Teen Author Carnival 2014

So after an hour sitting in traffic in NY I was able to make it to Teen Author Carnival (a little late, but I still got there). All I have to say is WOW! Finally I got to meet authors that I've been reading for awhile, chatting with them and of course asking them to sign books. I attended the Us VS. Them panel which was loads of fun. Julie Kagawa's answer to one question "What would God say, if he existed, about your books" was truly the best answer ever. She said that God would say the following: "I need you to write the next chapter of the bible." then she stated afterwords "Just think about it: Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Julie!" Truly that was THE best answer. Jennifer L. Armentrout's response to "What's your favorite word right now" was hilarious as well, "Banana". Now I'm one to laugh (every time) when someone says "pudding" so I can relate to banana being someone's favorite word (at least for right now).

After the panel I was given a free bag which had four ARCs in it, which I was completely blown away by and immediately started reading today. Besides that, the panel, and the book signing I was able to have a very awesome conversation with Julie and Jennifer, about things from monster movies (Cloverfield) to traffic. Julie commented that she loved my Kingdom Hearts shirt that I was wearing, and of course I loved her Stitch t-shirt with Stitch dressing as Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. It was super adorable and as a huge Stitch fan I want the shirt now myself. I also got to talk to Cara Lynn Shultz about the awesomeness of Wawa and New York, as well as how since I'm from New York and since I never know what to say I can forgive her for not knowing what to write when personalizing books she signs. Then I talked with Lenore Applehans who had amazing German chocolate with her (I've missed that chocolate since my very last German class where my teacher gave the class a whole bunch of awesome German chocolate). We were talking about museums in New York and yes, indeed Lenore if you're reading this that phrase you told me about 'mossy caverns' did haunt me that night. I still don't know why someone would write that and then put it in a museum where little children might read it.

Besides that I rushed over to the Union Square Barnes and Noble to the Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl book signing, which was awesome! They were super nice and personalized each of my Beautiful Creature series books, as well as my Dangerous Creatures book that I had picked up last week. I was also able to snag a book poster from them, which they signed as well, which made my day even better.

Overall I had an awesome day and can't wait for tomorrow when I go to the Cassandra Clare book signing for City of Heavenly Fire. Until next time, keep reading!

CloverCon 2014

So after a week of recovering from this amazing con I am finally able to talk about it! Yay!

So this marked my fourth year as a Staff member at CloverCon and wow! We've grown so much since out first year that it just astounds me. I had an Artist Alley table selling my homemade/handcrafted goodies (I was the pink fluff selling pokemon chocolates). My cosplay, Mew from Pokemon that my friend Lishia made for me, went over really well and I won "Most Energetic" in the Cosplay Catwalk which was very awesome.

Nothing to complain about there!! My cosplay panel (Cosplay 101) went great this year, even though we started earlier than planned. We had a great audience and I hope that if you got a chance to see the panel you walked out of there with some new found knowledge that will help you grow as a cosplayer!

That's basically it I think... Yep! Next weekend I will be attending AnimeNext so hopefully I'll have some cool stories to share with you all. Thank you again for reading this, if you were at CloverCon please comment and tell me what you thought!

The Only Boy by Jordan Locke

Jordan Locke contacted me and asked if I would like a free e-book copy of this book in exchange for a review, of course I jumped at the chance and quickly read through the book so I could get a review out in a timely manner.

Fans of the Eve trilogy and The Maze Runner trilogy will fawn over this book with it's distinct similarities and differences from other dystopians that we love. Overall I loved this book, it was a different take on the idea of a mass extinction with old ideas that were nice to get a new spin on. I liked how this book was in the two main characters perspectives, even if I would have liked it in a third person narrative so we could get a little more knowledge of life in Section 1 after a distinct change in the book. This book does need to be gone over again and grammar checked since there were still some mistakes that I caught onto which slightly took away from the book. But no one is perfect and can catch every little mistake made without multiple eyes scanning over it.

