Spring Into the Future: Los Angeles

On April 12, 2012, Mary and I attended a mega author event. The reason why i call it mega is because there were five amazing authors on the panel! Anna Carey (Eve), Cynthia Hand (Hallowed), Marie Lu (Legend), Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me) and Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky) were all there!

Mary is a huge fan of the Eve Trilogy and is hugely anticipating Once, the sequel to Eve expected to be released on July 3rd. You can read her five star review of Eve here.

Unfortunately, we have not had the pleasure of reading Unearthly and Hallowed. You know, sometimes you have these great looking books and you read things online that get you so interested...but for whatever reason you just haven't read them! I've been guilty of this with a few other series that I just tell mary that I'm going to read them right before the next one comes out. That way, I'm not dying for the sequel, as is the case with most books. However, I am excited to say that I will be reading and reviewing the series this month! We met a fellow YA book lover, Leah and she is a huge fan of Unearthly; she talked to us about the series and assured us that we would enjoy it.

Legend is very dear to us, it was the first ARC/blog tour we ever participated in and I read it in one sitting. I sat on my couch on a Friday night and read it straight through. It was so good! Read my five star review here. Marie talked about Legend and gave us a little insight on the sequel. The sequel's title, Prodigy was announced the following which is expected to be released on January 29, 2013.

Tahereh Mafi is all kinds of awesomeness. Not only is she a fantastic writer and stylish fashionista (she loves shoes and coats) but she is so great with her fans online and in real life. This was our third time meeting her. We were so lucky to be there for her launch, she signed our books while we tried not to go all fangirly. But seriously, how could we not? The second time was at the Breathless Reads tour in Montrose. My husband noticed her first and I very excitedly shouted to her from across the street! Read my five star review here, if you haven't read Shatter Me yet, READ IT! The sequel, Unravel Me is out  February 5, 2013, I died a little when I saw the date but it'll give me a chance to reread it, and I know it will be worth the wait.

And finally, Veronica Rossi, author of one of my 2012 favorites, Under the Never Sky. We seriously loved this book so much, click here to read our five star review. For some reason, I thought she was on the east coast so I thought I'd never meet her, but when we found out she was going to be at this event, we couldn't resist. The sequel, Through the Ever Night is expected to release in 2013, no specific date has been found. I am such a fan of the purple/blue cover and can't wait to see what the sequels cover is going to look like.

One of favorite things is to see YA authors supporting each other. Mary noticed Lauren Kate, author of The Fallen Series who sat right in front of us. She was so sweet to take a picture with us! She also blurbed for Carey's Eve, so two guesses who she was there to visit. So cool.

We have attended our fair share of author events and it's such an honor to meet all of these wonderful people behind these amazing books. They're also a great place to meet other people who love YA and our YA circle of friends has grown so much. Thank you to all of the authors, publishers, Vroman's and others who made this event possible.

Check out our slide show of the event!