Breathless Reads Tour including a stop at an awesome SoCal conference!

Guys, I am beyond excited and can not contain myself. Have you checked out the tour dates for the Breathless Reads tour yet? They are making stop all over the country! Here's their schedule. See if there is an event near you!

• February 15^th Anderson’s Bookshop Naperville, IL
• February 16^th Politics and Prose Bethesda, MD
• February 17^th Books of Wonder New York, NY
• February 18^th Towne Center Book and Café Collegeville, PA
• February 19^th The Doylestown Bookshop Doylestown, PA
• February 21^st Little Shop of Stories Decatur, GA
• February 22^nd Blue Willow Bookshop Houston, TX
• February 23^rd Barnes & Noble Frisco Frisco, TX
• February 24^th Once Upon A Time Montrose, CA
• February 25^th Passion and Prose Conference Long Beach, CA

Two stops in SoCal?! Lucky us! And oh my gosh, while I'm at it, can I just blabber on for a moment about the "Passion & Prose" Conference? Authors are ROCKSTARS! will be doing a "Road Trip" podcast from the event. We are so excited! It's a conference in its infancy, but we hope to see it become a SoCal book lovers staple! They have so many awesome guests including being part of the Breathless Reads tour. You should go to their website and check it out. It's a bit pricey, but I think it's going to be worth it. It's a whole day event including breakfast and lunch! Meg Cabot is even going to be there! SQUEE! Did I mention I was excited? :P

Not in SoCal but want to go? Heck, I think you should. My sister is flying out from Wisconsin to attend! It's gorgeous here right now. You can escape winter weather, meet awesome authors and then do some SoCal tourist stuff like visiting Hollywood, going on a studio tour (I recommend Warner Bros. Their studio tour rock!), etc. Yes, I know. I'm an evil enabler. If you do end up making a trip out here, be sure to stop by and say hi to us at the conference!

Okay enough blabbering on from me for now. Don't forget - we'll be interviewing author Beth Revis next week (February 3rd). Have a question you're just dying to ask her? Just leave a comment here or over on the podcast page. We'll have a post going up later today!

Happy Friday everyone!

Legend by Marie Lu

Okay apparently it is dystopian week on my blog! First the awesome “Birthmarked” series on Friday, now “Legend” by Marie Lu! Whoo! Yay Dystopians!!

Well, as I mentioned on Friday, I love a good dystopian. Mm mm. Nothing like reading about other people’s troubles to make you realize how awesome your life is right? (I think the song Schaudenfreude from “Avenue Q” has been running through my head too much!) In all seriousness though, it’s a form of fantasy that is (most of the time) grounded a bit more in reality. I love it. Marie Lu’s contribution “Legend” is a FUN one.

Ms. Lu uses two different narrators to tell this story - Day, who is living a young man living on the streets, and June, a wealthy young woman and star pupil of the regime in power. It’s set in Los Angeles, now part of the Republic. One day, these two unknowingly become intimated connected when Day, a “Robin Hood” type, becomes the prime suspect in the murder of June’s beloved brother. June strikes out to avenge her brother, all the while Day is still struggling to save a family who has been infected with a dangerous disease. Both individually are brilliant, but when they learn what the Republic will do in order to stay in power, they become a force to be reckoned with.

As I said, this book is a lot of fun. I can totally see why it got picked up almost instantaneously to become a movie. It’s going to be fantastic on the big screen. It also is pretty darn tootin’ good in book form, even the audiobook is fabulous! I actually think I enjoyed the audiobook more. It was so interesting to have such two distinct voices for the narrators. Despite being a voice actor, sometimes my head got a little fuzzy bouncing back and forth. I think Day sometimes came off a little feminine... not sure how to describe it. It just was fuzzy at times in my head. Hearing it though? Super clear! I’ve never listened to an audiobook after reading. It was interesting. Now I can’t wait to see the movie in a year or two to make the cycle complete! ;)

I received an ARC from the publisher for review. "Legend" is being released TOMORROW - November 29th. Marie will actually be on our podcast next month over at Authors are ROCKSTARS! and we’ll be giving away a signed ARC. :D