Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every other weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I round up what I’ve read since the last update and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received. For more details and full descriptions of the books, be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages!
My thanks to Wunderkind and Saga Press for sending me an ARC of Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, which I’ve been looking forward to SO MUCH. I’m actually reading it right now, and it’s everything I could hoped for. Since I’m drafting this post in the middle of the week, by the time it goes live I should be close to finished with the book and will have a review up soon.
Next up is another exciting one: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames, with thanks to Orbit for the ARC! The first book Kings of the Wyld came out last year to great acclaim and I’m all jazzed up to see what new adventures this standalone sequel will bring.
Also thanks to DAW Books for this ARC of Gift of Griffins by V.M. Escalada, sequel to Halls of Law. I haven’t started this series yet, but I’m curious about it.
The amazing team at Night Shade Books also sent a couple more surprise ARCs this week. I was all excited about Trial by Treason by Dave Duncan (a historical fantasy with Saxon enchanters and demons!) until I did some research and realized it was a sequel. I doubt that it can be read as a standalone, so now I might just have to pick up the first one. MJ-12: Endgame by Michael J. Martinez is also a sequel, the third installment in Majestic-12 which is another series I haven’t had the chance to start yet. I’ve enjoyed the author’s other books in the past though, so I’d like to check it out at some point.
And hooray for a finished copy of Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine! This series has had its ups and downs, but now that we’re past the halfway point, I’m optimistic that the momentum will pick up again. With thanks to Berkley.
My thanks also to Tor books for the following new arrivals: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal is the first book of a series set in an alternate 1950’s about women who strive to become astronauts. It’s part of the publisher’s summer #FearlessWomen campaign, so be sure to keep an eye out for my spotlight post coming next week. Drop by Drop by Morgan Llywelyn is the first book of a dystopian trilogy where all the world’s plastic mysteriously liquefies, and this is another one I’ve been really looking forward to.
From the kind folks at Crown Books I also received new paperback editions of a couple big titles that came out last year: Artemis by Andy Weir and Paradox Bound by Peter Clines. If interested, you can read my reviews of them here and here, respectively.
And a huge thank you to Del Rey for sending me a finished copy of Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan, the third book in The Legends of the First Empire. I’m still really enjoying this series a lot, so I was pretty psyched when this arrived.
Finally, big thanks to Pyr Books for The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards. This is a book I really enjoyed, so I’m so happy to have a finished copy!
Last week I also received this really cool sampler from the upcoming Art and Arcana: A Visual History by Michael Witner, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer, which is an illustrated guide to the history and evolution of Dungeons & Dragons. There’s a lot of great artwork and information here, and if this preview is anything to go by, I think D&D fans are going to want to keep an eye on this one. With thanks to Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House.
In the digital pile this week, I received a couple of new ALCs from Penguin Random House Audio: Bright We Burn by Kiersten White is the third book and conclusion of The Conqueror’s Saga, also known as the And I Darken trilogy. I also grabbed Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman because I’ve been hearing so much about this thriller lately. With thanks to Listening Library and Random House Audio.
The only e-ARC I got this week was from NetGalley, where I received War Cry by Brian McClellan. I’m a big fan of the author’s Powder Mage universe books and I just couldn’t resist hitting the download button on his new novella. With thanks to Tor.com.
Reviews
Here you’ll find a list of my reviews posted since the last update. A few of these were pretty good reads, but I’m desperately in need of something to break me out of my 3-3.5 star funk.
Awakened by James S. Murray with Darren Wearmouth (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Mermaid by Christina Henry (3.5 of 5 stars)
Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski (3.5 of 5 stars)
Provenance by Caroline Kepnes (3.5 of 5 stars)
Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson (3 of 5 stars)
Furyborn by Claire Legrand (3 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
Here’s what I’ve managed to “unstack” from the TBR since the last update. More reviews coming up!
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Let me know what you plan on checking out. Until next time, see you next Roundup!
The BiblioSanctum 
I’m glad to hear that Trail of Lightning is so far holding up to its promise! I definitely want to get that one. The D&D book looks great and Something in the Water caught my eye recently too.
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I’m feeling in the mood for a thriller…I think I’ll start Something in the Water next!
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I am VERY interested to hear your thoughts on Trail of Lightning. And The Calculating Stars looks amazing!
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Trail of Lightning is awesome so far. Can’t wait to finish and share my thoughts!
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THere are so many McClellan novellas I have not read
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Same here. This one is not part of the Powder Mage universe though, which is good because I don’t think I can ever catch up!
