CHERUB: New Guard - An Emotional Goodbye!

Well, what a week! I was supposed to be posting my reviews of Lone Wolf, New Guard and launching my worldwide competition to win a signed copy of New Guard (which will all still happen over the next two weeks, so keep coming back to read more...). Instead, I've attended the official wrap party and gone to the last EVER cherub book signing.

So, Thursday was the official wrap party in London. It was held in what initially looked like a very dark and dingy little bar, but actually turned out to be a great venue and worked quite well, apart from nobody being able to hear each other all night!

It was lovely to catch up with the legend that is Robert Muchamore, and there were beautiful speeches from Rachel (his publisher) and Rob himself. I got a lovely mention in Rachel's speech (as did my tattoos!), and Rob's speech made me very tearful after all the years of effort and love he has put into these incredible books.

It was also fantastic to bump into Sophie McKenzie again, for the first time since 2014! I thanked her for all her writing advice she had previously given me, including trying a local writing course, and it was lovely to share the news with her that from October this year, I'll be starting my degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, following my great results from the writing course. Sophie, your writing wisdom has already gotten me through a two year course, fingers crossed it can last another six!

The books were disappearing like hot cakes on Thursday night and it was lovely to see so many fans, old and new, in attendance. I also managed to keep hold of the board I am holding in the above picture and Rob even signed it for me. As I left the staff gave me a second board, so the lucky winner of my signed book competition (or maybe a runner-up) may find they get that as a little bonus!

Saturday was brilliant! The CHERUB fans (again, old and new) turned out in full force. It was fantastic to see such a long signing queue but poor Rob's hand was pretty tired by the end... We managed to miss the (small!) cake by being last in the queue, but I still managed to walk away with my usual stash of posters, stickers, bookmarks, postcards and other CHERUB goodies. I was also photographed again, just for my attire... From about 3-4 signings into meeting Rob, I started making my own CHERUB t-shirts using fabric paint and this year was no different - except I really pushed the boat out! This year I did the front of the t-shirt as usual, but went to town with the detail of the books on the back. I think what really caught everyone's eye were my amazing shoes, which had taken two weeks to paint!

We wrapped up the day at super-fan Stevie's house in London with games and book chat. It was lovely to catch up with some of the lovely forum-ers who I hadn't seen for ages! After a tiring drive, we got home at 12:30am this morning... Now looking forward to Rock War: Battle Zone (book 3) to do it all again!

Laura xx

p.s. Views are nearly at 1500, so the competition will be launched as soon as we do! Keep reading and get all your friends to come and check out the reviews too :)