It's been a week since YALC and I cannot explain how much I miss it!!! My poor student purse is withering and crying.
I'm gonna start off with the proofs I managed to snag.
Ruin of stars is the sequel to Mask of Shadows which I have but have not read yet! And Sawkill Girls I really wanted because I love Claire Legrand!
The Shadowglass is the 3rd book of the Bone Witch Trilogy and is probably my proudest possession because I had no CLUE they'd be giving out these proofs but on the very first day of YALC as soon as I entered, I went to the book stand right opposite the elevators and there it was in all of its shining glory! I just freaked out and grabbed a copy like it was my life on the line.
These are the books I got signed!
All the authors were super SUPER nice and it was lovely meeting them! They really made an effort to chat with you and not just sign your book and move on to the next person.
I unfortunately couldn't get my book signed by Tomi Adeyemi, the queue was just insane and when I went back a couple of hours later, they'd just stopped giving out tickets! I did attend her panel and it was amazing.
Some authors even stayed past their signing times to make sure everyone in their queues got their books signed for example Alwyn Hamilton and Sasha Alsberg! I can't believe I met Sasha, she was just such a lovely person!!!
I had to (embarassingly) get Alexandra Christo and Louise O'Neill to sign my notebook because the books I ordered on amazon prime the Monday before had been left out of my package and only arrived the day after the authors were at YALC. Still slightly annoyed with Prime about that.
These are the beauties I bought. Though Three Dark Crows was free!
I'm really sorry but I have no courage to link all these books to the Goodreads page because most of them you've probably heard of anyways! I will mention these 5 books though because I am so excited for them and they are fairly new releases! As you can see most of my money went to the Harper360 stall. 9 of these books came from them. 9. Click the covers to add them to your Goodreads shelf if you haven't yet :)!
Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.
Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.
But what if death finds him first?
Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot—claiming it will put an end to the plague—Thomas is in.
The plan: use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.
The problem: Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.
No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back.
They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast, clinging to the fringes of society as a member of the Relay, the imperial courier service. Only those most skilled in riding and bow hunting ride for the Relay; and only the fastest survive, for when dark falls, the nightdrakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But it’s this magic that she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden, punishable by death or exile. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor her childhood friend, her first love, the boy she swore to forget, the boy who broke her heart.
The high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. Even as he waits for the uror—the once-in-a-generation ritual to decide which of the king’s children will succeed him—he knows it’s always been his brother who will assume the throne. And that’s fine by him. He’d rather spend his days away from the palace, away from the sight of his father, broken with sickness from the attempt on his life. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate.
With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime.
The ancient land of Éirinn is mired in war. Ciara, Princess of Mide, has never known a time when Éirinn’s kingdoms were not battling for power, or Northmen were not plundering their shores.
The people of Mide have thankfully always been safe because of Ciara’s unearthly ability to control her enemies’ minds and actions. But lately, a mysterious crow has been appearing to Ciara, whispering warnings of an even darker threat. Although her clansmen dismiss her visions as pagan nonsense, Ciara fears this coming evil will destroy not just Éirinn, but the entire world.
Then the crow leads Ciara to Leif, a young Northman leader. Leif should be Ciara’s enemy, but when Ciara discovers that he, too, shares her prophetic visions, she knows he’s something more. Leif is mounting an impressive army, and with Ciara’s strength in battle the two might have a chance to save their world.
With evil rising around them, they’ll do what it takes to defend the land they love…even if it means making the greatest sacrifice of all.
In this contemporary YA, a teenager’s favorite literary heroes woo her in real life
The first of two books in an intended paperback original series about a girl whose classic literary crushes manifest in real life. Merrilee Campbell, 16, thinks boys are better in books, chivalry is dead, and there’d be nothing more romantic than having just one guy woo her like the heroes in classic stories. She’s about to get the chance to test these daydreams when she, her best friend, Eliza, and her younger sister, Rory, transfer into Reginald R. Hero High, where all their fantasies come true—often with surprising consequences.
I am Anda, and the lake is my mother. I am the November storms that terrify sailors and sink ships. With their deaths, I keep my little island on Lake Superior alive.
Hector has come here to hide from his family until he turns eighteen. Isle Royale is shut down for the winter, and there's no one here but me. And now him.
Hector is running from the violence in his life, but violence runs through my veins. I should send him away, to keep him safe. But I'm half human, too, and Hector makes me want to listen to my foolish, half-human heart. And if I do, I can't protect him from the storms coming for us.
It was lovely meeting people especially my queue buddies, Fi from The Bookish Outsider and Lily from The Whispering Of The Pages. Lily had the most amazing cosplays and she gave me some awesome J-drama recs :D!
I also got these cool Marvel matching posters that I'm going crazy about!!!!
Some Tote bags...
I came back with only 3 tote bags this year, I think last year they were just handing them out like crazy. Also last year the YALC goody bag was a proper goody bag with samplers and bookmarks and everything but this year it was just the tote and I think a YALC guide inside? But the design is gorgeous!!Also I bought a lanyard. Because I think 'lanyard' is a cool word.
There was just less swag, less bookmarks, less samplers, less totes and less badges this year. I remember last year I came back with a bag full of all these fun things but yeah it seemed quite toned down this time round. I have to mention that i did miss FairyLoot at YALC this year, I was really sorry that they couldn't make it.
SWAG. SWAG. SWAG.
I was dying to get my hands on those Cassie Clare samplers, they were going SO FAST. I am so excited for Stain, doesn't it have the most gorgeous cover ever!!! A. G. Howard always has the most magical covers and I'm so glad her books are keeping a cover trend!
This year I spent less time running after ARC's and just focused on getting the ones I wanted which was so much more relaxing. It also let me enjoy YALC much more than if I was obsessing about proof drops. It was much calmer this year with the raffle system but at the same time I couldn't be bothered to enter the raffles that much.
Jason Momoa. JASON MOMOA.
So last year Benedict Cumberbatch. This year JASON MOMOA. I LOVE YALC.
This was my first year going down to LFCC and it was amazing but WAY too hectic for me. Especially since I got a photoshoot with two TVD actors, the crowd around that photo area was extremely overwhelming so I don't think I'll be doing that again unless it's guests I'm dying to meet (which in this case it was). I know I look horrible in that photo but I can't even bring myself to care I'm just still shocked that I was in breathing distance of them.
One thing I really want to complain about is accessibility for disabled people. This is something you don't have to worry about if you're not disabled because you don't know about it. But since I was hanging out with a friend who was on crutches it was amazing to see a different side of YALC that kind of ruins it for people with disabilities. A few people were really rude to my friend when she got to go first in a signing queue because she couldn't stand in line.
Let me point out one thing. People with a disabled wristband don't just get one without proving with official documents that they have a disability. So it's not like they're faking it. Secondly, there are not a lot of disabled people AT ALL and if one or two people get to skip ahead of the queue because they PHYSICALLY CANNOT STAND IN THE QUEUE it won't push back your turn by much!!! What is it maybe an extra minute to wait? Is that so life altering??
Also, a person on crutches, who does not have access to a wheelchair, CANNOT sit on the floor or a BEAN BAG. My friend was told to just sit on the floor or a bean bag when she asked for a chair. It's not like YALC lacks the space for chairs. There are HUGE HUGE empty spaces all around, would it be that hard to maybe dedicate a small square for disabled people with some chairs?
And this doesn't only extend to YALC but also to LFCC. I'm not saying this to attack YALC or LFCC but things need to improve.
On a side note, I also bought Heart of Thorns from Harper360 but because I'm currently reading it I forgot to put it in the photo and I'm too lazy to get all my books out to take another pic. *slaps face*. So that makes 10 books from Harper360.
In the ancient river kingdom, touch is a battlefield, bodies the instruments of war. Seventeen-year-old Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood.
Not women. Demons. The same demons who killed her mother without a single scratch.
But when Mia's father suddenly announces her marriage to the prince, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Only after the wedding goes disastrously wrong does she discover she has dark, forbidden magic—the very magic she has sworn to destroy.
In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon.
But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.
As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death.
Whew and that is it!
I hope everyone had a fantastic week and don't forget to link your blogs back in the comments to I can check them out <3!