I have no self control. I told myself I would do my book hauls quarterly because I didn't really buy that many books during the month. YEAH I LIED. I bought way more than I would normally have and now I've changed my mind again and will be doing the book hauls at the end of each month, but only if I have something to haul.
Here goes:
Book #1: Anni Moon & the Elemental Artifact by Melanie Abed
I was browsing the day's books from BookBub and I thought it looked cute. I love reading YA and children's fantasy stories so I couldn't exactly refuse. I have no idea why I can't say no.
It looks really entertaining. The girl, Anni Moon, gets stuck in a dimension that's like nothing she's ever known. She has to go find and save her friend who was taken by the creatures of this world. It sounds like a great middle-grade book.
It was $0.99 and I just can't pass up anything that looks so adorable on Amazon. Especially when I have the money for it. I don't know if I'll get to actually reading this book this year, but I will definitely make a valiant effort because I want to know what a Funk is, and why the other girl was taken in the first place.
Book #2: Here by Denise Grover Swank
I....don't know. It looked really good and it was on sale for $0.99.
A girl accidentally kills her friend and feels terrible about it. I understand that sort of grief only just barely. What I know of it has been garnered through watching shows like First 48, Cops, and shows like that where it's real people being filmed.
I have no idea what is going to happen in this book, but it sounds like a paranormal romance for young adults. The way it's spun is that a boy is suddenly interested in Julia, the girl who caused the crash, despite not being even remotely interested in her earlier. Out of nowhere he's doing all of this nice stuff for her. He's even wearing a necklace that she's drawn. It's a weird half-breed between paranormal and psychological and I can't wait to find out what it's about.
Book #3: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
I have been seeing this book on BookTube everywhere for a while now, and I wanted to read it. I have no idea what it's actually about because I sometimes drift during the reviews, wrap-up, and whatever else on BookTube.
From what I read on Goodreads, something happens to kids in the United States. The ones that don't die because of whatever this is end up with some sort of powers. Telekinesis, psychokinesis....I don't know. All I know is that whatever power this is, is bad. I think killed or at least seriously maimed them?
I couldn't buy this before because it was expensive and I'm broke. I wanted it for a very long time and I'm very happy that I've managed to get my hands on it. I have no idea what to expect, but it sounds amazing.
Book #4: The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston
I saw this book ages ago on someone's Booktube wrap-up and I can't remember who it was. Not really sure that's important right now though.
I love all things to do with witches and magic (which makes me think it was Benjaminoftomes' channel). If I can find a book that involves that in a historical sense, then I'm all over it. This book popped up in my daily deals I think from BookBub, unfortunately it was not free. It was $2.99, which is how it ended up in the book haul.
It's half about a young witch who watches her mother die and she turns to someone who can help her escape (I take issue with him being called a warlock, but that's another post entirely). The other half of the book is in modern times and its just as magical. I love finding books with actual witches or Wiccans in it and I can't wait to read it.
Book #5: The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates
I can't help myself. I also love paranormal/horror books. More commonly known as...Ghost Stories. I love love them. I spend a lot of my Netflix time watching ghost movies. This book drew my attention because of the creepily familiar house. There are a number of them near me that are starting to fall into disrepair that look like that. Houses where either the only family who did live in it moved out decades earlier, or the family that currently lives in it cannot afford upkeep on some stuff. There's even one that looks almost exactly like it on the corner from my house.
The house I live in now is haunted. It has been since before I was even born (it's a family house), so this story spoke to me on an almost spiritual level. I think it's interesting that while she wants to let her past go, her past does not feel the same. It looks awesome and I can't wait to get to it.
Book #6: Air Awakens by Elise Kova
This book was another from my BookBub list. I thought the cover was really pretty and waffled for a while about paying $0.99 for it. Yeah, I'm actually typically a broke human being and being able to pay for things is sometimes outside of my capabilities.
