Stacking the Shelves September 30th, 2013

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  Posting a little later than normal this week, but I've got a few things to share!

Purchased:

So, I bought quite a few this week you can see.  However, 4 of them were purchased at a school book fair, so were a little bit cheaper.  The first one, Stung, I've already read, and you can read my review HERE.  The 2nd one is the 3rd in a series by Roland  Smith, who is one of my favorite authors.  I met him before I thought about taking my pictures with authors, met him twice even!  I haven't read the 2nd in that series, but will have to now!  Human.4 is one that I've wanted to read for awhile.  Not sure, but I may have even purchased the book at a book fair in the past, but got rid of it, so now I have it again, and will just have to read it now.  The Darkest Path is by Jeff Hirsch, who is an another author I've met and am a fan of.  While the cover doesn't really make it look like a book I'd be interested in, because I know I like his writing, and then I read the blurb that made it sound a bit different than the cover, I am very excited to read it.  And finally, the 5th book there, Risked, is by another author that I love, Margaret Peterson Haddix.  And as of last Thursday, I got to finally meet her!  Here is my picture with her:

From Netgalley:

I'm very excited to read Pawn, as I loved The Goddess Test series by the same author, Aimee Carter, who I also met at BEA 2012.  The 2nd book is by another author I'm a big fan of, and met at BEA 2012 as well, Crissa-Jean Chappell.  And the 3rd book is the sequel to a book I read just recently and really ended up enjoying more than I thought I would.  It is by Michael Grant, who also wrote the Gone series. 

Now, the last 5 books I got were ones that were being returned at the bookstore where I work, so they are what we call stripped books.  They have no cover.  We send the covers back, but they will just throw away or recycle the rest of the book.  As employees we are allowed to take them home sometimes.  These are books I've been interested in since I saw the display we had.

So, how about your bookshelves this week?  Are they making room for new books, or staying the same?

In the Age of Love and Chocolate (Birthright #3) by Gabrielle Zevin

First I must say thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, as well as Edelweiss, for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I have the first two in the series in actual physical ARCs, and I had emailed the name on the back of them to ask to get on a list to get the 3rd ARC so that I could have a matching set.  Alas, the agent emailed back and said they wouldn't have ARCs this time.  So I searched until I at least found an e-galley.  As with the first two, I was not disappointed.  I really just love these characters, and the storyline.
With all that had happened in the last book, we begin this one with Anya wanting to open a cacao night club in this futuristic NYC.  Since chocolate is illegal, the way they get around it is to use cacao beans, and people are allowed to have cacao if they get a prescription for it.  So they have doctors on staff, one to start and see how it goes, who will give prescriptions, and since Mr. Delacroix had lost his bid for mayor in the last book, he is now her business partner.  But moving forward with this business has put a rift between Anya and Win.  Anya is not sure if it is the business itself, or the working with his father that has Win so upset.  All she knows is that Win is now cold, and has moved on.  In fact when she even tries to say at least they can still be friends, he says no, the good thing about being broken up is that he doesn't HAVE to be friends with her.  It is clear that Anya still loves him, but he seems to really be over her.  And it is easy to understand why she's made her decisions, when you've read the first two books, and know all that she's been through, and fought against.  When her sister Natty comes home from camp, it seems that she is not having a good time.  She is ahead in school because of how smart she is.  But she seems to be rebelling.  Almost worse than Anya did.  Finally to try to do the best for Natty, especially when her 14 year old sister takes up with a 17 year old boy, Anya sends her away to a boarding school.  It is in Boston, where Win is going to school, so Anya asks him to look after her.  Meanwhile her nightclub is a success.  So much that she must ask Theo, from the chocolate farm she spent time on in the last book, for more help with finding the perfect chocolate/cacao drink recipes, and to also get the amount of cacao they are shipped increased.  While the book pretty much ends the way I would have hoped, the right people together, it still is a very emotionally reached ending.  Almost all the characters from the prior books are back, even if just a very minute mention.  But the poisoner from the first book is back, and other villains.  Some returned to make up for what they've done, others to try to finish what they started.  Leo gets out of prison, and convinces Anya to let him open up a club in San Francisco, and I love the location, Alcatraz!!
I just love this dystopian world set up.  Not that I could imagine living where chocolate was illegal, that would really be a horrible world!  But all the world building the author has done, and using landmarks/buildings that are well known enough you can help to picture it in your head.  Definitely a good conclusion to the series,  although I only gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars on Goodreads because of one aspect of the ending.  While it definitely fits the story, it made me sad, and I wish it had been a bit different.  If you haven't started yet, go ahead and start the first two now, as this third and final installment will be released the end of October, so only a month to wait!  And because I loved the series so much, once again I will share my picture from when I met the author!

