Dream-Cast Ladies Addition

If you follow us on any social sites than you should know that once a month we put up a post about our choices for Fictional Book Boyfriends/Dreamcast... Well we thought it would be fun to show yall some of our lady choices. Hopefully this will be something we can continue in the future. Same as with our other post, if we have a review on our blog for these books just click the titles.

The Selection by Kiera Cass
35 girls are chosen to be a part of a bachelor style contest to marry the prince.

 

Holland Roden as America Singer

Legend by Marie Lu

Girl has to choose to fight for either her country or love.

Hailee Steinfeld as June Iparis

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 

Female assassin must compete against fellow criminals in hopes to win freedom.

Natalie Dormer as Celaena Sardothien

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover 

Girl moves in with musician neighbor. 

Imogen Poots as Sydney 

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi  
Government seeks untouchable girl to use as weapon. 

Odeya Rush as Juliette

YALLFest Day 2!!!

Yesterday was the second day of Yallfest, and IT WAS AMAZING!!! I (Angela) was off work so Leah, Richard (Leah's husband) and I were all able to go out there together and see everyone!

For those of you that follow us and are from Charleston, out of state, or out of town just to catch you up, YALLFest is a once a year two day YA book festival. It's located in Leah and I's home town of Charleston, SC. It's actually the largest YA book festival in the country. It's hosted by the cutest little local book shop called Blue Bike Books that is located in downtown Charleston. It's spread out over several streets with multiple hours of signings. Along with the signings there are Keynote speakers, a YA smackdown, and several panels you can attend. You can also purchase books, shirts, and get lots of free goodies.

The weather outside is flawless this time of year so it made getting up at 5:30 in the morning so worth it. And that's how we started our early and by rushing around to make sure we got there early. We knew that James Dashner and Veronica Roth were both only seeing select number of fans so we knew we had to plan perfect and....

I'm pretty sure we did the impossible because we were able to see both Veronica Roth and James Dashner! They were both only seeing the first 200 people and we somehow managed to get wristbands and see both of them in like less than two hours!

James Dashner was who we choose to see as our keynote speaker and we're so glad we did! He was super funny, charming, and probably one of the nicest authors we met. His panel was all about how he became and author, what his writing process is, and how he's handling everything now that the movie is out. Being able to get a wristband and meet him was amazing. He took the time to not rush his signings and talked to every single person on a personal level. He also didn't have a one book limit and was willing to take photos with everyone.

 

That was the only downside of seeing Veronica Roth. She was only allowing one book to be signed and no pictures to be taken with her, I mean we get it she's freaking VRoth and people would probably want to take a million pictures, but it was still a little bit of a bummer about the one book thing. The positive side about her "strict" signing was that it went super smooth and we were able to see her, talk for a few moments, and then go to our next signing with no wait time. Just being able to meet both of them was such a pleasure.

The other authors we saw were Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout.The line for Sarah J. Maas was insane (theres a video on our insta)! Once again we lucked out and got there super early. We were in the first 15 to go in. She was so sweet and also allowed any amount of books to get signed and personalized.

 

  

I will say seeing Jennifer L. Armentrout was the biggest highlight for both of us. She was so funny and sweet. She is our my favorite author and was our #1 must see. I really think she took book signing to a whole new level! She had no limit on how many books you could get signed and she actually asked to take pictures with us. Plus she personalized every book we brought in. I know it might be a little hard to see in pictures but my book seriously says "#TeamRoth cant even stand it :)".

 

Like it's been a full day and I'm still coming down from my fangirl high from seeing her. The fact that she had no limits on books, wanted to take pictures, and did it all with such positive energy just shows why she is the best! She was also signing in a train museum which really made it interesting. We sadly didn't make it out to Marie Lu's line since it was crazy insane and was at the same time as JLA's.

As far as Swag Bags went Leah and I made out with posters, buttons, shirts, bookmarks, and a ton of book samples. The girls from EpicReads were out there hooking people up with posters and totes. Also the folks from TheNovl where hooking everyone waiting in line to see James Dashner with hot coffee and water bottles!

 

Overall our experience at Yallfest was amazing. Everyone, even the people visiting from out of town were so polite, and caring. It was not only amazing seeing the authors, it was amazing talking and meeting new people. We are so excited to go again in 2015! All that being said we will definitely be bringing rolly-bags instead of totes next year, gonna be feelin the book burn for the next few days!

I've posted some pictures here but to see more go to the contact section of our blog and check out our instagrams!I'm also going to put a list below of who all we saw over the two days. If you'd like to read their reviews they'll be located in the A-Z section of our blog.

Day 1:
Kiera Cass: The Selection Series 
Michelle Hodkins: The Mara Dyer Trilogy

Day 2: 
Jennifer L. Armentrout: The Lux Series, The Covenant Series, The Dark Elements Series, etc.
James Dashner: The Maze Runner Trilogy, The Eye of Minds
Veronica Roth: The Divergent Trilogy, Four
Sarah J. Maas: The Throne of Glass Series


I also had a super awkward and hilarious run in with Gayle Forman while we were down there too.

Let us know if you went, who you saw, and what you love! Sorry if we didn't get to meet you there but hopefully we'll meet more followers in the near future!

<3
A&L

Birthday Book Haul

November is my favorite month for many reasons. The weather is FINALLY getting cooler, YALLFest (btw stay tuned for a post on that), and best of all: MY BIRTHDAY! WOOHOO! The best part of birthdays when you get older is most older relatives give you cash which means you can go on a book spending spree! My birthday book haul includes:

-Legend series by Marie Lu (Not pictured. She's one of the authors we are planning on meeting at YALLFest and I only had her books on Nook, so I had to buy them so she can sign them!)
-Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake
-Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout
-A Thousands Pieces of You by Claudia Gray


This haul doesn't include the books I already have and also the book I am planning on buying November 4th. Can anyone guess what it is?? THE RETRIBUTION OF MARA FREAKING DYER!! It's finally here! We have all been waiting forever for this book to be out and you better believe I will be at the bookstore as soon as I can to get my copy. No sleep will happen until I find out what happens to my booboo Noah Shaw.


Stay tuned for lots of reviews this week! I've already got a couple of lined up for YALLFest authors plus what I am currently reading! I have a HUGE pile of TBR books that I plan on tackling and making a big dent in. I am on vacation from work all this week, so my plan is to read a book a day. #bestvacationever

-Leah

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Adelina caught the Blood Fever when she was a young child. The fever swelled so much inside of her that a doctor had to remove her left eye. After she healed, she also developed markings that many children were cursed with after the Fever. Her hair and eye lashes turned silver and now she has a huge scar across her face where her eye should be. Her mother died from the Fever and her sister survived but did not become marked. She grew up with her sister who has developed into a beautiful young girl and her awful father who hates her for what she has become. Her dad sucks. Like really really sucks. After he makes a deal to sell her away to some old guy as his mistress, she tries to run away but he ends up hunting her down. She conquers up some dark powers and accidentally kills him.

Adelina doesn't discover that her powers are like the other Young Elites (a group of young folks that are marked from the Fever and developed supernatural type powers) until she is rescued by them at her execution for the murder of her father. Enzo, Raffaele, Lucent, Gemma, Michel, and Dante are the Young Elites who take her in and help train her and show her how to use her powers. Their main goal is to overthrow the king and take over the kingdom and like marked people like them live normal lives and not be outcast and executed.

First things first, this isn't a happy book. You're not going to come away from it feeling all the happy feels or find yourself laughing at funny dialogue. Marie Lu made this book super dark. Personally, I felt like I was reading a story from the villain's point of view instead of the heroines. Adelina isn't a heroine. She is dark and has dark things living inside her. She gains her power from how the darkness feels inside her and she thrives off of fear and anger. This isn't a story where she learns to harness her bitterness and turns good and hearts and happy endings. Nope, she gets darker and more powerful as the book goes on. I mean, you can't really blame her because she has pretty much been shat on her entire life. Her father sucks, society treats her like a freak, the kingdom wants her dead, and even her new Young Elite friends are kind of using her for what they can for their mission. She's a pretty bitter person and probably would do better with a round of therapy for her daddy issues instead of trying to conquer demons from the underworld. I just didn't like her as a leading lady because her choices and the things she does pretty much hurts everyone around her in someway. I just feel like she didn't develop as a character as the story went along. She just kind of spends most of the book feeling sorry for herself, talking about how she doesn't know how much time has passed, and being followed around by her father's ghost who tells her much she sucks.

The story was pretty much a NOmance for me. The relationship Adelina develops with Enzo was weird, especially since they are both so volatile. They are pretty much doomed even though nothing really even develops. I was kind of hoping she would start something up with Raffaele (who BTW kind of reminds me of a zen version of Magnus Bane).

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book. It just wasn't for me. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters and when deaths happened, I just kind of felt "meh." The writing was very descriptive and the world developed nicely. I didn't really feel like I was even getting into it until 100pg in, and even after that I didn't feel attached. I could have easily put this book down and not came back to it. There is a good cliffhanger and twist at the end, but I feel like it kind if sets it up for the next book.. Especially with what happens in the epilogue. I don't know. I know most people really loved this book, but it just wasn't for me. I probably won't bother reading the sequels because I just don't really care what happens to the characters.

3/5 stars