Blogtober Day 2 | Hot Key Books VIP Blogger’s Brunch | Sebastien De Castell and Alexandra Christo

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing great today.

Today’s post is quite an exciting one, it’s my write up of the VIP Blogger’s Brunch I attended last Saturday.

I hope you enjoy,

The Hot Key Books VIP Blogger’s Event was held in the Bonnier Zaffre publishing house in London on Saturday 29th September and I was lucky enough to be invited along. This was the first blogging event I was able to attend so as you can imagine I was quite excited about going.

As you all probably know by now, I’m from Wales, so I had quite the trek into London. I was up at 4a.m. and left my house at 5a.m. to get the bus from Cardiff into London (Cue all the snoozes as I’m not a morning person 😂). The girl that sat next to me on the bus did give me a flapjack though, so the early morning wasn’t all bad!

I arrived in London at 9:30a.m and the lovely Nicola met me off the bus, we then travelled to the Bonnier offices together. We were 40 minutes early. EARLY, I know. I’m just as shocked as you are! 😂

When we got into the offices I was so excited by the food spread they had for us, you know I love my food… especially when it involves Krispy Kreme doughnuts, strawberries and croissants. Just look at all this great food 😍.

At the event, Nicola and I met up with our lovely friend Ana. It was great to see her again and we all had a lovely catch up. It was great chatting to Sally about all things books and publishing. I love meeting new bloggers. I also finally got to meet Lauren too, who was so nice! 😊 (Be sure to follow everyone’s links I’ve mentioned at the end of this post!)

After around half hour of settling in, eating and waiting for everyone to arrive (it was brilliant seeing the room packed with bloggers and likeminded people), Sebastien De Castell and Alexandra Christo came in and had an informal chat to us all before the event started.

What I loved the most about the Blogger’s Brunch was how relaxed it was. It was the first blogging event I’ve attended that has been run by a publishing house, so naturally I was quite nervous about it. There was no need to be, Claire and all of the Hot Key Books team were so lovely and welcoming.

Sebastien kicked off the event by reading a chapter from his new book, Soulbinder, the fourth book in his Spellslinger series. Now, I hadn’t heard of this series before the event, nor was I familiar with squirrelcats. Even though the chapter was for, the fourth book I was engrossed from the start, I need a squirrelcat in my life and I can’t wait to read the whole series. If you’re intrigued by eyeballs, then you need to read Soulbinder. Fans of the Spellslinger series will definitely know what I mean by this!

After Sebastien finished reading, Alexandra read a small section from her book, To Kill A Kingdom. Her book has been on my TBR for a good few months and I can’t wait to read it. She also read a section of the book she’s currently writing, Into The Crooked Place and oh my word does it sound good! I cannot wait for this to be published! Both authors had a great sense of humour and bounced off each other well, which was great.

We then had the opportunity to ask both authors some questions. Hot Key kindly gave us a free copy of each book and we then had the opportunity to get them signed by the authors. It was lovely to meet them in person and they were both so genuinely kind and welcoming. I love that Sebastien also brought an embosser to emboss the books, which was pretty cool!

I had to take a photo of The Tattooist of Auschwitz poster at the offices as I was leaving as it was one of my favourite reads this year.

Overall it was such a fantastic event. The whole of the Hot Key Team were so welcoming and I’m glad I got to meet some brilliant bloggers too. I look forward to attending more of their events in the future! I’m so glad that I travelled down to London for the day for the event. It was a long day and also my first time travelling to London alone, but it was totally worth it and I’m glad I overcame my nerves and did it! 😊

Be sure to give Hot Key Books a follow on Twitter (@HotKeyBooks) to keep up to date with their news and upcoming releases.

Here are the author’s links:

Sebastien De Castell’s Website – https://decastell.com
Sebastien De Castell’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/decastell

Alexandra Christo’s Website – https://alexandrachristo.com/
Alexandra Christo’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/alliechristo

Bloggers mentioned in this post, please go and give them your support:

Nicola’s Blog – https://fantasticbookdragon.wordpress.com https://fantasticbookdragon.wordpress.com
Nicola’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/PrythianBworm

Ana’s Blog – https://fangirlsince1988.wordpress.com/
Ana’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/fangirlsince_88

Lauren’s Blog – https://northernplunder.wordpress.com/
Lauren’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/northernplunder

Sally’s Blog – http://sallypoyton.blogspot.com/
Sally’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/SPoyton

If you would like to purchase the books you can do so here:

Soulbinder:

Amazon*
Book Depository
Waterstones
WHSmith

To Kill a Kingdom:

Amazon*
Book Depository
Waterstones
WHSmith

Social Media Links:

For The Love Of Books Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/FTLOBOOKS/

Personal Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ashleigh.williams.9041

For The Love Of Books Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/FTLOBOOKS

Personal Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ashleighcanflyy/

For The Love Of Books Twitter – https://twitter.com/FTLOBOOKS

Personal Twitter – https://twitter.com/ashleighcanflyy

Goodreads profile – https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/69229254-ashleigh-williams

Contact me:

Email – ashleigh-bekkah@hotmail.co.uk

*Disclaimer – Any links with an * after them are affiliate links. This does not impact you as a reader of my blog. If you choose to purchase an item using an affiliated link from my site, I may earn a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay for an item or impact your purchase in any way. All of the money earned (if any) will be put back into my blog to allow me to make the best content I possibly can. I hope this is okay.