E.N. Gussler

I’ve read a lot of books in my life. Let’s be honest. When you start reading books at three years old, by the time you are well into your ::cough cough:: forties, it can be hard to answer any variation of that question which often arises.

Which book changed your life? Broke you? Healed you?

What book made a reader out of you?

I can’t really tell you which book made me a “reader”, it was far too long ago to remember. It was probably a classic though, I read a lot of those as a child. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charlotte’s Web by E.B White, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien…this list would go on and on, seriously.

I can tell you that until recently, I haven’t been much of a Fantasy reader as an adult, outside of the classics.

Laura Thalassa’s Bargainer Series kept drawing my eye from a shelf at my local B&N. Just because I loved the cover, I ended up buying it and taking it with me on a trip to London and Cornwall. I finished the book in about six hours. I didn’t have the next book, so I downloaded, and read, her entire Unearthly Series on that trip.

As I now needed another book to read, I found myself searching through KU and came across The Night Elves Trilogy by CN Crawford. Again, I devoured the whole trilogy in record time and moved on to several more. I found my way through a couple more authors in this realm: Amber V Nicole, Ambrosia R Harris, and Liv Zander, just to name a few. Which opened a whole genre to me that I didn’t think I would enjoy, dark romantasy and dark fantasy.

A fair warning, some of these are not for the faint of heart or those who do not like some serious spice on-page.

I began connecting with indie authors in various book groups on social media a couple years ago. I loved the idea of connecting with them while their careers are in their early stages, watching them grow as a writer, their books gaining momentum, and falling in love with their characters while they are still developing. This led me to volunteering for ARC reads.

Again, I found myself thrust into a new world of romance and dark romance. A classics girl, through and through, I mainly read the works of Austen, Alcott, the Brontë sisters, Shakespeare, Gabaldon, etc. But the indie authors I have been lucky to ARC read for, have opened this sub-genre to me.

A few authors for you to check out:
Ginger Walls (made me laugh-out-loud and swoon)
Rae Knight (made me cry and giggle like a twelve-year-old)
MC Rivera (made me yell at a book and my heart race)
Rae Stone (made me laugh-out-loud, yell, and swoon)

But what books changed me?

What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
(This one can be triggering, for sure. But very impactful.)

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
(I’m reading this now and it’s been a journey.)

A Grief Observed by CS Lewis

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

There you have it, just a smattering of the books that impacted me and inspire me, as well as a couple of new authors I’ve found along my journey.

Tell me, what’s a book that made a reader out of you? Changed you? Inspired you? Opened a whole new genre to you?