Review: A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

A Taste of Gold and Iron

Alexandra Rowland

Publication Date: August 30, 2022

Hardcover, 512 pages, Tordotcom

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, LGBT+

Goodreads

 

“A delicious tangle of romance, fealty, and dangerous politics.”—Tasha Suri

 

The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

 

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

My Review

Slow-burn romantasy? Slow-burn queer romantasy? Slow-burn queer romantasy set in a diverse and intricate world? Yes! Yes! A thousand times YES! A Taste of Gold and Iron is an almost lyrical, political tale of a prince and his right-hand man dealing with a counterfeiting scandal that could cost their kingdom everything while fighting some *ahem* feelings...

Now, while I did enjoy this book, and I find myself thinking about it randomly sometimes, I have to admit that the first 25% was a tad difficult to get through. It's very dry in terms of worldbuilding, language, politics, and writing style, so it took a bit for my brain to truly get sucked into the atmosphere of the setting. But after that first 25%, there's more action and things just start to flow better.

The two main characters of the story, Kadou and Evemer, are very different. Kadou is a prince wracked with anxiety about his kingdom, while Evemer is a no-nonsense bodyguard/advisor who gets assigned to the human disaster that is Kadou. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of bodyguard romances, and with this story, Evemer's role is a little more servant-like at times, which was even worse, in my opinion (totally just a personal preference). However, I could look past that dynamic as the story progressed. In fact, I started loving the power dynamic the two had once things started heating up between them. Evemer would do anything for his liege, and I loved reading about his internal struggles. Though, at times, it felt like Kadou didn't quite reciprocate, even when things started going strong between them. Honestly, there really needs to be a sequel just to establish more relationship between these two characters.

As for the plot of the story, there were quite a few surprising twists and turns throughout the middle chunk. But the plot definitely suffered towards the end with a pretty anticlimactic and predictable reveal over who was causing the counterfeiting kerfuffle. This anticlimactic ending also caused a lot of rushing. The author had spent so much time setting up the world and the characters, only to try to squeeze too much in during the final 10%. I was left thinking "That's it?" when the last page was turned. It simply felt unfinished, which hopefully means there will be a sequel, but Goodreads isn't telling if that's the case.

All in all, this book could've easily been four stars if not for the rushed ending. However, credit where credit is due, because I cannot stop thinking about Evemer and Kadou. They really stuck with me. So I could see A Taste of Gold and Iron being a hit with some fantasy romance readers, though I do expect that others will find the political elements too much for them. I'd say this one is less for fans of Sarah J. Maas or Jennifer L. Armentrout than for fans of Everina Maxwell's Winter's Orbit, Foz Meadows's A Strange & Stubborn Endurance, or even S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad books. And if you like both of those styles, then I would say you should definitely add Kadou and Evemer's story to your TBR!

*Note: I received a NetGalley ARC of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The August YA FairyLoot Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, it's been another eh week. Work is stressful, but the days go by faster because there's a lot to do. I had to make a dentist appointment on my birthday because my crown fell out...again. And I have to go to the dentist to get a new crown fitted on Friday. (I'm writing this Thursday night). The only good thing about going to the dentist is that I'll be driving by my local used bookstore. So that's fun. ;)

As for book goodies, my Bookish Box copy of The War of Two Queens arrived last Saturday. Finally! Unfortunately, though, the dustjacket spine has been folded down so it's completely flat, which means it won't match the rounded dustjacket spines of the first three books. It's annoying. Luckily, Bookish Box is sending me another dustjacket, so I can fold it to match. I also got a print of the FBAA joining trio's eyes from DirtyDictionDesigns. This one is super pretty, though it is weird that Hawke's skin color is paler than Poppy's. It should be the other way around.

Next, my Kingdom of the Wicked cupcake pin from A Touch of Magic Designs came in. It's very pretty. ATOMD also sent along some swag since their shipping was later than usual. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of Azriel and Elain, so I'll throw those stickers into my ACOTAR swag pack that I need to sell at some point. The Poppy and Hawke magnet has already gone up on my fridge, though.

Three other books came in this week. And all three of them are extra copies of books in JLA's Blood and Ash world. Oops. I'm still trying to purchase cheap copies in order to use them for my alternative dustjackets. Right now, I only need two AKOFAFs, two TCOGBs, and one TWOTQ for the dustjackets I'm planning to or have already purchased. Of these three, I think I bought FBAA for $13, ASITE for under $10, and TWOTQ for $15ish.

 

And finally, I have the August YA FairyLoot box. My last full box with them. After this, I get book-only from here on out. Wow. Sadly, this month's box is one I just didn't vibe with, so everything is leaving. The book, though it had a pretty naked design, isn't as nice as the Owlcrate edition I got in their July box. And I'm not keeping two copies of this book. I also do not like ombre edges. I'd rather have plain. I did keep the Anubis mythology bookmark and the monthly theme bookmark. But that's just because they were pretty. Everything else is going bye-bye.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

ApollyCon 2022 Recap: Day Two

Day two of ApollyCon didn't allow for a lot of sleep either, but we got to wake up later than 5:45 a.m. Thank goodness. However, it was kind of worse because we had to lug around our giant backpacks full of books. And our bus to the hotel didn't show up, so we had to walk to a station that was a seven-ish minute walk away. Yay for more walking... Ugh.

The first half of day two was all about author panels. The first one we attended was the Young at Heart panel, and the authors who talked included Lizzy Mason, Brigid Kemmerer, Shaila Patel, Mary Ting/M. Clarke, and  Molly E. Lee. We were mainly there for Brigid Kemmerer, but everyone else was funny and entertaining as well. There was a lot of talk about how Twilight inspired them. Brigid also mentioned Annette Curtis Klause's Silver Kiss and Beauty & the Beast. Also, Mary was so cute. She loves Superman/Clark Kent, so she decided to use Clarke as her pen name.

The second panel we attended, Romantasy Lovers, filled up quite a bit, but we were lucky. It was held in the same room as the Young at Heart panel, so we got to keep our good seats. The authors for this panel included Jennifer Estep, L. Penelope, Amanda Bouchet, E.J. Mellow, Laura Thalassa, and Danielle L. Jensen (not pictured here). There was a discussion about romantasy versus romantic fantasy and what makes a good love interest. Danielle mentioned that she kept seeing how blondes weren't cool on TikTok, which was particularly hard for her, since she'd just launched a blonde hero. There was a lot of enemies-to-lovers talk, and even a discussion about how difficult it is to write a good friends-to-lovers story. The favorite tropes listed were enemies to lovers, one bed, and fake relationship. Okay and here's where I'm going to just write up a list of some fun facts the authors said about 1) their favorite romance book, 2) the movie/show that would describe them or their book, and 3) their favorite scene in their book.

 

Amanda: 1) Lisa Kleypas's Secrets of a Summer Night, 3) In A Promise of Fire when Cat breaks the hero's nose and makes him eat a magical salamander

Danielle: 1) Outlander and she talked about the love triangles trope because the Infernal Devices is a true love triangle that she loves, 2) Peaky Blinders because of the morally ambiguous characters, 3) the end of The Traitor Queen and book one's bedroom scene

 Laura: 1) Plated Prisoner and FBAA (Woot! Woot!), 2) Thor and Meet Joe Black, especially for the Four Horseman's first book love interest, 3) in Rhapsodic when the realization moment of why Des couldn't come back happens

Leslie: 1) Immortal Guardians, 2) wants the aesthetic of Stardust in her books, but with more conflict and social issues

Jennifer: Beauty by Robin McKinley and Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas, 2) Alias and Princess Bride

Panel three was Fantastic Beasts + Paranormal Heat, and it was a hoot. The authors, Maria Vale, Juliette Cross, Stacey Marie Brown, April Asher/April Hunt, LeTeisha Newton, and Megan Erickson/Ella Maven had pretty good chemistry together, as they were able to make almost anything into a joke. LeTeisha and Ella especially. It got to be a little too much towards the end, but when it was good, it was soooo funny. They talked about real men vs. fantasy men, fun and impossible male anatomy, their favorite tropes, the anti-damsel, and their favorite worldbuilding details (languages and twisting things like histories, myths, and species were two of my favorite answers).

 

After the panels, it was time for lunch, so we went to a nearby Chik-fil-A. I got a chicken wrap, since I was tired of fries and really wanted something with greens. And it was pretty good too. I'd never had a chicken wrap from there before. So I was trying new things, even though I'd been to the restaurant before. Yay me! My friend wasn't as forgiving. She's a foodie, and she wasn't completely satisfied by our food choices for the trip. However, we just didn't have the time or the energy to go to a lot of fancier places. Once food had been eaten, we walked back to the hotel, and then we sat at a nice bench/desk area to chill and strategize for the upcoming three-hour Titan signing. It was at this point, when we were pulling books out of our bags to arrange them, that my friend realized she'd forgotten her special ApollyCon edition of ASITE at the AirBnB. The special edition that was specifically designed to be signed by JLA at ApollyCon. And, unlike a lot of people, we did not want to attend the signing on Saturday. We wanted to get our signings complete on Friday so we could sight see Saturday. So she had one hour to hop on a Lyft, grab the book, and then take a Lyft back before we needed to line up for the signing. She made it in time, but it sure was cutting it close. And after all that drama, we got reshuffled around to the Titan Group A line and then we sat and waited for an hour. You can see the giant backpacks up above, though we did use a bag check so we didn't have to lug around as many books at once.

  Group A went upstairs during the first few minutes of the signing, while Group B stayed downstairs. Titan ticket holders could bounce around each floor during the three signing hours, but they started us out separately to do a bit of crowd control. Since Elise Kova was the only author I had a low ticket number for (#10!), she's the one I went to first while my friend went to Brigid Kemmerer. Elise Kova's table area was amazing! It looked so cool! I only got one book of hers signed, just because I've only read the one book, and that's A Deal with an Elf King. I'd like to read more of her stuff, but, well, time.

My friend and I met back up to go to ArtbyStefani's table. She had Roth and Zayne just chilling next to her. I believe that Roth one now lives in JLA's house/office space. She's very lucky. Lol. But I did end up buying the NSFW version of the Roth print as well as a Reaver print. I grabbed a free PoppyCas sticker too. (The pin is something I bought from The Bookish Box later on when I went downstairs.)

Then, we went over to Jennifer Estep's table where I picked up a signed preorder of Capture the Crown, a spinoff of her Crown of Shards series. I've been reading Jennifer's books since the Mythos Academy series came out, so it was nice to meet her at the event. She also handed us a bunch of swag, including mini colored pencils and colorable bookmarks. There's a photo somewhere below. Haha.

Stop three was Danielle L. Jensen's table. Unfortunately, her line started getting too long right as we joined, and we were cut off like three people from the end. So, we just had to chill for a bit until our new ticket numbers were called. But we made it back to the line and I got my paperback copy of The Bridge Kingdom signed. We also took a photo together. Look at me, I already look exhausted and this is just hour one of the signing. Yikes. You'll see how bad it gets soon. Haha.

Now, I'm not sure if we went to Stacey Marie Brown immediately after Danielle. I actually think we went downstairs for a while first. My friend went to Raven Kennedy's table since she had ticket #1 for her (lucky), and I kind of floated around grabbing tickets for authors we didn't have yet. (Tickets are for authors whose lines are too long. Some authors didn't have an original ticket system in place at the start of the event, so we had to grab some to get in their lines later.) I also went to the Book Beau table to get a Feelin' Stabby sticky badge banner thing that I never actually ended up putting on my badge, and I bought the pin pictured somewhere below at The Bookish Box booth. It was the display one, so I nabbed the last one. Mwahaha. I think I stopped by Sophie Jordan's table as well and had her sign my frame, which I'll show in a bit. I'd already met Sophie a few years ago, so I didn't bring any books for her this time. After all this, we went back upstairs and got into Stacey Marie Brown's line, I think...

Sadly, after those authors, it was kind of just a waiting game to see when our ticket numbers would be called. Since ours were pretty high numbers, we just kind of stood there for a bit. Because we were at the end of hour two of only three hours total, we decided to divide and conquer. My friend gave me her #126 (or something like that) Laura Thalassa ticket and she went to see Scarlett St. Clair. So, sadly, I don't have any photos with Laura Thalassa. I did pick up a preorder from her, though. It was the omnibus edition of her Bargainer series, which is ginormous! But Laura did sign it while I was at her table, and I got to see her husband who was helping her out. #couplegoals. Scarlett St. Clair ended up needing to take a potty break while my friend was in line, so I was able to take some photos of her getting her books signed. I didn't have anything for Scarlett to sign besides my photo frame. My friend took it from me and was able to get it signed for me so I wouldn't have to stand in line.

And then, back downstairs we went. This time we were able to get into Lexi Ryan's line with the tickets I'd grabbed earlier. Because I own the FairyLoot edition of These Hollow Vows, which is already signed, I decided to have Lexi just sign my frame. I was tempted to buy the regular US hardcovers of the duology, though, as they are also very pretty. I just don't need two copies of the series. But anyway, here's some swag I got at her table as well as the other authors' tables I visited.

And the last author we managed to see during the "official" three-hour signing time was Amanda Bouchet. She was so sweet, but like most of us, she seemed tired. A lot of the other authors were packing up their tables for the night, so I'm sure she was ready to get out of there, as were we. However, we had heard a rumor that JLA was staying late to sign books, since so many people didn't get their numbers called during the ticket calls. (Mine was like #509, so I would've never gotten mine signed.) Raven Kennedy was also signing after the signing time. So, I went to Raven Kennedy's line, and my friend went to JLA's to save us a spot.

 

I had Raven sign my paperback copy of Glint, since it's my favorite of the series so far. Also, I wasn't sure if I'd keep the paperback versions as I think FairyLoot has plans to release a special edition set. Therefore, I decided not to have her personalize my copy. I will say that Raven's line took a long time, but I got through it eventually! And I managed to make it through her line before my friend got to the last curve of JLA's line.

 

Now, here's where it gets a little sad for me. Because though I was able to rush into JLA's line and get her to sign my books, I was just a mess of epic proportions by then. And I was so goshdarn tired that the photo I took with her looks so bad. I wasn't thinking clearly when my friend said to look at the camera, so I didn't pause to take the photo. Plus, my back is so stooped from carrying my backpack full of books that I just look dead on my feet. It breaks my heart a little that I traveled all that way specifically to see JLA and I didn't even really get to enjoy it because the ticket system for the event was so messed up. As someone who was maybe 30th in line during registration, I should not have ended up with #509 for JLA's ticket line. That was so ridiculous. But there's nothing I can do about it now. Hopefully, if I get ApollyCon tickets for next year (which I should know whether or not I got them by the time this post goes up), that mess will be sorted out.

 

Anyway, back to the lighter side, I had JLA sign my frame, my ASITE copy, and the first two books of the Dark Elements series with the original covers. And I did get these personalized, because JLA, DUH. Well, except for ASITE. I just didn't think ASITE's signature page left room for personalization, in my opinion. My friend did end up getting her's personalized, though. By this time, you could tell JLA was exhausted, but she had like 50 people still waiting behind us, so that sucked. I think the con is having a separate JLA signing for her next year. That should help spread things out a bit more.

 

By this time, we'd missed out on the Sparkler Event, though we were able to grab a leftover goodie bag at least. It had some random stuff in it along with a 1,001 Dark Nights novella in it. Mine was Ride Dirty by Laura Kaye. After grabbing our bags, we headed back to the AirBnB to rest for the night before starting all over again in the morning. So stay tuned for the ApollyCon Day Three Recap!

Stacking the Shelves: The FBAA Illumicrate Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

It's been a mixed week this week. While I have some very cool bookish things to show off (with too much more on the way), I did catch a small chest cold in the middle of the week. I'm not that sick, I just have a teeny tiny bit of congestion and drainage. I hope that by the time this goes live, I'll be back to my normal self. Work has been stressful as well. Lots of deadlines and some issues with my office space. I'm also supposed to have family members visiting this weekend, but we'll see... There's a lot going on right now.

 Here they are! In all their amazing, awesome, fantastic, beautiful glory! My Illumicrate FBAA books 2-4 order arrived the day I started feeling sick. Hurrah! I knew I was ill when I picked the box up after work and instead of immediately going to rearrange my shelves like I'd been fantasizing about, I just took the books out of the box and sat them down. I had to go lay down on the couch because I was exhausted. But once I got some energy back, I was able to rearrange. I'm still waiting on a few other FBAA orders before I go too crazy with moving things around, though. But anyway, yes, this set is gorgeous. My TWOTQ copy did come with some weird marks on it that I'm hoping Illumicrate will replace, but you can't see them from far away, so if they don't, it wouldn't be the end of the world. It'd just make me a little sad, not a lot sad.

Next, I was approved for a NetGalley ARC of Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall. I was approved for this after I told myself that I didn't want to read any more review books right now. So perfect timing. I've got two YA fantasy books I'm trying to make my way through to review, and I'm having a tough time pushing myself through. Not because they're bad, but because I want to be reading other things. Oh, and I just realized the Alexis Hall book is a companion/spinoff book, so hopefully I won't miss anything by just jumping into book #2.

 My preorder incentive poster for Victoria Aveyard's Blade Breaker came earlier this week as well. And it's huge! Honestly, I wish it was smaller. I don't need a poster that large. But, I'll read the books before I decide if I want to get rid of it or not. It is some lovely artwork. It's just too big to be useful to me, unfortunately. I also have a Rick O'Connell Funko Pop. I've had this dude ordered for months and it just now got to me. I guess it had sold out everywhere and Entertainment Earth had to wait for a new shipment of stock to arrive.

 

And finally, I have another hardback of FBAA to add to my growing collection. I bought this one from Depop for like $13.50. I'm trying to order cheap copies of the FBAA books so I can use them for all the alternative dustjackets I either have bought or plan to buy. I'm pretty sure this copy will be used with The Dusty Shop jackets I'm going to order this weekend as a birthday present to myself (like I haven't already been ordering tons of stuff anyway, without the birthday excuse).

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

ApollyCon 2022 Recap: Day One

I've finally recovered enough emotionally and physically (mostly physically) to write up my 2022 ApollyCon recap posts. Today's post will cover Day One of ApollyCon, which mostly consisted of registration and one late-night event, but I'm also going to talk about the day before. Travel day. Yay! Not. Oh, and just to make it clear, this was my first time attending ApollyCon. It was also the first time I'd been on a plane and traveled out of the state since pre-pandemic days.

So my journey from Missouri to D.C. began on Wednesday, July 27. My first connecting flight to Atlanta had already been delayed multiple times due to the pilots being unable to fly without a certain number of rest hours in between flights. So the trip was starting off great, especially with the eight books I was lugging around in my suitcase and my backpack, as shown above (Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater not pictured since she canceled last-minute, but I still carried it halfway across the country, first. Yeesh). Funnily enough, though, I did run into a friend from high school who was on my same flight. That was fun. Then, when I landed in Atlanta, I walked all the way to another terminal instead of taking the underground bus service they offered. Because I was stupid and didn't realize how much walking I'd be doing over the course of the trip. I should've saved my legs. Lol. But eventually, I made it to D.C., and then I took a Lyft to the AirBnB my friend and I were staying at. It was not an ideal unit, mostly due to cleanliness reasons. The area outside was fine, but the inside was a little icky. The trash hadn't been taken out, the carpet was dirty, and there was only one blanket on the bed! No other blankets in the cupboard or anywhere else! There wasn't even a second sheet on the bed! It just wasn't ideal.

Once I was finally settled at the AirBnB and since my friend had already arrived a few hours ago, we went out to buy some empty boxes and bubble wrap at the nearest UPS so we could ship all the extra books we figured we'd receive throughout ApollyCon weekend. (This would turn out to be a very smart plan, but more on that in my future recap posts.) And we also stocked up on drinkage and snacks for the next few days at the Whole Foods across the street. We were pretty tired by then, so we decided to watch a movie on Disney+, The Jungle Cruise, which neither of us had ever seen before, while we ordered DoorDash and prepped for the next day. We got Man vs. Fries for dinner. They basically just put fries in a ton of different food options. We each got a giant burrito that was the size of a small child along with some fried Oreos. My burrito was a chicken bacon ranch one. It was very delicious. Obviously, neither of us finished our burritos in the first round. Both of ours lasted as leftovers throughout the weekend. The Oreos didn't make it past the night, however. Haha.

After getting a fairly decent night's sleep on a bed that squeaked every time you moved, we got up super early (like 5:45 a.m., even after losing an hour), to begin our trek to the Smithsonian National Zoo. We took a Metro line, which was quite the nostalgic moment for me as a previous New Yorker. It almost felt like I hadn't left NYC, though D.C. was a lot cleaner than the Big Apple. Smelled nicer too. Eventually, we made it to the zoo after a short trek off the Metro station. I don't feel like you all need a list of every animal we saw at the zoo, but I will say that our feet were very tired by the end, and we only stayed for a few hours.

 

Around noon, we left the zoo to make our way to ApollyCon registration, which started at 3 p.m., with lineup starting at 2 p.m. We took the Metro and walked some more before briefly stopping at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. We split an order of fries and each got a shake (mine was a Black & White) at Good Stuff. And yes, it was good stuff! Haha! Then, it was off to the hotel again.

  Registration was a disaster, which I now know could mostly be blamed on the hotel staff overbooking event space, but some things could've been better on the ApollyCon team's end too. Like the fact that my friend and I had to split up because my last name fell in the A-L category and hers was in the M-Z category, despite saying in the Facebook Group that if friends lined up together, they could get similar ticket numbers. Well, we didn't end up getting similar ticket numbers at all. No one did. Because they gave numbers out randomly for some strange reason, so there was no need at all for anyone to have lined up early. This made me pretty mad. I was even madder that most of my tickets were in the 200+ range, despite me being only 30th or so in line. My JLA ticket was #509! It was very aggravating. Plus, it was very hot and crowded in there. The masks also made it stuffy and hard to breathe. I'm honestly surprised no one passed out. But we got our badges and Titan bags. That's all that mattered. And with the Titan tickets--the highest ApollyCon ticket tier--came one more very special thing...

The exclusive ApollyCon edition of A Shadow in the Ember by JLA. My core motivation for attending the event. I also got a few other books and some swag items in the Titan bag. The books were Perfect Assumption by Tracey Jerald, Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym M. Martineau, and Blood Laws by Lexi C. Foss. My friend got the same in hers except one. I can't remember which one she didn't get, though. I just know she got a contemporary romance witchy book instead.


 

The swag items in the Titan bag were pretty cool. There was an ApollyCon pen, a Jennifer Estep notepad, an ApollyCon luggage tag, a fun paper doll romance dude, a Romantasy word fridge magnet set, a micro first aid travel kit, and two ApollyCon screen cleaners (at least there were two in my bag). Most of the items that were in the bag you can see in the picture above, though the Feeling Stabby badge, raffle coupon, stickers, and extra pen did come from other event swag bags. You can also see my yellow ApollyCon A group lanyard and badge at the top. ApollyCon B group ticket holders got a black version, which I thought was cooler, but I do love my yellow badge too.

Once we got all our stuff, my friend and I booked it to find food before we needed to line up for an event later that night. First off though, I needed to go to the nearest CVS because I ended up forgetting my phone cable charger for my portable charger. It wasn't exactly a close walk after all the walking we'd already done, but it wasn't terrible. We were so tired that we just ended up eating chicken nuggets at the McDonalds nearby. Then, we headed back to the hotel to wait around before we could line up for the Sourcebooks Casablanca event at 7:30 p.m. There was a rule in place that no one could line up until an hour before the event started, but a lot of us who were there early kind of gathered together and ended up forming an unofficial "line." Since there were only 300 spots available, we were lucky this worked. We were able to get in. My friend and I sat at the Sheath table. (All the tables were named after weird romance/dirty/strange sayings.)

I guess I should back up and say that as we walked through the entrance, we were able to nab a free book. My friend and I both grabbed a copy of Maria Vale's The Last Wolf, as it was really the only paranormal/fantasy-type book on the table. We were also handed our "ticket" which was a giant poster with the words "Slow Burn... or Smutty?" on it. Because I was flying across many states, I decided to fold mine up. It was just way too big. But after all that, we grabbed a cookie and an ice cream and sat down at our Sheath table. From there, chaos ensued.

The Sourcebooks presenter (I cannot remember her name), kind of struggled to take control of the room, so it was super loud in there. She introduced the attending authors, one of which you can see at the mic in the above pic. It's Laura Thalassa discussing how her books will now be published through Sourcebooks. And, with Madison from the Princess of Paperback Booktube channel, the presenter tried to describe the trivia game we'd be playing. Again, it was super loud, no one could hear or see the tiny projected screen, and it was kind of a mess.

Sadly, our team didn't end up winning any of the trivia rounds. And though, Laura Thalassa did sit at our table briefly, she sat too far away from my friend and I to even really talk to her. (It would have been too awkward for me to feel comfortable talking to her anyway. I don't enjoy forced interactions like that.) I did get a couple questions right in the trivia game, however. One was about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy getting together. If I remember the other, I'll try to include it here later too. Haha. Now, even though we didn't win the big B&N gift card prize, everyone got a little red "Slow Burn or Smut?" bag which had an ARC of Katee Robert's Wicked Beauty in it. A book that had already been released. I guess Sourcebooks just had a bunch of extra copies laying around. Lol. I hadn't read it yet, so that was okay with me. My friend on the other hand was a little miffed that she'd already read the book.

When all that was over, we could line up to get our poster tickets signed by the attending authors. Attending authors included Laura Thalassa, Scarlett St. Clair, Amanda Bouchet, B. Celeste, Xio Axelrod, and Maria Vale, among others I can't remember at this time. Because it was so late, my friend and I only stood in line for Amanda Bouchet and Laura Thalassa. We would've stayed for Scarlett too, but we were just exhausted by then and the line was too long. I think it was 11 p.m. by the time we actually got out of there. But anyway, you can see Amanda Bouchet's table in the above pic. We got to tell her that her series was one of our book club reads, so that was fun!

After all that insanity, it was time to make the journey back to the AirBnB. We ended up taking a bus, but the walk to the bus stop was soooo long. And it was in a kind of shady spot next to a gentlemen's club. There were a lot of random dudes walking around with very few women in sight. But eventually, our bus showed up and we got on. And we didn't pull the stop cord in time to get off at our stop, so, yay! More walking! The driver did ask me what my shirt said as I got off the bus, which was kind of a fun conclusion to a chaotic night. It was a Dean Winchester shirt, just FYI. But, needless to say that once we walked back to the AirBnB, we pretty much crashed. Well, we tried to prep for the next day as much as possible. Some were more successful at that than others. However, that's a story for the next recap post of Day Two. Stay tuned!