DBF or "How I Fangirled For Two Days & Didn't Get Kicked Out"

Last weekend I bribed convinced my husband to take me to the Decatur Book Festival. All I had to hear was the word "book" and I was sold, but then I found out that Rachel Hawkins and Cassie Clare would be there. I think my head might have exploded from the awesome. I also may have ordered a Hot Boys With Swords bag. And I may have convinced several authors to sign it. (Picture at the end of the post!)


Let me tell you: they all lived up to it. I couldn't believe how genuinely NICE all of the authors were! They were funny, they were insightful, and they were real. (I touched a few of them!!) (*fangirls*) See?

Me (Leigh), Myra McEntire, and Victoria Schwab taking a ninja-stealth-pic with Cassie Clare

Saundra Mitchell and Jessica Verday were absolutely adorable talking about what went into creating their fantasy worlds. (I mean adorable in the best sense of the word, by the way.) Saundra explained her not-at-all-creepy use of Google Maps Street View: she used it to pick the spot on the highway to make her fake town for Shadowed Summer.


Rachel Hawkins and Nancy Werlin were wonderful as they discussed their (sometimes different) views on paranormal literature. Rachel had a TON of perfect examples/quotes. She pointed out that Buffy took a normal teen experience ("I slept with my boyfriend and now he won't talk to me") and turned it into: "I slept with my boyfriend and now he wants to kill me." Nancy talked book covers for a bit, and about how even if a book cover doesn't fit a book (*cough* there's-no-cat-in-Hex-Hall *cough), that doesn't mean it's not a good cover. If you've read the book and can COMPLAIN that it's not right, then the cover did it's job. So, it was the right cover. Deep, no?

Also? Rachel let me touch her blue streaks. Because she is.. wait for it... AMAZEBALLS!

Rachel Hawkins, who says I didn't scare her off

Of course, I also got to listen to Cassie Clare read from CoFA and have her sign my book! AND my Hot Boys With Swords bag. She is every bit as awesome as you have heard, and she spent at least two hours sitting in the heat signing books. She deserves her #1 on the NYT bestseller list and THEN some.

"Team 'They Should Be Doing It" - Cassie Clare, "Yes!" - Nancy Werlin, and "Caspian FTW! HBWS + RH = 4-eva!" - Rachel Hawkins

But most of all? I just flat-out had fun meeting a TON of people who I recognized from the blog, from Twitter, and just from their general good-taste-in-books! Vania, who makes awesome book trailers, is so nice! (I've already decided I want her to do my headshot someday!) You should all watch out for these debut authors (who were so ridiculously sweet and I can't WAIT to read their books!): Myra McEntyre (Hourglass), Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch), and Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer).

In short? I loved it, loved them, and so incredibly lucky to have had the chance to meet everyone who was there. Book people ROCK!

Reading Rain-bow: Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Okay, I'm excited about this book. Maybe because I just (just) finished it. Or maybe because I finished it in one day. Yes, even with a new baby and a three year old, I finished Impossible by Nancy Werlin in ONE DAY.






Synopsis:

Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair," this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale. Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?

For me, this was one of those suck-you-in books, but it didn't happen right away. I really wasn't even aware it was happening until I realized I had read 200 pages in the span of 12 hours (which included 6 hours of interrupted sleep), which is not normal behavior as of late. What I loved about it was the mystery of it all. From the prologue, the reader has a basic idea of what is going on before the main characters do, but it doesn't give too much away, so I was desperate to find out more. I found myself racing through to find out whether or not the tasks could be completed, and if Lucy would succeed.

The other thing I liked about this book is how it never strayed from the real world. I know I normally love being sucked into faery-land, but I liked how this book stayed grounded in the real world, while dealing with the Other Weird Things. That being said, I would have loved to hear more from the evil Elfin Knight. The few glimpses we get into his mind are fascinating and it would have been fun to see more of that, because we all love a good villain.

One of the unique things about this book is that it is based on the ballad "Scarborough Fair." Not exactly Simon & Garfunkel's version, but the Scottish ballad traced back to 1670. For you folklore lovers out there (and I'm totally a folklore nerd), this will only make the book that much more interesting. And real.

And the characters! I loved Lucy, although not so much in the beginning. I mean, braids on prom night? With high-top sneakers? But, it was after the tragic turn of events that occurred on prom night that I began to love her. She is forced to grow up much too quickly and take responsibility for her own future, as dire as it seems. She does this with a strength and tenacity that is admirable and beautiful to watch. And then there's Zach. Sweet, adoring, strong Zach. There's a love story mixed in here, and while I'm not going to give away how or why it comes about, I will say that I was moved by it (even the sappy moments).

I had not heard of this book before I randomly picked it up, and I'm wondering how I missed it until now. I definitely recommend reading it - and let me know what you think!