Showcase Sunday #20

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicki at Books, Biscuits and Tea. Its aim is to showcase our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week.

Purchased:  
The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1) by Alexandra Bracken So this was free for Kindle at some point last month. I've said before that I'm more interested in Bracken's Brightly Woven, but the marketing for the concluding book of this series got me interested in this one as well.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Magical realism! In a modern-day America! Nearly all of my knowledge of and love for the magical realism genre (subgenre?) is due to some fantastic Latin American authors, so I'm excited to see magical realism apply to a different type of story.

Among Others by Jo Walton

Just everything about this book sounds like something I'd love to read. Bookish protagonist, a world with a hint of the fantastical, an epistolary writing style. Here's hoping I can get to this one soon.

Borrowed:

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

The cover and the synopsis for this story intrigued me so much. A seventeenth-century Amsterdam sprinkled with bits of magic? The story was not quite what I was expecting, however. I'm still not sure what to think of this one.

The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy, #1) by Jennifer A. Nielsen

My decision to start reading MG stories basically means that I'll be reading MG fantasies. I planned on starting this series a while ago, so I finally decided to borrow my library's copy.

The Perilous Sea (The Burning Sky, #2) by Sherry Thomas

I liked The Burning Sky (my review), but not quite as much as I'd hoped to. I suppose the same can be said for its sequel. It's good, don't get me wrong. But something stopped me from full-out loving it.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I'm not going to lie: I had super high expectations going into this. It's with relief that I can admit that they were met. If Nelson continues to write such weird yet poignant stories about recovering from tragedies, I will raise no objections.

Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder

This was a total impulse-borrow (better than an impulse-buy, am I right?). I'm not sure I've read anything by Yolen, but I liked the sound of this urban fantasy and I love that she writes stories for readers of all ages.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

This is my current audiobook. I'm really liking it. What can I say? Unreliable narrators and contemporary stories with a hint of the supernatural are a great combination.

I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

One thing reading The Miniaturist did do is make me want to read more historical fiction. And a historical fiction about a woman masquerading as a man to fight in the Civil War? Yes, please.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Another impulse-borrow. I don't know if I like memoirs or graphic novels, but it sounds like something I could potentially enjoy and I like that it's so different from my normal sort of read.

What books have you recently acquired?