BEA 2016 Recap: Day 3 Friday!!

Hiya there peeps!

Back again with the final BEA recap post for Friday and my leaving on Saturday.

FRIDAY

Friday started as usual, waking up waaay too early (jet lag is getting old dammit) and it worked to my advantage this time since my plan was to go super early so I could line up at the ticked authors area to try and get tickets for the awesome Maggie Stiefvater! Nikki was 100% with me on that, so we headed early to the floor, leaving Katie & Angie to sleep in a lil after their late night.

After quite the wait, we got our tickets and joined the entry line where I once again chatted with my roomies, formed the plan, chatted with other bloggy friends and as soon as the doors opened we headed towards the Macmillan booth to ensure a ticket for Caraval's signing and as soon we got them, we headed to the line for Maggie's signing.

Meeting Maggie Stiefvater was one of my highlights of Friday itself and BEA, she's quite awesome and she was cackling with glee when I was telling her about my stress eating while reading The Raven King!

Once I got my signed hardcover of Raven King (damn, that means I need to collect all the US hardcovers now too, since I already have the UK paperbacks), I went to take a lil walk around here and there before heading for the line for Caraval!

Stephanie was absolutely lovely and she gave me a hug for my bloggy friend Kristen that couldn't attend BEA and for Roshani Chokshi! I got my ARC signed and I keep making all the grabby hands at it! Patience, I must learn patience! (and finish some eARCs I have started).

Then after that I had nothing till 1 PM for a drop of the Strange The Dreamer Sampler with swag, so decided to roam around.

And who did I meet while heading towards the Penguin booth to ask if Sabaa Tahir's signing would be ticketed? The ever so awesome and adorable Susan Dennard AND Amie Kaufman! Both recognized me and hugged me and we chatted a lil bit. I was so completely overwhelmed that I completely forgot to take pics with them both!! Photo proof or not, it's simply MADE MY DAY!!

I then returned to hang out with my bloggy friends while they waited for other books and it was the moment to TAKE ALL THE PICS!!

With Angie

With Sabrina

With Cassi, Nikki, Octavia & Michelle

With my dear Mel

Then my absentmindedness proved to be good for something because at what I thought was 20 to 1, I headed to the Hachette booth to see if they were forming a line for the drop and when I went to ask one of the ladies she handed me a ticket for the signing! My R2D2-with-no-numbers-watch had fooled me and it was quarter to 12! I got to be 4th in line, meet Laini Taylor and get my sampler & swag! Big thank you to the lady being me in line that was kind enough to take pics for me!

More roaming around happened, I went to check one of the  panels that were going on at the Downtown Stage and went to chat with Mel and she was chatting with David Arnold (author of Mosquitoland) that introduced himself and was super nice!

After that I went with Shelly to the hotel for a spell (it's so awesome to be able to just pop in and out like that) and then back to the floor, she went to Harlequin and I went to check the line for Sabaa Tahir that was already quite large! So I just sat there and prepared to wait for tickets first and then the actual signing!

I was lucky enough to have Cassi and Nikki dropping by to keep me company and saving my spot on the Gemina line that had already formed too! The wait was rather uneventful until I was getting quite close to the front of the line when I heard screaming coming from the other side of the Penguin booth, where the Gemina line had formed and I knew that Jay Kristoff had dropped by to visit!

So, once it was my turn, I met Sabaa, told her how much I had loved the first book, got my ARC of Torch Against The Night signed, Sabaa said she loved my leather cuff and I ran to the autographing area.

I had saved my First In Line Pass for the Kendare Blake signing of Three Dark Crowns, because I love her, she is awesome and I'm beyond excited for the book! I skipped the quite long line, hugged her, we made T-Rex arms, talked about the excitement for the book, got a pic taken and I smiled apologetically at the people waiting in line as I left.

And once again I power walked from the autographing area to the Penguin booth to the Gemina line and to meet Jay Kristoff! He's an awesome dude, gave me a hug and I told him I really had to get a photo with him because I had met Amie in the morning and had failed at that! He chatted with us people in the line, took pics and then made a video.

Yes, Jay Fucking Tall Kristoff!!

Then it was all a question of sitting there with roomies and bloggy friends to wait for 3 PM! While we waited my dear Britt said one of my most awesome things I've been told recently, she said "You make people happy, you make people smile" and she DID make me smile BIG! Miss you so much Britt!

