I’m so happy I almost can’t stand it. I’m also equal amounts of tired. It feels like a weight has lifted and now I can relax. Once I get several naps in.

But I have books. Oodles and oodles of books. Life is good!

For Review:
Chinook (Miranda Chase #6) by M.L. Buchman
Danger in Numbers by Heather Graham
The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon
Gone for Good (Detective Annalisa Vega #1) by Joanna Schaffhausen
How to Mars by David Ebenbach
How to Train Your Earl (First Comes Love #3) by Amelia Grey
The Jigsaw Man (Inspector Anjelica Henley #1) by Nadine Matheson
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley
Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham
Lost Immunity by Daniel Kalla
Meant to Be by Jude Deveraux
Raider (Miranda Chase #5) by M.L. Buchman
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda
Tell No Lies (Quinn & Costa #2) by Allison Brennan
To Catch a Dream (Wish #2) by Audrey Carlan
To Love and To Loathe (Regency Vows #2) by Martha Waters

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Behind the Throne (Indranan War #1) by K.B. Wagers (audio)

The stacks are starting to feel “normal” sized, which probably means they are too big. But there are SO MANY good books coming. It’s hard to resist! So I don’t. LOL

For Review:
The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser
Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) by Jennifer Estep
Death with a Double Edge (Daniel Pitt #4) by Anne Perry
Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison
The Hidden Palace (Golem and the Jinni #2) by Helene Wecker
Leonora in the Morning Light by Michaela Carter
Murder by Page One (Peach Coast Library Mystery #1) by Olivia Matthews
The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Someone to Cherish (Westcott #8) by Mary Balogh
Sugar Birds by Cheryl Grey Bostrom
Sunset on Moonlight Beach (Moonlight Harbor #5) by Sheila Roberts
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Duke and I (Bridgertons #1) by Julia Quinn
Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher
An Offer from a Gentleman (Bridgertons #3) by Julia Quinn
The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons #2) by Julia Quinn

While NetGalley and Edelweiss haven’t quite gotten back to pre-holiday levels, this stack is at least a bit taller than the last few.

Although speaking of normal, this past week was definitely far from that. I don’t know about you but I’m tired. It feels like a good weekend to cuddle up with a couple of cats and READ!

For Review:
The Frozen Crown (Warrior Witch #1) by Greta Kelly
Half Life by Jillian Cantor
Incense and Sensibility (Rajes #3) by Sonali Dev
An Irish Hostage (Bess Crawford #12) by Charles Todd
Murder at Wedgefield Manor (Jane Wunderly #2) by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Peaches and Schemes (Georgia B&B #3) by Anna Gerard

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War #1) by T. Kingfisher
Enchanted Again: Author’s Preferred Edition (Mystic Circle #2) by Robin D. Owens
Enchanted Ever After: Author’s Preferred Edition (Mystic Circle #3) by Robin D. Owens (preorder)
Enchanted No More: Author’s Preferred Edition (Mystic Circle #1) by Robin D. Owens
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2020 Edition (free)
Swordheart (Clocktaur War) by T. Kingfisher
The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Stacking the Shelves post of 2021. Thank goodness 2020 is finally over, even if its effects will be malingering for a while.

I didn’t get a lot this week, NetGalley and Edelweiss really only got new books for three days, after all. On the other hand, Audible had a bit of a sale, and I couldn’t resist. Not that I tried very hard. Not that I EVER try very hard.

For Review:
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Like Cats and Dogs (Whitman Street Cat Cafe #1) by Kate McMurray
The Rakehell of Roth (Regency Rogues #2) by Amalie Howard
The Secrets of Colchester Hall by Sophie Barnes

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Kickstarter:
The First Blade of Ostia (Society of the Sword #0) by Duncan M. Hamilton
The Neil Gaiman Reader by Neil Gaiman (audio)
The Year of the Cat: A Cat of Roving Nature edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith (Kickstarter)

Borrowed from the Library:
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Happy week between Xmas and New Years! This week is always so weird. If one has to work, it’s a week where nobody is around and nothing seems to get done. The days crawl. And if you’re off, it absolutely flies by.

It’s not a surprise that not many books popped up on Netgalley and Edelweiss this past week. Or probably this coming week, come to think of it. But more new books is always good for those of us who live with tsundoku.

I hope you had a happy whatever you might have celebrated and are looking forward to a brighter new year!

For Review:
The Freedom Race (Dreambird Chronicles #1) by Lucinda Roy
The Last Debutantes by Georgie Blalock
The Living and the Lost by Ellen Feldman
Love and Fury by Samantha Silva
My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Sea Spray (Time Box #3) by John A Heldt
War Widow (Billie Walker #1) by Tara Moss
The Women’s March by Jennifer Chiaverini

I don’t know if this has happened to anyone else, but my Goodreads Challenge for 2020 went wonky. It said I’d read ZERO books. On its other hand, certainly not mine, the My Year in Books display showed 247 books read this year. I believe this is what is called a contradiction in terms. Either I’ve read zero books – highly unlikely and someone needs to look for the alien invasion – or I’ve read more than a few. Like 247.

