4th Estate Live Book Blogger Event – 5th November

Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to the 4th Estate Live Book Blogger Event in London.

It was my first event, I was incredibly nervous but super excited, and it turned out to be a fantastic evening.

I just want to take a second to say what a privilege it was to attend, I really appreciate it. I started blogging about books for fun, and never imagined I’d be invited to an event like this.

At the event, which was held in a very fancy building, I got to meet other book bloggers (which I’d never done before) they were so incredibly kind and showed me the ropes. But, we also got to pick up some very exciting proofs. My little book heart was filled with joy. There was a table of free books! Free books! Heaven. I’ll give a list of the books and there synopsis in a bit.

Now, the main event, we got to listen to four authors speak (another first for me) and they were all incredible. We even got to meet them after. First up was Marina Kemp, author of ‘Nightingale’ which sounds incredible. Up next was Raven Smith, who’s book ‘Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits’ will be out in April. Then Kate Elizabeth Russell author of ‘My Dark Vanessa’ took to the stage. And lastly Bella Mackie spoke about ‘Jog On Journal’ the essential companion to her Number 2 Sunday Times bestselling ‘Jog On.’

Ok now onto the books I was lucky to receive:

First up was ‘My Dark Vanessa’ by Kate Elizabeth Russell. (I’ve read this already and it’s fantastic). Out March 31st 2020.

Synopsis: Vanessa Wye was fifteen years old when she first had sex with her English teacher. She is now thirty-two and the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student of his. Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that. But now, in 2017, in the midst of allegations against powerful men, she is being asked to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening- as rape.

Next up was ‘Nightingale’ by Marina Kemp. This one is out February 6th 2020. Marina spoke so wonderfully, so I’m excited to read this one.

Synopsis: Marguerite Demers it twenty-four when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint-Sulpice, to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier, once one of the powerful men in the village, and now dying alone in his large and secluded house, surrounded by rambling gardens. Manipulative and tyrannical, Jerome has scared away all her previous nurses. It’s not long before the villagers have formed opinions of Marguerite. Brigitte Brochan, pillar of the community and local busybody, finds her arrogant and mysterious and is desperate to find a reason to have her fired. Glamorous outsider Suki Lacourse sees Marguerite as an ally in a sea of small-minded provincialism. Local farmer Henri Brochon, husband of Brigette, feels concern for her and wants to protect her from villagers’ intrusive gossip and speculation-but Henri has a secret of his own that would intrigue and disturb his neighbours just as much as the truth about Marguerite, it only they knew…

Then I got ‘Jog On Journal’ by Bella Mackie. This is out now.

Synopsis: Bella Mackie isn’t your average coach – she’s much sweatier, and she’s never going to give you a nutrition plan or sign you up for a marathon. But by sharing her personal story and realistic approach she’s already inspired thousands of men and women to help manage their mental health through exercise. In this journal, Bella takes you on a journey from the sofa to the open road.

I picked up ‘Valentine’ by Elizabeth Wetmore. This one will be out 11th June 2020.

Synopsis: It’s February 1976 and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, it’s women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager has been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field – an act of brutality that is tired in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. Corinne Shephard spent years pushing against the limits of her town as they closed in on the girls in her classroom. Now, world-weary and unmoored by the loss of her husband, she has had enough of trying to save people. But her young neighbour, Debra-Ann – wild, motherless and lonely – has other ideas. When Justice for Gloria is evasive and one of the town’s women decides to take matters into her own hands, the stage is set for a showdown with the potentially devastating consequences.

I also got ‘We Must Be Brave’ by Frances Liardet. This one is out now.

Synopsis: Ellen Parr has always been sure she never wanted children. But when she finds a young girl asleep and unclaimed at the back of a bus fleeing the Southampton Blitz, everything she once believed is overturned. As she takes Pamela into her home, the little girl cracks open the past Ellen thought she has escaped and the future she thought she wanted, for in uncertain times it seems the only certainty is love. But with the end of the fighting comes the realisation that Pamela was never here to keep…

Next up I snagged ‘Conjure Women’ by Afia Atakora. It’s out 16th April 2020.

Synopsis: Freedomtime, 1867. Rue is a midwife and healer, living with other former slaves on the only land she knows, an old plantation where the burned ruins of a once-grand mansion are a silent sentinel to a bygone world. Rue protects the secrets she’s carried since before the war, the memories of her strange friendship with the master’s daughter, Varina, and the loss of her mother, May Belle, who taught her she knows about the gathering of herbs for healing and the crafting of curses. Rue’s quiet life is disrupted by the birth of a pale child with black eyes, a charismatic travelling preacher and a devastating sickness that haunts her community. Slaverytime, 1854. Slaves and even masters visit May Belle to benefit from her healing powers – as well as from her uncanny ability to cast misfortune on those who deserve it. But May Belle’a talents put her and the man she loves in harm’s way. On the eve of war, tragedy strikes, and a reckoning comes for May Belle, Rue, and the people on the plantation.

I also got ‘Falling Upwards’ by Richard Holmes. It’s out now. It was recently inspiration for the film ‘The Aeronauts’ so if you liked the film. Check out the book.

Synopsis: Falling Upwards asks why these men and women risked their lives, and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet. The stories range from early ballooning rivals to the long – distance voyages of American entrepreneurs; from the legendary balloon escape during the Prussian siege of Paris to the dauntless James Glaisher, who in the 1860s flew seven miles above the earth – without oxygen.

Don’t these all sound fantastic? I can’t wait to read them all, and get all the reviews out.

Thanks to Liv and 4th Estate for the invite and these books.

Until the next review

JTH