Indulgence Insider is our version of Stacking the Shelves, Bought, Borrowed & Bagged and the Sunday Post, bringing you this week’s haul, bookish news and discussion posts from around the blogosphere!

Now that there’s 3 of us posting on this blog, I thought I’d trial having all of us post an update this week! It’s a long read, but I hope you enjoy our book hauls and reading updates! May have to rethink this one next time, lol.

Updates

Jeann

Last week, I went to BTCYA Night by HarperCollins Australia. Had a great time learning about their early 2016 releases, with lots of great YA fantasy books to look forward to and some great contemporary titles as well. The special guest was Gabrielle Tozer, who talked about her books, The Intern and Faking It (which Jenna reviewed here), her writing process, her new book and winning the Gold Inky Award recently. It was awesome meeting some new bookish lovers and the swag was awesome! Jenna is attending the event next week, so we’ll be back next weekend to give you some in-depth coverage on the books to look out for next year.

It’s been a massive gaming week for us, with the releases of Fallout 4 and Starcraft Legacy of the Void! I ran out and got my collector’s edition on the first day which is glorious. Fallout 4 is so much fun so far, I’m getting caught up with base building and modding and so many awesome things you can do in the game!

I’ve been house hunting later and we put in an offer for a house, but apparently it was too low for them to even consider. We don’t want to go out of our budget though, so it was pretty disappointing. Hopefully we’ll find one soon, for the price we want to pay and something that ticks all the boxes. House hunting is stressful.

Aila

While everyone else was doing fun stuff and having the time of their lives, I was pretty much studying and doing school assignments (as per usual). We had a band homecoming/party because we missed the actual homecoming due to a marching band competition; on the other hand, concert band season has started! For those of you who didn’t know, I play clarinet in the school band and piano for free time. Yay for music!

Jenna

I am a total introvert and I do nothing fun at all, ever! But the Japanese Film Festival finally came to Sydney and I went to see BAKUMAN on the opening night, last Thursday. Japanese Film Festival is the largest celebration of Japanese films and culture in the whole world and it’s an event I go to every year. They show lots of recent Japanese film releases and the event typically runs for 2 weeks. I usually see about 7 or 8 of these movies every year, but sadly I’m only seeing 4 this time. As mentioned, I saw BAKUMAN last week and I’m seeing three more today (Princess Jellyfish, No Longer Heroine, Assassination Classroom). BAKUMAN was lots and lots of fun. It’s adapted from a popular manga series that’s about two high school boys who team up to create a manga series! The live action film featured three of my favourite Japanese actors and I had an awesome time!

In other news, I bought myself a new camera! The extremely hyped-up Canon G7X.

Book Hauls

Jeann

Review copies – I’m super lucky to have received so many in the past month!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
The Marvels by Brian Selznick
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham
Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall
The Geomancer by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith
Madame Tussaud’s Apprentice by Kathleen Benner DubleA
November 9 by Colleen Hoover
Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Thanks to Allen & Unwin, Hachette, Hot Key Books, Pan Macmillan, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster and Pyr Books for these review copies. 

Bought

I couldn’t resist the beautiful Harry Potter Illustrated Edition, and I had to use up a TBD 5% voucher so I purchased The Young Elites and The Rose Society. Also my yearly Walking Dead book purchase – this one’s book 12.

Gifted/Traded 

This is my haul at BTCYA – I got a finished copy of Demon Road as my freebie and an ARC of Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club which sounds awesome! Also traded with Meleika for Night Owls and In the Skin of a Monster.

Aila

Other than preordering a bunch of 2016 books (future gifts to my future self), I also got a couple of cute-sounding contemporaries. ALSO WINTER IS (FINALLY) HERE.

A couple of titles were received from Netgalley and Edelweiss, too – special thanks to Fierce Reads and Simon and Schuster! I can’t WAIT to read The Skylighter by Becky Wallace because the first book was so fun, and I’ve just heard amazing things about the conclusion to this duology.

Jenna

I am currently on an unofficial book buying ban (I’m just trying to see how long I can go without buying any books since I purchased over 30 books last month. Whoops! Also, a chunk of my money went towards my shiny new camera). But I do have two books that I’ve received since the beginning of this month. I did a trade with Aentee @ Read at Midnight and got Night Owls by Jenn Bennett in return. My highly anticipated pre-order of Winter by Marissa Meyer also came this week *hugs to chest* IT WAS PERFECTION!

Reading Update 

Jeann

Their Fractured Light – I officially have a massive book hangover. What a beautiful, gorgeous ending for the series – it’s now my favourite series of all time! I was crying at the end of the book because of how beautiful it was. 5 stars.

November 9 – Cute concept, but it featured too many cheesy lines and romance tropes for me. 3 stars – my review will be up next week.

Aila

Listing all the books got me like “Whoa!” (You won’t see this happening again haha.)

Wolf by Wolf – Awesome alternate historical that was full of action! 4 stars, with a review coming soon to a blog near you.

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart – Absolutely adorable and a quick, contemporary read. 4 stars.

These Vicious Masks – Another historical but with a dose of supernatural! Lots of espionage going on, and a crackling romance. 4 stars.

Winter – jfld;FJDLAJL;lkjfdlk;ja;l How to explain feels? LoveloveloveloveLOVED this conclusion of the Lunar Chronicles, with all the characters from previous books working together, along with Winter and Jacin. <3 5 epic stars!

Until We Meet Again – A cool, time-travel(ish) romance that has a girl from 2015 falling in love with a boy from 1925. Bittersweet at times and overall very romantic, it had me clutching my heart in the end. 3.5 stars.

These Shallow Graves – Currently reading and enjoying so far! Set in 1890’s New York (why am I reading all these historical books??), the main character is set on figuring out the murder of her father.

Jenna

I had an amazing reading week!! I read four books this week:

Carry On – Perfection in a book! Check out our discussion post! 5 stars.

Love and Other Perishable Items – A wonderful but under-hyped Aussie YA novel! It was delightful, simple and realistic. 4 stars.

Winter – An action-packed and epic finale to The Lunar Chronicles. I read this in just a day and a half and now I want to reread it all over again! The Lunar Chronicles is definitely my favourite series of all time! 5 stars.

Six of Crows – Another amazing book with a great story and a fantastic cast of characters that will melt your heart! 5 stars.

Bookish News

So much amazing YA news this month!

• The biggest news this week is that A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas has been optioned for film! We can’t wait to see Tamlin, Lucien and Rhysand in the flesh!
• PTALive is coming to Brisbane (25 November) and Adelaide (23 November) this month – have you RSVPed?
• The new official Allegiant trailer is out, watch it here. Not too sure about the special effects.
• Sarah J. Maas is officially in the Southern Hemisphere, here’s all her tour stops in Australia and New Zealand!
• Kat Zhang, author of What’s Left Of Me has announced a new book, where a Chinese American girl embarks on an adventure to China (FINALLY!).
• The third Bone Season Book by Samantha Shannon is called The Song Rising – I LOVE IT!
• Darkest Minds Author, Alexandra Bracken, has signed a new 4 book deal which is a MG series 
• Michelle Hodkin, author of the Mara Dyer series, will write a spin-off
• J.K. Rowling is writing another children’s book! 
• Thirteen Reasons Why is becoming a TV series on Netflix. 

Discussion Posts

• Why Diversity – Rashika @ The Social Potato shares her story 
• Aentee @ YA Midnight Reads asks – who is she blogging for? 
• Nick @ Nick and Nereyda’s Infinite Book List on romance tropes she’s sick of 
• Lily @ Lily’s Book Blog on being comfortable in her own skin and Camgirl 

How was your bookish week? 

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