August 2019 Book Haul!

Hello all! It's that time of month again where I talk about all the books I got in the previous one. I honestly didn't expect this haul to be so big but I guess when you have a birthday, gift cards, and big paychecks you get a lot of books? I'm not going to be going into too much detail for each of these since I did get quite a few, but I'm excited about all of these!

Up first we have Brave by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I read the first book in this trilogy in July and knew I needed to binge the next two in August. I've already read this and absolutely loved it. It's my favorite book in the trilogy and Jennifer has further solidified herself as one of my favorite authors.

Then I picked up The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes. I am so interested in all of the Rick Riordan Presents books and I'm so excited to have this one on my shelf. It's a middle grade focusing around Mayan mythology and I can't wait to read it!

The next book I got was an advanced copy of Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger from a trade. This book sounds so cool and the author is one of the coolest people I follow on Twitter. I can't wait to read this one in September! 

Then I picked up The Diviners by Libba Bray from my local used bookstore. I knew when I saw the first edition hardcover for so cheap that I just had to pick it up. I'm super interested in this story and think I'm going to read it while I'm abroad via ebook. If I love it, I know I'll be glad to have this hardcover for my collection!

Up next I have the signed collector's editions of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. I treated myself to these for my birthday and I'm so excited to add them to my collection. Not only are they gorgeous but I can't believe I have signed Twilight books! My fangirl heart is so happy. 

I also picked up a special edition of Twilight with red sprayed edges by Stephenie Meyer. I got the Eclipse one a few months ago and I'm so excited that there are more of them! I love the edges though I wish these were in better condition and actually matched the listings. 

Next up I got Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep. I've seen this book going around a lot lately and decided that it sounded super interesting. I ended up with a gift card and decided to use part of it to get this one. The sequel also released recently with the third book coming out in the spring and I can't wait to read them all!

Then I picked up Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This was recommended by S.A. Chakraborty and sounds awesome. It's a historical fantasy about Mayan mythology and quests and other amazing things. I can't wait to read it, hopefully later this year!

I then picked up A Life of Shadows by Kristen Banet. I read this entire series via Kindle Unlimited and knew that I loved it when I finished it in just a few days. I loved it enough that I want to collect physical copies of all of them! I absolutely love these covers and the story inside is just awesome and I want them to have a place on my bookshelf.

When I finished A Wicked Trilogy I knew I needed to get my hands on The Prince by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I'm still holding out on reading it for a while, though, because I've heard the sequel ends on a cliffhanger and I don't want to have to wait too long for the final one.

Up next I was sent an advance copy of The (Other) F Word which is a collection of stories, essays, art, and more all edited by Angie Manfredi. I'm an ambassador for this upcoming release that celebrates the fat and fierce. This is something I wish I'd had when I was younger and struggling with body image issues so I'm glad that there's something like this coming out for growing teenagers and I'm so happy that I get to be part of it.

Then I picked up the new graphic novel release of Fence, Volume 3 by C.S. Pacat and illustrated by Johanna the Mad. I read the first two early in August and was so excited that the third was releasing soon after. I love these graphic novels and this one was a great addition to the series.

Then I picked up a few books at the Books-A-Million when I visited my dad. They have a bargain book section and recently started selling used books and I definitely took advantage of the great deals. The first book I got was Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes. This is the final book in the Falling Kingdoms series and I'm excited to have my series complete.

 Next I got Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu. I've been wanting to read these for a long time and with a new book set in this world coming out I figured that now was as good a time as any to finally read the trilogy.

I also got The Gray Wolf Throne and The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima. I've been collecting this series in hardcover over the summer and I'm excited to finally have them all. I can now start in on binge-reading this series and then collecting the Shattered Realms series.

Then I picked up Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. I've heard nothing but good things about this book and it sounds so good. I wasn't interested back when it first came out but now that I've matured in my reading tastes I am so excited to read it!

The last physical book I picked up was Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray which was also an amazing deal find. Now once I finish The Diviners I can go straight into this one. I can't wait to read these and I'm so excited to have the next in the series! 

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I also got a few ebooks, which I'm only going to list here because this blog post has gone on for quite a long time. I got all of these on great deals and I can't wait to read them all! 

1. Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff
2. Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell
3. A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
4. Storm by Brigid Kemmerer
5. Goddess Rising by Alisha Ashton
6. The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout
7. The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
8. City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab
9. Stealing Their Harley by Amanda Perry & AJ Anders

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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Book Review: "Aurora Rising" by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Title: Aurora Rising

Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Series: "Aurora Cycle_01"

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Page Length: 470 pages

Publication Date: May 7, 2019
Date Started: June 7, 2019

Date Finished: June 16, 2019

Rating: 4 // 5 stars

Goodreads

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure what to say about this book. I both liked it and felt a bit disappointed by it. I think for the most part, I enjoyed the book but there were definitely some factors that went into me not liking this as much as I'd hoped.

Before I get into the reasons I liked this book, I just want to talk a bit about how I was disappointed. I don't necessarily think it was the book itself that made me like it less. I went into this book with really high expectations, which I knew would probably hurt my reading but I couldn't exactly change my subconscious hope that this book would blow me away. Additionally, everyone is hyping up this book. People I have very similar reading tastes to talked about how much it blew them away. So I was expecting something along the lines of the brilliance of Illuminae. But I didn't really get that. Additionally, it took me a while to read this book because of personal life things and just stress in general. I don't think any of that helped and I wasn't connected to this story very much because it took me over a week to get through it.

