Title: A Life Apart
Author: Mariapia Veladiano
Publication date: 16 May 2013
Publisher: Maclehose Press (Quercus)
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-85705-233-9
Length: 186 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Age group: Adult
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

Rebecca’s parents were born to very different families. One wealthy, one all but destitute, they were united only by their striking mutual beauty. But the sole child to bless their great romantic fairy tale is a daughter of startling ugliness.

The shock of having given birth to such a monster leads the mother to withdraw both herself and her daughter from the world. Only by keeping her child indoors, away from strangers’ eyes, can she protect her from their disgust.

But against all odds, with a little help from some remarkable friends, Rebecca discovers a talent for music that proves that inner beauty can outshine any other.

My thoughts

I haven’t really had the chance to read a great amount of translated fiction before so A Life Apart was definitely unique in this respect, and a bit different from the books I normally read. But since there was something in the synopsis which really intrigued me and because I tend to like emotional stories in which the main character tries to overcome some traumatic incident in his or her life (and because the cover is so breathtakingly gorgeous), I decided to pick it up and give it a try. And while in hindsight I wasn’t particularly keen on the language and narration itself, Rebecca’s personality and her story, her journey towards accepting her looks and living a relatively normal life definitely made up for it.

What surprised me the most is the fact that the novel has quite a few magical elements in it and despite my initial expectations, it’s not an everyday story. As it turns out, Rebecca’s mother’s family has carried a taint for several generations. A minor taint which is supposed to leave your mind, your beauty and your life untouched, but a taint all the same. Now and again an unfortunate child would be born with six or seven fingers on each hand, leaving the family with no other options but to hide them from the prying eyes of their neighbours and everyone else. Hoping to escape this misfortune, Rebecca’s mother marries a handsome young man whose entire generation has been untouched by it. However, when Rebecca is born, they immediately realise that something is very wrong… for despite the father’s impeccable past and the two parents’ beauty, the baby turns out to be a freak of nature. After Rebecca is born, a heavy silence falls on the family home. Literally. She is hidden away from the outside world, is not allowed to attend nursery school or leave the house before sundown and her mother stops talking to them altogether. Not only does she refuse talking to her own husband, she never once sets eyes on her daughter. And this is where Rebecca’s journey starts: in a place devoid of any kind of parental love or affection, where she’s a prisoner in her own home.

With the help of a loving and affectionate home help called Maddalena, who looks after the girl throughout the years and stands by her when no one else does, her eccentric friend Lucilla, an overweight girl who becomes her friend on their first day at school, and most importantly music, Rebecca slowly but surely starts to come to terms with her fate and – despite everyone who’s holding her back – proves that physical beauty is not all there is to life. Apart from finding solace in music and trying to break out of the captivity of her own home, she also tries to discover more about her family and find out what the reason behind her mother’s silence was throughout all those years.

A Life Apart is a magical and touching coming-of-age saga of a young girl with a difficult past, one I thoroughly enjoyed. The parents’ behaviour might have started to annoy me at times and I’m still not quite sure it’s one of those books which I’ll remember even in, let’s say, two years’ time, but all in all it was a great story. I loved both Lucilla’s and Maddalena’s characters and really liked how the story came to an end as well. If you like this genre or you’re looking for a relatively short but great read, I would definitely recommend it.

Teaser

RatingMany thanks to Quercus for sending me a copy of this book

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.

Hello everyone! Guess what – I’m back! I don’t know whether you remember all those family/university related things that I mentioned a few weeks ago and which made my life pretty hectic lately. Well, the good news is, I’m graduating in 2 weeks’ time so things are finally starting to calm down a bit. I still have my two final exams left (28 May and 4 June) so I might be a bit slow at responding to your comments and stuff, but I’m here and I’m ready to get down to business. Huzzah!

Since I didn’t do a book haul post in the past two weeks, I think, I have quite a lot of stuff to show you. Ready? Here we go.

