Exactly six years ago today, I started What A Nerd Girl Says. After many other names, I settled on that one and its been my moniker for exactly six years. What started off as a way for me to share my love of all things fandom, and started as an angry girl rant to shout at the internet haters who would put down young adult literature, became something so much more. It seems insanely to me that I, Sara, Nerd Girl, am still here after all these years.

I am so insanely grateful for everything that has happened because of this blog. I may not be hugely popular. I may not have a million followers and I may not get recognized at all the book events. I may not post pretty pictures on instagram or post fun videos on YouTube. But I’ve been here for six years, sharing my passion, sticking with what I love and what is important to me and supporting the book community and the YA community in the best way that I can, in the only way that I know how to: writing.

Book blogging itself has definitely lost its popularity in the most recent years, with Bookstagrammers and BookTubers taking the forefront in popularity. And while I’ve dabbled in YouTube and I am dedicated to my Instagram, but this blog is my love and the bloggers that I started with years ago are some of my best bookish friends and we’ll stick together, for sure :)

Besides, I can’t even begin to explain how this blog changed my life in the past six years. It gave me a world that I finally felt like I belonged to. Even though there are days when I struggle with that, because the community has changed over the years, the fact still remains true and it came at a time when I desperately needed it. While it took longer than I wished it had, it gave me independence, confidence, ambition, determination. It helped me to become my own person and to realize my worth. What this did for me…is beyond words. It helped me make my own friends. It helped me to set my goals, fight for them and reach them. It helped me leave an unhealthy relationship. It helped me to cut out unhealthy friendships and form better, stronger ones.

I’ve also earned a place in an amazing community, becoming friends with authors and publicists and librarians and bloggers and publishers and agents and so many more. These people have helped in me, not only in my blog, but in my writing career and in my life. I will always be so insanely grateful to them and I am even more so grateful that they are helping to celebrate this awesome achievement by donating signed books and swag and exclusive interviews that you’ll get to read in the next week or so!

I’ve gotten to do so many amazing things and meet people I never thought I would meet. I’ve been on the barricades at red carpet events for movies like Star Trek, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games movies, Divergent and so many more. I’ve met celebrities like Carrie Fisher, Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoe Kravitz, Orlando Bloom, Chloe Grace Moretz, Elizabeth Banks, and so many more. I’ve met so many authors, it would be crazy to begin to name them all. I’ve gone to all sorts of event and conventions as a member of the press and as a creative professional, events I may have never had the chance to attend before that.

I met authors that showed me that becoming a published author was possible, authors that showed me how to do it, how to believe in myself and how to navigate myself in this crazy publishing world. They showed me the way, they believed in me and supported me and so many of them stood by my side and supported me when I published The Awakened back in 2015. They were there with me when I struggled through the writing, editing and publishing of its sequel in 2017.

I even went through a moment about a year ago when I told myself that I was done, that I was sick of the favoritism and competition that can occur in this community and that I couldn’t do it anymore and that I was ready to shut the door on the five years I had given to the book community. It took a lot of self-reflection and a big break from writing for the blog to see if I could keep doing it and I am grateful and happy that I did so because when I did decide to come back, I came back of my own accord, and the passion and the love I have for it was real and not forced, as it had been for a very long time.

So here is to six years of book blogging, of so many books read, of a few books written, here are to bookish friends, author friends, librarian friends…so many friends, here’s to the many celebrities and authors met. Here’s to the many reviews written and to the ups and downs. Here’s to every single person who supported me and helped and yes, here’s to the people who tried to pull me and tear me down.

Here’s to six years and here’s to many more after that.

Now, of course…let’s get to the important part…the giveaway!

THE GIVEAWAY

Seriously, there are NO words to explain how excited I am for this giveaway. Most of what is included in this giveaway was donated by the authors themselves and I am so insanely grateful for them, their donation, their time in doing interviews for me and for their friendship.

Here we go!

Prize Pack #1

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-Ahsoka signed by author EK Johnston and Ahsoka voice actress, Ashley Eckstein
-Light Years signed and donated by author Emily Ziff Griffin
-Brightly Burning ARC signed and donated by author Alexa Donne
-#MurderTrending ARC signed and donated by author Gretchen McNeil
-The Authentics signed and donated by author Abdi Nazemian
-Brightly Burning tote bag and buttons donated by author Alexa Donne

Prize Pack #2

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-Always Never Yours ARC donated by authors Austin Siegemund-Broka and Emily Wibberley
-Symptoms of Being Human signed and donated by author Jeff Garvin
-Three Day Summer signed and donated by author Sarvenaz Tash
-Just a Normal Tuesday signed and donated by author Kim Turrisi
-What They Don’t  Know ARC signed and donated by author Nicole Maggi
-Always Never Yours swag donated by authors Austin and Emily
-Riveted Tote Bag

Prize Pack #3

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-Leah on the Offbeat signed by author Becky Albertalli
-Easy signed and donated by author Tammara Webber
-Breakable signed and donated by author Tammara Webber
-The Best Possible Answer donated by E. Katherine Kottaras
-Going Geek signed and donated by author Charlotte Huang

Prize Pack #4

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-Flamecaster signed and donated by author Cinda Williams Chima
-Language of Thorns signed and donated by author Leigh  Bardugo
-The Awakened signed and donated by me!
-The Authentics signed and donated by author Abdi Nazemian
-I, Claudia ARC donated by author Mary McCoy
-Renegades poster signed by author Marissa Meyer

Giveaway  Rules and How to Enter

-The giveaway will run from today, May 23rd to June 4th. The giveaway IS open internationally!

-Winners will be chosen randomly through the rafflecopter. The winner will be contacted within 72 hours of contest end. If winner(s) do not respond within a 48 hour period of contact, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen.

-There will be an option below to choose which prize pack you’d like to win the most, but there is no guarantee you will get the one you want the most!

-Prizes will be shipped out within a month of the giveaway month. Please keep in mind that all of the costs come out of my own personal pocket and these prize packs are expensive to send. Please be patient.

-What A Nerd Girl Says is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged prizes.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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