Book series – Excited to read!

In an effort to have more control over all the book series I have started to read, need to finish or want to start on, I decided to make a few categories I can arrange them into and make myself busy with planning on how to fit them in my future reading plans!

First category are the book series I am excited to read.

I love reading books with lots of sequels. When I find a story and characters I love, I want to have more books to read trough and enjoy. For this reason I will sometimes decide to buy more than one book from a completely new book series before I even started to read the first book! And this is also why the books I already own and have on my physical bookshelves are being promoted into priority category for the purpose of making any future reading plans.

Few years back I have made a decision to always prioritize the books I own and it has actually worked out wonderfully. When I look around the books on my shelves I am happy to report that the ratio of unread and read books is not as alarming as it might be.

Here are the books I am excited to read as a continuation of the book series I already enjoy and have on my shelves. They are not sorted in any particular order and these are all book series that I rated highly enjoyable to read because I like the characters, writing style of the author or the ideas they represent. Some of them are on my shelves longer and some are recent purchases. all of them are part of my ever present reading goal – to read trough all the books I own!

Vorkosigan Saga by Lois MacMaster Bujold

I was not always fond of science fiction because space is a confusing place and in theory I found it hard to relate and get into the cold outer space setting. Vorkosigan saga is one of those book series that completely changed how I view space opera genre and science fiction in general. The characters are relatable and “down to earth”. Even though my primary goal when I was buying the series was buying them for my BF to read and not me – I have learned to love and appreciate these books. The editions I have are translations in Croatian from a publisher that no longer exists which makes them a bit of a rarity. These books are highly underrated and they deal with ideas and topics relevant in any day and age – traditions, science versus belief, questions about gender, characters with disabilities, dealing with expectations of others, and so many more unexpected moral and personal questions you will be thinking about once you start reading trough satisfying number of books in the series.

My progress of the series is slow paced. I am somewhere half trough the series and I am excited follow more space adventures of the characters author has created about forty years ago!

Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Leigh Bardugo

One of the most recent additions to my book shelves since Hell Bent has only been published earlier this year. Leigh Bardugo has become an author whose books are automatically on my TBR and wish list. I have great respect for who ever is making the decisions to make her books well designed physically and beautiful too. I always choose to get her books in hard cover editions whenever possible. This particular series is dark academia theme and I have found the horror and mystery elements quite appealing. Again, this is an example of a book series that has helped me include genres I don’t normally read – mainly horror genre.

My progress with the series is: need to read the second book and then slowly and not so patiently wait for the next book after that to come out – probably why I’m not in a hurry to get to it…

Elves

Only exception on the lists of book series I own is a graphic novel I am reading in digital form. This is a part of an ongoing series that is currently on volume 30. This series is collaboration of many authors and artists. Most are originally European and mainly French descent but some of the collaborators expand out of those limits as well. This graphic novel came as a recommendation from a friend and I was impressed with depth of the story and beautiful coloring. Story is long and expanding many continents in a fantasy world filled with magical creatures and many different races. The volumes are short – around fifty pages each but are

My progress with the series: I am on volume nine out of current thirty available. I come back to this graphic novel series every time I need a good and fast read I know I am going to enjoy for a reading challenge!

Alpha (Strays #6) by Rachel Vincent

I love urban fantasy book series with interesting female protagonists. This is an older shifter book series with cats, they had me at cats! I love this series so much that I made my peace with not all the books being same size and format – otherwise this is a horrifying concept for me! One of the books I even bought used and a bit scraped up since I could not find it in any better condition – also not a comforting thought for me. This book series has been a lot of firsts for me in this regard even though it is a genre and theme I usually go for.

My progress with the series is almost done since I have only the last book of the series to read! I think i am saving it for some reading challenge that requires me to finish a book series or something…

Aurora’s End (The Aurora Cycle, #3) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My motivation when I got the first two books was to give author a try – I’m still very picky when space theme is present. It was supposed to prepare me to read another book by Jay Kristoff and it was not a planned buy when I got the first two books. I ended up reading both books in the same month and then immediately had to order the third one. That is how much I liked the characters and their dynamics! Also I really like the covers and how the characters are portrayed on them. The extra content in these soft cover edition has been impressive and it made me wonder if I can afford to get the hard cover editions. That is how much the extra content has been important to me. I would love seeing this book series turned into animated series or a TV series but I don’t hold my breath for that to happen at all…

My progress into the series: need to read the last book and I am postponing it because this is only a trilogy and I don’t want it to end so soon…

Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles #8) by Kevin Hearne

This is one of the older book series I got into so many years ago. Trough the years my interest has lessened. But then I read next book of the series after a long pause ( years long pause!) and was surprised at how easy I got into the story and how the characters were still captivating. It was one of the book series I started collecting in hopes of reading it along with my BF. He ended up reading more than I did and now I’m not sure if he is going to finish it at all after such a long break.

My progress with the series is close to finishing – three books left! Good thing is the author has finished writing and aside from the books I already have, there are also few short stories I can read.

