2026 ApollyCon Recap: Part 1

Yikes. This post is late. Like late late. I thought 2025's ApollyCon recap post was delayed, but at least I managed to get that up in June. I didn't even start this one until the end of July. Terrible. So terrible. And this is just Part 1. There will be at least 2-3 more. Sigh. It might be hard for me to remember some details, since I waited so long to write this, but at least it'll be done. I don't even know if anyone reads these recaps, but I like to go back and look through the memories every once in a while.

 

First, I need to mention the whole ticket fiasco. I was planning to go as an aid for a friend of a friend, but I ended up getting an Ascended-level ticket literally a day before the ticket sales closed. It was insane. I was ecstatic, though! And I got to help my other friend out as an aid while still having a ticket, so that was nice. I hadn't planned on bringing that many books when I was just going as an aid, but once I got a ticket, I threw together every book I had that I could reasonably get/wanted to get signed. I decided to take Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins; The Traitor Queen indie paperback and the new hardcover; the Aurora Crate edition of Speak of the Demon by Stacia Stark; Prince of the Arena by Elizabeth Helen; the hardback, UK ARC, and US ARC of What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller; Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros; and the 2024 ApollyCon Arcane Society edition of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I also took the Arcane Society editions of Wicked and Torn by JLA, but I think I only managed to get one signed. Maybe. I should probably go check... You can also see the books I brought back with me in this pic too, but I'll get to those throughout the recap posts. 

This year was a lot different than previous years, since my usual friend I attend with didn't go. I ended up sharing a room with three other attendees, one of whom was the friend I was aiding for. It was wild. I'd never stayed with that many people before. Everyone was cool, though. It was just a crazy time with a lot less space. The first event for the convention is always registration on Wednesday. Because I was an aid, I got to stand in the shorter line, so we got out of there a lot faster than others. I got my two lanyards, one for my ticket tier and the other for my aid status (the red one). My Ascended bag also came with some swag, five random books, and, of course, the From Blood and Ash special edition hardcover. JLA also surprised everyone and put a paperback edition of A Crown of Ruin in the bags as well. That was amazing! I loved that so much, especially since JLA said there were no plans to put this novella in paperback any time soon. Of the five other books I received in my bag, I only kept two: A Darkness So Sweet by Emma Hamm and The Midnight Arrow by Zoey Draven.

 

After registration, we waited in another line for the JLA and J.R. Ward opening panel. I don't remember everything they discussed, but I do know J.R. Ward talked about how Lover at Last ended up going #1, even though it was a MM paranormal romance book. It was the first one to do so. I didn't know that. J.R. Ward also made fun of the name Roth, and of course, JLA let her know that she has a character named Roth, so that was a funny moment. Those are the two major things I remember, other than the event starting late because registration took so long. J.R. Ward stalled for time by asking attendees why they were there or why they liked romance or something like that, so of course she was running around in the audience with the mic, as she does.

 

I almost forgot that after the event, volunteers/staff handed out goodie bags. The bag came with a teal/blue water bottle and set of the Prettygal Pins Black Dagger Brotherhood cards. I was ecstatic to get these! I already head Rhage and Wrath, but I didn't have Zsadist. And of course, Vishous and Phury were new. Funnily enough, we got like two more of these goodie bags during the con. I guess they had ordered too many of them, so they were just handing extras out to everyone throughout the con. Our hotel room ended up leaving like eight bottles lined up on the table of our room. I took one back to give to my friend who couldn't attend, but I couldn't keep the others. I had no space in my suitcases. I did keep a second PGP card set, though. The third bag I got didn't come with extra cards. I don't know what I'll do with the extra set yet.

 

For Day 2 of ApollyCon, we attended panels in the a.m. The first panel we went to was the Forged in Fire & Fate: Romantasy panel at 9 a.m. Gina Maxwell, Rebecca Yarros, Morgan Gauthier, Jen L. Grey, Sariah Wilson, Amanda Bouchet, and Stacia Stark were the attending authors. I only remember that Amanda Bouchet made a comment about killing, but not really killing, the animal companion in her new book. We all gasped when she first said it. I think Rebecca also teased her Threshing Day book as well, but that's old news at this point.

Panel number two was Horns, Hearts & HEA's: Monster Romance. The authors on that panel were J.R. Ward, Regine Abel, Kait Ballenger, Jenna Wolfhart, Kalista Neith, Juliette Cross, Lexi Foss, and Emma Hamm. I don't remember much from this one except that the mics went out. I think. Once that was over, I think we got some food and just kind of hung out until the JLA Welcome to the Capital event that evening, which I'll share in Part 2. It deserves a full post.

