Business or Pleasure

In conversation with the author at Powell's Books

Jul 14, 2023

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending my first in-person author signing and in-conversation event at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing!! The featured author was Rachel Lynn Solomon and the discussion was led by author Alison Cochrun. I’ve been to a handful of events where the author was there to sign books but this was the first time I was able to enjoy the full experience of listening to authors chat.

Business or Pleasure

The event was a discussion between Rachel Lynn Solomon and Alison Cochrun focused on Rachel’s latest book ‘Business or Pleasure’ followed by an author signing and photo opp. To say the conversation was entertaining would be an understatement and yes - I was in major fan girl mode the whole time.

I became a huge fan of Rachel Lynn Solomon after I read her book ‘Weather Girl’ last year and have been looking forward to ‘Business or Pleasure’ from the second I heard about it months ago. I also became a big fan of Alison Cochrun after reading her book ‘Kiss Her Once For Me’ which took place in my beloved Portland. The meet cute in that story took place in Powell’s (on Burnside), how perfect is that?!

When it was my turn for signatures and a photo, I laughed that I was the one that had mentioned the event in my Instagram story and accidentally tagged B&N instead of Powell’s and {insert fan girl brain squeal here} she knew what I was talking about. Rachel kindly signed all five of my books and was so incredibly sweet. I already owned her three adult books {The Ex Talk, Weather Girl, and Business or Pleasure} and purchased two of her YA novels that Powell’s had in stock {We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This and See You Yesterday}. I totally blanked on bringing my Alison Cochrun books with me to have dedicated with my name - my copies of her books are signed, just not with my name - but she had fun signature plates for Kiss Her Once For Me and I got one that she dedicated for me.

Meeting Rachel Lynn Solomon & Alison Cochrun

To make matters even more exciting, I sat next to Anita Kelly - another fantastic romance author that also happens to live in Portland - along with a new author Erin Connor that has her debut novel being published by Forever Romance in January 2025. Can I stop myself for a minute and wax poetic about how amazingly bookish Portland is and how much I love living here?

Rachel Lynn Solomon in conversation with Alison Cochrun | Fan girl mode meeting Anita Kelly

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Bookstagram

One of the other really cool things about attending the event was that I made new connections with some local bookstagrammers. The bookstagram community is THE absolute best and it’s filled with some seriously awesome people. Getting a chance to meet bookstagrammers IRL is so exciting! Check out the bookstagrammers that I met and give them a follow on Instagram.