Jenny Han and Morgan Matson Signing!

I was so excited to go to the Jenny Hand and Morgan Matson signing! I love both their books and I literally haven't been to a signing at a bookstore in a really long time.  This signing was held at Once Upon a Time in the Glendale area. 

While we waited for the author to get there (their plane was delayed a little bit) the shop girls did a raffle a To All the Boys I've Loved Before journal and two ARCs of some books that they had in the store.  So they drew three names and the first one was mine and the third one was my mom! So I basically won the journal and one of the ARCs! So we were definitely having a good time!

When the authors finally arrived they jumped right into the conversation with the audience and they both read from their books. Jenny read the letter that Lara Jean wrote to Peter and she also told us that To All the Boys I've Loved Before is semi-autobiographical because she used to write letters to boys she likes as a way to get over them except they were never sent.  Morgan wrote Since You've Been Gone off of her childhood best friend because she actually sent Morgan a list of things to do while she was in France one summer.  

I always enjoy listening to all the questions that the audience asks because I would never think to ask some of the questions that they come up with but I love listening to all the answers and gaining a little bit of insight into the authors and their book that I would not have gotten otherwise.  

The authors got right into the signing and were just so so nice. It always shocks me that even though I haven't seen them in over a year they always recognize my face and ask if they've seen me before.  And they totally complimented my kitty shoes and asked me where I got them! I just had such a good time! And that's Thuy talking to Morgan Matson! 

Now I can't wait to go to my next signing even though I don't know when that is. I had such a great time and I love any chance I get to see Thuy, Kimberly and Alethea! Love my blogger friends! 

Stacking the Shelves: LA Book Festival Edition

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

Where have I been? I don't even know!! All I know is that being boy crazy is distracting! My Goodreads Reading Challenge is constantly telling me that I'm 11% behind! I didn't even read the last two books for book club! I feel a little bit like a failure and something has to change. I need to come back to my first love which is reading. I must read more books. I'm about to finish A Game of Thrones and I'm jumping off from there and diving right in! Thing aren't really changing so much as to going back to normal.

So I went to the LA Time Festival of Books last weekend held at the USC campus and it was sssooo much fun!!! There wasn't anyone I HAD to see because I was just tagging along with Thuy, Nicole and Kimberly! I even got to see Ava and I'm telling you, you have to check out her book blog that she just launched! It's awesome. Anyway, you probably want to see all the books I bought!

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

The Reckoning by Alma Katsu

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

What Tears us Apart by Deborah Cloyed

Mind Games by Kiersten White

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen

Great weekend with so much cuteness! Happy reading :)

Touched Launch Party and Giveaway!

I was super excited to go to this event and see my friends that I hadn't seen in forever! I met up with Stacee @ Adventures of a Book Junkie and our friend Ava! Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach is one of the cutest bookstores ever and I always try to hit up their signings whenever possible. 

It's that cake so awesome looking? And it was really good! All chocolaty and yummy!

There was also a candy bar! How cool is that? The swag bags had awesome bookish goodies inside!

She read from her book (which sounds awesome by the way) and then I signing began! And of course, being the awesome blogger that I am, I got a copy just for you guys! It's US only so go ahead, enter away! 

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Libba Bray Signing Recap!

I really love going to book signings at my local bookstore! Vroman's is such an awesome bookstore so I always end up buying three or four books from them every time I visit. 

We were lucky enough here in Los Angeles to have Libba Bray signing her new book The Diviners! I've been waiting so long to meet her! I loved the Gemma Doyle series and I've seen a few of her video on Youtube and she is hilarious! 

She read us her really funny story that she wrote in the 5th grade! She is literally one of the funniest YA authors I've ever heard speak!

Book signigs are the best and I always look forward to the one's at Vroman's! 

Chris Colfer Signing Recap and Giveaway!

I have known for some time that Chris Colfer was writing a middle grade novel but what I didn't know was that he was going to do a book tour! I just figured that because he's super famous and so busy with Glee that he probably wouldn't.  But to my surprise, no only did he do a book tour but he had two separate appearances in the Los Angeles area! I was so excited to go; I couldn't wait!!

