Sunday Post #59 and Stacking the Shelves June 5th, 2016

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.  So, school has been out for two weeks now. And it doesn't seem like time is slowing down!  I did have more time to sleep in, but still seems like there was something going on every day.  I haven't done a Sunday post for two weeks either, because I was out of town last weekend, and then did an end of month post on the last day of the month.  So, here are the things that you might have missed the last two weeks on my blog.

Last two weeks on the blog:

• Promo post - Resolution: Huck Finn's Greatest Adventure by Andrew Joyce
• Waiting on Wednesday:  Nothing More by Anna Todd, and The Swan Riders (Prisoners of Peace #2) by Erin Bow
• Cover Characteristic:  Only the Back of People and Benches
• Reviews - Exile for Dreamers (Stranje House #2) by Kathleen Baldwin (blog tour and giveaway), The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye, 5 NA free/cheap ebooks, and Shadows/Opposition (Lux series #0.5, #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Audiobook Reviews - Until Fountain Bridge (On Dublin Street #1.5) and Down London Road (On Dublin Street #2) by Samantha Young, Lady Renegades (Rebel Belle #3) by Rachel Hawkins, and Faking It (Losing It #2) by Cora Carmack
• May end of the month wrap up post

Once again I've downloaded a bunch of free books on Kindle and have been reading through them quickly.  It's nice when I'm out with family, like when I was in Branson last weekend, and I can read  whenever I feel like I'm not part of the conversation, etc.  However I do need to go cancel my Kindle Unlimited trial subscription today so that I don't get charged for it.  It's nice, but don't really need to spend the money.  I did reach my walking goal two weeks ago, but I haven't purchased my reward for that yet.  I'm thinking a pair of Tom's. Although I need to pick what pair I want!  And have the money.  This coming week, starting today, I'll be changing my goal to 3 times a week with walking 3 miles each time.  And if I can do this until the end of July, I'll have to come up with another reward.  Maybe the Alta Fitbit.  Not sure.  Will have to think on it.

My vacation in Branson over Memorial Day weekend was nice.  Although a couple of the nights I had to share a room with my mom and stepdad.  So now I'm looking forward to my "me" vacation at the end of June when I'll be staying in a friend's condo in Fort Collins, Colorado for 3 or 4 days by myself.  I plan to do lots of reading, and lots of writing, and with no dogs, it should be heaven.  I've never driven that far by myself either. So I'm a bit nervous about that. But I'm also looking forward to all the time to listen to audiobooks in the car.  Which is good, because the drive on I-70 through Kansas gets pretty boring the further west you get.

This week on the blog:

• 2016 Debut Authors Bash featuring Janet B. Taylor, author of Into the Dim
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Blog Tour and Review:  Vanquished by S.E. Green
• Audiobook review:  Rome (Marked Men #3) by Jay Crownover
• Review:  Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• Cover Characteristic:  lipstick

Now, the Debut Author post is looking like it won't quite be as planned. The author might be having a family emergency, so at the moment it may just be a quick promo post, and then I'll get the author's other parts for the post on a later date.  Next Friday-Sunday is the first annual "B-Fest" at Barnes and Noble, which is hopefully going to be a yearly teen event like Y'all Fest, etc.  We didn't get any really big authors for my store this year, but we do have a couple, one of which I bought her book last night and hope to get read before she is at the store a week from today.  I'll be working at my Barnes and Noble every day of the weekend so that I can help out with all the events.  The store kind of thinks of me as their "teen book expert" and I do love those books, so I'm excited for it!

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  When last week ended, I thought I was going to have a nice small stack, even with a lot of ebooks.  However, when I got back to work at the bookstore on Tuesday, I realized it was our summer employee appreciation days, and we got 40% off books instead of our normal 30%.  So, let's just say my pile of physical books got bigger.

Physical Books:

The books above are all ones that I purchased this week.  The ones standing up are ones I haven't read before.  The 2nd one over, Minutes Before Sunset, is one of the authors that will be at our store next weekend.  The one on the bottom, Down London Road, I have listened to already on audiobook, but I needed to own it for when I meet the author in September.  I'll probably actually listen to the audiobook of Rowdy when I get that far in the series, but I will need to own it for an autograph, and it was the only one we had on the shelf during our employee appreciation days.  And the other two are in series that I've already started.

