Stacking the Shelves: devils and stormdancers are wicked within and lie with every breath

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


I didn't do an StS last week because there wasn't much new to show off, so this is my haul of the past 2 weeks.

For review from NetGalley

 Every Breath, by Ellie Marney

I finished this one this morning and it's one of my favorite contemporaries of the year! I loved it so much, I had to order myself a pretty hardcover immediately. Review to come next week.

Bought in print

Heaven's Net is Wide, by Lian Hearn

Last Blood, by Kristen Painter

The Wicked Within, by Kelly Keaton

I read Lian Hearn's other books in this series as a teen, but this one was (I think) never published in German and thus never made it on my shelf. It's a prequel to the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in that world again!
The Wicked Within is another one I'm really looking forward to, especially because it almost didn't happen (the publisher had only bought the first two books and for a while it looked like we'd never get to see the story end).


Bought as ebooks



Die For Me, by Amy Plum
Lie For Me: Griff's Story, by Romily Bernard
Stormdancer, by jay Kristoff
Broken Symmetry, by Dan Rix
The Devil's Reprise, by Karina Halle
Red at Night, by Katie McGarry
Yeah, I went a bit crazy with the one-click option. But I've wanted to read Die For Me and Stormdancer for years, and both were finally on sale even from my location, so I had to have them. Broken Symmetry entranced me with that cover as well as the description: it's a sci-fi thriller about a girl who can step through mirrors into a parallel world, and it was free when I got it. I'm also really looking forward to the Katie McGarry novella! I haven't read anything by her in about a year.

As for what else is going on this week: I posted my review of The Fall by Bethany Griffin yesterday, and my giveaway for the Spooktacular Hop is still running, in case you haven't entered yet :)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of them? And what did you get in the past week? Link me up! :)

Top Ten of 2013: best book covers

Welcome back to another post for the Top Ten of 2013 event!

Today is about the best covers of books released in 2013!


Again, this was really hard, though not as hard as I had feared. There are quite a few beautiful covers I haven't included though, partly because I think they'll be getting enough exposure elsewhere and partly because I've already featured many of those books (and their covers) elsewhere.
I have read most of the following ones, though not all of them. There is no particular hierarchy to the covers. 

 

The Beautiful and the Cursed, by Page Morgan

Dance of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin

Splintered, by A.G. Howard

Paper Valentine, by Brenna Yovanoff

Ashes and Ice, by Rochelle Maya Callen

Winter Queen, by Amber Argyle

Delia's Shadow, by Jaime Lee Moyer

Ink, by Amanda Sun

MILA 2.0, by Debra Driza

Sins & Needles, by Karina Halle

Honarable mentions:

Phoenix, by Elizabeth Richards

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Genevieve Tucholke

Pivot Point, by Kasie West

Chantress, by Amy Butler Greenfield

What do you think of my pics? Are there any glaring absences? And what book covers of 2013 do you find most beautiful?

Stacking the Shelves: Foxes with Allegiant Adrenaline Rushes Meet Witches and Moths

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


Hey guys... I'm still alive. I never intended to take a one-and-a-half week blogging break but a combination of me being very busy and not feeling well happened and I just couldn't bring myself to write posts. It also took me an entire week to read Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is ridiculous because that book has only 230 pages. There just wasn't time to read :( I hope I can pick myself up again a bit and that the coming weeks will be better.


Here's what I got in the last 3 weeks:

Bought in print

Allegiant, by Veronica Roth

Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence

I was so mad when my preordered copy of Allegiant didn't arrive until almost a week after release day, but now I haven't had time to read it >.< GAhhhh I'm sick of avoiding reviews! Need to get to it soon.
Prince of Thorns is a book I've been staring at at the store for over a year. When I went on Halloween because I was feeling so un-halloweeny (sadly) and heard that the staff dressed up (they looked awesome), I didn't want to leave empy-handed. I wanted something violent and bloody. On the first page, there was mention of crows and war and blood and corpses, so I had to get the book.
I realize that makes me sound like a psycho. Oh well.

My precious

You may or may not know that I'm into old books. I've wanted a nice copy of Swinburne's poems for a long time, so when I found one on ebay for only 10£ plus very reasonable shipping, I was delighted! It's really very pretty. There's even gold foil along the upper ridge of the pages.
The problem: When I opened it, the front cover fell clean off >.< So I brought it to a guy in the Old Town part of the city who has a bookbinder and book restorer workshop. He can fix it, but it costs me about 60 Swiss francs (65$). *sigh* It hurts, but it's worth it. That's my lesson - no more old books from ebay.

Now, on to the digital side of things...

For review / tour:

Angelbound, by Christina Bauer
Adrenaline Rush, by Cindy M. Hogan
As I said, I don't have that much time at the moment and have decided not to accept any more tour invites or review requests for the time being, but I just couldn't resist these two...

Bought ebooks

The Witch of Duva, by Leigh Bardugo
The Too-Clever Fox, by Leigh Bardugo
The Moth in the Mirror, by A.G. Howard
Red Fox, by Karina Halle
The Iron Bells, by Jeanette Battista

I had completely forgotten about Leigh Bardugo's novellas! Witch of Duva will tie me over until Siege and Storm is out in the right paperback edition to match Shadow and Bone.