For review

Come to the Edge by Joanna Kavenna {read my review here}
The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon

Both of these books were unsolicited review copies I received about two weeks ago. You may remember that I actually read and reviewed Come to the Edge last summer when it first came out in hardback and I absolutely loved it. It’s been one of my favourite books ever since and it still cracks me up. The paperback edition you can see here was published last week and – here comes the best bit – not only does it have a strikingly red cover, its edges are red too! Anyway, it’s a brilliant book so make sure to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet. I haven’t had time to read The Longest Holiday yet but I’ve heard great things about it on Twitter so I hope it’s a good one. Thank you, Quercus and Simon & Schuster!

Second-hand books

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell

Oh hello, lovely crime books! These were all book swaps and are – thank goodness – in a relatively good condition too. The Kathy Reichs book is the second book in a series so I’m still looking for book #1, as well as the second book in Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. (these are book #1 and #3)

Pre-birthday present

Long story short, my birthday was on the 16th and even though I decided to treat myself to three books from Awesome Books, they haven’t arrived yet. BUT! Tom Winter, author of one of my most anticipated books of 2013, messaged me a couple of weeks ago saying that he knew his book was on my wishlist and asked me to send him my address so that he could send me a copy. And this is how I ended up getting a gorgeous signed copy of Lost & Found just about a week before my birthday. Saying that I’m touched and am looking forward to reading it would be the understatement of the year, I think. Thank you so much, Tom!

And that’s it for this week, folks. Thank you so much for all your lovely birthday messages on both Facebook and Twitter, you made my week! And a special thank you (and a couple of big, big hugs) goes to Karin for sending me a cute birthday card along with a bookworm book mark (which I absolutely love, by the way) from sunny Vienna!

How was your week? What did you guys get? If you did a Showcase Sunday post this weekend, make sure to link up and/or leave a comment below so that we can check them out! See you soon and have a great weekend. x

Hi guys, I’m back! Hurray! *insert cheerful confetti-throwing here* And not only am I back but I have a brand new reading challenge for you. One of my bookish New Year’s resolutions, which I don’t think I’ve shared with you here on the blog, was to try and step out of my comfort zone and read books and genres which I don’t know much about or ones I haven’t really tried before. And I think this challenge would be perfect for this purpose. I’ve been thinking about hosting this event for months but with travelling, writing my dissertation and preparing for exams, I’ve never really had enough time to actually do it. But since – apart from my two final exams at the end of this month – things are finally starting to calm down a bit and since so many of you loved the idea when I mentioned it on Twitter, I decided to go ahead and make it an official reading challenge.

What is it about?

The aim of this challenge is to read all ten books from Richard and Judy’s list of summer book club titles between 1 June and 31 August. (If you’re not from the UK and/or haven’t heard of Richard and Judy, you’ll find more information here) The books on the list are:

Tigers in Red Weather – Liza Klaussmann
The Age of Miracles – Karen Thompson Walker
Close My Eyes – Sophie McKenzie
This is How It Ends – Kathleen MacMahon
Natural Causes – James Oswald
The Light Between Oceans – M. L. Stedman
The Sea Change – Joanna Rossiter
The Universe Versus Alex Woods – Gavin Extence
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Simon Mawer
The Sea Sisters – Lucy Clarke

Guidelines

• The challenge, as mentioned above, runs from 1 June to 31 August, 2013.
• You don’t have to be a blogger in order to sign up, anyone can join us. The more the merrier!
• To make it as much of a low-pressure event as possible, you can read the books in any order you like and as fast or slow as you can, it’s all up to you. There won’t be any challenges to complete, it’s all about reading, having fun and interacting with other readers. Which brings me to my next point.
• If you’re on Twitter, make sure to use the #richardandjudy hashtag whenever you post something related to the challenge or the books on the list so that we can all see what you’re up to, discuss what everyone thinks of certain books and encourage each other. If you want to follow or join the discussion, you can go to our Richard and Judy chat room at http://tweetchat.com/room/richardandjudy
• There will be a monthly wrap-up post at the end of June, July and August here on the blog where you can discuss the books and post a link to all your reviews.