These are also books that I bought during out employee appreciation days, but I wanted to share them separately because they are all from the bargain section.  Now I've already read Confess, but I loved it, and need to own it. The second one just looked good, and the last two are an author that will be the NOLA Story Con in September, and I've already read one of her books, so may as well get these bargain ones!

Two new coloring books.  I had really wanted to buy them before I went down to Branson, but didn't have the money then. And of course, with the 40% off I had to buy them.

The first book, Sojourn by Tara Dawn, I won from a giveaway on Goodreads.  The next two books were trades.  The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost is one I had wanted to get when I went to BEA 2014, but didn't get. And now the author is also going to be at NOLA Story Con, so I need it to read and get signed!  I've already read/listened to Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover, but again, I loved it, and want to own it.  And finally, Ashes (Seeds of America #3) by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Now I think I'm going to end up with two copies of this one.  It was one of the books I really, really wished I had gone to BEA this year for.  I've loved the first two books in this trilogy, and have been waiting so long for this one.  This copy came from my OTSP Secret Sister, who with the clues she gave me, I now know is Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction.  And shortly before this arrived, I had just traded on Twitter for this very book.  Let's don't talk about that trade though.  I made a big boo-boo and sent the book I was trading to the wrong person. Fortunately that person is being great and forwarding it on to the right address for me.  Thanks goes to Sara at A Gingerly Review. 

E-galleys:

 The first one is from Edelweiss.  The second two I got for tours that I'm on, although I think I may already have Girl in the Shadows from Netgalley.  The bottom two are from Netgalley, books I got approved for, or am part of a tour for.

Free or cheap ebooks:

This is going to be too many!  But here we go!

Yeah, that is way too many, I know.  So, the top 3 came from the actual authors.  The bottom three were Nook books from Barnes and Noble. All of the rest are Kindle books.  But a few may have been part of my Kindle Unlimited subscription, so I may not have them anymore after I cancel the membership.

Yeah, way too many books this week, I know.  But hey, books are my crack!  So, what books did you add to your shelves this week?

Review: Shadows/Opposition (Lux series #0.5, #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Book Info:
Title:  Shadows/Opposition
Author:  Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series:  Lux series
Genre:  YA Science Fiction/Romance
Published:  August 5th, 2014
Format:  Purchased

 This book I had to buy in order to finally finish the Lux series.  Especially with the cliffhanger at the end of book 4, Origin.  Obviously my standard warning will occur here before you read too much further.  If you haven't read all of the books that come before this one in the series, I definitely can't promise no spoilers for those in this review of the final book in the series.  So, if you haven't read the last book, click its link above.  If you haven't started this series at all yet, you can go HERE to read my review of the first book in the series.  Now, on with my review of the final book, followed by a mini-review of the little novella included at the end of this edition of the book.

When we left off in book 4, Daemon and the other Luxen had to kind of go public, in order to help get them away from Daedalus.  But it seems as if bringing this attention out has also brought Luxen from other places to Earth.  And at the end of the book 4, Daemon, Dawson, Dee, and all the other Luxen that Katy know just walk off towards where these other Luxen have appeared, leaving Katy and the rest of their group wondering what is going on.  We found out that Dawson's girlfriend Bethany was pregnant.  At first the humans aren't quite sure what to make of the Luxen that have arrived. That is until they start killing humans.  Taking over their bodies.  They learn this is how it can be done if it hadn't been done the way Daemon and his family had done when they first arrived. 

Well, when Katy and Archer and the others they are with go to a grocery store to try to get supplies, they are attacked by the Luxen in the store.  One of the Luxen is Dawson.  Dawson stuns Katy, and she is taken back to the location where the Luxen are all staying, even Daemon and Dee.  But Dee seems to have bought into the whole plan put out by these new Luxen, to the point that she turns her back on Katy, and would hurt her if asked.  Daemon acts that way at first, but once he gets Katy alone, he shows her that he was just putting on a show.  He and Dawson have been able to block the other Luxen from their thoughts so far, keeping themselves in the game, while not actually being on their side. 

