April Book Haul

It's a bit amusing that I bought as many books in March and April combined that I bought in only February. There is an obvious reason for the easing up on buying and reading books for myself this month...namely Camp NaNoWriMo. That's why July will probably be a book-lite month as well. Still, though, I did purchase twelve books this month, mostly of the e-book variety.

I did not buy a single hardcover, but I did pick up three paperbacks, and strangely enough I bought those at the grocery store while picking up what I needed for my work lunches.

Anyway...here we go.

Okay, so I have had Timebound by Rysa Walker on my to-read list for a couple years now. It was the winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2012 and it sounded like an interesting time travel story. I've read about half of the book so far and I am really enjoying it. We the readers get dumped into the whole concept of time travel at the same time as the main character so we get to learn as she does, which is really nice. In fact, I'm enjoying this book so much that the sequel will be one of my purchases in May.

Second on the list is The Originals: The Rise by Julie Plec. This is a bit different because it is an adventure from the show that we don't get to see in flashback. Executive Producer Julie Plec has penned three novels that give us new insight to the Mikaelson family when they were in New Orleans in the 1700s. So instead of having a show or movie based on a book, this is a book based on a television show. I'm looking forward to reading these books, because honestly I've stopped watching The Vampire Diaries, but The Originals continues to impress me...maybe because they are mostly original characters and therefore the source material isn't being shredded for the sake of viewers.

Finally for my paperbacks I have The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks. Don't judge me, you guys. I guess Mr. Sparks is a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, a lot of his stories have numerous similarities, and most of the time the covers (especially the media tie-in covers) tend to all look exactly the same.** (see my pic below if you don't believe me). But I still get sucked into these books and I'll laugh and cry with the couple as they go through their journey together and apart. Plus, I've seen the trailer for this, and I won't see the movie before reading the book.

*look at all the couples face-to-face about to kiss*

Well, that's it for the physical books. Now to quickly run through the e-books.

- Empath by Becca J. Campbell
- Once Loved by Cecy Robson
- The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan
- The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr
- Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep
- Hunt by Rachel Vincent
- A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard
- Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard
- Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones

Empath was either really cheap or free and I do enjoy seeing how authors handle characters with empathic abilities, so this sounds interesting. I have read Cecy Robson's Weird Girls series, and Once Loved is the second book in a contemporary romance series she is writing as well. I picked it up for 0.99 so it's an easy purchase to make. The Faerie Guardian was free, and I do enjoy reading books involving the Fae/faeries. Recently I have been enjoying twists on classic stories with original characters thrown in, and The Diabolical Miss Hyde follows the daughter of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, plus it was on sale for 1.99! I own practically everything by Jennifer Estep, so when I realized I didn't have the final book in her Mythos Academy series, and that it was only 3.99, I simply had to pick up Killer Frost. It's funny because I have her adult series in paperback, but all her YA in e-book. That happens sometimes. I haven't read any Rachel Vincent in a while, and Hunt is a short-story/novella that leads into the spin-off to her Shifters series so I had to get it. And guys, I devoured the first book in Susan Dennard's Something Strange and Deadly trilogy, so I had to buy A Darkness Strange and Lovely and Strange and Ever After; I have to know what happens next! Finally, I love the Charley Davidson books and the first six books of the series were on sale the other day and the sixth one, Sixth Grave on the Edge was the only on-sale one I didn't own. Book seven is still around $10 for the e-book, so I'll wait a while on that and the eighth book is coming soon and will likely also be fairly pricey.

Well, there you have it...my book haul for the month of April. Because of scheduling it looks like I will have May's book haul post up June 3rd, so stay tuned for more bookish awesomeness.