What was the first book you ever fell in love with?

Todays question from Dianna: What was the first book you ever fell in love with?

As an author I feel ashamed to say that I didn't actually read a lot as a child. Books didn't really hold any interest for me in my youth. I wanted to be an actress and because of that I was very much into television, films, and theatre. I read in school because I needed to, and when I was very young I enjoyed having my mother read a story to me at night, but that was as far as it went.

Cover borrowed from Patricia Briggs site

In my teenage years I did read the odd book here and there, but I can't say that I actually feel in love with a book until a work colleagues of mine handed me; Moon Called by Patricia Briggs.

Now, he leant me this book and I held on to it for an entire year, before I actually picked it up and started reading it, but once I started I couldn't stop and once it was done I asked to borrow the next, and the next until he couldn't lend me the following because it hadn't been published.

Why did I fall in love with this book?

Firstly, it's about shape shifters. Secondly, it has vampires. And thirdly, it basically has a whole collection of mythological creatures run a muck in it.

Mercy, the heroine, is a coyote. Now, in fairness that isn't a big bad werewolf like the ones living next door to her, but she can hold her own. She is tough, smart, funny, and sexy. She owns a garage. She is an interested characters with an interesting past and I have to say that throughout the series she goes through some tough shit, but she comes back from it. She pulls herself through it.

Adam, Alpha Werewolf, fell in love with him immediately. He is alpha male. He is a gentleman. He has a laugh with Mercy. She irritates him. And I just love the very subtle hint at interest in the first book. The type of interest you know is going to continue growing throughout the series and just get sexier and stronger, which it does.

The Mercy Thompson series has it all; it's dark, gritty, and funny. You have different myths, legends and creatures come in to play in a modern world. You have soft, sexy moments which are never long enough, but continue to grow with each book, between Adam and Mercy. I have to say a lot of the bad guys have freaked me out. I remember reading the second book in the series "Blood Bound" at Christmas and it was dark in the living room with only the lights on and there is a part where the baddie is scratching at the glass . . . gave me shivers.

I have always loved anything to do with the paranormal and at the point I was reading this series I had been playing around with the idea of writing a book. Before this point I had written scripts - mainly because I was in college studying Musical Theatre, and I still wanted to act. So my writing came out as scripts. A friend had suggested I attempt writing a book during our days at college, but I had pushed the idea aside until that point.

Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs inspired me. It gave me a taste of writing on a larger and more detailed scale. I fell in love with the entire series and still enjoy each book that Mrs Briggs continues to write.

So, what about you; what was the first book you ever fell in love with?