Stacking the Shelves: The Blood & Ash 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.

ApollyCon is in a few days, and I am freaking out. I'm just not ready. I need another week to mentally and physically prep myself. Sigh. But, I am looking forward to it. And, oddly enough, I'm really looking forward to when it's over, as then I can read whatever I want without feeling bad I'm not reading a book by an attending author. I can just flow wherever my desires take me.

For this week's haul, I have so much Blood and Ash stuff. Like an insane amount of it. I don't know why all these orders decided to come in at this time, but it makes me look insane. I had been contacted by someone wanting to trade my Prettygal Pin ACOTAR set for their Hungarian Blood and Ash books and Witch Crown Box dust jackets. I accepted. The only issue was it took a few months for everything to get done because the person was traveling all over Europe. But, I got my trades, and they're beautiful.

 

 

These are the Witch Crown Box dust jackets. The person I traded with just put them on the Hungarian editions, as they're about the same size as the German editions, which are what they're originally intended to go on. I think I'll try to locate some German paperbacks eventually. I can't afford to do it right now. Two book boxes dropped news about Flesh and Fire sets going on sale in April. That, plus ApollyCon, plus two FairyLoot sets for sale is going to really hurt me. I definitely need to sell some more books.

 

 

 

Next up, I have the Walmart/Target exclusive of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire. It actually was at my Walmart on release day which I thought was amazing. Most of the time, my store doesn't get new books in until a week after. I also got lucky that, out of the two left, this one was in good condition, because the other had a printing error. It was misaligned. As for the other books, I bought them on Amazon as I was getting tired of my FBAA dust jackets being without books. There was also a sale going on for buy-two-get-one-half-off. So, I bought A Fire in the Flesh and two copies of A Light in the Flame. The FBAA paperback wasn't part of the deal, but I needed it for a dust jacket. Now, what's odd is both the ALITF copies came with textured/scaly naked hardcovers and gray paper, almost like recycled paper or newspaper. The publisher is looking into it. I'm thinking it's just an error the printer didn't tell them about, as it was sold by Amazon. (Me from the future: That's exactly what it was.)

 

 

 

Did you think I was done with the Blood and Ash stuff? Ha! My Iridescent Fairytales From Blood and Ash copy arrived on Wednesday. It's a very pretty dust jacket with gold, raised foiling on the front and  back. It has sprayed/stenciled edges as well. There's a reversible dust jacket with character art, which I like too. I may need to track down another copy so I can display it. (Again, I sound/look insane right now.) The box came with some goodies, including a metal bookmark, a replica of Poppy's dagger, a sticker, and two page overlays that together make one scene.

 

 

And next, I have an order I made after I'd already bought a ton of stuff last Friday. I had no idea this thing was going to be available, and I don't regret buying it, but it is like the second- or third-most expensive FBAA book I own, simply because the seller is having financial problems and no one knows what the heck that means for these editions. And I don't even know how I missed the original sale for these. I follow the shop on Instagram and I get their newsletter, so I have no clue what happened. But, I got lucky and noticed someone selling a few Chest of Fandoms editions on Mercari. I contacted the seller to ask if she had this one, and she did! So, I bought the rare Chest of Fandoms German A Fire in the Flesh edition. Once I heard that I'd missed the sale for this and the seller was in trouble, I honestly thought I'd never get my hands on a copy. But somehow, someway, with a lot of money, it happened.

And lastly, I have the only non-FBAA books of the bunch. The new foiled paperback edition of Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti just came out. I'm going to have three sets of this series, and I don't know how to feel about that considering there are like nine books in the regular series with multiple novella collections too. I hate that the authors offer exclusive bonus content in these new editions. It's so annoying. If they ever release all extra scenes in a bind-up one day, I probably won't keep these foiled editions. Maybe... I'm not sure, as they also edited the first books a bit to give them a little more umph. But, hopefully, the editions the authors sold that I preordered last year also have the edits. That way I won't feel bad about getting rid of the foiled copies. Don't get me wrong, the foiled copies are pretty, but I have a sentimental connection to the original covers. I also decided to order the second book in Rina Kent's Legacy of Gods series, God of Pain, from Walmart online because I wanted the purple edges to match my other books in the series. I actually ordered the first book too, but my order was canceled since it was out of stock. Rude. I'll have to hunt it down resale. 