 

I almost forgot to mention that I took pics with the Jemlin Cas and Kieran cutouts that were set up in the hall. I ended up taking pics multiple times throughout the event. I just wanted to make sure I got good ones in different outfits. Honestly, I just wish I could have taken these two cutouts home with me. I would've paid for them. Lol. Speaking of that, I did end up trading with another attendee so I could get her Cas and Kieran Jemlin cards. The cards only came in the Primal bag, so I had to figure out a way to get my own set. Luckily, I have a friend who loves helping people with trades and was able to hook me up. If that hadn't happened, I think my con might have sucked. At least, it would've sucked until I could go home and purchase a set online for high resale prices. I totally would've done it if I had to. I'll share a pic of those with my Jemlin/Gremlin Gates signing day stuff. 

 

Well, that's all for the first day and a half of ApollyCon. Above is a pic of me with my lanyard and another when my roommates and I took a walk around the hotel area. Part 2 will be the JLA event recap and Part 3 will be the signing day. I'm hoping I can get all the signing stuff in one post, but I think I'll have to split that up if I want to include the Friday night and Saturday morning stuff too. I'm planning to schedule a part every week, so stay tuned!

Stacking the Shelves: The Cleaned Out 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, my vacation is almost over. Sigh. It was nice while it lasted. I did manage to get a lot done, but I am officially cleaned out. Every muscle on my body is sore from the organizing and scrubbing. I have a few more projects I'd like to work on that I didn't manage to start this past week, though. That includes dusting my bookshelves. That will take days and days, however, so my plan is to do one bookcase every weekend, I think.

As for the books I received this week, I only obtained one physical book as of the time I'm writing this. I expect I'll have a few more by Friday night, but I'm writing this up Friday morning so they'll get pushed to next week's StS. The one book I did get was City of Souls and Sinners by Kayla Edwards. I haven't read book one in this series yet, but I'm expecting to enjoy it, so I've preordered the sequels already. Although, I just learned this will be a seven-book series and only four have been written so far. I think that means I'll be holding off reading them until closer to the final two books' release dates. Also, I was too lazy to take a photo of just one paperback book, so you get the cover image this week even though I have a physical copy. I'll return to my regularly-scheduled photos next week. :)

 

And next, I have the ebook I received. It actually isn't the lone ebook I got, but the other ones were Kindle Unlimited copies, and I just decided recently that I'm not sharing those on my StS posts anymore, simply because I download so many KU books in a short span of time. It's easier just to mention them in my wrap-up posts if I actually end up reading them. Anyway, the ebook I received was Kiss of the Black Flame by Helen Scheuerer via NetGalley. I'd requested this one on NG, but I ended up getting an email from the publisher to download it. I think that's the first time that's happened to me. Usually, I only get a publisher email if I haven't requested the book. Very interesting. I'm super excited for this one. I do need to speed up my NG reading, though. I have four to finish in the next 5-9 weeks.

 

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

My Most Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2026

I did a full Top 10 Most Anticipated Releases post like six months ago, but things have changed since then. Some of the books I had listed already released, new titles came to my attention, a couple of books had release date changes, and some new books were just announced. I've also already read some of the titles I originally listed, so I've decided to not include those. Sorry, Soul Sworn and Captive Traitor King! But anyway, it's time to share my most anticipated releases for the rest of 2026. Also, none of these are in any particular order except for #1.

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Daughter of the Dark by R.J. Valldeperas

I keep seeing character art of this book, and it's messing with my brain. I always think the book has already released, and I want to go purchase a copy only to realize, 1) it's not out yet, and 2) I've already preordered it via Barnes & Noble. So yeah, I'm excited for this one. I'll also say here that I couldn't fit a couple of titles on this list. Those include Ravenous by Kresley Cole and Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske. I'm anticipating both of those too.

The Emperor's Enemy by Jasmine Mas

I was not looking forward to this book at all after I recently read the Psycho Shifters trilogy by this author and wasn't super impressed with Blood of Hercules. However, I finished Bonds of Hercules a couple of months ago and I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping this book, which starts a new series by the author, is more like Bonds and less like the others.

The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig

The second book in the duology is releasing in September. I got an ARC of book one, so I'm curious if I can be lucky enough to get an early copy of this one as well. Fingers crossed. I'm mostly in it for Bartholomew though. He is the main character. This cover is also very pretty. (Note: I just used the same description I had from earlier this year. ARCs are super limited for this title, so I definitely don't expect to get one.)

