September is for Sequels Final Update Post

Well, today is the last day.  And I didn't do exactly what I'd planned to do.  I did get enough sequels read to meet my goal, although they weren't the ones I'd planned to read.  And I only got two of the actual reviews posted on my blog.  Here are the sequels I got done:

1. The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl #3) by Paige McKenzie
2. Roadie (Rock-Hard Beautiful #2) by C.M. Stunich
3. Not the One (London Lovers #4) by Amy Daws
4. Last Call (Cocktail #4.5) by Alice Clayton
5. Beneath These Chains (Beneath #3) by Meghan March
6. Salvaged (Saints of Denver #4) by Jay Crownover
7. Dirty Rowdy Thing (Wild Seasons #2) by Christina Lauren

So I got more than my goal of 4 read.  I want to thank the people who did join in this year, I got 5 awesome participants!  So thanks to the following people, and I'll be off to check out how they did!

• Darlene at Darlene's Book Nook
• Nadene at Totally Addicted to Reading
• Trea at Spoons, Hooks, and Books 
• Karen at Kissin Blue Karen
•  Sarah at A Weebish Book Blog

Those of you participating, it's only open till tonight at midnight, so make sure you get them entered into the giveaway below!  Just a heads up though, I may not be able to pay for the prizes till my paycheck on the 15th this month, so I may be a little behind on the prizes.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles #2) by Kresley Cole (September Sequel #3)

Book info:
Title:  Endless Knight  
Author:  Kresley Cole
Series:  The Arcana Chronicles #2  
Genre:  YA fantasy/post-apocalyptic
Published:  October 1st, 2013
Source:  I purchased from The Book Depository for specific cover

I fell in love with this series a bit late, last month after I was contacted about helping to publicize the release of the 4th book.  Between that and the fact that I am going to get to meet the author in about 2 weeks now, I decided to go ahead and pick it up and read it.  I loved Jack, and couldn't wait to find out where the story would go after the end of book one, Poison Princess, which I reviewed HERE. If you haven't read the first book, you probably should stop before reading any further in this review, and click on the link for the review of the first book.  But here is my review!

We are back again with Evie, or Evangeline as Jack calls her.  Jack has now seen what Evie really is, and he seems to be disgusted by it.  And so he takes off.  Or so it seems.  Eventually he does come back, and soon we find out just how he really feels about Evie.  After what happened in the last book, where it looked as if he kissed the other Arcana with them, we find out what really happened.  In this book we meet more of the other Arcana, some who want to fight Evie and her group, others who seem to feel the same about  possibly ending the game and not killing each other.  And then in the back of Evie's head, Death is still there, watching her every move it seems.  Matthew, the Fool, made a deal with him and owes him, so he lets Death in her head.  When Evie and Jack take their relationship further, Death gets extremely angry.  

We learn that all these flashes Evie is having of her past lives show that she and Death once were more than enemies, more like friends or allies, and maybe even more.  It seems that Death once may have loved Evie.  But who can blame him, Evie is the only person he can touch with his bare hands/skin that doesn't die.  When Death gets ahold of Evie after she is betrayed by one of their allies, going with him seems to be the only way to protect Jackson and the rest of her group. Once at Death's estate, he tells her that he is going to kill her, but never seems to be ready to do it.  He does torture her in some ways.  Puts a type of collar thing on her arm that keeps her from being able to change into her Empress form.  That way he can protect himself, although it will also make it so that at times she will not be able to protect herself.  As time goes by, they seem to be getting back to where they had once been.  But it's not just Evie playing Death to get close enough to kill him, she starts to understand and feel for him in her own way.  But there is always Jack in the back of her mind, and in her heart, and her promise to never leave him.

I loved this book.  And at first I didn't like Death at all, other than the picture on the cover that is.  But like Evie, I grew to see him differently, and to maybe see how she could have feelings for him.  Jack will always be who I love best, but Death will be a close second in this story.  There is the big moment between Jack and Evie that was just perfectly written, it made me feel ALL the feels.  I won't tell you what, I'll let you read it yourself.  Now, I can't wait until I can fit in the third book to read.  And I guess I'll probably buy the fourth book when I meet the author!

Sunday Post #69 and Stacking the Shelves September 11th, 2016

Before I go on with the normal post.  I want to take a minute to remember this day 15 years ago, and how much it will always be a sad but important time in my country's history.

#neverforget

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.   This week was a little less busy.  Although I still had something going almost every night, I still was able to spend time at home and get some reviews and other blogging done, as well as some reading.

Last week on the blog:

• Reviews:  Calendar Girl Vol. 2 by Audrey Carlan, Lead (Stage Dive #3) by Kylie Scott (audiobook), The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich, His Every Need (The Beauty and the Brit #1) by Terri L. Austin, Redeeming Trust by Michelle Sodaro,  and Moonlight on Nightingale Way (On Dublin Street #6) by Samantha Young
•  Cover Reveals:  Confessions of an Undercover Girlfriend by Kay Marie, and Match Fit by Amelie S. Duncan

And those are the only types of posts I did last week!  Crazy, huh?  Maybe that is why I had so much extra time.  Without doing something like Waiting on Wednesday, where part of the deal is to go comment on other blogs, it saved some extra time from doing that.  But I miss seeing what other books people might know about that I don't, so that isn't something I'll stop doing.  As you can see, I totally met my 2 reviews a week goal.  I had mentioned last week that I might try to do two reviews a day on review days, so that maybe I can get caught up on my reviews, and so that is kind of what I did this week.  You still have time to sign up for my 5th annual September is for Sequels Challenge until this Wednesday!  I completed my first book and review for that with Redeeming Trust by Michelle Sodaro.
I still got my 3 days of walking in, and I was doing really well, got 4 miles in on Monday, but then Wednesday night I only got 2 because I had to go visit my stepdad in the hospital after work that day because he'd had shoulder surgery.  Yesterday though I still got 3 miles.  I got the shirt I made to wear when I go to NOLA StoryCon in the mail as well.  It has to do with the book Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young.  And when I posted this picture in the fan group for her on Facebook, she even commented that she liked it!!  Now I can't wait to wear it when I meet her!

I know this is really nerdy too, but I also finally got my very first pair of Toms shoes.  I've always thought they were cute, but with not ever finding them available in stores that I could try them on, I've skipped over ordering shoes online.  But then, after my love and obsessions with the After series, it was one of my rewards for meeting exercise goals, and I finally purchased them, and they came in the mail this week.  

I also found out that I was chosen to be a volunteer at Apollycon 2017 in Orlando!  I wanted to go, but didn't know if I could afford to pay, plus most of the tickets that I would have wanted have sold out I think.  But now, I am going to get to meet Anna Todd, plus my new favorite, Kylie Scott!  I've got two sorority sisters who both offered that I could stay with them while I was there, so really I'll just have to find a good price on a plane ticket!  

Coming up this week on the blog:

• Book Blitz:  Avenging Fate by Jennifer Derrick
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Cover Reveal:  Rookie Mistake by Alice Ward
• Book Tour:  Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics - my post will be featuring true ghost stories and EVPs!
• Free e-book reviews 
• Possible reviews:  The Portal to Kerberos (Elementals #4) by Michelle Madow, Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles #2) by Kresley  Cole, All Lined Up (Rusk University #1) by Cora Carmack (audiobook), Charged (Saints of Denver #2) by Jay Crownover, and Inclusions (Flawless #1) by Emily Duvall
• Maybe Cover Characteristics - clothes only

Again, trying to get ahead on reviews.  Two of the reviews listed above will count towards my Sequels challenge.  I also just read and adored a free/cheap ebook called Smut by Karina Halle, and LOVED it!  I had planned to wait till at least the end of this week to do a free/cheap ebook mini-review post, but since I loved that one so much, I wanted to go ahead and do a smaller post with only 6 ebooks mentioned, so I wouldn't feel so bad writing a little bit larger sized "mini-review" for that one.  I really want to get back to doing the Cover Characteristics post, as it is a lot of fun!  I also have a lot going on this week, working two week nights at the bookstore for one thing. Then on Saturday, I'll have my stepdad and other family members' birthday celebration dinner, followed by driving to the south side of town, about 45 minutes away, for a former co-worker's wedding.  I must make sure to get my walking in though!

And, I'm going to sign up once again to do the Blog Ahead Challenge sponsored by herding cats and burning soup, to get ready for NaNoWriMo again this year.  While I thought I knew for sure what story I was going to work on this year, reading Smut made me start thinking about trying something else.  But anyway, the goal for this challenge is to get 30 more posts scheduled ahead of time, for November on, than what you start the month of October with.  So it may not be every day in November scheduled, but it will be a lot of it, as well as moving on into December.   I'm counting this post as my sign up post for the challenge!  You can sign up at the link above if you want to join in.

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  Once again, my ebook haul was huge this week.  But my physical book haul was much smaller for a change.

Physical books:

The book on top I got at the Dollar Tree.  The bottom two books I got at one of my school district librarian meetings for free!  Sweet I've read and loved, and Dead of Winter is going to be one of my next reads as I fall in love with the Arcana series.

I got this as a book for trade through a group on Facebook. So excited to read it!

E-galleys:

Got this one from being part of a tour with the Irish Banana blog.  I had another one from Edelweiss, but I can't find the sheet of paper I wrote it on, so I'll have to share it later.

Free or cheap ebooks:
Okay, here we go.

Once again, way too many.  The last four down at the bottom were all from Barnes and Noble for my Nook. The others were all Amazon Kindle.  One of them, Smut, I started reading and finished this week.  There are one or two of the above that I did pay for after winning a $5 gift card.

Okay, that is the long list of what I added to both my physical and virtual shelves this week. What new books did you get this week!