This Week At Midnight is pretty self explanatory, but I decided my weekly wrap up needed some sprucing up, so this is new! It’ll still be basically the same thing, Stacking the Shelves and Weekly Shenanigans, just with a shorter title and a new graphic, because I paid for PicMonkey, so I might as well take advantage of it.
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. It gives us a chance to share with readers what we bought, borrowed, swapped, won or got for review each week.
The Books
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga Thanks to Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl and Author Jasmine Warga
The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn
Zodiac by Romina Russell Thanks to Asheley @ Into the Hall of Books and Penguin
For Review
via Netgalley, thanks to Egmont:
I almost don’t know how to classify this, since it won’t be published by Egmont, which is so, so sad. I had literally gone to check Goodreads to see which other books I wanted to request, and that quickly, news of their shutdown flooded Twitter and the books were gone. I am hoping that all the authors and other industry personnel affected by this will be able to find new homes very, very soon.
Weekly Shenanigans
I read , , and . We all know how things went with Seeker by now I assume (spoiler: not great). I really, really enjoyed Salt & Stone, I think it was even better than Fire & Flood (thanks again Kaitlin!). A Wicked Thing was actually pretty good! Despite my fairy tale weirdness, I am 2-for-2 in liking them, so maybe I do like retellings after all! The review for A Wicked Thing will post with the blog tour on February 20th!
Guys, something insanely exciting happened tonight: I was looking at Twitter, and apparently, I have 904 Twitterites. Um, how!? And of course, thank you! I am thinking that a big old giveaway will kind of be necessary if I ever reach 1,000.
Moving along! On the Blog:
- On Monday, I reviewed Soulprint by Megan Miranda. It was a win!
- Tuesday’s Top Ten was a freebie, so I did names from books I’d use for a baby.
- I did a mini-review of All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, which segued into a discussion about mental health in YA. You guys posted some amazing and thoughtful comments. I am in the process of reading and responding to them all, because they are so beautiful and personal. You are all amazing!
- My review of Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton posted on Thursday.
- I was tagged by a whole bunch of people to do the Reader Problem Book Tag on Friday!
The Discussion Giveaway for January is still going on, so don’t forget to link up!
There’s still a week left to enter to win a January New Release too!
Up Next:
Come on, like I know? Your guess is as good as mine. I swear, we could make bets and my odds would be no better than yours. Actually, I do have a few books I want to review soon, so any number of those could be reviewed. Then I have another fun tag, and then probably a discussion or something.
How was your week? Any fun new arrivals to your shelves? Any fun weekend plans? Do share!
I’m glad that you liked A Wicked Thing, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with it. You got some great looking books this week.
Grace @ Books of Love
Well, it wasn’t my favorite, and there were definitely flaws, but I liked it more than I didn’t. So that’s good 😉 I wasn’t sure at all really, until I knew there was a second book. And thanks 🙂
Yay! I’m happy you received My Heart and Other Black Holes, I need to read that soon. The Way We Bared Our Souls sounds really interesting. One exciting arc I got this week was Denton Little’s Death Date. My only plans for the weekend are to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow and catch up on writing my reviews and reading.
OHHH you will LOVE Denton Little’s Deathdate! SO, so good. I may even re read it before I do my review 🙂
I am so excited to read these books, I really wish I could spend a day doing that. I am jealous of your Barnes & Noble day! 🙂
You have My Heart and Other Black Holes! I’m really looking forward to Feb. 10 to come just so I can have this book in my hands too. Plans? I do not have any. I guess worrying for the week to come while sitting on the couch counts. And maybe, MAYBE, read and decide to finish Burial Rites by Hannah Kent which I’ve been trying to for the past month. Not that it’s a bad book, but the pacing was a little bit slow.
I won it! I was so excited because I have heard nothing but amazing things about it. Can’t wait to read it 🙂 Slow paced books are HARD. I have such trouble myself. And why are you worrying? I feel bad! 🙁 I hope you had a decent weekend after all!
I just don’t know. I’ve been this way for months, worrying for what the coming week has on its sleeve. Don’t felt bad though. I Can handle this. 😀
Ah, I gotcha. I feel that way too. More so when I was in school and such, it is a little easier being at home. But I am hoping everything goes well 🙂
AWESOME haul! My Heart and Other Black Holes looks like a hilarious read. I’m in love with the title if that’s possible. Well, it is to me. Loved your review for Soul Print. I’ve just finished my copy and I totally agree with how surprising it was. I never knew how much I would enjoy it!
I know, the title is fantastic! Clever, catchy, and intriguing! I like the new cover a little better, but I am kind of glad to have the old cover, because it seems special 😉 And thanks! It was such a fun surprise, wasn’t it?
I really want to read My Heart and Other Black Holes. I’ve heard such amazing things! I hope you enjoy all of your new additions! Have a great weekend!
Thanks so much! I have heard great things too. Hope your weekend was great 🙂
I am reading Seeker right now. I am torn. It seems like there is a lot of action, but I don’t understand some of it. Does that make sense?
YES. That was my issue too! It makes NO SENSE. But it seems like it SHOULD, because there is always stuff happening! What IS this book!? I am anxious to see what you think of it!
YAY I see that you posted your review! Running off to comment!
The whole Egemont thing is so sad. I know quite a few people who are affected by it, and it just sucks. I hope the Egemont authors find a place to go and figure out what they’re going to do with their books.
Enjoy your new books, happy reading and have a great weekend!
Michelle @ Michelle’s Minions
Thanks! I know, I am really sad for all those people involved. It really sucks, hard. Some of those books sounded SO good, and those poor authors who poured their time into the books, thinking they’d finally be published. And the employees of Egmont too, I feel so bad for them 🙁 Fingers crossed that everyone involved can move on to bigger and better things!
I’ve heard a lot about ZODIAC. It looks very interesting! I hope you enjoy your books 🙂 And yes, one can never know for sure what will come up on the blog because sometimes, things change.
Here’s MY STS
Genesis @ GenGen’s Book Blog
Thanks! I am bad at planning, that is for sure 😉 And I am excited for Zodiac, the concept just sounds so different!
The Egmont shutdown made me sad too – I have two of their books for review at the moment O_O I’ve loved many of their books 🙁 In any case… I loved Zodiac, Seeker, and Salt & Stone! But not *as* much A Wicked Thing and The Way We Bared Our Souls. I hope you enjoy all of your new books!
Have a fabulous weekend, Shannon 🙂
Check out my STS post!
I agree, there are some books from Egmont that I adored 🙁 And I loved Salt & Stone too! A Wicked Thing was decent. Not fabulous, but not bad. I did not like Seeker haha. Hope you have a great week 🙂
Omg, I feel like I’ve missed ALL YOUR POSTS FOR THIS WEEK. >.> um probably because I have. *sigh* It’s been a crazy weird week. bUT ANYWAY! Binge-reading your blog now. *nods* Ohhh, pretty header, btw. And it’s so exciting seeing everyone reading these 2015 release I’m SO EXCITED FOR! Yay for Salt & Stone! I didn’t love Fire & Flood, but I didn’t hate it and I definitely want to continue. I only just heard about Egmont. Omg, they’re just shutting?! I’m going to researchf or some articles after this because I’m confused and sad. I wonder if this affects the Australian branch??
Also YAY that you liked Soulprint! I have that to read and I’ve been feeling uninspired to pick it up but now I want to . xD
Aw, I understand those weeks! And thank you! I am still going to try to fix it juuuust a little. Because I cannot leave the darned blog alone. I have to be “fixing”, constantly fixing.
Oh dear, I didn’t even think of the other branches 🙁 I think the article just said Egmont USA, but I could be wrong? Fingers crossed that it doesn’t affect the Australian branch or any others!
