BEA Recap

So I went to my first BEA last week and it was A-MAZING! I had never done BEA and was ecstatic beyond all reason that it was in Chicago this year (so naturally I teared up a bit to hear it was in NYC next year) but anyway, it was really an incredible time!

I roomed with Nikki at Take Me Away and we both hung out with Amber Du Livre at BEA since she was our Chicago resident! It was a lot of fun! I seriously enjoyed meeting a lot of the bloggers I followed in real life! It was probably the best part of the trip! Yes, the books came second! Maybe even third after all the authors! LOL!

But anyway, on Wednesday, Nikki and I walked around the city a bit. I had deep dish pizza for the first time ever! Lou Malnati's was highly recommend, both by other bloggers and Chicagoans and of course Merit from Chicagoland Vampires! Which deep dish was a really big thing for me folks. I'm from St. Louis and have a love for thin crust and provel cheese! Yum! But Lou's deep dish was pretty tasty if I do say so myself! Probably can never eat any other deep dish again, but good to know Lou's is only 5.5 hours away! LOL!

Then we did some sightseeing and I saw what is called The Bean! Yes, I had never heard of this. When I was last in the city it was about 14 years ago (ish)!

Then we walked around Millennium Park for a bit and I had flashbacks to my trip to Greece and Italy when I saw this:

We walked by Lake Michigan and you can even see a part of the tower/apartment/garage whatever building that was in Divergent!

And then we went to some two of the happiest places on earth:

 The bookstore and the Disney Store--since you know Disney World is super far away! LOL!

And then so began BEA week itself! And since I've been to RT a few times, I was prepared for craziness and lines, lots of lines! It was good prep work for when I go to Disney this summer! Because omg those lines!! We have stories about those lines. Stories that shall never be told again! LOL!

But the great part about all the lines was seeing familiar faces!

 I got to see Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction again, as we've ran into each other at Anderson's events when I decide to make that long haul of a drive up there! It's under 5 hours, so it's not that bad, going home is because it's about midnight then! LOL!

Leydy from Once Upon a Twilight

Jess from Gone with the Words--I've been following Jess since we both started blogging near the same time when no one else was really around yet! She was The Cozy Reader back then! So I was soooo psyched to get to see her in person!!

Sadly I didn't get more photos with bloggers, it was so crazy and I didn't know what I was doing half the time. These pictures were literally taken during lines!! LOL! I really regret not getting a picture with Becca from Reading Teen and Pivot Book Totes. We talked a lot, but for some reason we never did a picture! Gah! Also realizing now my hair looks terrible in these pictures, it had to be the end of the day!! Haha!!

Then of course came the authors and all the fabulous books! I was gunning for about 6 books and I got those, plus a bunch more. So what I plan to do, eventually, is go through them because some I was picking up based on what people were saying (both other bloggers and the publishers themselves) and once I read about them and then read through them, I'll do a giveaway!! Sharing the love! Ideally, I like to get around to a giveaway by the summer, early summer mind you! So that way, there can be some summer reading fun!

 Me & Amy Lukavics as I get The Women in the Walls signed!!

 Me & Melissa de la Cruz as I get Return to the Isle of the Lost signed!

Then I met Amie Kaufman and Jay Kirstoff!!

So overall, it was a crazy and hectic and exciting week!! I would probably do BEA again, if just to see more of my blogging friends! And after experiencing Book Con...which you'll notice I'm talking about, I realize why all my friends left on Saturday and skipped Book Con. And yeah...I totally get it now! I experienced it once, I mostly survived, and I'm done! LOL! Unless like one of my GOTTA MEET THEM authors is there, I think it's safe to say I am done with Boon Con. BEA is another matter entirely. So hopefully it can come back to Chicago every other year, because that would be totally awesome! Nothing fun ever happens in the Midwest, so I was very happy to be able to attend this event!