Month: June 2010

The Turning Book 1: What Curiosity Kills

Posted on by Cindy

TITLE: The Turning Book 1: What Curiosity Kills
AUTHOR: Helen Ellis
PUB DATE: May 2010
PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Fire
PAGES: 224

ABOUT THE BOOK
Mary Richards is a normal sixteen-year-old girl living in Manhattan. Well, almost normal. She goes to private school on the Upper East Side, having been saved from a life of squalor by an adoptive family. But she’s also slowly transforming into a cat.

Struggling to hide her physical metamorphosis, Mary discovers that she isn’t alone. A whole race of cat people prowls the streets of Manhattan at night, including Mary’s long-time crush, Nick.

Aside from heightened feline senses, hanging out with Nick is the best thing about discovering her inner kitty. But Mary’s transformation is special and could decide the outcome of a citywide turf war. She must decide whether to embrace her powerful feline side and become a pack leader or go back to being a normal teenage girl. Can she land on her feet or will curiosity be her downfall?

summary from Goodreads.com

MY THOUGHTS

I was really lucky to get to meet the lovely Helen Ellis in person when she stopped by the Sourcebooks booth at BEA. The Turning Book 1 What Curiosity Kills has been on my radar for a little while now and after meeting Helen I ended up tracking down her book in NYC and I ended up buying it.

This is Paul from Sourcebooks, myself and Helen.

It was a pleasure to talk to Helen at BEA. She spoke briefly about her book, which happens to be her first YA book and the first in a series of upcoming books. After listening to her speak I decided I would pick up the book. It was later that night when I checked my emails in the hotel and discovered a truly beautiful email from her. She is super sweet. If I could have found a bookstore open at 2:30 AM I would have rushed out to buy the book then and there. Hence it would have to wait.

On the Monday following my trip from NYC, I decided that once Michael was on the bus I would come home and curl up on the couch and start to read THE TURNING. All I have to say in my opinion is “Curiosity killed this cat!”. I absolutely loved the book and I am not just saying that because Helen will read this.

The Turning managed to suck me almost right away. So much so that I barely put the book down and was determined to read this all before Michael got off the bus at 3:50pm. I did manage to read this in one sitting and to finish it in plenty of time before Michael got off the bus.

Mary and Octavia are adopted sisters living with a loving family in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Mary is almost like your typical 16 year old although she is a little different while your normal typical 16 year old girls worry about how they look, boys and clothes, Mary is trying to figure out what is happening to her.

When she lets a cat into her bathroom, the cat brushes up against her causing Mary to start growing clumps of fur. She is freaked out and not sure what is happening.

When her crush, Nick suddenly starts talking to her, he begins to fill in the pieces of the puzzle and helps her to shape shift into a cat. Octavia witnesses this and is freaked out. Slowly she confides into Mary about why she is freaked out about cats. I know I was curious to find out why she was freaked out about cats.

Octavia is determined to help Mary out but will they be able to before its too late?

I am so excited and curious to read the next book although I can’t seem to find out when it will be happening. I am dying to know what will happen to Mary.

You can check outHelen Ellis’s Websiteto see what fun and exciting things she is up too.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Local Happenings In My Neck of Woods

Posted on by Cindy

ABOUT THE BOOK
Montrealers Carmen and Caitlin are finally ready for another vacation in Florida, but Miami may be even more dangerous than it was during their last trip. Caitlin’s fiance, Mike, is already there for work. While waiting for the duo at a posh new development, he makes a connection with one of the complex’s permanent residents – a Hispanic beauty whose family is well known to police. After Mike survives a harrowing experience of his own, he becomes convinced that the husband of his new female friend has a double operating within the high-security building. Is Mike imagining things? Or is a major crime happening right under their noses?

Who Sheila Kindellan-Sheehan
What Signing of the fifth novel in the Caitlin Donovan series, The Dead
Ringer.
When Saturday June 12, 2010, from 12 noon to 3:30 pm
Where Chapters Pointe Claire, 6321 Trans Canada Highway/Complexe
Pointe-Claire (across the street from Fairview Shopping Centre)

One of my favorite things to do is wonder around local bookstores looking at books with no particular title or author in mind and talking to the staff. Upon a recent visit and talking to a staffer I was recommended this book & author.

I was handed the book and proceeded to read that back and I was curious by the storyline so I picked it up. I have to say I haven’t read the book yet and probably won’t get to read in time of the book signing but I wanted to spot light this local author and her booksigning in case any local readers of this blog would be interested in it.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Bloggiesta Summer Edition 2010 Starting Post

Posted on by Cindy

So its a little before 8am. I officially won’t be starting till 8:30am that is when I get back from taking Michael to his bus stop.