This girl (who is an apprentice librarian, definitely an air thing), ends up accidentally saving the strongest sorcerer in Solaris. I guess in return he offers to teach her how to use sorcery? I don't know. She doesn't know what to do. Vhalla has to decide between moving forward with this sorcery or going back to her quiet life as a librarian. Her choice will effect everything.
I love it because it reminds me very much of an idea I had a long time ago that I've half-scrapped. I haven't actually decided what I'm doing with it, but I'm sure I'm not going to continue work on it. So this book will be fun to read.
Book #7: Tied Together by Z.B. Heller
So yeah, I've pretty much decided that Kindle books don't count toward the "read 5 buy 1" deal, since they don't actually exist.
I've heard of this book before through a group on Facebook, but of course I have forgotten which group it was. I am a member of quite a few book and reading groups and they get all jumbled in my mind.
Anyway, this book is LGBT and I have a soft spot for reading that genre. The stories are usually so much better. This one is about an out-and-proud man and his crush on a man who is trying to hide his own orientation from everyone. I remember seeing it before and wanting to get it, but it wasn't available at all. Then when it was, it was outside of my price range. I just picked it up on Amazon for $0.99. That makes me so happy because I've been wanting to read it for a while.
Book #8: Bronze Gods by A.A. Aguirre
I have no idea what this is about. I sort of do, but sort of don't. It's a dystopian of some kind with steampunk from the looks of the cover.
I picked it up because I loved the description. These people work for the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) in Dorstaad. They have to work to stop the Ferishers from doing real damage to the world. If I'm understanding the synopsis correctly, a Ferishser is some sort of Fae that has shriveled up and died and became a dark, evil spirit.
Janus and Celeste have to work together to make sure the city is safe. At the same time Celeste is having to actually prove herself worthy of even being in the division at all as a woman. She's the first female and must make sure that they know she is capable of doing the job. It sounds really interesting, and I hope to pick it up maybe some time in the next few months or possibly early next year.
Book #9: A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic
I love love love love love paranormal books. If has to do with ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, zombies, or whatever else one can think of that is a paranormal creature in the literary world I will be all over it. I love them.
This book has ghosts in it. Or at least one ghost that I read about in the synopsis. The infamous Woman in White ghost that is common all over the world. Everyone's heard of her. The main character in this book, Amelia, has been able to see the Woman in White for a long time. Right up until her brother dies. Then she cannot see this ghost. Until a boy moves in next door.
I bought this book partly because ghosts, and partly because of the setting. People begin drowning in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. As it so happens, I've been canoeing down that river (it's smelly and has loads of bald eagles nesting near it). I couldn't help myself. I also put this book in my wishlist so I can get a physical copy.
Book #10: Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross
I have a problem, okay? I can't control myself. These books are just so pretty. If this one were hardcover, I would cry if it weren't cloth bound. It's just the exact perfect sort of book for that type of binding.
This book is about witches. All I could think when I read the title and synopsis was half-way between Harry Potter and Miss Peregrine's. Miss Mabel's is a school where young witches go to learn the art of magic. A girl is cursed and has to enroll in the school to get the witch who cast it to undo the curse. None other than Miss Mabel herself.
I assume that the witches in this book are not the benign sort, but I'm entirely okay with that. It sounds very entertaining and as stated previously, I love anything that has to do with paranormal entities.
Book #11: Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks
Demons. This book has demons in it. I have a horrible soft spot for paranormal stuff. That and this book was almost entirely a cover buy. Come on, how could someone who's into books like this NOT buy something that looks so epic?
Aidan O'Linn watches a demon mark his sister. I assume that means that later they will come back for her. Which they do. Every three years the demons return and try to claim his sister for their own. He does everything in his power to stop it. With few options left, he goes to this group of teens who are fighting demons and ghosts and what have you. He thinks they can help him to protect his sister and have the Darkness removed from her.
I have to. I can't not read this. It just looks so good. I love love these kind. I hope to get to this very soon. Maybe even put off some of the other books I was considering reading next and reading this one instead.
