Some highlights from the 2013 Australian Romance Readers Covention (The Mercure, Brisbane — March 1 to 3, 2013).

I apologise for not posting detailed recaps of the Australian Romance Readers Convention in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. Allison (Decadence), Jen and I attended the event, but we did so as readers first and bloggers maybe second or third—we all wore different hats over the course of the weekend—so I haven’t wanted to put pressure on us to record the event. (You’ll notice that even our tweets weren’t as extensive as they’ve been in previous ARRCs.)

Nevertheless, I know many readers who wanted to come along to ARRC but were unable to do so, and I wanted to share some of the highlights of the weekend with you. Bear in mind that I didn’t go to all the panels and keynotes, so I’m using my Storify stream to fill in some of those blanks. If you’re after a panel-by-panel recap, check the next issue of the ARRA newsletter. I believe a few of the sessions were recorded, so you can also email ARRA to check if they’re releasing an audio CD.

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Photo by Kat Mayo

Yesterday, Book Thingo bloggers were fortunate enough to be invited to Harlequin’s first blogger summit. Decadence, Envyious, Jen and I (we missed you, Wandergurl!) attended the event, which was held at Harlequin HQ at Chatswood. It was a surprisingly intimate event, with opportunities to meet the team at Harlequin, as well as guest author Rachel Vincent, who stopped by Sydney on her way to Brisbane for the Australian Romance Readers Conference (ARRC).

I haven’t heard of any other publishers who have done anything similar to the Harlequin Summit, so it was quite interesting to be part of this event. I was also surprised at the large turnout, with a number of people—Envyious and Jen included—traveling interstate for the occasion.

I made some notes, but most of the presentations centred around Harlequin’s pipeline and teasers about the books, so I’m just going to list those, and you can check out the blurbs for yourselves. Afterwards, Rachel Vincent gave a talk (highlights below) and then was generous enough to sign our books.

Harlequin community page

Harlequin Australia launched a community page, which brings together tidbits from their Twitter stream, Goodreads reviews of their books, videos from their YouTube channel, photos from Instagram, book extracts, and memes and games related to books. Every month they’ll feature a book blog, and I’m chuffed to say that Book Thingo is the featured blog for this month. :-)

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This week’s mailbag is a bonanza, thanks to Mills and Boon Australia, who sent us a box of assorted titles (though I detect a distinct YA bias). Some of these are series books, so I’m torn on reading them or catching on the series first. I’m particularly keen on the Rachel Vincent, after reading her Soul Screamers series. (If you’re a fan of this series, would you recommend starting the series properly, or can I just jump straight in?)

All of these titles will be out in Australia in July.

For Maria V. Snyder fans, don’t forget that she’ll be in Australia in August. From what I’ve gathered, the tour will focus on meeting her younger readers, but there may also be a few opportunities to see her with a more adult crowd. (This is not say I don’t like mingling with younger readers. But as an oldie, I don’t really want to barge into an author event that’s focused on school kids!) I’ll post more if and when I know the details.

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My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (Soul Screamers, Book 4)

Heavy in angst and light on closure, this book should have fans in delicious agony as they wait for the next instalment in the Soul Screamers series.

My Soul to Steal is the fourth book of Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers series. I was excited yet apprehensive about this book because I knew—and the blurb implies—that there would be some kind of relationship triangle between Kaylee, Nash and Nash’s ex, Sabine.

Kaylee and Nash are in relationship limbo a few weeks after My Soul to Keep (book 3). She refuses to resolve anything between them until Nash is free of frost, the demon’s breath drug that he became addicted to, due to an accident caused by Kaylee. Meanwhile, Nash’s ex-girlfriend, Sabine, has moved into the area and tells Kaylee upfront that she’s there to take Nash back.

Sabine is a mara, a non-human parasitic species who feeds off people’s fears. At night she kind of sleepwalks and gives people nightmares so she can feed off them. When teachers start dying at school, Kaylee is convinced, despite Tod and Nash’s reassurances, that Sabine is behind it all.

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I swore I wouldn’t pick up another open-ended series, but I was completely sucked into the Soul Screamers series. This month’s mixed bag looks at the books so far.

Thanks to a free novella at Books on Board, I’m now addicted to the Soul Screamers books, a teen urban fantasy series—with a bit of romance thrown into the mix—by Rachel Vincent.

Vincent uses Irish mythology as a basis for her alternate world. Sixteen-year old Kaylee Cavanaugh is a bean sidhe (banshee), whose piercing screams call to dying souls. The series begins with Kaylee’s discovery of her heritage and introduces the secondary characters that will form part of her core team, if you will, in tackling the otherworldly challenges she’ll face.

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