I’m extremely gratified to be able to announce the three winners of my Veracity by Laura Bynum giveaway!

Kristina Garner	Tracey Carter	Amy Melniczenko

All three winners have 48 hours to contact me via email with their shipping information to claim their prize. Should I not hear from a winner in that time period I will select an alternate.

Congratulations to you all! You’re in for reading an excellent book

Well the news has definitely been spread!  Book Bloggers took NYC by storm last week, participating in Book Expo America and The Book Blogger Convention.  I’m pleased to say, based on comments made to me, that both appeared to be a rousing success.

I know I said I’d try to update my blog throughout the week, but yea, as you can see that didn’t quite happen.  I had all these grandiose ideas that I’d have a couple of hours here and there to throw up a quick post.  HA! Looking back on it now I see how laughable that idea really was.  So as a result here is a brief synopsis of the first half of my week:

Days One and Two (Saturday & Sunday)
As my BEA kickoff post shows, I did indeed arrive in NYC on Saturday and got all checked in.  Trish arrived not too terribly long after me and we enjoyed a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant before turning in for the night.  Sunday, however, was another story.  We drug our patoots out of bed and, along with Natasha ( who arrived early that morning after taking the red eye in from Utah) went to a greasy spoon for breakfast.

Sunday also found Trish and I filling up BBC swag bags with more great items provided to us by wonderful contributors.  Man, it was truly a sight to see when we sprawled all the bags out around the lounge of The Renaissance Hotel.

**  I need to sidetrack a second to give big shouts out to their staff.  I can’t begin to tell you how amazing everyone was — from the front desk (who gave us an awesome break on our room rate) to the bell staff (who drug up each and every one of the 250 bags then drug them back down and put them into my car for storage) we were cared for extraordinarily well.**

Once we got what was on site stuffed into the bags Trish took off for some fun bookstore time and I took to relaxing in the hotel room with miss Amy for a bit before our evening festivities commenced.  Speaking of which, the later hours of the evening brought with it fun and frivolity as a whole big group of us hung out and watched the series finale of LOST.

It was a sad affair to see some of my favorite characters leave us but I was glad to have experienced it with great friends!

Days Three and Four (Monday & Tuesday)
Monday found us traipsing across New York participating in some really awesome publishing house tours of Random House, Harper Collins and Scholastic.  I’m not going to do much writing about it here as it deserves a post of its own.  Watch out for my thoughts on those experiences later in the week.  Sadly, after all day on my feet I wasn’t able to get to the Teen Author Carnival as planned.  I was extremely bummed as I was really looking forward to it.  Thankfully I was able to follow it a bit on Twitter — looks like it was an excellent event!

Tuesday was the start of Book Expo America.  Given the fact that BEA is home to some really great educational sessions (not just free books y’all!) Rebecca and I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass without getting out there and seeing what the publishing industry is doing with social media.  We attended two great sessions (which we’ll likely recap on Social MediU at some point) — “Brining Authors to the Social Media Party” and “Building Online Reader Communities”.  Excellent presenters, excellent information, and overall a great experience meeting some awesome Twitter friends who are equally invested in the impact and influence social media has in the publishing industry.

Rounding out Tuesday Jenn and I went to Books of Wonder to see some awesome authors from the Class of 2K10.  Each of the lovely ladies in attendance spoke a bit about their book, did a small reading and then fielded questions from the crowd.

I have to say, Books of Wonder does a great job putting together these events.  It’s not the largest of stores but the staff is super helpful and things work really efficiently.  Seriously, a kidlit/YA centric bookstore?  How can I possibly find anything wrong with that.  Oh, and I totally didn’t, they made a pretty penny off of me. LOL

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So that is the first of what will be many BEA/BBC centric posts this week.  In fact, some days you may actually see more than one post pop up in ye olde feed reader!  I plan to spotlight some of the awesome books I picked up, speak to a few issues (line jumping anyone?) I noticed during the main event, and just general chatter.

I’ll end this first recap by encouraging anyone who wasn’t able to go to BEA/BBC this year to start saving your pennies.  It is *totally* worth the trip to meet awesome new people, learn great new information and of course find some fabulous new books to read.

I was thinking of channeling the illustrious Frank Sinatra and singing all of New York, New York to you via video but then I thought better of that.  I think all save *everyone* the agony of that debacle and just check in with this post instead.

I have arrived NYC!

Not only have I arrived, but I’ve arrived in style y’all!

Check out the view from the window of our hotel room:

Isn’t that fab?  Want another one?

Ok, ok….still not convinced?  Her ya go….

Pretty cool right?  Wanna know what else is cool?  This place has speakers that pipe the volume from the television into the bathroom.  Funny thing is I had no idea what the hell was going on when I went in and started hearing voices, LOL.  Still, kinda awesome that I can shower and listen to the morning news at the same time with very little fuss.

