Because it’s wasn’t enough for me to go to one awesome book event this past weekend, it just so happened that HarperCollins was hosting their YA preview (titled Frenzy Presents) then too! Because this would be all YA titles, and because Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Julie Murphy (Dumplin’ & Ramona Blue) and Becky Albertalli (Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda) would be attending, I was very very excited for this event. Here’s how it went:

– ON OUR WAY –

Looking back now, I’m very mad at myself for even thinking about staying home that morning when I first woke up. In my defense, I become very exhausted after attending social events (probably something to do with that lovely social anxiety), and even though I’d had the Saturday between the Penguin Random House event and the HarperCollins event, I worked on editing a book for 12 hours on said Saturday and was just exhausted.

Anyway, I’m glad that I decided to drag myself out of bed anyway, threw my hair up into a bun, and then picked an outfit at random. I usually pick out an outfit the night before, just so I’ll keep myself from getting too stressed out on the day of, but since I collapsed into bed right after finishing work on Saturday, that did not happen. Even so, I was quite comfortable, and even a little confident, in the clothes I picked out! My friend then picked me up, and we were on our way to the big citay!

The plan was that we would park at our favourite mall again, and then take the subway, just as we had on Friday. There were 2 accidents on the highway on our way into Toronto though, which put is a bit behind schedule…but we thought we were fine since we left much earlier than we really had to!

Then we parked at the mall, and took our time to get to the subway station…only to find out that the subway would not be running from that station! I tell you, I felt the world slow down for a moment, and our faces were just masks of horror! …until we saw signs for a shuttle bus that would take us to the next subway stop, from which the subway would be running. Buses, unlike subway trains, however…get stuck in traffic. Which is of course what happened. Fast-forward to us finally arriving at the next subway station, taking the train, switching to the other line, and then finally arriving at HarperCollins Canada with like 3 minutes to spare!

– Upcoming Releases –

Due to this event being invite-only, my bestie wasn’t able to join me inside, but she was happy to wait for me in the Starbucks in the same building! I met up with my friends Milana (from A Couple Reads) and Lynne (from Words of Mystery), and we grabbed some yummy snacks and then got ready for the fun to begin! (And before I get into that, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the decorations in the room! Especially the “FRENZY” balloons, and the little They Both Die at the End flag thingies ((I don’t know the official term for those decorations, haha.))

The staff were very friendly and welcoming, thanking us for attending before they dove into presenting the most-exciting upcoming YA titles for the rest of the year, and early 2018. I’ve made a slideshow for the titles which stood out to me most, below, and provided links for each title underneath:

This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows
Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings
The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano

– Featured Authors –

Once we discussed all of the titles (and got pumped over which of them may or may not be in the swag bags that we would receive at the end), the guests of honour entered! It was super exciting to be in the same room as Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Julie Murphy (Dumplin’ and Ramona Blue), and Becky Albertalli (Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda). I cannot begin to explain. Hearing about their books, and upcoming film adaptations was also awesome. All three of them were quite funny too, and we had many good laughs together! Then, when that portion of the event was over, the authors moved to the back of the room so that they could meet bloggers and sign stuff! I really wish I owned books by all of the authors, but alas… Luckily my friend Lynne actually gave me her ARC of Ramona Blue that day, so I was happy to be able to get that signed by Julie Murphy and to get to meet her!

I wanted to talk to the other authors too, but was too nervous to even try that without having any of their books for them to sign. Sigh. While waiting in line to get autographs, we each received our swag bags, and let me tell you…they were filled to the brim with books and other goodies (pictures can be found below)! Then we also each got a mystery hardcover book. The table display said “Blind Date with a Book,” and I found the concept to be very neat! Each book had a hint pasted on the front of its packaging, and we had a lot of fun trying to guess which books were which!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

– Toronto Harbour –

Due to my friend Lynne not only giving me Ramona Blue, but also 3 other books, I ended up leaving Frenzy Presents with ten books! I was obviously quite excited about this, but also dreaded carrying them around Toronto for the rest of the day because A) our car wasn’t parked nearby and B) we’d planned to do some other things in the city (like going to the harbour, and checking out TIFF again), because it’s not every day that we’re in Toronto!

So, for the rest of the day, I kid you not, I looked like this:

But I regret nothing! Hahaha! We still had fun, spending most of our time at the Toronto Harbour. We both really like the ocean, and it was nice to be able to get something a little like it while still being in the middle of Ontario, haha. I could have probably done more if I didn’t have to carry so much, …plus I’m a baby, so the load was getting heavier and heavier as the day went on. But here are some highlights from the rest of the day:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were both pretty exhausted by like 6 pm, and had to work the next day, so we made our way back to the car, walking through the TIFF section again (see my Penguin post, links above, to find out more about TIFF), but not really spending too much time there. The drive home took much longer than it normally would have, due to construction (quite typical in Canada, actually, haha). I therefore took pics of the book and swag haul the next day, because I passed out the moment I got home!

– Book and Swag Haul –

Book from top to bottom:

Top Ten by Katie Cotugno
Release by Patrick Ness
Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

THANK YOU FOR READING MY POST, AND I HOPE THAT YOU ENJOYED READING IT AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT! HAVE YOU EVER ATTENDED A BOOK EVENT LIKE THIS? OR ARE YOU ALREADY A VETERAN WHEN IT COMES TO THESE? HAHA. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PART ABOUT THEM, OR WHAT IS THE THING YOU WOULD LOOK FORWARD TO MOST ABOUT AN EVENT LIKE THIS? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!