Blogoversary: The Second (and Giveaway!)

Long post ahead. Leave all precious items here because I'm about to cry over you and get sappy.

Well guys. It's come. I'm finally an old blogger.

WELL CRAP.

No no, I'm good.

Seriously. See?

Yeah. We're good.

...

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Guys. GUYS. GUYS. Two years since I started this thing and it's been filled with amazing.

And no I won't stop with the gifs.

The thing is, and I've said this a bajillion times, I never really expected much from blogging. I never knew how giant and big the blogosphere was. I didn't know how much I would love the blogosphere.

Some people agonize over the decision to blog--they knew about the blogosphere beforehand, they knew what blogging was. I just dived right in, not knowing what the HELL I was getting into.

I thought I would quit when I got 100 followers. I didn't even think I'd get 10.

I thought I would quit when I wrote 50 reviews. It seemed like so much to me.

I thought I would quit when I reached 1 year. I didn't know how quickly that year would pass.

Blogging has been absolutely amazing and honestly. What would I be doing without it?
Shoving my face with chocolate while I watched Spongebob and Doctor Who.

But instead I'm part of this absolutely amazing community that sticks with each other, doesn't prejudice, and loves books. And authors! Bloggers! I TALK TO THESE PEOPLE. 

And now it's been two years of books, wonder, authors, bloggers, and everything.

I have spent two years on this blog. 

I have spent two years in this community.

I have spent two years being surrounded by crazy book loving people.

I have spent two years...having fun. 

And to all you people who've stuck by me those two years. Or one year. Or even one month.

Yes. Yes here comes the people part. And basically the dedications if my blog were a book.

FIRST TO MY FOLLOWERS. Because lord knows I would've given it up if not for you folk. Twitter, GFC, Bloglovin, Tumblr, whatever. You guys make me smile and I love seeing your comments or tweets. I mean. Guys. People actually care about what I have to say. And you're awesome for not running away.

AND TO MY BLOGGY FRIENDS. 
Merp Squad, first of all. Because they've always been my number one go to and the group of friends I will never let go of. They're awesome, they get me (HAHAHA no. Kudos for trying to understand my 2 AM tweets though y'all!) and I love them! They've pretty much been my first blogger friends and deal with my pettiness and horrible sides with me. (I'm so sorry about that!) I love you all. And we can be fat merpy birds together now!
-I may not talk to most of y'all anymore but I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU for being my closest bloggy friends! <3 Miss talking to y'all but life is rather bossy, isn't it?

Hafsah, Jessica, and Alex because I HAVE TEXAN FRIENDS. You guys don't know how big that is for me.
-Hafsah, the awesome writer who sent me her manuscript of Unbreathable for me to devour and sending me swag and for being up at 1 AM so I can talk to someone. YES.
-Jessica for being so super sweet and amazing. Almost no one does sweet like her!
-Alex for being crazy. And sort of nice. What? She tortures me with all the books she gets! MEAN! But also for being someone fun to talk to!

Kaede for being super crazy and super fun and almost always being on twitter. Or used to. (She sort of disappeared. Hmm) We need to talk more.

And Lucy, Shreya, Christine, YA Reads, and Alyssa for being oh so epic and being there when I must talk and for somehow becoming a close friends in a matter of days. You guys are wiggly things that made me love you all. And thank you for ranting with me. I need that.
-On that note, ALYSSA FOLLOWED ME IN JUNE OF 2012. OMFG GUYS. SHE FOLLOWED ME BEFORE SHE STARTED BLOGGING. HOW CRAY CRAY IS THAT.

Danielle who's not a blogger (totally should be though. Just saying.) but is still SO FREAKING AWESOME and let's me bounce ideas off her!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, Rachel for being my NaNo buddy and letting me read her AMAZING stuff and letting me rant to her. Also, for being up at all hours for no reason at all. Stay vampirish, my friend.

AUTHOR FRIENDS. 
You should all come to Houston. FYI. And please don't kill off any characters I'm/I'll get attached to.

Paula Stokes/Fiona Paul. Hey thanks a lot for confuzzling me with ALL YOUR PEN NAMES. But also for being so awesome when I randomly email you. Because I do that. And for making me less scared of authors almost two years ago and giving me that VENOM ARC that made my entire year. My first absolutely awesome author friend who I don't think I'll ever stop bothering. (So sorry about that!) I have a tag for Fiona Paul you know.

ANITA! (A.G. Howard)Who sent me awesome Splintered things and mailed me a birthday gift! How amazing is that? And for letting me facebook her pretty much every other day without being annoyed. Though come on. I am disappointed that you haven't killed of Jeb yet. *Tragic sigh* Also because I now have four Anita signed things. She also has pretty hair. PRETTY HAIR. 

