October Wrap-Up & November TBR

October wasn't nearly as chaotic as September, thankfully. But it still wasn't the best month ever. I'm just kind of behind on everything lately. I am excited that I've gotten back into reading, though. Now, I just need to read more books that I actually own and not ones that are on Kindle Unlimited.

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 October

Frostbite: reread

The Emperor of Evening Stars: 4 stars

Prince and Assassin: 3.5 stars (KU ebook)

Prince in Disguise: 4 stars (KU ebook)

King of the Dark: 4 stars (KU ebook)

Reign of Darkness: 4 stars (KU ebook)

Curse of the Dark Prince: 3 stars (KU ebook)

The Cottage: 3 stars (KU ebook)

I read six books and two novellas in October, which is a lot better than last month and the month before. I think I may be getting my reading groove back. Woohoo! Only two of the books/novellas were physical copies, Frostbite by Richelle Mead and The Emperor of Evening Stars by Laura Thalassa, the novella set in Laura Thalassa's Bargainer world. Frostbite was a reread for my book club and to prep for the TV show, which I've decided I don't think I'll ever actually watch. It looks so bad compared to the books. Now, as for the rest of the books, five in total, they were all Kindle Unlimited reads. This includes Prince and Assassin and Prince in Disguise by Tavia Lark and King of the Dark, Reign of Darkness, and Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash. I also had to purchase the novella that's set in the same world as Ariana Nash's Prince's Assassin series on Kindle. It's called The Cottage. So counting everything, I read eight books/novellas. None of which I owned prior to 2022 (not counting Frostbite, since it's a reread). But, I think it was good for me to get back into reading by just bingeing some fun books vs. trying to force myself to read stuff on my shelves. Even though I know there's some good books stacked there; they just weren't what I was in the mood for.

Books Bought/Received in October

I didn't buy a ton of books in October, but a lot of preorders did come in, some of which only charged this month. So... I guess I did buy a lot. In October, I bought 11 books, two were ebooks and nine were physical books. The Kingdom of the Wicked boxset and the Red, White, and Royal Blue collector's edition were both preordered from Barnes & Noble, which means I was charged in October. Same for A Curse of Queens, which I preordered from Amazon. Amazon.fr (French), charged me for FBAA in October too. I also have my October YA FairyLoot book that I was charged for in October. As for ebooks, I bought The Cottage novella as well as Hell Hath No Fury, an anthology featuring a story from the authors of the Zodiac Academy series. Oh, and I preordered the FairyLoot Crescent City editions that won't arrive until next year.

Now, I do have some preorders that arrived that I paid for in earlier months. Those include FairyLoot's edition of The Blood Traitor and their September Adult Book, Spells for Forgetting. Also, I ordered a copy of The Power on eBay that turned out to be an ARC and not a finished copy. I contacted the seller and they gave me my money back. I still have the ARC, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. My replacement edition of Illumicrate's TWOTQ and my five-months late LitJoy Twin Crowns copy also arrived. In total, I received 14 books this month. But I did buy 11 books in October overall, some just won't arrive for a while.

Currently Obsessed With

Well, I finished my rewatch of The Office, so I decided to rewatch Parks & Rec next. I've watched it a couple of times already, but it's been a couple years since the last rewatch. But I actually have been watching a lot of new TV shows and movies, which is very exciting for someone who barely watches anything new anymore.

Well, first off, I'm going to start with the bad. I could not finish Hocus Pocus 2. I got halfway through and gave up. It was awful. I'll just pretend it doesn't exist. However, season one of House of the Dragon ended in October, and I found that to be awesome! I have a few minor issues with the season overall, but nothing that detracts from my anticipation of season two. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a looooong wait. As for new shows, I binge-watched The Legend of Vox Machina early on in the month. This was a fun adult cartoon based on Critical Role, which I barely know anything about. I think it's a podcast group that plays D&D...? Anyway, season two comes out in January, so that's exciting. I also went and watched Black Adam with my parents. It was fun. Nothing new, but it was a decent addition to the DC superhero lineup. Sadly, DC's League of Super Pets, also starring Dwayne Johnson, was not good. At all. It was a terrible film, even for kids. Yikes. It was another one I watched with my parents, but on HBO Max instead of in theaters. And before those two, I watched The School for Good and Evil on Netflix with my mom. It was good. Could've been better.

