In My Mailbox, hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, allows us to share our

current reads, and books we've received/checked out/purchased over the course of the week.

I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos - by the time I got home today from work to take them I lost all natural light and had to bring a lamp around as I took them, but it was hard to juggle my DSLR (plus focus) and the lamp, so some of them are super saturated and washed out.

This is also not everything that I picked up at BEA; my mum has a pile, and there's also a bag of adult fiction and another bag of things I got at the blogger's convention. There's also a few scattered in other places, depending on where I sit to read.

I said in my last BEA-related post that the bloggers are the best thing about the whole week, and many of these books would not be possible without their assistance. Aliya, Heidi, Grace, Olivia, Jenna - the list is limitless, and you guys seriously made my week (and the lines, the crowds, the everything worth it). Thank you! :)

Warning: This post is extraordinarily image heavy.

The Dark Unwinding, Sharon Cameron

The Blessed, Tonya Hurley

Entice, Jessica Shirvington

Because It Is My Blood, Gabrielle Zevin 

Summer and Bird, Katherine Catmull

Shadows, Ilsa J. Bick (next on my TBR!)

Glass Heart, Amy Garvey (Amy is so nice)

Origin, Jessica Khoury

Carnival of Souls, Melissa Marr

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor (with Days of Blood and Starlight chapters!!)

Passion Blue, Victoria Strauss

Masque of the Red Death, Bethany Griffin

Destined, Aprilynne Pike

Unraveling, Elizabeth Norris

The Vicious Deep, Zoraida Cordova

The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, Sonia Monzano

Level 2, Lenore Appelhans (Hi, Lenore! <3)

Return to Me, Justina Chen

The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken

Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys 

Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys (We had a John Green moment. It was fabulous.)

Fall to Pieces, Vahini Naidoo

Son, Lois Lowry (!!)

Beta, Rachel Cohn

Eve & Adam, Michael Grant & Katherine Applegate

The Turning, Francine Prose

Magisterium, Jeff Hirsch (The cover on this is hypnotising!)

Feedback, Robison Wells (Ahhh, this book!)

Who I Kissed, Janet Gurtler

Crewel, Gennifer Albin

Sanctum: Guards of the Shadowlands, Sarah Fine

Venom, Fiona Paul

Time Between Us, Tamara Ireland Stone

Can I have a moment for Tamara? Because she was amazingly sweet, and in our

discussion she not only signed a bookmark for my copy, but put a little heart

around the page number with her favorite passage. And her book is fabulous.

The Wishing Spell, Chris Colfer

Princess Academy (#2, Palace of Stone), Shannon Hale

Beautiful Lies, Jessica Warman

The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker

Point of Origin, Amanda Harvard (Lovely lady!)

Fathomless, Jackson Pearce (Who is awesome.)

The Paladin Prophecy, Mark Frost

Eternally Yours, Cate Tiernan

Becoming Holmes, Shane Peacock (Anything vaguely ACD? Yes, please.)

Chosen Ones, Tiffany Truitt

The Lifeguard, Deborah Blumenthal

Keep Holding On, Susane Colasanti

Black City, Elizabeth Richards

Endangered, Eliot Schrefer

The fact that a book exists with this topic makes me incredibly hopeful and happy.

Skinny, Donna Cooner

Cursed, Jennifer L. Armentrout

In A Glass Grimmly, Adam Gidwitz

The Spindlers, Lauren Oliver

The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (The book I wanted most to get!)

Prodigy, Marie Lu

What's Left of Me, Kat Zhang (The book I wanted second most!)

Every Day, David Levithan (Lost my tongue the moment I saw him.)

Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Mass (Great debut fantasy.)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce/Joe Blum (Fabulous fabulous children's book. I cried.)

The Curiosities, Maggie Stiefvater/Tessa Gratton/Brenna Yovanoff (Maggie remembered me from the Raven Boys signing; we all discussed our drawings.)

An Abundance of Katherines, John Green

Nerdfighter designed cover. DFTBA!

I have to mention that I also met the incredibly lovely and even more adorable in person Victoria Schwab, who signed a copy of The Near Witch. I was really hoping I'd get a chance to run into her. This also applies to Aimée Carter (so sweet)!

Purchased/Gifted/Won:

Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein (20% off coupon. Thanks, B&N!)

Dreamless, Josephine Angelini

Trafficked, Kim Purcell

The Immortal Rules, Julie Kagawa

Rapture, Lauren Kate (Thank you, Random House!)

From the publisher:

Outpost, Ann Aguirre

My Book of Life by Angel, Martine Leavitt (Especially looking forward to this.)

Thank you so much, Macmillan! :) I'm pretty consistently impressed with their titles, so this should be good.

If you made it to the bottom, I think you get a gold star. And a nap. Thanks for visiting, everyone! And I have a handful of these reviews written already, and scheduled for closer to the publication date so keep checking back for them. Have a great weekend, friends!

Ever since the deluge of BEA-related posts took over blogs, Twitter, and Facebook last year I made the promise to myself that I would be able to attend this year, since it's right in my backyard. And so from June 4-7 I attended both the Blogger's Conference and Book Expo America.

It was one of the best weeks of my life.

This isn't because of the books, but because of the people. Everyone in that building shared such a depth of love for books that was so raw and beautiful that for the first couple hours of each day I could do little but grin stupidly and let my brain tell my feet what to do. Book bloggers, you are why I do this. Of course I have a blog about books because I love them, but it's the interactions that make everything worthwhile. The discussion, the excitement, the creativity - it's seriously unparalleled and I'm so incredibly grateful to be a part of it.

For everyone I met: thank you. And I cannot wait to see you next year and until then in comments and tweets and vlogs. For everyone that was there that I saw in passing: I wish I had more time to spend with you, and I hope to remedy this next year now that I know more of what to expect. To the authors who were so gracious in their signings and photos and heartfelt discussion to the publishers who were unfailingly kind despite the craziness of the days and everything in between.

You made BEA an unforgettable experience. And now, BEA in pictures:

My first view of anything BEA: registration. Thankfully I got this done on the morning of the blogger's conference so it wasn't mayhem the first official day of BEA.





The Autographing Area reminded me a bit of a horse race. It's...pretty clear as to why. For the most part it worked pretty well, except when some authors' lines were so long that they started intermingling with each other. Close quarters. :)








Little Brown's display for Laini Taylor! I had to stop and stare for a minute. The excitement for Days of Blood and Starlight was palpable. And the artwork is absolutely stunning enlarged and up close.

Booths: Penguin, DK, and Random House. The little station you see is the Young Adult signing booth where I was lucky enough to meet Ruta Sepetys! It was our first BEA and we chatted a little about being overwhelmed by everything. Ruta mentioned that she just saw John Green (as did I while in line) and that she couldn't believe that he was here, too. We had a bit of a moment. Absolutely sweet, and definitely worth meeting if she comes anywhere near you!

They had this ginormous mock-up of Reached in the lobby outside the exhibition floor and I walked by just in time to see Ally Condie posing inside it. Kat Zhang and Aimée Carter also linked to funny photos on Twitter from inside. I wanted to take one myself, but never seemed to have the time! But this photo was worth it. I can't wait to read Reached!

Meet... (a fraction of) the Apocalypsies! (And Aliya, hiding in the back. I see you!) They were all so nice and this was one of the best panels offered, for me, just to be able to casually mingle and chat. :)

        My first (and only) post-BEA event. There were tons throughout the city every day, but I was so knackered from carrying about bags and bags of books that I opted for sleep. And so I apologise for ducking out early, ladies! But, seriously - look at all of the amazing authors there!

Yes, that's right! I shall be attending my very first Book Blogger Convention (now Blogger's Conference) along with Book Expo America. Since I'm from New York, having it happen in my backyard last year and not be able to attend was a bit saddening, but I'm grateful that I'm able this year.

My whole reason for going is to be able to meet those of you who I've been communicating with for a little over a year now and chat shop: books books books. You guys are what makes this fun. Without interaction I doubt that I would have wanted to continue, because your intelligent conversation and insight is what makes it all worth it.

If you see me, please say hi! I'll be changing my photo on Twitter so that you guys can more easily recognise me for the duration of BEA. I'll also be attending the young adult author breakfast, so if you'll be there, let me know!

In fact, if you'll be at BEA please let me know in a comment/email/DM so that there can be fun BEA adventures.

I very much look forward to seeing everyone! And I will tweet as best I can for those who cannot make it, and I miss you heaps.