Eventually 3 PM hit and I GOT MY HANDS ON THE BOOK I WAS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY WITHOUT!

After that most of my roomies were going back to the hotel but I wanted to go the panel with Susan Dennard, Kristen Simmons and Sarah Porter, moderated by Katie of MundieMoms. So I headed there and had an absolute blast! If I was excited about Vassa and Metaltown before, after the panel even more! And of course I'm bloody well dying for Windwitch!

After that back to the hotel to be absolutely lazy for a while and wait till it was time to go for the Blogger Dinner that Octavia and Whitley had organized!

The dinner was a lot of fun, spent time with my roomies (Octavia made me cry!!), chatting with Ironteeth Becca, drinking my beer and Angie's because for some reason she didn't want it. Then spent some time also chatting with Rashika, Mishma and Nori until I left with Cassi, because we both were pretty tired and needed to crash.

I'm not sure if it was a combination of me feeling a bit old lady-ish and the jet lag, but I never had the energy to try and make it to the later night fun!

And that was Friday!

 DAY 3 Haul

SATURDAY

Saturday I tried to sleep in and managed to sleep till 7 am and then gave up, so I got up to get ready to leave, even if I had already packed almost everything on Friday itself. 17 books, two samplers, swag and 3 more books and a yoga mat (that was NOT a BEA thing, it was a gift from my friends in Wisconsin!!).

 

Since Shelly and I had shuttles around the same time we went down together after saying goodbye to my most of my roomies (those that were awake at least), and once again Octavia almost made my cry my eyes out, dammit!

The trip to the airport was uneventful, I was lucky and the security line wasn't long and to kill time waiting, I started reading GEMINA!

It's the perfect read to wait because you get so immersed that time flies and you don't even notice! It's a brilliant read that caused me to cuss out loud during a flight startling both the flight attendant and my row mates and also caused a need for booze and extra chocolate... Page 505, you have been warned!!

Got home on Sunday, unpacked all my goodies and after having lunch with my parents I went to bed around 5 pm and woke up around 10 am the next day! ;)

Vacation over, pile of books that keep calling my name and missing my roomies so much!! I'm even more saddened because I'll be missing BEA 2017 since I'll be attending ApollyCon instead (and visiting Wizarding World & NASA since it's in Orlando).

BEA 2016 Recap: Day 1 Tuesday & Wednesday!

Hello there guys!!

Finally, my recap of my BEA 2016 trip is here!! It's been a few days in the making but BEA brain is a thing and if we add my vacation time, the blogging slump and coming back from vacation to real life and work... Well, it was bound to take a while!

Last year I did 3 recaps, one per day and this year it'll be the same format again! After trying to do all three days in one post and looking at the lenght of it and my overly verbose self... three posts it is!

All three of them filled to the brim with photos and my overly enthusiastic rambling about my amazing room mates, all the awesome peeps that I met, the brilliant authors I was lucky enough to meet and of course LE BOOKS!

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY

On Tuesday I left Wisconsin where I had been staying with friends of mine to ride a bus to Chicago. Once I arrived at the hotel I met most of my bloggy friends and room mates doing the check-in already, which meant loads of squealing and hugging and happy noises to the surprise and moderate amusement of the Hyatt staff.

I've said it before and I will say it time and again, the best thing about BEA is always the people! I adore all my roomies and without them BEA wouldn't be a a tenth of how awesome it is! If you are planning to do BEA, make sure you do it with friends! I adore my BEA Duck Squad and I cannot wait till I can meet them all again!!

We're missing Michelle here!

So thank you so very much Angie, Becca, Britt, Cassi, Christina, Katie, Michelle, Nikki, Octavia, Rachael and Shelly!!

After getting settled in the rooms and a few lil hiccups, we all went on a walk to go shopping at Target. Yes, I'm always willing to go along for all that but I had no idea why we were going there, but people needed to buy some snacks and water... and we ended up filling our cart with that AND loads of booze... Adulting hard right there! Given that I had already packed snacks in advance, I settled for some water, boring one that I am.

I found this stand for sangría and that price hilarious!

After that we were all extremely hungry and wanted to go to Lou Malnati's for Chicago's famous Deep Dish pizza! We split in two groups, the ones that were so hungry (and a bit tired) that wanted to go now and the others that wanted to wait for a while. My jet lagged arse was hungry and tired so off we went! The wait at Lou Malnati's was looooong but holy smokes, the pizza was worth it!

