Stacking the Shelves/Letterbox Love

StS is hosted by Tynga's reviews, and Letterbox Love was started by Lynsey at Narratively Speaking. 

I said in my last StS/LL post that there is a great library here. I picked up a few more this week.

A Murder of Crows, by Anne Bishop. #2 in the Others series. I read book one at the start of the summer and loved it, and book 2 is just as good. I'm racing through this one at the moment and will probably post a review soon. Meg and her friends are trying to figure out why Crows are being attacked.








Lola & the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins. I loved Anna & the French Kiss, and I've been
looking forward to reading this one. I know it'll be a quick read, so I was happy to find it in a library. May or may not review, we'll see.

Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo. #1 in the Grisha trilogy. This was one of the books I mentioned in the top ten Tuesday about series' I want to start. Looking forward to starting it later this week.









Indexing, by Seanan McGuire. I'm pretty sure this is a standalone story. I love everything by Ms. McGuire that I've read so far, and I like the sound of this one - fairy tale stories can affect the lives of some people, and there's a Bureau trying to help them.







I also borrowed the audiobook of Nalini Singh's 'Kiss of Snow' - it's one of my favourite books in the Psy/Changeling series, and I think the narrator is really good.

So what did you get this week? Have you read any of these books?

Stacking the Shelves/Letterbox Love

 

Hello!

Letterbox Love (from Narratively Speaking) and Stacking the Shelves (from Tynga's Reviews) are memes to share the books you've received this week.

Busy times here, as per usual. I'm in Texas for a few weeks visiting a friend, and the library here is brilliant, they have so many books I want to read! Here are the three I got to start me off. (Links go to Goodreads.)

The Undead Pool, by Kim Harrison. The penultimate book in the hollows series. I've been looking forward to reading this for a while, can't wait to see how it goes, and of course I'm looking forward to seeing how things go between Rachel & Trent in this book. Reading it at the moment, review coming soon.

















Black Arts, by Faith Hunter. (#7 in the Jane Yellowrock series.) Evan Trueblood comes to New Orleans looking for his wife. I started reading this on the bus yesterday, and I'm excited to see how it goes. Getting to see more of the Trueblood family? Yes, please, I love seeing Jane with her 'pack' and it looks like this book might see the mending of some bridges between them.

Fortune's Pawn, by Rachel Bach. 1st in the series. I first heard of this book when I think Ilona Andrews reviewed it on her blog, and I've noticed it in a couple of places since then. Something a little different for me, but I think it'll be interesting.















What books did you get this week? Leave your links in the comments and I'll check them out, and let me know if you've read any of these three!
-Ailsa

Letterbox Love: the LonCon edition

I was at LonCon a couple of weeks ago, and of course picked up a few books :) All links go to Goodreads.



The Heroes, by Joe Abercrombie - I still haven't read any of Joe Abercrombie's books, but I've seen him do a few pannels and he's really funny, and I've heard great things about the books, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

Memory of Water, by Emmi Itaranta -   I'd seen this on a couple of blogs, and the author was signing coppies. It looked interesting, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Songs of the Earth, by Elspeth Cooper - This one I'd never heard of before,  but it sounds really interesting, I'm looking forward to starting it. It's another fantasy, so right up my street :)

The City of Silk and Steel, by Mike, Linda and Louise Carey - I actually heard Mike Carey talk last year about co-writing this book with his wife and daughter. Knowing I like his work and curious about how the writing together process worked out, I decided to pick this one up too.


I also bought a few books, but amazingly managed to limit myself to three!

The King's Bastard, by Rowena Corey Daniels - I had wanted to read this one for a while, but it was a bit disappointing. Review here.

The Winter Long, by Seanan McGuire - the next in the October Daye series. Observant people will notice this wasn't actually released at the time of the con, but Forbidden Planet had a couple of copies in the dealer's room, so I snagged one. Fans of the series - you are going to love this one, it might be my new favourite in the series.

Deadly Curiosities, by Gail Z Martin - again, seen this in the shops a few times and been interested. They were on sale so that was all the push I needed! I expect this will be one of the next ones I pick up when I get home from my current travels.

I'd love to know if you've read any of these books, and the books you've bought recently!

-Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves

 

Hello everyone!
It's a very gloomy Sunday here in Edinburgh, but luckily I have books to cheer me up in my study breaks.

Here's what I got recently:

Before Jamaica Lane, by Samantha Young - book 3 in her 'Dublin Street' series. These are set in Edinburgh, and over all I liked this book. Review coming soon.

Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell. Reading & loving this just now, will definitely be reviewing it very soon.

Hounded, by Kevin Hearn - Book one of the 'Iron Druid Chronicles'. Lots of friends have talked about this series, so I thought I'd check it out.

I also saw that 'The King', the latest Black Dagger Brotherhood book from J. R. Ward was reduced to about £2.50 on amazon at the moment, so I've downloaded that to read sometime. I've read the first chapter and wasn't getting in to it, but I know I'll want to read it sometime.

How about you? What did you get this week?

-Ailsa

Letterbox Love: belated birthday edition

This is a catch-up Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves post for the last few weeks, because I've been so busy lately!

 

All links go to Goodreads.
First up, there's the great 'Beyond Jealousy', book 4 in the 'Beyond' series by Kit Rocha. I loved this, and posted my review on Thursday. (Click through to see a contest!)
   

Next, there's 'The Lady Always Wins' by Courtney Milan, a short historical romance story which was free on Kindle for a while. I'll be posting my review for that one this week.

Then there were my birthday books:

'Prince of Thorns' by Mark Lawrence. First in a fantasy series that has been on my wishlist for a few months. I'm planning on taking this on holiday with my in April.

'Half-Off Ragnarok' by Seanan McGuire. 3rd in her InCryptid series. I'm not sure if I'll review this one yet, as I really don't have praises I haven't already said. I love every one of Ms McGuirre's books I've read, and this was no exception.

'Curtsies & Conspiracies' by Gail Carriger. Book 2 in the 'Finishing School' series. I'll probably review this one when I read it, sometime next week after my dissertation is handed in.

'Lunch in Paris' by  Elizabeth Bard. Another that's been on my wishlist for a while. It's been a while since I read any travel stories, so I'm looking forward to this.

Last but by no means least, I was one of the 'Gollancz Geeks' picked out the hat to review this.

'The Boy With The Porcelain Blade' by Den Patrick. I'm reading this at the moment & enjoying it. I think 'gritty fantasy' might be an apt description.

What did you get recently?

-Ailsa

Letterbox Love: another UK author

 

As always, welcome to Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves, memes hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Lynsey at Narratively Speaking.

I hadn't planned on buying any books, as I still have a massive pile to read through that I picked up in November at WFC '13, but this book has been on my radar for a while and I noticed that the Kindle edition was really cheap this week - only 79p!

Brighton Belle, by Sara Sheridan.

As you can guess, this is set in the UK, and the author is actually from Edinburgh, where I live! I've read the first couple of chapter, and I'm enjoying it so far. I expect I'll finish it by the end of February or early March. If you're interested, it's still reduced on amazon UK.

What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking The Shelve

 

Phew, another week gone already? I've had my boyfriend staying with me for the past several weeks, which has been lovely, but he's now off home again. The upside is that now I'll have reading time again! So reviews will be back very soon. Specifically, I'll be putting up my thoughts on the 'Marked' anthology, which I talked about in the last LL/StS post, either tomorrow or Monday as it releases very soon!

On to the books!

I had an amazon voucher, so yesterday I bought this:

Belle de Neige: Tales of catastrophe, sex & squalor from the alpine underbelly

As someone who worked a ski season in the alps a few years ago, I've known about Belle's blog for a while and enjoyed reading it, so when I saw she'd turned a lot of the blog into a book, I wanted to see what it said. Review to come soon. 

I'm also full of the cold just now, so decided I should get a new audiobook for when I just can't cope with looking at a screen/page any more. I picked out this: 

The Painted Man, by Peter V. Brett

I've seen Peter V. Brett's books all over the place in shops for a while now, so thought I'd give it a try. 

What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves

 

Time for another Letterbox Love post! As always, LL is hosted by Lynsey at Narratively Speaking, and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

I only got one book this week, but it's a goodie.

Marked - an anthology with a story from Lauren Dane, Vivian Arend, and Kit Rocha.

