Maggie Stiefvater Signing RECAP!

I'm always a bit slow posting these recaps, but last Thursday Megan from Megan Likes Books and I went to Maggie Stiefvater's signing at the Indigo in CrossIron Mills Mall (it's just a bit outside of Calgary for anyone wondering), and we had an amazing time!! :D

Indigo did an amazing job hosting the event, and it was just a fantastic atmosphere! And so much fun!

Megan & I showed up super duper early! I was driving from Edmonton, so we wanted to make sure that we got good seats...and we did! Right at the front! :D We had quite a few books to get signed, and even got some signed for a few of our fellow Edmonton Book Bloggers! :D We also had plenty of time to get caught up, which was great! :D

Here's a picture of Megan (left) and I waiting to meet Maggie! We were the entire line for a bit there....but we were also REALLY REALLY early! haha This photo was taken by the lovely Megan and posted on her Twitter.

Before Maggie came out, we had some trivia for Chapters/Indigo gift cards, which was really fun! 

 

 Here's the audience for the signing holding up their favourite book of Maggie's! Photo from Indigo Events' Twitter (@indigogreenroom).

Then we got to see Maggie! She told us some hilarious stories (like the one about "The Knife Incident" and her feinting goats), did an audience reading, and answered some questions!

 Here's Maggie!!! :D She's a fantastic public speaker, funny, and just so entertaining! She told us about her struggles writing Forever (she felt like the fans were watching her while she was writing, so she took twice as long as usual to write it because she ended up taking it back from her editor to make it better :P), how she found out Linger was #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and she even mentioned how Hollywood is extremely complicated and that she likes book-to-movie adaptations as long as they keep the same "flavour" as the book, which she said was the reason she pulled the options for Shiver before---apparently Sam was a homeless guy digging up a can of peaches, and that just didn't feel like Shiver at all... and I definitely have to agree with her. :P

As I mentioned before, she had an audience reading! So, members of the audience helped participate in a reading of her book...and I got to be a part of it! We read from one of the chapters in The Dream Thieves, and I was Persephone! :D (Once again, I borrowed this picture from Megan.)

The event itself was really well put together, and it was definitely worth my three hour drive! ;D
Maggie was also nice enough to sign all of our books at once (without a limit), so Megan and I didn't even have to line up again...and we totally thought we'd have to because we had 9 books each! ;D

Meeting Maggie was awesome though! She was really easy to talk to and so fun!!!

 They took some candid photos of us while we were talking to Maggie, and this one was my favourite! I just love both of our expressions...I look seriously fangirly and happy...and totally entertained by Maggie, and Maggie looks like she's saying something intense. :D

 Here are a couple of the books I got signed! :D The Scorpio Races is my favourite because of the doodle Maggie drew (plus, the book itself is fabulous!)...so awesome! :D

 Also, Megan was much quicker at posting her recap of the signing, so if you're curious about what she had to say about the event, youu can find her recap HERE.

There you have it, that's my recap for what happened at the Maggie Steifvater signing that I went to last week! It was awesome, and Megan and I had a blast! Everyone at the signing also wrote a little something to Maggie in a notebook...and Megan and I wrote a poem for her...it was pretty fun, even if we're not very good at rhyming...although hopefully Maggie thought our poem wasn't too "draggy". :P

I definitely hope to get to meet Maggie again someday because she's just a fantastic person, and her books are pretty fabulous, too!

Have you been to a signing before?

What was it like and who was it for?

And if you haven't been to one before, 

which author (or authors) signing(s) would you want to go to?

The Scorpio Race Book Trailer and Maggie Stiefvater's Contest!

So, that was the book trailer for Maggie Stiefvater's upcoming release, The Scorpio Races! I personally, can't wait to read this one, it sounds amazing! :D

If you haven't heard of The Scorpio Races yet, here are some details. 

(Goodreads link)

Description:
  
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

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And now onto Maggie's newest contest!

All you have to do to enter is post about the trailer and the contest!

You can find all of the details at Maggie Stiefvater's blog with this link.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

What did you think of the trailer?
I loved it! I'm a sucker for these animation trailers that Maggie does. I loved the ones she did for her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy too, they're so neat!

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Review: Forever (Wolves of Mercy Fall #3) by Maggie Steifvater

Source: Received an ARC from Scholastic Canada for an honest review.

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Release Date: July 12, 2011
Number of Pages: 386 (Hardcover)

(Goodreads Link.)

Blurb from Goodreads:


The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater
In Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER, Grace and Sam found each other. In LINGER, they fought to be together. Now, in FOREVER, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

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Goodreads links to the other two books in The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy:
Shiver (#1), and Linger (#2)

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I first started the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy a few years ago. I came across Shiver in the bookstore, and I absolutely loved the cover (I'm a real sucker for shiny stuff haha) and the description on the back. To this day, I am so glad that I picked up Shiver, and I will continue to encourage people to read this series. It's fantastic!

The whole story within this trilogy is definitely one of a kind, and it's one that I think even readers who don't really like paranormal stories would enjoy. It's the kind of story that actually helps you try to understand what goes on to the people who become "supernatural" and doesn't just tell you that's how it is, and you need to get over the fact that you just will never know why. I absolutely love that there's some science mixed in with the whole paranormal aspect. I found it refreshing, and honestly, it kind of made me want to learn. :P

Back when I started reading this series, I immediately fell in love with Maggie's writing, and the world she created. I loved the crazy way that the chapters in Shiver were organized with temperatures and months and all those goodies, and I have absolutely loved reading about Sam, Grace, Mercy Falls, the wolves, and all of the other fabulous things that make this trilogy so amazing *cough*COLE*cough*. Maggie writes amazing characters, and the emotion that she puts into their thoughts and narratives is genius. Plus, Sam and Grace's whole relationship was amazing. Their love is so genuine, constant, and it can seriously withstand anything...plus, how could Grace not have fallen for Sam, he's written songs about her. ;) I also absolutely love the chapters when you get to be inside of one of the character's heads while they're a wolf. She's given the wolves such unique thoughts, and the way that they process and think about things has continued to astound me. I also love the way they exchange thoughts between their pack. They throw around images to each other, which is just so interesting...it also makes me curious about real wolves.

I am of course, a little sad that the series is over, but I feel that Maggie has ended this series on a note of hope, and it left me satisfied...curious, but definitely satisfied. I also loved her Author's note at the end of the book, it was so heart-warming, and I will definitely admit it had me tearing up. I cried while reading the book too, just in case anyone is curious. :P I also laughed, and smiled on countless occasions. One of the things I love about this series is that in each book you get more and more narrators. In Shiver, you have Grace and Sam. Then in Linger, you get Grace, Sam, Isabel, and Cole. And in Forever, you get Grace, Sam, Cole, Isabel, and even Shelby in the prologue. I remember reading Linger and being all..."What? new people!", but honestly, I absolutely love Cole now...I'm kind of a Cole fangirl, but I totally still love me some Sam. They're so different that you can honestly love them both. :P

In Forever, so much stuff happens. The timeline of the book isn't actually very long, but it's packed with tonnes of stuff. You get to see the characters in completely different places than they were in the last two books, and you get to see how the series ends...who doesn't love that?! The Wolves of Mercy Falls is an amazing series, and it's one that I want encourage everyone to start because I really think you'll love it! This is a series you can connect with while reading, and you will find it hard to walk away from these books without feeling something for these characters. If you by some chance don't love it, then that's fine too, after all, not all books are for everybody!

In case you couldn't tell from my review, I loved Forever, and while I'm sad the series is over, I'm happy for the characters and the ending definitely left me satisfied. :)

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Have YOU started the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy yet?
Are you anxious for Forever's release???

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Maggie Stiefvater's Giant Forever Trailer Contest!

Words on Words by Maggie Stiefvater - GIANT FOREVER TRAILER CONTEST

Maggie Steifvater is having an amazing contest right now! But it ends really really soon, so if you guys want to enter you better hurry! The link to her contest is right ^ up there at the top of this post. :) You only have until the morning of May 16th though...so like I said a very short amount of time. :)



Here's Maggie's awesome Forever trailer! :D I love the little paper wolves! :D




And if you wanna buy her book, you can signed copies here: http://www.fountainbookstore.com/autograph-maggie.


So who else is super excited for Forever?? I know I can't wait! :D

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Woo-Hoo!!!! FOREVER, THE LAST BOOK IN THE SHIVER TRILOGY, PRE-ORDER A SIGNED COPY HERE!

Here's the amazing cover for Forever by Maggie Stiefvater!!! It's just as beautiful as the others...and I'm loving the wolf and boy on the cover. I'm pretty sure we all have the same suspicions about who they are. ;)




Maggie's having an awesome contest over on her blog, and if you click on the picture of Forever's cover it should link you right to it ;)


So...back to the details on pre-ordering! The link is right here: http://www.fountainbookstore.com/autograph-maggie.

If you pre-order the book from this indie bookstore before the book's released your's will be signed by Maggie!!! Come on who doesn't wanna get in on that!!! :D

Happy Reading!

Ambur