Hot Key Books and Piccadilly Press Blogger Brunch!

I have been to some fab blogging events recently and thanks to Zarina I could not, could not wait to go to the Hot Key Books and Piccadilly Press Blogger Brunch! Hot Key Books are without a doubt my favourite Young Adult Publisher and this was a chance to see their latest and upcoming 2015 books, mingle with some of their fantastic authors and meet the team and other fabulous bloggers.

After a comfortable one hour journey I arrived at Farringdon station and met up with Zarina,who got us to the fabulous Hot Key Books offices. When we went in I was overwhelmed by the amount of books in their office and kept think how much I wished the offices where I worked were like that!

We did a bit of mingling and had some lovely croissants and orange juice and then because James Dawson (yes James Dawson was there!) had to leave before the end of the presentation, we got to have our book signed by him.

I had only recently read Under My Skin so was so excited to have it signed and I loved what he did with it :).

Next thing we knew it was time to head to the board room for the presentation to hear about their hotly anticipated 2015 releases and hear from some of the authors. I don't think there was a single book that I didn't like in their upcoming releases! The team are also all so enthusiastic and passionate about every one of their books and it really rubs off on you. 

But first up was James who I think I love even more now as an author. James has a lot of love for bloggers and that as individuals we may only have a smallish voice but as a collective we have a huge influence and authors should not take us for granted or think that we aren't useful or don't help at all. Thank you James! A lot of us blog because we love reading and to get the support of authors really means so much.

Next up we had Lydia Syson (pictured above) talking about her book Liberty's Fire which is set in 1800's poverty stricken Paris which is in revolt. If you loved Les Mis or A Little Love by Susan Fletcher then you are going to love this. 

Now one of the first books that caught my eye when I first sat down was Birdy by Jess Valance (pictured above). And not only was the cover striking, the book itself sounded really intriguing and actually kind of relatable. It's a dark tale of friendship and obsession and I cannot wait to get stuck in.

The next wonderful author was Hayley Long and she had me in absolute stitches talking about her non-fiction book Being a Girl. Seriously no matter how old you are, you need to read this book! It talks about everything from periods and their many names, how despite everything we still live in a man's world and "why are girls such bitches?" All in totally good humour. She totally sold this book to me. Hayley also has another book coming out in September called Sophie Someone and she has made up her own language in this one and is a tale about confusion and betrayal.

  Following on we had Julie Mayhew speaking about her book The Big Lie and how she got the idea. Seriously this is the book I have been waiting for! There have been books previously that have written stories about what life would have been like if the Nazi's had won, but never in the perspective of a young, female protagonist and this is exactly what Julie covers. I have SO much excitement for this!

Finally we had Laura Dockerill telling us about her book Lorali. Lorali sounds totally mad, but extremely funny. It's a book about mermaids, but not quite as you expect! There are some serioulsy trampy sirens, fit pirates, a ship shaped like a tudor house and some bloggers telling others how to turn themselves into mermaids. Laura had us all laughing so much and Lorali sounds like it's going to be one of the best books of the summer.

So after that fantastic presentation, it was time to get some books signed by those amazing authors, do some more mingling and have some more fantastic brunch! I had a delicious lemon cake and proseeco with a raspberry in it :). We also got to pick up some fab books and a goody bag.

I literally had one of the best times that I have had in ages! Hot Key Books really pulled off an absolutely amazing day. I am still beaming about it days later. I could have stayed there until they kicked me out, but had to get myself home. Hot Key Books was already one of my favourite publishers but now they ARE my favourite.