Hello friends!This past weekend was the long-awaited, always exhausting Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Every year I look forward to this event. It's exhausting as hell, but so worth it.
This year I went with more of a game plan. I didn't want to bring too many books from home and I wanted to stick to a budget. I did pretty darn good job sticking to my game plan. I only had 9 books to bring from home (1 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday - all small books so they weren't heavy) and I stuck to my $40 budget. Had romance been represented more, that budget would have probably gotten blown out of the water, but that's a rant for a different day.
By the end of the weekend, I added 15 new books to my library. All of which I completely adore and can't wait to put away. Plus I got to spend 2 days hanging out with my friend Ezrah from Eye Heart Romance. I always have a blast chilling and chatting about books with her.
Here are the books I brought home...
Saturday - Day 1
Saturday was definitely the less busy day of the weekend. My first goal of the day was to see Mia Hopkins. I adore her to pieces and I always look forward to our chats each year. Funny story... I was determined to buy the remaining 3 books in her Cowboys & Cocktails series to complete my collection. The lady in front of me bought the last copy of Cowboy Player, but I did purchase Cowboy Valentine and Cowboy Resurrection. I can update now that my collection is complete and I'm going to start collecting Mia's other series, Kings of California. That'll be next year's purchases! :)
After hitting Starbucks and grabbing lunch, it was time to meet Brenda Novak at the Mysterious Galaxy booth. I've only read two of Brenda's books before, but I pre-ordered her 2018 event tote bag and picked up the book that I got with it. I ended up going with When Summer Comes. She is such a lovely lady and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books in the future.
Sunday - Day 2
As you can see, Sunday was slightly busier and I pretty much spent the day going back and forth to LARA's RWA booth for different authors, most of whom actually recognized me. What?! My stalking game must be strong.
Up first was Victoria Denault, whom I met previously at the California Dreamin' readers event last year in Brea. I loved that this time I really got to chat with her about her books and our love of hockey. I was so excited to get ARCs of Score and Slammed. I also purchased a copy of Game On. Then I chatted with Catherine Bybee while getting copies of Doing It Over and Not Quite Crazy, both of which I loved. Then rounding up the 10 o'clock authors was Carol Ericson. I've met her before and actually brought 2 books from home for her to sign and picked up her new book, Bulletproof SEAL. I'm going to talk more about her and other Harlequin authors in a future post.
After grabbing Starbucks and wandering around, we went back to the RWA booth to see Stacy Wise. I met her briefly 3 years ago so it was nice to see her again and catch up. She introduced me to Robin Bielman. I knew I wanted to get Stacy's new book, Maybe Someone Like You, but picking up Robin's Talk British to Me was totally an impulse purchase.
After meeting up with Ezrah's mom and having lunch, we parted ways and I went off for my final trip back to the RWA booth. Of course I had to go see HelenKay Dimon. I brought 6 books from home for HelenKay to sign, including a blast from the past book that she loved seeing. Since I already have the books she brought with her, I ended up getting two books there. One is a surprise for a friend and the other is going to be a future giveaway prize. Before I left for the day I picked up the final 2 books that completed my haul - The Texan's Wedding Escape by Charlene Sands and Forever a Father by Lynne Marshall. Sadly, I didn't have time to chat much with both ladies, but I look forward to reading their books.
That wraps up the fun, but exhausting weekend. I'm still recovering a bit, but I already can't wait for next year. Fingers crossed it'll have more romance. Again, that's a rant for a different day.
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