Announcement: Book Bloggers Secret Santa!

Hi everyone! So Christmas is fast approaching and I really enjoy hosting the Book Bloggers Secret Santa every year so I can't wait to do it again!

I really love the book blogging community and feel that this is the perfect way to help make friends with bloggers, increase that sense of community and also fill you with that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you give someone a gift you know they will love! 

Review: Fortune Cookie by Cathy Cassidy

Publication Date: June 4 2015
Publisher: Puffin 
Source: Gift 
Series: #6, (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3) (Book 4) (Book 5)

[ Goodreads ]         [ Book Depository ] 

Blurb: 

After the amazing twist at the end of Sweet Honey, the sixth and final book in Cathy Cassidy's Chocolate Box Girls series follows Jake, the Tanberry sisters' newly discovered half-brother...

As if the bombshell that he had three half-sisters wasn't enough, Jake's life in London is turning into a nightmare. He has nowhere to run - except for maybe his new family in Somerset... But Jake knows next to nothing about the Tanberrys. Will he be welcome there? And even if he is, can anyone really help him turn things around? 

I got this book as a Christmas present from my brother and sister. My sister and I have been fans of the series for years and we were sad that it was coming to an end. 

My Sister and I were lucky enough to meet Cathy Cassidy at a book festival recently. It was so wonderful to meet her, chat to her about the Chocolate Box Girls series and get our collection of books signed.

Cathy Cassidy is one of those authors that you read when you are young and just stay with you for your entire life, and any time you think of their novels you feel this warm, fuzzy positive feeling. 

Dept Con 1 | Event chat & Haul

Dept Con 1 was something myself and my friend Cooleen (Youtube Channel) had been looking forward to since it was announced back in August. 

Dept Con is a book convention organised and ran by the Easons and Department 51 (the YA side of Easons) staff  and head children's and YA book buyer Dave O' Callaghan. The convention took place over two days in Smock Alley Theatre. 

The convention featured 26 speakers and authors along with signings, a YA breakfast and plenty of other fun things!

The authors featured at the event included: 

Books I got signed: 

 Over the course of the Con, I mostly tweeted my reaction to all the bookish awesome-ness (@Shannonbookworm) 


Day One: 

On the first day of the event, the con kicked off at 3pm and ended at 10pm.

Panels on the first day included discussions on "The World of YA & How it is Perceived & Represented by Hollywood" which Jenny Downham, Sally Green & Patrick Ness discussed YA adaptations and Patrick Ness' upcoming A Monster Calls adaptation (Review) . 

The next panel was on the topic of "LGBT* in YA Panel" held by James Dawson, Cat Clarke, Deirdre Sullivan and David Maybury . This was one of my favourite panels of the day as I felt that all the topics raised such as representation of LGBT main characters in YA and discussion on whether "Gay YA" was a trend in YA lit (the answer was an obvious no). 


The "Future of YA & Its Audience (Adult readers vs Teens) panel was hosted by Holly Bourne, Sheena Wilkinson and Julia Bell which talked about the new stat released that 55% of YA book buyers are aged between 30 - 44, and whether an author should write with their reader in mind or focus on the story. 

The final panel of day two was a great panel which featured Holly Smale and Louise O'Neill (Review) on the topic of "Death to the patriarchy!" and feminism in YA. I loved this panel and the discussions on abusive relationships being shown as the norm in YA and the representation of women in YA. Such a great panel and a wonderful way to end the first day. 

E. Lockhart Q&A and Book Signing

Hi book lovers! 



Last Thursday I attended an amazing event held in Eason O'Connell Street, Dublin. 

The signing was a free event held in Easons Dublin and ran by Easons special YA unit Department 51  . 

Easons always put on great events as their staff are so efficient, organised and friendly. 

I had only read E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (review here) and The Disreputable History Of Frankie Landau Banks (review here) before attending the signing.  

I re-read We Were Liars a few days before the event to refresh my memory and enjoyed it just as much the second time round. 

Although the event was mainly in place to promote her newly released in the UK & Ireland edition of How To Be Bad, E did talk equally about We Were Liars and The Disreputable History. 


The area was well laid out with chairs and a speaker so everyone in the audience could see the stage and clearly hear E's stories and anecdotes that she told before launching into the Q&A. 

The book signing was  part of E Lockharts road trip to promote How To Be Bad's re-release. The road trip of events, signings and Q & A's all over the UK and Ireland actually began in Dublin. I thought it was pretty cool to be at the first event of the road trip and the hashtag was very fun to follow on twitter. 

World Book Night 2015

World Book Night is an annual event that takes place on the 23rd of April. This event promotes reading for pleasure to those who do not read, and those who do not read often. 

I love being a "giver", a volunteer who hands out books to people who fit these descriptions, and have been a giver on World Book Night for the past three years in a row! 

If you would like to find out more about World Book Night and how you can become a part of it, check out their website here.   

 

The novel I chose to hand out is My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher (see my review here) . 

I read this novel a few years ago, back in 2012 when I had just started blogging, and I remember loving the way it was written, the plot and the theme of racism and how that was addressed in the novel. 

I decided I would hand out the novels around my town and college so I made up little paper labels as you can see in the above photo to let people know that it was okay to take the books home with them! I also wrote my name and blog address inside so people who found the books could let me know.  

Louise O'Neill & Sarah Bannan Book Signing

Hi readers! 


Last Friday I had the absolute pleasure of attending a Q&A and book signing featuring Sarah Bannan , author of Weightless, and Louise O'Neill, author of the award winning Only Ever Yours. 

Check out Sarah's Twitter page here! 

Check out Louise's Twitter page here!

I was so excited for this event, it was all I could talk about for weeks coming up to it. 

I traveled for 3 hours to get to the signing and went with my lovely friend Eimear (who blogs at An Abundance Of Novels) who is as big a fan of Only Ever Yours as I am. 

I am very excited to begin reading Weightless and am going to do so very soon! It sounds amazing and I've only heard great things. 

The signing was a free event held in Easons Dublin and ran by Easons special YA unit Department 51 . 

The area was well laid out with chairs and a speaker so everyone in the audience could see the stage and clearly hear the Q & A.

 I chatted to two staff members in the Easons, David and Jacqueline, and both were so easy to talk to, friendly and funny. A big shout out to Jacqueline as she was so nice and I loved talking about books with her! 

[Image Source: Cormac Kinsella ] 

The Q & A kicked off with Eason's David O'Callaghan chatting to Louise & Sarah and asking them questions both about their novels, their inspirations and about themselves. 

I really enjoyed the Q&A and I thought David was so funny and asked all of the questions I had been wanting to ask!   

I really liked listening to how well Louise and Sarah spoke and really liked the obvious friendship between them as they complemented each others novels. Both Sarah and Louise were so funny and lovely.