Recap: Rachel Gilling's St. Louis Tour Stop

I decided kind of last-minute to go to Rachel Gillig's St. Louis signing for The Knight and the Moth, so I thought I'd give a quick recap. There have been a few St. Louis author events I would have liked to attend, but they're all usually in the middle of the week and I have to travel two hours one-way to get there. So, since this event was on a Saturday (May 24th, to be exact), I said, "Let's do it!" But, like I said, it was still a pretty last-minute decision, as I wasn't sure I wanted to go since you had to buy a book with the ticket and I already had the ARC version and FairyLoot and Barnes & Noble editions on the way. However, I saw the videos of the B&N version with the blue foil and decided I wanted the regular version. I just like the look of the silver foil better. So I thought if I'm going to buy the regular edition, I might as well get a signed one.

 

 

My dad said he'd go with me, so we headed out from my place and got to The Sun Theatre around 4:30ish. I got my pre-signed copy of The Knight and the Moth when I walked in, along with my signing number ticket. I was in Group 5 out of, I believe, 6 or 7, so that was kind of a bummer as it meant waiting longer to get my books signed after the discussion. Next time, I'll get there earlier to get a better ticket. I thought they were still doing the signings by seat. That shows how long it's been since I've been to one. Ha ha. I ended up chatting with the ladies next to me when I found a seat. It was, thankfully, a seat near the front, so that was nice. The place was almost full by the time I got there. It was a sold-out event. But anyway, my seat neighbors and I talked about NetGalley ARCs and special editions to kill time before it started. 

 

Rachel Gillig (on the left in yellow) started at a little after 5 p.m. She was funny and charming in a positive, awkward way, like a self-deprecating-sense-of-humor type. I have a few videos from the beginning of the signing, but this one was my favorite because they talk about Bartholomew, my favorite character in the book. He was probably everyone's favorite character, honestly. 

 

 

 

Rachel discussed how Sybil's appearance is similar to Aurora the singer, and Rory's is similar to a male singer I had never heard of before. Well, I've never heard of either of them, but I specifically didn't know how to spell the singer for Rory to look it up for this post. Rachel also said she likes to write slowburn romance to make readers suffer, she likes tangible magic rules (her example was how El in Stranger Things can just do things and it irritates her how it's not explained), and she calls herself a sedentary toad for liking to write on her couch in her home. For The Knight and the Moth specifically, she talked about how 2025 is the year of lady knights in publishing. She blames The Green Knight film for that. She also said Zelda is a big inspiration for her. And the only hints she gave us for book two include the word "tournament" and that there was inspiration from A Knight's Tale film. 

 

  

  

 

After the panel, I waited like 1.5 hours to get my books signed. Since The Knight and the Moth hardback came pre-signed, I just got my three copies that I brought signed instead. There was a three-item limit to what you could get signed, and only one The Knight and the Moth copy could be personalized. I tend not to get books personalized anymore unless they're like a major favorite author (i.e., J.R. Ward or JLA), so I stuck to just a signature. I would potentially have gotten my B&N edition signed, but it wasn't delivered until right as I was in Rachel Gillig's signing event. How rude, B&N. Please fix your shipping times. Honestly, though, I'm not even sure that I'm going to keep the B&N edition. I think I'll wait until book two comes out to decide which edition I'll keep/get rid of. 

  

 

 

The signing line itself didn't take very long. It was a quick drop-your-books-and-take-a-pic line. I think I barely said hi to her. They did have us hold up our The Knight and the Moth copies, so I held up my ARC version, since it was the one I got signed. I also got my One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns B&N editions signed as well. After that, my poor dad (who sat in the car the entire time for some reason instead of going out and doing something) and I headed home. We stopped at Culver's on the way for a small snack too.

Stacking the Shelves: The Knight and the Moth 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.

This week feels like it's been chaos, even though it was a short work-week. I went to the Rachel Gillig signing last Saturday, ran errands and ate with my parents, worked out, etc., and of course, even though I thought work would be quiet, it was nuts for random reasons. It just seemed like everything was 10x more complicated than it needed to be. But, oh well. The weekend is here and that's all that matters.

First up in this week's haul, I have my two copies of The Knight and the Moth. The regular edition was the one I purchased with my ticket for the signing event, while the Barnes & Noble one was delivered right when I was two hours away meeting Rachel Gillig. B&N, your shipping sucks. But anyway, I'll have a recap post up for the event soon. 

 

 

Next, I have my FairyLoot edition of The Ragpicker King by Cassandra Clare, and no, I have not read the first book yet. I figure I'll just buy all these and take the risk that I might not like them. Sigh. I have got to stop doing that. That's the goal for 2025, to read more FairyLoot sub books before buying the sequels. I also received my French edition of A Fire in the Flesh by JLA. FNAC ships so fast! This arrived like a day or two after it released on the 28th!

And finally, I have some ebooks. These are all from Kindle Unlimited, and they're all in the same series. It's the first three books in the Madison Kate series by Tate James: Hate, Liar, and Fake. Now, I actually read these one at a time, so I already returned Hate and Liar once I finished them. I haven't started Fake yet, though. I read these because Books for Days Crate is selling special editions, and I wasn't going to buy them if I hadn't read the book. Not sure I'm interested in buying physical copies anymore, though. The series isn't quite what I was hoping for.

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

ApollyCon 2025 Recap: Day Two

I finally got around writing my Day Two ApollyCon recap post. Huzzah! It was a long day with a lot of photo opportunities, so you get a whole lot of pics in this one. In addition to all of the events we went to, we also had to switch hotels super early in the morning. Thankfully, we were able to check in around 8 a.m., when we got to the convention hotel. That was nice. After dropping our stuff off, though, we had to head to some panels.

 

First up was a panel we went to mostly to ensure we were in the same room as the next panel. However, we were still interested in seeing some of the authors, like Lucinda Dark/Lucy Smoke and Eva Chase. Clio Evans and Mo Flames were also speaking. All of the ladies were funny. The panel was called Oops I Did It Again, And Again, And Again, and it was about reverse harem/why choose stories.

Next up was the last panel we went to for the convention. It was called Hotties & Hellions, Monsters & Mages. J.R. Ward, Emma Hamm, and Adrianne May were speaking, and it was sponsored by Gallery Books, the authors' publisher. Of course, we were there for J.R. and Emma Hamm. I was familiar with the other two authors, but I've never read anything by them. Also, Anna Todd wasn't there, so she must have canceled. This panel was great, though. There were a lot of jokes about various monster-type love interests and milk crates. J.R. Ward also started tearing up, which made everyone else tear up. Oh, and she gave her now-famous author speech about believing in yourself and your writing. I'm sure you can find it, if you look it up.

 

 

After the panels, we picked up some preorders, like my Poppy and Cas wooden cards from Fire Dark Artistry, a T-shirt from Midnight Whispers, and a shirt and a set of Titan books from the JLA/ApollyCon shop. We wear the shirts throughout the weekend, so you'll see them in pics. We also took some pics with the various displays that were out in the hallway. After that, I think we got food at Nandos and chilled in the hotel room for a bit before the chaos of the evening started. We had to get ready for the big Coronation event later, which meant putting on sparkly makeup, fixing hair, putting on a dress and glittery shoes, etc. It was a lot.

 

Before the Coronation event, though, I was able to attend an invite-only sponsored event. It was based on a lottery system, and I was lucky enough to get chosen. I was able to attend Stacia Stark's Into the Kingdom of Death event. It was packed, which made it ridiculously hot in there. When I walked in, everything was crowded and people were running around screaming out numbers. It turns out, they had a game where you go around and find people with the same number as you, members of the author's team, etc. I ended up filling my entire sheet out, surprisingly, since I'm not normally good at finding and talking to people during ice breaker events like this. I was also kind of sad that I didn't bring a pen and kept having to borrow someone else's. I didn't know there would be a need for one. Ha ha. But I took some pics of Stacia talking to the crowd and myself standing in front of one of the backdrops. It was a fun event, just overcrowded.

 

 

Stacia's event also had a couple of standees of the male main characters. I know one is Lorian, who I'm currently reading about now. I haven't met the other guy yet, and I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I'm not looking anything up to figure out who he is. Stacia and her team were kind enough to gift every attendee with an ARC of the new guy's book, Vicious Dream, which is a spinoff of the original Kingdom of Lies series. She also gave out a romantasy magazine and some swag. Oh, and I also apparently won one of the standees to take home with me. I passed, though, as there was no way I was going to be able to get it home safely, unfortunately.

 

Now, here comes the crazy part. There were just so many cool things to take photos of at the Coronation event, which was based off of Jennifer's Flesh & Fire series, however, I couldn't possibly put them all on this post without it being mega long. So, you'll get some snippets of the cool stuff. First, though, a pic of us. Because we worked hard on that makeup and figuring out what kind of outfits to wear. And, fun coincidence, we kind of matched the vibe of the event, as I wore black and silver, which was like the Primal of Death, and my friend wore white and gold, like the Primal of Life. We also were each given crowns at the start of the event that matched our outfit choices.

 

Here's some of the cool decor without my weirdo self tainting everything. Lol. There were so many character standees and props that it was impossible to get photos of everything. I know I missed a bunch. The volunteers also wore gold dragon masks, and there were cake pops. Yummy. We were able to get a good seat up at the front of the event since we had a friend who was able to get in early. She saved room for us. We were only three rows away from JLA during the panel. It was awesome compared to where we had to sit in previous years. I was able to get some very nice videos.

 

And here we have more pics, only this time, you get me in them. Now, sadly, I cannot tell you who every character is in some of these standee photos. I just don't remember the side characters' names as much when compared to the Blood & Ash series, at least, not off the top of my head. I do know that I got pics with Attes, Sera, Nyktos, Nektas, and Nektas with Jadis and Reaver, though.

 

The panel started after we were able to get some pics with the decor. We didn't know it, but JLA was taking photos with fans before the event started. We missed out before the event, but we were able to get pics with her after. The panel consisted of a lot of the same questions, but we did learn some new stuff, like the new release information for POBAB and that there will be another book coming in 2026. I also submitted a question before the event via their online form, and it was answered during the panel. I have a video clip of my question being answered, but it was too large to upload, so you'll just have to pretend to be excited for me. It was a question about Kieran. No surprise there! I forgot to take a pic of the bags we received. We got nice Lug Life bags with draken print inside. They had a mug, a cloth book jacket, and the ApollyCon paperback edition of A Shadow in the Ember inside.

 

Now, for the last event of the night. We had to go change since we were very tired of being in our dress-up clothes. Plus, attire for the event was described as "pink and black." So I changed into my JLA Shop pink ApollyCon shirt for Holly Renee's event. It was called What's Your Fantasy?, and it was kind of like a mini carnival. There were games with tickets and you could win prizes at each booth. The good prizes had already been won by the time we got there, though. It was mostly swag stuff versus the books that we saw some people with. But, I did get to meet Dacre for a kissing booth moment, which was cute. We also met Holly and took some cute pics.

 

Well, that was all for the second day. It was probably one of the most hectic Thursdays of my ApollyCon experience. Normally, there's only one major event on Thursday with the panels in the morning. This time, there were three. Ugh. Craziness. Stay tuned for the Day Three post coming soon!