And that’s it, as simple as that. If you’d like to join us, make sure to sign up using the linky below (if you’re not a blogger or you’ll post your updates only on Twitter then make sure to sign up using your Twitter address). If you have any questions or if you’d like to get in touch, feel free to email me or tweet me @bookswithacuppa

Sign up here

Grab the button

Feel free to grab the challenge button (as seen at the very top of my sidebar) or the banner and display it on your blog so that everyone can see you’re participating. The grab code for the button is:

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Happy reading and talk to you soon!

We’re touring two books in a YA Fantasy series by Thaddeus Nowak, Mother’s Curse and Daughter’s Justice. Review one, both, or neither. That’s right, you don’t even have to read the books to participate – although we’d love for you to do so. But if you decide not to review them, we will provide your choice of a pre-formatted excerpt, interview, or guest post to make participation easy.

About the books

Tradition holds that a mother who commits a mortal sin against the gods will be cursed with a daughter born a witch. Stephenie, the youngest princess of Cothel is just such a curse. Hostage to her mother’s will while her father and older brother fight a war two countries away, Stephenie must overcome her mother’s plots if she is to save her father, brother, and the many soldiers she trained with.

Fearful of her mother’s growing traitorous behavior, Stephenie must escape Antar Castle. But to do so, she might have to rely upon her hidden powers, risking others discovering she is a witch…a risk that would most certainly result in her death by burning. With the help of a select group of soldiers and an unexpected ally, she just might survive.

Stephenie has revealed to the world that she is a witch!The faithful followers of Felis and the other gods are now demanding that she be burned to prevent the spread of the demon god’s evil. However, another voice is rising up, declaring that she has already been cleansed of Elrin’s influence and that she is chosen by the gods; it is a claim Stephenie detests.

To make matters worse, her brother, who by rights of succession is now King, lacks the funds to pay his soldiers and keep control of Cothel. Their mother, having fled to Kynto with the treasury and war supplies, has emboldened some of the dukes and many of the barons to demand more control of the country in exchange for their support.

Can Stephenie avoid the fires of the followers of Felis and people she once called friend or will their claims of righteous anger overwhelm her support? And even if she avoids being burned alive, will her presence simply be the catalyst that plunges Cothel into a civil war?

Interested in joining us? Make sure to click here and sign up.

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.

Hello, how are you all? I’ve had another busy and exhausting week. *yawns, stretches* I’ve been pretty much reading and working on uni assignments 24/7 and it’s not nearly over yet. Anyway… let’s see the books first!

Incoming

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye { for review }
A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano { for review }
You Don’t Know Me by Sophia Bennett { gift }

*does a little happy dance* Well hello, new Sophia Bennett book! I don’t know if you guys remember but I read/reviewed her previous book (The Look) this time last year and I absolutely loved it. I had no idea a new book was about to be published but thanks to Jo at Once Upon a Bookcase, I do now. Long story short, I’ve been following Jo’s blog since she and three other panelists took part in a blogging related discussion at the London Book Fair earlier this month. A few weeks ago (or was it only last week?!) Jo featured Sophia’s new book in her weekly book haul post and not only did she make me realise there was a new book coming out shortly but she was lovely enough to send me her copy. Thanks so much, Jo! The other two books are unsolicited review copies from Quercus. Isn’t A Life Apart gorgeous, by the way? Me and my dad were pretty much drooling over the cover when it landed on our doorstep the other day. It’s definitely one of the prettiest covers I’ve seen lately. I’m not sure Three Strong Women will be my cup of tea but A Life Apart does sound rather interesting and I’ll definitely give it a try once my exams are over.

Which leads me to today’s announcement.

