Heartbeat Weekly (24): Mighty Mississippi + Announcement

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on July 20, 2014 | 9 Comments


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This Wednesday I drove up to Naperville, Illinois to go to this awesome event! I left with my fiancé in the morning to make it up there at a decent time so I could meet someone awesome beforehand…Reanna from Phantasmic Reads!! If you guys don’t know, she’s one of my closest friends online, and a very good bloggy friend of mine! I’ve been wanting to meet her for a very long time and we finally got the chance! We went to dinner at the Naf Naf Grill, where I tried shawarma for the first time. (It was good, but not mind blowing, in case any of you were wondering!) After that we checked out the bookstore where the event was held – Anderson’s Bookshop – and walked around for a bit before the signing. (Anderson’s was an awesome little bookstore! They had a BUNCH of signed YA books – Holly Black, Maggie Stiefvater, Veronica Roth, and many other popular others!)

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The signing itself was AWESOME!! I finally got to meet Anita Grace Howard and Paula Stokes (Fiona Paul), who I’ve talked to on Twitter plenty of times but always miss their signings. Paula recognized me in the crowd before I even introduced myself, which made me feel very special haha! In the Q&A panel, I asked who the authors’ favorite characters to write were. I made it a general question, even though it was basically directed toward Anita. She was the last to answer and I waited with bated breath…and she said MORPHEUS!! I made a very loud exclamation in the middle of a crowd. Oops! I SO wish I’d have gotten it on video, but there are witnesses! I have witnesses!! (She did say later that she can’t pick between the two who is her favorite in general, and even wrote “I <3 both boys #Jebpheus” on my tote bag) It was very cool to talk to both authors for a bit after the signing as well. You ladies rock!!

 

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From left to right: Paula Stokes, Lindsay Cummings, Bethany Crandell, Anita Grace Howard, Whitney Miller, A. Lyndon Rolland, Philip Siegel, Lynne Matson

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IMG_8250Don’t mind how retarded I look…

We stayed the night in a hotel nearby and the next morning my fiancé and I checked out some of the local used bookstores and comic book shops. After that, we met Reanna again for lunch at Portillo’s! It was pretty good other than the fact that we had to wait 15 minutes for our food. I had a chocolate cake shake, which I thought would be like a cake batter flavor, but it had actual chocolate cake blended into it – yummy! I had a blast up there for our little weekend-in-the-middle-of-the-week excursion and it was so great to finally meet Reanna!

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2 month book haul

From the MMBB signing (all of these are signed):

*Some of these I bought specifically for the signing, some I already had
Unhinged by A.G. Howard
The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
Nil by Lynne Matson
The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
Venom, Belladonna, and Starling by Fiona Paul
Lots of swag, some signed

For review:

Cyador’s Heirs by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (Thanks Tor!)
The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson (from pub – Thank you Harper!!)
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern (Thanks Harper!)
Meridian by Josin L. McQuein (Again, thanks Harper!)
Deliverance by C.J. Redwine (Edelweiss)
Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White (EW)
Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forster (EW)
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray (EW)
Remember Me by Romily Bernard (EW)
Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch (EW)
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (NetGalley)
The Fire Wish by Amber Lough (NG)
The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien (NG)
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (NG)

Bought:

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater, SIGNED! (from Anderson’s)
Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong, SIGNED! (Anderson’s)

Gifted:

Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth, SIGNED!
THANK YOU REANNA!!! <333
Now I have all a complete collection of signed Roth books :D

Weekly Recap

 Posts on the blog:

 News:

 After months away, I am happy to announce that I will officially be coming back August 1st! I may have a post or two before then, but I’ll get back to my normal blogging schedule starting in August. Expect to see an awesome event announcement in the next couple of weeks leading up to my return!

What’s in your mailbox, loverlies?

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Features | Tags: ,

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9 responses to “Heartbeat Weekly (24): Mighty Mississippi + Announcement

  1. Oh wow! That looks like it was a lot of fun! This tour came through St. Louis too, but sadly I didn’t know any of the authors and didn’t get a chance to go anyway. I seriously need to move to Naperville it seems!

    Awesome haul from the past few months! Lots of great looking reads there! I still need to read some of them myself too! Happy Reading!

    Here’s my STS

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

  2. Seems like you had a great time at the signing, I’m happy for you :D You also got some awesome looking books there, I can’t wait to read Heir of fire, The vault of dreamers and Snow like ashes. Say what you will was AMAZING. The vanishing season surprised me at the ending, even when the whole story was slow and plotless. A thousand pieces of you has such a gorgeous cover. The fire wish looks good :D So yeah, happy reading!

    • I hadn’t heard of Say What You Will until I got it in the mail…not usually my kind of book, but it seems interesting! Oh boy, slow and plotless doesn’t sound like something I’m going to be into O_O Plus it doesn’t have very good ratings!

  3. I’m not going to hide how jelly I am you got to meet so many awesome peeps in one shot! I can’t wait to meet them, and you! But I’m so excited you got to go to something so awesome!! Now that I officially have my license I’m going to try hard to make it to more signings. :D

    XOXO, Inky!

    PS. It’s been so long since my last comment on your blog since I’ve been gone so expect LOTS!

    • I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU EITHER INKINATOR! Wait, you got your license?! HOW DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS?!?!! (Or did I hear it and just forget?!) Congrats either way!

      Hehe I’ve been gone too, so there won’t be much to comment on until I return in August >.< <333

      • IT WILL HAPPEN.
        Haha it was on Twitter so if you didn’t see it it’s all good. I got it two months ago. :D Thanks!!
        I’m excited for your return. I need to get on the ball with my blog too. Haha.

        <33 Inky

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