BookCon/ May Book Haul

So, I usually just put the books I aquired during each month in my wrap up post, but this time, I thought it best to do just a BookCon NY trip haul post because I got a bunch of books and wanted to do a special post for them.

I will have another post up soon about my BookCon experience and a sort of survival guide to those who wish to do it next year, but pretty much, I had an awesome time. I met up with my friend and fellow blogger, Mara from The Reading Hedgehog and we had fun exploring New York together and experiencing BookCon. She will also be writing a BookCon post soon, that I will link to this one when she gets it up. We also got to meet another fellow blogger, Kel from Booked Til Tuesday who gave us BookCon tips and brought us lunch (Thanks again!) But more about that in my other post, this one is about my loot. While in NY Mara and I had to visit The Strand which was just as amazing as promised.  Three stories of tight rows of shelves is pretty much a booklover's dream. I didn't buy as many books there as I could have, but it was awesome.

Here's some pictures of everything. I hauled 22 books in May between books that I bought at BookCon and The Strand and books that I got free at BookCon and ones people gave me. Some of these were ones that I brought to get signed so not all of them I bought this month but I'll list everything below.

These are all the books I got signed

Getting books signed at BookCon was harder than expected (more about that in my next post). I actually missed Maggie Stiefvater's autographing session but I met up with her by chance afterward and she was kind enough to signed them all for me (Thanks again Maggie!) But apart from that I really enjoyed getting to meet Courtney Alameda (Shutter) and Michael Buckley (Undertow) They were both awesome and I really look forward to reading Michael's new book. I was sad that I didn't get the opportunity to get my copy of The Maze Runner signed by James Dashner, but I did get to see him in panel and he too is a very awesome fellow.

Other books that I bought

Free Books!

And of course all the swag I picked up. I got lots of buttons too, but those are already on my bag.

And without further ado, here is all the books I hauled this month:

Books given to me or that I got for free:

#1: Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (This was given to me by Mara)

#2: Beastly Bones (Jackaby #2) by William Ritter (Also given to me by Mara--thank you!!!!)

#3: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 

#4: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys (Both of these were also given to me by Mara)

#5: Undertow by Michael Buckley (Free with the signing at BookCon)

#6: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare (BookCon giveaway)

#7: Feral Nights (The Feral Series #1) by Cynthia Leitich Smith (BookCon giveaway)

#8: Reawakened by Coleen Houck (BookCon ARC giveaway)

#9: The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick (BookCon Giveaway)

#10: Demon Dentist by David Walliams (BookCon ARC giveaway)

Books I bought:

#11: The Crown of Embers (Fire and Thorns #2) by Rae Carson

#12: The Bitter Kingdom (Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson

#13: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige 

#14: The Finisher (Vega Jane #1) by David Baldacci

#15: Illusionarium by Heather Dixon

#16: This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

#17: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

#18: Shutter by Courtney Alameda

#19: Nether Isle by Nicoline Evans 

#20: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson 

#21: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

#22: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

So that's my haul! Definitely can't wait to read all the new books I got. Now I just have to find shelf space for them!

I'll be back later with my BookCon experience post. 

Slainte, Hazel

May Wrap Up 2015

First off, I'm very sorry I didn't get any reviews up this month. I was so busy writing and all the blogging I did was for my other blog Tales From a Modern Bard (If you haven't checked out the recent challenge stories that I posted, do so! We had some awesome stories this time around and some new writers!) On the plus side, I did finish the first draft of the second book in the Modern Tales of Na Fianna series, An Earthly King. I'll be looking for beta readers to the first one Blood Ties at the end of June but I'll talk more about that later.

Of course, I also have been getting ready for BookCon! By the time this post is put up, I'll either be there or be home from there, and will be making a seperate post all about it and my BookCon Haul which I know will be massive.

So, I'll just post a quick list of my reads for the month as usual. Only read 5 because of everything else, but I did read a lot of good ones, so I can't complain.

#1: The Luck Uglies (The Luck Uglies #1) by Paul Durham (3/5 stars)
#2: Blue Bloods (Blue Blood #1) by Melissa de la Cruz (2/5 stars)
#3: Tunnel Vision by Susan Adrian (4/5 stars)
#4: The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson (4/5 stars)
#5: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (4/5 stars)



Favorite Reads of the Month

Red Queen
Tunnel Vision


I will be back soon with the BookCon post! So excited to share my experience with you!

