Book Expo Days 2 and 3

Days two and three were less intense for me than day one. I had less signings I wanted to attend, and things felt a little calmer on the floor as well.

DAY TWO

The main signing I wanted to attend was for Vicious by Victoria Schwab. It was honestly the most intense signing I had attended. The line was long, and it started much earlier than expected. I believe they ended up not having enough books for everyone who wanted to line up. Victoria was delightful and super friendly. We talked about Wesley's guyliner and even got talking about Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time! She's lovely, and I would love to just sit and have tea with her and discuss books.

The line ups in the autographing area were handled much better this year than last. All in all, it was a much smoother process than previous years. Everything was organized and it kept everything running smoothly.

I also managed to make the Cristin Terrill signing for All Our Yesterdays. Highlight was getting to see the new cover of the book via awesome postcards that she gave out at the signing. I LOVE the new cover and if you haven't seen it, be sure to check out Goodreads.

There was some confusion regarding the Cassandra Clare signing that I was hoping to attend. I had inquired and was told that they only had a certain number of books, and that they had reached their limit of people in line. I decided to head over to the Realistic/Contemporary Fiction panel instead. It turned out that I could have stayed and got a book signed by Cassandra, but I ended up loving the panel.

The panelists included Robyn Schneider, Katie Cotugno, Suzanne Young, Cat Patrick, Corey Ann Haydu, and was moderated by Margo from Epic Reads.

Robyn Schneider, Katie Cotugno, Cat Patrick, Suzanne Young, Corey Ann Haydu and Margo

The panel was fantastic. I loved how they described realistic vs contemporary. Contemporary is set in the here and now. Eleanor and Park was presented as realistic fiction since it was set in the 80's. This differential between the two made so much sense, and is a perfect way to describe them.

All of the ladies were funny, and insightful. However, I left the panel desperate to read The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider. She was rather sweet and HILARIOUS. Her main character Ezra sounds adorable, and hello....it has a roller coaster accident in it. Luckily I managed to snag a copy at the panel.

At the end of the day fellow blogger Kelly (from KellyVision) was off to meet Samantha Shannon at the Bloomsbury booth as she had won some kind of contest. I had wanted to say hello to Shannon so I tagged along and inquired about joining the meet up. The lovely people at Bloomsbury were happy to let me crash along with Kelly.

Samantha and I had 'met' over Twitter, and she's just as lovely in person. After getting all of our ARCs signed, and some photo ops later, we said goodbye. We were all sympathizing over Samantha's poor feet! She wore high heels and as cute as the shoes were, her feet definitely were not thanking her. Samantha has a fantastic recap on her blog that I urge you to check out.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab (Goodreads)

How To Love by Katie Cotugno (Goodreads)

Altered by Gennifer Albin (Goodreads)

The Infinite Moment of Us (Goodreads)

Rags and Bones by Various (Goodreads)

Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger (Goodreads)

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider (Goodreads)

Rose Under Fire by Elizbeth Wein (Goodreads)

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Goodreads)

I ended this day in New York by meeting Kelly and Gae Polisner (along with Emilie, of course) for dinner and drinks. It was a lovely evening and I hope to meet up with Kelly again next year.

DAY THREE

I only had a few things I wanted to do the last day. Mainly go to the Robin Wasserman signing, and attend a fantastic sounding panel.

The YA/Adult Cross-over Panel was a big draw for me since I tend to read both YA and Adult novels. The panel discussed the reasons novels become popular with both age categories among other things. The panelists included Samantha Shannon and Sarah J Maas. 

Sarah J Maas and Samantha Shannon

I found it interesting that Sarah kept her younger readers in mind while writing her Throne of Glass series. Samantha mentioned being delighted by the fact that Bloomsbury categorized her novel as adult as it gave her room to expand on some elements she had wanted to explore in more depth.

The notion that fantasy bridges the gap a little easier than other genres was discussed, and there were many thoughts as to why, but most could agree that since it was dealing with 'true life' experiences one would have during a certain age bracket, it opens it up a little more. Everyone can sort of relate a little bit easier to fantasy novels, because we can imagine ourselves in this fantastical world.

Pretenders by Lisi Harrison (Goodreads)

Charming by Elliott James (Goodreads)

The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman (Godreads)

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken (Goodreads)

The Cutting Room Floor by Dawn Klehr (Goodreads)

That's a wrap on Book Expo American 2013. I can't wait to do it all again for Book Expo America 2014. 

Any titles you're curious about and want me to read right away? Leave them in the comments and I will do my best to get to the ASAP! Looking forward to sharing my reviews of all these titles closer to release dates.