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.

Fire in the Woods: Jennifer M. Eaton

Fire in the Woods: Jennifer M. Eaton

When a plane crashes in the woods near Jess’s home, the boy of her dreams literally falls right out of the sky. David needs Jess to help him avoid being taken by the military and to get back to his ship. This might be a little hard with her dad being a Major and all. As Jess finds herself falling for the strangest, sweetest, cutest guy ever she'll find out that she might have to choose between saving her world or his. As they race through the woods with Major Dad and most of the U.S. military one breath behind them, Jess and David grow closer than either of them anticipated. David has a secret that could change everything. Time is ticking down to Armageddon, and Jess must think fast if she's to save the boy she's falling in love with, without sacrificing Earth and everyone on it. 

Fire in the Woods is a sweet fall read. The Lux Series meets Alienated, this book will have you feeling giddy. If you know me then you know I LOVE ALIENS!!! I can never get enough. But what do I love more than just aliens??? Star-crossed alien human love! I don't think I can stress enough how sweet this book was. When Jess is running to the store to pick up some photos she decides to head through the woods where she is struck with a headache and then stumbles upon the mysterious David. With David having nowhere to go, injured, and with Jess feeling oddly obligated to trust him and help him, she decides to sneak him around and let him stay at her house.


"You see Dad, I can't stay in the house. There's this drop-dead gorgeous guy in the woods, and I promised to bring him ice... Nah. That wouldn't go over well. Certain things a girl should just keep to herself."


The thing I loved about Fire in the Woods was that when the aliens came here they think our planet is too cold. I've felt like when we do discover that there are aliens on our planet (because I know we will) that they would comment on it being too warm... So I really appreciated that Eaton took a different spin on this. The other  new spin on the alien genre I liked was that David took his appearance from Jess' thoughts. And since she was thinking about two smexy actors she just saw on a movie ad, it made hearing about David a lot easier... If you get what I mean... HE SOUNDS SO HOT!!! All muscles and turquoise eyes. Swoon. Jess and David's relationship is fun and entertaining. I loved that David is so clueless to how the human world works and how Jess soaks up every moment of it...

"Muddling around, he felt different parts of the door, and finally found the handle. A smile crossed his lips as he lifted the latch and the door opened. I did my best to hold back a smirk as he stepped out. 'You can fly a space ship, but you can't get out of a car?' his eyebrow arched. 'Do you know how to trigger a stagnant preemptory reaction in an overheard visualization module?' I folded my arms 'How would I know how to do that?' 'Any six year old can do that where I come from.' Well I wasn't born on a space ship.' 'And I've never had a reason to get out of a car before.' I smiled. 'Touche.'"

Yes, the whole book is that adorable. And thankfully there was no love triangle... THANK THE ALIEN GODZ THERE WAS NO LOVE TRIANGLE! Even though the love to me started super fast what can you really expect from a book?! At least it wasn't insta love. When the romance does start picking up and playing out it is as equally as adorable as the rest of the book. I love how the both of them had two completely different ways to show affection and that they were both so clueless to when the other one as flirting.

There isn't a whole lot of world building or sub characters in this book, but I felt that that was actually a plus for how this book played out. There is her dad and best friend but neither of them (in my opinion) were

super highlighted characters. I think my favorite thing about this book was the sprinkled in Alien references that we all know and love. This book kept a fast pace through out the whole time.The way Fire in the Woods ended was perfect. It did come with a sample for the first chapter of book two and I told myself I wasn't going to read it, but I caved and I'm so mad I did because I need to know what is going to happen.

Fire in the Woods does lean more towards the book Alienated than it does The Lux Series with it's light and care free attitude. I see why so many people are gushing about this book. Overall it's a quick fun and entertaining read alien fans everywhere will enjoy. It's been a good while since I've read a really good alien book and Fire in the Woods provided a much needed dose. 

8/10 Stars 

-Angela