Today we bring to you an event recap of the HarperCollins BTCYA Nights held in Brisbane and Sydney! Jenna and Jeann attended separate events and while they were mostly similar, we of course met different people there and had different special guests.

BTCYA Night in Sydney – Jenna

On Friday night, I attended the Sydney BTCYA event hosted by HarperCollins Australia. It was a night full of fun, trivia and talk about upcoming HarperCollins YA releases. I had an amazing time and it was wonderful being able to see a lot of other Sydney bloggers there too. Here are just a few of us who managed to get into the group photo!

Sydney BTCYA selfie! (photo credits: @HarperCollinsYA on Twitter)

YA Trivia and Guess the Dress

We kicked the night off with some YA trivia and there were some amazing prizes up for grabs. It was a stick-your-hand-up-as-fast-as-you-can system, and because there were so many attendees, there was lots of fierce competition! If you were chosen and answered the question correctly, you got to choose from a table of goodies that included beautiful finished copies and ARCs of upcoming releases.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to answer a question about the winner of the Gold Inky Award, Gabrielle Tozer (whose books I have reviewed on the blog here), and I chose to take home a signed copy of Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray, the sequel to A Thousand Pieces of You. I almost reached for This is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang instead, but I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the Firebird trilogy recently that I just had to go for Ten Thousand Skies Above You.

We also had a Guess the Dress competition where we were shown book covers of models wearing dresses, and we had to guess the title of the book. Sadly my hand never went up fast enough to answer any of them but I was extremely pleased to have won something considering there were so many of us in attendance.

Special Guest – Jamie Curry

The Sydney guest was kept a surprise until the event, so we had no idea who we’d be meeting! I did guess who the guest was going to be a day or two before the event, but it was nice to have my suspicions confirmed

The guest for Sydney BTCYA was Youtuber, Jamie Curry! She has a memoir published by HarperCollins called They Let Me Write A Book. Sadly, I’m not really familiar with Jamie and I don’t watch her videos, so I didn’t end up picking up a copy of her book.

During the Q&A, she talked about how she doesn’t know how to use the internet at all, and needed her mum to show her how to order a pizza online. She briefly mentioned Troye Sivan and I fangirled a little because I LOVE Troye! She talked about how she’s not really a book reader and can’t remember the last book she read, besides They Let Me Write A Book, of course. That was a little bit awkward since she was in a room with 100+ book lovers. But she did redeem herself by saying that she loves book to movie adaptations because they saved her from having to read the books during school!

Book Haul

I received a bag full of goodies from HarperCollins! Jeann received the same things in her bag so check out her picture below! There was a finished copy of Demon Road by Derek Landy, an ARC of Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman, a large poster of Ten Thousand Skies Above You and a smaller poster of Demon Road.

I, of course, also took home my signed copy of Ten Thousand Skies Above You that I won during the trivia game. I also did some book trades with a couple of bloggers and brought home Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan, and Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally (two contemporaries that I’ve heard a lot of about over the years but still haven’t read). At the end of the night, there were books available for purchase, so I picked up a copy of A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray and The Peony Lantern by Frances Watts.

With YA publicist, Amanda, who is sadly leaving HarperCollins T_T

BTCYA Night in Brisbane – Jeann

Brisbane’s BTCYA Night was held about 2 weeks ago, and I had a great time seeing some familiar faces and meeting new YA readers and bookstagrammers! It was more intimate than the Sydney event, but Amanda, Tim and Terry the Dinosaur were awesome hosts for the night, fangirling about The Selection and YA in general.

Brisbane BTCYA Crowd (photo credits to HarperCollins) 

Here’s the books we could buy on the night!

Special Guest – Gabrielle Tozer 

We were lucky enough to have Aussie YA author Gabrielle Tozer join us and talk about her books, The Intern and Faking It which Jenna reviewed here.

Gabrielle was so lovely and bubbly, and told us some hilarious embarrassing stories which made it’s way into her book and about working as an journalist as well. She was really inspirational and her advice for budding authors is to ‘remember why you started writing, and to write for yourself’ because it’s so easy to be jaded by other people’s processes and advice when there is no right or wrong way to write.

Book Haul 

Here’s the goodie bag I got along with the Insurgent DVD I won at Trivia! I’m not the biggest fan of Demon Road (as you can see in my review here) but it’s always cool getting cool swag. Definitely a generous goodie bag, I love the beautiful poster! Definitely one of my favourite covers!

Upcoming 2016 Releases to Add to Your TBR 

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman – This is an Aussie YA title pitched at fans of Libba Bray and Cassandra Clare, with demons infiltrating the society set in historical London.

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie – A fantasy where the main character has the special ability of sensing auras and protecting an emperor from assassins – definitely sounds like it’s up my alley!

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir – I loved Ember in the Ashes (Review) for it’s brutality in a Greco-Roman society, so I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel, especially after that cliffhanger!

Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima – I love the sound of the dark magic, seven realms and fantasy setting in this one! It’s based in the same world as the Seven Realms series which I haven’t read yet.

The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye – This one is about the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill who will become the Tsar’s respected adviser. It kind of reminds me of Throne of Glass in a way, but I love how this one is set in Russia!

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman – The first book in a new Aussie YA trilogy, set in Regency London. It was described to me as Buffy meets Pride and Prejudice, which is all I need in my life to be honest.

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken – Is there anybody who’s not highly anticipating Passenger? I was hoping that an ARC of Passenger would be available as a trivia prize but sadly it wasn’t. Some people did get a copy in their goodie bag though (so much envy). This book is about time travel and pirates that are apparently hotter than Johnny Depp.

This is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang – I have been told that this book will have me ugly-crying in the fetal position for hours and hours, and give me the ultimate book hangover, which is exactly the kind of book I need in my life.

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry – This book is said to be perfect for fans of Kate Forsyth. From the synopsis, this book sounds like a wonderful story about female friendship and I’m looking forward to reading about medieval France!

Unrivaled by Alyson Noel – This book is coming out on the same day in 200 countries next May. It’s the first book in a new thrilling suspense trilogy, which is not something that I usually go for, but I’ve been told that the strawberry on the book cover is dipped in real gold… and is the sexiest strawberry on earth. I need to meet this strawberry!

Which of these reads did you add to your TBR?

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