Book Expo has been on my brain since it ended last year. I can work Book Expo and Book Con into almost every conversation. My non-bookish best friends each got a countdown Snapchat for the past two weeks. That being said, this reader was more than excited to get to the Javits Center on Wednesday morning for the first day of Book Expo. My second time attending the convention, I had debated on attending for the full day on Wednesday, but there were many more book drops and signings than in years’ past.

I arrived at the Javits around 9:30, picking up my badge and sitting for a few minutes reading through the Book Expo book. I also took advantage of the fairly empty lobby to take photos of banners. I soon left to head over to Bloomsbury with a few other bloggers through Blogbound Con. Bloomsbury hosted us for breakfast and discussed their upcoming 2019 and 2020 YA and children’s titles. We were each given an ARC of Phil Stamper’s The Gravity of Us-highly recommend checking this one out AND following Phil on Twitter. As everyone chatted after their presentation. I met Lili from Utopia State of Mind IRL. We knew of each other’s blogs, but it wasn’t until after we walked back to Javits together that we realized we were on the Small Town Hearts blog tour together!

We got back to Javits around 11:45, where there was a crowd waiting to get on the showfloor. If you were at the convention or having been following it online, you’ll likely know that much of the hype surrounding Wednesday was a 100 ARC signing of Leigh Bardugo’s adult book, Ninth House. While I wanted Ninth House like everyone else, I really wasn’t expecting to get a ticket for the signing, but I figured I would swing by Macmillan to at least try. I’m not sure what bookish goddesses were looking down upon me, but I managed to get a ticket to the later signing when I got on the showfloor.

While still in shock, I had a little lull in my schedule to walk around the showfloor. I picked up Shea Ernshaw’s Winterwood from Simon & Schuster, Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow from Hachette, a Pumpkinheads sampler from Fierce Reads (yes, I’m still sad this wasn’t a full ARC), and a ticket for Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker’s Mooncakes. At some point during my travels, I also saw and talked with Cece from Problems of a Book Nerd, who I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen in two years!

I then went to my first scheduled event of the day, which was an ARC and tote bag giveaway for Karen Dukess’s The Last Book Party. Despite that a lot of ARC drops line up and get capped before the scheduled time, many publishers (understandably) still wait until the designated time to start the event. However, I was glad that The Last Book Party started two or three minutes beforehand because I was then able to go to Sourcebooks’ 1 PM drop for Gina Lamanna’s Pretty Guilty Women and Kath Shackleton’s Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children. Right after, I made my way to Penguin Random House, where I talked with one of the publicists and received and Katherine McGee’s American Royals! This is one of my most anticipated books for the fall, but I wasn’t sure if it would be at Book Expo.

In a somewhat nonbookish change of events, you can likely guess that I read and WRITE Book Expo and Book Con guides. I write to-pack lists. I have bags within my bags at these conventions. That being said, guess who remembered to bring her charged portable charge but forgot the wire to said charger? My phone battery is also in massive need of a new battery, and by 1:15, I had about 20% left and 5 hours and plenty of Twitter notifications to go before I was home again. Perhaps not for my credit card, but I fortunately had about an hour gap in events so I went to Duane Reader for a wire (their $14 wire and a ten minute walk vs. Javits’ $30 wire) and ended up getting a cheaper-than-convention food lunch at a nearby deli.

When I returned to Javits, I went to Sara Faring’s The Tenth Girl drop at Fierce Reads and met with Taschima from For the Sake of Reading in line. Right after the drop, I went to the Mooncakes signing and then moved on to the line for Ninth House. Despite that it was already a limited signing, this line moved fairly quickly. Nevertheless, Leigh was able to still chat and I had someone in line take photos of me meeting her. I’ve never had a grumpy author experience, but Leigh was so friendly! I think we were both fangirling over her outfit.

After, I picked a few more ARCs, including Tara Sim’s Scavenge the Stars from Disney and Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson from Bloomsbury. I debated for a few minutes on trying to get Mackenzie Lee’s Loki: Where Mischief Lies, but the mosh pit kept me away. I then went to Elizabeth Eulberg’s signing for Past Perfect Life. This book is giving me such The Face on the Milk Carton vibes and I read her Prom and Prejudice back in middle school! Meeting her was another awesome and memorable author experience! She asked me what I blog about and we got into discussion about the Schur-verse, Parks and Recreation and The Good Place of course included. She told me to watch the video about The Good Place cast finding out about a Season 1 twist.

My last event of the day was a Hachette ARC drop for Tracy Banghart’s Queen of Ruin and Ellen Goodlett’s Rise. Queen of Ruin was one of my must-haves, so I was more than happy to have it on my first day. In the midst of tornado and flood warnings, I safely made it home (no, you tied your books up in four tote bags because you also forgot an umbrella), thus marking my first day at Book Expo 2019.

Check out my other Book Expo 2019 posts as the week goes on:

• OH MY BOOKISH HEART: Book Expo 2019 Haul

Did you attend Book Expo? What books are you looking forward to this fall and winter? Share in the comments!