Stacking the Shelves: The Incentives 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 less reading-filled and more activity-filled. Work, gym, cleaning, and going to a signing event that I'll discuss in a bit. I'll also have a mini-recap up on the blog at some point. Hopefully soon, but knowing me it'll be a month from now. Oops.

 

As for the books I received this week, I have a very large Barnes & Noble preorder stack. Those include Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo, The Emperor's Enemy by Jasmine Mas, The Ice Beyond by Olivia Wildenstein, Eldritch by Keri Lake, Daughter of the Dark by R.J. Valldeparas, Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske, and Vanished by Meg Cabot, which is a repackage of the 1-800-Where-R-U series. I also went to a Barnes & Noble store in person and picked up White Raven by Stacey Marie Brown. She's going to ApollyCon in 2027, so I need to read her newest release and get caught up on her backlist. 

 

 

 

Up next, I have another edition of The Emperor's Enemy. I think there's a B&N edition too. I really need to read the book to decide if I want to own all three editions. I doubt it. I'm already swimming in multiple editions of books as it is. The other book is from the signing event I went to. Victoria Aveyard had a Tempest tour stop about two hours away from me, and I went. Now, I have a signed copy for my shelves.

 

 

 

And finally for physical copies, I have my Arcane Society Flesh & Fire editions. These are so pretty. What angers me about them, though, is I like both the reverse and the front dust jacket. I can't decide which side to use. I wish Arcane would've given buyers art prints of the reverse jackets, just so I could display both. Lol.

 

 

 

 Here, I have a preorder incentive that I didn't remember filling out a form for. I believe it's for Gretchen Powell's Shadow and Son book, as that looks like Cedric to me. The keychain is very cute. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but he's adorable. I'm also not sure if I'll put the signed bookplate in my book, as there might be a chance I'll meet Gretchen in person one day. Maybe. I have no idea when that would be. But still, it's a cute preorder incentive overall.

 

 

 

The second preorder incentive I received this week was for The Lion & the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent. And, once again, it was an incentive I didn't remember. When a tube showed up in my mailbox, I was very confused. I'm also not sure what I'm going to do with this very shiny dust jacket. I don't have multiple copies of this book—I'm trying to cut back—so this will likely live in a plastic bin for a while until I decide what to do with it.

I have two ebooks this week. The first I received was Lightning & Thunder by Sara Raasch, which was a NetGalley approval. I'm behind on my NetGalley ARCs, so I have mixed feelings about being approved, though I'm super grateful and will definitely read and review it. I just need to get caught up first. I have a couple of months, though, thankfully. The other ebook was Hide the Witches by Miranda Lyn, which I got for free on Kindle.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Upside Down 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 an errand-filled week, but other than that, it's been quiet. Thank goodness. Next week will be a bit more chaotic for reasons I'll share soon. I have been reading a lot lately. I'm actually bingeing a series that has been on my TBR for a loooong time. It was really weird that I even picked it up considering I was in a reading slump for about five or so days (work-related, of course. Yucky). The only book that sounded even remotely interesting to pick up on my TBR was Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, which was a reread. So that's what I did. I re-read books 1-3 and am now finishing the series. I've been trying to motivate myself to read those books for years. It's so weird how strange mood reading is.

 

As for the books I received this week, I have my FairyLoot set of the Kindred's Curse series books 1-3 by Penn Cole. I still have mixed feelings on these covers. While the character artwork is great (ignoring the fact that the mmc is wearing the same outfit on all three covers), I'm not a huge fan of cartoonish artwork on my front covers. As endpaper art, it would have been fine. You can get an idea of my preferred character art style in the next two pics. However, I don't like the regular covers of the Kindred's Curse books either. Nor the covers done by other book boxes. So, here we are. I've settled for the FairyLoot set until something else comes along. 

