April Book Haul

I’ve done really well with my book buying ban for this year, but with quarantine driving me crazy, I needed to do some serious retail therapy so I bought some books! I’ve also been buying kindle books, but since I’m getting them so cheap I haven’t counted that as buying books. Really, my book ban was more for physical books because I’m running out of room! So today I’ll be sharing both the physical books and e-books that I’ve gotten in the past few months.

Physical Books

Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven – This is a book I’ve seen on social media quite a lot recently, and with the mood that I’ve been in for fantasy romance, when I saw this on Book Outlet I knew it was perfect timing! This follows a witch who gets sacrificed every year but survives because of her fire magic and a gladiator slave who wants to use her to free himself and claim his birthright.

Blood of an Exile by Brian Naslund – Not gonna lie – I decided to buy this book because Holly from HollyHeartsBooks showed it off in a book haul and she made it sound so good that I wanted to get it myself! This follows a dragon slayer who gets the chance to free himself from his situation by killing a foreign emperor. I’m expecting lots of dragons and lots of action scenes from this one!

Even the Darkest Stars & All the Wandering Light by Heather Fawcett – This series (duology?) showed up on Book Outlet I decided to go for it, especially after I found out that there are dragons in this series! Once I heard that I didn’t need any other reason to buy this, so all I really know other than that is that it’s about a group of explorers who go on an expedition into the mountains to spy on the enemies of the empire, but other than that I’m not sure what will happen in this book!

Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Perez – Sweet Black Waves is the first book in this series (which I haven’t read yet) but I mean, why not get the second book when it’s on sale??? This is a retelling of Tristan and Iseult (which I’ve also never read, does that surprise anyone though?) and I love retellings, so I have hopes that I’ll like the first book enough to continue!

Stormrise by Jillian Boehme – This book was on one of my anticipated releases lists so when it showed up on Book Outlet I immediately added it to my cart! The synopsis says this is inspired by Twelfth Night, and a lot of reviews are saying it feels a lot like Mulan with dragons. If this haul is showing anything about me, it’s that I can’t resist a book with dragons!

In the Shadow of the Sun by E. M. Castellan – This was partially a cover buy, but I also recognized it from one of my anticipated releases posts so when it showed up (again) on Book Outlet, I snapped it up! This one is historical fiction with magic set in France, and I believe the main character has to help the King and help build the magical Palace of Versailles.

Child of a Mad God & Reckoning of Fallen Gods by R. A. Salvatore – This was a series that I wasn’t planning on reading because I had seen a few…not so great reviews for the first book, but then I (again) saw Holly from HollyHeartsBooks rave about this series as a whole, and when she compared it to skyrim I was SOLD. I think by this time it’s clear that I’ll give anything that Holly likes a shot because we do tend to have similar tastes when it comes to adult fantasy!

The Witchwood Crown & Empire of Grass by Tad Williams – Hi it’s me – the girl who buys two books in a follow up series for a series she hasn’t read yet! You know those authors that you just have this feeling that you’ll love their books, even though you’ve never read anything by them before? That’s Tad Williams for me. I have the first series Memory, Sorrow & Thorn to read, but I couldn’t stop myself when I saw the first two books in the follow up series in hardcover on Book Outlet!

The Binding by Bridget Collins– This was another book that was kind of a cover buy, but was also one that I had my eye on previously. This is one of the few physical books that I got this month that I bought full price, which I think is a major win for me! This is a standalone fantasy about magical book binders who can help people get rid of memories  by binding them into a book. The premise sounded interesting so I decided to give it a shot!

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson – This was completely an impulse buy. I had seen Larson’s other book, The Devil in the White City before and was intrigued by it, and then I walked past this one while I was out shopping and remembered that one of my goals for this year is to read more nonfiction, and I know absolutely nothing about Churchill (living in America the schools don’t really focus on other countries history) so I wanted to learn more! I do like a lot of fiction set around WWII, so I think I would enjoy the nonfiction too.

The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore – This was another nonfiction book that caught my eye because I find the story of the Romanovs so interesting and tragic, but a lot of what I “know” comes from conspiracy theories and animated movies. (Anastasia anyone?) I’ve seen a few people talk about how crazy the real story of this family is, and I’m definitely intrigued!

Soul Keeper & Raven Caller by David Dalglish – This is a series that I’ve had my eye on since the first book was released, and then the publisher reached out to me asking if I would want to review the second book and ended up sending me finished copies of books 1 AND 2! I didn’t expect that and I’m so greatful! Once I get back into the mood to read fantasy, I plan on trying this series out to see what I think. This follows a warrior priest who has to become a monster slayer after a dragon opens a portal (or something like that) for magic and monsters to come into the world.

E-Books

Fortuna Sworn by K.J Sutton – To make this go a little faster, I’m gonna give shorter blurbs for each book. This is a book I got because I’ve heard it compared to SJM and it sounded interesting, but it does come with some trigger warnings which I’ve pulled from the goodreads page: “This novel contains scenes or themes of toxic relationships, forced marriage, slavery, sex, violence, and gore.”

Between the Sea and Stars by Chantal Gadoury – This is a little mermaid retelling that was written by an author who is fairly local to me, so I wanted to give it a go and support her! I already finished this one, it was pretty good and was a quick read.

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout – I’ve been seeing this one all over instagram lately so I finally looked up the synopsis, and it sounded really interesting! It’s about a girl who is chosen as a Maiden, which means she cannot be touched, looked at, spoken to, etc. and then from what I can see, her life is put in jeopardy by a fallen kingdom that is coming back into power.

Crave by Tracy WolffCrave by Tracy Wolff– Yes, I fell for the hype on this new vampire story. It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything about vampires that I’ve enjoyed, so I’m hoping that I like this one. And the design of the cover definitely shows that they are trying to compare this book to Twilight and back in the day that was one of the best vampire books I had read so I’m hoping this is similar, but better!

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell– I’m expecting this book to break my heart and make me feel all sorts of emotions and hit close to home. This follows a girl who has a relationship with her teacher and has a TON of gaslighting in it. I’m about 60% in so far, and what I’m learning is that in some past relationships that I’ve had, men have used some of the same techniques and phrases that this teacher uses so it’s opening my eyes to the fact that it’s quite possible I was gaslighted in some of my relationships. Definitely not to the extent of the main character in this book though.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grant – Do I know anything about this book other than what it says on the cover? No. Do I need to know more than that? Also no. The birth of the FBI sounds like an interesting topic and I want to read more nonfiction, so here we are.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – I’ve never read this series before and I know a lot of people like this, so when it showed up as a daily deal for Kindle I decided to try it. This is only book one so it’s only 208 pages long which I’m really surprised about because I thought it was much longer!

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa – I honestly have no other reason for getting this other than it was a daily deal for Kindle and I know that this is a well-loved series! I know that this has fae in it but other than that I don’t really know too much more.

Witchsign by Den Patrick – I was really excited when I saw that this book was a daily deal because I’ve added it to my amazon cart so many times, but I kept finding reasons to not buy it. The main reason I want to read this is because it has dragons in it and magic (or witchsign) is banished and any children who are shown to have magic are taken to an Academy to learn to master their powers.

Indexing by Seanan Mcguire – I’m slowly learning about Seanan Mcguire’s other books, and this is one that I never knew about but sounds interesting! This is an urban fantasy about fairy tales where an agency has to protect the world from fairy tales and it sounds really interesting and unique!

ARCs

Dark Skies by Danielle L Jensen – I loved the first book in this series Dark Shores so when Dark Skies popped up on Netgalley I requested it and got approved! This world totally feels like the Roman empire meets Pirates of the Caribbean, with some vengeful gods thrown in, and a hate to love romance!

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant – Every time I see this title, I think of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the court of miracles in it! This book is in fact set in Paris in the criminal underground during the French Revolution, so my comparison isn’t too bad. It’s also described as Les Miserables meets Six of Crows which sounds really interesting!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab– Can you believe that I was actually approved for an e-arc of this book? Because I can’t! The early reviews coming in for this are all raving about it, and it’s Schwab so of course it will be brilliant!

The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson – I absolutely adored the first book and how Thia’s depression was shown, and the idea of giant magical crows is just fantastic! I love the hate to love romance that was brewing in the first book and I’m so excited to see where things go with this book!

That’s it for most of the books I got in April! There are a few more e-books that I’ve gotten, but let’s be honest – this post is long enough as it is and I don’t feel like spending any longer typing everything out!

What books have you gotten in April? I’d love to know so I can add everything to my TBR!