Bookchella 2018

Hello loves! It’s almost BOOKCHELLA time and I’m so incredibly excited to see some of my favorite authors and meet my fellow booklovers!

LA Times Festival of Books 2018 will be held April 21 and April 22 at the USC campus. It is the largest book festival in the country and this year will be my second time going. Two weeks after that, Yallwest will be held Saturday, May 5 at Santa Monica High School with a preview event on May 4.

I’m still waiting for LA Times Festival of Books to post their line-up and schedule, but I’m sure it would be epic! Last year was my first time going and I had so much fun. It’s not as hectic as Yallwest, but you definitely still need some planning. There were so many booths, signings, and panels that my friend and I got lost a few times.

Yallwest is an absolutely fun-filled day of book singing, panels, free ARCs, games, food trucks, and general geeky shenanigans. This year will be my 3rd time going and I CANNOT WAIT! The Author Line-Up was posted a few days ago and IT IS AHHHMAAAZZINNNGGGG!! Marissa Meyer (AHHHH I finally get to meet her!!!), Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, Jenny Han and Kasie West are just some of the authors I can’t wait to see. For the full Line-Up, click HERE. There are so many other awesome authors on the list and I’m already hyperventilating thinking about how I can do everything. The first year I went, the festival was two days and you were able to do a lot. Last year, they made it only 1 day and it was just CRAZY!!! I had my crew (mom, boyfriend, brother, and friends) help line up for signings and grab freebies. It was MADNESS… but the BEST KIND! Don’t believe me… just see for yourself Loads of pictures and extreme fangirling about to happen right now! (Excuse my awkward posing and smiles.)

YALLWEST 2016

 

 

All the books I got signed!!!!

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FREE BOOKS AND GOODIES!!!

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LA TIMES BOOK FESTIVAL 2017

 

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YALLWEST 2017

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BECAUSE SHE’S SUPER POPULAR, WE WEREN’T ALLOWED TO TAKE PICS SO THAT EVERYONE COULD MEET HER AND GET THEIR BOOKS SIGNED

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Ahhh I love Kasie West!

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No pics with Bardugo, but my friend was able to get one of her just smiling and she’s so beautiful and such a lovely person!

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Our trunk on the way home! 

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Have you attended any book festival? If so, what do you love most about going?

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. One last thing, if you’re in the Los Angeles area and planning to go to these events, let me know!!! I’d love to meet up with you.

sincerelykarenjo2

Favorite Quotes Fridays

favequotesfridays

Hello Lovelies!! Hope you all had a wonderful week. Mines was super eeeekkkk and blahhh, so I’m beyond excited and extremely relieved it’s finally Friday. You see, last week I took a vacation day on Friday with many many plans. However, I woke up feeling really sick. I thought it wouldn’t be so bad, but I ended up being in bed pretty much the whole weekend. After 3 days of being sick and stuck in bed, I thought I’d be fine to work on Monday… Well, I quickly realized that my sickness was far from over. I went home after 2-3 hours and then called in sick Tuesday. Today, I’m still not 100%, but the worst is dunzo and I can finally breathe when I sleep. Woohoo! No more stuffy nose or fever or body aches and chills…just coughing every now and then. I’m planning on taking it easy this weekend and of course read.

You know what else I’m really excited about?! This week’s Favorite Quotes Friday post! Why you ask?! Because I absolutely cannot wait to share all these amazing quotes from one of my favorite book series and convince you to add it on your TBR. AND, because I love this series so much, I’m going to choose several quotes from the first 3 books.

Now, let’s take a look at another Favorite Quotes Fridays, which is a weekly segment that features 2-3 of my favorite quotes from a book I’ve read and loved.


 

shatterme

 

“You can’t touch me,” I whisper. I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him. He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him. Please touch me, is what I want to tell him.”

“His lips soften into a smile that cracks apart my spine. He repeats my name like the word amuses him. Entertains him. Delights him. In seventeen years no one has said my name like that.”

“You’re absolutely delicious when you’re angry.” “Too bad my taste is poisonous for your palate.” 
 

“Moving forward is the only way to survive.” 


 

unravelme

 

“His lips are softer than anything I’ve ever known, soft like a first snowfall, like biting into cotton candy, like melting and floating and being weightless in water. It’s sweet, it’s so effortlessly sweet.”

“I’m falling apart and into his heart and I’m a disaster.” 

“I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. I want to be that kind of friend. The one who will memorize the things you say as well as the shape of your lips when you say them. I want to know every curve, every freckle, every shiver of your body. 

I want to know where to touch you, I want to know how to touch you. I want to know convince you to design a smile just for me. Yes, I do want to be your friend. I want to be your best friend in the entire world.” 

“I want so many things,” he whispers. “I want your mind. Your strength. I want to be worth your time.” His fingers graze the hem of my top and he says “I want this up.” He tugs on the waist of my pants and says “I want these down.” He touches the tips of his fingers to the sides of my body and says, “I want to feel your skin on fire. I want to feel your heart racing next to mine and I want to know it’s racing because of me, because you want me. Because you never,” he says, he breathes, “never want me to stop. I want every second. Every inch of you. I want all of it.”

“All I know next are his arms, the desperate edge to his voice when he says my name, and I’m unraveling in his embrace, I’m frayed and falling apart and I’m making no effort to control the tremors in my bones and he’s so hot his skin is so hot and I don’t even know where I am anymore.”

“You are so confident,” he says to me. “You’re stubborn and resilient. So brave. So strong. So inhumanly beautiful. You could conquer the world.”


 

igniteme

 

“Ignite, my love. Ignite.” 

“I’m not sure. But there’s something about the darkness, the stillness of this hour, I think, that creates a language of its own. There’s a strange kind of freedom in the dark; a terrifying vulnerability we allow ourselves at exactly the wrong moment, tricked by the darkness into thinking it will keep our secrets. We forget that the blackness is not a blanket; we forget that the sun will soon rise. But in the moment, at least, we feel brave enough to say things we’d never say in the light.”

“His hands are holding my cheeks, and he pulls back just to look me in the eye and his chest is heaving and he says, “I think,” he says, “my heart is going to explode,” and I wish, more than ever, that I knew how to capture moments like these and revisit them forever.  Because this. This is everything.” 

Can you hear my heart? I want you to make a list of all your favorite things, and I want to be on it.

“I’m not trying to fix you; I don’t think you need to be fixed. I’m not trying to turn you into someone else. I only want you to be who you already are. Because I think I know the real you. I think I’ve seen him.”

“I promise myself then, in that moment, that I will hold him forever, just like this, until all the pain and torture and suffering is gone, until he’s given a chance to live the kind of life where no one can wound him this deeply ever again.”


I have to admit when I first started reading Shatter Me, it was quite difficult to get used to the writing style. I remember thinking that it was kind of cool, but a little odd and the crossed out words/phrases bothered me a bit. BUT, after a few chapters, I was completely and undeniably in love with Tahereh Mafi. I knew right there and then that she’d be one of my favorite authors. Her gorgeous writing style is so unique, creative, colorful, evocative, and incredibly emotional. I was absolutely fascinated by the story, the characters, and the romance… Mannnn the romance was just so deliciously and satisfyingly swoony!! I honestly had a difficult time putting the books down and stayed up until 3 – 4 am in the morning just to finish them. And when I was done… I wanted to go back to the very beginning just so I can go through all the FEELS again. So yes, if you must know, I was totally on a reading slump for a few days and would reread my favorite parts. Just so in love with this series. Not to mention Warner is such a freaking babe! He’s the kind of villain you’ll want to hate, but can’t because there’s something so charming, alluring, and lovable about him. And if I’m being honest, I’ve always been Team Warner since Shatter Me. I just love complicated more than meets the eye bad boys.

Sooo did these quotes make you want to pick up the books or add them on your TBR?!? I don’t know about you, but they’re making me want to reread the series again. Those quotes are definitely giving me some insane FEELS right now and since the fourth book, Restore Me, just came out on Tuesday, I think it’s the perfect time to binge this awesome series! Oh and you have to meet Kenji… He’s so adorable and funny and I love him so much! If there was no Warner, I’d take Kenji.


Have any of you read this series? What are some of your favorite scenes? Are you Team Warner or Team Adam? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear what you think.

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading. Have a lovely and fun weekend!!!

sincerelykarenjo2