 

 

 

Up next, I have two books that I've been waiting on for a long freaking time. It's the Aurora Crate editions of books three and four in the Legacy series by Melissa K. Roehrich. Now, when I say a long time, I don't mean that Aurora Crate was late, I just mean that I've been wanting to read these final two books but I've been waiting on my physical copies to arrive and Aurora Crate's shipping timeline was simply "summer." Also, USPS left the package in purgatory at a nearby postal location, so I had to put in a missing mail/email request for the package. It arrived with a hole in the bottom, so I'm guessing that might have had something to do with the delay. Everything inside the box was fine, though. Except that the third book, Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance, arrived with an upside down naked hardcover. It was definitely a printing error. I'm super bummed because this is an international edition, so I'm not sure how the replacement process will play out. I've already sent an email to them. Now, I just wait and see.

 

 

 

And finally, I have two less contentious orders. My preorder from Barnes & Noble of Sorrow & Strangers by Jeanette Rose and Alexis Rune arrived, and my preorder of the seventh book in the Zodiac Academy luxe edition set, Heartless Sky, came in as well. There are only five more books to go in this giant, expensive ZA preorder. That's crazy to think about. I ordered those things back in December 2024 and orders are still trickling in. Of course, right as this set is almost complete, the authors decided to do the spinoff series special editions, so it won't end any time soon. It's very sad for my wallet.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Knave and the Moon 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 relatively quiet week, but we're in September now, so that's to be expected. I feel like September in general is pretty mellow, with kids going back to school and the weather (hopefully) cooling down. Ugh. I hate this nasty heat. Anyway, nothing big has been happening in my world. It's mostly been work stuff. Lame. So I'm hoping this next week is more about me, especially with Labor Day on Monday. Yay for days off!

 

As for the books I received, it's, thankfully, a very small haul this week. Of course my preorder of Rachel Gillig's The Knave and the Moon arrived. I just got the regular edition, as I ended up unhauling my Barnes & Noble edition of book one a month or two after I'd bought it. I just didn't particularly like the font color and edge choices. I'm glad I decided to stick with the original, as I've heard horror stories from people trying to remove the B&N sticker. Other than The Knave and the Moon, my replacement copy of FairyLoot's The Witch in the Dead of Night by Charlotte Buckley also came in. I don't normally show replacement copies in hauls, but I figured The Knave and the Moon looked lonely. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I got 2027 ApollyCon tickets! It's the first time I actually was able to snag them myself since 2022!

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Moonlight 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 wasn't feeling great yesterday, so I wasn't able to schedule my StS post. I also had to run around today for various tasks, so I'm just now getting around to writing all about this week's book haul. Last weekend was the birthday weekend, so it was busy. My sister got me a small CD player, and now, I need to find all my CDs. I also bought myself a new TBR bookcase. I was going to share a pic, but I completely forgot and I'm too lazy to do it now. I'm sure the display will show up on an eventual blog pic somewhere.

 

As for the books I received, they're all just preorders. I didn't buy any books on my actual birthday because I'd purchased soooo many throughout the month. The Moonlight Book Box editions of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series did show up on my birthday, though. That was a fun present from past me to open that day. Later in the week, I also got my FairyLoot sub boxes, which include the Adult box's edition of Steelborn by Taylor J. LaRue and the Romantasy edition of The Witch in the Dead of Night by Charlotte Buckley. My Romantasy book's dust jacket had shifted, so it was damaged in transit. I did contact FairyLoot about a replacement, so that should be on its way at some point.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Really Shouldn't Have 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.

Nothing super crazy happened this past week. It was a quiet "work, workout, read" week, which is nice. Well, besides the work part. That I could do without. I did end up spending way too much money on books and some book-related things that you'll see in this and next week's haul. I've been treating myself like crazy. I'm definitely going to have to go back to my book-buying ban rules after this month.

 

As for the books I received, I have many. My Bad Women Books Spring Romantasy box arrived. It's Kresley Cole's A Hunger Like No Other. While I'm excited that a Kresley Cole book got a special edition, the cover image doesn't really scream A Hunger Like No Other to me, or at least, something about the male character is off. I'm pretty sure it's the hair. I do like the endpaper art, though. I also received my Barnes & Noble preorder of Runebreaker by Mila Finch. 

