And here we are again, with another edition of “as the overstuffed bookcase collapses”.  The overstuffed-ness of my stacks is probably going to keep going through June. The “judging year” for the Overachievers’ Book Club ends on Halloween, so things should start slowing down. On my own, I do get more books than I can read, because the tsundoku is strong and the books are shiny, but usually not quite this much!

For Review:
Alias Emma by Ava Glass
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
Always the First to Die by R.J. Jacobs
Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa
Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falade
The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart
The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell
The Codebreaker’s Secret by Sara Ackerman
Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Good Morning, Love by Ashley M. Coleman
The Heroine with 1,001 Faces by Maria Tatar
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson
The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews
How the Wallflower Was Won (Last Chance Scoundrels #2) by Eva Leigh
The Latinist by Mark Prins
The Lost Kings by Tyrell Johnson
Master of Furies (Firemane #3) by Raymond E. Feist
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monoghan
The Old Place by Bobby Finger
The Recovery Agent (Gabriela Rose #1) by Janet Evanovich
The Roguish Baron (Diamonds in the Rough #9) by Sophie Barnes (REVIEW!)
Station Eternity (Midsolar Murders #1) by Mur Lafferty
Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2) by Olivia Atwater
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
Up Against It by Laura J. Mixon
The Yeoman’s Tale (Geoffrey Chaucer Mystery #2) by M.J. Trow

Borrowed from the Library:
House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

Tomorrow’ Sunday Post is going to include a positively demonic picture of George, in the midst of the destruction he has wrought among the empty book boxes. He clearly was having MUCH too good a time. Or perhaps I just get too many books.

Nah, that couldn’t be it. LOL

For Review:
Babel : Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Bluebird by Genevieve Graham
Captain of the Guard (Galactic Kings #3) by Anna Hackett
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Desperate Undertaking (Flavia Albia #10) by Lindsey Davis
The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe
Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1) by Olivia Atwater
High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson
An Indiscreet Princess by Georgie Blalock
Leech by Hiron Ennes
The Lives of Diamond Bessie by Jody Hadlock
Lute by Jennifer Marie Thorne
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
Old Country by Matt Query and Harrison Query
The Oleander Sword (Burning Kingdoms #2) by Tasha Suri
Outside by Ragnar Jonasson
Raven Unveiled (Fallen Empire #3) by Grace Draven
Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste
The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka
The Stardust Thief (Sandsea Trilogy #1) by Chelsea Abdullah (audio)
The Unbalancing (Birdverse) by R.B. Lemberg
Wake by Shelley Burr
Where We End & Begin by Jane Igharo
Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston

Borrowed from the Library:
All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

“So many books, so little time.” I could say that every week – and it would be applicable every time! But there are always a couple or three that I’m looking forward to just that teeniest bit more than the others. And that’s true this time around as well. Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match is giving me a few of the same vibes as The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, and I miss that series a LOT. I’m also more than curious about Uncanny Times by Laura Anne Gilman. I LOVED her Retrievers series, but haven’t connected quite as much with her later work. So I have hope. We’ll see. And Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride just sounds adorable!

For Review:
The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz
Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne
Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer
Catch Her When She Falls by Allison Buccola
City of Orange by David Yoon
Complicit by Winnie M. Li
A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers
Forbidden City by Vanessa Hua
The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy
The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
Growing Up Weightless by John M. Ford
An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy
I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown
Into the Windwracked Wilds (Up-and-Under #3) by A. Deborah Baker
Kalmann by Joachim B. Schmidt
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
The Maid by Nita Prose
Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
Notorious Sorcerer (Burnished City #1) by Davinia Evans
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
Trouble the Water by Rebecca Dwight Bruff
Trust by Hernan Diaz
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Uncanny Times (Huntsmen #1) by Laura Anne Gilman

