I apologise in advance for the lack of photos from the event, I was on emergency battery power and needed to conserve some incase there was a problem on the way home! However I am looking in investing in a portable charger as a consequence 🙂
17th of March means St. Patrick’s day for many, but for this year at least, to me it meant only 1 thing -my first blogger event, which was Books and the City’s Spring Blogger Event, and I was lucky enough to be invited.
Of course this gave me the opportunity to spend the day in London, so I got up at the crack of dawn and did just that! I wanted to visit the British Library but somehow I managed to fill my day just book shopping. First stop was Waterstones Piccadilly where I bought a signed copy of ‘Under my Skin’ by James Dawson and ‘Someone Else’s Life’ by Katie Dale.
After a stop of for a mango fruit cooler and reading session at Costa I stopped off at the mothership… uh I mean Foyles, where I bought ‘Vendetta’ which is book 1 in the Blood for Blood series which I confess, I bought solely because of the beautiful side, I’m so fickle!
After stopping for a late lunch I made my way to Books and The City HQ, and was welcomed by the very lovely Sara-Jade and was led into a room full of biscuits and, more importantly, book bloggers! After chatting for a bit, we took our seats and the main event began. We had 5 wonderful authors introduced to us and they all read an extract from their book and answered a few questions.
First up was Jane Costello with her book ‘The Love Shack’ which is out April 23rd. This was fricking hilarious from beginning to end, a well picked extract and I need to devour this book pronto, Jane is without fail one of the funniest authors I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I can only imagine how moving in with the mother-in-law would be. My mother-in-law is lovely, but me and Simon almost had to move in there for a week between moving houses, and that was enough to scare me, let alone months!
Next was Iona Grey with her debut novel ‘Letters to the Lost’ (released 23rd April) is set during the present as well as the past, but mostly focusing on two people in WW2. This sounds beautifully romantic, and I heard from Alba (from Alba in Bookland) that it was extremely good and very sad. Hearing Iona read it only made me want to read it more, and I know when I next feel like a book to make me emotional, this will be my first stop.
The third author to read and speak was Andy Jones, whose debut book ‘The Two of Us’ is available as an ebook now and as a paperback on May 7th. I have been eagerly anticipating this one and the section Andy read to us only made my enthusiasm sky rocket. Hearing a book like this from a mans perspective is really quite unusual, and I really need to read this book now!
Our fourth author is Heidi Swain her book ‘The Cherry Tree Cafe’ is out on the 16th July and is the first Books and the City digital original, and what a delicious treat it sounds. It just sounds the exact book you want to read from start to finish in one go with a slice (or two) of cake!
Last but by no means least we have Milly Johnson and her new book ‘Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Cafe’ released on the June 18th. I’ve read a couple of Milly’s books before and this one definitely sounds like it’s going to be exactly the funny and often touching read I’ve come to know from Milly’s books.
After all that it was time for some fizz, some food (though i was still pretty stuffed from lunch so only had a sausage roll) and a chance to meet the authors. We also had the opportunity to pick up some books, which was very generous indeed. Thank you so much Sara-Jade, all the authors and all the team at Books and the City for making my day Simply fabulous!
Awww I couldn't have put it better myself – it really was a fab evening from start to finish 🙂