November TBR

More repeats in November's TBR. Oops for the umpteenth time. I'm just not good at TBRs this year. For book club purposes, I need to read Amanda Bouchet's A Curse of Queens. I also still need to read my NetGalley ARC of Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah, which I actually needed to review back in September. Shame on me! I also need to reread A Shadow in the Ember, so I remember what happened when I read A Light in the Flame when it releases later this month. Oh, and I have some library books to read. They include Lightlark, Ledge, and You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince. I would like to finish The Bargainer series as well. I'm currently reading the last book in my giant omnibus. And, I want to reread Kingdom of the Wicked so I can read the other two books in the trilogy. I am also continuing, and failing at, my year-long read of A Storm of Swords.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of October, plus some November 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 October 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.

Halloween weekend! Woot! Woot! I have absolutely no plans other than to tidy my apartment, read books, eat candy, and watch Hocus Pocus. It's been a chaotic week for weird reasons, so I'm very glad it's the weekend. But I am sad that it's getting darker out. I always forget how icky the darkness is. It's a good time for reading though, since going outside isn't as appealing.

I have some more FBAA stuff that came in. Shocking, I know. The French collector's edition of FBAA arrived early this week, and my replacements for LitJoy's Kieran standee and Illumicrate's TWOTQ also arrived. The TWOTQ copy has striations on the spine, so I don't think it's any better than the original version I was sent. But I'll just live with the two versions I have. No biggie.

Next up is the October YA FairyLoot book. I actually know very little about this title, so it's kind of exciting to go into a book blind. However, this copy is kind of ugly. Or at least, not pretty, especially when you consider FairyLoot's usual caliber. The solid dark green edges are meh, and the cover overall is just boring, though that's the publisher's fault.

And here we have a library copy of Ledge by Stacey McEwan. I've heard good things about this one, but I'm trying not to buy books by authors I'm not familiar with, hence, the library copy. Also, my Binx Funko Pop came in. Or, more accurately, was left at the UPS office that I had to visit twice because they said my package wasn't there the first time when it actually was. Grr...

Now on to the ebooks. Hell Hath No Fury is an anthology that I preordered mostly for the Zodiac Academy prequel short story. I have no idea what other authors contributed. I just wanted more ZA. I also read a lot of books on Kindle Unlimited over the past two weeks. The first two are Prince and Assassin and Prince in Disguise by Tavia Lark. They both were quite cute. I'm excited for the third book to release in January.

Three more books I have read/am reading on Kindle Unlimited are King of the Dark, Reign of Darkness, and Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash. It's a pretty good series, though I've found it to be a little repetitive at times. I also didn't realize until book two that I'd read another series by this author that I binged back in 2020. I guess I've found a new author to follow.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The Christmas in October 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'll actually be at my parents' house by the time this post goes live, so I'm writing this pretty early. It's only Tuesday! Because it's only Tuesday, I can't really say if my week has been bad or good yet. It's fine so far, but who knows what the rest of the time could bring. But I do have a fairly decent haul!

I have a bunch of FairyLoot preorders that will be coming in in the next couple months. First up, is Lynette Noni's The Blood Traitor, which I already read and enjoyed. I'm also crossing my fingers for a spinoff book or two for this series, but we'll see. Oh, and my replacement Tamlin card from Prettygalpins came in too.

Next, I have a couple of library books. I requested Lightlark by Alex Aster and You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky. I know, one of these is a Christmas book and it's only Halloween, but I figured I'd read it after Halloween, in early November. I want to read these as library copies before I decide if they're worth buying physical copies of.

And lastly, I have an Etsy order I made from Enchantedbooks. I mostly made the order for the Kieran magnetic booksmarks that match my Poppy and Hawke ones, but I also bought the cute mask and the Serpent & Dove print. The sticker and other print were freebies.

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

Review: Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble

Alexis Hall

Publication Date: October 18, 2022

Paperback, 368 pages, Forever

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ+

Goodreads

 

From the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material comes a sweet and scrumptious romantic comedy about facing your insecurities, finding love, and baking it off, no matter what people say.

 

Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster. Despite his passion for baking, his cat, and his classics degree, constant self-doubt and second-guessing have left him a curdled, directionless mess. So when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation’s favourite baking show, Paris is sure he’ll be the first one sent home.

 

But not only does he win week one’s challenge—he meets fellow contestant Tariq Hassan. Sure, he’s the competition, but he’s also cute and kind, with more confidence than Paris could ever hope to have. Still, neither his growing romance with Tariq nor his own impressive bakes can keep Paris’s fear of failure from spoiling his happiness. And when the show’s vicious fanbase confirms his worst anxieties, Paris’s confidence is torn apart quicker than tear-and-share bread.

 

But if Paris can find the strength to face his past, his future, and the chorus of hecklers that live in his brain, he’ll realize it’s the sweet things in life that he really deserves.

