Stacking the Shelves #5

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a meme for sharing books you've purchased, borrowed, or been sent for review. They can be physical or e-format. I was not quite as bad this week, although still a little overboard considering the number of books on my Kindle.

Library
  

Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) Mulholland Books
Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor St. Martins

Bought
I purchased a few Kindle books this week.

  
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler HarperCollins
The First Star to Fall by Diana Peterfreund (a novella) Noise Court Press
The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1.99 on Amazon now!

Review
I was approved for two books on Netgalley. Thanks to Alfred A. Knopf and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt!
 
The Outside by Laura Bickle
Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voigt

The Amish paranormal books sound really intriguing and mind-boggling at the same time. I love the covers though!

I will share Edelweiss books next week. Hope you had a great haul!

August Random Read

 
 This is a meme hosted by Sarah at imlovingbooks.com. You can choose to use Goodreads or create your own list or use your bookshelves. The idea is to use random.org and type in the number of books on your list. Whatever number you receive is your random read for the month. I have decided  to use the books on my Kindle as my list. I buy or get free far too many books on my Kindle and then never read them. I now have 343 books on my Kindle, wow, really?! I may have a problem... ;) My number for this month was 80 which is Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I have wanted to read this for awhile, so I am excited about my pick. I also attended a webinar during SummerTeen where Wein was one of the speakers, so I really wanted to start one of her books, so this is perfect. World War II female spies caught sounds really intriguing, but also sad, because spies were tortured and killed by both sides.  I love all the varied covers of this book! Hope you got a good pick!

Egmont Press

Beat the Heat Read-a-thon Updates

 

Day 1:
Currently Reading: Earthbound
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-5%
I got home a little late from work and did not feel much like reading. We had to take the cat to the vet and she has a virus, so two shots for her, plus her normal medicine for asthma. She had a rough night, but just seems tired this morning.

Day 2:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Will of the Empress
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-2%, Will of the Empress-26 pages

Day 3:
Currently Reading: Will of the Empress, Once a Witch, Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Will of the Empress-32 pages, Once a Witch- 46, Cuckoo's Calling- 3%, Hero-16 pages

I was able to get a ebook copy of Cuckoo's Calling through the library, so I HAD to start on it immediately. You only get so much time with them. Also I have heard such good things about the book, I probably would have started it anyway. I was really in the reading mood yesterday, so I feel like I accomplished alot. I hope to go back to Earthbound tonight, I did most of my reading during lunch at work, and did not have my Kindle with me, so I could not continue Tavia, Benson, and Quinn's story.

Day 4:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-5%, Cuckoo's Calling-5%
Mini-challenge: Jessi's YA Cover Challenge

I had to attend a Back to School Open House for the library and did not get much reading accomplished. It was good to see the children though and I can't believe it is already time for them to go back to school!

Day 5:
Currently Reading: Earthbound, Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Earthbound-15% and finished!, Cuckoo's Calling- 28 pages
Books finished: 1 Earthbound

Day 6:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 29 pages

Day 7:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-7 pages, Girl With the Iron Touch-23%

Day 8:
Currently Reading:Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-14 pages, Girl With the Iron Touch-10%

Day 9:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-11 pages

Day 10:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 35 pages  , Girl With the Iron Touch- 8%

Day 11:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 10 pages , Girl With the Iron Touch- 3%

Day 12:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Girl With the Iron Touch, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 35 pages , Girl With the Iron Touch- 10% and finished!, Hero- 17 pages
Books finished 2 Earthbound and Girl With the Iron Touch

Day 13:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 18 pages, Hero- 4 pages

Day 14:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Hero
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 25 pages, Hero- 8 pages

Day 15:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 20 pages

Day 16:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling, Once a Witch
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling- 26 pages, Once a Witch- 65 pages

Day 17:
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 15 pages

Day 18
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read:Cuckoo's Calling- 43 pages

Day 19
Currently Reading: Cuckoo's Calling
Pages/Percent read: Cuckoo's Calling-102 and finished!
Books finished-3 Earthbound, Girl with the Iron Touch, and Cuckoo's Calling

Day 20
Currently Reading: Once a Witch, Hero
Pages/Percent read: Once a Witch- 138 pages, Hero- 10 pages

Day 21
Currently Reading: Once a Witch, Chaos of Stars
Pages/Percent read: Once a Witch- 38 pages

Bout of Books 8.0 signup

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I will chose a reading list and set goals at a later date!

Beat the Heat Readathon Starting Line

This is hosted by Jessi at Auntie Spinelli Reads and Reanna at Phantasmic Reads. My goal is to read 500 pages, to participate in at least one mini-challenge, comment on a few blogs, and to find some new blogs to follow. I hope to finish Earthbound and maybe one more book.

My reading list:
Finish Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike

The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
Defy the Dark-edited by Saundra Mitchell
Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce

Starting August 1
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein-my August Random Read
Chaos of the Stars by Kiersten White
Hero by Althea Kontis
Awaken by Meg Cabot

Novella
Shadows by Jennifer Armentrout

High Summer Read-a-thon Wrap-up

I set a goal of 300 pages read and maybe one book and one novella finished and I was able to meet my goal! I finished My Soul to Take and already reviewed it! I also finished the Dark Discovery of Jack Dandy and Son of Sobek, so two novellas finished. I read a total of 341 pages, not bad for working all week and for having a few busy nights. I really enjoyed the read-a-thon and wish I could have attended the Twitter chats. Maybe next time around! I was able to comment on quite a few blogs and found a couple of new blogs to follow. Thanks again to Michelle for hosting!

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

I have been wanting to read this series for awhile and decide Rachel Vincent would be a good author to add to the New Authors challenge I signed up for and I used this for one of everyone but you has read this square for Book Bingo. I love the concept of a book about banshees and there were some great twist in this first book.

Kaylee Cavanaugh knows she is different, because not everyone knows when someone is going to die and not everyone has to hold in a scream when they have this vision. Kaylee thinks her first experience is just a panic attack or some mental disorder she has, but when she has a second attack in the club Taboo, she realizes she is wrong. Kaylee does not know why she has this gift and only confides in her best friend Emma and her new boyfriend Nash. Nash is the only one who can calm her during her episodes and little does she know that is because he is like her. Neither one of them are human, they are both bean sidhes or banshees. Kaylee does not want to just sing for the dead's souls she wants to save them, but Nash convinces her of their real duty by introducing her to Tod, a reaper. Tod tells her about the exchange, if she saves a soul, it will lead to another person's death and the first person would live on borrowed time. Unfortunately for Kaylee, a reaper has gone rogue and she will stop at nothing to find the reaper and prevent wrongful deaths. When the reaper strikes close to home, Kaylee will make a major sacrifice that could cost her dearly.

I loved the twists in this story and was surprised by the end. This had a great deal of suspense as well as being about paranormal beings and I loved the suspense and mystery. Kaylee and Nash are an interesting combination, but there are hints that she may be drawn to Tod as well. I was surprised at the twist with Tod as well, but I won't give that away, since the surprise comes close to the end of the book.

Favorite Character: Emma. I loved her humor and her willingness to be there for Kaylee and her willingness to believe her friend. She is loyal and fun.

Favorite Quote: "You'll have as much of a happy ending as you're willing to work for. And from what I've seen so far, you're not afraid of a little work."

Nice suspense and mystery with an interesting paranormal twist. 4 cups of cocoa.