Where It Kinda Began...

I enjoy reading a lot of different genre's but for many, many years I have been interested in the paranormal. I can remember reading those R.L. Stine Goosebumps books when I was younger. I honestly think it was my Dad who got me hooked on them! We moved to a new city in the middle of the school year when I was in seventh grade, and of course I was shy and didn't know ANYONE so I turned to books! I remember sitting outside our class room (a portable) every recess and lunch break reading. As I got farther into discovering books I turned to Christopher Pike. But I don't think it was until I discovered the novel "Amy Girl" by Bari Wood, sitting on a shelf at a flea market, that I realized just how deeply I had fallen in love with the written word. Immersing myself in another world and escaping reality. Why did I choose this book? Simple...it has my name right on the front cover, and of course that was too much of a temptation to resist! As it turns out, it was a really great book! I have been thinking about it a lot lately and have just found and ordered a used copy so I can re-read it again! The story is about a girl named Amy Kaslov who's abusive and alcoholic Father kills her Mother in front of her. Somewhere in Amy is the power to make people do things against their will. She struggles with the knowledge of this and many other startling discoveries. The book is also about relationships; friends and family, and discovering human nature. From that book on, I was unstoppable in looking for new books to read. I soon turned to early Shannon Drake books of her vampire series. Of course while in school we are not given a lot of leeway for reading materials not on the curriculum. But I made do and squeezed in as much as possible! I remember reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver almost a year before I was to read it in one of my English classes, what a lucky break for me!

I love discovering new authors and meeting them "through" their characters, because within each of those characters is a little piece of themselves. And it's always intriguing. For the past month have been addicted to young adult paranormal books! I love my adult paranormal books as well, don't get me wrong, but have just gotten pulled in by these. I find that I enjoy the innocent romance of them, sometimes it's nice to have a little romance but not all the descriptive "down and dirty" scenes all the time (trust me I do like those scenes as well)! I think it started when I saw Twilight the movie, I hummed and hawed for six months on whether or not to read the books. And I'm glad I did. The books delve so much deeper into the characters (obviously this is true in practically every book to movie case). It took me five days to read all four books and from there it's basically been a book a day for a couple of months now. I'm going crazy with all these different series, waiting for the next book to come out. So what do I do? Go out and find new books and start a whole new series! GAH! As of right now I do not have a favorite young adult author but am enjoying: Stephenie Meyer, Kelley Armstrong, Cassandra Clare, Rachel Vincent, Maggie Stiefvater, Melissa Marr, Melissa De La Cruz, Lisa McMann and many more. My favorite adult paranormal writer is definitely Sherrilyn Kenyon and her Dark-Hunters series. Enter a world of gods and goddesses in modern day life. The books are a completely different take on the whole vampire genre. There is seriously way too much information for me to write it all here so I suggest you visit here if you are at all interested in this truly amazing author. Of course, I am a little biased, just because I love her, doesn't necessarily mean everyone else will too! But I try to be pretty open minded, because you never know what you might miss! It's so true: "Never judge a book by it's cover."