Giveaway: ARC of Kristin Cashore’s Fire

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Fire
Fire
Kristin Cashore
This contest is now closed.
This is supposed to be the prequel companion to Graceling, which I haven’t read yet.

Here’s the blurb:

“It is not a peaceful time in the Dells.

Young King Nash clings to the throne, while rebel lords, in the north and south, build armies to unseat him. War is coming. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves.

This is where Fire lives, a girl whose startling appearance is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

Everyone…except Prince Brigan”

It looks good!

This book comes out in October in hardcover, but of course I’m giving an ARC away so you can get your hands on it early! The ARC is a trade paperback.

All you have to do to win it is send an email to janicu[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the title “Fire Giveaway”. I will send the book outside the US, so anyone can enter. Not going to wait a week to draw the winner this time! You have till midnight Tuesday EST to enter.

Soulless by Gail Carriger

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Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Gail Carriger

Soulless caught my eye a couple of months ago when I saw the cover, but I really wanted to read it because of the blurb. When I found this book at BEA I was ALL over it, and with the number of entries for my Soulless giveaway, I wish I had more copies to give away, but alas I only have the one.

I was going to write this review and then shelve it till end of September, but a lot of copies of this were at BEA, so I expect reviews to show up pretty soon, and I’ve had a lot of people asking me how the book is!

Soulless comes out September 30th from Orbit books.

The Premise: Alexia Tarabotti is a spinster and twenty-six years old (she was officially put on the shelf at the early age of fifteen). The daughter of an Italian and well known for her modern sensibilities, headstrong personality, and interest in science, Alexia isn’t the typical young Victorian lady. She has a long nose, dark Italian skin, and loves to eat (treacle tarts are a favorite).  One night, Alexia attends a ball, and is dismayed to find that the host has provided NO refreshments. Taking matters into her own hands, she asks be served tea in the library. One thing leads to another and suddenly there’s a dead vampire on the library floor and Alexia has to fake a faint. The agents of BUR, headed by Lord Maccon (an irritable, scruffy, Scottish werewolf) aren’t fooled for a second, and she is asked questions regarding their investigation.  Vampires and werewolves are appearing where they shouldn’t be, and disappearing from where they should. Of course Alexia decides to do some investigating on her own, and drives Lord Maccon crazy in the process.

My Thoughts: Wow, this book was a lot of fun to read. The blurb is a spot-on indication of what you’ll find in the book – tongue in cheek stuff, a heroine who is a force of nature, and a romance thrown in.  The author calls the book an “urbane fantasy”, and from what I can see there’s an overlap of genres here. There are romantic elements, urban fantasy elements, a very Victorian setting, and a dash of Steampunk. I couldn’t help mentally hearing the words in a proper English accent. First, no one here says “parasol”, so I had to, and second because of the style of the language. There was even a nod to the old-fashioned in the way the chapters were titled (“Our Heroine Ignores Good Advice” is just one example).  Along with the writing, there are a lot of references to fashions, manners and day to day life of the Victorian time period.

The world here is our own, but Great Britain has had supernatural help to conquer so much of the planet. There are werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, with similar traits to what I’ve seen in other urban fantasy (such as banding together under one Alpha or hive ruler), but the criteria for a human to change into a supernatural is something new. This time the amount of soul a person has is a factor. Only people with an excess of soul can survive the change, and supernatural creatures are rare. Alexia is even rarer, she has no soul. This makes her a preternatural, a person whose touch negates the supernatural completely. I don’t think I’ve seen this before. I’ve read books where one character is immune to supernatural effects, but can’t do what Alexia does.  I like the idea.

The worldbuilding was well done and had enough complexity where I felt that while I was seeing and understanding a lot of it, there is still more to come, perhaps in later books. In particular I think the politics between the vampires, werewolves, and the crown has been touched upon but there is more to explore there.

There are a lot of amusing side characters in this book. Usually there’s one or two side characters I kind of like, but here I liked a lot of them, though they are almost caricatures. The poor best friend with horrible taste in hideous, flamboyant, hats, the gay vampire with his baroque furnishings and coterie of foppish young men, the stoic and capable butler, the list goes on, but it works very well. It’s a comedic ensemble cast (complete with straight men) that buttress our heroine and hero.

