Last week I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to attend Book Expo America once again.  This was my fifth year in attendance and you’d think by now I’d be used to the craziness but that is so not the case.  Besides a minor meltdown early on in the week, BEA was a blast.  It was great seeing some familiar faces and meeting lots of new ones.

I arrived Sunday night but the festivities didn’t officially start until Wednesday.  That’s not to say I didn’t do some bookish things before then.  I managed to make it to Jenny Han’s launch party for P.S. I Still Love You and it was so much fun.  There was a photo area and champagne and goodies.  Following that I headed over to the Rooftop Party where I had the chance to mingle with some fellow book bloggers, authors, and some publicists.  It was a very chill evening that was just perfect to start the week off.

The first day of the conference was actually very new this year.  It was only a half day and the exhibit floor didn’t open until 1 PM.  That’s not to say that I wasn’t there super early.  I knew I needed to get my badge and the lines to get on the exhibit floor were going to be crazy so I just figured I’d hang out there for the morning.  It was a great opportunity to hang out with other bloggers and introduce myself to some new people.  It was also a wonderful time for the awesome guy behind me to totally photobomb my selfie.

My mission for the day was to be lucky enough to get one of the 100 copies of Truthwitch that Tor Teen brought to the conference.  I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy it was in that signing line.  First off, tickets were being handed out as soon as the exhibit floor opened so it was a mad dash to get there and get one of those. (Also, no matter what you’ve heard, I’m pretty sure no one got trampled in the rush for Truthwitch tickets.) Once that was in my hand I was able to wander the floor and know that I would be getting a copy when the time for the signing came around.  It was awesome getting to meet Susan Dennard.  She was a complete sweetheart.  After her signing I felt like I had accomplished my mission for the day and spent some time reading before I had to leave the conference for the day.

Following the time spent picking up books and wandering around the exhibits, I headed to the Bourbon Street Bar and Grille for the Epic Reads party.  There was a photo booth, tons of bloggers and authors, food and drink, and goody bags.  The highlight was definitely getting to meet Patrick Ness and Aaron Hartzler.  Both of them were so nice and I look forward to reading their new books, The Rest of Us Just Live Here and What We Saw.

I was already exhausted and knew I had an early day so I didn’t stay all that long at the party.  I grabbed a goody bag, took the subway home, and spent the night organizing my books from the day.  Once that was done I crashed and attempted to prepare myself for the madness of day two!