I liked this dystopian novel for the simple fact that we really don't see a lot of dystopians in a male's POV. The Maze Runner and Match trilogies are the only recent(ish) ones I've read with that dual perspective (or singular perspective as shown in Maze Runner). I think with some cleaning up and a second installment (or even an edited version of this with extra chapters maybe?) showing specifically WHY Taylor is so special (which is briefly touched upon but not really explained all that well) I believe it could only add to this work and not take away from it.
 

This Is Gospel Acoustic (piano) by Panic! At The Disco

Let me just tell you I love this song, it's one of my favorites on the new album so when I saw that Brendon did a piano version of it I just had to listen to it. And I haven't stopped! I love how their music has just grown since the first album into something more than songs about sex and drugs, these are songs that I can listen to and feel all kinds of emotions from upsetment to anger to peace. This song has been on repeat since I turned it on about an hour ago it's just that good. Brendon plays the piano beautifully and it only adds to the piece, and I love how in the video I can see him really get into the song (even if I'd love to see his eyes!). The only thing that doesn't fit for me is all of the craziness that's being thrown at him and the piano. But that's just Panic! At The Disco for you right? If you haven't seen this yet then PLEASE go take a look at it right now.

http://youtu.be/jO2_3pVd5k0

Aelethia's Hope by Leandra Martin

So I won this through Goodreads First Reads and wow. Fans of Game of Thrones and Tamora Pierce will definitely love this book, with its action, romance, and suspense. The only thing I have to complain about this book is the fact that some of the language was split between some wording that we would use in this day and age as well as the classic language of this time period. It would annoy me to read about a character saying 'okay' when they wouldn't say that (since okay is actually a slang word!) but rather the individual would say 'no I'm very much alright' or something to that extent. But other than that this book was amazing and I couldn't put it down! Obviously I love my romance so the sweetness of... Well you'll have to read the book to find out but let's just say that the romance in the book wasn't lacking (it wasn't 50 Shades of Grey but it wasn't lacking). The romance wasn't over-done but sweet and beautiful just like the characters. Go pick up this and Dark One Rising right now! Go, have you done it yet? Good.

Dark One Rising by Leandra Martin

I had gotten this book because I won the second in the series through Goodreads First Reads and I loved every minute of it. The cover art is obviously beautiful and the story inside matches it a lot. Two things I have to complain about, the length of the book was a little boring in some parts but these slow parts were needed for later parts of the story as not to confuse the readers, and second was some of the language that was used didn't fit the time period. But other than that this book was really awesome and kept me on the edge of my seat with all of the romantic notions, action, and plotting! I absolutely adored how the bad guys had hidden agendas that were slightly known but not truly since they were even hiding it from themselves (especially with the Dark One). Fans of Game of Thrones and Tamora Pierce will adore this book, with all of its twists, turns, romance, and great heroine that everyone will fall in love with. 

The author of this book is super sweet, she didn't have to send me this book as well (heck, I got the 2nd and 3rd books in series from being a First Reads winner and had to buy the first books myself!!) but she did which was very kind of her, seriously. Go check her out on goodreads alright? https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4135254.Leandra_Martin

Oh My Goodness I've Been Gone for Too Long!!

Wow so it's May, and I was supposed to post a bunch of reviews but I never got around to them... Now I have to go back, dig out those books, and write reviews. Alright well I'm going to start with two that I recently read so those will be up soon as well as a review on the acoustic version of "This is Gospel" by Panic! At The Disco. So stay tuned for that because it's coming in... A few minutes. Anyway an update!! So I'm going to have a table at CloverCon which is a mini anime convention in New Jersey so that's going to be fun (NO IT'S NOT!! I'M DYING! CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE...) Then on the 28th I'll hopefully be going to Teen Author Carnival in New York (YAY!! Jennifer L. Armentrout!! I love her... Her books are awesome!). And finally!!! On the 30th I'll be going to the Cassandra Clare book signing in PA!!! YAY!! Oh my I'm super excited for that, seriously. I have my ticket purchased and I can't wait. Which means YES I AM going to be getting my hands on City of Heavenly Fire so I'll post a picture of that. Then from June 6th-8th I'll be attending AnimeNext which will be fun, my 4th year going to that. Anyway that's my update.