Stacking the Shelves: The Dark Elements 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.

By the time this post goes up, it'll be June. Yeesh. I'm not ready for summer. There's already too many bugs, mostly ants and cicadas, and it's getting hot. Too hot. Ugh. But anyway, I didn't have any books to share last week. This week, I have too many.

First up, I have my FairyLoot order of JLA's Dark Elements series. It was delivered to my parents' house last week. It also took forever for my order to ship out. I was getting so bummed seeing everyone else post pics of their copies. But mine finally arrived. Although, Stone Cold Touch came a bit dinged up, so I contacted FairyLoot for a replacement. Thankfully, they're sending one. 

Up next, I have some Zodiac Academy books. It turns out Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti are partnering with Simon & Schuster to repackage and distribute the ZA books for retailers, so I now have to scramble and finish buying all the books in their original covers, since those are the ones I like. I'll probably end up buying the new ones too. Just because I'm ridiculous and want the bonus content, not because they look better. Anywho, I got Fated Throne, #6 in the series, and Beyond the Veil, #8.5, from Barnes & Noble using a gift card I've had since Christmas. I also got book #5, Cursed Fates, from eBay. I was going to get the first book in the series from Pango. I'd made an order and everything, but the seller never shipped it out, so I canceled. And then, with my eBay order for #5, I specifically asked the seller if the book had any dings or damage, and they said no, but they shipped the book in a plastic mailer! No bubble mailer, bubble wrap, or a box at all! WTH! It came to me in okay condition, with only a few corner dings, but it could have made it to me in the condition it was shipped in if the seller had just used a box or a bubble mailer. Grr... I think I've decided to buy the rest of the books I need from B&N. It's way less stressful, even if it is more expensive, though I do have a couple more books already on their way, so fingers crossed they make it to me in one piece.

Lastly, I have another B&N order: Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf. Of course I preordered this one because of the fancy edges. But I also liked Sara's YA books, so I thought I'd give this one a try. My French edition of The War of Two Queens also arrived from FNAC, a French retailer. This thing shipped so fast! I ordered it the night of May 22nd, and it arrived on Memorial Day! I think. I'm not 100% sure because I found the package sitting behind my bush under my window on Tuesday morning before I went to work. I've never had a delivery driver hide packages like that. I got super lucky because I certainly didn't expect anything to deliver on the holiday.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The December FairyLoot 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 don't even know what to say anymore. I could say my week has been fine. That I've gone to work like normal. Gone to the gym. Gone out to eat with my family to celebrate my sister's birthday. But then I think about the people in Palestine, the people in Congo, and now the people in Yemen who are suffering because of evil people and evil corporations, and it's hard to feel like my week has been fine. Why is the solution to every problem violence? Governments should be above this. It's sick.

 

I'm going to share the books I got this month with you, because that's what this blog is for: books. But please know that books and reading are very low in my mental space right now. It's really hard to be excited about a hobby you used to love with war on the horizon. It's also awful to see people who have read books like The Hunger Games and The Poppy War just do/say nothing in the face of injustice. So yeah... Here are the books.

My FairyLoot edition of Faebound by Saara El-Arifi. This book sounds like it'll be great, and the edition is so pretty. I actually prefer this one over the Goldsboro purple edition, and I normally love purple. I just think Goldsboro went a little overboard with the purple. Also, I do have to mention that FairyLoot went under fire for their support of an author that supposedly writes pro-Isr@el messages. I have not read the book, so I do not know this for sure. I'm disappointed FairyLoot is continuing to sell the book with what is going on in Palestine right now, but I am choosing, in this instance, to believe that the author and publisher were contacted and expressed views that did not support Isr@el, either truthfully or lying so the book would continue to be sold by FairyLoot. I do hope FairyLoot was not lied to. I will be watching the situation closely to see if canceling my subscription is best.

I received another FairyLoot order. This is a series set from another author that is under fire for Isr@el views. I will not mention their name here. I purchased this before the news came out. I personally did not see the post/story on Instagram, so I don't know what the content was. Right now, I am being optimistic and hoping the author shared the Isr@el propaganda out of simple misinformation. It's sad to say, but there are a lot of lies out there right now, and sometimes we as American citizens don't take the time to look into things before posting. I am 100% guilty of this as well. Like with the FairyLoot situation, I will keep an eye on this situation. I, perhaps naively, want to believe that any author who writes about overcoming injustice would not side with an oppressor as large-scale as what we're seeing right now. I truly hope none of them do. 

 

Well, that's all for me. Sorry this post was a bit more depressing than normal. The world is on fire right now. Please cheer me up and let me know what books you have bought/received lately.

