Let’s Wrap: September

Is it just me, or did September go really quick? I can’t quite remember what I did for the entirety of September except read, go to training at Lush, and visit my boyfriend. And that’s it. What else even happened?

However, I am officially halfway through writing my novel which is amaaazing. I’m hoping to have the first draft done by Christmas and it’ll be the first novel I have ever completed, despite writing the beginnings of dozens of novels for years. Fingers crossed!

I’m also at 239 followers overall (WordPress and Bloglovin combined) which I am so happy about so thank you everyone who has followed this little blog of mine, it means a lot!

• Review: The Fireman by Joe Hill
• YA Series I Haven’t Finished (And Probably Never Will)
• The Sunday Post #13
• Review: Soundless by Richelle Mead
• Entertainer Blogger Award
• Review: The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent
• The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing #2
• The Sunday Post #14
• Top Ten Tuesday: Ten ALL TIME Favourite Books of the Sci-Fi Genre
• Why Diversity Is A Good Thing
• Stacking the Shelves | YA Fantasy
• Review: The City of Mirrors (Passage #3) by Justin Cronin
• The Sunday Post #15
• Waiting On Wednesday: Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• Diversity Spotlight Thursday #1
• The Sunday Post #16
• ARC Review: Goldenhand (Old Kingdom #5) by Garth Nix
• Review: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
• Film Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

I’m currently reading Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and I’m about two thirds of the way through. I am really really enjoying it. However, at the moment I’m thinking of a 4.5/5 rating rather than the full 5/5. Why? I hate to say it, but the protagonist of Mia annoys me a little. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t connect to her as much as I’d like to; she kinda gets on my nerves and I prefer some of the side characters to her. Anyone else found this or am I in the minority? From what I’ve seen, I’m thinking it’s just me with this problem.

I still have the likes of these YA Fantasy bad boys to read which you can see above, so I’m excited to get my teeth into them.

However, I’m considering taking part in a Halloween Read-a-thon towards the end of October so I may be bypassing the Fantasy and reading some Horror instead. I’ve read a lot of Fantasy recently so a change would be good I think, as well as maybe some Historical fiction I’ve had sitting in my TBR for a while.

How was your September? Have you read any of the books above? Let me know in the comments below!

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ARC Review: Goldenhand (Old Kingdom #5) by Garth Nix

Goldenhand by Garth Nix

Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult

Publisher: Hot Key

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: Lirael is no longer a shy Second Assistant Librarian. She is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, with dead creatures to battle and Free Magic entities to bind. When Lirael saves Nicholas Sayre after he is attacked by a hideous Free Magic creature, she finds he is deeply tainted with Free Magic. Lirael must seek help for him at the Clayr’s Glacier – her childhood home.

But even as she returns to the Clayr, clouds are gathering. A messenger is trying to reach Lirael with a dire warning from her long-dead mother about the Witch with No Face. But who is the Witch, and what is she planning?

Once more a great danger threatens the Old Kingdom, and it must be forestalled not only in the living world, but also in the cold, remorseless river of Death.

My Review

This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinion of the book in any way.

This review will contain no spoilers for Goldenhand and only contains very minor spoilers from the previous books, so if you’re new to the series, read on if you want to!

As I have said so many times on this blog, the Old Kingdom series is my absolute favourite. I was extremely lucky to get an ARC of Goldenhand, seemingly turning up at the right time and place at YALC to get my hands on a copy. So, after all the excitement, I had high hopes of this novel. And, of course, I wasn’t disappointed.

Let me just start by saying that to get the most out of this book, you need to have read both The Creature in the Case from the Across the Wall anthology and Clariel. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it does overlap with The Creature in the Case, so read that first if you don’t want Goldenhand to spoil the events of that novella. As for Clariel, Goldenhand doesn’t really spoil any plot points from Clariel, but it well better your understanding and enjoyment of Goldenhand if you’ve read Clariel first. And, of course, you will need to have read Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. 

