Book Nerds Across America

Oh, I love book conferences! I was able to attend the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in 2015 for the first time, and I had to go back to this year. Definitely one of the hardest parts about book conferences is shipping your books back to you and then having to wait for them to arrive! The 5 boxes (in my defense, some of the boxes are small -- lol!) I sent myself are set to arrive Tuesday. I've been stalking the tracking in hopes that they get here early and magically show up today, but I don't think so,

However, I still need to do my review and I need to do it today, so I will improvise! I'll talk about a couple of random things that are here and there in the next two posts, and I hope you enjoy having this look at it.

Swag is a fun bonus for upcoming releases. I have soo much swag, and I always like seeing the creative things that people will come up with to promote books. So I wanted to share with you some of my favorite swag that I got at the conference:
Starting at the top -- a duffel bag! I'm used to getting totes, which are nice, but I didn't have a useful duffel bag until now. Thank you, Simon!

Bottom row, from left to right -- These "Read" prints are actually really beautiful and are on nice quality card stock. We were commenting how they are perfect for framing. I might just do that. The 5 Hour Energy just made me laugh! Apparently they understand how intense conferencing is! Both of those are also from Simon and Schuster.

The Passenger notebook is a nice notebook, perfect size for sticking in my purse and carrying around. Also, I really enjoyed the book, which I had an opportunity to read a few weeks ago. The pamphlet next to it is a Magnus Chase guide to Boston. I haven't read this book yet, but I am looking forward to doing so! Apparently it takes place in Boston, so Disney put together a guide about all the places you can visit that are featured in the book. Props to Disney for both the little journal and the Boston guide.

Next to it are Boxcar magnet bookmarks. As in, the Boxcar Children! Throwback to my childhood! I can't remember where I picked them up, but I am pretty excited about them. Finally, AW Teen had these cute starfish bookmarks (pictured above the Boxcar Children). I love it! I am definitely using it with my next read.

In the next post, you'll see some books :)

Book Summary
passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

Flo's Review
First, let's hear it for some #coverlove! What a beautiful cover!!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, let's talk about Passenger. I've talked before about how I love time travel stories. What caught me right away about this story was the juicy tension between Nicholas and Etta. So hot! *fans self* I really enjoyed seeing him slowly open up to her more and more as the story progressed. 

But back to the time travel thing. This was a fun one in that the protagonists got to hop around many different years and many different countries. On a mission! How fun is that?! (Admittedly, the mission is not fun, but Etta did confess to Nicholas that she was not hating the opportunity see so many different times and places.) Alexandra Bracken did a great job of setting the scenes -- each time and place felt very unique to itself, and was filled with great detail. I had no problem picturing these different settings in my mind.

The pacing was great, and I found myself tearing through the pages with a feeling of anxious dread in my stomach. "This isn't going to end well," I  thought to myself as I read. "How are they going to do this? How is she going to...? What is he going to...?" Passenger is the first book in a series, so we left this story with a good lead into the next installment. The climax got all time travel confusing and I had to read it a few times to fully understand the loopholes, effects, and implications of what the characters did. But in the end it made sense to me, so solid props to Alexandra (and whoever helped her) puzzle through the paradoxes.

Passenger comes out January 5, 2016 and I definitely recommend picking it up!

Thank you to Disney Hyperion for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.