Book Feast 2016 Book Haul

It's that time of the year where there are exams for everyone, but it's also the time of the year where the annual Book Feast (or for the Dutch people Boekenfestijn) shows up at Ghent! Luckily for me it's always open on a Friday evening too, that way I can visit it after I studied or did my exam! And as per usual, I found some books! Let's get started...

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Remember last post about the Book Feast? Then I had a goal: The Hunger Games trilogy! But also this year I had a goal... I'm really obsessed when this Book Feast comes and then I start checking the site to see the advertisements and I saw a book series I wanted to have for a year now: The Mercy Fall trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. I had ordered the first three in Dutch because I couldn't find them with a good and beautiful cover, or I just couldn't find them at all! So I bought it for 20,00 euros and had to wait until the 1st of January 2016, because it was in reprint. Yet after the 1st I didn't receive anything but a mail saying it was delayed... for a whole year! But I said okay I'll wait just because I wanted them so badly!

However I saw the trilogy in a very nice cover for only 15,00 euro's in the advertisements of the Book Feast of Apeldoorn... which is in the Netherlands and not in Belgium. I worried that they'd all be sold there and there wouldn't be any left for Ghent. This is where the story begins! I send a mail to the customer service to ask if they'd be in Ghent too. The woman said that normally they would and they'd keep one apart (which is something they usually don't do!). But things turned out differently...

Friday the 17th of June, I counted down the hours to visit the feast and after checking the entrance with many, many books I went to the service where books would be held for me. But the woman said she didn't know anything about it. I was disappointed because I really want that series. My niece and me started in the aisle of Young Adult afterward and I found the second book in the series on its own: Linger. So I said to my niece: look! This is one of them. The ones I'm looking for! If you find a similar cover tell me! And only two seconds later she said: you mean these? She had found the last package of this series and I was just so happy! So thanks again Marika! 

It feels like the Book Feast is a real adventure! Each year there's something that happens. I'm just really glad I found the series because it's a bargain in comparison to the one I'm still waiting on. It has the nice covers, they're in English and 5,00 euros cheaper! So I'm canceling my order now I have them. Who knows maybe I had to wait even longer after the 1st of January 2017 to receive the reprint! 

For everyone who's not familiar with the series, here's the back of the first book Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater:

When a local boy is killed by wolves, Grace's small town becomes a place of fear and suspicion. But Grace can't help being fascinated by the pack, and by one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. There's something about him - something almost human. Then she meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away...

It's my first book series that contains wolves but I'm really looking forward to it! It's also my first book by Maggie Stiefvater but I know she's really known because of the Raven Boys. And therefore I've heard she's a really good author! I'm really curious...

Okay, so the first pair of books were found but there were more... of course. Last time there was one aisle of Young Adult, this time there were three! Above that I was really surprised that there were so many English books this time around! Which made this Book Trip even more fun. The next book I stumbled upon was one that caught my attention by it's cover. Bound by Sarah Bryant. The cover seemed so dark and mysterious and then this sentence also made me pick up the book: What Happens When an Angel Falls?

The book is about a girl that sees all sorts of things: ghosts, demons,... but she thinks they're all her imagination. Thinking she can escape it, she goes to a little town in Scotland where she meets someone who convinces her there's no such things as her imagination. The things she sees, are real and that person sees them too. 

I don't really know where this will turn to. It could be angel-alike or ghost-alike. All I know is that it really caught my attention and I want an answer on the question that's presented on the cover. Let's just hope it isn't too scary!

After I had that book in my hands, I got back with my niece and her eyes fell on a book we both want to read... badly, Teardrop by Lauren Kate. Only my niece doesn't enjoy reading in English and the book was there in English. So since it was a bargain of 4,99 euros, I couldn't let it slip away and took it with me. We searched if the Dutch version would be there but there was no luck for my niece. Although she did take the book Panic by Lauren Oliver. 

I have read one book by Lauren Kate before, which was Unforgiven, and then I discovered that I really enjoy her writing style so after reading about Teardrop on Goodreads, I kind of was sold. The thing is, each time I went to the bookstore only the second book was there. It's a weird thing in Belgium but I feel like it's only the second book in a series that's available. At least that's what I came across multiple times in bookstores here. Anyways, for the ones that'd be interested in the plot here it is:

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense. Can everything you love be washed away? 

I continued my walk and came across all Cassandra Clare's books. Last time I bought the second book in the Infernal Devices in a hardcover (for 5,00 euros my friends!) so I wanted to get the first and last book too, in hardcover. But they were only there in paperback! At that moment I didn't know if I should take them anyway or not but decided against it. Sorry, Cassandra Clare, we'll have to wait for a while...

That didn't let my "bookspirit" die though because I found another book, which is the last book I bought: Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon. Which I just now realize is a second in a series, I saw that it was a sequel but misinterpret it apparently... Oh well! Gives me an excuse to buy more books ;-). It went a little bit like Bound, I saw it, it was mysterious and I flipped the book and read the first two lines and was curious: I am in love with Dante Berlin. He is my soulmate. He saved my life. 

Doesn't it sound promising? It does! Goodreads also tells me this is a good book because it has 4.18 out of five which is not nothing. Did anyone read a book by Yvonne Woon before? What where your thoughts about it? 

