February Book Haul!

Because my book buying limit went so terribly wrong within the first month, I quickly gave up on it, but I have been trying really hard not to go overboard on the spending this month.

eBooks: 

I only bought one eBook this month, and that was 'Struck' by Joss Stirling, which I've already read and reviewed. 'Struck' (also known as 'Storm and Stone') is the first book in a new series by Joss Stirling, based on workers at a Young Detective's Agency and the different escapades that they get up to. The first book focuses on Kieran Storm, a detective sent in to investigate some mysterious and corrupt goings on at a boarding school, the school which Raven Stone attends.

Well, I only bought one eBook, because I got the second eBook free, and that one is 'Written' by Rebecca Curran. I don't know much about this book, but it was free for Kindle and I had entered a competition to win it on Goodreads at some point in the past, so I thought it was worth getting.

Gifts:

I was given one gift this month: a hardcover copy of 'The 5th Wave' by Rick Yancey, which my mummy bought for me. I absolutely loved 'The 5th Wave', but the version I read was on my Kindle, so I was desperate to get a hard copy of it - and now I have one! I can't wait to read the sequel, 'The Infinite Sea', which I bought a couple of months ago, but I'm trying to hold off because I know the third novel won't be out for quite a while.

Books: 
I did buy quite a few books this month, as I normally do when I go up to London, but I only bought three brand new books to treat myself, and those will be the books I haul last.

The first book I bought this month was 'A Bone To Pick' by Charlaine Harris. I own most of Charlaine Harris's novels (all of the True Blood series, the Harper Connolly series and the Lily Bard series respectively) so I've been picking up novels from the Aurora Teagarden series over the last couple of months and this was another one I needed to collect. 

The second book I bought this month was 'Stolen' by Lucy Christopher. I actually read this book three or four years ago and I absolutely loved it, so I've been looking out for a copy since then. 'Stolen' is a young adult novel dealing with Stockholm Syndrome, as a girl gets kidnapped by a young man and taken to Australia, where she finds herself developing feelings for him that she can't quite explain. It's a beautifully written book and I really can't wait to read it once more. 

The third and fourth books that I bought this month were 'Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth' and 'Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse' by Rick Riordan. I've wanted to read the Percy Jackson series for a good few years, but when I attempted it the first time around I couldn't get into it, so I'm hoping to buy all of the novels and read them when I'm in the mood for this type of book.

The fifth book I bought this month was 'The Silver Linings Playbook' by Matthew Quick. I absolutely love the film of the book, which features Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, but I didn't realise it was adapted from a book at the time that I saw it. I'm very excited that I've finally picked up the novel though, because I'm sure it will be even better than the film, which is one of my all time favourites. 

Also this month I bought 'Seekers: The Quest Begins' by Erin Hunter. I read a lot of Erin Hunter's Warrior Cats novels when I was younger and I absolutely loved them, so I'm always willing to pick up any of the other series. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to enjoy the Seekers series as much, which is similar to Warrior Cats but with bears, but I found this book rather cheap in a charity shop so I thought it was worth a shot. 

When I went to London to see All Time Low and You Me At Six in the middle of the month, I couldn't resist going book shopping. In the Waterstones on Oxford Street, I managed to find 'Breaking Yawn' by Stephfordy Mayo for just £1, so I couldn't resist grabbing it. If you haven't heard of the Twishite parody series (which started off with 'New Moan') you're severely missing out, because they're very enjoyable and quite hilarious. If you love the Twilight series, you might want to skip out on this one, because it does severely mock it, but I love this kind of humour so I was happy to finally pick up the second novel. 

When I went to London back in December, I found a charity shop (I think a Salvation Army) selling ARCs of upcoming novels, so I went back there and was pleased when I managed to hunt out a few more. The first ARC I discovered was 'The Crooked House' by Christobel Kent, a thriller that sounds incredibly exciting. From what I can gather, the main character's father slaughtered her entire family when she was younger, so it's about her learning to come to terms with that, but I'm sure a lot more goes on. 

The second ARC that I picked up in London was 'The Anchoress' by Robyn Cadwaller. I will admit that I hadn't heard of this book until I bought it, and I still don't really know anything about it, but the cover is absolutely gorgeous and I'm sure it'll be a nice change from the normal type of books that I read. I will read anything that gets set down in front of me, which is why I'm not so fussed with knowing exactly what a book is about before I buy it.

The third ARC that I bought was 'The Possibilities' by Kaui Hart Hemmings, which I didn't actually think was an ARC but I've since found out didn't publish until the 24th of February (I bought this on the 14th). 'The Possibilities' tells the story of a mother's grief after her son gets killed in an avalanche near their home, and how she comes to terms with the fact that a girl turns up on her doorstep carrying his child. It sounds like one of those contemporary novels that will rip your heart in half and make you question everything that you think you know about yourself, and sometimes that's just the kind of book that I'm in the mood for. 