This book is also a romance. While this is Victorian England so no sex before marriage, there are serious shenanigans going on that are decidedly more modern than this era. Even knowing what a free spirit Alexia is, there are a few scenes where some artistic license takes place in terms of Alexia’s reactions to her love interest. This was a slightly less believable part of Alexia’s character, but we’re reading a book with werewolves and vampires here, so I didn’t dwell on it. The part that irritated me was the repetition of Alexia’s “flaws” which she and her family were concerned about: that Italian nose, dark complexion, and inability to be controlled. I’d prefer Alexia to have been less repetitive in worrying about these silly things, thinking no one wants to marry someone like that.

Overall: This book is going to be popular. It’s as fun as it looks, I promise you, and I love that this feels like something new. I wanted to pick it up as soon as possible whenever I had to put it down. There’s plenty of action, sly wit, and romance going on to keep the pages turning and I will be reading the second book, Changeless.

There’s an excerpt of Changeless at the back of Soulless, and I’ve already checked, but the release date hasn’t been announced yet.

Links:

Video of Gail Carriger at BEA (filmed by Ron Hogan)

Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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Cemetery Dance
Cemetery Dance
Douglas Preston
Mystery/suspense is a genre I don’t mind reading but usually I don’t pay much attention to it and only read it every so often. When Hachette Books offered me Cemetery Dance I thought I’d give the book a try.

The Premise: It all starts off with the murder of a respected journalist and friend of FBI agent Pendergast and New York police Lieutenant D’Agosta. A lot of people in the journalist’s apartment building see the killer, and identify him as an actor named Colin Fearing, who also lives in the building. With so many witnesses, it seems like an open and shut case. But there is a problem: Colin killed himself a couple of weeks ago. Soon New York City is in an uproar over zombie killers and what the police are doing about them. Agent Pendergast and Lieutenant D’Agosta are on the case for the sake of avenging their friends death, but how do you find a killer who is supposed to be dead?

My Thoughts: This is the latest(I think?) in this series of books. I haven’t read any of the rest of them so this worked fine as a standalone, though I’m possibly missing a background on some of the reoccurring characters (I had no problems making guesses).

FBI agent Pendergast seemed to be the main character, although the focus moved to Nora Kelly and Lieutenant D’Agosta a few times. Pendergast is unique character, I thought of him as a lanky, rich, Southern, Hercule Peroit. The type of character who is very observant, a few steps ahead of everyone else, and always solves the crime. He seemed to be a mythical figure, and I found his eccentricity and past interesting, but sometimes it felt a bit over the top, for example having a huge apartment in the city with a housekeeper and rooms only he is allowed into which leads to an indoor japanese garden? An evil aunt in a mental institution? It was a bit much for me, but then I haven’t read the rest of the series, so perhaps it’s harder for me to accept. I also felt like there was not that much to go on with Pendergast’s emotions – most of the time his face is neutral and he gives nothing away. It makes him seem impenetrable, but also hard to connect to.

Lieutenant D’Agosta seemed to be an angry cop, sometimes letting his anger take over, which Pendergast or other characters having to step in to calm him or tell him to be careful to not let his anger jeopardize the case or his job. Nora seemed to have more scope than the two men, she swung back and forth between grief and fear and anger and put herself in danger to find out who the killer was, but the reader sees less of her in this book. My favorite character was even more minor – Laura Hayward. She had a few smart things to say and I liked how capable she was and how she questioned Pendergast’s methods, but her appearance was brief. I’m guessing she is another reoccurring character though because of her past with D’Agosta.

I thought I understood who was behind the murders and was feeling a bit put out that the police were being obtuse until about halfway through the book when I started suspecting someone else. So I thought the mystery was well done because of the twists.

Speaking of twists, this is one of the books this year which fall under my private label of “unexpected zombies”. All of a sudden, zombies appear when I least expect it, and this happened again here. I know that the blurb for this book talks about a walking dead guy, but I was sure this would be explained in a scientific way. When this didn’t immediately happen, I began to wonder if there really were zombies created through some strange ritual! The authors kept their cards close to their chests regarding magic in the book.

Last comment: there are some violent and creepy scenes in this book which kind of went with the flavor of the novel, but just FYI if you are squeamish. I didn’t think they were bad.

Overall: It was OK. I felt like I could see everything happening like you’d see in a movie, there is plenty of action, and suspense going on, and I did want to find out who did it and what will happen, but I just didn’t connect very well to the main characters. Maybe this is because I hadn’t read the earlier books or because it just wasn’t my thing. It felt like when I watch CSI: Miami. I like certain characters, but I cannot connect with Horatio Caine, and he’s the main guy, so in the end I can watch a show or two, but I am not so enthusiastic about it. That’s my problem here.

Review at Fantasy Book Critic (they highly recommended it)

The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee

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The Laurentine Spy
The Laurentine Spy
Emily Gee
I got Emily Gee’s two books for my birthday after both @angiebookgirl and @booksmugglers pimped the books to me on twitter. I’d already been eying this author because of recommendations at the Paperbackswap forums, but those two tweeters tipped the scales. When I was in high school my favorite genre was fantasy, and in college I began to get more into authors who wrote fantasy with romantic elements like Sharon Shinn, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, and Anne Bishop. Emily Gee seemed to fall under this category, so I’ve been looking forward to trying out her books.

P.S. I love how atmospheric this cover is. Very nice.

The Premise: The Laurentine Protectorate (aka Laurent) and the Coronese Empire (aka Corona) are neighboring countries who are in a constant state of unease with each other. Corona has a taste for acquiring more land and is constantly trying to add to it’s holdings. It is a place where men love war and debauchery, and will fall on their swords for failure, and women are demure and do all that their husbands say. Laurentine is less restrictive and believe in more artistic pursuits than Corona, but they also have their own issues, like a very frivolous upper class.

There are three Laurentine spies in Corona. They meet in the catacombs under the Coronese citadel, know each other as One, Two, and Three, and follow the orders of their guardian. One pretends that he is a Coronese lord (and well-known fool), called Lord Ivo, Two is a servant, and Three is a lady of the court named Lady Petra.

Athan is One and Saliel is Three. As spies they have an interest in one another, but they don’t know who the other really is. Saliel/Lady Petra dislikes Lord Ivo, and Athan/Lord Ivo thinks Lady Petra is the epitome of a Coronese lady: virtuous and subservient, and therefore not his type, but is drawn to her red hair.

Meanwhile Saliel has a couple of secrets -her birth in the slums and the ability to “hold” someone with her eyes. She knows that if her birth was known, she would be shunned by any respectable member of society, and for her ability, she could be burned as a witch. Saliel and her fellow spies’ problems are further compounded when a Spycatcher known for getting results is brought in.

My Thoughts: There are a lot of suspenseful moments in this book. First there’s the problem of being spies and trying to find out secret military information without getting caught. The ways Saliel, Petra and Two found out things and then added them together to discover Corona’s plans was fascinating. Then when the Spycatcher is brought in because they did a good job and Corona is sure spies had to have discovered the plans, their interaction with the Spycatcher were intense.

Saliel’s fears of discovery are two-fold. Being a spy and her magic. Both Corona *and* Laurent have a fear of witches, who get burned in giant bonfires whenever one is caught. The whole town is involved and loves to see a witch burn, because these creatures have the ability to make people do things against their will, and there is a lot of fear attached to such a power. Saliel’s ability is not that great, but it’s still enough for her to die if anyone found out about it.

So there are intense moments when the hero and heroine are close to getting caught, but sometimes the pacing still felt a little slow as they went through their daily lives at the citadel. These seemed to show what the world was like however so I kept reading. What really kept me going was wanting to see what happens when Athan and Saliel realize who the other is! I wanted to see what this would mean for their hidden feelings. It felt like they’d never find out, while their guardian knew about it kept it from each other when I thought it would have been better for them to know. He seemed to not see them as people but rather tools (an attitude he had throughout the book which made me dislike him greatly). Saliel and Athan’s complex relationship was my favorite aspect of the book.

So dislikes: I had a couple of problems with the book, but they were (in my mind) minor ones. One was believing that a Spycatcher with the ability to make people tell him the truth didn’t just go up to everyone and ask if they were an enemy spy. Ok, yes, the story would be much shorter and just wouldn’t have worked, but it irked me, and I decided to believe he liked to toy with people and wasn’t the type of person to just ask – it would have been too easy for him. The other problem I had was how at every discovery Athan made about who Saliel really was, he balked, and a convenient event would happen that made him realize how silly his concerns were. I would have preferred him to come to the realizations through some soul searching without something dire happening as if to smack the point into his head.

Overall: Liked the story a lot, especially the romantic part of it – it was the slow, subtle romantic build-up I like reading, which went well with the fantasy parts of it. I do think this belongs in the fantasy section, not in romance however. There were a couple of minor issues I had with the plot that I described in my thoughts above, and at times the pacing was a bit slower than I’d have liked, but nothing that would keep me from reading this author’s books in the future. I think I’m going to keep getting her books, and I love that these are standalones! Yes! I recommend this author for those who like Sharon Shinn and Anne Bishop.

Other reviews:

The Book Smugglers (very good, leaning towards and eight)
Lusty Reader (gave it a B+)
Fantasy Book Critic (highly recommended)

Giveaway: ARC of Gail Carriger’s Soulless

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Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
Gail Carriger

I’ve read about 80 pages into this ARC.  The setting is Victorian London, but there are supernatural creatures mixed in with High Society. The heroine is amusing me –  she smacks a vampire with a parasol, and then screams and fakes a faint (somehow landing on a pillow of course). And the hero is both a Lord and a grouchy werewolf!

It. is. AWESOME. You want this book. You do.

Here’s the blurb:

“Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced!

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible.

Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society?

Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing?

Who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?”

The book comes out in October, but you can read it earlier, because I got an extra copy of the ARC at BEA! All you have to do to win it is please send an email to janicu[AT]gmail[DOT]com. I will send the book outside the US, so anyone can enter. I’ll draw a name next friday (June 12th).

Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine

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Salt and Silver
Salt and Silver
Anna Katherine
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since I found it browsing online and I read the excerpt.  The cover and the excerpt made me think this would be shelved in urban fantasy but I found it in the romance aisle. The spine says “paranormal romance”. It kind of walks on the line on the two genres I think.

Note on the cover – I noticed they changed the cover font from blue and white to half silver (to resemble molten silver) and half white (like sprinklings of salt) – Love it.

The Premise: Allie is an ex-spoiled rich girl. The kind of rich that meant a mansion in Long Island, designer clothes and accessories, and two equally spoiled and rich best friends, Amanda and Stan, who grow up next door. The day her mother stole all their money and ran away to Brazil with her lover Rio, Allie suddenly had to grow up. She had to take a job as a waitress in diner in Brooklyn.  After her first day at Sally’s Diner, Allie, Amanda, and Stan perform a silly ritual in a fit of drunkenness which ends up opening a Door to Hell in the basement of the diner. Immediately a Stetson-wearing demon hunter, Ryan appears. This was six years ago. Allie has grown up, taken over management of the diner, and on the side she helps Ryan kill demons that escape from the Door. Until one day the Door in the diner’s basement suddenly disappears and she and Ryan have to find out what happened.

My Thoughts: The narrative is in the first person and is really informal – almost stream of consciousness, and full of swearing and sarcasm. It almost seemed young adult but not quite. After thinking about it I decided it was the voice of a young twenty-something, and it’s a BIG part of whether you will enjoy the book. If the voice here isn’t for you, you won’t like it, so I highly recommend reading the excerpt of chapter one.

The world here is ours except there are Doors to Hell which every so often let out creatures that the door guards kill. Normal people (the mundanes) don’t know about it and just keep living their lives. I won’t go into more detail than that, but I thought that the world building was really organic – you learn as the story goes along, with Allie not ignorant, but kept uninformed of certain facts from the hunters until she needed to know. The demons and monsters that Allie runs into all have basis in mythology and a wide variety of beliefs. For example there are different versions of Hell and it was really fascinating how characters reacted to what they saw in the Hells according to what they believed.

