BookCon Haul

Hi everyone! So it's been a while since I've done a recap or haul or anything, but since it's been more than three weeks and I'm sure you've already read TONS of BookExpo and BookCon recaps and that sort, I figured it would be easier (and less boring) if my friend Izzy (who's blogged with me once before) and I just shared what we picked up at BookCon!

Alexandra's Haul

Most of the events/signings/whatever I went to did not require purchases, and I tried to keep spending to a minimum, so I ended up predominantly hauling ARCs. Here's what I got!

1. Hunting Prince Dracula (received an ARC during Kerri and Lyndsay's signing)
2. Gunslinger Girl by Lyndsay Ely (received an ARC during Kerri and Lyndsay's signing)
3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (picked up an ARC at The Novl booth)
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (received in the Underlined book box)
5. Otherworld by Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller (received ARC from the Underlined book box)
6. Monstress by Marjorie Liu (purchased)
7. Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody (received an ARC at the Harlequin booth, got signed in the food court with help from the lovely Christine Herman)
8. Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (received an ARC from my lovely friend Mish @ Chasing Faerytales, who had an extra copy)
9. Odd and True by Cat Winters (picked up an ARC at the Abrams booth)
10. 27 Hours by Tristina Wright (received an ARC during Tristina's signing)
11. Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed (received an ARC during her signing)
12. Warcross by Marie Lu (won during an impromptu trivia game at the Penguin booth)
13. Dear Martin by Nic Stone (ran out of ARCs at BookCon but Penguin mailed them out to everyone who went to Nic's signing on Sunday)

I also brought three books from home to get signed at BookCon: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, and Truthwitch and Windwitch by Susan Dennard.

Izzy's Haul

1. Windwitch by Susan Dennard (purchased, signed at Susan Dennard's autographing table)
2. Monstress by Marjorie Liu (purchased + signed at Image Comics booth)
3. Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger (purchased)
4. Warcross by Marie Lu (ARC from Penguin in-booth signing)
5. Vanilla by Billy Merrell (ARC from random stranger)
6. Mean Girls by Micol Ostow (MG ARC from Scholastic booth giveaway)
7. The Big F by Maggie Ann Martin (ARC from Swoon Reads giveaway)
8. Ten Dead Comedians by Fred Van Lente (purchased)
9. No Good Deed by Goldy Moldavsky (ARC from Scholastic in-booth signing)
10. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter (ARC received at panel, signed in-booth)
11. History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (giveaway at signing at the OwlCrate booth)

and

BookItCon Recap + Haul

Hey guys! So last weekend I was lucky enough to attend BookItCon: Chapter Two, and I thought I'd share how my experience went. (Sorry if this goes into too much detail, I just didn't want to leave out anything!)

So when I got there, Nori immediately greeted me at the door, and it was so lovely to finally meet her! I can finally conclude that she is not a poodle and is indeed a wonderful human being. I got my wristband, tote bag of goodies (that I for some reason didn't even look at until I got home), and some raffle tickets. There were a ton of raffles to enter, but I was already running a bit late and wanted to meet everyone as soon as possible, so I held off on distributing my tickets until much later. But that's not really relevant right now...

Anyway, we were required to buy at least one book at the event from the Barnes and Noble Kiosk, so I quickly picked up a copy of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper (a book I hadn't heard about until recently that sounds AMAZING) and This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee (which I've been wanting to read since before it came out last year) before heading into the main room with all the autographing tables and panels and stuff.

I scanned the room looking for some of my blog friends, and almost right away I noticed Cat (Let the Pages Reign) and Deanna (Reading in the Rain) and had to say hello. I'd already met them in real life before, so it was nice to see familiar faces. After chatting with them for a minute or two, I got my book signed by Kendall Kulper and ran into Kelly and Melissa (Live, Love, Read) and Heather (Kelly's cousin) who I'd previously met at the PassTruth Tour stop in NYC back in January.

And then the time came to meet Rachel (A Perfection Called Books). Most of you probably don't know this, but I became friends with Rachel 2 1/2 years ago on Goodreads. In 2014, I had just joined Goodreads and had decided to explore some of the groups on there to connect with fellow readers like myself, and I became friends with some awesome people, Rachel included. I won't go into a ton of detail about all that stuff (I'll save my Goodreads life for another day), but anyway, it was so surreal finally meeting someone who I've known after so long.

My memory is a bit jumbled as to what happened next, but basically the series of events that followed: I set my bags down because I was carrying way too much stuff, I had the awkward bathroom encounter with Sush (S. Usher Evans) that I'd been trying to avoid which was proceeded by lots of hugs and laughs and book-buying, I met Mackenzi Lee and struggled to figure out how to hold a mechanical arm, I met Jodi Meadows and got to try on her magical cloak, I listened to the Surprises in Publishing panel, I met Julie Eshbaugh, and I met two of the Swanky 17s (A.V. Geiger and Amanda Foody). And I also met MC, who is an awesome blog person and twitter friend.

After the panels and signings were over, the VIP ticket-holders were invited to dinner at a restaurant across the street. I ended up sitting with Deanna and Cat, and it was super nice to catch up with them after so many months. Dinner was satisfying, but dessert was even better (the mini cupcakes were absolutely delicious). And after dessert, there was a live RQWN chat (a IRL version of Nori's famous twitter chats) followed by another raffle. It was super fun rotating between tables and sharing our answers to Nori's random questions (although as someone who is bad at meeting new people, I prefer her online chats to IRL ones).

