It finally happened! I finally went to YALC after watching from afar for a few years. My bestie Abbie and I got a train and bus to Olympia. I had a small suitcase to transport the books I knew I’d end up buying, a rucksack and snacks. The game was on.

If you haven’t heard of YALC, it is the Young Adult Literature Convention it’s hosted in London. Basically, it is a book nerd’s dream there are panels, there are signings of your favourite YA authors, bookish merch, discounted books, competitions, advance copies. The best thing? Everyone was SO NICE! There was so much excitement you have not just one but two blog posts to look forward to.

Let’s get cracking.

 

Tote Bags, T-Shirts and MORE!

I came home with two tote bags and a new T-Shirt, why? Because I bought books. These actually came in handy throughout the day to throw swag in, there was so much swag.

Samplers

I brought home 20 samplers of up and coming YA releases. I’m really looking forward to skipping through these and getting excited for what’s coming up. I’m particularly excited to get a peak of Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies) and Oh My Gods. We shall see!

A mix of stuff

Postcards for new releases, stickers, a ton of bookmarks, pencils. Basically, if you like this kind of stuff then YALC is a dream. I want to make a really cute display of stuff like this but where I’m going to put it I don’t know.

A Court of Thorns and Roses Bookmarks 

C’mon was I really going to walk away from these beauties? Not a chance.

 

All the badges 

I became a bit of a talking point when I walked up to stands because I started decorating my dungarees with badges. The more I got, the more stall holders gave them to me, took pictures and just generally chatted to me. I also got two beautiful shiny pins, one for buying a novel and another for posting a picture on Instagram. My favourite one has to be the #TeamBoobs one from CoppaFeel .

The Curses Sampler – SIGNED 

I got to meet Laure Eve. I fangirled, really hard because I loved her first novel, and first in the series, The Graces so much. I really hope I didn’t scare her… I was really excited.

 

So that’s the swag, but what about the books? You’ll have to pop back tomorrow because I may have had 20 books when I got home…maybe. Oops!