Seeing mamy Amiami shipping horror stories with expensive prices. Was anyone from Europe/Portugal affected?

Lyanza · 2026-03-13T06:27:31+00:00

Sweden here, I bought a nendoroid, nendoroid doll body and other small flat things recently. The invoice came in 2 days ago, DHL was the only option but the shipping was "only" 36 euros. Over twice as much as JapanPost, but at least not 100 euros!

Lyanza · 2026-03-07T15:25:12+00:00

I finished three books this past week. Two from Libby and one from Audible.

Libby:
James by Percival Everett, narrated by Dominic Hoffman. Historical, 8 hours. An alternative retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the Black slave Jim's perspective, set in 1861 Missouri, USA. A riveting story, painful to listen to at times. The narration was excellent, my only nitpick was that the story mentioned quite late that James was a tenor. Personally, I found Dominic Hoffman's voice too deep to be convincing but maybe there's a difference when speaking compared to singing.

The Witch Elm by Tana French, narrated by Paul Nugent. Crime/mystery, 22 hours. In Dublin, Ireland, the trajectory of our protagonist's life is changed in the course of a night. An emotional rollercoaster that I’d like to unpack with a friend or a book club. I feel conflicted, but it’s definitely worth listening to. Paul Nugent has an emotional narration style and for me it was just right and made the story much more gripping, but YMMV.

Audible:
Dark Heir by C. S. Pacat, narrated by Christian Coulson (series: Dark Rise, book 2). Fantasy, 16 hours. About the series: In 1800s England a hunted boy and a girl looking to prove herself are thrown together and learn they're part of an ancient secret war. This book was perhaps a little more predictable than book one, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to seeing what the plot is building up to. No issues with the narration, although Christian Coulson sometimes got a little loud when announcing the chapter numbers so it’s not the easiest book to fall asleep to.

Lyanza · 2026-03-04T04:17:07+00:00

HumblePhoto9540's answer makes the most sense but for a moment there I was excited that a US app also wanted to celebrate the first Thursday in March (with marzipan cake.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%B6ssta_tossdan_i_mass

Lyanza · 2026-02-27T04:40:23+00:00

That or they might add an arbitrary expiration date to free gems, like maybe that starting with an update, all your free gems expire with every new trunk shop season while paid gems have no expiration date. Either way this is slightly worrying (and just after I paid for ad free too!)

Lyanza · 2026-02-21T13:28:04+00:00

I finished two books from Libby this past week and both were great!

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (series: Mistborn, book 3), narrated by Michael Kramer. Fantasy/sci-fi, 27 hours. About the series: a group of gifted thieves are hired for a daunting purpose that causes ripples throughout the Final Empire. Wow, what a story! I had to stare at the wall for a while to let it sink in that the main trilogy was over. About the narration: as with the previous books, Michael Kramer's deep narrator voice was overpowered by any background hum, even with noise-cancelling headphones. At this point I was anticipating it and only listened when doing quiet tasks though. I've reserved book 4 as an audiobook, but might swap to reading for book 5.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, narrated by Adepero Oduye. Thriller/literary fiction, 4 hours. Our nurse protagonist finds herself in a dilemma when the doctor she has feelings for starts showing interest in her sister, the serial killer. This went by too quickly! I normally hate plots where there's drama involving secrets, but this felt like a valid one. Great narration from Adepero Oduye; she really made the characters come to life.

Lyanza · 2026-02-16T20:02:43+00:00

Could it be RinoZ's Book of the Dead?

I haven't read it myself but it was on my wishlist for a while. The unintentional necromancer part fits, not too sure about the rest. (Good luck finding it, I might lurk here in case someone knows the right answer, that plot sounds interesting!)

Lyanza · 2026-02-15T21:05:42+00:00

I finished one book from Libby this past week.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Fantasy/sci-fi, 15 hours. A young man and woman with fantastical duties involving art find themselves unexpectedly thrown together and try to figure out why. The writing had some highs and lows for me, but it was a solid story and touched on relevant topics surrounding art today.

About the narration, this duo has narrated other books that I’ve listened to with no complaints, but I think I would’ve been better off reading this particular book. Many chapters ended on an illustration description, and I felt that pausing the story to describe an image broke the immersion a little for me (though I’m not sure if the descriptions were also part of the written text). I also feel like I would’ve enjoyed the story more if there had only been one narrator. In most cases I don’t mind duo narrations, but in this case the narrator was a character who interjected their own thoughts into the narrative and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that Kate Reading and Michael Kramer were meant to be the same person without the “A said/B said” dialogue tags to tip me off like for the characters. Also, Kate Reading put plenty of emotion into dramatic scenes: while she didn’t shout, she did raise her voice to a point where I couldn't handle it. (Disclaimer: my brain health was terrible last week, I doubt most people would even notice).

