Pitch Dark Dark Days - Harvard Coop Event

See that little weirdly shaped state in the North East? Yes, I was there for this event of Tour Leg 1 for the Pitch Dark Dark Days tour at the Harvard Coop bookstore on February 7th with:

Veronica Rossi, author of Under the Never Sky, Roar and Liv (e-novella), and Through the Ever Night

Tahereh Mafi, author of Shatter Me, Destroy Me (e-novella), and Unravel Me

Brodi Ashton, author of Everneath, Neverfall (e-novella), and Everbound

Cynthia Hand, author of Unearthly, Radiant (e-novella), Hallowed, and Boundless

Very long post with lots of photos...enter at your own risk!

Pitch Dark: Dark Days Book Tour

Pitch Dark, an online community from HarperCollins Publishing, is hosting 9 authors for their Dark Days book tour which takes place in the next couple of months. For the first leg of the tour, the first four authors will be visiting 4 bookstores in: Huntington Beach, CA, Decatur, GA, Cary, NC, and Cambridge, MA. 

The Cambridge, Massachusetts tour stop is next month, February 7th. Since I live in Rhode Island, I’m usually not able to visit book signings or author meet and greets, so when I researched the bookstore it is being held at, The Coop, I arranged a way to attend (with multiple forms of transportation :O ).

The four authors who will be present are Veronica Rossi, author of Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night, Tahereh Mafi, author of Shatter Me and Unravel Me (out Feb. 5), and Cynthia Hand, author of Unearthly, Hallowed, and Unbound, and Brodi Ashton, author of Everneath and Everbound.

As I had only read the works of Rossi and Mafi, I figured I would try Hand's and Ashton’s books so I could participate and enjoy the entire event, not just specifically half of the authors present. Over the next few days, I am going to post reviews of some of these authors work as I prepare myself for the event. 

I plan on reviewing these books in no particular order:

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

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed (Unearthly #2) by Cynthia Hand

Unbound (Unearthly #3) by Cynthia Hand

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton

I have already reviewed Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi which you can check out here and here. 

Please bare with me as there are only a handful of days left under the tour and I plan on having everything read so I don't overhear any spoilers at the event, so if my reviews are a little rushed and wonky, I will do my best to revise them...although they might just come out stream of conscious style. :)

For more information about Pitch Dark, the Dark Days tour, or just to interact with the online book community, check out their website, www.pitchdark.com. 

Happy Reading!

Showcase Sunday #3

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea!

Books, Biscuits, and Tea just started this meme a few weeks ago, and I'm very excited to be participating!

I didn't have anything to showcase last week because I was super busy with work and by the time I got home, I usually fell right asleep! But over the past two weeks, I have gotten books... even though I'm technically on a book buying ban. :(

I bought Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I was trying to find a signed copy, but none of the places she was touring was very helpful in finding out how to get one. Then, a week after I got Insurgent from my local bookstore, Barnes and Noble in NY called saying they saved me a signed copy. I was like, really? You told me you didn't have one. It wasn't inscribed, but it was going to cost $3+ to ship, and I didn't think it was worth it to have two copies, even if one was signed. It's not that I wouldn't love a signed copy, but it's not the end of the world. I'm sure they'll have them eventually at V. Roth's local bookstore. My copy of Divergent isn't signed, so it would throw off the collection, anyways! haha

I also bought Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi from Bookperks.com. They were selling signed copies with 20% off, and shipping was only $.91, so the book came out to $13.91, which I consider a bargain, so I bought it! It shipped really quickly, and I got it about 4 days after I ordered it. I love how she signs every book with "Be extraordinary" with her name. It's a good book catchphrase for the story!

I hate saying I've been too busy to read, but it's true! That's why I haven't posted any reviews or been on here lately. Memorial Day Weekend was our big first weekend out here where I live, and we had a lot of preparation and anticipation. For the past 3 days, I've worked 8:30am - 10pm, so the end of the day usually means bed time. I'm hoping to get back into Pure by Julianna Baggott soon enough. I literally bring it everywhere with me so that if I get a spare minute, I can read it, but that hasn't happened!

Happy Reading!

Review: Shatter Me - Tarereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (link to Goodreads)

Released: November 15th, 2011

Borrowed from the library*

Description from Goodreads:

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

HOKAY - *I was hesitant to get this from the library because I already have so many books on my bookshelf that I could be reading, but I decided to just go ahead and get it, since I could always return it. I hadn't read any reviews of it because I was turned off my the cover... a girl who's touch can kill you? Where's the fun in that? But after I scanned a quick review that said the story begins during her incarceration, I was hooked. (Stories about incarceration/asylums/prisons are intriguing!)

I finished this in two days, and I'm sad it's over. I definitely enjoyed reading this book because I wanted to learn more about the character and The Reestablishment that was taking over society in the story, and there were enough action scenes to keep the ball rolling, as they say. 

Since this is my first review, I'm just going to improvise a style and then hopefully over time it will become more fluid. I also don't know how else to review this without taking about plot points and character developments (but I'll learn!) so there will be spoilers... don't read if you haven't read yet! 

Review after the break...WARNING! Spoilers!