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

Another tall stack of books in this week’s STS, some of which look even more interesting than usual.  (Not that all books don’t inherently generate at least a tiny bit of interest!) I think the most interesting cover in this bunch probably goes to Legends & Lattes if only in the sense of “who woulda thunk it?” The book I’m most looking forward to, again, not that I’m not looking forward to all of them eventually, but looking forward to immediately as in I’m reading it this weekend, is Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh. I’ve found her Psy-Changeling series interesting but I’ve kind of lost steam with it – or possibly vice versa – with the last couple of entries. But I love her contemporaries – possibly because they’re both excellent and relatively rare. (Rock Hard, which is a precursor to the Hard Play series, is still a big favorite.) And in the “big shoes to fill” category there’s Dead Man’s Hand by James J. Butcher whose urban fantasy protagonist Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is going to have to live up to – or perhaps that’s down to – the reputation of Harry Dresden every bit as much as son James J. will be compared to his dad Jim Butcher.

For Review:
Aftermath by LeVar Burton
Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly
The Book of Sand by Theo Clare AKA Mo Hayder
Dead Man’s Hand (Unorthodox Chronicles #1) by James J. Butcher
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
Front Page Murder (Homefront News #1) by Joyce St. Anthony
Her Name is Knight (Nena Knight #1) by Yasmin Angoe
Holy Terror by Cherie Priest
Hooked by A.C. Wise
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
Kiss Hard (Hard Play #4) by Nalini Singh
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer
The Lunar Housewife by Caroline Woods
The Maker of Swans by Paraic O’Donnell
Midnight Hour by Abby L. Vandiver
The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta
Nobody But Us by Laure Van Rensburg
One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips
A Proposal They Can’t Refuse (Vega Family Love Stories #1) by Natalie Caña
The Reunion by Meghan Quinn
The Serpent in Heaven (Gunnie Rose #4) by Charlaine Harris
The Shadow of the Empire (Judge Dee #1) by Qiu Xiaolong
They Can’t Take Your Name by Robert Justice
They Come at Knight (Nena Knight #2) by Yasmin Angoe

Borrowed from the Library:
Forging a Nightmare by Patricia A. Jackson
Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens
The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

This week’s ginormous stack has more than a few interesting books in it, but there are some I want to point out particularly. First, I’ve already read and reviewed Detroit Kiss and it was just terrific urban fantasy so I’m really glad I picked it up. Two of the titles on this list I think I got just for the title; Saint Death’s Daughter and The Middling Affliction. Come to think of it, The Middling Affliction is also urban fantasy, so I’m sensing a trend. If urban fantasy really is back I’d be delighted. And speaking of delighted, isn’t the cover of In a Garden Burning Gold absolutely gorgeous?

For Review:
Beach House Summer by Sarah Morgan
Dava Shastri’s Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti
Drop Dead Gorgeous by Rachel Gibson
Good Intentions by Kasim Ali
The Honeymoon Cottage by Lori Foster
In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power
Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen
The Lost and Found Girl by Maisey Yates
Metropolis by B.A. Shapiro
Misrule (Malice #2) by Heather Walter
The Middling Affliction (Conradverse Chronicles #1) by Alex Shvartsman
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan
Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond
Saint Death’s Daughter (Saint Death #1) by C.S.E. Cooney
Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
True Biz by Sara Novic
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Vicious Creatures by Ashton Noone
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Detroit Kiss by Rhys Ford (REVIEW!!!)

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

There’s a question I get fairly often, because these stacks are ginormous, especially in the spring. There’s a reason for that. Actually there are two reasons for that.

First, I have terrible tsundoku and always have. I like knowing that I have choices about what to read next, and next, and next, so I’ve always acquired more books that I could possibly read. Before ebooks, when we went on a trip it would be normal for me to take a carry-on bag filled entirely with books and to stop at a bookstore at least once to buy more.