Monstrous Serpent by E.V. Olsen

This is another book that's haunting me. I want it to be out so badly. It seems like such an easy book to get me out of a reading slump. It has Rina Kent Legacy of Gods/Vipers vibes, which is just what I want right now. Rina's books aren't hitting like they used to, so I'm hoping this one gives me all the dark feels with the MM characters.

Roguefinder by Amy Pennza

I read two books by Amy Pennza in 2026. One was Dhampira and the other was the first book in this series, Wolfseeker. I liked Wolfseeker at the time, but didn't think much of it. I LOVED Dhampira, though. Well, a couple months later, and Wolfseeker somehow managed to stick in my brain. I now need the sequel. Thankfully, it comes out next month, which is good news for me. I also need to read Pennza's backlog at some point. She has a couple other books I'd like to read.

Earthbound by Saara El-Arifi

This is the third and final book in the Faebound trilogy. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first two books in the series back when I read them last year. My friends weren't super impressed, but the twist in book one blew my mind. It's probably the only book that's every done that to me on that scale. I was shocked.

Defy the Dusk by Danielle L. Jensen

Danielle L. Jensen's new dystopian romance book wasn't really on my radar beyond knowing that I'd buy it and get to it one day. Lately, though, I've been wanting this book more and more. I think the hype of the dystopian romances in general has managed to rub off on me. I just hope it doesn't impact my enjoyment. The hype can sometimes get to be too much.

Kiss of the Black Flame by Helen Scheurer

Helen Scheuerer continues to share character art and snippets for this book, and it's starting to affect me. I honestly don't know very much about it beyond there being a book involved, but I do know what the MMC looks like for sure. Sexy. Lol.

Bloodgrove by Elisabeth G. Mark

This is a new addition to my 2026 releases, but it's one I'm obsessed with and want right now. It's out in early September, so I don't have to wait long, but it just sounds sooooo freaking good. It's why choose but one of the MMC's is the POV character. I love that! It also has vampires and gods, so I'm sold! 

Crowned by Roses by Elizabeth Helen

The sixth and penultimate book for this series comes out today, when this post goes live, so I'll be reading that on KU. However, Crowned by Roses, the last book, isn't out until October! Ugh. It's so far away but at the same time, it's too soon. I don't know what I'm going to do once there's no more Beasts of the Briar books. It's like when Zodiac Academy ended. That series was so crucial to the enjoyment of my reading in 2021, and Beasts of the Briar was the same for 2025. It made reading fun again. I just hope this book is a satisfying finale.

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Alright, there you have it. My most anticipated 2026 releases for the last half of  the year. What books are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves: The Staycation 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 on vacation!!!! AAAAAACCCKKK! Can you tell I'm excited?! I was feeling so run down in May and June, so I'm super glad I get the chance to relax for a while. And by relax, I mean do all the tasks I couldn't make myself do during my weekends due to being completely overwhelmed. I'm currently organizing closets and planning to clean out my garage. Both sound like terrible vacation activities, but they must be done.

As for the books I received this week, there are a few. I'm actually writing this a bit early because I might be out of town when I normally write up my StS posts, so I likely have more than the four I'll be sharing. I'll just save those titles for next week. I got an ARC of The Shadows that Listen by Louisa Carmody from Orbit. I didn't think I was going to get one, as I signed up a while ago, but it came! I'm about 50 pages in right now, and it's fun. It's giving me Angelfall and Broken Dove vibes.

 

 

Next up, I have a couple of Barnes & Noble orders. One was an in-person order that I got on a recent road trip. It's Hopeless Necromantic by Shiloh Briar. This has been one of the books that randomly gets stuck in my head and I need to get a copy so I can read it immediately. Thankfully, the B&N I went to had a copy. When will I get to it? Who the heck knows. My TBR is long. I also received my online preorder of the Spanish edition of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout. These editions are so pretty. I'm excited to see what the third book looks like. I hope Kieran is on the cover.

 

 

And finally, I have a book I got at my local used bookstore using trade credit. I'm doing some spring cleaning in the summer, and so I unhauled a few more books. I didn't really want to "buy" anything, but I always feel bad dropping books off and not purchasing anything. So, I got Furysong by Rosaria Munda. I'd picked up book two earlier, and I own book one. Now, I just need to read the series some day.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Broken Dove Edition

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

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

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

June Wrap-Up & July TBR

June was a decent month. While work was still blugh, it wasn't as bad as May. I also started getting some household things done. I'm still super behind, but it was nice to actually check off some tasks. I also started getting back into working out consistently, but with the heatwave towards the end of the month, that kind of slowed down. It's too hot to run, so I've just been walking, which isn't nearly as productive for my own mental/physical health. Anyway, onto the books! 

