Austin Teen Book Festival 2012♥

I spent today at the Austin Teen Book Festival! It was my first BIG bookish thing. There were so many authors there. Seriously, If you were to ask me to tell you all of them from off the top of my head, it would just not happen. My brain would probably explode.

 

But the point here is that I had an AMAZING time. Yes, amazing.

 

It's funny, because whenever I go to any book signing, I'm so nervous and stuff. But I've been learning something about authors--they're actually really, really cool. They're nice and friendly and funny. Just like anyone else in this world. Wonder of wonders, right? ;)

 

Soooooo, technically, I met every. Single. Author there. Yeah, every one. How? Well, my brother and I got our fun little schedule sheet signed by every. Single. Author there. Seriously, we did. I don't have a picture of it. Sorry, brain fart. I'll take one sometime, though, and post it so y'all can see. It's very...crowded. But it was so much fun! I got a bunch of little goodies, too. I'll probably be giving away a thing or two sometime, so keep an eye out for that sometime in the future.

 

Now, for the pictures! Yes, there are some pictures! My first time taking pictures at a signing. Today was just so full of firsts for me. Not pictures with EVERY author, though. There was not enough time for THAT. [insert sad face]

 

Me and Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 

Eliot Schrefer, me, and Marissa Meyer

 

Me and Tara Hudson

DUDE, I MET TARA HUSDON. This is a big deal to me.

 

Me and Libba Bray

Thanks to this wonderful lady, Total Eclipse of the Heart is still stuck in my head. I am currently listening to Mr. Jones by Counting Crows to get it out. Yeah, sadly, it's not working yet. Oh, and..."Testing is bullshit." And, "Farts are always funny." So, so true. Hehe.

 

Scott Speer and me

I'm the best friend ever. And he is so tall. So incredibly tall. Well, there's that and then the fact that I'm, you know, short. He had to stoop...a lot...for this picture. It was practically a crouch. He was super nice, though.

 

Jessica Shirvington and me

We share names! And I say this again--her accent was so cute! Such a friendly author. I can't wait to read Entice that much more now.

 

Sarah Rees Brennan, me, and Martha Brockenbrough

I'm sorry to skip right over Martha, because she was nice and her book looks super cool and all, but...SARAH REES BRENNAN. The author of The Demon's Lexicon Trilogy. The first review I ever wrote. The reason I started my blog. Yeah, I met her. And she's super amazing! I could go on all day about this. I'm so, unbelievably sad that Unspoken was sold out so I couldn't get it signed. On the bright side, I got a cool neclace because of it. And I promised her I'd buy Unspoken somewhere else. Which means I HAVE to meet her again sometime to get it signed. See, the bright side makes everything better... I seriously have more to day about her, but I don't want this to be TOO too long. So I'll leave it there...

 

Me and Anna Banks

ANNA IS AWESOME. I love this lady, seriously. This is us kind of having a stare down... You cannot see my stare really, but Anna said that I have the World's Best Stank Eye. Signed it in my copy of Of Poseidon and everything. And gave me a trophy. Well, sort of. I'll take a picture of this sometime, too. Anna was so much fun! After this, whenever we saw each other we had a stare down. Which never failed to make me laugh real hard. Good times, good times.

 

 

All right, those are the pictures I took! It was an awesome day, and...I don't know. I'm not sure I have anything to follow this "and"... I am tired. I had to wake up early for this, so...yeah. If you have any comments, then you should...you know...comment below. I am very uncreative right now. My bad. Either way, I had a great day, got to meet some amazing authors, and found some new great books I want to read.

 

Oh, and I want to thank my brother Billy for taking me to this! Otherwise, I would have had to stalk Twitter and be jealous of everyone there. And I never would have found out about my stank eye skill. So, thank you, Billy! Best big brother EVER.

 

Okay, that is all. Adios.

♥Jessica(:

My YA Crush Tourney Nominations♥

I had to include their banner. I mean, LOOK. Daemon's on it! Gorgeous.

Anyways. Why am I posting about this? Weeeell, this tourney is a bunch of fun. So I think y'all should head on over there and nominate your 10 favorite book crushes. I did.

I nominated (posiibly not in this order--I don't remember the EXACT order), oh, and they're color-coded by book:

Well, gee, who do we think I nominated first?

Daemon!--Obsidian

Of course. He's the first book boyfriend I've ever truly claimed.

Zachary--Shine

DUDE. He has an accent and wears kilts to proms. How can you NOT vote for that? *swoon*

Logan--Shine

Ah, Logan. He's Logan. 'Nuff said ;)

Martin--Shine

Martin was a cool guy. I'm kind of sad we only met him in Shine. WONDERFUL guy, right there.

Four--Divergent

I love his name. I really do, even though it's just a nickname. Plus, he's a cool dude.

Patch--Hush, Hush
Patch. I adore his actual name, too. I seriously love the Hush, Hush books. I still need to read Silence, but still. LOVE.

Christian--Unearthly
I'm Team Christian all the way. That is all.

Peregrine--Under the Never Sky
He's Perry! This book was positively splendiforous! I, for one, am super excited for the sequel. Honestly--more Perry!

Finnick--Hunger Games
Don't even get me started on this. The point is that I seriously love him. Despite how horrible his deal ends up being. AH.

Dimitri--Vampire Academy
He will forever hold a sift spot in my heart. I HAD to nominate him.

And those are my ten nominations. It was really hard for me to choose only ten. Goodness knows I swoon over someone in practically every book I read. So I picked the SHADEboys--of course. NOMINATE THEM. And I picked my very favorite Luxen, and a few other note-worthy guys I tend to sort of drool over. DON'T JUDGE ME. ;)

All right. So, now that you want to nominate some swoon-worthy guys for the tourney, you can click HERE to get to the nominate page! You can also click the banner at the top of this post, if ya feels like it. 

Okay, that's it for my little interlude of a post. Be sure to check out my review of Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout that I posted earlier, and enter my giveaways! You can win some cool stuff--I have two giveaways running at THIS VERY MOMENT! So DO IT.

Have a wonderful evening, Friends!
♥Jessica(:

Review: Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Format: Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: Shade #3
Source: Won from Jess @ Gone With the Words!!!

Description from Goodreads:
Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.

As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves…even if that means betraying her own heart.

We all remember my absolute elation when I recieved this book, right? I mean, I was bouncing off walls, close to tears, screaming, and using way too many CAPS. Kind of hard to forget, I think. Well, all of that super-happiness was for good reason because this book? Was so good!

The first two books were great, so my hopes were really high for this book. I had really liked them, but was hoping very much for everything to come together in this book. Plus, there was so much hype about this book. Blog hops and stuff. I was being teased on a daily basis. I'm glad to say that Jeri did a wonderful job on exceeding my expectations in this conclusion which made it all totally worth it.

I was so happy I got Shine, but was also very reluctant to read it. I didn't want this trilogy to end! But then I let Jeri and a bunch of other Twitterers (if that's a word) talk me into reading it. So I jumped into the book and was immediately pulled into the story. I'm going to get this out right now: I LOVE ZACHARY. So the begninning of this book was quite compelling in making me not want, but NEED to continue reading and figure out what was going on. My attention--held, for sure.

But, I must comment that even though I was riveted by this installment in the Shade trilogy, the beginning without Zach with us was somewhat drag-ish for me. This is based a bunch on my own personal preference for Zach. Also, since Logan is officially gone, I felt like there was a big hole in the story just waiting to be filled with Logan's awesomeness. Then again, it's about time we started to miss Logan. The poor guy has been hanging around for almost a year--he deserves some peace. My point here: the beginning had my attention, but in a slow-ish way.

This does NOT last long, however. After the initial little slump, the rest of Shine was magnificent. Emotional and logical. Sweet and somewhat dangerous. I was seriously glad that I was left with zero questions once I finished this book. Everything clicked and finally made sense to me. This whole trilogy had brought up loads and loads of confusion and having all of these questions that needed answering answered was amazing. And interesting. It was interesting how everything ended up working out with everything else.

Character rundown: Aura. Aura! I've always loved her name. I have positively nothing against Aura, which is really a compliment. I mean, look at what I thought of Tris from Divergent. I seem to be the only one I know who holds anything against her. Anyways, back to Aura--Aura is a very smart girl. Independent, too. I like how she made her own decisions based off of what she knew she wanted. Next we have Zachary. OH, ZACHARY. I've already declared my love for him in this post. He is an amazing guy. Attractive AND a genius. Strong, too. Though his pride is very bothersome sometimes. He needs to accept help when he really requires it. But I'm not going to ocus much on that because Zach is Zach and his good traits outshine his bad ones. PLUS, he has a Scottish accent! Nothing more swoon-worthy than that. Oh, wait. There is. His kilt! Ohmygosh, wow. Zach is like the modern-day Aiden MacRae! (I say moder-day because Aiden was born a loooooong time ago, though his story is recent.) The sord "swoon" was invented for guys like them.

Sweetness. Hmm. I believe I just got done telling y'all about how Zach was like Aiden. Which means that of course there is an abundance of sweet moments! I am so hapy for Aura and Zach. They have been through soooooo much. I must also be a realist for a moment and point out that I have ALWAYS been Team Zachary and that Logan has been dead since the very beginning of this series. Dead is dead. Even though Logan also had his swoon-worthy qualities, but without the charmingly lovable accent. So I was happy for Aura and Zach aithout any reservations.

The ending. I cried. Yeah, I get like that. I've loved this series since Shade first released, so saying goodbye to it was emotional. Plus, there was a nice little tear-jerker thing at the end that made my little teardrops make sense on some level, at least. This said, though, the ending was great and hopeful. As always, I can't think of any way the ending could have been better except to make it longer. But no matter what, I'd always wish it was longer, so that's not really a valid complaint, as it never is. For the record, when it IS a valid complaint, I'll be sure to let y'all know.

Final words on this trilogy: I adored these three books. If YOU have not read them, I suggest you do so. Like, this summer. A very good time for reading, you know.

