Showcase Sunday #53

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here ~Vicki at Books, Biscuts, and Tea

PHYSICAL BOOKS

Purchased
Talon (Talon #1) by Julie Kagawa – Before I fangirl about how amazing Julie is, let me just say that this book is gorgeous! The front cover has raised places, so it feels like scales. Inside the dust jacket, it has the dragon symbol imprinted in gold. You open the cover and it has the dragon symbol in black and red. It’s well worth every penny, and that’s without even having red the content yet. Aside from that, OMFG, Julie is awesome. She’s sweet and funny and incredibly talented and I love her.
The Dance Of The Red Death (Masque Of The Red Death #2) by Bethany Griffin – The same day as the Kagawa signing, there was actually and additional one after with Bethany and Kelly Creagh and Katie McGarry and Colette Ballard. That was the perfect excuse to pickup a copy a physical copy of this. It’s a pretty good conclusion to the Masque Of The Red Death series. You can read my review here.
The Fall by Bethany Griffith – Same reason as before. Also, I just want to read this badly. Bethany was so cool. She was wearing this awesome Zombie Poe shirt that I loved.
Here Be Monsters! (The Ratbridge Chronicles #1) by Alan Snow – So technically this is my husband’s book. I bought it for him while I was out of town, but it’ll still be in my library, so I couldn’t resist including it. If you’ve seen the movie The Boxtrolls, you’ll understand why we’re so eager to read this. This is the book it’s based on. Considering that it’s a kid’s book, it’s huge, but all the better!
The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2) by Julie Kagawa – I worried a little that this book wouldn’t arrive in time for the signing. Luckily, it finally showed up, completing my four set of the original Iron Fey series.
The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey: Call Of The Forgotten #2) by Julie Kagawa – I really enjoyed this (you can read my review here) but it ends on the worst cliffhanger. I desperately want the next book and Julie promises me, it’s coming next year. 🙂
Running On Empty (Running On Empty #1) by Colette Ballard – I had never heard of this before this event, but it sounds so good and Colette is so sweet and adorable! Keep your eyes open and you might see a giveaway for a bookmark or two heading your way.

Gifted
Girl On A Wire by Gwenda Bond – When I went to a signing with Gwenda last month, we were so busy chatting over this particular book (which I was in the middle of reading) that we forgot to get my copy of The Woken Gods signed. I told her about it and she was nice enough to send me a copy of this to make up for it! It’s sssssssooooo good! You can read my review here. Thank you so much!

For Review
The Chateau On The Lake by Charlotte Betts – I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It looks like more historical than romance and those don’t end particularly well, but I’m excited to give it a try!

DIGITAL BOOKS
Amazon Freebies

Master Over You by Ethan Winters & Cerys du Lys- Dark and free and dude! Look at her boots! WANTSSSSSSS! Also, this is a dark romance co-authored by a guy! Gimme!
Fresh Temptation (Barboza Brothers #1) by Reeni Austin – “Cara Green has a young son, three part-time jobs, and a few extra pounds.” A romance about a girl who isn’t a stick? GIMME!

AUDIO BOOKS
Purchased

Model Spy (The Specialists #1) by Shannon Greenland – I downloaded the ebook of this for review forever ago. Maybe if I have an audio copy, I’ll get around to it faster. It does sound like a very fun read.

SWAG

All these authors were amazing. As you can see, I have stacks of bookmarks for them. I’ll have plenty to giveaway in the future. 🙂

This Talon poster is huge! And gorgeous. I may have gotten an extra autographed one to giveaway….hint hint

This is my favorite thing. Lauren and I have taken to bringing a tote bag from her library to get signed. It’s mostly so we have something for everyone to sign even if I don’t have their book or can’t buy it. We usually just get autographs. This time, however, Julie started a chain of events when she drew a dragon on it. Katie drew a cloud sheep so the dragon won’t go hungry and then Kelly drew a character from her book. It’s the coolest thing. I’m definitely going to have to find a frame for it to put it up in my library.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

In between the two events, we wondered into a Build A Bear workshop so Lauren could build a Toothless. I refrained from building anything (mostly because my money went towards books instead), but when I saw Applebloom, I couldn’t resist. You never see plushies or toys of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had all three, but Applebloom is my favorite of the three. She’s so adorable.

Frozen

My husband bought this for me when I was away. He’s so cute! Sven is my favorite character in Frozen. He’s so much better than stupid Olaf whose face is EVERYWHERE. I love him so much.

Other things
I don’t know if any of you realize how far yesterday’s signing was away from me, but the answer is 7 hours. We left home Friday afternoon after work and arrived at the hotel just before midnight. We drove around in circles the next morning trying to find a decent place to eat for breakfast and did two different events, but making the drive home (which, trust me, is worse than the drive up). After hearing about that, Julie invited us to dinner with them after the second signing. Katie had to leave because of family obligations, but it was fantastic. You’ll hear more about it when Lauren gets her recap post written for me, but it was the most amazing experience.

What did you get this week? Let me know in the comments!