I’m taking a break from the countdown today. It’ll be back tomorrow, and I’ll announce Friday’s winner then. I’ll be away today at the Maumelle Writer’s Conference, representing the Diamond State Romance Authors along with Shayla Kersten. I’m sure the literary types who attend will raise their eyebrows at our display of books, but hey, I never mind shaking things up a bit!

In place of my countdown, I invited one of the readers on my loop to talk about herself, her favorite authors, and what reading romance has done for her. If you like this feature, I’d love to have more readers take over my blog in the future! Be sure to let Brandy know you enjoyed it! ~DD

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There are just so many things I could write about, but when the pressure is on sometimes I have a hard time narrowing it down. So I thought about some of the ideas/suggestions Delilah actually threw out there; me, my life, what I get from reading books, my favorite books. She even mentioned that it did not have to be hers. But really if you know anything about me you know I’d have a difficult time talking about books without mentioning Delilah. I love her writing and stalk her regularly.

I’ve gone through a ton of ideas and I think have settled on one: My reading romance journey.

I’ve always read but was a mystery/thriller reader and bored with it all. I wanted a new author but had no idea where to start. I did get my husband reading Lee Child during my search though. Score for me. Now we could both read in bed at night.

I’d thought about romance and wanted to read it but again with no clue who to pick up or where to start. Talking about it with my friend Priscilla she offered to let me borrow a bunch of books. She reads romance and mostly historical.

She gave me a great combination of authors and genres to begin my journey. At least I think so. Julia Quinn (The Bridgertons), Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunters) and Lora Leigh (Men of August).

Really if you can’t find something to spark your love of romance in those then maybe it isn’t the genre for you. Just my opinion of course. Those authors made me want to read more. I searched the internet like a rabid beast starving for more food. One author led to another and another. Thankfully my book pusher, Priscilla, has an extensive collection of books and was willing to let me borrow to my hearts content. I read about a book a day, every day.

I knew the time was coming for me to branch out and find my own way through the romance community. Which I must say I have done very well in. My TBR closet is insane for a person who picked up her first romance about 2 or 3 years ago.

It was a natural progression after reading the Men of August series to head over to Ellora’s Cave.

The first book I bought on my own, with my own little research and interest was Janus’ Conquest by Dawn Ryder. It was a big step for me to take that leap and buy that book. Once I did though I was hooked. There are just too many books to search through on that site and I find something to peak my interest every time I go there. A search of cowboys actually brought me to my first Delilah Devlin book, Ride a Cowboy. (You knew I had to get her in here somewhere right.)

So that was how I started reading romance. I love my journey and think fondly on it.

Brandy W
Brandy’s blog