Author: Cindy

** A Reliable Wife Review

Posted on by Cindy

<-Canadian <-American PUB DATE: March 2009 This is Robert Goolrick's debut fiction book. He previously wrote a memoir before this. I discovered that Sony Pictures has acquired the rights of this novel and are planning on making a movie. I would love to see this when its done. Reading the book I could actually visualize it done as a movie. The details that Robert wrote about made the novel seem so real and life like. The story begins in a rural Wisconsin town in 1907 in the winter time. Ralph Truitt placed an ad in the newspaper for A Reliable Wife. He received several replies but one caught his attention and he was corresponding with her. She was coming in on the train from Chicago. Ralph is an older man in his 50's and he is a successful business man who appears to own the town as everyone seems to work for him. Ralph is lonely and has been for the past twenty years. His first wife had an affair with an Italian that Ralph paid to work for him and from that affair she had a son that she tried to pass off as Ralph's. They also had a daughter but she died when she got sick. Having had enough of her he threw her out and she fled with her lover. Ralph was furious and he ended up driving the son away. Which made the son furious with him and he held the grudge for many years. Is this grudge enough to kill? On the train coming from Chicago is Catherine Land. She answered his ad and has agreed to come to be Ralph's wife. We soon discover that Catherine is not who she says she is from changing clothes and getting rid of them, to hiding her jewelry and when she arrives in Wisconsin and gets off the train Ralph sees that she isn't the same woman that is in the picture she sent. She admits that its her cousin. Why is she lying and what is she up too? Realizing that he can't leave her at the train station he takes her home and on the way home they have an accident. Catherine saves Ralph's live and with the help of a housekeeper they nurse him back to health. When Ralph is getting better he seems to see Catherine in a new light and talks about his troubled past with her and she listens to it all. When Ralph tells her about the private investigators he has hired to search for his son and that its possible that he is in Chicago he sends Catherine to confirm it and to bring him home cause he can't. After they are married Catherine heads to Chicago. Its there that we see the troubled life Catherine has lived from working the streets to support her and her sister to having her sister being homeless. We also find out that Catherine knows Tony, Ralph's son and that they are lovers for awhile. She knows Tony's side of what happened to him and his mother and she promised him earlier on that she would do anything for him. Does that mean murder? I really enjoyed the book. I found it to be a quick read. I have to say that I had a love/hate for Catherine. One minute she was doing something that I loved and then the next I hated her. I think that is what made the book so good. I also could relate to the winter weather that was going on in the book. Reading it I had to keep reminding myself it was happening in Wisconsin and not Canada. I am curious to see what the movie will be like. What do you think? When I was looking for a cover for the book I came across two of them one is a Canadian cover and the other is American. I love the Canadian cover.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.

Books Bought Meme #2

Posted on by Cindy


This is what books I bought this week. I only intended to buy a book for Michael but some how the others just managed to make its way to the check out.

Happy Birthday to You, You Belong in a Zoo by Diane de Groat. I always buy Michael a book for his birthday its a tradition I started when he was born.

Speak & Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers. She is a Canadian author.

Evermore by Alyson Noel. This was recommended to me by a lady I know at the bookstore. Her niece is a friend of Michael’s.

This is not pictured but I bought Haley’s Hints Green Edition for my Earth Day Contest.

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.

Hindsight: What You Need to Know Before You Drop Your Drawers!

Posted on by Cindy


PUB DATE: March 24, 2009

I have to send a big thank you to Alicia for contacting me about the book and thank you to Maryanne for signing it and for sending it too me.

I am sure at one point in our lives we have had the knack for attracting Mr. Wrong(s). (Or we are in the process of being with a Mr Wrong.) I was told that when it comes to relationships that timing is everything and if you wait it will happen. If you rush into a relationship then you will regret it and end up with a heartache and wasted time.

If we only knew what we know after the fact, I think it would help to know what we need to know before we “drop your drawers” so that it can save us from tons of heartache and wasted time.

Have you ever wondered how it can be so stressful in finding a man for you and then you see others where it seems like it just falls into their laps? I have been the one who would stress and wonder if I would ever find a man for me and then see friends that would get a guy. I always thought it was so unfair. It would turn out that those relationships never worked because they had found the Mr Wrong.

The book HINDSIGHT: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU DROP YOUR DRAWERS will guide you through the challenges of dating. It will offer you solutions on how to find the right guy for you, how to get him, and how to keep him.