I want to say that this is my preliminary thoughts on this book. Looking back on what was happening, I should have loved it. In terms of how this book, the characters, the story, etc and whatnot were written, it was done very well. But I was stressed and it took me so long to read this book that I didn't connect to the characters and was left feeling disappointed. So, these are my thoughts for now but I do plan on rereading this book before the second comes out so that I can (hopefully) have a better experience reading it.

But like I said, looking back on this book I think it was done very well. The plot, the logistics of the world, the pure creativity that must have gone into it--all were great. The characters were awesome but I do think that there were too many POV changes. We could have stuck with just 3 of them rather than everyone getting a POV but never in a consistent order or in equal amounts. What's the purpose of giving a character a POV when their chapters are less than a page long? But I did like the characters--especially Fin! His sass, his struggles, just him in general made me so happy.

Overall, I don't want to talk too much about this book just because I don't feel like I read it at the right time. I was so excited to read it, I was reading quickly, and I was enjoying it until I became stressed in my personal life and that severely inhibited my reading experience.

I am very much looking forward to rereading this book to see how things change--I've already forgotten a lot of it too because it took me so long to read. I also think this series has a lot of potential and I'm definitely excited to see where the story goes with how things were left at the end of this book.

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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You can follow my bookstagram here. A brand new giveaway will be posted soon!

To get more awesome content like this post, click the follow button to the right!

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Let's Talk: "Obsidio" by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff Book Review!

Title: Obsidio

Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Series: "Illuminae_Files_03"

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Page Length: 615 pages

Publication Date: March 13, 2018

Date Started: May 26, 2018

Date Finished: July 17, 2018

Rating: 5/5 amazing stars!

Goodreads

Book 1 Review

Book 2 Review

Don’t let the amount of time it took me to read this book fool you: it was awesome! Every summer for the past three years, I’ve fallen into severe reading slumps where I read maybe 5 books over the course of three months. It’s just hard for me to read. But that is the only reason that it took me so long to read this book! 

It was fast-paced and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I read it! Especially the last 200 pages…I couldn’t stop and then all of a sudden I had finished it!

What I loved most about this book was seeing the development that each of these characters had undergone from the first and second books to this one! I can see the character arcs that Jay and Amie wrote and I’m in awe! I just love each and every one of these flawed, beautiful characters so much. 

I thought that it had the right mix of action and suspense and romance. The pacing was perfect and the points of view were on point (haha, see what I did there?). Overall, this book was just so well executed. 


That’s all I can really say without spoiling it but I will leave you with these final thoughts: I thought that Obsidio was a fantastic finale to this trilogy. I’ve been reading this story for three and a half years now and I can’t believe that it’s over. I’ve had so many awesome memories because of this trilogy: I’ve made friends, gone to signings, met the amazing authors, and so much more all thanks to this trilogy! It’s heartbreaking to be finished with it but it’s an extremely amazing feeling to finally know how all of my favorite characters end up! I can’t wait to reread this book because whenever I’ve reread an Illuminae Files book, I’ve always ended up loving it even more than the first time around.

I highly, highly recommend this trilogy…especially the audiobooks! I think my next read through with definitely be 100% from the audiobooks because they really are masterpieces in themselves! 

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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Top 5 Wednesday: Auto-Buy Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors

Hello everyone and welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday! This week's theme is Auto-Buy Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors! This was interesting for me because even if I love an author's books, I usually don't automatically buy it. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. There are a few authors outside of this list who are also auto-buy authors, but they don't write in this genre so I'll most likely put them in a different post at some point. Let's go ahead and just get on into it. 

Coming in at number 5 we have Cassandra Clare, who wrote The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, and more. She's also co-written a few books. However, I've only read the stuff that she's written for the Shadowhunters universe. I haven't read any of her other co-written stuff so I'm not sure if this is your stereotypical auto-buy situation, but anything she writes for Shadowhunters or any other fantasy/paranormal works I will buy. 

At number 4 I decided to combine Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, since they co-wrote one of my favorite trilogies. Since then, I have started collecting their other works. I would definitely say that they're some of my auto buy authors now. Plus, I met these authors and they're so amazing that I am honored to be able to buy all of their books.

Number 3 is, obviously, Stephenie Meyer. Not a lot of people are as familiar with her science fiction works, but I read The Host YEARS ago and I absolutely fell in love. Since then, she's released an adult thriller that I have yet to read but am super excited to get to soon. Ever since I expanded past Twilight to read The Host, I've seen how amazing her writing and stories are, and how unique they are from each other. I will buy anything she writes. Period.




Number 2 shouldn't surprise anyone: J.K. Rowling. She wrote Harry Potter and I will buy anything she writes. I'm currently working on reading her other series under her pen name, and I can't wait. She's such an inspiration and HP has done so much for me throughout my life and childhood.

And my number 1 auto-buy author for this category, and in general, is Sarah J. Maas. I was just getting back into reading when I discovered her books and I fell in love. Her two series have helped me through so much in my life, connected me with amazing friends, and have just let me escape my boring life for a fantastical one. I will read anything she writes when they are released and I'm so excited for 4 new Sarah books this year!

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Thanks for reading! Who are you favorite auto-buy authors? Let me know in the comments below (although, currently I'm having a glitchy system that hasn't been letting me respond. Rest assured: I see your comments!).

xoxo

Lauren

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Follow this blog by clicking "Follow" on the right hand column! Add me to your Google+ Circles on the left hand column! New content every month from Reviews to Hauls to Tags! Don't forget to check out all the other parts of this blog by following the different links at the top of the page! 

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Get 10% off of HD Movie Codes (sponsored by Movies Anywhere) when you use "INFLUENCER" at checkout! *I do not receive commission from HD Movie Codes--I just want to save you some $*

Get 10% off your first order, plus 50 rewards points, when you use this link to purchase a personal aromatherapy diffuser from Monq

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