Stacking the Shelves: The Double Arcane 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.

It's been a pretty chill week. I didn't go to the gym as much as I should have, I haven't cleaned as much as I should have, and I haven't finished Fortuna Sworn like I should have. Ugh. That book is taking me forever to read. I'm almost done, though. Two more chapters. Other than that, life's been pretty simple.

But on to this week's haul. First up, I have my second Arcane subscription set. This is for The Ever King duology by L.J. Andrews. I'm very interested in the story, but I'm not overly enthusiastic about the designs here. I think I like the original covers better. The blue of the originals gives me sea and pirate vibes more than the red of this set. But, I want to read the books before I decide to keep or get rid of them. Luckily, L.J. is an ApollyCon author, so I'll probably read book one at some point in the next few months.

 

Now these books are also from Arcane. If you remember that trade I talked about last week, this is what it was for. The first book is From Blood and Ash and the second is The Crown of Oaths and Curses by J. Bree. Both are ApollyCon exclusives. So, the story here is that Arcane was going to reprint the FBAA edition in a whole series set for purchase. But, their original artist backed out, so some of the inside artwork, including the rever dustjacket and pages won't be the same for the new editions. And I couldn't let that slide. I needed that original artwork, so I traded some Prettygal Pins card decks for it and the J. Bree book. This is was my first time doing such a risky trade, so I'm glad it worked out.

Next up, I have the September Adult Fantasy FairyLoot book, The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart. I loved Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy, so I'm excited about her new series. I don't plan to read it until all the books are out, though. I did that with her first trilogy, and I really liked that experience. I will say, this edition isn't super impressive. It's nice, but I think it could've been better.

And for the last physical books, I have a set of Spanish FBAA editions that I bought on a BST Facebook group for pretty cheap. $50 for all three when normally they're $25 each. Now, I will say that I was devastated when I first opened them. Not because the seller did anything wrong, but because I immediately dropped A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and damaged the top of the spine. I wasn't feeling good, and I was super tired and shaky, so I know why I dropped it, but honestly, I almost cried. It was emotionally devastating. I did buy some Mod Podge, though, so I'm hoping I can seal up the damage. You can't even really see it in these pics, so I don't think it'll bother me unless I'm up close.

 

And here's another tale of devastation. I had ordered two different pin sets from Sallteas, one for Fourth Wing and one for Bride by Ali Hazelwood. Well, she accidentally sent me two sets of Fourth Wing pins instead of one of each. That meant I had to use my lunch break to run to Staples and return the extra set before she would ship my Bride order to me. I get why she did it that way, but, again, I wasn't feeling well, so it was irritating that I had to use my time and energy to fix something that wasn't my fault. She was nice about everything and plans to include extra stuff in my Bride order to make up for it, so that's good. I'm glad it's over, though. I also feel better now, so I'm not as irritated about everything.

 

And now I have my Imagine Books dustjacket order for the Flesh & Fire series. There's one set that was created by Gonzolam and the other by Jemlin. It seems like the Jemlin one isn't going to be continued... Maybe? I'm honestly not sure. I never planned to get dustjackets for this series, but after reading the last book, I just had to have all of them. The Gonzolam ones do match my FBAA set, though, so I'm glad I only technically bought one "new" set. Though I still have to find some cheap copies of the hardcovers to fill three of these. Oh, and with that order, I got two replica daggers. One is Poppy's and one is Sera's. The handles are a little glittery, so I'm hoping they don't shed. It'll be another good use for my Mod Podge, though.

And lastly, I have the ebooks. These are both Kindle Unlimited downloads. I've been really wanting to read Tryggred by the Orc by Finley Fenn. I only read select books from this orc series, but whenever one calls to me, I immediately want to read it. And I read this one in one sitting. It was cute and fun. Eben is adorable. I also downloaded Punished by the Vampire King by Darcy Fayton. I don't know much about this one except it's very dark, and it's a standalone within a larger series. 

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