 Om nom nom nom!!

Then back to the hotel room where we left Katie locked out of the room without realizing it... the stupid bolt fell a lil to the side and the door couldn't be open! Thank goodness for all of us rooming in the same floor!

Wednesday started with me waking up at ungodly hours (yaaaay jet lag!), trying to get some more sleep, failing, getting up and doing some yoga and then going for a Blogger breakfast at Yolk organized by the lovely Wendy from Book Scents where I had Potato Pancakes that were super yummy but couldn't eat them all (Americans, you have huge portions!!). From there we went to get our badges and then sat on the line to wait for the floor to open. The waiting time is always good to plan and see what drops might be and study the map to see where all the booths you want to visit are in relation to each other and , since I had no signings on my schedule for Wed.

As it happened there was a drop for Double Down by Gwenda Bond as soon as the doors opened so I went straight there! Then roaming around the booths to get their schedules and I ended up grabbing a few books that freed my Thursday schedule! I was quite lucky to get The Forgetting because right before the drop I had asked about it at the booth and they had no idea if there was gonna be a drop (WTF?!), also cheated a lil bit at the "roll the dice" game at Hachette because I really just wanted Blood For Blood, got my so very awaited A Shadow Bright and Burning (Penguin drop!) and asked about Ghostly Echoes at the booth and was so very lucky to be handed one copy! Harper's drop for Aerie was a bit of a mess, but no harm done (and they learnt from the experience!).

Also it was great that I met so many of my bloggy friends like Jenny, Mel, Hafsah & Asma, and many more!

Day 1 haul!!

 After all the excitement of the first day that wasn't as laid back as I was expecting but that was oh so very productive we all went for dinner at Shake Shack and oh boy CHEESE FRIES!! I understand why all my friends were so keen on it! Also, foreigner speaking here, those buzzers they give you so you can pick up your order when it's ready? Such a good idea!

Then after the food it was another trip to another Target, but on our way there we stopped at a souvenir store so I could get some shopping done and then we took an Uber back to the hotel and soon to bed for me because I was pretty much beaten and jet lag is a bitch!

BEA 2015 Recap - Day 3 Friday!!

Well, it feels nice blogging a bit more continously now, but I'm sadly too busy with the apartment preparations to even dare to hope to have time to have a minimum of two posts up per week, let alone a more regular posting schedule!

Still, here I am with the recap for BEA Day 3, Friday or the DAY-WHEN-ALL-THINGS-HAPPEN-AT-THE-SAME-TIME!!

Once again, I owe all my awesome bloggy & bookish friends for being kind enough to send me all the pics because my phone is a piece of sh*te! THANK YOU!

FRIDAY

Once again, we decided to get up early to be at the Javits when the lines are just beginning to form, which means that in the morning I wake up, get up and get ready, and wait for the rest of my roomies to get up while having my tea (which is a rather so-so kinda tea because there's no kettle and I made it every morning with the scalding water from the shower, so... well, yeah). Once again, breakfast from the deli (cream cheese icing bagels for the win, I miss having them for breakfast!).

This time our big group of ducklings was divided between Black Widow and Six of Crows, so our crew was split gone to line up at two different entries to the BEA floor. The Six of Crows line (closer to the authographing area) was Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa, Cristina and myself. This line was a lil better organized, even if we were told to squish together several times, there were no other weird shenanigans!

Once we got in, the pre-line for Leigh Bardugo got started by the great staff at the authographing area, those ladies in the neon green tees knew what to do!

While waiting in line I was hoping to spot Kim and Layla from The Midnight Garden and author Jen Ellision, but no such luck, too many people all over the place, so that's the one big bummer from BEA, not being able to meet these wonderful ladies!

But I got to meet the very lovely and purple-haired and super awesome Melissa Grey that was nice enough to take pics with us and sign bookmarks!! *squeal*

The line for Six of Crows was rather insane, because loads of people used their "first in line" passes for it, so they realized they had miscounted the about of ARCs they had, and had to cut the line early. We were lucky enough to get ours signed and Leigh Bardugo was brilliant! She was super nice and lovely and took time to talk and sign even when she was being hurried! Also, some sort of magical powers because look at her hair being flawless even with the NYC humidity!!

