And That’s A Wrap: The 2014 Book Blogger #LoveAThon

And that’s it people, the 2014 Book Blogger Love-A-Thon has officially come to a close! I could go on and on about how absolutely freaking brilliant I think you all are. I could produce sonnets and odes about how generous, sweet, encouraging, lovely, and supportive you all are. I could talk FOREVER about how incredibly special you have made this weekend for Alexa and I but the truth is people, I simply do not have the words. You have left me absolutely speechless which is a miracle in and of itself because I can ALWAYS think of something to say. I guess all I can truly do is thank you. So, THANK YOU, from the very bottom of my heart. You have made the planning, the stress, the meltdowns, and the lack of sleep so worth it! To show our utmost appreciation, Alexa and I are hosting a HUGE giveaway for all participants of the Love-A-Thon!

This giveaway would not be possible without the love, support, and generosity of those listed below! I sincerely thank all of you so much for giving Alexa and I the chance to make this Love-A-Thon special for all involved!

A Special Thanks To:

Marissa Meyer

Jennifer E. Smith

Susan Dennard

Rebecca Serle

Raine Thomas

Michelle Madow

Kat Zhang

Jodi Meadows

Danielle E. Shipley

Jennifer Tressen

Marysue Hobika

Bloomsbury

Heidi (YA Bibliophile)

Mara (Book Marauder)

Deranged Doctor Design

Again, thank you all so very much! I appreciate your support more than you will ever know!

GIVEAWAY:

U.S. Participants:

The Lunar Chronicles Prize Pack (signed Cress paperback [UK version] + Scarlet paperback + Rampion poster)

Throne of Glass Prize Pack (Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight + signed bookmark)

Bloomsbury YA Contemporary ARC Pack (Open Road Summer, Wish You Were Italian, Fool Me Twice & Chapel Wars)

Bloomsbury YA Series Starter Pack (Fracture, Also Known As, Scarlet & Stung)

Jennifer E. Smith Prize Pack (This is What Happy Looks Like + The Geography of You & Me ARC + magnets)

Adult Historical Romance Prize Pack (What Happens in Scotland, The Trouble with Being a Duke, The Lass Wore Black, The Way to a Duke’s Heart, The Art of Duke Hunting + tote bag)

Adult Contemporary Romance Prize Pack (Anything but Sweet, Run to You + Love at First Sight)

Young Adult Prize Pack (Boy Nobody, Slayers, A Certain Slant of Light, Under the Light, The Diviners + an ARC of A Mad Wicked Folly)

Young Adult Prize Pack #2 (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Days of Blood & Starlight, Wildwing, Touch of Frost, Scorched, Hearts at Stake & The Peculiar)

Young Adult Prize Pack #3 (Sorta Like a Rock Star, Pretty Crooked, The Time Traveling Fashionista, The Duff, signed Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List & Flash Burnout)

Random Mix Prize Pack (signed The Wanderer, The Best Man, Gulliver Takes Manhattan, The Book of Tomorrow, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, Sharks & Boys, The Jewel and the Key, Reel Life Starring Us, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, signed Children of the Lost Moon & Persistence of Vision)

Jennifer Tressen Prize Pack (signed Sleeping in the Morgue & 1 ticket to Regal Cinemas)

Jennifer Tressen Prize Pack #2 (signed Sleeping in the Morgue & 1 ticket to Regal Cinemas)

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

International Participants:

These Broken Stars (1 hardcover copy)

3 Deranged Doctor Designs (surprise designs from Deranged Doctor Designs!)

Book Depository Prize ($20 to spend at BD)

Summer Love (e-book)

Perfect Opposite (e-book)

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

Authors Only:

All authors, not just participants!, are welcomes to enter this AWESOME giveaway from Deranged Doctor Designs. They are offering you an e-book cover redesign!!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

SURVEY:

If you have the chance, we would LOVE it if you could fill out our survey! We loved hosting this event and we hope you have had fun with it but in order to make next year bigger and better, we will need feedback! Thank you in advance!

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #6

I cannot believe we have made it to the last challenge of the event! I have had a BLAST reading through everyone’s wonderful, creative, and insightful posts and I hope you have all enjoyed it as well. For the last mini challenge we are bringing you the Love-A-Thon Awards! Think of this as your high school yearbook’s Senior Bests, but blogger edition! We have some categories listed below and we would love to hear your top pics for them! The categories are: Best Blog Design, Best Weekly Feature, Best Discussion Posts, Friendliest Blogger, Most Helpful Reviews, Favorite Author Blog, Favorite Author Twitter, Favorite Bloggers To Fangirl With. You can pick and choose your categories or do them all! Set your post to go live at 7 p.m. and then come back here to add your link!

The Prizes:

If the winner happens to be from the U.S., they will be winning a signed copy of Cress by Marissa Meyer + a super cool poster!

If the winner happens to be based outside of the U.S., they will be winning an e-book of choice up to $10

Both prizes are coming from yours truly :)

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Love-A-Thon Awards:

Best Blog Design

This is a super hard one for me because all of your blogs are so freaking beautiful! While I had a hard time with this one, I did narrow it down to Ginger’s blog, GReads! I am a huge fan of the chevron, the blue, and all of the cute little buttons that go on her posts!

Best Weekly Feature

It’s not going to shock anyone but I love Top Ten Tuesday which hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! I host a blog feature on Tuesdays as well so sadly I cannot join in but I ADORE all of the bookish discussions!

Best Discussion Posts

Oh god, I don’t know. I actually have gotten TERRIBLE at reading discussion posts so I would absolutely LOVE recommendations for this category!

Friendliest Blogger

Who came up with these categories? LOL! Seriously though, the blogosphere is FLOODING with incredible, sweet, amazing bloggers. The Love-A-Thon has certainly made that clear! While I am having an insanely hard time answering this question without making a list a mile long, I will share the first one that came to mind and that would have to be my lovely co-host, Alexa. She is always, always there with sweet words and encouragement. Also she had to deal with me while creating this event and she did not complain even once which makes her sort of a saint in my eyes!

Most Helpful Reviews

I adore the reviews by April from Good Books and Good Wine. She is always so thorough and honest with her reviews and I love her for that! Aside from April, I also LOVE looking at the reviews that I see randomly popping up on my Twitter feed! I find it so much fun to check out random blogs and see what they are reading and reviewing!

Favorite Author Blog

This mini challenge is making it glaringly obvious that I have been out of the loop! I came up blank on this one as well so any suggestions you have would be oh so appreciated!

Favorite Author Twitter

Hands down Cora Carmack and Jay Crownover mostly because they post pictures of hot guys with cats and hot guys with tattoos, respectively. (And you know I do love me some hot guys!)

Favorite Bloggers To Fangirl With

Can I just say anyone and everyone? I am totally one of those people who will gush/squeal/flail/fangirl with just about anyone. If they share my bookish loves, they become my favorite person while we discuss all the feels!

Okay, I get it. I sucked at this particular mini challenge. In fact I have sucked at interacting with bloggers in general lately (the past 2 days aside!) which is why I didn’t really feel prepared to answer a lot of these questions by just throwing out random blogs. I am so hoping to change this starting now and by next year, I will have lots of awesome, amazing, wonderful blogs to share with you! Until then, please visit my Bloggers To Check Out page! It is a list I am always updating full of blogs I have stumbled across and fallen in love with over the years! And if you don’t see your blog on there, please let me know and I will be sure to add it!

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #5

It’s time for another Mini Challenge! This one has been a favorite for the past two years so we figured we would give it another go! It is called Letter To Yourself and there are really two different ways you can do this one:

1) Write a letter to your younger blogging/writing self: What would you change? What would you keep the same? What are your favorite parts? In what ways has blogging/writing changed you? What advice would you give yourself?

2) Write a letter to your future blogging/writing self: What goals do you want to set? What do you want to accomplish with your blog/writing? What do you want to start doing and what do you want to stop doing?

We are asking you to really reflect for this one! Once you have your letter written, set your post to go live at 4 p.m. EST and stop back over here or Alexa’s blog to add your post to the linky and check out everyone else’s reflective letters (The linky will be open until 9 p.m. so be sure to add your link as soon as you can so you can be eligible for the giveaway!)

The Prize:

If the winner of this challenge is U.S. based, they will win a Signed ARC of The Secret Diamond Sisters + A Signed Bookmark! This giveaway was generously donated by the author, Michelle Madow!

(Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)

If the winner of this challenge is based outside of the U.S., they will win an e-book of choice up to $10 from yours truly!

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Letter To Myself:

A quick note: This letter was actually pretty tough for me. I get personal on the blog all of the time but for some reason I had a really hard time with this one. Maybe because it made me realize just how hard this year was for me both in my real life and in my blogging life. Just bear with me here because this is definitely my least interesting of Mini Challenge posts but it is one I was glad to do nonetheless. Very therapeutic :)

Dear future Katelyn,

Brace yourself. This year is going to be AWESOME (well at least I am hoping so!). After a crappy blogging year and a crappier real-life year, you are ready for a change. You are ready to embrace your love for blogging again. You will be ready to post not because you have to but because you want to. You will be more organized and efficient because your life is too chaotic and messy not to be. You will respond to emails daily even if it feels like the worst kind of torture. You will read for fun again because you really sort of miss it…A LOT. You will learn to say no because despite what you’ve said in the past, you still haven’t mastered that skill yet. You will keep using a calendar not because you’re worried about posting every day but because you still REALLY suck at dates. You will not pay attention to the amount of comments, followers, or the stats because you are blogging for you now, not the masses, or lack of , people out there reading this little blog of ours. You will start posting more personal posts because if I’m being honest, you still have no social life and you need some sort of outlet. You will start discussion posts because that idea has been floating around in your head for far too long. You will get better at commenting because you seriously suck. In the Kingdom of Comment Suckville you are queen and I vote that changes. You will not let blogging feel like a job, a task, or a chore ever again. You will engage with more readers and bloggers on a daily basis. This means you may need to stop talking about your cat and complaining about your brothers on Twitter but I think everyone else involved is going to be okay with that! You will not get dangerously close to just throwing in the towel ever again because you really don’t know who you’d be without this blog. This blog has become a home for you, a home for you to be who you want to be and to express your thoughts and ideas. Over the last year though, you’ve let things not necessarily slip, but you’ve become a lot less passionate about it. This is why I asked you to brace yourself though. Because that passion has come back full-force and it is going to take a lot of work to get this blog back to where you want it to be. It is going to take more dedication than you’ve been used to dishing out lately but at the end of the day, you will happier because of it, your blog will be happier because of it.