So, what did I love about Goldenhand? Everything! Garth Nix once again weaves a dark, lyrical tale of magic and intrigue. The novel centres mostly around Lirael and Nicholas Sayre, but old favourites Sabriel and Touchstone appear, as well as Sam and Ellimere, and a few more… It was great to be back with these characters again after a few years away from them. I found myself easily slipping back into the world, only needing to refresh my memory a little around the events of Abhorsen.

The story is gritty and very fast-paced, but is injected with a good amount of humour that made me laugh out loud at some points. I laughed, I cried, I worried, but I loved it all. This book will definitely please old fans, like me, but is also something for new fans to look forward to; they can rest assured that the series doesn’t falter after Abhorsen.

Goldenhand also introduces us to parts of the Old Kingdom we have previously never explored. We travel to the lands north of the Clayr’s Glacier – the steppe where the horse-nomads roam, and the Great Rift beyond. From these nomad clans comes a young girl named Ferin, desperate to deliver a message to Lirael from her dead mother, Arielle. I really loved Ferin and her journey. We got to learn so much more about the northern reaches of the Old Kingdom and the people who inhabit it. There is also clearly a lot more still to be discovered so I hope Garth Nix will take us to these places and people in future novels.

This mix of new with old was excellent. We get chapters centred around previously unexplored lands, and then chapters filled with well-loved places, like the Clayr’s Glacier and The Wall. And don’t worry, there are plenty of battles with the Dead and Free Magic creatures. Also, the plot is original in terms of the series; it doesn’t feel like Nix has just regurgitated the plot from Sabriel or one of the others.

What’s more, there’s just so much scope in these novels and it’s all written so convincingly. The pacing is fast, the prose is tight, the characters are complex and likeable; I hope to be reading these books for years to come! It’s a very unique Fantasy series and I can’t compare it to any others. It doesn’t have to borrow heavily from other Fantasy novels or rework old tropes, instead each installment, as well as the world and characters themselves, feels fresh and original.

So, I don’t really want to mention much more as I’ve tried not to reveal too much about the previous novels, in case any people who are new to the series read this, or to give too much away about the plot of Goldenhand. However, it is a deeply satisfying read and I promise it won’t disappoint.

Goldenhand will be released 4th October in the UK.

Have you read the Old Kingdom series? Did you enjoy it? Are you excited for Goldenhand? Let me know in the comments below!

Entertainer Blogger Award

I was nominated not that long ago by the lovely Cate @ Midnight Biblio Blog  for the Entertainer Blogger Award (and for another tag that I mean to get round to soon). So thanks Cate! If you don’t already follow her, go check out her blog!

The Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Add these rules to your post.
3. Answer all the questions below.
4. Display the award picture in your post.
5. Nominate 12 other bloggers who are funny, inspiring and most important of all ENTERTAINING!

The Questions

1. Why did you start a blog in the first place?

I started a blog for two very different reasons. One was because I knew if I wanted some kind of creative career, I should probably get involved in something like a blog or a magazine. A blog, however, allows me a lot more freedom and creativity.

The other was, quite simply, I love books! Every time I finished one I’d rant and rave about it to my boyfriend or Mum and, whilst my Mum was interested (my boyfriend not so much), I thought it’d be much more fulfilling to discuss my love of books with a whole community of people. And so I stumbled upon the book blogosphere! I’d actually been trying to start a blog for years but I now decided to finally give it a proper go and I haven’t regretted it.

2. What is your favourite book?

That’s such a difficult question because I can’t imagine a book-lover to have just one favourite book. However, I do have a favourite series, which I’ve talked about on this blog a lot, and that’s the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

3. What do you dislike the most?

People who are nasty for no reason, both to humans and animals.

4. What is your favourite food from the mall?

We don’t really have that whole mall food culture here in the UK, like pretzels and things. However, we do have our own version and it seems to be all things sweet. In the big “malls”, like the Bullring in Birmingham, you get these pop-up food places that serve mainly things like ice cream, frozen yoghurt, pancakes and smoothies. I would probably go for ice cream or pancakes, especially anything containing chocolate or Nutella.

