Rachel's Story Crush Tour Event Recap

Megan, Katherine, Lauren, and I attended the Story Crush Tour Event in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania on March 3.

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The event featured five authors: Courtney C. Stevens (Faking Normal), Katie Cotugno (How to Love), Robyn Schneider (The Beginning of Everything), Melissa Kantor (Maybe One Day), and Lauren Oliver (Panic).

We were initially excited about this event because of Lauren Oliver. We're all huge fans of her, and we've met her at a few author signings we've been to. She's so cool that we just want to see her again and again and again. :) I was also a huge fan of Katie Cotugno's How to Love, so I was excited to meet her as well. I wasn't familiar with the other authors, but after reading the summaries of their books, I immediately knew that I had to read them. Before the event, I also read Faking Normal and The Beginning of Everything. (I'm reading Maybe One Day now and it's awesome so far!)

I guess I don't have much to say about this event other than I LOVE BOOK SIGNINGS SO MUCH. It was a relatively small group of people in attendance (I'm comparing this to events like the Dark Days tour, which was pretty large), and mostly it was a bunch of lovely young ladies all excited about books. There were some book bloggers and BookTubers there, and it was a really nice crowd. :)

We had a bit of time to kill before the authors actually showed up, and I chatted with some of the other attendees and my friends. It was all going swimmingly. Then the authors appeared and everyone was excited and Lauren Oliver started talking to introduce herself and THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED...HAPPENED.

Well, not really. I guess a bomb could have gone off in Barnes and Noble or all the books could have exploded or something. But this was pretty bad.

You see, what happened is I got this ridiculous choking/coughing thing that I will refer to as the Coughing Incident. You know how sometimes you just have this cough that comes out of nowhere and won't go away and it's the worst thing ever because YOU CAN'T STOP?! That's what happened to me! I had a major cough attack literally right as soon as Lauren Oliver started talking, and I had to run away from the panel of authors and go hide behind a bookshelf while tears streamed down my face because I was coughing so hard. (You might even say I PANIC...ked. Eh? That's good stuff, am I right? ...alright, I'll show myself out.)

WHY UNIVERSE WHY. WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME.

Lauren Oliver was really nice about it, and she was all "oh no I've already made you start choking I'm so sorry!" as I ran away in a flurry of embarrassment. I returned maybe ten minutes later, chugging water and finally able to breathe again, so it wasn't like I missed the whole event, but it was still super awkward and embarrassing and WHY DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN RIGHT THEN?!

In spite of the Coughing Incident, the event was still awesome. The authors are all so smart and funny and talented and nice and interesting and entertaining and I loved listening to them talk. I cannot for the life of me recall specific details, for which I am very sorry, but trust me, they said some awesome things. (Why bother making a recap if you don't even remember anything, Rachel? What are you good for??)

Okay, so my thoughts on this event are a bit of a jumbled mess, but I can tell you for certain that this group of authors is absolutely fantastic. I kind of wish I could just hang out with them for the rest of my life. But I guess that would be weird. :P Either way, it was a pleasure to meet them, and going to events like this make me fall in love with the book community all over again.

And now, some pictures!

I mentioned to Robyn Schneider that I was a fellow Whovian, and she wrote this in my book. :D

Lauren Oliver was really cool about the Coughing Incident. :D

"I'm glad you didn't DIE at my signing! Imagine how traumatized *I* would be! :P"

Courtney C. Stevens was handing out really cool "channel your brave" bracelets, and I've been wearing mine ever since the event. Since the bracelets are a little difficult to photograph, I have stolen borrowed this picture from Courtney's website so I can show you what they look like:

I think this next picture came out really nicely. I kind of want to get it blown up really big and framed because it's full of awesome people. :)

Courtney C. Stevens, Megan, Robyn Schneider, Rachel, Katie Cotugno, Katherine, Melissa Kantor, Lauren Oliver, Lauren

This event made me really gushy and emotional and so, so happy to be part of this weird little community of readers/authors/bloggers/publishers/YouTubers/booksellers/etc. Maybe one day (ha! see what I did there?! ya know, because Melissa's book is called Maybe One Day? ...ahh, never mind.) I will be on the other side of the reader/author interaction, signing copies of my own books for slightly awkward but very enthusiastic teenage girls. I hope so!

Anyway, if you haven't read these authors' books, you totally should because you're seriously missing out! We're a tad behind on reviews because we are The Worst Bloggers Ever, but here is a list of the reviews we do have to share with you:

Rachel's How to Love review
Megan's How to Love review
Rachel's Panic review
Megan's Panic review

Happy reading, everyone!