Month: July 2011

It’s Monday What are you reading? #29

Posted on by Cindy

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers to see what they have read and what they are reading this week.

The wonderful host of this weekly meme is Shelia from Book Journey. You can check out Sheila’s blog to find out all the details on how to take part in this fun weekly meme. Although I should warn you that this can lead to an ever increasing TBR pile, wishlist or borrowed books from the library.

As I was writing up another post I quickly realized that this is literally the last week of July and roughly this time next month I will be getting Michael ready for back to school which will be alot of transitions for him because he is going into grade three so that means he will be shuffled around with new classmates and new teachers and on top of that he will be going into the senior building that houses grades 3 to 6. Its so hard to believe how fast the time goes.

This past week not much reading got done because I was in cleaning mode because my sister in law and nephew will be coming into town and staying with us for three days so yea alot of cleaning got done and alot of late nights being online trying to prepare for next week when I will be on vacation.

Yea so excited. I am once again heading to Illinois again. I am so excited because I will be going to Anderson’s Bookstore, Borders and Barnes & Noble. Plus some other exciting shopping for school supples, groceries (because you guys in the US have so many great things that we don’t have here in Canada) and I am sure a visit to a lego store and gaming store are in order as well.

So with that being said, I think I finished up what I said I was going to read (but I didn’t pick up Ripple) and honestly the only book I have been reading this past week and I am only about half way through it is:

Its written in the exact same way as Ellen Harper’s books so this is new and different but I am enjoying it.

So really for the week since I have company here I will probably finish up this one and figure out what I will be bringing on vacation to read. I am going to bring perhaps two actual books and my kobo becuase I downloaded a bunch of egalleys.

Hope your having a great week. Happy Reading.

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 Bloggers Meet Up (The Extended Edition)

Posted on by Cindy

Welcome to another edition of the Montreal Book Bloggers meet up except this one is a little different from what you are use to reading. What is the difference you ask? That is a very good question and the answer is this:

The Montreal Book Blogger group that use to be just six of us meeting up monthly turned into this huge gathering today. This has roughly been about a month in a half to two months in the making finally happened today. We all agreed to meet today at a restaurant downtown.

So let me introduce you to the local bloggers who made it to the luncheon and they are all local Montreal area bloggers.

Front Row:
PK @ Aisle B, Me, Cat @ Beyond Books and Lisa @ Starmetal Oak.

Back Row:
Avis @ She Reads and Reads, Amanda @ Tales and Treats, Melissa @ YA Book Shelf, Jennifer @ Mrs Q: Book Addict, Cindy B. @Tynga’s Reviews, Lucy @ Moonlight Gleam’s bookshelf, Donna @ Book Bound, Laura @ Library of Clean Reads and last but certainly not least Tina @ Bookshipper.

When I first started blogging I actually thought I was the only one from Montreal blogging but quickly realized that I wasn’t alone and that was when I met up with Donna, Avis and Tina. Over the past three years we have added Linda from Better with Books (she sadly was unable to make it today because of a previous commitment, we missed you Linda.) , Amanda and Laura. So if there was this many book bloggers in Montreal there must be more and I knew of Tynga’s Reviews because I have been a followers of Tynga’s for awhile and slowly the pieces fell into place and we discovered that in fact there is a whole bunch of us here.

I was excited to get to meet everyone today and to finally put a face to the blogs that I have recently been reading.

Thanks to Lucy she made everyone these awesome name tags for everyone.
Speaking of Lucy, I was excited to meet her because we have been emailing back and forth for a good part of a week now almost 3-4 times a day.

You see that cute waiter behind us? He was our waiter and he was amazing. I think we kind of surprised him when he realized we were a bunch a book bloggers/readers because he asked me how long did it take us to read a book.

Of course no meet up would be complete without books so here is what I brought home:

Thanks to Laura from Library of Clean reads I was able to get The Queen of New Beginnings by Erica James. Thanks so much Laura I am looking forward to reading this one.

Also a huge Thank you to Laura for driving us to the restaurant. Along the way we had picked up Tina and Avis. From Tina I brought home:
UnSweetined by Jodi Sweetin, A Girl’s Life Online by Katherine Tarbox and The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder. Thank you Tina another set of great books I am dying to read.

Then at the meet up I got the following books from Melissa at YA Book Shelf

Clarity by Kim Harrington (I have been told that this is really good from Lucy so I was dying to read this), Forever by Maggie Stiefvater and Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin. Thanks so much Melissa all great books I am dying to read. It was so nice to finally meet you even though we were at Cecil’s booksigning and didn’t realize it at the time.

