City of Heavenly Fire Book Launch! + GIVEAWAY!

After over a week's worths of posts leading up to the release of City of Heavenly Fire, you may or may not have realized at this point that we kinda like Cassandra Clare and the various book-like objects she creates. Only a little though. And by a little, I mean, enough that my insides are burning up more than Jace's right now. Ha, see what I did there? Okay, sorry, I know I'm not funny.

Anyway, the night of May 26th, (and the day of too), We Live and Breathe Books (minus Amrutha) finally left our computers and went to New York City for an event featuring not only the wonderful Cassandra Clare, but also a panel of guests consisting of the oh-so-fabulous Maureen Johnson, Holly Black, Kelly Link Joshua Lewis, and David Levithan (who was filling in for Scott Westerfeld who was, unfortunately, the final death in the book). 

I just want to take a second to appreciate how cute fierce and smoldery we are. 

Okay, are you done appreciating the way our eyes are luring you in to your inevitable doom due to excessive seduction and badassness? 

No?

It's okay. Take your time. 

We'll move on when you're ready. 

Kiersten's lovely mother accompanied us to the city as well, so she was also part of our group and drove us in to New York early. There were only four or five people in front of us waiting in line, and we ended up getting seats right up in the front, close enough to see every little detail on everyone's faces (especially the ones on Maureen's dress). Of course, before we went in, we had to wait outside with everyone else. And some of those "everyone else" people included booktubers who also attended the event and who we absolutely freaked out about meeting! 

Look at this beautiful picture and feast upon the glory of Christine (xtinemay) and Kat (katytastic) and their Amazonian beauty.

We look like mere tree stumps compared to them. Seriously. Like, standing there looking at them I felt like they were beautiful goddesses and I was a literal potato who someone had carved facial features into. 

Anyway, Marlon and I had premium tickets and Kiersten and her mother did not because of how things like classes and college and timing worked out when we were buying them, we had to separate in line for a little while. Marlon and I went inside first and split up so he could go buy vouchers so we could get our books at midnight, and I could go save four seats. We were in the second row, which was perfect and wonderful and we were also towards the center of the row and there weren't any tall people sitting in front of us. 

The second they started opening their mouths, it was perfect. 

They started out with a skit involving reading a retrieval of the records of Magnus Bane's voicemails. Featuring messages from characters including Izzy, Alec, Simon, Clary, Maia, Church, and Chairman Meow, each panelist was absolutely hilarious (or heartbreaking, in the case of Alec/David Levithan) in their delivery and execution of the ways the characters spoke on the phone and rolled their eyes and flailed their arms. The voicemail skit was definitely a great way to begin the event and got everyone super excited. The voicemail records will be included in the bound copy of The Bane Chronicles!

Then we continued on to a part where the other authors read their favorite excerpts from the other books, which was followed by a Q&A session. Some questions were genuine and serious, about her writing processes, which Cassandra answered very articulately. Many of them were very silly, like "In 100 years, are Simon and Tessa gonna be a thing?" We wanted to ask "Approximately what percent of this book is smut?" but our question didn't make it. Someone asked about the fact that Isabelle doesn't have blue eyes, which I personally thought was reading way too into the series and someone else asked about Cassandra's favorite crackpot theories, which was my favorite question of the night. She said she particularly liked the one where Church is actually just Tessa in a shapeshifted form. 

At midnight, the panel ended, and the signing began. The way the exit situation was working, we thought we would be at the very end but because Kiersten's mother is fabulous, she saved us a good place in line. And then, because we had books by the other authors we also wanted signed, we got to go even further ahead.

Here, we see all the beautiful copies in their heavenly glory. 

The authors were all so friendly and hilarious. Seriously, I want to be in that place one day, signing books with a bunch of author friends, being all witty and hilarious. I really just wanted to be best friends with all of them so badly. Just look how wonderful they all look!

Marlon decided that he was going to be special and in addition to getting the authors to sign their books like Kiersten and I did, he also had every author there sign (and deface) his copy of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. They all made jokes and comments about how he's now dead and they are taking over for him and he has all their signatures obscuring his name on the book. It was a pretty funny situation and they all seemed to enjoy his weird comments and obnoxious outbursts. 

Anyway, I'm still staring at my books and feeling super excited that I have signed copies of books by such awesome people and talented authors. Just looking at them spread out in front of me makes me so happy.

Although, once I start on City of Heavenly Fire, I doubt I'll be happy for long, so I guess I'm off to ruin my own day! 

-Noor 

And now it's time for a GIVEAWAY!

While we were attending the signing, we got a glorious SIGNED copy of the book to give to one of YOU! (Awesome, right?!)

One winner will receive this signed copy of the book for their enjoyment/heartbreak. This giveaway will be US only, BUT you can enter INT if you are willing to pay the shipping through Venmo. All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter below and BAM! you're entered.

The giveaway will end at 11:59 pm on June 17th and the winner has 48 hours from being contacted to respond. Good luck everyone - may the odds be ever in your favor!

a Rafflecopter giveaway