Love Letter Convention - Day 2

On Sunday, May 21 we rushed through breakfast so we would be in time to have a good spot at the first event of the day


A reading by Ann Aguirre.


She read from Honor Among Thieves, the book she wrote together with Rachel Caine and which will release next year. After the reading I was even more excited about the book than I already was, and I pre-ordered it immediately.


Next Ann Aguirre, Samantha Young, Kelsey Sutton, and Cora Carmack talked about YA: First Love. They talked about why lots of people love Young Adult books, their own favorite YA books and their own first love.


Then we went to the Q&A with Kelsey Sutton and Cora Carmack.
They answered lots of questions and told stories about all kinds of things.


I was already looking forward to Roar by Cora Carmack, but I might try one of her New Adult books as well. And I love the books I read by Kelsey Sutton ,so I'm keeping an eye on her new releases as well.


There was another English panel after that, but I was a bit tired, so I went outside and enjoyed the warm weather. And at lunch I got to eat a pretzel!

The afternoon there weren't a lot of English events so we stayed in the garden and chatted with other book lovers.


We chatted with Cora Carmack for a bit and she posed with me for this awesome picture.

We also talked with Ann Aguirre and her husband some more and I got another signed book from Ann and bookmarks and buttons.

Then the big signing started, but we already managed to get all our books signed, so we stayed in the garden and chatted with other book lovers some more.


Finally we found a restaurant and I got to order this time.


Pizza!
It was a very yummy pizza.


After dinner we said goodbye to the others and went in search of our comfy bed. It had been a lovely convention.

Coming next: exploring Berlin

Love Letter Convention - Day 1

On Saturday, May 20 we got up really early and had breakfast before we took the subway to get where we needed to go.


In this school was the Love Letter Convention.
It's a convention with lots of romance authors.


After getting our badge we got a goodie bag which we decided to check out later, because it was time for the first panel.


Samantha Young, Cora Carmack, Jay Crownover, Monica Murphy, Annie Stone, and Mona Kasten talked about New Adult books. They told about their own books, which books they loved, and why they wrote New Adult stories. It was a fun panel and it made me curious about their books.

The hour after that there were only panels and such in German, so we enjoyed the nice weather, and scoped out the sales room. Unfortunately they only had books in German.


At 11:00 there was a Q&A with the author I really wanted to meet: Ann Aguirre! She was joined by Margaret Mallory, an author who writes Historical Romance.

Ann Aguirre recognized me! So cool. My owner asked about Ann's upcoming project with Rachel Caine and it sounds amazing. Ann was giving books to the people with the best questions, and guess what?


We won!
Yes! That's an ARC of Vanguard, a companion novel to the Razorland Saga. And it's signed to me!!


Next we went to a presentation by Cara Connelly.
She talked about the locations in her books and showed slides to accompany her story.

We had lunch after that and chatted with other book lovers.


After lunch I got to meet Kelsey Sutton.
She was kind enough to pose with me and to sign the books I brought.


There were very yummy McPig sized snacks from the LYX tea party.

On our way to the next panel we met Ann Aguirre again and she signed Enclave and Stone Maiden for me.


Next Martina Gercke, Jay Crownover, Samantha Young, Monica Murphy, and Ann Aguirre talked about Book Boyfriends & Girlfriends. Yet again it was a fun discussion.

On to the next event: Blind Date.
Here you get to talk with authors without knowing which ones. The only thing we knew was that they would speak English.


The first author we got to talk to was Margaret Mallory.
She is super sweet, and I'm going to order one of her books for Voodoo Bride.


Next we chatted with Annie Stone.
One of her books will soon be translated in English. We will keep an eye out.


This is Cara Connelly.
She writes romances that take place at weddings. Might be something for Voodoo Bride as well.


Last Blind Date author was Jay Crownover.
She was very fun to talk to and I might get one of her Bad Boy romances for Voodoo Bride.