Don’t forget at anytime I think you can still sign up to take part all you have to do is go visit Maw Books to join. Its alot of fun.

So the first thing I plan on doing is tackling my labels/tags and bringing some kind of order to them and then perhaps condensing a few together. That will probably take awhile and then I plan on tackling my email and calendar.

Good luck everyone.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Alison Dare Adventures In town

Posted on by Cindy

Recently we had the pleasure having Alison Dare to our house. We thought that this would be a pretty uneventful visit but we were quickly mistaken. Apparently Alison seems to attract adventure where ever she goes.

On this one particular morning I had left to take Michael to the bus stop. Alison was in the shower. While in the shower she heard the door bell, thinking I had forgotten my key she quickly rushed to the door to discover that it wasn’t be but someone running away.


When She looked around she noticed this red envelope in the mailbox. Alison quickly jumped up to retrieve it.

What could this envelope be? It was addressed to Alison.

We quickly opened the envelope to reveal a treasure map. She was to look for the flat blue diamond that was hidden in my area. She had to retrieve it before the “Odd Lookers” did.


Can Alison do it in time? The Odd Lookers are pretty close.

I have to thank Michael for coming up with this storyline. I figured he was old enough and creative enough to pull this off. What do you think?
Alison is packed and off to her next adventure.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

The Double Blog Dare Tour

Posted on by Cindy

Welcome and hello! I am truly honored to be part of the The Double Blog Dare Tour with Tundra Books. This is might be your first stop if your a reader of mine or not so hop on over to check out these other blogs who are part of the tour today:

Rachelle from Living Between Wednesdays
Open Book Toronto
Helen from Helen’s Book Blog

When I got these books in the mail I did a little research and discovered that Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventure and Alison Dare, The Heart of the Maiden by J Torres and J Bone were actually published in 2002 and Tundra Books was re-releasing these two.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Alison Dare: Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in fabulous, graphic adventures.Alison Dare is not your typical twelve-year-old. She’s the daughter of an archaeologist/adventurer and the masked hero known as the Blue Scarab. To top it off, she’s also the niece of an international super-spy; it’s no surprise that a craving for danger is in her blood! Unfortunately, her parents have locked her away at the prestigious St. Joan’s Academy for Girls, hoping that this would lead to a more “normal” life for their daughter.

But despite all the strict rules at the school, Alison and her best pals – Wendy and Dot – somehow manage to find themselves involved in adventures that rival those of Alison’s globetrotting, planet-saving relatives. Whether it’s magic genies, super-powered bank robbers, or a dastardly baron bent on world domination, Alison Dare delivers the best thrills since Indiana Jones and more action than Lara Croft!

ABOUT THE BOOK
Alison Dare: Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in fabulous, graphic adventures.Alison Dare is not your typical twelve-year-old. She’s the daughter of an archaeologist/adventurer and the masked hero known as the Blue Scarab. To top it off, she’s also the niece of an international super-spy; it’s no surprise that a craving for danger is in her blood! Unfortunately, her parents have locked her away at the prestigious St. Joan’s Academy for Girls, hoping that this would lead to a more “normal” life for their daughter.

But despite all the strict rules at the school, Alison and her best pals – Wendy and Dot – somehow manage to find themselves involved in adventures that rival those of Alison’s globetrotting, planet-saving relatives. Whether it’s magic genies, super-powered bank robbers, or a dastardly baron bent on world domination, Alison Dare delivers the best thrills since Indiana Jones and more action than Lara Croft!

PLEASE NOTE: Images and about the book were taken from the Tundra Books Website.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
J. TORRES is a Shuster Award-winning, Eisner Award-nominated writer whose credits include adaptations of Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E and CTV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation, the comic book series Teen Titans Go and Wonder Girl for DC Comics, as well as the graphic novels Lola: A Ghost Story and the YALSA-listed Days Like This for Oni Press. He has also written for children’s magazines, books, and television.

J. BONE is an Eisner Award-nominated illustrator of several critically acclaimed comic books and graphic novels, including Spiderman: Tangled Web, Batman / The Spirit, and Paul Dini’s Mutant, Texas.

I have to send out a huge thank you to Sylvia from Tundra Books for contacting me about this tour and sending me the books to review.

MY THOUGHTS
Being graphic novels they were both a quick read as both books were under 100 pages and we were able to read them both in a day.

After reading them Michael turned and said “mommy she is like Indiana Jones but instead of being a man she is a girl.”