So we (my sister, my friend and I) arrived at Mrs. Nelson's around 2:30 and there already were a whole bunch of people there.  We hung around until they started passing out wrist bands so that we could line up.

We came prepared! It was a pretty warm day so we brought a huge umbrella, sunscreen and a few chairs because we didn't want to sit on the ground. 

While we were waiting, the staff of Mrs. Nelson's passed around a copy of The Wishing Spell for everyone to sign if they wanted as a gift for Chris. My sister put her phone number in it!

When he finally got there, they herded everyone through as fast as they could. There were no pictures, no personalization of books, no talking, reading or Q&A.  It was kind of a let down. It all happened so fast I didn't even have time to process that I met the guy! Luckily my sister didn't follow the rules and snapped a few pics! 

And she got one of Chris and me in the same picture!!

Craziness, I know!!! So when it was all said and done, I got my book signed, he actually said words to me and my sister got a picture with him and me, sort of! 

Kind of a crappy signature, but oh well! I'm sure he signs thousands of autographs a year! 

And now for the giveaway! Unfortunatelly I was unable to get my ARC signed but that doesn't mean one lucky person won't get the chance to win it! It's still a free book! 

Rules:

• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• Must be a US resident
• Giveaway will end promptly on Friday Aug. 17 at 11:59pm
• Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen! 

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Endlessly Launch Event Recap and Giveaway!

When I first heard about the Endlessly Launch Party, I wasn't sure if I would go because Oceanside is about an hour or so from me.  Sometimes after a long day I really don't want to drive an hour only to have to drive another hour back home.  But then I heard that Cynthia Hand was going to be there as well so I knew that I just had to go! The Unearthly series is one of my favorites and even though she lives in Southern California, I had to had the opportunity of meeting her yet!

Also in attendance was Robin LeFevers and Marie Lu! Kiersten was so funny and she went around and introduced the whole group of authors to everyone! They answered a few questions, gave a few things away and then it was time for the signing! This B&N was very organized and gave everyone a number in the order that they bought the book beforehand.  So it was pretty cool! 

And now I have a giveaway for you guys! I was able to get advance copies of Hallowed and Prodigy and because I'm nice, I had them both signed! If you're a big fan of Legend, here's your chance to get Prodigy before it comes out in January!

Rules: 

• Must be 13 or older to enter this giveaway!
• US residents only please!
• Giveaway ends promptly at 11:59pm on Tuesday August 14
• Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen! 
• Thanks for entering!

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The Dark Days of Supernatural with Veronica Roth Recap!!

The Dark Days of Supernatural books tours put on by Harper Collins are some of my favorite events to go to! There are always a few authors that attend so it's like killing two birds with one stone (I really hate that metaphor because I would never kill a bird)! I'm not a big fan of the Wings series by Aprilynne Pike nor have I read Insignia but Dan Wells was in attendance as was VERONICA ROTH!!!!

I really like the Huntington Beach Barnes and Noble here in California because they put on a lot of YA author events! But, honestly, they are not equipped for the really big crowd events like Veronica Roth.  They were completely unorganized! I attended the Richelle Mead book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica which also brought out a big crowd and they did it very well.  They have an event room and anyone who wanted to go in had to have a wrist band which they were give when they bought a book.  That's how it should be! The Huntington Beach B&N doesn't even have an event room so I pretty much missed everything they talked about during the Q&A session. I couldn't hear a single thing!

This picture shows that everyone was lined up for Veronica Roth and no one was lined up for anyone else.  The line went all the way around the second floor of the building! It was crazy!!

So I hopped out of the Roth line (my mom was holding my spot) and got my Dan Wells books signed and let me tell you he is a really funny guy! I brought I am Not a Serial Killer with me and he asked me if I had read it. I said yes and he said, "You still came!!" 

After standing in line for two hours and forty-five minutes I finally got my chance to talk to Veronica Roth and get Divergent and Insurgent signed! I can't believe the title for the third book still hasn't been revealed yet!!  Gggrrr...

TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!!