With this book as my last book, the end of the Book Trip neared. I can safely say that this time there were more books to pick from and above that we all went home with bargains. The Book Feast is known to sell books but on a much lower price. Sometimes the books are damaged but it's all about taking the book from the bottom... 

"Books are uniquely portable magic" 

  

                                           ~Stephen King

Book Feast 2015 Book Haul and update

After waiting for a week it was finally time! As every year we go to the Book Feast, it's a big place where you can find all sorts of books for a cheaper price. It's kind of tradition, together with my family and the family of my mom's sister we go pay it a visit.

Before I left I already had a goal! My friend Fien is a big fan of the Hunger Games and I never read the books. I don't know why that is really but she said I really needed to read them. When I got the advertisement of the Book Feast 2015 I saw that all 3 books were 15 euro's together. Normally each book is 15 euro's so this was kind of a very nice bargain. I had my eyes on it and I wouldn't walk out of that hall without them... or well it didn't go as planned...

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I came into the hall and then there's this first row with all the books from the advertisement. The ones that would be a bargain or just really good reads. I walked there with my niece, they weren't there. Eventually we just walked through all the rows that could possibly be our genre, I still didn't find them!

My mother eventually went to ask where we could find them and the women said: "They're all gone. They were sold out really fast." I was ready to die right there! I just couldn't believe it and I said it before I left, that they probably would be sold out, all of them! Look who was right?! But the women said that they'd have an extension of the Feast, which is really rare, and that they might come in then. 

That obviously didn't make my disappointment go away. I really wanted those books! So with my new friend disappointment, I went on the lookout for other books. Normally all the genres are indicated but my niece and me didn't find Young Adult. Just like last year! The problem is that it didn't and never gets a big sign so people usually can't find it. 

It was next to the sign Color and Activity so obviously we thought, oh that's something we don't need to go to. Young Adult was right there though and once we knew that I took two books and didn't put them back. The first one was Finding Sky by Joss Stirling, it's in Dutch though! I didn't really mind it because the cover was absolutely stunning and the story appealed to me. I saw that it had really good rates and for that price, you can't put it back!

The second book I took into my hands was Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. It's the second book in the Infernal Devices, I know. And I don't have the first one but hear me out! You're walking on this Book Feast and look around, your eye catches this nice gorgeous glittering book. Above that it's a hardcover! You think "No, I don't have the first book. I can't take it!" but then you look at the prince and you think... It's gorgeous, stunning, a damn hardcover for this price? Who puts that down?! 

I was doubting though but decided to take it with me since I really wanted to read the series anyway and then I already have the second one. What harm is there in doing that? So we go back to our parents and walk with them, since we already saw everything. My sister walks up to me and says that the women we asked about for the Hunger Games was walking there, searching, with books from the Hunger Games in her hands. 

This is the funniest story in my life really! I didn't have glasses on so I couldn't see it, my niece couldn't see it either and my mom passes by walking after her. When the women stops, my mother stops pretending to look at something right in front of her while trying to catch what the women has in her hands. The women is back on the move and she's going faster! Right to the cash registers. And suddenly, my niece, mother, sister and I are almost running after her. It was so funny to see it happen because I was the last one! I was kind of coming behind and trying to catch up but then there were these kids that were in front of me and I almost ran them over. Sorry kids! 

And the women stops again so we stop, all four of us by stacks of normal paper. "Do we need paper? Do you know that?" then we started looking around. It was so obvious! The women returns and then stops next to us and asks politely if we were the ones that asked for the Hunger Games Trilogy. 

As nonchalantly as possible my mom says yes and asks why and the women just found the trilogy on a return table. At the end, people can just lay books on it they eventually don't want to take with them. The employees take those and go lay them on their right location so other people can buy it.  So that's the story on how I lost my friend disappointment and thanked the Book Gods for this gift! 

Also I want to thank my sister for seeing the women and the women (whose name I couldn't read on her shirt) that remembered the sad teenage bookaddict that needed those books, and wanted them that day! Without them, I would've gone home with sad faces and 'only' two books. My day was completed! 

So now I'm home with two books and a trilogy. I did find it rather disappointing this year! Normally there are so many Young Adults but this time there wasn't a lot to buy... and it was the same for the other genres. On a good period you can find all the books by Cassandra Clare and even the Maze Runner, all those books are all over the place but this year there was absolutely nothing! 

I didn't regret going though, I got what I wanted and I always love to go to the Book Feast because it's just amazing! 

Now the update! As I already said I was going to read every day one story from the book My True Love Gave To Me until Christmas, hoping that I finished it by then. Today was the day I started, just like planned. The first story is by Rainbow Rowell called Midnights. 

I so enjoyed this little story! Absolutely stunning! It's about New Year's Eve and we get a little teaser of what happens on New Year's Eve that year but then go back in time to see why this actually happens. After the flashbacks we get back to the present and see what happens next. 

I honestly fell in love with this story! I don't want to spoil more but I can only say I wish that this happened to me on New Year's Eve. 
Also I can't wait for the second story which'll be by the author Kelly Link. I'm really curious since I never read a book written by her. 




I'll try to update whenever I liked the story and stories that follow! 
12 days until Christmas!
19 days until New Year's Eve!
I'm so excited!