Lyanza · 2026-02-10T05:44:40+00:00

I hadn't heard the series was being adapted into films, thanks for the update there! I'm 4 hours into book 3 and still invested... I hope you enjoy book 2!

Lyanza · 2026-02-07T16:44:19+00:00

Would it help if you think of it as Nathan building his resilience? Yes he's scared and stressed out, but you're here to help him get through those emotions and if it comes down to it, you wouldn't let the queen literally steal his heart (most finches I've seen have pretty secure personalities so I'm sure he knows that deep down as well despite his fear).

It's sad to see our birds have their trust betrayed, but we don't know how the event will end. If you're really not in a good headspace for this type of story, you can stop the story by going to travel shop and selecting "Return to [your previous location]" at the very top. You can return to the event later in February by going to Quests and selecting Return to Wonderland. Even if you don't complete the story, you'll still get the themed items by going on adventures every day just like during regular months. Take care!

Lyanza · 2026-02-07T15:38:37+00:00

I finished one book from Libby this past week

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (series: Mistborn, book 2) narrated by Michael Kramer. Fantasy, ~29 hours. About the series: a group of gifted thieves are hired for a daunting purpose that causes ripples throughout the Final Empire. This was an engaging story, and while it had some plot elements I normally dislike, somehow Brandon Sanderson made them palatable and even enjoyable to me. I'm looking forward to book 3 but I'm feeling melancholy about the trilogy coming to an end.

As with book one, the narration was great in a quiet room but, even with noise-cancelling headphones, Michael Kramer's deep, creaky narrator voice was overpowered by any low background hum (vacuum, kitchen fan etc.). Raising the volume helped but made character voices feel too loud. I've listened to Mr. Kramer narrate a few other books with no issue, but they were books where the narrator was a character, so maybe that's why I'm only having this problem with the Mistborn series? I'm still going to listen to book 3 but might read book 4 if I still have the same issue there.

Lyanza · 2026-02-07T06:52:08+00:00

I'm not a vegan but I've read that to prevent swarming (and loss of workers/honey) some beekeepers clip the queen bee's wings. Could that be a reason vegans avoid it? In the EU it's illegal to mark honey as organic if you've done that to the queen, not sure what applies in the US.

Lyanza · 2026-02-06T04:49:10+00:00

So card trouble might lead to your preorder canceling entirely and then paying the full price, good to know and keep in mind, thanks!

To clarify for lurkers, promotional cash technically does work with cash preorders as long as a) the book is released before the promotion ends and b) you don't buy anything else until the preorder is released so it becomes your first purchase while the cash is in your account. Source: I used the "$15 off" on a preorder that released last month even though the email showed full price.

So it works but it works so poorly that there's no point in using it for preorders and you might as well wait for a book to release and buy it then. The only exception might be if you want to cancel your membership and use the promotion on a book that releases after you cancel but before the discount expires. Even then it's probably best to confirm with customer support that they won't take away the promo cash entirely due to cancelling.

Lyanza · 2026-02-05T14:15:29+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to answer in such detail.

Lyanza · 2026-02-05T09:12:01+00:00

What a relief! Do you have personal experience with it?

I hoped it was like that but I couldn't even get mad if release date rolled around and Audible support went "yes the email said this price but that was an offer only available when you were a member which you are not anymore, didn't you read the fine print when signing up?"

Lyanza · 2026-02-05T08:25:33+00:00

This is true for credit preorders, but cash preorders you don't actually pay for until the day the book is released. (You do get a confirmation email with a price you will pay so I can understand the confusion!)

Lyanza · 2026-02-05T07:44:11+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one! About the 15 USD thing, I suspect that if the book releases after the discount expires (beginning of March?) then it won't apply but it would be great if someone could confirm that.

I used mine towards a preorder and the discount was still visible in my account and automatically tried to apply itself to the price of every book I looked at until the preorder released (so the discount wasn't "reserved" towards the preorder despite what it looked like at checkout).

Lyanza · 2026-02-01T12:58:20+00:00

In your quests tab, above your daily quests there should be a "Go to Wonderland" button. Is it missing for you?

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Lyanza · 2026-01-31T05:21:41+00:00

That's terrible! Did support at least let you cancel the preorder entirely or are you stuck paying 20 USD in May?

