March 6, 2014

Book Ball 2014 Recap + Giveaway (US)

Hi, everyone! Happy hump day. I hope you’re almost over the hump (I know that sounds totally dirty). Which is how I am going to segue way into my recap of Book Ball 2014, hosted by the lovely authors Christina Lauren at the Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach. The event boasted an awesome lineup of authors that included Alice Clayton, Sylvia Day, Katy Evans, Ruthie Knox, Christina Lauren, Cara McKenna, Monica Murphy, Kristen Proby, Tiffany Reisz, and Andrew Shaffer. I had heard about the event a while ago and knew that I wanted to go because I love, love Tiffany Reisz. However, due to life happening, we did not decide to go until the day of, but I am really glad that we rallied and went for it.

My partner in crime was Kimberly from The Windy Pages. Like I said, we actually didn’t decide to go to the signing until about an hour before it started. And we live about an hour away from the venue, and that’s with good traffic. With the crazy rains in LA over the weekend, I wasn’t sure if we were going to run into any traffic but I was confident that we would make it for most of the event. We managed to make pretty good time even with the weather and got to B&N at about 2:15pm for the 2pm signing. I thought there was going to be a Q&A or presentation but it was just a straight signing. There had been a get together the night before with the authors and I think they did most of their talking then. Also, with such a large number of authors, I think a full presentation would have been difficult.

We quickly purchased our books (after a lot of deliberation on which ones to buy) and headed back upstairs for the signing. The line was quite long but the B&N was really organized and the staff was very friendly. We ended up skipping part of the line because the authors we were seeing had shorter lines than some of the others.

First up was Tiffany Reisz! Peeps, if you read this blog you know how much I adore Tiffany Reisz. Her books are fantastic and totally racy and I love her to bits. She was super sweet and funny and was not fazed as Kimberly and I fangirled her. We talked bout the next book in the Original Sinner series that comes out later this year about a young, crazy Nora Sutherlin. I can’t wait. I had her sign my copies of The Siren and The Prince, and she and I bonded over the fact that The Prince was our favorite book of the series.

Next up was Christina Lauren, the writing duo behind the Beautiful Bastard series. Like an idiot, I had left my Christina Lauren books at home but I bought one for a giveaway and had them sign it. They are always so fun to talk to and it’s easy to see that they are good friends. We talked a bit about their new book Sublime that is coming out in a few months. I just received and eARC of that one and they told me to tweet them while I was reading it (unless I hated it). :)

This is my favorite picture of the event. I don’t even know what was happening here, but I love it.

The last author we saw was Alice Clayton. I have heard so many good things about Alice and finally picked up Wallbanger to try. Alice was super sweet and was lovely to talk to. I am really excited to finally read one of her books.

After the signing we went for a cheesecake break and ended up coming back to B&N to buy more books from their signed stock. I picked up a book by Kristen Proby and Katy Evans, who were both extremely popular at the signing. All in all it was a really fun signing and we met some great people in line as well. B&N did a fantastic job at the event and everything seemed to run really smoothly. I would definitely go back for another signing. Shout out to A Reading Nurse who we chatted with at the event.

Alright, now it’s time for a giveaway. I have a signed copy of Beautiful Beginning by Christina Lauren to give away along with a couple of bookmarks. This is open only to US residents. Good luck!

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