Saturday, March 28, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Blue Box 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.

Life is fine, but I am very tired today, so I'm going to try to keep this brief. I saw Project Hail Mary this past weekend, barely worked out, worked, and slept. That was the extent of my activities. I'm hoping to be more productive next week, because this one was a dud.


As for the books I received this week, I got a few physical copies. The first is a copy of Lights Out by Navessa Allen that I used trade credit to get from my local used bookstore. My luxe copy of Zodiac Academy: The Reckoning also finally came. I paid for the entire ZA luxe series in fall of 2024, I believe, and I think they're just now shipping book three. It'll take five years to get them all at this rate. I didn't actually do the math, I'm just guesstimating. XD
 
 
 
My February Adult FairyLoot book also FINALLY came. US FairyLoot orders have been significantly backed up, so I was getting a bit irritated. Thankfully, they finally started moving last week. I'm still waiting on a couple of preorders, but those were on their way. I just hope there's no damage from the wait. The February book is Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity. I don't really have much interest in this book, I just didn't have any skips left. It is gorgeous though, so maybe I'll give it a try.
 

I have one ebook for the week as well. It's the newly repackaged The Summer King bindup by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This was originally three separate novellas that Blue Box Press has now released all together in one paperback and ebook version. I signed up for the ARC team, and they sent me a digital copy. I'm about 15% through now, and my review will be live April 7, on release day.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Actual eBooks 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.

Work is getting better, so I think in the next week or so, I may actually be able to get back to regular blogging. And by regular, I mean posting two times a week versus just once. I do have some reviews coming up, and I still haven't done a lot of my wrap-up posts from 2025. Yikes. Is it too late to share those? Other than work, I've mostly been watching TV and reading. I've been lazy, but it's just because my job has me too stressed out to do much other than veg out.


As for the books I received this week, I have one lone physical copy. My Barnes & Noble preorder of Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent arrived. I can now binge read the trilogy. While these covers are decent, I'm hoping FairyLoot does a nice special edition set. I don't know if I'd keep these versions or not if I did get a special set. I guess it depends on how great the other versions are and how much I like the actual story. 
 
 
 
I have ebooks to share this week. I feel like it's been a month or so since I've had actual ebooks in a haul post, simply because I'm trying to read down my TBR. It's working, but I'm also bringing in so many physical books that the dent just stays the same size every time. I received two NetGalley ARCs for review. Those include Dhampira by Amy Pennza and A Viper Among Kings by Sydney Olivia. I also bought Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance by Melissa K. Roehrich on Kindle. I had points to reduce the price a bit, because otherwise, this was $16 on Nook and Kindle. Yikes! I remember when companies had to send out settlements for high ebook prices. Those were the goold ol' days. Ha.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Beautiful Books 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.

One day, I will post more than just Stacking the Shelves. I feel like that's all I've done lately. My job has just required a lot of time on a screen, and I can't make myself stare at it more to write posts. Hopefully, things slow down soon and it's not such a chore to be on my computer. But, other than that, this week has been pretty quiet. I did buy way too many books yesterday. Like, multiple books worth $$$, so I'm in timeout for the minute.


As for the actual books I received this week, I have a few. One of which is my February FairyLoot Romantasy book, which is Half City by Kate Golden. I'm so excited for this one. Not only is it probably my favorite FairyLoot sub box edition that they've done in a while, but it also sounds like a great book. It has Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural vibes, apparently, and that's all I need. I can't decide, though, if I want to read it now or wait until all the books are out to binge the entire series. Ugh. Decisions... 
 
 
 
I also received a couple of other preorders from book boxes, including another FairyLoot edition. My FairyLoot edition of Dire Bound by Sable Sorenson arrived. It's very pretty. I now have like three editions of this book, or I will, once my US version is replaced by Barnes & Noble. I can't keep them all, but I will be keeping this one. My preorder of Lilac Library's Quicksilver edition by Callie Hart also came in. While I do like the cover for this one, the under the dust jacket isn't as pretty, though it's still better than whatever the heck the publishers decided to do for the regular hardback editions. The order also came with an art print that got a bit beat up in transit. It's still cute, though.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Not Keeping 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 so ready for the weekend. I have a bunch of errands I should be doing, but I think I'm probably going to end up just lazing around all day Saturday. We shall see... As for life overall, it's been hectic. I need many naps. Work is haunting me even when I'm not there, and I hate that. I need a vacation ASAP.


So technically I have books to haul this week, but they're going to be leaving very soon. Why? Because they're both damaged. You can see where Restless Stars by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti is ripped at the corner. It's a big book and Barnes & Noble didn't pack it very well. My Dire Bound edition also came from them with a dented corner. It's hard to see since it's in the shadowy part of the pic. So, both have to be returned and then I'll be sent a replacement. I just have to hope that the replacements aren't as damaged as the originals.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Thursday, March 5, 2026

February Wrap-Up & March TBR

February has not been a good month overall. Work was insane, my motivation to do anything but turn my brain off was nonexistent, and the world was and is on fire. But, we take it day by day, I guess. I'm getting back into my routine now that some major February tasks are complete, so I'm excited to start fresh and maybe get some of that spring cleaning done soon.

