Last weekend I attended the Rachael John's Book Club Retreat which, this year, was held at a regional called Geelong which is just over an hour away from where I live. Geelong is a city that I love visiting but I have never stayed there before. Above is the view from my hotel room!
The city sits on a bay with beautiful beaches, a fun waterside walk and some interesting museums and art galleries. It is also gateway to the Bellarine Peninsula which has some really lovely wineries, restaurants and fantastic beaches which we enjoy visiting. In other words, we often drive through Geelong!
The advantage of having it at this location is that it was close enough to drive although I did miss the reading time on the plane that I have had when travelling to the previous locations. I do have a tendency to do a lot of my required reading on the plane there!
So what happens at one of these events? I could say what happens on retreat, stays on retreat, but I won't! There are 120 or so readers, plus around 20 authors and you get to spend the whole weekend talking about books, eating, and generally having a good time!
The event started with a cocktail party on Friday night where the theme was Madams and Miners, which ties in with one of the hosts books. I don't love a dress up, but I do make something of an effort. There are plenty of people who made a really big effort with some amazing costumes.
On the Saturday night it was a formal dinner where the theme was From Poolside to Party Ready: Dress Like You’re on Holiday with your Besties.
And during the two days? There are book club discussions, author panels, author speed dating (which is always a lot of fun, optional yoga sessions and writer sessions, a bookshop where you can shop the books of all the fab authors you have met over the weekend and more! This year, there was the new addition of a game show called A Romance Knockout where authors competed against each other on specialist subjects, tropes and writing prompts.
The book club reads this year were Anthea Hodgson's The Palace of Lost Virtue which is set in 1890s and 1920's Kalgoorlie, which is a gold mining town in Western Australia. The palace of the title is a brothel, hence the theme of Madams and Miners. I reviewed the book last week.
The other book was The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier who is a new author to me. It is a crime/psychological thriller which isn't my normal cup of tea, but it never hurts to read outside your comfort zone right. This book is set on Kangaroo Island in South Australia and features a rookie cop who gets drawn into a murder at a luxurious property. Kangaroo Island is a place that has been on my list of places to visit for a long time.
One of the highlights every year is the debate. It is always hilarious and this year was no exception. The debate topic was This house believes that reading romance gives women unrealistic expectations of men and our debaters certainly gave interesting and compelling arguments both for and against!
Pictured above are Rachael and Anthea during the book club discussion, Bree from All the Books You Can Read leading an author panel and Sarah Clutton and Ali Sinclair visiting our table during author speed dating.
Unsurprisingly I came home with more books, than I went there with, as well as bookish paraphernalia including what we received in the goodie bag, To be fair, I only bought one book which was very controlled. More surprisingly, I also came home with more clothes than I went with!
I have been to all 4 of the retreats so far, which makes me an OG. This year there was a t-shirt that we could buy to celebrate this fact. Every year since the beginning I have sat at the same table with the same group of people (pictured above on the Friday night). Some of us knew some of us, but no one knew all of us when we first started sitting together. We now have a group chat, we are all Facebook friends and we have become more than just book friends. We also had a t-shirts to celebrate this year the group this year!
This retreat is always a lot of fun and Rachel, Anthea and their team does a fantastic job. I have already booked for Hobart next year
You can read about previous years here.
2025 - Perth
2024 - Gold Coast
2023 - Hahndorf
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