So, as you can tell, BEA/BBC week has commenced for me.  What does this mean for this blog?  Well, I hope to post updates as much as possible.  But if you’ve been following me on Twitter you already know that my schedule is pretty chock-full-o-stuff-to-do.  I’ll likely Twitpic more than post but still, I’ll do my best to do at least a couple of highlight posts.  This way you all can share in on the experience and fun!

Have a great week all

I was marveling on Twitter last evening about how I was amazed that today’s bloggiversary crept up on me.  I mean, it’s taken up so much of the past year that one would think it would be something I would be anxious to commemorate.

**throws confetti**

There I’ve officially commemorated!

I’ve seen how others celebrate their bloggiversary with fantastic giveaways and retrospectives.  I could certainly list for you the accomplishments I’ve made over my first year or maybe throw up a “best of” spotlight where I gab about my favorite pieces, but really it would all be a bit pointless because it’s ALL been my favorite.  YOU all are my favorite!

I could wax poetic about all the amazing friends I’ve made on Twitter, Facebook, through public comments here and private notes via email, even the thoughts of those who may not feel comfortable leaving word. But in the end I don’t know that I could do any of this the justice it deserves.  Because when things are all said and done I don’t want this occasion to be solely about me, I want to pay tribute to you!

So I extend to all of the wonderful readers, my new and cherished friends, a heartfelt thank you.  It means so very much to me that you take the time to visit my little corner of the world.  Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you!

Oh and ps –  because I’m just a tad OCD and like the idea of bringing in a new year the same way I brought in the last my review post is of a Nora Roberts book.  Check out my thoughts on Bed of Roses.

Oh and pss — A million more thank you!

xoxo
M-

Title: Bed of Roses
Author: Nora Roberts
Genre: Romance, Chick Lit
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: Purchased
Parental Warning: sexuality

“Friends were friends, lovers were lovers.  You could make a friend out of a lover, but you were on boggy ground when you made a lover out of a friend.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Since she was a little girl, Emma Grant has always loved romance.  So it’s really no surprise that she has found her calling as a wedding florist.  She gets to play with flowers every day and work with her three best friends in the process.  She couldn’t ask for a better job.

And on the surface, Emma’s love life seems to be thriving.  Slim and sultry, she brings color into every room she enters, just like the arrangements she creates.  Men swarm around her, yet she still hasn’t found Mr. Right.  And the last place she’s looking is right under her nose.

But that’s just where Jack Cooke is.  He’s been best friends with Parker’s brother for years, which makes him practically family.  The architect has begun to admit to himself that his feelings for Emma have developed into much more than friendship.  And when Emma returns his passion — kiss for blistering kiss — things start to get complicated at Vows.

Jack has never been big on commitment.  Emma yearns for a lifelong love affair.  If the two are to find common ground, they must trust in their history — and in their hearts.

Opinion:
The second in her “Bride Quartet” series Roberts didn’t fail in providing me the escape I was looking for.  A quick and easy read we follow Emma, a florist in her partners wedding business, as she overcomes her single girl ways to catch the man of her dreams.  It just so happens that this man is also an old friend of her extended family at Vows.

The lighter and more entertaining tone of this story is an improvement over the first book’s more somber focus.  For this reason I found myself enjoying Emma’s story much more than Mac’s.  Filled with fun and sass Bed of Roses still carries a very strong Sex and the City vibe. I would certainly recommend it to any reader who enjoys strong friendships and decent (if not a little predictable) romance.

As I read the book I quickly came to the conclusion that the most appealing aspect of the story is still the tight bond the four main characters embrace.  Even as their circle of friends and family grows around them, these ladies are a strong foundation on which they can all build and rely.  Roberts has done a fine job of creating four distinct women, with great individuality.  There is a bit of mob mentality when defending their own but even that is somewhat light-hearted in nature.   Furthermore, the romantic pairings created were equally enjoyable as the mix of male personalities and dynamics of circumstance added to the diversity of emotion.

Roberts is straight forward in her dialogue, she doesn’t feel the need to write copious amounts of flowery prose.  I appreciate a story that gets right to the point and Roberts’ ability to do so made Bed of Roses all that more pleasurable for me.  As a reader one of the more enjoyable parts of the story were those in which she focuses on the quick witted banter all four ladies are capable of.  It was entertaining, humorous and made me long for the days when I was surrounded by the people who know me so well they could finish my sentences.

I admit, there wasn’t much in the way of earth shattering innovation with this story.  It was exactly what I expected filled with secret longing, relationship phobia, a few obstacles to overcome and then some not so stunning revelations on all parties parts.  I fall just short of saying it’s formulaic as there were certainly differences between how Robert’s approached the first book in the series as compared to the second.  But, at times I did find find myself able to predict what was coming down the pike.

Regardless of that, Bed of Roses was an engaging and witty read I didn’t want to put it down. In fact I finished it in one sitting.