I Feel Like Gabbing Today - Swoon Reads Edition

 ** Welcome! This is a completely random discussion post feature where I will share with you the very random thoughts that pop into my head and chat with you about them. Many are bookish thoughts and many are not. I feel like I don't have enough discussion type posts on the blog so I am giving this a whirl. Some days I will talk about a specific topic and sometimes I will just throw some random thoughts at you. So please sit back, relax, and take a second to chat with me today.

The Swoon Reads Tour

I was lucky enough to have the Swoon Reads Summer of Swoon Tour (The Authors: Sandy Hall, Temple West, Kimberly Karilus, and Katie Van Ark) make a stop only about 40 minutes away from where I live on May 12! So I obviously had to go. I even switched my work schedule around so I could make it so. I am so glad I did. I dragged my friends from the library who I forced to read A Little Something Different with me. (Please note that they did come willingly because they loved the book I threw at them.) We all had so much fun!

The event was at a nice bookstore (filled with a lot of books and an awesome staff) called The Book Stall. Stacey of the Pageturners blog was the mediator and she did a nice job. There may have been only about 13 people there, but the smaller setting made it less formal, which we ended up really appreciating. I do want to apologize in advance for not taking a lot of pictures. The whole place was super cute looking. I swear.

The Books: I LOVE A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall. It's uniqueness and cuteness made me swoon. Here is my review of that book here. I also LOVE Velvet by Temple West. I am a sucker for vampires and she made a funny and unique vampire story. My review for Velvet is here. I also got to meet Kimberly Karilus of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters and Katie Van Ark of The Boy Next Door. I have a copy of both of these books now and plan to read them soon.

The Books!

So what went down at the event? We created 10 word love stories. We ate cupcakes. We listened to the authors talk about everything from writing, to getting published with Swoon Reads, to their current reads, and more. They had us laughing, smiling, and nodding along in agreement. My friend even won a giveaway of books! The best part... meeting the authors! Every single one of these ladies was brilliant during the discussion panel. They were very down to earth, funny, and very sweet. Getting to talk to Temple West and Sandy Hall one on one was my favorite! 

From Left to Right: Deanna, Sandy Hall!!, Alanna, and Me!

****On June 6th when my blog turns 3 I will be having two giveaways and one will feature a signed ARC of Velvet! So come back to the blog to enter to win!

Have you read these books? What did you think? Did you make it to one of the Swoon Reads tour stops?