Its so great to find and talk to other book lovers because we all have the some interest and this is books. There is never an awkward moment when you are in the presence of other bloggers. The only thing is I wish I could have spoken to more of you more and I guess we will have to save that for the next meet up. Please feel free to email me.

I also have to send out a huge huge Thank You to some awesome publishers here in Canada that were so kind and gracious to send us a whole bunch of goodies when they found out we were starting a Montreal Book Bloggers event to bring awareness to Montreal bloggers and hopefully get the word out that authors need to come to Montreal more often.

So a huge Thank you goes out to Simon & Schuster Canada, Random House Canada, Harper Collins Canada and Scholastic Canada. Thank You so very much it was truly appreciated.

This is some of the swag everyone got from bookmarks, postcards, tattoos, and there was even some Pretty Little Liars lip balm. Thank you for sending that to us.

Here are the books that I brought home.
From Simon & Schuster:
Finding Sarah by Sarah Ferguson and Untold Story by Monica Ali (Two of my favorite royals)

From Harper Collins:
Variant by Robison Wells

From Scholastic:
Dark Souls by Paula Morris (not sure if this is book in a series, does anyone know if it is?)
Want To Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

Thank you once again to Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Scholastic and Random House once again for the nice little surprises you sent to us.

If you haven’t already checked out these fantastic bloggers then you should because they are an awesome bunch.

See you all at the next meet up.

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.

It’s Monday What are you reading? Edition 28

Posted on by Cindy

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers to see what they have read and what they are reading this week.

The wonderful host of this weekly meme is Shelia from Book Journey. You can check out Sheila’s blog to find out all the details on how to take part in this fun weekly meme. Although I should warn you that this can lead to an ever increasing TBR pile, wishlist or borrowed books from the library.

I have to apologize in advance if over the next few days you see alot of posts by me but I am behind on posting as you may have noticed. I have been really busy with doing all kinds of summer activites with Michael and when I have been coming online at night I haven’t had the energy to sit and do blog posts but thankfully this week is a quiet week with only swimming lessons and then Friday is storytime. I tend to do this every summer and try to jam pack all kinds of activities daily.

Anyways this is what I have been reading:

I am almost done this and really enjoying this great middle grade book.


I had to take Michael to the library because he wanted to learn about chess so of course I didn’t have a book with me and it was too hot to sit in the computer area so I saw this sitting waiting to be put out so I grabbed it. I read about half of it while Michael was in learning about chess.

So I will probably finish those two books this week and I will probably pick up:

This is what I am reading and what I plan to read, what about you?

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.

(Meme) Top Ten Tuesday: 10 authors I am die to me

Posted on by Cindy

Occassionaly I take part in To Ten Tuesday meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and today is one of those days that I decided to take part. The Top Ten Tuesday question is this week is: Who are the top ten authors that you’d DIE to meet?

One of the things I love about Top Ten Tuesday is that its always an interesting question and sometimes I can think of a good list and other times it leaves me thinking and that is the case today, what ten authors am I dying to me? I have been lucky to date and have met some great authors so to think of ones I haven’t met is rough.

1) Terry Spear – I discovered Terry’s book about 3 years ago and I absolutely love them and she is an awesome author to work with so I would definitely want to meet her if I had the chance.

2) Lesley Livingston – I haven’t read her Wonderous Strange series yet (but I have them) and I just started to read Once Every Never and I am enjoying it. Plus she is a Canadian author.

3) Meg Cabot – I have read all of her adult books and I am just about to start reading her YA books. I am sure I will enjoy them just as much as her other books.

4) James Patterson – I have read most of his books so getting to meet him would be exciting.

5) Maggie Steifvater – need I say more?

6) Sophie Kinsella – I loved her shopoholic series

7) Melissa de la Cruz –

8) Julie Kagawa – need i say more?

9) Lena Coakley – a new to me Canadian author and I am just about to start her debut novel.

10) Kerry Sparks – I have read her books and loved them and she is another one of those authors who its a pleasure to work with.

I didn’t realize how hard this list would be because I actually put a few names down but realized I met them last year at BEA. So what would be your top ten list?

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.

(Review) Flat Out Love

Posted on by Cindy



Title: Flat Out Love
Author: Jessica Park
Format: eBook (to buy)For Kindle users and for Nook users.
Pub Date: April 2011

Source: I received an ecopy of Flat Out Love for being a part of the blog tour for this book.