Second, for the past nine years I have been on a series of book awards committees for the American Library Association. And, as a perk or a punishment or both for being part of one of these committees – often referred to as the Overachievers Book Club, I receive actual tons of books over the course of a year. I won’t be required to read all the books I receive, but there’s no way of knowing exactly which ones I’ll have to read until later in the year. And there are always plenty in the pile that I want to read. The committees’ year of deliberation starts in early February, which means I start getting metric buttloads of books not too much after that.

Yes, the UPS delivery people all hate me.

In the long term, or long tail, I read about half of what I receive. But that tail can be very long. I’ll be reviewing a book this coming week that I received four years ago. The stacks will be this big until at least the end of May, possibly into June, but then things will calm down – so to speak – until next year. Or at least that’s the plan. We’ll see!

For Review:
The Birdcage by Eve Chase
Child Zero by Chris Holm
Cleopatra’s Dagger by Carole Lawrence
The Colony by Audrey Magee
Count Your Lucky Stars (Written in the Stars #3) by Alexandria Bellefleur
Girls Before Earls (Rogues to Lovers #1) by Anna Bennett
The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan
Hell Bent by Calista Lynne
Housebreaking by Colleen Hubbard
The Light Always Breaks by Angela Jackson-Brown
Little Foxes Took Up Matches by Katya Kazbek
Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein
Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare
One Lucky Summer by Jenny Oliver
Pignon Scorbion and the Barbershop Detectives (Pignon Scorbion #1)  by Rick Bleiweiss
The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann
Scarlet in Blue by Jennifer Murphy
The Sign for Home by Blair Fell
Sister Stardust by Jane Green
The Sizzle Paradox by Lily Menon
Spear by Nicola Griffith (audio)
String Follow by Simon Jacobs
The Unkept Woman (Sparks & Bainbridge #4) by Allison Montclair
An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall
Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus #3) by Katee Robert
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Acadie by Dave Hutchinson

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

And so ends the Blogo-Birthday Celebration Week for another year. I did not end up with jury duty this week, but we did have a monsoon on my birthday Tuesday. And I picked up some absolutely fabulous books!

For Review:
The Broken Room by Peter Clines
A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings
The Change by Kirsten Miller
The Dachshund Wears Prada (Paws in the City #1) by Stefanie London
Death by Bubble Tea (LA Night Market #1) by Jennifer J. Chow
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (Bright Falls #1) by Ashley Herring Blake
Drowning Practice by Mike Meginnis
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft
Gallant by V. E. Schwab
The Girl and the Moon (Book of the Ice #3) by Mark Lawrence
The High House by Jessie Greengrass
Hook, Line and Sinker (It Happened One Summer #2) by Tessa Bailey
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc by Ash Bishop
Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel
A Magic Steeped in Poison (Book of Tea #1) by Judy I. Lin
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams
The Prince by Dinitia Smith
The Suite Spot by Trish Doller
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers
The Tsarina’s Daughter by Ellen Alpsten
Wahala by Nikki May
Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

There are a couple of books that I really want to highlight this time around. The first is Adamant Spirits, a charity anthology to benefit Ukraine. The cause is marvelous, the cover is gorgeous, and this is a great way to give a bit and get a collection of wonderful stories in return.

Second, Anna Hackett’s latest book in her Norcross Security series came in this week – and it’s terrific. It is also terrific of Anna to sponsor a giveaway of the winner’s choice of The Medic or The Detective in this week’s Blogo-Birthday Giveaway Celebration. Details on Wednesday with the review, but I wanted to take this opportunity to give Anna an extra shout-out. If you’re looking for pulse-pounding romantic suspense her stories can’t be beat.

