Auto Buys

If you're big on books and book buying then you already know what auto buys are... For those of you who don't let me explain. It's this freaky weird thing book people do when they can't help buy a book because (insert bizarre reason here). As a book collectors ourselves we know all reasons for auto buying are usually odd and pretty off the way. You also know if you collect books that everyone has their own auto buying reasons. Sometimes its genre related sometimes it's just because of who wrote it. We decided to share a few of ours. 

Angela: I love to collect books. Love it! (Clearly right?!) I also prefer owning actual dead tree copies to downloading E-books. I'm so very, very guilty of buying books for the reasons listed below... Not kidding I'll buy just about any books that fall under these things. 

I will buy any book that has half a girls face on it. Why? I don't know. I wont even read what the book is about before purchasing it. If I'm strolling down my local B&N aisles and see a book with a girl with half a face on it I will just pick it up! Sometimes it's like a knee jerk reaction. I'll even try to talk myself out of it, but then my inner book girl wins out and I purchase it. 

The other cover related auto buy I'm guilty of is buying any and every book with a girl underwater. Under water covers are my favorite!!! I'm obsessed. Not kidding, I have always been in love with pictures taken underwater, so it figures my love for it would flow into the book world. Again these are books that I automatically add to my cart and wont even care what the synopsis are. I have never met a cover with an underwater picture on it that I didn't like. The pictures to the right are only some of the ones I own.

Of the half face and underwater covers I think The Kricket Series (Under Different Stars/ Sea of Stars) and Unteachable are my favorites. 

Books Featured: The Ring and Crown, Mystic City, Branded The Lux Series, Unteachable. Wicked, The Kricket Series, Ten Tiny Breaths, The Mara Dyer Trilogy. 

The next two things I'm guilty as charged of doing are buying books that are written by two authors. I will not only automatically buy anything by these two authors, I will drop anything I'm currently reading to pick up one of their new books... Jennifer L. Armentrout and Colleen Hoover. These are my two favorite authors! I'm obsessed with them. They are two authors that never let me down. Between the two I'm sure you all know that my all time favorite however is Colleen Hoover. She is the ONLY author who has never let me down. Her books are both amazing and life Ugly Love, Maybe Someday, and Maybe Not are my favorites. As far as Jla her Lux Series and The Dark Elements Trilogy are my favorites.
changing. Of all books

I saved my favorite auto buy for last... My all time favorite purchases to make are *drum roll please* Alien related reads. I AM FREAKING ALIEN OBSESSED!!! I can't stop! I will read, purchase, see, watch anything alien related. Of any "genre" (because I don't really think Alien is a genre, even though it should be) Aliens are my favorite. All this alien news about a Lux movie actually happening now has me all jazzed up. Daemon Black on the big screen, whoosh, don't even get my started! I also am barely breathing waiting for The 5th Wave movie coming out next year and the last book in the trilogy, The Last Star, coming out later this year. Alien books are almost, probably, my most own books. Of all my Alien books/series I think The 5th Wave Trilogy, The Lux Series, and The Broken Skies Series are my favorite.

Featured books: Wait for You, Wicked, The Lux Series, The Dark Elements Trilogy, The Half-Blood Series, The Return. Hopeless, Slammed, Point of Retreat, Ugly Love, Maybe Someday, Confess. The 5th Wave Trilogy, Alienated Series, In the After Duology, The Taking Series, Fire in the Woods Series, Broken Skies Series, Gravity, Rush Series.  

Leah: Like Angela said, auto buying is a knee jerk reaction where you've ended up buying something without even realizing it sometimes. Being a fangirl is tough sometimes! I'm SUPER notorious for auto buying because along with reading and collecting books, shopping is my other favorite hobby. It really makes for an expensive hobby.

First, my usual auto buy is a series. Doesn't sound weird, right? Well, I will buy an entire series of something before even reading the first book on the assumption that I will love the first book and feel the need to devour the rest of the series. Well.... if y'all have read any of my recaps, you know that I am also notorious about getting bored in the middle of a series. I'm not one of those people who like to binge read through a super long series. I like to read a book or two then go to something else then come back later. For example, I have the full series for Vampire Academy, The Mortal Instruments, The Hunt, The Covenant, and The Pledge all on my bookshelves right now. I'm about 3-4 books deep into each one of those series. I'll finish them eventually, but I probably could just bought one book at a time instead of the entire series at once. #autobuy 