April Wrap Up 2015

Back with another wrap up already! April seemed to go by really fast, but thankfully I got so much more work done this month than I did last month and finally got back into writing my second Na Fianna novel as well, which I'm aiming to finish by the end of May before summer starts.

This month I read 9 books, which was way more than I was hoping to, so that made me happy :) (also, I'm hoping to start posting more pictures on my blog, since now I have a better phone camera that makes it sooo much easier to upload pics.)

#1: Downfall (Cal Leandros #9) by Rob Thurman (4/5 stars)

#2: Fairest (Lunar Chronicles #.05) by Marissa Meyer (4/5 stars)

#3: The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (4/5 stars)

#4: K-9 (Knightly and Son #2) by Rohan Gavin (3/5 stars)

#5: Shutter by Courtney Alameda (4/5 stars)

#6: Hounded (Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne (3.5/5 stars)

#7: Call of the Wild by Jack London (3/5 stars) This was my classic book club read of the month.

#8: Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer (3/5 stars)

#9: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Reese Brennan (3.5/5 stars)

Favorite Reads of the Month

Downfall

The Replacement

Shutter

I'll have the reviews for these up sometime later this month so keep an eye out!

I was good with my book buying this month, (because next month at BookCon is going to be ridiculous) even though everything were splurge buys, I only bought four. I found another used bookshop where I got two, and then I made a trip to B&N because I bought my brother a giftcard for his bday (tactical) 

#1: Summer Knight (Dresden Files #4) by Jim Butcher

#2: The Navigator by Eoin McNamee

#3: The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Girl of Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson

#4: Penny Dreadfuls This is a B&N anthology of classic horror stories. It has an awesome selection in it!

Also for those of you not following my Twitter, I finally got my baby hedgehog this month! His name is Horatio.

So next month I will be going to BookCon in NY so there will be a special book haul wrap up for that. I really look forward to sharing my experience with you all. If anyone else is going to BookCon, please let me know! 

March 2015 Wrap Up

Hey everyone! This came a day late because I wasn't ready for it to be April today haha :P Anyway, here's my March wrap up. This was a super busy and stressful month for me, so I didn't get a whole lot of reading done, and nor have I even finished half of my reviews either. I've been working on other projects and beta-reading for people so I did as much as I could.

I finished six books in March and started a seventh but I did enjoy all the ones I read.

1. A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab (5/5 stars)
2. Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Neilson (4/5 stars)
3. The Shadow Cabinet (Shades of London #3) by Maureen Johnson (4/5 stars)
4. Prowlers (Prowlers #1) by Christopher Golden (3.5/5 stars)
5. Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker (4/5 stars)
6. The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver (3/5 stars)

Favorite Reads of the Month

A Darker Shade of Magic
Beware the Wild


I did buy a few books this month because I made one trip to B&N and stumbled upon another used book store. Only acquired six books though so I was good, and one was actually given to me and another my mom bought me because she wanted to read it.

1. Dead Wake by Erik Larson 
2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (the beautiful B&N hardback addition)
3. Fairest (Lunar Chronicles #1.5) by Marissa Meyer
4. Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
5. Pagan's Crusade (Pagan #1) by Catherine Jinks
6. Stargazer (Land of Elyon #4) by Patrick Carmen

What was everyone else's favorite reads/releases this month? Mine was definitely A Darker Shade of Magic it's the best book I've read this year so far. I'll have the review up before too long, or you can read it on Goodreads. I hope everyone has a good April!

Slainte, Hazel

February 2015 Wrap Up

Another month gone already! I don't know about you guys, but it seemed like February went super fast until the last week, then it dragged. But I've got a head cold too, so that might be why. Oh well. Well, I only read seven books this month, and not all the ones on my list, because I got so tired after my first three that I ended up adding a couple short westerns in between for fun. But four of these books was over 400 pages, a couple quite a bit, so I'm not beating myself up. It was a short month too. Next month, I have a big TBR that I hope I can get through.

I didn't get all my reviews written for this month, so I will be posting them throughout March instead. And no, it actually wasn't me being lazy, I was actually working on my formatting business and trying to do preliminary planning for my trip to NYC in May (BookCon people!) On that note, I got my train ticket! woot! So without further ado, the books I read this month:

1. Scorpion Mountain (Brotherband Chronicles #5) by John Flanagan (3/5 stars)
2. Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer (4/5 stars)
3. Ruin and Rising (Grisha Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo (4.5/5 stars)
4. Kiowa Trail by Louis L'Amour (3/5)
5. The Man From Skibbereen by Louis L'Amour (3/5)
6. A Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters (4/5 stars)
7. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (my Classics for Classic Ladies book club read of the month) (5/5 stars)

Favorite Reads of the Month

Cress
Ruin and Rising
Wives and Daughters


And now onto the books I bought this month. Really not many, only three. I didn't go to a book store, because I'm still abstaining in preparation for BookCon so I'm really only buying new releases I really want at the moment.

1. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
2. Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Neilson
3. The Shadow Cabinet (Shades of London #3) By Maureen Johnson

Let me know what your favorite reads on the month were. March is going to be so bloody busy, lots of new books to read, stories to finish writing finally, lots of editing to do, hopefully more work, family coming for a week, and hopefully getting my hedgehog! I hope everyone has a great March. I will be seeing you at least my St. Patrick's Day if not before and I'm planning a spring Giveaway so keep an eye out for that during the second part of the month!

Slainte, Hazel

January 2015 Wrap Up

Following my new blogging regimen this year, I will be posting a wrap up of all the books I read every month and all the books I bought and list my favorite reads instead of just posting the reviews of my favs (since I am now posting all the reviews I write.)

I managed to read nine books this month which was more than I planned to, so that was a good start to the year in my opinion, and I'm still on track with my Goodreads reading challenge for the year! So without further ado here is my January wrap up:

#1. Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (4/5 stars)
#2. The Jedi Doth Return (William Shakespeare's Star Wars #3) by Ian Doescher (5/5 stars)
#3. Siege and Storm (Grisha Trilogy #2) by Leigh Bardugo (4/5 satrs)
#4. The Wild (Secret Journeys of Jack London #1) by William Golden & Tim Lebbon (5/5 stars--This was my month's reread)
#5. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (4/5 stars)
#6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (5/5 stars-- my Classics for Classic Ladies book club read of the month)
#7. Gathering Darkness (Falling Kingdoms #3) by Morgan Rhodes (3/5 stars)
#8. Slashback (Cal Leandros #8) by Rob Thurman (4/5 stars)
#9. The Pennyroyal Academy by M. A. Larson (4/5 stars)

Favorite Reads of the Month:

Midnight Thief
Slashback
The Pennyroyal Academy


Now for the books I bought this month. I wasn't planning on buying many at all, but my friend and I decided to go visit my favorite used bookstore, so...that happened. I ended up coming back with 13 books plus the two I got earlier this month, so it could have been worse, I suppose. But I got a good haul, several books I have been wanting to read for a while, a couple to bring to BookCon to get signed, and yeah, some westerns, I have been in the mood for them lately.

#1. Hounded (Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne
#2. Ruin and Rising (Grisha Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo
#3. Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1) by Jim Butcher
#4. The Thundering Herd by Zane Grey
#5. The Drift Fence by Zane Grey
#6. Raiders of Spanish Peaks by Zane Grey
#7. Desert Gold by Zane Grey
#8. Silverfin (Young Bond #1) by Charlie Higson
#9. Prowlers by Christopher Golden
#10. When the Eagle Hunts (Macro and Cato #3) by Simon Scarrow
#11. Captain Alatriste (Alatriste #1) by Arturo Perez-Reverte
#12. Purity of Blood (Alatriste #2) by Aruto Perez-Reverte
#13. The Sun Over Breda (Alatriste #3) by Aruto Perez-Reverte
#14. Pirates of the Levant (Alatriste #6) by Aruto Perez-Reverte
#15. The Sea Wolf by Jack London


What did you all get to read this month? Let me know if you had a good start to your reading in 2015 and if you have any must reads for me this year!

Until next time,
Slainte, Hazel