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

My First 2025 Unhaul

It's time for my first unhaul post of 2025, and this one was way larger than I expected it to be. I honestly forgot I sold some books earlier this year. When I looked at my most recent unhaul post, I remembered the others, and it's a long list.

 

First up, I sold some special editions that I didn't need/want anymore. Those include the FairyLoot editions of Book of Night by Holly Black, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, and One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. I also got rid of the Melissa Roehrich Lady of Darkness and Lady of Shadows Arcane editions. 

 

 

I sold my Cassandra Clare FairyLoot The Last Hours set. I'm just not in love with the other editions FairyLoot did for the other books in this world, so I decided it wasn't worth it to keep these. I also just don't really care about the Shadowhunter world much anymore, sadly. It was so hard to get into one of the more recent books, and I still haven't finished it, so I don't think I'll ever continue the series, unfortunately.

 

 

 

This is a list of books that just were on my shelves for too long, and I never really felt the need to read them. So, I sold The Sword and the Dagger, Heart of Thorns, To Kill a Kingdom, Revolt, Dragonslayer, Star Bringer, Spine of the Dragon, To Snap a Silver Stem, To Flame a Wild Flower, A Dash of Salt and Pepper, Beasts of the Briar, and The Wish (read this one as a kid and just don't feel the need to keep it like Gail Carson Levine's other books). I also threw in an ARC of Ink Blood Sister Scribe for free in this lot sale. I think I got like $20 for all of these, by the way. I don't sell books for a profit, usually, unless they're special editions. 

 

  

 

I also got rid of some other books, including On the Hunt, Ransom My Heart (replaced with a nicer copy), five books in the Shadowdance series, the Mistborn trilogy (I think I want the newer covers or I'll wait for better editions), Polaris (I need to replace this one), and the To All the Boys trilogy (cute trilogy, but I'm over YA contemporary, so I just didn't need to keep it). 

 

And next, I have a stack of books that I replaced/arrived in poor condition and didn't want to keep. They include the boxset of The Hunger Games trilogy (I preordered the boxset coming out this summer that includes the two newer books, so I'm selling my old copies), Alienated (replaced), the A Beautiful Dark trilogy (came gross from a seller), Snow Likes Ashes (replaced my copy), Murtagh and A Sky Beyond the Storm (came gross from Book Outlet), and A Light in the Flame (arrived gross from a seller).

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Road 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.

I was lazy and didn't write my book haul post on Friday and I was out of town on Saturday, so here it is today. I was going to just wait and post it next week, but I realized I'll probably have too much, and it'll make for a terribly long haul. This will be a bit more manageable.

For this week's haul, I have a Barnes & Noble preorder that arrived. I got their exclusive edition of The Shadow Bride by Shelby Mahurin. I didn't expect it to be so bright. The purples and blues are so light in comparison to the darkness of the first book's cover aesthetic. I think this is the last book in the duology, but I'm not entirely sure. I am excited to see what Shelby writes next, if that's the case though.

 

 

Next up, I have a pile of books that I got on a Saturday road trip that I truly shouldn't have bought because I spent waaaaay too much money unexpectedly on Friday. But I did buy something very cool, that I'll be sharing next week when it arrives, so I can't completely regret it. It was just super expensive. But anyway, I'd had plans to take a road trip to a friend's house on Saturday and stop in Target on the way to buy whatever copies of the Rina Kent Legacy of Gods series they had. So I did just that. I thought they were on sale for Buy 2, Get 1 Free, but alas, that was just for their rewards members. I was still going to buy them anyway, so that didn't stop me. I just wouldn't have bought The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen if I'd known I couldn't take advantage of the sale. I also got my friend a book for her birthday, so that would have been the sixth copy to get two books free.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. I have one Kindle Unlimited download, Never Will I Ever by C.E. Ricci. I'm over halfway through this one right now. I also got Feathers from the Sky by Jess Wisecup and The Umbra King by Jamie Applegate Hunter for free on Kindle. I preordered the paperback of The Umbra King from the author for ApollyCon, but I figured having a free ebook copy couldn't hurt anything. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Power Outage 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.