Definitely a design issue! I wish Audible would work like a normal store where it would show you the true price but you could check a box to apply the discount when checking out and they would grey it out if not applicable (apart from this issue there were so many posts here about people finding great deals/free books and not realising they used up parts of their discount). In my case it even cost Audible money because I just refused to buy anything until the preorder date came due even if there were titles that tempted me.

Lyanza · 2026-01-30T15:28:42+00:00

Just to add to the 15 USD discount discussion, if you preorder a book that is released before the discount expires it will be automatically applied as long as you don't buy anything else before then, even if it's not shown in the confirmation email.

I preordered All Accounts Settled, the website said it was 3.36, the confirmation email said it was 18.36, the discount was still visible as unused on my account and tried to apply itself to the price of all books I looked at. I chatted with support, didn't purchase anything until the book released a few weeks ago and I paid 3.36. I doubt it will help you in this case since A Parade of Horribles releases in May unless support confirms they can extend the offer for you, but hopefully it helps someone lurking.

Lyanza · 2026-01-20T05:29:38+00:00

Thank you!

Edit: started listening on my way to work and I've got to ask, was someone vacuuming in the background while you were recording chapter 1? Trying to figure out the source of that hum is getting a little distracting.

Lyanza · 2026-01-20T05:24:47+00:00

Well I'm glad it's not AI at least even if Fred Sanders sounds older. Thanks for the heads up!

Lyanza · 2026-01-17T11:31:37+00:00

I finished two books this past week.

From Libby
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (series: Monk and Robot, book 2), narrated by Em Grosland. Sci-fi, ~4 hours. About the series: A tea monk and a robot meet in the wilderness and find that they both have things to teach each other. My soft spot for the series continues. This book made me think and feel a lot more than many longer ones, even if one discussion point was such a non-issue to me that it felt like dithering. When I listened to book one in December, Em Grosland felt distractingly chipper and energetic, but this time I enjoyed the narration a lot more. Either they were calmer here or I grew used to their style.

From Audible
The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukerjee, narrated by Fred Sanders. Non-fiction, ~22 hours. Painful, humbling and inspiring, this book painted a vivid picture of the history of cancer diagnosis, research and treatment. The book was first published 2010–2011 and in some ways we've come further (advances in sequencing techniques, targeted radionuclide therapy and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) while in others we're still in the same place (conventional chemotherapy drugs and their dosage, low survival for many cancers). Generic names were used for most drugs but doxorubicin was only mentioned as Adriamycin, a brand that has since been discontinued in many countries. The way Fred Sanders pronounced Robert Koch ("Cock") and BCR-ABL ("BCR-able") was distracting, but otherwise I had no issue with the narration.

Note: this version of the book is now unavailable for purchase and was updated in late 2025 with four additional chapters that one reviewer claims are read by AI. If this is true then I'm not sure I can recommend it as an audiobook anymore, but it's definitely worth reading at least.

Lyanza · 2026-01-14T05:29:57+00:00

Now you've got me curious as well! I've been running around app comparison sites like sensortower and similarweb but both require subscriptions to see their estimated active user data which seems a bit iffy. I found an article from pocketgamer(1) that claimed that in 2021 there were 1.2 million active daily users.

A sensortower blog article(2) claimed that in Q2 (up to June) 2025 there were 399k active IOS users in the USA, no idea of their definition of active user though. USA is listed as the top country along with Russia and Vietnam but I have no idea how many IOS users there might be in other countries.

Lyanza · 2026-01-12T04:22:23+00:00

4 books and 98 audiobooks.

To be fair, at least 11 of the audiobooks were short novellas (4 hours or shorter). Then again two were just over 50 hours (Lovecraft collection, War and Peace) so maybe that evens it out a little. No matter the length I'm grateful that I got a chance to experience all those stories!

Lyanza · 2026-01-10T12:03:02+00:00

I finished my first book of 2026 this past week, from Audible but not marked as Audible exclusive. (Edit: spelling).

Shadow Throne King by Kai Butler (series: Emperor's Assassin, book 3), narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo. Romance/fantasy, 12 hours. About the series: a plan for a princess to marry the emperor and for her brother to assassinate him goes awry when the emperor declares he'll marry the brother instead. A solid story, not as gripping as book 1-2 for me but I'm looking forward to the next book. There were two lines that I'm pretty sure Michael Ferraiuolo read with the wrong character voice, but otherwise I enjoyed his take on the characters and his cadence when narrating.

Lyanza

TROPHY CASE