5. What is your favourite pastime? 

Reading, of course! I read pretty much all day, but I also write, watch TV and films, and I do enjoy a bit of photography. I also like going for walks because I am secretly a retired pensioner.

I Nominate

• Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews
• Anushka @ Going Through Books
• Mrenee @ That Wild Soul
• Demi @ Books Traveller
• Aimee @ Lovely Book Loves
• Lillian @ Lair Of Books
• Captain’s Quarters

Don’t feel like you have to answer these questions if you don’t want to, or if you’ve previously been nominated! Just bask in the knowledge of your nomination.

Let’s Wrap: August

So, August! I got a part-time job at Lush to tide me over till Christmas whilst I’m still working out what I want to do with my life after uni, and then my boyfriend came to visit twice and last week we went to a maze shaped like a T-Rex (which satisfied my dinosaur obsession immensely).

Here’s me looking a little too pleased with myself.

Now, onto my August wrap-up.

This Month’s Posts

• Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I’d Buy Right This Second If Someone Handed Me a Fully Loaded Gift Card
• The Willoughby Book Club Unboxing
• The Sunday Post #10
• Review: The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien
• The Books With a Purpose Tag
• Waiting On Wednesday: The Burning World (Warm Bodies #3) by Isaac Marion
• Review: Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
• Beauty and the Beast Book Tag
• Stacking the Shelves | Fantasy & WW2 Lit | YA & Adult
• The Sunday Post #11
• ARC Review: Girl Detached by Manuela Salvi
• Pokemon Go Book Tag
• Discussion: Does a Character’s Name Affect Your Opinion?
• The Sunshine Blogger Award
• The Sunday Post #12
• The Versatile Blogger Award

Favourite Novels This Month

Least Favourite Novels This Month

None! I gave them all 4/5 or 5/5, but Girl Detached was definitely the standout novel of the month (and even a standout novel of the whole year).

Coming Up

I’m still reading The Fireman by Joe Hill. It’s a biiiiig book and I did barely any reading last week whilst Mark was visiting. However, I’ve been speeding through it the last couple of days so expect a review by the end of the week, or at least early next week.

After that, I’m going to read Soundless followed by The Stars Never Rise. Hopefully I’ll enjoy them!

I have a couple more tags to get through but some others I’ll be putting on hold. Thanks so much to everyone who’s been tagging me but I’m a bit tagged out now! I’m gonna lay off them for a while and do some more discussion posts etc.

Also, this isn’t something to look out for in September, but just a reminder that my review of Goldenhand by Garth Nix will be going live in the first week of October, a week before its official release date. So keep your eyes peeled! I’ve written it so that people who are new to the series can still read the review without stumbling upon any major spoilers. So, if you’re thinking of getting into the Old Kingdom series, my review should hopefully convince you!

What have you got up to this August? Has it been a good month for reading? Let me know in the comments below!

The Sunday Post #12

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

My Weekly Recap

It’s actually been a good week in terms of writing for me. I’ve planned the majority of my novel and I’ve so far written a prologue and three chapters so, you never know, this might finally be the one that sees the light of day!

But anyway, here are the posts from this week:

• ARC Review: Girl Detached by Manuela Salvi
• Pokemon Go Book Tag
• Discussion: Does a Character’s Name Affect Your Opinion?
• The Sunshine Blogger Award

Coming Up

I just finished my ARC of Goldenhand by Garth Nix today and I’m already having withdrawal symptoms! It was excellent, as always, and great to be back with the likes of Sabriel, Lirael, Touchstone, Sam and Nicholas. I need another book in the Old Kingdom series now please!

However, I won’t be posting my review until a week before the release date of Goldenhand on the 4th of October, so keep your eyes peeled for it in the last week of September.

I’m now onto The Fireman by Joe Hill, an apocalyptic viral-outbreak novel (just my kinda thing) that has been receiving rave reviews so I have high hopes.