Due to some family issues and my upcoming final exams I’ll have to take a short-ish blogging break. It’ll probably mean a two-week hiatus so I should be back by May 13. You can of course find me on Twitter in the meantime and I’ll make sure to give you a linky so that you can link up your Showcase Sunday posts next week. So I’ll still be here, I’m just not likely to post anything on the blog because I won’t have the time. I’m so sorry guys but I promise I’ll be back before you know it. Big hugs and see you all soon!

If you did a Showcase Sunday post this weekend, make sure to link up or leave a comment below:

Title: Like This, For Ever (Lacey Flint #3)
Author: S.J. Bolton
Publication date: 11 April 2013
Publisher: Bantam Press (Transworld Publishers)
Format: Ebook
ASIN: 9780593064153
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Thriller
Age group: Adult
Source: Netgalley
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

Bright red. Like rose petals. Or rubies. Or balloons. Little red droplets.

Barney knows the killer will strike again soon. The victim will be another boy, just like him. He will drain the body of blood, and leave it on a Thames beach. There will be no clues for detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury to find. There will be no warning about who will be next. There will be no good reason for Lacey Flint to become involved … And no chance that she can stay away.

My thoughts

After reading and absolutely enjoying three (or four, if you count If Snow Hadn’t Fallen, a Lacey Flint short story) books by S.J. Bolton, I think it’s safe to say that no matter what she comes up with, I’m going to end up loving it. Needless to say, Like This, For Ever was a great read full of twists and turns, which kept me guessing right until the end.

Perhaps what I enjoyed the most about this book – apart from the obvious, i.e. trying to figure out what on earth is going on and who the murderer is – is the narration. Unlike the previous books in the series, most chapters in Like This, For Ever are narrated by an eleven-year-old boy (who happens to be Lacey’s neighbour) called Barney. Telling the story from a kid’s point of view can be quite tricky but Bolton pulls it off and both Barney’s and the adult characters’ narratives sound totally believable. (I’ve read a few books in which kids of Barney’s age sounded like adults and way too mature for their age, which eventually ruined the whole story for me – Like This, For Ever is definitely not like this.)

Is it the best book of the series, though? No, for me it wasn’t. What I was missing from this story is the creepiness and the ability to scare the living daylight out of you from the very first page, something which the first two books in the series were quite heavily relying on, something in which the author is brilliant at, and something which, despite the fact that they gave me a few sleepless nights, I absolutely loved. I’ve seriously never been as freaked out as when I was reading the previous two books. Like This, For Ever just didn’t have this effect on me for some reason. It might be down to the fact that a) I found this story a bit more predictable than the previous ones. While the first two books had me at a loss and I hadn’t the faintest idea who was guilty and who was innocent, I managed to recognise some of the red herrings quite soon in this one. Mind you, I still had no idea who the killer would be and it did surprise me when I read the last chapter – I would have never guessed. But I figured out who some of the innocent ones were (no matter how shifty their behaviour was) surprisingly fast. Or b) this book is centred around children and teenage boys, which obviously makes the whole issue a lot trickier (after all, you can’t have the same amount of brutality in a book about Jack the Ripper – one of the most notorious serial killers of all time – and one in which young boys are being murdered, unless you want to piss everyone off), I don’t know. All I know is that while I enjoyed the investigation part, loved Lacey and Mark’s subplot and once again, the killer’s identity took me by surprise, it just wasn’t haunting enough to keep me up till the crack of dawn as the previous books did.

Having said that, I still enjoyed the book, still can’t wait to find out how Lacey’s (and Mark’s) story continues, and still believe that Bolton is an outstanding representative of this genre and whose writing style is still one of my favourites. If you’re new to this series but would like to give it a try (because frankly, you SHOULD!), keep in mind that while the previous two books worked fine as standalones, this one might contain a few spoilers and some of the characters and references might be a bit confusing for those who haven’t read Now You See Me and Dead Scared yet – so make sure to read those two first.

Rating:

*Many thanks to Transworld for sending me an e-book for review*

Title: Under the Jewelled Sky
Author: Alison McQueen
Publication date: 25 April 2013
Publisher: Orion
Format: Trade paperback
ISBN: 9781409131182
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Age group: Adult
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

A love story for India, for a lost world and a boy from a forbidden world.

London 1957. In a bid to erase her past, Sophie Schofield accepts a wedding proposal from ambitious British diplomat, Lucien Grainger. When he is posted to New Delhi, into the glittering circle of ex-pat society, old wounds begin to break open as Sophie is confronted with the memory of her first, forbidden love and its devastating consequences. This is not the India she fell in love with ten years before in a maharaja’s palace, the India that ripped out her heart as Partition tore the country in two.

And so begins the unravelling of an ill-fated marriage, setting in motion a devastating chain of events that will bring her face to face with a past she tried so desperately to forget, and a future she must fight for. This is a tender story of love, loss of innocence, and the aftermath of a terrible decision no one knew how to avoid.

My thoughts

Regular readers of the blog might know that it’s quite rare when I read and review historical fiction or books with a similar subject matter. I’ve never really been interested in this genre and on the rare occasion when I did pick up a historical novel, I never seemed to enjoy it as much as I should have. However, there was something about Under the Jewelled Sky (possibly the idea of love and loss and a past better forgotten) which really piqued my curiosity and I decided to read it. Never in a million years did I imagine falling in love with McQueen’s story as much and as quickly as I did.

Starting her story with a hint of a family drama and a dark past, the author introduces us to Sophie – a British girl who spent part of her childhood in India – and her mother who is visibly not too keen on seeing her daughter after so many years. We learn that it’s been quite a long time since the two of them saw each other and they clearly haven’t been in touch ever since. It takes a great deal of courage on Sophie’s part to make this visit, yet her mother couldn’t behave in a more rude and nasty way. When Sophie announces that she only came to tell her something, she refuses to listen. And Sophie leaves. Needless to say, it was only the first chapter but I was hooked already. What might have happened to cause such tension between the two women? What was Sophie about to say to her mother? I knew it would be related to some buried family secrets but the complexity of Sophie’s past and what they’ve all been through back in India not only took me completely by surprise but made me read the last 200 pages in literally one sitting.

And the things I enjoyed the most about this book? Firstly and most importantly, the beautiful and flawless writing. I’ve never been in India or anywhere near it but McQueen’s descriptions are so detailed, so vivid that I felt as if I was there with Sophie in the Maharaja’s palace. I could literally see the surroundings, the lotus pool and various gardens, the beauty of the palace itself, down to the tiniest details. If that wasn’t enough to convince me, the way the author handles characters and makes sure that not only are they realistic (and in most cases likeable too) but are very detailed and properly introduced as well is just fantastic. She doesn’t go into lengthy tales about her characters’ traits or their past unless it’s necessary for the story, yet I felt like I’ve known them all my life. And I don’t just mean the main characters. Everyone. I absolutely loved Sophie’s father and the way he was always there when she needed him and Sophie and Jag’s bittersweet relationship made me reach for the tissues many times throughout the story and it’s definitely something I’m not likely to forget anytime soon.

This book has taught me to dare to read outside the box and try new genres and I must say an enormous thank you to Sophie at Orion, without whom I wouldn’t have stumbled upon this gem. Under the Jewelled Sky is simply magical and it’s safe to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. The story, McQueen’s characterisation and Sophie’s intricate past and the way she finds closure is breathtakingly beautiful – I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Rating:
Many thanks to Orion for sending me an e-copy of this book for review

About the author

Born to an Indian mother and an English jazz musician father, Alison McQueen grew up in London. After a convent education, Alison worked in advertising for 20 years before retiring to write full time. Her family story is one of the inspirations behind The Secret Children. Alison lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and two daughters. For more information about the author, visit her website & blog, Facebook page, Instagram, Pinterest or get in touch via Twitter @Alison_McQueen.

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.

