BEA 2016: part I

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while since I've posted a review, but a lot of things happened to me this year. The most interesting thing for you, guys? I went to BEA 2016!!!! That means goodies are coming your way very, very soon!

So a quick recap about what's going on in my life right now and why I have to apologize for missing you so much: I am finishing my degree at UAB in chemical engineering (wohoo!), I'm a single lady now (let's get this party started!!!), I have been accepted at 7 colleges in the UK to do my masters degree in Biotechnology (help me decide?), I went to BEA 2016 (a crazy moment in my life, but the best decision ever!), I've been working a lot organizing tour at the FFBC Tours and I finally met my US sister and co-owner of the FFBC Tours, Anasheh, also blogger at A Reading Nurse (see proof below). 

All that said, I missed you guys I have my last exam on June 8th and then I am all yours. I promise to write all my pending reviews, host a lot of giveaways and send you lots of virtual hugs!

But I also have to do a recap of my fabulous trip to Chicago! After organizing so many tours for the FFBC Tours I decided that If I was going to cross the ocean to go "book hunting" at least I would let Anasheh handle the organization of this trip. Oh, and she did (Thank you, sis!). I was so lost about what happened at BEA that I was flipping out when Anasheh told me that we didn't have to pay for the books at the expo.

So you can imagine... The first day I was expecting to grab just a few books, go easy and see the exhibition booths... Guys, it was pretty crazy. Everyone rushed to enter the exhibition area as it was Black Friday (almost!) and we picked so many books that my mom had to remind me that we couldn't buy a house just for the books.

The second and third day was when all the "waiting" started and when the real book hunting started. We had to divide and conquer. 

So Anasheh and I made a deal: she will go to one exhibition booth while I went running like someone wanted to murder me to another one and meet in the next booth. But after a few hours later we decided that it would be better if I was the one running like a crazy woman while Anasheh watched all our bags. In a comfortable position! I am not that cruel!

And the waiting part is because the book signings started! YAY! I met a lot of authors and got a lot of books signed!!!

Tahereh Mafi, Kristen Simmons, Alexandra Bracken, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Sarah Shepard, Sabaa Tahir & Natalie D. Richards

In one of our "OMG, I can't do this anymore. I need to rest or else I'm going to die" moments, we ended up in an authors' conference where some amazing authors were talking about their upcoming novels.

But our BEA events didn't end up when we left the McComirck Place. We were invited to Fierce Reads Cocktail Party on Thursday night! YAY!

In there we had the chance to socialize with other bloggers, meet Mary & Molly (publicists at Macmillan that we have work a lot with for the FFBC Tours) and meet some AMAZING authors, such as Leigh Bardugo, Caleb Roehrig (who loved my red lipstick *grins*), Marissa Meyer and Kami Garcia. We talked, we laughed, took a lot of photos and drank a lot of wine (well... this was partly all me). 

But that's not ALL! Fierce Reads gave us some AMAZING tote bags with an ARC of Heartless by Marissa Meyer (wohoo!), an ARC of Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig, an ARC of The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia, an sample of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, a copy of 1984 by George Orwell with a secret password *insert dramatic music here*, a bookish t-shirt, a super cute and professional red wallet from Macmillan and some cool Crooked Kingdom tattoos! Aren't they AMAZING? I totally fangirled a lot all night long as you can imagine.

Okay, so I think that BEA 2016 made me wiser and it was an experience I recommend to every book lover. At least once in a lifetime. And here's a list of the things I learned/realized after this mind-blowing trip:

         1. BEA 2016 was my Book Hunger Games. As in literally.

       2. Going to BEA 2016 has not cured my obsession with still wanting to buy books even if I already have an enormous TBR pile of books.

      3. Having the urge to sleep everywhere while at BEA can be a normal behavior. Even the floor seems nice enough to take a quick nap. 

      4. Bring a suitcase with you to BEA 2016 to leave all your books when you cannot carry them anymore in the exhibit hall. Don't be me. I died. My shoulders are no longer shoulders. I carry the mark of the unprepared-for-BEA-2016 booknerd.

      5. I have absolutely no control over the amount of books I want (I think I'm starting to realize that I might have a problem... Not sure about this one yet).

      6. I need to buy another room for the books now.

     7. Scratch number 6. I need to buy another house just to store the books in a nice and organized way.

      8. There's no need to be greedy at BEA. There's plenty of ARCs. Usually. So just pick one.

      9. Rolling over the ARCs you got in a dreamy way can be painful. Even more if you throw them at you as if they were money bills.

Warning: Do not do this with books.

So, guys, what do you think? Anyone wanting to go to BEA 2017?

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb

Kissing in America
by Margo Rabb
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: May 26th 2015
Rate: Enjoyed it (3,5 stars)

Synopsis:

I loved romances because when you opened the first page, you knew the story would end well. Your heart wouldn't be broken. I loved that security, that guaranteed love.

In real life, you never knew the ending. I hated that.

Sixteen-year-old Eva has never been in love. But when she meets Will, everything changes. With him, her grief over her father's death fades, and she can escape from her difficult relationship with her mother. Then, without any warning, Will picks up and moves to California. So Eva—with the help of her best friend, Annie—concocts a plan to travel across the country to see him again. As they leave New York City for the first time and road-trip across America, they encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way, Eva and Annie learn the truth about love and all its complexities.

Kissing in America is truly a heart-breaking story that will inspire you with every page and make you read a truly amazing teenage experience around America through Eva's point of view.

Let's start this review saying that the previous title Margo's book had, Cures for Heartbreak, was more accurate than the actual one. Kissing in America is not your book if you're looking for a summer romance with butterflies and rainbows and a very happily ever after. Kissing in America is Evie's story about believing in love even after she has all the reasons to just give up, to trying to survive to the loss of her father and being the only romantic person left in her house.

What I liked about the story was Annie. She's what I like to call a true teenager. She has problems, she falls in love, does impulsive things, talks and dreams about boys, has it's ups and downs with her mother... Like a said, a true teenager. Plus, she has a literary side that I truly loved. Her love for literature made me put post-its all over my ARC to remember where they were. 

The story starts a bit slow to my liking, but we had to understand Annie's surroundings, her situation and what Will meant to her. So I could pass it up. There are some way funny moments that made me laugh out loud, but the author had the ability to also combine heart-breaking and romantic moments. 

See an example:

I wanted to text my mom: I would shoot myself, but instead I'll go poison myself because Janet would find that a nice sanitary way to die.

"Let's just say it doesn't look like the most comfortable thing on the planet. Their penises are four feet long."
"I'm not planning on having sex with an elephant."

"The story was a fantasy, but the feelings were real, I thought as we got back on the bus. That yearning, the sparks, the enormity of love - I felt those exact things with Will."

"Grief isn't like a map you can follow. It's not a simple route with a destination. Sometimes you loop back and find yourself in the exact same place you left."

Overall, Kissing in America was a good read and it was a different read from all the romance stories I had been reading. Kissing in America was more about healing and discovering that you can survive a break up. That you can learn from your experiences and mistakes and that everything can happen. It was truly an adventure.

Maia Mitchell as Eva

Gregg Sulkin as Will

Ariel Winter as Annie

Winona Ryder as Eva's Mom

Tina Fey as Eva's Aunt

Follow the Kissing in America AUDIO TOUR that Epic Reads is hosting. You can win lots of prizes and hear excerpts from Margo Rabb's book. Click on the banner below to start following the AUDIO TOUR!

Follow the Kissing in America by Margo Rabb Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Margo Rabb's stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope: All Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, New England Review, One Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on National Public Radio. She received grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in The Atlantic Monthly fiction contest, first prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. She grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two children. A complete list of her published work can be found here.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY for a chance to win a SOUVENIR from EACH CITY!

Rules & Conditions

ENTER NOW THE GIVEAWAY