I have a few more tags to do and another award which is amazing! However, my boyfriend is visiting next week so blog posts may be a little less frequent.

And Finally

I’m all about Tame Impala at the moment. Stand-out tracks for me are Let It Happen, The Less I Know the Better, and ‘Cause I’m a Man.

Pokemon Go Book Tag

I was tagged by both Aimal @ Bookshelves and Paperbacks and Arianne @ Beyond Chapters, so thank you! If you don’t already follow these two then check out their blogs!

The tag was created by Aentee @ Read At Midnight and I am so jealous of her graphic making skills.

So, let’s get started:

This is actually quite difficult because I can’t remember a time I wasn’t reading. Even before I could read words, I’d take my picture books from my parents and make up stories using the drawings inside, because I was a cute child and all that.

However, when I progressed to reading kids novels, one book that stands out for me as a favourite was Kitty by William Corlett. It’s about a stray puppy in Spain called Kitty and recounts her adventures and misfortunes. I actually got rid of a lot of books from my bookshelf recently but I made sure to keep this one because it holds a special place in my heart.

Anything by Virginia Woolf, but especially The Years, To the Lighthouse and The Waves. And Mrs Dalloway, of course.

She’s just such an amazing writer and has this incredible talent to write stories where pretty much nothing ever happens but you never get bored. I will forever be in awe of the novels she has produced.

If you want to get into Woolf, definitely read Mrs Dalloway or To the Lighthouse first to ease yourself in gently. The Waves isn’t to everyone’s taste as its form is very experimental, but I love it. Just read it all!

This novel was just so over-hyped. I read it when it first came out and thought it was pretty mediocre. I still enjoyed the story, but I haven’t felt the need to pick up the sequel. The characters just didn’t do a lot for me and neither did the plot.

Maybe I’ll grab the sequel one day just to see where it goes, but for now I’m saving my money for other things.

 

 

 

I might be cheating a little here as this isn’t one book but I couldn’t think of anything else. This series was pretty YA formulaic in the love triangles and the rebellious girl doing it all for love, but I still really enjoyed this series when it came out. I’m tempted to give it a re-read because, from what I can remember, the writing was good and lyrical and the setting was very interesting.

This is a bit of a lie because I’ve read the first two novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, but I’ve given up for now because the books are just so big and there’s so many of them. I do, however, love the TV adaptation.

 

 

 

 

I’ve said before that this book traumatised me and I’ll say it again:

THIS BOOK TRAUMATISED ME.

Whilst it had a little bit of a lull in the middle, the first third of the book and the final third definitely kept me awake at night.

And because of that, I really need to read more of Adam Nevill’s work because I haven’t read a good horror in a while.

 

I don’t think I obsess over couples in books as much as some people but if there’s one couple that I want to never ever break up then it’s R and Julie.

I never thought I’d say a zombie book contains the sweetest love story of all time but it totally does.

Oh, and Love, Rosie too! It was originally published as Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern but I prefer what they renamed it for the film adaptation. That book and film gave me a lot of feelings.

 

I stormed through this book and actually tried to slow myself down so it wouldn’t end!

This was definitely a fast-paced read with lots of action and I’m so excited for the sequel.

Check out my review for Rebel of the Sands here.

 

 

 

This is a plea to Garth Nix to never ever stop writing stories set in the Old Kingdom. I will never ever get bored of this series and its novellas.

I’m currently reading an ARC of Goldenhand which is just all my dreams come true. I still have the novella of To Hold the Bridge waiting on my bookshelf for me to read and I really don’t know why I haven’t got round to it earlier because I am so happy to be back in the world of the Abhorsen and the Dead in Goldenhand.

Seriously, I’ve said this so many times, but if you haven’t read these books you are totally missing out.

I’ve said this before too but I was surprised by how much I liked Throne of Glass. Even after seeing people rave about this series, I was never keen to try it. I don’t like the covers and the blurb’s never caught my eye. But then I gave in and turns out I loved Throne of Glass! Hopefully I can get my hands on the second novel some time soon.

Check out my review for Throne of Glass here.

 

 

These are three different series I’m all excited to start. They’ve all garnered a lot of attention and I hope I like them, but I really hope it isn’t a case of ‘over-hyping’.

Probably some first editions of Virginia Woolf’s works but, other than that, I’m not bothered about collector’s editions.

I know this has already been out for a while, however, it is a debut novel and I still haven’t read it! I want to so bad!

I’ve heard mostly positive things about it, with a few mixed reviews thrown in, but it hasn’t put me off trying it.

Apparently the purple prose can be a bit too purple but I’m not really averse to it.

 

 

 

There are a few but definitely Garth Nix, David Mitchell and Jenny Downham. Otherwise, I read whatever, no matter who the author is.

I talked about this during Waiting On Wednesday. It feels like I’ve been waiting for most of my life for the sequel to Warm Bodies and it’s finally within my sights!

January, please hurry up!

 

 

 

 

I Tag

• Monique @ That Wild Soul
• Asiya and Marcela @ Georgiana Darcy’s Reading Lists
• Bookish Afterthoughts

If you don’t do tags, or you’ve already been tagged in this, then please ignore me! Otherwise, have fun!

The Sunday Post #11

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

My Weekly Recap

It’s been a quieter week for me so I’ve had more time to post and get on with all the tags. Thanks to anyone who’s tagged me and, if I haven’t done yours yet, I’ll get round to it next week!

And now, the posts this week:

• Review: The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien
• The Books With a Purpose Tag
• Waiting On Wednesday: The Burning World (Warm Bodies #3) by Isaac Marion
• Review: Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
• Beauty and the Beast Book Tag
• Stacking the Shelves |Fantasy & WW2 Lit | YA & Adult

Coming Up

I’m currently reading an ARC of Girl Detached by Manuela Salvi and I’m enjoying it! It was banned in Italy and honestly I can’t see why. Manuela is handling the issues of the book carefully and sensitively. I’ll talk more about why it was banned and what the book deals with when I review it next week.

After that will be an ARC of the next installment in the Old Kingdom series, Goldenhand, and I am so so excited. I feel very lucky to have an ARC from my favourite series, although I’m still gonna buy the finished copy in October! I love the covers to this series. The UK hardback cover is going to be similar to the Clariel hardcover in that it’s pretty much a plain background (with some Charter Marks floating about) and a big embossed Charter Mark in the middle, but I also really want a copy of the usual paperback art because those painted covers are so gorgeous. The ARC cover, on the other hand, is blue with images of the bells on it (and my copy is signed!). But something tells me having three copies of Goldenhand may be a little excessive…

I still have some more tags to do, like the Pokemon Go tag and I’ve been nominated for a couple of awards which is amazing! So thanks again to everyone who’s tagged or nominated me.

Like I said last week, I have some discussion kind of posts planned but I’m trying to work my way through the tags! Once I’ve done those, I’ll get onto some lists and discussions.

And Finally

I am still all about The Temper Trap’s new album. It makes for really good writing music!

Beauty and the Beast Book Tag

Thanks to icebreaker694 who tagged me for this a little while back, I’m finally getting round to it! Go check out her blog if you don’t follow her! And thanks to the creator of the tag,  Kristy and the Cat Read too!

Questions

1. TALE AS OLD AS TIME – A popular theme, trope or setting you will never get bored of reading

Okay, this has to be dystopian for me. Everyone is saying “oh it’s so overdone now”, but I totally disagree. As long as the society and plot are unique then I’m happy! I love the idea of different societies and what life might be like under a regime where kids kill each other for entertainment in arenas (The Hunger Games) or where a child hasn’t been born in decades ( The Children of Men). There are endless possibilities in this genre, so I don’t appreciate it when some books are clearly a rip-off of another and are just trying to jump on the bandwagon.

2. BELLE- A book you bought for its beautiful cover that’s just as beautiful inside too

All the Birds in the Sky was definitely an immediate cover-buy, although the blurb sounded really interesting too. It mentions the word ‘apocalypse’ after all so I was totally sold! However, I try not to buy books simply because I like their covers. A book could have some amazing cover art, but if it sounds boring or isn’t really my cup of tea, I won’t get it.

You can check out my review for All the Birds in the Sky here. It was a really magical and fantastical book, with some great characterisation too.

3. BEAST – A book you didn’t expect much from but that pleasantly surprised you

This has to be Throne of Glass. I hate the covers to this series. I know I just said I try not to judge a book by it’s cover but I just really don’t like the covers! I think they’re very kiddy and a bit corny. It definitely put me off when I first saw Throne of Glass, but then I also thought the blurb sounded pretty cliche too, so I steered clear. Like I said, if the synopsis had sounded great I might have tried it a bit earlier and not been such a snob. But when I joined the blogosphere and saw everyone raving about this series, I decided to finally give it a shot. And lo and behold, I was proven entirely wrong; I loved the first book! I’ve only read the one but I hope to get my hands on the second book sometime in the near future. Check out my review of Throne of Glass here.

4. GASTON – A book everyone loves that you don’t

Sorry guys, but I just can’t get into these books. I’ve read City of Bones and attempted City of Ashes but they’re just not for me. Actually, I think I even got as far as City of Glass but never finished it. I don’t even know. As you can tell, these books haven’t really stuck with me. I’m not a massive fan of all this urban fantasy/paranormal romance stuff. I can’t deny they’re pretty well written, but I never became obsessed like a lot of people.

5. LEFOU – A loyal sidekick that you can’t help but love more than their counterpart

I was 100% more of a fan of El Capitan than I was of Bradwell. I loved all the characters, but there was something just that little bit more special about El Capitan. He’s a really troubled soul and he’s ruthless, but he’s also exceptionally caring.

If you haven’t read this series, you are missing out on some of the best world-building, writing and characterisation I’ve ever read. This series is flawless.

6. MRS POTTS, CHIP, LUMIER & COGSWORTH – A book that helped you through a difficult time or that taught you something valuable

Do I even need to say why?

7. SOMETHING THERE – A book or a series that you weren’t into at first but picked up towards the end

Can I just start by saying there are so many different covers for this series and they’re all amazing. I love them.

But anyway, my love for the series as a whole didn’t quite start in the same fashion. In fact, I loved the opening chapter and the world; I was totally hooked. Aaaaand then the romance started and my interest went from 100 to 0. I just didn’t feel invested in the romance at all. But then the pace picked up again by the end of the first book (however, that motorcycle chase… what on earth?!) and continued on throughout the series. I preferred Julian to Alex, as you can probably tell, and was rooting for Julian throughout the series. By the final book, I had really come to love this trilogy, it’s just a shame it had a bit of a shaky start.

It’s odd really, because normally the first book in a trilogy is amazing, the second feels like a pointless filler, and the third picks up the pace and can either be amazing or a disaster. For me, I felt like the first book was a bit of a filler and the plots of the second and third novels were much more interesting.

8. BE OUR GUEST – A fictional character you’d love to have over for dinner

Anyone from the Old Kingdom series. Please come and love me and be my best friend. Especially Mogget. And Dog. And Sabriel and Lirael and Touchstone and Sameth and Nicholas. Everyone please. My ARC copy of Goldenhand is up next in my TBR and I’m practically salivating in anticipation of reading it.

I Tag

• Demi @ bookstraveller
• Arianne @ Beyond Chapters
• Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks

If you don’t do tags or you’ve already done this one, then please ignore me! If not, then have fun!

The Books With a Purpose Tag

I was tagged by the lovely bookstraveller to do this tag a little while back and I’m finally getting round to it! Go check out her blog if you don’t already follow her!

