LAST BOOK HAUL OF 2020

hey everyone it's jenny and welcome back to my channel this story ain't over so today i'm coming to you with my final book haul of 2020 and my god i've hauled so many books this year this has been one of those years where i've received a ton of books from publishers a lot more than previous years and i feel like i've bought a lot more books this year as well just because like the pandemic so i was at home and i was like oh i'll read more and obviously it did not and i was also receiving like a bunch of books from like different book boxes as well that were being sent to me so there have just been a lot of books and my collection has definitely grown significantly but this is my final book haul of the year and honestly in 2021 i kind of want to haul less books i want to borrow more from the library i've been trying to do that more and i find that a lot of times like there's a lot of books that i'm like interested in but i just buy them on a whim so that i can read them and then i end up putting off reading them and so they just kind of sit on my physical tbr for a while so i really want to kind of minimize my physical tbr and try reading more like ebooks and audiobooks from the library but we'll see it's a constant struggle and like i feel like books are just my favorite thing to buy so that's also a thing but anyways let's just jump right into the book haul so i'm splitting this video into kind of three sections so books that i bought myself books that were sent to me by publishers and then the third section which is books that were sent to me in a book box so whether that be owlcrate or fairy loot or illumicrate so the first section books i bought myself i went and got myself the paperback editions of the poppy war and the dragon republic and i'm noticing that i like match this very nicely a lot of you have been telling me to read this so many people love this on book twitter on booktube and i wanted to join the hype and the series finally finished with the third installment that just released so i wanted to pick this up so i decided to just splurge on the paperbacks which are so beautiful and i like how they're just like such bold colors as opposed to the hard covers which are like this white with like a little accent of color and i personally like paperbacks better so yeah i've started popping i'm about like 100 maybe almost 100 pages in i haven't really like touched it too much but for those of you who don't know what the poppy war is about it is kind of like this long saga about this one girl i think her name is rin yes she's an orphan and where i am at in the beginning of the book which isn't very far from what i've read so far in the first book she's kind of this orphan who wants to like escape her town and like the horrible people that she lives with because they were like kind of her foster family and she's like she's an orphan from war and she ends up studying for like this national exam and ends up entering this like amazing academy that is very exclusive and only the smartest and you know most privileged kids in the country can get into it and so she ends up getting into it just by her own merit and this is just kind of following her life and this draws a lot on like east asian history as well from what i've heard so yeah i'm just really interested in it and i think it's going to be just a great fantasy read and another thing i noticed about this is that the language and the way that the book is written isn't like regular fantasies that i'm used to especially adult fantasies it's very fun and funny which is just really nice so i am enjoying it a lot and i can't wait to continue with the series all right the next couple books i bought were on my birthday because i was like i deserve these these are like not things that i need but i really really want them and so the first thing is the lives of saints by leigh bardugo which is this little like addition to the grisha verse and it is literally like a embodiment of a little book that shows up in the shadow and bone trilogy that elena has that's given to her and it is a little book of stories about the different satans in the grisha verse robkins saints to be specific and it's just this really beautiful read book and it is also a facsimile of the prop that they use in the actual show which dropped its teaser trailer this like past week and i i'm just deceased and i cannot wait for it to come out in april oh yeah this is just like a beautiful beautiful book like look at that oh my god and that's the back and on the inside look at this look dude can you see this look at that that is gorgeous and it has got beautiful illustrations as well which i'm in love with and i cannot wait to just like sit down and read this i'm probably going to read this when like i actually have a week off from work because i just can't wait and i feel like it's just like something i'll sit down and read and just have a little bit of fun and fall into the gracious verse and i just cannot wait for that show in april also can i just say that this is really nice to like touch like it's just very satisfying texture and then the next thing i kind of gifted myself for my birthday in october was the special edition of shadow and bone and the contrast here is making it hard to see it but look at this it is so freaking gorgeous so this is like the white slip case white and gold slip case that it's in and the actual book is this gorgeous thing and this is also very satisfying to touch by the way it's just got this like beautiful you know gold foil design silver foil design and it's also got gorgeous illustrations which i am in love with and it just makes me happy and i honestly love this trilogy so much the shadow and bone trojan like i read in high school and it was one of my favorite things and i know a lot of people like to hate on the shadow and bone trilogy and also on alina but i personally love alina and the series so yeah i'm just so happy to have yet another copy of this book because i don't already have like two copies right here i have the original paperback and then i have