Ha, I just got a fairytale retelling today! 😀 Well, sort of, it’s about the story of Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, but I say it counts.
Soulprint is all over the place today! I think I’ll check it out the next time I’m in the mood for dystopian. 🙂 Enjoy your books and have a great week!
Definite counts! This one was of Sleeping Beauty too, but more like the aftermath. It was fun! Not a home run, but fun 🙂 And I agree, Soulprint is seriously on every blog I visit it seems! But I am glad people are enjoying it, it was a good one! Hope you have a great week too 🙂
YAY FOR YOUR AWESOME WEEK. And Salt and Stone (I still need to read the first) and ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES, and HOW DID YOU GET THE WAY WE BARED OUR SOULS? I can’t wait to read your thoughts on that because I still don’t know what it’s about but I want it 🙂
I bought The Way We Bared Our Souls! Actually, I pre ordered it. Because I am a bad, bad budgeter. You should read Fire & Flood! I almost DNFed it but ended up loving it! And I liked Salt & Stone even better 🙂
Woah, these books are all so new to me. I hope you enjoy them though. Stacking the Shelves #2
Thanks 🙂
Yay, on the over 900 twitter followers! Also, I’m glad you enjoyed A Wicked Thing because I am so excited for it! Hope this means you’ll be reading more retellings! Can’t wait to see what you think lf My Heart and the really long book title that would have been shorter than this…. =)
BWAHAH I am just calling it “My Heart and…” from now on. Or maybe MHaOBH? Nope, just as bad 😉
A Wicked Thing was good. Not terrific, but good. Definitely entertaining, if nothing else. And I liked Aurora. So that was good. I will definitely not be resistant to retellings anymore 😉
Awesome haul! The Way We Bared Our Souls is one that I can’t wait to read. It sounds like such a unique concept. Bleeding Earth sounds pretty interesting too. Congrats on all the Twitter Followers! I hope that you enjoy your books. 🙂
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian
It does sound so, so good! And Bleeding Earth too! Thanks so much 🙂
Oh, I LOVED My Heart and Other Black Holes! I’m excited to see what you think of it. I’m glad to see that you enjoyed Salt & Stone, I’m really excited to read it 🙂
Ohh yay! I am glad you loved it, I am so excited to read it 🙂 And yes, Salt & Stone was really good, I hope you enjoy it!
I’m sure everyone and their mother is recommending it, but have you read the Lunar Chronicles? Best retellings I’ve read so far!
I have read Cinder, and I own Scarlet and Cress. Hoping to get to Scarlet after a few ARCs 😉 Cinder was actually my FIRST retelling!
Loving the new title and header image for your weekly wrap ups, Shannon! <33 It sounds as though your week went off rather well. Hearing you say you really enjoyed Salt & Stone, makes me want to read Fire & Flood even more! Though not keen on the cover changes…why publishers thing big ol' face closeups will attract more interest, I do not know.
Also looking forward to your thoughts on Zodiac and My Life and Other Black Holes when you read them. 🙂
Aw thank you! I am not keen on the cover change either, especially because I have a beautiful signed copy of the OLD cover. Plus, enough with the “one random eye” thing already! It’s been done!
Woo hoo for new Twitter followers! This reminded me that I need to create a list with my favorite bloggers because I’m missing a lot of tweets from my blogger friends!
OOOH that is a GOOD idea! I need to do that too, I hate missing tweets from bloggers I REALLY want to read tweets from!
Ooh Zodiac!! Im glad you enjoyed A Wicked Thing, it was a bit too idle for me. I can’t wait to read your thoughts on The Way We Bared Our Souls. It sounds so emotionally raw and gritty, can’t wait!!
I liked it, I didn’t love it, but I was entertained enough! And I cannot WAIT to read The Way We Bared Our Souls! I wish I had time to read it now. I must make time soon for sure 🙂
Zodiac is on my TBR list. I hope you enjoy it and these others. Happy Reading!
Here’s my STS.