The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles, #3) by Anne Rice

Vampire theme was always a fascination of mine and I still have a tendency to collect vampire themed books – be it short story collections or book series. Anne Rice has always been a staple of vampire genre and I always had a feeling I needed to read these. This nagging feeling I needed to read something had made me collect Anne Rice books but held me back from actually reading any of them. At one point I had more than ten books written by Anne Rice and have not read one single of them. After a shaky and bumpy start with the first book of the famous Vampire Chronicles I got to read the second one and finally gotten thrilled with it. I am slightly unhappy with all the different covers for the mass market paperback editions I own but the hard truth is I can’t find all the books in a more uniformed editions because there has been so many different editions over the years. I would love to own these in a prettier collector editions – something more like Folio society editions.

My progress with the series is slower than any other book series I own so many books of – I need to start reading the third book in the series and the small mass market paperback editions with chubby 500+ pages are not that inviting not easy to fit in any reading challenge…

Hellboy #2 by Mike Mignola

Graphic novel collection that started as a yearly present I picked out on a Zagreb Book Fair Interliber for my BF. These editions are hard cover and in Croatian. They each have more than one volume inside them and it makes it harder to follow on GR once I start reading them. I plan to collect the rest but have been unable to afford them last few years.

My progress with the series – I have accidentally read the first and the last graphic novel of the series and not I need to get and start reading the second omnibus edition ( right one in the picture)

Batman: Nightwalker (Dc Icons #2) by Marie Lu

Once I had an idea to collect all the books from the DC Icons series because the list of authors connected into this project was impressive. Each book is written by one of the popular YA authors and I liked the opportunity to try reading some new popular author for the first time without being sucked into another YA book series that everyone else is into. Hard cover books were a present from my BF and now I am struggling to find the resto of the DC Icons editions in hard cover which is proving to be near impossible…

My progress with the series: not in any hurry to read the second book since the prospect of finding the next book is going to be a nightmare…

In conclusion

Book series I am excited to continue reading from my own book shelf ( with one notable exception) is not that long but I can not call it short either. I expect that with starting some new book series and finishing out the last books from the series on this list – the number of the books that are part of a series and I am excited to continue will change, evolve and, most likely, grow. I am perfectly fine with that thought and I am happily looking forward to exciting books I can enjoy reading in the future!

Goodbye, Book Depository!

Few weeks ago I noticed something strange with my Book Depository account. I have a separate wishlist on BD for books I am thinking about preordering and I love seeing how long I have until the book I want comes out. The numbers that count down the days until the book is available give me a sense of peace that everything is going on schedule.

Most importantly, for someone who lives in a small non English speaking country, this was a way to be up to date with what’s new. None of the bookstores in my small hometown have books in English for sale and my only option is to drive at least an hour to another (even smaller!) city to browse and shop for books in English or order them online.

Being up to date with books in the first week as they come out is actually something unusually rare!

So these small countdowns on the book I was interested in really meant a lot…

Few weeks ago all those “days until book becomes available to order” disappeared and the status of all my books on the preorder wishlist became; CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE.

That was my first cue of the impending doom 😦

A week after that, there came the announcement that the Book Depository was shutting down.

Many will call this the end of an era and rightfully so. The only global online store with “free shipping worldwide” closing down will impact many that live in remote areas and where shipping something is a great financial burden and logistical mess. Lots of us who live in non English speaking countries will be jumping trough hoops in search of ways to keep up and keep track with books that come out.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know there are other options and other online bookstores out there, BUT it will take time to explore all the options, calculate the shipping and possible customs costs and all those things I felt safe not to think about until recently. Free shipping is almost never included and the customs issue is quite unpredictable where I live.

Another thing to look upon is the variety of books offered…most bookstores offer only the latest edition and don’t stockpile big amounts of books due to the economy of our times. Sometimes even all the goodwill and money you have will not mean that the seller is willing to ship your order to your country.

I am considering the tourist option: visiting cities only to visit their bookstores and buy the books I want. Already have some trips planned across Europe but I am not expecting to find most of the books from my current wishlist. I am picky and specific with the editions I want and it makes me sad that finding a book in hardcover is harder that it needs to be.

And if I sound like a spoiled entitled brat so be it. I’ve actually grown very poor and never had a chance to enjoy many of the things I indulge in today. I decided to make one last order form BD as my way of saying “Goodbye!”.

It was not easy to trim down all my wishlists and make one order, I even found out that there is a limit on the cost of the order total for EU: its 150,00€! I consider it a win that I made only one order under 150,00€

I had to think carefully what books I wanted to include and most of what I wanted was in hardcover because softcover were easier to find. And if I really liked the book and wanted to read it more than once I would prefer it to be hardcover. Also I needed to consider that some books are going to be harder to find – checked out other online bookstores to compare prices and availability. Also there were some books on my wishlists that were offered at a discount that was to good to pass. I managed to squeeze in nine books into that tight budget amount. At the time of me writing this my order is still being processed and none of the books have been sent my way – even though it has been a few days since I made the order and payed for it in full.

Hopefully none of the books in the order will be canceled and refunded ( this has happened before and it is a sad affair)

Let me share with you this last BD book haul and try to make this gloomy post into something more uplifting!