the new paperback covers that they released and now i have this special edition and then i also have like three copies of six of crows and i like this whole shelf is basically gracious books and i'm really okay with that all right the next one that i bought is one that i bought quite recently actually because it just came out and that is a universe of wishes and this is a anthology we need diverse books uh anthology and it's got different kind of fantasy stories all written by different authors and there's a bunch of authors that i just really like on here so i decided to just pick it up and i also want to try and read more short stories so that's what's one thing but i also have a tendency to like get anthologies and then never actually read them because i have a very bad tendency to not be able to continue with the entire anthology like i always like read a couple stories and then i like kind of lose interest but we're gonna try again and the authors in this anthology are samira ahmed jenny bulk libba bray daniel clayton zoraida cordova tessa gratten kwame mabalia anna marie mclemore tochi onyabuchi mark oshiro natalie c parker rebecca roan horse ve schwab parasim and nick stone so there's a ton of authors in this and i am very very excited about reading this and it just seems like a really interesting collection like it says they deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince a monster long misunderstood memories that vanish with a spell and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice so yeah that just seems really interesting and i always love fantasy books so excited for some short stories all right the next book that i picked up is one that i feel like everybody and their mom has read and that is the secret history by donna tartt i hear everyone kind of talk about this book and especially when like it was fall time and dark academia was like really big this was like coming up a lot and so i jumped on the bandwagon and then bought this and wanted to read it and then never got around to actually like reading it during the fall so i'm hoping to pick it up in 2021 but it is more on the literary side it is like dark academia and although i have like zero intention of reading the goldfinch i am really interested by this and i know it has similar vibes to if we were villains by emma rio which is one of my favorite books so excited to read this i think it's gonna be fun but definitely not gonna pick it up anytime before the end of 2020 but probably in 2021 and then next i also bought kpop confidential by stephen lee the reason i wanted to pick this up is because it's a k-pop story which is always fun and also because the author used to be a writer for entertainment weekly or currently still is so i thought that that was interesting and it just seemed like a fun kind of kpop read to pick up i probably won't pick up anytime soon i think i'll end up picking it up in like the summer because i usually like to read contemporaries in the summer but this is basically about a girl who's like a korean-american girl and then she ends up auditioning for a girl group k-pop group and ends up moving to seoul south korea and is in the whole kpop industry and she is dealing with all the craziness and just all of the intense pressure and i just think it's going to be fun so excited to read this okay and then the other four books that i bought myself talked about these a bunch on my channel already so i'm just gonna mention them kind of briefly but the first is mexican gothic by sylvia moreno garcia a lot of you know i bought this because of the cover and i think it's just so gorgeous and i also want to read it during spooky season but i never got around to it but i do hope to kind of pick it up soon i did get the audiobook from the library so i might try to read it that way but all i really know about this is that it's a gothic horror set in the mexican countryside and i just love the vibes that we are getting from this okay if you guys have read this let me know your thoughts because i'm just really interested to see if i'll like it and then the next three books i've actually already read which is exciting i'm actually finishing some books that i've bought which is just very exciting so the first one is lovely war by julie berry this is kind of a historical fiction also romance also a little bit of like fantasy because there's like gods in this but basically it has this like frame narrative of aphrodite the goddess the greek god is telling a story to some of the other greek gods and later in the book they end up all taking parts of the story and telling it but they're telling the story of these four different kind of teens during world war one so there's james hazel aubry and colette so james and hazel are both british aubry is from america and he's actually black and then colette is from belgium which is also an orphan but the four of these characters kind of intersect in very interesting ways and you're seeing their love stories as well this did drag for me a little bit but i did really enjoy like the overall story and really really loved the frame narrative as well so it's a really nice like fun historical fiction to pick up and definitely not as depressing as some other historical fictions i've read so it's definitely more on like the lighter happier side but also deals with some very like hard subject matter like ptsd and like racism during that time so it was really good the next book i also finished which is sky hunter by marie lu i talked about this in like my favorite covers of 2020 video and as you can see this is just such a gorgeous cover but it's also like got some really interesting packaging to it like just the like hardback like look at that gorgeous but obviously i pre-ordered this immediately after finding out about it because i love marie lu and she is one of my auto buy authors so i knew i had to read this and i picked it up recently and i was actually reading it through the audiobook and i really really loved the audiobook because the narrator really kind of gets you in the story this definitely wasn't