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 June

Soul Sworn: 4 stars (review to come)

Captive Traitor King: 4 stars (review to come)

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards: 3.5 stars 

Beg the Night: 3 stars

The Fake Divination Offense: 3 stars

I only read five books in June, which is disappointing considering the month wasn't nearly as stressful as May's events. I'm not sure what happened there. I'm thinking it was just a reading slump. I found it hard to pick up books for a bit. As for what I did read, only two of the books were from my physical TBR and both of those were acquired this year, so that doesn't help a whole lot with getting things off my TBR shelves. Those two books were The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch and Beg the Night by Emily Blackwood. Two of the ebooks were NetGalley ARCs. Those included Soul Sworn by Kate Dylan and Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer. I really enjoyed both of these, and I'll have physical copies eventually, so that'll be nice to haul them without adding them to my TBR. Ha ha. And then the last ebook I read was from Kindle Unlimited. I decided to read The Fake Divination Offense after finishing The Entanglement of Rival Wizards because I liked the first book and wanted to see if I should purchase the second.

Books Bought/Received in June

June was not great. I'm supposed to be on a book-buying ban, but you definitely can't tell from these pics. In total, I purchased 32 books and received 19 titles for review or from preorders that I'd already paid for in previous months. The dollar amount wasn't as insane as previous months, but it was a lot of books, with 30 physical books added to my shelves and 14 I have to add to my ever-growing TBR.

The 16 books I received mostly consisted of the preordered books that all decided to arrive in June. This included four foreign editions of the FBAA series, two ApollyCon FBAA editions, Silver & Smoke and Thorns & Fire by Helen Scheurer FairyLoot editions, The Last Wish of Bristol Keats FairyLoot edition, The Dragon and the Sun Lotus FairyLoot edition, and Cursed Fates and Queens of Quarantine by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti author edition. I also got Dungeon Crawler Carl from my local used bookstore. I didn't pay for it, though. And then, I got three NetGalley ARCs: The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker, Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer, and Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher.
 

Now, for what I bought in June. It was a lot. Mostly preorders, but still, a lot. Of the 29 books I bought, 19 arrived in June. Those included a bunch of books from Barnes & Noble: The Dawn Throne by Tara Sim, Kissed by the Gods by Caty Rogan, Dhampira by Amy Pennza, Torn and FBAA by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Blood & Betrayals by Jeannette Rose and Alexis Rune, The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen, The Fall by Ryan Cahill, Father Material by Alexis Hall, Silk & Steel by Ariana Nash, The Proposal by Meg Cabot, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe hardcover edition. As for non-B&N orders, I have the Allurial edition of Dhampira, the FairyLoot Adult book that I'm getting rid of, What Darkness Brings by Jenna Wolfhart ebook via Kindle, Feral Sin and Eternal Sin by Ariana Nash via eBay, Overbite by Meg Cabot via my local library sale, and The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson via Nook.

 As for the remaining ten books, they include preorders that haven't arrived yet. The FairyLoot preorders were for The Knave and the Moon, The Shadows that Listen, Prince of Swords, and Blood Over Bright Haven. Then, I had one B&N preorder that is still on its way: Tempting Venom by Rina Kent. I also preordered two books from the Ripped Bodice and the War of Lost Hearts trilogy from Moonlight Book Box.

Currently Obsessed With

Two anticipated show seasons premiered in June. The first was AMC's The Vampire Lestat, which is technically season three of Interview with the Vampire, and a couple weeks after its premiere, House of the Dragon season three started. It's been nice to have regularly-scheduled shows to watch again. I probably won't have the opportunity for another year at this point. Lol. I did also watch a couple of movies with my parents, one was The Tomorrow War and the other was Kraven. Both were fine. I'm also still watching The Middle when I eat or need background noise. 

July TBR

My TBR is pretty much the same as last month, but I thought I'd add some things I'm currently reading. I'm about halfway through Fake Shot by C.E. Ricci and around 85% through Tempting Venom by Rina Kent, so those ebooks will be done soon. I'm also about halfway through Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright as well as Kill the Beast by Serra Swift. You can tell I'm in a reading slump when I have more than two books (one ebook, one physical book) in my currently-reading list. Now, I also have a bunch of NetGalley books to read, including To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast, A Viper Among Kings by Sydney Olivia, Turncloak by L.K. Steven, Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher, and The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker. I also need to read Starside by Alex Aster for my book club.

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