Cora Carmack came by during our talk with Jay Crownover and I got to hug Roar. Sadly enough it was not for sale and they only had the German version at the convention, so I'll have to wait until next month to get my trotters on a copy of my own.


After the Blind Dates we took part in a quiz.
We got help from Margaret Mallory.


Me and Voodoo Bride clearly do not read enough Contemporary Romance.
All these books and authors sounded unfamiliar to me. Our team lost the quiz...
But we had lots fun.

The quiz was the last event for the day.


We had drinks with Ann Aguirre and her husband after the quiz. I might have bugged Ann's husband to write more Apparatus Infernum books with Ann.


It was a fun and cool first day.


We then went in search of food together with other some of the other book lovers.
Hmm... A comic book?


It was a menu!


I got to try a brand of cola I never heard of before.


My owner ordered an evil pancake!

After dinner we said goodbye to the others and went back to our hotel.


Here's my loot!

Coming next: LLC Day 2

Bookmarks and a Book

There was bookish mail for me today.
An Advance Reader Copy of Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre and signed bookmarks!
Ann Aguirre's assistant sent the book to me for review. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Lots of Books and Buttons

My owner got some gift certificates and let me decide what to spend them on:


Books of course!

The Fear is the third book in a cool series that has zombies! Moth and Spark I picked out because I loved the cover, but it also sounded like a great Fantasy. The Bone Season I picked because I've read some very positive reviews about it. We also ordered a fourth book, but that will arrive in a few weeks.


Today there was mail:


A book, a bookmark and buttons from Ann Aguirre.
Voodoo Bride loved I Want It That Way, the first book in Ann's New Adult Romance trilogy, so she was very happy we got the second book for review as well. I really like the buttons, especially the Wreak Some Havoc button.

Thanks Ann!

Awesome Mail Day

There will be two more posts with pictures we took on our forest walk, but I had to show you all the cool mail I got today!


First there was a book for Voodoo Bride.
I won it for her at the blog of Suzanne Johnson.

Thanks Suzanne!


Next there was mail from Danielle L. Jensen.
Stolen Songbird sounds like an awesome read, so I asked my owner to preorder it. And Danielle sent us a bookmark, a signed bookplate and a beautiful postcard with the book cover as a 'thank you' for preordering.


She even wrote a message for me at the back of the postcard.

Thanks Danielle!
I'll be putting that post card on my notice board.


And last, but certainly not least, two packages got delivered!


The first contained an uncorrected proof of Silver Mirrors by A.A. Aguirre.
I loved the first book in this series, so I'm very happy to have the chance to read Silver Mirrors early.

Thanks Ann!


The second package seems to have made the mailmen curious. They had torn it open a bit to see what was inside.


And how jealous they probably are!
It's an Advance Reader Copy of The Mark of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy.
Jeffe also included a cover flat and cards of some of her other books.


There's something really cool about this book (apart from it being a really beautiful story of course).


Do you see it?

Thanks Jeffe.
You rock!

Agave Kiss in My Mail

Today I found Agave Kiss by Ann Aguirre in my mail together with a signed bookmark and bookplate. I received the book because I signed up for Ann's newsletter and she rewarded the first 100 subscribers with a book. How cool is that!?

I didn't have Agave Kiss yet, so I'm very happy with it!

Thanks Ann!

How I Spent My Afternoon

It was lovely weather so I spent the afternoon outside in the sun reading my ARC of Horde.

Bliss!

A Sunset, Mail and a Partying McPig

Yesterday evening there was a beautiful sunset and I just had to take a picture of it.


Today there was lots of mail.
There was this beautiful card with pigs from Jerry & Ben.

Thanks Jerry & Ben!


There was swag from Kerrelyn Sparks for Voodoo Bride.
Voodoo Bride got some extra swag from Kerrelyn as well, that she'll be giving away on our review blog this August.

Thanks Kerrelyn!


And there was a FedEx package for me.
Could it be....
Nah, that would be really fast, wouldn't it?


It was Horde!!!


That deserved some dancing and partying!

Now I'm off to read!
Thanks Ann!