Storm (Swipe #3) by Evan Angler

Thanks to Thomas Nelson publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this, even though it was actually published earlier this year.  This was my #8 for my 2nd Annual September is for Sequels Challenge, meaning that even if I finish the book I'm currently reading, I won't have read any more sequels than I did last year.  Oh well, maybe my challenge goal will just stay at 8 books a year, and if it does more than that, great, if not, then at least I got some sequels read that might otherwise have waited until even later.
Once again I've enjoyed the story, and I really see more and more how it is going into the "end times" and what the mark will mean.  The title of the series is Swipe, meaning that people "swipe" their mark in order to pay for things, have jobs, etc.  This is all based on the biblical story of the mark of  Satan.  Now I don't remember a lot about the missing people in the first two books, I'll have to go back and read my reviews from the them, but we do hear about the people that disappeared.  I was a huge fan of the Left Behind series, and so this fell right into that same interest.  I do like how this story does it differently though.  In this story we get the plague, but again, it is quite a different story than other tellings of the end times.  I like the way the plague happens.  And how the guy that is pretty much being set up to be the Anti-Christ, even uses what happens with that to build his own support.  While we do get a bit of the religion in this, it is not as in your face as it was in the Left Behind series.  And I think for a kids' book, that is a good thing.
Logan had run into his sister in the last book, and now we have to decide is she really on his side, or not.  She continues to do things that would seem she is now really on the side of the Marked, but there are other things that seem as if she is looking out for her brother.  One of the Dust is still stuck there with Lily, and she is trying to break him to become one of the soldiers.  A drought has been going on, and we meet some new characters in the town where the "weather mill" is.  This town and the weather mill will become a major turning point in the story.  In more ways than one.  Erin, thought to be a traitor by Logan before, is now suffering from the plague, and Logan and the others have taken her to meet the doctor who invented the virus, the one that was supposed to take out the markless, but instead is affecting the Marked, like Erin.  They learn of sabotage, and must figure out how to save Erin hopefully, as well as to keep the plague from actually getting out there and making everyone sick.  We also find out that Evan Angler's book Swipe, is being published and it is found in a library.  People are reading it, and it is giving people clues to what Logan is doing, even in a way that could be used to incriminate him when the Anti-Christ needs it.
Wow, this is really a mess of a review I think.  I think maybe I need to get back to doing reviews the way I did before someone commented on them saying I was spoiling.  A great story, but now I am of course very eager to read the next story!

The Friday 56 #3

Third time is a charm, right?  So once again I'm going to participate in The Friday 56, sponsored by Freda's Voice, this time more based on time constraints.  Here is what you do:

Rules:

 *Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

 

"All of us," he said.  "All of us are missing the forest for the trees.  All this time we've been fighting these little battles, waging these little acts of defiance.  But a tidal wave is about to hit.  And when it does, you, me--everyone--will be woefully unprepared."

And once again, while you're here, be sure to enter the giveaway I've got going on that ends this weeked:  Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop. 

