Kitties & Pretties is my version of the various weekend book haul show-off memes such as Stacking The Shelves, The Sunday Showcase, In My Mailbox, Owl Post, etc. It goes like this: I set up and arrange the various books I’ve received lately, wait for one of my curious kitties to come investigate, then start snapping pictures. Or I let my husband pick up Winky, my blog mascot, put her in a bag (she likes being carried around in a bag – she’s weird and awesome like that) and place her on the table next to said book haul. Which is what happened above. 🙂
(Kitties & Pretties is free for anyone to use, with a link back to my blog)
So. Guys. I won A TON of books in 2013, courtesy of my new found obsession: stalking following book blogs. I know that normal people post their book haul weekly, but since I didn’t get into blogging myself until close to the end of 2013, and seeing as I still want to show off thank all the awesome bloggers who gifted me these books, I hereby present my 2013 Kitties & Pretties Overview!
We’ll start with the books I got for myself, during the first half of the year. Bought with a combination of Christmas gift cards and the weekly online bargains at BooksAMillion. Wink is taking her duty as Official Book Presenter very seriously.
Books obtained include:
The Selection and The Elite by Keira Cass
The Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano
The Matched trilogy by Ally Condie
The Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare
Beta by Rachel Cohn
Blood Magic by Tessa Graton
Immortal by Gillian Shields
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Lost Voices by Sarah Porter
Sweep: Volume 1 by Cate Tiernan
The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston
The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
Next I’ll showcase the books I won during the first part of the year from awesome generous bloggers, authors and publishers. Wink is generously voting for The Adoration of Jenna Fox with her total adorableness.
Books won include:
The Jenna Fox Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson
The Testing and Indepedent Study by Joelle Charbonneau
Every Other Day and Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Cinder & Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy
The Program by Suzanne Young
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Mermother: An Account of What Happened In The Sea by Elizabeth Jane Wolfe
Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem by Melissa Lemon
Marking Time by April White
Winky’s tail and I also felt the need to point out how freaking awesome it is that I won a personalized copy of Incarnate by Jodi Meadows!
Yes, my first name is Julia. Rain Jeys is my pen name, though it’s also my middle/maiden name. 🙂
During the first half of the year, I also won Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley and Reaper by L.S. Murphy. I have to just use the Goodreads image, since I’ve lent both books out. 🙂
Next we have the awesomeness that awaited me when I arrived at my new house (well, kind of new – I lived here with my Grama as a kid) in California. After a certain date, I just had any books I won sent to my new address and my mom collected them into a book pile for me. Here they all are, lined up beautifully on the shelf of my new housewarming-gifted bookshelf!
Books awaiting me included:
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
A Darkness Strange & Lovely by Susan Dennard
Of Beast & Beauty by Stacey Jay
Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
Plague in the Mirror by Deborah Noyes
Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakely-Cartwright (and the movie!)
Also awaiting me in California was this unexpected present
I have no idea who gave it to me, but thank you!
Shortly after arriving in California, my amazing husband purchased these beauties for me
This next pile is displayed by my adorable assistant, Captain Jack (yes, Harkness), who seems to wish me to read The Burning Sky next.
I kind of forgot to divide these into piles (I was distracted by Jack’s immense cuteness!), but anyway:
The Sea Inside by Vickie Johnstone (won from the author’s blog)
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund (purchased)
The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas (purchased)
Marked, Betrayed, Chosen &Untamed by P.C. & Kristen Cast (gift from my husband)
And here is Vinnie, from atop his favorite perch, on top of the bookcase, and never too far from his penguin robe, to present the first book I’ve ever won from a Goodreads giveaway!
The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson
I was lucky enough to have won the grand prize for the Indelible giveaway, which was this beautiful real copper rose (as in a rose – coated in copper) and a feather quill, ink and inkwells. Gorgeous.
Vinnie says we need a close-up of the copper rose
I didn’t win the actual book though! Even though I really want to read it!
It would take half my life to thank each individual blogger for each individual book here (especially since I’m still typing one-handed), so instead I shall list each blog and author here. Thank you so much!
I Love to Read and Review Books
2013 was definitely the year of books, but I want 2014 to be even better! So I’m off now to read some more. Tell me your thoughts in the comments. Have you read any of these? Do you want to? Any you especially recommend? Some I’ve read already and some I haven’t. Either way, I love your input. Thanks for reading!