It turns out that the Luxen intend to completely take over the Earth, and they care nothing about the humans there.  Not only that, but there seem to be no weapons that can defeat them.  Other than something Archer knows about from Daedalus.  So when the big plan is about to be enacted, Daemon must try to save Katy, and in the end, they must turn to Daedalus as possibly the only ones that can save the Earth. 

There is of course all the suspense on if they will be able to get the Luxen out of power, as well as if they will be able to bring Dee back, or if she will have to be taken out with the others.  I like the way it ended.  There are sad parts of course, some people that we love will die, but in the end, it will go the best way that it can.

Now, at the end of the book, there is a novella that tells Dawson's story before Katy showed up.  How he met and fell in love with Bethany, and what really happened when they disappeared. I really enjoyed Shadows, it was wonderful to get a look at these other characters' back story.

Five New Adult Free/Cheap E-book Mini-Reviews

Once again I've decided to do a quick post for a bunch of e-books that I downloaded for free or cheap, and then read very quickly.  A lot of these are pretty risque, and that is probably what makes them pretty quick reads.  I'll do little reviews for each one like I did the last time I did one of these types of posts last month.

At Any Price (Gaming the System #1) by Brenna Aubrey:

This was a pretty quick read, but had a lot of emotional parts to it.  It had a lot of the sexy scenes, although in a way there was quite the build-up and then you were left hanging each time the two main characters almost got to the actual consummation of their relationship, and the purpose of the contract and reason they came together in the first place.  I liked the story enough that when I saw the boxed set of it, plus the next two in the series, was really cheap, I went ahead and purchased it, even though I already had this one.  I'll review the next two books in the series below.  Here's the synopsis for this one from Goodreads:
Achievement Unlocked: Geek Virgin

When Mia Strong, proud geek-girl and popular gaming blogger, auctions off her virginity online, she knows she'll make waves. But what she will not be making is a love connection. Her rules are set in stone: One night. No further contact.

It's a desperate step, but it's the only way she can go to medical school and pay her mother's mounting hospital bills.

Difficulty Level: Millionaire CEO

Adam Drake, the enigmatic auction winner, is a software prodigy who made his first million at seventeen. Now, in his mid-twenties, he's sexy, driven and--as CEO of his own gaming company--he's used to making the rules. Before Mia knows what's happening, he's found the loophole in the rules of her auction. Every stipulation she's made to protect her heart gets tossed by the wayside.

She can't tell if he's playing her...or if he's playing for keeps. 

Played:  A Gaming the System Boxed Set (Gaming the System #1-3) by Brenna Aubrey:

So I was able to just skip ahead to the 2nd story because I'd already finished the first one.  Let me tell you, book two is really crazy.  Adam and Mia seem to be getting along well, until she goes to see about medical school, and she wants to go away to a place away from where Adam lives.  This puts a bit of a rift between them.  And then something happens and Mia really begins to pull away from Adam.  It was crazy.  I hated that this book was told from Adam's viewpoint, because I needed to know what was going on with Mia!  Here is the blurb for book 2 - At Any Turn from Goodreads:

So You Want to Be a Hero?

Millionaire CEO Adam Drake, overcame a tortured past to build his own gaming empire. He’s in complete control of his life. With his new found love for brilliant geek girl blogger, Mia Strong, the last piece of his life is in place. He's at the top of his game.

Your Princess Is in Another Castle.

Until suddenly, she withdraws from him, leaving him in the dark. Something tells him she needs help. But she's too stubborn or scared to ask for it, and the more he tries to take control, the further he pushes her away. He can’t solve this problem by writing a check or a few lines of code.

He’ll have to dig deep and put himself at risk…or risk losing her forever.

And then we have the third book. So heart-wrenching.  What Mia must go through. But I like that this book gives us both of their points of view.  I cried so much in this book, but love how it all turned out, and love how we get some epilogues at the end, and also get a look at the next book in the series, with the other characters.  I also have to say that even though I am not a big video game person, I love how the story stays on top of the video game story that kind of brought all our characters together at the beginning.   Here is the blurb for At Any Moment from Goodreads:

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone!