As for Moth in the Mirror, it took until earlier this week for it to be on amazon in such a way that I could buy it from my location! Rather frustrating. But it was worth the wait :)

Red Fox was on sale, and I already have book 1 in the Experiments in Terror series. Haven't read it yet, but I loved Halle's style in another one of her books that I have read, so I'm sure this series is amazing as well. The Iron Bells was a spontaneous buy because I was intrigued with the world that was hinted at in the description.

Alright, I think that was all of them... as I said above, I haven't been such a good blogger lately as in writing posts and returning comments and such, but I need to get over myself so I promise to get back to everybody this time :)

Stacking the Shelves: in which I am grateful and stare at prettiness

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This was a great week for me! I managed to mostly stay away from ebooks, some of the great bargain books I order from the Book Depository arrived, and most importantly I was accepted for The Eternity Cure on NetGalley!!! Thank you thank you thank you Harlequin!!! Weeee :D I don't think I'll be able to stay away from it very long...


For review from NetGalley:

The Eternity Cure, by Julie Kagawa
Bloodspell, by Amalie Howard


Bought books & swag I won:

 

Carrier of the Mark, by Leigh Fallon
The Poison Diaries, by Maryrose Wood (based on a concept by the Duchess of Northumberland)
Blood Rights, by Kristen Painter
Desert Tales Vol. 3 manga, by Melissa Marr

Plus some stickers for Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock that I won in a giveaway hosted by Jean from Jean Book Nerd! Thank you :)

Carrier, Poison Diaries, and Blood Rights were only around 3-5 euros each so I just couldn't resist! I've been curious about all books for a long time. And when Melissa Marr said that the Desert Tales mangas are becoming difficult to get a hold of and that she's transformed them into an upcoming novel, I headed over to Amazon.de immediately and snagged the LAST copy of Volume 3 so that I now have a complete set ^_^


Ebooks:

Sins & Needles, by Karina Halle
Ashes and Ice, by Rochelle Maya Callen

I just had to make these covers a bit bigger so that you can all appreciate their beauty!! Seriously they are among my favorites ever :) I don't think I've read any reviews for Ashes & Ice yet, but Sins & Needles has been very well-received, and it focuses on a con artist and a tattoo artist - basically an insta-buy for me ;) Both books were 99 cents on amazon when I got them at the beginning of the week...

So that's it from me :) I had a very stressful week and didn't finish a single book... I can't remember the last time when that happened o.O So I have lots of reading material now :) What do you guys think of my new books? And what did the postman make you happy with this week?

Stacking the Shelves: I am incorrigible

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to show off the books we got in the previous week. Those can be print or ebooks, bought or borrowed, for review, gifted, won...


Sigh. Remember when I talked about my book diet? Yeah... major fail >.< I am weak. I can resist food, mostly, but books? Pfsh...


I only got two print books this week. I found them at an English-only secondhand store in Barcelona called Hibernian Books. They had a HUGE selection (and it was ordered and categorized!) so I'm kinda proud of myself for only buying two. The limited space in my suitcase might have had an influence though :P If you want to read more about my Barcelona experience, you can do that here.



The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud
The Dark Half, by Stephen King

I read The Amulet of Samarkand in German back in... 2004? Or so? And I remember that it was sooo fun! I started re-reading it in English and it really is as great as I remembered ^^ I need to get the sequels too...
I bought The Dark Half because it's been forever since I read anything by Stephen King even though he is to this day one of my favorite authors and was a great influence when I started writing myself. Time to change that! I've been flirting with this particular book for a while and when I saw it on that shelf I knew the time was right.


For review from NetGalley:

A Shimmer of Angels, by Lisa M. Basso
Double Crossed, by Ally Carter

I read a few good reviews and Karen Mahoney recommended it on her blog, so when it was available for Read Now on NetGalley I snagged it :) And since I loved The Heist Society, I had to have Double Crossed :P I need to read Uncommon Criminals first though, otherwise I think I'll spoil myself... it's been sitting on my shelf for a while anyway.


Ebooks I won:
 
Two Halves, by Marta Szemik
Two Equals, by Marta Szemik
Demons of the Rich and Famous, by Tawny Stokes

Exited about all of them ^^ Thanks to Marta Szemik for being part of Katie from I Am A Reader Not A Writer's author kindle fire giveaway and to Tammy from Oh, The Books You'll Read for hosting the giveaway for Demons of the Rich and Famous!


Cheap or free amazon ebooks at the time when I bought them:


Marked: A Two Halves Novella, by Marta Szemik (free on Smaskwords)
My Boyfriend Merlin, by Priya Ardis
The Den (Book #1 in the Vampire's Witch Saga), by Jennifer Abrahams
Darkhouse (Experiment in Terror #1), by Karina Halle
The Forever Girl Part One, by Rebecca Hamilton

I think with The Forever Girl I only got one part of the entire novel, but it'll be enough to give me a taste of the writing :)
Marked is the first part of Two Halves and Two Equals, so I had to have the whole set. The other ones are books I had heard about, so I seized the chance when they were free.

Another haul of great books! If only I had more time to read them all :/
Sorry to everyone who commented on my StS last week that I didn't get back to!!! I only got back from Barcelona Wednesday evening and by Thursday, it was kind of late to comment on a Saturday meme :( I promise to respond to everybody this week!!

What do you think of my haul? Can you recommend any of the books in particular? And what did you get in the past week?