Scorch (Croak #2) by Gina Damico

This is a book, a series, that I love, love, love!!  And of course it is in #7 in my September is for Sequels Challenge.  Again, it has been sitting on my TBR shelf forever, which was a huge oversight on my part, because like the first one, it was soooo good!  One I didn't want to put down, even when I had to because I had to work, or sleep, or drive, etc.
We left off with Zara having somehow gotten Lex's ability to damn people.  Now, it might not seem so horrible that she got that power, because the people she is damning, which also basically incinerates them, are all horrible criminal type people, murderers, etc.  But for the Grim Reapers in this story, that is not allowed.  They are only allowed to kill those who are supposed to be dead according to their instructions.  Because of what happened, Lex is back in the town of Croak to try to help catch Zara.  But when she gets back, she finds that some in the town are not happy to have her back, in fact they have decided to punish all of the Junior Reapers.  Things take a turn when Zara begins damning innocents, a fact which the town is even unhappier about because she has come to Lex with a demand.  A demand for the "wrong book", the one that a mythical Grim from the past, Grotton supposedly wrote about how to do all the things he decided to do that went against the rules.  Soon a few of the townspeople convince most of the others that they must get rid of Lex's Uncle Mort as mayor, and take over.  Then when a bombing occurs in the middle of town, they decide they must put all the juniors and Mort in jail.  When they finally escape, Mort takes them to another Grim town, DeMyse.  DeMyse is way different from Croak, it is quite a bit like Las Vegas in description.  Here they try to hide from Zara, one reason they feel this is a good place is that she hasn't really gone to take anyone from there as she has from the other Grim cities.  All the time they are fighting either their own townspeople, or trying to hide from other dangers like Zara, they continue to try to figure out the mystery of the book that Zara wants, and how they can both find it, and keep it from her.  Along the way there are many surprises, and even a few deaths of characters that we know and love.  I won't tell you who, I'll let you read and discover the sadness for yourself.
I loved the book, I can't say it enough.  This author's writing literally makes me laugh out loud, no matter where I am while I'm reading.  As I said in my review of the first book, Croak, I really enjoy the sarcasm of the characters.  I love the teenage romance between Lex and Driggs.  It is so realistic, and I have to say a relationship that I would be comfortable in, as the sarcasm in my family can be quite that extreme.  One page I had to mark to talk about in my review was page 121, there is a reference to Silent Bob, a character in Kevin Smith movies, that is played by Kevin Smith.  Kevin Smith is one of my favorite actors/directors/writers/personalities.  So I love that he was in this story in this way.  Now, the only thing I didn't like about the book was the ending.  Which actually, I know that the ending is one of the best types there can be.  But, I hate what happens!  I don't want it to happen, and I really hope the author can come up with some kind of way to fix it in the next book, and I don't really care if turns out to be unrealistic.  Maybe it can somehow relate back to one of the surprises that took place with the person that it has to do with in this book.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who liked the tv show Dead Like Me, or enjoys stories about Grim Reapers, and you must also really be a fan of sarcastic people.  There's just no way around it.

Stacking the Shelves September 23rd, 2013

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  Posting a little later than normal this week, but I've got a few things to share!

Purchased:

The first one I finally broke down and bought as an e-book from Amazon.  Doesn't seem like I can find a hard copy, and the e-book was pretty cheap.  The 2nd one I've already read, but it was an e-galley, and I didn't have a copy.  So I had to get one last week because I thought the author might show up with Maggie Stiefvater last Tuesday, which she didn't.  But now I have the book, so that is cool.

Won:

I won a copy of this from Books As You Know It during the Debut Author tour featuring the author, Mary Gray.

E-galleys from Netgalley:

I had promised myself I wouldn't ask for more e-galleys unless they were authors or series I knew I wanted to read for sure.  But, I saw these on Netgalley, and they sounded so good, I had to request them.  And I got permission to download them.

ARCS received from Shelf Awareness Giveaways:

I've always been a fan of Egyptian mythology and history.  So when I saw this book in the Shelf Awareness newsletter, I had to request a copy.  The 2nd book is the 3rd in a series that I've wanted to read for awhile, a series that I actually  haven't started reading yet.  So, guess I'll have to go check out the first two from the library!

ARC received from the bookstore where I work part-time:

I used to watch You Can't Do That on Television" when I was a kid, and so when I saw this book sitting on the table at work to be read, I had to grab it so that I could read through and relive those memories.  

So tell me what you got added to your shelves this week!

Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton

This is only my 6th book I've read for my September is for Sequels Challenge, out of the 12 I had hoped to read.  :-(  I think, I guess that I will be happy if I meet my same amount that I read last year, which was 8.  It just seems that September gets so busy that I don't get to read as much as I planned.  And probably now that I've been making sure I blog every day as part of my summer blogging goal, sometimes when I get on here to blog, then I go check the other blogs I follow and comment or enter giveaways, and I spend more time online than I planned, and end up with less time to read before I must get to bed.  Oh well.  It is what it is.  Now that summer is officially over, I won't stress about blogging every day.  Only reviews, and other posts I have scheduled.  If I do have time I may do others, but for now that is the plan.  And, on with the review!  I was lucky enough to win an e-book copy of this a while back, and didn't get to it until my September challenge.
This book was a quick one to get back into.  There was a little bit of a recap of what happened, Jack went to the tunnels for Nikki at the end of the first one, so as you would expect, Nikki is now looking for a way to get back down there and save him.  And until she can, she is doing what she can to help keep him alive, the way he did for her, she dreams every night of him.  In order to get back to the Everneath, she knows that she will need Cole, whether she likes it or not.  Her first plan is to just steal a hair from Cole, and use that to get into the Everneath on her own to find Jack.  Which she tries, and when it doesn't work out so well, Cole saves her before the other everlivings down there, as well as the queen, can catch her.  Cole can see that she is determined to get back to Jack, so he finally agrees to help her.  It is obvious that Cole loves her, but Nikki doesn't know how much is real, and how much is just that he wants her to help him take over the Everneath by becoming the queen.  But she knows that Jack is her true love, even as she has feelings for Cole as well.  Like many 2nd books in a series, this one has a journey.  The journey is through the Everneath, to try to get to the tunnels to find Jack.   In a sense there are parts like Dante spoke about, different levels/rings.  And there is the river to cross, and the Elysium fields, etc.  So the journey seems to bring Cole and Nikki closer together even as Jack seems to become more and more distant in Nikki's dreams.  We learn more about the Everneath, and the Everlivings, as well as what it takes to get humans down there, and how the Shades actually do what they do.  The end, wow, it was a twist!  Can I say I didn't quite see what happened?  I knew that something was up with how the findings from the search ended up.  Just didn't see that happening.  So, now, don't know how I'll wait till 2014 to read it!

Banned Book Weeks Hop 2013

Thanks to Kathy at I Am a Reader, and Mary at Bookhounds for hosting this blog hop.  Since I have a display up for Banned Book Weeks in my library, I felt it would be good to participate in this as well.  Banned Books Week is something the American Library Association (ALA) began to raise awareness of the censorship of books.  You can go to their website HERE, to learn more about it.  I also really enjoyed this top 10 list of stupid reasons for banning books HERE, and even have it listed on my display in my library.  Here's a picture of my display:

  My giveaway will be international, as long as The Book Depository ships to you.  Because I read and review mostly YA, all of the books I'm offering for your choices will be YA.  You may choose one of the books below if you win.

All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter, then you can click on the links below that to hop around to other great giveaways!

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My Own Mr. Darcy by Karey White

I was so pleased to get to be a part of the blog tour for this book, so thanks to I Am a Reader for allowing me to participate.  I hadn't read many of what I call "chick lit" books in awhile, and this seemed like a cute one to read.
The main character is Elizabeth.  And she fell in love with Mr. Darcy when she saw Pride and Prejudice when she was in high school.  Ever since then she has been searching for her own Mr. Darcy.  And in this book it isn't just how he behaves, she actual is looking for someone who looks like the actor who plays him in the 2005 movie.  See below:

Of course thinking that she was in high school in that year, while I was in my 30's, let's just skip over that part.  We get to learn about each of the guys she did date, or have a crush on, etc. throughout the book.  But we do learn that she hasn't really dated much since she really and truly began judging all guys based on this.  She never gave guys more than one date because she didn't want to string them along when she knew they weren't the one because of these qualifications.  This continues until one day her best friend makes her promise to give the latest guy, Chad, a chance.  He's a teacher, and he makes her laugh, and she feels very comfortable with him.  So she promises to go on at least 10 dates with him.  She feels bad because she is sure he can't be the one, but doesn't back out of the deal.  Until, well, until she meets Matt.  Matt is the owner of a local bookstore, and not only does he look like Elizabeth, Lizzie's Mr. Darcy, but he acts a lot like him as well.  Very aloof, plus he comes from a wealthy family, so he is not sure his mother will approve of her.  For awhile Elizabeth continues dating both.  Until the day one of them says he loves her, then she knows that is who she should be with.
But honestly?  Will she choose correctly?  Will her "Mr. Darcy" turn out to be like the one in the book, the one that does really love Lizzie?  Or is Chad, a normal, down to earth guy, more what will fit in her life?

