Stacking The Shelves #36 - The One With SO SO MANY BRILLIANT BOOKS

Hi Everyone!

I'm currently in the middle of a long weekend (really, it's three days but SO MUCH MORE than the ONE day we usually get) from college and I am spending all my time Netflixing, Reading and freaking about all the assignments I have due next week, while not actually doing them.

It's fine, though. I have a plan so let's see how it all works out.

BUT, I'm more excited to talk about all the amazing books I received this week that include some of my MOST ANTICIPATED releases of the year as well as a signed and personalized book all the way from America!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely folks at Tyga's Reviews and is all about all the books (review copies, bought or gifted) you stacked onto your shelves.

FOR REVIEW: 

From Abrams and Chronicle Books 

1. Along the Indigo by Elise Chapman: I've been eyeing this book for a WHILE now, ever since I saw the cover reveal on Twitter happen a few months ago, because how GORGEOUS does it look? It sounds gorgeously creepy and mystical and I LOVE BOOKS SET IN SMALL TOWNS and I can't wait to dive into Elise Chapman's latest book.
Along the Indigo releases March 20th 2018


From Bloomsbury India: 

1. Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart: It's been a WHILE since I've been so excited for an E. Lockhart novel. I read her JAW DROPPING excuse for a novel, We Were Liars years and years ago and I can't wait to read this Mind Twisting novel of hers. Described as diabolical, smart and twisty, I can't wait to get my Book Dragon Claws TM into this book. It sounds great, the cover is simple and brilliant and a HUGE thank you to Bloomsbury for sending this my way!

From NetGalley:

1. Furyborn by Claire Legrand: I AM CURRENTLY FREAKING OUT NOW BECAUSE I  ACTUALLY HAVE THIS BOOK ON MY KINDLE (app) IT IS ONE OF MY MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASES OF THIS YEAR and EVERYBODY is calling it the NEXT BIG YA FANTASY book and I NEED TO DIVE IN NOW.

ALSO, GOOD GOD THAT COVER IS STUNNING AND I AM OBSESSED WITH IT.

Thank you so SO much Soucebooks Fire for giving me approval to read this book!

2. I Stop Somewhere by T.E. Carter: I got this book as a part of the FFBC Blog Tour that I am a part of next month and I am SO INTRIGUED by it. It is about rape, sexual assault, murder and a whole lot of hard hitting stuff that I haven't really read since Louise O' Neill's Asking for It and Only Ever Yours wrecked me, but I am READY to put my heart out there and feel again because: #MeToo.

Thank you to Fiewel and Friends and the FFBC for getting this book to me!

3. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Graton: A DARK FANTASY NOVEL INSPIRED BY GAME OF THRONES AND KING LEAR? With a cover as BEAUTIFUL as that one? I'll take two please.

This novel was SURPRISINGLY on Read Now for all NetGalley reviewers (which meant the ridiculous rules against international reviewers have vanished) and I got the chance to download it. I am SO EXCITED to read it. The Queens of Innis Lear released March 27th 2018 from Tor Books.

GIFTED: 

1. They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera: One of my BEST Blogging Friends, the incredibly kind and amazing Nori from Read Write Love 28 got one of my MOST anticipated released, They Both Die At The End signed AND PERSONALIZED from Adam Silvera himself and then got it to me through a mutual friend.

I screamed when I saw the parcel, and even more so when it was signed because AAAH. Thank you SO MUCH, NORI. This is one of the best presents ever.

BOUGHT: 

1. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: I didn't know what to think of this book, initially, but then I saw EVERYONE on my Goodreads/ Twitter/ Instagram feeds RAVING about what a brilliant book this is and I simply HAD to get it for myself. I got it at quite a steal deal from Amazon and I can't wait to dive into this Faerie filled world.

Fingers crossed that it's as good as everyone says it is!

What books have you stacked onto your shelves over the last week

Have you read any of my new books/ are you excited for any of them?

I'd ABSOLUTELY love to hear from you!

Audiobook Review: Hidden Huntress (Malediction Trilogy, #2) by Danielle L Jensen

Title: Hidden Huntress
Author: Danielle L Jensen
Publisher: Angry Robot
Publication Date: June 2nd 2015
Part of A Series?: Yes, Part Two of a planned trilogy
I Got A Copy Through: I bought it via Audible!

Blurb Description: Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king’s power. Or his manipulation.

Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeeds or fails, the costs to those she cares about will be high.

To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted…

**MY REVIEW**

There really isn’t much of a difference between reading an e-book and a physical copy, except for the fact that you might not have that gorgeous cover on your shelf. An audiobook, however, is a completely different experience, especially for a speed reader such as myself.

I read an ARC of Stolen Songbird almost a year and a half ago, when it was still being published by Angry Robot’s YA imprint, Strange Chemistry, and it being one of the first Advance Reader Copies that I read, I didn’t quite know what to expect from it. I had hoped that it would be good, but never expected it to be ALL THAT GOOD! (Read my review here)

 And then Strange Chemistry got called back, and I read an email from Danielle Jensen stating that she would be writing, and at the same time looking for a new publisher, and I guess waiting for the news to come to me that the sequel had been published, I lost track of the series and the characters that I’d never expected to fall in love with. *Tristan. Sigh. Swoon. Faint. HopeHeComesToLife*

And then I had to have eye surgery, and I started looking for my first audiobook on my Audible membership, and there, in my recommended listens was Hidden Huntress, back with Angry Robot. And I simply had to get it.

Hidden Huntress picks up a few months after Celine is left in her house, after getting ushered away from Trollus in the dead of the night, in the middle of phase one of the rebellion, is healed and then sent to live out the next part of her life in Triannon with her mother as an Opera Singer, which was the original plan, like everything with the trolls never happened; like all the things that changed her life, and shook her foundations never happened.

But Cecile has different reasons for being there – she is going to find Anuskha, kill her and beak the curse that is keeping her beloved and all her friends stuck Under the Mountain, but doing so will also unleash the King, Tristan’s father, his crazy yet supremely powerful younger brother and the rest of Trollus’s ruthless and powerful aristocracy. Breaking the curse means the end of Tristan’s endless torture, but also unleashing on humanity a war they cannot hope to win.

Hidden Huntress. Sigh. What do I say?

Thinking about the series in general, I could NOT love it more. I love how it actually had me genuinely believing that what happened to Cecile could happen to anyone at all (being abducted in broad daylight by someone you thought you knew, taken to a city under a mountain held up be a magical tree, and being bonded to a prince of a species that you only heard about in the tales meant to scare you.) (Yes, SERIOUSLY.) I love how Cecile and Tristan worked together as a couple so perfectly. I loved LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED Tristan. I cannot even say how much. I just LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED him.

Really looking into Hidden Huntress, however, I find that while I still loved that world, the characters and everything about it, I feel like it could have been better. Cecile, herself, could have been more. I guess she was my biggest disappointment. From being the badass, sarcastic, rebellion planning, magic using human that got a troll prince to fall in love with her she was reduced to the whimpering mess that pretty much every Disney Princess turns into once they’ve found their one true love. Don’t get me wrong, she was still doing things like looking for Anushka, but I didn’t like what being separated from her one true love did to her.

I really don’t have anything to say except I have a serious soft spot for the series, and I’m still in love with everything about it, and I can’t wait for May to come, just so that I get my hands on the conclusion.

If you haven’t read either, then I strongly recommend that you wait for book three and read them as a complete series, because then you won’t have to feel emotional turmoil. Or, you know, since I’m never one to follow my own advice, shout ‘BOOKS’ and dole out a bit more money from your always-getting—lighter wallet and delve into a series that will make you swoon!