And after Leigh Bardugo I was good till the Soundless signing, so I just roamed around a bit, hang out with my roomies, met with Jenny from Supernatural Snark again, had lunch with Britt, Sarah and the adorable Xander from Forever Bookish (he was doing BEA with his mum and both were beyond adorable!).

Right now, as I'm writing this recap, I'm wondering if I got just two book on Friday or if I got three as my brain seems to be telling me, but I cannot for the life of me remember what other could have been that third book? So yeah, let's just assume I just got Six of Crows and Soundless!

I used my "first in line" pass for Soundless but was a lil disappointed when we were told "no photos and no personalization" and that bummed out feeling along with the fact that we were saying bye to a lot of our bookish friends meant that I didn't have the energy to try and stay for the Rae Carson line (I already had the ARC but wanted to meet Rae) so we left soon after...

BEA was an amazing experince but it also left me so very tired!!
Some lessons learnt on how to make BEA better for myself: Plan differenly next year and make sure you arrive a few days before BEA so the bloody jet lag doesn't kill you as much! Add extra maybes to your schedule so if you get out of a line early you know what you might want to try for and not just wander aimlessly and end up missing things!

I'm really REALLY looking forward to attending BEA16 because I'm already planning and plotting with my bloggy/bookish friends and it's gonna be EPIC!!

BEA 2015 Recap: Thursday - Day 2!!

Hello again guys!

I'm still damned busy but I want to try and work on the recaps for all 3 days of BEA for this week, so here I am again!

Today it's all about BEA Day 2 - Thursday!

Once again, thank you everyone for allowing me to steal your pics for this recap!!

THURSDAY

Me and the roomies had agreed on waking up super early to be at the queue so we'd get a good spot to try and make it to the Passenger signing! My #1 priority was the Firewalker signing by Josephine Angelini, but my roomies were so excited about Passenger and so sure of our BEA game, that they convinced me to go with them to the Passenger signing and then run to the Firewalker line at the authographing area (which was much better organized than the entering BEA line by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!).

Waking up early for me was a piece of cake, because JET LAG! but everyone else had a bit of a harder time, we then went to grab our breakfast at a deli (YAY for cream cheese bagels!), took an Uber and parked ourselves in the line for BEA around 6:45, mission acomplished!

We were joined by the rest of our crew aka the ducklings, Octavia (Mama Duck!), Nikki, Christina, Cassi, Melissa, Cristina (and her brother) and Dan! Having breakfast, chatting, plotting, sharing info, dancing to Christina's music... the works!

Meeting people at the line is fantastic because it's when you have the most time to chat! But BEA staff are a real disaster when it come to organizing lines, like bringing a part of the line from behind to the front to make rows of four, like WHAT IN THE BLOODY F!?!

Before being allowed to get in at 9 am we were repeatedly admonished "DO NOT RUN!", they must have been scared of having a repeat of the Truthwitch avalanche! ;) As such, I didn't run, just walked briskly and made it at a very decent spot for the Passenger line with Britt and Sarah. We chatted with Jamie, I met the lovely Gillian from Writer of Wrongs (I couldn't believe she knew who I am!) and had a barrels of laughs with the very unique Marlon from We Live & Breathe Books.

Meeting Alexandra Bracken was simply amazing! She's freaking adorable and so wonderful to chat with! She was telling me all about how she wants to come to Spain on vacation!! Resisting reading Passenger early will be VERY hard!!

And in case you were wondering, that's my TARDIS cardigan and my custom made Piwicakes tote that Becca painted for me! I got a lot of people complimenting my tote, my R2D2 bag and my TARDIS cardigan! Clearly bookish peeps are my people! ;)

Right after getting my book signed I parted ways with my roomies to head to the authographing area while they went to another drop. The line for Josephine Angelini was not too bad and my roomies soon joined me! Josie was adorable and her publicist commented that I was the person coming from father away they'd had!

Proof that my roomies are the bestest, Becca grabbed me an ARC of A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano because she knew I wanted it!

Then I decided I wanted to stay around the authographing area because I wanted to meet & hopefully get a pic with Wendy Higgins and Sara Raasch! I planned to wait till their lines were over to approach them, and while I was around the Wendy Higgins line I met Jenny from Supernatural Snark!!

Jenny and I have been commenting and chatting in each other blog comments for a long time and I was super excited to meet her at BEA! We spent the time at Wendy's line chatting and she's as adorable in person as in her blog and Twitter!

