ApollyCon 2023 Recap: Days Three & Four

Day three of ApollyCon was a much nicer time than day two's packed schedule. It mostly consisted of getting some more author signatures in the first half of the day and then napping the rest of the day. Or at least, napping until the After Party later that night. Day four, the last day of ApollyCon, was stressful just because it was the final day, and we were worried about storing our luggage, possibly missing our flights, the rain, etc. Otherwise, it was chill.

I 100% think the authors in this list are out of order, so forgive me for not remembering who I saw first, second, third, etc. I wanted to write up this post last week, when my memory likely would've been a little better, but work was so chaotic that I couldn't make myself sit in front of a computer for another three to four hours to write this post. But anyway, the first photos I have saved in my files are with Harper L. Woods. I read What Lies Beyond the Veil right before ApollyCon via Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to purchase a copy of the exclusive cover to get signed, along with some art prints. This was another author I made a fool of myself talking to. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Jess Wisecup fiasco, but when I was trying to buy prints, I thought they were all sold out. Turns out, I was just looking at the display versions and they had them all stocked behind the table. Ugh. Silly, me.

After that, I think we went to see Jennifer Estep. She had a nice corner space with lots of air conditioning. It was pretty calm over there compared to the Katee Robert and Harper L. Woods chaos. I got my copy of Kill the Queen signed. Since I have like 20 of Jennifer's books, it's always difficult to pick which one to take with me. If I get tickets for next year, I may just do the sequel to this one. Or maybe I'll do the first Mythos Academy book. Hmm... Decisions, decisions.

 

Next up was Maria V. Snyder. I'd brought my UK copy of Touch of Power for her to sign, and she talked about the different covers with me for quite a bit. I also got to talk with her about the FairyLoot editions I ordered, which will hopefully ship soon (*fingers crossed*). I think I'd brought up how signing makes authors' hands hurt and then she said she only signed like 500 a day or so, so her wrists wouldn't be in any pain. I think she mentioned she'd signed like 10,000 tip-ins for the FairyLoot editions.

And I believe Wendy Higgins was after that, but I could be wrong. Wendy was nice, she had a bowl of candy at her table, and I think it was her husband who took the photo. (Technically, a lot of husbands were there to take photos and assist their wives that weekend.) I'd grabbed a piece of candy and put it in my pocket, but I think it fell out at some point. Boo.

  We went to Lana Pecherczyk next to get the fancy special edition book from the Titan bag signed. I haven't read The Longing of Lone Wolves, but offering a special edition of the first book in the series is a great way to get new readers hooked onto your books. We didn't get a photo with Lana, since we didn't really know her or her work, but we got our bookmarks signed. Oh, and before I forget to mention, all of these signings were on the upper level, the Independence room. On the second day of signings, you have to stay in one area for the four-hour signing a.m. session and then switch in the afternoon. Attendees are split up by group A or B too. Because we'd already done all of our Ballroom signings, we didn't need to do the afternoon signing. But I'll talk about that later.

We saw Amanda Bouchet again this year. She's always so sweet. We talked about how her books are part of our book club picks, and we asked her about the next release in her Kingmaker Chronicles series. She told us that the next one likely won't be out until next year, but that's okay. I don't need it anytime soon. I'm drowning in things to read right now. I took book two in the Kingmaker Chronicles. Breath of Fire, to get signed by her.

I guess after Amanda we went to Katee Robert's table. I feel like this one is out of order, but oh well. At some point, we did go to Katee's table, so it doesn't matter in the long run. Also, her table was hard to find because there weren't any posters or signage. However, she was very friendly. Also, she stamped her books instead of signing due to wrist mobility issues. I had her stamp the ARC of Wicked Beauty I received at last year's ApollyCon and The Dragon's Bride, which I got from this year's ApollyCon. And I've read neither of them.

 

Then, we saw Stacey Marie Brown. We actually saw her last year as well, so I didn't have a book for her to sign this time. I still haven't finished the second book in the Savage Lands series, and I don't want to collect the paperbacks for the rest of the series since the spines don't match. Boooo... Stacey is hilarious though. She signed our library card bookmarks and dated them PAST DUE. She also talked about the artwork of two of the secondary characters in the Savage Lands series that you can see pictured above. Totally not how I pictured them, but it was cute.