my favorite marie lu book but it was still a lot of fun i definitely gave me more legend series vibes because it is a lot more on the dystopian side so that was kind of nice and overall i just really liked the characters in it and i'm really excited to see like where the stories are gonna go in the second book because a lot of things were left up as like question marks at the end of this book so i really want to know what happens and it was definitely like action-packed and full of just some fun and interesting themes but yeah it was a lot of fun and a great kind of like dystopian side more sci-fi read so yeah i highly recommend all right and then the last book that i bought myself was these violent delights by chloe gog this is kind of a reimagining of romeo juliet set in 1920s shanghai i think i've mentioned this in a bunch of videos before but i really enjoyed it i absolutely loved the way the author kind of brought the setting to life and i just love the whole premise of the whole like romeo and juliet aspect of this and like the two opposing gangs that they're from and it also has like this supernatural element with like this madness sweeping through shanghai so it was a lot of fun and has a bit of like a mystery to it so highly recommend if you're looking for kind of a genre bending book all right now we're on to the next section of books which are ones that were sent to me by publishers so i was very lucky this fall because a bunch of publishers came through for me and sent me some of my very anticipated releases of this year and so the first of those was from wednesday books who sent me the paperback edition of gilded wolves and the sequel to gilded wolves the silvered serpents which had just come out in september when they sent this to me so they sent this to me as like a package and that was so kind of them i love the gilded wolves it is one of my all-time favorite series and i just love the characters in it so getting the second book from them was very sweet and i was very happy about that and this book was just fantabulous like it was such a great second installment i liked it a little bit more than the gilded wolves and i just loved seeing where our characters stories were going and just seeing all of the angst in this book because there was a lot so yeah if you haven't picked up the gilded wolves go pick it up it's kind of a diverse national treasure with like a lot of characters from different backgrounds and it deals with a lot of like colonialism and also has like a bunch of magic to it as well which was super cool so yeah it's always going to be one of my favorites and i absolutely love it alright the next book is the one that i'm probably the most excited about on this haul and this was sent to me by penguin teen and it was sent to me early actually before the release of the book which was so kind of them and i was able to film like a whole spoilery reading vlog which you can go check out i'll leave the link in the description or on the screen here but that book is a sky beyond storm by subway to here and guys i was like so freaking excited when they told me they were sending me this i just was a bottle of excitement like the entire week i was waiting for it to arrive and i immediately started reading this the second i got it and i finished it i think in like a few days i think i like finished it the weekend after i got it and i filmed that whole reaction spoilery reading vlog so go check that out it's actually probably one of my favorite videos i've done because it was just such raw reactions for what i was feeling as i was reading this and i had so many emotions while reading this but this is one of my favorite series ever it's the amber quartet by saba tahir it starts with ember in the ashes torch against the night and reaper at the gates and then this is the final installment uh with this beautiful cover and this is a kind of really epic fantasy with some really amazing magic and some really really endearing characters that you cannot help but root for and there were so many things that happened in this book that oh my god just destroyed me and it was such a great final installment but i'm not going to say anything more than that because i do not want to spoil it for you so if you haven't read it yet uh go read it and if you have go check out my reading blog for more thoughts on this but yeah it was just amazing and thank you so much penguin teen for sending this to me alright and then the next two books were sent to me by disney books which was very kind of them the first one was rebel rose by emma fario and this is the first book in a new series called the queen's council and so it's like based off of the disney princesses and each book is kind of like a continuation off the original like movie and letting you know what happens after the happily ever after and also kind of reimagining the princesses as kind of rulers in their own right so in this one it follows belle from beauty and the beast and she is a ruler in france in 1779 i think or something like during revolutionary france and she's dealing with all that but also like what happens after her happily ever after with the beast so yeah i'm very interested to read this and i think it's gonna be a really fun kind of concept and i'm curious to see how the other books in the series are going to be as well but yeah definitely going to pick this up soon and the disney books also sent me an early copy of lore by alexandra bracken and this is a book that's coming out to january 5th i believe and this is her new standalone fantasy and i'm so freaking excited about it this is one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 mainly because i love alexandran's books even though i haven't read her darkest minds series i really really loved her passenger and wayfarer series and i'm excited to kind of get a standalone urban fantasy from her because this does involve a lot of greek mythology but is such in our present day and is following like a strong main character and involves some sort of competition or hunt set in new york city with some gods kind