Event: Walker YA blogger preview evening

Last night I went along to the Walker YA preview evening hosted in The Coin Laundry, where they presented upcoming Walker titles and the stunning 10th anniversary editions of The Chaos Walking trilogy. Before the presentation started we had the chance to grab some Prosecco and catch up with friends and meet some new blogger friends. This was my first blogger event held by a publishing house so I was incredibly excited to be going!

Just after 7PM the presentation kicked off with How To Hang A Witch by Adriana Mather, Salem Witch Trials is at the centre of this story, full of romance, creepines, an ancient curse and resident ghost. Basically, everything I love! I’ve been desperate to read this for ages – I love anything and everything Witchy, luckily they had some copies available for those who wanted a copy and I was able to grab a copy before they ran out. We were shown the trailer for it, which was amazing. Definitely worth watching it on YouTube.

Next up was Scythe by Neal Shusterman – We were also shown a trailer for this, one of the coolest book trailers I’ve watched. I kept hearing about this and was intrigued by the cover so I was eager to find out more. Set in a world with no disease, war or crime. Where Scythes decide when you die and are tasked with killing (gleaning) you. The cover is gorgeous and it sounds right up my street. I can’t wait to get a copy. Scythe is Published February 1st.

Scythe was followed by Landscape With Invisible Hand by M. T. Anderson. This one I hadn’t heard of, though I was intrigued by the cover. Contemporary meets Sci-fi, an alien race comes to earth, generously offering medicine, advance technology, cures for every illness and not a hint of a planned invasion. Everything seems perfect until jobs are replaced by alien technology, there’s no money for food etc and they start realising it was too good to be true. I was sold b6 the end and was happy to find proofs available to take.

Then we had The Course of True Love (and First Dates): A Magnus Bane Story by Cassandra Clare, previously published as an ebook, then in The Bane Chronicles and now in an individual hardback gift edition. You can already buy The Midnight Heir in this format. They’re gorgeous, trust me and the Cassie Clare goodness doesn’t end there, a new series of accompanying short stories will be coming soon. Ghosts of The Shadowmarket will follow the same formats as the previous short stories. The first one (Son of the Dawn) will be published April 10th, followed by one a month after. There are eight, though an extra two will be added to the print edition later. I am a huge fan of Cassie’s work so I can’t wait to get my hands on them,

This is where I got really excited, anyone who knows me will know just how much I love Patrick’s books. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Chaos Walking trilogy, special black editions with black sprayed edges will be published February 1st, I got to see copies in person and I cannot wait to add these beauties to my collection. If you haven’t read this trilogy yet, I can’t recommend it enough. I firmly believe you can never have too many copies!

Next, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds by Kelly McCaughrain. I was sold as soon as they mentioned “circus”. I love books that feature a circus, though they have always been fantasy, so I’m particularly excited about a contemporary one that’s family oriented too.

Moving onto The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson. Best friends Riya and Abby live on different continents after Riya moved to Berlin with her family, they haven’t spoken in two weeks and struggle to be there for each other. Riya decides the perfect way to make things better is to embark on an adventure around Europe together and try to save their friendship. Until recently I wasn’t the biggest fan of contemporary, this I have to read though. I’m desperate to find out more.

Next we have more Patrick Ness, this time for the paperback edition of Release. The cover is slightly different to the hardback editions, just a beautiful nonetheless. I love this book so much, the first book I’ve read where contemporary and fantasy collide so perfectly. You can read my review here and definitely grab a copy if you haven’t already. It’s such a beautiful book.

Now we have Lou Out of Luck by Nat Luurtsema, sequel to Girl Out Of Water. I haven’t read Girl yet, by the end I was desperate to and will definitely be picking up a copy before Lou is published.

I hope you’re still with me, I know there’s a lot of books featured in this write up. There’s two more left, promise. And trust me, you’ll love them.

It’s time for On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give. A story about an aspiring rapper you gets noticed by major labels and those who live in her neighbourhood. I have THUG on my tbr, I know… I will read it ASAP, I love the sound of this and will definitely be buying it when It’s published.

And last but not least we had White Rabbit Red Wolf. Presented by the man himself, Tom Pollock. This was one of my highlights, I’ve heard so many good things about it already. After listening to Tom read from it, I’m even more excited to read it.

After the presentation there was more to drink and some food was brought out, I’m still thinking of those delicious mushroom Vol-au-vents (I think), profiterols and tiny apple tarts. We also had the chance to chat to Tom and get our proof of White Rabbit signed.

I had such a brilliant time! Thank you so much to everyone at Walker Books who put on a brilliant event and Tom, who kindly signed my proof. I’d also like to thank the staff at The Coin Laundry who were all so helpful and friendly.