Book Event: Transworld's Rising Stars, Women's Fiction Evening

Last Wednesday, I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to Transworld Fiction's Rising Stars event at the Jewel Bar in Piccadilly. I left work a little bit earlier and got on the train to London, heading to an evening filled with bookish talk and some very yummy canapés.


Tranworld had already teased us with an earlier tweet about who would be there and I was so excited to meet some favourite authors of mine including Laura and Jimmy (The Night that Changed Everything) Julie Cohen (Falling) Cathy Bramley (The Plumberry School of Comfort Food) and an author I had not had the pleasure of meeting yet and that was Anna McPartlin (Somewhere Inside of Happy). We were able to mingle, catch up with some fellow bloggers and of course have some of the most delicious canapés and prosecco.

Soon we took our seats for the much anticipated Q&A with the authors, which was chaired by the lovely Julie herself. I could have listened to these authors all night. I found it one the most fascinating and informative Q&A's I have ever been to. It really was a mixed bag of happy and sad discussions and Anna McPartlin particualrly had me in fits and at the same time so completely captivated with everything that she was saying. All the books have a sad undertone to them but as Anna said, "Just because it's dark, doesn't mean it take away the ridiculous" there are still funny and happy moments in amongst all the sadness, just because something sad is happening, doesn't mean everything else disappears. I wanted to read Anna's book before, but after listening to her and her insights, it is now one of my anticipated reads!
We also got onto the topic of Women's Fiction and the stereotype that surrounds it. As Julie said, "Women's fiction often has life lessons in it- it's not all light-hearted" and I could not agree with her more here. Laura and Jimmy were also saying that wanted their book to be different by making it not about a love story but about a break up to which Anna exclaimed "Screw you women's fiction" which I thought was very funny and I like that Laura and Jimmy are mixing the stereotype up a bit. 

Overall this was an outstanding evening, full of fascinating bookish chat with some wonderful authors. It was an absolute privilege to be invited to what has been one of my favourite bookish events so far this year. I picked up a couple of books and also got a lovely little goody bag with what is set to be one of my most treasured mugs. Thank you so much Transworld and the team for a very enjoyable evening.