Stacking The Shelves is a weekly event hosted by Tynga’s Reviews that shares the books (both physical and virtual) that you recently purchased, borrowed from a fellow reader or the library, won from a giveaway, or received as gifts. Stacking The Shelves will post on Saturdays as new books are added to my shelves.
I don’t normally get ARCs because I’m so busy catching up on previously published books I haven’t read yet. (Plus, I don’t have an e-reader, and I’ve been told that it’s more difficult to get print ARCs.) But these two beauties arrived in the mail in the past week, and I can’t tell you how EXCITED I was / am to read them, especially since they’re two of my most anticipated 2015 books. 😀 Here they are!
(NOTE: I delayed this STS post a day to give enough time to highlight my first two DIY MFA articles covering Writer’s Digest Conference 2015.)
Top row, from left to right:
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (YA Fantasy / Thriller): If you enjoyed Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy, you might already know about this YA heist fantasy set in the same fictional world. I’ve only read Shadow and Bone so far, so I was going to hold off on Six of Crows until I’d read the other two Grisha novels. But when Rebekah @ Worldbuilding and Wordsmithing offered to send me her ARC, I couldn’t say “no.” (Thanks, Rebekah!) I should be finished with Six of Crows by the time this post goes live – and it’s SO GOOD. It definitely fits the “Game of Thrones meets Ocean’s 11” tagline, and is 100% worthy of the hype it’s received. And that’s coming from someone who’s wary of hype bandwagons. 😉
The Violinist of Venice by Alyssa Palombo (Historical Fiction / Romance): Another yet-to-be-published 2015 book that I’ve been itching to read, mostly because I know Alyssa. We met at a messageboard for the rock band Evanescence over 10 years ago (yikes!), and bonded over shared loves of writing, read, music, and the Boston Red Sox. Then we fell out of touch for a while… until last summer, when I stumbled across Alyssa’s book deal for The Violinist of Venice. (And freaked out,of course, because I was so happy for her!) So, a big thank-you to Alyssa for offering one of her extra ARCs for review.
What books did you recently buy or acquire? Have you read or are planning to read of the books discussed above? Feel free to share your opinions and most recent hauls by commenting below.
Sara Letourneau 
Six of Crows looks awesome. I may have to check that one out. “Dear OPL” by Shelley Sackier made me reconsider my stance on not reading MG or YA books while I still have so many SFF books on my TBR, and I kinda wanna just binge read for a month or so. It’d be good for my soul. 😀
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It IS awesome! Very gritty and complex, so it has real potential to appeal to older readers as well as teens. I should have a review posted here during the first week of September (under Recent Reads). But you can also find the review on Goodreads right now, too. 😉
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Oooh I’m so excited to read Six of Crows. That ARC seems to be tough to get, so congrats! I hope you review it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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I will! The review is actually up on Goodreads already, but it will be included in the next Recent Reads edition, which should post during the first week of September. 😉
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Six of Crows!!! I’m very curious about that one. Not too many YA novels make it onto my watch list these days, but that one is definitely one I want to check out. I really liked her Grisha trilogy, even if ti did slowly go downhill after the first book.
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Six of Crows is AWESOME. I’ve still only read Shadow and Bone from the Grisha Trilogy so far, but I thought Six of Crows was grittier, more complex, and overall a more masterful story than S&B. Of course, that’s just the shortened version of my “review.” 😉
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I’m so happy for Alyssa! I “met” her on Twitter and goodreads before it was published. The cover is beautiful, and I love the title.
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The blurb for Six of Crows was *gasp* actually accurate. I’ll have to go read your Goodreads review. I’ve been so crazy busy that I’ve hardly read/written anything (or been online). But I really did love Six of Crows, and now I’m waiting for it to come out so I can enthusiastically attempt to sell it to all the people.
*We met at a messageboard for the rock band Evanescence over 10 years ago (yikes!)*
–Cracked me up. Funny how life goes. And how long ago that actually was-second the “yikes!”
Those messageboards!
This isn’t my usual book genre, but your little teaser intrigued me, so good going 😛
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The blurb is awesomely accurate for Six of Crows. (I can’t stand it when the blurb implies a story that’s different from what’s actually contained in the book.) Are you planning to read the Grisha Trilogy in the future?
Historical romance isn’t my usual fare either, but I’d be silly to not read something that a friend wrote. 🙂 Plus, I like that the protagonist is musically inclined. I’ll definitely review TVoV here once I’ve read it!
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Basically every book I’ve picked up is “[insert popular franchise here]” meets “Game of Thrones.” GoT is popular – but a lot of titles I’ve picked up didn’t really say GoT to me at all . . . I suppose this is usually the case though, lol.
*nods* yes, must support the friends, because they are awesome. Musically inclined protagonists delight me (I am the least musically gifted person I know!). I look forward to reading your review 🙂
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