Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
The highlight of this past week is that I got to go to an event for Veronica Roth’s newest book, Carve the Mark. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to meet her afterward (100 people won the opportunity to stay behind and get their books personalized, but I didn’t know about the event in time to pre-register, so I wasn’t even in the running). Still, the interview was fun and I’m excited to read the book now! I’ll try to post a recap this coming week.
Here’s what you may have missed on the blog last week:
- Top Ten Hidden Gems of 2016
- Pushing the Boundaries by Stacey Trombley – Review, Giveaway & Trombley’s Top Ten Addictions
- Seeing the Book Blogging World Through Rose-Colored Glasses: Let’s Discuss
- One More Reading Challenge for 2017: Bookopoly – Check out this super creative challenge!
Next week on FYFA:
- Long Way Home by Katie McGarry – Review & Giveaway
- Accidentally On Purpose by Jill Shalvis – Review & Giveaway
- Let’s Discuss: Something bookish! 🙂
Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries:
Just one blogoversary this week (and one birthday for a blog that doesn’t seem to exist? Does anyone know Maya @ The Fandom Fox? The URL she gave me doesn’t work and I found a blog with a similar name, but there doesn’t seem to be a Maya there). Head on over and wish these bloggers well on their special days! Check out the calendar to see what you might have just missed or what’s coming up. (If you want to be added to the calendar, you can always fill out the birthday/blogoversary form!)
This week’s events:
- January 23rd – Tomes Project‘s Blogoversary
For Review:
Thanks so much to Random House Children’s Books for Batgirl at Super Hero High! My daughter and I loved the last one of these and are looking forward to this next installment!
From NetGalley/Edelweiss:
Crown of Wishes is from NetGalley—I just got the first book for Christmas, so this is perfect! And I saw a blog tour for #famous and couldn’t resist heading over to Edelweiss to pick it up. (I think I signed up for the tour too? Gosh, my brain is mush right now and I can’t remember for sure!)
Won:
I won these two beauties from Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight‘s birthday celebration! Thanks, Shannon!!
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
So many amazing posts this week!! I love the start of the year with the Discussion Challenge because we’re all so motivated to post discussions in the new year! Here are a few (of the many!) posts I loved:
- Lauren @ Shooting Stars Reviews announced the new service she provides to authors: Research Help
- Terri @ Second Run Reviews talks about some major accomplishments in Book Reviewer Level Up!
- Swoon Reads gives amazing advice for writers in Why Wasn’t I Chosen?: An Open Edit Letter
- Puput @ Sparkling Letters asks Blog Hopping: For Fun or Necessity?
- Tasya @ The Literary Huntress talks about how her impressions of YA romance have changed in her post: Changing of the Seasons… In YA Love Interest
- Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight asks Should We Always Give Books a “Fair Chance”?
- Ikram talks about The Incessant Plague: Forgetting What You Read
- Jo @ Once Upon a Bookcase asks How Do You Discuss a Book When Characters’ Marginalised Identities Are Spoilers?
- Taya @ GirlXOXO gives great advice in How to Track Reading Challenges with a Spreadsheet
Pre-Order Deals:
- Pre-order TRICKED by Jen Calonita and receive a Fairy Tale Reform School digital exclusive featuring Rapunzel! (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order THE BONE WITCH by Rin Chupeco and receive a signed bookmark and The Bone Witch sticker. You will also be entered to win a GRAND PRIZE Bone Witch themed crate. (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order THE PLAYBOOK by Kwame Alexander and you’ll be entered to win custom Converse signed by the author! (ends 2/9)
- Pre-order THE SHIP BEYOND TIME by Heidi Heilig from an indie bookstore and get a gorgeous cloisonne pin of the black ship Temptation while supplies last!
- Pre-order RIVETED by Jay Crownover and get a first look at the first two chapters of Avenged and a poster with all the Saints on it (ends 2/14)
- Pre-order ULTIMATUM by K.M. Walton and you have a chance to win one of 12 incredible prize packs filled with cool, custom made swag and other amazing prizes. (ends 1/30)
- Pre-order THE SONG RISING by Samantha Shannon and receive exclusive badges and temporary tattoos to #JoinTheRevolution. (ends 3/6)
- Pre-order A CONJURING OF LIGHT by V.E. Schwab for a chance to receive a book hugger signed by V. E. Schwab. (ends 2/28)
- Pre-order LONG WAY HOME by Katie McGarry & receive 3 bonus stories for FREE! (ends 1/30)
- Pre-order CARAVEL by Stephanie Garber and get a special free gift from the author and a signed, personalized copy. (ends 1/30)
- Preorder THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING by Jeff Giles to receive a keepsake metal bookmark! (ends 1/30)
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed with this week’s posts)
- January Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway – Link up your January discussions and enter to win!
- Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway!! – Anyone can enter, so head over to win a book from my giveaway/trade list!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
- Lots of blogs participating in the January 2017 New Release Giveaway Hop!
- Riveted is giving away The Complete Collection of Ellen Hopkins
- Head over to Lisa Loves Literature for a chance to win the iRead Book Tours anniversary giveaway—$50 cash or a Basic Virtual Book Tour Package
- Head over to Riveted for a chance to win Ellen Hopkins’ complete collection
- Head over to Crossroad Reviews for a chance to win In 27 Days by Ally Gervais
- Clean Teen Publishing is giving away a mystery prize worth over $100
- It’s Ohana Reads’ third Blogoversary and Stephanie is celebrating with a giveaway of one of her favorite books of 2016!
