The Golden Darter
My Life Through Books
Middle School was a weird mix of classics and Star Wars. I was obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux to the point of the book falling apart. I also discovered that while I love Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters can go hang. As for Star Wars... I've read almost every meta-verse book that was published up until the New Order cannon. I can still go into detail and recite storylines of a few beloved books. Hence, my nerd life began.
High school was very paranormal, vampire, scifi, etc. I would literally go online and search for book series that concerned vampires and read everything on the list. We are talking Anita Blake, Charline Harris, Anne Rice, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Tanya Huff, Steven King, etc. This was before they sparkled, ya'll. Early college was philosophical and political theory for school, and mainstream fiction in my personal time. Wicked, Life of Pi, Memoirs of a Geisha. These are the 3 books that pushed me into my next phase, mostly because of how ambiguous I felt about them, and their questionable endings.
Late-mid college I was introduced to LaVyrle Spencer by way of Hummingbird courtesy of a gripe session with my Mom about how depressing the books I had been reading lately were. I've never looked back and have been hooked on the romance genre ever since. I've read and loved a ton of LaVyrle Spencer (who is a little hit and miss), Judith McNaught (of the rapetastic 80s era of romance), and Georgette Heyer (who writes in the vein of Austen). More recently I've discovered the joys of contemporary authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Lately I've been trying to read more non-fiction. I really do enjoy learning about subjects that interest me, but non-fiction can feel like work sometimes. So I fall back to romance. You just can't go wrong with knowing that there will almost always be a happy ending.
Currently reading
Down on Love
After having read several dish-rag heroines latley, George is so refreshing in Down on Love! The idea that she is a blogger who gets internet-famous for her blog on hers and others failed relationships is a unique idea that I haven't read before. That her snark and advice to "dump his ass" are her trademarks made me laugh. And she always stays true to who she is. Having mentally fought her way out of a relationship that not everyone would be able to see was abusive, she had to figure out who she was again, but through it all she stayed true to her. Oh yeah, and then there is poor Casey who was just a goner from word one. Thank goodness someone in their relationship was. I will say that I can't see George actually being happy in Marsden due to how angry (not mad, not irritated, I'm talking angry) she gets at times about the nosiness of her neighbors, but I'm sure they worked it out in the end.
This was also a book where all of the side characters shine! I love authors who can do that! There wasn't one person on the sidelines who you felt you didn't know by the end of the story.
Really, really enjoyed this book and I am looking for more by the author!
Copy courtesy of Kensington Books, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.