I haven't read any of K.F. Breene's books, but she was the author we went to next because my friend had a preorder from her. I also had the paperback of Magical Midlife Madness that came in the Titan bag, so I figured I'd get that signed while I was there. Funnily enough, K.F. Breene ended up being the author that took the longest to get to. I guess because we didn't get tickets until later on, maybe? But we had a bit of a 10-minute-ish wait since she was the second-to-last author we wanted to see. We couldn't see the last one because of reasons I'll talk about next.

Because C.N Crawford is a husband/wife writing duo, my friend didn't want to go to their table until after she'd seen K.F. Breene. The reason: she only had two spaces left on her library card and she didn't want the two authors to take up both spaces when K.F. Breene needed a space too. Turns out, that wasn't an issue. They just sign half of the C.N. Crawford signature each. Also, this photo was really awkward to pose for. I don't think they'd had photos taken with anyone before because they tried to stand behind us. It was odd. Anyway, I've only read Frost by them, and I might read Ambrosia one day, Frost's sequel, but it's not high up on my priority list at this moment. I didn't have any books for them to sign, since I'd read Frost on Kindle Unlimited. And with that, we finished the signing portion of ApollyCon! At least for us, that is. Other people stayed for the afternoon signing. We didn't.

 

Before we left the Hyatt for lunch, we did end up doing a couple of photoshoots with the displays they had around the hotel. The neon sign was on the same level as the Independence signing room, while the other two were on the bottom Ballroom floor. The Bloom Books sign was kind of fun. You could point to your reader description, basically. I pointed to Series Junkie and Book Juggler, since I love my series and tend to read four to five books at a time for some weird reason. Once that was complete, we dropped our new and old, but now signed, books at out hotel room, and then went to eat some Mexican food. And after eating, we did what any tired person would do, we took a nap.

The After Party was later that night, so we left a good couple of hours beforehand to get in line at a decent time. The event only had 400 goodie bags with 600 people who could possibly attend, so we had to get a decent spot in line to guarantee a bag. My bag came with some of the stuff you see pictured, like a spray tube of hand sanitizer and a print from Haunting Adeline, a book I will probably never read. It also came with two books. The one I kept was A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson. The one I left outside the event for anyone to grab to take with them was A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker, since I already had a signed copy and couldn't fit a second one in my suitcase. I was actually kind of miffed we received it in the After Party bag after I purposefully preordered it for ApollyCon. It was kind of a waste of money.

 

I don't think this year's After Party was as fun as last year's. And that's saying something since this is pretty much my least favorite event. I'm just not a dancer, and we didn't dress up in costume because we didn't have the money to purchase clothes for both the Blood Forest event and the After Party. But it was cool to see a couple of different costumes in the crowd, like the couple who cosplayed as Sera and Nyktos, since the theme was Gods & Monsters. But unlike last year, they didn't have a giveaway. It was just dancing, drinks, and a 360-degree camera thing. Since I don't drink and I don't dance and I didn't dress up, it was kind of boring. My friend talked to someone sitting at our table, but the music was too loud for me to hear what they were saying. I pretty much just hung out on my phone and stuck around to wait until JLA showed up. But, even when she did, she didn't say much. Just gave a thank you, a warning about using the buddy system when walking back to hotels, and then she bounced. We stuck around until the end of the event, but I was glad to be out of there when it was over. Unfortunately, though, we had to pack after that and try to get all our new crap into our bags without being over the weight limit. We even borrowed a scale from a girl we met on the shuttle ride to the hotel who was also attending ApollyCon and was in a room a couple of doors down from us. Thankfully, I managed to get my suitcase under the 50-pound weight limit. My friend did not. She had to pay $75 for her checked bag.

So, the last event was the Brunch and Q&A with Jodi Picoult. My friend and I got up early, dropped our suitcases down at the hotel lobby for safekeeping, headed to the Hyatt, waited in line, sat near the back of the room once we got in so we could sneak out early, and then grabbed our food once our table was called. Unfortunately, by the time our table was called to go get food, a lot of it had been picked clean by then, despite the catering service replacing stuff every once in a while. I didn't get any potatoes with my eggs. Boo. But anyway, after the brunch, they gave us our bags. The bags had a special edition of Frost & Fire in it, a bind-up of Frigid and Scorched by JLA. It also had a plastic cup in it, a little pocket mirror, a nice pen and notebook, and a booksleeve, which the book was in. I let my friend have my cup, since it wouldn't fit in my backpack on the flight home, but everything else I was able to keep.

 

 

 

After that, JLA and Jodi came out for the Q&A. JLA basically interviewed Jodi about what she was working on, how she's co-authored a book with her daughter, and all the book-ban nonsense that's been happening around the U.S. It was actually pretty interesting, which I didn't expect considering I've never read a Jodi Picoult book. However, my friend and I had to duck out early to make it to our flight. Or, so we thought. We actually ended up picking up our bags and getting to the airport a little earlier than we anticipated, so we could've stayed at the Q&A a little bit longer, but oh well. Better to be safe than sorry. So yeah, I eventually got on my flight, met my parents at the airport to drive me home, and got Culvers for lunch on the way back.

 

Well, that was all for ApollyCon 2023. It was five days of craziness, but it was a controlled chaos, unlike last year's overwhelming madness. Tickets for 2024 go on sale soon, and I'm crossing my fingers I get one. It'll suck if I don't. With the new hotel location, though, I have a feeling 2024's event is going to be just as crazy as 2022's event was. But I still really want to go. Let's all pray to the book gods I get a ticket.

Stacking the Shelves: The Oops 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.

As I'm typing this post, I have one more day left in a giant work grant (due Friday at 10:59 p.m.), and then I'm free! I have three days off and no major deadlines for quite a while. This project has seriously been stressing me out, so I'm glad it's almost over. Plus, Memorial Day weekend is here and I'm excited to organize and clean my place. I may even do some spontaneous furniture shopping if I get in the mood, though I've spent way too much money to justify that plan.      .

For my book haul this week, I actually have two ARCs. I don't get physical ARCs very often, so it's always a treat. I won a copy of Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs from the publisher, and I requested The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz from Orbit. Unfortunately, I requested The Sun and the Void by mistake. I mixed it up with another upcoming release that has a similar title and cover, Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mairely Lares. Oops. Sorry, Orbit! While I'll still give The Sun and the Void a chance, it may take me a bit longer to get through since it's not something I'm gravitating towards right now.

 

Next, I have some ebooks. I ordered the ebook of Kresley Cole's Wicked Abyss because I don't remember reading it. I honestly don't think I have. It's not marked as Read on Goodreads, which baffles me because I usually read the Immortals After Dark books right as they come out. I guess I'm going out of order with this one, since I've already read the book that comes after it. Good thing Kresley's timelines are so overlapping. I doubt I missed much by skipping this one. I also bought this because I had some Kindle credits that were going to expire at the end of the month. In addition to Wicked Abyss, I got Malum Discordiae by Ashlyn Drewek on Kindle Unlimited. I'm reading it now, and it's giving me major The Covenant vibes, if you've ever watched that amazing witchy movie with Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, and Taylor Kitsch.

And here are some more Kindle Unlimited books. Or technically novellas. These things are freaking short, and I'm mad because the second one ended on a cliffhanger. Bro and the Beast is just a fun, dumb story (in a good way) about a dude who gets sucked into a werewolf-romance book and ends up being the mate of the book's hero. It's a wild ride, and book three comes out on Sunday, so I may sneak it in between the thicker fantasy titles I'm reading now.

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

Stacking the Shelves: The St@bby 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, things are chugging along. Work is heating up with a major deadline this coming Friday, and I'm at the point that whatever happens, happens. I tried my best. As for the rest of life, my older sister visited last weekend, though it wasn't for a great reason. A cousin of mine sadly passed away. We'd been estranged for a while, and she was older than me by a good twenty years, so I wasn't upset, but it's just weird to think your once young-adult relatives are now getting older too. But on to happier topics! Books!      .

First, I have my Barnes & Noble preorder of Cursed Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber. I still haven't read the first one, but I think it'll be cute. Therefore, I deemed it worthy enough to preorder book two. I actually have the first book as a LitJoy edition, but the only fancy thing about it is gold edges, so I'm not too worried about matching in that case. I never display my books with the edges out, with the exception of the Chest of Fandoms FBAA editions, but that's only because the covers are already so similar to the US editions.

Next, I have my FairyLoot Crescent City order. This, like Cursed Crowns, was sent to my parents' house because I'm too lazy to change the address. Plus, it's just safer to send them to my parents who live out in the middle of nowhere versus leaving them on my front porch where anyone could walk by. These Crescent City editions are nice. While I'm not super into the slipcases or the covers, the foiling on the naked hardcovers and the endpaper character art are lovely. However, the most recent CC book really irritated me, so if I don't like the next one, I may choose to get rid of these.