Helloooo and welcome back! Today’s book haul is probably the biggest one I’m ever going to show you. I didn’t do a Showcase Sunday post last weekend due to the fact that I was on my way to the London Book Fair and since I knew I’d go book shopping while I’m in London, I figured I would wait another week and do one big haul instead. Which means that this week’s post is going to be massive. Apologies!

Incoming

The Fall by Claire McGowan { won }
The Wish List by Jane Costello { for review }
Rhumba by Elaine Proctor { for review }
Lucky by Jackie Collins { won }
Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie { for review }

With the exception of The Wish List, which arrived while I was away, all of these books are from last week. The Fall and Lucky are both Twitter giveaway wins: the former is from the author herself (who even signed my book!) and the latter is from Books and the City. The other three pretty much turned up at my doorstep completely out of the blue but I know for certain that Close My Eyes is gonna be my cup of tea. I’m not entirely sure about Rhumba yet but I might give it a go once I’ve read my other review books. Thank you Claire, Books and the City, Quercus and Simon & Schuster!

From London

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen { purchased }
Awakening by S.J. Bolton { purchased }
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith { gift }
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner { gift }
Matched by Ally Condie { book swap }
Cold Killing by Luke Delaney { gift }

Since my suitcase was super heavy as it was, I managed to resist the temptation and only bought two books. Tess Gerritsen and S.J. Bolton are both crime fiction authors whose style I love and who always manage to scare me shitless within a few pages so I decided to treat myself to these two beauties. The remaining four books are from two of the bloggers I met while I was in London: Ellie and Celine. Ellie gave me her proof copy of The Statistical… as well as a brand new copy of Cold Killing and The Scorch Trials and Celine gave me her copy of Matched. Big hugs and mahoosive thanks, girls, I can’t wait to read them!

Other goodies

This tote bag must be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s from MiraINK, who had an Instagram competition a few weeks ago and I was one of the winners. I. LOVE. IT. Thank you, guys! The picture on the right is, as you can see, not book related but I know some of you like to see the nail polishes I buy from time to time so here we go! On Tuesday, Celine and I went for a bit of shopping on Oxford Street and this is by far the best thing I found in Primark. I wouldn’t have posted it normally but… I mean… look at those colours! It was only £2 (for the whole box) so I’m fairly sure it’s going to be pretty bad quality but fingers crossed it’s not that bad. And anyway, I love the colours so much I don’t even care.

And this is the end of my super long post! I hope you all had a nice weekend while I was away. As always, make sure to link up your own Showcase Sunday post in the linky below and/or leave me a comment if you have a minute. Can’t wait to see what you guys got!

Day 1

After a 30-minute delay at the airport, the most frightening landing I’ve ever experienced, a mad rush at Luton and a chaotic train journey to central London I arrive at St Pancras just after 3 p.m. I send a quick text to Celine (who I was sharing a hotel room with) to say I’m here, yet it takes me at least 10 minutes to find her at the station. Er… yes. By this time poor Celine had been waiting for me for at least two hours. Just for the record, Celine and I have never actually met before. And the first time we finally do, I make her wait ages. Embarrassing much?

Celine and I finally reunited, we make our way to our hotel. Or so we think. Three minutes after our first meeting each other, we draw the first conclusion of our trip: our sense of direction is beyond rubbish. The hotel is a relatively short, 8-10 minute walk away from the station. I checked Google Street View before I left and Celine has a map, yet we manage to get lost twice. But, despite the gusty wind, the weather is lovely and the sun is out so it’s all good. Even if we haven’t the faintest idea where we are.

After successfully finding our hotel in 30 minutes, we have a cuppa tea, manage to open the window together (we’re both short, skinny and weak, you see) and head off to Waterstones Piccadilly for a quick book shopping before closing time and to meet up with Faye and Ellie. At this point, we draw the second conclusion of our trip: all book bloggers seem to be short. I’m only 5’4″ but I seem to be the tallest among the four of us. Which doesn’t normally happen. Hurray! We quickly swap books (and chocolate) and decide to go to an Italian restaurant at Leicester Square for dinner. After dinner we meet up with Katie (who happens to be short as well!) and head off to Costa for coffee. By this time Celine and I (but especially me) must look embarrassingly zombie-like after all this getting up early and travelling malarkey, so belated apologies guys!