Wendy was also an absolute sweetheart and I was beyond happy to get to meet her!! My phone failed but Wendy took a pic of us with her phone and I'm still overwhelmingly happy that she has that photo as her Twitter avatar!! *hyperventilates*

I also got to meet and say hello to Sara that was lovely, but no photo because my phone sucks...

And then joined the line for Heather Demetrios that was lovely as well! I got a super cute hamsa charm along with a lovely postcard and my signed copy of Blood Passage! Now I can read book 1 and survive the awful cliffhanger I read about! If Heather Demetrios made me love her contemporary books, I cannot wait to read her fantasy series!

I spent some more time hanging around with Jenny and her absolutely adorable mum, then joined the roomies for a lil while, but then they went for the Libba Bray signing and I had nothing in my schedule till the Fall Out by Gwenda Bond signing, that was my other priority for the day!

I decided to go to the Disney booth and get in line to get the Magnus Chase sampler and the shield! for Sarah, I got there super early, joined the by then tiny line thanks to Melissa (thanks girl!) and spent the time chatting with Jon and Nori and also met the lovely Hazel from Stay Bookish! She made feel a lil bad for my poor camera at the hotel room, since she had her DSLR with her like a total pro!

And not only did we get the shield and the sampler (that I gave to Sarah) but we also got a totally tasty cupcake that I obviously ate as a reward! ;)

Still munching on my cupcake I dropped by the Capstone booth and saw that the line for Gwenda Bond was already forming, so I stayed there!

Gwenda recognized me by my Twitter handle and promised that she would write a sequel for The Woken Gods one day just for me (which probably means, so I can stop bugging her about it!). She was awesome all around and rocked her leather skirt as Lois herself would have! ;)

After that I joined my roomies and soon after that we headed back to our hotel room, so Becca could get ready for the Mcmillan party! While she was there mingling and having a blast, Britt, Sarah and I stayed in our room, had some nice NYC pizza and tried to recover! I decided to stay up till Becca returned and soon after she returned, I crashed the first one, once again!

My loot for Day 2! I did pretty well on restraining myself so these fit very well on my tote! One advantage of limiting yourself because of flight restrictions is that you don't need to take a rolling suitcase to the Javits, because books must fit in your tote!

More to come in the final day of BEA, stay tuned!

Last List Blog Hop: Q&A with Bree Despain!!

Hello guys!

Today I'm extremely pleased to take part of the Last List Blog Hop for the Egmont USA authors organized by the awesome ladies at Cuddlebuggery! Isn't that banner a beauty? Done by the Cuddlebuggery ladies too!

When I heard about the closing of Egmont USA I was extremely sad because so many authors were gonna be left high and dry with books they had worked so had end up unpublished, so when I found out that this blog hop was taking place, I didn't want to miss it.

I'm hosting Bree Despain for a Q&A session and I'm also showcasing the two books of her Into the Dark series, one published, one to be published if all goes well on May 12th!

And I'll have have a giveaway for a signed copy of The Shadow Prince open international by then end of the post!!

The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails.  As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

A pulsating romance of epic proportions, Bree Despain’s The Shadow Prince will leave her fans breathless for the next book in the Into The Dark series.

The Eternity Key by Bree Despain

Scheduled for release on May 12, 2015

Fan-favorite author Bree Despain continues her modern-day romance trilogy inspired by the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades with this second book in her Into the Dark series. 

Haden Lord, the disgraced Prince of the Underrealm, has chosen love over honor and will do everything in his power to protect Daphne Raines, the human girl he was supposed to bring to the Underrealm. Haden’s choice is put to the test as the Skylords and a figure from his past arrive in Olympus Hills with a plan that could destroy all of the realms.
Embracing her destiny as the Cypher, Daphne begins to understand the immense power of her musical ability to control the elements, but she must come to terms with her feelings for Haden and what she must sacrifice in order to protect him and her friends.
Believing the Key of Hades is the only thing that can stop the Underrealm Court from releasing the monstrous Keres on the mortal world, Haden, Daphne, and their friends set out to find the Key before Persephone’s Gate opens again on the spring equinox.

 Q&A with Bree Despain

1.- Greek mythology has been used as inspiration many times before, but how did you choose to go the route with the lords of the Underworld and finding the Oracle? It was such a great mix of Hades & Persephone and also Eurydice & Orpheus! Did you choose the myth first? Or did the idea for the story came first?

