In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, which allows bloggers to share what books they’ve received in the past week. They can be from stores, contests, tours or publishers!

• Conspiracy 365: June by Gabrielle Lord (library)
• Conspiracy 365: July by Gabrielle Lord (library)
• Conspiracy 365: August by Gabrielle Lord (library)
• Conspiracy 365: September by Gabrielle Lord (library)
• Touch Of Power by Maria V Snyder (won)
• Article 5 by Kristen Simmons (purchased)
• The Hunters: Moonsong by L.J. Smith (purchased)
• Erebos by Ursula Poznanski (purchased)
• Illusions by Aprilynne Pike (purchased)

Firstly, thanks to Kylie from Talking Teacup for my copy of Touch Of Power. I still haven’t read any of Maria’s books, but I will get around to it eventually. It’s been about a year since I read the first five books in the Conspiracy 365 series. They’re short, and fun, and now that it’s a tv show, I thought I’d get back to them with the next four. The other books were all random purchases I made when browsing Big W’s YA section. I probably didn’t need to get them right now since I’ve already got heaps I’m behind on, but I don’t like leaving shops empty handed. Feels like a waste of a trip. I’m still pretty busy at the moment, but I’ve almost finished helping my parents move house. Also, I probably won’t have an IMM next weekend as I’m heading down to Melbourne for a few days.

Here are my latest reviews if you want to check them out:
Alderson, Sarah Fated #1, Fated
Arvin, Eric, Galley Proof

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We had to travel three hours to Brisbane today for the Maria V. Snyder signing, yet I stayed up until 3am for the IMM posts, not a great combination. Luckily Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books) came over and picked me up for the trip. The signing was at 5:30pm so we had plenty of time to waste. We set about finding the discount book store we went to after the Rachel Caine signing in May. Unfortunately, it must be invisible or something. We practically walked from Queen St to the Valley looking for it, but it was just gone. We couldn’t even find the building it was in in case it had moved. Needless to say, our feet, legs, ankles, lungs… everything was sore. We obviously don’t exercise enough. Giving up, we just went to the book sections at Big W and Target before heading over to Dymocks for the signing.

While we were waiting for the 5:30pm start, Maria lounged around in the store near the registers. Some authors are cool like that. We decided to take our seats early, and lucky we did, heaps of people ended up standing down the back during her talk. Maria had a chat for about half an hour, giving us a lot of anecdotes on all of her escapades she went through when researching for her books. She really gets involved with everything she does, making sure she gets the details right.

I have to say, Maria is one hilarious public speaker. She kept us in stitches with all of her sarcastic quips, it definitely made the talk fun. If you can, try and make it to one of her signings. You won’t regret it.

At the end, Maria took the time to sign our books. We were lucky to be near the front of the line, some people had brought huge stacks with them. I only had the two Insider books myself. I also picked up a couple bookmarks while I was there too.

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, which allows bloggers to share what books they’ve received in the past week. They can be from stores, contests, tours or publishers!

• Supernaturally by Kiersten White (purchased)
• Elixir by Hilary Duff (purchased)
• Stargazer by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Hourglass by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Afterlife by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Need by Carrie Jones (purchased)
• Captivate by Carrie Jones (purchased)
• Dark Heart Forever by Lee Monroe (purchased)
• Dark Heart Rising by Lee Monroe (purchased)
• Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (purchased)
• Claire De Lune by Christine Johnson (purchased)
• Heist Society by Ally Carter (purchased)
• Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (purchased)
• Outside In by Maria V. Snyder (purchased)
• Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck (purchased)
• Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck (purchased)
• Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (purchased)
• Passion by Lauren Kate (purchased)
• Pride by Rachel Vincent (purchased)
• Alpha by Rachel Vincent (purchased)
• Days Like This by Alison Stewart (purchased)
• The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (purchased)

My favourite purchase this week is my Charmed Book Of Shadows, plus the lectern, I had to get that as well, otherwise the book would just sit in my cupboard. The Book was released back in ’07, but was discontinued before I got around to buying one, so when it randomly popped up in the Big W catalogue after so many years, and for half the original RRP, I had to get one. It has some of the original artwork from the book used in the tv show, plus the dvds from all eight seasons, stuck to holders on the pages. Now onto the fiction books. Looking at them all spread out like this, it makes me realise how bad my spending got this week. Some were cheap though. Heist Society was only $1.20, so I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve already read five of these books, but that still leaves heaps to read. I’ve been trying to track down Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series. While I was in Brisbane for the Lauren Kate signing on Saturday, I tried thirteen stores and only managed to come across a lone copy of Pride in one of them. Alpha, only just released here in Australia, was a lot easier to find. I’ll keep my eye out for the rest of them. I can’t wait to start Trial By Fire, I really loved the first book. I want to start Maggie Stiefvater books soon too, but Amazon shipped Linger to me before Shiver. There’s so many there, that I’m not going discuss the rest. If there’s one there you think I should get to sooner rather than later, let me know.

Here are my reviews from the past two weeks:
Davies, Jocelyn A Beautiful Dark #1, A Beautiful Dark
Kate, Lauren Fallen #1, Fallen
Kate, Lauren Fallen #2, Torment
Vincent, Rachel Soul Screamers #3, My Soul To Keep
Vincent, Rachel Soul Screamers #4, My Soul To Steal

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