All the Stars and Teeth (All the Stars and Teeth #1 ) by Adalyn Grace

All the Tides of Fate ( All the Stars and Teeth #2 ) by Adalyn Grace

Booth books are in hardcover and the first one was slightly discounted. I was looking for a duology with cool covers to include in my future reading challenges. Also I don’t have any prate themed books!

The Iron Knight Special Edition (The Iron Fey #4 ) by Julie Kagawa

This is a fourth book in the series, first three I’ve gotten as a birthday present from my bookish friends group, they have decided to gift me the next three as another birthday present for this year as well! These are all paperback editions but the covers are lovely and much prettier than editions before this one. It is actually and older YA fantasy with fey that I was interested for years back but never gotten to read it.

Daughter of Darkness (House of Shadows 1) by Katherine Corr and Elizabeth Corr

Lately I’ve been looking into more books with characters based on mythology. This book caught my attention quickly. The cover is beautiful and I feel like it will be great for my mood reading.

Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier

Another hardcover edition that was slightly on discount. I love the idea of a standalone historical fantasy and I wish to read more of them.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

I am not going to lie I was drawn by the pretty cover, stuck by because of the mythology theme and finally got it since the price was 30% discounted on it!

Scarred (Never After #2 ) by Emily McIntire

This one was a last minute pick while I was trying to trim the price down to budget limit. I wanted something dark and smuty. The edition is paperback and I decided to ignore the fact that this book is second in a series- it says all books can be read separately and the first book has an unappealing cover…

This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1 ) by Victoria Schwab

It took me three tries and two refunds, months of looking out on availability to finally get the collectors hardback of another book of this author so when I found this edition on a nice discount I had to buy it – urban fantasy theme is a bonus and I think I will like this one a lot!

Under a Winter Sky : a Midwinter Holiday Anthology

I love short story collection and I love sampling new authors in this way. I knew I wanted this collection when I first saw it a while back. It was never a priority to buy and now I picked it up in fear of not being able to find it later. Sadly it is paperback edition but I do love the cover art.

Hope you find your own reasons to enjoy life and smile 🙂

Becca’s Bookopoly – Bookoplathon September 2021

In September there are many wonderful reading challenges to choose from and unless I find a doorway to a secret dimension where time flows slower and spent equal amount of time in it as in this one! Sadly I am still on the lookout for that kind of doorway. Until I find it I have made a selection of reading challenges I will be participating in and Becca’s Bookopoly is something I simply can’t miss since she inspired me to make my own Bookopoly board and then work on it and modify it for the last year! This September all who are interested are given the chance to play together on a special Bookopoly board that is designed to include options for many different types of readers.

You can check out Becca’s channel Becca and the Books HERE and her own throwdown for the Bookoplathon HERE – Warning: the dice have not gone easy on her and it was a blast! Thank you Becca! Love your content and hope you read all the books you set for yourself in September!

I printed out the board for this on a normal A4 size paper on my home printer and it turned out rather small so I had to improvise the figure to represent me on the board. The figure I use is from a board game I own called Tang Garden. It is a cool looking board game we backed on Kickstarter few years back. For more info on the game you can check out HERE. The figure is painted by my boyfriend and I love the colors used.

I will be making another post on my August Bookopoly results later this week. This Bookoplathon is going to be instead of my own usual Bookopoly board play and those will continue as normal in October. The dice favored me better than they did Becca and while I also had a double roll it was not multiple times!

Here are my Bookoplathon rolls for September:

Prompt: Gods

Book: Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry’s Great Mythology #1) by Stephen Fry

My first roll looked very promising and gave me rather unusual prompt for a book with Gods of some kind. Since I was looking for an excuse to finally take on one of the books I already have a sequel waiting I was happy to pick out at Mythology #1) by Stephen Fry. This edition is a one of the highly sought out for in Croatian since it is a limited edition that is printed out in only 500 numbered copies with luxury treatment. Each luxury book from this publisher is later published in normal paperback edition but the first numbered edition is quickly sold out and reaches high prices at reseller markets. I used to be crazy about them like many others but have soon decided to stick to the books I am really interested in. I love mythology and hope to have a five star book on my hands here!

Prompt: Mood Read

Book: Darkfever (Fever #1) by Karen Marie Moning

My second roll was a double! Both dices showed two and the sum was four which landed me on Mood Read spot. At first it was cool but later while trying to choose books for all the prompts I realized I like a bit more guidance. Mood Read is cool but how do you choose a book for mood reading in advance? How do I know what will I be in the mood for reading of? And I can’t make plans for mood reading at the beginning of the month like that. so you might understand my frustration on this roll. In the end I picked out a bunch of books I was thinking about reading, some for other reading challenge some for other prompts and take what was left for this one. I ended up with a book I have been interested in reading for over a decade: Darkfever (Fever #1) by Karen Marie Moning. I even have and edition in Croatian on my shelf! It is an urban fantasy with a prominent female lead that I usually love. Technically I am always in the mood for some good urban fantasy!

