Vegas For RT BookLovers: Day Five Recap

I'm so excited that it's officially the weekend, and that this long work week is finally over. :)

I'm also excited to finally be getting to the end of my recap posts, as there should only be two more short ones after today. So let's go ahead and get started on my day five recap!

Friday April 15th, 2016:


I had a pretty ambitious schedule all planned out for today, but in the end I ended up skipping out on a bunch of it, strictly because of how crazy the crowds were, and you basically needed to be in line an hour early for everything.

The first event of the day was the Sweet Romance Morning Coffee Break, which was one of the events I'd been the most excited for, as I love inspirational fiction. I decided to dress up this morning, so that I didn't have to change before the Berkley blogger buzz later on.

On the way to the breakfast, I ended up running into Kristen Golden from Harper Collins Christian Publishing, and we had a really nice visit, and she's seriously such a sweet person. 

In line for the breakfast, I ended up meeting Sheila from www.top10romancebooks.com, and the forty five minute wait went by really fast, as we had a lovely visit about books, and the fact that we both love Disney. We ended up sitting together at our table as well, along with Suzie Waltner, who I was excited to get to visit with again, and two other lovely ladies who unfortunately I can't remember their names. Each attendee of this event was given a tote bag with six inspirational books in it! Which was awesome, and then we also had our choice of numerous pastries, juices and coffee. We all had a lovely visit, and Denise Hunter, Katherine Reay, Lenora Worth, and Rachel Hauck all came around to the tables to autograph the books. Rachel even told me that she loved my name, and might have to remember that for a character in the future. Lenora told us that she was receiving a pioneer award at the awards ceremony in the evening, and I was really looking forward to seeing that. 

Originally I had been planning on attending a ten am panel too, but instead decided to go meet up with Neil for a bit. The next thing I really wanted to do was the Entangled Candy and Spoons at 11:15, but when I went to get in line an hour before, the line was already crazy, and I was honestly feeling pretty rough by this point from all the cigarette smoke, so it was no go, and I decided just to take it easy, as I really wanted to attend the Harlequin and Avon parties in the afternoon.

Neil and I headed back down to get in line for the Harlequin party at 1:30, as it started at 2:45, and I had an extremely rude encounter with some girls waiting in line. I simply asked if this was the line for the Harlequin event, and they yelled at me and told me that yes that's what there waiting for, and there's a line you know. I was completely appalled, I wasn't trying to cut, all I wanted to know is if I was joining the right line, and part of me was tempted just to forget it and leave at this point, but I really wanted to meet a few of the authors here, and honestly, I wasn't going to let a group of rude girls ruin the experience for me. It was also at this point that we heard there was already a line forming for the Avon party which didn't start until 4 pm! Honestly, everyone who had said ahead of time, that getting in line thirty to forty minutes early for everything but the giant book fair, was not prepared for the crazy lines in Vegas! So Neil was absolutely amazing and offered to go save us a spot in line for the Avon party, as the only author he was interested in meeting at the Harlequin party was Julie Kagawa. 

I know there's some mixed opinions on saving spots in line for events like this, but it honestly doesn't bother me, as long as someone actually waits in line. What did bother me is the group of people who would just dump their bags in one line, and then take off and come back an hour and half later, and I didn't think that was right, as no one in your group even had to wait in line then, but oh well it was what it was.

I was still feeling a little upset over those rude girls I had encountered by this point, but I ended up meeting the most amazing lady in line for this event. Her name was Christina, and we ended up running into each other several times over these two days. One of her favorites was Alice Clayton, and I was so excited when I heard she got a chance to meet her later this day. 

Soon enough it was time to go into the event, and ugh this event was utter chaos. There were hundreds and hundreds of people in line for this event, and the room was teeny tiny. They had wine in the middle of the room, and authors signing all around the sides of the room. It was amazing that Harlequin was giving away all these free books, and giving everyone free alcohol, but this event should really have been in a much larger space. I was able to meet Adi Alsaid, Jennifer Lynn Armentrout; who also loved my name, and Julie Kagawa, but then I'd had enough, and I headed out to go wait with Neil for the Avon party. There were so many more amazing authors in here that I would loved to have met, but there was literally no space to move, and it ended up taking me ten minutes just to be able to exit the room.

I found Neil, and settled in for the hourish we still had to wait. He had purchased Rachel E Carter's book on his phone, and had passed the time waiting by reading that. 

Right before this event was scheduled to start, the message went out on social media that the Leigh Bardugo pop up signing was happening. Now she is one of my favorite authors, and I would have loved to have had the chance to meet her, but these pop up signings honestly scared me. People were pushing and shoving, and ugh I honestly just decided I'd wait until we go to Yallfest or Yallwest some year to meet her instead, as I refuse to elbow people out of the way just for a free book signing.

Soon enough, the doors were opening, and Neil told me just to go straight for Kiera Cass, and not to worry about him. I headed for her table first, and there was only one person in front of me! This event is the one that every single person will tell you not to miss, and let me tell you they are absolutely right! Avon throws an amazing party, and had authors lined up on both sides of the huge ballroom, that were signing free books for everyone! There were so many authors, including a huge wall of authors from Epic Reads, which is where we headed. We got to meet Gretchen McNeil, Kelly Fiore, Amy Plum, Kiera Cass, Victoria Aveyard, Kimberly Derting, Debra Driza, Susane Colasant, and probably some others that I'm now forgetting. I told Neil to make sure he went to Cinda Williams Chima's line first, since she's his all time favorite, and I cracked up when I happened to look over and saw him taking a selfie with her. I was so happy he finally got to meet her though, since he loves her books so much.

 I also ran into Ali Novak again, in line to meet Susane Colasanti, and it was awesome to get to visit with her again, and I told her I'd be coming to her table at the giant book fair the next day to purchase The HeartBreakers from her.

By this point, the lines were getting pretty crazy, and we'd seen most everyone we really wanted to, so we each got our cupcake on the way out, and I was impressed to see that they had someone monitoring the cupcake table, to make sure no one was hoarding anything. 

After this, I had a little bit of time before I had to be at the blogger party being thrown by Berkley Publishing, so we quickly ran to drop all the books off, and then I headed there. This was once again an awesome event, with lots of yummy looking food and refreshments, and we each got an awesome tote bag once again with lots of books, including a couple of arcs, but I was literally feeling awful by this point, so I didn't end up trying any of the food or drinks. I had a nice visit with a couple of other bloggers, who were also talking about the crazy way people were behaving over the free books, and got to talk to Tara again from the Edible Bookmark, but then honestly I was done, and ended up leaving early to go back and lay down.

I was so frustrated at this point with the issues with my asthma, and I had someone blow a cigar in my face on the walk back to our room. I had really wanted to attend the awards ceremony tonight, but I just wasn't up for it, and instead we ended up staying in. This is one of my biggest regrets of the entire convention, was missing the awards ceremony, and next RT I will definitely make that one of my top priorities. And since the next RT is scheduled for Atlanta, the cigarette smoke should not be an issue this time.

I was honestly feeling pretty rough for the rest of the evening, but I least wanted to go peak into the room where the big Cirque Du Punk party was happening, as I'd been seeing the facebook posts for months about the decor, and it all looked amazing. So we walked down there just to do that, and I couldn't believe how amazing the carousel centerpieces were to see. All the decor was fabulous, and I'm glad we took the time to do this.

After leaving here, we called it an early night, as the book fair started at 10:30 the next morning, and we wanted to try and be in line by 8 or so.

And a spoiler for the next post: Saturday includes both my favorite and least favorite parts of the entire week! :)

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all have a great weekend.

This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. The photos were taken by me with an Iphone.