I'm also very loyal to my favorite authors. If Colleen Hoover, JLA, John Green, or Gillian Flynn releases something new, I'm buying it no questions asked. Like Angela, I will put down anything that I'm reading and dive straight into my new book. These authors have never given me a bad book or disappointed me, so I know no matter what kind of slump or mood I'm in, they will give me a good pick me up. The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite reread, but I also absolutely adore Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green. My favorite CoHo books are Slammed, Maybe Someday, and Ugly Love and I will pick those up if I need a good cry/romance in my life (I plan on reading Point of Retreat this week when I'm alone so I can ugly cry all by myself). JLA knows how to bring the steaminess and also bring the action. My FAVORITE JLA is Wicked, hands down. I love that it is just the start of the series so there is so many places for it to go! And when I'm feeling a little darker and need to indulge my inner serial killer, I turn to Gillian Flynn who never disappoints with her mind-effs. 

My last two big auto buy categories I'm going to partially blame on Angela because before she and I became raving fangirls, these two were never things I cared about. UK cover editions and signed copies of books. I don't care if I already own an entire series, if a sweet UK cover releases, I'm 

buying it. For example, I have two full (well, full so far since the series isn't complete) sets of the Throne of Glass series in both the US editions as well as the beautiful white UK editions. My favorite UK edition that I've bought so far is the florescent graffiti style Hunger Games set. So beautiful! 

Lastly is the signed copy problem that I've developed. Ok, it's no secret that we love going to book signings. Cool, that's not weird. The auto buying weirdness comes in when I go into a bookstore and see a book that is an autographed copy. MUSTBUYNOW. It's kind of weird having a signed copy of a book for an author you haven't met,  I can't resist. I need to see that signature on that title page. Must collect them all. For example, I have signed copies of The Fifth Wave and To All The Boys I've Loved Before that I have picked up in bookstores. 

Featured books: The Mortal Instruments series, Vampire Academy series, The Covenant series, The Hunger Games series, Throne of Glass series, To All The Boys I've Loved Before, The Pledge, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, Wicked, Maybe Someday, Ugly Love, Slammed, Point of Retreat, Dark Places, and The Fifth Wave.

Leah's December Reads

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel

Altered by Jennifer Rush

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Fire In The Woods by Jennifer Eaton

Fallen by Lauren Kate

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Wicked by Jennifer Armentrout

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Rush by Maya Banks

Raw by Belle Aurora

Slated by Teri Terry

December has been a really good book month for me! It's nice that I was able to find good reads this month since I had been coming down from a hardcore slump. The only bad thing about this month (and by bad, I only mean in the reading sense) is the holidays! I have been jam packed since Thanksgiving and haven't had a ton of time to devote to reading. As much as I have enjoyed hanging out with friends and family, I am looking forward to after the first of the year when my social obligations go away and I can go back to being a hermit.

One cool thing I signed up for this month is the Fandom of the Month club that I found on Instagram. You play $13 a month and you get sent fandom inspired jewelry each month. For December, the theme was Narnia so I received a bracelet, earrings, a ring, and a really cool bag to put it all in. (This isn't a sponsored post, btw, just wanting to share something cool I found!) 

Speaking of the new year, I can't wait for y'all to see what we have planned! We have some really cool posts leading up to 2015, and we have a TON of things planned for 2015. All I am going to say is that 2015 is going to be the year of the fandom for sure.

DECEMBER FAVE:

My favorite book this month was hands down, no contest Wicked by Jennifer Armentrout. This book is my absolute favorite JLA book so far which should say a TON. I love all of the characters, but my favorites are Ren an Tink. Ren is at the top of my book boyfriend list now. HOT HOT HOT. Tink, well, you just need to read the book to learn about Tink. I just love him!

Wicked by Jennifer L Armentrout

Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout
22 year old Ivy Morgan isn’t your average college student... She's part of the Order. An organization that hunts down and kills Fae. Ren Owens is the last person Ivy expected to enter her rigidly controlled life. He’s 6 feet and 3 inches of temptation and swoon-inducing charm. Losing the boy she loved nearly destroyed her, but the tension that grows between them becomes impossible for Ivy to deny. Deep down, she wants and needs more than what her duty demands of her, what her past has shaped for her. 

I'm pretty sure I start off every review for a book that Jla writes by saying something along the lines of this... JLA HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!! Another amazing novel. This lady can write anything. Contemporary, paranormal romance, NA lit, anything. If she published her target shopping list I would read it because I know she would make it amazing. Wicked was so wicked!!! Too me it was like the polar opposite of her Dark Elements series and I loved that (I love The Dark Elements)!I just loved that it was so different.

