Favorite Firsts Guest Post by Book Blogger Tori-Book Faery

Today we have the lovely Tori from the Book Faery Blog stopping by to talk about her favorite firsts in books.

Favorite firsts.  So where exactly should I begin?  Typically, when I think about "firsts," what comes to mind is a first kiss, a first date, your first time driving the car (and not crashing said car as you try to avoid running over a squirrel carcass)--basically, the "monumental" occurrences in life.  However, we're not talking about life changing experiences here.... or are we?

Since Heather and I are both book bloggers, it would only make sense to talk about books during this post.  When she first approached me about this topic--this is my FIRST guest post ever, by the way--I thought long and hard.  Would discussing the first book series which transformed me from a gamer-girl into a book-junkie be interesting?  I thought so, since it is a profound change in my eyes.  (anti-reading to rabid-reading seems like it'd be a profound change, at least...)

Typically I've been hearing about bloggers gushing over the Twilight series, and how the books were what convinced them to give reading another shot.  That wasn't what happened for me.  Twilight didn't appeal to me, and while I was obsessed with vampires at the time--Interview with the Vampire, the movie, anyone?  Brad Pitt and Antonio were sexy, sexy vamps--I wasn't an official 100% paranormal addict yet.  That would come later.

I read a little bit between my high school classes, soccer practices, and Final Fantasy (for PlayStation) binges.  But the type of reading was... well, fanfiction.  Which is ironic, because my beloved series was actually discovered through a fanfiction.  The person basically was doing a spin-off of the plot from some random book, and the idea of a long awaited queen, pleasure slaves, and a love story smack-dab in the middle intrigued me.

Hauling ass to B&N, I discovered the trilogy I so desperately yearned for.  Sitting beautifully on the shelf, in the science fiction section was The Black Jewels Trilogy written by the wonderful author Anne Bishop.

Daughter of the Blood was my first real excursion into the world of fiction, and boy was that a journey.  Before then, I had never read anything truly involving romance (read: sex) before.  Yeah, there were books that alluded to it, but there was nothing that truly explored the idea.  Of course I was curious to see what would happen.  If you have read this series, then I'm sure you remember the heartbreaking scenes in the first book and what happens to little Jaenelle.  I'm actually scared of re-reading it, because it made me so sad.

Despite the heartbreaking scenes in the first book, I finished it in a day.  When the heck do I read books in a day?  Aside from Harry Potter, which was a one time deal when I was a little goober, reading books that quickly was blasphemous.  Well, now it happens more often than I would have expected...  But back then?  NEVER.

I dug into Heir to the Shadows next, growing even more invested in this world.  The points of view of Daemon, Lucivar, and Saetan were intriguing.  When the heck did I ever care what a dude thought in a book?  I used to enjoy--whenever I read fanfictions, because I never set foot near a real book before then, ew!--experiencing the world through the heroine.  I used to want to imagine the dreamy pixels on my tv screen from the girl's perspective.  Now, I suddenly savored the emotions all three of these alphas experienced.  They ripped my heart to shreds, taped it back together, and then ripped it apart once more.  Once again, finished in a day.

Finally, I tore into Queen of the Darkness the "end" (except not really because there's like 5 more books out now based in this world [which is totally awesome]) of this trilogy, and I was so mad as I closed the book, because the ending wasn't as happy as I wanted it to be.  What the hell happened to Daemon and Jaenelle's happily ever after?  I WANTED A HEA!  As you can see from my little outburst/outrage, this was one of the true starts to my honorary HEA addiction.  I don't tend to enjoy stories unless there is some sort of romance involved, and I'll usually be discontent if the hero/heroine aren't together at some point.  I blame The Black Jewels Trilogy as a major contributor to this obsession.

Just as I was about to give up hope, guess what I found out?  There was a fourth book!  Dreams Made Flesh was the happy ending I yearned for.  And I suddenly found myself hooked to not only my first favorite author, but also a new phenomenon: alpha males.  While I read BJT, I never noticed how alpha the three men in this series were.  Suddenly, however, upon reading DMF, it clicked.  And boy, were they even sexier in my eyes because of it.

Which--don't ask me how--leads me to the first paranormal romance series I ever read: The Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole.  This woman is a genius.  Werewolves. with. Scottish. accents.  GIVE ME MORE!

The addiction's only worsened after that, I'm afraid.

So the moral of the story?  1) Don't write your guest posts at 5 in the morning.  2) Don't hate on fanfictions--that's directed towards you, authors--because when people do spinoffs of your work, it helps spread the word. 

But more importantly?  3) Sexy alpha males = win.

Happy birthday, Heather! :)

Thanks for doing your first guest post for Darkly Reading! I am very honored! I feel after your post I need to rush out and start reading Anne Bishop and more fanfiction - great post! Please check out Tori's blog and follow her on twitter!

So now I'm dying to know: have any of you heard of this author?  Do you enjoy her books?  And more importantly, what was your first book/series that made you into the bookaholic you are today?

Don't forget to enter in my favorite firsts giveaway!