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?

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!

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?

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?

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?

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!

Review: The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette

The Lies that Summon the Night

Tessonja Odette

(Songs for the Sinless #1)

Publication Date: February 3, 2026

Hardcover, 320 pages, Delacorte Press

Genres: Adult, Romantasy

Goodreads

Lies, beauty, and seduction mingle in the first book of an enthralling romantasy series where making art is considered a sin, and the shadows born from it aren't the only danger to the creators—from the bestselling author of Curse of the Wolf King.

 

From the art of liars, the monsters came… Ever since art gave life to bloodthirsty shadows, creative works have been forbidden and the talented creators sacrificed to the Sinless—the immortal royals who feast on human blood in return for their protection.

 

Inana’s secret storytelling nearly got her killed once, and she’ll be damned if she’s ever caught again. With a bounty on her head, she keeps to the city’s dark underbelly where she earns a meager living from thrill-seeking patrons desperate to hear her illicit fiction. Until Dominic, a Shadowbane, catches one of her performances. . .

 

Dominic is a half-Sinless monster hunter as fearsome as his prey. But to complete his hunt, he needs an artist to summon the shadows . . . he needs Inana. Dominic delivers an ultimatum: serve him or he’ll claim her bounty. When survival is all Inana has left, the choice is clear. At least until she can betray him and leave him for dead.

 

 As their tense alliance leads them into the heart of danger, dark secrets unravel—about each other, their world, and the threats they face. But the greatest risk of all is the desire growing between them. There’s something more sinful than lust at play, and it could bring the world to its knees.

My Review

The Witcher with a "shadow daddy" vampire. That's how I think The Lies that Summon the Night should be advertised. So, if you prefer your fictional men to have auras like Desmond Flynn from Laura Thalassa's The Bargainer series, the bat boys from ACOTAR, or even Nyktos from the Flesh and Fire series, then this one might just be for you.

Dominic, the male love interest and second POV character, really has Henry Cavill as Geralt energy, though his hair isn't silver, sadly. He does have dark hair, though, for those of you who prefer brunettes. Dominic is sort of gruff and rough-around-the-edges with a nice chip on his shoulder and plans to burn it all to the ground while he hunts shadow monsters for a living and drinks vials of blood. The female main character, Inana, is a storyteller in a world where storytelling and art are forbidden, since art attracts the shadow creatures called Shades. Her character is the average romantasy main character, but she has a secret that keeps you intrigued throughout. She also has some intriguing interactions with the Shades and some unique circumstances that kept me curiously flipping pages.

The Lies that Summon the Night is a fairly short book. It's just over 300 pages, which is rare for a romantasy these days. And, although it's on the shorter side, I think it told a complete story ARC, leaving a decent bit of potential chaos for what's going to happen in book two. There's no major cliffhanger, however, so readers don't have to worry about a crazy cutoff. But the entire plot of Lies is based around going village to village to fight these shadow monsters. Dominic and his sidekick, Calvin (cough, non-musical Jaskier, cough), and the three Summoners Dominic needs to draw Shades out are all on this road trip. Inana joins him to get away from a Sinless, which is basically a royal vampire. It's all quite complicated when you try to explain it, but once I stopped trying to connect the dots and just went with the flow, it was easier to understand the world-building.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this to my fellow romantasy readers. It's quick, fun, and has some decent tension between the two main characters. And while I'm still adamant The Witcher is the main vibe comparison for the story, the atmosphere and concepts do feel similar to books like The Knight and the Moth, From Blood and Ash, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, and Shield of Sparrows. It's a good amalgamation of the more hyped romantasy titles with popular tropes like shadow magic, sexy vampires, monster fighting, and secret powers. 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Snowstorm 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 absent last week for specific reasons. Nothing bad, but between that event and the big snowstorm, I just didn't have the time to write up an StS post. I will say that I had a lot of orders come in over the past two weeks. I honestly didn't think I'd bought this much, but stuff just kept coming, and now, it's too cold to drop off my recycling so the boxes are piling up. Oops.

As for books I got in the past two weeks, I'll start with the most recent stuff to just to do everything backwards and out of order. My Barnes & Noble preorders of Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik and The Wolf and the Crown of Blood by Elizabeth May arrived, along with my Walmart order of Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry. I tried to find a first-print edition of SoS with the sprayed edges, but they resale for way too much, sadly. I should have gotten it when it came out, but I was hoping another company would release a prettier edition. So far, no one has. So, I just got the regular edition. Oh, and my FairyLoot January Romantasy book arrived. It's King of Ravens by Clare Sager, and it's very pretty.

 

 

Next, I have a large stack of books in a kind of blurry pic. Sorry. I tried to sharpen it as much as possible. I was too lazy to retake the photo. I ended up buying books 3-6 of the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid via B&N, and my preorders for the new Wicked paperback by JLA and If All the Stars Go Dark by S.G. Prince also arrived. My preorder of Owlcrate's edition of The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk came in as well. I honestly forgot I'd even ordered this. It's been so long. And, my FairyLoot edition of Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross came in too. It was damaged (no surprise, my FL editions are always damaged lately). A replacement is on its way. And the reason I made the Walmart order for the SoS book was because I noticed my local Walmart had one copy of their exclusive edition of Hollow by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti in stock. So, to get free shipping, I just ordered SoS with it.

 

 

 

And here, I have the Spanish special edition of From Blood and Ash by JLA. It's very pretty. I ordered this from B&N, thankfully, as I was worried I'd have to spend $50+ on it from another online retailer. I'm so happy B&N had it available. Next time, though, I'm going to wait and preorder the sequel during one of their 25% off sales. I didn't think they'd have a sale before this one was released, but B&N did, so I could've saved some money. Oh well. Story of my life. Patience is a virtue and all that jazz.

 

 

 

Here, I have my Ink Pages editions of the first two books in the Flesh & Fire series. The order came with some fun swag as well, including a pin and some prints. Now, I've heard some sketchy things about Ink Pages, so I'm not sure what to do about that. I already have an order in for the last two books in this series, but I know they're going to release the Blood and Ash set soon as well. Ugh. Difficult decisions must be made. 

For the ebooks, I have one. It's Nemesis Mine by Amy Archer. I was approved for it on NetGalley via the publisher. It's one I've had my eye on for a couple of months now, so I'm glad I was approved to review it. I'm also glad it isn't out until summer because I have three other NetGalley ARCs to review in the next few months already.

 

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