The Hoard Grows is where I show off whatever new treasure joined my collection this week — bought, borrowed, gifted, or won. Credit where it's due: this meme was inspired by 'In My Mailbox,' created by The Story Siren, and 'Stacking the Shelves,' hosted by Tynga's Reviews — thank you both for the inspiration!

If you've been around a while, you know that I ask at the end of each post what I should read first from the pile. For Week #44, most of you picked Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman — I bumped it up and loved it! For Week #45, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa won the vote, so I'll be squeezing it into this week's reading. Thanks for helping me pick — I can't wait to see what wins this time.

This week's haul is a big stack of ebooks — seventeen in total! All Kindle reads this time, split below by how they came into my hands.

Offered by Allies

• Incarnation by Emma Cornwall — Edelweiss — Steampunk & Victorian London, two of my favorite book settings combined. Lucy Weston with the help of Bram Stoker (author of Dracula) seeks a vampire who transformed her.
• City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte — NetGalley — When music student Sarah Weston gets a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven's manuscripts, she has no idea that she will also: get arrested, have tantric sex in a public fountain, discover a time-warping drug and catch the attention of a handsome prince.
• The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman — NetGalley — This book wasn't marked as part of a series on Goodreads, so I requested it, but then I saw on Amazon that it's actually part of the Half-Made World series. Guess I'll have to buy and read the previous books first — it'll probably take a while until I review this one.
• The Ruling Sea (Chathrand Voyages #2) by Robert V.S. Redick — NetGalley — Last week I was approved for the first book in this epic fantasy series, and this week I got the second and third too! Can't wait to read them, I'll have to make time in my schedule soon.
• The River of Shadows (Chathrand Voyages #3) by Robert V.S. Redick — NetGalley — Same story as above — got this one along with the second book this week. This series is quickly climbing my tbr pile.
• The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination by John Joseph Adams — NetGalley — Just the title is recommendation enough to read it. :D This is a collection of stories about mad scientists and evil geniuses from their own point of view.
• Brave New Worlds by John Joseph Adams — NetGalley — Stories in this anthology explore the question: what happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life? Some of my favorite authors contributed: Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, Philip K. Dick, etc.
• Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton — NetGalley — Peter F. Hamilton combines the nail-biting suspense of a serial-killer investigation with "a future that seems not merely plausible but inevitable." I like reading how authors imagine our world will develop. Do you?
• The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles #2) by Juliet Dark — Edelweiss — I just loved the first part of this series, 'The Demon Lover' — it was like adult Harry Potter. The heroine is a college professor who discovers that her colleagues and students aren't completely 'normal'. There's a real mix of mythical creatures here and a lot of funny adventures.
• Demon's Curse (Imnada Brotherhood #1) by Alexa Egan — Edelweiss — "A fast-paced and captivating debut — the first in the dark and sexy Imnada Brotherhood series about shape shifters in Regency-era England." I hope the accent is more on paranormal than romance, but I won't know until I read it. :)
• A Shimmer of Angels (Angel Sight #1) by Lisa M. Basso — NetGalley — What a beautiful cover, don't you agree? "Sixteen-year-old Rayna sees angels, and has the medication and weekly therapy sessions to prove it. Now, in remission, Rayna starts fresh at a new school, lands a new job, and desperately tries for normalcy."
• Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis — YA Bound — I just love the myth of Persephone and Hades, so when the YA Bound website offered me a review copy of this book I accepted right away. Can't wait to read this one!

Kindle Freebies

• The Sundered by Ruthanne Reid — Amazon Freebie — "Harry searches for artifacts left over from the time before the water came. When he's given the chance to find a mysterious device that might fix everything, he jumps at it - but this Hope isn't what it seems. In his broken, flooded world, every hope has a price."
• Zombie Bitches from Hell by Zoot Campbell — Amazon Freebie — The title alone made me lol. The summary promises a good old trashy zombie novel: a plague has turned all the world's women into brain-eating zombies, and Kent Zimmer searches for both his girlfriend and a cure — encountering hungry undead, psychotic doctors, evil nuns, racist militias, and drag queens with machine guns along the way.
• The Road to Nowhere by Lee Argus — Amazon Freebie — Another zombie novel, but with my favorite type of opening: the hero wakes up in a room with no memory of where he is or how he got there.
• Beguiled (Immortal Essence #2) by RaShelle Workman — Amazon Freebie — I have the first book of this series on my Kindle but haven't read it yet. When I saw the second part was free I grabbed the chance to get it — maybe that'll push it up my tbr...
• The Medium (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #1) by C.J. Archer — Amazon Freebie — What a scary and weird hairstyle. :) But it sounded interesting: 17-year-old Emily is a medium who accidentally released a shape-shifting demon into the mortal realm, and together with Jacob Beaufort she must send him back... did I mention that Jacob is a sexy ghost? :)

Well, I hope your fingers don't hurt (again) after scrolling through this epic pile of books. :) Maybe there are fewer books than last week, but there are some real chunksters in this pile. I need to speed up my reading and clear up my to-review-asap pile (well, at least a little bit).

There's a Book Fair on Friday, so if I manage to review 4 books before then I'll treat myself with something nice. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm gonna buy a pile of books either way. LOL :D

What do you think I should read first? Did you already read something from this pile? What did you get this week?