March has just not been my month. Like I mentioned in last week's post, I was ill. Like runny-nose-from-hell ill. And then, Friday night, there was a tornado in my area, which caused a lot of damage all across town and left me without power for about three days. When I was sick and disgusting. Ugh. I ended up going to my parents' house during this time and watching a lot of TV, but it was all messy. I felt like I lost an entire two weeks of my life from the chaos. Hopefully, this weekend is a lot better and I can catch up on all the things I want/need to do.

But anyway, on to this week's haul. First up, I have the only physical book I received. It is the February FairyLoot Romantasy book, which was extremely late for FairyLoot's standards. It went to my parents' house, so I obviously couldn't pick it up until a week after it arrived, but it still didn't come until pretty far into March. Iron & Embers by Helen Scheuerer sounds really good, but I'm honestly really mad that they put another spinoff book into the subscription. And while I do want to and plan to read the other series, I would rather FairyLoot sell all the original series and the spinoff together versus putting one in a sub box by itself. Also, I just noticed the ampersand on the cover is on the wrong side of the title, and that bothers me a lot.

And lastly, I have three ebooks. From Kindle Unlimited, I downloaded Rina Kent's new release, Kiss the Villain. I also read and finished it in like 24 hours, so I'll be returning it soon. Probably right after I finish this post. Ha ha. I bought A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya using some Kindle credits, so I think I got it for only $1.99 or something. I also got Corrupt Shadows by Rebecca L. Garcia and C.M. Hutton since it was free. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Cover to Cover Edition

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

Well, the the second week of March is over, and it was not good. I ended up being can't-breathe-through-my-nose sick. Yuck. So there was very little reading done. Very little of anything done, really. I just went home, laid in bed, and scrolled on my phone. I can't concentrate when I'm sick, especially when it's hard to breathe. But, some pretty books did come in this week, so that helps.

For this week's haul, I have a preorder of Cover to Cover's Flesh and Fire series edition. This set is beautiful! However, I do wish it came with dust jackets. I just prefer my books to have dust jackets. I'm not a naked-book girlie. Also, the slipcase the books came in was really pretty. I do hope they sell a Blood and Ash set eventually, though not any time soon. I need to save some money first.

 

 

Next up, I have a bunch of ApollyCon author books I ordered from Amazon. Those include Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden, Bite of Loyalty by R.L. Caulder, Bright Heart by Emma Hamm, and A Touch of Poison by Clare Sager. I also ordered Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley from Blackwells, as I wanted the UK edition with a dust jacket. Stacia Stark is another ApollyCon author, but I ordered the Aurora Crate edition of Speak of the Demon from Mercari because it was pretty, not because I'm taking it to ApollyCon. And the last book in this pile is Oathbound by Tracy Deonn. I ordered it from Barnes & Noble.

 

 

The final physical bookish item I have is my Etsy order of this From Blood and Ash dust jacket by WarlockandCo. It's so pretty! Though I have to figure out what edition I need to put it on. I also added Reid, Lou, and Poppy and Cas character cards to my order, and the order came with some FBAA-related stickers.

 

And lastly, I have one ebook I downloaded from Kindle Unlimited, Of Sky and Embers by Claire Butler. I read book one last year, and I liked it enough to continue the series. For some reason, I decided to pick it up this week, even though I have 500 other things I need to read first. That's pretty much the story of my life right now, wanting to read things that aren't on my TBR. 

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

Review: The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe

The Bound Worlds

Megan E. O'Keefe

(The Devouring Worlds #3)

Publication Date: June 25, 2024

Paperback, 496 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Sci-Fi

Goodreads

Dying planets, dangerous conspiracies, and secret romance abound in the second installment of the Devoured Worlds trilogy by award-winning author Megan E. O'Keefe.

 

Worlds will collide and fates will be rewritten in the thrilling conclusion to the Devoured Worlds space opera trilogy by award-winning author Megan E. O’Keefe. Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. But the peace they’ve built is short-lived as mysterious assailants ambush the settlement and Naira is haunted by visions of a monstrous future. Catastrophe strikes when Tarquin uncovers a plot to bring about the end of the universe. As humanity races against the clock to prevent their extinction, old secrets come to light and loyalties fracture, and Naira realizes she may be the key to saving the world—or ending it.

My Review

After reading this series for two years, it's finally at an end. It's definitely a bittersweet moment. I'm going to miss Tarquin and Naira. But, to be honest, it's kind of difficult for me to review The Bound Worlds. Not because it was bad, but because my experience was a mix of "I love these characters," and "I completely forgot what this is," for 70% of the book. It had just been too long since I'd read the first two installments. So, I was really going off of vibes and my feelings for the two main characters for most of my read.

I kind of hopped into The Bound Worlds with vague recollections, reading but not really comprehending the canus and other sciency specifics. And, unsurprisingly, it was still an entertaining read. So I'm sure adamant sci-fi readers who love space and mind-controlling ethics and experimentation discussions will love this whole trilogy. I do think it's best to read it all close together, though. Don't wait months/years between books or your brief stint as a space-traveling reincarnated scientist-prince or a badass ex-bodyguard will be completely forgotten.

As for the characters, Naira is still being her tough, kick-butt, in-charge self, despite her unfortunate circumstances. And Tarquin is still a fool in love who doesn't get to be as fool-y in this installment due to his elevated status, which was honestly sad. I miss nerdy first-book Tarquin. I also hate when the two main characters are separated. They're more fun when they're together. And, unfortunately, the two were separated about 80% of this book. Oh, and Naira, I need you to never hurt Tarquin again. That was cruel. It hurt my heart.

As for the plot, things were going fairly well at first. Canus and Naira's issues were the main storyline. However, I did get confused that we seemed to have introduced two new major problems into the last half of the final book. All of the sudden there was time travel and brainwashing. Also, I wasn't thrilled with where Tarquin's storyline went. It felt a bit out of character at points. But, just when I was getting a bit upset and thinking about setting the book down, soooo much happened! There was a lot of action and the ending was crazy. The very, very end seemed a bit rushed, but the solution was satisfying as a lover of these characters. I do think the canus stuff was left a bit unresolved though.

All in all, I'm glad I read this series, and I'm definitely curious about Megan O. Keefe's next series. Space pirates, here I come! As I've said for each book in this series, if you enjoy The Expanse series, J.S. Dewes's The Divide trilogy, or even The Illuminae Files and The Aurora Cycle series, then The Devouring Worlds trilogy is probably a good pick for you.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Pink and Silver Edition

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

Well, the first full week of March is done. Yikes. That went by fast. I've been working, going to the gym, and spending way too much money for ApollyCon, and all of it has sucked the time right away from me. Boo. But, at least I have some cool books to show for it. XD

For this week's haul, I have three physical books. The first is a replacement from Barnes & Noble. I ordered the silver foiled edition of The Reckoning by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, and my first order came with a bent front corner. The replacement copy came in with a bent back corner, though. But at least it's the back and not the front. If it happens again, I'll cancel my preorders for the Zodiac Academy foiled editions. I'll just buy them from Walmart instead. As for the rest of the books, I have my February Adult FairyLoot book, The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao, and Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout with the new pink cover.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. I received an e-ARC of Silvercloack by L.K. Steven via NetGalley. They emailed me with the info. I didn't go looking for new ARCs to sign up for. My list is too long for that. Lol. I also downloaded Broken by Daylight by Elizabeth Helen from Kindle Unlimited. I'm about 25% through this one right now, and I'm sad I'll have to wait for book four to release. And then I'll have to wait for book five. Sigh. 

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

February Wrap-Up & March TBR

Wow! While it seemed like February was taking forever because it was cold and icky, it actually went by super fast. I think reading more is what made the time fly by. Whenever I read, I tend to lose days. And while it may seem from the wrap-up that I haven't read a ton, I'm actually in the middle of a bunch of books that I'll probably finish within the first week of March. I was just reading so many things at once, which isn't my favorite way to do things, but I needed to sample books to determine if I wanted to preorder authors' books for ApollyCon.