Day 2 & 3
The London Book Fair!

After an agonizingly long tube journey and running late as usual we finally arrive at Earls Court, get our LBF badge sorted and make our way to the exhibition. Exciting stuff!

source

First impressions: I remember Celine’s recap from last year and remember her saying she felt a bit overwhelmed but I don’t think I was fully prepared for this. Ladies and gents, Earls Court is MASSIVE. It’s an enormous venue. So much so that our catalogues came with a map (seeing that we can’t read maps it’s bad news already) and, after our first conclusion and us being awful at directions it may not surprise you that it took us absolutely ages to find our way. In addition to this, the place is full of important-looking people in suits doing important-looking business, shaking hands and signing book deals. Which makes you feel (or at least it made me feel) a) privileged that you’re here and b) well, small and insignificant.

Despite what bookish people tend to think, LBF is not like Book Expo America. At all. It’s not about buying cheap books, author signings and lots of free books. Nope. As a blogger – unless you know a bunch of bigwigs in publishing and don’t feel intimidated by all these important-looking people and actually go and talk to them – you’re bound to feel small. After all, these people are there for business. They’re already part of this industry and well, you’re not. Not really. Needless to say I did not go and talk to them so it definitely wasn’t the exhibition part of things why I think it was worth going. It was the atmosphere and the seminars. Some of them were a bit of a let down but most of them were very informative, as well as thought-provoking.

Seminars: During our two days of attending the Book Fair, we went to six seminars. Each seminar had at least two or three speakers who were discussing a given book related topic, quite often followed by an audience Q&A. I’ll try and do a few discussion posts about some of these topics in the following weeks but just to whet your appetite, the seminars we went to were:

• Reading Outside the Box: a discussion on literary vs genre fiction, genre snobbery, and whether children’s publishing still needs the concept of genre
• How to Get Into Publishing: a discussion and Q&A session – aimed at those looking to kick-start a career in publishing – on how to improve and get your CV noticed and what skills you really need
• How to Get Ahead in Publishing
• New Adults, Steamies, Crossed Genres – Reinventing Teen Fiction: a discussion on the New Adult genre, on how it differs from YA and whether it has a future or if it’s just a marketing strategy to sell more books
• Blogging: the New Community: a panel of two book bloggers and two publicists talked about how to get started as a blogger, what makes a good blogger and how to get advanced reader copies
• Does Teen Fiction Require a Rating System?

 
The verdict: Was it worth attending? Yes. Would I like to go next year? It depends. If the seminars sound good and are something I find useful, something that make me think and make me learn something new then yes, definitely. As I said, I’m not brave enough to go and talk to all these people so if I do go again, it will be because of the whole atmosphere, good company and informative seminar topics.

All in all, (despite the fact that travelling was rather exhausting and I had to get up at 3 freaking a.m to catch my flight on our last day, leave a half-awake Celine at the empty hotel room and drag my enormous suitcase across London in complete darkness) it was a great experience and I’m glad I decided to go. Not only did I enjoy listening to these discussions and feel that I learned something new as a blogger but I definitely got some well-needed career advice, as well as some encouragement to go for it and fight for my dreams, no matter how unreachable they seem.

What I have for you instead, however, is an ENORMOUS giveaway sponsored by a UK based company called Appliances Online. So what’s up for grabs, you ask? Appliances Online are giving away a £50 Amazon gift card (or the US equivalent of £50 if the lucky winner happens to live in America)!

The rules:

- Open to USA/Canada and UK residents, since the book voucher will be sent through Amazon UK or US
- There will be one winner, who will be contacted by e-mail
- The winner has 48 hours to get back to me. If s/he fails to do so, I will pick another winner
- And that’s it! Just fill in the Rafflecopter form below and you’re good to go. Good luck and talk to you soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway