Life With A Sprinkle Of Glitter - Manchester Book Signing

I am a huuuge fan of Louise/A Sprinkle of Glitter and was so excited when I saw that she had a book coming out. I held off on pre-ordering in the hope that there would be a book tour and there was.
I went to the Manchester book signing on Friday 3rd July and was so nervous.
Kirsty came with me but she couldn't stay in the queue because she didn't have a ticket.

I was given a Waterstones wristband and we were in the queue outside the shop for almost 2 hours. We asked if we could have the book to read in the queue but we weren't allowed them until we got inside which was sooo annoying because it felt like I had already waited forever to read it.
When Louise arrived the staff let people into the shop in groups of 10 to get their books and posters and join the inside queue.
I was expecting Louise to be towards the back of the shop so I started reading the book and walking slowly.

Two pages in I looked up and could see her, 4 people in front of me. I didn't know what to do! I just closed my book and looked around anywhere but at Louise because I was so nervous.
The girl in front of me was talking to Louise for a while so I completely panicked and was trying to come up with something cool to say and then all of a sudden there I am, handing her my book!
She complimented my hair and my 'sparkly Disney tshirt' which made me so happy. I chose my outfit especially to meet her and had it ironed a few minutes before leaving. It felt really nice that she had something personal to say to everyone. It felt like she really cared and wanted to get to know us all.
It made me feel so good for the rest of the day.

I didn't manage to say anything back to Louise apart from 'Thank You'. And as I was walking away she said 'I hope you enjoy the book!' I was worried that I had left too soon and she wasn't done talking but I have since seen YouTube videos of other people meeting her and she has done the same with them so I feel less bad and more just like she loves us all too much to say goodbye!
Also she signed my book with a pink sharpie <3

 I could have easily read this book in a day because it was so easy to read and so hard to put down. But the pages are so well designed and the whole book is so beautiful that I spent extra long on each page and it took me 5 days to finish it.
I have taken so much from it, all positive.
I have purchased skincare products and learnt about reasons for bullying and how to spread kindness.
I have laughed out loud at first dates and bought ingredients for chocolate pizza.
This book is now on my dressing table and I'm sure I will re-read it every time I need a pick me up.

So thank you Louise, and the rest of your team who helped to make this book possible. You have made me feel happy and confident just in time for Summer.

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Also, whilst Kirsty was waiting for me she found our teen book club reviews! It feels so good to have our reviews of some of our favourite books on the shelves of a real book shop.
So, of course we took photos to remember forever.

Have you been to any book signings?
What's your favourite book?
I would love to get some book recommendations to please let me know in the comments,
thanks for reading!

Book Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I read All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven as part of a teen book club. I had seen the book before but not been interested enough to read it. The cover doesn't attract my attention and the story seemed predictably "girl meets boy and falls in love". I don't usually read teen romances. I prefer dystopian/dramatic/crime books.


I started to read with an open-mind. However the predictable "girl meets boy" happened within 3 pages. There was no real build up of the individual characters before the meeting so you never really find out what they are like by themselves. The entire book then revolves around these two characters together; how they feel about each other, how long until they will see each other, talking to each other on facebook.

This book is massively lacking in descriptive narrative. I had no idea that Finch had black hair until about 100 pages in. Occasionally I get to read that he is wearing a beanie.
I have no idea what colour Violet's hair is or the type of clothes she wears. There is no description of her bedroom (minus a pinboard), her house, her mum's car etc.
I don't know what their voices sound like, their accents, the way they carry themselves, the way they look when they see each other etc.

It's as though the author was solely fixated on Finch's mental health and nothing else mattered. As for that aspect, it seemed as though every possible aspect of bipolar was thrown onto his character without much thought. It felt like she had tried to cram every possible symptom into the 350 pages. But just in case we forgot, let's follow the author's suit, and briefly mention Violet's grief and self-blame over the car crash too.

The character of Finch seems to know no boundaries where Violet is concerned. He will turn up to her house in the middle of the night and tell her to come with him, with little care for what she wants to do. She does what he wants her to do because she is worried about his feelings. I can't recall him worrying about hers. The story tries to paint them as a perfect romance but I disagree. It seemed pretty one-sided to me.

The title of the book refers to a part where they recite a Dr. Seuss poem. For me it was such an insignificant part of the story. I understand that it is supposed to symbolise their future and show that they have hope but it was such a small part of a big book and there weren't many bright places. "The blue hole" would make a lot more sense. As I was reading I actually thought to myself that, had the book been called "The Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect" I would have been a lot more likely to pick it up. However, this book came out around the same time as Meghan Trainor's song with the lyrics "all the right curves in all the right places" which is all I think of when I see the title.

I did really enjoy the parts where they would go wandering - there seemed to be more description for these parts so it was easier to feel like you are part of the story and it was interesting enough to hold my interest and keep me reading.

Some parts of the book are written well and it flows nicely. But every now and again there just seems to be a mash of romance, mental illness, loss, abuse and general school life as if the author is trying to appeal to all possible teen audiences. I prefer books that stick to one main theme but this might be good for those that prefer a bit of everything.

The story does get more interesting towards the end where the characters have chapters that don't solely revolve around each other.

The helplines at the back of the book is a nice touch and the author's note did make me sympathise a little more with the characters.

I wouldn't read it again but it wasn't the worst.
3/5

Book Clubs

I have been a lover of books my whole life. 2 years ago my dad turned the spare room of our house into a library for me. The shelves are already completely full so there are piles of books in almost every room of the house.
I have been a user of goodreads for a few years and always look to their reviews to aid my next purchase choice. I have an endless 'to-read' list thanks to their suggestion pages and love testing my knowledge on their fan-made quizzes.
More recently I have discovered 'booktubers': people who show their latest book hauls and review their favourites on YouTube. I haven't found one I would subscribe to yet because they tend to read a lot of books that don't interest me enough but I will keep looking.

So, as a huge book lover, I have always wanted to join a book club but never really knew how to find one. Last month, Kirsty and I were in Waterstones in Manchester Arndale when we saw a sign-up form for a teen book club. I am 23 and Kirsty is 20 so we were a bit unsure as to whether we would be allowed to go but we signed up anyway. We got an email with two book suggestions, and two dates and times for everyone on the list to vote on. We chose Thursday at 4.30 and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.  I emailed back asking whether it was okay that we aren't teenagers and the woman running the group said that there is no age restriction. For members of the teen book club you can purchase the book for £5 instead of £7.99 if you mention that you are a member at the checkout. However, Manchester town centre is quite far for me and Kirsty to get to so we went to our local Waterstones and used the 'Buy one get one half price' offer so Kirsty could get another book too. We have been sharing the same book with two bookmarks in and read about half of it before the book club day.

So what happened at the book club?
I'm a really shy person, I have social anxiety and it takes me ages to be able to talk in front of strangers. So for the first half hour I didn't speak at all. It was a little unorganised with no questions about the book pre-planned. I feel like asking people how they feel about a particular event in the book would have got people talking more than just a "did you like it?" but I didn't expect it to go smoothly on the first meeting.
After a while, the other members of the book club started to talk more openly about other books they had read and suggestions for next time so I think people will be more open to starting the topic with the next book.
The organisers told us that there are some authors interested in coming in to talk to us which sounds really exciting. One of the authors interested is an illustrator which I am particularly interested in. And we were told we could get priority tickets to future book signings. I expected it to just be a place where you turn up and discuss a book every few weeks, but we got so much more from it. I'm so glad we went.
We got given teen book club membership cards which we can use to get money off the book club books. And we also got given goody bags which had free books and bookmarks in and I thought it was a really cool addition.