The time Blue Willow Bookshop was so helpful.

The cover of Everneath by Brodi Ashton sucked me in right away.  I ordered a copy to be signed at her launch party being held at the King's English Bookstore [SLC, Utah]. The event was being held at the end of January.

I had wanted Incarnate by Jodi Meadows pretty much right after I read the synopsis for it.  Always one to want a signed copy, I hunted her down and ended up ordering the book online at the Dark Days event she was attending at the Blue Willow Bookshop [Houston, TX].  This event was being held towards the end of February.

Flash forward to the week of the Dark Days event in TX.  I receive an email from an employee at the Kings English letting me know that they had lost my order and had refunded my credit card.  They ended the email asking if I wanted to order the book again and they would "try" to get Brodi to come in and sign/personalize it for me.  I answered that, in fact, I did not want to order with them again and went on the hunt for Brodi's next appearance. 

Side note: I have ordered many things from the Kings English and have nothing but good things to say about their service and employees.

The next day, I called Blue Willow to see if I could add to my Jodi Meadows order. [Hooray for Brodi and Jodi signing at the same Dark Days event!!] Since I had already paid for shipping, I was hoping that it would be enough to cover both books.  The woman who answered [I think her name was Alice, but I'm not entirely sure] told me to go ahead and order online, select "store pick up" and in the notes reference my other order number.  She went further to say she was pretty sure she could get both books in the mail for the one shipping cost and if she couldn't, she'd make it work anyways.

I got my books in the mail today.  Both were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and perfect.

I definitely look forward to buying from them again.

The time I almost left before the signing.

At the beginning of the month, when the Breathless Reads tour was announced, I emailed Once Upon a Time bookstore to see if it was going to be a ticketed event. Meaning you either had to spend so much money or just buy one book to get a number the corresponded to where in the line you would be. I mentioned that I lived in San Diego and planned on driving up for the event, so I wanted to make sure I didn't need to drive up to the store before the event.

Maureen [who I'm pretty sure is either the manager or the owner] emailed me back. She basically told me that I was singlehandedly ruining independent bookstores by buying books online and that if I wasn't going to support the event by buying something from the store hosting it, author events wouldn't be able to continue. [All valid points, but not even close to answering what I asked]. After further correspondence, I was told a copy of one of the books for an appearing author would be left for me behind the counter.

Flash forward to the day of the signing. We got up to Montrose with 2 hours to kill. We headed straight to the bookstore to pick up my book. I went to the counter and told the girl that I was picking up a book on hold for the signing being held. There was an older woman standing off to the side talking with someone.

I won't go into serious details because they're long. And detailed. I will say that not only were the employees treated deplorably, I was as well. Maureen [who turned out to the the older woman off to the side] flat out told me I was lying about not getting a return email regarding a different matter. When the book that was supposed to be behind the counter couldn't be found she said "God, it can be any copy. It doesn't have to be behind the counter. Can't you pick up a different copy?".

If it wasn't the last night for the Breathless Reads tour and the only day that some of the authors were going to be anywhere near me, I would have walked out the door.

Alas....

The event started at 7pm and we went back to the bookstore at 6:20 or so and all of the seats had already been filled. I stood towards the back, but couldn't see the authors where they were seated due to people standing wherever they could.

The event was set up like a panel, there was even a moderator. They had a planned set of questions that was asked to each author. Even though I couldn't see the girls [I made my husband come in and take pictures for me since he's taller] they are all super animated. They are all full of fun stories and giggles.

After the moderator questions has been finished, I figured that since I couldn't see them anyways, I'd go and get in line for the signing while they answered audience questions. Because the store was going to have an intermission between the panel and the signing, I wanted to be close to the front to get done sooner to be able to start the drive home. As I walked out, I was told that I could start a line if I wanted, but there was no guarantee that the line would form after me.

The Q&A was finished and everyone did file out and get behind the few of us who were already lined up. While the store emptied out, they rearranged the set up so the four women were seated at tables. We walked up first and all four women were eating some gourmet cupcakes that had been provided.

We didn't have a book for Marie to sign. I told her that we loved her and that we attended her launch party at MGRB. As I passed out the 5 books I had for the three women, I also asked if they would sign the lanyard the bookstore required for the signing. Before we left, I thanked all of them for their time and for going on tour for their books.