Stacking the Shelves: The August Adult FairyLoot 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.

Three-day weekend, baby! Woohoo! I'm not doing anything particularly exciting, though. I just plan on  a bit of cleaning and some packing prep for my upcoming trip. I can't believe I have less than 30 days until I leave the country. Wow. And of course, as always is the case when you plan to go on vacation, work is getting more stressful with more deadlines. Why couldn't there be nothing going on in September/October like there was in July/August?! Rude.

As for books, I only have one physical copy to share this week, just like last week. This one is the August Adult FairyLoot book, Forged in Blood by Ehigbor Okosun. The book doesn't look bad. I'll probably give it a try, but honestly, FairyLoot needs to strengthen their selections. Also, their designs are getting kind of repetitive, unfortunately. I do think October and November will make for some awesome picks, though, so yay for that!

 As for ebooks, I also only have one this week. It's a Kindle Unlimited copy of Bro and the Beast 5 by L.C. Davis. It's a series of short novellas/serials that all add up to one story. I finished this one, so I think the series is over now. It was decent, but I the ending could have been better. It was a bit too abrupt.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The St@bby 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, things are chugging along. Work is heating up with a major deadline this coming Friday, and I'm at the point that whatever happens, happens. I tried my best. As for the rest of life, my older sister visited last weekend, though it wasn't for a great reason. A cousin of mine sadly passed away. We'd been estranged for a while, and she was older than me by a good twenty years, so I wasn't upset, but it's just weird to think your once young-adult relatives are now getting older too. But on to happier topics! Books!      .

First, I have my Barnes & Noble preorder of Cursed Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber. I still haven't read the first one, but I think it'll be cute. Therefore, I deemed it worthy enough to preorder book two. I actually have the first book as a LitJoy edition, but the only fancy thing about it is gold edges, so I'm not too worried about matching in that case. I never display my books with the edges out, with the exception of the Chest of Fandoms FBAA editions, but that's only because the covers are already so similar to the US editions.

Next, I have my FairyLoot Crescent City order. This, like Cursed Crowns, was sent to my parents' house because I'm too lazy to change the address. Plus, it's just safer to send them to my parents who live out in the middle of nowhere versus leaving them on my front porch where anyone could walk by. These Crescent City editions are nice. While I'm not super into the slipcases or the covers, the foiling on the naked hardcovers and the endpaper character art are lovely. However, the most recent CC book really irritated me, so if I don't like the next one, I may choose to get rid of these.

And here are my JLA Shop FBAA and ASITE daggers. These things weren't delivered until like 7 p.m. for some reason. I think I checked the mail three or four times that day. I don't even remember what day of the week it was. I think it was Monday. But, I do remember checking the mail before I left for the gym, when I got back from the gym, and then again when the box was finally there. I had to go outside and get it with a wet head after I took my shower! But anyway, these are super pretty. I do wish they were double-sided and that Poppy's dagger's handle was a bit more white, but they're super pretty nonetheless. I also wish I had my shelves ready to go so I could properly display everything.

And finally, I have my ebooks for the week. The first one is a Kindle Unlimited title, Alpha's Kiss by Shannon West. It was recommended in one of the Kindle rows, so I looked at the synopsis and decided to go for it. The other two ebooks are from Vela Roth's newsletter. She gave them away for free. I guess they're novellas in her Blood Grace series, which I haven't started yet but really want to. I couldn't find them on Goodreads, though, so that's kind of annoying. I had to use Google, and even then, I couldn't find a good image of Blood Legacy, the second novella I downloaded. How rude.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The April Adult FairyLoot 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 have spent way too much money this week on preorders and a variety of other book-related stuff. I really need to slow down, especially since I just found out today that I'll need to get my car fixed soon. Ugh. Stupid cars. Why do they have to be so high-maintenance? Don't they know money is supposed to be for books?      .

First up, I have the French edition of The Crown of Gilded Bones. It may not look super different from the regular US version (except for the title), but on the naked hardcover, there's some pretty foiling. I also accidentally ordered a hardcover of A Shadow in the Ember from Amazon.fr because I thought it would be the pretty foiled edition too. But it turns out that that particularly copy isn't releasing until later this year. I tried to cancel before Amazon.fr sent this version, which I think is the Australian hardback, but I was too late. Thankfully, they refunded me and let me keep the book, as shipping it back to them wouldn't have been worth the price. But I'm sure I can find a fanart dustjacket or two that may need a hardcover, so this extra edition might come in handy.

Next, I have a few of the last three books in Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles. I watched Kresley's recent Q&A, and I just couldn't put off buying these anymore, despite making a deal with myself to wait until I'd started my reread of Poison Princess to purchase them. I really don't want to do a reread of all of the first three books in the series before I can find out what happens, but I have to. I don't remember the details, since it's been so long since Kresley last released an Arcana book. Wish me luck with that task. I feel like I'll need it.

