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Little Women and Anne of Green Gables (Really making myself feel old here…). But once I was required to read books for class, I hated it! I actually bribed my little sister to do my book reports for me. She was two years younger and a little smarty pants so it was actually fun for her. It’s not that I had trouble reading in school, it just wasn’t something I found fun and would rather watch Full House or something.

It may not be academic reading, but I definitely learned something…

A little over five years ago my sister in law was reading a book and said that I HAD to read it. She even read me a few pages first to try and lure me in. I’m sure it’s easy to guess… Yep 50 Shades! I don’t know what it was, and maybe I’m a little embarrassed that it was this book that gave me a love for reading, but I stayed up until 3am reading this series because I had to finish it. Then I read it over a few times. It was all downhill, or uphill whichever way you look at it from there. I am pretty sure after reading that series I downloaded over 100 books and read them all that year. My house fell apart, I rarely cooked dinner. If I did cook dinner I had my kindle in hand while trying not to burn what was cooking on the stove. I joined online book clubs and book blogs, it was great and I made new friends that had a love for reading like me. My reading genre pretty much stuck in the romance department.

In 2013 I came across a newer author, Kristy Bromberg. She released the Driven Series. This series became my absolute favorite series (and author) that I always recommend to friends. A group of girlfriends all read the series and we even finished it out with a Driven Party! It consisted of cotton candy martini’s, cotton candy, plenty of snacks and all things checkered flags. Once you read the series you’ll find out the significance of all these things, especially the cotton candy 😉 Since that first series, she’s released quite a few more books. All her stories are told so well that you can just see the movie playing out in your mind. I love that in a lot of her books she references songs, after reading the stories, when you hear the songs even years later you’ll always think back to the book.

I still love reading. Many times I binge read. I’ll read 10 books or so in a row, then go on a hiatus for a few months. Since Fifty Shades, and the Driven Series, my reading genre has expanded a bit more than just romance. I enjoy personal development books, Girl Code is one of my favorites. What’s odd, and I’m not sure why, but I prefer to read my romance novels “smut” on the kindle. But my personal development and other genres I like reading the real life book. I can’t really explain it, maybe it’s just in my head and I can “hide” what I’m reading easier on the kindle. LOL

Sometimes my husband will get frustrated because my nose is in my kindle in the evenings, but I explain to him I prefer to read while he’s watching what I consider mindless TV. I’d rather read about a hero and a heroin instead of Gold Rush or the Alaskan Frontier. It’s my downtime. I can get a glass of wine and escape to somewhere that I’m not running kids five ways from Sunday.

Keep following me, from here on out I’ll be sharing all my favorite new reads I come across!