A bit off topic... Tahereh Mafi ended up making an appearance at the event. I was inside and my husband was standing outside. A guy [I think it might be her boyfriend, but I'm not sure] who came with Tahereh recognized my husband and asked were his "violent counterpart" was. We had met him at Tahereh's MG Dark Days event and started talking to us when he saw me smack my husband after he made an inappropriate comment in a crowded bookstore.

Tahereh recognized me [squee!!], gave me a hug [squee!!] and then willingly took another picture with me. When someone noticed we were both holding our Kate Spade purses, she knocked them together and said "They're friends!!" She is toooooo adorable.

Anyhoo.

All four women on the Breathless Reads tour are lovely. They are adorable and charming and tell the best stories. And while my experience with Once Upon a Time Bookstore was not one I would willingly repeat, all four made it worth the time and drive.

The time Linda from Mysterious Galaxy was extra awesome.

So.  A few weeks ago, Stacey Jay was tweeting back and forth with Mysterious Galaxy about her upcoming visit to San Diego and how she wanted to come into the store and sign their back stock.  Seeing that I follow both, I was privy to the entire conversation and I eagerly jumped in, first asking Stacey if she would sign my copy of Juliet Immortal that I dropped off and then asking MG if they would let me drop a book off.

Stacey answered and agreed right away. She gave me a vague time frame of when she'd be in town, as her plans hadn't been finalized.  The next day, after not hearing back from MG on Twitter, I emailed the store asking the same question.  In the responding email, I was told that if I purchased the book in the store, it would have been already signed, and further more, the person sending the email knew nothing of the signing. 

I responded to the person [who didn't sign off with a name, just the MG signature that automatically goes on every email] that it wasn't an "official" signing, but Stacey just dropping in.  I added that I got the information from their Twitter account.  I thanked Anonymous for getting back to me and just figured that I would have to wait for Stacey to tour for her next book.

Enter Linda.

She responded to my email saying that she was looking into the conversation with Stacey on Twitter and would let me know what was going on.  Needless to say, Linda confirmed that Stacey was planning on coming in and that I absolutely could drop off my book for her to sign.

Flash forward to today, I got an email from Linda telling me that my book was signed and all ready to be picked up.  Of course, I went down there immediately after work.

As if I couldn't love MG more...

The time I bought a book because of a last name.

It's no secret that I'm horribly in love with Étienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. He is the swooniest boy ever. I've typed his name so many times on my phone that it is now in autocorrect. [*cringes* That sounds so weird.]

So. While browsing the events page for Mysterious Galaxy, I saw the author name Sara Wilson Etienne and I instantly stopped. When I read the synopsis for her book Harbinger I was intrigued. Enough to buy the book the day it came out and devoured it in one night.

On the night of the signing, I posted something on Twitter about how I was heading up to MGRB for the event. Sara answered me that she'd see me there. Then she commented on my avatar [David Tennant at CC]. That launched us into a brief conversation about her seeing David at the appearance my avatar was from and my going to London to see two shows of Much Ado About Nothing with David and Catherine Tate.

As always, we got up to the store early. And as always, I walked into the YA section and proceeded to buy some books that I didn't necessarily need, but that's besides the point.

First off, Sara is adorable. She has the most amazing purple hair. And she wears mismatched socks [one was striped and one was stars]. I love her just for that because I wear mismatched socks every day.

Sara was there with another author and they had a list of topics to present their books in a contrasting manner. I thought that was clever and it was an interesting way to see how different the two authors [as well as their stories] were. They covered the synopsis for their books, the music they write to, and if there was a specific thing they needed to do in order to write.

After about 15 minutes of taking, the signing started. When they passed out post-it notes for personalization, I was already prepared. The girl in front of me joked that she usually was as well. Turns out it was Nicole from the Dear Bully panel who showed up with a gabillion books all already labeled. She's the one who taught me to carry Sharpees and post-it notes with me.

When I got up to Sara, she saw my Whovian shirt and commented that I was the one she was talking to on Twitter. I asked her who her favorite Doctor was and she said David Tennant, even though she watched the series when she was a kid. And like me, she'll watch anything David is in because he's "so hot". :D

You just can't go wrong with an author with purple hair who loves David Tennant. I'll be keeping an eye out for her future work.