This was a pretty quick, predictable story.  Easy to read, and fun to read.  My disappointment only came in something I can't tell you because it would be a spoiler.  I definitely recommend this for a fun read.  If you're a fan of Austenland, or even the actual Austen books, you will probably have fun with this book.

While you're here, make sure to sign up below for the giveaway!

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Booking Through Thursday #2

Well, I could have saved my review of The Dream Thieves for today and posted a Waiting on Wednesday yesterday, but I was ready to post my review.  So, here we go for my second time of Booking Through Thursday:

Connected to last week’s—it’s one of the ways writing has changed. Books from a century or two ago spent huge swaths of text describing locations and character traits, but modern writing does all of this in shorthand. You might know a character is short with blond hair and blue eyes, but the author leaves the rest for you to figure out on your own. The writer might tell you the story takes place at a beachside town, but leaves the details to your imagination. Why do you suppose this is? Is it that we have shorter attention spans these days? That, bombarded with video and photos as we are, we don’t NEED every detail of an unknown scene described, because we have a stock of images already in our heads?

Now, since I didn't participate last week, I'm not sure how to connect it, but I will answer this question. And I'd actually have to say I disagree with this a bit.  And the reason I disagree comes from the book that I just finished, The Dream Thieves.  I feel as if that author, Maggie Stiefvater really does describe in great detail the people, the settings, etc.  So while I think maybe some authors don't spend as much time on that, I think maybe it has more to do with the specific author's writing style and technique.

How about you?  What do you think of today's books?  Do you feel that more of the details are left out because of the reasons listed above?  Or do you feel there are other reasons for it?  Or do you, like me, think it all depends on the author, and maybe even the type of book?

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Wow, just almost don't know how to start this review.  Once again I really loved a book by this author.  It was the one book that I really wish I'd had the money to go to BEA last summer just to get.  But I didn't.  And so I spent all summer entering every contest I could to try to win one.  But no such luck.  Then, finally, I found it available on Netgalley, thanks to the wonderful Scholastic!!  But shortly after that, I found it on YA Book Exchange, the ARC, so I had to come up with a trade for it, so I could have the matching books.  My saddest thought at this moment?  How long do I now have to wait for book 3, and I've finished this book the day after it came out?  Now, at first, I had a bit of trouble remembering every detail from the first book.  You see, it had been awhile since I'd read it, and Ms. Stiefvater's stories are so incredibly detailed, in a good way, that I took a bit to get into it.  I wish I'd read the author's update HERE, before I'd started.  But I didn't, and eventually I got it figured out, and was once again in the world and hooked!  If you want to read my review of the first book, go HERE.  I am really going to try to not do any spoilers, and really, it is kind of hard to do because after just one reading, there is such a complex story, that I can't really give much away.  But if you haven't read the first one, you may not want to read further.  Just know that this book was really good, and Stiefvater once again, does not disappoint.
What confused me to start with, was that we started off with Ronan.  Now, I don't remember Ronan having as huge of a part in the first book, I mean that we got to know his background or spent as much time just with him, and so at first I was thinking of him as Gansey, which was totally wrong.  I soon figured out my totally stupid mistake though.  Although at first I was thinking Gansey was Adam.  So you can see I had my character names all mixed up in my head.  I did definitely remember that Noah was the ghost though.  And he is still such a sweet guy/ghost, that you still will love him, at least I did.  And then there is Blue, as really the only female character, I wasn't at all confused about who she was.  But honestly, I really loved getting to know more about Ronan, and wow did that really play into the story!  In such a neat way.  Remember Ronan's bird from the first book?  The one he "dreamed" into being.  Well, turns out that really will play into how the story progresses.  And I won't say how.  But again, really, it is just wow.  There are two villains you might say for this story.  One is Mr. Gray.  The other is Kavinski, a guy from school.  And you figure that Kavinski is just a normal spoiled brat from Aglionby.  And that while Mr. Gray is evil, but seems to show some feeling for Blue's mom, Maura, you just know in the end he'll probably end up being really evil, no matter what.  I mean, just his name, and how he is described.  You know that there is no way he could really change, like you will hope, I promise you will!  I still had about 80 pages to go when I went to see Maggie Stiefvater speak last night, and so something she said about how she felt about certain types of characters, again I won't tell you the specifics, as I don't want to give anything away, but it gave me hope that what I really wished would happen, would happen.  And it did.  I was pretty happy with how all the storylines ended up for this story.  The most disappointing is part is just how far we are left hanging at the end of this book.  I want to tweet, and email, and Facebook the author, and say she has to give me some answer!  I need to know if that person is really who is gone, or what happened.
So good, I'm so in love with this series, and the characters, and I feel I may actually go back and re-read the first two books right before the third one comes out, hopefully sometime in 2014?  And I haven't really done that, due to lack of time, since the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, and the Hunger Games books.  Of course, if I'm lucky, Maggie will just do another awesome re-cap for us before book 3 comes out.
My main point to this?  If you haven't read this series yet, you need to.  I love, love, LOVED it!  Have I said that enough yet?
Since I shared my picture with the author yesterday, today I'll share the autograph from her!