Book #12: Absolute Truth, For Beginners by Katarina West
I picked this up because I love LGBT+ books and this was one of them that the art caught my eye. I didn't know at first what it was, I just knew I had to have it. Of course I didn't bother to actually look and see what part of the LGBT+ community it was part of. Turns out it's a contemporary lesbian romance. Cool.
Elisa isn't really a popular or even noticed person where she lives. She's dropped out of college and now lives with her aunt. She falls in love with a woman who is almost exactly her opposite. Judith is popular, good at math, good at basically everything. The longer this unrequited love goes on, the worse and worse Elisa seems to feel about herself.
It looks like it's going to be a good feelsy read. I like those every now and then just to make sure I stay tuned into reality around me. I can't wait to read it and find out if it's what I think it is or if it's something else.
Book #13: White Tiger by Kylie Chan
Book #7: Tied Together by Z.B. Heller
I've heard of this book before through a group on Facebook, but of course I have forgotten which group it was. I am a member of quite a few book and reading groups and they get all jumbled in my mind.
Anyway, this book is LGBT and I have a soft spot for reading that genre. The stories are usually so much better. This one is about an out-and-proud man and his crush on a man who is trying to hide his own orientation from everyone. I remember seeing it before and wanting to get it, but it wasn't available at all. Then when it was, it was outside of my price range. I just picked it up on Amazon for $0.99. That makes me so happy because I've been wanting to read it for a while.
Book #8: Bronze Gods by A.A. Aguirre
I picked it up because I loved the description. These people work for the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) in Dorstaad. They have to work to stop the Ferishers from doing real damage to the world. If I'm understanding the synopsis correctly, a Ferishser is some sort of Fae that has shriveled up and died and became a dark, evil spirit.
Janus and Celeste have to work together to make sure the city is safe. At the same time Celeste is having to actually prove herself worthy of even being in the division at all as a woman. She's the first female and must make sure that they know she is capable of doing the job. It sounds really interesting, and I hope to pick it up maybe some time in the next few months or possibly early next year.
Book #9: A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic
This book has ghosts in it. Or at least one ghost that I read about in the synopsis. The infamous Woman in White ghost that is common all over the world. Everyone's heard of her. The main character in this book, Amelia, has been able to see the Woman in White for a long time. Right up until her brother dies. Then she cannot see this ghost. Until a boy moves in next door.
I bought this book partly because ghosts, and partly because of the setting. People begin drowning in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. As it so happens, I've been canoeing down that river (it's smelly and has loads of bald eagles nesting near it). I couldn't help myself. I also put this book in my wishlist so I can get a physical copy.
Book #10: Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross
This book is about witches. All I could think when I read the title and synopsis was half-way between Harry Potter and Miss Peregrine's. Miss Mabel's is a school where young witches go to learn the art of magic. A girl is cursed and has to enroll in the school to get the witch who cast it to undo the curse. None other than Miss Mabel herself.
I assume that the witches in this book are not the benign sort, but I'm entirely okay with that. It sounds very entertaining and as stated previously, I love anything that has to do with paranormal entities.
Book #11: Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks
Aidan O'Linn watches a demon mark his sister. I assume that means that later they will come back for her. Which they do. Every three years the demons return and try to claim his sister for their own. He does everything in his power to stop it. With few options left, he goes to this group of teens who are fighting demons and ghosts and what have you. He thinks they can help him to protect his sister and have the Darkness removed from her.
I have to. I can't not read this. It just looks so good. I love love these kind. I hope to get to this very soon. Maybe even put off some of the other books I was considering reading next and reading this one instead.
Book #12: Absolute Truth, For Beginners by Katarina West
Elisa isn't really a popular or even noticed person where she lives. She's dropped out of college and now lives with her aunt. She falls in love with a woman who is almost exactly her opposite. Judith is popular, good at math, good at basically everything. The longer this unrequited love goes on, the worse and worse Elisa seems to feel about herself.
It looks like it's going to be a good feelsy read. I like those every now and then just to make sure I stay tuned into reality around me. I can't wait to read it and find out if it's what I think it is or if it's something else.
