BEA Day Two and Three

Day two proved to be another early one. I am one of those weird people who like getting up early for BEA and waiting in line and talking to other bloggers while I wait. I was excited to get a copy of Passenger and knew it was going to be a busy signing so I made sure to arrive early for that as well.

Spending time chatting with Kelly (from Kellyvision) in line is always fun, and I met so many other bloggers as well. I could attempt to list them all but I am pretty sure I would end up forgetting a lot of them. Needless to say, if I met you during BEA let me know so that I can be sure to follow you.

The Thursday was the day I got a copy of my most anticipated read of BEA - Rebecca Serle's Truly Madly Famously. It also happened to be the first book I read while I was waiting in lines. Rebecca is lovely, and adorably sweet. I loved getting to chat with her about Stefan, Vampire Diaries in general and to gush over Jordan in person.

One of my fellow Ottawa Blogettes, Emilie, told me that she managed to snag a copy of Kill The Boy Band on day one, so I was determined to secure one for myself. Scholastic was extremely kind, and helpful. I was lucky that they still had a few copies when I asked. This one has been on my radar since the Publishers Weekly announcement so I was BEYOND thrilled to have a copy.

The Passenger line was a crazy as I anticipated and the cover is even more stunning up close. I am hoping to dive into this one as soon as possible (that pesky review schedule getting in the way). Alexandra Bracken is also really funny.

Heather Demetrios is one of my favourites and her Dark Caravan series is one I am very eager to continue. They are steamy (and apparently the third book features a fly carpet make out scene!). I was excited to get to talk to her again, and secure a copy of Blood Passage. Her signing line was REALLY long and one of the busiest I had waited in. We ended up being moved over to a new table as the half hour time limit ran out and the next signing had to start.

Kate Scelsa recognized my name and blog as we had done an interview together for the 2015 Most Anticipated feature I ran on the blog. She was thrilled that I was the first book she signed as I was the first blog to feature her as well. It was such a great moment and I cannot wait to read this book. BEA always makes you realize that your blog doesn't exist in a vacuum and that it is being seen.

I ended the day by getting Lair Of Dreams by Libba Bray. The Libba Bray signing was, in all honesty, a bit of a mess. It was not organized or controlled in any manner. There were a few tense minutes when the unofficial lines merged to create an official line and everyone got shifted and moved out of place. Luckily, the publisher was able to get it under control quickly, but everything prior to that was rather mishandled. It shouldn't have been the chaos situation that was it.

An observation that was prevalent by the end of the second day was that the autographing area lines were much more controlled and better organized than in previous years. They had proper overflow areas so that the main walkway was not blocked by people trying to line up. I do think previous concerns were actually listened to in this case. I found that area better handled than the in booth signings.

My day two haul....

Truly Madly Famously by Rebecca Serle (goodreads)

Kill The Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky (goodreads)

Fans Of The Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa (goodreads)

Infinite In Between by Carolyn Mackler (goodreads)

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (goodreads)

Blood Passage by Heather Demetrios (goodreads)

Lair Of Dreams by Libba Bray (goodreads)

The final day of BEA, and the most busy for everyone it seems. Once again a much sought after signing was being held first thing in the morning. Margaret Stohl was signing copies of Black Widow and I knew I wanted to be there. This line wasn't as intense as Truthwitch or Passenger but it was still pretty busy.

I had been given a pass that allowed me to line jump one of the autographing area signings as a Christmas gift from my sister and mother. I knew I was going to use it for Six Of Crows as that seemed to be the biggest signing. I made a great decision in using it for that line was it was incredibly long, and I heard that they ended up running out of books before they got to everyone who wanted one at the signing. 

Suman, who runs the Harper Collins Canada Frenzy Twitter account (and who is also an all around amazing person), has been singing the praises of Dumplin' loudly and I couldn't ignore her advice. I made sure to grab a copy at one of the galley drops and it's high on my list for books I want to sneak into my reading schedule early. I haven't heard a bad thing from anyone who has read it and I fully trust Suman's opinion so I am expecting to fall madly in book love with this one.

My last BEA signing was for The Accident Season. Vikki, from Penguin Canada, had mentioned this one and gushed over how excellent it was. I wanted to make sure to get a copy so I could read it based on that alone. 

Here are the novels I picked up during day three of BEA....

Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl (goodreads)

Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines (goodreads)

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (goodreads)

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle (goodreads)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (goodreads)

Outside of BEA was just as fun as the event itself. I got to spend Thursday night at a dinner with Kelly and some other people from Spencer Hill Press. A low key, more relaxing evening which was just what I needed. BEA is much more exhausting than you anticipate and the notion of a BEA hangover is real.

The Friday evening was spent at a huge blogger dinner that Tiff from Mostly YA Lit planned. Full details of that will be in tomorrow's post, along with Book Con details and the recap of the Paper Lantern Lit anniversary celebration/Proof Of Forever launch party.

If you attended BEA - what was your favourite non BEA thing to do while in NYC? If you didn't attend BEA, what would be your must see while in New York?