After a few questions in the chat, Nori announced the raffle prize (13 books that released or were going to release from January 2016 - January 2017 and a poster), and I somehow won. So basically I came home with a TON of books:

So I guess that means I should do a haul.

Books I Bought:

1. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows (I technically bought this a few days before the event, but I never officially hauled it and I bought it for the sake of BookItCon, so I'm including it)
2. This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
3. Salt + Storm by Kendall Kulper
4. Fusion by S. Usher Evans
5. Empath by S. Usher Evans

ARCs I Received:

1. My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards
2. Resurrecting Sunshine by Lisa A. Koosis
3. Spells & Sorcery by S. Usher Evans

Trade/ARCs from Friends:

1. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco (thank you so much, Rachel! <3)
2. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge (thank you so much, MC! <3)
3. Bunheads by Sophie Flack (thank you for trading with me, Jacquelyn!) 

ARCs/Books I Won:

1. The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles (ARC)
2. Spindle by E.K. Johnston (ARC)
3. Scythe by Neal Shusterman (ARC)
4. What Light by Jay Asher (ARC)
5. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (ARC)
6. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee (ARC)
7. Run by Kody Keplinger (ARC)
8. The Memory Book by Lara Avery
9. Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes
10. South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf (ARC)
11. Girl Last Seen by Heather Anastasiu and Anne Greenwood Brown
12. Of Better Blood by Susan Moger
13. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

I also got a ton of swag including stickers, bookmarks, postcards, posters, and a bunch of other things that I didn't take photos of. But anyway, I am so excited for all of these books and am so grateful to Nori for making BookItCon happen! I had an absolute blast!

OCTOBER BOOK HAUL

Hey everyone!! I really apologize for my lack of substantial content the two months... School has been killing me (along with all my free time), which means no time for reading, thus no reviews, and I've been a bit of a slump trying to come up with ideas for posts. BUT I got quite a few books hat I AM SO EXCITED TO READ, so in lieu of an official monthly wrap-up, I thought I would just do a haul post :)

BOUGHT -

1. The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy - I've heard a lot of good things about it, and I really wanted to try something new since I NEVER read books in the horror/mystery/suspense/thriller genres. Since it is October, I thought it was only fitting to buy this book.
2. The Rose Society by Marie Lu - OH MY GOSH YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM FOR THIS BOOK. As soon as I finish my five million other books I'm already reading, I am going to read it. THE FEELS FROM THE YOUNG ELITES, YOU GUYS. THE FEELS.
3. Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch - I've been meaning to read this book for a while, especially after Rachel (from APCB) reviewed it so highly several months back.
4. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - Confession time: I have not read The Grisha Trilogy yet. I'm part of the way through Shadow and Bone, but I haven't had the time to read much of it. BUT THERE IS SO MUCH BUZZ ABOUT SIX OF CROWS NOW (AND IT WAS SO PRETTY IN THE BOOKSTORE) SO I JUST HAD TO BUY IT. And I've read an excerpt of it and fell in love instantly ;)

NEW YORK COMIC CON - I unfortunately was unable to attend NYCC this year, but my cousin was a dear and picked up a few ARCs for me!

1. Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto
2. Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan
3. Seven Black Diamonds by Melissa Marr

EBOOKS -

1. Double Life by S. Usher Evans
2. Outspoken by Lora Richardson (for review!)

Quick Update + Mini Haul

Hi guys!  So I have been super busy (again), and haven't had a lot of time to read or post very much, so I really do apologize.  But I am so excited because I got a few books and things this week that I can't wait to read now that I have some more time on my hands.  I thought I would share just because I am so excited!!! (And I will hopefully be posting more reviews, discussions, and random other bookish things within the next few weeks.)

~ HAUL TIME ~

eBooks:

Wait… WHAT?!?

Oh my gosh.  I never thought I'd be this excited to talk about eBooks, but I am right now.  In fact, I'm usually not a huge fan of eBooks, but I was so excited when I found out these books were FREE.  Guys, this is a huge deal.  I usually download tons of free books because, well, they're free.  But I rarely ever find books I'd been wanting to read for free.  (In fact, I rarely ever read the books I download for free.  There are too many books out there that still need to be read.)  Anyway, I know I'm definitely going to read these though.  These books are Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin, which I've heard such great things about (and have been dying to read!) and Insanity by Cameron Jace, which is an Alice in Wonderland retelling (and I am a sucker for Alice in Wonderland retellings).

Physical Books:

I only bought one physical book, but if you know me, I love a good steampunk novel.  I have yet to read an Andrea Cremer book, but I saw the gorgeous cover in the store (and read the synopsis on Goodreads), and I just knew I had to have The Inventor's Secret.  So far, my feelings in general toward steampunk are 50/50, but I've only read two steampunk series, so I'm hoping this one is another good one.  (Oh and not that it matters, but the cogs on the girl's collar on the cover are metallic and shiny in real life and I'm also kind of attracted to shiny things.  Just saying.)

Comics and Manga

I know I didn't have to wait that long, but I am so excited that this finally came out!  I'm pretty sure I shared how I was wary about this new series, but was pleasantly surprised by the revamp, so I am really hoping that the second issue is just as good as the first!

--

In terms of manga, I picked up one volume of a manga I just happened to stumble upon.  The premise seemed promising so I thought I'd give it a go, and hopefully it will deliver.  (The main characters are twins and the boy twin wants his sister to go to his all-boys school and trade places with him because he's failing a class.  Or something like that.)  I think if it's executed right, the story will be absolutely hilarious and fun!

~Alexandra