Category: Local book Bloggers meet Up

It feels like I haven’t done a blogger meet up post in awhile hasn’t it?

For the past month or so we have been trying to nail down a date, time and place that would work for everyone but sadly that didn’t happen this time. It seemed like dates that were offered didn’t work out for some and then finally we seemed to pick a date and that date was today, Saturday.

This time it was a really small turn out. There was only six of us and we met up at a St Huberts restaurant in the east end of the city. A few of us wanted to avoid going into down town Montreal because of the numerous construction happening on the highway and in various parts of the city as well as the fear of student protests.

Yes student protests are still happening due to the increase in the tutition fees. So please don’t get me started on this.

Anyways your are probably wondering who came right? Well there was Tina/Bookshipper , Cindy B/Tynga’s Reviews (minus her adorable little baby), Linda/Better With Books , Laura/Library of Clean Reads , Lucy/Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf and myself.

It was a fun afternoon of exchanging books, talking about BEA, talking about what happened at ALA and a bunch of other unrelated book stuff. I love being able to get away for a few hours and hang out with my booking friends.

So here is the books I came home with:

From Laura:
Reasons to be Happy by Katrina Kittle

From Tina:
-a sample of marcell innovation gene youth day care cream & Olay Regenerist wrinkle Revolution complex
-Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh (this is book 2 coming out in August)
-Dare Me by Megan Abbott (this comes out in July)
-Survive by Alex Morel (this comes out in August)
Thank you Tina for the books and the samples

From Tynga (We did a book exchange)
-Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (I was excited with Tynga offered me this because she has raved about this series)
-Illuminate by Aimee Agresti
-The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy (I read this when it came out in 2010 and I think I gave my copy away and I really wanted a copy to keep)
-Above by Leah Bobet
-Under Suspicion by Hannah Jayne

Thanks so much Tynga for doing a book exchange with me. I hope you enjoy the books I got for you.

Then finally from Lucy:
-This is not a test by Courtney Summers (this was a total surprise until I got Lucy’s email early this morning. Thanks so much hun love it)
-Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Falon
-Evercrossed by Elizabeth Chandler ( I believe this is the first book in the series)
-The Wood Queen by Karen Mahoney (this is the second book in the series)
-blood and silver by James R. Tuck

Thanks so much Lucy for the books it was a total surprise. Love them.

It was so much fun seeing everyone again and hopefully we don’t wait to long for the next meet up.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and being able to talk to others about books and stuff is so much fun.

This morning I was lucky enough to meet up with Tina from the blog Bookshipper for breakfast.

Its hard to believe that the last time I saw Tina was in March. Oh BTW Tina, you were right I do owe you that comic book. I found it after the fact so it was indeed two months since we last met up.

We really wanted to meet up this week to talk about our plans for BEA and everything BEA and NYC related along with other things that were and are happening in our lives.

Tina will be leaving before me and I will be leaving the Sunday the 3rd and heading to NYC on the train so it was a must that we meet up to talk about the event since we really wouldn’t have gotten the chance to do so.

Tina is very much like me and wanting a plan of what is going on. Before we got into BEA we enjoyed our breakfast. I went for my usual of french toast with fruit and it was so good. I really enjoy the restaurant we go to because its cheap and filling. Granted its starting to get busier now then when we first started going. Gee its seems like we are bringing business to these places LOL

So after the table was cleared up we did a quick exchange.

Tina offered me some freebies such as a  pack of Finish dishwashing detergent and a mereadesso face+ neck toning gel. I also got some books from her Just Flirt by Laura Bowers, Intentions by Deborah Heiligman and underworld by Meg Cabot (which I will be reading and reviewing for her) Thanks so much Tina.

So once we got that done we dug into our BEA planning.

As you can see I have it all organized. I have print outs of author signings, all kinds of maps, my BEA registation emails, after BEA invites and some notes that I was making of things to do and planning the week in NYC. Buried in those papers is a list of books that I am hoping to get at BEA.

Is anyone else this organized? I am hoping to make a dent in the author signings and I know the last time I went to BEA I said I wasn’t going to spend all my time in the signings but when I saw the list of great authors coming I had no choice but to print them out.

I couldn’t think of a better way to welcome 2012 then getting to plan an unexpected breakfast meet up with a friend and that would be Tina from Bookshipper. This was literally planned at the very last minute ie the night before.

I am so happy that we were able to get together on very short notice and that there was a restaurant open today, New Years Day. Tina introduced me to this great little restaurant awhile ago and its a great little place. You get alot of food for your dollar value. Plus you actually walk away quite full.

Its always nice to get together and hang out with friends especially ones who share your love of books. We talked about the holidays, books, NYC/BEA and of course other things book related and not book related. Its hard to believe that almost this time in 5 months we will be getting ready to head to the big apple again.

No meet up would be complete without an exchange of books (in my case) and magazines (in Tina’s case).  Tina graciously passed on the following books to me:
-Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig . This is a debut novel for 2012. Its scheduled to be released March 2012.
-Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin. I believe this is also another debut novel for 2012 and its scheduled to be released in March as well.
-Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay and this is another 2012 debut novel. This is coming out this month.

They all sound like fantastic books and I am excited to read them.

Tina also gave me a belated little birthday present. I love Yves Rocher products and this is my other obsession next to books that is. I was super excited to get this because they are products I have yet to try and now I am exited to try them.

Inside the package was:
-Almond Nourishing Moisturizer for Dry to very dry skin and I have used it because in the winter time I suffer from very dry skin. I think this is one of my new favorite products. I loved the smell of it and the feel of it. I noticed a difference after a few applications. Something I would definitely buy in a full size.
-Olive Oil shower gel. I have used this almost every other day in the shower and I love it. I will be going to Yves Rocher to get a full size product very soon. It lathered really well and left a nice scent on the body.
-Oriental velvety-skin scrub. I have used this on my hands and feet and I loved the results after a few times of using it. I think this would be something I would get a full size product of.

Thanks so much Tina for the books and the little Yves Rocher goodie bag.

Happy New Year everyone.

Today I got to meet up with some Montreal Book Bloggers for our 3rd meet up.

We went to the same restaurant we went to for the 2nd meet up and this time I ended up trying a California Salad with Chicken. Cat from Beyond Books and I were laughing because it seemed like my greens kept expanding and no matter how much I ate it just seemed like there was no end although I think Tina from Bookshipper was putting the greens onto my plate when I wasn’t looking. LOL

Here is one of the group photos.

I am going to go left front to back and then right front to back.

Left:
Amanda from Tales and Treats, Natalia from Dazzling Reads, Ilana @ From Smiler with Love, Avis from She Reads And Reads and Tina from Bookshipper.

Right:
Emilie from A Beautiful Madness (I wish I could have talked more to Emilie, next time), Cindy B. from Tynga’s Reviews, Lucy from Moonlight Gleam , me and Cat from Beyond Books.

As you can see some were missing and we missed you all and perhaps we will see you at the next meet up.

It was so nice hanging out with everyone and talk. We spoke about NY/BEA and who was going, food, (mainly about glutten etc and I am on a low carb diet due to my high cholesteral), magazines (Clean Eating that Cat had mentioned months ago, I love this magazine) the hockey game that was going on with the Canadiens (we won against the NJ Devils 2-0) and the weather. (It was snowing at one point).

The food was great and I am looking forward to going back again and perhaps trying something different the next time. Of course no meal can be complete without coffee/tea (in my case) and a yummy dessert. Although I think it was only Lucy and I who decided to go with a dessert. We were good and decided to share one and this is what we picked:

It was a chocolate brownie with ice cream. It was so good. Although I think  Tina took a really good picture of Lucy and I with it and is holding it for blackmailing purposes with me LOL How can something like that be bad for you?

Just before everyone left we of course exchanged books because no meet up could be complete without it right?

This is what came home with me:

-First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci (This is actually the copy I bought for the signing that some of the Montreal Book Bloggers were invited to a few weeks ago with Scholastic and Lucy was gracious enough to get it signed for me. Thank You Lucy) and if that wasn’t gracious enough of Lucy to do for me, she also gave me two stickers that Cecil signed so that I can put them in two more books I have of Cecil’s. Thank you Lucy.
-Poison Study by Maria V. Synder was given to me by Avis. I have been wanting to read this series and I am so happy that I got the first book. Thank You Avis
-31 Dates in 31 Days by Tamara Duricka Johnson was from Laura from Library of Clean Reads. Laura came at the end and it was so nice to see her again. Thanks Laura for the book and the ride home.
-Soulless by Gail Carriger was from Ilana. I have been seeing this series around and hearing good things that I actually want to try it out. Thank You Ilana
-To Walk The Night by E.S. Moore was a R.A.K (random act of kindess) from Cindy B. Thanks so much Cindy. I am actually dying to read this after reading the first chapter. Sounds so good. I know I can’t go wrong with Cindy’s recommendations. She hasn’t steered me wrong yet. 🙂

Then Cat took out a few books that we ended  up having to have an auction with because quite a few of the bloggers wanted them.  Thankfully no one really wanted these ones so I was able to nab them.

Everytime I go to Chapters I always been pick up the Demon’s  Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan but always put it back. So now I finally have it along with The Demon’s Lexicon and The Demon’s Surrender. This has been another series that I have been wanting to read for awhile now. Thank You Cat.

After leaving the restaurant I was walking with Tina to get the metro (subway) and then the bus home when we walked through Place Bonaventure. If you aren’t familiar with Montreal we have a huge under ground system with all kinds of store that link together. Its fantastic because you can get off the metro (subway) and walk undergound without walking the streets and getting cold. Anways when we walked into Place Bonaventure we saw these beautiful decorations.

The lights on the true were so pretty I loved it and the lights hanging looked like water fountains with water coming down it was so pretty. (This is actually the train station)

This wreath was above a store and it was so pretty too. I love it and it actually came out really nice in the photo. While I was in the store we got a call from Lucy saying Laura was there so I left Tina and met up with Laura who was gracious enough to offer me a ride home. Thanks again Laura.

So that was my day. It was so much fun and I am looking forward to the next one which will probably be in the new year.

Happy Holiday ladies.

Those that showed up were: (front row)  Lucy from Moon Light Gleam, me, Amanda from Tales and Treats , and  Ilana from From Smiler, with love.

If you haven’t checked out their blogs you really should they are a great group of ladies.

I have to say that first off Donna and I agreed to meet up and go together and what an adventure we had. We arrived at the commuter train station and proceeded to wait for what seemed like forever only to discover that our train was MIA. It never showed up but thankfully we quickly decided to use public transit (the bus) and we didn’t have to wait very long for it to come.

Although I think of all the buses we could have taken we took the bus that did a scenic route that goes around and to the airport here. Wow I knew the airport was huge but I never realized it was that big. Once the scenic route was over we managed to finally get to the bus stop that would take us into down town Montreal.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, thankfully!!! We finally made it to our restaurant.

After the trip we had it was so nice to see the restaurant. We were lucky and had a great spot upstairs. We pretty much had the section to ourselves apart from a group of Chinese tourists behind us. I think we overwhelmed them.

So it was great to sit down and say hi to everyone and to meet the two new comers. We exchanged some books amongst everyone and I came home with a few great titles which you will find out about very soon. So not only did we talk about books (what we are currently reading etc), we talked about ereaders (there was plenty on hand such as Kobo, Kindle, Sony and an iPad) of course lately I have been having trouble with my Kobo with it being very slow to turn on and to turn pages.

Lunch was fantastic and I loved seeing the great selection of food everyone ordered. I went with what i thought would be a small meal (Chicken Cesar Salad) but it was huge and then after that Laura and I shared this yummy cheesecake called a MooMoo Cheesecake but it tasted more like a mousse and it was so good.

I just has to share with you another picture from the restaurant and it was the lighting. Isn’t that pretty? And yes that would be bottles of wine.

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.

On Sunday I got to meet up with the my usual local book bloggers, Tina, Avis, Donna and Linda sadly Amanda was unable to attend because she was out of town.

It was great to see everyone as a group again because its been awhile since we have gotten together as a group. So it was nice to catch up and talk about Canada Post going back to work, Tina’s trip to the US, Donna’s trip to NYC and BEA, books, school, work etc. You name it we probably talked about it.

Sadly I have to admit that I didn’t really enjoy our little tea shop as much as I use to. We have been going there from the beginning (almost 3 years now) and it seems like the service is getting much slower, although when Donna and I walked in were were pounced upon right away and it seemed like she was in a rush to get our orders, the price has gone up and the portions seem smaller. There was even one point where the girl came to the table to tell us we have to be quieter which I thought was a little surprising but yea okay. Plus she forgot to give me my second drink that I ordered.

Anyways. I did come home with a few books and I was going to wait to post them in my mailbox post on Saturday (July 2nd) but I think I will do this now (even though I am writing this on Monday I am posting it on Sunday) because the government has forced a back to work ruling and all Canada Post employees are told to go back to work today (Monday) so mail will be delivered on Tuesday. Plus I had two couriers deliver today (4 books) so I am thinking that this could be a busy book week.

Here is the books that made there way home with me:

From Linda

From Avis

-Marilou Polaire et le petit pois by Raymonde Plante
-Le Zloukch by Dominique Demers, Ill by Fanny

From Tina

The cover version that I have is not the same as the one shown here.

So those are all the great book goodies that came home with me. I am super excited to read them all very soon. Michael has already read one of the books from Avis and is starting the second one. (The french ones were for Michael).

It was great to see everyone again.

Now my next blogger meet up post will be much different because several new to me bloggers have organized a lunch time event in July. It will be roughly 15+ bloggers in total meeting up and many will be for the first time which I am excited about because some of these blogs I have been following for a while now so it will be nice to meet face to face finally and of course there will a few pics that I will be trying to post or snagging from other bloggers.