 The idea for the book came from the Death Cab for Cutie song "I will follow you into the dark." I used to be obsessed with the song and would play it on a loop. To me, it's a song about following someone into the unknown for the sake of love. I found myself pondering over who would do such a thing. I'm a big mythology buff so it was only natural this line of thinking led me to both the Persephone and Hades myth and the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. Both are about people who ventured into the unknown. And then I started thinking about what it would be like to be someone who had to ask someone else to follow them into the dark. What a difficult task! This brought me to my main character, Haden, and the rest of the story came from there.

2. - How did you choose music to be Daphne's main motivation and the way for Haden to connect with her? I really enjoyed to see their relationship developing with music as common ground.

 The musical aspects of the story came from the Orpheus myth. I love that Orpheus was able to use music as a superpower and I wanted to explore that with Daphne's character. She's also partially based on a relative of mine who relates to the world almost completely through music and sound--it's kind of like a form of musical OCD. My relative is very talented and passionate about music and I wanted to find a way to use this aspect as an advantage rather than a disability. On the flip side, Haden comes from a world where music is forbidden, but in order for him to get to know Daphne, he needs to "meet her where she is" so to speak, and has to delve into her musical world in order to get to know her. I liked the idea of adding a forbidden aspect to what he is doing, even though to us, learning how to sing or play a guitar would seem pretty innocent. In order to get close to Daphne, he has to slowly turn his back on the way his world has taught him to be a man.

3.- The way the Lords of the Underrealm are structured reminded me a lot of the Spartan society, was that a conscious choice on your side or something that developed organically?

 Yes, I definitely drew on the Spartan society for influence when creating the Underlords. I really loved the idea of writing about a character who has been trained to be a warrior from a very young age, and taught to suppress his emotions in favor of being stoic. It was even more fun to take that character and plunk him down in the middle of a modern day high school and see what happens!  

4.- I have the ARC of book 2 in my Kindle and I'm really looking forward to read it since I cannot wait to see what's in store for the characters since they're now on the run from two factions! Are they meeting any new allies to balance things out a bit? Any new Greek myths being introduced?

 Yes to both! Let's just say that I had some fun with the myth of Psyche and Cupid in this book.  (I couldn't resist since there is a Valentines dance that plays an important part in the plot.) 

Thank you so much for your answers, Bree!

 Thank you for the great interview questions! Each one was very thoughtful!

 About the author:

Bree Despain is the author of the Dark Divine trilogy and the upcoming Into The Dark trilogy.  Bree rediscovered her childhood love for creating stories when she took a semester off college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner-city teens from Philadelphia and New York. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband, two young sons, and her beloved TiVo.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway

I'm gonna keep things very simple this time for the giveaway! It's offered by Bree herself and it's a signed copy of the first book: The Shadow Prince.

And YES! It's open INTERNATIONAL! 

All you have guys to do is answer the following question in the comments!:

What is your favourite Greek Myth? And why?

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US Trip 2014: New York City!!

Hello guys!!

As you might have noticed, the blog has been rather quiet for the last two weeks, and even if I returned this past Tuesday, I still haven't unpacked the suitcase or even started editing all my photos!

But, I must say that this trip was exactly the therapy that my broken heart needed! I took a trip on my own, enjoying my own company, did exactly what I felt like doing all the time, attended book events, met awesome people finally in person... all in all, now I can say that I closer to being finally okay than I've ever been since the beginning of the year.

This first post is gonna be all about my 4 days in New York City, and it will include 2 book events, one amazing Broadway musical and a stroll at Central Park with the adorable and lovely Nikki Kelly!!


Day 1: Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake Release party at Books of Wonder!

I arrived close to 2 pm and navigating JFK, going through immigration and reaching my hotel took a while, but soon I grabbed my printed Google maps directions and headed to Books of Wonder for my FIRST EVER book event! It was a lot of fun and Kendare Blake was amazing (so were the croissants, I must say!) and I loved hearing all about what inspired the series, and also I'll never be able to look at a T-rex the same ever again, from now on I'll picture them as gigantic red and yellow chickens... And it's all Kendare's fault!!

Then when the signing part happened I started chatting with Kendare telling her I was the Spaniard on Twitter that had just landed that day and then a super nice fellow book lover (and I'm sure book blogger) took a picture of us despite the non-cooperation of my phone (thank you!). It was simply fantastic! I came back to the hotel, and tried to fight jet lag to read Mortal Gods, but I only managed 2 chapters before crashing!

Day 2: Fierce Reads Tour at B&N Tribeca

My second day started with me waking up at 4 am in the morning, finishing Mortal Gods and then deciding that I needed to go grab some cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (that was super close to my hotel), try to find a Body Shop and the metro/subway station to go to TriBeCa to the Fierce Reads event!

I tried two cupcakes at Magnolia, and although the Apple Harvest cupcake was very nice (although didn't really taste of apples at all), the red velvet cupcake was quite a disappointment for me... too dry and compact and made with vanilla whipped icing which was too sweet for my taste, I prefer the red velvet made with cream cheese icing! *sadface*

Then was my time to try and find the damned and hidden red line 1 subway station! It took me close to half an hour but I found another bakery to try the next morning! ;) Finally I was on my way to TriBeCa and then after locating the right B&N, I had sushi lunch at Good Foods and then went to camp at the store to await the event time to arrive! I met Amber from The Book Bratz and fellow Founder Member of the Styclar Street Team and then we grabbed our seats on the first row!

When the authors arrived and took their places Nikki spotted us and she was all "Piliiiiii!!" and telling all the other authors that we were founder members for her street team and that I had travelled all the way from Spain! She was beyond aadooorableee!!

The whole event was a LOT of fun!! All the ladies were amazingly funny! Nikki was particularly adorable with her Queen's English and cute accent! We also were very lucky to have Ksenia Winnicki in the audience as well as the model for Lailah's cover! 

Then came the moment of signing books and swag collecting and in general forget to take pics with everyone for me... I didn't get photos with Jessica Brody, Gennifer Albin OR EVEN NIKKI HERSELF! Thankfully we took a Team Styclar one!

With Marissa Meyer! And sporting my beloved Pivot Book Tote painted by the awesome Becca from Pivot Point Reviews!

Styclar Team: Amber, Nikki & myself, taken by Ksenia!

 And my loot from all the book events!! All signed books!! *FLAILS*

 Day 3: Hop On & Hop off and WICKED!!

I started by 3rd day in NYC with tea made with hot water from the tap because to my shock and horror there was no kettle on my hotel room!

The day was spent doing touristy things like visiting places via the Hop On, Hop Off tourist buses and taking loads of photos all over the place, that I will need to edit soon!

And then in the evening, another milestone for me! I finally got to see Wicked The Musical, after wanting to see since 2008 when I read the book, which happens to be one of my favourites (and I feel like I need to re-read soon!!). I went completely overboard with buying swag but I felt like the experience required it! It was simply beyond amazing! And I'm listening to the soundtrack while writing this!

My Ozmopolitan in a souvenir cup! Green and with this amazing artwork that I love!

 
All my Wicked swag!: Program, CD, Playbill and totebag! 

 
 And this was the amazing curtain down look! And the mechanical/clockwork dragon!



 

Day 4: Baked by Melissa and Central Park with Nikki Kelly!

On 4th day and last full day in NYC I started a very rainy morning with some souvenir buying and some Baked by Melissa mini cupcakes for breakfast! And by some, I mean 12! I ended up doing a proper tasting at the hotel hall! ;)

All in all, a much better experience than the Magnolia Bakery ones! If you're in NYC, go visit!!

Then I had sushi for lunch in my hotel firescape while listening to the main title of Outlander... One of those fun things that had to be done! I loved that my window was on the firescape side, it's so typical from that side of the ocean! Then I met with Nikki at my hotel and we walked towards Central Park hoping to come across a bookstore, but weren't lucky!

We took a walk around the park, chatted about how hard it is to make proper tea in the US due to the usage of "creamer" instead of regular milk, we chatted about the Fierce Reads Tour and about the upcoming Styclar books but because I'm all NO about the "Spoilers Sweetie" she only told me that I better prepare myself for book 3 since it's gonna be the wildest of rides! And then Nikki had to go back to her hotel for more meetings, but I'm hoping I'll get to the UK soon-ish to visit her (and will bring cupcakes).

Then I returned to my hotel where I ended up crashing early... damned jet lag! Up at 7 am at the latest and off to bed at 9 pm at the latest! Where's my usual night owl gone to??

And the next day I was off to Chicago, the Windy City but that will be a post for another day!! Probably Saturday!! This one is so bloody long already!! Thank you for reading till here, you're champions!!