***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: lauren kate

Alas, not much longer to soak up the sun and read on the beach. *sigh* But that doesn't mean the fun has to end! Welcome to my stop on the Last Days of Freedom Giveaway Hop, where thanks to I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and The Elliott Review, the fun can go on and on...well, at least in bookish form. :D

If you'll remember, I recently won a signed copy of Rapture by Lauren Kate from Jessica at Hackaroo's Reviews. I already had all of Kate's previous books signed last year when she came to Dallas on tour for Passion, so I really wanted that final book signed. (If she came to Dallas this year, I missed it.) :( Anyway, to make a long story short (late for that, right? :P), I already had an unsigned copy of Rapture sitting on my shelf, and because I don't need two copies of the same book, I'm giving away my unsigned copy. It's a win/win, right?

Title: Rapture
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: 4th & final book in the Fallen series
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: June 12, 2012
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The sky is dark with wings....

Like sand through an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past, they must find the place where the angels fell to earth.

Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this — live only to lose Luce again and again. Yet together they face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies...and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed.

And suddenly Luce knows what must happen. For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her — and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now is the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

Rapture is the astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.

Rules:

US residents only, sorry, unless you can provide a US shipping address.
One entry per household.
All entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.
I am not responsible for lost packages, but I do use delivery confirmation via USPS, so this should not be a problem.

And now on to the fun stuff! You only have to follow my blog to enter, but all other entries/follows are appreciated! :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now that you've entered here, be sure to check out all of the other stops on the Last Days of Freedom Giveaway Hop:

Good luck & happy reading!

Labels: angels, fallen, giveaway hops, giveaways, lauren kate, random house

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads! In this weekly feature, Ginger poses a question to her followers and then asks everyone to link up at the end of the post, sharing their responses.

This Friday's Question:

Authors Are Our Celebrities: Have you ever contacted an author you admired? How did that experience go? If not, which author would you love to have a chat with?

I love interacting with authors and bloggers alike. I'm not the most avid tweeter, but I do enjoy the occasional over-zealous tweet about a new release or a contest or what-have-you. I do, however, stalk a ton of authors on Twitter, as well as on their blogs, on Goodreads, and anywhere else I can track them down.

In my year or so of blogging, I've only been to one actual signing, and I drug my then 3yo daughter along with me. I don't have many real-life bookish friends, so it was just me and my Katiebug off to see Lauren Kate. And was Ms. Kate ever the nicest, sweetest person! She even posed for a pic with the Bugster! (Katie's kinda shy, can you tell? Hehe.)

As for actually reaching out to authors, sure, I've done that on Twitter, and to my amazement, they are always so, so nice and pretty much just excited that you're reading or interested in their book(s). After reading Fracture by Megan Miranda, I wanted to spread my love for that book so hard, so I contacted the author for an interview and signed swag for a giveaway, not expecting much because her book had just released and I was sure she'd be too busy for lil ole me. But Megan was beyond pleasant and was so quick to respond whenever I emailed her. It was defnitely a blog-changing experience, meaning because of it, I'll be much more likely to contact authors in the future.

Upon discovering the Shade series, I also discovered that Jeri Smith-Ready is like the most awesome author ever. I told her this in an email the other day, and she assured me all authors were that full of awesome, but I still have my doubts. Sure, they're all really great, but JSM is beyond great. She makes loving her books even more fun that it would normally be. She's a very involved author, and her interactions with her fans is one of the things I love best about her, after creating Zachary, of course. :D If you ever have the chance to read her books or chat/tweet with her, take the opportunity.

So, yeah, authors are my celebrities, for sure. My sis talks all day long about this starlet and that actor and in turn, I respond with, "Yeah, well, COURTNEY SUMMERS just thanked me for including This is Not a Test in my Teaser Tuesday post this week! Do your celebrities even acknowledge you exist?" Yep. I love my celebrities because they write the books I love and make me feel like a rock star. :0)