About the book: (take from BN)
Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie’s off-campus housing falls through, her mother’s old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side … and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there’s that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That’s because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie’s suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that … well … doesn’t quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.
Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages.

I absolutely loved this book.

I was curious after reading Ashley from the Book Labyrinth’s review of the book and was super excited when she decided to host the blog tour for the book. I had to jump on the bandwagon to find out for myself what was so fantastic about the book and I quickly realized once I was reading it why it was so great.

The only thing is I have to figure out how to download it on to my Kobo now because I actually read this on my computer and I think this will be a book I will reread again.

I loved how real the characters felt and the story was believable and that it could happen to just about anyone.

Julie from Ohio, is going to school in Boston but gets a rude awakening when she arrives because the apartment she thinks she got off of craigslist really isn’t an apartment but a restaurant. Julie got scammed. Basically stranded and alone with not much money she has no idea what she will do so out of fear and desperation she calls home. It was nice to see Julie’s mom not freak out and panic because within minutes she calls Julie back letting her know that an old college friend of hers has stepped in to help her out letting her stay until she finds something.

The family she is staying with is the Watkins. The parents are Erin and Roger and the kids are Finn, Matt and Celeste. You can see right away that even though Erin and Roger really love their kids but they are distant and very much driven by their success. Finn is a young 23 year old who is off seeing the world, while Matt who is 21 and a junior in college is basically left to take care of Celeste who is 13.

From the outside you would think that this is a well put together family and its all picture perfect but Julie soon realizes that this isn’t the case. Matt and Celeste are quite similar both being very smart and a little socially awkward. The only difference is that Celeste Carry’s around a life size cardboard cut out of her brother Finn. Which seems a little odd for a 13 year old to do but I have to admit that I thought it was a little funny and the conversation she has with him is funny.

I loved how Jessica added the facebook status updates, chats and emails to the book because it made the story line seem that much more real and enjoyable. As I was reading the interaction between Julie and Finn, even though it was happening all online I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting butterflies in my stomache for her. I thought it was a sweet little romance and left you wondering if something could happen in real life for them.

Another thing I loved was that it just wasn’t about a romance but also what was going on within the family no matter what there was issues that were brought up at just the right times giving the book just enough balance. The emotions just flowed within the book.

I really enjoyed this and for me to want to reread a book that says alot about the book.

Thanks so much Ashley for pointing out this book to me and for hosting the blog tour. I am definitely going to be checking out Jessica’s other books and I think you should check out Flat Out Love for yourself.

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.

(Guest Post) Jessica Park

Posted on by Cindy


Today I am honored to have Jessica Park the author of Flat Out Love stop by to do a guest post for me today.

Jessica is going to talk about Writing Style Approach to YA.

Rules? What Rules?

So my approach to YA has been, um… well, essentially to ignore all the rules. Weird, right? I’m not a fan of following scripts, and convention, and doing what I’m supposed to. I don’t want to write what has already been done. I know that vampire books are selling like crazy, but I didn’t want to write those. I didn’t want to write something just because I thought it would sell or because it’s what the public demanded. Other people can do that better than I can. I wanted to write my book.

So I did. (Can you hear me singing? “I did it myyyyyy waaaaaaay!”)

And considering that Flat-Out Love sales have really started to take off (I’ve somehow sold over 200 books in a week!), and my Amazon rankings have been (for me) great. Not that my sales numbers are staggering, but I’m really pleased. I trust readers more than I trust rule makers. So perhaps my distaste for conforming is paying off.

Now, the publishing industry will tell you a different story. They will tell you that unique does not sell. They want more and more of what they know (or think they know) pulls in huge sales. Not one of the big publishing houses wanted to publish Flat-Out Love. Editors loved it and threw tons of compliments my way, but they all insisted that it wouldn’t sell. I was told repeatedly that “realistic fiction” had taken a dive in the YA market (meaning that I had no vampires, etc. in the book), and that my eighteen-year-old heroine was categorically too old for the market. I thought that both of those things were ridiculous. However, I was well aware when I outlined this book that that eighteen would be considered an “unusual” age by industry standards. But I ignored that standard. The NY publishing industry is dictating what plots and characters should be. I’m just not interested in playing that game.

My character, Julie, needed to be a freshman in college for the story to work. It’s not a high school story. She is at an age when so many changes are going on in her life and it’s really a pivotal time in terms of transitioning to adulthood, navigating romantic relationships, etc. And I refused to budge. It’s a unique story, and it worked the way it was.

I ignored a bunch of rules with Relatively Famous, too. It’s the story of a high school girl, Dani, who finds out that her father, Mark, is a B-list Hollywood action star, and she spends the summer with him in L.A. Yes, I did include a bunch of fun, over-the-top parties and some of the glitz and glamour that one would expect, but I also did a lot of things differently. It’s really about the relationship between Dani and Mark, and how the two navigate the really complicated transitional process of becoming father and daughter. Also, about one-third of the story is told from Mark’s perspective, a storytelling angle that might not be that popular among writers (er, or publishers). But I thought it was really important that readers witness what the father’s experience was, otherwise the story is a totally one-sided account from Dani’s viewpoint. Mark goes through so many changes during the course of the book, and so it adds an important layer of depth that would be otherwise be missing. YA readers are not stupid, and they can be trusted to appreciate an adult’s life.

So my approach to writing? Ignore rules; ignore what I think I’m supposed to do. And I try to tell a good story and trust that my audience will be there for me if I do that. Within that framework, I’ve learned that the more that I allow myself to be vulnerable, to put my heart and emotion into my writing, the more readers connect with the characters. It feels more risky to do that because if I do that and get hateful, scathing reviews, it’ll certainly hurt more! But the payoff is worth it. Nothing means more to me than to hear from a reader that she was up all night because she couldn’t wait to see what happened, or to hear that I made someone laugh, or cry, or feel something. So I’ll lay my heart out there again with the next book. Willingly.

Thanks so much for stopping by Jessica. I loved reading your book and I have to admit I am curious to read your short estory on Facebooking Rick Springfield. I am a huge fan of his.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Park is the author of the young adult novel RELATIVELY FAMOUS, five Gourmet Girl mysteries (written as Jessica Conant-Park) and the e-shorts FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD and WHAT THE KID SAYS (Parts 1 & 2). She grew up in the Boston area and then went to Macalester College in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota. During her freshman year, there was a blizzard on Halloween, and she decided that she was not cut out for such torture. So she moved back to the east coast where, she’d forgotten, it still snows. Oops. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, she is probably on Facebook , pining over 80s rock stars, or engaging in “Glee” activities. Or some combination of the three. Probably with a coffee in hand.

Other Ways to get in touch with Jessica:
Twitter: JessicaPark24
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22159.Jessica_Park
http://flatoutlove.blogspot.com
http://yaauthorjessicapark.blogspot.com
http://whatthekidsays.blogspot.com

If you are interested in buying the book you can use either of these links:
For Kindle users and for Nook users.

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.

(Tour & Give Away) Flat Out Love

Posted on by Cindy


Today I am very honored to be the first stop on the Flat Out Love book tour that Ashley from Book Labyrinth organized. In case you haven’t heard about Ashley or her blog before you should go check it out because she is a great Canadian blogger who I have been following for a little while now.

Before I get to my guest post I just wanted to share with you that each tour stop is offering the chance to win an eBook of ‘Flat-Out Love’! There will be 3 winners in total and you can enter on each blog! PLUS, you might want to go back to Book Labyrinth at the end of the tour to participate in an exciting giveaway.

Here is the list of all the tour stops happening this week:
Tuesday, July 5 (today!): Cindy’s Love of Books
Wednesday, July 6: See K Read
Thursday, July 7: The Zealous Reader
Friday, July 8: Blonde…Undercover Blonde
Monday, July 11: The Reading Date
Tuesday, July 12: reutreads
Wednesday, July 13: Tour wrap-up back here at Book Labyrinth winners revealed & new giveaway announced!

Check out what each blogger thought of the book as well as guest posts and interviews with Jessica Park this week and don’t forget to enter the give away.

GIVEAWAY:

Throughout the tour we’re giving away three eBooks of ‘Flat-Out Love’ from Smashwords, so you can read the book in whichever format you’d like. Enter at each tour stop to increase your chances of winning.

The rules:

Open internationally

To be entered:
Comment on this post
Fill out the form
Bonus entries: promote the blog tour (tweet, sidebar link, blog entry, etc.)
Giveaway ends midnight EST on July 12

Form link:
Please Click Here to fill out the form.

So check back today for my guest post with Jessica Park as well as my review for her book.

Good Luck Everyone and I hope you enjoy this.

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.