Mailbox Monday for July 24 and Montreal Book Bloggers Meet-Up!

After I began marketing my book in 2009, I discovered the wonderful world of book blogging. I began book blogging myself and shortly thereafter organized a tour for my novel Daughter of Mine. That's when I really discovered some awesome Montreal book bloggers! When Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books and I decided to try to find more Montreal bloggers, we came across a group that had already formed a Facebook page. Now there are 15 of us! And this past weekend (Sat, July 23) thirteen of us met as a group for the first time.

Let me introduce this awesome group to you:

Front Row:
PK @ Aisle B in red dress, Cindy @ Cindy's Love of Books, 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, and me with my arm around Tina @ Bookshipper.

The purpose of our meet-up was to get to know one another, trade books, and brainstorm about how to get publishers and authors to know about us so we could be more involved in author events. I discovered we are a varied group of mixed ages who read all kinds of genres. If you want to know more about our blogs, you can visit our Montreal Book Bloggers website and also join our Facebook page where we chat about our events.

One of the highlights of this meeting was that a few publishers who knew we were getting together sent us boxes of goodies! Books, swags, small gifts, and more books! I want to personally thank these publishers for their generous support:

Simon and Schuster Canada

HarperCollins Canada

Random House Canada

Scholastic Canada

Scroll down to see all the great books I got from various sources:

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. A Sea of Books is hosting for the month of July. You can view the touring blog list at Mailbox Monday blog for the upcoming months.

So here are the books I got this last week:

Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick (from Sourcebooks. This one will be reviewed by Sandra)

Two very different women are linked by destiny and the struggle for the English crown. Matilda, daughter of Henry I, is determined to win back her crown from Stephen, the usurper king. Adeliza, Henry's widowed queen and Matilda's stepmother, is now married to William D'Albini, a warrior of the opposition. Both women are strong and prepared to stand firm for what they know is right. But in a world where a man's word is law, how can Adeliza obey her husband while supporting Matilda, the rightful queen? And for Matilda pride comes before a fall ...What price for a crown? What does it cost to be 'Lady of the English'?

My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes: 150 ways to doodle, scribble, color and draw, illustrated by Vincent Boudgourd (from Owlkids)

Featuring tons of made-up heroes and heroines, My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes is filled with over 150 doodle and scribble activities to give budding young artists hours of fun. Like the other titles in the My Beastly Book series, My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes aims to push kids’ latent illustrative creativity into curious new directions by presenting them with silly scenarios and open-ended instructions.

My Beastly Book of Twisted Tales: 150 ways to doodle, scribble, color and draw illustrated by Bérengère Delaporte (from Owlkids)

With more than 150 new doodle and scribble activities for budding artists, this latest addition to the My Beastly Book series will fuel kids' creativity and inspire their minds. My Beastly Book of Twisted Tales is full of twisted takes on childhood fairy tale favourites like the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Sleeping Beauty, and features scenarios starring ogres, goblins, dragons, and princesses, too. Kids will dirty Cinderella's ballgown, decide what ingredients would go into their own magic potion, give a sunbathing Snow White a sunburn, and transform a prince into a toad.

From my fellow book bloggers at the meet-up:

From Tina@Bookshipper