 

 

 

Up next, I have four books that are all from different sources. Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer is the UK paperback that I preordered from Blackwells. I think it's the best cover out of every edition out there right now. I do have the FairyLoot edition, but it's very cartoonish, even though it's pretty. From B&N, I got The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. My preorder of book six in the Zodiac Academy luxe set also arrived, and my FairyLoot The Ballad of Falling Dragons edition was dropped off by my parents. I also got another FairyLoot sequel edition, but I won't be keeping it, as I recently DNF'ed the first book. I'll share that in my next unhaul post, though.

 

 

 

Here I have one of those books that gets stuck in my head, so I decide I must buy it soon even though I could just read it on Kindle Unlimited to see if I even like it. That book in this case is Anathema by Keri Lake. I specifically wanted the deluxe edition which was out of print, so I had to go resale and purchase it on Pango for too much money. I am excited to own this, but I need to get myself under control. No more expensive secondhand purchases for books I could read on KU first.

 

 

 

This is the last of the book portion of the haul. It's an order I randomly decided to make on Book Outlet because they had an $8 coupon. I perused their site and saw they were selling the deluxe edition of Sable Sorensen's Dire Bound, which I needed because mine was damaged by B&N and they weren't able to replace it. I think because the copy I bought was signed, but I didn't realize that until later. Oh well. I got it cheaper on Book Outlet. I also ordered many other things I didn't need like The Silversmith by L.J. Claren, Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn, Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma, A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya, The High Mountain Court by A.K. Mulford, Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Jaysea Lynn. 

 

And lastly, I have something that's not a book, but is book-related. I bought an FBAA pin from Celestial Faerie Trove. I have three of her pins now, and they're very pretty. I'm hoping she does a few more for the individual characters, but we shall see. The ACOTAR fans are currently making their preferences for which pins come first very known. Sigh. It's hard being an FBAA lover in the midst of all these people obsessed with SJM characters.

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Free eBooks 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 wasn't quite as quiet and lazy as last week. I ended up going to a Simple Plan concert this past weekend. I honestly kept forgetting that I was even going, so it snuck up on me. It was an outdoor concert, so it was terribly hot, but it was a fun time overall. The rest of the week was boring, though, as per usual.

 

As for the books I received this week, I only have one physical copy, which is great considering last week was a giant haul of a stack. My lone paperback is Splintered Kingdom by Gretchen Powell Fox. I preordered this from Barnes & Noble during the 25% off sale two sales back, I think... They all blur together at this point, but I do try to keep my preorders within 1-2 seasons of the release date. That makes it easier for me to remember what books I preordered recently.

 

 

 

Up next, I have a preorder incentive that arrived. I completely forgot about it too. My memory is not what it used to be. It's a signed bookplate and an art card for The City of Souls and Sinners by Kayla Edwards. Now, I was under the impression the artwork would not be that small, so that's a bit disappointing, but oh well. It was free. I still need to read the first book in the series, but I heard this will be a seven-book series and the author has only written through book four, with five on the way, so it'll be a while before I get to it.

 

And lastly, I have six ebooks that I downloaded during one of the free "Stuff Your Kindle" type days. It wasn't just a Kindle event, though. The ebooks were free across platforms. I downloaded three on Nook: Drawn by Dragonblood by Lynn Burke, Grayson's Mate by Tamsin Baker, and Fae Bound by Kayla Brooks. I went on the Kindle list to check their free offerings because sometimes Kindle has more indie authors' books available than Nook. There, I got Forsaken Mate by Vasilisa Drake and A Match Made in Hell by Traci Lovelot. Now, I also managed to get Steal the Wind by Jocelynn Drake, which you've probably seen before as a KU download. I've always wanted to read this book, but I just never did. I've downloaded it so many times but canceled my subscription before I could get to it. Well, that's not an issue now, as I have a free copy! Huzzah!

 

That's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Vampires Four 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 was fairly quiet and lazy. I haven't done much. I was saving all my doing for the weekend, but I forgot I have something to attend this weekend, so there'll be very little doing besides that. Honestly, I'm mostly going to be reading when I'm not at the event. It's a concert my sister is dragging me to. Well, not dragging, as I do like the band. I just was excited for the weekend to catch up on things and totally forgot I'd agreed to go. Big surprise there. My brain is not braining lately.