Oh and if you happen to stumble across a really cute guy that finds our nerdy/awkwardness endearing and adorable, please let me know! Current Katelyn needs all the help she can get in the love department ;)

Sincerely,

You? Me? I?

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #4

Who’s ready for a fun Mini Challenge? I am so excited for this one because we asked you to get all sorts of creative and I cannot wait to see what you’ve come up with!

The title of our first challenge of Day #2 is Mash-Up! We are asking you to mash-up your bookish life with a real life passion/hobby/interest/talent/etc. For example, if you are passionate about travel, maybe discuss books you want to travel to in real life, authors/characters you’d want to road trip with, etc. Use your creativity with this one and don’t be afraid to think outside of the box! Once you have your Mash-Up post written up, come back her or go to Alexa’s blog and add your link to our linky tool! (The tool is the same on both blogs so you only need to add your link once!) As soon as you have your link posted, feel free to visit the other blogs that decided to participate in this challenge!

The Prize:

If the winner of this giveaway happens to be U.S. based, they will win a Signed copy of any Raine Thomas novel + $10 Amazon gift card. Both items were donated by the amazing Raine Thomas!

(Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)

If the winner of this giveaway happens to be International, they will be winning an e-copy of Perfect Opposite by Zoya Tessi donate by the lovely author!

(Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Mash-Up

Books and music are the two things that are a constant in my life. Other things may come and go but those two things have always been there for me and I don’t anticipating them leaving any time soon.

I absolutely LOVE when my favorite two things can be tangled together and that is definitely the case with book playlists! Over the years I have shared a TON of book playlists on this blog, some I’ve made up and some the authors have, but whatever the case may be, they are something I have a lot of fun with! I am going to be sharing a little bit about my favorites today. I hope you enjoy!

Slammed by Colleen Hoover

Colleen did all of the hard work on this one! She wove so many amazing, brilliant songs by The Avett Brothers into her novel and I felt compelled to share them all. I loved the band before her book but after reading it, I love them even more!

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Morgan is another author that did the hard work for me! She included these brilliant pages in her novel that were covered in receipts, photographs, and playlists all from Amy and Roger’s road trip. When I put all those songs into one playlist, it created the craziest mix of music but I love it!

A Jennifer Echols Bookish Playlist

Last summer I hosted Jennifer Echols Week here on the blog. I celebrated the Jennifer Echols books I had already read and loved and I reviewed the ones I hadn’t. I decided for the event I would create a playlist for her and I LOVE the way it turned out. All of the song names (or in some cases, the Band/Artist’s name) were all picked because they resembled a title of a Jennifer Echols book!

Charade by Nyrae Dawn

I read this book and fell in absolute love with it. I loved Chey, Colt, and their entire story! This was really the first time I really created an entire playlist for a book and I am so incredibly proud with how this one turned out. Each song is on there for a specific reason and to this date, it is one of my favorite book playlists!

Welcome to Day 2 of the #LoveAThon!

Good morning everyone! Welcome to the 2nd day of the 2014 Book Blogger Love-A-Thon!

Let me start today off by saying you are all insanely wonderful, awesome people! You truly blew me away yesterday, made me cry multiple times (in a good way!), and had me smiling like a gooine through the entire day. I don’t think Alexa and I were prepared for the overwhelming number of people who participated in the Love-A-Thon yesterday, but I will say it is the most welcome of surprises! I have always loved this brilliant community we are a part of but yesterday brought that love to a whole new level.

This is me squishy hugging you all…

I also wanted to take a moment to congratulate the winners of yesterday’s three Mini Challenge giveaways! Kristin from Gone Pecan, Kelly from Pretty Little Reader, and Christina from My Life In Books!

So what’s left to do after you trend on Twitter and have an insane amount of people participate in your little event? You do it all over again!

Today is going to be just as fun as yesterday, or at least that’s my hope! Here is what the plan is for today:

9 A.M.-12 (Noon) EST

Welcome back to the #LoveAThon! We are kicking off the second day of the event with none other than BLOGGER LOVE! Love-A-Thon Tip: Don’t forget about the established bloggers you know and love! Sometimes it can get hard to visit your older favorites on a daily basis so take the time to give them love too!

Noon-1 P.M. EST

Mini Challenge #4: For the first mini-challenge of the day we are going to be having a Mash-Up! For this challenge we are going to ask you to mash-up your bookish life with a non-bookish hobby/passion/talent you have in real life. For example, if you are passionate about travel, maybe discuss books you want to travel to in real life, authors/characters you’d want to road trip with, etc. Since I am passionate about music, I am probably going to be sharing my favorite book playlists for this challenge. Get creative with this one and if you need ideas or suggestions, just contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Once you have the post written up, set it to go live at Noon and add it to the linky on either blog (The linky will be open until 9 p.m. Be sure to add your link ASAP so you can be eligible for the giveaway!). We will be selecting a winner from this challenge’s participants!

1-4 P.M. EST

Share the blogger love! Love- A-Thon Tip: We love authors for writing the books we so often fall in love with but a TON of authors blog as well! It is a great way to stay connected and up-to-date with your favorite authors!

4-5 P.M. EST

Mini Challenge #5: Here is another fun mini challenge & giveaway for you guys! We are bringing back another favorite with this one, Letter To Yourself! There are two ways you can do it. You can 1) Write a letter to your younger blogging/writing self: What would you change? What would you keep the same? What are your favorite parts? In what ways has blogging/writing changed you? What advice would you give yourself? Or 2) Write a letter to your future blogging/writing self: What goals do you want to set? What do you want to accomplish with your blog/writing? What do you want to start doing and what do you want to stop doing? Get all sorts of reflective with this one! Once you have your letter written, set your post to go live at 4 p.m. EST and stop back over here or Alexa’s blog to add your post to the linky and check out everyone else’s reflective letters (The linky will be open until 9 p.m. so be sure to add your link as soon as you can!). There will of course be another winner chosen from the participants!

5-7 P.M. EST

Share the blogger love! Love-A-Thon Tip: Don’t forget about the bloggers that blog about different things than you! It can be small differences like a blog that reviews Sci-Fi whereas you mostly review Contemporary. But it can also be large differences like YA versus Adult or book-ish blogging versus fashion and music blogging. Switching up the blogs you read can be refreshing and maybe introduce you to something you never would have considered before!

7-8 P.M. EST

Mini Challenge #6: For the last mini-challenge of the event we are going to be having the Love-A-Thon Awards! Think of this as the Grammy’s, Oscars, and your high school yearbook’s senior bests, all mixed together and dipped in book-nerdishness! We have categories for you below and we want to know who your top choices are (between 1-5 picks per category)! Best Blog Design, Best Weekly Feature, Best Discussion Posts, Friendliest Blogger, Most Helpful Reviews, Favorite Author Blog, Favorite Author Twitter, Favorite Bloggers To Fangirl With. Use a few categories or use them all! Once you have your choices made, put them in a blog post and have it go live at 7 p.m. EST. Add your post to the linky on this blog or Alexa’s by 9 p.m. to be eligible for the giveaway! There is a good chance you will find some new blogs among these lists!

8-9 P.M. EST

Twitter chat/party: Come help us say farewell to the 2014 Love-A-Thon with a blogging, bookish, awesomesauce Twitter Chat with our moderator of the evening, ME! (@KatelynTorrey), co-host Alexa (@alexalovesbooks), and all the #LoveAThon-ers! For our last Twitter chat of the event we will be reflecting on the Love-A-Thon, what we liked, what we didn’t, what we had the most fun doing, etc.! And who are we kidding, there will be a few giveaways involved too! Be sure to follow and use the #LoveAThon hashtag to participate!

9 P.M. EST

Closing Post + Final giveaway: WE MADE IT! The end of the Love-A-Thon has finally come. We couldn’t have done it without the support of all of you! Be sure to stop by mine AND Alexa’s blogs for our thoughts and reflections on the Love-A-Thon event. There will also be a HUGE giveaway for all participants to enter as well as a survey we would love for you to take so we can make the next love-a-thon even bigger and better. Also, if you would like to host your own giveaway as part of the love-a-thon, now would be the time to do it! We will have a linky on our closing post so you can add a link to it that way everyone can check it out!

Well there you have it people! If you would like to participate at any time throughout the day, just find the time and corresponding event on the schedule and join in!

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #3

What’s going on Love-A-Thon-ers? Are you enjoying yourselves so far? I am having a blast and do you know why? BECAUSE WE ARE FREAKING TRENDING ON TWITTER. YES THE TWITTER!!! Gah, you guys seriously, you’ve made this itsy, bitsy idea so much bigger than I could have ever imagined it being and I adore you all for that!

Now you guys have gone and made me cry…again <3 <3 <3 #LoveAThon pic.twitter.com/2aJzphhFYV

— Katelyn Torrey (@KatelynTorrey) February 15, 2014

Now getting back on track, I wanted to welcome you to the third Mini Challenge of the event and the last one of today (we have 3 more tomorrow!). The title of our 3rd Mini Challenge is Mad Lib! I LOVED doing these as a kid so I am super excited for this one today! You have until 8 p.m. EST to make up your Mad Lib post (the Mad Lib is already created for you, you just need to fill in your answers!), post it on your blog, and add it to the linky (The linkys will be open until midnight in case you were unable to link your post earlier)! Just a reminder, adding it to the linky on either mine or Alexa’s blog ensures you will be put in the drawing for the giveaway AND that other participants can see your Mini Challenge post!

The Prize:

If the winner happens to be US-Based, they will win a copy of Someday, Someday, Maybe + A Signed Bookplate! This prize is donated to us by the super-freaking-awesome Jennifer E. Smith (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)

If the winner happens to be based outside of the US, they will receive an e-copy of Perfect Opposite written and donated by the totally sweet, generous Zoya Tessi (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Mad Lib:

I wanted to make this one a little fun plus my brother was bugging me as I was writing up this post so I decided I would ask him to help me out! He helped me come up with some of the answers (those of which should be glaringly obvious to you due to their epic randomness). Asking for his help certainly made for a pretty interesting story!

