Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts - 9 May 2019

Bookish (And Not So Bookish) Thoughts is a Weekly Meme hosted by Christine @ Bookishly  Boisterous.

Happy Thursday Bookdragons! It's another Bookish and Not So Bookish Thoughts and today I'm trying to distract myself and keep my nerves down until tonight.

1. The ApollyCon 2020 Tickets go on sale tonight and I am really nervous. I definitely want to go, already have my hotel room booked, I just need my ticket. There are 600 tickets available for the tier I'm looking at and my fear is that they will sell out within seconds and I'll be fighting with my wifi to get a transaction through. Wish me luck!

2. I seem to be getting past my book rut. I started my ARC of Rage by Cora Carmack yesterday and read 111 pages in one day. It's been weeks since the last time I was able to do that. I've also been listening to a couple audiobooks that I'm enjoying.  

3. I did a guest post this week on BookCrushin's Blog talking about writing through depression. It just went live today so go check it out!

4. The apartment we looked at earlier this week didn't work out. We were told (no joke) that I made too much money to be eligible for the apartment. I've never heard that one before...

5. I mentioned last week that I was listening to the audiobook of We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia and I finished it earlier this week. I definitely recommend it if you're a fan of The Handmaid's Tale (like I am). It definitely has those vibes as well as a latinex rep! 

"Book Mail" (Friday) #15

As you can see my blogging schedule got a little rearranged this week and my "Book Mail" Thursday post is happening today instead. On the bright side... my ApollyCon 2017 Virtual Signing order came this week!!! 

One of the boxes was a little beat up (and by beat up, I mean the whole one corner of the box was ripped away) but I was bouncing off the walls when I saw the mailman bring the boxes in on Wednesday. 

This is my book mail for this week...

ApollyCon 2017 Virtual Signing Order

Books: 
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (US Cover)
Play by Kylie Scott
The Affiliate by K.A. Linde
Beautiful Creatures signed by Kami Garcia
Nowhere but Here, Walk the Edge, and Long Way Home by Katie McGarry
Sublime by Christina Lauren
Oblivion, Lux: Beginnings (Obsidian & Onyx), Wicked, & Crushed by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins
Riot & Chaos by Jamie Shaw
The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
**Bookmarks from Christina Lauren, Katie McGarry, Wendy Higgins, and Jamie Shaw**


MAY Waiting On:
Virtual Signing orders I'm waiting on for May are: 
A Court of Wings and Ruin and the ACOTAR Coloring Book by Sarah J. Maas 
The Wish Granter by C.J. Redwine
Unknown, Unrest, and Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

"Book Mail" Thursday #7

Christmas came early and I got book mail on Tuesday! 

Just An Illusion - Side A by D. Kelly

As I mentioned last week, I won a signed paperback copy of Just An Illusion - Side A by D. Kelly through a Facebook giveaway and I was excited to get it in Tuesday's mail. The print copy is even more gorgeous than I thought it would be. I loved Just An Illusion - Side A and I can't wait for the B-Side to come out later this winter! 

Waiting On:

I broke down and ordered the Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition of RoseBlood (because when you preorder RoseBlood you can get a free Thorn postcard signed by AG Howard! More details here)

And I also added three books to my Apollycon 2017 Virtual Signing order...

The Affiliate by K.A. Linde

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (US Cover)

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Do you want to get signed copies of books by some of your favorite authors? Shop the Apollycon 2017 Virtual Signing! More info can be found here.

Neither of the orders I've mentioned will come to me until after the new year (April for the Apollycon order to be exact) so it might be a little while before you see another Book Mail Thursday post from me! 

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #13

       This week on "What I'm Reading" Wednesday I'm reading a great new book that came out just this week...

The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Blurb:

"Aerity..." Her father paused as if the words he was forming pained him. "I must ask you to sacrifice the promise of love for the sake of our kingdom."

She could only stare back, frozen.

When a strange beast terrorizes the kingdom of Lochlanach, fear stirs revolt. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona- kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson's hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity knows her duty to her kingdom but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger... until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. There's no denying the unspoken allure between them... or his mysterious resentment. 

Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He is determined to keep his focus on the task at hand - ridding the kingdom of the beast - but the princess continues to surprise him, and the perilous secrets he's buried begin to surface. 

Why I Chose This Book / What I Think of it so far:

I've been a fan of Wendy Higgins since reading the Sweet books and her independently published book, See Me, so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. Even if I hadn't read books by this author before, the synopsis definitely grabbed me. Technically this book only came out yesterday (March 8th) but I had purchased a copy through the Apollycon Virtual Book Signing/Sale several months back and received my copy on Saturday. I began reading this book on Monday and it hooked me instantly. I love the storyline so far and I just passed the part where Aerity and Paxton meet for the first time and OMG can you say amazing chemistry?!?!? I love all of the major characters so far and I can't wait to see where the story goes. Will Paxton kill the beast and win not only Princess Aerity's hand in marriage - but her heart as well? I hope so! This book is a duology so I know there is a second book to come and I'm excited for that as well. 

I'm just over a hundred pages into The Great Hunt but I can already reveal my early rating:

5 of 5 Stars!

I received all of the books I purchased from the Apollycon event on Saturday and since I finished Remembrance by Meg Cabot (see "What I'm Reading Wednesday #12" for more info) over the weekend I didn't get a chance to squeeze in any other books before starting The Great Hunt. As you can see I'll be very busy reading over the next few weeks/months!

My New Books!

Confessions of a Book Addict

       

 
     It's no secret that most writers are also avid readers. Some stick to the genre they write in while others read all kinds of books. I myself can read any kind of book as long as it has a love story somewhere in the book. 

        The worst part of being addicted to books, like I am, is that whenever I'm not writing something I'm thinking about books I want to buy. This created my downfall a couple months back when I saw a tweet from one of my favorite authors talking about an event called Apollycon, in this instance the tweet was to inform anyone that couldn't attend the event in February that you could still buy signed copies of books by your favorite authors through the event website. 

         I quickly followed the link and saw that unfortunately the event, to celebrate the release of Jennifer L. Armentrout's latest book The Power, was being held in Savannah, Georgia. Not exactly nearby my location of Shawano, Wisconsin. 

         Not a problem! I told myself, I'll simply buy a couple books from the website. (And you can too, the book sale/virtual signing runs until January 22, 2016: here) So I started compiling a list...
  
         That's where the problem began. I started out wanting a couple books by Wendy Higgins, including her upcoming release, The Great Hunt, but then I saw that there were also books by Jay Crownover, K.A. Tucker, Katie McGarry... not to mention I got hooked on Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux series lately; and there were a few other books that grabbed my interest. 

        Nearly $200 later you would have thought my book binge was over, right? Wrong! I then decided to add another book to my order a couple weeks later. In between that time I took a trip to Half Price Books, placed one big order for books from Barnes and Noble, 2 orders for books from Amazon (One just yesterday as a matter of fact), added free books from Ripley's Booklist to my Kindle, received a free copy of a book in exchange for an honest review, and placed an order for a signed copy of Meg Cabot's upcoming book Remembrance: A Mediator Novel from an independent bookstore in Michigan. (Read more about that here)

       This is my confession... I think about books more than I think about anything else. Well, almost anything else. Story ideas and my boyfriend take up a huge chunk of my thoughts as well, but that's normal. Not only do I spend most of my time thinking about books, I also buy my fair share of books, as you can see. I try to keep my addiction under control, but deep inside I'm one step shy of Rebecca Bloomwood in Confessions of a Shopaholic when Suze realizes that Rebecca packed all of her clothes into those vacuum bags and they come bursting out of the wardrobe. Oh, what a nightmare that could be... books zooming out of my dresser at my head. 

      Are you a book addict too? How often do you give in to your addiction? Are you able to walk past a bookstore without going inside and buying books? 

       Are you going to Apollycon in February? I recommend it if you live near Savannah, I hear the one in Philadelphia last year was a lot of fun. And psst... you're more than welcome to send me pictures of some of my favorite authors signing books!