Summer Book Haul // Ruffles & Grace GIVEAWAY

(graphic via Victoria Lynn)

Hey! You didn't expect to see me again so soon, did ya? But I'm back midweek with some exciting news. Blogger and author Victoria Lynn is having a super fun blog party and giveaway this week. She's celebrating the growth of her blog, Ruffles and Grace, and all the friendships she's formed with the blogging community.

Giveaway

Yesterday's part of the giveaway was fashion-oriented, and the part I'm participating in today is about as bookerly it gets! Here's how it works. Myself and several other book/writer bloggers are all posting about summer + books in some form or another today. You get to enjoy said posts, and by doing so, you can enter Victoria's massively epic giveaway! Details can be found on her blog HERE. Trust me, you don't want to miss this!

(graphic via Victoria Lynn)

(photo via Victoria Lynn)

The items she's giving away are:

-A book bundle including

• Left to Die by Ivy Rose
• Martin Hospitality by Abigayle Claire
• Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
• Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter
• London in the Dark by Victoria Lynn herself
• The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo (link leads to my review)

-A Book Bestie (aka book protector) by Ruffles and Grace, Victoria's Etsy shop

-Some special handpicked notebooks

-A book themed tote by Ruffles and Grace

-A small leather journal

Does that not sound fantabulous? I actually just ordered a Book Bestie last month. You know how awful it is to shove a book in your purse or backpack, and take it out later to find the cover's been bent? Well, a Book Bestie is just the fix, because you slide your book into it, then shove that inside your purse/backpack/bottomless Mary Poppins carpetbag. Presto, no more bent covers! I'm loving mine so far, even if it is too large for my usual purse. It'll be perfect for toting novels--ahem, textbooks--to and from school, and it's even large enough to fit bigger notebooks too.

But on to the summer book haul I promised in the title! What better time to share alllll the books I acquired this summer than now, when summer is (sadly) ending?

Summer Book Haul

I thought my bookshelves were stuffed before, you guys. Ha. The stacks are slowly invading my entire room now! Take a look at the fourteen new additions to my collection:

Where am I supposed to put these beauties? If you have spare bookshelves lying around, ship them to me! Actually
don't. I don't have room for more shelves either.

There's something special about the circumstances around a book--where you found it, why you bought it, who gave it to you. There's always a story leading up to a book. Maybe the book was borrowed from the library before you decided you simply must possess your own copy, and marched straight to the bookstore to buy it. Maybe a dear friend gave the book to you just because. Maybe you "visited" the book in the bookstore several times, as some of my friends like to do, before committing to it. Maybe a perfect stranger recommended it to you. Maybe you sniffed it out in the dusty corner of some forgotten second-hand bookshop. Whatever the case, there's always a story surrounding the story.

Today I'd like to briefly share a few of my own stories.

bought: April 2017

Okay, so April is technically to early to count as summer, but hush--I couldn't leave these two out! While gallivanting around Banff, Alberta with friends on a college trip this spring, I naturally gravitated toward the nearest bookstore. (Am I the only one who must visit the bookstore of every new city I travel to? Yeah? Just me? Okay.) While there in Chapters, I snagged these.

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer // TBR (to-be read) // bought because of Sleeping Beauty research (and that gorgeous, silky smooth cover).

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine // read this month, half on the plane and half on vacation // bought because it's been on my TBR probably since it came out, and the premise is a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

bought: sometime during the summer of 2017

I was supposed to be shopping for birthday gifts, I swear. I was supposed to be finding things for somebody else. But like any self-respecting book dragon, I snuck a peek at the discounted section of my local bookstore on my way to the birthday cards. And this baby was on a really, really good sale. I couldn't say no.

Emissary by Thomas Locke // read the library's copy two years ago // bought because I loved it . . . and also because I needed that cover on my shelf, honestly.

won: September 2016

Remember that 100-for-100 challenge I participated in last summer? Well, entrants were eligible to win a book from Go Teen Writers, and I ended up winning! I picked Jill Williamson's book on world-building. But a funny thing happened, and I sort of fell through the cracks on their end of things. Not until I came across old emails while cleaning up my inbox did I realize, "Oh, I never did get that prize, did I?" So I contacted them, and they were incredibly sweet about it all. And Storyworld First arrived in the mail this summer! Hoorah!

Storyworld First by Jill Williamson // TBR // won in a giveaway; selected because I'm always ravenous for writing tips.

bought: June 2017

While enjoying a day in the city with my middle sister, we visited Chapters, and I snatched up these two lovelies in anticipation of our upcoming vacation. (I have this thing about being very selective with my holiday reads.)

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall // read this month // bought because some of my dear internet friends, including Deborah O'Carroll and Mary Horton, highly recommended it!

Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand // read this month // bought because I first heard of it from Katie Grace, I thought the idea of a young girl's fiction running parallel to her reality sounded cool, and that cover is beautiful.

bought: July 2017

On another city excursion, this time with my brother, we were browsing Chapters (again) when my gaze landed on this book. And a spontaneous, completely not-premeditated book purchase ensued.

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron // on my TBR now that I own it // bought because a) Sharon Cameron is fantastic, b) that cover is equally fantastic, and c) the premise made my eyes widen right then and there.

bought: August 2017

So I went to Realm Makers. And Realm Makers had a bookstore. And this bookstore happened to contain a huge number of books by Enclave authors, indie authors, and just all-around cool-sounding Christian authors that big chains don't carry on their shelves. So what does a reader do? She buys as many as she can fit in her suitcase because this is way better than ordering them on Amazon.

By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson // TBR // bought because Jill is an amazing human and I've been wanting to try her books forever.

A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes // TBR // bought because only like nine million of my friends have been flailing about this dystopian trilogy for years.

Orphan's Song by Gillian Bronte Adams // TBR // bought for the same reasons (plus I need an excuse to buy Songkeeper, which boasts one of my favorite covers ever--are you sensing a pattern?)

The Beast of Talesend and The Tomb of the Sea Witch by Kyle Robert Schulz // TBR // bought because a) Kyle's a fellow Silmarillion host! and b) Deborah O'Carroll's review of The Beast convinced me.

Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland // on my TBR now that I own it // bought because his classes were so informative, and again, I'm on a constant hunt for writing advice.

bought: August 2017

While on vacation with my family, yes, we did find a bookstore. The nose for books must be in the genes. I wanted to buy a book (why I would want to spend more money on books, after flying home with a suitcase full of them, I can't figure out), so I finally settled on this one.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs // TBR // bought because I own the first book and it feels wrong not to finish what I started and buy the rest of the trilogy (even if the first book fell a little bit short of my expectations).

Do I have a problem?

Yes. Yes, I do have a problem. It's the same problem afflicting most all book dragons alive, and I don't regret one bit of it! But I definitely have my reading cut out for me for the next few months. I may not even set foot in the library for a while--horror of horrors.

What's the best book YOU bought this summer? Have you checked out Victoria's giveaway yet? If not, shoo! Off with you!