Hello, World!

Hello out there! Angela and I have decided to finally combine forces and make a blog to give more in depth reviews of all the books we read. We are both super active on Goodreads (I'll post links to our profiles at some point... still trying to figure out this whole blog thing), so we wanted our own space to dedicate to our love for books.

 What an appropriate day to start a blog. Today, our awesome local bookstore Blue Bicycle (hosts of YALLFest)  hosted The Fierce Reads Book Tour featuring authors Marie Rutkoski (The Winner's Curse), Caragh M. O'Brien (Vault of Dreamers), and Ann Aguirre (Mortal Danger).To be honest, this was my very first book panel/signing so I was beyond excited. The event started at 5:30 so we were having to pull some Fast and the Furious driving to get where we needed to be since we don't get off work until 5pm... BUT WE MADE IT ON TIME! Oh my gosh, what a fun experience. All of the authors were so personable and had the group laughing the entire time. I really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing how each story came into works.

Angela was even awesome enough to thumb wrestle Marie Rutkoski for an ARC of her second book The Winner's Crime!! WHAT. You could probably hear her shriek all over Charleston when she saw the ARC. Needless to say, we had a killer time. I can't wait for Angela to finish the ARC so I can borrow it. Stay tuned for a review!

If you haven't had a chance to read The Winner's Curse, I would definitely recommend it. I'm going to go ahead and say up front that I was NOT a fan of the book at first. I enjoyed the main character but had a lot of problems with how she went about things, and I really didn't like the main guy. Most of all, I HATED the ending. OMG throw the book against the wall HATE. Angela was all like "OMG wasn't that the most romantic ending ever?!?!" I thought she was on crack because we interpreted the ending COMPLETELY different. Luckily we were about to reach out to Marie on Twitter and ask her to settle the score. Unfortunately for me, Angela was right and the ending meant what she thought it meant. This however completely changed the book for me, so I really am looking forward to reading the ARC and also purchasing the book when it comes out.

As far as Vault of Dreamers, I have not had a chance to read it yet. Angela has read it, so maybe she can swoop in and give a review or you can check our her GoodReads review about it. It is on my (neverending) To-Read shelf.

Mortal Danger was sort of a dud for me. I really liked the concept of it except I really hated how it was gone about. The main character basically makes a deal with the devil when she is planning to commit suicide. She is granted three favors, the first she promptly uses to turn herself into a super hot girl. The book landed itself on the Did Not Finish shelf for me. I made it to the half way point (which is the respectable point in which you can break up with a book) and had rolled my eyes so much at all the vanity that I just couldn't anymore. After speaking with the author about how dark the book supposedly finishes, I am re-interested and may have to pick it back up eventually to give it another whirl.

All in all, it was definitely a successful trip. We are really looking forward to YALLFest coming up in November at Blue Bicycle. If anyone out there is planning on attending, leave us a comment so we can see about meeting up! We love new book fangirl/boy friends!

That's all for now, guys. I am going to go try to work on this blog layout stuff (though it may as well be in French) so it looks as pretty as we hope it will. I'm also about halfway through Black City by Elizabeth Richards, so I am hoping to get a review up for that here soon!

-Leah

(I'll be posting a review for The Vault of Dreamers this week -Angela)