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.

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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!

Stacking the Shelves: The Christmas 2024 Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, Christmas is officially over. Now, I have to wait until April for my next big thing to look forward to. ApollyCon 2025, here I come. My holiday over all was a bit different, as we celebrated early this year. So on actual Christmas day we just kind of hung out and played games. But, when we did celebrate the weekend before (Christmas on a Wednesday is a terrible idea, btw), I got some pretty good gifts, including books, which are obviously my favorite type of Christmas present.

 

So on to this week's haul. First up, I have the Christmas books. My parents, mainly my mother, got me the first two books in Lauren Roberts's Powerless series, a hardcover of From Blood and Ash, and the entire Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima. Cinda is going to ApollyCon this year, so I needed the series for her to sign. I think I'll just have her sign the first three, but I'm not sure. Packing paperbacks across the country is difficult. I might just have to get one signed instead. My sisters also got me the Eras Tour Taylor Swift book and Book Lovers by Emily Henry.

 

 

Next up, I have the other gifts I got for Christmas. I got a Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD box set, a punk Spike Funko Pop, a Tootsie Roll pillow that was super random but fun, and some home care/decor items like a face wash scrubber and shower curtain. I also got a huge blanket and a walking pad treadmill for working out. It's still at my parents' house though, as it was too big for me to transport on my own.

 

And now I have some gifts to myself. Haha. My FairyLoot orders came in. The December Adult book, The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson is kind of plain. I'm a little disappointed in what they tried to do with the cover redesign. I don't like the original version either, but this is boring. The edges are really pretty though, and so are the endpapers. Serpent Sea by Maya Ibrahim is the sequel to Spice Road. I enjoyed that book when I read it a couple of years ago, and I'm glad to have the FairyLoot edition to match. Now, I need to look up if this will be a duology or a trilogy so I can decide when to finish reading the series.

 

 

 

I also got two books from Waterstones around Christmas time. The first is the UK collector's edition of Red Rising. It has foil under the jacket and a different spine design. Honestly, it's not worth the price I had to pay for it. It also came damaged at the top. I emailed Waterstones, but they likely won't get back until after New Year's. I got Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon too. It's a Waterstones exclusive, and, like Red Rising, the top came bent. Almost like the warehouse is just tossing them in and not caring if they are properly fit into the box. But with this one, it's not as visible once I bent it back into place, so I'm not worried about getting a replacement. 

 

 

Next is another Prettygal Pins/Jemlin character card set. This one is for Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti's Harlequin Crew series, which I have yet to read. I will. For sure. I just haven't gotten to it. It's high on the list, though. My only hesitancy is I need to read their other contemporary series before this one, and I'm not as enthusiastic about it since it's set during the pandemic.

 

 

 

More character cards! This set was a preorder incentive for Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas, which I also have yet to read. It sounds pretty good though. I'm looking forward to reading it. I just need to finish the other why choose demigod story I'm reading first, so I don't mix up plotlines. I tried to read The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen along with Lucinda Dark's Mortal Gods series, and I was mixing up world-building and character backgrounds, so I put The Games Gods Play on hold. It's a similar situation here. I should finish the third Mortal Gods book soon, though, and then I may read the fourth book and then dive into all the other godly books I own.

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded on Kindle. There was a Stuff Your Kindle Day on the 26th, so I got a few things. Blood & Brujas by Mikayla D. Hornedo is a book I'd like to read before ApollyCon in April, especially since I preordered some Jemlin character cards for the series. I also got The Fae King's Assassin by Alisha Klapheke and On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn.

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

Another Small 2024 Holiday Unhaul

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

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

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Shopping Trip Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, it's officially the holiday weekend for me. Huzzah! I'm so ready to be off for multiple days. It's going to be swell. Now, I haven't done as much preparation in terms of cleaning and organizing than I'd like, but there's no more time, so what's done is done at this point. At least all my holiday shopping is complete now. That's all that matters.

But on to the books. First up, I have a mix of spontaneous buys from various sources. I made an Amazon order a couple of weeks ago for some reason I don't remember now. I know I bought Full Moon and Shadow of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne to replace the versions I had that were older that I'd just recently sold. I'd also bought the third book (Amazon didn't have a new copy of the first for sale), and it arrived smashed and wet, since it was shipped with a giant box of DampRids that I'd also ordered from Amazon in a separate order. I'm all for Amazon saving time/money by shipping things together, but those two things just do not mix. Crossing Acheron by H.G. Birde was also in that original Amazon order, and What Lurks Between the Fates by Harper L. Woods character cover edition also arrived. My sister and I had a spontaneous shopping trip this past Saturday where I bought The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson from Target and Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast and The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle from Barnes & Noble. It was the first time I'd been to a large bookstore since July. It felt so good to be back among the shelves.

 

 

Next up, I have another kind of spontaneous order. I'd ordered a copy of Alienated by Melissa Landers off of Amazon, but it turned out to be a used edition, so that got quickly returned. I loathe Amazon for offering used copies without clear info about where it's coming from. Grr... Anyway, so I went on PangoBooks to see what copies they had available. Oh, and I was replacing my hardcover copy because I'd spilled something on it during all my organizing. While I was making that order, I decided to throw in a few other books from the same seller. Those include another copy of A Shadow in the Ember by JLA, Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins, and Goddess by Josephine Angelini, which I actually didn't need but I couldn't cancel it from the order and it was only $2 anyway.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Ivy Asher Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, Christmas vacation is getting closer and closer, and boy am I read for it. Do I know how many days I plan to take off yet? Absolutely not. But I'm just ready to not be at work. Thanksgiving was not nearly enough. Also, I need 2024 to be over so I can start fresh. I spent a lot of money in 2024, along with having a very stressful work life and an unorganized/messy house. I want 2025 to be here so it can be closer to nice spring weather and a good spring cleaning. Cleaning in the dark, dreary days of winter just isn't the same.

But on to the books. First up, I have my Arcane subscription books. They include Into the Woods by Ivy Asher and Ann Denton and The Osseous Chronicles bindup by Ivy Asher. They're both pretty. I've never read an Ivy Asher book before, though, so we'll see if I like her writing style. I have a feeling the Into the Woods book likely won't be for me, since it's a fairytale retelling, but I might try it one day anyway.

 

 

Next up, I have my replacements for the last two books in Jennifer L. Armentrout's Titan series, The Prophecy and The Struggle. My original orders came damaged, so the JLA Shop submitted a UPS claim and sent me new editions. Now, I need to figure out what to do with the first set I got. Do I keep them and display them or do I get rid of them to reimburse some of the crazy spending I've been doing lately. (And by reimburse I mean throwing them in my book unhaul stacks where I sell like 30 books for $1 each. I don't sell damaged books for profit.) Keeping and displaying them will likely be the winner, though.

 

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded. Both are Kindle books. Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy is a Kindle Unlimited book I downloaded because I'm in a major reading slump and I'm trying to pick up anything and everything to get out of it. It isn't working. I also got The Witch Queen of Halloween by Kresley Cole on Kindle using some credit that was going to expire in early January. I love Kresley's Immortals After Dark series, but I've been putting off reading this one since I know it takes quite a bit of time for the sequels to come out. It's hard to wait for the next books once I immerse myself back into the world.

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

A 2024 Holiday Unhaul

I've been trying to organize my books for the past six months, which has meant discovering that some of my childhood books look a little disheveled. So, I've been going through them and either keeping them or storing them in a corner until I can decide if I want to keep the edition I have or replace them with a new version. This has resulted in books being everywhere in my house and me mentally and physically freezing whenever it comes to making actual progress on this endeavor. It's been a nightmare. However, I've moved past my deer-in-the-headlights phase, and I am now, slowly, but surely, making steady progress in organizing and prettifying my library. I have a long way to go, and it likely won't be resolved for another few months, but it's way better than it used to be.

Anywho, here's an unhaul featuring some books that I just need to get new copies of and/or I decided to let go of because I don't need them anymore.

 

First up, Blood and Chocolate, Untamed, and three books in the Inheritance Cycle, including Eragon (other two not pictured), are the books I'd like to find nicer versions of eventually, so I sold these. I actually sold all the ones that are pictured here. I just did a whole lot for $30. Eventually, I'd also maybe like to get a new edition of The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith, but it's not a priority. I didn't really love that series like I enjoyed the Secret Circle and the Night World books. And, while I'm sad to get rid of the first book in the Ever-Expanding Universe trilogy, Mothership, simply because I really like the cover and it's out of print now, the story was just cute. It wasn't anything I see myself rereading soon. I need to learn to let things go. 

 

 

Speaking of letting things go, I got rid of An Enchantment of Ravens because I just didn't like it compared to Sorcery of Thorns. I also got rid of Fireblood because I read the first book ages ago, and, while I really liked it, it's been years since I read book one and I have no idea if I'll ever get to the sequel. I own the first version as an e-ARC too. I don't have a physical copy of Frostblood, so I'll just borrow the ebook of Fireblood if I decide to finish the series one day. I sold a duplicate copy of Oblivion as well. And, for the books that I plan to replace, I will be getting new editions of the entire Heir Chronicles books, including The Dragon Heir, and the four books in the Dark Guardian series. Actually, replacements for some of those are on their way. I'm hoping they get here in one piece. Amazon packaging is stupid lately. 

 

And finally, I have a stack of books that I don't plan to replace. They include the FairyLoot paperback of of Twin Crowns (I have the hardcover, so I don't need this one), Fortuna Sworn (I read it and didn't like it), Legend of the White Snake (read it recently, and it was fun/okay but it's about snake shifters and the ending was rushed), Wings of Ebony (it has poor reviews and it doesn't interest me anymore), Dark Rise (I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped), and a damaged duplicate FairyLoot edition of Fire Study.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Godly Cards Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, we are officially in the month of Christmas, and I am almost ready. I only have one person left to buy for, and my plan is to do that this weekend. Then, after that, I desperately need to save money. I've spent way too much over the last two months. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't stop. Ugh. I need to make a monthly spending budget apparently. #lame

 

With that in mind, on to this week's haul. First up, I wanted to share my Prettygal Pin Zodiac Academy add-on card set. Now, normally, I share the books first, but this was such a pretty picture, and the book photos I took are not nearly as gorgeous, so you get the character cards first. While I like the Zodiac Academy set, I do think it's a bit weird how they all look like Greek gods instead of wearing clothing from the book. It's really the only set that has this problem. I guess because it was the first one created.

Next up, I have part one of two (I think) Amazon book orders. Now, I hadn't planned on making this order, but the Zodiac Academy authors, Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, announced they were bringing back Foxy Tales, a novella bindup, for the month of December with a matching series cover. So, I grabbed it, and of course I added some other things to my cart along the way, including a $10 copy of Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, which I've been wanting to read.

And now here is a bit of Amazon order part #1 and #2. I got the first four books in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini for like $44. In hardcover! I was shocked. My copies were older, including one from a used library sale, so I decided to just replace them. Same for Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins, and various Meg Cabot books. You'll probably notice a theme of me unhauling older editions of my books and replacing them with newer ones.

 

Here we have another order I should not have made but did anyway. Madlen Designs created a set of dust jackets for the first three books in the FBAA series a couple of years ago. I didn't order them back then because I wasn't collecting (almost) every edition like I am now. So, when I tracked these down on Mercari, I had to jump on them. They're pretty hard to find nowadays for a decent price. I think I only have one more U.S. dust jacket set left to track down. There are a few international ones I'd also like to have, but we'll see if that ever happens.

 

This is my replacement dust jacket for my Acrylipics FBAA edition. My original copy had a wonky cover with the spine title font split between the front cover and the edge of the spine. It was odd, especially considering the reverse artwork was aligned perfectly. And what's also odd is that Acrylipics sent two dust jackets. I guess I'll give one to a friend or frame it or something. I do plan on using one for the reverse art, but that still leaves me with an extra dust jacket that I don't need.

And lastly, I have the ebooks I downloaded. One is from Kindle Unlimited, and the other was a holiday deal purchase. The Blood of Gods and Monsters by Lucinda Dark is the KU book. It's the third book in a series I'm currently making my way through. Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright is a book I've been curious about for a while, but my library hold keeps coming in at inconvenient times. So, when the publisher posted that the book was on a $2.99 deal, I went ahead and bought it..

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