Thanks to some difficulty getting to sleep (and staying asleep) these last couple of weeks, I had completed the books I kept unpacked too quickly. So I popped in to Whitcoulls during my lunch break to check out the NZ fiction section. Happily, I found The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach, a rather fun-sounding fantasy. Just what I need to help me switch off at night.

But then as I was leaving work to head to an appointment, I remembered that I also had a bag of books to drop off at the secondhand bookshop. Which of course meant that I would be coming home with probably as many books as I dropped off. I was wrong. I surrendered 7 or 8 books, and liberated 18! What can I say, I’m weak. Also, there probably would have been more than 18 except at this point I decided it was best to leave the bookshop before checking the other authors on my list. I obviously couldn’t be trusted. So what did I get?

First up, Elvenblood by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey. I bought book one, Elvenbane, last month when I was in, so I went looking to see if there were any more in the trilogy. They now have book 3 on a watch list for me. I also remember reading and enjoying Mercedes Lackey in the 90s. I can’t remember what books I read that I liked of hers, but checked what they had anyway. And found Alta, and Sanctuary, books 2 and 3 of the Dragon Jousters. “Who wouldn’t want to read about jousting on dragon back”, I said to myself, so these also had to come home with me, and book 1 has also been added to the watchlist for me.

Next up, I decided to pick up some of the Jennifer Fallon books that were there last time. Luckily, they still were and all in pretty good condition too. I got all three books of the Second Son trilogy: Lion of Senet, Eye of the Labyrinth and Lord of the Shadows. Unfortunately, they only had book 3 of The Demon Child (Harshini), but they did have the complete follow-up trilogy, The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade, Warrior and Warlord.

But the biggest treasure of all… That would be books 1 to 7 of Witch World by Andre Norton: Witch World, Web of the Witch World, Year of the Unicorn, Three Against the Witch World, Warlock of the Witch World, Sorceress of the Witch World and Spell of the Witch World. Apparently these were just dropped off yesterday, which is how I managed to strike gold. Since I was taking the whole set, they gave me a great deal on them too.

I also picked up The Lady of the Trilium, but MZB. But I forgot to take a photo and I’m feeling lazy. Now I just need to find the unicorn (Golden Trilium) to complete the set. I’m looking forward to rereading all of these. I remember I enjoyed them when I was a teen, but I have no memory of what they were about.

And to top it all off, I came home to find my Blackwells parcel waiting for me. I had ordered Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson when it looked like it wasn’t going to be available in NZ and Australia until later this year. Did I need to buy it now and not wait? No. But that was my reasoning over the Xmas break. Of course, it is now available at Whitcoulls near work, and also Booktopia. Guess whatever was holding things up got cleared quickly.

So there you have it. Twenty new books to add to my library. What a way to finish off four very long, tiring and stressful days. Now all I need to decide is: do I start The Dawnhounds or Her Majesty’s Royal Coven this evening? Decisions, decisions.