Mia Strong never expected to be deciding the rest of her life at age twenty-two. Is she willing to become a human lab rat? Does she need to write a will? Does she ever want a family--and if so, with whom? She can't dodge the tough questions--not if she plans to live to see twenty-three. With her life hanging in the balance, Mia wants nothing more than to rely on Adam Drake, but he’s hurt her before.

You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth…

Adam Drake knows that he's made mistakes, but when he discovers what Mia's facing, he realizes how much those mistakes could cost him. Now he has to choose between being the man who can save Mia's life or the man she can love. No matter how much it tears him apart, Adam knows he has to put Mia first...even if it means he's out of the picture entirely.

Will their love survive this epic battle or is it game over?

Coerced:  Blackmailed by the Billionaire (Buchanan Romance #1) by Alexx Andria:

So, I haven't read the other books that came before this, that I guess have the cousins of the main character, the billionaire, in this book.  Overall I wasn't thrilled with this one.  The sex scenes were pretty good for the most part, but it was really hard to like the guy.  He was pretty much a creep.  And even though I know he is supposed to be a "hot" billionaire, in my head I just kept kind of picturing him as a creepy, old, bald guy.  Not sure why, probably just because of how he was portrayed in the story.  I gave it three stars on Goodreads, because I kept reading just to see how it would end. But, I don't know that I'll go on with any others in the series, or in the series before.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Nobody says no to billionaire Sutton Buchanan.

Nobody with a survival instinct or an ounce of common sense, anyway.

That’s because he’s a cruel, ruthless bastard who will stop at nothing to get what he wants – including the curvy blonde artist who just gave him the brush-off.

Elizabeth Downing is desperate and time is running out. Her one chance at landing an exhibition at the Covington Art Museum has been shot down in flames. The shy, insecure artist can’t give her art away, much less sell it. How was she going to continue supporting her disabled sister, without selling off a kidney?
 
Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her family tragedy is Sutton’s opportunity. Sutton makes Elizabeth a shocking offer that no good man would ever suggest. But Sutton has never pretended to be a good man.

Now he’s going to own her — body and soul.

He’s going to push past her limits.

He’s going to see where her breaking point is.

But he won’t make the same mistake his cousins made by falling in love with his plaything.

Elizabeth’s about to find out, the words “love” and “mercy” aren’t in Sutton Buchanan’s vocabulary.

Flawed Perfection (Beautifully Flawed #1) by Cassandra Giovanni:

This book was a good story for sure.  Although there wasn't quite the sexy scenes that I really kind of look for in these types of stories, which since it is listed as a "clean" NA romance, I guess that makes sense.  You had horrible parents, both the guys and the girls.  You had two brothers that were best friends with the main girl.  One that loved her, one that she loved, but she didn't think loved her back.  And when things change, well let's just say that there is a mess.  Much worse than I thought it would be.  And the way it ends, wow.  I'm ready for the next one, even though I know how sad I'll be with it.  Here is the blurb for this one from Goodreads:
Bobby Beckerson is the American All-Star hockey player—he’s the spitting image of perfection to his family. Goofy, sweet and undeniably gorgeous, he has everything but the one girl he wants: River Ahlers.

River Ahlers is successful in everything but love. She's been in love with Adam Beckerson since they were kids. Worst of all she's stuck right in the middle of the brothers dueling over everything and anything, and she doesn't even know she's the ultimate prize.

Adam Beckerson is a boy with a guitar, a smile that sinks girls' hearts and a stone wall around his own. He’s anything but perfect, and no matter how hard he tries he’s nothing compared to Bobby. Sweet, damaged, with boyish good-looks, nobody thinks Adam loves anyone but himself.

Bobby loves River, River loves Adam and Adam only loves himself--or so everyone thinks. One night everything changes, and as it threatens to destroy everyone involved a tragedy strikes that will break them all...

Cover Characteristic: Benches

The Cover Characteristic meme is hosted at  Sugar and Snark.   Here are the guidelines:

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite covers with that characteristic. If you want to join in and share your 5 favorite covers with the weeks particular characteristic, then just make a post, grab the meme picture (or make your own) and leave your URL in Linky (so we can visit).
You don’t even need to participate, just stopping by and saying hi would be great! Don’t forget to stop by the other participants!

Another hard week!  But it was easy in that there were two that I thought of right off the top of my head.  Here they are in order of least favorite to favorite!

5.  This one is kind of stretching for a bench, it's more bleachers, but I thought it could be a bench.

 4.  This one is also maybe a stretch.

3.  

2.  Now this one would have been my favorite if I hadn't read the one that is my favorite.

1.  And my favorite, probably because the cover is what grabbed my attention to read it in the first place.

What do you think of my choices? Do the first two count in your opinion?  Do you like my favorites?
 

Audiobook Review: Faking It (Losing It #2) by Cora Carmack

Book info:
Title:  Faking It
Author:  Cora Carmack
Series:  Losing It
Genre:  New Adult Contemporary Romance
Published:  June 4th, 2013

This was my latest audiobook that I downloaded digitally from my public library.  I started reading/listening to this author because she is going to be at the NOLA Story Con I'm going to in September.  And this will be another book that I'll have to own so that I can get it signed when I get to meet her!  You don't have to have read the first book, Losing It, to enjoy this one however. The main character in Faking It, Cade, was a best friend of the main character in the first book though, so you do get a little bit of background on him from the first book if you would like.  

As I said, the main character is Cade.  He is working on an advanced degree in acting, and has recently moved to Philadelphia.  The same place that his best friend/crush moved to with her boyfriend, their former teacher.  He knows that he has to get over Bliss, but doesn't really know how to do it.  He's just had coffee with Bliss and her boyfriend Garrick, and is sitting in the coffee shop alone, when fate sends the other main character, Mackenzie, or Max as she prefers to be called, into his life.

Max is a bit of a rebel.  She's in a band, and dates guys with names like Mace.  She's in the coffee shop with Mace, when she gets a phone call from her parents saying that they have dropped into town to surprise her for Thanksgiving.  Max usually has time to prepare for seeing her parents, cover her tattoos, change her hair color, take out her piercings.  But as her parents are just about to show up at the coffee shop, she has to come up with something quick.  She tells Mace she'll have to keep him away from her parents, and he goes away, definitely okay with  not having to meet parents.  She sees Cade sitting at a table, and he looks exactly like the clean-cut type of guy her parents would love.  And this is where they have their "meet-cute".  

Max asks Cade to pretend to be her fake boyfriend just for the day, long enough to show her parents and help keep them off her back.  It takes a more permanent turn when they invite Cade to come to Max's apartment to share their dinner.  Which Cade is fine with, as it gives him an excuse to not go to Bliss's house for dinner and have to watch her be happy with Garrick.  

As you might expect, there is more than just the fake relationship between Cade and Max.  Both of them feel an attraction to each other.  Max fights it more than Cade, though.  She fights it enough that when their friendship might be able to become more, it sends her running away from Cade, trying to keep anything from going any further.  At least until she gets a bit of an ultimatum from her parents that could mess up her plans to continue with her band.  Her band that is getting close to possibly taking off.  All of this will require an extension of their pretend relationship, and will lead Cade to help Max face some things in her past that she really needs to figure out and help move on with her life.  

Once again I fell in love with the characters.  The bit from Max's past totally made me cry, and made a great emotional aspect for the story.  Once again I'm going to greatly recommend this author's book!

Waiting on Wednesday: The Swan Riders (Prisoners of Peace #2) by Erin Bow

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  The book I had picked I decided not to do because I just got an ARC of it in the mail. So instead I picked the next book on my list for WOW posts that had a cover to share.  I really enjoyed the first book in the series, The Scorpion Rules. So now I'm interested in seeing where this goes next.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Greta Stuart has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world.

But the new technology is also killing her.

Greta is only sixteen years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he’s done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis’s plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Greta, people who want to change the world…and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear…

Have you read the first one in this series yet?  What do you think about this one?  I think it sounds like a great extension of the story.

What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?