One day, I was skipping with Rome. Out of the blue, a baggie (because what else would come out of nowhere?) came out of nowhere! It was so full, smooshy and covered in pictures (obviously most baggies are covered in pictures). At first, we were afraid, we were petrified, but we laughed (as people often do when they are petrified). We hopped on rock (only the cool people drive rocks these days) to make our getaway.

As we escaped, we turned up the radio because Let’s Dance To Joy Division came on and made me dance. Everything was extremely smooth sailing until a lion (as lions tend to do...) appeared in the middle of the road. We swerved to avoid it, but while Rome stayed on the rock, I got thrown onto my side in the woods.

I couldn’t get up, and felt funny (how else would you feel after being thrown off a moving rock?) as I lay there staring up at the trees. What was I going to do? I heard a tiger noise (despite the fact that it was a lion in the road not even a minute ago) among the leaves, and felt hungry (scary, painful situations work up an appetite). Surely, this was going to be my end. As my eyes fluttered shut, the last thing I saw was a head of black hair and red (who showed the 5-year old Twilight?) eyes.

When I woke up again, I was on a chair. My body hurt a whole lot less, and I could sit up. There was a book and dog in the room, along with Oreos and Mt. Dew (who feeds this kid?). The door suddenly opened to reveal Chaol, a concerned look on his face. I blushed and averted my gaze, but he sang (Chaol singing…classic) and said, “Don’t be shy. It’s okay.”

He came over to sit by me, and we started talking after I told him my name. We chatted about blogging, eating and reading and realized we had a ton in common! I thought he was adorable and couldn’t help feeling a little swoony.

Just as he reached out for my hand, the door crashed open and in came Cricket. “Don’t let him charm you away, my love!” He yelled, running at Chaol. They each had spoons (spoon fights for the win!) in their hands and began to fight. “Stop!”, I yelled, feeling so mad. They didn’t listen to me. Before I could intervene, Chaol fell to the floor and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“What was that?” I asked, staring at the empty space. Cricket dropped his weapon, and came over to me. “Magic, but you are safe now, Katie-Bug.” He hugged me close, and I suddenly knew that this was the real deal and not just a dream.

Just as Dancing Shoes started playing in my head, I woke up. I cursed my wretched luck. Why had it only been just a dream?

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #2

Hi there book nerds! I so hope you are enjoying the Love-A-Thon so far! You ALL did absolutly phenomenal with your book spine poetry! Seriously, that was some awesome stuff. And now, I am so excited to be bringing you the 2nd Mini Challenge of the event! We’ve got another fun one for you and another chance to win a great prize!

The title of this challenge is Book Valentines! We are asking you to write a letter to your book boyfriends/girlfriends! I know this one is kind of tough but I cannot wait for all the swoon that is about to take place! You have until 5 p.m. EST to get your book valentine post written up, come back here or go to Alexa’s blog (the same linky appears on each of our blogs so it doesn’t matter which one!), and add your post to the linky! You can also check out the posts for those who decided to participate in this challenge!

The Prize:

What could you win with Mini Challenge #2? If the winner is US-based, they will receive a copy of When You Were Mine + Signed swag which was donated by the fantastic Rebecca Serle (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads)!

If the winner is based outside of the US, they will win an e-copy of Perfect Opposite donated by the super sweet Zoya Tessi (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads).

Thank you both so very much for donating towards the Love-A-Thon!

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Book Valentine’s

To my dearest most favorite bad boy, (Rule from Rule by Jay Crownover), the one guy I would let call me Little Ghost (Adrian from Facade by Nyrae Dawn), someone who looks oh so good in aviators and a scowl (Grayson from Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols), a boy who gave me the tingly feely’s while playing with Lola’s bracelet (Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins), the one guy who searches for you no matter how hopeless it may seem (Holder from Hopeless by Colleen Hoover), my favorite bus seat partner (Park from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell), my fellow (and favorite!) lives-in-a-crazy-wacky-insane-but-loving-household person (Jase Garrett My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick), the one who stole my heart right along with Jessica’s (Marcus Freaking Flutie from The Jessica Darling Series by Megan McCafferty), a grouchy, moody, fiercely protective guy I would want for an older brother if he wasn’t so dang hot (Rome from Rome by Jay Crownover), the guy that taught me it is totally okay to embrace the nerdness (Logan from The Summer I Became A Nerd by Leah Rae Miller), the best fake-but-turned-real boyfriend I have ever met (Colt from Charade by Nyrae Dawn), someone who can make fierce cookies, cause non-stop giggles, and hold a girl together when she’s falling apart (Cam from Wait For You by J. Lynn), to a guy whose pain and fear I wish I could take away (Travis from Something Like Normal by Trish Doller), the one and only guy that would expect a lot from me, would be a sort of  jerk about it, but I’d crush hardcore on anyways (Captain Westfall from The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas), my favorite rocker even if it is hardcore (Jet from Jet by Jay Crownover), the best pick-up artist of all time because he has an accent and reads Shakespeare in a bar (Garrick from Losing It by Cora Carmack), the very best woo-er of ALL TIME (Simon from Wallbanger by Alice Clayton), my favorite tutor, artist, self-defense trainers (Lucas from Easy by Tammara Webber), a guy who could write me poetry any time he wants but preferably when he isn’t my teacher (Will Cooper from Slammed by Colleen Hoover), someone I love just because, Okay? Okay, (Augustus Waters from The Fault In Our Stars by John Green), a guy I would walk around the city of love with all day, every day (Etienne from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins), my favorite moody, broken officer (Officer After from Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols), and to my favorite secret society brother (Poe from The Secret Society Girl series by Diana Peterfreund)

I love you all way more than any normal person should. I love that you all make me laugh, make me cry, and make me swoon on a daily basis. So thank you for that. I may not have a single real-life boyfriend but I have a ton of ah-freaking-mazing book boyfriends and that’s totally okay with me.

xoxo

Kate

#LoveAThon Mini Challenge #1

Hi there beautiful #loveathon-ers and welcome to the very first Mini Challenge of the Love-A-Thon! Each challenge is an opportunity for you to have a little fun AND win something awesome! There are going to be 6 Mini Challenges in total and they can all be found on the official event schedule.

The title of our very first Mini Challenge is Book Spine Poetry! You have until 1 p.m. EST to create a poem(s) using only the spines of books. Once your post is created, come back here or to Alexa’s blog to link up your post (the linky is the same on both of our blogs so you only need to link up once!) You can then go around to the other blogs that decided to participate in this challenge! Also, don’t forget to come back here at 4 p.m. for the 2nd challenge!

The Prize:

So what’s up for grabs for this particular challenge? If the winner happens to be US-based, they will win a signed paperback copy of Something Strange & Deadly + Swag! Thank you for the awesomely amazing Susan Dennard (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads) for generously donating this prize toward the Love-A-Thon!

If the winner happens to be outside of the US, they will be winning an e-copy of Summer Love by Marysue Hobika!! Marysue (Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads) was so incredibly kind to donate a copy of her book towards the Love-A-Thon!

**Whatever prize is not used, will go towards the final giveaway!**

Book Spine Poem:

I was really nervous about this one because despite what my Creative Writing professor thought, poetry is so not my thing. BUT when I actually took the time to scan my bookshelves, the poem sort of just happened really quickly and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I cannot wait to see what you guys have all put together!

Dare you to:

Breathe

Just listen

Fall for anything

Unravel me

Freefall, body & soul

Tell me a secret

Shine, louder than words

Welcome to the 2014 Book Blogger #LoveAThon!

Hello everyone and welcome to the 3rd Annual Book Blogger Love-A-Thon! It’s hard to believe that after months of planning, tons and tons and tons and tons (you get the point?) of lists and google docs, after dozens upon dozens of messages and texts between Alexa and I, more emailing  than I ever want to do again…like ever, and more procrastination than I should probably admit to, the event is finally here!

Last year’s Love-A-Thon was a whirlwind of madness and awesomeness. I was blown away by the amount of love and support I saw for and between bloggers. It was a very touching, endearing, and surreal experience to see the love just flow throughout the blogosphere. In fact, the event was so amazing, I just didn’t know how Alexa and I could top everything that happened. But after brainstorming ideas for months, talking it all over with Alexa, and finally sitting down to put those ideas to paper (or in my case, computer screen) I think we have come up with an event that is going to be bigger and better than the years before. We have worked so hard to create a fun and exciting schedule that has everything from commenting on blogs, interviews, mini challenges, Twitter chats, and HUGE + AWESOME giveaways, so we hope you are all braced for the epic fun we hope you are about to have.

Many of you reading this have already signed up for the event and I have more than likely been in contact with you at least once regarding the event. BUT if a Love-A-Thon is new news to you, let me give you a quick version of what it is: an event in which you share the blogger love! Take away the giveaways, mini challenges, and Twitter chats, and what you will find at the heart of this event is authors and bloggers sharing the love for their new and old favorite blogs by commenting, sharing their favorite blogs, and reaching out to their favorite bloggers by telling them just how awesome you think they are. Even if you missed the sign ups, you can join in on the event at any time! Make sure you send me (or Alexa) a link to your blog so we can add you to the list of participants below and also be sure to check out the event’s official schedule so you know when everything will be happening!

Below I have a list of all the participants of the Love-A-Thon! As the event goes on I will try to keep it updated as much as possible but please bear with me. If you are participating in the event and don’t see your name on the list below, shoot us an email at bbloveathon@gmail.com or find me on Twitter, @KatelynTorrey, and let me know!

Hosts:

Alexa Loves Books

Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands

Participants:

A Backwards Story

A Novel Thought

A Soul Unsung

Above Average Below Special

Adventures In Reading

Allodoxophobia

Along for the Read

Always Lost In Books

Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile

As Told by Rachel

Aspiring Ash

Barbara’s Book Reviews

Bibliophilia

Book Bite Reviews

Book. Blog. Bake.

Book Marauder

Book Revels

Book Rock Betty

Books and Writing

Books Devoured

Books Keep Me Sane

Books of Amber

Books Take You Places

Butorfleoge Book Blog

Captivated Reader

Carlie Sexton

Cassandra Giovanni

Coffee, Books, & Me

Creative Therapy

Debz Bookshelf

Diaries of a Bibliophile

Donnie Darko Girl

Effortlessly Reading

Emilie’s Book World

Ever On Word

Fefferbooks

Fic Fare

Fiction Folio

Fiction State of Mind

Geeky Chiquitas

Gone Pecan

Good Books, Good Tea

Gun In Act One

Gypsy Reviews

Hazel Lee Vaughn

Hers (and Sometimes His) Reviews of Books, Movies, and Everything

Hugs & Kisses of Poetry

In the Best Worlds

Jacelyn Rye

Jaime Reads and Reviews

Jennifer Tressen

Kahlen Aymes

Kimberlyfaye Reads

Life in the Pages

Lii’s Adventures in Bookland

Literacy Love

Literary, etc

Little Bookworm Reviews

Little Miss Drama Queen

Looking for the Panacea

Lose Time Reading

Love At First Page

Michelle Abbott

Midnight Book Girl

Misinterpreted & Unrepresented

Mismatched Bookends

My Bookish Ramblings

My Heart Heart Books

My Life In Books

My Little Pocketbooks

My Thoughts Literally

Notes of a Book Lover

Nyx Book Reviews

O2B Heavenly Minded

Oh, Magic Hour

Out of Time

Paper Riot

Paper Worlds and Swirls of Ink

Paperback Heart

Paperback Princess

Playing Jokers

PopCrunchBoom

Potterhead Reviews

Perusing Princesses

Pretty Little Reader

Reading Wishes

Redhead Reader

Sarah D. Towne

Sarah Nicolas

Sharing a Bit of Romance

So Paranormal

Soul and Soliloquy

Spirit of Children’s Literature

Stay Bookish

Tea Party Princess

That Artsy Reader Girl

The Bandersnatch Society

The Book Addict’s Guide

The Book Monsters

The Broke Book Girls

The Caffeinated Bibliophile

The Canon

The Daily Prophecy

The Fuma Files

The Grown-Up YA

The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Library Canary

The Magic of Words

The Nomadic Book Hoarder

The Overstuffed Bookcase

The Page Sage

The Perpetual Page Turner

The Quiet Concert

The Reader’s Den

The Reader’s Hollow

The Reading Date

The Runaway Reader

The Sunflower Pages

What’s Next?

Worn Down Glories

Wrapped Up In Books

Y.A. Reads

Zoya Tessi

And now to start the Love-A-Thon off right, we have the interviews! If you signed up in advance you should have received either an interview swap partner or pre-made interview questions from Alexa and I. We are using the interviews to get to know one another! There are over 100 of you signed up for this event so odds are, you are going to find some new friends today! For the next few hours, scroll through the list of participants and “meet” the fellow love-a-thon-ers! And again, if you have any questions at all during the love-a-thon, you can reach me on Twitter: @KatelynTorrey!

How did you come up with your blog name?

The story behind my blog name is actually a pretty fun one! Back when I first started this blog, it went by the oh so creative name of “Katelyn’s Blog.” I know, it didn’t take much thought on my end but at the time I had absolutely NO IDEA what I was getting myself into. As year one of blogging came and went, I actually grew quite tired of my blog name. The only problem I was coming up with was my lack of name creating. I was seeing more and more book blogs pop up and all of them seemed to have these super awesome, catchy, unique blog names and I was over here like, “Oh hey, my blog name is my real name and my real name is a name I never really liked growing up so…yeah.” Then in January of 2012, I decided to go ahead and do a contest. I asked people for help with coming up with a blog name. I told them that I blogged about books and music and would like my name to feature that somehow and then I let them have at it. One person who I don’t really remember (I know, this is horrible on my part. Awesome name creator, if you are out there and reading this, I apologize!), threw out the idea of Tales of Books. Well I liked that idea a lot so I twisted it into “Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands” and well, the rest is history!

What genre/subject matter do you read and review most on your blog?

This blog is hard to define, at least it is for me. I definitely started out as a strictly Young Adult reader and blogger. A few Middle Grade books would sneak their way on here but not very often. The genre always seemed to switch up; sometimes I read paranormal, sometimes sci-fi, sometimes fantasy, but contemporary seemed to capture my heart the most.

Over the past few years, I have slowly dipped my toes in the awesome waters of Adult Fiction mostly in the form of chick-lit and romance. But more than that, I have dived head first into New Adult and I am in love people. In absolute love. I know New Adult is not for everyone and it can certainly be a touchy subject for a lot of people but for me it just fits. I just feel at home with it. Maybe it’s because I am a New Adult myself or maybe it’s because I’ve just had really, really good luck with NA books. Whatever the case may be, I am so happy I found it.

With all that being said, I would still not define my blog with any of this. I still read YA, NA, and Adult. I still read a mix of paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary. I read the light fluffy stories about first loves and the tougher stories about drug and mental health problems. I guess I just read and blog about what I find interesting!

Name the 3 books you’re excited for in 2014!

This is a tough one because I am looking forward to SO MANY books! Even though I want to cheat so hard with this question, I am going to try to be a good girl and just go with the first three books that popped into my head!

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. I feel like I have been waiting for this book for for-FREAKING-ever. I adore all things Stephanie Perkins so there is no doubt I will fall hard-core for this book!

All Lined Up by Cora Carmack. Guys, the idea behind this book is genius. I am not from the south, in fact, I am as far north as they can go (or at least it feels like it sometimes) but I know how the south handles their football and I am oh so excited to read all about it!