And it’s back! Thank goodness. That was driving me bananas!!!!!

But on the good side of bananas, I got the eARC for The House of Always this week. I am SO TEMPTED to read it over Xmas. This year deserves a treat like no other. But, but, but, if I read it now I’ll have an even longer wait until book 5 – and hopefully the conclusion – for the series. Also, the audiobooks have been SO GOOD for this series. Decisions, decisions…

For Review:
Best Laid Plans (Garnet Run #2) by Roan Parrish
Defekt (Finna #2) by Nino Cipri
The Fall of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #3) by M.R. Carey
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur
The House of Always (Chorus of Dragons #4) by Jenn Lyons
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
The Rehearsals by Annette Christie
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
The Secrets of Colchester Hall by Sophie Barnes
Star Eater by Kerstin Hall
Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) by Jennifer Snow
A Trail of Lies (Jazz Ramsey #3) by Kylie Logan
Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

I actually sent something back this week. I’m tempted to add it to this week’s stack with an X across it, just to be thorough. But the reviews of Ready Player Two were just so awful that I returned the audiobook and got something different. Then I got a second something different to go with it!

For Review:
Black Water Sister (Sorcerer to the Crown #3) by Zen Cho
The Cape Doctor by E.J. Levy
For the Wolf (Wilderwood #1) by Hannah Whitten
The Girl in the Painting by Tea Cooper
Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner
Questland by Carrie Vaughn
Requiem of Silence (Earthsinger Chronicles #4) by L. Penelope
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson
Wilde Child (Wildes of Lindow Castle #6) by Eloisa James

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky (audio)
The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman (audio)

It feels like fall fell with a resounding “THUD” this week here in Atlanta. All of a sudden, it got COLD at night. It’s still warm-ish during the day, but once the sun goes down – BRRRRR! Speaking of the sun, it goes down too damn early. I miss Daylight Saving Time, even if no actual daylight gets saved.

For Review:
The Best Thing You Can Steal (Gideon Sable #1) by Simon R. Green
The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
The Devil in Her Bed (Devil You Know #3) by Kerrigan Byrne
The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican
The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
The Minders by John Marrs
Son of the Storm (Nameless Republic #1) by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Confessions of a Curious Bookseller by Elizabeth Green

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving and has had the chance to recover from the inevitable turkey-induced coma.

Thanksgiving week is always a bit of a weird week for publishing. Even in normal years, most places were closed Thursday through Sunday. This year is definitely NOT normal. Not only did not much get posted to NetGalley and Edelweiss, but it was announced that the “Big 5” publishers, that once upon a time in the past decade were the “Big 6” are about to become the “Big 4” – or possibly Snow White (Penguin Random House + S&S) and the remaining three dwarves (Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette) depending on how you look at it. The biggest publisher, Penguin Random House, is buying the former number 4 publisher, Simon and Schuster. It is unknown as yet just how many imprints, how many employees, and how many authors are going to be affected. The answer is probably the same for all three — LOTS.

I’m also wondering if the resulting conglomerate is going to change its name again. “Penguin Random Simon House” does not exactly fall trippingly off the tongue, but then I still think that they wasted an opportunity in the earlier merger by not calling themselves “Random Penguin”. The memes would have been AWESOME!

For Review:
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams
The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri
Ladies of the House by Lauren Edmondson
Mission: Her Justice (Team 52 #8) by Anna Hackett
The Nations (Nations #1) by Ken Farmer and Buck Stienke
Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

More books again. The TBR pile has embiggened! Some of these won’t be out until next August, but still, it seems like the holiday publishing doldrums have passed even if the holidays themselves aren’t here yet.

And there’s one book on the list that I’m already salivating over. It’s The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, because it’s the sequel to the marvelously splendiferous The Goblin Emperor. Not that I didn’t adore The Angel of the Crows this year by the same author (Sarah Monette writing as Addison) but The Goblin Emperor was just so incredible that the sequel couldn’t come fast enough. And now it’s here. Well, it’s here in my TBR pile of eARCs, and it will be here for reals in June.

For Review:
Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
The Bitter Taste of Murder (Tuscan Mystery #2) by Camilla Trinchieri
Bound (Chinatown Demons #1) by Rhys Ford
Cash in Hand by TA Moore
The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) by Amanda Quick
Maps for the Getaway by Annie England Noblin
The Moonsteel Crown (Dominion #1) by Stephen Deas
A Rogue’s Company (Sparks & Bainbridge #3) by Allison Montclair
The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters
She Wouldn’t Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha
The Siren by Katherine St. John
The Stills (Kinship #3) by Jess Montgomery
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff
The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Once Upon a Townsbridge Story (Townsbridges #0) by Sophie Barnes
A Stitch in Time (Stitch in Time #1) by Kelley Armstrong
The Wicked & the Dead (Faery Bargains #1) by Melissa Marr