TBR

Okay, I'm being really lazy and just using last month's TBR pic because they're pretty much the same. I just have a couple of titles to add. Visions of Flesh & Blood by JLA, Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, and Fortuna Sworn are all repeats. I have to read Fortuna Sworn in the next week or two for book club. It's short, so it shouldn't be too hard. I just have to pick it up. Other than those, I want to read Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy, which releases this month, though I'm not sure my copy will arrive in September, as I ordered from Waterstones and they take a bit to deliver. I also want to read Fair Catch by C.E. Ricci and The Prince's Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of August, plus some September 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 August Adult FairyLoot 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 skipped last week's Stacking the Shelves, as I only had a couple of ebooks to share. I figured it'd be easier to just do a single post with everything instead. My work life has been kind of hectic, so I'm taking it a bit easy when it comes to regular life activities. I just need a mental break sometimes, and blogging is not one of them.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have my physical books for the month. I got my August Adult FairyLoot book, Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan; Beneath These Cursed Stars by Lexi Ryan FairyLoot edition; The Bound Worlds by Megan O'Keefe, which randomly showed up from Orbit (Thanks, Orbit! Hopefully I can get to it in October); and Happy Place by Emily Henry, which was given to me by my sister. She'd already read it, and didn't want to keep it because she doesn't keep books she's read. Weirdo. Lol.

And lastly, I have my ebooks. I downloaded The Last Dragon King by Leia Stone for free on Kindle. And similarly, I used promo credit from Amazon to buy Kings of Quarantine by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. So it was technically free. The other four are all Kindle Unlimited downloads: Fair Catch by C.E. Ricci, Bite of Betrayal by R.L. Caulder, Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, and Pucking Around by Emily Rath. 

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

Review: Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Born of Blood and Ash

Jennifer L. Armentrout

(Flesh and Fire #4)

Publication Date: August 13, 2024

Hardcover, 770 pages, Blue Box Press

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Goodreads

 

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes the thrilling conclusion to her beloved Flesh and Fire series…

 

The line between love and obsession has never been wider.

 

While Sera is finally free of Kolis and back with those she loves, not everything is calm. Memories of all she’s endured still haunt her, but Sera finally has hope for a future with the other half of her heart and soul. Nyktos desires, loves, and accepts every part of her—even the monstrous bits she still battles.

 

More than ever, Sera and Ash have everything under the realms to fight for, and Nyktos has no doubt Sera is fit to be the Queen of the Gods. But she must find that faith within herself if they hope to convince the other Courts to support them against Kolis and make Iliseeum and the mortal realm better, safer places for all.

 

But as Sera begins to piece together the importance of her bloodline and the true meaning behind the foreboding prophecy, it becomes clear that everything that has happened and is yet to come is much bigger than Kolis and his dark obsessions.

 

They cannot help but wonder exactly how much influence the Fates have had and what their ultimate goal is. What Sera does know for sure is that they can trust very few—including her.

 

A battle between the gods is brewing, and heartbreaking losses are imminent with the true Primal of Death strengthening. With a family of the heart willing to battle by their side, can Sera and Nyktos stop Kolis before he destroys the realms, or will it all disappear in a fiery inferno of blood and ash?

 

And the line between justice and vengeance has never been so thin.

My Review

Spoiler warning: This is the 4th book in a spinoff series. There won't be any major spoilers if you're familiar with the FBAA world, but there might be a few.

This one managed to surprise me. Not because I don't normally like JLA's books (I actually love them and own too many), but because I'm more of a Kieran/Poppy/Cas girly than a Sera/Nyktos girly. I've historically had a tougher time with the Flesh & Fire books simply because my main trio isn't involved. But honestly Born of Blood and Ash was great! All of the storylines for both series have really started forming and coming together.

  Sera has just become a baby primal in this one and is dealing with some traumatic events from previous books. But she's being her badass self through it all. I found her reluctance to talk to others relatable. Nyktos/Ash was also badass. He was sweet too. And all the side characters always make me smile. And yes, that includes Callum. The other three major villains aren't smile worthy though. Kolis is a very bad primal. He needs a timeout. 🤭

 Everything in this last book just flowed so smoothly with only a bit of a rush in the last 100 pages. I was certainly never bored despite it being a 720-page brick. I do recommend finding a recap somewhere though if you haven't done a reread lately. Like the Visions of Flesh and Blood chapters. Recaps definitely helped me appreciate the story more.

