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!!

Introducing a new feature: Ink & Batter!

Hey guys! Welcome to the official introduction of what will be a regular (every other week, but I don't think I will manage to have it weekly) new feature in the blog!

Some of you might know of my love for baking and decorating cupcakes, and I've even made book inspired cupcakes before but it was not till Becca from Pivot Book Reviews saw them and completely started squealing and demanding I made more that I decided I needed to make it a regular feature on the blog!

I asked a few of my good blogger friends over Twitter for suggestions and Sam from Realm of Fiction sent me a huge list full of great ideas via e-mail! After pondering about all the suggestions and a few ideas of my own, I chose Ink & Batter (from Sam's list, thanks a lot for all the suggestions, Sam!).

Then it was just a question of getting a banner made (ain't it pretty) and I was all ready to debut the feature! This week I will be showing the first two proper examples of book inspired decorated cupcakes that I made, and hopefully for next Thursday or the one after I'll have some new book inspired cupcakes to show off!

The first inspired cupcakes were made for a contest on CJ Redwine's blog to win an ARC of Deception, and I was so inspired that I made Defiance inspired cupcakes and on a whim also made Incarnate & Asunder by Jodi Meadows inspired cupcakes!

DEFIANCE CUPCAKES

INCARNATE & ASUNDER CUPCAKES

Now I have a huge list of books that I'm super inspired to make decorated cupcakes about like Splintered & Unhinged by Anita G Howard, Deliverance by CJ Redwine, Infinite by Jodi Meadows, The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G Buehrlen, The Ring & The Crown my Melissa de la Cruz, A Mad Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller, the Selection series by Kiera Cass ( I need to decorate cupcakes inspired by each of the dresses in the covers!)...

Do you guys have any suggestions? Let them in the comments, I'm always happy to add more books to my list!

Friday Reads: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor!!

This week's second Friday Reads is a book that's in two of my challenges for this year, the 2014 series challenge on Read Sleep Repeat and the 2014 TBR pile challenge on Bookish, and for that one it's also the Read-Along book for January!

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An absolutely amazing book! I have let this book settle in my mind for a while in the hope that time would allow me to write a more coherent review for this book, but I'm quite afraid that won't be as easy...

I loved this book, I really really loved this book, and read in January it's and will be one of my absolute favourite books of the whole year. I had been postponing reading it and now I feel like kicking myself for it, except that when I think the final book of this trilogy comes out this year, I think the wait was worth to save me long waits between books!

The first thing about this book that grabbed me from the first page was the writing. It is absolutely beautiful and can be lyrical and creepy and so vivid that you feel like you're walking the pages with the characters.

When I went into the book I wasn't very sure what the book was about, I had read a gorgeous novella "Night of Cake and Puppets" on the same world, but I didn't have a clue about what the plot was about, only that Karou could use a sort of magic & wishes. And wow... that is just but a grain of sand compared to what the book really packs! At some point I feared all would end up into a very trite Angels vs Demons rehash, but I should not have doubted Laini Taylor in the least because what she did was simply fantastic.

You really don't know what to expect page after page, and even though you get hints here and there, I must confess though I suspected quite a bit, I wasn't entirely sure I was right and some of the revelations did really manage to surprise me.

The book has two very distinct halves, one where we are introduced to the world, to Karou and her life and we get little glimpses of another world beyond ours, with the wishes, and Karou's blue hair and how she tries to be an art student in Prague and do the errands in search for teeth all over the world. Then winged Akiva appears and the game changes. We start getting some more flashbacks and the final part of the story is Karou trying to find what was really going on and finding out who or what she really is.

The character development was fantastic, I already was madly in love with Zuzana, the rabid fairy and Mik, the violing boy, but properly meeting Karou and going on this journey with her was fantastic and heartbreaking. Akiva was perfect kind of intriguing, dangerous, brooding and conflicted kind of character that Karou needed to push her along.

I just cannot say anymore without risking some spoilers and I don't wanna do that at all, this book is one that is going to be brilliant either way, but I feel that discovering every little nuance of it as it comes up will make it even better!

Now I must go and read the next book, even if it means I'll have the long 3 month wait till the final book comes out!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a fantastic book, one that I can't recommend enough and that deserves 5 stars (and a few more added to it!).



View all my reviews

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge!!

Yep, I am indeed joining yet another challenge!! This one will be a breeze in all probability since it'll overlap with my other two challenges for next year: the Dystopian reads and the Series Challenge.

What is the 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge? Well, it is a challenge to help us tackle our TBR pile of books we've got and still haven't got around to read yet. And yep, I have a lot of those! For this challenge only books relased in 2013 or before count, so no new releases in 2014. If you want to learn more about and join in, check out the info in the blog post at Bookish!

There are a few levels to aim for and I'm gonna start myself easy and not add any pressure, but depending on how I do I might aim higher. But for now I'm gonna go for the First Kiss level of between 21 to 30 books.




There will also be giveaways and mini-challenges to keep it more entertaining and fun, so I'm really looking forward to this challenge!