Prompt: Current News / Events

Book: Les Hirondelles de Kaboul by Yasmina Khadra

Third roll was a sum of seven and got me Current News / Events. I tried to fight the onslaught of current news about Kabul and the conflicts in the world. I even had a few interesting options with the not so long ago commercial flights to space and some feel good and less popular news about repopulation of some endangered species in Australia but finding a book on those was a chore. I could not find a close enough book about travelling to space to count it for the prompt and I was not in the mood for reading Richard Branson’s biography. Back to Afghanistan and Kabul it was… The English title of this book is The Swallows of Kabul and my Croatian edition is titled Kabulske lastavice. I am apprehensive just thinking about reading this book and will probably go and read it first just to be done with it before it breaks me since I am very easily influenced by stuff I read in books in general. And I don’t mean just the crying but I get cripplingly depressed and it makes hard for me to function in my daily life. If you have some jokes or funny memes pls send them my way I will need them…

Prompt: Opulent

Book: Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1) by Jay Kristoff / Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer #2) by Laini Taylor

Roll number four was a low roll and sum four! I think Opulent is a really cool and doable prompt. This is the prompt I wanted to use for Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry’s Great Mythology #1) by Stephen Fry but then I got excited and hyped and really optimistic about Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1) by Jay Kristoff that comes out in the first week of September. I preordered it and would love reading it if it gets here on time. I even thought about making sure I read all the other books before the last week of September so I can be ready to start reading this one as soon as it arrives! If my experience with last book I preordered has anything similar with this one I will probably get this book in October though… In the case that happens I decided to have a back up and my back up is a book with a cover I find pretty and spoiler for my next roll: Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer #2) by Laini Taylor. This way I might start and finish a series in September. Still hoping for my preorder to arrive!

Prompt: Poll Pick

Book: Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor

Second to last roll was another lower number and it landed me on a Poll Pick tile. The books I decided to offer for the poll were all from my Buddy reading list for 2021. I put the poll up on my book club Facebook group. And my fellow readers from the book club all voted for Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor. Other three options didn’t even get a single vote in the first few days the poll was up and it did not seem they would get any at all! So my book for this prompt is Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor. I got my book from the library and my library has a rule that if the book is part of the series up to five books you get all the books in the series as a set. This is how I ended up with both books in this duology and it might even seem I will be reading both of them this September!

Prompt: Chance card

Book: The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #2) by Anne Rice

My last extra roll was an eight and I got a Chance Card. For this month’s Bookoplathon I decided to use the Chance card I use normally for my Bookopoly each month. My deck of starting sixteen Chance cards was down to only one and it was The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #2) by Anne Rice. I will be making a post on all the books that were in my Bookopoly Chance Card deck and making a new pile for next month. It has been a few years since I’ve read the Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles #1) by Anne Rice. It has been exactly four years since I finished reading it and it was a book I just could not get into. I kept mixing the movies and the book and it did not end well. I hope this book fares better.

Six books for Bookoplathon is a good number of books to read and while some of these book will be crossing over with the other reading challenges I will be doing in September (post on them soon) some are going to be adding up on my total number of books for September. Also this might be the first time to have all but one (two if Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1) by Jay Kristoff arrives in time for me to read it) books in Croatian! I only noticed this when taking the pictures. I hope to read all that I have planned and continue with Bookopoly as usual in October!

Books I desire by Holly Black – June 2021

I use my Book Depository account to keep and organize several different wishlists for the books that strike my fancy or I plan to buy. My book buying plans are mostly smaller book buying sprees since I buy books several times a year by ordering them from Book Depository store. I rarely buy books in Croatian anymore. I started to buy used books in English more often in the last year or so because I have found some cool people who are selling relatively new and interesting books in English through Facebook groups. Few times a year I get into my Kindle and buy some books that are up to 5$ and I find interesting. I have few authors whose work I follow and buy in Kindle format and sometimes I indulge in titles that would be too expensive to buy in other formats. There are no bookshops in my area that sell books in English that I can walk into and buy books on the spot! When I was younger I opted to buy paperback editions mostly since they were easier to store and usually cost less. Lately I have developed the taste for pretty hardcover editions and now I weigh my options carefully before deciding to buy books.

Over a year ago I made a very similar post on this topic – Wishlist Books! You can check it out HERE. From the six books I highlighted in the post I bought five! This sixth book is out of print and it is still on my wish list. In the meantime I discovered a lot of interesting authors I wanted to try out and some new books. I have reservations about reading the books everybody else is raving about at first. I like to check them out at my own pace but when I find an author I go for it in a rather hedonistic manner. Leigh Bardugo and her books are just one more recent example for this.

Holly Black Books!

I did not have a taste or time for reading the same books more than once. Lately I keep coming back to some authors and stories. Holly Black and her stories of faeries have made me want to read the same books over and over. I have gotten her first two books in The Folk of Air trilogy back in 2019. Since then I have been hooked and now I am in the progress of getting the hardcover editions of all three books and getting my hands on other books connected to the same world of faeries. So far I have the third book in hardcover and have ordered the second one as well. Only the first one is missing to have all three in hardcover edition after which I will sell paperback editions. Here are some of the titles I want to get my hands on!