3rd Time is the Charm

So I still have 100 pages left to read of my ARC of The Dream Thieves, so I'm not going to be ready to write the review till tomorrow.  Now normally I can get through 100 pages really quickly, but even the fact that Maggie Stiefvater's writing hooks me and doesn't want to let me go when I pick the book up, her books take me longer to read.  Why?  Because they are so detailed and so much to read, so much to catch, that they are not books that I can skim over and skip parts.  I want, need, however you want to describe it, have to read every little detail, every word.  And so, like I said before, it'll be tomorrow before I'm done.  So, I guess to tie my blog over with a post till then, I'll just have to talk about going to see Ms. Stiefvater speak tonight about this very book!
It was so neat to see her again!  So thanks to Rainy Day Books for hosting her visit and kickoff to the tour for her new book.  While we heard some of the same stories, (the wolf trainer), we also got to hear many new ones.  And as usual, she is such a great speaker, so funny!  Someone I wish I could hang out with in real life.  One main thing she started off talking about is how people always want to know which of her characters are most like her, or are her.  So then she went through all the main characters in The Raven Boys.  Afterwards she did a fun reading of one part of the new book, and even had guest readers!  One was Tessa Gratton, another author I really enjoy, in fact, I got to be the host for her during the Authors are Rock Stars Tour.  Along with Ms. Gratton were her parents, her dad was also in the reading, playing Mr. Gray, which was quite funny, until the parts where it kind of became awkward, as Maggie was reading the part of Maura, Blue's mom in the story, who may be interested in Mr. Gray.  Here is a picture of that scene:

After the reading, there was time for questions.  I waited till it seemed most others had asked their questions, and also after a mention of a deleted scene from a story.  And then I asked if the character who had an afghan, and was supposed to have my last name, that was in the first draft of The Raven Boys, might make an appearance in the 3rd book.  Happily at that point she remembered me, and explained to the rest of the audience what I was talking about.  Yay!  Then, after about half the people lined up for autographs, the other half got to go outside and start spray painting the Mitsubishi that she brought, that from her stories, was probably purchased accidentally while she was doing research for The Dream Thieves.  If you haven't seen the video about it yet, check this out:

I forgot to take a picture of the car tonight, and by the time I got to go out and paint something, it was dark outside.  So nothing else to add for that.
But I was in the first group to get autographs, so I'll share my pictures with Maggie and Tessa.  I only wish Brenna Yovanoff had been there as well, like she was last time, I brought two of her books to get signed.  And I also forgot to bring the copy of The Scorpio Races I just bought specifically to get signed.  Oh well, I guess it leaves me something to bring next time I see her!  I also told her about how my picture of her and Brenna and Tessa from BEA 2012 is going to be in a biography book about Maggie that is specifically for school libraries.  And while she and Tessa both told me not to give up on maybe my last name being used some day in one of her books, to keep bugging her about it, they said now I was kind of connected with her in print!  Anyway, below are my pictures, first with Maggie Stiefvater, then below that with Tessa Gratton.

So it was another rock star night for me!  Which means I'm not too upset that I was unable to finish The Dream Thieves today.