Mogsy's Book Haul

Spending most of the last two weeks traveling means fewer books for me to feature today; it's pretty much all review books this time and not a lot of purchases (my wallet is weeping with joy and relief) and I was also fortunate to be able to take a few of these on vacation with me to enjoy on the road.

The physical pile:

Mage's Blood - this is one I'm really looking forward to! I've heard such great things and I really wanted to read it, but it just never was too high on my priority list given its tome-like size. I was fortunate enough to win a copy of it from a giveaway hosted by Riffle though, and so now I can enjoy this one at my leisure, probably next month when I catch up on my personal reading.

The Forbidden Library - I know I've gushed so much on this blog about how much I loved Django Wexler's The Thousand Names, and so I totally freaked when he offered to send me an ARC of The Forbidden Library, his middle-grade novel to be published next spring. And hear me now, this book is GREAT! I've read it but won't have a review up until closer to release date, but both kids and adults are gonna love this one, I promise.

Drakenfeld - received from Tor UK, this was one I got to take with me on vacation so I read it, loved it, reviewed it. It doesn't have a US release date yet as far as I know, and I hope that changes soon, because this incredible mystery-fantasy book needs to get into the hands of as many people as possible.

Masks - looks interesting from its description, and looks like it could be really good. This was actually waiting on my front porch for me when I got home from my trip, and I don't know how long it'd been sitting there, but good thing nothing happened to it because I'm so paranoid about my precious books!

The Osiris Curse - I haven't read too many YA books from Pyr so I was really curious as to what I'd think of this. It was another one I was able to bring on the road with me, and now that I've read it I can say it's definitely fun and a little different...but in a good way! Keep an eye out for the review next week.

Digital pile (see, I didn't go nuts at all!):

Talus and the Frozen King - I've been doing great keeping up with my NetGalley eARCs lately, so I didn't hesitate to request this cool upcoming title from Solaris.

Between Two Thorns - Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry/Exhibit A did something new on NetGalley recently, featuring some of their past picks for a special rewind month. This book was one I'd always been curious about.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter - another rewind pick from Angry Robot. I must have missed this one completely the first time around because I knew very little about it, but the more I found out the more I wanted to read it.

The Mage's Daughter - our book club's October read, from our very own Amelia Sides!

Year Zero - I just can't seem to let a week go by without picking up a good ebook deal. I've heard this one is a pretty fun read, and for a buck I figured why not give it a try?

Fade to Black - yet another deal I couldn't resist. It's this month's Orbital Drop and I swear Orbit Books gets me with that like every...single...time...

Mogsy's Book Haul - YA Explosion Edition

As the title states, my library saw a ton of new YA additions in the last two weeks, thanks to a bunch of amazing sales. But that's mostly ebooks, so first here are the physical books that have arrived since my last book haul post:

The Greyfriar - received for review. This book was delicious, a fine mix of steampunk, fantasy world-building, adventure and romance. I've already devoured and reviewed it, and you can see my thoughts here. And if interested, MyShelfConfessions is currently running a giveaway on the audiobook, and better hurry as it looks like it will only go for a couple more days. By the way, James Marsters is the narrator, yum yum.

Kinslayer - from publisher/giveaway. Glad I didn't wait to read the first book because now I get to jump into this one right away!

A Study in Silks - won in a giveaway. Doesn't its description sound fascinating? Steampunk, magic, murder and demons, that sounds good to me! Keep an eye out for my review of this in the coming month!

And now, ahem, on to the huge digital pile. Have I ever mentioned how much I love good ebook deals?

The City's Son - Jo Fletcher Books brought this book to my attention, as the sequel just came out and I'm seeing a lot of buzz for it. The series looked cool, so I picked this up for $5.95 earlier this month. Any ebook that looks interesting and is ~$5 or less is pretty much an insta-buy, so it was just calling to me.

Blackwood - congratulations to Strange Chemistry, Angry Robot's YA imprint, for celebrating their first birthday last week! To celebrate, they've dropped the prices on a handful of their first titles to $1.99 ($1.39 in some cases, like Blackwood, woot!) and this was a book I picked up...

Katya's World - ...and so was this...

The Assassin's Curse - ...and also this. Sigh!

The Bone Season - I've heard some amazing things about this book and its author 21-year-old Samantha Shannon, whom some have already heralded as "the next J.K. Rowling." Curiosity got the better of me, and $4.99 seems a good price to satisfy it.

Crown of Midnight - sequel to the first book Throne of Glass, which I already have. $5.99 for a book that just came out this week is not bad at all.

The Rise of Renegade X and The Trials of Renegade X - both sent in a e-bundle this week from the author Chelsea Campbell because I pledged in her Kickstarter campaign to publish the second Renegade X book. Really looking forward to reading this YA superhero series!

Monsters - third book of the Ashes Trilogy and I'm mad to find out how it all ends. Got this one from Netgalley, because I'm an NG addict, and I need help.

Dreams and Shadows - finally for some books that aren't YA, this one had been on my wishlist for a while and when I saw it for $1.99 last week I quickly snapped it up.

Devil Said Bang - fourth in Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series, whose books periodically go on sale and I pick them up whenever I see them. That's why I got this when I saw it for $2.99 a couple weeks ago, even though I've only just finished reading the second.

Mogsy's Book Haul

Posting my recent acquisitions for this week, audiobook edition.

As you know, Amazon has their Whispersync for Voice feature available for some of their Kindle books which allows seamless back and forth switching between the ebook and the Audible audiobook. In a lot of cases, Audible even offers a special price on Whispersync books you already own on Kindle, sometimes at pretty steep discounts.

The Mongoliad Book 3 by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, Mike Grell (Illustrator)

If you haven't heard about The Mongoliad, it's the authors' trans-media revisionist interpretation of the Mongol invasion of Europe set in the mid-1200s. Originally released as a community-driven project in serialized format to be read on the web or mobile apps, it's since been re-edited and republished in both print and for the Kindle.

I still don't know how I feel about this series, but I've been following it and picking up the books because they're always such a good price and entertaining for what I pay. Preordered the third book on Kindle for like a buck or two, picked up the audiobook version for the special price of $1.99. Pretty sweet deal if I say so myself. The first book I thought was okay, the second book kinda dragged and I had to almost force myself to finish, but I am feeling pretty positive about this one.

The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

The first book of the Rain Wild Chronicles. This is another one I've owned for a while, bought when the Kindle version went on sale a long time ago. I think I just glimpsed the name Robin Hobb on my newsletter email and snatched it up without a second thought.

I might have even forgotten that I owned this, until I was browsing through my list of books the other day and I noticed Audible offering the audiobook of Dragon Keeper for $3.49 for those who already have the Kindle version.

Okay, again, another impulse buy for me, but who could resist a price like that? Plus I've read and enjoyed the first book of Hobb's Farseer trilogy, so at least I know she writes good stuff. Listening to it now as my current audiobook read.

 Beyond The Shadows by Brent Weeks

Bought it for the Whispersync price of $3.99 earlier this week, and I was so revved up to tear into it that I've already read/listened to it. This is the third book of Week's Night Angel series, and I was so happy I finally got around to finishing this trilogy.

Anyway, now that I'm done with it, I'm a little torn as to what to think. While I liked the trilogy as a whole, I have to say the second and third never really managed to capture me like the first one did, though I have to admit that happens to me a lot, where subsequent books in a series never seem to live up to the first in terms of stirring my emotions and excitement. Still, highly recommended for those who enjoy darker fantasy, especially for fans of magic and assassins.


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

While I'm going nuts with audiobooks this week I might as well go all the way. Sometimes, having the audio version also motivates me to read a book, so while I looked through my Whispersync feature books, I also decided to pick up The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's classic which I really want to -- and should -- read.