The Rules

1. Mention the person who tagged you in your post and provide a link to their blog
2. Fill out the 9 questions in the tag
3. For each question, insert a gif of how you feel about the book(s) or author.
4. Tag 5 people and/or everyone to do this tag!
5. Before you post the tag, do a five-second party dance. Cause you dat awesome

The Questions

1. Best story premise? The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

2. Best world-building? The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix

3. Best character? Mogget from the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix (if you’ve read the books, you’ll understand this gif)

4. Best series? I would say the Old Kingdom series but I’ve used it twice now (sorry, favourite series ever!) so I’m gonna go with the Pure trilogy by Julianna Baggott

5. Best tear-jerker? Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

6. Best author? Virginia Woolf

7. Best writing style? David Mitchell

8. Best cover? The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

9. Best ending? Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

I Tag

• Laura @ Reading Lust
• Martin @ A Pretty Wonderful Book
• Arkon and Annie
• Kel @ A Reader’s Whimsy
• Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews

If you don’t do tags, or you’ve already been tagged, then please ignore this. If not, then have fun!

I also have three more tags to do so I’ll try and tag different people each time. Keep an eye out in case I pick you!

Day 3 YALC | ARCs and Advice

Day 3 of YALC! The final day!

I actually felt a little sad when I got in the lift to leave and the doors closed on the convention. I can’t believe it’s over! It’s been a hectic three days but so much fun; I’ve loved every minute of it.

If you haven’t already seen my recaps of Day 1 and Day 2, check them out here and here.

Now, Day 3. What did I get?

Today I managed to grab two ARCs which I’m so so so excited about, especially the copy of Goldenhand because, as I’ve said many times before on this blog, the Old Kingdom/Abhorsen series by Garth Nix is my favourite series of all time! My heart was pounding whilst I was waiting for this book, and it’s signed! This 100% made my day.

I’m also really excited to start the ARC of Gilded Cage by Vic James. It has an interesting premise so fingers crossed I like it! I also arrived at the venue just in time to get the last copy so I was very lucky in that respect.

And then with my last fiver I bought How Not To Disappear by Clare Furniss which I’ve heard some great things about.

So, next, what did I see?

• Publishing 101 and Publishing 102 – 101 was all about how to get published, which was a very insightful talk. I got some great advice from the agents there on all things from query letters to how to handle rejection. Don’t be scared or offended by rejection, it’s not personal! It might just be your book is similar to something they already have, or that it just isn’t the agent’s cup of tea, not that it’s bad! 102 was about how to get a career in the publishing industry. I’d love to work in publishing, but it’s just not really feasible right not as I don’t live near London. However, it was great to hear that publishing houses recognise that this is a problem and they’re working on rectifying it.
• Next up was a talk with Frances Hardinge, Philip Reeve and Tanya Landman. This was another interesting talk, learning about how the authors research and what their inspirations are.
• I then went to Frances Hardinge’s signing and got my copy of The Lie Tree signed. She was very friendly and humble and, if you haven’t read The Lie Tree yet, what have you been doing?! It’s an absolutely amazing book. Original plot, beautiful writing and a feisty, well-crafted heroine. I reviewed the book a little while back, so check it out here!

And after that, I left! I wasn’t interested in the Harry Potter party (sorry, the books just aren’t for me, but I like the films) and, whilst I would have liked to buy a copy of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and get it signed, I wasn’t willing to wait in what was obviously going to be a massive queue as I don’t even know if I’ll like the book. When I left Frances Hardinge’s signing, there were already long queues for Maggie Stiefvater’s talk, which wasn’t due for another half hour. So yeah, I wasn’t up for dealing with that.

But all in all, an extremely successful day! I got two ARCs, one from my favourite series, and some great advice on the world of publishing.

I’m sad it’s over, but I’m very glad I went. It was an amazing experience and the whole thing was so welcoming. If you’re anxious about attending a big event like YALC, don’t be. Everyone is there because they love books, just like you, and everyone is up for a chat. It was a really friendly and warm place!

Did you go to YALC today? Did you enjoy it? Let me know any thoughts in the comments below!