Last weekend I was privileged to attend the third Rachael Johns Book Club Retreat which was held in Perth in Western Australia with around 80 other readers and 16 authors. I have been to all three and they are always a lot of fun, and a great chance to connect with other readers and with authors! Here are the links to my 2023 and 2024 recap post. For context, Perth is about at a 3 and a half to 4 hour flight from where I live in Melbourne, which it turns out it the perfect length of time to read a book that you have left to the last minute to read!
I was born in Perth, and I still have a lot of family left there so I was able to combine the retreat with spending a little bit of time with a few of them, particularly my aunts! We went to lunch at a nearby pub on the Friday before one of them dropped me off at the hotel in Scarborough, and the other one picked me up on Sunday afternoon before we all had dinner together before I got on the red-eye flight which basically leaves Perth at midnight and arrives in Melbourne at 5.15 the next morning (still about 3 and a half hours allowing for time zone changes)
One of the highlights is always catching up with the people who you don't get to see very often. We now have a pretty established group of people, most of whom come from Sydney, but there are a couple from Melbourne and Adelaide. One of the people who goes is Bree from All the Books I Can Read. There are a few other bloggers and bookstagrammers who attended too. Here are some of us at the photo booth during the Friday night cocktail party in our bad bridesmaid and/or devil horns! The theme is related to the last book released by Rachael Johns, which is called The Bad Bridesmaid
Scarborough is a beachside suburb and the venue was literally across the road from the beach. Think long sandy beaches, decent waves, and the weather was a perfect 25 or 26 celcius every day. I did manage to go and stick my feet in the Indian ocean. And the sunsets? Absolutely spectacular.
I mentioned the theme for the Friday night cocktail party. There is another reason to dress up which is the formal dinner on Saturday night. The theme for that was All that Glitters. As you might imagine the sequins got a big workout! There was bling everywhere! It was fantastic!
It's not all about socialising though. During the weekend their are two book club discussions. The first was for Stella Quinn's latest book A Snowy River Summer, which was the book that I read on the plane, and the Sunday session was for Natasha Lester's The Madamoiselle Alliance (which I reviewed here). Both sessions included an In Conversation with the featured author and an opportunity for us as readers to have a face to face conversation about the books.
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In addition there were also several author panels. These covered topics like The Dark Side of Fiction, Bold Women, Big Stories and finally From Meet Cutes to Magic. The last two were moderated by Bree who did a great job! We also got to meet all the authors in a couple of speed dating sessions. And what is the effect of all of these reader/author interactions? An ever expanding TBR list of course! And there are also lots of opportunities to get books signed. The dodgy curtains did provide a distraction during the debates because the sun was beating down on the glass and the maintenance guy had to come in to try and move them. I wasn't sure that they weren't going to fall down at one point.
I did come home with 3 books, one from the goodie bag that we received on arrival, which is also packed with things like bookmarks and other merch, and one as a prize. There are always so many great prizes to choose from through the weekend. I did also buy some book earrings, a tea strainer and mug and one book! Here's some of the merch. Yes, there is more!
One of the highlights every year is the closing debate. This year the theme was that historical fiction is harder to write than contemporary fiction (paraphrasing but it was basically that). This is always so much fun and has everyone laughing. I have to say that Stella Quinn did amazingly well given that she got called in at the last minute. And the winner? The historical fiction writers for the win!
There are so many others things I could talk about and photos I could share but I hope that this summary gives you a good feel for the event!
Next year's event is a bit closer to home in Geelong, which is about an hour an a bit from my place. I have already booked my ticket and the hotel and I am already looking forward to it! We were also given a clue as to what the Friday night cocktail party theme might be. That gives me just over a year to stress about what to wear!
Have you ever attended a book event like this?
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