Maryanne reveals the six tools you need to know to create the perfect guy. The six tools she talks about is the mirror, the magnet, the stud finder, the flashlight, the compass and the hammer. Maryanne teaches the reader about the tools and how we can turn them into lifelong skills. There are a few quizzes you can take in the chapters as well. One of the exercises I enjoyed was making a list of guys you dated and what you liked about them and then you had to write why the relationship ended and from there you could see a little pattern developing.

I have to admit I normally don’t read these kinds of books but once I started to read it I was enjoying it. There was even parts of the book where I was laughing out loud. The best was her first public speaking appearance. To be a fly on that wall and I wonder what Veronica was thinking at first.

You can check out Maryanne’s site here: http://www.MaryanneLive.com

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.

**An Offer You Can’t Refuse Review

Posted on by Cindy


I have to apologize for the late delay in posting my review for this book. I am only getting back into reviewing books since I had burned my hand a few weeks ago.

I have to admit that I have never heard of Jill Mansell until Danielle at Source Books emailed me to ask if I would be interested in reading An Offer You Can’t Refuse. She is dubbed as the next Sophie Kinsella. Hearing that made me want to read this book. I am a huge Sophie Kinsella fan. I have read all her books and love them.

Jill Mansell is really big in the UK and she is finally making her debut in the US. I think she will be a huge success here. Needless to say I am really excited to read more by her and I am hoping that Sourcebooks will be putting out more of her books here. Coming this summer is Miranda’s Big Mistake.

As you can see I loved the book. Its a great chick lit book which I love.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse is about a seventeen year old girl named Lola Malone and she is madly in love with Dougie Tennant. The problem is Dougie’s mother, Adele. She doesn’t like Lola and she wants her out of Dougie’s life. She offers Lola 10,000 pounds to break up with Dougie and stay out of his life forever. Lola is horrified that his mother would make an offer like that. She goes home upset and discovers her step father is packing up and planning on leaving cause he has a huge gambling debt and doesn’t want her or her mother to suffer but they would if he leaves so Lola calls Adele and accepts the offer but instead of 10,000 pounds its twelve and a half pounds and Dougie is not to know. So that her step father will stay.

Fast forward ten years and Lola is back in Britain. She has gone into Kingsley’s bookstore to look around. I just loved this part of the book. Loved the descriptions.

“She craved a proper bookshop like an addict craves a fix. There wasn’t much that could beat that gorgeous new-book smell, touching the covers and turning the pages of a book whose pages had, just possibly, never been turned before.” Does anyone else get like this? I just love the smell of new books.

“So many books, so little time.” I can relate with that quote. As I am sure you all can relate to that quote too?

While she is in Kingsley’s she is mistaken for a “working girl” and is asked to leave but Lola refuses to go and continues to pick up books to buy. When she gets to the counter to complain to the manager about what had happened, the manager offers her apologies. Lola asks about the job that is being offered and is hired.

I think Jill did a great job on choosing the right job for Lola to have. I was laughing at all the customers she had to deal with. This struck a cord with me because I can totally relate to the book at this point. I use to work in a bookstore and I swear I had customers just like the ones in the book. Its nice to know that it happens in other parts of the world and not just here.

One night while Lola is out with friends she decides to head home. On the way she interrupts a mugging that is happening with no idea who the woman is she just wants to help out. Both women end up in the hospital and the husband comes to invite Lola to a party. It is only at this party that she finds out who the woman is. Its no other then Adele. Adele is not happy with seeing Lola again. Then Lola suddenly meets Dougie again at this party and discovers upon seeing him that she is still madly attracted to him, she hopes that maybe, just maybe….it could possibly work this time around. But then Dougie over hears about the payoff and he wants nothing to do with her. She promised to never reveal the reason she needed the money, but how is she going to win Dougie back when he thinks she is nothing but money hungry?

When a man comes into the store playing a customer looking for book sugggestions from Lola, what will happen when Lola’s finds out that its her real dad and he has shown up after twenty something years?

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.

Earth Day 2009 and Give Away

Posted on by Cindy

Today is Earth Day. What did you do to make a difference?

Earth Day was first conceived by Sen. Gaylord Nelson in the early 1960s. Nelson worried that environmental issues were not being addressed in the political arena. In his conservation efforts, Nelson organized a nationwide grassroots demonstration in the spring of 1970, to further promote conservation involvement and awareness. Support for and interest in the activity was immense and the 1970 demonstration became the first official Earth Day. Each year, April 22 marks the celebration of Earth Day, which is now observed around the world.

