If you’ve ever checked out the romance blog you’ll see a lot of the books I discover are from Sara Wendell’s Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. So when Kat texted me that Wendell was moderating a Trends In Romance panel at Baltimore BookFest I knew I wanted to find the time to stop by.
The timing wasn’t really on our side and we only had time to go to this one session which is too bad because I’ve always wanted to go to Baltimore Book Festival. Let me tell you, it was a total 360 from National Book Fest. It’s held at the Inner Harbor and because it’s a big tourist attraction it’s really hopping. It has restaurants, live music, and a nice waterfront setting that made the whole event feel festive.
I always like to pick up book by panelist, so I picked up :
- Everything I Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels By Sarah Wendell
- Love On My Mind by Tracey Livesay
- One To Win by Michelle Monkou
- A Change of Heart by Sonali Dev
Also on the panel was Laura Kaye, Miranda Kenneally, Jennifer Armentrout and Erika Kelly who is a new author to me !
Michelle Monoku nicely came up to me and offered to sign my book ! I hadn’t read her book before but I grabbed it because I follow her on Twitter. I also knew her name sounded familiar to me and I later realized it was because I bought To Charm A Billionaire off Amazon just the other day.
The big trends talked about on the panel were female centered thrillers and women’s fiction with strong romantic elements are on the rise. Needless to say the panel was on point.
I felt like I was at a live recording of Wendell’s podcast. Baltimore Book Festival is going to be a must for me in 2017 !
Side Note
I also overheard this conversation by someone visiting the harbor and noticing the crowded tents:
Man : What’s going on today ?
Companion : It’s a book festival…we’re caught up in the book crowd
Man : …There’s a book crowd ?
Me in my head : Wouldn’t you like to know. . .