My Review

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble has a really long title for such a quick read. It's also the second book in a companion series, which I didn't know when I requested it for review. Thankfully, though, you don't need to know anything about book one to enjoy book two. So if you like baking, complicated romance, deep topics, and reality TV shows, Paris might be for you.

Paris, unsurprisingly, follows the main character Paris Daillencourt, a university student, as he goes through a popular baking show competition. Unfortunately for Paris, his insecurity, accident-proneness, and tendency to overreact and overthink things leads to some chaotic times. But all this chaos does lead to Paris having a fun meet-cute with a certain fellow baking competitor, Tariq. Tariq is kind of a ball of sunshine and positivity.

Despite this book being classified as a romcom, it does have its deeper moments between the two main characters, as well as between Paris and his family and friends. So if you're looking for a purely happy book, this one may not be for you. Paris does have a lot of anxiety, and, honestly, if I'd been in a bad headspace while I was reading this, I could've seen myself spiraling a little. So trigger warning there. However, some of the relationship drama that plays out I don't think is entirely Paris's or his anxiety's fault. Tariq has his mess-up moments too..

All in all, though, if you liked Boyfriend Material or any of Alexis Hall's other stories, this is a nice one to add to your TBR, as long as you're in the right state of mind to read it. It's quick, full of goodies that'll make you crave sweets of all kinds, and layered with a story about mental health and an emotionally complex romance to lead to a semi-happily ever after.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The May LitJoy Edition...Finally!

 "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, it's been an okay week. Nothing crazy has happened, good or bad. However, I haven't been able to work out as much this week, so I really need to get back into that. I did manage to get some cool packages this week, though, so that's been fun. I have some cool stuff coming in next week too. Yay!

First up, I have my looooooooong awaited May LitJoy Crate box. This thing took forever to arrive. And I didn't even order it for the book. I actually ordered the box because of the cool add-ons, which are pictured below. I am excited to read Twin Crowns, though. It looks cute. I think it's getting a sequel now, which makes me more excited to read it. I like standalones, but series are so much better.

Here we go. The add-ons. Finally! Whenever LitJoy announced that they were selling FBAA add-ons, I knew I had to order the box, just to get them. And they're very pretty, except for the fact that all three of them arrived with scratches. Kieran's was the worse. And what sucks even more is LitJoy makes you destroy the replaced version. I HATE waste like that. I think I'll just slash the Kieran one and live with the other two being slightly dinged up.

My FairyLoot Adult September book arrived, Spells for Forgetting. And it's...not very pretty. I wasn't super excited about the book choice in general, but I'd hoped FairyLoot would give it a little more razzle dazzle than the minor customizations they decided to do. I mean, I guess they did do a lot of customizations, but they're so...blah and dreary. I also ordered The Power from eBay for cheap, only to get an ARC instead of a finished copy. Ugh. Thankfully, the seller refunded me, but I was so disappointed. Eventually, I'll manage to nab all the Titan books for cheap. Only four more to go.

 

And here, I have the Barnes & Noble boxset of the Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy. I decided to buy these once I knew there wasn't going to be that ugly James Patterson line across the top. Like who decided it was a good idea to put ugly lines across the top of books? It's worse than a sticker, in my opinion. Which, I also need to take the sticker off of the KOTF copy. Ugh again. But anyway, moving on, I'm going to try to binge read this trilogy in October, since it gives spooky vibes.

 

The last thing I have is the collector's edition of Red, White, and Royal Blue. I thought it'd be a bit more special looking, but it's still fun. And I'm hoping to read the bonus material soon. Just have to do a reread of the whole book first. Ick. I'm really bad at rereading lately.

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

ApollyCon 2022 Recap: Day Four

I am finally done writing ApollyCon recap posts! Huzzah! And this one is the biggest one! Not in terms of how much happened. That was Day Two. No, this was just the biggest because it was, in my opinion, the best of all of the events.

So we actually got to sleep in a bit on Sunday too. Yippee! Though there was still more walking. But most of that came later. Our first stop, though, was the last and best event of the convention: The JLA panel. We didn't get the brunch tickets to get the swag bag with the exclusive book and the early breakfast brunch, but it was all okay. (I'll explain later.) So we basically just chilled outside the panel room until it was time to line up for the event. My friend and I took some photos together to commemorate the trip, and after an hour-plus of waiting, we finally were in.

