Event Recap + Giveaway: Ransom Riggs Press Forum & Book Signing

Last March 3rd' 2013, Ransom Riggs had a reading and a book signing over at Fully Booked (in their Fort branch.) Geraldine and I were lucky enough to have been invited to Fully Booked's Press Forum for Ransom Riggs that happened before the book signing itself. Unfortunately, Geraldine couldn't make it because she had to study for our Chinese exam (boo.) Ge and I actually met Ransom during the Tahereh Mafi signing the day before and Ge totally crushed on him. Yuuuup. Never gonna let her live it down. Moving on... I ended up taking Maricar from Black Plume *waves* who always seems to be my forum buddy. Haha! There were only a few people at the forum at least less than 10 bloggers and media people and of course, the Fully Booked Team. (Hi, Victoria!) We also met up with other book bloggers: Kate from The Bookaholic Blurbs, Leslie from bibliophilekid and Kazhy from My Library in the Making. Now get read for an influx of pictures and tiny little captions:

Ransom Riggs answering questions during the press forum.

Here are a few things I learned about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Ransom Riggs:

• Miss Peregrine's sequel will be out on January 2014 (After 5 years! *faints*)
• He didn't know that Miss Peregrine's was actually a Young Adult till Barnes & Noble shelved his book there.
• Ransom Riggs had over 300+ pictures picked out for Miss Peregrine's but only used 50 or so images (sad Ransom.)
• He likes looking through bins full of pictures to look for ones that intrigue him.
• He has sold over 1,000,000+ copies of his book (not in a day though!)
• When asked if the pictures or story came first, he answered that the pictures did.
• He is extremely tall.
• He's written about 800 pages for Book 2... but deleted over 700 of them.

Well, that's it. Back to the pictures:

Ransom Riggs signing my books.

Me with Ransom Riggs. (Ha! I'm taller than him.)

Maricar, Ransom and I. (Now we're both taller than him! :D)

Now this is at the actual book signing itself. There were A TON of people! More than 200+ fans went and the place was packed! Lookie here, homies:

HOLY MOTHER OF APRONS!!

Ransom Riggs reading an excerpt from his book to us. (And yes, I am flying.)

Ransom chatting with a fan and he's totes about to sign her book. Just you wait.

Ransom signing a book. Yes, this is a legit play-by-play of everything he does. *stalker smile*

Just a random group picture with other book bloggers. (Kate, Maricar, Me, Leslie and Kazhy.)
(Picture taken from Kate. Thanks, lady! ;D)

#TeamHandsomePHILIPPINES Group photo!
Ransom remembered us from the day before and whispered to us that Tahereh would be there in 5 minutes. OMGG!! Thanks, Ransom! ;)

And this part (below) was one of the highlights of the event. The other book bloggers and I met this lovely girl, Maureen, who drew a spectacular sketch of Ransom Riggs just a few minutes before. She told us that she wasn't even there for the signing but just to draw random people. I fangirled when I saw her sketch because it looked so awesome. I told her to go up to Ransom and give it to him but she was adamant and didn't want to, so I told her that I'd give her a signed copy of his book if she gave him her drawing. In the end, she gave in and decided to hand him her drawing. Thank heavens that Maricar still kept her number because her number was up next (I think it was #155?) Ransom said something about her drawing being so accurate that it was creepy. Haha! He even personalized the book for her so there's two signatures from him there now! Whoot! Anyhoo, here is her awesome drawing:

My eyes are blinded by its sheer awesomeness.

Here is Maureen holding her new signed book with Ransom and him holding his new sketch. Whoot!

Message to Maureen: In case you ever see this, I forgot your last name so I can't tag you in the pictures. Sorry, girl! (Eeep. O.O) And I hope you enjoy your new book and good luck with your drawings! You rock!

Other highlight: Tahereh DID show up! Maricar saw her first and we were all pretty shocked even though we knew that she was going to be there. Apparently, she really wasn't suppose to go but she did tell me the day before that she'd be there and Ransom warned us as well. So, yay! Tahereh remembered us and asked Kazhy and I if all we did was hang out at book signing and obviously, we said YES. There were actually people who recognized her and wanted to get their books signed but they just didn't know how to approach her since she was busy talking with someone (the owner of Fully Booked, we were told.) But in the end, a couple of people were able to get their books signed and so did I! Again. I talked to Tahereh the day before and she told me that she'd deface my other copy of Unravel Me during Ransom's signing so she asked me if I brought my copy for her to deface but I told her that I had decided to give my extra copy to my friend. I also told her that she could deface my friend's copy but she declined and said that I was very sweet for giving my friend my extra copy and that she wanted to deface my copy. Tahereh Mafi = THE NICEST PERSON EVER. So yeah, I got a book signed for my friend and Kazhy did too. Here's our group picture with Tahereh (sans Kate. D:):

Leslie, Me, Tahereh, Kazhy and Maricar.
We're Tahereh's Mafia the Philippine branch. Hahaha!