And here are my JLA Shop FBAA and ASITE daggers. These things weren't delivered until like 7 p.m. for some reason. I think I checked the mail three or four times that day. I don't even remember what day of the week it was. I think it was Monday. But, I do remember checking the mail before I left for the gym, when I got back from the gym, and then again when the box was finally there. I had to go outside and get it with a wet head after I took my shower! But anyway, these are super pretty. I do wish they were double-sided and that Poppy's dagger's handle was a bit more white, but they're super pretty nonetheless. I also wish I had my shelves ready to go so I could properly display everything.

And finally, I have my ebooks for the week. The first one is a Kindle Unlimited title, Alpha's Kiss by Shannon West. It was recommended in one of the Kindle rows, so I looked at the synopsis and decided to go for it. The other two ebooks are from Vela Roth's newsletter. She gave them away for free. I guess they're novellas in her Blood Grace series, which I haven't started yet but really want to. I couldn't find them on Goodreads, though, so that's kind of annoying. I had to use Google, and even then, I couldn't find a good image of Blood Legacy, the second novella I downloaded. How rude.

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

ApollyCon 2023 Recap: Day Two

Day two of ApollyCon was the most exhausting day. Why? Because it was raining outside, and that meant lugging around a bunch of books in the rain, since we were staying at a hotel across the street. My friend and I ended up using trashbags and plastic Ziploc bags to keep all of our books safe and dry in the cart. Plus, we were wearing giant green ponchos to keep ourselves dry too. We looked like weird homeless hitchhikers.

The panels started pretty early in the morning, and we didn't want to get wet by going back to the hotel in the pouring rain, so we decided to bring everything over in the morning and just stick around the Hyatt the entire day. Our first panel at 9 a.m. was Romantasy Vibes, and it had C.N. Crawford, the husband and wife duo; Olivia Wildenstein; Amanda Bouchet; Emma Hamm; Leslye Penelope; and Sarah A. Parker talking about their books. It wasn't a bad panel, but it was pretty similar to the one last year. I also think it was super early for most people to be up and talking.

The second panel we attended, (Mis)Behavior 101, was in the same room as the first panel. Actually, that's why we decided to attend it. We didn't want to lug our cart of books around and potentially lose a seat for the next panel that was in the same room, so we just decided to camp out. Crazily enough, (Mis)Behavior ended up being our favorite panel, mostly because Jillian and Liz, the 1,000 Dark Nights publisher ladies, are super funny. It was a good time. I don't think I'll read any of the authors' books anytime soon, but they are all funny. From left to right (in my horrible pic), there's Jillian and Liz, Sawyer Bennett, Helena Hunting, Dylan Allen, and Kristen Ashley is on the end. The other author who arrived late because of an elevator issue was Laura Kaye.

Panel three was Monsters, Beasts, + Paranormal Heat, and it was... interesting. I think they tried really hard to make it as funny as last year's version, but it just didn't quite hit the same, probably because only two of the same authors were there. The authors from left to right are, Maria Vale, Stacey Marie Brown, Piper J. Drake, K.F. Breene, C.M. Nacosta, and Lana Pecherczyk.

After the panels, it was time for lunch, so we decided to DoorDash from one of the places we really liked last year, Good Stuff Eatery. They have really good shakes and burgers. We also got their seasoned fries, which probably would have been amazing, but they got kind of soggy by the time that were delivered to us. But yeah, we just kind of hung out until the Titan signing started. We also figured out a cheat. There's no reason to get in line early like we did last year. Everyone is going to get inside, so it's easier just to hang out and then jump to the back of the line right as we can go in. It saved us so much foot pain. While we waited, the volunteers put an APOLLYCON balloon sign outside the doors, so we did a photo op with it.

  We went to the Ballroom level first for the start of the Titan signing. There were just more authors there that we 100% had to see and pick up preorders from. Our first stop was Chloe C. Penaranda, and she was super nice. I haven't read her books yet, but I've been wanting to get my hands on her hardcovers for a while, so one down, four or five to go. Excuse my almost-closed eyes in the photo. I have a blinking problem when it comes to pics.

Since we had good JLA tickets, we were able to go to her table next. I'm so happy we didn't have to wait until the very end like last year. It was great to get a photo where I wasn't stooped over and exhausted from carrying a bunch of books and standing in a bajillion lines. I had JLA sign my ALITF ApollyCon edition and my Origin copy, since I have the first three already signed, I figured I'd try to get all of them signed. Just two full books and one novella to go!

Then, we hopped into the JLA Shop line, which was one of my favorite parts because I bought the thing I was most excited for. But, before I get ahead of myself, while in line, my friend and I switched places to nab tickets for Charissa Weaks's signing line (we had to nab signing tickets throughout this whole thing, but I remember this one specifically because we were waiting in the JLA Shop line and it was moving pretty slowly because of everyone checking out and browsing). I also, while I was nabbing my Charissa ticket, picked up my Reading Portal FBAA Dominique Wesson prints preorder. Reading Portal was super friendly.

We finally made it to the front of the JLA Shop table where I picked up my Scorched preorder along with my ApollyCon t-shirt. I also bought these awesome shelfie/standees! The ones with Jemlin's Blood Forest artwork! AAAAAAHHH!!! They were honestly my favorite purchase of the night. I also got two prints, one of the map and the other of a quote from The Crown of Gilded Bones. Oh, and JLA had some swag she gave out at her table too. (Note: Scorched isn't pictured because I forgot to take a pic.)

Next, we went to Lilian T. James's table. Her table was so calm after the busier JLA ones. (I think she had some major luggage issues right before this event, so I'm glad things seemed to have worked out by the time signing started, and if they didn't, she hid it well.) But I loved her Crystal Island series (books one and two are the only ones out so far), so I'm glad I could talk to her for a bit without a bunch of interruptions. Though I'm sure I didn't say anything amazing or life-changing. I think I just asked about book three, but I might have done that the night before when she was at the Bookish Box event, so... who knows. We did pick up our preorders of her hardcover editions at ApollyCon, and she stamped them too. Oh, and side note, I'm glad I decided to buy the Bookish Box edition off that BST group, since Bookish Box wasn't selling copies to non-subscribers.

Up next was Amber Nicole. Her table was really cool. She had a very dark, witchy-vibe going on with her special editions, and her cover reveal for book two was posted behind her. She's also super tall, though I think she was wearing high heels as well. I picked up my ApollyCon exclusive hardcover from her and had my paperback version signed too. I can't decide if I'm going to keep the paperback or not. Part of me knows I should sell it because having two copies is ridiculous. I can't do that for every book. But another part of me wants to keep it just because I can. I think that part will win.

I think directly before this, I ended up running into Jemlin in person. She was super sweet and signed one of the many FBAA prints I have of her artwork. I brought it specifically because I was hoping to catch her at some point. Her signature is in gold on the very bottom. Also, Jemlin, I'm sorry I interrupted your signing time! She was going around talking with authors she'd done artwork for, which was actually a lot of them. I think she's done some for JLA, Jess Wisecup, Charissa Weaks, and a few others. And, since past me decided to take a photo of all the things together, I can also explain that my friend created library cards for the authors to sign for us. They're very cute. I just need to remember who everyone is. I think this post will help. And fun fact, the first day, all of the authors signed in either black or gold. Also, I brought the frame from last year because I needed it signed by Stephanie, JLA's ApollyCon guru, and Brigid Kemmerer, who I missed last year.

And next was K.A. Tucker. I don't remember talking to her very much. Not because she wasn't nice or anything, but because I hadn't read her books yet, so I think we were just trying to get our books signed and move along without her realizing we hadn't read them yet. Ha ha. She did give us both free swag though, so that's always a plus. It's better than what happened with the next author. I completely fumbled when it came to meeting Jess Wisecup. I acted like a darn fool. Lol.

So the Jess Wisecup story is embarassing. I mean, I didn't bang my knee on the table like I did right in front of Leigh Bardugo that one time, but I just couldn't pull myself together with Jess. I kept pointing at different art pieces and stickers that were on the table and asking for one when they only sold sets of three (e.g., three prints for $15, three stickers for $6). Well, for some reason, it didn't compute in my head at the time, so I just looked like a moron pointing to different items over and over again asking how much they were. Ugh. I swear, I'm not stupid, Jess! I was just tired! Also, when we were taking the pic, the assistant tried to run out of the frame and she ended up giving this amazing look. My friend went back and showed it to both of them, and they laughed.

 

Now, I can't remember what the order was for Jess Wisecup and Emma Hamm, since these photos weren't in my phone. I stole them from my friend. But we met them somewhere in this general lineup. They may have been after Lillian T. James, though. They're all blurring together. But anyway, my friend and I picked up our orders from Emma Hamm. We joked about her not having the books, since she made a jokey comment about not knowing where they were at during the Bookish Box event. Her partner/husband (not sure if they're married) was there too. He was friendly.

 

 

Real quick, I just want to mention that my friend stopped by Elizabeth Briggs's table to pick up a preorder, get things signed, and take a pic. I hadn't read anything by Elizabeth Briggs yet, so I decided not to purchase yet another book. I will read these at some point, though. They look fun. Oh, and here's a pic of me being a doofus while waiting in Charissa Weaks's signing line.

Charissa was nice too! I don't think any author wasn't nice, but it was so much different from last year. My friend and I could just be a little more relaxed and it wasn't as hot since the AC was working this time. But anyway, I had preordered the paperback copies of the first and third books in The Witch Collector series, as I ordered book two on Amazon. I wasn't planning on preordering the third book either, but it came with some Jemlin artwork, so I decided "Why not?".

Alright, so this one has a funny story with it. Well, not funny, but interesting. We went to see Rebecca Ross next. I got my copy of The Queen's Resistance signed. I'd already seen Rebecca at her NYC launch a few years ago when I had The Queen's Rising signed. I'd also preordered A River Enchanted, as I'd read a library copy and really enjoyed it. Well, when I went up there, they lost my order. I wasn't super upset, since I'd already brought a different book to sign. I just figured I'd get a refund, but they told me to come back later and they would try to figure something out. I came back later, and they'd found my copy. Hurrah!

Olivia Wildenstein was the sort-of last stop on the Ballroom level. I'd preordered The House of Beating Wings hardcover from her, so I got that and a pic. She accidentally had a book in my order that I'd canceled. I'd originally ordered both the first and second book, but they were just too expensive to buy at the same time when B&N is so much cheaper. So I gave that back to her. We had a bit of a kerfuffle with my friend's order, though, so after Olivia's table, we took a short break to plan what was next, as I think by this time, we'd seen everyone we needed to see on the bottom floor. It was time for the Independence level after that.

We actually only brought our Ballroom-level books on Friday, which meant we didn't have the books for any authors upstairs. But, there were a lot of authors upstairs that we only wanted our library cards signed from. One of those authors included Kami Garcia. I've seen her before in St. Louis, so I didn't have to bring a Beautiful Creatures book.

We picked up preorders from Ava Speirs next. She's actually an author I'd never heard of before, but my friend read the book and told me I'd like it, so I got it. The author also gave us a bag of candy with our preorders, which I promptly devoured later that night. Yummy.

I also went to see C.E. Ricci, which, if you've been following my recent Stacking the Shelves posts, you'll remember. I read all of her full-length books except one before ApollyCon. I think there's like five of them. I told her that I only had one left, and she immediately knew which one I hadn't read yet. It's a spinoff with a character that appeared in the River of Rain duology. He acted like a jerk in that series, so I didn't want to read a whole book about him. I've heard good things, though, so I might give it a try and see if there's redemption.

We went to have Lexi Ryan sign our library cards next. We'd seen her last year and we already owned signed FairyLoot editions of her books, so we didn't have a book for her. My friend did remind Lexi that last time she was at ApollyCon, my friend accidentally hit Lexi in the boob with her backpack. It was a memorable talking point. Lol.

And I think the last author we saw that night (that we hadn't seen already that day) was Brigid Kemmerer. Like with Lexi Ryan, we didn't have books for her to sign. I was supposed to get both my library card and my frame signed, but I forgot about the frame, even though she was one of two reasons I decided to bring it! So, I had to get in her line again on Saturday as well. That was it for Friday, though, besides when we had to go back downstairs to pick up my A River Enchanted copy and my friend went back to visit Olivia Wildenstein's table. After that, we just hopped on a couch to wait until the Sourcebooks event started later that night.

 

So the last event of the night was the Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Feud game. It was a twist on Family Feud with romance as the topic. Sourcebooks had put out a survey to have results for the game in advance. I remember answering it! But, unfortunately, the event just wasn't that great. Like last year, the attendees were too noisy to hear anything. Also, the game could only be played by like 12 people at a time, which left the rest of us just sitting there, since we couldn't really hear what the players were saying. My friend and I ended up leaving after a couple of rounds. We were tired and we had to rainproof ourselves and our cart. Oh, but when we walked into the event, we were able to grab swag bags. I think I threw away most of the swag items, but it did come with an ARC of A Crown of Ivy and Glass, which is ginormous! It almost didn't make the cut for my suitcase on the flight home. 

 

Once that was all done, we walked to the hotel in the wet, unpacked everything, prepped everything for the Saturday morning signing, and then went to bed. I think my friend ate a Hot Pocket she bought from the hotel lobby concession area too, if you're interested in our oh-so-crazy antics. We're wild ladies! Stay tuned for day three's post so you can see just how absolutely insane we get! I'll give you a hint, there were naps involved.