Wicked is a paranormal new adult and a first in The Wicked Trilogy. Pretty sure at one point I told Leah I thought I just got pregnant reading this. Whoosh it was so hot! It wasn't just the steamy scenes that made this book. It was everything. The world building, plot, flow, and the characters. Ivy is funny, strong, and awkward. The things that go on in her head are hilarious. Ren is so upfront, charming, and wickedly hot. The relationship between Ren and Ivy is almost insta-love but falls closer to insta-lust. Which I think is a good thing. The things they say to each other (mainly Ren) is so so yummy. 

"um, yeah. I do. Baking... is like a hobby." Okay that was a total lie. The only cakes I could bake came out of the box. It was Tink who baked the cakes from scratch. "And why haven't I been offered any cake?"..."You're going to have to get to know me better before you taste my cake."... "Was that an invitation? Because I'm willing to get to know you in any way possible if that means I get to taste your cake." "Invitation for....?" Oh my God. My words replayed. My face turned crimson. "You are such a pervert!"

I really enjoyed Ren as a character so much. He is seriously like the sweet caring version of Roth from TDE. They even both ride motorcycles. He also knows Disney movies. For some odd reason men knowing Disney movies is hot. Hell, Jla seriously can make anything hot. She did some job on Ren. Kid you not this was me 99.9% of the time he was involved...

He was the perfect leading man. Romantic and Take charge. One of my favorite things however is how Ivy is described. She's a curvy frizzy haired ginger. Loved it! The romantic scenes between the two of them are written perfectly. Saying they were hot would be an understatement. I was reading this at work and had to stop because I couldn't stop blushing. I can't wait to see what happens between these two crazy kids as the story continues. As for sub characters the main ones are Val and Tink. Val is Ivy's best friend and is a little on the slutty side (no judgement). But my favorite, FAVORITE character is Tink. OMG I love him so much!!!! The one foot-troll doll lovin-pop culture junkie-little brownie stole the show. Everything he says is amazing.  

"Grabbing a scarf off the chair, I threw it at him. He caught it, clutching it to his chest as he flew into the air. "You gave Tink a scarf. Tink is free!" He flew out into the hallway like a little cracked-out fairy, screeching, "Tink is freeeeee!" Ren looked at me. "What the actual fuck?" I sighed. "He's obsessed with Harry Potter. I'm sorry."

  

The Twilight, Dr. Who, Harry Potter, and Salt and Pepa references he threw around killed me. It had been a long time since I had laughed that hard, and at a sub-character too. He took this story too a whole new level. 

"He ignored me. "Sex is best when it's one on one!" Stopping in the hall, I turned to where he was doing a pelvic thrust. "Isn't that a George Michael song?" "Maybe. but he was wrong. I like to think sex is best when it's like three on three or something. Seems more adventurous." Whatever. Goodnight, Tink." I closed the door as he broke out in a Salt-n-Pep a song. 

Every character in this book is so perfect. The plot if fast paced and action packed. There was never a dull moment, or a time I was bored. The plot starts strong and doesn't let up. There are two twist in this story. One was very predictable and one I had no clue was coming. I don't think I've ever updated my GR status so many times before, especially out of pure excitement. Seriously wasn't kidding when I said I needed water. This book was like a sauna!! And the ending. Holy sweet Jesus way to leave us hanging!!! Wicked has to be one of my favorite books and start to a series I've read all year.

10/10 Stars

-Angela

Angela pretty much summed everything that I wanted to say perfectly. All I really want to add is how much I really, truly enjoyed this book. It is by far, hands down, no contest my favorite JLA book so far. The plot stays interesting the entire time and you will not be able to put it down. Ren is my ultimate book boyfriend and has not only made a place for himself on the Holy Grail of Book Boyfriends list, but he has taken the #1 spot which was formally held by the (literally) out-of-this-world Daemon. Ren is a beautiful mix of Daemon and my former #2, Roth. I think what really sets him apart from the others is that there isn't a point in the book where he is angsty and has to/wants to push Ivy away. From the very beginning, he knows he wants to be with her and isn't shy about his feelings. He doesn't play games and is upfront with her the entire time.

The plot twist in the book left my jaw and my brains all over the floor. JLA bamboozled me!! She had me CONVINCED absolutely convinced that the story was going to go one way but at the very end (like literally the last page) she drops bombs everywhere and smacked me in the face with her plot twist. IT IS SO GOOD! I don't know how I am going to make it until summer 2015 for the sequel. If you haven't read this book yet........ ORDER IT RIGHT NOW YOU NEED IT IN YOUR LIFE ASAP. 

5/5 stars 

-Leah