YA Summer Fest @ Barnes and Noble
Meeting the authors during the YA Summer Fest at Barnes and Noble (Valencia)
It was hot. A face melting summer weekend with thermometers stretched to the triple digits. However, heat was no match for voracious YA readers filling the room at Barnes and Noble for the YA Summer Fest in Valencia, CA.
YA is the acronym for “Young Adult", a genre within fiction that encompasses young adult characters in romance, fantasy, and contemporary stories. That is a very loose definition of a genre that is consistently expanding and branching into new niches. Whichever grouping a YA book falls into, it’s usually guaranteed to end with a happily ever after (abbreviated as HEA). There are many ways to get a HEA but how the story gets to it is the heart of the journey. The never ending quest for THE book to deliver that sweet HEA.
It’s been a long time since the YA shelves has been visited. Most of my time has been spent with comics, science fiction, or listening to true crime shows (binging through Coffeehouse Crimes every day). The YA Summer Fest seemed like a great way to jump right into the what’s new in the YA world.
The YA Summer Fest was hosted by the local podcast group Happy to Meet You. The podcast is run by Fallon Ballard and Courtney Kae where they focus on all things romance reads. This was the first festival they hosted and it was fantastically well done.
Attendees were provided swag bags with many promo cards and few book trinkets. The festival ran the whole weekend and was free. Each day had four themed genre blocks and a lunch break in between. After the panel, attendees were able to purchase the books from Barnes and Nobles and have a little meet and sign with the author.
For a free event where each panel had almost maximum occupancy, it never felt stifling or overcrowded. The attendees were all respectful of space and time so everything flowed smoothly. If this gets a second year, hopefully it remains the same atmosphere of peace and general light-heartedness fun.
Featured books of the authors participating in the panels.
In case the other was too crowded, there were more books on display around the corner
Liza Parker, Holly James, Sara Hashem, Rebekah Faubion on the “Where the Magic Happens” panel
The festival was a delight to enjoy and so inspirational. Each of the authors had a great story to share and endless buckets of enthusiasm to back it up. There was a such a variety of books to choose that it really came down to the personality of the author and what they had to bring to the conversation. Which is still pretty hard since all of the books were just amazing. The ultimate problem of the day was to keep a tight rein on the credit card!
Whatever was not purchased, a request for the book was immediately placed with the local library. After requesting the fifth book, the inspiration for a new project began to form. Usually, these promo cards were not given a second glance and were recycled as bookmarks. It’s not very nice but it is the honest truth.
It was different this time around. The energy from the authors at the festival were so sincere, that an extra effort was warranted to give their works of passion more than a second look. For the next few weeks, the books from the promos inside the swag bag will be read and reviewed in an upcoming post. Look forward to that one!
All of the promo cards and book trinkets extracted from the swag bag.
A Saturday well spent and more additions to the never ending TBR (To be Read) pile. Even though every bookworm seeks that happy read with that sweet HEA, do we ever want the hunt to truly end? Never.