For Review:
Always Be My Duchess (Taming of the Dukes #1)  by Amalie Howard
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
As Seen on TV by Meredith Schorr
Blame It on the Brontës by Annie Sereno
Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh
Devil House by John Darnielle
Fake by Erica Katz
Find Me by Alafair Burke
Groupies by Sarah Priscus
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
In the Face of the Sun by Denny S. Bryce
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough
The Lying Club by Annie Ward (REVIEW!)
Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score
The Medic (Norcross Security #8) by Anna Hackett
My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
On a Night of a Thousand Stars by Andrea Yaryura Clark
The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
The Stand-In by Lily Chu
Survivor’s Guilt (Erin McCabe #2) by Robyn Gigl
Widowland by C.J. Carey
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

Purchased from Amazon:
Adamant Spirits: A 2022 Charity Anthology of Romantic Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance For Ukraine by Eva Chase, Honey Phillips, Anna Carven, Tana Stone, Michele Mills, G.K. De Rosa, Ella Blake, Hattie Jacks, T.K. Eldridge, May Sage, Veronica Scott, Maggie Alabaster, Elle Beaumont, Katherine Bennet, Alexi Blake, Claudia Blood, Jessica M. Butler, Demelza Carlton, Kel Carpenter, Alora Carter, Debbie Cassidy, Leslie Chase, Sarah M. Cradit, Tameri Etherton, Sara Fields, Grace Goodwin, Miranda Honfleur, Aurelia Jane, Alana Khan, Lea Kirk, Lisa Kumar, K.N. Lee, Jen Lynning, Ashley McLeo, Chloe Parker, Vee R. Paxton, Candace Robinson, Rebecca Rode, Julia Vee, Maria Vermisoglou, Jade Waltz, Jenni Ward, Jessica Wayne, Calla Zae

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

In amongst a LOT of fascinating looking books there’s one in here that I never expected to see. I enjoyed Amanda Bouchet’s Kingmaker Chronicles after a bit of a rocky start in A Promise of Fire, but it sure seemed like the series wrapped up to satisfying conclusion in Heart on Fire. So I was surprised to see a FOURTH book in the series (A Curse of Queens) pop up after a four year hiatus. My curiosity bump itches, so I’m going to have to check this one out!

For Review:
The Art of Prophecy (War Arts #1) by Wesley Chu
Azura Ghost (Graven #2) by Essa Hansen
Breathless by Amy McCulloch
A Caribbean Heiress in Paris (Las Léonas #1) by Adriana Herrera
Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow
A Curse of Queens (Kingmaker Chronicles #4) by Amanda Bouchet
Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor
A Duke, the Spy, an Artist, and a Lie (Rogues and Remarkable Women #3) by Vanessa Riley
First Time for Everything by Henry Fry
Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd
The Foundling by Ann Leary
Hide by Kersten White
The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish
Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett
Love, Lists and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz
Mercury Rising by R.W.W. Greene
The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Ramón and Julieta (Love & Tacos #1) by Alana Quintana Albertson
The Ravaged by Norman Reedus with Frank Bill
Renovated to Death (Domestic Partners in Crime #1) by Frank Anthony Polito
Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot
Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Wildcat by Amelia Morris

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

This is what happens when you go away for a bit and come back to a whole bunch of available new books. Combined with what you come back to when you’re a member of the “Overachievers’ Book Club.” The good thing about being on a cruise is that internet access is at best slow and at worst completely unavailable. Of course, that’s also the bad thing.

Not that I didn’t read a whole bunch while we were gone. I’m still catching up to THAT, too.

For Review:
At Least You Have Your Health by Madi Sinha
The Bangalore Detectives Club (Kaveri and Ramu #1) by Harini Nagendra
Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild
Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen
The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
The Fervor by Alma Katsu
Find Your Way Home (Small Town Dreams #1) by Jackie Ashenden
Fire Season by Leyna Krow
Going Public (Jade Harbour Capital #2) by Hudson Lin
The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide
Hideout (Alice Vega #3) by Louisa Luna
I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
Nobody’s Princess (Wild Wynchesters #3) by Erica Ridley
Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen
Reputation by Lex Croucher
Scandalized by Ivy Owens
Secret Identity by Alex Segura
Shutter by Ramona Emerson
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker
Tough Justice (K-9 Special Ops #1) by Tee O’Fallon
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below: