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Memories from YALC, the UK’s biggest YA book convention

YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) is the UK’s first young adult book festival. You could say it’s the UK’s equivalent of BookCon and BookExpo. Every year book lovers from all over the UK gather in London at the end of July for a weekend of bookish fun. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, 2020 will be a year without YALC and as expected, it’s left a lot of us disappointed.

UKYABA’s are still going ahead this year and they have encouraged book bloggers and shortlistees to spread some YALC love through their blog posts this month. Realising that YALC isn’t taking place this year has made me reminiscent of the years past, so I thought it’d be a grand idea to create a post of my personal favourite memories.

Incoming soppy-ness! This year I was nominated for UKYABA’s most Inspirational award and I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to click on my name and press that ‘vote’ button. I’ve been on the book community for 6 years now and it’s the best thing I’ve truly ever been a part of, and for my blog and bookstagram to be acknowledged like this has meant the absolute world to me.

Now, let’s reminisce about YALC together, shall we?

Reuniting with friends

This is by far my favourite part about YALC! Being in the online book community, you will have a lot of friends that you only get to see once a year at YALC. The excitement of knowing you’ll be seeing your friends for three days straight in and out of the convention is just a feeling that I don’t get tired of.

And it’s guaranteed that you’ll probably leave YALC with even more friends, because you’re constantly meeting new people with one massive shared interest; books!

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World Book Day Celebration | The books that shaped my childhood years

It’s World Book Day!

Which means, it’s basically Christmas for all bookworms out there.

To celebrate today, myself and some of my favourite UK book bloggers are participating in a World Book Day blog hop. Each of us will be posting throughout the day about books that shaped our childhoods and why!

You can read my 2019 World Book Day post here, where I discussed my top 5 childhood reads which was such a wild trip down memory lane for me and everyone who participated.

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5 ways to add some fun to your Christmas wrapping

fun ways to wrap your christmas gifts)

It’s just over one week till Christmas which means it’s time to wrap your gifts! (If you haven’t already)

I’ve put together a short list of 5 ways you can add a little bit of fun into your gift wrapping and make the gifts stand out under your friend’s or family’s tree.

I personally do these with a lot of my friend’s gifts and it’s very fun to see their reactions!

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Winter snacks – Delicious Cake in a Mug recipes

We can’t deny that we all enjoy a delicious snack now and then whether it be some chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered strawberries or even some cake.

Today I have two cake in a mug recipes to share with you, and one of them is Vegan!

Cake in a Mug is a wonderful way to create a quick, but delicious, warm snack that is perfect for this cold Autumn/Winter weather. I will often make one of these when I’m getting ready to settle down at night on a weekend with a book or to catch up on the show I’m currently watching.

Chocolate Chip Vanilla Cake Recipe

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

Time to mix!

3 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp Vanilla essence

1/2 vegetable oil

Mix again!

Chocolate chips (add as many as you wish, but I recommend 2 1/2 tbsp)

Microwave for 1 minute

Optional: Once ready, add a dollop of Nutella, or a topping of whipped cream and some more chocolate chips.

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Make your own fictional Christmas squad | Book Tag

fictional christmas squad

You can’t deny that it’d be cool to have a group of fictional characters around to help you to prepare for the fast approaching Christmas holidays.

Now this is your chance to create your own Christmas squad out of your favourite fictional characters. You can tell us who you think would be the perfect gift giver, tree decorator, Santa impersonator, etc.

Be sure to check out the rules, and my own answers below!

Rules

Thank the person who tagged you and link back to their post!

Link to both creators’ blogs (booksnest.co.uk & fictiontea.co.uk) in your post.

ENJOY THE TAG AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Questions

The Gift Giver
The Scrooge
The Tree Decorator
The Excitable Christmas Enthusiast
The Games Master
The One Who’s Been in their Pyjamas All Day
The One Who Dressed up as Santa

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Cursebreaker’s Breakfast: An event with Brigid Kemmerer

On Tuesday 9th October, I travelled from Glasgow down to London for my first exclusive blogger event. The Cursebreaker’s breakfast with Brigid Kemmerer and Bloomsbury YA.

It’s very unlike me to do something so “spontaneous” but after reading and loving ‘A Curse so Dark and Lonely’ earlier this year and the ‘A Heart so Fierce and Broken’ proof during Summer I knew I had to go when I received the invite.

I was accompanied by Beth from BooksNest. You may know her; she really likes yellow, sunflowers and nutella.

We attended the event first thing in the morning on October 9th and were immediately greeted with the most incredible room that looked like it was taken straight from the pages of Alice and Wonderland with it’s forest-y walls, mismatched and brightly coloured furniture and beautiful bar. It’s whimsical aesthetic completely transported you to a magical land. I was calling it an elegant rendition of the Mad Hatter’s tea party!

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Book Tag | The Guilty Reader

I was tagged to do the Guilty Reader book tag (a long time ago now, sorry!) by the lovely Amy over at AmyJaneAlice! And, I’m not going to lie. I’m a bit reluctant to do this one, because it’s about to make me look like a very guilty reader.

Have you ever re-gifted a book that you’ve been given?

I have, but hear me out. I didn’t re-gift the book because I wasn’t interested in it. Unfortunately, I already had it and had read it so my copy was well loved you could say and I had no need for the second copy.

Have you ever said you’ve read a book when you haven’t?

Wow, this is a throwback. The one and only time I’ve ever done this is when I was in Primary school and I told my friends that I had read the Harry Potter books (the ones that were available at the time). I told them I had because I felt excluded when they were all talking about it. I went through a long phase between the ages of 8 – 15 where I just didn’t read so I never felt compelled to pick them up.

My best friend eventually found out I lied when we were in high school, and I’ve yet to live it down. Because, let’s be honest, it’s almost more rare to find someone who hasn’t read the Harry Potter books these days. And I promise guys, I’ll get to them!

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YALC 2019 Review

YALC 2019 has come and gone, and it passed way too quickly for my liking. But you know what they say? Time flies when you’re having fun!

I’ve attended YALC for the past four years, but this is the first time I went as an exhibitor at the Fairyloot booth. And, even though I was working the booth I still had plenty of time to attend signings, check out others booths and the rest of the YALC floor.

Last year I reviewed YALC 2018 and brought up a few issues that I’d like to see changed. You can check out that review here! I’m really happy to say though that a lot of the issues I listed seemed to have been resolved this year, but there were a few that could still be improved upon.

There’s lots to cover, so let’s get on with this shall we?

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Book Tag | Harry Potter Spells

Hello friends,

I’m bringing you a book tag that I recently watched over on my good friend G’s Youtube channel, you may know her as BookRoast. It seemed like a bit of fun and considering we’re quickly approaching the end of July when all Witches and Wizards will be preparing for their journey to Hogwarts, it seemed like the perfect time to do this tag.

There’s quite a few questions to get through, so let’s get started!

EXPECTO PATRONUM | A childhood book connected to good memories?

‘Sleepovers‘ by Jacqueline Wilson

I read this when I was very young. I vividly remember wishing that I could have big, extravagant sleepovers like the girls in this book, and the descriptions of their cakes always made me hungry. I read this book more times than I can count!

Did you hear that? That was the sound of bookworms everywhere gasping because my answer to this wasn’t ‘Harry Potter‘.

EXPELLIARMUS | A book that took you by surprise?

‘To Best The Boys‘ by Mary Weber

I read this book for the Fairyloot readalong I was hosting in April and I really didn’t know what to expect. It was a book I  didn’t know much about. Only that it was a standalone and it had some Hunger Games vibes.

I ended up really enjoying this one. It was a very fun, quick read. It’s not long at all and the characters are fantastic. They really make the story and I wouldn’t mind reading more about them if Weber were ever to write more about them. If you want a quick fantasy read that doesn’t require much dedication and attention to get through, I’d say this book is a solid choice.

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The Avengers Assemble Book Tag

With Avengers Endgame now here, it was only fitting that I tackled the Avengers Assemble book tag that the wonderful Connie tagged me in.

I was lucky enough to score midnight tickets to see Avengers Endgame on Wednesday 24th April. I attended the 11:55pm showing and my goodness friends, it was incredible. Was it worth the ten year wait? Absolutely. I’ll say no more because I know everyone is dreading seeing a spoiler (this post is spoiler free) so let’s get on with this tag.

Avengers, ASSEMBLE!

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