Book #13: White Tiger by Kylie Chan
A
young woman accepts a position as nanny to the young daughter of a
handsome, wealthy, and mysterious Chinese businessman, only to
discover her new employer is really a god and every foul demon in
creation is out to destroy him!
I know, I'm a weird person. This book just looked interesting and I'd be lying if I said I was not interested in the Junk on the bottom of the cover. It sort of makes me think of A Journey to the West, with it being one of the gods of that mythology. If memory is serving me (which it sometimes doesn't) the White Tiger is the god of the West.
It's just right up my alley as far as books go and I can't wait to start it and find out what happens to this lady and her employer. I love oriental-themed books, be that Chinese, Japanese, Korean....whatever. It's all good to me because I love the mythology and culture of these countries. I hope this lives up to what I love about the cultures.
Book #14: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Esther
Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and
successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her
acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the
reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity
becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as
going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most
harrowing corners of the human psyche, The
Bell Jar is
an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.
This is actually my sister's fault. She is in love with the tv show The Gilmore Girls and kept telling me I had to do the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. I don't think that's going to happen since most of the books in no way interest me and I just can't see myself reading them. However! I have always been wanting to read Sylvia Plath's book, The Bell Jar, and when it showed up on my BookBub offers list I had to buy it. If I like the beginning, I will probably order a physical copy of this one.
Book #15: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
A friend of mine loves another series of hers, and is trying and trying and trying and trying to get me to read it. I have forgotten the series name but the main character is Miles Vorkosigan (I bet I spelled that wrong, and Google thinks I wanted Kevorkian....). I just don't have any interest at all whatsoever in reading it. I am not too big of a fan of books that happen in space, or super sci-fi futuristic books. I don't know why.
This book showed up in BookBub's offers for the day and I was like "Oh! This one looks like a LMB book I would actually like." It's a fantasy novel where this girl leaves her family farm because she doesn't like living on it (I think?) and she runs into a necromancer. Who wouldn't like that? He saves her and they then have to go on some sort of adventure together. It sound exactly like the kind of book that I would absolutely love and it's by an author that a friend of mine likes.
Book #16: The Uninvited by Cat Winters
This book is set during 1918 and the influenza epidemic. A young woman named Ivy can see spirits. She sees her grandmother sitting in her mother's chair and finds out that her brother and father killed a German man in retaliation for the death of her older brother.
Ivy leaves home, horrified over what she learned only to find out that life the way she knew it is no more. The influenza has basically ravaged society. She ends up being drawn into the world of jazz and freedom where people live for the sake of living instead of worrying about what will happen to them.
This book just called to me. I love ghost/paranormal stories and I thought that I would love it. It was cheap enough when I saw it and figured why not? It looks like the kind of book that would make for a great TV movie adaptation (where they try a little harder on the story) for a station like Syfy or something. I hope to get to this book more quickly than the others.
Book #17: The Affiliate by K.A. Linde
The lead character, Cyrene, is chosen to be an affiliate to the Queen on the day of her Presenting. I assume that means a special celebration for her seventeenth birthday in her world. She is an adult now and has been chosen to do something for the queen of Byern.
It's not all she thinks it will be when she receives a letter and a book she can't read. She has to dig her way out of a world of political intrigue. It sounds really really good and I hope it's a real nice at least magical realism book.
Book #16: The Uninvited by Cat Winters
Ivy leaves home, horrified over what she learned only to find out that life the way she knew it is no more. The influenza has basically ravaged society. She ends up being drawn into the world of jazz and freedom where people live for the sake of living instead of worrying about what will happen to them.
This book just called to me. I love ghost/paranormal stories and I thought that I would love it. It was cheap enough when I saw it and figured why not? It looks like the kind of book that would make for a great TV movie adaptation (where they try a little harder on the story) for a station like Syfy or something. I hope to get to this book more quickly than the others.
Book #17: The Affiliate by K.A. Linde
It's not all she thinks it will be when she receives a letter and a book she can't read. She has to dig her way out of a world of political intrigue. It sounds really really good and I hope it's a real nice at least magical realism book.
