Tales Events – Scholastic #BloggersBookFeast March 2016

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On the 19th March 2016 I was lucky enough to be invited to a fab event at Scholastic!

#BloggersBookFeast

I was so excited to attend and chat books, books and more books and with a fab line up for the day what more could I ask for?!

We even had a few extra special guests to!

So I got up bright and early and headed down to London!

It’s always an absolute pleasure attending the Scholastic offices and upon entering the fifth floor to be greeted with the awesome red sign we have all come to love over the years.

So we all settled in and helped ourselves to the lovely food and drink that Scholastic had kindly laid out for us!

Nom!

The lovely Rachel kicked off the day with a little introduction.

And then it was onto the books!

First up the lovely Olivia introduced us to some wonderful upcoming books!

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since her brother Lief disappeared, Errin’s life has gone from bad to worse. Not only must she care for her sick mother, she has to scrape together rent money by selling illegal herbal cures. But none of that compares to the threat of the vengeful Sleeping Prince whom the Queen just awoke from his enchanted sleep. When her village is evacuated as part of the war against the Sleeping Prince, Errin is left desperate and homeless. The only person she can turn to is the mysterious Silas, a young man who buys deadly poisons from Errin, but won’t reveal why he needs them. Silas promises to help Errin, but when he vanishes, Errin must journey across a kingdom on the brink of war to seek another way to save her mother and herself. But what she finds splits the world as she knows it apart, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom…

The Sleeping Prince is the sequel to The Sin Eaters Daughter.  I am lucky enough to have already read this brilliant book and loved it so much!  I am craving the third book already!

You can find my review of The Sin Eaters Daughter here

Or The Sleeping Prince here

We were lucky enough to have Mel with us for the day who joined for a fab panel towards the end of the day.

The Shadow Queen by C J Redwine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lorelai, crown princess and fugitive-at-large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. She’ll have to be stronger, faster and master more magical power than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen. When the queen’s huntsman – a dragon-shifting king – tracks down Lorelai, sparks fly between them. Can the king overcome his predator side – and can Irina’s dark magic be defeated?

This book, a Snow White re-telling, sounds amazing!  We were lucky enough to have an exclusive video from C J Redwine.

C J chatted to us about the book and how she grew up visiting libraries and reading Grimms fairy tales and after seeing Snow White And The Huntsman she wanted to write her own version where Snow White had her own voice.

C J also told us how much she loves fandom especially English fandom like Harry Potter, Sherlock and Tom Hiddleston…..this made us all chuckle as she produced a huge cardboard cut out….we were all just very jealous really!

You can see part of C J’s video below thanks to the Scholastic UK You Tube Channel.

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fourth and final instalment in the spellbinding series from bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater. All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love’s death. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure any more.

I have heard so many good things about this series, but I am yet to pick it up.  The amount of excitement in the room about this fourth and final instalment of the series has made me really eager to pick the first book up asap (I was lucky enough to take home books one and two with me from Scholastic).

Defender Of The Realm by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alfie thought he knew his destiny. He didn’t know the half of it. Fourteen year old heir to the throne, Alfie, didn’t expect to be King so soon. He DEFINITELY did not expect to be …DEFENDER OF THE REALM. A legendary superhero, fighting a secret, centuries-long, battle to protect the nation from monsters and super-villains. An ordinary girl, Hayley Hicks, finds herself fighting alongside Alfie in a desperate struggle to stop a fearsome new enemy, the Black Dragon.

Another book I am lucky enough to have already read and loved!

You can find my review of Defender Of The Realm here

We were lucky enough to have the co-authors, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler with us for the day and they chatted to us about the book, how they met, other projects they have worked on including Dangermouse and Thunderbirds and writing together.

They made us laugh lots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s also a fab Q&A with Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler on Scholastic’s You Tube channel which I have posted below.

Crush by Eve Ainsworth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love hurts … but should it hurt this much? Reeling from her mum’s sudden departure, Anna finds the comfort she needs in her blossoming relationship with Will. He’s handsome and loving, everything Anna has always dreamt of. He’s also moody and unpredictable, pushing her away from her friends, her music. He wants her to be his and his alone. He wants her to be perfect. Anna’s world is closing in. But threatening everything is a dark secret that not even Will can control… Eve Ainsworth’s gripping second novel is a pitch-perfect exploration of love at its most powerful, addictive and destructive.

Another book I am lucky enough to have already read!

You can find my review of Crush here

Crush is Eve’s second book and tells the story of a toxic relationship from both sides brilliantly and is a solid reminder that domestic abuse is never okay in any way shape or form.

We were lucky enough to have Eve with us for the day who joined the panel towards the end of the day.

It was then time for the lovely Lucy to take over an introduce some really exciting upcoming releases!

Lying About Last Summer by Sue Wallman

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skye is looking for an escape from the reality of last summer when her sister died in a tragic accident. Her parents think that a camp for troubled teenagers might help her process her grief. All of the kids at the summer camp have lost someone close, but is bringing them together such a good idea? And can everyone at camp be trusted? When Skye starts receiving text messages from someone pretending to be her dead sister, she knows it’s time to confront the past. But what if the danger is right in front of her?

I am SO super excited for this book!  It sounds fab!  I was lucky enough to have already met the author Sue Wallman at a previous event the week before and she is super lovely.  I was then lucky enough to meet her for a second time as she joined us for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue talked to us all about her writing and her road to publication and there was not a dry eye in the house when she told us the story of when she received her publication deal.  This was Sue’s first time speaking about the book to a big group of people and she did amazingly well.

You can find my review of Lying About Last Summer here

The Museum Of Heartbreak by Meg Leder

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penelope is a pretty regular sixteen year old girl living in New York City. Except for a few run-ins with her nemesis Cherisse, high school has been fairly drama free …until the day that Keats shows up at school. Handsome, charming, but with an edge, Keats comes in and upends everything. Faced with her first break-up, and her first heartbreak, Penelope decides to put together a collection to tell her story and help her sort out her feelings. Featuring a spectrum of artefacts that chronicle the lives of the curator, her best friends, her first boyfriend and some dinosaurs, the Museum of Heartbreak explores the giddy confusion, inevitable sadness and sheer joy of growing up and falling in love.

This book sounds fab!  And that cover super beautiful!

Can’t wait for this one!

Super Awkward by Beth Garrod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifteen year old Bella Fisher is an absolute winner…at failing at life. She’s the owner of a mouth that won’t listen to her brain, the most groin-sniffing-y dog ever created, and the ability to majorly embarrass herself in front of every single specimen of boy-dom. So imagine her surprise when she’s abandoned in a caravan park, dressed as a giant cereal box and somehow manages to pull off the most alarmingly un-Bella thing imaginable – having an actual tongue snog with Zac. The world’s fittest boy. When Bella is ripped away from Zac, she logs onto his favourite secret-sharing app to find him. Soon she’s spilling her friends’ most embarrassing secrets on the web…and not as anonymously as she thinks. While juggling her growing list of crushes, an evil ex-boyfriend, a chronically annoying uber-sis, and the leaking of her BFFs’ most cringeworthy moments, Bella finds her life spinning into catastrophe. Will she be able to piece it back together? And more importantly, do it while sorting out the ultimate prom problem?

This sounds like such a fun book that is going to make me laugh out loud!

We were lucky enough to have Beth with us for the day and she talked to us all about her debut book, awkward moments and her publication journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth made us all laugh lots!  You never would have known this was the first time she was talking about the book to a group of people.

You can find a guest post Beth did for my blog with ten facts about Bella Fisher here

Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe

 

 

 

 

 

 

An inspiring, uplifting and sympathetic story about sexuality and self-acceptance, Lucy Sutcliffe’s debut memoir is a personal and moving coming out story. In 2010, at seventeen, Lucy Sutcliffe began an online friendship with Kaelyn, a young veterinary student from Michigan. Within months, they began a long distance relationship, finally meeting in the summer of 2011. Lucy’s video montage of their first week spent together in Saint Kitts, which she posted to the couple’s YouTube channel, was the first in a series of films documenting their long-distance relationship. Funny, tender and candid, the films attracted them a vast online following. Now, for the first time, Lucy’s writing about the incredible personal journey she’s been on; from never quite wanting the fairy-tale of Prince Charming to realising she was gay at the age of 14, through three years of self-denial to finally coming out to friends and family, to meeting her American girlfriend Kaelyn.

I know I keep saying it, but another book I am super excited about getting my hands on!

This is going to be an amazing love story and is based on real life events.

Panel

It was then time for all of the authors to sit all together and be grilled by David Maybury and us!

With prosecco in hand we listened to them talk books and inspiration and got to ask so many questions!  It was fab!

Editing

We then had a chance to listen to David Maybury and Lucy Rogers chat all about the editing process.

It was really fascinating insight to hear about discovering a manuscript, the journey that the editor and the manuscript / agent / author go on and then the finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design

We then had a chat from the design team at Scholastic.

I was unable to take pictures at this point at the request of Scholastic, but they showed us the design process for The Sin Eaters Daughter by Melinda Salisbury and the new edition of the Hunger Games.

Again this was completely fascinating.  I love feeling like we are getting a little glimpse behind the scenes!

Quiz Time!

It was then quiz time!

Not any ordinary quiz….a Hunger Games quiz!

*gulps*

I clearly need to re-read this series and polish up my quiz skills in this subject as I admit I was useless!

Our team came last, but we were quite proud of that and had a lot of fun with our answers!

#Snowflake

So all that remained was to get books signed, have a chat and collect our goodie bag….and what a fab goodie bag it was!

A huge thank you to Scholastic and everyone involved for a brilliant day!  It was fab!

Look out for some exciting twitter giveaways coming up soon!

Have you read any of these books?  Are you excited for any of the upcoming books we were shown?  I would love to hear from you!  Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of the post or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy !

Happy Reading!