I think seeing that Alison is 12 years old, Michael could relate to her (he is 7). There is some mystery and tons of adventures in both books. Although as much as he liked Alison he did say that it would be cool to have a dad who is a masked hero.

It was really nice to read these graphic novels because for once the boy isn’t the super hero and it gives the girl who read this the chance to know that they two can be super heroes and that girls are just as smart as boys.

Thanks again Sylvia for allowing us to be a part of the tour and for reviewing these great graphic novels. They will be enjoyed over and over again I am sure.

I always thought that Tundra Books was awesome but now I know they are truly awesome. Since they are re-releasing both Alison Dare graphic novels they are running this super sweet contest and you can check out more about it on their site Tundra Books Contest to see what it entails.

Check back later today when I will post something special with Alison Dare.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

On This Day Last Week (Thursday)

Posted on by Cindy

On Thursday I decided to go back to BEA because there was a few author signings I wanted to go to and to do more walking around since the day before I tended to focus on the author signings and nothing else.

Here are three of the author signings I was excited to get to do:
Clinton Kelly. I love watching What Not To Wear so it was super nice to meet him. He is a super sweet guy.

Melissa Anderson. When I heard she was going to be there I had to make sure to get in line to get a book signed. I recently found out that she is living in Montreal now.

Mick Foley. I use to work with a guy who was a super wrestling fan and he would always talk about it when we worked together. So I had to go and meet the guy I heard so much about. It was funny because Avis and I were standing in line for another author and Mick and his publicist were leaving and I pointed him out to Avis and his publicist ran over with a book because she saw me point him out.

Thursday was also the Book Blogger Convention Reception. I decided a few weeks before BEA that I wanted to go and it was there that I got to meet several book bloggers. Check back later this week when I highlight the book bloggers that I met.

I have to say apart from meeting those authors today the highlight of the day was finally getting to sit down and have dinner with Kathy. I have been holding on to the pictures of Kathy until now. We met at the Zen Palate. After dinner we (Avis. Linda, Kathy and myself) decided to go to Time Square for a hot chocolate at Starbucks.

Before we got anywhere I had to get some pictures.
As I went to get a picture with kathy we had to snap this because she said she knew I was short but I guess she wanted to prove how short I am LOL
This is Kathy and I with Time’s Square behind us.

While in Time’s Square we bumped into Pam. For some reason I have no idea why I didn’t think to get a picture with Pam, sorry about that Pam but I did get this one of Pam with the grumpy cop as we so nicknamed him.


I guess us book bloggers looked pretty scary to him.
Then my final picture of the evening was with the US Marine Corp. I have no idea who these guys are but they were super sweet to pose for a picture and it was nice to talk to them briefly and to express my heartful appreciation for what they are doing.
Shortly after that I think we walked around and visited the Toys R Us and then made our way back to our hotels.
Check back tomorrow to see my post about my last day in NYC.
copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

On This Day Last Week (Wednesday) PT 2

Posted on by Cindy

This is the second part of On This Day Last Week. After spending the whole day at BEA I had plans with Donna and Linda to go and see Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins is taking place at the New Amsterdam Theatre which is located at 214 West 42 Street which just happens to be in the heart of Times Square.

This is a clip I found on Youtube. It was absolutely a beautiful show. No words can describe my opinion of it.


The inside of this theatre is absolutely beautiful as you can see in the picture. I didn’t take any pictures because the few I took didn’t turn out so this is one I found online.

After Mary Poppins we decided to take a walk around Time’s Square. There is so much to see and do in Time’s Square. Bright lights comes to mind. There was alot of people in the area.

Donna suggested a stop into the M&M store and for a chocolate lover I was in heaven. So many kinds of M&Ms to look at.
This is how the M&Ms were placed. This is one of many sections of M&Ms.

These were on display there.

This is the front of the store. It took me forever to grab this shot as the screen kept changing. I was really good in the store and didn’t come out with a ton of chocolate. I thought it was a little expensive at $12.99/lb US. I couldn’t leave the store without buying some special M&Ms.

I think this is called NYC Finest and NYC Bravest. I could be mistaken and I thought after the fact that I should have taken a picture of the tubes but oh well. If anyone happens to know for sure what these are called I would really appreciate it.

We also made a quick trip across the street to the Hersey store. Soon as you walked in you could smell the chocolate. It was so good. But I was good and only bought a chocolate bar.

I have to say that I think the M&M store was my favorite. After walking Donna to her hotel we walked back to ours and settled in for the night with some M&M candies.

Check back tomorrow for my last day at BEA.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.