Well hello Romily Bernard and Natalie Richards. Yes I must put you together in this post. Did you know these two both wrote thrillers? And both ripped my heart apart? They're nice like that. But in all seriousness they're amazingly nice people who I would love to squiggle (SQUISH+HUGGLE). Thank you for being so super sweet and letting me spam your twitter timelines. Yep.

Gina Rosati for talking to me about writing and putting me in touch with some professional people I needed answers from and for being so nice and generous about EVERYTHING.

Lili Peloquin! You have an adorable baby. Did you know that? I bet you did.
And for letting me email you randomly so much! I LOVES YOU. I met you! I MET YOU. Thank you for being super nice and not laughing as I fumbled with my books in that signing line.

And I actually didn't include all my author friends. Just the people I talked to recently. (So yes, I do still consider you a friend and I do love your face.)

MY 2014 AUTHOR FRIENDS.
Hello. I hope you consider me a friend and not just the random person who tweets you. Ahem.

(Off the bat, The YA Valentines are AMAZING and all so sweet! <3 Follow their blog here.

Well Paula. Fiona. You're already up there. HMPH.

Sara B. Larson FOR BEING SUPER SWEET on all matters and for using my idea of madlibs and for letting me fangirl over your hair, instead of your book (In my defense, I always wanted curly hair and I still haven't read Defy yet. MY EXCUSE.)

Bethany Hagen for being awesome when I randomly gchat her at 10 PM. And for having an awesome cover. And for letting Merp Squad run her blog tour. And for giving me a boy talk. And for letting me tell her about Cerritos Library 'cause God knows more people need to know about my hometown library. (The thing is massive.)

Lynne Matson because she gives me the blue M&Ms. *sniffles* Thank you for the sacrifice and putting up with my awkward tweetage that sometimes I don't even understand. And for tweets that totally make my day! AND THE SIGNED COPY OF NIL AND CANDY! Ah, one of the best packages ever! (Totally because of the candy. I kid I kid. Or do I.)

Sara Raasch who's last name I mispronounced on a monthly basis. Whoops! BUT NOW I KNOW RIGHT. Erm. ANYWAYS. The pictures of food that you continuously post that makes me hungry. Thanks for that. (I don't even know if that's sarcasm!) And for fighting off the birds. I depend on you to fight off the birds.

 Those birds. *Runs*

But yep! And if I left anyone out my excuse is that I wrote this at midnight a few days ago. 

So now all I have left to say is

Wait no! I have a giveaway too! You can win any of these following books. As long as they can fit in my box, feel free to choose as many as you like! This one is US only.
OR
If you're INT, you can pick any book from The Book Depository under $13 as long as it ships to your country and I've spotlighted, reviewed, or interviewed the author sometime on the blog.

The prize also includes a Catching Fire poster of Finnick (because I might've grabbed two) and an assortment of swag from the Fierce Reads authors and...any other good signed stuff I can dig up. And trust me, my piles are endless. You'll be good.

BOOKS
Auracle by Gina Rosati (signed hardback)
Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White (ARC)
Asylum by Madeleine Roux (ARC)
The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney (ARC or hardback)
Afterparty by Ann Redisch Stampler (ARC)
Desert Tales by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle (ARC)
Twinmaker by Sean Williams (ARC)
Blackout by Robison Wells (ARC)
Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt (ARC)
Deception by CJ Redwine (ARC)
The Innocents by Lili Peloquin (SIGNED)
Crewel by Gennifer Albin (UK signed copy)
Wake by Amanda Hocking
Lullaby by Amanda Hocking
Tidal by Amanda Hocking
Elegy by Amanda Hocking


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Now I can say goodbye with

OMGGGGGG

Oh My Gosh
Oh My Gosh
Oh My GOSH GOSH GOSH
*hums a tune*
(P.S. CLICK for giveaway stuffs.)

ITS ACTUALLY MY BLOGOVERSARY! LIKE, THE REAL THING. Huh. This is where I seriously should know how to use gifs. I fail. I epically fail. 

MY GUSH:

Oh my God. You guys. I can't even...oh my God. Seriously. Do you know how much I love each of you? Whether you're an author, a blogger I follow, a bloggy friend, a publisher, a follower, or even someone who just came for the giveaways (I know I host some pretty awesome ones. Hey, today is a flattery day!) THANK YOU. If you just stumbled across this blog, OH MY GOSH I STILL LOVE YOU. (Although, if you're a friend who just wanted to see me embaress myself in front of people...sigh. I can't hate anyone today. Fine. I forgive you.) But you guys, I've been through my ups and downs. If you haven't heard, actually, I'll be taking a  short break in about a month! But today isn't for sad days. Once, when I first started blogging, I post seriously awful not-thought-out reviews. And while my reviews aren't something good now, they've definitely improved and I'm proud!

And well, here's the thing: I quit blogging for about two months. I had no idea how important it would be, and I barely had 10 followers.So...I quit. But what can I say? I had time on my hands then, so I picked myself out of the dumps, and started blogging again, more determined than ever.

And look where it's gotten me. Although, I can't say I've done this on my own.

Thank you, first of all, to all my bloggy friends and half bloggy friends (a.k.a. Twitter friends!). You guys have lift me out of the dumps when I was down and always squealed when me when I needed it! Support should be y'all's middle names! I can't BELIEVE the rants we've had, the squeals we've had, the OUTRAGE at something, and the "THAT PUBLISHER HATES ME" phase (*cough* Eileen, they SO do not hate you! They just...are in a coma.) we've shared! If you guys suddenly disappeared (since most of my friends lived on the East Coast, I was sort of...kind of scared during Hurricane Sandy!) I have no idea what I'd do besides cry day and night! If you were here, this is the part where I clutch your leg and yell "DON'T LEAVE ME!"

And authors. Oh my gosh. You guys have your very own post, so I won't waste your time. But know that without you guys, I'd have nothing to do, probably be staring blankly into space, and be half dead. Trust me on this.

Followers. There are. NO WORDS to describe how much I love you people who followed me, and more importantly, you people who have looked at my reviews even once, commented even once, and decided I was awesomely crazy. Or just crazy. I LOVE YOU. and if I knew how to work gifs. I would be using that Hunger Games one. You know the one I'm talking about. 

IT'S BEEN A YEAR YOU GUYS. LOVE YOU.
(Lizzy made this, but I edited it since it said Blog Tour! I'll use the original next year though! :D)

BLOGOVERSARY!

Hey guys! It's my BLOGOVERSARY! (Well, it will be on the 26! But see why I'm celebrating today!) And, of course, I had to do something different. (Or rather not, since a certain crazy bloggy friend used the idea too. ;D I still love ya, of course!) SO, of course this blogger's going to have a giveaway! But what WILL it be? 

(Before I explain, I just want to say, even though I shouldn't be posting for a week for this, I still have a blog tour post for one of y favorite books, BLACK CITY by Elizabeth Richards, and I can't just cancel! So think of it as a gift to y'all, a mini interview with two amazing characters from Black City! Also, if you want to see my gushing about this, THAT post will be on my actual blogoversary!)

Here's the thing. I am going to leave a hint at every single stop at the bottom of the post. Collect and unscramble the letters and use my Archive (IN MY SIDEBAR) to help you find when my giveaway is! Even if it doesn't look like my giveaway, trust your unscrambling skills and click!
Here are the stops:

(11/19) Day 1: www.fiction-freak.blogspot.com (Kick off!)

(11/20) Day 2: www.sparkles-and-lightning.blogspot.com (How I Started and What I Learned.)

(11/21) Day 3: www.chocolatecoatedreviews.blogspot.com (Books, Books, Books!)

(11/22) Day 4: www.read-a-holicz.blogspot.com (Friends, Rants, and Help, Oh My!)

(11/23) Day 5: www.fionapaulbooks.blogspot.com (Author And Publisher Love!)

(11/24) Day 6: www.yareads.com (You Think You Can Blog?)

(11/25) Day 7: www.eileenlisblog.blogspot.com (Debating? Fun!)

AND HERE IS YOUR FIRST HINT: A

Updates

HEY HEY HEY! You've found my Blogoversary Giveaway, hidden in time! ;D Glad you could make it! The prizes (in no order) are....
Winner 1) 2 books from the S&S pack, first choice
Winner 2) 2 books from the S&S pack, second choice
Winner 3) A hardback of  THE INNOCENTS and a mystery YA book
Winner 4) an ARC copy of EVERY DAY and 2 secret fairytale retellings!

You guys, this is US ONLY! I'm shipping all of these with my money, and INT shipping is just too costly! Sorry!

The S&S pack consists of the books in the picture below:

Old Magic
Surrender
Possession
Burn for Burn (ARC)
Lovely, Dark, and Deep (ARC)
Edit to add Touching the Surface
Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Evolution of Mara Dyer (ARC)









EDIT: RAFFLECOPTER HAS ENDED MY GIVEAWAY AT LEAST A WEEK BEFORE IT SHOULD'VE. IT WON'T LET ME REOPEN IT, SO HERE'S A NEW ONE. I WILL BE PICKING TWO WINNERS FROM THIS AND TWO FROM THERE

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