Thank you to Jess for sending me the book and having the giveaway! I am so glad to own this book. It's like a little momento of the great trilogy, since I read the first two books from the library. And thank you to Jeri because: Jeri, you are AWESOME. I am totally going to read lots more by you, THAT is for sure.

Thank y'all for reading my review!

Have a wonderful day, Friends!

♥Jessica(:

Aiden's Angel♥

Between by Cyndi Tefft
Release Date: Already Released! (April 21, 2011) 
Publisher: Createspace
Format: Paperback, 244 pages
Source: Won in the Aiden's Angels giveaway!

Description from Goodreads:
It just figures that the love of Lindsey Water's life isn't alive at all, but the grim reaper, complete with a dimpled smile and Scottish accent.

After transporting souls to heaven for the last 300 years, Aiden MacRae has all but given up on finding the one whose love will redeem him and allow him entry through the pearly gates.

Torn between her growing attraction to Aiden and heaven's siren song, Lindsey must learn the hard way whether love really can transcend all boundaries.

Yes, all you nice people, I HAVE FINALLY READ BETWEEN!!! And it was just as amazing as I imagined it would be. Ah, I love when that happens. I seriously devoured this book. (Yeah, devoured, like Kreag's blog: I Devour Books.) This book made me so happy and even surprised me a little. When it was over, though, I was grinning like a fool. :)

What I expected from this book was not what I got, but that was really not a bad thing. As I first started reading Between, it seemed to be going in the direction of just being one big love story. I have no problem with that since I am a huge softy, as you have probably noticed. But then other things happened and this book became more than just a story about a grim reaper falling in love with a dead girl. I loved every moment of reading this book.

Let me quickly rundown the characters for you so that is out of the way: Lindsey. I can't really think of anything bad to say about her, but I didn't exactly LOVE her. If she were to be a read person that I knew in real life, I would DEFINITELY be friends with her. She has a kind soul and that makes her my kind of person. I think I'd have to know her somewhat better to decide whether or not I LOVE her, though. Maybe when I get and read Hell Transporter, yes? And we have Aiden MacRae. OH, AIDEN. I am 100% Aiden's Angel. He is the guy the word "SWOON" was invented for. And with good reason. He is caring and kind and did I mention TOTALLY GORGEOUS? Well, he is. I have so much love for that dude. Oh, and he has a Scottish accent! How can that not win?

Now, I have decided not to comment on "romance" anymore. I have decided instead to comment on sweetness. Because that is what I truly love in books, people, and everything else -- sweetness. (YES, like the Jimmy Eat World song; I love that song!) This book? Is positively teeming with sweetness. From all directions. Lindsey is a sweet girl and Aiden, well . . . Aiden is just . . . I believe I have already made my thoughts clear on him.

I must concede one little thing, though. The speed at which Aiden and Lindsey fall in love was very fast. That made it seem a wee bit forced and fake for a small portion of the book. As the story unfolded, though, their love grows to shine true 100% and raises not a single doubt of authenticity in my head now. Plus, once you consider the circumstances at which they fell in love -- more particularly Aiden's little premonition from a certain angel -- their speedy emotions make perfect sense. None of this mattered all that much to me since I was taken by Aiden's swoon-worthy-ness, but I did notice and felt it important to say.

What was so great about this book? Well, it was, urm, SWEET. It contains Aiden MacRae, so how can it not be, right? But aside from that, I loved that this book surprised me. I mean, the book was totally going in one direction (NO, not 1D -- I'm not really a fan, though I hold nothing against them) and then BOOM! Something changed and I was left with my jaw hanging open. So of course I had to read read read and find out what was going on and if the ending would please me after all. We'll get to the ending soon, though.

First, I have to go back to my jaw. Hanging open. When you read this book, you should understand the exact moment I'm talking about here. It changed everything I was expecting from the story. This big shift did not really discourage me which was good. It added more of a plot to the story and captured my attention just when things were starting to get somewhat reptitive, more or less.

Now for the ending. The ending left me a zillion percent content. Well, for the most part. I honestly and truly CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on the sequel, Hell Transporter, as soon as I possibly can. But as far as the ending of a first book goes, it didn't really leave me hanging on any certain event or moment that particularly left me wanting and insane while waiting for the next book. There is certainly a huge opening for the sequel, though, and I am most eager to read it. I think most would be after the end of Between because even though I am not left screaming my head off in frustration (and it is SO GOOD to end a book in peace, by the way -- FINALLY, right?!?!) I am deeply curious as to where Aiden and Lindsey's story will go.

All in all, this book made me so happy and I just KNEW this book would be great. So I feel kind of smug because I totally called it. Cyndi has written a wonderful story that was sweet and interesting and even surprising. A story which now leaves me wondering what could possibly be in store for these kind characters.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a sweet, quick book to read that involves a completely swoon-worthy male lead. Ohhhh, Aiden.

Thank y'all for reading my review, and thank you to Cyndi for having the Aiden's Angels contest! I truly appreciate this book.

Stay safe until next post, Friends!

♥Jessica(: