Three YA Authors Sign Books in South Florida!!!

This is a partial view of the exterior of Books and Books,

a beautiful bookstore located in Coral Gables, Florida.

And...it's about ten minutes from where I live,

in the city of Miami!!

So I had the great pleasure and privilege of attending a book signing there, last night!  The authors present were: Meg Cabot, Maggie Stiefvater, and Libba Bray. They presented their latest releases, and I bought at least two of them!!  Needless to say, I was totally ecstatic!!!!

These are the books I bought:

Forever

Maggie Stiefvatter

Abandon

Meg Cabot

All three authors regaled the audience with hysterical anecdotes that had us all in stitches throughout the presentation! The only problem was that the A/C seemed to be on the blink, so we sweated a little. The room was chock full of people, which is probably why it was so hot! There were even some in the audience who had flown in from as far away as Ohio and Canada...

Here's a picture of the room where the 'lectures'

(I was laughing most of the time)

took place:

Of course, all the tables were moved out of the way,

and folding chairs were set up.

I love all the floor-to-ceiling books!!!!

When all of the authors had finished speaking, there was a 'Newlywed' type of game, in which each of the authors had to guess what the other authors' favorite movies, in-flight drinks, and other things were.  Meg Cabot was the winner, and she was crowned with a flower crown, and a grass skirt was tied around her waist.  Oh, it was all so funny!

After that, we, the audience were told that we had been put into different groups that would be called one at a time, in order to go into another room for the actual signing.  Meanwhile, a teen rock band played in a courtyard located right in the middle of the bookstore. 

Lucky me, I was in the 'D' group... so I wasn't able to leave until at least 9:30 PM!!  (The event had started a little after 7:00 PM.)  I walked around a bit, doing a bit of browsing.  I nearly bought another book I covet, Ruby Red, but then I didn't.  Initially, I had meant to only purchase Forever, because I've been spending too much money on books lately...but then I couldn't resist, and also bought Abandon!

Here I am with Maggie Stiefvater:

And here I am with Meg Cabot:

Dang it, I forgot to take off my glasses for this picture!

Maybe because Meg wears glasses, too?

And here are pictures of the signed books!!

The one book I didn't buy was Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray.  I'm sort of regretting it now...in fact, I wish I could go back in time and get it!   Oh, well...I still had a lot of fun!  I can't wait for the next terrific book presentation/signing to come along at Books and Books, so I can give a report here!   They have these events all the time, too.  Of course, I can't go to every single one of them, which is really good for my pocket!  Still, there's nothing quite like the thrill of seeing an author speak about their book live, while you're sitting in the audience!  And then, meeting them in person, and getting the book signed, and your picture taken with them!!!!  Surely this is a little piece of heaven!  Oh, bliss!!!!!