We actually also got a little something for Lyra that she requested either Leslie or I do, and we did! It was a pretty funny experience that involved Adam, a Hello Kitty notebook page and Tahereh. *wink*

Well that's it! It was absolutely amazing seeing everyone again and hanging out with the other lovely bloggers. A big, big thank you to Ms. Victoria Velasco and Fully Booked for inviting us to the press forum and for making the event happen! It was a rousing success and I'm pretty sure all the attendees had a lot of fun, so thank you! HUGS.

Oh and here's a little something for you, guys...

Eeeeep!! *massive flail*

This is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway and all you need to do is fill out the form and you're entered! Good luck, everyone!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ARC Review: Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

Title: Pretty Girl-13
Author: Liz Coley
Pages: 352 pages
Format acquired: Paperback (ARC)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date: March 19th 2013
Source: Received from publisher for an honest review (Thanks, Christine!)
Pre-order the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home…only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen-or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do-people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

Liz Coley's alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing-and ultimately empowering-page-turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads)

Review:

This book too me out of my reading plateau. I had stopped reading for a while because none of the books I had were interesting enough to read beyond chapter 5. I though Pretty Girl-13 was going to be one of them, but boy was I wrong!! From the very moment I turned to page 1 and started reading, I was hooked. I couldn't even put the book down to answer the phone or go to the loo. I just sat there, getting lost in the story as 3 1/2 hours ticked by. Yes, this was one of Those books.

The book starts off with in a camping site in the forest. Our lead, Angie is then taken by a stranger and a little voice inside tells her to hide. The next scene comes with Angie in front of her house, carrying a bag of unfamiliar clothes 3 years later. I don't know why, but this story is not something you can talk about without spoiling it. The gist of it is that Angie's mind created alter-egos so that she would be able to bear and cope the abuse she got while she was held captive by the strange man. It was her mind's defense mechanism to cushion the blows that would definitely traumatize her were they (the alter egos) not there.

Some people may think that the part where Angie's mom was mentioned to be pregnant was a complete waste of time and shouldn't have been in there and did nothing for the plot, I'd like to think differently. For Angie, being lost for 3 years seemed impossible to her, but it still happened. And when her parents, friends and everything around her has changed, she craved the normalcy of her old life back. Something she now can't have, and that baby is one of the constantly present reminders why. Because even when she tries to act like everything is normal and she didn't go missing for 3 years, she still did. And  that baby proves to her that things HAVE changed and that people have learned to go on without her. How would do you think you feel like if you were kidnapped and forgotten about?

This book may either strongly grip you or make you think its a joke. There are no lukewarm sides to this. I feel like it's another creative, more intricate version of Living Dead Girl. In LDG, though, she was fully aware and had a presence if mind during the entire ordeal with her abductor. Here, Pretty Girl-13 shows us that not all of us can just suck it up and still be strong in the end. (SPOILER-ish: She DID stay strong in the end. You go, Angie!) PG-13 shows us an alter situation that may or may not happen to anyone. In my heart, though. I loved how this book was a new, fresh idea that would stick with me forever. The only thing I can say is that if you love reading mystery or altering POVs, than you should definitely give this book a try.

Rating:

.5

Stacking the Shelves (20)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews! It's where bloggers can share what they got for review, bought, borrowed, won or gifted (both physical and eBooks may be included! :D)

Here's what I got this week:

For review:

*ARC* Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton (Goodreads)

*ARC* Parallel by Lauren Miller (Goodreads)

*ARC* The End Games by T. Michael Martin (Goodreads)

*ARC* Sweet Peril (Sweet #2) by Wendy Higgins (Goodreads)

*ARC* The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani (Goodreads)

*ARC* INK (The Paper Gods #1) by Amanda Sun (Goodreads)

Borrowed:

*ARC* Apollyon (Covenant #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Goodreads)

Won:

*signed* The Mayfair Moon (The Darkwoods Trilogy #1) by J.A. Redmerski (Goodreads)

Other awesome things:

You can also enter to win a SIGNED copy of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi HERE.

(Our signed loot in the link up there ^)

Thank you so much to the very lovely Christine from HarperCollins, Elise from MiraInk, Precious from Fragments of Life and Dani from Book Whales!! :D

Event Recap + Giveaway: Tahereh Mafi Blogger Forum & Book Signing

Mr. JB Roperos fixing up the registration booth.

Last Saturday, March 2nd' 2013, Geraldine and I attended National Book Store's Blogger Forum for Tahereh Mafi's Book Signing. Me being insanely OCD about punctuality decided to pick Geraldine up at 8:30 AM to go to a mall that opens at 11:00 AM. HAHAHAHAHA. Both an awesome and insanely dumb idea. Awesome because we were the very first two to arrive at the forum, dumb because the mall opens at 11 AM and we. Had. Nothing. To. Do. We ended up sweating, I mean, perspiring excessively due to the Philippine heat. The blogger forum was actually held in Greenbelt while the book signing itself was held in Glorietta so we had to walk. A lot. But yeah, it was worth it. Now, get ready for an influx of pictures:

A display of Tahereh Mafi's books.

