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.

Fictional Book Boyfriends Pt 2!

Since our first post got so many hits we decided to do this again! 

Like we said last time, we LOVE putting faces to the characters in our books (especially the men). So this is our spin on "dream-cast" or as some call them "fictional book boyfriends". We picked a few titles and show you who we imagined the leading men to be. To see part one just click here. And like all our other post you can click the titles to get to the reviews. 

Rush by Maya Banks 

Man hires women to be his assistant and then pulls her into his provocative world.

 Nick Bateman as Gabe Hamilton
Don't think we need to explain why.


Raw by Belle Aurora 
Girl falls in love with her stalker and the story only get crazier from there. 

Stephen James as Twitch
With all the tattoos and bad boy attitude... Sold!

The Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass 
35 girls are selected to enter a contest at a chance to marry the prince.

Liam Hemsworth as Prince Maxon

we have no doubt he would make a excellent bachelor.

The Covenant Series by Jennifer Armentrout 
Girl turns out to be more than she seems, and also has to choose between the man she is destined to be with and the man shes forbidden to love.

Scott Eastwood as Seth
Someone bring us a bottle of water... This God Killer is on fire!

Last Light Falling by J.E. Plemons

Last Light Falling by J.E. Plemons 

Set in the United States in the year 2053, America, like most of the world, has undergone earthquakes, an economic collapse, and famine,  which has rendered the nation hopeless. America has looked to other countries for help. Orphaned at the age of 9, Arena and her twin brother, Gabe rely on each other for everything. With being twins they both share the same birthmark. There on the back of their necks  is a mark the shape of a crucifix. On their 15th birthday they receive a mystery letter and key from their estranged Uncle Finnegan. This key will unlock their fate, and it will be up to a priest, who has vowed to protect them since birth to undo the evil in the world, and to help unleash God's wrath upon those who have turned from Him in the last days of history. 

I was contacted by J.E. Plemons and was asked if I could read and review this new start to a series. When I received the book of course the first thing I did was look it up on goodreads. When I read the description all I could think was "Holy information overload", but I'm so glad that didn't keep me from reading it. The other thing I noticed right away was the cover. I LOVE THE COVER. It had me thinking Throne of Glass right away. Strong female with swords, SOLD.  When I first started reading I was like okay, okay this is the same Armageddon end of the world story; been there, read that. The further I got into the book the further it went from the mundane. 

I usually hate when leading characters are under the age of 17/18 but with Plemons' writing style it really didn't bother me. It also helped that Arena is a total B-A. When he started to describe Aerna though I was a little set back...

"My hair is the color of midnight, and my milky-white skin has turned a light olive from the summer sun. I have my mothers pouty bottom lip and hazel eyes that soften under dim lighting in a continuous spectrum of caramel and green shades. The only feature I don't share with my mother are my thick, dark eyebrows. I get really tired of plucking these hair caterpillars."

Why was I set back?? Well if you follow me on any social medias then you know why... BECAUSE THAT'S EXACTLY HOW I LOOK! Too a T. It doesn't help that I'm often mistaken for being 15/16. But for real it made me kind of laugh.

I  really thought this was going to be a teen girl saves the world kind of read and it wasn't. That made for such a good twist as far as characters went. Aerna can't seem to keep herself out of troubled waters. She is strong, short tempered, and super compulsive. Aerna and Gabe feel way more realistic as far as characters go. I thought both Gabe and Aerna held their own throughout this book. The highlight of this book however is the world-building, graphic scenes, and the world issues that are brought up. Those are the things that made the story feel more authentic. The only "negative" is that it is a little heavier on the religious side than I usually like/am use too. That's really the only thing on the blah side that I have to say. The rest of the story more than made of for it (it was honestly like I said just something I wasn't use too).

It's been a good month or two since I've read such a gory, graphic book, and I'm glad Last Light Falling was the one to fill the void. I liked how it took kind of a Proxy  feel as far as the government went. As strong as the characters are it is very clear what Plemons' is strongest at... and that is world building. He leaves no stone unturned when he was setting the locations. You never had to strain to imagine what was going on and what everything would look like. Oh and don't even get me started on that ending though! It was amazing!!! Definitely a cliffhanger! 


Last Light Falling was gripping, thrilling, and a series too keep an eye on. I have no doubt this series will be taking shelves by storm. It's a story I didn't see coming, and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future. And I can already tell the wait for book two is going to be too far away... 

8.5/10 Stars 
-Angela