And here is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, which I preordered during a 25% off B&N sale. I also received the April Adult FairyLoot book. And, what the heck did they do to that book?! The original cover is so fun and whimsical! And this just looks so bleh and boring. I haven't read the book yet, but I have a feeling once I do, if I like it, I'll be getting rid of this edition and just buying the regular US hardcover. FairyLoot really made a poor choice this time. Yikes.

And now, I have some Kindle Unlimited books. I, like most of the Booktok community (I don't make videos, I just watch them), have been into hockey lately. So I downloaded some MM hockey books and read them. These are fun, but they are getting repetitive. It's pretty much the same book each time only with two main characters that have different names. Oh, I also read these way out of series order, as Line Mates & Study Dates is book four in the series, and Puck Drills & Quick Thrills is book five. And then I read the spinoff, Egotistical Puckboy, and, after that, I started reading the one below, Foolish Puckyboy, which is book four of the spinoff series. I'm reading that one now. Then, I think I'll need to take a break from the hockey romances, or at least this particular author duo.

And lastly, I have more Kindle Unlimited books. Well, one more that I haven't talked about already. I downloaded What Hunts Inside the Shadows, book two of the What Lies Beyond the Veil series, because I didn't want to forget that I still need to read the rest of the books in the series. Though now, I'm unsure if I'll get to read it before I possibly cancel my KU subscription. Prices are going up to $11.99 next month! I might need to take a break and just read my physical backlist. Lord knows I have enough to get through. It could last me five years at this point.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Kindle Credit 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.

Not only was last week terrible because of a stupid emotional breakdown, I also got sick. Ugh. But I'm better now. Just trying to play catch-up after everything went Topsy-turvy. So I'll be trying to get some blog posts scheduled that aren't Stacking the Shelves. Lol. Let's hope I succeed. But until then, enjoy seeing what books I added to my collection over the past seven days.

First up, I have an order I made from Pangobooks, an app for selling secondhand books. I downloaded the app to just peek around and see if I might sell some special editions there later, but Pango give me a $5 credit for signing up that expired in 48 hours. So, being the weak person I am, I went ahead and got the four books from Jennifer L. Armentrout's contemporary NA series, Wait for You, that I was missing. I got Be With Me, Stay With Me, Trust in Me, and Fall With Me. Well, technically I already had a copy of Fall With Me, but mine was a beat up copy from a used bookstore, so it's nice to have one that isn't so rough.

Next is S.A. Chakraborty's The River of Silver, FairyLoot edition. This was supposed to have shipped a long time ago, but my order ended up going poof somehow and never made it out of the warehouse, so I had to wait while FairyLoot sent another one. Unfortunately, when I finally did receive it, I got a copy with a lovely black mark through the middle of the cover. You can only see it at certain angles, but it's definitely there. Now, I'm waiting on a replacement. Sigh. One day I'll have a nice version of this book to sit on my shelves.

 

Right as I was thinking this book wasn't going to make it into this week's post, it showed up. I pre-ordered Blood & Steel by Helen Scheuerer from Barnes & Noble during their 25% pre-order sale last month. It's one I kind of ordered on a whim. I think I'd only heard of it a week or two before I made the order. I pre-ordered a lot during that sale, though, so this isn't the last B&N book you'll see.

Lots of Kindle books this week. I ended up downloading books 2-5 of the Bonds That Tie series on Kindle Unlimited after I started book one last Saturday. I'm already almost finished with #5. It's a decent and addicting series, though it's gotten quite repetitive towards the end. And, to help me go straight to some ApollyCon preparation, I downloaded Sarah A. Parker's To Bleed a Crystal Bloom and C.E. Ricci's Don't You Dare. I'm hoping to dive right into these two once I'm done with the Bonds That Tie. Only 1.5 books to go!

 

 

I also ended up downloading/purchasing some non-Kindle Unlimited books since I had Kindle credit. I don't fully know the rules for the Kindle credits. I just know that I had like five-ish dollars to spend on ebooks that expired within six days. So I got JLA's Summer King short story collection for free through the credits and only paid $0.74 for her Dream of You novella.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Gold Foiling 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 last week has been terrible. Like existential crisis and complete emotional breakdown bad. Ugh. I need some soft pillows, yummy chocolate, and my favorite TV episodes to comfort me through this weekend and make things better. There's been way too much crying lately, and I just want to wipe the past seven days from my mind.

The only highlights of this week have been the items I got in the mail. First up, my January YA FairyLoot book arrived. Look at it! It's so pretty! I really enjoyed this book, so I'm happy to have a special edition. It, sadly, may also be my last YA FairyLoot box, though. I think I'll be canceling soon, as I'm down to skip one or two, and once I've skipped enough, my subscription goes poof.

Next is part two to the Kingdom of the Wicked series tarot character cards by PrettygalPins. There's only five of them, but they're expensive little suckers. They're so pretty though! And there's gold foiling everywhere! I still haven't read the KOTW sequels, so I haven't met the Cerebus puppy yet. Boo. I need to get on that.

Lastly, I have some ebooks. I downloaded Tavia Lark's Prince and Pawn on Kindle Unlimited, and A Kingdom of Gods and Ruin was a free ebook novella Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti gave out for their upcoming release. The cover is kind of fuzzy, as I couldn't find a good image of it and it wasn't even on Goodreads yet. I hate it when books aren't on Goodreads when I want them to be.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Tarot Cards 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've been at my job for almost a full month now, and things seem to be getting better. Monday will be the first real test, as it'll be the first time I meet with the people I'll be working for for the next however-many years. I'm not nervous at all. Ha! But to ease the anxiety, I do have some fun goodies to share with you today.

First up is the FairyLoot edition of Kingdom of the Feared, the third and final book in the original Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy. Sadly, this FairyLoot edition has two major problems: the sprayed edges are kind of faded looking compared to the first two books and the spine is purple instead of black. Since I display my books spine out, it's fairly obvious KOTF doesn't match. I know a lot of people have already emailed FairyLoot about it, me included, but it is a weird oversight by everyone involved. I just hope I can get an updated replacement jacket. I don't really care about the edges. I don't see them with how the books are lined up on my shelves.

Next is something I knew I had to have because I'm ridiculous. In the November FairyLoot YA box, there was a tarot card set for the characters from The Stardust Thief, a book I read and enjoyed. So, with me being a book-only subscriber, I knew I'd have to order the set second-hand or wait until FairyLoot put it up on their trove. I ended up getting the cards on Mercari for fairly cheap.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Post-Disneyland 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 went to Disneyland last weekend, so forgive my lack of a post. Plus, work was crazy the entire two weeks after Labor Day. It was difficult for me to make myself stare at a screen to write up anything after I'd just been staring at my work screen for 8+ hours each day, including the weekends. But let's get to the fun stuff. Books! And Disney swag!

I actually didn't buy that much at Disneyland. I knew that I wouldn't when I was looking up their popular for-sale items online. I just never saw anything I truly wanted. So I decided I'd get a pin and a T-shirt. The pin is of characters from The Sword in the Stone. It was relatively easy to find, but I would've preferred a pin of the actual Sleeping Beauty Disneyland castle. They didn't have one of those for some stupid reason. As for the shirt, that was really hard to find. I didn't know what kind I wanted going in, but holy cow does Disney have some ugly T-shirts. I ended up seeing a guy with a Pizza Planet shirt walking around and, once I realized there weren't any good regular Disney shirts, I decided the Pizza Planet shirt would be cool. It's also red. I don't have a lot of color in my clothes, so that's nice for my wardrobe.

Next, my Plated Prisoner cupcake pin from A Touch of Magic Designs came in along with my print order of Poppy from FBAA. They're very pretty. ATOMD also sent along stickers of Poppy and Hawke. I don't own the shelfie versions of these characters (mostly because Hawke doesn't look right, imo), but I'm glad I have them in sticker form now at least. And that they were free. I'm also glad I didn't end up with another SJM couple like the Elain and Azriel ones I got last time. Nothing against SJM, but I get tired of seeing all the freebie SJM items in my purchases.

My August Adult FairyLoot box came in last week. And wow! This book is beautiful! I didn't think it was that pretty when I saw photos online, but in person, it's amazing! I'm nervous about Babel, as I have mixed feelings about R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy so far. I'm definitely hoping this one has less violence and constant battle scenes. Fingers are crossed I love it.

 

The Bookish Box sent a dustjacket replacement for their What Lies Beyond the Veil edition. I didn't think anything was wrong with the first version, but apparently there wasn't foiling on the inside reverse dustjacket (pictured here). Now though, I have an extra dustjacket for a book I don't even think I'll keep. Ugh.

 

And finally, I have a copy of The War of Two Queens that I won in a giveaway. Woohoo! It's an extra copy I plan on using for my alternative dustjacket orders. I also have a copy of Shadows that I found online for extremely cheap. It was less than $9. On Mercari, people were selling it for $30+, but gotta love those eBay small bookstore/shop sellers. They have no idea how valuable certain books are.

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