Nash and Rowdy by Jay Crownover. Okay, I may have fibbed a bit at the beginning of this question. I had to go with four because I am equal parts excited for these two books. I DEVOUR all of Jay’s books in one sitting every time. They are ah-mazing so the fact that she has two boys from my favorite series being released into the wild in one year is like a dream come true!

Where in the world are you blogging from?

I live in a superdupersmalltown smack dab in the middle of Michigan. It’s cold more often than I like, it snows more than I think it should, and the summer months are hot but not nearly long enough. The town in question has more fast food places, hair salons, pizza places, and gas stations than we could EVER need but it is a place that I have called home my whole life so I sort of really love it.

Tell us — how did you get into blogging in the first place?

I first became aware of book blogs in 2010, my senior year of high school. I was in a Young Adult Literature class and my teacher actually had her own YA book blog. We would take the time every once in a while to go into the library to check out her blog. In the last few weeks of my senior year, I dislocated my knee cap while attempting to play tennis (keyword: attempting). Since the first few weeks of my summer were spent being laid up in bed, I spent a lot of time on my computer. I soon began checking out her blog more and more and then the other blogs listed on her website. It was one day in August of 2010 that I decided to just go with it. I am not going to lie and say that the last 3 & 1/2 years have been easy but it has all definitely been worth it!

Apart from reading, what other hobbies/interests do you have?

I love reading, listening to and finding new music, and blogging. For the most part, those three things take up a TON of my time. Outside of those things I am basically the lamest 21-year old you will ever likely meet. I go to work, hang out with my family A LOT, go to the occasional movie, hang out with my friends when we’re all free, go to concerts and book signings when they happen to be close by, and hang out with my cat which is really more entertaining than you’d think. I wish I could dazzle you all with my exciting and fascinating social life but considering it is basically non-existent, the dazzling will just have to wait for another time!

If you were stuck on a deserted island, which books would you bring with you?

Hardest question EVER! I thought long and hard about this one and what I came up with were my two all-time favorite reads; The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen and Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. Those books are just pure brilliant and I never get sick of reading them.

If you were stuck in some dangerous situation (like a fire, a sinking ship, a warzone), which book boy or girl would you want to come and save you?

I feel like over the years I have read about some pretty kick-ass characters but if I am being honest, one character popped into my head right away and that would be Celaena Sardothien from Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series. She kicks so much butt and though she may be hard to befriend at first, I feel like she would be able to get us out of just about any sticky situation.

You’re attending a party with your friends. Suddenly, the DJ changes the song and it’s YOUR song – what song would that be?

My favorite song changes on a daily if not hourly basis so you can probably imagine just how very tough this question is for me. I guess I will have to go with one of my favorite go-to songs from one of my favorite go-to bands, Just Like Heaven by The Cure.

What 3 movies would you love to have your favorite author write into books, or vice versa?

   

This one was so, so, so easy for me. I was technically born in the 90’s but I feel like my spirit decade is DEFINITELY the 80’s. I am obsessed with all-things John Hughes so it would be a dream come true if an author would take Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty In Pink and write three sure-to-be-awesome books. I actually think John Green would be an excellent author for these books. His books hold the same awkward, honest, real-life humor that John Hughes’ films do.

And that’s a wrap on the intro post! Go forth my fellow #LoveAThon-ers and spread the blogger love!

Awesome People, I Need Some Help!

Dear awesome people,

The 3rd Annual Book Blogger Love-A-Thon is quickly approaching, perhaps a bit quicker than I am prepared for but I’m excited for it nonetheless! Okay, maybe excited is a bit of an understatement for me considering I’m currently at the giggling, squealing, voice-can-only-be-heard-by-dogs phase. Obviously this event is near and dear to my heart and I have been absolutely blown away by the support and excitement surrounding the event by bloggers and authors already.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of the event, let me take a quick moment to explain it to you. I started the Love-A-Thon as a way for bloggers and authors to share the love. I wanted everyone to be able to take a day or two to learn about new blogs and spend time visiting some of the oldies but goodies; a day where bloggers and authors can come together to share the word about their favorite book blogs and have a lot of fun. Throw in a few mini challenges, twitter chats, and lots of giveaways, and you’ve got an event that is just as much fun to plan as it is to participate in. (If you want to learn even more about the event, or sign up!, you can check out this post here or contact me at katelynsblog@aol.com)

Now I suppose I’ve come to the part of this post where I actually ask for the help, the part I have actually been kind of dreading. I ask you to please bear with me because I absolutely LOATHE asking for favors. I’m totally one of those people who carry in 500 lbs of groceries and uses her feet to open doors when her hands are full because I just can’t stand asking people to help me out. But I really want this year to be super special for the Love-A-Thon and all of its participants. They are spending two whole days tweeting about, sharing, commenting and loving on their favorite blogs and Alexa and I would really like to give them a little love in return. We’ve already had a few gracious, amazing donations (seriously it was enough to make me giggle and cry at the same time. That’s serious people), and we have been compiling prizes over time, BUT we are still accepting more from now until the event starts on February 15th. Even if you aren’t able to participate in the event, you can still share your love for bloggers by donating towards the giveaway. Swag, gift cards, and bookish prizes are all welcome! If you would like to donate or you have questions or concerns regarding the event, please feel free to contact me at katelynsblog@aol.com. Thank you so much for all of your love and support <3

Love,

A very grateful little blogger