Did you know that:
Each year, 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That translates to over 1 million per minute! Take action by lobbying your council for a ban on plastic bags. In five and a half years, Ireland has reduced its check-out bag usage by more than 90%.

Last year one of the radio stations here in Montreal was offering the public a recyclable shopping bag if you brought in your old plastic shopping bags and I did and got a cute black bag from them. I love this bag. The only bummer part is that this radio station is no longer called that name that is on the bag.
(This is where you got the Brita kit)

One Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as many as 300 standard 500mL water bottles.

Did you know that on average more then 47% of the contents of a garbage bag is kitchen and green waste?

This year they came back to the mall that I live near and this time they called it the Big Bottle Exchange. You bring in your plastic water bottles and got a Brita kit. What a great idea isn’t it? I heard that from 10am to 11:30 am they had given away 800 Brita kits to the general public. I will post tomorrow the final Brita/water bottle count when I know it. Just found out that the 800 Brita kits were all given out this morning.

This morning from 10am to 1pm Virgin’s radio announcer Nat was there and since I have her on my Facebook I had to go up and say “Hey Nat” I got this picture taken with her. She is just as nice in person as she is on the radio.

GIVE AWAY TIME:
What do you do to clean up the Earth? I would love to hear what you do and you might be lucky enough to win a little earth day giveaway. This is what one lucky reader of mine will win:

THE PRIZE:
-1 walmart recycle shopping bag
-Haley’s Hints Green Edition: 1,000 great tips to save time,money and the planet!
-a packet size notebook that is 100% recycle
-one eco inpirations bookmark it comes with a seed paper that you can plant
-2 recycled pencils. They are made from recycled newspapers and glue. There is no wood in the pencil.

WHAT WE DO TO HELP THE PLANET:
For us we are big time recyclers. Anything that can be recycled is recycled. Things we no longer need or use we donate to charity.

Last summer our street was lucky enough to take part in a pilot project for organic composting. So that meant we got this huge green bin and you are to put organic waste in. Such as food, weeds, basically anything that can be composted went in there. I admit at first it took some time to get use it but when we finally got into it we realized exactly how much we use to throw away. We had twice a week grabage pick up and we could easily put out 2-3 bags of garbage out on those days and now we are down to one small bag once a week.

I just got some stats from my local munciplity about Kitchen & Green Waste and during the pilot project 760 tons of green and kitchen waste was diverted from the landfill site and transformed into compost. (87 was kitchen waste & 673 was green waste).

Here are some two links you can check out. They might only be Canadian. If you have any American post them in your comments and I will post them here. By the way anyone who posts links in their comments will get a bonus of 3 entries into the contest.

http://calculator.ecoactionteams.ca/welcome.aspx

http://green.cbc.ca/ I joined this and its a great site to keep track of your total acts of green and your Green House Gas reduced. This site is geared towards all places not just Canada.

My contest will start today April 22nd and run until the end of the month April 30th.

Please note that I am only able to mail to Canada and the US. The reason is the cost of shipping items.

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.

So Not Happening (The Charmed Life) First Wild Card Tour

Posted on by Cindy

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

and the book:

So Not Happening (The Charmed Life)

Thomas Nelson (May 5, 2009)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jenny B. Jones writes adult and YA Christian Fiction with equal parts wit, sass, and untamed hilarity. When she’s not writing, she’s living it up as a high school speech teacher in Arkansas.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $12.99
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (May 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595545417
ISBN-13: 978-1595545411

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

One year ago my mom got traded in for a newer model.

And that’s when my life fell apart.

“Do you, Jillian Leigh Kirkwood . . .”

Standing by my mother’s side as she marries the man who is so not my dad, I suppress a sigh and try to wiggle my toes in these hideous shoes. The hideous shoes that match my hideous maid-of honor dress. I like to look at things on the bright side, but the only

positive thing about this frock is that I’ll never have to wear it again.

“. . . take Jacob Ralph Finley . . .”

Ralph? My new stepdad’s middle name is Ralph? Okay, do we need one more red flag here? My mom is marrying this guy, and I didn’t even know his middle name. Did she? I check her face for signs of revulsion, signs of doubt. Signs of “Hey, what am I thinking? I don’t want Jacob Ralph Finley to be my daughter’s new stepdad.”

I see none of these things twinkling in my mom’s crystal blue eyes. Only joy. Disgusting, unstoppable joy.

“Does anyone have an objection?” The pastor smiles and scans the small crowd in the Tulsa Fellowship Church. “Let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”

Oh my gosh. I totally object! I look to my right and lock eyes with Logan, the older of my two soon-to-be stepbrothers. In the six hours that I have been in Oklahoma preparing for this “blessed” event, Logan and I have not said five words to one another. Like we’ve mutually agreed to be enemies.

I stare him down.

His eyes laser into mine.

Do we dare?

He gives a slight nod, and my heart triples in beat.

“Then by the powers vested in me before God and the family and friends of—”

“No!”

The church gasps.

I throw my hands over my mouth, wishing the floor would swallow me.

I, Bella Kirkwood, just stopped my own mother’s wedding.

And I have no idea where to go from here. It’s not like I do this every day, okay? Can’t say I’ve stopped a lot of weddings in my sixteen years.

My mom swivels around, her big white dress making crunchy noises. She takes a step closer to me, still flashing her pearly veneers at the small crowd.

“What,” she hisses near my ear, “are you doing?”

I glance at Logan, whose red locks hang like a shade over his eyes. He nods again.

“Um . . . um . . . Mom, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you at all this week . . .” My voice is a tiny whisper. Sweat beads on my forehead.

“Honey, now is not exactly the best time to share our feelings and catch up.”

My eyes dart across the sanctuary, where one hundred and fifty people are perched on the edge of their seats. And it’s not because they’re anxious for the chicken platters coming their way after the ceremony.

“Mom, the dude’s middle name is Ralph.”

She leans in, and we’re nose to nose. “You just stopped my wedding and that’s what you wanted to tell me?”

Faint—that’s what I’ll do next time I need to halt a wedding.

“How well do you know Jake? You only met six months ago.”

Some of the heat leaves her expression. “I’ve known him long enough to know that I love him, Bella. I knew it immediately.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” I rush on, “I mean, I’ve only been around him a few times, and I’m not so sure. He could be a serial killer for all we know.” I can count on one hand the times I’ve been around Jake. My mom usually visited him when I was at my dad’s.

Her voice is low and hurried. “I understand this isn’t easy for you. But our lives have changed. It’s going to be an adventure, Bel.”

Adventure? You call meeting a man on the Internet and forcing me to move across the country to live with his family an adventure? An adventure is swimming with dolphins in the Caribbean. An adventure is touring the pyramids in Egypt. Or shopping at the Saks after-Thanksgiving sale with Dad’s credit card. This, I do believe, qualifies as a nightmare!

“You know I’ve prayed about this. Jake and I both have. We know this is God’s will for us. I need you to trust me, because I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”

A single tear glides down Mom’s cheek, and I feel my heart constrict. This time last year my life was so normal. So happy. Can I just hit the reverse button and go back?

Slowly I nod. “Okay, Mom.” It’s kind of hard to argue with “God says this is right.” (Though I happen to think He’s wrong.)

The preacher clears his throat and lifts a bushy black brow.

“You can continue,” I say, knowing I’ve lost the battle. “She had something in her teeth.” Yes, that’s the best I’ve got.

I. Am. An. Idiot.

“And now, by the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Finley. You may kiss your bride.”

Nope. Can’t watch.

I turn my head as the “Wedding March” starts. Logan walks to my side, and I link my arm in his. Though we’re both going to be juniors, he’s a head taller than me. It’s like we’re steptwins. He grabs his six-year-old brother, Robbie, with his other hand, and off we go

in time to the music. Robbie throws rose petals all around us, giggling with glee, oblivious to the fact that we just witnessed a ceremony marking the end of life as we know it.

“Good job stopping the wedding.” Logan smirks. “Very successful.”

I jab my elbow into his side. “At least I tried! You did nothing!”

“I just wanted to see if you had it in you. And you don’t.”

I snarl in his direction as the camera flashes, capturing this day for all eternity.

Last week I was living in Manhattan in a two-story apartment between Sarah Jessica Parker and Katie Couric. I could hop a train to Macy’s and Bloomie’s. My friends and I could eat dinner at Tao and see who could count the most celebs. I had Broadway in my backyard

and Daddy’s MasterCard in my wallet.

Then my mom got married.

And I got a new life.

I should’ve paid that six-year-old to pull the fire alarm.

I DIDN’T RECEIVE THE BOOK AS OF YET SO MY REVIEW WILL BE TO FOLLOW.

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.