January 2018 – Rebekah Lewis

Home sick with some kind of flu and thinking about my comfort reads…then realized that a lot of my favorite books aren’t exactly comforting. LOL I read a lot of dark and depressing stories. And when I was narrowing it down to 15 (I tried to do it with 10 but couldn’t take some of them away), I had an even tougher time with the books that were part of a series, narrowing it down. For those I went with the book that resonated with me the most, even if it wasn’t necessarily the strongest in the series. Forgive me for typos while I am sick.

What are some of your favorite books? Tell me in the comments 🙂

THE FORBIDDEN GAME by L.J. Smith – Technically this is three books in one volume. I always considered it one though, since I first read it in the omnibus edition. L.J. Smith is more well known for her Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle books, both of which were adapted for television on the CW. I first read this book in eleventh grade and it was the first book to ever make me cry. It also contains one of my favorite “bad-boy” characters, Julian, who is a Shadow Man from the Shadow World (which is understood to be some version of Niflheim from Norse mythology). It’s a YA series about a girl who is throwing a birthday party for her boyfriend, and due to the weather, the pool party plans were out of the question. She goes out to buy a board game and ends up with a mysterious blank box with an even more mysterious game inside. Each of the three books involves a different game, but as far as what to expect going in, Julian says it best: “Mystery. Danger. Seduction. Fear. Secrets revealed. Desires unveiled. Temptation.”

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA by Gaston Leroux – I hadn’t really been exposed to this story until the 2005 film came out and I instantly fell in love. Love triangles where the man you root for is a bit murderous and definitely not a hero? *points to The Forbidden Game* This book was so outlandish but tragic despite the creepy age gap. If anyone calls Erik a monster or PotO a monster story, I’ll fight you. lol

PHANTOM by Susan Kay – Without Leroux’s version, this one wouldn’t exist. This book is a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, merging Leroux’s novel with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical. It tells the story of Erik from birth to death, and if you do not cry multiple times reading this book YOU DO NOT HAVE A SOUL. It’s true.

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll – of the stories that defined my childhood. Though Through the Looking Glass goes hand in hand with this one, the first story is the one most well known and enjoyed. Film versions tend to combine the two. At some point in high school I started collecting Cheshire Cats and other Wonderland inspired items. Still do. 😉

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding – Easily one of the more shocking books I read in high school as part of the curriculum. It was also one of the ones that stuck with me and resonates as a reader and as a writer.

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling – My favorite entry into the Harry Potter series, Prison of Azkaban has a mystery surrounding the grimm, the tension of an escaped felon, and interesting backstory and foreshadowing given through both the Marauder’s Map and the four students who created it, the shrieking shack, and even the whomping willow. The film version didn’t quite live up to the book, but it did give us Gary Oldman as Sirus Black. ❤

FAEFEVER by Karen Marie Moning – Though this was the middle entry of the original 5 Fever series books, and thus is more of a transition than a stand alone novel that wasn’t read as part of a set, this book had so much in way of answering questions foreshadowed from the first 2 in the series. We saw the Sinsar Dubh for the first time, the creation of the Mac Halo, and the walls dropping between our world and the Fae world. The ending had a horrific sequence, but it also saw the last of happy, pink Mac that the series provided for a good while. This series also brings me a lot of joy in that, through the author’s former web forum (in a time before facebook was so popular) I met a lot of friends that I talk to more often than people I’ve known all my life.

THE ODYSSEY by Homer – This probably isn’t too shocking since I have a series rooted in Greek mythology. I’d always been fascinated by mythology, having been a kid in the 90s during the run Hercules and Xena television shows. When we were first assigned The Odyssey in high school, everyone moaned and groaned. But I actually loved it. (Same thing happened with Beowulf. I’m such a nerd).