The last ARC I bought, in the first shop I went into, was 'Golden Son' by Pierce Brown. I know I only hauled this book last month but I absolutely loved the first book so I want to collect anything and everything related to this series. I nearly cried with excitement when I found this ARC and I'm going to treasure it forever. 

As well as the ARCs, I couldn't resist buying a couple of other books while I was in the shop as well, the first of which was 'Palo Alto' by James Franco. I think James Franco is a great actor, so when I spotted this book I absolutely had to get it. From what I can gather, 'Palo Alto' is a collection of short stories, written by James, and I love short story collections so that's two reasons that this book appeals to me. 

The last book that I bought at the Salvation Army in London was 'Paper Valentine' by Brenna Yovanoff. I bought 'The Replacement' by Brenna Yovanoff a good few years ago, read half of it and never finished it, but I really enjoyed her writing style so I had to grab this novel. It tells the story of a girl who lives in a neighbourhood where girls keep getting murdered, the only think connecting their deaths being the paper hearts sewn onto their corpses. I think the girl starts seeing the ghosts of the dead people and I assume she tries to solve their murders, but either way it sounds pretty damn exciting. 

As I'm still attempting to limit my book spending each month, I only allowed enough time to go into one other charity shop while we were in London, so I couldn't resist picking the Oxfam Book Shop. The first book I bought in there was 'The 100: Day 21' by Kass Morgan. I bought the first book in the series a couple of months ago, but I know that the third novel was released this month so I thought I might as well buy them all and marathon them before I start the series, so I was ecstatic to find this one. 

The second book I bought was 'The Madman's Daughter' by Megan Shepherd. I have heard so many amazing things about this trilogy as a whole, but I didn't really want to buy it off of Amazon because the covers on there aren't that visually appealing. However, when I saw this one I automatically fell in love (it might sound weird but I have a bit of an obsession with book covers/any artwork of the anatomically correct human heart) so I snapped it up.

The third book I got in the Oxfam Book Shop was 'Dead Ends' by Erin Lange. I heard about this book around a year ago, when my local Empire cinema were giving away free postcards advertising it, so I've been keeping an eye out for it ever since. The awesome thing about this copy is that even though it was in a charity shop, it's actually brand new because it was donated by the publisher. I think that's a beautiful sentiment, spreading books to help others! 

The penultimate book I bought in London was an ARC of 'Conquest' by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard. John Connolly is one of my favourite authors, but I've never managed to get hold of a copy of this novel, so the fact that I now have an ARC amazes me! I don't know much about 'Conquest', but if it's at the same standard as John Connolly's other novels I know it's going to be a new favourite of mine. 

The last book I bought in London was this beautiful ARC of Meg Wolitzer's 'Belzhar'. I haven't heard much about this book because I've been attempting to avoid getting any preconceptions about how good it is, because it was one of my most anticipated books released last year. I know a lot of people have been comparing it to 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath, and in my opinion any YA take on Plath can do no wrong, so I hope it's as good as I believe it will be. 

It wouldn't be one of my book hauls if I hadn't acquired a new Vintage red spine classic novel, but this month I managed to get two! The first Vintage book I bought was 'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin, a novel from just before the start of the 1900's. This novel was very ahead of it's time, including a love affair and lots of scandalous things, so I'm hoping it will be a riveting read, even though it's not likely to be controversial in this day and age.

The second Vintage red spine novel I bought was 'The End of the Affair' by Graham Greene. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't actually read any novels by Greene before, but some of my school friends read his novels in English literature last year and the consensus was pretty varied. I'm hoping I'll enjoy his writing, because the premise behind 'The End of the Affair' sounds very interesting, but my hopes aren't up as high on this one.

The first brand new book I bought this month was 'The Girl On The Train' by Paula Hawkins. As you probably know by now, I work in a library, and the hype surrounding this novel is absolutely ludicrous, so when I saw it on half price deal in WHSmith I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently 'The Girl On The Train' is a thriller very similar to 'Gone Girl', which intrigues me greatly, but the story unfolds when a girl on a train sees something happen in the house that she passes every day on her way to work. Very ominous, very ominous indeed...

The penultimate book that I bought this month was 'My Heart and Other Black Holes' by Jasmine Warga. I've been waiting for this book to be released since last year, so I had to buy it the month it came out and I can't wait to read this one. 'My Heart and Other Black Holes' is the story of two teenagers who agreed on a date that they're both going to kill themselves, and we have to wait to find out whether they go through with their plan. 

The last book I bought this month was 'Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard. If you haven't heard of this book I don't know where you've been hiding, because everyone has been going absolutely crazy about this book. The main character is a red blood, one of the lowest members of society ruled by the silver bloods, however she finds out that she has powers - which leads to her becoming engaged to a silver prince. This book has had such amazing reviews and I'm definitely excited about it. 

I've decided not to haul my NetGalley books this month, because it would be a ridiculously long list and I've gotten some titles that I really want you to be surprised by when I post the reviews of them. So just know that I've gotten some awesome books and I will be reading and reviewing them very soon!