Chillin' with other book bloggers while waiting for Tahereh Mafi.
There were around 20+ bloggers in attendance.
And the lovely lady wearing the green shirt and grey jacket is Kate from The Bookaholic Blurbs and the other lovely lady sitting down is Lyra from Defiantly Deviant. *waves*

Mr. Chad Dee introducing Tahereh Mafi.

Tahereh Mafi answering some questions and being adorable.

I actually fangirled internally because she remembered me from Twitter! YESSS. And she mentioned Kate and Kai as well. During the Q&A portion of the forum, we literally grilled Tahereh Mafi. There were uncomfortably hilarious questions that just had all of us squirming in our seats. Here are just a few things we learned:

• Tahereh Mafi has the coolest mom ever. (Yes, Mrs. Mafi, we're Team Handsome too!)
• Kenji was based on her brother which makes it really weird whenever people ask her if Juliette's ever going to get it on with him.
• She's writing another novella coming out this December. There is no specific character it's going to be about yet but I did recommend Warner's dad.
• It was really easy for her to write the way she did in Shatter Me.
• Her future novels will be most likely in the Paranormal genre.
• SHE HAS THE AWESOMEST EYELASHES EVER. She even let Geraldine and I touch them!! Eeeeep!!

And that's it, we're going back to the pictures now:

OMG. WHO'S THAT BEHIND YOU?!

It's Ransom Riggs!! Who has now decided to join in on the put-Tahereh-Mafi-on-the-hot-seat fun.

BOOK SIGNING TIME!! *flails*

We, apparently, had a lot of extra time so we managed to get all our books signed!! Wheeee!

Geraldine and I actually gave Tahereh Mafi a paperbag filled with things we thought she's like and she was really gracious and sweet when we handed it over to her. I won't elaborate on the things we gave her but we hope that she cherishes them. *smiles* Oh, and CUPCAKES.

Tahereh Mafi defacing our copies of Unravel Me. (She's totes using my Sharpie. LOL)

She signed a lot of books for Ge and I. The two of us are preparing for the apocalypse and we need signed copies of Tahereh's books. LOL

Tahereh Mafi talking to one of her fans. (That's Alyana from Read, Breathe Read.)

Tahereh Mafi showing her mini-cake to Ransom Riggs.

Tahereh and Ransom tasting their very first dried mango. Picture first though!

Tahereh: "Tastes like a Fruit Roll-Up!! :D"

*insert a dirty joke here*

The picture above was one of my favorite moments of the blogger forum. Ge, me, Tahereh, Ransom and other bloggers spent the time telling each other really dirty and corny jokes! It was a ton of fun. (Picture from National Book Store. Thanks, JB! :D)

Geraldine and I holding our winnings. We both won P500 worth of GC during a raffle draw. Funnily enough, numbers 1, 2 and 3 were called out. Haha!

Me, Ransom Riggs, Tahereh Mafi and Geraldine in a group photo!! Whoot!

Unfortunately, Geraldine and I were not able to stay for the group picture with the other blogger. Boo. But it was great seeing them all again! :) I actually went to the book signing itself afterwards to check out to crowd and here's what I saw:

YUP. You see right! Over 200+ people went out of their houses to meet Tahereh Mafi! It was epic. But then her books are epic so it doesn't really come as a shock. And Ransom Riggs also signed some books for readers as well! I lent him my silver Sharpie. It probably ran out of ink. Haha! I actually went and got a picture with Tahereh again (after she defaced my book again):

Well, that's how the event went. Geraldine and I had SO much fun in the forum and we are so honored to have been invited. Thank you so much to Mr. JB Roperos and National Book Store for inviting us and for making the event happen. You all rock! Whoot!

Here are my signed books:

My lovely copy of Shatter Me.

My defaced copy of Unravel Me.

And something that Team Warner will appreciate *winks*:

You know what's happenin'. ;)

And here is a very special video message from Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs to their Filipino and other fans as well! Get ready to be inspired:

Aren't they just hilariously adorable? Hee! And last but not the least...

Win a signed copy of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi!! :D *EPIC FLAIL* Thank you so much, Tahereh for signing the book!

This is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway and all you need to do is fill out the form and you're entered! Good luck, everyone!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much, guys! Watch out for another recap post about my adventure during the Ransom Riggs book signing and press forum. Whoot!! Oh and check out other bloggers' recap posts too:

BOOK SIGNING: TAHEREH MAFI IN MANILA + BLOGGER FORUM

Out and About: Bloggers Forum + Signing with Tahereh Mafi + Ransom Riggs

Bloggers' Forum & Book Signing with Tahereh Mafi + Ransom Riggs

Book Signing Event: Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs

What's Cool? Tahereh + Surprises!

The Soul Sisters Take a Break

Hi guys!

We'll be taking a short hiatus from this week to the next because it's our final examinations so our postings will be zero to null. Sorry for the incovenience but we'll definitely be back next week! :) And don't worry, super exciting things will be posted on the blog as soon as we get back.

Thank you so much for understanding!