Saturday, July 22, 2023

Stacking the Shelves: The ASOAAB 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 week has been a wild ride, even though there wasn't a ton going on except the major event—A Soul of Ash and Blood releasing. And yes, I've read it. And yes, I've ordered umpteen copies that should be here Friday evening but they may not get here in time for me to update this post, as my older sister is also visiting and wanting to do stuff that evening, so we'll see what happens. If the ASOAAB books are here, then you'll know if I had time to update my post based on whatever picture is below. Haha.


Okay, well, it looks like I had some time. Yay! This is going to be a super long StS, so apologies in advance. Obviously, I have my preordered copies of ASOAAB. I bought two B&N editions and one hardcover, though only one B&N hardcover is in my hands right now. The other was delayed for some reason. Boo. I got the second B&N edition during the 25% preorder sale, since I figured I'll need extras for dust jacket orders in the future. My preorder ASOAAB goodies also arrived from 1,001 Dark Nights. Hurrah!
 

A bunch of other Barnes & Noble orders also arrived this week. This includes Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft's Star Bringer, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent, and The Struggle and the Spanish paperback of A Light in the Flame by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Star Bringer took forever to get to me. It was two days late from the normal delivery time of B&N/UPS/USPS and then my parents brought it to me, since I had it delivered to their address. I'm not sure why this one took so long when it seems like all my other B&N orders are arriving relatively on time. The delivery companies are having major issues updating their tracking, though. It's super annoying as it's been raining a lot lately, so it's nice to know if I have things to grab off the porch. I'm glad I don't have any major exciting B&N orders after ASOAAB.


Next, I have a sort-of impulse purchase. Illumicrate's Afterlight was selling these editions of Boyfriend Material and Husband Material by Alexis Hall, and I was on the fence about whether or not to get them. While I adored the first book, the second one didn't wow me. It was actually kind of meh with a little ugh thrown in. But, I'm still hopeful book three will give Luc and Oliver a satisfying story arc, so when I saw these pretties, I was torn. I've been spending a lot of money on special editions lately, so I figured I'd skip them. Obviously I didn't, since I have them now. I only got them because Illumicrate gave them a discount during Pride month, which is great, as they shipped from the UK warehouse, so shipping was pricey. I love Illumicrate's non-sub-box editions, but the shipping usually kills any possibility of me buying from them.

And here I have the third book in Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter campaign. I think I was one of the first people to get my copy, as I didn't see a lot of posts about it anywhere. Unfortunately, it was delivered to my parents' house, so that didn't matter in the long run, as it took me another week to actually go to their house to get it. Haha. I'm not as big of a fan of the design and subject matter of this one when compared to the first two. This one is almost manga style, and that's just not typically my jam.
 

Up next is my A Touch of Magic Designs order that FINALLY arrived. Lord, was I heated over this order. I made this order back in May, and it kept saying "shipping label created" for over a month. I tried many times to contact ATOMD. I finally managed to get a hold of them only for them to tell me my order had shipped and it seemed to be lost. They sent a replacement, but the KOTW print is the wrong one. They said they'd hold one for me to add to my next order, whenever that will be. Honestly, my orders just depend on the bakery pin of the month. But yeah, it's so hard to contact ATOMD that my orders are becoming fewer and farther between these days. 
 

Here's the box for the July FairyLoot Adult Fantasy sub. I'm actually selling this book, as I am 100% not interested. I've read this author's debut, and her writing style is not for me. Therefore, this book is going bye bye. I already have a buyer lined up, but I'm selling it for less than I paid for it because it's too hard to sell monthly FairyLoot books anymore. I honestly wish I could've skipped, but I've already used three of four skips and I want to keep my sub until FairyLoot's Romantasy box comes along. I'm canceling the Adult sub immediately once I've secured that Romantasy subscription. I figure I can purchase any Adult sub books secondhand instead of spending extra money on books I'll never read.
 

 As for ebooks, I only have the one. Yep, I bought the Kindle edition of A Soul of Ash and Blood. This was actually the version I read, since I don't have a B&N near me and it takes forever for my book orders to deliver. I couldn't wait until late Friday night/Saturday night to read this thing. It would have killed me, so I preordered the ebook. I read this as soon as it dropped at like 11:30 p.m. Monday night, and I took the day off work Tuesday to finish it.

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

2 comments:

  1. Yeah B&N has been bad with shipping lately. Or UPS, USPS...whoever is to be updating tracking and whatnot. For 2 days I watched my book just sit at a USPS facility because I was rehearsal "trying" to catch it arriving at my local USPS to see if I could "waylaid" it and pick it up instead of having it delivered to me at whatever time they get around to my neighborhood. Well, it never "arrived" at my PO, I just suddenly saw it "out for delivery." So I was like great. What I'm going to have to do is probably place a P/U order at a B&N 20 min or so away from me to pickup and then return the ones that get shipped to me with the in store receipt since my preorders come out cheaper because I was trying to leave for a book signing 4 hours away from me when I get off at 11 on Friday. And mail is NEVER delivered before noon! So frustrating too since the local PO is less than 10 min away from us.

    I ended up returning my B&N ASOAAB as I forgot I had preordered a signed BAM one. This series I tend to order a HC to read and then when JLA has signed PBs in her shop I order one of those! Lol. It's a sickness but I might pass on the PB this time since I got a signed HC!

    Yeah I was a bit meh over this month's FL Adult book. I actually just canceled my subscription to them as I've found the majority of these adult choices to be lacking. I'm hesitant to even sign up for the Romantasy one myself. Currently sticking with the YA as I feel like that runs 60-70% in my favor of books I want or don't sound too bad. the 40-30% of totally not interested doesn't always happen like it was with the adult one. I had held out for as long as I did because I wasn't sure if Maniscalco's "adult" debut would be a monthly box or not but based on the hints/guesses I see from my "professional" guessers on Instagram, I think I am in the clear. It's looking like that Maniscalco's could be a special edition not apart of their subscription.

    I gotta say I hate these limited skips per year. Sometimes their picks are just not my cup of tea, but other times they are. Pretty sure next month's YA isn't my cuppa tea but apparently I have no skips on that end, which doesn't make sense because I know I skipped more Adult books this year than YA but whatever.

    Hope you enjoy all of your lovely new reads!


    My StS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! All my packages are delivered at 6 p.m., and I hate it! I want my stuff to be there when I get home! But it is nice that I can grab them if it's raining. They don't have to sit outside for long periods of time. Double-edged sword, I guess.

      And yes, I wish FairyLoot truly allowed four skips, not just three and then your sub gets canceled with the fourth. It's very annoying.

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