A New Feature on #RomanceBeckons! BOOKS Authors READ

Another NEW FEATURE on ROMANCE BECKONS! I'll be asking some of my author friends to share about books they enjoy reading. At least twice each month, you can get some great ideas for books you might also enjoy. I hope you'll keep coming back to talk to each of the authors I've invited. They're a great group.

BOOKS authors READ
TODAY, to start us out, I'll be sharing the Books I Read in the same format that my guests will be in the months to come...

What was your favorite book as a child?
I have always loved reading so there are so many that jump out at me from different stages of my life but the first romance that always stayed with me... some might even say I named my first-born after my first book boyfriend... was Forever by Judy Blume. I was completely enamored by this love story about Katherine and Michael. Though young, they have this intense relationship and become sexually active. Their parents force them into a summer apart but it does nothing to deter them. It was so ideally romantic. What sets this book aside from Blume's other books of that time (this was originally published in 1975) is that "Forever" was written for an older age group than her other novels. It caused a controversy when it was first published because of its explicit sexual content which only made me want to read it more. I actually snuck and read it with a flashlight in my bed at night! It was a book ahead of its time and it remains, after nearly forty years in print, a teenage best-seller.

What book did you read that inspired you to be an author?
Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger was the first book I remember really speaking to me. Even though it was published in the 1950s, it expressed how I felt growing up in the 1970s. It was an assigned book in a high school literature class and came to me during a time in my life where all that teenage angst was near boiling. And it was while reading this book that I first dreamed of the idea of becoming an author.

Here's how the book opens:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages a piece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

The book has shown up on banned book lists everywhere because of it's "cynical adolescent" Holden who narrates the story of his sixteen-year-old life using the edgy slang of a teenager. It encapsulated so much of what I was feeling and could never express. Until I discovered writing. Then I was set free.

What was the last book you read, just for fun?
The Consequences series by Aleatha Romig. The initial series has three books that tell the tale of the most unusual love affair. I'm not even certain how to categorize the book - perhaps Romantic Thriller, maybe. It's hot right now and has been branded as "a genre of its own” with “masterful storytelling that will keep you biting your nails and furiously flipping the pages to finally get to the emotional, jaw-dropping conclusion.” When I first started reading it, I was skeptical but then found myself immersed in the story. I bought it on audible so I could keep "reading" even while cooking and cleaning. I absolutely had to know the truths behind all of the facades. What a series!

What upcoming release are you most looking forward to?
I am counting the days until Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon is released. It's not until June!!! It's book eight in the Outlander series and, until now, I've been able to read them one after the other since I didn't read them when first published. I discovered them in the Spring of 2013 and spent the entirety of last summer reading the first seven. They're massive volumes that contain an epic love story. The story of Jamie and Claire spans centuries and is absolutely enchanting. The series is both rich in history and warm with love. The only thing keeping me calm while I wait is knowing that very soon the Outlander series is coming to TV and from all I've read, the author has been involved and it's being done true to the books. I'm so excited! I'm already planning the "girls' nights in" for my book club to watch the show together.

Book Giveaway

Part of each post in this series will be a GIVEAWAY for one of the author's books. The winner of my giveaway can select any of my back list books. Just enter here to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway