Fierce Reads Tour Recap!

Sooo I suck and forgot to take pictures when I was there - I know, I'm sorry! I was disappointed too. But I forgot because I was laughing too hard!

The Fierce Reads tour stop came to San Diego on June 6. We were lucky to not only have Anna Banks, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Bosworth and Emmy Laybourne present, but also Jessica Brody and Marissa Meyer! I'd only read Struck and Cinder before the tour, but all the books have been getting rave reviews and it was exciting to hear them speak about each one.

I won Struck from another blogger, but it hasn't come in yet :(

They showed the Tour Trailer and the book trailers (their names above link to each trailer!), with each author introducing and giving the inspiration behind their book after the trailer. They then opened up for questions and finished with a massive signing and swag spree.

The usual bullet point recap! (It's long this time since there were six authors to cover! You should see my notes, super scribbled and I had to make symbols for each author for shorthand.)

• Emmy says Monument 14, even though it is violent, has a lot of heart.
• Leigh had the idea for her book when she was staying at a friend's house and in the middle of the night was in the dark and scrabbling around for a light.
• Leigh started to think what if darkness were a place you couldn't leave and had to cross.
• Jessica considers herself "decisionally challenged" (her own term!), similar to her character in My Life Undecided.
• Her idea came while she was watching The Hills. She thought to herself, "I could make better decisions!"
• Marissa saw a contest on a website that gave a list of things that had to be included in a story; she wrote a "Sci-Fi Puss in Boots" story. She didn't win, but ran with the general idea.
• Marissa had a dream vision of Cinderella losing a foot rather than her shoe.
• Anna thinks the model in her trailer has sexy feet.
• Anna felt everything else was taken and taken well, so she chose to write about mermaids. She calls Of Poseidon a "cousin" of Little Mermaid.
• Marissa says Anna has great comic delivery. (and I have to agree!)
• Jennifer had to take Benedryl right before the event and was awesomely loopy/spacey.
• Struck came together really well and shortly after Hurricane Katrina.
• Jennifer says Mia (main character in Struck) is a piece of her, and figured if she put her character into an extreme situation, maybe she would get answers and find out something about herself.
• Leigh envisioned Shadow and Bone as a trilogy. Since it is a High Fantasy, there are a lot of places it can go.
• Emmy likes writing series because it allows her to create a continuous connection with readers.
• Jennifer says she wanted Struck to be a trilogy, though it is currently a stand-alone. At the time it was sold, trilogies were not popular.
• Jennifer has a title for Book 2 if it were to exist: Aftershock. (As someone who lives in Earthquake country, I heartily endorse that title!)
• Anna made several references to a Sasquatch novel. (For the record, I am totally for that!)
• Jennifer wrote 3 stories before getting published.
• Cinder is Marissa's first finished story - she's had 7 or 8 other attempts.
• Emmy has written 5 screenplays, but Monument 14 is her first story.
• Emmy was a comedian and actress - if you've seen Superstar (with Molly Shannon), she played the best friend.
• Of Poseidon is Anna's second novel, but her first one will be coming out later in the year - which she can't tell us about. (Such a tease!)
• Jennifer wanted to be Stephen King when she was younger.
• Leigh is a make-up and special effects artist, and has also worked as a journalist and copywriter.
• Emmy used to be a ghost writer for RL Stine - she wrote several of the "give yourself goosebumps" (choose your own adventure) books!

This group of authors is probably the funniest I've ever seen, because they each have their own little brand of dry, sarcastic humor - and it's very unassuming! They're all really well spoken (seriously - my note on Emmy Laybourne was 'strong, confident voice') and clear, it was awesome to hear them. They've all got their own version of humor.

Also, anyone else agree this is possibly the most attractive tour group ever?! Because damn, yo.

And of course, they are awesome and signed everything that was asked of them. I'm constantly grateful and amazed at authors for the patience and smiles they have for us readers.

I saw after the event I forgot to have Marissa sign it :(

Since I didn't have any of Jessica's books or Of Poseidon yet, they signed a bookmark/book sampler. 

And the swag! I know it's a ton, but I grabbed two extras of most because of a future giveaway - two lucky people will get these plus more!

This was also an AWESOME event for me as a blogger because I finally got to see and meet other bloggers!
 > Sierra from Yearning To Read.
> Natasha.
> Jamie from The Lost Lola - awesome to meet her, but so short :( It's ok, next time we shall chat! (Also, you should check out her awesome post of fashion from Masque of the Red Death. So cool!)
> Lisa Cannon, from YA Know and I'm certain a future author!
> Andrea, Debra and Nikki, who I met at the YA or Bust signing a few months ago - I was a little nervous they wouldn't remember me, but it was a useless worry because they were just as friendly and fantastic as I remember.
> Jon Yang (maybe you've read his book Exclusively Chloe?), who is actually an author/blogger I've "e-known" for years - before I even had a book blog! It's rare for me to meet anyone who knows about my personal blog, so I was nervous - but all was fine, Jon is awesome and I'm glad we finally got to meet!

So, another successful author tour - and so much fun! Every author was wonderful, I loved all the people I finally got to meet/see again, and now I have a freakin' sweet stack of books to get crackin' on! I'm thinking I may have to go for Shadow and Bone first, because the cover art, map and reviews are too positive to ignore.

How COOL is that map?!

The remaining Fierce Reads tour dates/locations are below - and I highly recommend going if you can!

June 14: Naperville, Illinois | June 15: Lansing, Michigan | June 16: Pensacola, Florida

June 17: Rhinebeck, New York | June 18: New York, New York

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1) by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends, 387 pages
US Release Date: January 3, 2012
Challenges: Local Library Challenge, Debut Author Challenge

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
------------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

Lines drawn into his face suggested he had spent many years thinking very hard over very difficult problems. But his eyes were bluer than the sky and, at that moment, they were smiling.

Even though this is a retelling of a classic fairy tale that we all know and love dearly, Cinder is still one of the most original stories I've ever, ever read - absolutely incredible.

I was a little weary heading in when I knew it was about a Cyborg Cinderella, because there's so many potential questions. How is she a Cyborg? (How) Does she feel? Is she the only one? How does she function in society? What do they think of her? Simply put, I was worried.

All for naught.

(Sidebar: Do people still say that, by the way? I've been called an old British Biddy when I say that IRL.)

During last week's Top Ten Tuesday, the topic was books we'd like to see as movies, and I was startled to see so many lists include Cinder. But it really would be perfect, because the world Marissa Meyer builds is fantastic. The entire society and city of New Beijing, even the brief mentions of other continents...it all integrates so well. I was completely immersed in the story, to the point where I truly had to spend a few minutes drawing myself back out whenever I put it down.

I'm not sure if my brain is just weird, but I had the plot figured out pretty quickly; I don't know if certain plot points were meant to be Major Twists, but nothing really was for me. But oddly enough, it was almost better for me that way! I was fairly certain how everything was going to work, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing just how they were going to get there. I mean, basic plot elements are expected since this is a retelling of a classic, but there was so much more to the story as well, and I was eating up everything I could about it.

I loved how Marissa Meyer worked in magic - in the classic tale, magic functions as a beneficial element. It helps disguise Cinderella, it is the reason why she has the opportunity to go to the Ball and see the Prince. But in Cinder, the magic has so much more potential and SO much more use. It can be negative and evil and destructive, while also useful and good. The variation was surprising and awesome.

There's SO much more of this I want to talk about. I want to say how awesome and multi-faceted Cinder was, discuss how brilliant I thought the merging of human + cyborg was, discuss how horrible the Lunars are, talk about how in love I am with Prince Kai, how I wanted to cry when Peony got sick, how I wished I had a sensor when Cinder and the Doctor were chatting because I couldn't figure out what was real and what wasn't....there's was SO much of this that had me in awe that someone could create this entire society and world.

Quite obviously, I am in love with this book. It's a simple twist on a simple tale that makes it entirely extraordinary.  Now, BOOK TWO WHERE ARE YOU?!? I NEED YOU!

5 Stars / 5

(and oh my Stars it would get more if I could)