- Milky Way of Books is also three! She’s giving away a 2017 preorder!
- Terri @ Second Run Reviews is giving away One of Her Favorite Books of 2016
- The Bookkeeper’s Secrets is doing a year-long giveaway!
- Charnell @ Reviews from a Bookworm is returning to blogging and celebrating with a giveaway of up to £40 of books from Book Depository (INT)
Lots of good stuff! Have any giveaways or great discussions happening on your site right now? Feel free to share them in the comments!
Lots of stuff going on last week. Thanks for sharing the giveaways. One of my goals this year is to enter more giveaways to help curb the book buying binges. Lol.
Congratulations on your wins. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
Happy reading, Nicole!
Ha! Well, you know where to come on Sundays, then—Glad I could help you with your goals!! 🙂
I’m glad you had fun at the Veronica Roth event. I hope you enjoy your new books!
Thanks!!
OOh nice! Yeah, Veronica was nowhere near me, but I did order a signed book from Andersons that I’ll pick up next month! I’m going to the Stephanie Garber event and asked if I could pick it up then and they said sure! So yay! I did get to meet Veronica wayyy before the Divergent movies came out and did enjoy hearing her speak. Though I wonder how much she’s changed since the movie deal! Lol! But at least you got to see her speak though!
Nice new reads! Pretty much new to me ones! Hope you enjoy them!
Here’s my STS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
I think she still seemed very gracious and humble. I really appreciated that about her!
It will be interesting to hear your perspective on Carve the Mark, since it has been causing a riot (well, some turmoil) on Twitter due to racism and ableism accuses. As someone who hasn’t read it, I’m confused.
Yikes! See, I just wrote a post about how I often miss the “turmoil” until after it happens—and I think I prefer it that way. I hadn’t heard of these accusations, but I like to try to go into a book with an open mind. We shall see!
Glad you had fun at the event. That stinks that they only took 100 people, and you didn’t even get a chance for it. A Crown of Wishes is such a beautiful color.
At least I got to attend the interview. I often like signings though, because you get to hear the author talk more casually with people and then you get lots of other tidbits!
I bet the event for Veronica was fun even if you didn’t get to meet her. I watched an interview with her on the news. And it looks like you got some fun reads this week too. Enjoy!
It was a fun event!
Thanks for sharing my research help link. I appreciate it!
I want to read the Batgirl book. I read the first one, about Wonder Woman and it was really fun, but i haven’t gotten the second book about Supergirl yet.
-Lauren
I actually still haven’t read the Wonder Woman one—my daughter and I want to pick that one up!
That’s awesome that you got to go to that event! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 Have a great week!
I was glad that it worked out since it was sort of last minute (for me).
I met Veronica Roth back at a RT Convention in 2012 I think? She was really nice. I didn’t bug her too much, just got an autograph and a picture with her. Didn’t want to monopolize her time. I need a copy of Carve the Mark soon! Have a great week!
I’m really looking forward to reading it now. The event was very fun!
Oooh! A Veronica Roth event! That’s pretty cool. 🙂 Glad you had a good time!
I was excited to see her. I think I’m one of the few people who loved the entire Divergent series, so … 🙂
The Veronica Roth event sounds so wonderful. We never get authors anywhere near me here, except for one who happens to be local. I hope this week is nothing short of amazing for you Nicole!
I’m lucky that I live in the Chicago area—we have quite a few author events around here.
I’ve been really curious about Carve the Mark since I wondered what Veronica Roth would do next. I’ll be interested in seeing reviews and seeing what the reactions are. And that Bookopoly board- I had fun peering at all the squares lol. How fun!
Great post on rose colored glasses and the blogging community! I agree, I’ve been fortunate so far and have largely avoided drama, and I think part of that is avoiding the Twitter drama like many commenters said. If you go looking for trouble you usually find it, and vice versa lol. My experiences w/ the book blogging community have been almost uniformly positive, and I love that about this group.
Great discussions too. Have a super week Nicole!
I agree that it’s easy to find trouble when you go looking for it. Doesn’t mean it can’t ever seek somebody out, but I find that I’ve managed to avoid it. 🙂
The Veronica Roth event sounded fun! Toobad you were too late in registering to get in on the meet-up but still… just getting to go is pretty great. She was at YallFest the last time I went (2015) but she was one of the “ticketed” authors and there were just too many others that I wanted to see.
My stop on the Long Way Home blog tour was yesterday and I just loved that one. I adore Katie to start with. When it comes to YA contemporary she’s my favorite. I’m sad to see this series come to an end because I could keep reading about this group of characters for as long as she was willing to write about them. 🙂
I agree that she’s just fantastic at sucking you into the lives of her characters!
I can’t wait to hear about your recap for the Veronica Roth event! I can’t even fathom how many people were there if they limited it to only 100 for getting their books signed. Wow.
I also have The Star-Touched Queen and have been meaning to read it for the last few months! I’m hoping to get to it next month, fingers crossed we both enjoy.
I just posted the recap for the event. It was definitely a big venue!