Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Summertime Reads

When you think back on your childhood, what are some of your favorite memories of summertime?  If you’re anything like me, some of those memories include reading stories, which you may have done on the beach, by the pool, or under the shade of your favorite tree.  Summertime brings with it a certain enchantment, an enchantment that stirs the imagination and spurs the beauty around us to life.  Indeed, stories and summertime are a powerful combination.  Not only can they cure the winter doldrums, but they can take you inside a world of fantasy you never dreamed was possible!


As a child, I enjoyed going to the library during the summer, and choosing stories to borrow, not because my teacher had assigned them but because they were the ones that I liked, the ones that I considered the be the most fun.  I enjoyed the mysteries solved by the Boxcar Children, the crazy life of Ramona and Beezus and the excited adventures had by Nancy Drew and her friends.  I graduated into my teen years with the drama at Sweet Valley High.  Then, life got in the way.  Schoolwork and SAT prep, college courses and school activities all took away from the time that I’d spent reading, even during summertime.  Like many people, I became too caught up in the daily routine of life to make time for this sort of leisure and if asked what I was reading, or what I enjoyed reading, I’d answer that I was too busy to “read for pleasure.”  Though I did enjoy the occasional magazine article, (pictures optional, of course!)

When college graduation neared and I was considering a career in writing, I realized that it had been some time since I had picked up a novel to simply read for my own enjoyment.  Though I’d done plenty of reading in college virtually none of it had centered around my favorite subject and true genre of choice—romance.  With the burden of school work now behind me, I set out to make up for the lost summers past and as I rode the train to my summer internship I cracked open my very first romance novel and fell head-over-heels in love.  Romance had always been my genre of choice but now I knew it, and that changed everything.


Once I understood my preference as a reader, the imaginative world opened up for me.  I quickly made up for lost time, reading every romance novel that I could get my hands on in every sort of sub-genre, contemporary romance, historical, romantic suspense, paranormal.  It was the lost world that had always been there but that I’d never taken the time to really notice.  I changed all that and what better time to do it than best time of year for reading, summertime.  There had always been something magical about reading during this most relaxing time of year but the experience of reading a romance novel beside a lake, under a tree, near the ocean seemed to get even better.  Perhaps that is because I’m a reader who chooses to immerse myself completely in my romantic fantasies, and I appreciate that the setting in which I read can only enhance the experience.  Whatever genre you’re reading this summer I hope that you experience total escape while you’re doing it!  Books are the ultimate escapism, and summer is the best time to read them of all!




Would you like to spend an exciting night at the theater this summer?  How about several exciting nights?  I’m thrilled to share that A Passionate Play [The Rabourn Theater Series #1] is now available in paperback!  This suspenseful story is set in summertime and is certain to make this year’s vacation even more fun!








Happy Anniversary, Dangerous Proposal!!!  To celebrate, Siren BookStrand has discounted it and ALL titles in the Pinnacles of Power Series to $2.99!  Did you miss a story? You can enjoy it now for a fantastic low price!






      

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