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

Cruel is the Light: 3 stars
Carving Shadows into Gold: 3.5 stars
A Curse Carved in Bone: 3 stars 
Rabid: 3.5 stars
Wrath of the Dragons: 4 stars
A Marvellous Light: reread

I only read six books in February. February is a short month, so I think that's okay, but I know the reason I wasn't reading as much also correlated with how stressful work was, so that's kind of disappointing. I will say that four of the six books were books I needed to get off of my physical TBR, so that was great. Those included Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark, A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen, Rabid by Ivy Asher and Raven Kennedy, and Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling. The only ebook I read was Carving Shadows into Gold by Brigid Kemmerer which was a Libby ebook read. The sixth and final book I read was actually a reread. That was A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. I needed to reread book one so I could go into books two and three, which I'm doing right now.

Books Bought/Received in February

I didn't think this month was a very expensive one. Boy was I wrong. I have to slow down in March. I have to. In total for February, I purchased 29 books and received five titles from preorders that I'd already paid for in previous months.

The five books I received included the FairyLoot editions of Silver Elite by Dani Francis and Bonds of Hercules by Jasmine Mas. They also included the Inked Pages editions of books three and four in the Flesh & Fire series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and a copy of Fahrenheit 451 I got from my local used bookstore via store credit.

Now, for what I bought in February. I only received 16 of the 29 books I purchased. That includes mostly books I ordered/preordered from Barnes & Noble: Blood and Chocolate, Quicksilver, Shadows so Cruel, Feathers so Vicious, Breaking Dawn, Nocticadia, Crown of War and Shadow, Of Blood and Fire, Red Winter, and Assistant to the Villain. I also bought used copies of A Reaper at the Gates (Pango) and the Fallen series by Lauren Kate (Mercari). My Fallen set is kind of eh, so I thought I'd see if someone had a good set for me to replace my copies with.

 As for the remaining 13 books, they include my February FairyLoot subs and two other sequel special editions, my Arcane set of the Flesh & Fire series, the Bookish Box edition of Visions of Flesh and Fire, the Acrylipics 3D editions of books 3-4 of the FBAA series, and the first two books in the FBAA series from Ink Pages.

Currently Obsessed With

I've still been watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. I'm on season four, I think. It's getting a little old, so I think I'm going to take a mini break soon and come back to it later. It's too much relationship drama to get through all at once. I also finished up A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBOMax and watched the last season of Stranger Things. It was a bittersweet ending. The show got a little too far-fetched in season five, but there were some amazing scenes, like the Wheeler's attack, the pie scene, and the very end. I'm glad it's over though.

March TBR

Oh, would you look at that. Once again, my TBR has barely changed. Sigh. I'm still reading The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde. I'm also finally reading Freya Marske's A Restless Truth as well as Lore by Alexandra Bracken, Sparking Fire Out of Fate by Brigid Kemmerer (Libby), and The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson. I very much still need to finish Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh and start To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast and Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs.

***

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!

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Late Again 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 not in town this past weekend, or at least, not the half of the weekend that I normally use to write up my StS posts, so this is going to be late. I'd wait until Saturday to post it all, but, well, I just don't wan to. I want all these books I got in February to go to their respective final shelf destinations and off of my overcrowded living room shelves. Ha ha.


This week's haul is fairly substantial. I went to my local used bookstore and used store credit to get Fahrenheit 451, which I've been wanting a copy of for a while. Then, I also went to a newly-opened local bookstore and bought Assistant to the Villain by Hanna Nicole Maehrer. My FairyLoot preorder of Bonds of Hercules by Jasmine Mas came in as well, along with my Barnes & Noble preorder of The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan. I also finally purchased a matching copy of A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir off of Pango. I've been procrastinating on this. I was super close to buying the new FairyLoot editions of this set, but then I realized that I actually like the first redesigned covers that Penguin did, so I figured I'd stick with those. Maybe I'll regret that one day once I actually read the series, but for now, I think I'm okay with what I have.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Saturday, February 21, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Big Books 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 feel like life's been looking up this week. I worked out more. Things in the world seem to be somewhat better. In some ways. Not so much in others. But maybe I'm just optimistic. All in all, though, my life seems easier, so I'm going to stick with that for now. (Please, Universe, let me keep this happiness for a bit. I beg.)


As for books I got, I have two Barnes & Noble preorders: Crown of War and Shadow by J.R. Ward and Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill. I also received my FairyLoot edition of Silver Elite by Dani Francis. I noticed that all three of these are tall, fairly thick books, which is interesting, since normally, I feel like my hauls are all different-sized books.
 
 
Next, I have a a Sallteas pin order. I'm actually really disappointed in this one because the Rhys and Feyre pins I ordered aren't the same size as the original pin designs the seller did. You can see the comparison with the Kieran pin I got as a freebie in my order. Unfortunately, this has happened twice now. The first time was with the Kerri Maniscalco Kingdom of the Wicked characters. They don't match the other duos I have, so I really have no use for them on my pin banner. Ugh. I'll have to start paying closer attention to the seller's website in the future, because it's annoying that they don't stay the same size. I understand if it's because of costs, I just somehow wish it was obviously stated that these don't match the others. Maybe it did, though, and I just didn't see it. Sigh..
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Stacking the Shelves: The Random Purchase 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 post is going live on Valentine's Day. Huh. Well, I have no plans beyond staying at home and reading. I'll probably go to the gym too. That's it. My life is pretty simple right now. Well, my personal life is. The "everything else" life is not. But, that's too much to try to unpack right now. I'll stick with my simple weekends. They're much better for my mental health.


As for the actual books I received, I have an order I made spontaneously via Barnes & Noble. Did I need to purchase more books? No. Was I feeling the urge to buy? Yes. I wanted to get the deluxe edition of Quicksilver before it sold out, as I'm thinking about buying some replacement dust jackets for the series, so it was added to my cart. I also got Liv Zander's Feathers So Vicious and Shadows So Cruel because I just wanted them. You ever get that urge to buy books that you've had your eye on for a while and one day, you just snap and say, "Hey, I need that NOW"? That was me. I also added the hardcover of Nocticadia by Keri Lake to the order, as it's very pretty, even though the content doesn't seem like it'll be my favorite. I'm just not sure. I plan to try it and see. I'm trying to slow down on my book ordering. My TBR shelves are way too full, so let's hope another one of these random purchases doesn't happen for a while.
 
Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

January Wrap-Up & February TBR

One month of 2026 is gone. And boy oh boy, has it been a nightmare. I don't even know what to say anymore. Can the aliens please just come and take us away at this point? It's gotta be better than whatever the heck is going on right now, right? But, in regular day-to-day life news, it's been quiet. Mostly work. I haven't been working out as much as I should, though, since I've been reading more. I need to get back on that. I deleted TikTok, so I think I can still keep my books-read count high even with spending a few more hours at the gym each week. Ha ha.

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 January

Beautiful Venom: 3 stars
A Crown of Ruin: 4 stars
Sweet Venom: 3 stars 
The Scorpion and the Night Blossom: 3.5 stars
Game Changer: 3 stars
Heated Rivalry: 4 stars
The Wolf King: 4 stars
The Nightshade God: 3.5 stars
Tough Guy: 3.5 stars
Common Goal: 3 stars 
The Lies that Summon the Night: 4 stars (review live)
 Role Model: 3.5 stars
The Long Game: 3.5 stars 

I read 13 books in January. Wow! I'm almost halfway to my 30-book Goodreads goal. I can really only blame the number of books I read on my drive to finish the Game Changers series super quickly. I read six of them in less than a month. Of the 13 books I read, 11 were physical copies: Beautiful Venom and Sweet Venom by Rina Kent, The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao, the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman, and The Nightshade God. The other two were ebooks. One was the free novella from Jennifer L. Armentrout A Crown of Ruin, and the other was the NetGalley eARC of The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette. Only five of the books I read were physical copies I owned before 2026. Those were all the non-Game Changers books.

Books Bought/Received in January

I went nuts. I don't know what happened. I think I'll blame it on the holiday sales and getting a gift card for Christmas. Because it is not good. In total for January, I purchased 17 books and received 12 titles either from receiving review copies or having preorders that I'd already paid for in previous months get delivered.

The 12 books I received include FairyLoot editions of Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross and We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, the Owlcrate edition of The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent, the Inked Pages editions of the first two books in JLA's Flesh & Fire series, the Bad Women Books edition of The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. For Barnes & Noble orders, I got The Aspect of Essence by Samantha Amstutz and the first two books in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. I also used by local bookstore trade credit to get Brimstone by Callie Hart, and I received two NetGalley ebooks for review: Nemesis Mine by Amy Archer and The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette.

Now, for what I bought in January. I only received 13 of the 17 books I purchased. That included Rings of Fate by Melissa de la Cruz, Wicked and the Spanish edition of FBAA by JLA, If All the Stars Go Dark by S.G. Prince, the last four books in Rachel Reid's Game Changers series, The Wolf and the Crown of Blood, Silver & Blood (B&N), Hollow by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti (WM), Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry (WM), and the FairyLoot Romantasy book for January, King of Ravens.

 As for the remaining four books, they include two FairyLoot preorders, The Night Prince by Lauren Palphreyman and Light Wielder by Rachel Schneider. It also includes my ApollyCon virtual preorder for the FBAA and TWOTQ exclusive editions that I won't get until after the con. Boo. I hate not having tickets this year.

Currently Obsessed With

I am still in my Heated Rivalry phase. I've read all the books, follow the update accounts, read the fanfic, etc. The only thing I haven't done is rewatched the show. Yet. Other than that, I've watched the remaining season two episodes of Wednesday on Netflix, and I just started A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBOMax. Oh, and I'm still slowly watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. I think I've only watched maybe an episode once a week, though. It got boring pretty fast. I do not care about Meredith and McDreamy or Liz and her patient. Yuck.

January TBR

I'm still, unfortunately, in the middle of four books I started in 2025. Those are Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, Court of Nightmares by K.A. Knight, and Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland. I'd also like to read Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark, and re-read Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I very much need to finish Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh and start To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast and Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs.

***

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