The Modern Faerie Tales : Tithe; Valiant; Ironside by Holly Black

This 800 pages beauty collects three stories set in the world of The Folk of Air I love reading about! I was checking out for the hardcover editions but can’t seem to find it. I am not particulary fond of a book this size in paperback edition and it is making me hesitate.

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The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

One of the reasons I am slow to get these is the need to decipher various editions and their sizes before actually buying the books. My OCD does not like it when the books from the same series are different size and since I am late to buy the hardcover editions of these I must thread carefully to get the right edition that goes well with other books I already have. The edition that is easiest for me to get is completely different than the rest and I must make some hard decisions financially if I want them all to match…

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Another of Holly Black books I would like to read and another one with edition sizes all over the place. It is annoying and exhausting, not to mention totally demotivating when the quest to find the right edition is so difficult! This one has vampires and I am intrigued at how it turns out!

Book of Night by Holly Black

This is the latest book of the author announced for next year. It is a book meant for adult audiences and I can’t wait to see how it turns out! I am slowly building my own hype for this one! I like the premise of a underdog character on the run and deceitful types of magic. It should be urban fantasy mystery which is exactly the type of a thing I like!

First book haul of 2021

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Earlier in December and January I preordered and ordered some new books. The preorders were mostly the continuation of the book series I follow and the rest were on my wish list for a while now as well. I even indulged and got some new Kindle books I found recommendation on some of the Goodreads lists for Valentines Day! Due to Book Depository deliveries being exceptionally slow due to Brexit and Covid, and lets not forget the usual end of the year Christmas madness with packages, this led to a slow and anxiety filled waiting on the postman and my books each morning. All things considering these were the sweet pains to endure after all. Last of the books I bought was from a Facebook seller and since it was my first time buying used books in English this way I was a little apprehensive about that too. Lots of sweet pains later and I have a not so small a pile of books that spark joy!

Rafael (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book 28) by Laurell K. Hamilton

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This is one of the books I preordered before Christmas and the publishing date was 9. February this year! Usually I’m forced to wait for months before I get my copy of the new book when it comes out since I buy the US mass market paperback edition. In case of the book prior to this one – Sucker Punch, I’m still waiting for it to come out! So this book was a real treat. I was not that thrilled with the last book I read from the series and while I love the characters and I’m really interested in the world the author has build I did not have high expectations from this book. I already read it! I even made pauses for the book to lasts longer. I have many comments on it. so much so I might need to write the whole review for it soon just to get it all out of my system!

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This book series is starting to outgrow my shelving solution and I will need to figure a better way to store all the books. Maybe even separate the two boo series by LKH I own and keep together currently…

Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson book 12) by Patricia Briggs

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Second preordered book that was published and arrived on the same day as the previous one is another next book in the favorite urban fantasy series. I did not get to read this one right away – but it has only been about a week since I got it! There are more reasons why I love this book series and can’t wait for every next book.

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The cover art of these books I have already gushed about few years ago. This is another author that I have two book series from but unlike the LKH, Patricia Briggs is more consistent with both book series and I get at least one book from either of the series each year. When one book series gets a new hardcover edition book the other one has a mass market paperback edition I collect out as well. This makes the wait for the next book more exciting and somehow sweeter and easier to pass.

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell

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I have a soft spot for short story collections and lately I have been doing great with reading trough most of short story collections on my bookshelves. In the sea of many new editions and books the title of this one caught my eye! There are few other books that I was interested in but this one really got me with a beautiful cover and an all female authors team.

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This will fit nicely with other similar books on my shelves until I start reading it! I might even give it a go next month as a March contribution to female authors 🙂

Radiance (Wraith Kings book 1) by Grace Draven

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My Paperwhite Kindle does not give this cover justice! I found out about this book by randomly clicking on a Goodreads Valentine theme banner for romance book recommendation. I went trough the link and on the one of the lists I was browsing I stumbled on this book. I was cautious enough to try the sample first and it got me really interested in the story and characters. I devoured the book in a day and a half and had to get the next one as well!

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While I’m going a bit slower with the next book of the series I still love it and now that I’m invested in the fantastical setting and the future of the fantastical world the author created. I will be looking up for other books by this author as well as finding out how this trilogy(?) of books ends.

Wicked Abyss (Immortals After Dark book 17) by Kresley Cole

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This book has been on my too buy wish list the longest. It first came out almost four years ago now and it was a part of the book series I was collecting. In the meantime I read all the books in the series before it and since a few new books were were supposed to come out after it but they never did I just never got to getting this one before.

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This urban fantasy romance book series is the one with the most “beefcake” and shirtless guys covers I own. As some previously mentioned urban fantasy book series I won I have been posting about this one before. The stories are a bit cheesy but I find them wonderful for the underlying message that there is someone for everyone and no matter how sad, bitter or angry we are because of what happened to us, there will always be a chance for a happy ending,

Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

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This is the single book from this pile that I bought as a second hand book from one of the sellers in Croatia. I found it in one of the Facebook groups and this was the first time I was buying a book that way. I had the opportunity to buy this book before in paperback but I really wanted the hardcover edition and it has been on my wish list for a while now. The book turned out to be in excellent condition and I am glad I got it.