I ended up taking quite a lot of photos and videos, and for some reason, the photos all look terrible. But, anyway, Jennifer was on a panel with the two 1,001 Dark Nights publishers she works with, Jillian and Liz (I think that may be her name...?). Most of the information JLA shared in this panel was stuff I'd heard before, like writing advice (my least favorite question ever for authors), how she came up with FBAA (the summer olympics), and the inspiration for characters' names (Poppy = Poppy from L.J. Smith's Night World and Cas = Castiel, just the name inspiration, not the actual personalities/looks). The big reveals she shared included the new Adult fantasy book that she'd talked about in her Facebook group a little bit but not a lot. It's going to be published with Tor and she's had to rewrite it multiple times. Also, a compendium book/bible for the FBAA world will tentatively release in May 2023. It will be told in Miss Willa's narrative voice, and it will have a sneak peek of book five. Also, a Kieran POV might be included. And JLA also talked about adaptation rights and how there will be some news soon.

After the panel, the staff/volunteers announced there would be limited brunch bags on sale So my friend and I booked it to wait in the last line of the convention. Thankfully, we were successful, all because we had cash! If you had cash, you got to go in a much shorter line. So I got my FBAA ApollyCon exclusive edition and the swag items for $50. I was so happy. And now I'm so sad that I didn't manage to get tickets to the 2023 ApollyCon. Getting the matching sequels off of resellers is going to be a bummer. I hope I can snag an extra on sale in the JLA Shop instead.

And after the bag purchase, ApollyCon was officially over. Which was both sad because the fun was gone and happy because my feet couldn't take another day. My friend and I went back to our AirBnB to drop off our stuff, change our clothes, and rest up a bit before we did the major D.C. touristy stuff. Then, we took the metro back to the National Mall and saw as many sights as our feet would allow. First up was the Washington Monument. It's very tall. Oh, and it was raining. I don't want to forget that detail, as it becomes very important later on.
 

  The Lincoln Memorial was next, though of course we did walk by the World War II Memorial, I just didn't take pictures of it. It seemed disrespectful. I did take pics in front of Lincoln, though. Because it's a giant Lincoln. The rain wasn't terrible at this point, but my umbrella had just gotten a workout trying to swat mosquitos and gnats away from me as we walked by the water.

And this is me posing in front of the White House. We didn't get any closer than that, as 1) our feet were killing us, and 2) it started pouring. We were so soaked on the walk back that the insoles we'd padded our shoes with had started getting weird white soapy looking stuff all over the outside of our shoes. Well, it was either the insoles or poorly rinsed socks from the washing machine. Either way it was icky and wet.

On the metro ride back, I ordered us a margherita pizza that we ended up not being able to finish, sadly. Though I do believe I had a piece for breakfast the next morning. But to end the day, we just packed up our stuff and set our alarms for the next morning. When we did get up, it was to carry our box of books to the post office to ship home, and then we arranged a Lyft to the airport. Unfortunately, I had to stay at the airport for quite a long time, as my first of two flights wasn't until later in the day. I even tried to get on two earlier flights, but I just didn't make it. I did manage to get on a 3 p.m. instead of a 5 p.m., so that was nice. My connecting flight was still around 8 p.m., though.

Well, that's all. It was six days of utter chaos. Four at ApollyCon and two for travel. I can't believe I made it out of all that tourist-y walking stuff alive though. My feet hurt just thinking about how much walking we did. But it's all good now. I came back and all of my shipped books arrived (as you can see by my lovely FairyLoot packaging). None of the books I packed in my bags were damaged, and nothing got lost either. Overall ApollyCon 2022 was a success! Even though I do wish I'd gotten a better pic with JLA. Boo. I'm planning on it for 2024, though. If nothing else, getting a good photo with her will be the #1 priority.

Stacking the Shelves: The Second Deck 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, this has certainly been a week. There's been a lot of weird non-deadline related stress at work the past few days, so I've been in kind of a strange headspace. Which, sadly, means I haven't been reading a lot. But I did have some cool mail come in at the beginning of the week to help cheer me up.

My preorder of A Curse of Queens by Amanda Bouchet came in. I'm excited to get to this one. When that'll be, I have no idea. Also, my FairyLoot September YA book came in. I am now officially receiving the Book Only option too. Unfortunately, I didn't like the book pick for September, so I'm not showing it in this haul, as I plan to get rid of it. But more fun that that, I received part two of the ACOTAR PrettygalPins/Jemlin tarot character card deck. I actually love these more than the first set! I've been collecting all of the Jemlin decks so far, but they're getting pretty expensive. I think I'll have to sell some or skip a deck or two in the future.