 

As for the books I received this week, I have a lot. I'm not sure what happened. I guess all the preorders just decided to arrive at once. That plus a couple of random purchases really added up. It's a grand total of 13 books, including the lone ebook of the week. Wow. And I'm very much out of shelf room right now. I guess I'll have to do something about that. But anyway, the first book is a paperback copy of Swordheart that I bought from Books-a-Million. I originally ordered it from Barnes & Noble, but for some reason, my order was canceled. I didn't trust them to get it to me on time after that, and I needed to read it ASAP because I accidentally requested the sequel/spinoff on NetGalley. Sigh. I'm reading it now, though, and it's pretty good. I don't know if I would have bought it originally. It feels more like a library read. (Side note: I need to get my library card renewed so I can start requesting books again.)

 

 

 

Up next, I have four books that are all from different sources. Defiant by Brandon Sanderson is a local use bookstore purchase. Or, well, technically it's a trade credit purchase. The Temptation of Magic by Megan Scott was the second book in my Books-a-Million order. I wanted to make the $6.99 shipping charge worth it, so I got a book I'd been meaning to order that wasn't super expensive. My Barnes & Noble preorder of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson also arrived. I honestly forgot about this one. And then, I have The Winged Game by Sophie Kim, FairyLoot's July Adult book.

 

 

 

The next haul is where the title of this post comes in. I ended up receiving four vampire books in a single day. I laughed when I realized that. Three are B&N preorders: Vow of Eternal Night by Lily Crozier, The Lion & the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent, and A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake. I also got Bitten and Bound by Amy Pennza, Moonlight Book Box, edition via Mercari. I think you can tell that I'm very glad vampires made a comeback in the romance/fantasy space.

 

 

 

This is definitely my most expensive set of books for the week. It's probably tied for my most expensive set of the year. I ordered The Locked Library editions of the Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff. The Locked Library doesn't ship to the US, so I went through a Facebook group, even though I knew it'd cost me. I was going to hold off, but the artwork was sooo pretty, so I caved. Do I regret it? A little bit, as the dustjackets are very thin and flat, meaning the artwork doesn't have a lot of texture, but it's still a very beautiful set. 

 

And lastly, I have the lone ebook I bought. It's The Thorns we Inherit by Lindsey A. Hart. I saw that it was on sale for $0, so I decided "Might as well," and I downloaded it. I know absolutely nothing about the book, other than the cover is pretty and it's likely romantasy. I feel like that's all I need to know for a free book, right?

 

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Green + Mauve 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.

My vacation is over and I'm back at work and life is stressful again. Ugh. I need a job that lets me sit around and read all day. Anyone know any jobs like that? Other than work, there's not much going on this week. It's still hot out, so I'm spending a lot of time in the air conditioning. I've also been reading like five different books at the same time, so that's interesting. I have multiple NetGalley and Kindle Unlimited copies in progress. I don't particularly like that reading method, but, what are you gonna do? That's what happens when you request too many ARCs that all need reviewed in a one-month span.

As for the books I received this week, I have some very pretty ones. I'm not sure exactly what color combo these four books are, but I like to think it's a green and mauve combo. My FairyLoot set of the first two books in Sarah Hawley's The Shards of Magic series arrived and so did my July Romantasy book, The Lure of Wolves and Whispers by Amanda Conolly. I'd also preordered Duskbound by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox from Waterstones. It's very pretty. This one is more of a light purple, but with my terrible lighting, it looks mauve in person.

 

 

 

Next up, I have three black covers. Not sure how that worked out, but it did. Two were Barnes & Noble preorders: Ravenous by Kresley Cole and Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe. I'm a little nervous about the Kresley Cole book. I haven't read a new non-Immortals After Dark series by her in years, so I'm hoping it doesn't disappoint. I also received my FairyLoot edition of The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty. It's book two in the Amina al-Sirafi series. 

 

And next, I have the lone ebook I received. I was looking at the half a dozen Kindle books I'm currently in the middle of and saw that The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan was on sale for $1.99 or $0.99. I can't remember which. I decided to just go ahead and buy it. It was one of my most anticipated books a few years ago. I just never got around to it or had the drive to purchase it. Now, I can get to it one day whenever I feel like picking it up.

 

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

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?