Bookish Event: Lauren Oliver in London

Okay. I’ve never been to a bookish event. I’m from Florida, okay? North Florida. If, by chance, any author ever does come to Florida, its’ always Miami or Orlando, which is anywhere from a 5-9 hour drive away. So I haven’t really had a lot of opportunities.

Well! That all changed this past week. Because I’m living in LONDON now. Until May. And Carla from The Crooked Shelf invited me to meet Lauren Oliver (yes – LAUREN OLIVER of Delirium and Before I Fall) at a party thrown by her UK publishers, Hodder & Stoughton and I totally jumped on the chance.

So! I met Carla outside of Foyles (greatest bookstore in London, for real) and then we met up with Jenny from Wondrous Reads and Kay from Dead Book Darling in the basement of Forbidden Planet. I didn’t even know there was a basement! And this basement was filled with books! Lots and lots of books.

And THEN we headed over to this restaurant/pub/place called The Big Chill which had pretty chandeliers and what not, but then they took an hour to get us our nachos (Carla pronounced them nah-chos – is this just a Manchester thing or is everywhere in England?) and then we didn’t even get them and had to eat a quick thing of fries on the go.

BUT THAT’S OKAY. Because we reached Drink Shop & Do, where the party was held. It’s a super cute fun place with cutesy clocks and decorations and the bottom floor had lots of candy. AND they served cocktails in coffee cups. I know, right? As soon as we got there we ran into Lauren Oliver which was pretty freaking awesome.

Then we mingled a bit and drank and had a super awkward interview about how much we love Lauren Oliver and Delirium. There were a couple of speeches and then we got our books signed and photos taken.

I got my own copy of Delirium and Before I Fall signed, and then I snagged a second copy of Delirium to get signed for giveaway or something! More on that later :)

I met a lot of nice UK bloggers and I don’t remember all of their names, but seriously, so many nice people. It was a great experience for my first author event and I like doubly excited for BEA now.