I was so excited to get the e-arc for this. It comes out in February, and I've started reading it already, so I'll probably have my review up very soon. I've read Kit Rocha's story already, another trip to the Sectors to carry on their 'Beyond' series, and I'm currently reading Vivian Arend's contribution. I've heard good things about her novels, but this is the first I've read from her, and I think I'll have to check out the rest sometime.

What books did you get this week? 

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves

 

I'm a little late with this, but I was down in Newcastle this weekend, catching up with some family I hadn't seen in a long time.
Most of these books were bought for one of my classes this term, but some of them were on '3 for 2' at Blackwell's, so I got one fun book, too :)

Sorry it's a bit fuzzy.
I have the first two books in the Cassie Clare series, and there wasn't really anything on the 3 for 2 offer that caught my eye apart from that.

How about you? What books did you get hold of this week?

Letterbox Love: The WFC Haul part 2

 

I missed doing last weeks, so here are the rest of the books I picked up at World Fantasy Con in Brighton at the start of the month. I've been a little busy with uni work (it's essays time of the semester) but I'm planning to put up my write-ups of it this coming week. I'll also have more reading time now, so reviews will be back! *g*

On to the books!

'Farlander' by Col Buchanan - Fantasy, sounds like it could be interesting

'Black Feathers' by Joseph D'Lacey - Don't know much about this, but I've heard good things about Joseph D'Lacey and the cover is just gorgeous.

'The Emperor's Knife' by Mazarkis Williams - Fantasy, again don't know much about it.

'The Knights of Breton Court' by Maurice Broaddus - A new version of the King Arthur myth - I'm not particularly interested in Arthur stories, but this one looked different so I thought I'd give it a go - it's fairly far down the tbr pile at the moment though.

'The Fifth Wave' by Rick Yancy - this one sounds a bit mid-apocalyptic, and I've heard a little bit about it. I'm actually quite keen to read this one soon. 

At the top of this one is the lovely commemorative program they gave to everyone, which features lots of nice pictures and some cool short stories. 

'The Queen of the Tearling' by Erika Johansen - This is a proof copy, so the cover isn't final, about a 19 year old girl about to inherit a kingdom that's a bit of a mess, by the sound of it. I think this sounds really cool, and I'm hoping to read it soon. It doesn't come out till summer, so I won't be posting a review for a while though. 

'The Martian' by Andy Weir - Don't know much about this at all, so it's fairly low in the pile again, but it could be interesting, I'll give it a go sometime.

'The Forbidden Library' by Django Wrexler - This one sounds really cool, it has an introduction letter from the author tucked inside that says it's built on the question of what if you couldn't trust the mentor figure there often is in fantasy books? I hope to read it soon, but again, it's a proof copy, not releasing until April, so it'll be a while till I actually post the review.

How about you? Leave me the links to what you got this week and I'll come check them out! 

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/StS: The WFC haul, part 1

  

Last weekend I went to the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, and one of the many awesome things that happened was they gave away a whole lot of free books. Since I came home with so many, and I don't anticipate buying any more for a little while, I'm going to split the haul over two Letterbox Love posts. 

First of all, here are the three books I did actually buy: 

'Darkness Splintered' by Keri Arthur (Dark Angel #6)  - I've loved Keri Arthur's work for a long time now, and I was very excited to find this for sale (a little early) at the weekend, so I could get her to sign it! :) I've already started reading, and it's going well so far. Review or 'Thoughts on Books' post to come soon. 

'A Conspiracy of Alchemists' by Liesel Schwarz - I had an e-arc of this back in the spring, and was really enjoying it, but unfortunately it expired before I could get to the end. I'm looking forward to reading the end of the story now.

'The Prince of Lies' by Anne Lyle (Night's Masque #3) - I'm currently half way through the audio of book 2, and was looking forward to meeting Anne Lyle at the con, but didn't have the book for her to sign, so when they had book 3 (again, a little early), I picked it up. I'll get to this one soon.

'The Garden of Stones', by Mark T Barnes - I wasn't sure about this one, but I really enjoyed hearing the author speaking on a panel, so I decided to give it a go.

'The Emperor's Blades' by Brian Stavely - This sounds like a great new fantasy series, and I"m excited to read it.

'The Path of Anger' by Antoine Rouaud - Another fantasy which I'm very excited to read, and on the spine it says 'The Debut of the Year' which I thought was fun :)

'Unspoken' by Sarah Rees Brenan - I've heard a lot about this from people who've already read it, and I think I'll have to keep the tissues close to hand, so I might wait until I have the rest of the series to cope with it.

'Banished' by Liz De Jager - This is the one I was most excited to see on the 'goodies' table - the cover was just revealed the other week, and it looks great! Liz was the author of the first book blog I ever read, and I'm looking forward to reading this story a lot. 

There's the first part! So many books that I'm really excited to read. 

Thank you to publishers, 47 North, Simon & Schuster, Gollancz and Tor for your generosity offering the copies.

What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves

 

I don't know about you, but for me this week has flown by! I was looking forward to doing my review of Elizabeth May's 'The Falconer' which I finished reading last week, but Wednesday, my normal coursework-and-life-catchup day became a work-I-get-paid-for day, so I was playing catchup the rest of the week. Although the money will be nice - more books! :-) So no reviews this week, but that means you can look forward to seeing a review tomorrow, and probably one for Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger in the middle of the week.

On to the books!


First up is actually one I got for a class.

Praetorian, by Simon Scarrow. I'm an Ancient History student, and I've been interested in reading this series set in the ancient Roman Empire for a while. Unfortunately this is jumping in to the middle of the series, but this is the book I need for my essay, so c'est la vie, I'll catch up on the others another time.

Next, 3 books I've been looking forward to for a while.

The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch - I've been waiting for this book for years. #3 in the Gentleman Bastard series, I read its predecessors as soon as they came out, when I was maybe 14/15. I'm now 22, so it's been a long wait, but this one came out on Thursday, so at long last I can find out what happens next for these conmen. I'm rereading book 1 at the moment, so hopefully I'll get to that one very soon.

Blood Trade, by Faith Hunter - another series I love, this is book 6 in the Jane Yellowrock series. I read the last one while I was in Carolina last year & didn't want to buy the next and be unable to bring it home with me. I can't wait to see what's next for Jane.

Firelight, by Kristen Callihan. I haven't read anything by this author before, but I've heard good things about the series from the start, and I'm looking forward to finally reading it. 

What books did you get this week? Have you read any of these four? Share your links in the comments :)

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking The Shelves

 

It's that time of the week again! I managed to get a couple of days ahead on my college work this week, so hopefully I can take a little time to read over the weekend. I have one book to show this week:



Etiquette & Espionage, by Gail Carriger.

Descripton: It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school. 
14 year old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners-and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. 
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's young ladies learn to finish... everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage - in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.


I've been wanting to try this for a while, but decided to wait for the paperback. This was another surprise gift from my boyfriend, and I ended up staying up late last night reading the first few chapters. I love it so far, so I'll probably be posting a review sometime next week.

What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/Stacking The Shelves

 

Good morning! It's bright and sunny here in Edinburgh today, so maybe I'll get to do a little reading outside later on.

I have one book this week, but I'm very excited about it.

The Falconer, by Elizabeth May.
Isn't this a cool cover?

Description: Lady Aileana Kameron was destined for a life which revolved around Edinburgh's social events - until the moment a faery killed her mother. 

Now, between high society balls, Aileana slaughters faeries in secret. Every night, armed with modified percussion pistols, explosives and a killer instinct, she sheds her aristocratic facade and goes hunting.

She's looking for revenge, but she'll kill any fae that crosses her path.

But there's another battle looming - one her mysterious mentor, Kiaran MacKay, won't even talk about and it has world-altering consequences. 

Aileana will have to decide how much she's willing to lose - and just how far she'll go to avenge her mother. 

I started paying attention to this book when I heard the author was Scottish and that it's set in Edinburgh - it's always nice to see 'home grown' authors, and I love stories in settings I'm familiar with. When they started releasing teasers (you can read chapter one online here), it seemed like the book might live up to the hype. I can't wait to dive in!

If you missed it, the other day on the blog I reviewed 'God Save The Queen' by Kate Locke. Look out for my post tomorrow about Seanan McGuire's 'Midnight Blue-Light Special'.

How about you? What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa