(a very belated) Birthday Bookhaul

Hi everyone! It’s finally time for me to do the only book haul I do in a year: my birthday! I turned 22 back in June and a few of my wonderful friends gifted me some wonderful books. I had planned on making a haul post right after my birthday, I even took the pictures, but for some reason I never got around to putting the actual post together. But hey, better late than never, right?

First of all, my incredibly lovely friends Lili and Fadwa send me a package which contained a copy of Ruse by Cindy Pon! I had read and loved both Want and Ruse as audiobooks and I already owned a copy of Want so I was incredibly excited to be able to now display the completed duology on my shelf. I’ve had them standing face out on my bookshelf ever since I got them and I just love the way they look. I’m very tempted to reread them soon, especially because I’m in a huge sci-fi mood right now.

I’d read With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo as an audiobook and it immediately became one of my favorite books in the world. I wanted to own a copy of this book really badly so that I could reread it and highlight my favorite passages (and stare at the cover, ngl. It’s so ridiculously gorgeous!) so my friend Elin bought it for me! I have to be honest and admit that once I opened the package I spend quite a few minutes just staring at the book admiring it, because it’s just so freaking gorgeous. Even the naked cover looks amazing. Just, wow.

Then I planned on ordering myself a copy of If It Makes You Happy for my birthday because I really enjoyed the author’s debut, Let’s Talk About Love, but when Anniek saw my tweet about buying it she DM’d me and ended up sending me her extra copy! I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but I’m excited to hopefully get to it soon!

This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow is another one of my all time favorite books and I recommend it to everyone, but I read the ARC of it and didn’t own a finished copy of it (and had shipped the ARC off to another blogger), so I put the book on my wishlist and my friend Maud ordered it for me! (Also can I just say that I met Maud on Tumblr back in like… 2012/13? Maybe? And she’s the one who got me into bookstagram and thereby introduced me to the book community and I’m so grateful for her and I’m so happy we still talk every day).

My parents also allowed me to order a book for my birthday and I ended up going with The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James by Ashley Herring Blake. Ashley Herring Blake is one of my favorite authors and I adored her previous middle grade, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, so I really wanted to read this one too! Plus, look at how pretty these covers look together!

My beautiful friend Romie got me a copy of Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett which I’m incredibly excited to read! I now have three Jenn Bennett books on my TBR and I really need to get to them soon because they all sound like such fun, adorable reads (maybe for the contemporary-a-thon?).

Mijn hele lieve vriendin Marjo send me a package containing Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai and a very cute pin, and my friend CW highly recommended Pie in the Sky so I, of course, immediately jumped into the book once I got it. And I loved it so, so much! I’m really happy that I got to read it, so thank you both ❤

Then my friend Maud also got me a copy of Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough! I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while, and I usually read books that are written in verse as an audiobook but when I tried listening to this audiobook it just didn’t work for me at all, so I’m excited to try again with a physical copy because the plot of this one sounds incredibly intriguing.

I’m so, so happy with all of these books and I’m beyond grateful for how generous my friends have been to me. Just, thank you. Thank you so much ❤

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