of roaming around and i think it's gonna be super cool and i just love this cover because it's just so crazy with like the medusa head and everything so i'm just really interested to see how this is going to be because the concept is just so interesting and i really want to see how it's executed okay and now we're on to the last set of books which are books that i received in different book boxes so the first of those i really want to talk about because i just unboxed this in a different video which you can probably find linked on screen or down below but i just did an owlcrate and illumicrate unboxing and this is a special edition of daughter and smoke and bone by laini taylor and if you guys didn't know lainey taylor is one of my favorite authors i absolutely love her strange the dreamers series and this is a gorgeous special edition of by illumicrate for the new uk edition of the series so it has this beautiful illustration but it's also like blue sprayed edges and it's got this lovely quote on the back which says once upon a time an angel and a devil fell in love it did not end well and then it's also signed by the author and it's got this beautiful embossing on the inside cover and it says she had been innocent once a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil's lair she wasn't innocent now it's got the feather and i know that's from the book and i actually have read daughter of smoke and bone before i read it a really long time ago so i actually don't remember anything that happened but i never ended up continuing with the series because i just got caught up with other stuff but i really want to find out what happens later in the series because i know i did really enjoy this book and i think i just need to go back and reread it and i just cannot wait for that and this is just so pretty and also this edition has some beautiful artwork on the inside of the dust jacket which i just cannot get over all right the next special edition i have is from owlcrate and this is for their special edition box of the invisible life of addie larue by v.e schwab so this is the gorgeous special edition that they did and i actually really love how simple it is i know some people didn't but i love the rose gold and i love the back of this which has a quote from the book which says never pray to the gods that answer after dark and it's got like the little string thingy bookmark which i love and i think it just really embodies this book which i absolutely loved this was a lovely lovely book highly recommend if you're looking for it just kind of a bit more literary read but also something that's kind of magical and something that will just really enrapture you at the end of the year next i have the special edition of once in future witches by alex e harrell and this came in i think the november illumicrate box and it is so pretty it is an adult fantasy and it's got these red sprayed edges which is so nice and i just actually really like this cover and like this entire package this is basically set in 1893 and it follows like a group of witches and also involves like a women's movement and there's just magic and madness and stuff going around and i honestly don't know a lot about it but i kind of want to keep it that way because i feel like these types of books is just fun to go into them without knowing much and getting blown away so excited to read this i know this was the author of ten thousand doors of january which i'd heard a lot of things about but i never actually read it but i really want to get into more adult fantasy so i'm very excited to read this one and then i also got some special editions of legend born in two different boxes actually so this one is from one of the owlcrate boxes from this fall and then this one is from i think the november illuma crate box which also had once in future witches so this is kind of like a uk paperback and it's got like the silver detailing around the magic on her hands and then this is the owlcrate edition that kind of switches the colors of the cover which i think is super cool so now i have three copies of legend born because i also have the original edition right here but this is actually one of my favorite books of this year so i am not complaining at all because it's just such a great book and i cannot wait to see where it goes in the next installment but this is kind of a mashup of dark academia with like the arthurian legend with a poc main lead and some really really interesting magic as well and a little bit of like monster hunting as well and it was just so much fun and just so well crafted so i cannot wait to see where it goes and just so excited to have all these beautiful additions on my shelves and actually that was the last set of books for this haul i am so excited about so many of these books i actually have finished a bunch of them so i'm excited about that but there are a lot more that i'm excited to pick up very soon and i actually just love how i have so many new fun editions of books to put on my shelves because i just love collecting books in general so that's also a thing but thank you so much for watching go check out my instagram twitter and goodreads in the description down below if you want to get more regular updates on my reading and just what i'm doing and let me know down below which of the books i hauled you are most excited for which ones you really enjoyed and that's all for my final book haul of 2020 i just need this year to be over not that like 2021 is gonna be immediately better than 2020 but we're gonna hope that it's gonna get better i will see you in my next video so please remember that this story ain't over bye [Music] you

Channel: thisstoryaintover

Views: 20,218

Rating: 4.9756098 out of 5

Keywords: book haul, december book haul, christmas book haul, last book haul, last book haul of 2020, final book haul, final book haul of 2020, books to read, tbr, books i want to read, books i bought, books i read, book review, recent reads, book haul 2020

Id: 8WqmZ7etXvs

Length: 20min 54sec (1254 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020