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 February

A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness: 3.5 stars

Bonded by Thorns: 4 stars

Woven by Gold: 4 stars

The Bound Worlds: 3 stars (review to come)

The Veiled Kingdom: 3 stars

Forged by Malice: 4 stars

I read six books in February, which, is pretty decent for a short month. If I'd had just one more day, I would have likely finished another book. Maybe two. Four of the books I read were Kindle Unlimited copies. One of those was A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness by Lucinda Dark which is the fourth and final book in the Mortal Gods series. It was a fair conclusion, but I feel like the story was missing some relationship and character progression and the ending was a bit rushed. But, I still can't decide if I want to buy the physical books to get signed at ApollyCon. Ugh. Another Kindle Unlimited read was also for ApollyCon, The Veiled Kingdom by Holly Renee, which was fun. I also picked up my FairyLoot copy of Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen, and I flew through it. It was great. So, I downloaded the sequels via KU and read them. I also finally finished The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe. Expect my review soon. But overall, that's two physical books that I read on my TBR in February.

Books Bought/Received in February

Will I ever stop buying more books than I can possibly ever read? Apparently not. In total, I bought 39 books in February and received 12 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were preorders/books ordered in prior months or free ebooks.

The 12 books I received include 10 I had ordered in a previous month that arrived in February and two free ebooks. The two free ebooks were These Cruel Vows by L.J. Andrews and Prince of the Arena by Elizabeth Helen. I have both on Book Funnel. The 10 I had bought include a replacement copy of Code Name Cassandra from B&N, the A Soul of Ash and Blood French edition, FairyLoot's Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan, FairyLoot's The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard, the FairyLoot editions of the Soulfinders series by Maria V. Snyder, and the Serbian editions of books 2-4 of FBAA.

And here we go. I bought sooooo much. Again. However, if ApollyCon wasn't coming up, this wouldn't be so bad. Though, after ApollyCon, I am 100% limiting my physical book purchases until I read more off my TBR. I can't justify buying this many books if I'm not reading them. But anyway, like I said, I bought 39 books in February. There were 15 that I bought in the month that actually arrived to me within the month. Those include The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune (B&N), Dark of the Moon and Moonlight by Rachel Hawthorne (B&N), Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas (B&N), The Ever King books 1-3 by L.J. Andrews (Walmart), The Merchant of Death and The Never War by D.J. MacHale (Pango, not pictured), Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli (B&N), The Reckoning by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti (Walmart), Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot, Iron Gold and Dark Age, and Slaying the Frost King by Candace Robsin (Amazon).

For books that were either preorders or ones that won't arrive until March, I have 22 of those. There were ten ApollyCon preorders, and they include the Titan series 1-4, Wraithmarked, The Curse of Ophelia, Till Death, The Umbra King, Court of Nightmares, and Racing Hearts. The others include my FairyLoot Adult and Romantasy subscription books, the third book in the Zodiac Academy series with new foil cover, a Renegade Romance preorder of books 1-5 of the Monstrous series by Lily Mayne, the Eternal Embers Green Creek special edition set of books 1-4, and the last two books in the Lux series Books for Days Crate editions.  

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, it's not super exciting for February. There were a few new things compared to previous months, but nothing really obsession-worthy. 

I watched Netflix's Night Agent season two with my parents very early on in February. I think it was the first weekend that we all binged it. It was interesting, but season one was definitely better. Other than that, I was rewatching House, M.D. episodes until I got bored, and then I moved on to Home Improvement, which is on Netflix right now. I'm also watching Into the Woods in 10-20-minute segments while I walk on my walking pad.

March TBR

It's a new month, but there's some overflow for books I still need to read. I need to read Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, and Arcana Academy by Elise Kova. I also would like to read/finish Worthy of Fate by A.N. Caudle, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas, Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu, Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana, The Ever King by L.J. Andrews, Lady of Darkness by Melissa K. Roehrich, The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, and A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker. Most of these are for ApollyCon.

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