Showcase Sunday #4

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea! This is where each Sunday, we can "showcase" what we've gotten in the way of books; in the mail, at the bookstore, the library, or as a gift! 

I haven't done a Showcase Sunday in months and I think it just comes down to the fact that planning these out takes more time and finesse than I'm usually able to come up with, but I think I finally found an easier system to execute this each week, or every other week. :)

WARNING: VERY LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PRETTY PHOTOS OF BOOKS!

ENTER AT YOUR OWN WALLETS RISK!

(Links bring you to Goodreads!)

Books Bought:

A few weeks ago, I was in NYC with a friend for a few days, and I was able to go to an author signing event at Books of Wonder! There were 7 authors present, and I got 5 books from the 4 authors I knew of. There had been an event a few days prior and I had 2 of them signed and held for me as well. Books of Wonder's Special Events/Program person, Igor, was such a help making my first author book signing very enjoyable (even thought we was an hour late! eek)

Breathe by Sarah Crossan (signed & met!)

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (signed & met!)

Crewel by Gennifer Albin (signed)

False Memory by Dan Krokos (signed & met!)

Promised (Birthmarked #3) by Caragh M. O'Brien (signed)

Beta by Rachel Cohn (signed & met!)

The Diviners by Libba Bray (signed & met!)

I'll be posting about my first author book signing experience soon. It gave me a lot of insight into how fun AND stressful book events can be for everyone involved. Overall, I was glad I was able to go and meet the authors and listen to them talk about their road to being published. :)

Rebel Heart (Dustlands #2) by Moira Young

The Kill Order (The Maze Runner #0.5) by James Dashner

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

E-books Bought:

During the Hurricane Sandy scare, I dug out my old kindle (I typically use the kindle app on my droid) and bought a few inexpensive e-books to tide me over if the power went out for any period of time (even thought I have a zillion hard cover books, I wanted to be prepared!) 

Half-Blood, Pure, and Deity (Covenant #1-3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I haven't started Deity (Covenant #3) yet. I might make myself wait until Elixir (Covenant #3.5) comes out, so that way I can read that and Daimon (Covenant #0.5) after I've finished Deity... oh, Jennifer. You and your works turn me into mush. 

Obsidian and Onyx (Luxen #1, 2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 I guess you could say I went through a Jennifer L. Armentrout kick, as I read about half of her published books in a few days time (Opal, Y U NOT IN MY E-READER ALREADY?). Needless to say, I am now a huge fan of her work. You can see my review for the first two books in her Luxen series here.

Losing It by Cora Carmack

Roar and Liv by (Under the Never Sky #0.5) by Veronica Rossi

Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram

Reviews for Losing It & Serial Hottie to come! I am currently reading Roar and Liv, but I'm taking my time because I'm too anxious to learn what happens to Liv... I'm too mad at her brother Vale right now.

ARCs Received: 

One of the things I love about having a local indie bookstore is the relationship you create over your love of books with the bookstore owner. Not only do I special order books more than anyone else on this island (which is not hard to do), she received ARCs from publishing houses every once in a while and doesn't like to hold onto the YA ARCs. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to receive these ARCs which she received from Amulet Books, which is an imprint of ABRAMS. The ARC of Splintered also came with a little promotional website key necklace, similar to the one on the cover. :)

Splintered by A.J. Howard

Dying To Know You by Aidan Chambers

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

One of the interesting things about ARCs that still draws my attention is that you get to see how the cover changed in the process of publishing... the ARC of The Peculiars is a drawn image of a girl with scary people in the background with a gothic feel, while the final cover is more steampunk-esque with a more realistic girl who has wings. It's all about the cover art! 

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 Last but definitely NOT least! I'm still in shock from this last ARC I received from the author herself, signed, with a signed bookmark and a note thanking me for my support. I had read her first novel, Under The Never Sky back in January when it published, and I sought her out with praise and positive reviews. She not only responded by sending me a signed copy of UtNS (!!!!), she has continued to surprise me as a fantastic author and person. I apologize for the bad quality, but this is what I found one day in my post office box last week:

Through The Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2) by Veronica Rossi (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

There is only one GIF that fully encompasses how I felt/reacted and I still feel whenever I look at it: 

(This GIF is all over Goodreads, so I don't even know where I would begin to look for the source, but it's pretty much the universal fan-girl freak out go-to GIF for anything and everything book related that is awesome sauce!)

She signed it with a gold marker (she's a fancy lady!) and sent me a very cool promotional bookmark which features the covers from the first two novels which is utterly gorgeous and genius for marketing purposes. It's because of authors like Veronica Rossi that make being apart of the reading/book blogging community so rewarding and enjoyable. Not only do you meet people who share the love of reading even more than you do (yea right!), you get to experience new ventures you never thought possible. 

Fhew! My bookshelf is stuffed to the brim with all these new books! Now I just have to figure out which one I am going to read next... :)

Happy Reading!