Allie has grown up  but her two friends from her old life have not. She holds on to them because she remembers that they were there for her when she became poor, but you get the feeling she keeps in contact because of loyalty, not because she actually likes them. It’s an interesting situation, and it’s sort of a coming of age aspect that you don’t usually see in adult urban fantasy. This also works with the story because Amanda and Stan’s selfishness and immaturity affect what’s going on with the Doors.  I think it explains Allie’s voice too. She may have grown up but her thoughts sometimes channel Cher from Clueless, but not in a way that made me dislike her. I actually really liked Allie’s character because of what she’s gone through, and because she came out with a wish to be a better person. She can’t hate the Door under Sally’s Diner because she knows it brought her Ryan and fighting it has also made her a more mature person.

The romance is a decent chunk of the story, but Ryan and Allie’s relationship has been an ongoing one so a lot of the falling in love seemed to have happened before the book even starts, with some flashbacks to key scenes and the only barrier is Ryan’s admitting that he feels anything (Allie on the other hand admits freely that she has a huge crush). A lot of the book happens before it starts, with flashbacks used to show how things have changed over the years, not just with their relationship, but with Allie’s relationship with Stan and Amanda. Ryan’s reasons for not acting on his feelings for Allie were believable (though I didn’t agree with him), so I found it understandable why he kept pushing Allie away even when it’s obvious he really likes her. When the relationship heats up, I guess it is “finally” for a lot of other characters, but because this book doesn’t really show all 6 years up to that point, to me it was a little surprising.  I thought it would take longer for Ryan to break down, he acts very standoffish when the book begins, but by chapter two his soft center regarding Allie begins to show, so apparently six years was enough. I liked this couple, especially Allie, but I wasn’t a fan of Allie begging Ryan with “Please” during certain scenes.

Overall: Really liked this one – I had a hard time putting it down and it was a fast read. It has a bit of a quest in different dimensions in it which is something I like reading (looks like the authors enjoy researching magic and superstition), and the romance was sweet – good friends becoming more. The voice is different so do go read the excerpt before you buy. This isn’t a standalone, it’s the beginning of a series, but I think that other books may focus on other characters in this world if I read the authors comment’s on it here right, so you can probably treat this as almost a standalone. The ending is in a good, satisfying place and I’m definitely putting whatever else Anna Katherine writes on my wish list.

Other reviews:

Scooper Speaks (she couldn’t connect with the main char)
The Book Smugglers – gave it a 7 (very good)

Just The Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James

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Just the Sexiest Man Alive (Berkley Sensation)
Just the Sexiest Man Alive (Berkley Sensation)
Julie James
I read and enjoyed Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James earlier this month, and I liked it enough to get her other book, Just the Sexiest Man Alive at Borders the weekend before last (40% off Memorial Day coupon!)

The Premise: Just The Sexiest Man Alive also has a lawyer for the heroine – Taylor Donovon is an associate at Gray & Dallas who has been sent to the Los Angeles office for a few months to work on a sexual harassment case for a large client. Everything is going well, until Taylor is asked to do one of the partners a “favor” (which she can’t turn down) – meet with super-mega-movie star Jason Andrews to help him prepare for his part as a lawyer in an upcoming movie. Taylor is unhappy enough that Jason is adding to her already busy schedule, but when Jason blows off their initial meeting he ticks Taylor off with his movie-star attitude. It doesn’t help matters that Jason has been voted People’s Sexiest Man Alive three times and has been linked to a long line of female celebrities. Taylor has just broken off her engagement to her cheating fiance and is wary of womanizers. Jason expects Taylor to be instantly smitten and let him have his way like everyone else does, but when Taylor proves impervious to his charms, it only intrigues Jason more.

Excerpt of Chapter 1

My Thoughts: As with Practice Makes Perfect I think you can tell that someone with experience in the law profession wrote this book – there’s a lot of references that even as a layperson, I felt that James is an author who knew her stuff. And I don’t know if I mentioned it in my review of Practice Makes Perfect (livejournal / vox / wordpress) but I really liked that the heroines in both books were GOOD at their jobs – really good. It wasn’t just an arbitrary career which gets mentioned once or twice then you see the heroine hardly doing any work; it’s a big part of the plot.

The romance here is pretty sweet. Jason is at first a little too cocky and Taylor puts him in his place. As they get to know each other Jason realizes that Taylor isn’t like the usual woman who runs after him. Fame and publicity isn’t what she wants. Taylor, on the other hand, feels attracted to Jason but she’s wary of men who are known players after dealing with her ex-fiance, and she refuses to fall for another man like that. Of course the two keep seeing each other and feelings begin to develop. Pretty soon the press is all aflame with rumors of Jason Andrews’ Mystery Woman.

Taylor’s introduction to Jason’s life is pretty fun –  the paparazzi, and ensuing office gossip, the celebrity parties and Jason’s “people”, but what I really liked was their interactions with their best friends. Jason has his sarcastic best friend, Jeremy, who he’s known since college, and Taylor has her two friends from Chicago, Kate and Valerie. I think my favorite parts involved these secondary characters meeting Jason and Taylor. The scene where Jason tries to butt into the girl-talk about Taylor’s other dates (with another celebrity who made me think of Orlando Bloom as Legolas) was priceless.

Jason does do something mildly stupid in this book (besides starting off on the wrong foot by thinking he can use his star power on Taylor), but it was not enough to turn me off. In this regard I felt I liked him better as a hero than J.D. from Practice Makes Perfect, but he’s not perfect. The way Jason treats women until he meets Taylor was rather jerkish, but somehow he seems pull off not annoying me when I read about it. And whenever he used his charm, it never feels like he’s using others as much as they are delighted to fawn all over him and he lets them.

The ending was quite Hollywood – I can imagine the scene in the end of a romantic comedy, but I was ok with that. The only problem I’d say I have is the cynic in me not really believing a womanizing superstar would be able to settle down, but that’s not the books fault. There is no book that I could read with a famous player and ordinary person falling in love where a small part of me wouldn’t question it. The other thing was Taylor – she’s a size two, never lost a case, amazing at everything – at least she sounded human when she spoke, but the woman is a little mythical sounding.

Overall: A fun book. I enjoyed it and I think this author goes on the auto-buy list, both this book and Practice Makes Perfect were satisfying enough that I trust the author to keep at that level. There is not a lot of sex in this book: most of it is relationship buildup, which I personally prefer in my romance, so I was happy. I recommend this for those in the mood for an enjoyable contemporary romance.

Other reviews:

Gossamer Obsessions (gave it an A). She also has a related post about Sex In Romance (which I found I agreed with!)
The Book Binge (4.25 out of 5)
Dear Author (gave it a B-)
Katiebabs (B+) & The Book Smugglers (7 – very good) Power Puff review

Being giddy about Doubleblind & June releases

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Doubleblind (Sirantha Jax, Book 3)
oubleblind (Sirantha Jax, Book 3)
Ann Aguirre

Just a quick post here:

I’m a big Ann Aguirre fangirl and every time I hear news about any of her new books I’m all a-tizzy. So I wanted to point out that over the weekend ocelott has put up the very first review anywhere of Doubleblind. She says:

“if you haven’t read the previous two books, here there be spoilers. If, however, you’ve glommed the first two and are waiting impatiently for Doubleblind to release, you’re safe. I give out no plot twists.”

And with that- – the Doubleblind review is here
I am looking forward to this one because I kind of have a thing for the “ambassador in a strange land/world” trope. Love it.

Mark of the Demon
Mark of the Demon
Diana Rowland

There’s a whole BUNCH of new books coming out today. Sci Fi Guy posted June releases on his website and about 80% of the books there I want to read. Which is so bad when I just hauled back 40 some books from BEA. I have the sickness.

Amongst the list (coming out June 23rd) is Diana Rowland’s debut The Mark of the Demon. I’m currently reading it and it is GOOD. Also – the cover is really gorgeous – I gasped aloud when I saw the coverflat. Seriously – it has shiney patterns on it and I am mesmerized by it’s beauty.

Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews
Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews

The book I’m FOR SURE going to get this week is Ilona Andrew’s Silent Blade which just became available from Saimhain today. I’m all over it. It’s a short story and costs just $2.50. It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

BEA – the nitty gritty details

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I could have posted this yesterday after I came home from BEA but I had personal stuff to do and then I was pooped: my muscles ached and strangely my big toes hurt (I have no idea how I managed that). Yeah yeah poor me, having to lug millions of free books around. 😛

So my last BEA posts didn’t go into a lot of detail so I wanted to do a more comprehensive post.

Friday

I slept OK Thursday night except it did take me a bit longer to actually fall asleep because of the excitement of going to my first book convention (informal poll shows that no one slept much the night before). I woke up at 7am to catch a train into Grand Central and got to BEA at the Javits Center before they even opened at 9am.  I saw this really long line after getting my press badge and I asked what it was for: it was to get in! Anyway, once the doors opened, it was not too crowded. My inner child was running around and screaming at the top of her lungs with glee. Free books! HUGE ASS PILES OF THEM ON THE FLOOOR. I played it cool though, I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a fixed grin on my face. I think.  It was hard to resist going crazy but I only took books I was interested in reading and I mostly strolled really quickly up and down the floor trying to get an idea of where things were and what types of things were going on.

At 9:30 there was a blogger meetup set up informally by Stephanie from The Written Word (she has my eternal undying gratitude for walking me through online registration for BEA and organizing email communication with book bloggers going to BEA. I think she helped out a lot of bloggers in how to register, she’s the queen!) – so I went to the Media Center to meet people. I met Alea from Pop Culture Junkie and “Irish” from Ticket to Anywhere and Sharon from Sharon Loves Books and Cats and pretty much glommed onto them for the rest of the day. These three seem to know what’s going on in the young adult book blogger world and there were a lot of young adult book bloggers at BEA. They all told me to read Sarah MacLean’s The Season and even introduced me to the author (who was so nice she went back to get me a book to autograph). They were also all talking about Suzanne Collin’s signing for her new book Catching Fire.

I met a lot of authors and got books signed, but I think the starstruck moment for me was Shannon Hale (link to her post on BEA). Actually we all were at the Bloomsbury booth and noticed her new book The Actor and The Housewife was right there. We all picked one up and started going on about how we love her, and someone at the booth said: “You know, the author is right there and she’s signing books now”. She was sitting 6 feet away and there was no line. I ended up getting her autograph twice – the other book was Forest Born. HEEEE. I was also happy to get Scott Westerfeld’s autograph. Of course when I meet authors my mind kind of blanks and all I can say is “Um, Hi, can you please sign my name J-a-n-i-C-E?”… sigh, and I also didn’t have the presence of mind to get pictures of them! I’m dumb! Next time. I texted my best friend afterwards something like “I just got Scott Westerfeld’s autograph!” and she was amused.

I had planned to go to the BEAtweetup at 8pm after BEA, but at 3pm I was so exhausted after walking around for hours and just being excited for so long that I called it a day. I’m not sure how people managed to do BEA and then go to a party afterwards!

Saturday

I slept EVEN WORSE Friday night even though I had one day of BEA under my belt. I kept thinking of all the author signings I wanted to go to and planning in my head. I really wanted to get Gail Carriger’s autograph because she was at the Orbit booth at 11am and I also wanted to go by Harlequin because both Rachel Vincent and Gena Showalter were going to be there signing their Harlequin Teen titles also at 11! Ack! I managed to get all the books I wanted though, but I was so excited the night before!

I had talked to Katie from Babbling about Books, and More and we’d planned on meeting at the tweetup, but I couldn’t do it so we ended up meeting for the first time Saturday morning. She’s as cool and enthusiastic about books in person as she is online! And she’s hooked up with the romance blogging and reading community so through her I also met Stacey Agdern, Kris of Love Letters Magazine, Marisa and Maria from RNTV, Kwana of Kwana Writes, and Leanna Renee Heiber (author of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, which I have been eying).

My meeting with them was brief though because between running around to get autographs, standing in line, and picking up books I had to go to the Firebrand Booth for the Blogger Signing. I got to meet Michael Cairns from Personanondata and see Sharon again (Michael thought Sharon and I blogged together because we spent several minutes chittering excitedly about BEA, and was surprised we’d just met the day before).  I was convinced NO ONE was going to come see me at my blogger signing, but was pleasantly surprised that some people stopped by. And I recognized some of them, like Miriam Parker from the Hachette Book Group, author Marjorie Liu, and the first person who came by – Angie from Angieville! I was REALLY happy to see Angie because I love her taste in books and read her blog regularly (she and I both read a mix . She reads urban fantasy, young adult, and fantasy) – we both noted that we didn’t see much urban fantasy at BEA but a lot of young adult – must be where the growth is happening in publishing, hmm.

After the blogger signing (I didn’t really hand out autographs, just my card, but Sharon was a master at talking to people coming by and signing!), I rushed by the Dabel Brothers booth because Angie had told me about the copies of the Mercy Thompson comic there – there weren’t any left. They said there would be more on Sunday but since I wasn’t going to be there Sunday, one of the guys at the booth, Rich Young, gave me his copy – talk about a nice guy! Uh, I love Dabel Brothers now, just had to say that.

A full room at the blogger panel
A full room at the blogger panel

Finally there was the blogger panel. I’m so bad because I got there a bit late. It gave me warm fuzzies though that the session was full and people were all taking notes about how to communicate with bloggers. I thought all the girls on the panel were very articulate and made a lot of interesting points. One point they made that I liked was the idea of repaying bloggers by giving us traffic – linking to our reviews or contests so that new readers can learn about our blog through a publisher or author. Most of the bloggers said they did not have advertising and did not get paid for their work so traffic was a nice thing to get after they spent the time and energy reading and reviewing a book. I want to now link to Katiebab’s post because she took good notes about this panel and I think she makes some interesting comments about it too.

I had to run off in the middle of the blogger panel because I wanted to get in line for Holly Black and Cecil Castelluci’s signing for their book Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (Cassandra Clare was signing too). This was a really popular book and I was glad I left early because I ended up standing in line for about 30 minutes.

There were a lot more authors around for signings on Saturday than on Friday. I got a lot of books signed. I saw Sarah Dessen, Craig Ferguson and James Patterson but their lines were so long and I was so pooped getting signatures for the authors I’d *planned* to get signed, not to mention carrying the books, I thought it would be best to pass.

My advice for going to BEA:

  • Consider going early in the morning- it’s less crowded, you can go through the booths much more quickly because there are less people and you can SEE everything (by 10-11 there’s walls of people everywhere and crowds) and you can get books you want more quickly. Also free bags seem to disappear by the first couple of hours so get bags. I think both Friday and Saturday I picked up more books in the morning than the rest of the day (of course this brings me to the problem of lugging said books everywhere).
  • Plan out your day ahead of time and write it down in an easy to follow way. I wrote down the author signings I wanted to catch but I didn’t look at my list too often and I’m kind of kicking myself for missing Jordan Summer’s signing of Crimson. The book that got away.
  • Lugging books everywhere = really tiring. Two possible solutions:
    • You can’t bring in a rollaway bag into the floor, they make you check it in. You have to have a backpack without wheels. I know I saw some people with this, but they snuck it by security somehow. I think next time I’m checking in a rolling suitcase and putting books into it every couple of hours. This would have saved my legs and back a bit of pain.
    • You can also go to attendee shipping. They give you a box which you put your name on and you can fill it throughout the day. Downsides are: it’s UPS and $$$ pricey and I’m not sure how secure the place is.
  • Bring painkillers – Wendy the Super Librarian told me this and she was so right! I brought Excedrin and Advil. Advil was needed for my back by the time lunch rolled around on the first day. The pain was worth it though.
  • Wear good shoes (also recommended by Wendy. She knows what she’s talking about).
  • Consider eating lunch early or late – the cafeteria is ridiculously full at lunch time and it’s almost impossible to find a place to sit. Also the prices are high, but that’s how it is at conventions.
  • It is worth it to print out business cards. I’ve been to non-book conventions and given out my business card less than I did at BEA.