LOVER AWAKENED by J.R. Ward – Arguably the best book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, this one follows a vampire named Zsadist who was rescued from blood slavery by his twin brother, who lost part of his leg during the rescue. They both fall in love with the same woman, one feeling unworthy of love and the other guilty for having the feelings at all. Bella is probably one of the strongest written females in this series, which has a slight issue with having stronger male characterization throughout, but in the end this book definitely shines the brightest in a gritty series about Vampires in a war with the Lessening Society.

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT by Anne Rice – Say what you will about Tom Cruise. His portrayal of Lestat remains his strongest performance, and the driving force behind my picking up an Anne Rice book. This book is best enjoyed when read with The Queen of the Damned directly afterward, as The Vampire Lestat is telling his history leading into the present which spills over into the next book.

NIGHT PLEASURES by Sherrilyn Kenyon – It’s so hard to pick a favorite Dark Hunter book. If going by character, Acheron would have been the book I chose, but in the end, Night Pleasures starts off the series with a bang and is a lot more fun to read. Acheron’s a bit depressing for the first half, but is still a fantastic book. This is one of the first Paranormal Romance series I ever read, and while I am a few books behind, I am still enjoying it to this day.

DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon – This continues to be my favorite book in the Outlander series. Don’t get me wrong, the first book is wonderful, and I preferred the Scottish setting, but Jamie and Claire finally settle on a home here. It also brings Bree and Roger into the past and brings their family together. I always get side eye when I admit it, but Stephen Bonnet was my favorite Outlander villain. He’s despicable, I won’t argue about that, but there’s a bit more character depth and he comes out more three dimensional than Jack Randall. If you want a study in author growth, Diana Gabaldon’s handling of these two villains is a good place to start. I’m looking forward to season 4 of the show in the fall.

JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton – The film was a staple of my childhood, and I didn’t read the book until High School. I think I might have hated the movie if I read the book first because it’s soooo good, but has quite a few changes.

RANSOM by Julie Garwood – When it comes to historical romance, Julie Garwood is often quoted as a favorite. Ransom stood out to me for having 2 HEAs, and not just side characters as the additional one which is common, but 2 actual H/h pairings. It was a bit predictable, but I loved the characters and it’s a comfort read I never get tired of.

POISON PRINCESS by Kresley Cole – Lord knows, I love some Kresley Cole. This is one of the few authors I read immediately upon new release since I don’t get a lot of time to read anymore. It was an interesting concept: the major arcana cards of a tarot deck represent people. Every so often there is an event to make the world into a playing field and the last one standing wins. It’s like Hunger Games meets X-Men with a dash of Walking Dead. You see the main character before the world ends, as she’s coming into her powers, and then you see the aftermath. One of the things I loved about this book is that it shows the before, during, and then after rather than immediately beginning in the after and either not being told what happened to the world or only vague hints or flashbacks. Like most YA series, this one features a love triangle, but unlike most…I actually like both the guys and don’t want her to have to choose! lol

Sometimes it takes something simple and as natural as snow to put life into perspective for you.

I’ll preface this post by stating that it snowed today in Savannah, Georgia. It was the first time I’ve seen snow how it should be–a statement which is both factual and false in that I was born in North Carolina and the baby pictures prove my 3-4 month baby eyes saw snow (of which I don’t remember) and when it snowed here in the 80s, we were living in southern Florida and had traveled up to see my grandparents. Since I was very young the only thing I recall out of the ordinary of that trip was that we had flown up here and I remember the plane. I remember my mom pointing out the window as we crossed over Jacksonville and saying that’s where my Aunt and Uncle and cousins lived. But I don’t remember snow. And I don’t remember much else about that trip. It’s also a false statement in that it has snowed in Savannah since I’ve lived here (we moved here in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew wrecked our home in Homestead). However, those few times it has snowed, the flurries lasted either mere minutes or a couple hours, sticking only to cars and roofs and melting everywhere else. It’s stuck to the ground in surrounding areas but not here. But finally, at long last, we got a good 3-4 inch snow fall today.