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I’m so very curious about McClellan’s move out of the Powder Mage background, and I can hardly wait for your review of War Cry! While I just finished Bloody Rose and I must recommend keeping an oxygen bottle nearby for the last section 😉
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Yeah, this will be his first non-Powder Mage release, I believe…really looking forward to checking it out!
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Oh, I SO looking forward to Trail of Lightning. I really want to read The Calculating Stars too. That D&D sampler looks AMAZING.
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Trail of Lightning is so good so far. I’m so psyched that it’s living up to my expectations.
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Maybe Trail of Lightning will be the very thing to lift you out of your reading slump? Especially if you’re already enjoying it so much – that’s a good sign! For some reason that book wasn’t on my radar until this week, so I’ll definitely keep an eye out for your review. 🙂
As for me, I’m about 1/3 of the way through A.J. Hartley’s Guardian (the last in his Alternate Detective series) and bought Madeline Miller’s Circe yesterday. The latter books seems to have been following me everywhere ever since I read your and Tammy’s reviews. So finally I said, “Well, I’ve been meaning to read it anyway”… and wouldn’t you know, it was on sale at B&N. 😉
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I’m hoping so! But in the last week I also finished Starless, which was awesome! I’ll finally have a roundup highlight next time, lol!
And yay, you got Circe! That’s a nice score on a sale, I hope you’ll enjoy it! 😀
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I’m hoping a copy of Trail of Lightning is making its way to me😉 And a big yaasss to Bloody Rose! I got a copy this week as well and I can’t wait😁
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So many great books, so little time! I hope I can start Bloody Rose soon, but it might not happen for another couple weeks lol!
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Ooooh, you have ‘Bloody Rose’! Enjoy 🙂 Is this new McClellan novella set in the Powder Mage universe? If so, count me in as well.
I’ll start ‘The Last Sun’ soon 🙂 Very excited!
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I believe War Cry is separate from his Powder Mage universe. Which should be interesting! 😀
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I tried a couple of Powder Mage short stories last month and liked them. I just might be trying the first actual book at some point!
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I’ve only read a couple of Powder Mage novellas as well, and they’re great, but his novels are such more more robust and developed. I think you’ll like them if you enjoyed his novellas 🙂
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Oh I’m jealous! They all looks really great!
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I’m really looking forward to reading a bunch of these!
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My wife just picked up Kings of the Wyld yesterday! Methinks I’ll be reading it too; it sounds fun.
Great haul, as ever!
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Haha, grab it from her and read it! It’s a lot of fun 😉
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Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! So excited for The Calculating Stars! 😀 😀 😀
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I’m really looking forward to checking that one out too!
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Nice wrap-up! I hope to hear your thoughts on Bright We Burn as I’d recently heard a few negative things about it, and was wondering if I should even consider picking up the series. 😉
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Yeah, I’m curious to see how that trilogy will end. Reviews have been all over the place, some very positive, some very negative. I think the message I get from most of them is that it depends on how you feel about certain characters 😛
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I’m so excited for The Calculating Stars and Age of War!
I read Age of Myths and Age of Swords thanks to netgalley the years before but now they won’t let me request some books since I’m an internationnal reviewer… Ha well! I’ll just get my copy when it’s out! 😀
Happy reading!!
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Ack, hopefully Age of War will come out soon where you are!
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I found the first Rachel Caine Great Library book at the thrift shop this past week. I’m very excited to see what it’s all about. 🙂 I’m looking forward to checking out The Calculating Stars at some point, too. I can’t wait to hear what you think of The Cabin at the End of the World. I can’t do kid horror so I abandoned it after chapter one about gave me a heart attack. 🙂
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Yeah if you can’t do kid horror, I don’t think you’ll like where The Cabin at the End of the World goes…so probably a good thing you stopped reading 😛
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Awesome book haul as ever. Very curious about The Calculating Stars and look forward to your review of that one.
Lynn 😀
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Hopefully I can get to that one soon!
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Oooooh I can’t wait to hear your final thoughts on Trail of Lightning! Definitely a new favourite for me. The Calculating Stars also looks great, and I’ve heard some rumblings that it’s connected to Kowal’s Lady Astronaut of Mars novella, which I adored. Lots of good SFF in the queue this summer! 😀
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Hopefully I should be done Trail of Lightning tonight. I’m loving it, but it’s just taking me so long to read it! It’s definitely not the book, just lack of time as always
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