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I have been a big fan of Wonder Woman long before Gal Gadot took on the role and they revamped her whole character. My SO brought me Batman: Nightwalker ( DC Icons book 2) by Marie Lu in hardcover a few years ago from one of his trips. Since then I have been meaning to get the other as well. Getting them in hardcover proved to be a bit pricey and I just keep postponing it. I love the concept of popular YA writers writing the background for these well known characters. The fact that Leigh Bardugo wrote this made me want it even more!

The Lives of Saints (Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo

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In the last year Leigh Bardugo has become my favorite author. This book is a fictional book from the Shadow and Bone trilogy come to life with some extra content. It has been made to look like the prop they are going to use in the TV series and I think that is cool as well.

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I read everything else Leigh Bardugo has written and published so far and getting this book was a natural thing for me to do. I love her characters and her fictional world. The illustrations by Daniel J. Zollinger look great and I am looking forward to binging on this one while I wait for the TV series on Netflix in April!

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Just as I got the last book in the mail my SO decreed it was time to preorder another book as a gift for Valentines day! The book I choose as my present was another one of Leigh Bardugo Grishaverse books:

Rule of Wolves (King of Scars book 2) by Leigh Bardugo

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I am now properly hyped for the TV series and books and completely enchanted with Grishaverse world and characters!

Also while I was writing this post and looking for the images of books I remembered reading in one of the Facebook groups about one other book I was interested in some decade ago and is now on a special discount!

Dark Prince: Author’s Cut (The “Dark” Carpathian book 1)

by Christine Feehan

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This is an older urban fantasy romance book with vampires and a first book in a long and popular book series I wanted to try out for a very long time! The price and the Author’s Cut edition were enough for me to get it right away. I need to stop looking at new books for some time or at least until I make another bigger dent in the books already on my TBR and already on my bookshelves – virtual AND physical! Although I might give in to Wraith Kings book 3 after I finish the second book…

New Books – October 2020 Book Haul

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This year for our anniversary my boyfriend got me a pile of books I had on my wishlist on Book Depository! I got seven books I really wanted and they have been arriving in little packages for the whole month of October!

Besieged (The Iron Druid Chronicles) by Kevin Hearne

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This is a short story collection from the world of Iron Druid Chronicles. This is one of the urban fantasy book series I used to read with my boyfriend. This is actually a second time I got this book! First time I ordered it I forgot to pay attention to the publisher and size and I ordered the wrong edition… I got two book from the series in wrong edition… It bugged me so much I stopped reading the series altogether and even the sight of the books on the shelves annoyed me. I hope I corrected this now and will be back to this entertaining urban fantasy book series I used to love so much!

Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin

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This is the first book of a new book series! I got intrigued by reviews and it seemed like a story I would enjoy reading. Lately I have been buying more books in hardcover and I decided to get this on in hardcover right away as well. I was surprised by the format though. It is smaller than the usual hardcover format. The cover is quite eye catching and this is another book on my bookshelf that features a snake on the cover!

Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 4 ( Kitchen Princess #8-10 ) by Natsumi Andō, Miyuki Kobayashi

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This is a manga series I got into a years ago. Since it is an older manga series it has become almost impossible to find single volume editions! I decided to get omnibus editions since I loved it so much and wanted to have them. For a manga series this one is actually quite short and has only ten volumes. This fourth and last omnibus collects last three volumes and is the final one. I look forward to reading this manga and especially the recipes after each volume!

The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo Book 5) by Rick Riordan

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The Tower of Nero is the last book of the Percy Jackson universe and last in The Trials of Apollo series. I am slightly behind on my reading of the series but hope to catch up by the end of the year. I love the shiny and expressive covers and just seeing them on my shelves bring me joy. This last book only came out in October and was the last one to arrive!

Six of Crows Collector’s Edition by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom Collector’s Edition by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone Collector’s Edition by Leigh Bardugo

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Leigh Bardugo books are some of the most beautiful books I ever owned! Even the paperback editions I have are amazing and special. I love when the publishers decide to go that little extra way and include maps, different font, illustrations and bonus content! These editions have been on my wish list for a while now and I am so glad I finally got them. I thought I would be more upset for the lack of dust jacked and just naked hardcover editions but considering how pretty these are I don’t mind at all! The last one Shadow and Bone has come out in October and was supposed to be a promotion for the upcoming Netflix show. I can hardly wait for the show and will continue to get the rest of the trilogy books once they come out.

Birthday Books – July Book Haul 2020

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This year for my birthday I’ve gotten a lot more books than usual! I usually get a few but this time it was a lovely little pile of books I decided to share with you! I’ve gotten some great books as a surprise present form friends. I’ve gotten some books my book club friends knew I really wanted. I’ve gotten some books that I’ve chosen for present myself! I’ve gotten altogether six books for my birthday this year and I’m really pleased by them! I can’t wait to start reading some of them as soon as possible and I’m already making plans for next reading challenge to include some of them.

Here are the books I got for my birthday this year:

Fantastic Hope by Laurell K. Hamilton and William McCaskey

This is a short story collection edited by Laurell K. Hamilton and William McCaskey. This collection includes some of my favorite authors in the urban fantasy genre. I love short story collections and this one is an excellent addition. I picked out this one and it is one of the two books I’ve gotten as a present from my boyfriend.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Not so long ago I made a post about books that were on my wish list. You can check it out HERE. This book is on that list and I was glad I could pick it up this soon. Usually I’m way behind on books that are new and hyped right now. This is a second book I chose as a present from my boyfriend.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) by J.K. Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling

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It has been a decade since the first time I’ve read these book. I have only recently read first three books in the series but the fourth and the fifth one I’ve read way back before the movies came out. I even remember getting the books from the library. This is the first time I’m having my own editions and I am loving the House Hufflepuff colors of these books!

Mythos: mitovi (Stephen Fry’s Great Mythology #1) by Stephen Fry

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This book was a surprise! It is actually a very expensive and richly designed Croatian edition of the book. It’s even limited edition of 500 books printed and numbered. I have few other books from this publisher that makes these exclusive editions and I keep track to have the same number on the each of them. I was interested in this one but thought it to be to expensive to buy myself. This way I was kinda shocked to get it as a present!

I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider

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This wonderful and riveting book was a present from a friend. It is the perfect gift for a bibliophile! It’s funny and endearing in the way it uses pictures and comic caricatures to express those bookish pet pewees. This book was a total surprise and I think it will be one of those books I will be coming back often.

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What do you think about my little pile of birthday books? Which one would you read first? I am barely holding myself from reading some of them already because I want to include them in N.E.W.T.s Harry Potter Themed Readathon in August! Will be posting my reading list soon!

June reading challenge 2 – Olympic Games

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Second reading challenge I decided to participate in this June is The Olympic Games hosted by Ishi Time. You can check out her channel and the challenge announcement HERE. This reading challenge lasts for the whole month of June. What pulled me in to add this challenge as soon as I discovered it was that it is thematically tied to the world of Percy Jackson and I looove those books!

Here is the Camp Half Blood Letter for more details!

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For my patron God I picked out Hades. I like my books a bit on the darker side and Hades fits nicely with the books I can choose from my bookshelves. To honor my patron deity I have a list of five prompts I need to read books for. Again I will concentrate only on my own reading journey and not explain other prompts and deities prompts. I love that the order I complete the books is up to me and that there are some advanced challenges after I finish the five mandatory ones! Here is what my patron Hades is all about!

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Hades prompt 1. – book featuring the undead

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #2) by Laurell K. Hamilton

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I’m stealing this book from the Make Your Myth-Taker challenge and it fits perfectly here as well!

Hades prompt 2. – reread a book

Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #3) by Laurell K. Hamilton

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I decided to reread this series long ago and this might be a good time to add another book of the series. also I kinda like how the theme fits to Hades a s well.

Hades prompt 3. – book with a dark cover

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling

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I made a plan to make as many crossovers with the Make Your Myth-Taker reading challenge that I’m not even ashamed how well I am pulling it all off! I plan on fitting the other Harry Potter book with another prompt as well!

Hades prompt 4. – random TBR book

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1 by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover, Alice Henderson

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My random book of the month just happened to be a part of three different challenges this month! Since this book is actually collection of three different books by three different authors and also almost 700 pages long I will not even try to hide how well I am pairing these books to my reading challenges in June!

Hades prompt 5. – Any Hermes prompt – snake on the cover

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I choose snake on the cover prompt since it gave me the most room to plan my reading this month – I was surprised when I realized this as well! There were three books I will be reading this month that have snakes on the cover! I choose this snake:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

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My patron Hades has two available challenges: Sword and Shield and Monster Fighting. The rule of the challenge that these are not mandatory and can be only read after the five mandatory prompts have been done already. Here are all the prompts for the advanced challenges:

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Advanced Challenge 1. – Sword and Shield

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3) by Holly Black

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The prompt is to read a book with characters whom I would not get along with. This prompt is a bit tricky unless you have already read the book in question so I picked out another reread. There are so many characters in this book I would not get along with. When I first read this book I was very invested in the story and on the edge constantly. There are so many conflicts between the characters and those provoked many contradictory emotions in me. It was an emotional roller coaster all the way and it did not help that it was the last book in the series I loved reading!

Advanced Challenge 2. – Monster fighting

Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2) by Rainbow Rowell

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This is a book I really wanted to include in this months reading so I picked it up for and advanced challenge here. I consider both Simon and Baz magical creatures for obvious reason – one has wings and a tail and the other is a vampire – also there is Penelope who is in a class of her own of how much magic she can wield.

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My reading pile for June got a bit bigger now. But I am still looking forward to some great reading this month and hope to rise to the challenge! Both challenges actually!

Wishlist books!

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While I have been reading a bit more in the last few months my bookish wishlist has been strangely overlooked. While some of the reason for this reflects on the general state of the world we live in right now I kinda feel sad for reigning in my impulse for wanting new books. I used to enjoy exploring new books and authors on various book related Internet sources. It brought a smile to my face to find a new book I might like or a beautiful edition of the book I already love. Depending on the financial situation I find myself in I buy books when I can but adding books to the list of possible books I might consider reading and buying was something I used to do very often. Sadly I must admit that the last time I added books to my wishlist on Book Depository was when they had a promotional giveaway that required people to make add books to their wishlist to enter…

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To brighten my day and think about some really cool books I want to own and read I decided to share some of those books with you. Some of these books I’ve already read, some I already own and some I just want because they look pretty! Feel free to judge me!

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

I want this book in hardcover. My boyfriend bought me Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu in hardcover on one of his travels and when I saw that there were other books about DC Universe characters written buy YA authors I went exploring and found this one. At first I was interested because of the Wonder Woman but then this year I became a fan of Leigh Bardugo and now I own most of her books! I must mention that I was browsing a bookstore last year and found this book in paperback but did not want to buy it since it would annoy me to put it on the shelf beside the hardcover Batman I already own.

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Six of Crows: Collector’s Edition & Crooked Kingdom Collector’s Edition

While on the subject of Leigh Bardugo books I had to include Collector’s editions of both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. I already own both of these in paperback and I already read them. I already made a post about some beautiful hardcover editions of books written by Leigh Bardugo I own and love – you can check out that post HERE. These two books look wonderful and I plan on reading them more than once! I kinda hope that with the Netflix TV show in the works I might upgrade the Shadow and Bone trilogy to hardcover as well!

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Hufflepuff Edition

I was always planning on owning the whole Harry Potter book series. When the 20th anniversary Hogwarts House editions started coming out it was a perfect solution. I got the first three in hardcover and only recently started reading them. The fourth book came out last year and since they come out once a year I expect the fifth one to come out in summer this year. I love how they are designed and reading the first book felt magical.

Half a War (Shattered Sea #3) by Joe Abercrombie

I have been looking for the hardcover edition of this book in this edition for a while now. I have the first two books and refuse to start reading them until I have the whole trilogy. The more time it passes the less are the chances I will find this edition…

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The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Here is one book I am not hell bent on getting in hardcover edition. At first glance it seemed very silly and funny. I like books about vampires and this one had my attention as soon as I read that it is about a bunch of women who have a book club.

O.W.L.s Magical Readathon – April 2020

This April I have decided to join YouTube Book Roast’s O.W.L.s Magical Readathon for the first time You can check this year’s announcement for more information HERE.

It is a reading challenge she is organizing a third year in a row. I’ve been looking at it before but for someone who is not that much into Harry Potter YouTube fandom I had some trouble understanding how it works. In order to get a better understanding of how it all works and how I’m going to participate I will try to explain how I decided to choose books for the challenge.

First a little bit on this reading challenge as I understand it. There are two Harry Potter thematic reading challenges that are put up a year. First is the O.W.L.s Magical Readathon based on the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations from the Harry Potter books. They represent a sort of an entry challenge. There are twelve reading prompts based on the subjects at the Hogwarts school. These prompts are different each year and this year they are loosely based on the third book of the Harry Potter series.

The reader chooses the prompts from the list and finds a book that fits the the challenge prompt. Later on in August the subjects that were chosen for the O.W.L.s Magical Readathon will be eligible for the N.E.W.T.s Magical Readathon and the choosing of a magical career accordingly.

The O.W.L.s Magical Readathon lasts trough whole month of April. As I am new to this and since I am kinda drifting in my reading endeavors AND life in general – I decided to go with all the available prompts in a rather optimistic and arrogant push to read twelve books in April.

I’ve chosen my books and picked some of them from the from the already existing reading lists I made as much as I could since the twelve books is a lot for me now and I want to keep up with my other reading challenges as much as possible.

Here are my choices:

Ancient Runes – heart on the cover/or in title

Kitchen Princess Omnibus, Vol. 3 (Kitchen Princess, #5-7) by Natsumi Ando

Arithmancy – something outside my favorite genres (not romance or fantasy)

The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang

Astronomy – read the majority of the book at night

Bite Me (Bitten, #1) by C.C. Wood

Care of Magical Creatures – creature with a beak on the cover

The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo, #2) by Rick Riordan

Charms – white cover

Ender’s Game (Ender’s Saga #1) by Orson Scott Card

Defence Against the Dark Arts – book  set at sea / coast

Children of the Spider by Imam Baksh

Divination – random TBR pick

Balzac i kineska mala krojačica by Dai Sijie ( Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise)

Herbology – title starts with the letter M

Maneuver (Men of Inked: Southside Book 1) by Chelle Bliss

History of Magic – book featuring witches / wizards

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling

Muggle Studies – contemporary

Fork In The Road by J. Coyne

Potions – book under 150 pages

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Transfiguration – book with shapeshifters

Storm Cursed (Mercy Thompson, #11) by Patricia Briggs

Due to explicit nature of some of the books I will probably not enter my choices to the Hogwarts library form that readers use to count their books and participate in the community challenge. For now I’m opting to keep this challenge for myself alone in that regard. As for the N.E.W.T.s Magical Readathon I will have to see how I will do with this challenge.

Wish me luck?