 Overall, I'm gonna miss baby Reaver and Jadis. And all the messiness Attes manages to find his way into. I can't believe there are only two more planned books left in this main series. It hurts. I may not survive when it officially ends.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The JLA Addict 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 took a vacation this week. For three days. It's been really nice to reset my brain and get away from work for a while. It was also my birthday, so it was super nice to not have to go into work then either. I didn't do a whole lot, though, I just cleaned my house and went with the 'rents to dinner. I plan to go furniture shopping this weekend, so that should be fun. Maybe. I am going to get some more bookshelves to go in my bedroom. I'm excited about those, for sure. Potentially buying a new couch and/or table aren't as fun though. Too much work and money. Ha ha.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have the FairyLoot Romantasy book for August. At least, I think it's August's book. I haven't really been paying attention to what month goes with which book lately. I used to wonder how people couldn't keep track of that kind of stuff when I watched videos online. Now I know. When you're not super excited about titles and they just keep coming every month, it's hard to remember what goes with what. But anyway, this month's is Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen. This cover is gorgeous! I wish FBAA had a cover like this. That character art is totally giving me Poppy vibes.

Speaking of FBAA, I have another edition of Born of Blood and Ash to add to the collection. I ordered one of the signed editions from Barnes & Noble Fairfax. It came with some goodies, like a little tote bag and some prints. I was a little disappointed the prints weren't foiled. I also didn't think the signature was the greatest. I think she signs better when at ApollyCon. But I'll probably go ahead and get the ASITE version from Fairfax too. Just because. My preorder bookmark and temporary tattoo also arrived. It's been a JLA-full week, as you'll see.

 

And next, I have the new Apollyon edition with sprayed edges. This came pretty early, and it was supposed to be delivered on Monday, but somehow it got mixed up with a local hospital's packages and went to their facilities. I had to call my post office to figure out who had signed for my book. So, after all that, this didn't end up being delivered until Thursday. My other Thursday delivery was the Indigo edition of BOBAA. I got it from Mercari.

I also impulse-bought the old covers of the Covenant series on eBay. I'm kind of meh about this purchase. The Apollyon edition has some weird ink stain at the bottom, which I knew when I bought it, and the Deity edition has a broken spine. So I'm not sure if I'll keep those two copies. I actually used to own a couple of these original covers, but I got rid of them years ago once the newer (now older) covers were released. I'm regretting getting rid of all my JLA older covers now that I've become an addict. Lol.

 

And lastly, I have my LitHaven edition of The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks. Holy cow. I ordered this thing like a year ago. It took so long for it to deliver. It's a pretty edition, but I don't know if it was worth waiting that long for. I have two other orders with LitHaven that are supposed to arrive soon, but I'm not sure I'll order from them again. I guess it just depends on what titles they release. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The BOBAA 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, I definitely got out of my reading slump this past week. I actually read four books in a very short span of time, so I'm super excited to read some other stuff next. Especially the long list of titles I want to read for ApollyCon next year. But, the reason I was able to read like 3.5 books over four days (I read a bit of book one before the weekend and a bit of book four after the weekend) was because I was lazy and ill for those four days. All I did was get out of bed, move to my couch, and read. It was glorious, though now I have to clean everything in one weekend instead of spreading it out over two weekends. Boo. 

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have the Dutch editions of A Soul of Ash and Blood, A Light in the Flame, and A Fire in the Flesh. They have super pretty edges and character art on the inside flaps. So, no, I did not need another FBAA book that looks similar to all the others, but I got them anyway. Mostly because I was bummed about the exclusive BOBAA PR editions and wanted some retail therapy.

 

Speaking of Born of Blood and Ash, I have my copies here. Finally. I really wish Barnes & Noble would have some sort of faster shipping option. I wouldn't utilize it all the time, just whenever a new JLA or highly anticipated book comes out. But, anyway, I'm excited to read this one. Normally, I don't care much for the Flesh & Fire books. I'm more of a Blood & Ash girly. However, I'm excited to see how things sort of wrap up for this prequel series. Oh, and as you can see, I ordered both the regular and B&N editions. I actually have too many editions of BOBAA. I think one more is on the way. Eek.

 

And next, I have another tarot card purchase from Prettygal Pins. While the artwork on these is always pretty, I just don't care enough about Crescent City to know if I'm going to keep these or the first set Prettygal released a couple of years ago. I only really like a few of the side characters, so I may end up selling all of these or just selling some and keeping the characters I like.

 

As for the ebooks, I have two I downloaded on Kindle Unlimited. The first is Little Slice of Hell by Clio Evans. Clio is an ApollyCon author, so I thought I'd give this novella a try. Devil's Pass by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti is also a novella. It's part of their Harlequin Crew series. I just finished another series of theirs, and I'd like to immediately dive into this one, but I have to read BOBAA now and another book club pick. Sigh.

 

And right when I thought I was done typing up this post, I decided to download two more ebooks. I noticed on B&N when I was doing some browsing that Caroline Peckham had a couple of free novellas. So, I went ahead and got them for my Nook. Will I read them anytime soon? Probably not, but it's nice to have them anyway. The first is A Game of Vampires and the second is an anthology that Caroline Peckham contributed to, Creatures of the Dark. 

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