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

September Wrap-Up & October TBR

September has been mostly terrible, with the exception of the last two weeks of the month. Work was crazy, my anxiety over a California wedding/Disneyland trip was skyrocketing, and now that that's all over, I've been pretty chill. It's insane how stressful deadlines and travel can be. But that's all over now. Therefore, I am just going to talk about books and a bit about a few TV shows I've been enjoying lately. No big, thought-requiring subjects for me, thanks. Haha.

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 September

Bone Weaver: 3 stars (see my review)

Reforged: 3 stars (library book)

Belladonna: 2.5 stars

Paris Daillencourt is about to Crumble: 3 stars (review to come)

I read four books in September, which was pretty good, considering how crazy busy I was for the first three weeks of the month. Two of the books were NetGalley review copies, Paris Daillencourt is about to Crumble by Alexis Hall and Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros; one was a library copy, Reforged by Seth Haddon; and the other was a book I bought a physical copy of, Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. Sadly, none of the books really had a wow-factor. All were three stars or less. Darn. Also, the book I bought, Belladonna, came out in September 2022, so it doesn't even count towards my goal of reading books that I purchased prior to 2022. Boo... And since I let the hype get to me for Belladonna, which meant I preordered it on a whim because I'd heard good things and it had a pretty naked cover, I'm going to try to stop ordering physical copies of books now unless 1) I've read them before from the library or as ebooks, 2) they REALLY intrigue me, and/or 3) they're written by an author I am familiar with and enjoy. I'm also going to stop requesting books from NetGalley, as I've found I rarely give them more than three stars. I'll stick to reading books as they release.

Books Bought/Received in September

I didn't buy nearly as many books in September. Thank goodness. Also, all of the ones I did receive were physical books, so no ebooks this month. In September, I bought 10 books total. This includes Wicked and Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout (eBay); Belladonna (Amazon preorder with my birthday gift card); my YA and Adult FairyLoot subscription books that haven't arrived yet, though I did pay for them in September; and preorders of the FairyLoot editions of the Poison Study series by Maria V. Snyder, The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake, and The River of Silver by S.A. Chakraborty. I also received three books: TWOTQ, which I won in a giveaway; FairyLoot's Babel edition, which was their August pick, so I technically purchased it last month; and the French edition of AKOFAF that I preordered from Amazon.fr a while back. Altogether, I technically only received the six books that are pictured in the month of September.

Currently Obsessed With

Like last month, I've been rewatching The Office... BUT, I've also been watching some other shows too. Yay me! I think because I've been so stressed out, it's easier for me to watch TV than to read. Which isn't the worst thing ever, but it's sad to not read as much.

What We Do in the Shadows season four came out at some point this year, and, once all of the episodes were on Hulu, I devoured it. Which was a bad thing to do, as I was super busy with work (I was even working on the weekends), so I didn't need the distraction. But, oh well, it all worked out in the end. This season was fun. Probably not my favorite, but it was still a good time. I've also been continuing my watch of House of the Dragon. It's finally gotten to the big time jump episode, and I have mixed feelings about the new actors. Finally, I binged the rest of Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix, including the newly-released season two. Season two was a little all over the place story-wise, but I still hope it gets a season three renewal. Other than those shows, I don't think I've watched anything particularly exciting. However, we'll see if I like the new Hocus Pocus movie. I'm extremely nervous about that one.

October TBR

More repeats in October's TBR. Oops again. Like last month and the month before, I have some books that I still need to get to for review/book club purposes. They include rereading Frostbite, Vampire Academy book two, for my book club and reading/reviewing Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah, which I'm behind on. Bad, me! Other than those two books, I'm keeping my TBR light. I think I may need to read A Curse of Queens by Amanda Bouchet for October's book club pick (hasn't been finalized), I'd like to finish off the Bargainer series, and I am continuing my year-long read of A Storm of Swords.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of September, plus some October 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 Wicked 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 all about recovering from my California trip and catching up on adulting tasks. Ick. I've had a doctor's appointment, paid some bills, and returned some library books. It's been swell. But, despite the adulting, I am glad work has calmed down a lot and I don't have anything major going on until Christmas. It's so nice to have a normal, average week.

I don't have a lot to show off this week. Just one book and one pin. The book is Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout. My local used bookstore called to let me know a copy had been brought in, so I got this one for like $3.24. And it's in pretty good shape. Now I just need to get physical copies of the sequels. I have the ebooks, but I've been wanting physical copies of all of JLA's books for a while. And then, I have an FBAA pin from Prettygal Pins. It's smaller than I thought it would be. It's cute, but I'm not sure I'll keep it. It doesn't super match my FBAA aesthetic. I'll have to see if I can find a good place for it.

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