Next stop:  July 27th Chris Colfer is signing The Land of Stories: The Wishing Well! So excited!!!

ALA Recap!

It’s been about a week since ALA ended and it has literally taken me this long to recover from my book haze! I didn’t know what to expect coming into the event, but it ended up being one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time!

I was really unprepared for what the exhibit floor consisted of at ALA. A friend of mine has said that she had gone a few years ago and that she went home with over one hundred books and I really didn’t understand. I didn’t think it was possible! But it is; it totally is! I was really unprepared in the sense that I didn’t know there were going to be tons of book signings and authors at the various booths at specific times. I had no idea. Luckily I was with some people who a somewhat tentative schedule and a loose plan. I feel like ALA would have eaten me alive if I wasn’t with Thuy from RNSL Nite Lite, Kimmy from The Windy Pages and Nicole from The Reader’s Antidote. 

I was really hesitant going into ALA being just a blogger and book lover. I thought people would ask and maybe publishers would only give books to librarian. But that wasn’t the case at all! Almost everyone was super nice and polite except for a few obnoxious people that stood out to me. I found that if you actually talked to the publicists that were working the booths then they were more willing to give you books. I also liked talking to them about their favorite books which were usually the books that weren’t getting all that much hype.

Overall, I had a really great time and I would love to go again if there is another annual close enough to me! If you ever plan on going to ALA or BEA I highly recommend reading Nicole from the Reader’s Antidote’s tip and tricks post that she learned when she went to ALA this year. Huge book events like these need to be attacked strategically!

Richelle Mead Signing and Giveaway!!

Hey guys! I'm so excited to tell you about the Richelle Mead signing that I went to on Monday. And let me tell you, it was a long day! Because Richelle Mead is such a popular author, we had to get wrist bands during the day before the event started.  Luckily I took the day off so I was able to go to Santa Monica in the morning and pick up a few copies of the Golden Lily and then do the 40 minute drive home just to return again a few hours later!

Upon returning I met up with Thuy from Nite Lite Book Reviews and Kim from The Windy Pages; a few awesome bloggers! We had to wait in the most ridiculous line for about an hour and a half or so and I'm pretty sure they had turned the air conditioner off.  But when they finally let us in, it was all worth it! We were in the front row and were first to get our books signed!

And, of course, I picked up an extra copy for my wonderful readers and followers and got it signed! So here's your chance to win a signed copy of The Golden Lily!

Rules:

• US residence only
• Must be 13 years or older
• Giveaway will end promptly at 11:59pm on July 6
• Winners will be notified and give 48 hours to respond or anther winner will be chosen

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The Latest Author Events

Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to meet some amazing authors and get so many books signed.  I also wanted to share my experiences with you!

The first event I went to was the Orange County Children's Book Festival

Me and Frank Beddor, author of the Looking Glass Wars.

Kami Garcia read from Beautiful Chaos.

The awesome YA Paranormal Panel.  From left: Emma Michaels, Inara Scott, Cindy Pon, and Gretchen McNeil!

Gretchen McNeil reading from Possess.

Katie Alender reading from Bad Girls Don't Die.

Heather Brewer reading from the her new Slayer Chronicles.

Nancy Holder talking about how much she loves being an author and writing stories.  She's awesome!

Me and Nancy Holder after she signed my copy of the Possessions series. 

Me and Heather Brewer after she signed my Chronicles of Vladamir Todd series!

A little bit later, I was able to see Becca Fitzpatrick as she has been launching Silence, the third book in the Hush, Hush saga.  She was so nice, she took pictures with everyone and she gave everyone a signed poster!

Then about a week later, I was so lucky to be able to attend the Dark Days of Supernatural and met a great panel of authors that I love!

Me and Kiersten White! Wow, she makes me look tall!

Me and Claudia Gray after she signed all of my Evernight books and Fateful!

Me and Anna Carey! We talked about Eve being turned into a TV show and the differences there will most likely be. 

All these events were so fun and I wish you guys could have been there to share these wonderful experiences with me! Stay tuned next week cause I'm going to meet Laini Taylor on Monday and I just might pick up an extra copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone for a giveaway!