There’s not a whole lot of exciting “firsts” you can get into your thirties. I’ve always wanted to experience snow properly, and though this snowfall was light compared to northern states and other countries, it was exciting and new to me, and I could not stop grinning. The phrase kid on Christmas morning was exactly how I felt. And while we had been forewarned of this weather heading our way for a week now, I had doubts. Last winter it was supposed to snow and we only got some ice and rain. The actual snow falling just to our north and our west. Being so close to the coast as we are, we’re more prone to ice than actual snow.

However, the snow arrived in the mist of frozen rain. I can’t tell you how many times I got up from my chair to go stare out the window, waiting and watching for the snow to start and then suddenly an accumulation appeared on the rooftops, and shortly after on the ground around the buildings. Within an hour, the landscape was blanketed and snow continued for a good 3-4 hours on and off. I took great pleasure in rushing outside for the obligatory snow selfie for social media (or several because you know it takes about 20 tries for 1-2 decent photos because you never like how you look! lol!) I even at one point scooped up a tupperware bowl of snow off the hood of my car to empty on the porch for Bagheera, my cat, to investigate. It took building a tiny snow man in it for her to get over her anxiety and check it out. She was fine with the cold, and with the snowman, but as soon as her little paw met with the cold, wet snow…she was DONE. She went nope, nope, nope back into the apartment leaving a single paw print behind as proof that she tried. lol

Meanwhile, every time I went down the stairs and outside, I was on sensory overload. There were times I didn’t even notice the cold (I hate being cold). I didn’t really care that all the other neighbors that were outside doing the same thing I was (I have social anxiety). In fact, I saw more people from my complex out in a single day that I have ever seen at one time in the 5 years I have lived here. Parents had their children outside playing. Dogs were walked more frequently than usual. People were taking selfies for themselves or photos of family members. Some simply sat or stood on their porch and enjoyed the beauty of the day.

And that’s what it was. A beautiful day.

Sure, it started off gloomy and gray and wet and frozen, but as the landscape and air became bright and monochromatic there was a sense of awesome tranquility that just took over. This is a frequent, common act of nature that people in my city don’t get to witness. I could understand how living with months of this, in heavier portions, could be challenging and irksome. But we only had a day (maybe two. It may or may not be *completely* gone in the morning.) I couldn’t get over the tickle of snowflakes against my cheeks. The crunch and squish of walking over the snow itself. I had a very, *very* strange satisfaction whenever my boots sank into more than an inch of it. In one place, because the grass was tall and it had only blanketed the top, the snow covered my feet entirely. I walked in circles in that area after that. I made a snowball and threw it against a tree to the immense satisfaction of it bursting and leaving a mark on the tree. I spied a snow angle made in the handicap parking space and giggled at the sight. I laid in my floor with my glass door wide open and a cat staring over my shoulder as I took off my gloves and made a small snowman with button eyes and bobby pin arms just so my cat would feel comfortable exploring the strange substance she’d watched dropping from the sky the entire afternoon. I felt sadness when cars–of those who still had to work today regardless of most businesses and roads (and all the schools) being closed–started coming through the roads and melting the snow, leaving icy, dirty sludge for the roads that were earlier soft and snowy and unmarked by even footprints.

I had a weird moment of clarity where this natural beauty of the world was coming and going withing a day’s time. I saw it, I enjoyed it, I held it in my hands, but was incapable of making it stick around longer. It made me consider how life and all the people in it, itself, is one longer snow day that gets taken for granted because after a while it loses it’s appeal and beauty and becomes bothersome. We take the things that life gives us for granted so easily and so often that we can’t appreciate the good things and only focus on the bad.

2017 was one of the worst years of my adult life. It had good moments, but they were overshadowed by bad. During the Christmas holidays I wondered if 2018 would be better, and hoped it could. Despite the fact that my life is in my control. If I want change, I need to be the one to make them. They won’t happen on their own. And then merely 3 days into the brand new year…a snow day.

Happy 2018 to all my readers. Find your snow day, even if it isn’t involving snow. Live life for you.

With love,

Rebekah

Month: January 2018

Favorite Reads

Snow Day!